Tim Burton’s Dumbo Delivered in Dolby Vision with Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design has
today announced that DaVinci Resolve Studio was used throughout the full color
pipeline on Disney’s live action remake of Dumbo. Directed by Tim Burton with
a screenplay by Ehren Kruger, the DI was delivered by Goldcrest Post’s
Adam Glasman, who collaborated with Director of Photography Ben
Davis, BSC.

Using an ACES workflow
in DaVinci Resolve, Adam and Ben began preproduction by defining a warm,
golden-hour period look inspired by the layered colors of the original cell
animation’s minimalist production design. Finished in 2K to enhance the soft,
filmic quality of the rushes, the team had to cater to a variety of
different deliveries, including Dolby Vision 2D/3D, SDR 2D/3D, and both HDR and
SDR Rec 709.

“While a lot of
Dumbo was built and shot in-camera with amazing sets and many extras,
a decision was made early on that the animals and all the skies would be
CG,” says Adam, explaining that purpose built sets constructed against blue
screen backgrounds would be used to film Dumbo. The integration of fully
CG skies was crucial to reflect the expressionist, dramatic painted backdrops
of the original animation.

Using an ATEM Television
Studio HD switcher as part of the DIT workflow, the team was able to key in
several different dramatic sky reference images shot by Ben during
preproduction together with a live feed from the camera. With feedback
from Tim, these were then used to inform the lighting and mood of the
entire set.

“Tim was keen on keeping
a good level of contrast in everything to help integrate the computer
generated assets with the background,” Adam continues. “The VFX vendors (MPC)
were given references for how a scene would probably look and lit their CG
accordingly, so I had to be very careful not to spoil that.”

This was especially
important for the Dolby Vision deliveries reveals Adam. “The CG skies, for
instance, look amazing. If you compare a traditional DLP projection
at 48 NITs to the Dolby Vision version at 1000 NITs, you instantly notice that
you get a far wider color gamut with more added dimension with Dolby
Vision. The sky is just as bright as it would be in the real world, so you
have to treat it very sensitively.”

The DI wasn’t just about
maintaining the integrity of the picture, however. Working with Tim Burton also
meant there were plenty of opportunities to experiment with color too.

“Tim’s genius came to
light in a scene with Dumbo’s mother in a cage, with a strong
red light on her,” Adam concludes. “There are all these animals dressed up as
monsters in the cages surrounding Dumbo’s mother, and Tim just decided we
should give those other cages strong colors too. I had a lot of fun
making each monster a different hue, from bright green to ultraviolet.
It adds to the scene. Between the production design, cinematography, and
Tim’s vision, the whole film is visually stunning.”

About Blackmagic Design

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 real time film
scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast
industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched
a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, 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 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D
and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers,
Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia.
For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.