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WE’RE WRAPPED!

With the film wrapped and the official trailer on the way, we’re excited to bring you behind the scenes with the people who made the film happen. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing interviews with the crew, diving into their expertise in how they took the film from the shoot to the screen. To kick things off this week, we have insights from the director and writer Jon Ayon and then a deep dive into sound and color design with colorist Darren Hartman and sound mixer Dan Olmstead. Read to the end for a taste of our upcoming conversation with Director of Photography Celeste Yumara Barbosa.

Jon Ayon

Who are you, and what is your role in the film?

My name is Jon Ayon, and I am the writer, director, and editor for NIKI•TOMI•BETO. I'm so excited to announce that we've wrapped the film completely!

What is post-production?

Post-production is the last stage of a film’s production when we take all the footage we captured during the filming stage—commonly referred to as “production”—and we edit or “cut” the film together and prep it for delivery to other departments finishing sound, foley, automatic dialogue replacement(ADR), color, and creating a digital cinema package(DCP). For NTB, I did the Foley and ADR. We sent the locked cut to a colorist, Darren Hartman at Alkemic Color in Portland, Oregon, and a sound mixer, Dan Olmsted at IMRSV Sound in Berkeley, CA.

What happens after the shooting is wrapped up, and who is involved?

After we wrapped up shooting, I copied the hard drive several times. Estevan, the producer, took one, Celeste, the Director of Photography, took another, and I took a couple of copies to start editing with. I’ve been editing professionally for over 15 years, so I planned on editing the entire film. However, at the beginning of the edit, I employed an Assistant Editor named John Ortiz to help me organize the footage and cut the “assemblies” (a first draft of a cut) for each scene in the film. We then built rough cuts for those scenes, and I took over after that to cut the entire movie. At various points throughout the editing process, my partner, Emily R. Smith, guides me on what cuts or versions of the film work and which ones don’t. Emily is an integral part of my editing process. Without her, none of my movies would have gone anywhere.

Why are we hearing from the sound mixer and colorist in this newsletter? Why are their jobs vital to this process?

The sound mixer is the person who takes the film and balances or “mixes” the audio levels throughout to make sure valuable sounds like dialogue or specific sound effects can be heard clearly by the audience. Additionally, our sound mixer, Dan Olmsted (a true legend), ensured that the audio was mixed and mastered (made louder) in stereo, broadcast, and theatre surround sound. 

A colorist takes the final version, or “locked” film, and makes sure each scene is colored to the Director of Photography (DoP) and the Director’s liking and that the color is consistent with the intended vision or theme/tone of the film from beginning to end. Our colorist, Darren Hartman, ensured that all the elements Celeste (DoP) and I wanted for each scene were incorporated visually through color, grain, depth, and texture.

Who else can we expect to hear from in the coming weeks?

In the coming weeks, we’ll hear straight from Dan Olmsted (sound mixer), Darren Hartman (colorist), and Celeste Yumara Barbosa (director of photography) as they discuss their roles in the film and their artistic process.

Darren Hartman

Can you describe your job to folks who may not have an intimate knowledge of film production but like watching movies?

Yeah, as the colorist, I am generally one of the last people to touch the image in the entire filmmaking process. I like to describe what I do as “Photoshop but on video.” My role is to help enhance the image that was captured in-camera while also adding in elements that help tell the story and carry the mood that the Director and Cinematographer [aka DoP] have established.  

What were your contributions to this film—and contributions to films in general—that most people wouldn’t think of or know about when it comes to color in post-production?

My contributions to NIKI•TOMI•BETO was to take the direction and references from Jon and Celeste so that the final picture fit the story they were telling while also not deviating too far from the captured image. There is a tonal shift in the film that represents the emotional states of the characters, so we created two distinct looks for parts of the story and a modified version of one of the looks for the moments that feature the goddess, which was inspired by the colors and patterns of a coral snake.  A look is generally applied across an entire film or sequences of a film depending on the story beats, and then we make adjustments on a shot-by-shot basis so that everything flows together.

