Monitors and RED Camera Info

As I mentioned before I was at the FTX west trade show and found some interesting things. I was able to visit the Sony display and have a look at their new BVM-L230 backlit LCD monitor. I had seen it at NAB this year in a darken room beside 2 other monitors but this was my first chance to really have a look at the unit and I have to say the images on that monitor are really, really nice. This is Sony’s grade A replacement for the BVM CRT and it’s definitely worth having a look at. The 23”model I was looking at was $25,000 approx CDN. Hopefully, they will be coming out with larger versions to fit into telecine bays and could be useful in grading.

Now it may not be 100% right for your application but it’s still a monitor you should check out. Another product I saw at the show and want to touch on is the Red Camera. As I’ve mentioned before I’m teaching a class on Apple’s Color on FXPHD.com, (blatant plug) and they are doing a Red course, which I’m about 8 classes into. Although I’ll never be a Cinematographer, being a Colourist goes hand in hand and it’s really important for me to learn what’s happening on set. A Colourist needs to understand how cameras work and what the crews are going through to create the images that we are going to enhance. So, feeling that my pockets were half full I went up to the Red camera booth to get more information so that I can understand what the technicians say. With technology changing so quickly now, we in the industry need to keep up by constantly training. However, that’s a whole other topic, which I’ll get into next week.

Writer's Strike

A hot topic of discussion with film and television professionals is the state of the industry. