Digital_Video_June_2015 by Hiba Dweib

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JUNE 2015 | CREATIVEPLANETNETWORK.COM

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digital

VIDEO

vol. 23 | no. 6

06.2015

EDITOR’S VIEW

EDITORIAL EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Cristina Clapp cclapp@nbmedia.com MANAGING EDITOR Katie Makal kmakal@nbmedia.com WEB EDITOR Sarv Kreindler, skreindler@nbmedia.com CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Jay Ankeney, Chuck Gloman, David Heuring, Debra Kaufman, John Merli, Carl Mrozek, Oliver Peters, Geoff Poister, Dick Reizner, Stefan Sargent, Jon Silberg, Ned Soltz, Jennifer Wolfe

ADVERTISING EAST COAST SALES MANAGER Susan Shores sshores@nbmedia.com 212. 378. 0400 Ext. 528 WEST/CENTRAL SALES MANAGER Jeff Victor jeffvictor@comcast.net 224. 436. 8044 EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA Steve Connolly sconnolly@nbmedia.com +44 (0) 20 7354 6000 CLASSIFIED AD SALES Susan Shores sshores@nbmedia.com 212. 378. 0400 Ext. 528

JOIN THE CREATIVE VIDEO REVOLUTION ON TOUR

f you’re in (or near) Nashville on June 2 or Miami on July 9, join us for the Creative Video Revolution Tour, an event produced with Blackmagic Design that combines education, engineering expertise and real-world experience. Registration is free for creative professionals. Space is limited, so register now to attend at www. creativevideotour.com.

LOOK AND LISTEN

ART & PRODUCTION SENIOR ART DIRECTOR Nicole Cobban ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Walter Makarucha, Jr. PRODUCTION MANAGER Davis White 703. 852. 4615 dwhite@nbmedia.com ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Caroline Freeland cfreeland@nbmedia.com

CIRCULATION GROUP DIRECTOR, AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT Meg Estevez CIRCULATION MANAGER Kwentin Keenan CIRCULATION CUSTOMER SERVICE Michele Fonville

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NEWBAY MEDIA VIDEO/BROADCAST GROUP EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT | GROUP PUBLISHER Carmel King VP SALES | GROUP PUBLISHER Eric Trabb EDITORIAL DIRECTOR - VIDEO Cristina Clapp EDITORIAL DIRECTOR - BROADCAST Paul J. McLane WEB DIRECTOR Ragan Whiteside-Johnson

Highlighting the capabilities and creative possibilities of Blackmagic Design’s range of Nashville Miami Seattle cameras, Fusion compositing software and COMPLIMENTARY REGISTRATION AT Blackmagic Resolve color management tools, this WWW.CREATIVEVIDEOTOUR.COM afternoon event includes presentations, real-time demonstrations, panel discussions and guidance from Blackmagic product specialists. Shoot, Composite, Color Grade

LEARN See a range of new Blackmagic Design video solutions in action, hear from video professionals about their experiences, and conclude the event equipped with an understanding of Blackmagic’s vision for an interoperable, integrated production and postproduction workflow.

LEAVE WITH KNOWLEDGE Join us for an afternoon of information, interaction and innovation. The Nashville event takes place on Tuesday, June 2, at the Renaissance Hotel. Take a look at the agenda online: creativevideotour.com/nashville/agenda/.

ONLINE PRODUCTION MANAGER Robert Granger

NEWBAY MEDIA CORPORATE

NASHVILLE GUEST SPEAKER: BRIAN HALLETT

PRESIDENT & CEO Steve Palm

An award-winning cameraman, editor, producer and writer, Brian Hallett is the senior promotions producer at the NBC affiliate in Nashville, Tenn. Since 1999, Brian has worked for Spike TV, NBC, FOX and CBS, shooting for every kind of production, including broadcast news, promotional image campaigns, music videos, short films and documentaries.

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creativeplanetnetwork.com | 06.2015

Editorial Director Digital Video magazine creativeplanetnetwork.com p: 310-429-8484 e: cclapp@nbmedia.com Twitter: @DigitalVideomag

06.2015 | vol. 23 | no. 6

CONTENTS

LOOK 20

Making Disneynature’s Monkey Kingdom Shooting in the Jungles of Sri Lanka with Sony’s F65 Camera

LUST 24 Image Resolution, Infrastructure, Infinite Pixels A Round-Up of Products and Technologies from the 2015 NAB Show

LEARN 46

Best of Show The Tools and Technologies Recognized by Digital Video at the 2015 NAB Show

Tips to Clip

Cartel Land Capturing Conflict and Conflicting Perspectives

Production Diary: Camera 4, Where Are You? Missing in Action

feature 16 Grace and Frankie Capturing the Netflix Series: Friends, Family and 4K

and Presumed Dead

departments

38 Buyer’s Guide: Video Streaming Digital Video (ISSN 2164-0963) is published monthly by NewBay Media L.L.C. at 28 E 28th Street, 12th Floor, New York, NY, 10016. Telephone: 212-378-0400. Periodicals postage paid at New York, New York, and at additional mailing offices. U.S. subscription rate is $29.97 for one year; Mexico and Canada are $39.97 (including GST); foreign airmail is $79.97; back issues $7. Prepayment is required on all foreign subscriptions in U.S. funds drawn on a U.S. bank. All rates are one year only. Digital Video, Videography, Digital Content Producer, Millimeter, Digital Cinematography, Cinematographer, 2-pop, Reel Exchange and Creative Planet Network are trademarks of NewBay Media L.L.C. All material published in Digital Video is copyrighted © 2015 by NewBay Media L.L.C. All rights reserved. Postmaster: Send address changes to Digital Video, Subscription Services, P.O. Box 221, Lowell, MA 01853. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to Bleuchip International, P.O. Box 255542, London, ON N6C 6B2. Digital Video makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all information published in the magazine; however, it assumes no responsibility for damages due to errors or omissions. Printed in the USA.

3 6 56 57

Editor’s View Update Company Index Classifieds

57 Advertiser Index

creativeplanetnetwork.com | 06.2015

The sweeTesT spoT. Maximum quality at minimal storage costs with XAVC™ recording exquisite recording typically requires extreme bitrates, quickly filling up your media, overwhelming your storage and bogging down your network. The answer is XAVC encoding, which embodies sony’s decades of expertise in both codecs and cameras. here’s the supple texture of 4K, beautiful high Frame Rate capture, extraordinary 10-bit encoding and precise 4:2:2 color—all at modest bitrates. Incorporated in a full range of sony® cameras and storage devices,* the XAVC codec is supported by all major non-linear editing and grading platforms, including sony’s Catalyst family. And you can use the recordings everywhere from capture to post, archiving and program distribution. For the quality you want with the savings you need, choose sony’s XAVC recording. Get the facts at sony.com/XAVC. * Specific recording features vary by model and XAVC operating point. © 2015 sony electronics Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Features and specifications are subject to change without notice. sony, XAVC and the sony logo are trademarks of sony.

UPDATE

JIGSAW AND TECHNICOLOR POSTWORKS TEAM FOR SINATRA

or postproduction on filmmaker Alex Gibney’s HBO documentary Sinatra: All or Nothing at All, Technicolor PostWorks New York collaborated with Gibney’s production team and editors from Jigsaw New York. Airing on HBO as a four-hour miniseries, the film tells the story of Sinatra’s life and career leading up to his famous 1971 “retirement concert” in Los Angeles. Unusually, the documentary is composed almost entirely of archival material—there are no new on-camera interviews. Rather,

recordings of Sinatra himself provide the narrative thread, with the neverbefore-seen concert material used as a framing device. The massive research effort for the project was led by executive producer Blair Foster, who combed through books, magazines, television shows and news broadcasts, and also reached out to Sinatra’s surviving friends, family and colleagues. The material amassed by Foster was passed on to the Jigsaw editorial team, who worked with Gibney in

shaping the elements into a cohesive story. Jigsaw prepared a conformed version of the documentary in-house before passing it on for final editorial adjustment and color grading. Technicolor PostWorks vice president of creative services Ben Murray suggested this workflow based on past experience: Gibney and his team want the freedom to continue with editorial changes virtually to the point of delivery, so it is more efficient and economical if as many

of those changes as possible can be implemented at the editorial house.

online Read more about Sinatra at creativeplanetnetwork.com/current-issue

creativeplanetnetwork.com | 06.2015

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UPDATE

NEWS

photo by ed araquel/fox

Twitter Feed 4 @MoveableFest Interview: Lisa Immordino Vreeland on Getting Hooked on “Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict” — moveablefest.com/?p=9537 4 @DCAdundee “We wanted to be close to them, to feel them breathing,” Thomas Vinterberg on “Far from the Madding Crowd” in @Guardian — dca.xyz/1H3ldAQ 4 @InterviewMag A good doc is more than just interviews in front of a camera: “It should be more of an adventure,” says Nick Broomfield — bit.ly/1zBU7Oh 4 @BOMBmagazine Filmmaker @frederictcheng talks Raf Simons, Hitchcock and @diorandimovie — bit.ly/1F4EvCq 4 @OTRBackstrokin Filmmaker Alison Chernick’s “The Artist Is Absent: A Short Film on Martin Margiela” is eerily inspiring — fb.me/7ceJZZXMa 4 @DepictArts “Fade to Slide,” a new audiovisual artwork by “The Clock” creator Christian Marclay — bit.ly/1Od8f7w 4 @popcornreel “What Happened, Miss Simone?” comes to @Netflix June 26. You must see this excellent documentary by @lizgarbus — nflx.it/1CZtxfa 4 @NOWNESS Now Playing: Marco Brambilla’s “Apollo XVII” digi-art countdown, from Times Square to outer space — bit.ly/1ARc2f8 4 @gavino_mc Great things always come from a @Madonna/@Akerlund_Jonas collaboration! — youtu.be/GgDxv0Qg_Rg

online Digital Video’s Twitter feed is at twitter.com/ DigitalVideomag

Ethan Burke (Matt Dillon, right) meets Sheriff Arnold Pope (Terrence Howard)

Wayward Pines Post Spans Multiple Locations

psychological thriller executive produced by M. Night Shyamalan, FOX’s Wayward Pines required the creation of a custom production path that enabled working from multiple locations, remote viewing environments and collaborative timing. FotoKem developed a variety of solutions for Wayward Pines, including a secure post pipeline that connected the production site in Vancouver, Shyamalan’s editing suite in Pennsylvania and the edit facility in Hollywood.

Dailies from Vancouver were delivered to Hollywood and Pennsylvania simultaneously. Because moving the entire post team to Pennsylvania was cost-prohibitive, FotoKem set up networked, mirrored editorial suites in both places. Each location had calibrated monitors that ensured consistency, and the creative teams were connected via unique full-motion, colorcritical viewing platforms, allowing them to remotely “sit in” and watch color screens in near real time.

IKEGAMI CAMERAS SHOOT LADY DAY AT EMERSON’S BAR AND GRILL

he iconic Billie Holliday is brought to life in HBO’s broadcast production of the Broadway musical Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill. The performance was recorded before a live audience using Ikegami HDK-97ARRI cameras. Cinematographer Rick Siegel and director Lonny Price deployed the HDK-97ARRI cameras, together with several Ikegami 2/3-inch conventional HD cameras, in a complex shoot at the historic Café Brasil in New Orleans. Equipped with Fujinon’s Cabrio PL Cine lenses, the HDK-97ARRI was used throughout three days of shooting, capturing performer Audra McDonald from a variety of camera placements. “The HDK-97ARRI sensor produces exquisite pictures,” says Siegel, who adds that the camera “brought out the beauty of Audra McDonald and supported her truly amazing rendition of the Billie Holiday character. My pictures became more painterly, which was essential for this period movie.”

creativeplanetnetwork.com | 06.2015

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UPDATE

NEWS

“Trick Shot” Showcases Capabilities of Canon’s Cameras

THE STUDIO GOES GRITTY FOR REBEL MUSIC Gale Tattersall

irected by Evan Kaufmann and with cinematography by Gale Tattersall (Grace and Frankie, House M.D.), the short film “Trick Shot” was created to highlight the capabilities of Canon’s EOS C300 Mark II digital cinema camera and XC10 4K digital camcorder. A classic con movie (with a twist), “Trick Shot” was shot on location in Nevada, with Tattersall using the EOS C300 Mark II and XC10 to capture the darkness of a seedy pool hall, the stark beauty of the desert and the tense drama of a heist film. Watch “Trick Shot” and a companion video that details production and post on the film at www. creativeplanetnetwork.com/trickshot.

online Extended versions of these articles are available at creativeplanetnetwork.com/current-issue

aking inspiration from Latin American political poster art of the 1960s and ’70s, the STUDIO teamed with Nomadic Wax and MTV World to develop and design the graphics package for the second season of the documentary series Rebel Music, which explores the lives of young people around the world who are using art and music in the pursuit of social justice. Artist Shepard Fairey is one of the executive producers of the series, which airs

on several MTV properties. The graphics are on display in the show open, as well as on the web site, in show promos and in other branding elements. Mary Nittolo, the STUDIO’s creative director, says of the design, “Countries with complex political histories often have strong graphic traditions. A combination of institutionalized political art and people’s response to it in the form of graffiti informed the graphic look.”

