Colorist Eric Weidt On Creating The Look Of The Killer

The Killer, David Fincher’s action/thriller based on the eponymous French graphic novel series and starring Michael Fassbender and Tilda Swinton will begin streaming on Netflix November 10. The film is yet another collaboration between DP Erik Messerschmidt, ASC, director David Fincher and colorist Eric Weidt. 

Postperspective spoke with Weidt about the grade, writing:

The master grade for The Killer is done in PQ P3 D65 and Weidt derived both the Rec.709 SDR and the DCI-P3 theatrical trim passes using Dolby Vision per-shot analysis.

“This was the first time I’d done a theatrical with the Dolby Vision 48-nit transform, which came out a year or two ago and is now incorporated in Baselight,” comments Weidt. “It worked great and got me 90% of the way there. The rest is dosing each scene with the Dolby Trim and then fine-tuning per shot, if and when it’s needed.

“I did almost all of the grade on a QLED wall that simulated the 1/1000 contrast ratio I’d be getting on a projector. Once projected on Xenon bulb, I made a slight contrast increase and we were done.”