Creative Cow Magazine New Vision

THE MAGAZINE FOR MEDIA PROFESSIONALS WORKING IN FILM, AUDIO, VIDEO, MOTION GRAPHICS, IMAGING AND DESIGN
™ ®
New Visions
NEW CAMERAS. NEW TECHNOLOGIES.
• Panavision: The Truth About Pixels

• Stereoscopic 3D Filmmaking
• Panasonic’s AVC-Intra
• Nuke for AE Users
• Digital Cinema
MORE SIGNAL, LESS NOISE™ — CREATIVECOW.NET JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2009

© 2008 Sony Electronics Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Features and specifications are subject to change without notice.
Sony, HDNA, the HDNA logo and SxS PRO are trademarks of Sony.
We never leave well
enough alone.
As we always do, we’ve taken our hottest product and made it better. We
started with the 1920 x 1080 recording and SxS PRO™ memory cards of the
PMW-EX1 camcorder. Then we added the versatility of interchangeable
lenses, the flexibility of Gen Lock and Time Code jacks and the power of
8-pin interface for full studio remote control. Presenting the EX1’s bigger
brother, the PMW-EX3. To see all the other ways Sony is exceeding
expectations, visit us online.
click: sony.com/prohdna
THE MAGAZINE FOR MEDIA PROFESSIONALS WORKING IN VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO, MOTION GRAPHICS, IMAGING & DESIGN
Creative COW
™ ®
C R E AT I V E CO M M U N I T I E S O F T H E W O R L D
M A G A Z I N E
JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2009
CREATIVE COW MAGAZINE

A CREATIVECOW.NET PUBLICATION In This Issue:
New Visions
PUBLISHERS: Tim Wilson’s Column ............................................. 6
Ron & Kathlyn Lindeboom
The Back Forty ...................................................... 46
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF/
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER:
Tim Wilson
magazine@creativecow.net
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS:
John Galt, Jeremy Garchow,
Grinner Hester, Russell Lasson,
Pete O’Connell, Harry Pallenberg,
Christopher Werronen
LAYOUT & DESIGN:
Tim Wilson, Mack De Cypress NEW CAMERAS. NEW TECHNOLOGIES.
MAGAZINE ADVERTISING:
Ellen Parker
eparker@creativecow.net 8 The Truth about 2K, 4K & the Future of Pixels
Panavision’s John Galt demystifies the mysterious pixel
WEBSITE ADVERTISING:
Tim Matteson
tmatteson@creativecow.net
16 AVC-Intra and the Panasonic AJ-HPX2000
ONLINE SYSTEMS ADMIN: How the new AVC-Intra codec performs in the field
Abraham Chaffin
abraham@creativecow.net
CONTACT US: 24 NUKE: An Introduction for After Effects users
magazine@creativecow.net A top film compositor and AE user looks at The Foundry’s NUKE
(805) 239-5645 voice
(805) 239-0712 fax
Creative COW Magazine is published bi-monthly by 32 Tenacity: The Secret to Success in Hard Times
CreativeCOW.net (Creative Communities of the World) at Longtime COW leader Grinner Hester sold a show he wasn’t
2205 Villa Lane,, Paso Robles, CA 93446. (805) 239-5645.
Postage paid at Hanover, New Hampshire. U.S. subscrip-
selling to a network he’d never heard of. What? Here’s how.
tion rates are free to qualified subscribers. Creative COW
is a registered trademark of CreativeCOW.net. All rights
are reserved. Magazine contents are copyright © 2009 by
Creative COW Magazine. All rights are reserved. Right of
36 21st Century Cinema: Its Meaning To Indies
reprint is granted only to non-commercial educational An Indie filmmaker shows that Digital Cinema is not just for
institutions such as high schools, colleges and universi- major film studios
ties. No other grants are given.
The opinions of our writers do not always reflect those

of the publisher and while we make every effort to be 40 Filmmaking Adventures in Stereoscopic 3D
as accurate as possible, we cannot and do not assume The tools now affordable, filmmakers explore stereoscopic 3D
responsibility for damages due to errors or omissions.
LEGAL STATEMENT: All information in this magazine is

offered without guarantee as to its accuracy and appli-
cability in all circumstances. Please consult an attorney, 44 Film Festival Magic
business advisor, accountant or other professional to dis- Even if you don’t win, having your independent film in festivals
cuss your individual circumstances. Use of the informa- is rewarding. Harry Pallenberg shares some of his own reasons
tion in this magazine is not intended to replace profes- why he and his partners will be back again.
sional counsel. Use of this information is at your own risk
and we assume no liability for its use.
4 The New Visions Issue — Creative COW Magazine

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Creative Cow-bvh-us.indd 1 10/12/08 3:38:45 PM

Tim Wilson
Boston, Massachusetts
Editor-In-Chief, Associate Publisher
Creative COW Magazine
Rubber, meet Road. Road, meet Rubber.

Our articles
are real
T his issue reminds me of some of my favorite things about the COW Magazine.
The first is that our articles don’t come from “the usual suspects;” the second is
that they’re not the usual kind of article.
With one exception of an article by me — an unusual suspect to be sure — on
first-person “South Park: TV’s Longest Week” in our Workflow 3.0 Issue, our articles aren’t third-
person accounts describing other people’s work. Our articles are first-person accounts
accounts told by the people who are doing the work.
Another favorite thing is how many stories we get to tell. Yes, we’re bi-monthly,
by the people but you’ll find that we have many more pages of real content in our single issue than
who are doing other industry monthly magazines have in their two issues. With half as many issues,
we still tell nearly twice the story content. Definitely one of my favorite things.
the work. One way we pull this off is by having so many stories to tell. I had a general idea,
but was still surprised when I actually counted: nearly 50 different authors in the six
issues before this, and another 6 new authors this issue! As I said earlier, not the same
viewpoints as told by the same usual suspects.
Our stories typically focus more on production in general than on specific prod-
ucts. After all, one of the dominant themes throughout the COW’s online community
is that skills matter more than the tools do. That said, people need tools, so publish-
ing more product feature stories is on the list of things to do in 2009 — so we are
starting with Jeremy Garchow’s story about Panasonic’s new HD format, AVC-Intra,
and the camera his company chose for capturing it, the HPX2000.
But here’s the thing: it’s not a review. Although I’m sure that the good folks at
Panasonic would have been happy to help if asked, Jeremy’s article wasn’t worked
through official channels with short-term loaned equipment. His company spent
$39,000 of their own money to buy their new camera and fully outfit it for shooting.
Jeremy wrote this story after six months of real-world shooting.
Same thing with Rick Bronks’ story in our Non-Broadcast Production issue, about
working at Wembley Stadium using the Sony F355 XDCAM HD. He wrote the story
months after he bought the camera, as well as the $30,000 Canon J11 HD lens that
actually cost him more than the camera did.
This is why, even though we don’t do many product features, they’re all quite pos-
itive. People come to us with their stories because they’ve found solutions that have
worked for them, and think they might work for you too. So as we get around to more
product stories, we’ll keep doing them the same way: not with professional writers,
but with production professionals, describing real work that they are doing.
In the meantime, you’ll also keep reading stories about emerging trends and new
ways of working. We don’t have to guess at what’s coming, and you don’t have to take
our word for it when we tell you what we see. You’ll hear about these trends yourself,
from people who are in the midst of these rapidly changing times and trends.
Even in our broader stories, the authors describe the practical details of where
the rubber meets the road, which is sometime after their wallets have met product
manufacturers and local resellers. Whether you read stories like this in the COW Mag-
azine or at CreativeCOW.net, you can count on them having been proven under the
same pressure that you face every day, from clients as demanding as yours.
n

The Truth about 2K, 4K & the Future of
John Galt cuts through “intentional obfuscation” as he lays out

the difference between “real” pixels and “marketing pixels.”
In a wide-ranging, 2-hour conversation, John Galt spoke are basically sub-sampled chroma cameras. In oth-
to us about state-of-the-art motion picture technology, er words, they have half the number of color pixels as
and the best first steps to a higher-resolution future. And they do luminance, which is what they typically call
as Panavision’s Senior Vice President of Advanced Digi- green. So what happens is you have two green photo-
tal Imaging, John plays an important role in shaping the sites for every red and blue.
state-of-the-art as we move forward. How do you get RGB out of that? You have to in-
What follows is a very brief excerpt from that conver- terpolate the red and the blue to match the green. So
sation. We know you’ll find it as engaging and thought- you are basically imagining what that value is going to
provoking as we did. be. You can do interpolation extremely well, particu-
larly if the green response, luminance, is very broad.
“P ixel” is an unfortu-
nate term, because
Some manufacturers point to this and insist,
it has been hijacked.

Historically, 2K and 4K
referred to the output of a
line array scanner scanning
film, so that for each frame
scanned at 4K, you wind up
with four thousand red pixels,
four thousand green and four
thousand blue.
For motion picture cam-
era sensors, the word “pixel” is
kind of complicated. In the old
days, there was a one-to-one
relationship between pho-
tosites and pixels. Any of the
high-end high definition video
cameras, they had 3 sensors: 1
red, 1 green and 1 blue photo-
site to create 1 RGB pixel.
But what we’ve seen with
Bayer pattern cameras includ-
ing RED and Dalsa, is that they

“Well, I’ve got a 4K camera.” But in the world of the quadruple the amount of data that you now have to
professionals who do this, if they say something’s 4K, carry around in post. That’s why I call them “market-
it means you have 4096 red, 4096 green and 4096 blue ing pixels.” These upconverted, interpolated pixels do
photosites. nothing to improve image quality. They may improve
In order to get RGB out of a Bayer pattern, you sales volume. But they don’t do anything for quality.
need two lines, because you only have green plus one Yet somehow the world has accepted this as 4K.
color on one line, and green plus the It’s purely semantic, but you’d be
other color on the other line. And amazed how many non-techni-
you have to interpolate that. cal people I meet, often the pro-
To achieve that interpola- ducers and directors, and some-
tion without moire patterns, times the cinematographers
you have to design an op- too, get fooled by that stuff.
tical low pass filter. If you The most important issue from
design it to maintain the our point of view, is that we want to
high picture resolu- have equal resolution: true edge detec-
tion which you get tion resolution in red, green and blue.
from the green, then This points to the fundamental prob-
the red and blue lem with this wonderful idea of the Bayer
are aliased. Some- pattern. Back in 1972, when Bryce Bayer was
body can argue un- working at Kodak, and they couldn’t make sen-
til they’re blue in sors for lots of photosites, it
the face that there’s Note that there are twice as many green pixels as was brilliant.
not an alias, but you red or blue on this representation of a Bayer pattern But the most important
can’t escape the sensor. To create a single RGB pixel, there must be an thing for us is not to have inter-
physics of optics. equal number of each color, so the choice is whether polated information. You want
If you design to discard green pixels and lose luminance detail, to know that the edge is real.
the optical low pass or to use interpolated, aliased red and blue pixels. That’s because our cameras are
filter to make sure used for doing high-end im-
that you don’t get age compositing. I’m not talk-
the color alias, then you’re throwing away the infor- ing about 100 people sitting there roto-ing. I’m talk-
mation of the green. You can never get the resolution ing about being able to shoot a blue screen or a green
you expect. screen, and using Ultimatte Advantage software and
So when we developed the Genesis camera, we pulling a matte from smoke, or fire, or liquid — things
made it a stripe with an equal number of red, green that can’t be roto’d.
and blue photosites, on a roughly 12 megapixel sen-
sor: 5760 by 2180. Now if you use the same arithme- PIXELS AND RESOLUTION
tic that these people who claim they have 4K camer- The third problem with “marketing pixels” is that they
confuse pixels and resolution. What de-
fines the resolution, quite frankly, is the
optics more than the sensor.
My wife has a Ricoh GX 100. It’s a
beautiful little camera with a 12.2 mil-
lion pixel sensor. But it doesn’t make
nearly as nice a picture as my 6 mega-
pixel Canon D60.
When we released the HD900F,
dubbed “the Star Wars camera,” it was a
2/3rd inch camcorder. Everybody in the
industry laughed at it, but it has prov-
en to be unbelievably successful. That
camera is still renting every day. And re-
ally, you’d be hard pressed to get a bet-
ter image.
So you have to look at the whole
system, not latch on to one parameter
as are using, then Genesis would be a 6K camera: add and say “That’s what we’re gonna go for!” Everything
1920 red, plus 1920 green, plus 1920 blue, and it equals has to work together.
5760. Unfortunately, one of the tragedies of digital im-
Isn’t all that a little bit nonsensical? But I think it’s aging is that now we’ve got these ridiculous num-
no more nonsensical than upsampling a 2K camera to bers games, because so few people understand the
Creative COW Magazine — The New Visions Issue 9

