Film vs Digital – The Debate (and War) is Over

UPDATE – 2011/08/28

I want to point anyone who reads this article (written and published 2010/01/29) to also read my latest articles starting here Red EPIC performs beyond all expectations on Murder at the Manor! and here Shooting Red One MX, Arri Alexa, and Red EPIC all in the space of two months!

 

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It’s a topic that I’ve purposely avoided for some time now, largely because I find it incredibly annoying to talk about. People are usually unashamedly subjective and biased and so any given conversation typically goes something like this.

Did you know that HD is only about a quarter the resolution of 35mm film? That’s why digital will never match it.

Well, it all depends… there’s so much resolution loss from the original camera negative through to the release prints, and then there the loss in projection… it ends up only about 1.5K by the time it hits the big screen.

Besides, I can shoot 4.5K on my Red One, most 35mm lenses won’t even resolve that detail…

It’s not just resolution, or even exposure latitude, although your Red One won’t give you anything close to 11 stops. Film has three dimensions, it’s a suspension of silver halide crystals, it has depth… it’s beautiful… and if you think your really getting 4K out of that sensor, you’re kidding yourself… a Beyer sensor is fatally flawed, it’s not true 4K, it’s chroma sub sampling and that compression… you’ll only get true 4K with a 4K scan from film negative. And don’t even let me start with CMOS imagers…

You videots are all the same… young upstarts with no discipline and all the toys… back in my day…

and it continues… and turns perfectly respectable professionals into bickering children.

The fact is that film is being replaced by digital acquisition for mainstream commercial cinema, and the process has just been expediated by the recent success of Avatar, a huge win for 3D stereoscopic digital domination. It’s going to happen, it is happening, it has in fact happened. We all need to accept this.

What are the effects we are seeing in the film industry globally?

1. A new generation of previously disempowered film makers now have a chance to rise to the top.

Digital aqcuisition, and post production require a complete and total paradigm shift in the minds of almost everyone involved. The young DV generation that have come up over past 10 years are in prime position already to run with this while the older, slower but more established players struggle to play catch up, many of whom in fact are still in a state of denial.

2. Huge power shifts in an established industry.

We are seeing household names, companies that a few years ago were front runners, now struggling to keep up. Some didn’t see it coming, some did but denied it for too long to adapt, some simply were not able to adapt quickly enough. Big names associated with film are facing an uncertain future… they will have to adapt and change their product or risk a dinosaur like extinction.

3. A record number of digital start ups.

I believe that more new production entities, and digital cinema focused service companies, empowered by the digital cinema revolution are appearing everywhere. These companies are started by everyone from film school graduates, former IT industry specialists that now find their skill-set in high demand, cross-overs from web, design, photography… and other associated industries, and dreamers from any number of other related and unrelated backgrounds. Anyone who has a story now has access to the tools to make a movie.

4. Massive competition.

We are entering a time of massive competition in a worldwide global marketplace, hopefully in the next decade the dust will settle and survival of the fittest will kill off the weakest, and leave a new order to the film industry, some new names, some old names re-invented… a fresh landscape.

5. Major Innovation, from the ground up.

The next decade will see more innovation around the new tools we have begun to see than any other time in the history of cinema. We have literally seen only the tip of the iceberg. New products and designs are more likely to come from underground innovators than the big names we have previously relied on for cutting edge technology.

So what will happen to film?

Film is not going anywhere. I believe it’s use will shift from the commercial mainstream to the artistic niche. There is already a backlash by some against the digital revolution, and I would argue this may produce some of the best work that has ever been shot on film. So I do not believe film will die, I love the medium, and there are far too many who will refuse to let it go. This is fantastic news. The masses will go digital, creating an artistic elite who will love and cherish film more than ever.

I believe we will see a real resurgence in super 8mm, and both 16mm and 35mm will settle and adapt to enjoy a much smaller but stable and highly dedicated market.

