Moving into its brand new facility in 2013 was a big change for the design-driven production company Sarofsky. … A big change that coincided with perhaps an even bigger change for the relatively young company.
At that time, Chicago-based Sarofsky was transitioning from primarily working in TV, indie film and advertising, to landing more high-profile work. And some of that high profile work just happened to be on what is currently the most successful franchise in history of film. Everyone involved knew that these combined changes could potentially mean massive and very expensive hardware upgrades.
At the center of this new world of hardware needs and challenges for Sarofsky’s team of creative pros was CTO Matt Crnich, who is charged with extending the life of the company’s hardware and technology.
As CTO, Crnich is responsible for the infrastructure of Sarofsky. This meant Crnich was responsible for helping Sarofsky take on a job on the scale of the massive Marvel Cinematic Universe from a technological standpoint.
Sarofsky’s past work and flawless pitch to Marvel helped the production company land the opportunity to create the title sequence for the blockbuster film Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which at the time was the largest project it had taken on. It was at this time that it became evident to Crnich and his team that the company’s needs were evolving. Enter MacSales.com.
“We won Captain America 2 after moving into our new space, and that put us in the position to start doing everything according to Marvel’s impeccable standards,” Crnich recalled. “Knowing it was up to us to generate that two-minute animated piece from scratch, we added storage, refined and expanded our workflow for creating backups, and focused on providing faster access to the server.”
Much of Crnich’s duty as CTO is to maximize the company’s technology while minimizing hardware turnover. This is done largely with Mac Pro upgrades from MacSales.com.
In the words of company Principal and Executive Creative Director Erin Sarofsky, “To put it simply, our relationship with [MacSales.com] allows us to extend the life of our investments so that we can remain extraordinary and competitive.”
She continued, “We would never be able to say this if [MacSales.com] didn’t put so much time and attention into supporting Matt and focusing on our actual needs. As a direct result of these collaborations, we are able to spend more money on talent – which is a real priority for us on these insanely creative jobs.”
MacSales.com Helps Maximize Investments
The Silver Tower Mac Pro continues to populate the desks of top-level production companies such as Sarofsky. The reason for this is simple, and something Crnich has embraced in order to keep his team’s Mac Pros up to the demand of Marvel-sized projects: The Silver Tower is easily upgraded.
When it comes to exploring and finding the upgrades needed for his team’s Mac Pros, Crnich has often turned to MacSales.com.
“I love the Silver Tower Mac Pros because you can easily upgrade them and add cards, such as the PCIe OWC Accelsior E2 card,” Crnich said. “When it comes to speed, on a local level, it’s really about the graphics card, the amount of memory and fast storage for caching.”
By extending the life of his team’s Macs with OWC memory and SSDs, Crnich is able to provide them with the tools needed to do their jobs while mirroring MacSales.com’s commitment to sustainability.
“As much for environmental as for financial reasons, we always prefer to add memory and faster storage to a computer and thereby extend its life,” Crnich clarified. “OWC gear has been vital to extending the lives of every Mac Pro we have.”
Providing Creative Freedom
With resolutions escalating to 8K and even more demanding workflows right around the corner, Sarofsky’s future plans will continue to rely on its core values: maximizing technological investments, staying ahead of the curve and embracing growth.
“For us to remain competitive, we always have to be on the cutting edge,” Crnich continued. “Keeping us in that place where we are able to produce anything and everything our artists conceive involves a never-ending search for smart, efficient technologies. With [MacSales.com] on our side, so far, so good.”
