The Loupedeck CT (as in Creative Tool) is around for a while now but if you think this device is a one-trick-pony, only serving a bunch of carefully assorted apps, think again! Loupedeck (the company) just issued a software update which increases the capabilities of the CT, big times. The buzzword here is Loupedeck Profile Creator. This opens up the console for literally every app out there. Sounds creative? It is! Loupedeck came a long way. With their first console, which was purpose-build for Adobe Lightroom, a second, plus-labeled iteration, which expanded the support across several NLEs and now the third and most versatile version yet: the Loupedeck CT. This device has one purpose: making it easier and more intuitive for you, the user, to interact with certain applications. Rather than relying on good ol’ keyboard and mouse, the Loupedeck CT offers dials, a wheel, virtual buttons with touchscreen capabilities and haptic feedback and, still mandatory, lots of clicky buttons. Since we’re talking a very well-made product, it certainly deserves a nice packaging as well and the packaging is, again, very well-made indeed! Not that this is overly important but it is a nice touch, no question about it. The Loupedeck CT The whole device is a treat to look at. Its upper surface is made out of aluminum while the bottom shell is made out of plastic (for a reason, we’ll come to that later). The whole thing isn’t huge, 15cm x 16cm, but this feels about the right size for it to live next to a keyboard/mouse setup on your desk. It is connected via USB-C to your computer and it comes with a nice 90°-angled fabric cable. So what does it have to offer? For starters, 12 regular buttons with a decent late 90’s feel to them. I don’t mean this in a bad way, I really like the 2mm travel of the keys, they seem to be build for years of constant use. Moving on, you get 8 round buttons. These offer way less travel but still a solid ‘click’ once pressed. They are more like pressing a button on, say, a CD player (if that’s still a thing). All of these ‘hard’ keys are backlit and the color changes depending on the state they’re in. And you get dedicated buttons for undo and save, very useful! The more advanced buttons are further up on the panel: An array of 12 virtual buttons, little touchscreens to be exact, offers any function you want which is mapped to that button depending on the app you’re using. Furthermore, the whole array double-acts as a touchscreen, too. You can scroll through different sets of 12-key layouts with a swipe of your finger, just as you would swipe your different screens full of apps on your smartphone. And, this is really cool, since these buttons are no real buttons but tiny touchscreens, the Loupedeck offers haptic feedback every time you press one of these. If you don’t like it, you can disable this feature but I think it’s really useful. However, if you’re pressing (touching) one of the buttons with just your fingertip, you most likely won’t feel the haptic feedback since some parts of your hand need to have physical contact to the housing in order to do so. You’ll find a so-called touch strip on each side of the aforementioned 12-key grid. These vertical touch strips display the functions which are mapped to their associated dials, six in total. Again, you can flick through different functions by swiping, only this time you have to swipe vertically. The six dials can be turned infinitely but you feel tiny steps while turning so it feels very accurate operating them. These dials also can be clicked, for resetting a value for example. The real star of the Loupedeck CT is reserved for this last paragraph of the tour: The huge wheel, which is also a touchscreen. The wheel itself, that’s the outer ring, does feel very satisfying and solid. It turns quietly, smoothly and with very little resistance to it, so you can give it a spin with your fingers and it will turn for just a little bit longer. In contrast to the dials it is not a stepped wheel, it’s more a flywheel of some sorts. The entire center of the wheel is, again, a fully-fledged touchscreen. And it is, again, highly customizable. Of course, color grading springs to mind immediately. Working With the Loupedeck CT I was lucky enough to work with this panel over the course of a few weeks now and I must say, I’m impressed of the build quality and the overall look’n’feel of the Loupedeck CT. It really is a step up from their older decks as well as many other solutions out there. What Loupedeck wanted to achieve is to create one universal device for many creative applications and purposes. So it offers everything you’d need: dials, buttons, touchscreens, even a giant wheel. The question is: Is a universal control surface capable of satisfying all the needs one might have for a specific application? Well, since this a video-centric news outlet, I only tested the Loupedeck CT with certain applications. Premiere Pro, a bit of After Effects and Photoshop. The current list of supported apps goes like this: Adobe Lightroom Classic Adobe Photoshop CC / Camera RAW Adobe Premiere Pro CC Apple Final Cut Pro X Adobe Illustrator Ableton Live Adobe After Effects Adobe Auditioon System (volume up/down, play/pause, brightness up/down, …) The list will be expanded over time. And to make things clear: These are not just mappings for a bunch of hotkeys, these are deep integrations