Cosmic's Color Suite: An Interview with Senior Colorist Russ Lasson

Whether it’s being used to showcase work to clients or bring a game of Nintendo to the big-screen, Cosmic’s Color Suite is one of the studio’s most memorable additions. We caught up with Senior Colorist Russ Lasson for the full rundown on what makes Cosmic’s Color Suite one of a kind.

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COSMIC: What is the Color Suite and what services does it provide to clients?

RL: The Color Suite provides color correction for TV shows, feature films, and commercials. It really comes down to taking images that were shot very flat and bringing them to life. A lot of times with an iPhone, when you’re taking a picture, the phone is doing the color correction and making mistakes. Professional cameras shoot flat so they maintain as much data as possible, then a colorist can then go through and see where to take the image, instead of relying on a computer algorithm.

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COSMIC: At Cosmic, is the Color Suite used for anything besides work for clients?

RL: Since the suite seats 30 people, the team will come in and watch movies, play video games, or just come in to visit.

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COSMIC: What are the most important tools you use in your coloring process?

RL: All color grading work is done in DiVinci Resolve. It also uses advanced panels, which are huge- it makes me feel like I’m flying a spaceship. Those are fantastic because of the muscle memory I can generate for doing operations; it lets me put my eyes on the screen instead of on my mouse, keyboard, or monitor.

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COSMIC: What makes Cosmic’s Color Suite unique?

RL: The most unique thing about it is it’s size- the Suite has a 23 ft screen and a Christie 4k projector. People will come in from LA or the UK and they’re shocked about how nice of a theatre we have here for grading. It’s hard to find real estate for a suite this large. And because  it’s so large, it really gives you a better scope when you’re putting together a feature film on what it’s looking like overall. One interesting thing we’ve started using is software that uses machine learning to help with look-development. When you’re exploring different looks with machine learning you can match your shot to any image from any film you want to bring in. It doesn’t finish the grade for you, but it certainly is a great way to do a rapid look development to see what your project has the potential to look like.

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COSMIC: Why is having a Color Suite essential?

RL: It’s a very creative space and really allows you to focus on the image. Whether working on a commercial or a feature film, I can transition from a large screen format to streaming on an iPhone or iPad. It also allows the client to have a great creative space to focus in.

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