'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power', finished in the cloud with DaVinci Resolve Studio

Blackmagic Design y Company 3 developed a cloud-based grading tool, the results of which were implemented in DaVinci Resolve Studio 18, for grading the series of Amazon Prime Video 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power'.

The rings of power brings to the screen for the first time the heroic legends that take place during the Second Age of the fabulous Middle Earth. The plot is set thousands of years before the events narrated in the novels. the hobbit y the lord of the rings, written by J. R. R. Tolkien, during a time in which great powers are brewing, kingdoms rise and then fall into decline, unusual heroes are tested, hope hangs by a thin thread, and the most powerful villain Tolkien had ever imagined Tolkien threatens to plunge the world into darkness.

The series was filmed in New Zealand, but both post-production and visual effects creation took place in different countries simultaneously, during the COVID pandemic. For this reason, the producer Ron Ames and the post-producer Company 3 They needed to implement a work dynamic that would allow the various teams collaborate from different continents and review images in real time.

Since they had a total of 786 hours of recorded material and 24,659 takes, Ames was aware that a cloud-based solution would pose several challenges. “We had a huge amount of images,” he said, equating the project to four two-hour feature films.

Ames worked with Blackmagic Design and Company 3 to develop a cloud-based grading tool, and the results of that collaboration were implemented in DaVinci Resolve Studio 18.

“I gave them a year's notice,” Ames recalled. "I wanted to do the grading in New Zealand, while Skip (Kimball) worked from Los Angeles or at home in Idaho. We had the same monitors and could do this process in real time. That's exactly what we did, and it turned out amazing."

The work dynamics developed allowed view images in real time, regardless of where the collaborators were located. Ames described it as a dream come true, adding that it's not just restricted to big-budget projects.

Blackmagic Design worked closely with a dedicated team at Company 3 to develop tools to achieve the goal. The production company's engineers, who have been providing peer-to-peer remote services for some time, noted that it would not be possible to meet Ames' requirements if the colorist Skip Kimball He simply sent the graded material on his workstation to the producer and the other members of the team.

For this reason, the companies worked together to facilitate the creation of what would essentially be a post-production studio in the cloud that would facilitate the color monitoring of high dynamic range images accurately, instantly and synchronously.

Based on the AWS architecture, the implemented solution offers the possibility of managing the recorded material and storing it in the cloud as if all users were in the same place, storing the content locally.

Kimball was involved in the project from the beginning and tested the first versions of the tool. “Almost two years ago, before production, we created a three-dimensional conversion table that allowed us to give images a cinematic look with a greater degree of control,” said Kimball. "It was just early in the process and decisions still needed to be made about the look of the series, so I generated a table that didn't limit or highlight any particular shade. We knew that could be achieved quickly during grading."

Work dynamics

Once production got underway, Kimball was delighted with the new work dynamic. "We were in different places, on three different continents, but we had access to the same material stored in the cloud. I graded the images from my studio in Eagle, Idaho, where I live, while Ron Ames, Jake Rice (associate producer) and Jason Smith (visual effects supervisor) worked from New Zealand. By establishing the connection between our Resolve systems, as soon as I made a change, they could see it practically without any delay. This was vitally important for everyone. It was a huge project. complexity, and no one wanted to wait, even a few seconds, to see the modifications.”

Although the cloud workflow offered by DaVinci Resolve Studio 18 allows you to collaborate on the same project in real time, it is necessary that each computer on which the program is run has a capture and playback card. DeckLink 8K Pro to see the same sequences in each of them. This makes it easy for all users to monitor 10-bit images with great quality and extremely low latency.

During sound design check-in meetings, both Smith, Rice and Ames in New Zealand and Kimball in Los Angeles or Idaho could look at the prints at the same time and decide the direction they wanted to take narratively. In this regard, Kimball recalled that "after they discussed what they wanted to convey in certain scenes and I was clear about what their ideas were, I worked on my own for a while. I tried different styles and made changes intuitively, since I usually trust my instincts."

Kimball decided to grade in format Dolby Vision. "I used Resolve's HDR controls, and the other collaborators could notice the changes on their respective monitors. For visual effects, this was essential, as they sometimes look great in Rec. 709, but not when using high dynamic range images," he says.

Given the complexity of the plot, Kimball was able to apply different appearances in the chapters from the first season of the series. “The story takes place in different worlds, and this played a major role in the grading,” he indicated. "In the case of the hairs, the goal was for the images to present an appearance that evoked the earth, since they are short in stature and are always close to the grass, so this affected the appearance. On the other hand, the Númenoreans castle, where the king lives, had to look sumptuous, dynamic and romantic. There are scenes with fire that take place in the Southern Lands, where everything has a bluish, cold and stormy appearance. With Resolve, I was able to isolate the flame and "Give it a more golden and yellowish hue. The program's HDR controls allow you to make adjustments with great precision and manipulate specific parts of the image. We apply these types of effects in all the episodes of the season."

According to Ames, the workflow turned out to be revolutionary, and not only useful for large productions, such as The rings of power. In this sense, he explained that "it is also possible to use the same system in independent feature films and take advantage of all the benefits that this way of working offers. This is how modern cinematography works. We all work as a team, instead of carrying out specific tasks individually, in isolation. For me, the process is as exciting as the results that are achieved."