Cognition, the recently launched hybrid post production facility, has purchased six Mistika systems from SGO. The package includes two top-end 4K color grading and mastering systems, two assist workstations and two laptop systems for on-set and near-set use. The company has also acquired an SGO high-speed SAN. The installation is part of an ambitious, multi-million dollar facility expansion that will include a pair of highly spec’d DCI grading theatres, expanded visual effects resources and creative production workspace.
Mistika is a next-generation color grading and finishing platform with an expansive toolset that supports a wide range of media formats and postproduction applications including high-frame-rate and 3D. The latest version of the system software includes tools for manipulating multilayer EXR sequences and expanded support for OpenEXR formats.
Cognition director of operations David Hollingsworth said that Mistika is an ideal choice for the facility, and its approach to feature film finishing which places a premium on creative flexibility. Hollingsworth is intimately familiar with Mistika technology having collaborated with SGO on the development of the system since 2011 when he was head of picture/sr. colorist at Park Road Post Production in Wellington, New Zealand. Mistika was used at Park Road Post Production to finish the high-frame-rate epic movie The Hobbit Trilogy directed by Peter Jackson.
Cognition recently used its Mistika workstations to grade and finish the independent feature Opening Night. The film, which stars Topher Grace, was produced by Grace alongside Dark Factory Entertainment’s Daniel Posada and Jason Tamasco. It’s directed by Isaac Rentz. Final grading was performed by Cognition sr. colorist Mike Eaves, working closely with Grace, Rentz and DP Andre Lascaris.
Cognition’s Mistika systems will be integrated into its two new grading theatres for which construction will be completed this fall. The theatres will also feature 4K Barco digital cinema projectors and a variety of sophisticated support gear.
From Restoring To Hopefully Preserving Multi-Camera Categories At The Emmys
When Gary Baum, ASC won his fourth career Emmy Award earlier this month, it was especially gratifying in that the honor came in a category--Outstanding Cinematography for a Multi-Camera Half-Hour Series--that had been restored thanks in part to a grass-roots initiative among cinematographers to drum up entries. Last year the category fell by the wayside when not enough multi-camera entries materialized.
In his acceptance speech, Baum appealed to the Television Academy to keep multi-camera categories alive. He later noted to SHOOT that editors also got their multi-camera recognition back in the Emmy competition this year. Baum hopes that after resurrecting multi-camera categories in 2024, such recognition will be preserved for 2025 and beyond.
A major factor in the decline of multi-camera submissions in 2023 was the move of certain children’s and family programming from the primetime Emmy competition to the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ (NATAS) Emmy ceremony. For DPs this meant that multi-camera programs last year were reduced to vying for just one primetime nomination slot in the more general Outstanding Cinematography for a Series (Half-Hour) category. It turned out that this single slot was filled in ‘23 by a Baum-lensed episode of How I Met Your Father (Hulu).
Fast forward to this year’s competition and Baum won for another installment of How I Met Your Father--”Okay Fine, It’s A Hurricane,” which turned out to be the series finale. Two of Baum’s Emmy wins over the years have been for How I Met Your Father, and there’s a certain symmetry to them. His initial win for How I Met Your Father was for the pilot in 2022. So he won Emmys for the very first and last... Read More