HD For Indies

I spent some time this weekend on a non-HD4NDs related work project - getting my own home studio in order, so that I can actually, you know...DO STUFF rather than merely sacrifice my house to the tidal ebb and flow of gear coming in and out.

I'd long ago run heavy duty coax underneath my house* by the bucket load (I don't know how many hundreds of feet of it), but I'd never really gotten it all going and hooked up.

(* I have a rarity in Austin, a pseudo-basement, since I live on a hill - my pier and beam house has what would be a crawlspace under any other home, but since I'm on the hill it is 18" on the uphill side and about 6 feet tall on the other....thankfully the living room surround channel speakers were the only thing that had to be run to the 18" side)

I made a push back when I pondered and then got my first HDTV to get it all hooked up to/from the studio - I bought a 50 foot HDMI to DVI cable and a 50 foot toslink in addition to the 8 heavy coax cables (RG-6 I think it was) that ran from the living room into the wiring closet.

So while I'd finally got studio to living room wired and working, I'd never gotten the living room to studio setup working - and after having put it down a couple of months ago, identifying which cable was which that dissapear into the floor in one room and pop up in another can be a bit daunting. So through trial and error I got it all working by spending half my Sunday on it.

Just for kicks to show what's involved to get this kind of stuff going, here's a few photos walking through my setup. Click for a larger view, but command-click (Safari w/tabs enabled) to open in a new tab, or possibly open in a new window if you'd prefer. I'm too lazy to provide proper links, so deal. ;p

Also, please realize this is a work in progress - yesterday I spent many hours running cables over the floor etc. testing, and this ain't purty - it is just where I have it at the moment figuring it all out and getting it working. This is my house/mad scientist lab, not set up at the moment as a client presentable space! This is just me sharing my geekery with you folks, not trying to show this off as a final result.

Here's the back end of the home theater setup:

Hooked into that I've got
-the big HDTV (Sony SXRD rear projection)
-an Xbox (original, aka Halo Injection Device)
-an Apple TV
-an HD cable box
-a Toshiba HD-A2 HD-DVD player
-an S-VHS deck whose apparent fate is to gather dust
-and a 5-8 year old Onkyo 5.1 receiver, that doesn't have enough ports on it.

Therefore, with the new toyz, I got a 4-in-1-out HDMI/toslink/digital coax switch with a remote. I literally ran out of remote commands available on my Onkyo's universal remote! I need to deprogram all the CD changer's commands to free up some buttons and squeeze the AppleTV's and HDMI switch's commands in there (yes Logitech universal remotes are nice, but I don't want to spend that much). Figuring out who has toslink vs. digital coax vs both and how to allocate my limited digital audio ports was quite an undertaking - DON'T be one port shy, else MAJOR hassles ensue.

The HDMI/toslink/digital coax audio switch flips between the HD-DVD player, the AppleTV, the HDMI feed from the studio, and a 15 foot DVI cable if for some reason I want to connect a laptop or computer into the living room to the HDTV (makes a helluva desktop, and Macs can underscan to avoid the "I can't see my menus!" dilemma). The switch was was also necessary because I only have two HDMI ports into the HDTV. A bit irksome considering this was Sony's top or near top of line last summer.

All that routes into the HDMI switch and/or receiver and/or directly into the TV. The wiring does get a bit dense...

...and you can't even see 2 or 3 devices & their wires in that pic. One nice tidbit - the HD digital cable box has both digital coax and toslink audio outputs, and they're both hot at the same time - so I have a 50 foot toslink running under the house to get the living room's audio into the studio - that way I can hear the same TV channel while working (good for CNN). For all other digital audio, that's an M-Audio CO2 sitting on the corner - I pass the HDMI/toslink/digital coax switch's audio output through the CO2, and send a digital coax audio signal (the CO2 is configured as a signal repeater/converter) to the studio - since the two rooms are on separate audio legs, if I send analog stereo pair from one to the other I get an annoying hum. By going digital, I skip the hum and get pure digibitty goodness. As is wise in any endeavor like this, label all your cables! At both ends! Makes life MUCH easier when you find a stray later or are trying to troubleshoot.

The stray grey cables with barrel adaptors are from the HD-DVD player - I can route the analog component outputs simultaneously with the HDMI output to get HD picture/sound into the studio for when I'm back&forthing living room to studio. (Incidentally, I've tested & verified I can use the "analog hole" approach to capture video this route if I want to put my HD-DVD content on my AppleTV...but it doesn't look nearly as good, that's another post).

If you look at that first picture closely, you'll see what looks like a white rag on the floor (it is) - that is actually a rag wrapped around and stuffed into the little hinged hatch I oh-so-carefully drilled and hand cut in the floor (about 2x4 inches) carefully and exactly into a single board of my original hardwood floors. (A side benefit of old house - ZERO insulation underneath - drill through 3/4" of wood and you're seeing the basement.) That runs a few feet under the house (carefully crossing electrical lines under the house at a 90 degree angle and a wide looping berth) and comes up through an even bigger hole in the wiring closet (the closet is immediately behind the TV through a wall, closet opens into the studio). The Master Hole has about 32 RG-6 cables, all the Ethernet drops for the house (about 15 or 20, this done before ubiquitous cheap/fast WiFi), all the phone lines, etc. You can just see part of it at the bottom right of this picture (the blue/grey/black cables lower right):


What you see here is (bottom to top) GigE & 100Base-T Ethernet switches, cable modem, router, S-video/RCA stereo pair duplication amplifier I picked up on eBay and not got quite working/installed right, and my recently simplified patch panel.

Below is a detail shot of the patch panel:



You'll note in the high res that a bunch of these cables are properly/professionally labelled underneath clear plastic - these cables were scavenged from a facility that went out of business (Big Old Heavy Iron Avid for lower end work, ahem), so their labels were a HUGE time saver when configuring and connecting all 32 of them into the studio head end.

While technically I "shoulda" run all the labelled Studio In & Out lines into the back of the patch panel and then patched to the Living Room Ins & Outs, I realized the way I've got it set up now is how I'll probably use it 99.9% of the time (I've got 4 BNCs running to breakfast room aka meeting room and also to the bedroom, but I'll probably rarely use'em that way...haven't yet, unless I get that DA properly set up). Since it is an analog signal path, I didn't want to go through several more signal degrading physical connections, so I just connected them as directly as possible.I can always redo it with studio ins/outs into the back of the patch bay if I want/need to. This is ugly but cleaner signal path.

So that is the bridge between living room and studio, with the option to route it elsewhere in the house, with the option to duplicate an s-video video source with stereo analog audio and send that to the 4 zones of the house all at the same time (my Whole House Audio/Video Dream).

Also coming out of the floor in the closet are a big gob of cables that lead under the house to the back corner of the studio with another little hatch:


You can see the hatch flipped up, can't see the cute little brass hinges and knob I suffered to install so if I. The other hatches just like this. The purple is an old t-shirt I wrapped tightly around the cable gob and tucked up tightly into the hole to tighly block it - I learned the hard way that wasps like to set up camp in cool dry underhouse environs....and then crawl up. I also heard black widows and other Ickies do this, so I'm glad I've got it sealed off pretty well (I sit barefoot sometimes with my toesies right down by that...bad bad scene). it is loose at the moment until I'm sure my wire pulling is done and then I'll secure it again.

All that gob leads up to some cable guides I made out of some Home Depot J-hooks I bent to mount under the desk to keep all the cables tidy, out of sight, and away from any electrical interference. All of those then leads to...


...what I call my half-rack. Bottom to top:
-Apex DVD player (which can disable Macrovision for quickie DVD rips of client stuff or for creative rip-o-matics)
-Kenwood stereo amp/receiver I've had for a loooong time
-Toshiba S-VHS deck...it sits here or gets thrown away...
-Blackmagic Multibridge Extreme - which can be used either as primary HD I/O for my Quad G5, or as a standalone converter (which will soon be its primary task)
-home configged BNC patchbay - here's where three Macs worth of HD I/O, two component monitors, and the living room feed can all get routed to each other. I spent hours figuring out the layout of those 32 ports, as I had about 50+ possible connections I could have made to it
-AJA Kona3 breakout box
-AJA Kona2 breakout box

I have more HD-SDI I/O cards than I have Macs (have BMD & AJA gear), so I config as needed to the project at hand - the AJA stuff has convenient breakout boxes, I've remoted the cables from three Macs so when set up with BMD gear the panel acts as a breakout box - HD-SDI, audio & component I/O can be routed/patched through there. When I'm done wiring it all, I'll be able to slide this in under the desk out of the way.

If you thought the front was a big messy cable gob, the back is even busier:


I am still not finished setting all this up - note the receiver's audio I/O is looking a little lonely down there. I also hard-mounted a power strip on the shelf that the A/V gear sits on, to simplify wiring and have "one switch for off" simplicity. The one thing I have to be careful of - if the Multibridge is hooked up to computer, it essentially is a PCIe card, so I have to be careful about my power up/down order with that.

Here's a detail shot of the half rack:


Note once again all cables labelled - HUGE time saver down the road! I can't stress how important it is to label all the cables in what is to be a permanent install - label both ends of EVERYTHING. I used to quibble about labelling power cords as they are interchangeable, but if you've got 10 of them hanging down the back end of a desk and one is loose, or you need to unplug something non-vital to plug in yet another FireWire drive or whatever...you need to KNOW, and not accidentally unplug the computer. And once labelled, PUT 'EM IN THE RIGHT PLACE! Only thing worse than an unlabelled cable is a mislabelled one. Anyone, back to cable central - and all that feeds into my monitoring options:


-the 23" Apple is connected to the Multibridge Extreme for pixel-for-pixel accurate monitoring of 1080p/i signals
-the "Mon1" is a 19" JVC HD broadcast CRT, LOVE this thing - does EVERY SD/HD standard, including PAL & 23.976 frame rates. I have a component HD analog board in it
-the silver one is a 20" consumer SD CRT - lets me see what signals will look like on a "normal" TV (and I have cable hooked up to it as well for watching bad SciFi Channel stuff to half-ignore when working late)
-I can also connect the Multibridge to the 50 foot DVI-HDMI cable that runs under the house to the living room - one nice thing about using the Multibridge as a standalone converter is that ANY of the 3 HD stations can feed it either HD-SDI (single/dual link) or component analog and I can monitor SD/HD as well as HDMI in the living room...all at the same time! Nerdly schweetness...but also truly convenient for clienty stuff as well if they want to know how it'll look in a variety of viewing environments and types of viewing tech.

Next up, I need to get this guy all set up:


...so I can more readily monitor audio from any of the three HD stations in the room, as well as listen in on living room's AppleTV feed (got 50 days of non-repeating Shuffle Luv all queued up). So this is as clean/tidy/lonely as it'll ever get.

So maybe that'll be next weekend's task, getting all the analog/digital audio in/outs figured out in the studio. Then get a passel of color coded not-too-short and not-too-long patch cables so I can route everything quickly/easily. I got these patch panels from that defunct production company and from a friend, if I were starting from scratch BNCs on the front aren't the quickest/easiest way to go as they are slow to get on/off.

All of this has probably totalled into the hundreds of hours of cutting holes, mounting racks, pulling cable, planning, testing, etc...I wouldn't go to all this trouble if I didn't own the house (been here 8 years), and actually got secret geeky joy out of getting it all working. Sometimes, it isn't playing with the toy, it's just BUILDING it that is a ton of the fun. Because I LIKE being able to say, whenever anyone says uncompressed HD editing & routing is a huge undertaking, "Well, HELL - I've got THREE of'em set up in my house, all talkin' to each other and with a triple monitoring setup...its no big deal."

...and get my metaphorical propeller beanie all spun up to 7200rpms.

:D

Your geeky friend,

-mike

PS - and a note for anybody else embarking on such a setup - as I figured out when running the BNC cables (RG-6 & RG-59)originally, the distance above floors has little to do with how long cables need to be under floors. While the HDTV and the Multibridge are perhaps 15 linear feet apart, by the time I factor in going from the Multibridge to under the desk with slack, across the room under the desk, down to where the hole is in the floor, through the floor, under the house following the cable guides I'd already built, dodging around electrical lines to prevent interference, up through the floor, slack, and connecting to the HDTV...a 50 footer was exactly long enough - I have maybe 6 feet of excess slack in the whole thing, and I wanted that anyway to reach the furthest possible computer I might want to directly drive the HDTV with. And if you do want to set up a similar studio or home studio setup...I am available for consulting on such things. This was done somewhat on the cheap as I'm pretty comfortable patching things around by myself, and didn't want to pour a ton of cash into this endeavor. If I really wanted this all to be completely simple and slick, I coulda/woulda spent a bunch more on things like matrix routers, different patchbays & racks, newer/better equipped receivers, proper professional amps, etc. This was scaled to my comfort level and budget - I went out to Fry's to buy a rack and rack shelf and hacksawed it down to fit under my desk, etc. It sits on a cheap blanket to slide it around my wood floors until I come up with something better for it to roll/slide on, etc. I'd previously spec'd out a professional studio for the color correction business I was in, and much of the gear to achieve the same functionality was going to cost thousands and thousands more.

So yes this is an UNGODLY MESS as is, a work in progress- first Thou Shalt Make It Work, and then later Shalt Thee Make It Tidy. Someday, hopefully soon. And then maybe I'll have tidy, client presentable pics to show. As I said at the beginning, this is must me sharing my geekery with you folks.

Another reason to label all cables - after you've got it all working, going to have to unplug/replug/re-route a ton of those cables to tidy it up - and you don't want to be holding a toslink in each hand wondering which one went where...

-mike

Labels: hardware, post equipment, workflow

Apple acknowledges MacBook battery problems

Got a MacBook or MacBook Pro? Been having battery problems? Read this article, download the firmware update (is Software Update accessible), and if that doesn't help, you can take it in to get it swapped out. This also extends the warranty on batteries - excellent.

I write 90% of the content on my BlackBook, so this certainly caught my eye. Thanks to reader Richard Scobie for pointing this one out.

-mike

So yesterday, among other things, I spent some time on the phone with clients doing consulting. Interestingly enough, I ended up having two conversations with DIY filmmakers - one before production started, another at the very tail end of production.

Filmmaker One: Before

First guy was getting ready to embark on his production - he was trying to figure out whether to shoot on F900 or Varicam or HVX200, so I went over the pros and cons of that in terms of color, resolution, ease of working with cameras, which one's easiest to get good looking results quickly without a DIT, free downloadable settings files to improve results, etc., starting out with "If you can afford to do better than the HVX, do so." I then brought up the post ramifications, which was an area he hadn't thought of - one route he could do FireWire ingest and potentially just capture once for offline/online, and the other route would require HD-SDI cards, RAIDs, etc. EDIT - but with Apple's new ProRes, maybe he won't need a RAID...

He was in a hurry because he was on a limited budget (perfectly understandable), didn't want to spend a lot of time on the phone/on the clock, so we zipped through the broad strokes of post production - after acquisition, ingest, editorial, picture lock, audio handoff, conform to high quality, color correct, QC, mastering, etc. He wants to edit his own film, and hasn't edited before.

My spidey sense starts to tingle.

I say that while it is possible for him to figure it out, most self-edited films (that come my way) done by first time editors have problems that cause major problems down the line, often requiring recapturing ALL the footage to sort things out. It'd take him a while to get up to speed, things would be slow and frustrating at first, etc.

I said my biggest concern would be what I've seen happen too many times - that the process would seem daunting and complex and wearying, and if the generic self-editor did learn "the right way" to do it, they'd find it complicated and time consuming, and "Why can't I just do it THIS way, is SO much easier?" Let me make a point about "this" way - while "this" may vary from case to case, it can all too often be similar to the beginning auto mechanic who finds putting all those teeny bolts & screws back in exactly the right place just so much tedious work. You can step back and it will hold together, it might start, but sooner or later, stuff's going to start falling off or the engine's gonna blow, or the pieces are laid out to do quiet, deadly damage that won't be discovered until Too Late. While creativity should be a significant part of the indie filmmakers process, and new tools and techniques are coming out all the time, and I encourage folks to stray from SOME "tried and true" old school methods of post workflows (usually to get better quality at lower cost), straying from the path of Good Workflow Process is a potentially dangerous, dangerous game. Here there be lions, and tigers, & bears...oh my.

I encouraged him to do lots of research, buy books, hit the usual forums up for free (sometimes questionable) advice, or feel free to call me back and I could walk him through the steps on the clock if that were within his budget.

So while it is technically possible to learn the stuff and do it yourself, I really, strongly do not recommend it for most commercial endeavors...is that really where you want your finite, limited mental time and energy going? Or into the creative end of the film? If at all possible, get an experienced editor on the project. Not just the technical skills, but the storytelling ability, and the objective, disinterested viewpoint are actually bigger assets in trying to get a good project made. That said, get your project done any way you can. If ya gotta edit it yourself, and that's the only way it'll happen, more power to you.

But he was doing the smart thing by doing research well before the production started. In my opinion, that's the only way you're going to have any chance at a smooth and hopefully successful project. If you want to focus on the creative side, then surround yourself with the smartest, most informed, most flexible people you can, however you can.

So that's the Before on an indie DIY effort, starting to do the right thing by researching in advance. Here's another route and way it can turn out, call it the After...

Filmmaker Two: After the Edit, Before the Apocalypse

So later that night, after the Tim League outdoor inflatable screen coolness, I got an email from someone I'd never spoken too saying call them, its urgent. So I call (its after midnight), and I get the guy on the phone. Turns out he's basically the above guy, just (metaphorically) some months later. They'd shot their footage on HVX. He'd edited it himself, in Sony's Vegas ("...it seemed the Universe wanted me to use Vegas for this"), using a third party codec/solution to get DVCPRO HD MXF files into Vegas. Now Vegas is a fine little editor, especially with its codec agnostic approach and EXCELLENT audio manipulation capabilities, but not something I'd recommend for feature work usually. Viable for a low cost solution to do audio heavy work for short form - think music videos. His Vegas didn't support MXF ingest, so he bought a third party tool to get his footage in..and the tool wasn't exactly designed for what he was trying to do - a bit of a workaround/hack to use it in this particular way from what I could tell. Now he needed to screen it in high def, in a theater, this weekend, and was trying to figure out how to get the files from Vegas to some playable form to show. He's short on time, tools, and budget.

He said something to the effect of "I'm not a very technical guy, I didn't want to get dragged into all the technical arcana...I just want to make my movie, ya know?" I totally get it and don't blame him - he wants to focus on the creative, fair enough, and somebody's got to keep the eye on the far horizon - the end goal. However, think of it a bit like going to the moon, or at least taking a road trip through the hinterlands of the desert...it'd be a really, really good idea to have somebody technical along for the ride to make sure you get where you wanted to go, and that if something does come up (or break) along the way, it can be dealt with without unreasonable delays or expense, and hopefully without chaos, blood, or tears.

One of the first things he expressed concern about was that he was seeing what he thought was judder. When I asked him to explain exactly what he meant, he started talking about how the motion looked funny in some scenes, how confusing all this tech was, that his 1920x1080 HD shows up as 1280x1080, that the 24p shows up as 29.97 even though the project settings are for 23.976 and he didn't quite get what that was all about...

Bag the spidey sense, alarm klaxons are going off in my head - it sounded like he broke Rule 4 - he said he saw this ghostly fringe behind the actors when they moved - was this interlace lines scaled down on his screen and blended together? Sounds like he shot at least some of it 24p with 3:2 pulldown perhaps? He also mentioned odd motion - perhaps at least some of it was shot 24pA? Either way, their intended footage was ingested at 30fps not 24fps and had either 24pA cadence or 24p's 3:2 pulldown pattern added. He'd not used the "Remove 3:2 Pulldown" option that he'd seen, or if the software/codec import stuff was clever enough to have a 24pA import mode, he didn't use it. And if it is just getting dropped on the 24p timeline...I could see how that would create all kinds of stuttery motion. Perhaps he should just kick it out at 60i? At this point...PUNT. It would take FAR too long to re-import and correct this issue - gotta go with what he's got. If he had an extra week, a different story. But for now, if he gets a workable playback copy secured, I've got another pass we can take to try to minimize the artifacting caused by this. But this is a classic case of a mistake made early on that messes with you later - like forgetting to put the radiator cap back on securely...

When he called me, he was halfway done exporting massive files via a dozens-of-hours process in a format that was...probably not going to work. He'd previously talked to some folks that gave him a path to work with:

Choice 1: make a Blu-ray disc was recommended that he kick out a high def MPEG-2, buy a Blu-ray player, upgrade the firmware, use software so-and-so that could read that file and burn to a Blu-ray disc with a brand new burner that would play back on the set-top box once the firmware was updated. This may work just fine. But for me, it sounded like a bad, Bad BAD idea for a number of reasons:
-the client didn't have a lot of technology experience and more importantly, troubleshooting resources on hand
-there's lots of "ifs" and "maybes" and "it should work"'s implied in the workflow he was describing
-minimal time to test and troubleshoot any problems
-a 90 minute feature to compress - so would take quite a while to convert
-Would the MPEG-2 be in the right format & settings? Would the software work to make a self playing disc? Would the firmware update let it work right? Would it be easy to get the firmware updated? Would the new Blu-ray burner work right? Far too many variables for me to safely recommend, mostly boiling down to - Neither I nor anyone I knew/trusted had gone through this exact process successfully before. And with the limited time and troubleshooting resources available, that sounded all too fraught with peril. I wanted something that I KNEW could work, in the limited time available, that he could safely do himself. Therefore I recommended:

Choice 2: Macbook Pro playback He has a new Macbook Pro, and the projector he's using has a DVI input, and he can do a dry run on this thing the day before the actual screening. So the plan was to have him play a QuickTime movie from the laptop directly. I chose this route because with time this short and resources this slim for him, I wanted something that I KNEW, 100%, would work.

I was going to have him export to a codec that I knew would cook out pretty quickly from Vegas on his PC but also play back on his Mac, look good, be low enough bandwidth to play back from a FireWire drive, and be low enough CPU load that his laptop could play it back without the CPU choking.

Turns out he couldn't change ANY QuickTime settings - perhaps due to the third party codec he'd used to get MXF in, or perhaps due to something else entirely, if he clicked Custom under QuickTime settings, his machine would crash. UGH. This isn't Vegas' fault as far as I can tell, normally this works fine. So we had to go with the default export, which was the None codec. The good news was that it is a lossless codec, the bad news is that it makes HUUUUUUUUUGE files - his 90ish minute piece was going to be over a terabyte big.

Fortunately, he has a new 1.25TB LaCie drive. The catch - if he wants to use that drive cross platform, he will either run into a maximum file size problem if the drive is formatted so Mac/PC can both read it, or he needs a piece of third party software to mount his Mac formatted volume on the PC so that he can write out a 1TB+ file (we touched on kicking it out in smaller pieces, but the technical challenge of putting the pieces back together for him led me to the One Big File approach).

THAT hurdle cleared, he'd already kicked out some short (5 second) test clips, so I quickly built him three customized Compressor setttings (he fortunately was on latest version on his Macbook Pro, FCP 5.1.4 same as me), emailed them to him (they are tiny), told him where to drop them, and he cooked out his test file. Codec 1 had a gamma shift and looked washed out - scratch that. Codec 2 at quality settings medium and high both looked fine. Higher quality (higher datarate) played back fine full screen in loop mode - so let's try that.

Before we hung up, I gave him a roadmap to try:
1.) Cook out a one minute test sequence from PC
2.) Bring to Mac, via either Mac formatted LaCie Drive using 3rd party tool, or just write across the network to the LaCie.
3.) Test codec presets again, running full screen (he had a DVI to HDMI adaptor running to his HDTV as a practice setup for the DVI connection to projector this weekend)
4.) Pick the one that looks best but still plays smoothly
5.) Then convert your whole movie to that.

At dry run, make sure all is going smoothly, hopefully will have finished file by then. If all goes smoothly, bank that one, and try to address the 24p/30p motion issues with a post filter. If there's a problem, he'll still have 24 hours to try to fix it, and the codec I'm recommending will let him make multiple attempts in that timeframe.

In the end, he'll have something that he can show. I haven't seen a frame of the film and know nothing of its content, but I'm confident he'll be able to show SOMETHING on the big screen at full res. It may have some motion artifacts, but his story will be told (OK shown). I have no idea what kind of color correction or anything else has been done with the project, we just focused on these issues in the wee hours of the night.

But if it were my film, I'd want that 24p to all be done right.

Point of all this being....do your homework, or get someone else to do it for you to draw you a detailed map. Get the help you need to navigate the treacherous waters of all the possible choices in this new world of post. It used to be pretty easy - didja shoot DV or Digibeta? Didja shoot drop frame or non-drop frame? You could get fancy and maybe shoot PAL instead of NTSC. Go back far enough, ya cut on Avid, because That Was It for NLEs. Nowadays, there are two sizes of HD to contend with, half a dozen possible frame rates that might be used all with their own twists for ingest depending on format, many different HD acquisition formats, tapes vs. solid state vs. optical discs, lots of different NLEs with different versions & feature sets & support for the different formats that varies yes/no even depending on the frame rate...it is complicated. WAY complicated. Even though there are lots of low cost tools out there that CAN be used to make good to great looking results at low cost with the right post workflow and folks driving the process, it is also ENTIRELY possible to go with inexpensive tools and bury yourself in time and costs later by making the wrong decisions at various points along the way. I keep encountering folks coming to me AFTER mistakes have been made, and they inevitably spend more of their own time fixing it, and spend more of their budget talking to me, than if they'd come to me (or somebody else like me) and gotten a good roadmap before driving off the cliff (or at least into the ditch and needing a tow, causing expense & delay...and maybe scratching up their Pretty Thing in the process).

No names have been used, and certain details fuzzed over to protect the privacy of the individuals & some of the companies involved.

I'm sure there are DIY efforts out there that go flawlessly, and the Gods of Post smile benificiently down upon them, and all goes well.

I rarely get urgent emails from those folks after midnight.

-mike

PS - if you haven't read my 10 things NOT to do list, and you're planning on DIY, perhaps you should.

EDIT - other little story - got on the phone with a client recently and talked about their potential project, they had a particular tool they wanted to use, I didn't think that was a wise choice given their intended deliverables and creative goals...but that is what the client wanted to use. They had a very decent sized budget, but were reticent to spend $10K+ on a workstation and software setup that would comfortably do what they needed it to. Just because advice is given, doesn't mean that it will be taken. It's hard to hear someone say "I'm buying steel wool underwear" and you say "I really don't think that's a good idea." and they smile and nod and still pick it up off the shelf - what do you do then? How hard do you press the point?

Talking to my editor friend Rita today another analogy came up talking about tools and the above situation - "Just because I like my little Honda doesn't mean I should enter it in the Baja 1000." Just because a tool is similar to that which is used for more demanding tasks, and you are familiar and used to using it for those lesser tasks, doesn't make it the best or even a good or even valid choice for that task.

-m

Labels: original, techie, tutorial, workflow

AppleInsider | Apple courts indies with DRM break: "The iTunes Store is lending an ear to smaller labels, hoping to muster support for its anti-DRM movement by cutting indies treatment similar to that given to EMI."

Schweet.

Progress.

Now, if indies can just get content onto the video side of the store...

-mike

Labels: DRM, iTunes, online content service, online distribution

Over the last few days, I've spent some time writing some stuff that I'm awaiting clearance to release - some of it is case studies on client stuff that I feel is of benefit to the community, and some of it is NAB coverage I want to be sure I'm not mixing my on and off the record recollections/notes of NAB stuff to be fair and respectful to the vendors and folks who were kind enough to take the time to talk to me, plus some other commentary that I only have in rough draft form.

I'm most looking forward to releasing info on the case study stuff - it seems particularly relevant for DIY indies and the mistakes they make that can be avoided. No names will be used, some details fuzzed in the story to protect identities and companies, etc.

I also did a video podcast interview this morning for about 40 minutes, I'll post a link when that's up probably next week sometime.

In the meantime, between client work and the unpublished stuff, working on NAB coverage/analysis...

-mike

Coupla thing have happened last coupla days worth mentioning. Except for the Tim League stuff (2nd story), none of this is filmmaking related whatsoever, so skip it if not into it.

ITEM 1 - an idea so bad, it's good...or is it?

So...last night I'd signed up weeks before to go to an event - the Town Lake Trail Foundation was sponsoring a Cruise 'N Schmooze around Town Lake. Town Lake is actually a dammed river that runs through the heart of Austin, and the Trail runs around it, and I run around the Trail - I jog (used to RUN, sniff, sob, 10 pounds ago, old f*rt that I'm becoming) on it several times a week, lately just the 4 mile loop. Gubmint being gubmint, they don't take very good care of this civic treasure to there's a private entity that helps to maintain it. My Mom was on the committee that set the thing up decades ago, and she's still on the Advisory Committee for it now (she's great that way). So I chipped in for a membership and signed up for and paid for this fundraising shindig. On the Day Of (last night), I decided to walk down to the boat dock as I hadn't run that day - get a little exercise in. I was hungry and in a hurry, and decided to pop into Home Slice to grab a quick slice on the way. No slices at that hour, but ordered a Calzone instead. So much for my low cholesterol food plan. Might as well have a Peroni beer with it. Saw the manager, whose name I can never recall (the most strikingly attractive woman I see about town on a semi-regular basis , brief sigh), said howdy, and was on my way.

Got down the to the docks scant moments too late - I could see the paddlewheeler, lit nicely under the night sky and by the lights under the bridge...already backed out, turned, and heading downriver. Drat.

Well, I'd been debating how good of an idea this might be - 2 hours on a boat with a bunch of earnest, well intentioned....who? If it were all my parents generation, the Greatest Generation...I'd have to dive overboard and swim for shore before too long. They're great and all, but the moment they find out you might know how to fix their email...I'm sure you know how that goes. What if they (organizers) were going to lecture AT us about trail preservation? Or pitch us to help them do stuff? Probably not, but the mere thought gave me the shivers.

So there I am, standing on shore 1 beer later and 2 minutes too late...drat it. Kinda. I felt a little relieved about not being trapped on a boat if it wasn't going to be fun. It was an entirely pleasant night, that perfect Austin spring weather with cool evenings, not too humid, and the mosquitoes aren't out in Diving Squadron of Death mode yet (maybe they are all still in flight school training....{R. Lee Ermey]:"Listen up you maggots!" [Cracking puberty laden voice]:"Uh, sir, we're larvae..." [R. Lee again]: "SHUT UP or I'll smack you so hard you'll never fly..." ....but I digress).

Anyway, cut to perfect evening, I'm suddenly rudderless, so to speak. And boatless, and planless.

So I start walking home, thinking about what to do with myself for the evening. I'd had a very productive day and had given myself permission to doof off for the evening, and now my plans were blown. Walking back out from under the 1st street bridge, past RunTex (THE running shoe store in Austin), I see an alternative....and I literally bust out laughing just thinking about it.

So instead of cruising around the quiet night on a paddleboat on beautiful Town Lake at night with a bunch of fellow earnest liberal runner types and/or classic Austin hippies (I feel entitled to say that as I had a ponytail for 15 years, see here), I pondered something else, something entirely different:

I wonder what it would be like to walk in to that Hooters across the street and order beer and Fried Things and just be a total Dood (Dewd? Dayyuuud?) for an hour or two?

The perverse joy of this thought made me literally laugh out loud. Could I do that? Could I pull a sociological 180, bailing on the Nice Folks and walking into the Pit of Despair, aka Hooters? Could I pull that off and not be entirely self concious? Hooters is SO not my scene, is antithetical to All I Stand For, and yet....the wretchedness of the idea, the complete ideological flip flop just struck me as the right kind of horridly bad but incredibly funny idea that Just....Might....Work.

So what did I do? I called Melissa (girlfriend from a year+ ago) and told her my idea, because I knew she'd get why it was so funny, and she burst out laughing too at the thought - so I knew I was on the right track. We talked on the phone as I walked home, me giving her an audio tour of all the new things on trendy/spendy South Congress since last she'd spent much time down there.

Thus I was saved from Hooters by an ex girlfriend.

ITEM 2 - Why Austin rocks, Reason 1138:

So I got back from a long meeting today, and had an email from Lyrae - I typically don't see Lyrae for big chunks of time and then see her and her beau Neil tons for brief periods of time at the Austin film festivals - SXSW, Austin Film Festival, and now Fantastic Fest. Anyway, Lyrae forwarded me an email from Tim League, who started and runs the Alamo Drafthouse theaters in Austin - the by-god-damn-coolest movie watching experience I know of (read up on it, Google, etc. - got picked as one of the best moviegoing experiences in America, and deservedly so). Tim had just received a new 17 foot inflatable screen, and was going to test it - in a backyard. So after a run around Town Lake (see? I try to be healthy...), I headed over there after dark..and wow, what a perfect deal:
-big house with big back yard
-huge, overarching live oaks creating a canopy overhead
-perfect, bug free weather
-pleasant, cool evening
-and oh yeah - A SEVENTEEN FOOT MOVIE SCREEN MOUNTED ABOUT 7 FEET HIGH!
-and big speakers too

This reminded me of what my friends BJ & Carrie did in San Francisco when they lived there - they lived up on Potrero Hill and lived next to a rarity - the lot uphill from them (the corner lot) was empty - no building at all. So he bought a business prentation projector for cheap from some failed dotcom (as you do), got an amp and a single speaker, set up on the sloped hill by his house, and projected movies onto the side of his house at night when the mood struck him. Neighbors would walk up and were welcome to sit down and join them, and in time they got a schedule going with themes and everything. Even a popcorn maker. A perfect neighborhood activity.

