disgrace
march 2008
Steve Jacobs' Disgrace completed with Efilm's Lustre Incinerator
In the first major outing of its super-fast, super-flexible Lustre Incinerator grading system, Efilm Australia is just completing a 4K Digital Intermediate of Steve Jacobs' film Disgrace - an adaptation of J.M. Coetzee's Booker prize-winning novel of the same name.
Efilm's digital grading system is the Eworks version of Lustre Incinerator, available exclusively to Efilm facilities. Running much faster than other versions of Lustre, it makes it possible to achieve many more creative options without any delay for the filmmaker.
After negative was scanned at 4K for maximum resolution, Efilm's senior colorist Olivier Fontenay embarked on a series of highly creative grading sessions with Jacobs and Director of Photography Steve Arnold. They required a highly specific "look" for the film, which was achievable thanks to the speed and creative power of the Lustre system.
"This was the first opportunity we had to really put Incinerator though its paces" explained Efilm's General Manager Anthos Simon. "at times we had up to fifteen different grading windows on a shot (to make local colour corrections to part of a frame) - and the machine was still able to display the colour grade at 2K in real time."
During the shoot, Olivier Fontenay had travelled to the locations in South Africa to join Jacobs and Arnold on set, ensuring that there was continuity of the look and colour of the film from the start right through to the final print.
The South African shot was followed by a shorter shoot in Australia, with the rushes negative processed at Atlab prior to the DI at Efilm next door.
The film was shot in 35mm 3-perf, and was finally recorded back out to film at 4K resolution, in 1:2.39 anamorphic ratio. Colorist Olivier Fontenay was also on hand to ensure the final colour balance of the Atlab answer print was exactly as desired Ð proving the value of the same pair of eyes following all through and controlling every step of the process. The overall integrity of the process is further assured as Efilm is now following up with the grade for the Digital video master - guaranteeing exactly the same results.
Starring John Malkovich, Disgrace tells the story of a South African university lecturer who retreats to his daughter's farm after an ill-judged affair with a student. The book was adapted by Anna Maria Monticelli who also co-produced the film with Jacobs.