This format is seeing acceptance an a compelling, cost-effective medium that can deliver the same emotional impact as film.
by Claudia Kienzle
HD has been steadily gaining acceptance for acquisition, post production, and distribution for television and feature films. But our experts say that HD is now at a point where it could really take off in 2005. HD usage is exploding due to impressive advancements in HD image capture, remarkable color grading in post production, and its compelling cost-efficiency compared to 35mm film. As HD's superior picture and sound promote its worldwide acceptance for HDTV, HD-DVDs and digital cinema, there is increasing demand for post production services, such as digital intermediates, HD mastering and digital film dailies.
RANDALL DARK
Co-Founder/President
HD Vision Studios
Los Angeles, CA
(www.hdvstudios.tv)
STRENGTHS: "We're beginning to see the impact that HD is having on broadcast, digital cinema, point of purchase, medical, the military, and more. And, many television pilots and independent films are rapidly shifting from 35mm film to HD production because it enables them to create a film look very cost-effectively by eliminating the up-front costs of film production--the raw stock, film processing, and dailies production. Rather than having to reload film every 10 minutes, HD tape lets you shoot for 50 minutes without stopping to reload, which keeps the production moving along without costly delays."
WEAKNESSES: "There is the lack of understanding of just how far HD technology has come in the last two years. This is a huge issue. Because HD has been around for so many years, people who looked into it early in its evolution may have dismissed it as unfriendly, costly, or lacking the bells and whistles of an end-to-end solution. But in the last two to three years, tremendous strides have been made to eliminate problems like compression artifacts, and ensure high-quality color correction, down conversion, and other services essential to HD production. HD is now a compelling, cost-effective medium for telling stories with the same emotional impact film delivers."
OPPORTUNITIES: "As HDTV evolves, the need for content produced in native HD will also grow. While a 4:3 SDTV documentary about African wildlife is interesting, people will want to revisit this subject in HDTV because the high-resolution, widescreen picture will have an incredible impact on the viewing experience. Another huge opportunity will be HD-DVDs. In terms of a new growth market, HD-DVDs will be staggering, with ample business opportunities for this industry."
THREATS: "In light of rapid improvements in HD's image quality and price/performance, as a businessperson, you have to plan your capital expenses for new equipment such that your rate of return makes sense. Also, as more productions choose HD over film for acquisition, it will pose a threat to companies offering film dailies, although we will see a growing demand for digital dailies."
OUTLOOK FOR 2005: "With many high-profile events being televised in HDTV, HDTV set manufacturers can't fill the orders fast enough. In 2005 we will finally reach the tipping point where so many consumers have HDTVs in their homes that demand for original HDTV content will explode."
excerpt from Post
Wednesday, December 1, 2004
Friday, November 12, 2004
Reality TV HD production
The HD Expo "Reality Television" panel moderated by Randall Dark was highly attended and one of the most spirited discussions of the day's agenda, addressing the teaming of Hollywoods' newest kids on the block: Reality Programming + Shooting in High Definition.
Panelists included: Marc Wolloff, Executive in Charge of Production Popular Arts Entertainment; Ron Romberger, Editor; Robert Bennett, Executive Producer, CEO/Founder HD Republic.
Panelists included: Marc Wolloff, Executive in Charge of Production Popular Arts Entertainment; Ron Romberger, Editor; Robert Bennett, Executive Producer, CEO/Founder HD Republic.
Thursday, November 4, 2004
2nd Annual HD Expo
The panel, Reality Television, will be moderated by Randall Paris Dark, Co-Founder and President, HD Vision Studios, Inc., and will address such topics as: Does Technology Impact the Creative Process? Are There Budgetary Limitations with HD? and Does HD play a Role in Reality Television? Featured panelists include: Marc Wolloff, Executive in Charge of Production, Popular Arts Entertainment; Ron Romberger, Editor; and Robert Bennett, Executive Producer, CEO/Founder, HD Republic.
The second annual HD EXPO, a gathering of pioneers and leaders in the world of digital and high definition technology, will take place today in Los Angeles, at the Petersen Automotive Museum on Wilshire Blvd., from 1:00 p.m. until 9:30 p.m.
