Montreal-based Discreet Logic is positioning the latest incarnation of Fire, version 2.5, as a comprehensive resolution-independent, online nonlinear editing solution to address the present and future needs of post shops.

According to those who are using the system, Fire provides a viable editing option to bring to current and sought-after segments of the market, and, since Fire addresses concerns of high-definition capability, users see it as an equipment investment that will help carry them into the next era of TV production.

Two Toronto shops, Command Post/TOYBOX and DAVE have made the investment in Fire based on its HD readiness and its ease of integration with the other high-end systems already in the shops.

Here, representatives of both shops discuss the characteristics of Fire and how the system figures into their existing equipment lineups and offer their views on where the post business is headed.

Discreet Logic, which recently signed an agreement to be acquired by San Rafael, California-based Autodesk, created Fire as an online nonlinear system to provide noncompressed 4:4:4 video quality and a number of effects tools with a picture-based editing interface.

Fire 2.5, says Daniel Collin, Discreet’s director, advanced editing, represents a number of significant improvements over the previous version of the system. Along with 2.5’s resolution-independent architecture, for potential high-definition capability, the new version provides for 12 programmable layers of DVE (versus four in the previous system) and 3D text support.

Discreet has also introduced new project management features, SMPTE wipes, an enhanced character generator and EDL management tool.

The new version also represents an improvement in library compatibility with other Discreet advanced systems products like Flame and Inferno to facilitate the seamless sharing of clips between two systems.

‘Some customers run both systems (e.g. Inferno and Fire) from one machine,’ says Collin. ‘This means they can switch easily between products. If they are working on an editing job and need heavier special effects capability, they can switch to Inferno to do effects then switch back to Fire.’

Collin points to a strong interactive work flow, not only in the editing realm but also in compositing, and a flexible open architecture with support for over 250 plug-in effects as key features.

Integration with current shop configurations emerged as a highly salient point for the post shops which have bought into Fire.

DAVE senior editor Ernie Mordak notes the ease of sharing material between the shop’s Inferno and the Fire.

Both DAVE and Command Post have only recently installed the Fire 2.5, and the system is not in full rotation at either facility.

DAVE is using the system on some of its TV series work including Alliance’s Power Play and Scholastic Productions/Protocol Entertainment’s Animorphs.

The Animorphs series – which has kids morphing between human and animal forms – requires numerous green screen shots of the show’s creatures composited into scenes, and since puppets are used in the show, wires and hands have to be painted out and atmosphere like smoke and shadows added to lend realism to composited shots.

Mordak says one of the primary reasons the shop looked at Fire in depth was the fact that the facility already had a Flame (recently upgraded to Inferno), and with the addition of the Discreet Wire networking system, series material could easily reap the benefits of both systems.

‘If there’s something I’m working on in Fire that needs a more powerful system like Inferno, the Inferno can basically go into my library and retrieve the clips that are needed and the other room can work on them at the same time,’ explains Mordak.

DAVE undertook a concerted comparison shopping effort in advance of the Fire purchase. The shop had operated with a traditional online suite configuration with switcher, effects box, video editor and the like.

When the decision was made to move into a nonlinear online system, a number of products in the category – including Fire, Henry, Digital Studio from Softimage and Jaleo – were compared.

While all the systems had benefits, Mordak says Fire ended up at the top of the list due in large part to its user-friendly aspects, particularly with an eye to servicing the commercial industry.

The system uses a similar editing interface as Avid does, says Mordak, an advantage since Avid is the editor of choice for most commercial offline shops in the city.

‘It helps to have the same type of look in the online and the offline suites,’ says Mordak. ‘The editing is quick; it uses gestural editing so things like trimming, slipping shots, swapping shots and creating dissolves are all basically done with a push of the pen. And it’s all realtime and played back for you instantaneously.’

All of this is an advantage in the commercial world, says Mordak, where frequent changes and several versions are the norm.

In addition to the 12 available layers, Mordak says Fire’s compositing tools are also very powerful, including an array of keying capabilities.

‘And everything is available from the compositing layers,’ he says. ‘You can go into tracking, stabilize the picture, etc., and you can immediately exit that and go into the paint area to paint frame-by-frame whatever needs to be done. It’s very easy to navigate.’

Toronto (and now Vancouver)-based Command Post/TOYBOX took delivery of the new Fire version a short time ago, but has been working with the system in its other configuration for some time.

CP/T president Michael Flanigan said in an interview earlier this summer that the main thrust for Fire at the shop was directly HD-related. With the only Spirit Datacine high-resolution transfer system in Canada, as well as an Inferno, he says CP/T is already geared toward resolution-independent work and the Fire provided efficient integration into the existing setup since it can ‘talk’ to the Spirit directly.

Says CP/T effects supervisor Dennis Berardi: ‘If you consider we also own a lab, we can now take a producer’s film right out of the can, process the film, transfer it on the Spirit – which is 2K film resolution – and then transfer it to D5 machines or [we can go] right into the Fire from Spirit where we can now manipulate those images.’

Berardi points to the depth of features in Fire as well as the ease of integration into the facility as advantages.

‘The fact that it does talk to the Spirit directly as well as the fact that it does have strong audio capability, and has gestural editing features that make it more of an intuitive system, made it seem like a nice fit,’ he says.

CP/T is not as yet using the Fire in a production environment, but is busy setting up and testing the system within the facility and looking toward prepping for the eventual HD market.

‘We’re trying to develop a good work flow for producers for HD,’ says Berardi. ‘That’s the direction we’re moving in.’