tv series: Patrice Lemieux 24/7

tv series: Patrice Lemieux 24/7

This was a quick but exciting project. Patrice Lemieux 24/7 is a 10-episodes original series for Super Écran, a French-Canadian movie Network. This is their first original series.

Through the 10 episodes, we follow Patrice Lemieux, a well known Canadian hockey player that represents all the pre-made ideas and cliches you’ve know about hockey players. Built as a faux-reality show, each episodes let us follow Lemieux and it’s family’s not so ordinary day-today life.

The show, produced by KOTV, was shot by Pat Morin on Sony F55 in HD SR LT. Everyday, the shot were converted to DNxHD with a LUT I built for the show. As the show had to be graded on Mistika at Slik, I didn’t have the tools to create 3D LUTs in the station so I used LightSpace CMS and graded a plate over their LUT templates. It was then translated to a .3DL for the dailies created in Resolve and to an .itx for quick grades in Mistika.

The final look is a rich but true to reality render of the set. The director wanted to stay on the thin line between reality tv and fiction. So contrasts were pushed a little more than usual and skin tones were brought toward some pinkish hues.

This was my first full gig on Mistika. I had done commercials and graded a tv series but, on this one, I had to do the online too. So, all the credits, overlays and bumpers were added in the same session as the grading. We were also able to do most of the VFX and comps in the Mistika. We often had to hide a logo, remove a mic pole or replace a sign. It all went smoothly.

 

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I can’t put a whole show but here is a teaser:

Patrice Lemieux 24/7 À SUPER ÉCRAN dès le 4 mai from Bell Media Télé on Vimeo.

Grading a tv series with Mistika

Grading a tv series with Mistika

I got a call from Slik, a Montreal-based post house, when they got their Mistika workstation. After a little training and a couple of friendly gigs we got our first real grading job on a tv series.

MED is a comedy adapted from the French hit SODA. Three teens are presented in various situations that both young and old can relate too. The first show aired in January 2015 on Vrak 2 in Quebec.

SGO, the company behind Mistika, is featuring an article on the grading process used on MED on its website:

http://www.sgo.es/2015/02/slik-creates-the-edgy-urban-look-for-new-tv-series-med/

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Tips: Mistika shortcut list

Tips: Mistika shortcut list

I started working on Mistika this summer when Slik, one of my clients bought a Mistika station to replace their Avid DS station. I’ve been learning more and more every time I’ve have the chance to get my hand on the station. One thing I found that was missing to help me in my learning experience is was a shortcut list that would gather all the ready to use shortcuts in one handy document.

On SGO’s forum, they suggest to open the keyboard shortcut config file in a text editor but I find this solution risky and hard to read. So I decided to edit my own Mistika shortcut list and share it with you.

I’ve gathered the default shortcut on Mistika 8.2. There are many more shortcuts that you can customize by opening the shortcut config file but I’ve started with those. If I find that some important shortcuts are missing feel free to suggest some modification.

Here is the link to the Mistika shortcut list in PDF: http://ilovehue.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Mistika823_shortcuts.pdf

TVC: Guignolée des médias 2014

TVC: Guignolée des médias 2014

I’ve been asked by Philippe Fafard at Slik if I’d be available to grade the 2014 TVC campaign for La Guignolée des Médias and I obliged.  La Guignolée des Médias happens once a year in Quebec. On that day, all the broadcasters, papers and other medias gather to raise money and food for the ones in need. So when Slik asked me if I’d be interested in the project, I volunteered.

The TVC was edited in 3 version: a 60sec, a 30sec and a 15sec. They concept was created but TamTam/TWBA, produced by JetFilms and directed by Mélanie Charbonneau. It was shot on ARRI Alexa by Mathieu Laverdière in Log C. This is one of the only time where I had to desaturate and lower the contrast of a LogC shot tv commercial. I was suggest to cut on saturation to push even more the feeling of emotional distress of the main character, a mother who looses her job and struggles with the daily task of feeding her children. In the final, it was very efficient.

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This gig was also my first TVC gig on Mistika. After trying ourselves at smoother project we decided that it was time to push the Mistika. We graded the 3 versions of the edit quite well and integrated the logos end texts. We really pushed it when time came to time to paint out the advertisements on the side of a moving bus and the logo on a hat. Well, actually, it was pretty easy using the integrated compositing and tracking tools. The paint tool also came in handy to remove the ads.

Wa also stabilized a couple of shots. Mistika has been very efficient to stabilize on axis while just smoothing the other ones.