into the given app, using api (application programming interface) protocols. DaVinci Resolve ? This deep integration is why, for example, Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve is not on this list. They simply don’t offer any third-party integration since they want to sell their own control surfaces. That’s of course fair enough but still a proper integration would be nice to see. If you’re wondering why Tangent devices or old Avid Artist panels are being supported by Blackmagic Design, these integrations come from a time before they were offering their own panels. They decided to not drop the support fo these existing devices but you can’t tweak the hard-coded mapping anymore. And sadly, new devices coming to market, like the Loupedeck CT, don’t get any love from DaVinci. So you see, Loupedeck can’t be blamed here, and neither can Blackmagic be blamed, they’re giving away an amazing piece of software for free basically. So it’s only fair to let them make some money with their own hardware (even though a low end version would be much appreciated). Loupedeck Profile Creator BUT, and here we come full circle to the very top of this review: Loupedeck just added a new feature to their configuration software called the Loupedeck Profile Creator. This is not a fully-fledged api-driven deep integration but it’s the next best thing they actually could pull of without any help from Blackmagic Design (or any other company for their applications). With the Loupedeck Profile Creator you can build your own profile for any app you like. Just use the Loupedeck software to drag’n’drop custom hotkey, makros (a sequence of multiple hotkey or combinations of them) and other functions directly to a button or dial or the touch wheel of the Loupedeck CT. Sure, you can do most of this with your existing keyboard but since the Loupedeck CT offers 1) dials, 2) that touch wheel and 3) virtual buttons with custom labels since they’re tiny screens, your mapping will be much more intuitive and pleasant to work with. However, as stated above, the level of integration is not as deep as with the pre-configured profiles the Loupedeck CT comes with. For example you can’t map the touch wheel to manipulate the gamma control in primary wheels within DaVinci Resolve since there’s simply no shortcut for it you could map. You can place your mouse on a certain control and fine-tune it with a mouse-vertical or mouse-horizontal mapping to the touch wheel and it does improve the accuracy big times over just using the mouse but you still have to grab the mouse and drag it over to that control. You also can use the mouse: vertical and mouse: horizontal tools mapped to dials fo maneuvering the mouse on the screen. Once you hit a control on the screen, the mouse will dock to it and you now can control it with the given dial. However, this is a bit fiddly, indeed and I think using the real mouse here is the way to go. The good thing is that we’re solely talking software here, so everything could potentially be improved over time. We’ll see but the folks over at Loupedeck are certainly hard at work to deliver the best possible experience with the Loupedeck CT and the hardware is already absolutely well-made. Check out this 10-minute walkthrough of the new Loupedeck Profile Creator: The Software Talking about software, the heart of the Loupedeck is of course its software. No piece of computer hardware is worth anything without proper, well thought out software. Loupedeck offers the same app for all their devices and once you’ve selected your given panel you’ll be presented with the according UI. I’d say the Loupedeck software has a certain learning curve to it but once you know how it works, it just works. For novices, there’s a quick guide build right into the software with lots of illustrations and explanations. Neat! The main concept circles around Workspaces. You can flick through workspaces by clicking the round buttons labeled 1 to 8. Each workspace maps different functions to the touch buttons, touch strips (via the dials) and the touch wheel. Each of these elements can have multiple Pages whose can be accessed by swiping through them. The whole UX approach involves a consistent color scheme: Workspaces are green, Pages are indicated by a blue color and Actions come in purple. You also can map different pages to the touch buttons rather than just swiping through them. Same goes for workspaces, you can map these to either the round buttons, a touch button, or both. Pressing a key with an action (or a set of pre-recorded actions) assigned to it will execute that action. Same goes for rotating a dial, touching the center of the wheel and so on. The centering screen on the wheel can be configured in various ways, split in four pieces (think of a cake), split in two or three rows, map it to a play/pause button, whatever you want. Within Premiere’s color tab you can lift or lower the shadows/mid tones/highlights by rotating the wheel and manipulate the color by moving your finger around the center touchscreen. And because you don’t want to accidentally flick trough various pages while doing so, both Fn keys light up red by default in that mode in order to lock page-swiping. Again, very neat! Customizing Your Setup Of course the Loupedeck CT (or its software that is) is limited to whatever the api of a given app has to offer. While working in