Getting started with Flow Capture for Finishing Review

HDR is now a must-have in the production pipeline, offering brighter highlights and a wider range of color detail, for a punchier image. Dolby Vision is an advanced HDR media format that features dynamic frame-by-frame onboard data for extraordinary brightness, color and contrast performance. Flow Capture supports HDR10 and Dolby Vision playback, making it a natural choice for remote color review sessions.

Getting started with Flow Capture for Color review is easy. Utilize this guide to understand everything there is to know about the Flow Capture Color Review workflow.

9 simple steps to get started Flow Capture for Color Review:

Get to know the Flow Capture interface

Choosing Flow Capture Administrators

Administrators control content access to Flow Capture, set up Folders, and adjust the Flow Capture settings. For Color Review, individuals who will need to do the following should have an Admin permission set:

Set brightness settings to match the colorists monitor (see: Standardize Brightness for Mobile Apps)
Create new folders (see: Folders and Subfolders)
Add individuals to share content wit (see: Setting up Teams and Managing Users)

Usually it's a good idea to have the colorist or finishing team have an Admin permission set, to have ability to control brightness settings and freely add and share content with anyone who needs to see, but this could also be a post production supervisor. You can have as many administrators as you need on a Production, but these individuals should have clearance to be able to add individuals to share finished content.

Setting up Folders

Folders are where content is uploaded into Flow Capture, and also where it's shared from, either by inviting Viewers directly into a Folder for review, or by creating Playlinks. It's also where the brightness settings are applied to ensure color fidelity across iOS devices with our Standardize Brightness feature.

For Color Review, many customers only set up one or two Folders, one for testing and one for showcase, but it's also possible to use Folders as collaboration spaces if you need to keep comments from different groups and stakeholders separate.

Creating Folders

Administrators can create New Folders from the Desktop Tab by clicking the New Folder button:

Apply security settings

Flow Capture complies with web broadcast security standards demanded by film and television companies around the world. We are built from the ground up as an industrial strength media hub for filmmakers and our security and attention to detail is second to none. In short, your assets are kept secure while your team is given the freedom they need to explore and create.

Before you start uploading footage and adding production and post production team members, the most important step is to make sure you have all the proper security settings in place, which you can find in the folder settings

Digital Rights Management (DRM)

Digital rights management (DRM) is a way to protect digital media from being shared, leaked, or copied. We turn DRM on by default to protect your assets from any activity that might compromise the security of your content. We default this to ON in your account and recommend you keep it on!

Multi-factor Authentication

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) increases the security of your work on Flow Capture significantly by combining more than one independent identity verification method. The first is a user's email/password combination that's established by them as their login credentials. The next is an authentication code sent to, or provided by, a separate personal device such as a smartphone that is otherwise removed from our traditional login process.

To learn more about setting up MFA and how it works, see our guide: Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

Watermarking

Create dynamic watermarks on any video or photo assets. With the proper permission set, set watermarks on the Company level, the Production level, or even the Folder level. To learn more about Watermarking, see our guide: Watermarking

Adding Viewers and Contributors

Flow Capture's user management is self-managed, making it easy to add viewers and collaborators right in-app on your own, and on the fly. Getting Viewers, Colorists, and other Contributors added to Flow Capture is the most important step on the path to remote collaboration. Fortunately, it's easy to do so from the Manage Teams panel: Setting up Teams and Adding Users

You'll mostly need to add two types of Users to your Flow Capture account:

Contributors: Responsible for uploading and distributing content, like colorists or finishing team members.
Viewers: Typically executives, producers, directors, or show-runners, responsible for viewing and delivering feedback.

Adding Contributors

When creating Teams to add your Contributors, the first decision you need to make is what permission should they have: Flow Capture Permission Levels

Here are a few of the common permissions to consider:

If they need to upload material, but don't need to share: Uploader
If they need to upload and distribute content: Uploader (Share)
If they need to create Folders, adjust Folder Settings, and add other people to collaborate: Administrator

To add your Contributors, follow these steps:

In the Teams column, select New Team to create a Permission-based Team. We recommend naming this team for the Permission, like Uploader (Share) or Administrators, but you may also want to name it for the team members part of it, like Editors or Finishing Team.

In the default permission dropdown, select the appropriate permission. This will set up your Team so that everyone who is assigned to this Team will also get assigned that permission set.

Once you have created the Team, assign Team members to that team. You can do that in one of two ways:

Upload a CSV of all of the members into that Team: Download a sample CSV
Add one-off Team members from the Contacts Column into that team.

