ART OF THE FINISHING TOUCH

Executive Producer Kristen DiAngelo and Director/Producer James Johnson discuss the importance of color correction for their recent feature documentary, AMERICAN COURTESANS.

Fancy Film: What format did you shoot on?

K.D. & J.J.: We shot in Apple Pro Res HQ onto 2.5″ hard drives, using the Sony FS100 camera, and the recording device was the ATOMOS Ninja.

How was working with the Ninja? Would you use it again on your next film? 

The work flow with the Ninja was simple and easy. The Ninja directly records information sent from the camera onto a hard drive in an uncompressed format. It’s easy to set up and use, has a screen so you can see what you’re recording and can play back your takes immediately. At the end of each day we would back it up onto another drive and the next day the Ninja would start where it left off. I would use it again. The biggest drawback is the amount of disc space we used. I think we went into edit with about 7 TB of raw footage.

Your film centers around a collection of interviews with women which all take place in different environments. What responsibility did color correction have for the final film?

K.D. & J.J.: Our film definitely wouldn’t be what it is without color correction. We had issues with both florescent lights and natural light which shifted as the day went on. We had set up an interview in a loft in San Francisco in front of a window. This was really the only usable space in the room. Because of the sensitivity of the subject (private vs public identities) we always arrived on set site unseen and we only had a few hours to set up and shoot. We opted for not covering the windows – the light seemed fine…. big mistake. As the interview progressed the sun shifted as clouds passed by. Not to mention that from within the room the lighting seemed to give off a green glow. So when all was said and done, the interview was great; exactly what we needed, but the footage was barely usable. The right side of the subjects face was one color and the left was another color which shifted back and forth.

It was really a nightmare… and we were faced with the possibility of totally trashing the interview. However, in Post, Fancy color saved the footage, and thus our film. It was very time consuming, but Bill was able to actually spot correct each part of the subjects face and bring all tones together enough to make her look normal, and then he also changed the overall hue, toning down the greenish color. Our subject went from a blotchy version of the “Hulk” to a beautiful young woman…(the process was so very incredible), but as I said, it was time consuming and it would have been better to have control of all light sources from the beginning. So when faced with a time crunch and a poor area for shooting in the future, the one thing I won’t compromise on is the lighting…

What do you wish you would have known about the post-production process before going into it that you know now?

K.D.: I learned that control of lighting is imperative. You always hear the terms “you can fix it in post” and Fancy did just that, but I do realize that the better quality film that I deliver, the better the fix can be. With that said, we can’t be more content with the results. On top of the lighting issue, we had another Post Company drop the project 2 hours into color correction, which caused us so much stress. However, Bill stepped in immediately and because of that we were able to meet a very important deadline that looked unattainable a few hours before.

What format have you used most frequently to submit to festivals?

K.D. & J.J. Quicktime file and NTSC DVDs

Executive Producer/Producer Kristen DiAngelo (also featured in the documentary) is a renaissance woman who currently makes films but remains an activist for sex workers and an entrepreneur. The film is James Johnson’s first feature documentary as a director.

Visit the AMERICAN COURTESANS website at www.americancourtesans.com