Visual effects/post house The Mill has upped its commitment to color grading with major investments in technology and talent, the former reflected in the opening of a 4K color suite in New York. Robin Shenfield, CEO of The Mill, said that while the industry norm has been for 4K rooms to cater to theatrical feature DI grading, The Mill NY’s suite has been built for the advertising market. “We think 4K is the new standard, particularly in areas like fashion and beauty where fine definition is so important to people. Our room is a little different with both a 4K monitor and a Barco projector. The room is also laid out a little like a theater which is a bit unconventional.
The alluded to projector is one of only two Barco DCI 4K projectors in NYC. The Mill suite also features a 15-seat theater and 5.1-surround sound that has been custom built and designed in collaboration with acoustics-sound company, Armadillo.
From a talent standpoint, Aline Sinquin has joined The Mill NY as sr. colorist. She comes over from MPC with a reputation for beauty and fashion fare spanning such brands as Chanel, Dior, L’Oreal, Maybelline, Thierry Mugler, Nina Ricci, Kenzo and PRADA. Outside the fashion/beauty discipline, Sinquin has colored for the likes of Samsung and Vodaphone, among others. She has collaborated with such leading directors as Sofia Coppola, Wes Anderson, Romain Gavras, Kim Gehrig, Nick Gordon, Stacy Wall, Michel Gondry and Tim Walker.
Sinquin joins a colorist ensemble at The Mill NY which includes mainstay head of color Fergus McCall and the recently promoted Mikey Rossiter who exemplifies the company’s affinity for developing and nurturing young, up-and-coming talent. Rossiter joined Mill Color in London in 2007 and became known for his work on music videos. He moved to Mill Color in NYC in 2010 as a jr. colorist and grew his body of work by collaborating on projects including Vogue Original Shorts’ “Braids” starring Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o and directed by Austin Peters, Mumford and Sons’ “Whisper in the Dark” music promo directed by Jim Canty, and Major Lazer’s “Sweat” promo directed by Ryan Staake. Sinquin succeeds colorist Damien Van Der Cruyssen who moved over to Company 3’s NY shop earlier this year.
L.A. additions
The Mill LA has also added to its color staff. Dave Ludlam has come aboard as sr. colorist, and Thatcher Peterson has been hired as executive producer, color, in Los Angeles. Ludlam had most recently been at Framestore in London where he was head of color. Ludlam has 26 years of experience working in visual effects, including 16 years as a sr. colorist. He has had a hand in creating beautiful visuals for such high-profile spots as Xbox’s “Mosquito” and Levi’s “Odyssey,” and music clips ranging from Arctic Monkey’s “Live at the Apollo” to Chemical Brothers’ “Salmon Dance” and U2’s “Staring at the Sun.” Ludlam, who started his career at The Mill London where he became a colorist, has over the years worked with such notable directors as Dante Ariola, Daniel Barber, DOM&NIC, Neil Harris, Daniel Kleinman and Steve Ayson.
Ludlam joins a core of Mill LA colorists headed by Adam Scott. Also part of the team is colorist Gregory Reese who like Rossiter in NY has come up through the ranks at The Mill.
Meanwhile EP Thatcher comes over to The Mill LA from Company 3 where he was a member of the 1997 founding team. He brings to his new roost 17 years of experience orchestrating the color grading of commercials and music videos. Thatcher has worked on such commercials as Nike’s “Find Your Greatness” directed by Lance Acord and Seb Edwards, Volkswagen’s “The Force” helmed by Acord, and Halo: Reach’s “Deliver Hope” directed by Noam Murro. Thatcher has also collaborated on projects with such directors as Spike Jonze, Michael Bay and Tom Kuntz. He takes over managerial duties that were previously handled by EP LaRue Anderson who left to partner in color boutique Apache Digital.
The Mill team of colorists is 11 strong with Scott, Ludlam and Reese in LA, McCall, Sinquin and Rossiter in NY, Luke Morrison in Chicago, and UK head of color Seamus O’Kane, sr. colorists James Bamford and Mick Vincent, and colorist Matt Osborne in London.
Color suites in all The Mill facilities have connectivity, facilitating remote collaborations so that colorists can work in different markets no matter their geographical location. At press time The Mill London was moving into a new 28,000 square foot building in which there are three 4K capable color rooms.
Shenfield estimated that The Mill Color’s business in the U.S. is a 50-50 split between jobs in which The Mill also handles visual effects, and projects from outside shops. In London, the latter accounts for only 15 to 20 percent of The Mill’s color grading volume in that many U.K. editorial boutiques have in-house color operations.
Big picture
The Mill’s investment in color grading represents one end of the industry continuum. “As is true of our business in general, we are seeing expansion in both directions,” observed Shenfield. “On one end, technology has become rather ubiquitous with people grading movies on a Mac or via low cost software packages. At the same time, you have people like us investing in 4K theaters which costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. There’s room for expansion both ways. Color is a big focus for us with raw data coming from a plethora of digital cameras and people wanting to do higher and higher definition work. In order to be responsive to our clients, we need to be on the cutting edge of making these things happen. Still it’s not just about technology. It’s first and foremost about people. Our business model is to simply put very sophisticated tools in the hands of talented people who can do better and better things with them.”
Shenfield also regards his company’s commitment to The Mill Color as essential given the changing nature of the process. “We may grade a spot several times during the course of its evolution,” he related. “We are called upon to grade at the beginning, to regrade sections as we go, to look at work several times to explore creative options, and then to perform the finishing color grade. There’s such a range to the color, look, nature and style of the work that comes in. We are kind of refining the look of the piece throughout the process. It’s all part of agencies, directors and editors all being in competition to create engaging and arresting imagery–and what we do [in color grading as well as visual effects] is all part of that process.”