They eventually dubbed this Walk In Movies, and did it for 5 or 6 years, then turned it over to friends when they moved back to Austin. If you live in the area, check it out.

Anyway, back to Tim in Austin - he was doing this really as just a test to see how his new toy worked (they have Rolling Roadshows, Google that + Alamo Drafthouse), and were looking at screener DVDs for this fall's Fantastic Fest (I [heart] Stabby). We'd watch a movie for a while, then Tim would stop it and poll the audience whether to finish it or move on to another. I watched most of a pretty cool flying Ninjas movie, but then that got shelved to move on - next up was a hilariously just-good-enough-to-be-good-bad short set in the world of...G.I. Joe. With live actors. Howlingly funny, as they took themselves pretty seriously doing it. After that, an oddball German (Russian?) movie about a couple about to get into trouble, but I had to jet, I was starving. After a beer and some Cheetos there (oops again on the health factor), I couldn't resist the magnetic draw of Dirty's for a bacon cheeseburger and shake (feh - bag the diet - this stuff tastes guuuuuuuuud). You just KNOW you're getting all your sinful goodness in it when they hand over the paper bag and the grease is ALREADY soaking through the wax paper and darkening the brown paper bag.

Aww, Yeeeeeah.

Sometimes, it is just REALLY nice to live in Austin and know some cool folks (or folks who know cool folks).

Hallelujah.

-mike

And yes, Comments are disabled for a reason. :D

UPDATE - this morning Tim sent me this pic he took last night. Click for larger view.


You can rent that sucker (why it was bought) - see details here:

Alamo Drafthouse Austin Venue Rental - Backyard Parties

I'm thinkin' Almost Forty birthday party Movie Madness.

Lyrae then emailed after reading the post to say:

Mike-

Nice blog today.

It was cool that you showed up last night. There was something that you missed at the beginning that was the best show of the night, but it is already booked for the festival so you can see it there. It was a Korean (maybe Japanese) anime piece about a future society that has overpopulated and basically got buried in its own excrement. However, scientists find a way to turn the poop into fuel and now the most valued citizens in the society are the once that produce the most shit. Very satirical, creative and the action scene animation is kick ass!

Don't feel bad that you didn't stay for the last film though. Bad. Way too over the top just for the sake of being over the top. Also, did not care about the boyfriend as he just turns into more and more of an ass as things go on. And they should have edited. Went on WAY to long.

Kind of missed the best part at the end of the night (about 11:20) when we all stood around talking about what we had seen. That is always one of my favorite parts with that group.

-Lyrae

Labels: OT

Indie Films Going Online

About online distro of indie movies. Points out that low budget can suck - big surprise. Points out not a lot of money in it so far - big surprise.

But interesting to see what folks are trying and how well it is or isn't working.

And since I've completely fallen behind on keeping up, go read CinemaTech to catch up on the last couple of weeks of what he's been up to.

-mike

UPDATE:

Commenter Bill Cunningham made such good points I want to put'em up here in the article where you can see'em:

I read this article and posted about it on my blog, but I wanted to let you know this husband and wife team have done everything wrong here. No wonder they feel like they have to "punt" through downloading in order to get their film some attention.

- They didn't do any research on how licensing to international territories usually works.

- They degraded the quality of their film in the press.

- They signed a SAG agreement when they could have acquired bigger names that are SAG core (or at least more marketable names).

- They didn't try to tie in the fact they had a "name" from the BLADE TV series in their film.

- And yes, if you look at the opening credits on Amazon, they made a lousy film (or at least a terrible opening credit sequence).

The fact is that no one guarantees you that your film will get distribution when it is produced. It's up to you to make a marketable product to sell.

In other words - No one is going to buy a Yugo when there are so many BMWs out there avaialable for a Yugo price.


I never read the full article, just skimmed, posted, and moved on, but Bill seems to nail it pretty well there. And I agree - a title sequence makes for a crappy trailer. That's just LAZY filmmaking. The job isn't done when the film is mastered out - the job is done when the theatrical run is over, ALL the rights have been sold, carefully, maximizing return, then the sequel pre-sold and funded, the DVD income tallied, etc.

Put it in terms of any other product out there - shipping product is just the first step...then you gotta sell it and support it to actually make the money.

See his article here:

DISContent: Indie Doesn't Have to Mean Stupid! (and he self promotes at the end of it...like a good filmmaker should!)

Labels: distribution, online distribution

DV - Reviews - DeckLink HD Studio

Hey all - my second article for DV Magazine is online, checking out the DeckLink HD Studio. Nice little card, but much of what you'd want to use it for has been obviated by the announcement of the upcoming (NOT shipping yet) Intensity Pro card from BMD. But need something before July? Read this review, it is a good fit for non HD-SDI based HD work. This card has HDMI in/out at 10 bits/channel, and analog in/out, and...read the article for the rest of the details.

-mike

Labels: hardware, post equipment, review

Native Final Cut Pro support of 4K Redcode RAW

Yep, as I originally reported here, here, and here Final Cut Pro WILL natively support 4K Redcode RAW footage, on the timeline, with full support (RT engine for realtime effects, etc.). That's the good news. The bad news - it'll support it....at some point in the future. While Peter Jackson's short was cut with a pre-release version of FCP, hinting that it must be pretty far along, it ain't done cookin' yet. Consider it akin to what we saw last year at NAB - 24p HDV was shown in the booth, but didn't ship until later in the year. So it'll happen, but not quite yet, and I've no idea what the timeline might be.

The good news is that it'll be fully supported on the timeline - it CAN be as simple as shoot some footage onto your Red Drive (or Red Flash or Red RAM), disconnect from Red One, sit down in the field with your MacBook Pro or back at studio on any Intel Mac, plug in via FireWire, and the drive will mount. Drag files over to FCP and drop'em on a timeline and away you go - you're editing 4K.

Huh/how/whaaaaaaaa?

Here's the deal - Red has built a QuickTime codec that understands Redcode RAW (or perhaps calling it a wrapper might be more technically accurate). If you're on an Intel Mac, a FUTURE version of Final Cut Pro, presumably 6.x, will natively read the Redcode RAW files from a Red Drive or any other media/drive fast enough for realtime performance (count on needing circa 30 MB/sec to leave headroom/safety margin - so FW400 JUST fast enough for single stream 4K@24p).

You just drop it on the timeline and go, don't think about it.

If you DO want to think about it, here's what's happening - Redcode RAW uses wavelet based compression. With wavelets, it is easy to extract fractional resolution versions of the whole frame quickly - so extracting a 1/2 or 1/4 res version is (relatively) cake to do. If you're on a MacBook Pro, you get a 1K version. If you're on a sufficiently pimped Mac Pro, you get up to a 2K version of the 4K source. (Final Cut is limited to 2K max res, can't handle 4K. Don't sweat it - only time you ever need 4K is for theatrical distribution). You'll be able to, with that future FCP version, cut, edit, cross dissolve, add effects, titles, color correct, whatever - just like any other codec. What is happening behind the scenes - the RAW Bayer pattern is being demosaiced - converted from a checkerboard of individual R/G/B pixels into a "normal" RGB image, at the fractional resolution desired. Any nondestructive look metadata that was assigned while shooting with the camera is applied - so any while balance, curves, tint, etc. as set on camera are applied to that footage as a default look. From there it is delivered to timeline and away you go.

"What if I want to have all that coolio color control that I had in Redcine in Final Cut Pro?" - no problem, they are making a special Red FX plug that will allow you to adjust exactly the same color paramters (not scale/repo though) in FCP that you could in Redcine. Only difference is that those controls are presented as the FX plugin architecture allows. Same controls, different looking UI. So that would still access the 12 bit RAW data, manipulate it in a 32 bit floating point color space, and then deliver it back to the timeline in whatever the timeline settings were.

One thing that is a little fuzzy is what happens when you need to bring in other files, or render a cross dissolve, etc. - what should new material be brought in as? What format are renders being done to? As for the first question the new Open Format Timeline feature makes that easy, since you can mix frame sizes, frame rates, and codecs on the same timeline (finally!). The answer for what does stuff get rendered to is a fuzzier - I'm guessing Redcode RGB? But I don't know. That may make sense, but I don't have a definitive answer for that yet. Perhaps it would depend on the timeline settings? Not entirely clear how that'll work in FCP 6.

You can still use FCP's 3 way color corrector and other coloring tools in FCP if you want to, even in conjunction with Red's FX plugin for coloring (note I'm not saying Red FX plug for Color, the new standalone app - more on that later). There's always nine ways to skin any cat - if you have questions on best workflow, I'm available for consulting on that (use link top of page).

If that doesn't sit well with you, or a 10 bit 4:2:2 deliverable is as good as you need, there's another option:

Transcoding Redcode RAW to ProRes with a Red Import Module

For those who want something even more straightforward, or want a little more rendering horsepower available (not being taken up by the de-Bayering etc. of processing 4K Redcode RAW), there will be a Red Import Module. Apple was demonstrating taking 4K Redcode RAW and transcoding on import to their new ProRes422 codec. Redcode RAW gets read into FCP, but what gets written to scratch disks is ProRes422. (Kinda like the HDV==>AIC transcode on capture option if you've ever used that). ProRes422 looks pretty damn good, I'll have more to say on it after I can research it some more, but if all you want is a 10 bit, 4:2:2 or lesser deliverable, ProRes looks like a really good choice - transcode to that and just edit that for your offline and your online if you have the space. With 750 GB drives around $400 online, and 1TB drive hitting the market, 1080p24 ProRes422 (which is full raster, FYI - 1920x1080 is actually that size, not 1440x1080 or 1280x1080 like some OTHER codecs) is about 22 MB/sec. That's a 10 bit, full raster, 4:2:2 codec. That adds up to about 80 GB/hr. So that 750GB drive for $400 would hold over 8 1/2 hours of footage - about $45/hr for storage. For shorter form or tight shooting ratios, offline/online with one codec starts getting viable. You may say "Well, I only have 500GB of storage on my current machine." but start looking around at what it really costs to triple or quadruple that...and what it'll cost in 6 months from now.

When importing, you can also pick what size you want - 2K, 1080p, 720p, 576p, 480p, etc.

It may also be possible to transcode to other codecs, don't know at this time. It may not be possible to transcode to another codec for online later, so check workflows carefully - I'm looking into all of this myself still.

So that gives you three ways to get footage into FCP, depending on release schedules:

1.) The first option to be available will likely be just using Redcine to convert to whatever codec you need for offline or online work as laid out above. For this example, let's say ProRes422.

2.) Next likely option will be to use the Red Import Module to transcode to ProRes422 (or possibly other codecs) at the size you need right into Final Cut Pro (future version), no other apps required - if you don't need 2K/4K, why deal with the overhead? Convert to something high quality that lets you work fast - and ProRes422 will do that.

3.) Or, for big work, just cut 4K Redcode RAW natively in a future FCP 6.x on an Intel Mac.

Note ALL of the above choices require an Intel Mac, and choice one you can use any Windows box (but may not be able to render to ProRes on Windows, dunno yet)

If you don't have an Intel Mac for your FCP work, isn't the end of the world, there are workarounds (I'm in that boat - three G5s in this room where I'm typing)

So you can edit 4K natively.

You can transcode 4K to 2K/1080/720/576/480 res as needed to edit.

You can transcode, via Redcine, to any codec, for any Mac/Windows NLE that has a "normal" codec (see previously posted Redcine article for more on that).

A few downer tech notes:

-From what I've been told and understand, FCP STILL does not properly manipulate RGB on the timeline at better than 8 bits RGB. That means for RGB content, cross dissolves, text overlays, etc. are still delivered to timeline as 8 bit RGB at best. You can do 10 bits/channel, but only with 4:2:2 content. While internally 32 bit float is used for the FX plug architecture, there is still a bottleneck for what gets delivered to the timeline. There may be workarounds, I'm researching them (in my copious spare time...yeah right - but if anybody wants to hire me to figure it out...).

-Apple's New Color Application- as cool as it is, as powerful as it is...it doesn't support Redcode RAW yet. It also is limited to 2K at this point in time. Talked to some Apple folks for whom the Redcode RAW support announcement was new to them just the other week too. Apple compartmentalizes very effectively for security, but that does introduce some bottlenecks when folks don't know what's happening down the hall and aren't able to support new features/formats right off the bat. In any case, Color CAN do RGB. Color CAN do 10 bit log...but only from DPX files (there's ways to there, I can help). Color can't, at this time, nor with the first shipping version of Final Cut Studio 2, read Redcode RAW in natively. After having rendered 10 bit RGB files (using AJA or BMD codecs) out of Color...FCP still can't render a proper 10 bit RGB cross dissolve. So there are issues. But what CAN be done is to work with Uncompressed or ProRes422 10 bit 4:2:2 codecs, and THAT will work properly. I'm mentally already designing workflows to start with 4K and switch over at the proper stage in the workflow...mental gears churning...

What about high end post work? There's been another announcement of note:

Assimilate's Scratch can read in Redcode RAW files and grade them natively, and even access the nondestructive look metadata from camera.

This gives maximum control with the absolute minimum of bandwidth required to read in and play back the Redcode RAW files. This is a biggie - If you wanted to make a 4K feature, shoot 4K Redcode RAW, edit, then take EDL, Redcode RAW clips, and metadata to a Scratch facility - they can conform and color from that. There are other ways to go about this, too, but that's a damn handy option to have!

Of course, if you want to work with any other traditional DI tool, you can work with DPX files, and there's ways to get you get there.

As always, if you have any questions on Red workflow, be it Red gear, editing/VFX hardware or software, codecs, storage, archival, etc., I'm doing my best to the the Go To Guy on all these matters. Buying a Red? Thinking about it? Trying to figure out how it will or might fit into your facility, studio, or workflows? Contact me at the email address at the top of the page (in the header), and I'll get you sorted out, be you a starving indie barely able to afford a Red with still lenses, or a high end shop wondering how to integrate this into your heavy iron and/or realtime-centric facility workflows. I gotcha covered. I charge by the hour, my rates are indie viable/affordable. My overarching theme is to be flexible and accomodating to the budgets, time sensitivity, equipment available, level of technical sophistication/comfort, etc. and find the best match for each individual circumstance.

-mike

PS - I've had a couple of folks voice concern that this is turning into the All Red, All The Time site - hang on, hang on, I'm just going one at a time by vendor through all my copious notes here. I want to get the biggest one that most folks were most interested in done FIRST, and then move on from there. Apple, Dalsa, Sony, Abel Cine, JVC, Panasonic, Canon, Band Pro, Arri, storage, etc. are alllllll coming...I can only type just so fast...

Labels: Red, Redcine, software, workflow

OK, let's talk workflow with Redcode RAW and Redcine.

Some background for those not up to speed:

Redcode RAW is the native compressed recording file format of Red, recorded as data to files in a folder structure on a Red Drive, Red Flash, or Red RAM. Redcode RAW is a 12 bit linear RAW (Bayer pattern, color filter array) wavelet based compression scheme.

All above recording media have about the same performance envelope - based on public statements, all can record the same frame sizes/rates as all the others - so long as you have a properly spec'd CF card, for instance, the only limit as compared to Red Drive is the recording capacity. Recording quality, frame rate/size, etc. all the same. Red gives you LOTS of recording options - single/dual link HD-SDI to deck or DDR/DFR, uncompressed 4.5K out the high speed link, or the more likely/useful Redcode RAW to one of two external recording modules (320GB, $900 Red Drive or 64GB, $4500 Red RAM), or to one of three $500 internal Flash RAM based adaptor modules that fit on side of camera body (CF, ExpressCard 34, or eSATA).

Anyway...after you record all this stuff, how do you use it? Redcode RAW is the native format, but it is also proprietary - nobody else's camera generates it, it is specific to the Red One at this time. How to edit it, do VFX work with it, etc.?

Redcine

If you hadn't heard, Redcine is the tool to convert Redcode RAW to...whatever you want (I'll skim over the basics previously covered and get to the juicy stuff here shortly). Standard image file format sequences or any "normal" codec you have installed on your Intel Mac (no PPC Mac support, drat) or Windows based system.

Click the pic above for a larger view of what Redcine looks like.

As you can see, there are four tabs, and I'l zing through what they are for:

Project

In the project tab, you set up your, well, project. What is a project in Redcine? If you're used to working with film and the telecine process, think of this as your telecine session, saveable to disk, same as you'd save your color grades for a given tape on your daVinci setup. If you're a software jockey, you can think of a project as being akin to an FCP timeline settings or an After Effects composition settings (not exactly for either of those, but that's the general idea).

From here you can load a shot or a full mag - one of the nice features of Red One is that on camera, during the shoot, you can do some digital slating - specifying shots, takes, etc. The files are filed in folders that fall to that order - takes inside shots inside scene folders, etc. Redcine understands this struture, so when you import, shots are stretched out horizontally, and multipe takes are stacked vertically - just like Scratch, which this owes a very obvious debt to. So much so that the UI (user interface) pretty much IS a very cut down version of Scratch's toolset with some modifications.

One of the coolest features of Redcode, which makes it more like anybody else's v3.0 software than a beta release, is the use of gestural controls - if you flick the mouse pointer (no clicking involved) towards a screen edge, controls and UI elements will appear or dissapear (or even build/reduce in terms of how many/how simple things are shown). Sounds a little complicated/scary at first, but once you start using it, is super fast and easy. It's the little touches - things like you can click and drag horizontally to control some things where they make sense, but in other areas you click-hold and twirl mouse clockwise or counter-clockwise to increase/decrease values...just like a knob or wheel. Very clever.

Anyway, in the project, you can set things like your format, your aspect ratio, your frame rate, etc. You can also control display reticles and masking areas (opaque or transparent, your color of choice), show timecode, all kinds of useful stuff and powerful stuff.

It is important to remember that Redcine is a prep/conversion tool, not intended to be an editor or full coloring tool. It is a pre-grading tool for one light type color corrections, and a prep tool to deliver assets in format of choice.

You can flip between Library View which shows all your shots (horizontally) and takes (stacked vertically atop each other) - is a pre-editorial organizer so you can get a sense of your shot coverage - instead of a long vertical text list for your to organize, is thumbnails in a timeline like interface. Fast and efficient.

Next up, you can proceed to the Shot portion of the application. In here you can see and edit the shots metadata, name, position and scale. Want to crop? Want to scootch it around in that cropped area? All doable, and those shot-by-shot decisions get saved in your project for later recall and usage (handy when it comes time to generate your online res copies). You can play back, even on a laptop. That's right - play back 4K footage without pre-rendering - it is extracting a fractional res version on the fly. You have pop-ups for playback quality at full/half/quarter res, in preview through high quality. Higher res, higher quality slower to process. Wanna see realtime playback as you adjust scale or whatever? Quarter res preview is your friend. Wanna zoom in on that blown highlight for subtle tweaks? Crank up the res to see all the detail. The wavelet nature of Redcode makes it cake to extract fractional resolutions on the fly, no problem. So scale and repo as it is playing back - nice! Can't keyframe though - for that kind of subtle work, just take it to Motion, After Effects, or tool of choice at full res and manipulate it there.

In the Color tab, you have control over a bunch of the color attributes of the shot - you've got three point curves (toe/gamma/shoulder), you've got tint, exposure (measured in stops, very nice), white point (measured in Kelvin and properly executed without just chopping channel data), color channels, a special highlight recovery tool that manipulates digital blowout (ever see a magenta highlight in an overexposed area? This tool can fix it!), and several other things I can't recall.

One major feature of this: the color controls on camera, and in Redcine, and in the FCP plug (more on that below), are all the same, on purpose...because you can save in any one of them and move them to the other. It takes a little time for the full meaning of that to soak in, but do so. Hypothetical: imagine shooting a few test frames, throwing on laptop, previewing the shot there. Tweak color until you like it using the convenient mouse/keyboard interface (could do all same stuff on camera UI, just harder, like iPod vs. iTunes playlist organization...in fact VERY much the same metaphor). Save those settings as a file, put on an SD card, and load back into camera. Bang! Your tweaked nondestructive look metadata now rides shotgun with all footage shot with those settings...and gets baked into the HDMI and HD-SDI outputs. Doing a live shoot? Save those settings and put it on all 8 (or however many) cameras used for them to match. Calibration issues in what I just suggested, but you get the general idea.

Anyway, as you tweak the color settings, you're working from the 12 bit RAW source, manipulating in a 32 bit floating point color space - very precise. And of course, GPU accelerated as well. You can adjust colors WHILE the footage is playing back - very handy.

Oh - you can also define the color space you're working in - be it Rec 709 for HD destined work, or Camera RGB for the native color space, Adobe 1998, etc. as desired.

When you're done there, you can go to Output. From the Output settings, you pick what size you want to generate, what file format, what bit depth (auto-governed by what's possible with the format, so you can't try to create something impossible), and what codec. Now, for everyone who's concerned about will their NLE be supported, the answer is pretty much yes. If you can write to the codec you want to edit with on an Intel Mac or a Windows box, you're in luck. If you need a high end image sequence like TIFF, DPX, OpenEXR, JPEG2000, etc., you're also in luck - as all those formats are already working in the build shown at NAB. As for codecs, here's the drill - if you have a codec installed on your box that you could "normally" use, such as with After Effects or similar programs...you can write to it from Redcine. Simple as that. If you're on a Mac running FCP 6, you could convert to the brand new ProRes422 codec. If you're on a Windows box running Avid, you could convert to DNxHD 36 for your offline, and then later DNxHD 220 for your online. Or the same from a Mac with Avid stuff installed. Just bought the Sheer codec from BitJazz.com, or any other third party codec? Install in on your box, and you write to it from Redcine, no new version of Redcine required. It is that simple.

I mentioned offline/online - if you aren't converting to your final format (and if you're doing an indie feature, you probably aren't, or shouldn't), then convert the first time to your offline codec, save your Redcine Project, and Red is working on something they'll call a Red Pull List to help with your conform - you kick an EDL or XML out of your NLE, then bring that back to Redcine which parses it for all the shots and selects you used - those selects can then be processed to your online format of choice (frame size/codec/etc.) Software conform (easy with FCP I know, I'd imagine so with Adobe, dunno enough about Avid to say), and you're in bidness. Redcine and Red Pull List don't DO the conform for you, they just HELP in the conform process.

Or, if that all seems to complicated, there's another option...read next article posted.

If you have workflow questions about how Redcode RAW will fold into your existing pipeline, be it editorial, VFX, offline, online, hardware, software, whatever, I do exactly that kind of consulting for a living - contact me at the email address at the top of this page in the header. I charge by the hour, rates are indie viable/affordable.

-mike

UPDATE - I'll keep adding extra bits of info to this post -

Q: What about subclips?

A: you can "dupe" the shot in Redcine (doesn't replicate any data on disc, just makes another instance of it in the timeline...like making a copy of a clip in your NLE - no new media generated). You can set separate ins and outs for that VERSION of that shot...this is a big deal for doc makers that roll for an hour and want to pre-slice into shots, but not have to process that one hour shot for the online if all they need is 5 second subclip.

Q: What about conversion times in Redcine?

A: They haven't released official stats, because it'll depend on a lot of things - what clock speed your CPU/s, how many cores, what GPU, what bus speed, what read/write storage & speed; then on top of that what size frame are you rendering to, what color/cropping/repo are you doing, what quality and scaling settings are you using....lotsa factors. What they want to avoid is posting a "it took my box x.y secs/frame" on some pimped out 8 core box doing draft quality SD to a RAID, and some Moe Ronn getting upset stating "Hey! It took WAY longer than that for me!" ....on his Core Solo Mini cooking 4K Hi-Q DPX files to a USB 1.0 drive or somesuch. So they need to get organized and test in an appropriate fashion, and then publish the results in a detailed, well documented and qualified fashion.

All that said...if they are managing to play back at 1K on a Macbook Pro and 2K on a Mac Pro in REAL TIME...I'm not too worried about how long conversion is going to take in Redcine. Rob's on the job.

-mike

Labels: Final Cut, post, post equipment, Red, Redcine, software

Jim Jannard made an announcement on the Reduser.net boards today:

The Good News - "a significant upgrade to the RED ONE camera coming in the form of an update to one of the major boards in the camera, effectively further increasing dynamic range and reducing noise in the image."

The down side?

"Our original goal was to complete this upgrade later in the year, but we now plan to implement this improvement prior to shipping any cameras. It will cause a minor delay, but we are absolutely certain that every customer will feel the improvement was worth the wait. It also eliminates a future board change down the road.

We will publish a new shipping schedule that reflects this update in a couple of weeks.

-Jim"

On the plus side - improved dynamic range? Excellent! Who doesn't want that? They'd been planning on doing it as a board update later this year - it is simpler to just fix it up front and then everybody has best possible camera...but also it is causing a delay. The fact that it'll be a couple of weeks before they even get a revised schedule to us is a little scary to me - just how much is it going to delay the camera?

Of course I want the best possible camera I can get, but I also would like to have a camera sooner rather than later....choices choices choices...and the decisions belong to Jim & team, not us.

After just finding out that I should be getting my own camera in August (and I actually guessed that date right with no inside info), it does make me a little itchy to know when I'll actually get it now.

My cynical-o-meter notes that this decision was announced post-NAB...but I also recognize that since Sunday before NAB was first 4K screening of Peter's footage to Red team, it is entirely viable that they are just now making this decision based on reviewing data in hand.

I stop and think about what I know about the people involved...and I can entirely see them simply looking at the results, seeing that they could do better, and wanting to get best possible camera out the door, and making the decision to do that. Their vibe all along as been "We will sell no wine before its time." Today they announced that they realized they could make better wine if they just aged that cask a little more...

The good news is that they are not chopping features to make an arbitrary ship date (and it has happened elsewhere, believe me). Instead, they are doing the opposite - taking longer to work harder to make it better. Their early tagline was "Making obsolesence obsolete" - these kinds of decisions back up their earnestness in striving for that goal. We just have to wait a little bit longer to unwrap our presents.

-mike

(enough tangled metaphors there for ya?)

Labels: Red

Next up - Red accessories. Let's start off with the fun stuff and work our way down: the EVF, the LCD, the Super Grip, the Lens Motor, and other widgets.

I've got some pics of accessories here, open them in another window and refer to as we go. Regrettably, I got no closeups of the EVF, but you can find pics/renders at Red.com. EDIT - a-ha - 3rd from last pic shows it pretty well.

THE EVF

In case you hadn't heard, Red hired the sharp guy behind the AccuScene viewfinder. If you don't know what AccuScene is/was, it was the only 720p res viewfinder on the market, and when introduced, cost about $17,500...sound familiar? In a few years time, get the 4K camera for what the viewfinder used to cost. Amazing.

Anyway, down to the details:

-MUCH smaller than AccuScene, but still surprisingly chunky, but nicely textured grip to turn for focusing it (to focus the EVF, not the main lens)
-size understandable considering what it does - is 1280x720 pixel resolution
-color/black and white switchable, bright and sharp
-$2950 - amazing deal for what it does

The buttons on side of EVF - one knob and three buttons. Knob is for EVF controls (rotate to select, push in to "click" - functions like a clickable scroll wheel on a mouse, except can get to all of the "roundness" of the wheel and you push into the middle not down on the edge to click). The three other buttons are all user assignable, and arranged as a pair together over the single other button. You might choose to assign the pair to audio levels up/down, and the 3rd as a temp switch for focus or exposure assist (in that mode either when clicked or only while held down).

Just to cover it somewhere, on the back of the camera itself, set under the UI screen (which is not a video display) there's a multi-function control - is a joystick, but also a button and a twisty - so you can tilt it for up/down/left/right, as well as twist the stick to scroll through menus, as well as push it in to click - hmm - seems to replicate most of the functionality of an iPod clickwheel - an efficient UI control doable with a thumb and maybe one other finger. Sweet.

The much vaunted exposure control - here's my own notes from talking with David Macintosh, the designer:
exposure control through EVF and (eventually through LCD, not yet) - is like a monochrome image with a false color LUT (LookUp Table) - top 20% runs yellow to orange to red to show "hotter" exposures, yellow is about as hot as you'd like to shoot to have some headroom. At the bottom end, used cool colors, light green to dark blue. * Instead of seeing shades of grey, see shades of color to know how "hot" your exposures are. It also works as a night sight - otherwise tough to see if your exposure is focused or not. Graphical focus assistant not shown yet...durn.


Of course, all the menus show up in the LCD and EVF screens as well. Of course - how ELSE should it work? Nice.

The LCD

Not much new to report - it is 1024x600 (lower res than EVF), it is pretty bright, it has its own power button on top and some menu buttons. While the screen is decent sized, the electronics around it are surprisingly small - see the pics (link top of page). It is VERY flat, esp. compared to other high res LCDs that are little bricks - this thing is elegantly compact, just a slight bulge on the back and a single cable going in for power and video signal. While I originally kvetched about LCD and battery prices, the originals were going to be internal battery and foldout LCD - these are soooooo much better, and cost justify like a mofo, and are dirt cheap compared to the competition. $1700.

Super Grip & Lens Motor

OK, another fun/cool one - who doesn't want to say in their best manly voice "Why yes, of COURSE I have the optional Super Grip on mine. And yes, my name is Steve McQueen." (Maybe Jenn White or Jendra wouldn't, but lots of DPs I know would).

Kidding aside, check out the pics (again, link at top of page). The SuperGrip can be configured in one of two ways, with or without the bolt-on handle. Pictured without the handle here. What the SuperGrip is - a handle with a gob of user assignable buttons - 10 in all. Under the thumb looks like it might be a directional (has a squat rubber boot on it), two bigger ones immediately above/adjacent to that (one red colored in the brochure). Four more on the inner part, and three more at the top. ALL are user assignable. ENG/EFP folks are used to a rocker switch (and who's to say they won't have one of those in time), but Ted said cinema shooters accustommed to a Micro Force controller (sp?) will feel right at home with this controller. You can user assign the buttons to different functions, and from what I've heard about the open architecture of the Red, you should be able to assign all KINDS of goodies to that - more on that in the future. But one of the primary intended goals will be to partner it with a pair of Lens Motors. What's a Lens Motor for? Well...

Red Lens Motor is a motor to be controlled by a Super Grip to control either iris or focus. Ideally, get a SuperGrip and two Lens Motors, one on each side of the lens, one for iris, one for focus. Then you can start/stop, adjust iris, adjust focus, and other controls of the camera, without ever taking your hands off the grips. For non-shooters, think of this as the Xbox controller for your Red One (Hey, it already looks like a big black badass BFG 9000, why not control it like one. Yes, I'm having fun writing this.)

Other Widgets - on the brochure/price list that was handed out (and you can see some of the stuf in the online store at red.com), there's tons of little goodies - plates, handles, shoulder pads, rail mounts, 15mm rod adaptors,more handles, side handles, etc. - there are 39 items listed on the big exploded view diagram of Red One and its accessories, NOT including lenses. I'll leave it up to them to post more pics of it all.

One cool tidbit - the Red Arm ($175, comes with EVF & LCD) that is used to position the LCD and EVF is WAY cool bit o' engineering. If you think of a human arm, this thing has shoulder, upper arm, elbow, lower arm, and a wrist. That could be really complicated to adust, right? Nope, not at all - there's a single twisting lockdown control at the elbow - loosen it and the whole arm gradually goes from rigid to loosey-goosey - get the EVF or LCD where you want it, then tighten it again with a turn and it locks SOLIDLY and rigidly in place. A very nice little bit of engineering they've accomplished there, and a solid bit of kit. Other companies would point proudly to it, here it is just one of the dozens of cool details. Edit - a commenter just pointed out that these are not a Red invention, have been out for a couple of years. My mistake - as a non-shooter, I'd never seen them before. Anyway, it is still cool and still groovy that they are using them.

