News

October 24, 2013

Blackmagic Design released new software updates that add full support for Apple’s new OS X Mavericks operating system.

Customers can now download the Blackmagic Design software updates, free of charge from the Blackmagic Design web site. The new updates include OS X Mavericks compatibility and interface enhancements for the new operating system and are immediately available for DeckLink, UltraStudio and Intensity Desktop Video products.

"We are very excited to be releasing software updates for our Desktop Video solutions on the same day that OS X Mavericks is available" said Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design. "Blackmagic Design works hard to make sure our customers can use the latest features and up to date software in sync with major OS updates. Our customers can be assured that they will continue to be able to easily download our software and enjoy performance improvements when they upgrade to OS X Mavericks and Blackmagic Design products.”

Availability and Price

The software updates are available now free of charge for all DeckLink, UltraStudio, Intensity, Media Express and HDLink customers from the Blackmagic Design web support page at www.blackmagicdesign.com/support.

Press Photography

Product photos of all Blackmagic Design products are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/press/images.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and film restoration software for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability, while the company’s DaVinci Emmy™ award winning color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including stereoscopic 3D and 4K workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore, and Australia. For more information, please check www.blackmagicdesign.com.

October 17, 2013

Blackmagic Design announced that Los Angeles-based sister post production companies Encore and Level 3 Post, both part of the Deluxe Creative Services Group, are using DaVinci Resolve for color grading on some of the biggest prime time television programs of the 2013 American fall television schedule. This includes returning hit shows such as “Once Upon a Time” and “Elementary” and new shows such as “Once Upon a Time in Wonderland.”

DaVinci Resolve, the world's most advanced color correction tool, is the standard for high end post production workflows and color correction in film, television programs and global commercial campaigns, and is continuing to grow in its use to get new shows ready for their fall premiers and ongoing weekly shows.

For George Manno, Senior Colorist at Level 3 Post, shows like “Once Upon a Time” and now “Once Upon a Time in Wonderland” represent a colorist's dream. "The 'fantasy' and 'regular' worlds have very different looks," he notes. "We get to make nights a really, deep blue and greens in a forest almost unnatural in the way they pop. It's freeing and allows us to really dig in and try some things that a more typical show wouldn't let you do. We get to see how far we can twist an image from norm."

The sister companies' fall TV shows using DaVinci Resolve include:

Once Upon a Time: George Manno, Colorist, Level 3 Post

Once Upon a Time In Wonderland: George Manno, Colorist, Level 3 Post

Elementary: Tony D’Amore, Colorist, Encore

About DaVinci Resolve

Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve is the world’s highest performance on set, editing and color correction solution for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux computers. DaVinci Resolve supports more real time color correction than any other system because it’s not limited by the performance of the computer it’s running on. DaVinci Resolve eliminates this performance barrier because it’s based on a cluster of high performance GPU cards, so all processing is always real time. DaVinci Resolve has the power of a true real time performance solution so handles complex color grades even when using dozens of primaries, secondaries, Power Windows™, multi point tracking, blurs, and more. DaVinci Resolve provides incredible performance in a low cost solution which can be easily upgraded by adding extra GPUs for supercomputer power to handle 4K resolutions, stereoscopic 3D and real time grading direct from raw camera files such as ARRI RAW, RED RAW and Sony RAW files which can be handled with ease.

Press Photography

Product photos of DaVinci Resolve are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/press/images

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and film restoration software for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including stereoscopic 3D and 4K workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore, and Australia. For more information, please check www.blackmagicdesign.com

About Encore

Since its inception in 1985, Encore has been providing its clients quality service while consistently remaining at the forefront of technological advances. The combination of award-winning engineering, state-of-the-art technology, an end-to-end file-based workflow, and some of the most respected and creative artists in the industry comes together to make Encore a one-stop-shop for any production's color management, editing and visual effects needs.

Encore provides post production services to top television series, including FX's Once Upon a Time; Fox's Glee; CBS's NCIS and Hawaii 5-0; HBO’s The Newsroom; ABC's Under the Dome and Revenge and many others. Encore is wholly-owned by Deluxe Creative Services Group Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc.

About Deluxe Creative Services

Encore is part of Deluxe Creative Services Group, a close-knit group of facilities including Company 3, Beast, Deluxe New York, EFILM, Encore, Level 3 Post, Method Studios, Rushes and StereoD. The group leverages a comprehensive suite of end-to-end services, access to world-class artists, technical expertise and a tight infrastructure with global connectivity. The Content Creation Group businesses are wholly owned by Deluxe Entertainment Services Group Inc., (www.bydeluxe.com), which is a wholly owned subsidiary of MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc.

