Technicolor: Creative Flexibility
4/26/2009
The magical experience of cinema is a facet of almost every modern culture in the world. The power of cinema is beyond dispute. Viewers share a reality based in image, words and sound that naturally mesh into an artistic whole. This is precisely what motion picture director’s aim for – while doing their best to mask the underlying creative processes so that audiences experience story and performance -- not craft and process.
Yet behind the glamorous facade of the film industry, there is a little known set of activities and people residing in the shadows: the creative services providers, like Technicolor, that pave the way for cinematic artistic expression, with tools and services that facilitate every step of the way, from idea to screen.
With the current industry trend in cost-cutting, and tight capital markets on the one side, and an ever-increasing demand for a distinctive visual presentation on the other, companies like Technicolor face the challenge and opportunity to provide tools and processes that help filmmakers raise the creative bar while at the same time helping them lower cost and grow their audiences.
The Challenge: Increased Financial and Creative Constraints
Filmmakers today want to take advantage of the most sophisticated new techniques and technologies to break existing barriers to creativity while continuing to deliver a constant stream of distinctive entertainment to audiences worldwide. At the same time, they face increasingly tough requirements in terms of budgets and production schedules. They need a reliable and flexible service provider to accompany them at every stage of film production through distribution, helping to manage the sometimes unusual scenarios they face in bringing their creative expressions to cinemas around the world.
The Answer: A Loyal and Flexible Partner – Strategically Located
For nearly 100 years, Technicolor has contributed key inventions to the motion picture industry, from the development of its famous two-color and three-strip color processes, to the development of DVD manufacturing and distribution to create a new mass medium, to the creation of DP Lights which enables filmmakers to color-correct in real-time and in familiar and consistent ways, and to its ongoing work in color science.
Technicolor’s worldwide offering is above all the result of close and repeated collaborations with many of the industry’s most celebrated artists – be they directors, producers, cinematographers, editors and post-production supervisors. Each new project brings a new set of challenges married to a need for flexibility on the part of Technicolor to understand and accommodate the specific creative demands of each new artistic endeavor.
Focus on The Reader: Maintaining the Project’s Integrity
The Challenge:
For The Reader, The Weinstein Company brought aboard British director Stephen Daldry – a director known for his sensitive handling of tough literary material. The production would be photographed in Germany, essentially on the same streets depicted in the film’s story, over the course of multiple decades through the lives of the film’s protagonists. Post-production, however, would take place in London, Daldry’s base of operations, and also the home of cinematographer Chris Menges, BSC – one of the British cinema’s most celebrated director’s of photography. Further complicating the post-production phase of the film was the decision to finish the film’s color-grading in New York in the capable hands of Technicolor’s Tim Stipan – a rising star in motion picture digital intermediates.
The Solution:
Thanks to state-of-the-art networking of digital and photo-chemical processing operations around the world, Technicolor was able to offer the production an elegant set of options meeting their specific requirements. Daldry and Menges were never required to get on a plane during the last stages of post-production because Technicolor was able to create a scenario whereby the filmmakers could work from London using the company’s real-time resources simultaneously in London and New York where digital colorist Stipan handled digital intermediate color-grading -- with the same calibrated viewing systems on different continents. The service offering saved the production time and the wear and tear of travel – while maintaining the same uniform, best-in-class color-timing and display.
Focus on Che: The Argentine & Che: Guerilla
The Challenge:
Director Steven Soderbergh had long sought to bring to life a filmed biography of celebrated life and death of revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara. The story line would follow Guevara’s life from the Cuban revolution of the 1950s through his exile and ultimate death in the jungles of Bolivia. The funding for what became two films, shot simultaneously, came from European sources – principally from Spain and France – and required that the production be based in Madrid.
Soderbergh also embraced a new technology, the Red ONE digital camera, a new and essentially untested system for major theatrical release that dictated a very sensitive and sophisticated approach to production and post-production.
The films were always imagined to be exhibited in cinemas around the world - projected through a combination of digital and celluloid venues to take advantage of the tremendous interest in the films' inherent subject matter.
Lastly, because of the controversial nature of the subject matter, and the fact that the films were to be produced completely independently with no Hollywood studio backing, budget quickly became a major issue that the filmmakers needed to successfully address.
The Solution:
Getting Technicolor involved early in the pre-production process was a key decision made by Soderbergh and his post-production supervisor, Larry Blake. Technicolor color-science was an important component the filmmakers came to rely on – both on location in multiple spots around the world, as well as in Soderbergh’s base of operations in New York City.
No less than 11 Technicolor facilities around the world touched the project in the course of production, post-production and distribution of the films. Only Technicolor could deliver a consistent set of standards related to color and display calibration; color-grading and film-out; mastering and printing as the films were initially finished for the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, and subsequent world film festivals including Toronto and New York. The Cannes deadline dictated that there could be no last minute issues cropping up to slow down delivery. Technicolor delivered on its promise – and subsequently was rewarded with Soderbergh’s next two features: The Girlfriend Experience, and The Informant.
Focus on Passchendaele: A Canadian Success Story
The Challenge:
Unfolding the vision and experience of the Canadian military during the First World War, the film’s director, Paul Gross, needed multiple Canadian-based facilities across Canada and an up-scale visual effects company to render the historical background and to handle the film’s battle scenes. The challenge was to find an all-in-one service supplier that could provide the visual quality needed without adding complexity to the production both geographically and financially.
The Solution:
Technicolor’s facilities in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver joined forces to manage the creative needs of the award-winning theatrical feature Passchendaele. Technicolor’s visual effects facility in Vancouver handled the VFX chores, while Technicolor’s lab and post-production facility in Toronto handled the laboratory, dailies and sound services. The film was printed at Technicolor’s famed Mirabel release-printing lab north of Montreal.
Why Technicolor:
Motion picture production and exhibition are global opportunities – both in terms of artistic creation and an ever-expanding market for the cinematic experience. While at the same time, the creative process is challenged by ever-tighter windows for completion, constrained budgets and increasing demands on creative answers to maximize the processes of creative expression.
No other provider in the media and entertainment industry can supply Technicolor’s strategically located service offering, artistic and technical expertise, color-science and commitment to excellence. Let us help you make your next project a success – from Hollywood to Bangkok, from London to Beijing, from Rome to New York and more, we’re here for you.