Production & Post Production

S3 Entertainment Group, Yessian Music/Dragon Licks Create Michigan Music Licensing 

Submitted by Nick Dager on Thu, 11/20/2008 - 18:00.

S3 Entertainment Group of Ferndale, Michigan has teamed up with Yessian Music/Dragon Licks, Detroit, to form Michigan Music Licensing. S3 managing partner Jeffrey Spilman and Yessian president Michael Yessian jointly made the announcement.  Michigan Music Licensing will provide clients with a one-stop solution to license, enhance, edit, mix or rearrange songs for feature film and television productions.

LaserPacific Forms New Business Unit for Digital Mastering

Submitted by Nick Dager on Thu, 11/20/2008 - 17:08.

LaserPacific Media Corporation has announced the formation of a new team and business unit to focus on digital motion picture mastering and re-mastering. With this expanded capability, LaserPacific CEO Brian Burr also announced the appointment of Ron Burdett as general manager of the mastering unit, and Lou Levinson as the supervising colorist - mastering, among others.

Optimo Rouge has Alternative Rentals Customers Seeing Red

Submitted by Nick Dager on Thu, 11/20/2008 - 12:58.

Alternative Rentals of Los Angeles, California has added the new PL-mount Optimo DP Rouge lenses, models DP 30-80 and the DP 16-42, from Thales Angenieux. “We are excited about adding the Optimo DP Rouge line to our current inventory of Angenieux Optimo and other zoom lenses,” says Cory Williams, president and CEO of Alternative Rentals. “The Optimo DP Rouge lenses have been optimized for the new generation of large format digital cinematography cameras. We believe these lenses will become a staple for future PL mount digital cameras and we are pleased to be the first rental house in the industry to carry them.”

Feature Stories

Technology

The Vision Thing

New v3 MOE Lenses at Clairmont Camera

The v3 MOE (Moving Optical Element) lenses add realism, depth and shape to scenes or products, and provide a vivid improvement over conventional film and telecast imagery. Unique to the industry, they capture different points of view relative to the plane of focus, causing the viewer to interpret depth in such a manner that it enhances the realism of the shot and make it more life-like.

Resources

When in Rome

Lowry Digital Restores The Robe

The Oscar-winning, classic motion picture The Robe has been digitally restored by Lowry Digital utilizing the company's proprietary Lowry Process to create pristine, new picture elements that maintain the visual intentions of the original masterpiece produced in 1953. The restored film premiered at the Rome International Film Festival on October 30, as part of the festival's ongoing partnership with The Film Foundation. The restoration was a collaboration between the Academy Film Archive and 20th Century Fox with funding from The Film Foundation.

Creativity

The Zen of Writing and Filmmaking

An Ongoing Series of Articles on Screenwriting by an Award-Winning Filmmaker

By Donald Vasicek

Editor’s Note: We are pleased to welcome Don Vasicek as a regular contributor to Digital Cinema Report. Don is an author and is the producer, director and writer of the award-winning documentary The Sand Creek Massacre. His current project, Ghosts of Sand Creek, a two-hour, six-episode documentary film about the descendants and ancestors of the Sand Creek Massacre, which occurred on November 29, 1864 in the southeastern Colorado Territory, is in development. A more extensive look at his background appears at the end of this article. Meanwhile, we hope you enjoy his insightful thoughts on the creative process of writing for the screen.

One on One

A Conversation with Isidore Mankofsky

Winner of the 2009 American Society of Cinematographers Presidents Award

Isidore Mankofsky will be given the American Society of Cinematographers President Award when the association gathers for its 23rd Annual Outstanding Achievement Awards in Hollywood on February 15, 2009, at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel. Mankofsky spoke with us.

In Production

Fighting Fire and Marital Demons

New Independent Film Finds Success in Non-Traditional Distribution

Fireproof, an action and love story about fighting fires and marital demons from Sherwood Pictures in Albany, Georgia, opened recently with little advance marketing and has gone on to earn $6.8 million and the number four slot at the box office. Already the year's highest-grossing film playing in fewer than 1,000 theaters, the movie is being distributed theatrically by Samuel Goldwyn Films in association with Provident Pictures.  

Coming Soon

The Race is On

JVC, Sensio Co-Develop 3D Technology for the Home

Complete story in our next edition

News Stories

Petrol Unveils Its Raincover Weather Protection Tool

Petrol Raincover Petrol, a Vitec Group brand, has introduced the PRC-EX1 transparent Raincover, a weather protection device for Sony PMW-EX1 and HVR-Z7 cameras.   Petrol's one-piece design makes the Raincover easy to install, even while shooting. Constructed largely of clear polyurethane for maximum visibility, the PRC-EX1 offers quick access to all camera features and enables work with the flip out LCD screen fully open.

DVS, Arri Certify SpycerBox for ArriScan

DVS and Arri have announced the certification of SpycerBox as a high-performance storage solution for ArriScan, speeding up post-production workflows through the interaction between the two systems. Scanned footage can be transferred directly from ArriScan to the SpycerBox via InfiniBand, making it immediately available for further processing.

Arri Looks to Acquire Some Dalsa Digital Cinema Assets

Semiconductor and electronics company Dalsa is committed to eliminating the ongoing losses in the digital cinema division by the end of the year. The Waterloo, Ontario, Canada-based company has recently entered into a non-binding letter of intent, which includes a 30-day period of exclusive negotiations with Arri. Under the terms of the letter of intent, Arri would acquire certain existing assets of the Dalsa digital cinema division. In any event, Dalsa Digital Cinema and its Origin camera will almost certainly be history by the end of this year.

Zacuto Announces Four New Camera Mounts

Chicago-based production equipment maker Zacuto has announced four new mounts including the Zephyr, Zacuto's 15mm lightweight support plate; the ZRed, an EVF Red One Mount; the Zandy, a19mm to 15mm rod mount; and the Zgrip Zandy, an articulating handgrip.

DeckLink Cards Capture from Two Video Sources on Single MacPro

Blackmagic Design says its range of DeckLink cards are the only video-capture cards available to enable two Softron MovieRecorder applications running on a single MacPro workstation to simultaneously capture video from two different sources. Using a MacPro coupled with two DeckLink cards and two applications of Softron MovieRecorder enhances facilities’ ingest capabilities.

Latest Digital Releases

Click here for the latest digital releases.

Shows / Conferences

3D Entertainment Summit

December 1-2, 2008

Century Plaza Hotel
Los Angeles, California
www.3d-summit.com

Stereoscopic Displays & Applications Conference

January 19-21, 2009

San Jose Convention Center
San Jose, California
www.stereoscopic.org

Zacuto Announces Four New Camera Mounts

Submitted by Nick Dager on Sat, 11/08/2008 - 15:29.