NZVNApril2013 by Grant Cummuskey

APRIL 2013

Vol 190

Back Up and Back Up again

Every format and flavor known to man.

Someone in the “guru” class rather than worthy of being called a “Wally” would be Olivier from Next Technology but Olivier today ( much to the consternation of Kate ), is proudly wearing his “Where’s Wally?” top which you see in the photo. Ed: There’s a story behind this top isn’t there? Olivier: Yes, I like it a lot even though I’ve been told that I look like Wally and that’s fine, I accept it. Ed: Well we’re both old enough to get over these things aren’t we – I’ve been told all sorts of things about what I look like, and it’s never slowed me down. Now, we’ve been slightly delayed with this interview because,

as I came in, there was a gentleman with a sad look on his face clutching a couple of hard drives. Is this a common occurrence here at Next Technology? Olivier: Yes it actually happens quite often that we have clients with drive problems. We try to solve them if we can; we can’t always do it, but we give it a try. Ed: And these are the sort of things that they are not able to solve themselves? Olivier: It’s not always easy you know. When you find a problem on a drive it’s actually sometimes difficult to find the solution. Ed: But you’ve got the experience or you’ve got the technology, or what’s here that enables you to do it when other people can’t? Olivier: A bit of both, but we are not forensic specialists. Ed: You’re sort of in between, so when they’ve exhausted their knowledge, they can bring it to you, you can have a look at it. If you can manage to extract their files from the drive, great, otherwise then it’s the expensive forensic people? Olivier: Yes, you’re exactly right, that’s as far as we can go. We cannot dismantle a drive. That’s another trade. Ed: What are the common things that people seem to do to their drives that cause these problems, or what aren’t they doing? Olivier: It’s very difficult to know that. There are many, many reasons why a drive may not work. The main one would be if the drive had been dropped or got a

knock. Another one could be static electricity getting onto the drive – I don’t know how, but it seems to happen sometimes. Ed: I know one that happened to me was that the fan on one of my computers failed and I didn’t notice this and the drive actually got very hot. Luckily I discovered this before it failed completely and was able to recover the data, but that drive didn’t last very long at all. Olivier: Yes, heat is also a problem. Ideally, they need to be at a regular temperature and not too hot … I mean they can cope with heat, but not too much. Ed: But the best thing, of course, is to always have a backup? Olivier: Backup is the important thing. Back up at least on two drives or more if you can. Ed: Have there been any advances in that? We’ve talked before about backup and Cloud storage and I know there have been some spectacular failures with Cloud storage, what’s the recommendation at the moment? Olivier: For the moment, the best backup is LTO tapes and that’s what is used the most. In fact LTO tapes are what’s mostly used in the film and TV industry today. Ed: Tape eh – interesting! That’s a fairly long-term “slow in, slow out” process isn’t it, compared to having a second hard drive? Olivier: Not really, you know surprisingly, LTO tape is faster than a hard drive. The question is not the speed; it’s actually the life of a tape. Manufacturers don’t know how long they will keep – they can’t tell you. But they do need to be kept up to date – transferred from LTO2, for example, to LTO6 now. You need to do that migration from the old LTO to the new LTO and there’s no way round it. Another reason you have to do it is because LTO1 and 2 machines are getting rare now. Ed: But for those smaller jobs, the optical disc is a very stable way of keeping your data, but again I guess it’s limited with the size? Olivier: Exactly, the size is a problem. You can use optical disc for a small amount of data. Ed: Okay, that’s archiving, that’s storage, what are the other changes in the industry since we last spoke to you that you are able to offer here at Next? Olivier: It’s not so new exactly since we have spoken, but we do now make DCP files ( Digital Cinema Package.) Distributors of films have joined together to make their own format to replace 35mm film. DCP has completely replaced 35mm reels worldwide. They’re not the simplest thing to make, but we’ve done our research and we are now able to make them unencrypted. Encryption is mainly reserved to big Hollywood features. It is not really needed for documentary films produced here. Ed: Now one of the areas that we’ve looked at over the recent years has been loudness levels, and I know that the broadcasters have finally come up with standards for loudness. Is this something you’re able to

offer in the process of preparing a TV ad or a piece for broadcast, that somebody can come in with their project and you will put this into a format that will go to the TV station and be 100% kosher for broadcast, including the loudness? Olivier: We have a special legaliser for audio that will set the audio to the broadcast norms required by the TV channels, whatever the specifications are, without interfering with the sound quality. We’ve got the tools for that. Ed: So they can be assured that what comes out of here is totally legal and won’t have any hiccups? Olivier: Yes, absolutely – the sound and the picture as well. And this is particularly important for International Masters ( files or tape ) which have to be technically perfect for international sales – both sound and picture. Ed: It’s good to have the picture too. Now an interesting point that Olivier raised “off tape” is a worldwide dead pixel problem. Ed: Olivier, this is something that most of us aren’t going to need to worry about, but for some DOPs out

Go www.finnzed.co.nz and follow the link to NZVN for more news. P5 It’s all Fives from Sony. P14 Smoke on Demo. P20 Have your say responses. P22 Two into one - with sauce. P30 Canon Cinema EOS on show. Page 2

