Production
Our existing experience in automotive shoots allowed us to plan everything within a 2-day schedule. Given Khabib’s tight availability, we wrapped him within 9 hours. We explicitly decided against using cranes or dollies, opting for mobile, light-weight, high-tech equipment instead – which made the late change in creative possible without a major disruption on production logistics. Shooting on Russian Lomo Anamorphic lenses in 6K REDRAW was a nice touch to remind us of Khabib’s Russian heritage, captured with an American sensor.
Post Production
We knew that DFAD’s strength – audio – could only really count if we were fast enough in editorial to give them at least 2 days to do post sound and mix.
Based on previously recorded sounds from set, DFAD had started to set up projects with a predetermined BPM (beats-per-minute) in order for the composer to write music while the editing was still in progress. Due to the tight turnaround, transcoding the footage was not an option; our state of the art editorial systems were strong enough though to handle editing 6K anamorphic raw footage in real-time.
35 hours of editing later – with sessions lasting until 3am on a weekend – picture was locked at Prodigium. DFAD went on to do an incredible job – they scored original music and got some world-class sound personnel on board on a tight timeframe, under the leadership of Dmitrii Miachin. This is one of the qualities of a true co-production: It’s not just partnering up, its working as one cohesive unit, a team where each compliments each others’ skillset and expertise. The mutual inspiration and seamless collaboration simply elevated both of our working styles to a new level.
Listen here to the OST of “Unbroken”:
Color grading was done in-house at Prodigium (take a look at our coloring portfolio if you are looking for a colorist), simultaneously to music and audio post at DFAD. Due to various on-set constraints, we decided that our precision driving footage needed to be sped up in post production. Cranking up footage usually feels choppy and artificial.
We invested a good deal of R&D at Prodigium and came up with an in-house solution that allowed us to speed ramp, adjust motion blur and camera shake, all independently – with far more organic results than we had ever achieved before. We now offer cinematic, motion-blur-supportive speed ramping as part of our services.
Hacking YouTube’s Compression, Going Stereo on Instagram, Release and Virality
Our primary destinations of delivery were YouTube and Instagram. DFAD’s team warned us that the compression algorithms of YouTube and Instagram would have a detrimental effect on audio quality. After some comparative analysis by means spectrogram, it was clear: The audio compression cut at least 20% on the top and bottom of all frequencies; on a cinematic soundscape, this really gutted emotional impact. The audio needed to hold up to the test.