Looking for a post house with a great deal of RED experience.

[Andrew Rieger]

A friend of mine is looking for a post house in LA that can handle Red R3D files, provide transcoded Prores 422 dallies and conform back to native R3D or DPX for filmout. Any suggestions? If the can grade, do vfx and audio, that would be great as well but not necessary. Basically, he is avoiding building his own edit system with RedRocket and learning all of the Red post procedures and would prefer to edit with what he knows. He is starting to plan out an indie film to be shot on Red and is new to the workflow and is looking for a reputable post house to guide him along the way. Thanks.

UPDATE: RED POST HOUSE SPECIALIST LIST (In LA Area)

Boutique Houses:

Lightiron: http://www.lightirondigital.com/LightIRON_Digital/LIGHTIRON_DIGITAL_HOME.html

Cinelicious: http://www.cinelicious.tv/?page_id=48

Hollywood DI: http://www.hollywooddi.com/red.html

Local Hero: http://localheropost.com/

Plaster City Post: http://www.plastercity.com/index.php

Kappa Studios: http://www.kappastudios.com/?page_id=10



Larger Companies:

Fotokem: http://www.fotokem.com/

Technicolor: http://www.creativebridgeinc.com/

The Post Group: http://www.postgroup.com/

Laser Pacific: http://www.laserpacific.com/

 

[Sarah C.]

http://www.kappastudios.com ?

I went there once for a Red user group get together. They may have exactly what you need?

~s

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Lightiron
http://www.lightirondigital.com/LightIRON_Digital/LIGHTIRON_DIGITAL_HOME.html

 

[Andrew Rieger]

After doing some additional research, I also found Cinelicious and Hollywood DI

Cinelicious: http://www.cinelicious.tv/?page_id=48

Hollywood DI: http://www.hollywooddi.com/red.html

Any info on either of these two houses?

 

[Lucas Wilson]

A friend of mine is looking for a post house in LA that can handle Red R3D files, provide transcoded Prores 422 dallies and conform back to native R3D or DPX for filmout. Any suggestions?

Hey Andrew,

There are a bunch of places in LA that do really high quality R3D work and can do exactly what your friend needs. In no particular order, I would recommend:

Lightiron Digital
LocalHero Post
Fotokem
Technicolor Creative Bridge
The Post Group (the old iO Film people)
HiGround
HollywoodDI

Lightiron and HiGround are both in Culver City.
LocalHero is in Santa Monica
Fotokem in Burbank
Technicolor, TPG, and HollywoodDI are in Hollywood.

Lightiron, HiGround, Local Hero, and HollywoodDI are fairly small, boutique shops with typically more individual attention.

Fotokem, Technicolor, and TPG are large facilities.

They all do good work, and I've got the contacts you need at each one if you'd like to get in touch with me off-list. lucas (at) assimilateinc (dot) com.

Best,

Lucas


Lucas Wilson
--------------
Director, Business Development
ASSIMILATE, inc.
LA, CA, USA

 

[Sarah C.]

Hey Andrew,

Be scrupulous on whether you guys are O.K. with a post house that may not use R3D files within their workflow.. for instance.. I was told that Quantel Pablo(a very popular DI machine) does not.. it imports R3D with "some" metadata.

Edit (2/6/2010): Please have a look at this note that eloquently illustrates my reasoning. http://reduser.net/forum/showpost.php?p=549524&postcount=36 It is o.k. if you do not agree. I believe this thread is about information, and you can't have information without sharing ideas and experiences.

thx,
~s

 

[Andrew Rieger]

Thanks everyone. This is exactly what my friend is looking for.

 

[dino g]

one word...

LIGHTIRON, it is who RED trusts...so should you.

 

[M Most]

one word...

LIGHTIRON, it is who RED trusts...so should you.

Nothing against them, but there are a number of other facilities that get along just fine with Red, are very experienced with Red material, and have delivered great results. Lucas mentioned a few. At Red's own events, there were at least two other facilities represented (both of the "boutique" type, BTW), with Red's full support.

If there was only one facility that could handle their material well, it would probably not be a particularly good idea to commit projects to the camera. Fortunately that is not the case.

 

[a kines]

I was told that Quantel Pablo(a very popular DI machine) does not.. it imports R3D with "some" metadata.

Can anyone expand on this?

 

[ian.vertovec]

Can anyone expand on this?

Saying Pablo's don't use R3D's may sound somewhat misleading.

To be more specific, the Pablo has custom built video hardware that can process large resolution frames extremely fast- faster then most CPU's can decode most popular codecs. So in order to eliminate this bottleneck, the Pablo decodes compression during the auto-conform and operates internally uncompressed. The result is a MUCH more powerful overall performance.

For people new to this workflow, this may sound somewhat strange. But Pablo's with a Rocket installed can do this at 4K faster then realtime, so it's not really a big deal.

 

[Lucas Wilson]

Can anyone expand on this?

Whoa whoa whoa...

For this thread, it does not matter worth a hill of beans what systems are being used. This is all about smart facilities who do good work.

As an example, in the facilities I recommended, here are what they use as their primary DI and grading tool...

LightIron - Pablo
LocalHero - SCRATCH
Fotokem - Pablo
Technicolor - Resolve
The Post Group - FilmMaster
HiGround - SCRATCH
HollywoodDI - Color & SCRATCH

Go with the talent and the people who are smart and good. I will trust Vilmos Zsigmond with a Flip Camera and natural light over a film student with an entire rental house at his disposal any day, every day.

Lucas

 

[Neil W. Smith]

Plaster City Digital Post ...

Plaster City Digital Post ...

And don't forget Plaster City Digital Post .... they do great RED work and have been working closely with Ted over the last three years ... the RED reel that was shown at the Jan 16th Red Day was graded by them along with the amazing Leo cigar smoking shot.

