The Snail, a short film produced by Sirence Studios, is a psychological drama that revolves around a young sergeant, who is navigating life’s challenges after being medically discharged from the army.
Directed by Evgenii Liubarskii and produced by Eugénia Neto, the story unfolds in New York, revealing the sergeant’s journey to find his purpose in life while faced with the challenges of being unable to independently determine his future.
In bringing the various emotional and psychological twists of The Snail to life, the production team faced multiple challenges, including the need to achieve premium visual quality to effectively portray the emotional intensity, while ensuring smooth on-set operations in a production operating to a tight timescale. A key technical requirement was to have reliable, high-quality monitoring and recording equipment that could facilitate an efficient production workflow. This included the need to deliver the recording in Raw from the Sony FX9 camera, as well as accurate colour displays.
Atomos provided the production with several of its products, including the Ninja V, Ninja V+ and the Sumo19SE. The Atomos Ninja V and V+ were employed to allow for RAW recording. The integration of the Atomos Ninja with the Sony FX9 ensured that the team could extract the most out of their footage, while the Sumo, known for its bright and accurate colour display, functioned as the director’s monitor. It supported the usage of LUTs in each scene, providing the realtime, accurate visualisation that was critical for on-location decision making.
By employing high-quality, easy-to-use monitors, the crew was able to maintain an optimal working distance, fostering an effective working atmosphere and ensuring efficient communication.
“The Snail is a great example of the role that robust, high-quality technology, like that of Atomos, plays in translating meaningful stories into visually stunning cinematic experiences,” explains director Evgenii Liubarskii. “Atomos significantly enriched our overall production quality and operational efficiency, ensuring that the emotional depth and narrative of the story were fully captured and conveyed.”
