Ja Shia, BAVC Media Arts Technician
NAB this year was generally focused on the release of FCP Studio 2, the RED camera, and storage solutions. (There were smaller booths that carried new gadgets; most notably a still camera that took DVD quality video and served as a DVR):
For the most part, the South Hall (Post Production Land) had the majority of people previewing the new Apple products and their affiliates. Apple’s new codec the Prores 422 allows for the compression of DV with the quality of uncompressed 10 HD. They had a booth showcasing a split screen of the same shot: one side had 10 bit UC, and the other side was the 422 codec, and you couldn’t really see the difference. (Although, this really needs to be taken with a grain of salt.) Ideally, this is huge because it brings drive space back to a manageable level if one wanted to edit at online resolutions. When we get the new Studio bundle, we’ll run some tests using the scopes and see if the codec with pass a tech eval (the real test). (more…)
May 18, 2007
Debra Schaffner, BAVC Senior Postproduction Technician
I worked with BAVC Mediamaker John Lightfoot in the audio suite on the mix for his film “Obituary: A Caustic Tale”. This is an experimental, first-person biography of Hiram Maxim, inventor of the automatic machine gun. While I EQed and compressed, I asked John about the man who changed the way we slaughter our fellow humans. Apparently, Maxim was prompted to invent the gun after meeting a fellow American while in Vienna. The man said, “Maxim, if you really want to make money, invent something that will enable these Europeans to cut each others throats with greater ease.” I wondered if Maxim expressed any regrets later in life for his role in modern warfare. According to John, he did not. Nor did his son, Hiram Percy Maxim, who was certainly no Sarah Winchester. He never built rooms or passageways to ward off the souls of dead gun victims. Instead, he invented a well-known gun accessory- the silencer. I guess there is something to be said for knowing your path, or at least for walking a silent one. One last piece of trivia about Obituary. The archival film footage of the elder Maxim seen in the film was actually shot by his son. He used an early 16mm cameras when they first became available to (wealthy) consumers.
May 18, 2007