We can do all sorts of things to help draw the viewer’s eye to certain parts of the frame, always as subtly as possible so that it’s not noticeable by the audience. For example, we use what are called “power windows” to bring exposure up or down in certain areas of the image. It could be like bringing down the exposure of a wall or bringing up exposure on someone’s face. We also added effects to some key moments to make them more intense, such as film grain, vignette blurring, and motion trail effects. Some things that would have normally been done by VFX (Visual Effects) can now be done in the color grading process.  

What is the hardest part of your job, and what is the easiest? 

The hardest part of my job is sometimes making sure you don’t go too far. It’s easy to put your creative stamp on a project, especially with today’s software and tools that allow us to manipulate the image in ways that were either not possible or extremely time-consuming and expensive in the past. I believe it’s important that the changes we make help serve the intention of the story. However, there are times when you’ve applied the look you created, but some shots don’t need to be touched much, if at all. It’s like how a great chef knows how to edit a dish and not add too many ingredients. Sometimes, making something look less pretty and visually striking better serves a story.

The easiest is when you have a good source image to work off of and fantastic collaborators to bounce ideas off of. Celeste captured some beautiful shots and used filters in-camera that gave me a great base to work on. It’s a matter of adding our looks for the story and then making any tweaks needed so everything flows together as best as possible. When something is well shot, it’s easier to find where the image wants to sit without spinning your wheels on what it should be.

What was the most complicated part about working on this film specifically?

The most complicated part of this film is that some big tonal shifts happen throughout the story that require unique looks. Sometimes, those moments are intercut with each other. We had to make sure that everything cut together in a way that made sense and wasn’t too jarring to the audience.  

Since you have an intimate knowledge of the film, what are your thoughts on it?

I’m not sure how much I can or should give away about the film, but when Jon first approached me about the project, I instantly wanted to be a part of it. The themes and story content are things I think deserve to be shown to the world and are underrepresented in traditional media. I always want to help with stories that I think are culturally important. I think many will connect with the story or maybe walk away with a different takeaway than going into it. I’m really happy with what we ended up with; we pushed the image at times, and I can’t wait for people to see it.

How can we follow or stay in touch with you about your work?

You can see some of my latest work or what I am up to on my Instagram handle, @alkemiccolor. I can be contacted via my website, www.alkemiccolor.com. I am also starting up a color grading-based streaming channel on Twitch at www.twitch.tv/alkemiccolor.

Dan Olmsted

Can you describe your job to folks who may not have an intimate knowledge of film production but like watching movies?

My task as a re-recording mixer is to blend all the various elements of sound composed by the filmmaker. I filter them for noise problems as needed, polish up their sound quality, add special audio effects, and find a balance between voices, natural sounds, and music. The goal is to create an engaging soundtrack that immerses viewers in the film’s story and leads them through the story without drawing too much attention to the craft of sound mixing.  

What were your contributions to this film—and contributions to films in general—that most people wouldn’t think of or know about when it comes to sound mixing and mastering?

Jon’s sound design in the film was exquisite and elegantly supported the story of the boys’ friendships as they navigated the tricky world they must inhabit. My work helped bring more clarity to the on-screen sound recorded during filming and helped dramatize some of the more subjective, impressionistic moments in the story.

What is the hardest part of your job, and what is the easiest? What was the most complicated part about working on this film specifically?

A critical (and mostly un-noticed) task of the sound mixer involves minimizing the noise picked up while filmmaking to bring clarity to the voices of the characters and the other natural sounds of the locations featured. When scenes are shot in grocery stores or on city streets, there’s the risk that background noise will compete with these things. Most viewers will never be aware of this kind of cleanup, but I get a lot of satisfaction from it.

Since you have an intimate knowledge of the film, what are your thoughts on it?

I’m impressed at how this story evokes the viewpoint of these boys and speaks to things we all go through growing up through adolescence, while at the same time conveying specific hardships and hurdles for their particular social environment. I grow to like them and thus care what happens to them. And Jon does this in a way that is visually, cinematically pretty stunning. This is Cinema storytelling at its most powerful.

How can we follow or stay in touch with you about your work?

My work mostly stays in the background of Cinema craft, but you can see what I’ve been up to by checking my IMDB page.

Next week, we’ll be featuring a very special conversation with our Director of Photography, Celeste Yumara Barbosa. Stay tuned!