Cameraman Maxim Ford has designed a new LED soft light for digital movie making and photography, designed by a cameraman for camera operators and calls it Softy Lite who said "With the explosion of low budget dramas using new digital movie cameras like the Canon D5 and Sony F3 I wanted to make an affordable light that would have the potential for great drama lighting.”
SolidAnim has introduced the latest version of SolidTrack for the film and broadcast industries. The company says SolidTrack provides a more ergonomic and intuitive solution dedicated to camera tracking and visualization of complex VFX shots, dealing with green screen compositing, 3D rendering, and complex camera moves.
The 2011 Rise of the Planet of the Apes unleashed a cross-species thriller and, on July 11, the sequel, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, directed by Matt Reeves and shot by cinematographer Michael Seresin will debut in U.S. theatres. Although most 3D movies currently are shot in 2D and converted to 3D in post-production, this movie was shot in native 3D. Seresin, who also shot a significant portion of Gravity, faced his first experience shooting native 3D. Although he doesn’t consider himself a “technical cinematographer,” Seresin felt confident. “Lighting, composition, and camera moves is what I like,” he says.
With a seemingly unquenchable appetite for zombie movies, movie-goers will get their fill in 2014 with Night of the Living Dead: Origins 3D, a 3D animated reboot of the original 1968 horror classic. The film features visual effects from The Graphics Film Company, which relied on the iPi Soft iPi Motion Capture markerless motion capture software solution. The software’s ability to easily create massive amounts of zombie action and seamlessly integrate it with the studio’s complex workflow, provided the filmmakers limitless creative freedom
Columbia Pictures’ The Amazing Spider Man 2 marks a groundbreaking collaboration between visual effects, sound and post-production teams from Sony Pictures Entertainment. The Academy Award-winning Sony Pictures Imageworks crafted over 1000 visual effects shots, Sony Pictures Post Production provided sound – its first project in in Dolby Atmos – and Colorworks performed film scanning, conforming and color grading all in 4K.
Autodesk Smoke 2015 editing and effects software is now available. Smoke 2015 adds new effects tools, 3D tracking, support for OS X 10.9 (aka Mavericks), support for the new Mac Pro and better-than-ever interoperability with Final Cut Pro X.
Filmmaker and visual effects legend Douglas Trumbull is partnering with Christie on May 11 to premiere UFOTOG, a dramatic 10-minute experimental sci-fi story about a lone man attempting to photograph UFOs. Directed by Trumbull and created in 4K 3D at 120 frames per second, the short film will be screened on a Christie Mirage 4K35, the 4K DLP resolution projector running at 120Hz, at the Seattle Cinerama Theater’s 2nd Annual Sci-Fi Film Festival.
Four K Productions has just sold its first original TV series, entitled Mix, to a major 4K TV manufacturer. The company did not name the TV manufacturer. The announcement was made by company founder/president Kevin Williamson.
Location Sound completed their largest Q1 sale to Sony Picture Studio’s Culver City, California, which is undergoing a revamp of its production facility. Sony’s purchase of eight live sound consoles—five Soundcraft Vi4s, one Soundcraft Vi6, and two Yamaha CL5s— will be used for audience sound reinforcement as well as recording of production dialog.
When cinematographer Colt Seman and colleagues, Dylan Trussell and David Dinetz of Culprit Creative were charged with creating the music video for Korn’s Spike in My Veins, they decided to go beyond the expected. For the edgy video, they deployed the new Bolt Cinebot high speed robotic camera arm, the 1000fps, high-definition Phantom Miro camera; and Schneider-Kreuznach Cine-Xenar III prime lenses.
