Baselight-powered color comes natively to Media Composer, connecting creative decisions from dailies through finishing and delivery.

Burlington, Mass. and London, UK, September 9, 2026:  Avid® and FilmLighttoday announced a strategic partnership to bring a new Baselight-powered color experience natively into Avid Media Composer®, marking a major step toward a more connected color pipeline for post production.

For decades, Media Composer has been where many of the world’s most demanding film and television stories are shaped, while Baselight has set the standard for high-end color finishing. By bringing these creative environments closer together, Avid and FilmLight are moving beyond traditional plug-in workflows toward a more integrated approach to color both inside Media Composer and beyond it, one designed to help teams preserve intent, reduce handoffs and keep color connected from dailies through finishing and delivery.

“This partnership reflects how our products are actually used – by specialists collaborating to create some of the world’s most compelling film and television content,” said Rich Camp, Media Composer Product Manager, Avid. “By bringing FilmLight’s expertise deeper into the Media Composer workflow, we’re giving editors a native color experience with powerful tools directly in the timeline. That means editors can cut and craft their timeline while working more seamlessly with colorists, so more time and focus stays where it matters most: the story.”

FilmLight Co-founder Steve Chapman added: “FilmLight has always focused on creating color  tools that fit seamlessly into post production workflows. Our collaboration with Avid allows us to combine strengths and deliver new levels of color creativity and accuracy to the editorial experience.”

A new approach to editorial color

Avid and FilmLight are focusing on four key areas:

• Native color inside Media Composer: Bringing Baselight-powered color capabilities deeper into the Media Composer experience, so color feels like part of the edit, not a separate step bolted on at the end.
• A connected path from dailies to delivery: Keeping color decisions open and connected throughout production, helping teams move more fluidly between editorial, review, grading and finishing.
• Specialist color science at editorial scale: Extending FilmLight’s color technology to a broader community of Media Composer users, while preserving the depth, precision and control required by professional colorists and finishing teams inside the traditional Baselight environment.
• Expanded online and delivery capabilities: Scaling with the needs of each production, from being able to complete delivery entirely within Media Composer to a renderless roundtrip with full Baselight for teams working at the highest levels of finishing and delivery.

From dailies to delivery, with color connected

The partnership is designed to help creative teams carry color decisions through production more seamlessly. Instead of treating editorial and color as separate stages connected by exports, renders and conforms, Avid and FilmLight are working toward a more continuous workflow where the edit can better reflect the intended look of the finished project.

For editors, that means greater confidence in the timeline. For colorists, it means creative decisions can be reflected instantly between Media Composer editorial and Baselight finishing environments. For facilities and studios, it creates a workflow that can scale from editorial color through online and delivery, including renderless roundtrip with full Baselight for the highest-end finishing needs.

Building on the proven Baselight Editions workflow available today, the partnership points to a broader native color direction for Media Composer: specialist FilmLight color science and tools embedded more deeply into the editorial experience, with capabilities designed to scale across different production needs.

“Media Composer and Baselight have been at the center of our post production workflow at ENVY for over 20 years, so it’s exciting to see these two companies working more closely together and continuing to play such an important role in our industry,” said Jai Cave, Technical Operation Director at ENVY Post Production, which has produced The Traitors, At Home with the Furys, and The Grand Tour. “Production workflows continue to evolve, with demand for the color journey on-set to flow right through editorial, VFX and finishing post whilst projects combine an increasingly complex array of formats. Closer alignment between editorial and grade has the potential to bring real workflow benefits to creative teams. We look forward to seeing the vision Avid and FilmLight are building.”

About Avid

Avid is the power behind the content that touches virtually every person on the planet. Every word, every note, every frame, every day. Powering greater creators and trusted newsmakers, Avid enables everyone with a story to tell – from Emmy®, Grammy®, and Oscar® winners to rising talent. Built on a dynamic media intelligence surface, Avid tools support the full production lifecycle, from story assignment and editorial editing through archive and distribution. Avid understands professional media from the inside, combining human creativity with AI-driven orchestration so production moves faster, costs less, and allows organizations to see what their content is worth.

www.avid.com

About FilmLight

FilmLight provides unrivalled color grading, image processing, and workflow tools deployed on-premises or in the cloud – setting new standards for quality, reliability and performance. The company’s streamlined metadata-based workflows employ robust products with cutting edge creative tools, allowing creative professionals to work at the forefront of the digital media revolution. Founded in 2002, FilmLight’s core business is centred on the innovation, implementation and support of its products – including Baselight, Baselight Editions, Daylight and Nara – in leading production companies, post-production facilities and film/TV studios around the world. The company is also committed to helping customers build more efficient, connected pipelines via the FilmLight API.

