For writer, director, and cinematographer Phan Dang Di, the making of “Bi, Don’t Be Afraid!” (2010) was definitely a rewarding experience. The 2010 Cannes Film Festival’s prestigious International Critics’ Week, which showcases first and second features by directors worldwide, was the setting for the film’s world premiere. Phan used the RED Digital Camera for the shoot of the 90-minute “Bi, Don’t Be Afraid!” and post house Cosmodigital in Paris, France used ASSIMILATE’s SCRATCH® Digital Finishing Solution for the post-production data workflow.
“Bi, Don’t Be Afraid!” is the touching story about a Bi, a six-year old boy, and the tangled family affairs he witnesses among his drunken philandering father, long-suffering mother, and beloved grandfather.
Produced by Acrobates Films, the project was shot with RED in Vietnam; and conformed and color graded in SCRATCH by Aurelie Laumont at Cosmodigital in Paris. With support from Philippe Perrot and Nicolas de Chateau Thierry, the project was mastered to DPX, and filmed out for a 35mm print. Laumont, who has graded with SCRATCH for two years, briefly discusses her work.
Natural: “Bi, Don’t Be Afraid!” is a moving story, and I worked very closely with Phan to finesse the look during the grading sessions. The original material was beautifully shot, so my work was all about using SCRATCH to perform subtle grades on the native R3D files to bring out the poetry and intimacy of the visuals; and to create the atmosphere of being in Vietnam.
Finesse: After doing a balancing grade, I used Trays as a matchbox, and the Versions tool to store different versions of graded scenes. When Phan was happy with the look, it was easy to copy and paste the grades to appropriate footage in the timeline in CONstruct. To refine the imagery even further, by combining the SCRATCH Scaffolds and Qualifier tools, I could isolate areas of the image, such as the grandfather’s face, and grade through a tracked shape.
Fast: The conform in SCRATCH worked perfectly, and I completed the grade in just seven days. I enjoyed the fact that we were working on the native R3D files in real-time at 4K. That’s the beauty of SCRATCH – it’s so fast and easy to work with, especially with RED.
Result: To make sure there would be no surprises on the 35mm print, I also applied a film visualisation LUT in SCRATCH, developed by Philippe Perrot. We did a 35mm film-out test via Arane Laboratory, exporting graded footage as DPX files from SCRATCH. Everyone was delighted with the results. Exceptional!