Premiere for example I created a new page for the touch wheel and I chose the 4-way split. The wheel now is mapped to jog 5 frames back and forth which I find is a sufficient speed for rushing through your timeline, the left and right of the touchscreen is for marking in and out and the bottom is for play/pause. That way I can flick through my timeline, perform quick ins and outs, press one of the touch buttons to perform a ripple delete and work my way through the entire timeline without ever touching the keyboard or mouse. The new custom profile creator offers presets for the following apps but you can of course create a profile for whatever app you want, just select the given app from a list and off you got. Every time you open up that app, the Loupedeck CT will auto-switch to the desired profile. Chrome Browser (Windows) Firefox Browser Microsoft Excel Microsoft Outlook Logic Pro X Cubase Pro/Elements 10.5 Avid ProTools 12.7 (Mac) iZotope RX7 DaVinci Resolve 16 Capture One Camera Bits PhotoMechanic Pixologic ZBrush Serato DJ Pro Spotify Of course you can tweak each of these profiles any way you want, just like the rest of the (deeper) integrated profiles. I’d say customizing your given setup takes time. But once you’re done it is a treat to use, really. Furthermore, Loupedeck has announced native (as in pre-configured through apis) integration with Streamlabs, a software used extensively by gamers and YouTubers around the globe. Since this is not exactly what cinema5D is all about I haven’t explored all the details of this new integration but it certainly sounds interesting. These are the main features of this latest deep integration: Control your stream easily by switching between your scenes Hide and unhide any unwanted sources or skip/mute events at any time Control the audio levels of your sources easily with the dials. Use the CT as a live video mixer in Streamlabs’ studio mode when broadcasting Competition There are a lot of panels out there. Some are meant to be used with just a single application (Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve Micro Panel for example), some are more flexible (Tangent Devices, Palette -now called Monogram-), some are not even meant to be used for controlling video related software (APC40 MK2 DaVinci Resolve Edition, MIDIGrade) but all of these devices try to help you improving your workflow with certain creative apps. Blackmagic Resolve Micro Panel I can’t test them all but I do have some experience with the DaVinci Panels and I also own an Elgato Stream Deck, which is just a tiny device with 15 customizable LCD buttons, very handy for often-used shortcuts and it even auto-switches between apps, just like the Loupedeck CT. Stream Deck vs. Stream Deck Mini. To be honest, the biggest downside of the DaVinci line of grading panels is also their biggest advantage: They are custom-build for just that one app. And they are perfect companions in that regard. But this perfect integration comes at a price: Outside of DaVinci Resolve they are useless and you can’t customize them at all. Miss a certain button? Buy the bigger panel! Enter stage the Loupedeck CT (and all the others multi-app controllers): They are much more versatile but they need to somehow balance between very different use-cases and applications. How to do that? In my opinion, the extensive use of highly customizable buttons with LCD screens (and touch capabilities) are the way to go. And the Loupedeck CT offers a good balance between moderate desk real estate and flexible layout with loads of possibilities. There’s one catch, though. I find that a device which aims to maybe not replace but extend the classic keyboard/mouse setup should offer features that the keyboard simply doesn’t have: Dials, faders, wheels. And more of them! A Few Downsides For my taste the Loupedeck could have even more dials, maybe a second (or third?) touch wheel and a few (maybe touch based) faders. But that’s just me trying to improve my color grading workflow with it. For somebody else the setup might just be perfect and to make it clear: This is the best multi-app hardware controller I’ve ever had the chance working with. Another slightly annoying thing are the arrow keys, they are not in a reversed T shape but in a plain square. Up/down in the upper row, left/right one row down. It fits the overall aesthetics of the panel, sure, but a normal reversed T would be much more intuitive I guess. I had some issues with the pre-mapped Shuttle layout for the touch wheel within Premiere Pro. In order to scroll through the timeline I needed to really creep the playhead through, once I turned the wheel just a tad too fast, the playhead would jump to the very end (or start) immediately. This is probably something that could be easily fixed in software, so not a big deal I think. Another minor wiggle is (at least for me) the absence of some more deep-level settings. For instance I can map ‘Mouse move: vertical’ to the touch wheel but I can’t reverse it. Turning the wheel counter-clockwise always translates to down, clockwise is always up. I’d like to be able to change that. In fact, it might be a good idea to redo the underlying software a little bit: As it is now you can choose from a (sometimes very) long list of actions and drag one of them to a certain button or dial or whatever you choose. But that’s it then, you can’t tweak that