One Big Thing to get about the Red One - in all aspects - the codecs, the recording methodology, the sensor approach, the accessories, the controls, the readouts/displays, the user interface - much has been approached the way bright fresh tech companies do - discarding the "well that's just the way its been done" even if that goes back to the days when that was the ONLY way it could be done. In SO MANY ways, down to so many of the smallest details, fresh thinking has been applied. Zebra mode is nice, but the false color exposure thing has a forehead smacking "well of COURSE that's a better way!" sensibility to it once you Get It. I have heard of and seen some other unreleased details that are similarly clever. It's like cutting loose an iPod UI designer on some ancient Russian bit 'o gear - of course there are just TONS of ways to make it better than it has been done before. In terms of readouts, and color controls, and Redcine, and a lot of the image control stuff - it is as if they said, in broad strokes "Well, let's do it the way my brain works - like Photoshop does it, rather than in color matrices, which is only how DIT's brains work." So many things that are so non-intuitive to so many people the old way are now immediately obvious, because we've grown up with computers, more specifically often Macs and iPods and Adobe software, and we have expectations about how to control things and interpret understand things. On TOP of the fact that it shoots up to 4.5K, up to 120 fps, for under $20K, etc. etc. etc. Red just roxors, and HARD.

Other stuff from the pics - the battery charger is shown, with and without batteries on it. Nothing else to say about that. One extremely useful shot - has all the outputs LABELLED on the camera. Those far ones you can't make out? "Viewfinder", "Monitor" and "Aux232"

And What's up with the hat?

Quite a ways back, a prominent poster on CML (Cinematographer's Mailing List) said something along the lines of "If they have working cameras at NAB next year, I'll eat my hat." That isn't an exact quote, but that's the gist of it. Much notice was made of this statement. And since Red did indeed have working cameras, he brought a hat to eat...and it was a cake (much tastier than a bowler, almost as good as a Stetson). Kudos to all for having a good sense of humor and being a good sport about the whole thing. We loved it in the booth, but I don't know what happened to it or where it went - perhaps to the CML party where it was eaten and enjoyed (I hope so). If anybody knows what happened to the cake, please post in the comments, it is a fun story.

Slightly extra wide smile factor on that one as I took some substantial heat from CMLers when I was singing Red's praises early on. It's all good now, I had some great friendly, productive discussions with LOTS of them at Red's booth, around the show in other vendors' booths, etc. All cool now, and excellent to put names to faces and make new friends. Some of my most vociferous (but polite and professional) counter-arguers on the boards were a delight to meet and shake hands with and talk shop with - a great experience.

End accessory rant, moving on, workflow stuff next...

UPDATE:

On a related note, Evin Grant started a thread (including pics!) on Steadicam with Red: Flying a Red One... - Reduser.net

I also overheard that Tiffen is going to make some kind of a Red sled for steadicamming.

For those wanting more info, there's a whole thread on the Magic Focus - Reduser.net - it gets interesting starting on page 2...

Other accessory related tidbit questions answered by Stuart English:

Q: B4 adaptor timeline?

A: Immediate

Q: Canon/Nikon lens adaptor timelines?

A: Formal announcement soon

Q: SuperGrip & Motor timelines? Pricing was TBD as I understood it

A: Both pricing and delivery are TBD

Q: I overheard someone asks about the B4 mount, you said: "B4 mount spreads the image to 2K, [omitted] has a B4 to 35 adaptor, but I'm not sure that's going to be a good move" - more on that?

A: Yes. Spreading B4 to 35 mm is probably not a good move from an image quality point of view, especially when you have affordable 35 mm glass.

Mike addenda to that - why shoot 2K through a quality reducing adaptor when you can shoot 4K (or at least start and scale down from 4K) directly instead?

Stuart response: Shoot 2K RAW with B4 - because for applications that need a long zoom ratio, a high end B4 motorized lenses works very well, and some applications - sports, natural history - have taken to those lenses. And if you own that lens, how do you re-use that?

Q: Hey - isn't there supposed to be an SD card slot for moving Redcine etc. data around on camera? Where is it on prototypes?

A: Under the Record button on the left face of the camera body. You can also use USB for that...

Q: Single/dual link HD-SDI functionality still there, right? Possible to do 1080p60 4:2:2? Possible to do 2048x1080 10 bit like the SMPTE spec?

A: Short term implementation is focussed towards supporting dual link 1080p / 24 at RGB 4:4:4. Other formats to be added in due course.

Thanks Stuart! On that last point - sounds like it is possible to do, may just require firmware updates - that is encouraging - he didn't say it wasn't techically possible. Another cool thing about the camera - it was designed to be as upgradeable, including software/firmware upgradeable, as possible. None of this "Well, in 18 months we'll come out with a /A rev, you can buy that camera then to get that feature." - Red strives to be ever adaptable and upgradeable from the camera you've already GOT.

Along those lines, when I spoke with Grant Petty of Blackmagic Designs at NAB, it struck me he had a very similar attitude when it comes to firmware upgrades - if you sell the original hardware, but keep it upgradeable, you get money from those folks to add future features. You add them as you can develop them and just roll them out as firmware upgrades...which in turn encourages new sales based on the new features, as well as benefitting existing hardware owners. If you DIDN'T make your hardware upgradeable, you might not have the capital to develop new features from you early adopters as they may be waiting to buy until those features ship...once implemented, new features would attract the new customers for further sales...so why NOT make your products upgradeable and keep your clients happy and keep sales more consistent?

EDIT - and Apple sees the benefit of this too - AppleInsider | Apple to build new features into iPhone, Apple TV free of charge

I really like that approach. (AJA does it to, and so do a lot of other companies, Grant just framed it well for me last week.)

More stuff, updated 1am Wednesday (wait, must sleep sometime!):

Red Timelapse - Reduser.net - timelapse options in the menu structure already - that hint at all kinds of future coolness - benefit of tapeless workflow, is cake to implement.

Studio Daily's Coverage:

Studio Daily | First Look at RED (video)


Studio Daily | RED at NAB, Part 2


Studio Daily | RED at NAB

And, as always, if you need some help or recommendations on what Red gear or post gear to buy, or how all this stuff will work once you buy it, or how to make it all work together, that is exactly what I do for a living - I'm trying to position myself as the Go-To guy on all things Red related. Contact me at the link at top of page.

-mike

Labels: cameras, Red

Four areas to cover here:

1.) 18-85mm zoom delayed - off the price list at present

2.) New zoom offered - 18-50

3.) PRIMES!

4.) Whattup with Cooke's /i tech?

First off - the 18-85mm f2.8 zoom has been put "on delay" by Red, to the point that it is off the price list and no set date as to when it will be available. They say it is still coming, though, just don't know when.

2.) New zoom offered in its place - 18-50mm, f2.8, close focus (down to 8 inches I think I heard Jarred say). Instead of end of year availability, available summer with camera orders, so pretty much if you're a reservation holder, you can get one. Hooray for that one! 18-85 zoom reservation holders can switch over, no problem (I'm 95% likely to be doing that myself with my own). Also, lower price than the 18-85 - only $6500 for the 18-50mm, not $9500 like the 18-85. Schweet.

3.) Prime Lenses now being offered - and they are $20K for the KIT:

15mm f2.8
25mm f1.9
35mm f1.9
50mm f1.9
85mm f1.9

This is an AMAZING price point, as there are individual primes that cost about what this entire set does ($19,975 to be precise).

Only downside - not due until end of year.

My own notes from my conversation with Ted:

Prime lenses-end of the year expected delivery date, with usual caveat under dev/etc., will let folks know if sooner/later - as compared to other primes, will let customers decide, personally Ted thinks they'll be all world. Full cine style PL mount, cine grade, prime lenses. Optimized for our sensors for full coverage, 4.5K and down. Solid solutions.


4.) Also an interesting tidbit - the samples at the show have Cooke's /i logo on them. What's that? Read here for more info, but short version is that it is a system to send lens metadata out on a frame by frame basis - a HUGE boon for post and VFX work. There's also a row of four electrical contacts, I don't know what they are for - are they for the /i datastream? I don't know, I'm not a lens guy - they could be something utterly mundane. I'd already known that Red would support /i tech - but I think I'd previously misconstrued that it simply meant Red One camera bodies could read the data and record the metadata. NOPE. From the press release: "Red Digital Cinema recently added /i Technology to the specification for forthcoming releases of its Red One 4k digital camera and Red lumina and prime lenses." - so Red's own lenses will also have this capability. EXCELLENT. EDIT - WHICH lenses exactly when is NOT known nor stated. No official statement from Red at this time - so it is NOT safe to assume that your ordered lenses will definitely have the /i tech features at this time. Maybe some will some won't, or /i variants that cost more, who knows.

Labels: Red

I'm guessing you've all heard of it by now - Peter Jackson shot a short film as a camera test for Red. It is a roughly 12 minute period short called Crossing the Line, set in WWI, with two storylines: one set in the trenches, and another in the air (biplanes & triplanes).

The Short Itself

The film opens with two settings - we see an Allied soldier in the trenches in WWI, getting ready to attack - he checks the picture of his girl before the whistle blows for them to attack. In the other setting, we see pilots readying their biplanes, and our guy tucks a teddy bear into his jacket. The commander blows his whistle for the trench boys to attack, charging into artillery and machine guns. Our pilot is futzing with the teddy bear when a triplane appears and starts shooting at him, our boy must evade and escape. Trench boy's picture keeps blowing out of his reach as he crosses the battlefield. A sniper starts to scope in on him, until...

...you get to wait for them to post the rest.

I was going to post some low res stills, but Red now has full 4K res JPEGs posted. Note the recommended viewing conditions - Gamma 2.2 and Adobe 1998 RGB color profile.

You can see high res stills in the RED Gallery

You can see links to a short snippet at 1K res of the film itself here, along with credits.

Keep in mind, you're looking at it on your laptop or computer screen - it was graded to be watched at 4K at DCI spec gamma/white point etc. in a darkened theater. For those who feel it doesn't look like film, feel free to mentally crush the blacks and add some grain - as you could do in post. The JPEGs are also showing some artifacting and issues I didn't see in the source - maybe an issue with the JPEG compression? Dunno, but publishing 4K 16 bit files online is a bit daunting...and so is expecting everyone to properly set up their monitors in a dark room with proper calibration, gamma, and white point. Keep in mind before commenting.

WORKFLOW

Jim and Jarred flew down to New Zealand on Jim's jet (handy thing to have around).

They took with them Boris and Natasha, two early prototype cameras.

All that was working was record/stop on the camera - no other functionality at that time (about 2 1/2 weeks before NAB). Frame rate was hard fixed at 24.0 fps, and shutter angle was 180 degrees (so 1/48th second exposure). There are some stuttery pans, this is why - couldn't adjust as you normally would.

They shot handheld, they put them on cranes, they put them on the nose of a helicopter (picture & thread) (and had some shake issues), they shot shoulder mounted, etc. - in short, they shot it just about every way you would shoot on a feature. Talking to Richard Bluck, the DP who shot it, they treated it as they would any other production camera - in the dirt, in the mud, in the air, with dust in the air from practical explosions, etc.

They shot for roughly two days. There was a little bit of shooting on the morning of the last day before getting back on the plane, and there were some tech issues with at least one camera the first half of the first day, as the right guy wasn't hands on at that moment to fix the issue - so there are a few shots with some notable issues - some clipping of whites in clouds when the dynamic range was down due to a board issue, and a mistakenly exposed shot that was 4 stops under and brought up in post, but had some fixed pattern noise (all these issues have been or are being addressed in the camera development process). But watch the rest of the sky shots - perfectly exposed clouds while still perfectly exposed foreground people, and no ND grads used..in direct sunlight. Wow and woah. Try that on any other $18K camera body, and compare that to any other digital cinema camera at any price and compare results.

They recorded onto Red Drives, same as we'll be using (I'm going to be hands on with cameras 6&7 in NYC with Mark, Aldey, and Pliny from OffHollywood Digital, and then hands on with camera 8 in southern California with Steve Gibby of Cut 4). The data rate was 24 MB/sec. The finalized datarate will probably be between 24 and 28 MB/sec, depending on ongoing tests and development work (Graeme is still twiddling knobs behind the curtain).

Red lenses weren't used, instead the New Zealand folks used Cooke S4 primes and Angenieux Primo zooms (edit - rented from Panavision somebody just told me). Hey, if ya got'em, use'em!

They recorded onto Red Drives, and I think I heard that the total amount of footage shot was about 500 GB, so that'd be about 5 3/4 hours of footage, or about a 30:1 shooting ratio if my math is right. So for starters, to get 3 hours/day of footage for action material is pretty amazing to start with - the fact that they never had to stop to reload film (or, in theory, never would have had to stop during day to swap out a Red Drive) helped I'd imagine. So think about that - narly six hours of 4K, 24p footage, fitting onto a drive you could put in a pair of cargo pants that costs about $400 (current cheap 500GB external drive cost). But if it were me, I'd want two copies, just to be sure - it's tough to get Peter available with the helicopter and biplanes and pilots again, doncha know.

Having shot that Red footage, they could then sit down in the field (literally, the field by the runway) or in the trenches (literally, trench warfare environment), unplug the Red Drive from the camera, connect a FireWire cable from the Red Drive to a MacBook Pro, drag the clip from the drive to the timeline, and press play...to watch a 1K res (realtime scaled proxy from 4K source on Red Drive) play back in realtime. That's right - zero transcoding, zero render time, zero transfer time - play it straight off the Red Drive. If they had wanted to, they could have copied footage to the laptop and put the Red Drive back in camera so that they could edit or previz or check continuity or whatever. All this was done with a pre-release, special built version of Final Cut Pro 6. Final Cut Pro 6.0 that'll ship with Final Cut Studio 2 will NOT include this feature, but Apple demo'd (as did Red) native 4K Redcode support in Final Cut Pro at NAB. Editing on a Mac Pro with enough cores & a good GPU can provide realtime 2K extraction on the fly. More on this in a related workflow article, coming up.

The film was edited in Final Cut Pro, using native Redcod RAW 4K footage in about a day and a half - that's pretty quick. From that Final Cut timeline, an EDL was exported, and from Redcine they exported the needed selects to 4K files (one source said TIFF files, another said DPX, whichever they were, they were 4K uncompressed frames at 10 bit log or 16 bit linear I'd presume).

Those same high res files were sent to the VFX team (Peter's own in New Zealand) who added machine gun muzzle flashes, tracer rounds, smoke, artillery shake, and other digital VFX to the shots.

All shots then conformed & graded on a Quantel Pablo on site in New Zealand at Park Road Post (because Peter's team has one there). I think I heard that the plan had been to send it back to the US for coloring on Scratch to show off the native Redcode RAW support, but if you have a Pablo available, and Peter's colorist, why NOT use them? Plus more VFX kept being added so it wasn't practical to send it back and forth. International Internet connection speeds for uncompressed 4K VFX plates...ugh.

If I heard correctly, all post done in 10 days. So that's a 2 day shoot, roughly 2 day edit, 10 day post schedule for a 12 minute, 4K short film. WOW, that is FAST. The fact that no dubbing or downconverting for ingest must've helped too I'd imagine....but mostly it is a testament to how fast Richard Bluck, Weta Digital, Park Road Post, etc. can work and deliver high quality results.

4K color corrected files were output and sent to the US, I think they arrived Friday before NAB started on Monday. I was in the booth for one of the first screenings (once they had the Sony 4K projector & media server all set up) to play back as UNCOMPRESSED 4K files (NOT DCI spec JPEG2000 compressed) via an uncompressed 4K playback server. (I'm awaiting clearance from the vendor to give specifics on that media server).

Jim & team were very open and transparent about the fact that this was test footage shot with alpha cameras and it didn't all go perfectly - after all, it was a test shoot. There were a couple of shots in particular that had issues - there's a shot of the teddy bear in the cockpit with some fixed pattern noise going on, but that was accidentally underexposed 4 stops and had to be brightened up in post, exposing an issue that has since been dealt with. I noticed some clipping whites in clouds in at least one aerial shot, but the first part of day one there was a hardware issue reducing their available dynamic range - all fixed now, just an issue with the alpha dev camera at the time.

WHAT I THOUGHT OF IT

Personally, I thought the footage looked fantastic, and about 3 minutes into my first viewing (saw it 3 times), I was thinking "They got ALL THIS in just TWO days?" Man those folks were productive! Aerial shots chasing biplanes from a helicopter with the camera mounted on the chopper's nose, operated remotely. In broad daylight, well exposed planes, skies, and ground detail all in the same shot, same exposure. Wow. Amazingly crisp detail that even the 4K JPEG stills don't do justice to. I overhead an industry veteran that I know/respect say it didn't look like film, it didn't look like video, it was a third thing. It is visually grainless in playback - at the viewing distances we had in the theater, could not see any grain, is just super clean. If you want to add grain, feel free, or you'll get it on filmout, but it isn't in the projected footage.

Considering all the constraints during this project: the time limits during shooting and post, the limited camera functionality at the time, this all looks phenomenal. In terms of "real world" shooting, I don't know how you could ask for a more realistic, rigorous, highly qualified test shoot. Rarely has "in the field" and "in the trenches" been as literally applicable to a test shoot.

Other than the above mentioned issues (camera shake from helicopter, teddy bear FPN, clipped clouds in a shot or two), I only heard one complaint, ever, about the footage while in the booth - a DP that clearly had a strong attachment to film mentioned some trees in one of the aerial chase shots that he'd have liked to seen more shadow detail in...OK, slap a tracked power window on it and fix it...DONE.

To my eye, having worked with digital imagery since the earliest days of Photoshop (v1.0.4), working with scanned 4x5 transparencies, 35mm for still, video, and feature work, digital acquisition for every possible deliverable from cell phones to movie screens....this is going to work. This is going to work VERY well, for a LOT of people that have very high expectations in terms of depth of field, detail in scene, dynamic range, etc. Oh - and one point I heard repeatedly - some folks feel HD poops out when doing big, wide, vista shots when it comes to fine detail - not so here - the helicopter shots chasing the biplane and triplane held detail as far as you'd want to see it.

If I sound glowingly, effusively positive about the shoot, the short, the workflow, it is because it is hard not to be VERY impressed with what has been accomplished here. Kudos to Peter and his team in NZ, and kudos to the Red team for all the amazing and hard work they've done over the last year and a half, and especially to Jim himself - without his dream, vision, drive, and backing, this never would have happened. *

Presuming Red can ship & support reliable cameras in bulk, I don't know what there would be to complain about for what they are delivering, and ESPECIALLY at this price point.

Other info on the shoot:

David Mullen, writing from his own personal perspective on the Cinematography.com forums: "For me, the RED camera was the highlight of NAB. The Peter Jackson short film shot on the two RED prototypes was an amazing achievement. I would describe the look as something like 5245 50D 35mm scanned at 4K -- sharp & clean. Fine detail even in extreme long shots (of course, the demo also points out the beauty of 4K digital projection to show-off that detail.)"

EDIT - I had the above totally wrong earlier, thinking David Stump not David Mullen, and mis-attributing Stump's credentials anyway. Anyone who read the wrong attributions, my apologies for my speed blogging error, and to both Davids for mixing them up.

Follow the link for the rest of his commentary. He's a strongly qualified viewpoint, and goes into detail.

----

Avid NAB 2007 Student Blog: UT VIDEO - Peter Jackson in RED - UT Austin (where I went, Hook'em Horns!) student video blogs on Red, including talking to the DoP (the good part starts about 2 minutes in). Richard (DoP) talks about how they used it as they would any camera in production - on cranes, handheld, on sticks, on helicopters, etc.

----

FresHDV's coverage - NAB Video Podcast - Peter Jackson DP Richard Bluck Interview at FreshDV (also includes stills)

"It's built from the ground up to be a camera for a cinematographer" - Richard Bluck

In post on Pablo, "could do what we wanted to with it...treated it like a film grade" - "responded really well" - "Most amazing thing about it is the price range" - lets folks get access to stuff couldn't have access to otherwise

----

Visible noise pattern in PJ footage - Reduser.net

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Bonus round - I got quoted on Ain't It Cool News.

And, as always, if you need some help or recommendations on what Red gear or post gear to buy, or how all this stuff will work once you buy it, or how to make it all work together, that is exactly what I do for a living - I'm trying to position myself as the Go-To guy on all things Red related. Contact me at the link at top of page.

* and extra Teh Luv to Frederic - if HE hadn't come along, NONE of this would have happened! He also got me involved in all of this most excellent madness, so I owe a huge debt of gratitude to him as well. Thanks man!

Labels: Red

This one's short and sweet, but I wanted to get it exactly right and have it be its own freestanding article.

FACTS

Aside from new accessories coming from Red (separate article coming), Red announced 3 new classes of upcoming products. To be precise and accurate, I'm going to directly quote Ted Schilowitz, the spokesperson for Red:

1.) A "professional pocket camera" - also referred to elsewhere as a handheld camera

2.) A "new line of 4K projectors"

3.) A "new line of 4K displays"

I asked "Plural on both?" he said "Plural on both."

No timeline, no pricing, no features on any of that beyond the obvious. At this point, I think they've learned about saying too much too early, so they are just putting it out there.

100% SPECULATIVE CONJECTURE

My tea leaf reading based on those statements:

1.) "Professional pocket camera" - Ted was clear to point out "PROFESSIONAL" - NOT a prosumer camera, a professional camera. I think he said something about not plastic, too. Therefore high quality and not cheap. "Pocket" - not handheld, not small form factor, the word "pocket" was explicitly used, so that implies a pretty small camera to me. So if it is small, I'd guess that would imply it has to fit in your pocket with the lens on it, right? And if the lens on it (presumably fixed I'm guessing, otherwise what mount is small enough to fit a lens on it in your pocket?) is small enough that the whole thing fits in your pocket, would that not imply a smaller sized sensor? And if a smaller sensor, wouldn't that imply lower res? If Red One is as small as they could make a 4K camera, wouldn't pocket sized have to be lower capability anyway with fewer electronics/power/image processing? Therefore lower res as well? All conjecture based on "pocket" - I dunno if that will all logically follow from there...

2.) 4K projectors - man, that's takin' the fight right into Sony's face, as they are the only 4K projectors presently on the market (although I keep hearing rumblings about others under development). I didn't get a chance to research projectors at NAB. But if the pricing of it is in line with how Red prices other stuff...is it possible to build a 4K projector for under $20K-$25K? I hear the bulbs are wickedly expensive, some $1000s of dollars apiece for a high intensity Xenon lamp, which spectrally is the way to go. And a LINE of 4K projectors - we don't know if they are talking about something powerful enough for theatrical applications, or business applications (DI work, medical & industrial visualization?), or even home applications (based on the arc angles of human vision, how big a screen do I need to even SEE 4K if sitting 10-15 feet away?). And other than theatrical distribution, where would 4K footage be coming from? Video cards are soooooo not up to doing 4K at decent frame rates these days, which leads us to...

3.) 4K displays - for editorial and VFX work, these'd be great - to FINALLY see all the res of what you're working on. Wait a minute, maybe I'm getting ahead of myself - are these computer displays, video/image displays, or both? Unknown at this point in time. An especially large concern of mine would be what the interface is - the only known video interface for 4K at this time is a big fat wad of HD-SDI dual links - a total of 8 to be exact - Sony's 4K projector is actually 4096x2160, which is the DCI spec for 4K, which is four dual link 2048x1080 images set up in quads. Kind of a hassle. Is that what we'd have to use for an interface for video stuff? That'd require some new hardware, to say the least. And when they say line of displays, my eyes light up on that one - I'd love to see a 32"-36" 4K display for doing post work, and a bigger (50-80 inch) display for client, coloring and living room viewing. The thought of the price point on that could get pretty scary, too. For computer displays, there are twin dual link DVI to drive 3840x2160 (or is it x2400?) displays, but frame rates can be an issue - I think we had something like 16Hz at best at IBC trying to drive a 3840xwhatever display from a computer video card. DEFINITELY takes a high end, specialty video card.

Notice they haven't said diddly about display tech either - LCD, LCoS, plasma, etc., just "4K," "displays," and "projectors" - the rest is all speculation.

If they had announced these kinds of things last year at NAB or even IBC, they wouldn't have been taken seriously. But to have working cameras in the booth, a Peter Jackson demo, nearly 2000 (I'm guessing, was around 1700 on morning of day 2 I think) cameras on order, working software, Final Cut native support already working....Red's level of credibility is MUCH higher now.

Considering the new markets Red is entering, Sony (in particular*), Panasonic, JVC & Canon won't be resting quite as comfortably post NAB as they have in years past. While Red has yet to ship reliable cameras in bulk, they are right on the cusp of shipping first cameras to clients. The next 6 months should be very telling for Red, and very informative for their competitors.

I would hope/expect that the pricing on all these new items would be as similarly aggressive as the Red One is compared to other professional HD+ cameras. Will this NAB put a dent in other high end camera sales/rentals this year? Will anybody decide to wait on buying a 4K Sony projector to see what Red comes out with, considering how aggressive the Red One's pricing is in comparison to, say, the F23 (at roughly 10x the price)?

Push the Big Red button, indeed.

-mike

* - since Sony makes 4K projectors, the F23, the F900R/F950 cameras, small professional cameras, displays, etc. - all stuff Red is taking on now

Update - somebody pointed out this:

In the comments somebody pointed out this:

Westinghouse's 56-inch 4x 1080p LCD - Engadget

...at about $10K estimated price point, minimum.

Labels: NAB, Red

Workin', workin'...I've been going through hundreds of photos and hours of audio notes this weekend organizing it all after catching up on sleep, laundry, etc.

Detailed coverage from booth visits at NAB starts tomorrow with pics, links, etc.

-mike

...so I'm sitting in the Vegas airport, my flight leaves in about an hour.

Riding the monorail back to the hotel, I was talking to a guy from Genelec (marker of badass speakers) that after this week, the most complicated technology I wanted to deal with for the rest of the day would be a beer bottle...and it had better be open already.

I am sooooo whipped and tired - it has been a long hard week. You might have noticed that I haven't blogged much the last few days, but fear not, I have been gathering a lot of information that I'll be transcribing and posting soon.

Monday and Tuesday I was working in the booth at Red, and Wednesday was unfortuntately mostly lost to prepping for the panel. I did have a very nice lunch with Andreas Wittenstein, creator of the Sheer codec. We talked about the new Final Cut, and lamented the lack of improvements in RGB 4:4:4 handing in >8 bits. But we did doodle around with the idea of how we might use Synchromy (his tech to do lossless coversions between Y'CbCr & RGB) to do high quality finish using a 10 bit 4:2:2 timeline with the High Precision button clicked in Sequence Settings - that triggers a 32 bit float space calculation (why so slow). So if anybody has any bright ideas (Prolost & Creative Workflow Hacks, i'm thinking of you), it'd be good to figure out. May take some rendering and transcoding passes, but could be worth it.

Wednesday night was the giant Final Cut Pro User Group meeting, we (the Red group) got there late, in part because we brought a toy...a built up Red One. I was out talking in the lobby when they went up onstage, so when I came back in they were up there so I shamelessly trotted up on stage as well. Ted told the crowd about the new camera, projectors & displays (more on those later), and answered a few questions about workflow. I got pulled into a conversation about a possible post supervisor gig, so I missed everyone taking off. So I chatted with a bunch of folks and eventually headed over to the G-Tech/AJA party, and MAN they had a swank suite - rotating bed, infinity hot tub on the 31st floor, the G-Girls, etc. etc. etc. Pictures etc. to follow.

A note of thanks - I don't even know how many dozens of folks came up to me during the show or at parties or whatever and said thanks for the site, or that it had truly helped them accomplish their dream projects, etc. - that really, REALLY helped to hear after all the time I've put into this thing. So thank you right back. Also, thanks to all who asked about my Dad - he is doing fine, home and well, and will be hiking this summer in Colorado, so all that could be hoped for has gone well.

Thursday I got up early and headed over to the Red booth to put on my other hat - blogger/journalist. I interviewed Ted about the new products, talked geek with David Macintosh about the viewfinder and its special features, to Deanan about the import software, and to Ted & Stuart about some of the new hardware bits that were introduced at the show.

From there, I went to the booths of Sony, JVC, Canon, Panasonic, Abel Cine (for Vision Research's Phantom HD & 65 cameras, Mitch Gross was entirely helpful and cool, always good to put a face to a name), Band Pro for the F23 (Randy Wedick and Michael Bravin filled me in with all the deets), Adobe, Apple, plug-in pavillion, Matrox, and more.

All in due time.

After the PA announced the show was over at 4 (to a tired but heartfelt cheer from all the vendors), I went back by the Red booth where the gang gathered to watch the Peter Jackson film one more time all together and applauded and whooped at it - most of us have only seen it once maybe twice all week. I said goodbye to everybody and headed back over to my last of 3 hotels this week (Imperial Palace, I wouldn't wish that boil of a hotel on anyone), got my stuff, and my friend Greg Bernstein picked me up.

Let me tell you a little about Greg - we met in California when I was working at a crazy place, a mafia daddy's money tech startup, and at the time he'd been telling me about his involvement in Project Bandaloop - which involved rock climbing for a day up the 3000 foot sheer face of El Capitan. (Greg used to be Search & Rescue in Yosemite.) He then bolted in and hung off the sheer face with a VX1000 to shoot his friends performing dance moves while dangling off 80 feet of rope thousands of feet off the ground. Gorgeous stuff like syncronized leaps out into space while harnessed in.

He convinced me it'd be fun to learn to rock climb with my tall & lean (once upon a time, ahem) self, so after three trips to the rock gym in San Francisco, we hopped in a van and drove to go climbing outdoors for the first time with him and his girlfriend Moon ("Moon" is her full and complete name on her driver's license, think Sting/Cher/Bono/Moon).

Where do we go?

The Black Cliffs.

In Cannibal Gulch.

In Donner Pass.

"Donner Pass? Dude, isn't that where people, like, ATE each other because it was so hard to get out of there?"

Yep. That Donner Pass.

I made the multi-pitch ascent, it scared the crap out of me, but I was elated once we made it to the top.

OK, so it's that Greg. He's a coolio badass, and I miss him, I hadn't seen him in years until we crossed paths at NAB last year.

He and his friend Atalanta picked me up at my hotel and we drove over to go see Ka, the massive Cirque du Soleil production. Turns out Greg knows Desiree, the Goddess of the Theater (manager of the enormous event), so we got to get in and got great seats.

Ever seen a Cirque du Soleil event? Before you die, you should. I saw "O" a few years ago, and it was the single most amazing live theatrical experience of my life.

So I couldn't wait to see Ka - it is an enormous theater with a stupendous physical infrastructure - Greg said the redesign cost $250M to do.

The show was amazing, with a huge set that wrapped about 200+ degrees around the audience. Every chair had stereo speakers in the headrest to augment the experience. We were dead center about 80 feet from stage. As with all Cirque productions, amazing physical feats, but in this production, there are ENORMOUS stage elements involved - 30x75ish foot stage elements on a motion base that can go up or down 40 or more feet and rotate to the full vertical with all kinds of extra tricks.

Some might perceive this as braggin', but I just really enjoyed having cool friends that do cool things. For all my techno-schpoop that I do, ya gotsta remember to do cool things in life and, ya know, LIVE. Greg gets to shoot amazing footage and do amazing things - last year he was shooting in extreme conditions in Alaska - makes me think of Rutger Hauer's speech in Blade Runner about seeing and doing Amazing Things - and life is to be EXPERIENCED, not just lived or documented (hint to self).

Oops, plane boarding, I'll finish this later...

Labels: NAB

Hey all -

Here is a link to a PDF version of my presentation I gave at NAB.

My topic was Digital Deliverables, I covered a wide swath from the DCI spec (4096x2160) down to web downloads (320x240) with lots of stops inbetween, including Digital Intermediates, the DCI spec, film festival masters (some good tricks for indies), HD tape formats and how to evaluate them for quality, a brief detour into what makes a good image from a camera, shiny plastic deliverables (DVD, HD-DVD, Blu-ray), and online deliverables, which was really the most fun and interesting part, diving into the business & consumer side of things on that.

So download and check it out if you want to. More NAB coverage comin'.

-mike

Labels: NAB

Hey all -

it has been ultra busy the last few days, been doing LOTS of stuff and learning all kinds of good things. Spent an hour with the Dalsa folks yesterday, talked to the developers of Color, lots more good stuff. I've figured out that my time is better spent gathering info and getting a few minutes of sleep rather than blogging. So there'll be a big bolus of info....soon enough.

-mike

Labels: NAB

AppleInsider | A closer look at Apple's new ProRes 422 video format

Nice in depth thing that uses stats off the Apple site to show bitrates at size and frame rate for regular and HQ ProRes 422, # of simultaneous streams, etc.

They misunderstood Red's compression technique, but whatevs.

-mike

Hey all -

Check out Red.com for a buncha new stuff on their site, including a TENTATIVE estimated schedule of ship dates:

RED Digital Cinema - TENTATIVE shipping schedule for RED ONE

April - May - Serial #1-12
June - Serial #13-100. (Partially enabled feature set)
July - Serial #101-300. (Partially enabled feature set)
August - Serial #301-550 (90% enabled feature set)
September - Serial #551-1000 (98% enabled feature set)
October - Serial #1001-1700 (Fully enabled feature set)
November - Serial #1701- 2500
December - Serial #2501- 3500


Also has details about how feature complete the cameras will be when, refund policies, etc.

