HD For Indies

Film & Video | How Panavision's Genesis Made Life Interesting For the VFX Crews on Superman Returns

Of note were two issues:

1.) The Panalog color space - it's a custom log (logarithmic) color space, but it is 4:4:4 unlike traditional HD. Some tweaking to deal with the custom log curve, but apparently not a huge deal.

2.) The Genesis footage was so much SHARPER than traditional film it had ramifications for the VFX crews - instead of softening and adding grain, they actually had to turn up their anti-aliasing settings to be artifact free and match the look of the live plates. Keys were more challenging since they were sharper and more detailed - you couldn't just blur the edges and wing it.

An interesting read for those interested in working with high end HD cameras.

Also of note is the fact that they chose to use this camera on a nearly quarter billion dollar production - so clearly film costs were not a consideration here - the look was the primary reason (sharp images), and the workflow conveniences (already digital info) was the ancillary benefit.

There's also another entire article about VFX in Superman Returns here.

-mike