setting any further. My idea would be to map a given setting (for example: mouse drag) onto the touch wheel and then tweak it further from there, like mouse drag (with left key pressed), vertical. I think this would tidy things up a little bit within the configuration software. Again, once it’s done you never have to look at it again. So it’s a minor thing, really but it still might be helpful for setting the Loupedeck CT up. In order to mimic some of the deep integrations from within Premiere Pro I tried to map certain functions to the Loupedeck CT DaVinci Resolve custom profile. My goal was to label the six dials to settings like contrast, color temp, midtone detail, saturation etc. from the primaries wheels panel within the color room. This can be done via mouse drag (left) horizontal (move the mouse horizontally while click and hold the left button). But you first need to move the mouse over the given adjustment which defeats the purpose of using a dedicated panel a little bit of course. This is not Loupedeck’s fault, Blackmagic simply doesn’t offer that kind of control for third-parties but it’s still a bit of a disappointment. The Good Stuff This thing is highly customizable so even if your workflow is not 100% perfect yet, you probably can tweak the layout further. And I must say it’s really fun to fiddle around with the settings, layouts and mappings. Once you’re done it’s a setup once and forget operation. In regards of the custom profile creator you can even click on “get profiles..” in order to search online for existing profiles by the community (or by Loupedeck themselves). And of course you can tweak these presets to taste once you’ve downloaded them. Another neat feature is that you can import and export your custom mappings and profiles (this is especially important for the new custom profiles). The Loupedeck doubles as a USB thumb drive with 8GB worth of storage. That doesn’t seem much but it’s more than efficient for carrying around all the profiles you like without the need of carrying (and potentially forgetting) an extra USB drive. The USB-C cable is detachable. Since the lower casing of the Loupedeck CT is made out of plastic it opens up the possibility to let it communicate with your computer via Bluetooth. And that is a feature that seems to be coming to the Loupedeck CT soon, since it’s already enabled in the setting s but it still says that it will be available via software update soon. The implication here is it also has a build in battery I assume. And again, the addition of the custom profile creator the Loupedeck CT really has upped its game. Now you’re not reliant upon deep integrations offered by Loupedeck (and allowed by the software publisher) but you can create any profile you like. Sure, these custom profile don’t offer the same level of deep integration but we’ll see, maybe that changes over time. Since we’re talking software here everything goes. The hardware itself is very nicely done and I think it’s good for many years of extended use. Wrap Up I really enjoy working with the Loupedeck CT. It is pricey, yes, but it offers a lot of features and the new custom profile creator really pushes open the door for many new possibilities. Personally, I’d like to see even more dials and wheels but we’re looking at a solid piece of hardware here which is not only very potent feature-wise but also offers an elegant and well-made addition to your desk. The industrial design is well thought out and beautiful and the amount of possible setups is kind of endless. The best thing is that the Loupedeck CT is driven by software which can (and will) be improved over time. Other panels like the DaVinci control surfaces for example, are purpose-build devices and they can’t be improved via software update but maybe they don’t need to be updated because they are purpose build for one piece of software. Whether that’s a good thing or not is not for me to be judged, I think both approaches have their right to exist. You don’t want to ditch your keyboard or mouse while working with the Loupedeck CT, look at it as a (very capable) addition for your setup. You still have to move the mouse around the screen and you still have to type on your keyboard. As Loupedeck’s own user guide states: CT is not designed to eliminate all mouse usage. Moreover, with some functions, CT works best when it gets a little help from your mouse (e.g., selecting a clip with the mouse and then working with the clip with CT). With some actions, CT nicely takes the workload off the mouse, though – e.g., navigating through the timeline, moving clips, adjusting color, tuning transitions etc. I think that quote nails it quite well. The deeper the integration for a given app is, the better the CT works standalone but for some tasks you still need the mouse and/or the keyboard and that is fine I guess. It’s simply impossible to offer full standalone control with a single multi-app device like the Loupedeck CT. For what it is, it gets the job done and it’s really good at it! Full disclosure: Loupedeck sent me a Loupedeck CT at no cost. However, they did not ask for a particular opinion or anything other than my own thoughts about it, nor did they pay any money for this review. link: Homepage What do you think? Do you already use some kind of control surface your your given software? Which one? Share your experience in the comments below!

