Collaboration is Key
Having worked on most of the spots, Coyote Post’s White explained the collaborative process with the client. “We tried a few different things, including a teal and orange cinematic look, but ultimately the agency felt it was too close to the other Nike spots running at the time. They wanted something that felt separate from that and more real, which made sense with the documentary feel of the majority of the spots,” he said. “I pushed some blue into the blacks and warmed up the highlights a bit, which gave a look, but still felt very natural. I also used DaVinci Resolve Studio’s Power Windows and mattes subtly to bring out the characters.”
White added, “I love Resolve’s tracker and the log grading. I'll often jump between primary and log grading to hit specific areas quickly rather than keying. The tracker has continued to improve and having point tracking is huge. We used the improved de-noise tools quite a bit in some of the darker footage. Due to the nature of shooting run and gun, having lots of stuff shot at different times of day cut into the same sequence required a lot of practical color grading just getting things to match. Once that was done we dug into the look more when needed.”
