Chimney uses DaVinci Resolve Studio real-time collaboration on 'The Dead Don't Die'

The real-time collaboration in the creation of visual effects between the cities of New York (USA) and Gothenburg (Sweden) was key in the post-production of 'The Dead Don't Die'.

Chimney has trusted DaVinci Resolve Studio of Blackmagic Design to collaborate in real time in the realization of the visual effects of the zombie movie The dead don't die between the cities of New York (USA) and Gothenburg (Sweden). Likewise, the post-production company used Fusion Studio for certain purposes.

The dead don't die Centerville takes place, a placid town that one day wakes up in the middle of a battle against undead that begin to rise from their graves. Directed by Jim Jarmusch, this zombie comedy features Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Chloë Sevigny and Tilda Swinton, among others, in its cast.

The Chimney team produced more than 300 shots with visual effects for the film, which were created simultaneously at its headquarters in New York and Gothenburg. Jarmusch and the director of photography Frederick Elmes They were in New York, so Chimney had to achieve real-time collaboration between both cities, so that it would be possible to work closely with the filmmakers to discuss and implement changes during the filmmaking stage.

“Because it was Jim's first VFX-intensive project, we wanted to make sure he felt comfortable and in touch with the team throughout the entire process,” explains Sam O’Hare, VFX supervisor at Chimney.

Chimney used DaVinci Resolve Studio because of its collaborative options for real-time review of sequences in EX formatR.

Between Gothenburg and New York

"We required teams on each continent to monitor the same footage so we could discuss it over the phone. Thanks to DaVinci Resolve Studio, we were able to work on the same EXR sequences from each studio, upload them to a project that we then share and link again, and finally start a session remotely in which we view the material with high quality and simultaneously in both places. On the one hand, Jim and Fred supervised and commented on the scenes from New York, while on the other, in Gothenburg, Andreas Hylander (visual effects producer on Chimney) and Alex Hansson (visual effects supervisor at Haymaker) could see the frame they were talking about,” O’Hare adds.

"Since the film was shot largely during the day and then graded in a nighttime style, the challenge in delivering the visual effects was that they would be seen clearly even after color correction was done. We couldn't use traditional workflows with LUT tables, since the grading had been reduced by several steps due to the use of a large number of masks and overlays. However, as we used DaVinci Resolve Studio directly into EXR files originating from the visual effects, we were able to quickly adjust the style in order to make an informed decision between redoing the visual effects shots or fixing it in grading,” Hylander said.

On the other hand, O'Hare adds that "by using DaVinci Resolve Studio, we had the possibility of accessing the most recent color grading data, so the aesthetic was always up to date, and with the original recorded material loaded on the bottom layer we could compare the overlay if necessary."

It seemed to Jarmusch that the work dynamics facilitated the review of the process: “Working with collaborators in other cities around the world is almost always a challenge, especially when it comes to visual elements, as in this case. However, in The dead don't die, using DaVinci Resolve Studio in Chimney, we had the opportunity to immediately and constantly share and discuss ideas with our colleagues in Sweden, while we were in New York. A modern marvel!”

Collaborative environment

Since Chimney is made up of an international network of offices located in 11 cities around the planet, Collaboration is essential for your projects. "This type of work always requires good communication, as well as fast data transfer. We have a central system that gives us the ability to send uncompressed sequences quickly, so we had access to the material available in both studios. This procedure is essential for collaboration between our facilities around the world."

“We generally use the collaborative feature offered by DaVinci Resolve Studio to conduct remote grading sessions between different offices, but this project was the first time we implemented it with visual effects,” says O’Hare. "The ability to monitor high-resolution footage, with the latest color corrections applied, in two locations at once, more than 6,000 kilometers apart, was revolutionary. This allowed communication between the director, cinematographer, and remote visual effects team to be immediate and seamless, facilitating seamless collaboration. As an international company that constantly delivers projects across multiple studios, the quality of collaboration is crucial to our success."

Additionally, O'Hare and his team used Fusion Studio for certain visual effects work in the film, such as the scene in which one of the actors uses a pair of old, damaged binoculars. “Hermit Bob's character lives in the woods, so Jim wanted to make the binoculars look very dirty and even cracked,” explains O'Hare.

"We used a variety of Fusion Studio tools to achieve the aesthetic of the binoculars, including displaced and tilted rotoscopic shapes to mimic broken glass, layers of dirt and dust in the viewfinder, and various masks representing light rays to create internal reflections in the outer black portion around the classic binocular circles. The displaced shapes were designed to react to movements in each plane, just as you would see through fractured glass. “This way, some shots had camera shifts, while others we created through synchronized movements in Fusion Studio using modifiers nested in the transform node,” O’Hare concludes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n31nf2j9rt0