in these unpredictable times swift and non-bureaucratic help is of course very welcomed. Many members of the filmmaking community live in uncertainty about the near future, their jobs have been cancelled, new ones are out of reach for now. This obviously arises financially problems and Netflix, as one of the biggest content producer, knows this. So the company has put together a $100 million fund in order to help crews around the globe. image credit: Thibault Penin (via unsplash.com), edited by cinema5D. In order to help, Netflix decided to create a fund for easing out some of the troubles the COVID-19 pandemic causes all around the globe as we speak. The money is aimed at professionals working on Netflix productions but some of the money also goes to non-Netflix third parties and non-profits. Netflix Creates $100 Million Fund To explain what’s going on and for whom the money is exactly, I’ll quote Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer at Netflix on a news release from March, 20th: The Covid-19 crisis is devastating for many industries, including the creative community. Almost all television and film production has now ceased globally – leaving hundreds of thousands of crew and cast without jobs. These include electricians, carpenters, drivers, hair and makeup artists and more, many of whom are paid hourly wages and work on a project-to-project basis. This community has supported Netflix through the good times, and we want to help them through these hard times, especially while governments are still figuring out what economic support they will provide. So we’ve created a $100 million fund to help with hardship in the creative community. Netflix benefitted a lot from the rise of the internet and therefore from all the professional workers all over the globe who developed, shot and produced their ever-growing stream of content. Now it’s time for giving back. Mr. Sarandos continues: Most of the fund will go towards support for the hardest hit workers on our own productions around the world. We’re in the process of working out exactly what this means, production by production. This is in addition to the two weeks pay we’ve already committed to the crew and cast on productions we were forced to suspend last week. Now, not all of the $100 million will go straight to Netflix-contracted workers but also to third parties, such as TV Networks and other production companies as well as to non-profits. Mr. Sarandos again: Beyond helping workers on our own productions, we also want to support the broader film and television industry. So $15 million of the fund will go to third parties and non-profits providing emergency relief to out-of-work crew and cast in the countries where we have a large production base. In the United States and Canada non-profits already exist to do this work. We will be donating $1 million each to the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Covid-19 Disaster Fund, the Motion Picture and Television Fund and the Actors Fund Emergency Assistance in the US, and $1 million between the AFC and Fondation des Artistes. In other regions, including Europe, Latin America and Asia where we have a big production presence, we are working with existing industry organizations to create similar creative community emergency relief efforts. We will announce the details of donations to groups in other countries next week. So as with everything these days, an exact plan of action still needs to be figured out but it’s good to see that some of the heavyweights of the business step in when help is sorely needed. The Future is Unpredictable Since nobody knows when things will be back to somewhat normal, nobody knows whether this $100 million aid package will serve its purpose or whether it will end as a drop on a hot stone. Either way, the last paragraph of Ted Sarandos press release couldn’t be more on point: What’s happening is unprecedented. We are only as strong as the people we work with and Netflix is fortunate to be able to help those hardest hit in our industry through this challenging time. Let’s hope for the best, stay healthy and stay safe. links: Press release What do you think of this $100 Million fund? How are you affected by the ongoing crisis? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

If you’re handling really big files, and loads of them, this might be for you: File transfer service MASV keeps adding features and this time it’s about Amazon’s S3 cloud: Using a so-called MASV portal, your clients can upload files directly to the S3 cloud, so you don’t have to download said files and upload them again. Background image credit: MASV Why on earth should I make my client upload something to Amazon S3, instead of transferring it straight to me, you might ask? Well, this feature is more targeted at studios or post-pro houses, rather than indie filmmakers – but still, it’s a welcomed feature. Since many studios rely on Amazon’s S3 (as in Simple Storage Service) as the storage for their assets while working with several different contributors at the same time, things can get out of hand rather quickly. That’s where the new feature, called Deliver to Amazon S3, comes in handy. MASV – Upload Straight to S3 Your contributors won’t see any change, in fact, using the MASV portals is the same as always: Choose some (or loads of) files, click upload, done. The look and feel of your custom branded portal hasn’t changed. The new feature only reveals itself to you, the one who set up the portal in the first place. You can now fill in the details, in order to redirect uploads through a certain portal straight to your Amazon S3 bucket. MASV CEO Greg Wood puts it like this: MASV Portals is growing in popularity because it provides a simple, custom-branded way to gather assets from any number of contributors. Deliver to S3 makes it easy for non-technical contributors to securely upload to your Amazon S3 bucket. Being able to deliver straight to S3 through MASV skips the otherwise cumbersome process of downloading your contributors’ assets and then uploading them again to your S3 bucket. Again, this feature might not be for everyone, but it certainly is very handy for studios and other teams working with large(r) groups of contributors, in order to collect and gather files plus make them available for other team members. If you haven’t heard of MASV altogether, here’s a quick roundup (other cinema5D articles here and here):  It’s kind of similar to services like Wetranfer, but for bigger files and with more features. There’s no limit regarding file size and besides sending files, you also can receive files through custom branded portals, which can be embedded in your website, for example. Pricing (and Free Trial) Uploading any number of files is free of charge. Their business model only counts the amount of data delivered: $0.25/GB. Files are being stored for 10 days, you can extend that amount of time for $0.10/GB/month. Files up to 1TB can be transferred using a browser of your choice, for file sizes north of that you can deploy MASV’s app to transfer even bigger files. If you want to give MASV a try, you can sign up on their site for a 100GB free trial. What do you think? Did you ever use MASV before? Share your experiences in the comments below!

