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.”

First HD Movie Broadcast to Theaters

Bell Witch:The Movie, produced by Big River Pictures, premieres September 24, 2005, at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. In a motion picture premiere first, the entire program will be broadcast via satellite/fiber and projected live in full-bandwidth High Definition to theaters throughout the United States.

Approximately eighty theaters are currently set up to receive this digital broad-cast. During the concert, the cameras will cut away to the Director and celeb-rity guests who will then offer a prize to the first person to call in. This project is the creative realization of Co-Executive Producer Randall P. Dark. Bell Witch:The Movie explores the terror experienced by members of the Bell family during the infamous haunting of the Bell Witch in the early 1800s.

from HiDef magazine, volume 7, issue 3

HD EXPO Hosts Advertising A-List and Speed Dating With Industry Experts

Randall Dark, Co-Founder, President, HD Vision Studios, Inc. was in a select group of industry experts at HD Expo. The gathering of movers and shakers in the exploding high definition industry met to share ideas, technology, strategies for expansion, and opportunities.

Dark and other notables in the burgeoning field of high definition technology participated in interviews, panels, and workshops, including "Speed Dating with Industry Experts." Lottery winners got 5 minutes each with technology/entertainment industry expert to ask questions and get tips and knowledge of future trends.

Reality HD

by Marc Loftus

This month, Post features coverage of facilities that are posting reality TV shows. This genre has undoubtedly become the fastest growing niche on TV and lures people in with its unscripted, unpredictable, anything-can-happen format, making subjects from motorcycle building to home improvement to globe-trotting competitions interesting to a mass audience.

The cameras are always rolling and footage quickly piles up, making an editor's job a real challenge when it comes to finding compelling storylines. Many of the shows are being captured on standard definition digital video formats--DV, DVCAM, IMX or even Sony's new disc-based XDCAM--but HD is making inroads. Last year, Mark Burnett Productions produced and posted The Casino, a reality show shot in 720p on Panasonic Varicam HD cameras. Fifteen Avid Media Composer systems, sharing 8TB of storage, were used to cut the show, which was finished on a DS Nitris at LA Digital. The Benefactor, starring billionaire Mark Cuban, was shot on I080i HDCAM and edited on Media Composers. Online took place at LA's Matchframe Video, where DS Nitris operators color corrected episodes and created masters.

Randall Dark, a principal at HD Vision Studios in Studio City, CA, has been working in HD since its infancy and sees The Casino and The Benefactor as just the beginning of an HD reality TV trend.

"The future of reality TV will be HD--period," states Dark, adding that the sale of so many HDTVs over the holidays will further increase demand for content. Shows like Survivor, says Dark, with its exotic locations and good-looking contestants, are well suited for the format. And HD, he believes, can breathe new life into shows that may be losing their initial appeal.

The cost of producing HD content is a popular question, one that often draws vague answers. For a show like Survivor, Dark says, the crew is already in place, as are the locations and other logistics. "How much more, incrementally, could it cost to go HD?"

HD Vision produced a series of 15 European travelogues for Wealth TV. Aside from the 30-minute shows, they also built an impressive HD stock library, some of which has already been licensed. New HDV cameras are expected to help in lowering the cost of HD production. Can they make reality programming even more interesting is another question.

from Post

HD heats up

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