| Mad Men |
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Mad Men Co-Producer, Blake McCormick speaks about how the look of television today compares very favorably to feature films. He notes that, in producing television today, at the same time that television has become as compelling from both a visual and story sense as motion pictures, there is a need to overcome the challenge of "limited resources and the incredible aspirations of making something really fantastic while trying to bring it all together to make it look effortless." In order to deliver on the promise of today's television and in order to do the best work possible, McCormick feels that "the choices of the people you choose to work with are probably some of the most important ones you can make."
One of the key issues that drove Mad Men to choose LaserPacific was the ability to utilize our DI Tools for Television and the opportunity to work together with LaserPacific colorist, Tim Vincent. According to McCormick, the show benefits from the use of these tools and the LaserPacific workflow in many ways. Not only does the Lustre™ have the ability to perform the traditional television color timing tasks such as matching images from shot to shot better, but it can also do it in a way that "has a very natural quality of light." He feels that the Lustre™ can even help to "go back in time to change what was shot on the set and to help the photography in an organic, natural lighting sort of way."
Prior to moving the show to LaserPacific, McCormick, along with colorist Tim Vincent, cinematographer Chris Manley, and LaserPacific dailies colorist Mace Johnson, watched all of last year's 13 episodes together, talking through the choices that were made at the time and trying to understand the direction that the show would head. McCormick muses that there are many things that "one can do solo, but for me, post production is one of the most collaborative". This spirit of collaboration, which extends to the show's Executive Producer, Matthew Weiner, who is extremely hands-on in the color sessions, has helped to reinforce the notion of how creative tools in the hands of creative people can make a difference. McCormick sums it up, "LaserPacific is a large post production facility and it still seems to have an individualized feel to it... the ability to maintain a boutique feel...and a customized aspect for your show while putting technology in the hands of artists... that seems like a pretty winning combination."
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