Archive for February 1st, 2012

Audio Industry Leaders Support Fifth Annual GRAMMY® Week Celebration at The Village Studios in West Los Angeles

P&E Wing’s Annual Gathering Recognizes the Music Industry Production Community’s Achievements and Contributions

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (January 31, 2012) — The Producers & Engineers Wing® of The Recording Academy® will celebrate its fifth annual GRAMMY® Week event, this year honoring legendary music producer and entrepreneur Jimmy Iovine for his commitment to excellence and ongoing support for the art and craft of recorded music. The event will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012, at The Village Studios in West Los Angeles, with Bono and Dr. Dre serving as honorary event co-chairs. GRAMMY Week culminates with the 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards® on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2012, airing live on the CBS Television Network, at 8 p.m. ET/PT. (www.grammy.com)

The event is being held with the support of leading companies within the Professional Audio and Musical Instrument market sectors. Presenting sponsors are The Village Studios, West L.A. Music and Westlake Professional Sales. Co-sponsors include such leading professional audio manufacturers/institutions and other corporate support as Harman International brands AKG Acoustics, JBL, and Lexicon; Iron Mountain; Avid; Musician’s Institute; Music Marketing; Shure Incorporated; Beats Electronics; Ultimate Ears; Focusrite Novation; Prism Media Products; Apogee Electronics Corporation; Full Sail University; Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro); Lurssen Mastering; Sennheiser Electronic Corporation; SoundExchange. Eco-friendly cocktails will be provided by VeeV. Additional sponsors will be announced soon.
“There is no way we could present an event of this magnitude without the support of our loyal sponsors.” states Maureen Droney, Senior Executive Director of the P&E Wing. “Our sponsors make this evening possible. This year’s honoree, Jimmy Iovine, has a career that spans the breadth of the music industry, from his roles as an engineer, producer, and co-founder of Interscope Records, to his current position as chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M Records and his founding of Beats Electronics with Dr. Dre. Throughout all of these endeavors he has continued to be an outspoken evangelist for high quality audio. He shares common goals with the P&E Wing in supporting the art and craft of recorded music, and we are thrilled to be honoring him at this year’s P&E Wing GRAMMY Week Celebration.”

Jimmy Iovine began his career in the ’70s as a recording engineer for artists including John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen. He then made the transition to producer, working on classic albums with artists including Dire Straits, Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Patti Smith and U2. In 1990, Iovine co-founded Interscope Records with partner Ted Field. He is now chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, a unit of Universal Music Group, and recently celebrated 20 years commitment as a label head to diverse and gifted artists including the Black Eyed Peas, Mary J. Blige, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Nelly Furtado, Lady Gaga, No Doubt and U2. Furthering his interest in and commitment to sound quality, in 2008 Iovine co-founded the high-performance headphone and sound transmission company Beats Electronics with GRAMMY-winning artist Dr. Dre, and he continues to passionately advocate for reversal of the degradation of sound quality in music that has resulted from the recording industry’s transition to digital distribution.

New York City, Feb. 1, 2012 – For client The Tombras Group, Gravity has produced the visual effects and graphics featured within a powerful, five spot campaign promoting Safe Driving for the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. Gravity produced the spots through agency The Tombras Group of Nashville, TN, working with partners Believe Media and director Bo Platt. Zviah Eldar, Gravity CEO/Chief Creative Director, and Bob Samuel, Gravity’s CMO/Executive Producer, made the announcement.

To view this work, please see:

http://tinyurl.com/7ps4qg2

In the spot entitled “OMG” (both :15 and :30) we see three carloads of young people in separate cars, while the driver of each is texting or speaking on his/her cell phone. Concurrently, a meteor plummets to Earth, and crashes into one car, leaving behind the enormous letters “OMG.” Another car hits a debris pile which turns out to be the letters “LOL,” while a third smashes into enormous letters on the freeway that read “L8R.” The end tagline reads, “One Text or Call Could Wreck It All.”

