Steve's experience working in India made Light Illusion the obvious choice as a partner to assist with the project, as well as having Steve perform the grading using DI systems at a Chennai based facility, with Liam O'Neill, the Producer, and Frank Reid, the Editor spending two weeks in Chennai to supervise the DI, vfx and film printing work.

As well as the DI being performed in India the sound design and mixing was also done there, with the project's Irish sound designer, Alex Leonard, joining the rest of the Irish DI team in Chennai for two weeks...

If this workflow is of interest for a project of yours, please contact steve@lightillusion.com for a discussion on the possibilities.

Steve performed all the grading on Five Day shelter, as well as supervising the full post production and lab processing workflow.

To see the changes before/after grading hover over the initial graded image with your cursor. The initial image is, rather obviously, the graded final...

The rather dark original was brightened, and later in the shot an unwanted item seen through a window removed - all as part of the DI, not as a separate vfx shot.

A dark and blue interior balanced and lightened, while the overexposed exterior was brought down and colour balanced.

A Second Unit overexposed pickup shot brought down, with the clouds darkened to match previous shots captured previously. The actor had also put on a bit more weight since the initial shoot so was 'thinned' within the DI.

Another Second Unit shot, graded to start to match the sky in the previous shot as the film reaches its finale.

What was initially shot as a night scene change to be a day shot...

Setting the exterior look for the bulk of the film, moving away from the very blue original.

Brightening up a very dark interior, while bringing down the exterior as seen through the bathroom window.

A number of changes to a wide exterior, including matching the desired exterior look of the film, while shading the foreground, and darkening the footpaths to make them appear more used and muddy.

Matching to the previous wide shot, while lifting the character at the door from the building's surrounding, and removing unwanted signs in the background.

Setting a night scene look, while removing a practical lamp from the top left of frame, and although not visible in this low-resolution image, removing an unwanted advertising name from the back wall of the bus shelter. All done within the DI, not as a vfx shot.

Grading for a rain storm...

After the above rain storm.

A long scene that required grading, the removal of a boom-mike reflection from the monitor, and stopping the 'dead' actor breathing, all done within the DI, not as separate vfx work. Note the sight enlarging of the top torso of the body to mask the breathing, as well as grading the body to look far less 'healthy' than within the original scene.

Reducing the brightness within the scene.

Removing the over-bright background, as well as reducing the reflection on the car door as it is closed.

Separating the foreground from the background, as well as removing an unwanted item from the join between the fg blue wall and the radiator.

Matching a later Second Unit pickup shot with an earlier First Unit shot scene - requiring the carpet colour to be changed to match.

Reducing the overly heavy contrast in the original.

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