Cognition recently completed post on Underwater, a new 360 video created by Soma Fashion Network for the HTC Vive virtual reality system. The facility’s engineering team designed a custom workflow that allowed senior colorist Mike Eaves to grade the video in real time and view the results in 360-space. The groundbreaking process paves the way for other VR projects and keeps Cognition at the forefront of the new medium.
Symply is now shipping SymplyRAID, its RAID storage system with low latency and massive capacity for large-scale media workflows. "SymplyRAID is unlike anything the industry has seen. Built on rock-solid engineering, it provides unmatched ease-of-deployment and an unparalleled price performance," said Alex Grossman, CEO and president of Symply.
The upcoming feature film Maine follows the journey of a married woman from Spain to reclaim her identity while solo thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail, a trip that is sidetracked when a lone American hiker pursues her. Cinematographer Donald R. Monroe said, “Simply getting to our locations proved a major hurdle. Frequently, each day began by transporting the entire production over a mile via ATVs; then the shooting crew would walk an additional ten minutes to the location. We were often far from battery charging and data transfer stations— the high-capacity P2 cards allowed us to be largely self-sufficient.
Star is a new Fox TV music drama from Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee Lee Daniels (Empire, Precious). Exposing the cutthroat music industry, Star follows three talented singers as they navigate the road to stardom. Cinematographer Roberto Schaefer, ASC, AIC (Quantum of Solace, Finding Neverland, Monster’s Ball) shot the series pilot on Panasonic VariCam 35 cinema cameras.
Quantum has released StorNext 5.4, a new version of the company's workflow storage platform that enhances the efficiency and flexibility of media content management. StorNext 5.4 enhancements include the ability to integrate existing public cloud storage accounts and third-party object storage (private cloud) — starting with Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, NetApp StorageGRID, IBM Cleversafe and Scality RING — as archive tiers in a StorNext®-managed media environment. Another new feature enables users to deploy applications embedded within StorNext-powered Xcellis workflow storage appliances.
Honoring one of Hollywood’s biggest icons, the American Society of Cinematographers will bestow their Board of Governors Award on director Denzel Washington on February 4, 2017, during the 31st ASC Awards at Hollywood & Highland’s Ray Dolby Ballroom. The organization presents the accolade to individuals in the industry whose body of work has made significant and indelible contributions to cinema. It is the only ASC Award not given to a cinematographer, and is reserved for filmmakers who have been champions for directors of photography and the visual art form.
The just released short film, The Refuge, focuses on the Gwich’in people of Alaska and Northern Canada and their more than three decade fight to protect the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil drilling and other threats. Filming in such a remote location was severely challenging. As there are no cars in Arctic Village, bulky film equipment had to be transported by ATV or carried on foot. Electricity was also at a premium. Directors Kahlil Hudson and Alex Jablonski had access to just one electrical outlet for use in charging camera equipment and computers.
Data management company DCIMPro360 has named post-production veteran Patrick Howley to be its director of technology. Howley has more than 40 years of experience as an engineer, consultant, sales director, project manager, and owner/operator of a large digital production and post-production center.
When Gavin Struthers ASC, one of Britain's leading cinematographers, learned he’d been selected to shoot the U.S. television drama series Black Sails, he knew there would be a lot of challenging location work including water scenes and day-for-night scenes. Black Sails is set roughly two decades before the events of Treasure Island and during the Golden Age of Piracy.
Jay Hunter is a celebrated director and cinematographer whose work runs the gamut from features and scripted series to documentaries and reality TV. He’s crafted unique aesthetics for television shows such as On the Lot and films including Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing. Hunter’s current project is the NBC comedy Superstore, about the employees of a big box retailer. For that series, he tries to make viewers feel like they’re part of the action through a visual style that looks handheld, but is not.
