(Image: A shot from Sony’s unveiling of the 4K F-65 at NAB 2011. Photo credit: Mark Forman)

I begin my first NYC Production & Post News column with the question: will 3D or 4K triumph?

It isn’t immediately apparent that these technologies can be discussed in the same sentence. Over the last few years 3D, of course, has garnered attention as the next big thing in presentation. But if you’re involved in production, you know that now the excitement is building around available and upcoming camera gear in 4K. (That’s a 4096 x 2160 pixel image according to the DCI cinema standard.)

Why? Three-D production is its own production language that calls for a new set of shooting and editing rules. Directors, DPs and editors need to integrate these approaches as if they were learning film production from the beginning. If these narrow prescriptions are broken, viewers can be turned off from even watching the painful results. Requiring bulky 3D glasses just adds to the hassle.

(Consumer research company Gartner has even reported that uptake of 3D TVs in the home–which are necessary if the studios are going to recoup their investment–has peaked as the technology has failed to “live up to consumer expectations.”)

While 3D offers a new dimension for users to adjust themselves to, 4K is easy to understand. It brings its own glasses-free, hyper-real sensibility to viewers even while DPs, directors and editors can build their already honed skills. Basically, you don’t need to go to school again to know how to shoot in a higher-resolution format.

Just this past week Sony announced that it was beginning to ship the first of some 400 pre-orders worldwide for its new flagship 4K F65 camera system.

RED, JVC and others are joining Sony with new models to come at April’s NAB show, joining other manufacturers who will be showing 4K editing and effects systems. (JVC actually announced its GY-HMQ10 handheld 4K camcorder at CES. It captures, records, and plays video images at 24p, 50p, or 60p with a 3840 × 2160 resolution, which is four times the resolution of HDs 1920 × 1080. Whether or not pros find a place for this camcorder, just the fact that a consumer-oriented product could deliver 4K for about $5000 is astonishing.)

JVC says its GY-HMQ10 is able to output 4K images to a monitor or projection system in real time with 'virtually no latency'.

I’ll go out on a limb and call this the year that 4K production takes off.

The consumer market is following up, bringing its first 4K monitors and projectors to the public. There will still be a place for 3D in the future, of course, but it will be a relative niche market with special uses such as animation and sports claiming most of the attention.

If you need some more convincing, come to the SMPTE NY chapter meeting on March 14th. Along with others in the industry, I’ll be hosting a presentation “4K and Beyond” that will highlight how this technology is coming into its own in 2012.

Later,

Mark Forman
Mark Forman Productions
http://screeningroom.com

(Image: Mark Forman ready for the streets of New York on the Forman Camera Bicycle. Photo Credit: Mark Forman)

NYC Production & Post News is happy to announce the coming debut of a regular weekly column by DP and photographer Mark Forman. Familiar to those in and around the New York production scene, Mark will be writing on the latest products and trends in digital video camera systems as well as HDSLRs.

AbelCine’s Mitch Gross explains the technology behind the new Arri Studio. Photo Credit: Mark Forman

An MFA graduate of the film program at NYU’s Tisch School, Mark has made a career as a DP, aerial photographer, and innovator of HD and camera gear for production. His patented Forman Camera Bicycle has won a rep as a versatile camera support for working on the tough streets of New York. Meanwhile, Mark’s early work on the use of HD for screening dailies as well as for presentation enabled him to offer support for and work with artists such as Allen Daviau ASC, Ellen Kuras ASC along with the director Robert Altman.

A member of SMPTE, SOC, and a Charter Member of The Digital Cinema Society, Mark was recently appointed to the SONY ICE Independent Certified Expert Team specializing in Cinematography.

Plan to check back for Mark’s debut column, coming the week of January 15th.

Our take on the best, or at least most interesting…
recent tech.

