LOS ANGELES — Joe Finley of LA-based post production facility Chainsaw, a SIM Group company (www.simgroup.com), is grading HBO’s Emmy Award-winning series Game of Thrones with Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve Studio. Finley has graded the series with DaVinci Resolve Studio since 2012, and with Season 5’s finale in June, anticipations are already high for the Season 6 premiere in 2016.
Based on the bestselling fantasy book series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin, HBO's Game of Thrones is an epic story of treachery and nobility, set on the continent of Westeros, where summers and winters can last years. Finley explains that the use of different color palates takes you on a journey and allows the viewer to know exactly where they are throughout the seven kingdoms of the realm.
He relies on DaVinci Resolve’s custom curves, secondaries, keyer and compositing to help create the nuanced looks and colors of the show. And he is able to show different looks in real time. “Resolve is fast, and this is part of why I love using it. It works in real time with no rendering, which is very helpful if I have to show different looks,” says Finley.
While nuanced color is important for distinguishing between locations and storylines, for the overall look of the show, Finley is tasked with delivering a very rich film look. “Regardless of the theme of the episode and whether we are going for a vibrant or muted color, I always give the footage a real film look. The highest possible feature look you can get without actually shooting on film.
“When working with LOG material, you need a great starting point to give it a film look. The ability to use the LOG rhythmic side of color correction in harmony with linear, regular color correction to manipulate the whites and the blacks is a tool in Resolve that I use constantly,” he concludes. “DaVinci Resolve never hinders you creatively, it only enhances.”