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Featured Corp Member: FrameRiver
FrameRiver | Brad Goodman
Your company motto is…
The Work Flows
Tell us a bit about your company.
FrameRiver is a Post Production and Visual Effects Management Company that also has a facility component for both disciplines. FrameRiver opened in July 2019 to help increase the the Post Production infrastructure which has been lacking in our region.
How many staff members / freelancers do you employ?
We currently have four full time staffers and a few part timers. Our freelance crew scales up and down as required.
What are you working on right now?
FrameRiver is currently finishing Post Production on a film shot in Calgary called “The Order”, starring Jude Law and Nicholas Hoult. The film is directed by Justin Kurzel and will be released Internationally by MGM/Amazon. We are also working on documentaries for Peter Klein and Susan Kucera. We are also excited to be readying a film starring Jenna Ortega for Paramount called “Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall” for its World Premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in June.
What is a favourite project that you’ve worked on, and why?
FrameRiver has enjoyed being involved in every project it has contributed to during its 4 1/2 year history. We’ve managed to work on a broad range of projects from MOWs to productions for all the streamers. We recently had the pleasure of working on Anna Kendrick‘s directorial debut called “Woman Of The Hour” which will drop on Netflix sometime this year. Anna was great to work with and FrameRiver provided the Post and VFX Producing Services, plus we did all the VFX and Titles in house. We also worked on a really cool Apple Original Series, the title of which we are not allowed to disclose, and we are hearing it will drop on Apple+ this summer. 90% of the Post and VFX work on that show was done in BC by many of our VPA members.
What percentage of your work is with local vs. international clients?
With the exception of a few documentaries most of our clients come from the US or Europe. Our team has strong connections to the Hollywood entertainment community so we tend to leverage those relationships.
Are you a Mac/PC/Linux shop? Or all of the above?
Primarily Mac.
What software/hardware/plugins can you not live without?
Well we’ve recently been auditing our software costs so I know there are quite a few things we can’t live without! As a company we are big fans of DaVinci Resolve and the direction it is heading in as a “Set to Delivery” solution. Our new Mac Studios are really amazing and increase our workflow efficiency and capacity. Our Synology NAS is a feature laden storage solution that gives us a lot of bang for the buck. We are also big fans of OWC local storage solutions and their smaller drives for shuttling files from the set. They are so fast. Photoshop, Illustrator, No Machine and Cine-X tools are a few others we use all the time.
Are Dolby Atmos/Dolby Vision capabilities something you have or are looking into?
We are actually in the process of adding HDR to our grading suite and will have HDR10+ and DolbyVision Grading as an offering in the very near future.
How difficult has the pandemic been for day to day operations?
Hopefully the Covid pandemic is in the rear view mirror for all of us. The new challenge is getting through the difficulties in our work cycles created by the strikes in Hollywood. FrameRiver has fared well but many of our colleagues have not and we’re hoping the upcoming negotiations between the Producers, IATSE and Teamsters can be resolved without another work stoppage.
How long have you been a VPA corporate member?
I believe since we started the company, if not then not long afterwards.
Any workflow improvements brought about by the need to work remotely?
Improvements are flexibility for workers quality of life and access to talent you might not ordinarily have access to employ. It also makes anyone in the world a potential client.
What do you miss most about “in person” client sessions?
Overhearing things that help you learn is a big one. Having time to chit chat and get to know people you work with to develop relationships is another. Running into colleagues on other shows you haven’t seen in a while. Having lunch with everyone on the team.
Is there anything else about your company that you’d like people to know about that we haven’t yet asked?
FrameRiver’s business model is unique as we bring many disciplines under one roof. This allows us to keep overhead costs low on a project and are able to pass that savings onto our clients. But this approach is not for everyone and we often manage shows for clients where we team up with other Post and VFX facilities our clients have relationships with around the world to complete the project. And other Post Producers and VFX Supervisors use our facilities services and we do not manage those shows. It’s important to address the needs of the production.
