A Few Best Men

Daniel Mulligan was hired as 2nd Unit DP for the Feature Production "A Few Best Men". The shoot was photographed on ARRI Alexa recording ARRIRAW to S.two OB1 data recorders. Pure Digital supplied all the data recording equipment plus full data workflows and back-up solutions. The shoot was London pick-ups for a Production that shot main unit in Sydney, Australia.

Mister Poppers Penguins!

Director Mark Waters and DP Florian Ballhaus have decided to use ARRI Alexa cameras and S.two’s OB-1 on-board recorder and complete file-based workflow for all principal photography on “Mister Popper’s Penguins” starring Jim Carey.

OB-1 and Alexa ARRIRAW

David Cronenberg has chosen OB-1 and Alexa ARRIRAW for his new feature film “Cosmopolis” in Canada right now.
Phil Lord is also directing “ 21 Jump Street ” with OB-1 and using FlashDock workflows.
“Freelancers” with Robert DeNiro is also currently shooting with Alexa and OB-1.

Madam Butterfly 3D - Testing

Pure Digital supplies full data back-up services and OB-1 data recorders for another 3D shoot. This time we tested the F3s with 2 x Optimo Zooms recording 2 x 422 stereo feeds into 1 OB1 recorder. The shooting begins next week.

Cinegear LA 2011!

Cinegear LA 2011 : Demonstrated on the Stwo booth a full 3K solution for ARRIRAW. We can now mount the FlashMags directly into the Mistika via 400MB/S fibre allowing for instant scrub/playback of the rushes directly and full verification. This approach also allows us to start the 3K processing via our bespoke RAID arrays that give us the speeds to playback real 3K images (not 3K downconverted to HD) in real time from the processed 3K DPXs.

Its very cool, and a hell of a lot of work has gone into this by Pure Digital, S.two, Mistika, Light Illusion and Dulce. It works and works very very well :-)

Further details of our work and shoots running globally on the website/blog.

Santiago Day 4!

Santiago, Chile Day 04 : Shooting motion control all day for shots of multiple passes with action. OB-1 performed flawlessly replicating helicopter landings as seen here and the motion control in the studio. We processed the .ari ARRIRAW files to 3K DPXs for the Production which were delivered yesterday and will be delivered to print for evaluation this month.

Day 3 in Santiago!

Day 03 Santiago. Shooting today in an underground car park at Hoyts Cinema Complex. Lots of motion control for the effects and layers. VFX department on set very happy with ARRIRAW and uncompressed. The Production has now seen the quality of the RAW image and our wokflows for delivering it on set and are looking to shoot in July for 6-8 weeks. This is a tremendous first for the Chile market and everyone involved is extremely excited to be shooting RAW for the first time.
Images here of the motion control rig, OB1 recorder and Alexa shooting with Master Primes.

Day 2 in Santiago!

Day 02 Santiago, Chile. We shot on location at an underground carpark in central Santiago. Lots of ARRIRAW and motion control shooting with full technical debayer for select shots with all rushes being archived to Lacie drives via eSata. We can record fully matched Master (ARRIRAW) and Proxy/Offline (ProRes via onboard SxS card recording) together with matched timecode and trigger all the recordings from the Alexa. Editorial on set to see the workflow discussing the proxy/offline (probably ProRes 4444) and our requirements for conform. Full 3D print emulation LUTs are being used created by Light Illusion and all is going very well so far. Day 03 starts in one hour. Dan Mulligan PDS Chile.

Santiago, Chile!

Day One, Santiago, Chile. Testing the ARRIRAW equipment for indoor and outdoors. OB1 working well with live debayer, LUTs and full timecode sync to the Alexa with new Alexa recording trigger for the OB1 allowing for timecode accurate ARRIRAW with ProRes Proxies/offline and allows simultenious recording of both the OB1/ARRIRAW and ProRes at exactly the same time, which is really cool.
Everyone is excited by this and its the first ever ARRIRAW shooting for Chile. More to come. Dan Mulligan Pure Digital Services

Sydney ARRIRAW Shoot

Pure Digital has finished testing in Sydney its OB1 data recorders for a 3D ARRIRAW shoot. Also tested was 444 25P, 422 50P and 422 x 2 stereo into one recording unit.

All testing was with Alexa cameras from Panavision Sydney, shooting begins Today!

