FilmLight manages colour from Slate to finish

[15 August 2013]

IBC demonstration shows how the professional approach to colour management and grading delivers creative control and a tangible return on investment

At IBC2013, FilmLight is showing upgrades across its range of products that put colour grading and management of the entire colour pipeline at the heart of the professional workflow—delivering unrivalled creative control, accuracy and consistency.

“The creative toolset in Baselight is widely regarded as the best in the business, which means colourists can focus on realising the look,” said Wolfgang Lempp, co-founder of FilmLight. “We pride ourselves on being a forward-thinking company, right at the forefront of innovation. In support of this, what we now offer is ‘Baselight everywhere’, not just in the grading suite but on set, in finishing and in editorial.”

New at IBC is Baselight 4.4. This adds new creative tools – such as composite-style layer blending – and workflow efficiencies, including simplifying ACES and digital cinematography workflows with the new Generalised Colour Spaces, and speeding processing with the Render Queue and Deliverables Manager. Baselight 4.4 runs on all Baselight systems, including the new Baselight ONE diskless, 4U tower system, with an internal 2TB solid-state cache and fast connections to the facility storage network.

The concept of continual colour management is clearly demonstrated in the latest version of Baselight Editions, which puts the creative grading toolset inside Avid, Final Cut Pro 7 and Nuke systems. The latest release allows Avid editors to cut in Media Composer or Symphony—on Windows or Mac—with instant Baselight grades applied in a render-free round-trip workflow. A natural companion for Baselight Editions is the new Slate, a compact grading control panel which uses the same precision, ergonomics and reliability as the full-size Blackboard 2 panel, but in a smaller form factor and at a lower price point.

IBC sees the launch of a new, smaller version of the on-set tool Baselight FLIP with added functionality including connectivity for two cameras, the ability to log grading metadata to camera data over Wifi for the Arri Alexa, and battery power for simplicity on location.

Baselight, Baselight Editions and Baselight FLIP all share the same, Open EXR-based BLG file format, allowing grading decisions to be passed seamlessly and transparently from set to editorial to grading.

Project storage and management is boosted by FLUX, an ideal partner for Baselight ONE. It is a breakthrough approach to managing the huge amounts of content generated by today’s workflows. FLUX offers user-expandable storage up to 80TB with a revolutionary media indexing system, and can stream 2K and 4K content into Baselight over dual-link 10 gigabit ethernet.

“Producers today are creating ever more complex productions which demand sophisticated workflows,” said Lempp. “We are committed to meeting their expectations, starting with interpreting the raw files and only ending when the deliverables are signed off.

“That means making collaborative working a reality, using metadata to lighten the load without ever once compromising colour fidelity,” he added. “For the professional, the real return on investment comes through simplified, efficient workflows combined with the best toolset available. You can only get that with the Baselight range.”

You can see the complete FilmLight range at IBC2013 on stand 7.F31. Baselight ONE diskless and Slate can also be seen on the Sony stand (12.A10) and Baselight for FCP on the Tangent booth (7.G33). IBC runs 13 – 17 September at the RAI Centre, Amsterdam.