• Filmmaker Mode released by Hollywood executives to enrich consumer TV experiences 
  • Key features: Preserving colour, contrast, aspect ratio and frame rates 
  • 400 filmmakers, 140 directors and cinematographers input to the development 

Christopher nolan using imax camera to shoot dunkirk

Christopher Nolan on the set of Dunkirk: Pioneers Filmmaker Mode

Christopher Nolan and Martin Scorsese are among directors that have collaborated with the UHD Alliance to introduce a new UHD TV setting to extend the cinematic experience. 

The new viewing format Filmmaker Mode has been designed to allow viewers to enjoy a richer cinematic experience on their UHD TVs and preserve the filmmaker’s creative intent on consumer devices as the filmmakers intended during production and postproduction.

The UHD Alliance (UHA) along with leaders in consumer electronics, the Hollywood studios and directors Paul Thomas Anderson, Ryan Coogler, Patty Jenkins, Martin Scorsese, and Christopher Nolan collaborated to launch the new viewing mode to offer consumers a broader range of viewing options.

Preserving the colour, contrast, aspect ratio and frame rates are key features of Filmmaker Mode.

UHD Alliance chairman Michael Zink from Warner Bros. said: “The Ultra HD TVs from supporting CE members are capable of delivering a range of viewing options and the addition of Filmmaker Mode for cinematic content, which is based on input from a broad range of preeminent filmmakers, provides a way for consumers to better experience the filmmaker’s vision.”

The production community has raised concerns recently that the many consumer devices and various settings can jeopardies creative decisions amid the viewing experience.

Director of Star Wars: The Last Jedi Rian Johnson said: “The thing that sets Filmmaker Mode apart is it will be a pure, clean expression of what the movie was meant to look like when it was made.”

LG Electronics, Panasonic and VIZIO announced support for Filmmaker Mode and expressed their interest in delivering creative intent to the home. Specific product and implementation plans will be announced by each company at the appropriate time.

Some 400 filmmakers, 140 directors and cinematographers input to the specification development process, according to Hollywood Reporter, the UHDA also reached out to the Directors Guild of America, American Society of Cinematographers, American Cinema Editors and Martin Scorsese’s The Film Foundation.

Christopher Nolan director of Dunkirk, Interstellar and the Dark Knight trilogy said: “Modern televisions have extraordinary technical capabilities, and it is important that we harness these new technologies to ensure that the home viewer sees our work presented as closely as possible to our original creative intentions.

“Through collaboration with TV manufacturers, Filmmaker Mode consolidates input from filmmakers into simple principles for respecting frame rate, aspect ratio, colour and contrast and encoding in the actual media so that televisions can read it and can display it appropriately.”

Filmmaker Mode marks the first collaboration to add leaders in the creative community to the mix together to deliver new entertainment technologies and experiences to consumers.

The Mode will be activated either automatically, through metadata embedded in the content, or through a single button which enables the consumer to activate Filmmaker Mode without moving through multiple menu levels.

Further, to make finding displays that can display content in Filmmaker Mode, the name and settings will be consistent across multiple TV brands.

Celebrated director Martin Scorsese known for The Wolf of Wall Street and The Current War added: “I started the Film Foundation in 1990 with the goal to preserve film and protect the filmmaker’s original vision so that the audience can experience these films as they were intended to be seen.

“Most people today are watching these classic films at home rather than in movie theatres, making Filmmaker Mode of particular importance when presenting these films which have specifications unique to being shot on film.”

UHDA comprises of nearly 40 member companies and is a global coalition of leading entertainment studios, consumer electronics manufacturers, content distributors and technology companies aligned to foster the creation of an ecosystem that fully realises and promotes the next generation premium in-home entertainment platform.