Defrosting the tiny, withered heart of the average technology journalist is a challenge at the best of times, especially after four consecutive eighteen-hour days of parched desert air and lukewarm coffee. Still, this year’s NAB show tried unusually hard to give us some things to feel happy about. Fujifilm’s friendly reaction to the Old Fast Glass camera system built around its GFX 100 II camera was a smile-inducing surprise, especially given the tendency of big companies to avoid endorsing this sort of aftermarket activity. Over in (appropriately) the futures park, students of the Rochester Institute of Technology discussed their study of colorimetry and image processing, a course that’s been quietly turning out graduates for some years and thereby satisfying the post production industry’s need for people who know how to make things be the right colour.

The most effective assault on the cryogenic cinder at the core of your narrator’s soul, however, took place in the part of Central Hall dedicated not to product, but to training. As we’ve seen, gear is more and more accessible, making on-set success more dependent than ever on well-trained human endeavour. At the same time, it’s a grim truth that the film and television industry can be very unkind to young people, something that sometimes seems especially unfair given the eagerness of hopefuls for a career that’s often been a lifelong goal. The CineCentral initiative is perhaps most directly the brainchild of Kristin Petrovich, executive director at the Society of Camera Operators, and ran a variety of courses at the show designed to provide hands-on access to production equipment that might usually only be at NAB as an exhibit.

Chapman-Leonard deserves a mention here, having supplied a selection of grip equipment including a 23’ Scorpio crane with remote head and several dollies. Arri, too, was involved, loaning some 416 cameras, and Kodak supplied the materials and consultancy for a film loading workshop. Sour-faced old-timers might chortle richly on the basis that the 416 is one of the world’s easier-to-load cameras, and that attendees worked in the light. The idea, we’re told, was to avoid scaring them off, although possibly the selection of an ISO 200 stock is just as likely to do that if any of them actually bought some with the intention of using it and worked out how much light it would need.

Rapt attention

It’s impossible to describe what made this meaningful without the author risking his hard-won reputation for scowling misanthropy, but the sight of a group of high school seniors gazing at Kodak’s lecturer with rapt attention, then laying their hands on a roll of 16mm camera negative for the first time, made it clear how important this sort of experience can be.

That’s not because of what was happening, but because of their reaction to it. Cleverly, someone had made some demonstration pieces of colour print film, riveted together in sets of three with cyan, magenta and yellow separations so that when the three were lined up, a colour image was formed. It won’t be easy to forget watching someone who’s seventeen years old, and who’s only ever moved sliders in Photoshop, figuring out how it works by example.

The following day, things continued out in the parking lot alongside Central Hall, where Chapman-Leonard’s crew had set up the Scorpio and a couple of dollies in the sort of situation which might typically be used to cover an action scene. Attendees moved between roles, working with the dolly, swinging and telescoping the crane and operating the head on wheels. This last seemed perhaps a little cruel for completely ab-initio people, but there was at least a computer terminal inside connected to some wheels and running a practice program which scored users on their ability to follow a synthetic target.

Training for joy factor

Beyond the sheer unbridled joy it provoked, there are some very laudable things about this sort of event. It’s often been difficult to raise much enthusiasm among workers for training people who might one day become the competition. Most people do seem to realise that there has to be a next generation, but established crew and producers have traditionally been hesitant about inducting them, especially as there’s rarely much funding to do so. There have long been at least a few trainees in various grades, but not many, and It’s easy to conclude that film and television production companies are living on borrowed time by relying on a pool of freelancers who are not necessarily self-replicating.

The only thing attendees didn’t do was actually shoot any 16mm. When queried, Kodak’s people suggested that the challenge here was processing – the negative would have had to go to Los Angeles, a good few hours’ drive away. Still, it’d be nice to think of future events finding a way to do this, especially as there’s a wealth of film scanning equipment from the likes of Lasergraphics on the show floor – though there’s a lot of interest in traditional approaches, and some people would probably prefer to see it printed and projected.

It’s a concomitant of filmmaking technology in 2024 that as ever higher technical standards become easier to achieve, there’s been an almost matching interest in old-school photochemical grunge. In that context, it’s interesting to reflect on Kodak’s choice of 200-speed stock for its loading demo. Okay, it was never going to be shot, but the Vision3 stocks were designed for high dynamic range and low grain, and at ISO 200, that 7213 might look quite subdued, rather too smooth and precise, to someone who selected film in the expectation of photochemical fireworks. Kodak’s rep was very aware of this and reported frequently being asked for a stock with a bit more attitude.

Regardless, watching a group of young people having their first experience doing things they loved, even having never done them, was the sort of thing that makes our yearly pilgrimage to Las Vegas seem worthwhile, and it’s hard to think of a better way to sign off NAB 2024 than that.