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| Gaurav Gupta, CEO at FutureWorks Media Limited |
FutureWorks partners with award-winning US based post production house, Company 3, a subsidiary of Deluxe Entertainment Services Group.
Company 3 Founder and President, Stefan Sonnenfeld initiated this partnership through his relations in India that led to an introduction to Gaurav Gupta, CEO at FutureWorks. “Gaurav initially recognized the quality of the feature work coming out of Company 3, and recognized an opportunity to leverage our commercial talent in Mumbai and was very impressed with the creative talent at CO3” says Alaina Zanotti Director of Commercial Sales, Deluxe’s.
FutureWorks and Company3 initially tested how the tie-up would work. Once testing was completed and they determined that they could meet the expectations of the market in Mumbai, they moved forward. Meetings were held and tests were conducted to ensure the necessary bandwidth needed to maintain an outpost.
Now, clients working out of FutureWorks can collaborate with any Company 3 artist based in Company 3’s Santa Monica, New York, Atlanta, or London facilities. The Mumbai outpost has already been used successfully for the Nokia Bollywood Pocket Dance, directed by Ahmed Khan for agency AKLP, which was graded by Company 3 colorist Siggy Ferstl in Santa Monica. Ferstl was able to interact in real time with clients in Mumbai.
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| Stefan Sonnenfeld, Founder and President, Company 3 |
The technical specifications of the collaboration include exact calibration of displays in the two locations so that everyone at both facilities sees exactly the same images and image refinements. The connection between facilities relies on Aspera Faspex for prompt file exchange between facilities’ for pre or post session. Physical color correction can occur at Company 3 in HD, 2K and 4K. Clients view the grading session in real-time in Standard Definition.
“A Polycom conferencing system allows the client and colorist to interact during the session in real-time. We have a real-time video streaming system that is calibrated to ensure the highest quality picture integrity. Plus we have redundant hardware and training/engineering support at both locations, including proprietary test patterns and specs”, Zanotti adds.
The time difference between the two countries is not an issue. “We’re able to service clients in Mumbai during traditionally slow hours in the US”, she says. “Mumbai is one of the world’s thriving centers of film and advertising production and this ‘virtual outpost’ is a wonderful way to bring clients working there together with our Company 3 colorists.” adds Sonnenfeld, Founder president Company3.
From FutureWorks point of view, the tie-up with Company 3 enables them to “raise the bar in terms of creative and technical offerings.” Gupta adds, “This outpost allows FutureWorks to offer our local clients a roster of internationally-renowned colorists who have graded highly-regarded films and commercials.”
Company 3 colorists include John Bonta, Sean Coleman, Siggy Ferstl, Billy Gabor, Adam Glasman, Dave Hussey, Tim Masick, Stephen Nakamura, Mike Pethel, Rob Pizzey, Tom Poole, Rob Sciarratta and Stefan Sonnenfeld. Recent commercial projects include campaigns for Apple, Audi, BMW, Heineken, Nike and others. Recent feature film credits include Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.
Both FutureWorks and CO3 expect that the majority of the work to benefit from the partnership will initially be short-form commercials.
