The 3 x 45’ documentaries were developed by Munich production house, South&Browse Fictual, part of South&Browse GmbH, and edited by Sebastian Riezler of Aufschnitt TV.     

“The TerraX format has been part of prime time German TV for many years, covering a huge range of topics, from significant historical events, to space exploration, to geographical wonders of the world,” explains Sebastian. “I’d worked on previous TerraX productions, and was brought into the project to share my creative and technical experience with the format.”     

Sebastian explains that he chose to edit in DaVinci Resolve Studio, primarily because the documentaries had to be delivered in both SDR and HDR. “For our previous projects, we had to roundtrip, which made the post process complex and unwieldy, so we decided to stay within DaVinci Resolve for a more streamlined approach.”     

The three documentaries form part of a ‘One Moment in History’ season and examine key events including the ‘Völkerschlacht bei Leipzig’ (Battle of Nations), the biggest battle fought on European soil in the 19th century, the assassination of Julius Caesar and the storming of the Bastille.     

Each program features a reenactment of the events, which the host can ‘freeze’ and walk through the set, interacting with characters and props. Interviews with historians, some filmed with the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K, are interspersed throughout the sequences.     

“As all of the separate elements were filmed with different cameras and frame rates, there was a lot to do to make sure the edit flowed seamlessly,” continues Sebastian. “In the films there are a lot of moments where the movement completely stops, and here I used speed ramps to 0% with Resolve’s Optical Flow, which delivered impressive results.”     

During the initial rough cut of the films, Sebastian relied on the DaVinci Resolve Editor Keyboard to help speed up his work. “The keyboard and Cut Page work so well together, and made a big difference to the heavy lifting you often have to do at the beginning of a project,” he explains. “From an ergonomic perspective, the shuttle wheel was excellent.”     

“Although every TerraX documentary has its own style and identity, they all have to be finished to the same high standard,” concludes Sebastian. “The DaVinci Resolve post pipeline gave us a firm and flexible foundation for multiple, high quality deliverables for a prime time format and freed up the team to focus on bringing as much creativity as possible to the productions.”     

Press Photography  

Product photos of DaVinci Resolve Studio, DaVinci Resolve Editor Keyboard and Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K, as well as all other Blackmagic Design products, are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/images.    

 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 Emmyâ„¢ 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 www.blackmagicdesign.com.