'Life, Above All' For Pictorion And Mistika


SGO and Pictorion das werk Berlin GmbH have completed all DI post production work for their Dreamer Joint Venture filmproduktion.
The high profile film project titled 'Life, Above All', was completed using Mistika for the offline and online editing throughout and was awarded the Prix Francois Chalais Award at the Cannes Film Festival 2010.
Filmed in South Africa, Life, Above All was directed by South African filmmaker Oliver Schmitz, produced by Oliver Stoltz with Bernhard Jasper as Director of Photography using the ARRIFLEX D-21 Camera.
The "truly anamorphic" footage was recorded in dual stream on Sony HDSR tapes, known as the Mscope format. A key technical challenge and requirement facing Christian Tröger, Mistika Artist at Pictorion das werk Berlin, was to maintain and reproduce the unique Mscope format from the very first capture to the very last render, without losing any resolution or colour data in the process.
Christian commented: "Mistika and its open architecture enabled us to choose a workflow that delivered the required results that the client expected in this case, and we achieved it with ease due to Mistika’s capability and openness."

In addition to the online post work, Mistika was also used in this project, to create and administer a camera chip pixel native source pool as DPX files. This in turn enabled the grading and finishing to function seamlessly with the same files in the SAN network. After Senior Colourist, Philipp Orgassa, had completed grading the film, Mistika was also used to then create the final, logarithmic, 1920 x 1634 true anamorphic format and digital master. Christian confirmed: "Due to the typical challenges that take place in the post process and high production levels, I am certain, without a doubt, that Mistika should be classified as one of the world’s top post production systems in the way it handled a project like this - effortlessly and fast with sheer power and stability!”
Life, Above All is an emotional and universal drama about a young girl, played by first-time-actress Khomotso Manyaka, who fights the fear and shame that have poisoned her community. The film captures the enduring strength of loyalty and a courage powered by the heart. It is based on the international award winning novel Chanda’s Secrets by Allan Stratton.
(BMcN/KMcA)