Imagetechnology

Transcription

Imagetechnology

Image technology
Volume 89 Issue 4 • October / November 2007
BKSTS The Moving Image Society
Stardust at Pinewood
IBC Highlights
Optics Update
Industry Pioneers
First Thoughts
The beginning
of the end for
analogue TV
October 2007 sees the start of what is being introduced to the public
as DSO - Digital Switch Over, a five year transitional plan by the end
of which all our 625 line analogue television transmissions, which have
been with us since the 1960s, will have been turned off. The first area
in which switchover will take place is around Whitehaven, in Cumbria,
which was selected as a good test case, since the area had previously
not had any access to digital terrestrial TV transmissions. Switchover is
a complicated process, and needs to be done in stages so that
everyone in the country will be ready for it, but in the period until 2012
the existing analogue television signal will be switched off region by
region, and digital terrestrial signals will be boosted, so that the UK will
be completely digital by 2012, with virtually all households that can
currently receive good quality analogue terrestrial TV able to receive
digital terrestrial TV after switchover. To continue to receive TV after
switchover, viewers will need to have converted or upgraded their TV
equipment to receive digital signals, and it is interesting to see that
over 77% of households have already converted at least one TV to
digital. Whether they will be equally ready to buy adaptors for all their
other TV receivers and video recorders remains to be seen, but adaptor
costs are reducing and a leading supermarket recently had set top
boxes on sale for just £10.
Within a TV region, each main transmitter and the relay stations which
carry its signal will generally switchover at the same time. Most TV
regions contain more than one main transmitter and switchover for
each of these might take place at different times. At each transmitter,
switchover will happen in two stages. First, the terrestrial BBC2
analogue service will be switched off overnight, together with some of
the existing BBC low power digital services, and replaced with several
BBC digital channels, such as BBC1, BBC2, BBC 3, News 24 and
CBBC at high power. Four weeks later, the remaining analogue
channels and low power digital services will be switched off overnight
and replaced by the remaining high power digital channels.
Switchover promises many benefits. Digital TV uses the radio frequency
spectrum more efficiently, and a given amount of spectrum bandwidth
can carry many more channels than analogue, thus freeing up
spectrum that can be used for a range of services, such as more TV
services in either standard or high definition (see the report on the HD
Masters conference in this issue), wireless broadband, local TV, wireless
home hubs and many others, and some of this spectrum the
government will be able to sell off to a range of different users once
the switchover process is complete. In technical terms the switch to
digital is also part of a move to ensure that the UK remains a world
leader in broadcasting - much of the technology was developed here,
and over the last ten years the UK has been a pioneer in digital
transmission.
For full information on the switchover plans have a look at
http://www.digitaltelevision.gov.uk/wswitchover_home.html
2
BKSTS Chairmen and Officers
Patron:
Sir Sydney Samuelson CBE
President: Roland Brown
Past President: Ted Taylor
Hon.Treasurer: Phil Rutter
Secretary: Wendy Laybourn
Council: Dave Bancroft,
Roland Brown, Paul Collard,
Mike Fraser, John Graham,
Nigel Hamley, Graham
Hartstone, Martyn Hurd,
Lawrie Read, Phil Rutter, Ted
Taylor, Martin Uren
Executive: Roland Brown
(Chairman), Paul Collard,
Mike Fraser, Martyn Hurd,
Phil Rutter
COMMITTEES
Archive Management
Group: Tony Iles (Chairman),
Jim Slater
Awards Administrator:
Tony Iles
Cinema Technology:
Dion Hanson (Chairman), Max
Bell, Ben Dowell, Keith
Fawcett, Fred Fullerton, Richard
Huhndorf, Trevor Judd, Denis
Kelly, Alan McCann, Andre
Mort, Mark Reader, Paul
Schofield, Nigel Shore, Andy
Symes, Nigel Wolland
Content Creation:
Paul Collard, Peter Swinson
(Joint Chairmen)
Editorial Board:
Paul Collard (Chairman), Brian
Dale, Tony Iles, Grant Lobban,
Hugh Marley, Jim Slater
Education and Training:
Martin Uren (Chair), Brian
Newman, Steve Gresswell,
Joost Hunninger, Adrian
Marden, Nick Di Maggio,
Alan Piper, Chris Woollard,
Mark Baldock, Mark
Trompeteler, Damien
Williams, Shaun Wilton,
Tony Harcourt
Standards:
Julian Pinn (Chairman), Dave
Bancroft, Max Bell, David
Charleston
Television: Bob Sparks
(Chairman), Martyn Hurd, Ian
Birkinshaw, Lawrie Read, Brian
Rose, Phil Rutter, Ted Taylor,
Martin Uren
BRISTOL REGION: Regional Rep:
Tom Barnes MBKS, Aardman Features,
1410 Aztec West, Almondsbury, Bristol
BS32 4RT. Tel: 01454 859000
MIDLANDS REGION: Regional Rep:
Jon Thompson
[email protected]
SCOTLAND & BORDERS:
Chairman: Keith Bowman
Edinburgh College of Art
74 Lauriston Place, Edinburgh EH3 9DF
Tel: 0131 221 6133
email: [email protected]
SOUTHERN REGION:
Chairman: Franz von Habsburg
[email protected]
Tel: 01273 302166
INTERNATIONAL REPRESENTATIVES
ASIA:
Keen Wong, Kwestec Pte. Ltd, Katong
PO Box 123, Singapore 9143.
Tel: (65) 3444567
AUSTRALIA:
Murray Forest, FBKS, Atlab Australia, 47
Hotham Parade, PO Box 766, Artarman
NSW 2064 and
Tim Waygood, MBKS, Kodak (Australia)
Pty. Ltd, 15 Talavera Road, North Ryde,
NSW 2113, Australia
BELGIUM:
Dimitri Balachoff, Meuter Titra Labs,
69 Rue Verte, B1200, Brussels
Tel: +32 2 218 6607
Fax: +32 2 217 5572
CANADA:
René Villeneuve
Tel: +1 514 283 9147
Fax: +1 514 283 9146
EGYPT:
Dr Ibrahim Adbel-Gayyed Abdel-Latif,
MBKS, Sound Department, Academy of
Arts, High Cinema Institute, City of Arts,
Pyramids Road, Giza, Egypt
FRANCE:
Richard Billeaud, 3 villa des Clos, 78860
St Nom La Breteche, France
INDIA:
A. Ramesh, Prasad Film Laboratories,
22 Arunachalam Road, Saligramam,
Madras 600 093, India
IRELAND:
Stuart Hetherington
Tel: +3531 288 3056 and
Bob Monks Tel: +3531 490 0669
SOUTH AFRICA:
John Hill, MBKS, Cape Town Film
School, 102 Gateway Park, Berkeley
Road, Ndabeni, PO Box 13413,
Mowbray 7705, South Africa.
Tel: +27+21+683 5013
e-mail: [email protected] and
[email protected] www.film-school.tv
TURKEY:
Burak Dagdeviren
Tel:+90 212-288 41 39
Fax:+90 212-266 95 58
USA:
Tom Atkin: [email protected]
Nigel Hamley:+1 818 955 9022
[email protected]
Image Technology
This Issue
Image technology
Volume 89 issue 4 • October / November 2007
BKSTS The Moving Image Society
Sponsor
Members
Diamond
Odeon Cinemas
Gold
On the cover:
Many facilities at Pinewood Studios were utilised for the
shooting of Paramount Pictures fairytale feature ‘Stardust’,
released in the UK on 19 October 2007. The photo shows a
full size inn built on the 16 acre Pinewood back lot. Visual
effects house Double Negative created the effect that sees
Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer) cast a spell to magically create the inn
(See back cover).
Image copyright © 2006 Paramount Pictures. All rights
reserved. Thanks to Daniel Lennox, Pinewood.
First Thoughts ................................................................................................... 2
Industry News ................................................................................................... 4
Optics Update ................................................................................................... 5
Technology Update ............................................................................................ 7
HD Masters 2007 - Part 2 ................................................................................. 8
3D - a Forgotten System ..................................................................................... 14
SOCIETY NEWS - President’s message and BKSTS Roadshow details ................... 15
Bernard Happé Lecture - Book Now for 26th November at BFI ....................... 15
Film Industry Pioneers - Bell and Howell .............................................................. 16
Bollywood DI uses Digital Praxis.......................................................................... 20
Obituary - John Pytlak ....................................................................................... 21
IBC Highlights .................................................................................................... 22
Bradford Animation Festival ................................................................................ 24
First Reference - Classified ................................................................................. 28
The Light of Other Days .................................................................................... 31
BKSTS DIARY DATES
• Wednesday 7th November 2007 (phone 01753 656656 to confirm venue)
Presentation of Stereoscopic 3DHD by Quantel at BFI Southbank, 1800
• Bernard Happé Memorial Lecture 26th November 2007 - See page 15
• EARLY WARNING! BKSTS Annual Awards Ceremony will be held on
Friday 14th March 2008 at BFI Southbank, 1830 for 1900.
Autodesk
ITN
Kodak
Pinewood Studios Group
Silver
Avid Technology
Deluxe London
Digital Theater Systems
Dolby Laboratories
Filmlight
Hyperactive
Lee Filters
Lee Lighting
Panavision Europe
Shooting Partners Ltd.
Slater Electronic Services
Soho Images
Technicolor
Vantis
Bronze
Aardman Animations
Arri (GB) Ltd.
Barco
Desisti Lighting UK Ltd.
Electrosonic Ltd.
Film Distributors Association
Framestore CFC
Harkness Hall Ltd
Moving Picture Company
Panasonic Broadcast
Quantel
RTI UK
UGC Cinemas
BKSTS – The Moving Image Society
Advertising:
Supporters
Pinewood Studios, Pinewood Road,
Iver Heath, Bucks, SL0 0NH
Tel: 01753 656656
email: [email protected] www.bksts.com
Contact
Jim Slater
Association of Motion Picture
Sound • British Film Institute
British Society Of Cinematographers
British Universities Film & Video
Council
Cinema Exhibitors Association
Cooke Optics • CST
Focal International • SMPTE
Skillset • Society of Television
Lighting Directors
UK Film Council
The BKSTS exists to encourage, sustain, educate, train and provide
a focus for all those who are creatively or technologically involved
in the business of providing moving images and associated sound in any form
and through any media. The BKSTS works to maintain standards and to
encourage the pursuit of excellence in all aspects of moving image and
associated sound technology, in the UK and throughout the world. The Society
is independent of all governments and commercial organisations.
The British Kinematograph, Sound and Television Society
Image Technology, the journal of the BKSTS, ISSN 0950-2114, is emailed free-ofcharge to all members. The subscription rate for non-members is £75 per year in
the UK or £90 per year international (by air). Please contact the BKSTS for details.
Managing Editor: Jim Slater
17 Winterslow Road, Porton, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP4 0LW
Tel: 01980 610544 Fax: 01980 590611
Tel: 01980 610544
Fax: 01980 590611
Publisher: BKSTS
The Society gratefully
acknowledges the support of
the above listed Companies
and Organisations. For
enquiries about Sponsor
Membership, contact Wendy
Laybourn at the BKSTS
Pinewood Studios address.
Any views expressed in this journal are not necessarily those of the Society.
October / November 2007
3
Industry News
New Chief for
CEA
Honorary
Doctorate for
Ioan Allen FBKS
Dr. Ioan Allen, Senior Vice
President of Dolby
Laboratories and a longstanding Fellow of the
BKSTS, has received an
honorary degree of
Doctorate of Science from
The University of
Nottingham, recognising him
as one of the most
accomplished engineers in
international cinema.
“Nothing pleases me more
than to be recognized by the
academic community for my
work on the cinema
industry,” said Dr. Allen. “The
University of Nottingham is a
pillar for educating the finer
arts of film theory and
practice. It’s an honor to be
acknowledged for my
accomplishments by such a
distinguished university.”
A pioneer in the 1970s,
Dr. Allen ushered in a new
era in sound technology and
aesthetics with his work on
the multi-channel sound
system known worldwide as
Dolby Stereo. At Dolby, Dr.
Allen continues to develop
and introduce new solutions
throughout the world.
Chairman of the Dye Track
Committee, which promotes
the use of environmentally
friendly film soundtracks, Dr.
Allen helped to rid film of
hazardous materials by
developing a new system
that replaced silver with
cyan-dye analogue tracks,
now an industry standard.
Among his many honours for
his contributions to the
cinema industry, Dr. Allen
has received several Scientific
and Engineering Awards
from the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences,
and an Oscar for continuous
contributions to film sound.
Dr Phil Clapp has been
appointed as the new Chief
Executive of the Cinema
Exhibitors Association, and
takes up the appointment on
15 October.
Phil comes to the
Association from the
Department for Culture,
Media and Sport, where he
has most recently been the
Deputy Director responsible
for policy on the creative
industries, including film.
Looking forward to his
new role, Phil said "Cinema
has a unique place in the
culture of the nation. However,
many overlook the economic
contribution the sector makes,
both nationally and at the
community level.
I look forward to working with
CEA members to continue to
give the UK cinema sector a
strong voice, helping the
sector address the challenges
and opportunities ahead."
More UK Film Council Support for
Short Filmmakers
UKFC’s Completion Fund for short filmmakers is offering two
funding opportunities a year over the next three years. The
Completion Fund supports short films that have already been
shot but lack funds to finish. Around 14 films will be funded per
year.
The Completion Fund has supported 46 films over the last
five years, allowing short filmmakers to complete their projects
and have an international platform. Completion Fund films
have achieved outstanding success, gathering over 100
international awards. The fund is now looking to support the
next wave of short filmmaking talent. Applicants can send in
copies of their film, completed application forms, and CVs for
the producer and director, plus an explanation, schedule and
budget. ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/filmmaking/shorts/completionfund
Pinewood become
BKSTS Gold Sponsor
The Pinewood Studios Group has
become a Gold Sponsor of the BKSTS
- The Moving Image Society, and will
continue to provide the Society with its registered office and
other facilities. The Pinewood Group comprises Pinewood,
Shepperton and Teddington Studios, and is the leading
service provider of film and television related services across
the UK. The heritage of these studios dates back to the early
20th Century, and they merged in more recent years to
become The Pinewood Studios Group.
35 stages at Pinewood and Shepperton studios house feature
films, TV dramas, commercials, pop promos, animation and
photo shoots, and Pinewood has Europe’s only permanently
filled studio based underwater filming stage, one of Europe’s
largest exterior tanks and 12 stages with interior tanks.
Post production facilities encompass re-recording and mixing
theatres, ADR and Foley suites, catering for film, television
audio post as well as foreign version dubbing, optical transfer
and duplication.
www.pinewoodgroup.com
4
Image Technology
Optics Update
A single image from the plenoptic camera can be digitally processed to alter the area in focus from the back of the picture (left)
to the front (centre) and can even produce a depth of field range encompassing both (right)
Capture that elusive shot
- then focus later!
Jim Slater reports on the commercialisation of a clever optical technique that
could enable the ‘digital lens’ to revolutionise the way we shoot our images.
Back in 1992, researchers at Stanford
University, California demonstrated the
principles behind what they called a
plenoptic camera, but which others
think should be called a light-field
camera or even a polydioptric camera,
which some readers will know as being
based on an imager using a regular
array of pinhole cameras.
