Colourist Tashi Trieu returned to work with James Cameron on the third Avatar film, using Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve for editing, colour grading, visual effects (VFX) and audio post production software.
Having worked with Cameron on Avatar: The Way of Water, Trieu is used to the director requiring a number of different exhibition masters, with variations on light levels, frame rates, and aspect ratios.
“My job is twofold: fulfilling Jim’s aesthetic vision for the film and maintaining creative parity across all these different versions, which are each tailored for various exhibition formats to maximise audiences’ experiences,” said Trieu. “We go the extra mile to ensure audiences have the best experience they can.”
There were 16 discrete theatrical masters for Avatar: Fire and Ash, which were divided into 15 reels. Each reel was managed as an individual DaVinci Resolve Studio project and built out into multiple timelines for delivery.
Dolby 3D served as the hero grade, with other versions derived and trimmed to their specific presentation targets as reels approached final sign off. To stay organised across the deliverable set, Trieu standardised on a fixed node tree with dedicated sections for technical fixes, hero grades and trims, and relied on DaVinci Resolve Studio’s tools that made it easier to track exactly what changed during review sessions.
With multiple timelines in play, Trieu also employed DaVinci Resolve Studio’s ColorTrace to propagate grading and sizing changes across versions, particularly where deliverables shared aspect ratios.
“With a single button press, I could index a timeline, import any new shots, stereo merge them, cut them in, copy grades, copy group assignments, and propagate the updates across multiple timeline versions,” Trieu said. “That way my time could be better spent on the creative process.”
