Codex and OFFHOLLYWOOD (recently acquired by Vitec Group) have announced the seamless integration of Codex Live, the color management and look-creation system enabling set-to-post color confidence, with OFFHOLLYWOOD’s OMOD for RED Digital Cinema cameras. This technology collaboration delivers a fast and robust set-to-post solution for RED camera workflows, and also enables live High Dynamic Range (HDR) on-set grading for the first time, and launches during NAB 2016. Visit Codex booth #SL6828 and at RED booth #SL1517.
Codex Live features an easy-to-operate interface and enables users on-set to create and preview looks and color grades directly from multiple live HD-SDI camera feeds. These looks and grades can be previewed with Codex Review and automatically applied when generating deliverables via Codex Production Suite. With Codex Live, the looks created can be exported in various formats (ASC-CDL for example) for application downstream in the workflow. Codex Live has multiple color controls to adjust the range of color parameters including Offset/Power/Slope/Saturation, Printer Lights and Life/Gamma/Gain and is ASC-CDL and ACES-compliant. Crucially, the looks and grades delivered by Codex Live can be used to communicate the creative intent from the set, and form the starting point for color-consistent dailies and post-production deliverables.
Developed by OFFHOLLYWOOD, OMODs are the first third party modules for the RED WEAPON camera platform. OFFHOLLYWOOD’s long experience with RED cameras and workflows allowed it develop a product enhancing the functionality of RED cameras. Designed for the color management requirements of today’s workflows, three independent HD-SDI outputs can be routed in any configuration from RED’s SDI & HDMI monitor paths. Each output can have a CDL and/or 3D LUT applied, controlled and stored independently.
The smooth integration means that Codex Live can generate CDLs and 3D LUTs for the OFFHOLLYWOOD OMOD module. Codex Live users can grade wirelessly, in real-time, directly to the OMOD. Each monitor path can have a separate color pipeline, so that, for example, the DIT can grade and preview in isolation and then share the look when ready.
Significantly, the combination of the OFFHOLLYWOOD OMOD with CODEX Live enables the creation of live HDR – at same time as SDR – and, utilizing CODEX Live, users can color grade CDLs under HDR output. It is thought to be the first-ever live HDR and CDL workflow.
“We developed Codex Live to meet a need for secure color pipelines that are integrated into the production to post workflow, so that the look created on-set is exactly what appears in the VFX, editorial deliverables and in the DI grading suite,” said Brian Gaffney, VP business development at Codex, “We are excited to work Mark and the team at OFFHOLLYWOOD to integrate Codex Live with the OMOD for use with the premier cameras and products in the market, and to innovate even further by bringing the ability to perform live HDR grading on-set.”
Mark Pederson, director of technology for OFFHOLLYWOOD, added, “Codex’s reputation for efficient, secure workflows is unsurpassed, and Codex Live just adds to their palette of tools. We are excited to work with them as we introduce OMOD, a product that we believe will be eagerly received by RED users everywhere.”
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More