Tumulus Shot on Three-Day Schedule

When a shooting schedule is tight the team must be able to depend on the camera technology more than ever. Director of Photography Sebastian Wiegärtner had exactly three days to shoot the demo film Tumulus which left no leeway for experimentation. Considering the tight schedule the requirements were demanding. The performance of three new Super Speed Lenses by Carl Zeiss were to be impressively presented with cinematic scenic images. Wiegärtner explains “I had a week for preparation which included the script casting the actors location scouting and of course equipment selection. For perfect results I made high quality a priority and it therefore quickly became clear that I would work with OConnor accessories. And it was definitely the right decision. A legendary forest area in Franconian Switzerland called the Druidenhain served as a location for Wiegärtner and his team despite the strong wind rain and snow. They mainly shot at night and according to Wiegärtner Since we filmed with artificial light light flares were to be avoided. For this reason alone a mattebox was indispensable. We also used it to increase the contrast by the addition of a filter. The first time I saw the O-Box WM I was firmly convinced it must be extremely heavy simply because it looks so massive and highly crafted. However it is lighter than many other models. Despite this it is just as tough as it appears. For some scenes I had to follow the actors through gorges and the thick forest with the rig on my shoulder. Robust equipment was therefore a basic requirement for a smooth shoot. Wiegärtner wanted to make sure he would deliver the project on schedule so he equipped his Sony PMW-F3 with professional camera accessories by OConnor. For this project he selected the O-Box WM Mattebox together with the O-Grips handgrips and the new O-Focus DM Follow Focus with Glow-in-the-dark Marking Disks. For handheld camera shots Wiegärtner relied on OConnor’s high-performance handgrips. The thing I liked best about the O-Grips was their unbelievable versatility. Due to the 3/8 standard mount they can be mounted everywhere and adjust to me and my equipment not vice versa. In addition they are extendable and the modular construction is extremely user friendly. During filming I operated handheld 80 percent of the time. The O-Grips can be adjusted as desired to every body position. I needed solid dependable grips because the rig came to about 30 pounds (14 kg). The O-Grips were perfect. Once they have been set they are rock solid. Since the new lenses were fixed focal length lenses frequent lens changes were necessary. Here Wiegärtner saved valuable time because the O-Grips can be directly mounted on the O-Box WM. This way we only had to remove the mattebox together with the O-Grips when changing lenses. Wiegärtner worked with the new O-Focus DM Cine Set. I'm crazy about the O-Focus DM. The transmission of the Cine Handwheel is ideal. Up to now every other more expensive system had some amount of play but the O-Focus has none. This is how OConnor won me over. Wiegärtner's camera assistants Lukas Hirschfelder and Timo Tischler were both alternately responsible for the focus pulling. The modular design of the O-Focus enabled us to mount a second handwheel and we were very pleased with the operation. We also used a handwheel extension so that the assistants wouldn't be in my way when moving with the camera handheld. The glow-in-the-dark marking disks for the O-Focus DM also proved to be practical for the many night shoots. The small light or flashlight which we otherwise always use to see the handwheel was unnecessary because the marking disks really glowed throughout the entire night said Wiegärtner. For this important shoot it was certainly a risk deciding to use accessories I had never worked with before. However everyone in the industry knows about OConnor's excellent quality. I had extremely high expectations and the OConnor accessories greatly contributed to my satisfaction with the results. Anyone who has worked with OConnor once will want to do it again and again said Wiegärtner. ,3486
Paid Advertisement,2012-08-31,The Film School of New York Film Academy gives students the filmmaking experience necessary to make their own films. There is no single path or formula for creating a career in filmmaking. Our filmmaking graduates have gone on to win awards at film festivals start production companies become cinematographers film editors screenwriters directors producers and even actors. ,3491
3D Entertainment Summit Announces Event Line-Up,2012-08-31, Unicomm and the Bob Dowling Group have announced the line-up of exclusive footage and content to be showcased at the fifth annual 3D Entertainment Summit September 19-20 at the Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood. Extensive footage from the new Sony Pictures Animation film Hotel Transylvania directed by Genndy Tartakovsky and featuring the voices of Adam Sandler Andy Samberg and Selena Gomez (release date September 28) will be shown at the summit with a special introduction from the film’s 3D stereographic lead Von Williams.
  Williams previously served as a stereographic layout artist at Sony Pictures Imageworks on features such as Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Aardman’s Arthur Christmas.  His earlier credits include The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe Garfield Brad Bird’s The Iron Giant and DreamWorks Animation’s Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.  Williams who graduated from the Columbus College of Art & Design has been teaching camera tracking and animation at the Santa Monica City College since 2004.  
 
