Budapest to Hollywood: Supporting Now You See Me 3 with Cinelab

The Call from Cinelab

It started with a call from Simon Chubbock, COO of Cinelab London. He outlined what they needed: a local post production studio partner who could plug into their existing workflow and support the dailies process on a large-scale production shooting in Budapest. For context, a dailies service team handles everything that happens to footage after it’s shot each day. That means ingesting and organizing raw footage, performing quality control checks, providing basic digital processing like color grading and transcoding, and distributing the footage to the production team for review. Just as importantly, they also make sure everything is securely backed up and archived. We listened carefully to their needs, then followed up with a detailed online session with their team. It quickly became clear that we were a good fit.

Setting Up for a Hollywood Workflow

After the initial alignment, where we had already gained a clear understanding of their requirements, Cinelab shared their workflow documentation and Quality Control (QC) glossary. These became our reference points throughout the project and helped us match their standards from day one. The final step before kick-off was commercial approval. Cinelab handled negotiations with the end client Lionsgate on behalf of both teams. Once the proposal was signed off, we were good to go. A week later, Simon arrived in Budapest accompanied by Christy Kail, Cinelab’s Head of Workflow. Together, we set up their systems on our machines, secured a stable high-speed connection, and ran through the full workflow. Christy then brought our technicians up to speed on how to operate everything as required.

A Quick Onboarding, Then Full Production

We spent around two weeks preparing before production began. The test days that followed were helpful, giving our team the opportunity to refine their process before the real pressure kicked in. Once production and post-production were aligned, we moved into full operation.

11 Weeks, 24/7

From that point on, our team worked around the clock for about 11 weeks.
Each day followed a strict routine:

• Receive and offload the rushes
• Perform detailed QC checks
• Process and prepare files for distribution
• Archive all material securely

Every piece of footage was backed up in two ways: stored on LTO tapes, and duplicated across separate units to ensure full data security. Cinelab handled the rest remotely, running their workflow between our setup in Budapest and their lab in London. In some cases, we also shipped primary LTO tapes to Company 3 in Los Angeles for further processing.

No Shortcuts, No Compromises

It was an intense project, with long days and short nights. But this is exactly the kind of work that we thrive at and want to be part of. This was our first time working at this scale as a dailies provider, and we made sure to match the expectations that come with a Hollywood production. No shortcuts, no compromises. When the project wrapped, we sent a thank-you to the Cinelab team. Their response was simple: this wouldn’t be the last time we worked together.

Looking for a production or post-production partner who can slot into complex international workflows and deliver under pressure? Get in touch – we’re ready when you are!