fundamentals of the imaging technology. The
numbers don’t mean anything in the context of
100 years of development of film and motion tech-
nology, optical technology, laboratory practice,
etc.
Whenever I do a presentation about digital
imaging, my first question these days is, “Anybody
know how many grains of silver are on a frame of
film? Hands up, hands up!” Nobody ever puts their
hands up.
My second question is, “Hands up! Anybody
ever thought about this before?” You can tell the
nerds if any hands go up.
So why do we care about it? Because now
somebody comes along with a completely new
technology, and we’re clutching for some magic
number that we can carry around in our head that
will define the process for us. Sorry, it doesn’t work
that way. It’s messy and it’s complicated, and lots
more so today than it was in the days of film.
IMAX, 4K...AND NOT

I agree with Jim Cameron [ed: director of “The Ter-
minator,” “Titanic,” and the upcoming “Avatar”]
when he says that the move to 4K is all about try-
ing to differentiate from high definition television.
Well, it’s too late. Talking about 4K belies the fact
that most of the theater installations around the
world are going in at 2K — but let’s face it, most of
the time you get 1920x1080.
Above, IMAX theater in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina We talk about scanning film at 4K, but we
USA. Photo courtesy of Chris Metcalf. Below, motion don’t, really. We typically scan perf to perf, and the
blur on Galahs in flight, published under the terms of actual Academy Aperture is 3656 pixels. When you
the GNU FDL. scan film at 2K, you’re actually scanning at 1828
across. Just to make things a little
more complicated.
So these are all high defini-
tion television projectors going
into theaters whether you like it or
not. Slightly better color gamut, but
they are all basically paying lip ser-
vice to the idea that it’s not HD.
The 4K system that most peo-
ple know is IMAX — and it doesn’t
quite make 4K, which is a surprise
to people. “How can that possi-
bly be?,” you say. “It’s an enormous
big frame.” Well, because of what I
was talking about earlier: the phys-
ics of optics. When you take the en-
tire system into account — from the
lens of the camera, to the the move-
ment of the light through the pro-
jector, all slightly reducing resolu-
tion — you wind up with less than
the full resolution you started with.
A number of years ago some
IMAX technicians — and IMAX
never let these guys back in their
lab again — did this wonderfully

cameras that have four times the resolution.
This is why I honestly think that in the future, one
direction we’re going to have to go is to higher frame
rates, not more pixels.
DYNAMIC RANGE
We think that the next improvement in digital imag-
ing quality is being able to extend the scene dynamic
range that you can capture.
We’ve been developing a new sensor technolo-
gy called Dynamax. Now, I’ve been telling you that we
don’t need 4K — well, this sensor is 37.5 megapixels!
The Phantom camera You basically have 6 green, 6 red, and 6 blue photo-
sites for every pixel.
elegant experiment at a large film format seminar at In the still photography world, people are taking
Universal Studios. They showed this film they made multiple exposures at different stops, and combining
that began with 2 rows of 2 squares: black white, white them into a single image. This is “high dynamic range”
black, as if you had 4 pixels on the screen. photography, or HDR.
Then they started to double and double and dou- Let’s say I do an exposure at a stop of 2.8. The
ble the squares. Before they got to 4K the screen was next one is at 4, then 5.6, then 8, 9, and 11. Depend-
gray. You know what the means? There was no longer ing on what I’m shooting, the 2.8 exposure could com-
any difference between black and white, which is what pletely blow out the highlights, but it would have lots
allows you to see sharpness. It’s the contrast that we of shadow detail. And the f11 exposure would retain
see, not the actual information. the highlights, but there would be no detail in the mid
Let’s just pretend for a moment that IMAX truly tones and the shadows. If we were to combine them,
is 4K. You watch IMAX at between one and one and a we’d have a single image with the most possible detail
half picture heights away. So if you had true 4K reso- across the widest possible range.
lution in your local theater, everybody would have to Today, that’s only available in the still photogra-
be sitting in the first 6 rows. Otherwise they wouldn’t phy world. Dynamax is designed to do that for mov-
see any extra detail. Their eyes wouldn’t
let them see it.
Another of Jim Cameron’s arguments
that I completely subscribe to is moving
away from 24 frames to 48. That will be
sacrilege to a lot of cinematographers. but
we have to remember that 24 frames was
never designed from an imaging stand-
point. It was designed for sound.
Back when they were creating opti-
cal soundtracks, they discovered that they
couldn’t get intelligible sound on the film,
which typically ran at 16 frames per sec-
ond. They eventually settled on 24 frames
per second with a 2-bladed shutter: 48 ex-
posures per second.
Now if you take a still picture of some-
body walking in front of you at a 48th of second, you
know that they’re going to be blurred — motion blur.
But if we were to record 48 frames per second with a ing images. It has 6 photo sites for red, 6 photo sites
2-bladed shutter, then the integration time would be for green and 6 photo sites for blue, registering those
only a 96th of a second, and each of the images would 6 to 1 output pixel.
be sharper. But you see because I have 6 individual photo
Recently we’ve been renting a camera from Vi- sites I can control those photo sites individually, so on.
sion Research called the Phantom, which easily shoots We can then take those exposures and blend them to-
at 1000 frames per second. When you see a drop of wa- gether to create a high dynamic range image, just as if
ter in a commercial fall slowly and create a lovely little you were shooting half a dozen different exposures.
splash of bubbles, that’s the sort of thing shot by these With those 6 red, 6 green and 6 blue photosites
high speed cameras. They are actually quite low-res- for each output pixel, you’ll have the equivalent of
olution, but because they’re shooting at such a short shooting 6 images with different exposures at once,
shutter speed, they look much much sharper than and blending them together to create a single high

level, without coming back
for repair. Is it expensive?
Yeah, it’s ridiculously expen-
sive. But it’s not expensive
over the life of the lens.
And it’s not expensive
when you know that that
that lens will not be sitting
on the shelf because a par-
ticular cinematographer
doesn’t like it. We have a
whole floor set up at Pa-
navision where customers
test equipment every day.
They will reject a particular
lens not because its pictures
aren’t good, but because it
doesn’t feel right.
That’s why it’s very very
hard to build things for the rental market. There may
be builder remorse, but there is no buyer remorse. If
dynamic range image. they’re not happy with something, back it goes onto
At least in the first pass, we have no intention of our shelf, not theirs.
building a camera with the Dynamax sensor and try- We can also develop new products in ways that
ing to record every one of those photosites. It would aren’t practical in a retail environment. We just intro-
be a waste of time. Dynamax is about getting more dy- duced the SSR-1, a dockable solid state recorder. We can
namic range. record up to 80 minutes of uncompressed 1920x1080
at 4:4:4. That requires almost three quarters of a tera-
UPSIDE-DOWN DEVELOPMENT byte of solid state flash memory. (We didn’t consider
One of the interesting things about Panavision’s head- hard drives because they just aren’t reliable enough.)
quarters is that we have research and development When we started that development about 2 and
here, we have the factory for manufacturing lenses 1/2 years ago, the flash memory cost alone to give
and cameras right here, and we have the rental floor. you that recording time would have been $68,000!
The rental floor puts us directly in contact with Of course what happened during the few years of de-
customers. We know what they want, because they tell velopment is that the price of flash dropped to 1/10 of
us. “No, I don’t want higher resolution; I’d just have to what it was when we started. Now, had we been build-
sit closer to the screen. But yeah I’d like to have more ing this to sell, we’d never have built it at all. It would
shadow detail, I’d like to have more highlight detail. have been totally impractical to even consider.
Can you do that?” But if you’re going to rent it out, you can look at
Another wonderful thing about the rental busi- the longer term. That expensive piece of flash memo-
ness is that the whole product development process ry saves us money because we never need to service it,
is kind of turned upside down. When you sell some- or replace it for wear and tear. You only have so many
thing, service is a profit center. When you make some- read and write cycles, but one of our flash manufactur-
thing available for rent, service is a cost. Because we ers calculated that we have at least 35 years! The tech-
rent things rather than sell them, our best way to keep nology will be long obsolete before then.
costs down is to build to higher standards. It’s a win-win. We put a bit more into the design,
Lenses are a great example. A zoom lens is built manufacture and assembly process, and we get few-
nominally, put together as per the spec. What we do er equipment rejects, and fewer service problems over
next over in R&D is start making micro adjustments. time. The rental environment requires you to make a
We have a little eccentric cam that measures the angle better product available to the customer.
of rotation, and the deflection from where the cam is
supposed to be. There are over four hundred measure- We’ve not come close to covering all of what John
ments going for the peak performance of that zoom Galt had to say during our interview. To hear how the
lens at any particular focal distance. Genesis camera originally failed to meet Panavision’s
That lens is then taken apart, the cam goes back first, most basic goal, how increasing the number of pix-
into the factory, and we re-cut the cams based on the els can actually degrade an image, and why non-linear
information we get from the tests. Sometimes we’ll do transfer functions might be the most exciting part of
that 3 or 4 times. Why? Because in doing that, we can your digital future, please visit:
improve the performance of the lens by 30%, and be creativecowmagazine.net/panavision
sure that it will continue to perform at the same high n

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Copyright © 2007. Sony Creative Software Inc. All rights reserved.

