Richard Kelly and Steven Poster, ASC, collaborate with LaserPacific again on The Box

Richard Kelly's new movie will be released by Warner Brother in the United States on November 6th 2009. The Box is a supernatural thriller based on a short story, “Button, Button”, written by Richard Matheson in 1970, and stars Cameron Diaz and James Marsden as a suburban couple who receive a box with a mysterious power that causes them to face a moral dilemma. A stranger tells them that pressing a button on the box will bestow $1 million on them. Unfortunately, pressing the button will also simultaneously cause the death of a person somewhere in the world.  Richard Kelly previously directed indie hits Donnie Darko and Southland Tales.

When Richard Kelly and acclaimed cinematographer Steven Poster decided to shoot The Box with Panavision's Genesis camera, they immediately turned to their trusted post production partner LaserPacific for advice on how this decision would affect their post production workflow.

Because of the early contact made by the production team, LaserPacific was able to provide assistance during pre-production with look development and creating custom look-up tables (LUTs) that worked with the Genesis camera. This is necessary because the information captured by the Genesis needs to have a LUT applied so it can be displayed correctly on a monitor. Steven Poster and LaserPacific's color scientists quickly determined that four LUTs were required for different lighting conditions and color temperatures. During production, senior colorist Dave Cole spent three days on set in Boston verifying that the display LUTs worked correctly so that the director and DP could have confidence in the information that was being recorded on HDCAM-SR tape. After Dave returned to LA, Steven continued to send him stills so that the collaboration could continue long-distance.

The Box is Dave Cole's third project with Steven Poster, ASC. The other two were Southland Tales, also directed by Richard Kelly, and Spread, directed by David Mackenzie and starring Ashton Kutcher and Anne Heche.  “Steven understands the tools that are available in the color grading environment and how they can be used to enhance his original photography and is extremely involved  in the color grading process” says Cole. “Over three movies, we have developed a workflow that works well for us, starting by quickly roughing in the overall tone of the entire movie, and then going back and doing more subtle tweaks.” According to Poster, his understanding of what can be achieved in the digital intermediate process informs his decision-making during production. “It's not as simple as 'I'll fix it in post'. On the set I'm constantly thinking of what the final image will be and I can decide to do certain things later.”

Dave Cole's programming skills allow him to write plug-ins for the Lustre that often result from discussions with Steven Poster and other cinematographers. One example is a tool to remove unwanted elements such as light switches from white walls. During a grading session, Poster had mentioned that this was something that bugged him. That night, Dave Cole went home and wrote the tool. After three projects at LaserPacific with Dave Cole, Steven Poster feels at home - “this is a more important relationship then I've developed in the past with any other post partner because we really understand both the skill level, the toolset and the taste level.”

Dave Cole talks about his work on The Box in a recent issue of Film and Video magazine - http://www.studiodaily.com/filmandvideo/technique/craft/f/finishing/Colorist-Dave-Cole-Opens-Up-The-Box_11523.html