Mistika onset ARRIRAW

Pure picks Mistika for on set ARRIRAW delivery, full article to view follow the link.

http://www.tvbeurope.com/main-content/full/pure-picks-mistika-for-on-set-arriraw-delivery

3D LUTs

3D LUTs and their use, article written for HD Magazine by Daniel Mulligan, check it out here.

http://www.definitionmagazine.com/journal/2010/4/30/a-lut-and-how-to-use-it.html

Premier of Mistika on set Processing System!

Pure Digital Services is pleased to announce the worldwide premier of the exciting new ARRIRAW Mistika on set processing system. With our partners Mistika, S.two, Pixelution and Dulce we will demonstrate real time 3K DPX playback and near real time 3K DPX Log-C for productions to save time and money when shooting ARRIRAW for thier projects. More dates and details to follow.

Meeting Today

Daniel Mulligan, Owner of Pure Digital Services and Rogue Element Films, has had a meeting today to supply all data workflow solutions, for ARRIRAW and RGB 444 DPXs, for a leading Post House in London, UK. More to follow.

Testing in Chile!

Rogue Element Films and Pure Digital Services will be testing for a feature in Chile this May. More information on our progress with this exciting project will follow!

ArriRAW 3D Shoot!

Pure Digital Services and Rogue Element Films successfully completed a test shoot last night, OB1 data recorders are now on thier way to Sydney for full ArriRAW 3D Shoot!

Press Release

Follow the link below for the full Press Release of Pure Digitals and SGO Mistikas full resolution on workflow toolset.

http://www.sgomistika.com/2011/05/pure-digital-services-and-mistika-deliver-arri-raw-real-time-3k-dpx-workflows-for-on-set-delivery/

Website Updated

Latest 3D and ARRIRAW news on Pure Digital at our freshly updated website
www.puredigitalservices.com

New for 2011

Complete RAW recording and delivery to 3K DPXs on Location new with nearly 100Tb of on Location Storage!

May 2011

Rogue Element Films and Pure Digital Services Testing ArriRAW in Chile in May 2011!

May 2011

Taking place in Blackpool, UK, this May Uncompressed 444 DPX Aerials!

SR Tape Shortage

Has the recent worldwide shortage in SR tape stock caused any issues for upcoming Productions? Why not shoot data to file based recorders and recreate the SRW1 workflow with DPX files. Alexa, F3, F35, F65 and more can all record to data recorders and Rogue Element has been shooting this way for over 6 years. Call us now for a quote and shoot your Production uncompressed to disk.

Sony F65 Camera

Republished with permission from www.definitionmagazine.com

One of the worst kept secrets of this year’s NAB was Sony’s new 4K camera the F65. Sony is aiming at recreating the 65mm look with digital cinematography and has come up with some technology and specs that deserve respect. They are calling the F65 ‘true 4K resolution and beyond – at the point of image capture’.Can’t think who that quote is aimed at.

Sony’s new F65 has a unique 8K image sensor, with approximately 20 megapixels, and a 16-bit RAW output, for end-to-end 4K mastering workflow.

“Sony’s new F65 digital motion picture camera combines true 4K resolution with an expansive dynamic range that enables a more nuanced reproduction of fine textural and tonal details,” said Curtis Clark, ASC. “Along with excellent contrast and exceptional colour reproduction the F65 produces images that have a rich filmic look and feel, providing filmmakers with significantly enhanced creative photographic possibilities.”

At the heart of the F65 camera is Sony’s newly developed 8K sensor, which will deliver HD, 2K, and 4K resolution today – and Sony promise will go far beyond 4K in the future, as the industry needs to evolve. The Sony imager is also the first to provide a dedicated green photosite for each pixel in the 4K output image. This is twice the amount of green resolution compared with traditional 4K Bayer pattern sensors, promising an improvement in image resolution that is ideal for VFX processing.

“Sony already has a successful track record in developing 4K technology, with our 4K digital cinema projection system literally re-defining the movie-going experience,” said Olivier Bovis, Head of AV Media Business, Sony Professional, Sony Europe. “However, Sony is committed to driving every aspect of a 4K workflow – starting with acquisition. This camera is the pinnacle of 30-plus years of research, experience and engineering breakthroughs and is the latest example of Sony’s ongoing pursuit of the highest quality content creation and production.

“The 8K CMOS sensor can run up to maximum 120Fps. This sensor performance combined with 16 bit RAW output makes the F65 the first image capture system designed from the ground up to support the Academy IIF-ACES, Image Interchange Framework, Academy Colour Encoding Specification.

“The F65 has also been designed for multiple production applications, including 3D rigs and Steadicam, and will offer a detachable camera T-head for these configurations. In addition, an optional mechanical rotary shutter will be available for completely eliminating motion artefacts that are inherent with other CMOS sensor technology.”

