NEW YORK CITY — Dario Bigi has joined Bonfire (www.bonfire.nyc) as its new senior colorist. He was previously an independent colorists, working out of his own Manhattan studio, where he completed ad work for clients such as American Express, Mercedes-Benz, Adidas, Visa, Lexus and Reebok.
The announcment marks a move for the studio into color that was fueled by growth.
“Building a substantial color offering was a really easy decision for us,” says Jason Mayo, partner and managing director at Bonfire. “We try to be extremely versatile with our resources and talent. Most of our clients look to us to navigate solutions for projects from a holistic point of view – hence our bringing an artist of Dario’s caliber onboard. Having access to a high level of skill and capability across all disciplines under one roof has become more of a necessity for our clients, and we responded.”
With Bigi in place, Bonfire has expanded its proprietary Bonfire Remote platform to include color, as well as Flame, design and other disciplines.
“We’ve worked out an efficient and above all accurate method to do remote grading,” Mayo explains. “Designed in partnership with Streambox, we’re able to set up the client’s screen utilizing a current iPad or MacBook with a Retina display, then grade in realtime with Dario. Our long experience and expertise with the Bonfire Platform have helped integrate realtime color correction into remote cloud-based sessions. With the coronavirus impacting where people can work, we can even deliver this to individuals working from their homes or apartments.”
Bigi got into color work by way of the edit bay. During his time editing, he was always dabbling in color, but when color tools became software-based, he transitioned into a hybrid editor/colorist role. He’s been focusing on color exclusively for the past 10 years.