British Cinematographer issue 51 - Imago

British Cinematographer
Covering International Cinematography
www.britishcinematographer.co.uk
Issue 051 ––– May 2012 46
Codec support includes Avid DNxHD and DNx444,
Avid Meridien JFIF; Apple ProRes 4444; and CineForm
and uncompressed 444 (10-bit) or 422 (8- or 10-bit). It is
slated for availability in July, starting at $43,390.
Codex featured its Onboard S Recorder, developed
for use with compact HD cameras like the Sony PMW-F3
and the Canon EOS C300. Data is recorded onto
Codex’s new capture drives from the HD-SDI output of
the camera. Codex recorders were used recently with
ARRI Alexa cameras by Seamus McGarvey, BSC, ASC on
The Avengers and Caleb Deschanel, ASC on Abraham
Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Cinematographers currently
using Codex recorders with the Alexa include Roger
Deakins BSC ASC (Skyfall), Bojan Bozelli ASC (The Lone
Ranger), Thomas Newton Siegel ASC (The Seventh Son)
and Chris Menges BSC ASC (Hummingbird).
1 Beyond showed the 1 Beyond Wrangler with
Assimilate Scratch Lab, a portable dailies system that
offers features including real-time playback and review
of media up to 5K resolution. The system is currently
available in two hardware configurations, starting at
$8,995. Assimilate also gave a technology preview of
a new 3D composting function within its Scratch DI
grading system. The company plans to release this new
feature before IBC 2012, and pricing is expected to be
highly competitive.
Bluefish444 is now offering Fluid 4K Review, a
Windows player developed specifically to preview 4K
RGB/YUV files output from Bluefish444 Epoch | Supernova
video cards on 4K capable LCD’s and projectors. The
company said it was developed for cinematographers,
visual effects artists and other professional who want to
preview digital dailies in native 4K resolution.
The upcoming version of Digital Vision’s Nucoda
Film Master—shown at NAB—will include support for
RED Epic HDRx and the Sony F65 4K camera (SRMASTER
format), as well as the ACES (Academy Colour Encoding
Specification) workflow.
3D at NAB
James Cameron and Vince Pace, co-founders and cochairmen
of Cameron | Pace Group, brought 3D to the
Black Magic... surprised almost
everyone with its new, ultra-low
cost 2K camera.
NAB dialogue during a SuperSession.
“The future of 3D is broadcast and we are going to
see explosive grown over the next few years,” Cameron
told the crowd.
Pace introduced more than 10 new products during
the presentation. New technologies aimed at features
and episodic series work include two new integrated
Shadow rigs, one for Red’s Epic and one for ARRI’s new
model Alexa M; and a Mini X-Frame, a modular X-Frame
package. For broadcasting and sports, new technologies
include the Camnet Profile Manager, a centralised ‘5D’
sports production management system; and the Shadow
D handheld rig, which weighs roughly 20 pounds.
Also in the 3D arena, 3Ality Technica (as it was
rebranded when 3Ality Digital acquired Element Techica
just before IBC 2011) introduced its Helix 3D rig, which
can be used for handheld or studio use for features and
broadcasting, according to senior vp Stephen Pizzo.
3Ality also presented a Sony PMW-F3 accessories kit.
P+S Technik showed a new PS-Micro Rig, a compact
and lightweight 3D mirror rig designed for use with micro
cameras such as the SI-2K. P+S reported that it could be
used remote controlled or manually.
Additional NAB News
The subject of High Frame Rates is getting louder. For
postproduction, SGO featured version 6.5 of its DI system
Mistika, which supports 2D and Stereo 3D at 48 fps and
60 fps. The company worked closely with Park Road Post
Production in Wellington to develop the high frame rate
postproduction system that is currently in use on Peter
Jackson’s The Hobbit, which is being shot at 48 fps using
Red Epics and 3Ality rigs.
With an eye toward The Hobbit and additional HFR
productions, projector makers such as Christie were
demonstrating HFR projection at their NAB stands.
Assimilate has also broken new ground with highframe
rates, with Scratch and Scratch Lab supporting
Sony F65 at 48fps, and RED Epic 3D stereo at 48fps.
Just prior to the start of NAB, Cooke reported that
it has “significantly expanded” its workforce of skilled
assembly technicians since 2011 in response to the
47
increasing demand for PL glass. “As digital cameras with
PL mounts, such as the Alexa, RED and Sony F65, have
grown in popularity, so we have seen demand increase
exponentially for our lenses,” said Les Zellan, chairman
and owner, Cooke Optics. “In order to keep pace with
demand we have expanded our workforce and created
several apprenticeships which, in times of recession, is a
remarkable and gratifying thing to be able to do.”
Thales Angenieux was on hand in Las Vegas with two
new Optimo Zoom Lenses. The Optimo19.5-94mm and
Optimo 28-340mm lenses enable image coverage up to
31.4mm and are developed for S35 film and large format
sensor cameras.
Matthews Studio Equipment introduced Skycrapers, a
new line of lighting stands.
Skyscrapers weigh 110-160 lbs., load at 53” to 58”
and raise up to 137” to 180”. Maximum load tops out at
286 lbs. “This is quite different from other stands, including
our veteran stands,” said Robert Kulesh, vp, sales and
marketing. “And, because each stand is constructed
from square tubing, the chance for rotational torqueing is
eliminated.”
Cine Gear returning
to Los Angeles
A sampling of the production technologies found at NAB
can be examined at Cine Gear Expo, which returns to The
Studios at Paramount in Los Angeles from 1-3 June.
During the event, E.F. (Bob) Nettmann, president of
Nettmann Systems International, will be presented with
Cine Gear’s Technical Lifetime Achievement Award.
Nettmann has received various industry honours. Most
recently, in February Nettmann, along with Michael
Sayovitz, Brad Fritzel and Fred Mille, received Scientific
and Engineering Awards, which are Academy Plaques,
during the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences’ Scientific and Technical Awards. They were
recognised for the Stab-C Classic, Super-G and Stab-C
Compact stabilising heads.
The Cine Gear programme will include a masterclass
on lighting. Scheduled presenters include Jacek Laskus,
ASC and Ueli Steiger, ASC.
British Cinematographer
Covering International Cinematography
www.britishcinematographer.co.uk
Issue 051 ––– May 2012
Letter from America
–––Steven Poster ASC
H Y P E R –
R E A L I T Y
There’s something remarkable going on in the way our
culture now creates and consumes entertainment and
media. Through a constant overlay of technologies, we
have not only changed our physical surroundings, but
also the way we react to even the most mundane of
everyday events.
A recent, striking example was driving with a car full
of colleagues and friends, on our way to a restaurant in
another city. We all knew the address of the restaurant,
but not the exact location. As I looked up from the map
on my Smartphone display, I laughed to see everyone
else in the car with their heads bowed in silence, carefully
tracking our progress on their iPhones. (Thankfully, the
driver was using the GPS on the car’s navigation
screen.) The restaurant could have been across
the street but, of course, we never would have
arrived until Google Maps told us that was so.
Another revelation came to me while
watching this years Oscar telecast (no, I don’t
go every year). After seeing ‘follow us @’ flashed
on our screens a number of times I realized that
those of us who only had the telly on were missing
half of the entertainment value because we
weren’t connected to the technological overlays that
were being offered simultaneously, not to mention the
advertising targeted to those who were experiencing the
entire ball of wax.
Those kinds of technological overlay are now
commonplace, and have created a total cultural
shift in how our American Camera Union, Local 600,
International Cinematographers Guild trains its members
to succeed and thrive in the motion picture, television
and commercial industries. The most obvious result of this
overlay is how many people are involved in the creation
of the visual image – on set or on location - and how we,
as a Guild, must service a shoot in ways we have never
had to before.
A clear example are the many video monitors now
prevalent on set, all of which must be carefully calibrated
to render a close, if not near-perfect, approximation of
what the captured image is going to look like. Whatever
the director, production designer, producer, actors, ADs,
and others see on those monitors indelibly colors the
creative process in ways both large and small. Imagine a
post-production team being saddled with imagery that
bears no true resemblance to the director’s vision because
production’s HD monitors were not tweaked by capable
Union craftspeople, or worse, not calibrated at all.
I had an embarrassing situation at a Hollywood Post
Alliance monitor symposium last year, where the best
and brightest of our technology world were gathered to
Steven Poster ASC says the
bigger and more complex a
system gets the more potential
there is for things to go wrong.
discuss the future of image display. I was asked to set up
a little scene and light it so that we could display a live
image on all of the monitors in the room. I carefully lit and
color corrected the image using a popular on-set color
management system. I walked away satisfied that we had
done a good job providing a feed for the other monitors
in the room. The next morning I came back to the venue
only to see all of the monitors in the room looking horribly
wrong. I admit I went a bit loony trying to figure it out with
dozens of technicians and sales people hanging over my
shoulder offering suggestions. It was a simple solution; the
monitor I was given to color correct with the night before
was never calibrated so that in the morning when the
monitors around the room were connected they all looked
(I was tempted to say something rude) terrible. Even with
all of the experts standing there we still couldn’t get it right
the first time. Imagine if it was your job at stake.
This consistency of image support must flow all the
way through the pipeline for a project to be successful
and accurately reflect creative intent – from the moment
of capture and display all the way down through post
production, previews, and the day things are finalized
for whatever exhibition path may lay ahead. And
technology, terminology, and humanology (don’t try
playing that last one on Words With Friends) have all been
drastically altered to accomplish a new kind of seamless
workflow.
In this world of digital bits (and bytes) our highly
trained technicians play a variety of key roles
that go to the very heart of facilitating this new
paradigm. In rough chronological order they are:
capture, treat, display, record and preserve the
image. These are the different domains of the
camera crew in the era of new digital workflows.
And this technological overlay I’m talking
about has made a century-old process (light
meters, film dailies, lab color timing) that was
once transparent to everyone but the camera
team, visible and accessible to virtually anyone involved
in making a movie.
It is a loud wake-up call for the entire industry to unify,
and work closely in concert – producers adequately filling
and hiring all of the vital on-set crafts, cinematographers
communicating early and often with VFX supervisors and
digital colorists, are just a few examples. And while no one
can predict exactly where this new dawn is taking us, one
thing is certain: the bigger and more complex a system
gets the more potential there is for things to go wrong.
That’s why we need to not only watch each other’s
backs as the ground shifts beneath us, but our front and
sides as well.
Steven Poster ASC
President, International Cinematographers Guild, Local 600