Page 10 - Fujifilm Exposure_24 Stephen Fry_ok

TAKING THE
DIGITAL ROUTE Digital Film Lab has become one of Europe’s
W
ith facilities in both Copenhagen and London, DFL have successfully com- pleted over 38 films, numerous commer- cials, shorts and
restoration projects. The films include the award winning features, Bloody Sunday (Berlin 2001) and The Magdalene Sisters (Venice 2002), and
shorts, About A Girl (BAFTA 2001) and I Have A Dream (Black Filmmaker Festival 2002).
Commenting on the winning for- mula that has made the company pop- ular within the film community both in the UK and abroad, Kris Kolodzjejski, DFL’s chief executive officer, said: “The key to success is more than just providing our clients with high quality 2K film outputs, HD and TV resolution deliverables.
“A first rate service as well as value for money is essential in keeping our clients happy. Our reputation for
technical excellence and creative solu- tions has grown, through the word of mouth from clients whose experience of DFL has been good.
“This is quite an achievement con- sidering that our London branch opened as little as two years ago and also proves that clients still enjoy a boutique facility with a professional service.”
One such client is busy producer, Margaret Matheson, who has chosen to
use DFL for her last three feature films - Revengers Tragedy (directed by Alex Cox), the BAFTA-nominated AKA (Duncan Roy) and her latest, American Cousins, directed in Glasgow by Don Coutts.
Matheson explained: “Before pre- production began we had already begun filming some tests using Fuji film for a digital blow up on American Cousins.
“As this was a low budget film, we compared 16mm to 35mm and having seen the excellent quality of S16mm blown up to 35mm via a digital inter- mediate negative, we decided to origi- nate the film on S16mm.
“The cinematographer, Jerry Kelly, was delighted with the range of grad- ing possibilities, particularly given the fact that we had filmed exteriors in Scotland during appalling weather.”
Coutts agreed: “American Cousins was filmed in a very wet Glasgow during January and February last year. A small budget ensured that we had to hammer through the sched- ule sometimes filming more than
twenty set-ups a day. This coupled with budgetry and a philosophical desire to incur as little over time as possible, the digital route became even more attractive.”
The complete post production was carried out in Denmark. Both the director and DP flew into Copenhagen to join colourist, Jørgen Christiansen.
“We began the session by viewing the off-line tape”, Christiansen said. “We discussed the colour, contrast and the mood in every scene to try and establish the ‘look’ they wanted. We then carried out a pre-grade on
Spirit from the over-cut negative on as many different scenes as possible.
“Overall the film required a fairly rich look, however in some scenes we de-saturated the skin tones slightly. In one particular shot the clients wanted a more dramatic feel, so we de-saturat- ed the pictures, added contrast and an overall green hue.
“Then on another shot we lifted the highlights and added a lot more
yellow. The exposures on the day exteriors constantly changed due to the weather condi- tions, but thanks to Jerry’s cinematography and his choice of film stocks, we were able to match each scene by scene.
“This was the first Scottish feature film I
have worked on and we had a lot of fun during the grade. Don and Jerry were a pleasure to work alongside.”
Kelly shot on S16mm, using a range of Fuji film stocks to suit the conditions of the shoot: 64D, 250D, 125 and 500 ASA. Said Kelly: “We used a slow stock, F64D for daylight exteriors and interiors, because after discussions with the colourist and then having tested the stock, I knew I would end up with a better result for the blow up.
“We were also given a roll of 500D for testing and on reflection I would
leading Digital Intermediate facilities for data feature film post production. DFL’s Zahida Bacchus takes us behind the scenes
8 • Exposure • Fuji Motion Picture And Professional Video