While film is on the decline, there exists a window of opportunity to shoot film at a lower cost than ever before. Gear rental houses want to extract the last bit of profit from their film equipment, and the film stock manufacturers will give massive discounts on stock and packages. For those who want to own their own film camera equipment, in the coming years you will find 16mm and 35mm camera bodies at very affordable prices to own.

I believe that once things settle however, film will become even more expensive as less raw stock is manufactured and fewer processing labs worldwide will be in operation.

The writing is on the wall… or if you go see Avatar… is on the big screen. It’s time to get real and deal with the implications this new reality has on your career, business, productions and strategies in 2010 and beyond.

3D Stereoscopy – Canon 5D MkII and some DIY tips and tricks

I’ve had some enquiries at work, as well as some recent facebook conversations about low budget DIY 3D, specifically around the Canon 5D/7D.

First off I’m going to talk about the Canon’s and why it doesn’t work… at the moment, and I’ll give a link and pics to people who don’t care and have done it anyway. So read what I’m saying but don’t necessarily let it stop you from experimenting.

In this age of firmware updates and software driven, microprocessor controlled cameras (basically all of them), the camera’s capabilities are typically defined and limited by software rather than by hardware alone. This is fantastic as it allows new features to be added over time in firmware updates that can be released over the net. One prime example of this is the update that will allow 23.98, 24, 25fps recording on the Canon 5D. It didn’t come out of the factory this way, but market demand dictates to Canon that they missed the mark and the demand is for those missing frame rates. They built the camera in such a way that they can change the software, make it available as a download, and keep their clients happy. It’s no longer a case, as it used to be, that you had to buy a whole new camera, or update the hardware inside. Red Digital Cinema has been doing this for years, and with each new firmware update, a Red One owner finds themselves with a brand new camera. The hardware hasn’t changed, but the software and codecs have become more sophisticated and better with time.

Back to the Canon, the two main issues facing anyone wanting to shoot 3D with the Canon’s are sync, and codec. Both of these issues are actually tied to the same underlying need, a need which the Canon’s cannot meet and no firmware update can change this.

For 3D stereoscopy to work, both cameras shutters must be perfectly in sync, in fact, really the sensors must be read at identical times down to the millisecond. Right and left eye must be temporaly identical, exposures taken at precisely the same moment. This is especially the case when the camera moves, or a subject moves through the frame. Any temporal shift that results in a mis-match between the relative positions of cameras or subject due to out of sync shutter will compromise the stereo effect.

At the moment, there is no way to sync the shutters on two 5D’s or 7D’s. The other issue is that H.264 is not recording true frame by frame motion in any case. A frame is an approximation, and may share much of the image data from the frame before it or after it (in image areas with limited or no percievable change). This in fact may not make 3D an impossibility but it is certainly a major compromise.

Here’s a link to a very good discussion on the Cinema5D forum and some pictures of a stereo rig made from 3DFilmFactory’s excellently priced beam splitter rig.

http://www.cinema5d.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=4813&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&sid=d774b80aa5ffc8f9d138a737db104c16#p33219

5D MkII 3D Rig on modified 3DFilmFactory beam splitter

another angle of the 5D’s on the beam splitter

Routing of the fibre optics

The 3DFilmFactory 3D BS Pro priced at only $4295

Here you can see the modified rig, and the mothod they have used to sync the “record” start/stop as best they could by splitting the infra red signal from the remote over fibre optic cables to the two respective IR sensors on the camera bodies.

http://www.3dfilmfactory.com/3d_camera_rigs.html#3dbs

This is the best, most cost effective beam splitter you will find, it’s really a indie DIY 3D dream come true.

I want to mention a couple other generic but important considerations.

Inter-ocular distance is the distance between the optical centre axis of the two cameras. This needs to approximate the distance between two human eyes, but the rule is about 1/30th of the distance to the nearest object.

