Encore Finishes 'Genius: Picasso' Series for National Geographic with Baselight

Colorist Pankaj Bajpai at the Encore post-production studios in Hollywood has been in charge of creating the look and light of Pablo Picasso's Malaga.

The second installment of the popular serie Genius de National Geographic will focus on the extraordinary life of painter Pablo Picasso. He colorist Pankaj Bajpai in post-production studios Encore and Hollywood has been in charge of creating the look that evoked time and place, as well as art.

Bajpai was the colorist for the first Genius series, featuring Einstein and set in Germany. The new installment is set in a much warmer climate in Spain and Paris. Working with director of photography Mathias Herndl, as Bajpai acknowledges, “we anchored ourselves in the quality, color and texture of Spanish light in Malaga, the birthplace of Picasso.”

The series tells the story of Picasso (played by Antonio Banderas) and his complicated and chaotic lifestyle, which was the source of his vibrant paintings. National Geographic and the creator of the series, Kenneth Biller, were concerned with creating the meaning and style of the first half of the 20th century. “A key challenge was to maintain the authenticity of the period and yet somehow maintain a contemporary style,” Bajpai recalls.

"We start with Picasso's father and his memory of the bullfights... everything is incredibly warm. So Picasso as a young man, with many interiors lit by candles. And towards the end the palette becomes sparse and cold, as his life becomes more isolated," says the colorist.

Herndl filmed the series using an ARRI Alexa camera, and Bajpai was involved from the early days of production. "Mathias and I have a long working relationship, and much of our understanding is intuitive. It's a partnership in which few words are exchanged. I know Mathias' instincts when shooting, and he knows how I could approach the captured image. When it all comes together, it's wonderful," Bajpai acknowledges.

Baselight the FilmLight

On Encore, colorist Bajpai used the latest version 5.0 of the software Baselight de FilmLight, which gave him access to Base Grade, FilmLight's popular feature in the colorist's toolkit. "It allowed me to approach grading for the first time using the classic zone system, which was incredible. It's possibly one of the most practical and significant advances in grading technology in a long time," he says.

The colorist adds that "there are many scenes in the series where there are big, bright windows in the old European style. Being able to keep the details in the highlights and lowlights and still keep everything in the middle was incredibly fast and clean."

Produced by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, Genius It is a great success for National Geographic. The first season was the network's most-watched show of 2017 and earned the network a record ten Emmy nominations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knbNwQog4Ro