GLADIATOR II POST-PRODUCTION
especially given the fast-paced nature of the director’s productions. A particularly demanding element of his work was the day-for-night shots. “He’s extremely comfortable with that stuff,” Nakamura says. “He calls it a ‘Provence moonlight’ look, which is this really bright moonlight.” Creating that effect in harsh daylight conditions requires extensive work in post. “Those shots take a lot of massaging. Not only do I have to Luma Key highlights and use a lot of windows, but I have to darken the grade a lot – so faces also come down. If people have to move around, it’s really hard to get enough light on them on-set. So it’s often a lot of Frankenstein work on day-for-night stuff.” Despite the technical demands, Nakamura embraces the challenge: “It’s fun to try to figure out how to get where we’re looking to go.” Nakamura also enjoyed helping to craft the sequences of flashbacks to when the main character was young. “The look we came up with actually emerged while working on the trailer. Instead of it just being black & white, we thought, why not cool it slightly to create a unique tone that fit the scene’s emotional context? Ridley was all for it.” TOOLS OF THE TRADE Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve is his go-to tool – and he’s full of praise for its ever- expanding suite of features. “The great part is that they’re always adding lots of new plug-ins, allowing us to really craft the pictures better,” he says. “There are so many tools that help enhance movies in ways people don’t even realise.” One example Nakamura gives is managing flicker from lighting. “Let’s say they’re using LED bulbs to recreate firelight. Sometimes the flicker initially looks fine, but if you grade the image brighter that suddenly becomes
tone for the entire film. Contrast, colour temperature, saturation – all of that is already established to a degree. My job is to refine and enhance those choices.” He likens the process to baking: “The dailies are the cake. Whether it’s chocolate or a strawberry shortcake – that’s already decided. I’m just adding the frosting, decorating it and making it prettier,” he laughs. PROVENCE MOONLIGHT He makes it sound easy, but working on a Ridley Scott film often requires a great deal of improvisation to solve challenges,
I UNDERSTOOD his vision , AND THERE IS NOW an unspoken language BETWEEN US”
13
definitionmags
Powered by FlippingBook