TROLLBÄCK TITLES MAVIS STAPLES DOCUMENTARY

he opening titles for Jessica Edwards’ documentary Mavis!, celebrating iconic gospel singer and civil rights activist Mavis Staples, were designed by Trollbäck. Inspired by the halftone palettes and iconography of 1970s album covers, the title design is built around archive photography and presented chronologically, from the early years of the Staple Singers, into the Stax Record era and beyond. Trollbäck also collaborated with Edwards to produce motion graphics sequences throughout the film, enhancing stories of music and activism from performers such as Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt and Chuck D. The graphics use retro visuals to capture the spirit of an era and a movement.

creativeplanetnetwork.com | 06.2015

UPDATE

NEWS

 

On the Creative Planet Network

4 COMPANY 3 COLORS COBAIN DOC

MONTAGE OF HECK

THE GREAT AMERICAN MOVIE HUSTLE RECORDED WITH AJA CION

irected by Michael Anton, The Great American Movie Hustle features the cinematography of Doug Michaels, who used AJA CION production cameras. Reports Michaels, “CION is one of the most intuitive, easy-to-use cameras I’ve ever worked with.” All of the material was captured in ProRes 444 at 4K 24 fps, transitioning to ProRes 422 at 4K 60 fps for action scenes that called for a slo-mo

effect. The CIONs were configured for handheld, shoulder-mount setups, with a Zacuto Z-Finder viewfinder, MTF lens adapter and Zeiss Nikonmount lenses. Michaels notes, “The footage looks great, especially with our darker and more contrasty scenes. We threw some clips into [Apple] Final Cut and did some grading and I couldn’t believe what we could pull out of the darks.”

thenewBlank and PBS Collaborate on Brand Campaign

Anywhere,” an “P BS animated brand

campaign created in collaboration with design and production studio thenewBlank, emphasizes how PBS content can be accessed on demand from nearly anywhere. Executive creative directors Bobby Hougham and Servrin Daniels of thenewBlank collaborated with John Ruppenthal, senior director of creative services at PBS, and his team to define an original visual means to communicate the campaign’s message. The animated spot “Boxes,” which blends 3D animated cardboard paper dolls and origami, begins as a simple line drawing that folds and unfolds to take viewers through time and different environments, where PBS is always in reach and viewers are in control of what they explore.

Filmmaker Brett Morgen worked with Company 3 and colorist Shane Harris to color grade Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, a documentary that combines interviews, performance footage, archival audio, animation, motion graphics and home movies. Says Harris of Morgen, “He is so attuned to the ways color can help tell the story. He wasn’t trying to make the footage look ‘pretty’ or to make everything match. He cranked up the soundtrack and we experimented with every shot until it felt right and moved the story forward.” 4 SNORRI BROS. RECORD CAMPAIGN

WITH 360-DEGREE CAMERA

Directing team the Snorri Bros. created the “Your World” campaign for Texas Health Resources by combining a 360-degree camera—one rig housing 10 GoPro cameras—with their own SNORRICAM, a bodymounted camera rig with a swivel feature. The equipment allowed the directors to follow each actor with one continuous camera movement, keeping them as the focal points as the scenes and supporting cast changed around them.

online Go online to read more and view additional images and video: creativeplanetnetwork.com/current-issue

creativeplanetnetwork.com | 06.2015

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UPDATE

NEWS

Spotlight:

Q&A

DAN DOME Associate Director and Lead Editor Late Night with Seth Meyers

ditor Dan Dome, who has worked on NBC’s Late Night with Conan O’Brien and Saturday Night Live and now serves as the associate director and lead editor for Late Night with Seth Meyers, says, “All of the jobs I’ve had have always been a whole lot of fun and a whole lot of hard work. That’s what I love about this business—you can have a great time and you get the adrenaline rush of trying to get something on air. And it’s even better when everything happens the way it should!”

We take advantage of Creative Cloud for editing and graphics work on the editorial side. Our graphic artists are all over Illustrator, Photoshop and After Effects. Our assistant brings in all of the remote media through Prelude so he is able to put markers in clips for us and organize the projects. On the audio side, the fact that Premiere Pro is able to collapse all audio stems and give us one 5.1 audio track when we’re doing our edits of the show or other pieces of content recorded in the studio is really great.

What type of content do you create for Late Night with Seth Meyers? Dan Dome: We do pre-taped bits as well as theatrical show composites. I’m the associate director and lead editor and I work with one other editor and an assistant editor. One priority when we began the show was figuring out how we were going to use Adobe Premiere Pro, Prelude, After Effects, Photoshop and Audition as part of our workflow to get the remote pieces put together and the show delivered, both looking and sounding great. We prepared three separate Premiere Pro templates: one for editing the remote packages, one for editing the show and one for creating the show open. I built the templates and tested them to make sure the control room liked them, and they did.

What is your production workflow? Taping of the show starts at 6:30 p.m. We ingest seven cameras, as well as a program feed, which I use as my foundation for the actual composite of the show. When the show is finished recording, our goal is to have each of the six acts laid out in their own timeline. I save three versions of the show, and the editor, assistant editor and I edit different acts. We export the finished acts as ProRes 422 at 29.97 fps with 5.1 audio out of Premiere Pro and do quality control in AJA Control Room to make sure it’s an A+. The first act and the timing of the show are due to the network by 10:30 p.m. at the latest because that’s when the show composite happens. dv

creativeplanetnetwork.com | 06.2015

Stream Smarter. Sony’s QoS for best-in-class streaming If you can’t wait for the whole world to see what you’re seeing, stream your content with Sony’s XDCam® camcorders. Based on our unsurpassed expertise in digital transmission and encoding, we developed unique Quality of Service (QoS) technology that dramatically improves the clarity that’s possible on a single, affordable cellular channel. You can also stream de facto standard mPeG2-tS. and transfer proxy or full-res files with bit-for-bit accuracy. and control your camcorder, right from a tablet or smartphone. thanks to wireless adaptors, even XDCam® cameras that have been in use for years can take advantage of these powerful possibilities. How smart is that? Schedule a demonstration at sony.com/wireless. © 2015 Sony electronics Inc. all rights reserved. reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Features and specifications are subject to change without notice. Sony, XDCam and the Sony logo are trademarks of Sony. all other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Capturing the Netflix Series: Friends, Family and 4K BY JENNIFER WOLFE

Jane Fonda (Grace) and Lily Tomlin (Frankie) in the Netflix original series Grace and Frankie photos by melissa moseley/netflix

creativeplanetnetwork.com | 06.2015

hat’s it like to work with a screen legend? While potentially a life-changing experience, some cinematographers might also describe it as a touch nerve-wracking. Now try four legendary talents, in a single-camera television comedy series, but with a “cinematic” feel. Oh, and do it all in 4K. Grace and Frankie is the newest addition to streaming giant Netflix’s lineup of original series. Executive produced by Marta Kauffman, one of the creators of network stalwart Friends, the series stars Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin alongside erstwhile soon-to-be-ex-husbands Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston. The show debuted May 8. With the Netflix mandate to shoot in 4K, an attempt at future-proofing its original content, director of photography Gale Tattersall had limited camera options: the Sony F55 and F65 CineAlta 4K digital cinema cameras, the RED EPIC and the RED

creativeplanetnetwork.com | 06.2015

Dragon. Opting to go with the RED Dragon because episode directed by Tristram Shapeero used a full of its gentler touch with skin tones, Tattersall and complement of Cooke S4 prime lenses. his crew photographed the series in 5K for a 4K “With the first season, everyone’s still finding 16:9 extraction, with material recorded to 512 GB their way,” Tattersall says of the production. “The REDMAG SSD cards prior to being transferred to writers, the actors and the camera department, hard drives for delivery to editorial. we’re all finding our way, defining what kind of The first episode, directed by Tate Taylor, show it is. We know it’s a comedy, but what kind of was shot over nine days, with the remaining 12 comedy? It’s certainly not a sitcom, that’s clearly a episodes—each with a different director— shot over five and a half days each, with brief hiatuses in between. Employing two RED Dragons, Tattersall used Angenieux Optimo 17-80mm T2.2 and 24-290mm T2.8 zoom lenses for the A-camera, while the B-camera was outfitted with the Optimo 24-290. For handheld and Steadicam work, the camera crew used a set of Angenieux Optimo 15-40mm Sam Waterston (Sol), Lily Tomlin (Frankie), Jane Fonda (Grace) and Martin Sheen (Robert) T2.6 and 28-76mm T2.6 lenses. One

Jane Fonda and Craig T. Nelson

dirty word. We talked about it being very cinematic, but ‘cinematic’ is actually rather difficult to oblige in a comedy, and, as the old adage goes, you don’t tell jokes in the dark. Yet as the DP, I have a huge responsibility to look after our cast.” The series is “probably the most open and lit kind of show I have ever done,” Tattersall continues. “But if we went anywhere near a sitcom, we would be failing totally. It had to look like a movie, and it had to have a glamorous and cinematic look, which is unbelievably tricky with modern digital cameras.” First AC Tony Gutierrez agrees. “4K (or 5K, and now 6K and higher) is ridiculously challenging,” he comments. “There really are no simple shots anymore.” With higher resolutions and large HD screens, Gutierrez says, wide shots using very wide lenses can be a problem because they allow viewers to see that infinity doesn’t quite resolve into perfect sharpness. “Although the lenses are the same, as you go up from 35mm film to 4K and on upwards toward 6K, you need longer and longer lenses to achieve the same field of view. For instance, on 35mm film, a 50mm lens gives you the same field of view as a 25mm in 16mm format. A 25mm lens is a relatively wide-angle lens and has a correspondingly deep depth of field at any T-stop. As you increase the focal length, the depth of field decreases. A 50mm lens has significantly less depth of field than a 25,” Gutierrez explains. “So now in 5K, your normal 50mm lens really has to be a 65mm to give you the same field of view. If you’re shooting in 6K, then it’s a 70mm. A typical 35mm close-up might be done on a 100mm lens, but in 6K, that 100mm really needs to be a 140mm or more.” To achieve a shallow depth of field on Grace and Frankie, Tattersall tried using longer lenses, among other techniques, and employed the RED

Dragon’s built-in neutral density filters to reduce the amount of light reaching the sensor. “It’s very easy, those sorts of techniques,” he asserts. “They’re totally common now.” Color correction—a key component of creating a polished look for Grace and Frankie and its venerable cast—took place at Technicolor’s Hollywood facility, with senior colorist Gareth Cook working closely with Tattersall to develop the final look for the series. In addition to working together on the FOX series House, the pair had previously teamed up on the pilot for CBS’ CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, helping to launch the iconic series. “The entire pipeline for the project was done in [Blackmagic] DaVinci [Resolve], from editorial to color correction to almost all of the deliverables,” Cook says of Grace and Frankie. “I really love the color imagery of Resolve and how it interprets images. It is the toolset for colorists; everything is right there in front of you and easy to access, and it allows you to move through your projects with ease. You can also bring effects plug-ins into the system, which I ended up doing quite a bit on Grace and Frankie to achieve the look we wanted for our imagery.” Aside from skin tones, one of the biggest challenges of shooting a cast in their golden years is that everyone wants to wear black. “It’s an elegant color, of course,” Tattersall acknowledges, “but it can be difficult to capture properly in the digital age. What was so beautiful about shooting on film was not only how you could find separation in the highlights, but more particularly, and more relevant to the job I just did with Grace and Frankie, you could find separations in the blacks. Instead of getting a straight 45-degree line between 0 and 100 IRE on the sensitometric curve—pure black or pure

white—film provides more of an ‘S’ shape, with a ‘shoulder’ at the top and a ‘toe’ at the bottom where you can really dig in and find that separation.” The RED Dragon, on the other hand, tended to “crush” the blacks. “It almost looks like somebody went in there with a pair of scissors and cut a hole out and put a piece of black velvet behind everything,” Tattersall notes. “The Dragon is a 100 percent perfect fit for House of Cards because they don’t mind falling off into shadow. But if I shot using moody lighting and cross-lighting on Grace and Frankie and start bringing out textural details on faces, I’m fired.” Because color correction for Grace and Frankie took place as the series was still being shot, Tattersall employed a 30-inch Canon DP-V3010 4K reference display with a custom UHD drive system for remote monitoring. “It’s a mind-blowingly accurate 4K reference color grade control monitor,” Tattersall says. “It enabled me to communicate with Gareth remotely and see exactly what he was doing so I didn’t have to sit in on sessions I didn’t have time for anyway. I was able to give him copious notes from my office at Paramount while we were still shooting, which was incredibly valuable, especially in the beginning when we were still setting the overall look for things.” One of the dangers of HD color correction for a 4K workflow is that imperfections can frequently be missed, Tattersall warns. “The extra sharpness and detail of 4K can lead to some of the more unwanted aspects of the image to appear up close and personal,” he explains. “If you are obliged to shoot 4K, then you need to take responsibility for it on that level. It would be unfortunate for material to be off the mark a few years down the road when consumers can access and screen material in true 4K.” dv

creativeplanetnetwork.com | 06.2015

LOOK

MONKEY KINGDOM JOHN MERLI

MAKING DISNEYNATURE’S MONKEY KINGDOM Shooting in the Jungles of Sri Lanka with Sony’s F65 Camera

photo by jeff wilson

isneynature’s latest documentary feature film Monkey Kingdom engaged a production team including director Mark Linfield, co-director Alastair Fothergill, and codirectors of photography Martyn Colbeck and Gavin Thurston for nearly three years in the steamy jungles of South Asia in hopes of following a family of toque macaques. Linfield—perhaps best known for his work on the BBC Natural History Unit television project Planet Earth (2006), the associated theatrical film Earth (2007) and the Frozen Planet series (2011)— had shot a project in Sri Lanka with director of photography Gavin Thurston nearly two decades ago, so they were somewhat familiar with the area and its native fauna. That project “started a lifelong fascination with primates,” says Linfield, who also directed Disneynature’s Chimpanzees (2012). Disneynature is the independent film unit of Walt Disney Studios. Monkey Kingdom reunited Linfield with Dr. Wolfgang Dittus, Ph.D., whose nearly 50-year study of the macaques of Sri Lanka was a huge asset to the production. His knowledge allowed filmmakers to understand the macaques’ social structure, day-to-day lives and individual personality traits. “Our many decades of past research invested in these toque macaques paid dividends for the production,” says Dittus. “Not only did we know these monkeys intimately, but the monkeys were perfectly at ease and behaved normally when the film crew pointed a camera at them.” Linfield notes, “We worked with scientists and spent months in the field familiarizing ourselves with the habits of these fascinating creatures. I immediately knew I wanted Martyn and Gavin as principal cinematographers. Both have huge experience working with primates, which gives

Maya and her son Kip

creativeplanetnetwork.com | 06.2015

photo by mark linfield

Gavin Thurston, director of photography, films monkeys in the ruins.

