Phoenix Editorial & Designs Gives Shine to Oscar Nominated Documentary Short, “La Corona”
Directed by Amanda Micheli and Isabel Vega, Film Looks at an Annual Beauty Pageant Held at Colombia’s Largest Women’s Prison
San Francisco, CA (February 20, 2008)—Phoenix Editorial & Designs recently completed film titles, color correction, and finishing on the Oscar nominated documentary short “La Corona.” The 40-minute film is directed by Amanda Micheli and Isabel Vega and produced by Runaway Films and Vega Films. “La Corona” is up for Best Documentary Short at the 80th Annual Academy Awards®, and also won an honorable mention from the Shorts Jury at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
“La Corona” (The Crown) takes viewers inside prison walls for an intimate look at an annual beauty pageant held at Colombia’s largest women’s penitentiary, El Buen Pastor. The film follows four aspiring beauty queens as they compete for the crown: Viviana, a prim and ladylike guerilla fighter, Maira, a street smart former assassin for a Colombian paramilitary group, Angela, a professional thief from a predominantly black Bogota ghetto, and Angie, a newly admitted prisoner serving time for armed robbery. For these inmates, the pageant—which has become a pop culture phenomenon in Colombia, covered extensively by the press—is one of the few things these prisoners can look forward to, and for the winner, offers a glimmer of hope for a life on the outside.
Co-director Amanda Micheli previously brought “Double Dare,” her acclaimed 2004 documentary short about female stunt doubles, to Phoenix for finishing, and because of the studio’s creative talent and expertise, returned there with “La Corona.”
“I honestly don’t know how I would survive as a filmmaker in San Francisco without Phoenix. I’ve worked with them for almost fifteen years on everything from commercial web profiles to documentary features,” said Micheli. “As a post-facility that’s savvy in both commercials and indie film, Phoenix has encouraged a cross-pollination of art and experience that’s increasingly rare in this business–you can always find one but rarely both together. I know if I bring a project there for offline and online, both the creative and the technical aspect are in the best hands possible. They are lifesavers, at every step of the game!”
In addition to designing a chrome script for the film’s opening titles that complement the barbed wires on the prison’s wall, Phoenix Editorial & Designs finished two versions of the film—one in standard definition for television release on HBO and another version in high definition for the Academy Award submission. Shot on Panasonic SDX-900 and DVX-100 cameras and offlined in standard def, Phoenix color corrected both standard and high definition versions separately to optimize the film in either format.
The film’s color correction was performed by John Crossley, who worked with the filmmakers to determine the best color palette for the film. Crossley gave the opening montage a drab tonal treatment to reflect the grim life inside the prison, while the scenes leading up to pageant, as well as the pageant festivities itself, were given a more vibrant look.
Working with Micheli and Vega was an immensely fulfilling experience for the entire Phoenix team. Said online editor Aaron Owen, “Amanda is a very collaborative filmmaker, but she still knows what she wants, and is very aware of the fine details while keeping a big picture perspective. She’d rather put in the work up front to do something right the first time, and although it might be painful, she knows it will pay off later on. Overall, with many late nights and weekends, we were able to finish the film and help Amanda and Isabel meet their submission deadlines with the best looking film possible. This is a culturally significant film with a message that is even more poignant when you learn that after production wrapped, and less than a year after her release, one of the contestants was murdered on the streets of Bogota.”
About Phoenix Editorial & Designs
Phoenix has been a mainstay in the San Francisco creative post-production and design community since 1991. With a roster of award winning editors, creative directors, graphic designers and effects artists, Phoenix works with creative-driven advertising agencies including Venables, Bell & Partners, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, Publicis & Hal Riney, Heat, Duncan/Channon, AKQA, and McCann. The company produces spots and HD design packages for clients such as Apple, Microsoft, Audi, PG&E, Palm, HP, Adobe, AT&T, Sega, EA, HBO, and Sprite. For more information about Phoenix, contact executive producer Jonathan Hinman at (415) 394-7777 or visit www.phoenixedit.com.
PRODUCTION CREDITS
Title: “La Corona” (The Crown)
Length: 40 minutes
Directed and Produced by: Amanda Micheli & Isabel Vega
Original Music by: Camara Kambon
Edited by: Carla Gutierrez, Luis Colina
Cinematography by: Amanda Micheli, Isabel Vega
Online Facility: Phoenix Editorial & Designs
Post Production Supervisors: Sheila Smith, Cathy Stonehill
Online Editor: Aaron Owen
Color Correction: John Crossley
Title Design: Matt Silverman, Bobby Van Dyke
Assistant Editor (online): Matt O’Donnell
Sound Recordist: Tami Stepanek
Phoenix Software/Hardware Toolkit:
HD & SD Autodesk Smoke - for finishing and color correction
Adobe After Effects
Apple Final Cut Pro
Autodeks Maya
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
Zaxwerks Invigorator Pro Modeler
Related Topics: Documentaries, Reel-Exchange, Visual Effects, Digital Intermediate, News
