Attendees at this year’s National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Convention in Las Vegas witnessed the introduction of new technologies that–if accepted in the commercial space–bear price tags that could radically change the business models as we know it.
The ultra-high end remains an important market segment, but at NAB, attendees also saw the emergence of a new low cost “other” end. Examples of where such tools could take the industry include the recently released film Dust to Glory, which follows the Baja 1000 road race. Shot using over 50 cameras in a variety of formats–including HDCAM, DV and film–the feature was posted with an all Adobe PC-based workflow that allowed the filmmakers to mix media, add titles, effects and color correct within an environment that centered on Adobe’s Premiere Pro and After Effects on a BOXX HD RT workstation. In another example, Grass Valley-based AJA Video announced that indie film Chasing Ghosts, set to make its theatrical debut this fall, was finished on an Apple PowerMac G5with AJA’s Kona 2 card, running Apple’s Final Cut Pro and HD and Shake, and was color corrected using San Diego-based Silicon Color’s Final Touch color correction software.
Obviously, the capabilities in these new desktop systems vary, but the question lingers–will these low-cost tools find their way into advertising production? Would the landscape of companies change? And what would be the overall impact on the cost of producing a :30?
More and more, it is becoming about selecting the right tool for the right job, there is no one-size-fits-all scenario–and with shrinking margins, buyers are looking seriously at price.
Color correction is one of the areas that looks poised for an overhaul, as software based systems are emerging to compete with traditional hardware-based da Vinci and Pandora systems. One is aforementioned Silicon Color, which offers its Final Touch HD editing software for desktop computers and lists for around $5,000.
Others are trying to combine the flexibility of software with the power expected in today’s hardware systems. One that turned the heads of spot makers in Las Vegas was U.K.-based Filmlight, which previewed its Baselight color correction system’s next version 2.2 software, which includes support (in Baselight 4 and 8 configurations) for its innovative new “Blackboard”–an optional, large control surface–designed with input from colorists. The prototype shown at NAB looked like it will be highly familiar and comfortable for colorists who are used to working on a da Vinci or Pandora–and to clients who supervisor commercial sessions.
“It’s clear that Blackboard has been developed with input from colorists; it has the flexibility that a lot of people feel is missing when they move from hardware system to software graders,” said beta tester Adam Glasman, a lead colorist at Framestore CFC’s London facility. “A pen and tablet doesn’t always give you as much fine control as you’d like, or allow you to work the way you are most efficient. With Blackboard, I can get to the primary and secondary controls extremely quickly. All of the control really makes a difference on intense twelve-hour sessions.” A July release is planned for Blackboard.
Also at NAB, Filmlight and Avid announced that they are integrating Filmlight technology in Avid systems, enabling users to work in an Avid nonlinear environment and maintain the precisely calibrated viewing environment that is customary when using the Baselight system. The companies are also exploring way to use color metadata in Filmlight’s Truelight color management system and Avid Nitris, to aid the workflow and communication between postproduction talent, directors of photography and visual effects supervisors.
Communication with the DPs was a big topic. Miami-based Assimilate previewed Scratch Zone 1, a new software that extends the company’s Scratch data work and mastering environment with real-time review and playback tools that could run on a laptop and be used on set by directors, cinematographers, clients and supervisors. For instance, one could apply LUTs (look up tables)–including those from a post facility that can be encrypted–to assist a cinematographer in setting his looks on location. Assimilate is currently seeking input from DPs, as well as the post community; the software is scheduled to ship later this month for $2,000.
Meanwhile, at the plug-in pavilion, Hollywood-based Gamma & Density showed its new 3cP (Cinematographer’s Color Correction Program) on-set color correction software system, designed to bridge the communication gap between the DP and colorist by logging color information.
Autodesk Media and Entertainment (formerly Discreet) showed a technology demonstration of a scaled down version of its Discreet Lustre running on a Macintosh G4 laptop computer. The goal is to build a software system that filmmakers can take on set to begin exploring looks. No development timetable was announced.
Autodesk’s big news in the area of color, however, was an agreement to acquire Colorfront, the Budapest-based maker of color correction technology that is the basis of Lustre. The deal is valued at $15 million, and is expected to close this spring. Autodesk intends to more deeply integrate the Colorfront technology into its products. Meanwhile, founders Mark and Aron Jaszberenyi along with the Colorfront development team in Hungary will all become part of the Autodesk contingent.
Coral Springs, Fla.-based da Vinci had a familiar face in the spot community–colorist John Dowdell–demonstrating its Resolve version 2.0 color correction software, which is scheduled to ship in May. Dowdell put the system through its paces, and discussed integration of the software in a post facility environment.
At its first press conference since Stockholm-headquartered Digital Vision acquired London’s Nucoda, the latter company announced an emphasis on developing tools that will help post houses transition to data workflows–for feature, TV and commercial work. Demos included a technology demo of a developing HD standards converter, as well as Nucoda Data Dailies, ASC3 ME film dirt concealment system, and version 2.0 of its Valhall Color Grade System.
Quantel has also been examining the business model for the digital intermediate (DI) process, which has taken Hollywood by storm and that is finding applications in the television and commercial markets. Essentially, the term is used to describe the process of handling all post including color correction and mastering in the digital realm.
Marketing manager Mark Horton explained that early DI work was primarily about color correction, but the process has many other elements–and those elements are where facilities can make the most money. “Mastering is the biggest money maker in DI, and systems that don’t include mastering capabilities won’t make as much money [for a post house],” he reasoned. So Quantel was on hand demonstrating the full mastering capabilities of its iQ system, and also introduced “Pay as you go” a payment program (SHOOT, 4/29, p. 1) designed to reduce the risk of transitioning to HD.
