Tag Archives: Light Iron

Colorist Chat: Sam Daley Talks Fairyland and Earth Mama 

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Light Iron colorist Sam Daley, who works on both features and episodics, joined the company’s New York facility in 2021. His television credits include the series Life & Beth, Succession and The Sinner, and his feature credits include Scenes From a Marriage, The Florida Project and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.

Sam Daley

Sam Daley

This year Daley worked on the indie films Fairyland and Earth Mama, both of which were shown at Sundance. The films are set in California’s Bay Area and are period pieces of sorts. Earth Mama takes place in the early 2000s and follows a young, pregnant mother who’s trying to win back custody of her children after they’ve been put in foster care.

Fairyland is a coming-of-age tale about a young girl who moves to San Francisco with her father after her mom passes away. We watch her grow up throughout the 1970s and ’80s and see their relationship evolve while he lives as an openly gay man.

Let’s find out more about his work on these films…

How early did you get involved on these films, and how did that help? 
I started working on Earth Mama, which was written and directed by Savanah Leaf, during preproduction and was involved in all the camera tests. I work with DP Jody Lee Lipes quite often, so he and I have developed a routine for how we start projects. He likes a very specific style of LUT, and I will modify it for whatever camera he’s using. I worked with the Kodak lab that was doing the film processing and dailies to make sure whatever Jody shot looked the way he intended.

Earth Mama

I’ve also worked with Fairyland DP Greta Zozula on a few shorts before, but this was the first feature we’d done together. I was brought in at the beginning of production and had a conversation with the director during the first week to make sure we were on the same page. This film was written and directed by Andrew Durham.

While I’ve worked with both Greta and Jody before, there was something particularly exciting about these films because they’re both feature directorial debuts. Both directors also have personal ties to the films, which makes it that much cooler.

What direction were you given on the film(s)? Did you get a look book? ? 
Savanah and Andrew are both photographers, so that was helpful in understanding what they were envisioning.

For Earth Mama, Savanah took some mood pictures on film early on. She had them processed and scanned and then shared the photos with Jody. The images looked textured and raw, which Jody loved, so that became the model for how we wanted the story to look.

Fairyland

For Fairyland, Andrew provided several photo references, then Greta and I decided how best to translate Andrew’s vision into the color grade.

How do you prefer getting this info on your projects, generally?
I don’t have a preference. However the filmmaker wants to communicate their vision is fine with me. Sometimes I’ll receive photography lookbooks or frame grabs from movies, but there have also been instances when I’ve only received text descriptions.

How do you prefer to work with the DP/director? How often do you show them your work? 
I have a very specific process, but I’m able to adapt it to the client’s needs. I do a continuity pass on the movie before anyone sits in the room with me to make sure all the exposures and color temperatures match. After my continuity pass, I create different looks based on the references and my conversations with the filmmakers. Once this is done, then we’ll sit down together and go through different looks. I get their feedback on what they like best and then make changes based on their notes. Then we’ll go scene by scene and fine-tune before our final watch down.

Sam Daley

Fairyland

Can you give an example of a note you got about the color? 
Andrew Durham was very specific about making sure the tones in Fairyland remained cool. The film takes place in California, which people tend to associate with warm colors, but he was clear that we should avoid “warming up” the shots, whether for nostalgia purposes or for representing the daylight in San Francisco.

What were some challenging scenes? 
In Fairyland, the film starts in 16mm and then transitions to ARRI Alexa footage. We had a lot of conversations on how we were going to transition between the two formats without it feeling like too abrupt of a change. We were challenged with creating a seamless transition from 16mm to Alexa that felt organic and signaled a time jump in the film, but not necessarily a format change.

What system did you use, and is there a tool in the system you found yourself using a lot? 
I used DaVinci Resolve 17. My “secret weapon” is a dehaze feature that removes haze from scenes where there’s too much fog or the lens is getting flared. I’ve found a way to incorporate it into my grade using a subtle amount to make images pop.

Our Flag Means Death

Color Grading Our Flag Means Death: Light, Blues and Testing

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By Corinne Bogdanowicz

As someone with a long-standing family association with the profession of colorist — I’ve been in the industry for 17 years, my sister is also a colorist, and my dad is a color scientist — I’ve always been interested in how light reacts in different situations.

Corinne Bogdanowicz

This was a key consideration during my recent stint on the production of HBO Max’s comedic period series Our Flag Means Death, which follows the adventures of a gentleman-turned-pirate and his crew. Being set on a ship at sea, the production presented some interesting challenges. Here’s what it was like behind the scenes.

Setting Sail
I got involved very early in the production process before shooting had begun. The series used a lot of LED walls to provide the various backdrops, which meant we had to do plenty of testing before the production could start shooting.

This testing involved monitoring in SDR then taking the footage and viewing it in HDR to help us spot any artifacts or seams on the LED wall that wouldn’t be visible in the on-set monitors. This was something the production team was worried about, as unexpected surprises could ruin the shot, but it wouldn’t be discovered until the footage was seen in HDR.

So the goal of the testing was to get ahead of any potential issues and to find out which angles and kinds of lighting would work best. We wanted to have all of this worked out to ensure the actual shoot went as smoothly as possible.

The next step was creating a LUT to help with the color adjustments in post. The team already had a primary LUT that the digital imaging technician had made, so I built a corresponding HDR LUT using FilmLight Baselight so the production team could view the dailies in HDR. This involved a technical conversion from SDR to HDR by matching grades and then extending up to HDR.

The look we were going for was essentially filmic, with a soft contrast. As the show is set on a boat, there’s a lot of water and skies — blue was very much the dominant color, and we wanted to take the edge off of that a bit by desaturating the blues. Pulling back the blues in this way provided a more natural tone and a softer look. The approach was similar for the scenes inside the ship. Although the lighting was more dramatic and moodier, with candlelight and rays coming through the windows, we still wanted to maintain the soft contrast.

Our Flag Means Death

Using Baselight, the workflow was seamless. Making the on-set looks and then having the grades to integrate the looks into the final color was all straightforward, and the whole system was color-managed. No matter what color space I needed to go to, I could do an easy conversion all within one system using Baselight’s display transforms. It worked really well for the show.

The High Seas
The production went very smoothly. Mike Berlucchi, the lead cinematographer, was wonderful to work with, and we had a great collaboration. In terms of challenges, the main issue was integrating visual effects into the scenes that also used LED walls. Even though they used a lot of the same plates in their compositing, there were occasional color differences that I had to adjust. In particular, I had to ensure that all shots flowed smoothly — although the visual effects team did a great job of integrating the greenscreen and LED wall shots

The greenscreen shots did have a slight advantage in that the visual effects team would give me mattes for the background, which meant I was able to adjust them separately from the foreground. I didn’t have that with the LED walls, which meant I had to make mattes myself. We had to integrate all the elements however we could. Luckily, as most of the scenes involved a mixture of LED walls and effects, I could match one side to the other and address any issues that came up.

The most challenging scenes were the ones with characters in smaller boats with water surrounding them plus a background like an island in the distance. These scenes had lots of elements that we had to integrate, and again, they used a mixture of LED walls and visual effects, making it even more important to make sure everything matched.

Our Flag Means Death

Dropping Anchor
Our Flag Means Death was a great show to work on. The team was wonderful, and I really enjoyed working on the content — which always makes things easier.

One big takeaway from the experience is the role that testing plays. The team really put themselves ahead of the game by doing as much testing as they did to make sure there were fewer problems later. It’s always a delicate balance.

We did a lot of pregrading of background plates, but you still want them to look natural and real. You don’t want them to have a “look” on them — that comes after. So sometimes we would pregrade plates to get them in a good place and then make adjustments later as needed.

In the end, I think we created something that looks very real, filmic and beautiful. The initial testing really helped the whole process.

Corinne Bogdanowicz is a senior colorist at Panavision’s Light Iron in Los Angeles.

Light Iron Expands Management Team, Including Post Vet Andy Kaplan

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Light Iron, the post creative-services division of Panavision, has added two post industry veterans to its management team. Andy Kaplan joins as senior vice president of operations and Peter Lin joins as the company’s director of finance. Both will work out of Light Iron’s Los Angeles facility.

Kaplan will oversee all of Light Iron’s operations and services, including dailies, offline rentals and final color. He previously served as VP of picture operations at Picture Shop and Technicolor, and prior to that as head of production for Company 3.

