Re: Agency for colorist

[Noah Kadner] "There will be fewer and few boutiques charging their high fees..."

Check out Utopia people -- swedish-based worldwide "talent agency" that lists colorists, but its primarily a European operation. I don't know if this model actually works. For the most part, they hook up freelancers with houses that need temp help. Anything from a couple of days to semi-permanent.

But there will be more and more sub-boutiques charging whatever they can. And caveat emptor will prevail. I can guarantee that more laptop operations will be offering full cinema grading facilities based on the FCPX auto-match and their LUTted Insignia-brand graphics display. I have to say, its tempting.

To be honest, the idea of a colorist going ronin and riding from facility to facility occurred to me about 16 years ago (like a great DP/cinematographer), but we weren't really at a point where installations were as commodity/generic as they are now -- software being the great equalizer, and doing away with most of the hardware barriers. Back then, suites had their individual quirks to the point where it was a deeply personal, joined-at-the-hip relationship between the telecine/whatever source, the grade/corrector interface and the colorist, which more often than not had its own daily plot arc. (I'm thinking of the Jannette chef-character form the HBO series TREME.)

Of course, some of us already own our own facilities, which are almost indistinguishable from what clients would otherwise recognize as a full-service facility.... except there's no muffin-girl.

Overall, though, if colorists could get organized, (visualize a herd of cats, if you will), there probably is no better time than now to put together talent pools. However, if you understand sports metaphors, colorists are more like "goalkeepers" than the rest of the team, and are notoriously... well, notorious in a lot of ways, and I can't really excuse myself, either.

jPo

You mean "Old Ben"? Ben Kenobi?