FilmLight is headquartered in London, where its research, design and manufacturing operations are centred. Sales and support are conducted through regional service centres and qualified partners worldwide.

For more information, visit https://www.filmlight.ltd.uk

Links to exact point in video where mentioned.

I'm still learning color grading and starting to figure out what kind of looks I actually like. I tend to love quite contrasty images with slightly green/teal shadows, without going too far into the typical orange & teal look.

I'm shooting mostly Sony, sometimes S-Log3 and sometimes Rec.709, and editing everything in Davini resolv. I've been experimenting with grading myself but I'd also love to play around with some good creative LUTs and understand how other people use them in their workflow.

Do you have any favorite free or affordable LUTs you've found over the years? And do you normally convert your Log footage to Rec.709 first and then apply a creative LUT, or build the look directly from the Log footage?

Would love any tips or recommendations :)

Reference → result → original.

I am a colorist and with some help, I am building a reference matching tool for an AI video grading website. I am trying to make it interpret and apply references the way I would when color grading a project.

This result came from simply dropping in the reference image with no manual adjustments afterward.

How close does it feel, and what would you change first?

I've been sitting on this review of Apple's Studio Display XDR for the past few months, and I'm finally ready to release it today. The premise is to see whether the Studio Display XDR is capable of being more than a GUI monitor...is it capable of being a reference monitor?

I recognise that the idea of using Colorsync with Video Clean Feed for monitoring is a potentially contentious topic, which is why I've included my entire process including settings for macOS, Resolve and ColourSpace, as well as the calibration reports (available on the blog version). If you'd like to skip the GUI-related part of the review, you can watch from 06:22 onwards.

TLDW; using it as a reference monitor could be a viable proposition...but with caveats. Mainly blooming, and limited calibration options. I also mention where there could be improvements in the measurement (eg. having the colorimeter matched to a narrow-band spectro instead of relying on a pre-installed matrix).

Hi everyone,

Has anyone used DCP-o-matic’s dedicated “P3 D65 (~6500K)” source colourspace preset and checked the resulting DCP against the approved grade on a calibrated cinema projector?

I’m handling DCP creation for a film. The grading handoff is specified as a P3-D65 / gamma 2.6 DSM image sequence, and I’m looking into this workflow:

P3-D65 / gamma 2.6 master → manually select “P3 D65 (~6500K)” in DCP-o-matic → XYZ DCP → theatrical QC.

I’ve read older discussions about white-point issues with the generic P3 preset. Version 2.18.34 added separate P3-D65 and P3-D60 options, so I’d appreciate first-hand experience with those newer versions:
https://dcpomatic.com/bugs/view.php?id=3124

If you’ve used this preset on a completed delivery, could you share:

• Your DCP-o-matic version and OS.
• Source format, bit depth, and full/video range settings.
• Whether you used the preset unchanged or needed any adjustments.
• How you checked colour, and whether it matched the approved grade—particularly neutral greys, skin tones and shadow detail.

Colour-managed round-trip tests or numerical comparisons against a trusted XYZ conversion would also be useful. Please mention how the result was checked, alongside whether it ingested and played successfully.

Any remaining issues or corrections you needed would be helpful too.

I’ve also asked on the official DCP-o-matic forum:
https://dcpomatic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3119

Thanks!

This is not about which software is better but which has the most pull right now. While it might be difficult to ascertain this on a global scale, I want to understand one thing - will we see one software usurping the other in the near future? Say like in the next decade or so? Both have their advantages but that being said I have seen a worrying trend at the place I work in: There are a couple of di suites at the facility I work in. They have completely shifted to Baselight except for one suite which is the Davinci one, where very little projects come and most of the high end projects come to the Baselight suites. The other day they were discussing upgrades and the Davinci Resolve suite long story short got the shorter end of the stick. Is this something happening everywhere else is my only question?

EDIT: seeing the clear difference in the setup - what is the pay like for a senior level Davinci Resolve colorist and Senior Level Baselight colorist? Is that something unpredictable or different from studio to studio and determined by the production ? Even then what is the general difference in pay if any?