A new world of shooting:
AVC-Intra and the

Panasonic AJ-HPX2000
Jeremy Garchow started his HD production career with Panasonic’s DVCPRO HD, so when
he heard about a new Panasonic HD codec, he knew one thing: he wanted to hear more!
W e were in search of a new camera here at

Maday Productions, so we asked ourselves
and one 16GB P2 card. We had become comfortable
with P2 workflow using the 200 mainly as a second
the new age-old question. Considering all the possi- camera, and depending on the job, sometimes as the
bilities, which camera should we buy? primary camera. We were just looking for a big-body
Terry Maday (Director, DP, Editor Extraordinaire), camera with interchangeable lenses and a little more
Richard Sims (smart gear-savvy producer we work in-camera image control.
with a lot), and I (Editor, Post Production Supervisor, Our first question, was — as I’m sure it is for a good
Sometime DIT-ish type) all sat down over lunch one portion of you when deciding to throw down serious
day to discuss it. dough on a nice camera — what’s up with Red? Were
The shop already owned a Panasonic SDX900, we ready? Was Red ready? What’s the real deal? Could
their full-sized DVCPRO 50 camera. We decided when we afford it? Would it fit our production lifestyle?
we bought it to get everything we needed to own and That last question pretty much made the decision
operate an HD production business: a $25,000 Fuji HD for us: it came down to workflow. Since we do so much
lens, nice sticks, Anton/Bauer HyTRON Batteries, an of our shooting on location, Red couldn’t give us a fast
HD field monitor, the whole nine yards. When it came enough turnaround time from shoot to full-quality ed-
time to purchase a “big body” HD camera, we’d be itable material.
ready to simply swap out the camera body. The digital content management process for any
We agreed on a few things right away. We’d had a new camera had to be simple and accessible enough
great time renting the Panasonic Varicam over the past to begin editing in the field on a laptop pretty much
5 years, but since we didn’t own it, we couldn’t keep instantly, or given to a production assistant to transfer
playing with and tweaking it just like we wanted. and understand what needs to happen once you hand
We also had an HVX200 with three 8GB P2 cards them a P2 card on a laptop. The Red does not meet that
Jeremy Garchow
Chicago, Illinois USA
This issue went to print over the holidays, during which Jeremy tells us he’s been
“perfecting my skills killing pesky aliens that are capturing humans in Gears of
War 2. I feel good knowing I have a role in saving life as we know it from absolute
destruction. Back on terra firma, we’re posting recent shoots for Harley Davidson
and GE, and we are in pre-production on several new projects.”

requirement for us, at least not very conveniently.
There are many other reasons, but, after talking AVC-INTRA IS NOT AVCHD
it through, it was clear that the Red was not the most AVCHD and AVC-Intra are both H.264 codecs,
practical camera for us now. but they’re very different. AVCHD is a con-
sumer, long-GOP format jointly developed
AVC-INTRA by Panasonic, Sony, Canon and others.
Our collective attention then turned to Panasonic, as AVC-Intra is a professional intra-frame
we had been fans of their cameras for a long while. I codec. Compression is performed within a
had heard about their new HD compression scheme frame, rather than referencing other frames
called AVC-Intra, so I tracked down all the info I could. as part of a group. AVC-Intra 100 is master-
On a personal note, DVCPRO HD had launched my HD ing quality, while AVC-Intra 50 provides vid-
career, so if Panasonic had a new and improved codec, eo quality similar to DVCPRO HD, but at half
I was all ears. the bit rate (50 Mbps)
I started by taking a closer look at the name. AVC: This is one of the reasons why broadcast
Advanced Video Compression, the basis of MPEG- and news are adopting AVC-Intra so quick-
4/H.264. Could be cool. Check. ly — high-quality HD in half the bandwidth,
Intra, as in all compression being done inside with ENG-grade pro cameras to capture it.
each frame. No long GOP messiness? Cool. I like that.
Check.
It turned out AVC-Intra is an in-camera I-frame, of environments, from inside to outside, sunrise to
10-bit, full raster 4:2:2 codec, recorded to P2 solid state sunset, desert to rainy equator, interviews to beauty
media. Tapeless. Check. shots, domestic studios to foreign countries.
AVC-Intra comes in 2 data rates: 50mbps com- Ten-bit codecs capture more of that detail with-
pares to DVCPRO HD quality, and 100mbps is touted out creating banding and allow us to maintain optimal
as being “Master Quality.” quality throughout the rigors of editing. Every graph-
Recording at 10 bits really jumped out at us. Why ic, gradient and key that I pull works out for the better
do we care? Since we aren’t going out to film, HDCAM in a 10-bit pipeline.
SR, D5 or anything of the sort, why go through the A shortcoming of tapeless workflows is that you
trouble of extra hardware, bigger files and longer ren- can’t recapture 8-bit footage into a 10-bit codec like
ders? you can from tape. This doesn’t add any information,
Our productions involve a lot of motion graphic but preserves the video information as it makes its
integration, a little bit of green screen work and lots way through post. Software-only 8-bit to 10-bit con-
and lots of running around and shooting in all sorts versions can be less than reliable.
Terry Maday on the road with the Panasonic AJ-HPX2000 in Jilin Province, China

The use of a 10-bit camera codec resolves this: We have a visual log of everything that we’ve shot,
images stay 10-bit from beginning to end. The higher and can figure out if there are any shots we still need.
the quality of the master, the higher the quality that This has brought a new level of freedom to our pro-
will translate down to whatever format you’re master- ductions, as well as speed. We can get interviews out
ing on, be it HD or SD tape, or any digital, web or file to transcription and window burns made (if need be)
based delivery. of exactly the shots we need in extremely short order.
Sometimes, especially if we
are working with a new client, we
put together a rough assembly of
the piece with scratch music, and
upload it to an iPhone for the cli-
ent to review the next morning.
This process brings a new
level of confidence to the shoot as
the client can relax, knowing that
the work we’re doing is good. It
can also bring out new and cre-
ative ideas, as the process really
helps the client visualize the piece
more clearly.
We used to try this with tape,
but it was much more difficult. In
order to edit together something
from 40 minutes of tape, for ex-
ample, you have to first log and
capture 40 minutes of tape before
editing. With P2, you take 8-16
minutes to transfer the card, and
then you edit using the clips you
Working 10-bit also allows us to create very nice choose at a glance. If you’ve flagged your best takes as
images with color correction and motion graphics, you shoot, you’ve got even less to transfer.
which to some of our clients is just as important as Now multiply that out to a day’s worth of shoot-
the content. When the production leaves my hands, I ing, and you can imagine how much faster it is to work
know I’ve been able to push every pixel as far as I can. with P2 than tape.
Since we primarily shoot and edit all of our own It was also important to us that, like DVCPRO HD,
material, a tapeless environment also has some huge AVC-Intra is a “portable” format. We can edit and en-
workflow advantages for us. When we are on the road tirely finish pieces with even higher quality 10-bit
shooting, we can start to review and organize our foot- AVC-Intra in full, mastering resolution on a laptop in
age right away. the field.

A view from your edit suite.
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(Even though Red is tapeless, you have to convert While we were capturing with the Io HD, I also
the footage to some sort of editable codec/resolution, managed to simultaneously record to P2 in the AVC-
as there’s no way you’re editing full-scale 4K RAW, 2K Intra 100 mode. Later, I compared the 100 megabit
RAW, or 4:4:4 HD on a laptop.) AVC-I footage to the 220mbit ProRes HQ files captured
over HD-SDI through the Io HD — they were identical!
SEEING, BELIEVING I was very, very pleased, especially as this was coming
So tapeless and Panason-
ic it was, but was 10-bit
AVC-Intra the way to go?
My curiosity was piqued
and I was jonesing to get
my hands on a camera
that could shoot this new
format just to see what it
looked like.
As we kept the new
camera discussion going,
we were hired to produce,
shoot and edit a national
spot for Wilson Staff. I
called the local rental
house to see what they
had in stock to make a rec-
ommendation to Terry and
Rich as to what camera we
should kick the tires on. They had the AJ-HPX2000, off in-camera compression. I had never seen anything
and it had the AVC-Intra option installed. Perfect. look quite like it.
While the HPX2000 can shoot 1080 with pixel
shifting, its native format is 720p, a format that I am AVC-INTRA IN POST
very comfortable with. Working with true progres- Working with AVC-Intra in Final Cut Pro is a fairly easy
sive images makes post life easier, and shooting at process, but it can be time consuming if you have a lot
24p also allows for easy creation of virtually any other of footage. The log and transfer process for AVC-Intra
format, be it PAL or NTSC, HD or SD, interlaced or pro- from the P2 card is exactly the same as it is for DVCPRO
gressive. HD on P2, except that the Quicktime files that are cre-
For this particular shoot, we needed a 720p HD ated are ProRes or ProRes (HQ) files. Transcoding to
master, an SD NTSC master and a PAL SD master. ProRes can take a long time, especially when working
720p24 was a very obvious choice, and we were ready
to see what AVC-Intra and the HPX2000 could do.
To me and my eyes, AVC-Intra definitely proved
itself on this shoot. The images were very clean, with
a higher quality and less compression noise than
DVCPRO HD (especially in the dark areas of images)
with similar file sizes. We had a P+S Technik Pro35
adapter on the 2000 to give us lens flexibility as the
shoot required not only great quality, but also vary-
ing depth of field. Zeiss standard speed primes, and
a Cooke 18-100mm zoom, allowed us to capture the
client’s vision in the optimal quality.
Since this was a studio shoot, we used the AJA with laptops in the field.
Io HD to record the HD-SDI stream out of the camera, Recording to P2 cards results in MXF files gener-
captured directly to beautiful 10-bit ProRes 422 HQ ated by the camera, organized in folders as shown be-
images that allowed us to immediately start cutting… low.
and when I say immediately, I mean we were assem- MXF programs (such as MXF4mac, Raylight and
bling rough cuts right there on the set, as this particu- others) allow the passing of the P2 metadata, whether
lar job had an extremely tight turn around. that is metadata you set up while shooting, or meta-
The Io HD also allowed for easy review and play- data that has been added after the shoot. This com-
back to monitors strung around the studio. It was a pletely skips the log and transfer transcoding process
totally fantastic piece of machinery and I was able to and allows FCP to use the actual MXF media from P2
do it all from the ease and comfort of my laptop. Awe- cards. With this, the power and ease of tapeless edit-
some. ing can really start to be fully realized.