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there who are shooting documentaries for worldwide release or at the motion picture level, now that there are so many full resolution viewing options available, is this something that they need to know about? Olivier: Yes, during this last year especially, we have noticed in many local TV programmes and documentaries some dead pixels that are not noticed by DOPs or during editing. Ed: And these are dead camera pixels – not dead monitor pixels? They’re right from the source, so they’re dead pixels in the CCD array that’s picking up that picture initially? Olivier: Yes, exactly, they come from the camera. I don’t know exactly the technicality of it, but we are seeing quite a lot of dead pixels – sometimes they are red, sometimes white, sometimes blue, and even black. Sometimes it can be a group of pixels also. It creates many post production problems. We notice these dead pixels during the QC while making the final master and that means everything has to go back to the on-lining and they need to be painted out. Ed: So this is something that the DOP’s not going to see in the field or anybody monitoring this in the field is going to see, because one pixel is so small and often within a colour block that’s moving. Also, there’s often error correction in the monitors where people are viewing the live scene? Olivier: Yes, exactly. The field monitors are too small to spot these pixels and you cannot ask a DOP to have a “grade one” screen onset you know. I mean in the field it’s impossible; maybe in the studio you can, but not out and about. I think this is something for the manufacturers to study and sort out.

Ed: For general use, the online error correction in the editing programme or monitor will smooth this out and you’ll never see it, but only in these extreme situations when every pixel counts, especially if you’re pushing the limit of the resolution, you’re going to see this on equipment that doesn’t have an error correction? Olivier: Yes, exactly and it’s actually a case of rejection of the whole programme for broadcast. That’s a bit of a problem. Ed: So this is something that, if you want to check your camera yourself, it’s simply a case of taking a direct feed from the camera into a very large monitor that has no error correction. Shoot total black, white, red then blue. Olivier: Yes. On a big screen with no correction they will see it. Ed: So there you are, nothing to be too frightened about, but something to check if you are in that area of doing programmes for overseas, major productions … Olivier: Even for New Zealand … for all programmes it’s better to have a good check. Ed: And the real problem is not the original one pixel, but when you do lots of processing on that signal what happens Olivier? Olivier: Well when you process a lot, like for example if it goes up and down several satellite links, you know as it does in Europe or in USA with many format conversions along the way, every problem will be amplified and be very visible. Ed: Be warned. If you are shooting at the top level and your camera is relatively new, go and talk to your NZVN supplier if you find this problem.

Page 4

It’s all Fives from Sony Nick Buchner from Sony is here to answer my questions post the launch of the F5 and F55 cameras into New Zealand. Ed: My first comment is that these two cameras are key sections in the 4K roadmap for Sony, correct Nick? Nick: Yes they are. We’ve had other 4K products out there; the F65 has been out for just over 12 months and I have to say, it’s a beautiful camera, beautiful pictures, love it immensely. It’s doing some amazing work and as I mentioned in tonight’s presentation, there are a number of major features just about to hit the cinemas such as After Earth, Oblivion and Evil Dead which will all start screening in the next few months. These new cameras, the F5 and F55, just take another step into the 4K realm; they also open up the opportunity for live 4K coverage because the F55 can output live 4K to a monitor or switching system – overall they add another layer to our digital cinematography offering … Ed:

Well this really started with the large sensor …?

Nick: Whilst the F35 was our first camera with a Super 35mm sensor, the PMW-F3 really helped open up the large sensor market. It was our first digital cinematography product with a Super 35mm sensor that was a very affordable price at that time – a time when you had to spend an awful lot more money on a large sensor digital camera. The F3 opened things up, but now it’s not just the large sensor that people are looking for, it’s the extended resolution of 4K that’s opening up possibilities. As I said in the presentation, “4K in” is not necessarily about “4K out”. 4K may be of interest because you want to future-proof your content even though you’re working in HD at the moment, or you want the ability to reframe, to crop the shot basically, particularly if you’re working with unpredictable elements. I’ve spoken to commercial directors who value the ability, if you’re working with say animals or kids or people who don’t always hit their marks, to be able to reframe a 4K frame down to virtually a quarter and still get very good HD … Ed: Which is something that we all know from photography – that we take a high resolution digital picture, you can bring that onto the timeline and you can zoom in, do moves on it and you still get full resolution on your TV. So really it’s a 35mm large sensor roadmap?

Nick and Scott with the F55.

Ed: And with other Sony camera developments that we’ve known in the past, as models come on board, the sensor sizes increase, there are other bells and whistles added … it’s exactly the same with this series, that you have the large sensor in the F3, the FS700 and then the F65. Now you’ve introduced the F5 and the F55 between these, but you’ve also added some other features that one would think, well they’re not only in these cameras; you’ve now added these features there, but there is the opportunity to upgrade your other models, especially the F65 with some of the same features? Nick: The F65 was always promoted as a somewhat future-proof camera. It has a lot of possibilities which we are delivering on and continuing to deliver on. Whether it be 4K or high definition, features like slow motion ie high frame rate shooting, these are becoming more and more in demand. You only have to watch commercials, music videos, to see that these sorts of effects are being used more widely, because they’re more accessible – and whether they’re being overused or not is another whole debate. So it’s not just the focus control that a large frame sensor offers, but also higher resolution ie 4K, slower motion effects, ie high frame rate … these are the

Nick: That’s right. I mean the large frame sensor is all about the shallow depth of focus and the creative possibilities that brings you, and within that family of product, 4K is becoming one aspect that people are very interested in and are evolving toward. From a consumer point of view, it’s the next step from HD, so there will be a growing demand for 4K content in the future, not just from cinemas, but eventually into the home and elsewhere. Page 5

feature sets that people are looking for and these cameras are designed to bring these together; plus very importantly the versatility of varied shooting formats that can be selected, using a number of different codecs.

extremes of over and under exposure, but certainly to save shots through grading that hadn’t necessarily been exposed correctly and if the data was there, the imagery was there, you could save that in the grading process.