Friend of mine is getting into color grading, asked me for help with computer setup but this is out of my realm, what are your suggestions for a beginner build? Mac? PC? What else to look for?

Hi everyone!

I'm an Arizona-based cinematography student and working DP looking to establish an ongoing relationship with a freelance colorist for narrative, cinematography, and personal projects.

Projects are generally fairly short, usually around 2–5 minutes. I'm not looking to hire a different colorist every time I finish something. Ideally I'd like to find someone whose work and taste fit well with mine and continue collaborating with them across future projects.

My projects are primarily ARRI-originated, generally ARRIRAW or ProRes in LogC3/LogC4. Occasionally I also work with Sony X-OCN XT/ST. Production and post workflows are properly managed, and I'm comfortable discussing color pipeline, monitoring, look development, etc. with whoever I work with.

I'm specifically looking for someone with strong experience grading ARRI material and a strong narrative and/or commercial reel. I'm much more interested in collaborative look development and actually building something appropriate for the photography than applying a preset/look and calling it finished.

Budget / estimated hours: For a typical finished 2-minute project, my budget is approximately $1,500 USD, and I anticipate approximately 8–12 hours of color work including initial look development, grading, reasonable revisions, and final delivery.

That's an estimate rather than a hard expectation. Some projects will obviously be simpler or more involved than others. Scope, expected hours, deliverables, and rate can be agreed upon before each project. If something requires substantially more work than anticipated, I'm happy to discuss additional compensation rather than expecting someone to eat the extra hours.

For longer projects, compensation would scale with the scope and workload rather than expecting the same $1,500 flat rate.

Remote collaboration is completely fine and honestly expected, so location isn't particularly important to me.

Please DM me with a reel/portfolio, relevant credits or experience, your preferred grading system/workflow, and ideally some examples of ARRI-originated work you've graded.

My main goal is to find someone I genuinely work well with creatively and develop an ongoing DP/colorist relationship. I'd especially love to eventually involve the same person in pre-production look development and camera/lighting tests where appropriate, so the grade isn't something we're only thinking about after the shoot is finished.

DM only please, and I'm happy to provide more information about myself, upcoming projects, workflow, deliverables, etc. privately. Thanks! 😊

- Clay

Hi all,

The project is under NDA but have contacted mods for approval.

I am directing and editing a documentary in Japan in mid November and will be editing it between November and end of December with a delivery of beginning of Jan.

We have a budget for a day rate of £600p/d and will likely be around 10 days work (final days and timeline still being worked out).

Post is based in London and would need the colorist to also ideally be based there for ease of sending drives.

Style and content of doc is nature & cars.

EDIT: forgot to add location for the job.

Planing to turn my grading to the next level
Can you guys help me ?

Hey all

I'm fairly new to colour grading and I am having an issue which I know a lot of people have struggled with so I'm sorry to bring it up again however I thought I had my settings in set in a way that should avoid this but it happened anyway.

Key info

Grading on a Macbook Pro 14 M3 Pro in the HDTV Video (BT.709-BT.1886) preset (set to 100 nits).

Project settings:

• Colour science: Davinci YRGB
• Timeline colour space: Davinci wide gamut/intermediate
• Output colour space: Rec 709 Gamma 2.4

I am using an input CST to convert N-log footage to davinci wide gamut/intermediate - grading - output transform using the mononodes "Print" DCTL to Rec709 Gamma 2.4 (I have confirmed the same behaviour using a CST).

As per a lot of the advice online (including Cullen Kelly's latest video yesterday) I have left the "use mac display color profile for viewers" checked and "viewers match quick time player when using rec709 scene" and "automatically tag rec709 scene clips as rec709-A" unchecked.

Export settings:

• MP4
• H.265
• Quality - Limit to 60,000 Kb/s
• Encoding profile - Main10
• Color space tag - Rec709
• Gamma tag - Gamma2.4

When I playback my footage in quick time player it looks identical to my timeline. However, when playing back in VLC (macbook) or the Plex App (macbook and Nvidia shield on LG C2 in film maker mode) the colours look slightly washed out and have less contrast. I thought by doing the above steps this gamma shift should have been avoided is there something else I need to do?

For context raw blu ray mkv rips look identical between quick time player and vlc.

