Los Angeles Studio Also Builds a DI Theatre
New Hat has become the first Los Angeles post house to build a non-linear workflow for grading commercial advertising and other short form media based on FilmLight’s Baselight colour grading system. The company’s workflow is designed to accommodate both film-originated projects and projects shot with digital cameras such as the Red One. Using Baselight FOUR as its principal grading platform, New Hat is able to grade spots and videos in assembled, cut order, a process that yields time savings and provides significantly improved creative flexibility over traditional linear methods of colouring spots.
“New Hat was founded on the belief that the linear colour correction model is quickly dying,” said New Hat Senior Colourist Bob Festa, who with Executive Producer Darby Walker, founded the company last year. “At New Hat, all colour enhancement is non-linear. We scan and import media in a format that Baselight can use natively. We only hang film during sessions by request.”
Along with Baselight, New Hat’s workflow, which is focused exclusively on colour grading, includes two 4K film scanners and a digital dailies management system. As New Hat has the ability to scan film at faster than real-time, the two scanners are more than sufficient to service the company’s four grading suites.
“For film projects, we ingest film elements as DPX files and they become directly available to Baselight,” Festa explained. “With digitally-acquired media such as Red One, it is even simpler; the R3D media arrives on hard drives and is dragged and dropped to Baselight at fast network speeds.
“In either case, we assemble the spot using the client’s EDL and grade the material in cut order. After grading is complete, we output the project in ‘C-mode’, with files saved in ascending time-code order—a true, tapeless environment.”
Additionally, New Hat employs FilmLight’s Truelight for colour management on a facility-wide basis. Truelight allows the company to profile, with pinpoint accuracy, the designated display mediums for a given project. “Whether a spot is intended to be seen on a glass tube, a cell phone, a theatre screen, or all three, Truelight allows us to scale our output to each medium, without needing to re-grade,” Festa said. “With Truelight, it’s colour once, output multiple times.”
The ability to grade projects in cut order can reduce the time required to complete a project by more than half, noted Festa. Additionally, Baselight’s robust toolset provides the colourist with the ability to do more and explore more options.
“The beauty of Baselight is that it is a software-based system,” observed Festa. “Commercial clients cannot get enough windows and tools when they are enhancing the look their spots—and with Baselight that is not a problem. I can add layer after layer and independently adjust colour, tone and texture. A session that might have taken eight hours is now done in a brisk three, and the quality that the client walks away with is much greater.”
Festa said that he particularly likes Baselight’s ability to create and track freehand windows, as opposed to other systems that restrict windows to geometric shapes. “In the time it takes to sip a studio latte, you can see an articulated freehand window tracking your coloured pack shot across the frame. It really is a game changer,” Festa said.
Another unique feature of Baselight is that it offers multiple play-heads. That allows the colourist to display several outputs simultaneously on a program monitor for comparison. “I can have the reel I’m working on in the upper left, the client’s work picture on the right side, the B camera on the lower left, and ancillary matching elements on the lower right,” Festa explained. “Being able to look at all client materials on one display, and to be able to move around and work with each ingredient, it is just incredibly liberating.”
New Hat is currently seeking to grow beyond its claim to fame in short form by opening a DI theatre. Expected to be completed early fall, the theatre will feature a large projection screen and another Baselight FOUR. In an economy where others are contracting, New Hat is using these efficiencies to expand its business. The company plans to use the new resource to tap into the burgeoning independent film market.
“Digital acquisition has democratized filmmaking,” Festa said. “Today, there are thousands of independent films being made. We plan to use our new theatre to capitalize on this trend by applying the art and efficiencies of the short form, to long form media. The only thing different is the presentation.”
Contact – Mike Grieve ([email protected]) +44 20 7292 0400
