TWO UGLY PEOPLE
Xenon-Post recently completed it’s first major project: the low budget feature film “Two Ugly People”.
The film, starring Michael Sheasby and Cato Ayyar, is about two strangers who meet by chance at a highway-side motel, but as their stay goes on, we begin to wonder if their meeting is by chance at all. Produced by Seymour Pictures and written, directed and edited by first-time feature filmmaker Peter Skinner, the film presented unique challenges typical of indie productions, such as limited resources, tight schedules, and a geographically dispersed team. Xenon-Post’s innovative approach to post-production proved invaluable, providing a seamless workflow that supported the film’s creative vision while overcoming these logistical hurdles.
“Xenon-Post were not only instrumental in providing us with an efficient, well-executed post path for the film, but also helped us shape our finance plan, and secure the offset, which was a first for us on this production.”
Xenon-Post’s first task was to set up a robust data management system and post-workflow that would work reliably at a regional location that was several hours outside of Sydney. The film was also shot on ARRIRAW, which, while delivering beautiful, high-quality images, also required significant storage and processing power. With limited resources and crew, our solution was to supply production with two portable 8-bay RAID systems for use on set, enabling two copies of rushes to be quickly transferred and stored on location, with a third copy of rushes being transferred to portable SSD drives, which would travel back to Sydney three times a week. When in Sydney, these rushes were transferred to our internal shared storage system, and finally backed up onto LTO tape. Daily rushes were processed and housed online, allowing the filmmakers fast access, when required.
Post-Supervisor Myles Conti, was keen for the film to be both edited and finished in Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve, because of the application’s advantages when it came to collaborative projects, especially when utilising its cloud-based workflows. Despite having not previously worked in Resolve, Peter was happy to make the switch, as too was on-set assistant editor Braden Trotter, who immediately embraced how easy the application made the preparation of rushes, and syncing of sound. By using Blackmagic cloud project server, any changes made by Braden on set, were immediately reflected back at Xenon-Post’s Sydney offices, and vice-versa, and with the implementation of a proxy workflow, it meant that anyone with permission could access and work on the project from anywhere around the world.
This flexible approach to editing meant that Peter could both edit in one of Xenon-Post’s edit suites, or edit remotely using proxy files on a laptop, which allowed him to take a well deserve break in the countryside over Christmas, whilst maintaining the ability to dive in and out of the edit at any time. The project was setup so that Xenon-Post could toggle between the offline proxy files, and the ARRIRAW camera originals at any stage, this allowed the Xenon-Post team to work across numerous clean up vfx shots from inside the fusion page, without ever having to leave Resolve, providing real-time updates of shots for Peter to use while editing.
“Having my timeline automatically update with vfx cleanup shots, without having to import renders all the time, was amazing.”
Maintaining the ability to access the camera originals at any stage, also meant that when the producer’s required screeners to share with colleagues, sales agents or festivals, no matter at what stage the edit was in, these could be rendered out from the source footage, providing visually high quality shareable files.
Xenon-Post provided sound recordist Luke Fuller, with a room to setup his ProTools suite, enabling the initial stages of sound design and re-recording to take place. After picture-lock, the sound design was handed over to sound designer Joe Mount, and worked on externally across a number of facilities. Again, Xenon-Post was responsible for the seamless transfer of project files between applications.
The initial plan was for the colour grade to be done at our suite in Sydney, but with the Director of Photography (DOP), Adric Watson being based in the UK, the decision was made to work with a UK facility and colourist, allowing Adric to attend the grade sessions in person. Working with Black Kite Studios, Xenon-Post arranged for the transfer of files to and from the UK, and provided Peter our colour accurate 4K grading suite so that he could review their work, and participate remotely throughout the grade over a number of late night sessions.
Xenon-Post handled all aspects of conforming, visual effects (VFX), online editing, credit roll creation and QC checks. We also provided a secure LTO backup system, the preferred method of backup for bonding companies - safeguarding the project’s assets. Finally, Xenon-Post was responsible for creating the film’s Digital Cinema Master, and all necessary output files, including Digital Cinema Packages (DCPs) for cinema distribution.
“Xenon-Post played an instrumental role in bringing “Two Ugly People” to life. Through their expert handling of the film’s post-production needs, Xenon-Post demonstrated their capacity as a reliable partner for independent filmmakers, especially those working with low-budgets and geographically dispersed teams. By creating a tailored, cloud-based workflow, Xenon-Post not only met the production’s immediate needs but also set a high standard for future projects. We look forward to our continued collaboration with Xenon-Post on our next feature film production.”
Two Ugly People will have its world premiere at CinefestOZ, September, 2025.