Written by Joe Herman & Dan Ochiva

Avid’s new Avid Artist Color interface

Avid Media Composer 6

As the pro media community has remarked online–and even Avid owned up to in its recent press conference in New York–with the release this month of Avid Media Composer 6 (MC6), the Tewksbury, Mass-based company has now embarked on a new phase of its existence: actually listening to its clients and implementing what they want as best as they are able.

That shouldn’t be so extraordinary, but it is, or has been, the case. From its early years until quite recently, Avid had a rep as a company that had all the answers a user might want in an NLE, down to what drives they might buy (of course only pricey storage arrays that they themselves sold fit the bill) and what I/O could breach its ‘black box’ architecture (at one point hackers garnered kudos for figuring out how to splice and solder the right I/O components to allow 3rd party gear to be attached to the NLE).

Okay. So it took more than 20 years since the first release of Media Composer and a few near-death experiences as the company teetered near the edge of bankruptcy. They made it.

The software is still the favorite of the vast majority of feature film editors, notwithstanding Final Cut Pro’s chewing into the lead over the past decade. Of course we all know how that ended.

But the important news for anyone who edits for a living is that the pieces have all come together, finally, and the result is real good. The app has moved to 64 bits (along with Symphony version 6, and NewsCutter version 10, which were also part of the recent announcement). That brings a lot more real-time responsiveness to scrolling, tweaking edits, and just life in general. The sleek, new UI looks much more up-to-date, while the updated color correction capability, Avid Artist Color, gets a sturdy if rather utilitarian hardware interface, courtesy of Avid’s purchase of sound mixer company Euphonix.

The new Avid Marketplace gives in-system access to stock footage from Thought Equity Motion. That’s a good idea that offers an easy-to-use solution for busy editors on deadline (you’ll also be able to purchase a number of video and audio plug-ins as well as other products). Other items of note include a new codec, DNxHD 4444 (i.e. a full 4:4:4 codec as per ProRes) and a solid 3D editing capability that really makes MC6 the only solution to consider.

Avid Symphony, for full on edit suite finishing, will now be available as a software only option. It too handles all third party capture cards.

Meanwhile, Avid’s new regime of community inclusiveness is bearing fruit. For example, now, upon the debut of MC6, important industry players are offering new MC-specific gear.

Longtime NLE effects developer Boris offers a 64-bit version of its popular Continuum Complete 8 AVX with some 200 VFX and compositing filters for MC, NewsCutter, and Symphony. Moving beyond 32-bit computation pays off for graphics-intensive production, as more RAM is addressable.

If you’re a user of Blackmagic Design gear including DeckLink, Multibridge, Intensity and UltraStudio, the Australian company’s new Desktop Video 9.0 software update enables MC6 users to take advantage of high-speed connectors on the Blackmagic devices such as Thunderbolt, USB 3.0 and PCI Express video capture and playback devices. The throughput speed reached with such setups enables work with uncompressed 10-bit YUV and RGB, Avid DNxHD, Panasonic DVCPRO HD, and Sony XDCAM.

Avid’s Open I/O SDK also enables MOTU to offer its HD/SD video capture and monitoring gear to Avid users of Media Composer 6, Symphony 6, and NewsCutter 10. Like Blackmagic Design, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company’s products—such as the HDX-SDI and HD Express–are noted for their combination of rugged builds and cost effectiveness.

Finally, ARRI added capabilities to its popular Alexa camera line by enabling in-camera support for Avid’s open standard DNxHD codec.

Canon EOS C300

Canon cameras are practically synonymous with DSLR filmmaking, having played a key role in its inception. Because of this, many people have been waiting eagerly to see what future course Canon would chart.

Some of these questions have now been answered with the Canon EOS C300, their entry into the world of professional digital cinematography. It’s an interchangeable-lens digital camera that meets the demand of professionals, particularly for motion picture production.

The camera, which features a new Super 35 mm 8.29 megapixel CMOS sensor, is available in two models. The C300 has an EF lens mount compatible with Canon EF lenses while the C300 PL comes with a PL mount for use with industry-standard PL lenses. The mount isn’t interchangeable, if you wanted to know.

