CRASH+SUES Takes the Colors of Christmas to the Next Level
Press Release from CRASH+SUES
Holiday goers may be familiar with the colors of Christmas: red, gold and green. However, CRASH+SUES, the creative post and VFX company, and its award-winning colorist, SUE, stretched that spectrum of color with their new Digital Vision Nucoda Film Master color correction system for a holiday campaign for Best Buy.
The spots, “Sprint” and “Verizon,” feature the national retail chain’s employees touting the features of the latest smartphones, Sprint’s HTC DVO 4G and Verizon’s Samsung Fascinate.
CRASH+SUES handled color correction on the spots, and their FX/Animation team created the motion design, which included particle animation that dynamically brought the phones to life. The full-service company took the campaign through completion, also providing creative online editing and finishing.
“The original brief had most of the elements figured out,” says online editor Mark Anderson about the company’s collaboration with the client. “Best Buy’s creative team provided us with the model phone and information so we could get going in 3D. We knew which shots were going to be tricky as far as screen replacement and for the green screen/blue shirt in the foreground.”
CRASH+SUES used its entire facility to bring the campaign to fruition, running through Smoke to color to Flame to Maya and back to Smoke. This all-in-house process allowed each member of the technical team to easily access shots, interact freely with each other and find quick and efficient workarounds when challenges arose.
“We had quite a few FX shots that needed to happen within a day after color,” explains Adam Celt. “Luckily we were able to handle all of the graphics and 3D while we were waiting for the rough cut and color so the last two days before shipping were pretty painless.”
That seamless approach also aided the team in crafting an aesthetic for the spot that was enhanced when colorist SUE applied the color correction.
“On the first spot [“Sprint”], there were quite a few in-camera speed changes resulting in color temperature shifts as well as varying lighting conditions that we had to match in color correction,” explains SUE. “With the second spot [“Verizon”], the director Marco Baca and DP Mike Welckle worked on stills in Photoshop to create a ‘look,’ which we used as a starting point for the color correction. We were able to get some pretty nice glows and softness to the edges and behind the spokesperson that worked really well.”
SUE demonstrated the expertise of the company’s new color suite, the Digital Vision Nucoda Film Master color correction system, on a series of outdoor spots for Polaris Industries and a Target Fall fashion campaign. For the Best Buy work, the suite allowed SUE the opportunity to enhance what the company is able to deliver to the client.
“As a colorist, I have worked on other Best Buy spots, but this was the first time I was able to color correct the foregrounds and the backgrounds,” says SUE. “With my new Digital Vision color corrector I was able to preview everything in context with the spokesperson and the backgrounds and color correct each independently. Since we were doing the edit as well, we were able to pass all the files off to EFX and edit easily via our network.”
“Working with Marco, Mike Welckle, Best Buy producer Matt Holz and editors Jim Stanger and Charlie Gerszewski from Channel Z was a dream,” praises SUE. “All are creative in their own jobs and working with the images they produce is always a pleasure. Matt is a wonderful producer who made himself at home at CRASH+SUES and was available at any point to answer questions and keep everything moving along and on time.”
About CRASH+SUES
CRASH+SUES is an award-winning creative post and visual effects company specializing in the seamless integration of animation, FX, motion design, color correction, creative editing, finishing and multimedia services. For additional information, crashandsues.com.