HD For Indies

Avid Delivers Media Composer and Avid Xpress Pro for Intel-Based Macs

Avid released new versions of Media Composer (v2.7) and Xpress Pro (v5.7). Big new features:

-Intel Mac support (hooray!)
-updated bundle of third party apps
-support for new formats
-can read AND write back to XDCAM & P2
-720p50 for Euro markets
-BIG new feature for Media Composer - ScriptSync for syncing script to the video clips (more below)
-new codec support - DNxHD 36, for low datarate (36 megabit) for offline editing at HD pixel resolutions at a bit over 4 MB/sec - not much more than DV's datarate. And it is full raster (no horizontal shrinkage) as well. This has LOTS of uses, I'm a big fan of cutting compressed HD for your offline, including seeing full resolution of your project and cutting at native frame rates.

The catch: gotta use a high powered Avid to get the footage in:

Using either an Avid DNxcel(TM) powered Media Composer Adrenaline(TM), or an Avid Nitris(R) system, customers can encode HD content to Avid DNxHD 36 in real-time.


It SHOULD be possible to convert to DNxHD in non-realtime after capturing in some other compressed codec, but how quickly that transcoding be done? With what tools? I don't have answers to that yet - if you do, please post in the Comments, as I'm insufficiently familiar with these Avid capabilities.

ScriptSync sounds pretty damned impressive, but I have yet to sit down and get a demo. If you are cutting to a script, ideally you want all your shots associated with the right part of the script. The old way was to play footage and click ins and outs - not terribly precise. The way this new product works is to scan the audio track of the footage, do voice recognition, and then correlates that text to the text of the script. If it works right, it will be a HUGE time saver for those cutting narrative content from scripts. Clearly, you'll need ot have decent quality audio for this to work, but it could be a substantial time saver. I need to play with it to see how practical it is, and I will soon. From their press release:

"Script-based editing has been very popular among customers because it provides an easy way to respond to directors, who often want to quickly review different takes of scenes based on the dialogue in the script."

Stuart Bass, A.C.E., 2006 Emmy nominee and ACE Eddie award winner for Arrested Development: "I can easily line up twelve takes of a single performance and evaluate each one in a thorough and organized fashion. It enables our team to evaluate different readings with greater speed, streamlining the storytelling process under extremely tight deadlines."

....

...the ScriptSync tool advances the functionality of Avid's script-based editing by automating the task of synchronizing scripts or transcripts with their respective media files, and eliminates the labor intensive process of manually inserting sync points. Once the script and media are matched, editors, directors and producers can quickly and easily review multiple line readings and select individual takes. With ScriptSync, script-based editing is significantly more accurate and more practical for everyday use.

Other new stuff in the bundled apps - Sorenson Squeeze Compression Suite 4.5 - faster encoding. SmartSound SonicFire Pro 4 - auto-creation of music with "Mood Mapping" to create a vibe and "match the mix and feel of music to the changing moods of any production." Boris Continuum Complete 4.2.2 lets you apply filters directly in Media Composer (but not Xpress Pro).

Media Composer (software only) if $4995 list, you can add Mojo SDI or Adrenaline hardware.

Existing users can upgrade to v2.7 for $195 (& includes Boris Continuum Complete 4.2.2). After June 30, goes up to $995.

For Xpress Pro, from the press release:

Avid Xpress Pro Software

Version 5.7 of Avid Xpress Pro software is available for $1,695 USMSRP. Customers with versions 5.5 or higher of Avid Xpress Pro software will receive upgrades to version 5.7 for $49.95 USMSRP. Customers with Avid Xpress Pro systems that precede version 5.5 can upgrade to version 5.7 for $149.95 USMSRP.

Native Intel support is a big deal - the latest laptops and towers are fast and powerful - but if you couldn't run the latest software natively, you couldn't use that power. And with eight processor Macs expected any day now, native support is an even bigger deal.

-mike

PS - I should have mentioned this before (I'm updating this Sunday) - Avid was kind enough to send me a copy of Media Composer 2.7 beta prior to its release for review/commentary, but I haven't gotten far enough into it to have salient commentary (SXSW then family crisis intervened in that time). I'll be testing this ASAP.

Labels: Avid, NLE

Just for convenience, these are auto-generated to keep track of the best selling DVDs, HD DVDs, & Blu-ray movies from Amazon available through my online store. Click any of these links to jump further down the page to the part you want. These are all based on Amazon's categorizations, which can be a little wonky. Don't see what you want? Just search for it.

Best Selling DVDs

Best Sellers below, or click to jump to: Action, Animation, Anime, Classics, Comedy, Cult, Docs, Drama, Horror, Scifi/fantasy, TV shows

HD DVDs

Don't see what you want?
Search for what you're looking for:

Blu-ray Movies

Don't see what you want? Search for what you're looking for:

Regular DVDs by category

DVDs: Action & Adventure



DVDs: Animation



DVDs: Anime



DVDs: Classics



DVDs: Comedy



DVDs: Cult (their category, not mine...I wouldn't call many of these exactly cult...)



DVDs: Documentaries



DVDs: Drama



DVDs: Horror - their category is screwy, don't blame me...



DVDs: Scifi & Fantasy



DVDs: Television Shows




Don't see what you want? Search for what you're looking for:


Have fun and enjoy!

-mike

Labels: Blu-ray, DVDs, HD DVD, online store

Funding Panel SXSW

Yo Indies! Wanna git yer movie funded? Read these notes, not taken by me.

-mike

Jim Pete - The Digital Video Information Network

"Jim and Jarred are in Wellington, New Zealand putting Red through its paces with Peter Jackson at Peter's post facility, Park Road Post.
Peter's Weta Digital are rumored to have 5 units reserved.
Very appropriate end users for Red and with such a significant skill base that could well be contributory to the final product, if they have not done so yet."


Well, God DAMN. Wish I were there.

Reduser's coverage of same here, but no further official info or deets.

UPDATE Ah - Proof! (PHOTO)
-mike

Labels: Red

AppleInsider | New Macs feature dual or "quad-core" processors, says Apple

"Every new Mac features powerful dual-core or quad-core Intel processors, the world's most advanced operating system, and more,' the company wrote on a section of its online store promoting Adobe's new Creative Suite 3.0 software


Earlier rumors had suggested that Apple was going to wait to team with Adobe and their launch of CS3 to roll out the quad core Macs - but CS3 got announced last week, and STILL no Quad Core OctoMacs as yet.

I'm figuring we either get a Special Event next week before NAB (unlikely), or Apple rolls out the OctoMac goodness at the pre-NAB Sunday press event, along with the next Final Cut Studio.

But OctoMacs are DEFINITELY getting close. The question now: how soon until we can lay mitts on them? It appears they've been delayed for whatever reason for substantial periods of time (maybe Leopard required? Unlikely.), so I'd HOPE they'd have them all stacked & stocked up and ready to go. Historically, Apple announces new tower Macs, says the first two models are immediately available (although in limited supply), the top end model will be available in "about a month" but takes 45-60 days, or if you order it with the new top end video card, it takes 60-90 days until you actually get it.

I say this from experience - I've been ordering "Day Zero" Macs for years - my dual 2.0, 2.5, and Quad Core G5's were all top of the line, order Day Zero (day announced), and all were considerably delayed. E.V.E.R.Y. T.I.M.E.

Apple HAS been getting better about having stock at announcement, and the Intel boards & CPUs have been out for months that we expect Apple to use.

But time's a marchin' on, we're getting impatient.

-mike

ProLost: NAB Pimpin'

Stu probably won't mind if I quote him verbatim from his ProLost blog:

When I'm not trying to distract whoever's holding the Red One prototypes with my patented "look, a blimp!" technique, I'll be pimping some goodies at NAB.

I've been working with Red Giant Software on the next generation of Magic Bullet tools. This is going to be a must-see. Red Giant's booth, Tuesday 4/17 10am and Wednesday 4/18 2pm.

I'll also be talking about The Orphanage's film effects work using Adobe After Effects, touching on my favorite topic: linear light compositing, at the Adobe booth. Tuesday 2pm, Wednesday 11am.


This should be good. Hopefully I can check it out Wednesday.

-mike

Moviemaker Dialogues: Film Bloggers Are Your Friends | Austin Film Society

Moderated by SXSW Film Festival Producer Matt Dentler

For filmmakers and film fans around the world, film blogs and Web sites have become an essential tool for the latest news, tips, and promotion for one's career. Especially for filmmakers who don't live in New York or L.A., a film web site can help boost awareness to the masses like nothing else. Learn tricks of the trade and the vital details on how you can navigate the ever-growing world of film blogging and reviewing online. Panelists include: Aaron Hillis (editor, Cinephiliac.com & contributor to Premiere.com, IFC.com, TheReeler.com), Joel Heller (editor, DocsThatInspire.com), Jette Kernion (contributor to Cinematical.com), and Mike Curtis (editor, HDForIndies.com). The panel will be moderated by AFS Board Member, SXSW Festival Producer, and Blogger Matt Dentler.


This will be April the 10th 7pm at the Austin Studios Screening Room, tickets are free but admission is limited to Austin Film Society Filmmaker & above members.

-mike

NAB event

Walter Murch will be there, an the full agenda won't be announced until shortly before.

Here's the deets from the LAFCPUG site:

Where? - Venetian Hotel, Palazzo Ballroom, 5th level.

3355 Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV
When? - Wednesday, April 18, 6:30PM - 10:00PM (Doors open
5:00PM)
How Much? - $15.00 per person. Includes 2 raffle tickets
per person
Any raffle prizes? - Of course. $2.00 per raffle ticket
or 3 for $5.00
Who should attend? - Everyone who wants to learn more
about Final Cut Studio and meet others who know more than you
do.
Food and Drink? - Food (free) and Cash Bar will be available.

What's on the agenda? - It's super secret!

Film & Video | D.P. Claudio Miranda on Benjamin Button's Viper Workflow

Some choice selects:

-on why Viper was chosen: Fincher likes the workflow, the WYSIWYG factor, and Don't you sleep better knowing it's all good, all in the can, with no scratches?"

-time saved on reloads (none w/Viper)

-Benjamin Button has a 145 day shooting schedule (woah)

-no surprises in the workflow, was very smooth

-on shooting dark scenes:



F&V: Your relationship with David Fincher goes back some time. How did you end up as DP on this project?

CLAUDIO MIRANDA: Originally I was an electrician for him, and I was his gaffer on Fight Club and The Game. I was David’s Viper guinea pig on a commercial, Xelebri [which won the 2004 Clio Award Bronze for Best Cinematography]. I was a little skeptical, but we liked the results. The highlights were good. That experience was interesting.

David uses commercials to experiment with possible things he might do on films. After Xelebri, we did other commercials with the Viper: Nike’s “Game Breakers,” where we shot elements for CG, and “Beer Run” for Heineken [which won the 2005 AICP award for Best Cinematography].

Harris Savides was the original DP on Zodiac [which was shot with the Viper], but I shot two weeks of some additional scenes, such as a jailhouse scene. It was pretty simple. It went well enough that David asked me to do Benjamin Button, which is a huge movie to undertake. It’s a 145-day shooting schedule and a period movie that takes place from 1918 to almost present day. There’s a lot involved with the look of each period.

Why was the Viper chosen for this particular project?

David loves the workflow of the Viper. He likes seeing what he gets. He asked me once, “Don’t you sleep better knowing it’s all good, all in the can, with no scratches?” I’m looking at the answer print and I’m happy with what I see. He also raved about how much time they saved on reloads on Zodiac.

Zodiac has its own look, whether you like it or not. We’re not trying to make the Viper look like film. The Viper has its own look. It’s not HD – it’s its own thing.

Were you concerned that there might be holes in the workflow since feature film production with the Viper is so new?

Not really, since it had been successfully used on Zodiac. I did extensive tests with the Viper — durability tests to make sure it could survive.

Did you shoot 4:4:4 or 4:2:2 for Benjamin Button? And what lenses did you use?

We shot in 4:4:4 both for Zodiac and Benjamin.

There wasn’t anything too special with lenses or accessories. We used Zeiss DigiPrimes and DigiZooms. Zeiss DigiPrimes are what we’ve been using all along, [also] on Zodiac.

How did you light Benjamin? The Viper has shown that it can do well in dark lighting situations. Is it being used that way?

It’s really amazing – some scenes, I’ll put a light bulb in the middle of the frame and it looks fine. Some scenes are really beautiful. The way Viper reacts, the image looks like a painting in a way. One of my favorite scenes is a whorehouse scene, and the textures and colors that were produced looked really beautiful.

To say the Viper does well in low lighting situations – I think you can underexpose film beautifully, and Harris is the master of that. We’re not letting it go as dark as you can see in Zodiac. You start losing color detail. I’d rather step on it. You can print it down so much easier – I don’t think it looks good when you bring it up. We’re aiming at printing down.

But still, there are actually very dark moments in this movie – it is David, after all, he can’t let that go. The Viper does shine in those moments. There are advantages: if we go dark and we need more light, the Viper can go to a 315-degree shutter. Sometimes, if I need light on a slow-moving scene, I’ll go to a 270-degree shutter.


Workflow was Viper in 4:4:4 mode to S.two (as with Zodiac), and there is no DIT on set, since they are recording the raw output, not having to tweak and make destructive, one way decisions on set. I think this is one of the biggest advantages of this shooting style (as does Genesis, SI-2K, Red One, etc.) - you treat it like film in that you light & shoot now, make color optimization choices LATER when you aren't paying Brad Pitt to stand around.

This makes me wonder - is the total cost of the shoot reduced by spending a bit more for Viper/S.two up front but skipping the DIT and the time he'd cost on set? If anybody has any solid info on that, I'd love to hear it.

Claudio (DoP) would copy a frame as a DPX file to a thumb drive to tweak with Aperture and Photoshop and maybe Shake, then put on secure FTP for Fincher to check out. They didn't sweat calibration too hard - " If I can make it look good on a $2,000 machine, I know I can make it look good later down the pipeline. "

I so So SO think this kind of workflow is the future for those for whom film is not a realistic or desired option. It isn't as if Fincher can't afford to shoot on whatever he wants.

Watching Grindhouse last night, Planet Terror is shot on Genesis, Death Proof was shot on film - I don't think anybody noticed or cared about a difference in the look attributable to the acquisition format.

-mike

Studio Daily | The P2 Matrix - Navigating File-Based Workflow:

The presentation at the Lounge was short on details, but here's a cribsheet on what to expect from the HPX3000.

-2 million pixel progressive image block
-Using the AVC-Intra codec, get a 10-bit image at full 1920x1080 resolution, not 1440x1080
-Camera will be less than $50,000
-32 GB P2 cards will be 'about $1000' at year's end
-Because NLE support won't be ready at the camera's launch, Panasonic will provide tools that will decode 1920x1080 content and send it out via HD-SDI
-'By this time next year, there will be codec support in the edit packages ... and we're going to put that D-5 quality across FireWire.'"


The article then goes on to discuss some of the practical realities of P2 based workflow - backup, archiving, tracking that data, etc.

That is all REALLY good news. Although there is another camera within that price range that will record >10 bits @ >HD resolution that I'm KINDA interested in that I've been tracking...

-mike

Labels: cameras, hardware, high end, P2, workflow

Studio Daily | Q&A: Michael Caporale, 24p Digital Cinema

At one point the HPX2000s, as well as the HVX200s, were exposed to the elements for five days straight, at -35 and below, and they performed flawlessly. It got so cold that one of the lenses broke off a camera at the lens-mount because the screws got metal-fatigued and simply crumbled. This happened as the camera was being picked up%u2014and it wasn't a heavy lens. That's how cold it was. Yet, the cameras, the cards and the images stored on the P2 cards were not affected by the cold.

In another incident, a producer was juggling P2 cards in and out of a camera, so to prevent dropping a card in the snow, she stuck one in her mouth for a second and it froze to her tongue. The images on the card remained intact. That's about the worst that happened. We did not have a single problem either with the performance of the cameras or the P2 cards or the workflow - not one single crash, lost clip, corruption or anything in 110 hours of footage.


Woah.

This guy works closely with Panasonic so he's likely to say nice things about them, but this is a testament to how the cameras (HVX200 & HPX2000) can hold up in extreme circumstances. A friend of mine (Greg Bernstein) shot HVX200 in Alaska and it was so cold at one point he got color distortions - an ultra cold sensor perhaps?

-mike

Studio Daily | The Pros and Cons of HDV

GOOD series of videos talking about pros and cons of the HDV format. Included are:

-Scott Billups on using the XL-H1's HD-SDI output to record uncompressed and how that compares to a Viper.

-Jody Eldred talks about using Z1U on JAG & NCIS

-James Mathers on using XL-H1 underwater, and +/- of HDV format

-Terence Curren (& others) discuss editing options and issues when cutting HDV, and looking forward to Sony's pro HDV deck.

This is good stuff, I wish I could attend these events.

-mike

Studio Daily | Building the DI Theater

Nice article on the process and choices made in setting up a DI Theater.

[H] Enthusiast - Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD: The War of the Formats

Good update on the status between the two, and a good primer if you haven't been keeping track.

Digital World Blu-Ray Outselling HD-DVD 70% to 30%

this article points out:
-over 100,000 copies of Blu-ray Casino Royale have shipped
-that's the first title to do so
-PS3 seems to be working - Blu-ray movies selling @ 7x the rate since PS3 launch
-Blu-ray has been about 70% of HD disc sales since January

The press vibe seems to be that Blu-ray is pulling ahead.

More pics are here
Just got back from dropping off Dianne (aka Kitty) after attending the Grindhouse premiere here in Austin with Robert Rodriguez Quentin Tarantino, and I had a GREAT time.

The premiere was at The Paramount, the beautiful nearly century old grand theater of Austin on Congress Avenue - ALL the good premieres are here.