The pixel size on the sensor is larger than that of other professional camcorders which results in better sensitivity, no doubt useful for low-light shooting, and reads full HD (1920 X 1080) pixels while keeping unsightly moiré problems to a minimum.

The C300 also has a heightened signal readout speed, which reduces rolling shutter skews. It employs 4:2:2 color sampling and records at a maximum rate of 50 Mbs to the industry standard MXF format onto versatile, readily available and cost efficient CF Cards. In addition, the C300 is equipped with two CF card slots allowing you to record your footage to two CF cards simultaneously — a great way to guard against unexpected problems during recording.

The camera is compact and maneuverable and includes an HD/SDI video output port. It can be controlled remotely by smartphones or tablet PCs so you don’t have to squint into tiny viewfinders.

The C300 offers Canon Log Gamma, enabling you to record flat image quality with for maximum freedom in postproduction. Besides recording in 59.41i, 50.00i, 29.97P, 25.00P and 23.98P, it also records in 24.00p for high compatibility with film production workflows.

The camera will be available early next year for an estimated price of around $20,000, though it’s possible that a more realistic price will be around $17,000. Some have commented that for that price a RED Scarlett-X may be a better bet since it is more “future proof” due to the fact that it records at 4K. Others say that working in 4K is uncommon (and unwieldy) and the C300 will fit in easier and better with today’s workflows. Both arguments make sense.

You might want to check out Philip Bloom’s initial take on Canon’s effort by clicking here.

DaVinci Resolve Lite 8.1

There’s very exciting news from Blackmagic Design, so you might want to brace yourself for this one. DaVinci Resolve Lite 8.1, the new version of the free version of DaVinci Resolve now includes unlimited color correction nodes!

This allows you to use multiple color correctors for complex color grading and dramatically boosts the power of Resolve Lite which previously was limited to only two nodes. DaVinci Resolve Lite includes all of the same high quality processing of the full version except it limits projects to SD and HD resolutions, a single processing GPU and a single Red Rocket card. Stereoscopic features, noise reduction, power mastering, remote grading and sharing projects with an external database server are features only available in the full version.

However, image quality is never limited, and DaVinci Resolve Lite can still accept high-resolution source footage in 2K, 4K and 5K from digital cameras such as RED and ARRI, so users will find the added benefit of getting a great digital camera utility.

Other notable features in DaVinci Resolve Lite include high quality optical resizing, curve grading, XML import and export, 32 bit float processing, YRGB image processing, multi-later timelines, motion stabilization, window tracking, primary and secondary color correction, real time processing, capture and playback with deck control, compatibility with third party control panels and much more. This is high-end professional color correction, folks.

Did we mention that it is free?

So whether you want to use it on your own projects, give it a try to see how it works or learn it to get a job at a color correction house, go over to their website and download a copy for yourself. If you need the features of the full version you can upgrade to the full version for $995. To read our close look at DaVinci Resolve see our story here.

Poser Pro 2012

Aside from being useful for illustrators, Poser Pro is a valuable tool for pre-visualization such as developmental artwork, storyboarding, and animatics. Much more than just posing, Poser can be used to generate complete 3D character animations complete with lip-sync, walk/run cycles and dynamic simulations. Smith Micro has recently released Poser Pro 2012, an impressive upgrade to its flagship product.

Some of its enhancements include a node-based material system, dynamic hair, dynamic cloth and morph creation brushes. It can also do automatic lip syncing on imported sound files. With the included PowerFusion plug-ins, you can integrate Poser characters and scenes into 3ds Max, Maya, Cinema 4D and LightWave. You can also import and export COLLADA content for interchanging data between game engines and other 3D tools.

