Split The Difference
When The Clients Can’t Agree
Clients usually have a good idea about the look they want for their project. It’s discussed and agreed upon in pre-pro with the the creative team, the director, the DP, the client’s client, and sometimes even me. It’s amazing how painlessly the workflow flows when everyone is on the same page before we start grading. But there are also unfortunate occasions when two pages get stuck together and it’s tough to know which page has the most valuable information.
For example, a film director shuffled into my color suite, followed by an agency creative about five minutes later. They nodded at me but merely grunted at each other, making sure to position themselves at opposite ends of the client table like hard-bitten lawyers preparing to face off in a complex case of competing aesthetics: Warm and Fuzzy versus Bleach Bypass, the honorable but currently apprehensive Stephen Baldwin presiding. Please be seated.
The producer already told me that it had been a difficult shoot, followed by a contentious and lengthy edit. The sound mix didn’t bear thinking about, she said, and my color session obviously wouldn’t be easy either. I’d be required to wear at least two hats: Color Grader and Marriage Guidance Counselor. I should definitely call her if we were going way over budget, she explained, so I should probably put her number on speed dial.
The air in the room was already thick with differing opinions. We were dealing with a thirty-second spot for dinosaur themed children’s breakfast cereal, fast cuts and extreme close-ups of grinning kids munching on multi-colored flakes floating in frothy milk.
Let’s crush all the shadows, push the highlights into clip and over saturate all the colors, the film director said. Let’s really make this thing sing.
No, let’s keep it real, the agency creative countered. There’s a lot of color and contrast going on already. It’s supposed to be breakfast for kids, not every drug addict’s favorite morning fix.
How about we split the difference? I offered, and see where we land. I guess you could call it compromise, but I prefer the term “creative arbitration.” So I made three quick different color set-ups for the guys to consider: Straight Out Of The Can, Pushed Just A Tad, and Really Singing.
It’s amazing how the simple act of providing a few options to choose from can bring the temperature down when clients disagree. Suffice it to say, we all liked Pushed Just A Tad the best, although we eventually reduced the overall contrast by a squidge. I didn’t even need to call the producer and everyone left the best of friends.