Archive for November 2nd, 2011

(London, UK) Venice Film Festival favourite A Simple Life was recently graded by Hong Kong’s Post Production Office Ltd. (PPO) using Nucoda Film Master. The feature film is currently receiving rave reviews on the film festival circuit with Director Ann Hui picking up three awards at the Venice Film Festival and lead actress Deanie Ip winning the festival’s Volpi Cup Best Actress Award. PPO, based in Causeway Bay, is a leading facility in Hong Kong serving the international feature film and TV commercials markets.

A Simple Life is a truestory based on the life of Producer Roger Lee. It documents the strong emotional bond between him and his amah, Ah Tao (Deanie Ip). From the age of 13 Tao served the Lee family for over 50 years and was an important part of Lee’s life throughout that time. The film was shot in Beijing and Hong Kong earlier this year on RED One and was converted using PPO’s RED Rocket decoder from 4K R3D to DPX format. RED Rocket, supported by Nucoda Film Master, significantly speeds up RED based workflows providing real-time high quality decode of native RED files.

PPO Colourist Sun Wong explains, “The DOP Nelson Yu Lik-wai wanted a light grade to stay true to the emotion between the characters in the story. I used a lot of layers to maintain the light in various scenes that were shot at different times of day and also softened some of the scenes that took place in Tao’s house. The DOP was already familiar with Nucoda Film Master as we have worked together in the past on a commercial so he was confident of what could be achieved in the grade after filming.”

Following its Venice Film Festival success and a soft launch in Hong Kong earlier this month, A Simple Life is now in the race for the 2012 Oscar nominations in the Best Foreign Language Film category. The film will go on general release in March 2012.

About PO, Post Production Office Limited
PO, Post Production Office Limited, a full gear post production house specially built for TV Commercials, Feature Films and Corporate Documentary. PO is the only local post production house that has full gear post production facilities both in its Hong Kong headquarter and Shanghai Branch. With the most advance I.T. infrastructure, we fully linked our H.K. & S.H. studios together, projects from either locations are interchangeable anytime for modification that eliminate the locations’ constraint. The most modern high-end facilities enable us to handle both SD/HD/2k productions smoothly and bring our workmanship to be one of the best choices in Asia area. For Feature Film D.I. & Color Grading, PO provides 4K Scanity Datacine grading with Film-Master 2010 in S.H. studio and 2K Spirit Datacine in H.K. studio. For details information, please visit our website: www.postproductionoffice.com

About Image Systems
Image Systems Media Unit, formerly Digital Vision, is a division of Image Systems AB, which specializes in high-resolution image processing, film scanning and motion analysis solutions. Headquartered in Linköping, Sweden, Image Systems has offices in Stockholm, London and Los Angeles. The company has three business units: Media, Defense and Motion, managed via a global network of qualified distributors. Its Nucoda and Phoenix image grading and restoration software solutions and Golden Eye range of scanners provide innovative tools to create and master media in HD, 2K/4K and stereoscopic 3D. The TEMA software platform provides a range of user friendly, high-speed motion analysis solutions for the automotive industry and other industrial test and design applications. The TrackEye system provide image analysis solutions for the military reconnaissance and testing markets. For additional information, visit www.imagesystems.tv.

All trademarks used herein, whether recognized or not, are the properties of their respective companies.

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Image Systems Marketing Contact:
Alexa Maza | alexa.maza@imagesystems.se | Tel: +1 (818) 769-8111
Ulrika Liiv | ulrika.liiv@imagesystems.se | 46 (0) 8 546 18232

Image Systems EMEA & Asia PR Contact:
Jump PR | Kate Ford | kate@jumppr.tv | Tel: +44 (0) 1932 240001 | Mobile: +44 (0) 7740 948 065

Image Systems USA PR Contact:
Ignite | Christine Purse | chris@ignite.bz | Tel: +1 818 303 8088 | Mobile: +1 323 806 9696

When violinist Tim Fain took the stage for the world premiere of Phillip Glass’ new work “Partita for Solo Violin” at New York’s Symphony Space last month, he performed not to the flurry of live dancers onstage, but to dancers and musicians on five films directed by Black Swan choreographer Benjamin Millepied. The films were edited, color graded and conformed by Nice Shoes, marking the launch of their brand new creative editorial division.

