Film Factory Creates Innovative Color Pipeline for The Immortals | Below the Line

Paris-based post house Film Factory recently finished Relativity Media’s The Immortals. To help bring the visually rich film to fruition, Film Factory senior colorist and postproduction supervisor Lionel Kopp collaborated with the filmmakers to create a unique dailies-to-DI process built around Image Systems’ Nucoda Film Master.

The visual effects-heavy movie, releasing in 2D and 3D, required cutting-edge looks and the right tools to create a strong graphical vision for the story. The Nucoda grading and mastering system gave the company the toolset necessary to achieve the surreal look, and streamlined the workflow, which included over 12 VFX houses around the globe.

From the producers of 300 and director Tarsem Singh, The Immortals is the mythical tale of a power-mad king (played by Mickey Rourke) who assails ancient Greece and threatens to destroy mankind, until a young villager (played by Henry Cavill) rises up against him. The movie was produced in Montreal, and photographed by cinematographer Brendan Galvin.

Film Factory established a workflow that centered around the Nucoda Film Master, which married an on-set process to the final color pass. The Film Master system, which included a SAN and Nucoda Fuse assist station, were installed on set at Mel’s Studios in Montreal. On set, camera dailies from the Panavision Genesis HD camera were sent to the editing room in DNX 175 format with color settings. Those settings were carried through in dailies, with the raw camera data held for future changes and final color. Kopp graded every take from the first day of dailies through completion of the DI, helping to establish a look from the earliest point possible. In dailies, he could adjust the looks with notes from the director or cinematographer, and make ongoing changes to the images. As visual effects came in, they were graded and cut, creating a unified version.

“The Nucoda grading and mastering solution was the hub for everything, which was a powerful home base,” said Kopp. “Dailies settings, visual effects, and the DI were all managed in the Nucoda Film Master.”

Film Factory had made the decision to control the postproduction of the movie in-house. Film Factory’s second colorist Marc Boucrot explained, “A DI, especially one for a huge movie, is usually done in a big postproduction facility, but Film Factory saw value and flexibility in keeping the process in-house. Since most companies don’t have the expertise to build a fully functional and successful DI pipeline, we set out to make it happen. Film Factory built a screening environment and color timing areas right by the production offices. It was a risk, but it was a great success creatively and logistically.”

Kopp added that “our thoughts about how to bring the creative vision of the filmmakers to life was greatly helped by the Nucoda Film Master. It was extremely helpful to be able to start ‘grading’ the film from day one, incorporating color graded visual effects and easily moving elements between set, editorial and DI.”

The Immortals is a 2D and 3D release, but 90% of the feature was shot in 2D. “When we received the conform of the 3D material, we were able to go into the Nucoda and do a final pass of the stereoscopic material,” explained Kopp. “We brought in the senior stereographer from the production to make sure everything was in order for the 3D, and the Nucoda helped make that process flawless.”

“The movie looks incredible; it’s a visual accomplishment, and we are honored to work with Lionel and our talented customers at Film Factory,” said Martin Bennett, MD of media for Image Systems. “We are excited to continue our relationship with them on Mirror Mirror, currently in postproduction, and 10 other films in the pipeline.”

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Immortals Review By J. David - MovieWeb.com

If it's a crime to sit back and enjoy a film for what it is simply because you're an educated film buff, then I should probably be serving a life sentence in Guantanamo Bay. Throughout the years, I've sat through some of the dumbest films to ever grace the screen and still walk out with a smile on my face. Call them guilty pleasures or call me crazy (I don't care which), but I'm not exactly difficult to entertain. To satisfy completely? Yes, but not to entertain. Enter Immortals, the new special effects orgy from the producers of 300 and starring Superman-to-be Henry Cavill, a film that's tone deaf, but propulsively entertaining.

Taking three Greek mythology stories and mixing them into a single film, Immortals follows Theseus, a peasant chosen by the Gods to lead an army against the evil King Hyperion, a tyrant bent on unleashing the Titans from the depths of Mt. Tartarus and thus, declaring war on the heavens.

