Cordillera
ARRI ALEXA 35 · 2.39:1 · Rec.709 / Dolby Vision · dir. Valentina Reyes
A salt hauler crosses the Atacama. The light never once helps him.
The film — Cordillera was shot over five weeks at four thousand meters, almost entirely in natural light. A desert western: one man, one truck, and the whitest ground on Earth.
The problem — High-altitude sun is merciless. Chalk highlights, black shadows, and a UV haze that pushes every wide shot toward blue. The dailies looked thin — correct, but thin.
The approach — We built a single LUT from Ektachrome 100 references and held it for the whole film. From there, printer-light offsets per reel; nothing keyframed. The third act’s day-for-dusk was rescued in the grade — two stops down, highlights held, the red channel lifted just far enough to keep skin alive.
Antes / Después
The deliverable
Log
Grade
Drag the line, or focus it and use the arrow keys. The left side is what the camera saw; the right side is what the film needed.
Canales
One image, three channels
Every grade is only ever this: three grey images, weighed against each other until they agree.
“Emilia didn’t color the film. She found the film we shot.”
Valentina Reyes — Directora, Cordillera
Ficha técnica
Credits
- Dirección
- Valentina Reyes
- Fotografía
- Diego Salas
- Color
- Emilia Contreras
- Finishing
- SALAR, Santiago
- Formato
- ARRI ALEXA 35 · 4.6K · 2.39:1
- Entrega
- DCP · Dolby Vision · Rec.709