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MillimeterBeta Sight: AJA Kona 3
Jul 1, 2008 12:01 PM, By Clayton Condit Owner/Editor, Splice Here
Capture and playback cards provide optimal edit pipeline for indie feature.
Splice Here owner/editor Clayton Condit (left) and colorist Michael Sandness (right), used the 4:4:4 capabilities of the AJA Kona 3 to maintain a flexible infrastructure for indie feature The Marconi Bros.
Based in Minneapolis, Splice Here covers the postproduction Spectrum — from advertising, broadcast networks, and corporate clientele to long-form television and feature-film projects. We provide editorial, color finishing, 2D and 3D motion graphics, original music, sound design, and audio post, along with DVD encoding and authoring.
Recent Splice Here projects include the award-winning PBS documentary America's Lost Landscape: The Tallgrass Prairie from director David O'Shields, as well as digital in-store display campaigns for Best Buy, Target, and Life Time Fitness. Splice Here also provided post services for the 3D stereo film 3D Sun, currently in worldwide distribution to 3D digital cinemas, science museums, and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's IMAX 3D theater.
We work hard to keep costs down and our pipeline running smoothly. Modern post facilities tend to be IT-based, with data-centric infrastructures. We depend on the efficiency of our pipeline, and a major part of that efficiency is the interoperability of the tools we use. We're an Apple house, with about 20 workstations connected to an Xsan. Operating on Apple's lower-cost platform allows us to pass those savings on to our customers, but it also requires that the solutions we invest in be compatible with the Mac operating system.
AJA's Kona 3 video capture and playback cards provide a solution that allows us to continue to operate in our Apple environment, and they are a key component of the Splice Here pipeline. Kona 3 is AJA's top-of-the-line uncompressed capture and playback card for SD, HD, dual-link HD, and 2K for PCI Express (PCIe) Apple Mac Pro and G5 systems, and it provides us with several key advantages. It's a high-quality card that allows us to continue to use the Apple platform for our workflow. Apple provides a low-cost platform that functions seamlessly across multiple systems, and it's the 4:4:4 capabilities of the Kona 3 that enable us to maintain this flexible infrastructure without sacrificing quality.
In order to have The Marconi Bros. ready for its premiere at the South by Southwest film fesitval, Splice Here knew that the facility's pipeline would be pushed to the limit. The Kona 3 card's ability to work with Apple Final Cut Pro enabled both redigitizing and a final conform in realtime.
When the production team from The Marconi Bros. first came to us for editorial and post services, we were excited about creating a complete 4:4:4 workflow for the project. We also knew we would have to push the Splice Here pipeline to the limit in order to meet our deadline and have the film ready for its premiere at the South by Southwest film festival (SXSW).
Written and directed by cousins Michael Canzoniero and Marco Ricci, The Marconi Bros. is an independent drama/comedy about two brothers who quit the family carpet business to make it big with the king of Long Island wedding videography. The film was edited by two-time Emmy Award-winner Michael Berenbaum.
Shot on Super 16 film, footage for The Marconi Bros. was transferred at 4:4:4 1080p 24fps on a Thomson Grass Valley Spirit DataCine to Sony HDCAM SR tapes, undergoing a flat color-correction pass to preserve as much of the film's original detail as possible. The Kona 3 cards' ability to work in dual-link 4:4:4 with Apple Final Cut Pro enabled us to redigitize the tapes and do a final conform — all in realtime — before going on to grading and final color correction.
In addition to using the Kona 3 cards' dual-link infrastructure to facilitate the 4:4:4 process, Splice Here also employed Harris VTM scopes, a Klein probe for monitor calibration, Tangent Devices controllers for color, and TVLogic LCD monitors — all 4:4:4 capable. The facility's 80TB Apple Xsan allowed several of our artists to work with the film's assets simultaneously for color, title and effects work, and final screening. Approval of the film took place in Splice Here's HD-projection screening room.
The directors and DP for The Marconi Bros. were thrilled with the results, and the film had a great response from audiences at SXSW.
AJA's Kona 3 is a big part of what we do at Splice Here — it allows us to ingest and output material very efficiently, and because of AJA's close relationship with Apple, we can rest assured that their products will be compatible with our workflow. In addition, AJA knows its products well, and the company's support is top-notch.
Clayton Condit is owner and editor at Splice Here, a post house based in Minneapolis.
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