The second annual HD EXPO, a gathering of pioneers and leaders in the world of digital and high definition technology, will take place today in Los Angeles, at the Petersen Automotive Museum on Wilshire Blvd., from 1:00 p.m. until 9:30 p.m.
Monday, November 1, 2004
Stocking Up
While many stock houses are now shooting and transferring footage in high def, others are waiting for demand to increase.
by Christine Bunish
An 8-year veteran of HDTV, Randall P. Dark, co-founder/president of HD Vision Studios (www.hdvstudios.tv) in Studio City, CA, remembers a time when there was no call for HD stock. But times have changed. "The world is going digital widescreen and high resolution," says Dark. "In the past, 4:3 SD libraries were worth hundreds of millions of dollars because of demand. But all of their footage will go away in the digital widescreen world unless it's important historical or archival material. You can't seamlessly incorporate a 4:3 low-rez image in an HD program. Everything that people have used in the past has to be recaptured for the future."
HD VISION SUPPLIES FOOTAGE BANK
Initially, Dark fulfilled requests for HD stock footage as an offshoot of his own content-creation business. "Providing 'eye candy' for product launches at trade shows and retail environments was a big source for us," he reports. "Everyone wanted to attract floor traffic with jaw-dropping footage on their TV, projector or playback device."
HD Vision still provides images for that market, supplying footage for Texas Instruments' HD projectors and TVs display at CEDIA as well as for a number of major manufacturers at the 2004 Consumer Electronics Show. Dark crafts custom programs for exhibitors based on his extensive HD library. "They want people to walk by and see some pizzazz, not a storyline. The images have to be self-explanatory; extreme sports, aerials, nature."
Now Venice, CA-based Footage Bank (www.footagebank.com) represents HD Vision's HD program clip library as well as footage Dark continues to gather, such as European material he lensed while on location for Wealth TV.
When Paula Lumbard launched Footage Bank in '02, studios had begun gearing up for HD program delivery, "We hoped there would be enough shows to support a company like this, but there weren't during our first year," she recalls. "Instead, we spent time building our library, the concept of HD footage and educating ourselves and our clients."
Today, with a new TV season underway. Footage Bank has seen the studios do an about-face. "People now ask for HD or 35mm," she reports. "Even the last film shows are taking HD images." Among the series requesting clips from Footage Bank are LAX, Dr. Vegas, Medical Investigation and Everybody Loves Raymond. "We've also been working aggressively with DPs to shoot locations on 24p HD to build our library and meet the on-demand need for establishing shots," she adds.
Footage Bank represents HD material from over 60 suppliers in a wide range of subjects, including the popular technology and timelapse categories. It offers aerials from the "Over America" and "Over Canada" series developed by Sony and KCTS/Seattle; footage from HD cameras mounted on the Space Shuttles; and collections from three of the "world's best" underwater cinematographers. Al Giddings's underwater library has been upconverted to HD from film and video using the Teranex system while Howard Hall and Tom Campbell shoot 24p HD and 1080i HD native, respectively.
Footage Bank recently signed to represent Helinet's aerial collection captured by gyro-mounted HD camera systems developed by Helinet. "The systems have incredibly powerful lenses, so you can be riding alongside a car looking at the driver, then pull back and the car becomes just a spec," Lumbard explains. Helinet footage has already been licensed for the indie HD feature The Kid and I.
HBO SPORTS, SCENICS AND GROWING HD
In spring 2003, the 30-year-old image vaults of HBO Sports, containing over 40,000 tapes of one-of-a-kind material covering sports and more, were opened to the public.
"We had licensed our boxing material on an ad-hoc basis before but embargoed our behind-the-scenes footage," notes Max Segal, manager of HBO Sports Archives (www.hboarchives.com) in NYC. "We realized we had wonderful personality features from all sports and decided to make it available."
