News

Blackmagic Design today announced that award winning design and digital production company Thornberg & Forester (T&F) used Blackmagic Cinema Camera to shoot the new Friendly's “Build Your Own Burger” campaign, which is now airing on www.Friendlys.com and the brand's social media channels. The four spots were also colored using Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve, the world’s most advanced color correction tool.

Each of the spots features a talking head explaining what goes into building their favorite Friendly’s burger. As a founding partner of T&F and director on the shoot, Justin Meredith was tasked with realizing independent ad agency Allen & Gerritsen’s (a&g) vision for the campaign within a tight deadline and on budget.

“While the storylines were pretty simple, we only had two days to get through 87 shots, which is where the Blackmagic Cinema Camera proved extremely useful,” said Justin. “The intuitiveness, functionality and no nonsense approach to acquiring the image was huge for me. The Blackmagic Cinema Camera focuses on what’s really important, the image.



“It was my job to get the best images possible, and I couldn’t believe what the camera delivered in such an affordable and easy workflow,” he continued. “We turned it on, popped in an SSD and were recording. The camera was connected to a laptop running Blackmagic’s UltraScope software so we could monitor the image to ensure nothing was clipping. Then using Resolve’s delivery tools, I took the RAW files, exported out to ProRes for the edit, brought back the EDL and was color grading in no time. It was such a seamless workflow.”

Using DaVinci Resolve 9, Justin was also responsible for color correcting the project and cited Resolve’s motion tracker as an essential tool. Because the spots mainly feature talking heads, Justin needed to make the actors’ eyes pop to create a connection with the viewers. Resolve’s 3D tracker locks Power Windows to objects and reduces the need for key generation, allowing users to track any object in a frame, creating the exact grades needed. According to Justin, Resolve’s tracker simplified what could have been a complex and time consuming process while delivering exactly what the client wanted.

“The client was blown away with the quality of both the Blackmagic Cinema Camera and Resolve,” said Justin. “In today’s industry, T&F has to be a Swiss Army Knife, owning and providing all the necessary tools for a project. Because of the ease of use and affordability, Blackmagic Design allows us to tackle all the moving parts of each project while being completely self contained, which saves time and money.”



Press Photography
Product photos of all Blackmagic Design products are available at blackmagicdesign.com. “Friendly’s” images are available here.

About Thornberg & Forester
Thornberg & Forester (T&F) is an award-winning design and digital production company that exists to bring quality, integrity and innovation to the media landscape. Our team does this by crafting stories and conveying brand messages through the most relevant mediums possible. We challenge ourselves to leverage both creativity and technology, and above all we genuinely listen to the needs of our client partners and respond with the best solutions for you. With conceptual design as our backbone, our headquarters in Manhattan and a posh Culver City studio, we offer a complete turnkey solution for brilliant end-to-end production through delivery. Many of our clients worldwide refer to us as their secret weapon and it's time we let you in on the secret: www.thornbergandforester.com.

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.

Blackmagic Design released Desktop Video software update 9.7.2 for Broadcast Converter, DeckLink, H.264 Pro Recorder, Intensity, Multibridge, and UltraStudio product lines. New in this update is the 6G-SDI support for UltraStudio 4K and DeckLink 4K Extreme. To access this update, visit Blackmagic Design's Support page and select your product that includes Desktop Video (i.e. DeckLink).

Edius 6.54 available is now available for download.

Features improved in this version (from v6.53)
• Direct clip loading from XDCAM professional disc or SxS memory card in XDCAM Station deck (the deck has to be updated to XDS ver. 2.3 and connected to the EDIUS client via CIFS).
• QoS configuration option** available to set maximum bandwidth in disc access. (** QoS option only works when reading files from K2 storage. Both writing to K2 and other drive not considered.
• SNFS configuration option*** available to set the maximum bandwidth on reading a file. (*** SNFS option only works when reading files from K2 storage. Both writing to K2 and other drive not considered.

Issues fixed in this version (from v6.53):
• EDIUS fails to output digital audio from HDSPARK™ Pro hardware.
• EDIUS outputs video with an incorrect color range (0 to 255) from HDSPARK Pro hardware.
• If the timeline of project with a custom frame size is exported to an MP4 file, a faint blue line of video noise appears in the exported video file.
• Audio playback speed is accelerated when playing an AVI file that has AAC audio.
• An error occurs if the stabilizer effect is applied on the timeline and then exported to MPEG-2 MXF.
• The System settings menu is accessible even when starting EDIUS with a restricted user profile.
• Sequence time code is unexpectedly printed when printing to HDCAM tape via Storm 3G.
• Disc Burner freezes if a video file is added by the [Add File] button and the burn started.
• R-side video fails to capture during stereoscopic capture (L and R individually).
• EDIUS crashes if rotate is applied to a sequence clip in the layouter and then a time altering effect (Speed or Time Remap) applied.
• Maximum bitrate can be set up to 40 Mb/s in manual encoding configuration for burning Blu-ray disc.
• EDIUS crashes if a title is created and saved with Quick Titler in a 4K project file.
• EDIUS crashes while scrubbing certain AVCHD clips in the timeline or player window.
• Certain QuickTime H.264 files cannot be played correctly.
• Timeline cursor moves to 10 seconds outside of the end point when finished printing to DV tape.
• MPEG-2 Blu-ray disc cannot be burned in SD-based projects.

