5th International Conference Colour in Film

The modern way of acquiring, processing, and displaying digital movies tempts technicians to think that the central problem to be solved is summarized as “scene-to-screen” – that is, the goal is to accurately capture colour in front of the camera and relay that to exhibition. Even the phrase “colour reproduction” risks invoking this view. I argue that “scene-to-screen” has never been the central problem. Instead, what I call “Axiom Zero” proposes that the mastering display – not the scene – is the appropriate reference point for faithful colour. Certain emergent UHDTV/HDR schemes are confused on this point; to clarify, I offer a definition of “scene-referred colour.” Colour appearance issues are implicated: If the exhibition display or its viewing conditions differ from those of mastering, alterations are required that are not prescribed by classic colorimetry. I outline the required alterations (colour appearance transforms). These alterations are especially important for HDR, owing to the absence of a single standard for an HDR mastering reference display.