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March/April 2011 • V. 26 |No. 2
Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
FR EE W SU W W BS .M AR A CR IP KE T TI EM O NS AG .C O M
2.0
Quenching Viewers’ Thirst for
Animation and VFX Spots NAB: From A to Z Mobile Production: Rolling Out ESPN 3D Spotlight: Texas/Southwest Rally for Incentives
Permit 211 Bolingbrook, IL
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Vegas Pro 10: A new dimension New Vegas™ Pro 10 software brings the third dimension to video production; edit and produce stereoscopic 3D video in all leading formats! The preferred platform for creative professionals,Vegas Pro 10 offers new features designed to further its reach including comprehensive closed captioning, enhanced plug-in support, and robust audio improvements. Vegas Pro’s intuitive interface makes it easy to learn and use. Its array of professional effects and flexible editing workflows lets you produce and create the way you want; its ability to ingest, edit and deliver content across varied formats, from tape to file based to DVD/Blu-ray, means you’ll always have ultimate control.Vegas Pro 10 also includes a full featured integrated 5.1 digital audio workstation, providing maximum functionality for scoring, sound design, and multitrack recording. Filmmaker Justin Fornal relies on Vegas Pro to create his hit BronxNet TV show “Bronx Flavor.” “Nothing gets you from raw footage to final render quicker than Vegas Pro,” Justin says. “Plus, its audio support consistently delivers the highest production values available.” Vegas Pro 10 delivers more than ever before. It’s a feature-rich, multi-media production environment, offering new dimensions for both you and your audience to explore. Realize your vision in all its dimensions with new Vegas Pro 10. For more information, please visit: www.sonycreativesoftware.com/food
Copyright ©2011. Sony Creative Software Inc. All rights reserved. “SONY” and “make.believe” are trademarks of Sony Corporation. Bronx Flavor is the exclusive property of BronxNet Media and Fornal Films LLC. Photo Kim M. Fornal.
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Markee2.0
Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
March/April 2011 Volume 26, Number 2
contents w w w. m a r k e e m a g . c o m
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features 10
NAB –
From A to Z Featuring NAB Shoppers’ Lists By Christine Bunish
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Animation and VFX in Commercials –
Quenching Viewers’ Thirst for Animation and VFX in Spots By Michael Fickes
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Mobile Production –
ESPN Rolls Out ESPN 3D Network with NEP Supershooters’ Support By Mark R. Smith
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Spotlight – Texas/Southwest
Rally for Incentives 36 2
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.
6 10 30
www.markeemag.com
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columns & departments 4
Editor’s Note
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Making TV – Mr. Sitcom
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 interviews 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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Meet the DP who has been shaping the look of the most successful sitcoms on television for more than 25 years By Michael Fickes
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Making Commercials – Real Barbies A documentary-style commercial for Barbie dolls profiles real women, and a young girl, living their dreams By Michael Fickes
19 Equipment Portfolio – Professional Sound Services (PSS) 46 In the Newsroom
[On The Cover]
48 Inside View –
Dragons of ice and fire meet in Framestore's animated "Siege" spot for Coca-Cola.
Luma Pictures’ Vince Cirelli By Christine Bunish
www.markeemag.com
March/April 2011
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from the editor
Markee2.0
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
NAB and the Great Unknown
Publisher
Editor
Managing Editor
It’s hard to believe that it’s time for NAB again. Following the hype surrounding stereo 3D last year, NAB 2011 looks to be a tamer show if not a downright somber one. The recent triple disasters in Japan will undoubtedly affect the mood of the convention and everyone’s heart goes out to Japan and its citizens. In purely marketplace terms, the long-term impact of the horrible events on key players in the industry and the supply chain is still unknown. Still, NAB will once again serve as the launching pad for a number of new products which, if not revolutionary, are guaranteed to make workflows more efficient – check out our NAB: From A to Z feature for selected product briefs and attendees’ shopping lists. In this issue, Markee 2.0 also shows how animation and VFX studios continue to deliver innovative, imaginative commercials for an array of advertisers; how the new ESPN 3D network is creating the model for mobile stereo 3D production for sports; and how Texas and the Southwestern states are rallying for incentives in a tight budgetary climate. Don’t forget to catch part one of a two-part interview with leading sitcom DP Donald Morgan, ASC in Making TV; discover what Barbie means to real women in a beautiful, documentary-style spot in Making Commercials; and catch up with what’s new in VFX at Luma Pictures wiith Vince Cirelli in Inside View.
Senior Writers
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John Llewellyn llewellyn@lionhrtpub.com Christine Bunish editor@markeemag.com Cory Sekine-Pettite cory@lionhrtpub.com Michael Fickes Mark R. Smith Alan Brubaker albrubaker@lionhrtpub.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 2011
• Stock Footage Guide • VFX for Episodic TV – A close up look at a show to die for • High(er) Definition – 2K and 4K production and post • Back to School – Film and video education • Spotlight: Capital Region
IN EVERY ISSUE: Making TV • Making Commercials • Newsroom • Inside View
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Copyright © 2011 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.
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making TV
Donald Morgan, ASC | By Michael Fickes
Mr. Sitcom Meet the DP who has been shaping the look of the most successful sitcoms on television for more than 25 years. Remember the Tim Allen situation comedy Home Improvement from the 1990s? One of the funniest recurring jokes of that very funny series was Wilson, the neighbor, whose face was always hidden. You could see his hat behind the fence. Sometimes you could see his body, but his head was still hidden behind some everyday object. It was always a lot of fun to see what would keep Wilson’s face a secret in each week’s show. Meet the Director of Photography responsible for cooking up Wilson’s nonhead shots in each Home Improvement show: Donald A. Morgan, ASC. “They gave me a lot of license for that,” he chuckles. Based in Los Angeles, Morgan is one of the most prolific cinematographers in episodic television. During a 20-plus year career as a DP, he has shot four to five pilots per year and more than 1,500 television episodes. In 1985, Morgan earned his first Emmy Award for the pilot episode of Mr. Belvedere – for outstanding lighting design in a series. Morgan received another seven Emmy Awards for his work on Home Improvement, which he lensed throughout its run. His work on Girlfriends, Baghdad Café and Saved By the Bell also earned Emmy nominations.
Morgan started out as a lighting engineer in the ’70s, working on one classic after another: Maude, Good Times, One Day at a Time, Three’s Company and The Jeffersons. He moved up to lighting director and DP on Silver Spoons, Gloria, The Facts of Life, Golden Girls, Mr. Belvedere, Home Improvement, Rita Rocks, Girlfriends and Do Not Disturb. Morgan estimates that he has worked on about 150 different situation comedies during his career.
How to Make a Sitcom Morgan says that sitcoms are special art forms, akin to live theater. “You do sitcoms in front of live audiences,” he notes. “They tap into the excitement of what actors do live in front of an audience. It is totally different from producing a show without an audience.” In the sitcom world, the DP is usually a show’s common denominator. The directors typically change for every episode, and it's up to the DP to keep the production on track. “If something
[Top Right] Eight-time Emmy Award-winning cinematographer Donald Morgan, ASC has used Schneider Optics’ filters on almost every project he’s shot, including TV Land’s new Retired at 35.
[Right] A fan of Vinten pedestals with pan-and-tilt heads, Morgan says they’ve “been the workhorses for as long as I can remember.”
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gets too crazy, the DP will talk to the director about how things are usually done,” he says. “Of course, it isn’t the DP’s call. If the director really wants something out of the ordinary, then you go for it.” But that only happens now and then. The real challenge for a sitcom DP is shooting a 40- to 50-page script in two days. “You have to work quickly,” Morgan says. “We spend the morning of the first day blocking out all of the shots with the actors and the cameras. In the afternoon, we’ll shoot three or four scenes, enough material to be able to finish on the second day.” On day two, the crew and cast go through the remaining scenes and shoot in front of an audience. “We do each scene about three times,” Morgan says. “Some days go better than others. We start at 11:00 am and try to keep it to a 12-hour day.” That’s a lot of work for two days. What makes it possible to get everything done, Morgan says, is the equipment used to move the cameras and the quality and size of the crew.
Cameras, Pedestals and Crews Morgan has seen that equipment change from dollies to pedestals over the years. In the ’70s and ’80s, for instance, a number of shows shot with four cameras on four dollies. That’s four big film cameras in those days. In the ’90s, the technology changed and the studios began to mandate digital cameras. At first, crews shot with video cameras on dollies. More recently, the studios have cut back on budgets, and DPs www.markeemag.com
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have replaced dollies (and the dolly grips who move them) with pedestals that have wheels and no tracks. “On Home Improvement, we used five Ikegami cameras, four Vinten pedestals and one Jimmy Jib,” says Morgan. Morgan is a fan of Vinten products. “Vinten pedestals with pan-and-tilt heads have been the workhorses for as long as I can remember,” he says. “The pedestals have wheels, but the weight of the camera makes them stable. There is a steering wheel that the operator can use to turn to the left or right. With a Vinten pedestal and head, an operator can pan, tilt, and move the camera all at the same time.” Despite the loss of the dolly grip, sitcom DPs still manage sizeable crews. The number of camera operators, of course, depends upon the number of cameras, which according to Morgan varies from three to five with four being the norm. “There is a master camera that gets the whole scene, a camera to catch close ups and two more cameras that shoot reactions and maybe some close ups,” he says. A four-camera shoot will likely require four camera operators, four assistant operators, two utility camera people and a video control technician in the control room. The electric and grip crew usually includes 10 people. All told, Morgan manages crews of 20 or more when shooting a sitcom. Today, Morgan is a go-to DP for getting new sitcoms off the ground. He makes the pilots and the first few episodes, setting the look and tone for the show, which another DP will execute for the run of the series.
[Above Left] Morgan was the DP for this episode of Retired at 35 in which George Segal and Jessica Walter star as divorced emptynesters whose son moves back home. Photo: Courtesy TV Land
[Above Right] It’s a tight fit on a porch swing for the four stars of Hot in Cleveland; Morgan DP’d this pilot episode. Photo: Courtesy TV Land
For a pilot, Morgan starts by reading the script and thinking about sets. Then he selects the cameras and lenses. “HD cameras today are like film stocks were in the film era,” he says. “Each camera is like a different film stock, and you choose lenses to give the camera – the film stock – the look you want for a show.” Next, Morgan creates a shooting routine for three, four or five cameras, decides whether the budget will support dollies or pedestals and selects a crew. After shooting the pilot and a few episodes of a series, he hands the process over to the show’s DP and moves on to the next pilot. Most recently Morgan worked on two new sitcoms for TV Land: Hot in Cleveland and Retired at 35. He shot the pilots for both and several episodes for their first seasons. In the May/June issue of Markee 2.0, Morgan will explain how he created the different looks for each show, why he selected particular cameras and lenses and how the shows take different approaches to lighting. Stay tuned. March/April 2011
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making Commercials
Mattel’s Barbie | By Michael Fickes
Real Barbies A documentary-style commercial for Barbie dolls profiles real women, and a young girl, living their dreams. [Left] A young ballerina sees her passion for the dance reflected in her Barbie.
“When I Grow Up,” a :60 commercial for Mattel’s Barbie dolls, is a creative coup. Barbie has a long history of blazing career paths. The doll and her occupation-based outfits have spanned education, medicine, the military, science and engineering, politics, the arts and more – making girls think about the kinds of careers they might achieve today. Instead of getting girls to pester their parents for a Barbie doll, “When I Grow Up” captures the attention of girls and moms alike, with an aspirational message showing real women, not actors, talking about how much they love what they do. Girls see what they might aspire to, and moms, who might not want their daughters playing with dolls, see a doll designed to fight stereotypes and excite dreams. The women profiled in the spot include a helicopter pilot, artist, pianist, equestrian, soccer coach, guitarist, tailor, chef, firefighter and an aspiring young ballerina who makes her ballerina Barbie – the only doll shown in the commercial – leap across an imaginary stage. The commercial concept came from Firedrill Productions, Mattel’s El Segundo, California-based advertising agency. 8
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Firedrill chose Peyton Wilson (www. peywilson.com) to direct the spot. Wilson works through the Los Angeles office of Nonfiction Unlimited (www.nonfiction unlimited.com), a production company that specializes exclusively in documentary commercial, film and web projects for advertisers. (See the spot here: www. nonfictionunlimited.com/directors/peytonwilson/play_reel/521) Wilson’s pitch for the spot made it impossible for Firedrill to select another director. “I told the agency that I had been preparing to make this commercial my whole life,” she says. “As a young girl, I had a dozen Barbies and played with them all day, creating and directing different characters. My career as a director started with Barbie.” Having been awarded the assignment, Wilson had to figure out how to pull it off.
Casting a Wide Net The problem with real-people commercials is that real people can’t act. The Nonfiction Unlimited solution: Find real people who are comfortable with themselves and get them to be themselves while the camera is rolling. Then no one
has to act, and the emotions, like the people, are real. But finding the right real people requires looking at a lot of people. Wilson regularly works with Los Angelesbased DSC Casting, which specializes in casting real people. DSC sent teams across LA to find women working in many different professions. Over the course of a month, Wilson interviewed more than 100 women. She talked to them in person, watched them on screen, and became friends with many. Wilson wanted self-confident, articulate women who would be comfortable talking about their dreams in front of the camera. She even found some of the women herself casting a 77-year old artist for the spot. “That’s Evy, my mom’s best friend,” Wilson chuckles. “I’ve always loved her face and wanted to photograph her. She’s a painter and the kind of wise woman that you would go to for advice.” After a month’s search, the cast was set with 15 women.
