Double Negative adopts unified grading with Baselight system

One of the latest companies to invest in FilmLight's Baselight grading and finishing system is premier London visual effects facility, Double Negative.
Installed to centralise the grading of vfx shots within the facility, Double Negative's Baselight has so far been used on an impressive number of upcoming high-profile releases, including 'Batman Begins', 'Doom', 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire', 'Kingdom of Heaven', 'Pride & Prejudice' and 'Sahara'.
Double Negative's CEO, Matt Holben said: "We have been looking for the right tool for a while to centralise the process so that everything after scanning uses one person in one place giving us greater consistency and saving time and money.
"Previously, we'd been doing the vfx grading on our jobs on individual Shake workstations, which wasn't ideal as it took time and it was a duplication of effort and so Baselight has provided us with the perfect solution."
Double Negative will typically perform a basic primary grade before commencing vfx work, with the DoP or Director providing a match clip or guidelines on the mood. This simplicity often allows them to speed the process up even further, sending shots to the Shake ops directly after scanning, grading the material on Baselight, then simply plugging the exposure numbers into the Shake tree afterwards using the Baselight plug-in for shake.
"That means our artists can start working on shots as soon as they hit the server, which saves us even more time on a production," said Andy Hague, Head of VFX Editorial.
The company is also using Baselight to drive a digital dailies system. First pass grades are processed via its Truelight colour management system, which can then be viewed in a number of ways, depending on the production's wishes.
"Baselight has streamlined the way that we handle our effects grading within the facility," says Holben. "Centralising all our issues in that area on a machine designed for the job has provided us with substantial economies in labour alone. And Filmlight is a good company to deal with. They just get it; they understand colour and the effects business, and that's what we need."
FilmLight has offices in London, Los Angeles and New Zealand - for more information visit www.filmlight.ltd.uk.
(SP)