These workaround applications certainly aren’t ing 720p60. Conforming down to 24p results in silky
problem-free. For example, using MXF4mac, I can smooth slow motion.
send all of my AVC-Intra P2 CONTENTS folders to FCP, The downside is that we can’t get true offspeed
but FCP interprets the footage as 8-bit and knocks the frame rates like 36 or 48 fps. We have an HVX200 if we
video levels down to SMPTE range. This significantly really need a specific frame rate, but so far we’ve been
reduces quality and negates the strengths of the AVC- doing well with overcranking to 60 fps as we need it.
Intra codec. Along with the camera body ($27,000 SRP), we
While other NLEs handle AVC-Intra (and DVCPRO also got two 32GB cards to complement our assorted
HD for that matter) natively right off of the bat, com- 40GB of P2 cards, Panasonic’s five card P2 reader (AJ-
plete with metadata, Final Cut Pro doesn’t. That means PCD20, in my opinion an absolute essential if you’re
FCP can’t fully exploit the convenience and speed of shooting P2 all the time), a new Sanken onboard ste-
tapeless production, archiving, and compatibility with reo mic, and a 2” 1080i capable viewfinder. We also
broadcast infrastructures. decided to upgrade our Anton/Bauer charger to a four
Right now, this is my only gripe with AVC-Intra bank charger.
and, again, it has nothing to do with the format itself. Add in the optional AVC-I board (standard with
It only has to do with the NLE I choose to use. the HPX3000 and the new Varicams) for another
If you work with AVC-Intra in FCP, I encourage you $3000, and when it was all said and done, we paid
to ask Apple to enable real time AVC-Intra editing, en- around $39,000 (not counting our previous purchases
coding and decoding. Panasonic has built a very stable of sticks, monitors, lens and batteries). Since the pur-
and solid I-frame environment, so the foundation is chase, we have been extremely happy with the results,
there. Native support would make our tapeless lives and so have our clients.
so much easier. With the advent of the new Varicams that are
now shipping (the 2700 and 3700), I am sure that the
THE BOTTOM LINE AVC-Intra format will quickly become more and more
After that shoot and post process was complete, we popular. I’m also sure that people will have more and
knew that we had our new codec. Now we just had to more questions about this high quality, highly prac-
decide on the camera. tical format, as well as the cameras that support it. I
The new Varicam 2700 is among the cameras recommend renting an AVC-Intra-capable camera and
that records AVC-Intra. I suspect that we would have checking out the results for yourself.
thought long and hard about it if it had been an option And if you have any more questions, you can al-
when we were making the choice last summer, but it ways find me in Creative COW forums including Pana-
was months away from being released, and we had too sonic HVX-HPX (P2), Apple Final Cut Pro, and AJA Io.
many shoot days booked to keep renting. n
We obviously went with the
HPX2000, and using it over these past
six months, we have been loving every
minute of it. We‘ve dragged it around
to both Africa and Asia within a single
month, in both rainy and extremely
dusty and dry conditions. The camera
has held up flawlessly.
The in-camera colorimetry is very
pleasing and the 2000 has the controls
to let you get in there and really tweak
the matrix to your liking. If you have a
high contrast scene that you can’t con-
trol, such as a camera being positioned
inside with a sunny window in the back-
ground, the Dynamic Range Stretch is
also a very cool feature.
The low light performance has also
been great, and 10-bit recording has re-
ally allowed us to keep our creative vi-
sion intact.
Among the few things that ended
up in the “Con” column for the HPX2000
is that there are no variable frame
rates. It’s not a huge deal, but we do
use them on occasion. Since we mostly
post in 720p24, we overcrank by shoot-
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NUKE!
An introduction for
After Effects users
Looking to step-up from AE to Nuke? Pete O’Connell shows why Nuke is quickly becoming
the standard for high-end film work and how to leverage your AE experience
Nuke was originally developed for in-house use by with all the images spread out. Each “image” would
Digital Domain, the effects house for over 60 major be a composition in AE. In Nuke’s “node tree,” the
films. They won Academy Awards for their work on “Ti- equivalent of an AE composition would be a branch
tanic” and “What Dreams May Come,” as well as nomi- comprised of several nodes. The benefit of the node-
nations for “Apollo 13,” “True Lies,” and “I, Robot.” One based interface design is that you can see everything
of their most recent projects is “The Curious Case of at once.
Benjamin Button.” Nuke was released commercially For example, let’s say you have an unwanted roto
just after the Academy gave Nuke a Technical Achieve- mask pop on a certain frame. In AE, you might have
ment Award in 2002. to hunt it down inside a comp, inside another comp,
The most recent version is 5.1, and it runs on Mac inside another comp. In Nuke, however, you will likely
OS X 10.5 (Leopard, 32-bit only), Windows XP SP2, be able to see the bezier culprit in the node tree im-
XP64 and Linux CentOS 4.5 (32-bit and 64-bit). mediately.
I work in Montreal for the Toronto-based effects To better understand my analogy of Nuke as a
house Mr. X, one of the world’s leading Nuke houses, table with everything laid out in plain view, I’d like to
which is one of the reasons I was excited to start work- briefly show you a shot I worked on. It’s from the re-
ing there. cent movie “Death Race,” starring Jason Statham and
This article is an introduction to Nuke for people Joan Allen.
coming into Nuke from After Effects, like I did. The director wanted a couple of helicopters com-
ing in from camera left as part of the chase scene near
LAYERS VS. NODES the end of the movie.
Similar results can be achieved in both Nuke and After The first thing that needed to be done was to clean
Effects on any given shot. In my work I use them both, up the background plate —there weren’t supposed to
but for more complex compositing I prefer to use Nuke be any apartment blocks in the scene. This was done
because of its “node-based” design. using tracking, bezier masks and sampling from clear
If AE is like a stack of images, Nuke is like a table parts of the sky. At left, you can see the apartment
Pete O’Connell
Montreal, Quebec Canada
Pete’s working on three 2009 releases: “Whiteout” (Kate Beckinsale), “Amelia” (Hilary
Swank), and “Travelling” (Jennifer Aniston, Aaron Eckhart). The bestselling author of
the Creative Cow Master Series DVD, “Advanced Rotoscoping in Adobe After Effects,”
and host of the Creative Cow Nuke forum, Pete is also working on more tutorials for
both applications.

buildings, as well as part of the node tree
for this shot.
The helicopter in the center photo,
below, was a still that I found rummaging
through the database. I created an alpha
for it, and added some flashing lights and
specularity using beziers.
To the helicopter, I added a search light
which was created in Nuke using the Vol-
ume Rays effect.
To create a reflection of the helicopter
in the water, I flipped the animated helicop-
ter, blurred in and used a portion of the rip-
pling water as an alpha matte.
You can see part of the final composite
at the bottom left of this page.
With that, I had a “finalable” shot,
which is VFX lingo for a shot you can show
the director that won’t make him/her up-
set.
In AE, it would have been much more
of a challenge to, for example, integrate the
darks of the helicopter to match the sky. In
Nuke, I used the ColorLookup node, and
had to bring the dark helicopter values down into
slightly negative territory in RGB space (which is
still positive in Cineon color space).
AE’s Curves won’t really let you do this. It
could be achieved in AE with the Levels effect in
32-bit mode, although with less accuracy.
Ironically, even though AE is a program that
does a lot of calculation behind the scenes and is
more user friendly, getting a good result doing
the kind of color correction I am describing above
requires a greater in-depth knowledge of floating
point workflow and log colour space and than in
Nuke, because Nuke is principally designed with
Cineon-based workflows in mind. Cineon files are
less a record of color intensity than light intensity,
which allows interactions
between layers in the
comp to look much more
realistic.

MORE FUN WITH NUKE
Here are a couple of my
favorite nodes in Nuke
that might be of special
interest to AE users.
ColorLookup
The closest thing in AE
would be the Curves ef-
fect. In both, the image is
altered by manipulating
points on a diagonal line.
However, I like that
Nuke’s ColorLookup node
is infinitely zoomable,
both in and out, and that

you can manipulate points below 0 and above 1 along As with the ColorLookup node, you can sample
the curve (see below). RGB values in the viewer (see red rectangle on bus,
Also, the values of the colors you sample in the above windowshield), and the sample’s hue value will
viewer are plotted as vertical lines in the ColorLookup be shown as a vertical line in the HueCorrect node’s
Properties Panel. This is very handy for doing very ac- properties panel.
curate color correction interactively. This hue can then be reduced or boosted by drag-
ging down or up a point on
the horizontal green line in
the center of the image. Su-
per handy!
EXRs AND CHANNELS

Nuke supports EXRs better
and more completely than
any other compositing pack-
age. Understanding EXRs
also helps understand some
of Nuke’s advantages for
handling every aspect of an
image, and for organizing
very complex compositions.
OpenEXR is a high dy-
namic range format devel-
oped by ILM, and now an
open source format. An EXR
has an unlimited number of
32-bit channels that can be
assigned to a wide range of
attributes — Z-depth, mate-
rials, motion, shadows, spec-
ularity, and so on. Nuke can
read, process and write up to
HueCorrect 1023 of these channels in a single stream.
Nuke’s HueCorrect node (similar to AE’s Hue and Satu- This multi-channel workflow highlights a major
ration controls) works well to reduce or boost the satu- difference between Nuke and other apps. Instead of
ration of any specific portion of the color spectrum. having a huge tree with hundreds of nodes, I’ve been
joining separate passes on
3D objects into one EXR.
This makes it easier to map
many channels, combined in
a single node, to other nodes
in one step. Of course, I still
have complete control over
every channel in that EXR,
and can still individually map
any nodes to any channel.
Bringing all of an EXR’s
channels into a single node
reduces the mess on screen,
but to take advantage of all
that power, you have to keep
track of everything in your
head a little bit, too.
You also have to get
used to the idea that every
channel — shadows, specu-
larity, ambient occlusion, in-
dividual roto masks, etc. — is
represented by a black and
white image.

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You can see this in Photoshop
or After Effects, where the Red,
Green, Blue and Alpha channels
are all represented as individual
black and white images that create
blends of opacity and transparency
— but you might be working with
several dozen of those in a single
Nuke node.
In other words, you have to get
used to the idea of adjusting lots
and lots of black and white images.
In many ways, this is the essence of
compositing: getting transparency
right by visualizing it as a black and
white image.
The advantage of this ap-
proach is that you have very simple
tools to give you enormous power
over a virtually unlimited number
of attributes, to better integrate
composited elements into the real world. nodes are, in fact, plain text. If I select and copy any
given node (in the example below, a Grade node), I
3D COMPOSITING can paste it to a text editor. It works the same way for
Nuke’s 3D compositiing environment is both excep- a group of nodes. When you put them together for a
tionally advanced and exceptionally well integrated single effect, Nuke calls them “gizmos.”
into its overall toolset. At Mr. X, you tend to hear a lot of “Email me that
This also translates to integration with other ap- roto when you’re done,” or “Send me that iDistort giz-
plications: objects and sequences can be imported, mo you made when you get a chance.” So if I come up
transformed, relit, and motion blur applied based on with a cool recipe for, say, an edge detect, I just pass
camera matchmove data. along the text.
Objects can also have images UV mapped or pro- I can also customize Nuke with this human read-
jected on them, which lends itself to high-end set ex- able code. I can change the way it looks, create custom
tensions that require camera projection in conjunction buttons, sliders and plug-ins, set up batch rendering
with solving for camera position. and make other repetitive tasks much easier, as well
You can do some set extension in AE if you stay as make Nuke fit into any unique production pipeline.
organized: a few years back, I did several set extension This can all be extended especially well if you have
comps for the film “Stranger Than Fiction” in AE. But knowledge of a coding language like Python, which is
working and rendering in Nuke is so much faster that now integrated into Nuke.
I would have finished more quickly, and Nuke’s more
advanced compositing would also have made it easier NUKE IS EXPLODING
to integrate the finished effects into the scene. If you are an AE user and considering getting into
high-end feature film compositing, Nuke is a great and
NODES, SCRIPTS AND CUSTOMIZATION fun option that’s fast becoming the feature film com-
Another one of my favorite things about Nuke is that positing industry standard. Nuke’s growth has already
taken off, as all the major houses are already using it
to some degree. In the next year, you’ll see virtually all
high-end film work being done in Nuke.
Nuke is also affordable enough for most indepen-
dent producers. To get started, The Foundry provides
a free “Personal Learning Edition” for download, a
great way to explore Nuke for yourself.
For much more on moving up to Nuke , please

visit creativecowmagazine.net/nuke

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The secret to success in hard
times? It’s no secret. It’s
Tenacity.
Grinner Hester will never tell you success comes easy...or fast. After 25 years
in the game, he’s learned success never comes at all, unless you keep going.
W hile my daily grind is playing media proces-

sor between man and machine, I think all of
ment. At least he liked my idea.
us vidiots fancy ourselves as creators. THE HARD LIFE & SNERK

