At CAMARENA Color & Motion, we are delighted to have collaborated in the post-production of the short film EL HOMBRE SIN ROSTRO (THE MAN WITHOUT A FACE).
Directed by Spanish filmmaker Sergio Siruela and photographed by Mexican cinematographer Alejandro Güemes, THE MAN WITHOUT A FACE is a drama infused with classic horror elements. It narrates the story of a couple whose life is deeply affected following the mysterious disappearance of their young daughter, Laura.
The color grading was conducted by Luis Hernández de la Peña using Davinci Resolve Studio 18 from Blackmagic Design. CAMARENA also contributed to the online editing of the project and the design of the opening and closing credits.
In this exclusive interview, Sergio Siruela and Alejandro Güemes discuss how they developed the look of their short film, their creative challenges, their collaboration with CAMARENA, and much more...
Can you describe your creative vision for "El Hombre Sin Rostro" in terms of the impact you were looking to achieve?
SS: The kidnapping and disappearance of people is a sad reality not only in Mexico but across the continent. Our society is in mourning for the thousands of helpless families who survive under the protection of an authority that fails to curb this endemic evil and hardly manages to transmit a message of hope.
Under this social and political backdrop, THE MAN WITHOUT A FACE is a classic horror story that encompasses a tragic event of sustained pain—the disappearance of a child. A tragedy that will ultimately diminish the emotional and family bonds of the protagonist couple as one of its many consequences.
THE MAN WITHOUT A FACE is a double-meaning metaphor that represents anguish and loss, but at the same time offers a path of acceptance and faith because, ultimately, this is a story of ghosts in this world and the other.
The film has a distinctive horror atmosphere. How did color grading contribute to creating this suspenseful environment?
SS: Post-production was a fundamental part to achieve the purpose of the piece, especially contributing to the terrifying envelope of this dramatic story. While the editing had to be slow and marked by deep silences to allow the characters and the viewer to live the emotions in their own skin, or the sounds also became a source of essential information, the lighting and above all the subsequent color grading would mark and build the look, the tone, and the atmosphere we were looking for, for a story that oscillates between social drama—with a deep reflection towards an endemic evil such as the kidnapping of minors—and a kind of gothic tale with a demonic presence.
The color had to build this duality, this thin line between the reality and the fiction of the novel written by the mother, between veracity and magical realism.
The atmosphere, on one hand, contained, austere, shadowy, threatening, and paranormal, along with its melancholic, heart-wrenching, critical, latent, and silent part, would not have been possible without the intervention of color grading.
The color palette can significantly affect the atmosphere and tone of a film. Can you elaborate on the creative decisions behind your choice of colors?
SS: We were looking for a chromatic element that, despite being framed within the horror genre, felt deeply realistic, where the viewer would feel (in line with the underlying theme) that they are facing a story that could happen anywhere in the world.
The terror instilled by the piece is not only due to the threatening presence of the creature we call "the faceless man," but also due to the intrinsic horror that parents feel at the loss of their daughter, that latent pain that will accompany them for the rest of their lives. For this reason, realism with a mystical or paranormal touch was essential.
We opted for a particularly cold palette in the night scenes, leading to the unease of the theme, in contrast with some warm tones in the daytime scenes, with which—despite being a sad and dim light—we sought to transmit a glimmer of hope for these families.
The high contrast dotted with small points of light produced by the set's practical effects was another characteristic of the piece. We aimed to lower the lighting and create dead zones —but with minimal information— that reinforced the shadows, the half-lights, those small and dark places in every corner, every door, every nook that could harbor the evil that is latent in the entire piece.
In short, to create the sensation that something we do not see but can imagine is lurking without our awareness. With this, we also managed to create small micro-worlds, accentuating, for example, the small points of light, like the girl's flashlight, her instrument of defense, her glimmer of light in the darkness, or the closet, that dark hole that encloses a disturbing evil.
As Director of Photography, how do you feel that color grading contributed to your work and the visual language of THE MAN WITHOUT A FACE?
AG: Color grading was always a vital element of the language and narrative of EHSR. From the beginning, the director (Sergio Siruela) and I looked for look references that were close to what we had in mind; we wanted a contrasted look where a mysterious atmosphere was created but not entirely dark. We wanted the viewer to always understand where they were situated, looking for fleeting moments where you wouldn't know if it was day or night.
Since we approached Luis Hernández at CAMARENA, he understood very well what we were looking for, and that undoubtedly helped to consolidate the look of the film. We couldn't be happier with the result.
