So if you’ve watched our videos on the Technicolor Cinestyle Website as well as on our blog post, you’re probably wondering WHAT exactly did the picture style and software actually DO for our projects and HOW. We run you through the process with an intro to the Cinestyle picture style and how it marries with the Color Assist software within our projects in the video below.

Read on for more details.

As is in our team’s nature, we were super curious and interested in this new coloring software that Technicolor demoed at NAB 2012 – targeted at mainstream indie and event filmmakers. After bugging them for some time, we were invited to try out the software and apply it to some current projects we were working on. One was the yet-to-be shot EDM music concert in Asia and the others were a handful of weddings we shot in the Cinestyle picture style.

It was the first time we pre-tested any software and it was interested in seeing what the whole process was. The software took some getting used to, since we were acclimated to Magic Bullet Looks at this point. Also, the fact that there were separate metadata files created in the coloring process was unfamiliar to us.

The simplicity of the software was also curious, coming from a big company like Technicolor? Where are all the little tools like gradients and vignettes? Where are all the modules of the little tricks and stuff you can slap on your footage? We soon fell in love with it though, and how fast we can make the coloring process. The simplicity of it all actually taught us how important the cinematography itself was, not all the bells and whistles that you do to the footage in post.

When all the bugs were squashed out, we were having plenty of fun in the process of coloring our footage. There are still some little things we would like to see added over time, like a flesh tone bar in the vectorscope and bigger color wheels for the correction tab. However the software is released in a nicely polished state.

Having met the team behind the software, I can tell just how much care and hard work went into what is Technicolor’s first jump into the affordable software market and can expect some great things in the future as they evolve in this market. We are also itching to take a look at the new “Looks” coming out that can apply to different tastes and situations.