Conventional two-dimensional cameras
do not record most of the information
about the light distribution of the image,
and the Stanford researchers showed
how to re-capture this lost information
and to measure not just a 2D
representation of the total amount of
light at each point on the photosensor,
but the full 4D light field, measuring the
amount of light traveling along each
ray that intersects the sensor, effectively
capturing the directional lighting
distribution arriving at each pixel.
Having captured the additional two
dimensions of data, ray-tracing
techniques can then be applied to
rebuild the photographic image from
this data, re-sorting the light rays to
where they would have ended up if the
camera had been focused as desired.
Microlens
array
Subject
Main lens
Photosensor
Basic principle of plenoptic camera. The main lens focuses the subject onto the
microlens array. The microlens array separates the converging rays into an image
on the photosensor.
The plenoptic camera achieves this
sampling of the 4D light field by having
a microlens array inserted between the
sensor and main lens. Each microlens
measures not just the total amount of
light at that location, but how much
light arrives along each ray. By rearranging the measured rays of light,
sharp photographs focused at different
depths can be created, and the
research showed that a linear increase
in the resolution of images under each
microlens results in a linear increase in
the sharpness of the refocused
photographs.
This property allows the depth of field to
be extended without reducing the
aperture, enabling shorter exposures
and lower image noise, and especially
in macrophotography, ‘synthetic’
photographs can be built from a range
of different viewpoints. The final
resolution of the image is the same as
the number of microlenses.
In recent months these developments
have moved closer to commercial
exploitation, with ‘Refocus Imaging’, a
company spun out of Stanford
University revealing what it calls its
‘Digital Lens™’ technology in a working
prototype camera based on a Contax
645 with a modified Megavision
FB4040 back with a sixteen megapixel
sensor. The back unit includes an array
5
Optics Update
of 90,000 microlenses mounted in front
of the sensor, with a small gap between
the array and the sensor. These
microlenses create a unique image on
the sensor surface which includes not
only the amount of light deposited at
that location, but how much light arrives
along each ray. The image is then
reconstructed in software from all the
gathered data and a focus point can be
chosen.
The plenoptic technique introduces
photographic features that were
previously thought impossible, such as
the ability to refocus photographs after
the fact, or to make everything in-focus
even in low light conditions. As far as
the photographer is concerned,
however, the plenoptic camera operates
exactly like any ordinary hand-held
camera.
This is an interesting technological
development, allowing you to focus
after the event, but there is more to it
than that - the proprietary image
processing is effectively implementing
(or simulating) physical functions of the
optical lens in software. You could
perhaps shoot with a wide aperture and
still achieve the depth of field that you
would expect from a small aperture. So
you might be able to use faster shutter
speeds or set the digital camera to a
lower sensitivity (reducing noise) and yet
still get pictures which are in focus in all
the areas you want. The traditional rules
linking depth of field and aperture
would seem to be overturned. At the
lower end of the market (we can’t all
afford a 16Mbyte Contax!) this
technique might save money by
allowing the images generated by
‘cheap’ lenses to be sharpened. The
researchers suggest many different
applications from everyday photography
to scientific applications where the
technique could allow more detail to be
extracted from ‘macro’ images that
inevitably have very shallow depth of
field. Refocus Imaging claim that the
technology can be added to digital
cameras cost-effectively, since it requires
only requires a simple optical
modification to existing digital cameras,
with the microlens unit (upon which the
resolution of the pictures ultimately
depends) being introduced as part of
the image sensor mechanism, and no
external alterations to the camera are
needed. The Stanford researchers tested
their 4D light field technology on
hundreds of different types of photo,
including portraits, action, and macro
close-ups shots.
Details:
http://graphics.stanford.edu/papers/
lfcamera/
http://www.refocusimaging.com/
‘Lucky Imaging’ provides sharper space pics
Astronomers from the
University of Cambridge and
the California Institute of
Technology have developed a
new camera that gives much
more detailed pictures of stars
and nebula than even the
Hubble Space Telescope, and
it does all this from the
ground.
Images from ground-based
telescopes are invariably
blurred by the atmosphere.
Astronomers have techniques
to correct the blurring, called
adaptive optics, but so far
they only work successfully in
the infrared region. But a new
noise-free, high-speed
camera has been developed
at the Institute of Astronomy
in Cambridge which at last
makes very high resolution
imaging in the visible region
possible. The camera works
by recording the images
produced by an adaptive
optics front-end at high speed
(20 frames per second or
more). Software then checks
6
each one to pick the sharpest
ones. Many are still quite
significantly smeared but a
good percentage are
unaffected. These are
combined to produce the
image that astronomers want.
The scientists call the
technique "Lucky Imaging"
because it depends on the
chance fluctuations in the
atmosphere sorting
themselves out. This work was
carried out on Mount Palomar
with their 200 inch telescope
- the images it normally
produces are typically 10
times less detailed than those
of the Hubble Space
Telescope. With the Lucky
Imaging technique images
are twice as sharp as those
produced by Hubble, and are
the sharpest visible images
ever taken either from the
ground or from space. Lucky
Imaging techniques have
already enabled the discovery
of many multiple star systems
which are too close together
and too faint to find with any
standard telescope.
This technique has only been
possible because of a new
kind of CCD camera chip
developed by British
company, E2V Technologies
of Chelmsford.
www.e2v.com/home.cfm
Normally cameras have a
residual noise even in the
absence of light, which
greatly limits how faint an
image you can see. This new
camera chip is so sensitive
that it can detect individual
particles of light (photons)
even when running at high
speed. It is this extraordinary
sensitivity that makes these
detectors so attractive for
astronomers. Engineers at
Cambridge University have
built some of these detectors
into their astronomical
cameras to make the Lucky
Camera work so well.
More details and pictures
available on the Lucky
The Globular cluster M13 as
imaged conventionally by the
Palomar 200 inch telescope.
The Globular cluster M13
imaged with the Lucky Camera
on the Palomar 200 inch
telescope.
Imaging Website
http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~
optics/Lucky_Web_Site/index
.htm
Image Technology
Technology Update
BriteFlash for High-Res LED Flash Camera Phones
Modern camera-phones with
resolutions of more than about 2
Megapixels are technological wonders
with capabilities to amaze many of us,
but they can’t get away from some of
the basic laws of physics, whether
relating to light output from their flash
units or power delivery. Whereas minixenons aren’t unknown in this field,
and bring with them their own
complications, the solution of choice is
to use an array of light-emitting
diodes, LEDs, but it is difficult for
small phone batteries to provide the
high current pulse that is essential - a
good flash needs perhaps four times
as much power as a typical battery
can provide for a short period. Some
manufacturers use long flash times at
lower brightness to try to overcome
the problem, but blurred images often
result.
One answer is to use
‘supercapacitors’ to deliver the pulse
power needed (>1A), allowing the
battery to concentrate only on
recharging the supercapacitors
between flashes, while the
supercapacitors drive the LEDs at very
high current for the flash pulse.
To demonstrate the effectiveness of
their solution, with increased flash
power and ease of designing the unit
into phones, CAP-XX engineers
retrofitted several industry-leading
camera phones with the BriteFlash
solution. CAP-XX added a 1.2mm
thick dual-cell supercapacitor,
replaced existing LEDs with 4 highpowered LEDs that can each handle a
peak pulse current of 1A, then put the
phone together again with no change
in external appearance. The original
phone delivered 1 watt of flash power
for 160 milliseconds while the CAP-XXmodified phone delivered 15 watts for
the same amount of time.
The photos above were taken using
the unmodified phone (left) and the
CAP-XX-modified phone (right). The
results speak for themselves!
Details: www.cap-xx.com
Supercapacitors The Technology
Supercapacitors are very high surface
area activated carbon capacitors that
use a molecule-thin layer of
electrolyte, rather than a sheet of
material, as the dielectric to separate
charge. The supercapacitor resembles
a regular capacitor except that it offers
very high capacitance in a small
package.
The capacitance C of any parallel
plate capacitor with plates of area A
separated by a distance d
is approximately equal to
so that the smaller d can
be made, the larger the available
capacitance, and the molecular
separation of the plates in a
supercapacitor provides high
capacitance in a relatively small area.
Energy storage is by means of static
charge rather than of an electrochemical process inherent in a battery.
Supercapacitors rely on the separation
of charge at an electrified interface
that is measured in fractions of a
nanometer, compared with
micrometers for most polymer film
capacitors.
In supercapacitors, the solution
between the electrodes contains ions
from a salt that is added to an
appropriate solvent. The operating
voltage is controlled by the breakdown
voltages of the solvents with aqueous
electrolytes (1.1 V) and organic
electrolytes (2.5 to 3 V).
There are three types of electrode
materials for the supercapacitor, high
surface area activated carbons, metal
oxide, and conducting polymers. The
high surface electrode material, also
called Double Layer Capacitor (DLC),
is least costly to manufacture and is
the most common. It stores the energy
in the double layer formed near the
carbon electrode surface. The lifetime
of supercapacitors is virtually indefinite
and their energy efficiency rarely falls
below 90% when they are kept within
their design limits. Their power density
is higher than that of batteries while
their energy density is generally lower.
However, unlike batteries, almost all of
this energy is available in a reversible
process.
The CAP-XX supercapacitor is a single
cell rated at 2.25V, each single cell
consisting of layers in pairs. Dual cell
devices are designed to meet specific
applications and are rated at 4.5V.
High capacitance of 10mF to 2.8F
yields high energy density with a small
footprint of 28.5 mm x 17 mm or 39
mm x 17 mm, and a wafer thin profile
of 0.7 – 3.9 mm.
7
High Definition TV
HD Masters Paints a
Glowing Picture
Jim Slater provides the second part of his report of a very successful two
day BKSTS / SMPTE / TVBE conference that was packed with practical
information about tackling the realities of High Definition broadcasting
Continued from Image Technology
July/August issue
Insertion mode drastically reduced
motion blur.
Displaying the product
He finished with a summary of the
many facilities that the new LCD
monitor will provide, and, after
questions from the chairman, said that
the monitor would cost about the same
as a current Grade 1 CRT monitor, and
should be available on the market by
the end of the year. It was also notable
that in a later panel session Richard
Salmon admitted that he had seen the
Sony display, and that it really wasn't
bad!
Continuing the theme of whether LCD
displays could replace the CRT as a
broadcast reference monitor, Daniel
Dubreuil from Sony revealed details of
their forthcoming new LCD Master
Monitor. He recognised the challenges
that have to be overcome to make an
LCD 'Grade 1' monitor and the
requirement for a reference display to
be consistent and stable, and explained
how Sony have worked to overcome the
disadvantages of the LCD display, using
Trimaster Mastering Technology to
ensure colour accuracy, precision
imaging, and picture consistency. He
showed how accurate picture
reproduction was achieved with 12 bit
signal processing, and precise colour
reproduction could be obtained with a
10 bit panel driver giving 1024 levels.
A special Interlace Display Mode
allowed for the faithful reproduction of
interlaced signals, and a Black frame
8
Danny Churchill, until recently with
Dixons, Adrian Northover-Smith of
Sony, and Warren Newman of Voice of
the Listener and Viewer joined the
earlier speakers for a panel session,
which drew forth a lot of audience
response. Danny said that his
experience over recent years showed
that once customers got a feel for a
new technology they adopt it quickly,
and the present situation where people
are buying HD Ready sets illustrates
this. Adrian said that the replacement
cycle for TVs is already getting shorter,
and as yet more new developments
come to market the customer appetite
for all things new will shorten the cycle
even more. Warren Newman, who
confessed to still watching a CRT TV,
was more provocative as he said that
the customer is being deliberately
confused. Not only do many not realise
the meaning of HD Ready, many
actually believe that by buying such a
receiver they are getting HDTV. He said
that VoLV is lobbying to ensure that the
industry moves quickly to providing
boxes that incorporate both MPEG2
and MPEG4 decoders - the current
generation of boxes will never be able
to receive HD, and customers are not
being informed of this. Richard Salmon
suggested that the consumer electronics
industry is deliberately deceiving the
consumer, to which he received the
cautious answer that they are genuinely
working towards providing HD for
viewers. An audience member
suggested that the industry has really
'shafted' the consumer, with SD pictures
that look worse on HD Ready sets than
on standard CRT TVs. Danny agreed
that the consumer is being 'conned' and
has been for some time. He said that
analogue only TVs were sold for far too
long after it was decided that digital TV
was the future, and there had been five
years of procrastination with the
government refusing to make Digital
tuners compulsory. The same would
happen with MPEG4 - manufacturers
won't introduce them until they have to.
The session ended with a story that the
new Chairman of Ofcom hadn't really
understood what the issues were - she
had an HD Ready set, and really
believed that she was receiving digital
TV.
Delivering HD
Simon Fell chaired the next session, in
which Graham Plumb from the BBC
related the experiences
gained from the BBC's
terrestrial HD trials, including
the first UK Free-to-Air HD
(FTA) broadcast. As well as
being carried on digital cable
and digital satellite, a group
of 450 homes in London
area was enabled to receive
the terrestrial service.
The objectives were to test
end-to-end delivery of such a service,
and to gather information to inform the
broadcasters and to research viewer
experiences. The service contained a
range of different programme types
with up to four hours a day of live,
simulcast and catch-up material. The
audience reactions were extremely
positive.
Part of the BBC's rationale for the tests
was to future-proof FTA services in the
Image Technology
High Definition TV
hope that the BBC’s intervention will
support the development of HD takeup. They believe that an HD presence
on DTT is necessary to maintain
platform competition, audience choice
and future spectrum efficiency, but there
is no doubt that to provide a critical
mass of FTA HD on DTT requires
additional spectrum capacity.
Now that the first trials are over the
BBC suggests an evolutionary approach
whereby BBC HD grows in line with HD
content production. The idea is initially
for a single portfolio channel which
would be launched in Winter 2007/08
on satellite and cable, and on DTT from
mid-2008. The aim would be that by
the end of 2008 HD programming
would be available daily from 1500 to
midnight on satellite and cable, with
BBC 1 simulcast between 1930 and
2200 hours, and the weekend schedule
would be based on BBC1 plus live
sport. Since there is unlikely to be
enough capacity on DTT, they have
come up with a novel non-live 'HD
zone' idea, where the HD programmes
would be broadcast between 0200 and
0600, for recording onto HD DTT harddisk set top boxes. Viewers could either
watch at the time of transmission or
from their hard disk recording. This
overnight HD zone on DTT is seen as a
‘second-best’ solution, to be replaced
by a full service if sufficient DTT
spectrum capacity becomes available
after switchover.
With so many of the previous speakers
having mentioned the need for more
UHF spectrum to be made available,
and with the decisions on spectrum
allocation due to be made by Ofcom, it
was no surprise
when Greg
Bensberg of
Ofcom said that
he felt as though
he had entered
the lion’s den as
he came to
address the
conference. He
explained that the
UK has committed to implementing
digital switchover of analogue terrestrial
television services on a region by region
basis between 2008 and 2012, and
that this has been planned in such a
way that a number of UHF channels will
be totally cleared of terrestrial television
services and will thus be available for
use by a wide range of new services.
Ofcom established a Digital Dividend
Review to evaluate how this valuable
resource could be best made available,
and its consultation received some 750
responses, the largest number ever.
