October 18, 2013
Canon U.S.A., partners with Ron Howard’s “Rush”MELVILLE, N.Y.–Canon U.S.A., Inc. has expanded its relationship with two-time Academy Award-winning director Ron Howard for his recently released film from Universal Pictures, Rush, which builds upon the imaginative ways that Canon products are used in Hollywood. Rush hit theaters in Los Angeles and New York City on September 20, and it arrived across the country on September 27.
As a partner on Rush, Canon’s variety of cameras and lenses were utilized to film the epic action-drama. The Canon brand is also organically integrated throughout the film, which powerfully depicts Formula 1 racing in the 1970s, when Canon was a sponsor of racetracks and the drivers. A number of Canon cameras were used in filming RUSH, including the Canon Cinema EOS C300 and Canon EOS 5D Mark III Digital SLR camera.
Howard (A Beautiful Mind, Frost/Nixon) teamed once again with two-time Academy Award-nominated writer Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon, The Queen) on Rush, a spectacular big-screen re-creation of the merciless and legendary 1970s Formula 1® rivalry between gifted English playboy James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth of The Avengers, Thor) and his disciplined Austrian opponent, Niki Lauda (Daniel Br๏ฟฝhl of Inglourious Basterds, The Bourne Ultimatum).
Engaging consumers further, Canon will launch RUSH: The Photo Contest, a two-week photography challenge on Canon’s Facebook page, now live. Playing off the speed of the film, the user-generated photo contest asks participants to complete ten various photo-based challenges within specific time parameters (e.g., “You have one hour to shoot for the theme: Dedication. Go. Long Live the Rush.”) Each photo challenge winner will win a $250 online store credit to be used at the Canon Online Store, and Ron Howard will select one Grand Prize Winner to receive a Canon EOS 70D EF-S 18-135mm IS STM Camera Kit. Please see www.bit.ly/18iuwtA for the Official Rules. The contest will live on www.Facebook.com/CanonUSA.
“When working on RUSH, it was a natural fit to partner with Canon as they enable creativity among all artists with their advanced camera and lens technology,” said Howard.
Canon’s relationship with Howard began in 2011 with Project Imagin8ion, the first photograph contest in history to inspire a short film. The next iteration, Canon’s Project Imaginat10n proves Howard’s own words: “We’re all creative,” enlisting celebrity directors across different disciplines to direct short films based on consumer submitted photographs. Eva Longoria (Golden Globe Nominated and SAG Award winning actress), Jamie Foxx (Academy Award-winning actor), Biz Stone (co-founder of Twitter), Georgina Chapman (designer and co-founder of Marchesa) and James Murphy (founder of LCD SOUNDSYSTEM) all directed short films inspired by ten consumer photographs earlier this year.
Behind the scenes of the Project Imaginat10n films can be seen at www.imagination.usa.canon.com
SMPTE to host groundbreaking 4k demoWHITE PLAINS, NY–The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers announced that the SMPTE 2013 Symposium, “Next-Generation Imaging Formats: More, Faster, and Better Pixels,” will feature the largest collection of 4K/UHD equipment yet presented in a single room. Offered in conjunction with the SMPTE 2013 Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition, the one-day symposium will take place on Oct. 21 in Hollywood, Calif., with the complementary 4K/UHD demo area remaining open through Oct. 23.
Organized by Insight Media in collaboration with SMPTE, the unprecedented 4K/UHD demo area will showcase various image processing and scaling engines and their ability to produce 4K/UHD content from lower-resolution sources, as well as High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) codec demos to showcase the quality possible at various bit rates for delivery of 4K content. Participants will include industry leaders such as Altera, Canon, Cisco, Colorfront, Elemental Technologies, Quantel, Rovi, Samsung, Sony, and Video Clarity.
“The SMPTE Symposium’s 4K/UHD demo area offers visitors a unique opportunity to see just how well the latest scaling and encoding technologies deliver 4K content, and to assess the quality of native 4K and processed content side by side on a variety of the latest 4K displays,” said Barbara Lange, executive director at SMPTE.
“With this valuable perspective on the maturity of 4K-focused technology, content providers will be much better positioned to make strategic decisions about their own approach to 4K implementation and service offerings,” said Chris Chinnock, president of Insight Media.
By illustrating how effective the latest upscaling and conversion engines are in making 1080p content look impressive on a UHD TV, the demo will help to address the concern that the current dearth of 4K native content might prevent the rollout of 4K products and services. A demonstration of the HEVC codec — and its ability to offer high quality at low bit rates — will offer a possible solution for the delivery of 4K content not only within production facilities, but also to the home. In addition, a team from Canon, Colorfront, and Quantel will showcase live and file-based 4K production workflows.
The SMPTE 2013 Symposium is a one-day seminar with a deep topical focus. The SMPTE 2013 Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition runs from Oct. 22-24. Both events take place at the Loews Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles, Calif. Further details about the event, including registration, are available at www.smpte2013.org.
