Prolost

NAB 2008

Lots of grading solutions but no buyer’s remorse about our new Film Master system.

But man, is that Lustre shape tracking sweet.

For those grading on the cheap, you now have a control surface.

The Orphanage is cancelling RED One reso in favor of a Scarlet. Funny given that Scarlet is currently a lump of metal—just like RED One was two years ago.

3D is the RED One of NAB2008. Except, whatever.

With the exception of The Foundry. Nuke’s new stereo tools are useful, innovative. If you must.

Even more whatever: FED display at 240fps! Aparently no one told them humans max out at ~60fps.

Redrock Micro has a packed booth in the middle of nowhere.

As usual, after one day I’m ready to come home.

Twittering NAB

Twitter was the way to keep in touch with homies at SXSW and ensure the seeing of that which was seeworthy. Looks like that could be the case at NAB this year as well, with frequent updates from mikeseymour and imug_nab08 among others. I'll do my best to contribute, and I'm experimenting with displaying my Twitter updates here on ProLost (over on the right). We'll see how long that lasts, but it just may be a way for me to update the blog more often with useful tidbits—or a waste of screen space that bores you all silly when NAB is over. We'll see, and I'm sure you'll let me know!

The Orphanage Brings VFX And DI Processes Together With Film Master

Straight-up press release for now, more thoughts and analysis of how this relates to prior musings later.

Top visual effects studio The Orphanage has purchased its Film Master finishing system to extend its creative and workflow management services to include DI and colour grading.

With Film Master, The Orphanage is able to harness artistic talent more efficiently and eliminate re-work across the VFX and DI processes for both film and commercial work.

The upcoming Frank Miller film The Spirit, shot with the Panavision Genesis camera, is the studio’s first project that leverages the Film Master. The Orphanage is the lead VFX studio on the film, managing the creation of effects by a number of facilities, and will also perform the final DI/colour grade. On the VFX side, the Film Master is the central repository where all of the VFX work comes together. The system is located in The Orphanage’s San Francisco studio, where it is implemented on the studio’s SAN and has access to all VFX assets for real-time playback and manipulation.

Stu Maschwitz, Co-founder, VFX Supervisor and Director at The Orphanage, said, “If a vendor gives me a shot that’s 99% there, rather than send it back and ask them to perfect the color, I can do that work immediately and potentially have a final shot instead of needing another iteration. Because that shot can then be used in the DI as is, because we’re using Film Master for both processes, it also solves that huge frustration of having VFX artists slave over the look of a shot only to have it re-created again in DI.”

With its comprehensive grading and conforming toolset and modular control panels, Film Master fit The Orphanage’s need for a full, high-end system. Maschwitz said, “We evaluated a number of systems looking for the best combination of a software system with a hardware interface, and an approach that was familiar and comfortable for high-end colorists. Every time I looked under the hood of Film Master I liked what I saw. The way the tools work, the order they’re presented in, how they interact with the panels – it’s all incredibly well thought out.”

Simon Cuff, Digital Vision President and COO, said, “The Orphanage’s implementation of Film Master pulls together two highly creative processes—VFX creation and DI—which are typically serial, and combines them to enhance the creative elements and increase final quality. Film Master offers the most complete set of conform, grading, finishing and image enhancement tools that make it an ideal platform for the converging VFX/DI workflow.”