Following the appointment of Matthieu Straub as the company’s technical and operational consultant to France and the Benelux countries in the summer of 2019, FilmLight is delighted to announce that it has now established a permanent presence in Paris. By sharing premises with ARRI France, FilmLight is developing a strong hub for creative and technical knowledge and events.

The hub will host the first of FilmLight’s Colour Day workshops in 2020, on 28 January. One of the advantages of sharing the centre with ARRI is that it underlines the seamless workflows from camera to finish, using the BLG format for render-free viewing and creativity. The BLG grading metadata is stored in the ARRIRAW and QuickTime headers, ensuring the content and its look are permanently linked.

The Paris Colour Day on 28 January, aimed at creatives and technicians in production and post production, will see FilmLight’s workflow specialists, Straub and Thomas Eberschveiler unveil new FilmLight tools. Attendees will also hear from guest colourist Stéphane Azouze about his collaboration with directors Anastasia Mikova and Yann Arthus-Bertrand on the recent award-winning documentary ‘Woman’. Finally, colour scientist Florine Bel will share her image expertise and discuss her work developing film aesthetics, colour spaces and conversions.

The shared space has already hosted successful events, including a workshop day for DITs. Led by Straub, with guest speakers from Netflix and from post house Mikros, the group discussed the latest developments in colour space management and workflows. ARRI’s presence allowed the discussion to include ARRI Looks and how they can be incorporated into FilmLight BLG post production. In the demonstration area, they featured an ARRI ALEXA camera feeding Prelight and Daylight software, allowing the delegates to experiment with look development and make comparisons between standard and high dynamic range colour spaces.

Explaining the importance of bringing together creative artists and technicians, FilmLight’s Matthieu Straub said “My background is as a digital image technician, and I know how directors and cinematographers are increasingly relying on DITs to find technical solutions to their demanding creative requirements. “Our intention is to use our demonstration and meeting space here on the Rue René Boulanger to be a place where we can encourage the sharing of knowledge and experiences, to help the French cinema industry achieve ever greater things.”

Tiffen will be at the BSC show on their stand #307, where you can see and try the latest

and best Steadicam products, the Steadicam M-2 with revolutionary Volt

integration, the Steadicam M-1 and the Steadimate-S for handheld gimbals like

the DJI Ronin-S. It’s also a chance to find out about the ever popular

Steadicam Workshops coming up in 2020.

The latest Tiffen Filters will be available to see and try including NATural ND and NATural

ND Graduated filters, Diffusions and Diopters. Also featured will be the latest

range of Lowel’s lighting products, the Lowel Tota LED, the Tota LED Production

Kit, the Blender XL, the Pro Power LED Bi-Color and the Ego LED.

Come and talk to the experts on the stand, including Robin Thwaites, Danny Hallett, and Eren

Ibrahim

www.tiffen.com

Uncut Gems is the latest movie from directing duo, the Safdie Brothers. The movie tells the story of a charismatic New York City jeweller and gambler (Adam Sandler), and is set in the diamond industry of New York. So it is appropriate that the colour palette was created at The Mill NY by colourist and director of DI, Damien Van Der Cruyssen.

Van Der Cruyssen collaborated closely with cinematographer Darius Khondji, as well as the Safdie Brothers, all of whom he had worked with previously on the Jay-Z video for Mercy Me. “At that point I got a good understanding of their relationships and how I could fit into the equation.”

Visually, Uncut Gems has a classic New York City look, but with a modern twist. “The Diamond District hasn’t changed much over the last forty years, so it automatically had that 70’s ‘noir’ feel,” commented Van Der Cruyssen. “But we wanted to break away from the steely, gritty New York to a more real-life aesthetic – less forced and contrived.”

Around half of the movie was shot on 35mm film to give it a more natural look, which meant Van Der Cruyssen had to treat the digital footage to match. “Marrying the film footage with the digital scenes was quite challenging,” he explained. “So I asked the crew to shoot some grain elements that could be overlaid in Baselight and adjusted per scene.”

One of the most awaited drama series of 2019, His Dark Materials, produced by Bad Wolf for BBC and HBO, was finished at Technicolor in London. With a story set in a parallel universe that seems like the Britain of a century ago, and with fantastic elements such as giant armoured polar bears and ever-present “daemons” – animal representations of the human soul – the production is a tour de force of visual effects, and therefore somewhat demanding of the colourist, Jean-Clément Soret.

“Over the eight episodes of series one there were four directors and DoPs,” Soret explained. “Justin Brown was DoP for the first two episodes, and I had worked with him a lot in the past on commercials so we had a strong understanding of where we wanted to go. I was really happy to be able to collaborate with him again.

