Archive of the Brushes with Fame Category

Serendipity on the show floor makes for impromptu sessions. Tuesday I ran into cinematographer Bill Bennett in front of the Sony F35 parked on a dolly in front of Brand Pro’s booth. Not much to say about the F35–35 means its newly developed single CCD is the size of a Super 35mm film frame–except that it’s as impressively thought out as last year’s F23 on which it’s based, and like its double first cousin, Panavision’s Genesis, did once, it sets a new highwater mark in 4:4:4 RGB high-end digital cinematography cameras.

Well, for $250,000 without lens, it ought to. A lot to pay in weak dollars for tighter depth-of-field and better dynamic range than the F23, plus 1-50 fps variable speed in 4:4:4 (compared to F23’s 1-30). But you do get every pixel you pay for. This is a full-on 1920×1080 RGB image—no Bayer interpolation of phantom R and B pixels here, no sir. Leave that to lowly CMOS cameras like the REDs, Silicon Imaging 2Ks and Minis, and Arri D21s (at NAB upgraded from D20 with new 2K RAW data output mode). more

Monday’s dharma at NAB was about bigness and smallness, and I’m still thinking about it.

Yesterday Tim Robbins gave the keynote speech. Ever since FCC Chairman Newton Minow gave his famous “vast wasteland” speech at NAB in 1961, it seems NAB has played it safe. Past keynotes I’ve attended have featured Ronald Reagan (attacked on stage by an ice sculpture-wielding assailant, yards from where I was sitting), Barry Diller, Richard Parsons of Time-Warner, James Cameron and the like. Safe Republican choices, not likely to get former NAB CEO and good ol’ boy Eddie Fritts in any Washington hot water.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the Convention Center this year.

How Tim Robbins got invited to give the keynote is anyone’s guess. But there he was, on stage, facing a large morning audience of radio and TV broadcasters, cable owners and mixed-media types. more

Storage is a consistent problem for video producers, and I just learned about a new, high performance, relatively low cost solution. Plus saw the Red camera in action, got a refresher course on RAID numerology and met with filmmaker Thor Wixom in the same meeting.

First the storage technology, which is called xSATA, and available on a product from AMCC called 3ware Sidecar, which includes a PCI Express card and enclosure that can house up to four disks drives (around $595). Configure the unit with four, 1TB drives, and you can get up to 4T of storage for about $2,000, which isn’t that much more on a per gigabyte basis than a simple eSATA system.

Where eSATA uses one connection to service all drives in an external enclosure, xSATA devotes one connection to each drive. AMCC claims that this increases throughput from an actual bandwidth of about 40 MB/second for eSATA to about 350MB for xSATA. more

I chatted a short time ago with 3D pioneer Vince Pace after watching his Fusion 3D presentation of sports-related material in a meeting room in the North Hall, including clips from the recent 3D telecast to a theater in Dallas of a Dallas Mavericks NBA game–the first lengthy satellite broadcast of a 3D originated live event.

Pace took time out of his busy NAB schedule today to chat with me extensively about that project, about the current state of 3D acquisition and display, and where both stereoscopic camera and display systems are heading in the next few years, not to mention the business of 3D. Pace is calling himself an “evangelist” on this topic, and insists the technology hurdles are all well on their way to being solved on both ends of the 3D chain, and therefore, it’s now about creating business models that make sense. To do that, he insists content providers like his company need to create imagery of a good enough quality to wow the industry and consumers alike. And, oh yes, Vince is totally tripped out over the work he’s doing right now with James Cameron for his upcoming 3D epic, Avatar.

Listen to my conversation with Vince Pace

–MG

The last time I sat in a stadium with Pete Rose was in Atlanta Fulton County Stadium on August 1, 1978, when his 44 game hitting streak came to an abrupt conclusion. I recall that he unsuccessfully attempted a surprise drag bunt to maintain the streak, a cheap but perfectly understandable attempt. However, this event was far in the recesses of my mind when I accepted the invitation of Redback Networks to watch a minor league game between the Las Vegas 51‘s and the Salt Lake Bees. Pete Rose was to be in attendance and would be signing autographs.

Living in Atlanta for 22 years, and blessed with friends and acquaintances with ticket connections, I saw my share of major league baseball games, including the night in 1992 where Sid Bream scored on a hit by Francisco Cabrera to clinch the National League Pennant (Braves Win! Braves Win! Braves Win!), surely the most exciting game ever. Four years later, I was there when Tom Glavine pitched the game of his life, and David Justice homered to win the Braves their only World Series title. more

Director Steve Anderson and his colleagues made a detailed presentation about the making of the 3D version of Disney’s Meet the Robinsons during Sunday’s Digital Cinema Summit at NAB. Before that presentation, I sat down with Anderson, a first-time director, to discuss the making of 3D movies, managing the production process, and the future of CG animation and 3D. Click here to listen to our conversation.

–Michael Goldman

Among the slew of cinematographers attending the Digital Cinema Summit today was Robert Primes, ASC. Today was the second time in a week I bumped into Bob. He was among the ASC members who attend a special event at Dalsa’s Woodland Hills, CA, headquarters last week to offer a look at a prototype of the new Evolution 4k Camera (billed by Dalsa as the “smaller, lighter version of its big brother, the Origin II,” not available until 2008). At the invitation of company president Rob Hummel, Primes and the other DP’s were urged to “think outside the box” and offer Dalsa their criticisms and suggestions for the technology’s direction. Most of the DP’s that evening, including Primes, seemed satisfied with the image quality and creative potential of Dalsa’s cameras, and were instead focused on an ongoing issue–size and ergonomics. Primes was among those who grilled Hummel and his colleagues hard that night. more

I blew into town this morning with an hour‘s sleep, expecting not much more than a slow day of stem-winding Digital Cinema Summit panels perfect for napping. Instead I got a fast day of welcome surprises.

Cooling my jets in the press lounge while a squad of black-clad IT guys tapped at my iBook trying to puzzle out why the friendliest of laptops can‘t connect to NAB‘s wireless network — after a 20-minute session, the verdict: “Your computer and our network don‘t get along.” No point in my pointing out that that every notebook in sight is a Mac — I encountered CML‘s Geoff Boyle, brimming with excitement. (Geoff, a U.K.-based Director of Photography, founded and runs the influential Cinematography Mailing List, an Internet exchange for professional DPs, ACs, DITs, and camera techs.) more