Setting up your Contributors by CSV

Click on the More Actions menu of any Folder in Flow Capture select Show Participants to open the Manage Teams panel
In the Teams column, select New Team and Create your Team with an Uploader permission or higher (view our permission matrix for details: Permission Levels). If they need to access Folder Settings like Standardize Brightness, they should be an Administrator.
With the Team selected, it should be highlighted on the left with a color, click Import CSV
Upload your CSV of team members, in the format First Name, Last Name, and Email
With your team members added, click on the Team so it's highlighted
Click on the Folder in the Production and Folder selector. Note: It's also possible to select Production, but that will assign them to every Folder and Subfolder across the entire Production
Select Assign Team to assign the Team to the Folder
Repeat steps 5-7 for any Folder you'd like to add your Contributors to

Setting up your Contributors by adding one-off team members

To add more team members, first, open up the Manage Teams panel
In the Teams column, select New Team and Create your Team with an Uploader Permission or higher (view our permission matrix for details: Permission Levels)
In the Contacts Column, search for the Contact you want to add to the Team.
Click on the Contact's User Card
Click the + on the Team
With your team members added, click on the Team so it's highlighted
Click on the Folder in the Production and Folder selector. Note: It's also possible to select Production, but that will assign them to every Folder and Subfolder across the entire Production
Select Assign Team to assign the Team to the Folder
Repeat steps 6-8 for any Folder you'd like to add your Team

Adding Viewers

There are two ways to share content with Viewers for review, which determines how to add Viewers to Flow Capture:

Adding Viewers directly to the Folder: You can use upload notifications or "Unhide" notifications to alert reviewers of new content for review. Viewers view and content inside the Folder, and have access to all content uploaded to the Folder.
Using Playlinks: Viewers don't have access to any content inside the Folder and only receive the Asset that has been explicitly shared via a Playlink.

Both have pros and cons, and frequently both methods of sharing content with Viewers are utilized depending on the Viewer and their preferences.

If Adding Viewers to a Folder for Review

To add a Viewer group to a Folder, it's best to create a Team first and upload a CSV directly into that team. Here's a sample CSV to use with the proper format: Download a sample CSV.

Inside the Folder, Viewers will be able to view any uploaded Assets for review, and comment and collaborate on them.

To add Viewers directly to a Folder

First, open the Manage Teams panel
In the Teams column, select New Team and Create your Team
With the Team selected, it should be highlighted on the left with a color, click Import CSV
Upload your CSV of team members, in the format First Name, Last Name, and Email
Click on the Folder in the Production and Folder column
Select Assign Team to give the group Folder Access

Giving the group Folder Access will trigger an invitation to each User to join the Flow Capture Folder.

To grant one-off access to a Folder, follow these steps:

Head to the Manage Teams panel under the Admin tab

Select New Contact in the Contacts Column, and enter their Name and Email Address in the pop-up opened.

Once the Contact has been added, click on the Folder in the Production or Folder Selector column, right under Manage Teams. Then, click on the Contact's card in the Contacts column.

After clicking the User card, you'll see Assign highlight in the Contacts column.

In the Participants column, click on the User Card again to open the Permission options, and change the permission to whatever their permission level should be in that Folder. View Permission levels here: Permission Levels

If using Playlinks for review, create a Viewer distribution list

The easiest way to create a distribution list is to create a Team and upload a CSV directly into that team for your list. The CSV should be formatted by First Name, Last Name, and Email. You can download a sample CSV to use here: Download a sample CSV.

Open the Manage Teams panel
In the Teams column, select New Team and Create your Team
With the Team selected, it should be highlighted on the left with a color, click Import CSV
Upload your CSV of team members, in the format First Name, Last Name, and Email

You now have added your production team to a distribution list!

The Team will be available to select when using Playlinks to send out your content for Review.

Uploading Content

Any time you need to add assets to Flow Capture, you'll want to head to the Transfer tab, then click the Upload tab on the left:

Preparing your files for upload

Making great looking HDR files that playback on Flow Capture opens up a workflow that is full of fine details and settings that can be overlooked in Baselight or Resolve, where you're exporting your files from.

This guide helps outline how to prepare your files in terms of applying the correct color space and video range tags, plus troubleshoot any issues if your colors look off or incorrect in Flow Capture: HDR Color Troubleshooting

And if you're exporting Dolby Vision from DaVinci Resolve, here's a helpful guide on how to do just that!

Uploading HDR10 and Dolby Vision Assets

If you're using Flow Capture for HDR playback, our requirements for uploading these files are more rigorous than those for SDR video. The files we generate for playback will be in Rec. 2020 and HEVC 10 bit, but the colors will respect the P3 constraints within the Rec. 2020 gamut.

