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March/April2010 • V. 25 |No. 2
Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
2.0
Reflections on VFX in Commercials: Making the Impossible Possible NAB Equipment Showcase Spotlight: Texas/Southwest Vast Landscapes, Big Prospects
Mobile Production’s Olympian Feat Trucks Turn In Medal-winning Performances
Permit 211 Bolingbrook, IL
PAID PRSRT STD U.S. Postage
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March/April 2010 Volume 25, Number 2
contents w w w. m a r k e e m a g . c o m 20
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features 12 NAB 2010 Equipment Showcase By Christine Bunish
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Commercial VFX –
Reflections on VFX in Commercials By Christine Bunish
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Mobile Production –
Mobile Production’s Olympian Achievement By Mark R. Smith and Christine Bunish
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Spotlight – Texas/Southwest
Vast Landscapes, Big Prospects By Mark R. Smith
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Markee2.0
Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
Markee 2.0 is a results-driven magazine that has been published since December 1985. A nationwide survey of film and video industry professionals revealed that Markee 2.0 is at the top of their must-read list. Editorially, Markee 2.0 offers a wide range of content tailored for its diverse readership. Features span film and video production and postproduction topics to include must-read inter-
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views with leaders in the creative community, the latest equipment and technology news, perspectives on innovative independent filmmaking, and in-the-trenches reports on shooters, editors, animators and audio pros – plus regularlyscheduled specialty supplements. Markee 2.0’s seasoned writers know the industry inside-out. That’s what makes Markee 2.0 compelling, informative and timely reading.
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columns & departments 4 Editor’s Note 6 Making TV – The Mind of The Buddha: David Grubin’s doc visualizes the struggle to create a life of the mind By Michael Fickes
On the cover: Dutch Olympic long-track speedskaters lead a Russian competitor in a practice session at The Richmond Oval.
8 Making Commercials – Banking on Basics:
Photo Credit: Jason Johnson, Metrovision
Getting down to basics for a bank shoot By Michael Fickes
10 Equipment Portfolio – Cine Photo Tech 11 Equipment Portfolio – HB Group 44 In the Newsroom 48 Inside View – Back Alley Films’ Tyler Smith By Christine Bunish www.markeemag.com
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from the editor
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Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
| by Christine Bunish
www.markeemag.com LIONHEART PUBLISHING, INC. 506 Roswell Street, Suite 220, Marietta, GA 30060 Tel: 770.431.0867 Fax: 770.432.6969 E-mail: lpi@lionhrtpub.com www.markeemag.com
Rite of Spring
Publisher
Just as daylight saving time and the welcome transformation of the bleak winter landscape in many parts of the country are signs of spring, so is the march of broadcasters and film and video professionals to the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention in Las Vegas. The annual pilgrimage brings equipment manufacturers, software developers and service providers together with eager buyers and window-shoppers looking to fill holes in their inventories and explore The Next Big Thing. At the 2010 NAB that’s likely to be Stereoscopic 3D (S3D) and vendors’ swift response to the inroads the technology has made in feature films and television. Markee 2.0’s NAB Equipment Showcase hints at what manufacturers have planned for S3D and unveils new products and upgrades in the digital cinema, VFX and lighting arenas; check out our next issue for a more in-depth S3D status report. NAB comes fast on the heels of the year’s biggest international sporting event: the XXI Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada. Traditionally, U.S.-based production and satellite transmission trucks burn rubber to get to an Olympics host city in North America, and key participants recount the challenges of covering venues from Whistler’s alpine slopes to Vancouver’s longtrack speedskating Oval. While the proliferation of VFX in commercials may not exactly be breaking news, the creativity and versatility of visual effects have been embraced by all advertising genres. VFX experts tell us how they made a beautiful woman look twice as gorgeous, took market-savvy talking toddlers to new environments, gave luxury vehicles a fine-arts treatment and made one planet of the many people who enjoy a certain soft drink. And in our every-issue regional Spotlight, Texas and three Southwestern states recount how they’re betting – and winning – on production incentives as area production companies, post houses and rental firms highlight their latest work and most recent offerings.
Editor
Senior Writers
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Christine Bunish editor@markeemag.com
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Markee 2.0 (ISSN 1073-8924) is published bi-monthly by Lionheart Publishing, Inc.
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Highlights Coming In
May/June 2010
• Stereoscopic 3D – It’s here! • Stock Footage – The new, the offbeat and how to find it plus Stock Footage Guide
Copyright © 2010 by Lionheart Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. The copyright owner, however, does consent to a single copy of an article being made for personal use. Otherwise, except under circumstances within “fair use” as defined by copyright law, no part of this publication may be reproduced, displayed or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner, Lionheart Publishing, Inc. Send e-mail permission requests to editor@markeemag.com.
• Spotlight: Midwest • Soundstages – Infrastructure coast to coast • Mobile Production Portfolio
IN EVERY ISSUE: Making TV • Making Commercials • Newsroom • Inside View 4
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Disclaimer – The statements and opinions in the articles of this publication are solely those of the individual authors and contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Lionheart Publishing, Inc. or the editorial staff of Markee 2.0 or any sponsoring organization. The appearance of advertisements in this magazine is not a warranty, endorsement, or approval of the products or services advertised.
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making TV
The Buddha | By Michael Fickes
The Mind of The Buddha David Grubin’s documentary The Buddha visualizes the struggle to create a life of the mind. DP James Callanan put it on video.
In the countryside of modern India, many people live just as their ancestors lived 2,500 years ago. That enabled award-winning director, writer and cinematographer David Grubin to infuse his latest documentary, The Buddha, with a sense of authenticity that can be difficult to create when history is reenacted. The Buddha tells the story of Siddhartha, the Indian prince who gave up a life of wealth and ease and suffered terribly as he struggled to find a path to understanding and enlightenment. Ultimately, he became the creator of the world’s fourthlargest religion. Richard Gere, who has practiced Buddhism for many years, narrates the production that airs Wednesday, April 7, at 8 pm ET on PBS. Many live-action contemporary scenes shot for the program represent history, says James Callanan, the Director of Photography on the project. “Nothing in those scenes indicates the present. They would have looked the same 2,500 years ago.” The Buddha is Callanan’s 17th film assignment from David Grubin. His work has appeared on PBS in The American 6
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Experience, the National Geographic specials “Lord of the Ants” and “Mysterious Human Heart,” NOVA, Frontline, Dance in America and many others. He has won four Emmys, four Peabody awards, five Cine Gold Eagles, a Clio, a Grammy and many other awards.
[Above, left]
Shooting History, Live
[Below]
For The Budhha, Callanan used two different shooting styles when lensing people. In crowds, he used a wide-angle Canon HJ 11 x 4.8 ENG-style zoom lens with a 2x extender and a handheld Panasonic AJ-HDC27HE HD camcorder. The goal of those scenes was
Asterisk Animation depicts the Buddha gaining enlightenment sitting under a fig tree.
Director David Grubin (right) and DP James Callanan scout the Ganges while preparing a key shot for the title sequence.
[Above, right] Head of the Buddha, Thailand. Photo Credit: Luca Tettoni
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[Left] Callanan uses a long lens to create an aura of mystery surrounding a monk at sunrise.
cinéma vérité — making the viewer feel as if he or she was right there. For shots of small groups and individuals, Callanan employed a long Canon HJ 22 x 7.6 ENG-style zoom lens, again with the 2x extender. For these scenes, he mounted the camcorder on an O’Connor 2060 tripod, a Desi Jimmy Jib or a Key West Magic Dolly with skateboard wheels, regular tires and straight and semi-circular plastic tracks. Callanan’s live scenes in the countryside depict ancient-looking landscapes, crowds of pilgrims, small groups of people, individuals and works of art. “We shot a yogi (a Buddhist monk) meditating by the Ganges River at sunset,” says Callanan. “On another occasion we found an ascetic who lives next to funeral pyres where bodies are cremated. He lives off of the generosity of mourners and sleeps in a cutaway in the side of a cliff. We framed out a scene with the ascetic in front of a wall with Hindu icons. In the background, you could see a funeral pyre.” In other scenes, Callanan shot pilgrims at worship. “We tried to make the scenes with the pilgrims (cinéma) vérité,” Callanan notes. “We used a handheld camera, normal lighting balance and wide-angle lenses. We moved through the crowd with the camera — the idea being to create the feeling that you are there in the crowd.” Sometimes Callanan wanted to create an aura of myth and mystery. In one of the title shots, for instance, a monk www.markeemag.com
walks away from camera toward the mountains at sunrise. To add mystery, Callanan used a long lens that could frame out everything but the monk. Other live-action footage includes interviews with historians, poets, Buddhist scholars, practicing Buddhist monastics and even the Dali Lama. The production also uses panoramic establishing shots of landscapes and people achieved with a wide-angle zoom lens. Finally, archival footage offers a view of Buddhism in the 20th century. In some cases, you can see how closely Callanan’s live shots mirror the historical record.
Animating History A number of live historical scenes end with a transition shot, usually accomplished by a camera move, that introduces an animated sequence depicting experiences from the Buddha’s life. New York City-based Asterisk Animation created the stylish cel animation that’s a far cry from cartoon-like examples: They are artists’ impressionistic renderings of religious experiences that are part of Buddhism. As worked out by Grubin and Callanan, sometimes the first animated frames trace over the documentary footage. In other cases, the camera might push through a blanket of falling leaves, for example. In one shot, a jib arm raises the camera over the scene of a lone woman carrying a child on her side. As she walks away from the camera along a narrow
path she becomes an animated woman and child in the same pose. They introduce an animated sequence that relates the story of the Buddha’s birth. In the sequence, the queen of a small kingdom located in an agricultural valley in India near the border of Nepal dreams that a huge white elephant gives her a lotus blossom and then dives into her body through her side. Upon awaking, the queen asked sages what the dream meant, and they predicted that she would have a child who would grow to become a great ruler or an enlightened holy man. Indeed, she becomes pregnant and the child is born out of her side — in an animated image reminiscent of the woman carrying her child in the live transitional scene shot by Callanan. The artist’s rendering of the birth is done in soft colors, often white and offwhite, and simple linear shapes. Soft music accompanies the visuals. The style of animation changes when events call for it. In a climactic scene depicting the Buddha’s achievement of enlightenment, the animation depicts an attack of spirits trying to frighten him away from the path. In this scene the music is loud, daunting and fully orchestrated. The angry red and black spirits flourish spears and gnash their teeth. It is frightening and human. In the end, the message is that human beings are ruled by emotional desires that are both dangerous and enlightening. The Buddha’s discovery was that it is possible to find peace by living an active, internal life of the mind and learning to battle dangerous desires while welcoming the enlightenment created by struggle. In a way, the challenges facing the Buddha and the production team for The Buddha were exactly the opposite. The Buddha was challenged with creating a life in the mind independent of the external world. Grubin and Callanan, on the other hand, had to figure out how to externalize that interior life for television viewers. March/April 2010
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making Commercials
Union Bank | By Michael Fickes
Banking On Basics Getting down to basics for a bank shoot produces a simple, clean iconographic campaign. [Left] Twist director/DP Rich Michell frames a scene in the Union Bank campaign.
[Below] The Union Bank spokesman prepares to demonstrate the domino effect illustrating how hard it can be to find the right person in a bureaucracy.
How often does a simple, elegant creative idea get muddled during a commercial shoot? It probably happens a lot more than many directors would care to admit. Working through Twist (www.twistfilm.com), a New York- and Minneapolisbased production company, director/DP Rich Michell likes simple, elegant scripts, and when he finds one, he labors mightily to discover what makes it simple and elegant and to make sure those qualities find their way into the production. Consider Michell’s approach to a new campaign for Lincoln, Nebraskabased Union Bank. Working with the agency creatives from Swanson Russell, also in Lincoln, Michell, who has won praise for his skills with both tabletop and human subjects, liked the scripts right away. “They were well-written with smart, clean messages.” They reminded Michell of tabletop. “In the table-top world, I often design with a ‘form follows function’ approach,” says Michell. “The goal in the Union Bank campaign was to educate, and we felt that the scripts would do that if we kept the visual toolbox simple, graphic and direct, sort of like a tabletop shoot.” 8
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Getting The Fundamentals Right Michell and the agency creatives planned each spot in detail during preproduction. They chose to shoot against a stark white background like the recent Apple and Gap campaigns. “I’ve been shooting on white since the ’90s,” he says. “I have a good feel for when that’s an appropriate look, and it felt just right for this campaign.” Michell decided to bump up the crispness of the white background by choosing a RED ONE camera for the shoot. The scripts took an inventive approach to illustrating intangible banking services by putting concrete visual symbols, each representing a component of the bank’s services, to work in a series of demonstrations. For example, in the first spot the bank’s spokesman talks about how difficult it can be to find the right person
to ask for help in a bureaucratic organization by demonstrating the domino effect. While explaining how one person talks to another who talks to another who talks to others, he knocks over the first domino in a long line. The camera watches as a chain reaction fells hundreds of dominos arrayed across the surface of a table. The solution to that problem, of course, is a bank organized to put customers in touch with the right person immediately. “At Union Bank,” the spokesman says, “knowledgeable employees are empowered to help you right away.” As a stinger, he knocks over a single blue domino and says, smiling, “That was easy.” Unlike tabletop spots, the Union Bank spots have a consistent on-camera spokesman. Michell cast a strong, engaging character that looks like he could be a casual, friendly banker.
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the man slipping into a coat that fits. “Looks good,” he observes.
Keeping Production Simple
[Top] Automated phones with endless menu options can’t replace a person on the end of the line.
[Above] A stack of bricks symbolizes Union Bank’s financial strength and security.
