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Home » It’s a Three-pete as Technicolor – PostWorks New York Completes Post for Aronofsky’s “Noah”

It’s a Three-pete as Technicolor – PostWorks New York Completes Post for Aronofsky’s “Noah”

In its third collaboration with Darren Aronofsky, the New York post facility manages a film based workflow and intensive grading sessions for biblical epic.

Technicolor-PostWorks New York marked its third collaboration with Darren Aronofsky in providing post production services for Noah, the director’s epic inspired by the story of Noah in the Old Testament. The facility provided everything from 35mm film processing to editorial conforming and final color grading. Technicolor-PostWorks played a similar role on Aronofsky’s films The Wrestler and Black Swan, but Noah’s complex visuals made it the largest feature film post production project ever undertaken in New York.

Tim Stipan, senior colorist at Technicolor-PostWorks, handled final color grading for the Paramount Pictures and Regency Enterprises film, working under the supervision of Aronofsky and Cinematographer Matthew Libatique, ASC. Stipan began work on the film in pre-production by grading camera tests. “A lot of tests were related to filming in rain and how the camera reacted to it,” Stipan recalls. “We also did some IMAX tests, and they proved invaluable later on as the looks we set essentially remained the same through final post.”

Noah was shot almost entirely on 35mm. Film negative was processed in New York, both while the production was shooting in the New York area and in Iceland (where many of the exteriors were shot). Following film processing, the facility produced HD dailies for review and editorial. It also performed 2K and 4K pin-registered scanning of film elements for delivery to visual effects providers, including ILM and Look Effects, and for final mastering.

As visual effects shots were finished, they were delivered back to Technicolor-PostWorks for color grading and conforming with live action. “The filmmakers wanted to establish certain looks from the start in order to guide the work of the visual effects team, recalls Technicolor-PostWorks Senior Digital Intermediate Producer Kevin Vale. “We conducted 60 or 70 VFX screenings for the benefit of Darren, Matty, Tim and the visual effects vendors.”

“The VFX screenings were useful in determining how certain effects elements reacted to color, density and contrast,” adds Stipan. “They helped both the filmmakers and visual effects vendors see how color could enhance the process.”

Stipan performed final grading in 2K on Autodesk Lustre. Conforming was done on Autodesk Smoke by Digital Intermediate Editor Eric Leverenz. The DI process spanned several weeks as new and updated visual effects elements arrived from multiple vendors.

Libatique described the DI finish at Technicolor-PostWorks as “action packed, but smooth.” “Tim is really motivated; he does the work of three people,” Libatique says. “He has a background in photography and cinematography, and that really helps me because we speak the same language. The shorthand is easier.”

Technicolor-PostWorks sent files of the finished grade from New York to Technicolor, Hollywood, which handled the film’s deliverables (including home entertainment masters, film-out, and DCDM mastering for all theatrical exhibition formats). Libatique and Stipan oversaw the film’s 3D color-mapping at Technicolor Hollywood.

Technicolor-PostWorks is among few post houses on the East Coast with the resources to handle a project of this scale and complexity. “It was awesome, beyond awesome, to be able to finish this film in New York,” concludes Stipan. “Typically, big visual effects-driven films like this are finished in L.A., but we showed that we have the manpower, the resources and the creative chops to pull it off.  Noah could be a game-changer for Technicolor-PostWorks and the entire New York production community.”

About Technicolor – PostWorks New York
Technicolor – PostWorks New York is the East Coast’s most comprehensive digital motion picture and post-production facility, employing an exceptional team of artists, engineers and project managers to serve our clients through the film and TV finishing process.

Offering data workflows, film processing, telecine/scanning, non-linear editorial and HD picture finishing, digital intermediate and film recording, high-volume encoding and high-speed data transmission, as well as comprehensive film and TV sound services on nine mix stages, Technicolor – PostWorks New York serves as one source for every post production requirement.

For more information, visit http://www.technicolorpwny.com

Community & Partner Links

How Sony’s New Virtual Sound Technology Can Change How We Hear Films

Kami Asgar and Jessica Parks are post-production heavyweights who work with major studios, namely Sony. As a sound designer (Asgar) and as a post executive (Parks), their collective resume touches on everything from Apocalypto to Grandma’s Boy to Venom.

