How an Innovative Company is Spot On with Nucoda Color Gradingand Finishing System

From

www.imagesystems.tv

www.imagesystems.tv

“There was plenty to learn about all the different kinds of files

and how each works within the Nucoda and there was a learning

curve… but it was worth it.”

with the team from Martin Williams, who produced 24 Internet videos for the Payless brand Brash featuring Sierra from the Florida based band VesaEmerge. The videos are running on the Payless web site and they have a YouTube Channel with over 2.2 million views.

The band was on tour in New York and in a number of cities in Europe. A group from the agency, including Executive Broadcast Producer Stan Prinsen and Group Creative Director David Richardson, followed them around shooting behind-the-scenes with a Canon 5D camera and concert footage with the ARRI ALEXA. The videos are short vignettes that are a cross between a documentary and a music video.

We had fun setting up different looks for the scenarios, and then I went through the footage matching our looks very quickly. There wasn’t a lot of time! I was spending, roughly, 1/2 hr. to 1 1/2 hrs per :30 - 1:30 piece. I love the way they look, and the clips hit the mark, fitting the style and budget they were intended to.

Any other noteworthy work you’d like to highlight?

SUE: In the last year I’ve worked on projects and spots for Target, Best Buy, Medica, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Land O’ Lakes, Nickelodeon Universe, Brizo, Culvers, Fed Ex, Carrera Sunglasses, Mayo Clinics, Mercy Hospitals, Parsons School of Design, Bush Foundation, Conner Prairie, Cost Cutters, Hoosier Lottery, amongst others, for both broadcast and internet viewing.

What are you working on now?

SUE: I’m getting ready to finish work on an independent feature that I started earlier this year. The client re-edited it and is coming in for the final color correction. I will be copying corrections from the earlier session and working on a section that he didn’t complete last time. Then it will go to edit for finish and some visual effects work.

It’s been a big year for C+S, and a year full of changes in the creative industry. What are the upsides to the changes in technology?

SUE: I’m really glad to be working in the digital intermediate world. There was plenty to learn about all the different kinds of files and how each works within the Nucoda and there was a learning curve… but it was worth it. I can’t imagine not having the options I now have for color correction. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on the new Precision panel and getting some software filters for options in diffusion.

We look forward to seeing what Sue will be working on next.

Payless Shoes web video: Brash featuring Sierra.

Payless Shoes web video: Brash featuring Sierra.

Payless Shoes web video: Brash featuring Sierra.

www.imagesystems.tv

“There was plenty to learn about all the different kinds of files

and how each works within the Nucoda and there was a learning

curve… but it was worth it.”

with the team from Martin Williams, who produced 24 Internet videos for the Payless brand Brash featuring Sierra from the Florida based band VesaEmerge. The videos are running on the Payless web site and they have a YouTube Channel with over 2.2 million views.

The band was on tour in New York and in a number of cities in Europe. A group from the agency, including Executive Broadcast Producer Stan Prinsen and Group Creative Director David Richardson, followed them around shooting behind-the-scenes with a Canon 5D camera and concert footage with the ARRI ALEXA. The videos are short vignettes that are a cross between a documentary and a music video.

We had fun setting up different looks for the scenarios, and then I went through the footage matching our looks very quickly. There wasn’t a lot of time! I was spending, roughly, 1/2 hr. to 1 1/2 hrs per :30 - 1:30 piece. I love the way they look, and the clips hit the mark, fitting the style and budget they were intended to.

Any other noteworthy work you’d like to highlight?

SUE: In the last year I’ve worked on projects and spots for Target, Best Buy, Medica, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Land O’ Lakes, Nickelodeon Universe, Brizo, Culvers, Fed Ex, Carrera Sunglasses, Mayo Clinics, Mercy Hospitals, Parsons School of Design, Bush Foundation, Conner Prairie, Cost Cutters, Hoosier Lottery, amongst others, for both broadcast and internet viewing.

What are you working on now?

SUE: I’m getting ready to finish work on an independent feature that I started earlier this year. The client re-edited it and is coming in for the final color correction. I will be copying corrections from the earlier session and working on a section that he didn’t complete last time. Then it will go to edit for finish and some visual effects work.

It’s been a big year for C+S, and a year full of changes in the creative industry. What are the upsides to the changes in technology?

SUE: I’m really glad to be working in the digital intermediate world. There was plenty to learn about all the different kinds of files and how each works within the Nucoda and there was a learning curve… but it was worth it. I can’t imagine not having the options I now have for color correction. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on the new Precision panel and getting some software filters for options in diffusion.

