RED/SCRATCH Workflow Puts Hong Place
Vision at Forefront of Digital Cinema in China
August 18, 2010
Source: Assimilate
Hong Place Vision, a rental company of RED
Digital Cinema cameras in Beijing, has built a post-production
studio to meet the demand for the rapidly rising number of
digital film and TV productions in China.
At the hub of their data workflow and DI tool suite is ASSIMILATE’s
SCRATCH Digital Finishing Solution. Chief Technician Yang
Liu discusses their state-of-the-art digital workflow, one
of their latest film projects, “Zou Shan Ren,” as
well as their business model of offering high-quality, cost-effective
digital tools to filmmakers, TV producers, and broadcasters
throughout China.
According to Yang Liu at Hong Place Vision (www.yingshiqicai.com),
more and more cinematographers and film directors in China
are choosing to shoot projects with digital cameras, and most
often RED is their camera of choice. Crews using film to shoot
commercials or MTV videos are rarely seen in the studio, with
60-to-70 percent using RED or other digital cameras. For the
post-production projects at their facility, 99 percent are
RED R3D file-based.
Liu notes, “Digital Cinema is revolutionizing the filmmaking
industry worldwide, and it is very apparent here in Beijing
and throughout China, where the entertainment markets are
exploding. In just the last year, over 70 production crews
have rented our RED ONE™ cameras, and we believe this
number will dramatically rise in the near future. Symbiotic
digital tools like the RED camera and the PC-based SCRATCH
DI tool suite are definitely a driving factor in this growth.
Together, they offer a highly efficient, powerful, real-time,
and cost-effective methodology for filmmaking, while enabling
quality results comparable to 35mm film.
An example of the digital cinema technology taking hold is
use of the RED ONE camera by established directors. Changwei
Gu, a fifth-generation director, has rented two of our RED
ONE cameras for the DP to shoot his new feature film “Mo
Shu Wai Zhuan,” starring actress Ziyi Zhang. Before shooting,
we did a test on SCRATCH with the famous DP, Christopher Doyle.”
The digital workflow for the feature film “Zou Shan Ren”
(2010), by Director Jia Xiao Tie and DP Yu Xiao Qun, is a
good example of digital cinema today. Liu explains, “Yu
Xiao Qun used the RED ONE 4K camera for the shoot. We copied
all the footage to our RAID system, used Final Cut Pro for
the editing, and uploaded the EDL to our SCRATCH system. We
have SCRATCH loaded on an optimized PC workstation that includes
the RED Rocket card to hyper-accelerate processing functions.
Our colorist Ming Lu did all the color grading and finishing
in SCRATCH – in real time – which is a huge benefit.
To see the film take shape and instantly react to subtle or
dramatic changes is exciting, and from a practical standpoint,
it’s a tremendous time savings -- no time is spent rendering
massive files. The output was to Black Magic 8-bit HD resolution
QuickTime files. We then rebuilt a new timeline for titling
and audio.
A key advantage of SCRATCH is easy output to DPX, MOV, and
Tiff files at any resolution, and its easy interface to other
software we use in the studio. Again, this offers considerable
savings in time and money, and gives us a streamlined workflow
that greatly reduces any hassles.”
“SCRATCH is like a short cut to the top of the mountain,”
says Liu. “Our post artists are working in real time
and within a streamlined data workflow, which makes for very
high productivity and more time for creativity. This gives
us a competitive advantage because we can be responsive to
the tight deadlines and budget constraints of our clients,
while achieving high-quality results.”
Liu adds, “SCRATCH can be used for other formats, including
film and ARRIRAW, and is the bridge to other software and
platforms. It also offers the ideal workflow and DI tool suite
for the native REDCODE footage. We’re using SCRATCH v5.1,
which includes the new RED Color Science that easily reads
the RED ONE camera 30.5.0 firmware. Again, this gives us huge
time savings and is one of our favorite SCRATCH features.”
“Another favorite feature is the SCRATCH output node,”
says Liu. “From one master or template, we can output
to several formats, such as a Digital Cinema Package (DCP),
film, or HD.”
“The common elements for our RED/SCRATCH approach to
digital cinema are time and cost savings, high productivity
and creativity, and high-quality output to a range of formats,”
says Liu. “This approach has great appeal to the filmmaking
and TV production markets in China today.”
Liu adds, “We also share our knowledge and experience
with directors and DPs about correct camera settings, exposure,
as well as other tips to get the most out of their RED shoot
and footage. This makes for positive working relationships,
which is good for their business and ours.”
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