Short movie: Le Pédophile
After working on the Reebok TVC I was asked by DP and producer Jean-Philippe Bernier to work on a short movie directed by Ara Ball. Produced by Les Enfants Terribles, this short movie titled “Le Pédophile”.
The movie is about revenge and acts of abuse happening in two different eras: the 80s ant the 2000s. Ball really had an interesting approach to this hard subject.
For this gig I did a first grading on the Resolve station at PMT because they have a nice and calibrated Christie DCI compliant projector. We did a first approval for the P3 version then exported the DCPs for the screening. A second session was schedules in the DCI room to convert the DCP-ready master to REC 709. I used a P3 to REC709 I created to get 90% on the job done then did the remaining of the job by hand.
Then I went back to my home setup to do the online and versions for TV, web and promo.
Here is the trailer:
Le Pedophile (trailer 2014) from Les Enfants Terribles Home Video on Vimeo.
Tips: Mistika shortcut list
I started working on Mistika this summer when Slik, one of my clients bought a Mistika station to replace their Avid DS station. I’ve been learning more and more every time I’ve have the chance to get my hand on the station. One thing I found that was missing to help me in my learning experience is was a shortcut list that would gather all the ready to use shortcuts in one handy document.
On SGO’s forum, they suggest to open the keyboard shortcut config file in a text editor but I find this solution risky and hard to read. So I decided to edit my own Mistika shortcut list and share it with you.
I’ve gathered the default shortcut on Mistika 8.2. There are many more shortcuts that you can customize by opening the shortcut config file but I’ve started with those. If I find that some important shortcuts are missing feel free to suggest some modification.
Here is the link to the Mistika shortcut list in PDF: http://ilovehue.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Mistika823_shortcuts.pdf
TVC: Guignolée des médias 2014
I’ve been asked by Philippe Fafard at Slik if I’d be available to grade the 2014 TVC campaign for La Guignolée des Médias and I obliged. La Guignolée des Médias happens once a year in Quebec. On that day, all the broadcasters, papers and other medias gather to raise money and food for the ones in need. So when Slik asked me if I’d be interested in the project, I volunteered.
The TVC was edited in 3 version: a 60sec, a 30sec and a 15sec. They concept was created but TamTam/TWBA, produced by JetFilms and directed by Mélanie Charbonneau. It was shot on ARRI Alexa by Mathieu Laverdière in Log C. This is one of the only time where I had to desaturate and lower the contrast of a LogC shot tv commercial. I was suggest to cut on saturation to push even more the feeling of emotional distress of the main character, a mother who looses her job and struggles with the daily task of feeding her children. In the final, it was very efficient.
This gig was also my first TVC gig on Mistika. After trying ourselves at smoother project we decided that it was time to push the Mistika. We graded the 3 versions of the edit quite well and integrated the logos end texts. We really pushed it when time came to time to paint out the advertisements on the side of a moving bus and the logo on a hat. Well, actually, it was pretty easy using the integrated compositing and tracking tools. The paint tool also came in handy to remove the ads.
Wa also stabilized a couple of shots. Mistika has been very efficient to stabilize on axis while just smoothing the other ones.
Tv series: Ouisurf en Afrique
Starting this Tuesday, November 25th, you’ll be able yo watch the 2nd season of Ouisurf on Evasion. This 13 episode surf show is now well know for it’s lifestyle approach to the travel show. Produced by Benjamin Rochette, the mastermind behind the Ouisurf branding, the show brings us to Africa where we discover the most beautiful surf spots, the beaches, the deep African culture and the people.
The show was beautifuly shot on 5D mmIII and the occasional GoPro by DP and director Jean-Philippe Pariseau (Parish). As we speak, I’ve graded the first 8 shows on Resolve 11. This is also the first show that was finished completely in Resolve for online editing, subtitling and packaging. I was surprised by how well it went.
Here is the teaser for this 2nd season:
OuiSurf en Afrique from ouisurf.ca on Vimeo.
To know more about Ouisurf, you can jump to their website at www.ouisurf.ca and you can load their interactive website during the show. It will sync with the broadcast and show additional content during the commercial breaks. It’s right here at Ouisurf.tv
Colo: Mathieu Marano ilovehue.net
Motion Design : Fokus Productions fokusproductions.ca
Productions ouisurf.ca Musique : Hearts like ours – The Naked and Famous youtube.com/watch?v=gqUJdcCjUIA
DaVinci Resolve 11 shortcut cheat sheet
Here is an updated version on the Resolve shortcut cheat sheet I did a while ago. This one is up te date with the latest 11.1 shortcuts.
Feel free to share an use it while crediting my website: www.ilovehue.net
Click the link to download the file: Resolve11shortcuts_ilovehue
And here is a JPG version to use as desktop background/wallpaper (2560×1600): http://ilovehue.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Resolve11shortcuts_ilovehue21.jpg
TVC: Reebok Zquick + Zjet
This summer I was asked by DP JP Bernier to help the team at ValleDuhamel with the color grading of three tv commercials for Reebok’s new shoes.
In one day we shot three 30-second TVC in a old warehouse. The team at ValleeDuhamed had created this wireframe city in which the action would took place. Here is a description of the project in their now words:
For those who were wondering if we slept at night, we took a walk on the dark side by creating these 2 spots for athletic shoes giant Reebok.
A video in which we follow a runner through a surreal urban world in which shoes are faster than people, landmarks make music, and street lines are blown in the wind.
The project promised to be an interesting one. We used the Sony 55 to be able to switch quickly between 23.98 shot and speed ramps. The live output was feeding the LiveGrade station I was operating to give a previz to the agency and the client. Between shots, I was doing the data wrangling a mix of XAVC and SONY RAW on the Macbook Pro, feeding two copies and generating proxies on Resolve for the editor. LiveGrade proved to be very handy and enabled me to export Resolve LUT to apply to the proxies.
The editing was done at The Workshop in Mile End. Once the final edit locked in Premiere I got the usual XML and EDL to conform back in Resolve. This was followed by 2 days of color grading. First, we had to match the shots with very different contrast and manage the light structures and their shadows, then I had to make the shoes pop out.
Here is the grading breakdown followed by two of the 3 spots:
Reebok color grading breakdown from Mathieu Marano on Vimeo.
DEMO 2014
My 2014 demo is now available online. It shows some of the fiction work I graded on Resolve, Speedgrade and Mistika. Here is the link to the HD version: https://vimeo.com/106230560
Mathieu Marano – Color grading demo – 2014 from Mathieu Marano on Vimeo.
You can find all my demos anytime on my demo page at: http://ilovehue.net/?page_id=40
