Hulu Series Interior Chinatown Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio Brie Clayton January 2, 2025
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Colorist Aidan Stanford delivers complex grade for multiple storylines and looks.
Blackmagic Design today announced that Hulu streaming series Interior Chinatown was graded by Supervising Colorist Aidan Stanford of ArsenalFX Color using DaVinci Resolve Studio editing, color grading, visual effects (VFX) and audio post production software. Stanford cited the grade as one of the most complicated he's ever done, but pushing himself creatively and working with a strong team helped him deliver the standout series.
From Charles Yu, series creator and executive producer and author of the bestselling novel, and executive producer and director Taika Waititi, Interior Chinatown follows Willis Wu (Jimmy O. Yang), a background character trapped in a police procedural who inadvertently witnesses a crime.
In the show, multiple storylines come together, all set apart by different grading approaches, not only in palette but texture as well, said Stanford. I was honored to be trusted with the grade by longtime collaborator and Cinematographer Mike Berlucchi who consistently pushes me out of my comfort zone. Cinematographer Tari Segal shot the even half of the episodes, and she was able to give a great guided tour of her thought processes as we moved from scene to scene, creating these crazy looks.
Stanford was tasked with creating a complex, colorful world for the main characters' living area, keeping true to the aesthetics of the different storylines. He maintained a vibrant, alive feeling for Chinatown while also applying a Law and Order cop show look, which he described as cool to blue, crispy and saturated, then transitioning to a more traditional film look later in the series.
The show LUT was comprised of custom curves and specific saturation controls, especially for Chinatown and the restaurant where most of the show takes place. During LUT testing, Mike initially found the looks too basic, so I sent him an aggressive version we called full body,' and it was exactly that. Tons of personality and complexity. A film style tone map, boosting specific hues of reds and greens while keeping skin tone saturation somewhat normal, he explained.
In the pilot, the cop show or procedural look comes on as the group enters the restaurant, so all the shapes had to be thought out ahead of time to move in and out of the procedural look that follows the cop show around, sometimes just in a small part of the frame, Stanford explained. I set the show up mostly grouped with specific LMTs (Look Modification Transform), such as cop show, Super 8, etc., in a node, along with a grain node for that specific look and sometimes a shape mimicking or enhancing the edge distortion qualities from the Panavision PVintage anamorphic lens they were shooting with intermittently on set.
There was already a light gag where the scene needed to transition in camera. The tricky thing was the look had not been completely locked for color or tone, so I fought the color a bit early on as we settled on the strength of it. Also, the grain goes from a gritty 35mm style to clean as the shot transitions, so it had to be nice and smooth, and I could not build it in a group node. I would sometimes create the looks for transitional shots in a separate group, starting with a clean, generic look (no grain, no edge blur, etc.) and building in the shot entering or leaving a look. So, adding the first or last shot that was going to transition from Chinatown look to cop show look, for example, in a dynamic way in the clip nodes for control.
Stanford also mimicked a few commercials, including a moody, two toned and golden whiskey commercial, a bright, colorful, poppy deodorant commercial, and a hot sauce commercial reminiscent of an 90s early HD video look, as well as nightmare scenes, which are in an apocalyptic style: extra contrast, bloomy highlights, desaturated shadows and grainy. We had so much fun, Stanford noted on transitioning mid shot from one look to the next, the creative process and resulting looks.
A few times I had to use the looks from prior episodes inside of mattes for monitors, including different grain and different LMTs. A lot of the looks repeated throughout the series, so I had to be organized and thoughtful about my approach. I took a lot of stills and labeled them as I went, he said. There was also heavy VFX, and I used Resolve OFX for grain, halation, glow, and Color Space Transform.
Normally the job of a colorist, for me at least, is to interpret captured material and use it to deliver an idea. So, for someone who may have limited knowledge of what can be done in color in the moment, it's an opportunity to get creative. I caught myself saying, Let's try this, I think I have an idea,' a lot during the sessions, he concluded. Creating a world that does the cinematography justice and getting the creatives excited has always been the best part for me.
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