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Bandito Brothers use multiple HP DreamColors + Adobe Premiere for Act of Valor

Multiple DreamColor monitors, Adobe Premiere CS5.5, and an HDSLR used for Act of Valor

By Allan Tépper | March 09, 2012

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I recently had the pleasure and honor of being invited again by Hewlett Packard to their 2012 media event, where I was able to speak with Jacob Rosenberg, Chief Technical Officer and partner of Bandito Brothers, which created Act of Valor. Jacob was one of several guest speakers at the media event which took place in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. He described several technical facets of the production of Act of Valor for the audience, including the camera, workstations, software, and monitors which I’ll summarize in this article, together with the somewhat surprising color space chosen by Bandito Brothers.



Camera used to shoot Act of Valor



For the production of Act of Valor, Bandito Brothers used the Canon 5D MKII camera.

UPDATE regarding the framerate used when shooting with the 5D MKII for Act of Valor: Mike McCarthy (Act of Valor’s production engineer and online editor) first wrote a comment below, and they later I contacted him off line to verify his identity before updating this article. Jacob had oversimplified the workflow during his presentation at the HP media event in Las Vegas. Because most of the scenes were shot in 2009 before the 5D MKII’s monumental 2.03 firmware update of 2010 (which added 23.976p, 25p, and proper 29.97p), most of the shots were done at the non-standard 30.000p (which was all that the 5D MKII offered before that update), and then Bandito Brothers used the After Effects plugin Twixtor from ReVision Effects to get to 23.976p.



Software used to edit Act of Valor



Bandito Brothers used Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5.



Computer workstations used to edit Act of Valor



Bandito Brothers used multiple HP Z800 Workstations with NVIDIA graphic cards, together with interfaces from AJA and Blackmagic.



Monitors used both in the field and during post production



Bandito Brothers used multiple HP DreamColor monitors, both in the field and during post production. In the field, Bandito Brothers mounted the DreamColor monitors on rollable carts which were moved to follow wherever the cameras were, in order to evaluate composition, focus, exposure, and color balance. Although Jacob Rosenberg did not mention it, it is well known that the Canon 5D MKII does not deliver a full 1920x1080 raster live over HDMI during recording, but this would not have been an issue with the monitoring-only function being used.



Color space used by Bandito Brothers on the DreamColor monitors for Act of Valor



Since I knew that the DreamColor monitor offers several color spaces, including ITU-R Rec.601 for SD video, ITU-R Rec.709 for HD video, and DCI P3 for digital cinema, I was quite curious and asked Jacob which color space Bandito Brothers chose to use for Act of Valor and why, especially taking into account that it would be for theatrical distribution. I was somewhat surprised to hear his response: “Rec.709”. Regarding the why, he responded that it was because of their prior familiarity with Rec.709 with other projects.







Allan T©pper's books, consulting, articles, seminars & audio programs





Contact Allan T©pper for consulting, or find a full listing of his books, articles and upcoming seminars and webinars at AllanTepper.com. Listen to his TecnoTur program, which is now available both in Castilian and in English, free of charge. Search for TecnoTur in iTunes or visit TecnoTur.us for more information.



Disclosure, to comply with the FTC's rules



No manufacturer is specifically paying Allan T©pper or TecnoTur LLC to write this article. HP (Hewlett Packard) or its public relations agency directly paid most of the expenses for Allan T©pper to attend the HP media event 2012, but did not pay Allan T©pper or TecnoTur LLC for his time or to write this article. Some of the other manufacturers listed above have contracted T©pper and/or TecnoTur LLC to carry out consulting and/or translations/localizations/transcriptions. Many of the manufacturers listed above have sent Allan T©pper review units. So far, none of the manufacturers listed above is/are sponsors of the TecnoTur programs, although they are welcome to do so, and some are, may be (or may have been) sponsors of ProVideo Coalition magazine. Some links to third parties listed in this article and/or on this web page may indirectly benefit TecnoTur LLC via affiliate programs.



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The articles contained in the TecnoTur channel in ProVideo Coalition magazine are copyright Allan T©pper/TecnoTur LLC, except where otherwise attributed. Unauthorized use is prohibited without prior approval, except for short quotes which link back to this page, which are encouraged!

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Comments

mikemccarthy: | March, 10, 2012

Just for the record, since I know you are into those little details like “framerates” the movie was actually shot at 1080p30 on the 5D.  This is because the 24p option wasn’t available on the 5D until the 2.0.3 firmware update was released March 1, 2010.  Since most of the movie was shot in 2009, 90% of the Canon based source footage was 30p.  This had to be converted to 24p, using render intensive motion compensating frame-blending algorithms, to intercut with the film scans.  This was by far the most challenging technical problem presented by the 5D footage.

And I can confirm, we did use CS5.5 for the last few months of the finishing process, once it was available.  Everything else is right on.

Mike McCarthy
Bandito Brothers Director of Technology
Act of Valor Production Engineer & Online Editor

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