Assimilate The Essential Mix
01 April, 2006
Bluefish444 HD Video I/O Gives SCRATCH Users Top-Notch Performance Bluefish444 video I/0 cards offer a hardware capability that post professionals and producers of video features and projects didn't have before - high resolution input and quality output within an easy-to-use data-centric workflow. Combined with ASSIMILATE's SCRATCH Data-Centric Workflow, users now have another tool for building their digital workflow that will streamline and increase productivity of the creative and post processes.
SCRATCH customers are extending their digital workflow by taking advantage of the Bluefish444 HD video I/O cards to produce high-resolution films and commercial spots. Now using Bluefish HD video I/O cards in a Windows-based high-performance workstation, these users have a means to convert HD video to data for the post/DI process, and then output again to HD.
"Our mission is to give creative and post professionals the high performance tools to easily build and use a powerful, end-to-end digital workflow..."
"Our mission is to give creative and post professionals the high-performance tools to easily build and use a powerful, end-to-end digital workflow," states Jeff Edson, CEO of ASSIMILATE. "This is the kind of technology we like to support - bringing new capabilities that deliver high value to users. Bluefish444 gets in the mix and now users have new HD capabilities that enable them to expand their project scope and business models."
What SCRATCH Customers Are Saying
Kincine
Oscar Martinez, Founder and Colorist/Artist Valencia, Spain "The Bluefish444 HD|LUST card is a key element of our digital workflow for commercials and feature films shot in HD," notes Martinez. "For commercials, we use their HD|LUST board for input and output, replicating the known method of 'tape to tape' in traditional telecine suites. This allows us to take sequences of DPX from the tape, do the color correction within SCRATCH, and then put it back to tape."
"For feature films shot in HD, we capture, conform, and assemble on-line in SCRATCH, and in some cases we use the tape-to-tape procedure. Another use is to capture SD off-line and use it as a reference to validate the conform in SCRATCH."
Martinez states, "For Kincine, the Bluefish 444 HD|LUST board meets the requirements of any project from PAL/NTSC to HD 4:4:4:, and we're waiting for the new Catalyst board, which will also become a key component in our workflow."
Kincine's long feature films in HD include the following:
Faltas Leves, Dacsa Produccion, Steinweg Emotion Pictures
La Leyenda del Tiempo, Mallerich Films-DePalacio Films-Jaleo Films.
Kincine's commercials in HD include the following:
Campaña Reciclaje 2006 (Recycle Campaign 2006), Conta Conta Producciones - Ayuntamiento de Valencia
Campaña Ruido 2006 (Noise Campaign 2006), Conta Conta Producciones- Ayuntamiento de Valencia
Aceitunas "La Española", (Olives "La Española") - Nocla Films
Cineworks
Vinny Hogan, Founder, President, & Co-Owner Miami, Florida
Cineworks is using SCRATCH as an all-in-one, datacentric, post-production process that includes real-time, multi-resolution review/playback, assemble/edit, conform, primary and secondary color grading, scratch audio, visual effects, data management, and final output to film or HD. Cineworks has also incorporated the Bluefish444 HD|LUST board into its digital workflow.
The Way Back Home, is a budget-conscious indie feature produced by Michael King and Paul Sirmons, directed by Reza Badiyi, and Stephen Campbell working as DP. The film stars Michael Houston King, Ruby Dee, and Julie Harris. The feature was originally planned for the classic look that only 35mm could guarantee. Hogan made the recommendation to shoot in Super 35mm and use HDCAM SR for the digital intermediate.
The Super35mm negative was converted to 1920 x 1080 HD video and recorded to the HDCAM-SR over a dual-link connection, so that the image was recorded with the full 4:4:4 color space. The Bluefish444 HD|LUST board, which can convert the 10 bit RGB video directly to 10 bit DPX files during capture, enabled the importing to SCRATCH, as well as the final output to HD.
"We primarily use the LUST board in conjunction with SCRATCH for conforming, color grading, and mastering of our projects."
EFE-x
Carlos Acero, Director of Technology Bogata, Columbia
"We have used the Bluefish444 HD|LUST board to ingest HD 4:4:4 from the Sony HD CAM SR for two long feature films that were transferred from Super 16mm to the HD CAM SR. Both films, El Colombian Dream, directed by Felipe Aljure and La Historia del Baul Rosado, directed by Libia Estella Gomez were ingested into SCRATCH through the HD|LUST 4:4:4 option. We have also used the HD|LUST board to capture SD video for use in many commercials without any problems," says Acero.
Acero adds, "We primarily use the HD|LUST board in conjunction with SCRATCH for conforming, color grading, and mastering of our projects. Additionally, the ability to capture in native DPX format is a big advantage as we can share it with all our departments such as 3D, compositing, and editing."