Poser Pro 2012 is fully optimized for 64 bit and multi-core systems and takes advantage of graphics cards, which support OpenGL to provide realistic light and shadows. It’s Queue Manager allows you to distribute renderings across a cross platform network and Poser Pro’s improved Firefly render engine now supports indirect lighting and global illumination as well as Ambient Occlusion.

New shaders now include sub-surface scattering and a tri-specular hair shader for improved hair highlights. Poser’s lights now support physically correct light fall off and you can use normal maps for increasing surface complexity without increasing geometry.

Naturally Poser comes with a library of characters and contents, which can be customized to create a wide variety of looks. However, if you want to create your own characters there’s a suite of weight map editing tools enabling vertex-by-vertex fine painting of joint bends and bulges. This allows you to generate well performing 3D characters that can be more easily posed with natural joints.

There’s a lot to like about the new version of Poser. As noted above, it’s a useful tool for pre-viz, however it also allows you to create high-end character animation quickly and easily without having to learn complex 3D modeling and rigging skills that can take you years to learn. In addition, its a great introduction to the world of 3D character animation. More information can be found on their website.

Red Scarlet-X

Red Digital Cinema released Scarlet-X, its lower cost version of the Red Epic. While the basic part of the system, the camera body (or, as Red has it, “The Brain”) prices at under $10k, it’s not really usable until you get the rest of the kit such as the power adapter, 5-inch touch LCD, and hand grip, which brings it up to some $14k. The system does shoot in RAW, making it tempting for anyone capable of doing extensive post color work.

Scarlet-X uses custom ASICs that don’t make the cut of the top of the line Epic, according to Jim Jannard’s press briefing. Along with simpler support circuitry, that’s what allows the company to sell a 4K digital cinema camera for what is still a low price point.

While 4K video delivers at 1-30 fps, the burst modes of 5K resolution at 12 fps seem beside the point. While you can pull 4k at 30fps max, you can get other speeds out of the device (3k at 48fps, 2k at 60fps, 1k at 120fps max). But as Philip Bloom points out in his post on Scarlet-X, “only the 4k will give you the field of view of your lenses. 2k and 1k are just window crops of the sensor.” The unnerving result of this is that since these alternate resolutions are down sampled but crops of the sensor, all of your lenses turn into telephotos of some sort or the other. As Bloom notes again, “That is going to be a big pain.”

The sensor, following Red plans, will be upgradable to the Dragon chip in 2012.

Red Cinema continues to forge its own path, which is a refreshing move in the small, conservative world of high-end camera systems. While Scarlet-X will still take too much babying for productions who need to hew to a breakneck pace, the fact that an alternative exists-and that it bears a made in USA moniker-is still some pretty good news.

(Image: George Kuchar and Marion Eaton in Kuchar’s “Thundercrack”. The filmmaker passed away on September 10, 2011.)

The Past Week in Review: posted on September 14, 2011

We search for the more interesting and provocative news and views of the past week…just so you don’t have to.

This week we check out new technologies that could topple leading companies, consider if New York production incentives are fair, and bid farewell to two pioneering filmmakers.

Sony’s F65 CineAlta

Sony Kills Arri & Red?

One reviewer on the EOSHD site wonders if Sony “just killed the (Arri) Alexa?” with its announcement at the IBC last week that the new Sony F65 CineAlta will deliver with a list price of $65,000. While that question brushes aside the great popularity of Arri’s digital camera system, it’s not a fatuous remark. Sony has instantly reshaped the high-end of digital cinematography via this relatively low-ball pricing strategy.

The successor to the Sony’s CineAlta F35–which cost in the vicinity of $250,000 on up–the F65 bests it in many areas, including its ability to record 16bit RAW from an 20MP 8K sensor and a claimed higher-than-film dynamic range of 14 stops. The F65 offers true 4K resolution too–not available on the $50,000 Arri Alexa. Meanwhile the “4K” $55,000 Red EPIC isn’t a full 4K camera since it lacks the F65 imager’s dedicated green photo sites (pixels).