The archives comprise a number of stellar collections. In the sports arena, HBO leads with its boxing features as well as fight footage from bouts where it is the rights holder. Grand Slam Tennis includes original Wimbledon features and interviews from 1975 to 2000 and US Open features from the mid-'80s. The Football collection represents original features and interviews from HBO's Inside the NFL. Also offered is material from HBO's Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel and extensive interview footage and B-roll from award-winning documentaries like Do You Believe in Miracles?; Playing the Field: Sports & Sex in America; When it Was a Game; and Arthur Ashe: Citizen of the World.
The archives also possess strong non-sports collections. "When we go around telling athlete stories, we end up shooting scenics and landmarks," Segal says. "We've also been building a newsreel collection through the Library of Congress and National Archives."
Finally, the Gold Collection: The Film Vault features film-originated iconic and specialty shots of boxing, motor spots, golf, horse racing, baseball, tennis and figure skating, plus Bob Costas's essays for his On the Record HBO series.
Most of the footage in the archives originated on SD video but that is about to change. "We're moving to HD across the network, and our goal for 2005 is to do as much as we can in HD to meet the need for people asking for HD footage," Segal acknowledges. In September, HBO produced its first HD boxing broadcast, and more feature pieces will be shot on HD.
Segal estimates about 40 percent of business is with fellow cable networks.
35MM WIDESCREEN
For Anchorage-based Last Frontier Footage (www.lastfrontierfootage.com), HD means widescreen 35mm. Owner David Hoffmann has assembled a spectacular collection of widescreen 35mm footage, most of which he shot himself, of avalanches, glaciers, the Northern Lights, wildlife and scenics.
"When I started, I was shooting on video, but I felt I had to shoot on film. I began with 16mm, but a Hollywood cinematographer told me if I wanted to play with the big boys I'd have to shoot 35mm," Hoffmann recalls. "A lot of people don't do wildlife and nature photography on 35mm because it's a lot of extra work with all the heavy equipment."
As a result, Alaska native Hoffmann has a collection of stock images that include the Northern Lights, which has been used in BBC television programming, and is among his most popular offerings "because it's so hard to get, particularly on film."
Other clients of Last Frontier Footage include Target, which incorporated clips of Yosemite's El Capitan and mule deer in the early morning, plus a shot of Denali's Wonder Lake; a Princess Cruises commercial with a shot of bull caribou and the Alaska Range in the background; a Big Boy restaurants spot featuring the Kenai Fjords National Park in Alaska; and Discovery for whale footage.
Hoffmann says he'd consider shooting in HD "if that's where the technology is going and what clients demand. But the fact is I can fill requests for glaciers or the Northern Lights for theatrical and widescreen HD with my widescreen 35mm material."
Additional whale, avalanche and glacier calving footage would be among the first categories he'd try to capture on HD, if clients request it. "People are always asking for new material, and I'd like to improve upon what I already do well," Hoffmann says. He is also available to custom shoot footage if clients need specific on-location material.
ROYALTY-FREE SD
The model of royalty-free footage, featuring buy-out collections, has expanded in the industry recently. "In the past 24 months there's been a shift to companies going royalty-free or offering royalty-free product," says Andrea Keating, CEO of Delaware-based Reelcities and founder/CEO of crewing agency Crews Control.
Reelcities takes a royalty-free approach that spring-boards off Keating's crewing expertise. "We're selling location footage that's like having your own location crew out there," she explains. "The production quality and variety we offer gives you options you can't get elsewhere."
Reelcities has introduced 27 royalty-free stock location footage reels, available in multiple formats, for major US cities, plus Greece, London and Toronto. Asia is currently in production. The reels are priced at $495 each, plus shipping and handling.
"Crews Control had a client who was booking shoots for location footage in cities around the world for a new product launch," Keating reports. She asked why the client was going to such lengths instead of using stock footage. The reply was that negotiating the stock footage world was complex and costly in dollars and time. With custom shoots, "I can get it all on my desk within 48 hours, and I own it," the client told Keating.
A light bulb went off for Keating and Reelcities was born. Her clients wanted "a selection of takes of each location with multiple pans, zooms and angles; longer takes; and stock that was shot as actual location footage not just stock shots," she says. "And they wanted it royalty free."