 James Cameron will appear in a special 3D filmed segment to accept the second annual 3D Visionary Award honoring him for his extraordinary leadership and work in the 3D industry. The recipient of the inaugural 3D Visionary Award Jeffrey Katzenberg CEO DreamWorks Animation SKG will also appear via an exclusive one-on-one interview shot in 3D. Katzenberg will address the state of the 3D industry in 2012 and the road ahead.  
  “We are honored to have such great footage at The Summit from studios like Sony Pictures and to have industry visionaries like James Cameron and Jeffrey Katzenberg film special segments for our conference ” said Dowling content chair 3D Entertainment Summit.  “This year’s Summit will include a balance of great 3D content before it is shown in theaters and homes around the world and 3D content exclusive to The Summit.”  
  Additional content at the 2012 3D Entertainment Summit will include: A special presentation of the upcoming Australian shot film Storm Surfers 3D with a special introduction from Producers Marcus Gillezeau & Ellenor Cox The International 3D Society will showcase rare 3D footage from around the globe entitled Your World in 3D Stereotropic a live immersive 3D multimedia musical performance the first of its kind with Saint Motel produced by Creative Agency World War Seven “We are providing a comprehensive look at 3D from theatrical and home video footage to experimental experiences for clubs and venues ” said John Golicz CEO Unicomm.  “We have set out to find programming and content that reflects the wider range of the 3D industry.”  Sponsors for the 3D Entertainment Summit are premier sponsors RealD (conference 3D provider) Ultra D; official sponsor MasterImage 3D and Sony Digital Cinema 4K (conference projector provider); official screen sponsor is Strong/MDI Screens; supporting sponsors Dolby 3D; sponsors Volfoni Technicolor SD Entertainment Jump3D and Rogers & Cowan. Supporters are AMD DDD Doremi VFxi Zco Digital Domain Da Vinci 3D and Gadmei.  The 3D Entertainment Summit runs concurrent with the MultiScreen Summit which examines the competitive marketplace between screens devices distributors and content creators offering practical solutions to the media industry and to brands on how to engage with the connected yet elusive consumer. ,3495
Blackmagic Design Releases Software for Full Apple Support,2012-08-31, Blackmagic Design has released a series of new software updates for its products that adds full support for Apple’s new Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion operating system. These software updates include support for Apple’s new Gatekeeper anti malware security protection for all products including DaVinci Resolve 9 desktop video products including DeckLink Intensity UltraStudio H.264 Pro Recorder and Media Express ATEM switchers UltraScope mini heavy duty and battery converters Videohub routers SmartView monitors HyperDeck studio and shuttle disk recorders HDLink and video recorder.

 Gatekeeper is a new security feature which protects a computer from downloading and installing malicious software. Blackmagic Design is one of the first companies to support this new security standard from the first day Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion is available to customers. As an Apple Identified developer when Gatekeeper is set to the default option its customers will continue to be able to download software easily maintaining full security protection.

 “Being an Apple Identified Developer has enabled Blackmagic Design to take full advantage of the many exciting new features in Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion such as Gatekeeper right from the very first day of its release ” said Grant Petty CEO Blackmagic Design. ”Our customers can be assured that they will continue to be able to easily download our software and enjoy performance improvements when they upgrade to Mac OS X 10.8 and Blackmagic Design products.”