Meanwhile, Andy Shipsides over at the AbelCine blog notes that not only will a rotary shutter version of the F65 be available (this removes the potential jello effect of the CMOS imager) but that the company will be selling a discounted bundle of the camera and its support system until the end of the year.

Wim Wenders used Iridas’ 3D technology to do post on his tribute to Pina Bausch. Photo credit: Laurent Philippe

Adobe Ups the Ante

You can’t say Adobe isn’t serious about taking its NLE Premiere Pro to expanded markets. Would it be to capitalize on the decidedly mixed response to Apple’s Final Cut Pro X? Yup. To many users, Apple turned away from the pro market with this completely reworked NLE.

At the IBC convention Adobe said that demand for professional video creation tools helped its creative suite package to grow 22-percent year-over-year. Growth on the Mac platform meanwhile grew 45-percent over the past year, “in part fueled by the large number of Apple Final Cut Pro customers switching to Adobe Premiere Pro.”

At the Amsterdam convention Adobe backed up this news when it announced the purchase of the IP assets of Iridas. The Munich-based company has been a well-respected name in digital color grading tools over the past decade. Iridas also developed tools for stereoscopic post as well as HDR video.

Enhanced color grading, says Adobe, is a “top requested feature by our Production Premium customers” and that’s where the technology will be appearing, probably by NAB 2012 if the company keeps to its regular series of Creative Suite upgrades. This blog post by Peter Salvia gives a good sense of what the pro world is thinking about this move by Adobe. Not too much guessing to Salvia’s feelings: his blog is titled adobe + iridas = fcp dead.

I’m also including comments that Iridas founder Lin Sebastian Kayser sent out in a letter after Adobe’s IBC announcement. I think it gives a good sense of how exciting this development is for Kayser, an innovator who stuck with his concept when few thought he could take on heavyweights in the color grading industry, the team at Adobe and for future Premier Pro users:

Over the years, many companies have offered to acquire IRIDAS and we always said no; successful acquisitions are a challenge to execute, so when Adobe approached us I thought “We are doing fine, we have a plan, why should we be interested?” But there are a couple of things that are different about Adobe as a company.
First of all, Adobe is a company that has indeed successfully integrated products from many companies it bought ≠ products like After Effects are central to their leadership. Also Adobe is a true engineering company not only investing massively in pure research, but also bringing it to market ≠ Premiere’s Mercury Playback Engine and After Effects Warp Stabilizer being only two examples. Many recent research results in HDR or new camera concepts coming from Adobe research truly impressed our team.
We also see a convergence of trends, as RAW High Dynamic Range image capture comes to the broader market the need for tools such as those IRIDAS developed is exploding; but our company was sized to service a specialist market.

All the best,
Lin Sebastian Kayser

Director Engineering, Adobe

Founder of IRIDAS

Scorsese releases his 3D version of Brian Selznick’s graphic novel ‘The Invention of Hugo Cabret’ later this year.

Will Better 3D Save the Studios?

Dave Kehr in the Times notes that the future of 3D movies remains uncertain, as audiences are not flocking to 3D movies like they did previously. But unlike the feared replay of the death of 3D that went down in the 1950s, directors are better adapting to shooting with that extra dimension because of improved technology such as the Cameron-Pace Fusion 3D camera system.

Kehr also notes that 3D may not fade this time as big-name directors including Scorsese and Spielberg will soon release films employing the technology. Meanwhile major TV manufacturers including Samsung, Sony and Panasonic are pushing the technology by building it into their high-end units by default.

However, nothing much seems to be stopping the slide in North American movie attendance over the summer, according to an article by Brooks Barnes in the Times. Films led by A-list stars flopped again and neither the Smurfs or Harry Potter were enough to push projected domestic box-office revenue beyond 1-percent of last year’s total according to Hollywood.com’s stats. Overall, sales were projected to lag 4 percent for the year.

