Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/5315
22 Post • December 2009 www.postmagazine.com OUTLOOK 2010: "I am fascinated by what the future of 3D is for the feature and television world in terms of dramatic offerings. 3D was invented back in '50s as a gimmick to get people in the the- atres. Disney is going to do every one of their films in 3D, so I am curious to see if this is a permanent trend or a fad. "Looking fur ther down the road, I think tape is going to die a very fast death in the next five years, replaced by solid state storage." MARK L. PEDERSON CTO/Co-Founder Offhollywood New York (www.offhollywoodny.com) Offhollywood offers production and post production services, with a specialty in Red digital cinema and emerging technologies.They are also a rental and service facility for Red cameras. STRENGTHS: "The speed and the ability for people to collabo- rate faster. We are seeing trends to process some of the editorial media and dailies on set. Digital is here and now it's just about evolv- ing it to faster, more efficient pipelines. When producers see how fast they can work, how easy it is and how many workflows are available, I think it's a bit of a no-brainer.. "Shooting a production digitally also allows you to utilize and mix different camera systems and acquisition formats, and work with the media in a single pipeline. "There is such tremendous movement in the development of various tools that are available to work with Red and other formats going all the way to DCP authoring. Smaller companies are now truly empowered." WEAKNESSES: "I don't see any true weakness, but I would say that because there are so many different workflows and they are evolving, it's easy for an individual or company to do it wrong. It's a moving target, and if you don't choose the right tool, and the right person to help you use that tool, you can get into trouble. We spend a lot of time fixing other people's mistakes and if they would have just taken the proper steps, that wouldn't be the case. "The great thing about film is that it has stayed the same for decades, so once you learn the film post workflow you know it and it's done. When you shoot digital, even in the concept of working with Red, there are a dozen ways to work with Red files; I see that as an advantage, but it can be a weakness if someone doesn't have the right amount of information. "This happens a lot. There is the DEY trend — Do Ever ything Yourself. For a while we had the producer/editor, now we have the director/screenwriter/aspiring colorist/special effects guy. You see a lot of ar tists wanting to do more and more themselves. The weak- ness is so many choices and options on how to go about it, so you can go about it wrong." OPPORTUNITIES: "The two that are most exciting for us are 3D and DCP authoring and mastering services.You are already see- ing a massive rollout of digital servers. It's becoming more common, even at the film festival level, to deliver films as DCPs.They offer a lot of protection and versatility, and it is much more efficient than send- ing reels of film and tape around. "3D is a monstrous thing at the moment.There is more of a de- mand right now than infrastructure, so that is a really big oppor tu- nity for companies.There is a pretty significant post component and pipeline that most companies are not set up to tackle." THREATS: "Many post companies are going to have to adapt and change as the tools become more democratized. You aren't going to get business as a service company because you own two Flames or Spirits or da Vincis, etc. You are going to service the de- mand of the market, which will change. Ultimately, the companies with the best talent and technical exper tise, and the ability to adapt and change quickly, will succeed. The higher end of the mar- ket is always going to pay the premium dollar for the best talent and service turnaround. "Archiving and security becomes more relevant — 'Where is my media going and how it being stored and managed?' As you start to deal with more and more files, producers want to know that their media is properly backed up and there is security in place." OUTLOOK 2010: "I expect to see the desktop DI tools become even more powerful and less expensive. I suspect there will another significant NLE contender that will come out of nowhere. And I am incredibly excited about Red's new cameras. That snowball is just going to keep coming down the mountain. It's all about adapting and changing as the technology moves.There's never a dull moment." GREG KIERNAN Senior/Supervising Editor Bond New York (www.bondedit.com) Bond is a complete post house offering editing, graphics and audio ser vices. Kiernan is working increasingly in digital and has become the studio's guru of sorts. STRENGTHS: "The strength of digital is its versatility. Depending on which of the digital formats you are using, you have your footage in a file format that can be passed around the facility exactly as your OUTLOOK s h o o t i n g d i g i t a l "[In 2010], I suspect there will be another significant NLE contender that will come out of nowhere — Mark L. Pederson Offhollywood's video assist operator,Vincent Brunette, reviewing footage of the 3D feature film The Mortician using QTake Advanced video assist software. continued on page 46