In the second commercial, the spokesman fits together a neat stack of red bricks that contrasts vividly with the white background. The bricks demonstrate the benefit of financial strength and security. The spokesman sums up: “Our customers know that their bank is strong and not going anywhere.” Next comes darts with blue feathers. The spokesman throws darts at a dartboard resembling a map. The darts find the locations of Union Bank branches in a city, illustrating that wherever you are, you will find a Union Bank branch nearby. “Bulls-eye,” he says. White phones on a white table against the white background in the fourth spot illustrate automated phone systems that transfer callers from one irritating set of menu options to another, replacing actual human help. At Union Bank, says the spokesperson, “There’s a live person answering the phone.” As a single phone on another table rings, he says, “I’d better get that.” Finally, comes a “tailoring” demo. We see the spokesman wearing a sports jacket that is too large, a tailor taking measurements with a yellow tape and www.markeemag.com
Michell made detailed storyboards and shot lists consisting mostly of short scenes that literally punctuate the spokesman’s sentences. The shots move into and out of close-ups showing the minimalist action of dominos falling, bricks being stacked, darts hitting bulls-eyes and the tailor taking measurements. The commercials use only a couple of camera moves. The phone-chain has the most, with a push-in, pullback and a pan of the line of telephones — the only iconic symbol in the series that had no action of its own. Lighting played a key role in sharpening the visuals. Michell flew Ultra Space Lights overhead to enhance the seamless look of the white background. He used a 20K key light to the spokesman’s right with a 20x20-foot light grid cloth to soften it a bit. He also employed a small fill light and a 5K back light placed off to the side. The props received special lighting treatment, too. “We flew lighting above the action,” Michell recalls. “In the domino spot, for instance, we used a Blanket-Lite – a six-foot long Kino Flo with a dozen lamps sandwiched between a reflector and silk. It literally created a box of light that encased the shot of the falling dominos.” He notes that “the scripts were so good that we kept paring things back to keep the ideas front and center. We ended up with a simple, clean color palette, strong iconographic elements, the right spokesperson and a shot list. “After that, it was a matter of using the camera as an observational device, staying out of the way and letting the commercials happen.” The final sharpening of the spots came at Splice in Minneapolis where Chadwick Nelson handled the creative edit and Michael Sandness the finishing and color correction. As the film and video world grows more and more technologically sophisticated, it’s refreshing now and then to get back to the basics of making commercials, basics that never change and never get complicated: grab the viewers’ attention and deliver a crystal-clear message. March/April 2010
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Cine Photo Tech
OR 36 YEARS CINE PHOTO TECH, INC. (CPT) HAS BEEN RECOGNIZED as Atlanta’s premier
motion picture equipment rental company providing feature films, commercials, TV programming and music videos with film cameras from ARRI, Moviecam, Aaton and Photosonics as well as the latest in HD camera technology from Sony and Panasonic. New owners Brian McGraw and Frank Battaglia, who acquired CPT last August, bring in excess of 30 years experience to their roles as heads of the company. They have made significant investments of time and money to rebuild and rebrand CPT, positioning Cine Photo Tech as a leader in digital cinema equipment in the region while remaining true to its roots in the film industry. “No other equipment rental house in the Southeast has the depth and breadth
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of offerings that CPT has in film and digital cinema equipment,” says McGraw. “It’s a balancing act to keep up with new digital gear and innovations in film equipment, too. The key is knowing what to get, what customers really want to use.” CPT’s four Sony F35 digital cinema camera packages are in high demand and have become “the standard camera for TV drama” today, he reports. In fact, requests for F35 camera packages have expanded CPT’s market “dramatically” with cameras currently working in Chicago, LA and Hawaii as well as Atlanta. The feature film “Stomp The Yard 2” shot in Atlanta with a CPT F35 package as did the pilot for “Teen Wolf” and portions of “Vampire Diaries.” “We love the new digital cameras because they’re equipped to use film accessories, and that means our invento-
ry is working harder than ever,” says McGraw. He and Battaglia have already ordered ARRI’s ALEXA digital camera due out in June. “Both the Sony F35 and ALEXA use 35mm-size imagers and accept cine lenses and accessories,” he reports. “NAB will be a big research trip for us to gauge what the next big things will be.” CPT continues to invest in film equipment, too, including ARRICAM Studio and ARRICAM LT cameras and a wide array of Cooke, Angenieux and Zeiss lenses. In addition to its extensive inventory, CPT offers exceptional 24/7 service and maintenance and is one of the few rental houses outside LA with its own machine shop for on-site customization. As handson owners, McGraw and Battaglia provide extensive support themselves. “When you call, you get us,” says McGraw.
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HB Group, Inc.
ONNECTICUT-BASED HB GROUP, INC. IS THE AREA’S INDUSTRY LEADER IN pro-
viding professional video, audio, and audio-visual equipment and services. Located in between New York City and Boston, HB Group has been serving the greater Northeast’s needs for broadcast and professional video, live and on-demand streaming solutions, large presentation video displays, native High Definition projection, and large-venue sound reinforcement. HB Group’s diverse inventory is supported by a staff of highlytrained service professionals. HB Group’s equipment inventory for 2010 includes an expansion of their Sony HXC-100 High Definition triax and Sony PMW-EX3 XDCAM camera systems. As part of HB Group’s expansion of ENG packages, they have invested in various models of Panasonic P2 and AVHDS camcorders. The Panasonic AV-HS400A multi-standard production switcher remains the production switcher of choice, along with the latest Panasonic High Definition LCD monitors and displays to complete their multi-camera system solutions.
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High Definition conversion has become a specialty service provided by HB Group, with the Teranex VC-100 dual-channel multi-standard format converter and the AJA-FS1 multi-standard format converter paving the way. “Ever since High Definition has become the norm, accessibility to various High Definition formats and frame rates is increasing. With our expertise in High Definition standards conversion equipment, we can offer producers the tools to maintain their projects’ overall vision while not having to worry about technical compatibility issues,” notes Mitul Patel, HB Group’s director of engineering. “File-based camcorders are becoming the norm and HB Group has camcorders that record onto P2, SxS or AVCHD. Managing the media has gotten easier using the software from Sony, Panasonic, Apple and Avid. The cost of media per gigabyte has also gone down. Clients are opting for solid state-media camcorders compared to tapebased,” notes Patel. Live webcasting is another specialty of HB Group. Along with their wide variety of High Definition equipment and services, HB Group utilizes a variety of encoding sys-
tems ranging in size and capabilities from single laptop computers to fully redundant, enterprise-class streaming fly pack systems. Options for live streaming include incorporation of synchronized PowerPoint slides, moderated questioning and answering, various security features, customized ‘skin’ creation, and archiving services. Between HB Group’s robust inventory of video, audio and encoding equipment, HB Group has all the tools necessary to produce professional, flawless live events. “In challenging economic times, these technologies are being embraced as solutions for corporations looking for new and creative ways to conduct their business, without breaking their tightening budgets,” explains HB Group account executive Evan Bernstein. “Webcasting applications can offer companies more affordable means of conducting meetings, mass marketing, and exposure to the public. Along with webcasting comes the utilization of some of the latest video production equipment. Both webcasting and video production are rising together under the same tide of necessity.”
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NAB 2010
EQUIPMENT SHOWCASE Stereo 3D support comes on strong. Innovations continue in digital cinema, VFX and LED lighting arenas.
BY CHRISTINE BUNISH
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Litepanels New MicroPro Hybrid from Litepanels is Ideal Companion for DSLR Cameras
The MicroPro Hybrid from Litepanels is the first pro LED light to combine continuous output and a Flash feature in a single fixture.
Litepanels, whose pioneering LED fixtures have become popular tools in the film and television industries for their low-power draw, heat-free usage, and soft, directional illumination, is introducing the MicroPro Hybrid at NAB. The first professional LED light to combine continuous output and a Flash feature in a single fixture, the Hybrid is the ideal tool for motion-enabled DSLR cameras that are gaining ground in production. Litepanels (www.litepanels.com) has designed the Hybrid with a Continuous Mode that provides a luminous, wrap-around soft output that beautifully captures DSLR cameras’ video capabilities. The Flash feature produces a 400 percent brighter burst which is perfect for illuminating a variety of still images. The light’s compact, low-profile head is ideally suited for mounting on a DV or DSLR camera. The Hybrid delivers 1.5 hours of continuous output from six AA batteries or five to six hours from Energizer e2 Lithium cells. The system can be run off of either standard or rechargeable batteries. Power can be supplied optionally through a 5-16V input jack located on the back of the unit. A convenient integrated dimmer at the top of he Hybrid housing offers instant 100 percent to 0 dimming with minimal color shift. Output is flicker free and heat free and remains consistent. For greater versatility, an integrated filter holder on the face of the light permits use of three included color/diffusion gels. Additional filters can be stored on the back of the fixture. A Strobe Sync Cable included at the base of the unit simply plugs in to enable a strobe function.
JVC JVC Unveils GY-HM790 ProHD Camcorder for Flexible Studio and Field Production
JVC introduces versatile GY-HM790 ProHD camcorder for field and studio production.
When JVC Professional Products (pro.jvc.com) launched its first professional HD cameras in 2004 the company also introduced its ProHD concept, “a designation that’s not tied to a particular format,” notes Dave Walton, assistant vice president of marketing communications. The resulting ProHD line of products has been designed with industry-standard compression and file formats, and a variety of media types. Last year, JVC ProHD unveiled the GY-HM700, its first solid-state camcorder. It offered recording up to 35 Mbps, MPEG 2 compression, and 720p, 1080i and 1080p multi-scan capabilities. This year, JVC is upgrading its top-of-the-line studio camera, the GY-HD250, with the GY-HM790 ProHD camcorder which makes its debut at NAB. The new camcorder combines all the capabilities of the 250 and www.markeemag.com
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NAB 2010 Equipment Showcase 700 (1920x1080 4:2:2 processing; 1080i, 720p multi-scan; 35 Mbps encoding; and dual SDHC media) in a compact, shoulder-mount form factor for better maneuverability in the field and more flexibility with robotic camera-control systems in the studio. The GY-HM790 also kicks the 700 up a notch with a number of new features, including 480i recording for broadcasters who haven’t yet made the move to HD, an analog SD pool feed input, and optional ASI output module that provides a direct feed from the camera to a satellite uplink or microwave transmitter via BNC for live HD video from the field. Other optional output modules can “change the camera’s personality,” adapting it for multicore or fiber-based production, says Walton. In addition, “an optional SxS module allows the camera to record on SxS memory cards that give you back up while shooting,” he explains. “You can leave the field with a copy for your client and an edit master for yourself.” Walton points out that “all the capabilities built into the GY-HM790 for broadcast work adapt nicely for nonbroadcast applications, too. The camera has all the capabilities independent producers are looking for; the GY-HM790 has interchangeable lenses and our HD-CA13 film lens adapter for cine lenses will work with it. We also expect interest from the worship and educational markets to be huge.” At NAB JVC will also showcase its GD-463D10 stereoscopic 3D monitors that have already proved popular with filmmakers and facilities working in S3D, and introduce the IF-2D3D1 stereoscopic image processor for realtime 2D-3D conversion.
Mole Richardson Mole Richardson Unveils MoleLED and 24K DayLite Fresnel
Mole Richardson’s 24K DayLite Fresnel is the largest and most powerful HMI fresnel on the market.
Previewed at LDI last fall, MoleLED gets its full product launch at NAB. Billed as the first true film-friendly LED solution, the 50W MoleLED unites a sophisticated design by Mole Richardson (www.mole.com) with advanced remote phosphor LED technology from OSRAM. It marks Mole Richardson’s debut in the product category. “What sets our version of the LED fixture apart is that we’ve solved the color issue for motion pictures and television,” reports Mole Richardson director of sales Paul Royalty. “We’ve been working with OSRAM Sylvania to get the color rendering to match 3200ºK tungsten exactly, and blend seamlessly with existing 5600ºK daylight.” MoleLED boasts a number of innovations. “The fixture’s special diffuser glass allows for a single light source look without a significant decrease in light transmission,” Royalty points out. “That renders the fixture similar to other soft sources that cinematographers have been using forever.” The fixture is DC powered and will operate on everything from a 12-Volt car battery and 14.4V Anton Bauer or IDX V-mount battery to a 24V camera battery. Mole Richardson is taking orders for MoleLED at NAB for delivery in June; fixtures are currently available in tungsten and daylight versions. The company is also previewing single LED boards, packaged in kits of six, whose small footprint is ideal for small set ups like car rigs and podium or dais lighting. “They connect back to one box for individual control and dimming,” says Royalty. At the “other end of the spectrum” from LED lighting technology, and demonstrating the scope of Mole Richardson’s R&D, is the introduction of the 24K DayLite Fresnel, the largest and most powerful HMI fresnel on the market. HMI fresnels have been capped at 18K for more than a decade. The new 24K is a result of “close collaboration” between Mole Richardson and Power Gem for the ballast and OSRAM Sylvania and Koto for the 24K double-ended lamp. Extensive thermal testing has enabled the fixture to remain the size of an 18K and be cooled through convection instead of fans or other exotic solutions. A new, highly-polished 11-inch reflector produces over 95 percent reflectivity and is designed to work with the larger arc gap of the 24K lamp. With the 24K DayLite Fresnel “we have pushed the absolute boundary of what the 24-inch fresnel glass can physically take,” notes Royalty. “It’s going to take a lot more R&D to make the next leap.” 14
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Sony Sony Expands HD Camera Products and Adds Stereoscopic 3D Enhancements The HDC-P1 is billed as the first Sony camera designed from the ground up with S3D in mind.
Sony Electronics (pro.sony.com) is highlighting its full line of HD production technologies at NAB, including cameras, camcorders and switchers, as well as new technologies for stereoscopic 3D content creation and enhancements to existing products that allow them to fit a broader range of S3D applications. The new HDC-P1, a full HD compact multi-purpose camera that’s capable of 2D and 3D operation when used in an S3D camera rig, is described as “the first Sony camera to be designed from the ground up with 3D in mind,” according to Rob Willox, director of Sony’s Content Creation group. It’s unique among POV-type cameras for combining 2/3-inch CCD technology and a two-disc filter servo in a small and lightweight design that delivers superb picture quality and performance. “This camera satisfies a professional shooter’s need to combine high-resolution images with versatile performance,” says Willox. “As HD productions become more complex and the number of camera angles increase, flexible and multi-purpose products such as the HDC-P1 that can offer image quality comparable to studio cameras are in greater demand.” The new camera integrates seamlessly with Sony’s HDC-1000 and HSC-300 series cameras and can be used in a range of unmanned and POV HD applications or as a companion camera in automated broadcast studios. It supports a range of recording formats, including 1080/50i, 59.94i and 720/50P, 59.94P.
