Phil Holland on 4K, NAB & and Industry Trends
Having worked on films like Life of Pi, Iron Man, X-Men, Moneyball and many more blockbuster hits, Phil Holland takes his time to give us an inside look into his thoughts on NAB 2015, the future of 4K and where he sees the industry headed.
Q: Everything is 4K-focused right now. What’s really going on now from your perspective with all the latest tech and its adoption?
A: I think two things are really going on. I have a feature film background and we've actually been scanning and recording Super 35mm film at 4K and 4K+ since the 90s. We've known for some time S35 “resolves” approximately 4K-5K resolution and even found certain advantages of “oversampling” by scanning at 6K and even 8K resulting in a slightly better quality image.
As much as HD was a tremendous forward move in technology in comparison to Standard Definition, 4K and 8K UHD (and DCI) standards were set some time ago to be the digital equivelant of end film production. Technology has advanced a great deal and we are also highly motivated as an industry to improve the visual quality of our images.
It's been an interesting journey really as the first decade of digital 4K was a bit slow due to technology and price point restrictions, but in 2012 the pace picked up drastically. Now in 2015 we have access to sub-$500 UHD 4K displays which is tremendous. And not only that, we are actually talking about “SmartTV” that can connect to things like Netflix and even YouTube which can stream content into homes at UHD 4K already. It's an exciting time to have this level of quality on those screens and modern devices.
This year at NAB 2015 it seemed that nearly every camera manufacturer had a true focus on 4K image capture with the many 4K cameras that were announced. We have been seeing the slope of the trend towards 4K/4K+ capture and finishing increasing drastically in the last 3 years in particular. 4K broadcast is happening. 8K broadcast is happening soon. We have new high quality 4K laser projectors that produce stunning images for theatrical release as well.
I have a theory I've been discussing for over a decade that describes the attraction of higher resolution imaging called “The Window Effect”. This can be summed up with a higher quality viewing experience featuring higher resolution/higher quality images that brings the audience “closer” to the images be removing more of the “digital divide” between knowing you are looking at a device, television, or projector and truly being quickly “lost” in the content. This is what much of the 4K and 4K+ technology represents. We've now seen gaming in 4K, movies in 4K, television in 4K, and even streams in 4K. The visual advantages are evident and rather lovely. Audiences and Filmmakers in general are attracted to this concept a great deal and we are now seeing “this punch” land harder than ever really.
Q: How was your experience at NAB 2015? What were some of the most innovative products you liked?
A: It was an interesting show this year. Certainly not as excited when it comes to motion picture lens technology as the last two years, but there were a few anamorphic lens announcements that peaked my eye. As a filmmaker one of the biggest trends over the last few years has been the creation and adoption of new lighting technology. For me things like the Mole Richardson 900 watt Senior LED Fresnel (5000 watt tungsten equivalent) are pretty amazing. I've been using their other LED Fresnel units on set for a while and love the quality. Now you can plug two rather powerful fresnels into one standard US socket and have 10,000 watts of equivalent tungsten power. That's a true revolution in motion picture production and you would really have needed a large generator before to do anything like that.
Also, on the LED lighting front I saw the impressive Arina from NiLA, which updates their SL model in a more compact fashion. ARRI showed off a few interesting lighting units like the SkyPanel and L10-C. Fiilex's new Q1000 features an impressive design and can run off of a battery as well. Zylight produced a more powerful collapsible fresnel called the f8-200 that is something many have been asking for. Outside of LED tech it was nice to see the new 1000Hz ballast from K5600 for their Joker 400 and 800 HMI lights. This will make shooting high speed much easier with HMIs. Also, I've taken a keen interest in Plasma lights from Hive lighting as the power draw is really low and the quality of light is flicker free and rather nice. Their newer lighter weight Wasp Plasma Par showed interesting potential.
Outside of lighting I saw some pretty impressive support and camera related gear. Particularly the new Revolvr Follow Focus from Bright Tangerine. That is one well built and well designed bit of kit and competes with the highest end mechanical follow focus units available today and does a few things better like featuring an expansion lock on whips and speed cranks that removes any play you might have in that standard size port. I strongly feel for the demands of higher resolution image capture little things like that become more and more important. Konova had a new self contained slider called the K-Cine Slider, which might be the highest quality bit of gear they've ever made. I'm a long time Dana Dolly user and it was nice to see curved track available which will add a bit more of a dynamic sense of motion on those camera moves.