We look forward to seeing what Sue will be working on next.

Payless Shoes web video: Brash featuring Sierra.

Payless Shoes web video: Brash featuring Sierra.

Payless Shoes web video: Brash featuring Sierra.

www.imagesystems.tv

“There was plenty to learn about all the different kinds of files

and how each works within the Nucoda and there was a learning

curve… but it was worth it.”

with the team from Martin Williams, who produced 24 Internet videos for the Payless brand Brash featuring Sierra from the Florida based band VesaEmerge. The videos are running on the Payless web site and they have a YouTube Channel with over 2.2 million views.

The band was on tour in New York and in a number of cities in Europe. A group from the agency, including Executive Broadcast Producer Stan Prinsen and Group Creative Director David Richardson, followed them around shooting behind-the-scenes with a Canon 5D camera and concert footage with the ARRI ALEXA. The videos are short vignettes that are a cross between a documentary and a music video.

We had fun setting up different looks for the scenarios, and then I went through the footage matching our looks very quickly. There wasn’t a lot of time! I was spending, roughly, 1/2 hr. to 1 1/2 hrs per :30 - 1:30 piece. I love the way they look, and the clips hit the mark, fitting the style and budget they were intended to.

Any other noteworthy work you’d like to highlight?

SUE: In the last year I’ve worked on projects and spots for Target, Best Buy, Medica, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Land O’ Lakes, Nickelodeon Universe, Brizo, Culvers, Fed Ex, Carrera Sunglasses, Mayo Clinics, Mercy Hospitals, Parsons School of Design, Bush Foundation, Conner Prairie, Cost Cutters, Hoosier Lottery, amongst others, for both broadcast and internet viewing.

What are you working on now?

SUE: I’m getting ready to finish work on an independent feature that I started earlier this year. The client re-edited it and is coming in for the final color correction. I will be copying corrections from the earlier session and working on a section that he didn’t complete last time. Then it will go to edit for finish and some visual effects work.

It’s been a big year for C+S, and a year full of changes in the creative industry. What are the upsides to the changes in technology?

SUE: I’m really glad to be working in the digital intermediate world. There was plenty to learn about all the different kinds of files and how each works within the Nucoda and there was a learning curve… but it was worth it. I can’t imagine not having the options I now have for color correction. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on the new Precision panel and getting some software filters for options in diffusion.

We look forward to seeing what Sue will be working on next.

Payless Shoes web video: Brash featuring Sierra.

Payless Shoes web video: Brash featuring Sierra.

Payless Shoes web video: Brash featuring Sierra.

CRASH+SUES specialise in commercials, colour, editing, effects, animation and finishing.

The story began in February 1985 when City Post Film Company, an offline-editing house opened its doors. City Post re-launched under the CRASH+SUES banner in 1990. Longtime C+S’er Heidi Mae Habben took over the company in 2008, making substantial investments in top-notch talent and state-of-the-art equipment. CS Films premiered in 2009 to meet the post-production needs of independent filmmakers. Today, the company offers color, editing, effects, animation and finishing.

Q&A WITH CRASH+SUES’ SUE

Let’s just cut to the chase Sue. Why did you choose Nucoda?

SUE: I’d worked with a competing system, but when it came time to build a fully file-based workflow, I just liked the Nucoda better! At this point, everything that I work on is transferred with the Nucoda Film Master. On the rare occasions when I have to use that other system -- I can honestly say that I don’t look forward to it. It’s always hard to remember the difference in functions and where they lie and I definitely miss Nucoda’s “undo” button.

That’s great to hear, and it’s a treat for us to work with talented colorists and companies like CRASH+SUES, who consistently do amazing work.

Are there tools that you particularly like in the Nucoda?

SUE: Layers! I really like the way that the layering tools have been designed. It’s great to have all the functions available when you’re on a layer, and easily go back to existing layers to tweak things. If you decide that you need something in a different layer order you just drag it to where it works best. That functionality is extremely helpful.

Any specifics?

SUE: Sure. I was working on a spot and I had to bring a very

hot building down in brightness to make it more orange. In an earlier layer I had put a lot of contrast into the scene, which made the building very hot. When I tried to bring the building down I wasn’t getting the results I desired so I dragged that layer to an earlier position and got the latitude I needed. The Nucoda layering tools got me what I needed, easily.

I also like how easy it is to copy different layers into other color corrections. Adjusting the brightness of a color is also much easier and better than it was in the past.

