According to a press release received today,
Moody Street Pictures' The Legend of Lucy Keyes made a splash at
NAB2005 in Las Vegas:
"...
The Legend of Lucy Keyes, [co-starring Julie Delpy and Justin Theroux, directed by
John Stimpson, and] shot entirely on location in central Massachusetts... has delivered upon the full promise of High Definition moviemaking.
"In addition to the high-profile cast, the project was edited with a new all-digital process that features a seamless integration of [footage from
Panasonic's VariCam's HD 24p camera (pictured below)] and the latest version of Apple's Final Cut Pro software. The post-production and editing process is being executed in the same digital HD format as the camera originals. The result has been a revolutionary and efficient digital production and post-production process, complete with high-tech visual effects sequences that have set a new standard for independent filmmaking.
"Bypassing the traditional offline to online process, once the picture is locked the editing system will output a final non-color corrected series of files for film transfer at
Technicolor in New York. Technicolor will then color correct the uncompressed media, and using a laser recorder, will scan the images back onto negative film. Prints can then be made of this negative master and be distributed to traditional film projection theaters.
..."Dave Bigelow, a pioneering HD editor and the film's post-production supervisor, orchestrated the workflow and oversaw much of the HD process [which he shocased at] this years NAB Conference before a number of eager Final Cut users and production professionals. 'With the relatively low cost of digital storage, the whole post-production process has been handled in the very same HD format on which we shot -- there was no need to down-res for an offline edit,' said Bigelow. 'On top of that, the relatively small size of the VariCam's digital format, allowed us to have
Brickyard VFX, our special effects house, deliver their completed effects sequences over the Web. In fact the sound mix process worked in the exact same way. As a result, we were inserting and matching visual effects scenes into the film's timeline as we were shooting. This has been a truly digital filmmaking process and we couldn't be happier with the results. I think the production of this film is proof of a new method to make films at a fraction of the cost and complexity of traditional filmmaking.
"
The Legend of Lucy Keyes was shot on the Panasonic VariCam's 720p/24fps digital format. Due to its relatively small size and portability the camera allowed for the majority of the footage to be shot handheld, giving the filmmakers the ability to move about freely and quickly and accommodate as many as 30 set-ups a day. Since there were no expensive film stock concerns the director and cinematographer were able to experiment with shot selection and angles without sacrificing cinematic image quality. Because of the VariCam's compatibility with Final Cut Pro the post-production process could begin immediately on set in full resolution 720p HD. 'There were no additional compression issues and no quality loss,' Stimpson says, 'I was dumping the HD footage, in its entirety, directly onto my portable hard drive and cutting shots directly into the film on my Powerbook G4. I have a completely portable edit suite and every stage of the post-production process has been 100% tapeless.'"
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# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 4/19/2005 11:31:00 AM
Comments (2)
Wow. Just plain wow.
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posted by michael @ 4/19/2005 2:43 PM
I believe the headline is a bit deceiving. That should read POST production. They're still shooting on tape, but going tapeless for everything following acquisition. With the vast number of mechanical failures I've witnessed with portable hard drives, I'm more than comfortable with stating that SHOOTING tapeless, straight to hard disk with a PowerBook would be suicide. That said, there are ways to pull off a fully tapeless production, but you need more than a FW drive and a PowerBook.
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posted by Sam Crutsinger @ 7/08/2006 3:27 PM
