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PODCAST - Cyndi Greening & Mike Curtis
The Inside Scoop for 2005-08-29 (Part 2 of 2)

Podcast on Monday, August 29, 2005

Posted from Phoenix, Arizona

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By Cyndi Greening.
Phoenix, Arizona USA (Cinema Minima) -- In Part Two of this podcast,
HD and Post Production Expert MIKE CURTIS of HD
for Indies discusses a number of topics of great interest to the independent
filmmaker. (You might want to begin with Part
One first; follow this direct link or see the entry below.) In this section, Mike talks about compression, digital projection, Macintosh developments, color correction issues with greenscreen projects, real time color correction with Final Touch HD and lots of tips for improving Indie quality ...

• Post Production Color Correction Partnership using Final Touch HD


• Understanding DV/HDV Compression
  
  
  
  • Uncompressed image data possible is 240 MB/sec
  
  
  • HDCAM tape formats compress data to about 20 MB/sec
  
  
  • HDV camera data is compressed to 3MB/sec
  
  
  
  


• Can't color correct what was never captured and/or saved


• Understanding compression nomenclature
  (e.g. 4:4:4 vs. 4:1:0)
  
  
  
  • Brightness and Color, Chrominance and Luminance, YUV, RGB
    
    (for each four consecutive pixels, the compression algorithm uses
    the first value to determine how many pixels to capture the brightness
    value and the next two values for how many pixels of color)
  
  
  • HCAM SR can optionally capture 4:4:4 RGB as well as 4:2:2 YUV
  
  
  • DigiBeta and DVCProHD captures 4:2:2
  
  
  • DV captures 4:1:1
  
  
  • DVD and HDV captures 4:2:0 (which isn't really 0, it's an every other
    interlaced line)
  
  
  
  


• Impact of compression on GreenScreen projects


• Panasonic SDX900 sometimes called the "Poor Man's DigiBeta"
  (or any DVCPro50 camera)


• An article from the American
  Society of Cinematographers article on Capturing Colorspace
  
  (a reference source from Mike)


• Digital Cinema Initiative (studio) consortium agreements
  on digital projection and distribution
  
  
  
  • Projection Options:
  
  
  • 2K size 2048x1080; 4K size 4096x2160;
  
  
  • CIEXYZ; frame rate; 12bit per channel format
  
  
  • Security issues to avoid copying
  
  
  • as for DCI specification, the DCDM (Digital Content Distribution Master ) is nothing for an indie producer to have to worry about producing themselves for about a decade
  
  
  • Article in the NYTimes that film prints are about $1000; virtual print fees expected to be around $2K - but what are shipping costs? $100-300? The math still doesn't seem to add up
  
  
  
  


• Digital projectors not an advantage for theater owners under current leasing
  plan


• Danger of dark screens because of technical problems and/or security issues


• Macintosh conversion to Intel Processors; possibly PCX,
  quad processors


• How he came to work in HD


• Future SXSW Panel Discussion; HD/DV Camera Shoot Out


• Direct to Disk Recording to Gain Resolution and 10Bit per
  Channel color


• AfterEffects vs. Shake vs. Real Time Color Correction with Final Touch HD


• Stay tuned! Read the HD
  for Indies FAQ for more information!