Episode 44: The HPA Retreat – technology’s leading edge.

Terence attended this year’s Hollywood Post Alliance retreat with the theme “Snowflake Workflows” and talks about the technologies that were previewed.

The things that stood out for Terry in the demo room: Sony’s Blu-ray archive solution to compete with LTO and $25,000 4K home projector;

There’s a side discussion how disruptive technologies often come out of the consumer divisions of the large conglomerates rather than their professional product division.

Terry then a panel where Disney discussed automating the diversity of outputs from master file (up to thousands of variations).

How does the combination of RAW and Lytro camera affect production? How much moves from production to post?

Terry also talks about the trends in production and consumption revealed at the HPA Retreat.

Thanks to Curtis Fritsch for editing the show and making us sound intelligent.

5 thoughts on “Episode 44: The HPA Retreat – technology’s leading edge.

  1. Higher resolution cameras (4K and up) being used in episodic television give the editor (me) a lot of flexibility to resize shots, frame out problems, create close ups, etc.. We can zoom up to 250%, where 2K cameras can only go around 30% before there are image problems. Yet production is slow to adapt. I encourage directors to reduce their coverage of each scene and allow the editor to create different shots, but so far they haven’t. Old habits die hard. I doubt cameras like the Lytro will soon change how we work. I would be happy to have the additional control, though. Enjoyed the podcast. Thanks.

    1. I dont’ think the use of 4K will enhance production. Coverage is about angle and perspective changes, simply reframing (aka zooming) will be visual disaster. I hope those old habits NEVER die. There’s no substitute for good coverage from many angles and with many shot sizes. Wide 4K and let the editor choose will create flat, dull visuals, regardless of the talent of the editor.

      1. I have to disagree to a certain extent. After seeing the extras on The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, I absolutely think 4k will enhance production.

        Yes, it is about angles and perspectives but the frame is so important in language of cinema and video. I love the option of being able to reframe a shot in post, especially if the it lacks the right balance (for whatever reason).

        At the same time, I agree with you, Phillip, it can never make up for bad cinematography.

        1. At the HPA panel today someone was advocating “Shoot wide 5K and do all framing in post”, which strikes me as just plain wrong because the director or DOP should have a vision for how it should be covered and how the flow of that coverage will affect the impact of the story.

  2. I’ve had the reframing option of RED 4K save quite a few shots here and there. It even saved one spot entirely. There’s no excuse to not shoot properly but the 4K, 5K reframe can be a great option.

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