Burbank-based post house AlphaDogs recently completed work on the new film Revision, where a petty thief seeks to atone his past by returning to the house he robbed.
Director Zac Wong wanted to tell a good story, while exploring how a film could portray the overlap of human consciousness and memory. “I was fascinated by the way that we tend to experience several disconnected events in our past simultaneously,” explained Wong. “I found the feeling of guilt to be the most palpable manifestation of chaotic memory and a great subject for this film.”
AlphaDogs assistant editor Rachel Bartlett and colorist Sean Stack worked collaboratively using a round-trip workflow from Premiere Pro to DaVinci Resolve to complete the finish on the film.
“We decided on a Premiere Pro and Resolve round-trip workflow because they both work natively with RED 4K media which allows a clear path to a smooth delivery,” explained Bartlett.
Resolve has a RED camera file management command known as R3D Trim and it was utilized to move the camera media used in the final locked sequence to the shared server at AlphaDogs. The fast fiber connection to the trimmed source files allowed Stack to navigate quickly, review color grades in Resolve in real time and render as fast as the GPU would allow. “The round-trip workflow worked extremely well for this project,” said Stack. “Resolve had no difficulty rendering out the custom 4K frame size known as 4K Scope (4096 x 1708) for the final trip back into Premiere Pro.”
Specific color choices made by Stack during color correction not only added to the suspense of the story, but also kept the film’s continuity in check. One scene in particular involved a kitchen sink close-up shot with very warm tones. Stack chose to match a cooler version of the sink as it appeared in a wide shot earlier in the story, allowing for a consistent look throughout the film. “The good news is Resolve is such a powerful tool for color grading, that we had a chance to try both warm and cool temperatures with scenes and truly make a creative decision on what looked and felt the best,” said Stack.
“We loved that Sean was able to make subtle adjustments to the color on a micro level that allowed for our characters and story to shine,” said Wong.
Revision will screen at various festivals later this year. Wong hopes that audiences will feel as though they are part of the story by getting the chance to play detective by piecing together the fragments of the protagonist’s broken mind.
