Sundance Film Festival

While so much of the technology buzz (such as it is) at Sundance centers on camera formats, the Film Center is also a great place to understand modern desktop post production. Just as digital video formats expand options (and reduce costs) for cinematography, there are new options for desktop post production too.

As cameras become–effectively–computers, computers become data processing tools for image data. Much of this processing–which used to take place in labs and in post production facilities can now be simplified into powerful desktop operations, accessible to almost anyone. That‘s not a “democratization” hype thing, it‘s just a fair assessment of the lay of the land. This does not mean that you can buy a workstation and some software and never need anything ever again. Mastering, DI, film out (or file out) and other processes, especially those related to large format deliverables often still require a trip to the post house. But for the modern filmmaker, it is possible to put together a desktop infrastructure that supports the bulk of your daily work.

Here‘s what‘s going in post production at the Sundance Film Center, from the ground up.

Primary sponsor HP is there with three Intel-based workstations.

-xw8200: powerful 64-bit workstation that is designed to provide a lot of power and scaleabilty. Pricing starts at $1500 and can quickly get to around $2500. For that you can have very high expectations of the system, throw most software at it, and with the addition of some accelerator hardware–Blackmagic and Aja both provide certified options–you can also get to uncompressed, realtime HD performance on the back of this workstation. In some cases these performance upgrades cost more than the computer–in other cases not. It‘s important to know your workflow needs so you can determine your price/performance tradeoffs.

-xw4300: $900-$1500+ range in price in part depending on whether you choose single or dual core, 32 or 64 bits, and what you do in graphics cards. This workstation supports filmmaking well, especially if you don‘t need a lot of realtime rendering. Even at the most entry-level configuration, you‘ll be able to use professional software tools like those from Adobe.

-nw8240: this is a mobile workstation, ideal for field editing or just for those who like a portable hardware infrastructure.

In addition to being at the HP booth, these workstations appear throughout the Film Center in support of various software options.

-At the Avid booth, Avid Xpress Pro is running on the xw4300 for an affordable way to get the features of an Avid workflow and interface. Filmmakers frequently point out to me the advantages of Avid media management and organizational tools, so if you‘re there ask to see some demonstrations or attend one of the hands-on courses led by Avid product designers Michael Phillips and Matt Feury.

-At the Adobe booth, Adobe is introducing their new Production Studio product (which combines all new versions of Photoshop, Premiere, After Effects, Encore DVD, and Audition) on Adobe Open HD systems based on HP/Intel workstations. Open HD systems are a range of turnkey systems with certified and integrated options for hardware, software and acceleration. At the Adobe booth you can see an entry level system based on the xw4300 and a top-of-the-line realtime uncompressed system based on the xw8200 and incorporating Matrox Axio acceleration.

-In the Intel area you can see another Adobe Open HD system, also running on the xw8200, but incorporating a Blackmagic IO and acceleration upgrade. This is an inexpensive upgrade providing significant gains in power for certain applications. Again, ask for a demo.

The best way to ask questions is to establish up front your priorities and workflow. What camera formats do you use most often, are your IO needs, how much rendering do you do, how much audio do you do, what are your usual deliverables, what are your time sucks, how are you planning to grow your business? At this point in post production there is no magic, best system. There are systems and software that do some things exceptionally well, others that do other things well. Just going by brand name or what you‘ve heard is “good” is no way to choose a desktop editing system. The gotchas for you will not be the same as the gotachas for someone else. And in this era of HDV, HD, DI, DVD…etc there are a lot of gotchas.