 These new software updates support all of Blackmagic Design’s products.

Availability and Price
The software updates are available now free of charge for all DeckLink Intensity UltraStudio H.264 Pro Recorder UltraScope ATEM Switchers Mini Converter Heavy Duty Mini Converter Battery Converter Videohub and Universal Videohub routers SmartView HyperDeck HDLink and Video Recorder customers from the Blackmagic Design web support page at www.blackmagicdesign.com/support. ,3497
Chenal Media Gets Investor Support for Genre Slate,2012-08-31,Chenal Media has shifted more of its focus to motion picture properties with $7 million in Series B funding from iHaniel and private investors.  The new funding will support Chenal Media's growth strategy in three main areas: development co-production and distribution of genre feature films under $5 million. The company also announced the addition of financier Hans Reinelt and Chenal Brands CEO Will Bermender a former NBC and Comcast executive to the team of CBI's subsidiary in the roles of CFO and chairman respectively. Chenal Media spun off from CBI in 2010 to focus on new and traditional media properties expanded into filmed entertainment in 2011 with a production finance focus in senior gap mezzanine and equity financing.  Earlier this year Chenal began developing its own properties to create more compatible product. Chenal which caps its financial involvement at 50 percent of a film project's total cost is initially concentrating on the horror thriller and action genres with domestic and international co-productions. We are pleased to have iHaniel deepen and extend their support of our company and our intellectual property assets said Will Bermender chairman of Chenal Media. Based on our progress since the first Series B closing recent acquisitions and the strong commercial traction we are already seeing in 2012 our Board and our investors have decided to increase their support to accelerate our growth. As the earliest investors in CMC we are excited with the progress they have made and the new entertainment products coming to market said iHaniel managing partner Tom Riskin. We are delighted to have Bermender and Reinelt join the team and look forward to working together as Chenal extends its reach into new ancillary markets. ,3499
Christie Supports Toronto International Film Festival for 12th Time,2012-08-31, Christie will continue its longtime sponsorship of the Toronto International Film Festival by providing multiple Christie Solaria Series digital cinema projectors.

Recognized around the world for presenting the best of international and Canadian cinema to film lovers the Festival screens more than 300 films from more than 60 countries during its 11-day program September 6-16 in addition to offering year-long programming. This year represents Christie’s 12th year as the official projection sponsor supporting The Festival’s mission of transforming the way people see the world through film. “The explosion of digital cinema technology has provided the industry with accessibility while meeting the rising demand of filmmakers around the world who want their films screened in the highest digital quality available ” said Diane Cappelletto the festival’s director of technical production. “Transforming many of our screens to digital format was made possible with the support of Christie whose digital projectors are recognized worldwide for performance and reliability. We value Christie’s exceptional image quality and expert service to help make the Festival successful every year.” 
  “Throughout Christie’s long-standing partnership with The Festival we have seen a growing use of digital projection technology for screenings. Last year the sold-out documentary Samsara was screened in 4K ” said Kathryn Cress vice president global and corporate marketing Christie. “With its international flavor The festival truly transforms the way people see the world and Christie is proud to support it as it transitions from what was once a film-only industry to one predominantly digital.”
 