Things kicked off slowly - it was supposed to start around 7, it was nearly an hour later before Rodriguez and Tarantino took the stage and riled up the audience - he said that they'd been blown away by the audience reaction of execs and talent agents etc. in LA a couple of days before, but any self respecting Texan could kick the shit out of a talent agent...and the crowd goes wild....ah, the blatant local hook - works every time.

: )

Speaking of Texas, this film is a big, fat sloppy wet kiss to Austin, the kind you give the boyfriend/girlfriend to be the first night you meet them after many beers and you're oh-so-happy to have met her/him. It's passionate as hell, even if the aim isn't quite accurate, it is the intent that counts.

I predict the Texas Chilli Parlour will never be the same, nor Guerro's. It's odd seeing all these places up on screen - I live walking distance from Guerro's, just ate there the other day. (The owners used to be neighbors of my parents, won't they be happy with this film). It was odd seeing my neighborhood up on screen - in one mundane shot when you see Kurt Russel's car lingering in the street, I laughed and nudged Kitty to point out the dry cleaners in the background - "Hey...." I said, "...my shirt's in there..."

Grindhouse, in case you've been hiding under a rock, is a big fat violent delicious mess of TWO movies. The first part is Terror Planet, and without going too much into it they have a complete blast with the whole "everybody's an infected zombie" thing. Tarantino cast himself in a part with the most appalling on-screen moment I can recall a director ever placing himself in - it just drips with ick-itude, you'll have to see it. His character is "Rapist 1" in the credits. Freddy Rodriguez puts himself on the map nicely, and the cast is chock full of name brand folks squeezed in all over the place - I won't spoil it for you. Rose McGowan, who in person is a tiny, exquisite delicate porcelain thing, has tremendous voluptous presence in the movie.

Rodriguez has been getting his action chops down better and better, but this film also scores big points for humor - there's some deliciously wonderful use of "Missing Reel" syndrome on purpose (as I mentioned in my Grindhouse 101 SXSW panel coverage the other week). He's intentionally digitally dirtied up the movie with scratches and blemishes as if it were an old print that's been through the ringer far too many times. But he shot this digitally, with the Panavision Genesis (he's been shooting 900/950 in the past) - and it doesn't really show - it's just "a movie" that you're watching. We're clearly well past the point where digitally shot is a detriment or concern of any real sort to 99.99% of the moviegoing public.

Rodriguez has added lots of humor, from sly to absurdist to gross-out, and it all works. The audience roared along with the film, thoroughly eating it up, and the ending was even more satisfying that I would have expected, yet still deliciously greasily cheesy within genre.

HEARTILY, HEARTILY RECOMMEND THIS FILM if you're a fan of going to see fun flicks. Not film, not cinema, not art, FLICKS.

The interstitial trailers are also a blast, with Eli Roth, Rob Zombie and others geting in on the action. It is interesting to see what got edited or covered up since the SXSW panel in Eli's - they covered up a few moments with "accidental" film glitches.

Tarantino then kicks into his part, Death Proof (which was shot on film) and he lingers on Austin even moreso than Rodriguez (who lives & shoots here). He sets major chunks of the movie in Guerro's and the Texas Chilli Parlour (both of which I drove past on the way home from the after party), and I kept having that odd deja vu moment seeing stuff a few blocks from my house up on screen (common for LA & NYC residents I'm sure).

Anyway, back to the film - after a normal, expected movie pace that builds to a peak early in the film, there' a lengthy expositional lull where four women characters (with Rosario Dawson included, sigh....) just hang out and talk FOREVER. They hang out, they drive, they go to check out a car and then mess around with it before the movie finally falls back into "Ok, where are they going with this? NOW I get it" mode. Then that lengthy slow interlude suddenly makes sense - Tarantino's been building up a currency, now he wants to spend it. I really enjoy that so much of what was interesting was NOT in the trailer for this part - kudos to the restraint of the boys on this.

The ending is also within genre but very satisfying in its simplicity and directness - the crowd went WILD for it.

See? No spoilers.

Afterwards, we hung out a bit out front then went over to The Belmont for the after party. Hanging out a bit out front, I saw Kurt Russell, Robert Rodriguez, Rose McGowan, and several other actors arrive from the film and took a few pics (see link at bottom of article for pics), but felt too dorky fanboy to hang outside with my pocketcam to take pictures "for my blog" (wouldn't YOU cringe saying that out loud?), so we went in and hung out a bit. I'd seen some of the Texas Roller Girls going from the movie over to the Belmont on roller skates down the street - whilst still in their nice evening dresses - a very Austin moment I have to say!

Ran into Matt Dentler and chatted about an Austin Film Society panel thing I'm going to be on in a few weeks, I'll have more to say once details are figured out. Saw some more folks I knew, but Dianne was cold and I hadn't eaten so we jetted - I'll maybe catch Robert's DP to talk to him about Red stuff soon.

OK, late and to bed, just wanted to give a quick note on it.

But the kids are going to EAT THIS UP. This is one of those rated R movies that all the 15 year olds are going to be just DYING to see. It's violent, it's gross, it's silly, it's WONDERFUL - like the greasy nachos Kurt Russell is eating in his first scene - it may not necessarily be good for you, but it's DAMN fine eatin'.

This is going to do JUST FINE in the theaters (Knocked Up is my other pick for a big success this year too).

-mike

Labels: high end, review

....so I jump in my car to go get a late lunch at Freebird's Burrito down on Too-Trendy-For-Its-Own-Pants South Congress.

The girl working the register sees me wearing my latest NurdBoy shirt:


click on any of these pics for a higher res view

....and she asked "Do you have a camera like that?"

and I paused and said "Almost...but it's interesting that you ask that, since my job involves moviemaking and I've been running a site for three years..." (yadda yadda, fade scene).

So I'm driving home and remembering that I have these two old cameras. As I'm thinking about this, detouring around the street work in my neighborhood down the street by the creek, a possum waddles its way across the road - man I love the town where you've got critters 90 seconds from the trendy shop/restaurant/gallery neighborhood.

So I got home and opened up the cabinet where I keep them - I have two 8mm cameras that I rescued from garage sales in the family years ago - they are Curtis owned cameras, but from which side of the family or which generation I don't know.

Here's the first one, a "Cine-Kodak 8 Model 25":





But the real jewel is this one, a Univex 8 from Universal Camera Corporation. I just ADORE the art deco-ness of it:


and the exposure table with light conditions printed on the side:



Here it is with the little flip-up viewfinder deployed:



More & higher res pics of the cameras here.

So this got me thinking:

1.) HEY! Could I shoot something on this, and if I did, could I get the footage developed and telecined anywhere? Can anybody help me on this? Where could I get these things serviced? Esp. the Univex...

2.) Wouldn't it be fun to shoot a little short movie on one of these, and post it with all my toys, Just Because I Can?

3.) HEY! There's footage in there! What's on it? I have no idea if there's shot footage in there, if there is, it DECADES old. Has the camera been opened? Has it been ruined? No idea. Unlikely there's anything good on there, but if there IS...man I'd love to see it!

So I think that should be one of my little projects just for fun - if anybody out there knows an appropriate place to get an ancient camera opened up, pull the film & develop it if its good, and where can I get more film for these and get it developed/telecined?

I'd LOVE to shoot a short something on it - it'd be Rad Retro to shoot NAB coverage on this thing.

HUGE GRIN thinking of that - who wouldn't LOVE to get interviewed with that (recording sound on little pocket audio recorder).

So if you know anything about where I could develop & telecine truly ancient film, please email me.

...and who wants to make a little short movie some weekend on this with me in Austin?

More & higher res pics of the cameras here.

We live in such a digital, of-the-moment age, and obviously I'm boy-of-the-instant, that's-so-six-minutes-ago tech oriented, it'd be fun to go tech spelunking back to the image capturing Pleistocene era, just to see what delights could be found. It is such cheekily delightfully low tech but organic - look how tiny the lenses are! I SO want to shoot something on these.

-mike

PS - and I'm out the door with VIP tix to the Grindhouse premiere with Rodriguez and Tarantino in attendance, then off the the party thereafter where I hope to "accidentally" bump into Rodriguez and talk to him about Red One's imminent arrival. Yes, I suck. Bwahahahahaa......

:D

Labels: 8mm, cameras, OT

Apple Boot Camp 1.2 Beta

From VersionTracker:

What's new in this version:
Support for Windows Vista (32-bit)
Updated drivers, including but not limited to trackpad, AppleTime (synch), audio, graphics, modem, iSight camera
Support the Apple Remote (works with iTunes and Windows Media Player)
A Windows system tray icon for easy access to Boot Camp information and actions
Improved keyboard support - for Korean, Chinese, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Russian, and French Canadian
Improved Windows driver installation experience
Updated documentation and Boot Camp on-line help in Windows
Apple Software Update (for Windows XP and Vista)

Product Requirements:

Mac OS X 10.4.6 or laterIntel-based MacA genuine installation disc for Microsoft Windows XP, Service Pack 2, Home or Professional (no multi-disc, upgrade or Media Center versions)


While I partitioned my drive and set up WinXP on my trusty Blackbook (that I write 99% of HD4NDs on), I find I never use it. Knowin I could is the benefit...

-mike

IRIDAS Announces Phantom Camera Support, GPU-based Demosaic - IRIDAS Press Release

Marijn Eken was kind enough to send me a link and point out:

They support Cine RAW real-time de-Bayering through the GPU! Doesn't say what GPU you'd need as a minimum though. I'm guessing a Quadro FX4500 is no luxury.

I immediately thought of Red. It would be great if these guys would join forces, but then again, maybe Red already has a similar thing going on with Apple and their upcoming grading product?

Cheers,
Marijn Eken


I recently got a chance to sit in on set with a Phantom HD as it was tested locally, and its 1000 fps HD capability was only offset but the cumbersome nature of the UI and the post production process (I still have a hard drive of unconverted RAW footage to mess with, been too busy of late).

From Iridas' press release:

industry's first GPU-based Bayer interpolation technology, RAW footage can now be displayed and played back in real-time without requiring file conversion, providing a significant savings in time and storage requirements. Together with SpeedGrade .Look files, this allows for a complete data and color grading workflow which is only 1/3 the size of regular RGB file formats.

....

Support for the Cine RAW file format will be included in all 2007 FrameCycler and SpeedGrade applications, including SpeedGrade OnSet and SpeedGrade DI. See it at NAB April 16-19, 2007 in the Las Vegas Convention Center at the Vision Research booth C11426.


I'm looking forward to seeing that. I'm also curious what the max supported frame size will be for playback and at what frame rate? Can I watch Phantom HD footage play back at 24p? 30p? 60i on these systems?

What about for the Phantom 65 and its higher resolution capabilities?

This is all good news.

Marijn asks about Red and I don't know if they are in talks with Iridas, but I hope so. They do seem to have some kind of a relationship with Assimilate and their Scratch product - Lucas from Assimilate graded the footage shown at IBC, LA, NYC, etc.

I've sat down for Scratch demo and it was VERY impressive.

I saw an Iridas demo a few years ago, but I didn't know enough to evaluate it as well and I haven't seen it lately, but I've been eagerly anticipating their Mac based HD product which has not emerged yet AFAIK.

My vibe on Iridas is that they were first out of the gate with a viable, production worthy GPU based DI solution

-mike

UPDATE 4/10/07 - Lin from Iridas was kind enough to email me with some more info:

I just wanted to confirm that we can playback RAW 4K at 30+ fps with our preview setting, which is fine for playback.

4K is close to real time (20fps+) with our high quality setting which is adequate for final rendering.

2K of course is all real time as is ARRI D20 3K, even with the high quality debayer.

Oh, yes, and it’s Universal Binary Mac, PC and LINUX.

More at the show.

Cheers,
Lin

Thanks Lin! "The show" being NAB, next week.

Vendor feedback always appreciated.

Labels: DI, high end, software

Studio Daily | Astro Offers Uncompressed HD Recorder/Player

-Astro HR-7401
-will show at NAB booth C4934
-uncompressed HD recorder
-single or dual link
-4:2:2 40 minute record time
-4:4:4 20 minute record time
-recording to removable drive packs
-has fibre channel (2Gbit SFP), Firewire, video outputs for transfer (IN WHAT FORMATS!)
-RS422 for Sony compatible deck control functionality
-26 lbs, half rack wide, 19"
-can gang four together for 3840x2160
-16 channels of audio in/out
-DVI/HDMI output options
-all the "usual suspects" for HD frame size/rate (fractional/whole rates), no 720p24 mentioned specifically

PDF brochure here

Mike's Analysis

Certainly sounds interesting! The capacity is a bit low for what I'd like to see, the size is reasonable, but the price is unknown.

Also unknown is whether the disk packs are fault tolerant or not (RAID 0 or 3/5?), and I'm especially curious what the native recording format is if we have FireWire & fibre channel options to access the data. Is it DPX? TIFF? Proprietary? What? Is there any metadata embedding? Clever audio in DPX header like RaveHD does?

Inquiring minds want to know, but will have to wait for NAB.

In the meantime, S.two already does all this.

-mike

Labels: acquisition, disk based recording, hardware, high end

fxguide - visual effects school - Adobe CS3 First Look & New Public Betas @ NAB

Monday at NAB you'll be able to download betas of Premiere Pro CS3 and After Effects CS3 - WOW.

Read on for the fxguide coverage of the new releases (that link at top).

Tidbits Bruce & missed in our original coverage (this from Bruce's notes in the Comments):

- you can paint on animations in Photoshop now
- Vanishing point tool in Photoshop can export DXF and 3DS models
- After Effects now supports 3.5 gb RAM per core on Mac. Of course, that doesn't mean that it'll make proper use of it, though!
- After Effects OpenGL now supports 32 bit per channel 4K (if your card can do it)
- all color management done by GPU


-mike

Remember all those funny quotes that Bruce the Wonder Yak displays in FCP if you let it sit long enough? Somebody found where they live in the code. I've covered this issue before- here's my favorites from when I blogged on this topic before.

DV - Features - Brighter Whites; Richer Colors, Part 1

When working in After Effects, tricks to make sure your videos and stills look their best. Chris & Trish are two of the most acknowledged experts in this area.

DV - Features - Brighter Whites; Richer Colors, Part 2

Labels: After Effects, post, software, tutorial

Studio Daily | Matrox Announces Support for Adobe Creative Suite 3

Matrox, longtime ally of Adobe, announced support for Creative Suite 3. Key features:
Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium support
Windows Vista support
New progressive SD editing resolutions - 486p@29.97 fps and 576p@25 fps
Sony HDV 1080p support (HVR-V1 cameras)
Canon 24f and 30f mode support
Sony XDCAM HD 1080p@29.97 fps and XDCAM HD export support
Realtime color correction using RGB curves
Realtime Adobe garbage masks
Realtime sphere effect
Realtime time code filter

...which, as a longtime Final Cut Pro user, I notice they are adding support for formats FCP supported last year - 24f HDV, XDCAM HD (note not 24p), etc.

UPDATE/CORRECTION - Commenter Mike McCarthy wrote in to say:

Long time reader, first time commenter. Most of your info is great, but you are a bit off mark with this post. Axio already supported every format that you are complaining wasn't mentioned, they are just adding the obscure ones. (XD30p added to XD30i & XD24p, HDV24f added to HDV24p & HDV30i, progressive PAL, etc) The one thing that Axio has totally covered is format support.


Oops, my bad if that is the case - just to be 100% sure, if anybody has a link that shows all the formats supported, please post the link in comments and I'll update this article.

That said, Axio has already long done things FCP can't, like mixed format realtime editing, etc.

It'll be downloadable in August 2007 - which hints that should be approximately the release timeframe for Premiere Pro CS3.

PS - I hate this "everything is CS3" naming thing - it obfuscates what version you're actually working with - is this After Effects 7 or 8, etc.

-mike

Labels: Adobe, NLE, software

Creative Workflow Hacks � Blog Archive � Retrospect Orphaned?

Dale Bradshaw of Creative Workflow hacks (I have respect for what he does there) posted an article about the apparent impending demise of Retrospect. I used to use Retrospect with AIT based tape backup systems, but got so fed up with it I just started using FireWire drives instead for shelvable archives. They were cost competitive and sooooo much faster. You didn't need X GB free on your system to de-archive and then work with, you could just read it off the backup drive if you needed to get access to it. WAY faster.

Anyway, as I've gotten into working with uncompressed HD, the old "FireWire drive on a shelf" just isn't practical anymore, and I need to find a new tape based backup solution that holds hundreds of GB per tape and is reasonably fast. I've got a few options I'm checking out, and as clients ask I filter them towards the correct solutions for their needs.

Backup software is probably the least sexy software in the post production environment - it is like plumbing - you never really notice it until it breaks, then it is a MAJOR problem.

As we head further into the world of IT based image capture (first with P2 cards, then with the SI-2K, soon with the Red One), backing up large amounts of data, quickly and reliably, on a media that doesn't take up too much space, will be a necessity for anyone generating a lot of footage. In online editorial terms, 100GB/hr is cheap for high res masters. For long term archive of ALL the footage you shoot, that adds up in a hurry - "How many terabytes of data didja shoot last week?" suddenly becomes a question you'll hear.

So the slow death of a longstanding known solution is definitely a problem. I've heard BRU recommended, but has anybody used it? Have good/bad experiences to tell about it? Recovered data successfully after archiving stuff? How are the search features? I'm particularly interested in finding a solution that I can feed a list of files from my Red Pull List that I can then de-archive in bulk without having to type in names one at a time. All the selects for a feature? Eeek, that'd be SUCH a pain...

-mike

Labels: Red, software

RAIDaid 1.6 - MacUpdate

RAIDaid is a visual tool that helps you plan the optimum RAID configuration for your XServeRAID system.

It has an easy to use interface that allows you to view disk arrays in all popular RAID formats. You can now plan your RAID setup and configuration even if you don't have a RAID!