Greg presented an excellent diagram
showing the current spectrum usage
and explained that Ofcom proposed
that a market-led approach should be
adopted for awarding the released
spectrum, with cleared spectrum
available for full range of possible uses,
channel 36 offered alongside other
cleared spectrum, and interleaved
spectrum offered with packages suitable
for local TV, and professional PMSE
(Programme Making and Special
Events). Channel 69 would be made
available for wireless microphones and
similar use, free of charge and licenceexempt. Ofcom were also inviting views
on other low-power uses, and a
possible “innovation reserve” - he
explained that it is important to have
some capacity that might be used for
new technologies that we don't yet know
about but which might come along
during the period under review. It is
also important to note potential
developments in Europe – the European
Commission may come forward with
proposals on digital dividend.
Ofcom believes that HD television is an
important technology, and the review
proposals are compatible with the use
of the spectrum for HD services, but the
question is whether Ofcom should
reserve some or all of the digital
9
High Definition TV
dividend for HD on DTT, and by doing
so, preclude other services from gaining
access. Ofcom considered this issue
very carefully in its consultation,
including the risk of market failure and
the opportunity cost of intervention. Any
intervention will require evidence
demonstrating that the benefits that
may accrue from intervention outweigh
the costs, and evidence gathered so far
suggests that there is not a compelling
case for intervention in favour of HD
services provided by the public service
broadcasters. But HD is a new service,
and consumer demand could grow
significantly. Greg showed various
options, with DTT offering between 5
and 8 HD channels under the most
favourable circumstances, whereas
satellite could offer hundreds of HD
channels. He explained how improved
compression and the use of DVB-T2, a
new European DTT transmission
standard that provides a big increase in
multiplex capacity, could allow more
programme channels to be provided
after switch off of the analogue services,
and that one day up to five 720P
MPEG4 HD channels could operate in a
dedicated HD DTT multiplex. The big
snag, of course, is that new set top
boxes would be required!
In a completely
different vein,
Jean-Pierre
Lacotte described
the situation with
HD in France.
Seven HD
channels are
available on
satellite, there is
no HD on cable
yet, and DTT carried two experimental
channels on R5 from May to December
2006, serving Paris, Lyon, and
Marseille. Three further experimental
channels will be on air from July to
November 2007. There are proposals
for all six of the main internet providers
in France to offer HD and VOD services
via ADSL. It was interesting to learn that
under "LOI n° 2007-309 du 5 mars
2007 relative à la modernisation de la
diffusion audiovisuelle et à la télévision
du futur", Analog switch over will take
place from 2008 to 2011 by zones,
under CSA management and, perhaps
more significantly when considering the
earlier remarks that the UK customer
may be being 'conned', that from
December 2008, all TV sets and
recorders sold for HDTV services must
include the appropriate MPEG4
10
decoder. Only HDTV devices, as defined
by the law can display the logo "Prêt
pour la haute definition", and the
consumer electronics industry and
distributors must clearly indicate the
capacity to process digital HDTV signals
with the logo, whether for an HD
display, decoder, recorder, etc.
For the panel session, which turned out
need is to determine how we can
practically realise the theoretical gains
that are possible, and this needs
commercial and regulatory intervention.
Brendon said that we should be taking
a longer view right from the start of HD
- moving on to MPEG4 and finding out
what the DVB-T2 standard can deliver we need the chosen HD plan to make
use of the very best technological
to be extremely lively, with lots of
audience participation, the speakers
were joined by Glodina Connan of
Harris and Brendan Slamin from the
Widescreen Forum. Brendan said that
there is no question as to whether HDTV
must be delivered by DTT - the
important thing is to work out ways of
doing this. A question from the
audience as to whether the UK could
take advice from France was aimed at
Greg from Ofcom, but he was able to
say that similar discussions and
arguments are taking place in France,
and in both countries existing terrestrial
broadcasters are determined to keep
their audiences as the change to HD
takes place. In answer to a question as
to why not switch over to 64QAM now,
Greg said that although the switchover
plan allows for this (providing more
digital capacity), it would shrink the
current audience significantly if
introduced before switchover, when
significant increases in transmitter
power will be possible. Realising his
fears of being in the 'lion's den', Greg
was then asked what is most important
to Ofcom - delivering money to the
Chancellor from the sale of spectrum or
providing HD services? Greg played a
straight bat, saying that Ofcom's aim is
to provide a solution that provides the
best value for the UK, not to maximise
revenue to the treasury. He believed that
customers would benefit from a wider
range of services that the spectrum
review might make possible. Jean-Pierre
Lacotte pointed out that the situation is
different in France, where broadcasters
are given spectrum free of charge, but
in exchange they support French
programme production, so effectively
pay indirectly.
Graham Plumb said that the current
solutions, the best compression systems,
the best of everything. Greg agreed that
HD may need a step-change, and said
that important dialogues between
researchers and industry need to be
had. Simon Fell was more circumspect,
saying that what is most important to
the broadcasting business is to have
certainty. David Wood from EBU asked
whether there is a pan-European
dimension to HD spectrum planning.
Greg said that the whole spectrum issue
is under consideration, that we are
already using the Regional Radio
Conference spectrum, and that mixing
broadcasting and telecoms in the same
parts of the spectrum might prove
difficult. Another questioner suggested
that standard definition should be
scrapped at the point when MPEG4
transmissions are introduced. Greg said
this wouldn't be right, people needed to
be given a choice, and if we did go
exclusively to HD, the number of
available channels would be
significantly reduced. The suggestion
was made that simulcasting SD and HD
is wasteful of spectrum, but Greg said
that such duplication is acceptable for a
transition period, benefiting the whole
broadcast economy. Simon Fell was
asked about ITV plans for HD over
broadband, and he gave some positive
information about streaming
programmes, but said that Digital
Rights Management was currently
proving a problem, and limited users to
Windows Media. An interesting
comment came from Glodina, who said
that she believed that MPEG4 will be
optimised for HD much more quickly
than it took for MPEG2 to reach its
current state. She believed that once
people see HD they will crave for more,
that 5 channels will be totally
Image Technology
High Definition TV
insufficient, and that Internet Protocol TV
will be the major driver for HD.
Those who chose
to come back
early from lunch
were treated to a
half hour
presentation from
SMPTE Fellow Jim
Wikinson, who
provided a
'Standards Master
Class' in which he
took a fascinated audience through the
hundreds of different standards that
affect HD in some way. It was quite a
'tour de force', and we were reminded
of the old adage that 'the good thing
about standards is that there are so
many of them!'
Real World Implementations
Andy King, Head
of Technology for
BBC Resources,
chaired the first
half of the
Tuesday afternoon
session, adopting
a jocular style for
his own
introductory
presentation in
which he spoke of the practical
problems of introducing HD to studios
TC1 (HD only) and TC8 (HD/SD
switchable) at Television Centre. He
highlighted the difficulties of investment
timing, that nobody wants to pay any
extra for HD, and that future ideas of
1080/50P are having a negative effect
on current investment - if this comes
along too soon it could ruin the current
investment plans. It wouldn't make
sense to equip studios solely with SD
only, so HD is a major consideration in
all studio refurbishments, which must be
HD switchable or upgradable. Living in
a multiformat world is difficult.
Monitoring is a major problem. TC1
and TC8 have mostly CRT monitors (SD
or HD), but there are also 37 inch
flatscreens for main and preview which
are slightly out of sync. He said that
they have got used to living with the
difference and it is much cheaper than
adding video delays to all the CRTs. The
current 24 inch monitors are too small
for the main production gallery, which
would ideally use 50 inch flatscreens.
The small monitors do not need to be
HD. Andy gave lots of practical
information about what had been
learned from HD shows in studios and
on OBs, and warned us never to
underestimate (or forget!) the audio,
which is possibly now the most difficult
bit of HD. He showed us a wonderfully
complex schematic diagram of the
sound arrangements that were put in
place for the Wimbledon 2006 sound
trials, and then some magnificent
material from Glastonbury 2005 in 4.0
surround sound and Wimbledon 2006
in 5.0 - pictures and sound were
magnificent. After a quick look at the
Japanese Ultra-HD work, and their 22
channel sound system, he re-iterated
the message 'HD costs loads - you need
to be very smart about your
investments!'
Milan Krsljanin
from Arrimedia
spoke about
producing drama
in HD, pointing
out that the
technology is just
the means to
achieve the
desired 'look'. He
said that when
compared with 35mm film everything
else is second best, but then reminded
us that he had come to talk about
digital! He compared the 'Film Look'
with the 'TV (Video) Look', compared HD
from 3 x 2/3-inch sensors with HD from
a single Super 35 mm sensor,
explaining how the latter (used in the
ARRI D20) provides better control over
depth of field and can be used with
standard high quality film lenses. The
D20 has many features like a
traditional film camera, including its
footprint, a rotating mirror-shutter, slowmotion, variable frame rate capture,
and film-like operation. He described
the workflow for BBC's Silent Witness
series, shot on the Arri, with results
good enough for a Leicester Square
screening.
Kevin Moorhouse
from Gravity
Media gave an
interesting
business related
talk on how they
moved to HD and
on the investment
decisions that
needed to be
made. The move
to HD was led by client demand, but
had to be backwards compatible, since
60% of the work is still SD. They
invested heavily in the whole gamut of
HD equipment including LDK6000
multi-format cameras, Sony 1500s and
HDC 3300s plus Canon HD lenses.
Kevin used their investment in a HD OB
truck as an example of how difficult it
can be to make the business case for
the move. The HD truck, at £4,500,000
is some 20% more expensive than an
SD equivalent, and everything costs
more for HD. If the business case relies
on paying back the investment in the
truck over five years, which may be an
optimistic time scale, then the truck
must earn £1.2 Million a year (including
staffing costs), an incredible £12,500 a
day for two events a week, just to break
even. Customers are reluctant to pay
the extra, but Kevin said that if you don't
make the huge investment you don't get
the jobs. He gave some interesting
examples of how the company had
installed 12 Technical Operations
11
High Definition TV
Centres and the International Broadcast
Centre, working in HD for the World
Cup 2006 and the UEFA Cup Final,
explaining the technical problems that
arose and how they were overcome.
Kevin summarised by saying that
working with HD is much the same as
SD with higher data rates and with
more interworking between audio and
video disciplines. There are delay
issues, conversion issues, the workflows
are different, constant software
upgrades are needed, and everything is
currently more expensive. Those
entering this field need to carefully
compare the cost of investing in the
technology against the returns they
might get, and the ever-changing
technologies don't help these decisions.
In spite of all this, Kevin made it clear
that his companies have considered all
the options and are driving forward into
the brave new HD world.
Paul McNeil from BBC OBs gave a
expectations - the impossible can't
always be done!
Brian Rose of the
Guild of Television
Cameramen
joined the
speakers for the
panel session,
saying that the
most important
person in our
business is the
person who
watches the show. He pleaded for
cameramen to start by producing the
best possible pictures, and to degrade
them later if necessary to achieve a
particular effect. He said that we are
involved in storytelling, that we have lots
of special tools, and it is important to
remember that we are using them
ultimately for the sake of the audience.
HD is the most empowering technology
that we have had, and his pleas were to
make sure that the signals aren't
compressed into oblivion, and for the
industry to lobby Ofcom to ensure that
HD reaches the widest possible public.
How Long to the future?
fascinating talk on Special HD
acquisition, showing how they manage
to get back pictures from aeroplanes
(there were some wonderful Red Arrows
shots), from sports events, including
pictures of divers underwater at the
Doha games, from snooker pockets and
from cricket stumps. He did admit that
they can't yet squeeze an HD camera
into a cricket stump, but said that the
shots that they do obtain need to be
good enough to stand up on their own
and be acceptable when upconverted, if
necessary. As well as getting tiny
cameras into small spaces, it is
important that they are rugged enough
not to get broken too often, and getting
a few seconds of unusual shots from an
unusual location like a dartboard needs
to be reasonably cost effective too. He
explained the difficulties of getting live
HD pictures back from racing cars,
confessing that they are still struggling
to do this in many instances. Having
become used to getting the impossible
shots from Paul's team, producers are
becoming ever more demanding, and
part of his role is to manage
12
The final session,
Chaired by
Roderick Snell,
looked at
'progress so far'
and considered
the future, with
the question 'How long before
HD becomes the
new SD?'.
Roderick kicked
off by comparing progress in other
industries, looking at products such as
the Sony Walkman, the Toyota Prius and
the HDV camcorder format. His
message was that none of these had
required cutting edge research, they
had all come about by the clever
application of existing, known
technologies. He discussed standards
for film and HDTV capture (demanding
at least a 72p frame rate!), metadata,
progressive images ('only with
progressive images will TV and other AV
media be harmonised'), and the
problems of digital concatenation, to
which, he said, we don't yet have an
intelligent solution. He highlighted the
need for better spectrum efficiency,
saying that if we could achieve this, we
could eventually satisfy the needs of all
users, and he ended with a question
about the possibilities for 3D TV, which
the next speaker,
Paul Walland,
from IT
Innovation, took
up and ran with.
Paul quoted film
maker James
Cameron at the
Digital Cinema
Summit 2006,
where he suggested that 3D might
provide the spectacle to get people
back into the cinemas, that it would cut
out piracy, that using high definition
and high frame rates would overcome
any possible headaches and give a
sense of “being there”. He somewhat
spoilt the altruistic approach by adding
"And think what you could charge!"
Paul looked at the history of
stereoscopy, reminded us how we
perceive 3D effects through a series of
visual clues, and asked why the different
'rebirths' of 3D in the cinema had
always fallen away after a short time.
3D had always been seen as a
gimmick, as something extra, and we
must never forget that the main point of
a production is to involve the viewer in
a story - 3D can never be a substitute
for a good storyline and good
production values. Although the latest
3D digital cinema techniques can
readily provide good 3D images, Paul
felt that these were good for special
effects, introducing a 'WOW' factor, but
he felt that we wouldn't have true 3D
until we find ways of reproducing the
phase structure of an image, and that
would come as we develop cameras
without lenses. He summed up his talk
with the remark "3D won't save
Hollywood!"
Wolfgang Lempp,
Director, FilmLight
gave his
experiences of
working on 4K HD
production and
distribution, with
some excellent
demonstrations
using the Sony 4K
projector that had been brought in
specially for the afternoon sessions.
He said that 4K could be justified only if
it could improve he visual experience
and enhance the storyline. We were
shown some material from Beavers,
which had been shot on IMAX 15/60
and scanned from an interpositive at
4K. The images were great, and gave
the sense of looking at the outside
scene through a window, and as the
Image Technology
High Definition TV
projector was zoomed in to magnify a
section of the image, the pictures stood
up very well. When compared with a 4K
scan from a 35mm print the images
looked very different, nothing wrong
with them, but they somehow lost the
sense of presence and the illusion of
looking out of the window that the IMAX
images had provided. When the
projector was switched from 4K to 2K
little difference in the image quality
could be seen from my seat which was
in the third row from the screen.