“Light Iron has been an extremely exciting company to watch over the years,” says Kaplan. “They’ve held onto their nimbleness even as they’ve grown, evidenced during the pandemic as they quickly expanded their remote capabilities to meet clients’ needs with a wide range of flexible workflows. I’m very excited to join this team and help the company continue to innovate across all of our service offerings.”

Lin will spearhead all of Light Iron’s financial processes and work closely with the Panavision team as a conduit between the two brands. Lin previously held senior finance roles at Company 3 and Deluxe Entertainment Services Group.

Both new hires will report to Seth Hallen, Light Iron’s managing director. “Andy and Peter round out our management team and bring their deep knowledge, experience and passion to the table,” notes Hallen. “We’re better positioned than ever to navigate the new normal of this very busy production market and continue leading the way post production will evolve into the future.”

Light Iron Adds Colorist Charles Bunnag

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Post production company Light Iron has added colorist Charles Bunnag to its team. Bunnag will work out of Light Iron’s Los Angeles facility, with the ability to collaborate with clients globally thanks to the company’s remote offerings.

Some of Bunnag’s recent work includes the series The Book of Boba Fett, The Mandalorian and the feature Avengers: Endgame. For the past decade, he has worked with and been mentored by veteran colorist Steven J. Scott. With Scott, Bunnag has lent his talents to such features as The Lion King and Bad Times at the El Royale as well as Roma and The Revenant. Bunnag also shared an HPA Award nomination with Scott for their collaboration on Avengers: Infinity War. Through those experiences and more, Bunnag has developed his own creative and technical approach to the craft of color grading.

Previously, Bunnag worked at Company 3, Technicolor and Efilm. Prior to his career as a colorist, he was a matte painter and VFX artist for features and television. A graduate of California State University, Northridge, where he studied art and illustration, Bunnag credits his background in traditional artistic techniques as crucial to his process today.

“Charles brings that blend of creative talent and technical expertise that Light Iron is known for,” says Seth Hallen, managing director at Light Iron. “His artistic background and impressive body of work further reinforce Light Iron’s commitment to creative collaboration and continual innovation.”

Bunnag joins Light Iron’s bicoastal roster of colorists, including Ian Vertovec, Jeremy Sawyer, Scott Klein, Corinne Bogdanowicz, Sam Daley, Ethan Schwartz, Jesus Borrego, Pat Fitzgerald, Keith Jenson, Katie Jordan and Arianna Shining Star.

 

 

 

Colorist Chat: American Horror Story’s Jeremy Sawyer

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By Randi Altman

The 10th season of the American Horror Story anthology series is American Horror Story: Double Feature, which premiered on FX in late August. This iteration, as the name suggests, is divided into two parts: Red Tide, which takes place by the water, and Death Valley, which takes place by the sand. Both stories provided happy challenges for the show’s colorist, Light Iron’s Jeremy Sawyer.

American Horror Story colorist

Jeremy Sawyer

We reached out to Sawyer to talk about his workflow on the series, whose cast includes Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Macaulay Culkin and Frances Conroy.

Let’s find out more…

How early did you get involved on this season?
I got involved about two weeks before shooting began. The show has a new DP this year, Andrew Mitchell, and we got started by talking about last season, the general workflow and setting some general looks for the dailies via a few creative LUTs.

Andrew has been my main contact regarding the look of the show. He generally takes stills from set, adjusts them to his liking and sends those stills to dailies. That general look is used as a guide throughout the process.

The look of the show has evolved since our first discussions, but the original ideas and direction are still intact. They wanted to convey a colder, starker reality with the look of the first story, but almost the opposite with the second, which they’ve just started shooting.

Can you describe the look of this new season?
The first story is a bit bleached and more harsh than real life. “Silvery” and “pewter” are two words that are brought up frequently. The bleached and contrasty feel is like old photos on matte paper.

Speaking very generally, they wanted to make sure that daylight scenes didn’t feel “normal.” The daylight exteriors were mostly shot in Cape Cod, with big blue skies and lots of spring greenery that all needs to be dulled way down and bleached. The sets also had a very weathered feel to them.

The second part of the story is modern-day, full-color, glam, beautiful — think very glossy photographs and shiny paper. The second story very intentionally stands by itself and really has no connection color-wise to the first story.

What was it shot on, and what did you color on?
The show shoots on Sony Venice cameras with Panavision Primo primes and zooms, with the occasional use of a DJI drone. I use Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve for final color work.

What were some of the more challenging scenes?
I haven’t seen anything yet from the second story outside of dailies, but the biggest challenges with the first story have been the bright daylight exteriors in beautiful locations that we’ve needed to bring way down. It can be tricky sometimes to manipulate the images so much while still trying to keep them somewhat natural and photographic.

American Horror Story colorist

American Horror Story tells a new story each season, but does Ryan Murphy have a look that he likes to keep throughout? Any rules to adhere to?
I’ve never heard any specific thoughts about that, but in true anthology fashion, each season is very different. I’ve been involved in Seasons 9 and 10, and in terms of the look, one has absolutely nothing to do with the other.

Assuming, like the other seasons, that there is a lot of blood?
The color in the first story is very desaturated and bleached, so blood tends to look pretty dark. Whenever there is blood in a scene, we always take a second look to make sure it doesn’t appear fake. The color red is definitely part of the first story. There are some very specific red items that come and go throughout the storyline.

Can you talk about how your process changed from Season 9 to 10?
It’s been the same process, but with very different conversations and different results. Story always comes first. If the color doesn’t serve the purpose of helping to tell the story, it can easily become distracting. So in those early conversations before shooting starts, we talk about the story, the time period, the mood. Hopefully there are some details about production design and wardrobe. From all of this, a look develops and evolves — and for this season, a very different look has materialized.

Jeremy Sawyer

Some General Questions:

What inspires you as a colorist – museums, architecture, films, etc.?
Anything creative inspires me. Just walking or driving, I’ll see creative stuff that works its way into my brain. Graffiti, movie art, graphic design — I’m inspired by a lot of different things.

By the way, I feel like there are so many unbelievably good-looking TV shows out there. TV used to be the realm of “how fast can you get this done?” Now, though, I see shows all the time that definitely have not been rushed. I’m constantly inspired and blown away by other colorists.

Are you sometimes asked to do more than just color on projects?
No, I focus on color.

You have been busy with projects even during the shutdown. Can you talk about working remotely or in a bubble of sorts?
When production shut down in the spring of 2020, post kept going. At first, we went all-remote, and some colorists thrived setting up their computers and monitors in a spare bedroom. I tried, but for my own sanity, I felt better doing my work at work, so as soon as I was able to get back into the facility, I did.

How do you prefer the DP or director to describe the look they want? Physical examples?
I always prefer for the DP or anyone who will be involved in the final grade to come into the facility and sit with me so we can look at images on the same monitor in the same environment. That way, as we talk about things, I can make adjustments in front of them. This helps the conversation and helps to evolve the look. Again, color correction is there to serve the show and the people who are responsible for making it. I think the most efficient way to get on the same page with the decision-makers is to be in the same room together.

Any suggestions for getting the most out of a project from a color perspective?
Be involved in as many conversations with the decision-makers as you can be. We don’t usually have the luxury of time for do-overs, so you want to get things right from the get-go.

What’s your favorite part of color grading?
Seeing it all come together. Being a part of the conversation. Helping storytellers tell their stories.

Randi Altman is the founder and editor-in-chief of postPerspective. She has been covering production and post production for more than 20 years. 

 

 

DP Chat: One Night in Miami’s Tami Reiker

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Inspired by true events, director Regina King’s One Night in Miami tells the story of Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Sam Cooke and the evening of February 25, 1964. Based on the play by Kemp Powers, who also wrote the screenplay, the film shows these four icons as they gather in a Miami Beach hotel room to celebrate Ali’s (who was still going by Cassius Clay at the time) surprise win over Sonny Liston and to talk about much more than boxing.

Tami Reiker (left) on set

The film, which stars Kingsley Ben-Adir, Eli Goree, Aldis Hodge and Leslie Odom Jr., earned three Oscar nominations: Best Supporting Actor for Odom, Best Adapted Screenplay for Powers and Best Original Song (“Speak Now”). Director King earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Director.

We checked in with the film’s cinematographer — Tami Reiker, ASC — to talk about her process, working with director King and more.

