Framestore CFC provide more than 'just deserts' for Sahara

Framestore CFC's Digital Intermediate team was responsible for Sahara's beautifully crafted digital mastergrade.
In addition, the company's visual effects team created the film's title sequence, an elaborate and seamless motion-control sweep around a ship's cabin.
Working closely with Breck Eisner and his Director of Photography, Seamus McGarvey, BSC, Framestore CFC Colourist Adam Inglis digitally graded the two-hour film in five weeks.
Inglis successfully integrated nearly 400 VFX shots into the final footage, as well as dealing with the extensive colour correction and 'look' issues that inevitably arose when many of the action set pieces took place outdoors and were shot over many days.
Although he has a career stretching back over 10 years in the industry, with feature credits that include High Fidelity and The Hours, this was Director of Photography McGarvey's first experience of Digital Intermediate. Whilst shooting Sahara he'd made extensive use of a filter he'd developed with Schneider Optics called Sahara Gold. The filter took cool fill light out of shadows in-camera, and provided the DI team with a great looking negative.
Despite being a first time user of the DI process, McGarvey's experience in the industry meant that he knew something of what to expect. He shot footage as a normal film, but with the knowledge of how the DI could help match everything later. In addition, many subtle things were added during the DI that would not be possible in a normal film laboratory.
Sahara, based on Clive Cussler's novel, is Director Breck Eisner's feature debut. The film is a rip-roaring, old-school adventure, with a handsome hero, his trusty sidekick, a gorgeous heroine, thrilling chases and a world-in-peril theme.
A Paramount Pictures and Bristol Bay Productions picture, Sahara opened worldwide on April 8, comfortably taking the number one box office slots in the US and UK.
Starring Matthew McConaughey as master explorer Dirk Pitt the film features a treasure hunt through some of the most dangerous regions of West Africa. Searching for what locals call the 'Ship of Death' - a long lost Civil War battleship which protects a secret cargo.
Pitt and his sidekick (Steve Zahn)help Doctor Eva Rojas (Penelope Cruz), when they realise the ship may be linked to mysterious deaths in the very same area.
(CD/SP)