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NAB 2010 Equipment Showcase Sony’s new HSC-300 and HXC-100 cameras are based on the proven performance of the HDC series studio cameras and use Sony’s digital triax transmission technology. The HSC-300 is compatible with Sony’s existing large lens adaptors and can be used with triax cable runs of up to 1,300 meters; the HXC-100 can be used for runs of up to 850 meters. Both models feature a 2/3-inch Power HAD FX CCD with 2.2 million pixels and are switchable between 1080i and 720P 50/60Hz with 525i and 625 SD models available from the camera head and CCU. The expanding family of XDCAM EX video production technologies has added two new camcorders for solid-state production. The shoulder-mount PMW-350, Sony’s first 2/3-inch CMOS memory camcorder, features a DVCAM recording option and is also studio-configurable. The PMW-EX1R, the successor to Sony’s first entry into memory recording, adds DVCAM recording capability as well as an HDMI output and numerous enhancements directly resulting from customer feedback. At NAB Sony also plans to feature the next generation of HDCAM SR production technology with new products and upgrades ranging from acquisition and storage to archive and production efficiency. In particular, the SRW-9000 camcorder will feature an upgrade path to 35mm imaging and file-based production. Sony will also debut its MPE-200 3D Processor which provides a variety of digital adjustments to the stereo imaging of any camera that provides an HDSI output signal, allowing a similar control experience to mechanical servos. Planned future versions will also include lens tracking adjustments that will be lens dependent because of metadata requirements. Also, future versions will increase the adjustment capability of cameras compatible with Sony protocols.
Panasonic Panasonic Headlines Stereoscopic 3D Camcorder and Expanded P2 Product Line
Panasonic’s AG-3DA1 is the world’s first pro-quality, fully-integrated HD 3D camcorder with SD media card recording.
Panasonic (www.panasonic.com) will be moving forward on several fronts at NAB making headlines in the stereoscopic 3D arena and expanding its P2 solid-state memory card offerings. Panasonic is taking orders for the AG-3DA1, the world’s first professional- quality, fully-integrated HD 3D camcorder with SD media card recording. Introduced at the International CES show in January, the AG-3DA1 is designed to democratize S3D production with a flexible, affordable, easy-to-use solution with solid-state reliability and workflow. It is expected to ship this fall. “Up until now, 3D production for us has meant using our existing cameras and recorders in custom rigs which may require a couple of people to operate,” notes vice president of marketing Bob Harris. “Weighing in at just six pounds, the AG-3DA1 offers a lowerpriced, integrated, simple-to-use alternative. It works just like a normal camcorder but with convergence control.” The versatile AG-3DA1 uses SD memory cards and records 1080i and 720p; an HD-SDI output enables streaming into a switcher or recording onto an uncompressed recording system. “The fact that the camcorder is full HD 16
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opens up the market for it. People are really getting behind it; they’re excited about getting crews out and learning how to shoot compelling 3D content,” Harris reports. In addition, Panasonic will introduce the AW-HE50 compact HD/SD integrated pan/tilt/zoom camera at the show. Its predecessor, the AW-HE100, is Panasonic’s first PTZ camera and is widely used in robotic broadcast applications. “Some markets were looking for something more affordable than the HE100 so we have two versions of the HE50: one with an HDMI interface for videoconferencing systems, telepresence, and school production studios and the other with an HD-SDI interface for use in reality TV production or projects that need longer runs,” says Harris. “Our cameras are well known for extremely smooth, precise control so the HE50 is a natural for covering sports venues, too.” Also making its NAB debut is the AG-MSU10 portable P2 media storage unit for fast, reliable back up of P2 content. Available in October, it eliminates the need for a computer or a large appliance to offload P2 footage in the field. “Before, there really wasn’t an elegant solution” that handled that task, notes Harris. “You had to connect with your own hard drive or our Rapid Writer which is a bigger box. The AG-MSU10 is designed for the field, has slots for a P2 card and hard drive and operates at four-times realtime. You shoot, stick the P2 card into the slot, lay off the contents onto the hard drive and reuse the P2 card. Then you take the hard drive – which is increasing in capacity and decreasing in cost all the time – and edit from that.” Panasonic’s AJ-PCD2 single-slot P2 card drive will be unveiled at NAB, as well. It provides fast, reliable video offloads to Macintosh and Windows desktop systems and laptops via USB. “We still offer 5-slot drives which are great for people who need them,” says Harris. “But with 64-gigabyte cards available now, some customers were telling us they needed a single-slot drive at a lower price point.” With P2 reaching its seventh anniversary, Panasonic is pleased to report that it has captured “the majority of the broadcast market and a strong share of the production market,” according to Harris. “P2 workflow products are now faster and more affordable than ever.”
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NAB 2010 Equipment Showcase
Autodesk Autodesk Leverages VFX and 3D, Adds Support for Stereo 3D
Autodesk Flame 2011 delivers true stereoscopic 3D finishing.
At NAB, Autodesk (www.autodesk.com) will be introducing new versions of its creative finishing applications featuring tighter integration with its animation products and cross-product support for 3D stereoscopic finishing. “With the success of 3D films and the emergence of 3D in broadcast, most of our clients need to be prepared to deliver 3D stereoscopic content. The 2011 creative finishing releases deliver the tools that our clients depend on today with the stereoscopic capabilities to equip them for the challenges of stereoscopic 3D,” notes Marc Hamaker, product marketing manager for Autodesk Media & Entertainment. Autodesk Flame 2011, the company’s flagship visual effects and finishing product, has always provided 3D design and VFX in an interactive application for creative finishing. “With Flame 2011, Autodesk is extending the 3D compositing toolset of Flame to deliver true stereoscopic 3D finishing in a workflow that compromises neither the artistic nor interactive experience that Flame is known for,” says Hamaker. NAB marks the first major tradeshow since Autodesk launched Smoke for Mac OS X in mid-December. “The availability of Smoke software on the Mac makes the product more accessible to all tiers of postproduction,” he explains. “It has generated a lot of buzz. We’ve had thousands of trial downloads since launch. Smoke on the Mac provides an adjacent finishing workflow to creative cut editorial applications like Final Cut Pro and Avid Media Composer,” Hamaker says. “With Smoke, artists have a single application that can deliver finishing tools ranging from conform to paint to design and even 3D visual effects.” Autodesk Lustre 2011 now offers enhanced stereoscopic color grading capabilities, including exchange of stereoscopic timelines with Flame and Smoke in 3D finishing workflows. “We’ve tried to make sure our tools are on the leading-edge of technology. When you combine the enhanced stereoscopic grading tools in Lustre 2011 with the new stereoscopic VFX and editorial finishing tools in Flame and Smoke, we think you have an unmatched set of tools for delivering outstanding stereo content,” he reports. The company’s 3D software product line will also usher in some innovations at NAB. Autodesk Maya 2011, now available for the Snow Leopard 64-bit release of Mac OS X, features enhanced tools for character animation, a new user interface, high-performance viewport display of large scenes, new 3D editorial capabilities, integrated color management and improved rotoscoping. Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 offers enhancements to its modeling, texturing and animation toolsets that significantly increase productivity. A new node-based material editor, high-quality hardware renderer and full-featured compositor make creating photoreal images easier than ever. Autodesk Softimage 2011 features a host of new rendering and animation tools, including advanced shading architecture, an innovative rigging paradigm and the automated Face Robot facial animation toolset. Autodesk Mudbox 2011, for 3D sculpting and texturing, offers powerful new tools for helping deform and pose mod18
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els plus image adjustment brushes and blend modes for paint layers, vector displacement map extraction, the ability to create higher-quality turntables and enhanced file transfer with leading 2D and 3D applications. Mudbox 2011 is also available for the 64-bit release of Mac OS X. And Autodesk MotionBuilder 2011, a real-time virtual production system, provides improved interoperability with Maya 2011 and 3ds Max 2011, integrating more smoothly into production pipelines. Autodesk will offer a comprehensive set of these tools in its Entertainment Creation Suites 2011. The Suites bundle either Maya or 3ds Max with MotionBuilder and Mudbox at a cost savings that may amount to more than 35 percent compared to purchasing the software individually.
RED RED Showcases Mysterium-X Sensor and RED Rocket Accelerator Card AC Keith Hueffmeier (left) and DP Eric Branco shooting the feature Hypothermia with RED ONE on location at Great Sacandaga Lake, New York. Hypothermia is a Dark Sky Films/Glass Eye Pix production in association with Offhollywood Pictures which also supplied the camera. Copyright Brent Kunkle, Glass Eye Pix
The mantra of RED Digital Cinema (www.red.com) has always been different from that of manufacturers whose “camera products quickly obsolete so you have to buy a new camera to get the latest and greatest stuff,” says Ted Schilowitz, RED’s first employee. “It’s not just a strategic talking point with us. We’re now offering a sensor upgrade program for RED ONE, and customers are reaping the benefit.” RED is upgrading users’ Mysterium sensor to the affordable MysteriumX (MX) that has a greater dynamic range than its predecessor and a lower noise source. “It’s already being used successfully worldwide,” Schilowitz reports. “Steven Soderbergh is shooting with the MX as is David Fincher. The industry at large is adopting the MX quickly.” HMI LIGHTS by In fact, the industry at large is embracing RED ONE in a big way for motion pictures, commercials and television. On the feature side alone, El Secreto de Sus Ojos, the Argentinian picture that just copped an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film was shot with RED as was the Oscar-nominee for Best PicOPEN FACE ture, District 9, and this year’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner, Winter’s Bone. “The amount of work for RED around the world is proving that the camera is exceeding what we dreamed it would be,” says Schilowitz. Used with stereoPAR scopic 3D rigs, RED ONE also has some 40-50 3D features to its credit. Additions to the RED camera lineup are expected to ship soon. The 5K RED Epic will be released this spring with the 3K Scarlet, “Epic’s little brother,” due to bow this summer. Scarlet, with its attractive price point, is PARA 220FB already being hailed as “an independent filmmaker’s dream,” Schilowitz points out. “They say it will change everything for them.” Keeping in mind that RED offers a turnkey production and postproduction solution, the company recently introduced its RED Rocket hardware accelerator card for Macs and PCs. The new card enables rendering and SOFTBOX ADAPTER processing in realtime or faster-than-realtime on a single computer. “All the smart post houses have implemented it as well as on-set guys,” notes Schilowitz. “When RED Rocket is used on a set, you can leave with processed, read-to-edit files at the end of the shoot day.” SOURCE 4 ADAPTER RED’s post workflow, whether for Apple Final Cut Pro, Avid or Adobe EXCEPTIONAL COMPREHENSIVE ALL WEATHER Premiere, is mature and functioning smoothly, he reports. “Any way you UV PROTECTION ACCESSORY SYSTEM RATED want to cut your material, we have the most refined and logical workflow www.bronimaging.com 1-800-456-0203 for postproduction and DI.”
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REFLECTIONS on VFX in Commercials A beautiful star’s angel and demon sides, market-savvy talking toddlers, landscapes that grow from a painter’s brushstrokes and a world of people who come together from many parts:
VFX make everything possible BY CHRISTINE BUNISH
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SEMERAD Johnnie Semerad Casts Uma Thurman in Dual Roles for Givenchy
A
s if it wasn’t enough to work with Uma Thurman on a commercial for
“Ange ou Démon Le Secret,” a new fragrance from Givenchy, Johnnie Semerad had the pleasure of partnering with multiple Umas in the effects-intensive spot that depicts a game of mirrors. Semerad, who heads an eponymous VFX studio in New York City (www.semerad.tv), was tasked with revealing Uma’s angel and demon sides in the commercial from Anton & Partners/NY which airs worldwide, outside the US; a separate version was created for the Middle East market. “Working with an actress of Uma’s caliber was fantastic,” says Semerad. “Someone from our company is almost always on set during the shoot, and this time I was the lucky guy.” The commercial opens when Uma, clad in a white evening gown, her hair loose, approaches her dressing table and lavishly sprays herself with the fragrance. She walks to a large standing mirror where she’s startled to see her reflected image dressed all in black, her hair pinned up. This alter ego puts a finger to her lips in a shushing motion as the music track asks, in French, “Am I angel or demon? No one knows. It’s my secret.” Just like the dual Umas, the new fragrance is white-flower fresh and sensual at the same time. The game of mirrors required Mira Nair, the multiaward winning film director (directing here for Rant Films), to stage a motion-control greenscreen shoot so DP Declan Quinn, who’s also a feature film cinematographer, could capture live-action plates for Semerad. “In visual effects you really want to make the greenscreen shoot conducive to the actor giving a good performance,” Semerad explains. “A lot of VFX people don’t
understand that. So we did Uma’s angel side first, setting up the large mirror with a greenscreen but mounting a small mirror on it to get her correct eyeline as she delivered her performance. “Then, for Uma’s demon side, we took out the mirror frame and provided video playback of her angel performance so she could play off herself. That adds a whole level of complexity for an actress. But Uma was spectacular; she just nailed it.” He’s quick to note that shooting the demon Uma required more than her changing outfits. The furniture was flipped around, a different lighting set up was devised and he deployed practical smoke effects to cloud the devilish world. Later, he combined the real smoke elements with CG smoke to achieve ultimate control over its dispersion. “I like to combine practical and CGI effects to keep viewers guessing about what they’re looking at,” says Semerad. “It’s something of a misdirect.” For the dressing table sequence where angel Uma is reflected in a triple-pane vanity mirror, the mirror was shot greenscreen and Uma repeated her performance numerous times as the camera was moved to capture her at different angles. After the shoot wrapped Semerad got D-5 transfers of Quinn’s 35mm footage for compositing and color correction in HD on his Autodesk Flame and Inferno. He tapped Softimage XSI and Autodesk Maya for the smoke effects. “The big challenge in post was to create the two different angel and demon worlds,” he reports. “There was a lot of fine-tuning, frame by frame; every pixel has to be perfect in a beauty spot. Technically, we had figured everything out beforehand. So what remained was a creative challenge to make two opposite, but attractive worlds. Uma’s demon world had to be as beautiful as her angel world.” Semerad composited close ups of the angel Uma into the triple vanity mirror and the demon Uma into the large mirror frame so the dual sides of her nature seamlessly interact with each other. To further cloak Uma’s dark side in mystery Semerad introduced flicker effects to his color correction pass on Inferno turning the gamma up and down to enhance the smoky, otherworldly atmosphere. “Flame and Inferno were the perfect platforms of this kind of job,” he notes. “It would have been nearly impossible to do without them.” Carey Gattyan was the executive producer for Semerad, and Carmen Maxcy supported Johnnie Semerad on Flame. Yvette Pineyro at wild(child) did the creative cut; Company 3 performed the filmto-tape transfer. At Anton & Partners David Anton was creative director, Marty Friedman producer and John Painter art director. [Left] Uma’s two sides meet in a mirror composite.
