Moving Still Media

A poignant comment by El Skid today:

“…if we play our cards right, we will begin to be able to perceive film much more the way we perceive art. The value of the work is directly linked to the value of the artist. Build the concept of director as artist, removed from the casual youtube poster, and you will begin to create value in that artist. The higher the value, the more people will pay for the work, but you have to prove your worth and that’s where this all gets interesting. If we look at a video hosting site more like an art gallery, specialist, refined, valuable, then suddenly we could have a situation where a rare, unseen short film by a director could command a high price.”

…or could lead to high paying assignments to create branded content short films or other output walking the art & commercial line. This is basically what high end photography used to be before the collapse of print.

Seems Vimeo is poised to be such a place if such a place comes to be.  Or maybe curated art blogs.

But the bigger point is the Director (or creative team) being the in-demand item, not the film itself.  This will carry over from project to project, building each time.  It’s how studio features work in the best of instances.  It’s how all areas of fine art work.  And the film (or individual creative output) is judged and sought after as part of a larger body of work, and given more time to breathe and be appreciated in a greater context.

This is how a career is built, rather than a stand-alone project.

Wired just posted an interesting article titled “The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet” with an infographic showing the recent rapid increase of video and the steady decline of browser-based web traffic.

The relatively large file size of video skews such statistics toward video in comparison to text and photos in pure traffic terms, but the clear and fast trend is also undeniable.

Beyond highlighting the growth of video as an increasingly preferred form of content in the digital delivery universe, this graphic also shows a strong trend toward app-hosted content over browser-based content — a trend that seems to be encouraged by both user preferences (better design and convenience) and profit generating motives (maybe the web was just a little too open to make much money on).

I have seen a lot of talk lately questioning Apple’s commitment to the professional creative community. After decades of the Mac’s dominance in this area, many who rely extensively on Apple’s content creation tools are disappointed with Apple’s recent lackluster development of these resources. In some cases, professional creatives are doubting Apple’s continued effort here as a result of the company’s success with more mass-market media consumption tools like the iPhone and iPad.

For the first time Since Steve Jobs’ return to Apple in 1997, discussion of a creative professional migration away from Macs (and from Final Cut editing software) has risen beyond occasional grumbling. With the Final Cut suite being available only on Macs, that platform has for years locked in film and motion professionals who couldn’t afford studio-scale dedicated work stations. Better systems required a big investment (for Avid and Da Vinci workstations), and the comparable tools on the PC lagged in capability and user-base scale with far fewer plug-ins. But now, for the first time there are powerful affordable alternatives.

Editing
Avid has come within reach of home workstations. The Adobe CS suite has always had the powerhouse After Effects app, but now contains a more serious editor with Premier CS5, and enables more complete 64-bit operation permitting it to use more of the computer’s available memory in the applications. An advantage Final Cut still has over CS5 is the ProRes codec which is an excellent format to edit in.  But with the GPU acceleration and 64-bit advantage of CS5, that gap is closing.

Color Grading
The industry leading Color Grading system, Da Vinci, has previously required a very expensive proprietary hardware/software package but will soon be releasing an all-software version that can run on any home computer, for just $1,000. A major upgrade with the Colorista plug-in takes it to the point of competing with dedicated grading apps — and it operates on Mac or PC in many of the leading editors and effects apps. So Apple’s Color will no longer be the obvious option for a personal or small business work.

Mac Pro Computers
All this with Macs lagging relative to PC’s in flexibility, expandability, power, and price. The latest upgrade to the Mac Pro line of towers was long overdue, a far slower upgrade cycle than previously seen from Apple.  And the upgrade specs were shockingly poor, no longer are the new Mac Pros the examples of the latest and greatest technology elegantly packaged — this round they were outdated when they hit the shelves.  At the same time, their price tags have increased relative to comparably priced PCs.

Color Management
And most perplexing of all are the color inconsistencies that you face when trying to set color in Final Cut and then view in any of the following on a Mac: Quick-time 10, Quick-time 7, MPRG 2, After Effects RGB, H.264, AVI, or BitVice. The color, saturation, and luminosity in the exact same clip will shift by exporting/opening in any of these formats.  Apple refuses to address this system-wide color management problem even with a new operating system upgrade flaunting an extensive under-the-hood tune up. (details below)

Going Forward
I run a system with two Mac Pro towers, Two Macbook Pro notebooks, an iMac, an iPhone, and an iPad all linked through an Airport Extreme base station with grooves spinning on iTunes sent wirelessly to an airport express next to my stereo. My one PC has a quarter inch of dust on it.  I would dread going back to a PC, but if the performance gap gets far enough out of whack, we do what we have to do to stay competitive. Even remaining Mac-based, I would like to preserve the investment I have made in learning Final Cut and Color, but only to a point if there are overwhelming advantages with Premier.

