Colombia – Blackmagic Design today announced that the Colombian series “La Vorágine” was edited, color graded and finished using DaVinci Resolve Studio. Bogotá based studio Norenha Lapost spearheaded post production, relying on Blackmagic Cloud to speed up the project’s finishing process, maintain efficiency and ensure visual consistency.
“La Vorágine” is based on the 1924 seminal novel of the same name by Colombian author José Eustasio Rivera and tells the story of a young woman and her lover who flee to the Colombian jungle looking for freedom without imagining that an even crueler reality awaits them. The eight episode series was produced by Quinto Color and directed by Luis Alberto Restrepo.
“Transforming the novel into a contemporary, internationally acclaimed series presented an enormous narrative and technical challenge for us,” said Alejandro Norenha, director of post production at Norenha Lapost and an editor on the project. “Amidst jungles, extreme temperatures, and with a small post crew spread out, ‘La Vorágine’ established itself as one of the most meticulously crafted productions in recent Colombian audiovisual history. To deliver this project, I collaborated closely with Colorists Juan Carlos García and Javier Chiquillo Núñez, Editors Johan Vanegas and Felipe Argüello, and Post Production Coordinator Anlly García Vásquez.”
Because of the small post team, every step needed to be optimized so focus could remain on the creative aspects. Norenha explained, “From dailies to final production, Resolve allowed us to maintain complete control without sacrificing speed or quality. During editing, I worked closely with Restrepo, fine tuning the narrative pacing and visual structure of the series. Resolve allowed us to work with lightweight proxies and, with a single click, reconnect to the high resolution footage to export revisions with camera LUTs. This improved the viewing experience for Restrepo and Showrunner José Lombana.”
From the very initial production meetings, the creative team defined “La Vorágine” as a Colombian western: poetic, dark, slow paced and full of atmospheric tension.
“The color had to reinforce that feeling, so we worked on a warm and contrasting look that highlighted the characters’ damp skin and constant sweat. We used a medium grain that gave weight to each shot and connected us to Colombia 100 years ago,” Norenha noted.
With the Colombia based colorists working from different cities and DP Diego Forero based in Belgium, Blackmagic Cloud became the cornerstone of their collaboration. “Blackmagic Cloud was essential so the DP could see our changes in real time, review them in detail, and adjust almost as if he were sitting right next to us. It was crucial for maintaining the project’s aesthetic consistency,” added Chiquillo Nuñez.
Norenha continued, “This seamless connection between continents allowed us to maintain aesthetic consistency and meet a tight schedule of just five months for the eight episodes, with more than 400 minutes of airtime. The full integration within Resolve also simplified the series’ finalization and quality control. There was no need to generate intermediate exports or ‘clean feed’ versions. By working directly from the colorized sequence, we reduced rendering time and storage space by two to three terabytes. Even last minute adjustments could be resolved quickly thanks to the per clip color metadata.”
Grouping the shots also helped maintain aesthetic consistency and efficiency. “With so many chapters and scenes, Resolve’s groups tool allowed us to quickly create a base look with all the emulations included and then adjust it clip by clip in the clip phase,” said Chiquillo Núñez.
“This was such a memorable project for everyone involved, and it’s incredible to see its international success,” Norenha concluded. “When we first signed up for it, we knew it would be an exciting challenge and understood that with Resolve we could achieve what we wanted.”