As the renowned Fain performs live, his cast – including dancers Craig Black, Julia Eichten and Haylee Nichele – animate the backdrop in the various films, which are compelling blends of Glass’ seven-movement suite and droll narrative sequences choreographed and directed by Millepied. The films are brilliantly choreographed to Glass’ haunting score, an exploration of human longing for connection in the digital age.

The films are carrying strong crowd reaction – including a standing ovation at the debut and a positive write-up in The New York Times – into encore performances in Los Angeles and Omaha, with future shows under consideration.

“Our bread and butter is still advertising, but Nice Shoes is really looking to expand their horizons beyond the thirty second spot. This multimedia event was a great foray out of our comfort zone,” noted editor Oren Sarch, who joined Nice Shoes’ creative roster in August and helped bring this show to the studio. “I think that’s one of the reasons my relationship with Nice Shoes works, since I primarily consider myself a commercial editor with some horizon-expanding long-form work along the way.” Sarch’s work with director Darren Aronofsky and magician David Blaine are two of the more notable examples of that longer format work.

“Millepied was referred to me by Aronofsky,” Sarch noted, “He had two of the five films basically roughed out and wanted some help taking them all to the next level. It didn’t surprise me that Millepied was a good editor – choreographers generally know what they want to see against the music. What did surprise me was his understanding of and eagerness to utilize the vernacular of the medium – including split screens, repeated shots, speed changes, etc. – within his choreography to make the films better. Collaborating with him on this was a really creative and inspiring experience.”

While editing with Millepied, Sarch convinced him to do a color test with Chris Ryan, which led to Nice Shoes color grading the entire series of films. “Benjamin originally envisioned the pieces in black and white,” said Ryan, “but once he saw what we could do, he was floored.”

The full force of Nice Shoes’ world class creative team really came into play on one of the films where Sarch and Millepied repeated sections of scenes in the rough cut. The visual effects team was tasked with combining the multiple scenes to create a natural transition of a person walking from room to room – no easy feat, since the idea for the effect came into play in the edit room months after the footage had been shot. “We’ve always prided ourselves on our ability to seamlessly hand all aspects of our client’s project from one division to another, and our new creative editorial division only strengthens our ability to do that,” added Ryan, “Our clients have asked for this sort of soup-to-nuts capabilities and we’ve responded.”

Visit Nice Shoes
View Media

Credits
Director: Benjamin Millepied
Composer: Phillip Glass

Post Production Co.: Nice Shoes
Editor: Oren Sarch
Colorist(s): Chris Ryan, Gene Curley, Ron Sudul
Visual Effects: Nice Shoes
About Nice Shoes
NYC-based Nice Shoes is a full service, artist-driven design, animation, visual effects and color grading studio specializing in high-end commercials, web content, film, TV and music videos. Since its inception in 1996, the studio has prided itself on consistently reinvesting in its talent, technical backbone, and client experience to set the standard of excellence both creatively and technically. Key company principals include: CEO/Partner Dominic Pandolfino, Colorists/Partners Chris Ryan and Lez Rudge, VFX Artist/Partner Rich Schreck, CDs Brian Bowman and Aron Baxter, Senior Producer Pat Portela, and CIO Bob Keske.

More info: TRUST 646 452 3388 (NY) 310 451 5153 (LA) trustcollective.com

Independent sound company’s new facilities include a theatrical dub stage.

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif.—Buoyed by a string of successes in film, television, commercials and video games, Jet Stream Sound has moved into a new studio complex in Universal City. More than twice the size of its previous site, the company’s new digs features a theatrical dub stage, two re-recording studios, ADR and voice recording facilities, Foley and an extensive sound effects library. more

Recently, we were introduced to Digieffects customer, Julian Bleecker; photographer, digital media artist and founder of Hello, Skater Girl. We were so mesmerized by the imagery he created, capturing women skaters competing in the gritty backdrop of skate parks all over the US; we wanted to meet him and learn more about him and how he creates his art.

