Technicolor brings colour to Jason Statham feature, Hummingbird

Senior Colourist Paul Ensby, of Technicolor grades gritty thriller.

Technicolor today reveals its involvement in the new thriller from IM Global and Shoebox Productions, Hummingbird.

Hummingbird, written and directed by Oscar nominated writer Steven Knight (Eastern Promises, Dirty Pretty Things), stars Jason Statham (Expendables, Transporter, Crank) as Joey Jones, a Special Forces veteran who has reinvented himself as an upper-class Londoner but is forced to revisit his violent past after his pregnant girlfriend becomes the victim of a gangland murder.

Technicolor senior colourist Paul Ensby completed the grading of the film, which featured original footage shot on Arri Alexa Raw by legendary DP Chris Menges (Kes, The Reader, Notes on a Scandal), as well as some archive material from the recent Afghan war.
Ensby said: “To establish Joey’s military background we had to integrate shots of him serving in Afghanistan with real-life footage sourced from military surveillance cameras and news crews. To give some variety to these shots we coloured a lot of the black and white images. We also decided to desaturate the colour palette for the Afghan scenes by about 50 per cent and to add a slight magenta tint. This effect clearly separates Joey’s past from the rich tones that typify present-day London and works for viewers as a visual prompt for when we return to his memories later on in the film.”

Much of the film is set at night and the aim was to keep plenty of detail in the shadow while maintaining a good level of contrast. Other stylistic touches included changing scenes to dusk by carefully bringing in warmth and darker shadows, while making other scenes shot during the day look like dawn by cooling down the image, but adding warmth into the skies and surrounding buildings.

Hummingbird releases in the UK on June 28 2013.

Technicolor Credits :

Senior Colourist: Paul Ensby