Only solid sales from foreign box offices made the current season less than a debacle. As Barnes has it, “Hollywood has now experienced four consecutive summers of eroding attendance, a cause for alarm for both studios and the publicly traded theater chains.”

DSLRs Go Anamorphic

Ever consider shooting anamorphically with your DSLR? Andrew Reid, who runs the website EOSHD.com, thinks you should. Reid calls his e-book a “comprehensive cookbook for achieving a epic anamorphic look to your DSLR movies.”

This 2nd edition of Reid’s $20 downloadable book includes information on shooting 4K (3840 x 1080p) anamorphic DSLR footage and a comprehensive anamorphic lens buyer’s guide based on “real hands-on experience and testing”. The author claims the information is applicable to DSLRs from all the major players as well as video cameras such as the Sony FS100 and Panasonic AF100.

Selling Film, Not Souls

Film Courage is the oddly named website out of LA that features “film interviews that inspire”. This weekly mix of filmmakers and producers–you can hear it live on LA Talk Radio–takes you through the trials and travails of creatives as they produce and distribute production their work.

What may be most interesting for anyone hoping to make their own independent work is a recent show featuring Jon Reiss, Sheri Candler and Jeffrey Winter from The Film Collaborative, a website of a nonprofit group that’s “committed to distribution education and facilitation of independent film”.

The trio are on Film Courages’ episode number 128 to discuss their book “Selling Your Film Without Selling Your Soul”. As a book it probably doesn’t have very many surprises for anyone who’s been plowing in this field for any length of time–why filmmakers should be paying attention to Kevin Smith and Ed Burns and whether VOD is a viable source of income for filmmakers–but it seems like a good introduction to the services of the not-for-profit group The Film Collaborative.

Upstate Getting Left Behind?

The large recent state tax incentives passed by Albany might bring joy and some additional production to New York City, but that doesn’t ring such a happy tune upstate according to this recent article by Joseph Spector, Gannett’s Albany Bureau chief.

In his article Watchdog report: Critics rap film tax breaks which appeared on the Democrat and Chronicle website, Spector says that “upstate business groups have questioned the effectiveness of the film-tax credit”, an issue that becomes an issue since there is competition for those funds.

Spector quotes Brian McMahon, executive director of the state Economic Development Council, who said that “It’s an extraordinarily lucrative credit for the businesses, but it is benefiting primarily out-of-state companies that come into New York state, primarily New York City, for a few months, make a movie and leave.”

The amounts of the tax breaks are difficult to pin down South reporter since Empire State Development, the agency that manages the program, hasn’t disclosed the amount of “taxpayer-funded breaks that each project has gotten” even after Gannett says that it “filed a Freedom of Information request in May seeking those details.”

Governor Cuomo as said upstate business development would be a key effort of his administration, but the article notes that tax breaks for beleaguered businesses from the state’s Empire Zone program–revamped in 2010–provides only $50 million in new money each year compared with the $420 million annually for the film program.

You can read the rest of Spector’s investigative report here.

Andy Lampert (left) in a post-screening talk with Joel Schlemowitz at UnionDocs.

Take Me to the Cinemateque

We go to the Times again for a Dennis Lim article on Choosing Cinematheque Over Cineplex. Lim is a good example of a committed writer who straddles the worlds of the “engaged, site-specific programming” of alternative spaces to the studio distribution scene. He urges us to trace the history of the movies by noting how alternative cinemas evolved, “to consider, in other words, how an inventive approach to showing films can foster a new way of understanding them.”

The reporter gives a quick overview of some of the rich history of alternative cinema spaces in the city while touting the continued excitement engendered at venues such as Light Industry and UnionDocs.

An image from Jordan Belson’s Allures
Pioneers Passing

Two filmmakers who passed away recently embodied the DIY style of independent filmmaking key to making Indie cinema in the 60s, 70s, and beyond. The earlier range–let’s say up to the mid 70s–was the golden age of American underground cinema in which both played key roles.