Digieffects (DE): Can you tell us a little about HelloSkaterGirl, and about yourself?

Julian Bleecker (JB): I moved to Venice Beach California awhile ago and wanted to get to know the history and culture of where I was living. I’m an over-enthusiastic amateur photographer. A camera and a lens provides a decent way for me to ask questions about where I am and who I’m around in an indirect way, which is comfortable for me. I stared shooting in the Venice Beach Skatepark because I knew that place was a dog-eared page of the story that is this beach town — the history of this place passes straight through surf-skate life and culture. It was an amazing visual-anthropology to shoot there and get to know all the wonderful and curious people and their stories about skating and the Westside — Dogtown, Santa Monica, Venice, Mar Vista, Marina del Rey. I became a bit obsessed with capturing as many facets of the life as possible. Almost by accident, I found myself traveling to shoot with skaters and at competitions all around the country.

I got to shoot at X-Games 16, which was amazing and daunting to be up close to incredible skaters. Towards the end of a long, hot, sweaty day of shooting and lugging around gear and being humbled by the other professional photographers, I went into the air conditioned Nokia Theater to cool down. The Women’s Vert Ramp Competition was on. I hadn’t even thought once about shooting any of the women’s events. Why not? It’s not an excuse, but I can only surmise that the bias of a year of shooting men unconsciously led me to ignore women skaters. Not shooting with women wasn’t a choice so much as a result of the familiar systemic issue that skateboarding is for guys.

That day was an eye opener. The women were bringing heat. This was real competition. Plenty of thrills. Lots of air. They were 110% sporty. Competitive while also encouraging and supporting one another.

That event was the start of this project. Through the Hello, Skater Girl project I hoped to distinguish what these sportswomen are doing without fetishizing the fact that they are women in a sportsman’s game. Rather that they are women skating like women. I hope that these images in the book show a bit of that and their spirit and personalities.

But, I don’t do this full-time, although sometimes it seems so. I’m normally a designer and technology guy. I work in the Advanced Design studio for Nokia here in Los Angeles and I run a design and innovation studio called The Near Future Laboratory where we figure out what could be, even if it’s really weird.

DE: What camera equipment and software was used?

JB: I’m a Nikon boy by birth. I have a bunch of bodies from a D3S to an N90S. The lenses run the gamut, but mostly I shoot with the wider ones — 14mm/2.8, 16mm/2.8, 20mm/2.8, 24mm/1.4, but I usually keep my old trusty 85mm/1.8 handy. My go-to lens for the skateboard work has been the 24mm/1.4. I’ve been trying to perfect shooting it nearly wide open with an nearly black-out neutral density filter to let me keep it open in bright sun. The bokeh you can get with these conditions and a bit of luck makes the photography more portrait-like, which is an aesthetic I’ve been going for. The hyperfocal on wider lenses or slower lenses makes the images lack depth and look quite flat, in my opinion.

On the software side, I use ImageIngester and Photo Mechanic for the ingestion and pre-processing and then Adobe Lightroom and a big RAID array for cataloging and managing photos. The workflow feels medieval. Someone is really going to put sort this digital asset management thing and make it all work nicely. Right now it’s harder than it needs to be. All the VFX work is done in AfterEffects and Final Cut.

DE: How much time is spent in post and VFX?

JB: I tend not to fuss too much with the images, although the spontaneity of the subject and the fact that its not studio photography means that the light isn’t always spot-on. You’re basically trying to take photos of very excited squirrels running all over the place and so you never really know what the light is going to do to you — clouds move, the sun moves, sometimes you shoot into it, sometimes its oblique to you. So it helps to capture images with lots of latitude for some corrections between very dark darks and very bright brights.

