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Bits & Pieces 8 Post • April 2014 www.postmagazine.com Bits & Pieces Wes Anderson's Grand Budapest Hotel B URBANK — Jill Bogdanowicz, senior super vising DI colorist at Modern Videofilm (www.mvfinc.com), here, worked closely with director Wes Anderson to cre- ate the look of the new Fox Searchlight film, The Grand Budapest Hotel. The feature was shot on film and centers around the adventures of a concierge at a grand hotel before the war, and the lobby boy who looks up to him. Ralph Fiennes plays concierge Gustave H., who has a special relationship with the hotel's guests. The film also stars F. Murray Abraham, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Jude Law and Bill Murray. According to Bogdanowicz, the feature has three distinct periods, and each was given a unique color treatment to match Anderson's vision. In addition, each time period was shot in a different aspect ratio. The 1930s sequences, says Bogdanowicz, were shot in the 4:3 aspect ratio. Much of this period takes place at the hotel, which is noted for its vibrant colors. "There's a lot of production value, there's pink and red, and purple suits," she explains. "There was an amazing color palette that they wanted to retain, but make sure that it has a different feel than the '60s, so we focused more on a little bit of desaturation. The colors we focused on were purples, pinks and reds." The scenes reflecting the 1960s were shot in 2.35:1 with anamorphic lenses, she recalls. "There's a very warm look," says the colorist. "We enhanced the yellow and green, making sure it was a very saturated picture." The film's 1980s-era scenes were shot in 1.85:1. "It was more of a straight-forward palette," says Bogdanowicz of the color treat- ment. "Nothing really too fancy and no satu- ration one way or the other." When working at Modern Videofilm, Bog- danowicz's set-up includes a Linux-based Da Vinci Resolve, from Blackmagic Design, along with a 4K digital projector. "It offers immedi- ate feedback," she says of the Resolve set-up. "There's no stopping or rendering. You can add many layers. It's seamless for the creative — they don't need to sit and wait." She also travelled to London four times to meet with the director, working out of a theater at Molinaire. Bogdanowicz had col- laborated with the director on 2012's Moon- rise Kingdom. She spent several months, beginning in June of 2013, working on The Grand Budapest Hotel. "Wes is very particular, of course, and very detailed," she says of the collaborative DI sessions. "He's very interactive and attended every session in London." While Anderson never came to LA, the team was able to communicate via emails using Quick- Time files and still frames. "We spent quite a lot of time making sure small details that were part of the storyline were all visible," she recall. "Also, we worked with the visual effect company (Look Effects) very closely in order to fine tune the day-for-night scenes and the visual effects." By Marc Loftus Assimilate debuts Scratch 8 S ANTA CLARA, CA — Assimilate (www.assimilateinc.com) has introduced Version 8 of its Scratch dailies system, which offers tools for versioning, coloring, conforming and finishing. The new Scratch 8 is one of the first soft- ware-only solutions capable of encoding ProRes files on a Windows-based system. This development means there is now full parity between Mac- and Windows-based Scratch systems. Version 8 also includes support for GPU-only debayering of Red files. Users can now play back Red files (Red One, MX and Epic) at full resolution, in realtime, without the need for a Red Rocket card. In addition, support for Blackmagic Design's DeckLink 4K Extreme and UltraStudio 4K for Thunderbolt solutions allow users to incorporate 4K monitoring into their workflow, as well as run Scratch and Da Vinci Resolve on the same system. Assimilate has also introduced "MyAssimilate," a new product that's avail- able to Scratch 8 and Scratch Lab 8 users at no additional cost. MyAssimilate is a suite of cloud-based workflow tools, though the company is approaching the cloud workflow a little differently than other manufacturers. Rather than storing a project's media in the cloud, Assimilate's tools use the cloud to break down barriers faced by pros working in remote locations, or by freelancers who move from studio to studio. MyAssimilate consists of four key tools. The Project Repository enables collaboration in an asynchronous fashion, where all users have their own local media, but data is exchanged via the cloud to update respective projects as they progress. Scratch Remote is designed for simultaneous remote collaboration. Rather than exchange large media files, users collaborate through the exchange of JPEG2000 files, with one person moderating the session. When the session ends, media disappears from the remote participants' machines. Scratch Web is designed for remote review sessions, where artists can publish a Scratch session to a Web browser for easy review in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome or Safari. And the Galleries tool is designed for a freelancer who is going to work on a system at a client's location. Using the cloud, they can open up a Scratch system — including hot keys, settings, looks, and shots — and work as if they are on their own system. By Marc Loftus HDMI to HDSDI Converter HDSDI to HDMI Converter EFFICIENTLY CONVERTED Scaling Genlock AES Audio Remote Control Frame Rate Conversion www.doremilabs.com Color plays a large role in the film, which spans several decades and mixes aspect ratios.