October 15, 2013

Blackmagic Design announced that Company 3 London has used DaVinci Resolve for color grading the film adaptation of “Captain Phillips,” the new blockbuster film starring Tom Hanks.

Four years after it made headlines, the harrowing true life story of American shipping captain Richard Phillips, swept up in a hostage ordeal after Somali pirates hijacked his ship, has been made into a new film by director Paul Greengrass, with Barry Akroyd as the cinematographer. Color correction for “Captain Phillips” was carried out by Company 3’s senior colorist Rob Pizzey.

“Barry has a naturalistic style of shooting and Captain Phillips was no different,” explains Pizzey. “Everything is filmed handheld, so you never have any locked off shots during the film. Because of that, Barry is right on top of the action. You almost feel like a part of the film.”

The challenge during this grade was the film’s climax, which takes place at night. “Most of the climax was actually shot during the day so we had a big job on our hands matching those shots, which were filmed on a variety of formats, with the night footage.”

A month before the DI, Akroyd and Pizzey had the chance to work on the conformed ‘day for night’ scenes, allowing them to start setting the look.

“We worked through the scenes making sure that we could achieve what we wanted and flagged areas where we could do with some help from VFX. DaVinci Resolve’s unlimited nodes and auto tracking capabilities were a big help during Captain Philips big ‘day for night’ scenes,” said Pizzey.

“The camera is always moving because you’re at sea, so the tracking tool was perfect because I could hand draw shapes and then grade within that area. Resolve’s auto tracking would then map to the movement of the camera so we could get on with matching all of the footage. It was also really useful for lining up faces and pulling out eyes. With the auto tracking, you get the shape on there and it maps it all the way through. It really did save me a lot of time.”

“Having got it in a pretty good place, we then rendered out the DPX files with the grade baked on and sent them over to the visual effects house, who were able to help us in areas where I’d darkened bits down to help sell the look.”

“When those shots came back into the timeline for the main DI they were 90 per cent final. The main DI was attended by Barry for the first seven days, during which time the pair set the look and mood and graded the climax of the film in full.”

About DaVinci Resolve

Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve is the world’s highest performance on set, editing and color correction solution for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux computers. DaVinci Resolve supports more real time color correction than any other system because it’s not limited by the performance of the computer it’s running on. DaVinci Resolve eliminates this performance barrier because it’s based on a cluster of high performance GPU cards, so all processing is always real time. DaVinci Resolve has the power of a true real time performance solution so handles complex color grades even when using dozens of primaries, secondaries, Power Windows™, multi point tracking, blurs, and more. DaVinci Resolve provides incredible performance in a low cost solution which can be easily upgraded by adding extra GPUs for supercomputer power to handle 4K resolutions, stereoscopic 3D and real time grading direct from raw camera files such as ARRI RAW, RED RAW and Sony RAW files which can be handled with ease.

Press Photography

Product photos of DaVinci Resolve are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/press/images.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and film restoration software for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including stereoscopic 3D and 4K workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore, and Australia. For more information, please check www.blackmagicdesign.com.

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News from SONY

At this year's IBC, SONY introduced a number of new products, some of which were already announced at the NAB show in Las Vegas in April this year. The good news is that most of the announced news is already available and there is no need to wait for more months for them. Since this year's IBC was completely 4K, probably the most interesting new product is the compact "handycam" 4K camera PXW-Z100. The camera has a new 1/2.33" Exmor R CMOS 1/2.33" sensor, new wide-angle 4K optics with 20x zoom, and also a new XAVC recording codec borrowed from CineAlta's F5/F55 cameras. The PXW-Z100 is capable of recording full 4K resolution of 4096x2160 at 50 full frames and at bitrates up to 500Mbps. In addition to full 4K, the camera is also capable of recording QFHD (3840x2160) and standard HD at a higher bitrate (up to 223Mbps) in MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 compression at 4:2:2 and 10-bit intra-frame compression. A firmware upgrade to allow recording to LongGOP 4K and AVCHD formats should be available during 2014. Pro audio (2x XLR input), HDMI output for 4K, 3G HD-SDI output, ability to control basic features over Wi-Fi are standard. The PXW-Z100 is expected to be priced at around €6,000 excluding VAT and should be available later this year.