I use Nik Software’s tools to help with that sort of thing, especially their Viveza tool. When I find an image I want to use, I tend to spend a bit of time with it. And, if I’m using it for one of still life with motion animations, I’ll spend anywhere from an hour to a couple of days working with it. Mechanically the DigiEffects Camera Mapper effect makes it easy to setup the animation. Actually getting an animation and camera move that’s satisfying can take as long as you want.

DE: There are some really nice color and VFX treatments to your work. Which Digieffects products do you use and how did they assist the process?

JB: I used Camera Mapper for all the animations. That was the core tool for the animations. The Buena Depth Cue suite is great to work with. Although most of the depth effects I created in camera, things like the Depth tool allowed me to enhance the aesthetic I was looking in a couple of the animations with very few hassles.

DE: What features of the products did you most take advantage of?

JB: Camera Mapper makes it relatively easy to get a great alternative to the tired Ken Burns pan-and-zoom for still images. I mean — I’m trying to use still images in a very time-based media world. It was a challenge to figure out what to do and once I saw that sort of effect in films like The Kid Stays in the Picture and Riding Giants. Camera Mapper and animating camera moves that reveal parallax is a really exciting alternative to 3D that is more authentic to photography in a video format.

DE: Can you talk about any particular challenge or frustration that Digieffects helped with?

JB: It took me several tries to figure out how to make Camera Mapper work. I think I wasn’t thinking visually and just following the steps as I understood them in the tutorials. I think I’ll do my own tutorial. The moves I’m doing are quite simple visually so I think a tutorial would explain the basic principles simply. Camera Mapper set me up to focus on what and how I wanted to animate stills. After doing it many, many times I can imagine how I could do it without the plug-in — but it greatly simplifies the workflow.

You can see more of Julian’s work on his web site here: http://helloskatergirl.com Or check out his Vimeo page here to see more stunning videos created with Digieffects: http://vimeo.com/helloskatergirl

Julian is also working on a new book; a limited edition collection of photography and the stories behind the Hello, Skatergirl photos. He’s using Kickstarter as a way to get the book into people’s hands. To support this effort, please visit http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/221647184/hello-skater-girl.

Calling all Premiere Pro editors; add Singular Software Presto to your workflow and create engaging presentation videos in just minutes

 

Vancouver, British Columbia – Singular Software™, a developer of workflow automation applications for digital media, is pleased to announce the public beta of Singular Software Presto™ for OS X (v2.0) with support for Adobe® Premiere Pro®. Singular Software Presto dramatically simplifies the creation of high-quality presentation videos. The application’s sophisticated computer tracking and automation technology works alongside Premiere Pro to automatically synchronize footage of the presenter, presentation slides, and a video taken of the screen – creating a polished video of the presentation in just minutes. “Singular Software Presto has saved Sony Vegas Pro and Final Cut Pro users hours in the edit bay. We’ve received many inquiries from Adobe customers, and our team has been hard at work adding support for Premiere Pro,” says Bruce Sharpe, CEO, Singular Software. “Singular Software Presto turns what can be a tedious and time-consuming edit into one that is quick and creative. Its automation and layout tools quickly transform raw footage into a professional, polished presentation video.”

 

The public beta of Singular Software Presto for OS X (v2.0) offers key new features, including support for importing projects from Premiere Pro, the ability to render video directly, and full control over audio mixing. For more information or to download the beta, please visit: http://www.singularsoftware.com/presto.html.

 

About Singular Software Presto
The Singular Software Presto application utilizes advanced head tracking and image-matching technology to simplify the entire editing process for creating presentation videos. Users start by importing video of the presenter and presentation screen into Premiere Pro (CS4 or newer; PluralEyes is also required for CS4 users, and recommended for CS5 or CS5.5). This project is then imported into Singular Software Presto to apply its automation magic and presentation layout tools.

 

Singular Software Presto creates a precisely timed slide track with bright slide images in place of the screen video by automatically synchronizing the original slide images with the video of the screen. The application’s advanced tracking technology automatically keeps the presenter in view, alongside the slides, in appealing two-up layouts, and the resulting video can be used as is or customized with the provided templates.