 Christie digital projectors are used by leading Festivals around the globe. This year Christie renewed its official technical sponsorship of the Festival de Cannes for the next three years a position it has held since 2006. In addition Christie was the exclusive projection sponsor of the Water for Elephants screening at the opening gala of the 14th Shanghai International Film Festival last year. Today Christie equipment is found in more than half of all digital projection rooms – about 33 000 projectors in use.
 ,3500
IDC Grupo Chilefilms Sign Latin American Distribution Deal,2012-08-31,International Datacasting Corporation has announced a contract with Grupo Chilefilms which owns and operates Cinecolor Sat a satellite cinema distribution system delivering content throughout Latin America. This contract is one of the three Centient contracts announced by IDC and is valued at $1.3M US including a 5 year support contract. Under this contract IDC's Centient pro cinema content delivery network platform will be deployed to provide secure satellite delivery of movie content and live sporting and musical events to cinema locations throughout Latin America. Theatre locations within the Cinecolor Sat network will be equipped with IDC SuperFlex Pro Cinema Cache Servers for movie content reception and storage and optionally with Pro Cinema Event Players for the reception and decoding of live events. Having separate devices for DCP storage and live event decoding allows each theatre location to be equipped in the most cost effective way according to its requirements. Both devices can be controlled and managed centrally from the Pro Cinema headend located in Santiago Chile. Cinecolor Sat selected IDC for the implementation of this digital cinema satellite distribution network because of its unrivalled experience in both movie and live event distribution said Stefano Levera technical director of the group. Since this project is a key initiative for our group of companies we decided to work with a company who has done this before and deploy a technology that has already been proven through many years of reliable operation in the field. IDC is proud to work with Cinecolor Sat to build out their digital cinema network in Latin America one of our key markets said Frederick Godard IDC president and CEO. This deployment of IDC's Centient CDN platform will give Cinecolor Sat a reliable means to control and manage content over a vast network of cinemas with strong revenue generation potential. ,3501
Colorfront Shipping Express Dailies,2012-08-31,Colorfront is now shipping Express Dailies its on-set dailies system for commercials motion picture and TV production. Technicolor Deluxe and Hollywood post facility Light Iron are among the first customers all making multi-license purchases of Express Dailies. Express Dailies is built on the technology color grading and management tools that feature in Colorfront’s On-Set Dailies system which is already widely used on major Hollywood features and primetime episodic TV shows. It combines tools for file-based dailies work – including playback and sync QC color grading audio and metadata management. Highlights include: support for Mac Pro tower and MacBook Pro with Retina Display; a streamlined user interface; 64-bit real time RAW support for the very latest digital cinema cameras; faster-than-real time deliverables with concurrent encoding to multiple formats; plus extremely fast checksum-verified data management and archival tools. Bill Romeo executive vice president of television for Deluxe recognized Colorfront Express Dailies as a valuable addition “in our arsenal to support our clients’ needs.” 
Technicolor's Dave Waters said With Express Dailies as with our original Global Dailies solution Technicolor is finding Colorfront to be a great partner as we continue to expand our On Location Services to new markets. The entire Colorfront team's response to our needs and requests has been terrific. Having Colorfront as a partner is allowing us to be more innovative as Technicolor strives to modernize post-production pipeline efficiencies in this new era of file based cameras. Michael Cioni CEO of Light Iron said “Light Iron is proud to have collaborated with Colorfront's development team in the launch of Express Dailies which we believe is the most robust on-set / near-set processing software on the market. We are excited to add Colorfront's Express Dailies to our fleet of Outpost and Lily Pad systems which together will help accelerate the industry's trend toward on-set and near-set post production services.” ,3502
Shooting in Confined Spaces,2012-09-01,Whether it’s for the ongoing cooking series That’s Fresh or the website video for The Restaurant at Meadowood (a three Michelin Star restaurant in Napa) actress turned filmmaker Leanna Creel says she has used her Sachtler Ace non-stop since she acquired it. “I like to use the Sachtler Ace because it’s the right size for the Canon Mark II’s that I use ” she says. “It’s lightweight versatile and easy to use. When we were doing the video on The Restaurant at Meadowood’s website we shot in various gardens the busy kitchen and other unique but often small areas. The Ace allowed me to carry my camera into these locations and the wild areas around Napa in a run-and-gun style of documentary action quickly. “On a recent shoot for the ongoing That’s Fresh cooking series I needed to capture images of chef Helen Cavallo quickly and with a very small footprint. The kitchens used for these episodes are often small and contain a lot of equipment that can get in the way of a camera set up ” she adds. “There are also certain restrictions we place on ourselves like finding the best way to document the images needed for the show. With the Ace I can set up quickly and get in almost anywhere. “I simply love working with Sachtler’s Ace ” she adds. “Beyond the light weight and versatility I love the ability to tilt down 90 degrees and shoot from other creative angles. When we’re done with one shot it’s easy to slide the Ace into its’ bag and set off for the next location quickly and safely.” Creel’s website video for The Restaurant at Meadowood is online now. That’s Fresh a series of 1-2 minute cooking episodes is airing on various Disney websites their YouTube channel as well as on Disney Jr. In addition Creel has just finished directing and producing a web series also for Disney about people living with Type 1 diabetes with she says “The Sachtler Ace as my support of course.” ,3505
Doremi Claims Market Leadership “Down Under”,2012-09-01,Doremi has claimed market leadership as the dominant digital server technology of choice of selective cinema providers in Australia and New Zealand.      Australia and New Zealand are significant markets for Doremi.  Attaining dominant market share in the region is a major achievement for the company said Jim Murray director of international business development Doremi. Moreover our growth comes from the exhibitors utilizing a multitude of Doremi products including servers IMBs and accessibility equipment.      Doremi is reporting a current market share of 83-percent in Australia and 72-percent in New Zealand.  The major exhibitors choosing Doremi products for their digital cinema presentations include: Event Cinemas Birch Carroll & Coyle Hoyts Village and Independent Cinema owners.   ,3506
Indican to Release Film with Ernest Borgnine’s Final Performance,2012-09-01, Indican Pictures has acquired North American rights to Academy Award winner Ernest Borgnine’s final film The Man Who Shook the Hand of Vicente Fernández. Indican will release the film theatrically in Los Angeles this October with additional select cities to follow and will launch an awards campaign centered on Borgnine’s final performance.
  
