Colombia. The Colombian series "La vorágine" was edited, graded and finished with Blackmagic Design's DaVinci Resolve Studio. Bogota-based studio Norenha Lapost led post-production and turned to Blackmagic Cloud to speed up project completion, maintain efficiency, and ensure visual consistency.
"La vorágine" is based on the 1924 novel of the same name by Colombian author José Eustasio Rivera and tells the story of a young woman and her lover, who flee to the Colombian jungle in search of freedom, without imagining that an even crueler reality awaits them. The eight-episode series was produced by Quinto Color and directed by Luis Alberto Restrepo.
"Transforming the novel into a contemporary series with international recognition was an enormous narrative and technical challenge for us," said Alejandro Norenha, Norenha Lapost's post-production director and editor of the project. "Between the jungle and extreme temperatures and with a small post-production team dispersed in different locations, "La vorágine" established itself as one of the most meticulously crafted productions in Colombia's recent audiovisual history. To carry out this project, I collaborated closely with the colorists Juan Carlos García and Javier Chiquillo Núñez, the editors Johan Vanegas and Felipe Argüello, and the post-production coordinator Anlly García Vásquez."
Due to the small post-production team, it was necessary to optimize each stage in order to concentrate on the creative aspects. Norenha explained, "From copying to final delivery, Resolve allowed us to maintain total control without sacrificing speed or quality. During the editing process, I worked closely with Restrepo, fine-tuning the narrative rhythm and visual structure of the series. Resolve allowed us to work with lightweight proxies and, with a single click, reconnect the high-resolution footage to export modified versions with the camera's LUTs. This improved the visualization for Restrepo and the executive producer, José Lombana."
From the first production meetings, the creative team defined "La vorágine" as a Colombian western: poetic, dark, with a slow pace and full of atmospheric tension.
"The colour had to reinforce that feeling, so we worked with a warm, contrasting aesthetic that highlighted the damp skin of the characters and the constant perspiration. We used a medium graininess that added weight to each shot and connected us with the Colombia of 100 years ago," said Norenha.
With colorists in Colombia working from different cities and cinematographer Diego Forero in Belgium, Blackmagic Cloud became the central hub of the collaboration. "Blackmagic Cloud was instrumental in allowing the cinematographer to see our changes in real time, review them in detail, and adjust them almost as if they were sitting next to us. It was key to maintaining the aesthetic coherence of the project," added Chiquillo Núñez.
Norenha added: "This fluid connection between continents allowed us to maintain aesthetic coherence and meet a tight schedule of just five months for the eight episodes, with more than 400 minutes in airtime. Full integration within Resolve also simplified series completion and QA processes. It was not necessary to generate intermediate exports or clean signal versions. By working directly from the graded sequence, we reduced render time and storage space by two to three terabytes. Even last-minute adjustments could be resolved quickly thanks to per-clip colour metadata."
Drawing grouping also helped maintain aesthetic consistency and workflow efficiency. "With so many chapters and scenes, Resolve's groups tool allowed us to quickly create a base aesthetic with all the emulations included and then adjust it shot by shot in the clip-based phase," explained Chiquillo Núñez.
"It was an unforgettable project for everyone involved, and it's incredible to see its international success," Norenha said by way of closing. "When we joined the project, we knew it would be an exciting challenge and we understood that with Resolve we could achieve what we wanted."