Autodesk Smoke Essentials E-Book hits Amazon
LOS ANGELES–“Autodesk Smoke Essentials”- a new e-book from industry-renowned writer, director and colorist Alexis Van Hurkman and Wiley Publishing – is now available for purchase on Amazon and Wiley. The e-book gives artists and editors a practical new resource for learning the fundamentals of Autodesk Smoke – the powerful software application that combines a familiar track-based editing environment with robust features for digital compositing, color correcting and effects.
By providing basic lessons, step-by-step instructions and accompanying video materials, “Autodesk Smoke Essentials” illustrates how users can streamline effects-intensive projects by editing, compositing and finishing within a single environment. Every chapter begins with a topic introduction, explains methods used and breaks down why those methods are being used, and concludes with open-ended projects to encourage learning. Readers can also access a hands-on learning experience with downloadable project files from “The Place Where You Live” – a narrative live-action short film created by Van Hurkman using Smoke.
“Autodesk Smoke Essentials” offers instruction on many aspects of Smoke including:
– The Smoke interface inside and out, including all key tools
– Managing media with the MediaHub and Media Library
– Editing and trimming clips in a timeline to assemble and polish an edit
– Creating transitions, adding dissolves and using Timewarp
– Building basic composites using the Axis effect
– Using ConnectFX and Action Node for advanced compositing
– Working with audio clips
– Adding and mixing audio, music, and sound effects
– Techniques for color correction and styling titles and credits
For more information about the e-book and pricing, visit Amazon ($39.99) and Wiley ($32.99). You can also get a behind-the-scenes look at Van Hurkman’s work on “The Place Where You Live” in these IBC 2013 and Amsterdam SuperMeet videos.
Through October 25, 2013, Autodesk is offering a promotion for up to 20% savings* on Autodesk Smoke 2013 software.
TV-over-Internet service Aereo to come to Android
NEW YORK (AP) — Aereo, a service that delivers broadcast television stations over the Internet, will come to Android devices on Oct. 22.
The service started on iPhones and other Apple devices along with the Roku streaming box before expanding to personal computers. The company says that the Android offering took longer because of the many versions of Android available. Device makers are able to customize the version made by Google.
Aereo says its Android app will run on phones and tablets with Android 4.2 or higher. It will be in a beta test mode at first.
On iPhones and iPads, Aereo is accessible through the device’s Web browser. Aereo opted to develop a stand-alone app for Android to give subscribers a consistent experience on a wide range of devices.
Aereo converts television signals into computer data and sends them over the Internet to subscribers’ computers and mobile devices. Subscribers can watch channels live or record them with an Internet-based digital video recorder. In addition to over-the-air channels in the subscriber’s market, Aereo offers the financial cable channel Bloomberg TV.
Aereo is currently available in New York, Boston, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Miami, Houston and Dallas. It has plans to expand to at least 26 additional markets by next year. Service starts at $8 a month.
Aereo has won key court rulings against broadcasters that claim its service infringes copyrights. The victories include a ruling in Boston on Tuesday denying ABC station WCVB’s request for a preliminary injunction to stop Aereo’s service. However, the judge in Boston also denied Aereo’s request to move the case to New York, where Aereo has prevailed at the appellate level in two similar lawsuits.
Tokyo’s INFAS.com finds Pablo Rios in fashion for postproduction
NEWBURY, UK–Japanese fashion postproduction facility, INFAS.com, has bought a Pablo Rio 4K and Pablo Rio 2K from Quantel to support its increasing demand for 4K production. The Pablo Rios will spearhead its planned move into 8K production and in the future will be connected via second generation Genetic Engineering.
INFAS.com provides S3D and 4K post production services on commercials for leading fashion houses, music videos, feature films and TV programs.
Director of production at INFAS.com, Mr Ono, said, “Our parent organization, INFAS Group is mainly involved in fashion media. The introduction of Pablo Rio systems is not only intended to expand our postproduction business, but also to support our ‘beauty strategy’ by enhancing fashion imagery at high resolution and high frame rates. In August, we undertook 4K production for the Tokyo Girls Collection fashion festival at the Saitama Super Arena and now we plan to provide a wide variety of video content with a central focus on fashion.”
Datos Media appointed as Avid Elite Reseller for Spain
MADRID–Avid Technology has reinforced its reseller network in Spain by appointing Datos Media Technologies S.A., a company within the Dan Technologies group, as an Avid Elite Reseller.
Datos Media will sell and support the entire Avid Technology video portfolio, including video and audio editors, newsroom computer systems, media asset management and networked data storage.
STAQ names Anthony Lagana VP of technologyNEW YORK–STAQ, a system for unifying ad technology through integrations, has named Anthony Lagana, a veteran leader in digital media industry, as its VP of technology. Lagana will oversee the development and delivery of STAQ’s flagship product, as well as grow the technology, operations and support teams to scale with its demand.
Lagana’s career began at DoubleClick in 1998 where he managed engineering for nearly a decade before the company’s acquisition by Google in 2007 for $3.1 billion. His executive leadership continued with a tenure at Google until joining Collective in 2009, where he oversaw the AMP audience data and media management product.
