Frozen Mammal Comes to Life in Burbank

Matchframe, the Burbank post facility, provided on-line finishing, effects compositing and tape-to-tape color correction on Land of the Mammoth, a Discovery Channel special which aired throughout March. The 96-minute documentary, shot in PAL 16:9 on location in Siberia, followed a team of scientists investigating a 20,000-year-old woolly mammoth recovered from the frozen tundra in 1999.

The ancient long-haired ancestors of the elephant once again lumbered across the barren steppes courtesy of London effects house Scaramoush. Matchframe online editor and digital artist Bill Admans then integrated the CGI animation into the final cut using the compositing tools of the Avid Symphony. Several shots, for continuity reasons, required horizons and skylines to be changed, which Admans accomplished using the Symphony’s tracking tools.

Another 20 shots required falling snow in order to match scenes shot on different days. Admans created several layers of particles, varying the resolution on each layer to give the illusion of depth, and colored the particles by sampling the color from actual snow on the ground in the scene. These effects and the compositing, as well as the final online master, were all created entirely within the Avid Symphony.

Admans utilized the Avid Symphony’s16:9 option to maintain the original anamorphic aspect of the source footage throughout the process, from intraframe paint and compositing to the final online finishing. Admans preserved the anamorphic aspect instead of outputting a matted 16:9 master because of the many different destinations for the master -- domestic & international release plus DVD.

Matchframe colorist Brian Hutchings provided the final tape-to-tape color correction for the show. Director of Photography John Davey presented Hutchings with luminous images captured in the rich, golden, diamond-clear light of northern Siberia. Some scenes, however, were shot in a dimly lit ice cave and presented a special challenge for Hutchings. The 20,000-year-old mammoth, still locked in a block of frozen turf, was being kept in frozen storage in an ice cave in Khatanga. To avoid melting the ancient prize, and the ice cave as well, DP Davey relied on a single tungsten fill and the ambient mercury vapor lighting as background. The resulting images were dim and oddly colored. Hutchings used Matchframe’s da Vinci to coax the latent color out of the shadows and give these icy scenes a full tonal range, rich with warm flesh tones set against the cold blue ice of the cave.

The show debuted March 11th and was followed by five more airings throughout March on Discovery outlets in over 152 countries and 33 languages. Matchframe used the Universal Finishing feature of the Avid Symphony to produce two versions of the program, a two-hour PAL master for DVD and international markets, and a 96-minute NTSC domestic version.

About Matchframe
Matchframe is a full-service postproduction facility offering telecine, linear and non-linear on-line editing, audio sweetening, graphics and duplication. Matchframe is located at 610 N. Hollywood Way, Burbank CA 91505. Phone: (818) 840-6800. Fax: (818) 840-2726.

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