The Mill Increases Grading Capabilities With A Second Film Cutter

Digital Vision has announced that The Mill has purchased a second Film Cutter effects system.
Providing comprehensive editing, conforming, compositing, effects and primary colour correction, the system has already been used extensively on the BBC’s new 13x50, HD-originated science fiction drama, 'Torchwood'.
“We had more work to do than one machine/operator could handle,” said online editor, Matt Clarke. “We were previously using Smoke for all our long-form onlines, but having stepped up the scale of our long-form department we needed a dedicated system to handle it all.
“We've been using Film Cutter aggressively for a few months now and it's holding up well,” he continued.
“We've mastered the first seven episodes of Torchwood so far, each one being about 45-50 minutes of HD. The schedule is about to get much more intense, with us having to deliver one or two episodes a week up until Christmas, so it's reassuring to know we have a system that can handle it.”
Clarke said that it was the interoperability of Film Cutter with other systems that really highlighted its advantages to The Mill. It also has the advantage of using DPX as its native file format. “Once the footage is captured it's ready for everyone to use and at the end of the day that's exactly what we need - something that lets us share out the footage as quickly as possible," Clarke commented.
The company has had to set up an extremely efficient HD pipeline to post Torchwood in the timeframe given.
“We needed to be able to capture the rushes, label and distribute the VFX elements for our 3D and 2D artists, master the final programme, and then export it for digital grading. The Film Master allows us to do all of this easily,” Clarke added.
The system has also helped The Mill save valuable time on each episode. ”Using EDLs generated in the Film Master, our IT guru has created a programme that then automatically names and exports the VFX elements onto our server, saving us a day's work on each episode,” said Clarke. ”And once an episode is complete, the Film Master allows us to render it in HD directly onto our SAN for digital grading in about an hour, compared to the entire day it used to take.”
Digital Vision is a leading developer of advanced digital media applications specialising in film and video solutions.
(SP)