Parks has recently shifted her focus from supervisor to hands-on sound design, and we talk about how it’s never too late to pivot on your career path and find the thing you love doing wherever you are in life.

Click on this link to read the rest of the article on No Film School’s site.

NJ – Governor Murphy signs $14B Incentive Program Bill – the NJ Economic Recovery Act of 2020

 Film tax credits — amending existing programs to include provisions for so-called New Jersey film partners and New Jersey film-lease partners and allowing an additional $200 million of tax credits annually over 13 years.

Click this link if you want to read the full article on the Lexology site. http://bit.ly/35NtDx6

Film Commish announces date for production restart

In her December 18, 2020 news update, MOME Commissioner Anne del Castillo announced that the Film Office is now accepting permit applications for production activity that begins on July 27th.

She also announced awards now (Awkwafina) and more. To read all of the Film Commish’s bloggy sort of news column, click here.

Stimulus Offers $15 Billion in Relief for Struggling Arts Venues

The coronavirus relief package that Congressional leaders agreed to this week includes grant money that many small proprietors described as a last hope for survival.

For the music venue owners, theater producers and cultural institutions that have suffered through the pandemic with no business, the coronavirus relief package that Congress passed on Monday night offers the prospect of aid at last.

To read the full article on The New York Times’ site, click here.

If you want to start production, here’s the latest news from the Mayor’s Office

Phase 4 production guidance is available on the Film Permit website. All production activity, whether it requires a Film Permit or not, must comply with New York Forward Industry Guidance.

For more information see, please refer to the State Department of Health’s Interim Guidance for Media Production During the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. Please review the guidelines and FAQ before submitting permit applications. The Film Office is operating remotely, so please allow additional time for Film Permit processing.

The above paragraphs contain links to the various FAQ – just mouse over the relevant words.

Nikon to Stop Making Cameras in Japan

Nikon has fallen on hard times as of late as its camera sales have cratered, and now there’s a new indicator of how dire its financial situation is: the company is reportedly pulling the plug on making cameras in Japan after over 70 years of doing so.

To read the full article on Petapixel’s site, click here.

NVIDIA Uses AI to Slash Bandwidth on Video Calls

NVIDIA Research has invented a way to use AI to dramatically reduce video call bandwidth while simultaneously improving quality

What the researchers have achieved has remarkable results: by replacing the traditional h.264 video codec with a neural network, they have managed to reduce the required bandwidth for a video call by an order of magnitude. In one example, the required data rate fell from 97.28 KB/frame to a measly 0.1165 KB/frame – a reduction to 0.1% of required bandwidth.

To read the rest of this article on Petapixel, click this link.

 

 

 

Union Health Plan Dodges Film Workers’ Suit Over Virus Relief

Law360 (October 9, 2020, 5:22 PM EDT) — The Motion Picture Industry Health Plan’s board can’t be sued under ERISA for allegedly flouting its duties when it relaxed plan rules in response to COVID-19, a California federal judge has ruled, nixing a proposed class action filed by two cinematographers who still couldn’t qualify for benefits.

In an order entered Thursday, U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner granted the board of directors’ motion to dismiss Greg Endries and Dee Nichols’ Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit accusing board members of breaching their duty to treat all plan participants fairly.

Endries and Nichols, members of Local 600 of the International Cinematographers Guild, said in July that the board left them and others “out in the cold” in its attempts to address the problems COVID-19 caused for plan participants.

But Judge Klausner agreed with the board’s contention that the case, which alleged a fiduciary breach, should be tossed because plan administrators don’t act as fiduciaries when they amend health care plans.

Read the full article on the Law360 site by clicking here.

Russo Brothers Received Close to $50 Million From Saudi Bank

Anthony Russo and Joseph Russo photographed at the PMC Studio in Los Angeles for the Variety Playback Podcast.

The Russo brothers, directors of the all-time top grossing film “Avengers: Endgame,” quietly secured a roughly $50 million cash infusion for their production company AGBO from Saudi Arabia earlier this year, multiple sources tell Variety.

In a deal brokered and closed at the beginning of the pandemic, the Russos received the investment from an undisclosed Saudi bank in exchange for a minority stake in the brothers’ Los Angeles-based shop.

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