Capturing an Organic Film Look In spare moments during the casting effort, Wilson and Nicole Whitaker, the LA-based DP, discussed the scenes they wanted to shoot, selected the camera, lenses, filters and other gear and worked out a look. The ideas for scenes included filming the helicopter pilot during a pre-flight inspection and in flight; Evy, the artist, painting; the pianist at her piano; the equestrian grooming a horse and riding; the soccer coach working with her
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[Far Left] DP Nicole Whitaker (left) and director Peyton Wilson chat between set ups while shooting the equestrian scene. Photo: Danielle Viale
[Middle Left] Wilson and Whitaker captured a real rock-star look for a musical sequence.
[Bottom Left] Rehearsing and lighting the ballet scene. Photo: John Mullins
[Left] Nicole Whitaker looks through the lens during the lighting and set up of the equestrian scene. Photo: Danielle Viale
team; the guitarist after a performance; the tailor at work in her studio; the chef readying a gourmet dish, the firefighter preparing a fire truck and the young aspiring ballerina playing with Barbie. Wilson wanted to capture a look different from typical 35mm film; something Whitaker calls an organic film look. “We decided to shoot Super35 Panavision using a lot of their older lenses,” Whitaker says. “New lenses can be too sharp.” Lens choices included Leica Leitz, which she calls “amazing. They let you get very close in on faces. We used these lenses in four vignettes, including soccer and ballet.” Kowa lenses were used for four vignettes. “Kowas have an unusual quality,” says Whitaker. “They create a warm, spherical circular flare, which you can see in the scene with the guitarist performing.” Panavision portrait lenses accounted for two more vignettes. “These lenses create soft edges around the frame,” Whitaker explains. “We used portraits to shoot the ballet class and the girl playing the piano.” Going a step further, Wilson and Whitaker worked out unusual filter packs, www.markeemag.com
a different one for each vignette. For instance, Whitaker layered a White Pro Mist together with a 1/2 Classic Soft to shoot the soccer vignette. The DP estimates that 60 to 70 percent of the scenes were shot handheld. She used a dolly for establishing shots and a 60-foot Condor crane for an overhead shot down onto the soccer field.
Going With the Flow For Wilson, directing involved setting up scenes with the women doing their work and getting them to talk about why they love their work. And the words flowed: “As a little girl, I always dreamed of flying.” “It keeps my heart beating every day.” “Dream big.” “When I grow up, I can be anything.” Editing a documentary-style spot is a different art from editing a conventional narrative commercial whose story and script is predetermined. With a documentary-style spot, the story emerges after the shoot – anyone involved might come up with the idea. One evening, Whitaker was watching footage on her computer and asked her husband what he thought of a scene. Instead of looking at her browser, he used the browser on his own computer. Suddenly, the recorded voices began to play over each other. It was serendipity.
The Documentary Approach Mattel isn’t the first national advertiser to give its commercials a real documentary feel. It’s being done often today as Nonfiction Unlimited can attest: The company has produced spots for Adidas, Bonefish Grill, Burger King, Dove, Ford Motor Company, Nike and other leading advertisers. According to Loretta Jeneski, a partner and executive producer with Nonfiction Unlimited, documentary-style commercials tap into a powerful cultural stream. “There is definitely a strong desire for the ‘real’ today,” she says. “It is part of our culture. “As for style, there was a time when documentary meant verité. But more and more, you see documentaries filmed with an eye for beautiful and stylish camera work. In this, the commercial world has led the way.” “They told me to try it, so I listened to the audio on two browsers, and it sounded very cool,” says Jessica Congdon, of San Francisco’s Umlaut Films, who edited the spot. Voices layered over and under each other formed the idea for the edit. The vignettes, of varying lengths, march along with the voice of each woman telling her story over her scenes. Because each woman expressed similar sentiments in different words, the dialogue of one woman works equally well with the scene from another. The layered audio never drowns out voices; instead, it creates an echoing effect that communicates how exciting it is to do what you want to do when you grow up. March/April 2011
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NAB
FROM A TO Z While show-goers check out these products on the convention floor, non-attendees can keep pace with manufacturers’ latest product briefs BY CHRISTINE BUNISH
ARRI
Autodesk
After launching its ALEXA digital camera at NAB 2010, ARRI (www.arri.com) unveils the first modular enhancement to ALEXA at this year’s show. The ALEXA Plus ARRI’s ALEXA Plus upgrade is upgrade adds built-in wireless the camera’s first modular remote control, the ARRI enhancement. Lens Data Systems (LDS), additional MON OUT video and RS power outputs, lens synchronization for stereo 3D, and built-in position and monitor sensors. ALEXA Plus is available either as part of a complete camera package or as an upgrade for current ALEXA customers. ALEXA also boasts new accessories.
Autodesk (www.autodesk .com) spotlights Flame Premium 2012’s innovative finishing tools. Among them are comprehensive tools for working with light within a true 3D compositing space, including Autodesk’s Flame Premium 2012 includes tools for working with light within a true 3D the ability to produce ultracompositing space. realistic lens flares, edge effects, glints, glares and authentic 3D shadows. It also features a deep creative toolset for stereo 3D finishing with color grading tools, advanced 3D VFX and nextgeneration relighting tools, plus improved integration with Autodesk Maya and 3ds Max. Autodesk Smoke 2012, which brings professional editorial finishing to the Mac, contains a new Action Node Bin, a brand new lighting system that includes cast shadows and ultra-realistic 3D lighting artifacts, and a comprehensive new set of creative and technical tools for common finishing tasks, including Flame FX Damage, Deform, Edge Detect and Pixel Spread.
ARRILITE Two new fixtures representing the next-generation of ARRILITE’s traditional, open-faced lights make their NAB debut (www.arri.com). The small, lightweight ARRILITE 750 Plus is well suited to portable lighting kits. It can be fitted with bulbs ranging from 800w to 375w; its innovative one-arm stirrup enables many different pan-and-tilt options; and a new accessory holder permits direct fitting of the Chimera Video PRO Plus S and usage of the ARRI 650 Plus’s 4-leaf barndoor and scrims. The stable and compact ARRILITE 2000 Plus features an improved focus mechanism and, like the 750 Plus, implements disc-brake technology from the ARRI True Blue range of lamp heads, which holds the fixture steady even with heavy accessories attached. 10
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Avid
Avid Symphony version 5.5 debuts at NAB.
New versions of Avid’s (www.avid.com) flagship editing systems – Media Composer version 5.5, NewsCutter version 9.5 and Symphony version 5.5 – bow at NAB in response to customer requests for increased third-party hard-
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ware support, enhanced “in-the-box” functionality and more open, collaborative workflows with added control integration and format flexibility. Leading the new features is support for AJA Io Express input and output interface, which offers increased options between accelerated Avid hardware and cost-effective, third-party solutions when using Media Composer and NewsCutter systems. Improved search capabilities via Avid PhaseFind streamline clip and project management, speeding editorial and simplifying the dialogue-editing and logging process. EUCON support for integration with Avid control surfaces delivers greater flexibility for effects, audio and transport manipulation. Also offered is the new Avid Nitris DX AVC-Intra video accelerator for increased performance with Panasonic AVC-Intra material; native support for Sony HDCAM SR Lite; and enhanced Smart Tool functionality for direct transition manipulation within the timeline, enabling editing on the fly. Pro Tools version 9 offers users of the popular music creation and audio production solution the unprecedented choice of working with Avid or third-party audio interfaces, or no hardware at all when using the built-in audio capabilities of a Mac or PC. Avid EUCON support enables Pro Tools customers to expand control-surface options to include Avid’s Artist Series and Pro Series, formerly known as Euphonix consoles and controllers.
Canon This year the Broadcast and Communications division of Canon U.S.A., Inc. (www. usa.canon.com) introduces two new Canon Broadcast remote-control HD, pan-tiltzoom cameras. The BU-46H and BU-51H remote-control HD cameras Canon introduces its BU-46H outdoor remote-control HD, include 2X digital extenders to pan-tilt-zoom camera. double the image size of distant objects captured with the cameras’ 20X Canon HD zoom lens. Both are equipped with three 1/3-inch CCD sensors and feature an advanced Canon auto focus function and image stabilizer technology. The cameras’ imaging capabiliNew from Canon is the BU51H indoor remote-control HD, ties are further enhanced with pan-tilt-zoom camera. a newly designed Night Mode feature allowing frame accumulation that elevates camera sensitivity. The BU-51H indoor remote-control camera includes a built-in microphone with adjustable settings. www.markeemag.com
The BU-46H outdoor remote-control camera features a weatherproof housing with windshield wiper-style blade to keep its lens port clear. Both cameras can be operated in automatic or manual mode and can pan, tilt and zoom simultaneously to up to 32 preset coordinates. They also provide genlock input for broadcast video system synchronization.
Codex Codex Digital (www.codex digital.com), a leading developer of digital media recorders and media management systems for film and television production, showcases its Desktop Transfer Station at NAB. The system, designed to serve as The Codex Desktop Transfer Station serves as the hub of a the hub of a file-based workfile-based workflow. flow, uses Mac OS X and can ingest digital negatives from Codex recorders and other digital sources, generate deliverables in virtually any format required for editorial, dailies and archival purposes and/or quickly move the digital negative onto a SAN. The Desktop Transfer Station is suitable for productions of all types and is at home on the set, in the editorial office or a postproduction facility. All material can be kept live and available for on-demand dailies generation and reprints using Codex’s proprietary virtual file system. When editorial is complete, finishing files can be generated automatically, in a matter of minutes or hours. Codex Digital has been awarded an ARRIRAW TLink (Transport Link) certificate confirming the ability of its recorders to record raw data from ARRI’s ALEXA camera.
CARL JACOBS Technologist Splice, Minneapolis (www.splice.tv)
What I’m shopping for: “I look at the show from an IT perspective, so it’s less about equipment and more about things you can hook to a network. I’ll be looking at assetmanagement systems, open-source solutions and workflow solutions like easier ways to transcode files. I also like to get a sense of where things are going as a whole, and I always visit the smaller companies with the pipe-and-drape booths: Two years from now they might be in a big booth!” What I don’t want to miss: “A new version of Final Cut has been announced, and I’m expecting [Apple] to talk about it at NAB. I want to see Thunderbolt add-ons for Apple laptops, which would give high-speed access to laptops that we only got with big towers before.” Revolutionary or evolutionary year? “It’s all evolutionary now; last year was evolutionary, too, even with all the hype about 3D. When Final Cut was accepted as a professional tool, the introduction of the RED camera, the move to file-based systems – those were revolutionary moves.”
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NAB Equipment JIM FARRELL President Crew West, Inc. and Sat West, Phoenix (www.crewwestinc.com) What I’m shopping for: “HD encoders and IRDs for satellite trucks. And I look at TV lighting and grip equipment every year. I’m also looking for information: As a crewing company we supply cameras and crews in the field and have to be ready for every client that calls. Our disc-based Sony XDCAMs record several formats so they’re a good fit for many clients, but some clients are still tape-based. So I’ll be looking at [various] HD cameras and lenses. We own a Canon 5D DSLR, and although it won’t replace our XDCAMs, we’ll probably buy another for different applications.” What I don’t want to miss: “The smaller, bigger-sensor cameras like the Sony F3, and a Steadicam for the Canon 5D and other small cameras. I also want to find out how the news from Japan will affect Sony.” Revolutionary or evolutionary year? “Crew West and Sat West will have a booth at NAB for the first time, so it will be revolutionary for us! But I think in terms of technology, it will be an evolutionary show. As ENG/EFP acquisition specialists, we’re not really interested in 3D.”
Stereo3D CAT is an on-location software calibration and analysis system that dramatically simplifies and speeds the calibration of left and right Dashwood Cinema Solutions unveils its Stereo3D CAT on-location software calieye cameras and offers bration and analysis system. a unique eyestrain warning system; production crews can make quick lens changes without resorting to time-consuming recalibration using traditional charts. Version 3.0 of Dashwood’s flagship 3D mastering tool, Stereo3D Toolbox, is slated to reveal new “top secret” features at the show. And Stereo3D Utilities will be on hand for the first time supporting ingest of 3D material from new cameras on the market and output of stereo files to monitors and recording devices.
Dashwood Cinema Solutions
Element Technica
Dashwood Cinema Solutions (www.Dashwood 3D.com) unveils a new line of Mac-based stereo 3D products designed to accelerate 3D productions from camera lens calibration to mastering by automating complex production tasks and lending continuity to 3D workflows.
Element Technica, a leading provider of stereo 3D rigs for a broad range of cameras and applications (www.elementtechnica.com), introduces the Atom, especially designed for RED EPIC cameras, at NAB. The compact, streamlined rig accommodates
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full-sized PL and PV prime lenses as well as smaller zooms; rigged with a pair of RED EPICs, the magnesium Atom model provides a full 5K 3D beamsplitter system that weighs as little as 36 pounds. New from Element Technica is the Atom rig, especially Like other Technica 3D designed for RED EPIC cameras. rigs, the Atom provides full interocular (IO) and convergence (C) control and allows recording of IO, C and lens metadata. It integrates with the same cine-style lens control available with the company’s Quasar (large camera), Pulsar (medium camera) and Neutron (small camera) 3D rigs. Gates Deep Pulsar/Deep Atom and Hydroflex Neutron BORG underwater housings are also being shown.
