Nu Boyana Post Production deployed Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve Studio pipeline to complete picture post on Martin Campbell’s new thriller, The Protégé.
The film, which stars Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Keaton and Maggie Q, tells the story of two world class assassins who share a mysterious past. It rejoins the story when Anna’s (Maggie Q) mentor Moody (Jackson) is murdered. She and Rembrandt (Keaton) must form an uneasy alliance and return to Vietnam to track down his killer.
With cinematography by David Tattersall BSC (The Green Mile), Vanessa Taylor delivered the grade.
“It was fantastic to work with Martin and David, both creatives at the top of their game.” said Vanessa Taylor. “They were both on the same page in what they wanted so the grade was easy in that respect.”
According to Taylor, a key focus was guiding the audience through the story, focusing them on specific aspects crucial to plot development. “Your eye will always be drawn to the brightest part of any picture, by darkening or brightening areas, we led the audience through the narrative.”
“We gave a lot of attention to a motorbike scene featuring Maggie Q and Patrick. In the sequence camera angles are shot both forwards and backwards, capturing various color temperatures on the sensor. David and I worked closely on the balancing of this scene. We used a combination of primary and curve tools to achieve a match.”
One scene in particular which presented a challenge had a jungle monastery setting, said Taylor, “We needed to balance the greens out to remove spill reflecting on Maggie Q’s face.
“As soon as I pushed the primary temperature warmer, her lipstick pinged out. This can happen with some lipsticks that contain fluorescent pigments. The digital cameras pick them up, making the lips appear too luminous. I had to key her lips and alter the color of her lipstick to make the correction.”
One feature in particular that Taylor likes about using DaVinci Resolve is the LUT previews. “With the new color managed workflows in Resolve, we’re using LMTs a lot, which is a look file. So, the ability to roll over a clip and load it onto the image you are looking at as a preview is very handy.”
Taylor concluded, “A colorist’s role is primarily to enhance. The more you try to push an image from its natural starting point the more digital the result. What we do is complementary. It’s the most beautiful images that are the easiest to grade.”
The Protégé was released this past weekend.
Apple’s “Fuzzy Feelings” Wins Primetime Commercial Emmy Award
Apple’s “Fuzzy Feelings” won the primetime commercial Emmy this evening (9/7) during the first of two Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremonies being held this weekend in the Peacock Theater at LA Live. The yuletide film out of TBWAMedia Arts Lab was directed by Lucia Aniello via Hungry Man in tandem with stop-motion animator Anna Mantzaris of Passion Pictures.
“Fuzzy Feelings” introduces us to an office worker by day and stop-motion artist by night. As an employee, she works for a boss whom she’s grown to hate. So at night, her stop-motion creations put him in dire straits. The young woman makes her stop-motion fare by deploying the iPhone 15 Pro camera and a MacBook Air with M2 to edit it. However, when the woman's day job takes a turn and she starts to see her boss in another light, so too do her stop-motion endeavors as we see the value of working towards a kinder world, and what better time to start than during the holiday season?
Director Aniello is no stranger to the Emmy proceedings. As creator of the HBO Max series Hacks, she has won two Emmys (writing and directing) as well as a DGA Award. This year she is nominated for three more Emmys on the strength of Hacks--Outstanding Comedy Series as well as writing and directing for a comedy series.
This marks the second straight year that an Apple film has won the coveted primetime commercial Emmy. Back in January 2024, Apple’s “The Greatest,” directed by Kim Gehrig of Somesuch, came away with the Emmy.
This time around, “Fuzzy Feelings” topped a field of nominated commercials consisting of: Apple’s “Album Cover” from Apple’s in-house creatives and directed by David Shane of O Positive; Uber One | Uber Eats’ “Best Friends,” also... Read More