News
Steven Meizler on “The Queen’s Gambit”
In its initial month of streaming, The Queen’s Gambit was viewed by 62 million households. These are Netflix numbers. Director Scott Frank has brought so much excitement to a story about chess and a conflicted prodigy that the New York Times headlined Marie Fazio’s review with “The Netflix show has reignited interest in the game and fueled demand for chess sets, accessories and timers.” Reviews were quick to extoll the beautifully lit and masterfully composed cinematography of Steven Meizler. And so— read more…
DMG DASH
Dash Dot Dot / Dash Dash / Dash Dash Dot.That’s Morse code for DMG as in DMG Lumiere.And now, DASH is the brilliant new pocket LED light fixture from DMG Lumiere by Rosco. It is housed in a rugged aluminum housing that can endure most production scenarios. DASH can all be controlled with the myMIX app for iOS, Android and APK. DASH is tiny (5″ x 3.1″ x 1.1″) but powerful (up to 35 footcandles at 3.3 feet / 380 Lux at 1 meter.) read more…
Tags: Dash, dmg lumiere, DMG Lumière by ROSCO, Rosco
Jeff Cree 1951 – 2021
Jeffrey Allen Cree passed away on January 13, 2021 at home in Santa Clarita, California. He was born December 10, 1951 in Modesto, California. His first job ewas at KGO, an ABC owned and operated TV station in San Francisco. Next, Jeff traveled the world as an ABC news cameraman. His exploits became legendary and as his friend George Lang said, “Almost all of them are true.” Jeff joined Sony in San Jose, California in the 1990s and then moved with the Sony team to New Jersey. His next excellent adventure continued at Band Pro Film & Digital in 2002 as CTO. There will be a Zoom tribute to Jeff on Wed Feb 24, 2021 at 4:00 pm PST. read more…
Nicol Verheem and Teradek at Sci-Tech Awards
Saturday, February 13. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored 55 individuals and 2 companies in a virtual Scientific and Technical Awards (Sci-Tech) presentation. Three of these recipients are well-known to FDTimes readers. They graciously endured interviews. Here is the first of three: Nicol Verheem is the Founder & CEO of Teradek and CEO of Creative Solutions. read more…
Greg Smokler – Teradek – Sci-Tech Award
Greg Smokler is Vice President of Cine Products at Teradek. He grew up in LA, worked as a camera assistant, DP and ICG Local 600 Camera Operator. He was co-founder of Paralinx, the wireless video company, that was acquired by the Vitec Group. Today, Greg is responsible for Vitec’s Creative Solutions Cine business unit, which comprises Teradek, SmallHD, and Wooden Camera. Greg discusses his Sci-Tech Award. read more…
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Scientific and Engineering Awards (Sci-Tech Academy Plaques) honored Dr. Zvi Reznic, Prof. Meir Feder, Guy Dorman and Ron Yogev. In the following interview, Dr. Reznic says, “It is a great honor for us to receive this award. Usually, only the people who develop the technology are aware of its level of sophistication, while the users are simply enjoying its merits. In this case, the Academy realized that what is simply described as ‘low-latency robust wireless video’ encompasses an enormous set of innovations, robustness layers, and creative engineering. read more…
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Sci Tech Awards to Teradek and Amimon
SCIENTIFIC & TECHNICAL AWARDS 2020 (to be presented Saturday Feb 13, 2021).
Announced today by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: February 2, 2021. LOS ANGELES, CA — 17 scientific and technical awards will be presented in a virtual Scientific and Technical (Sci Tech) Awards presentation on Saturday, February 13, 2021 on the Oscars® website beginning at 1 p.m. Pacific Time. You can go to the website now to read summaries of the awards. read more…
Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K Report
This Special Report about the Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K camera is compiled from several editions of FDTimes. It is a free, printable, 36-page 11 MB PDF download.
The Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K costs less than $10K. It dares to defy a typical engineering riddle—pick any four of six: quality, resolution, easy data wrangling, size, weight, cost. Incredibly, URSA 12K gives you all six.
URSA 12K is a serious camera now shooting seriously stellar Super35 images at an astonishing 79.6 Megapixels per frame (12,288 x 6480) up to 75 fps in 2.39:1 (2.4:1), among many other aspect ratios, frame rates and resolutions. read more…
FDTimes Jan 2021 in the Mail
The Film and Digital Times January 2021 Print Edition, Issue 106, is now in the mail.