Wolfgang said that when producing
material for 4K projection the quality of
the input material is critical, and matters
much more than it used to do. He
spoke of Filmlight's work with digital
cinema material from the Dalsa 4K
camera, and suggested that 4K could
provide magnificent images for home
cinema systems, perhaps with the
material downloaded overnight. He
explained that Filmlight produce systems
for SD, HD, and for digital cinema, and
said that in their experience 4K is
definitely a step worth taking
Ultra HD
The final speaker
in the 'What's
Next?' session
was Yuji Nojiri,
from Japan
Broadcasting
Corp NHK, who
were the first in
the world to
demonstrate HD
many years before others entered the
fray. He introduced what he claimed
would be the next step, Ultra-HD, which
has already been demonstrated at
various broadcasting exhibitions around
the world. Ultra-HD uses 33 million
pixels, with images 7680 x 4320 pixels
at 50 or 60p, suitable for viewing as
close as 0.75 screen height, and these
specifications have now been submitted
to SMPTE. The amazing images (I
reported on them after the demo at IBC
2006) are accompanied by a 22.2
sound system, and NHK researchers
have developed and put together a
complete equipment chain from
cameras to fibre optic transmission
chain (16 SDI channels used as the
interface) and projectors. Comparisons
of HD and Ultra-HD were given, and
we were given details of each
component - it was explained how the
camera uses four sensors, each 8
million pixels, with two being used for
the green channel. The projection
system effectively uses two projectors,
one for green signals, the other for red
and blue. As well as transport via optic
fibre, the researchers are planning to
use satellite transmission in the 21GHz
band, with the Ultra-HD signals
compressed to allow three channels per
transponder. Yuji Nojiri showed (lowres) video of the 350 inch 'Theatre
‘HD is well on the way to
becoming the new SD, but
we still have a lot to learn...’
4000' screen which they have installed,
and it was amazing to see a screen shot
showing a complete overview of a
football pitch, and then to watch as a
magnified section of that image
showing a single footballer allowed you
to clearly read the lettering on his shirt detail like we have never been able to
see before.
The Ultra-HD system obviously needs
much development before it can
become a regular service, but the
Japanese have ambitious plans, with
cameras to be available in three years
time and 21GHz satellite tests within
five years. With the overall aim of
broadcasting Ultra-HD - 'Video with an
extreme sensation of reality' - into every
Japanese household by 2012, those
involved elsewhere in the current 2K
and 4K arguments can only wait and
wonder!
The Wrap-up Panel session with
Wolfgang Lempp, Yuji Nojiri, David
Wood, Chris Forrester, Paul Kafno, Chris
Johns and Andy King was a lively affair,
and some of the interesting comments
included:
• 71 HD satellite channels are up and
running now in Europe.
• UK government should make it
compulsory for all set top boxes to
include MPEG4 decoding by 2008.
• For an HD service Quality at every
stage of the process is vital.
• For HD to be successful viewers need
a number of channels, with high quality
material on all of them.
• It is hard to ensure quality - engineers
should keep the accountants chained
up!
• When we start HD on DTT we must
do it properly, using the latest
technologies such as DVB-T2 as well as
MPEG4.
• Only DTT can provide the critical
mass that is needed for HD to take off.
• Is the 2012 analogue switch off too
far away - will people wait that long for
HD? It is worth asking if some
frequencies could be released for HD
well before that date.
The whole of this surprisingly 'upbeat'
conference made it very clear that
there is an enormous momentum
building up behind HD, with
tremendous pressure to have HD on
the digital terrestrial platform.
Programme Chairman John Ives
probably summed up the state of the
HD art as he said 'HD is well on the
way to becoming the new SD, but we
still have a lot to learn'.
HD Masters certainly painted a
glowing picture, but it was a very
practical conference, grounded in
reality, and speakers were not afraid
to show their subject matter 'warts
and all'. The building blocks, artistic
and technical, are now being put into
place, and many difficult business
decisions remain to be taken if the
opportunities are to be exploited, but
those responsible for producing the
remarkable HD images are conscious
of the need to sort out the fine detail,
to manage the light and shade of the
subject, as the 'chiaroscuro' painters
of old learned to use new techniques
to achieve the images they desired.
HD Masters 2007 was organised by
TVBEurope in partnership with SMPTE
and BKSTS.
The Platinum Sponsor for HD Masters
2007 was Sony Professional Solutions
Europe.
Gold Sponsors were Axon, Hamlet,
Harris Corporation, Michael Stevens &
Partners, Pro-Bel and Tektronix.
Silver Sponsors: Broadcast Networks,
Digital Rapids, DVS, For-A, Gearhouse
Broadcast, IBC, IET, The Knowledge
Network, and Linear Acoustic.
Shooting Partners were responsible for
the main technical facilities, and
Filmlight organised the Sony projector.
Chyron helped with the animated
captions and supplied the kit to run
them.
13
3D projection
A forgotten
3D system
Geoff Salter MBKS writes:
Dear Sir
Tony Iles’ definitive review of
stereoscopic projection
systems in the January /
February 2007 issue reminds
me of one not listed.
In about 1952 when I was in
charge of Telecine
maintenance at BBC Lime
Grove we had a visit from a
middle-European gentleman
and another rather
mysterious figure who
appeared to be some sort of
magnate. They had
apparently got permission to
use our telecines to test a
new 3D system.
We told them that we had
only one telecine available at
the time and only one
monitor. ‘That’s OK.’ they
said, and produced a film
and several pairs of glasses.
We duly ran the film after
putting on the cardboard
glasses and waiting some
few minutes ‘to let the eyes
accommodate’. To our
surprise the film appeared in
perfect 3D, i.e. in depth both
behind and in front of the
screen.
We were amazed, but not so
the Tycoon, who said ‘Very
impressive, but you will never
get people to wear those
glasses’. So off he and the
inventor went, minus a pair
of glasses and a short bit of
the film broken off during
rewinding.
We sent the film to BBC
Research Department. In due
course they rang back saying
‘that’s the old Pendulum
Effect’. It was so-called
because if you view a
pendulum through glasses
with one clear eye and one
with a 10 times neutral
density filter the pendulum
will appear to describe a
14
circle. This is because the 10
times ND effectively puts a
one twenty-fifth of a second
delay into the optic
processing. Thus movement
from left to right appears
further away, and vice versa
(I think that is right) due to
parallax effects.
What the ingenious inventor
of the film had done was to
ensure that all movement in
the film was steady and oneway, i.e. tracking shots, shots
from cars, trains, etc. A bit of
a limitation, we agreed, but
could be fun in a
commercial.
Locus of
apparent
images
describes an
ellipse
Apparent motion R to L
Plane of the
pendulum
Actual motion of the
pendulum is in this
plane
Apparent motion L to R
Dark Lens
Left eye Right eye
The Pulfrich or Pendulum effect
I was sorry that the system
never surfaced at any time
on ITV, but there it is - an
optical curiosity to be added
to the methods of
stereoscopic projection!
It makes you think about
wearing sun specs in poor
light when driving!
Best wishes - I very much
enjoy the BKSTS Journal - it
is excellent.
seen. Pulfrich’s assistant
Fertsch first suggested visual
delay as the now-accepted
explanation of this depth
illusion.
Pulfrich was a clever inventor
of optical intruments, and
one of his refractometer
designs (below) is still in use.
I was fascinated to learn that
much of the rock analysis on
the robotic exploration of
Mars in 1996 was carried
out by color separation and
spectral analysis of light
reflected from the Martian
rocks and other features.
This is the same type of
analysis performed by the
Pulfrich spectrophotometer.
Effectively his stereo
spectrophotometer presents a
Geoff Salter MBKS
3 Church Road
Penarth
Vale of Glamorgan
CF64 1AE
Further research (at time like
this I really do miss being
able to ring up our 3D guru
Charles Smith FBKS!) showed
that the effect is also known
as the Pulfrich Effect, or the
Pulfrich Binocular Illusion,
after a German physicist of
that name, Carl Pulfrich of
Jena, who wrote a learned
article about the effect in
1922, entitled ‘Die
Stereoskopie im Dienste der
isochromen und
heterochromen Photometrie’,
and published in ‘Die
Naturwissenschaften’.
The early experiments used a
‘stereocomparator’ as shown
on the right, and
demonstrated the effect by
rapid movements of the pair
pair of plates that can be
sample to one eye and a
known standard to the other.
The device thus allows the
user to see the ellipse of the
Pulfrich Effect, as explained
earlier.
Jim Slater
Image Technology
Society News
From the President.... BKSTS is turning the corner
Summer has been and gone I must have blinked as I did
not notice it and now we are
well into Autumn and winter
fast approaches. Since my
first communication as
President a lot of work has
been done to ensure that the
Society goes forward and is
relevant for our 21st Century industry.
First and foremost I would like to thank
Wendy for her long and devoted service
to the Society before standing down on
the 14th September. I know that her
knowledge of the industry and kindly
words have been appreciated by all the
membership. I am sure that you will all
join with me in wishing her every
success in her new business venture.
She will be missed by all.
I also thank the Council members for
their patience, guidance and support
during my first 100 days as President and
not least the sponsors and membership
for your helpful suggestions and
encouragement. I am pleased to advise
you that I believe the Society is turning the
corner and getting back onto the right
path.
Your Council is getting the finance under
control following the closure of the old
Pinewood office. The Society is fast
embracing 'new fangled' technology so
that services can be better and more
efficiently delivered to sponsors and the
membership. I know that none of us likes
change, but unless we adapt we will end
up as a note in a history book.
During August I had took the opportunity
to visit 'Zefferellis' Cinema at Ambleside in
the Lake District and I was afforded a
very warm welcome by the Chief
Projectionist who proudly showed me the
digital projection equipment. This small
Cinema has adopted new technology to
meet the demand of its audiences for
varied Content with improved and
consistent image reproduction. I believe it
has brought a bright future for this
Cinema, do go and have a look on your
next visit to the Lake District.
At IBC at Amsterdam in September, the
Society had a stand which was operated
by members of Council and me. It was
encouraging to have many (Local and
International) 'up and coming' people
from the industry approach us for
information about the Society and asking
how to become members. Also lots of
sponsors and members offered practical
help. We sold some 'Wallcharts' for cash,
and following on from that we have
received many orders for merchandizing.
Thank you to everyone who helped to
make IBC a success for the Society.
During IBC the BFI (NFT, Southbank,
London) generously sponsored the new
BKSTS Website which will bring benefits
for all members; easier access to events,
journals and your membership details. I
am also pleased to announce that the BFI
will be a 'drop-in' place for BKSTS
Come to the BKSTS Roadshow
Phil Rutter provides the details - but you need to be quick!
At long last there's an Industry event
that's coming to you!
We start in London on the Thursday, 1st of
November, Cardiff on the 2nd, Dublin on
the 5th, Belfast on the 6th, Glasgow on the
7th, Manchester on the 8th, ending at
Birmingham on the 9th.
There's an interesting range of exhibitors,
and the topics covered by the Seminar
sessions cover a very broad range. The
exhibitors all have demonstrations of the latest
technology, and the Roadshow gives you a
great opportunity to spend time with those
exhibitors - something that's difficult to do at
the big shows.
The web page clip alongside gives you a
flavour of what is on offer, but for details of
timings and venue locations do go to the
Roadshow website www.ukroadshow.tv
If you wish to attend, you need to register and hurry, because spaces are limited. You will
find a registration page on the website. Feel
free to register your friends and colleagues as
well, or do let them know about it.
The latter part of each day will be given
over to the support of industry training
initiatives, with presentations from both
members to meet, chat and buy Society
products. We will use this venue for events
and meeting as appropriate. I hope to
meet you there sometime for some
refreshment.
As mentioned on page 4, I am
delighted that The Pinewood Group has
become a Gold Sponsor of the Society
and will continue to provide the Society its
registered office. Pinewood is the premier
production centre for the UK, and it is
only fitting that we the premier Technical
Society for the Industry should be located
here. The Society has seen both good
times and bad at Pinewood, but with a
new-found vigour that is coursing through
the organisation, I am looking forward to
building on our relationship with
Pinewood and to making more use of its
facilities for events. I look forward to
seeing you at Pinewood soon.
Roland Brown
President, BKSTS
SMPTE and BKSTS
During IBC there was a meeting of
Presidents - SMPTE's Bob Kisor and
the BKSTS's Roland Brown - at which
it was mutually and amicably agreed
to end the current discussion relating
to uniting the two Societies.
The Societies will continue to cooperate where appropriate for the
good of the industry.
In addition, because of the
continued state of exchange rates
between the US Dollar and UK
Pound, it was agreed that the Joint
Membership deal would cease to be
available after January 1st, 2008.
Members renewing their membership
after that date will be asked to
renew with each Society on an
individual basis.
Bernard
Happe
Lecture
2007
Ravensbourne College and the BKSTS. If you
or any of your associates have an interest in
training matters - or you know someone who
is looking to start a career in Broadcasting you should be attending.
We do hope you'll be able to attend, even
for just a few hours - we're sure you will find it
time well spent!
Phil Rutter
Companies including Axon, Christie, Hamlet,
Pharos, Ross Video and Vizrt will be
exhibiting, and there will be a selection of
papers on relevant topics. Ravensbourne
College will also be in attendance providing
information about courses and career advice.
Monday 26th November 2007
The coming together of
TV/Film/Computer
Entertainment
Presented by Simon Fell, Director
of Technology, ITV Consumer
BFI Southbank, 18h30 for 19h00.
15
History
Film Industry Pioneers
Donald J. Bell
Albert S. Howell
1869 - 1934
and
1879 - 1951
by John Aldred FBKS
Nobody can claim that they
have never heard of the Bell
and Howell Company with
their famous shield logo,
founded in 1907 by Donald
Bell and Albert Howell to
design and manufacture
precision film equipment.
Initially their aim was to
equip the fledgling American
film industry with 35mm film
perforators, cameras,
printers, projectors and
laboratory equipment. Theirs
was the first chain of high
precision compatible motion
picture equipment in the
world. The factory was based
in Chicago, which was one
of the early centres for film
production. Such was the
improvement in picture
quality, particularly in
steadiness, that within a few
years the whole of Hollywood
was Bell and Howell
equipped. Bell and Howell
subsequently came to
embrace the amateur market
as well as the professional.
shapes and sizes on films he
was expected to project. The
problem was that there was
no perforating standard for
the film stocks then
available, and perforations
were sometimes punched to
suit a particular camera
system. Even the product
from a single filmmaker
would show a wide variation
in the distance between
perforation centres (pitch),
and uncertainty of spacing.
PERFORATIONS AND
SPROCKETS
In 1889 Edison was
producing 35mm films with
four square perforations per
frame. Fig 1 is a positive film
clip showing the nonalignment of positive and
negative perforations, also a
poorly made hand join.
Since there were no
standards to follow at that
time, projector manufacturers
did not have any idea about
the correct dimensions or
spacing of sprocket teeth.
Some of the early projectors
could tear a film to pieces. In
addition to 35mm there were
also several wide film widths
DONALD J. BELL
Donald J Bell was a movie
enthusiast and engineer, and
commenced his career as a
projectionist in Chicago in
1897 at a time when large
screen projection was only
just beginning. The work
held a great fascination for
him, and he could see that
before very long motion
pictures would play an
important part in the worlds
of science and entertainment.