A dockable SR memory recorder – model SR-R4 – attaches to the camera to record directly onto an SR memory card of 256 GB, 512 GB or 1TB capacity with data security and sustained throughput of 5 Gbps. The recorder will enable ultra high speed recording of 16-bit RAW data.

“A 1TB memory card recording at 24 fps will store 50 minutes of footage in 4K 16 bit RAW. As with previous generations of CineAlta systems, Sony continues to work closely with the industry to develop this next generation digital motion picture camera technology and storage, workflow system.”

Alexa Studio Camera

Republished with permission from www.definitionmagazine.com

Today Arri complete the programme of three ALEXA cameras that they announced back in 2009. The original ALEXA followed by the ALEXA Plus and now ALEXA Studio. ALEXA Plus was announced at
last year’s IBC in Amsterdam. The Plus is a ‘back to Arri dealership’ mod to the ALEXA and Arri have reported that 70% of Alexa owners have chosen to upgrade.

Now there is a new ALEXA, the Studio. (Differentiated in a similar way that the ArriCAM and ArriCAM Studio are). Arri are quick to underline that ALEXA is their platform, one that will be improved upon as and when the technology allows. The new family member is the one that many have been waiting for, the one with the optical viewfinder. The Studio’s optical viewfinder system, Arri say, will pass the performance of the ArriCAM and in fact any that Arri has made up to now. The complexity of producing a rotating mirror shutter system in a digital environment is why there aren’t many around, the only other is on the Arri’s D21 system.

With ALEXA Arri are trying to mirror their film camera logistics. You have ArriCAM Studio, ArriCAM Light, 435, and 235. All these cameras work on a typical feature film but do different things. They are used differently but produce inter-cuttable images. With the three ALEXAs Arri want a similar situation. Products differentiated on functionality not so much on basic performance. The picture quality remains the same. Of course on the Studio camera you can do anamorphic but with 16:9 you may have a Studio for a well controlled environment, a Plus on the shoulder and grab shots with the ALEXA.

The Studio then will have the new optical viewfinder and a 4:3 sensor with the total pixel count is 3392 x 2200 (27.98 mm x 18.15 mm). The active pixel count is 2880 x 2160 (23.76 mm x 17.82 mm).

The sensor is the same as the previous ALEXA cameras but in that camera the signal processing only deals with the 3-perf part, 16:9 area, the top and bottom of that area are not used and not powered. The Studio’s signal processing goes beyond that to include the rest of the sensor and so the camera will be more power thirsty.

ALEXA Studio will have the same recording capabilities with the SxS the same as with the other two models, also for RAW and uncompressed.

Arri hope that there will be a working prototype of ALEXA Studio in the autumn of this year, perhaps IBC. The price of the Studio will be more than the Plus in the region of EURO90,000 which is less than the proposed price back in 2009 which was around EURO130,000.

The processing of the Studio with the ALEXA’s original dual path approach and full sensor path mixed with the 21st Century answer to optical viewfinders is at the heart of this new camera design.

Arri has been true to their word as far as schedules are concerned and now we just have to wait and see how good Studio is.

Brand New Bracket!

Rogue Element builds brand new Alexa brackets for S.two OB1 data recorders. Due to popular demand for Arriraw and uncompressed recordingfrom Alexa, Rogue Element has developed this brand new bracket to allow for easier placement of the recorder on the rear of the camera and also for much simpler Steadicam use. Only Available Exclusively through Rogue Element Fims.

Free Transfer

Rogue Element Digital is pleased to offer a free transfer to and from our Midlands based Worldwide HQ from any location in London, Manchester, Bristol and Birmingham for all our clients courtesy of Prestige Chauffeur Services.

Arriraw 3D Test Today

Rogue Element supplies S.two OB1 recorders and G-Tech eData drives for full Arriraw 3D test today. Full workflow test in 7 days.

MPF for 2011

New Mobile Processing Facility for 2011. Allowing full resolution playback on location plus for Arriraw at 3K, HD at 2K, Epic at 5K and full 3D playback and verification. Shoot, edit, deliver and master on location with instant playback and review capabilities.

Brand new for 2011

Brand new for 2011, Arriraw Digital Lab Facility. Full 3K DPX playback, 3D playback, 3D LUTs, Full colour timing pipeline and delivery, dailies and full large screen playback for all your Arriraw Cinematography. Full details coming soon.