Ed:

Now here in the digital world, again, if there is enough information there, it can be recovered, and hence the interest in these RAW formats where there is a lot of RAW data there and I think the examples you just referenced show that. Every time we show those tests, you hear the gasp in the cinema from people in the know, the cinematographers all sitting there going “wow.”

And you’ve introduced a new one?

Nick: We regard XAVC as our codec for the future. The F5 and F55 are the first products to incorporate the XAVC codec, however we will see more released over time. Because it is such a scalable codec, it can support HD right through to 4K with realistic data rates and realistic storage requirements. So yes, this is the start of our XAVC family, but there’s a lot further to go in the XAVC story. Ed:

So it’s an improvement on the H.264?

Nick: XAVC is still based on H.264 file formats, but the codec – that’s only the beginning if you like. Ed: Now we saw a couple of movies tonight and one of the things that excited me was the dynamic range. You also screened camera tests, showing the F55 at 5 stops open, and when you saw the recorded picture, you could hardly discern what you were looking at. But this was able to be graded back to something that was very passable, and certainly even 3 stops over, you could virtually not tell that anything had happened to that picture. I think this is a great asset to have in recording at this sort of level? Nick: It’s very much the electronic or digital world mimicking what the film world had for a long time, which was quite a lot of exposure latitude and the ability to grade a negative, not necessarily to such

Ed: But isn’t this going to make the cameraman lazy because he can just sort of go there and leave the iris on one setting – whereas if you’ve got a highly compressed format, you’ve got to make sure that your iris is exactly at the right spot? Nick: No I don’t think so! At the end of the day everyone’s going to be watching on-set, watch the dailies and the dailies aren’t graded – if the director sits down to watch the day’s shooting and it’s all over the place, he’s not necessarily that interested in the cinematographer sitting there saying “oh I can grade this back, I can grade that back.” So I think you know not too flippantly that camerapeople will still want to deliver something that looks as good as possible before it’s taken through postproduction, because many who don’t necessarily know better, will look at it, and if it doesn’t look half decent, they won’t have a high opinion of that cinematographer’s capabilities.

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Ed: There’s been an important development recently for 4K with Sony in the US I understand? Nick: My understanding is that for Sony episodic television drama production in the States, they are now requiring everything be shot in 4K ... not necessarily postproduced in 4K – most likely not – but at least a little like in the film days, the negative could be locked up in an archive and always retrieved later; here the original content can be stored and if necessary they can reconform the programme as a 4K output in the future if that content’s needed. It extends the content’s usable life. Ed: So in general, with Sony’s roadmap for large sensor format cameras, you’re developing new products whilst further developing existing ones. So even if you bought an F3 initially, you’re still getting some upgrades that you can add to that to improve its capabilities? Nick: Yes, we have released various firmware updates for the F3. The camera is still a current model and has a pretty powerful feature set as it stands, for the price. Certainly across the new F series models and existing models like the F65, there is a powerful roadmap for further development.

information from each pixel, before any processing such as colour temperature adjustment, applying gamma curves etc. Ed: And the downside of that is that you need to have very high speed memory cards or some high speed recording capability? Nick: There is the large amount of data involved, so you need large memory cards with reliable and sustainable data transfer rates. Obviously it has storage ramifications down the line – I showed a chart tonight comparing the relative size of the data produced by several Sony cameras. There’s a lot of information there and this is something that producers have to take in the mind. Even though postproduction facilities may have upgraded their facilities, their storage and their pipes to handle these large amounts of data in 4K, you don’t get much for nothing and so producers need to realise that working in these formats there’s going to be an overhead as well, because someone’s got to pay for all this and not just necessarily say “well they’ve got the facility, so why’s it costing more?” Ed: Nick:

Yes, you’ve always got to pay the piper? Yes that’s right, pay for the pipes at least!

Ed: Just tell me, 4K RAW – what does the “RAW” actually mean?

Ed: With Sony’s large sensor roadmap moving into 4K, are we going to see 4K elsewhere?

Nick: Well “RAW” generally means the data is captured directly from the camera’s sensor. In the Sony system, there is some compression but it’s kept to a minimum. There are also uncompressed RAW formats in existence. The RAW output represents the

Nick: So if the question is, are we going to see smaller sensor handheld cameras in the 4K realm? We showed a consumer camera of that nature at the CES show in Vegas in January; from a professional point of view, come and see me at NAB!

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Ed: 4K?

So this is really cementing Sony’s commitment to

Nick: As far as we’re concerned, 4K is the next development. We’ve got 4K home theatre projectors; we’ve got 4K Bravia models with more to come; we will have further consumer products with 4K capability – that’s on the consumer side. On the professional side, we will continue to develop tools to produce the 4K content that’s used on our 4K consumer devices. Ed: Nick:

So it’s going to be an exciting NAB? Yes it is.

I managed to trap two Sony dealers from Auckland over a lemonade break.

film camera. It’s a different end of the market perhaps than the F5. Once you sit down and figure out what your production is, there’s a clear differentiation between the two products. Ed:

But you can’t upgrade an F5 to an F55 can you?

Stuart: Ahhh ... no. They look the same but they are very different internally. Like pies can be. Ed:

Oh I see.

