Since its inception, the Sundance Film Festival has been considered the premier platform for independent film. In 2013, while there is no shortage of diverse topics, styles and themes, four of the films at the have one thing in common: They were all graded by award winning colorist Alex Bickel.
Selected for the competition Premieres section of the Sundance Film Festival, “Prince Avalanche” stars Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch in a story of two highway road workers who spend the summer of 1988 away from their city lives. The isolated landscape becomes a place of misadventure as the men find themselves at odds with each other and the women they left behind. Directed by David Gordon Green and DPed by Tim Orr, the DI was the first feature film to be completed in Cinelicious’ newly minted Hollywood based 4K DI theater.
Cinelicious handled all mastering including 2K DCDM, DCP, HDCAM-SR, Blu-Ray, DVD and all file-based deliverables. Cinelicious founder and resident film nerd Paul Korver acted as DI Supervisor and managed the technical aspects of the DI process, ensuring the aesthetic decisions made by Alex, Tim, and David in the theater would look the same on every screen. “We chose a workflow and color science that would preserve creative integrity and color fidelity across today’s plethora of digital and analog distribution outlets. One that not only allows for flawless P3, Rec 709, Rec 601 and sRGB deliverables, but would protect for the possibility of future Arrilaser film recording should the film’s distributors require 35mm release prints or the producers simply want an archival negative for longterm preservation.” said Korver.
“Prince Avalanche was David’s first digitally shot film, and it was important that the resulting footage did not feel like an aesthetic sacrifice in any way,” says Alex. “The entire film takes place in woods that have been recently ravaged by a forest fire, so it’s quite a surreal, charred landscape in the middle of a rebirth. Tim and David both wanted to create a very rich, saturated and slightly surreal aesthetic in the grade. It was also important that the flares hold detail and roll off like they would on film.”
The resulting footage showcases a shiny, dense image that enhances the already stark beauty in the burnt forest landscapes. This beauty, and the film’s rich narrative, are sure to envelop Sundance audiences. Read the glowing review by David Rooney at the The Hollywood Reporter or check out the news in Variety on Prince Avalanche being picked up by Magnolia Pictures.