In the spots entitled “Bubbles (both :15 and :30) we see a number of people driving cars, while their thoughts appear as “bubbles” over their heads.
These thought bubbles include “I’m unbuckled,” “I’m drunk,” “I’m speeding,” and “I’m distracted.” We see a woman driver get pulled over by a police car, while the VO says, “Hate to burst your bubble, but if you’re not obeying the rules of the road, we will see you.” The end card reads, “More Cops. More Stops.”

The :30 spot called “No Worries” depicts a group of drunk teenagers leaving a party and getting into a car. The driver is encouraged to “not do anything to get noticed,” while he confidently replies, “no worries, I got this.” He proceeds to smash into a parked car and cause several ‘near miss’ accidents along the way, until he finally hits a fire hydrant and comes to a stop. A young girl says, “My mom’s gonna freak out,” and we then hear the VO say, “There’s no way to hide it. If you’re underage and you drive drunk, you will get caught.” The end card reads, “Underage Drinking = Adult Consequences.”

Said Samuel, “This job was a series of ‘firsts’ for us: our first job with Bo Platt and Believe Media, our first job with The Tombras Group, and our first job with Alex Postelnicu in place here as our Creative Director/VFX Supervisor. We couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome. Bo was incredibly collaborative, as was the entire team from Tombras. Alex and Yuval Levy (Gravity’s CD/Head of CG) were able to quickly hone in on their direction and spend more time designing and implementing than de-ciphering. And of course, we always relish the opportunity to make cool stuff crash and blow-up.”

Adds Alex Postelnicu, who served as Gravity’s Creative Director and VFX Supervisor, “Our biggest challenge with the graphics featured in these spots was for them to appear as realistic – and believable – as possible, including the letters in the street, and the ‘thought bubbles’ appearing over the heads of various drivers. We wanted to weave these graphics into the storylines of each spot without being intrusive, so that our target audience—young people who use their cell phones while driving, or those who drink and drive – would be receptive to a clear and understandable message. Our biggest goal was believability, with beautiful graphics that were whimsical and fun, while maintaining a very serious undertone, and conveying a very serious message.”

CREDITS FOR FIVE NHTSA SPOT CAMPAIGN:
Gravity:
CEO/Chief Creative Officer: Zviah Eldar
Creative Director/VFX Supervisor: Alex Postelnicu
Creative Director/Head of CG: Yuval Levy
Lead Flame: Alex Postelnicu
Lead Modeler: Brian DiNoto
Lead Lighting Artists: Chimin Yang, Sangdo Park
Head of Production: Karen Bianca Bisignano
Producer: Adam Goins
Production Coordinator: Emily Davis
CMO/Executive Producer: Bob Samuel

Live Action: Believe Media
Director Bo Platt
Executive Producer Gerard Cantor, Liz Silver,
Luke Thornton
Producer William Butler Sloss
DP: Roman Vasynov

Editorial: Jump LA
Editor: David Trachtenberg
Executive Producer: Betsy Beale
Assistant Editor: Eddie Mikasa
Producer: Rebecca Baker
Colorist: Stefan Sonnenfeld/CO 3 NY

Music & Sound Design: JSM Music, NY

Agency: The Tombras Group, Knoxville TN
Creative Directors: Brian Potter, Nick Vagotti
Producer: Craig Mungons

ABOUT GRAVITY:

Gravity is an international visual effects, design and brand communications company with proven expertise in three integrated divisions: Features & Television, Commercials, and Digital. With 250 talented professionals across offices in New York, Los Angeles, Connecticut and Tel Aviv, the company is a widely renowned generator of high-end visual effects, creative content, motion graphics design, animation, branding, and digital strategy.

The company’s clients include Universal Pictures, Warner Bros., DreamWorks, Sony Pictures Entertainment, HBO, Paramount Pictures, The Weinstein Company, Dimension Films, Coca-Cola, General Motors, Mercedes Benz, Verizon, Pantene, MGA Entertainment, Carlsberg, Kmart, and Braun. Gravity’s recent feature film credits include “Tower Heist,” “Crazy, Stupid, Love”, “The Adjustment Bureau”, “Arthur”, “The Other Guys”, “Salt”, “The Reader”, and “Ghost Town.” The company’s television credits include HBO’s “Bored to Death”, “The Sopranos”, and “Sex and The City.”