And on that philosophical note, I wish to add my comments on the evening’s presentation. I love the pictures from the F55 when they are shot appropriately. They would stack up against the most beautiful 4K pictures I’ve seen ( from an F65 at the Rio Carnival ) any day. However, two short movies were shown at the camera launch, both shot on preproduction F55 cameras – one Hollywood, one European. Both had sections that showed the incredible clarity, exposure range and colour possible from this large sensor format in 4K – but, and it’s a big BUT, both movies showed how not to use this format too. When the frame was fixed – stunning: when the camera was hand held or rapid movement filled the frame, it looked like 16mm film. Perhaps that was the intention but I don’t think it worked. The motion effects might have been due to the movies being shot or delivered in 25P; they might have been an artefact of the cinema’s playout server or projector ( not a Sony ) on the night but, to my mind, it all goes to show that, if you are delivering anything other than 50i, you need to be careful of your workflow – that’s shooting, editing, output and delivery.

Ken and Glenn from Protel.

Ed: Ken, you’ve just had your photo taken with an F55. Was that yours? Ken: Protel’s F55 kit is arriving tomorrow so Sony kindly loaned us a unit to display for the evening. We will be sharing the F55 kit between our Auckland and Wellington offices so as many people as possible can take a look at this great new product. Ed: So you reckon the 55 is going to sell more than the 5?

Any comments? I’d love to hear and share. Nick Buchner’s comment: For the record, both films we screened were shot and projected at 23.98P. 50i is not relevant to cinema projection! Any motion artefacting can be put down to them being shot on preproduction cameras and also possibly the choice of shutter speeds used. Nothing to do with the 4K format as such!

Ken: It’s early days. I would say the F55 is probably more suited to the high end 4K market and the F5 caters for a lower entry level customer not requiring all the advanced features but still wanting to possibly record RAW 4K in the future. The additional Sony AXSR5 connects to both the F55 and F5 and is required to record 4K RAW ... Ed: ... there’s still a place for the F5? What do you think Stuart? Stuart: I would say the F5 is probably going to be a volume product and the F55’s a more premium product, so I think for any high end documentary or drama type production, the F5’s a great fit, particularly with the RAW recorder on the back, it gives you lots of options. The F55 is a full blown feature

Clive keeps an eye on things. Page 10

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Smoke on Demo What, another Autodesk Smoke story? Well, no apologies because, if you’re editing on anything else, you need to know what this very clever application can do and the best way to understand that is to see it in action. All I can tell you are the things that caught my fancy recently at DVT where Rob O’Neil from Autodesk did a superb demo. I followed in enough parts to believe Rob when he said that a Final Cut user, or an Adobe Premiere user, could jump onto this and use it straight away.

someone who was doing long-form editing and was adding very few extra effects. But for somebody who wants flexibility in their productions, this is, as you said, a complete production suite in one package. You’re not jumping from one programme to another, everything’s in there, you just have to find the right tab and the right buttons? Rob: Yes – you can learn anything with a little bit of training and some time and patience, and that’s really all it takes. Look I think that the Adobe tools in particular are extremely good at what they do. I use them – I use Photoshop and it’s great at what it does.

Rob: Maybe not straight away, maybe a couple of days of memory readjustment … Ed: I can see that there are lots of clever compositing, colour correction and effects built into Smoke but it’s also a very familiar timeline. As long as you don’t jump into any of the “fruity” modes, you could use this as a straight editor right away and learn the other bits as you go? Rob: Oh absolutely. The intention with rewriting the user interface and the code for the editors was that we wanted to make it attractive for Final Cut and Premiere and Avid users as well, to be able to jump into an environment that’s familiar to them. The previous version that we had, we tested with a number of editors overseas and we could see immediately that our user interface was unintuitive and to some it was absolutely confusing. So we had to go back and rewrite it if we were going to attract more people – and I think we’ve done that. Ed: I think you’ve got it right now. To me, this is now a product that really fits the middle to upper end of the market. In the past, you really were looking at that very top end. Now you are appealing to a much wider audience, but still there’s a very powerful tool in the background? Rob: Yes, certainly the capabilities of the toolset haven’t changed, so Smoke is still being used by that high end of the market, but of course the world has changed, it’s not the same, people aren’t getting the same hourly rate that they’re used to, so we couldn’t justifiably charge a million dollars for a seat like we did when Flame first came out for instance. These days you have to be able to be truly multi-tasking, hence editing being added to that toolset; you’ve also got to be able to handle a variety of budgets that come in. It’s not every day that you get something that’s worthy of your show reel, you’ve got to do bread and butter work as well, and we think Smoke fits all of that range of budgets, not just the high end anymore. Ed: I think it would be fair to say ( certainly from my point of view ) that a package like Adobe CS6 or even Avid Media Composer, would be the right package for

Rob and Stuart.

Honestly, there’s a lot of crossover, it’s really up to the artist to determine what his preference is at the time – “I might just do this in Photoshop” or “I might not bother and just do it in Smoke.” There’s a lot of crossover where it could easily be done in one or the other. I think our real strength comes, not so much in the cool lighting effects that we have, but it’s the nitty gritty of having to revise a job that’s come back in six months down the track for revision. I think that’s where we really stand apart because the archive has been encapsulated into one file, you don’t have to remember did I do this in Photoshop, did I do it in After Effects or did I do it in Premiere – it’s one application and you click on the clip and it tells you how you did it. It’s done a lot of that hard work for you. Ed: Yes, I can see there’s a lot of flexibility in there and one of my thoughts was that if you wanted to start a production business called “Silk Purse Video” this would be the ideal product, because it looks as though you can fix just about anything? Rob: I like “Sow’s Ear Video” myself. Well that’s what we’re hoping people will see in this, that it really is the best all round tool and I think I’d like to see people stop making decisions about what it’s based on, whether it’s high end, mid end or low end. That’s really not an argument anymore; it’s really “is this a tool that I can use to earn money?” And it is. Ed:

Page 14

And the big word is time?