“Justin shot some tests – with the real locations, actors and costumes – in both 35mm and digital,” he continued. “It always surprises me how different film looks! What the tests did was allow us to create a core feel. The decision was also made to add a bit of subtle film grain throughout the episodes. The Technicolor colour science team in LA then created a LUT for Baselight, which gave us that same film feel with the digital footage.”

One of the challenges of the story – based on a trilogy of novels from Philip Pullman – is that each human character has a daemon, and humans are rarely seen on screen without their daemons around them. That meant a large number of VFX shots to insert the CGI daemons. “I found that when it came to the integration of the VFX, contrast and colour was key. The film LUT, together with the control of sharpness and softness from Baselight, was a great help.”

The first series – based on Northern Lights, the opening novel of the trilogy – moves from an Oxford college bathed in warm sunshine to “The North”, Pullman’s name for the Arctic, where the first battles take place. “We may have set the feel in the first episode, but the story develops through different worlds and different eras, so the grade naturally develops,” Soret said.

“With different directors and DoPs across the series, the colourist has to provide the backbone of the look, to create consistency while respecting each cinematographer,” he added. “Baselight allowed me to set the key looks then develop them naturally, freeing me from a constrained palette and allowing us to create a convincing visualisation of this rich and complex story.”

As well as remarkable creative control, the Baselight grading facilities at Technicolor also provided critical support in the workflow, by giving free access to all the raw footage from the series as well as the VFX shots as they developed. The practicalities of creating eight hours of premium drama in a television timescale meant that grading on specific episodes took place when directors and DoPs were available for supervision. That meant that Jean-Clément Soret could be working on three or four episodes at any one time.

The result is an engaging, enthralling drama that looks ravishing and chilling in turn. This first series is broadcast on BBC1 and HBO in November and December, while the second series is already in production.

Matthews Studio Equipment, offers yet another smart solution that makes life on set a bit more convenient. New Panel Stand https://vimeo.com/348274238 answers the need for a quick set-up stand that aptly supports today’s panel and balloon-style lighting fixtures, LED monitors, screens, overhead frames and backdrops. What’s more, convenient wheels add on-set mobility especially combined with the low profile legs to maximize leeway and maneuverability, even with low hanging equipment.

This heavy-duty wheeled crank support offers a maximum height of 11’ and a minimum of just 55”. With a load capacity of 70/80 pounds, it is an ideal mate for popular panel lights as well as 45” to 85” monitors that it supports either horizontally or vertically, so it is handy when creating content for mobile mediums and vertical advertisement aspect ratios. Built for low clearance, Panel Stand’s main column can be adjusted and lowered at the leg base while its shallow wheelbase facilitates rolling underneath furniture, vehicles, or other obstacles.

Rugged yet compact, this versatile wheeled carrier also comes equipped with premium Tente® caster wheels, pins to hang a door rack for truck storage, a 1-1/8" Junior receiver, a 5/8" Baby pin, and a built-in ergonomically balanced carrying handle for transport. The tough black powder coat finish provides a professional look that blends in well on set. The Panel Stand is ready for action in a moment, then quickly folds up tight, ready for its next use.

Like their full complement of industry leading stands and other equipment, Panel Stand is available through Matthews Studio Equipment dealers. For more information visit www.msegrip.com

Brightline, a leading manufacturer of energy efficient lighting systems, now offers technical support through Zoom for its resellers, integrators, and clients. The cloud-based videoconferencing system allows Brightline to program light fixtures remotely, re-focus, visually diagnose potential issues, and perform other troubleshooting. 

“Zoom service is ideal for time-critical issues,” explained Kathy Katz, Brightline managing partner. “You don’t have to struggle through a phone call without visuals or schedule onsite service. Zoom gives us ‘eyes’ in the room.”

To request a free Zoom technical call, contact technical support at techservice@brightlines.com.

Frame.io, a leading video review and collaboration platform used by over one million filmmakers and media professionals, today announced it has raised a $50 million Series C round to help support its next big push into cloud-enabled motion picture workflows. Frame.io will also use this round of financing to continue its deep investment into airtight security, intuitive UX, and camera-to-cutting room technology. Insight Partners led the round with contributions from all existing major stakeholders, including Accel, FirstMark, SignalFire, and Shasta Ventures. Itai Tsiddon, co-founder of Lightricks, will represent Insight Partners as Frame.io’s newest board member.

“We’re thrilled to be partnering with Insight on this next round of financing. Insight deeply understands the creative space and the changing tides the film and video market will see over the next several years,” said Emery Wells, co-founder and CEO of Frame.io. “2019 has been a year of massive growth and of major milestones for us: we celebrated reaching 100 employees, moved into brand new headquarters in lower Manhattan and, most recently, welcomed industry veteran Michael Cioni to the team. We are driving to create the most innovative approach to video workflows since the emergence of digital 20 years ago.”

