MacDirectory Magazine

Lightstorm Entertainment

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Using Blackmagic Design as the Backbone for "Run" Nicholson's team recently leveraged "ThruView" for HBO's new series "Run." Starring Merritt Wever and Domhnall Gleesen, the show required the characters to travel across the United States on a train, but production never intended to leave Toronto. "During preproduction we proved that with multiple Blackmagic Design DeckLink 8K Pro cards we could stream 10 simultaneous streams of 8K footage to the Epic Unreal game engine for real time playback on for t y 4K monitors on a 150' long train set." Utilizing a custom tracking and lighting tool developed in house, the system was able to deliver a photorealistic moving image, displayed through the train windows, with animated lighting to match the plate, tracked to and composited with the shot in real time. "We produced the entire series with this system which we now call 'ThruView,'" said Nicholson. The "ThruView" system relies on a number of new technologies that are finally developing into robust, reliable tools, both proprietary and of f the shelf. " We developed targetless, wireless camera tracking at Stargate, as well as a pixel mapped, RGBW DMX lighting system. Tools such as 8K image capture are now workable with Blackmagic Design's 8K playback and DaVinci Resolve Studio on set color correction," said Nicholson. "The Stargate 'ThruView' team employed three DaVinci Resolve Studio systems simultaneously on the 'Run' set," said Nicholson, " We relied on multiple [DaVinci Resolve Studio] stations to coordinate all of our assets for playback on set. [DaVinci Resolve Studio's] extensive capabilities in real time color correction, editorial tools and Fusion VFX were essential to manipulating a large quantity of high resolution footage at the rapid pace of a live action set." In addition to DaVinci Resolve Studio and the DeckLink 8K Pro capture and playback cards, the "ThruView" system also incorporates a variety of Blackmagic Design products as part of the system backbone, including multiple Smart Videohub 12Gs, DaVinci Resolve Micro Panels, UltraStudio 4K Extreme capture and playback device, Teranex AV, an array of Micro and Mini Converters, and an ATEM Constellation 8K switcher, which is instrumental in handling the high resolution images. Nicholson relied on Blackmagic Design because he knew he could depend on the tools. "Blackmagic Design products are very dependable. They work right out of the box and continue working. It's a rough working environment on set, so the tools you are using have to be bulletproof to survive." Going to A New Level with "The Lion King" Blackmagic Design's recent news with Lightstorm Entertainment and Stargate Studios follows last summer's announcement that VFX supervisor Rob Legato used a wide variety of its products to create the virtual production environment for Disney's "The Lion King." For the film, Legato wanted to take the technology to a new level and create a space where traditional filmmakers could work in a digital

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