Independent senior colorist Shaley Brooks, CSI leverages DigitalFilm Tree’s GEOpost® Network (GPN) services to grade “High Potential” for ABC and “NCIS: Tony & Ziva” for Paramount +.
For senior colorists seeking more autonomy and greater control over their projects and career, productions like 'High Potential' and 'NCIS: Tony & Ziva' showcase how they can achieve independence and compete with industry leaders.
Independent senior colorist, Shaley Brooks, CSI, handles color grading for the two series, working primarily from his custom-built home studio. Designed to rival, and in some respects surpass, professional color bays in Los Angeles, Brooks' studio provides a high-caliber client experience. "With my engineering background, I've constructed numerous rooms for top post-production facilities," Brooks explains. "I wanted to ensure clients feel the same level of comfort and professionalism they'd expect in any leading facility."
Shaley Brooks
His studio mirrors a traditional color bay, featuring theater seating and a dedicated client monitor. Despite operating remotely, Brooks conducts live grading sessions, seamlessly accesses entire seasons' footage, collaborates with vendors, and incorporates real-time editorial changes, all while maintaining a close working relationship with DigitalFilm Tree's full-service headquarters. "My goal is to inspire other senior colorists to expand the infrastructure for global post-production services," Brooks states. “DigitalFilm Tree and I are committed to facilitating this evolution.”
Brooks is accomplishing all this through the support of Los Angeles post house DigitalFilm Tree and its GEOpost Network remote workflow service. GPN provides Brooks with an all-inclusive remote infrastructure encompassing file storage and management, data security, collaboration tools, and networking. Through GPN, Brooks enjoys seamless review and approval connection with the series’ showrunners, cinematographers and editors, as well as VFX and finishing vendors. Significantly, it streamlines managing camera RAW data and simplifies workflow technologies, allowing him to put all his effort into delivering great color.
Ramy Katrib
“My role is to support creative storytellers,” Brooks says. “In the past, there has always been a gap between storytellers and post-production artists due to infrastructure. It didn’t make sense for an independent artist like me to invest millions of dollars to build a color facility. But now, I can do high-end work for relatively little cost while moving a step closer to the show. I can focus completely on my clients and provide the service they expect, 24/7.”
DigitalFilm Tree has been developing remote services for well over a decade. During this time, DFT has refined a one-of-kind data center infrastructure designed specifically for production and post. This includes high volume private storage tiers, advanced networking capabilities, and best-in-class security services.
“Traditionally, studios frowned on people working from home for security reasons,” notes DigitalFilm Tree founder and CEO, Ramy Katrib. “During the pandemic, when people were forced to work from home, GPN was ready to support artists, vendors, and storytellers, and drive the new normal of remote collaboration. For showrunners with multiple projects, it meant they no longer had to spend two or three hours each day on the road. They could monitor color and review VFX from home, the production office or both.”
Shaley Brooks set up a grading suite in a garage during the recent wildfires in Los Angeles.
Katrib draws a distinction between the GEOpost Network and broad-based cloud services like AWS and Google Cloud Platform. DigitalFilm Tree has applied its decades of experience in post-production to adapt its service to the unique requirements and working relationships of the production industry. “We come from a film ethic,” he says. “We built our system from a film production point of view. It was as simple as, ‘How do we get camera RAW data to Shaley’s office securely, reliably and routinely so he can keep pace with production? How do we move five to ten terabytes of data from productions worldwide onto our servers and make it available to multiple VFX houses?’ We’ve spent years cross-training our teams so that whether they are working the day, swing or night shift, they know how to provide color prep files, online reconforms, VFX and promo pulls.”
With virtually limitless technical and creative resources, the GEOpost Network delivers services that would be difficult or impossible for traditional post houses to offer. “Productions sometimes take a while to lock edit,” Katrib explains. “All camera RAW files for his projects are sitting on GPN’s private online servers, all instantly available. We’ll routinely do an online with a lot of handles and send that to Shaley so he can start grading. When editorial changes, we reflect those changes instantly. He’s not only able to keep up with production…he’s ahead of it. That’s not only novel, it creates added value.”
Brooks says the value of a dispersed remote workflow proved itself during the recent wildfires that devastated Los Angeles when he was obliged to evacuate his home as a precautionary measure. “I loaded up my monitor and my computer and everything else and went to a family member’s house in Simi Valley,” he relates. “I was quickly back doing color notes for High Potential. GPN’s infrastructure was the glue that allowed me to continue to deliver services. In my experience, it’s the future of post.”
Senior colorists who want to know more about DigitalFilm Tree’s GEOpost Network services may contact Ramy Katrib at dftadmin@digitalfilmtree.com, or Shaley Brooks at shaley@irisdigitalpost.com.
