Color Grading: Where the Image Takes Its Final Form
From writing to editing, every step helps shape an audiovisual production. Color grading comes next, when the final look is established. This stage involves adjusting colors, contrasts, lighting, and consistency across scenes. An image can become softer, cooler, brighter, or more intense. But this isn’t about “embellishing” a film. The work involves refining a creative vision, harmonizing shots filmed under sometimes very different conditions, and guiding the viewer’s gaze.
This requires a reliable, dark, and calibrated environment where colors can be accurately assessed. With Névé, this stage now has a dedicated space in Valais.
A Milestone Now Achieved in Valais
Until now, productions in Valais often had to leave the canton to complete the final stages of post-production. Depending on the project, color grading was done in Geneva, Lausanne, La Chaux-de-Fonds, or even abroad, in cities like Brussels or Paris.
For local teams, this meant additional travel and costs. With Névé, productions can now complete this stage on-site, close to their partners and professional network, without necessarily leaving the canton.
For Valais, when a film or audiovisual content is finalized elsewhere, it also means that hours of work, expertise, budgets, and opportunities for collaboration leave the region. By enabling this stage to take place in Sion, Névé helps retain a larger share of the audiovisual value chain.
This development also opens up new economic prospects. A crew that comes to color-grade a film for several days requires more than just a screening room. They need lodging, meals, meet with service providers, and explore the region. These benefits extend far beyond the audiovisual project itself.
“Once we leave here, the movie is over.”
— Dario Willommet, co-founder, director of photography, and colorist at Rivages Films
A color grading suite isn’t just a place where colors are adjusted. It’s a space for decision-making. There, we test an artistic vision, present it to the team for feedback, and then collectively commit to it.
A Collaboration to Support the Audiovisual Industry
Névé is built on a clear synergy. Rivages Films brings its expertise in cinematography, film, and color grading, while Pentamedia provides its infrastructure, network, and strong presence in the Valais audiovisual landscape.
“You have to think of it as a collaboration between technical expertise, infrastructure, and an agency that is well-established in the community.”
— Benjamin Brahovic, partner, Director of Photography, and Director at Pentamedia
This collaboration developed naturally. Pentamedia was already working with Rivages Films on color grading, while Rivages had noticed a lack of video post-production services in Valais.
As the Valais audiovisual sector continues to take shape—with players such as Studio13, which provides film sets; the Valais Film Commission, which supports productions and promotes the canton as a filming location; and Valais Films, which brings together audiovisual professionals and contributes to the industry’s development—Névé brings additional expertise to the region and completes the audiovisual production chain.
Névé, a space designed for various players in the audiovisual industry
Névé can accommodate a wide variety of audiovisual productions—from fiction to corporate content. It can be used by Rivages Films and Pentamedia, as well as by other production companies, audiovisual service providers, or colorists who wish to work in Valais.
For a Valais-based service provider, this means being able to deliver a project in its final form without having to send it outside the canton. For a company producing a corporate or advertising film, it offers access to professional-level post-production. For an out-of-town production, it provides another reason to come to—or stay in—Valais for a few extra days. The facility’s location right next to the Sion train station also makes it easier for crews traveling from other regions of Switzerland or abroad to get there.
Névé is more than just a technical tool; it is a shared resource capable of strengthening collaborations between producers, directors, technicians, agencies, and companies.
A technical project, but above all an entrepreneurial one
The equipment needed for a professional calibration room is rare, expensive, and sometimes custom-made. Optics, lighting, projection, ventilation, and control screens must all be calibrated to ensure color accuracy. The projector, for example, must be configured and adjusted to its specific projection distance and requirements. This level of precision is essential. If the displayed image is unreliable, the decisions made based on it will be unreliable as well.
In such a specialized market, opening a facility like this is no simple matter. The project requires significant investment, a deep understanding of the needs, and the ability to share an expensive resource so that the entire industry can benefit from it.
The challenge was to transform a professional need into a sustainable project, make a specialized infrastructure accessible, identify a realistic usage model, and create a tool capable of serving various types of stakeholders.
Success isn’t just about filling a schedule
Three months after opening, Névé is starting to find its footing. The first projects hosted there confirm the value of a space where teams can finalize their visuals in Valais, in a professional and accessible setting. A facility like this needs to find its rhythm, host projects, win over production companies, and become a fixture in the industry.
“Success isn’t measured solely by the number of days the space is occupied; it’s also measured by the satisfaction of the teams that come here to complete their projects.”
— Dario Willommet, co-founder, director of photography, and colorist at Rivages Films
This quote highlights the importance of this stage, when the final artistic decisions take shape. After months, or even years, of work, the team finds itself in one of the final stages of creation—a time to step back and let the film gradually take its final form.
With Névé, the Valais film industry gains a discreet yet strategic link. It is a place where images take their final form, where expertise takes root, and where the audiovisual ecosystem continues to take shape.
