Light Iron – The Fincher Analyst

Masters of Color: Ian Vertovec

Cullen Kelly
December 12, 2021
Lowepost & Ravengrade

In this episode, we talk with Ian Vertovec about the art and craft of color grading.

This episode is sponsored by Pixelview, an industry standard and affordable streaming solution for editors and colorists.

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Masters of Color: Eric Weidt

Cullen Kelly
December 2, 2021
Lowepost & Ravengrade

In this episode, we talk with director David Fincher’s favorite colorist Eric Weidt about the art and craft of color grading.

Eric has an incredible list of credits that includes Mank and Mindhunter. His works on these projects extend far beyond traditional tasks of color grading, incorporating complex look modeling and incredibly detailed adjustments on virtually every frame.

The techniques and insights he shares in this episode are unique and includes topics such as how to sculpt the viewers experience with textural and spatial tools, the lens treatment techniques used on Mindhunter, the process and swan curve treatment behind the day-for-night shots on Mank, advanced grain work and so much more.

This episode is sponsored by Pixelview, an industry standard and affordable streaming solution for editors and colorists.

Listen to the podcast:

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Spotify
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Lowepost (Premium membership videos)

Colorist Ian Vertovec’s Instagram Notes on His Work for David Fincher

Ian Vertovec & Michael Cioni
March 17, 2019
Ian Vertovec (Instagram)
Michael Cioni (Instagram)

Ian Vertovec is Supervising Colorist at Light Iron, which he co-founded, a Panavision company specialized in dailies, digital intermediate, archival, and data services for projects originated on file-based motion cameras.

View this post on Instagram

The Social Network Dir: David Fincher DP: Jeff Cronenweth For this film David and Jeff wanted to avoid a neutral look throughout the film. I pushed all the interiors warmer (not pink though) and all the exteriors cooler. This makes the world inhabited by the Accidental Billionaires as seeming a little off. Fun Fact: The first film ever shot on the RED MX sensor. #thesocialnetwork #davidfincher #500millionfriends

A post shared by Ian Vertovec (@ianvertovec) on Mar 17, 2019 at 3:38pm PDT

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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Dir: David Fincher DP: Jeff Cronenweth On this film, the ice and snow was very much a character. We tried to make those icy environments as oppressive as possible. This played in contrast to the summertime flashback Kodachrome look. #thegirlwiththedragontattoo #davidfincher #rooneymara #danielcraig

A post shared by Ian Vertovec (@ianvertovec) on Mar 17, 2019 at 3:49pm PDT

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Reposted from @ianvertovec – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Dir: David Fincher DP: Jeff Cronenweth One of the best technical and creative accomplishments of our team's career was collaborating on this film. GDT included scenes shot on the first RED Epic camera (mixed in with lots of RED ONE MX) and was the first 5K RAW DI. We had to work with Quantel at the time to innovate a new way to do DI in a 5K extraction and display in 4K. It was our first time making 5K DSM non-scaled 2.40 and 1.78 masters so no blow-up was required for deliverables. It also means there is a 4K 4:3 version somewhere! The creative techniques and technology discovered on this film went into hundreds of films we did thereafter. Sometimes I travel the world and people ask, "How do you get RED cameras to look so good?" I tell them, "Don't worry so much about it. We all have access to the exact same technology to make these pictures look great. The difference is in who actually touches the tech." Colorist @ianvertovec is the key to these images and leads the Light Iron creative team to bring the best color regardless of the camera. Now you can follow his colorful journey on Instagram. Follow @ianvertovec #thegirlwiththedragontattoo #davidfincher #rooneymara #danielcraig – #regrann #regrann #redcamera #redepic #redcamerausers #lightiron #lightironcolor #digitalintermediate #colorcorrection #cinematographer #cinematography #resolution

A post shared by Michael Cioni (@michaelcioni) on Mar 17, 2019 at 3:01pm PDT

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Calvin Klein "Downtown" Dir: David Fincher Dp: David Devlin . Here David wanted to create the look of the East German BW ORWO film stock. I did a lot of research on what I could do to emphasize this concept. I ended up creating a black halation that resembled a kinescope effect. You can see the Halo around Rooney's head against the white walls. . Shot on RED mono. Filmout and rescanned at Fotokem for natural grain. . #calvinklein #davidfincher #rooneymara #redmono #blackandwhite

A post shared by Ian Vertovec (@ianvertovec) on Mar 17, 2019 at 3:56pm PDT

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Gap "Dress Normal" Dir: David Fincher Dp: Jeff Cronenweth . Black halation effect here emulating the old television kinescope look. #davidfincher #thegap

A post shared by Ian Vertovec (@ianvertovec) on Mar 17, 2019 at 4:05pm PDT

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Gone Girl Dir: David Fincher Dp: Jeff Cronenweth . Suburban life is portrayed a little more neutral at first. As the story gets a little more twisted, the white balance starts drifting. . #gonegirl #davidfincher #benaffleck #rosamundpike #gillianflynn

A post shared by Ian Vertovec (@ianvertovec) on Mar 17, 2019 at 4:27pm PDT

Colorist Podcast: Ian Vertovec, from Light Iron

Episode 20

January 16, 2018
Colorist Podcast

This episode is sponsored by Colorist Society International and Mixing Light.

On this episode of the colorist podcast, I talk with Ian Vertovec, Co-Founder, and Senior Colorist at Light Iron.

Ian has colored major films “The Social Network,” “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” and “Gone Girl.” And more recently, he has colored the TV shows “Baskets” for FX and “Glow” on Netflix.

Originally from Chicago, Ian focused on photography, then moved on to digital compositing. He later co-founded two post facilities in Los Angeles: Plaster City, then Light Iron. Out of necessity, he moved on to color at his company. He found his combination of photography and compositing matched perfectly for a career as a colorist.

In this podcast, we talk about:

Coloring David Fincher films and working with extremely dark images
The challenges of working on VFX heavy projects
Making HDR look both cinematic and realistic
Advantages of working with high-end systems like Quantel Pablo
The difference between working on TV and films
How experience with compositing served him as a colorist
Bringing life to images using texture
Using film emulation LUTs in his workflow
Comparing different cameras as a colorist
Using ACES in a color managed workflow
Keeping grades simple, clean, and efficient

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Tech Media Planet: The Social Network

Episode 22

December 6, 2010
Tech Media Planet

Colorist Ian Vertovec from Light Iron Digital takes us through the ins and outs of color grading one of this year’s biggest hit films “The Social Network”.

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Dolby: Ian Vertovec and Michael Cioni, from Light Iron

September 2, 2011
Dolby (YouTube)

Playlist:

The Beauty of Large Format 8K

DXL Channel (vimeo)
December 20, 2017

Presented live at Camerimage 2017, this provocative presentation examines the psychology, physiology, and physical relationships between resolution and sharpness. Panavision and Light Iron experts Michael Cioni, Dan Sasaki, and Ian Vertovec present a fresh perspective on how the pursuit of cinematic smoothness is tied to the race for resolution.