Even if you’re not a fanboy, you’ll have to admit that these Apple video ads are glorious. Shiny devices, lots of backlight, smooth camera moves. And the question is, how can you pull this off on your own, right? Syrp – the company behind the popular Magic Carpet Sliders and the Genie II – have released a video tutorial in which you get to learn it! Image credit: Syrp The video this article is all about is made entirely by the guys at Syrp. So be aware that they will use Syrp equipment to pull off most of the shots. Of course, you can use other gear and get similar results. There’s a lot of knowledge, useful advice and good, creative ideas within this video, so I wouldn’t label it as pure advertising. Using Syrp gear is one way of doing this, yet certainly not the only way. Syrp Tutorial – Creating Apple-like Ads A great deal of the magic here is created through the skilful use of lighting. A rather subtle but strong backlighting shapes the device and adds contrast. In combination with the movement of 1) the camera, 2) the device itself and 3) some of the lights, it creates cinematic shots. Watch the full tutorial below and let us know what you think! The main takeaway from the video is –in my opinion– this: You don’t need uber-expensive gear, a crew of at least 50, and two truckloads of lighting gear in order to create stunning results. The clever combination of movement and lighting – especially contrast and post production – enables filmmaker to shoot really cool stuff nowadays, with only the imagination as the real limit. High quality LED lighting gear is pretty much affordable, and same goes for motion control equipment. Sub-10K cameras are very, very capable these days and some high-level post production tools are free to use. The video above would have been near to impossible to shoot for a mortal indie filmmaker 5 years back. Now? No problem! Image credit: Syrp The video was published in tandem with a more in-depth article, which you can read here. Again, you may replace any dedicated Syrp gear with other products – there’s plenty of other decent products out there. I think it’s pretty cool for a company to produce tutorial videos like this for fellow filmmakers (even if they contain some product placements). The information delivered is simply valuable. If this is the future of advertising, I’m a happy man. Links: Blog Post What do you think? Is this video valuable for you? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Quick heads up for anybody who’s working with Blackmagic Design’s range of capture and playback devices such as UltraStudio or  DeckLink. Version 11.5 of Blackmagic’s own Desktop Video software adds support for HDR for Premiere Pro and fixes a bunch of issues related to those devices. image credit: Blackmagic Design In today’s world, a given piece of hardware is only half the story. The other, sometimes even more significant part lies in its software. And since software, in contrast to most hardware, can be updated by the user some fresh lines of code can extend the lifespan of your given hardware significantly. In the case of Blackmagic Design’s Desktop Video software, we’re talking HDR. Desktop Video Software 11.5 If your workflow involves HDR and your weapon of choice is Adobe Premiere Pro this update is for you. Desktop Video software ver. 11.5 adds HDR functionality to the following hardware: UltraStudio 4K Mini UltraStudio 4K Extreme 3 DeckLink 8K Pro DeckLink 4K Extreme 12G Avid Artist DNxIQ and Avid Artist DNxID Desktop Video Software install screen. Image credit: Blackmagic Design Furthermore ver. 11.5 fixes some nagging issues with prior versions: Fix issue in Adobe Premiere Pro that might cause timeline to flash. Fix issue with analog audio level sliders in admin utility on UltraStudio 4K Extreme 3. Improve compatibility with UHD RGB formats on DeckLink Mini Recorder 4K. Fix audio muting issue in Adobe Premiere Pro after moving clips on the timeline during playback. Add ability to recover from failed firmware update for DeckLink PCIe devices. General performance and stability improvements for all models. One more thing: Please note that, since Windows 7 has been branded EOL (end of life), this is the last version of Desktop Video to support Windows 7. Time to upgrade, people! Range of UltraStudio capture/playback devices. Image credit: Blackmagic Design Make sure to read the full change log as well as certain notes on minimum system requirements found in Blackmagic Design’s Support document here. A full manual can be downloaded here. If you’re a developer you also can code your own software in order to interact with the above hardware devices with an all new SDK, which can be found (and downloaded) here. Range of DeckLink capture/playback devices. Image credit: Blackmagic Design Links: UltraStudio | DeckLink Do you use one of the above devices? Is this a update you’ve been waiting for? Let us know in the comments below!

