Filmage: The Story of Descendents/All began as a passion project for a group of creatives working at Dallas-based post house CharlieUniformTango (CUT), and quickly evolved into a full-fledged documentary production. Within four years, the film’s directors Deedle LaCour and Matt Riggle, along with editors Justin Wilson and James Rayburn, had traveled the world, combining a love for old-school punk music with filmmaking skills to deliver an indie flick that recounts the history and influence of punk rock legends the Descendents. The film features a compilation of present-day interviews with band members and industry influencers, fan video submissions and archived tour media. Rayburn relied on AJA‘s Io XT Thunderbolt-enabled i/o device to develop the portable and flexible workflow that the film required.
The production team amassed more than 50 captured segments, on top of hours of fan content and never-before-seen tour photos, videos and memorabilia. Tasked with weaving such a large volume of formats and frame rates together, achieving the right balance between new and old footage proved daunting. Knowing the team would spend time cutting the film between his office and home, often working nights and weekends, Rayburn set out in search of a workflow that would help simplify the job.
“Io XT is dependable, and I can use it anywhere – in my house, at the office or on set,” explained Rayburn. “No matter where I am, I can just plug it into my computer, fire it up, and just like that, we’re monitoring my Avid cut using the HDMI out from the Io XT.”
Throughout post, Rayburn churned through hours of footage, relying on a laptop, Avid Media Composer, an Io XT, LCD monitor and two smaller Asus monitors for editorial. The laptop drove the Asus monitors, sending a video signal through the Io XT, so that the edit could be reviewed in real time.
Once Rayburn finished cutting the film, the filmmakers enlisted the expertise of Filmworkers Club colorist Mathew McClain to preserve and enhance the picture quality. Throughout finishing, KONA LHe Plus cards were used.
“I’m not used to the high level of deliverables for a film like this, so when we finished it in Avid, we had distributors come to us with several different format requirements for the audio channels and digital files, so having the KONA LHe Plus for output to HDCam SR tape was a tremendous asset come delivery,” explained Rayburn.
