ATLANTA—Tyler Perry Studios has announced a multi-year agreement with Synapse Virtual Production to develop and operate a next-generation virtual production facility on its Atlanta studio grounds.

Located on the historic 365-acre Tyler Perry Studios campus in Atlanta, which already includes premier sound stages, expansive backlots, standing sets, and production support facilities, the new virtual production-enabled soundstage will provide filmmakers, television producers, and content creators access to state-of-the-art LED volume technology, real-time digital environments, and advanced production workflows that expand creative flexibility, streamline production, and reduce costs while keeping crews at the center of the process.

As with all other facilities at Tyler Perry Studios, the Synapse soundstage will be available for third-party usage.

By combining modern technology with Tyler Perry Studios’ existing production infrastructure, the studio aims to provide a complete, end-to-end production offering.

The new soundstage is expected to be operational by the end of 2026.

The facility will combine LED volume, advanced camera tracking, and real-time 3D engines such as Unreal Engine with a production-ready operating model designed for real-world schedules and sets. Synapse also utilizes AI-supported tools for look development, asset iteration, and environment capture, helping productions move faster while maintaining creative quality and human oversight. This approach is focused on production-ready execution, consistent on-camera results, and a workflow designed for real sets and real schedules, the two companies reported.

Already operating flagship LED volume stages in Los Angeles, with a New York facility set to open next, Synapse offers end-to-end virtual production services spanning concept development, virtual art direction, real-time processes, on-set stage operations, and post-production integration.

The facility will support productions of all sizes, from feature films and television series to commercials, music videos, livestreams, immersive experiences, and emerging digital media projects.

Synapse’s services and technology ecosystem have been utilized in groundbreaking film and television projects for all the major studios and streamers. Recently, Synapse was a key production service partner for Artist Equity on “The Rip” and “The Accountant 2.” The company has received Clios, London International, and other prestigious awards for their work in advertising.

“I’m paying close attention to what these tools can do, and I’m also thinking about the people who make this industry work,” said Tyler Perry. “This collaboration is about moving forward in a way that keeps crews working and traditional production jobs intact while also allowing creatives new ways to build worlds and tell stories for the big and small screens.”

"Our mission at Synapse is to bridge the gap between imagination and innovation," said Justin Diener, CEO of Synapse. "Partnering with Tyler Perry Studios represents a defining moment for both companies and for the future of content creation. Together, we are building an environment where filmmakers, artists, and creators can harness real-time tools to tell bigger stories, create more immersive experiences, and push the boundaries of what's possible on screen. We are honored to help bring this vision to life alongside Tyler Perry and his incredible team."

Clear-com has announced that the production teams for Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! have added Clear-Com FreeSpeak wireless and Arcadia Central Station to upgrade their production communications.

Audio Masterpiece’s Gary Vahling, who has worked in the professional audio industry since the early 1990s, served as the lead systems partner for the project. Known for his meticulous preparation and hands-on testing approach, Vahling made sure the communications system was fully validated before deployment, minimizing risk and guaranteeing reliability once it reached the studio floor.

Chris Savage, technical manager and project lead for both shows, oversaw the system design and installation.

“Both shows share a control room but have stages that are effectively miles apart due to walls, pathways, and even parking lots,” Savage explained. “We needed a system that could handle extensive travel between the control room and the stages without a single dropout, and that’s exactly what we achieved.”

The production team on Wheel of Fortune requested a more flexible and channel-rich system to accommodate a technically savvy crew with increased monitoring needs. Clear-Com integrated a combination of FreeSpeak II and FreeSpeak Icon systems, leveraging Bluetooth-enabled beltpacks for maximum ease-of-use, even for executives with minimal technical experience.

For Jeopardy!, reliability and streamlined communication were equally critical in supporting the show’s fast-paced production environment, where timing, contestant coordination, and precision cueing are essential, Clear-com said. The Clear-Com setup provides dedicated wireless coverage across the stage and production areas, giving crew members instant, uninterrupted communication throughout tapings.

The system now supports 30 FreeSpeak II beltpacks and 6 Icon beltpacks for Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!, with easy intersystem connectivity.

The upgrade also included Arcadia Central Station, allowing full interoperability with existing Dante-enabled audio networks. This approach enabled lighting and PA crews to continue using legacy FreeSpeak II beltpacks while taking advantage of FreeSpeak Icon’s advanced capabilities.

“The goal was a system that would last for years and scale with evolving production needs,” said Savage. “The team at Clear-Com, working closely with our Partners, delivered a solution that was simple and useful. From control room to stage, operators experienced zero downtime, even during high-pressure live productions.”

LONDON—Cascade Studio has announced the Open Beta launch of Cascade, an AI-native production platform that aims to democratize storytelling by bringing Hollywood-grade storytelling infrastructure to creators of any size.

"Too many great stories never make it to screen – and we built Cascade to change that," said Simon Windsor, CEO of Cascade Studio. "We didn't set out to build another AI generation tool. That's not what the industry needs. What we've created is the all-in-one production environment we wished we'd had throughout our careers.”

Cascade was co-founded by Simon Windsor, co-founder and former co-CEO of Dimension Studio; Junaid Baig, former lead of DNEG rendering and pipeline whose credits include “Avengers: Endgame”, “Tenet”, “Fantastic Beasts”, and “No Time To Die”; and Darren Hopkins, technology entrepreneur, former CFO of Dimension Studio, and CEO of AI-focused investment firm Mollyroe PLC. The company has also appointed games industry pioneer Dominic Wheatley, co-founder and former CEO of Eidos, as Chairman.

Described by its founders as "the Unreal Engine of storytelling", the Cascade platform is powered by a proprietary agentic AI framework that acts as a creative co-pilot throughout production, helping creators develop ideas, build assets, manage projects and orchestrate workflows through natural interaction, while keeping every creative decision firmly in human hands.

Cascade Studios stressed that the platform has been built for scaling productions and IP. Its unique asset-based system enables creators to maintain character consistency, visual coherence and IP integrity across entire projects – from shot to shot, series to series, and across expanding story worlds and sequels. Cascade brings AI-generated content, existing creative assets and live-action production together seamlessly in a single platform.

The result is a scalable production environment where solo creators or agile teams can build everything from teasers, trailers and advertising campaigns to episodic series, animation, films and music videos without juggling multiple tools, subscriptions or disconnected workflows.

"The creativity has always been there, but what the industry has been missing is a platform that connects everything – one that supercharges high-grade production while respecting the creative process and helping storytellers bring ambitious ideas to life,” Windsor added. “That's what Cascade is. The production platform modern storytelling has been waiting for. We're redefining who can make films, how fast they can make them, and at what quality."

The Open Beta of Cascade is available now: Sign up at www.cascadestudio.ai.

LONDON—A new study from Ampere Analysis highlights a pain point for consumers as streaming services push to increase profits—audiences are waiting longer than ever for the return of their favorite original shows.

The average gap between seasons of scripted originals has almost doubled from 12 months in 2020 to 21 months in 2025, according to Ampere.

The U.K. researcher also found that while audiences remain loyal to hit titles such as Apple TV’s “Severance” and Netflix’s “Wednesday,” longer waits could fuel more subscriber churn if platforms fail to keep viewers engaged.

At the 2022 height of the streaming boom, the study found, major platforms released some 599 seasons of scripted original shows, compared to a combined 591 from 2015 to 2019.. But the demand for high-end, blockbuster-style content has significantly extended production timelines. In 2020, major SVOD platforms took an average of 12 months to release new seasons of original scripted shows. By 2025, the average wait had almost doubled to 21 months.

"Many original shows build highly dedicated audiences that remain loyal despite increasingly long waits between seasons,” Ampere Senior Analyst Christen Tamisin, said. “However, streamers need to balance blockbuster production timelines against a steady flow of content. Extended gaps may generate anticipation around flagship titles, but they can also encourage audiences to cancel subscriptions and return only when major shows are back on screen."

Other key findings include:

• Original shows with gaps of over 30 months between seasons have achieved the highest engagement in the premiere month of the new season. Shows including Apple TV’s “Severance” and Netflix’s “Wednesday” generated almost twice the average engagement levels despite lengthy waits between seasons.
• Genre matters. Sci-fi and fantasly titles, often involving complex, high-budget productions, perform strongly despite long waits between seasons. By contrast, comedy audiences are less willing to tolerate extended gaps, while crime and thriller content performs consistently across a range of release patterns.
• The long gaps between seasons may actually lead to higher engagement. Existing audiences often rewatch earlier seasons to refresh their memories, while new audiences continue discovering shows during the gap between releases.
• Viewing of Netflix megahit “Stranger Things” rose by 300% in the second half of 2025 ahead of the release of its fifth and final season. Particularly strong viewing for Season 1 suggests both new viewers discovering the series and existing fans revisiting earlier episodes.
• Despite strong engagement around returning shows, long gaps create risk. In Q1 2026 in the U.S., 54% of respondents said they would be likely to cancel a service subscription if they were not using it often enough. Long waits between seasons leave streaming platforms vulnerable to churn and encourage audiences to subscribe only when their favorite shows return.

SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) have reached a tentative agreement on terms for a new contract that would avoid the bitter strike that took place in 2023.

The tentative new agreement would replace the 2023 SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical Contracts covering motion pictures, scripted primetime dramatic television, streaming content and new media.

The tentative agreement is subject to approval by the SAG-AFTRA National Board, which will meet in the coming days to review the terms.

The union and the studios said that the specific details will not be released in advance of the Board’s review.

Negotiations began February 9 and recessed March 15. Talks resumed April 27 and concluded May 2, 2026.

The tentative agreement was reached about a month after the Writers Guild of America announced its tentative agreement with AMPTP.

Blackmagic Design announced a range of new products it will launch at the 2026 NAB Show, April 18-22 in Las Vegas, led by its first immersive camera system for Apple Vision Pro.

The Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive 100G is being billed as the world’s first immersive cinema camera designed for live production with Apple Immersive Video. Featuring dual 8Kx8K RGBW sensors with 16 stops of dynamic range, URSA Cine Immersive 100G uses 100G Ethernet to deliver the bandwidth needed to output live immersive video for the first time.

Also new for the camera is the Blackmagic URSA Live Encoder, a live processor module that compresses live immersive video into Apple ProRes for output as SMPTE-2110-22 IP video, allowing customers to combine the stereo, high frame rate image streams into a single 100G Ethernet connection.

“Live immersive production is here, and it’s extraordinary,” said Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design CEO. “URSA Cine Immersive 100G makes it possible, and the images from this camera are just incredible to watch. It truly feels like you’ve been transported to the middle of the action. From sports to concerts, this opens up an entirely new world in live production!”

URSA Cine Immersive 100G features new sensors designed for incredible quality images at 8K x 8K per eye. Using the same revolutionary RGBW sensor design as URSA Cine, the new dual sensor layout features larger photo-sites, delivering 16 stops of dynamic range. The unique RGBW architecture provides equal amounts of red, green and blue pixels for incredible color super sampling. This means it is optimized to deliver incredibly rich colors and provide the ultimate in image quality and flexibility, even at the high frame rates live immersive video requires, the company said.

The Blackmagic URSA Live Encoder enables the Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive 100G to be used for live immersive production. It encodes live video into ProRes for output as SMPTE-2110 IP video via the high-speed 100G Ethernet port, creating an entirely new live immersive viewing experience. Plus, the camera data rate is under 50 Gb/s, so customers can combine two cameras into a single 100G Ethernet connection.

The URSA Cine Immersive 100G was recently used for Spectrum Front Row, a series of live Lakers games in Apple Immersive during the 2025-2026 season, which are now available to watch on demand using the Spectrum SportsNet and NBA apps for Apple Vision Pro.

Blackmagic’s first immersive camera, the URSA Cine Immersive has been used on a number of high-profile immersive productions, including MotoGP: Tour De Force, Debut at the BBC Proms, an upcoming documentary featuring Real Madrid, and NASA’s recent Artemis II launch.

Blackmagic will also debut its Blackmagic URSA Cine 12K LF 100G, with 100G Ethernet for high frame rate SMPTE-2110 live production output up to 440fps. Building on the digital film features of the URSA Cine 12K LF, including the large format RGBW 36x24mm sensor, the new model adds dramatically faster networking for cinematic live production workflows.

The camera will be available Q3 from US$8,995.

Software Updates
DaVinci Resolve 21 will be demo-ed at the Blackmagic booth, updated with a new Photo page,which enables colorists and photographers to use Hollywood’s most advanced color tools for still photos.

Other updates include new AI tools such as IntelliSearch for fast content searching, CineFocus for focal point adjustment, tools for facial refinement, and more. The Krokodove toolset adds over 70 new graphics to Fusion, Fairlight folders simplify audio track management, plus there are improvements to keyframing, MultiMaster trim passes, layer list node graphs and more.

DaVinci Resolve 21 public beta is available for download now from the Blackmagic Design website

Also new is Fairlight Live, a new software-based live audio mixer with spatial audio mixing and SMPTE-2110 broadcast workflows. Fairlight Live easily handles thousands of audio channels, working with standard computer audio or USB audio from ATEM live production switchers. Fully customizable, it has built-in effects and professional features such as a cue player, talkback busses, snapshots and more.

(Fairlight Live public beta is available immediately from the Blackmagic Design website free of charge)

Switchers
Two new additions to Blackmagic’s ATEM live production switchers platform, the ATEM 4 M/E Constellation IP and ATEM 4 M/E Constellation IP Plus are fully SMPTE-2110 native. They retain the features of the existing ATEM Constellation SDI based switchers, so they are familiar to users, allowing a seamless transition between SMPTE-2110 and SDI based switchers in facilities that have both.

Designed for high end broadcast and live production, the new design features front-to-back cooling, extensive redundancy, support for SMPTE-2022-7 on all 100G video ports, redundant PTP clock connections, 2 x 10G Ethernet for control ports and redundant AC power supplies.

The ATEM 4 M/E Constellation IP will be available in June from US$7,995.

Also new is the ATEM Monitoring Rack Panel, a new combination monitoring converter and control panel that can be used with ATEM Constellation IP live production switchers. It converts SMPTE 2110 IP to HDMI and 12G-SDI for connecting to monitors, however it also has front panel input buttons for controlling the switcher as well as an LCD and talkback connections.

It will be available in June from US$995.

Storage, Recording and Cloud
The new HyperDeck ISO Recorder 100G is a new SMPTE 2110 IP video recorder with 100G Ethernet that lets customers record all their cameras for live production. This means customers can also use DaVinci Resolve for live action replay. HyperDeck ISO Recorder 100G uses a single 100G Ethernet connection to connect all 8 video channels, plus it records high-quality Apple ProRes video to network storage via 100G Ethernet.

It will be available in June from US$4,995.

Blackmagic Cloud Store Ultra provides ultra-high performance flash storage with up to 48TB capacity and two independent 100G Ethernet connections that lets customers record and edit simultaneously without either workflow interfering with the other. Available in 24TB and 48TB models, it also features RAID 5 support, dual redundant power supplies and Blackmagic Cloud sync.

It will be available in June from US$8,835.

Conversion and Connectivity
The Blackmagic SDI Expander 8x12G converter lets customers connect all their 12G-SDI gear to the latest 100G Ethernet SMPTE-2110 IP systems. The converter supports 8 bi-directional 12G-SDI connections and has 2 separate 100G Ethernet connections allowing SMPTE-2022-7 redundancy.

It will be available in June from US$2,995.

The Blackmagic Media Dock Ultra is a new high performance dock for Blackmagic Media Modules with two fully independent 100G Ethernet ports. It also features SDI and HDMI status monitoring and Blackmagic Cloud sync that lets customers use Blackmagic Media Modules as extremely high performance removable storage.

It will available in June from US$2,995.

The new Blackmagic StudioBridge 10G PWR lets customers bridge eight separate 10G Ethernet SMPTE-2110 connections into modern 100G SMPTE-2022-7 redundant systems, allowing users to combine up to 8 separate cameras or converters into a 100G Ethernet IP video system. If the 10G Ethernet products use a single connection, then the Blackmagic StudioBridge 10G PWR will also bridge into the 2 x 100G Ethernet connections for a redundant broadcast system. Plus this converter has four separate internal power supplies so it can provide each of the 10G Ethernet connections with 90W PoE++ power.

It will be available in June from US$2,495.

The Blackmagic UpDownCross 100G standards converter lets customers simultaneously convert up to eight separate channels of SD, HD and Ultra HD video to any other standard. The new converter has redundant 100G Ethernet for full SMPTE 2022-7 compliance and a dedicated NMOS control port.

It will be available in June from US$2,435

The Blackmagic Ethernet Switch 820 is a new high performance, low latency model designed for advanced broadcast systems. It includes 8 x 100G and 2 x 10G Ethernet connections plus simple front panel SMPTE-2110 routing. Blackmagic Ethernet Switch 820 also has two redundant PTP clock Ethernet connections, a separate NMOS control port and a dedicated management port.

It will be available in June from US$2,295

Blackmagic Design will be in Booth N2502 in the North Hall of the LVCC.

BURLINGTON, Mass.—Avid has released data showing that the filmmakers, editors and sound teams worked with Avid Media Composer and Pro Tools to create the vast majority of this year’s Academy Award®-winning pictures.

In total, 87% of winning productions were crafted using Avid solutions, reinforcing Avid’s long history as the creative platform trusted for the world’s greatest storytelling, the company reported.

“Well-deserved congratulations to all the filmmakers, editors and sound teams recognized at this year’s Academy Awards,” said Wellford Dillard, CEO of Avid. “These films didn’t just entertain audiences – they moved, thrilled and inspired millions of people. We’re proud to see the world’s most important stories shaped by artists using Avid tools as part of their creative process. That’s what drives us every day – building technology that helps the world’s greatest creators deliver their best work.”

Filmmakers working with Avid creative solutions were recognized across major categories including Best Picture, Best Film Editing, Best Sound and Best Animated Feature Film. Winning productions include:

• Best Picture: `One Battle After Another'. Producers: Adam Somner, Sara Murphy and Paul Thomas Anderson.
• Best Film Editing:`One Battle After Another'. Editor: Andy Jurgensen.
• Best Sound: `F1: The Movie'. Sound team: Gareth John, Al Nelson, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Gary A. Rizzo and Juan Peralta.
• Best Animated Feature Film: `KPop Demon Hunters'. Producers: Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans and Michelle L.M. Wong.
• Best International Feature Film: `Sentimental Value' (Norway).
• Best Visual Effects: `Avatar: Fire and Ash'. Visual effects team: Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett.
• Best Documentary Feature Film: `Mr. Nobody Against Putin' Producers: David Borenstein, Pavel Talankin, Helle Faber and Alžběta Karásková.

Alongside a wide array of this year’s winning productions, Avid also reported that its editing and audio solutions were used across the majority of nominated works in several major categories, with 8 of the 10 Best Picture nominees were crafted using Avid, 4 out of 5 editors in Best Film Editing cut their films with Media Composer, and and all Best Sound nominees used Pro Tools.

For example, Andy Jurgensen, winner of the Best Film Editing Oscar for `One Battle After Another', cut the film using Avid Media Composer®.

“This film had so many tones – comedy, drama, action – it’s so hard to compartmentalize,” said Jurgensen. “One thing I really got into on this movie was Avid’s automatic transcribing tool… When you need to find just a word or a phrase you can search and find it in all the different takes. It saved me so much time.”

The sound team behind `F1: The Movie', which won the Oscar® for Best Sound, used Avid Pro Tools workflows to craft an immersive racing experience that captured both the authenticity and excitement of Formula 1.

“What makes F1 exciting is that it is the peak of motorsport racing. It is the top of the top,” said Juan Peralta, re-recording mixer at Skywalker Sound. “One of the edicts we got from the producers of this movie was to try to make it as authentic as possible… We also were making a fun movie – we want people to enjoy it and just be on for the ride.”

Learn more about the creative process behind `F1: The Movie' here: https://connect.avid.com/f1-the-movie-lp.html

Find out more about Andy Jurgensen’s editing experience on `One Battle After Another' here: https://theroughcutpod.com/one-battle-after-another/

PORTLAND, Ore.—Iyuno, a global provider of media localization services, is using Dante AV video to transport video streams throughout their production studios.

Based in Burbank, Calif. lyuno specializes in translation, dubbing, subtitling, and voice-over services for a wide array of entertainment content. The company helps major studios, streaming platforms, broadcasters, and production companies bring their films, television shows, video games, and other media to international audiences by providing culturally relevant and high-quality language solutions in more than 80 languages.

Iyuno’s 52,000 square foot facility features 10 recording studios, four Dolby Atmos mixing stages, a large format theatrical mix stage, multiple QC suites, and advanced video and audio editing stations. Iyuno was already using Dante for audio transmission and routing and wanted to find a complementary low-latency video transmission platform to simplify their workflows.

“One of the overarching goals for the facility was to increase our capabilities while also affording us the most flexible solution for delivering audio and video in a secure environment,” said Nate Green, Technical Manager at Iyuno’s Burbank facility. “With Dante audio being delivered via low latency over segregated IP networks, we recognized that a video solution that worked alongside the same infrastructure would provide multiple benefits. With Dante as the audio foundation, adding Dante AV video seemed logical, but it had to deliver flexible, reliable, and synchronized performance. After an exhaustive evaluation, we determined Dante AV video was the right choice for us.”

Dante AV video is a family of hardware and software solutions that enable manufacturers and end users to easily integrate networked video into the Dante platform. It provides interoperability between manufacturers while keeping discovery, configuration, and control to a single platform for all audio and video endpoints and is designed to run on standard 1GbE networks alongside Dante audio devices.

Iyuno selected Bolin’s D20H Dante AV Ultra transceivers to transmit video to its Voice Over (VO) and Automated Dialogue Replacement (ADR) studios. Source videos in their original language are fed from a central AV server to a recording room via the D20 transceivers, where a VO artist dubs them in the desired target language, precisely in sync with the character's actions on screen.

Another design goal for the facility was to enhance client-centric services while providing engineers with maximum flexibility to support simultaneous and accurate video distribution solutions. Dante AV can route a specific video feed to a client’s viewing position or enable complex workflows that allow multiple performers in different studios to collaborate using the same frame-accurate video source through multicast feeds to decoders.

When Imagine Communications announced last fall that it was acquiring Pixel Power from Rohde & Schwarz, the company said its main goal was to “broaden Imagine’s live production ecosystem and playout offerings via integration of Pixel Power’s software-defined, deploy-anywhere platforms.” This week, Imagine President Steve Reynolds updated TV Tech on how the integration is progressing.

Of particular importance to Imagine is Pixel’s playout and multiviewer solutions, two parts of the production workflow chain Reynolds thinks are key to expanding the company’s presence in these markets.

“Imagine has been in the playout business pretty much since the playout and automation business started all the way back to when we were Harris, and it's always been a really important segment for us,” he said. “We like to be in those mission-critical operational systems, the things that our customers depend on day in and day out in order to run their business.

“Those are the kind of products that Imagine has really focused on as we made the transition from a hardware centric company—which is what Harris really was—towards the software centric company that we are today,” Reynolds added.

The Power of a Combined Solution
The acquisition of Pixel Power, Reynolds says, will not only help strengthen its current playout solutions portfolio—which include ADC, Versio and in more recent years, the Aviator orchestration platform—but also expand its geographic footprint, Reynolds said.

“Pixel Power—which is a company that we have competed with for years—has built a really great solution for the European public broadcaster space, where they had a lot of success,” Reynolds said. “With customers like TV2 in Norway, SVT in Sweden, the work that they've done with the German public broadcasters, the work that they've done with TV5MONDE in France, they had a really great customer base around those public broadcasters.”

The two main products Pixel had built its success on in this market, according to Reynolds, were the company’s Gallium automated multiplatform content management solution and StreamMaster platform for realtime graphics and control. Combining automation plus a media server “really formed a nice bundle for anybody that's in that kind of public broadcast space,” Reynolds said.

“Pixel had done a good job of winning market share with those [national broadcast] customers, so the reason we wanted to acquire Gallium and StreamMaster was really aimed at that market segment,” he added. “We saw the success that they had in that segment, and as we continue to move forward with investments in Gallium and StreamMaster, it's going to be focused, at least initially, in Europe, to continue to build on that customer base.”

Reynolds said the combination of the two created a powerful and sophisticated graphics solution for Pixel Power, which was beating Imagine when it came to bidding for business with European broadcasters.

“Imagine was bidding on a lot of those same projects, and Pixel Power was winning,” Reynolds said, “And one of the things that we consistently heard is that the graphics package that is in StreamMaster is a top-tier integrated graphics package that a lot of those national broadcasters were leveraging because it had the capabilities that they needed not only to be able to do the 2D graphics—which Imagine already had—but they had some more advanced capabilities to be able to handle some 3D and to be able to handle a lot of the kind of the more advanced and more sophisticated on-air look that that those broadcasters were looking for.

“They had a sophisticated graphics package that was integrated into a playout system that met all of the criteria—it supports all the formats, it supports all of the different resolutions, it supports all the ingest workloads that those guys need,” he added. “So it had it checked all the boxes on kind of the basic set of competitive features. But it also added in that higher power graphics.”

Scaling Up
The second product Imagine was keenly interested in was multiviewers, specifically Pixel’s Prismon platform, which is designed to scale up to support hundreds of channels. This large-scale type of monitoring platform was high on Imagine’s shopping list, according to Reynolds.

"Imagine has always been in the multiviewer business, but we had a different focus—we were more on the production multiviewer side of things,” Reynolds said. “[Imagine’s] SNP was intended to be a production multiviewer, very low latency, very high quality, but not large scale.”

Integrating Prismon into Imagine’s multiviewer product line gives Imagine the ability to build facility-scale, multiviewers, especially in production facilities, turnaround facilities including satellite and cable operators, or in large scale, playout operations where there's dozens or even hundreds of channels being played out of the same facility, Reynolds said.

“So we now have multiviewer offerings for large scale and for smaller scale, low latency, and that would be in OB vans, production galleries, or control rooms at a sporting venue, where the number of feeds that you're dealing with is 10, 20 or maybe 30.”

Reynolds said Prismon helps Imagine respond to more market demands for integrated solutions. “What we realized was we really need to have a product in our portfolio that lets us create that fully bundled solution, because increasingly, that's what the market wants to buy,” he said. “It's the same thing as with the playout solution, right? The market wants an integrated solution, they don't want to have to build, or have to be their own systems integrator. They want to buy something that is integrated. And so Prismon filled that gap for us.”

The timescales for building new media production facilities has been declining for years, according to Reynolds, another reason for increased interest in integrated solutions.

“The idea of having these multi-year facility builds… that's in the past,” Reynolds said. “And in many cases now, we're looking at time frames that are measured in months between the time somebody acquires rights and they want to be on air. And that's what's really driving the demand for these fully integrated solutions. Customers want to know that it's already been tested, it's already been integrated, and you can deploy it quickly, easily and within a set of budget constraints to get on air.”

The acquisition of Pixel Power was completed at the end of 2025 and Reynolds said not a lot will change in terms of what existing customers should expect, including keeping the product names.

“That's why we bought them, we like the products, we like the differentiation of those products, they fit well within our portfolio, and they give us something new to offer to the customers that want to buy that kind of solution,” Reynolds said.

NAB Show Plans
Imagine’s booth (N1328 in the North Hall of the LVCC) at the NAB Show, April 19-22 in Las Vegas, will reflect this expanded market focus, according to Reynolds. Among the highlights will be the company’s cloud-based XVR playout engine, which was introduced at the 2025 IBC Show.

Gallium StreamMaster will be demonstrated running on COTS and its expanded multiviewer portfolio will be highlighted, including advanced automation features such as intelligent monitoring, automated audio/video issue detection, and “penalty boxing,” which elevates problem signals for immediate operator attention.

"The other thing you're going to see is this kind of fully integrated solution of gateways—the ability to use the SNP as the gateway between the SDI and IP world, and to do format conversion with JPEG access and things like that, directly into ingest,” Reynolds said. “And we'll be using the new XVR engine, which is the Linux-based ingest engine with multiple playout systems. So you'll see StreamMaster, XVR, and Nexio all sitting side by side in a kind of a multiserver environment.”

In October 2025, Kenna Hilburn, a former television producer, was promoted to Chief Product Officer for Avid, succeeding Tim Claman. TV Tech spoke with Kenna at IBC and recently caught up with her to talk about her new responsibilities and Avid's plans for the 2026 NAB Show.

TV Tech: Can you provide us with an update on Avid Content Core? Can you characterize what types of customers you expect to use it?
Kenna Hilburn: Avid Content Core addresses the real challenges media teams are encountering today in a fast-evolving media economy. It provides a cloud-native foundation to help teams manage, find, move, and understand their content across both linear and digital platforms. Content Core is about connecting the systems customers already have – not asking them to rip and replace what’s working.

As we work through proofs-of-concept, together with our customers, we see Content Core resonate strongly with broadcasters, news organizations, and enterprise media teams operating in hybrid environments. These are organizations that require coordination across people, tools, workflows, and global teams – especially as they work to do more with less, across more formats and with more complexity than ever.

TVT: Where is Avid applying artificial intelligence today in ways that actually save time or reduce friction – while still protecting creative control and editorial intent?
KH: We’re deploying AI very specifically and very strategically to remove friction in the workflow. That means focusing on areas where teams historically spend a lot of time – like transcription, search, and metadata. For example, we’re using AI to automatically transcribe and tag incoming footage so journalists can find what they need in seconds instead of scrubbing timelines.

If it doesn’t save time or reduce friction, it doesn’t belong in our workflows.

At the same time, we’re designing AI as an assistant rather than as the creator. Creative control always comes first. We design AI tools to be transparent, predictable, and optional – especially in environments like news, where precision and trust are non-negotiable. Editors and journalists can see what the system is doing, accept or reject it, and stay in control of the final output.

AI should make skilled professionals faster and more confident in their work – not distance them from it.

TVT: You've been with Avid as Chief Product Officer and were Senior VP of Product for 10 months before that. How are you making your mark on Avid's product strategies? Are you implementing any new approaches or direction?
KH: I started my career in media production – I went to college for television and film production – and I’ve always seen myself as a person who loves storytelling. Stepping into this role has given me the opportunity to come back to my storytelling roots.

When I started, I asked a simple question: What’s the story we’re actually trying to tell – to customers, to partners, and to our own teams? You’ve got to start there and then line up all the people and the work behind that vision – and show how you’re bringing it to life at every step of the way. That’s how you create culture, and how you help teams feel what they are doing is a meaningful part of the greater whole.

At the same time, we can’t just tell stories – we have to deliver. That’s meant simplifying our portfolio, being explicit about who each product is for, and prioritizing execution over ambition.

The craft has only gotten more complex as technology has evolved – and we’re at a tipping point where technology can actually get in the way. We see a simplification moment. Our job is to deliver the next era of tools that re-simplify the process, so creativity can be in the driver’s seat.

One of my strengths is translating real customer problems into clear product direction – and then holding the organization accountable to delivering against it. We’ve become much more explicit about outcomes, not just features, and about how each product fits into a broader solution rather than standing alone. Success isn’t defined by how ambitious a roadmap looks; it’s defined by whether we deliver the right solutions and customers see the value.

TVT: What are Avid's plans for NAB and are trade shows still vital to the company's business strategy, given that there are many more options and other competing events?
KH: NAB remains important for us, but the way we approach it has evolved. It’s less about big announcements and more about having meaningful conversations – showing real workflows, listening to customers, and getting feedback.

NAB and other trade shows bring the industry together in one place, creating a vital moment to hear what’s happening on the ground and help customers navigate an increasingly complex media landscape. But it’s part of a broader approach that includes more continuous engagement – direct customer collaboration, regional events, and ongoing digital touchpoints. It’s about continuity, not a single moment. And about showing real progress, not promises.

TVT: Are there any new developments in Avid's news production products and how would you assess the state of TV news production currently, especially considering the push for more station group consolidation?
KH: Newsrooms are under enormous pressure. Budgets continue to tighten, teams are being asked to do more with less, and the news-gathering process has become far less structured. Twenty years ago, a tip came in through the news desk. Now it can come in via tweet, a phone call, or a Facebook post as the story evolves in real time.

We’re hearing from customers that this creates huge strain. Producers are building the broadcast story while the social team is already posting, and everyone needs multiple versions immediately – often while names, facts, and footage are being revised.

We’re bringing all those disparate pieces together into one connected ecosystem, so an entire news operation can work together seamlessly – whether they’re in the newsroom or on location. That’s the strategy we’re executing with Wolftech News and iNEWS: enabling planning, gathering, uploading, sharing, editing, reviewing, and approving in one place.

TVT: At IBC, we discussed the "content creator economy" and Avid's role in that. Can you update us on Avid's approach and plans to address that market?
KH: The lines of content creation are blurring – whether you’re talking about an individual creator publishing online, a global studio, or a major broadcast network. Those worlds are coming closer together.

Our approach to the creator economy is to meet people where they are today, support where they’re going, and position professional tools like Pro Tools and Media Composer to take their craft to the next level.

We’re not looking to chase the latest trends or compete on novelty. We’re focused on supporting creators who want to build something sustainable – and giving them a clear path from emerging talent to professional scale as their needs evolve, without forcing them to abandon professional standards as they grow.

TVT: In an interview with our sister brand TVBEurope, Avid's CTO talked about customer demand for more "hybrid workflows." How is that impacting product development?
KH: Hybrid workflows aren’t a transition phase – they’re how many of our customers are operating today. We see a world where customers will still need some systems on-prem – while also needing the flexibility and scalability the cloud has to offer.

So rather than forcing an “all on-prem” or “all cloud” approach, we’re bringing those two infrastructure models together. That’s what customers are asking for, and it’s shaping how we prioritize product development. It’s all about giving them the freedom to evolve at their own pace while maintaining stability in day-to-day operations, which is critical in live and deadline-driven environments.

TVT: How have changes in technology impacted how Avid promotes its product solutions to customers and have trade shows had any impact on that?
KH: Technology has changed not just how products are built, but how customers evaluate them. They have more information, more options, and less patience for hype. They want to see real-world examples that actually make their work easier. Credibility now comes from execution - customers can see very quickly whether a product actually makes their work easier.

PATERSON, N.J.—As more media companies push to expand their vertical micro-drama production, real estate developer and E! Entertainment Television co-founder Alan Mruvka has announced the launch of Filmology Labs: Content Creation Studios, a next-generation studio campus located in Paterson, New Jersey.

The new studio complex will house a variety of production activities, including Mruvka's recently announced vertical micro-drama platform Verza TV, which plans to produce more than two vertical micro-dramas per month. It will also offer facilities for other micro-drama producers and a variety of production companies, and independent content creators, the developer said.

Filmology Labs will be developed inside the historic Reinhardt Building at 61 State Street, a landmark property that once served as a major silk mill during Paterson's rise as the renowned "Silk City." Now commonly known as the Padded Wagon Building along Interstate Route 80, the property has been acquired by Mruvka and will be transformed into a state-of-the-art production hub spanning approximately 250,000 square feet, representing an investment of more than $250 million.

Designed by Conrad Roncati of Architectura, Filmology Labs will differ fundamentally from traditional big-box sound stages, the developer said. Built as Content Creation Studios, the campus is designed for speed, efficiency, and scale. Filmology Labs will feature 21 production sound stages with pre-built, fully lit, permanent standing sets optimized for vertical storytelling and creator-driven production. This approach eliminates the time and cost typically associated with set design, construction, and lighting—allowing micro-dramas and digital content to be produced quickly and economically.

Located just 20 minutes from Manhattan, Filmology Labs also offers productions access to New Jersey's film and digital media tax credits, including incentives applicable to vertical dramas. The campus will include sound stages, AI studios, podcast studios, a green-screen stage, and an LED Volume Wall stage using technology similar to that employed on “The Mandalorian”. Additional amenities include creative office space, a commissary capable of serving 200 people, and a fitness and yoga studio—positioning Filmology Labs as a comprehensive ecosystem for modern content creation.

"Paterson is one of the most extraordinary cities in New Jersey and a vibrant community," said Alan Mruvka, owner of Filmology Labs and founder of Verza TV. "Our goal is to engage local schools to help train young people for careers in this fast-growing industry, while drawing investment into Paterson and showcasing the city to the world. Filmology Labs is about creating opportunity—creatively, economically, and culturally."

"We are thrilled to welcome Filmology Labs to Paterson," said Mayor André Sayegh, Mayor of Paterson, New Jersey. "This significant investment will create jobs, spark innovation, and help position our city at the forefront of the evolving media and entertainment economy. Projects like this generate new opportunities for residents, support local businesses, and accelerate Paterson's continued growth and revitalization."

LONDON–New research from Ampere Analysis highlights the critical role that international markets are playing in Netflix’s programming strategies with new data showing that in 2025, 52% of Netflix’s original TV season releases were non-English-language.

This was the first time that non-English-language TV originals made up more than half of the TV originals and represents the highest yearly share to date, up from 49% in 2024, Ampere reported.

Movies, however, remain more English-language focused, with non-English titles accounting for 44% of releases.

Rahul Patel, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, argued that “crossing the 52% threshold is a meaningful milestone for Netflix. For the first time, non-English-language titles now form the majority of its Original TV releases, highlighting how global and local content strategies are no longer peripheral, but central to the platform’s growth. And when non-English-language titles travel beyond their local market and perform well internationally – such as Korean-language Bon Appétit, Your Majesty and German-language Cassandra – they provide stronger returns on content investment for the global streamer.”

Other key findings include:

• Spanish remains the leading non-English language for Netflix Original TV releases, accounting for 21% of new original TV seasons in 2025. However, the genre mix shifted significantly: scripted content rose from 63% of Spanish-language titles in 2024 to 86% in 2025. Comedy recorded the fastest growth, increasing from 6% (sixth place) in 2024 to 19% (second place) in 2025. Crime and thriller remained the most common genre.
• Korean and Japanese content saw some of the most notable year-on-year changes. Korean-language originals gained the most ground, rising from 12% of non-English original TV releases in 2024 to 20% in 2025. This growth was driven by scripted hits such as "Squid Game: Season 3" and "When Life Gives You Tangerines", as well as multiple seasons of unscripted titles, including "Getaway and Go with Jangdobari" and "Screwballs".
• Ampere expects Korean content to continue growing in strategic importance for Netflix. 2025 was a banner year for Korean-language TV commissions, with 39 seasons announced.
• Japanese was among the major languages to lose the most ground. Japanese-language original releases declined year over year, from 6% of original TV releases in 2024 to 4% in 2025.
• Netflix is more reliant on acquired Japanese titles. Of all acquired TV seasons available on Netflix in 2025, 20% were Japanese – second only to English (43%) and ahead of Korean (14%).
• Anime remains an exception to Netflix’s broader push towards original self-sufficiency. In 2025, 67% of acquired Japanese TV seasons available on the platform were animated, while only four original animated Japanese TV seasons were released.
• While non-English-language original titles accounted for a majority of new TV season releases in 2025, in terms of original content spend, English-language productions still represent a majority.

OKERKOCHEN, Germany—Zeiss has unveiled the Aatma set of nine high-end full-frame T1.5 cinema primes that combine the benefits of modern optical design with the nostalgic image characteristics that popular today.

Nine Aatma primes make up the set, including 18mm, 25mm, 35mm, 40mm, 50mm, 65mm, 85mm, 100mm and 135mm lenses. The lens set draws inspiration from well-regarded 20^th century Zeiss lenses, combining an emotion-driven look with the mechanical reliability, data integration and workflow compatibility required for today’s productions.

“With Aatma, we wanted to give cinematographers an expressive and characterful choice within the Zeiss offering,” said Jeanfre Fachon, senior product manager of Cinema at Zeiss. “Over the years, we have come to acknowledge how much some of our legacy lens lines are still appreciated. But instead of simply remaking them, we looked at their most appealing characteristics and drew inspiration to incorporate into a new optical design.”

The word "Aatma" is derived from Sanskrit, meaning innermost essence, self or soul. Aatma lenses’ character recalls classic Zeiss optics, offering softly painted skin texture with reduced contrast, smooth and vibrant focus transitions between planes and a rich bokeh with a subtle soap bubble effect.

This carefully created aesthetic allows cinematographers to achieve a nostalgic yet refined look that supports storytelling without compromising control and repeatability.

The lenses produce an organic, emotionally resonant image while remaining suitable for a wide range of cinematic applications. Their rendering enhances texture and atmosphere, enabling filmmakers to infuse personal style into each frame while retaining the precision required for contemporary productions.

They retain the form factor, size, weight and operability of the company’s current premium cine lenses. "Extensive positive feedback on ergonomics meant there was no need to reinvent the wheel—only to adapt what is already known and trusted to work seamlessly with Aatma’s optical design," said Fachon.

Like all modern high-end Zeiss cinema lenses, Aatma offers Zeiss eXtended Data (XD) technology and is fully integrated into the Zeiss CinCraft ecosystem, supporting efficient visual effects, camera tracking and virtual production workflows.

The lenses are available individually or as a complete set. Customers may begin placing orders for the lenses. Delivery is expected to begin in June from authorized Zeiss Cinema dealers.

Zeiss has posted a YouTube video to show the capabilities of the lenses in action.

More information is available on the company’s website.

Ever feel like simply keeping up with the mixing demands of live production prevents you from doing your best work?

With so many microphones across the field, court, or set and so many channels to monitor and mix, it can be overwhelming. Adding to the challenge are ever-present budget realities that demand A1s do more with fewer people and tighter timelines.

But that equation is changing. The new Shure DCA901 digital broadcast mic array combines 78 individual microphones to create eight distinct software-steerable channels, an audio DSP that powers a built-in automixer, and control software to ease setup and reduce the burden of managing multiple microphones used to create a conventional mix.

With the DCA901 array, A1s can build their mixes as they truly intend them to be rather than out of concern over the precise positioning of mics, microphone failure or unwanted noise from, for instance, fans in the stands who may drown out the sound of a shoe squeak on court or a player calling for the ball on a football (soccer) pitch.

Ultimate Control

Consider a conventional live audio production for a televised basketball game. An A1 working with assistants would attach shotgun microphones to the stanchions supporting the backboard and point each toward the court, providing a wide pickup pattern. A pair of lavalier mics—one at each net—would also be attached to pick up the ball hitting the rim or the swish of a nothing-but-net free throw—and another shotgun mic at midcourt.

Add into the mix an assortment of on-camera mics, other mics positioned around the arena for crowd noise, and a couple of cameras with shotgun mics attached to capture the sound of those in-your-face under-the-basket shots.

Now consider replacing most, if not all, of that with a DCA901 mounted to each stanchion. With the microphones’ easy-to-use control software, individually steerable coverage lobes are positioned to cover each half of the court. Using the array’s Auto Position feature found in its web-based GUI, an A1 selects a channel and instructs an assistant to make a sound at a desired location. Using that sound, the system automatically aims one lobe at the sound to pick up audio from that location.

The DCA901 offers several key benefits in this scenario. First, there are far fewer possible points of failure—fewer mics and backup mics, less cabling, and fewer wireless channels that might fail. Next, setup time drops dramatically—from hours to as little as 30 minutes. Gone is the need for back-and-forth between an A1 and an assistant, tweaking each mic's orientation. Instead, DCA901 lobe steering is done in software away from the array. Fewer mics, backups, and support gear, along with faster setup, translate into lower production costs.

More Intentional Mixes

Perhaps the greatest benefit of using the DCA901 is that it unlocks the full potential of A1s to mix live productions the way they want, not as they must. The array’s powerful, yet easy-to-use functions and software give A1s the freedom to mix with intention.

For instance, replacing so many conventional microphones with a pair of DCA901s in the basketball scenario means A1s can rely upon the array’s automixer to create a submix of the action on court as it moves from coverage lobe to lobe rather than mixing multiple audio channels coming from stanchion shotgun mics, lavaliers, camera mics, and the rest.

Rather, taking the submix from the DCA901 automixer and a few mics around the arena for crowd noise, an A1 has enough time to focus on the other sound elements that go into the main mix, such as sound effects associated with animated graphics, which might otherwise have been missed.

Of course, these same benefits can enhance audio production by opening up new possibilities for A1s to mix intentionally and achieve their creative vision for other sports, studio shows, and even reality TV.

Having that extra set of virtual hands makes all the difference not only for A1s but also for producers and directors, who expect their shows to look and sound great.

Click here to learn more about the DCA901 and schedule a demo in your environment.

Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC), a Nikon company, has announced that it will celebrate six decades of innovation at the cutting edge of camera robotics and automation throughout the year in 2026.

Founded in 1966 by engineer and inventor Mark Roberts, the company’s technology has been trusted on more than 300 feature films, collectively generating billions of dollars at the global box office. With a global footprint of over 500 motion control rigs operating in 75 countries, MRMC continues to support filmmakers, broadcasters and content creators working at the highest levels of production.

“As we celebrate six decades of innovation, our focus remains firmly on the future,” said Dan Brooks, Head of Marketing at MRMC. “From pioneering motion control for film and television to advancing camera robotics and automation for broadcast, MRMC continues to build on its engineering heritage to support the next generation of creative production worldwide. We look forward to pushing technical and creative boundaries across film, broadcast, and live production for many years to come.”

From its earliest work developing computerized rostrum systems for animation and title work, MRMC has consistently applied precision engineering to creative challenges. In its early years, the company pursued the design and manufacture of electronic control systems to supersede the electromechanical systems then in use on animation stands and optical printers, including systems to control the motion of the table and camera. That philosophy drove the company’s transition from bespoke builds to standardized motion control platforms in the early 1990s, helping to make repeatable, programmable camera movement accessible at scale.

The launch of the Milo motion control crane in 1994 set a new benchmark for MRMC and the wider film industry for precision and repeatability, earning the company an Academy Scientific and Engineering Award in 1999.

This followed earlier milestones, including the development of computer-controlled systems during the 1970s, and the debut of MRMC’s Flair control software in the early 1990s. First deployed in the field in 1992 and subsequently paired with the Cyclops studio rig in 1993, Flair enabled standardized, software-driven camera movement and data capture, allowing motion paths to be programmed, saved and precisely repeated. Together, Flair and Cyclops represented a major step forward in repeatable motion control, providing the exact position of the camera for every frame taken.

Building on this foundation, MRMC continued to innovate across motion control and camera robotics, including the Bolt High Speed range and most recently the Cinebot range, enabling high end cinematography for film, commercial, and visual effects-driven productions worldwide.

More recently, MRMC has expanded its expertise into broadcast robotics, studio automation and immersive capture delivering installations for leading broadcasters and live productions. These include ESPN’s Catalyst Stage virtual production studio in Bristol, Connecticut, Al Jazeera’s next-generation news studio, and robotic camera systems supporting major global sporting events.

Since becoming part of the Nikon Group in 2016, the company has accelerated international growth and innovation across film and broadcast workflows, earning the UK’s Queen’s and King’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade on two occasions.

More information can be found here.

Broadcasters, production companies, and show producers alike know that engaging audiences more deeply in their productions not only makes their work memorable but keeps the public coming back for more.

That’s why there’s been so much attention paid over the past few years to enhancing resolution—taking it to 4K and even 8K UHD—and transitioning to high dynamic range (HDR) pictures offering a much wider color gamut than standard dynamic range. Each helps to put lifelike images—those that pull viewers into content—on screen.

But what about audio production? Equal effort is being given to enhancing viewers’ audio experience as well. A number of technologies have emerged to enhance the audio experience, such as speech enhancement and descriptive audio. But it’s immersive sound that most directly engages audiences in the action by creating a captivating audio experience that’s the perfect match for 4K/8K UHD images and HDR.

Until recently, capturing immersive audio, especially for live productions like sports, has required elaborate, time-consuming mic setups and exceptional mixing diligence to create an immersive sound experience. Not only was a good deal of work needed to precisely position and tweak the mics' aim to pick up the channels required for the immersive mix, but cabling and mounting complexity grew with each new microphone.

A new digital broadcast microphone array from Shure, however, is changing that equation. The Shure DCA901 is equipped with 78 individual microphone elements that form eight lobes, which can be steered remotely in real time to create a sound field that changes as the action moves across the screen. During setup, having steerable lobes means adjusting the pickup from a central computer, not physically at the mic. During production, they mean being able to capture audio as the action unfolds.

For instance, for basketball games, two DCA901 arrays—one mounted to each backboard stanchion—provide A1s with total court coverage and the ability to steer audio pickup to capture dribbles and shoe squeaks as play moves around the court.

Beyond sports, the DCA901 is leaving its mark in live studio production, newscast production, reality TV production, and even after a shoot is finished in post-production.

Bill Oakley, Shure Associate Director of Global Product Development, recently sat down with TVTech contributing editor Phil Kurz to discuss immersive audio and the role the company’s DCA901 is playing in simplifying production of live immersive audio.

Click here to watch the interview.

E.W. Scripps has tapped Amira Lewally, a veteran cable TV programmer, as senior director of original programming.

Lewally will oversee all original content development for the broadcast group’s portfolio of national networks, including Ion, Bounce, Grit, Laff and Ion Mystery, and for its local TV stations from concept to execution, Scripps said. She’ll also lead efforts to align creative talent with network brand strategies, foster audience engagement and deliver compelling programming for viewers nationwide, the company said.

Lewally will be based in Washington, D.C.

“As Scripps advances its next chapter of original programming, Amira’s proven track record of cross-platform storytelling and creative vision, producing content across multiple genres and for different audiences, make her the right leader for this role,” said Scripps senior vice president of programming Adam Harman, to whom Lewally will report. “Amira’s history of creating programming with strong viewer affinity will enhance the value of content across our full portfolio and in what we deliver to our partners.”

Lewally most recently was a supervising producer at A+E Networks, managing more than 300 hours of live programming, original series and specials for cable network A&E. Her credits include “60 Days In,” “The Judd Family: Truth Be Told” and the “Secrets of…” franchise. Her work has been featured at such major festivals as the Tribeca Film Festival, the American Black Film Festival and the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival, Scripps said. She has been nominated for the Critics Choice Awards, the NAACP Image Awards and the IDA Documentary Awards.

Lewally also co-created, produced and co-hosted the Lifetime podcast “The Table Is Ours.”

“Scripps’ diverse portfolio opens up incredible opportunities to innovate and tell stories that truly resonate,” Lewally said. “I’m excited to explore new ways to create compelling content, deepen our connection with viewers, and build on the company’s legacy of must-watch original programming that serves and reflects our communities.”

Lewally has a master’s degree in writing and producing for television from Long Island University and a bachelor’s in business with a minor in film from Baylor University. She was recognized as Baylor’s alumna of the year in 2022 and has been named to the Forbes 30 Under 30: Hollywood & Entertainment list and to Cablefax’s Thrivers Under 30.

The Mediapro Studio U.S. & Canada and Telemundo Studios have struck a strategic partnership deal to jointly develop and produce original movies tailored to Hispanic audiences in the United States and across global markets.

The agreement follows the recent announcement of their co-production of the film “Atrápelo quien pueda” and underscores the significant opportunity to reach Latino audiences. The collaboration brings together two industry leaders in international production and Spanish-language entertainment.

The studio will work hand-in-hand with Telemundo Studios to deliver movies that showcase compelling narratives, highlight fresh talent and embrace innovative formats, the partners said. The partnership reinforces both companies’ shared commitment to serving the growing Hispanic audience with premium content that reflects their voices, heritage and experiences, the companies said.

“We are thrilled to partner with Telemundo, a trusted leader in Spanish-language media, to create groundbreaking content that resonates deeply with Hispanic audiences in the U.S. and beyond,” said JC Acosta, head of The Mediapro Studio. “This collaboration is an exciting step in our mission to produce globally relevant stories with strong local impact.”The partnership is set to kick off with a slate of projects currently in development, with further details to be announced in the coming months, the companies said.“We’re proud to join forces with The Mediapro Studio on a partnership that puts Hispanic stories front and center,” said Javier Pons, chief content officer and head of Telemundo Studios. “Together, we will create content that amplifies and reflects Latino voices, while continuing to set new standards for top level production in the industry.”

More information is available on The Mediapro Studio and Telemundo websites.

LOS ANGELES—Fairground Entertainment, an AI studio and streaming distribution network, and Rogue Matter, a global streaming provider, have announced a global, multi-deal partnership that will translate Rogue Matter’s graphic novels and comic book properties to fully AI-based programming for streaming TV.

The first programming slate in this collaboration includes episodic TV shows based on Rogue Matter’s “Ketcher: Origins,” “Don’t Tell My Wife I’m a Cult Leader” and “The Time Trader,” with options to pursue additional IP.

The first series is scheduled to launch by the 2025 holiday season.

Fairground was founded and is led by streaming television industry veteran Colin Petrie-Norris, who previously built, scaled, and sold Xumo TV to Comcast, later expanding it through a joint venture with Charter Communications.

“Fairground and Rogue Matter are cut from similar DNA—both innovators who are focused on elevating next generation creators for unique and breakthrough storytelling,” said Colin Petrie-Norris, founder and CEO of Fairground Entertainment. "Together, we will expand an audience of devoted fans to include mainstream consumers, and leverage AI to further bolster these dynamic properties with cutting-edge technology and global streaming distribution.”

The companies say their deal is “unique in that it brings together IP from some of the strongest storytellers in the world with the latest AI video creation technology and opens up new audiences and enjoyment for these magical tales. Just like “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” or “Men in Black” started life as comic books, this allows entirely new franchises to emerge through the medium of AI.”

“As digital change-makers focused on vibrant and original storytelling that’s centered on breakthrough comic books and graphic novel properties, our collaboration with Fairground is ideal,” said Trent Olsen, editor in chief at Rogue Matter. “We are constantly pushing boundaries in entertainment, and bringing fan favorites like Ketcher and others to new and broader audiences, supercharged by the power of AI, is in perfect alignment with our disruptive mission.”

MIAMI—In a notable example of how broadcasters are rethinking the way they develop and produce content, Telemundo Studios announced an expansion of its alternative content production and has unveiled plans for innovative mobile-first formats that offer vertical, short-form content targeting a new generation of Spanish-language audiences.

Telemundo’s new mobile-first slate launches with “María, Mother of God”, which the network is calling the first-ever biblical vertical series, co-produced with VIP 2000 TV.

The full franchise will be unveiled at Content Americas 2026, where buyers will be given an exclusive first look at the slate.

“With this new mobile-first portfolio, we’re building on Telemundo’s legacy of Spanish-language drama while adapting to the evolving ways audiences prefer to watch content today,” said Javier Pons, chief content officer & head of Telemundo Studios. “The slate launches with new originals like `María, Mother of God’ as part of a four-title lineup, reaffirming our role as the home of Spanish-language scripted content, regardless of screen or format.”

More specifically, Telemundo said the new portfolio of mobile-first content will feature a wide range of content designed to appeal to diverse audiences, from reimagined versions of Telemundo hits like `Armas de Mujer' and `Diario de un Gigoló' to original productions developed specifically for this new format. This approach ensures audiences can rediscover iconic stories while also engaging with fresh, compelling content that reflects contemporary viewing preferences, Telemundo said.

“María, Mother of God”, a coproduction between Telemundo and VIP 2000 TV, is a 25-episode vertical series reimagine one of the Bible’s most iconic love stories for a new generation. It also marks the debut of a planned franchise of biblical love stories, with upcoming titles including Moses & Zipporah, Sanson & Dalila and John the Baptist & Salome, Telemundo said.

“This project reflects our passion for creating meaningful content that inspires, regardless of religion or age," said María Eugenia Muci, content director at VIP 2000 TV. "We are confident these stories, told from a fresh, fast, and emotionally powerful perspective, will resonate with new audiences. This co-production with Telemundo Studios continues the vertical journey that VIP 2000 TV began earlier this year in Miami, reinforcing our commitment to innovative formats. Each franchise brings its own unique and special voice. At VIP, religious content has always been a cornerstone of our catalog and co-productions, and we believe deeply in the value of this niche. That is why these biblical love stories have all the elements to achieve global success,”

MELVILLE, N.Y.—In a notable example of Nikon’s push into video following its 2024 acquisition of RED Digital Cinema, Nikon has announced their first cinema camera made for filmmakers, the Nikon ZR.

"We aren't holding anything back – our first Nikon camera developed with RED has all the creative controls that filmmakers need, with features that have never been seen in this level of handheld cinema camera," said Fumiko Kawabata, senior vice president of marketing and planning, Nikon Inc. "The Nikon ZR is the camera that will challenge the established video market and will demonstrate Nikon's commitment to advancing the tools available to video production professionals."

The launch significantly heats up the competition between camera makers like Sony, Canon, ARRI and others who have long offered digital cinema cameras and highlights Nikon's intention of being a major player in the space.

More specifically, the ZR is an ultra-lightweight, relatively inexpensive full-frame camera priced at around $2,199 that features a number of tech synergies between Nikon’s expertise in optics and autofocus technologies and RED’s expertise in color science and cameras for cinematographers and high-end content producers.

It is the first camera in Nikon’s new Z Cinema series, a collection that Nikon said will meld the best technologies from both companies. Designed for emerging cinematographers and high-end content producers, the supremely capable Nikon ZR packs an unparalleled amount of professional video production features at a price that puts cinematic quality within reach for all types of filmmakers.

Nikon also stressed that the Nikon ZR offers a multitude of original and class-leading capture and workflow features never seen before in a camera at this price.

The new Nikon ZR can record up to 6K/60p (59.94p) and incorporates the new R3D NE1 RAW video file format with RED color science based on RED's popular R3D RAW codec, with 15+ stops2 of dynamic range.

This new codec uses color science and exposure standards of RED cameras to ensure accurate color matching, even for multi-cam shoots. The impressively huge 4 in. DCI-P3 LCD is bright enough to be used even in direct sunlight, while often eliminating the need for an external monitor.

Nikon also said it has class-leading audio capabilities such as 32-bit float audio from built-in and external microphones, plus OZO3 directional audio. The ZR also has 7.5 stops of built-in image stabilization (IBIS) and unlocks a whole new world of optical versatility, since the wide Nikon Z mount enables a large variety of lenses to be adapted using third-party lens adaptors.

The new ZR features a full-frame sensor for excellent depth of field and video quality and supports internal recording up to 12-bit RAW 6K/60p. This is the first camera to use the new 12-bit R3D NE RAW codec, a new RAW format which REDCODE RAW users will find familiar. By leveraging its broad 15+ stop dynamic range, it achieves well-balanced image quality from highlights to shadows. Support for Log3G10 and the REDWideGamutRGB gamut reproduces exposure standards and colors consistent with RED color science, with true RED color tonality, skin tone integrity and tonal roll-off – similar to the output of RED's cinema cameras such as the V-RAPTOR [X] and KOMODO-X. Two base ISO sensitivities are available, ISO 800 and ISO 64005, allowing users to choose the best option for a particular scene or situation such as bright daylight or low-light interior scenes. However, just like REDCODE RAW, ISO in R3D NE files is fully adjustable in post for maximum flexibility, Nikon reported.

Furthermore, users also have the option to shoot in N-RAW, ProRes RAW, and other formats to best suit their production and workflow. The camera also features a new view assist function which allows the user to store and select from up to ten LUTs in the camera. This will let the filmmaker preview the effect of the color grade in real time using the monitor. Three types of LUT data (17-point, 33-point, 65-point6) can be loaded into the camera. RED's Creative LUT Kit is available for free via the RED website here.

The ZR features a new Cinematic video mode, a user preset for those who want to easily enjoy the RED cinematic look with a faster workflow in less data-intensive non-RAW formats. Cinematic mode automatically adjusts the shutter angle to 180 degrees, changes the frame rate to 24 fps, and applies the RED Cine Bias Picture Control for gorgeous yet simple cinematic color. What's more, nine RED-curated cinematic Picture Controls based on RED creative LUTs will be available for free download via Nikon Imaging Cloud, expanding possibilities for more diverse imaging expression.

In announcing the camera, Nikon also touted its audio capabilities and the launch of a new ME-D10 is a 32-bit float shotgun microphone compatible with the new digital accessory shoe developed for the ZR.

Nikon is billing the ZR as the world's first cinema camera to support 32-bit float audio recording with both built-in and external microphones, as well as through the 3.5mm microphone jack. This unique ability enables the recording of clear, distortion-free sound from quiet to loud, without requiring on-location gain adjustment. It supports recording a wide range of sound sources, from interviews to live concerts, with maximum audio flexibility in post. The three high-performance mics built into the camera use Nokia's OZO Audio technology to realize cutting-edge audio recording.

The ZR is also the first Nikon camera to feature a digital accessory shoe, which enables two-way digital communication between the camera and compatible accessories, allowing for advanced functionality such as tally lamp and microphone LED control. Additionally, the camera can supply power directly to supported accessories, eliminating the need for separate batteries or cables. The newly designed rubber shoe cover provides excellent dust and drip resistance, ensuring reliable performance in a variety of shooting environments. Going forward, Nikon will collaborate with third-party accessory manufacturers to offer a wide range of solutions that meet the diverse needs of filmmakers.

Nikon also highlighted the impressive processing power of the EXPEED 7 image-processing engine installed in Nikon's flagship camera Z9 and AI technology that utilizes deep learning, enables more accurate subject detection and tracking for optimal image processing in accordance with the subject, scene and situation.

This makes capturing the intended subject with greater accuracy much easier, significantly expanding possibilities for film production. The camera also detects nine types of subjects automatically, including people, animals and vehicles. It even detects small faces occupying as little as 3% of the long side of the frame for precise focusing on distant human subjects. Users can also adjust AF speed and sensitivity to suit their creative style, enabling a slow rack for cinematic effect or fast-paced focus for action.

More information and specifications is available here.

As the use of generative AI becomes more common in media operations and production, Netflix has laid out detailed guidelines for their use and provided guidance on the kinds of approvals that may be needed for their use in its content.

The guidelines are notable not only because of their potential impact on the way producers and others who work with Netflix operate and produce content. Netflix also noted that these guidelines apply to "partner vendors" indicating that the principles might also apply to subcontractors in post production and to AI-based technologies provided by outside vendors.

“Generative AI tools (GenAI) that allow users to rapidly generate new and creatively unique media (video, sound, text, and image) are increasingly being used across creative workflows in Content Production,” Netflix noted. “At Netflix, we see these tools as valuable creative aids when used transparently and responsibly. This guidance helps filmmakers, production partners, and vendors understand when and how to use GenAI tools in production. It also offers a practical tool for assessing and enabling confident GenAI use when producing content for Netflix.”

The post also stressed that while generative AI has many positive benefits, “we expect all production partners to share any intended use of GenAI with their Netflix contact, especially as new tools continue to emerge with different capabilities and risks. Most low-risk use cases that follow the guiding principles below are unlikely to require legal review. However, if the output includes final deliverables, talent likeness, personal data, or third-party IP, written approval will be required before you proceed.”

More specifically, Netflix asked partners to consider the following guiding principles before leveraging GenAI in any creative workflow:

• "The outputs do not replicate or substantially recreate identifiable characteristics of unowned or copyrighted material, or infringe any copyright-protected works
• "The generative tools used do not store, reuse, or train on production data inputs or outputs.
• "Where possible, generative tools are used in an enterprise-secured environment to safeguard inputs.
• "Generated material is temporary and not part of the final deliverables.
• "GenAI is not used to replace or generate new talent performances or union-covered work without consent."

Netflix noted that "if you can confidently say `yes' to all the above, socializing the intended use with your Netflix contact may be sufficient. If you answer `no' or `unsure' to any of these principles, escalate to your Netflix contact for more guidance before proceeding, as written approval may be required. "

The streamer also stressed that "if your partner vendor is using a custom GenAI workflow—meaning a pipeline built from multiple tools or models—the same principles apply."

Netflix also provided a few examples of situations that, in addition to reporting intended use, always require escalation and written approval before proceeding.

Netflix described how one of those situations, data use, should be handled as follows:

• "Protecting personal data and creative rights is essential when working with GenAI. These tools often require input data to generate outputs, and how that data is handled matters. Before using any GenAI tool, especially third-party or off-the-shelf options, consider whether you are using material that requires special handling, clearance, or consent.
• "Use of Proprietary or Personal Information: Do not input Netflix-owned materials (e.g., unreleased assets, scripts, production images) or personal data (e.g., cast or crew details) into tools unless explicitly approved.
• "Third-Party or Unowned Talent Assets: Do not train or fine-tune models using material from artists, performers, or other rights holders unless you have the proper legal clearance. Example: Training an image model in the style of another artist using a library of their past work, where Netflix or the talent has not cleared rights..

A second sitution is creative output. Netflix described how that should be handled as follows:

• AI-generated content must be used with care, especially when it forms a visible or story-critical part of the production. Whether you're designing a world, a character, or artwork that appears in a scene, the same creative and legal standards apply as with traditionally produced assets.
• Generation of Key Creative Elements: GenAI should not be used to generate main characters, key visual elements, or fictional settings that are central to the story without written approval.
• Examples: GenAI is used to generate a second killer doll to play the red light/green light game with Young-hee in Squid Game.
• Copyrighted or Estate-Controlled: Avoid using inputs (e.g., prompts, images) that reference copyrighted materials or likenesses of public figures or deceased individuals without appropriate permissions.
• Example: “Create an image inspired by McCurry’s Afghan Girl” or referencing distinctive features of a known performer (e.g., “Create a character with Meryl Streep’s nose”).

Another important use case is involves talent and performance. Netflix described those issues as follows:

• "Respect for performers and their work is foundational to the responsible use of GenAI. Whether enhancing a recorded performance or generating a digital likeness, the threshold for consent and care is exceptionally high when the intent or character of a performance may be altered.
• "Synthetic or Digital Replicas - Do not create digital performers, voices, or likenesses of real talent without explicit and documented consent and complying with guild requirements (where applicable).
• "Significant Digital Alterations to Performances - Be cautious when making changes that affect a performance's emotional tone, delivery, or intent, as even subtle edits may have legal or reputational implications.
• "Examples include visual ADR (altering lip-sync or facial performance to match new, unscripted dialogue).

A fourth important issue is ethnics and representation. Netflix described its policies on that issue as follows:

• "Audiences should be able to trust what they see and hear on screen. GenAI (if used without care) can blur the line between fiction and reality or unintentionally mislead viewers. That’s why we ask you to consider both the intent and the impact of your AI-generated content.
• "Misleading or Misrepresentative Content: Avoid creating content that could be mistaken for real events, people, or statements if they never actually occurred (e.g., fabricated footage, dialogue, or scenes presented as authentic). Example: using GenAI to create a fake news segment featuring a real journalist delivering a fabricated statement, even if intended as background.
• "Impact on Union Roles: Ensure that your use of GenAI does not replace or materially impact work typically done by union-represented individuals, including actors, writers, or crew members, without proper approvals or agreements.

The full article with additional guidance can be found here.

LOS ANGELES—Hoping to tap into the popularity of short form content, Cineverse and Banyan Ventures, the venture arm of former ABC Entertainment Group and WME Chairman Lloyd Braun, have announced a new joint 50/50 venture MicroCo.

They are billing the JV as the first U.S.-based studio and AI-native platform built specifically for high-quality “microseries” i.e. serialized, short-form, mobile-first content.

The consumer-facing name of the soon-to-launch platform will be announced at a later date.

The two companies said that MicroCo will produce low cost, high-quality content and deliver it directly to genre-driven audiences with an AI native platform built to foster and engage passionate fan communities.

"The average person scrolls through hundreds of feet of content a day, but almost none of it is built to last," said Braun. "We're merging the storytelling rigor of series television with the pace, energy, and intimacy of short-form—creating addictive, emotionally rich, quality series that are developed specifically for this format and speak directly to how people consume content now."

MicroCo said it would focus on original Microseries running approximately 1–3 minutes per episode in multiple genres, from romance to horror. They will produce both live action and animated series.

"MicroCo will combine a new style of storytelling that engages fans and creators alike, with state-of-the-art technology that we have spent years developing, and an elite leadership team that includes some of our generation's most successful media and content executives,” added Cineverse chairman and CEO Chris McGurk. “The end result will be a category defining studio and platform. Early results in the space have underscored the massive strategic upside of this new format, including the opportunity to build an original IP engine with global monetization opportunities, to integrate brand partnerships, and support a robust creator economy flywheel."

The partnership will draw on tech and content assets from Cineverse, including Cineverse’s Matchpoint, the AI-powered streaming infrastructure; a massive data engine of more than two million titles featuring AI-generated metadata that enables smart discovery and curation; and an expansive library of 71,000+ assets, including films, series, and podcasts—some of which may be adapted into Microseries.

The joint venture will also draw on Cineverse’s extensive reach with 150 million users of its streaming services.

The company also announced its executive leadership team:

• Lloyd Braun, Chairman of the Board for MicroCo: Co-Founder and Partner (with Sarah Bremner & Noah Oppenheim) of independent production studio Prologue Entertainment (backed by Jeff Zucker and RedBird Capital). Former Chairman of ABC Entertainment, Chairman of WME and President of Brillstein-Grey. A visionary strategist with deep experience in both creative and operational leadership, Braun is behind some of the most iconic and successful series in television, including The Sopranos, Lost, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, and Jimmy Kimmel Live!
• Chris McGurk, Chairman and CEO of Cineverse: A respected studio executive and entrepreneur with decades of leadership experience, McGurk has served as President and COO of Universal Pictures, CFO and President of The Walt Disney Motion Picture Group, Vice Chairman and COO of MGM, and Founder and CEO of Overture Films. At Cineverse, he has spearheaded a transformation into a next-generation entertainment and technology powerhouse.
• Erick Opeka, President and Chief Strategy Officer of Cineverse: A pioneer in streaming and digital entertainment, Opeka has launched more than two dozen streaming channels, overseen a robust indie studio business that released the most successful unrated film of all time, Terrifier 3, less than a year ago, and has been integral in the development of Cineverse's award-winning Matchpoint™ streaming infrastructure and AI initiatives. He brings unmatched insight into audience behavior, content discovery, and monetization across emerging formats.
• Jana Winograde, CEO of MicroCo: Former President of Entertainment for Showtime Networks, where she greenlit and launched the network's most successful streaming series including the zeitgeist hit Yellowjackets. Previously Head of Business Operations for ABC's Network and Studio, Winograde has built her career at the intersection of creative excellence and strategic execution. Her hybrid expertise across content, strategy, and operations uniquely positions her to lead MicroCo as a premium, scalable platform and studio for the mobile era.
• Susan Rovner, Chief Creative Officer of MicroCo: A veteran studio and network executive with one of the most decorated résumés in television, Rovner served as Chairman of Entertainment Content for NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, and as President of Warner Bros. Television. She has overseen more than 18 series that reached the 100-episode milestone, including Shameless, Gossip Girl, Riverdale, The Flash, Supernatural, and The Voice. She will join MicroCo in October while continuing to lead her production banner, AHA Studios.

OpenAI made its Sora generative AI video tool available to the public on Monday, 10 months after its soft beta launch in February. The new version—Sora Turbo—that OpenAI says is “significantly faster” than the model it previewed earlier this year is being released as a standalone product at Sora.com to ChatGPT Plus and Pro users.

A subscription to ChatGPT Plus is currently $20 per month and offers access to GPT-4 capabilities with faster response times compared to the free tier. ChatGPT Pro, a newer and more advanced tier, costs $200 per month and includes features like unlimited access to the o1 model, GPT-4o, and Advanced Voice Mode.

As heavily promoted, Sora generates realistic videos from text with users able to generate videos up to 1080p resolution, up to 20 seconds in length and in wide-screen, vertical or square aspect ratios. The platform allows users to use their own tools to extend, remix and blend or generate entirely new content from text.

ChatGPT Plus customers can generate up to 50 videos at 480p resolution or fewer videos at 720p each month via their accounts while the Pro plan includes 10 times more usage, higher resolutions and longer durations. OpenAI said it’s working on tailored pricing for different types of users, which it plans to make available early next year.

The rollout includes a new UI to make it easier to prompt Sora with text, images and videos. Sora’s storyboard tool also lets users precisely specify inputs for each frame, as well as Featured and Recent feeds that are constantly updated with creations from the community.

In announcing the launch, OpenAI also issued some caveats about Sora, warning customers that, although it has garnered a great deal of additional technical background on generative AI since introducing Sora to beta testers in February, caution should still be taken.

“The version of Sora we are deploying has many limitations,” the company said. “It often generates unrealistic physics and struggles with complex actions over long durations. Although Sora Turbo is much faster than the February preview, we’re still working to make the technology affordable for everyone.”

OpenAI said it launched Sora now “to give society time to explore its possibilities and co-develop norms and safeguards that ensure it’s used responsibly as the field advances.”

In an effort to protect copyright, all Sora-generated videos come with C2PA⁠ metadata, which will identify a video as coming from Sora to provide transparency and can be used to verify origin.

“While imperfect, we’ve added safeguards like visible watermarks by default and built an internal search tool that uses technical attributes of generations to help verify if content came from Sora,” OpenAI said.

It also has instituted restrictions on objectionable and illegal content. “Today, we’re blocking particularly damaging forms of abuse, such as child sexual abuse materials and sexual deepfakes,” the company said. “Uploads of people will be limited at launch, but we intend to roll the feature out to more users as we refine our deepfake mitigations. You can read more about our approach to safety and monitoring in the system card⁠ as well as details on our red-teaming efforts.

“We hope this early version of Sora will enable people everywhere to explore new forms of creativity, tell their stories, and push the boundaries of what’s possible with video storytelling,” OpenAI said. “We’re excited to see what the world will create with Sora.”

TV Tech sister consumer brand TechRadar took it out for a spin.

The AI video-generation model works similarly to OpenAI’s image-generation AI tool, DALL-E: A user types out a desired scene, and Sora will return a high-definition video clip. Sora can also generate video clips inspired by still images and extend existing videos or fill in missing frames. The Microsoft-backed artificial intelligence startup, which burst into the mainstream last year thanks to the viral popularity of ChatGPT, introduced Sora in February.

VALHALLA, N.Y.—Fujifilm is developing Fujifilm GFX Eterna, its first digital filmmaking camera, with a planned release next year.

The camera will use the large-format GFX 102MP CMOS II HS sensor. It is about 1.7 times larger than a 35-millimeter full-frame sensor in combination with the X-Processor 5 high-speed image processing engine. It features a native G mount with a removable PL adapter, Fujifilm said.

The sensor-processing engine paring will enable filmmakers to recreate rich, true-to-life visuals with enhanced postproduction flexibility, it said.

The company will showcase the GFX Eterna at a media event during Inter BEE 2024 at the Makuhari Messe Convention Center in Chiba City, Japan.

Fujifilm introduced the GFX System of mirrorless digital cameras in 2017 and has added a series of improvements, including video capabilities. With GFX Eterrna, the company is combining its filmmaking experience and experience as a premiere source of lenses under the Fujinon brand with the advanced technology of its GFX System cameras, it said.

Fujifilm is also developing a GF power zoom lens with a planned focal length of 32-90 millimeters, it said.

In preparation for the launch of the GFX Eterna, Fujifilm said it will conduct rigorous field tests.

More information is available on the company’s website.

VANCOUVER, BC—Hollywood-based post-production veterans, MTI FILM and ColorTime, have joined forces to launch Flow Post Partners, a new creative boutique in the heart of Vancouver’s creative district, Flow “is designed to support the rebounding television production market, capitalizing on Canada’s favorable post-production tax credits,” the two companies said.

Flow Post Partners has secured two high-profile television series: CBS's "Watson" and the upcoming Peacock comedy, "Laid."

"Vancouver is an ideal location to launch Flow. It has an excellent pool of talent from which to choose so staffing can be all Canadian. "Our studio partners have a strong presence in Canada, and they need a reliable known partner who can offer creative and technical support locally,” said Larry Chernoff, CEO of MTI FILM. "To begin, Flow will provide productions with dailies and, in phase two, complete their projects with VFX and finishing services enjoying the financial benefits of the local tax credits."

Expansion plans are already underway, with new partnerships planned to launch in other key markets, the companies said.

NEW YORK—As a cinematographer, visual storytelling, leading a team, staying on schedule, executing, and elevating my Director’s vision are some of the many things I do everyday. My problem solving skills are always working in the background. I love finding ways to maximize my resources, which was especially relevant in the production of “Scary Good,” which I shot on the new Canon EOS C400 camera, in collaboration with Canon. Problem solving is present in all my work.

“Scary Good” is a mystery/thriller “whodunit” short film that can be seen on YouTube. I had a unique perspective on the overall workflow, since I work in both narrative and documentary background and this time around I got to shoot, direct and help conceive the concept from the beginning.

As the camera stalks and chases a box office attendant, veteran actress, maintenance worker and backstage tech, through the historic United Palace Theatre in New York City, this two-minute film fills audiences with a level of anxiety. Culminating in ultimate relief as the group bursts out of a top floor balcony into the sunlight, it illustrates just how much storytelling relies on sound and visual cues.

The 'Scary Good' Puzzle
The first part of the “Scary Good” puzzle was understanding how far we could push the camera. There are many features included in the EOS C400 camera that I didn’t know could exist at its price point; and it’s also very light and small for the power that it holds.

The crew is always a huge part of the success of every project. My gimbal operator, Nadine Martinez; my ACs, Thom Cameron, Cheryn Park, Lisa Chin; my DIT, George Robert Morse; my lighting designer Alexa Mignon; my key grip, Vinny Davino; and my costume designer, Pamela Shepherd, are all people I’ve worked with before. I’ve developed so much trust and a shorthand with this team. Pam and I met while working on Ziwe (Showtime) and I was always impressed with how she elevated the characters.

My camera and lighting team helped me execute every frame and every camera move. The lighting Alexa helped me create on screen really pushed the element of suspense. Lighting cues motivated sound design and gave the actors something to respond to. Like every production, we had limited time and limited resources. The triple base ISO really allowed us to maximize the dynamic range in the camera given the existing lighting parameters at the theater.

I wanted the theater to look as elegant as it appears in person by being strategic with my exposure and adding lighting to accentuate what was already there. I was really fortunate to have access to the EOS C400 camera and Canon senior technical specialist and sales engineer Paul Hawxhurt’s expertise. He helped me shoot some tests during our tech scout to see which ISO would give us the best latitude in that space.

6K RAW Files
Ultimately, we decided setting the base ISO to 3200 and rating the ISO at 1600 was the best way to create more details in the shadows without causing additional noise. The ways we utilized lighting and camera movements to introduce our characters made the audience feel a bit unsettled. This played into building the dramatic tension throughout, creating almost an extraterrestrial presence, which was amplified by the frenetic energy of the edit, led by our editor, Emily Spiegelman-Noel.

The EOS C400 camera’s ability to record proxies in real-time while recording in-camera 6K RAW files was really helpful for the tight turn-around in post. Our editor, Emily, was able to walk away with a hard drive of proxies to get started on the edit right away. The LUT we chose was the Canon CMT 709. We used this for our on-set monitors and this was the starting point for my DIT, George Robert, and I to create a few CDL’s for our colorist. While we were in the color grade, we made minor adjustments to help accentuate the look and feel of our film. l

Christine Ng is a Hong Kong-born, New York City based cinematographer. She can be reached at ms.christineng@gmail.com and at www.christineng.com.

More information is available at www.usa.canon.com.

CHICAGO—Lightricks, an Israeli-based developer of photo and video editing apps has announced the launch of LTX Studio, which the company claims is the “first-of-its-kind” generative AI-driven editing platform for video production and filmmaking. The company is currently inviting consumers to join a waitlist to beta the app, which will be publicly launched March 27.

With the recent emergence of generative video services from the likes of OpenAI and Google, Lightricks claims that its AI-first status and experience in building its AI photo and video editing apps Facetune, Photoleap, and Videoleap will give it an advantage and that its browser-based LTX Studio will allow filmmakers, advertising/marketing agencies, content creators and others to streamline the entire video production process, from scripting to editing, into a single, intuitive interface. 

“LTX Studio leverages Lightricks’ years of experience in transforming cutting-edge research into practical creative solutions for consumers and creators,” the company said. “Using its proprietary algorithms and AI models integrated with the latest in generative AI advances, LTX Studio produces cohesive and highly consistent visual stories, offering multiple intuitive “directorial” tools spanning from script writing, through camera control and character consistency, to editing.” 

LTX Studio offers idea visualization; storyboarding and scene planning; advanced control and customization, allowing creators to choose, change, or customize characters, camera angles, backgrounds, audio and voice effects, and more; faster pre-production and rough cuts and real-time feedback and adjustments.

“LTX Studio opens up a new world for expressing creativity on a larger scale — changing the landscape of video production for creators, filmmakers, studios, and marketers,” says Lightricks CEO and co-founder, Zeev Farbman. “The visual stories made by the filmmakers and creators that we selected to first test LTX Studio are deeply inspiring, and demonstrate the powerful capabilities of our new product. We’re thrilled to be on the frontier of this new creative age.”

LTX Studio can create high-quality video from brief definitions or longer-form stories and screenplays and offers “intuitive directorial tools” such as an automatic script writer; scene control; character consistency; camera control and one-click edit. 

Those interested in previewing the app can sign up at ltx.studio. LTX Studio is being released initially as a free trial and will move to a payment model after launch. 

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has introduced a new tool that uses generative AI to create videos from text.

According to OpenAI, Sora generates a video by starting with one that looks like static noise and gradually transforms it by removing the noise over many steps.

The tool is capable of generating entire videos all at once or extending generated videos to make them longer, said the company. By giving the model foresight of many frames at a time, it claims to have solved the issue of making sure a subject stays the same even when it goes out of view temporarily.

So far Sora is only available to a few researchers and video creators, however the company has showcased its capabilities on X, formerly known as Twitter.

According to a blog post from the company, Sora takes inspiration from large language models which acquire generalist capabilities by training on internet-scale data.

The success of the LLM paradigm is enabled in part by the use of tokens that unify diverse modalities of text—code, math and various natural languages, said the post.

Instead of using text tokens, Sora has visual patches, said OpenAI. “We find that patches are a highly-scalable and effective representation for training generative models on diverse types of videos and images,” it added.

The technology turns videos into patches by first compressing them into a lower-dimensional latent space, and subsequently decomposing the representation into spacetime patches, said the post.

OpenAI has “trained” a network that reduces the dimensionality of visual data. It takes raw video as input and outputs a “latent representation that is compressed both temporally and spatially”.

Sora is trained on and subsequently generates videos within this compressed latent space.

This article originally appeared on TV Tech sister brand TVBEurope. 

PARK CITY, Utah—ARRI has announced that it has been named the Official Lighting Provider for the prestigious 40th edition of the Sundance Film Festival.

ARRI, together with wholly owned subsidiary Illumination Dynamics, is providing the Sundance Film Festival with ARRI’s state-of-the-art lighting solutions, including SkyPanel S30-C, SkyPanel S60-C, and ARRI Orbiter fixtures at premiere event venues, stages, and lounges. 

“As we mark our 40th Sundance Film Festival, we are excited to collaborate with ARRI and use their innovative lighting technologies to help us create dynamic festival environments and shine a light on all the creators who are taking part in press lines before introducing their films to audiences at the Festival,” says Tammie Rosen, chief communications officer, Sundance Institute.

Glenn Kennel, president and CEO of ARRI Americas, added that “ARRI has been an active participant of the Sundance Film Festival for many years and 2024 is no exception. Together with Carly Barber, CEO at Illumination Dynamics, we are proud to support this important venue for independent storytelling.”

The ARRI classic SkyPanel series delivers industry-celebrated color accuracy with fully tunable LED technology, achieving outstanding color mixing in a compact form factor ideal for live events. With high-quality color rendition and a wide gamut, ARRI SkyPanels produce naturalistic lighting across all skin tones, the company said. 

The ARRI Orbiter provides all the light shaping benefits of a point light source while offering the rich color qualities that convince filmmakers time and time again to choose ARRI lighting for their productions. Its exclusive LED design and interchangeable optics produce a highly versatile light with outstanding and accurate color. The Orbiter also enables lighting designers to craft distinctive looks for live events, the company said. 

The 2024 Sundance Film Festival takes place January 18 to 28 in Park City, Salt Lake City, and the Sundance Resort in Utah, USA. Founded by Robert Redford in 1981, the Sundance Film Festival has introduced global audiences to groundbreaking films and discovered new voices that have gone on to profoundly impact entertainment and culture.

Festival passes are available at https://festival.sundance.org/. For more information on ARRI’s lighting solutions, please visit www.arri.com. 

LONDON—Gravity Media’s Gravity House post-production facility supported Sony Pictures Television’s Left Bank Pictures for delivery of the sixth and final season of the Netflix series “The Crown.” 

The team at Gravity House in the heart of Soho provided the editing team with 18 editing suites. In addition, it supplied Avid Media Composer suites networked via a central Avid Nexis storage solution, it said.

“We are delighted to have welcomed ‘The Crown’ team to Gravity House,” said Rebecca Martin, post-production and facilities manager for Gravity House. “We created a creative hub, a place to work that’s both practical, luxurious and simply an enjoyable place to be. Gravity House offers networked suites of cutting rooms with a creative atmosphere that helps inspire the offline process.”

Gravity House offers post-production teams spacious, high-spec editing and online multi-use suites. They can be repurposed for a range of feature film and TV projects. The 40 spaces can also be used for offline editing and VFX as well as for meetings, screening and production offices. 

Other recent film and TV projects worked on by the Gravity House team ensuring tech and editing post-production support include: “The French Dispatch,” “The Dig,” “The Banshees of Inisherin,” “I Care A Lot,” “A Discovery of Witches” and “SILO.”

More information is available on the company’s website.

NEW YORK—After a record breaking premiere, HBO has renewed “House of the Dragon” for a second season even before the second episode of the series has aired. 

The first episode airing on August 21 attracted nearly 10 million viewers on the day of its premiere and HBO reported on August 26 that the episode had been seen by over 20 million viewers across linear TV, on demand and HBO Max platforms in the U.S. based on Nielsen and its own data.

Samba TV, meanwhile, reported on August 25 that within the Live +3 day window, 4.8 million U.S. households watched the “House of the Dragon” premiere on HBO and HBO Max. 

For context, 2.6 million U.S. households watched the premiere in its first 6 hours, meaning that the majority of viewership (54%) occurred during that time, Samba TV said. 

By comparison, 2.9 million U.S. households watched the “Stranger Things 4” premiere on Netflix in the L+3 window. 42% of its L+3 viewership occurred within the day it was released, indicating that more households were interested in watching “House of the Dragon” immediately, Samba Tv reported. 

“We are beyond proud of what the entire `House of Dragon’ team has accomplished with season one,” Francesca Orsi, executive vice president HBO Programming. "Our phenomenal cast and crew undertook a massive challenge and exceeded all expectations, delivering a show that has already established itself as must-see-TV. A huge thank you to George, Ryan, and Miguel for leading us on this journey. We couldn’t be more excited to continue bringing to life the epic saga of House Targaryen with season two.”

FREMONT, Calif.—Blackmagic Design has announced that its equipment, software and tools were used in more than 30 of the 2022 summer season’s worldwide film releases. 

Such films as “Thor: Love and Thunder,” “Jurassic World Dominion” and “Bullet Train,” were created with its Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera and URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 digital film cameras, DaVinci Resolve Studio editing, grading, visual effects (VFX) and audio post production software, and more.

In addition films such as “Elvis” relied on Blackmagic Design gear throughout both production and post, with the film using Pocket Cinema Camera 6K for pick up shots and DaVinci Resolve Studio for on set grading, online editing and final color grading, the company said. 

Summer blockbusters and breakout independent projects also used DaVinci Resolve Studio for their post production needs, including films such as “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Nope,” “The Black Phone” and “Crimes of the Future.”

Summer films that used Blackmagic Design cameras include:

• Poser” DP Logan Floyd used URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2s;
• “Three Headed Beast” Director and DP Fernando Andres used Pocket Cinema Camera 4K;
• “Watcher” DP Benjamin Kirk Nielsen used Pocket Cinema Camera 6K to capture VFX and news footage; and
• “The Wrong Place” DP Peter Holland and Second Unit DP Laura Nolan used Pocket Cinema Camera 6K for extensive second unit photography.

Summer films that used Blackmagic Design products for editing and VFX:

• “Elvis” Editors Jonathan Redmond and Matt Villa used DaVinci Resolve Studio for the conform and grade, as well as UltraStudio capture and playback devices within their offline editing pipeline;
• “Endangered” VFX Supervisor Alex Noble of Wild Union Post used DaVinci Resolve Studio within his VFX pipeline;
• “Neptune Frost” Assistant Editor Skylar Zhang used DaVinci Resolve to create dailies as part of the editing pipeline;
• “Resurrection” VFX Supervisor Alex Noble of Wild Union Post used DaVinci Resolve Studio within his VFX pipeline;
• “Samaritan” VFX Supervisor David Lebensfeld of Ingenuity Studios used DaVinci Resolve Studio within the VFX pipeline; and
• “Where the Crawdads Sing” Editor Alan Bell used UltraStudio HD Mini.
• Summer films that used DaVinci Resolve Studio for post production include:
• “Allswell” graded by Nicholas Lareau of Nice Shoes;
• “Barbarian” graded by Sam Daley of Light Iron;
• “Beast” graded by Stefan Sonnenfeld of Company 3;
• “Billion Dollar Babies: The True Story of the Cabbage Patch Kids” co produced by NBCUniversal Syndication Studios and Believe Entertainment Group and graded by Sal Malfitano of Nice Shoes;
• “The Black Phone” graded by Supervising Colorist Nat Jencks of PostWorks New York and Additional Colorist Jason Fabbro of Picture Shop;
• “The Bob’s Burgers Movie” graded by Philip Beckner of FotoKem;
• “Bullet Train” graded by Dave Hussey of Company 3;
• “Cha Cha Real Smooth” graded by Nat Jencks of PostWorks New York;
• “Crimes of the Future” graded by Bill Ferwarda of Company 3;
• “Don’t Make Me Go” graded by Philip Beckner of FotoKem;
• “Elvis” graded by Colorists Kim Rene Bjørge and Kali Bateman and Supervising Colorist Brett Manson;
• “Emily the Criminal” graded by Walter Volpatto of Company 3;
• “The Janes” graded by Ken Sirulnick of Goldcrest;
• “Jurassic World Dominion” graded by Stefan Sonnenfeld of Company 3;
• “The Man from Toronto” graded by Stefan Sonnenfeld of Company 3;
• “Neptune Frost” graded by Catherine Pantazopoulos, and Nicolas Perret on behalf of Lobster Films;
• “Nope” graded by Greg Fisher of Company 3;
• “Poser” graded by Ori Segev using DaVinci Resolve Micro Panel;
• “Resurrection” graded by Nat Jencks of PostWorks New York;
• “Sharp Stick” graded by Nat Jencks of PostWorks New York;
• “Thor: Love and Thunder” graded by Jill Bogdanowicz of Company 3;
• “Top Gun: Maverick” graded by Stefan Sonnenfeld of Company 3; and
• “Watcher” graded by Stephen Nakamura of Company 3.

Summer films that used Blackmagic Design products for production include:

• “Beast” DIT Lentsoe Mamatela used DaVinci Resolve, UltraStudio 4K Mini and DeckLink Mini Monitor playback card;
• “The Black Phone” DIT Jason Johnson used DaVinci Resolve Studio, Videohub routers and UltraStudios;
• “Emily the Criminal” DP Jeff Bierman used DaVinci Resolve Studio on set for grading select shots;
• “Flux Gourmet” DIT Richard Strong used DaVinci Resolve Studio for on set and dailies work;
• “The Forgiven” DIT Daniel Alexander of Digital Orchard used DaVinci Resolve Studio for on set and dailies work; and
• “Samaritan” DIT Stuart Huggins used DaVinci Resolve, ATEM Mini Pro ISO live production switcher, MultiView 16 monitor, Smart Videohub CleanSwitch 12x12, DeckLinks and UltraStudios.

LOS ANGELES—TV and film production personnel in Los Angeles have been told by public health authorities to wear masks while indoors due to rising Covid cases. 

The announcement was made by Barbara Ferrer, the public health officer of Los Angeles County and reported by Variety.

“With new hospital admissions reaching more than 8 per week per 100,000 population, they will resume indoor masking requirements, along with several other safety measures,” Ferrer said during a media briefing on Thursday.

As infection rates have ebbed and peaked, production companies have had to adapt to the changing rules imposed by local health officials. In May, the industry and the county approved a return to work agreement that included an “escalation trigger” that would require the crews to mask up if the metro area or county reached 8 or more Covid hospitalization admissions per 100,000 people over a seven-day period. 

That rate currently stands at 8.1, according to Ferrer. Although the current work agreement expires July 15, the county has imposed the new mask mandates effective immediately.

FREMONT, Calif.—In the runup to the the 94th Academy Awards on March 27, Blackmagic Design has issued congratulations to a number of production and post-production professionals who used its digital film cameras, DaVinci Resolve Studio editing, color grading, visual effects (VFX) and audio post production software, and other technologies. 

Some of the Oscar nominated films that used Blackmagic Design gear during production included:

• “Attica” DP Kevin J. Burroughs used ATEM Mini live production switcher to show camera angles during remote interviews for the documentary;
• “CODA” DIT Leonard A. Mazzone used Smart Videohub 16x16 router and UltraStudio 4K capture and playback device for on set work;
• “Free Guy” DIT Daniel A. Hernandez used DaVinci Resolve Studio and UltraStudios for on set work; and
• “Spider-Man: No Way Home” VFX Supervisor Kelly Port used five Pocket Cinema Camera 4Ks as witness cameras during VFX shooting.

Some of the Oscar nominated films that used DaVinci Resolve Studio and accompanying gear during post production include:

• “Ascension” was graded by Cédric von Niederhäusern using DaVinci Resolve Micro Panel;
• “Belfast” was graded by Rob Pizzey and online edited and finished by Russell White, both of Goldcrest Post;
• “Don’t Look Up” was graded by Matt Wallach of Company 3;
• “Drive My Car” was graded by Yumeto Kitayama of Imagica Entertainment Media Services, Inc.;
• “Free Guy” was graded by Skip Kimball of Company 3;
• “The Hand of God” was graded, conformed and finished by Grande Mela Digital Film Srl, which also provided dailies color services;
• “Lead Me Home” was graded by Leo Hallal and online edited and finished by Ashley Pagán of ZAP Zoetrope Aubry Productions;
• “The Mitchells vs. the Machines” was graded by Natasha Leonnet of Company 3;
• “Nightmare Alley” was graded by Stefan Sonnenfeld of Company 3, with DaVinci Resolve Studio also being used in the VFX pipeline by the team at MR. X (which has since merged with the MPC brand);
• “No Time to Die” was graded by Matt Wallach of Company 3, with DaVinci Resolve Studio also being used in the VFX pipeline by VFX Supervisor Matt Tinsley of TPO VFX;
• “On My Mind” was edited, composited, graded and finished by Thomas Engell of Sound Sunrise;
• “The Power of the Dog” was graded by Trish Cahill at Soundfirm;
• “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” was graded by Jill Bogdanowicz and additional colorists Jared Pecht and Charles Bunnag, all of Company 3;
• “Spider-Man™: No Way Home” was graded by Jill Bogdanowicz of Company 3, with DaVinci Resolve Studio also being used in the VFX pipeline by the team at MR. X (which has since merged with the MPC brand) and by VFX Supervisor Ed Bruce's team in SSVFX who used it for VFX editorial, dailies and reviews, and live color sessions;
• “Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” was graded by Yohance Brown;
• “Three Songs for Benazir” was graded by Brian Hutchings, with IMF delivery completed by Joe Bogdanovic at Different By Design;
• “tick, tick…BOOM!” was graded by Stephen Nakamura of Company 3;
• “West Side Story” VFX Supervisor Aaron Weintraub of MR. X (which has since merged with the MPC brand) used DaVinci Resolve Studio in the VFX pipeline; and
• “When We Were Bullies” was graded by Robert Arnold of Lateral Films using DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel, DeckLink 4K Extreme 12G capture and playback card, DeckLink Mini Recorders and Mini Converters SDI to Audio.

LOS ANGELES—The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) has announced the planned release of its Standard Evaluation Material II (StEM2) project as a free download in early 2022. 

The short film is an initiative by the organization to provide standardized viewing material designed to aid in the development and calibration of technology impacting the modern imaging chain. StEM2 test packages will be available in early 2022 to download for free in all common theatrical and home TV formats.

“The Mission,” a professionally produced short film for the StEM2 initiative, emulates a high-end movie. Under the direction of the ASC, the film was designed to test exhibition and streaming systems, displays, and image-processing tools used in production and post, the ASC said 

“We set out to create a comprehensive assessment of the elements that increasingly impact professional production in today’s environment,” says ASC president Stephen Lighthill. “StEM2 offers the industry the information needed to support developments and advancements of products and solutions for image creation. Everyone from filmmakers, studios and post houses to engineers, technologists and manufacturers are affected by the technical complexities impacting storytelling.”

StEM2 was produced with significant backing from studios, technology companies and industry leaders, including a seed grant from Epic MegaGrants, as well as major support from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) Scientific and Technical Council.

“We saw a need to measure the dramatic change in workflows to enable script-to-screen technology that will support the viewer’s experience as close as possible to the filmmaker’s intentions,” notes chairman of the ASC Motion Imaging Technology Council (MITC) Curtis Clark, ASC. “As exhibition technology continues to advance, there is a critical need for baseline evaluation material originated by neutral and trusted third-party imaging experts.”

“The Mission” was carefully conceived to exploit and challenge today’s exhibition and image processing systems, the ASA said. 

StEM2 utilized the Academy Color Encoding System (ACES) throughout the entire pipeline. The project evaluated the challenges of moving meticulously crafted images through cloud workflows, including camera-to-cloud, dailies, editing, rendering and creation of deliverables while simultaneously maintaining artistic intentions. Utilizing an array of production environments, it was shot on location and on virtual production stages in July, capturing scenes shot in a dark cave, the desert, car interiors (day and night), city streets (night exteriors), and a dimly lit hospital (night interiors), the ASC explained. 

Additional parameters tested by “The Mission” include image high dynamic range, diverse skin tones, high resolution detail, in-camera VFX, fast moving action, and visuals to tax compression algorithms and image processing software.

StEM2 is an updated version of the ASC’s StEM1 project, which was a collaboration of the ASC and Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) in 2004. StEM1 helped DCI to establish technical parameters for digital cinema specifications during the transition from film print projection. It continues to be a bellwether for the industry in evaluating first generation digital developments. 

For more information on “The Mission” and accessing files, visit https://theasc.com/news/stem2

FREMONT, Calif.—Blackmagic Design has announced that many of the 2021 summer season’s worldwide film releases used Blackmagic Design products during production and post, with creatives involved in those films deploying its digital film cameras and its DaVinci Resolve Studio software for editing, color correction, visual effects production and more. 

The list of films using the products included some of the biggest blockbusters and expected blockbusters of the summer, such as “The Green Knight,” “Jungle Cruise,” “Spiral” and “Cruella.”

For the summer films, DaVinci Resolve was used many of the world’s leading editors, colorists and post production facilities, including Company 3’s Jaimie O’Bradovich on “Werewolves Within”, Wild Union Post’s Alex Noble on “Holler” and HARBOR’s Joe Gawler on “After Yang.”

“‘After Yang’ benefited greatly from the flexibility of DaVinci Resolve Studio’s node structure,” said Gawler. “Using nodes downstream of our main balancing work, the filmmakers and I were able to quickly experiment with a variety of more stylized palates, while simultaneously tightening the continuity within each scene.”

During production, Blackmagic Design cameras were used on a variety of films and scenes, while the company’s various routers, capture and playback devices, monitors, DaVinci Resolve and Mini Converters were used on DIT carts to help manage onset production, from suspense thrillers such as “Old” to horror movies like “Candyman”, Blackmagic Design reported. 

The summer films that used Blackmagic Design products for production included:

“Candyman” DIT James Notari used UltraStudio 4K recorders, Smart VideoHub 12x12 and SmartView Duo for his onset work;

“CODA” DIT Leonard A. Mazzone used Smart Videohub 16x16 and UltraStudio 4K for his onset work;

“Down with the King” DP Daniel Vecchione and director Diego Ongaro used two Pocket Cinema Camera 6Ks and two Video Assist 12G HDRs for principal photography;

“Don’t Breathe 2” cinematographer Pedro Luque used Pocket Cinema Camera for unique angles during production, and DIT Veljko Vukasovic used DaVinci Resolve Studio, UltraStudio 4K Extreme, Mini Monitor and Mini Recorder for his onset work;

“Free Guy” DIT Daniel A Hernandez used DaVinci Resolve Studio and UltraStudio capture and playback devices for onset work;

“False Positive” visual effects supervisor John Bair of Phosphene used Pocket Cinema Camera 6K and DaVinci Resolve Studio to capture VFX elements and plates, and VFX supervisor Alex Noble of Wild Union Post used DaVinci Resolve Studio as part of his VFX workflow;

“F9” DIT Joe Steel used UltraStudio Mini capture and playback devices, Smart Videohub and DaVinci Resolve Studio for onset work.

“Jungle Cruise” DIT Jason Bauer used Smart Videohub 20x20, Decklink Duo, various Micro Converters and DaVinci Resolve Studio on set;

“Old” editor Brett M. Reed used UltraStudio 4K Mini;

“Stillwater” DIT Daniel A Hernandez used DaVinci Resolve Studio and UltraStudio for onset work;

“The Killing of Two Lovers” cinematographer Oscar Ignacio Jimenez used DaVinci Resolve Studio for onset dailies review;

“The Water Man” DIT Sean Rawls used Smart Videohub 20x20, Multiview 4 HD, Decklink 4K Pro, Decklink HD Extreme 3D, Blackmagic Video Assist 7" 3G, UltraStudio HD Mini, UltraStudio Recorder 3G and DaVinci Resolve Studio onset;

“Werewolves Within” DIT Brandon Kelley used DaVinci Resolve Studio, UltaStudio Mini Monitor, UltraStudio Mini Recorder and Teranex;

“Wrath of Man” DIT Daniele Colombera used a variety of Blackmagic Design capture and playback devices, Mini Converter, Mini Monitor, SmartScope Duo, Smart Videohub and DaVinci Resolve for on set work.

Films that used DaVinci Resolve Studio for grading and editorial included: 

“All the Streets Are Silent” graded by Samuel Gursky of Irving Harvey;

“After Yang” graded by Joe Gawler at HARBOR;

“Black Widow” graded by Jill Bogdanowicz at Company 3;

“Cruella” graded by Tom Poole at Company 3;

“Down with the King” graded by Alex Berman at Goldcrest Post;

“Dream Horse” graded by Rob Pizzey at Goldcrest Post Production;

“The Green Knight” graded by Alastor Arnold at FotoKem;

“In the Earth” graded by Rob Pizzey at Goldcrest Post Production;

“Spiral” graded by Joanne Rourke at Company 3,

“Stillwater” graded by Tom Poole at Company 3;

“The Killing of Two Lovers” was graded by Drew Tekulve, and the film was edited with DaVinci Resolve Studio by Robert Machoian at 433 Pictures;

“The Protégé” graded by Vanessa Taylor at Nu Boyana Studios, London;

“The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard” graded by Vanessa Taylor at Nu Boyana Studios, London;

“Werewolves Within” graded by Jamie OBradovich at Company 3.

Films using DaVinci Resolve Studio or Fusion Studio for visual effects work included: 

“Catch the Fair One” visual effects supervisor Lucien Harriot of Mechanism Digital used Fusion Studio for VFX work;

“Holler” visual effects supervisor Alex Noble of Wild Union Post used DaVinci Resolve Studio as part of his VFX workflow;

“Joe Bell” visual effects supervisor George Loucas of Baked Studios used DaVinci Resolve Studio as part of his VFX workflow;

“The Loneliest Whale: The Search for 52” visual effects supervisor Alex Noble of Wild Union Post used DaVinci Resolve as part of his VFX workflow;

“Spiral” executive producer Martín López Funes of Malditomaus used DaVinci Resolve Studio and Fusion Studio for the film’s visual effects under the leadership of VFX supervisor Jon Campfens of Switch VFX;

“Werewolves Within” visual effects supervisor Lucien Harriot of Mechanism Digital used Fusion Studio for VFX work;

“Zola” visual effects supervisor Alex Noble of Wild Union Post used DaVinci Resolve Studio as part of his VFX workflow.

FREMONT, Calif.—Blackmagic Design announced that the short film “Sisters,” which had its premiere at the 2021 South By Southwest Film Festival, was shot on the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K in Blackmagic RAW and graded in DaVinci Resolve Studio.

Written and directed by Jessica Brunetto, “Sisters” focuses on two estranged siblings who are forced to confront each other as their comatose mother nears death. 

The decision to shoot with the compact Pocket Cinema Camera 4K helped overcome problems shooting with two cameras in the limited space of a single, small house. 

“It blows my mind that we were able to use 35mm Zeiss Prime lenses on such small inexpensive camera bodies and produce such a high quality image,” explained Jessica Brunetto. “And, as a director I loved how fast we could move between setups, which I feel is incredibly important to capture the best performances.”

Working with Blackmagic RAW provided ample data in post for Luke Cahill who colored “Sisters” in DaVinci Resolve Studio. 

“Blackmagic RAW is great to work with because you know that you are getting the cleanest image possible, as a starting point,” Cahill said. “The Pocket 4K had the range which allowed us to preserve all of the detail in the highlights, while also allowing us to pull out the detail and texture in the shadows of some of the darker scenes.”

For more information on the camera and the shoot visit: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com.

DALLAS—I was fortunate to have a busy early career of consistent work on low-budget features, then two seasons shooting second unit and three seasons as the main director of photography on “Chicago Fire.” Following that show I moved back to features until the pandemic hit and I finally had some down time.

Recently I was brought in as the DoP for a new drama series shooting in Dallas. The unconventional thriller, “Cruel Summer,” takes place in a small Texas town over the summers of 1993, ’94 and ’95. Popular teen, Kate, goes missing and Jeanette, a sweet, awkward outlier, goes from being the most popular girl in town to eventually becoming the most despised person in America.

It’s a dynamic story. My philosophy is that powerful visual storytelling comes from collaboration—the director, producers and crew pitch ideas and we go with the best ones. One of my functions is to coordinate how the set runs, and the pandemic brought unique challenges.

ADJUSTING TO THE NEW NORMAL

Safety protocols called for compliance with a zone system that included three Covid tests per week and new working practices. I had my own video village but I didn’t spend much time in the tent. Being very hands-on, I am constantly moving—I’m one of the only people without a chair on set.

The camera package consisted of two Alexa Mini’s with Panavision Primos and wireless transmission via a Teradek Bolt transmitter and four receivers positioned with the focus puller, DP station, director’s monitor and distribution station. Everyone on the team needs visuals, so Teradek’s Serv Pros and Links allowed multicam viewing. Other crew—from hair, to assistant directors, to the boom op—used Teradek’s VUER live video monitor app on their personal devices.

The proliferation of monitors on set has been a major change. No longer just for ACs to use for focus, screens are everywhere and on our set most are SmallHD. The operators have SmallHD 703 7-inch Ultrabrights on camera, the ACs have 13-inch 1303 HDRs and the directors have 1703 17-inch reference-grade monitors.

There’s always a SmallHD within 10 feet of me so I can stay on set to talk to everyone. I can go adjust a camera, then run and talk to the director; I can check waveform and false color with a button press on any SmallHD monitor—and I know they will all match. It’s a real benefit to my working style.

MATCHING SHOTS

SmallHD has become a secret weapon for us because our show is so ambitious. The story follows multiple characters and, time-wise, jumps between three different years, making it a fun creative, visual and editorial challenge. It makes shooting for transitions and edits crucial.

One day the director wanted a pretty specific match cut. We tried SmallHD’s “Image Capture” function for a particular shot and used “Overlay” to quickly line up the image. That would usually require significantly more time, but the director and I were amazed at how fast and useful this function was on the SmallHD monitor. We were soon doing exact matching of shots quickly on the fly: a closeup of a character one year and an exact match cut of the character in a different year—or a different location, or another character—enabling more creative choices. It’s become a signature tool we use on virtually every episode. Now the SmallHD capture and overlay capability is a vital part of my toolbox.

“Cruel Summer” premiered on Freeform, April 20, then on Hulu the next day, and will stream on Amazon International in the future.

Jayson Crothers is a director of photography who lives in Los Angeles. He can be reached at www.jaysoncrothers.com or contact@jaysoncrothers.com.

For more information, contact SmallHD at 919-439-2166 or visit www.smallhd.com.

FREMONT, Calif.—Blackmagic Design gear was a key part of the production and post-production of the independent film “I’m Fine (Thank You for Asking)” that debuted at the South by Southwest Film Festival in March. The production utilized a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K and the DaVinci Resolve Studio.

The film, which follows a mother and her 8-year-old child dealing with homelessness during the pandemic, was shot in 2020. Production restrictions helped lead the filmmakers to the Blackmagic camera.

Because of the size of the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K, the crew could put the camera on a DJI Ronin S gimbal stabilizer. Director of photography Becky Baihi Chen said that the small camera on a small gimbal allowed her to easily follow the lead character as she roller skates in some scenes.

The film was also shot in Blackmagic RAW, Contrast Bitrate 5:1, which helped manage the lighting conditions of shooting a lot of exteriors.

Once the film was edited, it was then conformed in DaVinci Resolve. This allowed for camera metadata to be manipulated by a colorist during the color grading process, as well as using the edit page for split and completed stabilizations.

“I’m Fine (Thank You for Asking)” was directed by Kelley Kali and Angelique Molina.

PHILADELPHIA—Run a Better Set (RABS) has developed an app and digital voucher that is designed to help TV and film productions deal with many of the safety challenges presented by the current COVID-19 pandemic, by removing the need for paper and touch points.

Through the RABS app, background talent completes their Digital Vouchers from home or from personal devices on set, eliminating the need to exchange paper, pens or other documents. It also features what RABS calls Skin and Wrap technologies, which allow for the review and approval of these documents in-app.

The app can also track COVID test results, safety training certificates and payments. It can separate background talent into “Sequester” and “Hold Units.” The app can also easily update to new regulations and best practices.

All documentation done through the app can be electronically transferred to whatever department needed, per RABS.

"Digital services enabling effective health and safety practices are essential for crews to remain at work," says Josh Weinberg, CEO of RABS. "The RABS App solves the unique and often overlooked challenges of safely managing background talent on set. We've been a proven, trusted service since well before the pandemic."

For more information, visit www.runabetterset.com.  

FREMONT, Calif.—Blackmagic Design is part of the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, announcing that more than 35 projects in the festival’s lineup used one or some combination of Blackmagic gear to help bring their stories to life.

Projects that used a Blackmagic camera and gear during production included “Passing,” which used the DaVinci Resolve Studio, UltraStudio Mini Monitor and UltraStudio Mini Recorder capture and playback devices, as well as the Mini Converter SDI Distribution 4K, Smart Videohub 20x20 router and Videohub Smart Control panel. “R#J” and “Users” filmed with the Pocket Cinema Camera 6Ks, while “First Date” used both the URSA Mini 4.6K and Pocket Cinema Camera.

“Land,” which is the feature directorial debut of Robin Wright, used Blackmagic’s Fusion Studio and DaVinci Resolve Studio for VFX. Other projects to do so included “4 Feet High,” “The Blazing World,” “Mayday” and “On the Count of Three.”

The DaVinci Resolve and DaVinci Resolve Studio were also popular for post-production work, including by “Land,” “Bruiser,” “A Glitch in the Matrix,” “Jockey,” “The Pink Cloud,” “Together Together,” “White Wedding” and more.

For a complete list of Sundance projects that used Blackmagic gear, visit the company’s website. 

LONDON—It could be awhile before we see new seasons of popular shows like “Stranger Things,” as Ampere Analysis highlights that scripted TV shows are currently facing greater COVID-related production delays than unscripted content, and that genre also plays a factor into just how long these shows may take to get to air.

As many productions are adapting to the new realities of on-set production that adhere to COVID safety protocols, unscripted content has been able to adapt to new production circumstances faster than scripted because of their shorter overall production time—two months compared to 11, on average. This will likely mean that many scripted programs will be facing delays well into 2021.

Things can differ depending on genre. Ampere reports that scripted dramas or romances can often be expedited, but for genres with lengthy post-production periods, like sci-fi, action-adventure or horror, it is expected to have an impact on when they can wrap things up.

“COVID-19 has hit the production of high-quality, scripted content most severely, and producers will be fighting delays well into 2021,” said Olivia Deane, analyst at Ampere Analysis. “Linear programmers know that viewers won’t accept poor quality content and repeats indefinitely, and they will lose consumers to both broadcast and on-demand competitors if they don’t address the situation fast.”

As a result of this delay, the amount of unscripted programs has risen during the pandemic. The percentage of unscripted evening and primetime programs in the U.S. and U.K. has recovered and surpassed (nearly 30%) of what it was pre-COVID, while scripted content has yet to make it back to its pre-COVID levels.

Ampere also sees an opportunity for independent studios that have scripted projects already in the pipeline, but it may be hard to meet the demand for new content as these indies still face their own delays. 

For more information, visit www.ampereanalysis.com. 

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.—The docuseries “Woodwalkers” follows a group of determined students as they take on a grueling 15-week training program to become professional lineworkers, constructing and maintaining electric power lines. Working to overcome hardships at home and push through a trying training schedule that can include injuries, dangerous weather and more, the students strive to graduate from the premier Southeast Lineman Training Center in Trenton, Ga. With a new class of students featured each season, the second season of “Woodwalkers” premiered on Amazon Prime in July 2020.

As the second and third seasons’ DP and post supervisor, I chose to shoot the second season with Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro and URSA Mini Pro G2 digital film cameras, pairing them with Angenieux EZ-1 and Angenieux EZ-2 lenses, and equipping them with Blackmagic URSA Viewfinders and Blackmagic URSA Mini Shoulder Kits for ease of use.

BATTLING THE CONDITIONS

Due to the docuseries style of “Woodwalkers,” and the inherent challenges that come from a lot of the drama happening in real-time 30 feet in the air, it’s imperative that we have reliable cameras that can stand up to the shooting conditions as well as the elements.

As part of their training, the students are put through night storm training, four-hour climbing sessions and even a Navy Seal-inspired crucible event called “Awakening.” That means we’re put through those shooting conditions as well, in the Georgia heat.

We typically shoot for 8–10 hours a day, and most days are in the high 90s to triple digits, with high humidity. With some intense night shoots happening during stormy weather, we were able to mostly shoot at the cameras’ native ISO of 800, sometimes pushing the URSA Mini Pro G2 to 1600 for slow-motion shots, and everything held up really well.

NEW SEASON, NEW GEAR

Moving from season one to season two, we were able to step back and rethink our approach, including what shooting package made the most sense for the show’s conditions.

After struggling with a 30-pound camera setup for season one, we knew that a more lightweight solution was needed, especially since a lot of the series is shot looking up and our backs needed a break. As we used several different makes and models of cameras while shooting season one, we also wanted to simplify things and start using matching cameras and lenses for season two so things would be less complicated in post. Battery life was also important, especially since swapping them out wasn’t always easy if we were suspended in the air in a bucket truck, capturing the students high up on the poles.

We ultimately selected the URSA Mini Pro and URSA Mini Pro G2 cameras because of their ease-of-use and image quality. We really liked the ability to use off-speed frame rates for slow-motion shots, and filming at 120 fps on the URSA Mini Pro G2 while still using the full sensor was incredible. Also, having built-in ND filters allowed us to keep our lens iris very wide, helping to produce a more dramatic and cinematic image for the docuseries. It’s also great that our batteries lasted 1.5–2 hours, as opposed to burning through them every 30 minutes with the larger camera setup from season one.

The cameras delivered exactly what we were looking for, so we continued using them and the Angenieux EZ-Kit lenses for season three, which is currently in post—stay tuned!

Jonny Ginese is a DP, producer and lead editor at Super Chief LLC, a Tennessee-based production company focused on documentary storytelling, feature length films and other unscripted storytelling. He can be contacted at jonny@gosuperchief.com.

For additional information, visit www.blackmagicdesign.com.

BURBANK, Calif.—Matthews Studio Equipment has introduced a new offering that aims to help with the practice of social distancing on set, the Sheet Plate Adapter Kit.

MSE’s Sheet Plate Adapter Kit is a bracket mount that adds a welded 3/8-inch pin to any sheet material (i.e. Plexiglass, plywood, etc.) to create on-set barriers that can be sanitized. Two 3-inch steel plates sandwich the material via four bolts. 

The adapter kit can also be used for camera protection, custom light modification and set building, per MSE.

For more information, visit www.msegrip.com.  

VANCOUVER — In a move to increase sustainability in film and television production, Sim is launching Urban Power Source, the largest, mobile, zero-emissions battery power packs available today built specifically for the entertainment industry. Sim has now taken delivery of the first two units, named Minnekhada and Seymour, after the regional parks within Metro Vancouver featured on their exterior, demonstrating Sim's commitment to the communities in which it operates.

Engineered, designed and built in British Columbia, the power stations feature built-in, uninterruptible power supply properties and allow for up to 124kg of CO2 emissions savings per charge. In a package identical in size and weight to a standard generator, the near-silent units deliver 125kWh of power storage with an output capacity of 72kW, and a 3-phase 120/208V power supply at 200 amps per phase.

Compatible with today's LED lighting technology, the versatile Urban Power Source operates with low noise and no diesel smell, making it easier for production companies to shoot in sensitive locations. It also results in reduced distribution and maintenance costs. The uninterruptible power supply has flow-through capability and a daisy chain connectivity option for additional run-time. As a result, it helps to avoid “lost shots” on set, making it the smartest mobile, clean-energy choice available to the film and television industry today.

“Much is said about our environment and the need for us all to be aware of the impact today's decisions have on our future,” said Sim President, Production Services, Eleanor O’Connor. “As a supplier of studios, cameras, production equipment and post-production services, we have taken a leadership role in reconfiguring our collective carbon footprint. Acting on our Sustainability Goals, we're committed to minimizing our environmental impact, growing sustainably and inspiring others to take action.”

In addition to its operational efforts, Sim has launched a company-wide “Green” initiative, dedicated to providing the best products and services to enable sustainable practices in the motion picture and television industry.

About Sim:

Sim is a leading supplier of production equipment, workflow/dailies and post-production solutions, and has expanded to include stages and production offices in Vancouver. With offices spanning North America, Sim’s team and services supported features such as “The Greatest Showman”, “Get Out” and “IT 2”, Oscar-winning documentary, “OJ: Made in America,” and hit series “Game of Thrones,” “American Crime Story, “Stranger Things” and “Handmaid’s Tale.” Our Toronto and Vancouver facilities provide camera, grip and lighting and playback equipment, as well as studios in Vancouver. And all of our geographic locations provide an array of services from dailies, to online and offline editing, to final color/DI and visual effects, to sound editorial and mixing. Sim is backed by Toronto-based investment firm Granite Partners. For more information, visit siminternational.com or visit us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn @simcomplete.

Fremont, CA - February 5, 2019 - Blackmagic Design today announced that acclaimed cinematographer Roy H. Wagner, ASC shot the upcoming musical drama “Stand!” using several URSA Mini Pro cameras for principal photography, along with the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K for select shots.

Juliet” style love story set in the violent events of the era. Starring Gregg Henry (“Guardians of the Galaxy”), Laura Wiggins (“Shameless”), Marshall Williams (“Glee”), and Hayley Sales (“Deadpool 2”). “Stand!” is slated for release in 2019.

Shot on location in Winnipeg, Roy knew he needed a reliable camera system that would withstand the rigors of location shooting, but also would be easy to use. “This is a camera I’ve done extensive tests with and have found it incredibly competitive with the most expensive camera systems. The camera crew had never used the camera and yet were able to pull a brand new camera out of its case and have it fully prepped within three days.”

The style of photography called for dynamic lighting contrast, deeply detailed shadows and brilliant highlights, requiring a camera with enormous exposure latitude. “What amazed me shooting with the Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro,” said Adetuyi, “was that it allowed us to get into low light situations and still capture really thick, rich blacks. We went for a very aggressive style, and the images allowed us a lot of latitude for interpretation in post production.” Wagner was incredibly happy with the detail in the shadows. The resolution, the sharpness, they dynamic range will please any demanding cinematographer. We were filming with atmospheric smoke, filming through layers of lace and open weave material that would have caused aliasing with other cameras”

The project put a high demand on unique imagery, both for its period setting but also its musical style. Adetuyi knew Roy was up to the task. “It was a great challenge to capture 1919 in its fullness, yet tell a poignant and dramatic story. There were a lot of typical issues with time that meant the cameras were under combat style conditions. We never waited for camera problems nor was I ever told I couldn’t accomplish a difficult task. The cameras were incredibly light and small enough to place wherever I needed. Roy created such beautiful images for this story.”

Wagner’s past work helped him develop a unique style that was not afraid of contrast, yet embraced the story within the imagery. Wagner has driven the visuals of such diverse and innovative shows such as “CSI”, “House” and “Elementary.” He is a multiple Emmy Award winner, and is a member of both the American Society of Cinematographers as well as being an honorary Fellow in The British Royal Photographic Society.

Wagner has seen the transition from photo chemical film to digital, and was deeply involved in early development of high definition imaging, photographing the very first dramatic episodic network television series in high definition, “Pasadena”. While always eager to embrace new technologies, he has not always been pleased with the results. “I’ve done extensive tests with the URSA Mini Pro and knew I was able to let the highlights over expose and then bring them back in post production,” said Wagner. “I could expose for the shadows and print for the highlights, which is what we used to do with the photo chemical process. I was astonished at how it reproduces skin tone. I’m not having to use cosmetic rouge on the key light, like I’ve had to do with virtually every other digital camera.”

Wagner was impressed with both the image quality and the technology. “Most modern cameras are like using medical devices. I’m having to put a great deal of diffusion in front of the lens, or something between the lens and the sensor in order to protect the actors. That was not the case with this camera. The filtration choices I made were creative. This camera loves what’s in front of it.”

“This camera gives me a chance to be an artist again,” said Wagner. “It can compete with any camera on the market now. But most of all, I’m excited about Blackmagic Design team because they love cinematography as much as I do.”

View the teaser trailer here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JllrjJ_XpQ&feature=youtu.be

Press Photography

Product photos of URSA Mini Pro, URSA Mini 4.6K, Micro Cinema Camera, Pocket Cinema Camera 4K, Pocket Cinema Camera, Micro Studio Camera 4K, Production Camera 4K, Video Assist 4K, DaVinci Resolve, Fusion, ATEM, Videohub, SmartView Duo, SmartScope Duo 4K, UltraStudio, DeckLink, Intensity Shuttle, Media Express, Converters and all other Blackmagic Design products are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/images

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD 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 go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.

Oscar winner Simon Hayes has become the first production sound mixer to use DPA’s new d:screet™ CORE 6000 Series Subminiature Microphones on a major feature film.

The currently untitled movie, which is due for release in 2019, is a musically themed comedy directed by Danny Boyle and written by Richard Curtis (Love Actually, Notting Hill). Although details of the plot are sketchy, it is set in the 1960s and 1970s and stars Lily James, Kate McKinnon, Ed Sheeran and Himesh Patel.

Simon Hayes chose DPA’s new d:screet Subminiature lavalier microphones for this project because they deliver very natural sounding audio and - at just three millimeters in diameter - are small enough to remain invisible, even when fitted to actors wearing exceptionally tight t-shirts and ties with very tiny knots.

“With other subminiature microphones on the market there is an extreme, pronounced quality compromise when you are recording vocals and this is the reason why I’ve never liked using them,” Hayes explains. “However, with the DPA Subminiature you can have your cake and eat it because the sound is amazing and they are so small you can hide them just about anywhere. I don’t know how DPA have done it – they must have magicians in their R&D department – because they seem to have shrunk a normal sized microphone into this tiny package without any compromise on sound quality. What’s more, these new microphones sound exactly the same as the larger d:screet 4061 or 4071 lavaliers, including those fitted with DPA’s new CORE amplifier technology. This means you can use them together and you can’t tell the difference because the vocal timbre and the tonal quality is identical.”

As a long term fan of DPA – he used d:screet 4061s and 4071s extensively during the filming of Mamma Mia and Les Misérables for which he won both an Oscar and BAFTA in the sound mixing categories – Simon Hayes was delighted to have the opportunity to try the new subminiature microphones prior to their official launch in September.

“When we shot the Danny Boyle film, we were recording live vocals and live music,” he explains. “We used the subminiatures for the actors’ dialogue and live vocals. We also used d:screet CORE 4061 microphones inside the acoustic guitars. This gave us a very natural sound and meant that we had continuity when switching from one microphone to another because they all matched acoustically. The sound and music post production editing teams were delighted with this set up as they could carry out really creative mixes based on what they were hearing, rather than having to mix around any negative points from the lavalier recordings.”

Hayes adds that the costume department was equally impressed with the new DPA sub miniatures.

“On this film a lot of the male actors were wearing tight t-shirts, which are always difficult to rig with radio mics. DPA’s new subminiature is so small that it can be stuck between an actor’s pecs on a really tight fitting, sheer t-shirt and you can’t see it at all.”

Hayes adds that the subminiatures were also ideal for miking actors wearing suits. Usually a miniature microphone can be fitted into a tie knot, but on this film the 1960’s-style tie knots were very small and therefore required a much smaller solution.

“We could get the subminiature mics into any tie knot, not just some of them,” he explains. “This ability to be much closer to the source of the vocal makes the sound much clearer.”

Changes in the way movies are being made has led to much greater demand for small, high quality microphones and Simon Hayes believes DPA is one of the few manufacturers that really understand this.

“DPA is truly supporting the film industry because they are constantly pushing microphone technology forward and presenting viable solutions that we can use on set,” he says. “You have to remember that we are not shooting on film anymore – 99% of what we shoot is on HD and every year the quality of HD and the resolution of the pixels improves. This means that, on a cinema screen, audiences see everything in much greater detail, including the costumes. If we don’t rig a lavalier microphone very carefully and very sensitively the audience is going to spot it. DPA has recognised this and presented us with a solution. The new subminiature microphones are tiny enough to hide effectively yet accurate enough to make no compromise on vocal quality. That is a massive achievement. Also, because DPA subminiature microphones are sonically identical to their larger brothers, we can choose the right tool for the job without having to worry about them not sounding the same.”

With the Danny Boyle movie now completed, Simon Hayes is turning his attention to his next project – Tom Hooper’s film adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical CATS. His other recent film credits include the new Mary Poppins movie and a remake of the Aladdin story, both of which were recorded using DPA’s new d:screet CORE 4061 and 4071 lavaliers that were launched to huge critical acclaim earlier this year.

-ends-

ABOUT DPA MICROPHONES:

DPA Microphones is the leading Danish Professional Audio manufacturer of high-quality condenser microphone solutions for professional applications. DPA’s ultimate goal is to always provide its customers with the absolute finest possible microphone solutions for all its markets, which include live sound, installation, recording, theatre and broadcast. When it comes to the design process, DPA takes no shortcuts. Nor does the company compromise on its manufacturing process, which is done at the DPA factory in Denmark. As a result, DPA’s products are globally praised for their exceptional clarity and transparency, unparalleled specifications, supreme reliability and, above all, pure, uncoloured and undistorted sound.

For more information, please visit www.dpamicrophones.com

Fremont, CA - December 11, 2018 - Blackmagic Design today announced that DP Eric Koretz used a Micro Studio Camera 4K and Video Assist 4Kmonitor/recorder while shooting the new film “Siberia.” Koretz also used DaVinci Resolve Studio and a DaVinci Resolve Micro Panel on set to develop various looks while shooting.

“Siberia” stars Keanu Reeves as Lucas Hill, an American diamond trader who travels to Siberia after his partner goes missing in the midst of a big deal. While dealing with an impatient buyer (Pasha D. Lychnikoff), Lucas searches for the missing diamonds and finds an unexpected love affair with a local cafe owner (Ana Ularu) even though his wife (Molly Ringwald) is at home.

For the film, Koretz used a Micro Studio Camera 4K and Video Assist 4K to shoot scenes where Reeves’ and Ringwald’s characters are talking to each other through video chat, as well as to capture Reeves watching a video of his missing partner on his laptop.

Koretz explained, “We needed a small camera that could record in 4K and mimic the angle of a video chat. It had to have a small design so the actors could move it around as if they were holding an iPhone or laptop.”

“We shot the footage with the Micro Studio Camera 4K and recorded it with the Video Assist 4K, which was facing the actors so they could frame themselves,” Koretz continued. “The camera and Video Assist 4K worked very well together and it was an easy workflow. We shot in Pro Res 422 HQ which gave us high quality 10‑bit recorded editable files. The footage was then superimposed onto laptop computers and a phone.”

Koretz also used DaVinci Resolve Studio and a DaVinci Resolve Micro Panel to test and develop different looks for the film.

“As a DP, I like having control over the look of my images and exploring what I can do with them,” said Koretz. “For ‘Siberia,’ I liked using DaVinci Resolve Studio to develop LUTs along with my DIT, but also just to explore and test color possibilities on my own. DaVinci Resolve Studio has the simplicity I need as a DP, while also having powerful features.”

“Moreover, the DaVinci Resolve Micro Panel is great because you can take it anywhere. It’s amazing to be able to have that much control in a package that I can essentially take with me wherever I’m filming. Whether I was on set or using the control panel back at the hotel to further test looks for ‘Siberia,’ I was able to have the features I needed right at my fingertips,” Koretz concluded.

Press Photography

Product photos of Micro Studio Camera 4K, Video Assist 4K, DaVinci Resolve Studio, DaVinci Resolve Micro Panel and all other Blackmagic Design products are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/images

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD 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 go to www.blackmagicdesign.com

Fremont, CA — July 24, 2018 - Blackmagic Design announced today that URSA Mini Pro 4.6K, Pocket Cinema Camera and Video Assist were used for “LOUDER! Can't Hear What You're Singin', Wimp!,” a new film by hugely popular Japanese director Satoshi Miki.

“LOUDER! Can't Hear What You're Singin', Wimp!” is a comedy film by Satoshi Miki, who has directed and written a number of prominent works of films, TV dramas and comedy programs. It tells the story of an encounter between Shin, a charismatic rock star with a powerful singing voice and Fuuka, a budding musician with a weak voice. The film features well known and unique actors including Sadao Abe and Riho Yoshioka. It is set to be released October 12th nationwide in Japan.

The director of photography is Daisuke Souma, who has worked on a number of Japanese blockbuster movies such as ‘Helter Skelter,’ ‘Tokyo Tribe’ and ‘Prophecy,’ and is considered one of the leading cinematographers in Japanese films.

“LOUDER! Can't Hear What You're Singin', Wimp!” was shot with URSA Mini Pro 4.6K and Pocket Cinema Camera. Video Assist was used as a monitor and recorder for URSA Mini Pro 4.6K.

“We used three different cameras in this film, including URSA Mini Pro 4.6K and Pocket Cinema Camera. Under usual circumstances you often prioritize cameras like the A camera for important scenes and B camera for less important scenes, but we decided not to choose a main camera in this film and tried to use the camera that was best for each scene. We chose not to match the looks of scenes, hoping to retain the quality and characters of each camera,” said Daisuke Souma, director of photography.

He continued: “I was looking for a camera that was suitable for anamorphic lenses. I feel like anamorphic lenses are similar to 70mm film, because you can squeeze the distance between objects and actors more than when you shoot with 35mm lenses. On the contrary to Miki’s previous comedies with sarcastic humor and vacant looks, this film centers around intimacy between Shin and Fuuka, so I went for squeezed looks with anamorphic lenses. I also used 16mm lenses, which are good to describe the nuances of distance and detachment. I wanted to change the lenses depending on scenes to imply the ever changing relationships among characters. That is why I looked for compact and light cameras that support anamorphic lens and can shoot RAW. URSA Mini Pro 4.6K was the only option available to satisfy these conditions.”

“URSA Mini Pro 4.6K was especially valuable on small sets with little space, due to its compactness and flexibility. The set of Fuuka’s house was so small that it would have been impossible to shoot if not for URSA Mini Pro 4.6K. It was not only compact but also lightweight, so I could even put it on a gimbal with wires. There was no situation you couldn’t shoot with URSA Mini Pro 4.6K. In daylight scenes we always used the internal ND filters. It was very helpful to have the ND filters inside the camera body. We also had a relatively small staff for the film so these small things meant a lot to us. URSA Mini Pro 4.6K looks cool but that is not the whole story. I gradually grew aware that this camera is built with careful attention to tiny details,” he said.

Pocket Cinema Camera was used for concert scenes with Shin and Fuuka.

“Pocket Cinema Camera is literally pocket-sized so you can carry it around anywhere. In music concert scenes, a camera operator went into the crowded audience. Normal sized cameras would have drawn their attention to the cameras to the detriment of reality, but with Pocket Cinema Camera the audience remained oblivious to the camera and we succeeded in capturing the real excitement of the concert,” he concluded.

Press Photography

Product photos of URSA Mini 4.6K, Pocket Cinema Camera, Video Assist and all other Blackmagic Design products are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/images.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD 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 go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.