While Reelcities' footage has been lensed on Beta SP and Digital Betacam, HD may be just around the corner. "People are asking for HD originals," Keating acknowledges. "Beta SP is still popular, but we're waiting for one HD format to prove itself, then we'll begin to reshoot everything."
A ROYALTY-FREE SOLUTION
Headquartered in Peoria, IL, Creatas (www.creatas.com) is a leading provider of royalty-free stock photography, illustration, footage and other design tools. It represents its own Creatas brand stock-footage collection as well as a number of others.
"Royalty-free images are a small part of the overall footage market, but where we focus our energies--on corporate and small broadcast customers--royalty-free is the best solution," says David Moffly, CEO of Dynamic Graphics Group, the parent company of Creatas. "Everything is available online, you get it immediately, and you're good to go."
The collections Creatas represents can be purchased outright, or customers can download in realtime a broadcast-quality clip or series of clips on a royalty-free basis. "Everything is on servers in our data center waiting to go," Moffly notes. "If you're buying clips from the Creatas brand, we store your information so you can access clips through the Web site as long as you remain a customer." The entire inventory of Creatas clips will be available online by early 2005.
Clients "are using content to tell stories so model-released people have done really well, as has extreme sports, which offers a powerful set of images that messages can wrap around. There's also a lot of demand for scenics and animals."
The Creatas brand has 13 categories, including business, lifestyle, people, sports and leisure activities. Reel Life has an expressive collection of lifestyle material "shot to encompass a whole emotional story, like its 'Father and Son' title," Moffly says. Rocketclips spans outdoor leisure, baby's first steps and bustling office life; and Rubberball has a fresh take on people-themed categories.
Creatas represents Corbis's and Getty's royalty-free products along with Thinkstock's cutting-edge images, Dynamic Graphics' world locations and more.
Moffly believes the market for HD royalty-free stock footage will be "a slow progression. We know HD is coming, and we'll be selling it as the world moves forward, but right now editing in HD represents a new set of investments for our customers who have in-house video editing capabilities."
from Post
by Christine Bunish
An 8-year veteran of HDTV, Randall P. Dark, co-founder/president of HD Vision Studios (www.hdvstudios.tv) in Studio City, CA, remembers a time when there was no call for HD stock. But times have changed. "The world is going digital widescreen and high resolution," says Dark. "In the past, 4:3 SD libraries were worth hundreds of millions of dollars because of demand. But all of their footage will go away in the digital widescreen world unless it's important historical or archival material. You can't seamlessly incorporate a 4:3 low-rez image in an HD program. Everything that people have used in the past has to be recaptured for the future."
HD VISION SUPPLIES FOOTAGE BANK
Initially, Dark fulfilled requests for HD stock footage as an offshoot of his own content-creation business. "Providing 'eye candy' for product launches at trade shows and retail environments was a big source for us," he reports. "Everyone wanted to attract floor traffic with jaw-dropping footage on their TV, projector or playback device."
HD Vision still provides images for that market, supplying footage for Texas Instruments' HD projectors and TVs display at CEDIA as well as for a number of major manufacturers at the 2004 Consumer Electronics Show. Dark crafts custom programs for exhibitors based on his extensive HD library. "They want people to walk by and see some pizzazz, not a storyline. The images have to be self-explanatory; extreme sports, aerials, nature."
Now Venice, CA-based Footage Bank (www.footagebank.com) represents HD Vision's HD program clip library as well as footage Dark continues to gather, such as European material he lensed while on location for Wealth TV.
When Paula Lumbard launched Footage Bank in '02, studios had begun gearing up for HD program delivery, "We hoped there would be enough shows to support a company like this, but there weren't during our first year," she recalls. "Instead, we spent time building our library, the concept of HD footage and educating ourselves and our clients."
Today, with a new TV season underway. Footage Bank has seen the studios do an about-face. "People now ask for HD or 35mm," she reports. "Even the last film shows are taking HD images." Among the series requesting clips from Footage Bank are LAX, Dr. Vegas, Medical Investigation and Everybody Loves Raymond. "We've also been working aggressively with DPs to shoot locations on 24p HD to build our library and meet the on-demand need for establishing shots," she adds.
Footage Bank represents HD material from over 60 suppliers in a wide range of subjects, including the popular technology and timelapse categories. It offers aerials from the "Over America" and "Over Canada" series developed by Sony and KCTS/Seattle; footage from HD cameras mounted on the Space Shuttles; and collections from three of the "world's best" underwater cinematographers. Al Giddings's underwater library has been upconverted to HD from film and video using the Teranex system while Howard Hall and Tom Campbell shoot 24p HD and 1080i HD native, respectively.
Footage Bank recently signed to represent Helinet's aerial collection captured by gyro-mounted HD camera systems developed by Helinet. "The systems have incredibly powerful lenses, so you can be riding alongside a car looking at the driver, then pull back and the car becomes just a spec," Lumbard explains. Helinet footage has already been licensed for the indie HD feature The Kid and I.
HBO SPORTS, SCENICS AND GROWING HD
In spring 2003, the 30-year-old image vaults of HBO Sports, containing over 40,000 tapes of one-of-a-kind material covering sports and more, were opened to the public.
"We had licensed our boxing material on an ad-hoc basis before but embargoed our behind-the-scenes footage," notes Max Segal, manager of HBO Sports Archives (www.hboarchives.com) in NYC. "We realized we had wonderful personality features from all sports and decided to make it available."
The archives comprise a number of stellar collections. In the sports arena, HBO leads with its boxing features as well as fight footage from bouts where it is the rights holder. Grand Slam Tennis includes original Wimbledon features and interviews from 1975 to 2000 and US Open features from the mid-'80s. The Football collection represents original features and interviews from HBO's Inside the NFL. Also offered is material from HBO's Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel and extensive interview footage and B-roll from award-winning documentaries like Do You Believe in Miracles?; Playing the Field: Sports & Sex in America; When it Was a Game; and Arthur Ashe: Citizen of the World.
The archives also possess strong non-sports collections. "When we go around telling athlete stories, we end up shooting scenics and landmarks," Segal says. "We've also been building a newsreel collection through the Library of Congress and National Archives."
Finally, the Gold Collection: The Film Vault features film-originated iconic and specialty shots of boxing, motor spots, golf, horse racing, baseball, tennis and figure skating, plus Bob Costas's essays for his On the Record HBO series.
Most of the footage in the archives originated on SD video but that is about to change. "We're moving to HD across the network, and our goal for 2005 is to do as much as we can in HD to meet the need for people asking for HD footage," Segal acknowledges. In September, HBO produced its first HD boxing broadcast, and more feature pieces will be shot on HD.
Segal estimates about 40 percent of business is with fellow cable networks.
35MM WIDESCREEN
For Anchorage-based Last Frontier Footage (www.lastfrontierfootage.com), HD means widescreen 35mm. Owner David Hoffmann has assembled a spectacular collection of widescreen 35mm footage, most of which he shot himself, of avalanches, glaciers, the Northern Lights, wildlife and scenics.
"When I started, I was shooting on video, but I felt I had to shoot on film. I began with 16mm, but a Hollywood cinematographer told me if I wanted to play with the big boys I'd have to shoot 35mm," Hoffmann recalls. "A lot of people don't do wildlife and nature photography on 35mm because it's a lot of extra work with all the heavy equipment."
As a result, Alaska native Hoffmann has a collection of stock images that include the Northern Lights, which has been used in BBC television programming, and is among his most popular offerings "because it's so hard to get, particularly on film."
Other clients of Last Frontier Footage include Target, which incorporated clips of Yosemite's El Capitan and mule deer in the early morning, plus a shot of Denali's Wonder Lake; a Princess Cruises commercial with a shot of bull caribou and the Alaska Range in the background; a Big Boy restaurants spot featuring the Kenai Fjords National Park in Alaska; and Discovery for whale footage.
Hoffmann says he'd consider shooting in HD "if that's where the technology is going and what clients demand. But the fact is I can fill requests for glaciers or the Northern Lights for theatrical and widescreen HD with my widescreen 35mm material."
