Technicolor London Brings Tarzan Back To The Jungle

Technicolor London provided on-set dailies and color finishing DI for BAFTA-winning director David Yates’ action-adventure, The Legend of Tarzan. Working closely with cinematographer Henry Braham BSC Technicolor’s Supervising Colorist Peter Doyle, commented that, “The project represented an evolution in our ultra-wide gamut workflows.”

“Color Management is critical to a movie through production and post production. Technicolor London, with Peter Doyle, are an authority on this. They combine clear thinking and joined up processing right through to cutting edge creativity in grading the final picture.”

Henry Braham, BSC

The shoot began in April 2014 and ran until the end of 2014; based mainly at the UK’s Leavesden Studios, there were additional days of shooting in the Dolomites Mountains in Italy. The last six weeks of shooting were based in the jungles of Gabon, where the Technicolor on-set dailies team was prepped for jungle life by National Geographic explorer Josh Ponte – they are now experts in what to do when faced with a wild elephant! Cherri Arpino, Dailies Production Manager, noted that, “when production moved to shooting in Lopé National Park we had to majorly adapt our workflow and equipment. We had to be prepared for all eventualities, from visas and vaccines to how to make sure we had enough power in the middle of the jungle.”

“Handling data in a joined up way is critical for Production. For ‘Legend of Tarzan’, operating in the remotest jungles of Gabon and in the most extreme conditions, Technicolor managed the dailies process seamlessly.”

Nik Korda, Executive Producer

Operations Manager Chema Gomez, who was on-set during the Gabon shoot, said, “We took our onset dailies equipment into the middle of nowhere essentially. Kilometers of trees encircled us, and we were right on the equator which meant extremely high temperatures and humidity levels of 95%, so prior to the journey we had to adapt our systems to survive under those conditions. Also, the camera crew shot with 6 RED Dragons, shooting a 6K resolution, and all mounted on the helicopter, so the amount of data we needed to process was pretty demanding. Additionally, the only way to communicate with editorial in London was through a small satellite dish production brought in. So, we developed a workflow where we were sending very small files on a daily basis that editorial could cut with, and at the end of each week, we sent a drive with the hi-res MXFs for them to relink. It all worked really well and helped the crew back in London stay on top of what was happening. The whole project was incredible and we became really close with the whole team, it was a fantastic experience to be part of.”

The epic tale of Tarzan returns to our screens with a twist: having acclimated to a gentrified life in London with his wife Jane by his side, Tarzan is unexpectedly called back to his former home in the jungle. Starring Alexander Skarsgård (True Blood) as the legendary character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the film also stars Oscar nominee Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction), Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street), Oscar nominee Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond), Oscar nominee John Hurt (Harry Potter), Oscar winner Jim Broadbent (“Iris”), and two-time Oscar winner Christoph Waltz (Inglorious Bastards).

Photo Credit: Warner Bros.