Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/825852
www.postmagazine.com 25 POST MAY 2017 He notes that the on-set grades get them very close to their goals for the DI. "We've only seen a 10 to 15 percent difference," Raffaele says. "For the most part, we're cutting the DI with the same on-set look. And seeing that look from beginning to end is very important to the team." For his part, Storaro is always up for trying new technology. "I believe that we need to continue our common research in the visual world, which will give us the chance to explore all the possible ways to go deeper and deeper into expressing our ideas," he says. "I think we should always be eternal students." COLORIST JOE GAWLER & DP BRADFORD YOUNG The team of colorist Joe Gawler, one of the found- ers of Harbor Picture Company in New York City (www.harborpicturecompany.com), and cinema- tographer Bradford Young, ASC, goes back half-a- dozen years to the indie film Pariah, which netted Young the first of his Sundance Film Festival honors. Since then, they have partnered on most of Young's features, including last year's sci-fi hit Arrival, for which he received an Academy Award nomination, the first person of color nominated in that category in almost 20 years. "I was already established as a feature film color- ist in New York when Bradford shot Pariah," recalls Gawler. "He mentioned that he had admired the films I'd worked on and the cinematographers I'd spent time with, and he asked me about them. Who knew that soon the shoe would be on the other foot and everybody would want to know about Bradford? Today, he's widely recognized as one of the best cinematographers in the world. To go along for the ride with him is one of the most special things in my career." Gawler notes that when he launched Harbor Picture Company, Young was "right there" as an early client. "He loved the idea of supporting an artist-owned and operated company, and he's seen us grow. He's been as much a part of our company as I am." Young, who is currently shooting the untitled Star Wars anthology film about Han Solo, calls the colorist/DP relationship "supremely important. You want artists who will bring a strong voice to the story you're trying to tell," he says. "Most DPs want to collaborate with artists they have a shorthand with, someone who can take what we did on-set to the next level, untethered." Young's early pictures were shot on film, but since he began shooting with Arri Alexa, Gawler has set up the look of the dailies and created custom looks for the DP. For Arrival, directed by Denis Villeneuve and shot in and around Montreal, Gawler went to that city's MELS Studios during hair and makeup tests to sit down with the director and DP and meet with the dailies team. "Bradford is really good about coming up with look books with still photos, historical pictures and movie references," he explains. "We spend time get- ting to a certain head space, looking at images and talking together before shooting starts." Young's look book for Arrival included stills from photographer Martina Hoogland Ivanow's Speedway book, which had a "cool, milky soft quality" he liked for the film, and Jean-Pierre Melville's 1969 feature, The Army of Shadows, about the French Resistance. "It was a challenge for me to lean to the cooler spectrum of things for Arrival," says Young. "With every film we try to add onto the strong base of what we've done before, and this one had a certain level of coolness and neutrality. Joe made a custom LUT during the testing phase in Montreal that helped me switch gears." Gawler returned to Harbor Picture Company during production, then headed north again for the final color grade at MELS Studios on Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve. "Joe is always on top of the latest additions, and Resolve software is always adding new and interest- ing things," says Young. "Joe will surprise me with a new skintone node or a highlight node. He finds tools that can build on our base and be organic to our process." "In the DI, Bradford pushes me to let my in- stincts take over," Gawler explains. "I take a stab at the film before he comes in, but Bradford shoots with a lot of intent in the image. In my own pass, it's pretty clear which direction the film wants to go. I like to employ a naturalistic style that pulls the most out of footage and helps it be the most beautiful and interesting it can be without a layer of work sitting on top of it. A lot of work goes into subtle nuance, to grade without feeling I've em- ployed a lot of DI tricks." Young says Gawler brought "nuanced darkness, or what we call 'spirited black'" to Arrival. "I set some broader strokes and Joe brought a lot of nuance to the film. He's never chained to consis- tency but is married to texture. A lot of that comes on the set from costumes, lighting and production design. But Joe pulls out the fine details in the DI." With each film they do together, Gawler and Young "try to figure out how to spend more time in prep and less time in the DI," says Young. "We'll There's a level of coolness and neutrality to the look in Arrival.