How early did you get involved in One Night in Miami?
Regina and producers Keith Calder and Jess Wu Calder sent me the script, and I loved it. I was also a huge fan of Regina King. I made a lookbook with my visual ideas and met with Regina. We really hit it off and had similar visions for the look and feel of the film.

What direction were you given from the outset about the look? It’s a period piece, so how did you go about giving it that feel?
From our first meeting, Regina and I discussed a rich, vibrant and saturated film. We wanted the vibrant blues and greens for Miami and warm tones in the hotel room. Regina and I worked closely with production designer Barry Robison and costume designer Francine Jamison-Tanchuck. We were constantly sharing color ideas, fabrics and paint chips.

For Regina, authenticity was crucial, and we referenced the actual events and locations. We studied photographers Saul Leiter, Garry Winogrand, Neil Leifer and Eve Arnold and the painter Jacob Lawrence.

For the fight scene, the GOAT book (“Greatest of All Time. A Tribute to Muhammad Ali”) by Taschen became our bible. It had color photos of the fight between Cassius Clay and Sonny Liston, and we found the shot for the overhead from the book.

How did you work with the colorist on this?
The colorist for the film was Light Iron’s Ian Vertovec. The producers, Keith and Jesse, had worked with him before and highly recommended him. We instantly hit it off.
I had Ian use the LUT and files from the DIT as our starting point. We had set a look while shooting that was very close to how we wanted the film to feel. Ian did an incredible job and was such a pleasure to work with.

L-R: Tami Reiker and director Regina King on set

How was it working with a director who is also an actor?
Regina had a clear vision of the film she wanted to make; she’s very clear-sighted and discerning. Regina is definitely an actor’s director, which is exactly what this film needed. Regina and I were connected at the hip for four months, every waking hour working on our shots, scouting locations and planning out the days. She is a collaborator on every level.

Where did you shoot and for how long?
The film was pretty evenly divided between days and nights. Having enough time is always the main challenge. You always feel the ticking clock and the countdown to sunrise. A few of the challenges we had on the film occurred in the rooftop scene. The roof was built on shipping containers outside the stage in LaPlace, and we had 280 degrees of darkness to make it look like Miami.

Were there many night shoots versus day shoots? Can you talk about challenges?
The film was pretty evenly divided between days and nights. Having enough time is always the main challenge. You always feel the ticking clock and the countdown to sunrise. A few of the challenges we had on the film occurred on the roof top scene — the roof was built on shipping containers outside the stage in La Place, and we had 280 degrees of darkness to make it look like Miami.

The second night on the roof, the fog and a light mist rolled in and really bloomed our lights, but we made it all work in the end. Ian really helped with this in the color timing; he was able to increase the contrast on the shots where the fog had bloomed the lights and make the two nights match.

How did you go about choosing the right camera and lenses for this project? Why was this the right combination of camera and lenses?
Regina wanted the audience to have an immersive experience … to feel like you are actually in the room with these four men. I suggested to Regina we use the ARRI Alexa 65. The large format and 6.5K give you incredible detail and shallow depth of field. We didn’t have the budget for Alexa 65, but ARRI Rental Burbank worked with the producers to make it affordable on our budget. I chose the Prime DNAs for their softness and the ability to shoot wide open at T2.1, so we always had the shallow depth of field. You can really feel this in the hotel room, where the cameras are floating on jib arms and shifting the perspective.

Can you describe the lighting? Any happy accidents?
Every day was a moment of discovery in the hotel room. Having the camera operators manually operating on floating jib arms allowed them to organically react to the actors.

Now more general questions… How did you become interested in cinematography? 
I came to cinematography through a passion for still photography.

What inspires you artistically?
I’m inspired by film, photography and travel. I’ve been very fortunate to have travelled the world for shoots and always find inspiration in exploring new countries.

What are some of your best practices or rules you try to follow on each job? 
You learn so much about yourself on each movie. I would say I work hard on patience and leading with kindness.

What’s your go-to gear (camera, lens, mount/accessories) – things you can’t live without?
I always bring my EasyRig. It’s been all over the world with me, it’s a size small and the rental houses never have small EasyRigs.

Finally, do you find that there are more female DPs working or being given the opportunity to work?
There is wave of female DPs emerging. It’s exciting to see the change in the industry and more doors opening for female cinematographers.

Color Grading Netflix’s Anthology Series Social Distance

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Light Iron and the series’ post producer on shooting this series to make it look like a Zoom project.

By Daniel Restuccio

Netflix’s Social Distance is a new COVID-themed series brought to you by creator and executive producer Hilary Weisman Graham (Orange Is the New Black). For this eight-part fictional anthology series, Graham and her team focused on how lives have been changed during the isolation of the pandemic. It shows how people and their families are coping during this very stressful time, and while there is sadness and loneliness, there are laughs and acts of love.

 

Each episode features people interacting on what appears to be a Zoom call, but there are no blurry pictures or dropped audio. In fact, the series features production values that rival any traditionally produced show, thanks to some slick and clever producing and post workflows.

The series started shooting with Canon C300 Mark II (XF-AVC, 4096×2160, 23.98fps) and then switched to iPhone 11s (3840 x 2160) using the FilmicPro app and the Log codec add-on. Episodes 101 and 108 were shot mostly on C300, with some iPhone. The rest were shot almost entirely with an iPhone.

Adding to the series production value was a significant amount of visual effects — 388 VFX shots and 51 unique graphic interfaces across the eight parts. Light Iron supervising colorist Ian Vertovec and Mr. Wolf VFX supervisor Mike Pryor used a unique workflow where they chose to drop in the final VFX into the conform and then color.

Ashley Glazier

To find out how this show got made, we caught up with Light Iron’s head of workflow strategy, Katie Fellion, Vertovec and the show’s post producer, Ashley Glazier, to get the lowdown on some of the behind-the-scenes technology that made the eight 22-minute episodes possible during a tight June-October production schedule.

How did DPs Mark Schwartzbard, Alison Kelly and Pedro Luque give instructions to the actors on how to shoot and light themselves?
Ashley Glazier: The prep was handled over many Zoom sessions with the actors and each department. During location scouts over Zoom, our DPs would judge the best light within the actors’ houses to determine if any small lights needed to be sent to them.

Ian Vertovec

When recording on the Canon C300, a lot of the camera’s settings were able to be controlled remotely by our DPs or camera assistants. When we shot on the iPhone, we used Filmic Pro, and the DP would have the phone set up for the actor and give any instructions on settings over Zoom.

How was location audio accomplished? 
Glazier: We started off sending actors a small audio kit that could be monitored by our sound mixer. Once restrictions lifted some in places like New York we were able to send a sound mixer to setup outside of the location and monitor sound quality there.

How did the actors get their footage to Light Iron?
Glazier: We received our dailies over Aspera. Light Iron would upload footage there for all of our editors and AEs to have access to. All editorial was working from home and they were cutting on Avid Media Composer.

Fellion: Our LA, New York and Atlanta facilities received cards (or phones) shipped in from the physical production location. At each Light Iron location, we media-managed to our local servers (Quantum StorNext SAN volume) and then digitally transferred the OCF to a consolidated dataset based at the LA facility. This spinning disk online data storage was subsequently used for expediting VFX pulls and conforming episodes.

Katie Fellion

What computer system and software did Light Iron dailies colorist Greg Pastore use to process dailies?
Fellion: Our dailies colorist Greg Pastore used Colorfront’s Express Dailies to color and process dailies. Archive and data management was handled by YoYotta.

How did those dailies get to editors Tyler Cook, Amy Fleming and Liza Cardinale?  
Fellion: We delivered dailies electronically to the editorial team via a Signiant MediaShuttle link.

The show appears to take place over Zoom. How much of this is VFX illusion? Were all the computer interfaces prebuilt composites?  
Vertovec: Yes. Mr. Wolf built all the computer interfaces. I built an input LUT for each camera so they could work in a singular Log working space. I also built an sRGB inverse so graphics made in sRGB could also be comped in Log. We worked this way for about two episodes, but when they switched to all Rec. 709 cameras (iPhones), we did those episodes’ comps in pure Rec. 709.

Were those composites already baked before they were handed off to color correction?
Vertovec:  Everything was flattened by Mr. Wolf and delivered as EXR with embedded mattes. There were a lot of mattes — every video layer and graphic was its own element. I think the most on one shot was 54 mattes.