Note: Nearly all types of HDR uploads require the combining of at least two assets. As a result, any successful HDR upload must contain all the necessary files and be uploaded at the same time, into the same batch.

Dolby Vision

Flow Capture is compatible with Dolby CM 2.9 and 4.0. Our requirements for successfully generating a file for playback is as follows:

An .xml and .mov (ProRes) file pair to make each DV asset
Those two files will need to have the exact same file names
All file names have to start with the prefix, “dovi_”
AAC or PCM audio
ProRes LT in the legal range is recommended to keep the video’s file size more manageable

We do accept higher quality ProRes files, though they will take longer to upload and process.

HDR10

The follow settings will help you successfully upload for playback in this format.

Audio - AAC or PCM
Framerate - Less than or equal to 30fps
Codec - 10-bit HEVC (h265) or ProRes (min. ProRes 422) 1
Color Primaries - Rec. 2020, D65-P3, or SMTPE-431/SMPTE-432 (DCI-P3) 1
EOTF - PQ (SMPTE ST 2084) 1
GOP - A value suitable for streaming (2-6 seconds).
Color Matrix - Rec.2020 non-constant luminance 2
Mastering Metadata - SMPTE ST 2086 2
Brightness - CEA 861-3 MaxFALL and MaxCLL 2

1 Core requirements for a file to be detected for HDR processing.

2 If any of these are missing, we use the values for a Sony BVM-X300 mastering display.

If you're planning to conduct reviews on an iPad, you'll want to make sure to constrain any Rec. 2020 files to the that device's limit of the P3 colorspace.

For a more in depth guide on uploading HDR and Dolby Vision Assets, review this article: HDR & Dolby Vision

Uploading

To upload, you'll want to head to the Transfer tab, then click the Upload tab on the left.

Inside the panel, select a destination Batch for for your files. A Batch is an organizational bucket inside of your Folder, or a container for files in Flow Capture. They can represent a shoot day for the Dailies workflow, or a specific cut or version for Review.

Upload to an existing Batch that you click and select, or create a new one to upload into.

Adjusting Brightness Settings

Flow Capture allows you to automatically control the brightness of your iPhone or iPad screen so that playback within our apps is always optimized for the files you’re viewing, whether it’s in Dolby Vision, HDR10, or SDR by using the Standardize Brightness toggle in the Folder Settings.

Once a brightness level has been decided upon for optimized viewing on each device, an Admin on the production can go into the Asset Settings of the Folder on Flow Capture where those assets have been uploaded to establish the brightness levels. This can be found in the Information Panel on the right:

Switching the toggle on under iPad Standardize Brightness will allow you to adjust the preset to a previously decided upon level.

Once those are established, any viewer will be able to make use of them within our apps. For more information on Standardizing Brightness on iOS, view our guide: Standardize Brightness on iOS.

Sharing Content

Once you've set up your Folders with all of the correct settings, added Viewers, and uploaded content, it's time to share!

How you share content will relate to how you added decided to add your Viewers to Flow Capture. Again, there are two ways to share content with Viewers for review, which determines how to add Viewers to Flow Capture:

Adding Viewers directly to the Folder: You can use upload notifications or "Unhide" notifications to alert reviewers of new content for review. Viewers view and content inside the Folder, and have access to all content uploaded to the Folder.
Using Playlinks: Viewers don't have access to any content inside the Folder and only receive the Asset that has been explicitly shared via a Playlink.

Notifying Folder Viewers

If inviting Viewers directly into a Folder, there are a few different ways to notify Viewers of shared content based on your needs. For more details on Notifications in Flow Capture, view this guide: Notifications

When your Viewers are notified, they will receive an email notification inviting them to view in the Folder directly or the Flow Capture inbox.:

They will also see a notification in the Flow Capture Inbox they can click and play from.

This allows your Viewers to playback shared content inside Flow Capture on the browser, our iOS apps, and Apple TV.

Uploading and inviting into a Folder directly

There's an option to notify Users of new shared content on Upload. If you don't need an approval step before sharing content with certain Viewers, this is a very easy way to alert Viewers and Contributors of new content shared without any extra steps.

Simply toggle ON the option to notify all Viewers and Folder Contributors. Or, toggle off to notify only select individuals or no one at all.

Using Hidden batches as approval workflow

On upload, it's also possible to create or upload to a Hidden batch. This creates an approval step where your Contributors can review uploaded content before it's released to your wider Viewer audience. When uploading, check the option called Create Hidden Batch when prepping the upload as that prevents any notifications from being sent out when the assets have finished uploading and processing.

