Ever long for a cheaper, simpler, HD-SDI recording device? Charles d’Autremont has. An architecture student from way back, and one of the founders of New York branding and creative agency dbox, he cites accumulated negative experiences in the field as inspiration for the creation of the Cinedeck/Extreme. The portable box, which weighs less than four pounds, is the first in a series of camera-mountable devices that double as digital disk recorders and camera-mounted LCD screens. Read More »
It was at some point early last summer when I finally abandoned an idea I had been working on for several months. I had taken a page of a Wordpress blog and was attempting to catalog all of the iPhone apps I could find that were somehow related to post-production and filmmaking in general. I thought: “they’re just little iPhone apps, how many could there be?” But after quite a few late night hours searching through the iTunes app store, and copy/pasting from developer’s websites I shelved this idea. There were way more of these types of apps than I had anticipated and there were new ones coming online all the time. I remember thinking: “I hope someone develops a full site dedicated just to this topic.” Hand Held Hollywood is attempting to do just that.
Film and video makers love gadgets. Â We flock to any new technology that demonstrates the slightest potential to help us conceptualize, visualize and digitize our creative visions. Â So why have we neglected that touch-screen powerhouse already in our pocket? Â Hand Held Hollywood is here to change that.
HHH explores how Apple’s ubiquitous iPhone (and iPod Touch) can aid in nearly every aspect of film and video production. Â This is a destination for those wishing to discus and discover the latest techniques and technology. It’s a place where every gadget obsessed writer, producer, director, cinematographer, composer, editor, actor, and otherwise can call home.
As manufacturers continue to create more powerful hand held devices, HHH will broaden its scope to include them. Â But until there are viable alternatives, the iPhone has our full attention.
Culver City, CA—Today, Sony Corporation announced that it will open the Sony 3D Technology Center at Sony Pictures Studios, to train cinematographers, directors, game developers and others in the art and science of 3D production and post. The Center was announced to the press by Chris Cookson, president of Sony Pictures Technologies, Sony Pictures Entertainment and now
Buzz Hays
Chief Office of the Sony 3D Center. Also on hand was Buzz Hays, SVP of the Sony 3D Technology Center; George Joblove, EVP of advanced technology for Sony Pictures Entertainment; Steve Poster, ASC, who is president of International Cinematographers Guild Local 600; Elizabeth Daly, dean of the USC School of Cinematic Arts and others.
“Making 3D is easy, but making good 3D is hard,” said Hays, introducing the topic. Cookson concurred. “It’s too easy to rush out and shoot 3D that isn’t pleasant,” he said. “Bad 3D will sour consumers on the experience. We want to elevate the knowledge of people across the industry so that the 3D experience can be more pleasant.”
XYZ RGB, a scanning facility founded in 2001 in Ottawa, Canada, has been busy. First, there’s the new Los Angeles office, in the Marina Del Rey area. “It acts as a satellite office to our Ottawa headquarters,” says COO Troy Robinson. “It’s convenient for clients.”
The company has most recently used its high-res 3D scanning to capture actors in costume and props for Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, which debuts February 12. The scans were used as a basis for creating digital doubles and stunt people in this action-adventure film. In addition to actors and costumes, XYZ RGB scanned all the weapons, including swords, shields and bows and arrows. Robinson reveals that XYZ RGB took their scanning equipment to Vancouver, where the production was shooting. “We’re very, very portable,” says Robinson, who is getting ready to fly to New York and then Montreal. “We only rarely do scanning in Ottawa.”
Since the company’s founding–when it created a niche in the VFX industry by providing 3D scanning for the two Matrix sequels, Reloaded and Revolution– it has developed capture systems enabling instant full body scanning, props, automobiles as well as buildings and sets. Their scanning services are used by the gaming, VFX and inspection/manufacturing industries and others requiring high-end scan data including the automobile and reverse engineering industries. Among its other credits, XYZ RGB scanned faces for the Fight Night 3 game, the dragons for PlayStation’s “Lair”, dinosaurs for Kong, and full body scanning for GI Joe.
There are several utilities out there, designed to help with your Final Cut Pro install, that will back up user data, reset cache files and help with
other system maintenance issues. A new one that I saw mentioned via Twitter is called Final Cut Assistant. It takes a different approach than most by installing a drop-down menu to access its functions:
Besides the usual resets and backups, Final Cut Assistant also provides some options for importing and converting of media. I especially like the Import Copies… option which will take media, copy to a designated location and import that into your FCP project via an XML. Best of all, it’s free, though they do ask for a donation. Full details and documentation are available at the Final Cut Assistant website.
Despite this year’s expansion of the best-picture field from five nominees to 10, the Academy Award nominations announced this morning fell pretty much as expected, at least in the major attention-grabbing categories. Specifically, Avatar and The Hurt Locker led the field with nine nominations each, setting the stage for the anticipated Oscar-night showdown between former spouses James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow. (Current wisdom has Bigelow scoring a historic win as the first female winner of the Oscar for direction, with Cameron’s achievement taking the top prize. And if some other film wins either prize, that will be a major upset.)
The dark-horse candidates squeaking into the picture race turned out to be the tremendously popular The Blind Side, the science-fiction allegory Distict 9, and the low-key Coen Brothers release A Serious Man. Disney/Pixar’s Up became the second film ever (after Disney’s Beauty and the Beast) to be nominated for best picture. None of those were sure things, but none of them came out of left field, either.
Taking five questions from StudioDaily this time around is director Matt Ginsburg, who was responsible for the second half of History Channel’s epic, 10-part documentary miniseries WWII in HD, which aired late last year. In 2002, Ginsburg founded New York’s Boom Pictures, where he leads a team of freelance creatives in a variety of programming assignments.
Q: What are you working on today?
A: A lot of development — lots of nonfiction projects.
Q: What’s the best tool or innovation you’ve found that has come out in the last year?
A: The iPhone 3GS. While I’m not a big fan of the phone, as coverage can be sketchy, the device and all of the new apps that just came out are fantastic. With easy access to Google Maps, Zip Car, Weather Channel, IMDB, iTunes, NPR, The New York Times, etc., it’s like having a digital swiss army knife for production.
Q: What’s the project (film, television, commercial or music video) that most impressed you in the last year? Why?
A: The Hurt Locker — because I can’t stop thinking about it.
Q: What’s your favorite project that you worked on in the past year? And why?
A: WWII in HD, for two reasons. First, because it was a tremendous privilege to be able to tell the stories of 12 people who experienced this pivotal event in human history, and to do so using rare, color archival films. And secondly, because I keep hearing feedback from people who say that while we made something that will stand as a vivid testament to the sacrifices of those who served, we ultimately made an anti-war film.
Q: Name the top four artists on your iPod.
A: Buddy Guy, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Cash and Spearhead.
The Previsualization Society,whose September 2009 launch was previously announced on StudioDaily, just went “live” with a new online portal and has started to formally accept membership applications. Both these initiatives are a ramp-up of activities and steps towards growing the Society as a non-profit, interdisciplinary organization dedicated to advancing previsualization (“previs”) in feature film, games, commercials and architecture.
The call for membership is aimed to expand the existing 300 charter members who represent a diverse cross-section of the entertainment industry. For the 2010 membership cycle, applications have been opened at the following levels: Previs Professional (full memberships for credentialed previs artists and supervisors); Associate (full memberships for industry professionals working in conjunction with previs); Educator (full memberships for accredited teachers and instructors); Student (full memberships for currently enrolled students); General (limited memberships for those interested in previs but outside of the previs industry).
This bit of news came out today via the Vimeo blog: the filmmaker’s favorite online video sharing site is adding both 1080p and AVCHD support. The 1080p support was inevitable since YouTube has already added this resolution. Where YouTube goes the competitors must follow. It’s great that Vimeo is adding this as it seems to be the go-to place for filmmakers, cinematographers and the serious hobbyist to show off their work. But beware, Vimeo says: “We’re calling this feature experimental: that means to use caution before enabling 1080p, since viewers may experience choppy playback.” Discussion has already begun on the Vimeo forums in an official Let’s talk about 1080! thread, which might be worth monitoring if you’re going to use this new feature. I uploaded a short piece just to see if it works. The embed is after the jump. And please note: 1080p upload support is only available for Vimeo Plus members.
ActiveVideo Networks, a cloud-based interactive television company, and Trailer Park, an entertainment marketing agency, announced that Trailer Park’s recently formed Advanced Content Group (TPAC) has become the first major content developer to partner with the ActiveVideo CloudTV platform currently in close to 5 million homes. ActiveVideo anticipates that it will be in 10 million homes by the end of 2010.
ActiveVideo ActiveVideo combines Web-based media and targeted, clickable advertisements with the high-quality video, immediate responsiveness and remote control navigation of television for uniform interactivity across all digital and IPTV set-tops, CI+ enabled televisions, and broadband-connected CE devices.
Trailer Park is leveraging the CloudTV platform to deliver interactive entertainment to interactive TV audiences. The CloudTV platform allows content to be created once and distributed to any television screen, including digital cable boxes and web-connected televisions.
Rick Eiserman, Trailer Park CEO noted that the demand for TV interactivity has grown dramatically among viewers and entertainment providers, but there has been no single platform for easy development and distribution of applications. “ActiveVideo’s CloudTV represents a dynamic new offering that will simplify our ability to develop and provide interactive content and unique consumer experiences for every existing — and upcoming — delivery platform,” says Eiserman.
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