Looking back at this year’s AFC Post-Production Days

I was not able to attend all of the talks, but noticed a few particularly interesting ones, either because of the quality of the speakers or because of their interesting subject matter.

- Le Labo Paris presented a range of little “homemade” tools for adjusting the color space of an ACES workflow before postproduction, without using a keyer or masks, but which is extremely useful for correcting the color palette on Baselight without affecting skin tones. This is a highly innovative approach which, amongst other things, plays on the amplitude of saturations, for example.

- HD Systems presented a library of Looks for the Sony Venice, like the one Arri already offers for the Arri Alexa.

- Mikros showed us this year, using two examples, how the TechnoDolly system they presented last year can be used : first, on a very impressive advertisement, which can be seen online, and a making of, which were shown at the Micro Salon. Secondly, by showing us the visual effects on Chambre 212, a film by Christophe Honoré, whose cinematographer Rémy Chevrin, AFC, explained to us the genesis and production of that project. The system of motor control on a crane enabled them to create these effects almost entirely during shooting.

• Read or reread the interview with Rémy Chevrin where he discusses his work on Christophe Honoré’s Chambre 212.

• Watch or rewatch the interview Rémy Chevrin gave to the CST, in French, at Cannes about his work on Chambre 212.

- Hiventy was eager to show us the post-production work on Hirokazy Kore-eda’s The Truth, cinematography by Eric Gautier, AFC, and on Portrait of a Lady on Fire, by Céline Sciamma, cinematography by Claire Mathon, AFC. This presentation was a useful counterpart to the presentation by Claire Mathon at the Micro Salon. Eric Martin and Jérôme Bigueur, the colorist of the film, showed us the work they did to emulate silver-process film on the images shot with the RED Monstro and using Leitz lenses, after having done comparative tests with 35mm film. We were given a very good demonstration of the work they did on areas such as the rendering of skin and of the flames of fires and candles, for example, and for once, we were shown a screening of the RAW images from the film.

• See PDF of Hiventy’s presentation, in French, in the notes below.

• Read or reread the interview with Claire Mathon discussing her work on Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

• Watch or rewatch the interview Claire Mathon gave to the CST, in French, at Cannes about her work on Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

- Representing Les Tontons Truqueurs, Christian Guillon and Pierre-Marie Boyé showed us their Previz On Set and VFX On Set systems, which also garnered significant attention from the audience. They make it possible to previsualize special effects live on set and, in certain cases, to shoot them without having to handle composting later in post.

The system is particularly effective for shooting on green or blue screens and even for alignment of images to prolong the set, for example, and can be used for handheld, tracking, or Steadicam shots.

• Watch or rewatch the videos presented on The Tontons Truqueurs’ Vimeo account or in the notes below.

• Read or reread the article, in French, where Christian Guillon explains the concepts of the system.

- Sony presented the latest innovations developed for the Venice, which now features a High Frame Rate and ACES, and an on-set HDR monitor, which could be seen on the DIT’s Association stand in the meet-and-greet area of the Forum.

- Poly Son, whose post-production services include editing and mixing, insisted on the need to supply editors and mixers with a monitoring quality equal to that used on set or on colorists’ stations, in order to "better work together".

- Dolby presented the HDR Dolby Vision system, which makes it possible, from a single HDR master, to produce different HDR versions adapted to different Dolby Vision screens according to their individual dynamics, and SDR, and showed us an excerpt from the concert film recently released on television after a theatrical release : Mylène Farmer 2019 – The Film, the film’s colorist explaining to us his post-production process, which he had to finalize in London. The audience expressed the wish that a Dolby Vision post-production room would be opened in Paris.

• Read or reread the article by Thierry Baumel, CST, consulting member of the AFC, about a talk given at Camerimage on HDR according to Dolby.

- Arri presented the shooting with the Arri Alexa 65 and Arri Prime 65 lenses of the feature film Kaamelot – Premier Volet, by Alexandre Astier, cinematography by Jean-Marie Dreujou, AFC, who, along with his assistant Amandine Hanse-Balssa, DIT Nejib Boubaker, the colorist of the film, Aline Conan, the director, the executive producer Henri Deneubourg, an Arri technician, and Natasza Chroscicki for Arri France, clearly explained to us the unique production methods for shooting in 65mm and the implications of that choice of format.

According to the director and his cinematographer, they chose this system after having done broad comparative tests, and the extra cost of their choice was perfectly acceptable to the producers because of the extra quality provided by the Alexa65. They describe a softness comparable to the Arri Alexa, and for the cinematographer, a comparable performance, but, in addition, a greater rendering of details in low and high lights (costumes, flames of torches, for example) and a definition that is without comparison to other systems.

The DIT explained the extent of managing the data and dailies and the assistant camera, the low depth of field on the system, even though the lenses make it necessary to work at T:4 minimum. Besides the quality of the 2K screening, given the size of the screen, I was particularly impressed by the quality of the definition on the wide shots, which had evidently been taken with longer focal lengths than their equivalents in classic formats.

- Lastly, on behalf of Kodak, Rémy Chevrin, AFC (Chambre 212, by Christophe Honoré), and Paul Guilhaume, AFC (Ava, byLéa Mysius, and short films Plaisir fantôme, by Morgan Simon, and L’Île jaune, co-directed with Léa Mysius), showed us the pleasure and specificities of shooting with silver-process film.

• Read or reread the interview with Rémy Chevrin on his work on Christophe Honoré’s Chambre 212.

• Read or reread the interview, in French, with Paul Guilhaume discussing his work on Léa Mysius’ Ava.

The fact that the audience almost consistently filled up the room, with some people having to sit on the stairs, proves beyond a doubt the enthusiasm of professionals and students for these AFC Post-Production Days.

Videos of the conference were made under the supervision of Dominique Gentil, AFC, and should soon be available for viewing online.

We remind our readers that this event would not have been possible without the support of the CNC, Ecran Total, the Forum des Images, Film Français, Mediakwest, Moove, the Paris Images Trade Show, PhotoCineRent, RVZ, Satellifax, Sony, and Tapages & Nocturnes.

The thumbnail image above shows Room 300 at the Forum des Images between two presentations – Photo Thomas Danieau.

Translated from French by A. Baron-Raiffe, for the AFC.