Earlier this year Guillermo Del Toro told audiences at CinemaCon that Pacific Rim was "the perfect film to shoot on RED." Last Wednesday night, RED, Warner Brothers, and Filmlight were privileged to host Pacific Rim colorist Maxine Gervais at the Saban Theater in Hollywood to see just how well RED and Filmlight's Baselight software worked for the movie.

In the largest event RED has hosted at the historic Saban Theater in Beverly Hills, over 500 people gathered to see the theater turned into the world's largest DI Room. "We're going to take a lot of risks tonight," Ted Schilowitz announced as he introduced the evening.

After showing off the latest RED Reel and a trailer for Pacific Rim, Schilowitz took a seat behind Gervais at her editing bay and played the role of the client during a DI session. Gervais began with a demonstration of how she handles the R3D file format through Baselight, hands off an .EXR file to Visual Effects and receives back a .DPX. At no step was the color baked in, giving her the maximum amount of freedom in post-production.

The most significant part of Gervais's presentation was dedicated to a "Color and Look Overview." She spoke extensively about how she communicated with Guillermo Navarro, the DP on Pacific Rim, as well as director Guillermo Del Toro. "When I talked with Navarro, it was very evident they were going for something bold and colorful." To create the best circumstances for coloring, Navarro shot in wide dynamic range in ISO 800. To ground her work, Gervais visited the set in Toronto and worked to recreate its appearance in Baselight. Del Toro and Navarro wanted to make as much as possible real in the movie. "When you see the robot, that's a real robot head," Gervais told the audience.

After a short run-through the 3D looks and unique challenges that arose there, Schilowitz, Gervais and Peter Postma from Filmlight took questions from the audience. In questions ranging from the total time she worked on the project to her deliverables to how to prep RED for VFX, Gervais gave even more insight into her process and experience on Pacific Rim. Of working with Navarro and Del Toro, she concluded, "At the end, we didn't have to talk, just telecommunication."

RED appreciates those who came out to participate in such a special event. Those in attendence got a peek behind the curtain of the magic that goes into a Warner Brothers, RED, and Filmlight production. We look forward to many more evenings like this one.