Anvil! The Story of Anvil, director Sacha Gervasi’s new documentary film, is a funny and surprisingly poignant tale of an aging Canadian heavy metal band and its slowly fading dream of rock ’n’ roll glory. The film, which follows the band on a disastrous European tour, is currently in theaters.

As is often the case with documentaries, Anvil! posed special challenges during postproduction. The film was shot over the course of three years and in dozens of locations. Shooting conditions were rarely optimal, and Gervasi (who self-financed the film) and director of photography Christopher Soos employed everything from high-end HD cameras to consumer-grade camcorders to capture the action. All of this material ultimately had to be forged into a continuous narrative with a consistent look that could stand up to theatrical display.

The task of creating that look fell to Colorist Sean Coleman who performed final color grading at Company 3 in Santa Monica. Coleman, who worked hand in hand with Gervasi and Soos, employed a da Vinci 2K color corrector to smooth out variations in lighting, texture and structure, disguising underlying differences in the source material. He also used color to subtly enhance the film’s mood and tone.

“Sacha and Chris were traveling and had very little money, so they shot with whatever camera equipment was available,” recalls Coleman. “Technically, that made the grade difficult, because a lot of the material didn’t match.”

Coleman used a number of techniques to bring consistency to the disparate source material. “My job was to give it continuity and make it flow, without allowing the grade itself to be a distraction,” he says. “We needed to make a lot of adjustments because of all the different tape formats. For example, we might cut from a scene recorded on Mini DV to one shot with an $80,000 HD camera—so there was a big difference in quality.

“We used various tools to blend it together—softening and sharpening—to create a flow and draw attention away from the format changes.”

On the artistic side, Coleman strove to give the material a cinematic look to enhance the sense of realism and immediacy. “We weren’t trying to make it look like film, but we did want it to feel like a movie,” he observes. “We wanted to avoid a modern tape look. I went into the mid-range gammas and did some things. That allowed me to create a look that is filmic, without becoming clichéd, by simply dropping a layer of film on top of it. The final look is less tech-y and more organic. Not too stylized.”

The film ends on a surprising note. After enduring an unbelievable number of disappointments and failures, the band travels to Japan for a concert and, inexplicably, they find themselves playing to a packed house. The emotions experienced by the band as, for one night at least, their dreams of stardom are realized, are underscored in a delicate shift in the grade.

“We put a warm, golden tone on everything to take it into a euphoric place,” Coleman recalls.

Coleman has experienced his own kind of euphoria over the way the film turned out and the success it has achieved. “This became a very personal project for me, and all of us at Company 3,” he states. “We were inspired by the enthusiasm of Sacha and Chris, and the determined way they pulled it together. We’re very proud of the way it turned out.”

About Anvil! The Story of Anvil
The film follows Steve "Lips" Kudlow and Robb Reiner and their band, Anvil, which released one of the heaviest albums in metal history, 1982's Metal on Metal. The album influenced an entire musical generation of rock bands, including Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax, who all went on to sell millions of records. Anvil, on the other hand, took a different path—straight to obscurity. The film is both entertaining and touching as it follows their last-ditch quest for the fame and fortune that has been so elusive to them. Anvil! is a timeless tale of survival and the unadulterated passion it takes to follow your dream, year after year.

Ironically, life is now looking up for the band. After years of playing to empty bars and working dead end jobs, the band is beginning to find the success that evaded them for decades. They have recently been signed by manager Rick Sales (Slayer), U.S. agent Scott Sokol (Megadeth, Heaven and Hell) and UK agent Steve Strange (Coldplay). The band is being welcomed with open arms everywhere they go. Now with a U.S. tour, the support of VH1 and VH1 Classic, a feature documentary and an immeasurable amount of will and determination, the band is picking up where they left off 25 years ago.

Anvil! The Story of Anvil premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, where it received acclaim from critics and audiences alike. It went on to win the Audience Awards at the 2008 Los Angeles Film Festival, 2008 Sydney Film Festival and 2009 Jameson Dublin International Film Festival, as well as the Best Documentary Feature Awards at 2008 Galway Film Fleadh, 2008 Calgary Film Festival, 2008 Edmonton Film Festival and 2009 Jameson Dublin International Film Festival. The film was also nominated for the Truer Than Fiction Award at the 2009 Film Independent Spirit Awards.

VH1 has acquired the exclusive rights Anvil! and will handle the television and DVD release and distribute the film theatrically in association with Abramorama.