FilmLight and Avid launch ‘Professional Colour’ bundle for editors at NAB 2016
By Jim Bask
FilmLight today announced a new collaboration with longstanding collaborator, Avid®, which will see both companies introduce a new Professional Colour bundle for editors at NAB2016 (18–21 April, Las Vegas Convention Center).
FilmLight first showed Baselight Editions on Avid Media Composer® at NAB2012 and since then the two companies have worked closely to improve interoperability between their products, helping editors and colourists to tell great stories through beautiful images. This new venture is yet another example of FilmLight’s commitment to providing solutions that address the growing demands for perfect colour control throughout the professional post workflow.
The Professional Colour bundle brings together Baselight for Avid – which delivers the world’s most powerful colour grading toolset – with the industry’s preeminent editing system Avid Media Composer in one single package. Immediately available on Mac or Windows for $1,799, the bundle makes it even easier for editors to increase their finishing capabilities, directly within their NLE system.
“Through Avid Everywhere and the MediaCentral Platform, Avid provides the most open, extensible and flexible media environment that integrates with technology from Avid and other providers,” said Avid Vice President & Chief Product Officer, Dana Ruzicka. “By working closely with FilmLight, we’re delivering seamless, collaborative workflows that enable creative professionals to work more efficiently and focus on telling great stories.”
Baselight for Avid is a real-time plugin, so colour corrections can be played directly on the Avid timeline. It provides unlimited primary and secondary grades in a single layer, including mattes, automatic object tracking and full keyframe animation.
As well as using modified AAF files to exchange grades, Baselight for Avid shares the same BLG colour metadata as all systems in the FilmLight range, so projects can be transferred and shared between on-set, near-set and the grading suite without rendering, and with the latest grade always available in editorial for a powerful and fast workflow. The BLG format carries sophisticated grading data including secondary colour correction, shapes and tracked objects. And, as the grade metadata is fully modifiable throughout the process, workflow efficiency is greatly improved as corrections and last minute changes can be made directly in Media Composer, with no need to return to the full Baselight suite.
Rob Anderson, Finishing Editor at BingoLewis in Portland, Oregon commented: “Many of our clients use Avid, and they like the fact that we don’t have to deconstruct their project in order to colour grade it. I can add a grade to any effect they have on their timeline and, using the free version of Baselight Editions, I can send the project back to them via email so they can see my grades on their timeline. It’s incredibly efficient.”
“Editors find it hugely frustrating to work with a mix of graded and raw images, and the cumbersome round-tripping involved in sharing projects between editorial and grading,” said Steve Chapman, CEO and co-founder of FilmLight. “Baselight Editions eliminates that by combining the ability to comprehend and show the latest grade in the edit suite with the optional ability of the editor to adjust that grade to quickly incorporate last-minute changes such as the late arrival of new material. The Professional Colour bundle puts two professional software products together in a single package, to make it easy and cost-effective to get started on the most productive way of collaborative working.”
FilmLight will be exhibiting Baselight for Avid at NAB2016 on stand SL3829. The plugin can also be seen on Avid’s stand (SU902), during the main presentations as well as on every single Media Composer workstation.
Additionally, Technicolor PostWorks director of technology Matthew Schneider and senior finishing editor/colourist Mike Nuget will present their efficient colour workflow and its creative application on TV Land’s ‘Younger’ on the Avid stand on Monday April 18 at 4:15pm.