CAMERAS
For cinematography, applications were the centerpiece announcements for high-end digital cinematography camera makers, but the biggest news surrounding new HD camera technology with startling new price points.
Among them, Secaucus-headquartered Panasonic unveiled a prototype of its AG-HVX200 DVCPRO HD P2 camcorder, which is priced at $6,000 and is scheduled to ship in the fall. The multiformat, variable frame rate camera supports formats including 1080I and 720p. Hollywood-based rental house Birns and Sawyer has already placed an order for the camera.
Meanwhile, Park Ridge, N.J.-headquartered Sony and Wayne, N.J.-headquartered JVC showed low cost camcorders that support the new HDV format.
JVC presented its GY-HD100U HDV high definition camera recorder with 24p capture and recording as part of its ProHD product line-up; the camera is designed for digital cinematography, as well as commercial production, reality, episodic, documentary and news programs. The suggested list price for the GY-HD100U including 16:1 Fujinon Lens is $6,295. Delivery is expected to begin in July.
Meanwhile, Sony attracted attention with its now shipping HVR-Z1U HDV camcorder, priced at $5,000. The camcorder can record HDV, DVCAM and DV images at 60i, 50i, 30, 25 or 24 frames per second, in either SD or HD.
At the high end, Sony used its annual CineAlta night to show clips from projects lensed with its F 950 HDCAM SR camera system, including the upcoming Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith and the newly released Sin City. Sony also showed clips from TV series that are lensed with Sony’s F900 HDCAM system including Arrested Development.
The company also generated attention with its the introduction of the SRW-5500 videotape recorder that offers multiformat support and is switchable between HDCAM and the newer HDCAM SR, which can record 4:4:4 RGB.
“RGB allows us to take advantage of the HD format; it provides extremely high resolution, getting twice as much information as 4:2:2 HD formats,” said Rick Harding, Sony marketing manager for storage systems. “It makes a big difference to the overall quality of the project, especially if you are doing compositing and effects.”
Meanwhile, Paris-headquartered Thomson’s Grass Valley showed clips from director Bob Giraldi’s new short film Honey Trap, which was lensed with its Viper Filmstream camera, recording to an HDCAM SR deck, and posted in HD (SHOOT, 4/15, p. 1).
In its booth, Grass Valley unveiled its Venom Flashpak solid state dockable recording system, which enables a cinematographer to work untethered with the Viper. Recording in Viper’s highest “Filmstream” resolution–uncompressed 4:4:4 RGB color space–Venom has a 10-minute capacity, or the system can record 18 minutes of 4:2:2 HD.
Viper and Venom were exhibited in an area of the Grass Valley booth dedicated to digital filmmaking, which also included a workflow demo using its Spirit 4k (which is now also available as a Spirit 2k) and Specter. (Just prior to the start of NAB, New York-based Nice Shoes purchased its second Specter; the first is used for its unique nonlinear color correction workflow for commercials.)
Munich-based Arri announced that the Venom Flashpak also worked with its new D-20 digital cinematography camera, which is now available for rental in London an has been used on several U.K. commercials.
FINAL NOTES
- Mountain View, Calif.-based SGI showed its Prizm platform driving one of the new Sony SXRD 4k projectors, and presented Prizm as an open platform for software development. Autodesk Media and Entertainment, which is currently seeking a new platform for Discreet Inferno and Discreet Fire systems, announced that it is evaluating Prizm for this need.
- Autodesk announced an agreement through which it will be a distributor for Montreal-based Maximum Throughput’s Sledgehammer network attached storage systems.
- Los Altos Hill, Calif.-based Zaxel Systems, introduced ZLC (Zaxel Lossless Compression) 2.3, a patented, mathematically lossless video codec available for professional server product line.
- The aim is enhanced productivity and cost performance, with savings in time, bandwidth and storage capacity. “Storage is a very expensive part of postproduction, particularly as it moves to higher resolutions, the data size becomes larger and work becomes slower,” explained Dr. Norihasa Suzuki, president/CEO of Zaxel “[With ZLC] storage can be reduced– and we do lossless compression; so without comprising quality, they can work faster.”
- Agoura Hills, Calif.-based Ciprico announced plans to introduce MediaVault 4105 and 4210, which would combine 4Gb Fibre Channel technology with the entry-level ATA disk-drives of the MediaVault product family. The company said the goal is to enable uncompressed HD and 4K for the desktop.
- Rochester, N.Y.-headquartered Kodak announced that its Digital Ice technology–which automatically detects and eliminates dust, scratches and other defects on the surface of negative film while it is being converted to digital picture files for postproduction–is being integrated into Tokyo-based Imagica’s new Imager HSX high speed scanner and Munich-headquartered ARRI’s 4k Arriscan.
- Back in March, Avid announced an agreement to purchase Mountain View, Calif.-based Pinnacle Systems, but with the deal not yet closed, the two companies remained competitors at NAB. There, Pinnacle’s demos included the new version 6.1 of its Liquid nonlinear editing system, which includes multi-stream native HD editing, format independent real time effects, integrated DVD authoring and a redesigned user interface.
- Somerville, Mass.-based 1 Beyond Inc., introduced Pro HD Flex, a customizable uncompressed HD editing/composting line that starts at $14,995 with 1TB of storage.
- Berkshire, UK-based Pro-Bel expanded its Procion workflow management system for post houses. That includes the ability to access all of the core system functionality through a standard web browser, thus providing platform independence by allowing access from Apple, Unix and other non-PC platforms.
- St. Louis-based software developer Wondertouch announced that it would release a Particle Illusion plug-in for Adobe After Effects in late June.
