ASIA-PACIFIC BROADCASTING

Creative Indigo has grown from being a mere creative power-house with an initial staff of just eight into a full-scale production outfit with more than 200 TV production and post-production professionals.

In 2006, the company beat 47 rivals to win the contract from Sesame Workshop to produce Jalan Sesama, the Indonesian adaptation of the internationally-acclaimed children’s educational TV series, Sesame Street.

As operations manager of -Creative Indigo, I always have to be on my toes as many people depend on me for advice and help. I have become very resourceful and innovative as I am always out in the field.

We frequently try to look for cost-efficient alternatives to achieve the same results with otherwise expensive equipment.

For the production of Jalan Sesama, I had to look for low-cost lighting systems that could produce the same effects as those achieved with top-name products. I also brainstormed with the art director to come up with the most economical ways to make props that deliver the same look and feel as those on the original Sesame Street.

Very often, I have to think ahead of people and pre-empt the needs of the production crew even before they do the job.

When a camera breaks down, I have to be able to make snap decisions, like whether to have it repaired on-site or send it to Singapore for repair, given the time constraints.

You could say that I am like  ‘MacGyver’ (the resourceful secret agent in the US-Canada hit TV series of the same name that ran from the mid-1980s to early 1990s).

The switch from producing infotainment to producing educational programming for children has been fortuitous, and one that has opened doors to new opportunities for Creative Indigo, including equipment upgrades.

Jalan Sesama is an important project for us. We recognised that to do our job even better, we would need a good -editing system to help improve our workflow, thus delivering speed and quality.

After reviewing current and alternative editing systems, we decided to acquire Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink HD Extreme and DeckLink SP video cards and Final Cut Pro (FCP) editing systems to support post production. Two Final Cut Studio 2 systems running DeckLink Extreme PCIe are dedicated solely to the editing of Jalan Sesama. The other two FCPs are supported by two Blackmagic Design DeckLink SP capture cards, which are being used for editing other infotainment programmes.

We have discovered that using DeckLink video cards with the FCP makes our editing system fast and reliable, while eradicating the system’s vulnerability to virus-es, a strength not found in other -editing systems.
Our new FCP systems can also run around the clock, which often posed a problem in the past.

One of the more prominent features of the DeckLink HD Extreme is its multi-input/output -capability and its ability to support a variety of formats, including PAL, NTSC, HD to HDV, making multiple conversions possible.

Another very powerful feature of the DeckLink HD Extreme is real-time monitoring. This frees up editors’ time for more creati-vity in their work.

The video card also allows the real-time preview of completed work — that is, after the editing  and the inclusion of special effects and music score.

The DeckLink HD Extreme’s support for multi-link workflow enables our editors to work on -different segments of Jalan Sesama at the same time.

Overall, the FCP has helped us cut down editing time substantially. A job that would have required six to eight hours of editing on our previous editing system now takes just four to five hours on the FCP.

The DeckLink HD Extreme, which can be easily plugged in for use, can be simply linked to our Sony DSR45 DV player. This makes it easy for us to transfer whatever was shot in the studio onto the editing machines. There is no loss in picture quality in the final cuts transferred onto the Betacam because, with the DeckLink video card, the resolution of the video output is uncompressed.

In many ways, the video card is like a middleman between the FCP, the DSR45 DV player and the Betacam.

The combination of the DeckLink HD Extreme and the FCP definitely stands out in terms of cost savings and efficiency. I can buy two FCP systems with DeckLink HD Extreme cards for the price of one of the old systems.

Yet another plus point is the DeckLink HD Extreme’s ability to run on both the Mac and PC -(unlike some of the more expensive video cards which can work only on one platform or the other), presenting further cost savings.

The move to the Blackmagic Design DeckLink HD Extreme cards and FCP system has not only increased our efficiency but also improved our bottom line, critical in these challenging times.

 

 

 

 

We are very fortunate to have won the opportunity to produce Jalan Sesama for the creative, and technical, opportunities it has brought us.

Hanson Ramli is operations manager of Jakarta-based post-production house Creative Indigo Productions.

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