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was impressed that it can bring in pretty well any XML file. So if somebody gives you a project that’s been made in Media Composer, you can bring that in and it will find all those files and it will bring in the metadata ( or most of the metadata ) along with them? Rob: Yes, depending on what version the other person’s using on those boxes – the most current versions are always supported. Not every piece of metadata is going to come across, because in a real world, that sort of thing just doesn’t happen. We aim for as much metadata as we possibly can get, and it really just gets you in the ballpark to continue on with the job, so that we can value add it in Smoke. We’re not trying to recreate it exactly; that’s what some people expect of it, but I don’t think anything in the world actually does that.

There are many screen arrangements possible.

Rob: Well we’d like to think that because we can bring the job back and load it and allow you to revise a job in record time, that’s eliminated from the equation … well maybe not eliminated, but certainly reduced to a comfortable degree. Ed: And in that flexibility, you were talking at one point about import – importing files into Smoke – and I

Ed: One of the value adds seems to be resolution, that you can up or down the resolution on that import stage? Rob: Well the thing is that resolution’s a bar that’s going to be constantly lifted and we are always looking ahead to see where that next bar is going to be, and for us it’s certainly 4K. 4K and broadcast, that’s a reality today, that’s what people are demanding, and we are rising to meet that. So our tools have always been very conscious of giving people flexible resolutions and high quality resolutions. And that’s only going to evolve as time goes on.

Page 16

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Stuart: Yes, they’ve got a very costeffective subscription model for Smoke which allows you to get all the latest software upgrades each year, and also allows you to get direct phone support with Autodesk as well, which is absolutely invaluable. Ed: And I guess the last thing that was really impressive, was that tonight’s whole demonstration was on an iMac? Stuart: Yes it was. Last night we had a Smoke user group meeting here and we used a fully pimped out, top of the line Mac Pro. Tonight, for this event, we used a fully pimped out top of the line iMac. The interesting thing is that that fully pimped out Mac Pro is only 20% faster than the iMac, and the cost of this iMac system we’re using tonight is about four grand. And on this iMac system running Smoke, we’ve also got Adobe CS6 Master Collection installed; we’ve got Media Composer 6.5 installed; we’ve got DaVinci Resolve installed – all of those applications, all on one machine, all at the same time. It’s absolutely amazing.

This shows the addition of a “sun” with lens flare. Just join the nodes.

Ed: And that brings us round to Stuart because we’ve got a rather lovely camera with fives all over it sitting quietly in the corner. Here’s a case that somebody can now record in 4K, use their Smoke to edit in high def, but the material is 4K in the background for when Smoke comes round to being in that ballpark?

Ed: And the place to come to see all of this and have a one-on-one is …? Stuart:

Stuart: Smoke is resolution independent, so it works with all of yesterday’s formats and frame rates and frame sizes, but also today’s and tomorrow’s as well. So it’s a really good solid platform for anyone to base their business on moving forward. For example you could do an offline edit in Smoke using the XDCAM HD material shot on the F55 camera and then conform that to the 4K RAW files once the offline was completed. Ed: You talked right at the beginning about the reduced cost of this and there are a couple of options in there which are very attractive? Stuart: Yes there’s the standard licence that you get for Smoke on the Mac that allows you to render on the machine that you’re working on, but most of the licences that we’ve sold are the next step up, which is called a floating licence. That automatically includes a burn node licence which allows a separate computer that you have networked to your main machine, that when you do an advanced visual effect and it needs to be rendered, that rendering task is handed off to the other machine to render … Ed: But that doesn’t have to be a dedicated rendering machine does it? Stuart: It doesn’t have to be a dedicated rendering machine, but most people using Smoke are actually using a dedicated machine because they just want to use it all the time and as that dedicated machine renders the frames it delivers them seamlessly in the background back to your timeline, so it’s a very productive way to work. So effectively your main workstation you’re never really rendering at all, you’re just constantly working and getting the job done. Ed: And then there’s an option for a little bit every year to keep you up to date with the latest from Autodesk, for example, when the 4K codecs come out? Page 18

DVT of course.

NZVN

Have Your Say – the response so far. I recently asked for feedback and received 3 replies. Many thanks to you three sharing souls for this opening which we hope will stimulate others to contribute for future issues. Follow Andy’s headings please. Andy Milne, Postlounge, Auckland. Favourite Bit of Kit – Has to be the Panasonic GH2. An unbelievably inexpensive option for shooting in HD. The democratiser of the Film and TV World. The pros far outway the cons. It takes just about any lens you can throw at it.

Peter Webster, Street-TV The Frezzi StableCam is brilliant when I am on my feet for hours doing work such as filming around motor-racing pits. Propping the strut on my beltline provides for great stability for stand-up interviews, and what’s more I can lower my arms occasionally to prevent fatigue, and have the freedom to write in my notebook. (The camera is a Canon XF300.)

Site Link – CreativeCow.com – Thousands of other people discussing post problems and finding solutions. Someone in the world has the same problem as you and has found a solution. A tip – Adobe CS6 – It's so intuitive. Software that actually helps you rather than fights back. Future inquiries – The democratisation of Film and Video production.

