Cinema Technology News

Red Epic’s HDRx is Astonishing

Drew Maw — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 18:12:58 +0000

I first heard about Red Epic’s HDRx capability from a fellow DP friend of mine. He had been shooting tests for Sami Raimi with the Red Epic. They were testing how the HDRx function could hold up in extreme situations. If you don’t know what HDRx is, it works similarly to how HDR works on most still cameras. It takes two simultaneous exposures. One exposure is slightly over exposed, and one is underexposed. It then combines them together, to make an image where highlights and lowlights aren’t clipped out, due to limitations from current sensor technology.

My friend tested a car traveling from a dark tunnel into a bright sunny beach-side highway. With HDRx, they were able to expose properly for both instances (simultaneously, in one continuous shot), then combine them in post. It led to what could only be described as “a perfect exposure pull”. This is just one instance of how the HDRx technology can be used.

Below are a couple of examples of HDRx being used in the field. The first video is by Local Hero Post, which tests what can be very subtle, yet very effective uses of the technology. The second video is by Laforet and his cronies. The first shot in Laforet’s video is remarkable! The subsequent shots aren’t readily understood as HDR, which is a good thing. As you’ll see in Local Hero Post’s video, without seeing it side-by-side, one can almost become unappreciative.

Local Post’s Video:

Laforet’s Video:

Red Scarlet: Skate Commercial 120fps

Drew Maw — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 18:51:21 +0000

Matt Bennett, Clint Walker and Gonzalo Hernandez were given the opportunity to help RED demonstrate the capabilities of their new Scarlet 8x fixed camera. The resulting clip was shot by RED Fire Chief Jarred Land at 120 fps in RED studios.

*This clip is property of RED Digital Cinema.

Download the Prores clip via Reduser:
reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?59527-Scarlet-8x-internal-120FPS-test

Red Epic “May Replace Pro Still Photography Camera”

Drew Maw — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 18:35:46 +0000

If you’re a professional photographer, you know how difficult it can be to capture the decisive moment. Regardless of your skill, it can be problem of technological limitations. A few days ago, Vincent Laforet posed a question on his blog: what took this photo? (click to see the full resolution):

He later revealed that it was the unreleased Red camera, the Red Epic M Digital cinema camera filming at 96 frames a second. Due to the sensitive sensor, he was able to crank up the shutter speed, such that each frame was crystal clear, free from motion blur.

From the picture at the top, you can see that this CAN be a larger camera, but it can also be broken down into something much smaller, to the size just larger than a traditional Canon DSLR. The benefits of shooting video come with draw backs, and isn’t perfect for all photography situations, but in the situations that it can be used for, it will be an essential tool. Certainly you can’t use strobes, but one can afford to use hot lights in studio. If you’re shooting outside and are shooting lifestyle with only bounce light, also a great application of Red Epic.

The fact remains though, you’ll have to use a larger crew when setting up lights, for exterior or interior applications. Cinema lighting requires a lot of energy, which can be dangerous if the proper gaffer/grip/electrician crew isn’t hired. Hot lights are heavier and get hotter, unless you’re using smaller lights like Kino’s or LED’s.

Bottom line: the Red Epic will be a great tool for still photographers in certain situations (amazing for studio fashion or lifestyle), but it comes with a great deal of restrictions that come with the cinema territory.

Alexa vs Cold & Hot Weather

Drew Maw — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 00:05:10 +0000

The ALEXA is sensitive, but don’t let her fragile emotional side fool you. She’s quite durable. French DoP Damien Morisot recently selected ALEXA for a DHL commercial that consisted of a very inense schedule and eclectic locations such as Shanghai, Mumbai, Iceland and New York City. He spoke with ARRI about the experience. He used “Angenieux Optimo zoom, the 28-76 mm, as well as the 24-290 mm.” He brought primes, but due to the sensitive nature of the sensor, he rarely if ever used them. He also took the camera into “-15 deg weather in Iceland…” Morisot explained, “We didn’t have any problems.” He continued, “At the other end of the spectrum was Mumbai, where it was fairly hot and extremely humid, but again, we had no problems; the camera was totally reliable.”

