Jenna G promo realeased

Finally Jenna G new single 'Flood of emotions' has been released. Now you can watch my grading skills here:

Grading with vWave-Lite

My latest project involved grading the new Jenna G music video for her new song "Flood of emotions". For this project I have tried for the first time the control panel for the Ipad called vWave-Lite (made by Tangent). I have used the physical interface Wave during one of the BBC training days in Color and during my training in BaseLight at Splice. I tried for myself how easier grading is when you are not constricted by the mouse and can perform different adjustments at the same time. The only problem is the price of the control panel. Even though Tangent offers a very competitive budget, it is still a considerable investment.

Tangent recently released a simpler version of Wave for the Ipad and it is fantastic. Yes, it will never replace the actual console and I had to get used to the sensitivity of the virtual console, but this allows you to carry on multiple actions at once and this is essential when grading. Dealing with blacks, mids and whites separately gives different results than dealing with them at the same time. The image reacts differently and the work feels less constrictive, therefore it can become more creative.

This control panel made my job quicker, easier but most importantly more accurate. It helped me to test different options in a more efficient way. I always want to achieve the best with each grade and it certainly helped me in doing so.

The grade for the video is waiting for approval but it will be up soon. Watch this space.

The Tate Movie Project

In September I was working on a Aardman project called The Tate Movie Project.

It is an interactive website commissioned by Tate where children aged 5-13 can take part in creating the Tate Movie. It's brilliant and unique idea: an animation film made by and for children.

My job involved taking screen captures of the websites (Apple Pro Res HQ to allow enough definition for digital zooms) adding camera animations and assembling them in a 5 minute demo to use in presentations and meetings regarding the further development of the project.

I was pleased to find out that the website won this year BIMA award for the Websites & Microsites category. Well done Aardman digital!

Dubai and Abu Dhabi

A last minute job (less than 48 hours notice) sent me to Dubai and Abu Dhabi for 8 days.
The job was for the F1 after race events. 'Yasalam' is a massive music festival that has been happening for the last 3 years and sees people from all over the world partecipating to the event.

Because of the size and importance of the event each night was covered by 4 different camera crews shooting on EXCAM cards. My job involved digitising, transcoding, organising and selecting the footage to then edit the material for different oitputs. Because of the fast turnaround I had to multitask between the different roles and keep the footage coming into FCP and being organised along the development of each edit.

I was onsite editor, in charge of creating web edits for promotional material (exported as 1280x720 h.264 MP4s) and selecting B rolls for each event (exported as h.264 .movs 1024x576). The B rolls got used by major News channels such as CNN international.



The polished web edits also included other world famous acts such as Kelly Rowland, Sean Paul, Kanye West, Linking Park, Gabrielle and (as you've seen) Prince. All of this was truly done backstage!

Most of the edits are still awaiting the artists' sig off but here is an edit in which I helped selecting the footage for the final edit.

A little introduction: my showreel

Just to give a little flavour of what I do here is my showreel. Enjoy!

Valentina Riva Showreel from Valentina Riva on Vimeo.