VCC Perfect Pictures, which operates six post production facilities in Germany, has purchased a Baselight HD non-linear colour grader from FilmLight – its third Baselight system.

VCC, which was one of the first companies in Europe to embrace Baselight for colour grading, has installed its new grading system at its Postperfect facility in Potsdam-Bablesberg. Baselight HD, which is resolution independent, will be used in a DI workflow to control an Arriscan and perform HD and 2K grading for television and feature film projects.

Baselight will enable Postperfect to complete film and television projects faster. “We needed more capacity,” said Frank Schliefer, VCC Director of Engineering. “Our whole group is growing. The new Baselight will help Postperfect keep pace with demand while providing our colourists with a powerful toolset that will enable them to work more creatively.”

VCC purchased a Baselight ONE in 2003 and incorporated it into one of the first DI workflows in Germany at its Optical Art facility in Hamburg. It has since used the system to grade more than a dozen features including the Warner Bros. titles Imagine Me & You, Laura’s Star and The Little Polar Bear 2.

In 2004, VCC acquired a Baselight FOUR to support its commercial post production operations. The company then set up a unique multi-control surface environment where the Baselight and a Blackboard control panel were installed at the VCC facility in Frankfurt and a second Blackboard panel was installed at its Hamburg facility. VCC uses a proprietary 5 GBit/s fibre line to connect the two sites, allowing colourists in Hamburg to operate the Baselight FOUR remotely and share uncompressed SD and HD video streams in real-time. Graded media can also be shared via the same network with VCC’s facilities in Berlin and Dusseldorf.

The unique set up has been a great success, according to Schliefer, who said that it has been especially popular among VCC’s agency clients in Hamburg who no longer have to travel to Frankfurt to grade their commercials. “Baselight leant itself seamlessly to this ‘virtual’ operation,” he said. “Our Baselights are always fully booked.”

Having been a Baselight user virtually from its inception, VCC is very impressed by how far the system has come in terms of its performance and features. “We’ve developed a great deal of trust in FilmLight,” Schliefer said. “When they promise something, they deliver. That is the best thing you can say about a company.”

Postperfect provides post production services for such popular German television shows as SOKO Leipzig, Im Namen des Gesetzes (In the Name of the Law) and Küstenwache (Coast Guard). It has performed DI work for such films as Wim Wenders’ Don’t Come Knocking and Richard Claus’ The Thief Lord.

Contact – Deepa Parbhoo ([email protected]) +44 20 7292 0400

About VCC

VCC is a conglomerate of companies that provides services in the electronic media industry. VCC made its mark in high-end image processing in 1984 and has been omnipresent in TV and cinema ever since. The acquisition of further stakes in innovative and respected companies as well as in new start-ups has resulted in VCC Perfect Pictures Group becoming the leading company for audio-visual services in Germany. The VCC Perfect Pictures Group aims to create the perfect framework for every client and every product: high technical standards, stylish working suites and individual, personalized customer care. For further information please visit www.vcc.de.

Download this article