The thing that I've been waiting for has been a digital cinema camera that shoots with the VistaVision format size, it's always been one of my favorite motion picture formats. RED is finally getting us there. They announced their new Weapon camera body that features a 6K and 8K VistaVision Dragon Sensor. This new camera is lighter and smaller than the previous Epic and Scarlet bodies and is much more powerful at the same time. Simultaneous REDCODE RAW and ProRes recording to the same media card, 3D LUT support, newer compact modules, built in WiFi, and a whole lot of other features makes this pretty much the most fully fledged motion picture production camera coming to market. Weapon isn't exactly priced for the entry level market, however it is exactly what general productions have been looking for. It is rather intense thinking that in 2015 we'll be able to shoot 8K VistaVision on RED Weapon Carbon Fiber in a camera body that fits in the palm of your hand. I love the creative potential behind these larger formats and there's a lot of fantastic lenses that have already been created that should be suitable for 8K FF shooting like the excellent Zeiss Compact Zooms, Zeiss CP.2s, and Schneider Xenon-FF Primes with more lenses coming in the near future as well.
On the post side of things very notable improvements are coming to Adobe Creative Cloud with the addition of the Lumetry Color feature being introduced to Adobe Premiere Pro CC. This essentially provides you the power of SpeedGrade color manipulation in easier Lightroom/Adobe Camera Raw controls right in the NLE. That's really exciting. Adobe's “Project Candy” grew on me pretty quickly as well. It's a app for your smart device that allows you to take a picture and then can extract the color and general light direction which can be exported as a “look” and uploaded to the cloud for future use as a color palette in After Effects or Premiere Pro. Interesting possibilities there. There was new cloud collaboration tool shown called Frame.io which represents an interesting way of sharing dailies, revisions, and notes on motion picture projects with your clients or team members all online. One last thing on the post side that was impressive were Canon's two new UHD 4K reference monitors (like the DP-V3010). Not inexpensive, but certainly very good high quality displays that colorists will truly enjoy.
Q: How soon should we expect a movement towards 6K, 8K, and so on?
A: I've been shooting on RED Epic Dragon in 6K since 2013, so it's been nearly two years that 6K has been part of my life. And it's a useful resolution for productions that finish out at 4K. It allows for higher quality through down sampling, post cropping/reframing, and that extra resolution can also be used to stabilize shots without a real loss in quality for a 4K finish. David Fincher's Gone Girl was actually shot in 6K and ran through post at 6K for a 4K finish and used many of those techniques above.
8K was actually more visible at NAB 2015 than ever. The first notable 8K Broadcast Trials begin early 2016 and there are several 8K cameras that are available now. Workflow is the question mark for some of the manufacturers. I'm fairly keen on the RED workflow as the move to 8K isn't going to be a major jump from how I work with 6K material today, but does allow me to capture and finish at DCI and UHD 8K resolution. For me as a Director and Director of Photography 8K is about producing visuals that are on par or surpass traditional IMAX quality levels. And that's actually one of the areas you'll first be seeing 8K productions. I think even 4K feature film and broadcast productions have a use for 8K as it's part of the “future proofing” concept and also opens up even more down sampling and framing flexibility.
The true industry movement for delivery is 4K and 8K, but in DCI and UHD aspect ratios/resolutions. Capture resolutions can be larger to have a bit more creative flexibility. We've seen some 5K screens come to the market and might see 6K screens as well, but for our professional world digital delivery 4K and 8K are the targets. 4K is happening nearly everywhere today. And slowly but surely, 8K will be popping up more and more. We're still on track for the 2020 Olympics to be broadcast in 8K, which will be impressive.
Q: What NAB booths used your footage, and for what reason was it used?
A: I had footage all over the show this year and that's always a treat. I'm a big 4K and 4K+ advocate and it's personally very rewarding to see where the industry has gone in the last 3 years in particular. Schneider Optics was playing a small reel of content I shot on my Cine-Xenar III Primes, which I adore the look of. I've been using those mostly for 6K through 5K filming (5K is the S35 equivalent on RED Epic Dragon) and I love the “feel” of the images. Those Cine-Xenars have just a wonderful “draw”, color rendering, and a beautiful out of focus image. Just after the show I actually took delivery of the Xenon-FF Primes to get ready for some 8K VistaVision shooting on RED Weapon in the near future, these are nice little standard speed lenses.