 

Availability of Singular Software Presto for Premiere Pro
Singular Software Presto is currently available in public beta for Premiere Pro. To download the beta, please visit: http://www.singularsoftware.com/downloads.html.

 

About Singular Software
Established in 2008, Singular Software pioneers the development of workflow automation applications for audio and video professionals. Its breakthrough solution, PluralEyes, offers innovative technology to automate and simplify multi-camera, multi-take and dual-system audio workflows. Singular Software products support industry leading non-linear editing products. For more information about Singular Software, please visit: http://www.singularsoftware.com.

 

Singular Software Presto is a trademark of Singular Software Inc. All other trademarks, registered trademarks and products mentioned herein belong to their respective owners.

 

Press Contact
To schedule a press briefing or request a product review; please contact Janice Dolan at:

Zazil Media Group
Janice Dolan
(p) +1 617 817 6595
(email) janice@zazilmediagroup.com

At the 2011 Streaming Media West Show, Grass Valley™ will highlight a number of new IT-centric tools and systems that provide a tight link between traditional television production and streaming media delivery. The show, which is held November 8-9, 2011 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza hotel, in Los Angeles, Calif., will provide attendees with a hands-on look at Grass Valley’s vision for an integrated workflow that distributes content to multiple platforms in the fastest and most cost-effective way possible.

At exhibit Booth #73, Grass Valley will demonstrate its MediaFUSE® Content Re-purposing and Multi-distribution System, which allows users that are familiar with common business applications to be immediately comfortable completing sophisticated production tasks.

“As customers continue to migrate to file-based workflows, the ability to manage material and enhance it for re-use is increasingly important,” said Jeff Rosica, Executive Vice President of Grass Valley. “MediaFUSE is an outstanding example of new technologies that help producers deliver the right content to the right platform with the least amount of time and effort. As the worlds of broadcast and IT continue to migrate and consolidate their workflows, our products help make that transition smooth and painless.”

At the show, Grass Valley will present the tight integration between Grass Valley production switchers and the MediaFUSE Live system, used for web streaming as well as online file management and distribution. The latest version of MediaFUSE Live offers dynamic live streaming in Flash, HLS-5, and Windows Media formats. This allows all types of multi-platform content providers to automatically convert linear content and stream it live, to address 95% of today’s multimedia consumption devices (e.g., iPad, iPhone, and Android-based devices).

Another new feature for MediaFUSE Live is called “Show Builder,” which allows a non-technical user to gather independent clips and combine them into a show.

For more information about Streaming Media West, visit http://www.streamingmedia.com/Conferences/West2011/

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(Los Angeles, CA) The Hollywood Post Alliance(r) – the trade association for the post production community – has announced that NAB Show will sponsor its HPA Engineering Excellence Award again this year, renewing its commitment to the organization’s HPA Awards and its Engineering honors. The Awards were launched in 2006 to foster awareness of post production, promote creative and technical excellence, recognize the achievements of post production talent and build involvement in the Hollywood Post Alliance.

The HPA Awards are the standard by which creative and technical excellence in the art, science and craft of post production are measured. The Engineering Excellence Award is a coveted honor, long recognized by the technical and post production community as a gold standard of accomplishment. The Engineering honors were developed to showcase and reward inventors, manufacturers, vendors and/or peer post production companies for their outstanding product or technology application offerings.

Chris Brown, EVP Conventions & Business Operations of NAB announced the ongoing affiliation. “We value highly our commitment to the Hollywood Post Alliance and see the HPA as a crucial cornerstone in the industry. The Engineering Excellence Award is one of the most esteemed in the post industry, and we are proud to sponsor something that recognizes the innovative technology and tools that are inspiring the incredible work of our creative community. We look forward to the evolution of our partnership.

