Blade Runner 2049 HDR Dolby vision grade is just an SDR grade in an HDR container

[andrewhake]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2vsxdaRA7w

This is such a damn shame. There hasn't been a recent film more deserving of a nice HDR grade than Blade Runner 2049. One of my favorite films I have ever seen. When I first watched the DV variant of this I was so disappointed because it clearly wasn't utilizing the benefits of HDR. There are SO many great scenes and shots in this film with bright emissive light sources and it is all just clipped down to 200nits and looks no different than the SDR variant at all.

Not sure if this is because of the director, the DP Deakins, or the colorist, but it's a damn shame and whoever is responsible is a fool. So much great potential squandered. Really hope we see a proper HDR grade of this film someday. It absolutely shouldn't be sold as HDR. I understand that everyone has creative intent, but this is really just someone being a stubborn asshole about something I think. Being against a proper HDR grade is like being against shooting film in color. It only has potential to add to the experience and it doesn't really intentionally draw attention to itself just for the sake of attention. When you film a bright emissive light source and it is clipped to SDR values on an HDR grade, I don't see it any different from over exposing bright light sources in a normal SDR workflow. It just comes off as a mistake and is very amateurish.

This film with a proper 1000nit grade would look absolutely stunning.

[Christoffer Glans]

So sick of studio mishandling of HDR content. How hard can it be? Is the ability to spot competence so low that incompetence takes dominance or is it that there are too few with actual competence nowadays?
It's like the framerate issues among lots of commercials today. I see so many deliveries that have stutters and badly processed footage. All while streamers like HBO use sub-HD interlacing and cannot maintain streaming quality in certain dark images, case point Game of Thrones last season.

Fire the incompetence and pay competence higher.

[Šabović Adis]

So sick of studio mishandling of HDR content. How hard can it be? Is the ability to spot competence so low that incompetence takes dominance or is it that there are too few with actual competence nowadays?
It's like the framerate issues among lots of commercials today. I see so many deliveries that have stutters and badly processed footage. All while streamers like HBO use sub-HD interlacing and cannot maintain streaming quality in certain dark images, case point Game of Thrones last season.

Fire the incompetence and pay competence higher.

That's bad business.

[Chris Kennedy]

Should also call it “fake 4k” since it was shot on Alexa.

Even the SDR looked amazing! It’s widely known that Deakins monitors with about 1 LUT while shooting. Perhaps he wanted it to peak at around 200 nits???