They have a 4k Pablo and are completely refurbishing their offices and DI suites to bring the place up to scratch ... Scot Barbour is the new CEO .... very competent guy who came in from Apple to rebuild the company.

Call Scot on 323 469 9800.

And yes, PCDP are a competitor of ours but as Mike Most and Lucas said, there are many competent and talented post houses in LA that can easily handle RED footage ... this is no longer rocket science ... call around and get some quotes ... more importantly, check out the talent of the colorists and the attitude of the company .... far more important than anything else (price not withstanding).

Neil

 

[Paul Korver]

After doing some additional research, I also found Cinelicious and Hollywood DI

Cinelicious: http://www.cinelicious.tv/?page_id=48

Hollywood DI: http://www.hollywooddi.com/red.html

Any info on either of these two houses?

Honored to have made this list considering we started with an SD telecine machine in a garage 2 years ago with no investors. It's been a good two years and we just moved into a great space in Hollywood:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cinelicious/151696765033?v=photos

And open doors in time to finish 2 Superbowl spots on our new HD/2K Spirit Datcine & DaVinci 2K film setup.

What's not pictured in the photos is the 1100 sq foot space with high-ceilings where we're building out a gorgeous 2K, 4K & 3D DI theater that will be both film and RED friendly. While I generally agree with Lucas that "it's not the tools it's the talent"... it definitely doesn't hurt to try to seek out both and you should. Fortunately with all the options listed in this thread you should have no problems.

Come by for a tour anytime.

Cheers.

-Paul

 

[BigLu]

LightIron Li
good luck

 

[Tim Whitcomb]

I third LightIron. Tell your friend to go there first.

 

[Matt Steinauer]

LightIron

 

[Neil W. Smith]

Cinelicious ...

Cinelicious ...

Honored to have made this list considering we started with an SD telecine machine in a garage 2 years ago with no investors. It's been a good two years and we just moved into a great space in Hollywood:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cinelicious/151696765033?v=photos

-Paul

Congratulations on your new place, Paul .... it looks great .... I also like what you said on your Facebook page ...

" ... We've worked tirelessly to create the finest and friendliest post house in the city. 2010 will be a Renaissance year for Hollywood and we're glad to be at the leading edge .... "

Agree totally that 2010 will be a Renaissance year for our industry ... hope to see you at the Red Day on Feb 13th ... all the best to you and Cinelicious.

Glad to see that the list of skilled and talented RED post houses is getting bigger and better ... competition is good for everyone, especially filmmakers ... so many choices ... lots of good deals to be had ;-)

Neil

 

[Lucas Wilson]

And don't forget Plaster City Digital Post .... they do great RED work and have been working closely with Ted over the last three years ... the RED reel that was shown at the Jan 16th Red Day was graded by them along with the amazing Leo cigar smoking shot.

A quick clarification... Plaster City had nothing to do with the RED Reel shown on the 16th. You may be thinking of the previous RED Reel, which was graded at Plaster City while Michael, Steve, Katie, Ian, Milton, and that crew of people were there.

For those not in the LA community - a point of information.

As often happens in this industry, things change quickly. Most of you are familiar with Plaster City as the name of the facility that sort of "grew up" with RED. Michael Cioni, Steve Beres, Katie Fellion, Ian Vertovec, and more recently, Milton Adamou were all part of that team.

Several months ago, that team split away from Plaster City and formed LightIron Digital. While Plaster City is still in the Hollywood location, it is a 100% new crew of people. Sort of like if you're a friend of my family, and I move to a new house... well... the old house is still the old house (and the new family there are probably lovely people), but if you're looking to visit my family, where are you going to go?

Both Plaster City and LightIron Digital are ASSIMILATE customers and they both do good work. Scot, Joe, Brandon and the Plaster City team are smart guys, and doing a good job continuing the level of excellence set up for them by Michael and co.

But the reel was 100% done by Lightiron. Lightiron also did the Leo shot.

They have a 4k Pablo and are completely refurbishing their offices and DI suites to bring the place up to scratch ... Scot Barbour is the new CEO .... very competent guy who came in from Apple to rebuild the company.

Did somebody say "SCRATCH?" ; )

Best,

Lucas


Lucas Wilson
--------------
Director, Business Development
ASSIMILATE, inc.
LA, CA, USA

 

[M Most]

Michael Cioni, Steve Beres, Katie Fellion, Ian Vertovec, and more recently, Milton Adamou were all part of that team.

Several months ago, that team split away from Plaster City and formed LightIron Digital.

A correction: Steve Beres is not with Lightiron. He is with FotoKem.

A comment:
Another company that deserves prominent mention here is Next Element Studios in Burbank (formerly known as Hollywood Intermediate, not to be confused with Hollywood DI, which is Neil Smith's company, but I digress...). They posted the only major broadcast network series to be shot on Red thus far (Southland). They are also handling post on the "Shameless" pilot for the same production company. Post production at that level is about a lot more than pretty pictures. It is about workflow, efficiency, flexibility, experience, and understanding of the market you're working in. One of the post houses that has already been mentioned was not able to adequately handle that on "Southland," and the folks at Next Element were. Brook Willard is the DIT on both shows, and he can elaborate on what they're doing if he wishes. But suffice it to say that it involves the ability to take color decisions that are done by Brook and Jimmy Muro (the DP on both of those shows), translate them faithfully to dailies, and use them as a starting point for final color correction. They have a very, very well evolved and efficient system, and solid talent across the board.

Disclaimer: The folks at Next Element are friends of mine. I have also worked there on occasion, and I highly respect what they've designed and the work they do.

And, since I agree with Lucas, I did not make any mention of the particular hardware that they use, because in the context of this discussion, it's irrelevant.