Across the country from Hollywood, and nestled amongst picturesque farms in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is the TC Shadowlight campus: a high-tech multimedia production house that rivals anything seen in Hollywood.
This post was written by Julia Rieger and originally appeared on Adobe blog on Apr. 24, 2023.
TC Shadowlight is a full-service creative company, working with GE, Chicco, and more of the world’s biggest brands to create video, photography, and CGI stills. Most impressively, the company does everything in-house. With a team of just 60 people and a 150,000 square foot main studio that includes an impressive 9,600 square foot soundstage, the company is able to plan, design, and construct sets, and shoot onsite.
“Everything we do at TC Shadowlight is aimed at making production easier and more cost-effective for our clients while maintaining excellent quality,” says Jordan Krall, executive creative director at TC Shadowlight. “We do as much as we can in-house, hiring great talent and giving them the tools and technologies that they need to achieve their best work. That way, we can maximize dollars on screen without cutting corners.”
When it comes to video production, TC Shadowlight’s ten-person video team relies on an Adobe Creative Cloud workflow built around Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects. With the recent addition of Frame.io into the video review workflow, the team can communicate with colleagues and clients more effectively than ever, supporting faster review cycles and a better client experience.
“We work with clients across the U.S., and it’s important to keep them involved every step of the way — whether we’re streaming shoots on Zoom or asking for feedback on drafts,” says Jon Haile, director of video services and senior editor for TC Shadowlight. “Frame.io has been key in our workflow, changing how we share and communicate with clients.”
Editing without rendering
TC Shadowlight originally made the leap to an all-Adobe video workflow ten years ago after investing in its first RED camera. “We were using Avid for video editing, but struggling to come up with a cost-effective way of working on footage natively,” recalls Haile. “We heard that we could use Premiere Pro without worrying about conversion or proxies. The graphics department was already working with After Effects, so it seemed like a win all around.”
The video team has continued to evolve and grow its post-production capabilities with Adobe as a solid foundation. The graphics team handles compositing and color correction in After Effects, and video editors audio mix directly within Premiere Pro. They can import graphics created in After Effects into the timeline without rendering.
“We might do complex audio cleanup in Adobe Audition, like if we need to use the spectrum analyzer to remove birds chirping over a line of dialogue, but generally we use all of the built-in tools within Premiere Pro,” says Haile. “This helps us shave steps off of post-production, making us more efficient and giving us more energy to focus on the final product.”
Connecting and collaborating with clients through Frame.io
For years before making the switch to Frame.io, TC Shadowlight relied on emailing Vimeo links for reviews. “We had heard of Frame.io, of course, but we didn’t know if it would make a big enough difference to justify switching over,” says Haile. “But then our client Chicco — one of the top names in baby products — asked if we could use Frame.io for reviews instead. It was the push we needed to make the switch, and the difference has been amazing.”
Reviewers can now add comments directly on the video, pausing and drawing on frames for more specific feedback. The ability to review two versions side-by-side makes it easier for clients to see the results of their feedback and quickly determine whether an edit works, or if they prefer the original cut.
Most of all, working with the video collaboration hub helps streamline the most time-consuming administrative parts of reviews. Previously, an editor would switch between their email client and browser to upload videos to Vimeo, copy and double-check URLs, track who needs to review what, and send emails alerting people for each new sequence. Now, editors just upload sequences to the correct Frame.io project, and the right people automatically get an alert that a project is ready for review. It takes the editors about 75 percent fewer steps, eliminating a lot of administrative time and hassle.
“It’s not unusual for the video team to come back with five different cuts for a client for review, and trying to juggle all of the email notifications was always a struggle,” says Krall. “Now all of the cuts are in one central spot in Frame.io and I can bounce between them.”
By maximizing efficiencies at every step, TC Shadowlight is proving its value to brands by providing even more for less. “We have clients from New York and California who turn to us instead of local production companies because of the value we offer, without sacrificing impact,” says Krall. “Adobe Creative Cloud and Frame.io are just a few ways that we ensure high quality while improving speed and efficiency for cost savings that we can pass on to our clients.”
Learn more about using Frame.io with Adobe Premiere Pro here.
