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www.postmagazine.com 26 POST MAY 2017 prep for weeks now, so we'll spend less time on the grade later. Our goal is to get a negative that we don't have to make major adjustments to...When I'm shooting, I'll say to myself, 'This looks 95 to 99 percent close; Joe can do the rest later.'" "We're always talking about what we can do next to make the process easier for Bradford," says Gawler. "It's a constant evolution." COLORIST ALEX BICKEL & DP JAMES LAXTON Colorist Alex Bickel, founder of New York City's Color Collective (www.colorcollective.com), has done seven films with cinematographer James Laxton, ASC, their most recent, the Academy Award-winning Best Picture, Moonlight, for which Laxton received an Oscar nomination and won many other cinematography awards. Bickel met the DP through a friend of Laxton's wife, Moonlight producer Adele Romanski, when Bickel was still living in LA and working on com- mercials. They first teamed on the 2012 features, California Solo and For a Good Time, Call…, an indie drama and comedy, respectively. "Our style has definitely been an evolution," says Bickel. "We were both at the start of our feature careers. At the time our preps were quite minimalist, and these intimate character pieces needed a light touch, from my perspective. James always tries to match his cinematography to what the story requires; as such, in our early collaborations, we played things rather straight." Although Moonlight was also "very intimate and character-driven," the gritty coming-of-age story, as seen through memory, required a more adventurous approach. "We like to dare each other and push each other — it's a feedback loop we enjoy," says Bickel. "And James is strict in his desire not to do the same thing twice." Laxton shot Moonlight on location in Miami using an Arri Alexa camera shooting ProRes Log C. "James definitely had a vibe in mind from the very beginning," says Bickel, who was involved from the outset during hair and makeup tests. "He gave everyone visual prompts, and we discussed how the grade would interact with production and wardrobe decisions. We knew Moonlight would be pretty high contrast early on. It was important to experiment to determine how much of the contrast would come from the grade versus the lighting itself." The DI, conform and delivery were done at Color Collective with Laxton and director Barry Jenkins participating and Bickel manning the DaVinci Resolve. "We blocked out a considerable amount of time for the DI so we could explore things and push boundaries," says Bickel. "If we overshot, Barry would walk it back, but that didn't happen very much. He had a lot of faith in James and me since we had worked together so often." When Bickel was involved in the pre-pro tests he didn't know about the three-act structure of the film. But when he saw a cut of the film, he presented the idea of grading each chapter to emulate a different film stock. "The film vis- its Chiron during three pivotal moments in his life, and each demanded its own visual identity," he explains. "To me, the middle act is the most volatile, the most alien, so I suggested emulating Agfa film stock, which can feel otherworldly and foreign, with crisp cyan highlights." Working with Color Collective's color scientist, Bickel utilized three LUTs to emulate different film stocks: Fuji for the first act, to intensify texture in the cast's skin tones; Agfa for the second act; and a modified Kodak stock for the third. Bickel says it's essential to commit enough time to the DI to "give filmmakers time to breathe and to explore ideas. It was crucial that the grade lived up to and worked in concert with the intensity of the film. Barry and James wanted to push it, and that's always exciting." He recalls the scene when Juan brings Little home to his mother for the first time. "It had a very rich grade — the contrast of Juan's skin, the texture of the leaves on the palm tree. As we worked on other scenes, we kept referencing that hero shot. Have we pushed the image far enough? Can you sense the heat in the air and the vibrancy surrounding the characters? Does our grade capture the Miami that Juan inhabits? It was all about the vibe — that was our aspiration." Bickel is partnering with Laxton again as the DP, at press time, on a new pilot for HBO. "I gave him a suite of various LUTs to work with on-set. Some play it safe and neutral, some are cool, some warm and some more daring. So far, the daring one is winning out," Bickel says. "Fostering long-term relationships with DPs and directors is the part of collaboration I love most," he continues. "I take great pride that so many clients that I've worked with return again and again. Working with James on several projects has been especially memorable. I don't take it for granted." Moonlight (here and opening photo) was captured on Arri Alexa, shooting ProRes Log C.