Can you talk about specific technical aspects in photography that were key to achieving the desired look?
AG: This type of project is always complicated as being an independent short, resources are always very limited. From the beginning, I knew I needed fast optics, which is why I approached Zeiss Latam, more specifically Alejandro Alcocer, who lent us the Zeiss Supreme Primes, which was just what I was looking for, not only because they are super fast (T 1.5) but also because they have that look that is not so sharp but has excellent color rendering, almost no aberration, do not breathe and are totally consistent lenses in the range, so much of the look of the short is based on this optics.
We worked with the RED Gemini as we also took advantage of its Low Light mode; for much of the short, we were living with very, very little light, sometimes as extreme as just an astera and its egg crate. I knew that several scenes would have noise, however, I also knew that it was super recoverable in post. My approach to the nights was a bit eclectic; I didn't want the nights to be the typical blue moon that comes through the window, in my world, nights have light bounces from other light sources near our window and very based on realistic lighting, also using practical lights.
Could you describe some specific challenges you faced in the color grading process to achieve the desired aesthetic in The Man Without A Face? How did you overcome these challenges?
SS: The exercise presented several difficulties. Firstly, working remotely can sometimes be a bit limiting, but we found a way to project fragments of post-production in real-time, also supported by tests/trials that I received to evaluate the result from my equipment.
Another difficulty was to achieve a balance between the scenes that were recorded during the first two days of filming and the scenes or shots that were recorded in a subsequent reshoot, where there was a clear difference both in lighting and chromaticity, especially due to the work with different lighting equipment alongside other types of lenses. The exteriors were more blown out and the depth of the blacks was also less, so a fine craftsmanship was required to try to match both images.
Likewise, a third difficulty was the fact of working each shot in parts, with masks, working on the highlights, accentuating the chiaroscuro, rescuing information in the blacks... An added difficulty was starting from a previous piece (Teaser) that marked the direction of the correction, so a very fine work had to be done to match both images so that despite having been treated by different people, they would seem like one.
The last difficulty was to achieve a piece that felt appropriate in the different media where it was projected, since each of these had its own color spectrum and the results could vary substantially from one monitor to another, so a balance had to be sought in a piece that had the right nuances for each of them.
How did working with CAMARENA Color & Motion and Luis Hernández de la Peña impact this project?
SS: Luis was always willing to do his best work, not only contributing his creative vision but also trying to adjust, mold, and match a product to a line and style that were already established from the trailer, which can make it much more complex. Although the communication was remote, the process was always dynamic. We received previews by mail and through a cloud, the TC of the corrections were marked, we did online visualizations of the material, and even worked on certain creative aspects in real-time.
Finally, when the piece had the look we were looking for, he proceeded to do all the conforming, fleshing out a substantial variety of versions, depending on whether the piece was going for Cinema, Web, for Youtube, with or without subtitles, with or without Voice Over, subtitles in English, Spanish.
AG: Luis, in addition to being an excellent colorist, is a great person, which helps a lot in this type of project where there really isn't much money. Luis was super patient in trying to find the route; it should be noted that the project reached him two years after we had filmed it, so it already came with many hands on it, and both the director and I were already quite saturated by the tortuous process. Luis, as I mentioned before, with great patience and dedication managed to lead us down the path he had visualized, but he was also super attentive to our comments; it was an incredible collaborative work.
My experience with CAMARENA Color & Motion was great, I will definitely return for future jobs and would recommend them for any project regardless of the scale.
EL HOMBRE SIN ROSTRO (THE MAN WITHOUT A FACE) is currently participating in the international festival circuit. To date, it has been the winner of Best Mexican Live Action Short Film at KixtaFest and Official Selection at the Florence Film Awards and MeggaXP’s Blood Bash.
Sergio Siruela is a Spanish director and screenwriter with extensive experience in television fiction in Spain and Mexico. He works in different genres such as drama, comedy, and adventure stories. In 2021, with the series "Promesas de Campaña", he was nominated for an International Emmy Award in the category of "Best Comedy Series".
Alejandro Güemes is a distinguished Mexican Director of Photography with more than a decade of experience. He has collaborated on a wide range of projects, from commercials for renowned brands like Google and Coca-Cola to documentaries and series for platforms like Amazon Prime and Netflix. Güemes is an ambassador for RED and Canon, as well as the founder of HDLABS and Llamado Rentals.
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