Creative Bridge Premieres New Mobile Digital Film Workflow

While attending NAB 06, visitors can see a collaborative demonstration of the all digital film workflow at work in the first public venue of the new Creative Bridge Mobile Digital Lab and Theater (MDLT). This powerful workflow results from the shared efforts of Creative Bridge (MDLT), ASSIMILATE (SCRATCH Data-Centric Workflow Solution), S.two (digital field recorder), and Plus8 Digital (provider of top-performance cameras and systems for HD). These four companies share a common mission: to help creative and post professionals easily migrate to new, digital and resolution-independent imaging technologies that enable a streamlined workflow. Creative and post artists from studio and independent filmmakers to large and boutique post houses benefit from the bottom-line advantages of the digital film workflow: ease of use, increased productivity, quality output to any format, and an up-tick in profits.

Demonstrations will be from 10:00 am through 6:00 pm April 24 ‘ 27, in the MDLT located at the Marriott Courtyard lot, 3275 Paradise Road, across from The Las Vegas Convention Center’s South Hall, and may be booked in advance.

The Creative Bridge MDLT, housed in a comfortable and state-of-the art mobile trailer, brings the complete, streamlined all-digital workflow to the creative and post professionals.

Digital Lab: The system enables instant playback of each scene/take/reel with synced audio, in a fully uncompressed and calibrated 1920 x 1080 native environment from ingest to projection. Circle takes are prepped for editorial with time code and metadata windows. Looks may be created and applied to the material at any stage of the production in a non-destructive fashion. Creative Bridge works in conjunction with Directors and DPs using Gamma & Density’s 3cP software to build, color calibrate and export the LUTs into SCRATCH.

Digital Camera: Ingesting RGB 4:4:4 10-bit log data from VIPER and other high resolution data cameras. The data is ingested faster than real-time, cloned, archived and prepped for editorial at location. Digital Dailies are viewed in a comfortable 1920 x 1080 native environment.

Digital Film Recorder: The MDLT is configurable for different formats; from S.two’s robust HDD recording system to the Sony Cine Alta SR system. A proprietary application accelerates the S.Two Digital Field Recorder file transfer to a DMAG drive which stores 33 minutes of uncompressed footage. The digital negative transfers at two-thirds real time, which allows viewing to begin almost immediately. The MDLT is supported by a 6TB, triple-redundant, RAID system to ensure that no data is lost

Data-Centric Post Production: SCRATCH features include data management for the myriad project files and simultaneous, real-time, multi-resolution review/playback, assemble/edit, conform, primary and secondary color grading, multi-layer grading stack, audio, visual effects (enhanced by third-party plug-ins), and final mastering to any format. SCRATCH supports third-party 1D, 3D and customer-developed Look-Up-Tables (LUTs), running in real time. SCRATCH gives Directors, DPs, Cinematographers and Artists more creative control as well as convenient Dailies on demand. While reviewing their Digital negative, they also gain control of the look and color balance of the images on site.

"The ability to offer data-centric services during production defines our ‘pre-post’ workflow and offers a solution to the emerging demand in the market space,” remarks Brian Gaffney, Creative Bridge Partner. “SCRATCH is perfect for our workflow; allowing us to move large film files in real time and allowing our clients to view the manipulated data and make decisions at location before going to post. Our goal with the MDLT is to provide an environment where the Digital Filmmaker can save time and money while extending the creative process. We’ve spent a great deal of time researching and testing technologies and believe that we’ve chosen the best partners and technology to achieve this goal.”

Jeff Edson, CEO of ASSIMILATE, explains, “Like many new forward-looking technologies, the digital film workflow and tools are causing a major shift in how creative and post professionals work today and into the future. It’s like taking the bullet train after years of riding busses and making transfers; a huge increase in efficiency and less cost while reaching the same desired destination. These users are looking for streamlined solutions that work together, allow them to create and experiment, deliver quality output, and enable a profit. Together with our partners, we’re making this a reality today.”