Category: Fini News
I’m pleased to announce that Fini is (finally) rolling out “PrimaryShots” (PS).
PS is an idea that’s been rolling around my noggin’ for a while. It answers my question: How do I help filmmakers who can least afford me, yet most need me?
The PS concept is simple: You’ve locked picture on your film, you’re happy with the story but you know both sound and visuals need help. You’re on a shoestring budget so you can’t afford a company like Fini. You’d love nothing more than for a professional colorist to come in, color correct a few shots for you (kickstarting your color correct) and give you some pointers on how to proceed. After that, you’ll take it from there.
That, my dear reader, is the essence of PrimaryShots!
After finding myself with some extra time on my hands – I decided to finally finish (actually – start) Fini’s color correction demo reel. You can find it here.
There are two types of demo reels for color correction. The traditional reel is a series of beauty shots. The less traditional reel is the Before / After reel.
I spoke to a few producers with lots of experience hiring film colorists. To a person they said the traditional reel was what I should produce. They felt that a Before / After reel was the sign of an inexperienced colorist. I thought about this long and hard… I decided to go against this advice. My clients aren’t their clients. I was talking to the wrong people.
Unlike clients buying $600 / hour telecine suites, my clients don’t have experience sitting with a Color’ist. At best they’ve worked with a good Avid Symphony online editor who does a good job but rarely approaches it as a career specialty. At worst, my clients don’t quite get it; after all, except for a few tweaks the footage already looks good. Right????
So – unlike a film colorist, I have a ton of educating I need to do with my clients. The Before / After Reel is a tool designed for that job. In fact, I’ve already had one producer say to me, “Perfect – my client has been having a hard time understanding the need for color correction. This reel explains it clearly.”
And before you ask/complain, the music is temporary. A friend is scoring to it.
Any feedback on the reel is always appreciated!
- pi
NEWS FLASH: Fini is auctioning (3) 10-hour days on January 15, 2009 in New York City! The proceeds will go to Mopictive, an educational 501(c)3 serving New York City filmmakers. Details on the Fini auction can be found here. Mopictive’s website is here. Up-to-date information on all the Silent Auction items here.
Help a good cause and post this info where appropriate!
Thanks!
Fini is going on sale!!!
Or rather, we’ll be auctioning off our color correction services to the highest bidder in a Silent Auction.
That’s right. We don’t care if it’s a short, your 20 minute student film, or your 120 minute feature going to the silver screen – if it’s ready to go by the end of March, we’ll color correct it!
Of course, there will be limitations (don’t bother trying to pull Artistic Creativity on us and take 3 weeks to work on one scene) – those details will be announced soon enough.
The silent auction will take place at the January meeting of Moptictive (the New York Final Cut Users Group). I’m their Treasurer and we’re a great 501c3 educational non-profit. We have big plans next year. We haven’t named this promotion yet but it’ll hopefully be the headlining auction of dozens of great products and services.
Feel free to pass around the news. Sometime before Christmas I’ll be putting up a web page with full details, including all the niggly restrictions and required workflow.
In the meantime, Happy Turkey Day!
One programming note: Yes, 5 months, no posts. Let’s just say it’s been busy around here… and this blog is undergoing some changes to better align with my needs. Mostly, it’ll spend less time talking to my peers and more time talking to my clients. But there’s some good stuff buried in these pages, so I’m just going to let this puppy lie. But beyond one or two more posts – this iteration of The Finishing Line will be going dormant.
And I’ll be posting at least once more before putting Finishing Line 1.0 to rest.
- patrick
I just got an email from Martin Baker, a friend in the U.K. He caught the airing on BBC of one the first HD jobs that ran through Fini. “Come Rain or Shine” is a 90 minute behind-the-scenes documentary of the band Genesis’ most recent European tour.
I’ve been a Genesis fan since high school (mostly anything prior to Abacab). For me the highlight of that doc is the moment in the hotel room when Phil Collins and Chester (the band’s long-time second drummer) are practicing drumming on leather benches. That moment blossoms into the inspiration for the centerpiece drums solo in their live performance. Any Genesis fan will love seeing that moment.
It was also the only moment where the footage was nearly un-watchable. It was the first day that the crew had used the camera they were shooting and the color balance was so far extreme into the reds there was zero information in the blue channel. You can see the before / after on the homepage of this website. It took some fancy footwork to save the shots in that sequence – mostly on my own time, as I worked on it on nights and weekends. (It turned out the scene required two solutions since the exposure changed in the middle.)
I want to give a special Thank You to the film’s Director, Anthony Mathiel. He allowed me to fulfill a dream. Hopefully some last minute hair-pulling didn’t overshadow what I think is a final product we can both be proud.
The 3-disc DVD of their final performance on their European tour is coming out this month. “Come Rain or Shine” is packaged as one of the three discs. There doesn’t seem to be a release date for the BluRay version. SD only.
- pi
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