Studio Hamburg Builds New Post Pipeline with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Workflow replaces a patchwork of legacy tools and outsourced services with a streamlined, all in one approach.
Blackmagic Design has announced that Studio Hamburg Serienwerft, the team behind one of Germany’s longest running daily drama, “Rote Rosen,” has moved its picture and audio post production workflow in house using DaVinci Resolve Studio.
Broadcast on Das Erste, “Rote Rosen” has produced more than 4,200 episodes since 2006, with the team delivering 48 minutes of finished scripted drama each weekday. That pace had begun to expose the limits of the production’s legacy post pipeline, with the pressure to turn around episodes across multiple teams placing increasing strain on systems that had become rigid and expensive to maintain.
“There were years where every season we’d be told: ‘This could be the last one,’” noted Jonathan Happ, post production supervisor at Studio Hamburg Serienwerft. “At one point, they even considered cutting episode lengths to save money.”
In response, Happ began introducing Blackmagic Design tools into selected parts of the workflow, including ADR, VFX and audio cleanup. As those uses expanded, it became clearer that the existing setup was adding a layer of logistics that no longer helped the production. “Everything was built around AAFs, external grading, sound transfers; an entire layer of logistical overhead that wasn’t helping the production,” he said. “We needed a unified system that allowed us to be in the edit, not in transit.”
That same lack of control extended to infrastructure, with the team relying heavily on third party providers for systems and services. “A huge chunk of the budget disappeared every month into those providers,” Happ said. “We didn’t own the tools. We didn’t own the infrastructure.”
A turning point came when Happ tested DaVinci Resolve Studio’s AI voice tools on his own documentary footage, using them to clean up heavy background noise. The speed and clarity of the results led him to present the test to the wider “Rote Rosen” team. “After that test, it became clear to the wider team that Resolve could take on more of the work we were sending elsewhere,” said Happ.
That became the catalyst for a broader rethink of post, led by Studio Hamburg Serienwerft Managing Director and Producer Jan Diepers. DaVinci Resolve Studio is now at the centre of a new in house workflow spanning edit, VFX, color, audio and delivery, supported by a NAS server running opensource software.
“It costs a quarter of what we were quoted elsewhere,” said Happ. “The deployment of Resolve gives us the freedom to connect to our own APIs and manage storage the way we need to, as well as eliminates licensing bottlenecks,” explained Happ. “And scaling up doesn’t require a doubling of the infrastructure like it used to.”
Studio Hamburg has also introduced API driven automations across review exports, task management, deliveries to score artists, metadata transfers and other routine handoffs, helping reduce repetitive supervisory work and giving the post team more predictable control over day to day operations.
Editors can also use prebuilt Fusion templates for simple effects work that previously had to be outsourced, while the production is also developing grading styles the old pipeline could not easily support. The new workflow is also simplifying recruitment, with Happ noting that the team is “finding it easier to bring in junior editors already familiar with DaVinci Resolve Studio.”
At the same time, the streamlined pipeline is reducing day to day post overhead. “Removing the roundtripping process between editing, audio, encoding and effects applications is already saving us around 10 to 15 hours each week,” said Happ. “It also means we are no longer stuck reacting to the process and can think more clearly about what the production needs next.”
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