I started out making stop-motion shorts with a My wife, Nancy, and I met in 1995, and in our first living
Quasar VHS camcorder in 1984. There was no dead- room together, we began constructing sets for a stop-
line, no budget. I wasn’t aware such things existed. I motion claymation comedy called “The Hard Life.” It
was fourteen and I just wanted to make TV shows. featured a laid back duo with grand visions of great
In 1990, I began my pitch-quest. I was working things they’d probably never get around to doing.
as a camera operator for the local ABC affiliate in Lub- We scripted nothing, and did not shoot with hopes
bock, TX. While watching COPS with my buddies one of selling anything. We simply had fun, created, and
night, I envisioned a local version shot with Lubbock’s
finest over a local backdrop, with suspects that view-
ers probably know.
Small markets have their downsides, but they do
make it easy to schedule meetings with persons of po-
sition. I scheduled a meeting with the local Fox affili-
ate’s program manager.
He loved the idea, but weeks went by with no re-
sponse. Then he stopped even taking my calls. I was
surprised to watch the premiere of his version of the
same show the next season.
I had handed my first show away on a silver plat-
ter, but managed to take the experience as a compli-
Grinner Hester
St. Louis, Missouri USA
Making his living primarily with a Sony FX-1 HDV camera and an Avid Adrenaline edit
suite, he pleases clients ranging from ESPN to Anheuser-Busch. Wind in his sails, Grin-
ner continues to create labors of love, while working to make a living on the side. “Fan-
tastic Voyages” is set to begin production in the spring of ‘09, and Grinner continues to
pitch “Moddin’ Art” to any network that will listen.

only later decided that MTV should look at it. Viacom prominent bands. You’ve seen these commercials:
accepts unsolicited material, or at least that’s what the “Sunday! At your local Aaaampitheatre! Your favorite
receptionist on the phone said when I cold-called the Baaaaaand!”
network. I signed a release, mailed a pilot/treatment I met with one of the bands, gave them a couple of
package, and waited. And waited. mini-DV cameras, and explained that I wanted to make
And then came my first letter of death. If
you have ever been turned down for anything,
you know the “We have received your submis-
sion, but unfortunately...” letter I speak of. Any-
one that pitches shows will become familiar
with them. Think of them as trophies. At least
that’s how I see ‘em.
Nancy and I had our first child the next
year, and turned our creativity towards chil-
dren’s programming. Long time friend and
artist extraordinaire Mark Gilmore brought his
puppets and a story board to our home in Nash-
ville. Over the next 36 hours, we shot a pilot for
a children’s show called “Snerk.”
It was a true midnight production. I got
permission to borrow a Betacam from TNN, the
network where I was staffing as an editor — af-
ter I borrowed it. I got permission to shoot in a
grocery store after getting the shot, and got permis- a show from their home movies, called “Beyond Back-
sion from TNN to edit the pilot after hours in TNN’s lin- stage.” The band I pitched was Styx, and they agreed!
ear suites, after I’d already edited it. It led to a show I am proud of to this day. Rare are the
I did the blind submission thing with both PBS projects that turn out ex-freakin-zactly how they were
and Nickelodeon. Nickelodeon called back twice with envisioned, and this one did.
teases, but after months of phone-pitching on my The submission process could not have been
lunch break, the only thing that came from the Snerk easier, as I edited it on the clock and turned it in to my
project was an awesome weekend and my kids’ favor- boss when done. It floated its way to the top, legalities
ite video. trickled down, and in the end...nothing.
Again, I saw it as a positive experience. It was cool
BEYOND BACKSTAGE to have had the opportunity to create a pipe dream,
In 2001, I was staffing for an entertainment company and it was partially the success of this project that gave
in Indiana that specializes in making tour spots for me the courage to start my own company.
MODDIN’ ART
By 2004, I was self-em-
ployed and needed a
project I could be pas-
sionate about. I’ve been
a car-lover all my life, so
I created a documentary
series about car enthu-
siasts called “Moddin’
Art.”
It’s cool because I
simply shoot what I’m
doing on weekends any-
way, attending or enter-
ing various motorsports
events. I record these
events first person, pay-
ing an entry fee and
shooting the race, show
or meet from the partici-
pant’s point of view.
I’ve pitched “Mod-
din’ Art” to network after

network over these past 4 years, with no agent or en- There was also a bull pen, a place for pitchers to
tertainment attorney. I’m not holding out in the name scavenge over random availabilities with elite catchers
of pride. I just haven’t found a suit that digs what I do of content. It is not a line. The most aggressive get the
yet. If you can get an agent to represent your project, most pitches, and I managed 7 of them.
man, do it. It was exhausting. It was exhilarating. It was a fine
For the solo show-slinger, there are pretty much combination of dream and disappointment. It was ac-
three ways to get a pitch opportunity. Two of ‘em are tually awesome to have a heartless stranger stare at
“who ya know,” and “right place at the right time.” me without emotion and say “Pass.”
While these sometime work, they’re not something I had a couple of prospects who were not interest-
you can count on. ed but knew someone who might be, and a few who
That leaves cold-call pitching, whether to the net- took my one-sheet and a sizzle reel. I had my phone
works directly, or by attending conventions designed in my hand and was supposed to be calling Nancy and
specifically to couple show creators with show buyers. the kids with a “Woo-hoo!” right now, but the “We love
NATPE (National Association of Television Program Ex- it! Let’s do it!” response still eluded me.
ecutives) is an ideal example. For your entry fee, you
get the opportunity to sell your show or concept to FANTASTIC VOYAGES
networks and agencies. I spent the next weeks following up on every lead I
could, and turned up nothing.
I was back to cold-calling as I
worked my way through an online
cable network directory.
I was in the Bs when I stum-
bled on The Boating Channel. I
had never heard of them, but I
envisioned “Moddin’ Art” on the
water. After all, it’s about people,
not cars, and it would be as easy as
hoppin’ on a boat and hittin’ some
lakes.
I called them, the reception-
ist sent me right through to the
president of the company, and I
verbally pitched a water-based
version of “Moddin’ Art.” After five
minutes, a sample reel of some
Even though I couldn’t really afford the trip this sort was eagerly requested.
year, with so much invested into Moddin’ Art already, I I had recently been on a cruise as a cameraman
didn’t feel like I could afford to miss it either. on an unrelated shoot and had shot a segment for
I was thirty-eight and this was my first personal “Moddin’ Art” while on the ship. It was just kind of a
response to a life’s calling. I scraped up our last nickels documentary of my trip, but it was all I had that was
and flew to Hollywood, where I believed the rainbow boat-related, so I sent it in. It was such a long shot that
to end. I didn’t even mention this one to my family.
Days 1 and 2 of the festival consisted of semi- Once again, weeks went by. I was on a shoot for a
nars and panel discussions covering all the “what to new project when I got a call from The Boating Chan-
dos” and “what not to dos” when pitching a show. It nel. They took my sample reel much more literally than
dawned on me that I had not pitched a show in person I anticipated, and tucked away on the side of a shoot
since sitting with that dude in Lubbock almost two de- with my cell phone, I heard an enthusiastic voice de-
cades ago. scribe a dream gig to me: I’d go on cruises in every epi-
I had mailed hundreds of pilots, treatments, sizzle sode, and would document my trips as the average Joe
reels and one-sheets, and I now wallpapered a wall in in a new series called “Fantastic Voyages.”
my office with network rejection letters. Going by the About the time it was soaking in that this man
“ten nos for every yes” rule, I was due big time. wanted to pay me to repeatedly go on vacation, I
Day 3 was what they call the Pitch Pit, three heard, “We love it! Let’s do it!”
10-minute pitches for everyone at the Hollywood It had been a quarter of a century since I first
House of Blues on Sunset Boulevard, with an execu- picked up a camera and held big dreams. In that quar-
tive from someplace impressive at every table, and ter of a century, I never stopped working toward those
an actual timer set for ten minutes. It’s fair to picture dreams. My cell phone still in hand, I called home.
an amusement park for grown ups with ADD. There “Hey honey, I just sold a TV show I wasn’t tryin’ to
is much line-standing, huge, short-lived adrenaline sell, to a network I’ve never seen before!”
rushes, then more line-standing. n

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Cinema
21 Century st
Digital cinema is coming. Russell Lasson is one of the people bringing it.
H
Here’s his experience of what’s next, from an indie point of view.
ave you ever been in a position where a ing in digital cinema mastering for feature films. The
producer asks you to do something that mastering equipment is based around QubeMaster
you’ve never done before? Your first reaction might Pro from QubeCinema. Clients have ranged from
be to stare, and say, “What are you, crazy?” But, after multi-million dollar feature producers to ultra-low
biting your lip and gathering your thoughts, you re- budget filmmakers.
spond, “Sure, I think I can arrange that.”
I was in such a position a couple of years ago. I had SAY GOODBYE TO TRADITIONAL DISTRIBUTION
just finished coloring a local feature film shot on Vari- Traditional motion picture workflow begins with
cam when the producer asked if I could arrange to play shooting on film. The original camera negatives are
the film at a local theater that had recently converted cut together to assemble the story, and the assembled
to digital cinema projectors. film is then transferred to a positive film stock (inter-
After researching the options available at the positive, or IP). The positive film print is then trans-
time, I decided that the most cost effective way to do ferred back to a negative film stock (inter-negative,
this was to actually drag my edit system up to the pro- or IN). Finally, release prints are made from the inter-
jection booth, and play the film out to the projector negative film print, then shipped to movie theaters to
and audio sound system using a AJA Kona 3. be screened on a film projector.
It worked out great! The producers loved it. From This means that, by the time a film print reaches
that time on, it was clear to me that digital cinema was a movie theater, it’s at least three generations away
the future of theatrical film distribution and projec- from the original camera negative. Quality suffers with
tion, and that I had a real business opportunity. each generation, so that what you see in the theater
In early 2008, I started Ridgeline DCM, specializ- never measures up to the original master.
Russell Lasson
Provo, Utah USA
Russ is now head colorist and digital cinema technician at Universal Post in Salt Lake
City, Utah. With two RED ONE packages and an Assimilate Scratch system in house,
he specializes in RED post-production workflows. “With all the advances in digital
cinema, it’s been a lot of fun to be on the cutting edge of the technology.” You can
find him hosting Creative Cow communities for Apple - Windows on Mac, and RED
Camera.