I had a bit of footage used for workflow demo content at the RED Booth this year. I make a living shooting 4K+ primarily on RED cameras and it's always nice to see my work there and help out within the community of RED shooters. I actually wrote a RED DSMC Field Ops Guide that was published and available at the show, which is something I'm very proud of. However, at the RED Booth they also had a 4K Theater showing several reels and they did show their “RED X” real celebrating 10 years of images from RED cameras all the way from the early prototypes of the RED One to the modern RED Dragon sensor camera bodies. I was very fortunate and privileged to have a shot in that reel and it was actually a fairly emotion experience seeing all that cut together as a long time RED shooter. It's amazing to see 4K footage from 10 years ago holding up perfectly fine on the big screen.
Silverdraft had some of my footage showing on their workstations to show off realtime 6K playback, which is possible these days. Curious to see if 8K playback will be achievable on workstations of a similar price point. Also, SpectraCal was using some of my footage to show off split screen 3D LUT screen calibration, which is a bit more on the technical side of things but important when achieving the highest quality images.
Q: What changes in tech have you seen change over the years?
A: Well the movement to higher resolution image capture and delivery is certainly one thing. However, due to that we've seen amazing advancements in production and post production workflow. Cameras can do more “on the day” and we can do more in post faster and better than ever before. GPU Acceleration found in applications like Adobe Premiere Pro or REDCINE-X Pro has truly revolutionized the concept of working with higher resolution material. I just edited my last project in native 6K REDCODE RAW and that is amazing it's possible to edit without transcoding to a lower resolution or simpler format if that's the workflow that works for you. Not long ago this concept would have been just too difficult to explore. On a shoot where I was out of town I was able to work efficiently even at these higher resolutions from a notebook computer up in my hotel room. Workflow really has been “unlocked” at this point.
Display technology is getting better and we are seeing not only the highly motivated shift toward 4K and 8K, but also other improvements like HDR display technology coming along at the same time. As we get closer to moving on from Rec.709 to Rec.2020 display technology this is going to play an important role. Shortly people will have unbelievably vibrant, rich, and detailed images in their homes and theaters.
4K cameras and displays have come down drastically in price over the years as well. This is pretty much the most exciting time for independent through prosumer filmmakers out there because these tools are really well within reach and the workflow is “there”.
3D in the home was a fascinating blip that didn't catch on, mostly because it did not appeal to a casual viewing style. However, 3D production for theatrical releases has done pretty well. And VR right now is one of the hotter future technologies being explored at the moment.
We are right at the moment where film is being used less and less everyday as well. Though for those who chose to shoot on the medium it's certainly still doable. It's a sign of the times and productions are attracted to the speed benefits and financial benefits that come from digital motion picture production. Sensor technology is moving fast and caught up quickly in regards to color reproduction, dynamic range, and minimized digital fingerprint when highlights clip. These cameras now create more “natural” looking images than ever before. The good news is that there are sensors out there in modern digital cinema cameras that carry “film format to resolution relevance” like the RED Dragon sensor. Super 16mm, Super 35mm, VistaVision, 5-perf 65mm, and even 15-perf IMAX won't ever die as “formats” and they can still be explored through multi-format camera systems like RED's that hold the general familiar properties of film in a digital era.
Now that HDMI 2.0 has been finalized (finally!) we'll be seeing more and more 4K experiences happening for the general consumer. That combined with these newer codecs like HEVC H.265 and Google's VP9 access to streaming high resolution content is easier than ever. Actually, it should be noted that Google/YouTube has been supporting 4K playback since 2010 and they've recently updated their players for a better playback experience and they are beginning to support 4K at 60p right at this moment. Which is tremendous.
Q: Where are viewers or consumers of media most enjoying the 4K experience?
A: Personally I have a 70” inch UHD 4K television and a 31” DCI 4K monitor on my main workstation, so I'm enjoying 4K all of the time really. For those watching series like House of Cards and Daredevil from Netflix they are likely enjoying it on one of the newer UHD 4K smart televisions and I know people love that as I hear about all the time. There are actually a lot of 4K projectors out there in theaters and it's up to more feature film productions to finish out at 4K to give audiences that experience. There's been a slowly growing trend to finish out features in 4K and we'll see this happening more and more. And likely sooner than you'd think, 8K as well. I do see there's a few smaller screen 4K laptops available now, though that's more for the enthusiast market at the moment. You can see the most advantages of 4K and 8K between 240-600 pixels per inch, so smaller screens even show the potential of visual quality gains that come with 4K and 8K resolution. Where I've actually been really surprised to see more 4K adoption is the world of PC video games. For some of these newer immersive titles that place you in fantastical worlds some gamers are pushing to make that experience even bigger and realer than ever with 4K gaming.
