Award-winning London post house Finish, a specialist in 2D and 3D visual effects for commercials, has broadened its service offering to include high-end colour grading through the purchase of two Baselight systems from FilmLight.
The company has also employed colourist Paul Harrison, a veteran of MPC and The Mill. Harrison oversaw the technical and aesthetic design of two new, purpose-built grading suites that, along with the Baselight TWOs, features a Baselight Assist and FilmLight’s revolutionary Blackboard 2 control surface.
The addition of colour grading via Baselight allows Finish to offer a complete and highly efficient solution to a client base that includes some of the top advertising agencies in London and across Europe. “Our recent move to new premises gave us the physical space to add grading, something we have wanted to offer to our clients for some time,” says Finish co-founder Justine White. “The affordability of Baselight and Paul coming on board made everything fall in place at the perfect time.”
Harrison has already used Baselight to grade commercials for Coke Zero, Sol Beer and Goodyear, as well as a music video for Scottish pop singer Emeli Sandé.
Twice named Best Colourist at the British Television Advertising (BTA) Awards, Harrison is a long-time Baselight user. “Over the past several years, the system has grown faster by leaps and bounds,” he says. “It can handle any file format that’s thrown at it. With so many formats in use today, it is essential to have a grading system, that can cope with whatever comes through the door.”
Finish’s new Baselights are linked to a central server via 10-gig Ethernet connection allowing Harrison to collaborate seamlessly with the facility’s team of visual effects artists. Complementing Baselight TWO with a Baselight Assist results in a highly efficient workflow, as the latter can be used for rendering and for accommodating editorial changes and other routine tasks.
Harrison is also enthusiastic about Blackboard 2. “The software has been written expressly for the surface,” he explains, “so controls that you previously had to dig for are on top and accessible.”
The emphasis on quality and creativity that has made Finish one of London’s top boutique post production service providers is clearly evident in its new Baselight grading service. “Everything we have done here is top notch,” Harrison insists. “We are a very slick, professional outfit and it’s reflected in our choice of equipment. It shows how serious we are about the work we do.”
About Finish
Founded in 2003, Finish quickly became one of the leading post production companies in the UK. Whilst considered a boutique, this isn’t always reflected in the size and scale of projects they deliver, including large campaigns for adidas World Cup, Nike and O2, to name a few.
The philosophy of the company has always been that using the most up to date equipment and software is vitally important in this competitive market but essentially it’s the people that make Finish. They have built up a genuinely passionate and hardworking team that are dedicated to their work.
As well as the newly installed Baselight suites, Finish use Flame, Smoke and Nuke compositing systems and Maya, Houdini and Massive software for CGI creation. They have a full data lab service offering advice to its production partners and have the ability to handle all data formats.
Finishes are based in the heart of London’s Soho and have been voted into the Televisual Magazine’s Top 10 Commercials Post Houses consistently and their artists have won major awards including BTAA Craft Award, D&AD, Midsummer and a Kinsale Shark.
