Tenolian Bell

I left out that around 60% of Avid's high end professional sales are to Mac users.

Looking at the market numbers for Adobe it makes sense. Apple has a marketshare of about 6% in the US and 4.2% in Europe. In that 6% over 40% of Adobe's professional product sales are to Mac users. Its estimated that somewhere between 50% and 60% of the video editing market uses Macs. Since the Intel transition in 2006 Apple has sold more computers in this calendar year than it has ever sold in its history. Apple also outpaced the general computer market in sales. As for the consumer. Competition in general is good. There is likely a sizable amount of people who will switch to Mac from Windows and are more comfortable with Premiere. Any post houses who are invested in Premiere can now add Macs to their shop or switch their shop entirely to Mac with less worry of interrupting their current workflow. I agree though that there are Mac users who owned Premiere feel burned by Adobe's pull out from the Mac platform and will probably never use Premiere again.

There have been a couple of attempts over the past couple of years for Sony and Toshiba to come to compromise. Their had to be some compromise on both sides in the details of the technology. The two were never able to come to an amiable agreement. I agree with David that Sony probably was the least flexible. In some major ways Sony can afford to be more stubborn. HD-DVD largely will only ever be a consumer format. While Sony can position Blu-ray in many more markets. One major advantage is Blu-ray in the Playstation 3. Sony has sold over 120 million Playstation consoles around the world. Far more than all other gaming consoles combined. The Playstation 3 is forecast to sell 75 million units over the next 4 years. Sony also has the power to position Blu-ray as a standard professional media format. Beta lost the consumer market to VHS, but Beta became the standard professional tape format for nearly 20 years and was extremely lucrative for Sony. Sony can do the exact same with Blu-ray. Sony can adapt Blu-ray media to be used in consumer video/audio, computer storage, as well as in professional video/audio media. There is little chance HD-DVD will be used in so many different markets.

Adobe Systems said Thursday that the next version of Adobe Production Studio, its the integrated video and audio post-production tool set, will include a new version its Premiere Pro video editing software for the Macintosh when it ships in the middle of the year. "Film, video and web professionals currently using Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator on the Mac will soon be able to harness the power of completely new Macintosh releases of Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Encore DVD and Adobe Soundbooth," the company said in a statement to the media, referring to the upcoming milestone revision to Production Studio. Adobe added it will offer the first public demonstration of the new software bundle during the Macworld 2007 Conference and Exhibition at The Moscone Center in San Francisco next week. The San Jose, Calif.-based software developer discontinued support for Premier on the Mac back in 2003, citing Apple's increased efforts in the market segment with its own line of digital video editing applications like Final Cut Pro. "Our customers wanted all the components in Adobe Production Studio to be available on both the Macintosh and Windows platforms," said John Loiacono, senior vice president of Creative Solutions Business Unit at Adobe. "We listened and believe that an innovative new cross-platform video suite, anchored by powerhouse releases of Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects, will really shake up the industry." The new version of Adobe Production Studio will include Adobe After Effects for compositing, effects and animation; Adobe Premiere Pro for non-linear editing; Adobe Encore DVD for DVD authoring; Adobe Photoshop; Adobe Illustrator; as well as the time-saving workflow enhancements offered by Adobe Dynamic Link. Adobe also said that Soundbooth will take the place of Adobe Audition in the new version of Adobe Production Studio, and that Audition will continue to be developed for audio professionals as a stand-alone product for Windows. Adobe Production Studio for Macintosh will be available for purchase in mid-2007 as a Universal Binary for Intel-based Macs, the company said.

A friend of mine has shoot stills for entertainment mags such as Premiere, Entertainment Weekly. Which has mostly gone digital. He told me they discuss and debate Photoshop grain filters to be used on their pictures. To add some slight texture and cut down the ultra-clean look. Because its too clean and doesn't feel real.