David Morrah My favourite kit is my Mac Pro FCP editing suite, my Panasonic GH2 DSLR and my Alpha 9000 tripod. www.DVXuser.com is the largest online filmmaking community in the world with many helpful technical forums. I visit this link for 99% of all my filmmaking questions or conniptions. FCP 7 works well with most formats except for newer codecs such as .MTS files found on some Panasonic cameras. You will need to install PavTube MTS converter, a free download, for FCP to successfully log & transfer .MTS files. After installing PavTube, you won't need to use PavTube ever again; FCP 7 will now autodetect .MTS files via normal log & transfer every single time. Maybe a section on new video technologies being used in short films by new indie filmmakers. Maybe something on the 'art' of shooting wedding videos too.

Page 20

Keep it coming. Ed

NZVN

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Two into One – with sauce It’s now “A2Z Riegers” – sort of two names but one company. The Riegers store in Dominion Road has closed and everything has moved here to the A2Z premises in Auckland’s Sale Street. To explain how “fish & chips” will work, we have Rex Milton, David Epstein and Matthew Cardno.

Rex: No, not the store. Certainly many customers know Riegers and know Dominion Road, but in our business, we’re not really walk-in shops, we’re not retail outlets, we’re a destination store and so people will phone us or go on the internet or drive to a location and so, by combining the two, it just gives that one advantage that there are more people here to service

Ed: Rex, was that the plan all along … or what was the plan? Rex: No Grant, the plan was to maintain the Riegers store and maintain the Riegers brand. With David Honare running the store for 29 years, he changed the direction from appliances to video and built up a very loyal group of customers who we want to continue to look after as well as David did and hopefully even better. The Riegers brand is very important and it’s largely related to a different sector to the professionals that we’ve tended to focus on with A2Z. We have been planning towards our future, Matthew, David, Alain, Sharon, Kate and Rex. re-inventing ourselves to give our clients the best their needs quicker, more efficiently and with a broader experience possible. By combining the two brands, it knowledge base. gives us that wider expertise and wider product range and service to be able to support the prosumer clients Ed: And of course, because the building there was like we do the professionals and hence the logic behind unreinforced masonry, I’m sure Matthew’s quite happy buying Riegers. to be out of the earthquake zone? Mind you, looking around here … Ed: Well even the professionals need and use some prosumer product at times? Rex: Exactly and with the Riegers products and now the A2Z products combined, it’s giving everybody a far wider choice of products, better service and greater value. Ed: But the actual site in Dominion Road, that really to me harks back to the days when Riegers was an appliance store servicing local homeowners, there’s really no value in keeping a second location?

Rex: Yes, we’ve certainly got windows and concrete walls … Ed:

plenty of bars on

That’s to keep the staff in, isn’t it Rex?

Rex: Exactly, I have the only key. Ed: So, in a nutshell, it’s the brand – the brand Riegers is something important, and I know David has strong views on the brand? David: Riegers is a big effective brand and a wellknown brand, and has a tremendous following. We’ve more on page 26

Page 22

decided at this stage to call the business “A2Z Riegers”. What will happen in the future is yet to be determined, but at the moment, it’s A2Z Riegers and so we’d like to reinforce that both brands still exist, we’re just all under one roof, one destination. Ed: That’s got to be good for the customers of both brands, because having one location, you can come and see all of the product that was available through both outlets? David: Camera and production equipment is our core business. That’s the niche of our business, so effectively both shops were doing very similar product lines, however they were serving two different parts of the market. A2Z was pro and Riegers was more prosumer, so combining the two we’re still moving cameras, we just have a larger range of cost of cameras and the accessories to go with that – tripods, lights, batteries, chargers, etc. So both brands’ product lines remain the same, however just a vaster range. Ed: And you’ve found something for Matthew to do here? David: There’s never a dull day at A2Z and combining two businesses is proving to be a busy adventure, so we’re very pleased to have an extra set of hands on board. Ed: And I notice that you’ve kept a few of the, shall we say “art pieces” that David Honare kept over the years. There’s one lovely little JVC camera I remember. Matthew do you have plans for that? Matthew: onto.

Oh they’re just a beautiful thing to hold

Everyone that came into Riegers actually spoke about those things and quite liked them up on the shelf, so I thought well why not bring them over there for a bit of nostalgia. So it’s quite good. Ed: So you’re planning a museum – you’d be the first ones? David: We’ve finally gotten rid of the 2 inch machines that we were storing here so “no”, no museum, everything new.

Matthew has the new (left) and the old (right).

Rex: I think one of the key things about combining the two brands is to have more expertise in the one location. Each member of our staff here has their specialties and expertise in certain areas, and so when a client comes in and enquires about a particular facet of the industry, we certainly have the person here who can actually help them to the maximum advantage, by calling on the individual that’s best. In summary, A2Z and Riegers, we’re basically changing; we’re changing for the better. This is the first step in a series of steps. We’re aiming to offer the best service choice and value to the customers all over the country, and over the coming months you’ll see different improvements and changes. Our first promotion in this area is our “merge and splurge” promotion and anyone who’s interested should register on our website at mergeandsplurge@a2ztech.co.nz because there will be some exciting things in the future. Ed: Well what about telling us some of them now? Rex: They will be worth waiting for! Ed: So this is going to be something that’s after NAB and it’s important to register because Rex, there’s even a prize for registering? Rex: Well it’s possible. Yes, David and Alain are both going to NAB for A2Z Riegers. We will be looking and talking to people up there, so we’ll certainly be doing some good promos on their return and yes, we will have a registering prize. Ed: But the JVC camera won’t be up for sale?

