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Home » Will 3D or 4K triumph?

Will 3D or 4K triumph?

I begin my first NYC Production & Post News column with the question: will 3D or 4K triumph?

It isn’t immediately apparent that these technologies can be discussed in the same sentence. Over the last few years 3D, of course, has garnered attention as the next big thing in presentation. But if you’re involved in production, you know that now the excitement is building around available and upcoming camera gear in 4K. (That’s a 4096 x 2160 pixel image according to the DCI cinema standard.)

Why? Three-D production is its own production language that calls for a new set of shooting and editing rules. Directors, DPs and editors need to integrate these approaches as if they were learning film production from the beginning. If these narrow prescriptions are broken, viewers can be turned off from even watching the painful results. Requiring bulky 3D glasses just adds to the hassle.

(Consumer research company Gartner has even reported that uptake of 3D TVs in the home–which are necessary if the studios are going to recoup their investment–has peaked as the technology has failed to “live up to consumer expectations.”)

While 3D offers a new dimension for users to adjust themselves to, 4K is easy to understand. It brings its own glasses-free, hyper-real sensibility to viewers even while DPs, directors and editors can build their already honed skills. Basically, you don’t need to go to school again to know how to shoot in a higher-resolution format.

Just this past week Sony announced that it was beginning to ship the first of some 400 pre-orders worldwide for its new flagship 4K F65 camera system.

RED, JVC and others are joining Sony with new models to come at April’s NAB show, joining other manufacturers who will be showing 4K editing and effects systems. (JVC actually announced its GY-HMQ10 handheld 4K camcorder at CES. It captures, records, and plays video images at 24p, 50p, or 60p with a 3840 × 2160 resolution, which is four times the resolution of HDs 1920 × 1080. Whether or not pros find a place for this camcorder, just the fact that a consumer-oriented product could deliver 4K for about $5000 is astonishing.)

JVC says its GY-HMQ10 is able to output 4K images to a monitor or projection system in real time with ‘virtually no latency’.

 

I’ll go out on a limb and call this the year that 4K production takes off.

The consumer market is following up, bringing its first 4K monitors and projectors to the public. There will still be a place for 3D in the future, of course, but it will be a relative niche market with special uses such as animation and sports claiming most of the attention.

If you need some more convincing, come to the SMPTE NY chapter meeting on March 14th. Along with others in the industry, I’ll be hosting a presentation “4K and Beyond” that will highlight how this technology is coming into its own in 2012.

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.

NJ – Governor Murphy signs $14B Incentive Program Bill – the NJ Economic Recovery Act of 2020

 Film tax credits — amending existing programs to include provisions for so-called New Jersey film partners and New Jersey film-lease partners and allowing an additional $200 million of tax credits annually over 13 years.

Click this link if you want to read the full article on the Lexology site. http://bit.ly/35NtDx6

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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