In Broadcast - December 2014 - 64

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 38 - DECEMBER 2014

N E W S

InFORM

Documentary Editors Rock 'Filmage'
Post-Production With AJA Io XT
'Filmage: The Story of DESCENDENTS/ALL' began as a passion project,
but quickly evolved into a full-fledged documentary production...

A

64

The post-production relied on
a laptop, Avid Media Composer
software, an AJA Io XT, LCD monitor
and two smaller Asus monitors

Band memorabilia

group of creatives working
at Dallas-based post house
Cha r lieUnifo r mTa ngo (CUT )
spent four years on the in-depth
documentary project. The ﬁlm's
directors Deedle LaCour and
Matt Riggle, along with editors
Justin Wilson and James Rayburn,
combined a love for old-school
punk music with ﬁlmmaking chops
to deliver an indie ﬂick that recounts
the history and inﬂuence of punk
rock legends the Descendents.
The ﬁlm features a compilation
of present-day interviews with
band members and industry
inﬂuencers, fan video submissions
and archived tour media. Editorial
for the ﬁlm required a portable and
ﬂexible workﬂow, for which Rayburn
turned to AJA's Io XT Thunderboltenabled professional video device
for on-the-go I/O.
The production team amassed
more than 50 captured segments,
on top of hours of fan content and
never-before-seen tour photos,
videos and memorabilia. Tasked
with weaving such a large volume
of formats and frame rates together,
achieving the right balance between
new and old footage proved
daunting. Knowing the team would
spend time cutting the ﬁlm between
his ofﬁce and home, often working
nights and weekends, Rayburn set
out in search of a portable workﬂow
solution to simplify the job, and
ultimately turned to AJA's Io XT.
Throughout post, Rayburn
churned through hours of footage,
relying on a laptop, Avid Media
Composer, an AJA Io XT, LCD
monitor and two smaller Asus
monitors for editorial. The laptop
drove the Asus monitors, sending

The band perform on stage

a video signal through the Io XT,
so that the edit could be reviewed
in real-time.
Once Rayburn ﬁnished cutting
the ﬁlm, the ﬁlmmakers enlisted
the expertise of Filmworkers Club
colourist Mathew McClain to
preserve and enhance the picture
quality. Throughout ﬁnishing, KONA
LHe Plus cards were used.
Rayburn said: "I'm not used to
the high level of deliverables for a
ﬁlm like this, so when we ﬁnished
it in Avid, we had distributors come
to us with several different format
requirements for the audio channels
and digital ﬁles, so having the KONA
LHe Plus for output to HDCam
SR tape was a tremendous asset
come delivery."

Recognition

'Filmage: The Stor y of
DESCENDENTS/ALL' premiered
in 2013, and gained recognition
from film festivals around the
world including IN-EDIT (Chile),
Melbourne International Film
Festival (Australia), CGGB (New
York), LEEDS International Film

Dave Grohl gives an interview

Festival (England) and NXNE
(Canada). The documentary also
recently made its Los Angeles
theatrical and VOD debut in
September 2014.

Technology

"Filmage" wasn't Rayburn's ﬁ rst
experience with AJA technology,
as he's worked with a wide range
of AJA gear during his tenure at
CharlieUniformTango, including
the T-TAP compact, lightweight
Thunderbolt-powered video output
device, KONA family of capture and
playback cards, and a handful of
Mini-Converters, including the Hi5.
While recently working in Berlin
on a commercial project for Jeep,
he used a T-TAP for broadcast
quality output. "The T-TAP was
awesome; it's amazing how one
little box transformed a hotel room
into a full-blown Avid edit suite
by linking a laptop, Mac Pro and
two standard monitors. It gave
me quick and efﬁcient broadcast
video for monitoring the cut,"
concluded Rayburn.

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/?first=Phillip&last=Izzard&search=Go https://twitter.com/inbroadcast http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpzEatLsHdE&feature=youtube_gdata_player https://www.facebook.com/InBroadcast http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/inbroadcast/id468652679?mt=8 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.branded.inbroadcast&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5icmFuZGVkLmluYnJvYWRjYXN0Il0. http://WWW.INBROADCAST.COM http://charlieuniformtango.com

In Broadcast - December 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of In Broadcast - December 2014