Vince Pace Podcast, Part II

From The Trenches recently brought you part I of my recent podcast conversation with cinematographer/stereoscopic camera guru Vince Pace about development of the Fusion 3D Camera System for James Cameron’s “Avatar,” and Vince’s views on how “Avatar” and modern stereoscopic systems like Fusion are impacting modern entertainment and media. In case you missed part I over the conversation, you can find it here.

Invictus: “The Largest Rotoscoping Job of All Time”

Awash, like everyone else, in “Avatar” madness (see here and here the two parts of my recent conversation with camera guru Vince Pace about the stereoscopic camera technology developed for that movie), it’s been hard to ponder the fact that there are, in fact, other things going on in the world of visual effects. With effort, I forced my mind to examine the concept, and have come to realize that one of the quietest, yet significant, visual effects developments in the last 12 months came out of a feature film that is getting all sorts of notice, but none for its visual effects. I’m talking about Clint Eastwood’s “Invictus”—about as traditionally made a film as you are likely to find, and a film not even on the short list for Academy Award consideration in the visual effects category this year.

Vince Pace Podcast, Part I

The hoopla you are now hearing about James Cameron’s “Avatar” as the hugely expensive and technologically intimidating movie hurtles to its U.S. release on December 18 may or may not be deserved, depending on critical and box-office acclaim, and of course, the personal tastes of movie-going audiences. But one thing is clear—the folks who spent, on and off, nearly a decade helping Cameron figure out how to make the mo-cap/CG/stereoscopic sci-fi extravaganza happen firmly believe they have participated in, at least to a degree, the revolutionizing of entertainment. Among those believers is longtime cinematographer and HD guru Vince Pace, the film’s second-unit director and co-inventor, along with Cameron, of the Fusion 3D Camera System developed in order to make the film, and now proliferating into a major business far beyond “Avatar” for Pace’s company, Pace HD in Burbank.

An Industry Shifts, Part II

Last time, we chatted with Michael Bravin of Band Pro Film & Digital about some of the major changes across the industry landscape as digital motion picture technology, the economy, and the industry generally shift and evolve. This time, From the Trenches touched base with Tom Fletcher, another industry veteran and VP of one of the leading camera rental facilities in the country, Chicago-based Fletcher Camera. Tom shares many of Michael’s views about how the sales and rental industries are changing, and in fact, goes so far as to suggest that calling his business a “rental business” at all is an antiquated approach.

An Industry Shifts, Part I

The final cover story I wrote for the late, lamented Millimeter magazine in September examined the ongoing transition of hour-long episodic TV production out of the film acquisition realm and into the digital universe—a transition resulting from a profound convergence of technological, business, and labor issues. (You can find the article here.) Following the last year’s slowdown in broadcast production, there are finally hints that things might speed up again in 2010, but broadcast production probably won’t return to its traditional levels for some time, if ever. Still, however fast or slow the production ball moves, there is no question the majority of hour-long episodic TV shows will be acquired using digital cameras going forward.

Thus, as I launch From the Trenches, it seems like a logical time to inquire how this paradigm shift is impacting various sectors of the industry, including camera sales and rental companies since it is largely through them that industry professionals get their hands on, and wrap their mind around, these new tools. Therefore, I recently dialed up a couple of industry veterans for a chat about the situation. This column, we start with input from Michael Bravin, the longtime Chief Technology Officer and HD guru at Band Pro Film & Digital in Burbank.

Greetings From the Trenches …

Michael Goldman here. Some of you might remember me, or at least my work covering the production and post-production worlds from my perch at venerable old Millimeter magazine, where I served as Senior Editor for the last 11 years. Despite its film-centric, but well respected, name, I’m proud to say Millimeter led the way in the trade journal space during the time I was there covering the film, broadcast, and so-called new media markets as they shifted from so-called old media into the world of high-end digital production—from acquisition to editing to visual effects and post and finishing work. Sadly, in a sign of how much my own industry, journalism, has changed during this same period, the print edition of Millimeter has ceased to be. The action is now, obviously, here—online.

So what’s a nice journalist like me doing on a site like this?

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