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Red / Workflow - screenshots of Redcine, which is quite cool but a very different kind of app than I've used before - pieces of a lot of things we've used/seen, but never in one place like this.
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Also, the Peter Jackson movie should be downloadable off the website they've said, just didn't say when.

==========

Steve Gibby's Part 2 on Red has been posted:Studio Daily | RED at NAB, Part 2

As for my pre-NAB predictions (23 of them), so far it seems I got 14 right, 3 wrong, and 5 are still unknown (wait, I missed one in there somewhere, but whatevs). Just fun to keep score.

Also, Endgadget has an article up I won't bother linking to, since they got a ton of stuff completely wrong. Boingheads said 4K wouldn't work at first on the cameras - totally backwards - the first X# of cameras will ship only shooting 4K Redcode RAW and won't have the lesser RGB modes enabled. Other details incorrect as well. Feh.

That said, oopsie, a few things I've gotten wrong the last few days:

1.) Final Cut Studio 2 will NOT ship at first with Redcode RAW support - so Final Cut Pro 6.0.0 won't have it, but a future release will. Perhaps a 6.0.x or 6.x version. There is no official timetable for when, for now consider it like the "technology previews" of past when format support was shown at NAB in a demonstration and then shown some months later. New tidbits - there's also a transcode straight to ProResHD422 (regular or high quality) import module (DAMN handy), and a FX plugin that lets you color correct in Final Cut Pro with all the controls you have in Redcine - so you can directly manipulate the 12 bit RAW data in a 32 bit space, and delivers it back to timeline in...whatever timeline stuff is. Kewl.

2.) I got the Red Prime Lenses wrong in a previous post - they are actually 15mm f2.8, 25mm f1.9, 35mm f1.9, 50mm f1.9, 85mm f1.9

More to come, Day Two in the booth starts in a few hours. I'm working on my presentation stuff for my panel on Wednesday:
WED
2:00 - 3:15pm
Digital Delivery from Cinema to the Web

The DCI has finally set standards for transmission and delivery of digital content to theaters. But with podcasting, YouTube© and other venues now available, what is involved with encoding, encryption and the various aspects of the digital delivery of HD video content? Together we will explore this whole process.

Labels: Apple, NAB, Red

Here's pics from Red booth - detailed pics of cameras, accessories, etc.

I'll get more tomorrow. Line around the booth was constant, 45 min to one hour wait. Woah. Busy busy busy, big hit.

Pics of cameras in light/medium/heavy configs, etc.

I'll have more tomorrow.

Descriptions of each under pic, gotta scoot now.

-mike

UPDATE - just got back from the Red Team dinner - an interesting tidbit to me as a non-shooter - Matt, one of the industrial design guys, was talking about his experience in the booth today. He's working the other side of the booth on the camera side (I'm working the post/Redcine side), and he talked about realizing that the Red camera was changing the way people interacted and interfaced with a camera - for the first time it was a 360 degree experience.

At first when I heard this I had no idea what he was talking about, it sounded spacey oddball to me. Then he went on to explain - most cameras are interfaced with, as in handled with and by, a limited number of points - in the most basic terms, there are only so many places to grab onto that sucker. You typically have the handle on top, and if up on sticks, you may have a handle sticking out the back to one side. Sure you have your hand on the lens, but in terms of a solid physical anchor, limited choices.

Matt noticed that folks had a tendency to immediately reach out and grasp one of the handles on the "heavy" config he was working with - there are four handles on the Red Cage, one on each corner. And so suddenly folks could grab onto it from any side and manipulate it as they needed to. Even better, it was on a handling surface that was a short distance from the center of rotation. While a longer radius would give more torque, that can actually be a bad thing when you are trying to do small, subtle, precise motions. If you have a long lever with a lot of, um, leverage, the stiction of the camera head can be an impediment, especially when combined with the bending/elasticity of a control arm - you can get sudden gross movement. But with these close set handles (to the center or rotation), you could maintain high tension on the fluid head for limited/smooth motion, yet still do very precise moves.

Then David Macintosh kicked in a comment about how when you're looking through a viewfinder, you're losing at least half your universe or something like that by looking through one eye through the limited view of the lens, and Matt jumped back in pointing out how the ability to hold onto something (in this case the camera when on sticks) helped give you a physical point of reference, a somatic cartesian coordinate axis if you will (my phrase), to have confidence in limiting your field of view through the viewfinder.

Matt was very spot-on with this - it wasn't that his words were ultra-eloquent, but that he instinctively knifed straight to the value that this simple addition of four handles created.

My point here isn't about the benefit of this one specific feature (although for shooters it is definitely a nice feature), but that this kind of depth of experience & insight that hints at the depth that the Red Team has - Matt's a nice guy, I met him and we talked industrial design geekery at the LA screening (I used to work at ID firm frogdesign), but he surprised & impressed me with this sudden dive into human/machine interface subtlety, diving straight to the zen level interaction you want to have with a machine. I'm not capturing the essence of what he said, since it was off the cuff at dinner over drinks, but his ability to pick this experience out - to distill fact from the vapor of nuance, to pluck this wheat from the chaff of the day's crushing crowds and expeirence - is indicative to me of the consistent level of intelligence, skill, and Just Getting It that the Red Team seems to have in spades. I'm sure there are lots of bright 'n shiny people at lots of companies at NAB, but it is always a pleasure to find so much of this characteristic in one place. And it is this kind of interaction, when 5 people can suddenly all jump into a conversation on one very specific detail of something (even if it isn't their particular area of expertise) and all "get it" and contribute to the flow and thread, that really jazzes me about working with other groups of people. I typically work alone and am expected to be The Answer Guy, but working with a smart/creative/clever bunch just feeds my soul on such a wonderfully profound level that I don't otherwise get on a regular basis.

-mike, trying to blog the essence of something kinda intellecutally profound at 11:30 after mulitple drinks and over the drone of a snoring roommate....

PS - and oh yeah - I was talking to a friend who didn't know about Red and was asking about what the big deal was, and I was saying how many cool new approaches in so many areas of the camera were there - the sensor, the codec, Redcine, the Lego-like modularity and configurability of the physical form factor, the recording options, the EVF & LCD, the pricing, etc. etc. etc. Any of which would be toutable as a major feature on any other camera, yet here they are all in one.

Labels: NAB, pictures, Red

BUSY first day in the booth, LOTS of new stuff to talk about in the Red booth, 7:30pm, dinner in 1/2 hour across the Strip, so a quickie update:

first off, the fun gossipy stuff -

As you may already know, Red was approached by a director who wanted to shoot some test footage - so Red said OK. That meant spinning up Jim's jet for a nonstop flight to New Zealand to drop in on Peter Jackson.

Thinking he wanted to shoot some charts and stuff and maybe set up a scene or two, they showed up with Boris and Natasha, the two testbed cameras. Turns out he had a script and actors and extras and everything...and everyting included planes, tanks, shooting from helicopters, 'splosions, teddy bears, the WORKS.

So they shot for 2 days with two alpha level dev cameras 2 1/2 weeks ago. Then they edited it in a pre-release Final Cut Pro (with the native 4K footage), did VFX, color graded on Weta's Pablo, and kicked out 4K files that are being screened in the Red booth in 4K on a projector in their own little 40 seat theater. And WOW, it looks GOOD. So there's a twelve minute short directed by Peter Jackson set in World War I showing in 4K in the Red booth with two storylines - one literally in the trenches (that was my cheating allusion the other day), and the other in the sky. They shot from a helicopter chasing two vintage WWI planes dogfight around the sky.

If you're at NAB, COME SEE THIS.

Other gossipy bit - Red is developing new product lines - 4K projector/s, 4K display/s, and a mini, handheld professional camera. No timetable, no prices, just know they are coming. Perhaps what they are showing at the booth will be convincing enough for folks to take them seriously when they say they are going to do something.

:D

I'll break it down more later, but that's the coolio news.

Next up - new lenses. The bad news first - the 18-85 that was due later this year is "on delay" with no set timetable. Bummer. The good news, however, is that an 18-50 zoom will be promptly available to folks as their cameras are ready. And YES you can switch your reservation over. And YES, it costs less, only $6500 not $9500. I'm probably going to switch over for my camera.

Other good news - reservation holders get priority, so don't sweat freaking out about nailing down new accessories immediately - they'll call you when your # is up and you can sort it out then - no need to panic and order - priority based on reservation # - you get all your toys at once, so don't worry.

Other new lenses - primes! UPDATE - I had them wrong previously, the correct #s are: 15mm f2.8, 25mm f1.9, 35mm f1.9, 50mm f1.9, 85mm f1.9. Prime set for about $20K for the full set (and only sold as a set, but Jim has said thinkin' about selling the 18 & 85's separately has been reported elsewhere).

-Redcine - waaaaaaaaaay more powerful than I'd expected -this would be at LEAST v3.0 for anybody else. Lots of gestural controls, keyboard shortcuts, stacked views of scenes (horizontal) and takes (stacked vertical on top) etc. - this sucker is built for speed. That said, it is daunting to sit down on for the first time - there is no "Oh, clearly I start here" about it. Even knowing what it was supposed to do, there was a lot I had to wrap my head around. It bears a strong relation to Assimilate's Scratch in its organizational structure, but no wonder - Scratch has been color correction tool of choice for all presentations to date (IBC, LA, NYC, etc.).

Another major thing to wrap your head around - it is NOT a color correction tool - no secondaries, no vignettes, etc. What it does, and all that it does, and all that it is SUPPOSED to do, by DESIGN, is...mimic what can be done in camera. You have curves. You have exposure controls, the units are exposure stops. +1 is 1 stop over, -1 one stop under. You have channel controls, etc. So anything you do when assigning non-destructive color decisions in Redcine....can be saved to a file and loaded into the camera via SD card as a preset look, so that future stuff will have that look assocaited. But it doesn't bake that look in - it is just metadata associated with the clip that rides forward. So when you play off the camera, you'll see that look. I think it is some kinda combo LUT/matrix kinda thingy they are doing, gotta find out more. But the idea is that is just a non-destructive look applied to footage - you can remove that look and still edit/alter the RAW data. That's the power of it. Think of it as shooting RAW mode on a digital still camera, and bringing it into After Effects and tweaking the colors there (or dropping into FCP timeline and applying 3-way CC on it) - you can change stuff, but always change your mind and put it back the way you had it. And those looks can be transferred, saved, loaded on camera, loaded on 5 cameras on set, etc.

All the benefits of this will take some time to soak in and percolate.

Redcine is waaaaaay more than just a conversion tool. There are storyboarding things that help, there's...lots to learn, and clearly they have ambitious plans for it. Wait and see.

More good news - WORKING CAMERAS (YES PLURAL) IN THE BOOTH. Live output from one on a 64" plasma, working EVFs in the booth, working LCD panels (the little ones on camera) in the booth, new widgets in the collection of stuff for the cages,

No demo of focus assist, exposure control, no working Red Flash units are only bummers.

Cameras 1-12 shipping over next 6 or so weeks, then ramping up to hopefully fulfill the 1500 or so pre-NAB pre-orders

Speaking of orders, no more reservations, they are orders - no fixed serial #s, gotta put 10% down on PayPal or credit card.

More details at red.com, I haven't even had a chance to look today.

OH! And I forgot to point it out this morning - my buddy Steve Gibby got the scoop du jour with his article on all the new details, he probably covers tons of stuff I missed.

OK, gotta zip, gotta clean up and go to dinner.

OH OH OH - one other thing I got WRONG yesterday - Final Cut Studio 2 due next month will NOT support Redcode RAW from the get go - a FUTURE version will. We were demoing it running in FCP today, you can File==>Import==>Redcode to pull it in, and works w/4K footage and extracts 1K or 2K (depening on horsepower, a MacBook Pro can do 1K) in REALTIME on the timeline. Or can import and directly transcode to ProResHD, low or high quality.

-mike

Labels: NAB, original, Red

Hey all -

I got an exclusive interview with Ted Schilowitz of Red Digital Cinema in the booth at NAB today before the show opens tomorrow (Monday). It is a video interview, and you can see a bit of the booth in the background. I talked to Ted about Apple's announced Final Cut Pro 6 and support for the native Redcode RAW (the compressed Red RAW bayer data) format. Ted talks about how you can use 4K Redcode RAW in Final Cut, and what your viable options are for finishing work in 4K, HD, SD, etc.

We also talked about the Red Drive (you can see one in the video) and how your footage will flow from camera to editorial in a surprisingly simple and painless flow. The idea of nearly 3 hours of 4K footage that fits in your cargo pants pocket....wow.

The fact that Redcode is natively readable by Final Cut opens up a lot of doors potentially - I need to verify details, but it SOUNDS like you'd be able to use the native Redcode RAW (the 27.5 MB/sec compressed, not the 325 MB/sec uncompressed) in Final Cut Pro 6 (this is verified), but also in Motion, Shake, After Effects, etc. - other apps on your INTEL Mac (not PPC) that support the QT import architecture. Again, I need to verify details, but this sounds BIG.

I'll have more to say tomorrow...when I can.

-mike

UPDATE - there's this video now up on Apple's site: Apple - Final Cut Studio 2 - Final Cut Studio in Action - is a Red specific video

CORRECTION: Final Cut Pro 6.0 (.0), that'll ship with Final Cut Studio 2, will NOT support Redcode RAW 4K right out of the gate - it'll be a future release, is just a "technology demonstration" for now. Apple has committed to supporting it, we just don't know when that future point release will be. Think about HDV 24p demo last year at NAB.

Also, you directly transcode to ProRes422 (regular or HQ) when importing Redcode RAW. So Redcode RAW 4K gets read in, but ProRes422 gets written to disk.

Labels: NAB, Red

Further thougths on today's announcements

1.) I'm glad I'm not a Final Touch HD based shop right now - it's for free to all the owners of next Final Cut Studio, most of whom will consider it good enough to do themselves

2.) So therefore I should be putting out some training materials toot sweet, right?

3.) ProRes 422 - hard to get a clear story on it - is it wavelet based? An optimized PhotoJPEG? I don't know, but I want to know more.

4.) ProRes 422 will be a big, Big, BIG deal for us FCP folk - consider it DNxHD at a fraction of the price

5.) I had been wondering about ProRes support in Color for output to a "real" monitor - one of the MAJOR shortcomings of Final Touch was that it was fine realtime on your computer display, but not the case out HD-SDI due to bus speed issues - but AJA's new I/O HD has HDMI in and out - perhaps we'll be able to connect HDMI to the DVI port on computer that is GPU accelerated and it'll handle conversion to component or HD-SDI for professional monitoring....but it'll only be 8 bit.

6.) I'd love to see AJA I/O with a PCIe interface on it so I could shoot baseband uncompressed video around - think of Kona3 and I/O HD mashed into one product. It'd solve some other issues. I/O HD only talks to computer via FW800, which has a very definite bandwidth limitation. What about apps trying to feed it? Rather than providing baseband uncompressed to a display, with this new box you have to compress to ProRes before sending out - thus stealing cycles from CPU if you were generating new footage, such as anything that renders on the fly - be in realtime FCP timeline stuff, or Motion, or After Effects, etc. - there's a CPU load "tax" on compressing this stuff.

7.) Just how long does it take to compress to/from ProRes 422 if you don't have the hardware available? If you have to transcode? How slow is it?

8.) Color really is a major, major thing. I'd used Final Touch, the basis of Color, extensively for about 7 months from fall 2005 to spring 2006. While the coloring tools were excellent, it had MAJOR workflow issues (getting in and out of Final Cut). The analogy I used today - "That bird soars beautifully in the air, but just don't ask it to (or watch) it take off or land." Since they were a niche 3rd party app, Apple wasn't too motivated to solve all their problems. Now that they've bought it, that makes them MUCH more interested in solving the to/from Final Cut issues. The other issue was realtime performance out the HD-SDI ports - again, gotta learn more. I had problems over a year ago with the Geometry stuff as well - Final Touch was really a FRAME coloring tool, there were problems when working with interlaced footage, such as for rotations and scaling. Presumably they've fixed all that.

9.) I got into a debate with a buddy about ProRes and cross platform issues - I was arguing that unless that was what they were using for small proxies in Final Cut Server, there was no way ProPres was going to be a cross platform codec - it'd be like the DVCPRO HD codec, only delivered on Macs running Final Cut Studio.

10.) No mention was made of Leopard or PPC during the preso today concerning Final Cut - my guess is that all that nifty realtime goodness will require an Intel box. How much runs on PPC will be a very interesting question.

11.) No mention of the RAID! Rumor has it that product is in trouble for internal reasons, so it may be QUITE some time before we see it.

12.) DVD Studio Pro is still alive, but literally only mentioned, no demo, no improvements. Will there be a sizeable upgrade once Blu-ray spec is finalized and Apple an code to that target? Or what is the holdup? I was surprised that NOTHING was mentioned other than "It's in there."

13.) Compressor launching instances is clearly a hack to solve the poor threading control in Tiger until Leopard ships. Hey, if it works to launch 2/4/8 instances, that is fine, but I'd like to see it run right on ONE instance. In time - Leopard and then a 3.1 rev or somesuch.

14.) As I'd guessed, this version of Final Cut Studio not officially supported on integrated Intel graphics stuff - aka Minis & my MacBook that I'm typing on. Final Cut runs on those machines (I captured the Ted interview in FCP 5.1.4 from HVX200 footage in the booth, thanks to Bart & Brian for shooting and assistance!). So will it install, what will/won't work? Gotta wait until it ships. In the meantime, FCS wasn't officially supported on this box, but I can still do useful work even though some things (like full screen playback) don't work.

15.) I'm curious how far the support for all the new stuff goes all at the same time - I noticed that Open Format Timeline was one timeline, and they said "switching to a ProRes timeline" - so it SEEMS THAT Open Format timelines are "special" and not the standard deal. I could see how Open Format timelines would have less realtime performance than others, since they are doing extra work to scale and 3:2 pulldown and all that stuff. But, for instance, can you use Redcode 4K RAW in Color? Can you use ProRes in there? Can you ProRes and output to I/O HD in Color for realtime HD-SDI playback? Or will this be like when they said it does 8 bit, it does 10 bit, it does realtime, but only 8 bit realtime not 10 bit?

16.) As someone pointed out in Comments, whither Spotlight searching in Browser? That would have been super-nifty-keen. Maybe is there, but I didn't see...

17.) Drat - no new GPU or optical drive options. We were all caught up in the other stuff. As I suspected, what we got last week was the "hide in shame" release that underwhelmed. Unless they are going to spring it on us in the AM, which I doubt, since I was walking through the Apple booth today, which is Red Drive throwing distance from Red's booth (AJA is inbetween).

18.) ProRes - support for alpha? Somebody asked in comments, good point.

19.) Final Cut Server IS Proximity that Apple bought last year. Minimal visible differences, akin to what was done with Final Touch/Color.

20.) No mention of Media Manager or other fixes, but they did say they listen and fixed a bunch of stuff, those aren't the kinds of details they give us in teh big overview - gotta get an engineer in a corner and drill, drill, drill...

21.) Whither 4:4:4 in the new version? Final Cut Pro 5.1.x only halfway supports 4:4:4 - you can use an AJA or BMD 4:4:4 10 bit codec, but all RGB processing delivers 8 bit back to timeline. 10 bits is 4:2:2 only. Has that changed? Unknown.

-mike

Labels: Apple, NAB

Apple Sunday Press Event Notes:

Not exactly sure how it happened, but I ended up in the VIP section and got a good seat, also got to hobnob a bit beforehand and talked to the crews from CreativeCow & Silicon Color, makers of Final Touch (bought by Apple and been busy bees I'd bet since). I bet Apple will shut down the WiFi shortly before they get going, so keep checking back on this page, I'll update as I can.

I'm sitting next to Graeme Nattress of Red, I'll see what thinks he smirks at to read the tea leaves.

: )

BEGINNING:

ROB, VP of something

-2 yrs ago, 250K FCP editors worldwide
-doubled to 500K last year
-over 800K paid FCP users,
-over 100 training centers around the world
-Amazon search on FCS, find 100s of books
-dozens of 3rd party plugins
-high end extensions to FCP - Automatic Duck, Pixel Farm, Omneon, Digital Heaven, etc.
-"It's a Final Cut World"
-sampler of FCP cut stuff video shown
-watching video....commericals, movies, TV, etc.

feedback from the world -
-"massive amounts of digital content"
-non-linear collaboration required (this bodes well)
-srhinking production schedules

NEW PRODUCT

FINAL CUT SERVER

=media asset management and collaboration
-works for 2 person collaboration up to multi-national news org
-cross platform client
-producer on a PC has a client as well "stuck on a PC"
-over 100 file types recognized
-auto proxy generation
-keyword searching
-sophisticated access control
-
Worlfkow automation:
-customizable templates
-watch and respond system
-review and approve tools
-automated encod and publish
-is an event based system, triggering as things happen
-if producer needs to be alerted to review, email gets sent out
-baked Compressor into it - can control delivery from Final Cut Server

FINAL CUT INTEGRATION;
-time saving shot selection tool
-proxy rough cut editing
-save as FCP project
-offline/online workflow

when you check out a low res proxy of a project, can connect and conform back to high res project, automated system

-KCAL in LA been testing for a couple of months
-they've bet big on Final Cut Server as a foundation for their system
-WATCHING VIDEO FROM KCAL - HD news
-up to 16 individual units, 300-400 promos/week
-promo world, assets come from all over
-can search by date, person who created, etc., can play back PC or Mac (implies codec stuff)
-can mark notes & communicate to editor/graphics person
=screening tool - can kick out a small QT file,
-being able to play realtime HD in quantity was necessary (more hints of codecs)
-everybody is able to be in/out of projects without waiting on next domino to fall, can work faster
-decided they wanted to be aggrressive - $999 w/10 concurrent licenses
-$1999 UNLIMITED concurrent users
-available this summer



FINAL CUT STUDIO:


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

-wanted it to be the biggest upgrade ever
-FINAL CUT STUDIO 2
-Final Cut Pro 6
-
PRO RES 4:2:2 codec
-10 bit 4:2:2
-full raster
-uncompressed project was 1TB, converting to highest quality was 170GB
-bandwidth efficiency, gotta work across a SAN OK
-color space headroom - 4:2:0 converted to 4:2:2
-support for next gen devices
-edit friendly
-translates whatever may come
-SONY - introducing new HDCAM SR system, 1080p60 w/ProRes 4:2:2 will be a good solution according to Sony
-to use that 1080p60 stuff, want it in an edit friendly format - can capture as ProRes 422
-PANASONIC - betting big on AVC Intra, ProRes 422 is an "outstanding post-production format for Panasonic's new genration of AVC-Intra based camcorders"
-RED (FIRST TIME THERE'S APPLAUSE) - VIDEO
Red Video
-edit 4K w/ease & elegance
-2 ways to work w/4K files in FCP
-native Redcode for DI finishes
-ProRes for broadcast work
-can plug 4K footage, plug into laptop, convert to ProRes 422 (!!!!)
-CineAlta cameras - MacBook Pro running Final Cut, how to get F900 into
-NEW HARDWARE - AJA device to get HD-SDI into FW800
-looks like a little G5 w/a handle on it, crapload of ports on the backside
-"I/O HD" hardware
-has ProResHD codec IN THE HARDWARE can move 10b422 ProRes - SD/HD up/down/cross conversion all in hardware
-10"x12"x15" or so guesstimated size based on seeing it
-PRICE? introduced at $3495, available in July
-exciting to work with upstarts like Red, AJA

OPEN FORMAT TIMELINE:
-mis formats
-mis resolutions
-mix framerates
-5 minutes after using it, you stop worry, IT JUST WORKS
-Smoothcam - remove unwanted camera motion right in FCP
-background optical flow analysis
-adjust parameters

EDITABLE MOTION TEMPLATES:
-access Motion templates directly w/in FCP
-can access templates in timeline in fCP
-can change instances to edit the master - IS LIKE STYLE SHEETS
-Motion is more integrated, and is a part of, Final Cut Pro

DEMO:
-Open format timeline, Paul demoing
-drag a file to timeline, FCP can set timeline to match
-22 MB/sec for 1080p24 4:2:2 ProRes
-if you drag a DVCPRO HD to timeline that is 1920x1080, it'll scale and aspect ratio correct on the fly to make it right
-mixing uncompressed w/ProRes to DVCPRO with a realtime effect, UNCOMPRESSED 10 BIT with realtime effects
-have interlaced DV footage, drop on timeline that is progressive, it just figures it all out
-could always send video to Motion, now can bring graphics to you - add templates from Motion are in FCP, can Superimpose, Overwrite, or Insert
-opens in Viewer to edit the text in FCP
-(has an orange render bar)
-unrendered Motion Template over 10b uncompressed video, plays...but w/low frame rate
-when change a template, ripples through EVERYWHERE you used that template - style sheets!
-FXPlug stuff - drop a plugin onto timeline, GPU realtime stuff
-plays back in pretty damn real time
-ProRes vs. Uncompressed video (using DCI StEM footage) - has split screen, plas it fullscreen
-the sample they are showing us, that I don't see a difference in, is TENTH generation - they've encoded and reincoded
-
back to Paul Saccone

MOTION -
-=======

embracing 3D
-multiple cameras and light sources
-intuitive navigation
-adding paint
vector based paint- particles, pics, etc.
-pressuure pen, speed sensitive
-edit strokes in 3D space
-apply behaviors to strokes
-
MATCH MOVING
-simple now
-autmatically follows the path of any animated object
-suggests points and inltelligently creates motion paths for video
-associate a path to an object, it handles it
-track, match, move on

RETIMING:
==========
-retiming w/out keyframing
-hold frame, set speed and other creative timing effects
-slip and slide retiming effects
-isn't tied to the piece you started with, can apply behavior elsewhere

AUDIO BEHAVIORS;
-aimations respond to the soundtrack
-control animations based on volume and frequency (After Effects already did some of this years ago, but was work)
-assign to any parameter on any object

DEMO OF THE NEW MOTION:
=======================
content library in Motion - tons of new stuff
-animated lines & widgets and stuf
-can animate the details of those library things to find the track you want it to effect, set scale to amplify it
-no copying of keyframing, is just a behavior
-tracking - new behaviors for tracking behaviors
-tracking points gives a 4x zoom, just shows the zoom
-hold down option and it shows you good tracking points WOWOWWOWOWOWOOWW
-Motion analyzes and figures out color space and subsampling etc. FOR YOU
-can also track in 3D space, does cool 3D parallax thing
-true 3D stuff in Motion:
-can move "observer" camera of scene w/out altering the shooting cameras
-while working in perspective view, get a live feedback of the camera's view
-there's sweep and dolly behaviors for cameras that do those move for you
-all behaviors have a little text description as well
-cameras can have targets to watch "scenes" that you set up
-as a former 3D guy, this is SOOOOOOOO much easier - isolate the movements by type not just axis
-Motion's new paint tool to add a "swoosh" around the text
-can create a paint stroke from anything, as well as their existing large library
-a lighting effect can be a brush
-can alter every attribute
-can edit the path of the stroke to move the stroke through 3D space
-can click a "make particles" based on a glowy bit
-have full controls of particle system
-but can click the "3D" button for particles to make them 3D (coooool, and applause)
-can alter the size of the emitter - be a point or even a box
-IMPRESSIVE realtime performance!

AUDIO:

SOUNDTRACK PRO - marriange between picture and audio
-3-up video HUD for placing clips (of audio)
-precisely align
-
Advanced Take Management for dialog replacement
-bring in multiple tracks and composite multiple track out of portions that work for you, take the composite down the road, and be able to dive back in and change the settings of that comosite
-surround sound embraced at core
-surround mixing
-single project for 5.1 an dstereo
-intuitive panner w/automation
surround sound plugins
-library of over 1000 music tracks and sound effects in 5.1
-good panning tools for speaker to speaker controlled by mouse in realtime as you do it
CONFORM:
-sync changes between picture and sound
-see diffferences highlighted in the grpahical view
audition, then accept or override changes
-if the edit changes for picture, can go through changes to accept or reject, or just let it work to move all the stuff where it is supposed to go

Soundtrack Pro 2 Demo

common to make fades in audio
-just drag corners
-drag clips over each other to do cross fade
-to detail crossfades, double click and you have a fade selectior HUD
-linear/log/s-curves/etc.
-location dialog - lots of potential problems
-showing a base thump in a clip (bumped microphone)
-waveform editor for any clip
-hit tilde key and get tool you need under mouse cursor (nice!)
-can scrub and find the problem
-have a frequency spectrum view
-can see brights for amplitude and frequencies
-can draw a box around an area in frequency spectrum view to edit just that part
-and it fixes the thump REALLY well
-and it is all non-destructive, so is all editable
-if there's a bad clip from set, they have 3 ADR options to try to fix it
-they can do a multi-clip take
-can take the 3 editors into multi-take editor to find which one works better
-can create a composition that will fix it
-with the take editor, can cut into the phrases and drag around and do fades to find which portion of which take you want to use....and all the bits and pieces will remain with the clip - at any time can go back and fix, if goes into a different comp, that all comes along for the ride

after dialog, want sound effects
-ships w/over 2000 royalty free sound effects
-does a search for "door" to get a door slam sound
-traditionally is tough to sync, gotta add a marker on picture to target where I want it to go, there is a multi-point video HUD
-get a 3up view for before, after, and where the mouse is
-didn't catch how all that works, but looks very cool, quickie drag and do
-drag & drop it in, drag around, hold donw V-key, and it is done to sync an effect to the shot - yeah is FAST
-
(LIVE COMMENT FEEDBACK - THE I/O HD BOX IS $3495, WE DON'T HAVE PRICING ON FINAL CUT STUDIO 2 YET...dunno if you need other stuff for converting to ProRes - I/O HD does it in realtime, but how long does it take without? Dunno yet)

-he's doing audio stuff - the updated revised picture edit comes in, and get to see an overview w/changes
-conform audio to adapt to picture changes is quick and easy, w/overview view that makes it simple to see what's up and where things have changed, can review it to make sure it all correct before committing and finding out might be incorrect
-has many dish panners, double click and get a new HUD that is NICE - get a circle that oyu can drag source around in the circle, and it shows you what speakers those are getting mapped to
-can do it live in realtime too - so play it back, and move the audio source sound around
-cranks the LFE knob to make the fireworks hit be heavier
-can have surround and stereo mix in same project - can optionally use surround panners for the full project
-stereo mix lives separately from 5.1 mix, but stays all in sync (nice!)
-over 150 royalty free sourround mix music beds for temp tracks or final delivery
-over 1000 new surround sound effects
-when you pull in surround clips, all 6 channels come along for the ride with all channels along for the ride - is just ONE thing to drag around and control
-professional multi-track editing,

COMPRESSOR 3:
=============

-is a major item now
-they use it inhouse to do all content for iTunes Store
-MPEG-2 broadcast streams
-iPod/AppleTV presets
-Telestream Episode Pro for VC-1, WMV, FLV, GXF, & MXF as a third party plugin to drop into place (big deal)
-timecoe overlays (!!!)
-audio and video fade in/out
-animated Motion watermorks (even unrendered Motion stuff)
-w/an 8 core station
-10 min HDV video to H.264 for iPod, takes 16:45 to do w/version 2
-compressor 3 talks to each thread on SAME BOX to 6:08 - 2.8X
-faster than realtime encoding

RICHARD TANNER talking about compressor 3

import a project as was done in FCP
-in compressor, can see markers from timeline
-new looking UI
-presets are better organized, defined by targets/presets for devices
-for the stuff you use over and over
-can create a custom folder with all your custom presets
-can drag it onto a clip to start the batch and applies all the presets
-can inspect settings as applied to a clip
-new features - can see source and change the settings for that clip
-16:9 content for iPod, for instance - can over-ride to make 4:3 if wished (stretched or cropped?)
-filters in Compressor are new
-Watermark & timecode generator
-timecode generator - can be either to start at zero or can pick up from original source clip (or from timeline for first option I take it)
-watermark - can "choose" a Motion project or a QT file
-doesn't even have to be pre-rendered
-a renderless pipeline between motion and compressor
-for the chapter markers in FCP timeline, can select one and open the edit window for it. HAve a # of devices on my list - can be relevant to all of them
-can give the chatper marker a name and URL or even an image - can be picked up from a file, or from a frame (for podcasts to pick the poster frame you want)
-iTunes will show the URL and the poster frame
-in System Prefs, can select # of instances (aka cores) to run 8 instances of Compressor to run one per core (this is in Qmaster settings)
-there's a badass core gauge that looks like %age utilization, and they swing up till all 8 processors get up to 95-100%
-in iTunes- chapter points all work with a pop-up, links that you typed in will take you out of iTunes to the web to the URL you set if you click in iTunes
-can publish to any device on the planet now
-

PRICING - IS STILL $1299 for Final Cut Studio 2
$499 upgrade from Final Cut Studio
$699 to upgrade from ANY version of Final Cut Pro
AVAILABLE NEXT MONTH


Back in 1999 in Final Cut Pro 1.0
-pro editing was $100K back then

Pro solution for color grading

-pro coloring is upwards of $100K
"SO not OK!"
-want to do for color grading what they've done for editing

simply called
COLOR
(this is where Final Touch went)

-realtime pro color grading for the FCP editor
-inherent all the goodies of FCP for color
-Coen Brothers have been FCP since 2003
-video of Coen Brothers talking aobut color
-color is an element you use in a film
-in Oh Brother, was first DI process
-only way to target what they wanted
-have done DI since then
-looks just like Final Touch - seeing footage
-the UI looks exactly like what I've seen before in Final Touch HD
-3D color viewer is new (some kind of 3D graph of color)
-(and that 3D think plays in realtime!)
-Send To Color is an option in FCP
-
logical task based workflow
-starts w/primaries, on to secondaries, then color FX, then geometry
-all same as final touch HD was
-3 way color corrector
-rgb & luma curves
-lfit/gamma gain
-3D scopes
-pull mattes based on crhoma, luma, and saturation
-custom chaped vignettes
-custom hue & sat
-up to 8 secondaries/shot
-ColorFX - over 40 effects to start
-exposure, film grain, vignette, alpha blend, noise reduciton
chain nodes together in any order
geometry - pan and scan, apsect ration conversions, zoom/pan/rotate
-can create looks that are saved & emailed

DAVID GROSS DEMOING:
-music video working on
-got an edit in FCP
-go to file and use Send To Color
-shots drop in
-preview up in top corner, works on one screen (this is new from FTHD)
-working custom 1920x717 2.35 aspect
-have our 3 wheels as always, but now has curves below on same screen
-can make chnages to curves and get realtime feedback on screen
-secondaries room, have 8 tabs for 8 secondaries - have 9 ways to fiddle w/image
-he wants to drop a grad in, but didn't shoot it (as was wise)
-so grabs vignette tool, defaults to circle, switches it to square, can drag around in UI to get it the way he wants it
-secondaries have inside and outside control for masks, so can give secondary #1 look A inside and look B outside the selection
-so really 17 total adjustable color things - if you can't do it there, you've kinda blown it
-MY BIG QUESTION - REALTIME OUT HD-SDI?
-another shot - has grainy shot
-has an auto-balance tool (think Photoshop)
-can do sat curves - saturation control on a curve, add markers to a curve
-can do secondary color corrections - to suck the blue out
-can drag and drop grades between shots
-to play with color on his shirt, can go to preview tab and key the shot, got a 3D scope - all the pixels in 3D space, like an MRI for the picture
-can zoom in on it
-like a lamp-post - whites at the top, shadows at the bottom, and colors in a ring around
-a good way to learn how to read color
-can see the blues of his shirt in the scope
-can "paint" your key (like FTHD did), but dragging the eyedropper along, see the matte appear - drag it over different colors to add'em to key
-then have a "cage" around the pixels in the 3D scope, can edit in the 3D scope to isolate
-but it changed his hair, so added a vignette to isolate and soften, so only does shirt not hair
-another shot - geometry room - can pan & scan and rotate
-drag & dropped a look from another shot, made a secondary, made a vignette, so adds a b-spline custom shape
-can light more flatly as you shoot, can then tweak more in post - can soften the shape differently inside than out
-can even edit the b-splines of the sottness inside and out - drew one spline for the shape, added softness, THEN that made new splines for inside out, and THOSE can be edited on a point by point basis (and perhaps keyframed?)
-ColorFX room - bleach bypass, etc.
-(Graeme's plugins from before for FTHD - should work here too?)
-saved looks that are node trees in Final Touch
-can drag those looks of node chains to other shots in bulk or onesy twosey
-showing before/after - major differences
-they aren't demoing exactly how it gets back, but I assume it is MUCH easier than it used to be - still have to render all your shots
-questions in my mind - realtime preview runs where? Where do we see it? Can run through BMD or AJA card in realtime for 1080p24? Can we run it through the AJA I/O box?
-SD, HD & 2K grading
-primary & secondaries, custom curves, scopes, 8 secondaries, saveable looks, naturla extension of Final Cut
-PRICE - gotta make it accessible to everyone
-IS INCLUDED IN FINAL CUT STUDIO 2
-huge applause from audience
-

AND THAT'S IT - NO MENTION OF DVD STUDIO PRO - so probably no new killer features there - are they waiting for a winner to emerge?

