FilmLight, pioneers of digital film technology, announced today that its complete suite of Digital Intermediate products, Northlight, Baselight and Truelight were all used at Framestore CFC on the Golden Globe-nominated feature Cold Mountain. The film was scanned in 2003 on the Northlight, the digital mastergrade was achieved using Baselight colour-grading software and the Truelight colour calibration system used for accurate preview throughout the project.
Anthony Minghella decided to come to Framestore CFC following discussions with Director of Photography John Seale, and was delighted by the opportunities afforded by the new technology. “It’s wonderful that it is now possible to pay as much attention to the grade of a film as was hitherto only possible with the sound,” he says, “The scrutiny of each sound in a film was commonplace and in stark contrast to the more general method of creating an answer print, which was impressionistic, vague and often unsatisfactory. With digital grading it is possible to examine every shot with care and rigour.” It was Seale’s first full digital mastergrade, and he is likewise a complete convert. “Once you have a taste of a digital intermediate, there is no going back,” he recently told Millimeter magazine.
Work began in the summer of 2003, with film being scanned on the company’s Northlight film scanners. John Seale attended grading sessions over a three-week period in August and September. His schedule then took him on to another project, and work continued under Minghella’s watchful eye throughout the following two months.
Cold Mountain is a fine example of a film where digital technology is used as a tool to enhance the look but not draw attention to itself. Throughout the film the grade is used to subtly affect the appearance and feel of individual scenes. Sometimes, too, it can bring more to the table. “Chemically, you can change overall colour and density, but that’s about it,” Seale says in the Millimeter interview, “In the digital intermediate, you can go inside a particular frame, isolate a particular window or face, changing colour just in that part of the frame.” A case in point was a scene where Ada (Nicole Kindman) and Ruby (Renée Zellweger) are lying in bed and Ada is reading. Seale wanted to tweak the look. “We put highlights into Ada’s hair,” recalls Glasman. “We applied a blurred oval vignette, bringing the edges of the scene down and almost mimicking an old fashioned camera lens.”
Perhaps the most challenging sequence, from Glasman’s point of view, was the opening battle. “The battle scene was largely created in-camera thanks to John Seale’s brilliance and the amazing design of the battlefield that Dante Ferretti created for us,” Minghella told Millimeter magazine, “But the digital colour grading process was also crucial in terms of selling the illusion, with lots of little additions.”
Working at Framestore CFC enabled Seale to build upon practical effects work done at the location. “John used grads (graduated, variable density filters) all over to produce that effect when he shot it,” says Glasman,”But the way he likes to move the camera, he couldn’t use grads for all the shots in the scene. In those cases, I used our colour-correction software to apply grads to sections of the battlefield where they did not already exist to place this heavy pall of smoke over the scene. We also lifted up shots and added contrast and other things to help the overall effect of the sequence.”
Another of FilmLight’s products, the Truelight colour management system, was essential to the process. “Truelight gives a very good representation of what the film will look like on a big screen,” explains Glasman, “Ensuring that what you see on the monitor will be what you get on the film.” As Claire McGrane, Framestore CFC’s Head of Digital Lab, puts it, “It doesn’t matter what tools you’ve got if you don’t have colour management. If the client can’t see on the monitor what they’ll get on the film, it defeats the process.”
Whilst delighted with the results, Glasman is typically modest about his role on Cold Mountain. “It was my job to achieve what John and Anthony were looking for in the least complicated way,” he says, “It’s not about showing off the digital technology – quite the opposite, really; it’s about serving the film, the Director and the Director of Photography as effectively and simply as possible.”
Cold Mountain, written for the screen and directed by Anthony Minghella, opened in the US on 25th December and on 2nd January 2004 in the UK. With cinematography by John Seale, the film was produced by Miramax Films, Bona Fide Productions and Minghella’s own Mirage Enterprises. It stars Nicole Kidman, Jude Law and Renée Zellweger. The film has already received 8 Golden Globe nominations (including Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay), as well as generous, Oscar-toned reviews.
Set in the waning days of the American Civil War, Cold Mountain sees Jude Law playing the role of Inman, a wounded confederate soldier who is on a perilous journey home to his mountain community, hoping to reunite with his pre-war sweetheart, Ada. He meets a series of interesting and colourful characters, while back at home, Ada is learning the ropes of managing her deceased father’s farm with Ruby a scrappy drifter who assists and teaches Ada along the way.
Photos courtesy of Framestore CFC.
Contact – Deepa Parbhoo ([email protected]) +44 20 7292 0400
