Nearly a year after Next Element Studios opened its doors in Burbank, the facility has reopened as a Deluxe Entertainment facility, Next Element by Deluxe. Deluxe acquired Next Element in April and spent six months undergoing an expansion and redevelopment. In the meantime, the company’s on-location post solution, mobilabs, has been busy creating color-corrected dailies in Detroit for ABC crime series Detroit 1-8-7 and, some months ago, in Shreveport, LA, for ABC drama The Gates.


Bruce Long greets open house guests

“It’s a facility on location,” says Next Element COO Gray Ainsworth. “We customize the truck to meet the needs of each production.”

Ainsworth notes that, with the purchase of Next Element, Deluxe has now entered in the TV post-production business. Next Element was built from the ground up to handle the digital workflows of digital cameras; the facility is now equipped to post produce the output of 16 different digital cameras.

The facility was founded by industry veteran and producer Bruce K. Long, now senior VP, post-production at Next Element by Deluxe.  Also on the team is another post veteran, Greg Ciaccio, who is vice president of strategic planning and business development, and Julie Currin, who is vice president of sales. Ciaccio had formerly worked at Ascent Media and Technicolor.

The facility’s DI rooms house FilmLight’s Baselight systems. That DI system is also on board the three mobilabs trucks Currently, one truck is in Detroit on Detroit 1-8-7, one is touring Deluxe facilities in North America, and the third is resident at the Burbank facility. Next Element also brings its SmartSoft database, which tracks shots from input to output, ordinarily a time-consuming and error-prone series of tasks.

On the mobilabs truck, technicians who travel with the truck can put dailies on the iPad, a Flash drive, DVD or tape, depending on the desires of the producers. SmartSoft enables the technicians to trigger automated processes like Baselight renders and create customized shot lists. The on-board Baselight also allows color-correction; other gear can allow for a partial conform. The files can also be securely sent back to Burbank via a prearranged connection at a local facility.