New Entrepreneurial Opportunities

A member of the Caucus for Television Producers, Writers and Directors, Randall Dark was on the panel discussing on Content, Screens and Distribution Platforms. The panel focused on cross-platform and the latest ways to monetize content in the future. You may download a transcript of the panel discussion here.


Panelists: David Goldsmith - Marketing Consultant of Digital Media Distribution & Content Acquisition, Bruce Gersh - Sr VP of ABC Business Development, Dean Valentine - Symbolic Action, LLC, Bryan Seth Hurst (moderator) - CEO, The Opportunity Management Company, Jeremy Toeman - VP Market Development, Sling Media and Dark.

Dark relies on Canon lenses for Closing Escrow

DIGITAL FILMMAKER RELIES ON CANON WIDE-ANGLE PORTABLE HD LENSES FOR VERSATILITY IN DOCUMENTARY-STYLE PRODUCTION

Flexible Lens Controls Allowed for Quick and Easy Changes in Framing Scenes

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., Feb. 14, 2006—Shooting in the unpredictable style of improvisational and documentary filmmaking requires flexible, responsive technology that can easily adjust to sudden changes in the actions of the people in front of the lens. That is why executive producer Randall Dark convinced Creator/Director Armen Kaprelian to use Canon wide-angle, portable High Definition (HD) zoom lenses to shoot their new real estate themed comedy, Closing Escrow. A pioneer in HD production, Dark knew that Canon wide-angle HD lenses on his two Sony CineAlta cameras would not only achieve sharp, high-quality images, but would also enable him to utilize the lenses’ versatile zoom and focus controls to keep up with the fast pace of the actors.

“I’ve used Canon lenses for almost 18 years,” said Dark. “I got the Canon HJ9X5.5B IRSD wide-angle HD lens (recently updated to the Canon HJ11ex4.7B IRSE lens) because it is my zoom workhorse lens. It is a fast lens that gives me the flexibility to be on a wide-shot at the start of a take and go to a tight-shot at the end of a take. This lens is versatile, flexible, reliable, and just incredible.”

The widest portable HD zoom lens on the market, the HJ11ex4.7B IRSE features the optical excellence of Canon’s e-HDxs technology, which employs the exclusive X-Element and Power Optical System for high-quality optics in a robust, compact, and lightweight housing that weighs just 4.10 lbs. The HJ11ex4.7B’s Enhanced Digital Technology eDrive features further enhance the lens’ versatility. With eDrive, users can easily pre-program functions such as zoom and focus settings into the lens for precise, automated repeatability via an easy-to-use LCD menu, assignable “soft” function buttons, and the rocker switch built into the lens grip. Users can program multiple setting or none at all depending on their personal needs and preferences.

“Canon lenses are true to what we’re seeing.” explained Dark. “What I love about them is they give us the raw image—whether it’s the set, the costumes, or the make-up. The image comes out of there raw and as perfect as possible and allows us, at the back end of the camera, to color-time it the way the director sees fit. It’s just a great workflow.”

Dark describes Closing Escrow, his first HD feature with Kaprelian, as a “comedic mock-u-mentary” featuring several popular comedians from television and film. The story called for a large part of the script to be left open for comic improvisation. For Randall Dark, the lens’ wide-angle capabilities made it possible for each impromptu scene to be captured easily and effectively, while maintaining vividly clear images.

“The movie has a script, a loose script with story arcs, but when we got into the scenes, the director let the actors loose and the results are hilarious,” said Dark. “It was the kind of shoot where we didn’t want to stop the momentum to change lenses or to move the camera in to get different framing. So I used my zoom lenses like prime lenses. I could be shooting totally wide and then—in the middle of a take—quickly find the next shot, zoom in, frame it, and carry the scene that way. My Canon HD zoom lens is adaptable to focal length so it’s easy for me to get a shot very quickly without interrupting the flow of what the director and the primary camera are doing. It’s just a different way of shooting. I’m not saying that one method is better or worse than the other, it’s just that I find that this style of cinematography works for me personally.”