One of the main challenges was managing the Dolby Vision SDR downconvert. We were working in HDR, as it is a Netflix original, but Dolby Vision is made to make natural-looking photography downconvert from HDR to SDR. However, because most peoples’ computer interfaces have a lot of white space and bright areas, the Dolby Vision algorithm was constantly trying to darken the whole frame. It took a lot of tweaking to get the balance just right on the SDR.

Can you talk about the Mr. Wolf composite of the first and last shot of Episode 101 — a 30-person Zoom call with approximately 54 mattes? 
Vertovec: They did a wonderful job. There was a lot of grading on the Zoom call scenes, but the scenes with overlapping computer screen windows — surfing the web of social media — were always much more complicated as they usually involved complicated addition and subtraction of multiple mattes to get the combination just right.

The unique combination of some windows being overplayed by another window or graphic meant Mr. Wolf couldn’t give me every combination of every matte. So mostly they would deliver the basic shapes, and I would add, subtract and invert all the elements into the exact combo I needed. I was able to do most of the mattes that way, however, one or two combinations were too complex, and I needed Mr. Wolf to specially make them.

What is your setup at home?
Vertovec: I have a FilmLight Baselight One with 250TB SAS RAID (from Maxx Digital), a FilmLight Blackboard 2 and a Sony X300 monitor. For the most part, this is a great system for grading at home. However, Social Distance was quite “heavy” in terms of playing back the dozens of mattes on every shot, so I was able to set up a socially distant suite at the Light Iron office. This allowed me to use a Baselight Two (more horsepower) for the review sessions I had with the producers. We did review sessions for producers over Streambox and had up to 10 people for those sessions, all at their own homes using iPads.

For the uninitiated, what’s the difference between a standard color grade and an HDR color grade? 
Vertovec: An HDR color grade is a special color space designed for a display system that is capable of much higher maximum brightness. Instead of just having an overall brighter picture on a brighter display, HDR displays are meant to show more image detail in that brighter area, while the normal and darker areas of the image remain the same.

The term “dynamic range” is used to refer to the degree of difference between the darkest image detail and the brightest image detail. Modern cameras are actually capturing more dynamic range than most SDR TVs can display. HDR is a display technology that is delivering a much closer representation of what the camera actually recorded.

Production started in late June. When did you get the pilot and subsequent episodes to grade, and how long did it take to grade them? 
Vertovec: I think we graded in July and August. I had six hours unsupervised per episode, and we had a review half-day when we played down two episodes for the producers each week.

Who set the “look” of the show? The director? The cinematographer?
Vertovec: I had a few conversations with Pedro (Luque), as he was the first DP on board. I built a show LUT from those conversations and sent a LUT to Light Iron dailies colorist Greg Pastore. Pedro and I talked about trying to get the show to still look “real” but also a little bit special, so I added a slight softness to the skin tones and softened the tone with some cool shadows. Just because we wanted the show to look “real” doesn’t mean we have to try to make it look stressed or deteriorated in some way. People shoot wonderful-looking material on their phones every day.

For mastering, Netflix recommends that monitors are set to and masters stored in P3-D65 color space rather than Rec.2020.  Again, for the uninitiated why do that?
Vertovec: There are actually no monitors that can fully display the entire Rec. 2020 gamut. What most displays do is display as much information as they can and naturally clip any image information that exists beyond their ability.

So while Rec. 2020 is a specification designed to be future-proof for many years to come, it would be bad practice to grade in a color gamut that you could not actually visualize on your device, as there could be artifacts present in your image that your display would be clipping, which the colorist would not be able to control. So best practice is to grade in P3D65 and deliver either P3D65 files or Rec. 2020 files limited to P3D65.

Were there multiple deliverables to Netflix? Was there a separate grade for non-HDR folks?
Vertovec: This is the whole idea behind Dolby Vision — we only have one deliverable. We grade the HDR master at PQ 1000 nits and create trim metadata for dynamic ranges below 1000 nits. So if your TV is capable of doing only 100 nits or 200 nits, the Dolby Vision embedded metadata will tell your TV how to display the show in the most optimum way. Regular non-HDR (SDR) is standardized at 100 nits.

Were you grading mixed-footage episodes? Can you talk about grading the C300 footage versus iPhone Log footage?
Vertovec: Baselight has a very in-depth color-management architecture, so no matter what input color space or luma encoding it’s given, it will transform that data to a chosen working color space and luma encoding.

With this color-management system in place, it is very easy to work with material from different sources and set looks across formats — with the main difference being the iPhone footage. Even though the Filmic Pro app was set to Log recording, I found the files behaved much more like flat-pass Rec. 709 than true scene-referred Log. So even though we were working in HDR, they were effectively SDR source files that we upconverted to HDR as part of the grade.

How does a display format like HDR make for better storytelling in general and on this show in particular?
Vertovec: I am a huge fan of HDR as a medium and of its ability to create a more immersive experience. Having said that, this show in particular is about people connecting — or failing to connect — over their devices. That is, over SDR devices. So I think we downplayed our extended range and tried to stay honest to the experience the characters in our show would have had.

Dan Restuccio is a writer/director with Realwork Entertainment and part of the Visual Arts faculty at California Lutheran University. He is a former Disney Imagineer. You can reach him at dansweb451@gmail.com.

 

DP James Whitaker on Amazon’s Troop Zero

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The Amazon Studios film Troop Zero follows a bright and quirky young girl named Christmas and her eccentric friends on their quest to become a Birdie Scout troop and travel to Jamboree to take part in a science competition. Christmas’ mother nurtured her into believing that meteors and shooting stars were messages from the heavens above, so when NASA announces the Golden Record program at Jamboree, she knows she needs to infiltrate the high-and-mighty Birdie Scout youth group in order to enter the talent show and get the chance to win and to have her voice heard throughout the stars.

James Whitaker

This comedy-drama, which stars Viola Davis, Allison Janney, Jim Gaffigan and Mckenna Grace, is helmed by the female directing team Bert and Bertie from a screenplay written by the Oscar-winning Beasts of the Southern Wild co-writer Lucy Alibar. It was inspired by Alibar’s 2010 play Christmas and Jubilee Behold the Meteor Shower.

The small-budget Troop Zero was captured over 28 days across multiple locations around New Orleans in settings made to look and feel like the sweltering summer experience common in rural Georgia during the mid-‘70s.

DP James Whitaker, ASC, (The Cooler, Captain America: Civil War, Thank You for Smoking, Patriot), knowing they had limited budget and time, meticulously scouted out the locations ahead of time, blocking scenes and planning the lens choices to best address the style and action the directors wanted to convey during the shoot. Working closely with a camera team consisting of veterans first AC Bryan DeLorenzo, key grip Charles Lenz and gaffer Allen Parks, they were able to light the way and set the mood for the production. Troop Zero’s main camera was an ARRI Alexa SXT.

“Using a lookup table that had been gifted to me by Sean Coleman at CO3 as a starting point, I worked closely with the digital imaging technician, Adrian Jebef, to shape this into our show LUT,” explains Whitaker. “Adrian then applied the LUT across a Sony 24-inch calibrated monitor and then routed this signal to the director’s monitors, including to the video village and the video assist.

“The signal was sent to the entire set so that the established look was presented to everyone — from hair and makeup to costume and wardrobe — to make sure there were no questions on what the picture would look like,” he continues. “With limited time and multiple locations, Adrian would adjust the looks from scene to scene with CDLs or Printer Light adjustments, and these looks were given to dailies colorist Alex Garcia from Light Iron, working near set on location on Resolve. Alex would balance these looks across the multiple cameras and keep things consistent. These looks were then delivered to editorial and posted to PIX for review.”

Whitaker enjoyed working with Bert and Bertie — sometimes Bert would be directing the talent while Bertie would be able to discuss the camera moves for the next setup, and the next day they might switch roles. “The Berts were really into the idea of formal framing, but they also wanted to mix it up,” he explains.

“We looked at a bunch of different films as references but didn’t really find what we liked, so we created a visual language of our own. I used the Vantage MiniHawk lenses. They have an anamorphic look and come with all the good things I wanted — they are fast, and they are light. They actually have two apertures that allow you to have anamorphic-like distortion in the bokeh, but they are actually spherical lenses. This allowed me to use a short focal length lens for a wide shot and have the actors run into closeup. The close focus is basically the front element of the lens, which is amazing.”