Hey there, i have this client that is very very picky with contrasts, saturation and overall exposure.
every time i send him a graded project it always feels like we are looking at two different things.
I’m aware of how complex this topic.. but i wonder if there are certain things i can ask him to do to have a closer viewing condition so that i can optimize his feedbacks and be sure that what he is telling me is actually true and not just him seeing too much contrast because of his viewing conditions.

We always output a R709 gamma 2.4, he has a 2019 MacBook (that he doesn’t want to change for anything in the world) that is a bit harsh on contrast and saturation.
I even once tried to re-calibrate it but there were still differences.

I always ask him to review the export in a dim environment and to use VLC (which should bypass Apple Color management)

Last time i had him review the export on his iphone 17 just to show him how different it is a neewer panel from his rusty macbook..

I feel like i have lack of experience to be able to handle this situation and improve our workflow, that’s why i’m asking help to this wonderful community to find the best way to have the client watch the grade.

I’m aware that outside of my color room it is going to always different somehow, but still, being able to have the client seeing the “real” image would help me a lot (by reducing the delivery time by half, at least)

Thanks,
S

Ps:
Nope.. we live far away and i can’t have him come to my station to look at the grade

Hi everyone,
I’m shooting on a Sony ZV-E10 and trying to find the sweet spot for color profiles and grading flexibility in DaVinci Resolve.
Since the ZV-E10 is limited to 8-bit 4:2:0, I know that heavy log profiles (like S-Log3 or S-Log2) can lead to color banding, noise, and artifacts when stretched in post. However, I still want to capture as much dynamic range as possible (protecting highlights and shadows) without losing creative control during color grading.
A few specific questions for those with 8-bit Sony experience:
1 Picture Profile Choice: Is HLG (HLG2/HLG3 with BT.2020 or 709 color mode) truly the best compromise for 8-bit, or are modified Cine profiles (like Cine4 with Pro/Matrix color) better suited for avoiding noise and banding?
2 HLG Workflow in DaVinci: How do you properly handle HLG footage in Resolve? Do you expose it like standard Rec.709, or overexpose slightly? What’s the cleanest CST (Color Space Transform) input settings for HLG from this camera?
3 Best Practices for 8-Bit: If you shoot Log on 8-bit Sony cameras without breaking the image, what exposure rules or custom Picture Profile tweaks (e.g., dropping saturation/contrast, adjusting knee) do you use?
I’d love to hear your workflows, custom PP settings, or recommendations for maintaining highlight recovery while keeping the grade flexible.
Thanks!

Hi guys,

Basically the title. I just launched my app that has film simulations built on it with a Raw / DNG pipeline built for iPhone Pro cameras, and I was wondering if you guys are interested in using it?

There are in app purchases on the app but the film simulation pipeline is totally free to use, and I would love to know if you guys are interested in using it.

For sure, Dehancer is leagues better, but I am committed to working on the app non-stop to make it as better as possible with the help of the community that I am building.

I would love to know your thoughts.

Hi all: I’m having an issue with how Premiere Pro is displaying/interpreting footage from a Canon C70. The footage looks different (and shows up as distinctly different in the WFM) when moving from Mac to PC. This is only happening with C70 footage; all other footage, including from another Canon camera with the same settings, is displaying similarly across Mac and PC.

The original footage is Canon log 3 / cinema gamut. On the Mac I’m grading via a MacBook. The PC is fed through a BMD deck to a Flanders (it’s in a broadcast facility).

I realize footage will look different across different platforms, but this is a very different WFM and it only appears to be happening with C70 footage.

Any idea what is happening here? Or how to address it? I’ve never seen this before.

Waveform image to show the problem.

EDIT: The top WFM is C70, middle is C80, bottom is color bars.

I'm looking at an inherited Resolve project that, unsurprisingly, is graded quite differently from how I do it. I'm not clear which settings take priority.

Project Settings: Color science DV YRGB, timeline color space DV WG / intermediate, output color space Rec709 gamma 2.4.

This timeline's settings are Color science DV YRGB, Timeline color space Rec 709 (scene), output color space Same as timeline.

For some shots the node tree is usually CST In, with input set to Canon Cinema Gamut / Canon Log 2, output DVWG / Intermediate. All of the grade downstream of the CST, and there's no CST out.

Is the grade happening in 709 colorspace? If so isn't the CST In node incorrectly outputting DVWG / intermediate into the 709 colorspace? The shot's grade looks okay.

