German series producer GrundyUFA has added FilmLight’s on-set colour management technology, FLIP, to its production workflow, helping to improve quality and save time and money, both on-set and in post production. GrundyUFA produces four daily dramas at its production facilities in Cologne and Berlin, including Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten (Good Times, Bad Times) and Verbotene Liebe (Forbidden Love). Broadcast five days a week and attracting huge audiences across Germany, both shows’ production schedules are extremely demanding. “We are saving a huge amount of time and achieving consistently higher production values,” commented Oskar Kammerer, senior colourist at GrundyUFA. Ordinarily, GrundyUFA would adjust the lighting and camera settings each time a production moved to a new set – a timely process considering Forbidden Love employs more than 50 sets alone. This impacted post production, as establishing exact consistency on set was not possible. Since employing FLIP, the footage delivered to post is much more consistent and closer to the desired final look, allowing colourists to devote more time to polishing the look and making aesthetic enhancements. “In the past, maintaining a consistent look for each show had been a huge challenge,” stated Kammerer. “FLIP allows us to maintain a database of pre-designed looks and apply them live. We can adjust each grading element and make sure that the lighting and camera settings are perfect. Once the look is set it is logged against the relevant shot and returned to the colourist as grading metadata in exactly the same format as the original database. It is then a simple process to load the files into the Baselight timeline.” Kammerer notes that FLIP is important not only for camera and lighting settings, but also for making critical judgments about make-up, costumes and sets. “Previously, we often had to make compromises, we had to make sure things were safe for shooting,” he recalled. “With FLIP we can go further in our aesthetic choices because we can review make-up and costumes on the set and know that we can handle it.”
For more info from GrundyUFA, watch the video here.
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