Another sign of how 4K or Ultra HD is beginning to make its mark in new TV series production could be found in the May 26 launch of 15 new episodes of Arrested Development on Netflix.
The fourth season of the production streamed in HD over Netflix but was shot on Red cameras, which allowed creators to use both HD and 4K raw footage in post-production.
In post, Shapeshifter provided a wide variety of services for its client, Dakota Pictures.
As part of that work, Shapeshifter combined RAW camera footage in its native 4K resolution with other traditional HD sources.
This footage was shared facility-wide via a hi-speed SAN network, accessed by Shapeshifter's Blackmagic Resolve, Avid Symphony and VFX workstations.
Dakota Pictures' post supervisor Lincoln Sevier explained in a statement that "during the editing of Arrested Development, we took full advantage of the 4K image captured in the field by our Red Epic cameras. Show creator Mitch Hurwitz would sometimes ask for shots to be blown up as much as
300%."
"Because of this, it was important that we online the episodes using the original Red media instead of a 1920x1080 conversion," he continued. "I knew the Davinci Resolve had this ability, but needed a skilled colorist and facility that were ready to take on a project the size of Arrested Development," which led to their decision to use colorist Randy Coonfield at Shapeshifter.