It's rare for a film to be able to balance out being one of the best films of the year, as well as one of the worst, but Immortals manages to pull it off effortlessly. It's home to some of the most spectacular visual effects seen on camera this year, some fine performances from it's rising stars, and tremendous action pieces. However, it's also home to one of the most underwritten and poorly conceived screenplays of the year and a story so haphazardly strung together, it makes Clash of the Titans (both versions I might add) look like The Lord of the Rings. Does that make it a tough sit? Not if you're willing to embrace its stupidity and relish in the carnage for little more than ninety minutes.

I'm relatively unfamiliar with director Tarsem Singh (and after that Mirror, Mirror trailer, I'm not sure I want to be), but from what I understand, his sophomore effort The Fall is a near masterpiece. Well, either that film has an infinitely better screenplay or it was his passion project because he's absolutely clueless here. The entire story is thrown together with the cohesiveness of a Bud Light commercial. For the first half of the film, nothing makes sense. A premise is brought to fruition revolving around a mythical bow that shoots energy-flared arrows, but its origins and purpose is never explained. It's simply there to provide the hero with a quest and the villain with a target. Plus, the characters have no charisma.......at all. And because of that, the first half of the film is, quite frankly, just flat-out boring, devoid of any real purpose or excitement.

Now, let's place that little rant aside and talk about the goods. And by that I mean the incredible blending of sets and CG locations, the intricate costume designs, and the beautiful action sequences. Singh may be slack with story, but the man is undeniably a cinematic artist, rivaling even Zack Snyder (who's a better director, but you know what I mean). His camera work is flawless, his timing perfect, his choreography breathtaking, and his sun-baked color palette magnificent. Let this be advice to future directors who find themselves with a script as bad as this one. Take Singh's path and abandon the story in the third act and deliver the bloody goods. It'll at the very least make up for the sluggish build-up. It did for me anyways. The final showdown between the Gods and Titans has to be one of the most entertaining bloodbaths I've seen since the producers' own 300. It alone is worth the price of admission.

The performances are much better. Fear not Superman fans, Henry Cavill is perfectly fit to don the cape. Here, he displays the amount of intensity to make his one-dimensional character shine when he needs to and conjures up just enough emotion to make Theseus likable. Mickey Rourke, on the other hand, steals the show as King Hyperion and shows off his inner barbarian that never quite escaped in Iron Man 2. If there were an Oscar category for best villain, he would certainly be in the running. Luke Evans, though somewhat channeling his doppelganger James McAvoy, makes for a solid Zeus, though not as fierce or intimidating as Liam Neeson. Frieda Pinto is, well, hot. She isn't given much to do, so at least she works as eye-candy, and John Hurt, brief as his role is, isn't useless.

Whenever the fighting isn't onscreen, Immortals is a near-unbearable slog. But whenever things heat up it transforms into one of the best spectacles of the year. Whether you feel the urge to experience it is your choice, but should you choose to invest in a ticket, make sure your brain is off and your popcorn bag heavy. It's the only way to walk away happy.

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‘Immortals’ wins weekend box office - Arts - The Boston Globe

The gods of ancient Greece have extended their rule to the weekend box office with a No. 1 debut for the action tale “Immortals.’’ The story of Greek hero Theseus took in $32 million domestically, while Adam Sandler’s comedy “Jack and Jill’’ opened at No. 2 with $26 million, according to studio estimates yesterday. The new movies bumped the animated hit “Puss in Boots’’ to the No. 3 spot after two weekends at the top. “Puss in Boots’’ earned $25.5 million, raising its domestic total to $108.8 million. Director Clint Eastwood’s “J. Edgar,’’ a film biography starring Leonardo DiCaprio as longtime FBI boss J. Edgar Hoover, played in narrower release and opened at No. 5 with $11.5 million.

We are family

"It's just really a great experience to enjoy feeling like an equal on the set and that it's not a machine, it's a family." - Kellan Lutz, "Twilight" actor, to the Hollywood Reporter, about his new hit, "Immortals."

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