And, I also like how the white clip with threshold and softness works. You can decide whether or not to leave the white clip www.imagesystems.tv

hard, or if you want detail you can tweak back the threshold and softness for nice results.

I love the ability to isolate objects or colors with circles or hand-drawn shapes and, if needed, to track their movement. This enables me to do corrections that I never could before. The DVO tools come in handy for fixing film or lower-quality digital file’s grain, noise and dirt. I don’t use them a lot if the images are shot well but if I need them it’s nice to know they’re right there. I also like the fact that you can do some of the processing to the footage beforehand and you have the option to add it to a layer in session.

I also love coloring in context. It is so much faster and I think provides a much better end product. So, I guess you could say there are a number of tools that I really like in the Nucoda!

There is a beautiful Target spot that aired recently. Can you give us any insights about that project?

SUE: I recently finished that spot for Missoni and it was great fun. It was the last big budget production for Target from Peterson, Milla, Hooks. They shot in Italy on the ARRI ALEXA and provided on set color correction LUTs, which we applied in post. I did a color correction to about 80 minutes of footage for dailies. Once the edit was approved we did a final on the select scenes in context. I imported the color corrected clips from the dailies, and then went through the entire project with Dave Peterson, the agency Creative Director.

We tweaked every detail. The director from Italy had sent a color for the first scene with a very yellow cathedral and a very blue sky. We played with that effect, tweaking the blue of the sky towards the cyan and adding more vignettes to the sky to make it go deeper blue in the corners. We added a little softness and diffusion to the light hitting the cathedral.

We took a little red out of a railing that wasn’t important to the shot to take your eye away from it. With all the scenes, we tweaked the blues of the pattern to go toward the cyan and the yellows, reds and oranges to be brilliant. We did some blow ups and stretches to different scenes and also one scene required two passes to be combined in edit. We spent about seven hours polishing all the shots.

And the Payless web videos? How did Nucoda contribute to those? They have such a distinctive look.

SUE: The Payless Shoes videos with Martin Williams are at the opposite end of the spectrum from the Target Missoni spots. We worked on the project off and on over about two months

“I love coloring in context. It is so much faster and I think it provides a much better end product. So, I guess you could say there are a

number of tools that I really like in the Nucoda!”

The opening Cathedral shot featured in the Target spot for Missoni.

Target spot for Missoni.

Target spot for Missoni.

CRASH+SUES specialise in commercials, colour, editing, effects, animation and finishing.

The story began in February 1985 when City Post Film Company, an offline-editing house opened its doors. City Post re-launched under the CRASH+SUES banner in 1990. Longtime C+S’er Heidi Mae Habben took over the company in 2008, making substantial investments in top-notch talent and state-of-the-art equipment. CS Films premiered in 2009 to meet the post-production needs of independent filmmakers. Today, the company offers color, editing, effects, animation and finishing.

Q&A WITH CRASH+SUES’ SUE

Let’s just cut to the chase Sue. Why did you choose Nucoda?

SUE: I’d worked with a competing system, but when it came time to build a fully file-based workflow, I just liked the Nucoda better! At this point, everything that I work on is transferred with the Nucoda Film Master. On the rare occasions when I have to use that other system -- I can honestly say that I don’t look forward to it. It’s always hard to remember the difference in functions and where they lie and I definitely miss Nucoda’s “undo” button.

That’s great to hear, and it’s a treat for us to work with talented colorists and companies like CRASH+SUES, who consistently do amazing work.

Are there tools that you particularly like in the Nucoda?

SUE: Layers! I really like the way that the layering tools have been designed. It’s great to have all the functions available when you’re on a layer, and easily go back to existing layers to tweak things. If you decide that you need something in a different layer order you just drag it to where it works best. That functionality is extremely helpful.

Any specifics?

SUE: Sure. I was working on a spot and I had to bring a very

hot building down in brightness to make it more orange. In an earlier layer I had put a lot of contrast into the scene, which made the building very hot. When I tried to bring the building down I wasn’t getting the results I desired so I dragged that layer to an earlier position and got the latitude I needed. The Nucoda layering tools got me what I needed, easily.

I also like how easy it is to copy different layers into other color corrections. Adjusting the brightness of a color is also much easier and better than it was in the past.

And, I also like how the white clip with threshold and softness works. You can decide whether or not to leave the white clip www.imagesystems.tv

hard, or if you want detail you can tweak back the threshold and softness for nice results.