[Above] Uma’s angel side shot against the greenscreen mirror.
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VFX in Commercials
CLICK 3X Takes Talkative E*TRADE Babies to New Venues
D
espite W.C. Fields’s warning about never working with children or animals, John J. Budion, a director,
creative director and lead Flame artist with Click 3X in New York City (www.click3x.com) found himself with a boatload of babies for the latest seven-spot E*TRADE package from Grey/NY. The new E*TRADE campaign continues to take the talkative, investment-savvy lead tyke out of the nursery to venues like a convenience store, where he admonishes a lottery player about the extremely low odds of him striking it rich, and the first class section of an airplane, where he touts E*TRADE’s stop-loss ordering facility that saved him money while he was attending a bachelor party. He mixes with girlfriends and buddies in other storylines. When Grey decided to change vendors for the spots last year Budion submitted a proof-of-execution that fine tuned production and post. “The copy changes throughout the process to get the best verbiage for the babies to use, so you need to have a pipeline in place that allows you to maneuver and be flexible,” he points out. A VFX and Flame artist for 11 years, Budion knows “how to shoot things so every detail fits. Any time I can get anything in camera, it helps.” Following four days of casting he and DP Dylan Macleod spent three days on set shooting each baby on greenscreen in their highchairs, recording various performances and emotions. “A lot of writing evolves after that,” he notes. “Copy is further developed from what the baby gives you.” For “First Class,” Budion placed the lead baby in an airplane seat on a set with moody lighting to simulate a red-eye flight. “I wanted to limit his distractions so I didn’t want to place him in the full plane set and introduce all of those extra pieces. We
had his mother or his favorite show projected on the teleprompter so he’d pay attention to the camera, then the AD cued mom and she’d call the baby for different positioning then eventually get him to gravitate back to the
[Below] The “First Class” greenscreen plane set with extras.
[Right Top #1&2] The baby alone on the “First Class” greenscreen plane set.
[Right #3] The baby comped into the convenience store set.
[Bottom Right] An action set up in Autodesk Flame showing mesh warp splines used to manipulate the baby’s expressions to reflect the motion of his new composited mouth.
[Opposite Page] Director John J. Budion (center) on an E*TRADE set.
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monitor again. I wanted it to look like it was all one take with jump cuts for other people’s performances.” Budion shot separate plates of an eight to ten-seat plane set peopled with extras and a flight attendant who offers the now-invisible baby a bag of pretzels and a tray of hot towels (in the finished spot he accepts a glass of milk-on-the-rocks). While editor Alex Cohan cut together “First Class” at Vision Post, Budion cast five- and six-year olds for the lips shoot. Adults held the kids’ heads steady during the shoot; the children wore facial tracking markers to aid Budion in compositing. “I have to stabilize one variable so I can map and track the lips to a baby who’s moving all over the place,” he explains. “The markers also help show how the cheeks move, so once I have the new lips in place I can warp and distort the cheeks and move the mouth and the rest of the baby’s face in harmony with the lips.” The process is “very demanding” on the children, he admits. He locked off the camera and placed himself at the various camera angles required to capture profile or fullface lips so the kids would focus on him. “I delivered their lines in the same cadence as (deadpan voiceover artist) Pete Holmes, and they recited them back to me. We played copy cat, do what I do.” When lips were required to sing or howl like a wolf Budion led the kids in the game. DP Macleod used a Sony F23 CineAlta HD camera throughout for its high-speed, variable frame rate capabilities. “Since you never know what you’re going to get from kids, we shot them at 59.94 and the adults at 23.98,” Budion says. “If I can get three or four seconds of the kids at high speed, I can turn it into six or seven seconds in post and not get a lot of motion blur. Slowed down, it becomes a really nice performance.” The F23 offers 4:4:4 imaging giving Budion “a more dynamic color range” to work with in post; this raw format enabled him to manipulate the black and white levels for a more seamlessly-integrated composition. Casting was shot with a Panasonic P2-format camcorder. “I knew we would degrade the F23 footage a bit so if there was a performance we loved in casting we could marry the two formats and find a middle ground,” Budion reveals. For “First Class,” the Click 3X CG team, led by Anthony Filipakis, used Autodesk Maya to craft a baby-size neck pillow for the talking tyke because kids of that age tend to throw real props. “They tracked and match-moved a take of the baby in the seat and created a 3D baby head in Maya to match his movements. This 3D head was used to mimic photo-real pillow compressions, as well as facilitate the creation of layers representing real shadow and light play,” www.markeemag.com
Budion explains. “Those elements came back to me on Flame for finishing and compositing. “The foundation of any compositing is tracking,” he emphasizes. “You get the performance tracked in there then you fine tune. So I first comped the lips into the baby greenscreens for a new source clip as if we had filmed them talking. Then we tweaked that, interacting with the client. Once that was finalized we had a talking greenscreen sequence to plug into a live-action scene where we added all of the aesthetic details to really sell the shot.” Details matter when you’re selling the E*TRADE babies in their various venues. “To drive home the idea that the baby was in the convenience store for the lottery spot, I reflected the backs of the baby and the customer in the security mirror at the top right corner,” notes Budion. “It’s subtle; I’m probably the only one who notices it.” Budion, along with Flame artist Sophia Avgousti, used frame-blending techniques to finesse the lips, removing any teeth showing in the kids’ delivery and reworking the articulation to better match the babies’ motor skills. He gives kudos to the collaboration between Click 3X and Grey and between Grey and E*TRADE. “It’s all wildly creative minds going crazy with what we want to do,” he reports. “Producer Kim Kietz at Grey and our head of production Jared Yeater managed to stay on top of everything; without them the wheels would have fallen off!” To see what those wildly-creative minds have put together beyond the commercial campaign, check out the E*TRADE babies’ outtakes on YouTube where they’ve attracted about two million hits or see the 45-second outtakes reel at a cinema near you.
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VFX in Commercials
DIGITAL DOMAIN Has Strokes of Genius for Infiniti
L
uxury vehicles seeking an elegant commercial presence couldn’t do better than a pair of Infiniti spots with effects
created by Digital Domain of Venice, California (www.digitaldomain.com). Both “G Line” and “Master Driver” open with an artist’s skilful hand painting the car’s profile in broad brushstrokes and continue with innovative ink effects that bleed into the paper and transform into live-action landscapes. Digital Domain’s involvement began when TBWA\Chiat\Day, Los Angeles was bidding directors and the company teamed with RSA director Carl Erik Rinsch to discuss what the effects would be and test how they’d work. When Rinsch was awarded the job more tests were done to refine the transformative ink effects. “We did an extensive element shoot on our stage dropping ink into water and onto paper, shooting ink from underneath incline tables and dropping wet paper over ink on glass,” recalls VFX supervisor Jay Barton. “The main idea was to let the principal photography speak to you: What naturally occurred on film was the direction we wanted to go.” A shodo master Japanese brush painter came in to paint the car’s profile and the curving brushstrokes that became black-topped roads. Once this was captured on film Digital Domain could enhance his artwork with 2D and 3D ink effects. In the Zen-like “G Line” the ink bleeds into the paper to create a landscape where an Infiniti G sedan drives across a picturesque bridge. Quick cuts track the car to a two-lane road where a wide shot shows the shodo master’s brush tip inking a black line that continues the road as it snakes ahead. The landscape resolves along its sides. Another cut reveals a vertical black ink stroke and a splash of red that bloom into a poppy. More scarlet splashes resolve into a live-action field of poppies; the car races past as poppy petals fly off and scatter over the vehicle. Seen from behind the car disappears into a landscape that dissolves in a fog as only red petals remain.
“Master Driver” opens with the brushstroke forming a track in a test course where an Infiniti G coupe is being put through its paces. Although this spot begins with fast cuts of the professional driver at work, the shodo master’s hand is reprised to paint another sweep of ink that forms an open road flanked by a leafy landscape. The driver’s POV shows feathery ink effects creating a tree canopy overhead; when the car emerges from the canopy the landscape starts to blur at the edges and drops away as the road disappears. “We often found ourselves taking the natural things that happened with the ink and building on that,” says Barton of the ink effects. “In some cases we were able to bring in pure 2D techniques in a very graphic way.” For the poppy, for example, Barton used a brush dipped in water to paint the shape of the flower upside down on paper, then dripped ink from an eyedropper that flowed out and over the shape. “Different passes created different parts of the flower,” he notes. “Color was added in post. We tried shooting the ink in color, but we didn’t have nearly as much control over it as we did when we rendered pieces as mattes and colored them later.” [Top] The actual race track during the Infiniti G coupe shoot.
[Bottom] The race track’s location was made more remote in post.
[Left Top] The shodo master paints Infiniti’s silhouette.
[Left Bottom] The shodo master’s brush paints on the road for the Infiniti G sedan to follow.
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The real landscape was dressed with hundreds of fake poppies which Digital Domain extended into hillsides and the distant background. A particle simulation in Houdini scattered CG flower petals over the car and road. Barton worked closely with the spots’ editor, Dayn Williams of Cut + Run, to find the right cuts that would work with the effects to tell the story. “Sometimes we tried things based on a cut then asked the editor if he could cut a different piece in,” he says. The tree canopy sequence “probably required the largest number of iterations,” he reports. The shot where the car races down a road lined with a half-formed landscape as the tip of the shodo master’s brush inks the road ahead was “our most involved shot,” says Barton. “We used a 3D fluid simulation to do some of the effect, then projected that onto 3D geometry that matched the real landscape in Houdini. We also used our 3D capabilities and what started as our inhouse compositing tool Nuke, which is now developed by The Foundry.” The 3D package was tapped to generate mattes and elements as well as project real ink onto the 3D ground.
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The landscapes’ feathery, blurry edges were almost exclusively achieved in Autodesk Flame. “It was a new take on a traditional style of Flame compositing,” he says, “using beziers and warps with live-action elements of ink effects on real paper.” Digital Domain is accustomed to pushing its hardware and software but nevertheless Barton believes the Infiniti spots marked “one of the largest numbers of individual elements used in Flame compositing compared to our usual work. We also took advantage of 3D tracking in Flame to make everything fit in 3D space.” Lisa Tomei, Jeff Heusser and Matthew James Bramante comprised the talented trio of Flame artists with Tomei responsible for the main bleeding effects. An accomplished watercolorist, she gave an important perspective to Barton before the main element shoot. “We set up paper, ink and a camera in her Flame suite for arts and crafts day,” he laughs. “We played with different colors and types of ink, how they blended, whether to use the paper and brush wet or dry.” Digital Domain also performed more conventional effects work on “Master Driver” which was shot at an actual race track whose perimeter was lined with billboards. “The course was supposed to be in the middle of nowhere, so we did extensive matte painting and clean up adding a garage building and a flag blowing where a giant grandstand had been,” says Barton. In addition, the company created the elegant all-CG end sequence where three silver Infinitis, modeled and animated in Autodesk Maya, spin and drive off in tandem.
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VFX in Commercials
UNION EDITORIAL AND RESOLUTION LA Prepro Planning and Clever Cutting Help Union Editorial and resolution LA Create Pepsi’s “One People”
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aunching The Pepsi Refresh Project, a philanthropic initiative that finds the soft drink maker “giving mil-
lions for ideas that move the world forward,” the 60-second “One People” spot from TBWA\Chiat\Day, Los Angeles presents a playful mosaic of individuals linked by a common desire to make the world a better place. Its complex visuals were created by editor Einar of Union Editorial (www.unioneditorial.com) and senior VFX supervisor Todd Iorio of finishing boutique resolution LA (www.resolutionla.com). “What was a lot of fun for me was that this wasn’t a big ‘hey, let’s push the toolset,’ commercial,” says Iorio. “It was working cleverly with existing tools and director Francois Vogel’s palette of work to build something cool.” Many individuals metaphorically make “One People” in the spot which populates the screen with more than 80 tiles, each a discrete moving image of a person, or as few as four large tiles. The commercial opens with 35 tiles in different shades of blue that move to reveal people holding blue paper cards as will.i.am and the Black Eyed Peas croon the lyrics from their upbeat “One Tribe” track. The tiles reduce and increase in number dynamically altering the scale of the images in the shots that follow. People in four tiles appear to pass cards to each other bearing the separate words “I Care About People,” “I Care About Trees,” “I Care About The Planet” and “I Care About The Community.” A screenful of individuals displays various examples of foliage then their tiles spin and tilt to form a planet against a blue sky, two tall palm trees protruding from the earth’s contours. A woman pours a Pepsi through three tiles from can to glass, and four people high five each other across their tiles. Close up shots show individuals emerging from windows and doors with fun shapes as the camera pulls back to reveal 13 tiles forming a colorful collage of a house. People in eight tiles toss their Pepsi cans to a ninth center tile where a young man holds a recycling tub. “What do you care about?” asks the voiceover who introduces The Pepsi Refresh Project. Einar and Iorio were involved early in prepro to help craft the shoot that provided the spot’s editorial puzzle pieces. “The shooting boards were gridded out, numbered and lettered so we could cross off the individual elements we needed,” Iorio explains. “Francois was shooting some 50 shots a day for about a week so it [Top] A screenful of tiles opens "One People.
[Middle] Caption: A woman pours a Pepsi through three tiles as onlookers observe.
[Bottom] Tiles featuring quirky windows and doors form a one-of-akind house.
[Bottom Left] Tiles spin and tilt to form a whimsical planet.
