CREATION
August 2017
15
tools ease
workflows
“Compliance and content version-
ing is a dynamic and cyclic process that
involves view, edit, review and approval
steps,” Elvidge continues. “In the past, for
many content creators, this has meant an
inefficient process where video needs to
travel around an organisation to different
stakeholders along with notes and edit in-
structions in various formats.”
A cloud-based process, alternatively,
makes this a lot simpler by having the proxy
video, edit decision list (EDL) and compli-
ance notes all within a unified workflow
where every person — whether a compli-
ance expert, craft editor or editorial director
— can all access the same source irrespective
of where they are based, says Elvidge.
TVT is also an advocate of a hybrid
cloud model, which the company manifests
in its ContentSelect cloud-based media
management platform, which was built in
2010 to help process content for clients such
as A+E, UKTV and Discovery. “We built it
out of necessity as, although public clouds
such as Amazon and Azure are perfect for
certain types of workloads, ContentSelect
is in essence a hybrid private cloud, as our
mezzanine formats are held on our local
data centre storage while only proxies are
shared in the cloud,” Elvidge explains.
This approach thus avoids the band-
width requirements for ingress and charges
imposed by public clouds for data egress.
Moving large video files between public
clouds can be a “cumbersome process”, and
has little value if edits need to take place at
local suites, he adds, while suggesting that
by using ContentSelect and the cloud, even
4K/UHD and 8K workflows can be easily
managed, because there is no impact on the
uploaded proxies required for compliance
and other workflow activities.
“For us, the cloud and ContentSelect
result in a simpler and more efficient pro-
cess for editors charged with ensuring that
content adheres to both legal compliance
and editorial requirements,” says Elvidge.
“Where cloud can really assist is in man-
aging the workflow and ensuring that all
the relevant metadata and approvals are
handled in a consistent and easy-to-manage
fashion.”
One editing system that promises to offer
a “complete revolution” in post production
is Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve,
now available in version 14. Described by
Blackmagic Design as “the biggest release in
the history of the product”, DaVinci Resolve
14 includes features such as up to 10x per-
formance improvement, a whole new audio
post-production suite with Fairlight audio
built-in, and collaboration tools that allow
multiple users to edit, colour and mix from
multiple systems, all in the same project at
the same time.
Richard Lim, director, Blackmagic
Design Asia, elaborates: “DaVinci Resolve
has always been known for its pro-
fessional colouring capabilities. In
DaVinci Resolve 14, editing and
sound mastering tools are now
available. What this means is that all
facets of production can be handled
in one software, thus eliminating time
wasted trying to sync files when they
pass from the editor to the colourist
and to the audio engineer.
“And the new collaboration fea-
ture in Davinci Resolve 14 means that
you could have multiple users work-
ing at the same time for editing, col-
our and audio. There is also an in-software
chat feature that allows communication
among its users, and safety features on the
projects being worked on would be safe.
“As such, it essentially means that, for
the first time, all post-production aspects
of editing, colour and audio can be done
within a software, which will increase effi-
ciency and thus allow more time and space
for enhanced creativity.”
According to Lim, DaVinci Resolve
is currently the software that supports
the most codecs that are used in the in-
dustry, and across different resolutions.
One such user is freelance colourist Ravit
Sripantawanusorn, who started his journey
with DaVinci Resolve 8. “As a freelance col-
ourist, I prefer using Resolve as it gives me
the best image quality because of the 32-bit
float YRGB. I colour TVC, short films and
more using the advance resolve panels and
the mini panel. Once you use the balls to dial
on Resolve panels, you can’t go back because
you will miss it too much if you switch to
anything e