Cannes Grand Jury Prize winner ‘Compartment No. 6’, graded with DaVinci Resolve

Colorist Sandra Klass decided to color grade the film Compartment no. 6, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the last Cannes Film Festival, mit Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve software.

Directed by Juho Kuosmanen and with cinematography by J-P Passi, the film is an adaptation of the novel written by Rosa Liksom in 2011. The film, which was shot on Kodak 500T negatives, tells the story of a young Finnish woman who takes a train from Moscow to visit an archaeological site in the Arctic Circle. Forced to travel in the same compartment with a stranger, the chance encounter gradually reconciles these two people at odds.

Klass emphasizes that from the very beginning they pursued the goal of achieving in Compartment no. 6 the “feel of the 90s movies.” “We liked the early scans, over saturated, with different mixed color sources,” she says.

The challenge of night shoots

One of the main challenges for Klass was the slightly underexposed dark areas, a consequence of filming night shots on the train: “Inevitably, some expressions were lost in those scenes. So, I tracked windows onto faces and lit them up. However, this created digital noise over the existing film grain”.

Fortunately, the colorist was able to overcome this using DaVinci Resolve: “I was able to add selective noise reduction, which left some of the grain, so it looked natural with the rest of the frame, but otherwise hid the large push up in exposure.” Klass is fully satisfied with the use of Blackmagic’s software in production: “I am a huge fan of the secondary saturation, hue and luminance controls in DaVinci Resolve. Simple tools that allow for subtle changes.”

Films screened at Cannes that were graded with DaVinci Resolve

Main Competition

• Benedetta colored by Serge Anthony / M141
• Bergman Island colored by Peter Bernaers / The Post Republic and Studio L’Equipe
• Everything Went fine colored by Richard Deusy / M141
• Flag Day colored by Stefan Sonnenfeld / Company 3
• Hytti nro 6 colored by Sandra Klass
• Red Rocket colored by Alastor Arnold / Fotokem
• The Divide colored by Christophe Bousquet / M141
• The French Dispatch colored by Gareth Spensley / Molinaire
• The Restless colored by Veerle Zeelmaekers / Studio L’Equipe

Un Certain Regard

• Blue Bayou colored by Tom Poole / Company 3
• Gaey Wa’r colored by Junkun Sheng / Cutting Edge Pictures
• Good Mother colored by Elie Akoka / M141 and won the Un Certain Regard Ensemble Prize
• Lamb colored by Eggert Baldvinsson / TrickShot and won the Un Certain Regard Prize of Originality
• Onoda colored by Gadiel Bendelac / Micro Climat Studios
• The Innocents colored by Emil Eriksson / Zentropa

International Critics’ Week

• Anaïs in Love colored by Serge Antony / M141
• Olga colored by Charles Freville / Micro Climat Studios
• Softie colored by Yov Moor / Micro Climat Studios
• Une jeune fille qui va bien colored by Richard Deusy / M141
• Zero Fucks Given colored by Loup Brenta / Cobalt Films

Special Screenings

• Bigger than us colored by Richard Deusy / Lumières Numériques and Poly-Son
• Mi Iubita Mon Amour, colored by Vincent Amor / Poly-Son
• The Crusade colored by Richard Deusy / Poly-Son

Short Film

• Lili Alone colored by Yov Moor / Poly-Son
• Soldat Noir colored by Charles Fréville / Poly-Son

Out of Competition

• Bloody Oranges colored by Gadiel Bendelac / Micro Climat Studios
• Stillwater colored by Tom Poole / Company 3

Midnight Screenings

• Suprêmes colored by Mathieu Caplanne / Poly-Son
• Tralala colored by Yov Moor / M141

Cannes Premiere

• Hold me tight colored by Richard Deusy / Poly-Son

Cinema de la Plage

• Tom Medina colored by Yov Moor / Poly-Son

Director’s Fortnight

• A Brighter Tomorrow colored by Christophe Bousquet / Poly-Son
• Between the Waves colored by Laurent Ripoll / Poly-Son
• Clara Sola colored by Peter Bernaers / Studio L’Equipe
• Our Men colored by Peter Bernaers / Cobalt Films
• Returning to Reims by Amine Berrada / Micro Climat Studios
• The Sea Ahead colored by Peter Bernaers / Cobalt Films

ACID

• Down with the King colored by Alex Berman / Goldcrest Post NY
• Soy Libre colored by Loup Brenta / Cobalt Films