Mitsubishi Outlander Television Commercial Graded with DaVinci Resolve
Fremont, CA - October 14, 2014 - Blackmagic Design today announced that the latest television commercial for Mitsubishi’s hybrid car, the Outlander PHEV, was graded using DaVinci Resolve by Tokyo based production and post production company Helmet Inc., founded by Horibe Toshi.
Helmet also used Blackmagic Design’s SmartScope Duo monitor and UltraStudio 4K capture and playback device to complete the commercial, which is airing throughout Japan. .
Outlander PHEV is the latest crossover SUV from Mitsubishi and is the world’s first 4WD plugin hybrid SUV. Helmet, a boutique production company known for its visually stunning commercials and music videos, showed the power and elegance of the new PHEV by featuring the SUV driving through the majestic landscapes of New Zealand.
“The goal for this commercial was to show the audience the coolness and power of the car. People have the impression that a hybrid car is a family or city car. However, we wanted to emphasize that the hybrid car is not just for city use by showing it driving around rough mountain roads. We shot in New Zealand for three weeks, and we shot in 4K or 5K so that we could resize in post production,” explained Takashi Chiba, a cinematographer at Helmet, who shot and color graded the commercial.
“I took a lot of care to make the car look really cool,” said Chiba. Many car commercials for family or city use tend to have a soft and less contrasty look, however, with this commercial Helmet tried to show a sharper image of the car. “I tried to create a look which is sharper and more contrasty look so that the car looked powerful and classy.”
He continued: “When we went back to our hotel after each day’s shooting, we picked the best takes. We then applied gamma for the cameras we used for shooting and exported as ProRes 422 LT for offline. We did the offline edit when we came back to Japan using XML files to pass around data with Resolve.”
When grading the commercial on DaVinci Resolve, Chiba had to reproduce the body color of the car and the natural colors in the nature. “I used Power Windows to make masks and added more contrast to the pale blue color of the body. Also I used Resolve’s sharpen tool to make the edge of the car more obvious, which gave a cooler look to the car. Also, since some of shots were done on cloudy days, the backlit shots tended to make the color green a bit too dark, so we used Resolve’s curves functions to bring some green back.”
Chiba and his crew also used an UltraStudio 4K for monitoring DaVinci Resolve’s output, as well as a SmartScope Duo for waveform monitoring in their Tokyo offices. And they use a wide range of Blackmagic products, such as Audio Monitor, Teranex 2D Processor and Mini Converters, in their day to day work.
“Blackmagic products have a consistency in their design, so they look very nice when mounted together in a rack. We sometimes bring Blackmagic equipment in a fly away kit to use on set. Helmet Inc., owns its own equipment, allowing us to do everything in house, such as planning, directing, shooting and editing. Resolve is a powerful tool for jobs which require flexibility and speed, and we are now planning to do more on set grading with Resolve,” concluded Chiba.
The television commercial video can be viewed here, Product photos of DaVinci Resolve and all other Blackmagic Design products are available here. Further story Photos are also available here
About Blackmagic Design
Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/au.
About New Magic Australia Pty Ltd (Australian and New Zealand Blackmagic Design master distributor)
New Magic Australia Pty Ltd is a recognised leader in the distribution and marketing of multimedia hardware and software, representing a carefully selected range of innovative, leading manufacturers and catering for both the professional and consumer markets. New Magic Australia established in 1993 is the Australian distributor of Blackmagic Design, Convergent Design, Hauppauge Computer Works Inc, Cubix, Matrox Video and Sony Creative Software products. www.newmagic.com.au