On top of that, every time the film print is shown or correction, visual effects, dust removal and titles are
it collects dust and scratches. After three or four weeks done digitally. This digital master is then printed back
of four or five screenings a day, that film print ends up to film stock using a film recorder.
looking like it’s been drug behind a pick-up truck that’s Even with DI post, a film shown in a movie theater
been driving circles in the desert. using a film projector is still at least three film genera-
After more than 100 years of this traditional film tions away from the digital cinema master.
distribution, the major Hollywood studios created the The development of digital distribution allows
filmmakers to send a digital cinema mas-
ter to theaters instead of sending film
prints. For simplicity’s sake, we’ll call
them digital film prints. These digital film
prints consist of the film encoded into a
JPEG2000 image sequence, and an audio
mix for the film.
The JPEG2000 encoding reduces
the size of the film from a couple of tera-
bytes down to a few hundred gigabytes.
This compression is also visually lossless,
meaning that the digital print looks virtu-
ally identical to the original digital master
and, even compressed, will actually look
much better than what you see from a
film projector.
There are several different systems
for digital cinema encoding, ranging in
price from $799 to over $100,000, de-
pending on the features.
Digital Cinema Initiative (DCI) in 2005, to encourage For my own system, I choose to use QubeMaster
the adoption of digital cinema throughout the world. Pro from Qube Cinema because it offers me all of the
The DCI standard was the tipping point for get- professional features that I needed without requiring
ting digital cinema rolling. In 2005, there were just a expensive proprietary hardware. Plus, I’ve been really
few hundred digital cinema installations. Today there satisfied with their support team.
are more than 5000 of them. Even though the major- QuVis has recently released Wraptor, a $799 digi-
ity of theaters are still using film projectors, that will tal cinema plug-in for Apple Compressor. It’s tempting
change within the next couple of years. High-profile because it runs on Mac, but it simply doesn’t have the
films ranging from “Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the options I needed for full professional encoding. So I
Clones” to “The Dark Knight” have helped drive adop- went with QubeMaster Pro — which even though it’s a
tion, as have alternative uses, such as theatrical pre- Windows program, I’ve been running on my Mac using
sentations of live concerts and sporting events. Boot Camp. (See sidebar, “Using Mac and WIndows
3D is also helping push adoption of digital cin- Together.”)
ema, as many digital cinema projectors can easily be When it comes down to it, you can run just about
adapted to play 3D content. With the wide success this anything through digital cinema encoding. I recently
year of 3D features including “Journey to the Center did a test with a feature film being shot in DV with a
of the Earth” and the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus Canon XL2. I played it out from one computer, and dig-
3D concert, you can expect to see 3D making a bigger itized through the AJA IoHD to upconvert to ProRes at
surge in the future. 1080. From there, I used Apple’s ProRes decoder for
Even the National Football League is getting in Windows to go straight into QubeMaster Pro for en-
the action by broadcasting an American football game coding.
to theaters in 3D! While 3D is still only in use in a frac- In another recent project, the film was archived
tion of the overall installations, companies like Dolby as DPX sequences on LTO. After restoring the DPX files
and Real D are shipping 3D digital cinema units at an from the archive and making the needed changes to
accelerating rate.
HOW D-CINEMA WORKS

Most major motion pictures
are shot on film and finished
using a digital intermedi-
ate (DI) process. It starts as
the original film frames are
scanned in as digital files. Col-

the film, I sent the file sequences directly into Qube- with the Christie CP2000M DLP projector, a 20’ wide
Master Pro. Part of what has made QubeMaster Pro so screen and an Assimilate Scratch system. As we’ve
attractive is that it really has directly handled every file brought in clients and potential clients, everyone
format I’ve needed to work with. has said, “Wow, this is exactly what we need here in
After encoding a project, things can get tricky, Utah.”
because the encoded files can’t just be checked on Since then, it’s been crazy. We’re completely
any computer. Instead, they must be transferred to a booked with features right now.
digital cinema server, which can cost between $14,000
and $20,000. The server has to be connected to a digi- DELIVERY
tal cinema projector, which can run from $60,000 to The main means of distributing these digital film prints
over $100,000. today is shipping hard drives around. With films need-
I’ve recently partnered with Universal Post and ing only a few hundred gigabytes each, they can be
we’ve set up a theater for color correction, equipped delivered on a single drive with room to spare.
USING MAC AND WINDOWS TOGETHER the RAID. Running QubeMaster Pro on Windows is
In starting a new company, it was important to me the priority for me on this system, so I formatted the
to invest money where it would make the biggest RAID using NTFS.
difference and to cut costs that weren’t necessary. By installing NTFS for Mac OS X, I can see the
One of the ways I saved thousands of dollars was to RAID in Windows — and I can write to it at over
run Windows software on my Mac. 400MB/sec!
The Boot Camp Assistant is a utility included While both MacDrive and NTFS For Mac OS X
with Intel Macs that installs Windows drivers for work great with video files, I have found a limitation
your Mac hardware, and clears a partition for you to to them. If you open a folder with 30,000 TIFF files in
format using your Windows installation disk. You can it, both programs behave unreliably. This was a really
also create that partition on a second hard drive, but big workflow issue for me as I deal with reels from
either way, you’ll need to provide your own copy of feature films that are often provided to me as TIFF or
Windows. DPX image sequences.
You can choose which OS to boot into by holding On one project, I was provided with a FireWire
down the option key at startup, but this method drive formatted for Mac and I needed to get those
doesn’t allow communication between them. Neither files into the Windows OS. Neither MacDrive or NTFS
OS knows that the other is there. for Mac could deal with that much data without
Here are some basic ways of transferring passing out. So I needed a different solution.
between the Windows OS and Mac OS that will This is where I learned about share points. Using
hopefully make the process a little less painful — or share points does require two computers. In my case,
at least less painful than it was for me! I had a Mac Pro desktop running Windows Vista, and
The first way is by formatting a drive as a a MacBook Pro laptop with Mac OS X 10.5. I connected
file structure that both operating systems can the computers together via Ethernet.
understand, such as FAT32. The disadvantage with With the Firewire drive connected to the
this is that FAT32 is an outdated file system, with MacBook Pro, I opened up the Sharing panel in
limitations on things like the maximum file size. System Preferences. I selected the FireWire drive as a
There are also applications, including operating shared folder under the Options menu, I turned SMB
systems, that simply won’t work on FAT32-formatted Sharing on and enabled my user account to be used
drives, so it’s sometimes simply not an option with SMB.
There are programs that allow you to read the Now from the desktop Mac Pro running Vista, I
file system of the other operating system you’re navigated to the network icon in Windows Explorer
using. MediaFour MacDrive sounds like a program and sure enough, my MacBook Pro showed up. I
for the Mac, but it’s not! It’s a Windows program that logged in using my user name and password and
mounts Mac Extended format (HFS) drives while just like that, I was able to see the FireWire drive in
running Windows. Windows and was able to copy the files over without
On the Mac side, Paragon’s NTFS For Mac OS a problem.
X allows you read and write to Windows formatted There are several other basic ways to let Mac
(NTFS) drives or partitions. Both of these programs and Windows talk, including virtualization software
run in the background, invisibly. like VMware Fusion and Parallels Desktop that
Regardless of which operating system you have run Windows as if it were a Mac application, with
running, you’ll be able to access your files on drives Windows apps running inside it. (Once again, you’ll
formatted by the other OS. need to bring your own copy of Windows.)
I have a Mac Pro that’s running both Mac and However, these are the techniques that I’ve been
Windows. I also have a 5TB SATA RAID connected to using, and so far, I’ve been able to do everything that
the system using the ATTO R380 host card. Obviously, I’ve needed to do.
I need both operating systems to read and write to n

In the future (hope-
fully the near future),
shipping drives will tran-
sition to delivery over sat-
ellite. This will mean that
the film is delivered to
one central distribution
location, and then trans-
mitted to all of the digital
theaters that need it. It’s
going to be awesome!
Piracy prevention is
one of the most interest-
ing topics when talking
about digital cinema.
For example, digital film
prints are encrypted dur-
ing mastering. Decryp-
tion requires a digital
key file called the KDM,
which resides on a se-
cure server. Even if you
robbed a delivery truck
carrying the latest block-
buster film, you couldn’t
play it without the KDM
file. The KDM can also be
used to specify playback
dates to prevent early
screenings, or to prevent
theaters from collecting
films to show again in the
future.
panies like Christie, NEC and Barco license it to make
In addition to encrypting the content in delivery,
their own projectors. Projectors intended for digital
the digital cinema servers encrypt the dual-link SDI
cinema installations are different than other projec-
video stream sent to the projector. The DCI projector
tors because they must comply with the DCI stan-
then decrypts the stream for playback. So even if you
dards for color conversion, decryption, and resolution:
intercepted the video stream as it comes off the server
2048x1080, or 2K.
with your own dual-link capture card, you wouldn’t
Many people might wonder, “What about 4K pro-
get anything useful out of it.
jectors?” While they certainly exist, there are currently
Finally, there is also digital watermarking. If
fewer than 20 installed in digital cinemas throughout
someone records a film in a theater with their little vid-
the United States, compared to the thousands of 2K
eo camera, investigators can track down the theater it
cinemas — which, I might add, still look awesome!
was captured from, the screening date and time, and
The future of digital cinema looks very promising.
more — even if the film is recompressed and played
It already provides new opportunities for studios and
on the web.
theater owners trying to adapt to the new entertain-
ment landscape. It is allowing more independent films
PLAYBACK AND BEYOND
to reach theater screens by avoiding the costly film-
The easiest way to describe how a digital playback sys-
out process. It has rejuvenated 3D technology by mak-
tem works is by comparing it to a home media server,
ing it easier for theaters to show. It has even allowed
like an AppleTV. You load your content onto it, then
live concerts and sporting events to be broadcast to
select what to play back as you need it. You can even
theaters to expand the potential audiences for those
make playlists to choose the order in which the con-
events.
tent is played back.
Regardless of how individual installations are be-
With digital cinema playback, each projector has
ing used, digital cinema really is the future of film mas-
its own server, with content and playlists that schedule
tering, distribution and projection. You can be sure of
showings. It’s all quite straightforward.
one thing: it’s coming soon to a theater near you — if
At the heart of most digital cinema projectors
it’s not already there!
is DLP technology developed by Texas Instruments.
While Texas Instruments makes the technology, com-
n

Filmmaking adventures in
Stereoscopic 3D
The tools for creating 3D stereoscopic movies are now amazingly affordable.
A few challenges remain, but you can easily see the possibilities.
A documentary I was shooting called “Healed By the used, and although I’m using Final Cut Pro for editing
Earth” required substantial visual support in the form and Nuke for compositing, specialized software can be
of nature scene footage. I knew that I could manage found for under $100.
at least one good HD video in the Colorado Rockies, In some ways, 3D movie technology has changed
but that’s not the game I was hunting. I went there to little since the 1950s. Two cameras record the same
capture Stereoscopic 3D landscapes. scene. The relative angles of the cameras during shoot-
It was up there, in the isolation, that nature pro- ing, as well as the separation between the images as
vided a breathtakingly pleasant surprise. A waterfall they are combined in post, show depth when viewed
hike in the Rocky Mountain National Park called Alber- through cyan and amber glasses easily and inexpen-
ta Falls offered a spectacular opportunity to recreate sively available online.
what we naturally see, as 3D imagery. Fortunately for [Ed. note: The stereoscopic images in this article
the production, that high altitude shoot at 10,000 feet will properly display depth when viewed with these
forced me to stop every five minutes for air. Asthma glasses.]
concerns, combined with the steep grade of the hike, Using 3D glasses with no electronic elements is
gave me opportunities to film about forty varied shots known as “passive” stereoscopic display. “Active” sys-
of beautiful, cascading waterfalls. tems often found in theaters show depth by synchro-
Only the rushing water could be heard, but I nizing LCDs and shutters built into both the glasses
was sure that the 3D images would reveal more than and the projector.
words. I used twin Canon HV-30 HDV cameras for my
shoot. The HV-30 manual states that there may be
STEREOSCOPIC SHOOTING problems with cam function at high altitude, including
New tools for stereoscopic 3D production have started lens haze. I opted for .5 Canon WD wide-angle lenses,
a grassroots revolution. Even in HD, stereoscopic 3D polarized filters, and UV lens caps.
is quite affordable. Any kind of video camera can be I had filmed with one of these cams time before,
Christopher Werronen
Painesville, Ohio USA
Chris’s career has included working with special needs kids and adults, organic
farming, and acting. He is developing the pilot for a stereoscopic 3D TV series as
he works at the farm shared by his wife, son, a stable full of horses, some chickens,
cats and a dog. You can find him posting in COW forums including HD-High End,
Final Cut Pro, and Nuke.

