The first feature film from writer-director Shaun Seneviratne, Ben and Suzanne: A Reunion in 4 Parts depicts the struggle between love and duty as Ben (Sathya Sridharan) steps out on a limb to rekindle his relationship with Suzanne (Anastasia Olowin), who can't escape the calls of her work. Seeking to make a film that felt grittier than the manicured qualities typically associated with romantic comedies, Seneviratne decided to employ non-actors in every role except the leads.
Complementing the decisions Seneviratne made in prep and on set with cinematographer Molly Scotti, Light Iron colorist Keith Jenson helped fine-tune the visual language in the final color grade, which took place at Light Iron New York ahead of the movie's world premiere at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival. Here, Seneviratne and Jenson share their perspectives on their memorable collaboration.
Light Iron: Shaun, what brought you to Light Iron for Ben and Suzanne?
Shaun Seneviratne: Our producer Doron J Paul Mitchell has a mutual friend with Freddy Hernandez, VP of business development at Light Iron. We felt Freddys passion and support for independent filmmaking, and the vibes were right! It just felt like Light Iron was the place to go.
How did the two of you discuss the desired look for the project to ensure you were seeing it the same way?
Seneviratne: I wanted the movie to have the look of a verit documentary particularly one shot in the '60s or '70s such as Tokyo Olympiad Jean Rouch films, and ric Rohmer's films. We were interested in keeping things natural and filmic; we weren't interested in applying more modern trends and looks. We also weren't afraid of contrast and were quite interested in playing with darkness and letting parts of the frame go fully black.
Keith Jenson: When we were first beginning the project, Shaun sent over stills from existing films that reminded him of scenes from his own film. Shaun had a really good idea of the sorts of tones and moods he was going for.
We got on a call so that we could both look at the references and talk them through, and during that call, Shaun and I discovered we had some pretty strong similarities in some pretty obscure and niche music. As creatives, we quickly realized that if we'd both gravitated to those interests independently, then we would probably be able to communicate a lot of the more abstract and esoteric ideas of color quickly basically, we could have a creative shorthand in the studio during our sessions. I think I can speak for both of us in that we walked away from that call excited to begin collaborating!
Seneviratne: Keith had shared his work on Eyimofe, which was very much in the vein of what we were trying to achieve. Also, Keiths background with film and telecine gave him an authentic perspective on how we could achieve a naturalistic film look.
What were some of your main areas of focus in the color grade?
Seneviratne: Shadow and highlight levels, saturation, authentic film texture principles, and how to approach the night scenes, which were an area where we allowed ourselves to be open to stylization.
Jenson: We really tried for an authentic filmic look with strong colors and strong contrast. The film itself has title cards against strong color backgrounds, and we didn't want those to feel out of place when they cut on screen, so the rest of the film had to have very prominent primaries and healthy saturation. To achieve this, we utilized the toolset inside of DaVinci Resolve. We built our own LUT utilizing some softening in the shadows, some halation effects, and some film grain. I like to apply different levels of film grain over top of each other to achieve a more photographic grain appearance that feels a bit less like an overlay filter.
Seneviratne: Keith spoke about what people sometimes get wrong with film grain, which is applying one uniform grain over the entire image. To truly emulate film grain, one needs to take into account how that grain looks over the highlights, mid tones and shadows.
Any final thoughts from your collaboration that you'd like to share?
Seneviratne: Keith is a great guy who was easy to collaborate with and had great taste and insight. Our DI producer at Light Iron, Bonnie Gross, was also instrumental in the process, always making sure everything was taken care of and that the process was super-smooth.
Jenson: It was an absolute pleasure to work with Shaun, [editor] Joe Violette, and Doron. We had a great time in the studio in what were extremely memorable sessions for me. It was some of the most fun I've had grading everything about our sessions went so smoothly. A lot of that is thanks to Bonnie Gross, who helped manage the entire project on our end. She was even able to wrangle large Toblerone chocolates to surprise everyone on our final session a comedically large Toblerone bar features in one aspect of the film. Bonnie and I would both love to work with Shaun and his team again!
Europe Stories
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/07/2026
New AI Assistant, Multi-channel Audio, ARA2 improvements & more
Tracktion's DAW software has just received its latest major update, gaining a selection ...
01/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
01/07/2026
Exclusive run of limited-edition modelling pedals
Sweetwater and Andertons M...
01/07/2026
UKTV has today announced the appointment of Matt Berry to the newly created role of General Manager - Marketing, effective 1 July.
Matt will take on this senio...
01/07/2026
Sky Zero Footprint Fund-backed TV campaign featuring Deborah Meaden challenges consumers to rethink everyday bathroom wasteWednesday 1 July 2026
Fussy asks Bri...
01/07/2026
Constituency-level analysis reveals where girls miss out most on sport - and where targeted action could unlock more than £640 million in economic and health be...
01/07/2026
Wuppertal July 1, 2026
Riedel and SKAARHOJ Expand Collaboration With SimplyLive IntegrationRiedel Communications today announced an expanded collaboration wit...
01/07/2026
Apple today introduced power-packed updates to Apple Creator Studio, a groundbre...
01/07/2026
Nectar360, the Retail Media, Loyalty and Insights business of the Sainsburys Gro...
01/07/2026
9.2 million streams on RT Player between 11 and 28 June
Reach of 2.9 million viewers during Group stages of FIFA World Cup on RT 2
23 million video views acr...