creativeplanetnetwork.com | 06.2015

Monkey Kingdom was filmed over the course of three years, during which time the director says they shot more than 1,000 camera days and amassed nearly a petabyte of data. Eight months of editing and color grading followed. The primary camera on Monkey Kingdom was Sony’s F65, a 4K camera selected for its image quality, dynamic range and resolution. The camera was customized a bit to reduce its weight—though

photo by jeff wilson

them an uncanny ability to predict behavior.” Input from Dittus and his research team helped the director narrow the focus of the story and pay cinematic attention to individuals and behaviors likely to pay off in the narrative structure of the film. “Part of the director’s role is to decide what to focus on. It’s helping to recognize what the story is that’s unfolding before you and working out the best way to capture it, taking into account the various limitations we place on ourselves to let nature tell the story.” Linfield, assistant director Jeff Wilson and the cinematographers were able to focus their efforts over three years of production on shooting footage supporting the film’s theme. “We knew our story would follow a low-ranking female as she tried to make the most of a bad start in life. Of course, we didn’t know exactly what would happen to Maya during the course of production. That’s serendipity,” Linfield says. “But we knew on a daily basis we would primarily be focusing on her and the things that were impacting her life and her struggle.” The film, narrated by Tina Fey, follows the story of Maya and her son Kip in the complex social hierarchy of a band of toque macaques in the Polonnaruwa area of Sri Lanka, which features spectacular ruins of an ancient civilization, a modern society and a wealth of wildlife.

it still weighed 63 pounds with lens and tripod— and the team had Sony change the default strength of the built-in ND filters. The team also used two Sony F55s—for an underwater sequence and a situation that required getting the camera into small holes in the macaques’ home rock. “As usual with Disney, we could choose our own equipment based on the needs of the project, and shooting with a 35mm sensor would have significant advantages for this type of production,” says Linfield. “We wanted to isolate our monkey subjects from the cluttered background, which is easier to do with a larger sensor. We also wanted the other advances that come with single large CMOS sensors—such as high sensitivity, low noise, wide dynamic range, higher frame rates and more resolution.” Sony’s F65 was introduced into the marketplace shortly before the Monkey Kingdom shoot began, just as several other Super 35mm digital cinema cameras were becoming popular with wildlife filmmakers. Linfield’s crew found the other options lacking. “Either you needed to use a larger-than-Super 35 area of the sensor to get good image quality—which would restrict our lensing too much—or they didn’t have built-in ND [neutral density] filters, which are really helpful for our genre,” Linfield says. “We were also keen to shoot raw [uncompressed] in-camera,

Director Mark Linfield

photo by martyn colbeck photo by jeff wilson

Cameraman Warwick Sloss films the annual termite emergence.

and the F65 was designed with this in mind. One thing we found very hard to argue with in our tests was the image quality.” Linfield says others may have assumed his crew chose the F65 because of the quality of its 4K imagery, but that wasn’t the case. “When we started this project three years ago, we suspected that 4K would be more established in the cinema, so we wanted to maintain the option of a 4K release. But the camera had a significant edge over its rivals for a 2K delivery. Not only did it have the right combination of operational features, but in our tests you could clearly see the advantages of oversampling in the 2K image. Pictures had such cleanly defined high-frequency detail, which stayed high in contrast until the display ran out of pixels. This was a look we wanted,” Linfield says. “In addition, shooting 4K for 2K gives you the ability to reframe shots,” he adds. “The fact that the F65 has an especially detailed 4K image, with close to 4K resolution in every color channel, and with full 4K on the green channel, means you can push in on the image.” Thurston also appreciated the F65’s ability to render greens, the primary color of the jungle. “I love the F65. The color depth is amazing. To have 16-bit raw color is extraordinary, but having two green channels means you get the beautiful richness of greens,” Thurston says. “The thing I’m proudest of is a lot of shots actually look very cinematic. It’s quite nice to think two or three people can hike out with an F65 kit with some grip equipment and actually produce theater-quality images.” Other on-site tools that Thurston found useful were the camera’s Wi-Fi connectivity—which allowed assistant camera Robbie Garbutt to control camera functions from a distance, including frame rate and ND, via the F65 iPad app—and the variable frame rate capability. “Having the versatility to go to 120 frames on the F65 was great, particularly for the stuff around water with the monkeys mucking around and making these heroic leaps from 30 feet up in the trees into the water,” Thurston says. “We used the mechanical shutter for up to 60 frames, and we were using a 180-degree shutter to mimic the look we’re used to seeing with film cameras,” Thurston says. Thurston came away from the shoot thinking of his primate friends as extended family. “If they look after each other in a close-knit society, they can live quite a long time,” he says. “You’ll see that they’re stronger as a team than they would be as individuals.” dv

creativeplanetnetwork.com | 06.2015

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wrap-up

NAB SHOW 2015 OLIVER PETERS

IMAGE RESOLUTION, INFRASTRUCTURE, INFINITE PIXELS A Round-Up of Products and Technologies from the 2015 NAB Show

3D text in Apple FCP X

nother NAB Show has passed and by all measures it was a great success, with all metrics up from 2014. The show drew more than 103,000 registered attendees (versus last year’s 97,900) in more than 1 million square feet of exhibit space. The show floor exhibits constitute the film and broadcast industry’s annual “running of the nerds,” as attendees packed the hallways

waiting for the convention center doors to open in the morning, then rushed the large exhibits near the entrances once the floodgates were opened. This NAB Show didn’t seem to have any single product that generated the main wow factor of the show, unlike last year’s AJA CION and Blackmagic URSA 4K camera announcements. There were plenty of outstanding new products at

the 2015 show, but most of these technologies were evolutionary rather than revolutionary. There were three main takeaways from the show for me. First, this was a strong year for 4K products. I believe 4K is in the middle of a typical NAB Show product lifecycle, where an upstart technology matures and either becomes part of standard workflows or retires to oblivion. Stereo

creativeplanetnetwork.com | 06.2015

Blackmagic URSA Mini Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera

3D, the hot commodity of 2010, apparently has followed the path to oblivion, while 4K seems destined to become part of every production’s vocabulary. Of course, 8K is just around the corner—in upgrading their infrastructure to support 4K, facilities will naturally future-proof for 8K—and many 8K products were demonstrated on the show floor, too. A second theme: this year’s show was also about infrastructure. Many “glue” products from companies including AJA, Blackmagic Design, Grass Valley, Quantel and Snell and others are set to replace facilities’ current HD infrastructure—based on SDI wiring—with one based on fiber optics and/or Ethernet. Announced products included SDI-to-IP converters, SDI-to-fiber converters and even IP routers. Blackmagic is pushing the SDI boundaries with products employing a 12G-SDI chipset (12 Gb/s), which enables 4K signals to pass over a single SDI cable. Finally, those interested in “better pixels” (as opposed to “more pixels”) will be following developments surrounding HDR (high dynamic range) imaging. HDR technology delivers more stunning video to the home through higher brightness ranges than are currently standard. If you shoot in log space, you’ve got the acquisition side covered; the rest of the equation is proper post (for both “normal” and HDR delivery) coupled with consumer sets that display HDR imagery as intended. DOLBY showcased its Dolby Vision HDR imaging technology (introduced at CES 2014), which delivers video with an expanded color range, increased brightness and greater contrast to Dolby Vision-equipped display devices. The company hopes to license Dolby Vision like it has its audio encoding schemes. Dolby demonstrated the technology with low-cost consumer VIZIO television sets using licensed Dolby Vision

technology. Other manufacturers including Sony are also in the HDR game, but until an official standard is ratified, post houses will likely sit on the sidelines.

CAMERAS New cameras always get a lot of attention. BLACKMAGIC DESIGN has taken the lead as the manufacturer to watch and this year debuted several cameras and camera updates. Its large URSA camera received a sensor upgrade to 4.6K, which will result in better 4K images thanks to oversampling. Existing URSA customers may purchase a “turret upgrade,” which enables them to replace the sensor in their camera. URSA received a new sibling in the URSA Mini—a smaller, lighter, cheaper URSA available in four models. The Mini may be purchased with a 4K or 4.6K sensor and with either an EF or PL lens mount. It sports a switchable global and rolling shutter, 15 stops of dynamic range, and dual

camera raw and Apple ProRes recorders. Finally, in what seems to be a shot across the bow at action camera manufacturer GoPro, Blackmagic released the Blackmagic Micro Cinema and Micro Studio cameras. The Micro Cinema Camera includes a Super 16 sensor with a global shutter, while the Micro Studio Camera uses an Ultra HD sensor and is compatible with Micro Four Thirds lenses. AJA has been steadily working on improving its CION camera, with firmware updates and new partners delivering products that can record the camera’s raw images. CION can record to 4K ProRes onboard or to 4K raw using an external recorder. Two of these new partners are ATOMOS— whose Shogun can record raw or Avid DNxHR— and CONVERGENT DESIGN. Convergent’s Odyssey 7Q+ OLED monitor/recorder can record raw, uncompressed DPX and/or ProRes. To get CION cameras into the hands of potential customers, AJA announced its TryCION promotion. AJA will invest in a pool of 100 cameras that will be available

AJA CION

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ARRI Alexa Mini

RED Weapon, rigged

Sony HDC-4300 Canon XC10

as a free loan on productions from qualified shooters accepted by AJA. This promotion includes additional CION accessories as needed. Interested individuals can apply online at AJA’s web site. RED DIGITAL CINEMA has always mounted an interesting and often edgy booth at the show. Love ’em or hate ’em, there’s no denying that RED’s innovations have given camera manufacturers a needed kick in the rear. This year the company revealed RED Weapon, a step up from RED’s EPIC camera. Weapon features a similar modular design and may be purchased with either a carbon fiber or magnesium body. Weapon is currently configured with RED’s 6K Dragon sensor but can be upgraded to the upcoming 8K sensor when it becomes available. A much-awaited feature for RED owners is that Weapon can simultaneously record a highresolution REDCODE raw image and a 2K ProRes file. RED also showed Redcast, a broadcast module that can be attached to EPIC Dragon and Scarlet Dragon cameras. The module uses four 3G-SDI output connections to broadcast 4K video at up to 60 fps, enabling the cameras to be used in live 4K broadcast applications. The company enjoying the bulk of digital feature film work these days is ARRI. Its Alexa and Amira lines are favorites with cinematographers. (Amira was announced at last year’s NAB Show.) ARRI this year entered the small-camera market with the Alexa Mini. It uses a lightweight carbon housing and titanium PL lens and sensor mounts. The idea is to deliver Alexa quality in a form factor that’s better for small rigs, like a Freefly Systems MoVI. The Mini uses the 4:3 Alexa sensor with onboard ProRes or external ARRIRAW recording. Since the Mini was built with ARRI’s newest processor, it can deliver in-camera 4K (UHD) recordings using a slight scale factor to up-res the native 3.2K image to UHD. Record

speeds go up to 200 fps. In order to bring the size down, ARRI limited the external interfaces that would be available in a standard Alexa or Amira. Camera control for the Mini is achieved using Wi-Fi and an iOS or Android device. Audio is connected using a 5-pin LEMO plug. CANON showed off its new EOS C300 Mark II camera and XC10 4K camcorder. The XC10 is targeted at what the company calls “multimedia producers.” It features a compact, all-in-one design and records 4K as an H.264 I-frame file in an MXF wrapper. Professional videographers will be interested in the C300 Mark II, which adds 4K and external raw recording to the C300’s feature set. The camera was developed with a Super 35 sensor and now features a Canon Log 2 gamma profile. Unfortunately, no upgrade to the C500, Canon’s previous flagship 4K cinema camera, was announced at the show. Since the C300 Mark II and C500 appear to offer nearly the same features, notably 4K and raw recording, the speculation is that Canon will soon phase out the C500. We’ll have to see what happens later this year. Don’t forget the traditional broadcast manufacturers. SONY was there with a full line of 4K cameras, including the F5, F55, F65, FS700 and new FS7. (The FS7 was released late last year.) Its small form factor and comfortable ergonomics make the FS7 the ideal documentary-style camera for many. In fact, Blackmagic’s URSA Mini seems to have been designed with the FS7 in mind. In addition to its long history with production cameras, Sony is of course also big in broadcast and truck cameras. For this market, Sony introduced

the HDC-4300 4K/HD camera system. It features three specially developed 2/3inch 4K sensors, B4 lens support, up to 8x Super Slow Motion and 4K/HD flexibility. Further, Sony announced a substantial commitment to this new camera by a cadre of live TV producers including Bexel, Game Creek Video, NEP, CBS Sports, CBS Television City, ESPN, Fox Sports and NBC Sports. Last NAB Show, PANASONIC tossed its hat into the high-end 4K production arena with the introduction of the VariCam 35. That camera returned this year in one of the most impressive camera demos I’ve seen in years. Panasonic set up an extremely dark living room set in which a model on a sofa was illuminated by a dim lightbulb and a fake fireplace. To the naked eye, the light level was very low, yet the camera captured a bright image with an astounding lack of noise. If you’re going for a high-end production camera with great low-light sensitivity, then the VariCam 35 is hard to beat. New this year from Panasonic was the AG-DVX200 4K handheld camcorder, shown only in mockup form before its anticipated fall 2015 release. It’s based on the design and features of past Panasonic handhelds, such as the AG-HVX200. The DVX200 includes a 4/3-inch large-format MOS sensor and offers variable frame rate recording up to 120 fps (1080p). The camera comes configured with a fixed Leica Dicomar 4K zoom lens. Finally, JVC, a camera company that’s often overlooked. Few may know that JVC has been a 4K contender for some time. At the JVC/Kenwood booth, product introductions included the GY-LS300, a 4K camera equipped with a Super 35 CMOS sensor that records to onboard SDHC/ SDXC media cards. This is JVC’s first large-sensor 4K camera. Their previous HM200U and HM170U

creativeplanetnetwork.com | 06.2015

Get the most out of your cameras and lenses with Kipon lens adapters The easiest way to extend your gear and expand your creative production THE NATURAL WORLD DEMANDS KIPON Available in the U.S. exclusively at Adorama adorama.com/brands/kipon Use Kipon lens adapters to combine many brands of photography cameras and lenses including Canon, Nikon, Sony, Leica, Olympus Pentax and more. Kipon offers a 12-month manufacturing warranty and the largest selection of adapters in the industry.

Panasonic AG-DVX200

cameras were equipped with 2/3-inch sensors. JVC claims 12 stops of latitude for the LS300, which uses a Micro Four Thirds mount with adapters for PL, EF, Nikon, C and other lenses. It records 4K and HD files in QuickTime format, but can also simultaneously record H.264 proxy files during HD recording. The GY-LS300 uses the latest IP engine for remote control and monitoring, as well as live streaming when recording HD or a lower resolution.