but the setup for shooting in 3D was quite different. software that I can use to display stereoscopic shoot-
There were numerous checks to be made prior to each ing in the field. There was no way to know how this
shot. The cameras are first mounted on a slide bar, would turn out until I got back to Ohio.
something like a tripod plate that holds 2 cameras at
adjustable distances from each other. The minimum I DEPTH GRADING
tested on my shoot was on 72mm centers, just wider The process after shooting is simple. I align and trim
than the 65mm typical of adult human ocular spread. each corresponding stereo video channel, and, after
For long vista shots I tested the maximum slide bar the edit, each is separately rendered as a .mov file. (I’m
width, 104mm. Identical camera settings needed to be still testing, but am presently using H.264.)
checked and set, over and over. Zoom off. The Foundry’s Nuke is a compositing application
My concern prior to a shoot is that both cameras that imports and joins the files, then renders them as a
attached to the slide bar are squared and not slightly stereo “anaglyph,” a movie with two color layers whose
skewed. This is one way to avoid disparity errors such offset creates the effect of depth...if all goes well.
as double images and misalignments. Making sure I wear my 3D glasses when joining the files in Nuke,
my camera lenses are squared off also results in more and again when editing the composited anaglyph file
comfortable viewing, and a natural 3D depth, just like back in FCP. I wind up putting the glasses on and tak-
looking through a window. ing them off a lot.
After I manually start each camera (the HV-30 Editing an anaglyph works just as it does for any
lacks remote LANC triggers), I use a simple thumb other video file, except for some specific attention
cricket clicker, which I will later use as a guide to help to 3D stereoscopic motion and correct orientation
sync the two tracks during the edit in FCP. between cuts. Scenes on either side of an edit must
I expected to fill 20 hours of mini DV tapes in the balance in such a way that the audience is not pulled
mountains of Colorado, 10 hours total for each mono out of the 3D illusion. The resulting attention errone-
side of the stereo files. I hoped to see positive results, ously becomes placed on “3D effects,” rather than “3D
but as of this writing, I have not found a monitor or story.”
This is why telling the perfect
3D story requires “Depth Grading”
to manage the internal depth of the
scene.
One aspect of this is “depth
matching,” so that the viewer’s eyes
are not forced to change their focal
plane from shot to shot. You might
have experienced this difficult transi-
tion while driving, by looking back and
forth from your dashboard to the hori-
zon. It takes time for the eye to settle,
which is why edits that require rapid
visual re-convergence are unpleasant
for an audience to watch.
“Scene ramping” is another aspect
of depth grading: changing an object’s
or shot’s stereo distance gradually, so
that the viewer’s visual convergence
on one shot picks up where changes
to the previous shot have left off.
Nuke is an excellent compositing
program, which I use to join stereo-
scopic files, correct for lens barrel dis-
tortions in the wide angle lenses, and
adjust speed as much as -50%, among
other things. However, the depth grad-
ing features are what make Nuke such
a great choice for working with stereo-
scopic images.
A new set of Nuke plug-ins called
Ocula has become available to work
even more specifically with stereo-
scopic 3D.
For example, vertical disparities

will sometimes
present them-
selves. Those
stereo images
will have severe
ghosting and will
not focus into one
clear image when
combined into a
stereo anaglyph
image. Ocula can
address this, not
just with a simple
Y-position shift,
but by rebuilding
frames to com-
pensate for key-
stoning and other
errors.
I’m especial-
ly interested in the 3D paint and roto features in Ocula away from the scheduled release of “Avatar,” it is al-
that allow treatments for one eye to be automatically ready having a profound effect on 3D filmmakers at
mapped to the other. I’ve had wonderful results using every level.)
Synthetik Studio Artist to roto/paint HD frames in 2D Whereas in 2D productions, strong control of vi-
so far, but the video tracks for each eye must be treat- sual depth of field directs the audience into the action
ed separately. or characters on screen, I prefer not to do this in 3D.
Ocula presents a small problem for some 3D ste- Allowing the audience to choose their personal focus
reographers: it is priced at $10,000. I’m primarily a opens the field of vision to more natural 3D experi-
writer/ director, now beginning as a producer. I’ve ences in a scripted story. My work so far has led me
learned the compositing programs well enough to to write scene structure so that the entire scene is in
know when it’s time for me to contract with special- focus, writing for and encouraging multiple minor ac-
ists to help with vertical disparity issues in particular tions as supporting stories within the scene.
– which I’ve now done. An option that may work better for guiding audi-
ences watching stereoscopic scenes is “audio depth of
STEREOSCOPIC DRAMA field” adjustments, panning from in-focus reference
I still sometimes shoot landscapes, but I’m now curi- points within the scene, rather than forcing visual
ous about dramatic performance in 3D. That search depth of field corrections.
has taken me to a little village on the east side of Trial and error also shows me that all action needs
Cleveland, Ohio, with small retail shops, restaurants to remain inside the frame to avoid the risk of actors
and one Method Acting school, run by owner-teacher appearing to float off the screen. Smooth transitions
Jessica Houde. I’m now filming young
actors in 3D as they train and develop.
These 20–30 year old students convey
tons of emotion for me to capture.
Filming 3D dramatic action has a
whole set of considerations not found
in stereoscopic landscape filming. I
initially filmed the actors in HDV at
1420x1080/30, which had worked well
for stationary nature scenes. But mo-
tion artifacts in filming the actors be-
came a considerable problem, often
confusing to diagnose
After hearing that James Cameron
has found doubling his normal frame
rate to 48fps to his liking in the produc-
tion of his epic, “Avatar,” I’m presently
testing 780x420 @60p, and am pleased
so far.
(Even though we are nearly a year

capture the 20 hours I planned without data
transfer options, which weren’t practical for
these extended excursions. Tape has worked
well enough so far, but a camera upgrade is
definitely on the list of things to do.
Stereoscopic production obviously brings
in a dramatically wider range of troubleshoot-
ing questions. Were problems caused by cam-
era misalignment? Uneven adjustments of cam-
era settings? Can these problems be addressed
in post? Or are they being caused by post?
Stereoscopic 3D is magic when it’s work-
ing, but truly confounding when it’s not. So
why bother with HD stereoscopic 3D at this
point in its development for independent pro-
ducers? For me, I like the serious challenge. I
like the filmmaking and storytelling options it
opens up. I also like the possibly fantastic out-
come I see taking shape. The ability to create
stereoscopic 3D at this level of production has
the potential to once again reshape the indus-
try from the grassroots up!
The ongoing editing of my stereoscopic
mountain scenes continues to guide this story
to its end. But as a first experience, my 3D spirit
was awakened by my baptism in Colorado’s
“God’s Country.”
of their movements in 3D space across cuts require
careful choreography. Early tests show that lighting n
plays an even bigger role in devel-
oping the impression of depth in
stereoscopic shooting than it does
normally
As these elements come under
control, they open up numerous
screenwriting, performance and
presentation possibilities.
TOWARD 3D PERFECTION
So how did my Colorado footage
turn out? The HDV footage itself
is impossibly beautiful. Viewable
as 3D, but flawed. The stereo shots
from stationary points often come
close to the state known as “3D
Perfect,” but as I work more with
them, I can see small issues that
require some divergence correc-
tions.
Although I recorded to mini-
DV tape in Colorado, and so far
continue to do so back in Ohio, I
don’t recommend it. Tape systems
drift if takes are longer than a cou-
ple of minutes, so most of my shots
have been intentionally brief, at
30-second bursts. I understood the
value of tapeless shooting before I
left for Colorado, but solid state ca-
pacities were too small. I couldn’t
Creative COW Magazine — The New Vision Issue 43

Hit, Whiff, Miss!
Film Festival Magic

After 3 years working on their labor of love, Harry and his partners tasted
the full range of film festival experiences, some more magical than others
My partners and I spent three years working nights Escalade waiting for us at the airport to whisk us to our
and weekends around our day jobs to make “Women free rooms. But who wanted to stay in the room? We
in Boxes,” a documentary about magic’s better half: headed for the filmmakers lounge, which was decked
the assistant. It was a labor of love. We begged, bor- out with a bank of computers for our use, a ping-pong
rowed and stole (AKA, deferred payment) — whatever table, Stella Artois and Bombay Gin on tap, free mas-
was necessary to get the job done. sages, daily buffet, and a media relations person who
Our first festival stop was CineVegas, in — you drove us around to our various morning news show
guessed it! — Las Vegas, which made perfect sense for interviews. (Side note: wacky AM news shows start re-
the subject of the film. ally early.)
From the word “go,” this was a glorious experi- There were numerous other perks, including my
ence. A few years ago, Trevor Groth left the fabled favorite: midnight bowling with Morgan Spurlock
Sundance festival to become the artistic director for (“Super Size Me,” “Where In the World Is Osama bin
CineVegas, now in its 10th year. The list of who’s whos Laden?”). We played with films like “Get Smart” and
is endless, but includes Dennis Hopper (resident fes- “The Rocker.” I missed those, but we had a red carpet
tival host), this year’s honorees Anjelica Huston, Don entry with Robin Leach making us feel rich and fa-
Cheadle, and James Caan, just to name a few. mous, even though we are neither, and our film played
After getting our acceptance letter, we were as- to a packed house.
signed a liaison who guided us through the festival Although this was the best experience of the three
with deluxe treatment. We felt like stars. festivals, it was also the most “Hollywood.” This is not
When we arrived, there was a big black Cadillac always a bad thing. I’m just saying that my memories
Harry Pallenberg
Los Angeles, California USA
“Women in Boxes” was also an official selection of Ireland’s Foyle International

Film Festival. Critic Leonard Maltin hails, “What a remarkable group of wom-
en — and what an entertaining film!” In addition to his work at KCET, Harry is
working on the official video news release for the Hollywood Sign Trust. You
can find him hosting in the Cow’s HDV and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

of this fest will be the events and royal flush treatment, bad it really was until the day of our screening. Our
not the films themselves. showing was set for 5 PM. I was still not sure what for-
So maybe Trevor has a tiny bit of work left to bal- mat would or could be played. I got there an hour early
ance the parties and the films. I hope (and pray) to be with an HDCAM tape, a DigiBeta tape, and a DVD.
back to see how he does it! There was only a single person in the WHIFF
booth. I started to ask about formats when the woman
DANCES WITH FILMS there said, “Oh, I’m not sure that film is even going to
We were soon set for our Los Angeles premiere at play!”
Dances with Films, which bills itself as the last truly What?! I really started to lose my cool. “Hey, don’t
independent independent film festival. If you have a yell at me — I don’t even work here,” she said. “I’m just
known star, producer or director, don’t even apply. a friend of one of the filmmakers. All the WHIFF people
I love this! It drives me mad when I hear of “indie left the theater an hour ago. I just decided to sit down
films” with superstar actors and multi-million-dollar and try to help.”
budgets. Indie film is when you spend years of your life What?! No WHIFF people were even there?
on a project you really believe in, and you beg, borrow It turned out that there were three screens, but
and steal for every inch you get. only one projector — until another filmmaker rented
An inch? Dances gave us a mile! one out of his own pocket. (A few of us took his card
Leslee Scalon and Michael Trent started the fes- and offered to send him a check to help. Mine’s in the
tival eleven years ago to help promote their own film. mail.) That still only left two screens available, which
They did it again the next year just to prove that they meant many films were scratched. The saddest situa-
could, and by year three they had alumni coming back tion involved a short film, “L’Altro,” by two Italian kids
with their next film. Nothing would stop the indie who flew with their dad all the way from Italy for the
spirit. world premiere. What a letdown!
They were organized, helpful, supportive and fos- It turns out that three different filmmakers and
tered a communal feeling for all those involved. Grant- an audience member knew a little Italian and tried
ed, there was no ping-pong or free beer on tap, but to help them. After a false start (they had a PAL Beta),
there were lots of good films playing to full houses, their film finally got to play about seven hours later…
with genuine people (a very rare thing in LA) behind to a packed house of nine people. It really broke my
them. heart. They were devastated. The look on those almost
baby faces was sooo sad. Afterwards, they came up to
WHIFF me and said, “This is Hollywood.” I don’t know if it was
I should have known when I heard that the West Hol- a question or a statement. Either way, they were de-
lywood International Film Festi-
val crushed their name down to
WHIFF.
WHIFF! My first thought was
smelling a gross WeHo scent,
and then I started thinking of the
sports connotation…a miss. Who
would want to associate their film
with missing?
My next clue was when, five
days late for the notification, the
festival director called and said, “I
was very surprised by your film. I
thought it was going to be about
women who wear men’s under-
pants.” It went downhill from
there.
Whereas CineVegas and
Dances were in regular contact
via email and phone calls, WHIFF
would take 4 or 5 days to return
a call. The other festivals either
had a delivery check list months
in advance, or at least kept us up
to date as to how we could screen
the film, get help with the press
and so on.
At WHIFF, I had no idea how

