Studio Hamburg: post-producing a daily series with a DaVinci-based workflow

DaVinci Resolve Studio (Blackmagic Design) becomes the editing and grading platform for the daily series 'Rote Rosen', drama produced by Studio Hamburg series shipyard that is broadcast on the channel The First (ARD) for two decades.

4,200 48-minute episodes, which must be delivered day by day: this is the demanding work pace of Studio Hamburg in Red roses, whose workflows had begun to show significant limitations in recent years due to “rigid and expensive to maintain” systems. Given this situation, Jonathan Happ, post-production supervisor of the production company, decided to start introducing Blackmagic Design in certain parts of the workflow, such as automatic dialogue replacement (ADR), visual effects (VFX) and audio cleanup.

"Everything revolved around .AFF files, outsourcing grading and sound transfer, this implied a logistical cost that did not help production. We needed a unified system that would allow us to be part of the editing and not the data traffic," he recalls. Happ, who also emphasizes that this same “lack of control” forced them to have to depend on third-party companies. external services: "Every month, a large part of the budget was allocated to those suppliers. We did not own the tools, we did not have the infrastructure."

When Happ tested the voice tools (AI) using DaVinci Resolve Studio to clean up some very pronounced background noise in his own material, a turning point occurred. The speed and clarity of results prompted him to present the results to the entire team Red roses: “After that test, it was clear to the entire team that we could use Resolve for more of the work that we had previously outsourced.”

DaVinci: a transversal application in Red roses

Currently, DaVinci Resolve Studio occupies a central place in the new work dynamic within the company, which ranges from editing, visual effects, grading, audio and delivery; all this, backed by a NAS server which works with an open source program: "It costs a quarter of what we had been budgeted. Having implemented the use of Resolve gives us the freedom to connect our own APIs and manage storage space as appropriate, and also eliminates the bottlenecks generated by licenses. In addition, increasing our capabilities no longer involves duplicating the infrastructure as before."

Studio Hamburg has also introduced API-based automations for various aspects such as reviewing exported files, task management, submissions to music composers, metadata transfers and other routine submissions, helping to reduce repetitive monitoring work and giving the post-production team more predictable control over daily operations.

Editors can also create templates Fusion in advance to apply simple effects, which previously had to be outsourced, while production is also developing grading styles that are not compatible with the previous work system. The new workflow also simplifies the recruitment. In this regard, Happ noted that the team “finds it easier to hire inexperienced editors who are already familiar with DaVinci Resolve Studio.”

In turn, given that the work system is now more efficient, daily costs have been reduced: "Eliminating the process of exporting files between editing, audio, coding and effects programs represents a saving of 10 to 15 hours per week. It also means that we no longer follow a reactive process and we can think more clearly about production needs," concludes Happ.