Film and Digital Times - March 2007 - (Page 5)

The Wizards of Wireless Once upon a time, not very long ago, follow focus meant turning the lens barrel directly by hand or with a geared follow focus wheel. Remote follow focus meant attaching a whip. The whip looked like a long Walkie-Talkie antenna. If the shot went through a doorway, several whips were stacked together and handed off between camera assistants on either side of the entry. Next came some wireless devices using model airplane parts (Seitz, CP and others). One day, Haskell Wexler, ASC was discussing a radio focus unit with Howard Preston, and said, “Why don’t you build something like this?” Howard came up with the FIZ. The official name is FI+Z, for Focus, Iris and Zoom. But everyone called it a FIZ, perhaps because the Alka Seltzer “plop, plop, fizz, fizz” commercial was big at the time. Anyway, Preston Cinema Systems’ FI+Z became the McDonald’s of follow focus—an industry standard, selling not quite billions and billions, but thousands. That’s a horrifying analogy. No, the FI+Z is more like Melisse Restaurant: artistic, iconic and resilient. It revolutioned how camera assistants pulled focus just as Josiah Citrin’s kitchen became top restaurant in LA (try the truffle crusted lamb with Whitcraft Block N Pinot Noir, recommended by Brian the amiable somelier). This year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Sci-Tech committee and the Society of Operating Cameramen honored Preston’s FI+Z. The Sci-Tech Plaque was awarded “to Howard Preston and Mirko Kovacevic for the design and engineering of the FI+Z wireless remote system. Pioneering unprecedented reliability and flexibility in wireless lens and camera operation, the FI+Z has continued to be a leader in innovation since its introduction in 1994.” The Academy recognized the huge importance of wireless remote systems by also awarding Technical Achievement Certificates (pecking order: statue, plaque, paper) to Christian Tschida and Martin Waitz of cmotion “for the design and engineering of the cmotion Wireless Remote System. The graphical user interface eases the difficult task of following focus and the unique lens tag system recalls the calibration for each lens.” A Certificate was also awarded to Walter Trauninger and Ernst Tschida (no relation to Christian) “for the design and engineering of the Arri WRC wireless remote lens control system. This highly modular system permits accurate and reliable wireless control with multiple hand controls of all lens functions.” Walter Trauninger is head of the camera unit at ARRI, whose teams designed the ARRICAM, Arriflex 235 (2007 Sci-Tech Certificate) and Arriflex 416. Two days before he was to accept the Sci-Tech award, Walter was eating mussels in Mumbai. What was he thinking? He missed his plane and the awards dinner. It was a choice of Mesclun Greens or Goat Cheese Raviolini, followed by Filet Mignon or Filet of Alaskan Halibut. Dare we dream of Josiah Citrin catering the event next year? I’d like to thank the Academy for recognizing tools that greatly influence the way we work and enable shots previously unimaginable. On the next two pages please find a triage of the technical triumvirate from the wizards of wireless devices. Mar 2007 5 Top to bottom: 1. Howard Preston. Painting © Astrid Preston 2. Mirko Kovacevic and Howard Preston. © A.M.P.A.S.® 3. Christian Tschida and Martin Waitz. 4. Walter Trauninger

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Film and Digital Times - March 2007

New from Transvideo
Wizards of Wireless Focus and Remote Control
Cooke /i dataLink, Pixel Farm and Avid
Sony F23
Tiffen Steadicam Merlin and DFX Filters
Kodak Digital Ice and Arriscan
16x9 Inc 1.5x Tele Converter for HDV Camcorders
JVC PL Mount Adapter
Canon XHA1 and XHG1 Camcorders
Kata Camcorder Guards
Formatt Grads
ARRI at NAB
Lighting with Paint

Film and Digital Times - March 2007

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