Gravity’s New York office is located at 315 Madison Avenue, 3rd Floor, New York, NY, 10017. The phone is 212/986-1584. The company’s West Coast office is located in the Lantana Building, 3000 West Olympic Blvd., Santa Monica, CA, 90404. The phone is 310/264-3909. For more information, please visit www.gravityworld.com

###

VFX professionals and creative forces Vico Sharabani and Alex Frisch are launching COPA (Co-Op of Artists), a global collective of elite VFX artists working in the commercial and feature film space. COPA sets a new model in the evolving VFX world, establishing a powerful studio connected via hubs in strategic cities around the world. The new group is structured around COPA headquarters in LA and NY, anchored in NY by EP Yfat Neev, former Rhino and Gravity FX EP, and in LA by acting EP Steve Reiss, former Speedshape and Sea Level VFX EP.

“We are taking high-end VFX work in a never-before-seen model and an A-level team to build not just a company, but a community of the world’s best talent,” stated Sharabani. “This is a new collaborative model that will upend the current landscape, allowing us to adapt to projects of any scope by taking the best talent in the world anywhere on the planet at any time.”

COPA initiates only those artists who have excelled in all aspects of the business: creative, technical, budgeting, scheduling, and client interface. This talent will work in a co-op structure united by the shared value of collaboration.

This talent convenes daily in a common cloud-based online workspace, eliminating constraints of time and distance to give the studio the flexibility its clients demand. Following an ethos of “virtual, but also local,” COPA’s model provides clients with the face-to-face contact they crave via unique online tools, as well as local spaces to meet and check on work. Each local office is equipped with meeting and viewing spaces, and will soon roll out proprietary technologies the studio is developing.

With their flexible resources, COPA can adapt to a job’s particular needs, creating a unique solution for every project. Already, the company has provided manpower and hardware solutions for major studios.

After a year of quietly tweaking this new model with projects for Lincoln and Crayola via McGarry Bowen, COPA is now earning a torrent of interest through word-of-mouth referrals alone. The studio is roaring to life with the release of the music video “Turn me On” for David Guetta and Nicki Minaj, 150 shots for the feature film A Late Quartet, and a new P&G commercial for Leo Burnett directed by Dave Meyers from Radical Media. The studio is lining up new projects, and is ready for more.

While the studio is already galloping along, Frisch and Sharabani came together only recently.

Frisch, co-founder of Method Studios, has been working on this new business model for more than 2 years. “Meeting with Vico less than a year ago was the catalyst that ignited COPA and brought our common visions to life,” Frisch said.

Sharabani, founder of the incredibly successful RhinoFX, is returning to the VFX fray after a year-long industry sabbatical, during which time he had his second child, got involved in the TED community, and dedicating time to nonprofit and environmental work.

“It’s like I met another me,” noted Frisch. “We both moved to the US in the late 90s and started what turned out to be wildly successful VFX shops in 1998 and left them at around the same time in 2009. Now we’re both ready to re-imagine the future of VFX together.”

The studio’s global collaborative network includes COPA Headquarters in Los Angeles and New-York, and partnerships with existing studios in Chicago, Tel -Aviv, Toronto, Serbia, London and Paris.

Visit COPA

About Alex Frisch
One of the most respected and sought-after artists in the VFX industry, Alex Frisch has built his reputation creating renowned “invisible effects.” Co-founder and former managing director of Method Studios, Alex’s VFX work appears in movies ranging from David Fincher’s The Game to Gore Verbinski’s The Ring to the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy; commercials for Chrysler, Levi’s, Sony PlayStation, Michelob, Exxon, Pepsi, Adidas and Bridgestone; and music videos for Madonna and Michael Jackson.

About Vico Sharabani:

A partner at RhinoFX from 1998 to 2010, Vico Sharabani’s portfolio includes a range of commercials for Fortune 500 companies, including Mercedes, Nike, and AT&T; music videos for Kanye West; and work on Sex and the City. Autodesk describes Vico as legendary for his Flame work. With 23 years experience servicing the advertising and entertainment industries, Sharabani is heavily involved in managing the creative, production and technical elements of all projects.

