How to Use the Broadcast Safe Effect to Protect Video Levels in Final Cut Pro

Katie asks:

I’m going through my project to make sure that all of my levels are within 0 and 100 to ensure a successful QC pass. However, when I put broadcast safe on my timeline clips, once the clip renders, some of the RGB parade levels still sneak past 0/100, and some of the Luma as well…. I love the way the movie looks (color, contrast, whites and blacks). I just want to make sure I don’t get stuck in QC hell. Please help!

The basic problem is this: For all media work that does NOT go to the web, SD and HD video levels (Rec. 601 and 709) must be equal to, or less than, 100 IRE.  However, most cameras today shoot video levels that are brighter than this. Which means that we need to correct these levels – keep them “legal” – during the editing or color grading process.

NOTE: While Final Cut automatically limits white levels to 100 IRE for text, generators and colors in the Rec. 709 color space, it does not automatically limit video.

Here’s an example of video shot on a digital camera. Note that white levels exceed 100 IRE, right red arrow. These levels are quite typical. While the web will support any video levels we post; broadcast TV, streaming services, DVDs, and cable are much more restrictive. They require that Rec. 709 levels not exceed 100 IRE, as displayed on the waveform monitor.

To fix this, select the clip in the timeline that you want to limit and apply Effects > Color > Broadcast Safe.

Instantly, highlights are limited (“clamped”) to 100 IRE without changing the black or shadow levels.

What “clamping” does is reset any highlight levels greater than 100 to exactly 100. While this keeps your video “legal,” it also means that any detail in the brightest highlights will be lost.

In this shot, for example, those excessive highlights are caused by the ceiling lights, so losing detail is not an issue.

However, in wedding videos, preserving highlight detail (the whites in her dress) is essential. So, manually adjusting white levels using the color wheels is preferable to clamping them when retaining highlight detail is important.

Broadcast Safe has four color space settings:

• Rec. 601 – used for both versions of standard-definition video
• Rec. 709 – used for HD video
• Rec. 2020 – used for HDR video

Most of the time, the Rec. 709 default will be fine.

Adjusting the Amount slider will lower the white level by up to 10%.

However, it ALSO raises the black level by up to 10%. This is NOT! a good idea, because while it is nice to lower highlights, you DO NOT! want to wash out your shadows by increasing black levels.

So, never change the Amount setting – leave it at 0 – until Apple fixes this bug.

REAL-WORLD USE

The Broadcast Safe effect is an essential tool. But, applying it to individual clips is time-consuming and impractical. Especially when projects today include hundreds of clips scattered across multiple levels.

You COULD turn your entire project into a single compound clip and apply the Broadcast Safe effect to it. But, that means you are continually jumping into and out of the compound clip to make changes.

A better option is to use an adjustment layer, similar to those in Photoshop. While not natively shipped with Final Cut, they are very easy to create in Motion and they make applying global effects like the Broadcast Safe effect simple.

NOTE: Here’s an article on how to create and use adjustment layers in Final Cut.

Add the adjustment layer as the TOP layer of your project. Then, apply the Broadcast Safe effect to the adjustment layer. The video levels of all clips below it are instantly clamped to 100 IRE.

SPECIAL NOTE

When viewing color channels, or the RGB Overlay option in the Waveform monitor, you will often see levels exceed 100 IRE. This may be due to excessive levels or it may be caused based on how color levels are displayed in the scope.

For the most accurate results, always run the Waveform Monitor in Luma mode, which is selected using the small scope icon in the top right corner of the scope display.

SUMMARY

For web work, you don’t need to worry about video levels. However, for just about all other video projects, you do. In those cases, it’s nice to know the Broadcast Safe effect has your back.

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