Leon Silverman, President of the HPA, commented, “We are proud that we have again earned the support of NAB Show, and are honored that we will continue our collaboration with them for this Award. The HPA Engineering Excellence Award speaks to the significance that technology and tools play for our creative community. To have NAB Show sponsor and present this award is significant. This partnership between NAB Show and HPA brings great focus on those companies and individuals who present and create our industry’s best work, which we celebrate each year at the HPA Awards.”

The Hollywood Post Alliance has announced the recipients of the organization’s Engineering Excellence Award for 2011 – Sony Professional Solutions of America, Dolby Laboratories, Lightcraft Technology and IBM (http://data.memberclicks.com/site/hopa/HPAA_2011_EngineeringAward.pdf).

The 2011 HPA Awards show will be held on November 10th at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, CA. Tickets are now available at www.hpaawards.net or at www.hpaonline.com. For questions regarding ticket purchases call 213-614-0860 or write to info@hpaawards.net. Press inquiries should be directed to Christine Purse or Mimi Rossi at ignite, 818.303.8088 or email mimi@ignite.bz.

About the Hollywood Post Alliance(r)
Hollywood Post Alliance (HPA) serves the professional community of businesses and individuals who provide expertise, support, tools and the infrastructure for the creation and finishing of motion pictures, television, commercials, digital media and other dynamic media content.

About the HPA(r) Awards
The HPA Awards were created to foster awareness of post production, promote creative and technical excellence, recognize the achievements of post production talent, and build involvement in the Hollywood Post Alliance. The HPA Awards will be presented with generous support from Premier Sponsor: NAB Show; Foundation Sponsors: Avid Technology, Company 3, Deluxe, EFilm, Encore, Method Studios and Stereo D and Supporting Sponsors: Grass Valley, Light Iron Digital, Quantel and Xytech.

About NAB Show
The NAB Show, held annually in Las Vegas, is the world’s largest electronic media show covering filmed entertainment and the development, management and delivery of content across all mediums. With nearly 90,000 attendees from 151 countries and more than 1,500 exhibitors, the NAB Show is the ultimate marketplace for digital media and entertainment. From creation to consumption, across multiple platforms and countless nationalities, the NAB Show is home to the solutions that transcend traditional broadcasting and embrace content delivery to new screens in new ways. Complete details are available at www.nabshow.com.

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Media Contact:
Ignite strategic communications
p: 818.303.8088
Christine Purse, chris@ignite.bz or
Mimi Rossi, mimi@ignite.bz

Jack Tunnicliffe of Java Post understands the inherent difficulties at just about every level of production. Having worked in television as a cameraman, director, producer, and ultimately parlaying all of his production and post production experiences into the company he founded, Jack brings a solve-anything approach to his work. In fact, Java Post is often praised by its clients as a shop that “takes the pain out of production!”

Java Post, a leading editing and visual effects facilities based in western Canada, boasts an impressive roster of post-production credits that includes hit Canadian TV sitcoms such as Corner Gas and InSecurity, and the critically acclaimed film, Hungry Hills featured at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival.??Jack has been described as a technical wizard with an artist’s eye and a philosophy of surrounding himself with the very best, whether it’s cutting edge technology or the people behind the controls.  From post-production coordinators to the editors, animators and visual FX artists, Java Post prides itself in the fact that every one of his team brings their special brand of craft, creativity, experience and enthusiasm to every project.??Imagineer Systems spoke with Jack recently where he shared some details on the workflow issues he’s facing now on the popular CBC Network television series, InSecurity.

“Right now, we’re working on a television series that’s turned out to be a real workhorse show for us – it’s the kind of show that’s laden with invisible VFX, the sort that could take hours and hours of tedious work. I’m talking about clean up. This show in particular has a tremendous amount of clean up, tons of boom shadows and reflections throughout each scene that need to be removed. And, since the show is constantly growing, there are now twice as many people, shadows and lines that need to be removed from each scene.”

