DIT Quick Tip: Antivirus Software
If you’re a DIT then chances are you’re a computer nerd. If you’re a computer nerd then your system has an antivirus program. What you may not realize is that most antivirus programs include some kind of real-time protection; your antivirus program is scanning files as they are read and written. That’s great if you’re…
The Woes of Using Firewire
Don’t get me wrong, Firewire is great. But just like anything in life there are things that drive me absolutely batty when using Firewire on set. I’ve replaced my colleague, Ryan Kahm, on the set of Blue Potato here in northern Maine as DIT only to find, and tackle, two annoyances with Firewire. Daisy chaining…
Free Download: DIT Camera Report Excel Spreadsheet
The dreaded part of any digital imaging tech’s existence: the DIT camera report. After working as DIT on several sub-million dollar budget features, television pilots, commercials, and other smaller productions I’ve developed a DIT camera report that helps me keep track of the footage I’ve processed and gives the editor or assistant editor enough information…
New HEVC/H.265 Compression Twice as Efficient as AVC/H.264
Publicly show earlier in February, the new HEVC/H.265 compression scheme is moving closer towards becoming the next standard in high definition video. A recent study by Philippe Hanhart, Martin Rerabek, Francesca De Simone, and Touradj Ebrahimi not only took HEVC/H.265 through the paces technically but scored it against 30 subjective human viewers. The conclusion: HEVC…
iPhone Ingenuity On-Set
My colleague Ryan Kahm is DIT on the set of a feature film in northern Maine, hours from the nearest decent rental house in Boston. He calls me up to explain they are filming a large gag (stunt piece) with two RED Epics and their main camera, an Arri Alexa. Because of the set up…
New RED Workflow Software – Sync RMD Files
Our public beta is now closed If you make adjustments to RED .R3D files in Redcine-X on a regular basis then you’re familiar with RMD metadata files. If you have backups of your footage across multiple hard drives then you know there is no easy way to keep these RMD files synced without using a…
Batch Reload Redcine-X RMD Raw Adjustments in Adobe Premiere Pro
Update: Looking for a version of this tool for Premiere Pro CC and beyond? Check out Reset RMD as part of the Project Tools collection. Premiere Pro CS6 allows you to import, adjust, and edit RED raw .R3D files natively and it stores those raw adjustments non-destructively in its project file. When you adjust your…
The Hollywood Post Alliance Presents On-Set Dailies: What’s the Flow?
I recently attended the The Hollywood Post Alliance (HPA) panel discussion on the trend towards on-set dailies. The discussion centered on the use of on-set dailies, some of the broad workflows, and their cost benefit. Panelists included (in order of appearance): Richard Winnie, Vice President of Post Production at Universal Television and Universal Television Cable;…
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’s Michael Cioni on a 4K pipeline
Back in January, Michael Cioni of Light Iron took the time to talk to LAFCPUG about the future of a 4K pipeline using David Fincher’s Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as his example. He talks, in brief, about the acquisition process with the RED Epic and RED One, the editing process with offline ProRes LT…
Creating Dailies with Adobe SpeedGrade CS6
Adobe Speedgrade CS6 is an extremely powerful color grading application. It’s still showing some growing pains in comparison to DaVinci Resolve but, as an Adobe fanboy, I tend to overlook some of the issues to stay within the creative suite. And, yes, I’m well aware that I’ve been on a kick about processing dailies. It’s…
