Szu-Yi Chu

Shenzhen, China – Cornucopia Film Co. Ltd has invested in a Mistika 4K finishing and colour grading system to deliver high-end post production services to its clients. It is the first post house to host a Mistika system in Shenzhen, and is one of China’s new creative companies offering editing, CG/VFX production, colour grading and DI services for feature film projects.

One of China’s colourists, Szu-Yi Chu, who is also the Managing Director and Chief Colourist at Cornucopia Films, has enthusiastically adopted Mistika and believes in its remarkable capabilities. He stated, “SGO’s Mistika was a natural choice when looking ahead to a 4K future at Cornucopia Films, and I have to say, I am a real fan of this technology. After thoroughly researching the market, Mistika is the most comprehensive and open system in the industry, and is ideal for us to build an efficient workflow around. We will primarily put our Mistika to work on high-end colour grading and compositing for film and broadcast productions.”

Expanding further he added, “I joined Cornucopia Films at the beginning of this year, and invited a team from Taiwan over, to build a movie DI platform purely from scratch. Although we had to be cautious with every step, as selecting the right kit is a vital decision. Colour grading equipment is the most important priority to me, and to everyone’s surprise, I chose a system that nobody in our team was yet familiar with – the Mistika.” Chu continued, “As we were starting from the beginning anyway, my position was that we may as well take advantage of the opportunity and choose the very best that the market has to offer, which is Mistika. I feel that investing in SGO’s intuitive Mistika technology gives us an edge and an opportunity to offer a unique service to our clients. It was worthwhile taking the time to master it and I believed that it deserved our time. I told my team that we need to be visionaries, and not conservative about trying something else which is not only new, but also much better at everything.”

Chu first came across Mistika two years ago, and it was a couple of years later that he discovered its infinite potential during a dynamic training session with DI Supervisor and Colourist David Rivero. “All my requests about colour grading in Mistika were realistically achievable, via a combination of different methods and the use of advanced tools that realise effects that colourists desire. Later I was given access to try the Mistika with David’s assistance. After using it for several weeks, I got to know Mistika competently, and became extremely interested in it. It’s that attractive! I was won over!”

He pointed out, “I do think it is important that SGO encourages users to learn all the functions within Mistika though. A colourist just learning colour grading and a compositor only learning compositing, is a restrictive approach – the key to success with Mistika is the proficiency of the combination of both skills that are available within the system. Colour grading in the future won’t simply just involve colour grading anymore, and that’s why I keep telling my team “to think outside of the box” which Mistika allows for.”

Chu entered the field of colour grading in 1987, mastering all of the industry’s main grading brands throughout his years of experience as a colourist. He remarked, “All those systems I became familiar with over the years in my career are very similar, with little difference between their functions and toolsets – until I discovered Mistika, which is truly outstanding and unique, it stands out from the rest.” He has worked on a plethora of notable films and projects such as Back to 1942 (“一九四二”), Seediq Bale: The Rainbow Warriors (“赛德克•å·´èŽ±”), The Flowers of War ( “金陵十三钗”) starring Christian Bale, Coming Home (“归来”), Assassins (“铜雀台”), Amazing (“神奇”), amongst many others.

SGO’s CEO Miguel Angel Doncel, who met the team in Schenzhen, confirmed, “Cornucopia Films is a vibrant and forward thinking company, and we are delighted that they have made this key investment in Mistika, after initial research and testing. The creative team will truly benefit from Mistika’s range of toolsets. The fact that Mistika merges all of the post production disciplines for broadcast and film such as editing, compositing, finishing, grading, into one complete powerful system is appealing, and that it can be used for any project, irrespective of size. We warmly embrace Cornucopia Films into the Mistika community and look forward to a long term relationship with them.”