George Kuchar worked in 8mm and 16mm with his twin brother Mike to put the Bronx on the map as a hotbed of camp cinema. Acknowledged by John Waters and David Lynch among others, the two came up with intriguingly off-kilter films such as Moshulu Holiday, I Was a Teenage Rumpot, and Hold Me While I’m Naked. As John Waters wrote in the introduction to the Kuchars’ memoirs “Reflections in a Cinematic Cesspool”, “The Kuchar brothers gave me the self confidence to believe in my own tawdry vision.”

George passed away at 69 in San Francisco, where he taught at the Art Institute. Here’s a recent appreciation of George’s work. You can read his obit here.

The much more abstract work of Jordan Belson will be remembered for his development of a cinema based on hypnotic use of light color and movement. Belson, who also lived in San Francisco, was 85 at his death. Belson’s work was celebrated on the site Center for Visual Music. You can read his obit here.

Photo credit: Abel Cine

High quality high-speed shooting with a camcorder became practical with Vision Research’s introduction of its Phantom series cameras a few years ago. The company’s imaging chops have continuously improved, and innovations in solid-state storage now make it practical to take these camera systems out of carefully set up insert stages. (You might want to check out one of their Miro crash cams to see how compact the technology has become.)

Now, Abel Cine Tech, which distributes Vision Research products, will offer two levels of courses on VRI’s camera systems. A three-hour introductory course offers a good high-level overview of the basic principles of Phantom high-speed cameras in a lecture environment. Meanwhile, the Phantom Intensive Training course is a full-day, hands-on course for anyone with a specific production in mind.

The introductory course will be held this January 25th at the company’s Greenwich Street East Coast headquarters. More info here.

David Leitner was there as DuArt owner Irwin Young signed off at the dry end of the “last bath” from the famed New York lab that supported the growth of the Indie scene.
Photo credit: D.W. Leitner

David Leitner, a long-time friend and colleague at millimeter magazine, has posted his final Leitner’s Cinematography Corner via one of his typical fascinating, far-ranging essays.

If you don’t know, David composed his column from a unique perspective that includes extensive R&D at Indie-famed DuArt Film Labs, lots of DP work on practically every type of film and video rig, all brought to a boil via a voracious intellect that always wants to know the story behind how things work in our media-officiated society, while not getting distracted by the bling.

But the real reason to read David’s work is to come in contact with good writing that takes witty note of the far-flung efforts of humankind to sculpt memories in a form we can all enjoy. He’s a real resource for both the New York production community and anyone interested in the real world of image production. I only hope he has another go at it.

Photo credit: StudentFilmmakers

Okay. So this class from Student Filmmakers doesn’t happen until the end of July (24-25), a lead-time well beyond what I usually like to list.

But this is one of those “seats are limited” occasions where registration will close when full, so if you’re set on getting RED basic training, you may want to register here.

This two-day intensive workshop, taught by director/DP Jon Firestone, gives you a chance for some hands on time with a RED rig. You also get to shoot a 5-minute clip during the workshop.

Topics covered include how shooting on RED differs from film or HD; correct exposure; how to adjust back focus; and data management.

Students with ID receive an additional 10-percent off the $395 tab.

The course will be taught at Student Filmmakers’ 1133 Broadway offices.

The Hurt Locker, of course, pulled in a raft of Oscars, Golden Globes, and other awards. But its connection to Abel Cine might not be as well known. Turns out the film relied on gear provided by the rental/sales house including Aaton (XTRprod and A-Minima 16mm film cameras) and the Phantom high-speed digital camera.

Digital Cinema Report features a story on it, including an interview with cinematographer Barry Ackroyd, a long time Aaton user.

Sol Negrin by Owen Roizman
He’s loved by many. Sol Negrin, ASC, a longtime member of IATSE Local 644, collects on that love when he receives the Presidents Award from the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC); that happens this coming February during the Societies’ 24th Annual ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards.

Negrin has had an astounding six-decade career as a cinematographer. Who works that long anymore? Or who can, considering the economy?

Back to Negrin, who earned five Emmy nominations, three for episodes of the television series Kojak (1975, 1976, 1977), one for the television movie The Last Tenant (1978), and one for an episode of the series Baker’s Dozen (1982). His cinematography in television commercials earned four CLIO Awards, including that iconic American Tourister campaign of the bouncing suitcase made during the early 1970s.

Some of Negrin’s other television credits as a DP include episodes of classic series such as McCloud, The Lucie Arnaz Show, The White Shadow, St. Elsewhere, Rhoda, as well as the telefilms Best of Friends, Dempsey, and Women at West Point.

Negrin’s feature film credits include The Concert for Bangladesh, Amazing Grace (1974), Proof of the Man, and Parades. He also contributed additional cinematography to many feature films including Crazy Joe, Superman, Coming to America, King Kong (1976), Jaws 2, and Robocop.

Born in New York City in 1929, Negrin studied cinematography at City College Film Institute, and started his career with Hartley Productions, a early commercial/industrial film company in the city.

Sol worked as an assistant cameraman from 1948 to 1960, often with renowned cinematographers including Jack Priestley, ASC, Lee Garmes, ASC, Joe Biroc, ASC, Leo Tover, ASC, Harry Stradling, Jr., ASC, Hans Koenekamp, ASC, Charles Lang, Jr., ASC, Charles “Buddy” Lawton, ASC, Mario Tosi, ASC, Joseph Brun, ASC, and Boris Kaufman, ASC.

Later, Negrin became a camera operator on mainstream television series including The Naked City, The Defenders, Car 54, Where are You?, and The Patty Duke Show; as well as feature films ranging from Frankenstein Meets the Spacemonster to Where’s Poppa? and Across 110th Street.

Negrin is credited with sharing his experience and expertise with students and aspiring filmmakers through mentorships, seminars, demonstrations, and speaking engagements. ASC Awards Committee Chairman Richard Crudo praised Sol’s “dedication to educating the next generation, exemplifying the ASC’s motto: Loyalty, progress, artistry.”

For the last decade, he has taught courses on cinematography and the evolution of filmmaking techniques at Five Towns College in Long Island, New York, where he earned an honorary doctorate of fine arts degree in 2002. He is also co-chair of the ICG Educational and Training Committees.

Photo credit DW Leitner

One way to tower over any production problem.

D.W. Leitner’s writing—whether his in-depth camera reviews, wide-ranging NAB surveys, or complex production stories–remains one of my favorite reads in millimeter. While we have both written for the magazine for many years, I’ve got to be honest, it’s David who has gained a following for his writing, featuring as it does his unique blend of technical know-how, a love and knowledge of movie history, and a deep understanding of the complete production process, all wrapped up in strong, clean prose that’s all too rare in our industry…well, you get the idea, he just always seems to deliver fascinating writing.

Well, there’s a new version of that smart package if you tune into his own, recently launched weekly blog on millimeter’s site, Leitner’s Cinematography Corner.

You’re in Leitner World, so don’t expect just another digital naval-gazing cool-tool-of-the-week approach. He says it straight and plain in his inaugural blog: “The Cinematography Corner will be my ongoing effort to steer discussion of new technology away from starry-eyed worship of all things digital and back to established filmmaking practices.”

All the more reason to turn into his most recent column, EX3 x 2 = DIY 3D, a title that becomes less mysterious when you read about the success of two New Jersey filmmakers in creating a significant 3D production for the Newark Museum via their home-brew setup of a pair of Sony PMW-EX3s. Besides technical details, you see today’s results balanced out against the historical significance of Sheeler and Strand’s pioneering Manhatta (1921), a silent black-and-white song-of-the-city.

Vintage Leitner.