Tune in later today, I'll report from the Avid event if I can, and there's lots more news coming this week!

-mike

Labels: Apple, Final Cut, NAB

Hey all -

I'm in Vegas now for NAB. Had dinner at Burger Bar and I'm beat, it has been a long day. So, straight to it:

Predictions for Apple's event in the morning:

I don't have any hard evidence on any of this, just my gut vibe. This doesn't really mean anything at this point, just fun to see how accurate I'll be.

1.) Final Cut Studio announced (we all expect this).

2.) It'll ship after the show (notice I'm fudging on how much after the show).

3.) It won't require Leopard. Since Leopard got delayed till October anyway, and possibly thereafter.

4.) LOTS of realtime performance taking advantage of Intel Macs, but moreso of GPU horsepower.

5.) It'll be able to mix codecs on the same timeline.

6.) It'll be able to mix frame SIZES on the same timeline - 720p/1080i/480i all on whichever timeline you want (if this feature is limited, downconversion seems easier to do than upconversion).

7.) Better rendering options to mix frame rates on same timeline (that's a bigger maybe).

8.) Speaking of rendering, hopefully they'll fix a bunch of the bugs/difficult features of QuickTime - things like >100 IRE clipping, bad rendering of HDV on 10bit422 timelines, etc.

9.) More on rendering - since it'll be GPU accelerated, it'll be able to do good, REAL RGB (more than the current 8 bits) without decimating it - so true 10 bit RGB 4:4:4 cross dissolves that are still, you know, 10 bit RGB 4:4:4.

10.) Bigtime render pipeline with higher bit depth internal processing, all able to be GPU accelerated. Floating point an option. Hey, if motion can do it....

11.) Dare I say it? Maybe Redcode support? Nah, that's too big of a stretch. Next year. (and no, I have zero inside scoopage on that - I don't guess when under NDA).

12.) Final Touch will live on (at least for now) as a standalone product, but some of its goodies will make their way into FCP's color correction tools - maybe windows and secondaries, stuff like that, for RT GPU accelerated goodness.

13.) Bug fixes - Cinema Tools database issues hopefully improved if not fixed, Media Manger bugs quashed once and for all, etc.

14.) No Phenomenon (aka next Shake) - too soon. MAYBE a "technology demonstration/preview" at best. But expect all that realtime Motion GPU goodness to be in Phenomenon.

15.) Speaking of GPUs, I'm hoping for new GPU options, but it'd be a funny rollout schedule since they dropped new Macs last week - why not have waited for them here? So probably not.

15.) In the hoping for but not expected category, a high def optical disc burner option. Maybe HD-DVD, since they've already got authoring working in DVD Studio Pro now, or maybe Blu-ray, since that's what Steve said we'd be able to do way back in MWSF 2005 with then head of Sony up on stage with him.

16.) A new RAID - 16+ discs, SATA, 4Gbit fibre channel - this seems obvious, since Apple's been selling a 4Gbit fibre card for months.

17.) Improved DVD Studio Pro - better HD-DVD authoring capabilities, maybe some fledgling Blu-ray authoring capabilities (but since the deeper interactivity layer specs still aren't done yet, don't expect those!).

18.) It'll be FAST, but not as fast as we'd hope, on OctoMacs, due to inefficient processor utilitization (stick a thread on a processor and LEAVE it there, please!) as well as memory bandwidth bottlenecking issues. But it'll still be impressively fast, and the GPU will have a lot to do with it.

19.) I've heard rumor of some new codecs to be used - an RGB codec seems logical, MAYBE Redcode but hey, isn't it still piping hot fresh out of Graeme's oven? I wouldn't think Apple could have tested and integrated it and had it ready to put on the shelf yet. So probably not.

20.) Something else really cool and unexpected. That makes it a nice round 20 items, and I can then claim like the rumor sites do that I got it right.

: )

I'll be taking notes through it tomorrow and posting them ASAP - if possible, during. So check back in the AM, and keep checking. Event starts 11am Nevada time.

-mike

more thoughts next morning before show:

21.) If Apple is going to fix QuickTime the way I'd want, they'd need to do some prety major re-writes. How many of my complaints are truly QuickTime's fault vs. Final Cut's behavior? It can be tough to tell sometimes.

In any case, if there were to be a new QT required to do this, they'd have to do dev work on it for some time, and I've only heard recent rumblings of heavy QT work going on, and no testing of it outside of Apple - so probably not....or FCS comes later this year if it did require it...


22.) And yeah, that asset management software too - the one they bought last year.

23.) I don't believe the Final Cut Extreme rumors, it just doesn't add up to make sense. But if they offered a bundle that included the media management stuff and Final Touch, I'd think that could be what those rumors were about. But Apple didn't buy those things until late last year, long after the rumors had started.

Labels: Apple, NAB

Hey all - with NAB fast approaching and the press releases flying in at a mad rate the same week taxes are due, sometimes ya gotsta punt - thus the entity I call a blogwad - a buncha news all piled into one post. I've at least broken it down by category for you this time - here's the one on "other stuff" not so readily categorizable:

GENERAL/OTHER OF INTEREST:
===========================

ProLost: Gold Rims on the Hoopty Stu links to an image of an M2 adaptor on an HV20 camera. I've been dismissing the Canon HV20 out of hand as too small for serious work, but a lot of low end filmmaker types keep pointing to it as "ooh ah" in terms of 24p & high res (can shoot 24F mode @ 1080 res). Sample images of before/after with lens adaptor, and Stu shows off a sample of the forthcoming Magic Bullet Looks software on the original, pre-adaptor shot to show what can be done in post.

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ACE Members Tech Web Discussion Interesting survey of ACE members and what they are using, compared to last year as well. Avid still ruling the roost on high end production.

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ProLost: Is Film School Obsolete? Stu, Mr. DV Rebel's Guide himself, writes about somebody writing about whether film schools are obsolete.

I read it as a matter of learning broad craft and making connections at film school, vs. learning latest/greatest online and in the field on your own but without the networking benefits. Or at least, that's my 5 seconds of thought on the matter, if you're considering film school, think more than that.

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Extensive Light & Color Theory at FresHDV - "Itchy Animation has a pretty extensive tutorial on lighting and color theory,if you are wanting to enhance your lighting skills it would be great to check out."

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AppleInsider | Top secret features suspect in Apple's Leopard delay - I'm not the only one suspicious of Leopard's delay being blamed on iPhone - the math just doesn't add up, and a senior analyst at PiperJaffray agrees.

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CinemaTech: Grindhouse: Half digital, half celluloid

Scott Kirsner has a bit more on Grindhouse and how it was done, including a link to some stuff I wrote about it. Saw elsewhere that Shake and After Effects were used in the production as well for Planet Terror.

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CinemaTech: Acting for the digital camera
...and a bit more on Grindhouse, specifically from Marley Shelton who acted in both halves of Grindhouse - Rodriguez's digital (Genesis) and Tarantino's film. She talks about how with film you had time to compose and get into character - but Rodriguez just lets it roll to catch EVERYTHING. Read on, interesting stuff.

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ProLost: Mine%u2018s better than yours Stu talks about how unproductive "My software is better than yours" bickering typically is, and demonstrates something that After Effects can do quickly and easily that would probably take longer with another tool. Includes a 17 minute, unedited video of a master of his tools building a shot. Aspiring After Effects artist? Watch and leeeeeeeaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrnnnnnnn.......

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If you hear of other new stuff of interest, let me know. My time on the floor will be limited, so I'll need to prioritize and just see the Big Stuff, or little stuff that is particularly significant to the HD for Indies audience. Feel free to comment away with suggestions, and preferably booth #s, and why you think it relevant for me to check out.

----

-mike

BONUS ROUND - OFF TOPIC STORY

....so I go into Zen, my local fast food Japanese place after running in the twin 80 (temp & humidity) conditions here in springtime Austin. Recall that I was throwing snowballs last weekend. Texas weather - go figure.

Anyway, I notice a cute buxom mid-20s woman sitting alone at a table while I'm ordering (single guy, that radar's always on). She's not the long/lean/slender runner type I'm usually attracted to, but she has her curvaceous charms.

I sit, she's nowhere in sight, I'm reading in the Chronicle (Austin's alternaweekly) that Chuck Palahniuk (guy who wrote Fight Club) has a new book out. She reappears, as if she's looking for something, and I realize I might be sitting where she had been. "Did you drop something?" I ask, "No, you just inspired me to get a Chronicle." So she goes over and finds one and sits back down.

I'm scheming of a way to start a conversation around Chuck's new book (wait, women aren't exactly into authors who write about guys beating each other up) or the Chronicle or something, when she says to one of the women who works there, in a taunting, not-serious tone: "Hey Jessica - I'm not worried if he flirts around with other women, because I'll just sleep with other men." They laugh about this together, as if she might actually.

Without looking up, I promptly reply, off the cuff: "I'll leave that low hanging comedic fruit right where it hangs, and just look at it, and enjoy its ripe, pendulous promise of possibility."

They both laugh. Before I leave, I say to them "I think I should get bonus points for the alliteration of 'pendulous promise of possibility' off the cuff."

They look at me like a puppy does when you make a funny whistling noise.

Drat.

As someone who writes, it is SO nice to actually COME UP WITH THE LINE WHEN YOU NEED IT, rather than think of the seed of the idea later, and mentally go through nine drafts before you get it right. That it doesn't always have the desired effect is just something else to deal with (shows where my priorities are).

That's all, it just happened so I thought it'd be fun to share. The point wasn't that I was somewhere on the dorky to suave continuum, the point was that I was QUICK. I also liked how my off the cuff statement actually mirrored her physical affect.

-mikey

Labels: blogwad, Genesis, NAB

This is a crazy busy week for me - all the press releases for NAB are rolling in at the same time I have a lot of other stuff to finish up. So when in doubt, punt! Thus what I call a blogwad - a buncha news all piled into one article, in no particular order or significance. Here's my pre-NAB blogwad on new cameras at the show.

CAMERAS:
--------

BIG year for cameras - with new offerings from DALSA (Evolution prototype and Origin II), Sony's F23 that we've only seen tidbits of but not footage from, their new 4:2:2, 50 mbit XDCAM HD line-up, new player noX, the substantially revised and about-to-ship SI-2K, as well as who knows what else - it is a banner year for cameras.

This list is not complete or comprehensive, just what I had seen so far and had time to blog on.

And lest we forget, I expect to touch an actual working Red One on Sunday in their booth, since I'm workin' the show for them Monday and Tuesday. Be jealous. Very jealous. *

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Macdaddy - Reduser.net Speaking of Red One, here's a PHOTO (not a render) of a fully configged Red One, as I expect to see/touch at NAB next week. Click pic to go to Reduser.net thread with high res and more discussion/info.

Along similar lines, Red One FAQ - Reduser.net, Brook Willard over on Reduser.net has started putting together a MASSIVE FAQ on Red One. Well done sir! I'd been dabbling with idea of doing my own on here, but haven't had time of late. He's off to a great start.

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Studio Daily | XDCAM HD's New Innovations at NAB:
Sony will give NAB attendees a sneak peek at the third generation of its XDCAM HD recording system, which offers 4:2:2 processing and increased data capture of up to 50 Mbps (from the current limit of 4:2:0 at 35 Mbps). MPEG-2 and its inherent long GOP structure will continue to be supported. A dual-layer Blu-ray disc will offer 100 minutes of record time.

-1/2" for now, 2/3" in 2008 - dissapointing, everyone I talked to said 2/3" was coming when discussed last year

Sneak peak=not shipping yet - "won’t be shipping until later this year or sometime next year" so definitely next year, probably NAB if I had to guess. Things take longer, as we all know.

New NAS server called HDXchange to be shown too, supports QT, AVI, DVI, MPEG-2 & MPEG-4.

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Studio Daily | Ikegami and Toshiba to Collaborate: "the two companies will collaborate in developing the components of an advanced tapeless video production and editing system, including a professional-use camera and video recorder, utilizing the robust versatility of Flash memory as the main storage medium. The new system will support all aspects of video production, from news acquisition through to archiving, and Ikegami and Toshiba will jointly promote the concept to the industry before its targeted commercialization in April 2008."

Everybody's getting in on the IT based thang.

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Studio Daily | VICON Announces New F-Series Motion Capture Cameras: "The VICON F40 camera is capable of capturing 370 frames-per-second at 4-million pixels and the VICON F20 camera captures up to 500 frames-per-second at 2-million pixel resolutions. These significant increases in speed are matched by an improvement in the camera's marker throughput capacity, allowing for the capture of more subjects per trial or take. In addition to these speed increases, the VICON Vegas sensor offers a true "freeze frame" shutter, so the F-series cameras are tolerant of on-set or laboratory ambient light."

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Fraunhofer IIS MicroHDTV

Itty bitty HDTV camera - 4x4x8 centimeters, 2/3" Altasens 3562 sensor, camera NOT camcorder, booth C8828H @ NAB 2007

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In case you missed them, I wrote long pieces yesterday about new offerings from:
DALSA - revised existing 4K camera, new smaller 4K camera in 2008, untethered solid state recorder/playback module

Silicon Imaging and their newly revised SI-2K camera with new sensor, form factor, and features

noX - a new 2K camera that records uncompressed RAW to an onboard, fault tolerant RAID, uses a single 1.2" sensor, PL lens mounts (and C & F & other adaptors). Price unknown.

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If you hear of other new cameras, let me know. My time on the floor will be limited, so I'll need to prioritize and just see the Big Stuff, or little stuff that is particularly significant to the HD for Indies audience. Feel free to comment away with suggestions, and preferably booth #s, and why you think it relevant for me to check out.

---------

* insert "neener neener neener" sound effect for for the fully childish effect

Labels: cameras, high end, NAB

This is a crazy busy week for me - all the press releases for NAB are rolling in at the same time I have a lot of other stuff to finish up. So when in doubt, punt! Thus what I call a blogwad - a buncha news all piled into one article, in no particular order or significance. Here's my pre-NAB blogwad on software. This isn't a comprehensive list by any means, just some stuff I haven't talked about before:

SOFTWARE:
---------

The big news, of course, will be from Apple and their press event Sunday - YES I'll be reporting what happens there.

I'm also looking forward to seeing the new Adobe CS3 stuff - Premiere Pro & After Effects in particular, but also what's up with Encore, their DVD authoring software.

Avid as some new goodies as well, I have an appointment with them next week at the show to get all the latest scoopage.

As far as stuff you haven't heard me talk about before, read on:

Cineform offers new cross platform NEO family - cross platform codecs for video work aren't quite there for HD work, so Cineform is introducing NEO. NEO is cross platform, Mac or PC. It has three products for different levels of production: NEO HDV, NEO HD, and NEO 2K, guess what those are for. You'll be able to work cross platform with the same files, moving between apps like After Effects, Premiere Pro, Final Cut, Motion, Combustion, Vegas, etc.

NEO HDV is for HDV & DVCPRO HD folks, and handles 3:2 pulldown and 24p cadence issues, over/under cranking, spatial resampling, etc. as needed for JVC, Sony, Panasonic, Canon, etc. cameras. I'm guessing 8 bit.

NEO HD is 10 bit, full raster for higher end production.

NEO 2K offers up to 12 bit 444 with their RGB codec.

ALL versions can re-wrap AVI to QT and vice versa - that's a BIG deal - means it is fast and doesn't change/convert the files/footage - re-wrap, NOT re-encode.

Supports AJA Xena & BlackMagic cards (on Windows presumably), can capture as AVI or QT.

More goodies:

Pricing and Availability

NEO HDV, NEO HD, and NEO 2K will be priced at $249, $599, and $799 respectively

NEO for Windows will be available for purchase in early May.  Availability of NEO for Mac OS X will be announced later. 

Prospect HD v3 will be priced at $999, and will now include both the “Edit” and the “Ingest/Edit” capabilities that were previously provided in separate versions of Prospect HD. 

Prospect 2K-Edit, which now includes single-link HD-SDI ingest, will be priced at $1999.  Both will be available for purchase in early May.

As part of its new product rollout, CineForm is offering special pricing on most of its products through the month of April, details of which are available on CineForm’s website: www.cineform.com.  Upgrade policies for existing CineForm customers are also available on its website.


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Studio Daily | Sonic and Digital Vision Team Up To Deliver HD Mastering

Dense PR piece with minimum of hard data. Blu-ray and HD DVD authoring, but at what price point?

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Studio Daily | Converting AVCHD Files to MPEG: "The Windows-only application has two new modes that open files either as multi-source or single files, and has predefined HD-DVD and Blu-Ray modes with AVC presets. For audio, it can support .WAV, MPEG-1 Layer II, MPEG-1 Layer III, AAC, and AMR (Adaptive Multi-Rate) format files.

Elecard Converter Studio is available as a suite that includes Converter Studio, Converter Studio Pro and Converter Studio ProHD. Elecard Converter Studio Pro is designed for conversion of video with resolution up to standard definition (720x576).

Elecard Converter Studio and Elecard Converter Studio ProHD enable high-resolution encoding (HD 1920x1080). Pro and ProHD versions also support transport streams. Prices begin at $239.70."

Now, why you'd want to convert to MPEG-2....feh.

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POMFORT - SilverStack
From the site:

With Pomfort SilverStack you can open and inspect image sequences such as scanned 35mm film or rendered sequences as you would expect it from professional tools:

Browse sequence-based and timecode-oriented with a unique info-timeline that shows SMPTE timecode, frame numbers or a timecode calculated from file names
Open movie-typical file types such as DPX, Cineon, TIF in practically any resolution (PAL, HD, 2k, 4k, 6k)
View color-channels, inspect color with a selective RGB histogram, inspect pixels with a high dynamic range color picker and use a genuine pixel ruler for complete access to your image data
Visualize clipping pixels in blacks and whites
Zoom and pan to see every single pixel even on smaller screens
Apply Gamma- or LUT-based color linearization with custom presets
Apply primary grading (basic RGB-grading capabilities for both linear and logarithmic color spaces)
Playback-preview of image sequences on any machine using built-in QuickTime™ player


I'm getting a copy to doodle with after NAB.

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LITTLE FROG IN HIGH DEF: Matrox MXO v2.0 drivers available

: "* DVI monitor calibration - hue, chroma, contrast, brightness, and blue-only adjustments * Super black and super white monitoring on the DVI display * Pixel-to-pixel mapping on the DVI display * 'Virtual bezel' on the DVI display * New HD editing resolutions - 1080p at 23.98, 25, and 29.97 fps; and 720p at 25 and 50 fps * New DVI output resolution - 1024x768 at 59.94 fps * Region of interest output selection in Presentation Mode * Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 support * Max OS X 10.5 Leopard support"

Read on, Shane has a good write up on what all this means.

More info here too.

-----------

HD Monitor Pro - FireWire based software to do live monitoring including 1:1 pixel viewing (helps for pulling fine focus), record, sort, review, etc. footage from HVX. Can take notes and hand off to FCP. No mention of 24p - can it handle 24p and 24PN modes? "24p" isn't found in the release.


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If you hear of other new editing, VFX, or post related software, let me know. My time on the floor will be limited, so I'll need to prioritize and just see the Big Stuff, or little stuff that is particularly significant to the HD for Indies audience. Feel free to comment away with suggestions, and preferably booth #s, and why you think it relevant for me to check out.

-mike

Labels: Adobe, Apple, Avid, blogwad, NAB, software

Hey all - with NAB fast approaching and the press releases flying in at a mad rate the same week taxes are due, sometimes ya gotsta punt - thus the entity I call a blogwad - a buncha news all piled into one post. I've at least broken it down by category for you this time - here's the one on acquisition and post related hardware. This isn't comprehensive, just what I have come across so far and had time to blog:

HARDWARE:
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Studio Daily | 1 Beyond Announces Portable Uncompressed HD Direct-to-Disk Multi-Function Recorder
-HD D2D-MAX uncompressed HD recorded direct to disk for Mac or PC
-$18,995, available immediately
-2.4TB
-RAID protection
-single link 4:2:2 or dual link 4:4:4 HD-SDI
-4:4:4:4, 2K HDSL support (non-realtime 24p, that is limit of HDSL)
-"Native uncompressed DPX, Cineon, TGA, TIFF, BMP, YUV, AVI and QuickTime files" - but which AVI and QT formats is the devil in the details, and is >100IRE preserved?
-RS-422 machine control
-2.4 TB means:
20 hrs uncompressed SD
7.6 hrs 720p24 8b422
4.3 hrs 1080i60 10b422
-swappable disks
-RAID 3/5/6
-instant camera to edit workflow, can switch from camera to edit mode
-press release PDF, but no picture

I don't quite get it - freestanding device, Mac or PC? Need to know more about recording codec options and connectivity options and how direct to edit is it really.

booth number SL7427 at NAB

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eCinemaSystems new FX line of professional 1920x1080 LCD panels at 24 & 40 inches
From press release:

Founder and CEO Martin Euredjian: "With the proliferation of desktop video systems it became evident that there was a real need for a quality solution in monitoring.  This solution had to be full-featured yet offer a level of affordability on par with the applications for which it was intended.  The FX line is just that:  A highly-affordable eCinema monitor for desktop and general HD/SD viewing applications.  It was very important to us to be able to achieve excellent price points without compromising in areas that are important to our user base.  Colorimetry among other things, is excellent.  Upgradability is another.”

-pre-callibrated at factory
-inputs: HD422/SD capable SDI, S-VIDEO, Composite Video, Analog RGB and Digital DVI
-10 bit processing, suitable for "semi-critical evaluation" ...hmmmmmm.....just how semi is semi is the question?
-all non-1080 formats scaled to 1080
-discounts during NAB'07

They'll also be showing color critical LCD monitors as well. From another press release:

onitor in prototype form. This year we are showing the
Known as the "DPX" series, these new displays were designed
with high-end DI and Telecine in mind. They are LCD-based monitors that beat
CRT's in terms of contrast ratio, color gamut, bit depth, cost-of-ownership
and more. The first DPX monitors will start shipping right after the show."


This and Cinetal are the two leading contenders I'm aware of for color critical LCD monitoring. JVC's new $4500 24" 1080 res panel looks decent for lower end work according to a quick eyeball and looking at the specs, but I haven't gotten deep with it at all.

eCinemaSsytems will be in South Hall, SL9227

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Studio Daily | 3 Gbps Routing: A lot of Marketing Hype: "1.5 Gbps is More Than Adequate for 1080i and 720p, but Manufacturers Are Pushing Higher Data Rates"

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Studio Daily | 16x9 Inc introduces EX Super Fisheye for Panasonic HVX200 - $695

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Convergent Designs announced several new goodies:

Convergent Design, a leading developer of video converters, announced today an affordable HD/SD-SDI 4-Input to 2-Output switch for US$595.

nanoSwitch fills the need for a cost-effective tool to route numerous HD/SD-SDI signals into an NLE, tape deck or display system. This affordable tool supports all major HD/SD-SDI formats including 1080p30/29.97/25/24/23.98, 1080i60/59.94/50, 720p60/59.94/50, 480i and 576i. Input selection can be made via a local switch or via a remote USB based software application (included). Two identical HD-SDI outputs allow simultaneous display / ingest.

nanoSwich includes a sophisticated re-clocker to minimize jitter and maximize cable lengths. Using Belden 1694A coax, HD-SDI cable runs up to 175 meters and SD-SDI runs up to 400 meters can be realized.

and also

Convergent Design announced today the lowest cost HD/SD-SDI to HDMI converter, the nanoView for MSRP of US$325.

nanoView accepts HD-SDI (1080p, 1080i or 720p) or SD-SDI (486i or 576i) video + audio and precisely maps this stream into HDMI (video + audio) for display on professional or consumer LCD, Plasma, or projector system. This ultra-simple, ultra-small (2.5” x 3”) low-power (1.5 Watts) converter fills the need for an easy-to-use (no switches) device to display HD/SD-SDI video/audio at an affordable price.

HDMI is now the defacto standard interconnect for consumer electronics, with projected shipments exceeding 100 million in 2007. HDMI, built on DVI technology, carries uncompressed HD or SD video and audio at 1080p, 1080i, 720p or 486i/576i resolutions in YCbCr 4:2:2, YCbCr 4:4:4 or RGB 4:4:4 color space. The 100% digital video and audio quality is visibly superior to older component analog solutions. Additionally, a single HDMI cable replaces 3-component + 2-audio cables.

nanoView supports a broad range of HD/SD-SDI formats including 1080p30/29.97/25, 1080i60/59.94/50, 720p60/59.94/50, 486i and 576i. Up to 8-channels of embedded 48Khz 24-bit audio are also digitally transferred through nanoView.

Setup of the nanoView is ultra-simple. Just plug in the HD/SD-SDI input and the HDMI output (to the display device). nanoView auto-detects the capabilities of the HDMI display devices and adjusts the video stream accordingly (YCbCr or RGB). The ultra-low latency (60 uS) ensures that the video and audio are always in-sync.

and also

announced today significant cost reductions on their HDV to HD/SD-SDI converters. HD-Connect SI, which does HDV to HD/SDI conversion with RS-422 deck control is now priced at US$795, while HD-Connect LE, which adds component as well as AES and LTC outputs, is now US$1095.

and finally:

Convergent Design announced today their third HDMI to HD-SDI converter, HD-Connect MX. HD-Connect MX performs HDMI to HD/SD-SDI (with embedded audio and time-code) and includes reference-input, as well as AES and LTC outputs for a suggested MSRP of US$995.
....
All three HDMI to HD-SDI converters support HD and SD formats, including 1080p30/29.97/25, 1080i60/59.94/50, 720p60/59.94/50, 486i and 576i. Embedded 48KHz 24-bit audio is also seamlessly transferred from HDMI to HD/SDSDI.
....
Editors can enjoy affordable conversion of long-GOP HDV / AVCHD into I-Frame CODECs such as DVCProHD or DNxHD. These I-Frame CODECs support real-time playback from the time-line and eliminate most of the time-wasting renders and conforms associated with native editing solutions.


See their website for more details

----------------

Gleaned from the CML boards late this afternoon - Sony's F23 will be able to capture 60p 10 bit RGB 4:4:4, and a forthcoming upgrade to the SRW-1 will allow it to record that 60p RGB 10 bit 4:4:4 signal. Previously, the HDC-1500 could to 60p but in 4:2:2 to an SRW-1, now they'll step it up to 4:4:4. That the camera can do it is according to Band Pro guy Michael Bravin who knows what's up, and the SRW-1 info is from an LA guy I don't know (yet). In any case, I'll be swinging by the Band Pro booth to chat with Michael. I met him last summer, nice, easy going smart guy. Purportedly a $5K upgrade will let the HDC-1500 do 60p 4:4:4 as well.

--------

If you hear of other new hardware of interest, let me know. My time on the floor will be limited, so I'll need to prioritize and just see the Big Stuff, or little stuff that is particularly significant to the HD for Indies audience. Feel free to comment away with suggestions, and preferably booth #s, and why you think it relevant for me to check out.

-mike

Labels: blogwad, hardware, NAB

Hey all - with NAB fast approaching and the press releases flying in at a mad rate the same week taxes are due, sometimes ya gotsta punt - thus the entity I call a blogwad - a buncha news all piled into one post. I've at least broken it down by category for you this time - here's the one on high def disc news:

BLU-RAY/HD-DVD NEWS
===================

AACS hacked to expose Volume ID: WinDVD patch irrelevant - Engadget

--------

Samsung to Launch Dual Blu-ray HD DVD Player - Yahoo! News But here's what's wrong with all the combo players:
"Sony's BDP-S300 will launch in the middle of the year for about US$599 while Toshiba's HD-A2 player carries a recommended price of $399 but can currently be found on Amazon.com for $309. In contrast LG's BH100 dual-format player costs $1,000."

...so if I can buy two separate players for less, or a $309 HD-A2 and a Blu-ray player for $600, or better yet a PS3 for $600....why would I spend $100 more on the combo player, other than for the convenience of "one box, one remote, one plug?"

They aren't solving the problem. The problem is price first, two choices of players second. Combo players need to be under $500, more likely under $300, for this market to move forward substantially IMHO.

With Toshiba's HD-A2 HD-DVD player available for $309 right now (no kidding!), and Sony's expectation that a $300 player is 2-3 years away, there's two choices - either wait for the format war to resolve itself (smart play, but requires patience), or say what the hell and get a more affordable player now and watch a bunch (but not all of) HD movies next week? Buy what I got - the HD-A2 if you're of a mind to buy in. This is from my Amazon Affiliate store I'm setting up, so I get a little luv from Amazon if you buy through me (but from Amazon really - all their sales/support/shipping/etc).