Convergence is the ability to bring the two centre axis together at the point of focus. In this case, convergence is  a matter of an adjustment at the camera base plate, and could be geared to the motorized focus mechanism driving the focus rings on the two lenses.

Some rigs us a parallel set-up where inter-axial distance is changed according to the distances and composition of the shot, some choose the convergence method. Some post adjustment may be required in both cases.

Here is a great discussion on this topic:

http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/268/134

The last thing I think should be a consideration, is the method of motorizing and controlling the focus of two optically matched lenses. ARRI and C-Motion, perhaps others have 3D solutions.

Avatar (and Avid) – Buzz

Some great links and information in this blog post (below) on Avid’s community site about 3D stereoscopic workflow on Avatar.

Avatar (and Avid) – Buzz

Posted using ShareThis

3D Stereoscopy – The Latest Gold Rush

I am embarrased to say I didn’t see it coming. The re-emergence of 3D stereoscopic motion pictures, made possible by major advancements in digital production, post-production and projection technologies totally caught me off guard. I knew it was happening, but I totally under-estimated the public response, and the commercial implications it now has to our industry.

What’s obvious to me from the huge financial success of Avatar, and the focus on getting 3D into the home at this year’s CES in Las Vegas, is that for those working hard behind the scenes at making it possible , it’s been in development for some time now.

It was a natural progression, and now I watch carefully at how this latest chapter in the ongoing saga for the almighty entertainment dollar is going to play out in our industry… the battle to create content, to service the post-production, and of course distribution and delivery to an audience now primed for more.

I believe we will see the technology and expertise required in creating 3D stereo media flow from the few to the many quicker than any previous “revolution” in cinema history. We have just witnessed this happen over the past decade as the first wave of independent film makers were liberated by the likes of the Red One, bringing cinema quality production to the masses.

3D stereo will be the same, and I predict the whole shebang will play out over the next 24 months rather than 10 years. By 2012, 3D stereo acquisition and post production will be available on the street, out of the box.

There will be a huge rush to be the first to market locally and internationally the ability to service stereo productions worldwide. Camera rental facilities and post production houses will fight for market share and shout about thier unmatched experience and expertise before they even take delivery of new hardware and software. Just as with the advent of accessible digital cinema “experts” will crawl out from under every stone.

The potential pitfalls are massive. Here’s a few.

Producers – Experience tells me that the average technical competency of most producers and thier teams are still struggling to grapple with the emergence of digital cinema and the current democratization and “revolution” in this technology, the theory and operation of which are entirely outside of thier current ability and understanding. They are dependent on outside consultants, who should be experts in a very specialized field, but sadly they make do with anyone they can find who seems to have a remote idea of what’s going on. I know this when I hear producers ask me how much telecine time they need to book for thier Red One rushes.

DP’s, Directors, DIT’s, Data Wranglers – Everyone is a digital cinema “expert” and highly opinionated to boot. The combination of ignorance, ego, stubborness and hot temper makes for a sea of mis-information marketed as truth. You get a different “truth” from every “expert” you talk to. There is no formal framework to ensure competency, no formal requirements or barriers to entry and the technology (and some positions… a DIT for instance) have not existed for more than a few years, not long enough for the number of truely competent practitioners to be trained to match the demand. It’s a highly risky situation where skills are learned on the job by trial and error, and the errors can cost millions of dollars, not to mention the damage to the reputation of the tools themselves in the minds of producers who don’t know enough to realise what or who is actually at fault. I know many producers and directors who will not touch the Red One, and I am convinced the problem is not the technology, but the total lack of competency of the “experts” they have worked with.

Post-Production Facilities – Post facilities are in a hugely competitive marketplace. Anyone and everyone has access to the tools as capital outlay is no longer a barrier to entry. Competition and self-preservation are extremely strong motivating factors in over-promising, over-committing, and outright lying to potential clients about competency and the ability to deliver to ever escalating standards with ever more complex systems and technology.

