Cannes 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, with 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 达芬奇决心: “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

羊肉 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