Broadcast News

Bookmark and Share
26/09/2012

Blackmagic Design Use DaVinci Resolve For 'Frankenweenie'

Blackmagic Design have announced that the Company 3's London-based office has used DaVinci Resolve for colour grading Walt Disney’s new 3D animated stop-motion feature, Frankenweenie.
From creative genius Tim Burton, the film tells a heartwarming tale about a boy and his dog. After unexpectedly losing his dog, Sparky, young Victor harnesses the power of science to bring his best friend back to life, albeit with a few minor adjustments. Working with cinematographer Peter Zorg it was the job of London-based colourist Rob Pizzey to create a look and feel for the film that would tell this story in Tim Burton’s own unique style.
Although this was Rob's first stop-motion film, it was not the first time he'd worked with CG or acclaimed director Tim Burton. Many of the Company 3 team had in fact worked on Sweeney Todd and so they had a unique insight into the directors mind and what he expected. Rob recalls how excited he was to have an opportunity to work with him again.
"Tim and Peter approached us in the summer of 2010 with a few early shots of Frankenweenie for a grade test. Our brief was to keep a strong contrast, good blacks and to make the characters stand out. From the outset Tim was very sure as to how the film should look. Once we captured that it was our job to ensure that style was replicated in the 3D world where the inherent light loss can ruin the look of a film."
Grading in black and white presents unique challenges for colour correction. Frankenweenie required some real sculpting to pull out specific areas of the frame and accentuate certain elements to tell the story. The auto-tracking functions of DaVinci Resolve were essential in achieving this grade. In particular, Rob used DaVinci Resolve's auto-key framing function for very difficult hand animated shapes.
"As such we had to be very careful with the contrast range, not to push it too far. If you push too far you can introduce strobing effects, which isn't good. We had to hand animate an awful lot of shapes on characters to make them stand out more. As the film is black and white the characters costumes didn’t stand out as much as they would in a colour film, and so we worked on creating different shades of grey to create better separation.
"In addition, we also spent a lot of time creating the LUT for film out. The final delivery was colour negative to colour print for a black and white job. As you can imagine just a slight sway in the print and the film could look completely wrong. However, the LUT created by our technical department worked beautifully.
"So we graded the 2D version of the film first and once that was signed off by Tim the 3D data was delivered to Company 3. Now on some 3D films one eye of the 3D is common to the 2D version. However, that wasn’t the case on Frankenweenie and so there were effectively three films to conform and grade; 2D, left eye and right eye. It was a big job and we had to make certain that nothing slipped through the net on any version."
Solidmate Ltd Memory Card Hire London

Top Related Stories
Click here for the latest broadcast news stories.

09/05/2023
NHL Selects Amagi To Create And Distribute FAST Channel
Amagi has announced that the National Hockey League (NHL®) has selected the company to create and distribute its first free ad-supported streaming TV
25/07/2023
Cisco And Qwilt Are Now Working With Fastweb
Cisco and Qwilt have announced that they are working with Fastweb, one of Italy's leading telecommunications operators, to bring their joint Content D
23/10/2008
Mayor Of London Pledges His Support For Film In The Capital
Mayor of London Boris Johnson has held his first meeting with prominent figures from the film, television and production industries. The film summit h
20/03/2007
London Celebrates Local Film-making Talent
ITV Local London, ITV’s regional broadband TV service in the London area, is entering into a partnership with Film London, in order to raise the profi
04/08/2006
Skills schemes set to boost new talent in London more investment in training and development
Film London today announced the launch of two new rounds of funding schemes to develop the capital’s film, TV and animation professionals and support
07/12/2012
UK's Future Film Industry Boost
The BFI today announces the 24 regional partners that will help deliver its pioneering BFI Film Academy Network programme in 2012/13. The BFI Film Aca
17/11/2009
Film Council 'To Steer Film Through Recession'
The UK Film Council has launched a three-month public consultation into the most significant revision of its activities since it was created in 2000.
12/03/2015
Celebrating The Durability Of Film...
Cinelab London is one of the most comprehensive and accomplished film labs in the UK. Supporting clients who acquire or distribute on film, the compan
04/12/2023
Germaine Franco Mixes Film Favourites
GRAMMY® Award-winning and Oscar-nominated Composer and Music Producer Germaine Franco credits her lifelong success to her early immersion in Latin mus
23/04/2004
Film London unveil blueprint to boost film-friendly Capital
London’s new film and media agency, Film London, has unveiled a variety of measures aimed at making the Capital more film-friendly. BAFTA winning acto
30/03/2011
Mayor Confirms Funding For Film London
Film London has announced that the Mayor of London will continue to invest in the agency. This commitment of funding ensures the UK capital has a dedi
15/04/2013
BFI Announces New Film Training
The British Film Institute has announced that new organisation Film Nation UK will deliver a film education programme for 5-19 year-olds from Septembe
05/11/2013
Film London Appoints Hub Panel
Film London has appointed members to its Film Hub London Advisory Panel to help ensure the capital's film exhibition sector remains open and accessibl
03/09/2004
Irish Film Board announces launch of ‘Film Dublin’
Irish Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, John O'Donoghue, has launched Film Dublin, a Bord Scannán na hÉireann/Irish Film Board (BSÉ/IFB) organised
29/06/2017
Future Film Skills – An Action Plan
The BFI has launched Future Film Skills – An Action Plan at the House of Commons alongside the Culture Secretary, Karen Bradley, and producer Barbara