Our Post Production Tools
Post-production is all about flexibility and power, and for us to be able to interface with any of our production company and film producer clients as independent editors we have to run all of the common editing software. So we have five full blown edit systems/bays running on new, heavily loaded Mac Pros, some of the fastest and most flexible computers around, along with custom built Hackintosh PCs, which are just a little bit faster. Each of these runs Final Cut Studio, Final Cut X, Premiere and Avid Symphony – and we can add any other software you are using – and needless to say we have fast storage everywhere.
Obviously this means that we can always interface with the client, but we can also bring in other editors and assistants to help on rush projects, or our clients can work on a system at the same time. We also run After Effects and 3DMax for 2D and 3D animation and compositing work.
CLAi have always been technology leaders in our industry, adopting tomorrow’s 4k UltraHD in 2008, and 6k UltraHD Plus for both video editing and film color grading and correction today. Embracing and mastering the latest technology and software in every area of post production – if appropriate for the project – gives CLAi a unique edge, and a deep understanding of what is possible. It allows us the freedom to take on any type of project and attack it the right way without compromise, providing an unmatched level of quality and sophistication to enhance our creativity… these are a few of the software tools that we pair with our five edit and colorist systems to use every day.
When it comes to color correction and grading we can switch any or all of these systems…
over to DaVinci Resolve 14 Studio – our tool of choice for colorist work, which is why we have five seats available. Of course, still having the editing software available on each system makes moving between edit and grade easy, as does the ability to author BluRays for film festivals and kick files out over the internet on a nightly basis so the production team can see what has been done and pass back their notes… as we did as part of creating a 4k post workflow with the original RED, I have evolved a system that makes geography much less of a factor in who we can work with.
Last but not least, we do handle the final audio cleanup and mixing on many of the projects that we take on. It makes a lot of sense to tie the grade and this mix together as the colorist plays a big part in affecting what elements and movements in a scene impact on a viewer, and the mix should reflect this (which is not always/usually the case when you get the track back from the composer or sound studio). For this we usually turn to ProTools, or Resolve’s new Fairlight audio tools, and we often involve one of our pals from a local sound studio in helping customize the shape of the audio.