A cool combination of creative non-linear video editing capabilities, high-end finishing, and the most state-of-the-art color correction components in the whole universe, Blackmagic’s Divinci Resolve 12 is the top professional editing system of choice embraced and demanded by today’s most creative and persnickety Hollywood filmmakers. It’s no surprise then that cinematographer Benoît Delhomme (who has the reputation in the movie-making industry as one of the most color-sensitive cinematographers) insisted upon working with a Digital Imaging Technician who had the skills to fully utilize the DaVinci Resolve 12 online editing software solution to instantly and creatively alter and enhance the color on the dailies footage during the filming of Delhomme’s The Theory of Everything. Armed with the beloved Divinci Resolve 12, DIT Christopher Nunn was able to successfully provide Delhomme with fully-graded scenes to review each day on the set ~ thus giving Delhomme the opportunity to make immediate changes to his cinematographic choices if/when desired, as well as making the whole process smoother and more streamlined. Without a hitch, the power and subtlety of the DaVinci Resolve 12 was able to easily match Delhomme’s incredibly high standards for quality in the dailies being sent to the editorial and to the cloud. Since color played such a significant role in the film’s story line, Delhomme wanted strong monochromatic ambiances to capture the symbolism ever-present throughout the film ~ especially in a very moody scene like the one where the actor playing Steven Hawking is watching TV after hearing his diagnosis of motor neuron disease and the sunlight shines through the window’s red curtains, creating an almost womb-like glow to the room. In this instance, Nunn relied on Resolve 12’s hue and saturation curves and the system’s sophisticated color selection tool set to maintain the natural skin tones of the actor.
To meet the high cinematography standards and Delhomme’s expectations from the get-go, Nunn equipped the system with a MacPro which was, in turn, equipped with a Blackmagic Design DeckLink I/O card and a GTX680 GPU. Numerous times throughout the production of the film, DaVinci Resolve’s invaluable abilities were ever-present ~ enabling such nuances as creating so-ever-subtle color refinements to scenes with sophisticated selection curves, adding a dynamic grade on a moving shot between contrasting exposures, and adding a vignette to an undesirable color.
The Theory of Everything was a beautiful film for many reasons, one of which is its soul-stirring cinematography made possible with Blackmagic Design.
