by FilmInk Staff
The Mexican novel adaptation brings suspense and thrills with a dark and rich aesthetic.
Based on the 1977 novel by Mexican writer and playwright Jorge Ibargüengoitia, “Las Muertas” tells the true story of the Baladro sisters, based on the González Valenzuela sisters who built a brothel empire and became merciless killers in 1960s Mexico. Adapted into a six episode limited series, Netflix’s critically acclaimed “Las Muertas” was directed by Luis Estrada, with Alberto Anaya Adalid serving as DP and Sandra Klass as colorist.
Estrada and Anaya Adalid worked with Klass early on in the production process to help define the look for the series, as Estrada’s vision for the visual style was very specific with a focus on amber and monochromatic tones while also feeling classic but not outdated. Anaya Adalid and Klass relied on DaVinci Resolve Studio editing, color grading, visual effects (VFX) and audio post production software to achieve that dark and rich aesthetic.
“Estrada loves the color amber in his projects, so we tried to emulate that tone to create a LUT, along with DIT Mike Aguilar, for ‘Las Muertas’ by combining several optical Tiffen Filters, like tobacco, antique, green and yellow, to find the most suitable combination and then replicate that on DaVinci Resolve Studio from a clean image,” said Anaya Adalid. “For Estrada, referencing the look of some of his favorite films in his work is mandatory, like ‘No Country for Old Men,’ ‘True Grit,’ and ‘Nightmare Alley,’ as well as classic films like ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ and ‘Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia.’”
Klass added, “Anaya Adalid was very clear about the aesthetic Estrada wanted from the beginning. He showed me countless references, including his previous films, and we had lengthy discussions about what worked lookwise under these references.”
“We shot images in several different environments, such as the real locations and in the studio. A combination of day, night, interiors, and exteriors to see if the color of the filters matched, and also how this mix worked with most of our lighting conditions, because our goal from the beginning was to work with only one LUT,” Anaya Adalid explained. “From there, we made a custom underexposed LUT so we could expose the ‘camera negative’ generously to preserve as much information on the dark parts of the image as we could, creating a dark image without losing information to then bring what we needed up or down during post production.”
As part of the stylistic choices to support the story, Anaya Adalid noted that incorporating a color palette that matched the style of all of Estrada’s films, which are rich in amber, was crucial.
He said, “We mixed some color filters to develop an identical color on Resolve so we were not attached to using glass filters. After that, Klass adjusted this using Resolve’s powerful and precise tools to properly treat skin tones. We leveled the strong color tendency, adding some blue to the shadows and desaturating the whole image slightly.”
Klass commented, “Adding blueish tones in the blacks creates a look emulating film and makes a frame look and feel more organic. I used a telecine technique to get colors like the blues and greens popping out in a frame that has a tobacco color wash over everything. For example, a tobacco wash would eliminate the blue in the skies. But by manipulating the base grade and tweaking some secondaries, the blues and greens can pop out elegantly.”
For Anaya Adalid, it was crucial to create dark scenes with rich shadows to tell the story and convey a mysterious emotion.
He explained, “The story is pretty dark, so we wanted to play as much as we could with it. Estrada is very keen on the actors’ faces and on the whole atmosphere. So, to be able to get both, we designed underexposed LUTs so we could expose everything with enough information to pick it back up in post. With this and the enormous abilities of Klass using Resolve’s powerful tools of tracking, matting, and isolating parts of the frame, we could play a lot with the amount of details or shadows we wanted.
“Klass was absolutely fantastic to work with. Her sensitivity, taste, and abilities were simply incredible,” he continued. “We developed the LUT from extensive tests so when we started color correction, everything ran very smoothly. From adding grain and playing with the colors, we achieved what we envisioned. We even developed new textures and color nuances to separate narrative passages. There were so many little pieces that had to be unusual but subtle enough that the audience didn’t feel that it was a diverse show. Nuances and sometimes radical differences like in some flashbacks, had to mix in perfectly, and they did.”
“We are incredibly proud of this project and the results we achieved,” Anaya Adalid concluded.
“Las Muertas” is now streaming on Netflix.
About Blackmagic Design
Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com/au.