EDITING AND EFFECTS Editing options come in large part from the four “A” companies: Apple, Adobe, Avid and Autodesk. APPLE wasn’t officially at the show—they haven’t been since 2007—but company reps held private press meetings at an area hotel. Consulting company FCPWORKS presented a series of workflow and case study sessions at the Renaissance Hotel next door to the South Hall that coincided with Apple’s release of updated versions of Final Cut Pro X, Motion and Compressor. FCP X 10.2 includes a number of enhancements, but the most buzz went to the addition of a new 3D text engine for FCP X and Motion. Apple’s implementation is one of the easiest to use and best-looking in any application. The best part is that the performance is excellent. Two other big features fall more in line with user wish lists: built-in masking and changing the color correction tool into a standard effect filter. Compressor now has a preset designed for iTunes submission. Although Apple still encourages users to go to iTunes though an approved third-party portal, this preset makes it easier to create the proper file package necessary for delivery. ADOBE has the momentum as an up-andcoming professional editing tool. At the NAB Show, Adobe offered technology previews of features that will be released as part of a Creative Cloud subscription in the coming months. Premiere

JVC GY-LS300 with EF adapter

Pro CC now integrates more of SpeedGrade CC’s color correction capabilities through the addition of the Lumetri Color panel. This tabbed control integrates tools that are familiar from SpeedGrade, but also from Lightroom. Since Premiere already includes built-in masking and tracking, this means the editor is capable of doing very sophisticated color correction right inside of Premiere. Morph Cut is a new effect that everyone cutting interviews will love. The effect smoothly transitions across jump cuts, using advanced tracking and frame interpolation functions to build new “in-between” frames. After Effects adds an outstanding face tracker and improved previews. Adobe is also good for out-of-the-box thinking on new technologies. Character Animator was demonstrated as a live animation tool that saves an animator from performing frame-by-frame adjustments. Import a cartoon character as a layered Photoshop file as the starting point. Then have the talent act out the character’s movement in

front of a webcam; Character Animator tracks the movement of the talent’s head, mouth and eyes so that when the talent moves and talks, so does the character, in real time. Another interesting Adobe tool is Project Candy, a mobile app that analyzes the tonal color scheme of photos stored on your mobile device. It creates a “look” file and stores it to your Creative Cloud library. This file, in turn, can be synced with your copy of Premiere Pro CC and then applied as a color correction look to any video clip. AVID staged the second annual Avid Connect event for members of its customer association in the weekend leading up to the exhibition. Although this event was the first NAB Show appearance of Media Composer 8.3.1—Avid’s first move into true 4K editing—the company did very little to promote it. That’s not to say there wasn’t any Avid news during the show. Several new products were announced, including Avid Artist | DNxIO, a rack-mount hardware interface that enables video professionals to capture, monitor and output Ultra HD, 2K and 4K media, as well as HD and SD formats. Instead of developing their own 4K hardware, Avid opted to partner with Blackmagic Design on this. DNxIO is essentially the same as UltraStudio 4K Extreme, except with the addition of Avid’s DNxHR codec embedded into the unit. Only Avid will sell the Avid-branded version and will also provide technical support. DNxIO supports both PCIe and Thunderbolt host connections; it may also be used for Adobe Premiere Pro CC, Apple FCP X and Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve software running on the same workstation as Media Composer. DNxIO

Avid VENUE | S6L

creativeplanetnetwork.com | 06.2015

Focused fast production for 4K, RAW, and HD video. CATALYST PRODUCTION SUITE Powerful media preparation. Fast, focused editing. The Catalyst Production Suite provides the backbone for your video productions. Start with Catalyst Prepare and its robust organizational tools, strong color monitoring and adjustment, extensive metadata support, and powerful multichannel audio handling. Then move into Catalyst Edit to take instant advantage of that prep work in a fast, fluent, and focused editing environment. The Catalyst Production Suite supports 4K and Sony RAW media, and allows you to make the most of your camera’s wide color gamut and high dynamic range colors. Speed, elegance, efficiency; the Catalyst Production Suite fuses powerful media prep with lean, focused editing to help you get your job done quickly and effectively.

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photo courtesy of a52

is expected to ship in the third quarter. Onboard DNxHR encoding is planned as an upgrade later in the year. In an effort to attract new users to Media Composer, Avid also announced Media Composer | First, a free version of the software with a reduced feature set. It’s intended as functional starter software from which users can transition to the full, paid application. However, Media Composer | First uses a “freemium” sales model, allowing users to extend functionality through add-on purchases. For example, the software permits users to store only three active projects in the cloud; additional storage for more projects can be purchased from Avid. Avid has a strong audio presence through Pro Tools and their audio consoles. New for the show was Avid VENUE | S6L, a live sound mixing console with an intuitive touch interface. During the week, Avid also announced that it had entered into an agreement to acquire Orad Hi-Tec Systems, a leading broadcast graphics provider. AUTODESK’s NAB Show news was all about the 2016 versions of Flame, Maya and 3ds Max. Flame and Flame Premium customers gain new look development tools, including Lightbox—a GPU shader toolkit for 3D color correction—and Matchbox in the Action module. This applies fast Matchbox shaders to texture maps without leaving the 3D compositing scene. Maya 2016 received performance and ease-of-use enhancements. There are also new capabilities in Bifrost that help deliver realistic liquid simulations. Autodesk announced support in Flame Premium, Maya, Shotgun and RV for ACES 1.0, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ color management and interchange standards. 3ds Max 2016 gains a new node-based creation graph, a new design workspace and template system, and other design enhancements. If you’ve been following Smoke, then this NAB Show was disappointing. Autodesk reps told me that an update is in the works, but development timing didn’t allow it to be ready in time for the show. I would presume we’ll hear something at IBC in September. For editors, all eyes are on BLACKMAGIC DESIGN. DaVinci Resolve 12, demonstrated at the show, is the first version of the software the company feels can compete as a full-fledged NLE. Last year, Resolve 11 was introduced as an online editor, but once it was out in the wild, most users found the real-time performance lacking

Lightbox look development in Autodesk Flame 2016

Color page in Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve 12

compared to other NLEs. Resolve 12 appears to have licked that issue, with a new audio engine and improved editing features. New in Resolve 12 is a multicamera editing mode with the ability to sync angles by audio, timecode or in/out points. The new high-performance audio engine was designed to greatly improve real-time playback, but it also supports VST and AU audio plug-ins. Editors will also be able to export projects to Pro Tools using AAF. Likewise demonstrated were updates to Resolve’s color correction functions. Aside from interface and control enhancements, the most notable additions are a new keyer and a new perspective tracker. The latter will allow users to better track objects that move off-screen during the clip. Resolve 12 is scheduled to be released in July. At IBC last year, Blackmagic announced the acquisition of eyeon Software, developer of Fusion, a node-based compositing application built on Microsoft Windows. At its NAB Show booth this

year, Blackmagic previewed Fusion 8 on the Mac platform and announced that the software will be available for Windows, Mac and Linux. Like Resolve, Fusion 8 will be offered in both a free and a paid version. The editing market isn’t completely dominated by these five vendors. GRASS VALLEY was on hand to show Edius 7.4, a fully featured 64-bit editor that supports 4K post. It doesn’t have great penetration in production circles, but Edius is popular for broadcast news and documentary production. The NLE supports Blackmagic Design DeckLink cards and sports its own Grass Valley HQX intermediate codec. There’s support for the latest file formats, including Sony XAVC/XAVC S, Panasonic AVCIntra and Canon EOS-1D C M-JPEG. Edius is considered one of the best NLEs for wide support of a range of codecs. While Edius is designed for Windows 7/8/8.1, it will run on Macs with Parallels Desktop 64-bit Windows.

creativeplanetnetwork.com | 06.2015

Quantel and Snell Pablo Rio

SONY CREATIVE SOFTWARE demonstrated Vegas 13, which was released last fall, but the company’s newest focus is on the Catalyst product group: Browse, Prepare and Edit. The first two are media organizing and preparation tools that are used after shooting is completed. Catalyst Edit is intended as a lightweight timeline cutting tool. Optimized for 4K editing with a range of codecs and multichannel audio, it picks up where Catalyst Prepare leaves off. Initial rough cuts made in Catalyst Edit can be passed on to more advanced craft editors. As I said at the start, tools for 8K video were also on display. IKEGAMI had cameras and SHARP had displays, but post is the hitch because of the massive data throughput and storage requirements. Enter Quantel Rio from the now-combined company currently called QUANTEL AND SNELL. To date, Rio is the only editing/grading tool that’s ready for uncompressed 8K/60p post. Rio is built as highly optimized software running on high-end off-theshelf hardware including NVIDIA GPUs and AJA Corvid 88 I/O cards. Needless to say, 8K imagery is stunning close up, but I doubt it will be in our living rooms anytime soon. One mainstay of the effects community has been BORIS FX. During the past year, the company acquired IMAGINEER SYSTEMS and opted to maintain each company’s unique identity, though the brands will work together to leverage technical, support, sales and marketing

resources. In a combined booth, they demoed the jointly developed BCC 10 and mocha Pro 5. BCC 10’s pixel chooser is now powered by mocha’s planar tracking. Click a button in the filter panel to launch mocha for tracking calculations. Other highlights included BCC Title Studio for realtime 3D titling and motion graphics, as well as BCC Beauty Studio for one-stop digital makeup. mocha Pro can now be launched directly from a host NLE timeline. There are improvements in its planar tracking, rotoscoping and object removal features.

STORAGE AND COLLABORATION AVID’s ISIS storage family is highly regarded but generally thought of as geared for large Avid-based enterprise installations. To broaden the appeal of its SAN products, Avid engineers have been working to optimize performance with multiple hosts. Performance with ISIS shared storage is now claimed to be just as good with Adobe Premiere Pro CC and Apple Final Cut Pro X as with Media Composer. To complement Avid’s ISIS storage family, the company released ISIS | 1000—a lower-cost unit designed for small shops with multiple editors. It’s a single, self-contained system that will support 36 streams of XDCAM 50 or three streams of DNxHR 444. The system

Avid ISIS | 1000

supports up to 24 connected client systems. Capacity ranges from 20 TB to 80 TB. FACILIS TECHNOLOGY’s TerraBlock products are popular high-performance SANs, but Facilis is also in the hunt for smaller shops. New this year is the TerraBlock 8D. It’s an eight-drive, 16 TB, 2 RU turnkey storage server that includes the Facilis Shared File System and an emulation mode for Avid project sharing. It includes gigabit Ethernet connectivity but can be upgraded to 10 GbE or Fibre Channel. The best part is its starting price: about $10K for 16 TB. The storage can be expanded, which means that cost per terabyte is down to around $500. Facilis also introduced the TerraBlock 24D/HA—a hybrid array that includes eight 1 TB SSDs for performance, alongside a larger group of 4 TB spinning disk drives for 72 TB of combined capacity. EDITSHARE brought a range of storage and workflow solutions to the show. EditShare Flow’s updated extension panel for Adobe Premiere Pro CC gives editors direct access to Flow’s media management tools from within the Premiere Pro CC application. This in-app integration lets editors search across all online and archive storage locations for clips in the asset management database. EditShare also announced that it would start shipping XStream EF, a scalable storage system based on 16-drive storage nodes, each with its own motherboard, CPU and hardware RAID configuration. An XStream EFS system starts with a minimum of three nodes connected by 10 GbE or 40 GbE. Whenever a file is written to an XStream EFS system, pieces of the data—along with a second level of redundant information—are striped across multiple nodes in such a way that users get the combined speed of the nodes, plus extra security that will protect files.

Facilis TerraBlock

creativeplanetnetwork.com | 06.2015

EditShare Flow 3.2

One newcomer was OPEN DRIVES, whose products were shown in one of the Intel partner pods. Readers may remember them as the vendor that supplied director David Fincher’s editorial team with an optimized SAN solution for postproduction on Gone Girl. Open Drives demonstrated both SSD and traditional disk storage products. Open Drives was able to show amazing performance and load times with Adobe Premiere Pro and SpeedGrade projects. Their products connect via 1, 10 or 40 GbE and range from 18 TB to 1.2 PB. A number of companies have announced development arrangements with Adobe to implement Adobe Anywhere within their own solutions. One of these is AFRAME, a company built on remote collaborative editing. Aframe puts Adobe Anywhere “into the cloud” for every production. Anywhere requires a set of servers and shared storage at a central location. By integrating Anywhere within Aframe’s data centers, customers get the advantage of stream-based editing paid for by operating expenses rather than their own capital outlay. Once full-resolution footage is uploaded to Aframe, editors can access an Aframelocated Anywhere production from any point in the world with network/ Internet access. Masters can be created centrally and generated through Aframe and Anywhere’s publishing functions. Review-and-approval solutions have proliferated over the years. One of the newest is WIPSTER, from a company of the same name that recently raised $1.2 million in funding for its cloud-

creativeplanetnetwork.com | 06.2015

based collaborative platform. The site’s founders, New Zealand filmmakers, wanted to create a functional but fun solution. Wipster is built around a team approach to a production. Set up your team and upload the assets for comments and review. Any team member can add markers and comments. The comment posting and tracking process works a bit like Facebook, making it feel like a social media interaction. Single users can start with a free account or grow the size with various monthly plans. Moving forward, Wipster is focusing on expanding the feature set and migrating its platform to mobile devices.

