Blackmagic Design has announced that Jason R Moffat’s boutique color grading studio used Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve color correction system to finish ‘Phone Swap’, a comedy feature film by acclaimed Nigerian director Kunle Afolayan.
A rising star in the Nigerian, or Nollywood, film industry, Afolayan wanted his latest film to challenge the poor image quality often associated with the Nigerian film industry. The project brief for London based Jason Moffat was simple. To create a beautiful, high quality picture that would not look out of place in western cinema.
“The grading schedule on ‘Phone Swap’ was quite intense,” according to colorist Jason Moffat. “I was limited to a couple of remote sessions and two face to face four day sessions while the director was in London. This type of schedule is where DaVinci Resolve really comes into its own.”
“With Resolve’s performance, I was able to use multiple LUTs to allow me to mix linear and LOG footage, without any pre processing,” said Moffat.
“The use of custom LUTs based on film stock helped to give the picture a more filmic colorimetry, and the ability to control shadow and highlight roll off more efficiently.”
He continued: “Using multiple tracks also allowed us to preview variations on VFX passes while adding scanned 35mm grain made it possible to create a more gritty feel that we needed on some scenes. The use of an alpha selection on the grain, which was overlaid on the shot footage, allowed me to control how much grain was present at any one time, all in real time, with sound, which is very impressive. The performance afforded by DaVinci Resolve meant we were able to achieve a very high finish with the material in a short space of time, which means everything in schedules of this kind.”
Thanks to DaVinci Resolve Moffat was able to use a DPX to DPX workflow, allowing him to grade the same files the visual effects team was working from. The collaborative approach meant he was able to eliminate many of the QuickTime gamma issues that can so often plague a colorist’s day. Once the grade was complete, DPX and QuickTime streams were rendered for mastering.