There’s a particularly great food fight scene between the members of the titular Troop Zero and the rival group of Birdie Scouts, wherein the use of slow motion perfectly captures how a group of precocious misfits would envision the experience. It’s like an epic battle in the World War of Girl Scouts, with flour raining down around everyone as someone runs by wielding a soaked eggbeater, spraying everyone in range with rapid-fire batter bullets, while another scout takes a bowl of rainbow sprinkles to the face. The slow-motion intensity was captured at high frame rate with the ARRI Alexa SXT camera system using the Codex SXR capture media. Using a combination of dolly and hand-held shots that move the viewer through the action, the motion feels smooth and the images are in focus throughout.

“When I first sat down with the Berts and Corrine Bogdanowicz at Light Iron to grade Troop Zero, we had so much range in the image. This is why ARRI cameras are my first choice,” he says. “You have this large 3.4K filmic image in raw that we could push wherever we wanted. We started warming it up, making it less saturated and windowing various parts of the skies and faces. After a bit of this, we sat back and said, ‘This doesn’t feel like it is servicing the story we wanted to tell.’ Sometimes you need to simply go back to basics.

“We started from the beginning using the same LUT that we had on set, and then Corinne did a basic Printer Light grade (in Resolve) to start, and it looked pretty much like what we had viewed on the monitors during the shoot. We skewed a bit from the original CDL values, but the overall feel of the look was very close in the end.”

“Working with a Codex raw workflow is an easy sell for me. The earlier concerns from a producer about the cost of the capture drives and the time it takes a DIT to back up the data have seemingly gone away. Codex is so fast and robust that I never get a pushback in shooting raw on a production. The last two TV shows I shot — Season 2 of Patriot and Perpetual Grace, LTD — were both captured on Codex in ARRIRAW. I just bought an ARRI Alexa Mini LF with the new compact drives, and I am looking forward to using this when we get back to work.”

Colorist Chat: Light Iron’s Nick Hasson

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Photography plays a big role in this colorist’s world; he often finds inspiration through others’ images.

Name: Nick Hasson

Company: Light Iron

Can you describe what Light Iron does?
Light Iron is a full-service post company providing end-to-end solutions — including dailies and finishing in both HDR and SDR.

The L Word

As a colorist, what would surprise people the most about what falls under that title?
Colorists are one of the select few creatives that touch every frame of a project. Working with the cinematographer and director, we help shape the tone of a project. It’s very collaborative.

Are you often asked to do more than just color on projects?
Almost every project I do has a visual effects component to it. I have a background in visual effects and online editing, so I am comfortable in those disciplines. I also tend to do a lot of sky replacements, beauty and cleanup work.

What’s your favorite part of the job?
Being creative on a daily basis. Problem solving is another fun aspect of the job. I love finding solutions and making the client smile.

What’s your least favorite?
I like being outside. The long days in a dark room can be a challenge.

Queen of the South

If you weren’t a colorist, what would you be doing instead?
Electrical engineering or network infrastructure. I’m a big geek and love to build computers and push technology.

How did you choose color grading as a profession?
I was originally heading to a career in music. After a year of touring, I decided it was not for me and got a job at a post house. I was lucky enough to work in both VFX and telecine at the time. Photography was always my first love, so color grading just felt right and fell into place for me.

What are some recent projects you’ve worked on?
I’m lucky to work in both episodic and feature film. Recent movies include Corporate Animals, Sweetheart, Boss Level, Wander Darkly and Like a Boss. On the episodic side, I have been working on The L Word, Room 104, Queen of the South, Greenleaf, Exhibit A and The Confession Tapes.

Room 104

What is the project you are most proud of?
Room 104 is a big challenge. Not many projects get to Season 4. Coming up with looks that aid the storytelling and are different every episode has been exciting and creative challenging. We do a lot of the look design in pre-production, and I love seeing what the cinematographers come back with.

Where do you find inspiration?
I love photography! I like to seek out interesting photographers and see how they are pushing the limits of what can be done digitally. I shoot black-and-white film every week. It is a great way to study composition and lighting.

Name three pieces of technology you can’t live without.
My phone, air-conditioned car seats and Amazon.

What social media channels do you follow?
I only use Instagram, and I tend to follow hashtags rather than specific outlets. It gives my feed a broader reach and keeps things fresh.

How do you de-stress from it all?
Spending time with my family. Working on my old cars and playing guitar. I also ride mountain bikes and love to cook in a wood-fired oven.

Colorist Chat: Light Iron supervising colorist Ian Vertovec

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“As colorists, we are not just responsible for enhancing each individual shot based on the vision of the filmmakers, but also for helping to visually construct an emotional arc over time.”

NAME: Ian Vertovec

TITLE: Supervising Colorist

COMPANY: Light Iron

CAN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR ROLE IN THE COMPANY?
A Hollywood-based collaborator for motion picture finishing, with a studio in New York City as well.

GLOW

AS A COLORIST, WHAT WOULD SURPRISE PEOPLE THE MOST ABOUT WHAT FALLS UNDER THAT TITLE?
As colorists, we are not just responsible for enhancing each individual shot based on the vision of the filmmakers, but also for helping to visually construct an emotional arc over time. For example, a warm scene feels warmer coming out of a cool scene as opposed to another warm scene. We have the ability and responsibility to nudge the audience emotionally over the course of the film. Using color in this way makes color grading a bit like a cross between photography and editing.

ARE YOU SOMETIMES ASKED TO DO MORE THAN JUST COLOR ON PROJECTS?
Once in a while, I’ll be asked to change the color of an object, like change a red dress to blue or a white car to black. While we do have remarkable tools at our disposal, this isn’t quite the correct way to think about what we can do. Instead of being able to change the color of objects, it’s more like we can change the color of the light shining on objects. So instead of being able to turn a red dress to blue, I can change the light on the dress (and only the dress) to be blue. So while the dress will appear blue, it will not look exactly how a naturally blue dress would look under white light.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE PART OF THE JOB?
There is a moment with new directors, after watching the first finished scene, when they realize they have made a gorgeous-looking movie. It’s their first real movie, which they never fully saw until that moment — on the big screen, crystal clear and polished — and it finally looks how they envisioned it. They are genuinely proud of what they’ve done, as well as appreciative of what you brought out in their work. It’s an authentic filmmaking moment.

WHAT’S YOUR LEAST FAVORITE?
Working on multiple jobs at a time and long days can be very, very draining. It’s important to take regular breaks to rest your eyes.

IF YOU DIDN’T HAVE THIS JOB, WHAT WOULD YOU BE DOING INSTEAD?
Something with photography, VFX or design, maybe.

HOW EARLY ON DID YOU KNOW THIS WOULD BE YOUR PATH?
I was doing image manipulation in high school and college before I even knew what color grading was.

Just Mercy

CAN YOU NAME SOME RECENT PROJECTS YOU HAVE WORKED ON?
Just Mercy, Murder Mystery, GLOW, What We Do in the Shadows and Too Old to Die Young.

WHAT IS THE PROJECT THAT YOU ARE MOST PROUD OF?
Sometimes your perspective and a filmmaker’s perspective for a color grade can be quite divergent. There can be a temptation to take the easy way and either defer or overrule. I find tremendous value in actually working out those differences and seeing where and why you are having a difference of opinion.

It can be a little scary, as nobody wants to be perceived as confrontational, but if you can civilly explain where and why you see a different approach, the result will almost always be better than what either of you thought possible in the first place. It also allows you to work more closely and understand each other’s creative instincts more accurately. Those are the moments I am most proud of — when we worked through an awkward discord and built something better.

WHERE DO YOU FIND INSPIRATION?
I have a fairly extensive library of Pinterest boards — mostly paintings — but it’s real life and being in the moment that I find more interesting. The color of a green leaf at night under a sodium vapor light, or how sunlight gets twisted by a plastic water bottle — that is what I find so cool. Why ruin that with an Insta post?

NAME THREE PIECES OF TECHNOLOGY YOU CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT.
FilmLight Baselight’s Base Grade, FilmLight Baselight’s Texture Equalizer and my Red Hydrogen.

WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS DO YOU FOLLOW?
Instagram mostly.

