The Finish Line is a leading provider of post-production services, designing and managing in-house post-production solutions for productions, providing on site and remote access editorial, as well as finishing and mastering services. The Finish Line understands that in order to keep its clients happy, company talent needs to have the right tools in place to make their lives easier, so that they enjoy their work and carry it out to the highest standard regardless of time constraints or location.

The Challenge

There is a growing awareness that keeping clients happy should start with ensuring talent is happy, with the right tools in place to make their life easier. Production and post-production is a stressful environment to work in with tight deadlines, heavy work schedules, and often little time for life outside of work. Typically, post-production editing is extremely time consuming, and sometimes repetitive and frustrating. This is largely because of the need to export and create a new file and carry out a full QC after each edit. The Finish Line was also finding that other problems could arise when the NLE used to make files for delivery would break or ruin some of the functionality in the delivery process resulting in erroneous metadata in the file causing the file to be failed.

The Solution

When Cinedeck first launched the beta version of its cineXtools some seven years ago, The Finish Line began using it straight away and immediately found that the insert edit function saved valuable time, without risking the quality of its productions. Edits can be made for one part of the video and that section re-inserted without the need to re-review and validate the rest of the file.

As Cinedeck expanded its product offering, The Finish Line realized that cineXtools could also be used as the main mastering and delivery application to assemble audio and picture files and generate and create file in a secure and reliable way. It has proven to be more stable and reliable than doing this within the NLE. The team can continue to work within the NLE but then compile everything together within cineXtools.

As the whole team moved to remote working for Covid, The Finish Line implemented Lucidlink to enable the work-from-anywhere workflows that were required. cineXtools can be accessed remotely and easily integrates with Lucidlink, ensuring that the team can continue to collaborate from anywhere.

The Result

cineXtools gives The Finish Line’s talent the right tools for the job so that they can deliver a high-quality service. Their time is no longer spent duplicating work following edits. When the Finish Line started using cineXtools, it passed on the cost savings by reducing the cost for its clients. They also get far quicker turnaround times when edits are needed. This is not only more cost effective and quicker for customers, it also makes the whole post production process more enjoyable and easier for The Finish Line’s talent.