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was pretty intense. We all had to keep track of our progress.” Vogel, who directs through Paranoid US/Los Angeles, shot the commercial in Cape Town, South Africa where DP Michael Cleary manned a Canon EOS 7D DSLR camera that Einar, Iorio and Vogel selected based on the unique aspects of the shoot and workflow. “The footage is compressed in camera, and we never see it full resolution,” Iorio points out. “We could take the files directly from the camera into After Effects so we could do quick comps and make sure everything was lining up.” Einar had two portable Avid Media Composers and three Adobe After Effects laptop workstations in his hotel suite while Iorio worked with Vogel on location. Once the editor received the camera files he began cutting and “getting the timing down to see if the story was playing out accurately,” Iorio says. All of the action, from the blue cards and beverage pours to the puzzle-piece house and foliage that seems to grow out of the tiles, was shot practically. “Everything was shot with a pretty wide lens, but we tried to keep warping, stretching and modifying in post to a minimum,” he notes. “Everyone involved wanted to maintain a grass-roots feel.” Even the tiles that spin and tilt to form the planet were “90 percent practical camera moves,” he reports. “Francois knew what we had to do with the horizon at the end of the shot, so we used the camera handheld or on a dolly to capture the horizon we were looking for.” Careful planning and “very dynamic interaction between the producer, director, editor and VFX supervisor all the way through” eased the complex process and still left room for improvisation. “The way the house was boarded and shot was different from the house you see in the commercial,” Iorio reveals. “In the beginning it called for a lot of windows, and you didn’t get a real sense of the people, so I worked with the creatives to design larger tiles with more connections to the people. The boards were necessary to make sure we captured the pieces, but the puzzle ended up being very dynamic.” Einar continued to cut in Cape Town for a week after principal photography wrapped. “We started doing compositing in After Effects on the laptops and had the planet shot almost completed and approved before we left,” says Iorio. He established a pipeline from South Africa to LA, so editors and VFX artists back home could take the work into After Effects or Autodesk Flame without rebuilding everything. Additional spots were cut simultaneously from www.markeemag.com
the footage in Union’s LA and NY offices by Jay Friedkin, Nicholas Wayman Harris, Marco Perez and Pablo Piriz. Post effects tended to be limited to repositioning, retiming and color timing in Flame, a platform that afforded more interaction with the client. There was “no CG, no 3D, no shots where we wondered, ‘how are we going to work this?’” notes Iorio. But keeping all the pieces “together and moving” was no mean feat, especially when “every time you adjusted the timing of one single tile, it affected all the others.” At resolution LA Seth Silberfein and Amir Qureshi were VFX artists and Evan Guidera, Jason Jensen, John Nierras and Mannix Richenbacher compositors. Brand New School crafted the CG Pepsi cans end tag.
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Mobile Production’s Olympian Achievement Vendors Meet Vancouver’s Technical and Logistical Challenges
It was big, international and, stretched over multiple venues – most of them outdoors – it was tough to cover. Vendors supplying production and satellite transmission trucks to the XXI Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver met myriad challenges to bring the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and all the sporting competitions to fans comfortably ensconced at home.
BY MARK R. SMITH AND CHRISTINE BUNISH
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CANON HDTV LENSES AND REMOTE-C ONTROL ROBOTIC HD CAMERAS FEATURE IN NBC’S OLYMPIC C OVERAGE Games Mark Pinnacle for NEP The crew at Pittsburgh-based NEP Supershooters (www.nepinc.com) can revel in having had a wellrounded Olympic experience, with eight HD expandos on site at various locales. Two trucks were at the Pacific Coliseum for figure skating and two at B.C. Place for the Opening and Closing ceremonies and ice hockey. Four were in Whistler, creek-side for Alpine skiing, on the Nordic combined run, at the Richmond Oval for speedskating and at the Whistler Olympic Center for cross-country skiing. NEP covered the events for a pair of unnamed American and European networks. Canon’s XJ86x9.3B covering figure skating in the Pacific Coliseum.
[Above] Metrovision’s HD-3 alongside NEP’s SS14 at the Richmond Oval.
While reporting that most systems ran smoothly, George Photo Courtesy of Steve Bikofsky, Hoover, Chief Technical Officer Metrovision for NEP, did have one wish that was not fulfilled – initially, anyway: “It would have been nice to have snow,” he quips. Working the Olympics is like no other job, he emphasizes. “It’s 37 times harder to broadcast the Olympics than a regular sporting event in the U.S.,” Hoover notes. “You have to consider that the games last two weeks; then there are the security concerns, and dealing with the sheer number of broadcasters who are trying to share camera positions without tripping over each other and basically just trying to get along.” There are more TV and media personnel on hand for the Olympics than athletes, he points out. At the games, host Olympic Broadcast Services (OBS) made all of the arrangements. “It’s all very well planned, but every country approaches their broadcast in their own fashion,” Hoover observes. “If that wasn’t the case, one camera from one truck would work.” NEP provided Ikegami HDK-79EC cameras, Thomson LDK-8000 and LDK 6000s, and Sony HDC-900 and HDC-1500 cameras to its Olympic clients. All countries have their favorite sports – and sports where their athletes are favorites. Take figure skating, for instance. “Broadcasters want to use more cameras (there) because that’s a very popular event; so maybe www.markeemag.com
Canon U.S.A. Inc. had a significant presence in Vancouver providing advanced HDTV lenses, remotecontrol robotic HD cameras and a Canobeam Free Space Optics HD video transceiver system for NBC’s coverage of the games. Canon has supplied NBC with lenses for its Olympic coverage since 1992. An extensive array of Canon HDTV lenses were used at the Olympics, including HJ14ex4.3B wide-angle portable HDTV lenses, presently the widest-angle portable HD zoom lenses in the professional arena of 2/3-inch lenses. The result of newly-developed glass elements and highly-advanced optical coatings, they combine an extended 14 times zoom range and unprecedented 4.3mm wide angle with exceptional optical performance. A new Digital Drive unit provides improved operability and ergonomics. NBC also used Canon’s XJ27x6.5B HDTV studio lenses that feature impressive wide-angle performance and deliver a focal length of 6.5mm to 180mm, as well as XJ1000x9.3B and XJ86x9.3B long-zoom HD field lenses with Canon’s Optical Shift-IS image-stabilizer technology. In addition to lenses, Canon also furnished NBC with its BU-45H remote-control robotic pan-tilt 16:9 HD camera system that was used for beauty shots of Vancouver. Designed for HD POV sports shots and other camera positions where an operator cannot be present, the BU-45H features a Canon HD camera equipped with three 1/3-inch CCD sensors, a Canon HD zoom lens with 20X optical zoom ratio, a remotecontrol ND filter, genlock input and HD-SDI output with embedded audio as the primary video. NBC also tapped the Canobeam DT-150 HD wireless video transceiver system that employs point-topoint Free Space Optical light beams to provide reliable bi-directional, uncompressed 1.5Gbps transmission of embedded digital HD video, audio and camera-control signals on a single HD-SDI stream with no delay. A particularly good choice for RF-heavy environments, the Canobeam DT-150 requires no frequency licensing or coordination and sets up quickly. It has a range of up to one kilometer and an exclusive Auto Tracking feature to maintain beam alignment despite vibration due to wind, rain or unsteady platforms which surely came in handy at the games. [Opposite Page, Top to Bottom] The outdoor Olympic cauldron at the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Center. Photo Courtesy of Jason Johnson, Metrovision
Representatives from Canada’s First Nations gather during the Opening Ceremonies at B.C. Place. Photo Courtesy of Jake Dodson, Clear-Com
Metrovision’s HD-3 control room with the technical director (left) and director from Dutch broadcaster NOS at work. Photo Courtesy of Steve Bikofsky, Metrovision
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Mobile Production were there,” Hoover says. “The days can be long, the food Spartan and the accommodations not so great. But it’s the pinnacle of your career.”
Sure Shot Taps Olympic Experience
[Above] The Richmond Oval, the Olympic long-track speedskating venue. Photo Courtesy of Jason Johnson, Metrovision
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they have an extra camera or two on the judges’ table, in the warm-up areas in the hallways, or at the kiss-andcry spot where they find out their scores,” Hoover says. “But remember, OBS wants to put on a generic broadcast for the feed of record that provides the foundation of the broadcast. It doesn’t favor any one country.” Also consider the downhill events where it would have been impossible for broadcasters from many nations to have cameras set up in the middle of the course. “But what they could do,” says Hoover, “is set up their cameras at the top and bottom of the (run) for reaction shots, then take that generic mid-course feed from OBS.” OBS ran triax, SMPTE and fiber for the alpine events depending on whatever broadcasters ordered for their camera positions, he notes. The same applied to crosscountry skiing. As diverse as were countries’ individual needs, everyone had the same goal of delivering a once-in-alifetime Olympic experience to those watching at home. “Anyone who worked the Olympics is glad that they
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One might surmise that Sure Shot Transmissions (www.sureshotsat.com) of Middletown, Ohio, rates among the companies that made the wisest use of its time and gas money at the games. The company arrived in Vancouver in early February and didn’t depart until late March at the close of the Paralympics. Sure Shot had two contracts for the Olympics – one with German network ARD, the other with OBS. ARD had the company provide them with a combo truck, called Natalie Michele, that provided the transmission for its six-HD camera production of a studio show at the Jack Nicklaus North Country Club in Whistler.
[Above] Sure Shot’s HD truck Natalie Michele traveled to Vancouver to cover the games for German network ARD.
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Natalie Michele is a 40-foot truck that combines a mid-size production truck with Ku-band satellite transmission capabilities. “We aimed to put the same level of production on (the truck) that you would find in a 53foot mobile truck with no drop-off in quality,” says Dennis Kunce, president of Sure Shot. Its equipment complement included six Thomson LDK-8000 cameras, a GVG Kalypso switcher with a 3ME bank, up to two 6channel EVS systems, two Sony HDCAM and two Panasonic DVCPRO decks, a Chyron HyperX, plus a fully-digital Yamaha audio board. But it’s the additional satellite capability that sets this truck apart, Kunce reports. ARD’s studio at the Jack Nicklaus North Country Club was “a scaled-down version of the studios you would have found in Vancouver,” he notes. Sure Shot used an MPEG IV for a double-hop from Vancouver to an East Coast teleport; from there the show was retransmitted to Germany. Sure Shot also had a pair of satellite trucks on hand for OBS: one in Vancouver, the other in Whistler. It was the possible perils of heading up and down a mountain that led OBS to go for two. “But the weather cooperated to a large degree,” Kunce says. ”Not only were there were no major snowstorms during the games, we didn’t even have to get the chains out for the tires.” The satellite trucks were used to deliver the world feed from selected venues. “For instance, the first Vancouver truck was at GM Place for the Opening Ceremony, supplying the world feed for an audience that OBS estimated at 4.5 billion,” he reports. From there, Sure Shot went to set up the primary events of any given day in Vancouver, as well as Whistler. As is often the case at events as huge as the Olympic games, Sure Shot’s deal with OBS called for an additional engineer to be on site for emergency purposes, with back-ups amplifiers and encoders in tow. The company’s prior Olympic experience in Salt Lake City provided the “in” to work in Vancouver this go ’round. Overall, Kunce was impressed by OBS’s preparations for the games. “They did a great job setting everything up,” he says. “They were much more organized than Salt Lake. The security was extremely tight, and the logistics handled well, considering not only the road traffic, but the general congestion in Vancouver and Whistler.”
[Above] Mobile brought a comNevertheless, MIRA, which MIRA plement of Fujinon lenses to maintains an office but no vehi- the Olympics. cles in Vancouver, took the Photo Courtesy of Fujinon opportunity to show off its latest addition: the 53-foot expando M9, which rolled up to Whistler Creek for OBS. Director of sales Steve Meyer says the truck focused on Alpine skiing events like the downhill, slalom and combined events such as the Super G. “Worldwide, downhill skiing is thought to be the most popular event” at the games “except for perhaps the Opening Cere-
MIRA Mobile is King of the Hill Having a fleet of five HD trucks and being based in one of the metropolitan areas closest to Vancouver might sound like an obvious revenue generator. But, given contractual arrangements with its regular clients, Portland-Oregon-based MIRA Mobile Television (www.miramobile.com) was able to furnish only one of its trucks to the Olympics. www.markeemag.com
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Mobile Production The production crew on the Alpine slope was primarily Swiss, and they employed a helicopter to move some equipment “from one run to another for logistical reasons,” he reports.
Metrovision Hits The Ice
[Above] The Inukshuk at the top of Whistler. Steve Bikofsky, Metrovision
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mony,” he notes. “It was nice to be at a premiere venue” with the M9, which was outfitted with 10 Sony HDC-1550 portable HD cameras, various Fujinon lenses and eight EVS systems. “We caught the skiers coming out of the gate as they flew down the hill, at which point the Cor-Plex trucks picked them up,” Meyer explains. Lake Bluff, Illinois-based Cor-Plex (www.corplex.tv) had two trucks at the mid-point of the ski runs where the OBS truck’s feed originated. OBS had 57 cameras at the venue, all told, “with about 40 set up at any one time for the various runs,” according to Meyer. That total included MIRA’s 10 Sony 1550s plus some specialty cameras from other vendors. “A good portion of what the viewers saw on NBC came from the world feed via our truck,” says Meyer.
