Zsigmond's Images + Laser's Technology = A Modern Film Noir Classic: The Black Dahlia

Laser Pacific’s unmatched color science and superior service in the high end digital intermediate arena were put at the command of world-renowned cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC for The Black Dahlia, Brian De Palma’s film noir set in 1940s Los Angeles.Laser Pacific’s work on the film was preceded by a “shootout” in which identical test footage was scanned, manipulated and output back to film, and then examined by Zsigmond, who wanted to ensure the highest possible quality for his first foray into DI.

“Our 2K scans were nearly as good as most of the other facilities’ 4K scans,” says Laser’s Karin Graziani, who heads Laser Pacific feature film account services. “Once they saw our 4K scans, it was a no-brainer. Our color scientist, Doug Jaqua, has deep understanding of resolution and aspect ratios, and he is able to manipulate the scanners to best suit the needs of a specific project. That gives us a competitive edge. It’s great to have Vilmos Zsigmond in our corner.” 

Zsigmond has more than 70 narrative film credits, an Academy Award® forClose Encounters of the Third Kind and an Emmy® for Stalin. He has two additional Oscar® nominations for The Deer Hunter and The River. 

When Zsigmond was researching the possibility of a digital intermediate for the feature film The Black Dahlia, Laser Pacific suggested that the highest quality images and greatest degree of control could be attained by scanning the film negative at 4K resolution. 

Some early testing was performed, and the “shootout” ensued. Vilmos compared test footage from the top DI houses in the world, and chose Laser Pacific to handle the job. After seeing the tests and talking with other cinematographers, Zsigmond agreed that the 4K resolution ensured that the subtlest details captured on the negative were retained through the process. 

The Black Dahlia is an adaptation of a novel about the 1947 murder of an unknown actress whose mutilated body was discovered in a vacant lot. It stars two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank and Scarlett Johansson. The film was mostly photographed in Sofia, Bulgaria, with some scenes done in Los Angeles. The film is the fourth collaboration for the De Palma and Zsigmond. Their other co-ventures were Obsession (1976), Blow Out(1981) and The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990). 

Zsigmond shot in the three-perf Super 35 format. He felt that a widescreen 2.4:1 aspect ratio was needed to put the characters into a Hollywood environment. The three-perf format uses less film, while still allowing for widescreen aspect ratio, helps to offset costs for the DI while extending by 25% the time between magazine changes. 

He generally shot with a precision, hard light style in keeping with the film noir aesthetic. Zsigmond used Kodak VISION2 stocks, and made intuitive decisions about underexposing, flashing and pushing the negative depending upon the time, place and emotional content of scenes. 

The 4K DI enabled him to put final touches on the film noir look. At Laser Pacific, the negative was scanned on Thomson’s Grass Valley Spirit 4K DataCine. Laser Pacific conformed the digital files, created digital opticals, and integrated visual effects shots. 

Zsigmond timed the early preview version of the film in collaboration with Frank Roman over the course of eight days. For the final timing Zsigmond worked with Laser Pacific Senior Colorist Mike Sowa in an interactive process. They worked in a cinema-like environment that features a 33-by-13 foot screen. Zsigmond darkened and extended shadows in some shots, and chose to let windows blow out and obscured backgrounds in others. Some flashback scenes were drained of color for a black and white look. 

In a formal family dinner scene, Zsigmond asked Sowa to bring the white tone of a tablecloth down. The colorist rotoscoped the tablecloth and brought it down until Zsigmond was satisfied. Then, Sowa automatically tracked the tablecloth and made the same adjustment to the shot from start to finish. 

“Vilmos asked for a desaturated sepia look overall,” says Sowa. “He made extensive use of windows. In every scene with Scarlett Johansson, I went back in and increased the saturation a little bit, to give her skin tone a little more warmth. Vilmos focused on the things you wouldn’t be able to do in a traditional film timing, like bringing down the skies without affecting the rest of the frame, or bringing a whole scene down to a nice density level and then using a window to open up and track a doorway. 

“There was one scene where we fine-tuned the effect of a split diopter, which Vilmos had used to maintain focus in the foreground and in the background, which was probably forty feet back,” he says. 

“Vilmos brought his friend Laszlo Kovacs [ASC] into some of the sessions,” says Sowa. “It was a defining moment of my career. I had Vilmos on one side and Laszlo on the other, and they were laughing like schoolboys and enjoying the tremendous degree of control over the images. Vilmos and Brian De Palma were very pleased with the final look of the film.”

The final images were rendered as 4K files and an ARRILASER recorded the timed digital master out to 35 mm film, which was used to generate release prints for cinemas. The same master file is used for the distribution of The Black Dahlia to digital cinemas and DVD formats. 

Sowa explains that other DI facilities require a completely separate trim pass for digital cinema, but the color calibration process used at Laser Pacific yields one master that can be used for both release prints and digital cinema. “This means that what Vilmos timed in the theater will be the image that audiences see on both film and digital screens,” he adds. 

Sowa notes that a trim pass is required for the DVD master to adjust for differences in the color space that is characteristic of TV monitors versus the cinema. “We adjust for the tonal difference between these environments but make sure that the video image is faithful to the theatrical timing,” he says. “Part of our mission is to help assure that audiences see every nuance of Vilmos’ vision, whether it’s on a film or digital cinema screen or at home on DVD. That’s part of the color science that is always working behind the scenes at Laser Pacific.”

The Black Dahlia opened the Venice Film Festival on August 30 – prior to its wide release in the US on September 15, 2006.