With that as an overview, you can explore two of the more technical issues here with these thoughtful, in-depth assessments:

The new Mac Pros – Lagging Capabilities:
“The state of Apple’s professional line”  by Brooke Willard

Color Management Headaches working on Macs:
“Which Version Do I Color Correct?” by Jerome Stern

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This glimpse into how Netflix sees the future of media distribution is revealing both for their segment and for the broader industry. This is the actual powerpoint presentation from their CEO’s office, they were nice enough to share it…

Ben Hope of the TrulyFreeFilm blog makes this poignant observation that applies not only to film screenings, but also to art exhibitions or any situation in which a creative work is presented to the public…

“…at the Sundance Film Festival every screening feels like an event. People wonder why certain films can pack the house at a festival but no one shows up when booked for an actual run. The context of a festival creates the urgency. Yet even still here, you feel that not enough is done by just putting it up on the screen. Filmmakers need to focus more on the context they create around the film. In this day and age it is irresponsible to simply screen your film. You need to build ramps up to the event, and bridges after the screening — tools & processes that keep the conversation going. It is surprising how few examples there are of folks who are doing it well.”

And we have the tools to do this like never before. But it does require making an effort to join and contribute to various communities.

As for my extended hiatus, I’m back.

As written about previously, I believe low-light capability is the killer app for video cameras in the new environment.  Canon has created new HD video camera’s with sensors remarkably capable at shooting in low light conditions with high ISO settings. However, Canon’s HDSLR cameras records in the highly compressed, much less post-friendly H264 codec (comparable to JPG in stills in terms of locking in capture data and compressing).  The Red camera’s claim to fame in the area of data capture is the RAW files it records, which as any still photographer knows provides a great deal of post-production latitude, including adjusting exposure levels extensively before the pixels start breaking.

I have also learned separately by two Red techs that the Red One camera actually only records at 1 ISO level (320), and the ISO adjustments you see are actually just metadata – meaning it’s essentially applying the post-production exposure slider to the one recorded setting to achieve the higher simulated ISO levels.  This was very surprising to me.  I’m digging deeper into the issue (let me know if you have more info).

Canon camera’s do not actually record at every ISO setting either, but have a graduated range with extrapolations filling in the smaller increments in-between the native ISO settings – so they record at ISO 320 and 640, with the 400 and 500 stops in-between being simulated. With recordings at 1250 ISO, you can get excellent low light footage without applying the  adjustment that inevitably degrades the recording by pushing the pixels away from their actual recorded level.

So this raises a stand-off on the low light capability front between two different approaches: Canon can record at higher ISO levels for better light sensitivity, but Red files are far more flexible and capable of post-production adjustment.

At this stage, the Canon has the edge but the world is evolving quickly. The Canon 1D Mark IV added two more usable stops over the already exceptional low light capability of the Canon 5D Mark II. Discussion from Red since the recent Red Day has indicated the standard Red ISO being around 800, a significant leap in low light sensitivity, with the RAW code improving at the same time, adding even more flexibility.

Then there is the speculation that Canon may introduce RAW file video of their own, an obvious and inevitable move, but Canon’s development process and approach to product releases is more cautious than Red’s while being less transparent.

So there’s a race from two divergent starting points.

Regardless, the trend is in a direction highly favorable to filmmakers on budgets, which includes every filmmaker I have ever met.

Vincent Laforet posts the most in-depth glimpse I’ve seen online of a hybrid still/motion shoot with HDSLR cameras.  It’s quite revealing and a must read. And the images in the sideshow he put together below depict some of the most innovative and elaborate rigs you’ve ever seen attached to a still camera to adapt it to full-on motion and sound capture.

I have also seen my gear kit and team swell quickly to address various motion production challenges. In some cases, with more complex setups than a cinema camera would require to find workarounds for limitations of the HDSLR. The price of the camera may be cheaper, but the rigs make up for that fast.

Nevertheless, the real savings comes form (1) the lightweight nature of the rigs therefore enabling lighter weight support for smooth camera movements (dolly & tracks, jibs, and other camera movement tools).  This not only saves in rental costs, but more importantly saves an immense amount of time to move and change from one setup to another.  As mentioned in previous posts, time is the most expensive resource on a shoot in my experience.  And similarly, (2) the low-light sensitivity of these cameras reduces the costs associated with lighting (smaller, cheaper lights and no need for generator), and again faster transition time to move and setup the smaller lights — in some cases using ambient light where production lights would have been required.

All this lets you get more done in a day and fewer production days for a given amount of footage.

Studying these images is worth a semester of film school in my opinion…

VSA HDDSLR Still & Video Shoot – Images by Vincent Laforet

The excitement over the iPad and the age of the tablet is not only built around a convenient and more engaging content experience.  It’s also generating enthusiasm as a way for publishers and media companies to confront the everything-free-online approach that has dominated the web.

Magazines are planning to improve the user experience by combining the graphic design of print with the interactivity and multimedia capabilities of digital, in hopes that this will add enough value for readers to go back to the practice of buying edited, self-contained content packages (formerly known as “issues”).  The first step here is to lure readers away from web-wide search engines and social network referrals lining up content as a stream of ad-hoc articles from wide-ranging sources, and bringing back the professional editor who assembles a cohesive experience.  This also means cutting off the in/out hyperlinks to relevant content published elsewhere – something that has made the web so engaging, addictive, and time consuming.  Much of this content will also be exclusively packaged for specific platform distribution, even though it’s all coming through the internet – a trend Forester Research recently elaborated on in an article titled “The Splinternet Means the End of the Web’s Golden Era.”

To provide a self-contained, edited, chargeable package, the content “apps” will download from an app store (discussed as a bookstore or magazine rack).  It looks like most are aiming for a price of $3.00 an issue.  Magazines have long provided print subscriptions at far below cost, hoping to scale up enough to attract ad revenue.  In the best cases, typically fashion and high end lifestyle magazines, many of the ads are also perceived as an attractive form of content due to the stylish photography and dramatic art direction.  So the value to consumers has always been very good.  For this reason, iPad publishers hope to be able to charge more than half of the print price, while the elimination of paper and physical distribution removes more than half of the cost.

Magazines going digital are not alone. This week MediaMemo reported that Hulu is planning to charge for viewing their content on the iPad, which builds on thoughts from Lou Lesko. The same content available for free through browsers, will require a subscription on the iPad. The flash requirement for the web browser content may help in differentiating the channels and preventing access to the content for free on the iPad’s browser, again pushing users into an app with more control by the distributor as well as a more rich experience.

With magazines and Hulu moving in this direction, it’s inevitable that others will follow. The fact is that offline revenue streams have been subsidizing content creation for online viewing, and as the web and digital distribution kill off those other channels (print, broadcast, radio, etc…), online digital content will need to start carrying the burden of generating the return for content creation itself.  Stay tuned.

Something great is coming soon from Zeiss.

The first time had to do a dozen takes on a difficult jib-mounted camera move was the moment I decided the endless rotation of the Canon focus ring was not going to work for my filmmaking. On each take the focus puller would spin the ring to quickly hit a precise mark near infinity, and each time the ring went past the end of the cameras focus range, resulting in all the focus marks being thrown off and needing to be reset with the talent.

So I researched alternate lens options for the 5D camera, and found a solution to this and much more with the Zeiss ZE lenses. In addition to stopping firmly and precisely at the beginning and end of the focus range, the Zeiss lenses are built like tanks with zero play in the focus ring and a perfect amount of smooth rotation (not too loose like the Canons, not too stiff like the old manual Hasselblad lenses I have tried). It seems there is something to be said for the mechanics of a lens built specifically for manual focus, rather than auto focus with a manual fallback.  DP Shane Hurlbut does a thorough comparison with the options, and the Zeiss lenses perform extremely well in their price and size category.

Then I discovered more wonderful aspects of these lenses. The sharpness, color, and detail of the Zeiss glass is legendary and holds up, even with the more economically priced ZE and ZF models. The focus range also allows for more focus precision. Very small rotations on the Canon and Nikon rings move the plane of focus a significant amount. The Zeiss rotation range allows for a more micro adjustment within the same ring rotation. It’s simply far easier to manually focus these Zeiss lenses than the Canon or Nikon glass. So much so, that I have taken to using these manual focus lenses for much of my still photography with no decline in in-focus captures, but a more fun and exciting interaction with the camera.

Now comes news from Zeiss for filmmakers (via Cinema5D).  The company will be releasing a new Canon-mount compact prime lens line in a few months.  These will be made in Germany with what sounds like better glass than the outsourced manufacturing in Japan of the ZE and ZF lenses currently made with the Canon and Nikon mounts. And the handling and functionality will be designed even further with filmmaking in mind.

