A color correction 'boutique' expands - It's Always Something - Company 3

Post, Feb, 2003 by Ken McGorry

Company 3's stefan sonnenfeld has branched out, working in new york, feature films, digital intermediates, and now, even digital acquisition from the viper.

SANTA MONICA -- The telecine colorist is often perceived as the wizard behind the curtain, working his -- or her -- arcane magic on exposed film footage. Like BASF, they don't make the filmed image, they make the image better.

While a good colorist can be a powerful draw at a post facility, it's rather unusual to see that person also running the facility, growing its business, and launching another such facility 3,000 miles away, all while obligingly testing out new technologies and also being a good corporate citizen.

Stefan Sonnenfeld, a co-founder of Company 3, approaches the telecine business as a "boutique" service, but he's found ways to aggregate his offerings, and get the most out of his company's talent and considerable investment in equipment -- many Quantel Infinitys and a whopping 13 telecines on two coasts, all but one being Thomson Spirit DataCines.

Sonnenfeld is staying put and moving forward at the same time. He recently renewed his contract with Ascent Media Group, the newly re-named parent company that owns various post production companies. Ascent, formerly Liberty Livewire, and its new chairman/CEO, Bill Fitzgerald, recently signed Sonnenfeld to stay on as co-president of Company 3, working alongside co-president/co-founder Michael Pethel. "It's a very long-term deal," says Sonnenfeld," one in which I feel I can accomplish a lot of things. Every person, every fixture, every thing in this place is something that I've had everything to do with and I started [a New York office] about a year ago. There are 110 people who work for Company 3 and I feel that I want to be here for the rest of my career as a colorist. I feel that, down the road -- which is why I signed a long term deal -- my prospects as some sort of senior executive in the company are good."

Last year he saw Company 3 New York open with five Spirits and an Ursa Diamond. Besides commercials work, the NY facility sees series come through, including the 16mm Sex and the City. "I felt that it was a good business opportunity. [There's] a lot of good people there, and a lot of work that we weren't getting because we didn't have a presence there. We opened up Company 3 [NY] and that's been very successful." Sonnenfeld says there are one or two additional markets that would welcome a Company 3 franchise as well. As big as this sounds, he maintains that we're looking at a business model based on "a small boutique."

Besides branching out geographically, Sonnenfeld has been able to increase telecine business from new market segments beyond his company's traditional mostly commercials clientele. "Now, some of our biggest clients are studios because we do feature work: feature mastering, trailer work, digital intermediate work, TV shows and pilots. Everybody had to diversify when 9/11 happened. I'm proud from a business standpoint, and of all the people that work here -- the artists and support staff -- we just all had a great year under really difficult circumstances."

Not long ago Sonnenfeld worked on test footage shot on Thomson Broadcast's new Viper FilmStream high definition camera -- noncompressed HD 1080p video data direct to disk. The camera joins Sony's and Panasonic's efforts to topple traditional film shooting from its 100-year position of dominance. One way of competing with film is the HD camera's use of three 9.2 megapixel CCDs which combine to capture a 27.6 million pixel image that Thomson says rivals that of film grain. The Viper outputs digits, not exposed film, but although the telecine is not required, the images still need color correction. Its output may be transferred to Thomson's Specter Virtual DataCine for manipulation in post.

In this case, the Viper footage (for an automaker) was shot by DP Bill Bennett alongside a traditional film camera for comparison purposes. For one thing, the Viper's output is meant to render dramatic, filmic blacks, but it needs the touch of a talented colorist. "The camera seemed to have a very wide range, more so than other 24p cameras that I've experienced," says Sonnenfeld. "The picture quality looked fantastic. I was very impressed with the performance, the range and depth, and the image overall, and I think those types of cameras are really going to be a great addition to [production]." However, Sonnenfeld stresses that digital acquisition will not replace film, but will become a separate production tool, to be used to advantage when appropriate.

"I exported [the Viper images] into a Specter and used the Specter to transport the data back into the daVinci 2K, and we colored it from there. You're starting from an image that has no crushed or blown out features -- like blacks or whites -- and then you start working with it, which is my favorite part. It looks terrific -- very, very great looking imagery. They shot a real commercial and shot the Viper alongside at the same time as a test to see if that footage could be cut into the film footage. I would guess that it could be," says Sonnenfeld, who saw the spot's film footage, although his company did not transfer it.