GREAT EXPECTATIONS PRODUCTION
© MIYA MIZUNO/FX
ONCE WE GOT INTO THE DI, the magic really started AND WE COULD drive the look forward early ”
yellow, chartreuse and hints of red in the skin tone or lips, holding onto some life in the characters.” Transitioning seamlessly between worlds presented another challenge. Stepping from the green-tinted domain of Miss Havisham to London’s cyan and cool shadows sometimes felt jarring in the cut, so the team had to find a way to make it work thematically – or smooth it out, particularly if the jump in skin tone was too abrupt. One aspect of which Tomkins was most proud was a scene set aboard a ship in the first episode. “Most of it was illuminated by a lantern or firelight, with just a hint of cool dusk as fill. It was fun to let the lantern and fire have a more realistic relationship with the rest of the image and keep some colour in the flames or lantern,” he explains. “I’m
always a fan of that colour separation along the temperature axis, so when we found that balance it was fun to see it come together.” Tomkins credits the speed of DaVinci Resolve with helping the whole process run efficiently. “The real-time performance of DaVinci is second to none, and with correctly paired hardware and data IO solutions, it allows me to be liberal with my approach, freely throwing whatever is needed at a shot without worrying about waiting for caching,” he enthuses. “The scene-referred HDR palette also let me make photometric changes quickly to help matching in a natural photographic way. The texture and spatial tools are fantastic, and fast!” When it came to review, most of it was attended rather than remote, with the execs letting Tomkins and co develop
the look across the first few episodes on key scenes at the start of the DI, before iterating based on feedback. “We were then left to grade each episode and had final reviews on the last day with any changes made at the end,” he recalls. “The iterative process of having a strong dailies look (thanks to the screen tests!), having an initial day to set the look across a few episodes and then the final grade meant we were only ever improving on what came before, so the usual back and forth was reduced. It was a very rewarding experience working with such great collaborators.” The grade was started at CHEAT by colourist Toby Tomkins and finished at Harbor Picture Company in London on DaVinci Resolve Studio. Harbor Picture Company’s Richard Ellis onlined the series
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