Virtuosity: the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition makes Music a grueling competition sport

Aside from his day job of being a great DP, cinematographer Steven Poster, ASC, is also the president of the International Cinematographer's Guild. One of his recent projects is Virtuosity, a wonderful new feature length documentary about the Van Cliburn piano competition that premieres this week on PBS. Steven worked on this moving production as the consulting director of photography and associate producer, over the past three years.

The film follows the lives of a group of thirty remarkable musicians, classically trained pianists from around the world, who came together for the quadrennial event that took place in the late Spring of 2013 in Fort Worth, Texas. The last Cliburn brought together competitors from around the world, ranging in age from 19 to 30 years of age, with the film following the weeks of intense competition while delving into their personal lives, aggregating into a remarkably emotional experience for viewers. Virtuosity was shot by cinematographer Larry McConkey, and, in Poster's words, Larry did a beautiful job!

Stated Poster, This was a very complicated production combining a feature length documentary and a 14-day live broadcast of the actual competition. I was able to work with director Chris Wilkinson, in pre-production, to design the photographic concept of the project. We chose Canon C300 cameras and lenses, not only because of the photographic quality of the chip, but also because of its low light capability. The complicated workflow involved a broadcast truck for the competition, which streamed the entire contest for 14 days. That footage was also recorded internally on the cameras for later use on the documentary. Technicolor was extremely helpful in designing our workflow from beginning to end.

OFFICIAL TRAILER: Virtuosity - the story of the Fourteenth Cliburn Competition from The Cliburn on Vimeo.

After the competition, Wilkinson and McConkey took-off on an around-the-world tour to work with key contestants that were covered in the movie. Elaborates Poster, One of my considerations for the look of this movie had to do with the fact that there were several different kinds of materials that had to be combined for the final product. This gave all of the footage, documentary or concert, a consistent look during digital intermediate at Technicolor, which I supervised. This proved that the concept of bringing together all the different types of footage blended beautifully to give the movie a cohesive look.

At Technicolor, the project producer was Christine Dougherty, while the DI-finishing was handled by senior colorist Jason Fabbro.

LINK:	http://www.technicolor.com/en/who-we-are/press-news-center/news/virtuo...
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