da Vinci Systems help add hyper-realism to ‘TropiX’

da Vinci Systems’ 2K colour enhancement system has been used to in the production of the independent film, ‘TropiX’, the company have announced.
‘TropiX’, a ‘paradise noir’ film from co-directors and producers Percy Angress and Livia Linden, was shot on 35mm against a Costa Rican backdrop of colourful beaches and lush jungle settings. To ensure that the full impact of these scenes would be evident in the final version of the film, Angress, Linden, and Director of Photography Luc Nicknair had the film transferred to 24p HD for colour correction with the 2K.
Livia Linden, who wrote the film’s screenplay, noted: “Hyper-realism is the key to this film. We really wanted to push the envelope with respect to realism and colours were a vital element.”
Nicknair used four different Fuji film stocks to accommodate the film's broad range of colour, light, and environment, which included a variety of beach exteriors; dense, canopied jungle scenes featuring emerald green vegetation; and interior scenes lit and shot in a 1940s film noir style.
Nicknair and Angress handed the film over to Lenny Fohrer, senior colourist at CCI Digital in Burbank, Calif. with confidence that he could help them achieve the magical tropical look they wanted.
Angress added: “Colours were very important to our vision of this film and we wanted vibrancy with almost a Technicolor look. The beautiful telecine-to-video dailies we’d been seeing lost saturation and the colour muddied out in our answer prints. We struck an interpositive and Lenny was able to use the 2K to bring back everything we had seen and more.”
There were several scenes in the film in which the bananas were green, not ripe yet, so in a matter of minutes, Fohrer used the 2K's superkilovectors to turn them to a nice familiar yellow. In beach shots with the horizon in the background, Angress wanted characters in the foreground to stand out.
With the 2K's power windows, Fohrer isolated the sky to maintain a beautiful dusky sunset while keeping the appearance of the foreground as Angress and Linden wanted.
Nicknair added: “Lenny was able to get the vibrant colours that I had lit for and take them further. With the Spirit telecine and da Vinci 2K at his command, he was able to achieve everything we wanted and with little tweaks we couldn’t have made otherwise. We’re all very happy with the look he produced.”
(KmcA)