Q: What is it about Assimilate’s SCRATCH v8 that makes it a must-have for post-production professionals? Can you share some of its major features?
Try SCRATCH v8 for a 90-day free trial and experience why SCRATCH is everything a digital cinema or broadcast post artist needs for 2D and 3D productions: One comprehensive and robust end-to-end imaging tool set -- from data management to conform, color grading, versioning, compositing, playback, and finishing -- for nearly all digital workflows, including RED, ARRI, Sony F65 and F55, Canon 5D, Phantom, Go Pro and many more.
**Product feature highlights for SCRATCH v8: **
- Runs on Windows and Mac OS X
- Apple-licensed ProRes Software Encoding on Windows
- True ProRes 442, HQ, LT, proxy and 4444 encoding
- Correct bit depth - 10 or 12 bits per component
- Optimized for FCP
- Officially licensed from Apple
- 4K turnkey DI and finishing systems priced at previously seen for 2K
- Support 4K SDI and HDMI monitoring via Blackmagic DeckLink 4K Extreme and UltraStudio 4K for Thunderbolt solutions
- Cloud-enabled workflow for multi-site or global real-time collaboration
- Support for RED GPU Debayering (including multiple GPUs)
- ACES 0.70, including the RRT and standard ODT
- Cinecraft’s industry-leading H.264 encoding
- Sony’s new slog3 color / gamma space
**
Q: Where did the idea for SCRATCH come from, and what has been the feedback on it thus far?**
In 2004, the company founders (Gerk Huisma, Nacho Mazzini, Jeff Edson, and Jim Meadlock) shared a common vision that the filmmaking industry would greatly profit from the productivity and financial benefits of real-time digital post-production tools running on PCs (and now Mac) systems, i.e. comparable performance of the “big iron” systems at a fraction of the cost.
As a pioneer of the digital revolution in cinema, the ASSIMILATE team developed the SCRATCH product line to empower large studios, indie filmmakers, boutique post houses, and post-production professionals with a suite of highly affordable digital DI tools that would run on optimized PCs (and Macs) with a streamlined, data-centric, and real-time 2K (and 4K) pipeline.
Our customers tell us they highly value ASSIMILATE’s 1) immediate and global technical support, 2) advanced product features for finishing, and 3) responsiveness to customer/market requests for new features, fixes, and upgrades to meet their specific project needs.
**Q: Who are the typical clientele using SCRATCH?
**The global list of SCRATCH customers ranges from large studios to indies and boutique post and VFX houses, including Bavaria Film Production (full-enterprise deployment), Chilefilms, Cinesite, Deluxe, FuseFX, Katabatic Digital, Local Hero Post, Marvel, NBC Universal, Stephen Soderberg, Stuck On On, Technicolor, and more. To see an extensive client list, visit www.assimilateinc.com
Q: What trends in production do you see on the horizon?
Two key trends: 1) Highly secure and cost-effective cloud-based workflows for global, regional, or enterprise collaboration; 2) 4k post-production workflows.
**Q: Where do you see the future of Assimilate headed? **
According to Steve Bannerman, VP Marketing at ASSIMILATE, Cloud-based workflows are absolutely the future of making feature films, television shows and commercials, but the cloud needs to offer real services - not just a place to store media. The MyASSIMILATE cloud workflow enables a completely new level of collaboration by smashing the barriers of location and proximity. Today’s production and post-production environments demand a flexible, mobile workforce, and artists need to respond to that flexibility by contributing to projects without constantly up-ending their lives and families. Using MyASSIMILATE, artists can now fully collaborate on any SCRATCH or SCRATCH Lab project, in real-time, or offline, using any of the features of the application - regardless of where they happen to be.”
learn more: http://www.assimilateinc.com/products/scratch