Fujinon Fujifilm North America Corporation’s Optical Devices Division (www.fujifilm.com/ northamerica) brings new lenses, advances and popular models to NAB, including its latest products related to 3D sports Fujinon’s PL-mount lenses fea- production. Fujinon showcases ture the fastest T speeds availits XA88x8.8B ESM/PF teleable in a family of zooms. photo field lens, the industry’s widest angle in class with an 88X zoom range and Precision Focus Assist, and the cost-effective XA50x9.5B ESM HD field telephoto lens designed to work with ENGstyle 2/3-inch HD cameras. Also on tap are four PLmount lenses featuring the fastest T speeds available in a family of zooms, with unprecedented color matched 4Kand-beyond optical performance. Now with increased processing speed, the TRACE facial recognition system is again on hand as a technology demonstration with availability estimated at the end of this year.
LOCKE BRYAN Founder/director Locke Bryan Productions, Houston (www.lockebryan.com)
What I’m shopping for: “File-based acquisition and editing systems and cameras with 35mm or bigger sensors. We’re looking to streamline the post workflow and maximize file-based systems, and we’re always interested in new acquisition solutions.” What I don’t want to miss: “I don’t want to miss any of it! It’s part of NAB to wander the halls, look and learn, come upon something new. It gives you the knowledge to spot trends, and I always find a few surprises every year.” Revolutionary or evolutionary year? “Evolutionary. The problem with our industry is that the technology changes unbelievably rapidly, and there’s a weird juxtaposition of very high-quality deliverables for TV and big screens and projects for social media. They have different sets of needs and budgets, and one set of tools doesn’t do it all. You have to be able to play in all those environments in a market like ours.”
I-MOVIX Known for the first full broadcast integration solutions for ultra-slow motion, I-MOVIX (www.i-movix.com) debuts an enhanced version of its SprintCam Vvs HD (Phantom-Powered) that now operates at up to 2,700 fps in 1080i/50 or up to 5,800 fps in 720p/60 (more than 200 times slower than live action) and provides instant replay
GoPro
GoPro’s 3D HERO System connects two HD HERO cameras in one housing with a synchronization cable to shoot full 1080p 3D video.
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GoPro (www.gopro.com) showcases its cost-effective 3D HERO System, shown in prototype last year. The system connects two HD HERO cameras in one housing with a synchronization cable to shoot full 1080p 3D video. All 1080p HD HERO cameras are compatible with the 3D HERO Expansion Kit. March/April 2011
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NAB Equipment at native HD resolution and image quality. New features include a dual output that allows a camera operator to shoot and record at the same The enhanced version of I-MOVIX’s time; segmented memory; SprintCam Vvs HD system now speed ramping within a operates at increased speeds. replay; dual output of liveaction and replay sequences; and integration of both live and replay view on the viewfinder. The SprintCam Vvs HD system comprises the latest generation Vision Research high-speed HD camera; an operational control panel with real broadcast-quality color matrix and framerate choice; a slow-motion remote that allows the user to select a video sequence and instantly replay it with an HDSDI output for live broadcast or storage; and a cameracontrol unit.
JVC The new GY-HM750U ProHD compact, shouldermount camcorder bows at the JVC Professional Products Company booth (http://pro.jvc.com). Equipped with a 3CCD imaging system, it delivers 1920x1080 images in a small, lightweight form factor and is ideal for ENG, sports,
documentaries, events and other location shoots. It offers the industry’s fastest shoot-to-edit workflow by recording native HD or SD footage in ready-to-edit file formats on low-cost SDHC JVC introduces its compact GYHM750U ProHD shoulder-mount memory cards. It also percamcorder. mits simultaneous recording to both SDHC cards for instant backup or client copy. An improved Pre Rec feature stores 20 seconds of footage in its cache. A LoLux version, the GY-HM750LL, is available for ENG when external lighting cannot be used. Also on hand is the new KA-AS790G ASI module, which provides a compressed MPEG-2 output ideal for microwave transmission and long cable runs with no additional encoding required. The module attaches to the back of the GY-HM750U or GY-HM790U without external wiring or adapters.
Litepanels This year, Litepanels (www.litepanels.com) LED lighting showcases its “game-changing” Sola fresnels, which combine the light projection, control Litepanels calls its Sola fresnels "game changing." and focusing ability of fresnels with the friendliness, dimmability and energy savings of LED technology. The new Sola 6 (with a 6-inch fresnel lens) and Sola ENG (with a 3-inch fresnel lens) are both capable of focusing their output from a 70º to 10º beam and dimming from 100 percent to zero with no color shift; they use 95 percent less energy than traditional fresnels. The Sola 6 is designed for studio or remote applications while the Sola ENG is small and lightweight enough for on-camera use in an ENG or remote application. Additionally, Litepanels will show its modular 1x1 dimmable soft sources and its family of Micro, MicroPro and MiniPlus small, portable, battery-powered LED lights that easily mount on cameras or elsewhere.
Maxell
Maxell extends its iVDR line with a new 4-bay storage tower.
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Maxell Corporation of America (www.maxellpro media.com) extends its iVDR line with seven new products, developed in partnership with Addonics Technology, specifically for storage and backup applications. The products, which comprise 4-, 5- and 9-Bay Storage Towers;
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4- and 5-Bay Cipher Towers; a 9-Bay Storage Rack and an iVDR Desktop Drive with SATA connectivity, combine the inherent advantages of rugged iVDR storage technology with RAID functionality and Just a Bunch of Disks (JBOD) usability. Each can be configured with a combination of iVDR, SATA or IDE Drive Trays accommodating both 2.5- and 3.5-inch HDD; they also support Solid State Drives to fit a user’s specific needs. All seven products complement postproduction activities. Once connected, a user can edit footage using Adobe Premiere, Edius, Apple Final Cut Pro or a comparable program directly from the Storage Tower, Cipher Tower, Storage Rack or Desktop unit.
OConnor
The new OConnor 2065 fluid head is designed for popular digital cameras.
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OConnor’s innovations (www.ocon.com) this year include the new 2065 Fluid Head, which replaces the 2060HD and is designed to handle popular digital cameras, such as RED One, Sony F-35 and ARRI ALEXA. It is loaded with the same popular OConnor
FERNANDO IGLESIAS Vice president/operations Midtown Video, Miami (www.midtownvideo.com)
What I’m shopping for: “Cameras with S35mm sensors. We’re traditionally a video company and have stocked cameras with video-size CCDs or CMOS sensors. Now Sony and Panasonic are coming out with lower-priced cameras with S35mm and micro 4/3-inch sensors, so they’re not just for the Hollywood market anymore. I want to look into new studio HD-SDI cameras for our houses of worship market. We’ve become Zeiss dealers so PL-mounted lenses are a completely new area for us to check out. And I want to see if companies are ready to deliver on rumors of wireless video systems through 3G networks.” What I don’t want to miss: “The whole buzz around 3D although we don’t see an immediate need for it in our marketplace. Compared to New York or LA, the Miami/South Florida market is not a trendsetter – we’re four or five years behind. I also want to educate myself on the lower-price cameras that Sony and Panasonic are introducing.” Revolutionary or evolutionary year? “Evolutionary. It will be a continuum of the technology that’s out there already. NAB has changed a lot. We used to go to close deals; now we go more to educate ourselves. It’s great to talk to people at different levels at the manufacturers and see what’s going on.”
features and controls customers have come to expect; among the new offerings is stepless, ultra-smooth panand-tilt fluid drag designed to deliver the ultimate control and stability required for film-style shooting. Patented sinu-
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NAB Equipment MIKE ROMEY Pipeline supervisor Zoic Studios, Los Angeles (www.zoicstudios.com)
What I’m shopping for: “I’m interested in seeing the new and upgraded hardware releases, like RED EPIC, ARRI ALEXA, Isilon storage, AJA Kipro, Blackmagic hardware encoders and transcoders. We’re big fans of The Foundry; they’re beta testing Storm, and I’m eager to see where it goes. Zoic has also started dabbling in facility architecture and integration, so I’m looking at dollies, cranes, jibs and fluid heads now. And we’re doing a lot more feature film work so I’ll be looking at Christie projectors as well.” What I don’t want to miss: “Developments in stereo 3D: what 3ality has to offer and Element Technica’s Atom rig.” Revolutionary or evolutionary year? “Evolutionary. The non-tape pipeline is here, and we’re looking for tools to support it.”
soidal counterbalance provides true, accurate balance at any point in the tilt range. Also on hand are the CFF-1 Cine Follow Focus with modular design and low profile for rock-solid performance with big lenses; versatile O-Grips professional camera hand grips; and the new O-Box WM mattebox designed for full-size sensor camera setups.
Panasonic At NAB, Panasonic Solutions Company (www. panasonic.com/broadcast) introduces a versatile wireless system for its new AJHPX3100 master-quality Panasonic’s new solid-state AGHPD24 P2 deck offers 3D synchro1080p P2 HD camcorder nized record/playback. that simplifies the process of utilizing user-selected metadata. Comprised of a wireless module and software, the system promotes a seamless transfer of critical camera information between the HPX3100 and an array of intelligent devices, including PCs, iPads and iPhones. Also on tap is the new solid-state AG-HPD24 P2 deck with 3D synchronized record/playback, native 24p recording with variable frame rates, super fast USB 3.0 interface and HDMI output. In addition, Panasonic introduces AVCCAM Importer software, a QuickTime plug-in that eliminates the need to convert AVCHD files to ProRes422 files before editing in Apple’s Final Cut Pro, plus the AJ-PCD30 three-slot P2 device with “blazing fast” transfer 16
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speeds via a USB 3.0 interface. Earlier, the company announced major price reductions for its entire line up of high-capacity, high-speed P2 cards.
Quantel New from Quantel (www.quantel.com) is QTube whose workflow over IP offers instant access to live media with frame-accurate editing anyNew from Quantel is QTube for where via the Internet. Although frame-accurate editing anyQTube was first shown in a where via the Internet. broadcast production context, its ability to break the bonds which had restricted fully interactive workflows to a local studio complex has many potential applications in postproduction. With QTube, anyone involved in the production process can view, log and edit material, which may itself be located anywhere in the world. Fully finished editing projects can be produced and published anywhere. Quantel also showcases its newly released Pablo PA, the company’s first stand-alone, software-only product. Pablo PA is designed to help customers get maximum value from their eQ, iQ or Pablo suites by handling conforms, prep and workflow so the main suite can concentrate on client-focused work. It also offers new customers a low-cost way to benefit from Quantel’s postproduction tools. Pablo PA features Pablo V5 color; multi-layer timeline effects; import, export, archive and conform tools; plus a stereo 3D toolset. Also on hand is Quantel’s Enterprise sQ news/sports production system.
RED Digital Cinema In addition to promising “some surprises” at the show, RED (www.red.com) spotlights its EPIC camera, onethird the size of RED One with a 5K Mysterium-X sensor and 27-layer ASIC processor. Engineered to be a Digital RED Digital Cinema spotlights Still & Motion Camera with a its trim, full-featured EPIC dynamic range of over 13 camera. stops and a resolution that exceeds 35mm film, EPIC can boost its dynamic range to up to 18 stops with HDRx extended dynamic range technology. Purpose-built for multi-camera synchronization, EPIC is ideal for stereo 3D applications. A functioning version of the eagerly awaited Scarlet camera is on hand along with the new REDRAY PRO, which plays in realtime 2K and 4K RAW R3D files recorded on RED One or EPIC. It also can play out two simultaneous streams of 3D HD and 2K to accommodate stereo 3D content. Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
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SGO SGO (www.sgo.es) introduces version 6 of Mistika, its flagship DI and stereo 3D postproduction system, and Mistika Live, its live on-set application, at NAB. As stereo 3D gains momentum, Mistika version 6 can now play an astounding 48 fps, re-conform in the timeline while still retaining previous effects, provide an overall accurate pixel-by-pixel color adjustment between both SGO unveils version 6 of Mistika, its flagship DI and stereo 3D post eyes via the highly advanced Matching Color feature, and system. solve practical 3D issues with the Depth Map tool. Mistika also offers a significant speed enhancement for native and realtime Raw file data handling for cameras such as the RED EPIC, ARRI ALEXA, Phantom and Weisscam. The system is empowered to support up to 5K realtime color grading and streamlines postproduction by reading most raw camera codecs. The latest innovations also apply to Mistika Live, which takes SGO’s powerful stereo 3D and color correction tools onto the set or to live environments.
Sachtler
Sachtler introduces an improved Video 20 S1 fluid head.
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us at Visit NAB 308 U2 h #S Boot
Sachter camera support (www.sachtler.us) showcases its new Cine DSLR fluid head system for 1-11 pound payloads to handle a DSLR bare or fully outfitted with a heavier lens and accessories. Lightweight and compact, it is easily transported, and its special camera plate can be quickly mounted and remounted.