RAIDaid now allows you to create reports and customize them for your clients, making RAIDaid an ideal tool for all systems architects and sales professionals.


Handy for planning out what you'll get. Apple advertises their top end RAID with features like:
-10.5 TB capacity
-RAID 50 capability
-hot spare capability

Yet if you combine all those features, you find yourself down to less than 7TB of formatted usable space. Good things to know in advance...

-mike

Labels: software

It is late and I'm going to bed, but wanted to put out a quick note on this exciting topic (thanks to Bruce Allen for tipping me off on this). Update - Mac version 3rd quarter. Drat.

Adobe - Premiere Pro CS3, Upgrade from Premiere Pro 2.0, 1.5, 1 - make Blu-ray discs! Optical flow time remapping.

Adobe - Adobe AfterEffects CS3: Complete feature list - not as much new as I'd have liked. Bummer. But: shape layers, better color management, puppet tool looks interesting and creative; purportedly improved multicore CPU support and GPU acceleration, better disc caching. See this for new features.

DV Rack is now this: Adobe - Adobe OnLocation CS3

So I expect we'll see it at NAB but it won't be shipping from what I've been led to believe, but I haven't read all the news from today.

-mike

UPDATE

The above snippets were snarfed from an email from Bruce Allen of Boa Cinema as we back-n-forthed it. I asked for, and he was kind enough, to send in this longer explanation of features:

Mike:

Overall: I think we all wished for more features than we got here. The value here is in the bundling and integration, methinks. And, of course, it all being Intel-native if you're on Mac.

Premiere Pro CS3: - now works on Macs too (Intel only) - smoother time re-maps (using optical flow morphing, probably the same technology used in After Effects, which is from The Foundry) - supposedly some workflow improvements, doesn't look like anything too major DOWNSIDES: No mention of realtime multiple formats on the same timeline or anything like that. It's still behind Avid and FCP for editing, IMHO. That's sad, because with Premiere's ability to export the project intact to After Effects, you have a nice solution for doing a high-quality finish of your Premiere Pro project at minimal cost.

OnLocation CS3 - this is a rebadged DVRack (recap of features: turns your laptop into a hard drive recorder / broadcast monitor with nice bonuses, such as motion-activated recording, pre-record buffers, image flip for 35mm adapters, etc) - only advance is supposedly better integration with Premiere Pro, so you can quickly get clips recorded in OnLocation into your edit DOWNSIDES: The same as DVRack - PC only (Macs must use Bootcamp), HDV inputs have a delay, you can't record synched audio from a separate source and unless you are using a Blackmagic Intensity card in a SFF pc, you are still recording compressed.

Encore CS3: - now makes Blu-Ray discs and Flash. So you can have one project that can pop out a DVD, a Blu-Ray and Flash version of your reel, I guess... DOWNSIDES: No HD-DVD. No mention of more advanced Blu-Ray interactive authoring features.

Photoshop CS3: - fuller HDR support, masking tools, Live Effects layers (covered in the Beta, though) - the Vanishing Point tool has matured and now you can export your work as an After Effects 3D comp when you're done. This might make a nice way for doing 2.5D matte paintings, or it might not. Let's try it. - can import 3D objects and paint on them DOWNSIDES: This seems pretty solid, actually

After Effects CS3: - graph editor sucks less (you can edit x, y, z curves now) - faster - eg better cache system and multi-core rendering (hmm, did they buy Nucleo or do their own optimiziations?) - individual text characters now can move in 3D (great, the titles I did in a 3D program for the Ocean's 13 teaser have been reduced to a Text Animation Preset) - character animation tools and supposedly shape animation tools too. Cute. - the ICC color-managed workflow seems improved over 7.0, which took too long to set up - the Dynamic Link feature debuts on the Mac, which is nice - you can move After Effects projects into Premiere and Encore DVD with minimal rendering. DOWNSIDES: No 3D Objects. You can have true textured 3D objects in Photoshop, but not After Effects? This is sad. Also, the flowchart still sucks.

Adobe Soundbooth CS3 - designed for audio cleanup and recording voiceovers. Probably too weak for anything else, kinda like when Apple bundled PeakDV with FCP 2.0 - has a nice spectral view where you can see your frequencies mapped out and you can actually paint out glitches a la Photoshop (and higher-end audio restoration tools) - supposedly has some kind of AutoComposer scoring system. I don't know how well this one'll work for us. DOWNSIDES: Cannot do multitrack mixing or anything like that.

One big thing I skipped here is that CS3 seems to be trying hard to help filmmakers working on new media / interactive / internet projects. The tools are maturing - I mean, Flash video has closed captioning support now! If you're trying to make a film series that people can watch on their mobile phone or video device, you are in luck with CS3. More traditional filmmakers making stuff for the big screen will be a little disappointed, though.

Bruce


Thanks Bruce!

A few follow up comments of my own after reading his commentary:

-Soundbooth is called "Soundbooth" and not "Mixing Stage" - it seems they are aiming it at what it does OK - working with the human voice, not so much for music handling.
-After Effects - yeah, I would have like some more coolio new features
-Encore - OK, so at the moment, it appears if you want to make HD-DVDs, you're on Macs and Final Cut, if you want to make Blu-ray discs, you're on Premiere Pro on Windows for now, Macs later. The good thing about CS3 coming to Macs is that you'll be able to author either format on a Mac with (presumably) at least decent authoring tools for each. At least, I assume Encore is heading over, I know Premiere Pro is
-Premiere Pro/AE combo - should make it possible to do some really nice high color space 4:4:4 stuff. Bummer no codec & size mix/match on same timeline - that keeps popping up as a major feature we NEED these days. Higher end Avids can do it, Premiere Pro and Final Cut (at present) can't. My gut says both of these latter two will ship after NAB, Adobe first and Apple several months later.

OK, NOW I'm to bed (1:30am)

-mike

also, release dates:

Adobe CS 3: Bundles, shipping dates, prices - ProCreative - Macworld UK: "Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium and Standard, and Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium and Standard will begin shipping in April 2007.

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium and Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collection for Mac OS X on Intel-based systems and for Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Vista platforms will begin shipping worldwide in the third quarter of 2007."

Labels: Adobe, software

802.11n Gigabit Router by D-Link

Since Apple's new 802.11n wireless router lacks gigabit Ethernet, it isn't the optimal small networking solution for fast file transfers. But this D-Link unit does, so it may be a good choice for you.

-mike

Reel-Stream Mods the HVX200 at FresHDV

I found the info via FresHDV, so I'm linking to his coverage, I don't have time to do my own research on this one:

Today ReelStreem, famous for their Andromeda modification for the DVX100, announced that they would infact be offering a modified HVX200.


Go read all the specs over there.

Mike's Analysis: I'm glad they're doing this, I like their hacker mentality. Getting the full 4:4:4 RGB output is a good thing. Getting uncompressed output is a GREAT thing.

No pricing info that I've seen yet, but some issues/concerns:

-it is only a 960x540 pixelshifted imager - the claimed 2K resolution is scaled up, WAY scaled up - and not directly comparable to what is traditionally considered a 2K imager
-8, 10, 12, or 14 bit color depths - excellent to have all the options, but the crucial question is this - is the imager (which they aren't modifying from the HVX) capable of such subtlety?
-I like that they are essentially doing RAW capture off the sensor - a lot of the advantges that the Red One and SI-2K camera are doing.
-I'm a bit concerned about service/support since it is coming from such a small company - I'd rent one, I'd be cautious about purchasing one unless for a very specific project
-I love the indie DIY can-do attitude of this!
-"Up to 86dB" for dynamic range - hmmm....that's better than a lot of other stuff out there, and under what circumstances, etc. For comparison, folks have been excited about Red's claimed 66dB range.
-and you have to be tethered to a computer, specifically an Intel Mac running their software
-for some circumstances, this could be great - such as greenscreen
-the ability to work with the uncompressed source will help in a lot of ways, increased dynamic range one of them
-the data backup logistics for field shooting are even more complex than for P2 cards - if recording to a laptop, remember you can't bus power removable drives without AC power (no power over FireWire, even on "bus powered" drives - power only flows when laptop connected to AC power) EDIT - somebody corrected me and said USB 2.0 drives DO get power on a Powerbook - I don't have a bus powered USB 2.0 drive to check on my MacBook, somebody confirm FireWire/USB 2.0 power to bus powered drive WITHOUT AC power attached for me, OK?
-and oh yeah - you're still stuck with the original lens, which as Adam Wilt pointed out after our Texas HD Shootout last year, is well matched to the resolutions you can actually record with the HVX200 - the observed optical resolution was not anywhere near what these guys are planning on recording, and the lens has a lot to do with that. From Adam's
DV Magazine Texas Shootout! article:

"The HVX200 shoots both 1080- and 720-line formats, and it's sharper in 1080. While its resolution is only 540 x 540 (TV lines per picture height horizontally x TV lines vertically), the 1080-line recording preserves more of that resolution. 720p recording uses 960 samples/scanline, so filtering for recording causes detail near 540 TVl/ph to be diminished, whereas 1280-sample recording in 1080-line modes has a cutoff at 720 TVl/ph. 1080-line images show no graying-out of detail at all--the images retain considerable contrast at 540 lines, simply switching into aliasing at that point. "

-I'd gladly review one if they'd send it my way, however

-mike

Labels: cameras, DIY, low end

Studio Daily | Archion Announces Synergy HD4

Need fast storage for your Avid Unity setup? This might be what you need - 8TB for $20K, Unity certified.

-mike

Labels: Avid, hardware, storage

Online Extra: James Cameron on the Cutting Edge

Nice BusinessWeek article with Cameron talking about why performance capture and 3D will be Next Big Thing...hopefully.

He distinguishes between motion capture (mocap) and performance capture (perfcap), in that mocap only gets gross body movements, whereas perfcap can capture the subtle nuances of acting. Mocap is good for sports games, perfcap is good for acting performances.

-mike

Labels: 3D, high end

Studio Daily | A Monster Digital Dailies Solution

This guy got VERY serious about capturing all possible metadata on set. This is a very Mike Curtis kind of a solution, but I don't know about the price point yet, so it may not be Indies viable. But he's ON IT in terms of getting the metadata that is so painful to recreate later (I know this from my own VFX artist background) - all your lens settings, f-stops, etc. besides picture/audio. They also are trying to integrate camera reports, script notes, all that stuff - why have 3 or 4 paper systems that get scattered to the wind? Put it all in one place please! I'm sure there are interoperability issues involved, but I like this idea.

-mike

Labels: high end, software, workflow

Filmmaker Magazine | Winter 2007: ARE WE THERE YET?

Nicely done overview article on the state of HD. Some choice snippets:

The straight-talking Savides describes the situation bluntly: %u201CEverybody who%u2019s shooting this stuff is a guinea pig right now.%u201D
%u201CEverything is still R&D,%u201D he elaborates. %u201CI feel like these movies being made are just little experiments for the big conglomerate studios. They%u2019ll see what it%u2019s like, what%u2019s gonna happen, see the best way to handle it down the road.%u201D"

.....

For Savides, meanwhile, “the benchmark is still film.”

....

the Viper setup used on Zodiac was structured around random access hard drive capture.

......

both the sound recording and the slate were integrated into the capture

.....

the capture technician was also capable of offering the cinematographer a color-corrected demo of any given shot as it was being lit and photographed.

.....

INCREDIBLY CRUCIAL OBSERVATION:
Savides was asked to create a series of templates such as Day Exterior, Night Exterior, Day Interior, Night Interior — which he refused to do. He explained, “I couldn’t look at them. I didn’t want the look-up tables to bias my eye. I wanted to work with a neutral slate, and that neutral slate had to be that RAW file. It’s the only way I could understand what I was doing everyday. The look-up table would slant you toward whatever you made that look like.” Furthermore, “there’s no way that you could generate a look-up table for every scene in a movie with the scope of Zodiac.”

...

While the Viper has a recommended ASA of 320, he admits, “You can’t rate it. I wasn’t using my meter after a while. I’d say it’s between 500 and 800. But you do it by eye.”

....

“The toe [the sensitivity to dim light] of the Viper is extraordinary,” he says. “Not as good as the toe in film, though some people will say it is. But it’s not. It will get noisy. It gets very noisy in fact. You cannot do a night interior of a room like you can in film.


....and on and on.

If you're thinking about shooting a movie digitally, this is an incredibly useful and informative article.

And keep in mind, this is working with top-end gear. As you work your way down the budget process, the problems that he describes get worse and worse in terms of image quality.

I like how the Panavision rep defends compressed workflows - not that he's wrong, but guess what - the Genesis works with a compressed workflow.

The author closes with a comment about how when it all gets figured out and standardized, things will get pretty boring. But that's why I like all this stuff so much - its in flux, it is constantly changing, there's constantly things going on.

I can barely just read everything new relevant each day, let alone do significant amounts of research to test the latest gear etc. - there's no way for any one individual to even keep up with everything that's new. So for working professionals to do so is impossible. And that's the niche I'm trying to carve out for myself - consider me your digital flux manager.

: )

-mike

Labels: acquisition, disk based recording, high end

MacNN | Apple removes FCP crossgrade ahead of NAB - which is more supporting evidence that Apple is going to introduce something new at NAB.

Got an email from a reader who talked to an Apple rep who claimed a new higher end version of Final Cut, aimed squarely at Media Composer, would be rolled out at the show, with new better/faster codecs. My usual sources have been VERY quiet as to Apple's future product plans, so I don't know whether to credit this authentic or not, and if the story is true, it could be that the Apple rep didn't know and was just repeating the rumors from last year.

I don't know where Apple is with this. Apple still has plenty to fix with the basic version of FCP before launching into a bigger version, lets just see what NAB brings us - or more accurately, that big press thing Sunday morning BEFORE NAB, I'll be there. Avid has an event scheduled later that day.

-mike

Think Secret - Adobe Creative Suite 3 pricing revealed

6 bundles expected:
web standard & web premium - $1000 & $1600
Fash, Dreamwesaver, FireWorks, Contribute, Premium adds Photoshop Extended, Illustrator & Acrobat
design standard and premium - $1200 & $1800
Photoshop Extended, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat, Premium adds Flash & Dreamweaver
Production Premium (the video collection for Folks Like Us) - $1700, includes Illustrator, After Effects (YES new version), Premiere Pro, Flash, Photoshop, Soundbooth, & Encore. PC only at first, Mac version later (summer?).

Master Collection is $2500 and is everything.

Individual apps are priced as was except for Illustrator is now $600, PShop CS3 Standard is $650, Extended $1000.

All prices $1 less, I'm tired of typing "99".

: )

-mike

EETimes.com - Two bidders vie for JVC

I was busy last week when it came out that JVC is up for sale, there are two bidders at the moment for it.

-mike

News of the dead: Alamo Downtown to rennovate the Ritz on 6th street

My friend Wiley (that I haven't seen recently enough, hey Wiley!) blogged on the resurrection of the original Alamo Drafthouse Theater here in Austin - instead of closing down the downtown original location, they're moving a few blocks over to maintain the vibe but get a bigger (and 2nd!) screen in their new location over at The Ritz, which was a theater once upon a time anyway.

If you've never been to an Alamo, they are my favorite movie experience (just saw Zodiac at my neighborhood one today) - regular theater but with GOOD projection and sound, but also full bar and menu - beer AND pizza AND killer movies AND a great indie slate of stuff booked as well as mainstream fare - what's not to luv?

Parking will still blow like an [omitted], but at least the Alamo will still be around.

-mike

What started as an observation about the movie Zodiac grew and meandered into a meditation on our life's purpose and how we get there.

Whether you consider it interesting mental fodder for thought & discussion or meandering self aggrandizing bad personal blogging of the worst nature I'll leave up to you.

It is so off topic of our usual conversations I'm putting it over on my .mac page. The usual readers that I email with and know will probably like it (or at least tolerate it); newcomers coming to this site for HD info (or from Google "HD pron" searches) would consider it ripe for comment flaming - so Comments are off for this one. Anyone with something real to say, who doesn't just want to take a crack at me via Anonymous postings, you know how to get in touch with me.

Here's the link.

-mike

Labels: OT

Hey all -

I've been busy over on the new blog - AppleTVHacker.com - nearly 7000 unique visitors since I set it up last night (26 hours ago). I've got about 20 articles up over there already, a list of official AppleTV articles, an online store, etc.

It is fun and I'm learning all kinds of interesting things and writing about them, so check it out.

I need to get an Amazon Affiliate Store set up for HD for Indies STAT!

Goal for weekend.

-mike

Labels: AppleTVHacker

Status of several things:

1.) My Dad is out of the hospital and home, thank goodness, after 11 days in there. He should fully recover from his twice collapsed lung after the surgery, which was one of those non-invasive, probes & scope deals. Thanks very much for all the kind notes & emails, MUCH appreciated to know folks out there notice and care. After my Mom, sister and I took turns keeping one of us up there 24/7 for 11 days, we're all glad to get a chance for our lives to start getting back to normal.

2.) Donations - I hadn't yet said thanks to everyone for all their donations to keep HD for Indies up and going - or more accurately, to keep me up and going to have time to keep HD for Indies going. It isn't enough to drop my other work, but I heartily appreciate all those who took the time to kick in to the till. Nobody pays me (otherwise) for any content that gets written here, I cover my own expenses almost always to attend festivals, conferences, etc. unless I'm working for somebody else. If you haven't contributed I'd sincerely appreciate it if you did so using the "Make a donation" link at the top right of every page under the glaring red type. Here was my original pitch asking for donations, read on if you're wondering why you might want to.

3.) AppleTV - FedEx missed me whilst I was at the hospital this morning, so I drove way out yonder to the FedEx depot and got my AppleTV. I'll be posting about what I learn shortly at my new blog, AppleTVHacker. Unboxing pics, vids, etc.