Scott Billups, Closing Escrow's director of photography, also had high praise for Canon’s wide-angle HD zoom lenses. “Unlike the relatively constant world of film acquisition, each HD camera comes with a dizzying array of data rates, color space, and format choices. The only constant in the topsy-turvy world of HD production is the unflinching quality of Canon lenses. It’s nice to have a time-proven lens that can resolve every pixel. HD is a far different beast than film; the light becomes your medium and the lens your brush. My ‘brush’ of choice is Canon.”

Canon portable wide-angle HD zoom lenses also provided a solution for the production team’s time and budget constraints. “Especially with independent feature films, it’s all about ‘You’ve got to shoot it, edit it, and get it out there to be seen and sold,’ so there’s a faster turn-around for your investors,” Dark explained. “The director wanted to shoot two cameras and we only had 14 days of principal photography. Time is money and we didn’t have a lot of time to re-set the camera and snap-out lenses. So my two Canon wide-angle HD lenses were perfectly matched with my cameras, allowing the scenes to be executed quickly and efficiently with their rapid zoom speeds of 0.5 seconds and focus speeds of 1.5 seconds. As a result, we were able to shoot 57 hours of HD content in 14 days.”

“As an Executive Producer, if I can control my costs and bring our movies in under-budget because of technology, it’s a win-win,” Dark added, summing up his latest HD feature experience. “Film would have cost us well over a million dollars, but we’re well under a million dollars because we used HD. It’s just an incredible way to make affordable, high quality, great-looking independent features that can be exhibited digitally, or transferred to film for traditional release, and used for all the markets in-between. Finding the right project with the right budget and using the technology the way I’ve come to understand it, I’ve committed myself personally 100 percent. Closing Escrow is my first HD film and, hopefully, there will be many more to come in the future—and Canon will be there.”

About Canon U.S.A., Inc.
Canon U.S.A., Inc. delivers consumer, business-to-business, and industrial imaging solutions. The Company is listed as one of Fortune’s Most Admired Companies in America and is rated #35 on the BusinessWeek list of “Top 100 Brands.” Its parent company Canon Inc. (NYSE:CAJ) is a top patent holder of technology, ranking second overall in the U.S. in 2005, with global revenues of $31.8 billion. For more information, visit www.usa.canon.com.

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Dark moderates HD Expo panel

HD Expo panel discussion "Closing Escrow - The Movie" concentrated on HD independent production from concept to distribution. The seminar/discussion focused on how to raise funds, determine acquisition format, cost structure/budgets, post production and distribution.

Randall P. Dark, Executive Producer for Closing Escrow, moderated the event. Panelists included Scott Billups, HD Guru and Cinematographer for Closing Escrow; Armen Kaprelian, Director and Executive Producer Closing Escrow; Kristen Cox, Producer for Closing Escrow; and Kent Llewellyn, Story Editor and Co- Director.

MIPCOM Report

At a different conference, Randall Dark, president of U.S. company HD Vision, addressed the production community attending the second of two HD Track conferences of the day, entitled "Making HD Make Business Sense: How to Avoid Financial Hiccups." "If you don't go HD, you won't have any shelf life," he commented.

The higher-ups reasoned that by using HD, they could sell the programs to more markets; thus HD can be employed for financial, rather than aesthetic, reasons.

excerpt from Video Age International

Conquering "The Rock"

Randall Dark, President of HD Vision Studios and crew traveled to Banff, Alberta and captured HD footage of professional rock climbers pushing their skills to the limit. The completed program will be shown at retail stores to demonstrate DLP(TM) technology in DLP HDTVs and front projectors.

The production titled, The Rock was captured using the Sony F-900 Cine-Alta Camera and was shot in 30p. "I wanted to give the project a different look and have been doing some shooting in 30p for another client. This seemed like a good application for further experimenting," says Randall Dark.

Editing will be completed in Los Angeles in a linear HD Suite. Staff editor, Jayme Wing will assemble the hottest images in a fast-paced demonstrative form using a Sony 9100 editor to HD Cam decks.

