Cercle Odyssey is an audiovisual expertise that blends music, nature and know-how into an immersive, multisensory journey. Created by the French music platform Cercle, recognized for placing collectively reside performances in iconic places all over the world, the Odyssey venture takes this idea additional by integrating 360° visuals, encompass sound and interactive parts.
Neels Castillon
Directed by Neels Castillon and produced by Movement Palace, the venture brings a brand new perspective to reside efficiency by integrating choreographed narratives impressed by the Historical Greek fantasy of Ulysses.
Set in dome-like venues, cinematographer Eric Blanckaert captured the visible essence of the Odyssey, whereas colorist Sylvain Canaux at St Louis Submit in Paris ensured a wealthy and cohesive palette for every of the distinctive places.
The works of historical Greek poet Homer — together with The Odyssey and The Adventures of Ulysses —served as a place to begin for director Castillon when imagining the scenes for Cercle Odyssey
Sylvain Canaux
“I envisioned 4 completely different Ulysses characters, every solid removed from dwelling, every navigating a world that feels each international and deeply symbolic,” explains Castillon.
The one time the viewers encounters a metropolis is on the very finish of the present, when the Ulysses characters return dwelling. Till then, Cercle Odyssey’s important character is nature. “We wished to have fun the facility of nature,” continues Castillon. “With 50-meter-wide screens, each element comes alive and proportions shift. It reveals simply how small we’re within the face of nature — and that perspective is the whole lot. It repositions us inside our surroundings.”
For Castillon, shade was a really early and important consideration. “My work could be very visible, so shade is extremely essential to me,” he says. “Once I started fascinated about the monumental area of Cercle Odyssey, I began imagining how we might create a visible journey rooted in shade. I made a decision I might scout places based mostly on the pure shade palette they provided — gold for the desert, white for the Arctic, deep blue for the ocean and plush inexperienced from a primordial forest.”
Utilizing solely the colours that exist in nature gave Castillon a wealthy and elemental palette, permitting them to discover completely different emotional tones all through the present. To realize his shade objective, Castillon turned to a colorist he has labored with earlier than and trusts. “Sylvain is captivated with what he does. He genuinely loves his craft. Within the calm of the grading suite, removed from the chaos of the shoot, it turns into an actual creative expertise. I get to rediscover the pictures with him, see them in a brand new mild — generally fairly actually.”
Cercle Odyssey blends reside music, fantasy and nature in an immersive setting, and the 360° projection format influenced many selections in manufacturing and submit. “The area is an ideal sq., with 5 large screens,” explains Castillon. “Entrance, again, left, proper and even the ceiling — surrounding the viewers and the central stage. From the very starting, we needed to suppose in another way. Each motion needed to be conceived with this immersive setting in thoughts. If one thing occurs in entrance of the viewer, what’s occurring behind them? Or to the perimeters?”
For the group behind the scenes, this required plenty of experimentation to know what labored. “There must be a visible and emotional coherence — by way of shade, by way of motion — in order that the viewers feels really immersed,” explains Castillon. “The second issues turn out to be too chaotic or lose a way of concord, it begins to really feel like simply one other projection. However when each display is thoughtfully thought-about and all the weather come collectively in concord, the impact is extraordinary. Instantly, you’re now not watching — you’re inside an infinite universe.”
Eric Blanckaert
For cinematographer Blanckaert, the side ratio imposed by the 360° 8K display setup was a problem from the outset. “I had by no means framed photographs this broad earlier than. Neels and I needed to adapt with much more minimalist compositions and digital camera actions than we have been used to. We needed to play with the dimensions of the pictures throughout the completely different screens, each to immerse the viewers within the grandeur of the landscapes and to seize the feelings of our characters by way of a lot tighter framing.”
When it got here to lighting, Blanckaert’s objective was to attain most distinction with out compromising the richness of colours. “This meant capturing as usually as doable with a low, highly effective solar —significantly within the huge desert landscapes. For the studio work, the purpose was to maneuver away from naturalism and embrace lighting and shade results that felt extra like goals or nightmares.”
Blanckaert delivered 8K photographs in an ultra-wide side ratio with anamorphic lenses. “I selected to pair the Purple Raptor X with Atlas Mercury lenses,” says Blanckaert. “This allowed us to make full use of the sensor in anamorphic mode whereas nonetheless capturing at 100fps. The sensor’s dynamic vary is outstanding, and I at all times ensured the highlights have been protected so we’d have most flexibility throughout shade grading.”
The Coloration
“Neels is meticulous relating to colours, making certain that the viewers is immersed in a color bathtub, whereas sustaining a cinematic aesthetic,” says Canaux. “Regardless of his conceptual method, this technique permits for experimentation as quickly as the ultimate outcomes align together with his imaginative and prescient. We regularly usher in supplies or concepts, akin to movie stills from capturing, as references to assist him develop his idea.”