I love the ability to isolate objects or colors with circles or hand-drawn shapes and, if needed, to track their movement. This enables me to do corrections that I never could before. The DVO tools come in handy for fixing film or lower-quality digital file’s grain, noise and dirt. I don’t use them a lot if the images are shot well but if I need them it’s nice to know they’re right there. I also like the fact that you can do some of the processing to the footage beforehand and you have the option to add it to a layer in session.

I also love coloring in context. It is so much faster and I think provides a much better end product. So, I guess you could say there are a number of tools that I really like in the Nucoda!

There is a beautiful Target spot that aired recently. Can you give us any insights about that project?

SUE: I recently finished that spot for Missoni and it was great fun. It was the last big budget production for Target from Peterson, Milla, Hooks. They shot in Italy on the ARRI ALEXA and provided on set color correction LUTs, which we applied in post. I did a color correction to about 80 minutes of footage for dailies. Once the edit was approved we did a final on the select scenes in context. I imported the color corrected clips from the dailies, and then went through the entire project with Dave Peterson, the agency Creative Director.

We tweaked every detail. The director from Italy had sent a color for the first scene with a very yellow cathedral and a very blue sky. We played with that effect, tweaking the blue of the sky towards the cyan and adding more vignettes to the sky to make it go deeper blue in the corners. We added a little softness and diffusion to the light hitting the cathedral.

We took a little red out of a railing that wasn’t important to the shot to take your eye away from it. With all the scenes, we tweaked the blues of the pattern to go toward the cyan and the yellows, reds and oranges to be brilliant. We did some blow ups and stretches to different scenes and also one scene required two passes to be combined in edit. We spent about seven hours polishing all the shots.

And the Payless web videos? How did Nucoda contribute to those? They have such a distinctive look.

SUE: The Payless Shoes videos with Martin Williams are at the opposite end of the spectrum from the Target Missoni spots. We worked on the project off and on over about two months

“I love coloring in context. It is so much faster and I think it provides a much better end product. So, I guess you could say there are a

number of tools that I really like in the Nucoda!”

The opening Cathedral shot featured in the Target spot for Missoni.

Target spot for Missoni.

Target spot for Missoni.

How an Innovative Company is Spot On with Nucoda Color Gradingand Finishing System

From

www.imagesystems.tv

www.imagesystems.tv

“There was plenty to learn about all the different kinds of files

and how each works within the Nucoda and there was a learning

curve… but it was worth it.”

with the team from Martin Williams, who produced 24 Internet videos for the Payless brand Brash featuring Sierra from the Florida based band VesaEmerge. The videos are running on the Payless web site and they have a YouTube Channel with over 2.2 million views.

The band was on tour in New York and in a number of cities in Europe. A group from the agency, including Executive Broadcast Producer Stan Prinsen and Group Creative Director David Richardson, followed them around shooting behind-the-scenes with a Canon 5D camera and concert footage with the ARRI ALEXA. The videos are short vignettes that are a cross between a documentary and a music video.

We had fun setting up different looks for the scenarios, and then I went through the footage matching our looks very quickly. There wasn’t a lot of time! I was spending, roughly, 1/2 hr. to 1 1/2 hrs per :30 - 1:30 piece. I love the way they look, and the clips hit the mark, fitting the style and budget they were intended to.

Any other noteworthy work you’d like to highlight?

SUE: In the last year I’ve worked on projects and spots for Target, Best Buy, Medica, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Land O’ Lakes, Nickelodeon Universe, Brizo, Culvers, Fed Ex, Carrera Sunglasses, Mayo Clinics, Mercy Hospitals, Parsons School of Design, Bush Foundation, Conner Prairie, Cost Cutters, Hoosier Lottery, amongst others, for both broadcast and internet viewing.

What are you working on now?

SUE: I’m getting ready to finish work on an independent feature that I started earlier this year. The client re-edited it and is coming in for the final color correction. I will be copying corrections from the earlier session and working on a section that he didn’t complete last time. Then it will go to edit for finish and some visual effects work.

It’s been a big year for C+S, and a year full of changes in the creative industry. What are the upsides to the changes in technology?

SUE: I’m really glad to be working in the digital intermediate world. There was plenty to learn about all the different kinds of files and how each works within the Nucoda and there was a learning curve… but it was worth it. I can’t imagine not having the options I now have for color correction. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on the new Precision panel and getting some software filters for options in diffusion.

We look forward to seeing what Sue will be working on next.

Payless Shoes web video: Brash featuring Sierra.

Payless Shoes web video: Brash featuring Sierra.

