Steamboat:
Wherever I May Roam

Steve Picano’s task in Coloring the Steamboat, ‘Wherever I May Roam’ spot? Making the natural scenery sing. 

This commercial was designed to elicit an emotional response from the beauty of Steamboat Springs. Picano describes how his job as Colorist helped to find that emotion, “I'm usually looking for a feeling that the creatives and director are hoping to get out of the footage.  All the technical jargon doesn't help nearly as much as how we want it to feel. Sad, joyful, moody, magical, all of this helps. The one specifically was all about highlighting the natural beauty of the area to draw people in and I think we really hit that mark.”

“I'm a big fan of natural scenery so I'll try to take note of what I like during a nice sunset or scenic view to try and bring that into color grading."

In this particular spot, Picano notes one of the only challenges was “pulling out detail in even looking snow.  Without any shadows on evenly lit snow, it can all look quite flat when you're looking for shape within the image.”  Picano also mentions the commercial industries move toward cinematic influence

“I love that we've now been embracing more of a cinematic feel on projects."

He continues, "Adding in a weight that wouldn't be typical in commercials that for some time were overly bright and in your face. Also, happy we've moved on from the trend of making things feel on the flat side. Big fan of pulling out the depth and texture.”

Cinematic vibes are not the only trend Picano has noticed, he discusses the industry's move toward digital deliverables and how it has affected the way he works “A lot more focus on digital deliverables and so with many different sizes, there are a lot of pickup shots added after the fact. It used to be that we’d be all set after that one session for a set of spots but framing changes what would have to go on instagram, tiktok, and all that. And on a technology level, I almost prefer people view things via a stream on their devices since nowadays that's most likely the way the viewer is going to be consuming the content.  We've got great displays now on our phones and iPads and MacBook Pros.  It's allowed me and many others to be able to work with people around the country and avoid that old comment that would come back of "it looked so different in the room."

With so many new capabilities in the technology, finding a balance with one's own creativity can be a challenge. Picano describes his process “I try to keep all technical aspects away from the clients.  Will talk with producers and assistants before or after a session to make sure we do everything that needs to be done in a way that best helps the workflow, especially when it comes to ads and you are often working under tight deadlines.  Creatives tend to send a lot of references to me prior to a session for general ideas on look but once we really get together and working, that's when we discover together the limitations of the footage and what best fits the footage that's captured.  Sometimes we find ourselves going an entirely different direction than initially planned but all because of what we like about the footage and don't want to sacrifice in order to force a look that may have worked great on something else.”

Hover over image above to see before & after effects

Tap the image above to see before & after effects