Dark is anxious to see the fruit of his risky labor. Strapped into the side of a helicopter and circling above the climbers, he convinced the pilot to position the chopper such that Dark was able to shoot directly down the face of Ha Ling Peak as the climbers came up at him. "I only let the camera slip once..." says Randall, "...even though I knew it was tethered to the aircraft, I thought I was going to have a heart attack!"

The Rock will debut at consumer electronic retail stores and trade shows worldwide in the coming months.

from iCom Film & Video Production & Postproduction Magazine

Super Session with HD Superstars

Randall Dark participates in HD Expo Super Session: Technology & Entertainment Breaks Wide. Other panelists include Larry Thorpe, Karl Meisenbach and Richard Cheski. The discussion was moderated by Peter Caranicas. The industry event was held in Dallas, Texas.

European Getaways in High Definition

High Definition Brings European Vacations to American Homes

"The goal of a documentary has always been to document reality, without manipulation,” said filmmaker Randall Dark, cofounder and president of HD Vision Studios. “When working with the forcibly controlled medium of the motion picture, that is extremely difficult – if at times impossible – to achieve. The High Definition (HD) video format, however, has made significant strides in freeing filmmakers from the obstacles standing in the way of spontaneous, undirected reality.”

The benefits of HD have never been more apparent than with Dark’s new documentary series, European Getaways. Dark and his crew had three short weeks to capture images from 10 of Europe’s premier cities – Paris, London, Rome, Naples, Amsterdam, Venice, Monte Carlo, Nice, Athens and Barcelona. The footage shot in each city was then edited into ten, 25-minute stand-alone documentaries – one film representing each city.

Dark decided on a guerilla-style approach to the project. He divided his crew in half, and gave each team five cities, an HD camera and Maxell HDCAM videocassettes.

“The goal with this series was to show these famous places from the point of view of a first-time tourist,” said Dark. “In each city we bought tourist maps and traveled from destination to destination, emulating what any foreign visitor might do. What I wanted to achieve was an accurate representation of each locale, so that a family planning to visit one of these cities could watch our programs and decide which location, and which attractions, would best appeal to their interests.”

With this type of project, HD provided two huge advantages over film: the ease of camera set-ups and the fact that footage didn’t need to be developed. By looking through the viewfinder of his HD camera, Dark could see exactly what he was shooting and recording. The sound was also fed directly into the camera. As a result, preparation time was significantly decreased. This allowed for more flexibility when moving from location to location, without sacrificing image quality.

“Free from long hours of preparation, we were able to shoot 50-60 set-ups per day,” said Dark. “One of the best examples of this advantage was at the Vatican, in Rome. We witnessed the Pope saying mass and were given permission to shoot footage of him from just a few feet away.”

Using film, the crew would have had to meter the light, make sure the sound was synched, and record the sound separately with a DAT recorder. Because of the ease of operation with his HD Camera, Dark simply turned the camera on, white balanced, and recorded the event with the sound recorded directly onto the Maxell tapes. The shooting caused no disruptions to the mass.

“I was so confident in the footage I shot that I shipped it home without even giving it so much as a glance,” said Dark. “Thanks to the reliability of the camera, and because I trust the reliability of Maxell’s HDCAM cassettes, I was confident there would be no problems with exposure or digital glitches. What I saw was what I got, in real time.”

It wasn’t until the he got back to Los Angeles to begin editing that Dark actually saw everything the crew shot. HD Vision Studios was able to edit online, directly from the masters shot in Europe. Because he wanted to accurately represent all the familiar European icons, color correction was practically nonexistent.

“I wanted to represent each city as we saw it, not as we could perceive it through the subjective magic of postproduction,” added Dark. “Herring Broadcasting, Inc., a parent of the “Wealth TV” HD network, has purchased the series and is airing it on their network. The best way to see it is in true high definition, and we’re hoping that those who tune in have as good a time experiencing Europe as we did.”