RALEIGH, NC - Serious Robots (www.seriousrobots.com) recently finished Discovery Channels' four part series FutureCar in high definition. The series takes viewers to the year 2030 to give
them a glimpse of future automobile design and technology.
FutureCar creators CBS Eye Too
Productions split the series into four distinct episodes: "The Extremes," "The
Body," "The Fuel," and "The Brain."
"We were eager to tailor a specific offline-to-online HD
work path that accommodated a battery of up- and down-converts and SD and HD
deliverables, as well as make a collective effort to meet a challenging
schedule," explains Serious Robots' editor Scott Roy. "Since the offlines were
being done in New York by CBS Eye Too, we wanted to find ways to get our camps
integrated with one another and to ensure that the HD online would go smoothly."
Roy says the SD offlines, created on Avid Media Composers, were cut at the
23.976 frame rate to ensure online conforms were accurate for the required
1920x1080 23.98PsF HD deliverables.
"Avid has made it very easy to migrate projects from SD to
HD," Roy notes. "We used Avid project files directly from CBS, converted them
through Avid MediaLog, and conformed them on our Avid DS Nitris."
Once each episode was conformed, Roy led the Serious Robots team in providing
color correction, composites, design and graphics.
The FutureCar series prompted Serious
Robots to invest in a Sony SRW-5500 HDCAM SR deck, which enabled the post house
to perform format conversions and universal mastering for the entire program.
In addition to Roy, Joe Wilson also provided online editing for the series. Dave
Hogan and Clifton Armstrong served as assistant editors.
FutureCar premiered
in standard definition on Discovery Channel in February and will air in HD in
April on DiscoveryHD Theater.