Film productions

Of course, the equipment itself does not guarantee perfect results, but it can make it much easier to achieve them. Currently at disposal are: Sony a7SIII and Sony A7IV cameras with Irix Cine and Tamron lenses and the Tilta Nucleus Nano follow focus system, fixed light lamp sets with modifiers, DJI Ronin RS2 gimbal, Manfrotto video tripods, Atomos Shinobi and Portkeys preview monitors, Zoom H6 audio recorder, Rode and Sennheiser microphones with wireless transmission kits, and the DJI Mavic 3 Classic drone. In addition, there is always an X-Rite ColorChecker Passport Video color chart on the set for accurate color reproduction.

The vast majority of projects are unique and require an individual approach, depending on expectations and budget. The shooting set can therefore take place at the client’s, outdoors or in a rented studio with the participation of actors and under the care of a make-up artist. The equipment presented above allows for a lot, but sometimes it also needs to be supplemented with additional elements, such as a camera crane or other lighting units. Finally the crew; sometimes I work alone, but most of the time we work as a small team, so we can achieve better results.

The postproduction process is fully conducted in DaVinci Resolve Studio software, of which I am Certified End User in versions 15 and 16, as well as Certified Trainer since 17 (Introduction to DaVinci Resolve, Color Grading and Fusion Effects). The work with video clips, as opposed to the photography, is much more complex and basically consist of two stages; editing and color grading.

A film, no matter of what genre or lenght, must have a screenplay. It is a sort of a plan, an idea of a whole, enabling shots and scenes to flow one by another affecting viewers imagination and forwarding the aimed message. Good screenplay is a must, making shooting and editing much more easy. Another important element of editing is sound design. It imposes the rhythm and creates appropriate mood. The selection of the right track/s might be very time consuming, therefore since a long time I find Sounstripe service very valuable in this matter, what I describe wider on the blog. So, editing basing on the screenplay and music is a sort of a play with puting and moving clips on the timeline, trimming, changing their order, etc. In addition there are other aspects like graphics, animations, titles, sound effects and balancing the whole soundtrack. And that’s all.

The second mentioned stage is color grading. The picture coming straight out of the camera is usually recorded in so called log, one of the flat color profiles (for instance S-Log3) and, let’s be honest, does not look interesting. You can notice that on the below still;  colors are washed out, everything seems to be too bright. It it a result both of these profiles own characteristic, and applied ETTR method, basing on raising the exposure, but not everexposing, to reach camera maximal tonal range. So first this picture must be color managed; I prefer a transformation and work in DaVinci Wide Gamut / Intermediate on the timeline and another transformation at the end to the final color space, such as Rec 709. Then the primary color correction can be applied, like exposure, contrast, color balance, sometimes noise reduction, but preserving correct skin tones and/or colors of the product in case of commercial. In the next stage the work is focused more locally, smaller parts of the image can be corrected to achieve certain effects, such as for instance shaping of the viewers focus. The final part refers changes in tonality, adding effect like grain or hallation, all of it to receive the aimed character of the overall image. Let’s notice the difference between commercials, which except beeing strongly saturated usually have neutral white balance, so white shirt stays white, while feature films often create little unreal world, which… we like that much!

Dealing with colors requires regularly calibrated monitors, and in film postproduction especially you need even two or three of them. In the studio, the choice fell on the BenQ brand. Model SW271 is connected via a special Blackmagic Design Decklink Mini Monitor 4K card and calibrated as a reference monitor for full screen view, whereas the remaining PD 2700U and PD2500Q are used for displaying the user interface and so called scopes in the color tab. In addition the process efficiency is supported by Wacom Intuos Pro M graphical tablet, Loupedeck Live console and Blackmagic Design Micro Panel.

Below there is a still comparing versions before (S-Log3) and after postproduction.

Kindly envite you to look through the portfolio and contact me for individual offer!