“In submit, I labored carefully with Sylvain to deliver our imaginative and prescient to life,” provides Castillon. “I wasn’t on the lookout for realism. I used to be chasing emotion. That generally made it laborious for him to pin down precisely what I wished — however he has a pointy eye and plenty of expertise. Sylvain has additionally developed an entire set of superior shade and picture correction strategies that enable us to form the picture in very exact and nuanced methods. He at all times finds options, regardless of how complicated the problem.
“Not each director stays carefully concerned in the course of the color grading course of—however for me, it’s one in all my favourite elements of the journey. I’m nearly at all times there! I discover it fascinating.
Testing
For Canaux, an immersive projection for a live performance was a brand new idea, so testing was essential. “After the preliminary checks, we needed to make a couple of changes,” says Canaux. “The attitude and proximity have been so excessive that even minor particulars, akin to slight noise or textures, grew to become essential. All 360° drone scenes required synchronized grading, so I used linked cursors and linked layers to make sure edge correlation, and to deal with them as uncut scenes with keyframes.
“The viewing situations differ from conventional theatre, too,” he provides. “We needed to refine the general stability — significantly protecting element within the lowlights. Nonetheless, twin 8K laser projection is extremely highly effective, even in probably the most difficult viewing situations.”
One other problem for Canaux, which got here to mild throughout testing, was controlling the feel.“The mix of the Purple digital camera with the grade was a bit noisy in much less uncovered scenes, akin to within the forest or underwater,” remembers Canaux. “To keep away from distracting the viewers, we determined to take away many of the texture. After a couple of checks, we discovered that Neat Video was the best and sharpest answer, despite the fact that the rendering course of was de-multiplied, particularly for these high-resolution photographs. We needed to be significantly cautious with it, and we resampled the denoise profile many instances by way of the identical scenes.”
For Canaux, it was essential to have a set of instruments devoted to every step of the colour correction course of, which he present in FilmLight Baselight. “Chromogen was the inspiration of the seems, serving to me outline an total aesthetic that’s mushy and managed,” he explains. “Once I have to push the boundaries, Curves help me in going a bit additional as a result of they work fantastically with Chromogen. X Grade is useful and may’t be faraway from the equation, as a result of it offers each visible and exact corrections, and like Curves, it’s a excellent companion to Chromogen. And naturally, Base Grade and Movie Grade are important for stability and color correction. As a secondary grading software, the management that the brand new Halation software gave us was significantly useful to present to the footage this gracefulness.”
The Places
Every location in Cercle Odyssey has a definite emotional resonance, and Canaux enhanced and differentiated the distinctive palettes of every of them. “I collaborated with Neels, step by step introducing extra depth, presenting him numerous choices, together with tinting and adjusting the distinction, all whereas sustaining a delicate method,” he says.
“The method really started in Namibia, an unimaginable location with breathtaking golden sand and ochre, complemented by the darkish pores and skin of the dancer,” says Canaux. “We completed Namibia first, utilizing Chromogen to infuse the look with richness and vivid color, all whereas sustaining management by way of spotlight bleach and shade density,” explains Canaux. “A curve enabled us to additional improve the cinematic high quality, introduce a contact of coldness in lowlights and/or heat tones within the highlights. And gradients helped us deliver again the sky, which is usually white and foggy at these latitudes. The ultimate step concerned spatial processing. We achieved elegant halation, enhanced medium distinction when mandatory, and boosted shadows to protect dynamics and particulars, significantly in drone pictures.”
French Polynesia provided a extra various vary, that includes golden hour seashores adopted by a dense inexperienced forest and a secluded seashore encircled by darkish black mountains. “In French Polynesia, I utilized the identical logic to the Marquise seashore, however I needed to management the skintone in relation to the daylight,” says Canaux. “The work within the native forest aimed to take care of a robust, vibrant inexperienced with a sublime high quality. The X Grade software in Baselight offered the exact management we would have liked to attain this.”
He says Bolivia’s salt lake was an exceptionally surreal sight. “We had deep main blues within the shadows with mushy cyan within the highlights, giving the scene a robust identification. The sunshine mirrored on the water and created a stupendous glow on the skintones. Gradients helped us rebalance the distinction of sure scenes, permitting the topic to mix seamlessly between the bottom and the sky.”
Iceland offered a much less constant panorama, characterised by fog, storms, vivid solar, in addition to a stunning ice cave. “Iceland was far more different,” explains Canaux. “It was difficult within the storms as a result of we needed to deliver again depth and distinction, whereas additionally infusing richness into the huge white immensity.
“Since we had experimented with this idea in a earlier venture, I already had some insights. Nonetheless, the varied climate situations posed a larger problem. The scene was dealt with utilizing the identical logic to maintain the consistency, nevertheless it was fully reworked because of the distinctive nature of the placement.”
“Ultimately, Castillon believes they discovered a glance that feels cinematic — “not by enhancing nature, however by revealing its true magnificence.”
