Directed by Chris Reed and starring Taiwanese artist Jimmy Lin, China’s “Princess of Ballet” Hou Honglan, Chinese actress Ni Ni, known for her debut in Zhang Yi Mou’s “The Flowers in War" and the stunning Jaguar F-Type convertible sports car, the short films were produced by Gwantsi, one of the leading production companies in China. Despite the tight color grading schedule, the team’s goal was to produce three films that reflected the elegance of the Jaguar F-Type.

"The three films required us to grade more than five hundred shots in three days, but as the director and cinematographer, Chris didn’t want to compromise quality because of the tight schedule and was strict as always with the way the footage was graded to ensure a filmic look," said Aaron. "Thanks to DaVinci Resolve’s tools and efficient color grading, we achieved the goal on time."

Developing the look of the Jaguar F-Type was paramount for Chris, and as the footage from the shoots was not consistent, extensive color correction was required to achieve the perfect look to show off the Jaguar F-Type. 

"The F-Type Jimmy Lin drives in the films is orange, but the original footage looked flat and the color of the car changed between scenes due to varying lighting," explained Aaron. "Chris insisted on working hard in primaries first to bring back the color, instead of directly pulling a chroma key, to ensure the image looked real. 

"That sort of increased the complexity, but there was always a tool in DaVinci Resolve that could increase my flexibility and help me meet Chris' requirements," he continued. “In this case, the custom curves enabled me to fix the color of the car in primaries and make sure the image looked more natural and realistic."

Aaron also noted how DaVinci Resolve’s node based grading was key to an efficient workflow. "Every time Chris requested a tweak to the grade, I could easily make the adjustment by adding or removing nodes until he gave it a green light," said Aaron. "Sometimes Chris might hesitate when he needed to make a choice between different grades for a shot, and DaVinci Resolve allowed me to quickly show him the grade he wanted to review by turning on and off any of the nodes, which made his decision making process easier and faster. 

"Flagging is another great efficient feature for projects like the F-Type films because it let me locate a shot or quickly find a grade among hundreds of shots," he continued. "Before grading, when Chris was establishing the key shots and identifying problems, I tagged the key shots with red flags and the problematic ones with blue flags. And even during grading, I also tagged different grades with flags. Whenever Chris wanted to see a shot or grade, I was always able to find it in no time because the flags guided me. 

"DaVinci Resolve’s object tracking was also used constantly. I just needed to specify the object to track, and DaVinci Resolve would automatically do the rest. That saved me a lot of time," concluded Aaron.

"Overall, I am very happy with the final looks for the three films. DaVinci Resolve can make good shots look great and great shots look amazing," said Chris.

Press Photography 
Product photos of DaVinci Resolve are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/press/images.

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and film restoration software for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including stereoscopic 3D and 4K workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore, and Australia. For more information, please check www.blackmagicdesign.com.

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