Let it Shine.

Rowan Cloete DaVinci Resolve reel

This video shows off the ability of the Resolve system to work with footage from DSLR’s like the 7D, high frame rate cameras like to Phantom, and 4k cameras like the RED.

The 2000fps Phantom footage benefitted greatly from Resolve’s amazing sharpening ability.

A bit of grain overlay helps to create a more filmic look for the Vitamin Water spec commercial shot with a Canon 7D.

The 4K RED footage shows off Resolve’s relighting ability - the amazing tracker doing a difficult track on an underexposed Mercedes to literally make it pop off the tarmac and saving the shot. The second job is an overcast daytime fly-over to a progression of daybreak, going from night to sunny mid-morning in 4 grades - amazing!

Resolve handles the .cine Phantom footage and .r3d RED footage natively, and is resolution independent. Meaning you can combine just about anything on the timeline, grade it, and have it play back in realtime.

WEERKAATSINGS

I love being called upon to do something slightly off my beaten track. In this case it is the animation and design of this music video. As is sometimes the case, the shortest route to a solution (in this case a lack of budget for a talented animator) is to do things yourself. And this is the result!

POSDUIF

Has it been this long since my last post? Yikes! How time flies when you are having fun. Can only mean one thing right - we've been busy little bees.

2014 has seen some interesting projects roll around. Some of them took me me out of Long Island office for long stretches as I was called on to "save the day" on a few productions that ran into some serious colour and delivery issues. Not saying which was in trouble but shows I really enjoyed working on were PawnStars SA for History Channel and Dragon's Den SA for DSTV (both produced by Rapid Blue). DDSA inspired me to enrol for a course in financial management through UCT, which I've just completed. So now we can talk about gearing and return on investment for your next project!

Every year sees a few passion projects roll around, and this music video is one of them. Well, it is actually a slate of three music videos off for the talented Chris Chameleon and his lovely partner in song in life, Daniella Deysel. All three are songs off their 2014 album "Posduif", which I thought was the best album I'd heard in a decade. Naturally, when they approached me I jumped at the opportunity to conceptualise, direct, edit and grade to the music I'd come to love.

This music video truly was a labour of love. When my very good friend and director/DOP Brad Devine told me what he had in mind for Absinthe's rendition of Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart, my first reaction was: "Really?" 

And then: "Yeah, let's do it!"

We've been working with Cito and Paul Flynn from Absinthe for quite a while, having shot a video for Wonderboom and a live performance for Absinthe. When we pitched the idea to them they were immediately enamoured with the Tim Burtonesque cutout-puppetted fairytale we had in mind.

A few weeks later Brad had built the world in his parents' garage in Rustenburg and the slow process of animating the elements by hand had begun. A lot of camera and scene testing had to be done to get the world to layer and fall off in the right way to create the necessary depth and mood. There was much experimenting with textures and fabrics, and drinking of beers. All family members were roped in at one point or another to play a leaf, a spider, a branch... 

The result is simply staggering. There was very little left to be done by the time it got to online - a bit of primary correction, reframing and comping/animating the musical notes. Brad had done a wonderful job on his first outing as editor.

If you're partial to beer, and festing, and other things German, it'll behoove you to remember that the Oktoberfest actually starts in September, and ends in October. That way you'll pick the appropriate time to visit Munich, home for a very particular week to buxom frauleins, giant steins and thirsty travellers from all over the globe.

I've not had the privilege of attending this auspicious occasion on the beer calendar. Having started brewing some fairly decent dark beers at home earlier this year (yes I know, crazy right?) I do consider myself slightly better educated than some on the subject of barley and hops. Hence, when it was mentioned in random conversation earlier this year that we have an Oktoberfest in Johannesburg, I filed that fact away in the place where the to-do things go. I'm sad to say that had I given myself this bit advice earlier, I'd probably have discovered much sooner that our beer fest started on the 15th of Sept at the Deutsche Schule here in Joburg, and not as I'd hoped sometime after the writing of this on the 23rd of October...

So how did I miss it? Simple: it's been a month of relentlessly stress testing my DaVinci Resolve system. A grading machine of note, my little beast. Not that that is second to quaffing beer with our aryan cousins over at the german school. In fact - I'm over the moon with how it went from one gig to the next without hiccup, tearing it's way through everything that we've thrown at it, including 2000 fps Phantom footage and 4K RED footage.

When 6 months ago I decided to build a DaVinci grading suite I asked local suppliers how the hell one builds one of these. I was met with a whole lotta ground kicking and um and ah-ing. At that time the most any of them had sold was a system, maybe. 6 months later and I feel like I can tender for the local support contract from BMD! Mine runs not well, but excellent. Version 9 of Resolve has brought a whole lot of exciting new functionality to an already awesome platform. My clients are ecstatic and I continue my drive to grow a market amongst those I know would grade if they knew it was fast, powerful, and at ShinePost, affordable.

I think I still have the only Tangent Elements panel in the country. It is amaze-balls. Check out some pics.

Had the sheer joy of working grading for agency people last week. If there is one thing I learned, besides how much sharpening you can give Phantom footage before it breaks, is the importance of managing client expectation. In this case the expectation of folks who are used to grade at Blade and getting Pudding at lunch.

Lunches we have here at ShinePost. It is a highlight of my day to cue up with the rest of the creative folk in the building and enjoy a generous plate of Roda's home cooking, which can be cholesterol bombs with chips - hangover food I believe - on a Monday to braised chicken with three salads and four veggies on a Friday. If I'm only in the afternoon I always make sure to arrive at 12.30 for me lunch.

It was because of the pressure of the moment that I worked straight through without offering my clients a lunch at 12.30. Perhaps subliminally I was worried that Roda had done deep fried Russians that day. I had the foresight to stock up on muffins, fruit and drinks fortunately...

Anyway. As I'm in the process of taking on board the new Resolve system, I work a little slower than the folks over at the big facilities. Fully cognizant that this would be the case initially, I've priced my hourly rate accordingly. And this is where I have to manage client expectation - we do good work at a fifth of a price in twice the time. For now. I think with that laid out at the start of my next session, and having a nice lunch, we'll manage those expectations, produce the goods and keep the demanding agency types coming back for more.

The job btw was a slate of web shorts for LG, shot on the Phantom Flex at 2000 fps in HD. We managed to really make the textures pop off those speakers. The fact that the materials were all on a monochromatic background allowed us to play nicely with shifting the hues around to create spectacular new colours - the are art director could re-colour the palate in post completely if he chose to do so. It was interesting to work with the different textures - they all had different qualities and tolerance to grading - the liquids were most challenging!

Check out some before and afters.