by Christine Clark
April 2010

Paul Korver has his sights set on leading a post-production renaissance in Hollywood. In January, the principal/EP opened the doors on a new space for his two-year-old short-form finishing company, Cinelicious, on Melrose and Vine.

Not since the ’90s has finishing been available for commercial projects in Hollywood; all the work was concentrated in the bustling Santa Monica area. But with the closing of telecine-capable studios like R!OT and The Syndicate, Korver believes the time is right for a return to Hollywood.

“We wanted to create a space in Hollywood in hopes that clients would rethink where they stay when they come to LA,” says Korver, who feted his opening with the signing of ex-Company 3 colorist Steve Rodriguez and an eight-spot Hyundai campaign via Innocean Worldwide and Biscuit Filmworks USA, which aired during the Oscars. “A lot of filmmakers live here in the east side, too. So we were faced with the option of going out to where things used to be in Santa Monica versus trying to carve out a new area.”

The 5,000-sq-ft. facility was designed by architectural firm Shook Kelley. It’s modeled in a 1960s Industrial aesthetic and offers full client services, including tapeless workflows. “Our philosophy is, tape is great… at the end,” quips Korver. “But to go on and off of tape 10 times during the process of making a commercial costs people unnecessary money and it’s bad for the environment. So we’ll transfer straight from our Spirit DataCine to any file. Whatever format, we can deliver it on a hard drive.”

But the most innovative of Cinelicious’ offerings that the new space allows is custom “Dual-Room Monitoring”. Instead of having visiting clients held up in the dark, finishing suite – often dubbed The Cave – Cinelicious has built an adjoining, naturally-lit conference room equipped with a calibrated 4:4:4 monitor that shows what’s happening inside the suite. The room allows clients to stay connected to the creative process while carrying on with other work if needed.

“We got a great response from agencies that have come, especially agency producers, who are in the room for the first part but then they have to make calls or go online,” says Korver. “They can see the exact same 4:4:4 color-calibrated image that’s going on in the suite and they’re connected via intercom so they can still offer input.”

by Robert Goldrich
March 2010

Paul Korver, a filmmaker who turned his focus to postproduction two years ago, has formally launched telecine/finishing shop Cinelicious, securing noted colorist Steve Rodriguez, and setting up operations in new Hollywood digs.

Rodriguez, who came over from Company 3, has already wrapped under the Cinelicious banner a nine-spot Hyundai package produced by Biscuit Filmworks for agency Innocean Worldwide Americas. Three of the spots–”Body Pass,” “Paint” and “10 Years” (which stars quarterback Brett Favre still mulling retirement from football in the year 2020)–debuted during last month’s Super Bowl telecast. Biscuit’s Tim Godsall directed the Super Bowl ads. A fourth spot, “Luxury,” was helmed by Noam Murro of Biscuit, and aired immediately after the conclusion of the game.

Rodriguez has assorted spots to his credit over the years, spanning stretches at such shops as The Post Group, Post Logic, and two tours of duty at Company 3 sandwiched around his tenure at Riot in Santa Monica. He has served as colorist on ads for the likes of Nike (the memorable “No Excuses” featuring a wheelchair athlete, directed by Errol Morris of Moxie Pictures for Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore.), Lexus for Team One, a recent Time Warner Cable campaign via Uniworld, New York, and adidas.

For the latter, Rodriguez served as colorist on the lauded Kevin Garnett-starring “Carry” spot from the then TBWA\Chiat\Day, San Francisco. “Carry” garnered a 2005 Cannes Bronze Lion and was one of the commercials that earned Murro the DGA Award as the best spot director of 2004.

Bringing Rodriguez into the Cinelicious fold was a key dynamic for Korver, who serves as the shop’s executive producer. Their paths first crossed at Company 3 when Rodriguez color corrected the Christina Aguilera music video “Save Me From Myself” which Korver directed. The two struck up a rapport, kept in touch and eventually came together in this new venture.

But Rodriguez is but one of the components Korver has assembled to bring Cinelicious to fruition. He has been building the post business and his strategies under the radar over the past couple of years, operating out of interim quarters and taking on indie projects, modestly budgeted commercials and music videos. Initially he deployed some used telecine equipment (URSA Diamond and daVinci) which he obtained from Riot.

Now, though, with the formal launch of Cinelicious, Korver has stepped up his commitment, securing not only Rodriguez, but also moving into the new 5,000-square-foot Hollywood facility, and buying high-level resources including an HD/2K capable Spirit Datacine, a fully loaded daVinci 2K+ realtime color correction, and DVNR 2K realtime grain plus dust and scratch conceal.

Korver also has plans in the works to soon unveil a 2K, 3D, 4K DI Theater with a 20-foot screen, as well as 4K film scanning services.

He’s betting on Hollywood again attracting ad agency artisans and clients, hearkening back in a sense to the heyday of shops like 525 when commercial post was firmly ensconced in the heart of the city, well before the westward migration of facilities to Santa Monica and Venice. Korver reasoned that Hollywood is in the midst of a rebirth creatively and commercially, noting that buzz-generating restaurants and hotels (i.e., the new W in Hollywood, and Palihouse in West Hollywood) are also cropping up.

Congratulations to Donat Wald + Haque on their new client 21st Century Insurance. For their forthcoming spots we pitched a scan-once to ProRes workflow which allowed ALL 35mm footage shot to be graded and transferred to broadcast quality HD quicktime files. This saved time, money and the environment by skipping oil-based tape products. Not only were the editors working with “online” quality, beautifully graded material, but when DW+H came back in for the file-based finish we never had to go back to film.
Agency: Donat Wald + Haque
Agency Producer: Mike Davison
Prod. Co: Company Films
Color: Steve Rodriguez