MI DSOMMAR | DRAMA
W e met DOP Pawel Pogorzelski when he helped us understand the advantage of Panavision’s Light Iron Color 2 – the tech that won our Tech Innovation award for Colour Science this year. Pogorzelski was honest enough to admit he wasn’t a really technical guy, but he did know the LiColor2 onboard the Panavision digital cameras he wielded for Midsommar was incredibly helpful in finding the look he and director Ari Aster were after. “I am not a technical DOP,” Pogorzelski explains. “I know most of the basics, but I make decisions using my gut and the feeling a sensor gives me for a particular project. I don’t like the way the Red camera looks, so when I first tested cameras [film, the Alexa and the DXL2] for Midsommar , I was apprehensive about the DXL2, as I knew it had a Red sensor.” Pogorzelski tested the cameras in Los Angeles in February last year on a hot, sunny day with stand-ins dressed in white. Once he received the film footage, he went to Panavision to watch the tests projected and was blown away by the latitude and colour rendition of the DXL2 sensor with LiColor2. “The reference and idea with colour was to be inspired by (not emulate) three-strip Technicolor film. So, colour manipulation was very important,” he says. The aim was to achieve rich, saturated colours without making them feel garish. “We had a beautiful LUT created by Joe Gawler at Harbor [Harbor Picture Company in New York] and when we got into the colour grade, we had a lot of leeway to play with. Midsommar is very rich, but the skin tones look amazing and the green looks really great. I only mention this, because
IMAGES The Panavision LiColor2 colour science managed the high summer sun and bright clothing
BELOW Director Ari Aster (left) with Pawel Pogorzelski (right)
We had a beautiful LUT created by Joe Gawler at Harbor – we had a lot of leeway in the grade
SEPTEMBER 20 1 9 | DEF I N I T ION 55
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