'1992': Seville, a macabre Curro and DaVinci Resolve, in the latest series by Álex de la Iglesia

DaVinci Resolve (Blackmagic Design) It was the software used to shape the color of ‘1992’, Netflix series directed by Álex de la Iglesia that carries the most shocking thriller to the novelty Seville with a dark curro as an antagonist.

Fans of the cult classic Seven They will have noticed a family visual landscape in the recent series of Netflix 1992. Created and directed by the renowned Spanish filmmaker Álex de la Iglesia, the series transfers the viewer to a dark and sinister reinterpretation of the Seville of the 90s, where a widow (Marian) investigates a series of murders linked to Expo 92 after the death of her husband in an explosion.

The Explosions and The use of fire They are an essential part of the visual narrative of the series (a flamethrower appears in several key sequences as the main weapon of the murderer), in an attempt to portray a Seville nostalgic but ghostly (With locations such as the Island of Cartuja in a state of abandonment), merging the vibrant energy of the 90s with a decadent atmosphere.

The dark thriller of David Fincher, Seven, was summoned from the first production meetings as a visual reference, while from the Church, known for its chaotic and baroque narrative style, delineated its vision with the photography director Luis Ángel Pérez: “I knew the producer and Álex for a movie called The piety, in which I was director of photography. It has a very specific, crazy but brilliant vision of cinema, with a very chaotic narrative approach, ”explains Pérez about what attracted him to the project.“ When they confirmed me, we started talking about references and, above all, there was a clear premise for its part: use Seven as a guide for the color palette and the levels of darkness; Things like radical contrasts between light and shadow, ”he adds.

Those Radical contrasts They also moved to the insistent use of artificial rain, regardless of the real shooting conditions: "He did not care that we were rolling outdoors under full sun; his aesthetic and narrative intention went far beyond seeking realism," he details. The intention was exaggerate these conditions through lighting techniques, thus marking a clear break with reality in favor of narrative intention: "Alex's cinema is the opposite of the subtle. He likes to emphasize, that there is evidence of the interpretation of the actors, the staging, etc. and all that directly impacts the camera, the light and the color correction."

Color correction in a thriller

To give life to this Gothic thriller, a close collaboration was required between Pérez, the colorist Jordi Molina and the rest of the production team. This was key to maintaining the thriller atmosphere throughout a production that combined real locations and shootings under study.

To achieve this, Molina's team worked in color space ACES, with online assembly, ethalonage and visual effects integrated into DaVinci Resolve. "The first advantage of working in Aces is that we could advance the correction without waiting for the effects to be finished; we knew that the plans would behave as if they were the original camera material," explains Molina, who adds that "the second advantage is that we could prepare the plates for the VFX. When transcoding to exr and use Aces, we knew that they would see exactly the same thing as us in the color room." DaVinci Resolve served as Common language Among all departments: "For us, Davinci was like a dictionary that connected all programs within the same color pipeline, something we greatly benefit from this project."

Visual aesthetics was anticipated by Arturo García (Biaffra) y Luis Arrizabalaga, usual collaborators of the Church, who located the locations with specific photographic references for composition, light and color. Since he was filmed between Seville (exterior) and Madrid (interiors), Pérez explains that since scouting The importance of low profile lighting was already intuited: "We had to avoid very bright or squeaky colors: red, blue, green. The palette was much more turned off, with a low saturation. Blacks, musts, ocher and yellow predominated very washed," says Molina. In that attenuated context, contrasts become even more significant. For example, the white is associated with the character of Marian, who appears in many sequences with a white jacket, which highlights it of the bleak environment that surrounds it.

The locations presented one of the main challenges, since the natural light of the Sevillian summer was extremely intense for the outer shots, in contrast to the dark and most contained atmosphere of the interior scenes shot in Madrid. With the filming dates planned in advance, Pérez and his team could anticipate challenges and turn them into narrative opportunities. "We knew that we would work with a lot of natural light outdoors. Although there were parts under study, most was in location, so we had to think about how that beastly light of Seville in July or August would affect us much darker and darker interior and darker. Instead of seeing it as an enemy, we decided to ally with that light and take advantage of it to reinforce the story."

In close collaboration with Pérez, the colorist Jordi Molina details the challenges of those extreme conditions: "With temperatures above 40 ° C, control the light and color saturation added a more complex layer," he says. Despite this, they managed to "create sequences in which the interaction between fire, shadows and environment is visceral and immersive."

A dynamic collaboration

Molina I had already worked with the church in productions such as 30 coins, so its preferences and expectations were very clear to 1992. Together with Pérez, they focused on balance High contrast images preserving detail both in shadows and high lights, something that demanded many pre -production tests, especially as it was a masterful series in HDR.

"As Jordi already knew the tastes and what Álex was going to ask, I met him and with the dit Miguel Meiser several times in pre -production after reading the scripts. As I was going to end in an HDR master, we needed to anticipate the problems we could have with the natural light of Seville and with the great sources of light that the interiors required," Pérez explains, to which Molina adds: "The series Large dynamic range of HDR.

The HDR was key to achieving the contrasted style and full of blacks Deep that he was looking for, but also presented challenges. Pérez and Molina developed Specific luts For interiors and exteriors, ensuring that the subtle details in the shadows and extreme contrasts remained visible. This demanded a precise balance between set lighting and postproduction correction.

Pérez mentions a technique that Molina calls "dig up the image", where the brightness and contrast levels are They break down and rebuild To obtain exaggerated images: faces, textures, funds ... They are not realistic, "but they are consistent with the universe that Álex wants to tell. It has a very particular aesthetic and the truth is that that is why their films are recognized instantly."

Explosions that come alive

Some of the most important sequences revolve around fuego, combining Practical effects with dynamic 3D recreations.B "Capture the interaction between fire and environment was a great challenge for the photography team, which worked closely with the DIT," explains Molina. Keeping the detail in the high lights and shadows was essential for the movement of the flame and the surrounding textures to be represented faithfully.

"In the locations where real fire could not be used, we mix practical effects with 3D recreations in Davinci, integrating them to maintain the visual authenticity of each plane", a process that Molina indicates as the most Project complex. "The computer generated by computer had to match exactly the levels of real fire brightness," he says, to achieve continuity between interior and exterior scenes. "There is a lot of fire: the flamethrower, the explosions ... and we had to be very careful with those details; encourage them a lot and protect them because we knew they were key to the narrative and because we wanted to technically be as perfect as possible," adds Pérez.

Fire is presented as a key element from the first moment, and Pérez especially highlights the Initial sequence as one of her favorites. "I am very happy with the opening sequence, when Marian enters behind the explosion. I think it was very good: low light inside with flashes of the outer smoke, filtered by the artificial rain ..." A scene that, according to him, perfectly encapsulates the atmosphere of dark thriller that defines the series, but under the wide lens of the non-realist chaos of Of the Church: "There is no time when you feel that you are seeing reality. Sometimes the cinema transforms reality into something super exaggerated, and in the end that is the game for those who work in the image."

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