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NAB Equipment CLAIRE SHANLEY Managing director Sixteen19, New York City (www.sixteen19.com)
What I’m shopping for: “We do a lot of color and post work, so I’ll be looking at developments and ramifications for workflow. Also, the big new reference-grade displays: By all accounts the O-LED monitors from Sony and Dolby look awesome, and we’re curious about the price and life-cycle considerations for these displays. I want to check out archiving software for LTFS or LT05 and how to implement them for more elegant restores. And I want to see Mac Thunderbolt and what it means for laptops and new storage options.” What I don’t want to miss: “I’m hoping for a big announcement about colortiming systems. Last year the big news was DaVinci Resolve on Mac. Color-correction possibilities are shifting, and I want to see how they shake out. On a goofy note, I like to see the parts of NAB that don’t have a lot to do with our business – I always look at the helicopters!” Revolutionary or evolutionary year? “I’d love to see a revolution in colortiming systems. Given the economy, I wonder how aggressive product-development cycles are at this point; it takes a lot of resources to come up with innovations. Yet developers might be motivated by the slowdown: It might incentivize a little revolution!”
Also on exhibit are improved classic Video 18 S1 and Video 20 S1 fluid heads with 16-step counterbalance adjustment and enhanced payload ranges and new artemis camera stabilizers: artemis Handheld for DSLRs and artemis Cine HD Pro for digital cine cameras and stereo 3D rigs.
Sony Electronics At NAB, Sony Electronics (www.sony.com/professional) spotlights a range of HD products and technologies for 2D and stereo 3D production ranging from camcorder and New from Sony Electronics is the camera systems to switchers PMW-F3 Super 35mm digital proand displays. duction camera with an "indie" price tag. Sony’s new PMW-F3, the first professional handheld Super 35mm digital production camera that delivers high performance at an “indie” price, is now available. Based on Sony’s XDCAM EX workflow, it uses the SxS ExpressCard-based recording media format. A 3D-link feature for the camera, permitting synchronous remote command between two F3s using one remote controller, will be announced. Also at the show: the newest NXCAM HD camcorder equipped with a Super 35mm equivalent sensor. The next generation of Sony’s HDCAM SR technology premieres with a new SRMemory camcorder, SRMemory studio deck and SRMemory transfer unit. The HDCAM SR format is well entrenched in postproduction and is the de facto standard for mastering, onset recording and deliverables. Sony also will be demonstrating its continuing commitment to developing complete stereo 3D solutions. 18
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Toshiba Toshiba Imaging Systems Division (www.cam eras.toshiba.com) introduces the IK-HR2D to its HD camera family. The compact, one-piece Toshiba adds the compact IKHR2D to its HD camera family. CMOS HD camera offers realtime, live-image data capture up to 60 fps and features both DVI-D and USB outputs for microscopy, industrial and broadcast applications.
Vinten Vinten Radamec (ww.vinten radamec.com) unveils its new Fusion FHR-35, a compact, lightweight robotic pan-and-tilt head designed to support Vinten launches the Vector 75 broadcast camera and lens head with pantographic balpackages of up to 35 pounds in ance mechanism. remote locations where the head needs to be as unobtrusive as possible. The Vinten-branded Vector 75 head also launches with the same outstanding camera carrying performance as the popular Vector 750, but incorporates standard LF drag control plus a pantographic balance mechanism that simplifies adjustment. Vinten Radamec has two dedicated Virtual Reality (VR) sets on the show floor demonstrating how its products work live with Brainstorm and Orad software. One of the VR systems runs with the Quattro SE, a manually-operated pedestal with built-in encoders; the other features a fully robotic system using the Fusion FP-188VR pedestal.
Zylight The booth of LED lighting leader Zylight (www.zylight .com) features the latest version of its Active Diffusion LCD panel – the recipient of two technology awards at Zylight showcases its IS3 wide NAB 2010. Fully adjustable soft source LED. and easy to use, the thin, flexible panel attaches to a standard diffusion frame and can be precisely adjusted across a range of densities. It can be used in front of “cool” lighting sources such as LEDs and fluorescents, and not having to switch sheets of diffusion between takes as the ambient light changes saves time and money on location or in the studio. Also at the show are Zylight’s palm-sized Z90 and IS3 wide soft source LED lighting instruments. They produce fully calibrated bright white light of any color temperature and any color, forever eliminating gels and include full wireless control, DMX integration and AC or DC power options. Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
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specialty advertising
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Professional Sound Services
EW YORK CITY’S PROFESSIONAL SOUND SERVICES (PSS) is dedicated to providing
the best in audio equipment sales, service and rentals throughout the U.S. and worldwide. For a number of years PSS has brought a concern for service to a loyal clientele in production sound for motion pictures, broadcasting and video production. They also serve recording studios, schools, universities and government agencies worldwide. Owner Rich Topham Jr. is a leader in bringing “sound education” to many throughout the years. With experience in just about all aspects of sound and recording in production and postproduction, he has worked with many major films, televisions series, sitcoms, commercials and industrial videos. He has received six Emmy Awards for technical support in sound and is a member of the Cinema Audio Society (CAS), Society of Motion Pictures Technicians and Engineers (SMPTE), Audio Engineering Society (AES), National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and National Technical Investigators’ Association (NATIA). Rich believes that “education is fundamentally the most important part of the audio business,” and PSS workshops offer the tools, techniques and procedures used in the professional sound business. Workshop students gain an appreciation of the aesthetic aspects of sound recording, learn tricks for creating an audio design and explore how to manipulate room tone, dialogue and effects tracks for a realistic sound presence. Pre-production planning, boom and wireless microphone operation, microphone planting, tape deck signal set up, and other techniques are also addressed. In addition, students are introduced to the latest recording equipment, inter-format recording for music videos and commercial production, time code and other management tools for postproduction. PSS holds at least two workshops each month, either onsite in the New York City store or on location at various colleges, universities or private businesses. Rich also makes sure the tech staff at PSS is technically up-to-date. “In this everchanging environment, sound mixers need
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the latest gear and the latest knowledge of the best way to run that gear,” he notes. A recent client testimonial says it all: “I can always rely on the PSS staff to answer all my questions without having to ‘get back to me.’ Their knowledge is up to the minute and immediate.” The Rental Department carries a wide range of the latest equipment for all audio needs. From a Sound Device mixer to a Lectrosonics combo system to a Sennheiser microphone, PSS offers a three-day Rental Week, a deal that can’t be beat. Rental manager Mike Boyle customizes packages to make sure they’re just right for clients. As a Factory Authorized Service Center for many manufacturers in the audio business, PSS provides prompt and reliable service on a wide variety of professional audio equipment, both in and out of warranty. “I know that their investment in produc-
tion audio equipment is important to clients,” says Rich. “Regular care and maintenance is an important step in prolonging the life of that investment, and service manager Vlad Tarasov, one of the best audio technicians around, helps with that process.” PSS recently added a postproduction studio equipped with the best in professional equipment for both audio and video. Need audio clean up, an audio transfer with time code, or just a basic audio dub? No problem. Open 24/7? No problem. The PSS technical staff is highly qualified and respected. PSS offers the largest inventory of professional sound equipment on its website (www.pro-sound.com) where the monthly online newsletter presents news, photos and stories from the field. Customers can buy directly online or stop by the New York City office to chat with the staff and share pizza Friday at noon.
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QUENCHING VIEWERS’ THIRST for Animation and VFX in Spots Studios serve up dazzling animations, playful characters, photoreal stars and transformative visual effects
BY MICHAEL FICKES
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FRAMESTORE Fire and Ice Fantasy for Coca-Cola
C
oca-Cola’s 2011 Super Bowl entry, “Siege,” is a fully animated spot that mimics
the lavish illustration style of fantasy fiction. Wieden + Kennedy of Portland and New York City created the epic story of a peaceful ice people defending their mountain village from a marauding army of fire warriors and a fire-breathing dragon. “The assignment was to bring fantasy art to life,” says Diarmid Harrison-Murray, VFX supervisor with the London offices of Framestore (www.framestorecfc.com). “Through many iterations, the look evolved into a stylized environment. We tried to avoid being filmic and to rely on atmospheric effects – soft elements and hazes that recede into the background – instead of filmic depth of field.” Executing the look posed technical challenges that always concern organic effects. For instance, the ice people of the village, while human in shape, have furry bodies, that required a proprietary Framestore software application to pull off naturally. Then came fire. At the beginning of the spot, the leader of the villagers watches through a telescope as giant forest fires burn in the wake of the advancing fire warrior army. Later, the dragon with the fire army belches out plumes of fire and smoke. Unlike tangible objects, fire and smoke don’t have solid surfaces; they are volumetric and more difficult to illustrate, explains Harrison-Murray. The goal was to animate fire so it would act like real fire but match the spot’s stylized look. The Framestore team working on the fire and smoke sequences employed Side Effects’ customizable Houdini, a tool that uses fluid dynamics equations to build, frame-by-frame, a complex volumetric visual effect of flowing clouds of fire and smoke.
[Opposite Page] The ice people celebrate their triumph with Coca-Cola.
[Top Right] The enemy dragon belches fire and smoke on his icy counterpart.
[Middle Right] The fire-breathing dragon quaffs a Coke and douses his fiery thirst.
[Bottom Right] Diarmid Harrison-Murray was Framestore London’s VFX supervisor for Coca-Cola’s “Siege.”
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The spot’s climactic scene brings a host of tremendous effects challenges together. In the sequence, the ice people wheel out an ice dragon – sort of the Trojan Horse in reverse. The fire-breathing dragon, surrounded by thousands of fire warriors, melts the ice, revealing a bottle of Coca-Cola embedded within. A fire warrior grabs the bottle, sneers and tosses it into the air. The dragon catches it and drinks. Miraculously, the Coke douses the dragon’s fire. All it can do is spout celebratory fireworks. Defeated, the sprawling crowd of fire warriors retreats. Creating the army crowds required a two-day motion capture shoot of a costumed man performing the actions of individual fire warriors. “Then we used [Autodesk] Maya particles and our own scripts to automate the process of building the crowds and negotiating movements – making sure that individuals didn’t walk through each other,” Harrison-Murray says. Mental Ray rendered the crowd images in high dynamic range EXR, an image format developed by ILM. Mantra, the Houdini renderer, built the fire and smoke layers. The final step was to composite the massively detailed scenes together: The climactic scene alone contains about 20 layers. “We used [The Foundry’s] Nuke, which can handle high dynamic range files,” Harrison-Murray says. Directing duo Fx and Mat of London-based Nexus Productions directed with Isobel Conroy producing. March/April 2011
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Animation and VFX
MOVING PICTURE COMPANY How to Hug a Polar Bear
In
Nissan’s recent “Polar Bear” spot for the allelectric Leaf vehicle via TBWA/Chiat/Day, Los Angeles, a polar bear swims south from a melting
icecap and ambles ashore into a forest. Later, it waits out a rain shower beneath a highway overpass and relaxes by swatting at a butterfly. Walking along a road, the bear roars as a tractor-trailer passes. Entering a city, the bear crosses a bridge and moves through city streets. Come morning, the bear strides through a suburban neighborhood and turns into a driveway where a man prepares to slide behind the wheel of his Nissan Leaf. Suddenly, the bear stands and extends its front legs offering the man a hug for helping protect the planet. The two embrace. Is it a polar bear or very skillful photorealistic animation? Actually, it’s both. Director Daniel Kleinman of Epoch Films brought the project to Moving Picture Company (MPC), which has offices in Los Angeles, London and Vancouver (www.moving-picture.com). “He had a [real] bear but thought that most of the scenes would be animated,” says Michael Stanish, head of 3D production/commercials, who produced for MPC.
[Top] Documentary footage, cleaned up by MPC, captured a polar bear on its shrinking habitat.
[Inset] Aggie, a real polar bear, walks through the woods.
[Middle] Aggie takes shelter in an underpass.
[Bottom] Separate plates were shot of Aggie on the road and the truck passing by to protect her from traffic.
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[Right Top] Aggie takes in the night cityscape; MPC disguised the Vancouver location.
[Right Bottom] A Flame artist at MPC changed the traffic lights in Aggie’s favor as she crossed the street.
Turns out, the bear, named Aggie, was a more capable – and, in the end, gentler – actor than anyone expected. Still, MPC had plenty to do. The early scenes were taken from a documentary film about polar bears, and MPC had to clean them up. While the bear laid peacefully on the icecap as the commercial shows, in the documentary the animal was covered with the blood of recently consumed prey. “We took out the blood,” Stanish says. “We also replaced some of the water, which looked dirty. We used Autodesk’s Flame.” In many of Aggie’s scenes, her trainer appeared maneuvering the bear with a leash. Flame was used to paint out the trainer and leash. When it came time for Aggie to cross a bridge at night, the bear had gone off the clock. “That was the only shot they weren’t able to get, so we animated the bear with [Autodesk] Maya,” Stanish says. “Then we composited the animation onto the bridge with [The Foundry’s] Nuke.” MPC also tapped Maya to create the butterfly, with Nuke compositing the insect into the playful swatting scene with Aggie. Several scenes required compositing practical plates. For the road scene with the roaring bear and tractor-trailer, the director shot both separately, and MPC composited them together. “It would have been too dangerous to put the bear and truck in the same scene,” Stanish says. The real challenge was the hug. Aggie would hug her trainer gently. But no one, including the actor, wanted to risk injuring the actor. So the trainer and the bear hugged on camera for the plate. Then the actor hugged the air, matching the trainer’s actions.