Aframe

ODDS AND ENDS It’s also great to wander the show floor in search of lower-profile products. MATROX is known to editors for I/O cards but lately has been using the technology for encoding and streaming solutions. One interesting application (among many in their booth) is the VS4Recorder Pro software, which lets users record four live video/audio feeds using a Matrox VS4 quad HD-SDI capture card. It’s ideal for frame-accurate recording of multicamera productions. It enables common timecode, metadata and markers, which are optimized for Premiere Pro. Multiple codecs are supported, including Matrox MPEG-2 I-frame, H.264 (MOV or MP4), as well as DV/DVCAM/DVCPRO, DVCPRO 50 and DVCPRO HD QuickTime files. BLACKMAGIC DESIGN is no stranger to I/O products, but the company also makes a range of mini-converters, or what I call “glue” products. Blackmagic introduced a number of new ones, including Teranex Mini. (Note that this product is unrelated to the previous Teranex Mini that was marketed years ago by Teranex prior to its acquisition by Blackmagic in 2011-12.) The new

Teranex Mini is a family of small modules designed for desktop and/or rack-mount use. Three Minis can fit side-by-side in a rack. The Teranex Mini video converters feature 12G-SDI technology, optional front panel controls and LCD, built-in power supply, and support for all SD, HD and Ultra HD formats up to 2160p60. They use 12-bit video processing for high-quality, low-noise up- and down-scaling between SD, HD and Ultra HD formats. Selecting a monitor can be a very subjective undertaking. The show floor provided plenty to evaluate from manufacturers including Sony, Panasonic, TVLogic, Flanders Scientific, HP and Blackmagic Design. This year there was also a nice option from EIZO, whose self-calibrating ColorEdge CG318-4K monitor is designed for editing, CGI, compositing and color grading. With a native DCI 4K (4096 x 2160) resolution, it features a 31-inch screen and 149 ppi pixel density. The monitor reproduces 98 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut, 99 percent of Adobe RGB and 100 percent of Rec. 709. Connectivity is via HDMI or DisplayPort. The popularity of Apple’s tube-shaped Mac Pro was evident at the show, but the workstation’s design isn’t advantageous for many installations. A number of companies have jumped in with

Matrox VS4Recorder Pro

Wipster

solutions, designing cradles and rack-mount enclosures to secure the oddly shaped hardware. The newest and coolest of these is the Lightning product line from JMR ELECTRONICS. The most impressive offering in this family is the black-andred-painted tower configuration, which features an integrated cylindrical Mac Pro, an internal eightdrive array, an expansion chassis for PCIe cards, and a dock for extra connections. All of this is contained within a single unit that looks a lot like the Mac Pro “cheese grater” tower. I’ve glossed over audio in this overview, but one product line worth mentioning is MOTIV from SHURE, which includes the MVL lavalier mic, as well as both standard and large-diaphragm condenser models. With MOTIV, Shure is addressing the increasing amount of field recording done with iPhones and iPads. MOTIV offers integration with Mac, PC and iOS devices using USB and/ or Lightning (iPod/iPad/iPhone) connections. The mics work with the free (Apple App Store) ShurePlus MOTIV mobile app for recording and monitoring. MOTIV will be available this summer. TELESTREAM is one of the more popular media encoding companies, known for best-of-breed products like Episode, Vantage and Wirecast.

Blackmagic Teranex Mini

creativeplanetnetwork.com | 06.2015

Telestream announced version 6.5 of its Episode desktop video encoding software, which introduces support for 608 and 708 closed captioning standards, improved audio handling and channel mapping, and HEVC and XAVC encoding. Telestream’s new Lightspeed K80 Server is a GPU-accelerated hardware solution designed for Telestream’s Vantage enterprise-level encoder. The combination of NVIDIA K80 GPU technology and twin 12-core CPUs provides cutting-edge speed. Telestream is also committed to attracting users on the smaller end of the price spectrum. Addressing the imminent demise of QuickTime Player Pro—the default media encoder favored by many editors—Telestream is actively developing Switch. This media utility is available as either a free player or a paid Pro version. Switch Pro is a full-featured single-file encoder. With Switch Pro, users can easily make changes to their file format, video or audio codec; they can trim, scale or crop their media, rearrange audio tracks, edit speaker assignments, add metadata, and insert chapter markers. It offers similar encoding capabilities to Episode, but without the batch processing functions.

Shure MOTIV MVL

Telestream Episode

Finally, in the strange but interesting category, FRAUNHOFER HHI—part of the German research institute—demonstrated scalable, mirror-based multicamera systems. A new 360-degree version that is designed to capture high-resolution 2D video panoramas is the latest in this series. It is based on ten 36-degree mirror segments and can be equipped with HD cameras to provide a total resolution of about 10,000 x 2,000 pixels. This new OmniCam-360 camera enables an optimal

arrangement for parallax-free stitching of video panoramas. The demo video showed examples of edge-to-edge panoramas, as well as region-ofinterest slices from within the full view. With over a million square feet of exhibits, it’s impossible to cover everything in a single article. If you weren’t there, then I hope this overview touched on many points of interest. There’s plenty to chew on for the coming year until the nerds run again next April. dv

BUYER’S GUIDE: VIDEO STREAMING

DISTRIBUTING VIDEO ACROSS PLATFORMS

In this month’s Buyer’s Guide we examine a number of options for producing web and mobile video, each product designed for capturing, compressing, encoding and distributing video. Whether you’re sharing live events, creating content for mobile users or developing new means of reaching audiences, these tools will expand your delivery options.

STAND UP NY COMEDY CLUB STREAMS WITH TRICASTER MINI We just built a studio above the Stand Up NY comedy club so we can create our own content and stream a few podcasts. At first it was audio only, but now we’re also filming the podcast and broadcasting it with NewTek’s TriCaster Mini. I love how quick it makes my work. I use multiple cameras and pump out four hours of video content per day. The number one thing I like about the TriCaster is that if you have the graphics ready to go, you can put them on and edit even while you’re still filming. It’s all in one place, coming out of the TriCaster and ready to go online. There’s great technical support staff if

JONATHAN FATIGATE

you have questions, but it’s user-friendly enough that you can set it up even without going through all the instructions and start playing around with it to get an idea of how it operates. As we come up with new ideas for things to shoot, we can throw the TriCaster Mini in a bag and take it anywhere. I might take it to Times Square or a comedian’s apartment. The opportunities are endless. Eventually we’d like to shoot big comedy events from interesting places—grungy parts of Brooklyn, cool music venues. Not the normal places. With TriCaster Mini, we can actually do that without the expense of a huge crew. We can live-

stream in the moment and really use the product to its best potential.

Jonathan Fatigate is the creator of Stand Up NY Labs.

vised games they’ve seen, we’re very proud of that. And they’re grateful to be able to watch games they wouldn’t otherwise see on their TV, computer or mobile device. With growing interest from online fans and increasing

sponsorship from advertisers comes the responsibility to deliver a flawless show every time, and that’s what Wirecast enables us to do. Robert Munzing is owner of Munzing Media.

WIRECAST AND MUNZING MEDIA STREAM MAINE HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS

ROBERT MUNZING

Munzing Media is a home-based business in Gardiner, Maine. In recent years, we have evolved from streaming live high school sports using a rudimentary production setup to creating broadcast-quality multicamera HD webcasts with Telestream Wirecast. We now provide live streams of the hottest local high school games in the state via web sites run by The Portland Press Herald (Portland, Maine), Kennebec Journal (Augusta, Maine) and the Morning Sentinel (Waterville, Maine), three in-state newspapers published by Maine Today Media.

Wirecast has catapulted us to a higher level of HD production and streaming. More importantly, we’re able to put sponsor logos on scoreboards and roll commercials during our breaks. Considering the success of our Maine high school sports webcasts, there’s no doubt we’ve caught lightning in a bottle. Wirecast makes it possible for people like us—with aspirations to play in the big leagues—to become broadcasters of high-quality HD sporting events. When viewers tell us our webcasts are on par with tele-

creativeplanetnetwork.com | 06.2015

BUYER’S GUIDE: VIDEO STREAMING

PILOTING FILM FESTIVALS WITH AJA KI PRO AARON OWEN As an independent filmmaker, I understand the effort that goes into launching a film on the festival circuit, which is why I formed Cinematiq in 2013 to help emerging indie talent. We manage content for film festivals across America, and also provide transcoding, conversion, standardization and disc-based authoring services to filmmakers. In the last few years, we’ve come up with a file-based workflow using AJA Ki Pros to play back exhibition screenings

at film festival venues. To prepare for each event, we gather master QuickTime files from the filmmakers and transcode them using tools including Adobe’s Media Encoder, FFmpeg and Apple’s Compressor. We load the films to AJA KiStor drives and create playlists in the desired order for HD playback. We then QC them on the Ki Pros to ensure the files are free from corrupt frames and unwanted artifacts. We’ve found several advantages to this workflow. When we walk on-site

with our Ki Pros, we’re ready to project the films in 10-bit ProRes. We are confident that audiences will have a high-quality viewing experience, and we can make any changes to the lineup on the fly. As each festival requires

different connection types, Ki Pro has also helped us adapt to a variety of venue environments with its extensive range of connections. Aaron Owen is founder and chief engineer at Cinematiq.

BLACKMAGIC TERANEX PLAYS BALL IN VENEZUELA Promar TV, Venezuela’s largest production company and television station, built a new OB truck to broadcast every single game of the Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Profesional (LVBP), South America’s largest professional baseball league. Promar TV recently became the official production company for the LVBP, managing the production of all games for national and foreign networks and channels, including Fox Sports, ESPN and every major television station in Venezuela. Each game is captured in HD, and stations are offered up to four format options for

their individual broadcasts thanks to the powerful conversion capabilities of Blackmagic Design’s Teranex 2D Processor. Promar TV equipped its 23-foot tactical OB truck with four Teranex 2D Processors, along with additional Blackmagic Design equipment. According to Jorge Santiago Kossowski, engineering manager at Promar TV, “In Venezuela, not all broadcasts are in high definition. We still have 4:3 broadcasts, which is standard definition, and 16:9, which is widescreen. We use Teranex to manage all of the conversions. It’s so simple. One

push of a button and you have the change. And in live event production,

where time is money, this type of fast transaction is critical.”

Promar TV’s OB truck

creativeplanetnetwork.com | 06.2015

BUYER’S GUIDE: VIDEO STREAMING

MARSHALL ENCODER IS WORKHORSE FOR AZZURRO HD DAVE LANTON At Azzurro HD, we are using both the HD-SDI and HDMI models of Marshall Electronics’ VS-102 encoder/decoder. The primary use is for program return feeds, prompter feeds and video monitor feeds. We also send mix-minus IFB over the audio channel, rather than using a phone line. (IFB is the audio feed that goes into the talent’s ear, which can be interrupted and replaced by the television producer or director’s intercom in order for them to cue the talent during a broadcast.) Marshall’s encoder is a great tool for this purpose because of its low latency, which is crucial for IFB to produce

a natural conversation between the anchor and the guest. We did have an anomaly come up with one of our international clients that turned out to be a firmware issue. We hadn’t come across it before because it was specific to 50 Hz versus 60 Hz. It was for our client in Australia. When we brought it to Marshall’s attention, they quickly identified where the compatibility problem was occurring. They were able to get the issue resolved within 48 hours and sent us new firmware to upload to the encoders. I was impressed with how quickly they were able to resolve

Dave Lanton

the issue. In the case of Australia, the encoders are required to be on 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and we needed a solution that would be reliable while operating constantly.

We have confidence that the Marshall encoders will continue to work well in these types of applications. Dave Lanton is vice president of technology at Azzurro HD.

MATROX DELIVERS FOR RACING FANS Racing fans can’t get enough of their sport, and MotorSportsBroadcasting. com is happy to give them the action they crave in live webcasts and ondemand viewing. Delivering high-quality HD productions is the responsibility of Sam Provencher, president of operations. Challenges abound. Streaming from a different location each weekend means that equipment has to be entirely mobile. Internet connectivity in rural areas where most racetracks are located can be problematic. Quick, easy setup is a necessity, and reliability is paramount. After extensive research, Provencher settled on StreamVu as his service provider and the Matrox Monarch HD streaming and recording appliance StreamVu recommended.

Matrox Monarch HD is an easy-touse H.264 encoder designed to simultaneously stream a live event and record a mastering-quality version for post-event editing. It generates an H.264-encoded stream compliant with RTSP or RTMP protocol from any HDMI input source, such as a camera or switcher. “Streaming is not part of our workflow—it is our workflow,” Provencher says. “As a mobile production service, we have to be able to arrive on site and begin streaming live in 10 minutes or less. We work with various switchers and they all feed the Monarch HD encoder, which ensures that we are capturing the broadcast-ready feed for local recording as well as sending out a high-quality live stream. Mon-

Sam Provencher (right) from MotorSportsBroadcasting.com and Mario Sanchez from production company VDO2Net

arch HD is so versatile, we can stream at our ideal of 2.8 Mb/s for high quality, or when Internet speed is lacking, at 700 Kb/s. It’s dynamic enough to

handle the full range with exceptional reliability and quality. It’s one of our smallest pieces of production equipment, yet it’s the most valuable.”

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BUYER’S GUIDE: VIDEO STREAMING

RYERSON UNIVERSITY CALLS THE SHOTS WITH PESA LIVE RICK GRUNBERG To generate greater audience participation and enthusiasm for the 2015 CIS National Men’s Final 8 Basketball Tournament, which was held this March at Ryerson’s Mattamy Athletic Centre, the RTA School of Media partnered with PESA Live to create a multichannel streaming video app available for download by all fans in the stadium. The PESA Live app is part of the PESA Live Services (PLS) system, which is built around the PESA Xstream streaming media appliance. The free app works with Android and iOS devices to stream video to a quad-

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screen display. Users select which of the synchronized video sources they’d like to watch during a live event, and they’re able to compose tweets within the app without missing any of the action. Ryerson University CIS basketball control room During the basketball games, ating this app with PESA allowed them RTA students produced multicamera content for the feeds as well to apply their skills to innovate the as a promotional video for PESA Live. way audiences engage with live broadRyerson computer science students casts and with each other. Two Ryerand technical staff helped to create son students have taken positions at the application. PESA to continue their work on the Partnerships with industry are project, which is a great thing for the very important for our students. Cre- individuals and the school.

During events, the PESA Live app also allows content producers to add logos and other branding to the video, as well as insert revenue-generating advertising. Rick Grunberg is associate professor at the RTA School of Media at Ryerson University.