--------

And BusinessWeek agrees with me - Blu-ray vs. HD DVD: Price Matters: "The war for dominance of the next-generation DVD market may be decided on price. Some analysts are betting that whichever format%u2014HD DVD or Blu-ray%u2014has the most players in stores for $500 or less in time for the holiday season will ultimately win over consumers. Everything else, including the movie studios that have already aligned with a particular format, will follow the money."

I so wholeheartedly agree with this article. Read on as they address issues of studio support, porn, price points, points of differentiation between the two formats (minimal), etc.

---------

Will Porn Settle Next-Gen DVD Battle? - Yahoo! News: "Now some think that the adult entertainment industry could play a critical role in determining which format comes out on top. Diane Duke, the Executive Director of the Free Speech Coalition, an advocacy group for the industry, said that adult filmmakers are part of a powerful industry.

'We have led the way on a lot of technology,' Duke said, 'and it would make sense that the adult entertainment industry would play a similar role with high-definition DVDs.'"

While I like Blu-ray better in theory (higher capacity, Apple backing, not entangled with MS for interactivity layer), HD-DVD is making a lot of financial sense. The biggest advantage Blu-ray has is studio support, in part because Sony owns their own. As I keep saying, technology is only as relevant as its price point...

----------

...so all this is to say, I'd LOVE to back Blu-ray more strongly, but the price point is making it tough to do so....a PS3 at about twice the price? Or a set top box with a $599 MSRP later this year? Better get on the ball, Sony folks, or you're going to lose this battle....AGAIN.

But if you do want to buy one, here's my Amazon Affiliate page with both HD-A2 & PS3.


---------

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

Hey all - with NAB fast approaching and the press releases flying in at a mad rate the same week taxes are due, sometimes ya gotsta punt - thus the entity I call a blogwad - a buncha news all piled into one post. I've at least broken it down by category for you this time - here's the one on AppleTV related news:

APPLETV NEWS
==============

In case you missed it, I've been doing most of my AppleTV related commentary and blogging over on my new other site, AppleTVhacker.com - all the below and MUCH much more over there.

HungryFlix - Download Movies for your iPod, PSP, Apple TV and More! - these folks are selling content specifically formatted to fit your AppleTV, starting with a $2 movie (24 hour sale) called Wages of Sin which...doesn't look all that impressive even from just the cover art. But it is a start...

-------

AppleInsider | Surprise ad for Apple TV begins airing on networks: "Launching almost without fanfare, a spot for Apple's new media hub has begun making the rounds of TV networks. - Apple, Inc. on Monday launched a surprise new commercial for its Apple TV device, emphasizing the simplicity and echoing Steve Jobs' observations that the company was entering the living room after coming into cars, dens, and pockets."

---------

Apple - Apple TV - Ads Here's the ad in high res.

---------

How-To: play DivX and Xvid on your Apple TV - Engadget

--------

Apple TV hacked for RSS and emulation, plus bounty for USB drive support - Engadget

---------

Audio and Video Podcasts from washingtonpost.com

HD podcasts that are AppleTV compatible via iTunes! Schweet.

-----------


MacNN | Sling to stream Apple TV to cellphones?: "Sling Media is developing support for its Slingbox streaming hubs that would let them support the Apple TV, the company said late on Monday. A future update should give cellphones with SlingPlayer Mobile the ability not only to view an Apple TV's content streamed over the Internet but to control it as well by sending IR codes."

---------

Apple - iTunes - iTunes Store - Podcasts - Technical Specification Formatting specs for iPod & AppleTV in terms of sizes, bitrates, etc. - HANDY!

-----

More homebrew plugins, but where are those from Apple? |
Apple TV Hacks: "Erica Sadun over O%u2019Reily had written a plugin for the Apple TV that allows you to execute any Perl scripts you have uploaded. Given that Perl can run also call shell scripts and any Unix command, this will allow a whole host of cool scripts to be written.
It also opens the doors for programmers and scripters with no knowledge of Cocoa programming to develop their own additions to BackRow."

Read on for more info, analysis, and conjecture on the subject of plugins for AppleTV.

-------

AppleInsider | MGM flicks arrive on Apple's iTunes Store (still no HD)

-------

Motionbox offers personal video downloads for Apple TV | MacMinute News

-------

Apple TV and HD quality: It's not the hardware - Engadget HD: "We quickly realized that the Apple TV wasn't going to be a HD powerhouse and our tests have indicated as much -- we have also discovered that the problem is not the hardware."

--------

Macworld: Secrets: Convert video for Apple TV

Nice list of conversion options, although the DVD ripping tutorial seems eerily familiar, as I got a call from someone over there asking about what works well....

: )

Also covers converting files on drives, etc.

------


........and that ought to hold you for a bit while I'm off to NAB. I'd been too busy to post any of that recently, so this is all really just catching up.

-mike

Labels: Apple, AppleTV, AppleTVHacker

Hey all - with NAB fast approaching and the press releases flying in at a mad rate the same week taxes are due, sometimes ya gotsta punt - thus the entity I call a blogwad - a buncha news all piled into one post. I've at least broken it down by category for you this time - here's the one on Online Distribution news:

ONLINE DISTRIBUTION:
======================

CinemaTech: Internet Movie Marketplaces: Who's Most Likely to Succeed?:
Scott Kirsner has a nice piece looking at the lay of the land for online movie distro:

"Who'll end up as the Blockbuster of Internet movie distribution? No one has all the elements in place yet: big audience, vast selection, intuitive design, and a simple way to transfer movies onto portable devices and the living room television.But here's my ranking of the five players that are "most likely to succeed" in the business of digital distribution. "


Not surprisingly, iTunes leads the list. Read on for the others and why he thinks they rank this way. Good stuff.

--------

AppleInsider | MGM flicks arrive on Apple's iTunes Store (still no HD)

---------

Joost scores first deal with major broadcaster, CBS

-----

CinemaTech: Wal-Mart: 3000 movies downloaded in first month: "Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is the farthest along [in terms of retailers offering digital downloads] after selling 3,000 movie downloads in its first month, February. Blockbuster Inc. spokeswoman Karen Raskopf said the movie rental chain intends to enter digital downloads by the end of this year, perhaps in partnership with another company."

That sounds rather unimpressive as compared to movie sales on iTunes Store.

----------

more blogwads on other topics coming up...

Labels: blogwad, NAB, online content service, online distribution, online video

AMUG HighPoint RocketRAID 2314 PCIe SATA PM RAID 5 Host Adapter Review

I'm sticking this out as it's own post, because if it works as well as it seems, this could be a big deal for FCP editors out there looking for uncompressed HD throughput on a port multiplying eSATA card with decent RAID 5 performance. If that doesn't make sense, just read the article.

Now, what CPU hit this might incur during writes I don't know, but the numbers are encouraging. Whether it can sustain good, consistent, don't-drop-frames performance in FCP remains to be seen. If anybody gets one and does (or wants to do) some FCP specific testing, let me know about it.

Stand by for multiple blogwads coming your way....

-mike

Labels: hardware, RAID

Hey all - a BUSY week coming up for NAB. As I'm noticing some other blogger friends doing it, I thought I'd be one of the cool kids and share my intended schedule for the week:

Satuday afternoon: fly up to Vegas from Austin, madly scramble to get preso materials ready for Wednesday presentation

Saturday night: probably working on the preso some more, figuring out dinner plans - anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

Sunday:

11am: Apple shindig: to ship Final Cut Studio 6 or not to ship Final Cut Studio 6, that is the question. All else is bonus/gravy. We've been waiting a long time, Apple. Impress us or face the unruly mob.

2:45pm - I think there's a vendor event to catch, gotta figure it out - oops, it is AJA, but reseller only, so no dice...but I'll swing by their booth Sunday via my exhibitor badge and pester Jon & Thad. ; p

somewhere in here - pick up vendor, exhibitor, and panelist badges. I'm lots of people.

5pm - Avid press event if I can make it

evening - probably some booth prep I'd imagine and the Unholy Download of cool new info

late evening - madly writing everything up (I hope), embargoed until info is releaseable

Monday:

ALL DAY - let the madness begin! As with last year and IBC, I'll be working in Red's booth, SL5405 (that's in the South Hall, Lower level). You can find me there, tall skinny guy with spiky hair. Oh, wait, that's Jarred Land too - I'm the shorter but still tall (6-3), not blond tall skinny guy in the booth probably with glasses. Ah - easy way - pictures of me here, I'm in grey sweater.

I'd imagine I'll be embargoed until Time X (TBD), then I'll post up on the blog. So count on from-the-trenches, full-on reporting on all the new info and goodies.

I'll be working the booth, so don't expect any floor coverage...yet. I'll post up the first day's experiences later that night.

Monday night - probably hanging with the Red crew and recovering from the onslaught. The Digital Cinema Society dinner/party is also that night.

Tuesday:

Same thing, just more crowds probably.

Tuesday night - probably CML party (sorry, list is closed if you're not on it yet)

Wednesday:

OK, NOW I can hit the show floor. I'll probably hit Apple first, and I have meetings scheduled with Dalsa and some others today. Checking out new stuff. By the way - add companies and booth numbers of things that fall into the HD for Indies Target of Interest category - use the Comments field. Please keep it on target - HD/HD+ cameras & post tools for the most part, and new stuff.

At 2pm I'm doing a panel:

Digital Delivery from Cinema to the Web

The DCI has finally set standards for transmission and delivery of digital content to theaters. But with podcasting, YouTube© and other venues now available, what is involved with encoding, encryption and the various aspects of the digital delivery of HD video content? Together we will explore this whole process.


...then I'll hit the show floor again.

Wednesday night:

LAFCPUG event as well as the G-tech party

Thursday:

Meetings with Blackmagic, Avid, and others to go over new goodies, as well as everything else I haven't seen yet. If you're a vendor, allow me to beg forgiveness in advance for having a rushed, hunted, harried, hurried vibe - gottaseeitall in not much time!

Thursday evening - pack'em up, head'em out, get back into Austin so late it'll be early Friday.

Friday - sleep of the dead. Good luck getting your email answered. ; p

I'll update this page as I find out more, so count on it being updated over the next few days.

Labels: NAB

MacNN | Apple's iPhone delays Leopard until October:

From Apple: "we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS X team, and as a result we will not be able to release Leopard at our Worldwide Developers Conference in early June as planned.'

The company said that while it plans to have all Leopard features completed by early June, quality control would add a few more months to the development cycle.

'We cannot deliver the quality release that we and our customers expect from us. We now plan to show our developers a near final version of Leopard at the conference, give them a beta copy to take home so they can do their final testing, and ship Leopard in October,'"


I can understand how that could delay things, but they CLEARLY must have known this for months.

What vision pops to mind? Dana Carvey as the Church Lady saying "Isn't that conveeeEEEeenient?"

I'd been hearing that Leopard had LOTS of bugs as of a month or two ago and was behind schedule, and blaming it on the Popular New Thing About To Ship is a great bit of deferral - we're more willing to accept getting a better iPhone, sooner, than accept that Leopard is a huge complicated undertaking that was just buggy and late Just Because.

Interesting that Apple would choose to pull resources away from a $130 product with virtually zero manufacturing costs (R&D is expensive, but pressing discs is CHEAP!) that would be maximally distributable to their user base (everybody that has bought a capble-of-running-it Mac in the last few years) in order to finish a brand new product - Apple CLEARLY thinks there's more growth, and profit potential, in the consumer electronics space than there is in the software/computer space. And I can't say I can fault their logic.

Some were saying, when iPhone was announced, that it might steal resources (staff or dollars or both) from the Pro Apps group, where you have to hire expensive, specialty programmer teams to develop large, complex software for a relatively small group of potential users. What if you put such resources into building something less complicated but more widely applicable to the consuming public? It only makes sense for them to optimize resource allocation for optimal ROI.

So while my BS detector starts to tingle (think Spidey Sense of technology), using iPhone as a conveninent excuse to cover why it was already running late (regardless of how much staff was reallocated), it is a daunting concept to think of our professional tools (the OS in this case) languishing because Apple reallocated for consumer stuff.

As for Final Cut - two schools of thought on this one:

1.) They were already going to show now/ship later, so this isn't affecting them that much. The announcement of new OctoMacs with no new GPUs or high def optical drives the week before NAB reinforces that supposition, and hints that maybe we are in for a wait as I posited last week If Apple wants to seriously take on Avid for performance, they need to cut free of all that legacy code that has held them back or so long and optimize for the hardware platform of the present and future - the Intel platform. Apple hasn't sold a PowerPC professional Mac in quite some time now, so having software that does an extra bit of performance on the new hardware platform and requires the latest OS to do it is a gutsy move that, uh, would, um, require everybody to upgrade to new hardware/OS. While Apple has gotta love that idea, I just don't think it viable, and I'm pretty sure they don't either.

2.) It won't matter, because the new Final Cut Studio is about ready to roll - they've been working on this for a long time, the last major code effort was the port to Intel that happened last February or so, they've had LOTS of uninterrupted time to work on this. Apple won't be so radical so as to divorce a large segment of the OS and hardware Mac market in order to get a bit more performance out of the software by relying on a brand new OS. They've never done that before, and why change now. It has ALWAYS worked on the current OS, and maybe back a major version (sometimes, depending on OS release cycles), and works on current and one generation back machines. After writing that thing the other week, I don't THINK Apple would go that radical to get performance trophies at the expense of supporting the majority of the user base. While it'll probably run best on Intel Macs with latest OS, I'll betcha I get pretty good performance on my Quad Core G5 running 10.4.9 (I hope Hope HOPE so anyway). I'd get more, but not hugely, crushingly, real-world usefully more RT perfomrance an a 4 core Intel Mac Pro. And I have sneaking feeling that maybe they won't be ready to really make those 8 core Macs sing since the OS isn't truly optimized for it.

I've flipped some emails with Bruce Allen this afternoon, and editor web buddy who originally pointed out the announcement to me.

I'd said:

My bullshit detector is pinging a bit - if you steal folks for
iPhone, that shouldn't bump the release FIVE MONTHS!

Software ALWAYS lags hardware. Until you see benchmarks for shipping software/hardware you can personally lay your mitts on and afford, it can be a dicey proposiiton. Of course, I'm going to need to get into a beefy Intel Mac sooner rather than later with Redcine right around the corner...dammit. My only Intel Mac is my MacBook I'm typing on right now.

And Bruce responded:

Agreed, Mike, agreed!

It makes the 8-cores very scary to buy now - you can buy now, expecting performance to improve with Leopard... but by the time Leopard comes out, Apple might very well have released the NEXT 8-core models. This must be driving you nuts, my friend, since I think you are in the market to buy your next Mac, right?

The problem for everyone is, if you don't get an 8-core and independently benchmark RedCine on it,, who will?


...we'd have to wait on, and trust the results of, Rob & Graeme I'd bet. Fortunately, they are both honorable guys and share my utter loathing for what I consider "specsmanship." It has been said "...there are lies, damn lies, and benchmarks." The height of such endeavors I dub specsmanship, and with maximum pejorative emphasis.

Anyway, in summary:
-bummer that Leopard is delayed
-but I don't think/I hope that it won't affect next Final Cut's release
-if I haven't said it yet, the rumor of a high end, Avid tackling, 4K capable Final Cut Extreme never quite sat right with me, since Apple isn't in the ultra-niche high end business. Realtime codec/frame size mixing on a timeline? Yeah, LOTS of folks could use that daily. 4K finish? That is an ultra tiny minority of the market and doesn't make sense right now. But if they want to go nuts collaborating with Red (no idea what the working relationship really is between those two), I'm all for it, even it if isn't best use of their resources in the big picture (but GREAT for my needs!). Anyway, to announce a forthcoming package that would include the capabilities that Final Touch had, with the new asset management tools they acquired, and the next Shake, and say it'll ship "later this year" meaning next year, is the most plausible idea I've come across to scratch that Final Cut Extreme itch
-Oh, back on track - I'm kinda hoping new GPU & optical drive options would be announced on Sunday, but I'm not holding my breath - the timing would be so wacky.

-mike

Labels: Apple, FCP, Final Cut, iPhone, Leopard, OS X

GS Vitec - Digital cine camera noX

It seems that what Jeff Kreines started with his Kinetta camera idea a few years ago has really taken off - first there was (almost but not yet) Kinetta, then the Drake, then the Andromeda, then the SI-2K, then Red One, and now noX. Is it "Knocks" or "No Ecks"?

The quickie rundown:
-up to 2048x1152 res
-1.2" sensor, aspect ratio not stated, presumably 16:9
-records uncompressed RAW frame file sequences to a small RAID (3x2.5" hard drives) that can be configured fault tolerant
-records 45 min of 1080p24 uncompressed RAW in "failsafe" mode that can lose a drve, 90 min in unprotected mode
-file format is proprietary noXRAW format, an uncompressed RAW format, they have a box to convert to standard image sequences
-PL mount lenses, but F & C & other adaptors
-HD-SDI and XLR are available, but as options
-8.4" viewscreen/touchscreen, optional EVF

Way too much info below, if you're in a hurry, scroll to bottom for Mike's Takeaway.

One piece of info noticeably absent is a price point, but first units expected June/July 2007.

Unlike most press releases, they've done an excellent job of giving a bullet point feature summary on their PDF info page, I'll reproduce it here and hopefully they won't mind the free publicity. Their material in italics, then my own questions after each section:

Picture

2K resolution (2048 x 1152 at 25-fps max)
Full HD (1920 x 1080, progressive, 23.98-, 24-, 25-fps)
Downsize possible to 720p (23.98-, 24-, 25-, 29.97-, 37-fps max)
Single 1.2" CCD chip
Pictures have a genuine film look
DOF like film
More than 12 f-stops dynamic range
Light sensitive, small apertures possible
CCD signal conversion via 14-bit A/D converter
ISO 220 sensitivity at 0db (as measured by GS Vitec)


-25 fps max at 2K feels a bit low considering what the competition is offering these days
-37 fps @ 720p is definitely an improvement
-large (1.2") single CCD sensor helps give that 35mm DOF luv
-more than 12 stops - wow, that'll be impressive to see
-ISO rating....hmmph. Would like to see better.

Viewing

8.4" high resolution 400 cd/m2 control monitor with touch screen (zoom & pan mode)
2-4x Digital Zoom for fine focus adjustment
Electronic view finder (optional)
Full resolution 2K and HD viewing output


-8.4" screen - GOOD - what res though?
-optional EVF - what res, what price, color or B&W or switchable?
-full res 2K & HD viewing output via what? HDMI? HD-SDI? Single or dual link?

Recording

Easy and flexible workflow ("always fits your needs")
Raw Bayer data recording
Direct recording to integrated exchangeable HDD data pack raid (min 90 minutes)
Gigabit Ethernet based file access
noXboX Digital MAZ solution for data backup and rendering
15 seconds pre-trigger recording function
18 seconds shock protection
Undercranking <0.12-fps with programmable images/minute (comes as firmware update)
360-degree shutter with variable speed control
Shutter in 1/24, 1/25, 1/32, 1/48, 1/50, 1/60, 1/96, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000 sec
Slow-shutter (in software)

-since says RAID, I'll presume uncompressed RAW recording - can't argue about quality loss there...YEP I verified later
-GigE file access - great! But what file format? Any file format options? Are we talking DPX or TIFF sequences or what? Found out - noXRAW, more below
-pre-trigger & shock protection - NICE feature
-limited overcrank, lotza undercrank - good feature, easy to do with tapeless approach
-this opens up further questions - what's the workflow? What format are those RAW files in, and what do we do after accessing over that GigE? Does it show up as a network volume or do we need special software that might not be available on all platforms?

Control Software

Easy-to-use control software with touch screen or remote control
Adjustable HD curves (aka S-curves or Gamma-curves)
Up to thousands of personal HD curve presets savable
Clear menu structure
Clip browser with selectable preview pictures
Instant raw data playback with timeline and review
Integrated pre-cut system for rendering fast previews (aka dailies or quick snapshots)
Auto-file naming and project management with metadata
Any rendering codec possible
Fast access to frequently used setups
System integrated help menu
Safety areas and ratio framings, crosshair, overlay grid
Zebra and tiger mode
Per-channel live histogram display
Waveform display
Vectorscope display
DOF table for most lenses (comes as firmware update)
Easy online camera firmware update via Ethernet
Complete remote control via Gigabit Ethernet

-GOOD that you can remote control via software - mouse/keyboard SO much easier than touchscreen for so many tasks
-saveable presets - EXCELLENT
-clip browse/nav - as expected, but since is from RAW that is tougher so glad they've done it
-"any rendering codec possible" - sounds promising, but I'd like to know more about what that means exactly
-histogram stuff - GREAT, I'm glad this kind of thing is crossing over from print into video - vectorscopes and waveforms are nice, but histogram gives another kind of very useful info, and frankly there is an entire generation of filmmaker that grew up with Photoshop style tools rather than 'scopes.

Interchangeable Camera Heads

HD 2K
High speed (640 x 480 at 200-fps max) (optional)
HD 2K real monochrome (near IR sensitivity) (optional)


-I take it this means the sensor pack is coming out to put something new in - nice option to have, I'd like to see others follow suit - this is a somewhat novel feature

Audio

Stereo mic/line level inputs with 16-bit/48Khz sampling
(breakout box, 5-pin male XLR jack, 0 dBm) (optional)

Default option is WEAK, the optional one is the only professional choice. You can always go DAT, but I didn't see timecode mentioned anywhere on the site, so I HOPE that is there for syncing up later

Camera Body

Robust aluminum alloy body with multiple mounting places (3/8")
15 mm LWS (light weight support) compatible
V-mount rechargeable battery system (min 1 hour)
Fully compatible to 35 mm accessories
Different interchangeable mounts available (PL, F, C and Canon, whatever you want)
Electronic back focus
LCD Status display (temperature, recording time)
12 V two pin connector for external accessories
Cup holder (no joking!)

-Cup holder? So I can spill stuff?...???????
-V mount batteries - good
-good lens mount options, akin to what SI-2K and Red are up to

They mention their MAZ system for "data backup and rendering" but give no further juicy details.

MORE ON THE CAMERA

-buncha pics of camera and sample pics here.

-the sample pics look a bit flat and lifeless - presumably these are unprocessed, non-color corrected shots. Good depth of field is shown, but saturation & range shown looks a bit flat, even if the images themselves may have good dynamic range. They are BMPs, so somebody feel free to torture them in Photoshop and see how they hold up, I don't have time to do so at the moment. All the test footage seems carefully guarded in what they shot - but everybody does that at first.

None of the test footage shoes extremes of dynamic range, such as a broad daylight shot. In this pic, you can see the top side of the white car blowing out, but looking at the shadows and other pics from that set, is definitely a cloudy day - no direct sunlight. How many USABLE stops of lattitude is the true metric to be interested in, not how many mathematically demonstrable stops can be detected.

Perusing the FAQ, more useful tidbits:

-claimed dynamic range is >12 stops, around 4000:1, native ISO 220
-this answer makes me nervous: "Its exposure latitude is comparable to the best film stocks, and its linear range offers at least 12 stops." My (limited) understanding is that the best film stocks can go further than that
-DOES have HD-SDI outputs, mentioned in FAQ, but is optional
-daylight readable touchscreen/display
-with histogram, vectorscope, waveform & zebra, good tools to optimize your exposure settings
-PROPRIETARY RECORDING FORMAT: "noXRAW" files - " lossless, uncompressed, uninterpolated, easily rendered and previewed" - previewed with what?
-datarate - 8 bit 1080p24 RAW is 380 megabits/sec, or 47.5 MB/sec, or about 180 GB/hr of footage - Hey! 8 bit only? That's behind the times of every other new camera out there. Ouch. 10 bits plus, please
-onboard recording capacity - at least 45 min in failsafe mode, or 90 min in non-fault tolerant mode. The noXboX (Digital MAZ for noX) is for transfer over NAS, 50 MB/sec min required
-1080p25 (and presumably 24p) can be done over dual link HD-SDI if you wish
-uses 3 2.5" notebook drives, in failsafe mode can lose one drive and still maintain data integrity
-shock protected drive w/16 min record is an option - solid state I'm guessing?
-camera head can be removed for remote recording up to 3m w/standard cable, or 100m w/fiber link
-overall size comparable to 16mm camera
-can shoulder/dolly/tripod mount like any other camera
-removable PL mount, F & C mounts available as well, but no Digiprimes
-to answer the codec issue - can transcode to whatever you want, "it only depends on the installed codecs on the rendering machine, e.g. noXboX (Digital MAZ for noX)" - TIFF, BMP, TGA, JPEG, JPEG2000, SGI, PNG, etc.. Image sequence or AVI, but no .MOV (harrumph for us FCP users)
-metadata is mentioned elsewhere, but not timecode

-first ones available June/July 2007, Euro market only to start, America thereafter (and rest of world).

Based on the feature set I see here, if it wants to be competitive it'd need to be priced under $15K to compete favorably with the more featured SI-2K and Red One. And that's damn tough to do with a custom developed, low distribution camera.

Mike's Takeaway:
Pros:
-1.2" single sensor
-PL mount for lenses
-uncompressed RAW recording
-FAULT TOLERANT data recording - that's unique so far (Red has hinted at this capability but not offered details yet)
-large touchscreen/viewscreen

Cons:
-proprietary format
-SEEMS to be 8 bit recording, they don't mention higher bit depth recording when discussing datarates, I've emailed to ask about and will update if I hear back
-unknown price point at this time

I'm ALL FOR having more choices in the market. But based on what I'm seeing, I see nothing uniquely compelling here - and even worse, nothing new or better than what we already know is available or coming to market shortly EDIT - not quite true - fault tolerant recording is unique. With other products holding more market mindshare right now, that offer same and more features, this feels like a "me too, but not as much" product. It also looks not as refined - look at the product design, and compare it to the Red One or the recently redesigned SI-2K. Actually, noX looks a lot like SI's 1920 res camera from last NAB - slab sided and bulky, unrefined, sharp edged, lumpy and unfinished.

The resolution matches SI-2K, but SI-2K has more features and better post integration and options overall (see this article from earlier today). The Red One offers higher resolution, higher frame rates, a LOT of vendor support & interest (wait for next week) and based on what I've seen so far, better looking images as well. The one thing that made me wince - 8 bit recording. Yep, it looks like the only onboard recording option is 8 bit. I'd MUCH rather have a good compressed 10 bit image than an uncompressed 8 bit one. 8 bit is yesterday's news, BIG time. If they are claiming >12 bits of dynamic range, the usefulness of that is severely hampered by 8 bit recording. 14 bit A/D conversion is mentioned in the press release, and HD-SDI outputs, so perhaps better choices are available - but if so, you'd think they'd mention them. Both Red & SI-2K offer 10 or even 12 bit options in their recording choices. The only time recording bit depth is mentioned is when discussing datarates, which they want to present as low, but if I were writing a press release I'd add "and greater bit depth recording options are available as well."

So given all that, I'd say they'd need to hit a $10-$15K price point to seriously prick up ears and interest in the camera - there are simply too many (two many) other options that are further along, attractively priced, and offer demonstrably better utility based on information available to date.

If they can refine the physical packaging, get better recording options (higher bit depth and perhaps compressed RAW recording, hey guys talk to the Davids at Cineform!), and a price point around or under $15K, then I think it'll fit into the market in a logical place.

Of course, sensor/image quality counts for LOTS - so I'd need to put'em side by side and shoot the same thing to make a more definitive analysis - I'm just winging it based on specs & posted images for now.

But my gut vibe is exemplified in the headline - a bit of "Sigh, yet ANOTHER RAW shooting, data recording/IT based, large single sensor camera coming to market...what's different about THIS one?" Such riches that we have that we can be blasé about such new products! If they'd announced 12-18 months ago we'd all have been blown away. But technology is only as relevant as its price point and launch date...blow either of those and you can have a great product, but nobody asks you to dance (DALSA is getting better about learning this lesson, and Jeff Kreines, we Miss Thee, Kinetta was a WONDERFUL idea but I think its time has passed as originally incarnated).

We now have two camps - the (hopefully) low cost, high end, PL mounting New Boyz In Town, the SI-2K, Red One, and now noX, and the Big Boyz - the Genesis, D-20, and DALSA, that are rental only, all around $3K/day (last I heard).

For now, I'm skeptical based on the recording options and the unknown price point. Fix both of those to my liking, and there's a ballgame.

-mike


EDIT - BUT WAIT - it IS 1.2" sensor, NOT 2/3" like the SI-2K, so you get better depth of field than the SI-2K. Horses for courses, I may need to back up and rethink my above statements. At the right price point, it may be a "horses for courses" kind of a thing - VFX heavy workflow, removable head needed? SI-2K. Max image quality or higher frame rates? Red One. Low budget, good depth of field? Maybe noX will make sense. The devil is in the details, and we don't have enough of any of those to say quite yet - I haven't taken any of these out in the field as yet myself, nor have many others.

Labels: acquisition, cameras, high end

DALSA Digital Cinema - News
click pic for larger view of camera

DALSA has been busy - taking feedback that the current camera was too large and unwieldy, they've re-engineered one camera and are working on a smaller one as well, and have new recording and lensing options:

First up, an improved version of the Origin, the Origin II:
-modified/improved version of the original Origin
-latest version of their sensor (frame transfer CCD)
-easier touch screen interface
-24 reference white balance curves/display LUTs
-better on set visualization tools
-available for rent NOW
-dual link HD-SDI for monitoring or recording
-battery powerable for untethered operation - record to Flashmag for fully run (OK, careful walk) 'n gun operation with no cables snaking out behind you. Also opens the door for easier Steadicam work (but need a BEEFY platform for that!)

The Big News, to my mind, is the the new DALSA Evolution 4K Camera due in 2008:

-30-40% smaller than the Origin II
-roughly 25 pounds in current prototype trim
-can be completely untethered and battery powered as well with the Flashmag (read about below)
-from Patrick Myles at DALSA answer my question about differnces from the first Origin: same form factor, but latest version of our sensor. (digitalized at full 14bits), plus some new enhancements. Battle tested, production-proven, ready to roll (check out David Stump's 4K footage from "The Trident" with David Carridine this Sunday at the Digital Cinema Summit. Stunning.).

Anybody attending the DCS, please take notes or email me about it as I have other commitments this year unfortunately.

Also, they are addressing the storage option issue - the excellent but large Codex box has been their primary recommended storage solution, and while it elegantly handles a bunch of production issues, it is large, physically cumbersome, power hungry and pricey. Most of those issues have been addressed, and well, with the new Flashmag recording option.

Here's an exclusive photo, click for a larger view:
Vital stats:
-untethered recording for uncompressed 4K RAW
-is high speed, non-volatile solid state memory
-20 minutes 16 bit uncompressed 24p 4K RAW, or
-40 minutes of mathematically lossless 4K RAW (mathematically lossless is ABSOLUTELY the same quality as uncompressed, just lossless compression - think .zip or Stuffit instead of JPEG type compression)
-Flashmag also plays back for on set review in realtime, showing "Super 2K" res via dual link HD-SDI
-early 2008 availability
-battery powerable as well for untethered operation on either the Origin II or Evolution
EXCLUSIVE DETAILS: I emailed Patrick and he got back to me with some further details in answer to my questions:
Q: How big is it in GB?

A: 512 GB

Q: 4.) What are the ports/is the workflow to get data off the mag?

A: 4X infiniband for high speed transfer of data at full res.
Dual HD-SDI for realtime display at "Super 2K" (does realtime image reconstruction - RAW to RBG - in the Flashmag) for dailies or even recording.
HDMI, USB, Firewire outputs

...so presumably plug it in and copy over...what exactly? I've asked, will update when I hear back.

And lastly, they'll be offering high performance PL mount 4K anamorphic cine lenses, designed by Eric Peterson of A&S Precision. It gives full coverage of the sensor and will be available late 2007.

Mike's Commentary: Based on seeing vendor presented, optimal presentation of material from the PRESENTLY SHIPPING cameras that I saw last year including the D-20, Panavision Genesis, DALSA, F900, F950, etc., the DALSA Origin is my favorite in terms of image quality - just a gut reaction, "I likes it." INCREDIBLY robust dynamic range capability, excellent resolution, mechanical shutter for film like motion rendition, etc. It looks GREAT. See for yourself here in their 4K gallery.

The single shot that most convinced me was a hot overhead spotlit shot of Dita Von Tease (Marilyn Manson's current wife) wearing a dark gown with pale skin, and the iris was rolled open and closed to over/under expose. The graceful, filmlike was it responded was a crushingly powerful indicator of the finesse with which the sensor handles highlight details - beautifully. Did I say "crushing" in that sentence? I didn't mean to use it in the traditional filmmaker sense, since the whole point was that the highlights DIDN'T crush, just rolled off extremely gracefully without the usual digital telltale giveaways. A hot/overlit skintone is one of the most glaringly (literally) obvious indicators of digital vs film - and this handled it very well.

