Fremont, CA - February 28, 2018- Blackmagic Design today announced that DaVinci Resolve Studio was used by Colorist Lauren Malis of Chicago-based The Colonie to grade and finish several national broadcast spots for retail giant Kmart. The creative editorial and post production house was tapped to deliver the seasonal spots throughout 2017, and while each spot is different in content, they all have a similar feel essential to the Kmart brand.
“Kmart is a very upbeat brand with a pleasant, inviting look, so we stayed natural overall, but made sure the colors popped and were saturated,” said Malis. “We definitely wanted to draw the viewer’s attention and put them in a good mood, which reflects overall how Kmart is a fun brand. They are great with shooting neutral and letting the colorist go to town with the footage, and regardless of what I’m facing, I never have to worry about DaVinci Resolve Studio. Not only is it a solid program to begin with, but everything continues to get smoother, faster and sleeker as it updates. We began the year on version 12.5, but switched to 14 once it was available, using it on the later ads.”
With each spot specific to certain seasons, Malis paid particular attention to ensuring the looks reflected their respective themes. Malis explained the process behind two summer spots, “Nature Calls” and “Cannonball:” “‘Nature Calls’ features a man, woman and child making animals noises against a lush green backdrop. Because it’s a summer spot, we wanted it to really pop, while keeping the green natural but with good contrast. For ‘Cannonball,’ which features a pool as the centerpiece, we again wanted it bright, cheery and eye-catching to reflect summer, but really pushed the blues in the pool to make it look super inviting.”
Malis is a fan of DaVinci Resolve Studio’s Power Windows and tracker when finessing shots. “It’s easy to throw up a window, color and track the grade. It’s the best tracking tool I’ve ever used,” she said. “I love the overall flow of nodes and being able to quickly add layers and windows, as well as pick out different colors in the Qualifier. It’s a seamless workflow.”
In the fall’s “Showdown” spot featuring a man and woman in a variety of sports team apparel, it was important to make the clothing pop. “We wanted the reds and blues of the clothing to really come at the viewer, while keeping the walls nice and neutral,” noted Malis. “There were a lot of overlays and graphics, which was a fun challenge as a colorist because you need to think about how the grade will affect them.”
Another challenging spot for Malis was “$10 Gifts,” a holiday spot featuring a band singing against an all-white background, completed in one fluid shot. “The whole spot was one shot with the camera locked on the band as it circles them with the lighting changing throughout. I needed to ensure the overall grade was seamless so it wouldn’t distract the viewer, so each time the camera went around, I treated it as a different grade to match lighting and the overall look,” she said.
“I had several grades going throughout, and using DaVinci Resolve Studio’s edit page, I was able to transition between the grades, using the dissolve tool across the transition to make it feel like the one shot it was,” she added. “I also do some editing, so I love that the tools, like the blade tool, another favorite, are intuitive to an editor, and I can seamlessly switch back and forth between the editing, grading and finishing pages.”
Malis also noted that DaVinci Resolve Studio’s Scene Cut Detection tool, which breaks down specific shots based on cuts, was essential to her workflow. “It’s an amazing time-saver when we are in a crunch. Almost all of my work is done on tight timelines, and DaVinci Resolve Studio streamlines the overall process, letting me import and organize footage, set up timelines, make revisions or new versions and more. Especially when clients are in the room, going through a spot shot by shot, adding or disabling nodes, changing contrast, keeping track of versions, DaVinci Resolve Studio makes it easy, fluid and the color session efficient.”
Malis concluded, “Before DaVinci Resolve Studio, The Colonie hadn’t delved into color grading. Being able to add that to my and the company’s repertoire was a huge step up in our game as a commercial post production house, allowing us to branch out to be more of an all-in-one shop. We can present our clients with the all-inclusive solution for their projects that they are looking for.”
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About Blackmagic Design
Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com