Once they've made it to Flow Capture, the files will then show up in the new hidden batch you've created:

This is helpful during the initial upload process if you want to double-check any of your work before letting everyone else in the Folder know that it's ready to be viewed. Once you're satisfied that everything looks right, you can Unhide the Batch and choose to send out notifications to everyone on the Folder, no one, or a select few.

If the files are already up on Flow Capture, anyone with Uploader permissions or greater can open the Action Menu for a batch and choose the Hide Batch option.

This will make it invisible to anyone with standard viewer permissions, and it also gives you the ability to Unhide by reopening the Action Menu. Doing that will bring up a window you can use to send out notifications to whomever needs one.

Regardless of whom you choose to inform, all the Folder's participants will be able to see and view any assets within the newly available Batch.

If you'd like to default uploads to a Hidden batch to accommodate this workflow, Contact Us and we can enable this option on the backend. Defaulting to Hidden Batch on upload will send notifications to Contributors for review, then allow

Using Manage Assets to copy to private Viewer and comment groups

In the Manage Assets panel, move or copy assets between Folders in Flow Capture. Copying assets to multiple Folders can be used to create isolated comment and collaboration groups.

When you Move or Copy Assets between Folders, you have the option to trigger notifications in the same way you can for Uploads or unhiding Hidden batches.

To utilize this workflow, create Folders that only select users have access to to serve as feedback channels for specific groups of individuals, or use Folders as steps in the approval process and Move assets to trigger notifications to different groups in every step.

Creating Playlinks

If you don't want to invite Viewers directly into the Folder for Review, either to ensure a paired down viewing experience, or to ensure a Viewer only has access to explicitly shared content at a time, Playlinks are a great way to share content for Review.

To start the process of making a new Playlink, go to the Playlinks tab and then click the Create New Playlink button.

Playlinks give more control about which content is shared, when that content's access expires, and allows for a more personalized sharing experience with ability to send a message. Learn more about how to create Playlinks here: Making Playlinks.

Viewing and Collaborating in Flow Capture

And now, the main event! Viewing and reviewing the content shared to collect and collaborate on feedback remotely, safely, and securely in Flow Capture. Send this quickstart guide to your Viewers to prepare for review with Flow Capture: Getting Started as a Viewer in Flow Capture

Devices and best practices for HDR Review

Flow Capture supports Dolby Vision and HDR10 playback, but not every device supports playback in Dolby Vision and HDR10. When recommending or provisioning devices for review, it's important to consider how differences in device can effect the perception of color. For key players in the Color Review workflow, we recommend standardizing to the iPad Pro to ensure color fidelity, or using a professionally calibrated Apple TV on a LG C9 or CX.

iOS

We recommend iOS devices for Color Review because of the ability to Standardize Brightness: Standardizing Brightness for Mobile Apps

iPad: If you're doing HDR Review, you'll need a 10.5" iPad Pro or newer that utilizes a brightness level which has been keyed to the project reference monitor.
iPhone: To view HDR footage, you'll need an iPhone 8 or newer.

Apple TV

For reviewing HDR10 and Dolby Vision assets, then an HDR-capable OLED display rated to 1000 nits of brightness such as an LG C9 or CX will give you the best quality.

Browsers and Computers

Currently Flow Capture supports Dolby Vision playback in Safari 14 and higher. Dolby Vision and HDR10 playback is not currently available in Chrome. We don't recommend using the browser for Color Review as it's more challenging to standardize and ensure color fidelity, but browser playback is possible.

Mac model matrix for supporting HDR playback on a Mac.

Adaptive Streaming

Flow Capture's Adaptive Streaming settings automatically automatically adjust the quality of video playback to provide you with the best viewing experience possible based on the strength of your internet connection.

Viewers can toggle Standardize Brightness and HDR10 and Dolby Vision playback on the Adaptive Streaming Settings (gear) on the Player.

Commenting and collaboration

Inside the Folder or from the Inbox on the iPad, viewers can open the comment panel to leave feedback and annotations on any shared content: Commenting and Markup.

Comments left on Playlinks from the iPad tie back to the Asset inside the Folder.

Note: All Comments are visible to anyone who has access to view the asset from the Folder the Asset is shared from. To create private groups, use Folders and Manage Assets to copy assets into multiple Folders for review.

Exporting Comments to Resolve

Just as important as collecting feedback is exporting the feedback so your teams can action on it. Use our comment export reports to export comments into Resolve or other formats. Find the Comment Export button at the top of the commenting and annotations panel:

From there, select Comments to generate a comment export, using the settings and options available that best suit your needs..