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For the documentary film “Los Viejos” by director Rosana Matecki, the photographer Nicolás Villegas wanted to match the look of the SONY FS7 camera to an ALEXA, and then prepare a Luts to make greens in the low lights and oranges on the high lights. This complementary combination made a soft contrast that emotionally bonded the narrative of the film and the way of telling the story of three Cuban musicians fallen on hard times because of their old age. Orange as a force of the soul and spotted blacks in close proximity to body exhaustion.
We tested some default TIFFEN looks that simulate films such as: Fuji 400, Kodak Gold, Kodak Vision 50D – to mention a few – and an ALEXA LUTs for SONY FS7, which proved to be the most interesting and suited for the tonality of the film. Thanks to the possibility of using the Key in Resolve, the aggressiveness of the LUTs could be dosed, using only 60 %, together with the application of contrasts and saturations in selective mode.
I will display a contact sheet to summarize the changes suffered by the image, some destructive, others that pointed in the right direction. It is important to highlight that all this work was done at a distance – director/DP/color station were in different countries – and without having worked previously with the colorist. At the end of the day we managed to understand the meaning of the skin-geography, warm texture, just as the life of the musicians of this magnificent story.
LUTs Variations from original capture
Original Capture + Levels
Original capture + levels + Luts
