The award-winning singer/songwriter Rob Thomas has a well-loved string of hit singles and albums. His latest music video, “Someday,” was the #1 music video on VH1’s Top 20 Countdown in early December 09. Director Alan Ferguson turned to Emery Wells at Katabatic Digital in New York City for the final color grading and finishing of the project, which was shot with the RED ONE 4K Digital Camera by DP Max Goldman.
“Katabatic gave us a ‘save the day’ experience,” says Ferguson. “We initially tried to do the grade at another facility that used traditional workflows and were having nothing but trouble. I did some research and found that Katabatic was the go-to post facility in NYC; these guys just get it. The venue for ‘Someday‘ was to be a bright, sunny, cheery day – the right background for expressing a love scenario. However, we had to shoot on a rainy, dreary day and Emery made the best of it. He went straight to work to layer the grading needed to cheer up the mood and clean up signage and artifacts. It was a big challenge and he came through for us with a wrap-up within two days.”
Ferguson adds, “I’ve used RED for ten other videos and have confidence in its capabilities. For this project, I needed a post house in NYC that had a proven RED 4K workflow for the color grading and finishing, as well as the artistic talent to create a great looking video. Large post facilities offered time-consuming work-around solutions, but Katabatic has a streamlined pipeline that works directly with the native RED CODE files. It was immediately clear to me that Katabatic has invested the needed time, money, and energy into building a stable data infrastructure for a RED 4K workflow. He also has an innate artistic sensibility and just the right touch to carry the emotion of scenes through color.”
Ferguson has a long history of directing hit music videos in several genres, working with big-name talent like Jewel, Jay-Z, Katy Perry, Chris Cornell, John Legend, and Natasha Bedingfield. Ferguson notes, “The venue for ‘Someday‘ is on the streets of New York City, and from experience I knew the RED camera would be ideal for shooting outdoors. I also wanted to use two cameras simultaneously to capture different angles, and the RED camera works well in tight spaces. Other considerations were our schedule and budget. By using RED for the data acquisition and then a digital post-production workflow at Katabatic, we were able to meet both targets.”
Emery Wells, digital color artist and founder of Katabatic, notes, “Data acquisition with the RED and other digital cameras is the trend now and it’s the de-facto future of music videos, commercials, and feature films. We’ve invested in the needed infrastructure and talent to give our clients a streamlined, digital post process that assures high-end results and low-level stress. With an end-to-end digital workflow, our clients realize they can do a shoot, and then have a color grade and finish that gives their project a look that is on par with 35mm film – all while saving time and money. They also have the advantage of creating several deliverables from a single source.”
About Katabatic Digital
Katabatic Digital (NYC) is a boutique media company that blends creativity with technology to provide high-quality digital post-production services for well-known ad campaigns, music videos, and episodic television. Experts in high-end digital acquisition technologies such as RED, Katabatic offers full, real-time post production services, including color grading, dailies, client reviews, conform, and finishing. Their client list for the high-end advertising market includes major household brands, including Target, Marriott, Snickers, Coca Cola, Pillsbury, Pfizer, MillerCoors, Crisco, KFC, Citibank, CVS Pharmacy, Rocawear and more. www.katabatic.tv