4.) And yeah, if you didn't notice it, I've got a new, more consumer tech blog I started last night, AppleTVHacker. Add it to your daily read or RSS feed if you wish.

-mike

Labels: AppleTV, AppleTVHacker

CinemaTech: The site with no name: NBC and News Corp. announce new video joint venture NBC & News Corp. starting their own video download service with free, paid, and advertising supported stuff. Scott links to WSJ, NYTimes, & LA Times coverage, and comes up with six salient points that will be required for this to be successful.

I think he pegs it when he says it'll be interesting to see if two big companies can do something good without getting mired in the quibbling. As neither of these are software companies to begin with, I take that as a BIG strike against them in the Not Getting It category. Hopefully they'll hire smart folks, but will they let those folks execute on good ideas, or say "No, we're not comfortable with that."? I've seen it sooooooo many times in my own interactive development involvements in the past...legal, marketing, etc. get involved and step by step reduce usability and consumer usefulness of the effort.

-mike

Labels: online content service, online distribution, online video

AppleInsider | Starz sues Disney over iTunes movie downloads - here's a first - Starz is suing Disney, claiming Disney breached Starz' exclusivity clauses in their contract. Starz claims they had exclusive rights to sell movies like Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest online, claiming Starz had or should have had the right to sell it on Vongo, their online service.

This could get messy and expensive. Yet another reason to pay verrrrrrrry close attention to your rights management when you sell a project.

I have no idea who is in the right on this one, but there's money on the table, so blood in the water. Cap'n Jack ain't waltzing merrily (if staggery) out of this one nonchalantly...

-mike

Labels: distribution

Hey all -

as if I didn't have enough to do, I felt like starting a new blog just for kicks - AppleTV Hacker*

The URL is appletvhacker.blogspot.com until I can get it switched over to appletvhacker.com

On that site, I'll be sharing my latest reports and doodles and discoveries about what can be done with, and more importantly, TO an AppleTV. I'm not looking to figure out how to do illicit things, just clever things.

I've kicked it off with a round-up of AppleTV news today (pics, analysis, deconstruction hardware pron, etc.) since many AppleTVs are arriving today (Thursday), but mine isn't one of them. DAMMIT.

The joys of the interwebs - I got the site up and running in about an hour, with click trackers and AdSense and all. Blogs are quick and easy to set up. It is the writing and whatnot that chews enormous amounts of time!

I'll continue to cover AppleTV related stuff over there, and will post links on hdforindies.com for pertinent AppleTV things.

So check it out, or if you're a fancy type, read or subscribe to the RSS feed!

As an added bonus, I expect to get my own AppleTV tomorrow, and will be running it through my own heavy user paces - I have well over 120 GB of pictures, movies, and audio content - so how do I pick and choose what goes in?

I want to find out things, like:
-exactly what OS is it running?
-how is it, REALLY, to use, esp. with large media libaries?
-can you attach an external USB drive for expanded storage and have it be recognized in any way shape or form?
-can you attach an external DVD drive and play DVDs from it?
-and most importantly, can you swap out the hard drive and have a bigger hard drive be recognized and use all the additional space on it?

My guesses: a modified stripped down OS X (we kinda knew that already), cumbersome with the itty remote, no (not without software upgrade, but I betcha it's possible, even though Apple claims it is for service only - if it connects to mobo, why not?), no again (same reason), and perhaps, perhaps, perhaps....

I'll document the hell out of it and post some nitty gritty hands on feedback and analysis over the weekend.

And for all you other fellow geeks whose propeller beanies spin at similar frequencies, I'd LOVE to have your reports as well to run on or link from the site - so send them in! Or also links to good AppleTV stuff, too please!

As always but not said often enough, if you've done something you think hdforindies.com worthy, I'm ALWAYS interested in reader submissions of hands on reports on gear, theory, etc. Please do send in, credit & link luv always given.

Why? Because I geek that way....and if you thought I got flippant and occasionally unprofessionally silly on this site...

-mike

PS - and don't forget to check out the lyrics to the theme song...how can you have a blog without a theme song?

Labels: AppleTV, AppleTVHacker

New firm makes Blu-ray DVDs for indie filmmakers - Yahoo! News

This is EXACLTY up my alley:

A respected Hollywood movie producer and a DVD pioneer said they have formed a company to make and distribute DVDs in the new Blu-ray digital format for independent film and video makers.


EXCELLENT. These guys aren't doing HD-DVD, but are doing Blu-ray.

Labels: Blu-ray, distribution

UPDATE - first off, I accidentally posted this to the wrong blog (VideoThing), so I smugly thought I was right on the ball, but er, wasn't. Secondly, here's a link to a friendlier to get to page with the same info: 1st RED movie... - Reduser.net End update.

Jim Jannard posted over on the Cinematographer's Mailing List "Future Cameras" Forum (and how much longer will it stay there?) this little bon mot today: the first feature film to use the Red One will not only start shooting in April, but will star Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie, and....who cares who else? No offense to James McAvoy, also starring, but hey, how do you compete with those names? To top it off, it is for Universal Pictures - so contrary to my expectations that it'd be some small, more risk comfortable production, Universal is apparently comfortable committing before the camera is even released.

Most of the film will be shot on 35mm, but "a substantial digital component to the filming which will be used by Bekmambetov's VFX and production company in Russia" according to Jim. So VFX plates and maybe some green/bluescreen.

The film begins shooting in Prague in April.

So that still leaves the awards for First Feature Primarily Shot on Red One and First Feature Shot Entirely on Red One open and available. My friends Mark, Aldey & Pliny, Reds #6 & 7, have been boasting that they'd be the first to shoot a feature with a Red One, now they'll have to amend that claim to go for a more precisely worded crown. Steve has been angling to get the first 4K stock footage out there, but this shouldn't impinge on that.

But that's BIG news - Universal Studios, Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie - not piffly little indie names. Now, whether the Red One will be used to shoot them, or just VFX plates as Jim's post hints at, will be another point of interest. Regardless of whose face gets run through Redcine, it'll have Universal's imprimatur on it. I wonder if they'll shoot uncompressed or compressed? Based on public statements, I don't think Red is ready yet with uncompressed 4K or 4.5K recording. But the Redcode RAW stuff is looking mighty good, so that may not matter.

A quick poster on Reduser.net asked what serial # they were using, Jim replied #3 - so I think that's one of his personal babies on loan ("real" consumer units start at #6). Good call, Jim.

: )

-mike

Labels: Red

First Video: Setting Up Apple TV - Gizmodo

A few twists - you have to use the remote to type in your WiFi password, you get no cables other than power (cheep bastids!), but the interface is a step above Front Row in slickness. Syncing details are kinda skipped over. Launch video is way cool.

Next thing that I expect to be a big drag - bit budget managing what gets onto the AppleTV - pictures, audio or movies? Only 40GB feels aaaaaaawfully low....

If my Dad is out of the hospital (or I'm not on duty), I'll be detailing the crap out of setup on mine Friday....

-mike

Final Cut Pro 4.5 and Final Cut Express 3.0: Issues with Mac OS X 10.4.9: "

Issue

Final Cut Pro 4.5 and Final Cut Express 3.0 may drop frames when attempting to capture video if Mac OS X 10.4.9 is installed. Final Cut Pro 5 and Final Cut Express 3.5 are not affected by this issue.

Affected Products:


Mac OS X 10.4.9


Final Cut Pro 4.5 and earlier


Final Cut Express 3.0 and earlier


Solution

Currently, Apple is recommending against running Final Cut Pro 4.5 or Final Cut Express 3.0 in Mac OS X 10.4.9.


Archive and install Mac OS X to revert your operating system to Mac OS X 10.4.8."

Tweaking the Zoom - New York Times

Nifty, thorough for beginners discussion of lenses - pertinent in the coming Red era in particular...

-mike

NewTeeVee � Apple TV: Big Boon for Indie Video: "As a digital media content delivery vehicle positioned in users%u2019 living rooms, we think the AppleTV/iTunes combination could become as disruptive to legacy video purchase-and-consumption behavior as the iPod/iTunes combination has been to the traditional music business model."

I hadn't thought about HD podcasting on AppleTV...that is an interesting enough possibility I think I'm going to do one, Just Because....

-mike

CinemaTech: From the NAB Futures Summit: Technologies to Watch

Busy day, quick note - Scott Kirsner's got some GREAT notes from a conference, talking about high def disc format wars ("sit it out"), Blu-ray's possible dominance (HD DVD will capitulate by September"), latest demographics (15-24 year olds listen to more MP3s than radio), etc.

Really really good stuff in this one. And I've been too busy to blog all his stuff recently - just start at the top of CinemaTech and keep reading...

-mike

A quick update on HD-DVD vs Blu-ray - I was responding to a thread on a board somewhere, and just kept on typing, so I decided to put it over here too:

I'm tracking both formats, and bought an HD-DVD recently on a whim because it was a $150 upgrade over the uprezzing DVD player I was going to buy anyway (the Oppo unit that is so highly reviewed). The least expensive Blu-ray player is the brand new $600 list unit from Sony - and I'm not even sure they're available yet. Or a PS3 for the same price, with the bonus inclusion of, well, a PS3 for games as well as Blu-ray playback. (Edit - there's a Samsung unit that Amazon has for $500...but that's still more than double the price of the DVD player I was considering, and $125 more than the HD-DVD player...I'm writing this sitting on Congress Avenue in line to buy tix for the Rodriguez & Tarantino attended premiere of Grindhouse in Austin).

Blu-ray discs have been outselling HD-DVD of late (one week's sales a few weeks ago were 2 or 3 to 1 in Blu-ray's favor), I'm curious to see if that persists after the rush of PS3 sales for Christmas. HD-DVD players are cheaper, which the uneducated will buy on price alone.

The gamers are loving that PS3 includes Blu-ray by default, but the price matches that of Xbox 360 plus the HD-DVD unit - and it would APPEAR, for the moment, that they are spending more on movies than the HD-DVD crowd on a per-owner basis - the intereting thing is whether this is a long term trend or a temporary spike...oops, already said that elsewhere - but it is the thing to watch.

LG's Blu-Ray/HD DVD hybrid isn't the answer (yet), since it costs MORE than a HD-DVD plus a Blu-ray player together cost. The only savings is space and one less remote. But a good HD-DVD & Blu-ray players can be bought together for about $1000....$200 less than MSRP on this device. As I keep saying, technology is only as relevant as its price point. The $1200 price point is annoying from a consumer perspective - are there NO redundant components in the box? The idea was to save money by putting all in one device, sheesh...

The studios have been all over the map, and of late (last I heard, somebody correct me if I'm wrong) 7 of 8 studios were supporting Blu-ray, 3 of 8 were supporting HD-DVD. How many both? I don't have stats handy for which are supporting both, which I think is a crucial factor.

Quality CAN be the same with either format since they use the same video codecs, but in the field the authoring quality has varied a bit, and overall last I heard Blu-ray had more better looking titles than HD-DVD.

So I've got an HD-DVD player, but only on a whim - don't read that as a big vote of confidence on my part. Plus I can burn DVD-R discs with HD-DVD content on them and play them on my player and computer, which I can't at this time do with Blu-ray.

The oddness of the market is this:

-I can presently buy a Blu-ray burner.
-Toast 8 point something supports burning Blu-ray DATA discs.
-DVD Studio Pro can author HD-DVD content onto standard DVD-R media, which will play in HD-DVD players (I've verfied that, see post from a couple of weeks ago - search for HD-DVD)
-BUT there are no HD-DVD burners available for Macs AFAIK
-there is no Blu-ray video disc support for Macs as yet (hopefully we'll see that at NAB next month)

So is a bit of a conundrum in terms of indie authoring capabilities. I'll do a survey some

Standalone set-top Blu-ray players are still substantially more expensive than standalone HD-DVD players, and the combo players are more expensive than buying one of each, so THAT'S no solution in the near term.

All that said, King Kong and Batman Begins look GREAT on HD...but I wish I could watch Casino Royale on HD.

I'll eventually probably buy a Blu-ray player to go with the HD-DVD player, but I DON'T recommend everybody do that - I'm a nut, and I know it.

I say wait it out to see which format wins out...and if it is the more expensive Blu-ray, that is a mixed blessing...I like the greater capacity of Blu-ray for burning data, but the price point is still 50% higher than HD-DVD.

There's lots of factors at play - should "the winner" be declared for greater player sales or greater movie sales? Hmm...I think it'll be a combo factor.

I just want to see one clear winner within the next year, and that'll determine whether consumers should jump in. Except for the zealots (like me), I don't recommend most consumers buy yet.

OK, line's moving, gotta go, but thought this worth posting.

-mike

Oh yeah - and a Sony rep (read this somewhere on CinemaTech I think) acknowledged that player sales won't take off until prices drop, and suggested $300 as the price point that'll make a difference. I read that as Sony is working on a $300 player then - maybe by Christmas? Or earlier part of next year? Christmas would make the most sense. At present, $500 is cheapest street price I've seen for a Blu-ray player (a Samsung), and $375 least expensive HD-DVD player.

-mike

Another update - Xbox 360 Elite: new, black limited edition Xbox with HDMI and 120GB drive - Engadget headline says it all other than late April, $479 price. HDMI is the big deal here - no mention of 1080p support. Since previous generation was designed with component analog outputs, which only supported 1080 res when interlaced, I doubt it.

PS3 I hear is a REALLY nice Blu-ray player, and has HDMI out. Xbox360 SEEMS to be favored game platform from the gamer buddies I have talked to, but lacks HDMI. This'll fix that. That puts you at $680 for game box with HD-DVD playback capability, HD movie download rent/buy capability, etc. But Sony will always have access to that Sony movie library, and I don't know if they'll make it available to Xbox360 - they may want to keep that PS3 exclusive.

-mike

Labels: Blu-ray, format war, HD-DVD

...should have it by Friday.

Woo hoo!

I ordered mine Day Zero, so I'd imagine plenty of others are on the way as well.

If you didn't read yesterday's piece on my thougths on AppleTV, you might want to do so, I've amended some further stuff on to it (another article, more concise analysis).

Labels: Apple, AppleTV

UPDATED TUESDAY - SEE BOTTOM

Apple TV may 'transform video industry' - analyst - iPod/iTunes - Macworld UK
"Hoopes writes: 'We think the Apple TV/iTunes combination could become as disruptive to legacy video purchase-and-consumption behaviour as the iPod/iTunes combination has been to the traditional music business model.'"

Article further predicts 25-70% AppleTV penetration amongst Mac users, citing a 150% penetration achieved by iPod (amongst NEW Mac buyers, perhaps?).

I disagree - lots of Mac owners I know are pretty "feh" about AppleTV, with a "why would I use that again?" attitude. A VCR records TV shows if they plan ahead, TiVO plans for you, and AppleTV's available video/movie offerings are extremely slim as compared to DVD, quality of HD-DVD and Blu-ray exceeed what AppleTV is even capable of, and Apple isn't offering any high-def content anyway. Current movie download systems are overly complex, and offer limited libraries as well. That said, I think the "media extender" concept of AppleTV is genius and will be key to its success long term.

The device is, "an ideal conduit for multiple services including DVR, paid-for content (such as video-on-demand), gaming, or advertising," he writes, adding, "we identify and value these business opportunities at $5.3-$11.4 billion."

I disagree - Apple would be loathe to channel advertising to its customers - or more likely, Steve Jobs would be. I just don't see it in their character to do that. DVR options - well no, there's no video/cable inputs unless Apple added one via a USB device. And if they did, they'd be cannibalizing sales of TV shows, which is one of AppleTV's unique advantages - the ability to purchase a show you missed after the fact without waiting months for the DVDs (like I'm going to download last night's Battlestar Galactica since I missed it, and see if their shark jumping performance of late persists). Gaming - has been ruled not likely recently, since the presumed AppleTV gaming code was recently found to mirror iPod code - just some lazy copy/paste behavior on Apple programmer's part. VOD - is sorta possible, but not in traditional "I want to watch right NOW" model - you'd have to download first then watch, unless significant software upgrades were made - the ability to connect directly to the iTunes Store, the ability to surf content with AppleTV not a computer, the ability for AppleTV to directly connect to store via Internet, the ability to progressive download and start watching like a web QT download does,and a MAJORLY HUGE infrastructure upgrade to Akamai or whatever to support live streaming. Otherwise, it is just buying a show like it works now.

Movie rentals are noted as possible, but I don't see that as likely - Apple has ALWAYS sold content, not rented it to date, and unlike DVDs, Apple would HAVE to be involved (and get a cut) in a rental model, which the studios may not be in a hurry to pursue, esp. with all their security concerns.

AppleInsider | Apple TV said to be worthy of overtaking both TiVo and Netflix - more on Apple from ThinkEquit's Jonathan Hoopes, who I don't think has done his homework very well:

"Apple TV can, in our opinion, be easily turned into a DVR with little or no hardware modification and a software upgrade,"

Oh really, Jonathan? And exactly how would that video signal be getting into the AppleTV? It has video outputs but no inputs, it has Ethernet and wireless ports as the only known data input model. There's a USB port Apple has been coy about, but it WOULD require a hardware update/purchase to get TiVO/DVR functionality going there.

While I DO expect Apple to do fairly well with this, especially compared to the other downloadable movie services, the value proposition as it stands now is weak compared to other video acquisition devices. Apple's library of available video content is now measurable in the hundreds, whereas DVD is who knows how high. Your local blockbuster has many thousands of titles, Netflix via mail has something like 60 or 70 THOUSAND titles available - if Apple is to compete successfully, they'll need a bigger library. That said, Apple's advantages of super simple UI, a good DRM that works across computers, set top boxes and portable devices is the best in the business, and a popular/usable/easy online store is a HUGE advantage in the business column. But as a consumer, the value proposition is still thin in other key areas - content and quality and price. You pay as much or more for the download as you would for the DVD, but you get LESS content with lower quality and no permanent archive if your computer/AppleTV hard drive dies (as they do). A DVD player costs a tiny fraction of what AppleTV does and offers tons more content, just not as easily (significant point). HD-DVD and Blu-ray offer MUCH better looking content at 30-100% more cost (at a minimum), and that's even if Apple had HD content available now, which they don't.

