Archive for April 13th, 2008

Panasonic introduced a veritable treasure trove of new camcorders at its press conference at Bally’s this afternoon.

The big ones: Two new Varicam models, a new handheld P2 HD model, and a similarly sized AVCHD model.

The Varicams, AJ-HPX3700 and AJ-HPX2700, are 2/3in. 3CCD models that feature 10-bit 4:2:2 AVC-Intra recording, HD-SDI output of 23.98PsF/24PsF, and a multi-gamma function that includes Film-Rec for the vaunted Varicam look.

The 3700 offers full 1920×1080 capture via three 2.2Mpixel CCDs and 4:4:4 dual-link RGB output. The 2700 has three 2/3in. 1Mpixel CCDs. more

The most interesting session on Sunday from my point of view at the Digital Cinema Summit was the session titled “Perspective from the Art Director’s Guild: The Impact of Digital Photography.” In the category of what many of us who follow the rise and evolution of digital cameras don’t pay nearly enough attention to is how these technologies are affecting the other crafts. In this session, Tom Walsh, the president of the Art Directors Guild Technology Committee (did you even realize the Art Directors had a technology committee? I didn’t, which is sort of my point) made clear the impact is significant on set designers, art directors, and costume designers, among others. Walsh and four of his colleagues talked the audience through that impact–showing clips from various movies and TV shows shot digitally, explaining how color, textures, and fabrics were impacted in those sequences by the way they were shot with digital camera systems. more

It was a thought-provoking Sunday at the Digital Cinema Summit, permeated by the notion that while the long-building digital cinema rollout generally is gathering a nice head of steam across the land, a new monkey-wrench has been thrown into that mix. That monkey-wrench is, in the view of John Fithian, President and CEO of the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO), the unexpectedly rapid rise of stereoscopic 3D into the equation. In his Keynote Address, Fithian pointed out that digital cinema’s enablement of a new generation of 3D motion pictures has been wonderful for box office business lately (due to some of us digging U2 3D and the like, while the younger generation, or so I’ve been told, has been swarming to check out Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert), and as a result, a lot more is on the way in 2009, including James Cameron’s Avatar among others. more

I love seeing the showfloor before it’s finished. Here are a few shots from around noon today, Sunday, as the build-out of each booth starts to become a scramble.

Autodesk announced the 2009 releases of the Autodesk Inferno, Autodesk Flame and Autodesk Flint software for visual effects systems, and the Autodesk Smoke software finishing system. The company also announced Extension 1 for Autodesk Toxik 2008 software for digital compositing. The releases will be showcased at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) 2008 conference in Las Vegas, Nevada from April 14-17, 2008 at the Autodesk booth SL1420. Read on at The Briefing Room

More 2008 NAB Show news from The Briefing Room

Autodesk laid out its NAB plans today. One might expect a relatively quiet NAB from the 3D/visual effects company that’s responsible for Maya, 3ds Max, and the Smoke/Flame/Flint/Inferno/Toxik series of high-end visual effects and finishing tools.

After all, IBC in September was the venue for the release of the company’s 2008 versions of the aforementioned VFX/finishing software. But as Mark Petit, SVC of Media & Entertainment for Autodesk said, “It’s not about thinking different but acting faster.” This six-month release cycle might be difficult to maintain, but Petit noted that at NAB 2008, the company will begin to shape next year’s versions in “behind-the-scenes meetings” at the show.

So what’s new for the 2009 line, which will be available at the end of the month? A few highlights: Smoke 2009 gets a new tree-based compositing workflow called Batch FX, designed to pump up the finishing platform’s visual effects chops and to open up the workflow between the editing timeline and effects. Smoke also gets a new, lower price tag that’s aimed at mid-tier post and broadcast facilities: systems now start at $64,000 (including storage). more