The streaming series Wedding Talk, a production by Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment and Love Stories TV, has successfully utilized Blackmagic Design’s Cloud Store Mini and DaVinci Resolve Studio to enhance its post-production workflow. This approach facilitated efficient collaboration among both local and remote team members, ensuring that the project met tight deadlines.
Production Details
In Wedding Talk, Olympic gold medalist Tara Lipinski hosts alongside event planner José Rolón and wedding designer Jove Meyer. They explore current wedding trends and showcase cinematic wedding films from around the world. The show is shot against a 60-foot-wide by 15-foot-tall LED volume wall, designed to create a visually striking backdrop for the content.
CEO and Executive Producer Jess Loren of To Whom It May Concern Productions aimed to blend technology with drama, offering a fresh take on wedding programming. The team wanted to elevate traditional wedding videos by incorporating elements like EDM-inspired lighting, neon accents, and dark tones. This vision was realized through the use of advanced production tools and techniques.
Technical Setup
The series employed four Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K Pros equipped with Blackmagic Zoom Demands and Focus Demands, alongside two Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6Ks to capture footage in Blackmagic RAW format. These cameras fed into an ATEM Mini Extreme ISO live production switcher along with a teleprompter and the LED wall’s output.
Director and Editor Erick Geisler highlighted the efficiency of the setup, noting that recording all feeds simultaneously streamlined the post-production process. The ATEM Mini Extreme ISO automatically generated DaVinci Resolve project files, which simplified initial editing tasks.
Collaboration and Post-Production
The production team consisted of three editors, one colorist, one graphic artist, and two dialogue mixers. Blackmagic Cloud was crucial in facilitating collaboration among these roles. Geisler implemented Blackmagic Cloud Store Minis and Cloud Pods to connect all team members on a single network.
Geisler described the Cloud Store Mini as a “magic box,” capable of handling simultaneous editing without any issues. The cloud-based proxy workflow allowed seamless transitions between different machines, eliminating the need for relinking files.
Workflow Efficiency
The collaborative nature of the project became increasingly evident during post-production. As soon as cuts were finalized, dialogue mixers could begin their work, and editors sometimes contributed to dialogue editing to expedite the process.
Geisler emphasized that Blackmagic Design’s comprehensive ecosystem was essential to achieving the project’s goals within tight turnaround times and a limited budget. The company’s products’ performance, features, and affordability met or exceeded expectations throughout the production.