Q: What do you see as the pros and cons of 4K technology?
A: The biggest area in my career that I see 4K and 4K+ technology causing hiccups is the world of Visual Effects. I started out in Visual Effects in the late 90s and resolution and workflow has always been thorn in the side of computer generated/rendered graphics and certainly compositors and texture painters have had to cope with the higher visual quality demands of 4K and 4K+ projects. That said, I did make a short film back in 2012 all in 4K with 4K visual effects on my own. Often what I've found is that workflow and pipelines need to be examined, modified, and created to navigate these high resolution waters we swim in. Rendering time is a real struggle still for 4K and 8K productions and the additional time to support higher resolution comps is very real, so to me that means we need to plan accordingly for our post schedules to meet those goals. There are costs that come with that of course, but at the same time technology has advanced a great deal. 3 years ago post houses were rather frustrated that storage space for these larger resolution projects were one of the biggest issues, however disks have become less expensive in the last few years and I'm hearing that particular topic less and less. Higher performance systems are still the costly realm and that's a given. If you are looking to do uncompressed 4K and 8K playback you will be spending some serious cash.
Over the last few years I've heard the argument about “seeing too much” with 4K and 8K, like make-up or age lines on talent's faces. However, at this point that topic is rather silly and anybody who's worked with Super 35mm knows that was a rather silly argument in the first place. However, there are demands that exist and production quality should rise to the occasion when it comes to wardrobe, makeup, hair, and set design as there's opportunities to bring out more “life” in scenes.
Q: What do you think will be the hot topic at NAB next year?
A: Hmmm. NAB 2016. You'll see more 4K for sure. And a lot more 8K than even this year. However, you'll likely see more VR experiences and maybe even dedicated camera systems to with shooting and finishing VR content. I suspect we'll see one major advancement that will effect handheld gimbals as many of the units on the market today have a few things they can improve upon. We've seen the advantages of having smaller cameras over the years and this year we saw more compact professional camera bodies, I expect that to be a continuing trend. NAB 2016 and maybe 2017 will be “glass years” as we'll likely see a few new lens projects coming to light. By NAB 2016 you'll be seeing larger SSDs and even larger capacity spinning hard drive beyond the 8TB capacity we have today. SSDs in general have taken the industry by storm both as a camera recording medium and within workstations and this has also effected consumer devices. We'll also see a slew of USB 3.1/Type-C devices at NAB 2016. Considering the UHD and DCI specifications for 4K and 8K being 24-60fps I think we might maybe see more high speed camera options in a year or two. I'm also expecting more 4K Production/Field Monitors to become available at some point and likely 4K Wireless Video Transmitters. I'm a bit of a lens nut, and I'm always happy to see new spherical and anamorphic glass. Especially if it convers the VistaVision format that I'll be shooting on for years to come.
Q: Anything else you would like to share?
A: The Motion Picture Industry is moving at a rapid pace. Technology often can seem overwhelming and certainly perhaps get in the way of the artistry and craft of making compelling motion pictures. However, this is one industry where arts and science have had a symbiotic relationship for over a 125 years. Every step of the way there have been advancements in film and digital technology to get us to where we are now. It's an interesting moment as we now have rather proper digital cinema cameras that are designed to be the equivalent of Super 16mm, Super 35mm, VistaVision, and 65mm 5-Perf film formats and some companies have done a good job of bringing much of what we love about the technical and aesthetic merits of film to a digital age. Between 2013 and now we've been in that weird flux where we do have a very valid digital film alternative and the modern 4K and 8K display technologies demand high quality images. I would like to see the industry produce and adopt 4K and 8K workflows at a slightly quicker pace. I personally haven't shot under 4K since 2011 and I feel the industry, the productions, and the creators should focus on quality not just in image, but sound and story alike. Some productions have succeeded at this greatly. With things like RED Weapon Dragon 8K VistaVision, Dolby Atmos sound technology, and 4K and 8K laser projection audiences can have a truly ground breaking theatrical experience and we can provide a good deal of that in the home delivery as well. In many ways this is the most exciting time to shoot, produce, and watch motion pictures with this new tech and at this point, especially after NAB 2015, we should be pushing ourselves to achieve new heights with our productions.