best wishes

Sony Electronics today introduced the F23 camera, which will support 4:4:4 1920 by 1080 RGB imaging. The system will join the HDC-F950 camera at the high-end of the company?s CineAlta line of acquisition products for digital television and motion picture content creation. It uses three 2.2 megabit 2/3-inch type progressive CCD imagers and a 14-bit A/D converter. The system will support 1080/23.98P, 24P, 25P, 29.97P, 50P, 59.94P, 50i and 59.94i formats. ?With this new system, content creators and program producers will have one more extremely versatile high-end production tool in their arsenal,? said Rob Willox, Sony?s director of marketing for professional content creation products. ?Developed for cinematographers, this system will offer the technical and mechanical flexibility they need, as well as a compact and rugged design to withstand the challenging conditions often encountered on location.? The new system will share the HDC-F950 camera?s 1920 by 1080 RGB 4:4:4 design, but also incorporate several new features, the direct result of feedback from production professionals. The SRW-1 digital 4:4:4 recorder will dock directly to the top or to the tail of the new system. This eliminates the need for cumbersome cable handling between the camera and recorder. When more mobility is required, the recorder can also be tethered using a ?dual-link? cable connection so the camera is as small and light as possible. In order to be ?film user-friendly,? the camera body will be compatible with a variety of film camera accessories, including bridge plates, matte boxes and follow focus units. These can be attached to the unit without modification. For increased durability and reliability, and to withstand the numerous lens changes that often happen on location, the F23 system will use a harder material for its lens mount (B4 type). When used with Sony?s SRW-1 VTR, the new camera system can capture and record variable speed images from 1P to 60P (1P to 30 FPS at 4:4:4 and 1P to 60 FPS at 4:2:2) at the full HD resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels. This allows for quick- or slow-motion functionality, also known as ?undercranking? or ?overcranking,? to produce special motion effects commonly used in high-end production. These variable speed images can be played back by the SRW series of VTRs immediately after shooting. The system?s control surface layout, indicators and menu system were designed to give film camera users a familiar and intuitive user interface. Users can operate the system with the supplied ?Assistant Panel? remote controller. This device connects to the camera with a single cable and allows users to remotely execute basic camera and VTR operations, such as REC/STOP, changing frame rates and shutter angle.

I wouldn't go quite that far. The amount of grain you will get depends on many factors. In general I would say the less light you use you need to make up in a faster sharper lens. If using older lenses you need more light and and a higher F-stop. example2.tiff example1.tiff This film I shot with 7279 on Zeiss Ultraprimes wide open. The only light are the practicals you see in frame.

What brand and type of lens are you shooting with? That makes a huge difference. I agree. This can depend on your definition of grainy. Seeing any grain vs seeing no discernible grain? You are pretty much always going to see some grain in 16mm. Rarely will you have a completely grainless image in 16mm.

Its statement like this that fuel heavy speculation and criticism. Stop marketing it to us, let it speak for itself.

Apple has made a priority over the years of working to standardize color workflow. Such as it did in the early 90's with color synch for the print industry. I imagine Apple would be a good partner in working with bringing ubiquitous color standards for video color and digital intermediate. Such as the ASC Technology Committee's effort for a digital printer light system. Another good thing about this deal is that a company like Apple can sell software that is expensive to develop at a lower cost than a small company. Apple may bring software color correction at 2K files to around $5000.

Apple acquires Silicon Color By Katie Marsal Apple Computer has acquired Silicon Color, a San Diego, Calif.-based company responsible for developing FinalTouch color correction software. Under the terms of the deal, the Mac maker also acquired the rights to all Silicon Color technology as well as its intellectual property. "We are pleased to announce that all Silicon Color technology and intellectual property, including FinalTouch color correction software, was recently sold to Apple," reads a message on the Silicon Color website. "Maintenance agreements held by current Silicon Color customers will be honored by Apple until they expire." Financial details about the acquisition were not made public. Silicon Color had a strong reputation for catering to video professionals through its FinalTouch 2K, FinalTouch HD, and FinalTouch SD packages. The FinalTouch 2K package, priced at $25,000, was designed for the demanding needs of professional film colorists, offering direct support for 10-bit, log-encoded Cineon and DPX files without requiring time consuming conversion or proxy-generation steps. A scaled down version of the software, called FinalTouch HD, retailed for $5000 and interfaced with Apple's Final Cut Pro video editing software via XML. The package included direct support for QuickTime media while offering many of the same features as its larger sibling. The most recent product to come out of Silicon Color was a $1000 software package called FinalTouch SD. Designed for the production facilities that have yet moved to high-definition, it offered color correction for users working with DV-CAM, Digi-Beta, or any other SD format. Apple next year is expected to roll the assets it acquired from Silicon Color into the next-generation of its Final Cut Studio digital video editing suite.

I watched the 1080P trailer at full screen on a 24" iMac. The iMac has a 1920x1200 monitor. The 1080P trailer looked a lot better than the theatrical trailer I saw. There were no telltale digital signs. But you could clearly see grain. They even digitally put grain into the background composites. This made me very happy and more excited to see the movie. Admittedly I'm much more a fan of the organic tactile quality of grain than the cold ultra-cleanness of HD.