As he gained experience he
became amazed at the
endless variety of perforation
16
position of these varied from
one frame to another, which
was only partially
compensated for in a special
printer, resulting in
unsteadiness. Another
problem was the variation in
frame line. Prints by Thomas
Edison carried the frame line
mid way between two
adjacent perforations,
whereas the French Pathé
Company had their frame
line opposite the centre of a
perforation. Other
companies had their frame
line anywhere in between, so
the position of the film in
relation to the gate aperture
had to be capable of being
continuously adjusted during
projection. A lot of these
variations were made just to
get around patents.
in circulation, 50mm, 60mm,
62 and 63mm, all with
different perforation size and
spacing. The patent situation
at this time was a minefield,
until a voluntary agreement
amongst manufacturers was
reached in 1907 called the
Motion Picture Patent
Agreement. Although not
100% successful, this
agreement specified that film
width should be 35mm as
introduced by Edison, with
four perforations per frame.
It was some years before the
wide film widths were
standardised.
Being an engineer, Donald
Bell realised that sprocket
teeth had to be very small so
that all types of perforations
would pass through the
projector without damage.
His first efforts at design
showed him how difficult it
was to obtain a steady
picture, when there were no
perforation standards to
follow. Since it was not
possible to machine sprocket
teeth to provide a close fit
Fig. 1 Edison print 1889
(SMPTE Journal)
Lumière in France was
producing circular
perforations, one per frame
as shown in Fig.2, whilst the
Mutograph camera used by
the Bioscope Company
punched its own perforations
as shown in Fig 3. The
Fig. 2 Lumière print
Fig. 3 Mutograph print
Image Technology
History
into all the different
perforations, he found it was
necessary to have a relatively
high gate tension so that
when the film came to rest it
would remain held in a fixed
position and not move
about. This high tension
caused a strain on the
perforations, and a poorly
made splice would cause the
film to jump off the sprocket
altogether!
ALBERT S. HOWELL
Meanwhile Donald’s inventor
friend Albert Howell, who
had gained considerable
experience repairing
cameras as a teenager, had
just patented a new projector
which took away most of the
flicker. They decided to pool
their talents and resources to
manufacture precision film
equipment, which led to the
formation in 1907 of the Bell
and Howell Company with
Howell as Chairman of the
Board. Three of Howell’s
inventions are credited with
forming the basis of the
standardisation of the 35mm
film width, and the rapid
progress within the industry.
Howell was also extremely
verbal and could set down
his ideas on paper and
describe the theory behind
his inventions. He was also
interested in wide film
formats, the coming of
sound, and conducted a
through investigation into
film shrinkage problems.
of an inch. After painstaking
experiments allowing four
perforations per frame of
35mm film, they adopted a
length of 11.968 inches for a
perforation gauge of 64
holes. They found this to be
the optimum measurement
for maximum efficiency,
which also allowed for a
certain amount of film
shrinkage due to
development. In 1908 they
designed a machine for
perforating raw stock to this
standard for Eastman Kodak
This machine punched out a
twin row of four holes at a
time, and incorporated a
register pin which held the
film accurately before
punching the next four holes
In 1910 they unveiled their
first 35mm camera, Model
2709A, made in a wood
case covered with leather
which was the usual camera
design at that time. In the
same year they also
introduced their first
continuous film printer for
laboratories. This printer was
hand cranked by the
operator, who controlled the
exposure by slowing down or
speeding up the mechanism.
They had made only eight of
the wood cased cameras
when they received
complaints from a
ALL METAL CAMERA
In 1912 they introduced the
Standard Bell and Howell all
metal camera model 2709B.
This was the first precisionmade motion picture
camera, with a cast
aluminium body, all shafts
running in ball bearings, and
a four-lens turret. It
employed an intermittent
movement that released the
gate tension after exposure,
whilst a shuttle pulled down
the film. The gate tension
was then reapplied, and the
film held steady by fixed
registration pins. These pins
provided a full fit to the Bell
and Howell perforation,
which meant that the camera
produced a rock steady
picture. The entire gate and
Fig.5 Prototype of 2709B
(Photo Sam Dodge)
A STANDARD
PERFORATION
Bell and Howell’s first major
item of work was to design a
perforation that would be
practical for use in cameras,
printers, projectors and other
film handling equipment.
Their starting point was the
diameter of the projector
intermittent sprocket, and the
one in general use by most
manufacturers was 15/16ths
documentary filmmaker in
Africa that termites had
eaten his camera! So they
decided there and then to
upgrade the 2709 to an all
metal camera.
Fig. 4 Standard 35mm
Perforation (SMPE
Proceedings 1916)
pull down movement could
be removed for cleaning.
The camera was quickly
developed to include many
unusual features. There was
a separate eyepiece for
viewing through the taking
lens, and a special tripod
mounting (now a rare and
valuable item) which allowed
the camera to be swung over
from the viewing to the
taking position. There was
also a variable shutter, from
Figs.6 & 7 2709B No. 231(1918)
Photos Sam Dodge.
0 to 170 degrees. The
double 400ft or 1000ft. film
magazines for feed and
take-up were made of
aluminium castings, which
engaged with a light tight
fitting on top of the camera.
Nothing quite like this
camera had ever been seen
before, but in spite of its
immaculate performance the
2709B was not immediately
accepted by cameramen.
This may have been because
of its unique feature for
focussing and judging
exposure through an
aperture covered with
ground glass, or maybe
because it did not look like
any of the other cameras.
The shuttle gate mechanism
was also extremely noisy,
especially above 16fps. The
2709B camera was also
quite expensive, and it took a
large budget production to
justify the expenditure. But by
1916 the 2709B began to
catch on, and it became the
most popular camera in use
at all the Hollywood studios.
Illustrated above is Serial no.
231 made in 1918, and
originally purchased by
17
History
Australasian Films. Charles
Chaplin bought No.227,
Mary Pickford bought No.
230, and cameraman Arthur
Edison purchased No.232.
MGM used several 2709s on
“Ben Hur”, one of which was
offered for sale on the
Internet. In 1921 Bell and
Howell introduced a highspeed version, which had a
different movement so that it
could film at over 1000 fps,
and also the option of a
motor drive. The Bell and
Howell camera reigned
supreme in Hollywood until
the appearance of the
Mitchell camera in the early
1920s. Many studios
continued to use their 2709s,
after fitting them with a
Mitchell viewfinder.
In 1924 Bell and Howell
were approached by Earl
Sponable of Case Research
Laboratories and asked to
modify a 2709 to include
sound recording. This
involved (Fig.10) inserting an
Aeolight modulator with a
quartz slit adjacent to the
sprocket, in order to expose
a variable area sound track.
Fig.8 2709B adapted for
Rotoscope (Photo Sam
Dodge)
Fig.10 2709 adapted for sound (SMPTE Journal July 1976)
be changed to suit each
The modified camera was
individual frame. Back
delivered in March, and
projecting a preformed the basis of the
photographed image
Movietone Sound System.
through the taking lens on to
a screen allows a hand
The 2709 cameras, suitably
drawn matte to be
modified, remained in great
composed. Rotoscope was
demand for titles, optical
used in more recent pictures
step printers, and special
such as “Lord of the Rings”.
effects. The shuttle gate
movement and registration
pins provided immaculate
THE SMPTE
steadiness, and was ideal for
Donald Bell was one of the
time-lapse cinematography
founder members of the
and animation. Disney used
Society of Motion Picture
a 2709 as an animation
Engineers, formed in
camera for all his early
October 1916 at a time
cartoons, including “Snow
when motion picture
White and the Seven
standards were in a chaotic
Dwarfs”. Many are still in use condition. At their fourth
today, and Illustrated left is a
meeting in Chicago in 1917,
2709 adapted for Rotoscope, the Society sponsored several
with an aperture cut in the
standards that included
film chamber door and a 45
picture aperture, frame line,
degree mirror behind the
frame rate and projection
gate.
angles. Donald Bell
presented a paper describing
Rotoscope is a form of
his proposal for a standard
animated matte shot,
35mm film perforation. He
patented by Nat Fleischer in
explained that the
1917, where the matte can
dimensions had been arrived
at after his long experience
of handling film and building
motion picture equipment.
He pointed out that most
projector manufacturers had
adopted an intermittent
sprocket of 15/16ths of an
inch diameter, and his
proposal took into account
this preferred sprocket
diameter and circumference,
the shape and pitch of
sprocket teeth, film
perforations and film
thickness, and film shrinkage
of 0.3% due to processing. In
his closing remarks he said,
“Within a reasonable time
projector manufacturers may
conform their means of
control to closely fit a
standardised perforation,
and the whole industry will
profit to an unbelievable
extent”. His proposal was
immediately adopted as one
of the first SMPE Standards,
and it remains the I.S.O.
International Standard
Perforation today for
negative film stock. In 1950
the perforation pitch had to
be shortened to take account
of the new triacetate safety
film, which only shrank 0.1%
after processing. This work
was considered so important
that it has always been
referred to as the Bell and
Howell perforation.
In 1924 Kodak introduced
their KS perforation for
positive projection prints,
which was rectangular in
shape and more suitable for
engaging with intermittent
sprocket teeth. It also
Fig.9 Rotoscope adaptor
behind gate (Photo Sam
Dodge)
18
Image Technology
History
required less gate tension in
the projector, and
considerably reduced the
small tears that occurred at
the rounded corners of the
Bell and Howell perforation.
The perforation pitch was
also increased slightly so that
the positive would lie
comfortably over the
negative on a rotary type
printer. This new positive
perforation was formally
adopted as a new standard
by the SMPE in 1928.
LABORATORY
EQUIPMENT
The name Bell and Howell
came to be associated with
the very best in the design
and manufacture of 35mm,
16mm and 8mm cameras,
projectors, and film
laboratory equipment. Their
Model D rotary printers in
both 35mm and 16mm
versions were installed in
most laboratories during the
1920s and 1930s. They were
motor driven and had a light
change device which could
be pre-set by the operator
and engaged by a notch at
the edge of the film negative.
A Model D machine was also
introduced for printing sound
negatives, and a model E
printer for making black and
white and later colour
release prints. A much later
printer was the Bell and
Howell Model C for colour
release prints, 35mm or
16mm, printing picture and
sound simultaneously. It
received a technical
Academy Award in 1962,
one of four awarded to the
company.
THE FILMO AND EYEMO
The 35mm Eyemo camera
must not be forgotten.
and dependable pull down
claw movement. If the correct
amount of gate tension was
maintained, then both
cameras produced
remarkably steady pictures.
Type ‘Q’ (photos
below) had a spider
turret with a facility for
focussing on a
ground glass through
a rear mounted
prism, and also
enabled long focus
lenses to be used
without cutting the
Fig.11 35mm Eyemo Camera
corner off the image
(Photo Bell and Howell)
with a standard or
wide-angle lens.
Designed around the earlier
16mm Filmo 70 camera
An adaptor for a 400ft
introduced in 1923, it was
magazine and a 12-volt
first manufactured in 1926
motor were also available.
with a spring motor drive
They have been out of
and 100ft. film capacity.
production for many years,
Because of its compact size it
but Eyemo cameras continue
soon became the favourite
to be used for special
hand held camera for
applications, such as crash
newsreel companies
worldwide in the 1920s, 30s, cameras, and can be
modified to shoot with crystal
40s, 50s and 60s. The US
Army Signal Corps used both sync motors and reflexed for
a video assist tap. They are
35 and 16mm versions
also a collector’s item.
extensively in World War 2,
often mounted in aircraft, as
The 16mm Bell and Howell
did many other combat
‘Filmosound’ projector was
cameramen. The Eyemo was
made in vast numbers, and
available as a single lens
became recognised as a
camera, or with a three-lens
most reliable machine. It was
turret and rotating turret
manufactured in Chicago
viewfinder. Filming speed
and at the Bell and Howell
was adjustable from 8 to 64
factory at Micheldean, and
fps, and about 25ft could be
was used extensively by the
exposed at 24fps on a single
services during World War II.
wind of the spring. The great
beauty of both the Filmo and
the Eyemo was the simple
Other cameras and
projectors, too numerous to
mention, were manufactured
for amateur use.
Donald Bell retired from the
company in 1921, but Albert
Howell remained active as
company Chairman until his
death in 1951. Bell and
Howell ceased to
manufacture film equipment
in the late 1970s, but a new
Chicago company was
formed, BHP Inc. (BKSTS
Sponsor Member) to continue
the manufacture and
servicing of professional film
printers and laboratory
accessories in all formats.
Fig.14 BHP Panel Printer
Model 6131 (Photo BHP Inc).
These 35mm high-speed
panel printers are currently
installed in many laboratories
worldwide.
BHP is today a prominent
manufacturer, and offers
after sales service of film
printing equipment used in
all the major film
laboratories throughout the
world. It is also the
manufacturer of optical
character recognition
equipment, electronic
instrumentation, training and
micro graphics.
John Aldred FBKS
Thanks to the Bell & Howell
Company for their permission
to use their Copyright
photographs.
Fig.12 Model Q with Spider Turret and Fig.13 with turret removed (Photos Dick Ham)
19
Production
‘Futureworks’ - New Bollywood Digital
Intermediate operation chooses
Digital Praxis Jim Slater spoke to Steve Shaw about an exciting development
Steve Shaw’s Specialist digital film
consultancy, Digital Praxis, has been hired
by new Bollywood start-up DI operation
'FutureWorks' to provide technological
and creative assistance in building an
operation from the ground up that will be
capable of mainstream DI film projects, as
well as performing digital film restoration
work on classic Bollywood films.
value to the start-up DI operation. Steve
organised a tour around Soho facilities,
showing Gaurav some of the DI
operations he has been involved with
there, as well as some he hadn’t, and this
helped Futureworks to understand its
workflow requirements and the problems
they would have to overcome in order to
become a serious player in this business.
FutureWorks aims to build on its existing
audio post production business, Gaurav
Digital, based at its Rajkamal Kala Mandir
Studios facility in India, but the new DI
facility will be a stand alone operation
sited in Bollywood, Mumbai. Planning for
the DI operation has been underway for
some time, with the first meeting
between FutureWorks CEO Gaurav Gupta
and Digital Praxis being in May 2006
during the Mumbai Digital Cinema
Conference, at which Steve Shaw was a
guest speaker.
The contract Digital Praxis has undertaken
is for an initial year to both oversee the
build and start-up of FutureWorks, as well
as help build the business during its
infancy. This includes technical and
creative support, an area in which Digital
Praxis specialises.
Equipment decisions have been made
over the past months, with every part of a
digital film workflow defined and
equipment ordered, from scanning to DI
workstations, visual effects systems to
storage, dedicated restoration systems to
network infrastructure, to film recording.
Gaurav Gupta, CEO of FutureWorks met
with Steve in Mumbai during the early
stages of planning, and realised that
Digital Praxis could prove of immense
20
Steve said that he was delighted to be
offered the opportunity of being involved
in the planning and development of the
new DI operation - there was no existing
infrastructure for FutureWorks, with new
premises having to be re-developed to
suit. It also inter-links well with the
development of Axis Post in Shepperton
Studios, and may perhaps lead to other
joint business opportunities.
operations, including the all important
film labs.
Equipment ordered to fulfil the DI needs
of FutureWorks includes a Quantel Pablo
4K DI system, with a number of PC based
assist stations running Quantel Effects
software; a Thomson Spirit 2K film transfer
engine with Bones data transfer system;
da Vinci Revival restoration system;
ArriLaser film recorder; Cine-tal TFT grade
one monitor; OmniTek waveform and
vector scope technical monitoring system.
