The candy-colored look of Barbie gave Yvan Lucas of Company 3 the Filmlight Color Award for a feature film.
The third annual awards – organized by FilmLight, the maker of the Baselight color correction system, in collaboration with Camerimage – were presented on Sunday at the EnergaCamerimage cinematography film festival in Toruń, Poland. From approximately 400 entries, the awards were selected by a jury chaired by Oscar-nominated cinematographer Lawrence Sher (joker, Joker: Folie à Deux), who presented the prizes.
From his award-winning work op Barbiedirected by Greta Greig and lensed by cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, says Lucas The Hollywood Reporter, “Rodrigo Prieto and I both enjoy working together on the overall look of a film before production begins. By creating LUTs (Look Up Tables) that determine how color and contrast are affected, Rodrigo, the director and the department heads can all work towards a common goal.
“For the most part Barbiei.e. all the scenes set in Barbie Land, we created a LUT that combines a general film emulation, a three-strip Technicolor look, and specific ways of interpreting shades like red, pink, and blue in a way that they can now be found in the palette pushes recognition out of the film,” he explains.
Other winners included Dirk Meier of D-Facto Motion for The Pimp: Not a damn fairy tale (Luden) season one (cinematographer Oskar Dahlsbakken), which topped the TV series/episodes category; Tim Masick at Company 3 for Zara Man, ‘SS23′ (cameraman Philippe Le Sourd), in the commercial category; freelance colorist Marina Starke for Mayyas’Horra’ (cinematography by Shadi Chaaban), which topped the music video category; and freelance colorist Cem Ozkilicci for Possess (cameraman Oskar Dahlsbakken), in the Spotlight category for low-budget feature films.
Upon receiving her award, Starke, who had two additional nominations, was applauded when she said she hoped to encourage more diversity in her field. Meier urged more colorists to attend Camerimage and “even further strengthen the collaboration between cinematographers and colorists.”
“As a representative of our fantastic jury, I would like to congratulate the winners of this year’s FilmLight Color Awards,” said Sher. “These highly talented artists – and the inspiring work they helped create – are a testament to the critical importance of the colorist in the art of filmmaking. It’s great to see that these artists come from all over the world – proving that good work is not limited to huge budgets or big stores, but is available to anyone with a good eye and refined skills.”
The American Society of Cinematographers and the British Society of Cinematographers are among the organizations that support the Color Awards. “Colorists are great collaborators… Our closest relationship is with our colorist,” says cinematographer Stephen Lighthill, adjudicator and past president of the ASC. “We at the ASC are happy to continue to contribute to this event.”