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“This was a complex scene,” Stanish says. “We replaced the trainer’s head and hands with the actor’s. Then we matched the trainer’s head and hands interacting with the bear’s fur.” Again Flame and Nuke did the honors. Ahmed Gharraph served as lead 3D animator on the project, with Andrea Falcone providing support, Yourick Van Impe working on Flame and Ryan Hadfield, Jason Hayes and Owen Williams compositing.
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Animation and VFX
QUIETMAN Transforming Newsday for iPad and iPhone
E
very newspaper publisher is doing it: promoting new
iPad and iPhone aps for their readers. In the case of Newsday’s iPad and iPhone aps, ad agency The Brooklyn Brothers and New York City-based production company QuietMan (www.quietman.com) made sure the Newsday pitch was different from what other papers were doing. They created “Transformer,” an eye-popping animated spot in which a Newsday paper, lying on a flat surface, folds itself into a stadium with animated football players. Up above, a blimp floats by. It’s a wonderfully surprising scene. And there’s more. The football stadium unfolds and transforms into a drum kit, which, in turn, becomes a sports car. The car transforms into a suburban house, which finally becomes an iPad. A virtual camera shoots the spot without cutting. It pans around the 3D models. Sometimes the models spin. Sometimes, the camera darts up for a crane shot or pushes in for a close-up before pulling back and panning. The 3D models represent sections of the Long Island paper: sports, entertainment, classified and real estate, with the iPad appearing as a new way to read the paper. How did QuietMan fold the newspaper into the stadium? “We didn’t,” says Johnnie Semerad, founder and creative director. “We built the stadium and worked backwards, unfolding the stadium into the newspaper. “We started by using [Autodesk Softimage] XSI to create geometric planes that would fit together to form the stadium,” he says. “Then we gave the planes a newspaper texture with [Adobe] Photoshop.” Semerad says the unfolding began with a section of seats in the stadium that folded down into a flat plane, with other sections following along, frame by frame. Next, they went in the other direction and folded the stadium, frame by frame, into the drums, the drums into the car, the car into the house and the house into the iPad.
“The biggest challenge was finessing the transitions that would make the piece smooth and seamless, from newspaper to iPad,” Semerad says. “That was the strategy – to show this seamless transition from one way of reading the paper to another.” Using XSI, QuietMan made the stadium literally explode into a group of shapes that come back together as the drum kit. Then the drums rearrange themselves to become wheels, with the rest of the virtual drum kit forming the body of the car. Next, the wheels and tires of the sports car fold under the car as its body panels grow into the walls and roof of the house. At the completion of each transformation, the new image contains more smooth black material. The house, for instance, features a peaked, smooth black roof, which becomes the face of the iPad in
[Top] A folded-newspaper drum kit transforms into a snappy sports car in “Transformer” with effects animation from QuietMan.
[Bottom] A copy of Newsday folds itself into the shape of a stadium.
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the final transformation. Newspaper pieces from the house become smooth gray or black surfaces that form part of the un-newspaper-like iPad that contains the digital version of Newsday. After the transformations were created in XSI and rendered out in layers, Semerad took the layers into Autodesk Inferno for compositing. “I turned the shadows up or down and made the reflections stronger, then I hit render again for the final image,” he explains. “I’m told this is a unique way to work, but it makes sense to me.” He also composited QuietMan-made action footage, featuring CG football players whose movements were motion captured, into the stadium. QuietMan’s designer/animators were Chris Covelli, Zach Rubins, Sue Jang and Sandor Toledo.
[Right] QuietMan’s Johnnie Semerad at work.
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Animation and VFX
THE MILL Selling VW Beetle Without a Car in Sight
B
ack in February, Super Bowl fans cheered an animated
Volkswagen Beetle commercial from Deutsch/LA. “Black Beetle” parodies classic film and television car chases as a realistic, though stylized, animated beetle (the insect kind – get it?) zooms along an overgrown, rock-strewn, cross-forest highway crowded with animated bug traffic. London’s The Mill (www.themill.com) animated the spot on a heart-pounding sixweek schedule, an amazingly tight turnaround for an ambitious piece of animation. Tom Bussell and Juan Brockhaus, The Mill’s lead 3D artists, made the compressed schedule work by sprinting from start to finish. In the spot, the beetle outruns predators, weaves through congested insect traffic, dodges a caterpillar, shocks two praying mantises, rounds a corner in slow motion, leaps off a log and lands atop a flat rock where it morphs into the iconic silhouette of a Beetle – the car kind. The forest where all this happens was a 10x10-foot physical set. The production team shipped three tons of actual forest materials – trees, logs,
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underbrush, dirt and other objects – to Downey Studios in Downey, California in order to build a real habitat for the animated beetle. “We wanted the real setting for authenticity,” Bussell says. “But we had to do it in a studio to control the lighting and the weather throughout the shoot, which lasted 20 hours.” Dante Ariola of MJZ in Los Angeles directed the motion-control shoot that created the camera angles and choreographed the movements of the animated beetle and other insects through the forest. Pebbles and chunks of dirt served as tracking markers. A Spheron-CGI camera from Spheron-VR was employed to capture real- world data and make it available to the visualization process. In the VFX
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arena the camera aids in seamlessly merging virtual objects with real-world scenes. “Even though we didn’t render the set [in CG], we needed a digital version, to get the shadows, lighting, interactions and close calls between the insects right,” explains Bussell. After the shoot and fighting an impending deadline, a number of teams from The Mill were tasked with the project. No fewer than 15 people were at work at any given time. “Sometimes it seemed like we were all working on it,” Bussell chuckles. Teams were assigned to modeling, rigging, texturing and shading, lighting, animating and compositing. “We’ve written a proprietary geometry-caching software application to help us work faster,” says Bussell. “It’s an organizational tool that enables dif[Left] Downey Studios crafted the realistic set for “Black Beetle” from three tons of actual forest materials.
[Above Right] The black beetle rounds a corner of the forest highway in slow motion.
[Right] Two photoreal praying mantises are surprised when a speeding black beetle heads their way.
[Bottom Right] Tom Bussell, one of The Mill’s lead 3D artists, helped the “Black Beetle” sprint through the forest.
ferent teams to work independently on the same shot at the same time, while keeping everyone apprised of changes.” Teams used Pixologic’s ZBrush to model the beetle and other insects, relying on research from London’s Natural History Museum for realism. Riggers tapped Autodesk Softimage XSI to add the inner mechanics to animate the insects. Then a texturing and shading team added details. An animation team used Autodesk Maya and XSI to block out the edit. Compositors relied on The Foundry’s Nuke and Autodesk Flame to layer the pieces together. The Mill’s Gemma Smith produced on the VFX end. MJZ’s Natalie Hill served as executive producer. Jim Haygood of LA’s Union edited with an assist from Dylan Firshein. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion recorded the pounding rendition of “Black Betty” that accompanies the beetle on his amazing ride. www.markeemag.com
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Animation and VFX
SUPERFAD Kirby’s Yarns are Epic Nintendo Tales
“K
irby’s Epic Explosion,” a wildly inventive animated spot from Leo Burnett/Chicago promotes
Nintendo’s latest entry in the long-running series, Kirby’s Epic Yarn. Kirby, the small, pink, spherical Nintendo game hero, who is now made of yarn, possesses strange, changeable powers. At one time, he could swallow enemies, transform them into dangerous projectiles and spit them out. Today’s Kirby can’t swallow enemies. He can, however, transform himself into a tank and fire bolts of yarn at enemies. This new power goes on display in “Kirby’s Epic Explosion,” created by Superfad (www.superfad.com), an animation production company with offices in Los Angeles, New York and Seattle. The spot opens as Kirby, in his first appearance as a character fashioned from yarn, arrives on Main Street in Anywhere USA – actually a real LA location. “Finding a cute LA street was no easy task,” chuckles Nando Costa, who co-directed the piece with colleague Richard Hickey. “But we did find one and shot plates with a 35mm ARRI.” Because of what happens in the spot, Superfad creatives needed a precise virtual camera. “For every practical shot of the main street, our technical director, John Ngyuen, used a laser
[Clockwise from Top Left] Under threat, Kirby swells into a yarn-toting tank to defend himself. Kirby blasts a Bronto Burt with a yarn missile while others look on. The Bronto Burts, Kirby’s deadly enemies, arrive in town and prepare to attack. Main Street in Anywhere USA was based on a live-action plate of an LA block.
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[Right] In the aftermath of Kirby’s mighty yarn shot, a Bronto Burt explodes and plasters a building with yarn and fabric.
[Bottom] Superfad’s Nando Costa co-directed the spot with Richard Hickey.
device to measure the distances between the buildings and the camera,” Costa says. “He also factored in data that would enable the virtual camera to switch between 24mm and 35mm virtual lenses.” Superfad needed to match the practical and virtual lenses because the animated spot sometimes required knitting practical scenes together in one shot. When the pieces of scenes overlapped, Superfad had to mask one of the overlapping objects to prevent distortion. The right virtual lenses made that possible. “We also shot a lot of photos to use as source for the textures of the buildings, street and streetlights,” says Costa. The photos, laser dimensions and matched virtual lenses helped Superfad Autodesk Flame artist Matthew Lydecker adjust the practical shots to fit the spot. He added trees, raised some buildings, lowered others and added sky and clouds where necessary. When Kirby arrives on Main Street, unfriendly Bronto Burts attack him. Kirby fights back by transforming himself into a tank made of yarn and firing bolts of yarn that destroy the Burts and transform Main Street’s buildings, trees, streetlights and cars into brilliantly-colored objects. The yarn materializes in the form of colored shades that unfurl down the sides of buildings and textured fabrics that wrap the facades. “We did this with two teams,” Costa says. “One team animated the 3D characters in Autodesk Maya, created the fabric textures and made the unfurling yarn shades. The second team, made up of Lydecker on [Autodesk] Flame and Donald Strubler using [The Foundry’s] Nuke, composited finished characters over finished live-action scenes. “It was challenging toward the end as each team worked out details requiring refinements by the other team.” Superfad produced the first 18 seconds of the commercial, the battle between www.markeemag.com
Kirby and the Burts. Nintendo supplied the last 12 seconds of game animation showcasing more of the new Kirby’s capabilities. Superfad’s Kevin Batten executive produced with Will Hyde the executive creative director. Rommel Calderon, John Cherniack, Christina Lee, Grace Lee and Catherine Yoo provided the 3D animation. Beau Leon of Santa Monica-based New Hat manned the telecine.
With thousands of crews around the world, we find the right one for your shoot. Crew Connection.
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ESPN Rolls Out ESPN 3D Network with NEP Supershooters’ Support BY MARK R. SMITH
It was less than a year ago. ESPN had just announced the launch of its event-based stereo 3D network, which was slated to air approximately 100 events during its first year. In the midst of that rollout, another kind of rollout immediately became keenly important – one that concerned the need for mobile units, 3D mobile units, to be exact.
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But most mobile vendors, which have been building new HD units at a fast clip (see Markee 2.0, November/December 2010), had yet to seriously jump onboard and outfit 3D convoys. Only Pittsburgh-based NEP Supershooters (www.nepinc.com) provided that service to the market. So when the sports network took the next step and announced during the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that ESPN 3D would air content 24 hours a day, it produced a ripple effect through the mobile world. The ambitious programming schedule, which includes rebroadcasts of events when a live show is not on tap, will require the network to deliver stereo 3D in a world where the format is still very much in its infancy and mobile providers are still assessing its impact.
Taking 3D on the Road Chris Calcinari, vice president, remote operations for ESPN, is responsible for the technical setup and equipment for all ESPN events, including 3D broadcasts. “We’re doing 100 events in 3D this year, and we’re ramping up [3D operations] as we did with ESPN HD seven years ago. ESPN 3D has been an event-based channel from the time of its debut [June 11, 2010]. But when we came on the air 24/7 at the end of February, we began offering a ‘wheel’ of game highlights when there is no live event.” Establishing a network that broadcasts events from all over the world has many requirements, among which is lining up multiple mobile units for live broadcasts on location.
[Above Top] Exterior of NEP’s SS31, one of the company’s two purpose-built stereo 3D trucks. Photo: Ray Cordero
[Above Bottom] Cameraman wields a PACE 3D camera rig during the USC vs. Ohio State game. Photo: ESPN, Inc.
[Left] NEP’s SS32 B unit outside Madison Square Garden for a NY Knicks vs. Miami Heat NBA game. Photo: ESPN, Inc.
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Mobile ESPN 3D
[Above] Camera operators ran 2D and 3D cameras side by side at the USC vs. Ohio State football game. Photo: ESPN, Inc.
