Cannes Grand Prix winner amongst films completed with DaVinci Resolve

Blackmagic Design has announced that Compartment No. 6 (Hytti nro 6) was amongst the films at this year’s Cannes Film Festival to be graded on DaVinci Resolve.

Joint winner of the Grand Prix accolade alongside Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero, Compartment No.6 is an adaptation of Rosa Liksom’s 2011 novel, directed by Juho Kuosmanen and lensed by cinematographer J-P Passi.

Shot on Kodak 500T Colour Negative Film, the feature tells the story of a young Finnish woman who takes the train from Moscow to visit an archaeological site in the Arctic Circle. Forced to share a compartment with a stranger, the chance encounter gradually brings together two people at odds with one another.

Compartment No. 6 colourist, Sandra Klass reveals, “The director, DP and myself, talked a great deal about the intended look before grading began. We liked the early scans, over saturated, with different mixed colour sources. We wanted to create the rich film feel of the ’90s, the period where the film is set.

“Shooting on a dark train at night, we had shadow areas that were slightly underexposed,” explains Klass. “Inevitably, some expressions were lost in those scenes. So, I tracked windows onto faces and lit them up. However, this created digital noise over the existing film grain.

“With the software, I was able to add selective noise reduction, which left some of the grain, so it looked natural with the rest of the frame, but otherwise hid the large push up in exposure.

“I am a huge fan of the secondary saturation, hue and luminance controls in DaVinci Resolve. Simple tools that allow for subtle changes,” concludes Klass. “In this film, I’d often use them to take away some of the harsher lighting without making the frame look unnatural.”

The films shown at Cannes graded with DaVinci Resolve included:

Main Competition

• “Benedetta” coloured by Serge Anthony / M141
• “Bergman Island” coloured by Peter Bernaers / The Post Republic and Studio L’Equipe
• “Everything Went fine” coloured by Richard Deusy / M141
• “Flag Day” coloured by Stefan Sonnenfeld / Company 3
• “Hytti nro 6” coloured by Sandra Klass
• “Red Rocket” coloured by Alastor Arnold / Fotokem
• “The Divide” coloured by Christophe Bousquet / M141
• “The French Dispatch” coloured by Gareth Spensley / Molinaire
• “The Restless” coloured by Veerle Zeelmaekers / Studio L’Equipe

Un Certain Regard

• “Blue Bayou” coloured by Tom Poole / Company 3
• “Gaey Wa’r” coloured by Junkun Sheng / Cutting Edge Pictures
• “Good Mother” coloured by Elie Akoka / M141 and won the Un Certain Regard Ensemble Prize
• “Lamb” coloured by Eggert Baldvinsson / TrickShot and won the Un Certain Regard Prize of Originality
• “Onoda” coloured by Gadiel Bendelac / Micro Climat Studios
• “The Innocents” coloured by Emil Eriksson / Zentropa

International Critics’ Week

• “Anaïs in Love“ coloured by Serge Antony / M141
• “Olga” coloured by Charles Freville / Micro Climat Studios
• “Softie” coloured by Yov Moor / Micro Climat Studios
• “Une jeune fille qui va bien“ coloured by Richard Deusy / M141
• “Zero Fucks Given“ coloured by Loup Brenta / Cobalt Films

Special Screenings

• “Bigger than us” coloured by Richard Deusy / Lumières Numériques and Poly-Son
• “Mi Iubita Mon Amour“, coloured by Vincent Amor / Poly-Son
• “The Crusade” coloured by Richard Deusy / Poly-Son

Short Film

• “Lili Alone” coloured by Yov Moor / Poly-Son
• “Soldat Noir“ coloured by Charles Fréville / Poly-Son

Out of Competition

• “Bloody Oranges” coloured by Gadiel Bendelac / Micro Climat Studios
• “Stillwater” coloured by Tom Poole / Company 3

Midnight Screenings

• “Suprêmes“ coloured by Mathieu Caplanne / Poly-Son
• “Tralala” coloured by Yov Moor / M141

Cannes Premiere

• “Hold me tight” coloured by Richard Deusy / Poly-Son
• Cinema de la Plage
• “Tom Medina” coloured by Yov Moor / Poly-Son

Director’s Fortnight

• “A Brighter Tomorrow“ coloured by Christophe Bousquet / Poly-Son
• “Between the Waves“ coloured by Laurent Ripoll / Poly-Son
• “Clara Sola” coloured by Peter Bernaers / Studio L’Equipe
• “Our Men” coloured by Peter Bernaers / Cobalt Films
• “Returning to Reims” by Amine Berrada / Micro Climat Studios
• “The Sea Ahead” coloured by Peter Bernaers / Cobalt Films

ACID

• “Down with the King“ coloured by Alex Berman / Goldcrest Post NY
• “Soy Libre” coloured by Loup Brenta / Cobalt Films