Singapores Oscar-Qualified Film Benjamin's Last Day at Katong Swimming Complex Colored on DaVinci Resolve

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Blackmagic Design today announced that DaVinci Resolve was used to color grade the film Benjamin's Last Day at Katong Swimming Complex'. The film, finished in HDR, recently won the George Lucas Award at Japan's most prestigious short film competition.

The film, a visual ode to a simpler past, beat out 10,000 other submissions from 130 countries and territories to qualify for nomination in the live action short film category of the Oscars.

Feel was central to showing and not telling the story. Shots in the past had a vintage aged film quality to rewind the audience back to a time before everything became so digital, says Chai Yee Wei, Director of Benjamin's Last Day at Katong Swimming Complex'. Muted pastels with a pronounced coral color lift was a familiar frame in 1970s pictures of Singapore. This turquoise and cotton candy palette set the mood for the film and was responsible for the beautiful even stitch of shots from various days and even from separate locations!

I first drew inspiration from art and photography from the 50s & 60s, including David Hockneys paintings, and the photography of Slim Aarons, which I felt fit the mood that was discussed with the DOP and Director. Grading the footage was an interesting challenge. I had to somehow sell the overcast scenes as a bright, happy pastel childhood memory, and a combination of an army of keyers, curves and primaries in DaVinci Resolve helped to not only sell the idealized weather, but also in terms of shot matching, explains Chen Jun Bin, colorist for Benjamin's Last Day at Katong Swimming Complex'.

He continued: Resolve's OFX grain tool was also key to demarcate how deep into the memory we went - I varied the intensity of the grain depending on the scenes. The echoes in the soundtrack inspired me to also give the poolside scene a particular glisten and bloom to the highlights to evoke a sense of reminiscence. I achieved this with a combination of the keyer and the Resolve OFX Glow tool.

We wanted the highest quality to future proof this film so we shot in 8K. We color graded the 8K footage on the Mac Pro, dual-1080ti machine first for P3 output for cinema. Then we color managed and graded a 709 ProRes version for television. We then shifted the DaVinci Resolve project file onto an iMac Pro and regraded the material for HDR output when our facility, Mocha Chai Laboratories became Dolby certified and our staff was trained to deliver to Dolby Vision HDR standards, said Chai Yee Wei, Director of Mocha Chai Laboratories.

DaVinci Resolve's color management system allowed for seamless workflow across the color spaces and we were able to process 8K raw footages with great ease. Mocha Chai Lab will continue to use DaVinci Resolve for our future Dolby Vision HDR projects. Being at the forefront of technology allows us to expand the scale of visual products we can offer channel owners, Chai Yee Wei said.

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About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world's highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design's DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company's Emmy award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com

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