Looks like pricing will be around three times the cost of the ZE and ZF lenses, which is still an economical price for high quality motion production.

[Update: additional thoughts have now been posted on Vincent Laforet's blog]

Zeiss Press release:

Dear Cine & Video Colleagues,

This is a preannouncement of a new cine lens from Carl Zeiss that will be formally launched at the NAB show in April 2010. The information below is preliminary and subject to minor changes prior to the launch. In response to the high level of interest in using DSLR’s for filmmaking, Carl Zeiss has modified its Compact Prime lenses for use with EF-mount cameras.

These new lenses feature a bayonet mount for a direct fit to the EF-mount and do not require any modification of the camera or use of intermediate optics. Since the optics are based on the awarding winning ZEISS SLR lenses, they cover a full 24×36 image format without vignetting. In addition, the lenses feature an interchangeable mount system that can be changed to a PL mount at any point in the future. This design allows the filmmaker to graduate to any number of existing or future cine cameras and still utilize the same set of lenses.

The level of versatility, image quality and value is unprecedented for cine style lenses and brings a professional caliber tool to a wide range of filmmakers. ZEISS Compact Prime II

lenses will be available in both EF and PL mount versions
interchangeable mount system allows for easy upgrade
cine style ergonomics
manual focus with well damped resistance
barrel dimensions are identical and lenses feature internal focusing
each lens weighs between 2.0 – 2.2 pounds
support bracket is included for additional lens stability
300 degree focus rotation
14-blade aperture
geared for standard follow-focus
calibrated focus scales
8 focal lengths available from18mm – 85mm
estimated list price for a set of 6 lenses is under $20K. Lenses will also be sold in a Custom 3 Lens Set or individually.
shipping May 2010

Wired magazine has revealed a glimpse of what it sees as its future in a digital world — a tablet-based format with a rich, immersive experience combining web interactivity with print-caliber design and a whole new sense of freedom.

They seem to be adding a few new ideas to similar prototypes we’ve seen from Sports Illustrated, GQ, and others. I still think they are limiting their thinking too much to previous media formats, but it’s a start. And even at the outset motion content will not only be a featured component, but I would argue the value add of this format over all previous incarnations — including over browser-based websites where video has been lacking a true design integration. Not so anymore here.

I also believe this will usher in the large scale use of a new form of motion content — “Moving Stills”, with the feel and mood of still photography set to motion.

Wired will be one of the Condé Nast titles to be available early on the iPad. As announced by the company: “Condé Nast plans to have some magazines tablet-ready when the iPad ships — at least a version of the GQ iPhone app, but at best full iPad versions of multiple magazines. …declined to specify what magazines would first make the jump, but said that Vanity Fair, Wired and GQ are likely candidates.”

Get a glimpse in the video…

Early I spoke of still photography that used collage to introduce the idea of motion into a still presentation.

This artistic approach got me thinking about bringing a collage of moments together into a single work, but with the collage elements themselves being in motion.  Which, in turn, brought to mind the elaborate and ambitious motion collage work of Marco Brambilla.

This first piece below was created to be a permanent installation in the lobby of the Standard Hotel in New York, demonstrating yet another instance of what was previously the domain of still photography and painting (the mural) evolving into digital motion. This piece entitled “Civilization” depicts the rise from hell to heaven as a wall mural in motion.

This second piece by the same artist is a beauty editorial for a fashion magazine. The collage elements bring a psychological dimension to it:

I would have thought that of all types of photography, product photography of simple, ordinary daily items would be the kind least adaptable to motion.  Even the industry term for such images, “still life photography”, seems to imply that this category of all categories would remain safe for photography even in a  motion world.

That was until I saw what still life photographer Craig Cutler was doing. He creates compelling motion pieces of the most ordinary items.  There are better examples on his website, but the one he has available for web distribution (below) shows a sampling — starting with a fork, then glasses, then wire.  Check out the water and balloon shots on his website too.  The only limitation really is our imaginations, and the need for good music!

He was also very savvy in creating an event for his launch into the motion world, with a countdown on his website, a new web design, and a gallery opening to launch it all.

A quick but substantial update to the earlier post about the 5-camera Canon 5D Mark II rig used for the TV show “24″.  Here, DP Rodney Charters and Sam Nicholson (from Stargate) go into much greater detail and show the rig in action.

They see these cameras playing increasingly significant roles on high-end productions.   They have been using the 5D and 1D for B-roll and for all plates shot for “24″, and are now moving it into principal photography as “2nd unit and very soon to be 1st unit”.