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New York City’s Metrovision Production Group (www.metrovision.tv) sent two trucks to Vancouver: its HD-1 40foot expando was at the Pacific Coliseum to cover figure skating and short-track speedskating for Korea’s Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) and its HD-3 40foot straight truck was at the Richmond Oval to cover long-track speedskating for Netherlands broadcaster NOS. Metrovision EIC Jason Johnson reconfigured HD-3 to accommodate the needs of the Dutch using extensive audio and video patching, installing an RTS Cronus intercom set up they were familiar with and adding a second 6-channel EVS for playback; both EVS systems ran with remote controls. HD-3 received seven clean SD feeds from the venue’s host truck, an Italian mobile unit with a Dutch crew, plus four HD graphic feeds. “The feeds from the host truck came via the TOC trailer which was the distribution center for the Oval,” says Johnson. “We had several feeds from the TOC that had embedded audio and had to de-embed them with X-75 frame syncs.” Since the TOC was over 300 feet away, the cable run was too long to use traditional copper cabling for the HD signals, he points out, so HD-3 had to take the HD feeds via its TAC 6 fiber and Telecast rattler system. “It worked like a charm,” he says. Four of the HD feeds were official Olympic graphics (two key signals, two fills) that had to be downconverted with the correct aspect and referenced for use in the production switcher. “Nearly every input and output on the curb panel was used,” Johnson reports. HD-3 was equipped with seven Sony HDC1500 cameras whose HD signals were downconverted for transmission on SD fiber. NOS deployed four cameras, outfitted with long lenses, around the track. Two cameras, with a mini jib on a platform, covered announce positions located “nice and high” in the Oval. And one camera was stationed in The Mix Zone in the center of the ice where skaters were buttonholed for short interviews. HD-3 also interfaced with an Avid edit suite in an adjacent trailer. “The Avid editor had a truck router head in the trailer so she could Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
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GERLING-BUILT TRUCKS TURN IN WINNING PERFORMANCES choose any video/audio source coming into the truck,” Johnson explains. “We then took the Avid output as one of our sources for our transmission.” Coverage went smoothly as might be expected from a world speedskating powerhouse like the Dutch. “The camera and audio crew from the Netherlands had it down pat,” says Johnson. At the Pacific Coliseum Metrovision EIC Paul Wolf’s first task was getting HD-1 into a level position in a parking lot that was anything but even. “We had to raise the front of the truck approximately one foot,” he explains. “If you’re not level you can’t open the expando.” He also had to consider positioning HD-1 for a quick getaway once the last medals’ ceremony was over. “We were due to be in Florida for YESNetwork’s (Major League Baseball) spring training three days later. From our parking position we struck and were out of the lot in 45 minutes.” To meet the needs of client SBS, HD-1 was outfitted with six Sony HDC-1500 HD cameras, two 6-channel EVS systems with Spot Boxes for replay moves and four Sony M2000 HDCAM decks. Audio was 5.1 nonembedded; most audio was delivered on twisted pair connectors that required extra time to get into XLR. Metrovision brought along audio AIC Bob Aldridge to assist the A1 from SBS who lacked experience on the Studer Vista 5 audio console and spoke no English. Since Metrovision was covering both short-track speedskating and figure skating from the same venue for the Korean broadcaster, cameras had to be repositioned for each event. The camera shooting the announce table, for instance, was also shooting the track and had to be positioned to capture the anchors on air. A camera was also located at the kiss-and-cry area during figure skating coverage. “SBS added mics at each camera position for effects,” notes Wolf, “and audio was sent back embedded on the cameras.”
[Above] The track in the Richmond Oval, the Olympic long-track speedskating venue. Photo Courtesy of Steve Bikofsky, Metrovision
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Game Creek Video was among the Gerling clients that traveled to Vancouver.
Fred Gerling has an interesting perspective on the vast number of trucks that queued for the XXI Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver: That’s because his company built about a third of the 100 (or so) support and uplink units on hand. As the games got underway Gerling, president of Gerling & Associates in Sunbury, Ohio (www.gerlinggroup.com), had a bit of déjà vu leftover from the recent Super Bowl XXIV where, again, one-third of the units were the result of his insight, influence and handiwork. At the Super Bowl and especially at the Olympics, the units were used for split feeds by different nations that speak different languages. While that sounds impressive, no special customization was involved in the preparation for either event, he says. “Our clients today are asking for trucks that can be used in any environment,” Gerling reports. Trucks are typically outfitted with 24 to 30 cameras “and have a considerable patching capability, which makes them versatile. It’s not uncommon to find more than 30 patch bays in trucks of this caliber.” Master production for these events was handled by Gerling’s 53-foot expandos that widen by 60 inches. “That,” he says, “is what networks need today for major productions like the Olympics.” Gerling notes that his company sticks to manufacturing trailers and his customers – in the case of the Olympics, Dome Productions, MIRA Mobile, Game Creek Video and Cor-Plex – are interested in reliability and quick maintenance. “Production on any sports event runs long hours before the actual event,” he reminds us. His clients tend to record all the practice runs for a competition “in case there’s something to show the audience, like an extraordinarily fast time or a major injury,” in addition to the actual events themselves. He understands that these sessions often go well beyond 12 hours in duration. “This isn't like covering a football game,” he emphasizes. “What they do at the Olympics takes several more days to cover than the actual events.” While Gerling was only on site for two days to ensure the contentment of his clients, two of his lieutenants were at hand for the games’ two-week duration: an air-conditioning technician and a maintenance worker. “Happily, neither was called much” by Gerling’s four clients who owned the 30-plus trucks that his company built, he says. Gerling’s trucks were designed “for major league sports coverage and everything that helps our customers bring those events to the broadcasters – and the viewers,” he notes. “We were very fortunate that everything we had onsite was extremely reliable and worked very well. “Where the work really was at the Olympics was with Olympic Broadcast Services (which had to) figure out how to configure the units onsite for the networks at the various venues,” he points out. “You have to understand that NBC, for instance, had the biggest investment in the games. They had a fixed compound and all of the feeds had to find correct destinations. And that can be an overwhelming task.” March/April 2010
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CLEAR-C OM’S HYBRID NETWORK WORKS OPENING AND CLOSING CEREMONIES
Mobile Production
[Above]
Clear-Com’s V-Series matrix intercom panels at the Opening Ceremonies in B.C. Place.
Photo Courtesy of Jake Dodson, Clear-Com
Clear-Com Communication Systems’ (www.clearcom.com) Hybrid Network was the intercom solution of choice for the Olympics’ Opening and Closing Ceremonies and other events. It was deployed at B.C. Place, the primary venue for the ceremonies, and at the arena next to B.C. Place that served as the athletes’ staging area, the International Broadcast Center a few miles away and the Whistler Celebration Plaza venue. Powering the solution was the Eclipse Omega digital matrix intercom system with 192 panels and 4-wire ports, and two IVC-32 high-density IP connection cards providing an additional 64 channels of high-quality IP connections. A total of 80 V-Series matrix intercom panels, both standard and IP-enabled in both 12- and 24-lever varieties, were deployed for directors, producers, show callers, stage managers and other key users. Eighty party-line beltpacks were connected to the Hybrid Network for use at key positions at the venue. In addition, Clear-Com’s Concert intercom software system, accessible on a PC with Internet connection, was deployed at remote locations to provide intercom access points and communication backup. The Hybrid Network brought convenience, flexibility and ease of use to the production crew working these events. Because the IP intercom panels were connected over the same Ethernet/IP backbone as the other communications systems, relocating panels on the same port to different parts of the venue or to another venue entirely was effortless over an IP network. Adding a new panel at a moment’s notice was also easily achieved. The selection of the Hybrid Network by The P.A. People, a premier AV supplier and integrator managing the Opening and Closing Ceremonies’ entire communications setup, was “a testament not only to the confidence it (placed) in Clear-Com systems to support the communication demands of large size, live events, but also a visible demonstration of the necessity for a forward-thinking, highly-flexible intercom product such as the Hybrid Network in the marketplace,” says Matt Danilowicz, managing director of Clear-Com Communications Systems. HD-1 also received six feeds from OBS consisting of the OBS and NBC programs plus four additional cameras. The SBS signal was routed to the International Broadcasting Center for transmission to Korea.
Game Creek Juggles Ceremonies and Slopes Hudson, New Hampshire-based Game Creek Video (www.gamecreekvideo.com) rolled into Vancouver with three trucks in tow, which were used by three entities: NBC, Canada’s CTV and OBS. Game Creek’s Patriot covered the Opening and Closing ceremonies for CTV; Freedom worked for NBC at Cypress Mountain in Whistler for the alpine skiing events; and Northstar was on hand for perhaps the 34
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room in Game Creek most important purpose — Audio Video’s “Patriot” where CTV as a “hot standby disaster staff engineers worked on the and Closing truck in case something hap- Opening Ceremonies. pened,” says Jason Taubman, Photo Courtesy of Jason Taubman vice president of design and new technology. “Fortunately, it was not used.” Taubman worked at the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and, by the time they aired, knew the drill well. “We were involved in four dress rehearsals for the Opening Ceremony,” he says. “We were set up in the TV compound for CTV” where eight other trucks were also stationed for the opening. “We were taking feeds from OBS and NBC; NBC was taking feeds from us, and we employed 22 of our unilateral Sony 1500 HD cameras,” Taubman recalls. Fourteen of them were handheld, the rest used in Steadicam or other specialty rigs. Game Creek reprised its complement of 22 cameras for the Closing Ceremony where they “were interspersed throughout the stadium – from every angle – based on production needs.” The skiing events did not require such large camera counts. “NBC would set cameras at the top and bottom of the hill, for instance, with OBS supplying the feed for the middle of the course,” Taubman says. “Several of our Sony 1500 HD cameras were in the start house, and several others were at the bottom of the hill in ‘The Mix Zone’ to accommodate athlete interviews.” When asked what stood out about the overall broadcast effort during the games, he cites “the sheer quantity of cameras and feeds in use during the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. That made it a challenge, because there were so many broadcasters there that were not used to working together, let alone at an event of that magnitude.” However, Taubman reports that everyone rose to the challenge. “We were all on the same team, and we worked together to get the job done. The broadcasters’ technical managers did a good job of managing the high volume of signals and keeping the crews on the same page.”
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Spotlight
Texas/Southwest
Texas/Southwest
Vast Landscapes, Big Prospects BY MARK R. SMITH [Clockwise from Above] Plaza Blanca landscape in Abiquiu, New Mexico. Photo courtesy of New Mexico Film Office
Picturesque Bastrop State Park in Texas. Photo courtesy of Texas Film Commission
Arizona’s Monument Valley. The UK documentary Civilizations setting up a shot in Nevada’s Valley of Fire. Photo courtesy of Brian O’Hare
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The Southwest is an interesting case study of how production incentive packages are viewed by film offices, as well as by their state legislatures. New Mexico pioneered generous incentives inspiring other states to match its success. Texas boosted incentives last year and is reaping the rewards, and Arizona is hopeful about sweetening its attractive incentive package. Nevada doesn’t offer incentives but as home to the inimitable Las Vegas many state politicos obviously figure that’s enough of a draw for the film industry. Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
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Locke Bryan Keeps Limber with ATO While all four states report significant economic impact from film and video production, the importance of incentives in today’s market is amply noted in their bottom lines.
Keeping It Inhouse in Texas
A two-spot campaign for American Total Orthopedics (ATO), a regional surgery and rehab group, is a recent highlight at Houston’s Locke Bryan Productions (www.lockebryan.com). The campaign focused on “the art of the body on display,” says Kenny Benitez, director and lead visual effects designer. Spots feature a gymnast, ballerina and martial artist, all lensed in the midst of various acrobatic movements as the on-camera spokesman promotes ATO’s services. The campaign was shot with the Vision Research Phantom HD camera recording
Since its legislature signed Texas’s new incentive deal into law in April 2009, “We’ve seen a real uptick in film production and TV production as well,” says Bob Hudgins, director of the Texas Film Commission. The number for Texas spending in fiscal 2009 was greenscreen sequences at 1,500 fps; then footage of the spokesman was impressive: $425 million. “Production companies are blended with the slow-motion takes. Anihappy with our financial incentives,” Hudgins says of the mation was crafted with Autodesk’s 3ds state’s financial ascent. While “our package is not the most Max. Music for the spots was written by Stephen Benitez, Kenny’s brother. generous,” he admits, he’s “finding that the crew capacity is really what sells us — without our having to give away the farm.” So, perhaps some states go overboard in playing the incentive game? “I think some states have to,” he says. “Louisiana and New Mexico, for instance, didn’t have much of a program at first. So they had to make great offers to attract films to make up for their lack of experienced crew.” Texas, he says, is “the opposite. We had primarily lost 30 percent of our work force (an IATSE Local 484 estimate) to both of those states; but when we passed our incentive package last April, they began coming back.” He thinks the new package is fair. “We now offer a cash rebate on 15 percent of the production company’s Texas spend. A lot of states also include actors’ salaries, like Louisiana and Georgia; but in doing so, they return value to people who are not from their state. We keep the incentive money in our economy.” The current fund is capped at $30 million per fiscal year, which will end Sept. 1, 2011 (it was funded for two years). Hudgins says the state still has $9 million left in the till, as of mid-March. As for TV credits, NBC’s Friday Night Lights will begin shooting its fifth year in late spring, and ABC’s new Gen Y series will commence production; both are based in Austin. “The network was looking very seriously at shooting in North Carolina,” says Hudgins of the new series, “but they came here because of our crew base.” Garry Brown, the producer of FOX’s Prison Break, is producing seven episodes of The Deep End, for ABC, plus a pilot for Warner Bros. and NBC called The Chase. Another series for FOX, The Good Guys from Matt Nix, the creator of Burn Notice, is shooting 13 episodes. All will shoot in Dallas. The HBO Original feature Temple Grandin was shot entirely in Texas which often doubled for other states. “It speaks to the strength of our diversity,” says Hudgins. “We shot (for) Arizona and New Hampshire within 30 miles of each other.” fi l m • h d • v i d e o • p o s t • e ff e c t s Another strong component of the Texas pastiche is the motion picture work of celebrated Austin filmmaker Robert Rodriguez — who almost went out of state to shoot Machete, an independent feature, then The Predators, a feature for FOX. But since the incentives package passed, virtually all work was kept instate. An upcoming film is being shared with New Mexico: the remake of True Grit, this time starring Academy Award-winner Jeff Bridges and directed by the Coen brothers. Texas will serve as the backdrop “for the part that’s sup713.977.5989 www.lockebryan.com posed to be Fort Smith, Arkansas; New Mexico will be the setting for the www.markeemag.com
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RED Keeps Laszlo Rain in the Black San Antonio’s Laszlo Rain (www.laszlorain.com) has been focusing on RED ONE production, and president Tom Nador says that its affordability has kept the company competitive, despite the recession. The firm just wrapped principal photography on Nador’s second feature with San Antonio-based director Pablo Veliz, Carteneo y Napalitos (Cardboard Dreams). Previously, Nador lensed an LA “‘tween” feature, Elle, which he calls “a Cinderella story about a country-pop singer.” Laszlo Rain has also shot numerous spot campaigns with RED Digital Cinema’s RED ONE, notably a national
effort for Valero Energy that integrated Super 35mm film footage. “The RED ONE has allowed us to stay above the competition with a host of packages and budget ranges,” Nador says, noting that Laszlo Rain offers complete camera and gear support, plus post workflow services.
mountain scenes,” Hudgins reports. The production is currently based at Austin Studios. Texas boasts significant soundstage infrastructure. The Studios at Las Colinas are busy with The Deep End, and Spiderwood Studios, located in the Austin area, is working on its own animated feature on a greenscreen stage. It has plans to build additional stages in the near future. While the film and TV markets get plenty of lights, cameras and action, Texas also stands out in the video game sector. “We’re the third-largest video game developer in the country, with 95 companies and smaller concerns growing incredibly fast due to our workforce,” Hudgins says. “They can include retail or online games, and even classified projects.”