Panasonic announced delivery and pricing information for its new MicroP2 cards
Panasonic announced delivery and pricing information for its new microP2 series, the world’s first UHS-II compliant memory cards*, which continues the company’s evolution to higher-speed, lower-cost, more compact media. The simultaneous introduction of a microP2 Card Adapter assures that the new series of 64GB and 32GB microP2 cards will operate in current P2 hardware**. Panasonic has also announced a two-slot microP2 drive for plug-and-play offload of content.

The AJ-P2M064A 64GB and AJ-P2M032A 32 GB microP2 cards will be April 2013 with priced at 7795 a 5195 CZK, respectively. The AJ-P2AD1 microP2 adapter will likewise be available in April, with a suggested list price of 4295 CZK. The AJ-MPD1 microP2 drive will ship in April, with a suggested list price of 8320 CZK.



Panasonic has at the same time introduced two new products, the AJ-PX5000 P2 HD camcorder and AJ-PD500 half-rack recorder, both with built-in microP2 slots and AVC-ULTRA recording, which will be available in fall 2013. The microP2 cards will guarantee data writing up to the class200 mode of AVC-ULTRA, the company’s newest compression system***.

With an SD card form factor, the MicroP2 cards will ensure high-speed transfer, high reliability and the writing assurance of all P2 frame rates, formats and codecs. Furthering the versatility of the microP2 card adapter and microP2 card slots, their design allows Class 10 SDHC/SDXC cards (at bit rates only up to 50Mbps)to be used in P2 products****.

The microP2 card’s double-layered UHS-II interface facilitates transfer speeds of 2.0 Gpbs (1.7 times faster than standard P2 media, and 12x faster than ordinary SD media). Reliability is defined by Proof7 strength (resistance to water/dust, static electricity, bending and twisting, magnet, X-ray, wide temperature range, and safety built-in-fuse ); a flash memory error correction system, equivalent to a RAID system, to greatly strengthen data retention reliability; a Lifetime Counter that gives a notification when the card approaches the end of its life cycle, which is defined as reusable for up to five years when recorded on once daily, at full capacity; 100% screened flash memory; a Content Protection System (CPS) that password-protects the card; and a QR code for scanning and identification.

The microP2 drive and microP2 Adapter both feature CPS password protection. The microP2 drive has a USB 3.0 interface for transfer speeds up to 2.0 Gbps, and its two slots accommodate offloading of spanned clips. To use the microP2 card adapter, a firmware upgrade of current P2 hardware is required. P2 hardware can be upgraded to microP2 use on the following schedule: in April 2013, the AJ-HPX3100, AG-HPX250, AG-HPX255, AG-HPX600 camcorders, AG-HPD24 deck, and AJ-PCD20, AJ-PCD35, AJ-PCD30, AJ-PCD2 drives; in June 2013, the AG-HPX370 camcorder and AG-HPG20 recorder; in August 2013, the AJ-HPX2000 camcorder, and AJ-HPM200 and AJ-HPD2500 recorders. To download the free upgrade, visit http://pro-av.panasonic.net/en.

Panasonic’s microP2 solid-state UHS-II compliant memory cards ensure highly reliable video, audio, and metadata recording, especially in challenging conditions of extreme temperature range, shock, and vibration. P2 cards allow professional users to benefit from a fast, easy, file-based workflow and exceptional reliability.

* As of UHS-II compliant memory card, March 2013

** The microP2 card and microP2 card adapter will not support all P2 products.

***With the exception of 1080/60p/ 50p within class 200.

****The performance of the Class 10 SDHC/SDXC card will depend on the quality of the card being utilized.

Autodesk’s extensive network of developer partners is rallying to support the new Autodesk 2014 portfolio of software with an amazing array of applications. It’s all about helping to ensure that the apps that new customers moving to Autodesk’s 2014 solutions rely upon most heavily each day will work with their new software. Click here to view a number of Autodesk software partners that are leaders in their industries and already shipping their 2014 compatible apps.