da Vinci Systems, LLC, announced that Chicago-based Filmworkers Club, a leading provider of post-production services to advertising agencies and commercial studios, has upgraded two of its facilities with three da Vinci Splice™ post-production systems, which enable the facilities’ existing da Vinci 2K Plus™ systems to be used for non-linear, in-context color grading.
“Installing two Splices at our Chicago facility and one at our Dallas facility has allowed our colorists to grade commercials in-context and in real time, while also extending the life of our 2K Plus investments,” said Reid Brody, vice president of Filmworkers Club. “We no longer need to change reels to get to the right shot. Instead, Splice allows us to assemble all scenes on a timeline and grade them in the order they will appear in the project. This means complete consistency between scenes, and it also gives colorists more creative time so they can offer clients more choices of looks.”
Because Splice accesses digital images directly from SAN, DAS, or internal storage, it eliminates the need to search rolls of film or to cue up video to find the right shot. The 2K user interface synchronizes and controls Splice so that it can move instantly to any scene or rearrange shots on the timeline, while also adding alternative shots. Built with the same Transformer™ II technology as the da Vinci Resolve® digital mastering suite, Splice shares the Resolve’s basic conform and I/O features. Its session and operational compatibility with Resolve accelerates film, television, and commercial workflows. The Splice appliance is also available with object tracking and has the capacity to handle 4K files.
Filmworkers’ Splice workflow starts with digital files scanned by the facility’s Spirit 2K DataCine or with files provided by digital film cameras. These are loaded onto Bright Systems storage, accessed with the Splice, assembled on a timeline for grading on the 2K Plus, and then output to tape or files.
Filmworkers’ clients, which are some of the world’s largest advertising agencies, rely on the company’s colorists to create the look for many well-known commercials, including spots for Allstate, Budweiser, Capital One, Delta Airlines, Dow Chemical, Kraft Foods, McDonald’s, Samsung, State Farm, and Toyota. In addition to the Splice and 2K systems, Filmworkers also operates a da Vinci Resolve DI™, which is used for grading long-form projects.
“Filmworkers’ decision to connect the da Vinci Splice to their 2K systems is a significant benefit for both their colorists and clients,” said Jim MacKrell, da Vinci’s services marketing manager and the leader of the team that invented Splice. “Splice reflects our commitment to expanding the capability of our expansive 2K installed base. Filmworkers’ colorists are delighted with the time-saving features which give them more time to be creative. Filmworkers’ clients see their work in-context and now have more time in session to experiment creatively with different looks for their commercials.”
As announced at the 2009 NAB Show, da Vinci is planning to offer 4K resolution grading capability and Resolve-like object tracking for post-production facilities using the 2K Plus system. da Vinci also plans to provide 2K Plus support for the intuitive Impresario™ control panel, giving Impresario the power to drive the entire system.
For more information about Splice and other da Vinci products, visit www.davsys.com.
About Filmworkers Club
Founded in 1991 as a telecine and video dailies service, Filmworkers has grown into the Midwest’s premier post-production facility, featuring a wide variety of services and category-leading artists for color correction, finishing, and visual effects, with offices in Chicago, Dallas, and Nashville. The Filmworkers family has grown to include LIFT Motion Design, Vitamin (live-action.design), Astrolab, FW Interactive, and the Digigog (a cutting-edge digital work flow and dailies process).
About da Vinci Systems®, LLC
da Vinci Systems, a JDSU company, is one of the leading providers of color enhancement and image restoration products used in post-production facilities worldwide. Incorporating the company’s Emmy® Award-winning technology, da Vinci’s products support SDTV, HDTV, data, and digital film. Since the introduction of the company’s first color corrector in 1984, da Vinci has been a front-runner in the field of image enhancement, shaping color enhancement into the vital role it holds in post-production today. The company is headquartered in Coral Springs, Fla., with offices in Los Angeles, New York, London, France, Germany, and Singapore.