Production Nirvana Happily for many a producer and New Mexico crew member — and the state’s comptroller — listing the productions that have used its scenic backdrops would be too time- and space-consuming to include here. So what does New Mexico Film Office director Lisa Strout have to say about this happening scene? “We’ve seen, during the past couple of months, a real increase in production.” Must be nice, huh?
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Janimation: Studio Undercover Strout actually reports there was “a bit of a lull last spring, but the steady flow has picked up again.” Just let it be said that last year’s workflow — which included 24 major productions for an economic impact of a whopping $836 million — would be a winner by anyone’s standards. And that figure could rise for 2010. The locations are varied in New Mexico, where films might set up in rural areas like Carrizozo, where part of the 100 percent instate The Book of Eli, starring Denzel Washington, was shot. Then there was What About The Morgans? with Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker, part of which was lensed in the small town of Roy. Strout says that New Mexico is seeing an uptick in TV production this year as well, including the first episodes of a new series, Scoundrels, for ABC, which is shooting in Albuquerque. On the cablenets, Starz’s Crash and AMC’s Breaking Bad wrapped seasons two and three, respectively, and USA Network’s In Plain Sight is in production on season three. New Mexico is graced with significant soundstage infrastructure. Garson Studios was willed to the College of Santa Fe by the late Hollywood star Greer Garson, a longtime New Mexico resident, and Albuquerque Studios boasts eight major stages. Both are very busy with a variety of features, TV series and productions for the state’s first cablenet, Reelz Channel, according to Strout. So it’s easy to see why she’s grateful (and a bit relieved) that the state legislature kept the incentive package intact. New Mexico (like most states) is facing major budget issues, and production incentive packages can be viewed as an expense in various quarters. “We still have no cap per year or per project and continue to grow, despite our state’s budget deficit,” Strout reports, noting that 3,000 crew jobs, 7,000 residual jobs and 250 companies have resulted from the state’s investment in the film industry. “It’s crucial to note that the lumber yards and rental car companies,” for instance, “have avoided layoffs due to the economic impact of our industry.” Strout also points to how the state’s Workforce Advancement Program benefits New Mexico. “We’ve had it for six years,” she says. “It involves crew members who have the skills to advance in their jobs. If a film company moves a New Mexican up to a higher position in the field, the company gets half of that salary back as reimbursement from the state. That www.markeemag.com
The big news at Dallas-based Janimation (www.janimation.com) is an untitled pilot that’s in production and shooting with the Vision Research Phantom HD camera on Janimation’s greenscreen stage. The project is flying under the radar right now; what CEO/chief creative director Steve Gaconnier can disclose is that VFX director Lyn Caudle and his team are creating “a futuristic sci-fi storyline with heavy sex appeal. It’s a cinematic endeavor utilizing a complete digital pipeline.” Janimation’s new 16,000 square-foot production facility provides the creative solutions and technologies to produce in just days what once took weeks. Gaconnier also reports that Janimation has benefited from the state’s incentive program and “is primed to enhance any project coming to Texas” with its production, VFX, animation, titling, editorial, and sound design/ADR offerings.
The Sound of Native America at Austin Soundmine Austin Soundmine (www. austinsoundmine.com) recently recorded location audio, music and sound effects and smoothed the dialogue for the pilot for Homeland Nation, a series about Native American reservations from First American Productions LLC, in which owner Peter Blackwell is partnered. “Mescalero Apache” concerns three Apache tribes (Mescalero, Lipan and Chirahuaca) that reside on the land nestled in the Sierra Madres of New Mexico. The pilot episode was directed by Peter Mervis and shot with a Sony EX1 camera. Austin Soundmine recorded its audio on a 4-track Edirol RD-44 via three mics: the Rode NP4 for stereo with Rode NT5s on each side. “We used the same machine to record the Native American groups
singing to each other,” Blackwell says, “which marked the initial recording of some of the songs.” The company, which moved to downtown Austin 18 months ago, is shopping for a TV outlet for the series.
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(Hold the Spaghetti) Western from HDNM
also helps us compete for talent that works in the bigger markets like New York or LA.” The new motion picture Doc Another interesting offshoot of the state’s West was produced by Anselmo Parrinello and New Mexican Luca marketing efforts is the Green Filmmaking Ceccarelli (who also line proProgram that’s very keen on recycling; used duced) and unit managed by lumber from productions and sets is turned Eileen Street for the Italian network RTI and worldwide DVD over to Habitat for Humanity, for example. release; Ceccarelli and Street are The most recent collaboration, howevboth with Santa Fe’s HDNM er, is between the state and legendary Entertainment (www.hdnm.com). Santa Fe and environs served actor/director Robert Redford and Milagro as backdrops for the western at the historic Los Cisneros ranch in norththat stars Italian icon Terence ern New Mexico which offers a series of Hill, Paul Sorvino and Ornella Muti. It was shot with a Panaviworkshops and events to nurture underrepsion 35mm camera, transferred to HD at Deluxe West is a DAP-Italy/The Fremantle Corp. resented cultural voices. then edited on Final Cut Pro with After Effects, coproduction, in association with HDNM “That’s where we will work with RedMotion and Autodesk Flame finishing at three Entertainment and will be distributed by facilities, including HDNM. The company hired 95 Lions Gate Home Entertainment, Triford and Native American and Hispanic percent of the crew in state as well as 85 percent Coast Worldwide, Fremantle Corp. and filmmakers using the arts as an economic of the talent, including 75 speaking roles. Doc Grindstone. driver,” Strout reports. “It’s a commitment between two forward thinkers: our governor, Bill Richardson, and Redford.”
Fingers Crossed in Arizona There’s going to be some news emanating from the Arizona Film Office by July 1. Hopefully, it’ll be good news. That looming date concerns a bill that calls for the state’s production tax credit to be changed from transferable to refundable status. If passed, that would allow the state to refund a production’s incentive money directly to the production instead of employing a third party, such as a broker, to do so. Aside from that possible change, the package will remain somewhat similar to what Arizona has on the table today. The state allows the current tax credit for 20 to 30 percent of all expenditures instate — with the requirement that 50 percent of the crew be Arizona residents. Under the new bill, the number of state residents required to work on the film would drop to 25 percent; also, the program would be uncapped annually. “The proposed program would allow more producers to come here to take advantage of our offer,” says Arizona Film Office executive director Ken Chapa. Economic impact results won’t be available for 2009 until the end of April; however, the state estimates nearly $75 million in economic impact for 2008 (with $45 million directly attributed to the incentive program). In addition, more than $100 million in credits are currently available for 2010. Some of the higher profile projects that shot in Arizona during the past two years include Piranha 3-D, Away We Go, Middle Men, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Snappers and The Family That Preys. Still, Chapa stresses that commercials “are the lifeblood of the business” in Arizona, accounting for “up to 70 percent of our production days.” Last year, campaigns were lensed for Ford Motor Company, Lamborghini, Dodge, Mercedes-Benz, Wells Fargo Financial Services, and Applebee’s. In addition, various shows for cable networks shot around the state. They included Andrew Zimmern’s frames with half-stop silks as diffusion Bizarre World for The Travel Channel, Comet for the and a 5K with a full stop silk for the fill. The facility also offers a 45x45-foot BBC, Maneater for Lifetime, and SIS for Spike. stage for rent; it’s the setting for Game Many of Arizona’s Indian reservations also impact Time, a live pre-game show that airs the production industry. “Some are very active in the before each Phoenix Suns NBA game.
Cox Communications Promotes Advanced TV At Cox Communications Arizona (www.coxtelevideo. com) in Phoenix a two-spot campaign for Cox Advanced Television was in the mix at the cable provider’s creative services department, which also produced the commercials for the Hispanic market. Project manager Peter Costello and company used a RED ONE camera on Cox’s greenscreen stage and also employed a Chapman PeeWee dolly. “We used six Space Lights to light the green cyc, two 2K fresnels for backlights and two 12K Mini-Brutes for the key,” says Costello who added 8x
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Crew West Headlines Super Bowl-winning Saints When CBS Sports commentator Shannon Sharpe interviewed Reggie Bush of the New Orleans Saints for The Super Bowl Today to discuss his career and his feelings about playing in the championship game, the segment was lensed on three Panasonic VariCams, two of which were handled by Crew West of Phoenix (www.crewwestinc.com). The audio was recorded on a Sound Devices 442 field mixer with Electro Voice and TRAM wireless mics. Crew West also set up several 200-, 400- and 800-watt HMIs, scrims and flags at the New Orleans-area location. “That it was an outdoor shoot kept it simple,”
says audio tech Matt Radlauer. In addition, Crew West supported an inside interview shoot for the pre-game show featuring Saints players Will Smith, Darren Sharper and Jonathan Vilma and CBS talent Lesley Visser.
film and television market,” says Chapa, “such as the Navajo Nation, Gila River and Salt River” communities. Chapa’s office also works closely with the local film offices in the state. “That’s important here due to our topography and size,” he says. In fact, he’s now working on Everything Must Go, a Will Ferrell feature, with the Phoenix Film Office. “Piranha 3D is another good example,” he points out. “Lake Havasu doesn’t have a film office, so I worked with the local government to ensure that the entire production shot there.” But today, Chapa’s hopes are high concerning the possible sweetening of Arizona’s incentive package. If he gets the high sign, he wants to start marketing the state more intensively. “We have a good image in other countries,” he says, noting that production companies from England, Germany, Japan and Italy have worked in Arizona in recent years. “Our topography seems very exotic to them.” Increasing Arizona’s exposure wouldn’t be limited to international marketing efforts, however. “We will strive to get more exposure on
Thrills at the Park for South Coast South Coast Film & Video’s (www.scfilmvideo. com) cameras rolled recently at the Kemah Boardwalk amusement park near Houston for the first installment of a spot campaign that was tailored in post to various markets. Lensed with the Panasonic VariCam 2700 P2 HD camcorder, it included two legacy film shots. To capture extra emotion, director/DP Everett Gorel rigged a small Panasonic HBX-200 to the Drop Zone ride to highlight the riders’ shock as they plummeted 260 feet. The next project at Houston’s South Coast, which is expanding its studio with a kitchen and second client area, was a www.markeemag.com
PSA for the Rainforest Café chain that conveyed environmental consciousness; it is pegged to run during PBS broadcasts of the classic children’s show Curious George. Once again Gorel’s camera of choice was the VariCam 2700. March/April 2010
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Levy Rocks Out RADD for PSA Campaign An extensive PSA campaign for RADD (Recording Artists, Actors and Athletes Against Drunk Driving) that focused on non-judgmental, hip and positive messages was directed by Ron Scheffer and produced by the Levy Production Group (www. levyproductiongroup.com) in Las Vegas. The company provided all of the production and post for the campaign that was shot with a Sony EX3 HD camera. It encompassed two :30 spots and 12 :15s starring Mirage Hotel & Casino headliner Terry Fator. “We’re really beginning to embrace the whole tapeless workflow,” says
Mike Levy, a partner in the facility. “After the shoot, all raw media was transferred to our server and then backed up on an external drive. Online was done in our Avid DS10 suite and post audio in our Pro Tools HD suite.”
the East Coast, aside from just the ad agency business in New York,” he says, “and look to establish a balance, like we have with Southern California, with feature and television markets.”
Production Rolling in Nevada While the state legislature hasn’t played the incentive game, Nevada Film Office director Charlie Geocaris is more fortunate than most film czars with that predicament: The state still served as the (partial) backdrop for recent cinematic endeavors like Up in the Air, 2012 and Percy Jackson & The Olympians. “We had 23 movies shoot here last year, but the majority just shot certain scenes,” he says, noting that they often employed the famed Las Vegas Boulevard (“The Strip”) as a backdrop, “and that sells the city and the state.” But it was Nevada’s reputation as a hotbed for TV production that boosted its revenues in 2009 to more than $100 million ($102 million, to be precise) for the 10th consecutive year, with shows like “CSI and tons of reality programs,” Geocaris reports. Interestingly, more screenwriters are writing about Vegas due to its film and television exposure, he says, citing films such as The Hangover (a suite named for the flick can be found in Caesar’s Palace) and Percy Jackson, both of which shot last year; and earlier efforts, like Knocked Up and Race to Witch Mountain.
Field and Frame Serves Local Community and High-Profile Visitors Albuquerque’s Field and Frame (www.fieldandframe.com) rentals has catered to local commercial producers, documentarians and independent filmmakers since 1987. Owner Alan Fulford offers 8mm and 16mm cameras and a wide range of HD cameras, including the indemand Panasonic HDX-900, Sony’s XDCAM and EX1, Panasonic’s HPX500, and its HVX200 and AVC lines plus compatible plackback systems and Panasonic 8- to 26-inch HD monitors. The company also stocks a line of smaller HMIs, Kino Flos, ARRI tungstens, doorway and skateboard dollies, a full line of expendables and has 1-ton and sprinter grip packages. In addition, Field and Frame offers a line of compact audio
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recorders, Sennheiser and stereo mics, Sound Devices and Shure mixers, DAT machines and Nagra reel-to-reels. Although the local community remains the company’s primary market, it has rented to cable’s Breaking Bad, In Plain Sight and Crash and the feature Swing Vote.
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DK’s Turn at Bat With “Teddy Ballgame” A browse through the vault at DK Productions (www.dkproductions.com) in Las Vegas resulted in quite a find — footage from a 1997 interview that the company financed and produced with arguably the greatest hitter in Major League Baseball history, Ted Williams. Conducted with Boston sportscaster Bob Lobel at Fenway Park, it has now been released on DVD as The Lost Interview of The Great Ted Williams. “It was the only time he opened up to talk about his baseball career,” says executive producer Kimberlie Chambers of the man nicknamed “Teddy Ballgame.” The project was shot on Sony Beta SP and edited and color corrected in Apple’s FCP Studio 3 with
additional enhancements via Adobe After Effects (editor Joseph Campanale pictured above left with executive producer DImitri Sotirakis). Next up is a documentary about college baseball phenom (and Las Vegas resident) Bryce Harper.
