Fremont, CA – June 02, 2014 – Blackmagic Design today announced that DaVinci Resolve was used by EC3 dailies colorist Adrian DeLude for near set dailies grading on the Twentieth Century Fox blockbuster “X-Men: Days of Future Past.” EC3, part of Deluxe Entertainment Services Group’s near set dailies offering, harnesses the technology and personnel of post houses EFILM and Company 3 to create custom configured dailies solutions for feature films.
In the film, directed by Bryan Singer and shot by Newton Thomas Sigel, ASC, characters from the original “X-Men” film trilogy join forces with their younger selves from “X-Men: First Class” in an epic battle that must change the past to save the future. During the production, DeLude worked closely with Sigel out of one of EC3’s trailers, a near set mobile grading theater outfitted with a complete projection room and full set of color grading tools. For “Days of Future Past,” DaVinci Resolve was chosen for use in the trailer, where Sigel and DeLude created an elaborate dailies grade involving complex keys and secondary corrections.
“It’s very rare to do so many secondaries in dailies,” DeLude explained. “We did it so close to the set that Tom [Sigel] could walk over and supervise at lunch and after wrap. And we did a lot of it in 3D!”
Sigel, who has always pushed the boundaries of photochemical and digital technology in his work, was eager to experiment with his ideas for “looks” during dailies creation, and DeLude used DaVinci Resolve to help him do so. “Tom likes to play with and push the image as far as he can to help communicate his ideas, define his concept and help get a director used to a look, knowing that he could tone it down in the DI,” Delude recalled.
“Tom has a really strong knowledge of what can be done in DaVinci Resolve. He understands what the capabilities are,” Delude added. “It was a lot of in depth grading, and I had about 11 nodes per shot. It was like a full DI every day.”
Colorist Stephen Nakamura, who has done the DI grade on almost every feature Sigel completed digitally, also used DaVinci Resolve for the final DI grade of the film at Deluxe’s Company 3 facility in Santa Monica. While Sigel considerably re worked many of the color concepts he built with DeLude, Nakamura noted that it was very beneficial for Sigel to have been able to experiment so extensively in the dailies.
According to Nakamura: “The dailies were a great guide for us, and I think his work with Adrian really helped Tom develop his ideas so that by the time we got to the DI theater, the process went very smoothly.”
About Blackmagic Design
Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.
About Deluxe
Deluxe Entertainment Services Group Inc. is a global leader in media and entertainment services for film, video and online content, from capture to consumption. Since 1915, Deluxe has been the trusted partner for the world’s most successful Hollywood studios, independent film companies, TV networks, exhibitors, advertisers and others, offering best-in-class solutions in production, post production, distribution, asset and workflow management, and new digital solution-based technologies. With operations in Los Angeles, New York and around the globe, the company employs nearly 6,000 of the most talented, highly honored and recognized artists and industry veterans worldwide. Deluxe is a wholly owned subsidiary of MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc. For more information visit www.bydeluxe.com.