Testing today

Testing today 3D Arriraw capture and delivery. Full testing results coming later.

New for 2011!

Mistika 3K DPX DPL for Arriraw: New for 2011 is Rogue Elements new Arriraw DPL, Digital Processing Lab. This unit will allow for full Arriraw processing, debayering and delivery on or near location. Full announcements after NAB 2011.

Disney Project!

Rogue Digital supplies Great Ape and Disney uncompressed data magazines and full offload data equipment.

New Headquarters!

Brand New Worldwide Headquarters now open for business. All new Arriraw department open for full 3K DPX play background analysis.

Arriraw Project

Rogue Element Films consults for 3D Arriraw Project.

New Staff

Rebecca Ryan is now the new Office Manager for Rogue Element Films. Due to rapid expansion Rogue Element is now taking on more staff.

Brand New OB1 onboard recorders

Rogue Element Digital is pleased to announce the UK arrival and use of S.twos brand new OB1 onboard recorder and workflow stations.

S.two has been shooting uncompressed and Arriraw now for a number of years and Rogue is delighted to be the UK supplier for rental of this new system.

Call or email now for a quote or demo.

Regards

Daniel Mulligan

FD Times : Sony (8k) 4K camera system at NAB 2011

Credit to Jon Fauer Film and Digital Times (www.fdtimes.com) article re-posted by Rogue Digital March 2011 :

The bar has been raised again. Sony is planning to show the prototype of a new 4K motion picture camera at NAB 2011.

It doesn’t have a name yet, but instead of calling it the Next CineAlta Camera, let’s give it the working title of Cine Altissima. It is not a mere 4K motion picture camera. Behind the PL mount, there’s an 8K sensor: 8768 x 2324 pixel single CMOS sensor (that’s 20.4 Megapixels) — Super35 3-perf size, 16-bit RAW output, 16:8:8.

Altissima covers a wider color space than any other digital camera, and will include ACES Film Emulation.

In normal mode, the new Sony 4K camera will shoot from 1-72 fps. In HFR (High Frame Rate) mode, it will go from 1-120 fps.

A 1 TB Memory Card recording at 24 fps will store about an hour of “footage.” A dockable SR Memory Card Recorder can attach to the camera for recording directly to an SR Memory Card of 256 MB, 512 MB or 1 TB. I imagine that other recording options will become available, both onboard as an accessory digital “magazine,” and tethered by cable in a separate case. Debayering for instant viewing or playback will be available with external real time hardware.

Altissima has the familiar look, in prototype form, of a high end motion picture camera: hints of F35, Arricam Studio or Panaflex Millenium. Power will be dual 12 volt; consumption is expected to be less than a Sony F35.

What does the image look like? The pictures from the prototype, on a large 4K monitor, were stunning. Rich blacks, incredible detail, superbly sharp. I’m guessing the native ISO sensitivity is around 800-1000 — just quick speculation in a dark test room and a tabletop set.

I think what makes this new camera possible is the fact that Sony manufactures the five secret sauces essential to practical 4K: sensor, storage, software, station, and screening. Sony makes the 8K sensor that subsamples to 4K. That’s a significant amount of headroom; higher resolution from this sensor might be seen in the future. Storage: Sony makes the SR Memory Cards–they have an impressive 5 Gbps sustained data rate. Station: Data from the SR Memory Card is downloaded, cloned, and copied via Sony’s SRW-5800/2 deck. Software: Sony announced that Avid, Final Cut Pro and other major editing systems will handle all this. Finally, Sony’s 4K digital projectors have been installed in more than 7500 theaters worldwide.

Sony’s new Cine Altissima camera has the potential to be the big breakthrough into practical 4K production. This isn’t the trickle of traditional workflow. This is the floodgates opening.

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Kit in India for Arriraw workshop

Alexa camera with OB1 on top shooting Arriraw.

Rogue Digital

Arriraw Testing in India Feb 26th 2011

Rogue Element Films

In Hyderabad in India now showing Arriraw to the great and good. They are loving our workflow and right now ordering us to supply kit for upcoming Features.

Rogue Digital

The best

Daniel Mulligan

Stwo ARRIRAW PR

S.two V3 support Feb 2011

February 4, 2011

AVAILABLE NOW!

The v3.0 release for ARRIRAW T-LINK on the ALEXA camera is fully supported by S.two. We are pleased to confirm that all OB-1TM on-board recorders can record all versions of UNCOMPRESSED ARRIRAW.

A simple software update provides full RAW recording support, real-time visualization, and playback. No hardware modification is necessary.