Q: Everything is 4K-focused right now. What’s really going on now from your perspective with all the latest tech and its adoption?
A: I think two things are really going on. I have a feature film background and we've actually been scanning and recording Super 35mm film at 4K and 4K+ since the 90s. We've known for some time S35 “resolves” approximately 4K-5K resolution and even found certain advantages of “oversampling” by scanning at 6K and even 8K resulting in a slightly better quality image.
As much as HD was a tremendous forward move in technology in comparison to Standard Definition, 4K and 8K UHD (and DCI) standards were set some time ago to be the digital equivelant of end film production. Technology has advanced a great deal and we are also highly motivated as an industry to improve the visual quality of our images.
It's been an interesting journey really as the first decade of digital 4K was a bit slow due to technology and price point restrictions, but in 2012 the pace picked up drastically. Now in 2015 we have access to sub-$500 UHD 4K displays which is tremendous. And not only that, we are actually talking about “SmartTV” that can connect to things like Netflix and even YouTube which can stream content into homes at UHD 4K already. It's an exciting time to have this level of quality on those screens and modern devices.
This year at NAB 2015 it seemed that nearly every camera manufacturer had a true focus on 4K image capture with the many 4K cameras that were announced. We have been seeing the slope of the trend towards 4K/4K+ capture and finishing increasing drastically in the last 3 years in particular. 4K broadcast is happening. 8K broadcast is happening soon. We have new high quality 4K laser projectors that produce stunning images for theatrical release as well.
I have a theory I've been discussing for over a decade that describes the attraction of higher resolution imaging called “The Window Effect”. This can be summed up with a higher quality viewing experience featuring higher resolution/higher quality images that brings the audience “closer” to the images be removing more of the “digital divide” between knowing you are looking at a device, television, or projector and truly being quickly “lost” in the content. This is what much of the 4K and 4K+ technology represents. We've now seen gaming in 4K, movies in 4K, television in 4K, and even streams in 4K. The visual advantages are evident and rather lovely. Audiences and Filmmakers in general are attracted to this concept a great deal and we are now seeing “this punch” land harder than ever really.
Q: How was your experience at NAB 2015? What were some of the most innovative products you liked?
A: It was an interesting show this year. Certainly not as excited when it comes to motion picture lens technology as the last two years, but there were a few anamorphic lens announcements that peaked my eye. As a filmmaker one of the biggest trends over the last few years has been the creation and adoption of new lighting technology. For me things like the Mole Richardson 900 watt Senior LED Fresnel (5000 watt tungsten equivalent) are pretty amazing. I've been using their other LED Fresnel units on set for a while and love the quality. Now you can plug two rather powerful fresnels into one standard US socket and have 10,000 watts of equivalent tungsten power. That's a true revolution in motion picture production and you would really have needed a large generator before to do anything like that.
Also, on the LED lighting front I saw the impressive Arina from NiLA, which updates their SL model in a more compact fashion. ARRI showed off a few interesting lighting units like the SkyPanel and L10-C. Fiilex's new Q1000 features an impressive design and can run off of a battery as well. Zylight produced a more powerful collapsible fresnel called the f8-200 that is something many have been asking for. Outside of LED tech it was nice to see the new 1000Hz ballast from K5600 for their Joker 400 and 800 HMI lights. This will make shooting high speed much easier with HMIs. Also, I've taken a keen interest in Plasma lights from Hive lighting as the power draw is really low and the quality of light is flicker free and rather nice. Their newer lighter weight Wasp Plasma Par showed interesting potential.
Outside of lighting I saw some pretty impressive support and camera related gear. Particularly the new Revolvr Follow Focus from Bright Tangerine. That is one well built and well designed bit of kit and competes with the highest end mechanical follow focus units available today and does a few things better like featuring an expansion lock on whips and speed cranks that removes any play you might have in that standard size port. I strongly feel for the demands of higher resolution image capture little things like that become more and more important. Konova had a new self contained slider called the K-Cine Slider, which might be the highest quality bit of gear they've ever made. I'm a long time Dana Dolly user and it was nice to see curved track available which will add a bit more of a dynamic sense of motion on those camera moves.