ally our festival.
LAURELS AND
LOVE
Being treated
like a high roller
is awesome,
Dancing without
any stars is great,
and really puts
the focus on the
films. Even when
you smell a rat,
well, it’s prob-
ably still a rat,
but running the
maze with fellow
rats can be fun.
So, fellow
indie filmmak-
ers, I say enter
as many fests
as you can. Get
those laurels.
Just don’t hang
pressingly right.
your hopes on having distributors standing outside
We managed to get our film on too, only about
the theater to greet you with a bidding war. Go be-
one hour late, to about the same nine people, but at
cause you have to make your movie, go because you
that point, I really didn’t care. I became enamored with
love to see others with the same drive and passion ex-
the bonding together among us, with anyone who was
press themselves.
there trying to get it done.
Go for the love of film.
In a way, more than any of the others, it was actu-
n
THE MAKING OF
My partners — Phil Noyes, Blaire Baron Larsen and to us on every format you can imagine: from 2-inch
Dante Larsen — and I knew we wanted to shoot in tape to 8mm, from DVHS (had to buy a deck on eBay
HD from day one. Besides, we had free access to a for that one) to D5!
Sony Z1U (the top of the line at the time), and could Once we had transcripts, we had an editor chop
rent another for $75 per week. away the dead wood for a few months, until she got
We would later get access to the HD XDCAM, ill.
but honestly, we were all stunned by the good looks We were racing for the Sundance deadline, so
of our little $5000 camera blown up on the big we took the drives back to our office. As soon as our
screen. day jobs ended, we’d go into the trailer for another
We supplemented this with a tiny, basic 4 few hours of editing each night, with me driving the
light kit: key, fill, kicker, and eye light. Sound was a machine while Phil and Blaire would scan for good
combo of Sennheiser 66 (anybody not using one of lines and make fun of me.
these?) and an AT 835 shotgun. The lav was… well, Another few months later, we had a 102-minute
whatever was in the bottom of the drawer at my day version that did not get into Sundance, but really
job, KCET — PBS in Los Angeles. did start to show us that we had something good.
We only had 35 shoot days in all, about 20 of As Phil and I continued to work our day jobs
them in the first 6 months, the rest scattered over together, and were seeing more of each other than
the following year. By 18 months, we were pretty our wives and kids, we called in another editor to
much done with the shooting and were well into tighten it up and add some spit polish that I lacked.
the editing. At 80 minutes, we had a cut that started making it
This was the really hard part. First we had to into festivals.
literally scan through and make transcripts (thank We were in!
you, Blaire) of about 70 hours of interviews, and Now for the hard part — selling it. Maybe that
from the over 200 hours of magic footage that came will be part two....

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48 Creative COW Magazine

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Creative Cow Magazine 49

T H E B A C K F O R T Y
Ron Lindeboom
Paso Robles, California USA
New Visions: The Future of Creative COW Magazine

WILL WE FOLLOW OTHER MAGAZINES INTO DIGITAL-ONLY EDITIONS IN 2009?
“W hy are you launching a new magazine when

the publishing industry is in trouble?” We
were often asked that question a few years back when
I asked her to look at the people’s faces and I talk-
ed about what was lost in the industry and why people
needed another magazine; one that championed this in-
we launched Creative COW Magazine. But as I told many dustry and held a viewpoint that we were still those peo-
back then, we knew it was going to work — you told us ple that stood in one of the most exciting times in all of
that it would by the things you were saying online. human history. It must have worked because after a day
I can still recall the day we conceived Creative COW of this, Kathlyn was sold and ready for the adventure.
Magazine. It was during DV Expo in December of 2005. We understood why magazines were struggling to
We had been moved into the far back corner of the hall, find their footing on the Net and we knew that the huge
about as far out of the traffic pattern as the show’s man- user base we had online was our secret weapon for both
agement could seemingly place us. We rarely had anyone stories and insight — our 24 hour a day focus group.
come that far back and we sat there for a few days won- The Net contains voices that know as much as the
dering why we were there. From a distance, I watched the host of writers that Tim Wilson calls the “Usual Suspects.”
audience and began to notice the look on their faces. A new organismic “collective” has developed and the
It was clear that 2005 was not 1994. COW has proved itself adept in serving as a focal point
Back in 1994, people who were in this industry were for this collective.
changing the world and they knew it. They were like It was logical that a magazine come from such a vital
those that I had seen back in the mid-80s who were fo- community as Creative COW. It is also just as logical that
menting a digital revolution in the field of print publish- the COW Magazine will continue to grow in 2009.
ing — and print would never be the same after them. With magazines like Studio Monthly announcing
But the people we saw during DV Expo 2005 had that they have ceased print publication in favor of digital-
lost that fire and their faces were almost universally void only editions, we have been asked if we will follow suit?
of enthusiasm as they traversed the aisles. No. We find no need for that kind of move, presently.
As I watched, I began to think about what had There are many things that the Net can and does do
changed. My thoughts turned to earlier days when those better than print. But there are also things that print does
who pioneered tools like the early Radius, Avid, Me- better — and the kinds of stories and themed issues we
dia 100, Truevision and other systems, all fed on the en- create need more than a PDF or a Flash file online.
thusiasm that they also were living in a time that would Yes, the future is changing and we need to keep in
change the history of human communication. step with it. A wise man once said that people without a
As these thoughts were going through my head, I vision, perish. That is still true today.
turned to Kathlyn and said that “I think we need to start But in the past, this industry’s visions were those of
a new magazine. The industry really needs a new voice in publishers whose belief was that their ideas and timeta-
print. They need vision again.” bles were the ones that mattered. Their writers would tell
Kathlyn, ever my better-half and guide, said that you what you should know. Our belief is that in a commu-
“Ron, how do you propose to do it when you are sick a nity as vast and as expansive as the COW is, there is al-
lot and are already over-worked as it is? There is a glut of ways a number of voices on any subject that are the de-
magazines in this market and they are well entrenched. finitive voice. Our secret is that we not only watch you
The COW doesn’t even have a sales staff.” but we listen to you. We bring you the voices that matter.
Did I mention that Kathlyn is smart? She is also the We know that you are the secret of our success. You
rudder that guides much of what I do and aspire to. She are our eyes, and we will continue to serve your vision.
also listens, truly well. n

AV-HS400A
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new flavors to the groundbreaking HS400 platform, including an enhanced an array of new features, and you have the recipe for a great
MultiViewer, 3D Keyer effects, Flying Key, and Full Key capabilities for a live production.
second moveable PiP. Other fresh features consist of pan-tilt camera control
The new HS400A compact, multi-format switcher. Even tastier.
and expanded graphics with alpha channel support. New options include the
AV-HS04M7 dual HD-SDI output card with down-conversion for webcasts For more information, please visit us at
and recording. Mix your vision with the HS400A’s broadcast-quality, www.panasonic.com/broadcast.
when it counts
* Photography supplied by Rustic Kitchen (www.rustickitchen.biz) © 2009 Panasonic Broadcast

Creative Cow Magazine New Vision

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THE MAGAZINE FOR MEDIA PROFESSIONALS WORKING IN FILM, AUDIO, VIDEO, MOTION GRAPHICS, IMAGING AND DESIGN

• Panavision: The Truth About Pixels

MORE SIGNAL, LESS NOISE™ — CREATIVECOW.NET JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2009

CREATIVE COW MAGAZINE

The opinions of our writers do not always reflect those

LEGAL STATEMENT: All information in this magazine is

4 The New Visions Issue — Creative COW Magazine

Industrial Strength Routing Switcher Network Router Control

Simultaneous SD, HD or 3 Gb/s Video

Creative Cow-bvh-us.indd 1 10/12/08 3:38:45 PM

Rubber, meet Road. Road, meet Rubber.

6 The New Visions Issue — Creative COW Magazine

John Galt cuts through “intentional obfuscation” as he lays out

it has been hijacked.

8 The New Visions Issue — Creative COW Magazine

Creative COW Magazine — The New Visions Issue 9

IMAX, 4K...AND NOT

10 The New Visions Issue — Creative COW Magazine

12 The New Visions Issue — Creative COW Magazine

14 The New Visions Issue — Creative COW Magazine

Learn more at www.sonycreativesoftware.com/vegash

Copyright © 2007. Sony Creative Software Inc. All rights reserved.

AVC-Intra and the

W e were in search of a new camera here at

16 The New Visions Issue — Creative COW Magazine

Creative COW Magazine — The New Visions Issue 17

18 The New Visions Issue — Creative COW Magazine

Imagine true broadcast-level HD editing in places you never thought possible.

Check out Io HD at our website, or give us a call to find an authorized

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22 September / October 2008 — Creative COW Magazine

Mac Pro and MacBook Pro compatible

Contact us today for the name of a dealer near you.

24 The New Visions Issue — Creative COW Magazine

Creative COW Magazine — The New Visions Issue 25

EXRs AND CHANNELS

28 The New Visions Issue — Creative COW Magazine

• LOW PRICES & BUNDLE SPECIALS!

For much more on moving up to Nuke , please

30 The New Visions Issue — Creative COW Magazine

But don’t take our word for it...

Mark Pederson Angus Wall Michael Cioni Dino Georgopoulos

Want to be part of of our next ad? Email your story to userstory@g-technology.com.

Performance. Style. Reliability. G-Technology, Inc.

W hile my daily grind is playing media proces-

us vidiots fancy ourselves as creators. THE HARD LIFE & SNERK

32 The New Visions Issue — Creative COW Magazine

Creative COW Magazine — The New Visions Issue 33

34 The New Visions Issue — Creative COW Magazine

podcasts.creativecow.net Order Online Now!

And no, you don’t have to have an iPod to join in. w w w . f o c a l p r e s s . c o m

36 The New Visions Issue — Creative COW Magazine

HOW D-CINEMA WORKS

Creative COW Magazine — The New Visions Issue 37

38 The New Visions Issue — Creative COW Magazine

Creative COW Magazine — The New Visions Issue 39

40 The New Visions Issue — Creative COW Magazine

Creative COW Magazine — The New Visions Issue 41

42 The New Visions Issue — Creative COW Magazine

Creative COW Magazine — The New Vision Issue 43

Film Festival Magic

“Women in Boxes” was also an official selection of Ireland’s Foyle International