Payless Shoes web video: Brash featuring Sierra.

www.imagesystems.tv

“There was plenty to learn about all the different kinds of files

and how each works within the Nucoda and there was a learning

curve… but it was worth it.”

with the team from Martin Williams, who produced 24 Internet videos for the Payless brand Brash featuring Sierra from the Florida based band VesaEmerge. The videos are running on the Payless web site and they have a YouTube Channel with over 2.2 million views.

The band was on tour in New York and in a number of cities in Europe. A group from the agency, including Executive Broadcast Producer Stan Prinsen and Group Creative Director David Richardson, followed them around shooting behind-the-scenes with a Canon 5D camera and concert footage with the ARRI ALEXA. The videos are short vignettes that are a cross between a documentary and a music video.

We had fun setting up different looks for the scenarios, and then I went through the footage matching our looks very quickly. There wasn’t a lot of time! I was spending, roughly, 1/2 hr. to 1 1/2 hrs per :30 - 1:30 piece. I love the way they look, and the clips hit the mark, fitting the style and budget they were intended to.

Any other noteworthy work you’d like to highlight?

SUE: In the last year I’ve worked on projects and spots for Target, Best Buy, Medica, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Land O’ Lakes, Nickelodeon Universe, Brizo, Culvers, Fed Ex, Carrera Sunglasses, Mayo Clinics, Mercy Hospitals, Parsons School of Design, Bush Foundation, Conner Prairie, Cost Cutters, Hoosier Lottery, amongst others, for both broadcast and internet viewing.

What are you working on now?

SUE: I’m getting ready to finish work on an independent feature that I started earlier this year. The client re-edited it and is coming in for the final color correction. I will be copying corrections from the earlier session and working on a section that he didn’t complete last time. Then it will go to edit for finish and some visual effects work.

It’s been a big year for C+S, and a year full of changes in the creative industry. What are the upsides to the changes in technology?

SUE: I’m really glad to be working in the digital intermediate world. There was plenty to learn about all the different kinds of files and how each works within the Nucoda and there was a learning curve… but it was worth it. I can’t imagine not having the options I now have for color correction. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on the new Precision panel and getting some software filters for options in diffusion.

We look forward to seeing what Sue will be working on next.

Payless Shoes web video: Brash featuring Sierra.

Payless Shoes web video: Brash featuring Sierra.

Payless Shoes web video: Brash featuring Sierra.

www.imagesystems.tv

“There was plenty to learn about all the different kinds of files

and how each works within the Nucoda and there was a learning

curve… but it was worth it.”

with the team from Martin Williams, who produced 24 Internet videos for the Payless brand Brash featuring Sierra from the Florida based band VesaEmerge. The videos are running on the Payless web site and they have a YouTube Channel with over 2.2 million views.

The band was on tour in New York and in a number of cities in Europe. A group from the agency, including Executive Broadcast Producer Stan Prinsen and Group Creative Director David Richardson, followed them around shooting behind-the-scenes with a Canon 5D camera and concert footage with the ARRI ALEXA. The videos are short vignettes that are a cross between a documentary and a music video.

We had fun setting up different looks for the scenarios, and then I went through the footage matching our looks very quickly. There wasn’t a lot of time! I was spending, roughly, 1/2 hr. to 1 1/2 hrs per :30 - 1:30 piece. I love the way they look, and the clips hit the mark, fitting the style and budget they were intended to.

Any other noteworthy work you’d like to highlight?

SUE: In the last year I’ve worked on projects and spots for Target, Best Buy, Medica, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Land O’ Lakes, Nickelodeon Universe, Brizo, Culvers, Fed Ex, Carrera Sunglasses, Mayo Clinics, Mercy Hospitals, Parsons School of Design, Bush Foundation, Conner Prairie, Cost Cutters, Hoosier Lottery, amongst others, for both broadcast and internet viewing.

What are you working on now?

SUE: I’m getting ready to finish work on an independent feature that I started earlier this year. The client re-edited it and is coming in for the final color correction. I will be copying corrections from the earlier session and working on a section that he didn’t complete last time. Then it will go to edit for finish and some visual effects work.

It’s been a big year for C+S, and a year full of changes in the creative industry. What are the upsides to the changes in technology?

SUE: I’m really glad to be working in the digital intermediate world. There was plenty to learn about all the different kinds of files and how each works within the Nucoda and there was a learning curve… but it was worth it. I can’t imagine not having the options I now have for color correction. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on the new Precision panel and getting some software filters for options in diffusion.

We look forward to seeing what Sue will be working on next.

Payless Shoes web video: Brash featuring Sierra.

Payless Shoes web video: Brash featuring Sierra.

Payless Shoes web video: Brash featuring Sierra.