Hardware and software – There is no longer enough time between alpha, beta, testing and production release stages in the development of firmware versions, codecs, and software to allow rock solid, reliable and repeatable results in post-production pipelines. This is fact, it is unchangeable and must be accepted into as a daily reality, and suitable measures put in place to problem solve on the fly, on the job and under extreme pressure. Do post-facilities employ the kind of low-level systems building and even programming and scripting expertise in-house? Typically not, and so the responsibility falls on unqualified IT and operations staff.

I am painting a bleak picture, but I believe it affords huge opportunity for the few who objectively, patiently take the correct steps to minimize exposure to the above risks, and the result will be a reputation for true expertise and excellence that surpasses any traditional marketing strategies. Those who create the technology, and / or are intimately close to those who create it, will be in prime position to profit, and creating and maintaining those relationships will be vital.

4K is here to stay

When I first became excited about 4K digital cinema, back in 2003 after seeing the Dalsa Origin camera at NAB in Las Vegas, there were very few people who believed it was more than a gimmicky fad. HD had barely begun to take hold in only the most wealthy homes, and SD was certainly still the standard for broadcast and home entertainment delivery.

I am proud to see myself as one of the few early believers, hence this site, which has been running in one form or another for more than 4 years.

When I first looked into purchasing a 4K ready digital intermediate system, in 2007/8 the technology was expensive and in relative infancy. The Red One was a myth, and Apple and Assimilate were the only two partners offering Red post workflow solutions, Apple in an offline capacity, Assimilate with a full conform/grade/finishing solution in the form of SCRATCH.

Now 4K digital cinema is solidly on the roadmap to become the post-HD format of choice in the theater and in the home, although this will likely take 5-10 years as Full HD is not yet mainstream. I will re-visit this projection as we go forward and as the technology involved becomes cheaper and more readily available.

At CES 2010 Panasonic revealed a 152″ quad-HD plasma display, natively displaying full raster 4K images on a 3D, 16-bit capable display. Digital cinema projectors are on the way to 4K also, with Sony’s SXRD technology, already a few years old having cleared the way for everyone else, only now developing 4K solutions.

Red Digital Cinema have had their “Red-Ray” 4K delivery system under tight wraps for some time now, using Redcode RAW as the proprietary codec. This is likely to be the world’s first 4K distributable format for home and cinema.

There remains only two 4K cameras, the Red One and the DALSA Origin, with Arri’s new D21′s at 3.5K purposed to deliver a solid 2K image. The Sony F35 is 2K, as are the other digital cinema and high speed cameras currently in use. My feeling is that most camera manufacturers are making a serious oversight in this regard. It is a stubbornness I do not understand.

Nvidia’s CUDA technology is unmatched currently and is the front-runner in GPU based massively scalable multi-processor technology, and this is a crucial foundation for future 4K+ post-production solutions requiring real-time uncompressed multi-threaded performance.

Solid state data storage could play an important role in replacing the current electro-mechanical hard drive technology that has remained largely unchanged (apart from capacity, speed, bandwidth and interface) for the past 30+ years in delivering the TB/sec data transfer rates that are required in the 4K+ realm.

The potential data-bottlenecks are not just in storage, but also between processor cores, cache, memory… almost everywhere that huge amounts of data must be moved. Advancements in processor architecture, especially in the recent demise of the FSB or front side bus also plays a large role in keeping processors on their ever escalating performance curve.

All these advancements together make a 4K+ vision of the future a very probable reality.

These are very exciting times, and with the likes of Panavision’s HDRI (high dynamic range imaging) “Dynamax35″ sensor technologies, currently under tight wrap, not to mention exciting performance promised by Red Digital Cinema’s new generation Mysterium-X 35mm and larger sensors, we are finally within reach of exceeding even large format 65mm film’s performance envelope on specification alone for any and all motion picture, entertainment and visual arts applications.

Why 4K?