That’s just a hint of what could happen if the Nevada legislature ever makes incentive money available. “We might reach $200 million in annual revenues if we had them,” Geocaris says. He laments the lack of production that goes on in Nevada outside of Vegas. “We have beautiful smaller towns here, like Lake Tahoe and Reno, but no one shoots there anymore,” he observes. However, addressing the realities of his circumstances has equated to a healthy bottom line. “We started pursuing TV shows, especially in the reality category,” he says. The History Channel’s Pawn Stars often shoots from The Gold & Silver Pawn Shop, and Sin City is also famous in small screen circles for its gaming programs, like NBC’s Poker After Dark and ESPN’s The World Series of Poker. Happily, the producers of those shows come to town and hire locals for their productions and bring other staff who use local services. Then there’s CSI — which has spawned a $5 million tourist attraction at the MGM Grand. The crew comes to town a few times a year to shoot along The Strip and around Southern Nevada. CBS also resurrected the classic game show Let’s Make a Deal, which shoots at the Tropicana Hotel, and Bravo!’s Top Chef shot around the city for several months last year. In addition, awards shows, like The American Country Music Awards, and The Miss America Pageant (both airing on TNT) often Panavision’s Dallas-Fort Worth blow into town and hire local crew. office (www.panavision.com) is National car spots are part and parcel of providing the crew of the new the local scene, too: The Strip and the desert FOX series, The Good Guys, from Burn Notice creator Matt Nix, with areas close to nearby Hoover Dam and the four Sony PDW-F800 XDCAM Valley of Fire are often favored by Hyundai, packages to facilitate shooting Lexus and Toyota. 13 episodes of the first season in Dallas (camera prep pictured All told, a great deal of production still right). happens in Nevada; the pie is just divided dif“The interesting thing to me,” ferently. says John Schrimpf, general manager of the rental house, “is “The film/TV split used to be 50/50 five that the network is using years ago. Ten years ago, TV was just 25 perXDCAM for a drama; it’s disccent of what we did; now, it’s 75 percent,” based, so the producers simply FedEx the disc back to Hollywood every night for post. That’s says Geocaris. “But what’s great is that good, since they set out to avoid on-set data manthere’s generally something shooting someagement. Also, DP Brian Reynolds has been very where in Nevada every day — and for that, happy with the look.” we’re thankful.”
Panavision Helps The Good Guys Streamline Production
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The office offers a complete range of 35mm film and digital capture cameras, including Panavision and non-Panavision 35mm models, Panavision Genesis and Sony’s F35 digital cinematography camera.
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In the
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Newsroom
MEGA PLAYGROUND BOOSTS DP DAILIES TO FULL 2K FORMAT New York City’s Mega Playground (www.mega-playground.com) has raised the bar of its proprietary DP Dailies process, which provides film producers with cost-effective, digitally-printed dailies, to full 2K format, according to principal Eitan Hakami. “The option of scanning at full 2K and archiving to a ‘Near Line’ RAID 5 disk solution was designed to meet DPs’ needs for the highest-resolution dailies possible,” he says. “The process offers a consistent creative look, fast turnaround and cost benefits upwards of six figures.” Mega Playground is the only East Coast post house offering the service that has been in development for a number of years by CTO Terry Brown. While at Technicolor in a senior technology position he was the chief architect and project manager of Bones Dailies, a joint effort of Technicolor, the former Grass Valley and Thomson Corporate Research. Their revolutionary Bones Dailies system is now the primary enabler of Mega Playground’s DP Dailies process. DP Dailies utilizes Spirit 2K, Bones Dailies, DVS storage solutions and Film Light color management tools. Unlike traditional electronic dailies, DP Dailies are not ‘telecine transferred’ but are scanned
as DPX files using the same process as a DI but in 1920x1080 image size. These files can subsequently be used as source elements in the preview process, which is essentially the film’s DI: conforming, color for preview and DI are one and the same. In addition, DP Dailies offers sound synchronized with one-quarter frame accuracy and the ability to rapidly re-sort the camera/scene/take order of dailies. The DP Dailies process has already been used successfully on the 2009 feature, The Big Fan, from writer/director Rob Siegel (The Wrestler) and on director Barry Levinson’s upcoming HBO Original Film, You Don’t Know Jack, starring Al Paci-
no. “We are convinced that it will have a significant impact on the film production community here,” says Brown. The system can also be applied to films and TV shows that acquire images digitally. “Economically and creatively DP Dailies is the most cost-effective and flexible method for creating ‘film-look’ dailies,” reports Hakami. “It’s a win-win situation for both producers and creatives. In a city and a business that thrive on innovation, we believe we’ve made a major breakthrough, and the 2K option is the (temporarily) final piece of the puzzle.” Pictured is colorist Mike Smollin in the NuCoda DI room.
CALABASH ANIMATION CREATES FROSTED CHEERIOS ICON It’s time for a teenage boy to breakfast on a big bowl of General Mills’ Frosted Cheerios when a slightly crazed yet hilarious pro wrestler, created by Chicago’s Calabash Animation (www.calabashanimation.com), gets in the way. “Captain Night Night,” from Saatchi & Saatchi/NY, tries to coax the boy back to sleep, then resorts to wrestling him back to bed only to be defeated by the taste of Frosted Cheerios, a taste that “gets you out of bed.” “This spot features a quirky, fun concept that was truly original,” notes Calabash executive producer Sean Henry. “Because there was no pre-existing icon for Frosted Cheerios, we were given this great chance to stretch out and do some animation that is a bit ‘out there.’” 44
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Calabash designed Captain Night Night with hairy arms, a mask and a big belt bearing the somnolent letters ‘zzz.’ Due to the project’s quick turnaround and the nature of the character, Calabash animated the wrestler using Flash. The commercial posed technical challenges since the live action was shot on location without greenscreen. “This took some good matting to pull off,” reports creative director Wayne Brejcha. “Combining animated characters with live action takes a lot of planning, and rotoscoping is a lot of work. We had to figure out how we were going to cut the character so that he fit in correctly with the foreground and background objects, and then do it
for every frame. We had a crew here that spent their time doing just that.” New York’s Northern Lights Post handled editorial and final compositing. Calabash is well known for its creative development of some of America’s most beloved brand icons. Its 2002 animated short, Stubble Trouble, was nominated for an Academy Award.
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Footage Search, Inc. in Monterey, California (www.naturefootage.com) has expanded its OceanFootage and NatureFootage collections with allnew RED 4K stock footage available as master RED Raw 4K files or as HD ProRes compressed formats. The footage is sourced from renowned cinematographers worldwide and features a growing variety of habitats and species from deep sea to mountaintops. OceanFootage, described as the largest online collection of ocean stock footage in the world, represents over 250 leading cinematographers worldwide. NatureFootage is a quickly-expanding collection covering all aspects of the natural world. Both collections will see “a rapid increase of RED One 4K footage online,” promises company founder and president Dan Baron. “We have an
Image: Footage Search/Kennan Ward
FOOTAGE SEARCH ADDS RED 4K OCEAN AND NATURE STOCK FOOTAGE
impressive amount of material already acquired and anticipate enormous growth of RED One 4K content by the end of the year. The creative possibilities of what one can do with this amazing footage format are endless.” A sampling of subjects currently in the OceanFootage and NatureFootage collections includes a new take on ocean
sunsets; crashing and crystal-clear waves viewed from topside, inside and beneath the waves; coral reefs teaming with life; sea lions, seals and other marine animals; bait balls; city skylines, agriculture; majestic mountain ranges; forests from tropical to temperate; and rarely-captured behavior of bobcats, rattlesnakes, hawks, eagles and coyotes.
A VERY SMALL OFFICE OPTS FOR VERY LARGE PROPS FOR TARGET SPOT To launch Target’s unique partnership with style icon Liberty of London director Mikon van Gastel of New York City’s A Very Small Office (AVSO; www.averysmalloffice.com) collaborated closely with Peterson Milla Hooks/Minneapolis to create an oversized practical environment that showcases Liberty’s famed floral prints in trendy apparel, home and tableware, garden products, bikes and more. “Liberty of London” features models cavorting in impossible practical landscapes of oversized dimensions: a tabletop stocked with human-sized china; a soaring bedroom with mattresses stacked to the ceiling beside a 12-foot
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lamp; a garden with headhigh mushrooms, giant roses and a 14-foot watering can. DP David Lanzenberg shot the spot at Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills and other locations using a mix of bluescreen and traditional methods. Only a small portion of the commercial was composited. “While some directors have abandoned practical objects in favor of CG and other FX, I felt that, in this particular case, the interaction with actual monumental objects stoked a more genuine performance that made the story more evocative,” notes van Gastel. “While there are more budget challenges to meet in an approach like this, the results are more than worthwhile: the Liberty patterns create a strong visual identity across the campaign that sets Target and Liberty of
London’s collaboration apart from anything the competition is doing.” Saffron Case executive produced for AVSO. In Minneapolis, Brett Astor of Channel Z cut the spot, Sue Lakso of CRASH+SUES was the colorist, Kurt Angell and Tony Mills handled post and effects at Pixel Farm, and Modern Music composed the track. March/April 2010
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Call for advertising information! Gayle Rosier: 386-873-9286 or gaylerosier@gmail.com
FOR MARKETPLACE ADVERTISING DETAILS... Contact Gayle Rosier at 386.873.9286 or email: gaylerosier@gmail.com 46
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advertisers’ index page# company phone & website 9
Assignment Desk, Inc. 800-959-DESK www.assignmentdesk.com
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Atlanta Rigging 888-355-4370 www.atlantarigging.com
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Austin Soundmine 512-291-0214 www.austinsoundmine.com
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Barbizon Lighting Company 866-502-2724 www.barbizon.com
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Birns & Sawyer 323-466-8211 www.birnsandsawyer.com
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Bron Imaging Group Inc. 800-456-0203 www.bronimaging.com
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Cine Gear Show 310-472-0809 www.cinegearexpo.com
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Cine Photo Tech 404-684-7100 www.cinephototech.com
IBC
Comprehensive Technical Group 888-557-4284 www.ctgatlanta.com
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Crew Connection 303-526-4900 www.crewconnection.com
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Crew West Inc. 866-4-UPLINK www.crewwestinc.com
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Gerling & Associates 740-965-2888 www.gerlinggroup.com
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HB Group, Inc. 800-331-1804 www.hbrentals.com
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Headsouth Productions 813-254-2341 www.headsouthproductions.com
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Hotstockfootage.Com 303-721-6121 www.hotstockfootage.com
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Killer Tracks 800-454-5537 www.killertracks.com
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Laszlo Rain 210-495-8890 www.lookslikerain.com
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Locke Bryan Productions Inc. 713-977-5989 www.lockebryan.com
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Mastersource Music Catalog 818-706-9000 www.mastersource.com
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Nevada Film Office 702-486-2711 www.nevadafilm.com
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Non-Stop Music 801-531-0060 www.nonstopmusic.com
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Omnimusic 800-828-6664 www.omnimusic.com
BC
Panasonic Broadcast Systems Company www.panasonic.com/broadcast
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Ragland Strother & Lafitte 214-443-1419 www.movieinsurance.com
IFC
Sony Pictures Digital Media Software www.sonycreativesoftware.com
www.markeemag.com
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Inside View
Back Alley Films | by Christine Bunish
Tyler Smith Producer, Back Alley Films Kansas City, Missouri • www.backalleyfilms.com Markee: Back Alley Films launched in 2008, a challenging time for all production companies with the recession and a changing media landscape. Mr.Smith: “Traditional media began to change and more money was allocated to interactive, while broadcast budgets continued to shrink. Competition between production companies became increasingly more so. Add in the great recession and you were facing the hardest time our industry has ever seen. “We knew that opening Back Alley Films during this time would prove to be a great challenge, but partnered with our sister postproduction company T2 we had an advantage going in. Being able to offer a cohesive workflow from production through post, all within the same creative workspace, opens up great creative synergy with our clients. When working with clients who ask us to bid a job through post, we get T2 involved from the initial treatment stage with our directors. It assures our clients that their project is going to be well executed in as efficient a manner as possible on both ends, and I think they really appreciate that. Our directors like it too: The more we can offer in terms of creative solutions the better. Our directors combine a wide array of talents that we like to tap into for any given concept, whether it be writing, music, photography or simply acting as a creative director to help concept.” Markee: How is this new director’s model reflected in your talent roster? Mr.Smith: “The directors who continue to stay busy in this industry are those who are able to think between the lines. The 48
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directors we represent understand all the media components involved in a campaign; they get involved early and take ownership of the production. They find being more involved in the creative process is very rewarding. “Our directors are a good match for all kinds of agencies that have started to surge ? these days. These agencies are not built on traditional broadcast but on a more creative approach; they’re starting to land projects instead of just large commercial accounts.” Markee: Does Kansas City offer a particularly strong creative and technical base for your directors? Mr.Smith: “Historically Kansas City has always been one of the top advertising markets. We have some large corporations here like Hallmark and Sprint. There are many fantastic agencies here: Bernstein-Rein, VML, Barkley, and we have really good relationships with them. Kansas City has always had exceptional, experienced crews, great production support from our local vendors, gear, stages, and ideal location options. It’s a very production-savvy and friendly market to work in.” Markee: What projects are on Back Alley’s reel these days? Mr.Smith: “Director/DP Joshua Reis just wrapped a commercial for Evan Williams Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey from Keller Crescent/Evansville, Indiana which we shot on location in Memphis at the Germantown Com-
missary barbecue restaurant. Joshua also shot a web video ‘itour’ of the new SAP website for VML. It features live action captured with the RED camera on a set we built inside Union Station here in Kansas City. T2 did all the post, combining additional stock imagery with motion graphics. “We also worked with director/DP Michael Dali on a spot for Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Kansas City from Hickerson Wahaus. Michael used the new Canon 7D DSLR camera, and it worked out great. T2 did all the post for this spot as well.” Markee: What’s the business outlook for the rest of this year? Mr.Smith: “The first two months of 2010 were a world of difference compared to the same time last year. Production has picked up dramatically with agencies in Kansas City, and we’re starting to see that on a national level, too. Interactive video will be more prevalent this year, but TV is making a resurgence as well. “It feels like Back Alley Films has weathered the storm by being lean and creative and by focusing on where the industry is headed and embracing that.”
Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
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