Additional whale, avalanche and glacier calving footage would be among the first categories he'd try to capture on HD, if clients request it. "People are always asking for new material, and I'd like to improve upon what I already do well," Hoffmann says. He is also available to custom shoot footage if clients need specific on-location material.
ROYALTY-FREE SD
The model of royalty-free footage, featuring buy-out collections, has expanded in the industry recently. "In the past 24 months there's been a shift to companies going royalty-free or offering royalty-free product," says Andrea Keating, CEO of Delaware-based Reelcities and founder/CEO of crewing agency Crews Control.
Reelcities takes a royalty-free approach that spring-boards off Keating's crewing expertise. "We're selling location footage that's like having your own location crew out there," she explains. "The production quality and variety we offer gives you options you can't get elsewhere."
Reelcities has introduced 27 royalty-free stock location footage reels, available in multiple formats, for major US cities, plus Greece, London and Toronto. Asia is currently in production. The reels are priced at $495 each, plus shipping and handling.
"Crews Control had a client who was booking shoots for location footage in cities around the world for a new product launch," Keating reports. She asked why the client was going to such lengths instead of using stock footage. The reply was that negotiating the stock footage world was complex and costly in dollars and time. With custom shoots, "I can get it all on my desk within 48 hours, and I own it," the client told Keating.
A light bulb went off for Keating and Reelcities was born. Her clients wanted "a selection of takes of each location with multiple pans, zooms and angles; longer takes; and stock that was shot as actual location footage not just stock shots," she says. "And they wanted it royalty free."
While Reelcities' footage has been lensed on Beta SP and Digital Betacam, HD may be just around the corner. "People are asking for HD originals," Keating acknowledges. "Beta SP is still popular, but we're waiting for one HD format to prove itself, then we'll begin to reshoot everything."
A ROYALTY-FREE SOLUTION
Headquartered in Peoria, IL, Creatas (www.creatas.com) is a leading provider of royalty-free stock photography, illustration, footage and other design tools. It represents its own Creatas brand stock-footage collection as well as a number of others.
"Royalty-free images are a small part of the overall footage market, but where we focus our energies--on corporate and small broadcast customers--royalty-free is the best solution," says David Moffly, CEO of Dynamic Graphics Group, the parent company of Creatas. "Everything is available online, you get it immediately, and you're good to go."
The collections Creatas represents can be purchased outright, or customers can download in realtime a broadcast-quality clip or series of clips on a royalty-free basis. "Everything is on servers in our data center waiting to go," Moffly notes. "If you're buying clips from the Creatas brand, we store your information so you can access clips through the Web site as long as you remain a customer." The entire inventory of Creatas clips will be available online by early 2005.
Clients "are using content to tell stories so model-released people have done really well, as has extreme sports, which offers a powerful set of images that messages can wrap around. There's also a lot of demand for scenics and animals."
The Creatas brand has 13 categories, including business, lifestyle, people, sports and leisure activities. Reel Life has an expressive collection of lifestyle material "shot to encompass a whole emotional story, like its 'Father and Son' title," Moffly says. Rocketclips spans outdoor leisure, baby's first steps and bustling office life; and Rubberball has a fresh take on people-themed categories.
Creatas represents Corbis's and Getty's royalty-free products along with Thinkstock's cutting-edge images, Dynamic Graphics' world locations and more.
Moffly believes the market for HD royalty-free stock footage will be "a slow progression. We know HD is coming, and we'll be selling it as the world moves forward, but right now editing in HD represents a new set of investments for our customers who have in-house video editing capabilities."
from Post
Monday, October 18, 2004
Canon lenses for new INHD series
Randall Dark uses Canon lenses for new INHD series
Producer/director Randall Dark is using Canon’s HJ9X5.5B IRSD wide-angle HD lens to shoot INHD: Reel Look, a new series for the INHD cable network. The cable TV series features HD video of today's stars as they walk the red carpet at the latest Hollywood film debuts, as well as celebrity interviews, behind-the-scenes footage and movie clips.
