copy written for Blackmagic and published at British Cinematographer
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Following the witcher Geralt, a mutated monster
hunter who struggles to find his place in a world in which people often prove
more wicked than beasts. Convinced Yennefer’s life was lost at the Battle of
Sodden, Geralt of Rivia brings Princess Cirilla to the safest place he knows,
his childhood home of Kaer Morhen.
While the Continent’s kings, elves, humans and
demons strive for supremacy outside its walls, he must protect the girl from
something far more dangerous: the mysterious power she possesses inside.
“The Witcher is a story that takes us
into extremes of contrast and colour,” begins Goldcrest Post colourist Jet
Omoshebi. “That’s why the show’s DPs decided to test a variety of camera
systems and lenses to find something that could tackle all of the dynamics of
the story.” In post, season two has relied on a DaVinci Resolve workflow for
picture post. Cinelab Film & Digital provided digital imaging services with
Goldcrest Post completing the conform, digital intermediate (DI) and
finishing.
“COVID restrictions meant we needed to work as remotely as possible,” explains Mardon de Carvalho, who served as the main unit DIT for digital dailies facility Cinelab. “We opted for a workflow using DaVinci Resolve so we could efficiently provide the lab with the dailies colour project. Resolve allowed us to continue collaborating as needed, sharing grades, stills and projects easily between myself and our data manager/dailies colourist, as well as the lab.”
In prep for the shoot, Lacourbas worked with
Cinelab to select the correct format and tune the look. The first season was
shot on the Panavision DXL2 but Lacourbas and Hissrich wanted to make a
change for season two. Tests with the Alexa LF and Sony Venice were reviewed by
Omoshebi with a particular focus on how both cameras reacted when reviewing in
HDR.
Lacourbas settled on the Alexa Mini LF in open gate
mode 4448 x 3096, framed for 2:00.1. The cameras recorded ArriRaw which the
Cinelab dailies team offloaded as ArriRaw HDE (.arx) to take advantage of the
reduced data footprint. More than 421 hours of dailies totaling 338TBs were
processed.
Cinelab also worked with Omoshebi to create the
look. They followed an ACES colour pipeline and used two look modification
transforms (LMTs) – one for day, another for night – throughout the shoot in a set-to-post
workflow followed by the series other DPs Jean Philippe Gossart AFC (episodes 3
and 4) and Terry Stacy ASC (episodes six and seven).
“The initial look was set onset between the DP and
DIT before being sent to the near set data manager to
balance the colour,” explains Callis-Smith. “The projects were then sent to the
dailies team.”
He commends the power of the colour trace function
for moving colour information between the dailies colourist and the dailies
team. “Especially if they are working in separate locations and don’t have the
ability to work collaboratively over a shared project or database.”
DaVinci Resolve’s integration of ACES also made the
colour management process incredibly easy. “Its ability to automatically detect
raw formats and apply the correct IDT made the process of moving the colour
between set and the dailies lab seamless,” says Callis-Smith. “In order to
track which LMT was used, the dailies team had to manually input the
information into a metadata field which was then exported along with the CDLs
into the Avid bins to be tracked throughout the rest of post.”
While Valentina Rutigliano onlined the series in
DaVinci Resolve at Goldcrest, Omoshebi graded in DolbyVision from extracted 4K
EXR files in ACEScct.
“The key challenges for me, as always, was to glue
to the various components together, make the VFX sit in seamlessly and follow
the subtler emotional beats of the story,” reveals Omoshebi. “The story is very
fast moving with many different locations to consider and it was important to
enhance and contrast these different worlds.
Adding: “A percentage of the scenes are built sets,
so grading helped to keep these looking used and lived in. With three different
but complimentary DP’s working in blocks meant having to keep an eye on
continuity for an overall cohesive look.”
“Grading at 4K calls for things to be very
precise,” says Omoshebi. “Without Resolve’s tracking I’d be lost! There is a
fair amount of close roto work to do. We wanted to make the most of the HDR
grade and push it where we thought necessary. However good the SDR translation
is, there are optimal levels for highlights and shadows to get the best
analysis and the implementation of version four DolbyVision tools in Resolve
were very handy.”
“In all episodic grading having quick access to all
the stills from previous episodes is essential. I use the Powergrade Album
stills and the LightBox in almost constantly and any reoccurring settings could
be stored and referenced quickly. We also use Powergrade Albums for
communicating as a dept and grades, mattes and online fixes could be stored and
accessed by the whole team.”
Given the ambition of the show, there was a very
tight schedule.
“Although the time allowed for grading was generous
in UK drama terms, it was still a very tight schedule for the amount of shots
and the high ambition of the show,” explains Omoshebi. “There was a lot of
problem solving as with any high concept show and so any added value I could
supply in the grade such as lens blurs, flares and lighting effects were always
welcome.”
“There are so many great moments in the series but
I love when we escape to other dimensions and the grade can really be pushed
out of reality. No spoilers but look out for some very
apocalyptic horsemen,” concludes Omoshebi.
The Witcher season
two is currently streaming on Netflix and was shot by Romain
Lacourbas ASC, AFC for show runner Lauren Schmidt Hissrichon.
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