That said, it is also a big clumsy beast of a camera in the Origin (I) incarnation I saw last summer, as it had no HD-SDI outputs, and ONLY recorded uncompressed 4K. The victory of the product is that they set out to create a no-compromises optimal 4K image acquisition device, and they achieved that. The problem was, some compromises would have been extremely helpful - HD-SDI out, more readily shoulder mountable form factor, and options other than the massive Codex recorder box for image capture would have been good...but would have compromised their max quality vision of how to do this stuff. Their "4K or the Highway" approach at the time was a hindrance for viable production work. Now, they've addressed those issues.

The Origin II adds the interfaces I felt were missing, the Evolution tackles the form factor issues, and the Flashmag addresses the portability/tethering issues. MAJOR progress. It is also nice to hear David Stump shot some footage with it for The Trident, but I don't know enough about that project to say anything else, hopefully it is a feature or TV project, as I haven't heard of anyone committing to DALSA for a feature project or significant VFX work - I suspect their "4K or the Highway" approach had scared folks off.

EDIT - got an email from DALSA, saying folks are taking a "Super 2K" approach - shoot 4K RAW & downsample to 2K 16 bit RGB. In addition to The Trident, David Stump also shot a project called "No!". Additionally, Super 2K approach is being used at present.

The Flashmag is more than just a recorder, it will also play back and handle demosaic & scaling of the 4K RAW footage to dual link HD-SDI - a huge benefit. For lower cost monitoring, an HDMI output makes for easy client monitoring solutions as well. The Infiniband, FireWire and USB 2.0 interfaces are all presumably usable for getting the data off the unit with varying degrees of speed and convenience on set.

Come check out all their new goodies at NAB, in Central Hall, booth 9423. I'm meeting with them, you should too. The image quality is fantastic, form factor and workflow were their challenges and they appear to be making significant progress on that front.

Their next challenge - bringing these new products to market at a sufficiently attractive price point in a timely manner....

-mike

PS - on a related note, Origin and CineForm have been working together on being able to use the CineForm RAW codec with DALSA's camera. The last I heard was that there wasn't enough horsepower to convert the uncompressed RAW to CineForm RAW in realtime, so recording to uncompressed was required, and then the massive datastream could be compressed using the Cineform RAW codec for more efficient storage, transport, and workflow. I missed blogging on this issue, as I do with many, because I wanted to cover it in depth but just never got the time, so it slipped through my fingers (as so many things do).

Random thought - I wonder what the time and efficacy would be like to shoot untethered to the Flashmag, then transcode straight from the Flashmag to Cineform RAW via a laptop on set with an external drive to record the footage...hmmm...and what would the image quality be like compared to the uncompressed. Hmm...think think think....

-mike

Labels: acquisition, cameras, Cineform, high end

I'd kinda known these landmarks were coming up, but it is fun when they sneak up on you. I was checking stats today and noticed I'd crossed a couple of big fat landmarks:

I started this site in March of 2004. On September 9, 2004, I started using AdSense in part to track traffic easily - since then, I've had over 3 million pageviews on HD for Indies. Wow, that seems like a big number to me for such a niche site. We've come a long way, baby, indeed.

I installed a "unique daily visitor" counter about a year later on August 8, 2005, and even since then, I've had over 1.5 million unique daily visitors to the site since then.

So the actual, go-back-to-Day-Zero numbers are markedly higher, that's just the stats I have on hand. Traffic has been increasing, last month about 200,000 pageviews.

Oh, and in the last month or three I posted my 3000th post, this is number 3160 or so (counting saved drafts you folks have never seen).

Thanks to all for reading the site, and please continue to do so! If you feel like making a donation to help keep the site going, there's a PayPal link in the top right corner if you haven't done so already. Consider it the tip jar.

: )

-mike

Labels: OT

Wafian - Direct-to-Disk HD Video Recorders

I'd read something about the HR-2 recently, but didn't realize how close to market it was. For those who haven't been keeping track, Wafian makes DDRs - digital disk recorders. Their big trick is the use of the Cineform codec - they are essentially small ruggedized computers tailored to record high quality HD using the Cineform codecs. So you get data on a drive instead of a video tape, and you get 10 bits instead of the usual 8, and full raster (full width recorded, not horizontally shrunk down). The prices are nice too. For roughly the price of what would get you 1280x1080, 8 bit, artifact laden compressed footage, you can get 10 (or more) bits/channel, full raster (1920x1080), with very light, virtually artifact free (to the eyeball) compressed files ready to go into a Cineform modified Premiere Pro for immediate editing (or soon into Final Cut without as many realtime capabilities - it is in beta for Intel Macs now).

New models:

HR-F1
-PORTABLE (handle on top even!) 1920x1080 10 bit 4:2:2 HD-SDI recorder
-uses Cineform Intermediate codec
-removable drive magazine
-like the HR-1 but smaller, lighter, optionally DC powered
-records .AVI or .MOV formats
-"one button" interface to record & review
-built in touch screen
-up to 10 hrs of 10 bit 1920x1080 24p on removable drive
-optional 160 GB solid state for high shock/vibration recording (think chase scenes!)
-hopes to ship in July '07
-no pricing info as yet, but taking orders

HR-2
-10 bit 4:4:4 dual link HD-SDI recorder
-uses CineForm 444 codec @ 360 mbits/sec
-records .AVI or .MOV
-same easy interface as mentioned for HR-F1
-again, no pricing info as yet
-June 2007 expected ship date

If they are priced as I'd expect, an HR-F1 with the HD-SDI off, say, a Canon XL H1 with a better lens on it could be a very attractive price point for a low budget feature package. It is certainly something I'd consider for a Viper or F900 shoot as well, but the workflow issues need to be thought out...then again, very similar issues but lower datarate as compared to an S.two recorder workflow.

-mike

UPDATE

Got an email back from Wafian regarding price points. They were careful to qualify their statement as TARGET price points, not guaranteed, so keep that in mind over the next few months:


HR-F1 target MSRP is 17k
HR-2 target MSRP is 25k


Considering the quality for the HR-F1 should be comparable to a (now) $75K Panasonic D-5 HD deck in quality, and the HR-2 should be comparable to a Sony SRW-1 (circa $84K last I checked), that is quite the cost savings....and you start to realize what a big deal this can be. Not needing those pricey decks, and not needing a studio deck to ingest from, starts to make a whooooooole lot of financial sense.

Labels: acquisition, advanced, disk based recording

Whew! Taxes are DONE (that's what I've been up to instead of blogging, no fun at ALL), and time to get back on all the cool stuff coming down the pipe for NAB.

Starting off, got a press release this morning, here's the highlights:

-SI-2K camera is SHIPPING...sorta - new orders expected to ship in June (presumably pre-orders being fulfilled now?)
-at some point they redesigned the form factor, and WOW it looks better - before it had that lab/rocket science/hand built prototype feel, it looks so much more like a CAMERA now - I literally got a little jolt of adrenaline seeing it - looks REAL
-uses the AltaSens ProCamHD 4562 sensor, different from what they used before
-single sensor CMOS
-shoots 2K square pixels (2048x1080, not 2048x1556 as film scans are done)
-can shoot at up to 150 fps (most likely by windowing the sensor, don't have details on that yet)
-claimed >11 stops of lattitude
-12 bit A/D, 14 bit processing
-non-destructive LUT/color metadata pipeline that works with Iridas' product line
-SI-2K MINI is just the camera head, which can record if connected to a laptop/computer (a fast enough one, Core 2 Duo spec'd)
-already tools to work with it in a RAW workflow - Cineform's tools to edit in Premiere Pro, and Iridas for color correction
-Also from the press release: SI-2K™, which includes an embedded version of SiliconDVR™ recording software and integrated SpeedGrade technology, is $23,500. Orders are currently available with shipping in June. Silicon Imaging is also announcing a special NAB promotional discount of $2000 off the retail price for orders placed by April 30, 2007.
-check it out at NAB (I will too) in booth SL7826


Mike's Comments Congrats to the team for shipping their product, and with an improved sensor. The good news is that there is already NLE support and grading support as the camera ships due to the reliance/tight integration with Cineform and Iridas.

The price point is good, the toolset already exists to work with the footage. Cineform is working on Mac support, the codec is already in beta for Intel Macs and runs realtime from what I hear. I'd like to see Avid support the format, but that's a tall order - Avid doesn't support non-Avid codecs very often, esp. 3rd party, non-major camera manufacturer codecs. (Apple historically is the same with FCP as well.) So while it is POSSIBLE to edit with FCP or Avid, transcoding is potentially required depending on platform, and that raises issues of making sure metadata comes along for the ride, and that can lose some of the benefits of the RAW w/metadata workflow. But the process is evolving nicely, and they are WAY ahead of the game to have software support as advanced as they do with their just-about-to-ship camera (shipping in June)


----------


...and then I was surfing their site and found some more goodies:
P+S Technik partnership: "Silicon Imaging SI-2K cameras with interchange lens mount, the 2K-35 format converter for use of 35mm optics to achieve increase depth of field control and the 2K-B4 optical mount, for use of 2/3%u201D cinema lenses. In addition, a variety of tripod mounting, rod support and rig accessories will be shown.
....
SI-2K™ camera features a solid aluminum machined enclosure complete with tool-less quick-release mechanism for the removal of the remote-head SI-2K MINI from the SI-2K
...
integrated P+S Technik interchangeable lens mount system now gives users the unprecedented ability to hot-swap between Arri PL, Nikon F, C, and B4-mounts using the new 2K-B4™ lens adapter
...
optical block in the 2K-B4™ lens adapter removes the aberrations that could occur from using a lens designed for a 3-chip prism system in the SI-2K single-sensor architecture. This enables the use of modern 2/3” digital cinema lens designs, such as those from Panavision, Angeniueux, Zeiss, Fujinon, and Canon
...
2K-35™ format converter from P+S Technik enables the use of 35mm optics on the SI-2K cameras to maintain the signature “cinema-like” field-of-view and depth-of-field characteristics of large format lenses. In addition, a new family of 35mm Cinema Prime Lenses, based on the Zeiss ZF series optics, with precision focus gears and distance markings will be offered with the 2K-35™, including 25 mm, 35mm, 50mm and 85mm models
...
mounting options for the SI-2K™ include compatibility with Sony V-mount quick release tripod adapters as well as compatibility with Arri sliding base-plates and accessories
...
A quick-release rod support system is integrated into the camera body for direct mounting of 15mm lightweight matte-box and follow-focus accessories, without the need for a separate adapter. Rosettes on either side of the SI-2K™ camera enclosure provide mounting points for handle-grips and trigger mechanisms while the full-length top-handle of the SI-2K™ can be quickly removed to facilitate mounting on a Steadicam® low-mode rig. Finally, the full-size Anton Bauer battery mount has been positioned for optimal center-of-gravity distribution, greatly facilitating the needs of hand-held and Steadicam® users"

-also LEMO connectors, rail & rod systems, film base plates etc. Sounds like Silicon Imaging has done a good job of listening to what shooters want & need over the last year

More from press release (no time to translate):

Pricing and Availability

The SI-2K MINI™ Digital Docking camera kit includes:

Universal exchange lens mount system by P+S Technik

CineFormRAW™ encoding license

IRIDAS SpeedGrade Embedded license with integrated keyer

Silicon DVR™ software license for Windows XP Pro

P+S Technik MINI Support for lightweight rods and film bridgeplate connection

10 meter data interface cable

2 meter combination power/trigger cable

Choice of mounts including: PL, B4, or C mount

Pricing for the SI-2K MINI™ Digital Docking kit with PL-mount is $14,500 ans with 2K-B4-mount is $15,500, with a special NAB promotional discount of $1,000. The SI-2K MINI™ is currently available for order with shipment in 2 weeks.
...
The SI-2K™ Digital Cinema Camera includes:

Removable SI-2K MINI™ camera head

Universal exchange lens mount system by P+S Technik

Choice of Lens mounts including: PL, B4, or C mount

CineFormRAW™ encoding license

IRIDAS SpeedGrade Embedded license with integrated keyer

Silicon DVR™ Software License

HDMI, VGA, Gigabit Ethernet (2), USB(2),

Dual L/R mono balanced line input/output and XLR breakout cable

Stereo headphone out

5V and 12V auxiliary power output

Integrated pointing device with two user buttons

Integrated 15mm LWS rods mount

Integrated full-length handle bar

Sony-compatible V-Lock mounting base with Arri base-plate option

Pricing for the SI-2K™ Digital Cinema Camera with PL-mount is $23,500 or with a 2K-B4-Mount is $24,500, with a NAB promotional discount of $2,000. The SI-2K™ is currently available for order with shipment in June.

The 2K-35™ 35mm lens converter is $4,000 and Cinema Primes Lenses at $2,200 each, with availability in early 3Q’07.

The SI-2K™ digital cinema camera series, along with various P+S Technik accessories, will be shown in the joint CineForm and Silicon Imaging booth, SL7826.

Next up, the Iridas partnership announcement

SI-2K can now:
-import .look files made from Iridas' SpeedGrade stuff
-can create & modify looks and apply directly through UI on camera
-no baked in decisions, is just metadata that goes along with the RAW source along for the ride
-don't need to know RGB matrices or any of that stuff to get optimal results
-uses HSL color wheels & tools we're (or at least I as a post guy) used to, instead of color matrix stuff since my brain doesn't think that way
-can integrate grading w/in target color space, so you can't push "out of bounds"
-now has some blue/greenscreen previewing capability to do a sample key on the fly to see how it would composite, using a frame store. HOT feature for alignment and catching problems. Can export key & fill elements right from set. I need to find out more about this, but that sounds like a GREAT feature
-this bodes EXTREMELY well for budget Sin City/300 type looks, and the "the camera is a computer" aspect I've talked about before increases the overall value of the SI-2K proposition. There's even mention in the press release about a feature shot in 17 days doing just that.

Here's the UI:


SI-2K's big advantages:
-high quality compression
-existing NLE support with more coming, and can transcode for others
-existing grading solutions for working with the RAW with SOURCE metadata tweaking - you can adjust the parameters, not adjust over the pre-existing parameters on the RAW - this is IDEAL and EXCELLENT - like Aperture & Photoshop's color manipulation tools in one product, non-destructive and direct from source image all the way - ROXORS, big time.
-since the SI-2K is essentially a computer with a sensor and lens bolted to the front, adding features like look metadata, file format support (.look files), greenscreen keying and pre-comping, etc. are a snap
-I'd like to see images from the new sensor as well

This is all great stuff, and will help differentiate them from competing products...and I'll bet you know who I'm talking about. They have made a LOT of progress since they showed working prototypes a year ago.

After NAB, it'll be time for another round-up and comparison of the stats and capabilities of the current crop of shipping and about-to-ship HD+ cameras. These new features specifically, as well as the capability to rapidly add features of this nature, increase the utility, value, and functionality of this camera substantially. Last year I had a "Gee, great idea, but wrong timing - Red offers too much more." Now, with the added workflow capabilities, I think it'll appeal to a broader range of users, uses, and projects than I had originally anticipated. Good for them.

There are also new entrants, I'll be writing about those shortly, I've just been busy, hang on, it's a comin'....

-mike

Labels: acquisition, cameras, NAB, SI-2K

Early Performance Testing of the 8 Core Mac Pro Some apps (CineBench) can really take advantage of all cores, others (like QuickTime) cannot.

So - if you're doing 3D, it looks like early adoption of 8 core Macs is a good call. If you're doing video stuff, the jury is still out until we see new FCP, and probably until we see it under Leopard as well.

A key indicator of how well it works (or doesn't):
A bit depressing when the Activity Monitor registers 796% CPU usage on the 8 core versus 395% usage on the 4 core, yet the total time to complete the task is only 3% faster in the case of Photoshop CS3 and 7% faster in the case of Aperture.

Then another test:
... we opened six copies of the same HD sample 2 minute movie in QuickTime Player 7.1.5. Then we simultaneously exported all six copies to iPod movie format. The 8 core completed the task 56% faster than the 4 core Mac Pro

...so if you're needing to run multiple apps at the same time, it scales well that way. But if you ARE, the disk I/O can be a bottleneck from all the seeks involved.

-mike

Labels: Mac, Mac Pro, OS X

Learn about Panasonic's AJ-P2C008HG - 8GB P2 High Performance Card

Hey, the Easter Bunny left me a present while I was away - P2 cards just dropped substantially in price.

Now, instead insanely, ludicrously expensive, they're just really expensive!

Panasonic now lists 8GB P2 cards for $700, so I'd expect the aggressive web retailers to drop to about $625-$650 (from about $1100-$1200).

This is a BIG chunk of progress, you'll be able to buy nearly 60% more recording capacity for the same amount of money. $2400 used to get you 16GB of capacity, now it will get you 24GB with $300 left over. I wouldn't go buying stacks of them yet, I think I heard Panasonic predict 32GB cards for $1000 by year's end (is that right? Somebody bust me if I'm wrong on that.)

-mike

Labels: HVX200, P2

...off Planet Internet that is. I'm disconnecting the Interweb Tubes from my veins and going out the airlock.

I'm heading out to my sister's ranch for Easter, and last report had it snowing out there!

I hope I can find a hill to sled on with my nephew - MUCH better than pixel spelunking...

No phones, no Internet, no cell coverage....a Bit Detox...aaaahhhhh.......

See you folks in a few days...the dogs are armed, the alarm is fed, etc...

-m

Labels: OT

Final Cut Pro 4.5 and Final Cut Express 3.0 may drop frames with Mac OS X 10.4.9

Issue

If Mac OS X 10.4.9 is installed, Final Cut Pro 4.5 and Final Cut Express 3.0 may drop frames when attempting to capture video to some FireWire-based storage devices. 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
Final Cut Express 3.0
Solution

Capture media to an internal ATA drive.

If FireWire storage is a requirement for your workflow, update to Final Cut Pro 5 or Final Cut Express 3.5. If necessary, you can archive and install Mac OS X to revert your operating system to Mac OS 10.4.8.

OK, I'm blogging while irritated, which is not recommended. Or actually, blogging whilst frustrated is a more accurate description, because I keep seeing the same problems over and over.

Kinda like my friends that lived in the house right after the sudden curve on Enfield. They dubbed their house "Casa Magneto" because drunken frat boy cars seemed drawn to end up in my friends' front yard about once a month, and bonus points if the car was upside-down after launching off the berm in the other neighbors yard Dukes of Hazzard style. They'd hear a screeeeeeeeeeeech....CRASH and pick up the phone, walk out on the yard dialling 9 and 1, waiting to see if anybody was hurt to dial the final digit. The fact that they had A System For It kinda informs you of the situation.

I feel like that today. Not that indie filmmakers are akin to drunken frat boys (thank God), but that's the situational metaphor that popped to mind, so I'm going with it.

I just sent yet another email off to a client that approached me after all the shooting had been done for a doc or feature, and capture had been done, and once again, the classic mistakes had all been made.

DISCLAIMER: If you're a client and you've made these mistakes, this isn't aimed at you in particular, there are many, many of you out there. I may be grouchy here, but I am trying to help. Details have been changed or merged on some of these to better make the point. That Which Does Not Kill Us Makes Us Stronger (Nietzsche). Mike's Corrollary: That Which Does Not Kill Us Makes Us Want To Take A Nap.

It has long been said that most indies will gladly save a nickel Friday that costs them $20 on Monday, either because they don't know any better or simply don't have the $2 on Friday to prevent the $20 error on Monday. Add zeroes to amounts until it applies to you/your project.

So, even though this is potentially giving away some work, let me spell it out for folks out there, in no particular order:

1.) THOU SHALT NOT USE CINEFRAME MODE on Sony HDV cameras. EVV-ARR (that's "ever" with emphasis for the non-teenage literate out there). It looks bad, it isn't true 24p, there are Better Ways, even with that same camera. Somebody shot Cineframe to intercut with 720p24 and 720p60 in FCP - what a mess to resolve correctly (doable, but finicky & time consuming).

2.) If you want to "shoot a movie" on DV, shoot 24pA mode, or at least have only slightly bungled it and shot 24p. 30p is one of the worst frame rates to use. 24p doesn't compress as nicely as 24pA, therefore doesn't look as good. DV is already challenged enough, don't beat up the little bruised kid any further. The catch is in the capturing, which leads to Item 4 in a minute...

3.) If you want to "shoot a movie" on the DVX100/A/B, PLEASE shoot anamorphic. Anamorphic 24pA, to be precise. Having shot it letterboxed, or "Well, we'll just letterbox it and blow it up for the theatrical version!" is the usual self-pleased answer, not realizing they will have a grand total of 720x360 pixels to blow up to 1920x1080 - that's a threefold stretch vertically instead of 2.25 - congrats, you can reposition vertically, but you've thrown out 25% of your resolution - something you were already very thin on with the DV format. And even fewer if you want that 1.85:1 or 2.40:1 ultra-widescreen vibe. And plan for your festival HD uprez, and realize that bumping up DV to HD resolution looks several thousand light years not as good as having shot HD inthe first place, but that's a couple of other whole other long posts entirely....

Now, if you're going for regular 4:3 broadcast, skip the above. This only applies if you want a 16:9 deliverable.

4.) DO NOT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD AND ALL THAT IS EDITORIALLY HOLY capture 24p or 24pA as 29.97 "normal" DV if you want to "make a movie" and have a 24p master (which you probably do for more reasons than filmout). Easily 80% of the folks I talk to that shot on DVX100/A/B gladly and glibly capture all their footage INCORRECTLY at 29.97, which makes it a royal bitch to get to a 24p master. This happens with alarming frequency. It screws up your ability to make a 24p master, makes VFX harder, makes your DVDs look worse than they could, even if you're not going out to film. The fix? Go back and recapture all final selects again. UGH. Do it right the first time. EDIT - Jan Crittendon of Panasonic reached out to let me know that in my frothing fit I'd mis-stated the case - actually, technically, you DO capture at 29.97, but you're removing 3:2 pulldown and writing 24p do disc. My intent was to say end up with 24p footage on disc, not 29.97 for your timeline. Thanks Jan! Good eye.

5.) If you or your crew did screw up and shot 24p, 24pA, and 60i on your various tapes instead of just the intended 24pA during the shoot, label the tapes as what they are so you don't make the editor or asst. editor want to kill you. And then capture them correctly. Look at the captured footage to make sure it is right.

6.) If you are "making your own movie" and aren't a TRULY experienced editor, or sat down and had at least a 30 minute SOBER conversation with someone who is an editor about the exact and precise specifics of your project, odds are at LEAST 90% that you will screw up video capture sufficiently that someone else will have to come back and redo it ALL to get a proper 24p master done later on. Log your tapes properly too while you're at it. RTFM on that one. And get a real editor if at all humanly possible - it is what they do for a living.

I'm switching over to Q&A mode now, from a draft I'd never finished/published, and I was in a nicer mood. These aren't all "do not do's" but are still useful/informative I think.

7.) Question:I want to shoot my documentary fiilm on the HVX-200 out in the middle of nowhere and my budget is tight. Tell me how to do this without running over budget. I also don't have much crew."

Answer: You've hosed yourself most likely. If you're shooting a doc that doesn't lend itself to a small amount of footage shot each day, and ESPECIALLY if you need to shoot a lot of footage each day, the HVX200 doesn't lend itself well for that if you want to shoot HD remotely with small crew. For narrative projects with few and shorter takes, it can be a great solution if you have AC power and a backup solution or a P2 Store (the portable hard drive for offloading) - see this article for more on P2 workflows in the field. But with no AC power and needing to shoot a lot of footage, You Are In Trouble.

The HVX200 is a nice camera for a lot of reasons - I like the color on it, the Final Cut workflow is pretty good (still some rough edges), the over/undercrank ability is super sweet and easy to use, the flexibility of modes is great - DV, DVCPRO50, 720p, 1080p, 1080i - all good stuff. BUT...the P2 cards are the weak link - they are VERY pricey and small in capacity and you have to dump the data somewhere before you can reuse them, and this is what will kill a small doc shoot - you need too many cards, or too much extra gear (P2 Store is a good option though, or multiple P2 Stores, when are they putting a 160-200GB drive in that sucker? NAB I hope?), and the real killer - too many man hours tied up in managing all that stuff if you're a small crew. You also almost certainly need AC power as well, and in the boonies that can be a dealbreaker.

There are other options worth looking at. Email me about consultation.

Lesson to learn: tools that are great for one job aren't necessarily great for another. "I have a bucket of nails and my favorite shiny lovely screwdriver. Crap."

8.) Question:I want to shoot JVC GY-HD250 (because I can buy it cheap) to cut with my letterboxed DVX100 footage in Final Cut. I like that it shoots 60fps progressive that I can use for overcranking, and I like the idea of FireWire ingest. My post house suggests bumping it all to another tape format for ingest for HD conform and uprezzing with a Teranex for the DV footage, but I can't afford that.

Whew! OK, let's break down the many issues here:

-AFAIK, the JVC GY-HD250 isn't supported by Final Cut at this time for native FireWire ingest at 60p- anecdotally I'm hearing that 24p and 30p capture work, but I don't have a rock solid confirm on that. 60p is almost certainly out from what I'm hearing, but again I don't have a gospel answer on that one. Lesson here: Be SURE that not only does your camera choice make sense, but that your post options are as expected and affordable It is ALL to easy to pick the "wrong" format for your NLE or post workflow and end up spending more in post than you would have in production if you'd picked the "right" camera for the job. Dubbing to higher end HD tape formats has gotta be what, $75+ per tape? On a doc, that'd be lethal to the budget - shoulda bought/rented a different camera with a proven post workflow and saved money over the "I think this'll be cheap and good" approach.

-Next issue - intercutting with 4:3 DV. While you CAN just drop footage on an FCP timeline and mix sizes, codecs, frame rates, and aspect ratios, it has to render, and that is slooowwwww, even on fast modern boxes. And it'll render to the existing timeline's settings, converting your HD to SD if that is what the timeline is. Plus, there are other issues if you've shot letterboxed (mistake # 4 above) and want to intercut HD. There are ways around or to deal with these problem with minimal time and expense and quality sacrifice...available to my clients (See? I'm only SLIGHTLY evil....)

-Issue after that - conforming this mixed timeline to an HD master - because the 24p mode on the JVC is delivered as 2:2:2:4 cadence on a 60p stream, it is damn hard to extract to cut with a regular 24p timeline. The client's post house, an entity I've heard of from across the country, was suggesting an expensive and time consuming solution requiring dubbing ALL tapes to another tape format. I had a software based solution that wouldn't require that.

Other related issue - how to make deliverables - if an SD 4:3 and an HD 16:9 are requested, then how do you optimally prepare each deliverable? How do you conform to the HD version without expensive tape dubbing, uprezzing the DV footage using a Teranex, etc.? I have solutions for all this, and I've done it before. All it takes it some proper prior planning and some relatively inexpensive computer time...and the knowledge to drive it all.

If you're having trouble figuring out how you're going to conform or deliver to HD, especially from a mix of SD & HD acquired footage, I have extremely high quality, affordable solutions for you that don't require a lot of time on traditional "heavy iron" at a post house. As Stu Maschwitz of The Orphanage put it so well in his book on indie post, desktop tools can offer BETTER quality than the high end post facility tools, they just aren't as fast. You just have to know how to use them well.

Lesson to learn: look at your ENTIRE production process and costs in their entirety. It is all too easy to change a solid plan and think you'll be saving money, and end up hosing the production or the budget.

9.) Question, phrased in many different ways: "Will you work on deferral?/Will you take less money if I give you a better credit on the film?

Answer: Let me explain - almost all of my clients are making independent content. I don't do commercials, I don't do industrials, mostly indie content. There are so many independent films out there being made, by so many earnest, well intentioned people, that will never even recoup their hard costs, let alone sell for enough profit to pay full residuals. Everyone thinks that their film will be different, and sadly, regrettably only a slim few will be correct in that assessment. Look at the recent SXSW, for example - over 3000 films were submitted, they ran roughly 100 or so, and of those, if you take out the ones that already had distribution before they got there, and just look at the ones that truly walked into the festival seeking full size theatrical distribution...the number will be dishearteningly low. Probably fewer than can be counted on one hand. So based on those odds, I really can't.

The same thing applies for film credits - it doesn't behoove me to do so. I've had more than one discussion with clients where we walk through a whole range of options, often including them suggesting they edit the film themselves when they've never edited before, and want me to defer my fees "until we get distribution." I wish I could, but if I did, I'd go broke Waiting For That Day. Especially for self-edited films. Not to be mean, but that bumped up credit that is supposed to help me out? Everyone in the business knows what Executive Producer means these days, and if it is on a small film that wasn't acquired, how exactly does that help me? I'm uncomfortable claiming a title I didn't earn. I do what I do, no more, no less.

10.) Question, again phrased many different ways: "Will you just answer me this ONE more question for free? Then this one? Then this one? Then this one? (Repeat ad infinitum) or more bluntly "Will you spend lots of time on my project for free? It is a REALLY good project. C'mon, you know the answer already, just TELL me!"

Answer: I'll try and calm down and be nice on this answer, and it similarly applies above - answering questions is what I do for a living. I don't work at a post house or a rental house or have another business where this is a sideline - consulting is my living. Unlike working professionals who share information with peers freely because it isn't going to affect their business (and I do help out my friends and peers frequently), I can't afford to spend time answering all the questions that come in, especially without charging. I'd be at it all day. And moreso, answering questions, especially well, thoroughly, and accurately, takes time, even if it is just finding a link to something I wrote in the past. If you can't find it easily, I probably can't either.

Also, stating "I have no budget/I'm a student" does not change anything on my end about my time availability nor effort required to answer.

Kindly, respectfully, there are forums out there where you can get free advice, although the quality of that advice varies wildly. When in doubt, pray to Google, but YMMV. It never hurts to ask, but if I (or someone else) says no thanks I/we/they don't have time, please respect that. Asking nicely up front appreciated as well. Nothing turns my generosity of soul sour more lately than folks complaining, repeatedly, that I won't help them out for free. Sigh.

OK, that's a lame Item 10, and isn't really something to really avoid (nor is #9), but that rounds it out to a nice round 10, and lists need 10 items according to the advice I read on the Interweb tubes. But back to the general point:

It is not your fault that you didn't know before you started. But it IS quite arguably your fault that you didn't ask and find out before you started shooting.

Addenda - stating "I just want to make my movie/I'm the creative, I don't want to focus on the tech" is an excuse...and not a valid one. Stating you don't want to be an auto mechaic doesn't fix your blown engine, nor excuse you from never having changed or checked the oil before it blew.

I could probably whip out another 20 (or 50) tips like this, but it boils down to planning and research.

The key to making a successful indie project, AFTER you have a great script and good actors and DoP and all that other stuff, is to plan, Plan, PLAN it to death. Then have contingencies, preferably what I like to call graceful contingencies - so that if the big goal isn't met, it isn't an all or nothing deal, you can just slide down one rung on the ladder rather than fall all the way to the bottom. And how do you do that? You plan. You research. You ask questions. LOTS of questions. If you don't know, or don't have someone willing to spend a lot of time helping you figure it out who does know, find folks who do. Maybe even hire a consultant, but that isn't the only way.

OK, end of rant, apologies for the rude tone, but it had to be said.

-mike

ADDENDA: Commenters have said CineFrame24 is troublesome but CineFrame 25 & 30 are OK....but you're still tossing res, and I'd rather use a better software deinterlacer like Nattress' anyway for better results. I still don't like it.

When I say capture as 24 fps, I'm shorthanding to mean 23.976 fps. But that doesn't matter really, as the inexpensive cameras can't do 24.000 fps, they always do 23.976 anyway. Higher end production gear can do either, but if you're working with those and get it wrong...you REALLY should have known better.

When I mention shooting 24p as opposed to 24pA, 24pA is by FAR the preferable. when I mentioned capturing 24p as 23.976 not 29.97 fps, I was thinking of a particular project where we recaptured via SDI - FireWire based 24p capture is a different thing as someone noted in the comments, but it can be captured that way.

As for 60fps out of the HD250, 24 & 30 are claimed to work just like the 100/110, so that shouldn't be a problem. 60fps, however, is claimed to have same frame flags as DVCPRO HD and be capturable over component analog. That statement does NOT make sense to me, since a.) where are the flags on an analog signal as compared to HD-SDI, and b.) the patterns are different - one uses 2:3:3:2, the other uses 2:2:2:4. Anybody clarify that for me?

Tuesday update - just talked to the editor on one of these challenged projects - more on self-edited films:

One of my clients discussed how the filmmaker editted the film himself, capturing 24p as 29.97, and because timecode was giving him trouble he turned off abort on timecode break and just captured entire tapes as individual files...thus guaranteeing cadence breaks and making it impossible to correctly capture the footage.

This is the post production equivalent of snapping the key off in the lock then liberally applying superglue all over it.

Now that the footage has already been captured and edited as 29.97, it would almost be an entirely manual process to rebuild the edit correctly as 24p and still maintain best possible quality. There are fixes to get it to be 24p, but so far all involve quality losses due to either DV recompression, >100IRE highlight clipping, or both.

The fillmmaker also shot letterboxed not anamorphic as his coup de grace.