Dark, a veteran HD producer and president/co-founder of HD Vision Studios, in Hollywood, said the new show is a “killer app” for HD. He’s used the HJ9X5.5B IRSD wide-angle HD lens in combination with a Sony HDW-F900 HDCAM camcorder. (Canon has since updated that lens with its new HJ11ex4.7B IRSE model). The Canon lens easily handled the numerous wide shots, close-ups, and personal shots necessary to the episode.
In addition to the red-carpet portion of the show, INHD: Reel Look also features intimate, one-on-one interviews that Dark shot during press junkets for such films as, “Around the World in 80 Days,” “The Village,” and “Mr. 3000.”
Dark, who has been using Canon lenses for the last 12 years, said he’ll produce up to four episodes of ‘INHD: Reel Look’ per month.
For more information visit www.usa.canon.com.
from Broadcast Engineering
Producer/director Randall Dark is using Canon’s HJ9X5.5B IRSD wide-angle HD lens to shoot INHD: Reel Look, a new series for the INHD cable network. The cable TV series features HD video of today's stars as they walk the red carpet at the latest Hollywood film debuts, as well as celebrity interviews, behind-the-scenes footage and movie clips.
Dark, a veteran HD producer and president/co-founder of HD Vision Studios, in Hollywood, said the new show is a “killer app” for HD. He’s used the HJ9X5.5B IRSD wide-angle HD lens in combination with a Sony HDW-F900 HDCAM camcorder. (Canon has since updated that lens with its new HJ11ex4.7B IRSE model). The Canon lens easily handled the numerous wide shots, close-ups, and personal shots necessary to the episode.
In addition to the red-carpet portion of the show, INHD: Reel Look also features intimate, one-on-one interviews that Dark shot during press junkets for such films as, “Around the World in 80 Days,” “The Village,” and “Mr. 3000.”
Dark, who has been using Canon lenses for the last 12 years, said he’ll produce up to four episodes of ‘INHD: Reel Look’ per month.
For more information visit www.usa.canon.com.
from Broadcast Engineering
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
HDTV Forum 2004
Challenges in HD Content Creation will follow the content programming session to address the unique challenges inherent in filming and production in HD. Panelists will discuss the changes occurring in the overall workflow of film production, how the advances in digital camera technology have affected cinematography, how the Hollywood entertainment industry views the rapid move to HD, and what the unique benefits are to moving towards HD and digital film production.
"It is very important to hear from the content creation community to understand how hard they are pushing the HD transition and if there are any remaining roadblocks," stated conference co-organizer, Chris Chinnock, president of Insight Media.
This panel session will be moderated by cinematographer and production engineer Derek Grover, who is the founder of Digital Hollywood Imaging, a company considered to be a driving force behind the transition of all major studios from film to high definition production for network programming.
Mr. Grover will be joined by HD visionary Randall Dark, president of HD Vision Studios and a 16-year HDTV production pioneer and veteran. Mr. Dark has been involved in over 800 HD projects including films, documentaries, commercials, music videos, corporate presentations, product launches, and live events and is considered an undisputed pioneer in the HDTV industry.
Joe Kane, CEO and video director, Joe Kane Productions also will join the discussion. Mr. Kane specializes in the science of electronic imaging and accurately reproducing video signals on all types of displays. Through his work as chair of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) Working Group on Professional and
Studio Monitors, he helps bring organization and consistency to displaying pictures in the professional and broadcast world. He is currently finishing several versions of Digital Video Essentials, aimed at helping consumers with the transition to HDTV.
"It is very important to hear from the content creation community to understand how hard they are pushing the HD transition and if there are any remaining roadblocks," stated conference co-organizer, Chris Chinnock, president of Insight Media.
This panel session will be moderated by cinematographer and production engineer Derek Grover, who is the founder of Digital Hollywood Imaging, a company considered to be a driving force behind the transition of all major studios from film to high definition production for network programming.
Mr. Grover will be joined by HD visionary Randall Dark, president of HD Vision Studios and a 16-year HDTV production pioneer and veteran. Mr. Dark has been involved in over 800 HD projects including films, documentaries, commercials, music videos, corporate presentations, product launches, and live events and is considered an undisputed pioneer in the HDTV industry.
