It’s been a while, but we’re back with another episode of From The Mailbag!

This past week, Team Mixing Light recorded 6 new Mail Bag episodes so expect those soon!

For this installment, we have two great questions from members Chris Climer & Clay Butcher.

Remember, if you have questions that you’d like to get an opinion on please use the contact form. Your questions can be aesthetic, technical or even client related. We’d love to hear from you, and your question might make future episodes of From the Mailbag.

Client Direction

Up first, we got a question from longtime Mixing Light Member Chris Climer.  He asks:

What is the percentage of your work where your client gives you initial direction vs. them just dropping off a project and saying “we trust you to give us something good” or “you are the colorist you tell me”? And if you don’t get direction from a client, what is your process to convey what you think the color should be for the individual project?

This is a great question from Chris and we’ll break this down in detail Part 1 of this weeks MailBag.  All of us have experience with this and we discuss several ways to approach this situation.

The National Spot Look

Next, we got a question from Clay Butcher asking about how to achieve a national spot look:

I’ve been making some TV ads airing locally here in Anchorage, AK. I’m always astonished by how bright and vibrant national airing ads are compared to local market ads. I’m wondering if you could do a breakdown of what goes into getting a video to that level? I know they have better gear and lighting every step of the way, but is there something I could do in post to improve this aspect? I’d love to learn it!

We break down this question in Part 2 and discuss both heavy duty production & postproduction teams available on national spots and what you can do to borrow techniques from larger productions.

Enjoy the Mail Bag!

– Team Mixing Light