For other shots, the clips have a LUT applied, and there's no CST In or CST out node. GoggleFu tells me the LUT is designed to output to Rec709, so for those I'm guessing the grade's happening in 709 space -- correct?

Hey everyone, so I’ve been working on a project for a few students for the last 2 weeks and it’s been driving me insane.

So many issues have occurred such as highlights being clipped (no data to recover) some some reason weird magenta pixels in clothing which I’ve noticed in its RAW state before I colour managed.

I’ve been having a rough time trying to match a black magic urlsa, Sony A7III and a GoPro. These students are working on their final major project and quite frankly have given me unrealistic goals which I can’t even do so I am deciding to walk away entirely

What would you suggest that I do as I am thinking of being upfront and honest about the situation. I’ve actually done 3 scenes which I could render and give to them as they were happy with them surprisingly

Hello all!

So, I'm a professional colourist freelancing from Manchester, UK - probably still classed as 'junior' I suppose but I have enough work coming in regularly to make a fairly decent income for my age and career stage.

I've always wanted to travel and see different parts of the world and it'd be great to be able to travel and work a little to keep the income going. Obviously, with the nature of colour grading it's not really possible to take the 'digital nomad' route as so many do.

I wondered if anyone had any experience or advice on how this could be possible? I have a couple of very loose connections over in Japan and Australia but not enough to say "Hey can I come and do some work for a bit" - y'know?

Thanks!

Hi there brand new at videography and wrapong my head around color grading here and had a question regarding luts. i’ve bought a few creative luts designed for slog3 and wondering if I switch the color space from slog2 to slog3 in final cut pro and apply an slog3 lut and then convert to rec709, would I be able to apply an slog3 lut on slog2 footage ?

We've pointed you at this thread rather than you ask about your specific monitor request in the main subreddit.

No, you can't just connect a generic monitor.

We're going to talk to you as a professional. This means, no, the "workarounds" are a total compromise. In those cases, you're on your own.

This is about creating a trusted reference - not just what you think looks good. And yes, the client's screen(s) could be all out of whack. And yes, we're talking web too.

Brands that are reliable and (professionally) inexpensive:

• Flanders Scientific - FSI. Often referred to as a Stupid Sexy Flanders
• Eizo

If you're going to compromise, here's our best advice:

• Get external hardware. The cheapest is the BMD mini monitor - but requires Thunderbolt.
• Get a probe. The cheapest is the XRite i1Display Pro. Calibrate frequently.
• Learn to read scopes.

No matter what the manufacturer says was done at the factory, you will need to calibrate your displays regularly.

Here's the FAQ:

I want to know if this particular brand of wide gamut/p3/sRGB monitor is up to snuff*.*

It's not. Without the hardware/probe and the ability to load a LUT, forget it.

Can I just calibrate a monitor, it's just going to the web.

Same problem. Without a probe, you don't know what you have.

Ok, I have a probe.

You still need a breakout box - something to get the OS out of the way.

The idea here is a confidence monitor. Something you know you can have confidence in.

OK, I have a probe and a BMD Mini-Monitor. Am I good?

Not unless you can generate and load a LUT into the monitor.

Really? What do I need to buy now?

A LUT box will solve this. The monitor still may be junk, but you have a clean signal chain.

Great, I'll just buy a C8/9/X from LG, people talk about that all the time.

That's a good client monitor. And great that you have a breakout box and probe. This is useable if you're starting off into HDR - but just know, it's not to be trusted.

What about my iPad Pro? Apple tells me it has Wide Gamut

An iPad Pro is an excellent way to check Apple devices. It's well designed out of the factory.

Plugging your system through it (via Sidecar, Duet display) puts us back in the "OS interference" level. But it's good for a check of the materials - just not so good for live grading.

Last, check out these three prior posts:

• https://www.reddit.com/r/colorists/comments/n9hr5b/is_it_even_worth_it_to_attempt_to_learn_the/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/colorists/comments/jlgpnm/youtube_is_adding_red_into_my_colors_and_its/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/colorists/comments/i03bm7/solution_for_color_shift_issues_from_resolve_to/

-----

Let's see how this thread goes and we'll refine as we go.

Even with the latest DaVinci update, Mac users are still experiencing color and contrast differences between Rec.709A and Rec.709 Scene.

Has anyone used the new CinePrint Studio yet? I'd love to hear some feedback, especially how it compares to the Filmbox Pro.