Joe Kane, CEO and video director, Joe Kane Productions also will join the discussion. Mr. Kane specializes in the science of electronic imaging and accurately reproducing video signals on all types of displays. Through his work as chair of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) Working Group on Professional and
Studio Monitors, he helps bring organization and consistency to displaying pictures in the professional and broadcast world. He is currently finishing several versions of Digital Video Essentials, aimed at helping consumers with the transition to HDTV.
Thursday, July 22, 2004
The Artist in HD
The Artist In HD
Randall Dark’s Award-Winning Portrait of an Artist Demonstrates the Benefits of HD to Documentary Filmmaking
The goal of the documentary is to document reality. This premise, however, runs contrary to the forcibly controlled medium of the motion picture. Because of cost, and the limitations within the aesthetic itself, creating a situation in which reality can simply “happen” is nearly impossible. With the introduction of High Definition (HD) video, these parameters have been greatly relaxed. Lower costs associated with HD production, and the added flexibility that comes along with it, has eased these restrictions, allowing the filmmaker to get closer to truth than would ever be possible with film. Writer and Director Randall Dark’s Telly Award-winning documentary, Artist in the Round: Shayne Dark is the perfect illustration of the unique benefits of HD production and Maxell’s HDCAM Media. With the freedom allowed by his HD camera, and the high quality of Maxell’s recording media, Dark captures the richly nuanced story of an artist who triumphs daily over dyslexia.
The subject of the documentary is Dark’s older brother, Shayne, who is a prominent Canadian sculptor. Raised in a time when little was known about dyslexia, Shayne was simply categorized as a “slow learner.” Consequently, as an adult, Shayne reads and writes at a second grade level. The documentary explores his battle to overcome this life-long learning disability, while becoming a contemporary artist with international renown.Artist in the Round: Shayne Dark, which was shot on Maxell HDCAM and Sony HDCAM, and was edited exclusively on Maxell HDCAM, is the perfect example of how HD production and technology help to overcome many of the obstacles inherent to documentary production. Because HD costs less to shoot on than film, and because the logistics of shooting HD are simpler, Dark had greater flexibility as a director, which enabled him to capture moments that wouldn’t have been possible with a more stringent shooting schedule.
“HD allowed me to roll the camera all day long while conducting the interview and it allowed me to try new things as I saw fit,” said Dark. “This method helped Shayne achieve a greater level of comfort and helped us to capture the spontaneous moments that provide a true, unique glimpse into his identity and character. It enabled us to better capture real life, which would have been limited with the more rigid techniques that are intrinsic to shooting film.”
Another advantage of HD is the time saved with camera set-ups. When shooting on HD, the director, by looking through the viewfinder and glancing at the monitor, can see exactly what they’re shooting. The sound is also fed directly into the camera. As a result, preparation time—especially with lighting and sound set-up—is significantly decreased. This allows for more flexibility when moving from location to location.
“Sometimes I’d just set up the camera and not let Shayne know that I was shooting,” added Dark. “We’d run through the shoot as though it were a rehearsal, which made him more relaxed and natural. This technique yielded priceless moments. When shooting on film, I’m not allowed that luxury; film is too expensive to risk wasting, and the subject always knows when you’re shooting. Also, with the durability and reliability of Maxell’s HDCAM product, worries about tape performance are not part of the equation.”What bolster’s Dark’s confidence in Maxell’s HDCAM is the media’s ultra-high performance binder systems that make the tape exceptionally durable – an essential asset to working volatile environments. The HDCAM videocassette also features a recording density 1.4 times greater than Digital Betacam for superior digital and video performance.
Artist in the Round: Shayne Dark is the first of a 13-part series. The In the Round series will feature accomplished artists and the major handicap or obstacle each of them has overcome, or continues to battle, in order to achieve success. The artists to be profiled include sculptors, painters, musicians and photographers. Artist in the Round: Shayne Dark was produced by Kristen Cox and edited by Jayme Wing.
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