S.two was the first manufacturer certified for ARRIRAW T-LINK, and OB-1’s are in use around the world with ALEXA and D-21 in RAW. OB-1 supports sync timecode and remote stop-start from the camera head for full integration of a RAW/DTE 'dual record' workflow.

Easy to use uncompressed workflow, supporting all Alexa modes including high speed and RAW, is completed with the S.two FlashDock. It features real-time playback of full raster RAW under edit control, high speed transfers of uncompressed .ARI V3 files, and available archive to uncompressed LTO. S.two has become the worldwide leader in uncompressed recording and workflows with customers in 22 countries.

Rogue Digital is the UK supplier for all S.two uncompressed workflow solutions for bot Arriraw and 10bit DPX recording.

Call 07866 447564 for full details.

S.two 400mb/s Flashport 2011

S.two announces FlashPort I Transfer Station for FlashMag™

In response to requests for a low-cost, high performance transfer station for files captured on FlashMag solid-state magazines, S.two has introduced the FlashPort I. Capable of moving DPX and .ARI (Arriraw) files at speeds up to 400 Mbytes/sec, FlashPort I uses an industry-standard Fibre Channel interface and comes complete with host software and an optional host bus adapter (HBA) and cable for seamless integration into popular Linux, Mac and Windows workstations. The Linux version is available immediately, with the Mac version scheduled for release in January 2011 and the Windows version in February.

Rogue Element Digital is now the sole UK supplier of OB1 and S.two digital film making equipment. Call 07866 447564 now for full workflow and kit supplies.

BECTU DFT/DIT Training in Glasgow

Daniel Mulligan, MD of Rogue Digital, conducted two 1 day seminars for local crews looking to become DFT/DIT digital technicians in Glasgow, Scotland.

The course was a roaring success so much so that Mulligan has been asked to return and conduct more courses based around cameras such as the Alexa.

Covering all aspects of the role of the DFT/DIT for todays digital imaging Mulligan sepnt the whole days discussing expected roles and equipment required.

For more information on upcoming courses call Rogue on 07866 447564

ARRIRAW V3.0 RIGHT NOW

Rogue Element Digital Feb 2011

Rogue has helped develop the workflows for the new Alexa camera delivering full V3.0 Alexa Arriraw.

Now its your turn

Rogue Element Digital

Feb 2011

Arri Firmware V3.0

ARRI has just completed extensive testing on the new ALEXA Firmware 3.0, due to be released in early February. It includes so many new features that ARRI has decided to release a Beta version to allALEXA owners a few weeks in advance of the official release date. This will allow ARRI to receive valuable feedback on the performance of the 3.0 upgrade from its growing ALEXA install base prior to the firmware’s official release.

Here are the key features of the ALEXA 3.0 firmware.

IMAGING

• “Tropical mode” – Peltier temperature control setting for the ALEXA sensor, for use in high humidity environments

IN-CAMERA RECORDING

• ProRes playback off SxS cards in camera – viewable in the EVF and on the Monitor Output
• ProRes Dual recording to both SxS cards at the same time, for instant backup in camera
• Single frame grabs to SD card

OUTPUTS

• HD-SDI 3G 4:2:2 single link recorder output for frame rates up to 60fps
• “Variflag” frame flagging on output for off-speed recording
• Independent output options – REC709, Log-C or DCI P3 (Digital Cinema Initiative standard) can be independently selected for HD-SDI REC OUT, MON OUT and/or ProRes SxS card recording

INPUTS

• Line Level Stereo Audio input – recordable in ProRes and also embedded in the HD-SDI output

ELECTRONIC VIEWFINDER

• “Smooth Mode” – lessens visible shutter refresh judder in the viewfinder
• False Color Exposure Check – for more accurate in-viewfinder exposure checking

IMAGE PROCESSING

• EI 3200 – ALEXA’s sensitivity can now be set from EI 160 to EI 3200
• New Color Processing – Significantly improved from previous firmware, including new Log-C Wide Gamut, Log-C Film and DCI P3 color matrices.

METADATA

Metadata will be included in the HD-SDI video output, the HD-SDI ARRIRAW T-link output, in the QuickTime metadata atom and in the FCP XML file on the SxS cards. Frame grabs in the ARRIRAW and DPX formats will also include metadata.