30/06/2026
Could your journalism reach an international stage?
Entries are now open for the Thomson Foundation's Young Journalist Award 2026, one of the most prestigi...
30/06/2026
Brings together saturation & lo-fi effects
Following on from the release of their Voxcraft vocal-processing plug-in, UJAM have announced the launch of Retro...
30/06/2026
New IR reverb engine, Juno-inspired chorus & more
The latest version of Rapid Flow's hardware-emulation synth plug-in expands on its predecessor with a ...
30/06/2026
Excels at heavy-handed VCA compression
For their latest release, Shy Audio have recreated the crunchy' sound of a rackmount compressor that found its w...
30/06/2026
Component scarcity drives cost increases
Shortly after Apple's CEO Tim Cook acknowledged that cost increases would soon be inevitable , the company hav...
30/06/2026
Hitachi and Bank Pekao S.A. have completed the installation of the first Hitachi...
30/06/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
29/06/2026
Four-layer instrument aimed at dark electronic music
Excite Audio's latest software instrument has been designed with dark drum and bass, atmospheric te...
29/06/2026
New AI Assistant, Multi-channel Audio, ARA2 improvements & more
Tracktion's DAW software has just received its latest major update, gaining a selection ...
29/06/2026
Details environmental policies & results
The Focusrite Group have just announced that following a long audit process, they have published their 2026 sustain...
29/06/2026
Arvato Systems Achieves AWS Cloud Operations Competency
The team behind the AWS Cloud Operations Competency (from left to right: Philipp Hellmich, Johanna Bod...
29/06/2026
RT today announced that Ger Gilroy will join the RT Podcasts team to present a daily sports podcast. Launching later this year, the new show will set the spor...
29/06/2026
RT Commercial announced OUTsurance as sponsor of the Oliver Callan show on RT Radio 1 from Wednesday 1 July.
Oliver Callan doubles the fun, delivering two ...
28/06/2026
Half-size model joins Console 1 line-up
Shortly after the release of their new Flow Studio controller, Softube have announced the launch of another new surf...
28/06/2026
New EXO Series DSP control software announced
EVE Audio's EXO Series monitor range has just gained a new software element that provides remote access to...
27/06/2026
Brings together saturation & lo-fi effects
Following on from the release of their Voxcraft vocal-processing plug-in, UJAM have announced the launch of Retro...
26/06/2026
Virtual session musician plug-in gains new percussion options
Celemony's latest update for their virtual session musician platform complements the exist...
26/06/2026
Half-size model joins Console 1 line-up
Shortly after the release of their new Flow Studio controller, Softube have announced the launch of another new surf...
26/06/2026
ELT Group and Rohde & Schwarz sign a cooperation agreement to explore commercial...
26/06/2026
Flicker Productions to produce five-part docu-reality series following women who have fallen for men in prison and have become TikTok sensations, with brands an...
26/06/2026
Catch up on the latest developments across Baselight and Daylight v7, Nara and F...
26/06/2026
26. June 2026 News
DFT is pleased to announce that a second Polar HQ film s...
26/06/2026
A fresh look at how the Irish helped shape the foundations of the United States
...
25/06/2026
Six free workshops across two days
Global music education platform Music Production for Women (MPW), have just announced a brand new and highly anticipated ...
25/06/2026
Popular pedalboard PSU gets an upgrade
The DC7 v2 is a new and improved version of the renowned effects pedal PSU from CIOKS, and is said to be the thinnest...
25/06/2026
Optimised for lush, enveloping sounds
Described as an instantly rewarding reverb , the latest addition to Arturia's range of creative effects plug-ins ...
25/06/2026
27 June 2026, Westminster University Harrow Campus
GearExpo UK is now upon us, with just two days to go until 150 of the worlds top pro-audio brands and ind...
25/06/2026
alt= data-nectar-img-srcset=https://www.antonbauer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/0...
25/06/2026
Thursday 25 June 2026
Read all about it! The Paper will return for a second sea...
25/06/2026
Thursday 25 June 2026
How to watch the 2026/27 EFL season on Sky Sports
Which EFL matches are Sky Sports showing on the 2026/27 opening weekend?
Sky Sports w...
25/06/2026
Launching today (Thursday 25 June), new RT podcast Ramble with Joe McGucken is a series of curiosity-driven conversations where actor, writer and comedian Joe ...
24/06/2026
Plus: VoiceAssist Basic now available to UA LUNA users
NoiseWorks Audio have just released an update that adds a new Mouth De-Click module to the Advanced t...
24/06/2026
New heavy-duty mic stand joins range
The latest arrival to Gator's Frameworks family introduces a new heavy-duty boom stand that's been designed for...
24/06/2026
Latest major plug-in update goes live
Waves have just announced that the latest major update for their hugely popular plug-in range is now officially availa...
24/06/2026
When assessing cellular coverage, many people look at the signal bars displayed on a smartphone, router or modem. More bars are often assumed to mean better per...
The first feature film from writer-director Shaun Seneviratne, Ben and Suzanne: A Reunion in 4 Parts depicts the struggle between love and duty as Ben (Sathya Sridharan) steps out on a limb to rekindle his relationship with Suzanne (Anastasia Olowin), who can't escape the calls of her work. Seeking to make a film that felt grittier than the manicured qualities typically associated with romantic comedies, Seneviratne decided to employ non-actors in every role except the leads.