I'm supposed to get my AppleTV by later in the week, so we'll see what the experience is like. I've already bought an HDMI/toslink/optical switcher, so there's a plug ready and waiting to be plugged in right now.

I like the idea of AppleTV, and am buying one - half as much to review for indie content creators as to actually use myself - one of the first things I'm going to do is see about putting a MUCH bigger drive in there, say a 160 or 200. I already have a ton of my own MP3s/AAC files (something like 700-1000 CDs I've ripped over the years), and I want room for video content as well. While AppleTV can stream from other systems in the house, they have to be on and running iTunes for this to work AFAIK (based on the Shared Music/Shared Video mode in recent iTunes). So my wants? Presently about 100GB of music (ripped high quality), probably 20-30 GB of pictures, 20GB of assorted video content - that's a full 160 GB right there...so for now, the trick will be picking playlists & albums & movies that get cached on the device.

Surfing a LOT of content with the little bitty 6 button remote may well prove to be quite a challenge.

But long term, Apple is positioned fairly well if they can get HD content at all, and more content in general lined up. I'd saythey are definitely well positioned to be the leader in movie downloads, and long term MAY have a similar affect on the video market as they have in the music market. Keep in mind, however, that CDs still vastly outsell iTunes sales. I'll betcha next year's MWSF offers a version with a bigger hard drive, too, as an aside - more video content, damn well better be HD as an option by then too.

But what they DO have in the meantime is the nicest way to access your iTunes library remotely, and that is what I think will be the biggest short term selling point. My video fanatic buddies are "feh" on the video quality (except for the benefit of downloadable TV shows), but the idea of surfing their entire iTunes music collection from the couch, with the bonus value of watching pictures and downloaded movies as well. But in the short term, music & missed TV shows is the biggest value proposition for the device.

-cynical mike, signing off

PS -SUMMARY what I MEANT to say rambling through all this - long term AppleTV will have a better value proposition than it does today. Key will be making more content available, and HD content in particular. For now, however, the value proposition is somewhat limited when compared to other means of getting video not off live TV onto your TV/HDTV. DVR, rental & advertising possibilties are I think incorrect/overrated/unlikely in the near future without substantial changes in hardware, software, and the deals that have been cut.

TUESDAY UPDATE
My expectations are more in line with this:

MacNN | Analyst: Apple TV to see slow start
"'As was the case in the early days of the iPod, Apple resellers in our checks expect Apple TV will need to be more fully understood by consumers before it turns into a major contributor,' said Piper Jaffray senior analyst Gene Munster."

He continues:

"...expect Apple TV will have a minor impact on business in the near term (the next 1-2 quarters), with Apple faithful buying in an initial surge and others spending some additional time figuring out what Apple TV is."

My analysis: AppleTV offers insufficient value proposition for most consumers as it presently stands. While the idea of using your EDTV or HDTV as a way to show your digital pictures to guests is nice, it isn't a reason to buy it. Being able to watch the missed episodes of Lost, Battlestar Galactica, or whatever your personal preferences are on your big TV is nice, but not $300 nice. A pleasant interface to your iTunes library is nice, but not $300 nice on its own. Except for the luxury crowd, I don't think it offers enough value....yet. Get us HD movies, get us MORE movies in general, and we're getting somewhere. For those who want to watch on computer, on TV, on portable (iPod video), it is a big step forward, but that is a MINORITY subset of the market right now.

Portability has its advantages though - I'm writing this sitting in line for Grindhouse tix for the Austin premiere, Tarantino & Rodriguez expected to be there next Wednesday. Yee-haw! Blow sh*t up. ;p

-mike

Yet-another-Tuesday-update:

Ars checks in - On the eve of the Apple TV

....and has a nice list of AppleTV's shortcomings, and Wired gets in on the action too:

WIRED Blogs: Gadget Lab: "5 Reasons Why Apple TV Rules, 5 Reasons Why it Sucks"

Tuesday night update:
Macworld: First Look: Picking an HDTV for your Apple TV covers some basics, but misses what I thought would be the point of the article - that since the max res of AppleTV is 1280x720, if AppleTV is your primary high res source (which would imply you were converting your own HD material, since Apple sells no HD content), 1368x768 is more preferable than 1024x768, and true 1080p is overkill.

MacNN | WSJ reviews AppleTV: "simple and elegant"

Apple updated their AppleTV tech specs page with more codec details:

Video formats supported
H.264 and protected H.264 (from iTunes Store): Up to 5 Mbps, Progressive Main Profile (CAVLC) with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps (maximum resolution: 1280 by 720 pixels at 24 fps, 960 by 540 pixels at 30 fps)
iTunes Store purchased video: 320 by 240 pixels or 640 by 480 pixels
MPEG-4: Up to 3 Mbps, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps (maximum resolution: 720 by 432 pixels at 30 fps)
Audio formats supported
AAC (16 to 320 Kbps); protected AAC (from iTunes Store); MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps); MP3 VBR; Apple Lossless; AIFF; WAV
Photos formats supported
JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PNG

Labels: Apple, AppleTV

Overall let me summarize:

before we start, here's my first impressions from the other day with more details on the new accessories)

I'm happy with how low the prices are on all the Red accessories - as professional level gear, this stuff is VERY inexpensive.

There's even been an improvement - the battery charger is only $550, not $750 - Jim says it was a pricing mistake. Post-announcement correction, misquoted price, "whatevs" - a welcome change.

UPDATE - but then the Red Arm & extension cables were removed from the LCD - compare the original (Google cached) to the current one. So that's a further $375 reduction in value to the customer. The specs do keep changing.

I originally misunderstood the purpose of the CF Flash module - I thought it was for settings and stills, pulled out and made optional. But that's the SD module, not the CF module, and the SD module IS included with the camera. That, on top of the lack of included battery, LCD, and what I understood to be Red Flash made me think that the price point was held by stripping off parts and making them cost added options, and that made me cranky.

I was then further dissapointed that the "extra love" we'd been hearing noises about was basically just going to get us back to where our expectations started.

I think this boils down to the following good news/bad news scenario:

GOOD NEWS: The camera is everything promised, and more. You get 4K compressed recording onboard, which didn't exist when the original $17.5K price point was announced. As for Red Flash, there's now three kinds, take your pick. You get get your Redcine for free, for now an open license for your own use on as many machines as you want. Instead of a 3.5" flip-out LCD, you get a 5.6" 1024x600 one that can mount anywhere on the camera. Instead of a small embedded/internal battery, you get a full size professional one. As a reservation holder, you get a $2500 credit to pick the accessories of your choice.

BAD NEWS: Battery not included (but is bigger/better than originally planned). LCD not included (but again, bigger/better than originally planned). Red Flash module not included (but there's three or four to choose from). That $2500 roughly catches you up to where you thought you were starting - so instead of a bonus prize, you get what you thought you were already getting. Flippantly, let me say its exciting in the same way a tax refund is - "Hooray! I got my own...money..back. Hmm."

In retrospect, it is a little more complicated than "So did we get the camera promised at the same price point or didn't we?" - I think the exact answer is now "You get more camera than was originally proposed at that $17,500 price point, with more features and better options than originally proposed. But it is taking a little longer, early units will not be feature complete for a few months yet, and the price has effectively gone up a bit. BUT, if you're a reservation holder, you're going to pretty much get what you expected for the same size check."

I think the discrepancy arose when we'd expected camera/battery/LCD and THEN some extra goodies on top of that for being reservation holders. Instead, we got camera/battery/LCD. I'd mentally incorporated all the improvements in features and expected the price point to remain exactly the same.

It has taken some time to digest all this news and come up with a cogent analysis.

I still love the camera and think it is Sliced Bread 2.0 as far as cameras go in terms of what I'd want, delivering far more features than I could expect from any other company at this price point - to the extent that I'm buying one to rent out - I just was a little bummed at the lack of extras included for reservation holders. But, in my constantly contrarian brain, I DID get extras - the price (and feature set) has gone up a bit overall, and the effective price has gone up a bit from initial announcement to now - which isn't that big a shock in this market anyway. In an email exchange, somebody put it nicely in perspective, saying something like "OK, wisenheimer - would you rather have the 3.5" flipout LCD and the small internal consumer style battery for your Red One? Or would you rather pay a bit more for a much bigger & higher res screen and a bigger and better battery?" Well, yeah - I probably would.

But in looking back, they DID "optionize" just about everything they could in order to hold the price point.

Other Red Stuff of Interest: I've been catching up on Reduser.net posts

WEIGHT: current dev builds way nearly 9 pounds for just the camera, they are going to try to slim it from there. Eek - that's a more than 25% increase from the original 7 pound estimate.

RGB RECORDING DELAY: no RGB recording mode for a couple of months or so

SHIPPING SCHEDULE: startup production quantities lower than anticipated, but should still ship all cameras by Sept/Oct, timetable for serial number release schedule at NAB


Evin Grant guessing about 1080p24 RGB data rates: (which may be based on my own guesses I'd previously posted here, which are known to be a bit off on the RGB stuff)
A good guess would be about 18.15MBs or 1.06GB per minute at 24FPS.
So from that wou can figure...
RedDrive- 320GB (296GB Formated)= 278 minutes
Red Ram- 64GB= 60 minutes
Red Flash 8GB CF card= 7 Min 31 Sec
Red Flash 32GB onboard= 30 minutes

READER COMMENTS ON PRICE CHANGES: Reduser.net poster Andrew put it well: "Hey, in a few month investment of $1000 did bring you the return of $2,500.
250% gain, with 110% money back guarantee, I didn’t see this one since a long time."

Steve Gibby of Cut4 framed it from the pro's perspective:: "I think the ones who have complained about the RED prices are invariably those who are moving up from the prosumer world of production. They're used to prosumer price levels and they now have sticker shock at what a professional camera system costs. Ironically, the longtime professionals who know what pro-level camera systems cost, are stoked with RED prices because they know the RED prices are way below the norm for pro level gear.
...
The end result since NAB 2006: the price to performance ratio of the RED One camera system has become even more dynamic, with many added features, and a slight increase in price.
...
If you’re moving up from the prosumer world count yourself lucky to now have tools available to you, at a stunning price/performance ratio, that all of us longtime pros have been dreaming about for our entire careers."

...and that nails it pretty damn well.

Jim Jannard's comment on price changes:: "Again... the original LCD was a flip-out 3.5' and the battery was a proprietary RED on-camera type like an HVX. They now are professional grade. A 5.6' hi-rez LCD and a V-lock battery (open) system. If these were offered as a $400 upgrade, everyone would have wanted them. Or should have wanted them.

Jim"

As for battery prices, another commenter said: "I have purchased at least 10 high end broadcast cameras from Panasonic, Sony, and Ikegami over the years - and not one of them came with a battery!" ...so there you go.


=====
Semi off topic, as for digital cinema from NYTimes:
"there are now 2,300 screens across the country with digital projectors, still a small fraction of the nation’s 37,000. The higher-quality equipment is not expected to be widely installed until 2009, when a few high-profile movies in 3D requiring digital projection (like James Cameron’s “Avatar”) are scheduled for release."

that ties into 4K finishing - nice if you can do it, certainly not necessary for all projects, not even theatrical ones. If you have toolset and/or budget to do it and want it for future usage, great.

=====
On ordering a camera at NAB:: "You can place an order at NAB with a fully refundable deposit." according to Jim Jannard.

======

On the resolution of the LCD: "the LCD is WSVGA. -Jim" - that's 1024x600, not the 720p I'd previously erroneously reported. Oops, sorry about that.

======

Rods and standards and spacing: Reduser.net - View Single Post - Rod size clarification: "We will not support Panavision standards... but will support Arri standards. An elite rental house in Holloywood has come by several times with equipment to make sure we conform to accessories already in the field. Remember that our system is modular... if we have screwed up somewhere or forgotten something, we will fix it or add it.

Jim"

========

On Workflow: Red One Pipeline Diagram v1.0 - Page 14 - Reduser.net - Michael Morlan's excellent chart he keeps updating

======
Latest rendering of Red One with all accessories: Battleship... - Reduser.net - fully up to date render

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Battery myths - Reduser.net - battery advice

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Pricing mistake... - Reduser.net: "Oops... we made a pricing mistake.

The charger is only $550 (not $750) and the Power Kit is $1450 (not $1650).

In our haste to post prices, we made an error. Our apologies. Changes to our website will be made shortly.

Jim"

....and that's the kind of mistake I'll take any day...

Labels: Red

Hey all -

so when I got home late last night (around 1am) and started writing up my thing on the Red pricing, little did I know that:

a.) I misunderstood some of the options
b.) I was tired and cranky (more than I realized)
c.) and, unknown to me, my Dad was across town getting a chest tube put in at the emergency room.

He's fine - he had a spontaneous pneumothorax, I had one in high school that hospitalized me, it is a hassle but treated is OK - it is a partially collapsed lung, they have to put in a chest tube and you're tethered to what looks like a gin still for a few days until you can go home, then there's zero lasting effects. He's having a Vicodin nap, he's OK and my sister is with him now till Mom gets there to spend the night.

So I haven't had a chance to really update my thoughts on Red & pricing, but I will as soon as feasible. I'm sitting in the restaurant across from the hospital where I've been most of today (since shortly after I posted the earlier update). I got a chance to get the emails responding to my late night questions, so I'll have a different tack to post on it later once I've digested all that new info and can put another article up.

-mike

THURSDAY UPDATE: Dad got discharged from hospital, got home, they called a half hour later - there was a problem with the final pre-discharge X-ray: apparently they nicked something pulling out the tube, so he had another collapsing lung at the moment. Now he's scheduled for surgery tomorrow afternoon, in hospital another week. Grr. Dammit. I want him home and done with all this and OK.

-mike

SATURDAY UPDATE: Surgery went OK, I'm sitting in hospital room whilst he naps, catching up on some news and writing a bit. Stand by for updates later today...

-mike

Labels: Red, SXSW

Red One & Accessory Pricing Announced, Mike's Analysis

RED / Price List has the simple straight list of prices (UPDATE: and now has pictures of most of the stuff so you know what they're talking about).

UPDATE - I've gone back in and modified this a bit since I wrote it at 2am last night.

See link above for the simple list if that is all you want to see, but here it all is with my own commentary after each piece below:

RED ONE CAMERA BODY
$17,500
Includes:
• Camera body
• P/L Mount
• Accessory Cables
• Operation Guide
• License for REDCINE Software

ANSWERED: The price has stayed the same, but the feature set has shifted. I'm glad the price hasn't changed, I'm cranky the price kinda sorta changed. Read on for more details of why I say that. Including cables, guide, & Redcine is as expected and good news. We weren't (OK, I wasn't) sure exactly how Redcine licensing was going to be handled, sounds really good so far.

MUCH more important than that, however, is that reservations #1-1475 get a $2500 credit towards accessories - this is their reward for showing faith early on. I'll have more to say about this facet in the summary below.

UNANSWERED: Exactly what's up with Redcine. Stuart English, the workflow guy at Red, said "REDCINE is a no cost accessory. One copy shipped per camera." I'd like some further clarification on that - what specifically does that mean? I posted that question on Reduser.net and minutes later Jim responded: "REDCINE will be released in beta format with no seat restrictions for the user..." OK, that's good news - but I'd like to know if that policy will remain with the shipping version, and what are the limits? Owners can run a render farm? Would Red will be cool with owner/operators handing the software over to clients for them to do their own conversion? It sounds like a free license for owners to do as they wish, but I'd guess probably just on their OWN systems. The exact details on this has SIGNIFICANT ramifications for workflow (and even business model) issues.

RED ONE BASIC PRODUCTION PACK
$1,250
Includes:
• V Mount Battery Plate (battery not included)
• RED RAIL™ base package
• Plate / Magazine Cradle
• Universal Mounting Bracket
• 8” Rod (3)
• Grip Handle
• Base Plate
• Shoulder pad / tripod plate adaptor
• Top Bracket
• Top Handle

Think of this loosely as what was previously called the Red Rail system - it is your erector set to build your shoulder mountable config, your battery/Red Drive mounts, your tripod mount (I'm reading "Universal Mounting Bracket" as that), handles, SOME rods, etc. Pricing is in line with what I had expected - I was thinking $1000-$1500 so that's in line. For the professionals this is entirely reasonable, for the HDV type crowd they may grumble about it. I say they'll have to get over it - this is pro gear built to serious pro level efficacy - if it is as was discussed and intended, it should be pretty bomb proof rugged.


RED ONE PREMIUM PRODUCTION PACK
$2,750
Includes:
• V Mount Battery Plate (battery not included)
• RED RAIL™ premium package
• Plate / Magazine Cradle
• Universal Mounting Bracket
• 8” Rod (4) (you get one more)
• 12” Rod (4)
• Base Plate
• Shoulder pad / tripod plate adaptor
• Handle Bracket
• Grip Handle (2) (you get one more, I'm not clear on how/why this is useful yet)
• Top Plate
• Top Bracket
• Top Handle
• Side Handle (4)
• 15mm rod adaptor

Think of this as the bigger Red Rail set that includes the Red Cage pieces as well in your erector set kit. The parts that are included in this that aren't in the "Basic" are bolded to more easily distinguish. The price...starts feeling a touch high to my indie self, but then again, this is (should be if as expected) bomb tough solid stuff made in low volumes. I haven't priced traditional camera accessories (I focus mostly on image workflow issues), so this is probably still aggressive.