Such is the pressure on FutureWorks that
it started work on its first full-feature DI
project ‘GO’ in a temporary setup while
the full building and installation work was
completed.
For further information:
Steve Shaw, Digital Praxis
Phone: +44 (0)7765 400 908
Email: [email protected]
www.digitalpraxis.net
FutureWorks aims to be a centre of
excellence for new feature film work as
well as providing classic film digital
restoration, working in any resolution
from SD & HD to 2K & 4K, and has located
its new premises in Bollywood, Mumbai,
suitably close to other film industry
Image Technology
Obituary
John Pytlak
MBKS SMPTE
1948 - 2007
John Pytlak of Eastman
Kodak Company died in
Rochester NY on August
17th, 2007, shortly after his
59th birthday, after a
courageous battle with
cancer.
It wasn’t just a sign of the times that
within a day or two of the death in
August of John Pytlak, of Eastman
Kodak Company, there were over 30
pages of tributes posted on Film Tech
Forum, the projectionists’ website. Many
of these were from UK and the rest of
Europe. For John was to many the
valued and respected expert who
dedicated his life to getting the best
from motion picture film, and in
particular to achieving high quality,
problem free, projection presentation.
Older readers will recall him as the
author of many articles in regular
Kodak publications such as “Film Notes
for Reel People” and “Cinema Notes”.
Pytlak’s Projection Pointers were a mustread for any projectionist striving to
improve on-screen performance.
In recent years, John was one of the
main contacts for technical assistance to
cinematographers, laboratory
technicians, post-production staff,
archivists, and of course projectionists.
He never regarded any question or
request for advice as trivial, and his
responses were always timely, helpful
and respectful. If the query wasn’t
strictly relevant to his expertise, he
would always offer alternative directions
for follow up, never leaving the
enquirer high and dry with an
unresolved issue.
John’s passion for film started when he
took a student job, working as a
projectionist in a western New York
state drive-in cinema in the late 1960s.
While there, he invented an AM radio
link to replace wired speakers into cars,
and this blossomed into his love affair
with film projection.
Joining Eastman Kodak was a natural
step to take, and he worked largely
‘behind the scenes’ but always looking
for innovative ways to improve film and
its use, from camera to screen. For
example, in recent years, he took the
SMPTE Film Projection Standards and
translated them into the quality audit
that was Kodak ScreenCheck, and his
work with standardisation of laboratory
printing and processing with the
Laboratory Aim Density (LAD) system
brought, as part of a team, a “Technical
Oscar” in 2001.
One of John’s projects was to improve
film-to-video transfers, resulting in the
Telecine Analysis Film TAF. Further, his
work on the Particle Transfer Roller
invention, drastically reducing ozonedepleting solvents used for film
cleaning, earned widespread
recognition from the environmental
lobby. In film preservation and
archiving, he was active in the Kodak
Molecular Sieve project, helping to
maintain film print heritage. He was a
most active member of many industry
committees such as SMPTE, ISO, AIMA
(film archiving) and the Inter-Society for
Theatrical Presentation, bodies that
work on worldwide standards to achieve
consistent quality - the bedrock of the
longevity of film based motion picture.
He was also a member of BKSTS.
All agree that John Pytlak brought
authority, honesty, integrity, respect, and
above all helpfulness to his task of
aiding the projection community to
achieve improved on-screen
presentations. His long career was cut
short after a courageous battle with
cancer, and the industry, especially the
cinema sector, has lost a passionate
supporter, and a friend to many around
the world. It was perhaps a typical
gesture that he donated his remains to
medical research at the University of
Rochester, New York.
Thanks to Denis Kelly and to Alan
Masson for preparing this tribute for
the BKSTS journals.
It is good to see that much of the fruit of John Pytlak’s accumulated wisdom is still available from the Kodak
website, and I spent a happy hour browsing through his ‘Projection Pointers’, savouring such delights as
• Conquering Contrast Killers • Heat Damage to Prints • Help for Projector Dusting • Platter Patter
as well as the incomparable • “Seven Deadly Sins of Projection”. Have a look at
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/newsletters/pytlak There is something for everyone there, and I guarantee that you
won’t be
disappointed!
Jim Slater
21
IBC Highlights
IBC 2007
breaks all
records
Jim Slater picks out
just a few of the
highlights of the
record-breaking
exhibition and
conference in
Amsterdam’s RAI
IBC2007 was the biggest yet.
It saw more visitors than ever before,
and at the close of the show visitor
numbers had reached 46,964,
breaking last year's record, and with
over 1,300 exhibits from over 120
countries IBC 2007 was certainly the
largest ever. The organisers say that the
continuing growth in demand for more
exhibition space, particularly in the
areas of IPTV and Mobile, show that
IBC is not standing still, and is moving
forward to cover new technologies as
they appear in the marketplace.
I have just picked out what I
considered some of the highlights of the
2007 Exhibition and Conference, which
was much too big to cover in-depth in
the pages of Image Technology (there is
much more press coverage on the
www.ibc.org website) in the hope that
these snippets will encourage readers to
search for more information on the
topics mentioned. A visitor to IBC from
ten years ago wouldn’t recognise most
of the companies whose stands now
dominate the ever-growing exhibition
area, as IBC has long ceased to be just
an event devoted to broadcasting, and
now, as it has for the past few years,
encompasses all forms of digital
content.
3D - and not just for Cinema
3D was a topic of major interest, not
only in the Digital Cinema field, where
we might expect it, but also in the wider
area of digital cinematography, and
several manufacturers, including Sony
with its F23 cameras, were proudly
talking about 3D production projects
that they were involved with. Kerner, a
new spin-off from ILM, specialises in 3D
and is building an F23-based 3D rig for
an upcoming movie production, using a
beam-splitting rig where one camera
faces forward, while the other points
down, taking a reflected image from a
22
mirror. This is claimed to have a big
advantage over the side-by-side
configuration, as it makes it easier to
get the rig close to the subject, and the
cameras will be used for both 2D and
3D projects. Quantel wasn’t being left
behind, and showed its developing
Stereo 3D toolset.
D-Cinema
The D-cinema panel session chaired by
Screen Digest's David Hancock called
for more government help to aid Dcinema take-up. As usual, the session
helped to bring people up to date with
the current state of play. There are
some 5,000 digital cinema screens
worldwide, 4,000 of these being in
North America. Europe still lags well
behind. Britain is expected to have
about 280 digital screens by the end of
the year, most of them provided as part
of the Film Council’s Digiatl Screen
Network project. Germany has about
150 screens, with the Benelux nations
having around 100. David called for
more government help, as well as for
an examination of further financial
initiatives that would aid theatre owners
looking to invest in equipment. He felt
that projector costs are unlikely to fall,
since the economies of scale that
happen in the consumer sector won’t
arise in D-cinema with only about
130,000 screens expected worldwide.
The only financial model being pushed
is the Virtual Print Fee, and this may not
be suitable for Europe's complex and
fragmented market. The European
Digital Cinema Forum held its open
forum, and launched its latest
publication, A Guide to Mastering for
Digital Cinema. There was plenty of
debate on a number of key issues,
including compliance and certification,
and how standards are being
established and implemented.
Digital cinematography
An interesting technical highlight was
the Ultra-Slow Motion Camera from
NHK R&D, capable of video recording
at up to 1 million frames/sec, and with
about 10 times the sensitivity of
standard high-speed cameras.
High-speed camera maker Vision
Research showed its Phantom HD,
which delivers up to 1,000 frames/sec
at 1080p, 1,500fps at 720p, or
2,000fps at SD. It has already been
used by DVS, France, for live Formula 1
racing, and for a number of
commercials. Even higher quality
images, good enough for Imax, come
from the Phantom 65, aimed at Dcinema use, which uses a 65mm sensor
(with about 10 million pixels). It shoots
4k images at 130fps.
Mobile TV
With a host of different technical solutions
available for the provision of truly mobile
TV, much anger was generated at the
recent comments from the EU's media
and information society commissioner
Viviane Redding, saying that DVB-H
should become the single standard for
mobile TV in Europe. At an IBC Business
Briefing many manufacturers felt that
selecting a technology so early in the
development of the mobile TV market
would impede technical development of
what would eventually become the
optimum standard. A spokesman for
Qualcomm, whose MediaFLO is a
competing mobile technology, said that
Image Technology
IBC Highlights
an EU mandate of DVB-H would result in
a an industry backlash, and that many
companies think MediaFLO has a good
chance to succeed in Europe. BSkyB in
the UK has already trialled MediaFLO
technology. There was broad agreement
that the current barriers to the roll-out of
mobile TV are business-related rather
than technological, and that a suitable
business model has not yet been
developed. Some early-adopting
companies have already pulled out of the
market. Subscriber numbers for mobile
TV are low, with only about16% of
European mobile handsets capable of
receiving TV. Usage of the services is also
low, with only about 5% of people with
such handsets watching broadcast TV in
the big five European countries.
Higher Definition TV and the Future
HDTV was, of course, a major topic this
year, and BKSTS Member Huw Williams,
BBC's Head of Research, led a
conference panel which made it plain
that HDTV is still only at the beginning of
its journey, and that its development is
under constant change and evolution,
with its current status being far from the
end of its development. The session went
on to provide a clear outline of the next
steps needed for further progress.
As part of its remit to make HDTV
broadcasting practical, BBC Research
demonstrated a new transmission method
that could broadcast three HD
programmes and one SD programme
squeezed into a standard 8MHz
broadcast channel. A trial in Guildford
showed that the MIMO (multiple input,
multiple output, using multiple transmit
and receive aerials) system has
comparable coverage to a standard
digital terrestrial (DVB-T) transmission.
The system works by modifying the DVB-T
signal, with half of the channel using
standard DVB-T and the other half
modified by inverting the channel matrix.
MPEG-4 H.264 is used to compress the
channels, so even more channels might
be possible as MPEG-4 develops. A
problem in gaining acceptance for such a
system is that the digital network has
already been developed, and there may
be a reluctance to change things.
One of my favourite things at last
year’s IBC was the NHK Ultra HDTV
demo, where looking at the wall-sized
projection screen really was like looking
through a window. At IBC 2007 a senior
engineer at NHK’s Research Labs brought
delegates up to date with their work on
Ultra HDTV, their 4,000 line project which
promises to bring 33m pixels to screens
(still to be developed) of up to 200inches. He explained that further work is
also needed on projection equipment,
cameras and storage devices as well as
screens, but many experimental
transmissions have been successfully
undertaken, including a live New Year's
Eve transmission of a concert from Tokyo
to Osaka studios, 500km apart, using
640Mbps transmission rate. He explained
Japan's plan to use the 21-22GHz band,
and that experimental broadcasts have
been carried out this year, and called for
European broadcasters to work with NHK
on future developments of this system. I
am reminded of the early Japanese
experimental HDTV demonstrations a
quarter century ago, when IBC was in
Brighton, when many European
broadcasters were sceptical of the need
for such high definition pictures. With our
experience of how HDTV did eventually
turn out to be something that the market
wanted, you would need to be very brave
indeed to bet against the eventual success
of Ultra HDTV, although NHK’s proposed
timeline for practical transmissions by the
time of the 2012 Olympics certainly
seems ambitious. It may well be
significant that NHK has begun talks with
SMPTE about possible standardisation of
Ultra HDTV.
Another interesting development,
being undertaken by the Fraunhofer
Institute, is their Ultra High Resolution
Video Panorama, which combines five
16:9 images into a single panoramic
image using two special cameras. The
system was used to capture a Germany v
Poland soccer match and the image was
shown on a 20m cinema screen unfortunately only the details of the
system, and not the pictures, were
available at IBC.
Digital Archiving
Those of us with the relatively tiny
problems of archiving a few decades
worth of printed journals, who can see
how storage technologies change over
just a few years, can have nothing but the
greatest respect for those who must
archive the vast output of the
broadcasters, so it was good that IBC
took this issue very seriously. Delegates
were told that the BBC intends to migrate
its entire archive every five years to stay
ahead of technology changes, and hopes
that other library archives will do the
same so that material can be made
immediately available. The continuing
process was described as something of a
treadmill! . An interesting point was that
the BBC’s chief archivist called for
archives to be exempt from any of the
many digital rights management systems
currently being developed, so as to make
it more straightforward to preserve
content in whatever format is considered
from time to time the best.
23
Bradford Animation Festival
Bradford Animation Festival 2006
- An appreciation
by David Hilton
The month of November is
a very important one in the
calendar for attendees of
international animation
festivals. In the case of the
it proved to be another
supremely successful
occasion in the canon of
events that the National
Museum of Photography,
Film and Television (now
renamed the National
Media Museum) run each
year. Indeed you could
argue that the event needs
renaming as the Bradford
International Animation
Festival. Not only does it
garner entries for the films
in competition from the
four corners of the globe,
but it also attracts
practitioners of the art from
around the world. These
people come to give
masterclasses and keynote
addresses, but the
attendees also include
industry professionals,
students teachers, fans and
also those of an inquisitive
disposition who are keen to
see what these amazing
craftspeople and artists
have conjured up for their
visual delectation this time.
The festival got off to an
interesting and entertaining
start with the official selection
24
of screenings of both student
and professional films. There
was much to commend in
the choices screened this
year. Notable in the
professional strand was
"Dreams and Desires-Family
Ties" by Joanna Quinn. In
this her latest film her
character Beryl is shown at
her drunken best as she
undertakes the role of
videoing a chaotic wedding
with her new camcorder.
Proving that the selection
committee of the festival can
really spot talent, screening in
the student section was "Guy
101" by Ian Gouldstone, who
has recently been showered
with all manner of awards
both big and small.The film
exposes the world of internet
chat rooms in this frank and
uncompromising graduation
film.
personal animation projects.
In the Cubby Broccoli
Cinema there was a
screening of the official
selection in the categories of
commercials/music videos
and independent films. Two
animations I found worthy of
note here were "The Lecture"
directed by Australian Clint
Cure and Jossie Malis
Alvarez's "Bendito Machine".
The screentalk with Joanna
Quinn (above right) was held
in the exceptionally well
appointed Pictureville
Cinema. A selection of
Joanna's films including
"Girls Night Out", "Body
Beautiful", "Elles", "Britannia",
"Wife of Bath" and "Dreams
and Desires-Family Ties" was
screened preceding the talk.
Joanna appeared on the
stage in conversation with
Barry Purves. Here she
revealed how the worlds of
art and commerce made
uneasy bed partners in her
working life. She did point
out, however, that it was
often the lucrative animation
work that she did in her
commercials for corporate
clients that then helped her
to bankroll her more
The music video strand
proved interesting and
entertaining as it always does
with the combination of
visuals and music sparking
off each other to great effect.
The highlights of this strand
for me were "Gorillaz-El
Manana" directed by Pete
Candeland & Jamie Hewlett.
As a contrast to this I very
much enjoyed "Smog-Rock
Bottom Riser" directed by
Brendan Cook & Paul
McNeil. In this promo
hundreds of ink paintings
form the basis for a dreamy
and flowing animation.
The category of commercials
always generally flags up
innovative and cutting edge
work due to the commercial
nature and budgets of the
work involved. Two
outstanding examples of the
work on show were
"Vodafone-Mayfly" directed
by Darren Walsh and Peter
Thwaites. In its one minute
running time this commercial
(below) shows how in just
one day a mayfly makes the
most of every minute of his
short life. This commercial
was a spectacular mix of live
action and computer
animation.
