Hollywood post-production house Light Iron put its two Quantel Pablo colour correction systems to the ultimate test in carrying out the 4K digital intermediate (DI) for David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
This is among the largest 4K movies ever delivered: at two hours and 38 minutes, the final DI consists of almost 250 000 frames of 45 megabytes each.
In preparation for the supervised sessions, Ian Vertovec, senior colourist and founder at Light Iron, graded and pre-rendered all the footage and then video-recorded Fincher’s audio and laser-pointer guided notes. Once the director had completed his review and left the facility, Vertovec loaded the video into the Pablo.
“As a result I had my screen reference with his laser pointer and I’d split that with the DI. I’d drop his audio in and have that in with the temporary audio and then I would play through the scenes with every note he gave me,’ says Vertovec.
From a technical standpoint, the management and delivery of large amounts of data was a huge challenge for Light Iron. “The key was using two Pablos with shared storage via the GenePool, because it gave us the ability to load materials that were instantly available for Ian’s session,’ says Katie Fellion, Light Iron founder and VP, Technical Post Production.
Screen Africa Magazine – February 2012