RED ONE POWER PACK
$1,450 UPDATE: THIS WAS $1650, CORRECTED TO $1450
Includes:
• 2 x RED BRICK™ 140Wh Battery Pack
• RED CHARGER
• Camera - Charger LEMO Cable (10 ft)

RED BRICK 140Wh Battery Pack $450
RED CHARGER $550 - in an update, Jim Jannard says the accidentally stated $750, actual price $550
Includes:
• Camera - Charger LEMO Cable (10 ft)


ANSWERED: There are two primary battery standards out there, so now we know which they picked.

UNANSWERD: These are PROBABLY compatible with other V lock stuff is my GUESS, but the usual IANAS (I Am Not A Shooter) caveat applies. While Red has loudly and clearly proclaimed that all specs are subject to change, and that the camera system was under development, Jim at NAB said that a battery would come with it, and now it doesn't - so there's a spec that changed. The batteries seem a tad expensive (update - no, in line with others, got some feedback on this), but IF they are AB compatible that's no big deal - you can use your existing batteries with it that you might buy elsewhere. I need to go do me some battery research, clearly. The charger is $750, which strikes me as pricey until I compare it to what Anton Bauer charges, then it is pretty much in line with that industry standard. If it is Red branded, it makes sense that it would cost a bit more to have gone to the trouble.

MONITOR OPTIONS AND ACCESSORIES
RED EVF Viewfinder
$2,950
Includes:
• RED ARM adjustable arm
• EVF Interface cable

I'm breaking this section up to address one point at a time. This is a GREAT price for the EVF - it is 720p, it has SuroundView which in a nutshell lets you see what is ABOUT to come into frame (overscan area, not to be recorded) instead or what is ALREADY in frame (oops, the boom mike got in the shot). This is a GREAT feature for the operator. The price for this switchable color/B&W viewfinder is about 1/7th of what the nearest competitor costs - the AccuScene, which is also 720p, but MUCH larger as well. It uses an industry standard cable (Hirose), but with a custom pin config based on DVI that is specific to Red. Somebody on Reduser.net said they'd want to use it on other cameras - somebody snarked back "But why would you want to use another camera if you've got a Red?" Touche. I'm VERY happy with this price point, since I was guessing it'd be $3500-$4000 for the EVF...and even that was 1/5 of what the nearest competitor cost. And the mounting arm (otherwise $175) is included as well. This is probably my favorite price announcement.

RED LCD Screen (5.6 inch)
$1,700
Includes:
• RED ARM adjustable arm
• EVF / LCD Extension Cable 3ft
• EVF / LCD Extension Cable 10ft



GOOD NEWS: It is bigger than I'd expected at 5.6"

BAD NEWS: It is pricier than I'd hoped (been hoping for $1000ish). But if you factor in the costs of the arm & cables purchased separately:

RED ARM adjustable arm $175
EVF / LCD Extension Cable 3ft $200
EVF / LCD Extension Cable 10ft $300

...that does ease the pain. Note they are including 3 & 10 foot extenders for steadicam/small crane work - they are being generous with the extra parts here. The REALLY big bummer is that a lot of folks had hoped it would be included with the base camera - and it is NOT (although reservation holders can use their $2500 credit to get one and still have room for a battery and some other stuff in store credit).

UPDATE - I'd previously stated the LCD was 720p, that is incorrect - it is 1024x600.

DIGITAL MEDIA OPTIONS

This section gets tricky, so I'm going to break it down one step at a time. UPDATE: I got an email response from Stuart who explained to me what is going on with all the Flash storage options:

Hi Mike,

In the context of offering a modular camera with lots of choices - the RED FLASH module is a flash memory read/write option that mounts to the left face of the camera body. There are three versions : CF, Express Bus and 1.8" SATA. Use whichever you prefer.

If you are doing animated movies or short effects sequences, the CF card would be fine. If you like to take a laptop into the field with you, using the Express Card version lets you realize the concept of a P2 card structure, but with non-proprietary media. Or if yo want maximum performance and capacity use the SATA version - which uses the 1.8" SATA drives.

All of these media can be physically removed from the camera, or the data offloaded using the camera's USB-2 port.

Then we have the off-board, but local media choices - RED-DRIVE and RED-RAM, which are both dual 2.5" drive based e-SATA solutions, one with dual hard disks and the other with dual flash memory modules.

Stuart English

Workflow Wizard
RED Digital Cinema


...so OK, now I get it - there are three kinds of Flash storage, you just pick the one you like that fits the workflow you want. Instead of "this is the flash system" you get your pick of three. Very cool. Be nice if you had a free choice of one of the three, but hey - they developed three options, makes sense to charge for the dev time.

RED DRIVE 320GB
$900
Includes:
Dual 160 GB 2.5" SATA Hard Disk Drives- External Mini RAID


This is right in line (even better) than we were told - originally they said it'd be in the 40-160GB capacity, now it is 320GB (should format to 296GB usable according to my math) - for 4K@24p compressed, that is minutes shy of 3 hours of footage at LEAST - that is based on the 27.5 MB/sec number we learned at NAB.

The price/capacity is EXCELLENT compared to anything else on the market. Some tech weenies are saying "It's just a couple of drives in a case" but there's more to it than that - such as all the time to figure out which drives, are they reliable, does the whole system work with bulletproof reliability, etc. So quit yer yappin', this is EXCELENT news. And don't forget you can record 2K RAW or 1080p RGB or 720p RGB for even greater record times (those last two will await a firmware update due this summer).

RED RAM 64GB
$4,500
SATA Flash Memory in External Drive Housing

OK, this is a twist on what we'd (or at least I'd) been expecting. RED RAM was originally described as a big box of RAM for uncompressed recording of the maximum frame size of the camera. I don't think (although we have no definitive specs) that is what this'll be. Since a single eSATA bus (what I presume is the connection) maxes out around 220 or 230 MB/sec, that wouldn't be fast enough for 4K@24p. And that's just the bus - I have no idea what peak write speeds are for the RAM drives they'll be using. So uncompressed 4K at usable frame rates is out if my assumptions are accurate. But uncompressed 2K RAW at usable frame rates is a distinct possibility. Stuart went out of his way to note the speed of this stuff:
"RED-RAM is a special version of the RED-DRIVE chassis that has two 32GB flash memory modules instead of hard disk drives. This arrangement offers outstanding resilience against extremes of temperature and vibration, and a very high maximum data transfer rate."

...so I'll read that as not only is it super stable (ZERO RISK of a head crash killing your footage), but that it'll be capable of recording frame rates higher than the Red Drive can. We'll probably have to wait for NAB for confirmation on that. Note the price, however - $4500. Owie for regular daily use. This is, however, BUCKETS AND MILES less expensive than the other alternatives - the Venom flash RAM pack is about $50K last I heard, and held about 10 minutes of 4:4:4 RGB if I recall correctly. So remember to adjust your head to what the options are - if this does what I'm GUESSING it will, if it can record half as much time at grater res for less than 1/10th the price, that is a MONSTER win for us, and Red has scored a HUGE victory with this.

RED FLASH (CF) ON CAMERA Module
$500
Camera Read / Write Module for CF flash media
(Requires xxxx CF media. Media is not included)

This is basically a purchasable interface option for the camera. UPDATE - I was confused & incorrect when I made my original posting last night - the SD slot is still on camera for stills/presets, the CF interface IS fast enough for footage if you have the right kind of card (see Stuart's comments above).

RED 1.8" SATA Flash ON CAMERA Module
$500
includes -
Camera Read / Write Module for SATA 1.8" flash media
(Media is not included)

This is not the Red Flash itself, but the module to mount and read/write the Red Flash modules. I'd also always assumed this would be included as well, the shape of their presentation made it sound like this would probably be standard and the high speed port would cost extra.

RED 1.8" SATA Flash 32GB Media
approx $1,500

These are the Red Flash cards as we've always expected them to be, except the price has drifted up. Note it is "approximately" - this is the most loosely priced accessory. Originally at IBC the company line was "around $1000" - but now they are 50% higher than that. OK, that's the gripe-y version. Here's the positive spin - "It's like a P2 card..except four times bigger...and you can record 4K at up to 30p on it..for three or four hundred bucks more than an 8GB P2." OK, it wasn't as inexpensive as we were led to believe, but it is still blowing the competition out of the water. Sorry, Panasonic - but $1099 was the lowest cost 8GB P2 I found online using Froogle to price check - if Red ships these soon at this price point, that's just no comparison - Yugos to Porsches time. (But yes, P2's are ACTUALLY SHIPPING right now, and that does has its advantages. :D )

RED "EXPRESS CARD" FLASH Module
$500
Includes:
Camera Read / Write Module for Express Card flash media
(Media is not included)

UPDATE: Again, I didn't know what was going on when I made my original comments late last night. This is again yet another choice of flash storage. If you want laptop field interoperability, this is a perfect choice.

This whole 3 kinds of Red Flash, two kinds of Red Drive stuff shows the lengths they go to to emphasize "The power of AND, the tyranny of OR." It is the Lego kit that lets you build exactly the toy you want for Christmas...except it isn't a toy, it is an incredibly powerful and flexible professional solution.

RAW PORT?*
$6,500
Includes:
Camera Mount Assembly
Ethernet - Optical Transceiver
*Factory installed option. Installation removes RED FLASH options from system configuration.


This is the high speed port - to be used for uncompressed recording, or recording frame rates beyond what the onboard stuff will do. If my math is right, it'll need to be capable of recording 900-1000 MB/sec if you want to record maximum frame rates at maximum resolution. The price is "Yowza" high - I'd been hoping for $2500, and mentally thinking about $5K is as much as I'd like to see it cost. Granted, if you're going this route, you're spending many tens of thousands of dollars just for high speed fault tolerant RAID components to capture all this data, but still that's pretty high. But I do have to factor in that this is going to be used by a SMALL percentage of the user base - the RAW compression is really, REALLY quite good from the samples I've gotten up close and personal with. I had to go 200-300% zoom in Photoshop from 4.9K source material doing A/B comparisons to tell the difference. So for those few that want uncompressed, or want higher frame rates (and I think compressed high frame rates is what RED RAM will be about, or at least I hope so).


OPTICS ADAPTORS
B4 Lens Adaptor
$3,500
Canon 35mm Photo Mount
$500
Nikkor 35mm Photo Mount
$500


B4 Adaptor - my gut said a little pricey (hoping for $2000-$2500 before I found out pricing), but then my brain says to remember what good B4 glass costs, then this makes sense and falls in line and those purchasers won't be surprised by that price point at ALL. UPDATE - turns out it has to have some professional grade optics in there from what I'm being told, so this makes more sense - it takes more work to adapt a B4. Now that I've slept, I recall that a B4 lens is expecting to feed an image prism for a 3 chip setup, not a single chip, single focal plane setup.

Canon/Nikkor pricing - PHENOMENAL. While still lenses have breathing issues when focusing, for those who can't afford Cooke/Zeiss PL mount stuff (or Red lenses, which won't be available as a zoom for some months), this is an EXCELLENT price point to let low budget indies in the game. If you're not actively pulling focus during the shot, you'll be able to get GREAT looking results on inexpensive glass (hundreds of dollars, not tens of thousands).

SUMMARY

I have multiple different interpretations of all this news:

PESSIMISTIC VIEW: as someone who has tracked this camera since its earliest inception before it was even publicly announced, I'm disappointed that the EFFECTIVE price point has changed. While the $17,500 number has absolutely held rock steady, what that price includes has changed SUBSTANTIALLY, to the point that the Red One is fairly far from that what we thought that $17,500 camera would get us - both good (improvements) and bad (non-included options). In Red's defense, they have been VERY loud and clear about pricing will hold but specs may change, but boy howdy, did they. Let's look at what I had expected to see, based on having worked in their booth and known EXACTLY what the company line was to tell folks.

What I'd thoroughly expected to get for $17,500:
-base camera body
-Red Flash (on camera) Module
-a battery
-Redcine

I'd also been fairly sure the LCD was likely to be included at that price point, and MAYBE the EVF, but just for the reservation holders.

Instead, Flash module of your choice adds $500. A single battery is $450, the LCD adds another $1700 - so a $2650 difference in price between anticipated and actual. Ouch - that's about an 15% effective price increase. (Update, but then again, 15% bump and you get 4K onboard and Redcine? Not bad!)

I'm a bit miffed that some things were made optional that I'd never have guessed would be options, but that's development for you. I think Red certainly hasn't broken their trust nor credibility with the early adopter crowd, but they have stretched their credibility a little bit by suddenly optionizing stuff we'd been soft messaged we'd get - SO much was so far beyond what had been, and I don't think Red quite managed expectations as well as they could have - but then given all the high claims they had for the product, it was hard for the audience to slow down and let the "No promises, wait and see" really sink in.

OPTIMISTIC VIEW:

However, the reservation holders get a $2500 accessories credit (Jim shares Teh Luv for The Faithful), which offsets almost all of that effective price increase over what was anticipated (even if overly optimistically so). So for reservation holders, it is an effective price increase of less than 1% - a pretty damn good job of staying on target from original goal to actual final costs.

And, don't forget (as Stuart points out in product improvements since NAB 2006, since NAB Red has added several significant features - 4K onboard recording (was only 2K @ NAB), Redcine (for free!), and other good features.

I think reservation holders and the folks who've tracked the minutiae from the beginning will be the only ones likely to be cranky at any of this pricing. UPDATE/CORRECTION - I think only people who've tracked everything from early on who DIDN'T have a reservation will be kicking themselves for not getting one. They get a mild (under 20%) price bump to get what they thought they going to get.

For folks walking into Red cold at NAB, or that haven't tracked all the details closely along the way, I think the professional crowd will be somewhere between thrilled and very pleasantly surprised at the pricing & configurations of Red & accessories. Loaded for bear with Red Rail/Cage, two batteries & charger, EVF & LCD, 2 Red Drives, CF & SATA Flash modules, 2 Red SATA Flash modules but no lenses, it is $32,150. Throw in a Red Zoom when it is available and you're just shy of $42,000. I think that's a reasonable package for an owner/operator to have. But that is a long, LONG way from the unrealistic "Gee I'll have a 4K camera for 20-25 thousand dollars!" It is as it always would have been - a truly killer professional camera that looks like it'll blow the socks off anything else feature wise, but definitely in the professional pricing category. I'm looking at over $46K for the Red with accessories I'll be renting out, and I'm not (yet) considering the high speed RAW port option.

Based on this new pricing info, I'm betting a modest to fair number of reservation holders will have to bow out, or will flip/resell their cameras. Fortunately, that $2500 credit will cover most of what they might have been hoping to have included. If you an do $17,500, you can do $17,950. New purchasers, however, will be looking at $20,450 for the same gear.

Pardon me if I'm coming off cranky in this about the pricing (because I am a bit) - my expectations were a little too optimistic. I feel chagrinned that I got peeved at the poster last year that predicted Red would be later than originally anticipated, would ship initialy feature incomplete, and that features would be dropped or cost more - because they turned out to be pretty accurate. The big picture is this - Red is coming, sooner rather than later. Everything I've seen leads me to believe it'll be arguably the best camera you can buy, period (for what I'm interested in using it for). Factor in the price point, and it CLEARLY blows the socks off anything else in terms of bang/buck. The workflow is exactly as I'd prefer - high quality, lots of control, managed data/IT centric, and no infernal $100,000 decks to contend with.

As professional accessories go, the pricing is somewhere between entirely reasonable/in line with competitors to "blows them out of the water", with some key components costing small fractions of what their nearest spec'd competitor claims.

I still think that as cameras go, this'll be Sliced Bread 2.0. But as I've been saying more and more often lately, technology is only as valid as its price point. While the Red One is still a tremendous achievement in general and even moreso at this price point...the perceived price point has been drifting up from what I/we were led to believe (or at least hope), and that makes me a little cranky. The $2500 credit does mollify me...mostly - because I'm having to use it to buy the stuff I thought I'd be getting anyway, and since were led to believe we'd be getting some EXTRA love, this feels more like catch up love to get where we thought we'd already be. UPDATE - but that is really just quibbling in the big picture.

But, deep breath, this looks to be MUCH better than, say, the Sony F23 specs for a tiny fraction of the money. AND no $100,000 deck is required to work with the footage (just the computer you probably already have). AND, they told us specs WOULD change (some got better, don't forget, like the surprise emergence of 4K onboard recording, which is truly an industry first)...AND reservation holders are getting $2500 in extra stuff. Remember that and keep breathing...as you can see, I'm still sorting it all out in my head.

The absolute minimum shooting kit to go out and shoot for the day - Red One, Red Rail (the Basic setup), 2 batteries and charger, the LCD, 2 Red Drives (either two for full day or one shooting one offloading), and either still lens adaptor put you right at $24,200. That'd leave $800 for a still lens/lenses that would breathe whilst focusing, an inexpensive but non-optimal solution (update - some cine-style lenses breathe too I've been told).

OK - it's 2:30am, I gotta get to sleep, I'm sure I'll have more to say (or fix) on this tomorrow after thinking about it some more.

-mike

Tuesday morning update - man, I was cranky last night when I wrote that! I've done some quick touch-up on this, but I've got to go, family emergency, more later.

Satruday update - fixed incorrect LCD resolution, updated battery charger pricing, tweaked a little phrasing here and there

-mike

IMPORTANT UPDATE - be sure to see Part 2 of this report as several things have shifted or been better defined.

