HEY! Apple releases ProRes for Windows

Poking around looking for some information for a client on workflow, stumbled across this little bon mot - Apple has released a FREE ProRes codec for Mac & Windows - it is mentioned on this page towards the bottom, and there are links for the decoders included:

ProRes QuickTime Decoder 1.0 for Windows
ProRes QuickTime Decoder 1.0 for Mac

Analysis follows after the jump.

Red One Geekery: Real World Info on Redcode

Shortly after I got my Red One camera, I went out to go play with it. I wanted to do some baseline testing - from my many talks with Graeme Nattress, Red’s codec guru, I knew that Redcode was a variable bitrate codec. That means that the datarate can vary depending on the content of the scene. OK...so how MUCH can it vary? Quite a bit, I found out. Read on for this and other geekery…

Making Movies Now - bigger, sometimes better, definitely riskier

I opened the LA Times today and the front of the Calendar section was dominated by a picture of Brad Pitt sprawled on a couch with the headline Sparking Curiosity with the subhead “The trailer for ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ is everything it should be” and talks about the buzz around the movie. The company where I’ve been working the last 3 months provided the cameras, recording system and workflow, same as was done for Zodiac (I mentioned this in Couple bits of awesomeness the other day).

A fun read about how great the trailer looks to be.

Reading the continuation on page E4, that dovetailed into a minor article entitiled “Indie biz needs more discipline” - which discusses the 99.9% chance of failure of a movie budgeted under $10M.

Hmm...what does this imply? Read on.

Couple bits of awesomeness

Quick note on some things:

a.) Busy, not dead. Waaaaaaaay busy.

b.) The trailer is (finally) out for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which was shot digitally on the Viper, recorded to S.two recorders. I’ve been working with the vendor that provided the gear, it is nice to see what masters of the game (director David Fincher, DoP Claudio Miranda) can do with digital tools when they commit and know EXACTLY what they are doing.

c.) Red Build 16 is imminent, and it is a Big Deal for those tracking Red. Months later than wanted/expected, but major new stuff in there. IF it does what Jannard and crew claim, I’d say the Red will have finally, fully arrived, fulfilling virtually all of the promised capabilities. (How soon till we can save curves on Red Alert and load into camera?)

The very, very serious problem with democratization of technology in moviemaking

Times are tough for indies right now - I just finished reading an LA Times article - Cloudy skies for Cannes indie market talking about how tough the market is for indie (as in, non-studio produced) content these days. And I think technology is largely to blame.

Backing up, here’s the evidence, as stated in the LA Times article:

-the number of buyers for indie are are thinning:
Not that long ago, the sellers of movies made outside the studio system knew that not only were there nearly a dozen forceful buyers competing for movies, but also that those distributors often were willing to roll the dice on less conventional fare. That’s all changed in a hurry.

WOW. Reason to want to make movies

Check out this trailer for The Fall. If the imagery doesn’t grab you at first (I saw posters on the street walking to work, and I literally stopped to gawk at the one sheet), how about “David Fincher and Spike Jonze Present.” Directed by Tarsem, known for his music video work.

Wow.

How gorgeous is this? In the middle of a 60+ hour work week, I watched the trailer 3 times, with co-workers, dimming the lights, waiting for the 1080p to download, and standing enthralled.

I took the time during lunch to scroll through, find 20 amazing stills in it, copy/paster to Photoshop and save’em out as JPEGs so I can have them rotate out as desktops every few minutes.

It is THAT good.

Plus, it looks like a good story, unlike some technically proficient, but plastic spastic blockbusters opening today. Which imagery do you think will stay with you, haunt your idle reveries, more?

-mike

Panavision & Canon videos on “Demystifying Digital Camera Specifications”

John Galt (Panavision) and Larry Thorpe (Canon), two well respected industry veterans, gave along talk at the Hollywood Post Alliance about how to really understand what is going on in digital cameras. It went over so well they revised & expanded it and did another one at Panavision, entitled Demystifying Digital Camera Specifications. This is looooooong, but HIGHLY recommended if you want to really understand what is going on. As a Red owner, I couldn’t help but notice that the press release mentioned something about “pixels aren’t resolution,” which is true, but clearly a response to the Red One’s 4K resolution. I haven’t had a chance to watch them all yet, so I can’t fairly state whether there is an agenda at work (it would be somewhat fair to presume that Panavision and Canon cameras won’t be looked on TOO unkindly), but these two guys are well known and respected, and have been doing this stuff for a long time. Chime in with comments about your take on it all - I’m prepping for a big client demo, no time to watch today…

-mike

Top 5 Things at NAB ‘08

1.) Red Scarlet/Red Epic - one for home, one for SERIOUS D-cinema work. Scarlet is easily summed up - “3K for $3K” - with 3K sensor that can shoot up to 120 fps for under three grand, when it ships in 2009 it will be a tough price point to beat. Red Epic, meanwhile, with better quality Redcode RAW, and 5K resolution at up to 100fps for only $40K, should be an indie filmmaker’s new Must Have.

2.) Codex Portable - record dual link HD-SDI or even RAW formats the latest cameras using 4:1 wavelet technology, on a breadbox sized package you can sling over your shoulder. Add the virtual file system on top of that, as well as the ability to transcode material in-the-box, you’ve got a helluva solution for a damned attractive price.

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