The other reason he chose the Alexa, he wanted instant access to images. “Our editor was also travelling with us, although the advantage of the ALEXA workflow was not so much being able to actually edit on set, but to immediately see that we had the coverage we needed before leaving a location, and also allowing the visual effects team to start working on the images straight away, because the back-end schedule was so tight.”

Here is the commercial spot for DHL:

Source: Arri Group

Abstract Lindsay Lohan Short

Drew Maw — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 22:13:16 +0000

A film by artist Richard Phillips, simply titled, Lindsay Lohan. Despite what you might think of Ms. Lohan, she does captivate one’s attention on screen. The feeling it leaves me with is similar to the feeling I get when looking at Richard Avedon’s classic portraitures. Here’s a quote from Mr. Phillips concerning this abstract piece: “Lindsay has an incredible emotional and physical presence on screen that holds an existential vulnerability, while harnessing the power of the transcendental—the moment in transition. She is able to connect with us past all of our memory and projection, expressing our own inner eminence.”

Dynamic Range Tests: FS100 vs 5D & GH2

Drew Maw — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 20:38:44 +0000

The new Sony FS100 is getting a lot of buzz, but how does the sensor compete in the dynamic range department? Now, if you’re not aware, dynamic range is a term that refers to a camera’s ability to properly expose a “range” of light before it’s either crushed to black, or blows out to white. Here’s a video by Matthew Thomas that compares the dynamic range of the FS100 vs the 5DmkII and the GH2. The 5DmkII with the low contrast scene files looks the most filmic to me. The FS100 has a very EX1 look to it, but is probably due to the lens.

The 5D is also sporting the new excellent Technicolor CineStyle scene file. The author wanted to make it clear to everyone who watches that it’s not a shootout, and so there’s no clear cut “winner” per say. It was merely a quick look at dynamic range, nothing else. There are other variables that weren’t taken into consideration.

DSLR Journalism – Art in News Gathering

Drew Maw — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 19:34:31 +0000

DSLR video is quickly becoming an artistic form for what could be a new wave of journalism. Students at Columbia University are being introduced to the entire production process of using DSLR video technology to capture video and audio, including FCP post-production DSLR workflow (Kit information below). Below here are a few of the videos that Columbia shared with DSLR News Shooter, but first a video by Beijing photojournalist VJ Dan Chung. He shots a piece for the Guardian. He trialled the 550D, and put it on some cheap movable rigs to add motion to the shots. Used subtly it doesn’t distract from the story, but adds a wonderful texture to it:

COLUMBIA VIDEO 1: Produced by Lea Khayata and Beth Morrissey for our Multimedia Storytelling workshop tells the story of Al Niente – New York’s last sheet music store.

COLUMBIA VIDEO 2: Produced by Dewi Cooke and Chitrangada Choudhury is about two best friends who are building their table tennis dream in Pleasantville, NY. One of them is Will Shortz, crossword editor for the New York Times and the other is Robert Roberts, a Caribbean table tennis champion.

KIT INFO: “a Canon T2i, a Canon 17-40 F/4L lens, an Olympus LS-10 audio recorder, and a Rode NTG-2 shotgun. Besides the T2i’s, most of this gear was salvaged from previous cameras that had been retired. Students did not have Zoom H4N recorders, Small HD monitors, or any fancy Zacuto gear. Being an academic institution, we were working on the cheap. But, in retrospect, the fact that we had fewer accessories to confuse ourselves was a big bonus.”

Source: DSLR News Shooter, Adam Westbrook

Feature Photo courtesy of Dan Chung

Low Light & Available Light Tests, 6 Cameras tested

Drew Maw — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 20:10:19 +0000

We camera department aficionados, love charts and scientific testing of camera systems. It’s an essential part of understanding where each system begins to breaks, and it informs our creative freedom on-set and better serves the productions as a whole. That said, it is sometimes refreshing to see a comparative test from a common real-world shooting situation – working with available light. This is one such test, compliments of John Brawley. Watch below…

(Note: you’ll want to mute the sound because the music is horrible! It’s fine at first, but then starts eating at your brain! There’s no dialogue, so put on your own tunes in the background… you’ll thank me later.)

