It’s been another exciting year in our industry, with lots of evolutionary and revolutionary changes. Many of the trends we’ve seen coming for the past several years came to fruition in 2011, leaving some to wonder what comes next. Let’s take a look back and see if it can help inform us a bit on what’s to come in 2012.

So…is film dead now?

Pundits have been predicting the end to film as a production medium for decades, but now it seems that the writing is on the wall. Digital Cinema camera technology has advanced to the point that nearly all production for television has moved to electronic acquisition. Currently the majority of high-end features are still produced on 35mm film, but it appears only a matter of time before this completely transitions as well. Most lower- to medium-budget productions are already being shot digitally, and numerous notable high-end productions are as well. In particular, shooting digitally for 3D productions is significantly more advantageous compared to film. This has also spurred the rollout of digital projection, as this is again far easier to accomplish for 3D presentation. The final nail may be the financial advantage to studios distributing movies digitally rather than with film prints. Fox has already notified theater chains that it plans to eliminate film prints sometime next year. Without the steady income stream of film prints, plus TV and commercial production, the economic model supporting film stock producers and processing labs will eventually no longer function. We may look back on 2011 as the last year film had a significant, dominant position in the industry, before becoming relegated to “niche” productions.

…continue reading A Look Back From Behind The Lens

OConnor has expanded their range of camera accessories with two moderately-priced devices.  The OConnor OFocus Mini is a two-sided follow focus with a low gear ratio optimized for use with non-cine lenses. This versatile unit includes many features of its big brother the OConnor CFF-1, as well as offering some unique functionality.  The OConnor Universal Baseplate Set is a rod mounting system for any small camera. Its wide range of adjustability means that it is not camera-specific, allowing one to confidently make a long term accessory purchase.

Watch the video above to see more detail on the new OConnor OFocus Mini and Universal Baseplate Set.

Zeiss has been the industry leader in motion picture optics for decades. The renowned quality of Zeiss optics married with the lower cost of the lightweight and rugged CP.2 Compact Primes led to a product that was a runaway success. Now the company has let its intentions be known for future cinema products. Coming soon will be additional focal lengths for the Compact Primes (there are currently nine sizes available), as well as a set of Compact Zooms to complement the CP.2s. Zeiss will also re-enter the anamorphic lens arena, manufacturing the only commercially available set of 2x anamorphic primes in the industry.

Our friend Jon Fauer talked to Zeiss’ Christian Bannert and Michael Schielen recently. Read the article in the latest edition of Film & Digital Times.

ARRI’s latest lighting innovation is the L7 series of LED-based Fresnels. The line is made up of three fixtures: the L7-T (3200K tungsten-balanced), the L7-D (5400K daylight-balanced), and the L7-C (color-controllable). The L7-C can be adjusted from 2700K-10000K, with an additional green/magenta control. It also features a “Hue Mode” for theatrical color effects.

These fixtures have a wide range of beam control, produce single, sharp shadows like conventional Fresnel fixtures, are fully dimmable from 0-100% with no color shift, and have an even field of illumination. Most importantly, at just 220w, the L7 LED lights use less than a quarter of the power of a 1000w tungsten Fresnel fixture with equivalent light output. Watch my video above to learn more about these versatile new lights.

ARRI has released the latest Software Update Packet (SUP), v5.0 for the ALEXA and ALEXA Plus cameras. All new cameras will ship with SUP v5.0 installed, and it is available as a free download from the ARRI website for all current ALEXA owners. SUP 5.0 is a major upgrade for the ALEXA cameras, with several important new features and useful improvements.

New features of SUP v5.0 include (for both ALEXA & ALEXA Plus):

High Frame Rates

Access to the new High Speed License

With SUP v5.0, you can now purchase a license through the ARRI website which allows the camera to shoot from 60fps – 120fps and record to ProRes 422HQ on the new Sony 64G SxS Pro cards.

ProRes 4444 recording up to 60fps

The new Sony 64G SxS Pro cards have much higher sustained data read/write capabilities than the 32G SxS Pro cards. This allows the ALEXA to feed up to 60fps of ProRes 4444 to the cards with no dropped frames or file corruption. In previous firmware releases, ProRes 4444 was limited to 40fps and you needed to capture in ProRes 422 HQ or below to record 60fps.

ARRIRAW and HD-SDI 4:4:4 recording up to 60fps

ARRI has developed a unique dual-link 3G signal path so that ARRI Partner recorders can capture up to 60fps of full uncompressed ARRIRAW or 10-bit HD-SDI 4:4:4 in full resolution progressive signals. Codex has released software to enable their Onboard recorder to capture ARRIRAW and HD-SDI 4:4:4 over this protocol.

…continue reading ARRI Releases New ALEXA Firmware 5.0

The back up and archiving of acquisition media is a critical topic that may not be sufficiently understood by many productions. Some productions only consider archiving options after the project is complete, while others believe that the back up of original material onto additional hard drives is sufficient. Neither of these approaches, however, utilizes the organizational and long-term advantages of a proper archival system.

In the first of an on-going series of Technical Resource papers on asset management, we discuss the differences between data back up and archiving, and their related technologies. Read the full article here.

AbelCine also offers a number of solutions to help archive and manage your media, including products from Cache-A and BRU.

The new PRG TruColor Foton light uses a unique technology called “remote phosphor.” An internal light source strikes a crystal impregnated with rare earth elements that then glows brightly. The large surface of the emitter allows for a precise mix of the phosphorescent material for accurate colors across the visible spectrum. By physically separating the phosphor plate from the light source within the unit, heat management keeps the material from baking and changing color over time. The Foton delivers accurate colors and does so for the life of the product and it is also flicker-free.

The AbelCine Foton kit includes a set of three interchangeable reflectors (wide, medium, flood), barndoors, and an AC power supply with a gland-seal waterproof connector. The light fixture itself is sealed and water resistant. The Foton consumes only 30w but is equivalent in output to a 150w tungsten light. It is fully dimmable with no color change and no flicker.

Watch my video for more on the Foton and remote phosphor lighting technology.