“I’m always surprised that more companies don’t take this approach,” says Executive Producer, Greg Vass, “We run hard all year and Michael and I believe that ‘forced’ down time is very important.”

So, now that we’ve all had our family time and holiday naps, we’re hitting the ground running on this, our 12th year in the video production business.

What did we do in 2012?

In the last year we invested in some new tools to boost our post department. We increased our Avid Unity media servers and added a Cache-A Archive Appliance, which enables projects to be more easily archived and retrieved. The Cache-A was named a Top Product at NAB 2012. We also added a new editing suite with a Sony OLED color correction monitor, a new graphics workstation in the Art Department and upgraded two of the Art Department workstations with Wacom Cintiq Interactive Pen Displays.

“These improvements have resulted in a more efficient post process, helping us get our work completed faster while still maintaining our high standards of quality,” says Vass.

What's on the horizon for 2013?

Objective 1: Pimp Out Our Production Equipment
Quality cinematography is key. So, we’ve already started moving on our first objective by investing in the Sony F3 digital cinema camera and 5 Carl Zeiss lenses to take our picture quality to an ever higher level. We’ve upgraded our lighting with the addition of a second Kino Diva 401 2-light kit and Kino Barfly 400 that will travel with the crew. We’ve also snatched up a Matthews HD-DC Slider system, a portable slider that can pivot 180 degrees and doubles as a camera jib. There are only 25 in the US, and SolidLine has one ready to go on any shoot.
Consider them Christmas gifts…awesome Christmas gifts.

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Objective 2: Take Full Advantage of Our Awesome SolidLine Studio
From continuing to utilize it for SolidLine productions to renting it out for small shoots, we can’t wait to do more with this great shooting space. Currently SolidLine shoots in the SLM Studio about eight days a month, so we’d love to open it up to others in need of a great creative space. It’s such a reasonable and practical stage, and located right in the Chicago loop.
For more details on the SLM Studio, keep an eye out for our new web page in the next month.

Objective 3: Go International with SolidLine China
That’s right, SolidLine is creating a satellite office in China where our Chinese Producer, Dillon Xiang, will be able to coordinate and handle all China video production logistics for production companies, or corporations, in need of filming in China. It’s a difficult and costly process for American film crews to film in China, but SolidLine has plenty of experience filming in the country and wants to make it easy for others to get the footage they need in China. Vass says that SolidLine will “cut through the red tape and make it easy and cost efficient, without having to send US-based Producers abroad.”
Look for new web pages for SolidLine China in the next month!

Bring it on, 2013

It’s only January 3rd and SolidLine is taking the new year by storm. “We are currently working on some very exciting projects,” says Director of Post Production, Michael Kromm, “We hope this year challenges the crew to design new concepts and take-on some new production techniques.”
What’s more, we’ve recently rolled out our Basecamp implementation for Post-Production and are currently incorporating Pre-Production into the program as well. So, Kromm and Vass are looking forward to an exciting, but very smooth and fully equipped New Year.
Oh, and to the Art Department, I checked in about soda machine you’ve been requesting and Kromm said: “We’ll see about that.” Hang in there!

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