Remember Lutify.me? A neat online service for creating and managing your desired looks (and LUTs) online. Read our full coverage here and here. This time around the creative people behind Lutify have added 11 iconic Hollywood looks to the library of available and ready-to-use LUTs. “Once upon a time in Hollywood” LUT. Image credit: Lutify.me Lutify.me is a subscription-based app which lives in your web browser. So you can access, create and manage all of your looks in one tidy place which is accessible wherever you go. So far so good, but what’s the deal you might ask? Well, to me the real benefit is the 100% visual approach: Instead of flicking through folders and folders of LUTs, with Lutify you can check the outcome of a certain LUT on an actual still image of your choice. Once you’ve found a fitting LUT you can tweak it to perfection and then export it as a new LUT file for immediate use in your host app of choice. You can even export monitor LUTs (Arri .aml format, Panasonic .vlt format and IPP2 tailored .cube). Lutify.me Update – Hollywood Looks In this update, Lutify have added 11 looks in total, covering 8 iconic Hollywood movies and one Netflix series: MIL-The Joker.cube MIL-Ozark.cube MIL-Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Sunny and Interior.cube MIL-Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Overcast.cube MIL-Mandalorian.cube MIL-Life Aquatic.cube MIL-Jarhead.cube MIL-Hurt Locker 2.cube MIL-Hurt Locker 1.cube MIL-Fury.cube MIL-1917.cube “Ozark” LUT. Image credit: Lutify.me On top of that, they have updated two already existing LUTs: MIL-Get Out.cube MIL-Serpico.cube All of the above LUTs are available in several formats: Rec709, generic Log, IPP2, Lightroom profiles, Capture One styles and the aforementioned monitoring LUTs. For a full changlelog (including earlier versions), please refer to this site. “the Hurt Locker” LUT. Image credit: Lutify.me Since we’re talking Lutify.me here, all the neat features are available with these new LUTs, too: Stacking several LUTs on top of each other, tweak the intensity, control various aspects of a given LUT. However, not every feature is included in each plan available. To get the most of of Lutify’s LUT Previewer, you’ll need to get the Professional Plan. Pricing As stated above, the LUT Previewer is a subscription-based service. Three tiers are available as we speak: Basic, Standart, and Professional. image credit: Lutify.me It’s worth mentioning that each plan falls back to $19.90/year after the first year. So I think only the Professional tier makes real sense here, since it gives you the ability to actually export LUTs. It’s nice to see that Lutify is constantly updating their product and keep adding features and fresh LUTs to play with. Not everybody is a fan of yet another subscription-based service but since this one is somewhat moderately priced, I think it’s well worth a closer look if you’re working with LUTs a lot. “The Mandalorian” LUT. Image creit: Lutify.me All the new looks are already available, so once you’re logged into your account you’re good to go. If you don’t have an account yet you can check out the new looks here. Links: Website What do you think? Do you already use Lutify? Share your experiences in the comments below!

We met up with Ollie Kenchington –a dear colleague to the cinema5D family– at this year’s BSC Expo in London to talk about his freshly launched online service JustGrade.it. It works like this: Upload your film, it then will work its way through a pro color correction / grading pipeline and will be sent back to you upon completion. Simple as that. image credit. justgrade.it Colour correction and grading, no easy topics to tackle even if you are an advanced filmmaker. Once you’re done shooting dull-looking log files and smash some fancy off-the-shelf LUTs onto them, you know what I’m talking about. In order to let these grayish-toned images really shine through color grading you’ll need a decent starting point: Colour correction (I’m using the British notation here, since I don’t want to get in trouble with Ollie, really). Or, as Mr. Kenchington himself puts it: Most filmmakers just need their projects to look crisp, clean, realistic and consistent. There’s no LUT for that, but there’s Just Grade It So, I’d like to call it “Colour Correction +” what most filmmakers are after. Fancy tinted highlights, Loads of film grain and shadows lifted by 150% might look cool once but most of the time you are most likely after that consistent, balanced and clean look, founder Ollie Kenchington is talking about. JustGrade.it – Professional Colour The newly launched service works like this: Upload your final edit (still in LOG) as one flattened file. Your film will be processed by certified DaVinci Resolve professionals who will 1) scene cut the delivered edit, 2) work through the whole piece in order to white-balance it, setting proper levels, adjust contrast and skin tones and de-noise the footage if necessary. As a final step, the whole piece will undergo a continuity pass to make sure each clip matches the next one perfectly. image credit: justgrade.it No fancy effects here, black will be black, white will still be white. Once your film went through the justgrade.it pipelines, you’ll be notified to download the finished piece. What you get is a perfectly balanced look, nice skin tones, pleasing contrast, and