BUYER’S GUIDE: VIDEO STREAMING

STREAMING FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION MARK SANGSTER Hendrik Information Systems is a multimedia production and delivery systems provider focused on distance learning and concurrent video streaming for some of the country’s largest medical institutions. We help academic medical centers and schools like Cedars-Sinai Hospital, Miami Children’s Hospital and Houston Methodist to move video wherever (and whenever) they need it to go. Our clients webcast a wide range of events, from seminars to “grand rounds” to full conferences, all of which can be viewed live or ondemand. For several years we have used StreamGuys’ cloud-based content delivery network (CDN) and onpremise servers to handle all of our automated transcoding services. During a typical event, we record

video of a keynote speaker and then deliver it over the Internet to viewers around the world watching on a wide variety of devices. Typical webcasts include a dual feed with two unique players—one focused on the presenter and the other streaming a slideshow of content that supports the speaker. StreamGuys’ transcoding technology processes content once for delivery to online, mobile and OTT devices, while supporting multiple streaming formats. We currently use a player we designed in-house but expect to

upgrade to StreamGuys’ HTML5based SGplayer moving forward. For redundancy, we use StreamGuys’ backup services in tandem with a high-availability server—where the on-demand content resides for later use. Reliability for each live event is assured through a dedicated backup

server. Our clients don’t tolerate failure, and StreamGuys’ robust, reliable CDN architecture ensures our streams are always available, with exceptional quality. Mark Sangster is president and CEO of Hendrik Information Systems in Houston, Texas.

Live video from DJI’s Experience Wonder event in New York was transmitted by the Bond to Teradek Core, a web-based workflow management system for Teradek encoders, decoders and celluTeradek Bond II with DJI Phantom 3 lar bonding systems. Core allowed the crew to manage and to share, in real time, the release of record the stream, as well as distrib- a revolutionary new product,” says ute the program to DJI launch parties Willis Chung, marketing manager of in London and Munich. DJI. “With just this small device and a “Utilizing the Bond as well as Core, laptop, we were streaming to YouKu we were able to provide an experience [a Chinese video hosting service] and that our customers will remember all YouTube for a global launch of the around the world. Everyone was able Phantom 3.”

“Core was essential for the success of this event,” says Topher Delancy, brand manager for Teradek. “What would have normally taken a satellite truck and an entire team of engineers instead required just one operator managing and distributing the stream from their laptop.”

TERADEK SENDS DJI’S DRONE AROUND THE WORLD DJI reached out to the team at Teradek with an ambitious goal for the worldwide launch of their Phantom 3 aerial imaging drone on April 8. The event required a live stream to multiple locations including New York, London, Munich and China, and worldwide via YouTube Live. The team selected the Teradek Bond II bonded cellular device for the task, particularly for its ability to combine the bandwidth of multiple Internet connections to maintain a reliable live stream using cellular modems and an Ethernet connection. Also beneficial: the device’s small footprint, affordable price and broadcast-quality signal.

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BUYER’S GUIDE: VIDEO STREAMING

WOWZA AND LEARNCORE HELP COMPANIES POLISH THEIR SKILLS

Wowza Streaming Workflow

Input/ Publishing Live Content Source

SHOUTcast or Icecast

Camera

ETHAN LINKNER One of the most important investments companies can make is in training their teams. The challenge is making training sessions approachable, engaging and impactful. At LearnCore, we are transforming the face of corporate skill development and turning everyday employees into top performers—one video at a time. Our cloud-based learning platform relies on Wowza Streaming Engine to deliver on-demand and live video for training, role-playing and sharing best practices. LearnCore clients create curriculum and assessments for employees to certify their knowledge,

practice their presentation skills and even demonstrate how to pitch the latest sales deck. With Wowza, employees are able to record responses to role-playing challenges and capture video of themselves giving presentations and meeting with clients. Learners can then watch the video, critique themselves, record additional attempts or submit the video to colleagues for coaching and feedback. This active skill building makes training more impactful and more feasible for globally dispersed companies. While most learners watch the streams on a computer, they are

Wowza Streaming Engine

Video On Demand Local or Network Attached

Wowza GoCoder™

Storage IP Camera

Supported Protocols & Codecs *

Prepare

Deliver

• Transrate

• Apple® HLS

• Transcode

• MPEG-DASH

• Transmux

• Adobe® HDS

• Encrypt

• Microsoft® Smooth Streaming

...all on the fly!

Output/ Playback Choose Player

• RTSP/RTP

Wowza supports all common 3rd party players

• Multicast • RTMP Supported Protocols & Codecs *

Deploy

Your Server

Encoder

Deploy OS-independent Wowza Streaming Engine on your physical server or in the cloud

Any 3rd party cloud provider

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Supported Streaming Protocols and Codecs

Key Capabilities

Protocols:

Codecs:

• Multi-format Streaming

• RTSP/RTP

• H.264

• MPEG-TS

• MPEG-4

• RTMP

• MPEG-2

• ICY

• AC-3

• HTTP

• E-AC-3

…and many more. See full specifications at wowza.com/wse-specs

Extended Features • Closed caption

• Extensive APIs

• Transcoder AddOn

• High-quality video streaming (across all devices)

• Browser-based manager

• nDVR AddOn

• Live Adaptive bitrate streaming up to 1080P • Live stream recording & archiving

• Security/content protection

Tablet

• DRM AddOn

Computer Mobile

© 2014 Wowza Media Systems, LLC. All rights reserved. Wowza and related marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Wowza Media Systems, LLC. Third-party product names and related marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of such third parties. Use of third-party product names and marks does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by such third-parties.

also able to view streams on a mobile device or tablet within a browser. Future plans for LearnCore include a mobile application. “Within Wowza Streaming Engine, we have the ability to load balance

at an application level. This feature enables our video streaming workflow to handle concurrent users without sacrificing quality.” Ethan Linkner is chief operating officer and co-founder of LearnCore.

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BUYER’S GUIDE: VIDEO STREAMING

LIVESHOT BRINGS NORTH METRO TELEVISION TO THE PARADE MATT WALDRON North Metro Television is the community access television station serving Blaine, Minn., and the surrounding suburbs. In addition to providing a platform for locally produced content on our community channel, we run a separate channel for broadcasting local sports, news and government coverage. Before adopting Comrex LiveShot, we were not able to broadcast live sports. We had been recording games and airing them a few hours after the fact. But we knew the importance of providing our audience with

live coverage, especially with sports. If you already know what happens, there’s no reason to watch. We needed a solution that would allow us to stream live from any location, while providing consistently high picture quality and very low delay. I was initially impressed by the quality of Comrex LiveShot’s visuals, but it was the low delay that impressed me the most. Over an AT&T cellular network, using an antenna, we can usually expect about a half-second delay.

LiveShot has worked well for us during live events. We used it for our November 2014 election coverage and found the built-in IFB very useful. I was able to communicate from the studio directly with the cameraman and the talent in the field without using a cellphone or any additional hardware. Aside from going HD, being able

to put our channel live on the air from any location is probably the biggest thing to happen here in quite a while. This summer we’re planning to broadcast from important local events like parades that we’ve never been able to cover before. Matt Waldron is the sports producer for North Metro Television.

← AURORA MULTIMEDIA CORP.

IPX-TC1

The Aurora IPX-TC1 is an IP streaming solution based on Aurora’s IPBaseT technology, which synergizes various IP/AV standards to work together as one. This single unit can be user-defined as either a transmitter (encoder) or receiver (decoder), making overall system design, ordering, stocking and deployment quick and easy. The IPX-TC1 offers an optional slot to add other IP capabilities like USB 2.0 over IP or Dante audio for a more complete distributed system. Audio, video, data and control can be sent securely to one or more units using off-the-shelf 10 GbE fiber switches. The IP/AV solution supports up to 128 x 128 channels with HDCP as well as unlimited scalability without HDCP. www.auroramultimedia.com

DATAVIDEO →

NVS-25

NVS-25 is a small, easy-to-use H.264 video streaming and recording appliance designed for professional video producers who need to simultaneously stream a live event and record the master-quality version for post-event editing. From any HDMI/SDI/CVBS input source such as a camera or switcher, the NVS-25 generates an H.264 encoded stream that is compliant with RTSP, RTMP and HLS protocols. While encoding the video for live streaming, NVS-25 can simultaneously record an MP4 or TS file to a USB storage device. Variable bit rates can be selected for high quality recording or streams. The unit also supports deinterlace video streaming for progressive output, making it compatible with CDNs such as YouTube and Ustream. MSRP $800. www.datavideo.us

creativeplanetnetwork.com | 06.2015

BUYER’S GUIDE: VIDEO STREAMING WOHLER TECHNOLOGIES →

iAM-MVAM

Wohler Technologies’ iAM-MVAM multifunction confidence monitor decodes and monitors MPEG transport streams carrying MPEG-2 and MPEG4/H.264 encoded video, along with all associated data tables for complete confidence. With this capability, the iAM-MVAM facilitates monitoring scenarios that previously would have been impractical or cost-prohibitive. Available with either four 4.3-inch displays (iAM-MVAM-2443) or two 7-inch displays (iAM-MVAM-3270), the unit handles inputs from multi-rate SDI, ASI and IP interfaces, serving as an ideal solution for cost-effective real-time MPEG TS, SDI and HDMI monitoring. www.wohler.com

iAM-MVAM-2443

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↓ VITEC

MGW D265 VITEC’s MGW D265 portable HEVC and H.264 IP decoder provides decoding for any IPTV and full-motion video application. The device delivers a compact footprint, best-in-class connectivity options and ultra-low delay. Supporting next-generation HEVC (H.265) compression technology, the MGW D265 lets IP video applications benefit from up to 40 percent savings in network bandwidth compared to the H.264 format. Perfect for portable missions or stationary decoding on any network, the decoder provides connectivity options including HD-SDI, SD-SDI, HDMI and composite video while offering low end-to-end latency (400 milliseconds). www.vitec.com/products/ decoders/

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BEST OF SHOW 2015 NED SOLTZ

BEST OF SHOW The Tools and Technologies Recognized by Digital Video at the 2015 NAB Show

ADOBE

ADOBE CREATIVE CLOUD VIDEO APPS Adobe’s transition to subscription pricing for Creative Cloud may have raised a few eyebrows at first, but the frequent significant upgrades that Adobe continues to roll out justify the cost model for most. For the 2015 NAB Show, Adobe updated all of its video apps. Premiere Pro CC gets Morph Cut, which is a transition to smooth out jump cuts. Color capabilities in Premiere are enhanced via the Lumetri Color panel. After Effects has been rewritten to speed up the application and to add Face Tracker, uninterrupted preview and multiple adjustable preview windows. Time Tuner in both Premiere Pro and Adobe Media Encoder adjusts the duration of content. Project Candy is an iOS mobile app that assesses the color palette of a scene or a still, allowing users to share lighting or color schemes. These CC innovations will be available later this year. www.adobe.com/creativecloud.html

which a phosphor panel covers specialized LEDs to deliver higher CRI values than conventional LED lighting, as well as more natural and consistent light spectrums. BBS’ Pipeline Reporter light, which looks like a thin fluorescent tube, emits powerful cool light that may be deployed in a news or interview situation. The kit contains two lights and all necessary stands and cables. Set two of the units on the desktop at 45 degree angles to the talent and the lighting is perfect. Lights are dimmable and available in 3,200°, 4,300° or 5,600° K color temperatures. This cost-effective, diminutive package is a valuable addition to a remote shooter’s kit. www.bbslighting.com/collections/products

BBS LIGHTING

BLACKMAGIC DESIGN

The technological advances in LED lighting over the past few years have been astounding. BBS Lighting, one of the companies leading the charge, offers remote phosphor lighting products, in

Blackmagic has continued its commitment to free updates to its products. The recent significant upgrade to DaVinci Resolve focuses on editing capabilities and improved color science. Resolve

BBS PIPELINE REPORTER LIGHTING KIT

DAVINCI RESOLVE 12

12 is a full video editor with all trim modes, source/ program monitor, nested sequences, multicam editing and integration with Resolve’s color toolset. As the ACES standard becomes widespread, Resolve 12 supports both ACES 1.0 and DaVinci’s own color science. Editing enhancements extend to audio with support for VST and AU filters. Round-trip support to NLEs is simplified. Remote rendering has been introduced. Resolve Lite remains free, while the full version is still $995. www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/ davinciresolve

BLACKMAGIC DESIGN FUSION 8

We love the enterprising spirit of innovation and broad access to tools that Blackmagic Design continues to deliver. During the past year, Blackmagic acquired Fusion, a high-end visual effects and compositing application developed by

creativeplanetnetwork.com | 06.2015

eyeon Software. Fusion is a node-based compositor with literally hundreds of tools and the ability to import 3D models and work in a true 3D space. The Fusion 8 update adds support for Mac OS X and Linux operating systems, in addition to Windows. And a little known fact: Fusion can read GPS scene metadata, which is generated by the URSA Mini. URSA Mini footage can therefore be dropped into a Fusion node without having to invoke the tracker. Fusion 8 remains free; Fusion 8 Studio remains $995. Upgrades are free. www.blackmagicdesign.com

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BLACKMAGIC DESIGN

BLACKMAGIC MICRO CINEMA CAMERA Once again this year, Blackmagic Design captivated NAB Show attendees with wide-ranging product introductions. The Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera is a $995 miniaturized camera with Super 16mm sensor suitable for remote mounting on a jib, automobile or even a drone. The camera features an expansion port that lets shooters use PWM and S.Bus model airplane remote controls to control camera functions including iris, focus and recording start/stop. The expansion port also includes composite video out with overlays for real-time camera feedback to check framing and confirm recording. The camera features 13 stops of dynamic range and switchable 60 fps rolling shutter or 30 fps global shutter. The built-in recorder saves lossless 12-bit log CinemaDNG raw and broadcastquality ProRes files. www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/ blackmagicmicrocinemacamera

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BLACKMAGIC DESIGN BLACKMAGIC URSA MINI

Many of us thought the URSA Mini was the showstopper of the 2015 NAB Show. URSA Mini is a shoulder-mount version of Blackmagic’s URSA. The compact Super 35mm camera comes with

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Blackmagic’s new 4.6K image sensor (it’s also available with the company’s original 4K sensor), switchable global or rolling shutter, 15 stops of dynamic range, a 5-inch fold-out viewfinder, dual CFast 2.0 card recorders for CinemaDNG raw and ProRes recording, built-in GPS for location tagging, and a gyroscope for recording pitch, roll and yaw movements when working in raw. URSA Mini will shoot 4.6K up to 30 fps with global shutter and up to 60 fps with rolling shutter. There is no exposure loss with global shutter. Native ISO is increased to 800. Pair it with Blackmagic’s newly introduced $1,500 viewfinder for an unparalleled camera experience. www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/ blackmagicursamini