Labels: Red

Theatrical acquisitions panel - I walked in late and could only stay for a bit:

-rottentomatoes is flawed somebody says, metacritic is better. if there's 10 films with an 80 rating and 1 with a 97, guess which one is more likely to get picked up - gotta stand out from the crowd!
-some movies (300, Ghost Rider) are critic proof for their audiences, but for others (The Queen), NYTimes positive review is crucial
-reviews matter for certain films
-for smaller markets and smaller films, word of mouth and grass roots is key
-Guillermo did a big push for Pan's Labyrinth in Spanish language marketing, touring, etc.
-Deena Kalai (friend of mine) asks - for films being chopped up between different markets - does it matter? Answer: Miramax usually doesn't buy foreign rights unless US is available - Miramax will carve out all English speaking rights, for instance - lots of indies can play in that market, but non-English markets
-keep all rights available, esp. N. America - if you sell TV, that makes it tougher (even though that's a significant profit source)
-when pickng up a movie, what % from DVDs? Depends on genre - action/horror is multiples of box office (hopefully), foreign language (10% or some horrible/tiny/shitty amount") - if does well at box office - it'll do elsewhere. Genre does better in DVD (The Host, for instance), wouldn't acquire ANY movie without DVD rights - theatrical break even or lose money, TV/DVD is where you make your money
-rare company projects to reach overages from theatrical
-Oscar shorts only does theatrical & DVD rights, have back end on iTunes, needs to work theatrically and it is kind of a joke to try and do that
-distributors getting 40-50% for income
-"How important is festival rep?" - make your first festival a well known one if you can - because it is old news, you can find old reviews as an acquisition person to find out about it
-if you premiere here as a small film, from there you want to play other fests to get word of mouth going - be a big fish in a small pond - gettting a Sundance premiere might get you overlooked -but if you stand out have a better chance
-is Tribecca a serious acquistions festival? "Everyone goes..." "We didn't "go", but we bought three films there."
-as for DVDs, having talent on box count
-if you've been playing festivals around the world but not biggies, that DOES hurt - since festival programmers are effectively telling people "we've seen a bunch of movies that suck, here's what we liked" - it pre-screens the movies
-make a good movie THAT HAS AN AUDIENCE - it'll get bought
-if you're not getting into bigger festivals, a good name rep (John Sloss) will help - they can't muscle it in, but that maximize results
-it is silly to lie and say there aren't tiers - there are better places/festivals/reps/etc. - the further up you do, the better
-but those folks aren't perfect - Sloss passed on a film that got an Oscar nom
-John gets the most press, there's times some folks have passed on a film because John's repping it
-life's too short sometimes - John has ticked off buyers/distribs by his hard deal cutting
-if things are getting difficult, they'll walk - why suffer?
-do you want to be repped by someone with 14 films there with a big rep, or have someone that's just fighting for you?
-be clear with folks - don't lie to distribs about what clearances - were promised that two Bruce Springsteen songs were claimed to be cleared but weren't
-what's the threshold of spending for docs? Docs are viable acquisitions (Al Gore giving a Powerpoint preso?) - it is dangerous to spend $1M on a doc if not Michael Moore - since most didn't gross NEARLY that much...
-money is spent on above the line talent - if you don't have names, why go into debt for hundreds of $1000s?
-is like gambling - whatever you can afford to lose
-to get found as a movie - talent agencies, reps, festivals, etc.

=============

After that, walked out and walked around a bit, ran into Amanda Congdon doing interviews in the hall and said hello, she interviewed me for a bit and I got a picture with her.

===========

went to lunch with some folks from Avid, Matt Feury who is the high end editorial workflow guy, and Amy Peterson (can't recall her title, met her at NAB last year). We talked about where Avid was going, some workflow issues I was interested in solving with Avid, and I shared my thoughts on where I thought they should take the product line (AJA and/or BMD hardware support!) Avid has some cool new features coming, one I can talk about is a new script tool that does voice-to-text recognition on your footage and then pattern matches that to your script in a quick automated fashion - this used to be doable but only by hand - so even if it is only mostly accurate, still saves a TON of time. I'll try to catch a demo of it soon.

==========

panel went OK, but it was overly broad - with so many people from so many fields (me, the Dallas Panavision rep, an Avid rep, a Technicolor rep, a Kodak rep, a facial animation performance capture rep), it was too broad to go into any detail on anything, so we covered a lot of generalities - if anyone were to go into depth in their area, it would be rude to everyone else. Panel attendance was good, but the subject matter was overly broad.

TALK ABOUT THE FACIAL ANIMATION SOFTWARE (I'll update this later with links)

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After that went to the DGA party, hung out with Jen White (DoP friend of mine), Tim McCanlies (writer/director of Secondhand Lions and others), Frank Reynolds (my editor friend), James from Panavision Dallas, Jennifer Milliman a local AD, etc. Ran into Bryan Poysner from the Austin Film Society an talked a little geekery with him. Tim, Frank & I talked fun geekery about HD vs DI finishing, Avid vs. Final Cut, etc. James from Panavision and I talked about where they were going - what's next in digital, what's next in lenses for them - film lenses are contrast biased, HD lenses are sharpness/detail biased - which way should they go in the future for their rental pool? Also factor in that they've merged with Plus 8 as well and now handle their Vipers etc.

-------

after that went to see Knocked Up, which already has theatrical distribution, and I've heard advanced buzz that it's good (I'm writing this in the Paramount before it starts)...and since they have online access in here, I'm going to go ahead and post up what I've got for the day...

UPDATE - saw Knocked Up - it was scathingly hilarious - the audience LOVED it, it'll be a HUGE hit I'm sure this summer. I don't think I've laughed so much at a movie in many, many months. While all rom-coms Have A Message, this one did a good job with it. Ran into Paul Rudd and another of the actors from it at the Chronicle party and congratulated them and chatted a bit, it was great. Also ran into Adam Scott who had a small part in the film.

Labels: SXSW

After seeing Rodriguez's panel yesterday, I had to go home and work for a bit. I came back downtown and caught part of He Was A Quiet Man, which I was unenthused about, and the ending basically pulled off one of the classic movie cheats that makes you say "Oh, just forget it." Christian Slater looked surprisingly un-Christian Slater like in it, William Macy & Elisha Cuthbert were in it, and as Forrest Gump said, that's about all I have to say about that.

Later I went to dinner with Megan Gilbridge from Burnt Orange Films and Rita Sanders (editor I mentioned the other day) and we talked business and geekery.

Regretably dinner ran long (soooo busy downtown during SXSW) and we missed Joe Swanberg's new film, Hannah Takes The Stairs. Joe caught my attention with Kissing On The Mouth the other year - I saw that and Four Eyed Monsters within a few days of each other and really saw those as harbingers of a new zeitgeist of DIY filmmaking and new voices on how movies can be made and talk to a new generation. My friend Frank Reynolds saw Hannah Takes The Stairs and I'll ping him for his thoughts on it shortly.

I did get into What Would Jesus Buy, Morgan Spurlock's (of SuperSize Me fame) new film that he exec produced, and it was a packed house a the Paramount, packed all the way to the rafters, capacity around 1200 I think). It is about a political action group that does comedic performance art (or is it a performance art group into politics? Core question) centered around America's overly consumeristic behavior, and all of the bad effects that has on us. It focuses on following Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir as they toured American in the month before Christmas, making stops at malls, Walmart corporate offfices, and ultimately Disneyland. Reverend Billy performs as a southern revivalist minister, and the choir is a for-real choir, singing and backing him up. In classic Spurlock style, there's documentary footage of the travels and adventures of the group, interspersed with vignettes about the costs and hazards of credit card debt, sweatshop labor, Walmart's predatory practices, Disney's production practices, etc. I really enjoyed the film, and much like SuperSize Me, it is a great message that America may have a tough time swallowing - but I loved this movie, and so did the audience. When the film ended, there was a minutes long standing ovation, that just kept going when Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir took the stage - and then sang a song before Q&A. I commented to one of my friends I saw the film with that I'd love to see this come out in six months, but she said that it would probably be just minutes (this was the world premiere) before Disney and Walmart started flinging injunctions at them. It'll be interesting to see how it goes - this is legitimate satire and documentary commentary, but it'll get tied up in court for some time I'm sure. As Morgan Spurlock pointed out before the film started, they did have some trouble raising money to point out the hazards of corporate greed.

But it is a good film, and much as I felt about SuperSize Me, important for Americans to see in hopefully as large numbers as possible.

-mike

Labels: SXSW

yesterday I saw a couple of movies - When A Man Falls in The Forrest was depressing with not enough payoff, so that's all I want to say about that. Dylan Baker did a good job playing a nebbishy guy though, and Sharon Stone allowed herself to be shown with forehead wrinkles. OK, I'm done & moving on.

I went to some parties, caught up with some folks - saw Joe Swanberg who is here with his film Hannah Takes The Stairs that I plan on seeing later tonight. Went to the frog party and saw the last few people I know that are still there (I started working there nearly 10 years ago, sheesh), went to the Mobile Film School party (I'm on the advisory board), and hooked up with my editor friend Rita Sanders (she cut last year's slam poetry doc Slam Planet that ran at SXSW) to see American Zombie, a fun faux-doc about high level functioning zombies in LA. Are they flesh eating crazies or just a new population to contend with? Silly fun.

Today I went to the Grindhouse 101 panel with Robert Rodriguez and Harry Knowles of AintItCoolNews.com. They started off by reminiscencing about their childhood movie expeirences - yeah yeah move along move along - and finally got to the good stuff - talking about where grindhouse movies came from - they showed some old trailers that were excellent and bizarre. Rodriguez talked about how they intentionally trashed out parts of the movie - intentional bad splice cuts to jump over parts of the movie they don't care about (like how everyone decides Loser is now Leader), or they'll splice cut around MPAA edits.

He talked about how the exploitation films had no quality acting or production value, so it was all built around the concept - which wasn't all that great to start with.

They showed three trailers from the online competition, and Hobo With a Shotgun won, deservedly so. Maiden of Death was pretty good, and I forget the title of the third but it was fun too.

Rodriguez showed a scene from his section of Grindhouse - a group of people in vehicles escaping zombies, shooting them, running over them with a giant truck, etc. Campy silly R rated fun. They've intentionally introduced some "errors" into the film for effect - a red wash that looks like a dye seepage or light leak during printing, dust/scratches/blemishes throughout, accidentally on purpose dropping out the audio, etc.

He also talked about the history of the movie - that he'd come up with the idea of Girl With Gun For Leg a long time ago.

The real gem was one of the fake trailers that will run between Quentin Tarantino's and Rodriguez's movies - Eli Roth did a trailer for an 80s slasher flick. Every major holiday has been done as a horror movie (maybe not Easter) - so he chose Thanksgiving. Deliciously silly and wonderfully violent. You have to have some sex & nudity in a grindhouse flick, so he has the couple having oral sex and the guy gets decapitated. Or the cheerleader stripping on the trampoline, and when she lands (naked) in a split, the killer has a knife stuck up through the trampoline...dead center - that got a huge "OHHHHH!" and full body shudder/grimace out of the entire audience. Then he closes with something classy - a dinner scene with a human body done up as the cooked turkey, and a turkey with a human head stuck in it. Then the killer has sex with the turkey/human head combo in front of the tied up family. Klassy.

But silly fun.

Afterwards, Rodriguez said he'd forgotten to ask if there were any children in the theater, and now he saw a few and was embarassed.....Spy Kids this ain't! And devil bless him because of it - this movie will be FUN.

Scott Kirsner was apparently there too, and he took better notes - CinemaTech: At SXSW: Robert Rodriguez, Harry Knowles, and 'Grindhouse 101'

OK, off for more stuff. It is a rainy afternoon, so I don't want to go stand in line outside.

-mike

Labels: Grindhouse, Rodriguez, SXSW

Way too much fun... - Reduser.net

Jim Jannard, founder of Red, started off a thread this way:

We had a really good day yesterday, which means that someone else had a really bad day... :-)

I will post prices on Monday. Those who are realistic should not be disappointed. I am a bit concerned that the ship date might slip just a bit, but we are working hard to try to reel it back in. If it does slip, it won't be much.

We will be ready for NAB. The images are incredible. The best part of what we are doing is the ease of the workflow. It really is mind-blowing. But don't underestimate the difficulty of what we are doing.

Jim


That all sounds good (except for the ship date slip, obviously). Lots of folks are surmising the price will go up for non-reservation holders - no hard data to support that as yet. Clearly the early adopters are going to get SOMETHING extra out of committing early, it'll be fun to see what that turns out to be (since I'm one of them).

He also said:

Several pertinent announcements at NAB... several surprises.

...and I can't wait to see exactly what those will be. Harken back a year ago when I was in their booth - there were plenty of "this is vaporware, can't be done at this price point." naysayers. Here we are a year later, with working cameras to be on display, and I feel it is quite the vindication for the Red Team. And, I might add, for myself for all the high praise I've given them over the last 15 or so months - I continue to think I was accurate at the time and those statements will hold up as valid and true - I really do think this will be a major point of inflection on the big graph of Digital Cinema Progress - there will be Before Red One, and there will be After - I think it will be that big of a deal for an awful lot of folks in the industry.

And who knows what they'll announce? With working Red Ones in the booth, I'll bet any new announcements get taken a lot more seriously this year than last...

-mike

Labels: Red

So after the usual melee of getting checked in and picking up my badge, I saw a couple of movies last night -

Disturbia - already has distribution and opens in the not too distant future. Shia Lebouf stars as the troubled teen who is under house arrest with an ankle tracker that starts spying on the neighborhood out of boredom. He discovers the hottie girl next door, and the neighboy who may responsible for the recent serial killings (the trailer gives all this and more away). The film works - it is genre fare (thriller for the younger set), but it works - it is fun, funny at times, scary at times. It'll do fine at the box office. It is a bit predictable but well executed - I enjoyed it. This ran at the Alamo Downtown, which only has 200 seats. I suspect some films that already have distribution are booked here so as to garner a little buzz (like this) and word of mouth - but it is a small enough venue that they aren't letting huge crowds see it.

The Lookout - this one also has distribution, but it ran at the much larger and more opulent Paramount Theater. For those who don't know, it is a nearly century old classic grand theater with hanging chandeliers, painted frescoes on the ceilings, fine detail work, etc. It is a gorgeous old building, and THE place to have a premiere in Austin.

Anyway, The Lookout stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the same kid who was so fantastic in Brick (which was my favorite movie I've watched via Netflix, it is FANTASTIC, go rent it if you haven't seen it). He stars as the once-was-great high school jock who suffers a tragic car accident that kills his friends and leaves him brain damaged. Now, he barely functions and has to write everything down. He misses his old life. His new friend Gary wants to help him regain some of that old glory - by helping him rob the bank works in. Jeff Daniels co-stars, and the movie is much, MUCH smarter than the usual bank heist flick. You really connect and identify with the lead - the movie is about him and how he copes with his world. My friend Frank Reynolds (editor in from NYC, cut In The Bedroom) asked what it felt like, and my immediate gut answer was A Simple Plan meets Memento - the emotional resonance and suffering of the first, the lead character's challenges of the second. It can be a tough watch due to the heavy material (I almost didn't go based on subject matter alone), but I'm glad I did. HIGHLY recommend when it comes out. If Disturbia gets 2 1/2 or 3 stars, this is definitely a four star film in my book.

Also interesting is the fact that both of these films center on dark haired male leads involved in fatal car accidents in high school that dramatically affects their lives.

Today, panels start and there's some movies I want to catch. More later...

-mike

UPDATE:
Variety.com - Reviews - The Lookout

Variety reviews and likes The Lookout, much as I did.

Labels: SXSW

Studio Daily | Creating the Look for 300

Not shot on HD, but interesting. This is the most interesting LOOKING film so far this year I'd say. Opens today. I'll probably see it after SXSW (in about 10 days).

-mike

SXSW Film Festival begins today - I'm heading out to go pick up my badge shortly. As you can see from the screenshot of my iCal, quite a bit to do this week - and that's just the stuff that I thought looked interesting, I need to cull out the redundancies and prioritize. Lesson learned from festivals past - you have to do your "What am I going to do & see?" legwork BEFORE the festival starts, else you'll always be trying to figure something out...and missing better stuff in the meantime. Then you also have to learn and modify as you go - skip that movie that's coming out next month, catch that sleeper that everybody says is great - or hey, so and so is going to be at that party, you need to go so I can introduce you, etc.

I'll be panelling Monday at 3:30pm in room 12AB for a panel called Tech Tools for Film Artists.

From the writeup online:

The long hours in a smoke-filled editing room have been replaced with long hours hunched over in front of computer screen. HD filmmaking and other new technologies have opened the door to people to make their vision come to life without a big budget or big crew. Are the times passing you by? This roundtable will discuss what is available to today's filmmaker and what can be expected tomorrow.

Moderator: Anne Hubbell
Regional Acct Mgr/ Independent Feature Film, Kodak
Aaron Simpson, Content Producer, JibJab Media Inc
Anne Hubbell, Regional Acct Mgr/ Independent Feature Film, Kodak
Christian Zak, VP / Digital Film Svcs, Technicolor
Mike Curtis, The Guy, HD For Indies
James Finn, Mkting Exec, Panavision Dallas
Patrick Davenport, Image Metrics
Matt Feury, AVID


I'll be hitting the parties and panels and movie scene, so it'll be busy - don't expect much non-SXSW news this week.

Once more into the breech...

-mike

Labels: SXSW

Macworld: News: Adobe to release two versions of Photoshop CS3

quickie on the run:
"The new markets Adobe is reaching out to with Photoshop Extended include professionals in architecture, engineering, medicine, and science. Photoshop CS3 Extended includes the same tools as Photoshop CS3 plus a new set of capabilities for integration of 3-D and motion graphics, image measurement, and analysis.
t one point in time, we considered separate versions, but we found a lot of overlap in the features that these people needed, Connor said.That led to another type of strategy for Photoshop. Rather than create a new application, Extended is a superset of features that can specifically benefit people in those markets.
With Photoshop Extended, video professionals can perform 3-D model visualization and texture editing, as well as paint and clone over multiple video frames. Animations created in the upcoming version of Photoshop can be exported in several formats including QuickTime, MPEG-4, and Adobe Flash Video. Despite the new features, Adobe says it is not trying to turn Photoshop into a full-fledged 3-D tool; rather, the company%u2019s goal is to complement the tools its customers already use.
We recognize our place in the 3-D and video workflows, said Connor. Adding 3-D features is important so people dont run into the speedbumps they did in the past."

some other things I'd like to see that I've mentioned before:
-more aspect ratio support (HDV, DVCPRO HD, D1, etc.)
-Y'CbCr color previewing, for 601 and 709 color spaces
-reticles, title/action safe lines that I don't have to build by hand each time, etc.

