AudioMedia - March 2009 - (Page 59) video guide A Sound Pro’s Guide To Video Cinematography n e ws FilmLight, the British manufacturer of the Baselight colour grading system and Northlight scanner, is launching a new system this month for transferring raw footage from the Red camera to quickly produce dailies for material for online conforming. Baselight Transfer (BLT) is a standalone product consisting of a U TB RAID array. This houses FilmLight’s conform and primary colour correction tools, along with CPU cores, GPU acceleration, three compact Flash card readers, and the Truelight colour management program. BLT is intended to be used both close to the set or at a post house. In the first case, the system would be used to examine REDCODE RAW rushes coming from the Red camera, allowing quality and composition to be evaluated. In the second, facilities will be able to convert material from the digital camera and create either graded dailies or a conformed version ready for online editing. Among the main features of Baselight Transfer are: real-time k decode and review from Compact Flash cards; Firewire drives or hard disk; ability to play native RD on a time-line; and outputs in DNxHD MXF format for loading direct into an Avid editing workstation. just physically dealing with the equipment, but also keeping track of material. This is now in the realms of metadata, so the Camera Assistants often have to log information using a laptop computer connected to the recorder or camera; but the need to pass on the details of the shoot remains absolutely necessary to allow the Picture Editor and Colour Grader to begin work. Synchronisation has always been a critical element in any production, but for multiple camera shoots and those using digital or HD cameras, it is now even more of a consideration. The old clapperboard method served very well for years, with the Editor synchronising the picture frame featuring the clapsticks closing with the sound of the clack on the audio tape. Other ways of achieving sync include automatic slating, and using a syncpulse generator or a crystal oscillator to control the speeds of the camera and the sound recorder. In automatic slating, a light within the camera flashes and ‘marks’ the first couple of frames as the film begins to roll. At the same time, a tone is sent to the audio recorder over a sync-pulse cable or wireless link. The Editor later matches up the two signals in a similar way to the clapperboard information. In later years, a synch-pulse generator was built into the camera; this transmitted a signal at the same frequency of the camera speed to the recording machine. When the audio tracks were transferred to magnetic tape the pulse was able to control the speed of the recording to align the sound with the pictures. A more refined version of this method is to have crystal oscillators in both the camera and the recorder, with the pulse lining up once the audio has been transferred to mag film. The advent of video called for a new way of matching the pictures with the sound. The solution was time code, standardised by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, which is why it is often known as SMPTE code. Time code generators on both the camera and the audio recorder produce a series of pulses for each frame to create a record of individual frame numbers, plus hours, minutes, and seconds. Data such as scene, take, camera, and tape or roll number, can also be recorded by these systems. Time code is now regarded as the most efficient way of synchronising not just sound and vision, but also multiple cameras. This last requirement is not straightforward, and additional devices may have to be used to achieve full sync over a number of cameras and video/media and audio recorders. These include Lock-it boxes, which are external time code generators attached to each piece of equipment that needs to be synced. Despite the development of time code generators and their general use, clapperboards are still used on many shoots, if only to provide a visual record of the production and takes at the beginning of recording. Synchronisation between pictures and sound is the first tangible link between the shoot and postproduction. The second is the dailies. Also known as ‘rushes’, in film these are the first positive prints of a day’s shooting, which are developed overnight at a specialist laboratory and printed with a single light intensity and synchronised audio. These are returned to the location for screening to the crew and cast, so everyone can see how the production is progressing and decisions can be made as to future direction. Dailies also give an impression of how the lighting is looking and what colour correction may be necessary. Dailies have now moved into the HD domain but remain a firm part of the filmmaking process. They will be discussed further in the next Video Guide, which marks the move away from the subject of cinematography and into the world of post-production. ∫ Lexicon Reinvents Reverb in Surround PCM96 Surround Reverb/Effects Processor Expanded I/O with numerous multi-channel configurations. Get the full story at www.lexiconpro.com A Harman International Company Now Shipping! TECHNOLOGY Distributed in the UK and Eire by Sound Technology | 01462 480000 | www.soundtech.co.uk | info@soundtech.co.uk AUDIO MEDIA MARCH 2009 59 http://www.lexiconpro.com http://www.lexiconpro.com http://www.soundtech.co.uk
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