About COPA:

COPA is a global collective of elite VFX artists working in the commercial and feature film space. By leveraging the best in breed via outposts around the world, COPA maximizes productivity while minimizing costs.

Contact NY: yfat.neev@copanetwork.com, vico@copanetwork.com
Contact LA: steve.reiss@copanetwork.com, alex@copanetwork.com

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

Director shoots both broadcast spots and photography for print and transit ads.

HOLLYWOOD— Dark Light Pictures director Gil Cope has directed a handsome, new campaign for Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center announcing a 14-story hospital opening this month. Conceived by SPM Marketing & Communications, the spots feature intimate portraits of doctors and nurses discussing the new facility and what it means for the community and its healthcare.

more

Billerica, Massachusetts – January 31, 2012 – Broadcast Pix™ today launched an online user forum, www.broadcastpix.com/forum, to foster communication between live video production professionals from a variety of markets. The new public forum encourages users to share information about the company’s Granite™, Mica™, and Slate™ integrated production systems, as well as its Fluent™ workflow tools and the new VOX™ system for voice-activated video productions.

“Broadcast Pix has a very enthusiastic user community that is spread out across more than 110 countries. Our new user forum is an ideal place for those customers to come together, discuss our products, and share production tips,” said Paul Lara, marketing director. “Plus, it’s an ideal venue for producers and directors who have not yet used one of our systems to get information from an experienced user base.”

About Broadcast Pix Broadcast Pix is the leader in integrated live video production systems. Its systems provide the best control surface for combining cameras, clips and graphics to create compelling live video. These surfaces offer Command Center Control™ of the built-in multi-format switcher, clip store, graphics system with a Harris or Chyron CG, and device controls. Its Fluent™ workflow enables files and data to be easily incorporated from other parts of the studio. Broadcast Pix systems are a fraction of the cost of a conventional control room to buy, staff and operate. System range from compact systems controlled by a touch-screen or voice-automation to sophisticated 2 M/E control panels. Customers include leading broadcast, corporate, education, religious, government, webcast, entertainment and mobile studios in more than 110 countries. Learn more at www.broadcastpix.com.

Broadcast Pix, Mica, Slate, Fluent, and Command Center Control are trademarks of Broadcast Pix, Inc. Patented.

Credits also to Local Hero Post, Cinecolor Digital, Studio L’Equipe for their 2012 Sundance Film Festival Entries

At the Sundance Film Festival 2012 in Park City, Utah (January 19 – 29), several films were on the roster for filmmakers whose post-production companies used ASSIMILATE’s SCRATCH DI tool in their digital workflows. ASSIMILATE is extremely pleased to congratulate Chilefims for its post-production of Violeta Went To Heaven (Violeta Se Fue a Los Cielos) (2011), winner of the Sundance 2012 World Cinema Grand Jury Prize, Dramatic. ASSIMILATE also congratulates Local Hero Post (Santa Monica, CA) Cinecolor Digital (Buenos Aires, Argentina), and Studio l’Equipe (Paris, France) for their high-quality post-production of the following films accepted by the Sundance Film Festival 2012, the premier showcase for independent American and international filmmakers.

World Dramatic Competition

Winner – Violeta Se Fue a Los Cielos (Violeta Went To Heaven) (2011) directed by Andres Wood: Like a Chilean Edith Piaf or Bob Dylan, Violeta Parra was a folksinger and pop culture icon whose songs expressed the soul of her nation and protested social injustice. Violeta Went to Heaven tells Parra’s extraordinary story, tracing her evolution from impoverished child to international sensation, to Chile’s national hero. The full DI, from conform to color grading and finishing for this film, was done in ASSIMILATE’s SCRATCH.

Post-production facility: Chilefilms, Santiago, Chile; www.chilefilms.com.cl

“We of course are thrilled and honored that Violeta Went to Heaven is the winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize, Dramatic at Sundance 2012. As with every film we undertake at Chilefims, we put our heart and soul into it,” says Cristian Aguilar, Chilefilms’ business development director. “We’ve been using SCRATCH since 2004 when we were a beta for version 1. Since then, SCRATCH has become an integral tool in our daily workflow for countless films and projects. The sophistication of SCRATCH continues to ‘ripen’ over the years so that we’re able to do post-production at the speed of thought to achieve the highest quality of DI, many of which are award-winning films and documentaries.”

Wrong (2012) directed by Quentin Dupieux: Dolph Springer wakes up one morning to realize he has lost the love of his life, his dog, Paul. During his quest to get Paul (and his life) back, Dolph radically changes the lives of others. In his journey to find Paul, Dolph may lose something even more vital – his mind. This film was conformed and color graded in ASSIMILATE’s SCRATCH.

Post-production facility: Studio L’Equipe, Paris, France; www.studio-equipe.com

The Last Elvis (2011) directed by Armando Bo: In the unique world of the Buenos Aires celebrity-impersonator scene, “Elvis” Gutiérrez is a star. By day, though, he must contend with a dead-end factory job and an ex-wife who worries about how his obsessive behavior affects their young daughter. ASSIMILATE’s SCRATCH was the tool of choice for the full digital intermediate – conform, color grading, and finishing —- for this film.

Post-production facility: Cinecolor Digital, Buenos Aires, Argentina; www.cinecolor.com.ar

“This film was captured in RED and required intense color work because the film had to have a style or look of Las Vegas, with its dramatic different climates throughout the film,” said Lucas Guidalevich operations manager at Cinecolor Digital. “This is not a VFX film, so the importance of post-production lies almost entirely in the color correction. Thanks to the features that SCRATCH offers in working with infinite layers, we could do a lot of tweaking to squeeze the most out of the captured images. The results were excellent, both in the DCP and in the film copy negative, which was printed on an Arrilaser.”

US Dramatic Competition

Filly Brown (2011) directed by Youssef Delara and Michael D. Olmos: Majo Tonorio, a.k.a. Filly Brown, is a raw, young Los Angeles hip-hop artist who spits from the heart. When a sleazy record producer offers her a crack at rap stardom, Majo faces some daunting choices. Gina Rodriguez’s performance as Majo is considered by many to be the breakout performance of the festival. Filly Brown was conformed, color graded, and finished using ASSIMILATE’s SCRATCH.

Post-production facility: Local Hero Post, Santa Monica, CA; www.localheropost.com

Leandro Marini, founder and DI producer at Local Hero Post said, “For us, working in SCRATCH is almost a magical experience – we have all the needed DI tools at our fingertips to bring out the best in imagery, no matter the format or size of the project. It’s extremely satisfying to exceed the expectations of our clients, actually bringing their vision to life.”

“ASSIMILATE congratulates Chilefilms and the entire family of SCRATCH artists whose films competed at Sundance 2012″, said Steve Bannerman, VP of marketing at ASSIMILATE. “We have been the heartbeat of digital filmmaking since the original RED ONE camera, and we are proud to have empowered so many of the independent film and documentary makers who have fueled this revolution. Audiences around the world are continually amazed and delighted by their work, and ASSIMILATE is honored to have played a role in their craft.”

SCRATCH Digital Workflow

ASSIMILATE’s SCRATCH and SCRATCH Lab deliver the industry’s most comprehensive toolset for data-centric digital cinema and broadcast productions for 2D and 3D stereo projects at up to 5K resolution and beyond. New 6.1 versions of the software, running on Mac OS X and Windows 7, feature SDI output via AJA Kona 3G graphics cards, wicked-fast dailies rendering, improved metadata and timecode handling, and enhanced RED workflow support.

ASSIMILATE is the premier provider of digital workflow and post-production tools, that have proven essential to the successful creation of thousands of studio and independent features, television shows, music videos and corporate video productions. The company’s products, running on Windows and Mac OSX, are the heartbeat of today’s most demanding digital post-production and dailies workflows for 2D and stereo 3D productions. They equip directors, DPs and artists with the state-of-the-art, intuitive, data-centric solutions they need to meet the continual challenges of increased creativity and productivity amid ever-shrinking budgets. ASSIMILATE’s SCRATCH data-centric DI system, is the most comprehensive, end-to-end cinema and broadcast imaging tool for playback, conform, editing, color grading, compositing and finishing of RED and other digital workflows. SCRATCH Lab delivers a comprehensive toolset for the review, versioning, color correcion, conform and output of on-set or VFX dailies. ASSIMILATE a privately held company, with headquarters in Santa Clara, California, USA, offices in London, UK, Groningen, NL and Beijing City, CN and markets its products worldwide via a global reseller network. To learn more, and find your local reseller, please visit www.assimilateinc.com