a clean, crisp look. image credit: justgrade.it If you want to, you now can add your desired color grading, which now can be built on a very solid foundation. Since color grading, in contrast to color correction, is a rather subjective process, an art if you will, justgrade.it can’t offer anything like it. The whole benefit of getting professional results fast would be eaten up by multiple rounds of revisioning the look. if you want a full end to end color treatment, you will have to choose a more traditional –and more expensive– way: Hiring a colorist. image credit: justgrade.it In order to benefit from this new service you just have to follow some simple rules: No fancy effects on top of your edit! Just the plain, flattened (log) edit. Plain fades to black or cross dissolves can be handled but nothing more. If a complex transition is in place which can’t be color corrected properly, justgrade.it will provide you with two LUTs, one for the incoming clip and one for the outgoing clip. You then can add these LUTs in your NLE. Please also make sure to read the FAQs and especially the quality disclaimer in order to understand what’s possible and what is not. Pricing and Turnaround Time Pricing starts at £69 ($90 / 80€) per minute of delivered film. This ad-hoc purchase supports footage up to 8192 x 4320 8K resolution and up to HDR Rec.2020 formats. Turnaround is 2-3 days. You also can test the service by sending in a 10-sec snippet in up to 2048 x 1080 2K resolution in SDR Rec.709. You’ll get a free-of-charge color corrected deliverable in about 3-5 days. image credit: justgrade.it Other (monthly paid) plans are available for more advanced users. I think this service is quite unique! It somewhat fits closes the gap between ultra-expensive post houses with fancy suites on the one side of the spectrum and you’re $49.99 LUT bundle on the other end. image credit: justgrade.it If you’re a skilled colorist or at least someone with the time and passion to climb the rather steep learning curve of color correction and grading, you can do it all yourself. If, however, you can’t or don’t want to spare the time and effort to get the most out of your footage fast, justgrade.it might be a decent solution for you! link: Website What do you think of this new service? Would you give something like this a shot? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

This monitor does not call for revolution, but since the all-new SmallHD 2403 High Bright comes with a new logo, a new lightweight design, a lower price tag and a whooping 1600 nits of brightness, it does proclaim evolution, indeed! image credit: smallHD The smallHD 2403 High Bright is meant to live on professional film sets, especially if the script calls for “EXT. – DAY”. With a claimed brightness of 1600 nits, even direct sunlight shouldn’t be too much of an issue for this monitor. SmallHD 2403 High Bright Production Monitor SmallHD now uses a restyled logo, and this monitor appears to be the first product to have the honor of bearing it. Along with this redesign, the 2403 High Bright sports a newly designed lightweight, yet rugged,  aluminum chassis. And of course the price for these high-performance panels has dropped over time. The original 2403 HDR monitor from a few years back almost doubled the price tag of this $2,999 High Bright model. image credit: smallHD In terms of technical specifications, this 2403 High Bright monitor seems to be a true professional production tool: 24″ IPS LCD / 1920 x 1080 pixels milled aluminum housing daylight viewable display (1600 nits) 13.9 lb / 6.3 kg pre-calibrated panel with 100% Rec 709 coverage 2x 3G-SDI inputs / 2x 3G-SDI outputs HDMI input/output headphone jack XLR power input (12-34V DC) / 2-pin locking power output (12V, 4A) image credit: smallHD Of course you’ll find plenty of mounting options around the frame, including ARRI locking 3/8″ mounts. For easy hauling around set, the 2403 High Bright also features a handle. Software Features The smallHD 2403 High Bright sports the latest iteration of the company’s own operating system, simply called OS 3. Watch the video below to get a glimpse of its features: The OS3 software lets you dial in all the familiar tools such as focus peaking, waveform, custom guides or false color. You even can display two individual video feeds side by side. However, SmallHD will soon (maybe it’s ready by the time the 2403 High Bright is ready for shipping) release OS4 with even more tools and features. That OS upgrade will be free of charge. image credit: smallHD This new monitor really seems to be a decent successor to the aging 2403 HDR. It’s lighter, more affordable, brighter and more versatile in terms of ongoing software updates. There’s no word on things like bit depth or contrast ratio, unfortunately but I doubt it’s a true 10-bit panel. As mentioned earlier, we’re not witnessing a revolution here but a very welcomed evolution of professional on-set monitoring. Pricing and Availability The price is set to $2,999 USD and it should be ready for shipping around late March, early April 2020. If you happen to be in the London area you can visit smallHD’s booth at the BSC show for a hands-on with the 2403 High Bright. The show takes place as we speak. image credit: smallHD link: Website What do you think about this new production monitor? Worth a close look? Share your thoughts in the comments below!