SGO's Mistika Is Used By FilmBakers To Post Produce 'Granit'

SGO Mistika was FilmBakers first choice as the post production tool for their latest project, 'Granit' a gritty new film portraying a fictitious criminal gang in Spain's La Costa del Sol.
Director/Producer Ezekiel Montes approached FilmBakers to post produce the film, which included creating digital effects and complete colour grading using SGO Mistika.
Ezekiel stated: "SGO Mistika has made a great difference to the film. Without this system, the aesthetics such as the colours used would not have been possible."
Juan Cabrera, VFX and Compositing Supervisor at FilmBakers said: "SGO Mistika's great advantage was its speed for all the processes involved."
Mistika was the key to finishing the intricate project on time. The complete colour grading, in parallel with the desired effects were masterfully achieved. 'Granit' originated as a soap opera series created for the internet with the intention of only filming ten five-minute sequences, which then evolved into a fifty minute feature film.
This in itself presented some challenges in post as it was never meant to be shown on the big cinema screen, but designed to be downloaded on the internet. The director was also working within a restricted budget with complicated footage which included various complex scenes, some of which were filmed using two cameras with different calibrations and settings.
There were also tricky lighting issues to consider, where there were scenes in broad daylight and others were at night time out of sync with each other. Due to the involved and difficult nature of the project at hand, FilmBakers had to accomplish more than the colour grading and digital effects, in fact they worked on the entire re-masterisation of the footage in a short space of time using SGO Mistika's powerful capability to make it possible.
The mask function in SGO Mistika also played a significant role in depicting the action in the film, as Mistika enabled the compositor to focus the attention on specific intense elements and characters, in real-time, instead of only on simple shots, thus emphasising the action where required.
Masks were extensively used throughout as a clever and effective post technique, as well as creating new shadows in some sequences for dramatic effect and mood. Some of the other tools in SGO Mistika that were also used were its De-Grain and HiQ features which helped in formulating critical references for the film and in saving some of the night shot sequences.
The colour grading was an immensely important tool in this film and provided great narrative strength in the plot, turning the footage of a sunny Malaga into an oppressive and sordid Costa del Sol. In most of the shots, free vectors were used as well. The colour green was almost removed, and afterwards gradually re-introduced into the natural environment such as in the plants and grass, as the story developed. It started out with dull and uninspiring colours deliberately to convey the tone of the story and gradually it ended up with the full colour sequence immersed within it.
Post production had to be completed within a tight timeframe in order to meet the screening deadline at The Festival de Cine Espanol de Malaga, where the film was competing at the 'Zona Zine' section.
'Granit' will also be released on the internet in ten sequences, as originally intended, in July 2009.
(KMcA/BMcC)