Yep you are right. I looked at the video blogs. True enough they are shooting with Panavision Millennium, Arri 435 and 235. You cannot see it so much on the web trailer. But the detail in the theatrical trailer had a low rez digital feel. Hopefully that is only the trailer and that detail will be smoother in the actual projection print.

I just saw this before The Departed. Looks pretty cool. Obviously another HD greensecreen affair. With most of the photography work going to the post digital artists. Hopefully there is a good story behind the dazzling visuals. http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/300/

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There is a difference. Star Wars added elements that were not in the original. Star Trek won't add anything new. The graphics will remain the same, only updating the original look to HD resolution.

With HD broadcast becoming more popular, the looming shut off of the NTSC signal, and HD-DVD/Blu-ray. Old shows need to be remastered for the new medium. What they are doing with Star Trek sets an interesting precedent for remastering old sci-fi shows for HD. Of course using the original camera negative from 1966 they have retransferred it to 1080P. They have remastered the original recorded audio for stereo surround sound. They have re-recorded the Star Trek title and theme music for stereo surround sound. The surprising part of this is that they are are also upgrading the visual effects. They are replacing all of the shots of model space ships and drawn planets with CGI elements in HD resolution. All transporter effects, laser fire, and electronic explosions will be recreated with current technology GCI. The painted background art for planets will be given more depth with current CGI technology. These changes are in preparation to broadcast the original Star Trek in HD and for HD-DVD/Blu-ray disk sets. www.startrek.com

As far as Mac vs Windows its pretty subjective. You would need to try both and choose which feels better for you. Pretty much the same with software. Test different work flows and see which you like best. For processing HDV on the PC its suggested that you have at least a 3GHz Pentium 4 machine. On the Mac its suggested you have at least a 1.8GHz G4. Any G5 or Intel Core machine will be fine.

That myth has also been dispelled. Money is not saved from lighting HD. Because lighting is such a subjective art, you are lighting for mood just as much and in some cases more than you are lighting for exposure.

Applications highly optimized to use Altivec have an entire instruction set that is not usable on the G3 chip. I'm sure newer software is so optimized to make full use of Altivec that some operations on the G3 with no Altivec SIMD instruction set may not even be usable. The newer SIMD instruction set on Intel chips will go well beyond Altivec, technology moves on.

I don't know of any hacks. Are you laying back to HDV tape? I suspect you are running into that limitation because the computer has to re-encode from Apple's intemediary codec back to mpeg long GOP to lay that back to tape. That requires a lot of processing power. In the PC world it is recommended you have at least a Pentium 4 3Ghz do deal with HDV.

Film is good for archiving because of how simply it works. All you need to do is shine a light through a print and you have an image. This simple task transcends time. Film is a physical medium and needs to be taken care of. Given enough time heat and humidity will destroy any physical medium. Hollywood studios were not concerned with archiving and preservation until the 90's. Even though film will last a long time you still need someone who is trained to take care of it. Film is expensive for the studios, but digital is far more expensive for theaters Without a compatible DVD player you cannot see anything from a DVD.

In a way molecular structure does deal with resolution. Silver Halide crystals are made from molecules, which are atoms bound into a defined structure. Light photons strike the halide crystals dislodging electrons from the halide ions. Electrons group against silver ions forming neutral atoms, millions of neutral atoms group together forming black spots on each crystal, which together form an exposed image. The more efficiently light photons are able to dislodge halide electrons to form with silver ions, allow atoms to form an exposed image on each crystal with less light, faster speed films can be made from smaller grain, more fine detail can be recorded on a faster speed of film. Older film stocks are unable to record light as efficiently as newer film stocks which will leave more crystals unexposed. The solution is to increase light level or increase the size of the crystals which also allows for more course grain and less fine detail. I don't think the article's comparison of molecules and pixels is valid. Pixels and silver halide grain are totally different in how they work.

I was just reading an article about AVCHD. It appears to be an i-frame codec and not a long GOP like HDV. This may be the reason why Panasonic did not want in on HDV. AVCHD will record at 18Mbps, support true 24P, and record Dolby Digital AC3. Of course this is likely to be touted as the new greatest thing in prosumer cameras. Both Panasonic and Sony are members of the Blu-ray consortium. Sony has said it will release Blu-ray consumer cameras when it becomes affordable, and that AVCHD will live along with Blu-ray. Its likely AVCHD is a stop-gap until Blu-ray becomes available. What happens with HDV, does Sony continue to support it? Sony will go from HDV, to AVCHD, to Blu-ray. This is one of the reason why I don't rush to buy a prosumer camera, every year they come out with the newest best thing. People keep buying these new cameras and decks thinking they are the newest and best, to soon be replaced by something even newer and better.