London and New York based post production, film financing and distribution house Goldcrest has a long and illustrious history working on the audio post of some of finest feature films made, including, in recent years, The Iron Lady, Les Misérables and Skyfall. It also has a large offline editing wing, again aimed at top-end film clients. It’s now added the final piece of the post jigsaw with the installation of three new theatrical DaVinci Resolve grading suites, helmed by some of the biggest names in film grading.

Goldcrest Goes Grading

BEAUTIFULLY DESIGNED GRADING SUITES EXPERT KNOWLEDGE AND CONSULTANCY

efficient and flexible workflow,” says Treherne. “DI, online editing and conform can now be done using the same project files without the need to render or translate and check XML data. Jigsaw24’s technical consultancy and extensive knowledge of DaVinci Resolve has been essential to the project’s success.”

“Jigsaw has been one of our main collaborators from the start,” he adds. “I know I can rely on the Jigsaw team to provide me with unbiased advice and go the extra mile when we need some help.”

Jigsaw24’s Jamie Allan, Solutions Architect, adds: “We provided an in-depth overview to the engineering and creative teams [at Goldcrest] on the complete Resolve feature set and discussed with them the potential of certain capabilities in the beta of Version 11.”

When it came to deciding on the hardware platforms for the Resolves, Allan adds: “While Resolve systems are built from off the shelf, enterprise-grade

components we still put each system together by hand to ensure uniformity and reliability from day one. All the GPUs and servers are put on stress tests for a number of days before installation to ensure there are no surprises early on.”

Meanwhile, Simon Westland, Director of Sales EMEA, Blackmagic Design says: “The technical and creative demands placed on technology are huge in an environment like this, as are the choices of the systems they can work with. Our development of DaVinci Resolve is focused on the needs of high-end post production companies. Goldcrest’s growth into picture post comes at a time when the UK’s film industry is thriving and demand globally for creative talent out of the UK has never been stronger.”

Goldcrest has already used its theatrical grading suites for the DI on features including Kingsman: The Secret Service, Inbetweeners 2, Breaking the Bank, Suite Francaise and Stephen Frears’ Lance Armstrong biopic.

TOP GRADES FOR GOLDCRESTGoldcrest is world-renowned for its audio post services, and its credit list includes many of the biggest features of recent years. Until recently, its focus was almost exclusively on audio post, but over the last few months it’s completed a hugely ambitious move into picture post production.

It’s not doing things by halves, either, opening a total of three new digital intermediate (DI) theatrical grading suites based around Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve software and recruiting the crème de la crème of London’s film grading talent in one fell swoop. It’s also added a generous assortment of Resolve-based online suites to supplement its grading rooms.

THE COLOURIST TEAMGoldcrest’s newly created colourist team consists of highly esteemed colourists Adam Glasman, Rob Pizzey and Lee Clappison, who between them have graded many of the most critically acclaimed film releases of recent years (Les Misérables, Anna Karenina, Rush, Skyfall, Captain Philips, The Iron Lady, My Week with Marilyn).

The company has also recruited leading industry figures to run the facility. Laurent Treherne joins as CTO, Martin Poultney joins as Commercial Director and Rob Farris has been recruited as Head of Production.

THE CHOICE OF RESOLVEIn total, across its grading and online suites, Goldcrest Post has installed 10 DaVinci Resolve systems, all spec’d and built by Blackmagic specialist Jigsaw24, which proposed the highest specification Linux-based servers to run the grading and online suites.

“Using DaVinci Resolve throughout our editorial pipeline has given us a more

INSIDE THE GRADING ROOMSEach of Goldcrest’s DaVinci Resolve grading suites runs on Linux workstations with 4GPUs. Two of the DI suites are equipped with the latest Barco DCI projectors that project images onto 6.5m screens. All Goldcrest’s Resolve workstations – whether for grading or online – are connected to a newly installed SAN media storage system with half a Petabyte of storage, which is capable of the playback and real-time grading of multiple 4K streams.

“The grading and online systems were all built identically, so online playback could be achieved in real-time, without the need for rendering from a grade. All of the systems are powered by Nvidia GPUs,” explains Jigsaw24’s Allan.

PERFECT GRADING ENVIRONMENTSAs well as the technical qualities of Goldcrest’s DI rooms, the aesthetics of the rooms were just as important. “These environments need to be comfortable and agreeable places to be as well as satisfying practical needs,” says Patrick Malone, md, Goldcrest Post. “To achieve this we sought input from our colourists, clients, [workstation designer] AKA Design and architect Robert Holder.”

