The series 'Pagan Peak' (Sky Deutschland) etaloned with DaVinci Resolve Studio

The DaVinci Resolve Studio program Blackmagic Design It was used to process the copies and carry out the grading of the mystery series Pagan Peak (The passport in German), broadcast by Sky Deutschland.

Winner of the German National Television Award for Best Drama Series, Pagan Peak focuses on several mysterious homicides that take place on the border between Germany and Austria. Two detectives, one from each country, with different approaches and perspectives, must work together to stop the terrifying killer.

The colorist Martin Szafranek collaborated with the head of photography Philip Peschlow and the directors Cyrill Boss y Philip Stenert in order to develop intuitive and emotional grading so that viewers better understood the characters' stories.

“Most of the story takes place in forests or alpine landscapes, so our goal was to achieve natural grading without too many pretensions,” explains Szafranek.

“I had complete freedom and tried to create looks based on the emotional tone of each scene, not location or continuity. “This approach contributes to the final style of the series.”

Color intensity

In the second season, the directors and the head of photography wanted to increase the intensity of the color without increasing the overall saturation.

“In addition to brighter tones for the interior walls, Philip in particular intuitively came up with the idea of ​​using red light, not because it was logical or realistic, but because it contributed to creating a specific mood,” adds Szafranek.

“My favorite scene begins with a close-up of Gideon, the Austrian policeman, in which he looks like he is locked up somewhere. In that case, I increased the intensity of the red throughout the image not only to convey a sense of threat and abstraction, but also with the purpose of generating doubt regarding where the character really is. Creating the look using DaVinci Resolve tools when processing the copies made the final grading much easier. “I just added some masks and used the temporary noise reduction feature, which is one of my favorites, to put the finishing touches.”

Despite having been responsible for copying and grading in the first season, Szafranek delegated these tasks to Torben Johnen y Kilian Maraz. “It was important to have a clear and collaborative relationship between us, given the diversity of styles and approaches in each scene. We made sure there was a constant dialogue, and the presence of DaVinci Resolve throughout the project and at every stage of the color adjustments greatly simplified the complexity of the creative process,” concludes Szafranek.

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