Case Studies
Grading and finishing ‘Gemini Man’: 120fps, 4K, high dynamic range 3D
Gemini Man, the new movie from director Ang Lee, presented a huge challenge for post, as it was shot and finished in 3D at 120 frames per second, using specially modified ARRI cameras shooting at 3.2K. This represented a huge amount of data to be managed, graded and rendered in post. FilmLight talked to technical supervisor Ben Gervais and colourist Marcy Robinson about the challenges of grading and finishing the movie.
Gemini Man tells the story of a hitman, played by Will Smith, who is pursued by a rival, who turns out to be his son, known as Junior – also played by Will Smith.For this film, Ang Lee turned once again to the team that had helped him push the technical boundaries on his first 120fps 3D movie, 2016’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. But while both projects were graded on FilmLight’s Baselight X grading system, for Gemini Man the dailies were also completed on Baselight, and the team used Baselight for NUKE plugins to bring the powerful Baselight grading toolset directly into the VFX pipeline.
4K high dynamic range data, at five times the normal frame rate, and doubled for 3D – that makes for a lot of data. “If you shoot two hours in the day, you’ve got the equivalent of 20 hours of footage,” Gervais explained. “It became obvious very early on that I had to work outside the typical media storage solution.
“Much of my work was in continuity. Making sure each location had the very specific look that Ang had in mind. This was not about compensating what was shot, for Ang this was about feelings and subtlety.”
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