A great post from Jim Jannard (Red Digital Cinema) recently on reduser below:

http://reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=39773

Why shoot 4K? If the world is currently finishing in 1080P and 2K, what is the real advantage to 4K?

The key word is “currently”.

Sony has placed several hundred 4K projectors in theaters. Christie, Barco and Meridian have 4K projectors. Epson just showed their 4K projector for the home. Panasonic has released its 152″ 4K plasma. Sony, Sharp and Samsung all have shown 4K display prototypes. Why? Because the future is 4K delivery. We think on RED Ray (RED 4K).

So what does that mean? It means that Hollywood Studio libraries can be re-released in 4K. But ONLY if shot on film or RED. If you shot on a 1080P camera… it just won’t work. Uprezzing from 1080P to 4K is a 430% jump.

Film resolves around 3K measured (from a 4K scan) and the RED ONE about 3.2K. Those will scale to 4K delivery no problem. EPIC is a 5K sensor that delivers a full 4K measured resolution. More than just about anything you can shoot and exactly what the doctor ordered for the future.

We encourage you to consider the future possibilities of what your footage can be used for when making a camera selection. Why would you shoot SD now? If 4K delivery is the future, why would you shoot 1080P and limit future options?

Jim

“Everything is about to change”

A few days ago someone brought to my attention Arri’s new range of 35mm format digital cinema cameras. The D21 has certainly come of age by now, a mature camera platform that has proven itself time and time again. The new D21′s look fantastic, and the tech specs are great, most notably the new “ALEV III” sensor and a choice between optical and electronic viewfinder. However, in my opinion there is nothing particularly groundbreaking about the hardware.

What stood out to me was the slogan “everything is about to change”, as if this was meant to have some impact on me. Everything is changing on a monthly, perhaps weekly basis. It is now a fully entrenched reality of the technological landscape, that the only thing you can count on is change.

Not long ago it took years for a new and substantial advancement or innovation in a technology to result in a new generation product, now this has been reduced to a matter of months. The whole idea of a “technological revolution” has largely lost most of it’s effect on me. Perhaps I have just become too cynical or jaded.

The key turning point in the chain of recent revolutionary changes, which more or less changed everything, was the promise of the worlds first accessible high resolution, large format single sensor digital cinema camera… the Red One. Before this was the Dalsa Origin, truely the worlds first 4K digital cinema camera, and in this same breath I should also mention the Silicon Imaging SI1920 and later the SI2K, however, the Red One promised to be cheap, and available to all. This truely and honestly changed everything.

The next thing to change everything substantially was 3D digital cinema, and this change is busy making it’s presence felt right this very moment, as I am writing this. We are currently seeing this roll out before us with the runaway success of James Cameron’s “Avatar”.

The significance of this one film cannot be underestimated. It has single handedly changed everything literally overnight and the effect is every bit as massive as that ushered in by Jim Jannard and his team of mad professors at Red Digital Cinema, perhaps moreso. Avatar’s impact is permanent and immediate… 3D is here to stay, and if we thought the demand for high quality HD content was high, the demand for high quality 3D HD content will quickly outstrip it.

In the past week everything has changed again, with the overwhelming focus at the CES in Las Vegas in putting 3D in the home, as well as commitments from major broadcasters in adopting 3D content delivery.

In addition to this, the ever decreasing gap between the TV and the personal computer is about to change everything.

Your television will soon be literate in every flavour of online streaming media available and will be directly connected to the net 24/7. The set-top box will die a quick death as direct high bandwidth internet brings online content directly to the home screen next to traditional satellite and cable.

We are truely moving into an age where anyone can broadcast via the net to televisions and home theatres anywhere in the world in HD, even in 3D. Be ready to watch the powers that be in broadcast panic and attempt to grasp the last shreds of control.

These are truely exciting times for independent content production and delivery.

Arri, on the other hand need a reality check and a new slogan.