Christie today announced the official launch of its Christie JumpStart content management solution at the Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) show in Amsterdam. JumpStart makes it easy to put stunning, high resolution content onto a multi-display or tiled digital canvas.
.
Christie JumpStart targets architectural markets including museums, universities, stadiums, corporate offices and retail stores needing high resolution, reliable content playback across large video walls. Rental stagers will also benefit from JumpStart’s speed and ease of setup, and support for unique display configurations.
.
“Christie is leading the way in developing simple, user-friendly solutions for integrated, large-format, digital displays,” said Richard Heslett, senior product manager, Business Products, Christie. “Christie JumpStart can be used with any digital display that has up to four inputs, and is the ideal companion for small and medium-sized Christie MicroTiles video walls – giving customers the ability to get the most out of their MicroTiles displays.”
.
Combining user-friendly JumpStart software with reliable HP hardware, Christie JumpStart enables users to position and play back a wide range of content including video, graphics, applications, Blu-ray and DVD movies, remote video sources, color swatches and text.
.
When used with Christie MicroTiles, Christie JumpStart communicates directly with the master External Control Unit (ECU), automatically picking the best resolution for the MicroTiles canvas, regardless of shape or cabling layout, and showing the location of every tile so that snapping content into position is a breeze.
.
Benefits of Christie JumpStart:

* Multi-windowing capabilities including video files, applications and text

* Seamless integration with Christie MicroTiles, automatically optimizing resolution of the Christie MicroTiles display

* Supports non-standard resolutions and independent resolutions

* Simple user interface allows for quick changes and intuitive user controls

* Integrated solution with single PC/software bundle means no additional hardware and no ongoing software costs or licenses

* Positioning and playback of content can be accomplished by seasoned designers and less technical users

* Plays media locally so no external source PCs or movie players are required

* Scheduling of playlists within each content window (scheduling by date is not supported)
.
Christie JumpStart is now shipping with a three-year warranty and the hardware bundle is backed by HP, providing peace of mind.
.
Winner of 18 industry awards since debuting in November 2009, Christie MicroTiles are installed throughout the world including Seoul’s Incheon International Airport, the NASCAR Hall of Fame, London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Bank’s Asia Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong.

Blackmagic Design today released Desktop Video 9.2 beta 1, a software update for its capture and playback products that adds broadcast monitoring support with the new Final Cut Pro X 10.0.3 update.

Desktop Video 9.2 beta 1 for Mac OS X is available for download now and is free of charge for all Blackmagic Design customers. This update includes support for all current DeckLink, Multibridge, Intensity and UltraStudio models.

Broadcast monitoring in Final Cut Pro 10.0.3 allows video output to external monitors and other equipment using the SDI, HDMI or analog video outputs from Blackmagic Design video hardware.

Desktop Video 9.2 beta 1 includes a new control panel for selecting the video output format from Final Cut Pro X for output to devices such as broadcast quality monitors, HDTVs and projectors, so you can see exactly what your master will look like in television colorspace.

Desktop Video 9.2 beta 1 also includes Media Express 3.1 beta. Media Express provides capture, logging and management of video files to Final Cut Pro X compatible formats including ProRes and uncompressed video. Media Express features timecode accurate video capture from professional VTRs with RS-422 control, the ability to log additional metadata and to create custom bins for managing all project video media.

Final Cut Pro X 10.0.3 includes XML 1.1 for exporting primary color grades to DaVinci Resolve. This improved XML support makes it easier to move projects from FCP X to Resolve as any primary color changes carried out during editing can now be imported and applied automatically within Resolve. Once a project has been color graded with DaVinci Resolve it can be reopened simply within Final Cut Pro X for any further editing.

“We are extremely pleased to provide immediate support for the new monitoring feature in Final Cut Pro X 10.0.3,” said Grant Petty, CEO of Blackmagic Design. “Now working with Final Cut Pro X is even better since our customers can accurately view projects on whatever monitor they choose and can ensure that their final output meets crucial broadcast standards.”