The thing that I've been waiting for has been a digital cinema camera that shoots with the VistaVision format size, it's always been one of my favorite motion picture formats. RED is finally getting us there. They announced their new Weapon camera body that features a 6K and 8K VistaVision Dragon Sensor. This new camera is lighter and smaller than the previous Epic and Scarlet bodies and is much more powerful at the same time. Simultaneous REDCODE RAW and ProRes recording to the same media card, 3D LUT support, newer compact modules, built in WiFi, and a whole lot of other features makes this pretty much the most fully fledged motion picture production camera coming to market. Weapon isn't exactly priced for the entry level market, however it is exactly what general productions have been looking for. It is rather intense thinking that in 2015 we'll be able to shoot 8K VistaVision on RED Weapon Carbon Fiber in a camera body that fits in the palm of your hand. I love the creative potential behind these larger formats and there's a lot of fantastic lenses that have already been created that should be suitable for 8K FF shooting like the excellent Zeiss Compact Zooms, Zeiss CP.2s, and Schneider Xenon-FF Primes with more lenses coming in the near future as well.
On the post side of things very notable improvements are coming to Adobe Creative Cloud with the addition of the Lumetry Color feature being introduced to Adobe Premiere Pro CC. This essentially provides you the power of SpeedGrade color manipulation in easier Lightroom/Adobe Camera Raw controls right in the NLE. That's really exciting. Adobe's “Project Candy” grew on me pretty quickly as well. It's a app for your smart device that allows you to take a picture and then can extract the color and general light direction which can be exported as a “look” and uploaded to the cloud for future use as a color palette in After Effects or Premiere Pro. Interesting possibilities there. There was new cloud collaboration tool shown called Frame.io which represents an interesting way of sharing dailies, revisions, and notes on motion picture projects with your clients or team members all online. One last thing on the post side that was impressive were Canon's two new UHD 4K reference monitors (like the DP-V3010). Not inexpensive, but certainly very good high quality displays that colorists will truly enjoy.
Q: How soon should we expect a movement towards 6K, 8K, and so on?
A: I've been shooting on RED Epic Dragon in 6K since 2013, so it's been nearly two years that 6K has been part of my life. And it's a useful resolution for productions that finish out at 4K. It allows for higher quality through down sampling, post cropping/reframing, and that extra resolution can also be used to stabilize shots without a real loss in quality for a 4K finish. David Fincher's Gone Girl was actually shot in 6K and ran through post at 6K for a 4K finish and used many of those techniques above.
8K was actually more visible at NAB 2015 than ever. The first notable 8K Broadcast Trials begin early 2016 and there are several 8K cameras that are available now. Workflow is the question mark for some of the manufacturers. I'm fairly keen on the RED workflow as the move to 8K isn't going to be a major jump from how I work with 6K material today, but does allow me to capture and finish at DCI and UHD 8K resolution. For me as a Director and Director of Photography 8K is about producing visuals that are on par or surpass traditional IMAX quality levels. And that's actually one of the areas you'll first be seeing 8K productions. I think even 4K feature film and broadcast productions have a use for 8K as it's part of the “future proofing” concept and also opens up even more down sampling and framing flexibility.
The true industry movement for delivery is 4K and 8K, but in DCI and UHD aspect ratios/resolutions. Capture resolutions can be larger to have a bit more creative flexibility. We've seen some 5K screens come to the market and might see 6K screens as well, but for our professional world digital delivery 4K and 8K are the targets. 4K is happening nearly everywhere today. And slowly but surely, 8K will be popping up more and more. We're still on track for the 2020 Olympics to be broadcast in 8K, which will be impressive.
Q: What NAB booths used your footage, and for what reason was it used?
A: I had footage all over the show this year and that's always a treat. I'm a big 4K and 4K+ advocate and it's personally very rewarding to see where the industry has gone in the last 3 years in particular. Schneider Optics was playing a small reel of content I shot on my Cine-Xenar III Primes, which I adore the look of. I've been using those mostly for 6K through 5K filming (5K is the S35 equivalent on RED Epic Dragon) and I love the “feel” of the images. Those Cine-Xenars have just a wonderful “draw”, color rendering, and a beautiful out of focus image. Just after the show I actually took delivery of the Xenon-FF Primes to get ready for some 8K VistaVision shooting on RED Weapon in the near future, these are nice little standard speed lenses.
