“Brutalist” director Brady Corbett rushed through the film Twitter last year when he boasted that he had 26 reels of about 300 pounds of 70mm film stock to bring about the 215 minute epic.
Hungarian filmmaker Ildico Eniedi may have run to Corbett for his money.
During the production of her triptic drama “Silent Friend,” competing for the Golden Lion at this year’s Venice Film Festival, Anyidy developed over 30,000 feet of 16mm film stock, over 65,000 feet, 35mm.
Regarding demanding tasks on handling inventory, both directors chose Budapest NFI Film Love, which was founded in 1957 and remains at the forefront of cutting-edge post-production technology. Recent investments have given the facility dramatic upgrades, including the new processing machine that Enedy and her team used while filming “Silent Friend.”
Other highly acclaimed filmmakers follow suit, including Yorgos Lantimos (“The Poor thing”), Pablo Larein (“Maria”), and Hungarian Laslo Nemes.
NFI Film Lab Head Viktória Sovák says it is “the most complete and most experienced film institute in Central Europe” and offers both analog and digital film post-production services.
The lab is renowned for its highly skilled professionals and its meticulous approach to their work. “Orphan” colorist Laslo Kobacas explains that he “in contact with cinematographer Matthias Eldery daily” throughout the film’s 10-week filming.
This allowed the engineers to make important decisions about color grading in real time, while allowing editor Peter Politzer to “have already manipulated material that is very close to the film’s final visual style.”
“After the editing was completed, during the post-production stage, I spent over 140 hours rating colours to achieve what the audience would see in the cinema,” says Kovács.
NFI FilmLab is one of Europe’s few film labs and offers a complete analog post-production service, which means many well-known directors are returning.
“Many great filmmakers continue to film on 35mm and 70mm films, and analog certainly experiences a Renaissance,” she says. “We believe that analog technology must be perpetuated.”
