German post production facility BASIS BERLIN is known in the industry, especially for its high-quality audio post production, and has worked on a number of national and international film projects, including the Academy Award-nominated documentary Of Fathers and Sons (2018).
At the beginning of 2021, the company decided to expand its portfolio. It brought in two renowned moving image professionals, Philipp Orgassa as lead colourist and partner, and Frieda Oberlin as head of production, to rebuild the entire department from scratch. As a result, three DaVinci Resolve Studio grading suites for UHD grading and a 4K grading theatre were installed and put into operation.
“Our goal was to give filmmakers a creative home, so to speak, where all post production work takes place under one roof,” says Orgassa. “Our long-time collaborators like Wim Wenders (Paris, Texas, Wings of Desire) and Baran Bo Odar (Netflix’s Dark, and 1899) appreciate the new premises and its family atmosphere.”
He adds, “Creatives like having different steps of post production close to each other and overlapping for better results and effective use of time and energy.”
With the picture department newly formed, Orgassa and the team were looking for a flexible and scalable 4K DI solution. It had to be easy to integrate while providing all the necessary tools needed in the image processing workflows of high-quality feature film and television productions.
“Myself, Steffen [Paul] and Johannes [Roeck] as well as our two conform artists are all well-versed in DaVinci Resolve. We’ve come to trust its performance on some of the most technically and creatively demanding projects.”
All grading suites are equipped with the same Linux workstations, DaVinci Resolve Advanced Panels and X310 HDR monitors, so rooms and projects can be quickly switched at any time. “DaVinci Resolve makes it easy and cost-effective to add another station when needed and collaborate with colourists, online editors and finishing artists on different projects. This especially benefits us when deadlines are looming,” states Orgassa.
HDR with ACES colour management
BASIS BERLIN has a team of 30 highly experienced professionals spanning all aspects of audio and picture post, including sound design, foley, ADR, colour grading for cinema and home entertainment, conforming and finishing, film restoration, quality control and deliverables for all of today’s formats.
Primarily, the facility is involved in long-form projects, including feature films, episodic dramas, documentaries, and restorations. However, short-form projects like commercials and music videos also receive their finishing touches at the Berlin facility.
“We use DaVinci Resolve for all conforming, colour grading and finishing tasks. As a picture department, colour grading is our main area of expertise. We also offer data storage and near-set services during shoots. “All in all, we support editorial teams as they prepare for the final post production steps,” Orgassa adds.
Among the productions supported at BASIS BERLIN are in-house productions from leading streaming services. This means that the team handles many Dolby Vision and HDR10 projects, most of which involve ACES colour management. DaVinci Resolve supports these modern formats with Wide Colour Gamut and can map the latest HDR workflows. “It gives us exactly the high-quality results our customers need,” concludes Orgassa.
