Technicolor London Reflects On The 2016 BAFTA And Academy Awards Results

From the pre-production color pipeline planning, to the artistry in picture post and sound mixing, the team at Technicolor London worked on a number of this award season’s nominees and winners.

One of the largest stories of the 2016 awards season is the success enjoyed by The Revenant: a triumphant five BAFTA wins (Best Film, Director, Cinematography, Actor, and Sound) and three Oscar wins (Best Director, Cinematography, and Actor). The Revenant was an exciting project for Technicolor teams from all corners of the world that worked closely with director Alejandro González Iñárritu and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, ASC, AMC to help bring the survival epic alive. Not only does Lubezki’s win mark his third consecutive win and solidify his reputation as one of the finest cinematographers working today, it marks the fifth straight Best Cinematography Oscar® winner Technicolor has color finished -- previously Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), Gravity, Life of Pi, and Hugo. At the Academy Awards this year, Technicolor worked on half of the Best Picture nominees.

London-based colorist Jodie Davidson joined the global Technicolor team on The Revenant in her role as dailies colorist. Jodie commented on the project saying that, “I was on location for four months, which was both a privilege and challenge. Technicolor set up an Autodesk Lustre color-correction system for color grading dailies, allowing for full finishing color and controls on a 2k projector. Additionally, a dailies screening room was set up so we were able to grade and view rushes on a daily basis. The results were worth the effort, seeing this incredibly brave vision come to life on screen has been a career highlight.” Technicolor also provided on-location services, dailies, VFX, color finishing, mastering, and marketing services for the film.

The London sound team’s work on exciting projects by emerging talent picked up highly coveted awards at this year’s BAFTAs and nominations at the Academy Awards. Anglo-Jordanian Naji Abu Nowar’s feature directorial debut, Theeb, won the BAFTA for Outstanding Debut and was nominated for the Best Film Not in the English Language BAFTA and Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars. Richard Straker, re-recording mixer on Theeb, said of the project, “It’s always exciting to work on a project that encapsulates all the energy of a first-time director – I’m really looking forward to seeing where Naji Abu Nowar’s vision will take him next.” Jules Woods, re-recording mixer on Operator, also worked on another rising-star’s debut: Caroline Bartleet’s short feature won the Best Short Film category at the BAFTAs. Jules explained that the sound mix for the film is integral to the story line, “The majority of the drama unfolds on the other end of a telephone. All of the action and the emotion had to be told with sound alone. Caroline created a stunning film, that even after working on and seeing so many times, I still find it incredibly powerful to watch.”

Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs provided the opportunity for Kate Winslet to receive her third BAFTA, in this instance for for Best Supporting Actress in the role of former marketing chief at Apple for the Macintosh. Colorist Jean-Clément Soret reflected on his impressions whilst working on the film, “I’m pleased that Steve Jobs was recognized by its nominations and BAFTA win for Kate Winslet, when I saw the offline prior to grading I thought Michael and Kate were just brilliant, so it was no surprise when she was awarded the BAFTA. Grading is also about making sure the actors and audiences are kept in contact.” Steve Jobs also received two Oscar nominations and Technicolor provided picture post and editorial services.

Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years was the winner of Best British Feature Film in 2015 at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and was nominated at both the BAFTAs and at the Oscars for Charlotte Rampling’s performance. London’s colorist, Jodie Davidson, worked closely with Lol Crawley and summarized the experience as, “Amazing – I loved working with Lol and being able to help enhance the feeling that he and Andrew were focused on. The whole film was very successful in prompting an emotional response from the viewer and communicating Kate’s (Charlotte Rampling) anguish, but the last scene highlights for me, how you can focus on emotion using the grade.”

Picture post was also provided in London for the Academy Award’s Best Animated Short Film nominee Prologue, an animation by Richard Williams, and Shaun the Sheep for Best Animated Film, which was nominated in the same category at the BAFTAs. Technicolor London provided picture post for Prologue, and both picture post and editing services for Shaun the Sheep. Grade and editing assistant on Shaun the Sheep, Michael Crusz, commented that, “The film was a great project and deserved its nominations. I remember that it had me in stitches, re-building the social media GFX scene in the film was fun as we were given the elements and matched these to what had been done in the offline, it was a great chance to think a little more creatively and problem solve.”

Technicolor London congratulates all the nominees and winners of the 2016 BAFTAs and Academy Awards. 2015 was an exceptional year of storytelling and Technicolor looks forward to providing the very best talent, technology, and services that support these amazing projects as they come to life.