I had a bit of footage used for workflow demo content at the RED Booth this year. I make a living shooting 4K+ primarily on RED cameras and it's always nice to see my work there and help out within the community of RED shooters. I actually wrote a RED DSMC Field Ops Guide that was published and available at the show, which is something I'm very proud of. However, at the RED Booth they also had a 4K Theater showing several reels and they did show their “RED X” real celebrating 10 years of images from RED cameras all the way from the early prototypes of the RED One to the modern RED Dragon sensor camera bodies. I was very fortunate and privileged to have a shot in that reel and it was actually a fairly emotion experience seeing all that cut together as a long time RED shooter. It's amazing to see 4K footage from 10 years ago holding up perfectly fine on the big screen.
Silverdraft had some of my footage showing on their workstations to show off realtime 6K playback, which is possible these days. Curious to see if 8K playback will be achievable on workstations of a similar price point. Also, SpectraCal was using some of my footage to show off split screen 3D LUT screen calibration, which is a bit more on the technical side of things but important when achieving the highest quality images.
Q: What changes in tech have you seen change over the years?
A: Well the movement to higher resolution image capture and delivery is certainly one thing. However, due to that we've seen amazing advancements in production and post production workflow. Cameras can do more “on the day” and we can do more in post faster and better than ever before. GPU Acceleration found in applications like Adobe Premiere Pro or REDCINE-X Pro has truly revolutionized the concept of working with higher resolution material. I just edited my last project in native 6K REDCODE RAW and that is amazing it's possible to edit without transcoding to a lower resolution or simpler format if that's the workflow that works for you. Not long ago this concept would have been just too difficult to explore. On a shoot where I was out of town I was able to work efficiently even at these higher resolutions from a notebook computer up in my hotel room. Workflow really has been “unlocked” at this point.
Display technology is getting better and we are seeing not only the highly motivated shift toward 4K and 8K, but also other improvements like HDR display technology coming along at the same time. As we get closer to moving on from Rec.709 to Rec.2020 display technology this is going to play an important role. Shortly people will have unbelievably vibrant, rich, and detailed images in their homes and theaters.
4K cameras and displays have come down drastically in price over the years as well. This is pretty much the most exciting time for independent through prosumer filmmakers out there because these tools are really well within reach and the workflow is “there”.
3D in the home was a fascinating blip that didn't catch on, mostly because it did not appeal to a casual viewing style. However, 3D production for theatrical releases has done pretty well. And VR right now is one of the hotter future technologies being explored at the moment.
We are right at the moment where film is being used less and less everyday as well. Though for those who chose to shoot on the medium it's certainly still doable. It's a sign of the times and productions are attracted to the speed benefits and financial benefits that come from digital motion picture production. Sensor technology is moving fast and caught up quickly in regards to color reproduction, dynamic range, and minimized digital fingerprint when highlights clip. These cameras now create more “natural” looking images than ever before. The good news is that there are sensors out there in modern digital cinema cameras that carry “film format to resolution relevance” like the RED Dragon sensor. Super 16mm, Super 35mm, VistaVision, 5-perf 65mm, and even 15-perf IMAX won't ever die as “formats” and they can still be explored through multi-format camera systems like RED's that hold the general familiar properties of film in a digital era.
Now that HDMI 2.0 has been finalized (finally!) we'll be seeing more and more 4K experiences happening for the general consumer. That combined with these newer codecs like HEVC H.265 and Google's VP9 access to streaming high resolution content is easier than ever. Actually, it should be noted that Google/YouTube has been supporting 4K playback since 2010 and they've recently updated their players for a better playback experience and they are beginning to support 4K at 60p right at this moment. Which is tremendous.
Q: Where are viewers or consumers of media most enjoying the 4K experience?
A: Personally I have a 70” inch UHD 4K television and a 31” DCI 4K monitor on my main workstation, so I'm enjoying 4K all of the time really. For those watching series like House of Cards and Daredevil from Netflix they are likely enjoying it on one of the newer UHD 4K smart televisions and I know people love that as I hear about all the time. There are actually a lot of 4K projectors out there in theaters and it's up to more feature film productions to finish out at 4K to give audiences that experience. There's been a slowly growing trend to finish out features in 4K and we'll see this happening more and more. And likely sooner than you'd think, 8K as well. I do see there's a few smaller screen 4K laptops available now, though that's more for the enthusiast market at the moment. You can see the most advantages of 4K and 8K between 240-600 pixels per inch, so smaller screens even show the potential of visual quality gains that come with 4K and 8K resolution. Where I've actually been really surprised to see more 4K adoption is the world of PC video games. For some of these newer immersive titles that place you in fantastical worlds some gamers are pushing to make that experience even bigger and realer than ever with 4K gaming.