In addition to the Firmware 3.0 release, ARRIRAW is about to go online with support from recorder manufacturers, post-production companies and the ARRIRAW partner network, all focused on deliverables in the coming weeks.

www.definitionmagazine.com/databank/

Dan Mulligan has new blog with Definition Magazine

Welcome Dan Mulligan with a new Blog - Databank, musings from the datacentric world, starts with a look at Hassleblad http://bit.ly/h2aQRA

Dan Mulligan is an experience cinematographer, but more than that Dan is interested in pushing the boundaries of his art. Since HD cameras became commonplace Dan has been designing workflows and pushing for the best practices to create a digital industry based on rock solid skill sets.

The Databank Blog will reflect Dan's discoveries and include his musings on the way data recording is changing the face of digital production. While Dan works on the biggest movies and TV productions, his Blog won't exclude the technical advancement in other industries. In fact his first posting below talks about the progress of the Medium Stills Format and what video could possibly learn from it. This format is designed to encourage feedback and comment so please take up the opportunity.

Enjoy the new blog.

Rogue Element Films Jan 2011

Pure Imaging - True uncompressed

Roge Element Digital has been involved now for many years with fully uncompressed data workflows and capture. We have been pioneering an approach to digital where we see the capture of fully uncompressed DPXs and the delivery of a true full bandwidth digital negative as the way to record digital as if it was film, that is the full amount of image data possible.

Recording the complete output from the camera and the full sensor resolution and bandwidth gives the customer and the client the complete amount of information to manipulate, s you would with film.

Pure Digital, Pure Images, Pure Rogue Digital.....

Arriraw Arri posting on CML - Rogue beta tests ARRIRAW

Below is an email from Neil Fathom regarding the status of ARRIRAW right now. Rogue Element Digital has been involved in the beta testing of the ARRIRAW format as mentined below providing kit and support. We are committed to ARRIRAW and now have full v3.0 Alexa support and full post workflow options for 2011, right now.

Regards Rogue Element Digital, Jan 2011

"Firstly a thank you for all the interest on CML regarding the status of ARRIRAW, which is a very important part of ALEXA™ ongoing development during 2011.

To clarify where we are at the moment - ALEXA with ARRIRAW is Beta testing successfully world-wide for several major Feature and Commercial productions, most of which are due to enter principal photography in the coming weeks. The various camera crews, DoPs and Cinematographers involved in testing are extremely happy with the reliability of the Beta software, and the quality of the ARRIRAW footage they are capturing is of the highest standard.

We are convinced that ALEXA™s ARRIRAW recording capability will offer a dependable digital solution for the Commercials and Features market and will position itself as the uncompromised, uncompressed RAW recording format of choice.

More news about ARRIRAW performance, certified recorders, workflow options and the full extent of the ARRIRAW partner/post-production support program will be posted early in February when the ALEXA v3.0 software update is formally released ... so please bear with us until then and in the meantime, if you are Beta shooting ARRIRAW, thanks for your commitment, support, and feedback.

Neil Fanthom

Head of Global Strategy,

ARRI Digital Camera Systems

Arriraw - Testing 2011

Rogue has been testing Arriraw now for a while for capture, on-set delivery and post. We now have a full pipeline for the V3 raw from the Alexa.

The images look fantastic and the debayer is one of the crucial aspects to the workflow.

Rogue Digital

F35 - Visa adverts

VVVisa Black Card recently released their newest national TV ad campaign featuring a female “James Bond” type character and the finest in luxury props. Brain Farm Digital Cinema produced the campaign top to bottom as well as did all post production. Directed by Curt Morgan, the commercials were shot all digital using the Sony F35, Cineflex V14 and Phantom Gold. Special thanks toDonna Feldman who is the amazing model that gave the commercial the perfect flare. The spots are now airing on Fox, Travel Channel, NBC, Bloomberg and more. You can also see the campaign on YouTube. Stay tuned for the next installment of the Black Card adventure coming out Fall 2010.

F35 - Red Tails & George Lucas

With his With his new production Red Tails George Lucas pursues a specific technical approach: For the first time a large scale Hollywood project will be entirely digital from start to finish – including the projection in the theatres. This represents the only way to really control the visual quality throughout the entire production chain, claims the renowned perfectionist.

Rick McCallum, who already acted as producer for George Lucas on the Star Wars sequels and the Young Indiana Jones films, decided on the F35 for the new project of Red Tails.

Fred Meyers, technical supervisor and responsible for the digital recording flew in, and installed the very elaborate workflow of Lucasfilm and ILM. Three weeks of intense work were necessary to set up, update and refine the workflow at the FGV premises.

