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www.postmagazine.com 4 POST JAN/FEB 2023 BITS & PIECES ADVANCED IMAGING SOCIETY HONORS FILMMAKER DAMIEN CHAZELLE LOS ANGELES — The Advanced Imaging Society (https://theadvancedimag- ingsociety.com) recently honored Academy Award-winning director and pro- ducer Damien Chazelle with its annual Gene Kelly Visionary Award. The honor was presented at the 2023 AIS Lumiere Awards, which took place Friday, February 10th, at The Beverly Hills Hotel. Chazelle joined previously-announced honorees James Cameron and Jon Landau (Voices For the Earth Award) at the 13th annual awards luncheon event. The inaugural Gene Kelly Visionary Award went to Academy Award- nominated writer/director Guillermo Del Toro in 2022. "Damien Chazelle, like Gene Kelly, is an American original whose films burst with unbounded wit, intelligence and style, which he aptly demonstrates as he retells Hollywood's earliest days as it moved from silent films to talkies in his latest work, Babylon," says Jim Chabin, president of AIS. "We are thrilled to have this oppor- tunity to honor him this year." Presenting the award to Chazelle was Kelly's widow and biographer Patricia Ward Kelly. "Damien's passion about movies and music certainly links him with Gene [Kelly]," says Kelly. "But so do his brightness, his pursuit of excellence, his fine vision and his determination to forge new ground. Soon after I met Damien, it was clear to me that he did, indeed, wish to learn as much as he could, and would be a stellar candidate for this award. Frankly, I look forward to seeing anything Damien does! I am extremely proud to present him with the Gene Kelly Visionary Award at the 2023 Lumiere Awards." Chazelle's most recent film is Babylon, which offers both a stunning vision of Los Angeles as an iconic American city on the make, and a decadent foray into the ravishing celebrations and dark complexities that defined early Hollywood. Chazelle's credits include First Man, the riveting story of NASA's mission to land a man on the moon, which garnered four Oscar nominations, and won Best Achievement in Visual Effects. He previously wrote and directed the modern musical La La Land, which earned 14 Oscar nominations, winning six awards, including Best Director. The film also won a record-breaking seven Golden Globes, and was also honored with five BAFTA wins and 11 nominations. His 2014 film Whiplash received five Academy Award nominations and three wins, including Best Supporting Actor for JK Simmons. The Lumiere Awards have been presented over the last decade to the in- dustry's most respected creative and technical leaders. In addition to awards for motion pictures, episodic and new media content, the society bestowed awards for best musical motion picture, best musical scene or performance and best immersive audio. For more on Babylon, turn to page 16 for our conversation with editor Tom Cross. UNDERCOVER SHORT EMPLOYS C2C WORKFLOW PORTO, PORTUGAL — Golpe Filmes (https://golpefilmes.com) recently used Atomos Connect to enhance the workflow on its short film Undercover. Produced in collaboration with Atomos, Nanlite and Sony, Undercover tells the story of a hotel receptionist who falls asleep and then has dream about being an undercover agent. The production used two camera setups: a gimbal rig enabled the produc- tion team to be nimble on-set with a Sony FX30, DJI Ronin 2, Easy Rig and Atomos Ninja V+ with Atomos Connect module (www.atomos.com), while the Cine rig allowed for precision shots with a Sony FX6 and Atomos Shogun Connect. Both Atomos units were connected to the internet via wi-fi for Adobe Camera to Cloud (C2C) using Frame.io. The wi-fi allowed operators to move freely around the set while staying connected. The project's editor, Jorge de Almeida, was situated in a separate building 2.5 miles away, and was able to pull in footage being shot on-set straight into Premiere Pro, which had the Frame.io plug-in installed. He could then create scene edits and send them back to the director for review. "The realtime interaction with the editor was amazing," says Undercover di- rector Ricardo Teixera. "He was sending me pre-edits of the scenes to approve, or if something didn't work, we could make immediate adjustments to angles or lighting. It was a very fast process — the upload, download and the accom- panying communication. We could also send messages to quickly change or approve something without explaining too much, because it was very intuitive. It was a useful on-set experience, as it makes everything faster, not just the production itself, but post production as well." "Having Atomos Connect and Frame.io as part of the workflow for the first time was a very positive experience," adds de Almeida. "There is this expec- tation from customers that work has to be delivered faster, and this workflow makes that possible without compromising the editor's work at all." Antonio Morais, who served as director of photography on Undercover, also praised the set-up. "This new line-up of connected devices amplifies the usefulness of the Ninja and Shogun," says Morais. "You have to try it on-set to really understand how useful it can be to your production. The Frame.io app works very well and it's easy to use. You can tag which clips are the best ones, you can leave com- ments, and multiple people from different departments can give feedback based on their needs. "Although camera-to-cloud technology is brand new, it's already proving its worth on-set," he continues. "C2C helped me on this shoot in ways that I was actually not expecting. I had the chance to watch an edit of a scene that I had just shot, and this made it so much easier to light the next scene, as I had a better sense of continuity." Gene Kelly Visionary Award recipient Damien Chazelle. On the set of Undercover.