 The film premiered in April at this year’s Newport Beach International Film Festival where Borgnine won the fest's Outstanding Achievement in Acting Award.
  
The movie is written and directed by Elia Petridis and produced by Darren Brandl and Dave O'Brien.  Additional cast members include Barry Corbin Carla Ortiz Dale Dickey and Tony Plana.
  
Vicente Fernández stars Ernest Borgnine as a stubborn man who becomes the local hero of his nursing home upon leading the Latino staff in a revolt against the home's tyrannical owner. 
   “Indican Pictures is extremely honored to be releasing Oscar winning actor Ernest Borgnine’s final film performance which is among his best ” said Randolph Kret vice president of Indican Pictures.
  
Hollywood icon Borgnine who passed away in July of this year racked up more than 200 film and television credits in an esteemed acting career spanning six decades.  He won an Academy Award for his portrayal of a lovelorn butcher in 1955's Marty was nominated for three Emmys and won a life achievement award from the Screen Actors Guild in 2010.
  
 The deal was negotiated by Shaun Hill of Indican Pictures and Maren Olson of Traction Media on behalf of the Producers. ,3507
Rave Cinemas to Implement ReactorNet’s E-Procurement Process,2012-09-01,Dallas-based Rave Cinemas will implement ReactorNet’s Cinema Solutions e-procurement platform to automate procurement processes across 62 theaters in 21 states. The company says this will enable Rave to lower operational costs associated with manual processing. ReactorNet’s Cinema Solutions is designed to help Rave establish a documented and automated purchasing process with mandated policies and internal controls to effectively improve workflow increase efficiency and guarantee order accuracy. As a result the company claims Rave will be able to manage and update the catalog process with suppliers in real-time giving them complete control over the ordering process while keeping in compliance with corporate procurement policies and procedures. We look forward to implementing Cinema Solutions to automate our purchasing activity and improve collaboration with our large supplier network ” said Lloyd Carmack director of purchasing Rave Cinemas. “ReactorNet brings the expertise and professional services that will get us up and running with minimal investment within days. We felt it was imperative to establish an automated and controlled best practice workflow and are confident Cinema Solutions is the platform that will help us achieve our goals.”