“We used to [own trucks] 15 to 20 years ago, but today we lease a large number of units,” says Calcinari. ESPN relies on a core fleet of 44 trucks from various companies, including NEP Supershooters, Game Creek Video, Lyon Video and F&F Productions. “There aren’t very many vendors, if any, that we do not use.” On the 3D front, however, ESPN 3D has exclusively used NEP to date. “There are only a handful of purpose-built 3D trucks in the market today. Two were built specifically for sports, and NEP owns them both: Supershooters 31 (SS31) and 32 (SS32). They have a lot of features, like being built to handle dual-path signal flow, which is obviously not a requirement for 2D,” Calcinari points out. The trucks also boast full functional areas not available in other trucks, such as convergence and stereographer areas, plus features like larger routers and switchers and 3D monitors (see box). “The 3D monitors are keenly important because without them, you can’t see the stereoscopic images that you are producing,” says Stephen Raymond, coordinating technical manager for ESPN. Camera usage varies according to an event’s demand. “If the event requires longer lensing, we use the Sony HDC-P1 or the Sony HDC-1500,” says Calcinari. “The newer handheld [rigs] use the Sony ‘Ice Cube’ Exmor cameras (PMW-10MD) with full HD CMOS sensors, which were developed for medical apps, in a system designed and built in conjunction with PACE 3D. These camera systems allow our shooters to run with a lighter, more nimble two-camera rig when they need to.” Calcinari says that he’s not aware of any more 3D trucks under construction, so ESPN’s relationship with NEP looks to continue. Mobile vendors’ approach to 3D is reminiscent of the early days of HD, he observes. “The truck companies are taking a wait-and-see approach before making such a big expenditure.” (Editor’s note: NEP also has successfully deployed its HD trucks for 3D productions, including coverage of the Sony Open in Hawaii for The Golf Channel.)
Implementing 3D Advances Part of what makes the transition tricky for mobile vendors is the same issue that has always been a concern during broadcast transitions: the technology. “We’ve been testing technology periodically for three years,” says Calcinari, “and since we’ve launched, the technology we’ve implemented, and what’s happened with it, has been remarkable.” For instance, when ESPN 3D launched the only handheld camera rig in use was an 85-pounder designed by PACE 3D and backboned by Sony technology. “The large, heavy beamsplitter [rigs] were the only handhelds available little more than a year ago,” Calcinari recalls. “They were made for cinematic use and not for sports television. We had to give our shooters plenty of breaks to handle that load. “But we’ve already gone from an 85-pound handheld rig to a 22pounder by working with our partners, NEP and PACE 3D, to make it happen. We initially looked for smaller lenses and camera systems with PACE 3D, which we are still doing as this technology evolves. But we’ve come a long way toward reaching our goal of building a smaller, lighter handheld rig. The manufacturers, notably Sony and Fujinon, see the need of building smaller cameras so everything plays together.” 32
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Meet NEP Supershooters’ SS31 and SS32 Both SS31 and SS32 are powerful 3D twin units boasting spacious production rooms with 3D viewing and B units that support eight or 14 convergence operators and a stereographer, respectively. SS31’s A unit measures 70 feet long (with tractor), 13.5 feet high and 20 feet wide, expanded. The B unit is 75 feet long (with tractor), 13.5 feet high and 15 feet 4 inches wide. SS31 is capable of supporting 10 3D rigs and features a Sony MVS-8000A switcher, EVS XT2 servers and a Calrec Q2 audio console. SS32’s A unit is 78 feet 11 inches long (with tractor), 13.5 feet high and 16 feet 12 inches wide, expanded. Its B unit is 69 feet 11 inches long (with tractor), 13.5 feet high and 13 feet 2 inches wide. SS32 is wired for 20 3D camera positions and offers a Sony MVS-8000X switcher, PACE 3D camera rig options, EVS XT2 servers and a Calrec Alpha audio board with Bluefin.
Production room housed in NEP’s SS32 A unit.
Control room in NEP’s SS31 A unit.
Photo: Ray Cordero
Both NEP’s SS31 and SS32 have companion B units. “In the main mobile unit, you have all of the main equipment; but the B unit has all of the conversion stations and is home to the stereographer, the engineer who creatively determines the conversion point [which provides the depth] for 3D,” Calcinari explains. “It’s all about foreground and background. [The stereographer] is an extension of the director, in relation to the 3D angle.”
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Mobile ESPN 3D
ESPN Designates Its Wide World of Sports Complex as Official 3D Development Center To provide a real-world testing ground to continue the development of ESPN 3D, in October 2009 ESPN designated the ESPN Innovation Lab at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida as the hub for developing 3D technology. The concept allows for ESPN to host various technology companies to utilize the site for emerging technology enhancements focused on 3D television. In addition to the resources at the Innovation Lab, ESPN brought online a new production center to employ when producing live sporting events for multiple ESPN platforms. “The Innovation Lab and the new production center gives ESPN a designated testing ground to continue creating a robust ESPN 3D network,” said Chuck Pagano, ESPN’s executive vice president, technology, ESPN. “This complex provides ESPN access to more than 300 sporting events, which means 3D production testing can occur throughout the year. The research ESPN gathers through these facilities will set the pace for innovation and provide fans the best 3D on-air coverage of sporting events.” The production center also serves as a training facility for production personnel to gain experience in telecasting 3D events. The facility houses eight edit rooms, which can feed highlights into the main server system at ESPN’s Bristol, Connecticut headquarters. Also, the production center controls 42 robotic cameras scattered throughout the complex, which can capture highlights from the various venues; the facility features 10 ENG cameras and four EFP cameras. The production control room has 16 channels of bi-directional video along with audio ingest, play out capabilities, graphics building and more. To date, the center has produced two innovative production elements: Ball Track and ESPN Snap Zoom. Ball Track is a Doppler radar hit-tracking system that has the ability to track home runs showing the distance and height of the ball in-flight, updating continuously during the ball’s flight. ESPN Snap Zoom is a freeze-frame technology that brings the fan closer to the play by zooming in an area of interest and providing insight to current action on the field, thus giving the viewer a different view on a particular focus of play. The Innovation Lab also has played a role in developing the NBA Player Card and Ultimate Uplink. Last November, ESPN and Winter Park, Florida-based Full Sail University debuted the Full Sail University Sports Lab Powered by ESPN. The network utilizes the facility, staffed by selected students and ESPN’s emerging technology team, for R&D of various new studio and remote technologies.
ESPN Innovation Lab is located at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World.
ESPN Innovation Lab is a real-world testing ground for stereo 3D technology. Photo: ESPN, Inc.
Photo: ESPN, Inc.
Although the network and its vendors are in the midst of something of a learning curve, Calcinari thinks that the most important goal of the upstart ESPN 3D network is already being met. “What we’ve done is set up an arsenal of tools that will allow us to arrange 3D broadcasts without having a major impact on the venues,” he says. “Now most, if not all, 3D productions are taking place side-by-side with HD productions.”
Adapting Venues to 3D and Vice Versa When stadium operations managers ask how many more camera positions are needed for 3D, Calcinari and his crew try to add camera positions in a way that “is not disruptive to the venue by killing seats or blocking views.” For example, for the weekly NCAA Division 1 football games, rather than putting the 3D game camera in an obstructive position, the crew took advantage of MastCam, which rises to 22 feet and sits on wheels as it moves the camera up and down the sidelines. 34
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“We control [MastCam] from the truck, in the compound,” says Calcinari. “What’s unique about this is that we want to use a seasoned shooter to operate it, so we use the shooter from the compound who employs the remote pan bar system. I’m sure they lose in peripheral vision by doing so, but taking that approach has worked out well so far,” enabling the network to place a camera in an optimal position they couldn’t have achieved otherwise. ESPN used NEP’s SS32 for coverage of the recent Winter X Games in Aspen, Colorado. “We had a 3D presence at every one of the events and used a single truck and technical crew. Based on this, we had to reposition the cameras accordingly between the four venues,” says Calcinari. Those four venues – Slopestyle, Super Pipe, Big Air and Snowmobile Freestyle – were all located on the mountain, so ESPN had to lay more than 100,000 feet of fiber to make everything happen. “The broadcast was very challenging,” he says. “The equipment is very fragile, plus there were environmental considerations due to moving it and operating it in the cold, snowy, unpredictable weather.” Despite the challenges, “nothing of this nature had been attempted before and been as successful” as the joint effort by ESPN 3D, NEP and PACE 3D, says Calcinari. “In addition, many of the images from the 3D systems were shared with the 2D show.” Stephen Raymond believes that the image sharing marked “the first time this was done in a significant way. All told, we produced more than 16 hours of 3D programming” for the Winter X Games. “We want to be down low and close to the action here,” adds Calcinari. “Some events lend themselves to those types of angles, like boxing and the X Games, [the latter of] which is easier to pull off since we control that event.” (Editor’s note: ESPN created and controls the Winter and Summer X Games.)
[Above] MastCam in use at the Boise State vs. Virginia Tech football game last September. Photo: ESPN, Inc.
Inhouse Innovation and Idea Sharing The ESPN Innovation Lab has been “key in the development of the 3D broadcasts,” according to Calcinari (see sidebar). “We’ve done a fair amount of testing there,” he says, “bringing in multiple manufacturers and 3D tech companies to assist in building 3D solutions. Steve [Raymond] and I have been working with CBS, HBO, ABC and others on the technology. [They] come to ESPN to observe and learn about 3D broadcasting.” ”We all take a similar approach to 3D broadcasting,” says Calcinari, “but do some things in different ways. We are beginning to share technical resources and ideas now that are having an impact on broadcasting in 3D.” ESPN 3D continues to deploy the NEP trucks for its programming schedule. SS32 has covered such recent telecasts as a boxing match from Salisbury, Maryland and a college basketball game pairing the University of Georgia and the University of Florida. Both events were shot and transmitted live simultaneously in 2D and 3D. The network “affectionately refer[s] to [them] as ‘5D’ events,” says Calcinari. “They were very successful, and we anticipate more ‘5D’ broadcasts in the near future.” www.markeemag.com
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Spotlight
Texas/Southwest
Texas and the Southwest
Rally for Incentives BY MARK R. SMITH
[Clockwise from Top Left] Arizona’s Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, near Flagstaff, in the snow. The Killer Inside Me, starring Casey Affleck and Jessica Alba, filmed in the Masonic Temple Theatre, Guthrie, Oklahoma.
The swath of the United States that comprises Oklahoma, Texas and the great Southwest comprises big states, big vistas and big potential for
White Sands National Monument, Alamogordo, New Mexico.
feature film, television and commercial producers. But with budgets facing harsh scrutiny states noted for generous production incentives fight to hang onto them, those with modest incentives pitch for increases and those currently without packages make the case that production contributes to a healthy bottom line.
Photo: New Mexico Film Office
Northern Nevada’s road to Metropolis. View of downtown Houston. Photo: Courtesy Texas Film Commission
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Oklahoma Hopes State Will Okay Incentive Boost
[Top Left]
As is the case in some other states, Oklahoma has a new governor, Mary Fallin, who Bison in the Tall Grass Prairie in Pawhuska, Oklahoma. is in the midst of her first legislative session. That could mean some alteration to the state’s film incentive package, but Jill Simpson, director of the Oklahoma Film & Music [Top Right] Office is taking a proactive approach regardless. Today, Oklahoma offers filmmakers a 35- to 37-percent cash rebate; that extra The Killer Inside Me Casey Affleck, in suit) filmed two percent is available for producers who spend $20,000 on music production (starring on Park Avenue, Oklahoma City, in the state. Oklahoma. The program (which was created, in part, by Fallin when she was lieutenant governor a decade ago) is capped at $5 million; Simpson and company “are asking for an additional $5 million, for a total of $10 million. If we don’t get that, we may run out of money in the middle of the fiscal year,” which begins on July 1, she says. “Any producer that is prequalified for Oklahoma rebate money can rest assured that whatever amount we discuss will remain in the fund for their project.” Given the current low cap, Simpson says the state’s niche is independent films that shoot for $20 million or less. During the past year, the marquee film was an untitled Terrence Malick project featuring Academy Award-winners Ben Affleck and Javier Bardem, and Rachel McAdam that wrapped in November after shooting in Writer/director David HarpBartlesville and Pawhuska. Well-known er of Garman Productions names also were attached to Bringing Up (www.garman.com) in Oklahoma City recently directed Bobby, which marked the directorial debut of an orientation video (picformer Bond girl and X-Men star Famke tured) for the Oklahoma Janssen and starred Mila Jovovich, Marcia Department of Rehabilitation Services for the state’s deaf Cross and Bill Pullman. It shot in Oklahoma citizenry, which was created City, Edmond and Guthrie. entirely in American Sign LanAlso on the roster were Heaven’s Rain, guage. “What made it interesting directed by Paul Brown and headlined by is that we can all hear, and Taryn Manning and Mike Vogel, and two feawe had to post the project. To tures by Tulsa’s faith-based Trost Moving do so, we needed the help of an interpreter to even closed captioning, “as we normally would keep everything in sync. Then, we used a use for any project [for] this agency,” Harper Pictures, A Christmas Snow and The Lamp. teleprompter for the talent to read as they says. Graphics were added with Adobe After Director Nick Cassavettes is slated to shoot signed,” he explains. Effects. “It was a unique project and we have Yellow in Oklahoma City, Norman and Pauls The video was shot with a Sony XDCAM since received inquiries from other state reharecording to SXS media, again without audio or bilitation agencies about how we did it.” Valley.
Garman Gives a Hand to the Hearing Impaired
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Spotlight
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Bulldog Gets Creative for Hanson Music Videos Tulsa’s Bulldog Film & Video Services (www.bulldogfilmandvideo.com) recently supplied equipment and stages for two music videos by pop band Hanson (remember “MMMBop”?) that have “already aired on VH1,” says CEO Brian Blagowsky. The videos, “Thinking ‘Bout Somethin’” (an homage to the Blues Brothers’/Ray Charles’ rendition of “Shake Your Tailfeather”), which includes a cameo by “Weird Al” Yankovic, and “Shout It Out,” have been released on the band’s new label, 3CG Records. The videos were shot against white cyc and greenscreen backgrounds at Bulldog, and at Hanson’s nearby studio, with exterior footage captured in Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District. Sixty dancers (see photo) performed as part of “Shout It Out;” both videos were lensed with Canon EOS 5D Mark II and 7D DSLR cameras. “That’s significant, because we took advantage of their HD video capabilities,” Blagowsky says.
