L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 2019 www.italoamericano.org 24 L'Italo-Americano " The work of the colorist is a mixture of art and technique." This is how Walter Volpatto defines his profession. Originally from Mezzi Po, in the province of Turin, Volpatto later moved to Los Angeles, where he has been working in cinema for the past 15 years. His role? That of giving style to films and making them harmonious and homogeneous through color. His long list of credits includes Christopher Nola's Dunkirk and Interstellar, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Amazon Studios' Homecoming series and, more recently, Peter Farrelly's Green Book, which has won this year's Oscar for Best Picture. Volpatto, who comes from a family of farmers, began his career working during the day and study- ing special effects in the evening. "I have always loved photography. My dream has always been to combine my technical skills with this passion," Walter says during our meeting at the EFILM Studios, in the heart of Hollywood. "After graduating from evening school, I was hired by RAI, where I worked for ten years as a camera and mixer technician. To pursue my passion for photography, I moved to Rome where I had my breakthrough in the early 2000s, when the first ma- SILVIA GIUDICI Walter Volpatto, the Italian color magician who won an Oscar for Green Book high lights and cold on low lights, so an image shot at night has colder tones. The moments of the film where the two main charac- ters are in conflict have colder col- ors to give an idea of tension. But scenes shot in the main actor's home have warm colors, because the atmosphere is pleasant and cozy. Were there difficult scenes in Green Book to work on? The most difficult thing in Green Book, perhaps, were the scenes shot at night with little light, and the many passages where the two protagonists are in the car and the sun comes and goes, so the light is not constant. Even in The Last Jedi, the most difficult scene was the one where the main actress practices with her sword: it was shot outdoors in Ire- land, with the sun coming and go- ing. Interior scenes are easier. What are the characteristics of a good colorist? A good colorist must know how to listen to the director of photography and respect his or her choices. The color you see in the movies is not mine, my art is put at the service of the film. There is already an idea behind the style of a film, and you are part of the group that creates this final image. the final image is not yours. When you start working as a colorist, it is important to visit the set and see how lighting works, so you can learn how an image is created on the screen from a technical point of view, how a camera captures it and how a screen projects it. And from an artistic point of view? I recommend going to a mu- seum to look at paintings, to un- derstand how the mind and the hu- man eye can perceive an image and the emotions it transmits. Your dream now? I would like the art of us col- orists to be recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture and to have a color grading award. Who are your idols in cine- matography? Dante Spinotti, I would be hon- ored to work with him! Do you have a director or movie you're more attached to? I love Star Wars and science fiction in general. When I learned I was to work on The Last Jedi, I was happy not only because I knew it would be one of the biggest films of the year, but also because I'm a fan of the saga. I do not like horrors, for example, but I obviously work on them, their photography is different and in- teresting. But when I work on a sci-fi movie, I am as happy as a child! chines allowing to manipulate the color of a film in its entirety ap- peared. My work experience started in Cinecittà, and then in Los Angeles." Walter, what's the job of a colorist, exactly? The work of the colorist has two different components. The most artistic one consists in de- ciding, with the director of pho- tography, what the style of the film, or of a scene, should be. The most technical part of the work, on the other hand, consists in smoothing out the differences be- tween frames that were shot on different days, with different light conditions, to create the illusion that they were taken at the same time. How do you approach a movie? For every film, the director and director of photography have a very specific idea of what they want; based on that, I research the sources of inspiration and I look for a way to put them on screen. Earlier you told me that, in your work, there is a dualism between technique and art, which of the two do you prefer? There are several ways to ap- proach the science of color and I prefer the technical one. I studied how the eye perceives objects, di- rect and indirect light, color, and how cameras and projectors cap- ture and show it. My technical knowledge allows me to bring to the final observer what the director of photography has put on the screen. But then there is also a cre- ative part, which comes from tak- ing inspiration from the great di- rectors of photography, or from anyone who had the experience of illustrating something. How was working on Green Book? I was contacted by the director of photography Sean Porter, who immediately asked me to create an atmosphere reminiscent of the 60s, the years of racial segrega- tion. The style had to represent a type of cinematography that no longer exists, as if it had been done on film and not digitally. At my level, things are simple because the people I work with are mas- ters! Speaking of masters, you worked on Dunkirk and The Last Jedi, what can you tell us about these experiences? They are movies with superb cinematography all the way through. Both had digital and dolby distribution; The Last Jedi, also had 3D. For each of them, I had to keep in mind the different medium used to show the movie while doing my job. The place where you work is quite special… I do not have a normal office! I have a working station that al- lows my client to assess an image as close to that appearing on the silver screen as possible, so I have a very large screen. The more pre- cisely I can work, the more ap- pealing the final product will be. In addition to the big screen I have a projector and special machine, at the moment I use a Da Vinci Resolve. But the machine is al- most irrelevant, it's like a piano: the brand doesn't count, the music you play on it does. Can a wrong color grading convey the wrong emotion? Yes, there is an expectation from the public because a certain shade of color represents a certain emotion. If I do a horror movie, for example, I expect a dark and dense image, with blue-green hues and unnatural complexions, to convey a sense of danger and anx- iety. In the history of cinema, some colors have been always adopted by specific genres. If an image is warm and sunny, with gold tones, it is a happy and ro- mantic moment; comedies, in- deed, tend to use very bright and vivid colors. If I use a color that is associated with stress in a roman- tic scene, viewers will be con- fused, because the emotion of the visual will not correspond to the story. Keeping this in mind, what kind of colors did you choose for Green Book? The reference film used for Green Book has warm tones on Walter Volpatto at work in his studio, in Los Angeles. He started his career in RAI. Courtesy of Walter Volpatto LOS ANGELES ITALIAN COMMUNITY

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