Latin America. The feature film "Last Call", shot in two simultaneous 80-minute shots, was grounded at DaVinci Resolve Studio by colorist and cinematographer Seth Wessel-Estes, who also used a DaVinci Resolve Micro Panel device for this purpose.
"Last Call" tells the story of a suicidal alcoholic on the anniversary of his son's death. When she tries to call a help number, she mistakenly contacts a single mother who works nights as a janitor at a local university. The screen is then split in two to show both characters as they strike up a life-changing conversation.
Gavin Booth was no stranger to such projects, having directed several one-act plays and video clips filmed in one take. In addition, he was responsible for "Fifteen", a film from the Blumhouse studio that was also recorded in a single take and broadcast live, something unheard of until that time. "Last Call" constitutes a unique approach to cinematography, similar to other works such as "Timecode" and "Russian Ark", in which Booth was inspired.
Both Booth and filmmaker Wessel-Estes, who also served as a colorist on this project, knew they faced a great challenge in grading an uncut film with two shots in continuous motion in an urban setting. "Figuring out how to adjust the color was a daunting task," Wessel-Estes said. "We had never grounded shots longer than three or four minutes."
As a way to prepare, Booth and Wessel-Estes shot a one-take music video for the band Bleu, before starting "Last Call," and developed not only a working dynamic for the production, but also a process for managing an ever-changing image.
"Last Call" posed endless challenges to the duo, which were reflected in the final image that needed to be grounded. Both characters were filmed simultaneously, linked through the phone call. Booth took care of one, and Wessel-Estes of the other.
"We needed to reduce the number of staff around cameras and audio," Booth explained. "There could be no assistants or microphone operators. There was no way to hide anyone or avoid the shadows of these devices in either shot. We had to turn to our audio consoles and rely on the actor's and actress' lapel microphones."
Booth and Wessel-Estes took care of the cameras and focus, while the head of electric was responsible for determining how to take advantage of the functional lighting and hide the other lights and cables, since each unit accompanied the movements of the characters in their environment. When moving from the inside to the outside or from one room to another, the exposure had to be adjusted simultaneously. Each element was an aid or an obstacle in terms of the final appearance, and the team knew that the deadline and budget to achieve a good result were limited.
Regarding the aspect of the project, Booth's goal was to maintain a realistic style and avoid too intense colors that distracted the viewer from the drama that the characters live. "By resorting to a long shot to show the reality of each one, we wanted to preserve the veracity of the feelings. If we had improved the appearance too much, they would have lost credibility. Our purpose was for the audience to feel in the skin of both characters and pay attention to each of the words of the exchange."
During post-production, Wessel-Estes was aware that it would be impossible to manage hundreds of nodal corrections in such a long shot. Therefore, he opened the project in Resolve and used the Edit module to mark transition points in the film. "I was able to divide the timeline into several parts which I then staggered individually. Fortunately, the program allowed me to make changes and use dissolves to move from one section to another with fluidity and dynamism."
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