[Top Right] Heaven’s Rain, with Brooks Douglas and Nicholas Braico, shot in Oklahoma.
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Simpson says the state offers “very diverse backgrounds. We have more eco-regions than any other state, with sand dunes, prairies, tall grass preserves, small mountain ranges and wetlands. Our other key selling point is our film-friendly environments. Oklahoma’s not a place that has so much production that the locals are jaded. They still love to see movies shooting here.” She notes that downtown Oklahoma City and Tulsa can double for much larger western towns, like Dallas and Fort Worth, especially in the 1950s, and Tulsa “is third to only New York City and Miami in the amount of Art Deco architecture.” The state also is well off in the stage category. Tulsa offers two 10,000-square-foot facilities, Little Mountain Productions and University Broadcasting, the latter on campus at Oral Roberts University. Another stage of similar size, RetroSpec Film, is just outside Tulsa in Broken Arrow, and Oklahoma City Community College offers a 6,000-squarefoot soundstage with Avid and RED Digital Cinema technologies.
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Successful Texas Pitches for More Texas, another state that’s in the midst of its legislative session – the 2009-11 biennium, in this case – is home to a posse of gainfully employed industry professionals who are keeping their fingers crossed for a new incentive bill with a healthy cap. The recent track record at the Texas Film Commission has been steady and has yielded some good results: In April/May 2009, the legislature passed a $60-million cap for the Texas Movie Image Industry Incentive Program, which provided that the state pay a percentage of its total Texas spend to production companies that apply to the program directed to film, TV, video and spot production. In the Lone Star State, producers have been choosing between a wage option and a spend option, each of which works on a sliding scale, each with grant amounts in three tiers. The first tier for both is targeted to productions with budgets of $250,000 to $1 million and calls for producers to receive between 5 and 8 percent of
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Stuck On On Takes Shelter Take Shelter, an indie drama/thriller (see photo) acquired by Sony Pictures Classics – sight unseen – just prior to its screening at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, was recently edited on Apple’s Final Cut Pro HD at Austin’s Stuck On On (www.stuckonon.com). The company also handled color correction, the DI with Assimilate’s SCRATCH, Foley and ambient sound design. (The company has since added Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve for Mac to its equipment mix.) Its involvement with the film, which was shot in Ohio and directed by Austin resident Jeff Nichols, “began in mid-July and ended at the end of November,” reports Stuck On On executive producer Allison Turrell, and was “a great collaborative effort.” Stuck On On also worked with Santa Monica’s Hydraulx on the visual effects; Marin County, California’s Skywalker Sound edited and mixed the dialogue and effects and performed the final mix.
Maverick Cozies Up to The Coyote for Cody Pools George Nelson, vice president of San Antonio’s Maverick Video Productions (MVP), says “today’s production budgets keep reminding us that ‘It’s the economy, stupid!’” So lensing a recent spot for Cody Pools was kept relatively simple. Nelson and company (www. maverickstudio.com), shot some “skin” – of the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs’ mascot, The Coyote, who always refers to work as being “in the skin” – during a half-day shoot in town. He deployed a Panasonic HVX200 1080 HD camera, a doorway dolly on a track for movement and small HMIs and reflectors out of the 3-ton grip truck. There was no audio (since The Coyote is silent) or make up, “just goose bumps on
the Spurs’ Silver Dancers, who also served as talent, Nelson reports (see photo). MVP, now in its 19th year, handled editorial in one of its seven, primarily Apple Final Cut Pro suites at its 20,000-square-foot facility.
The Texas landscape stretches out from Highway 118 near Alpine. Photo: Courtesy Texas Film Commission
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What’s Driving Post Asylum?
their qualified Texas spend, plus an additional amount if they use underutilized or economNew from Dallas-based Post Asyically distressed areas of the state for at least lum (www.postasylum.com) is a :30 all-CG spot for Adams Golf, via 25 percent of the production shoot. The peragency LEVEL TWO, depicting the centages increase to a maximum of 29.25 launch of the Speedline F11 driver. percent. “The spot shows how the club is faster than other clubs on the marBudgetary threshold is $250,000 for TV ket,” says executive producer Graand film; $100,000 for video games and ham Hagood, by depicting the commercials. Also, 70 percent of cast and creation of the unique club in a wind tunnel environment with jet stream. crew must be Texas residents and at least In the tunnel the jet stream peels off 60 percent of the shooting days must be in a layer of lacquer from a generic driver to reveal a plain F11 club. Then velocity slots are etched Texas. into it transforming the F11 into a more aerodynamic club that reduces drag (see photo). The spot was created with Maxon CINEMA 4D software by 3D artist Michael Sands and editThe total appropriation offered in the ed on the Avid Symphony. Sound design was crafted with “a zillion layers of sound effects” by state is under discussion in the session, “as is sister company Pure Evil Music. Hagood says Post Asylum has evolved from a post house to a customary,” says Evan Fitzmaurice, interim creative partner for clients since “we typically get involved in a given project early in the process.” director of the Texas Film Commission. Hollywood features that have shot in Texas lately include the Coen Brothers’ Paramount remake of True Grit, which shot outside of Austin in Granger, Blanco, Smithville and Bartlett; FOX Searchlight’s Tree of Life starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, which lensed outside Austin in Smithville; and Houston-born director Richard Linklater’s Bernie, a dark comedy and true story concerning a murder involving a Texas funeralhome director which shot near Austin in Bastrop and Carthage. On the small screen, the fifth season of Friday Night Lights just finished its DirecTV run and will make its season debut on NBC on April 15. Other TV shows shot in Texas during the last year included Jerry Bruckheimer’s Chase (NBC); Lone Star and The Good Guys (FOX); and My Generation (ABC), which shot in Austin. With pilot season starting, Fitzmaurice says that his office is “hopeful of having some big announcements. We have had a robust and competitive program that will allow us to stay in any conversation about locations.” Texas offers considerable soundstage infrastructure with The Studios at Las Colinas in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex,
1080 Austin Delivers Reindeer Game for Colorado Lottery At 1080 Austin (www. 1080.com), a design and motion graphics house, a :30 spot for the Colorado Lottery, “Reindeer,” recently took center stage. The comedic spot from Colorado-based agency Cactus was lensed with a RED One camera by local production company Fueld and edited at Austin East. 1080 Austin supervised the shoot; the VFX, greenscreen composting and color correction with Autodesk Lustre were handled by colorist and VFX artist Nick Smith. The spot was finished on Autodesk Smoke. Smith combined practical elements of the shoot with reindeer puppetry (see photo) to give the animals their “goofy, human-faced appearance,” says 1080 Austin general manager Tobin Holden. “It was great working with the talent from Fueld, led by director Ben Hurst, and it gave Nick a chance to color and composite concurrently. That [process] gives art directors far more flexibility since they aren’t locked into one look.”
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the Austin Studios facility in the capital and Spiderwood Studios and its backlot also in the Austin area.
Do Cuts Loom in New Mexico? One of the most notable success stories in the rather brief history of production tax incentive programs in the United States is that of New Mexico. The former governor, Bill Richardson, was among those who saw the benefit of a state that was not known as a production haven offering generous incentives. He, the state legislature and industry insiders made it pay off. During Richardson’s reign as governor from 2003 until early this year, more than 150 [Above] major film and television productions lensed in New Mexico with an estimated economic Cerro Pelon western set at Galisteo, New Mexico. impact of almost $4 billion. The numbers grew to 10,000 direct and indirect film-related Photo: Don Gray jobs in the state, and more than 250 businesses and services directly related to the industry, with thousands more providing The state’s bustling film scene was support goods and services. the impetus for Tom and Linda However, Susana Martinez is Shaughnessy to open New Mexico now running the state, and its Film Rentals (www.newmexicofilm rentalsonline.com) and provide prolegislature, like many others, is in duction crews with Technocranes and the position of trying to figure remote heads. out how to allocate a dwindling “Scorpio stabilized remote heads are used for driving shots,” says Tom. pile of funding. In addition, there “For this bridge shot (over the Taos are many new lawmakers in the Gorge, pictured), we used the Scorpio mix – who may or may not fully head with a 30-foot Supertechnocrane mounted on a process car. understand the concept of how a This head keeps the camera stable, tax credit or rebate program no matter what terrain the car is works. That has caused more negotiating.” New Mexico Film Rentals also offers Aerohead nonthan a few folks to reach for the stabilized remote heads. Maalox. The Shaughnessys “came here from LA three years ago because of [New Mexico’s] incentive package and The Santa Fe Reporter recentto fill a void in the film-equipment rental market,” he notes. “New Mexico has proven to be very popular for filming, and the proximity to LA allows us to ship equipment back and forth easily. Also, the best film crews ly reiterated that the only in the industry are right here.” expenses to qualify for the cur-
Filling Rental Needs in New Mexico
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[Above] Mesa in the Pueblo of Zia, New Mexico. Photo: Don Gray
[Below] The city center of Las Vegas gleams.
rent 25-percent refund are taxable production costs. In other words, if a film producer paid $92 in taxable expenses and $8 in state taxes, the total – $100 – would be used to calculate the rebate: $25. In an interview with Markee 2.0 last year, former film office director Lisa Strout offered the following: “We still have no cap per year or per project and continue to grow, despite our state’s budget deficit.” She cited the 3,000 crew jobs, 7,000 residual jobs and 250 companies spawned from New Mexico’s investment in the film industry. (Current New Mexico Film Office deputy director Jennifer Schwalenberg declined to be interviewed for this article.) According to the Santa Fe Reporter, Gov. Martinez has advocated scaling down film incentives from 25 percent to 15 percent; however, it also pointed out that attempts to cut the program have so far failed to get out of committee. Last year’s tally for New Mexico – which included 24 major productions shot for an economic impact of a whopping $836 million – would be a hit by any standards. Recent Hollywood features shot in the state include The Avengers, the Marvel Studios’ superhero film and the largest feature ever made in the state, which made Albuquerque Studios its home for almost a year; Tiger Eyes, based on the Judy Blume novel, which shot last fall in Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Los Alamos; portions of the Coen Brothers’ True Grit and portions of Goats; plus Truth Be Told and Ten Year. TV credits include AMC’s Breaking Bad at Albuquerque Studios and USA Network’s In Plain Sight at I-25 Studios; both are now in their fourth seasons. New Mexico has no lack of soundstage infrastructure with Garson Studios in Santa Fe and I-25 Studios, Albuquerque Studios and Soundstage 41 in Albuquerque; Santa Fe Studios broke ground in January.
Nevada Bets Incentives Will Drive Business Unlike many of their peers in other film offices across the country, the folks at the Nevada Film Office aren’t nervous about losing incentive funding: They don’t have an incentive fund in the first place. It was a Super Sunday for While some major productions show Albuquerque’s halflife* digital up anyway – largely because they have to (www.halflifedigital.com) shoot Las Vegas exteriors – most of the when two spots it created for Sacred Power Corp., a Native movies that come to the state are indies American-owned solar energy like Hungary’s The Gambler, according to company, aired during the Film Office director Charlie Geocaris. Super Bowl. The commercials comprised a national :60 and “Sure, we’ve had major productions like a local :30. The Hangover shoot exteriors here, but “We shot almost [all of the they may go to New Mexico and shoot footage] on greenscreen with the actors wearing special the interiors due to the incentive offered costumes: They were playing there. That’s the first thing producers ask photons (see picture) shooting off of the sun,” says president Stuart Overbey. The spots were lensed about.” with a RED One camera at The Arts Lab, a studio at the nearby University of New Mexico. Halflife* went script-to-screen for the project, cutting the spots with Adobe Premiere and comGeocaris and his colleagues try to put a positing with Adobe After Effects. The company also kept busy with the conform and color finishpositive spin on what Nevada does offer. ing for the indie doc Crime After Crime that went to Sundance this year. For the film halflife* tapped “We have great accommodations, free perits Assimilate SCRATCH system, part of its DI suite, and “one of about 600” such systems in the world, according to Overbey. mits, friendly locations without much red
Halflife* digital’s Super Sunday
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702 Bets on High Rollers
tape and great weather,” he It was the experience of Rob Gatti, executive producer says, “and we are making efforts and director with 702 Productions (www.702productions.tv) to get incentives, as we have for in Las Vegas, shooting Rehab for TruTV that led to him speareight years. A new package is heading a new pilot, HighRoller Heaven. It’s a show about the VIP industry in Las Vegas, which still in the works, and it would grew from the local entertainment service industry and be competitive with other “often results in patrons spending upwards of $20,000 in states.” one evening,” says Gatti who served as director/DP (center in photo). The pilot was shot with various Panasonic HD The Nevada legislative sescameras and edited at 702 on Apple’s Final Cut Pro HD; sion started in early February freelancer John Dominic crafted the graphics with Adobe and lasts until the end of June. After Effects and other packages. Also contributing to the production were VaVoom Entertainment’s Michael Delucca, who served as co-exec“There are a lot of freshman in utive producer; Chuck Bejarano, who shot one segment; and Marcus Clotfelter, who was the primary ENG/EFP this class, and there is a learning audio man. SoundDesign 552 performed the mix. curve,” Geocaris notes. “They often think that The Strip [in Las Vegas], by itself, will attract productions. And they’re [Bottom Left Top] half right – but that’s just for exteriors.” Nevada’s Red Rock Canyon under a dusting The most consistent presence in Sin City is The History Channel’s reality series Pawn of snow. Stars, which often features local store Las Vegas Pawn. Reality programming often is part of the production scene in the state, such as [Bottom Left] numerous poker shows, the most recent version of MTV’s The Real World plus A camera crew from Cohencidence Productions shooting Flock of Meese, a E!’s Holly’s World starring Holly Madison. TV pilot, in Summerlin, Lots of local spots are shot in the state. Station Casinos are a big local adver- sketch-comedy Nevada. tiser, and Capital One is currently featuring a spot shot at Caesar’s Palace. Nevada also gets numerous car spots from automakers such as Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes Benz. “They like to shoot here because of the long and winding roads, and they especially like Red Rock Canyon and the Valley of Fire,” says Geocaris.
