Inside the Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man Grade

Inside the Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man Grade

Brie Clayton June 3, 2026

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Simone Grattarola discusses shaping the look in DaVinci Resolve Studio, including final theatrical and HDR grades.

Senior Colorist Simone Grattarola (Time Based Arts) reunited with Director Tom Harper and Cinematographer George Steel for Netflix's Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, a feature length instalment that's set in Birmingham during the 1940 Blitz of World War II.

Completed at Dirty Looks and incorporating Cinelab Film and Digital's digital film development (DFD) process, the production combines large format digital capture with film shot reference material and a photochemical pass to help shape a more organic look for the big screen, while also preparing the film for its Netflix release.

The DFD stage involved recording the digital master to Kodak 50D negative film via a high speed 4K film recorder before processing and scanning it back to digital for a final pass in DaVinci Resolve Studio editing, color grading, visual effects (VFX) and audio post production software.

Blackmagic Design spoke to Grattarola about developing the look in prep, working in DaVinci Resolve Studio, and the grading and finishing decisions that shaped the final images.

Talk us through your early conversations with [Director Tom] Harper and [Cinematographer George] Steel. What did you want to achieve with the look?

In our early conversations, Tom and George were very clear that they wanted to make it as cinematic as possible. The film would have a theatrical release before living on Netflix, whereas the original series was always destined for television.

What's interesting is that when we first did series one, we already wanted something that evoked the cinema we grew up with. We were inspired by '70s westerns. Films like McCabe and Mrs. Miller and Heaven's Gate. This film gave us the opportunity to really lean into that idea with more scope and scale. That became the creative hook.

How did the look evolve from the original series?

The early series has a smoky, desaturated palette that was consistent with industrial Birmingham, with yellows, greens and a constant haze. For the film, we took inspiration from 1930s, 40s and 50s technicolor, introducing a richer palette, including more pinks. A lot of the identity comes from the world itself with the costumes and art direction, so we built on top of that and expanded for cinema.

You explored shooting on film. How did that influence the final look?

We did extensive testing with digital cameras and film stocks. Ideally, we would have shot everything on film, but there were practical restrictions, so around 10 to 15 percent was shot on film and that became our reference. Initially, we used tools in Resolve and plugins from Video Village to emulate film grain, halation and so on. But we realized something: everything was becoming too controlled. Too perfect. The magic of film comes from the chemical process, where you get anomalies and imperfections you can't really manage. That changed how we approached the grade.

You used a DFD process. What did that add to the image?

We worked with CineLab on a DFD process, sending the graded film out to be processed and then bringing it back for a final pass. That introduced subtle inconsistencies. Sometimes a shot would come back slightly bluer or more magenta, or the skin tones would shift. Normally, your instinct is to fix those things. However, we chose to keep them, because embracing that made the image feel more authentic and closer to our references.

How did you work with production to stay aligned on the look during the shoot?

I was involved very early during the camera testing and it was probably the most extensive testing I've done on a project. Because of that we had a clear direction. George would often send stills or takes from set so I could start experimenting with the grade. Those graded key frames were shared with the team, and the editor even had them pinned on the wall during the edit. So, by the time we reached the final grade, a lot of the look was already there.

Were there any particularly challenging scenes to grade?

There was a bombing sequence early in the film that was quite complex. The lighting shifts constantly with characters moving between shadow and direct sunlight. Matching those shots required a lot of craft. Power Windows, contrast adjustments, added haze depth mapping and diffusion tools like Scatter all helped.

There was another scene where the background wasn't quite working and the depth map tool was really useful there. It allowed me to separate the foreground from the background and sculp the environment without affecting the characters.

How did you approach the HDR version for Netflix alongside the theatrical grade?

Because the film had a cinema release, we graded the full theatrical version first. Early in the process we tested how the image would translate to HDR so we knew the transition would work. Most viewers will ultimately see it that way, so it was important to consider, but we didn't want HDR to restrict the theatrical grade.

When we moved to HDR, we made a relatively minimal translation. Cinema projection naturally softens contrast, especially in venues with ambient light, whereas HDR displays are much punchier. In the grade, we mainly adjusted black levels and spectral highlights to finetune the image. It was less about matching it in a very technical way and more about asking whether it felt the same as the cinema version.

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