OK, gotta blaze...

Labels: post, software

Trans International (TransIntl.com) - Pro Sleds for Mac Pro

Spare drive sleds for Mac Pro - $30 for singles. Mac Pro has four bays, but you have to put drive in a sled, these are spares. Remember, Mac Pro drive bays aren't hot swap, you've gotta reboot for it to show up. But a handy thing for low budget project drives and backups - just put drive on a sled and shelve it, etc.

Yeah, it's been a slow coupla days for news.

-mike

Blu-ray Disk Sales Ahead OF HD DVD - Yahoo! News

Sales of movies in the Blu-ray high-definition format have accounted for more than 60% of the market since the first week of January, far outpacing sales in the competing HD DVD format, figures from market researcher Nielsen VideoScan showed....

...Since the week ended Jan. 7, Blu-ray sales have ranged from a low of 63.3% to a high of 69.6%, VideoScan said Tuesday.


...so is it a temporary blip just due to the recent release of the PS3, or a long term trend? HD-DVD had a similar lead back in November.

The next few months should be telling.

(and of course, I just bought the competing HD-DVD...)

-mike

Apple came out with iTunes 7.1 and QuickTime 7.1.5 yesterday which I skipped blogging (trying to cut back on my Habit, ya know) since I didn't see anything particularly HD worthy in there.

BUT...iTunes 7.1 is the basis for support or AppleTV, and among other things includes support for full screen coverflow, which others have noted makes you wish you had more album art filled in. iTunes has a lookup & find & install cover art feature, but it isn't perfect, and requires that you have ripped with iTunes in the first place I think. There's also some third party apps that will look elsewhere, such as on Amazon.com for artwork. In any case, it is the version to work with AppleTV.

Apple also released QuickTime 7.1.5, which I'm already seeing some complaints about online, that overall system user interface response time is waaaaaay down - that their machines are getting super slow, so be careful. My Dual 2.0 G5 seems to have been thusly afflicted, but my Macbook seems to be doing OK - so maybe it is an Intel Mac thing? Dunno.

In any case, the big blog worthy news is this - QuickTime 7.1.5 includes presets to output to AppleTV!

Doing some quick tests, here's what I learned:

Feeding it a 720p24 DVCPRO HD clip (I used the bee and flower clip from the SF Bay Area sampler that comes with FCP), I got a 1280x720 @ 23.98 fps as I expected - this is the maximum file size and frame rate AppleTV can handle, according to Apple's own specs. The data rate is a hair over 5 megabits, so that ought to look prety nice, and it does on playback. I'll route it to my 60" 1080p HDTV (and YES I like writing that phrase) to play back from my Quad G5 and see how it looks.

So what of 1080i60 originated footage?

I opened up a shot from the Glacier Bay footage (also from the FCP Sampler stuff), and exported it to the AppleTV preset - I got a 960x540 30 fps movie - half res for 1080i. Datarate was about 4.1 megabits/sec. And obviously it is getting deinterlaced on the way. As with the movie studios, H.264 has proven to be tricky to handle interlaced footage, and does best with progressive images. So AppleTV appears to (internally, at least) handle only progressive frames, and in the case of 1080i originated footage, halves the resolution and deinterlaces it.

So that's interesting - if these presets are an indication of the hardware's capapbilities (and they damn well ought to be), then broadcast material that was shot interlaced (60i) or progressive (60p or 30p) will have to be cut in size down to 960x540. Filmed 24p material will have a max frame size of 1280x720 - that'll be as good as the hardware can handle. And for most HDTV sets with a native resolution of 1368x768, that'll be fine. For true 1080p sets, it is underresolved as compared to what the screen could display. This is in line with what Apple did with their AAC iTunes stuff - it is decent but not optimal specs.

I'll have a report later once I convert some more material, such as that intentionally tricky to compress well DCI StEM (Standard Evaluation Material) footage...

-mike

PS- thanks to Greg Boston for giving me the head's up on this one. If you find cool stuff like this, always feel free to let me know!

Labels: Apple, AppleTV

Cinematography - CML is a place for the discussion of Professional Cinematography

OK, all you DPs (or DoPs if you're from across the pond) git yer propeller beanies twirlin'. Or it would, if your beret had one.

Gross stereotypes aside, the CML (Cinematographer's Mailing List) did a Great Thing recently - they got a bunch of the higher end cameras together and shot a bunch of test footage (kinda like the Texas HD Shootout I did last year with Adam Wilt, Omega and Chris Hurd, but with camera budget).

One of the first pieces of hard data to come out of that test was the grey card test to check exposure lattitude. Click on the chart on the page to see the chart and find out more, you'll need to read up on it a bit to get the context and understand what you're looking at if you aren't a DP nerd already (no offense intended, I'm a post nerd).


One piece of useful hard data they derived was the effective ISO settings of all these cameras.

Read on and enjoy!

And BIG PROPS to Geoff Boyle, Steve Shaw, and all the others who took the time to do all this useful testing for our benefit.

-mike

Labels: acquisition, cameras, high end

UPDATE: ANNOUNCEMENT DOES NOT EQUAL LAUNCH: "We are announcing Creative Suite 3 on March 27th," Cara Cassidy, a member of Adobe's Creative Solutions PR team, wrote in a blog posting this week. "However, the software will not ship until later in Spring 2007."

Oops, no joy - so probably a May/June ship date?

End update.

AppleInsider | Adobe Creative Suite 3.0 launch confirmed for March 27

-half a dozen bundle configs
-native Intel Mac support
-Macromedia apps supplanting some Adobe apps
-Dreamweaver replacing GoLive (long may it rot in its grave)
-FireWorks replacing ImageReady
-March 27 launch
-this is before NAB (which is in early April)

Does this milestone encourage Apple to release their long anticipated 8 core Mac Pro towers?

We'll have to wait and see. In those new OctoMacs, I'd love to see HD-DVD and/or Blu-ray burner options. With two media bays in Mac Pros, wouldn't be that hard to do...maybe the next DVD Studio Pro will include Blu-ray capabilities? I'm especially curious to see if the ability to have live menu items enter over the constantly playing movie will occur - and what will that authoring UI look like?

-mike

Labels: Adobe, Mac, post

Cineform has finally released a public beta of their Cineform Intermediate codec for OS X and Final Cut Pro.

The big deal for Cineform was Mac's migration to the Intel platform, so that the software port was easier and they wouldn't have to ditch a ton of code optimization for the Intel platform.

So now they have a QuickTime codec for Macs, albeit only for Intel Macs. It works with Final Cut Pro, and will eventually work with Adobe's Premiere Pro when it comes back to Mac later this year (also Intel only).

Cineform Intermediate is a 10 bit, full raster (full 1920 wide, not like DVCPRO HD's 1280 or HDV's 1440 pixels wide for a 1080i or 1080p signal), and uses wavelet based encoding - much more efficient than the DCT used in DV, JPEG, DVCPRO HD, HDV, etc.

The codec is cross platform (write on PC read on Mac and vice versa), but Intel Mac only, and requires Tiger (OS X 10.4.x). It can read and write files up to 2K (2048x2048) and is 4:2:2 color sampling.

Over time, they plan on adding Cineform RAW (for RAW workflows like SI-2K and Red One), HD-SDI and HDMI interface support, etc. So I take it that with this build, it won't be possible to capture and transcode on the fly with an AJA or BMD card.

This public beta is unrestricted and will work for a couple of months (into May) or more as they work at the bugs and add features to it.

More info at Cineform.com.

This is good news - the existing crop of codec choices is rather limiting. This is a great first step, but only a first step. To really work in a production environment in FCP, they'll need support and help from Blackmagic and AJA so that you can capture directly to this format (otherwise a lengthy transcode is required after acquiring uncompressed, for instance), as well as playout support so that it'll show up through an AJA or BMD card on your video monitor (as oppposed to computer monitor). Ultimately it would be great if Apple would support it in their RT (realtime) architecture, but I could see barriers to that, starting with Apple's "not invented here" penchant when it comes to third party codecs. Cineform knows this and is actively pursuing those relationships to make all this happen.

I haven't downloaded/installed it yet, but I would expect that it would install and work in Final Cut Pro, and hopefully play in realtime on a decently fast machine. I'd expect a still (park on the timeline) to possibly play out through an AJA or BMD card, but I wouldn't expect full speed video to play out, and you definitely won't get real time anything other than playback - no dissolves, color correction, etc. - it'll all have to render. But that is all supposition, I haven't tested it yet myself.

Adobe, however, plays nice with these guys, and they already have deep tie-ins to the code for Premiere Pro, so that is where I expect this codec to blossom on the Mac platform.

Plus, it'll be a good choice for a compressed working or intermediate codec for those lacking the array speed and capacity to handle high res uncompressed source.

-mike

Labels: Apple, Cineform, FCP, post

Creative Workflow Hacks � Blog Archive � Using Apple Motion with Adobe After Effects

Some intersting geekery - includes a link to a tutorial from Apple on importing Motion files into After Effects.

-mike

WIRED Blogs: Game | Life

More online distribution stufff - "Good Times With Weapons" South Park episode free to Xbox 360 users with Live Marketplace for first two weeks (or shouldI say fist two weeks?).

Conveniently, animation with flat color compresses awfully well, so is a good way to segue into HD content distributed online.

Apple plans to get into the market with the AppleTV, but as a one-trick-pony with a limited amount of video content available, it is a bit of a ho-hum play (but yes I'm buying one to access my now 100GB music library - begone, Sir 400 Disc Changer I Never Use!).

Xbox 360, on the other hand, starting at $100 more, can also play some of the best games on the market - a very cheap bump for $100. Xbox 360 can also download content directly, can play video higher resolution than 720p24, and for $200 more can play HD-DVDs.

I think if Microsoft can cut the deals to get the content, they have the superior playback platform, at least in terms of hardware. Plus it is MUCH easier I suspect to get generic web derived media to play back on this box than the H.264 only AppleTV.

But in the end, the deal cutting ability will drive the value for the consumer for legal content.

Xbox 360, however, may well end up being what the kids want if they can feed it any content they pull off the web...by whatever means necessary...oddly enough, MS may have the win here as the more open platform (imagine that!).

Apple's play is roughly analagous to an iPod that only plays AAC files, and there's only one very limited legal source for those AAC files. You can convert other stuff to AAC, but it is a pain. But the UI is nice, and it is plug and play simple (we hope...mine and everybody else's delayed until mid-March).

Xbox 360's play is more open ended, as if it were a media player with less cool legal content but plays those ripped MP3s just fine and also stuff you can pull from the web.

Now, I'm kind of winging it here - any Xbox 360 media downloadin' and playin' owner please feel free to step in and correct my misunderstandings in the Comments.

-mike

DVD Studio Pro: Some HD DVD verification warnings do not indicate an issue

This will be pertinent for me in the near future - a bunch of warnings that are ignorable (as opposed to ones to heed).

-mike

UDPATE - NOT PORT MULTIPLYING - I was repeating what I read on MacNN - and it was wrong. Also, there is another card, the 2322, that has two SAS ports, but they make a SAS to 4 eSATA cable - so 8 drives, but no port multiplying. I'm waiting for some further reader reports.

RocketRAID 2314

Finally, all the ingredients are starting to get there:
-PCIe
-eSATA, supporting port multiplying (up to 5 drives per port)
-RAID 0/1/5/10
-OS X support

That's the good news. The downside:
-software RAID 5 - sucks up HUGE amounts of CPU to do RAID 5
-not bullet proof software - when I wrote about similar PCI-X cards a couple of years ago from these guys, there were problems with non-recoverable array failures.

With port multiplying and 750 GB drives, you could build up to a 15TB array. With RAID 5, you could get about 11TB of usable RAID 5 capacity.

Has anybody been using these recently? With any good success? Please use the Comments link to let me know your experiences with Highpoint cards.

Based on my prior experience, I wouldn't trust these for mission critical data nor uncompressed HD work, but they ARE getting interesting from a stats perspective.

-mike

Labels: hardware, post

Studio Daily | IRIDAS Extends Capabilities of SpeedGrade OnSet:

The update includesa new matrix control allowing filmmakers to shift the color space they are working in so that it matches the sensor characteristics of various digital cameras. It adds up to a more accurate representation of the final output
against which artists can develop their creative looks.


The onset version is only $400. The haven't-seen-it-yet HD version I think was around $12,000-$13,000 US. The full film version is what, over $50K I believe?

In any case, an interesting tool, the idea being you can establish looks on set and hand those off to the colorist later. Guy working on Hills Have Eyes 2 said the colorist can work for 3 days with his settings before he even has to show up.

Interesting. Does it save time/money? Sounds plausible. Does it maintain the DoP's vision? Sounds like it may be a good tool for that. Is it feasible to, if not lock into that DI tool, at least be pretty strongly attached to it that early in the production process? That's got to be carefully answered - get all ducks in a row before shooting...

UPDATE - not necessarily so - you can export your 3D LUTs to LUTher box etc. - read Jason's Comment using link below...

-mike

Labels: acquisition, high end, post, post equipment

Funny how some prayers go answered seemingly forever (list too long to mention), but others get prompt responses - not a week after I discovered button playback problems with my new Toshiba HD-DVD player when I tried to make high def red laser discs with DVD Studio Pro, there MAY be an answer - Apple just released DVD Studio Pro 4.1.2.

From Software Update:

DVD Studio Pro 4.1.2 provides important bug fixes and addresses compatibility issues with DVD Studio Pro 4.1 HD DVD projects and Toshiba HD DVD players.

DVD Studio Pro 4.1.2 also updates the Disc Description Protocol (DDP) 2.1 to DDP 3.0 and the Cutting Master Format (CMF) 1.0 to CMF 2.0, which is required for HD DVD replication.

This update is recommended for all DVD Studio Pro 4.1 users.


...which is nice but inconclusive. From the online PDF of updates, there's LOTS more info, including:

-fixes for still image processing (not broked any mo')
-Compressor compressed stuff will seamlessly play one clip to the next now, wouldn't before
-BAD NEWS:

DVD Studio Pro Does Not Support All HDV Formats
The following HDV formats are not supported by DVD Studio Pro:
720p24
720p25
1080p24
1080p25

You can convert these to supported HDV formats (720p30, 720p60, 720p50, 1080i60, and 1080i50) for your HD projects using Compressor.

...which is a damn shame, since I'd want to use those. Have to convert'em.

-DLT drives now work right on Intel Macs (WOW, it took them this long to fix that!?!?)
-use Build & Format to fix previously broken setups (like mine)
-HD Projects Burned to Red Laser Discs Now Work More Reliably - it doesn't say they work right, but at least that's an improvement!
-some HD-DVD players blow their lunch when jumping from interlaced to progressive footage, so beware
-uh oh - Some HD DVD players incorrectly position button highlights when they are placed over
720p or 1440i backgrounds. Button highlights placed over 480i, 480p, and 1080i backgrounds are correctly positioned.
-AC-3 issues improved, esp. with Intel Macs
-Still Menus from Intel Macs now better
-and more, read it yourself..

I'll update or link to this when I get a chance to test...

UPDATE - Woo hoo, H.264 works! It appears to be playing in real time, which it did NOT before. There's a brief blackout pause at first, then it works, and audio plays as well. I need to go make a new test disc that'll check for lipsync. Menus are acting funny but at least WORKING AT ALL which is an improvement over before. 15 megabit H.264 720p looks GOOD, but I'm testing from the DCI StEM footage - scanned film, so a VERY clean source to work from.

I'll make a new test disc and update perhaps over the weekend...but this is a BIG improvement!

FINALLY - I can make red laser DVDs that play in my HD-DVD player (and Apple's latest DVD Player application), and now I have an appropriate screen and playback device to test and evaluate...so HD For Indies will be able to do some very salient research...

-mike

Labels: Apple, Final Cut, HD-DVD, post

Apple to hold special event at NAB - Yahoo! News

So before the show opens officially, they'll have their usual Sunday press event, but it should be a biggie this year (in other words, it BETTER be).

Likely candidates: Final Cut Studio 6, and the vaunted Octo Macs (not real name, but that's what I'm calling MINE) - Mac Pros with twin quad core processors.

Should be a mightily potent combo, allowing for all kinds of GPU accelerated, high processing speed goodness if all the rumors and speculation are on track.

Gentlemen, start your space heaters....

-mike

AppleInsider | Apple's iTunes may soon become favorite among indie studios

Just one, but it is a foot in the door, a crack in the facade, insert favorite metaphor here.

I'm busy today, actually doing non-blog work, imagine that...

From the Variety source article
Variety.com - ITunes is all 'That' to indie producers
ITunes has cracked open to independent video producers for the first time.Apple's digital content store on Tuesday started selling 'That,' a snowboarding action pic made for DVD by Forum Snowboards. Move reps the first time iTunes has sold video content that didn't come from an established network, studio or distributor.Though the Mac maker wouldn't comment on future plans, the deal with Forum indicates iTunes will selectively sell video outside of its high-profile deals with companies like Disney, NBC and Lionsgate. (Anyone can distribute video podcasts for free on iTunes.)Given iTunes' dominance in the nascent digital download market, that's sure to generate hordes of interest among independent film producers in all genres who don't have a distributor.


-mike

Labels: Apple, iTunes, online content service, online distribution, online video