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Contrasting Colors

Jan 1, 2006 12:00 PM, By Michael Goldman

Color grading was crucial for both King Kong and Munich, but radically different approaches exemplify the ‘traditional versus digital’ debate.

Related Links

For a thorough look into the complex photochemical processes used to establish the colors of Munich, click here.

For a detailed look at the development of King Kong's color grading pipeline in synergy with the film's visual effects pipeline at Weta Digital, click here.

Peter Jackson's King Kong and Steven Spielberg's Munich basically have just two things in common. First, they are two of the most high-profile and important films to come out in late 2005, and second, both relied extensively on carefully crafted color schemes designed to help achieve creative goals and impact audiences emotionally.

That's where the similarities end. The differences in how each film achieved its color goals clearly illustrate the industry's ongoing transition from the laboratory to the digital intermediate suite for color grading, and the often passionate concerns raised by many in the industry about this transition.

The King Kong team built a state-of-the-art color grading department at WETA Digital in New Zealand specially for King Kong, with a strategic goal of unifying the film's digital effects and digital color grading pipelines to ensure seamless matching of digital and live-action elements, and to improve efficiency. The Munich team, on the other hand, spearheaded by DP Janusz Kaminski, achieved all of its color goals in-camera, along with the use of traditional photochemical techniques in a laboratory at Technicolor, North Hollywood. Kaminski points to his success achieving Spielberg's and his desired color palette traditionally to illustrate a larger point that concerns him as he, and Spielberg, continue to resist the trend toward digital intermediates. That point: the subtleties and specialized skill sets that come from working on film negatives in a laboratory setting are being overlooked as many so-called “digital colorists” enter the DI realm, moving from video work, commercials, and so forth, onto major feature films.

Following are case studies examining the color grading approaches and pipelines for both films, along with issues and trends and concerns of some of the key players involved in both projects, plus a look at shooting Munich and at the recently completed digital restoration project for the original King Kong.

Continue the discussion on “Crosstalk” the Millimeter Forum.
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