Students at Sisler High School in Manitoba, Canada turned to Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve to edit, color grade, create visual effects and perform audio post-production on 16 mini-documentaries for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and a three-part mini-series for Bell’s Fibe TV1.
Established in 2015 with the support of the Winnipeg School Divisionthe program CREATE of the Sisler High School offers students in ninth grade and up the opportunity to study careers in film, animation and game design, among other disciplines. Through based learning projects, tutoring and internships, Students complete internships and gain industry knowledge, leading to jobs that open doors to future opportunities. Graduates have gone on to join major studios and organizations (including Nickelodeon, MPC, Amblin, and Atomic Cartoons) and have won several prestigious awards.
According to Jonathan Dyck-LyonsCREATE’s filmmaking and visual effects instructor, the ten-month program saw a transformation significant since the use of DaVinci Resolve. This has allowed projects to be delivered more quickly and gives students the ability to editing, color grading, creating visual effects, processing audio and finishing the job within the same platform.
In his own words: “The transition to DaVinci Resolve was a strategic decision. The comprehensive post-production environment has significantly enhanced our students’ ability to manage complex projects efficiently. We are committed to providing students with a foundation in the field of professional digital media arts, and our partnership with CBC and Fibe TV1 is a reflection of this, with industry professionals and producers alike guiding students in crafting engaging projects and engaging throughout the production process.”
Creating documentaries for CBC with DaVinci
In the first five months of the program this year, students edited and graded 16 mini-documentaries with DaVinci Resolve for the CBCincluding Math, Science, and Mad Moves: Winnipeg Teacher Dreams of Dance Greatness and Winnipeg Teen Saves Cancer Researchers Decades in Data Processing Timewhich were transmitted by CBC channels and radio stationsas well as in Internet. Once these projects were completed, the students began working with Fibe TV1 over the next five months to make presentations to producers and develop an original miniseries.
“Our students used all modules of DaVinci Resolve. They were tasked with screening copycats, learning how to use shortcuts, managing clips in the Media module, assembling footage more efficiently in the Edit module, using multiple timelines for better organization and efficiency, leveraging exceptional tracking tools for retouching, taking advantage of the Fairlight module to clean up audio to meet CBC and Bell loudness standards, creating color composites in the Fusion module, and rendering content to a variety of standards for social media and broadcast networks in the Delivery module,” says Dyck-Lyons.
The CREATE program instructor also highlighted that DaVinci Resolve tools helped students tackle a wide range of range of challenges related to productionfor example, improperly exposed images, lack of color consistency, shaky shots, removal of unwanted logos, audio problems, and equipment limitations that require editing proxy files, among others. “Also, the quality of the color management our students performed considering the deadlines of the CBC newsroom was remarkable. Their work was graded to a level of cinematic quality not usually seen in regular news bulletins,” he adds.
To end, Dyck-Lyons has broken a spear in favor of Blackmagic Design, who he comments have “revolutionized our approach,” which “will benefit the program for years to come.” “It is remarkable to see how the use of DaVinci Resolve has improved the turnaround times of our projects and raised the overall quality of the student documentaries to a cinematic level. “This program serves as a bridge to the future for our students and ensures that graduates are not only prepared for jobs, but are also at the forefront of the competitive digital media landscape,” he concludes.
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