Colorist Dante Pasquinelli grades Live Action Short nominee for 97th Academy Awards.
Fremont, CA, USA – Friday, February 28, 2025 – Blackmagic Design today announced that the Oscar® nominated film “A Lien” was graded by Colorist Dante Pasquinelli of ETHOS Studio using DaVinci Resolve Studio editing, color grading, visual effects (VFX) and audio post production software, along with a DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel.
Nominated in the Live Action Short category as part of the 97th Academy Awards, “A Lien” comes from Directors Sam Cutler-Kreutz and David Cutler-Kreutz and follows a young couple on the day of their green card interview as they confront a dangerous immigration process.
Pasquinelli worked closely with DP Andrea Gavazzi on the look and feel of the film. “We spoke at length about how we wanted the film to feel. It needed to have a look that was present but not overpowering or distracting from the narrative. We wanted to show the coldness of the environment, both physically and emotionally. The buildings are the most soulless places possible,” said Pasquinelli.
“There is a scene that takes place in a hallway, cutting between the father/daughter and the mother, who is in the waiting room. It is a tense, building moment in the film, and we really got to push the grade on the father’s and daughter’s side,” explained Pasquinelli. “We wanted it to feel like the walls were closing in and that the characters were desperate, letting the skin tone fall into the same palette as the surrounding environment as the father and daughter sink further into the nightmarish situation. We used tracked keys and windows to pull out the skin tone and subtly shift the tones of the environment.”
“We wanted the family to feel warm and tight in the first scene in the car, but as they go deeper into the building, the tones start to resemble those of a nightmare or a horror film. Andrea and I built out a custom LUT in Resolve, so when it came time for the final grade, everyone already had a rough idea of how the footage would feel. It gave us a great base look to work from,” he added.
In a somewhat happy accident, Pasquinelli and Gavazzi developed a new look while matching cameras for the driving scene.
“With the majority of the film shot on one camera, we graded that footage first and were quite happy with how it was feeling. When we got to the driving setups, which used a different camera, we ended up, somewhat accidentally, applying the look from the main camera footage without proper color space transforms (CST). We all loved the look that came from that process, so we ended up going back to the main footage and matching that back to our newly found look, even using a CST to map the Log C shots,” said Pasquinelli.
“For me, this film represents such an important subject matter and was an opportunity to work closely with my longtime collaborator and friend Andrea. Throughout the process everyone was so open to trying things out and pushing in a new direction when needed. I think that is reflected in the final film across all areas,” he concluded.
Gavazzi echoed that sentiment, adding: “I have been an immigrant my entire life in several countries, and I know very well the feeling of not knowing where you belong. This made the process feel so powerful, as I was able to connect deeply with the emotions of displacement, longing, and the search for identity. It was an opportunity to channel those experiences into something meaningful and expressive, giving voice to feelings that are often difficult to articulate.”
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Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984.Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com
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Oscar® Nominated Film A Lien Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio
