by Corey Steib on May 14th, 2013

A lot of people ask why 4K? Well there are many reasons why 4k is making so much noise right now as it has become much more afordable due in part to companies like RED,Sony and Black Magic Design. But 4K has been around for 11 years now all in part to the studios getting together to help get the cinemas to convert from the old analog film systems to the new digital ones which were putting out 2k and 4k resolution by the year 2000 and the Digital Cinema Initiative also known as "DCI". (more background on here)

So what a lot people don't understand is that the 2K and 4K came about due in part to updating the projectors for a better cinema experience. Now fast forward to 2006/2007 when the founder of Oakley Jim Jannard created the "Red One Digital Cinema Camera Company" came out with the first ever 4K Cinema Camera that is known as the "Red One Camera" today. At the time it was the most advanced camera system since 35mm went from still photography to motion pictures thanks in part to our film god's "George Eastman" and "Thomas Edison". Red one took off like a rocket and was the camera to beat as they came out with 2 new cameras "Epic" and "Scarlet" but in 2012 and 2013 the big camera companies like Sony,Canon,Arri started to catch up. But the one company that is making noise this year in 2013 is the Black Magic Design who came out with there first ever camera called "Black Magic Cinema Camera" which is a 2.5k Camera and just this year (2013) came out with there 4K camera "Black Magic Production Camera.".

What is 4K

4K is 4 times the resolution of HD and is the next generation of programme acquisition, delivery and broadcast also know as "Ultra HD"

Why 4K

Acquisition, post-production and delivery is now fully HD (1920 x 1080) but modern technology now delivers even greater resolutions and 4K has become a practical production format.

There are a number of advantages of adopting 4K acquisition now:

Enhanced detail and better overall image quality
Creative flexibility to zoom and crop in post-production
Recording in higher-resolution formats will help content retain its value in the longer term
Keying tools deliver better results due to more well-defined edges
3D looks better at higher resolution as seen in projects, such as Avengers 3D
Major studios hope to attract new audiences into 4K cinemas, which easily outperform HD home theatre systems

Conclusion About 4K

One of the great things about 4K is that it allows you to get the most dynamic range and the best picture quality by allowing you to move in and get close ups that you may have missed in the field without losing any resolution which is really great and I sure can't wait to test it out on my new Black Magic Production Camera when I get it in July. But here are a few key points of my own for you

Why do you need 4K?
Does it fit your clientele?
Does it fit your budget?
What type of project are you doing?
What is your final output going to be?

Those are the questions that you need to ask yourself before you decide to shoot with a 4K camera, yes you will get the best image possible but it will also take up a lot of hard drive space and time. There are many things shot in 4K but are normally down graded to 2K or 1080 and even though I myself am getting a 4K Camera does not mean I will be shooting every single project on it as I am sure most of my work will still be with my Sony FS100 as it fits most of my work and clientele. And the camera is only half of it as you have to take into account the workflow after you shoot in which most people really forget about.

Camera News from NAB 2013

by Corey Steib on April 16th, 2013

Hi to all, i am currently on set of 2 reality shows back to back with very limited internet access and time as i am writing this blog. i did see a lot of great new things announced at nab 2013 this year and one of them was the 2 new cinema cameras from black magic.

now this is some pretty exciting stuff but i really want to see some video from both cameras but more from the black magic pocket camera. i have to say also that they have hit the nail in the head again with the pricing on both cameras which is a blessing because i am sure you know that budget for clients are not the same as they use to be.

i am still reading some info on both cameras at the moment and will have an update in the next week or so but i do have to get back to work and do what i do best (fame up the shot and shoot :) ) so i leave you with the link below.

http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/

New Digital Camera Reports and Log Forms.

by Corey Steib on March 22nd, 2013

Hello to all Filmmakers around the world. I hope that everyone is having a great year of shooting so far. I wanted to do a follow up blog post on the one I did last month (Click Here to read it) about my good friend David E. Elkins-SOC and his new book "The 6th Edition of the Camera Assistant's Manual".

Before david wrote me an e-mail saying that he was going to do a new book and wanted my input, I sent him a rough copy of some new up to date camera reports and log forms but for digital. David had some video forms up but no new updated ones for the digital age that we now live in and there was really none around other then ones from Foto Kem but they were for the RED Camera only and no other formats.

So I took the same template and layout that dave had and pretty much built 2 brand new forms in about 2 hours from a blank page. I sent them over to david to get his thought and he said he loved them even though most of his background is in film so his experience in digital is limited but thanks to me, E. Gunnar Mortensen, Jennifer Braddock, Mako Koiwai and many other people he was able to implement both Film and Digital in his new 600 page book which I am so honored and proud to be a part of. Thank you again David.

To download the forms you can go to either my website (www.coreysteib.com) or (Camera Assistants Manual) and you can choose a Word Doc or PDF.

Here below is what I wrote to dave regarding the changes with in the camera department but particular to the media management side of it.

_{"Hey Dave,

For data management the 1st AC I think should know how to do media and work flow but it's mainly up to either the 2nd AC,digital loader or DIT depending on the show and budget. They also have to understand not only how the camera records but what formats. When you dump the footage you need to know what editing system it's going to cause each editing suite is different (but still the same in a way) were premiere CS5 you can choose which format you shot (which has all of the different codecs) but with Final Cut Pro 7 you have the same codecs (most but not all) but you have to log and transfer the footage. Because if you don't put in the right codec then you could loose some data (color and resolution). Media Management is just as an important role as the DP and Camera Op."}

So with that being said the role of the 1st AC,2nd AC and Loader has not changed all that much other then the fact that you need to know more about the camera and it's workflow then ever. And just to give you an example here below is a recent question that my friend Connie Swanson posted on facebook last month

_{"OK Editors and post friends. On Alexa Camera (only)...Transcoding OR not on deliverable to you?

Joe Murray: Depends on if you're recording ProRes Quicktimes or raw using an external recorder. No need to transcode the first, helpful to transcode the second.

Disco San Andreas: DIT should hand it to you how the editor wants it.

Corey Steib: both comments are correct. I always ask the client what NLE they are using and if they don't know then I get the editors e-mail and or phone number to find out what best works for him as if it's a quick turn around then ProRes would be the best.

Joe Murray: I answered the question assuming Connie is delivering to me - but yes, assuming you know who the editor is, they may have a different answer.

Joe Murray: Wait a minute, is this a trick question? If I answer correctly do I get the job?

Connie Swanson: You will always get my POST!! Too funny. I think the misconception is that if transcoding is a must on live action side it's $$ in OT on the DIT. My last 5 jobs with Alexa no transcoding which can save the live action 2-4k

John H. Atkinson: There is not need to transcode for Final Cut Pro if shot Pro Res in camera.

Corey Steib: Connie Swanson- True but if you want to get the full 4K on SXS then you need to upgrade your sxs cards and or use an external recorder.

Joe Murray: The only time I have needed to transcode down from ProRes 4:4:4:4 to regular ProRes is when a freelance editor working on a laptop requested it. To save storage and give a bit better realtime playback during offline.

Connie Swanson: Thanks Joe, John and Corey. It's hard to inform production companies in the ways of Alexa!

Corey Steib: Yes it is but it's our job to say hey this is what does and does not work . It's the reason why we are camera people cause we are suppose to know it all

Norma Sardy: I've had 2 situations with AVID editors that we had to transcode for. We discussed up front cheaper to get someone to transcode on production budget than to have post house do it. Agency was happy to pay.

Connie Swanson: Thanks Norma! From technical /saturation side not sure needed. In the end my editor-EDITat JOES (If you need one) confirms:: "Depends on if you're recording ProRes Quicktimes or raw using an external recorder. No need to transcode the first, helpful to transcode the second." www.editatjoes.com"}

Read More ▸

H.265 What?

by Corey Steib and Article By Extreme Tech .com on March 16th, 2013

Yep that's right Filmmakers the Images says it all above and below as I heard a a little about this a couple of months ago and I can't re call who or where but I do remember hearing H.265. So your truley did a little research and come to find out that is was confirmed true and it will be coming out this year maybe spring/sumer time.

So what does this mean and what's the difference between the new codec and H.264? Well I looked up a few articles and here is what the guys over at Extreme Tech had to say in which you can read there article below

_{"The HEVC/H.265 standard, which offers a number of improvements over current H.264 implementations, has now been finalized. It should now be a matter of months until you begin to see devices (smartphones, graphics cards) that support H.265 decode, though whether these implementations will be in hardware, or shoddy, battery-sucking software, remains to be seen."}

Why H.265 is superior to H.264

_{"Repeated quality comparison tests have demonstrated that H.265 reduces file size by roughly 39-44% at the same quality compared to H.264. This figure can change dramatically depending on how quality control is measured. In subjective viewing tests, subjects reported HEVC’s quality was equal to or greater than H.264′s with a bitrate reduction of 51-74%. That’s substantially better than what a comparison of peak signal-to-noise (PSNR) values would predict. The subjective viewing tests were conducted with multiple subjects across a wide range of video samples, and while they aren’t the final word on the topic, these are hugely encouraging results as you can see below. "

(All original image courtesy of Wikipedia)}

_{"The current HEVC standard describes three profiles: Main, Main 10, and Main Still Picture. Main supports 8-bit color while Main 10 implements 10-bit color. Both profiles limit chroma subsampling to 4:2:0. Extensions to the standard, expected in 2014, will allow for 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 sampling, and multiview video coding (3D)."}

_{"H.265 is designed to use a more efficient means of encoding pixel data and incorporates larger blocks of pixels than H.264′s macroblocks did. It can divide a picture into tiles for more efficient parallel processing and decode slices independently for better resynchronization. Intra-prediction specifies 33 directional modes (up from eight in H.264) and offers better motion compensation processing and vector prediction."}

_{"Right now, there’s some overlap between what H.265 and various extended H.264 profiles can do. H.264 Hi10P, for example, supports 10-bit video. There’s even an H.264 profile (Hi444PP) that supports 4:4:4 chroma subsampling and 14-bit color. In these cases, the difference between H.265 and H.264 is that the former will eventually deliver the same capabilities using significantly less bandwidth.

The tradeoff is processing power. H.265 requires substantially more computational power to decode than H.264, Early chips that support H.265 have already been announced — Broadcom made a splash with its Brahma BCM7445 at CES earlier this month, but that chip is something of a beast. It’s a 28nm quad-core processor that’s capable of transcoding four 1080p30 streams or driving HEVC video at up to 4096×2160."}

MPEG-2 and native content

_{"So how long until you can buy an HEVC-capable device? That’s going to depend on a host of factors. Companies like AMD and Nvidia will likely integrate H.265 decode capabilities in fairly short order, though we may see features added as new components of the specification are developed. First-generation chips might only conform to the now-finalized standard, with support for H.265 multiview decode added once that extension is finalized.

Based on how various companies handled H.264 decode capabilities, we’ll probably see some fudging as far as device-level compatibility is concerned. Smartphones and tablets with enough CPU power to handle H.265 decode can be advertised as H.265-capable with software updates, even if they chew through battery life like a fat kid on cake when handling the task. The companies talking up H.265, like Qualcomm and Broadcom, see the new video standard as a way to differentiate devices and sell consumers on next-generation products. For the media companies actually responsible for serving up content, it’s quite a bit more complicated.

Right now, terrestrial cable is dominated by MPEG-2 broadcasts. The good news is that H.265 could finally give broadcasters reason to ditch MPEG-2 by reducing bandwidth consumption by 70-80% for the same content. That’s enough to provide the impetus for stepping up to full 1080p broadcasting and leaving 720p/1080i behind. The flip side, however, is that broadcasters have precious little reason to innovate. Most cable companies face limited competition in their target markets. Satellite companies will likely adopt H.265 first, thanks to the potential bandwidth savings."}

_{"Long-term, H.265 is going to be the standard of choice for UHDTV’s 4K and 8K resolutions (See: 8K UHDTV: How do you send a 48Gbps TV signal over terrestrial airwaves?) — but that brings up the other issue. Currently, there’s no native 4K content. HEVC’s finalization means that content owners now have a theoretical standard to map to, but they don’t have any unified way to deliver the content. Sony is planning a 4K film digital delivery service for customers who buy its first 4K televisions, and is marketing a new lineup of films as “Mastered in 4K.” These are 1080p films that were converted from 4K digital masters and will supposedly offer enhanced quality for a “near-4K experience.”}

"this article came out on 1/29/2013" Note: The new Sony Cameras (F5/F55) along with the RED Cameras shoot 4k Internal native content.

_{"The Blu-ray Disc Association is investigating ways to support 4K in the Blu-ray Disc standard, but that’s not going to be simple. H.264 can theoretically be extended to cover this resolution, but the bandwidth problem is going to rear its head at that point. An H.264 4K Blu-ray film needs far more storage space than an H.265 version of the same content. Problem is, existing players don’t support 100-128GB BDXL discs, either.

There’s no solution that doesn’t break compatibility with the existing Blu-ray standard in some form. Who wins the debate may depend on who gets stuck bearing the cost. Updating to the H.265 standard wouldn’t require any changes to disc manufacturing but might require all-new players, while high-density discs might work in some current players, but would require a manufacturing overhaul.

Another big question for later this year will be console support. Sony’s PS2 and PS3 helped launch both the DVD and Blu-ray standards. The PS4 could theoretically do the same for 4K content, provided there’s some consensus about how 4K content is going to be delivered in the future and what standards support it.

For now, we’re cautious about making claims for the new standard. We know it does one thing well — reduce bandwidth consumption at a given quality level. That benefit could trickle down to battery life improvements when streaming video, provided the higher power consumption of decoding doesn’t offset the radio’s lower power consumption. It could make 1080p broadcasting and 4K video a reality — but not until Sony and other media giants decide how to package the content."}

So what does this mean for the H.264 Codec now? Well at the moment it is unclear but from what you can read in the article with the new H.265 Codec you get a higher quality codec at a much lower bandwidth at almost 4K Resolution size which is nice for people who are shooting on the RED and new Sony F5/F55 Cameras. I think we will get a better over all picture of the new codec when it is updated in our NLE systems and the codec starts to become the standard just like the H.264 codec is now for a lot of the web and data transfers. But for now we will have to wait until it comes out this year and I sure can't wait :).

My New Podcast

by Corey Steib on March 3rd, 2013

Ok so today i just recored my very first podcast on Spreaker.com. If you have not listened to it yet please do so below as I give a bio on myself and really let you get a feel on where I want to take this. This will be about all things film and video that you can think of as we will cover it all. So please listen to it and shoot me a e-mail,tweet and or facebook message and also follow me :). "Click on the logo for the link to my podcast"

My new Podcast Page on my Website

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