Cinedeck EX Combines With Sony F3 Camera For Ghost Of Goodnight Lane Horror
Press Release from Cinedeck
New York, NY (November 10, 2011) - Cinedeck LLC (www.cinedeck.com) today revealed details of how its Cinedeck EX, multi-format, HD-SDI recording, monitoring and playback system, was combined with high-performance Sony F3 cameras, and played a pivotal role in the camera-to-post workflow, of VFX-laden horror feature film The Ghost Of Goodnight Lane, directed by Alin Bijan (www.GhostofGoodnightlane.com).
The combination of Cinedeck EX with Sony F3 cameras enabled the production to solve budget, performance and space constraints during the shoot, with Cinedeck EX also delivering a fast uncompressed, file-based camera-to-post workflow for the editorial and VFX teams.
The experience of working the Sony F3’s with uncompressed S-Log footage, and desire to optimize theatrical picture quality, has led the filmmakers to work on the Academy Of Motion Pictures Arts And Sciences' IIF-ACES color-encoding specification, and the development of a new Input Device Transform for the F3.
The Ghost Of Goodnight Lane was written and directed by Alin Bijan, and produced by award-winning Dallas, Texas, production company Media World Studios, in association with FTG Media (www.MakingFilms.com). The production, featuring an angry ghost with evil intentions, is a comedy horror about a movie being made in a haunted film studio, and was inspired by paranormal events that occurred at Media World Studios. It stars Billy Zane (Titanic), Lacey Chabert (Mean Girls), Danielle Harris (Halloween), Matt Dallas (Kyle XY) and Richard Tyson (Black Hawk Down).
Principal photography took place over 22 days, with two Cinedeck EX systems capturing from A and B Sony F3 cameras. All footage was recorded from the F3s as 10-bit, uncompressed, RGB 4:4:4, S-Log gamma-encoded imagery. Live action was output from Cinedeck EX in Apple ProRes 4444 for Final Cut editorial, and green-screen elements output as uncompressed 4:4:4 for VFX work and compositing. Over a quarter of the movie, 25 scenes, was shot for VFX treatment. Multiple SSD cards were used to transfer the uncompressed footage to the editorial and VFX teams.
In addition to rigorous schedule and the tight budget, typical of an independent production, the production crew also faced restricted shooting environments, as many of the sequences were to shot in cramped spaces.
In preparation for the shoot, Bijan and his crew carefully investigated how innovations in camera, recorder and monitor technologies could solve these issues, while delivering the highest possible quality file-based workflow to streamline the camera-to-post workflow.
Considering all of these elements, the crew decided to shoot the entire movie using new Sony F3 cameras, with dual Cinedeck EXs at the heart of the camera-to-post pipeline.
“We knew we'd be facing a mountain of challenges in production, so we decided to let leading-edge technology lead us to the best pipeline,” said Bijan. “In the Sony F3 I found a camera that I could move around quickly and shoot sequences fast, but with extremely high quality. I also needed a recorder that did much more than just record. Assessing all the different kinds of recorders, we discovered Cinedeck EX offered more in one little device than anything else out there. It matched our physical space requirements, and more importantly, it enabled us to record S-Log uncompressed RGB 4:4:4 from the Sony F3 and deliver those files directly, and quickly, to post for editing and compositing.”
Jonny Revolt, editor The Ghost Of Goodnight Lane, commented, “When you're shooting a film with so many VFX scenes, Cinedeck EX's ability deliver ready-to-composite, uncompressed content, without the need to convert file formats, is a huge time and money saver. The post crew could begin working in the full S-Log color space immediately, and this gave us the comfort of being able to test VFX keys live on set.”
New York, NY (November 10, 2011) - Cinedeck LLC (www.cinedeck.com) today revealed details of how its Cinedeck EX, multi-format, HD-SDI recording, monitoring and playback system, was combined with high-performance Sony F3 cameras, and played a pivotal role in the camera-to-post workflow, of VFX-laden horror feature film The Ghost Of Goodnight Lane, directed by Alin Bijan (www.GhostofGoodnightlane.com).
The combination of Cinedeck EX with Sony F3 cameras enabled the production to solve budget, performance and space constraints during the shoot, with Cinedeck EX also delivering a fast uncompressed, file-based camera-to-post workflow for the editorial and VFX teams.
The experience of working the Sony F3’s with uncompressed S-Log footage, and desire to optimize theatrical picture quality, has led the filmmakers to work on the Academy Of Motion Pictures Arts And Sciences' IIF-ACES color-encoding specification, and the development of a new Input Device Transform for the F3.
The Ghost Of Goodnight Lane was written and directed by Alin Bijan, and produced by award-winning Dallas, Texas, production company Media World Studios, in association with FTG Media (www.MakingFilms.com). The production, featuring an angry ghost with evil intentions, is a comedy horror about a movie being made in a haunted film studio, and was inspired by paranormal events that occurred at Media World Studios. It stars Billy Zane (Titanic), Lacey Chabert (Mean Girls), Danielle Harris (Halloween), Matt Dallas (Kyle XY) and Richard Tyson (Black Hawk Down).
Principal photography took place over 22 days, with two Cinedeck EX systems capturing from A and B Sony F3 cameras. All footage was recorded from the F3s as 10-bit, uncompressed, RGB 4:4:4, S-Log gamma-encoded imagery. Live action was output from Cinedeck EX in Apple ProRes 4444 for Final Cut editorial, and green-screen elements output as uncompressed 4:4:4 for VFX work and compositing. Over a quarter of the movie, 25 scenes, was shot for VFX treatment. Multiple SSD cards were used to transfer the uncompressed footage to the editorial and VFX teams.
In addition to rigorous schedule and the tight budget, typical of an independent production, the production crew also faced restricted shooting environments, as many of the sequences were to shot in cramped spaces.
In preparation for the shoot, Bijan and his crew carefully investigated how innovations in camera, recorder and monitor technologies could solve these issues, while delivering the highest possible quality file-based workflow to streamline the camera-to-post workflow.
Considering all of these elements, the crew decided to shoot the entire movie using new Sony F3 cameras, with dual Cinedeck EXs at the heart of the camera-to-post pipeline.
“We knew we'd be facing a mountain of challenges in production, so we decided to let leading-edge technology lead us to the best pipeline,” said Bijan. “In the Sony F3 I found a camera that I could move around quickly and shoot sequences fast, but with extremely high quality. I also needed a recorder that did much more than just record. Assessing all the different kinds of recorders, we discovered Cinedeck EX offered more in one little device than anything else out there. It matched our physical space requirements, and more importantly, it enabled us to record S-Log uncompressed RGB 4:4:4 from the Sony F3 and deliver those files directly, and quickly, to post for editing and compositing.”
Jonny Revolt, editor The Ghost Of Goodnight Lane, commented, “When you're shooting a film with so many VFX scenes, Cinedeck EX's ability deliver ready-to-composite, uncompressed content, without the need to convert file formats, is a huge time and money saver. The post crew could begin working in the full S-Log color space immediately, and this gave us the comfort of being able to test VFX keys live on set.”
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