Rex’s choice of caption “Would you buy cabbages off this man?” Page 26

Rex: No, and neither will the wooden NZVN legged tripods.

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Bridging is an automatic background utility that Parking is a Sequence and Project Mover for Archive Bridging is an automatic background utility that enables Parking is a Sequence and Project Mover for Archive Storage, editors to editors exchange to sequences for cross platform for cross Storage, Distribution and Disaster Recovery enables exchange sequences Distribution and Disaster Recovery collaboration and workflow migration Fast and cost effective archive and restore process platform collaboration and workflow migration. over for Archive Storage, Fast and cost effective archive and restoreBridging process is an automatic background utility that enables Convert sequences and move media in the background Create for Disaster Recovery or later reworking Convert sequences and move media in the Create files files for Disaster Recovery or later reworking editors to exchange sequences for cross platform Typical Use Cases Facilitate production collaboration Improve file based workflows between facilities Typical Use Cases Improve file based workflows between facilities Park background. Facilitate production collaboration. Save time and effort transferring edits Park media onto lower cost edit shared storage collaboration and workflow migration Broadcast content creators needing Media producers with investments to re-edit short form - News/Sports media onto lower cost edit shared storage Save time and effort transferring in both Avid edits. and FCP Overview

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Canon Cinema EOS on Show The evening was for cinematographers and Canon dealers to experience some movies, some talk and a "hands on" with the Canon EOS cinema range. The talk started with a little bit of history. This goes back to the Canon 5D, especially the Mark II which had that big improvement in the DSLR with its capability to record movies. Then about 18 months ago, Canon startled the industry by releasing the C300 with a great leap in movie recording features. This was a purpose built cinema camera, making good use of the huge range of Canon cinema lenses that are out there. More recently, the C300 has been bracketed by the C500 and the C100 to provide greater market spread. This broad range of capability has been added to by the 1DC. This is very much a "DSLR looking" type camera, but it has very powerful movie capability on a par with the EOS C500, but more about that later.

As well as Paul's talk, as part of the movie presentation, directors DOPs and the others had a word about their use of the cameras. Points that I picked up were – 1.

4K is going to be the next big sustainable thing.

2. The C500 and the 1DC both produce 4K RAW with the dynamic range quoted as being 12 stops. 3. The CMOS sensor is the right sensor for current cameras. It has the right internal corrections, even reducing the rolling shutter effect. The pictures from the CMOS were superb; the explanation was that the amount of processing steps that have to happen to a

The presentation was by Paul Stewart from Australia and although I was unable to interview Paul due to Canon's very strict standards about who can talk to the press about what ( no just me! ), I was able to listen to his presentation, record various bits and note my recollections. It started off with two movies – one shot on the C500 and one on the 1DC. Glenn, They were both shot in 4K RAW and then processed in post to produce some very, very interesting movies. The people who shot both of them obviously knew what they were doing and took shots accordingly, but the big disappointment to me, ( especially having seen another presentation recently where a 4K projector was used ) was that these were not projected in 4K. They were MPEG files off a laptop through a high definition projector and the picture suffered accordingly. It was disappointing for me and I’m sure the audience was equally disappointed that here are cameras obviously with very high capabilities, but you couldn’t actually see the definition ( or dynamic range ) that we know these cameras are capable of, in this presentation. That’s something that I guess I’ll see and be able to report on from NAB where I’m sure they will have 4K viewing capability. Having said that, looking through the limitations of HD, one could see that both these cameras produced superb results and justified the Canon investment in them. Paul explained that we are seeing that movie theatres are 4K capable of projection right now. Cinema’s going to be the next big step in the 4K evolution. Obviously, shooting with a 4K sensor and conforming down to 2K or HD is going to give you great value in terms of image quality as well. Having that RAW data there for future times when 4K is going to come is about future-proofing your business.

Paul and David at the Canon event.

CMOS image are much less than with a CCCD image, so what you get at the end result is a lot less processed and with a lot more depth. 4. The Canon Log system … other manufacturers I know have something similar, but the purpose of this is that the 4K RAW images ( which in the C500 you can’t record internally, you have to have an external recorder ) are able to be processed with all their associated metadata. That provides the information you can use in post to give you those superb pictures. 5. Four output channels. There is red, blue and two green. One green channel has half a pixel offset both vertically and horizontally and it’s the recombination of them which provides something extra special in the picture – as Paul said "the special sauce" from Canon. If you do get a chance to see the Canon movies Man and Beast about a jaguar and a young boy in the New York Zoo and The Ticket, which was the one shot with the 1DC, they are very worth looking at. They are both interesting movies but also show the capabilities of these cinema cameras – especially if you can see them in 4K. Obviously with the C500 in cinema mode, the number of pieces added on to the kit was quite considerable and the processing was a major part of the production. The Ticket, shot with the EOS 1DC, showed the versatility of this little camera. Even though it has