So if you'd like some help avoiding these and other other problems, or just want to know how to save money, make your movie look better, and stay flexible in your options, get in touch - mike [at] hdforindies [dot] com.

-mike

PS - another short way of summarizing a lot of this - never commit to a camera until you have a known, proven, MATCHES EXACTLY way to post that footage. If you need to change NLE package or camera for some reason, make sure you still have a working match.

Labels: DIY, NLE, original, post, tips

New Specs for Next-Generation Blu-ray Players - Yahoo! News

Apparently, Blu-ray players that have shipped to date weren't required to fully comply with the spec. Full spec compliance, and boosted specs, will be required for all units manufactured after Halloween of this year.

Read on for details.

-mike

Got an email from David Taylor of CineForm with a new product announcement. To boil it down:

Cineform announced a new codec - 12 bit "CineForm 444" codec - 12 bits/channel, 4:4:4 RGB. Note that this is different from their Cineform RAW codec that they've been using with the SI-2K.

So, this new codec details:

-targetted at high end of digital cinema & broadcast acquisition
-pitching as a competitor to HDCAM SR
-tested HDCAM SR vs CineForm 444, CineForm bested SR by 3 to 5 dB in peak s/n ratio testing
-used StEM (Standard Evaluation Material, is scanned film)
-see results here
-same results discussed on David Newman's blog here

More on the codec from their press release:
-12 bit RGB
-member of the CineForm Intermediate codec family, called CineForm 444
-up to 2048x2048 pixel resolution (why not 4Kx4K? -Mike)
-Prospect 2K for Premiere Pro supports real-time, multi-stream editing (oh, that's why! -mike)
-a version of CineForm 444 for Intel Mac QT "will be released in the near future"
-"Intended for professional film, digital cinema, and broadcast applications"
-it now offers realtime direct-to-disk capability over dual link HD-SDI onto Windows now and OS X "soon"
-alternative to tape based recording, much lower price point
-setup allow for picking AVI or QT wrappers
-recorded files IMMEDIATELY editable with no conversion or transcoding required IF using Premiere Pro on Windows (currently). Can also open directly in After Effects on Windows for compositing using native, recorded files
-Final Cut support coming
-tested using a Wafian prototype recorder (hardware computer solution using CineForm recording) recording off a Viper, compared to HDCAM SR deck, as well as StEM footage
-comparing peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR), the CineForm solution bested HDCAM SR by 3 to 5 dB

Mike's Comments:

This all sounds very good - the Wafian recorder is simply a customized Windows portable system that has the horsepower and storage to record the CineForm codec format, but you could lug a suitably hoss system onto a stage/set for DIY recording for greenscreen etc. shoots. The Wafian makes it easier and productized, but the CineForm codec is the magic inside.

The point being they now have a very high quality recording option to meet or exceed the bit depth of the high end production being down these days over dual link HD-SDI. The F950, D-20, Genesis, & F23 will all kick out a maximum bit depth of 10 bits/channel over dual link HD-SDI.

I know just enough math to know that PSNR is important but not the only factor that matters when evaluating compression techniques. As someone on CML pointed out, 20 seconds or more of rolling footage viewed in a critical viewing environment is one way to evaluate material, and running compressed footage all the way through post processes to make sure nothing non-visible to human eyes but software visible (think keys and aggressive color correction).

The Davids were kind enough to point out all this material to me in recent weeks, but I've been too busy to sit down and thoroughly evaluate the material in the rigorous methods needed to give a comprehensive and definitive analysis.

But this all sounds very good and promising and it is great to have new options.

The ability to have a 2K master that edits in realtime with a reasonable datarate for high quality work. Wait, what datarates? I emailed David Taylor and he was kind enough to respond quickly:

But as a quick summary, using the StEM material (which is a bit more complex than most material, the average bitrates were:

CineForm 444 Filmscan 1: 350 Mbps (=43.8 MB/sec -mike)
CineForm 444 Filmscan 1-Keying: 410 Mbps (=51.3 MB/sec -mike)
CineForm 444 Filmscan 2: 415 Mbps (=51.8 MB/sec -mike)
CineForm 444 Filmscan 2-Keying: 480 Mbps (=60 MB/sec -mike)

Source in all test cases was 1920 x 1080 24p 10-bit dual-link HD-SDI.

David.


Those datarates are stretching beyond the bounds of what is reliably doable on a single SATA drive. Modern single SATA drives run from about 30-55 MB/sec (full to empty rates) for slower drives to 40-65 MB/sec for faster drives. So really, you need a RAID to run these - if you're using 44 MB/sec footage on a drive that falls below 40 MB/sec when full, you aren't going to get reliable, no frames dropped performance. So a RAID of some sort is a practical necessity, esp. if you want a realtime transition (where two streams must be sustained).

But even a small native SATA RAID 0 could suffice, and they are quite affordable (starting under $1000).

That said, some issues:

1.) At present, the only native editing solution is Premiere Pro on Windows. That's at least 3rd on the list of NLEs high end professionals (target for this product, remember) want to work on. Avid is serious editors #1 pick, Final Cut tends to follow, and then it devolves to "everyone else" of which Premiere Pro tends to be at the front of that line. Final Cut support is coming but not quite here yet (it is in beta). When it does get here, will he have realtime support for things like cross dissolves and color correction? That is a mission critical feature as far as I'm concerned.

So no Avid native support at all at present or on the foreseeable horizon (and they historically Don't Play Well With Others unless others are camera companies). But then again, you can always downrez (software easy but slow, hardware realtime but cumbersome esp. for timecode issues) for an offline edit and conform on PPro/AE. Then, if needed, kick out to uncompressed for online if you want to do so on a different system (DPX sequences, SR tape, whatevah).

2.) As the last bit of the above alludes, data migration. Right now you can get that footage into some desktop type apps on Windows, soon on Macs, but lets face it - most shoots working with HDCAM SR are likely to also be using heavy iron production equipment that is often Linux/Unix based, and expects a DPX sequence. While you CAN convert to that format, you're losing the storage, time, and One Master File convenience offered by CineForm. You could acquire and archive with CineForm, then convert to offline editorial codec and uncompressed full res for VFX - your "digital negative" would remain conveniently small.

3.) I have yet to do my own testing to verify how well this compressed format holds up to heavy post - aggressive color correction and green screen keying the two items of greatest concern.

OK, gotta go run...

UPDATE:

Got an email from David of CineForm and that got me thinking:

1.) You CAN just treat this like a deck, with data copied off as your "tape". Wafian HR-2 (designation of new model) DOES have dual link HD-SDI, so you could shoot on set, bring it back to studio/editorial, ingest over HD-SDI any way you want (DVCPRO HD for offline edit, downconvert to SD for edit, whatever), and have SOME kind of sync system to go back for the high res masters.

2.) OR you could batch process the Wafian files down to whatever you want for offline/online/VFX pipelines as needed using After Effects or possibly other tools. After Effects isn't built for batch conversion, but you can do it.

3.) High quality file based compressed wavelet source captured to hard drive that lets you convert to offline/online formats of choice - that's pretty much what Red is doing, but they're building their own conversion utility as well, with the added benefit that there is a shipping solution to edit it now with realtime effects (on a duly pimped system).

-mike

Labels: acquisition, Adobe, advanced, Avid, Cineform, disk based recording, FCP, Final Cut, NLE, post

ProLost: New Look

Stu Maschwitz, the brains behind the original Magic Bullet and more recently Colorista, couldn't help himself but to talk a little bit about the next version of Magic Bullet that is due to be demo'd at NAB.

Some tidbits of interest from his blog post with commentary, his in italics, mine in plain

Rather than a regular plug-in with a ton of sliders, Magic Bullet Looks features a standalone application with its own UI.


Hmm....I'm not sure about that, I'll have to see it in action. So much of what needs to be done gets done on THAT shot rather than applying a look. Stu gets workflow, so I'll have to trust him on this one until I can see it.

Interjection: I'd emailed Stu to talk about this, and he replied back:
Stu said:
I totally hear you -- the standalone UI is a double edged sword, but we're working to make it as non-modal as possible, and when you see the UI you'll understand why there was no other way.

Like the previous Look Suite, this tool isn't meant to be a color corrector in and of itself. The classic use would be Colorista followed by Magic Bullet Looks. You'd use MBL as a kind of LUT over your corrections. That way all the shots in a sequence have the consistent look but their own shot-by-shot corrections underneath. So there will be at least one mode of working where MBL will be somewhat fire-and-forget.

-Stu

That is certainly an interesting concept - Colorista for the tweaky tweaky color balancing, then MBL for applying a look. One key detail will be how the architecture in your app works - does it do Colorista in 32 bit floating point, then return results as what? Hopefully at LEAST a 10 bit space, not 8 bit RGB before THAT result gets sent to the next plugin (MBL). I don't know all the details on how exactly that works in each app, but it can make a substantial difference in the final quality results.

Back to quoting his blog entry...

Called Looks Builder, this application is launched when you apply the Look Suite 3 plug-in in After Effects, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, Avid, or Motion.

I like that modularity, and the ability to use same looks in all those apps (don't forget Premiere Pro is coming to Macs this year)

Within Looks Builder, you build and edit looks using Look Tools; modular mini-effects for things like bleach bypass, gradient filters, and film stock simulation. All of these tools work in realtime and can be tweaked and edited in context. All processing is done in floating-point color.

Floating point GOOD, preservation of >100 IRE better - Stu tipped me to this in my own workflow issues, so I'm guessing he'll handle it right, or as rightly as the software & APIs allow him to do so.

With over 30 Look Tools to assemble however you like, you can create an infinite variety of Looks.Or choose a preset. Pop open the Looks Theater to see 100 different preset looks applied to your image (not a canned thumbnail) in realtime.

This bodes well for him "getting it" the way I want it to work.

Magic Bullet Looks was designed to be easy and fun to use, but it's powerful enough for pros too. Filters and exposure adjustments work in real-world units. Color corrections obey industry standards. Cineon film scans and digital cinema images, such as those from the Panavision Genesis camera, are interpreted correctly and can be converted to video or left in their native color spaces. The same look that you develop on an Avid rough cut in video color space can later be applied to a 35mm scan.

BINGO. If he's supporting Panalog, that bodes very, VERY well that he'll be handling a lot of other high end things I want to be able to do (Viper balanced LUT?). And all this with hardware acceleration on an 8 core Mac Pro with a good GPU? Bwahahahahhahaaa.....the POWER! Now, if he could just get secondaries in Colorista...

-mike

Labels: Adobe, After Effects, Apple, Avid, DIY, FCP, Final Cut, Genesis, NAB, NLE, plugin, post, software

Studio Daily | RED Update

Steve Gibby, Red #8, gives an update for Studio Daily. Nothing new in there in terms of specs, but he has a nice little list at the end of the article of what Red could be used for in terms of types of production and the formats likely to be use for those productions.

Remember that name, I expect to have something much more interesting to say in the next few weeks....

-mike

Google Press Center: Press Release:

"'Dark porcelain' project offers self-installed plumbing-based Internet access"

Favorite April Fool this year, Google has a sense of humor. Check out the press release above and the How It Works & the FAQ.

-mike

PS - I especially like the "PHD" & pens in the lab coat of the sewer diver

UPDATE: Evidently they've been at this kind of thing for a while, check out:
Google Press Center: Press Release: "the launch of Google Romance%u2122, a new product that offers users both a psychographic matchmaking service and all-expenses-paid dates for couples who agree to experience contextually relevant advertising throughout the course of their evening."

with bonus 404 message: "wasn't that amusing and harmless and mostly in good taste and not all psychologically damaging under various and sundry aspects of contemporary tort law, please don't sue us"

-mike

Labels: OT

SO...we now can buy an 8 core Mac as of today. GOOD.

Let's do some tea leaf reading, starting with the most likely and getting speculative from there:

1.) No other Mac Pro computers to be announced at NAB. This is pretty much a foregone conclusion - why roll out hardware 10 days before a Big Announcement that would change said hardware? They'd either release it now, or WAIT. Since they did roll it out now, it makes sense that they realized this wasn't super impressive, so they wanted the bitter taste of dissapointment out of everyone's mouth that had hoped for more before NAB.

2.) Since the hardware has been announced, it is likely that the software announcements will be BIG. If Apple felt they didn't have anything too special to get folks psyched up about, they would have held onto this "new hardware" card to play that Sunday. Note last year - no new FCP, just a preview of stuff that didn't ship for months (24p HDV support & better P2 import), so they decided to roll out the new Macbook Pros at NAB to give us something to be excited about. Since they've played the hardware card, they're confident the software will rock.

3.) Final Cut Studio 6 *, if it is to include improved HD-DVD and/or Blu-ray authoring, is less likely to ship soon because of these hardware announcements. "Buh-whaaaaaa?" I hear you say? Let me explain - if Apple were going to be ready to ship an HD-DVD or Blu-ray burning version of Final Cut Studio, they'd need to have a hardware option to burn such discs. This announcement includes no mention of such hardware. If Apple WERE going to do so, they'd probably have held the announcement for NAB, as 8 cores and Blu-ray or HD-DVD burning would, in my mind, be "big enough" news.

Therefore, since the next hardware upgrade cycle is likely to be in the August/September timeframe at soonest, perhaps Final Cut Studio 6 will ship around that time if it has that feature? I know that sounds odd, but consider:

Apple has more than once previewed software at NAB that didn't ship until September or October of that year - witness Motion and Final Cut Pro 5.1.2 (that added 24p HDV and better P2 support). The rumors are this is a BIG update, with significant new features and maybe a ground-up rewrite. That kind of effort takes TIME, and even though they've had since last spring (when the Universal Binary PPC/Intel version 5.1 shipped) to work on it, depending on how big a bite they took of New Tech Pie, they could still be busy. The causality is getting a little thin, but one could interpret this hardware announcement to mean that not only will the next Final Cut Studio ship later this year, but it will be bigger/better than the routine update some have expected. That said, if Apple's offerings at NAB are just routine updates (new formats supported, more RT stuff), a LOT of folks will be dissapointed...me included.

* (or whatever it is called, internally I refer to it as "Final Cut xXx")

It IS possible they'll announce optional Blu-ray or HD-DVD burners as a BTO option at NAB, but that would be splitting fine hairs for Apple - to announce new machines 10 days before, then announce new OPTIONS for that machine later, is possible but odd and confusing to customers, and would piss off a lot of folks buying 8 core Macs for the next 10 days. Since you can order and receive one before NAB, that just doesn't quite make sense for Apple to do. Better to hold back the announcement if that were the case to avoid the backlash.

4.) Since there's no new GPU options, that makes the chances of the rumored Final Cut Extreme less likely to be true. Since no new GPU capabilities, nothing to run that big thing on.

Devil's Advocate/Off Chance - the rumors of a Final Cut Extreme that requires additional hardware fits into this model - if it is going to be some badass GPU with additional capabilities, then it makes sense that there's no improved GPU options...YET. Or that it'll replace the existing GPU with something much better, so it didn't make sense to offer something yet. The backlash argument applies here too, though.

5.) IF Final Cut Studio (next) isn't going to ship for some months, that also lends credence to the possibility that it would rely, or certain features only work under the next version of OS X, 10.5 aka Leopard. I had previously thought Apple might require Leopard for the next Final Cut, but it would be unlike Apple to require a new OS for a new version - more likely is that some features would be realtime under Leopard on sufficiently fast machines, but would require non-realtime rendering on non-Leopard machines. Again, just a theory, and inconsistent with Apple's past behavior. Too much splitting of hairs on performance leads to customer confusion, and Apple is averse to that. No version of FCP has ever had features that worked under one OS and not on another. Personally, I expect OS X 10.4.x (probably 10.4.9) or Leopard to be required for the next Final Cut Studio, however.

WRAP-UP:

Apple would get major points for "Surprise!" if they rolled out new, additional hardware at NAB, but then they would suffer from backlash of those that bought this week. Plus, Apple tends to follow a pretty predictable hardware release schedule, and this completely wouldn't fit their past behavior.

All this does tend to cement my belief that we'll SEE Final Cut Studio version xXx at NAB, but it won't SHIP for some time (months) after NAB. And I'm 100% certain it won't be a free download like version 4.5 was on Day Of. At this rate, the only reason for me to upgrade to a Mac Pro is for Redcine....until Apple and/or Adobe and/or Red show me otherwise.

That said, if at all possible...DON'T buy until after the press event two Sundays from now and we know what's coming and can make a fully informed purchasing decision.

-mike

Labels: analysis, Apple, Blu-ray, FCP, Final Cut, Mac Pro, NAB

MacNN | New Cineon, DPX QT Components at NAB '07

-v2.5 to be released at NAB
-3D LUTs
-Final Cut Studio full integration
-playback
-fast systems w/fast storage could do realtime playback
-scrubbable on lesser machines (like laptops)
-can import/export Cineon or DPX
-can export out of Final Cut Pro w/no rendering
-Pandora and LUTher formatted LUTs suported at present, others coming
-alpha channel support in and out
-1 bit dirt & scratch layer for dust busting etc.
-can make QTs out of a frame sequence of Cineon or DPX files
-GlueTools Cineon/DPX Pro & FCP bundle is $400, GlueTools Cineon/DPX Pro bundle is $250, standalone converter no longer available
-existing users can upgrade at reduced price

-mike

While the headline today was the introduction of an 8 core processor Mac Pro option (2xQuad Core Woodcrest 3.0 GHz processors), other good things happened online as well:

Apple 20" LCD dropped $100 to $599
Apple 23" LCD dropped $100 to $899
Apple 30" LCD dropped $200 to $1799

Stats/specs appear to be unchanged otherwise.

I got a report from a VAR that states that RAM and hard drive prices on BTO options have dropped as well, I'm doing a little research to confirm, I'll update this article with those stats when I get'em.

In general, you can still get a better deal buying RAM and additional hard drives third party and installing yourself (easy enough), but you don't get the one-stop-shopping & warranty of buying it all from Apple.

-mike

Labels: Apple

Apple - Mac Pro - Performance

Quickie as I gotta get out the door:

These are pretty much exactly the same as the existing Mac Pros, but with up to a pair of 3.0 GHz Quad Core processors.

Same graphics card options, same hard drive options, same EVERYTHING from my quick skim so far, just swapped out processors.

PERFORMANCE

Speed improvements for FCP don't look stunning...YET. UPDATE: Well, that's what I get for blogging in 3 minutes heading out the door for a meeting. The Quad Core 3.0 GHz Macs are 1.4x faster for FCP rendering than my Quad G5....but that is Quad Core TOTAL, not Quad core PER PROCESSOR - so I misread the stats - these stats appear to be for the OLDER machines (that have been shipping), they haven't released stats for the newer machines it would appear - but their phrasing is ambiguous and confusing.

BUT....that said, they DO have stats up for Maya 8.5 (the chart at top of article), and it is 2.6 times faster than my Quad Core G5. THAT is the kind of improvement that makes it worth upgrading a system for!

Photoshop CS2 stats are actually SLOWER than Quad G5 for many tests, since Photoshop CS3 (first Intel native version) stats haven't been released yet. CS3 stats will be very interesting to see, along with After Effects & Premiere Pro and H.264/MPEG-2 Adobe encoding options when the time comes.

PRICE

Dual 2.66 (with dual core processors, same as has been available) starts at $2500, dropping to 2.0 GHz shaves $300, bumping up to 3.0 GHz dual core adds $800, and the new option, the Quad Core 3.0 GHz is $4K.

AVAILABILITY

A BTO Octo-Mac the Apple Store claims will ship by April 9-11, a stock Octo-Mac 3.0 GHz config claims it'll ship by the same date - it would appear 8 cores is a BTO no matter what, and doesn't affect shipping dates if you customize from there. But shipping promptly - that's just 5-7 days from now for orders placed today.

Built the way I'd want it, an Octo-Mac would be over $5K before I put more goodies in it.

If I were building a new station, it'd cost about $7700 plus more RAM, RAID & AJA or BMD gear. Toys do add up quickly...

TAKEAWAY

Hmmph, not entirely impressed (YET):

-expensive for Quad Core processor option ($1500 more over Dual Core 2.66 processor option)
-not demonstrably cost justifying (YET) at this price point for what I want to use it for - I'll need to see the next Final Cut Studio running on it to say for sure...and we don't know yet when that'll ship. Maya stat shows promise though.
-no Blu-ray nor HD-DVD reader let alone burner
-no new graphics
-no new chassis
-no new nuthin' but the processors

The box IS fast for 8-core optimized apps, of which there are few as yet, Maya 8.5 being an excellent example. But I'd been hoping for Blu-ray and/or HD-DVD burners, better graphics card options, etc. Since Apple released this product now, 10 days before the pre-NAB press event, implies that they won't be changing the hardware for NAB - otherwise they would have just waited. By pre-announcing it, they get over the hump of "Hooray! Wait....that isn't so great...", and can just roll with the new software features as the Big Deal.

I'm going to wait for NAB to see what new software (that I'd use) can do on these. I'd been waiting for 2nd gen Mac Pros, this doesn't quite count in my book.

Color me not quite sufficiently impressed as yet - while the Maya stat is compelling, for me THE apps are going to be Adobe's CS3 suite (the video stuff and Photoshop), and Final Cut XXX, whatever they call the next version. Beyond that, everything else is gravy for my needs. Oh! And throw Redcine (Red's footage processing app) on that list as well of things I'm VERY interested to know how 4 vs 8 processors do.

My attitude may well change when I see Adobe CS3 and Final Cut Studio 6 run on this box, and we see stats for all 8 cores on some software. Oh! And for software that I care about and use, not some app not used for video tasks. One CANNOT linearly extrapolate "Well Maya 8.5 now runs 2.6 times faster on Octo-Macs than on a Quad G5, so Final Cut Studio wil RULE on these!" - it is NOT guaranteed to work that way. Some types of tasks break down for faster rendering than others, some do not. Even given that, it is up to the developers to take maximum advantage of the hardware available to them - for instance, my Quad 2.5 GHz G5 when running Compressor tops out around 220% CPU utilization, while my Dual 2.5 GHz G5 tops out around 175%. That means the Quad is running about 25% faster with twice as many processor cores available - not a hugely compelling gain. I'm HOPING that Apple will have done substantial processor optimization for the Intel chipsets with the new version, but we'll have to wait and see.

This also makes me think it'll be late summer or fall before we see a truly new, 2nd gen Mac Pro enclosure/motherboard at the SOONEST. Apple has been shipping the current enclosure, with minor modifications, for several years now. My Dual 2.0 GHz G5 looks pretty much the same at a casual glance as compared to one of these new Mac Pros, even though there are substantial internal differences.

I expect/hope to be able to revise my estimation WAY up as of two Sundays from now after the Apple press event at NAB (yes I'll be there). But for now, I'm not putting my own money down until I know what's up.

-mike

PS - my earlier "not so impressed" comments were based on a misreading of Apple's stats - I saw "Quad Core" in the Final Cut section and thought they meant Quad Core per processor, not per machine total. My bad.

UPDATE - just posted some Analysis & Tea Leaf reading on what this all means

Labels: Apple, Mac Pro

Automatic Duck, Inc. announced support for Adobe CS3 as the major new feature in Pro Import AE 4.0.

It imports sequences from Xpress and Final Cut Pro into After Effects with audio etc., and plugin settings (for those that are avaialable in both apps) as well.

A good tool that Wes Plate (the developer) has been improving on for years.

If you're thinking about using the DV Rebel's Guide approach to post production, it is a HUGE timesaver.

-mike

The Editblog Hands on with Avid's ScriptSync

Scott Simmons talks a bit more about what ScriptSync can do for you (I mentioned it here the other day in my Avid coverage), and does a little hands on test and likes it so far.

He talks a bit implementation details as well.

-mike

CinemaTech: Using the Internet to Finance Indie Films

My clever associate Scott Kirsner posted a nifty piece in Variety, that starts off like this:

Howard Dean managed to fuel his 2004 presidential campaign by inviting small donors to send him contributions over the Internet.

Now, an array of filmmakers and entrepreneurs are exploring the same approach to raise a production budget for an indie pic.

The tactic's been tried since the early days of the Internet, but a fresh crop of entrepreneurs thinks the time could finally be ripe.


The above link is to Scott's blog, here's a link to the Variety piece.

From the piece:

"People don't understand this new kind of business model, and you run into all kinds of federal and state regulations if you're trying to sell someone a product, like a DVD, that doesn't yet exist," says Herring. "That's why we structured our project as a membership to a Web site, and one side benefit of that membership is that you get a copy of the DVD when we're done."


Nobody's successfully done this yet, and there are a number of challenges as Scott points out, especially to traditional investors.

I think for this idea to work, somebody bigger than a nobody would have to step up to do it, and they'd need to lower the target amount to raise - $100K tops I'd think...but that's not much of a feature - you could make a nice short for that though.

Basically, the folks trying this need to dial back a bit - going for fully funded feature film is quite the leap.

-mike

Think Secret - Leopard leaping in June

Read with the usual grain of salt since it is a rumor board, but the theory makes sense.

They mention that iLife & iWork may ship at that time as well.

What they didn't speculate on, however, is this idea that immeditely popped into my head -

Can we expect to see iLife & iWork have special features specific to supporting the iPhone? I think it likely, as Leopard, iPhone, iLife & iWork are all scheduled to ship in June.


Let's see if I turn out to be right.

-mike

Studio Daily | Cooke Optics Announces Red Digital Cinema Support for /i Technology

Red Digital Cinema has joined the growing list of companies who have incorporated support for the Cooke-developed /i Technology into their product lines. /i Technology enables film and digital cameras to automatically record key lens and camera data for every film frame shot and provide it to post-production teams digitally. The technology streamlines both production and post, saving significant time and costs and eliminating guesswork, while enabling greater creative freedom.


And YES this will be supported in the Red One, but I don't know if it will be a supported feature when it ships. For post-y folks, this is HUGE - instead of having software trying to reverse engineer what was used, just record the metadata and have it associated with the frame data. The next challenge is making sure the software you want to use will support import of that data and can take advantage of it in a meaningful form.

Yet another example (and I'll bet we'll see more at NAB) of Red thinking ahead of the pack.

Read the link at the top for more details.

-mike

Apple just announced that in May they'll release ALL of EMI's music catalog in a new way - along side the existing DRM'd 99 cent 128kbps AAC tracks, they're offering $1.29 256kbps DRM free tracks. See my article on that with analysis. That's a big, good step.

The next steps I'd like to see Apple take:

1.) Offer other major label content the same way. But if one does it and it is deemed successful, the others are likely to fall in line. Considering that CDs are an "open" format and getting ripped right and left, they might as well make content available this way in general. Sounds like this is on the way - from the press release about EMI, "...we expect to offer more than half of the songs on iTunes in DRM-free versions by the end of this year." Good stuff.

2.) Then offer indie content the same way - let indie music producers/labels choose whether to go 128 kbit DRM or 256 kbit DRM free at a higher price.

3.) Start making movies downloadable from iTunes Store in two formats: iPod Video size, and AppleTV HD size. The AppleTV versions would cost a bit more, be 1280x720 @ 24fps with 5.1 audio (YES it can do that), and obviously be bigger downloads as well (the spec calls for 5 megabits/sec max on the AppleTV). Encouraging along those lines, in the press release Apple says: "All EMI music videos will also be available in DRM-free format with no change in price." - so DRM-free video begins in May.

3.) Allow indies to sell video content through the Apple Store, first at iPod Video size, then later at AppleTV HD size.

4.) Then somewhere down the line, perhaps years from now, drop DRM altogether (or mostly), and only sell audio as 256kbps tracks without DRM for 99 cents, and video content perhaps without DRM as well - or at least make that a choice for the producers to decide. The major studios may never accept DRM, but the indie content producers may find that a desirable choice, to get playback on a wider range of devices.

This will probably take years to happen if it ever does. But Apple is taking the first step in May, so kudos to them. I completely support this move.

And note they are stealthily increasing the price to $1.29/track - that the quality goes up is of piffling concern in terms of production costs - they'll have to re-encode the back library and their bandwidth bill will go up - but bandwidth continues to get cheaper (Amazon's S3 service is about 20 cents/GB I think, and Apple is probably paying less than that).

(I'm envisioning a vast compression farm of Minis networked together, chunking away on 256 kbit conversions of EMI's library....)

-mike

Labels: analysis, AppleTV, online content service, online distribution, online video

First, lets start out with the pertinent bits from the press release:

Apple® today announced that EMI Music’s entire digital catalog of music will be available for purchase DRM-free (without digital rights management) from the iTunes® Store (www.itunes.com) worldwide in May. DRM-free tracks from EMI will be offered at higher quality 256 kbps AAC encoding, resulting in audio quality indistinguishable from the original recording, for just $1.29 per song. In addition, iTunes customers will be able to easily upgrade their entire library of all previously purchased EMI content to the higher quality DRM-free versions for just 30 cents a song. iTunes will continue to offer its entire catalog, currently over five million songs, in the same versions as today—128 kbps AAC encoding with DRM—at the same price of 99 cents per song, alongside DRM-free higher quality versions when available.

“We are going to give iTunes customers a choice—the current versions of our songs for the same 99 cent price, or new DRM-free versions of the same songs with even higher audio quality and the security of interoperability for just 30 cents more,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think our customers are going to love this, and we expect to offer more than half of the songs on iTunes in DRM-free versions by the end of this year.
.....
“We think our customers are going to love this, and we expect to offer more than half of the songs on iTunes in DRM-free versions by the end of this year.” (Steve Jobs)
.....
iTunes will also offer customers a simple, one-click option to easily upgrade their entire library of all previously purchased EMI content to the higher quality DRM-free format for 30 cents a song. All EMI music videos will also be available in DRM-free format with no change in price.
.....
The iTunes Store features the world’s largest catalog with over five million songs, 350 television shows and over 400 movies. The iTunes Store has sold over two billion songs, 50 million TV shows and over 1.3 million movies, making it the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store.

Restating the facts: This means in May you'll be able to buy any song from the EMI library with no DRM - so it'll play on non-Apple music players (if they support AAC), nothing stops it from working on your friends' music player, you can burn to CD as many times as you like, etc. - it is totally your music to do with as you please, laws & personal ethics your only limit.

Mike's Commentary

The good news is that Apple is getting serious about ditching DRM - they are the first major (top tier) distributor to offer legit content (AFAIK - Comment away if I'm wrong) from a top tier label without DRM. They are even being kind enough to let folks who've already bought previous EMI tracks upgrade for the price difference - only 30 cents/song.

256kbps VBR (I assume/hope it is VBR not CBR) AAC is plenty high enough quality for all but the most distinguishing ears (and mine aren't included in that list).

Ditching of DRM is the big deal here - the idea being to let people do what they want with their music. The sneaky bit is that Apple chose a high quality encoding option that is publicly availble, but not universally supported by all music players - AAC. (Hey, at least Zune supports it).

This is a big step forward and Apple deserves some praise for this - not only are they willing to go this step, but so is EMI, and pulling off THAT kind of a deal was a major coup.

At $1.29/track (what price albums? Not said), you're paying a 30% premium over the lower quality, DRM protected tracks. You're paying for the convenience of not leaving the house, not having to go to the store, not having to rip your own music, and you get album artwork and all the metadata figured out for you. What you don't get is uncompressed quality (but that argument is less effective now with 256kpbs AAC), a hard copy of the disc, and...a better price. While Apple has clearly found a solution customers are comfortable with up until now, this is a good step forward to more comfortable media handling.

The bump to 256 was another good call - if they'd proposed buying DRM free tracks for $1.29 at the same quality level, there would have been a HUGE hue & cry about getting what you should have gotten in the first place for 30% more. Now there's a significant quality bump associated with it, so that makes it much easier to swallow.

Kudos to Steve for putting his money where his mouth is, and getting a traditionally gun-shy partner (EMI) to step up to the plate with them.

This also paves the way for indie content to go DRM free, and I hope in time to see indie high def video content available on the Apple Store with no DRM. But that will take some time - one step at a time, and today was a big move.

So how much longer till indie content can go DRM free?

-mike

UPDATE: Transcript of Jobs talking about all this stuff:

AppleInsider | Jobs talks new iTunes functions, DRM and video, iPod storage [transcript]

ANOTHER UPDATE - no Beatles content at this time either - so not the ENTIRE collection after all

Labels: analysis, DRM, iTunes

At the NBA All Star game this year, PACE (Vince Pace's company) shot it in 3D HD, and they did some live venue screenings at theaters (good idea!). They'll be showing some of that footage at NAB this year.

From the press release:

The demonstration will include 3D HD footage from NBA All-Star to provide attendees with the opportunity to see this groundbreaking technology that the NBA has utilized.

When: April 16, 2007, 4:30 p.m.
Where:
The Las Vegas Convention Center, room N249

**The demonstration is only open to registered attendees of the Sports Video Group 2007 NAB Sports Technology Forum. For additional information please visit www.nabshow.com/sports.php. **

Labels: 3D, NAB