Achieving the Romantic and Royal Look of The Princess Switch: Switched Again

• Technicolor’s Remote Dailies kept production costs down.
• 180K frames went through Technicolor PULSE with an average delivery time of 44 minutes.
• A safe COVID color finishing environment was created in Vancouver for Director Mike Rohl.
• Cinematographer Fernando Argüelles utilized Technicolor LA’s “living room suite” for remote color reviews with Vancouver Senior Colorist Anne Boyle.

The Princess Switch: Switched Again is here just in time for the holidays. Vanessa Hudgens is back as both Duchess Margaret Delacourt and the newly appointed princess Stacy DeNovo. But this time, there is a third double here to cause trouble: The Duchess’ party-loving cousin, Fiona. Hudgens also executive produced the feature, which comes from Motion Picture Corporation of America and Brad Krevoy Productions. 

Technicolor’s global post team was brought on board to provide Remote Dailies and complete Picture Post services for this much anticipated Netflix sequel. Principle photography took place in Edinburgh, Scotland, with the UK On-Location Team providing Remote Dailies.

Remote Dailies via global pipeline

"On location shooting can cost a lot of money when you start to think about Dailies – from the cost of office space to the cost of lodging,” said Jason T. Morrow, Senior Producer, Front End Services. “The movie was shot in Edinburgh and [the filmmakers] chose Technicolor's Remote Dailies solution to keep those costs down. We were able to place a small ingest rig into an existing footprint, then use Editorial Assistants to upload the day's material. From there, Monica Di Sabatino, our Dailies Colorist in London, was able to access the material and create deliverables that went to the team in Edinburgh as well as the studio in Los Angeles. It was a global pipeline made more efficient by our cloud solution, while never once forfeiting quality or the color pipeline." 

The production team recognized the value and efficiencies of the Remote Dailies workflow and decided to replicate it for their next Netflix feature, A Castle for Christmas, which is scheduled to release in 2021.

Technicolor PULSE: Streamlining the post process

Technicolor PULSE was instrumental in streamlining the post process and gave clients access to remote workflows around the world. With Dailies happening in the UK, PULSE supported post-production in Vancouver by streamlining the finishing workflow. Clients could easily share material and also do their own pulls to send to their VFX vendors.

Technicolor’s Dailies Manager system automatically linked metadata to PULSE, providing the team with detailed production information.  All project processing information was stored in PULSE, which accommodated the delayed post schedule and was available later for picture finishing. With the media in PULSE, Technicolor was able to submit the conform from LA to Vancouver through an integrated network.

Picture finishing – safe and secure between Vancouver and LA

Picture finishing took place at Technicolor Vancouver in the early days of the COVID pandemic. The facility quickly adapted to the situation, putting measures in place to provide a safe environment for both clients and their team. 

“Technicolor Vancouver's work on The Princess Switch 2 was incredibly valuable to me and provided a very positive influence on the outcome of the movie,” said director Mike Rohl. “Working with Anne was a pleasure. I was impressed by her professional approach, her obvious technical expertise, but more importantly her keen artistic eye. Technicolor Vancouver provided a very comfortable, safe and COVID aware environment, complete with a separate screening room that was fully connected to Anne's workspace.”

Cinematographer Fernando Argüelles was able to stay comfortably in Los Angeles, utilizing the “living room suite” at the Technicolor Hollywood location to do remote color reviews with Anne Boyle.

"This was my first remote color correction due to COVID-19, and Anne made it effortless; our communication was clear and well-focused,” said Argüelles. “From the standard definition to the HDR, the color correction was almost like being physically working together in the same room. Working from Technicolor Los Angeles, I was surprised just how well the session went along." 

The end-result is a soft and romantic look, beautifully lit and true to the design of the images, which include distinctive Scottish landscapes and beautiful period costume detailing.  

“Fernando wanted to take advantage of the HDR format without losing any of the original intention, which was a more filmic and dreamy golden look,” said Senior Colorist Anne Boyle. “We worked hard to achieve that using texture tools throughout the film.”

Senior Online Editor Scott McKenzie packaged and delivered the final film to Netflix in 4K, Dolby Vision HDR, SDR, and as a DCP.

The Princess Switch: Switched Again is now streaming on Netflix.