It’s not some kind of rose-colored color correction at Technicolor; it’s been a great year. The landmark Hollywood institution whose name is on perhaps more beloved films than any others in history kicked off 2020 with four of its film contributions—including Best Motion Picture winner and visual masterpiece 1917—winning Golden Globe Awards. But Technicolor isn’t just for the big screen anymore. Technicolor VFX was the sole VFX vendor for the new Netflix series detailing the world of competitive figure skating, Spinning Out, while the larger parent company supplied film dailies as well as full picture and sound postproduction on the series.
“A total of 670 shots were delivered for the series, with more than 100 in the first and last episodes, ranging from 2-D face replacements and ‘world-building’ elements, such as set extensions and crowd duplication,” the company said in a statement. Colorist Mark Kueper added, “There are a lot of color correction tools that can be used to blend the VFX shots with the live action shots. Keying the skin tones of the skaters and paying attention to hairlines and the general contrast of the eyes in particular was important to make everything believable.”
Technicolor also does not confine itself to earthbound pursuits. Technicolor’s visual effects provider, The Mill, recently partnered with the New York Times to create a mixed reality gallery “designed to give users the exact same view that Apollo 11 Astronaut Neil Armstrong had while taking the photos on the surface of the moon,” the company said in a statement. The effort was undertaken in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo moon landing.
But the business of Technicolor far supersedes what appears on film, on earth or otherwise. Kate Winders, general counsel for litigation and labor and employment as well as chief compliance officer for the Americas, applies seventeen years of private practice and in-house roles not only to complex litigation but also to managing the legal support function and spends across Technicolor’s diverse business.
Winders has placed particular emphasis on supporting cultural accessibility, becoming secretary of the Technicolor Ethics Committee, as well as providing leadership-focused training around #MeToo-inspired cultural compliance and providing positive feedback to employees. As Ethics Committee secretary, Winders is helping launch further training to align core Technicolor values, compliance, and a more easily integrated intersection of the two into employee work. The GC has placed a high priority on better aligning with her HR business partners as she works toward a personal goal of creating definable and sustainable cultural evolution at the 104-year-old company.
The GC has been with Technicolor since 2016 and was promoted to the chief compliance officer role in 2019. It’s meant regular cooperation and collaboration with HR, risk management, audit, sourcing, and the whole legal group. The lawyer now balances defending Technicolor in administrative actions and litigation with the more compliance-focused initiatives, supporting HR and implementing policy and procedure.
Winders also oversees Technicolor’s employment requirements for the considerably more complex California-specific legislation and regulation. The GC is responsible for the company’s immigration, workers’ compensation, and legal spend.
Both Winders and the company can celebrate Technicolor’s accomplishments, knowing full well the people behind the scenes are continuing to make Technicolor a company that does right by all of its people, off-screen or on.
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Faegre Baker Daniels:
“Kate’s strong collaboration with outside counsel is a testament to her business acumen and diverse legal knowledge. She is an asset to the Technicolor team, and we enjoy working with her immensely.”
–Trevor Carter, Partner
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Summit Law Group:
“Kate cuts through the clutter and noise to get to the key issues and then wisely navigates them. We could not ask for a better teammate to work with on complex, cutting-edge matters.”
–J. Chad Mitchell, Partner