The signal is recorded with dual link 4:4:4 on SRW-1/SRPC-1 machines that are connected via fiber optic cable, and parallel to this uncompressed on a Codex disc recorder, which is capable to handle two 4:4:4 streams at the same time. For the first time a Codex portable working with JPEG 2000 compression with dual link 4:4:4 is also utilized. Two additional SRW-5800 HDCAM SR recorders are used for back-up and additional play-outs.

A mobile ‘technical center’ was specifically installed into a truck to enable the fast change between locations and the studio. A color consistent control of the images is provided through two new Sony BVM-L230 class 1 monitors with 4:4:4 inputs. With the remote controls RMB-750 and MSU-950 aperture, gain, black level and color are set remotely.

F35 shoots 'Modern Family'

Veteran cinematographer James Bagdonas ASC has chosen F35 to shoot the new season of “Modern Family” on ABC.

F35 shoots 'The Defenders" in LA

Veteran cinematographer Alan Caso, ASC, has chosen the Cine 75 HD camera fluid head from Sachtler to support the Sony F35 cameras used to shoot the CBS one-hour drama series “The Defenders.” The series, starring James Belushi and Jerry O’Connell, is shot in Los Angeles.

F35 3D - Resident Evil

http://www.theasc.com/ac_magazine/December2010/ResidentEvil-Afterlife/page1.php#

F35s on another 3D shoot, also shooting and have shot Tron:Legacy and Transformers 3 all in 3D.

Rogue Digital

Stwo OB1 - 444 on the move

It's here – The lightest, smallest self-contained uncompressed recorder for HD, HD444 and raw production. Weighing in at under a remarkable 7lbs (3Kg) (including the removable FlashMag) and drawing under 20W of power, the OB-1 completes any digital cinematography camera, making them un-tethered, light enough for handheld or Steadicam operation, and powered directly from the camera. Not only is it light and low powered, the OB-1 is fully solid state and is completely silent in operation with no fans for those close up sound shots.

OB-1 fits onto most cameras and supports their native shooting modes. Use with ARRI D-21 and Alexa for uncompressed ARRIRAW recording to 3K including anamorphic support or shoot up to 60P with full ramping and variable frame rate support. It even allows multi-cam support for 3D and advanced recording formats.

As it’s from S.two, OB-1 reflects our unparalleled on set experience garnered through more than 80 feature movies and hundreds of other projects shot around the globe. It has full external timecode support, dual channel analog sync guide audio inputs and full trigger and tally I/O. With a host of easy, intuitive operating modes, the OB-1 is designed for any user to walk up to it and get it going without training or experience. The main screens reflect the operating modes with color codes (Red = Record, Green = Play, Blue = EE / ready to record) allowing the operator to tell status even from across the room.

OB-1 features the removable FlashMag – S.two’s new solid state high capacity high bandwidth on board storage magazine. It features up to 30 minutes of uncompressed DPX file storage. Unlike other flash based solutions, the FlashMag is designed for the rugged environment of shooting film in any situation. Featuring multiple levels of internal media redundancy the FlashMag can shoot for years of trouble free production.

Current Stwo Productions

Television
Lie to Me··· (FOX)
Brothers and Sisters · (ABC)
Law and Order LA ·· (NBC)
Nurse Jackie· · (Showtime)
Bored to Death··· (HBO)
Running Wilde············(FOX)

Feature Films
Killer Joe·· (starring Matthew McConaughey)
Mr Poppers Penguins·· (starring Jim Carey)

Pure Digital Services -2011 launch

Brand new 2011 website launching their services. Arriraw, S-Log, F35 and fully uncompressed image delivery, sounds really cool.

http://www.puredigitalservices.com/

D21/Stwo OB-1s tapeless on Lie to Me

The series is shot locally in Los Angeles on the Arriflex D-21. During production, digital assets arrive from set on OB1 data drives and are ingested daily onto the SAN. Utilizing a proprietary DiTV workfow, Lustre is employed to color correct and create selected takes for dailies. Final conform is done on Smoke shooting in Arri Log C. The files are published for Ascent Colorist Pankaj Bajpai to color grade the final picture in Lustre. At this stage, the show benefits from the flexibility of having access to the dailies color metadata as well as the full range of original images.

This tapeless workflow is very efficient, in a large part because of how well Lustre and Smoke talk to each other. Because everything remains as data throughout the process, we can do concurrent servicing of our workflow.Ascent was already moving toward file-based workflows, and its purchase of Postworks helped accelerate its move into the tapeless world. Ascent’s adoption of a fully digital pipeline has helped accommodate multiple television episodic projects with tight budgets and short turnaround schedules.