WHAT DO YOU DO TO DE-STRESS FROM IT ALL?
After working all day on a film, I often don’t feel like watching another movie when I get home because I’ll just be thinking about the color.  I usually unwind with a video game, book or podcast. The great thing about a book or video games is that they demand your 100% attention. You can’t be simultaneously browsing social media or the news  or be thinking about work. You have to be 100% in the moment, and it really resets your brain.

Storage for Editors

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By Karen Moltenbrey

Whether you are a small-, medium- or large-size facility, storage is at the heart of your workflow. Consider, for instance, the one-person shop Fin Film Company, which films and edits footage for branding and events, often on water. Then there’s Uppercut, a boutique creative/post studio where collaborative workflow is the key to pushing boundaries on commercials and other similar projects.

Let’s take a look at Uppercut’s workflow first…

Uppercut
Uppercut is a creative editorial boutique shop founded by Micah Scarpelli in 2015 and offering a range of post services. Based in New York and soon Atlanta, the studio employs five editors with their own suites along with an in-house Flame artist who has his own suite.

Taylor Schafer

In contrast to Uppercut’s size, its storage needs are quite large, with five editors working on as many as five projects at a time. Although most of it is commercial work, some of those projects can get heavy in terms of the generated media, which is stored on-site.

So, for its storage needs, the studio employs an EditShare RAID system. “Sometimes we have multiple editors working on one large campaign, and then usually an assistant is working with an editor, so we want to make sure they have access to all the media at the same time,” says Taylor Schafer, an assistant editor at Uppercut.

Additionally, Uppercut uses a Supermicro nearline server to store some of its VFX data, as the Flame artist cannot access the EditShare system on his CentOS operating system. Furthermore, the studio uses LTO-6 archive media in a number of ways. “We use EditShare’s Ark to LTO our partitions once the editors are done with them for their projects. It’s wonderfully integrated with the whole EditShare system. Ark is easy to navigate, and it’s easy to swap LTO tapes in and out, and everything is in one location,” says Schafer.

The studio employs the EditShare Ark to archive its editors’ working files, such as Premiere and Avid projects, graphics, transcodes and so forth. Uppercut also uses BRU (Backup Restore Utility) from Tolis Group to archive larger files that only live on LaCie hard drives and not on EditShare, such as a raw grade. “Then we’re LTO’ing the project and the whole partition with all the working files at the end through Ark,” Schafer explains.

The importance of having a system like this was punctuated over the summer when Uppercut underwent a renovation and had to move into temporary office space at Light Iron, New York — without the EditShare system. As a result, the team had to work off of hard drives and Light Iron’s Avid Nexis for some limited projects. “However, due to storage limits, we mainly worked off of the hard drives, and I realized how important a file storage system that has the ability to share data in real time truly is,” Schafer recalls. “It was a pain having to copy everything onto a hard drive, hand it back to the editor to make new changes, copy it again and make sure all the files were up to date, as opposed to using a storage system like ours, where everything is instantly up to date. You don’t have to worry whether something copied over correctly or not.”

She continues: “Even with Nexis, we were limited in our ability to restore old projects, which lived on EditShare.”

When a new project comes in at Uppercut, the first thing Schafer and her colleagues do is create a partition on EditShare and copy over the working template, whether it’s for Avid or Premiere, on that partition. Then they get their various working files and start the project, copying over the transcodes they receive. As the project progresses, the artists will get graphics and update the partition size as needed. “It’s so easy to change on our end,” notes Schafer. And once the project is completed, she or another assistant will make sure all the files they would possibly need, dating back to day one of the project, are on the EditShare, and that the client files are on the various hard drives and FTP links.

Reebok

“We’ll LTO the partition on EditShare through Ark onto an LTO-6 tape, and once that is complete, then generally we will take the projects or partition off the EditShare,” Schafer continues. The studio has approximately 26TB of RAID storage but, due to the large size of the projects, cannot retain everything on the EditShare long term. Nevertheless, the studio has a nearline server that hosts its masters and generics, as well as any other file the team might need to send to a client. “We don’t always need to restore. Generally the only time we try to restore is when we need to go back to the actual working files, like the Premiere or Avid project,” she adds.

Uppercut avoids keeping data locally on workstations due to the collaborative workflow.

According to Schafer, the storage setup is easy to use. Recently, Schafer finished a Reebok project she and two editors had been working on. The project initially started in Avid Media Composer, which was preferred by one of the editors. The other editor prefers Premiere but is well-versed on the Avid. After they received the transcodes and all the materials, the two editors started working in tandem using the EditShare. “It was great to use Avid on top of it, having Avid bins to open separately and not having to close out of the project and sharing through a media browser or closing out of entire projects, like you have to do with a Premiere project,” she says. “Avid is nice to work with in situations where we have multiple editors because we can all have the project open at once, as opposed to Premiere projects.”

Later, after the project was finished, the editor who prefers Premiere did a director’s cut in that software. As a result, Schafer had to re-transcode the footage, “which was more complicated because it was shot on 16mm, so it was also digitized and on one large video reel instead of many video files — on top of everything else we were doing,” she notes. She re-transcoded for Premiere and created a Premiere project from scratch, then added more storage on EditShare to make sure the files were all in place and that everything was up to date and working properly. “When we were done, the client had everything; the director had his director’s cut and everything was backed up to our nearline for easy access. Then it was LTO’d through Ark on LTO-6 tapes and taken off EditShare, as well as LTO’d on BRU for the raw and the grade. It is now done, inactive and archived.”

Without question, says Schafer, storage is important in the work she and her colleagues do. “It’s not so much about the storage itself, but the speed of the storage, how easily I’m able to access it, how collaborative it allows me to be with the other people I’m working with. Storage is great when it’s accessible and easy for pretty much anyone to use. It’s not so good when it’s slow or hard to navigate and possibly has tech issues and failures,” Schafer says. “So, when I’m looking for storage, I’m looking for something that is secure, fast and reliable, and most of all, easy to understand, no matter the person’s level of technical expertise.”

Chris Aguilar

Fin Film Company
People can count themselves fortunate when they can mix business with pleasure and integrate their beloved hobby with their work. Such is the case for solo producer/director/editor Chris Aguilar of Fin Film Company in Southern California, which he founded a decade ago. As Aguilar says, he does it all, as does Fin Film, which produces everything from conferences to music videos and commercial/branded content. But his real passion involves outdoor adventure paddle sports, from stand-up paddleboarding to pro paddleboarding.

“That’s been pretty much my niche,” says Aguilar, who got his start doing in-house production (photography, video and so forth) for a paddleboard company. Since then, he has been able to turn his passion and adventures into full-time freelance work. “When someone wants an event video done, especially one involving paddleboard races, I get the phone call and go!”

Like many videographers and editors, Aguilar got his start filming weddings. Always into surfing himself, he would shoot surfing videos of friends “and just have fun with it,” he says of augmenting that work. Eventually, this allowed him to move into areas he is more passionate about, such as surfing events and outdoor sports. Now, Aguilar finds that a lot of his time is spent filming paddleboard events around the globe.

Today, there are many one-person studios with solo producers, directors and editors. And as Aguilar points out, their storage needs might not be on the level of feature filmmakers or even independent TV cinematographers, but that doesn’t negate their need for storage. “I have some pretty wide-ranging storage needs, and it has definitely increased over the years,” he says.

In his work, Aguilar has to avoid cumbersome and heavy equipment, such as Atomos recorders, because of their weight on board the watercraft he uses to film paddleboard events. “I’m usually on a small boat and don’t have a lot of room to haul a bunch of gear around,” he says. Rather, Aguilar uses Panasonic’s AG-CX350 as well as Panasonic’s EVA1 and GH5, and on a typical two-day shoot (the event and interviews), he will fill five to six 64GB cards.

“Because most paddleboard races are long-distance, we’re usually on the water for about five to eight hours,” says Aguilar. “Although I am not rolling cameras the whole time, the weight still adds up pretty quickly.”

As for storage, Aguilar offloads his video onto SSD drives or other kinds of external media. “I call it my ‘working drive for editing and that kind of thing,’” he says. “Once I am done with the edit and other tasks, I have all those source files somewhere.” He calls on the G-Technology G-Drive Mobile SSD 1TB for in the field and some editing and their Ev Raw portable raw drive for back ups and some editing. He also calls on Gylph’s Atom SSD for the field.

