Dirty Looks and Cinelab Film & Digital collaborated closely on Netflix’s Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, with Time Based Arts’ Simone Grattarola crafting a stunning grade to George Steel’s cinematography.
Dirty Looks served as the creative and technical hub for the film’s picture post-production. Working closely with Cinelab, who carried out the DFD process. Dirty Looks ensured a seamless workflow for both DI editorial and the grade, which took place in their 4K DI Theatre.
To honour the gritty, iconic visual legacy of the franchise created by Steven Knight and Tom Harper, a specialised analogue intermediate process was utilised. Central to this aesthetic was Cinelab’s DFD (Digital-Film-Digital) workflow, which embeds genuine photochemical characteristics into the digital image.
The DFD stage of the workflow involved recording the digital master onto Kodak 50D camera negative using an ARRILASER 2 film recorder. This negative was then developed via a Photomec ECN2 processor, introducing authentic organic grain structure and the characteristic highlight roll-off unique to film as a medium. The developed film was scanned back to digital at high resolution, providing a rich, textured foundation for Simone Grattarola to shape a deep and expressive grade.
Dirty Looks has a long-standing creative relationship with Cinelab and was an early collaborator in applying the DFD workflow on Sebastián Lelio’s The Wonder (Netflix), one of the first feature films to fully utilise the process.
Since then, the technique has continued to evolve, with productions such as The Immortal Man adopting it for the authentic photochemical characteristics that only a true film pass can introduce.
The picture post-production team behind this approach will host a collaborative event in London this June, presented by Dirty Looks and Cinelab, to showcase the workflow and explore how the Peaky Blinders aesthetic was carried through to the big screen. Further details will be announced soon.
Staff Reporter
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