Bajpai credits the facility’s tapeless environment with providing a 30 percent time savings over tape-to-tape workflows. “The true benefit of the process is that regardless of how much time we have, we’re able to spend most of it working creatively,” he adds. “You’re not making compromises, and you’re allowing various people in the chain to have their say and contribute to the final outcome. It becomes a much more satisfying process creatively.”

Lie to Me and OB-1s

Lie to Me stars Tim Roth as Dr. Cal Lightman, a lie detection specialist who determines the truth by interpreting body language and psychology. To depict these small tics and “microexpressions,” the show takes advantage of the ARRIFLEX D-21’s full sensor and shallow depth of field for these extreme close-ups.

Lie to Me shoots with two to three cameras at a time and on Sidell’s set, the DP chooses to work without a Digital Imaging Technician (DIT). “Coming from a film background, I was really drawn to the D-21 because I didn’t feel that I needed to have an on-set DIT. I have the creative freedom to take a film approach to working in a digital environment and have control of the image. It became a no-brainer to use this camera system,” he says.

The show’s multi-racial cast presents a spectrum of skin tones, often with actors of contrasting tones in scenes together. Sidell’s deft visual style allows this diversity to be showcased -- an ability that he partly credits to the D-21’s handling of skin tones and the lenses that are used. “I have found that the flesh tones are much more pleasing on the D-21 compared to other cameras. They feel really beautiful to me. They are softer and have a much closer look to film. The other cameras truly have more of a video feel. We light different actors and different skin tones in different ways, but I don’t have a problem where one person ‘jumps out’ and the other person disappears, or one person is lit too harshly, the other not. The D-21 isn’t particular to one or the other, it actually picks out those proper skin tones,” explains Sidell.

Besides the D-21’s versatility in rendering skin tones, the cinematographer has been impressed with its capability in shooting night scenes and dealing with under exposure. “My gaffer and I have been very surprised with this system. We know it has an ASA 200 rating, but I go back and forth from 200 to 400 ASA all the time based on how I want to control the overall lighting balance and depth of field. We did some night work in our first episode shooting with the D-21 and I lit the front of a building two and half stops under key. I rated it at 400. I looked at dailies and the building was almost too bright at two-and-a-half stops under. I realized I can light much more under than I expected and have the confidence to know that I still have plenty of latitude in the under exposure. I’ve been doing some of the night scenes now where the key is two stops or two-and-half-stops under exposed and it looks amazing. The grain was still fine -- it held the color and information in the shadows. The blacks held and it was pretty amazing.”

Alexa Arriraw workflow

Rogue Element Films has now established a true pipe for the Alexas RAW format. Rogue, by incorporating fully endorsed recording systems, can now not only record the Arriraw format but also debayer and deliver to post Log-C DPXs at full 3K resolution.

Rogue Element Films is the only company in the UK capable of offering this service, be the first to shoot with this stunning format.

Rogue Element Films supplies Alexa and recording systems to capture and deliver fully endorsed Arriraw images.

T-Link capable recorders are available now.

New F35 Cine-EI software upgrade

Sony's F35 digital cinema camera now has a new software upgrade called Cine-EI. This new setting for the camera allows for 4 ratings of the camera but with full 800% output.

EI450, EO640, EI800 and EI1000 give you four new exposure settings and allows for faster exposures with very little noise in the images.

On the left we have examples of each setting, all exposed according to their EI rating, showing how little the noise is in the images at each speed setting.

Letting users expose at 1000EI with very small increase in the nosie gives the F35 a new ability to shoot at faster exposures without creating noisy images.

Rogue Element Films

New F35 available now.

F35 on set of Real Steel

Here is a publicity still of the new movie Real Steel shooting F35 with the new 12bit output to DFR recorders.

Rogue Element Films

Real Steel shoots F35 12bit

Dreamworks 2 motion picture Real Steel, starring Hugh Jackman, has been using the F35 digital cinema camera and its brand new 12bit output.

Have a look at the stills attached here and the link to the 1080P download from Apple's site, its looks tremendous.

Links below :

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/dreamworks/realsteel/

Rogue Element Films has brand new software upgrades for the F35 and supplies the data recorders for them.

Sony F35 Cine-EI upgrade

Rogue Element Films now has all its F35 cameras updated to the new Cine-EI settings. This allows for the camera to be set at EI 450/640/800 and 1000 at full 800% output allowing for exposures at 1000EI with a very limited noise floor meaning clean images at fast exposures.