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ever produced by one of our favorite display manufacturers. What sets the DM250 apart are its Color Fidelity Engine (CFE), dedicated secondscreen monitor outputs, integrated Wi-Fi, Display Port to SDI cross-conversion, and zero-delay processing mode. Its 10-bit OLED panel and 12-bit video processing combine with the CFE to produce accurate color for the most critical evaluation and grading applications. Monitor inputs include 3G/ Dual Link/HD/SD-SDI, DVI-D and Display Port and support 12-bit, 4:4:4 and XYZ signal formats. The updated CFE (v3) adds real-time LUT update capabilities, allowing DITs to connect the monitor directly to applications like Pomfort’s LiveGrade instead of a standalone LUT box for a smooth live grading experience. www.flandersscientific.com/index/dm250.php

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COLOREDGE CG318-4K EIZO’s ColorEdge CG318-4K is a color-accurate 31-inch DCI 4K (4096 x 2160) monitor with factory preset color spaces of BT.2020, DCI-P3 and BT.709. With its DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI inputs and 1500:1 contrast ratio, the CG318 is an ideal monitor for color correction and client display at a sub$6,000 price level. Built into its bezel is a hardware color calibrator that functions with EIZO’s included ColorNavigator software to facilitate accurate viewing. The IPS panel is 10-bit. www.eizo.com/products/coloredge/cg318-4k/

FLANDERS SCIENTIFIC FSI DM250

The DM250 is the most advanced monitor

These travel-tough external storage solutions feature an all-terrain case (ATC) with a tethered Thunderbolt or USB 3.0 cable that shields a highquality, lightweight, removable G-DRIVE ev RaW USB hard drive. The heavy bumpers protect the spinning hard drive mechanism if dropped and the compartment is completely waterand dust-proof. It even floats. G-Technology maintains that it can sustain a drop of up to 6 feet. For added flexibility, the removable case is compatible with the Evolution Series, easily fitting the G-DRIVE ev or G-DRIVE ev SSD. All of this for $230 (1 TB). www.g-technology.com/products/g-drive-evatc-thunderbolt

The RF Spectrum Analyzer packs a lot of power in a small, field-deployable unit. The device analyzes HEVC, H.264, MPEG-2 over IP, and ASI, as well as OTT streaming services and RF. The new RF capability covers both terrestrial and satellite, ATSC and DBV-S/ S2 signals, making it a must for those in the field getting the story back to base via RF links. Another useful feature is the ability to record and play back transport streams (64 GB internal storage). Spectrum analyzers are even more important in this age of streaming video services to ensure a proper signal is being sent. The tremendous advance with this product is its miniaturization, allowing more portability than previous generations of spectrum analyzers, which needed to be installed in racks. www.hamlet.co.uk/products/hardware/hamletenterprise/

HGST, A WESTERN DIGITAL COMPANY HGST ACTIVE ARCHIVE SYSTEM

Solid-state production requires not just massive storage but robust archival capabilities as well. The Active Archive System is targeted at large studios and production facilities dealing with the massive data requirements of 4K and higher resolutions. HGST Active Archive Systems offer a revolutionary solution to the growth of nearline storage: eliminate all archiving tiers by creating a new Active Archive pool that combines the high throughput and availability of near-line storage with the long-term data protection, limitless scalability, easy management, zero maintenance and low total cost of operating (TCO) of “cold” archiving (tape, optical or public cloud). The hardware component

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800-323-2325 Check out our new & improved web site at www.videoguys.com Whether you’re a beginner or professional, our knowledgeable team is available to answer all of your questions before, during and after the sale. We’ll even stand behind our recommendations with a 30-day money-back guarantee and FREE tech support – a customer service policy unmatched in the industry! Check out Videoguys.com for our complete product catalog, Video Tutorials and Guides, Daily Updates and Sales, System Recommendations for video editing & live production and more.

NEW! Avid Media Composer | Software Now available in 3 license types: Subscription, Perpetual, or Floating Licenses. Media Composer opens your possibilities even further, simplifying and accelerating file-based workflows and real-time production everywhere. From new high-res workflows and AMA media management, to automated media operations and global collaboration, experience the industry’s preeminent NLE. With the new FrameFlex tool and LUT support, you can acquire 2K, 4K, and 5K media and deliver the HD programming required today, eliminating time-consuming transcodes and resizing. Now available in your choice of subscription or perpetual license. Call for special Floating License options for multi-seat & educational labs of 20 users or more. Subscription License with Symphony Option Perpetual License with 1 year Support

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If you have ever wanted to create and publish video, stream live to the Web, or make even the smallest presentation look like network television—then you are going to love TriCaster Mini.

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Roland VR3-EX Mixer

Go to Videoguys.com for our system recommendations, a custom-built desktop, laptop or All-in-One, or for more pricing & information

Get the freedom to broadcast live high definition video directly to the Web without a PC. Whether you’re streaming out of a video switcher or wirelessly from your camera, VidiU allows you to go live when you want, where you want.

G-DOCK ev s the hub and it ships with two 1TB removable G-DRIVE ev hard drives. These can be used as stand-alone USB3 drives or in a RAID in the G-DOCK ev with Thunderbolt

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When it comes to stability, reliability and performance these workstations set the bar by which all others are judged. If you’re building a professional post facility, HP z series workstations are the way to go! Intel processors, Thunderbolt 2 & USB 3 connectivity with flexible and reliable expandability!

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t’s simple: EDIUS Pro 7 is the fastest and most versatile real time editing software—4K, 3D, HD, SD, and almost any format from 24x24 to 4Kx2K, all on the same timeline, even in nested sequences, all in real time. And now EDIUS supports Matrox and Blackmagic Design hardware for added capabilities including affordable 4K workflows. More resolutions, unlimited tracks, and real-time editing make this the perfect finishing tool for broadcast news and studio programs, as well as corporate, documentary, and 4K theatrical productions.

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BUNDLE! SONY Vegas Pro 13 with Pioneer BDR-XU03

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Matrox Convert DVI Plus lets you downscale or upscale your region-of-interest to any size and position it anywhere on the output screen over a colored, super-white or super-black background to facilitate downstream keying. Ideal for creating broadcast video from computer applications such as Skype, YouTube, Google Earth, video games, and web browsers, as well as citizen journalists’ mobile phone videos.

A high-performance Thunderbolt 2 storage system with hardware RAID. Configurable in RAID 0, RAID 1, or JBOD. G-RAID Studio ships with two removable 7200RPM hard drives for total capacities up to 12TB, complete in a solid black enclosure. With transfer rates up to 360MB/s, G-RAID Studio easily supports 2K and compressed 4K video workflows. It is the ideal storage solution designed to save you time with demanding video & photo editing. starting at...

Matrox Monarch HD

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Live Streaming Appliance with Recording

A small, easy-to-use appliance designed for video producers who need to simultaneously stream a live event & record the master quality version for postevent editing. By separating the task of recording from streaming in a single integrated unit, Monarch HD ensures that your CDN is focused on delivering quality video to your audience while you control the quality of the archive.

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Adobe Creative Cloud for Teams All of the newest Adobe CC Applications including Premiere Pro, Photoshop and After Effects plus Cloud Storage, Behance Prosite, Digital Publishing Suite $ 00 1-year & more

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• Built-in USB Output for 480i Streaming • HDMI & Composite Inputs • Standard Definition 16:9 Mixing Engine • Scaled Output up to 1080p • Advanced 18 Channel Audio Mixer • 2.5” Multiview Preview Monitor • PnP, Key and Video Effects

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Roland VR50-HD Multi-Format HD Video Mixer with: • USB 3.0 for up to 1080p Streaming • 3G-SDI, HDMI, RGB & Composite Inputs • High Definition Mixing Engine up to 1080p • Advanced 12 Channel Audio Mixer • 7” Multiview Preview Monitor • Powerful PnP and Key Compositions

Sorenson Squeeze 10 Desktop Encoding Software StreamStar WEBCAST LiTE 2 The most affordable, versatile and easiest to use streaming solution. It features 2 HDMI camera inputs for use with affordable HDMI camcorders or HDMI out of any PC, tablet $ 00 or smart phone.

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The most trusted encoder and perennial award winner. Great videos, professional output and easy workflow. Squeeze 10 is now up to 6x faster than competitors with multi-core encoding, enhanced quality, and better adaptive bitrate encoding.

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Combine the professional video editing features of the new Vegas Pro 13 with Sony DVD Architect for Blu-ray Disc Authoring and the Pioneer BDR-XU03. This drive is a state-of-the-art magnesium, Slim Slot-Loading Blu-ray Disc Burner with USB 3.0designed for ultra portability. Up to 6x write speed to BD-R!

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Pioneer BDR-XU03 Blu-ray Disc Burner alone just $175.00

ProMAX Platform Portable

Share anything, with anyone, anywhere. The ProMAX Platform Portable is a unique mobile server that allows you to connect existing storage devices and transform them into a simple but sophisticated shared editing environment. Content from your USB and FireWire drives can be easily shared among the workgroup and media streamed directly from the drives over video optimized 1GbE and 10GbE connections. • Turn Your Hard Drives into Shared Storage for Video starting at... • Support for Multiple Devices and File Formats • Catalog & Search Your Media $ 00 • Ready to Travel, Anywhere You Need to Share Content

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is based on HGST 8 TB enterprise-level hard drives in a configuration of up to 4.7 PB per single rack. Practical applications include digital archiving and destination staging, as well as the creation of ondemand libraries. www.hgst.com/products/systems/objectstorage-servers/hgst-active-archive-system

JMR ELECTRONICS

LTNG-XQ-DTMP LIGHTNING THUNDERBOLT 2 QUAD TOWER The Lightning Thunderbolt 2 Quad Tower turns a Mac Pro into a powerful desktop, deskside or 19inch rack-mount computer system with flexible Thunderbolt 2 to PCIe expansion capabilities. It features four fullsized PCIe expansion slots, built-in RAID controller and eight hotswappable disk drives in a RAID configuration (960 GB to 24 TB). After sliding the Mac Pro into the unit, the Mac Pro I/O ports for USB, Ethernet, A/V and power switching are all brought to the front panel; the Thunderbolt cable connections are brought to the rear panel and also internally connected to the PCIe adapter using two Thunderbolt connections. The Mac Pro’s third Thunderbolt 2 bus remains available for displays and peripherals. www.jmr.com/en/lightning/

System is a fantastic option for large-camera support. It consists of Miller’s HD Mitchell base one-stage alloy tripod, HD alloy ground spreader and the previously introduced Cineline 70 fluid head. The system has a capacity of up to 82 pounds. Legs adjust via lock-turn levers. The Cineline 70 fluid head has an extended sliding range to facilitate shifts in camera weight distribution, along with precise drag controls. www.millertripods.com

REDROCK MICRO HALO

Maintaining proper focus becomes more challenging when shooting at higher resolutions and with a shallower depth of field. Redrock’s Halo aims to revolutionize the process with automated real-time object tracking paired with an appealing tablet-based user interface. Leveraging the same technology as auto-collision detection in automobiles, the Halo Explorer mounts on the camera and creates a real-time scene map, using artificial intelligence to identify all objects in the scene and track their distance and location in real time. Coverage extends up to 180 degrees and about 100 feet. Data is fed to the Halo tablet, where the user specifies camera, lens and other variables so Halo can calculate depth of field as it tracks distance. The user selects the object that will be in focus and then may track it manually or allow Halo to follow it automatically. Halo will work with any camera or lens and in any lighting environment. The modular components can be configured either on- or off-camera for use by the AC. It’s expected to ship this year for a price between $2,000 and $5,000. store.redrockmicro.com/halo.html

SMALLHD MILLER CAMERA SUPPORT CINELINE 70 TRIPOD SYSTEM

While cameras are generally becoming smaller, large cameras have not disappeared from the production landscape. Miller’s Cineline 70 Tripod

SIDEFINDER EVF The Sidefinder EVF was among the big buzz-makers at the show. SmallHD has combined a precise EVF with its 5-inch model 502 monitor to provide a viewing solution for just about any camera. At its core, the Sidefinder is a 1920 x 1080 resolution

on-camera monitor. Sidefinder’s EVF loupe uses a 1366 x 768 portion of that display to create a sharp image in a truly immersive environment. The eyepiece itself has an adjustable FOV up to 40 degrees, with diopter adjustment from -2 to +4. The monitor swings out if not viewed with the eyepiece. The whole unit can be mounted in various ways either on- or off-camera. The built-in SD slot allows custom 3D LUTs to be loaded or stills to be captured to the card. The Sidefinder system offers tools including focus assist, scopes and current signal resolution. With both HDMI and SDI inputs, future upgrades will allow cross-conversion. www.smallhd.com/lp/sidefinder

THE TIFFEN COMPANY

TIFFEN DIFFUSION FILTERS FOR 4K Despite the fix-it-in-post mentality of far too many producers, the simpler and most effective solution is often to shoot it correctly in the first place. Tiffen has always been a leader in the glass filter realm. With all of the detail that a 4K image delivers, Tiffen recognizes that on-lens filtration is critical. The 2015 NAB Show saw the introduction of Black Pearlescent, Black Glimmerglass and Black Soft/ FX diffusion filters. Tiffen maintains, and viewing examples uphold the contention, that these filters can reduce contrast, smooth out facial wrinkles and blemishes, and soften the image—all without obvious indications of lens filtration. The filters are available in a range of diameters. tiffen.com/tiffen-filters dv

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2015

SAVE THE DATE: DEC. 1-3, 2015

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TIPS TO CLIP

DICK REIZNER

Every year I search through the thousands of products offered at NAB Show in an effort to find those unique gadgets that can make our lives as working production people easier. Here are a few I found this year.

