Thomas Engell grades the Oscar-nominated short film 'On my mind' with DaVinci Resolve

DaVinci Resolve Studio, software de Blackmagic Design, was used by color grader Thomas Engell to put the finishing touches on On my mind, short film nominated for the 2022 Oscars.

Directed by Martin Strange-Hansen, this story with a bitter touch mixes elements of fiction with memories and was nominated for an Oscar for best short film. With Ian Hansen as head of photography, the film was produced by Thomas Engel, from the post-producer Sound of Sunrise, located in Copenhagen.

The tight budget and strict Covid regulations meant that the cast and crew were kept to a minimum. This basic work dynamic required all the experience of English as an editor and his knowledge of visual effects, grading and audio. As the grader recalls: “On this project, I worked like a hermit, away from the production and without any assistant to help me edit, but I was able to get ahead thanks to the multidisciplinary nature of DaVinci Resolve and the tools it offers.”

On my mind was shot in format RAW 4K, which greatly facilitated the color correction work that Engell carried out. Grading, performed with DaVinci Resolve, was carried out in the system ACES to obtain versions in format P3 y Rec. 709.

Squeezing out DaVinci Resolve

Sometimes, to achieve his objective, Engell decided combine several plans, potenciando así la carga narrativa e interpretativa de la escena: “Mediante un proceso de clonación digital, pude combinar un plano de un actor con otra toma si me parecía que de esa manera lograba mejorar la historia o la interpretación. A veces, con tan solo alterar la duración de una secuencia un par de fotogramas, conseguí cambiar sutilmente la percepción de un personaje. Estas técnicas no son ninguna novedad, pero las herramientas OpenFX de Resolve facilitan dicha tarea”.

De igual forma, Engell se valió del color y la luz durante el proceso de etalonaje con DaVinci Resolve to improve the composition of the scenes: "We tried to focus the viewer's attention on the important elements of the image. To do this, I applied masks and labels in Fusion, added or removed light by making chromatic adjustments, and then created a mosaic over the faces that changed with movement, as long as all this made sense from a narrative point of view," he said.

On the other hand, the module's advanced tools Color DaVinci Resolve enabled Engell to fix minor issues, such as cleaning up images and removing objects. Likewise, it used the plan tracking function offered by Fusion to replace backgrounds, while preliminary room effects, sound design and audio editing were carried out in Fairlight: "I like to keep things flowing. Whether editing, grading or compositing images, the close connection between the different tools in DaVinci Resolve makes telling stories much faster and more intuitive."

https://youtu.be/JVnR-hmf0a4