THE KILLER PRODUCTION
TODAY’S TOOLS Le Samourai was released in 1967, a point in time when filmmaking was fairly limited by the technology available. “Nowadays, we have many more tools, including HDR and cameras that practically have night-vision,” argues Weidt. “So, we’re able to have something that is super rich, but at the same time subtle. The audience feels like the story is methodical and deliberate – only going out of control at precise moments.” A long-time TrueLight customer, Weidt employed Baselight for grading The Killer , calling it ‘part of [his] DNA’ as a colourist. The overall process took around a year, with Weidt estimating somewhere between seven and ten iterations before they eventually signed off on the final grade seen in the film.
WE USED DEFOCUS TO drive home THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF DEPTH”
“I worked on an initial pass on Baselight with Erik,” Weidt recalls. “Then, we did rounds online, where David put notes throughout so I could go through and address them. Towards the end, David would come into a screening and give notes in real time, and I would drive it home from there.” Weidt frequently used Baselight’s EXR alpha channels, multi-paste and defocus
tools to create The Killer ’s final look. “I took scenes and ordered them according to camera angle, so that I could balance them with impunity,” he describes. “We used defocus to drive home the right amount of depth, which can improve with subtle changes.” SINGING PRAISE These days, colourists and VFX artists often work in parallel, which sometimes proved a challenge for Weidt. At times, he would have to ‘re-track anything that was already dialled-in spatially’ if shots had been ‘repositioned, stabilised or made to look handheld’. “Post-production is Fincher’s favourite part of filmmaking,” shares Weidt. “He may have been joking... “I think some scenes in The Killer really sing, colour-wise,” he concludes. “Working with Fincher and Messerschmidt, that’s not hard to achieve.”
NIGHT AND DAY Each location required its own look and feel – a feat which took almost a year to achieve, but with impressive results
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