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Home » Our Best of Tech 2010

Our Best of Tech 2010

By Joe Herman and Dan Ochiva

Although “best of” lists can seem indulgent, they serve a purpose. By focussing attention on tech gear and software that you may have missed in a year’s typical new product rush, you’ll stay up to date on products that might help solve a real problem. Meanwhile, hearing about new apps for popular products like Apple’s iPad could tip you off to a good production solution you can apply today.

In any case, here’s our first of three lists of the best, most useful software and hardware from the past 12 months.


Apple iPad

While we’ve had eBook readers, tablet computers and smart phones for any number of years, this past year Apple’s iPad stormed the portable media platform category to the point that Strategy Analytics estimated that the device had gained a 95 percent share of Tablet PC sales by the end of second quarter 2010.
The iPad is said to be a hit in Hollywood, both on set for directors and for client playback during post. An app like Movie Slate– an all-in-one digital slate, clapper board, shot log, and shot notepad–shows how quickly new uses are turning up. According to DigiTimes, Apple is expected to order 35 million iPad panels from LG in 2011 for its iPad 2, rumored for release later this month.


Mudbox 2011

We recently had a chance to work with Mudbox 2011, the digital sculpting tool by Autodesk that competes with ZBrush. We’re impressed.
Tools such as Mudbox allow the artist to build highly complex and detailed models by painting on their meshes with brushes. The resulting displacement and texture maps are later applied to the models in Maya for animation and rendering. We were struck by the quality of the real time rendering and ambient occlusion while painting and sculpting. Mudbox 2011, now a 64 bit app, adds useful enhancements such as a posing toolkit, improved brushes for 3D painting and texturing, texture extraction, 2D painting of 3D maps, paint layers, and interoperability with Adobe Photoshop.


Adobe Premiere Pro CS5

Almost all of the Creative Suite 5 applications have significant new enhancements and upgrades including the old standards such as Illustrator, Photoshop, and After Effects. However, most impressive are the advancements made in Premiere Pro, which has become a highly advanced, pro editing package. Premiere Pro CS5 now runs as a 64-bit app only, pointing out how serious Adobe is targeting high-end film and video producers.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the new Premiere Pro is Adobe’s Mercury Playback Engine, which takes advantage of today’s potent GPUs to speed project opening, scrubbing through and playing back HD and even higher-res footage with effects.


USB 3.0

Not really a product but a technology, USB 3.0 brings the promise of greatly improved bandwidth of around 3.2 Gbs, some 6 times the speed of USB 2.0. Since USB has become ubiquitous throughout the computer industry, expect to see cheaper RAID arrays and other storage solutions over the coming year. Other peripherals such as scanners and audio post gear will also benefit.

About Dan Ochiva

New York City-based journalist and NYCPPNEWS founder Dan Ochiva writes and consults on film, video, and digital media technology.

Community & Partner Links

How Sony’s New Virtual Sound Technology Can Change How We Hear Films

Kami Asgar and Jessica Parks are post-production heavyweights who work with major studios, namely Sony. As a sound designer (Asgar) and as a post executive (Parks), their collective resume touches on everything from Apocalypto to Grandma’s Boy to Venom.

Parks has recently shifted her focus from supervisor to hands-on sound design, and we talk about how it’s never too late to pivot on your career path and find the thing you love doing wherever you are in life.

Click on this link to read the rest of the article on No Film School’s site.

U.K. Extends COVID Insurance Scheme; Distributes $21 Million in Cinema Grants

The U.K.’s insurance scheme for film and television has been extended until April.

Known as the Film and TV Production Restart Scheme, the groundbreaking £500 million ($676 million) fund assures productions that they’ll receive financial support in case of COVID-related losses. The program has so far accepted 100 qualifying productions.

To read the full article in Variety, click on this link. 

Film Commish announces date for production restart

In her December 18, 2020 news update, MOME Commissioner Anne del Castillo announced that the Film Office is now accepting permit applications for production activity that begins on July 27th.

She also announced awards now (Awkwafina) and more. To read all of the Film Commish’s bloggy sort of news column, click here.

Stimulus Offers $15 Billion in Relief for Struggling Arts Venues

The coronavirus relief package that Congressional leaders agreed to this week includes grant money that many small proprietors described as a last hope for survival.

For the music venue owners, theater producers and cultural institutions that have suffered through the pandemic with no business, the coronavirus relief package that Congress passed on Monday night offers the prospect of aid at last.

To read the full article on The New York Times’ site, click here.

If you want to start production, here’s the latest news from the Mayor’s Office

Phase 4 production guidance is available on the Film Permit website. All production activity, whether it requires a Film Permit or not, must comply with New York Forward Industry Guidance.

For more information see, please refer to the State Department of Health’s Interim Guidance for Media Production During the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. Please review the guidelines and FAQ before submitting permit applications. The Film Office is operating remotely, so please allow additional time for Film Permit processing.

The above paragraphs contain links to the various FAQ – just mouse over the relevant words.

Nikon to Stop Making Cameras in Japan

Nikon has fallen on hard times as of late as its camera sales have cratered, and now there’s a new indicator of how dire its financial situation is: the company is reportedly pulling the plug on making cameras in Japan after over 70 years of doing so.

To read the full article on Petapixel’s site, click here.

NVIDIA Uses AI to Slash Bandwidth on Video Calls

NVIDIA Research has invented a way to use AI to dramatically reduce video call bandwidth while simultaneously improving quality

What the researchers have achieved has remarkable results: by replacing the traditional h.264 video codec with a neural network, they have managed to reduce the required bandwidth for a video call by an order of magnitude. In one example, the required data rate fell from 97.28 KB/frame to a measly 0.1165 KB/frame – a reduction to 0.1% of required bandwidth.

To read the rest of this article on Petapixel, click this link.

 

 

 

Union Health Plan Dodges Film Workers’ Suit Over Virus Relief

Law360 (October 9, 2020, 5:22 PM EDT) — The Motion Picture Industry Health Plan’s board can’t be sued under ERISA for allegedly flouting its duties when it relaxed plan rules in response to COVID-19, a California federal judge has ruled, nixing a proposed class action filed by two cinematographers who still couldn’t qualify for benefits.

In an order entered Thursday, U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner granted the board of directors’ motion to dismiss Greg Endries and Dee Nichols’ Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit accusing board members of breaching their duty to treat all plan participants fairly.

Endries and Nichols, members of Local 600 of the International Cinematographers Guild, said in July that the board left them and others “out in the cold” in its attempts to address the problems COVID-19 caused for plan participants.

But Judge Klausner agreed with the board’s contention that the case, which alleged a fiduciary breach, should be tossed because plan administrators don’t act as fiduciaries when they amend health care plans.

Read the full article on the Law360 site by clicking here.

Russo Brothers Received Close to $50 Million From Saudi Bank

Anthony Russo and Joseph Russo photographed at the PMC Studio in Los Angeles for the Variety Playback Podcast.

The Russo brothers, directors of the all-time top grossing film “Avengers: Endgame,” quietly secured a roughly $50 million cash infusion for their production company AGBO from Saudi Arabia earlier this year, multiple sources tell Variety.

In a deal brokered and closed at the beginning of the pandemic, the Russos received the investment from an undisclosed Saudi bank in exchange for a minority stake in the brothers’ Los Angeles-based shop.

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