Designed and built by video creatives—for video creatives—and launched in 2014, Frame.io is a New York City-based startup dedicated to changing the way video creation works. The web-based platform integrates seamlessly with the industry’s leading NLEs, including Adobe® Premiere® Pro, Avid, Apple® Final Cut Pro® and DaVinci Resolve Studio, enabling video creators to upload and organize media and share projects internally or with clients anywhere in the world. This round of Series C funding brings Frame.io’s total funding to date to $82.2 million.

MIRRAD supplies two Avolites consoles for Ben Everett’s design for producer, songwriter and performer’s headlining tour

A lot has happened in Maggie Rogers’ world since 2016, when a video of her demoing a then-newly-recorded song, “Alaska,” for Pharrell Williams at NYU went viral. Following opening slots on major tours with both HAIM and Mumford & Sons last year, Rogers dropped her own major label debut, Heard It in a Past Life, this past January, which charted in the second highest slot of the Billboard 200. Consequently, the artist has spent much of 2019 on the road in support of the album, performing a sold-out fall headline tour in such iconic venues as Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, Berkley’s Greek Theatre, and New York City’s Radio City Music Hall.

The “look and feel” of Rogers’ tour this year has been a collaborative effort between the artist and Lighting Designer Ben Everett, who first started working with her when he lit Rogers’ first-ever show in London two years ago. Having toured with an impressive roster of bands over the past five years—including Bear's Den, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and The Dandy Warhols—Everett is now part of the UK-based MIRRAD team, which has been supplying a pair of Avolites Sapphire Touch lighting control consoles for Rogers’ 2019 worldwide trek.

Everett notes that he’s been using Avolites lighting consoles “pretty much since I started in the live music industry,” he shares. “I was lucky enough to learn on all of the early Titan software, and mainly used the Tiger Touch II and Quartz consoles to begin with. The features that kept me attracted to the desks at first were the ability to quickly create really impressive and intricate effects, and the user-friendly and multi-functional layout of the touchscreens. And while growing with the consoles over the years, the ease of being able to create cue stacks, key frame shapes, and pixel mapping really helps me in my day-to-day programming now.”

Pixel Artworks, the award-winning specialists in light and pixel technology, have designed and delivered The Garden of Light, a unique multi-sensory installation for McArthurGlenDesigner Outlet Ashford.

The Garden of Light uses the latest LED pixel lighting and immersive audio technology to create a stunning 360 degree virtual garden environment and is part of the expansion of McArthurGlenDesigner Outlet, Ashford. In tribute to Kent’s status as the ‘Garden of England’, The Garden of Light provides shoppers with a multi-dimensional walkthrough experience designed to stimulate the senses and reflect on visitors’ connection with nature. The experience will also feature Europe’s largest living wall installation, made up of more than 120,000 leafy green plants, and although the experience is free, visitors are encouraged to donate money towards building a sensory garden for the William Harvey Hospital.

Light is the key factor of the installation, and the immersive and interactive experience offers shoppers a journey into a lush secret garden through projection and LED, with elements of the four seasons accompanying their journey; Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn.

Brightline, a leading manufacturer of energy efficient lighting systems, today announced Open Signal: Portland Community Media Center, a nonprofit media arts and broadcast center in Portland, Ore., has upgraded the lighting grid in its 2,000-square-foot main studio with 30 Brightline L1.2 SeriesONE LED fixtures. The new lighting was installed in July.

Noah Dorsey, media services manager, said the upgrade in Studio A was prompted by the fan noise of previous lighting fixtures in the studio. “We want the studio environment to be as silent as possible,” he explained. “That was something that had been requested by a lot of producers.”

The new 5600K L1.2 lights are controlled through a DMX console. Open Signal contracted Brightline’s premier Pacific Northwest systems integrator, Advanced Broadcast Solutions (ABS), a division of Key Code Media, to supply the new lighting. Dorsey said the lighting “looks dynamic but not so stylized that it can’t be applied to multiple shows.”

Bruce Aleksander, a lighting director hired by ABS for the Open Signal project, said the decision to use soft lights throughout Studio A was based on the need for versatility and accessibility for the wide variety of producers who use the space. Though some productions use an ellipsoidal light for show-specific gobo projection accents, the main lighting is generally not altered.

It was an historic evening for Romeo Santos, one of Latin music’s most successful icons. On September 21, he headlined a night at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, which became the single highest-grossing concert in the stadium's history, a record previously held by U2.

