Director Edward Berger and Cinematographer James Friend BSC, ASC continue their longstanding collaboration with our Senior Colourist Andrew Daniel for feature film Ballad of a Small Player.

The grade was carried out in HDR, trimmed to SDR, and then a theatrical P3-DCI version was made for the cinema release.

Andrew: “From the very beginning James and I knew that we wanted this film to feel unique. James was very keen to get the feeling of an Ektachrome Film print. After some testing and using acombination of gate weave, grain, halation and some melding of a few custom LUTs we found the DNA of the show that would allow for the blues and reds to be shifted without destroying the information. With that locked away we then built the rest of the look on top of that.  This ended up being more finesse work to massage in some very specific petrol blues in the lower end and adding a warmer tint to the top end. As well as this it was important for us to maintain the slick, deep contrast that we were after, but also protecting skin tones. So, with a series of very specific keys, we chased this vibe through the film. Every now and again we would also increase or decrease the grain percentages in highs, mids or shadows depending on whether it was day or night and what we really wanted that vibe to be.  All in all it was one of the most interesting and constructive collaborations that I’ve had with James over our years of working together.”