Q: What do you see as the pros and cons of 4K technology?
A: The biggest area in my career that I see 4K and 4K+ technology causing hiccups is the world of Visual Effects. I started out in Visual Effects in the late 90s and resolution and workflow has always been thorn in the side of computer generated/rendered graphics and certainly compositors and texture painters have had to cope with the higher visual quality demands of 4K and 4K+ projects. That said, I did make a short film back in 2012 all in 4K with 4K visual effects on my own. Often what I've found is that workflow and pipelines need to be examined, modified, and created to navigate these high resolution waters we swim in. Rendering time is a real struggle still for 4K and 8K productions and the additional time to support higher resolution comps is very real, so to me that means we need to plan accordingly for our post schedules to meet those goals. There are costs that come with that of course, but at the same time technology has advanced a great deal. 3 years ago post houses were rather frustrated that storage space for these larger resolution projects were one of the biggest issues, however disks have become less expensive in the last few years and I'm hearing that particular topic less and less. Higher performance systems are still the costly realm and that's a given. If you are looking to do uncompressed 4K and 8K playback you will be spending some serious cash.
Over the last few years I've heard the argument about “seeing too much” with 4K and 8K, like make-up or age lines on talent's faces. However, at this point that topic is rather silly and anybody who's worked with Super 35mm knows that was a rather silly argument in the first place. However, there are demands that exist and production quality should rise to the occasion when it comes to wardrobe, makeup, hair, and set design as there's opportunities to bring out more “life” in scenes.
Q: What do you think will be the hot topic at NAB next year?
A: Hmmm. NAB 2016. You'll see more 4K for sure. And a lot more 8K than even this year. However, you'll likely see more VR experiences and maybe even dedicated camera systems to with shooting and finishing VR content. I suspect we'll see one major advancement that will effect handheld gimbals as many of the units on the market today have a few things they can improve upon. We've seen the advantages of having smaller cameras over the years and this year we saw more compact professional camera bodies, I expect that to be a continuing trend. NAB 2016 and maybe 2017 will be “glass years” as we'll likely see a few new lens projects coming to light. By NAB 2016 you'll be seeing larger SSDs and even larger capacity spinning hard drive beyond the 8TB capacity we have today. SSDs in general have taken the industry by storm both as a camera recording medium and within workstations and this has also effected consumer devices. We'll also see a slew of USB 3.1/Type-C devices at NAB 2016. Considering the UHD and DCI specifications for 4K and 8K being 24-60fps I think we might maybe see more high speed camera options in a year or two. I'm also expecting more 4K Production/Field Monitors to become available at some point and likely 4K Wireless Video Transmitters. I'm a bit of a lens nut, and I'm always happy to see new spherical and anamorphic glass. Especially if it convers the VistaVision format that I'll be shooting on for years to come.
Q: Anything else you would like to share?
A: The Motion Picture Industry is moving at a rapid pace. Technology often can seem overwhelming and certainly perhaps get in the way of the artistry and craft of making compelling motion pictures. However, this is one industry where arts and science have had a symbiotic relationship for over a 125 years. Every step of the way there have been advancements in film and digital technology to get us to where we are now. It's an interesting moment as we now have rather proper digital cinema cameras that are designed to be the equivalent of Super 16mm, Super 35mm, VistaVision, and 65mm 5-Perf film formats and some companies have done a good job of bringing much of what we love about the technical and aesthetic merits of film to a digital age. Between 2013 and now we've been in that weird flux where we do have a very valid digital film alternative and the modern 4K and 8K display technologies demand high quality images. I would like to see the industry produce and adopt 4K and 8K workflows at a slightly quicker pace. I personally haven't shot under 4K since 2011 and I feel the industry, the productions, and the creators should focus on quality not just in image, but sound and story alike. Some productions have succeeded at this greatly. With things like RED Weapon Dragon 8K VistaVision, Dolby Atmos sound technology, and 4K and 8K laser projection audiences can have a truly ground breaking theatrical experience and we can provide a good deal of that in the home delivery as well. In many ways this is the most exciting time to shoot, produce, and watch motion pictures with this new tech and at this point, especially after NAB 2015, we should be pushing ourselves to achieve new heights with our productions.