PORTABLE LIGHTING Rotolight presented an extremely versatile portable light. Rotolight Neo is a handheld LED unit with adjustable color temperature (from 3,150° K to 6,300° K). Unlike most other lights, the exact temperature is shown on the menu display on the back of the light head, making on-set finetuning easier. The output is adjustable from 0 to 1077 lux without color shift. Both features allow it to work seamlessly as an on-camera fill. Neo operates for about three hours at full power on six AA batteries and comes with both an AC adapter and cables for external batteries or camera power. The menu offers several special effects, including fire and lightning, as well as custom fade effects and aperture dimming. Rotolight Neo sells in a kit that includes a belt holster, AC power supply and a set of color gels for about $400. www.rotolight.com

PORTABLE POWER Several people showed me their MyCharge XT Max combination backup power supply and battery charger. This little box weighs less than half a pound and contains a rechargeable 6,000 mAh battery. Its two USB ports have a combined output of 3.4A, which is more than sufficient to charge or operate tablets and other high-powered devices. The AC prongs fold in for easy storage and transport. MSRP is $49.99. www.mycharge.com

REFOAMING CASES I have several old equipment cases in which the foam padding has almost disintegrated. The folks in the My Case Builder booth seem to have a simple answer. They make custom-cut foam inserts for almost any case. The procedure seems simple. Go to their web site, select your case, then choose your equipment’s shape from a large library. If your gear is not shown, just use their photo tracer tool. When making your shapes, you can choose to add finger notches (a good idea) to assist in the removal of your items from the foam. In about 10 days or less, you’ll have your new foam. The price varies; it’s not cheap, but it’s reasonable. www.mycasebuilder.com

SHARE YOUR TIP Now it’s your turn to share a favorite shooting or production tip or question with your fellow professionals. Please send e-mails to dvtips@nbmedia.com. All submissions become the property of Reizner & Reizner. None can be returned.

LESS-WORK WIRELESS Sennheiser has automated most of the functions involved in operating a wireless microphone with its new AVX system. While the lavalier or handheld sending half of the system looks pretty much like most of the others, the receiver is smaller and plugs directly into the camera’s XLR audio connector. Once connected, the automation begins. The AVX turns on when it senses the camera’s phantom power, then it automatically selects a free frequency, pairs with the transmitter and matches the camera’s mic/ line setting. A feature I found most interesting is that if it detects someone is stepping on your transmission (an interfering signal), it will inaudibly find and shift to a new frequency. The AVX stretches battery life by setting the transmitter power to the minimum needed to keep a reliable connection. The condition of the lithium ion batteries shows on the transmitter display, and they can be recharged via USB. MSRP varies by configuration, $1,125 to $1,625. http://en-us.sennheiser.com/audio-video-camera-microphone-dslr

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CARTEL LAND

JON SILBERG

CARTEL LAND Capturing Conflict and Conflicting Perspectives

An Autodefensas member stands guard in Michoacán, Mexico

ilmmaker Matthew Heineman didn’t set out to put himself in the middle of a standoff between the Mexican military and a heavily armed vigilante group. Nor did he intend to spend any time crouched inside a car taking fire from members of a drug cartel. But his work on the feature documentary Cartel Land took him into both of those situations—and more. The film was inspired by an article Heineman read about an American vigilante group in Arizona that militantly patrols the border with Mexico, which its members believe is far too penetrable, but as he prepared to investigate this story, he encountered another article—this one about the massive power of the Mexican drug cartel Knights Templar, and a local citizens vigilante group calling itself Autodefensas. Heineman came to realize his story needed to document the situation on both sides of the border. Cartel Land is a harrowing look at the journeys of two modern-day vigilante groups and their shared

creativeplanetnetwork.com | 06.2015

At left, Tim “Nailer” Foley, leader of Arizona Border Recon

enemy: the Mexican drug cartels. Nine months of filming took him on patrols with American vigilantes on this side of the border and into cartelrun meth labs and hideouts of the Autodefensas in Mexico. Part of what makes Cartel Land so chilling is the fact that as his investigation progresses, it becomes less clear who’s really working for whom. How do we tell the heroes from the villains? As disconcerting as that may be for Cartel Land’s audiences, it was considerably more so for

Heineman. “I’m not a war reporter,” he says. “I’d never been in situations like that. Many times I felt extraordinarily uncomfortable, but I think this is a very important story to tell. I never felt I was just there to get this footage. Every moment played into the larger story.” Heineman shot the majority of the material in Mexico himself, with shooter Matt Porwoll gathering additional material or acting as a second (continued on page 56)

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• 16 MP Live MOS sensor • DCI 4K 4096x2160 at 24p • UHD 4K 3840x2160 at 30p/24p • Full HD up to 60p • 3.0” OLED monitor and OLED Live View finder • Support for 59.94p, 23.98p, 50p, & 24p • 4:2:2 8-Bit or 10-Bit HDMI Output • Built-In Wi-Fi connectivity with NFC • Variable frame rate recording of 2fps to 96 fps capable • Magnesium alloy, weather-sealed body Body Only #PADMCGH4B with DMW-YAGH SDI/XLR interface unit #PADMCGH4BK

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LEARN (continued from page 53) camera in large group situations. The crew had to be small, with just the shooters, a local fixer and a local producer capable of making introductions to Knights Templars and Autodefensas members— none of whom were willing to appear on camera until Heineman and the fixers convinced them he was there purely to document and not to take sides. The trust-building process often took many jammed into the back of a car during days or weeks before Heineman was an interrogation without having a permitted access. He was eventually bunch of equipment everywhere.” able to bring cameras to meth labs, The shooters captured the images secret strategy meetings and even in Canon log, “to give us more room Director/producer violent interrogations. to [manipulate images] in post,” he Matthew Heineman Both Heineman and Porwoll used notes. He recorded audio into the Canon EOS C300s for just about everything. (For camera with a small on-camera mic or lavalier some time lapse effects and drone shots, the team where possible. To keep things simple, Heineman turned to Canon DSLRs, particularly the EOS 5D adds, “we shot the whole film on two lenses: the Mk II and EOS-1D C.) “I don’t think any other 17-55mm and 24-105,” both Canon E mount. The camera available at the time would have allowed only after-market addition the shooters used was me to make this film the way I did,” Heineman says. the DB Premium eyepiece. “We put those over the “I don’t like to shoot with DSLRs. [The EOS C300] viewfinder and it really helped us to shoot in really is ergonomically much better than a DSLR, but bright sunlight.” it’s still small. It allowed me to shoot in run-andAs he wound down shooting, he and a team of gun situations but have steady moves. I could be editors—Matthew Hamachek, Bradley J. Ross and

Autodefensas members in Michoacán, Mexico

Pax Wassermann—started work on the roughly 500 hours of material, with a number of festival submission deadlines just months away. The edit took place in Apple Final Cut Pro 7. “It was a crazy experience, four people cutting a film,” he says. “We started out with each of us taking a different storyline, and by the end, we all had our hands on every scene. It was a really wonderful team environment.” It’s not a spoiler to say that a lot of the good guy/ bad guy ambiguity that plagued Heineman midproduction makes its way to the final film. “We had the freedom to take the story wherever it needed to go,” he says. “I started out thinking I was telling one story and then it went in directions I never could have imagined. That’s the type of filmmaking I love!” dv

COMPANY INDEX Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ................................32, 46 Adobe ............................... 14, 30, 39, 46 Aframe ................................................35 AJA .................................... 12, 14, 26, 39 Angenieux ..........................................17 Apple .........12, 22, 30, 39, 41, 46, 56, 58 ARRI ................................................8, 28 AT&T ...................................................44 Atomos ...............................................26 Aurora Multimedia Corp. ..................44 Autodesk.............................................32 Avid .....................................................30 Azzurro HD ........................................40 BBC .....................................................20 BBS Lighting.......................................46 Bexel ...................................................28 Blackmagic Design .......... 18, 26, 39, 46 Boris FX ..............................................34 Canon U.S.A. .................... 10, 18, 28, 56 Carl Zeiss ............................................12 CBS .....................................................18 CBS Sports ..........................................28 Cinematiq...........................................39 Company 3 .........................................12 Comrex ...............................................44 Convergent Design ............................26 Cooke Optics ......................................17 Datavideo ...........................................44 DB .......................................................56 Disneynature......................................20

DJI .......................................................42 Dolby ..................................................26 EditShare ............................................34 EIZO ..............................................36, 48 ESPN .............................................28, 39 Facilis Technology .............................34 FCPWORKS ........................................30 Flanders Scientific .......................36, 48 FotoKem ...............................................8 FOX .................................................8, 18 FOX Sports ...................................28, 39 Fraunhofer .........................................37 Freefly Systems ..................................28 Fujinon .................................................8 G-Technology .....................................48 Game Creek Video .............................28 GoPro......................................12, 26, 58 Grass Valley ........................................32 Hamlet ................................................48 HBO ..................................................6, 8 Hendrik Information Systems ..........42 HGST, A Western Digital Company ....48 HP .......................................................36 Ikegami ...........................................8, 34 Imagineer Systems ............................34 Intel .....................................................35 Jigsaw New York ...................................6 JMR Electronics ...........................36, 50 JVC ......................................................28 LearnCore ..........................................43 Marshall Electronics ..........................40

Matrox ..........................................36, 40 Microsoft ......................................32, 47 Miller Camera Support ...............50, 58 MotorSportsBroadcasting.com ........40 MTF Services......................................12 MTV World .........................................10 Munzing Media..................................38 My Case Builder .................................52 MyCharge ...........................................52 NBC.....................................................14 NBC Sports .........................................28 NEP .....................................................28 Netflix .................................................17 NewTek ...............................................38 Nomadic Wax .....................................10 North Metro Television .....................44 NVIDIA ...............................................34 Open Drives .......................................35 Orad Hi-Tec Systems .........................32 Panasonic ...........................................28 Paramount Pictures ...........................18 PBS ......................................................12 PESA ...................................................41 Pomfort...............................................48 Promar TV ..........................................39 Quantel and Snell ..............................34 RED ...............................................17, 28 Redrock Micro....................................50 Rotolight .............................................52 Ryerson University ............................41 Sennheiser .........................................52

Sharp...................................................34 Shure...................................................36 SmallHD .............................................50 SNORRICAM......................................12 Sony .................................. 17, 21, 28, 58 Sony Creative Software .....................34 Stand UP NY Labs ..............................38 StreamGuys ........................................42 StreamVu ............................................40 Technicolor ........................................18 Technicolor PostWorks .......................6 Telestream ....................................36, 38 Teradek ...............................................42 the STUDIO ........................................10 thenewBlank ......................................12 Tiffen.............................................17, 50 Trollbäck ............................................10 TVLogic ..............................................36 VDO2Net ............................................40 VITEC .................................................45 VIZIO ..................................................26 Walt Disney Studios...........................20 Wipster ...............................................35 Wohler Technologies .........................45 Wowza Media Systems ......................43 YouKu .................................................42 YouTube .............................................42 Zacuto.................................................12

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WEB SITE

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COMPANY

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Full Compass

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JVC

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60 www.footage.shutterstock.com

Sony Creative Software

B&H Photo-Video-Pro Audio 54, 55

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Eizo

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Sony Electronics Videoguys

5, 15 49

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LEARN

PRODUCTION DIARY

STEFAN SARGENT

CAMERA 4, WHERE ARE YOU? Missing in Action and Presumed Dead

ifty years ago, I was a boy with a Bolex— just one camera. On the way to work, I’d walk past Miller’s garage. I’d wave or drop in and chat about my Bolex and their wooden tripods. How it all changes. Today I’m shooting with 10 cameras. It’s 3D, so it looks like five, but really it’s 10. I have four camera-pairs, while Brandon, my ’copter pilot, has two Sony HDR-AS100 Action Cams. We’ve modified the rig so much, he needs a toothpick to get them started.

can see me in the video: hat, red T-shirt, brown shorts.) Camera 2 is really two GoPro HERO4s and a 3D plastic case. HERO4s are not meant for 3D. I have to start each one individually and then fit them one by one into the 3D case. All this time, Franz is lifting and swinging frame 36 with cam 4 towards the keel. Finally, I have cam 2’s cameras up and running and in the 3D case. I walk over and position it right on the keel, flat on its back, looking up. Nic, a volunteer carpenter, tells me I can’t put

I go back, pick it up and get there just as Jessie and Richard struggle to push frame 36 into its rightful place.

it there. “It will be in the way.” “Richard knows it’s here. Nic, please, please, don’t touch it.” Franz and Richard have frame 36 above the keel. Richard takes a moment to move cam 2 into the perfect position. Thanks, Richard. You’re a star.

up the five left and right pairs and then multicam them all together. And you know what? Pesky cam 4 looked really good for a minute but wobbled loose, swung over and photographed the roof of the tent. Useless. Win some, lose some. You can see “Frame 36” in 2D and 3D at http:// webuiltaship.com and vimeo.com/115675999. dv

CAM 5 Cam 5 is on the quadcopter gimbal. I can see Brandon’s ’copter is in the air. In fact, he buzzed me while I was up on the ladder. Very funny, Brandon.

CAMERA 4, WHERE ARE YOU? Back at my editing base, I use Apple FCP X to sync

CAM 1 It’s a Sony HXR-NX3D1. I have carefully set it up on a tripod for a wide-angle 3D shot of the ship. Suddenly I notice the tripod has been picked up and moved away by some helpful volunteer. I dash over, reposition it and start it running.

CAM 4 While I’m doing this, Franz, driving the forklift, is picking up frame 36 bearing cam 4—a 3D GoPro—clamped to the wood. “Stop, stop! Franz, my camera isn’t running! I need to start it. Can you put the frame down?” “Sorry Stefan, no can do. Jessie, get a ladder for Stefan.” I’m already out of breath and I have to climb a tall ladder. With Jessie’s help, I reach the top and grab the 3D GoPro. First, turn it on. Next, start it running. Lights flashing, great. Reposition it down. “Got it! Thanks, Franz!”

CAM 2 I clamber down the stepladder and walk over to cam 2. (“Walk” because I’m out of breath. You

CAM 3 This is my handheld camera, another Sony NX3D1.

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Digital_Video_June_2015

Articles inside

Cartel Land Capturing Conflict and Conflicting Perspectives

Production Diary: Camera 4, Where Are You? Missing in Action

Buyer’s Guide: Video Streaming

Grace and Frankie

Update

Tips to Clip

Editor’s View

Making Disneynature’s Monkey Kingdom Shooting in the Jungles of Sri Lanka with Sony’s F65 Camera