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On top of the HD game

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Company

Cinergy Creative
Los Angeles, California
www.cinergycreative.com

Challenge

Convey the exceptional quality and exclusivity of KZG's custom golf clubs in an HD TV spot

Solution

Leverage the integration among Adobe Photoshop CS, Adobe Premiere Pro, and Adobe After Effects to complete offline editing, 2D compositing, effects, and online editing in order to successfully deliver a cost-effective HD commercial that conveys the cachet required by the client

Benefits

  • Produced an HD TV spot of exceptional quality while keeping costs down
  • Worked efficiently due to integration among Adobe software components
  • Conveyed the cachet of KZG's products

Tool kit

closeup of a golf club

Cinergy Creative produces TV spot in HD using the Adobe Video Collection

KZ Golf (KZG) offers the finest custom golf clubs money can buy; original designs; and, most important, innovative and exclusive technologies. Considering KZG's affinity for the latest technologies, it's not surprising that the company approached Leslie Allen of Cinergy Creative to direct and produce a TV spot slated to air on ESPN and other networks during top golf tournaments including the PGA Tour and the Masters Tournament.

Like KZG, Allen is on top of his game when it comes to technology. His company, Cinergy Creative, is a full-service production and design studio that creates visual imagery and effects for broadcast, film, and new media. Allen's core toolset for virtually everything he produces includes Adobe® After Effects®, Adobe Photoshop® CS, and Adobe Premiere® Pro software. Today, more than ever, Allen relies on Adobe software to create projects in high-definition (HD) format.

"HD was mandatory for the KZG spot," says Allen. "There was no way to convey the beauty and cachet of KZG's custom clubs at any lower resolution."

Conveying cachet

KZG's TV spot is much like a luxury-car commercial: the camera pans over the smooth, glistening metal of a golf club head, leaving the viewer wondering what is being shown until a wider, establishing shot makes it clear that the object is a golf club.

Working in HD was crucial for this project because it required exceptionally crisp, clear, high-quality visuals. Allen produced the spot in widescreen and surround sound using Adobe software to enhance the luxurious look and rich audio.

Allen shot the commercials in HD 1080 using the Sony CineAlta 24P HDCAM. He then edited the spots offline and added preliminary visual effects in Adobe Premiere Pro.

Integrated pre- and post-production

Allen took advantage of the multiple, nestable timelines in Adobe Premiere Pro to experiment freely and to manage complex, multilayered animatics in HD. The software let him view uncompressed HD effects, motion paths, and other elements of the commercials in real time, enabling him to make fast, informed creative decisions. He corrected color and added visual effects such as bursts of light on the edge of the golf club head and metallic-looking lighting effects by going back and forth between Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects.

two stills from the commercial

Integration among applications in the Adobe Video Collection enables Allen to efficiently combine 2D graphics with motion and effects. His streamlined HD workflow using the Adobe Video Collection lets him deliver work of exceptional quality and affordability.

“Adobe offers the most integrated pre- and post- production HD editing solution on the market.”

—Lesley Allen,
creative director, Cinergy Creative

Allen created text and other 2D graphics elements in Photoshop, exported them to After Effects, animated them, and then dragged them back into the Adobe Premiere Pro timeline. There he added new effects before bringing his work back into After Effects. He delivered dailies on DVD for interim client review directly out of Adobe Premiere Pro.

“Adobe offers the most integrated pre- and post-production HD editing solution on the market,” says Allen. “Assets contained in any Adobe application can be instantly reused and integrated into my projects. Thanks to Adobe, what used to be available only in costly, proprietary editing bays is now available on the desktop.”


a seven iron

Relying on the wide array of effects options in After Effects, Allen created bursts of light and other visual effects in this TV spot in HD.


Allen completed the final online edit of the KZG spot in HD using After Effects, taking advantage of the software's superb masking control and text animation effects. He also used GenArts Sapphire Plug-ins for additional sweetening.

“The beauty of the Adobe Video Collection is the integration among applications,” says Allen. “Whenever I make edits in Adobe Premiere Pro, it automatically updates my project in After Effects and vice versa. It's tough to even guess at the extreme time savings and uninterrupted creative flow this affords.”

Stellar HD workflow

Because of the quality possible to achieve using the Adobe Video Collection when compared with the cost, Allen's HD workflow is ideal for small but quality-conscious clients like KZG. “The Adobe Video Collection gives me a pre- and post-production workflow that I can use with confidence, without having to charge clients tens of thousands of dollars for time spent in high-end editing bays,” he says.

“The Adobe Video Collection is ideal for HD editing and visual effects, and the integration among Adobe tools only gets better.”

—Lesley Allen,
creative director, Cinergy Creative

As he works, Allen runs various applications — Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro, and After Effects — at the same time. He can cut and paste and work in parallel on each part of the project. His previous workflow was linear — complete the video and then add audio and effects. But now everything comes together simultaneously, with speed and ease.

“The Adobe Video Collection is ideal for HD editing and visual effects, and the integration among Adobe tools only gets better,” says Allen. “Adobe software has boundless uses, and combined with powerful computers and a lot of creative energy, anything goes.”