Color
The art of translating color direction from the creative is done by Nolo Digital Film, an artist-driven boutique studio located under one roof with the Sarofsky team.
Mike Matusek, the visionary founder of Nolo, boasts over two decades of expertise in the intricate art of color grading. He and his team specialize in creative, high-end color grading for commercial and motion picture projects. Today, Nolo’s extensive credits among others include: coloring many Super Bowl spots, recent, high-profile restorations for Orson Welles’ “The Chimes at Midnight” and Tobe Hooper’s “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” and coloring Steve James’ latest project with ESPN Films, which debuted at this year’s SXSW Festival.
In addition to color grading, Mike and his team also offer 4K film scanning, digital restoration, and DCP creation.
Bidding
We also do
Motion Design, Animation and Editorial
From kinetic typography (moving/expressive type) to character-driven work, motion design encapsulates an entire design discipline. Some artists and studios will even specialize in just one aspect of it. At Sarofsky, we employ experienced, senior artists in each discipline and further expand from our black-book of creative talent to supplement the team on larger-scale projects. As such, we are able to offer our clients a full range of design-driven solutions for everything from extremely small to vast, large-scale projects. More importantly, this allows us to pivot easily if the needs for an assignment change midstream—which, let’s be honest, they sometimes do.
VFX and Finishing
Visual Effects (VFX) is a broad term used to describe the process of merging live action footage with computer generated imagery together into a single, cohesive image. It is a merging point where art and science become equally important in creating an image that is wholly fabricated and totally believable to the human brain.
The category also covers a wide array of our creative partner’s needs. Visual effects can encompass removing a logo from a shirt, or a blemish from an actor’s body, to fully integrating a character into a live action scene. It can also mean the reverse: Taking characters and creating a world around them that did not previously exist.
Live Action Production
There are times when filming is the only way to impart that very special something into a piece. Oftentimes it’s humanity. Unless you see a person actually doing, going, achieving, experiencing, or emoting, it can be hard for the audience to “get the feels.”
Live action covers a wide gamut of styles, genres and expertise: From shooting on location to on set…from working with actors to working with props…from filming assets (such as people on green,) to building out full sets…from filming stop motion miniatures to creating large scale props from a comedy gag. We can be thoughtful and resourceful about how best to produce your job, not just how to capture the visuals, but to also come up with a post plan that ensures success.
Branded Funded Entertainment and Conceptualization
When a brand is looking to create content outside the traditional commercial space, this is called brand funded entertainment. We regularly help brands and organizations conceptualize work around achieving specific goals and to capture a specific audience’s attention. We can not only conceptualize the project, but we execute it and help organize distribution and PR efforts. At the end of the day we will grow brand recognition, sales and its status in the community.
Educational
We have always considered ourselves a teaching studio, looking to find young talent that we can develop internally so that we can instill good work habits in a truly collaborative, supportive environment. So it was natural for us to come up with ways to engage both our clients and the larger design community in that way.
It was from this ethos that Sarofsky Labs was born. A weekend workshop series that invites members of the design community to the studio to do a personal project under the guidance of our key team, Sarofsky Labs has become a great laboratory for new talent. Also, as we have been delivering more work as kits, it’s been important to include training along with them, sharing information with our clients so they can maintain the work we created on their behalf.
Content
Content is what we make, not how we make it.
We have such a diverse portfolio of content types that odds are, we have some samples to show you — even if your project is unique or new. The world is changing fast, new technology and platforms are not only reimagining how we watch, they are also reimagining what we watch. We have stayed current with our clients in both the advertising and entertainment communities to make sure we are both keeping up with and innovating solutions for all of these new and evolving mediums.
Deliverables Supported
The reality is this: If you have specific specs you want us to work with, we will absolutely comply. It’s just important to let us know what those specs are in advance of a project, so that we can build the project files appropriately.
That said, here is a rundown of all the formats and ways we have delivered work: Stereoscopic, 4K (larger if necessary), Broadcast, Episodic (Network, Hulu, Netflix, Apple TV+, Amazon, YouTube Red), Social Platforms (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and remember Vines, yep we made those too), Event/Concert Projections, Digital Billboards (including those crazy ones in times square), Arena Displays, Asset Creation for AR/VR, Project files & toolkits, and any color space (Rec709, Lut, linear and HDR).
Infrastructure
Sarofsky follows TPN guidelines while working in a collaborative environment. Our production servers are backed up nightly while entire projects are saved for three (3) years unless specifically negotiated. A sustainable/successful work from home pipeline utilizes Teradici PCoIP technology, Signiant File Sharing platform and other collaboration utilities.