Named for his latest LP, Utopia, the concert, which spanned 45 songs over four hours and included a guest appearance by rapper Cardi B, was as much a visual tour de force as a musical one, with 22 LED screens covering literally almost every square foot of the stage, including the ceiling. It was an undertaking that required the most robust video servers in the world, and video production designer YC3 Lighting Design turned to Avolites Ai servers to make the night magical.

YC3, which was in charge of the overall stage and production design, fashioned the system around eight Avolites Ai servers—two Q3, two R8, one R4, and three custom servers using Avolites-compatible hardware and Miami software licenses—plus an Avolites Tiger Touch II lighting control console.

“It was the biggest show in the history of Hispanic music!” shares YC3 Lighting Design Owner Yamil Charif of the estimated 85,000 fans who were there. “It was also the highest-grossing concert at the MetLife Stadium, even bigger than U2. It had to be perfect.”

And it was, though not without its challenges. Santos, known as “King of Bachata,” the strain of Latin music from his native Dominican Republic, rarely follows a script, and this show was no exception. “He likes to improvise, to make it up as he goes along,” says Charif. “There was no way we could do this with a single file and just program a server and hit a macro; this show required a lot of flexibility, which came from using many servers, so we could adjust the video images to follow what he was doing as he was feeding off of the crowd.”

Independent London post house Directors Cut Films – owned and operated by its creative staff – has invested in a Baselight TWO colour grading workstation with a Blackboard 2 control panel. Directors Cut works primarily in premium long-form television, as well as drama series, documentaries and feature films, with increasing interest in 4K and HDR.

“Being owned and run by ex-editors, we know what is required to meet and exceed expectations in post,” said Senior Colourist Andy Elliott. “We felt it was the right time to invest and embrace HDR and 4K workflows. HDR in particular produces much more of a positive visual impact, with real benefits in the immersive experience for the viewer.”

Leading broadcasters and production companies in the UK routinely turn to Directors Cut to finish major projects. While the work includes major dramas and some feature films, the company has a reputation for long form TV, especially documentaries. Recent projects graded by Elliott include biographies of Cher and Elton John, an investigation of the Bauhaus for BBC4, and Sir David Attenborough’s call to action Climate Change: The Facts.

Elliott pointed out that such programmes frequently bring together footage shot on multiple different cameras and formats, often in less than ideal circumstances. The task for the colourist is to integrate all of the footage as well as create a coherent look that reflects the story the director wishes to tell. That makes the speed and power of the upgraded Baselight suite an important asset.

At Inter BEE, the FilmLight presence will be led by Koichi Matsui, General Manager of FilmLight KK, along with Yoko Kimura, newly appointed sales and product specialist. “FilmLight is one of the world’s leading companies for production and post production technology,” said Koichi Matsui “Yoko’s recent appointment underlines this region’s importance to us, and is a clear indication of the support we are giving to our existing and future customers in Japan.”

Top end post-production is placing ever-more stringent technical demands on technology, in support of the creative ambitions of directors, cinematographers and colourists. 4K and HDR are now commonplace, and 8K is being broadcast today in Japan. Recently, Baselight workstations were chosen for grading and finishing Ang Lee’s new movie, Gemini Man, shot and delivered in 120 frames per second, 4K, high dynamic range 3D.

Only the power of the Baselight X system can handle such a data-intensive project, while still giving the colourist free rein with next-generation creative tools and realtime response. FilmLight will demonstrate these tools as part of its latest software version at Inter BEE 2019, on an 8K display powered by a Baselight X grading system. This includes new productivity features such as the enhanced timeline with collapsing stacks and multiple tracks.

Ed Shaw of NEICO and Brett Bolton create a stunning immersive projection mapping project in the heart of Las Vegas’ Art District with the help of some of the industry’s top brands.

Tucked away in the Arts District of Las Vegas, a unique installation is taking shape. Ed Shaw of NEICO and Brett Bolton are working tirelessly to create the first of its kind audio visual art installation in Las Vegas. With the support of Avolites, Group One Ltd, AG Light and Sound, X-Laser, GLP and Notch, NEICO presents SPLNTR.

Shaw has had a love for projection since working with 1024 Architecture on the BOOMBOX, one of the first world-wide touring productions of its kind. The spark for SPLNTR came earlier this year when he saw a projection project named ‘POETIC AI' by Ouchhh in Paris and decided that having never seen anything like this in Las Vegas before, now was the time to develop his own idea for an installation. After speaking to a few people, the vision became a reality and he had the go ahead with some help from Avolites. “We were looking for an alternative to a trade show that was more appealing to our clients and designers” Stephen Baird-Smith sales manager of Avolites says “At the same time Ed had the idea for an interactive installation. We’d worked with him and NEICO before on the OMNIA and JEWEL projects so we knew we would work well together. It was the perfect opportunity to bring it together”