For years, that “somewhere” has been a cabinet that was filled with archived files. Indeed, that cabinet is currently holding, in Aguilar’s estimate, 30TB of data, if not more. “That’s just the archives. I have 10 or 11 years of archives sitting there. It’s pretty intense,” he adds. But, as soon as he gets an opportunity, those will be ported to the same cloud backup solution he is using for all his current work.

Yes, he still uses the source cards, but for a typical project involving an end-to-end shoot, Aguilar will use at least a 1TB drive to house all the source cards and all the subsequent work files. “Things have changed. Back in the day, I used hard drives – you should see the cabinet in my office with all these hard drives in it. Thank God for SSDs and other options out there. It’s changed our lives. I can get [some brands of] 1TB SSD for $99 or a little more right now. My workflow has me throwing all the source cards onto something like that that’s dedicated to all those cards, and that becomes my little archive,” explains Aguilar.

He usually uploads the content as fast as possible to keep the data secure. “That’s always the concern, losing it, and that’s where Backblaze comes in,” Aguilar says. Backblaze is a cloud backup solution that is easily deployed across desktops and laptops and managed centrally — a solution Aguilar recently began employing. He also uses Iconik Solutions’ digital management system, which eases the task of looking up video files or pulling archived files from Backblaze. The digital management system sits on top of Backblaze and creates little offline proxies of the larger content, allowing Aguilar to view the entire 10-year archive online in one interface.

According to Aguilar, his archived files are an important aspect of his work. Since he works so many paddleboard events, he often receives requests for clips from specific racers or races, some dating back years. Prior to using Backblaze, if someone requested footage, it was a challenge to locate it because he’d have to pull that particular hard drive and plug it into the computer, “and if I had been organized that year, I’ll know where that piece of content is because I can find it. If I wasn’t organized that year, I’d be in trouble,” he explains. “At best, though, it would be an hour and a half or more of looking around. Now I can locate and send it in 15 minutes.”

Aguilar says the Iconik digital management system allows him to pull up the content on the interface and drill down to the year of the race, click on it, download it and send it off or share it directly through his interface to the person requesting the footage.

Aguilar went live with this new Backblaze and digital management system storage workflow this year and has been fully on board with it for just the past two to three months. He is still uncovering all the available features and the power underneath the hood. “Even for a guy who’s got a technical background, I’m still finding things I didn’t know I could do,” and as such, Aguilar is still fine-tuning his workflow. “The neat thing with Iconik is that it could actually support online editing straight up, and that’s the next phase of my workflow, to accommodate that.”

Fortunately or unfortunately, at this time Aguilar is just starting to come off his busy season, so now he can step back and explore the new system. And transfer onto the new system all the material on the old source cards in that cabinet of his.

“[The new solution] is more efficient and has reduced costs since I am not buying all these drives anymore. I can reuse them now. But mostly, it has given me peace of mind that I know the data is secure,” says Aguilar. “I have been lucky in my career to be present for a lot of cool moments in the sport of paddling. It’s a small community and a very close-knit group. The peace of mind knowing that this history is preserved, well, that’s something I greatly appreciate. And I know my fellow paddlers also appreciate it.”

Karen Moltenbrey is a veteran writer, covering visual effects and post production.

GLOW’s DP and colorist adapt look of new season for Vegas setting

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By Adrian Pennington

Netflix’s Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (GLOW) are back in the ring for a third round of the dramatic comedy, but this time the girls are in Las Vegas. The glitz and glamour of Sin City seems tailor-made for the 1980s-set GLOW and provided the main creative challenge for Season 3 cinematographer Chris Teague (Russian Doll, Broad City).

DP Chris Teague

“Early on, I met with Christian Sprenger, who shot the first season and designed the initial look,” says Teague, who was recently nominated for an Emmy for his work on Russian Doll. “We still want GLOW to feel like GLOW, but the story and character arc of Season 3 and the new setting led us to build on the look and evolve elements like lighting and dynamic range.”

The GLOW team is headlining the Fan-Tan Hotel & Casino, one of two main sets along with a hotel built for the series and featuring the distinctive Vegas skyline as a backdrop.

“We discussed compositing actors against greenscreen, but that would have turned every shot into a VFX shot and would have been too costly, not to mention time-intensive on a TV schedule like ours,” he says. “Plus, working with a backdrop just felt aesthetically right.”

In that vein, production designer Todd Fjelsted built a skyline using miniatures, a creative decision in keeping with the handcrafted look of the show. That decision, though, required extensive testing of lenses, lighting and look prior to shooting. This testing was done in partnership with post house Light Iron.

“There was no overall shift in the look of the show, but together with Light Iron, we felt the baseline LUT needed to be built on, particularly in terms of how we lit the sets,” explains Teague.

“Chris was clear early on that he wanted to build upon the look of the first two seasons,” says Light Iron colorist Ian Vertovec. “We adjusted the LUT to hold a little more color in the highlights than in past seasons. Originally, the LUT was based on a film emulation and adjusted for HDR. In Season 1, we created a period film look and transformed it for HDR to get a hybrid film emulation LUT. For Season 3, for HDR and standard viewing, we made tweaks to the LUT so that some of the colors would pop more.”

The show was also finished in Dolby Vision HDR. “There was some initial concern about working with backdrops and stages in HDR,” Teague says. “We are used to the way film treats color over its exposure range — it tends to desaturate as it gets more overexposed — whereas HDR holds a lot more color information in overexposure. However, Ian showed how it can be a creative tool.”

Colorist Ian Vertovec

“The goal was to get the 1980s buildings in the background and out the hotel windows to look real — emulating marquees with flashing lights,” adds Vertovec. “We also needed it to be a believable Nevada sky and skyline. Skies and clouds look different in HDR. So, when dialing this in, we discussed how they wanted it to look. Did it feel real? Is the sky in this scene too blue? Information from testing informed production, so everything was geared toward these looks.”

“Ian has been on the first two seasons, so he knows the look inside and out and has a great eye,” Teague continues. “It’s nice to come into a room and have his point of view. Sometimes when you are staring at images all day, it’s easy to lose your objectivity, so I relied on Ian’s insight.” Vertovec grades the show on FilmLight’s Baselight.

As with Season 2, GLOW Season 3 was a Red Helium shoot using Red’s IPP2 color pipeline in conjunction with Vertovec’s custom LUTs all the way to post. Teague shot full 8K resolution to accommodate his choice of Cooke anamorphic lenses, desqueezed and finished in a 2:1 ratio.

“For dailies I used an iPad with Moxion, which is perhaps the best dailies viewing platform I’ve ever worked with. I feel like the color is more accurate than other platforms, which is extremely useful for checking out contrast and shadow level. Too many times with dailies you get blacks washed out and highlights blown and you can’t judge anything critical.”

Teague sat in on the grade of the first three of the 10 episodes and then used the app to pull stills and make notes remotely. “With Ian I felt like we were both on the same page. We also had a great DIT [Peter Brunet] who was doing on-set grading for reference and was able to dial in things at a much higher level than I’ve been able to do in the past.”

The most challenging but also rewarding work was shooting the wrestling performances. “We wanted to do something that felt a little bigger, more polished, more theatrical,” Teague says. “The performance space had tiered seating, which gave us challenges and options in terms of moving the cameras. For example, we could use telescoping crane work to reach across the room and draw characters in as they enter the wrestling ring.”

He commends gaffer Eric Sagot for inspiring lighting cues and building them into the performance. “The wrestling scenes were the hardest to shoot but they’re exciting to watch — dynamic, cinematic and deliberately a little hokey in true ‘80s Vegas style.”

Adrian Pennington is a UK-based journalist, editor and commentator in the film and TV production space. He has co-written a book on stereoscopic 3D and edited several publications.

Veteran episodic colorist Scott Klein joins Light Iron

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Colorist Scott Klein has joined post house Light Iron, which has artists working on feature films, episodic series and music videos at its Los Angeles- and New York-based studios. Klein brings with him 40 years of experience supervising a variety of episodic series.

“While Light Iron was historically known for its capabilities with feature films, we have developed an equally strong episodic division, and Scott builds upon our ongoing commitment to providing the talent and technology necessary for supporting all formats and distribution platforms,” says GM Peter Cioni of Light Iron.

Klein’s list of credits include Fox’s Empire, HBO’s Deadwood: The Movie and Showtime’s Ray Donovan. He also collaborated on the series Bosch, True Blood, The Affair, Halt and Catch Fire, Entourage and The Sopranos. Klein is also an associate member of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC). He will be working on Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve.