Exploring 3D Solutions There’s a lot of stereo 3D news from Explore Media Group (www. exploremediagroup.com) in Las Vegas. Its Tec Toyz show that will run on the Explore website and YouTube takes viewers to the front line of stereo 3D innovation showing them the latest technology and giving them the details they need to make informed choices and enhance their 3D experience. “3D is everywhere,” says executive producer Al Caudullo, and he should know. Dubbed “a 3D evangelist” by Sandy Climan, former CEO of 3Ality, he’s teaching the first university-certified course in stereo 3D production in Thailand (see photo). The class is currently working on a joint project with UNESCO.
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And this spring Caudullo begins shooting a 3D travel show for U.S. television sponsored by Gates Underwater housings, Panasonic and the Village at Coconut Island, Thailand. It will feature stunning underwater and topside footage of one of the ten top diving spots in the world near Phuket, Thailand.
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Texas/Southwest So even without incentives, the economic impact of the industry is considerable: It was $92 million for fiscal 2010, and the office has reached the $2 billion mark since it opened in 1982. Although no new stages have been constructed lately, stalwarts like DK Productions, Avrio Studios and Levy Production Group are all considered small to medium-sized spaces. “However,” Geocaris says, “we’ve been meeting once a month with different groups of private investors who want to build a soundstage in the Las Vegas area.” [Above]
Arizona Lobbies for New, Improved Plan
Arizona is in a similar situation to that of Nevada at the moment, except that Arizona did have incentives; they expired on Dec. 31 2010, however. “So we’re working on a new plan,” says Ken Chapa, director of the Arizona Film Office. “The biggest thing on our plate at the moment is getting this new [Below] incentive plan passed.” The Colorado River flows through If it passes, it’s going to be different than the prior plan. The new option would Yuma, Arizona. be a 20-percent refundable credit, “so it means getting a check back, instead of a transferable credit that could be sold on the back end and monetized,” Chapa says. “The old one was between 20 percent and 30 percent, which varied due to how much investment the production company made in the state.” The idea is to make the process much simpler this go ’round, if the plan passes. “We’ll know by mid-March, hopefully sooner,” Chapa reports. He has noticed that many producers are willing to take a lesser incentive rebate percentage in exchange for an easier-to-use system. “That’s what we’re shooting for now. The incentive was a transferable credit that the producer had to spend at least $250,000 in state to qualify for. If they did, they were eligible for the 20-percent credit.” Among recent work at Phoenix-based While there are no Hollywood Copper Post (www.copperpost.com) is a :30 studio films shooting in the state, spot for cable systems operator Cable ONE there have been a considerable for which it netted a Gold Addy for VFX and Animation. Copper Post partnered with number of indies in production, Karidis Productions and E. B. Lane Advertisincluding some with high-profile ing on “Dollhouse,” which demonstrates names. Will Ferrell’s Everything Must how communication services are used throughout the home. Go shot last summer in Phoenix and Viewers peer into every room of the twois on the festival circuit; Goats, curstory set – a dollhouse come to life (see rently underway in Tucson, has photo) – thanks to a 30-foot Supertechnocrane to see the family using phones, computers and son Technologies’ SynthEyes. The compaDavid Duchovny, famed for The Xgame consoles throughout the house before ultimately ny has since purchased Blackmagic’s Files, among the leads. meeting up in the living room to watch a movie. DaVinci Resolve for the Mac for color corWell-known names involved Owner/senior editor Rob Beadle says Copper Post did rection. the edit on Apple’s Final Cut Pro HD and color correction with indies seem to be the trend at with Apple Color. The company also handled the pre-viz, the moment. “The big names are on-set VFX supervision, 3D modeling and animation in getting out of Hollywood and Autodesk 3ds Max and 3D camera tracking with AndersThe blue of Lake Tahoe, between California and Nevada, meets the azure sky.
At Home With Copper Post
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Film Creations Offers the Spa Treatment A crew from Tucson’s Film Creations (www.filmcreations.com) recently spent quality time at the local Canyon Ranch spa to produce some 20 videos for the resort and its website. Film Creations handled production and post on the videos (see photo), which are about the spa’s educational program, cooking classes, beauty treatments and other offerings. Owner Richard Rose says each video runs from two to four minutes and is repurposed for various Canyon Ranch locations, including onboard the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth retired luxury liners. The graphics-intensive videos were lensed with the Sony HVR-Z7U and cut
shooting indies instead,” says Chapa, “and they’re doing it here because they like the weather and the proximity to Southern California,” which is just a one-hour plane trip or a six-hour drive away. Even if film production is somewhat sparse in Arizona, there is plenty of spot action taking place. “We get really busy in that market from late January through May,” Chapa says. “When it starts getting hot around here it [drops], then it picks back up in October.”
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inhouse on Apple’s Final Cut Pro HD with Adobe After Effects and NewTek LightWave graphics. Film Creations recently upgraded all three of its editing suits (plus a digitizing suite) with the latest Dual Quad-Core Intel processors. A new HVR-7ZU and VariZoom jib with hot-head are part the equipment mix.
[Left] Prescott, Arizona’s Watson Lake is distinguished by its granite boulders.
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In the
Newsroom
PLAY ADDS LIVE-ACTION PRODUCTION DIVISION PLAY, the award-winning creative on-air editorial house dedicated to crafting promos (www.play editorial.com), has launched a liveaction production division. Since creative director Michael Victor launched the Hollywood-based company in 2005, it has evolved from a creative editorial boutique to a concept-through-completion promo house offering full HD editing, design, graphics, audio mixing and finishing. “PLAY enjoys creativity without boundaries,” says Victor. “So it was clear that incorporating an economical approach to production into our roster of services was the next logical step in our growth.” Earlier this year, PLAY took home a Gold PROMAX award for “October
ENCOMPASS PROVIDES PRIMARY UPLINKS FOR NASA SHUTTLE LAUNCHES
Encompass Digital Media, Inc., a leader in digital media services (www.encompass -m.com), will provide live video transmission for the final two NASA Shuttle launches via three Ku-band trucks at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral and Jupiter, Florida and at Wallops Island, Virginia (Encompass TES 37 at Wallops Island, pictured). Encompass operates two of the largest, independent broadcast facilities in the U.S. in LA and Atlanta; it has 24/7/365 teleport facilities and technical personnel worldwide. Encompass was selected by the United Space Alliance to provide primary uplink services for the launches. Its live coverage will enable officials to evaluate the condition of the orbiter’s thermal protection system to ensure that it’s safe to support reentry and landing. 46
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Barker,” a promo for FEARnet, and a nomination for its graphic novel-style Twlight Zone Marathon promo for Syfy (pictured right). Victor says the recognition confirmed that he was on the right track and prompted him to move forward with the company’s expansion into the production arena. PLAY’s first major campaign launched the E! series What’s Eating You?, which highlighted three severe eating disorders
with an edgy look into the minds of the afflicted (pictured left). “The campaign was a thrill to concept and shoot; we loved working with E! on such a provocative project,” says Victor. “We thrive on the process of working as a collaborative team and being creative partners with our clients. Now, with live-action production added to the mix, we are able to take our creative vision into a whole new realm.”
GRAVITY ANCHORS THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU VFX International creative content and brand communications company Gravity (formerly RhinoFX), created dramatic and unique VFX for Universal’s new romantic thriller, The Adjustment Bureau. The company also designed the film’s main and end titles. As lead VFX house on the feature, Gravity (www.gravityworld.com) provided magical “door transitions,” in which characters seamlessly cross from one environment to another. Variety hailed the “inter-dimensional doorways” as “playfully surreal set-pieces with odd visual flourishes” that “keep the viewer off balance for a spell.” To meet the request of the film’s writer/director/producer George Nolfi that the transitions appear as natural passages from one environment to another and not as conventional greenscreen effects, Gravity began with practical photo elements and incorporated 3D tracking, CGI and 2D compositing. Gravity also created a number of digital set extensions, notably doubling the length of the reading room in the massive New York Public Library and duplicating crowds in a scene at Fordham University (see photos). For the
main and end titles design, the company stylized graphic elements to give the Art Deco look and feel of “The Plan Book,” which is key to the plot. Jim Rider, VFX supervisor, and Yural Levy, CG supervisor/digital effects supervisor, oversaw Gravity’s New York-based VFX team involved with The Adjustment Bureau.
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Inside View
Luma Pictures | by Christine Bunish
Vince Cirelli VFX supervisor – Luma Pictures • Venice, California (www.luma-pictures.com) Markee: Luma Pictures does VFX almost exclusively for motion pictures. How has that work changed in your six years with the company? Mr. Cirelli: “Feature-film effects have become more complex, there are a lot more of them, the breadth of the work is larger and the talent pool has increased significantly. We’re doing more shots at the last minute as the technology gets faster, and we’re doing a lot more pershot color grading to beautify shots or represent what wasn’t in the photography. But not with Roger Deakins’s work on True Grit! He’s an unbelievable cinematographer and so meticulous; we only enhanced what the environment didn’t allow him to capture in camera.” Markee: True Grit is your fourth picture with the Coen Brothers? Mr. Cirelli: “And by far our largest VFX job with them. We did over 350 shots, all ‘invisible’ effects meant to control the environment or incorporate what was almost impossible to capture plausibly in camera. “We did quite a few scenes with Mattie crossing the river with Blackie: You’d never be able to get an actor and horse safely across the turbulent river we wanted to portray, so we replaced the river with water simulations. We used RealFlow software and toolsets we wrote to calculate very detailed simulations for individual splashes with such granularity that it makes them believable. “We also did some horse head replacements when a rig was pulling Blackie and Mattie across the river; we added a digital horse head with ears flicking and twitching. For the scene where Blackie is dying, he’s completely digital: The timing, pacing, the way he falls had to be digital. Making digital horse hair has gotten a bit easier – we 48
Markee 2.0 |
March/April 2011
used a variety of tools for it, primarily [Joseph Alter, Inc.’s] Shave and a Haircut and [Autodesk] Maya’s built-in fur and hair system.” Markee: You also crafted digital snakes. Mr. Cirelli: “It wasn’t practical to use real snakes, but everything [in the live action] was very well choreographed and timed: Jeff [Bridges] would point his gun and we’d put a snake there. Usually we’re fighting shots like that and have to skew the actor because he’s just not right on cue. But Jeff had the snakes in his head; every time he pointed his gun we were able to position them perfectly in place. We had snake handlers and rattlers sliding across our theater here – they scared everybody but gave us great animation reference and textures.” Markee: What’s it like working with the Coen Brothers? Mr. Cirelli: “It’s always something different with the Coens. We’re never sure what we have to create or augment to help tell the story. The effects they ask for are some of the most complicated: They’re intriguing and different at the same time. Getting the lighting and rendering perfect on a horse is one thing, but if you don’t capture the subtle movements – the ear twitches, snarls, breaths – it’s not a real horse. For No Country For Old Men, we created a field of antelope in 4K that had to hold up close to the camera. Many times, real animals are harder to make believable than aliens!” Markee: Luma Pictures was the primary VFX house for The Green Hornet movie, too. Mr. Cirelli: “We did about 240 shots in stereo 3D. We created a digital Black Beauty [car] for hero shots where the actors are interacting with it; those
Photo: Painted by Luma Pictures concept artist Loic Zimmerman.
were tricky composites. We had to project the actors or their 3D doubles for reflections on the car paint. The practical car’s paint had a very deep luster; we had to come up with our own car paint shader to replicate that. We also did a version of Black Beauty that was heavily damaged and created the entire printing press enclosure, The Daily Sentinel interior and machine gun fire.” Markee: Was that your first stereo 3D experience? Mr. Cirelli: “We did stuff for Michael Jackson’s This Is It stage performance in 3D and the movie Gamer. It’s a different challenge: We have a great bag of tricks for cheating in 2D but all that is thrown out the window for stereo. There’s no cheating inside stereo 3D space.” Markee: What’s next? Mr. Cirelli: “There’s always going to be more to achieve. The human imagination is limitless, and we’ll have to [devise] the tools to execute the dreams that writers and directors come up with.”
Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
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