KitPlus | Articles

Modern movie finishing

by Alexa Maza Issue 85 - January 2014 Written and directed by Neill Blomkamp, Elysium is a new science fiction movie starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster. Set in the year 2154, two classes of people exist: the very wealthy, who live on a pristine man-made space station called Elysium, and the rest, who live on an overpopulated, ruined planet. Digit...

Submitted by Alexa Maza

Published 01 February 2014

Review: DaVinci Resolve 10

by Toby Tomkins Issue 85 - January 2014 Colour grading for me is about the final sculpting of the image, in terms of colour, tone, texture and composition. My goal as a colourist is to push the colour, tone and texture to reflect the desired emotion and story of the image. I choose DaVinci Resolve to be my metaphorical chisel because it has a tools...

Submitted by Toby Tomkins

Published 01 February 2014

Moving into the IP based 4K UDTV camp

by Chuck MeyerIssue 84 - December 2013 There appear to be two parallel trains of inertia currently taking place in broadcast, one of course being the onset of 4K UDTV, the other being the transition to an IP-based content transport infrastructure. For many, the rapid changes and associated question are daunting, even for experienced professionals....

Submitted by Chuck Meyer

Published 01 January 2014

Get the lowdown on HEVC compression

by Keith WymbsIssue 84 - December 2013 The high-efficiency video coding (HEVC/H.265) compression codec, which was standardized earlier this year, brings broadcasters and other content distributors multiple opportunities, including:- Decreased bandwidth enabling the addition of more channels and increased quality while lowering bitrates. - Improved...

Submitted by Keith Wymbs

Published 01 January 2014

Broadcasting from the icy tundra

by BJ KirschhofferIssue 84 - December 2013 Polar Bears International (PBI) is a non-profit organization dedicated to polar bear conservation and educating people about the effects of climate change on the arctic ecosystem. PBIs free educational broadcasts connect scientists in the field with students from all over the world who want to learn about...

Submitted by BJ Kirschhoffer

Published 01 January 2014

Ooh ahh.. just a little DIT with Will Strauss

by Will Strauss Issue 84 - December 2013 Issue 84 - December 2013 Like the Offshore Windfarm Engineer or the Waste Management Consultant, the Digital Imaging Technician (DIT) is very much a 21st Century profession and one that didnt exist 10 years ago. Generally recruited for a digitally-shot feature film, commercial or TV drama, the role was initi...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 January 2014

Lighting our way at IBC

by Simon TillyerIssue 82 - October 2013 One of our duties at trade shows is rolling a camera rig around the various halls whether it be Las Vegas, London or Amsterdam and interviewing exhibitors. Having done this for a few years now we get to use different kit at each event, a deliberate decision, in order to test it out in a real world use and in...

Submitted by Simon Tillyer

Published 01 December 2013

Rising to the occasion

by Kevin CookIssue 83 - November 2013 I must admit I wasnt really in the market for a camera crane until I set eyes on the iFootage M1 Mini Crane. Sure, I love seeing craning shots in a film - and I understand perfectly how these types of shots give the viewer an additional and otherwise unavailable perspective to A scene but it all seemed like a l...

Submitted by Kevin Cook

Published 01 December 2013

Leading digital cinematography seminar with Matt Siegel

by Matt SiegelIssue 83 - November 2013 Multiple-award-winning film producer and cinematographer Matt Siegel chose a Leader LV5381 four-input multi-SDI monitor for use during his recent seminar on Digital Cinematography at The Maine Media Workshops. Designed for emerging cinematographers, the course explained the advantages of using digital technolo...

Submitted by Matt Siegel

Published 01 December 2013

The UKs PTZ explosion

by Kieron SethIssue 83 - November 2013 The advent of broadcast quality, remotely controlled PTZ cameras has had an enormous impact on television production in the UK. Not only can cameras now be discreetly placed in virtually any location but they can also be operated a very small team of technicians. This combination of creative freedom and the si...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 December 2013

Streaming Downtown Showdown

by Kate PhibbsIssue 82 - October 2013 With summer well and truly on its way out, what better way to send it off than a trip to Paris to produce and live stream the Vans Downtown Showdown 2013. After the success of producing and broadcasting the Vans Spring Classic in Italy in April, we here at 3xScreen Media knew that Downtown Showdown, Europes lar...

Submitted by Kate Phibbs

Published 01 November 2013

Bob Pank looks at shooting 4K TV

by Bob PankIssue 82 - October 2013 Not unexpectedly IBC was full of buzz and products for 4K the new image format for television. This is generally taken to be a 2x2 version of HDTVs 1920 x 1080, i.e. defining a 3840 x 2160 pixel picture. But there is nothing new about big pictures like this. Back in late 2004 a draft of the Digital Cinema Initiati...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 November 2013

Peter Savage asks: Is the 1980s vision still relevant tod...

by Peter SavageIssue 82 - October 2013 The focus of this issue of tv-bay acquisition takes me back to the very beginning of my involvement in broadcast. In the late 1980s, the whole of the broadcast world changed for what, I believe, was the better. The BBC introduced Producer Choice, which meant that commissioners of programmes were for the first...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 01 November 2013

Why broadcasters need to be aware of the advent of HEVC

by Kanaan JemiliIssue 82 - October 2013 High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), or H.265, has been the talk of the industry since gaining international standards approval earlier this year. HEVC is a new video compression standard and the successor to H.264/MPEG-4 AVC (Advanced Video Coding). Developed by the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group and I...

Submitted by Kanaan Jemili

Published 01 November 2013

Revealing the real-lives behind 999 responses

by Jonathan BoltonIssue 82 - October 2013 Jonathan Bolton, head of PROCAMS Manchester operation discusses the challenges of capturing real time footage when following emergency services on call. Factual programming has seen a revolution. Viewers want more from factual programmes: they no longer want traditional, staid documentaries, but want to se...

Submitted by Jonathan Bolton

Published 01 November 2013