Resolve Color Management issue with neon

I’ve set up my first RCM project on an episodic 6 part tv show. I am loving the way things are running except when neon appears or thing like flashing cop lights. The highlights go haywire and become super saturated. I can’t seem to retrieve the highlights somehow to get the sat to come down and roll off in a pleasing way, it just looks terrible. When I set the clips to bypass and expand the contrast via contrast and pivot the old fashioned way everything looks good. Below are the settings I’m using. What am I missing?

I am working in Resolve 14.03 maybe this has been corrected in version 15. The project is set in RCM for rec-709 with a bypass on the input and each clip set to its native format i.e. Alexa Mini is set to log-c.



Thanks in adavance!

Zach Medow

[Peter Chamberlain]

If you are just starting this project you are better to be on v15.
Lots of improvements there.

If you're just doing the project entirely in Rec709 2.4 gamma, then I would leave the Color Management selection in normal mode, then use the Gamut Mapping OFX plug in to force the bright neon lights to within safety for normal Rec709 levels. I had an entire feature back in April with about a 10-minute sequence in a neon-filled nightclub, and the Gamut Mapping plug-in saved us. It gave us a look that "suggested" super-saturated color without going past the limits, and the project did very well in QC. I agree that police car lights can be a challenge.