Red Giant has made available a free beta version of its upcoming BulletProof media preparation and delivery application, which is claimed to bridge the gap between the camera and the editor, and can work for higher than HD resolutions.
It is claimed to simplify the tedious tasks facing filmmakers every day on set, and combines all backup, organisation, colour and delivery tasks while handling footage from multiple cameras and media cards and making it easier to compile edit-ready footage. Initially it will support shooting with either Canon or Nikon DSLRs or the GoPro sports camera, but further cameras will be supported as development continues, with the Arri Alexa, and Canon’s 4K EOS 1DC and C500, as well as C300 and C100, top of the list.
It can export: Apple ProRes 4444 (10-bit/12-bit) at variable bit rate for 4K, 2K, HD and SD; ProResHQ 422 (10-bit), VBR or iframe at 220Mbit for 1080p; ProRes 422 (8-bit/10-bit), VBR/iframe, at 147Mbit for 1080p; ProResLT 422 (10-bit) at 100Mbit for 1080i; ProResProxy 422 (10-bit) at 36Mbit for 1080p; PhotoJPEG (Mac); or H.264 MPEG-4 AVC at various bit rates.
To demonstrate the impact of BulletProof on a film set, award-winning director, Seth Worley (who called it “an extremely useful tool”) released his latest short film, Spy Vs. Guy, as well as a behind-the-scenes video that highlights the BulletProof workflow. Spy Vs. Guy and the making-of films can be seen at www.redgiant.com/news/featured/films/.
The director, DP and digital cinematographer Philip Bloom has also been evaluating BulletProof as part of his workflow. “I love to edit, it’s creative, but the rest I despise – the ingest, transcoding, syncing, logging,” said Bloom. Having used BulletProof recently, “the time it can save me is becoming clear;” and he believes it will save him money.
“Since the release of the DSLR camera and the rise of file-based video capture, the need for a better media prep solution has become obvious – as our team has discovered from our own film projects,” said Andrew Little, president and co-founder of Red Giant.
“Tapping into what we’ve learned over the last decade of building tools for filmmakers, like Magic Bullet, we designed and built BulletProof, which we believe is the most affordable, complete solution that bridges the gap between the camera and the editor.” It will react to customer feedback and promises to add the features, camera support and workflow capabilities they’re looking for to further enhance the product.
The BulletProof workflow is presented in a series of five views, arranged in a left-to-right flow that mirrors many productions’ daily tasks.
Import: Offloading clips from media cards and drives should be quick and safe. BulletProof doesn’t alter data while copying and backing up, to maintain the integrity of the footage.
Organise: Set up shots before they reach the editing platform. In Organize, you can see thumbnails of the entire story, and check if the clips match the creative vision. Users can organize footage in a way that makes sense to them, using folders, playlists, and metadata like keywords and star ratings.
Review: Examine and scrub individual clips, and set In/Out points and markers as you narrow down the shots. Review mode ensures footage from different cameras will ultimately match. Users can set up a rough cut and get a feel for the edit before sending it to the editor.
Refine: This provides professional colour tools like Colorista colour wheels and Look-Up Tables that let users unify and fix colours on the spot to avoid reshoots later. All colours and metadata are applied non-destructively, so original clips are untouched.
Export: This is designed for fast delivery of masters, proxies and dailies, without the usual tedium of transcoding. Options like Burn In, Frame Rate and Resolution make it simple to export in a single time-saving pass.
The final v1.0 of BulletProof will be available this summer and will cost $199. It will be available for Mac OS first, with a Windows version following later.
By David Fox