“Adobe After Effects is a big part of our workflow here at Java, we do a lot of our VFX and clean up in After Effects. The problem arises when we’re removing a shadow that’s either on corrugated surface, or worse, goes off screen and then comes back in to the shot. There’s just not enough information for point trackers to handle that. That’s where mocha Pro comes in for us. mocha AE actually comes bundled with After Effects, so that’s a tremendous bonus. It’s so well integrated. Whenever we have a shot that needs Planar Tracking, we simply drag the clip from AE and drop it into mocha and it opens instantly. We ended up migrating from mocha AE to full mocha Pro as we found all the added capabilities, such as the remove tool, to be invaluable to us. Just that one feature had a huge impact on my workflow and saved tons of time on clean up projects.”

“In one example (see before and after clip), we had a shadow before, to the right of the couple approaching. As you can see it, runs across the curb and then across a highly textured ground surface, so not the easiest thing to remove. In the second shot of the couple the shadow moves right up the brick wall at an angle, again not an easy fix.”

“With mocha Pro, I tracked the background planes beneath the shadow on the ground and then tracked the planes of the brick wall, then tracked the actual shadow and used the remove tool. The results were quite outstanding and would have taken considerably longer using traditional methods of removal, clean plates and painting.”

“Another scene in the series is shot inside an office with big windows throughout the background. The directors wanted a view from the windows of downtown Ottawa – every show we needed this view. So we turned to greenscreen and mocha Pro. mocha Pro is so powerful, all we had to do was track in the windows and now those windows are locked to this virtual outside world. For more realism, we even threw in some 3D animated birds to fly by the windows occasionally. Again, an example of massive time savings that allows us to focus on the creative and getting the job done quickly, on time and on budget!”

“When a tool saves you the kind of time like mocha Pro does for our team, it pays for itself in a matter of days. And especially for After Effects users, when you discover the power of mocha AE and the value you get from migrating to full mocha Pro, you wonder why you didn’t do it sooner!

And who knows, my love for coffee also inspired my company name and logo. Clearly mocha Pro just fits right in! Coincidence?”

Brussels-based film FX facility upgrades to Pablo Neo and adds Pablo PA to workflow

ACE, a specialist Belgian film-effects facility, has upgraded its Quantel iQ to full Pablo 2K specification with the Neo panel. It has also purchased Pablo PA, Quantel’s conform, preparation and workflow software.
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“We were so impressed with the performance of V5 software that we decided to take our system one step further and go for the full Pablo suite,” said Stefan Rycken, ACE Managing Director. “There were several reasons for our choice. First, the speed and accuracy of today’s Quantel systems are unequalled for color grading and conforming in different formats. Second, our iQ was working overtime and so, what tipped the scales for us was being able to add Pablo PA into our workflow. This great software enables us to do basic technical work ‘off-line’, such as preparing titles or conforming, freeing up the Pablo to do what it does best: color grading. It’s like having two integrated post systems. Third, the Pablo PA’s soft-mount feature allows us to pre-grade content on a laptop during the shooting stage since the Pablo PA can read RAW formats such as Alexa, Red or Phantom files directly from the recording disk, without even downloading into the PC. The workflow advantages and the comfort for the director are incredible.”

ACE staff, including its in-house color grader Tom Mulder, have just completed training with Quantel support and are now working on a short film to get accustomed to the Pablo and prepare for a full-length feature in November. “We’ll be doing all the FX, color grading and conforming for The Loft, an American remake of a Belgian film directed by Erik van Looy. He did the original movie with us and is now doing the US version. It’s a fantastic first job for us on the Pablo, proving we can work to Hollywood standards,” Rycken concludes.

Martin Mulligan, Quantel Sales and Marketing Director, said, “By moving up to the Pablo, ACE has once again proven that a specialist facility in a relatively small market can leverage its business with our equipment. The fact that they’re now working on a feature for the US market is a fabulous step forward for them. We will be there to support them fully in this endeavour and in all their future developments.”