“The result is a distillation of many years of experience across multiple disciplines to create the perfect grading environments.”

Malone adds that Goldcrest has a “long and successful history” with AKA Design: “They provide invaluable design contributions to create feature workstations that are both highly practical and stunning to look at. In fact, we were so impressed with their work in our grading theatres we asked them to design and build our main reception desk and coffee bar.”

4K MONITORINGWhen it came to the monitoring in the suites, Treherne explains: “Our editorial rooms use Sony PVM monitors and Lumix HD monitors. For our video grading and finishing room we decided to go with the Canon DP-V3010 4K monitor. We did an in-depth evaluation of three 4K monitors and it was clear the Canon was the best for us. With its ability to work in 2K or 4K DCI-P3 colour space, the Canon monitor also allows us to use our video grading room as a prep and QC room for feature work.”

“One of the key benefits of the DP-V3010 is it displays images with highly accurate, repeatable colour in 4K resolution,” adds Austin Freshwater, Director of Professional Imaging, Canon UK & Ireland. “In addition to that stunning, native 4K, accurate reproduction of gradation and a high contrast ratio ensure faithful display of dark images, such as shadow detail or night time scenes.”

“we have a long and successful history with AKA Design. they provide invaluable design contributions to create feature workstations that are both highly practical and stunning to look at.”Patrick Malone, MD, Goldcrest Post

“Jigsaw has been one of our main collaborators from the start. jigsaw’s technical consultancy and extensive knowledge of DaVinci Resolve has been essential to the project’s success.”Laurent Treherne, CTO, Goldcrest

“For our video grading and finishing room we decided to go with the Canon DP-V3010 4K monitor. We did an in-depth evaluation of three 4K monitors and it was clear the Canon was the best for us.”Laurent Treherne, CTO, Goldcrest

“Goldcrest’s growth into picture post comes at a time when the UK’s film industry is thriving and demand globally for creative talent out of the UK has never been stronger.”Simon Westland, Director of Sales EMEA, Blackmagic Design

ABOUT AKA DESIGNAKA Design Ltd specialises in the design and manufacture of studio interiors, stylish technical furniture and related services for the post production, broadcast, audio and TV industries worldwide. AKA has a state of the art production facility based in North London enabling total control of the entire design and manufacturing processes. AKA’s unique and unrivalled understanding of its clients requirements has made it the leading design consultant for the last 25 years; from a single edit desk to an entire broadcast facility AKA provides a full design, build and installation package for all your technical furniture requirements.

ABOUT BLACKMAGIC DESIGNBlackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, colour correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and film restoration software for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci colour correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues groundbreaking innovations including stereoscopic 3D and 4K workflows.

ABOUT CANON UKCanon (UK) Ltd is the UK & Ireland marketing and sales operation for the global company, Canon Inc., based in Tokyo, Japan and it employs around 2,150 people. Founded in 1937, with the specific goal of making the best quality cameras available to customers, Canon’s tireless passion for the Power of Image has since extended its technology into many other markets and has established it as a world leader in both consumer and business imaging solutions. Its solutions comprise products ranging from digital compact and SLR cameras, through broadcast lenses and portable X-ray machines, to multi-function and production printers, all supported by a range of value added services.

ABOUT JIGSAW24Operating from Nottingham, MediaCityUK and Soho, Jigsaw24 have been providing solutions to the creative industries for over 21 years. Their in-house expertise covers production, post, audio, 3D animation, storage and networking, and they are the UK’s sole provider of DaVinci Resolve for Linux systems, as well as the leading provider of DaVinci Resolve for Mac. Their consultants have all worked in the creative industries and offer empathetic, industry-aware advice to help organisations maintain the up to the minute workflows that keep them ahead of the curve – and the competition.

Contact Guy Wilson, Managing Director T 0208 829 9100 E info@akadesign.com W akadesign.com

Contact: Simon Westland, Director of Sales EMEAT 01565 830 049 E Info-emea@blackmagicdesign.com W blackmagicdesign.com

Contact: Austin Freshwater, Director of Professional Imaging, Canon UK & IrelandT 01737 220000E broadcast@cuk.canon.co.ukW canon.co.uk

Contact: Lewis Brown, Head of Media & EntertainmentT 03332 409201E davinci@jigsaw24.comW jigsaw24.com