My other choice of
commercial was for "Johnnie
Walker-Paintings" directed by
Bobby Proctor and Pat Gavin
Image Technology
use of the same technology,
but carries the baton further
by using more stylised,
cartoonish characters than its
predecessor.
(of South Bank Show titles
fame). In this 60 second spot
some of the world's most
famous works of art are
brought to life through a
combination of traditional
animation and ground
breaking computer graphics.
The Pictureville Cinema
(above) played host to a
showreel spotlight discussion
panel comprising Paula
Moses from Skillset; Louise
Spraggon, Producer Channel
4 Animator in Residence
Scheme; Mike Cawood,
Senior Animator from the
acclaimed video games
studio, Rare and Sueann
Smith, Senior Producer from
Red Kite Animation. This was
a very informative,
entertaining and worthwhile
seminar session and
highlighted the fact that the
graduate showreel is often
the deciding factor in getting
a foot in the door of the
animation industry. The
major players comprising the
panel came from the worlds
of animation and video
games and gave much
insight into what it takes to
make a showreel that stands
head and shoulders above
the crowd and can thus help
garner you a good start in
obtaining a successful career.
Attendees were in for a treat
at the first presentation held
in the museum's IMAX
auditorium, which was a
showcase of new Korean
animation. Here there was
some stunning and
innovative work to behold
produced by the country's
burgeoning animation
industry.
The films were introduced by
by Jinny HJ Choo, (above)
Director of the Seoul
International Cartoon &
Animation Festival.
One of the eagerly
anticipated treats of the day
was the screening in the
Pictureville Cinema of the
animated feature "Monster
House". This film was
directed by first timer Gil
Kenan (having produced a
horror short called "The
Lark", mixing live action and
animation which garnered a
UCLA Spotlight award). The
film was executive produced
by Steven Spielberg and
Robert Zemeckis (who
famously used motion
capture techniques for "The
Polar Express"). "Monster
House" also makes heavy
Day two got off to an
excellent start with a
screening and talk by Will
Becher from Aardman
Animation about his work on
the film "Peter and the Wolf".
Will gave an insightful and
entertaining talk exploring
the art of stop-motion
animation. The audience was
then treated to a screening
of the film. This was a UK
and Polish co-production
directed by Suzie Templeton
and is a half hour rendition
of Prokofiev's classic work.
I then went on a tour of the
nearby WOW Academy
facility based at the
innovative technologies
centre in Bradford,
conducted by Hashim
Hashim. We explored the
new technology within the
academy and by the end of
the tour had a better
understanding of the
knowledge and skills
required to develop material
for the digital and creative
media industry. We were
shown games being
designed, 3D images being
constructed, movement being
recorded with motion capture
equipment and rapid
prototyping modelling, all
capable of being carried out
completely in-house, a true
one stop shop.
included clips from "The
Nightmare Before
Christmas", "James and the
Giant Peach", "Truckers","The
Sandman" and various
commercials. Paul really was
a prodigious talent and he
had a love of his art which
was infectious to all.
Next up was the official
selection of TV series
animations all produced in
the UK. A real cornucopia of
animation talent and enjoyed
by all in the capacity
audience.
My second visit to the IMAX
cinema treated me to a
showcase of new Russian
animation. Of the seven
pieces of work on show, five
were world premieres
(showing the esteem in which
this festival is held). There
was a good show of
animation talent and style for
us on the screen as well as
the mediums used. CGI has
made it to Russia but the
majority of the films we saw
were animated using the
traditional techniques, which
I actually enjoyed very much
in this day and age when
most animated features we
get to see courtesy of Pixar
and Dreamworks et al are
fully CGI affairs.
A headlong rush back to the
Pictureville meant that I just
made it in time for one of
the highlights of the festivalthe tribute to Paul Berry. Paul
was a stop-motion animator
and director of extraordinary
talent - some of his creations
can be seen on the right. The
screening that we saw
25
The next festival highlight
comprised a celebration of
30 years of the Cosgrove
Hall animation studio.
Cosgrove Hall was
established in 1976 by two
art school graduates, Brian
Cosgrove and Mark Hall.
The Manchester-based
company has since grown
into one of Europe's leading
animation studios. Their
remit covers stop-motion and
model animation, 2D drawn
films and 3D digital work. In
this way Cosgrove Hall have
produced some of the most
memorable shows in the
history of television. Chris
Bowden, Executive Producer
at Cosgrove Hall, provided a
history to the acclaimed
studio and introduced a
range of their work (picture
above) including popular
favourites "Dangermouse",
"Count Duckula", "Jamie and
the Magic Torch", "The Wind
in the Willows" and "Chorlton
and the Wheelies". The fact
that Cosgrove Hall is now 30
years old and still going
strong with new series and
methods of production is
certainly very encouraging
for all those involved in the
animation industry here in
the UK.
The final presentation I
attended for the day was a
screening of "Silence is
Golden" with an introduction
by its director Chris
Shepherd. This, his latest
film, is a frantic mash-up of
live-action and animation in
all its forms. It conveys a sly
commentary on how society
reacts to the mentally
unstable. After the screening
of the film those in the
audience who had an
interest,and wanted to follow
up the opportunity, were able
to meet with and chat to
Chris, the director, about the
film and also his careeer as
26
a director and animator, in
the convivial atmosphere of
the well appointed bar of the
Pictureville Cinema. This is
the great thing about the
(compared to some of the
larger festivals that are run
elsewhere in the world) it
affords the opportunity for
animators, students, movie
buffs et al to be able to
speak with the animators in
person.
We also saw the continuation
of the Festival's commitment
to showcase the flourishing
relationship between the
worlds of film, animation,
and video games with BAF
Game. In partnership with
the University of Bradford,
BAF Game featured talks,
discussions and workshops
led by industry experts that
explored the creative side of
gaming in all its forms.
Friday found me in the
Pictureville Cinema
attending a screentalk with
Andreas Hykade. He was to
be engaged in conversation
by Philip Hunt, Studio aka's
Creative Director. The talk
was preceded by the
screening of a selection of
Andreas' work including his
most recent "The Runt". Over
the past decade, Andreas
has emerged as one of
Germany's most important
contemporary animators. He
has produced a constant
stream of startling and
uncompromisingly personal
films in tandem with a steady
body of commercial work
and children's TV series.
From the work that we had
seen, many in the audience
agreed that Andreas has
brought a bracing and
mature forthrightness to his
animation.
I made my way over to the
University of Bradford for an
afternoon session in the BAF
Game strand. It was entitled
"Mutation, Animation and
Games" and was presented
by William Latham.
Professor Latham regaled us
with tales of how his
colourful career had taken
him through the worlds of
fine art,animation, film and
computer games. An expert
in the field of genetic art, he
showed the audience how he
used computers to create his
stunningly original pieces of
organic imagery.
The mid-afternoon
presentation in the
Pictureville was another in
the excellent series of
screentalks which the festival
has rightly become
renowned for. The subject of
the afternoon's talk was
animation director Marc
Craste. I found the screening
of his work to be a great
stepping off point for the
excellent screentalk which
followed. Engaged in
conversation by Paul Wells
we were able to gain some
insight into the way that
Marc thinks and works.
Visually intense and
atmospheric, we came to see
how Craste's unique
narrative style is dependent,
in part, on the way he
visually constructs and
interprets each new narrative
world.
To end the day I decided to
go and see the screening of
the animated feature film
"Renaissance" playing in the
Cubby Broccoli Cinema. It
was directed by Christian
Volkman and because of the
costs involved in its
realisation was a
French/GB/Luxembourg coproduction. I found it to be
an extraordinary work of
animated science fiction with
echoes of "Blade Runner"
and "Sin City". By using the
Clip from Darwinia, ‘a digital dreamscape’, by Introversion
Software, shown at BAF Game
Image Technology
latest motion capture
techniques the film possessed
a slick look with high
production values which
belied the tight production
budget. I found it to be an
engaging,thought provoking
and visually stunning film.
The final day of the festival
seemed to come around all
too quickly First up on my
agenda was the commercial
animation panel. This offered
the opportunity to celebrate
fifty years of commercial
television and the creative
vision and innovation found
in animated commercials.
The presence of such
distinguished animators as
Joanna Quinn, Marc Craste,
John Woolley and Andreas
Hykade assured us of the
opportunity to explore the
highs and lows of producing
commercials. It also enabled
us to enjoy viewing some of
the best commercials
produced and to be able
hear discussed the concepts,
processes and history behind
some of the most iconic
advertisements we have
seen.
The afternoon presentation in
the Pictureville Cinema was a
true highlight of the entire
festival. It was a screentalk
by supervising animator
Dave Burgess about his
illustrious career, hosted by
Fraser MacLean and was
followed by a screening of
the Dreamworks' animation
"Over the Hedge". In 1990
Dave began working at Walt
Disney Studios and was
Supervising Animator on
many of their most highly
praised productions including
"Aladdin", "The Lion King",
"Beauty and the Beast",
"Tarzan" and "Pocahontas".
He continued that he then
moved to DreamWorks SKG
and worked on the hit
computer-animated
comedies "Shrek 2",
"Madagascar" and "Over the
Hedge" (picture above). It
also came out in the
conversation that Dave had a
long friendship with Chuck
Jones who helped him to
sharpen his staging skills for
animation.
The next exceptional
presentation in Pictureville
was one featuring Halas &
Batchelor Cartoons, subtitled
An Animated History. This
was also the title of a new
richly illustrated book. To
celebrate its UK launch, the
authors Vivien Halas and
Paul Wells spoke on stage
about the impact of this
remarkable company and
this was accompanied by a
special screening of the
studios' work. Vivien
explained how her father
considered animation as the
most contemporary form of
human expression combining
the elements of motion,
story-telling, sound and
space. With those final
thoughts being from John
Halas it made a fitting end to
our journey through their
marvellous body of work.
I rounded off my visit to the
BAF with the very last
animated feature film
screening of the event. It was
one I had heard a lot about
and so was eager to see it
on the big screen. It was
director Richard Linklater's
interpretation of the novel by
Philip K. Dick entitled "A
Scanner Darkly". This film is
the culmination for Linklater
of his experiment with
animation which he started
previously with his film
"Waking Life". I found that
his use of a revised
rotoscoping process lent itself
very well to the nature of the
story and also to the visual
style that the audience were
presented with on the screen.
This really is an incredible
event with such a meltingpot of talent and I feel sure
that people in the audience
/workshops who go on to
make it big in the
animation industry will be
able to look back fondly
(when they are a special
guest at this festival) and
say "This is where it all
started!".
Until the next time.
David Hilton
For Full details of BAF 2007
www.nationalmediamuseum.
org.uk/baf/2007/
It just remains for me to
thank all of those
individuals who helped
to make this festival
not only possible,but
such an enjoyable and
memorable event.
Tom Woolley (Festival
Director), Sarah
Crowther(in the press
office), Deb Singleton
(Festival Coordinator)
and Bill Lawrence
(Head of Film) - all at
the museum did a
marvellous job in
getting it together. Also
the projection teams
all deserve medals for
the exemplary
standard of their
presentations.
27
First Reference
Laboratories
DELUXE
LABORATORIES
Laboratories
FILM & PHOTO LTD
Laboratories
FILMLAB SYSTEMS
INTERNATIONAL
colour
by
deluxe
The Filmlab Group
deluxe london
North Orbital Road, Denham,
Uxbridge, Middlesex UB9 5HQ
Tel: 01895 832323
Fax: 01895 832446
Website: www.bydeluxe.com
Contact: Ian Robinson
13 Colville Road,
South Acton Industrial Estate
London W3 8BL
Tel:
020 8992 0037
Fax:
020 8993 2409
Website: www.film-photo.co.uk
Contact: Tony Scott
Unit 1, Bates
Estate, Stokenchurch
High Wycombe, UK HP14 3PD
Tel: 01494 485271 Fax: 01494 483079
Contact: Chris Brazier or Sue Cairns
FILMLAB manufactures equipment for the motion
picture film and television industry. FSI supplies
state of the art equipment to motion picture
laboratories and post production houses. Our
comprehensive product range includes:
• Colormaster digital colour film analyser, the
world’s leading colour negative analyser.
• Processors on rigid stainless-steel chassis.
• INPS for collecting scene colour (RGB) and cure
(FCC) data. INPS can be interfaced to analysers
and editing tables.
• Printernet Systems, the replacements for the
conventional paper tape readers used to control
a motion picture printer.
• Excalibur 2000, for logging and cutting
negative, can be used as a bridge between film
and video. It can import & export to AVID
off/online stations.
• Wyndmaster, digitally controlled rewinder.
• Inspection stations for 16/35mm film.
• Viewmaster online film inspection system.
• Silver recovery units for slow & fast
processors
Deluxe London, Hollywood, Toronto,
Italia and Spain (Barcelona and Madrid)
are subsidiaries of Deluxe Film.
Established in 1936 the Laboratory in
Denham uses state of the art equipment
and with a dedicated workforce,
provides a comprehensive range of film
processing and post-production services
for the cinema and commercial markets.
The London laboratory is equipped to
produce film in Dolby SR*D, DTS and
SDDS sound systems. Deluxe London
also offers a comprehensive in-house
telecine service for the transfer of dailies
to all standard and HD formats.
APPROVED BY KODAK to process 100D
35mm camera colour reversal motion picture
stock. Other laboratory services offered are:
• COLOUR REVERSAL - High quality prints for
post production and graded prints for
previews.
• TELERECORDING From tape to 16/35mm colour or B/W.
• PRESERVATION/RESTORATION - Life
restored to tired fading images. From Super
8mm, 16mm, 28mm or 35mm film onto B/W
or colour. Washing, cleaning, liquid gate
printing.
• OPTICAL PRINTING - For shrunken film
and special effects.
Laboratories
Laboratory Equipment
Laboratory Equipment
TECHNICOLOR LTD
PHOTOMEC
RTI UK LTD
LIPSNER SMITH
Entertainment & Creative Services
Technicolor Ltd, Bath Road, West Drayton
Middlesex UB7 0DB
Tel: 0208 759 5432
West End pick-up and delivery point:
52 Berwick Street, London W1F 8SL
Tel: 0207 287 5596 Fax: 0207 287 5597
Website: www.Technicolor.com
Contact: Keith Faulkner
Part of the Thomson Group, Technicolor are the world's
largest and most advanced Film Processing and Post
Production Group, with labs in Los Angeles, New York,
Toronto, Montreal, London, Madrid, Rome and Bangkok.
Technicolor London is unique within the UK, offering a
full laboratory service with the ability to provide worldclass post production all under one roof. Incorporating
SD/ HD Spirit at 2 & 4K scanning to provide dailies and
mastering plus a new Digital Intermediate facility, the site
allows the filmmaker to complete Front End and Post
without ever moving negative off the premises.
From their new premises in Perivale, Technicolor Creative
Services provide DVD Compression and Authoring,
Duplication, QA reporting, Editing, 3D Graphics and
Subtitle Creation, whilst Anvil now have first class
Theatrical and Television Audio Mixing, Sound
Restoration and an Audio Layback capability.
