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December 2015

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www.postmagazine.com 34 POST DECEMBER 2015 and Fendi Roma; and promos for the Grammy Awards on CBS. STRENGTHS: "The sun is setting on us being considered post. VFX and anima- tion are production — I call VFX 'digital production' — and people are finally getting it. Younger generation clients and agencies recognize that getting to the table earlier and building a project with them makes everything so much easier." WEAKNESSES: "The challenges mainly exist at that treacherous crossroad of schedules, freelance talent and overhead. Schedules are shorter than ever. We can do more and make things look amazing in less time these days, but calendars are still shifting all the time. We expend a lot of energy trying to get the right people into the seats at the time needed to be effec- tive. We don't want to release them until they won't be needed again. It's tricky. The goal is to grow to the point where you can have a robust, diverse and per- manent talent base. Timber is there now, and it's made things so much stronger." OPPORTUNITIES: "We're getting more and more experiential projects with location-based imagery. The creative for a broadcast campaign now extends to print, online content and experiential. Clients are looking for partners who can apply imagery wherever necessary; you have to prove you can swim in all ponds." THREATS: "Digital production costs are hard costs just like live-action production costs. Sometimes it's [difficult] to get budgets that reflect that reality. Clients have always understood that cameras, traffic control, actors, sandbags and C-stands are hard costs. We need to get better at showing that design, animation, rotoscoping, color correction, computers, electricity and client services are hard costs as well. Sometimes people feel like those assets and offerings just exist in air-conditioned rooms and they can dip in and out of them at any given time. This can make for some misunderstandings when costing projects out." OUTLOOK FOR 2016: "Projects are getting more ambitious. The pendulum is swinging away from things looking like they were shot on an iPhone and up- loaded to YouTube — that raw look. Now, there's a premium on complex, careful- ly engineered, meticulously-executed imagery that only a few companies, like Timber, can do. "About nine months ago we moved into a new space in the middle of Santa Monica. The vibe here has been a game changer: We're under one roof with our sister company Arcade Edit, we have the space we need for a digital studio and we're a great place for clients and friends to hang out. We've strived to make ac- cess to Timber easier, and now it is." MATT COLLORAFICE & TRENT SMITH Partners/VFX Supervisors/Producers ShutterPunch VFX Culver City, CA www.shutterpunch.com ShutterPunch VFX offers high-end VFX and compositing solutions for features and television. Credits include AMC's Into the Badlands, MTV's The Shannara Chronicles, NBC's Night Shift, ABC's The Goldbergs, The CW's The 100, TNT's Per- ception, the Lifetime original feature The Cleveland Abduction, and the animated feature Hell and Back. STRENGTHS: "Each year we're able to expand the possibilities of what can be done with the talent of our artists and technology, which allows more creativity to show up on the screen," says Smith. "Another strength is remote collabora- tion with the increased Internet work- flows: Artists, producers, vendors can be in multiple locations at the same time. For The Shannara Chronicles we were able to work from the shooting location in New Zealand with post production offices in Hollywood and our VFX house in Culver City with time zones being the only worry. Internet phone meetings and file transfers were happening constantly with all three locations." "We're the main VFX hub for Shan- nara — everything goes in and out of our doors and is distributed to five to 10 vendors at a time," explains Collorafice. "We have dedicated employees in our I/O department handling footage for Shannara all day long." WEAKNESSES: "A lot of companies are offshoring to save costs, but without proper oversight things can turn bad quickly," says Collorafice. "We offshore some tasks ourselves; companies over- seas can do great work as well. But with any outsourcing, it helps to have a close relationship with those companies so you can work with their strengths and not just the discounts. Some productions will use companies that give them the lowest price and not take into account their ex- perience and skill level. We had two jobs recently fixing what was done offshore. We got involved when there was no money left and had to start from scratch. We try to warn clients about this, but they see the dollar signs and take the risk OUTLOOK VFX/ ANIMATION O Timber's T-Mobile spot. The 100

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