Mill Color is broadening its offering to include creative Digital Intermediate (DI) work for feature length projects. Known for working in the advertising, games and music industries, this move marks a notable diversification for The Mill’s global team of talented artists and their clients.
Group Color director at The Mill, Dee Allen, explained, "This is a natural and very exciting progression for us. Our team collaborates with world class directors and DPs and this allows us to extend the collaboration into features. In New York, we are also supported by our relationship with Technicolor PostWorks providing an end-to-end solution to clients across all aspects of DI workflow and final deliverables. Of course, we’ll continue to grow our commercial and music video work, finding creative opportunities across all media.”
This new initiative is spearheaded at The Mill’s New York studio by Mill colorist and director of DI, Damien Van Der Cruyssen. Van Der Cruyssen has previously worked on features Clown (directed by Jon Watts), Blue Caprice (directed by Alexandre Moors) and Mick Rock documentary Shot! The Psycho-Spiritual Mantra of Rock (directed by Barney Clay). Van Der Cruyssen commented, “Our passion is for the artistic side of the DI process. Being able to work on both commercials and movies is wonderful for a colorist. The variety helps you approach all different kinds of work, with each one giving you new creative skills that you can apply to the other.”
As individuals, Mill colorists already have impressive and diverse resumes working on features and the invaluable depth of technical experience that comes with it. Most recently head of color in NY, Fergus McCall, graded Greasy Strangler (directed by Jim Hosking) and colorist Mikey Rossiter completed work on Burn Country (directed by Ian Olds). In Chicago, head of color Luke Morrison coloured Among Wolves (directed by Shawn Convey), winner of this year’s “Chicago Award” at Chicago International Film Festival. In London, colorist Mick Vincent has done work for leading long-form TV shows including Dr.Who and Merlin. The team also has a successful history working with features directors and DPs across commercials including Guy Ritchie, Rupert Sanders, Tom Hooper, Peter Berg and Wally Pfister.
DI color work will be also available at other Mill studios in the moviemaking hubs of London and Los Angeles, and the burgeoning industry in Chicago. Additionally, filmmakers can work from any Technicolor location across the globe, either using The Mill’s remote network or by flying the talent into, for example, Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver.
Mill Color’s latest feature work can be seen in Barry, a well timed biopic of outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama set during his time as a college student in New York City. Released Friday, Dec 16, on Netflix, the film is directed by Vikram Gandhi and colored by Van Der Cruyssen.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More