For Your Consideration: Degraining Technology Helps Super 16 Stand Up Next to 35 MM

Director of photography Roberto Schaefer, ASC has a strong working relationship with Laser Pacific. Schaefer has supervised digital intermediates for Stay, At Last, and Stranger Than Fiction at the facility. That trust is the primary reason his most recent feature film, For Your Consideration, went through a digital intermediate process at Laser Pacific.

The decision to use the digital intermediate workflow dovetailed with the choice of the Super 16 film format. Advancements in film stock and scanning technology have led to a renaissance in Super 16 mm production. The smaller gauge offers significant cost savings and lighter, more maneuverable camera gear. Director Christopher Guest has been at the vanguard of the Super 16 movement, using the format on a string of hit comedies including A Mighty Wind, Best in Show, and Waiting for Guffman.

However, the script for For Your Consideration tells the story of a film that is vying for Academy Awards. For the comedy to work, the images had to have the slick, polished look of Hollywood’s highest-quality productions.Footage of competing films that is seen in the movie was captured on 35 mm film, and the Super 16 footage had to stand up under direct comparison. An optical Super 16-to-35 blowup like those done on Guest’s previous comedies was out of the question.

Look! No Grain.

Laser Pacific was able to use state-of-the-art grain reduction techniques to render the images much closer to 35 mm image quality. Laser Pacific Senior Colorist Mike Sowa worked with the filmmakers to find the right level of grain reduction. “We did some testing and found a setting that Christopher and Roberto liked,” says Sowa. “The images were so much nicer than what they were used to from an optical blowup. Our goal was to make the difference between Super 16 and 35 mm footage transparent.”

Schaefer also used the digital intermediate to fine tune the looks, some of which exaggerate prettiness for comic effect. “Roberto is very familiar with the process, and he knows the tools,” says Sowa. “He really appreciates the ability to time the film using windows to isolate areas of the frame, and track them with motion. He’s very accustomed to using these tools, and the process is his standard way of posting a film now.”

The color timing process took roughly two weeks. After manipulation, the images were output to 35 mm negative in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. That master was sent to the film laboratory for prints. “Digital intermediate is now part of the standard postproduction workflow,” says Sowa.