About ACE
Brussels-based ACE is one of Belgium’s leading film editing and effects facilities. It mainly provides services to independent film production companies. Its multilingual staff often work on European co-productions, providing high-end postproduction services at accessible prices. In recent years, ACE has worked on several feature films, including Rundskop (Bullhead) Belgium’s official entry for the Oscar for best Foreign Language FILM, Swooni, Adem (Oxygen), Loft and Ne te retourne pas, for which they did the morphing of Sophie Marceau as she turns into Monica Bellucci. “Not the worst job we’ve had to do,” comments Stefan Rycken, the facility’s Managing Director. http://www.ace-postproduction.com

Avid-AJA; Matrox MXO2 Mini; and LTO-5 Media Back-up and Archive Solutions Complement Company’s Innovative Constellation™ Archive Management System

FOR RELEASE ON: WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2011

STUDIO CITY, CA – CET Universe, a leading provider of services, systems, and solutions for professional audio and video production, today announced a new series of product bundles for its production customers at Createasphere’s Entertainment Technology Expo at the Burbank Marriott. CET will demonstrate the product bundles today and tomorrow at the Expo, in Booth #207.

CET’s product bundles complement the company’s innovative Constellation™ VCM asset and storage management software suite, which is used by major facilities and corporations, including Universal Sports and Northwestern Mutual, among others. CET maintains a wide array of partnerships with leading vendors, including Adobe, AJA, Apple, Archion, ATTO, Avid, Blackmagic Design, Hewlett-Packard, Iridas, Panasonic, Promise, and QLogic, among many others.

The new product bundles will carry special prices at the Expo, including:

BUNDLE 1:

Option 1: AJA IO Express and AJA IO Express Portable HD/SD/I/O (Desktop or Laptop) with Avid MC 6.0 or Adobe Production Premium Suite for PC or Mac at $2,889.00

Option 2: AJA IO Express and AJA IO Express Portable HD/SD/I/O (Desktop or Laptop) with Avid Final Cut Cross Grade for $2,149.00

Option 3: AJA IO Express – AJA to Express Portable HD/SD I/O (Desktop or Laptop) for $1,609.99

Customers can upgrade Avid MC Pre 5.x and Xpress to version 5.5 with Kit and 3rd Party Apps.

BUNDLE 2:

Option 1: Matrox MXO2 Mini Max (Desktop or Laptop) with Avid MC 6.0 or Adobe Production Premium Suite (PC or Mac) for $2,815.00

Option 2: Matrox MXO2 Mini Max (Desktop or Laptop) with Avid Final Cut Cross Grade for $2,075.00

Option 3: Matrox MXO2 Mini Max (Desktop or Laptop) for $1,539.00

Customers can upgrade Avid MC Pre 5.x and Xpress to version 5.5 with Kit and 3rd Party Apps.

BUNDLE 3:

Constellation LTO-5 Media Backup/Archive Kit

Connects to Mac, Windows and Linux Workstations

Includes:

* external LTO-5 Drive
* Constellation Software License
* SAS Card for computer
* Cable
* 1-Year Software/Hardware Warranty
* 1-Year Free Phone and On-Line Support

The bundle, with the Expo discount, is priced at $4,441.00.

Customers can add a Boland monitor (HDMI, DVI, Composite, Component, VGA 1080P display) for only $1,889.00.

“Our team has always sought to deliver the ideal solution for customers – whether on-set or in-suite – and our new product bundles exemplify our commitment to true best-of-breed products for their production needs,” said Steve Klein, CEO of CET Universe. “We have created a stellar team of solutions engineers, and as our business becomes increasingly complex, we are creating effective product bundles that complement our proprietary solutions.”

About CET UNIVERSE

CET Universe is a leading developer of next-generation storage and asset management products for video professionals. The company develops, sells, and services an array of innovative file-based workflow systems for media & entertainment, corporate, and government and military accounts. Based in Studio City, California, the company’s web site is at www.CETuniverse.com.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: If you would like a color photograph of Steve Klein, CEO of CET Universe, or product shots of CET product bundles, the Constellation system, please contact Chris Pfaff at 201-218-0262 or chris@chrispfafftechmedia.com