“I really enjoy the artistic collaboration with filmmakers,” he says. “It is great to be part of a facility with such a pure passion for supporting the creative through technology. Colorists need strong technology that serves as a means to best express the feelings being conveyed in the images and further enhance the moods that draw audiences into a story.”

Also joining Klein are his colleagues and fellow colorists Daniel Yang, Jesús Borrego and Ara Thomassian. They join Light Iron after working together at Warner Bros. and then Technicolor.

In addition to growing its team of artists to support the expanding market and client needs, Light Iron has also expanded its physical footprint with a second Hollywood-based location a short distance from its flagship facility. A full breadth of creative finishing services for feature films and episodic series is available at both locations. Light Iron also has locations in Atlanta, Albuquerque, Chicago and New Orleans.

 

Color Chat: Light Iron’s Sean Dunckley

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Sean Dunckley joined Light Iron New York’s studio in 2013, where he has worked on episodic television and features films. He finds inspiration in many places, but most recently in the photography of Stephen Shore and Greg Stimac. Let’s find out more…

NAME: Sean Dunckley

COMPANY: LA- and NYC-based Light Iron

CAN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR COMPANY?
Light Iron is a Panavision company that offers end-to-end creative and technical post solutions. I color things there.

AS A COLORIST, WHAT WOULD SURPRISE PEOPLE THE MOST ABOUT WHAT FALLS UNDER THAT TITLE?
I like to get involved early in the process. Some of the most rewarding projects are those where I get to work with the cinematographer from pre-production all the way through to the final DCP.

Ongoing advances in technology have really put the spotlight on the holistic workflow. As part of the Panavision ecosystem, we can offer solutions from start to finish, and that further strengthens the collaboration in the DI suite. We can help a production with camera and lens choices, oversee dailies and then bring all that knowledge into the final grade.

Recently, I had a client who was worried about the speed of his anamorphics at night. The cinematographer was much more comfortable shooting the faster spherical lenses, but the film and story called for the anamorphic look. In pre-production, I was able to show him how we can add some attributes of anamorphic lenses in post. That project ended up shooting a mix of anamorphic and spherical, delivering on both the practical and artistic needs.

Hulu’s Fyre Fraud doc.

WHAT SYSTEM DO YOU WORK ON?
Filmlight’s Baselight. Its color management tools offer with strong paint capabilities, and the Blackboard 2 panel is very user-friendly.

ARE YOU SOMETIMES ASKED TO DO MORE THAN JUST COLOR ON PROJECTS?
Now that DI systems have expanded their tools, I can integrate last-minute fixes during the DI sessions without having to stop and export a shot to another application. Baselight’s paint tools are very strong and have allowed me to easily solve many client issues in the room. Many times, this has saved valuable time against strict deadlines.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE PART OF THE JOB?
That’s easy. It is the first day of a new project. It feels like an artistic release when I am working with filmmakers to create style frames. I like to begin the process by discussing the goals of color with the film’s creative team.

I try to get their take on how color can best serve the story. After we talk, we play for a little while. I demonstrate the looks that have been inspired by their words and then form a color palette for the project. During this time, it is just as important to learn what the client doesn’t like as much as what they do like.

WHAT’S YOUR LEAST FAVORITE?
I think the hours can be tough at times. The deadlines we face often battle with the perfectionist in me.

IF YOU DIDN’T HAVE THIS JOB, WHAT WOULD YOU BE DOING INSTEAD?
Architecture is a field I would have loved to explore. It’s very similar, as it is equal parts technical and creative.

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THIS PROFESSION?
I had always been interested in post. I used to cut skateboard videos with friends in high school. In film school, I pursued more of an editing route. After graduation, I got a job at a post house and quickly realized I wanted to deviate and dive into color.

Late Night with Emma Thompson. Photo by Emily Aragones

CAN YOU NAME SOME RECENT PROJECTS YOU HAVE WORKED ON?
Recent film titles I worked on include Late Night and Brittany Runs a Marathon, both of which got picked up at Sundance by Amazon.

Other recent projects include Amazon Studio’s Life Itself, and the Fyre Fraud documentary on Hulu. Currently, I am working on multiple episodic series for different OTT studios.

The separation that used to exist between feature films, documentaries and episodics has diminished. Many of my clients are bouncing between all types of projects and aren’t contained to a single medium.

It’s a unique time to be able to color a variety of productions. Being innovative and flexible is the name of the game here at Light Iron, and we’ve always been encouraged to follow the client and not the format.

WHAT IS THE PROJECT THAT YOU ARE MOST PROUD OF?
It’s impossible to pick a single project. They are all my children!

WHERE DO YOU FIND INSPIRATION?
I go through phases but right now it’s mostly banal photography. Stephen Shore and Greg Stimac are two of my favorite artists. Finding beauty in the mundane has a lot to do with the shape of light, which is very inspiring to me as a colorist.

NAME THREE PIECES OF TECHNOLOGY YOU CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT.
I need my iPhone, Baselight and, of course, my golf course range finder.

WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS DO YOU FOLLOW?
I follow Instagram for visuals, and I keep up with Twitter for my sports news and scores.

WHAT DO YOU DO TO DE-STRESS FROM IT ALL?
I have young children, so they make sure I leave those stresses back at the office, or at least until they go to bed. I also try to sneak in some golf whenever I can.

Senior colorist Nicholas Hasson joins Light Iron’s LA team

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Post house Light Iron has added senior colorist Nicholas Hasson to its roster. He will be based in the company’s Los Angeles studio.

Hasson colored the upcoming Tiffany Haddish feature Nobody’s Fool and Season 2 of HBO’s Room 104. Additional past credits include Boo 2! A Madea Halloween, Masterminds, All About Nina and commercial campaigns for Apple, Samsung and Google. He worked most recently at Technicolor, but his long career has included time at ILM, Company 3 and Modern VideoFilm.

“Nicholas has a wealth of experience that makes him a great fit with our team,” says Light Iron GM Peter Cioni. “His background in color, online and VFX ensures success in meeting clients’ creative objectives and enables flexibility in working across both episodic and feature projects.”

Like Lightiron’s other LA-based colorists, led by Ian Vertovec, Hasson is able to support cinematographers working in other regions through virtual DI sessions in Panavision’s network of connected facilities. (Light Iron is a Panavision company.)

Hasson joins Light Iron during a time of high-profile streaming releases including Netflix’s Maniac and Facebook’s Sorry For Your Loss, as well as feature releases garnering awards buzz, such as Can You Ever Forgive Me? and What They Had.

“This is a significant time of growth for Panavision’s post production creative services,” concludes Cioni. “We are thrilled to have Nicholas with us as we enter this next chapter of expansion.”

Panavision, Sim, Saban Capital agree to merge

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Saban Capital Acquisition Corp., a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, Panavision and Sim Video International have agreed to combine their businesses to create a premier global provider of end-to-end production and post production services to the entertainment industry. Under the terms of the business combination agreement, Panavision and Sim will become wholly owned subsidiaries of Saban Capital Acquisition Corp. Upon completion, Saban Capital Acquisition Corp. will change its name to Panavision Holdings Inc. and is expected to continue to trade on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Kim Snyder, president and chief executive officer of Panavision, will serve as chairman and chief executive officer. Bill Roberts, chief financial officer of Panavision, will serve in that role for the combined company.

Panavision designs, manufactures and provides high-precision optics and camera technology for the entertainment industry and is a leading global provider of production equipment and services. Sim is a leading provider of production and post production solutions with facilities in Los Angeles, Vancouver, Atlanta, New York and Toronto.

“This acquisition will leverage the best of Panavision’s and Sim’s resources by providing comprehensive products and services to best address the ever-adapting needs of content creators globally,” says Snyder.

“We’re combining the talent and integrated services of Sim with two of the biggest names in the business, Panavision and Saban,” adds James Haggarty, president and CEO of Sim. “The resulting scale of the new combined enterprise will better serve our clients and help shape the content-creation landscape.”

The respective boards of directors of Saban Capital Acquisition Corp., Panavision and Sim have unanimously approved the merger with completion subject to Saban Capital Acquisition Corp. stockholder approval, certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. The parties expect that the process will be completed in the first quarter of 2019.