The test is simple…six cameras and formats, all shooting the same short film, in the same locations. All available light, with each graded to their unique advantages in post. Lenses: Cooke S4′s were used except for the 1D, which had CP’s. Cameras used were as follows:

Aaton 35-3
Arri Alexa
Red MX
EOS 1DmkIV
Sony PMW F3 (was an engineering sample)
Aaton XTR PROD (Super 16)

Thanks to John Brawley for putting together such a well-thought-out comparison, with incredible consistency between each setup. Well done. And if you want more details on how they did it, read the blog post here.

Ultra Slow Dolly Push-ins, Pull-outs

Drew Maw — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 20:01:20 +0000

Nailing those master dolly moves can often be a challenge of resources and skills, opposed to skill alone. In the photo above, you can see an archaic camera dolly used to shoot the Star Wars films. Richard Edlund’s personal and beloved cast aluminum camera dolly, “No. 505” made by the Raby Manufacturing Co., Hollywood, CA. Many factors should be taken into consideration: the type of dolly, the weight of the dolly, the balance of the rig on the dolly, the type of wheels, the type of tracks, climate temperature, whether or not the tracks are perfectly level, firm ground, soft ground… you get the picture Here’s a question from a community member at Creative Cow:

I often notice in films the use of extremely slow push-in shots. I would love to achieve something similar in my own filmmaking; however, no matter how hard I try I cannot get my dolly to move this slow and steady. How do the pros accomplish this? My ignorance has led me to two solutions; either somehow dampening the tracks; or, placing a heck of a lot of weight on the dolly so that the dolly pusher can barely move it.

- Craig Bass

The answer can be both simple and complex. Simple in that it’s easy to say that it’s due to inferior production gear, and complex because it can be about getting creative. Todd Perry at Creative Cow attempts an answer:

Well, when you see this in a film you have a couple of things going…

Firstly, they are using a really good dolly… the really high-end dollys have wheels that run as smooth as butter, and make it possible to do smooth moves.

Secondly, and you already guessed this, is weight. The heavier the dolly, the easier it is to make smooth moves. I can get fairly smooth dolly moves with our deck and spider dollys that have skateboard wheels. But I can get much smoother dollys with our big crab dolly. That beast weighs 600lbs even without head, camera, or riders.

David Lynch is fond of very slow dollys in his films. The story goes that when Lynch does dolly shots, he piles on as many sandbags as the dolly will hold… so many that the dolly grips really have to give it their all and push hard to get the thing moving, then start pulling hard in advance to slow it and stop it. He feels that gives him the proper “arc” of speed throughout the shot. A bit extreme for most of us, but it seems to work for him.

There are a few things you can do to make it a bit easier with your equipment… firstly make sure the dolly wheels are perfectly clean. Secondly, make sure they are perfectly round… as wheels will develop flat spots after sitting in one place, even for just a little while. If you can, store your dolly off the wheels, and before you do a shot rock back and forth several times to eliminate the flat spots. Make sure your track is perfectly level… if it is even a bit out of level it will make a slow perfect dolly much more difficult. And make sure your track is perfectly clean… dolly grips use a super-secret product on the track to keep the track clean and silent (it’s Lemon Pledge furniture polish).

Stream 5D video to iPad

Drew Maw — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 20:01:04 +0000

It’s almost a “cube” with a hotshoe below it so you can mount it on your camera and stream hdmi directly to your iPad or another network capable device.

In this video the Cube people show how it works as a directors wireless field monitor. Great, and at $1199 a great affordable deal. However there is a lag, so you should be careful about using it as a monitoring device to control focus or your camera.

With the new firmware update the device now won’t cause trouble on hdmi switching cameras like the 5D or T2i.

This is the model you want to use with your iPad, but there are several other models which you can see here or on the Teradek Cube website itself.

via Vincent’s blog