Colorfront, the Academy and Emmy Award-winning developer of high-performance, on-set dailies and transcoding systems for motion pictures, high-end episodic TV and commercials, is yet again setting new performance benchmarks as it demonstrates cutting-edge creative features for High Frame Rate (HFR) Ultra High Definition Television (UHDTV) production and postproduction, along with workflow support for the latest digital cinema cameras, color and editorial formats, during HPA’s 2015 Tech Retreat, Feb. 9-13, in Palm Springs.
At HPA’s 2015 Tech Retreat, Colorfront will debut Interactive HFR Frame-Blending–a unique creative capability giving realtime control over the motion blur of objects in an HFR sequence. Colorfront will demonstrate Interactive HFR Frame-Blending using ALEXA ARRIRAW footage, shot at 120FPS with an open shutter, being deBayered in 4K on-the-fly. Using a simple slider interface, this new capability allows users–both on-set and in postproduction–to incrementally adjust shutter angles on HFR footage between 72º and 360º, and to perform realtime frame blending. Along with providing control over motion blur, this new capability also delivers the ability to retime shots and create speed ramps – with the results being seen immediately, playing back in realtime. Colorfront has published a clip showcasing Interactive HFR Frame-Blending.
Colorfront Interactive HFR Frame-Blending supports a wide range of digital cameras that can shoot 120FPS HFR RAW/ProRes footage, including ARRI Alexa, RED Epic, Canon C500, Sony F55/F65, Panasonic VariCam 35 and AJA Cion. It is available in Colorfront On-Set Dailies and OSD Transkoder 2015, Colorfront’s automated, standalone system for high-quality digital file conversion.
“The majority of current digital cinematography cameras can now shoot up to 120FPS, but the small number of available toolsets to manipulate HFR material are typically limited to slow, non-interactive desktop systems,” said Aron Jaszberenyi, managing director of Colorfront.
“Working closely with productions shooting in Hungary, we noticed a trend to shoot more and more footage at 120FPS, and were able to rapidly develop an interactive system that takes advantage of Colorfront’s high-performance RAW processing technologies to adjust RAW HFR footage on-the-fly. This new capability allows cinematographers and digital creatives to shoot at 120FPS with a full open shutter, to interactively ‘dial in’ the motion blur, make creative decisions regarding shutter angles, frame rates and motion blur, and watch the results in realtime, without the need to wait for rendering.”
Colorfront has long been a champion of the Academy’s ACES color workflow and is showcasing full pipeline support for ACES 1.0, now shipping, across its On-Set Live!, Express Dailies, On-Set Dailies and Transkoder systems.
Colorfront also supports the latest UHDTV/digital cinema cameras and editorial formats to hit the market. These are now extended to include support for ALEXA 65 RAW, AJA Cion RAW, as well as Panasonic Varicam 35’s AVC-Intra 4K444, 4K422 and 4K-LT compressed RAW formats. As production and post go beyond HD, Colorfront is also highlighting the rendering of 4K DNxHR 4K for AVID MediaComposer, enabling content creators to shoot, deliver, edit and finish in 4K.
In further news, Colorfront has recently sold multiple Transkoder licenses to HBO and FOX Studios. Featuring ground-breaking real-time 8K and 3D4K capabilities,
Colorfront Transkoder is already employed by many other leading studios, broadcasters, VFX and post facilities involved in digital cinema and high-end TV production, including Deluxe, Technicolor, Fotokem, Park Road Post and the BBC.
Colorfront, based in Budapest, Hungary, is one of Europe’s leading DI and postproduction facilities. The company’s R&D team earned an Academy Award for the development of Lustre, Autodesk’s DI grading system, and a Primetime Engineering Emmy for the Colofront On-Set Dailies.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More