'Kraken': marine horror with a Scandinavian seal and the color of DaVinci Resolve

Colorist Dylan Hopkin turns to DaVinci Resolve (Blackmagic Design) to grade what is the first Scandinavian feature film delivered in format Dolby Vision: 'Kraken', a Norwegian science fiction thriller co-directed by Pål Øie and cinematographer Sjur Aarthun.

In Kraken, Hopkins faced an important challenge that had to be resolved through color: finding a balance between a dramatic plot with one of intense terror driven by a monster, all set in the imposing Norwegian fjord of Sognefjord. “Kraken It has all the qualities that a good science fiction thriller, exciting and with well-developed characters, should have. There are moments of intrigue, shock and intense action, as well as a raw aesthetic and terrifying creatures, but at the same time highly stylized,” explains the grader.

Hopkin worked closely with co-director and head of photography Sjur Aarthun (FNF) to develop a conversion table (LUT) con velvety black slightly cold, a subtle enhancement of the bright areas towards green and yellow tones, as well as deep and saturated tones. Its objective was to achieve a classic film look that combined the aesthetics of the blockbusters Hollywood with a “visceral Scandinavian twist.”

The diversity of locations presented significant challenges. The LUT had to operate in various panoramic views of the fjord, industrial aquaculture environments and sequences in turbid waters. Hopkin started doing grading tests in the dailies to end up defining the look of the film: "It was an extremely useful process. It allowed us to refine the visual style, as well as understand how the appearance of the trailer would differ from what a fiction feature film would require."

DaVinci Resolve: possibilities expanded by AI

Hopkin worked in DaVinci Resolve Studio on macOS using a DaVinci Resolve Advanced Panel with a team of digital cinema projection, in order to supervise the appearance for the rooms. In order to maintain project consistency, he used a fixed nodal structure which was applied to the entire project, using nodes for subsequent adjustments to groups of clips that facilitated the application of corrections at the scene level without losing continuity.

At this point, the AI-assisted features of DaVinci Resolve Studio became a central part of the workflow: “The most important thing is to achieve good results effectively without compromising image quality, and that is what Resolve's AI tools give you.” Also especially helpful was the function Magic Mask: "Tasks that used to involve complex windows or rotoscoping can now be done much more intuitively. I used this tool extensively to light faces, isolate creatures, and exclude actors from background adjustments."

Additionally, DaVinci Resolve allowed Hopkin to introduce fog effects thanks to its functions VFX, which provided Kraken a greater atmosphere and continuity: "They were immediately excited. It helped unify all the elements of the scene and, from there, I started editing more shots directly into the grading." Other areas addressed with the Blackmagic software were the correction of elements in the scene, such as removing objects by adjusting the size of the nodes.

Dolby Vision: milestone for Scandinavian cinema

Kraken It is the first Scandinavian feature film etalonado and mastered in Dolby Vision for its cinematic release, a process that was carried out in the studio Barnes Theatre from Dolby (London). "The picture quality was extraordinary. Rich color, refined highlights, deep blacks, and a level of detail in the darkest areas that I had never seen before in a movie theater," Hopkin recalls.

To achieve such high-level images, Hopkin used the wide dynamic range tools of DaVinci Resolve Studio during grading in Dolby Vision, which gave the grader “a more precise control of microcontrast and saturation in areas where tones were custom-tuned, making the transition between different versions more predictable.”