• Blogs
• Tradeshows
• Partners
• White Papers
• Events

Wild Ride

Sep 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Michael Goldman

On the road with Sean Penn and his team.

The DI

The digital intermediate was performed by colorist Stefan Sonnenfeld at Company 3, based on a template for the palette that he and dailies colorist Sean Beach worked out with Penn, Gautier, Cassidy, and production designer Derek Hill. Cassidy and Gautier both agree that Company 3 and Penn's team were “so diligent about color all the way through dailies,” in Cassidy's words, that the DI sessions were quick and efficient.

For the DI, filmmakers started with an initial color pass of their conformed 2K scans, using an Avid output of the cut as color reference, and then, they performed a more complete second color pass, output the movie to HD for preview screening purposes, and continued fine-tuning the film through a series of additional sessions at Company 3.

“The DI was pretty fast, largely because of Stefan Sonnenfeld's talent and intelligence, and also because I prefer to expose the negative very precisely,” Gautier says. “[A big reason] why I don't believe in making the image in post is because you have less imagination [in that setting] than when you are on set, with the crew, working with all departments, and watching and listening to the director work with the actors. Final color timing is obviously very important, but only to finalize what was in your imagination and vision when you were on set.”

Indeed, Penn echoes this sentiment by suggesting that the DI was essentially the culmination of an ongoing, highly collaborative editing process that began during the earliest days of shooting.

“For me, the greatest advantage of working off a DI is that your editing takes place somewhere close to what will be the final tone of the look,” Penn says. “[Gautier's choices] in terms of those things best achieved in-camera, and those things shot to be completed in the DI process, varied. But, in general, I would say that the in-camera look remained the foundation of every other choice we made. Where Stefan Sonnenfeld and his team came in, and everybody that works with him will tell you this, is at that vital moment where the cinematographer, the editor, and the director are losing the freshness of their eye with the material. Stefan's team has the skill, the taste, and the talent to continue the filmmaker's fresh-eyed vision. Simply put, they ‘got’ what we were looking for, and were extremely helpful in our being able to achieve it.”

For a breakdown of a visual effects sequence from Into the Wild, click here.

---

Penn at the Helm

Into the Wild represents Sean Penn's first directorial effort since 2001's The Pledge, and a lot has changed in the art and science of filmmaking during those six years — such as the infiltration of the digital intermediate process into the equation and the growing use of digital camera technology, among other things.

While Penn did opt for a DI, however, he says he never entertained the thought of shooting the movie digitally.

“The way the film was financed, we had to jump straight into shooting in a committed and aggressive approach, and make adjustments as necessary,” Penn says. “So I never considered shooting this movie in HD — if for no other reason than I don't have a command of the technology. I wasn't against Dylan going electric, but I wouldn't recommend it to just any acoustic guitar player. I'm not well enough acquainted with HD technology to have fallen in love with it, but I've had a long-term affair with film.”

Penn will admit, however, to being a more mature director than he was in 2001, and he credits the rigors of Into the Wild with making him a more knowledgeable, efficient, and philosophical helmer.

“Filmmaking, like martial arts and the handling of weapons, is a perishable skill,” he says. “If you're not doing it every day, you're losing a bit of it every day. But, in the creative arts, this is largely a good thing. It's exhilarating to learn and re-learn simultaneously. It's something like muscle memory — one might not have the strength they left the gym with a year earlier, but the knowledge is stored in the cells, and each time one re-approaches the gym, they know how to get stronger faster, better, more efficiently. That's been my experience.

“Having said that, each film has a set of challenges that are unique, and therefore can't be practiced, and Into the Wild certainly had its share of that — so much so that I think it benefited from the sensation similar to what a director experiences when making his or her first film. Only this time, when presented with the challenge, the trucks, and the bodies looking for leadership, I didn't have the same silent thought that I had on my first film, which was, ‘Holy shit, where are the adults? Who is going to call the plumber?’ This time around, I knew I was either going to find that person in the mirror, or this was going to be a very long shoot.”
— M.G.

© 2008 Penton Media, Inc.