Going Red for Nymph

For the recent post-production of Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s film, Nymph, The Post Bangkok was faced, for the first time, with an entire feature film shot using the Red One digital camera. However, the team at the Thailand-based facility remained unfazed as they had recently completed a number of TVCs shot with the camera.

The experience came in useful as The Post Bangkok gained valuable insight into the particular requirements and idiosyncrasies of this specific type of camera and the post-production workflow.

The particular early issues related to the long lead-time required for high-quality conversions for online use and relinking and assembling the Red footage for colour correction and assembly.

After a thorough discussion with the producers, the relinking problem had at least been partially resolved, to the extent of being comfortable dealing with a feature-length EDL (in actual fact, XML). The processing issue was a difficult hurdle. For many years now it is expected that film footage be at least partially graded before offline, the so-called ‘1-light’ transfer.

It became abundantly clear from the outset that this stage was not available. A great deal of the film was to be shot ‘day-for-night’ meaning that a pre-grade of some sort was absolutely necessary for the editing. It was decided that the Red Raw footage would be pre-processed for offline on set with a best approximation of the director’s intended ‘look’.

Prior to primary shooting, a fairly comprehensive camera test was conducted and the results printed. It was the first encounter with the Red for several key people involved, including the DOP. The printed result was good, occasionally remarkable, and helped to bolster the team’s confidence. The most striking impression from the early test was how clean the printed image was, even from deliberately under-exposed footage at ISO 500 or 800 equivalent. The team was suitably impressed. although later on during the actual grading sessions they did find limits.

The project was duly shot and returned to the post house for completion of the edit. This next vital necessitated a considerable learning experience. DI grading and printing systems, despite using familiar-looking video equipment and techniques, are not like normal video systems.

The critical difference is in the basic specification of the colour-space. DI systems are grounded in the concept of film scanning and film printing and the basic colour calibration assumes that the source files contain accurate data pertaining to film negative density. This presents an immediate problem for any project or element that does not originate on film.

The challenge, in this case, was to work out a method of ingesting the Red footage into the DI pipeline in a way which is akin to scanned film. Unfortunately, the official Red documentation on this subject proved to be less than helpful.

The work done during the testing procedure resulted in a conversion method which showed the creative team a good-looking basic image with film-like characteristics and complete latitude allowing the colourist to go in any creative direction. The procedure has become the template for all subsequent Red projects for DI.

As for the look of the movie itself, director Pen-ek continued in his signature style of unconventional, non-conforming visual treatments. While in some scenes the natural richness of the camera is allowed to flourish, the majority of the film is painted in deliberately muted, occasionally drab tones. Movie buffs familiar with this director’s work will appreciate the intent. Others may not. Some of the results, especially the ‘noirish’ scenes in the forest under almost no light are truly artistic expressions in their own right and stand up as art photography.

Apart from the film print, The Post Bangkok also mastered the HD video master with more attention than usual. This was because the distinctive visual palette of the print might not translate so well to the small screen and so a complete grading schedule was commissioned to re-interpret the print specifically for TV.

The tools in use for the project included Lustre, ARRI Laser, HDCAM SR, Final Cut Pro and various Red utilities.