Availability and Price
Desktop Video 9.2 beta 1 for Mac OS X is available now free of charge from the Blackmagic Design support page at www.blackmagic-design.com/support.

Press Photography
Images of all Blackmagic Design products are available at www.blackmagic-design.com/press/images.

About Blackmagic Design
Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and film restoration software for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability, while the company’s DaVinci EmmyTM award winning color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including stereoscopic 3D and 4K workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore, and Australia. For more information, please check www.blackmagic-design.com.

Turkmenistan 20th anniversary

The size and sweep of an Olympics opening ceremony, the event highlighted the tremendous economic growth of Turkmenistan in the last two decades and linked its history and cultural heroes with its future prospects. It was produced by Filmmaster Events, Milan, on October 28 in the capital’s Ashgabat Stadium, which was recently enlarged and refurbished.

Lafortune, a lighting designer with nine shows currently running, including all of the top Las Vegas productions, was brought on board in July. “It was a very short turnaround for a show of this magnitude,” he notes. “Designing lighting for a theater in Vegas is very different from designing lighting for a stadium. Everything is so much bigger – you need a lot of very powerful fixtures, but we were limited to 575 fixtures due to power issues. It was very challenging to keep things dynamic.”

Rome-based Agora supplied Lafortune with a large complement of Clay Paky moving heads, including 80 Alpha Beam 1500s, 50 Alpha Profile 1500s, 100 Alpha Spot HPE 700s and 90 Alpha Beam 700s.

Lafortune designed the lighting keeping the Turkmen aesthetic in mind. “They were very proud and eager to show the world that they have come of age and that their destiny is a bright one,” he explains. “It was all about brightness and colors. We had to put aside everything we know from working in the west and start with a blank page.”

While opting for a bright and colorful palette, Lafortune also had to maintain “a certain degree of elegance” for the gala ceremony. “It would have been easy to go down the path of something that might look tacky,” he says. “The celebration had to come across as something very precious – like giving a nice gift.”

Lafortune spent a good deal of time in the capital of Ashgabat observing how the Turkmen light their monuments. “They use very bold colors. If you find the right colors you can have two colors unexpectedly work well together. I wanted the Turkmen to recognize themselves when they watched the show.”

He deployed 100 Alpha Spot 700s around the periphery of the field to punctuate the stage area where an elderly storyteller related the country’s history to a group of children and acted as the show’s narrative element. “They were a means of illuminating the actors without touching the ground because there was projection as well, and we didn’t want to interfere with that,” Lafortune explains. “The challenge was being able to light the actors without distorting the projections. Putting the Alpha Spot 700s on the perimeter of the field allowed me to do that. They have an amazing amount of output – the beam is so tight, they really kick. I was surprised!”

Lafortune positioned 100 Alpha Beam 700s primarily around scenic devices, including the LED screen, where they enhanced the shape of the screen and provided lighting effects. He used Alpha Beam 1500s on Front of House trusses and some Alpha Profile 1500s with gobos. “At certain moments there were no projections and I didn’t want to have to use white light, so I still needed a lot of power to get the output,” he says. “The 1500s were great at that. I could get color and output at huge distances with flat angles.”

The lighting designer was pleased with the speed of the fixtures’ movement, “particularly on some of the larger lights – it was really quite surprising,” he reports. In addition, “the color mixing has really come a long way. People sometimes pack so much stuff in fixtures that you can’t get good color. Somehow, Clay Paky has managed to pack a lot in the 1500s, yet we could still mix the color we wanted and they weren’t unmanageably big.”

The robust lights also held up under a grueling schedule in a largely desert climate. “We worked them really hard – they were on for very long periods of time,” says Lafortune. “Turkmenistan is mostly desert, with lots of dust. We had no problems – they lights were great and performed magnificently.”

Pio Nahum, Clay Paky CCO, adds, “We’re proud to supply the lights for such a high profile and important event. “I’m glad that the Clay Paky line of fixtures was able to meet all the needs of Mr. Lafortune, a very important designer in our industry.”