ADVERTISEMENT

At the ACS50: Tools of Tomorrow

By Zona Marie Tan

The ambiance at the ACS50 the conference was filled with much excitement over the line-up of the whole event that circled around the ‘Future of the Image’.

It was a theme that Atlab’s Dominic Case said was certainly dealt with in a session he attended, ‘Test Drive: HD Acquisition Tools for Today’. (see IF # 110 June – ‘Tools of Tomorrow’)

“The theme of the conference ‘Future of the Image’ is very much what it is focused on, like dealing with what are the current issues cinematographers have to face,” says Case.

“And what I’ve seen so far particularly the session which I just came out of, which was a comparison of a number of different digital cameras and 35mm film – it was very informative. It probably raised far more questions than it could probably answer.”

The session was an exercise in how top range cameras, one film and four digital format, could handle a number of controlled set of tests on location and studio shoots with the same material. The footage results were presented by Frame Set and Match’s Stephen Dunn along with five other DPs and then were opened to the floor for discussions. And issues like the vast range information a DP today has to deal with in digital acquisitions, grading and what options they have in post were all brought up.

One of that session’s speaker cinematographer Franc Biffone said that the results of that session would not be limited to the conference.

“We will follow it up by having this test result available to use as an information tool for not only the DPs but producers and directors as well. But we’ve still got some more work to do on that.”

This DVD package would be available to people within the industry as a guide on the five cameras basically, and what they can do with minimal post-production work being done on them.

Initially the session was reportedly going to showcase the results of six high-end cameras: Sony HDW-F900R, Sony F23, Panavision Genesis, Panavision 35mm, ARRI Super 16mm and the RED One. However due to some technical issues around the ARRI Super 16mm, the session only presented result footage for five cameras.

Other news:
At the ACS50: Hot Opening