They’re also in discussions with Canon about making full cinema lenses for these new cameras with functional auto-focus while shooting, potentially with facial recognition software determining the auto-focus point.  “They’ve got the technology, they’re right on the edge of it. But the image quality is already there 1,000%.”

See for yourself…

…from Stargate Studios

I recently wrote about the short film creator, Fede Alvarez, who put his four minute robot attack film on YouTube and by the following Monday had meetings lined up with Hollywood agents, and by the end of the month he had a $30m Hollywood deal for his next film.  The short film cost $300 to make, though that’s a bit deceptive – more below.

Now NPR reports that the small independent film Strictly Sexual, that has never been distributed theatrically or on TV, and has not appeared at film festivals or anywhere for that matter, is the most watched film on Hulu.com. As the director of the film explains:

“I woke up one morning and found a dozen or so messages in my Facebook inbox, saying, ‘Hey, I just saw this film, and it really touched me, and I love the way it talks about breakups and relationships.’  And I just scratched my head, saying, ‘Where’d you see my movie?’ I had no idea what Hulu was. God bless the people who had the foresight to put it up there.”

The result, according to the director, is the film bringing in $1 million from ad sharing, a 10x return on the $100,000 cost of the film.

Ferez, the Director of Panic Attack, not only landed a $30m deal for his next film, but now has one of the biggest agents in Hollywood and a powerful production house behind him. Ferez recently explained in greater detail the story of his YouTube-released passion-project opening the doors to Hollywood production deals in an interview on Director’s Notes.  He’s a very articulate guy with a clear perspective on the whole thing, I highly recommend you listen to his interview, it has a lot of insights for filmmakers of all types.

The bottom line is that this was not some thrown-together video by a newbie, this was the culmination of a massive development commitment. And while the out-of-pocket cost was a mere $300, this ignores the extensive training in CGI and special effects by the creator, or the massive time commitment he dedicated to it in his free time drawing on the resources of the special effects and post-production shops he owns.  But it was very much the result of a scrappy, entrepreneurial approach to art and business.

In other words, it took him many years of hard work to become an overnight success.  But the irony is that it was his hobby passionate-project that put him over the top while he was struggling with his serious creative and business efforts.

Play Interview

In summary, Fede shares the following thoughts…

“I’m just a guy from an unknown country, you know. A generic guy got money from Hollywood.  I think the message is if you work hard, if you really do the stuff you want to do, and if the stuff is good and people like it your gonna get a shot because these days you have YouTube and you have huge networks of people on Facebook, you’re going to publish something and somebody’s going to republish it and sooner or later it’s going to get to somebody who is related in any way to Los Angeles or the city, I mean if from Uruguay we got here, you can get here from anywhere.”

“There’s a new way to make movies, there’s a new way to find directors for Hollywood.  They’re not looking in the regular places anymore.”

“The problem I think is making those projects, you know. Panic Attack was one of those projects I had on the shelf, that project you start but never finish. My friends would tease me about it, ‘What happened about that big robot movie that you never finish?’ Everybody has that project that they start doing when they have all that strength, then they fade out and start doing other stuff, or they get very busy and they let it die. I almost did that. Two years ago I was certain I was never going to finish. And I had a voice in my head that said (in a whisper) ‘You have to finish.’  Every time I did a bad commercial or had a bad meeting with an agent, I would go back to it.  I would say to everybody who has those projects, you never know what plans those projects have for you, so you have to finish them. Thank God I finished, I was very close to abandoning it.”

Below is a clip showing a creative setup that DP Rodney Charters and team created for the TV show “24″. Pretty cool rigging, nice View Factor cage and 9″ Ikan monitor too.

The show “24″ has been famously resistant to digital shooting, with Keifer Sutherland himself wanting film and having made statements that he can’t deliver as serious of a performance for a little camera that does not look professional. The psychology the camera promotes can be important, as outlined recently by FreshDV.

But the lightweight, compact stature of the 5D makes it uniquely capable for this 5 camera car rig. This camera and it’s siblings are steadily making their way into professional productions, while true cinema digital cameras are gradually progressing for the primary footage. Every forward step like this is ground film will never regain.

I saw the digital takeover happen in 1 to 2 years with commercial still photography. Ingrained systems will make it a little slower in Hollywood, but just a little slower.  I don’t think most working DP’s and directors realize just how hard and fast the transition will come.

[UPDATE: more in depth look at the rig and use of these cameras on "24" in new post HERE]