International production and post group Umedia has opened a facility in Vancouver, B.C. The space in Canada is the company’s fifth studio, incorporating high-quality visual effects services with finishing services. The Vancouver office has installed a powerful Baselight TWO grading and finishing suite.
The 10,000-square-foot Vancouver studio will house approximately 35 artists and is designed to fully support digital intermediate and editing suites plus production offices, and comprises a 4K screening theatre with an 8m screen, Dolby 3D and Dolby Surround 7.1. The theatre is linked to the Baselight network, which includes a Baselight ASSIST preparation workstation along with the Baselight TWO system.
Umedia has signed Andrea Chlebak as supervising colorist, formerly of Digital Film Central Vancouver. Chlebak has been using Baselight for a decade and is a frequent collaborator of director Neill Blomkamp, having completed creative color for his last two feature films, Elysium and Chappie. Chlebak and Umedia’s finishing team are focused on designing intuitive workflows across the facility, enabling filmmakers to access high quality solutions and services: from development and on-set supervision, through to finishing and delivery.
“We believe that Baselight best supports the quality and type of collaborative experience we want to offer our clients,” Chlebak said. “It has a responsive grading toolset, an elegant and integrated control surface, and shot-by-shot color space monitoring.”
“Baselight’s non-destructive grading and finishing capability empowers us to work smoothly with our clients, as well as with each other,” she added. “The result is that we will be able to deliver consistently creative, cutting edge product.”
Recently Chlebak completed the final color grading on the feature film Hello Destroyer, which premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival. Hello Destroyer’s director Kevan Funk and cinematographer Benjamin Loeb spent two weeks finalizing the grade in Umedia’s new state-of-art theatre. “The film includes a lot of close-ups and low light, so grading it in a cinematic environment was essential,” said Funk. “Umedia gave us access to the best resources and facilities, so we could immerse ourselves in the film and make confident decisions on the final look of each scene.”
Another of the drivers for the Vancouver center is to allow remote working with other Umedia facilities and their international clients. The Baselight Linked Grade (BLG) workflow from FilmLight, in which all grading and finishing decisions are non-destructive and a complete decision tree is contained in a compact metadata file, is the ideal platform for global collaborative working.
The Vancouver studio is led by Peter Muyzers, CEO, previously COO of Image Engine where he helped launched the company’s film division. Muyzers, together with head of finishing David Hollingsworth, previously head of picture at Park Road Post Production, believe in keeping the grading process simple and creative. The flexibility of Baselight in terms of project set up, conform speed, and rendering/mastering options along with comprehensive color pipelines, all helps to streamline collaborative conversations and workflow design. Specifically in Vancouver, the offering for full-fledged Baselight-centric workflows is a unique advantage.
Muyzers concluded: “With long-standing relationships of many of our key team members, we find FilmLight a very supportive partner–they take a personal approach with their customers, and are eager to take on problem solving or facilitate unique workflow challenges.”