Page 30

limited recording capability, you record onto CF cards within the camera and at 4K RAW you get four minutes. Two minutes doesn’t seem a lot to a videographer, but to a cinema maker, that’s plenty long enough to record a scene, take your cards out and offload the data. I was amazed that at a data rate of 500 megabit per second, the internal battery will last for up to 90 minutes. It takes all the lenses, so it means that you can have a full blown camera in a rig, or you can put a little lens on it and handhold it for those very close up, very confined shots. As I said before, I will pursue further information at NAB, where any new announcements might be made. One that does seem to be on the cards is that Canon are developing a 4K digital display. Historically, Canon have always been strong in print media, producing very good printers and high resolution photographic images by print; now with Cinema EOS range taking off and less emphasis I guess worldwide on print, there’s a move by Canon into 4K digital displays. Watch this space. After the presentation, I spoke with the Canon Cinema EOS dealers present. Firstly, Glenn Miers from Protel. Ed: Glenn, you obviously had people who were really keen on the 5Ds and used them happily. Are they coming back in to talk to you about this new Cinema EOS range? Glenn: Yes they are. The 5D Mark II and obviously now the Mark III as well have both been great starting points for people who wanted to shoot HD video and get a nice filmic look to their videos – benefits like shallow depth of field and great low-light performance for example. But since then, people have found there are limitations with those DSLR cameras. With Canon and the Cinema EOS range, users have moved into a higher end product line that gives them a lot better feature set than what they would have with a DSLR and less requirement for rigging and external accessories. They can literally take the camera out of the box, put on a lens, put in a card, and shoot and get a really great image from the internal codecs on the Cinema EOS cameras. Ed: And some of these people have been raving about their 300s and their 500s?

want to stay with XYZ brand”. They’ve actually decided that because of the form factor of the Canons, they are really compact, they are literally a take it out of the box, put a lens and a card in it and shoot … and that’s something that you just don’t normally get at this level. Ed: But are you getting people coming along and really understanding the difference between these large sensor cameras and video cameras? Are you getting video people for example, wanting to use these cameras for their traditional video work? Glenn: Yes we’re starting to. I think originally there was certainly a sense of fear over using a large sensor camera because of the much shallower depth of field that you get with a large sensor and obviously you have to be more aware of your focusing, but as people become more used to using DSLRs for shooting that kind of material, they’ve realised that it is actually possible with the settings on the camera to achieve a shallower depth of field without going crazy, and so they are using them. You know we are finding people are shooting things like corporates and they’re starting to shoot wedding videos with them and things like that as well, so there is a lot more everyday video content being shot with large sensor cameras, not just higher end films and such. Ed: I guess especially with the 4K capability of the C500, you can actually still use that camera in a 2K mode and have higher frame rates which make it a bit more versatile? Glenn: Yes that’s right. This is something that previously, with the HD cameras, people didn’t have access to – higher frame rates, larger imaging areas to work with, better codecs. Obviously, as Paul from Canon was saying, being able to take stills from those large sensor cameras and actually print them is a valuable extra. Wedding and fashion photographers actually videoing instead of taking photos and then capturing just the right still from their video content and printing that as a large format photograph for the bride and groom or advertising agency. That kind of thing was just unachievable before. For the A2Z view of the evening, David Epstein. Ed: David, a very impressive Canon evening, and I understand that this is especially important for you more on page 35

Glenn: Yes … the 500 is at the top end of the Cinema EOS range and shoots 4K, so it is a small market segment so far in New Zealand. The C300 has been going very, very well, but certainly the real upstart is the C100, Canon’s entry level Cinema EOS product and it’s been going great guns. People really love what they’re able to achieve with that camera. Ed: Are you finding that it’s Canon owners who are coming in and upgrading, or are you getting people switching brands? Glenn: It’s actually been a bit of a mix. We’ve had customers that have traditionally shot on other brand DSLR cameras who have come in and bought a C100 camera and bought Canon lenses as well to go with it, because they wanted that kind of capability on a camera. So it hasn’t been a matter of saying “well, I’m shooting XYZ brand, I

Matthew watches while Alain trys out the Canon rig. Page 32

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guys, because you’re not only selling Canon cinema cameras, you’re selling Canon video cameras and a lot of lenses.

David: Absolutely. Tremendous cinematographers … there’s some real talent out there and these cameras are shining.

I guess having the lenses with the camera makes this a very, very good package?

We were told today by Canon that even Mr Spielberg himself is looking to do his next feature with some Canon cameras and glass.

David: It does, coupled with the fact that Canon announced today that they’ve just manufactured their 80 millionth lens and what that means for those adopters to the Canon cameras that actually use Canon lenses, is that it’s a sensible choice for people moving from the digital stills world into an ever evolving video world.

Ed: Now the C300 has been around a while, so I imagine you’ve got some pretty happy customers out there? David: Yes, the camera was launched 14 months ago – Rex went over to Los Angeles for the launch of this camera.

Ed: Now you’re a man who gives sensible advice and if somebody comes in to talk to you, you’ve obviously got a range of cameras available from different manufacturers … how does the conversation go? “Well, look at the Canon because it …?”

We took it on and all its accessories at that time and frankly we’ve sold more cameras than our fair share. We’re up to I think 28 cameras which in the New Zealand market is pretty high.

David: Good question. We really like to sit down and listen carefully to what people are hoping to achieve with a camera, because each camera has its strength depending on what someone’s trying to shoot.

David: Rental houses are using them … we learned today that it’s the most popular rental camera in the world at the moment. It’s a very small form factor, it takes a wide range of lenses – a particularly popular camera.

Also, we like to listen to what lenses, what glass they’d like to use and what effect they’d like to get with that glass. So it’s always centred on the client – we’ll advise them which camera to go with, based on listening carefully to what they’re hoping to achieve. Ed: I guess if the movies that we saw here tonight are anything to go by, that’s obviously very good use of the cameras?

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Ed:

And people are putting them to good use?

And the workflow’s no issue?

David: Like any new adoption of any new camera, there’s always a workflow issue to start with. Once you’ve got that sussed, once you’ve got solid state workflow sussed, it’s a piece of cake. Ed:

Good advice.

David: A2Z.

Thanks Grant.

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