Barbie, The Hunger Games, Napoleon and Dune They not only have in common the fact that they are among the most famous films on the planet. All of them have passed through the hands of the professional colorists of Company 3. This company is responsible for the post-production of 80% of Hollywood series and films, according to Stefan Sonnenfeld, founder and CEO of the company, who has worked on creations of the caliber of Top Gun: Maverick, The White Lotus and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
EL PAÍS has visited the facilities of a Company 3 post-production studio in Los Angeles. In one of its rooms there is Siggy Ferstla colorist who has worked on series such as Narcos, The Boys and Gene V and in hundreds of advertisements for Nike, Mercedes Benz, Cadillac and other companies. While editing a scene Gene V He explains that he and other colorists directly receive the material from the films and series recorded with the original cameras. “Most of the time they shoot raw and then we edit and adapt it,” he says.
Sometimes they simply enhance what was originally filmed by changing the saturation and contrast. But if the director doesn't like what was filmed or wants to change it, they can “color it and use visual effects.” “If it is a simple drama and you are only looking for a balance between scenes, the work can take 80 hours. But if you want a visual effects show, it can take 500″, says the expert.
To a non-technical person, it looks like the colorists use some kind of advanced Photoshop for film. In addition to changing lighting and colors, they can go much further: blur the background to enhance a part of the image, remove skin blemishes or blemishes, simulate the movement of a ship, or convert original camera footage into a scary and intimidating scene. For the latter, “sometimes it is enough to make it darker and desaturate some colors like blue.”
The weather is an important factor to take into account when planning a shoot. “When you shoot a scene filmed outside for a week, the weather conditions can vary from time to time. One day it may be sunny and another day it may be cloudy. If we simply put everything that was filmed together, the lighting would be discordant,” says Ferstl. One of his jobs is to match it so that it is coherent. Sometimes you are asked to simulate weather conditions. For example, to recreate a storm, he uses a flickering animation reminiscent of lightning.
Although a priori It may be thought that the colorist's job consists solely of perfecting the image, sometimes he or she seeks the opposite: to degrade or dirty it. “Cameras are becoming sharper and cleaner, so now a large part of the creative process can consist of hiding details because we have too much information captured,” he says. Cody Bakera colorist who has worked on such popular series as Space Force, Dopesick, Star Trek: Picard and Euphoria. Sometimes they cause a kind of analog damage to the image, like an old VHS or black and white television, simulate that the scene has been recorded with a security camera, or add lens flares.
Some changes would leave more than one speechless. In a matter of seconds, Baker works magic. He transforms a scene recorded on the street in broad daylight into a night scene with little light projected by streetlights and the lights of a car. “Although it can be done, it is more believable when you film it at night because you can control all the shadows in real time and achieve a more realistic result,” he says.
Seeing the colorists at this studio in action is a delight. It seems like they can transform any scene into whatever they want. Ferstl toys with a scene in which a boy is sent spinning into the sky. “It's a visual effect. In reality, a crane was lifting it with cables that have been removed from the image,” he explains. He has created a mask for the sky and it is now completely cloudy or cloudless and a striking blue.
On each project, Baker works hand-in-hand with the director of photography and the film's director. For him, the most challenging thing from a color perspective is “when they ask you to transform it into something that it is not”: “There is a limit to what you can do with an image. If pushed too hard, it falls apart. It's like she wasn't meant to look that way.” For him, the most beautiful projects are those that are projected and filmed from the beginning with a focus on color. This involves production design and film direction. “If the scenes are captured beautifully, then we will make them a little more beautiful,” he says.
What do people see in their homes?
In the rooms where both colorists work, there are several screens. One of the monitors is from Panasonic, a company that has invited EL PAÍS to visit Company 3, in Los Angeles. “We also have professional monitors for up to $40,000,” says Sonnenfeld, who is dressed in sneakers, high socks and a gray tracksuit. He speaks with closeness and seems like a modern CEO. As a colorist and business owner, he states that he has always felt frustrated because they have spent a lot of money on technical infrastructure, but until a few years ago they did not have consumer equipment.
Now they work with Panasonic monitors: “Obviously, they are much cheaper, but at the same time they have very accurate colors and allow us to know what most people are going to see at home.” Toshiya Mizuno, Panasonic's chief image quality engineer, says the Japanese company has worked for years to improve image quality so its televisions are used by Hollywood studios and post-production companies.
In Company 3, each room has between two and four monitors of different sizes. Mike Chiado, CTO of the company, states that although these are different technologies, “they allow you to measure anything and reproduce the same values on a standard television as on a giant screen worth thousands of dollars.” Still, he points out that in the real world not all people see colors the same way. For him, this is where the work of professional colorists who take this into account and have experience, sensitivity and, above all, photographic memory is essential.
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