Ghosts/Aliens

Currently, many television networks prefer tape as the acquisition format of choice, but that doesn’t mean programs should feel compelled to employ antiquated post production offline and online techniques.

Working with Comedy Central, Light Iron provided a modern tape-sourced, yet file-based post production approach for the program Ghosts/Aliens, which eliminated the need for:

•Downconversions
•HD online assembly
•HD titles
•Separate audio laybacks

Using the Sony F23 S-Log recording mode to HDCAM SR, a low-contrast DNxHD115 file was captured and synched in the Avid Media Composer. This enabled the director and editor to work at full raster (1920x1080), square pixel, and at 24 frames per second while viewing through a non-destructive 1D lookup table. This maintained a polished look in offline as well as a high standard of image fidelity and flexibility during the final color correction pass.

Altogether, the “file-based tape” workflow cut nearly two days from the post schedule, maintained footage elasticity, and kept more creative control in the hands of the production team, all with a network-satisfying tape-based acquisition.

Images courtesy of Comedy Central