In combination, Technicolor London gives a true endto-end service to all its clients.
28
PHOTOMEC (London) Ltd
Valley Road Industrial Estate
St Albans, Herts AL3 6NU
Tel: +44 (0) 1727 850711
Fax: +44 (0) 1727 843991
Email:[email protected]
Website: www.photomec.co.uk
Contact: John Pollard
Photomec film processing machines are
used by motion picture film laboratories
throughout the world. Whether you are
looking for a compact studio processor, a
high-speed print machine or a custom
archival design we have the expertise and
experience to meet your needs. We offer
both demand-drive and sprocket-drive
systems. These proven mechanical designs
are now complemented by the latest
technology in machine control, remote
diagnostics and process data acquisition.
We also supply a wide range of
accessories and ancillary equipment
including chemical auto-blender units,
densitometers (IR and colour), film viewers,
loop cabinets, film servowinders and
inspection tables.
Unit 6, Swan Wharf, Waterloo Road
Uxbridge UB8 2RA
Tel: +44 (0) 1895 252191 or
07000 4RTIUK (07000 478485)
Fax: +44 (0) 1895 274692
Website: www.rtico.com
RTI (UK) is the European office of Research Technology
International, incorporating RTI/Lipsner Smith / BHP /
Calder products;
Supplier of Motion Picture Film laboratory equipment
(including Cleaners, Printers, Processors and other
ancillary laboratory equipment), plus a comprehensive
range of erasers, cleaners and evaluators for most tape
formats, plus repair and inspection of optical discs.
The latest enhancements include the new BHP High
Speed Modular Printer with bubble free wet gate and
higher speeds for both wet and dry printing, and the new
style Calder Processors with Touch Screen Control with
PLC (programmable logic control).
The TapeChek range of videotape evaluators includes
the Proline 5100 Recycling and Rejuvenation System for
DVCPRO and DVCAM, and the Proline 4100 Digital
Laser System which can evaluate all Betacam formats
including SP, Digital, SX, IMX, HDCAM and DTF cassettes.
These units recycle videotapes quickly and easily.
For further information, please contact:
Mark McMullon, Roger Bell, Chris Case,
Thierry Gatineau, Caroline Deadman.
Image Technology
First Reference
Lens Manufacturers
COOKE OPTICS LTD
Cooke Close, off Earls Way
Thurmaston, Leicester LE4 8PT
Tel: 0116 264 0700
Fax: 0116 264 0707
Website: www.cookeoptics.com
Cooke Optics Ltd, specialists in the
design and manufacture of awardwinning motion picture lenses
NEW S4/i System
A continuous remote readout of the
precise focus setting, T stop and DOF
from electronics "inside the lenses" so
that S4/i will work with any PL mount
camera body. Also available HD
Zoom, +35mm Zoom
Contacts: Geoffrey Chappell or
Laura Hatton.
Projection and Sound
Small Ad - FOR SALE
CINEMATOGRAPHY
EQUIPMENT
FOR SALE
The daughter of the late Norman
King FBKS, one time Deputy Director
of Engineering at ITN, would like to
sell some of his old film equipment,
which includes an Arriflex 16mm
professional movie camera (3 lens),
and a very old GB-Bell & Howell
16mm projector Model 613.
Any BKSTS Member who might be
interested in purchasing any of the
equipment should contact Gillian
Heath, who will be happy to give
further details.
Tel: 01895 820744
Projection and Sound
SUMMERTONE LTD
Woodside, 98 Scatterdells Lane
Chipperfield, Herts WD4 9EZ, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1923 263220
Fax: +44 (0) 1923 260606
Contact: Terry Summers
• SONDOR - Agents for:
• NOVA high speed projector for modern
preview and dubbing theatres
• NOVA TELECINE, all standards, budget priced
• ARCHIVE SOUND RETRIEVAL magnetic film
reproducers, 16 & 35mm
• SONDOR MAGNETIC FILM TRANSPORTS
and updates
• MAGNETIC HEADS - Replacement for all film
machines and for 2”-1 1/4” tape
• TIMECODE FAULT ANALYSERS - for LTC and
VITC, resulting print for permanent record
• FILM CLEANING - Agents for the ORIGINAL
DRYPUR film cleaning rollers
• SOUND ANALYSERS - Agents for the
ABACUS 1/3rd octave analyser and pink
noise generator
• PROJECTORS & FILM SOUND MACHINES
Suppliers for used equipment. Try us if you
have any requirements.
Projection Screens
HARKNESS HALL
Harkness Hall, Unit A, Norton Road,
Stevenage, Herts SG1 2BB
Tel:
+44 (0) 1438 725 200
Fax:
+44 (0) 1438 344 400
Website: www.harknesshall.com
Contact: Tony Dilley, Sales Manager
Cinema and auditoria projection screen
systems: surfaces, frames, moving
masking. Front, rear and 2-way projection
screens to any dimension. Various
perforation patterns are suitable for
optimum acoustic performance. Screen
surfaces available: Matt White, Perlux 180
and 140 gain, Spectral 240 3D, Video,
Translite. Conventional and acoustically
transparent masking material. Roll-up
screens to 48; (14.6m) wide. Total range of
AV and portable screens.
FIRST
REFERENCE The First Place to
Turn
Many people in the moving
image industry tell us that
whenever they need to find a
service, a facility, or a special
piece of equipment for hire or
sale they invariably succeed
by taking a quick look at the
regular advertisers in First
Reference. Lots of advertisers
have been with us for years,
and have established their
positions within the journal. If
you would like to see your
company’s name and details
in every issue of Image
Technology, call Wendy
Laybourn
29
First Reference
Laboratories
DSC LABS
Film & Accessories
JACK ROE (CS) LTD
Serving the industry since the 1920s
Film Equipment
PHILIP RIGBY &
SONS LTD
32 Whyteleafe Road
Caterham
Surrey CR3 5EF
Tel: 01883 332513
Fax: 01883 332514
DSC Laboratories
3565 Nashua Drive, Mississauga, ON L4V1R1
Tel: +1 905 673 3211
Fax: +1 905 673 0929
Contact: Michael Wiegand
Since 1962 DSC Labs has provided products and
services for the Broadcast and AV communities.
Today, DSC’s precision front and rear-lit test
targets will be found in leading TV, SD, HDTV and
digital cinema production facilities worldwide.
ChromaDuMonde, CamAlign and Combi
patterns, along with Ambi illuminators, are familiar
names with engineers and DPs charged with
providing consistent, optimum image quality.
Originally designed as engineering tools, DSC’s
unique test targets now find ever increasing use as
on-the-set reference standards in film and video
production. Other popular DSC production tools
include: Ambi/Combi, the acclaimed rear-lit
system, numerous resolution patterns, plus the
economical and compact, ‘CamBook’, ‘FrontBox’,
‘Camette’, ‘White’nWarm’ and ‘CamFocus’
charts.
Poplar House, Peterstow, Ross-onWye, Herefordshire HR9 6JR
Tel:
+44 (0) 1989 567474
Fax:
+44 (0) 1989 762206
Website: www.jack-roe.co.uk
www.jackroeusa.com
Contact: Sandie Caffelle
EXPERIENCED HELPFUL FRIENDLY
STAFF GIVE ADVICE ON:
Editing supplies, including
• Specialist leaders
• Own-manufactured worldrenowned JACRO film splicing tape
• CIR splicers and spares
• PTR and Telecine rollers
•
Editing gloves etc
Projection and sound equipment
Film handling equipment and more...
STOCK IS HELD OF MOST
CATALOGUE ITEMS. NEXT DAY
Website: www.philiprigby.co.uk
MANUFACTURERS OF PRECISION
PREMIER FILM EQUIPMENT FOR OVER
100 YEARS
Rewinders: Manual & Motorised,
Vertical & Horizontal models
Spools & Cans: Solid & Split includes
2000' & 3000' with aluminium discs,
NEW 35mm 1200' Rigby made Plastic
Film Cans
Splicers: Premier cement range & CIR
tape splicers and spares
Tape: Unperforated clear, double perf.
clear & white, sprocket repair
Cinema Supplies: Sound/Fire resistant
windows (certificated), gloves, selvyts,
Rosco lens fluid & tissues, leaders & full
range of cleaning materials
CONTACT US FOR CURRENT PRICES
AND DO VISIT OUR WEBSITE
Film Laboratories
Film Stock
Laboratories
SOHO IMAGES
AGFA UK LTD
BUCKS
LABORATORIES
AGFA
8-14 Meard Street, London W1F 0EQ
Tel: 0207 437 0831
Fax: 0207 734 9471
Email:[email protected]
Website: www.sohoimages.com
Soho Images, as part of Ascent Media Group
Ltd., is London’s only Kodak endorsed
laboratory, offering a complete camera to
screen package for features, commercials and
broadcast. We specialise in PAL and NTSC
video rushes, using multi-skilled film graders
for both the video transfer process and
providing film negative printer lights for DoPs.
Soho Images is the Laboratory specialist in
digital post production, and together with
Ascent Media Group Creative Services
companies, is able to provide the UK’s only
totally integrated film and video post
production service. We offer highly
competitive packages for complete packages
or for a combination of any of the above
services.
Contacts: Gordon Clampitt (Commercials)
30
Motion Picture Division
27 Great West Road
Brentford
Middlesex TW8 9AX
Tel:
020 8231 4301
Fax:
020 8231 4315
Agfa Ltd is a major supplier to
the Motion Picture and
Television industries of
Polyester-based Colour Print
Film and Optical Sound
Recording Film.
714/715 Banbury Avenue, Slough,
Berkshire SL1 4LR
Tel:01753 501500 Fax:01753 691762
Web: www.bucks.co.uk
CONTACTS
Dave Pitwell ([email protected])
Mick Barham ([email protected])
Established over 25 years to provide an
independent facility with the emphasis on
personal service and a total commitment to
quality. Bucks laboratories today provide a
complete and highly competitive service to the
motion picture film industry. A full range of
services is available from negative processing
to bulk copies of features, trailers and
commercials. Bucks are an ISO 9001 quality
approved laboratory. Print quality is
maintained by the use of liquid-gate printing
systems for bulk production. An interactive
website allows orders to be placed on-line
and progress to be monitored with real-time
reporting systems. Contact Mick Barham or
Dave Pitwell for further information.
Image Technology
History
The Light of Other Days
Reflections on articles in the BKSTS Journals, by Tony Iles
John Elliot – The Making of War in the Air
In January 1955, John Elliot
described the making of the
BBC’s 15-part series “War in
the Air”. During WW2 many
Documentary films captured
the atmosphere of the time,
but a decade later, a more
dispassionate style was
needed. The Imperial War
Museum, the RAF and the
Admiralty had plenty of
mostly 35mm footage,
including captured enemy
film. This material had
already been plundered for
cinema projects, but it was
necessary to trawl through it
again, to search with the
specific criteria now
appropriate for a TV Series.
NBC’s recent “Victory at Sea”
proved the viability of
Cinema-style editing in a long
series of half-hour
programmes. The BBC team
now aimed to go for a more
cohesive overall story, with a
wider range of voices and
sound effects, and a less
biased story line. The whole
production would be a
complete balanced history,
while each episode would
have its own dramatic form.
Although titled “War in the
Air” they wanted to show its
effect on the world below, as
well.
In Spring 1953, Production
Supremo Philip Dorté invited
Air Chief Marshal Sir Philip
Joubert to be Service Adviser.
The subject for each episode
was defined, and sorting of
the uncatalogued film
commenced. Every roll of film
was viewed, and its contents
and quality reported. At the
same time, historical reports
of campaigns and even
individual battles were listed.
Then all the reports were
assembled, to match “Script
Information” with
corresponding “Picture
Information”.
By the end of 1953 the
Editors had completed listing
some six million feet of film
stock from Allied and
captured German, Italian and
Japanese sources, and the
overall quality looked good.
They then quickly moved on
to locating the selected shots.
These were catalogued and
edge numbered, and their
negatives traced. From them
were made black & white
cutting prints, and fine-grain
duping prints to provide the
masters for the final negs.
The films and the history did
not always match, so scripts
had to be re-shaped, and a
camera unit headed by
Ronald Noble shot linking
material, such as briefings –
with extras in authentic
uniforms, but not re-staging
any battles. Elliot had learned
that the secret of commentary
writing was to know how little
could be said, and to
recognise that as much
depends on the sound of the
spoken words as on their
sense.
Music was commissioned
from a range of leading
composers, following a
signature tune by Sir Arthur
Bliss. Most of the music was
of a serious nature, but for a
Bomber Command sortie
Ronald Binge arranged a jazz
and popular music sequence
to reflect the milieu of the
young aircrews. The music
was sometimes allowed to
take “centre stage” when
appropriate. There was no
BBC film music recording
stage, so a facility was
improvised in a Sound
Broadcast studio, which
proved highly satisfactory. The
magnetic recording channel
put the music directly onto
35mm sprocketed mag filmtrack.
They used very high quality
sound effects, and spent as
much time and money on the
sound as on the picture. With
the home television receivers
of the day, the sound was
clearer than the picture. They
therefore regarded the picture
as only one of a group of
equal partners, with the final
dub comprising picture, mag
music, mag fx, and various
photographic speech tracks.
Once the routine was
established, one episode was
dubbed every week, after
which the fine-grain picture
was cut to match the cutting
copy, and a dupe neg struck
for making a combined show
print.
Tony Iles
Author’s
After-Word:
I have
enjoyed
working
voluntarily
for the BKSTS for the last 30
years. My input is now no
longer needed by the
Society, [I strongly disagree!
- Ed.] and with the demise
of the printed journal this is
my final curtain. I have
enjoyed the kind reactions
and comments from the
membership, and I must
now say “Thank you all, and
goodbye and good luck”.
A Liberator bombing a target in Italy
A German infantryman hurls a
grenade against a British post,
during the Battle for Crete
A German paratrooper leaps to
battle
Thumb on the gun button
Tony Iles
A Dornier lifts its load of
explosives off a Flanders
airfield
31
Interior of the witches castle built on E Stage at Pinewood Studios
Image Technology back cover goes
behind the scenes at Pinewood Studios
Stardust sprinkled all over Pinewood’s lot
Wide-ranging facilities at Pinewood Studios were utilised for the shooting of fairytale feature Stardust.
The enchanting tale of a fallen star who crashes into a magical kingdom is the latest film from Matther
Vaughn (producer of Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) and was released in the UK on
19 October 2007 by Paramount Pictures. Spectacular sequences were filmed on impressive physical sets
designed by acclaimed production designer Gavin Bocquet. “Shooting at Pinewood on a film like Stardust is
always a pleasure due to the variety of stages on the lot including the Paddock Tank, the Underwater Stage,
the backlot and surrounding Black Park” he commented.
As shown in the aerial view on our front cover, a full size inn was built on the 16 acre backlot, previously
home to Batman’s Gotham City and Eyes Wide Shut’s New York. Visual effects house Double Negative
created the effect that sees Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer) cast a spell to magically create the inn. The picture
below shows a still from Stardust, illustrating the effectiveness of the ‘night shots’ of the magic inn.
In addition to 11 stages used at Pinewood to shoot Stardust, Foley recording for the production was
completed at Shepperton Studios.
Images copyright © 2006 Paramount Pictures. All rights reserved.

Imagetechnology

Transcription

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