There’s plenty of noise expected about cinematography next week at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Convention in Las Vegas, but in truth, it’s been a hot topic for a while. It generated a lot of excitement at the Hollywood Post Alliance (HPA) Technology Retreat in February, with the first U.S. preview of an ultra-high resolution camera from Japan–the Olympus “Quad HD” Octavision camera offering 3840 x 2160 resolution–and a session including NHK’s “Super HiVision” 8k by 4k (7680 x 4320) camera.
Now at NAB, Red Digital Cinema Camera Company is scheduled to unveil a nonworking prototype of a 4k digital cinematography camera that uses a CMOS Bayer S35 mm sized sensor, capable of shooting 4k, 2k, 1080p, 720p at frame rates including 24fps and 60 fps.
Leading the project is Ted Schilowitz (formerly of AJA Video) who revealed that Oakley Sunglasses founder Jim Jernnand founded Red, which currently has roughly 50 engineers working on the project; The company has been quietly generating input from cinematographers.
Schilowitz reported that the camera would support PL mount, cine style 35mm lenses (although there are rumblings that Red also plans to develop its own set of custom lenses.) He hopes the camera will ship by year’s end.
In addition to eyeing new developments including the Red prototype next week, cinematographers will be scrutinizing digital cinematography cameras such as Grass Valley’s Viper, Arri’s D-20 and Dalsa’s Origin.
Meanwhile, there has been a steady flow of interest in low cost HD cinematography options such as the HDV cameras from Sony, Canon and JVC, as well as Panasonic’s HVX200 that records to a P2 solid state memory card. And let’s not forget Grass Valley will be showing its tapeless Infinity series, which was launched at IBC last September.
With all this occurring, it seemed like a good time to also canvass some rental houses.
To no surprise, all agreed that the bulk of national spot work is lensed on 35mm film; some also identified a growing interest in Super 16.
“The digital intermediate (DI) process is bringing back Super 16 because if you are going to make an indie film, you can shoot on film, get that incredible resolution, and put it into a DI workflow and take it out to 35mm, HD — whatever deliverable you need to go to,” related Fletcher Chicago VP Tom Fletcher.
Citing applications where in particular there are budget and time constraints, Chicago-based Schumacher Camera general manager James Pope added, “Over the last two years we’ve seen some migration to HD from 16 mm; now we are seeing a resurgence in Super 16 because Kodak has come up with new Vision stock. From a rental standpoint, cost wise there is currently very little difference between 16mm and HD; there are sometimes some savings in 16.”
When it comes to the use of HD cinematography cameras, there didn’t appear to be a consensus on which are most popular. The reasons for the choices, however, were fairly similar.
“They are looking for a specific look that one gets with digital,” said Alan Albert, executive VP at Clairmont Camera, which has locations in Hollywood, Toronto and Vancouver. “Sometimes they want to venture into newer technology and sometimes it is price driven.”
“If they have a high shooting ratio, it can be cost efficient,” Fletcher added. “Being able to see full-quality images on set is another one of the reasons they like it. That communication with a client, director and director of photography is really helpful.”
Robert Glassenberg of Plus8digital–which maintains offices in Los Angeles, New York, Vancouver, Toronto and Houston–agreed that on-set viewing can be a driver for the use of HD cameras. He also cited jobs that combine extensive digital visual effects.
SHOOT senior editor, technology and postproduction, Carolyn Giardina can be reached at 310-822-0211 or at cgiardina@shootonline.com.