The latest text update v.01.03.21 is online. Still free for all as a 150 PDF. And, the high rez 300 dpi PDF is ready for online subscribers to read or print. read more…
Steven Manios Sr. 1938-2021
Steven Manios Sr., industry legend, optical wizard and former owner and president of Century Precision Optics, passed away on January 3, 2021 from complications of COVID-19. Steve’s fifty-year career in Hollywood was the stuff of legends. He was part of an esteemed group referred to as Hollywood Royalty. Steve innovated and developed many lenses and optical devices. Among these were wide-angle lenses and adapters, swing-tilt and telephoto lenses, extenders, macro attachments and more. Most of these became essential ingredients of camera and lens packages on film and TV productions. read more…
Larry Thorpe on Canon Sumire Primes
This the one and a half year anniversary of our first discussion about Canon Sumire Prime lenses. Since their introduction in April 2019, Sumire Primes have distinguished themselves on features, TV, series, spots, docs, reality and many productions. They are unique at Canon in that products are usually not given names, like Sumire, but rather letters and numbers, like C70, R5, CN-E and K-35. Consider this as the second episode of our Sumire Saga. Larry Thorpe, distinguished Senior Fellow at Canon, discusses Sumire Prime Lenses, scotches rumors about K-35 and vintages, and eloquently explains lenses for formats from S16 to S35 to Full Frame and Resolutions 2K to 12K. read more…
Motion Impossible and AbelCine
AGITO is an exciting, stabilized, modular, remote camera dolly system. Robb Drewett, CEO, and Andy Nancollis, CDO, are the co-founders of Motion Impossible and creators of AGITO. Pete Abel is CEO of AbelCine, with locations in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Jeff Lee is Director of Education at AbelCine. read more…
Band Pro is Angenieux Distributor in Americas
Inevitably there is breaking news at the annual Band Pro One World Open House.
This year it was virtual–at 4pm PST on December 10.
Severine Serrano, Managing Director, Angénieux International Sales & Marketing, announced that effective December 10, 2020, Band Pro will be exclusive distributor of the Angenieux brand of products in the US, Canada and Latin America. read more…
Grading Ford v Ferrari with Skip Kimball
In last month’s FDTimes, Nicol Verheem (Founder & CEO of Teradek and CEO of Creative Solutions) said, “One of my recent favorite memories was watching Ford v Ferrari with my 12-year- old son. I can remember walking out and he said, ‘First off, that was a really good movie. And second, when can we come back and see it again?’” I saw it again as well and was delighted to get in touch with Company 3’s Senior Colorist Skip Kimball about the film’s impressive grading.Ford v Ferrari was directed by James Mangold. Cinematography was by Phedon Papamichael ASC, GSC. It’s based on the true story of Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and Ken Miles (Christian Bale) as they work to win the 24 hour race at Le Mans in 1966. read more…
The Business of the Business: CVP
Fitzrovia, London. January 28, 2020. Jon Fry, Darren Simpson, Yevgeny Subbotin, Aaron George and I met in the nicely appointed club at CVP Creative Space on Charlotte Street. As often happens in our world of moveable feasts, we soon adjourned to continue the discussion at Berners Tavern.
In a large elegant room festooned floor to ceiling with paintings, the menu included traditional British pork pie prepared tableside with showmanship, chargrilled Buccleuch Estate Scottish beef with triple cooked chips, battered Cornish haddock with crushed peas. As anyone familiar with this CVP and FDT cast of characters, the drinks and wine flowed copiously. read more…
Tags: ARRI, Business, Charlotte Street, CVP, Newman Street, Sales
Les Zellan Exits Cooke
Les Zellan is exiting Cooke. Announced today, Cooke Chairman, Les Zellan, will be stepping down from the company, and its CEO, Robert Howard, will be retiring, both effective from 31 October 2020. Tim Pugh will take over as CEO, while Kees van Oostrum, currently a Cooke Optics board member, becomes Non-Executive Chairman. read more…
FDTimes Textware Update v. 2.10
Film and Digital Times November 2020 Issue 105 has been updated with new Sony a7S III Recording Mode Charts on pages 78-79. These cover Regular as well as Slow & Quick Internal Recording Details.
Since we are all familiar with Firmware and Software updates, why not Textware?
Two updated versions:
Subscriber printable high rez PDF download Issue 105 v. 2.10.
RED KOMODO 6K at CVP in UK
RED KOMODO 6K launched yesterday. It is available from CVP. They are taking orders and booking demos.
The new camera will be available to view and test at CVP’s Newman House showroom in Fitzrovia, London, beginning this October. read more…
Tags: CVP, Jon Fry, KOMODO, RED Komodo, RED KOMODO 6K at CVP in UK
Leitz M 0.8 Full Frame M-Mount Primes
Leitz M 0.8 are iconic Leica M lenses with a click-less iris, 0.8M industry-standard gear rings for lens motors, an 80 mm front diameter and 77 mm screw-in front filter threads. You can shoot with M 0.8 lenses on cameras fitted with M mounts, and of course, Leicas. These are among the smallest and lightest Leica Format / Full Frame lenses anywhere — and their look is the stuff of legends. read more…
Tags: Full Frame, Leica Format, Leica M lenses, Leitz, M 0.8
Etienne Sauret and MYT Works
Etienne Sauret is an award-winning New York filmmaker. A few years ago, he started his own company, MYT Works (pronounced “Mighty”). As his logo says, it was “born out of frustration” with the equipment he was using. One of these is the MYT Works Opti-Glide checkout system: an ingenious overhead track under which a motorized focus chart glides from near to far. Instead of running your tape measure from camera to chart, a large monitor automatically displays the exact distance, accurate to 1/100 inch. There are various theories on doing this: some rental houses move the camera; others move the chart. Optic-Glide can accommodate both. read more…
Tags: Etienne Sauret, MYT Works
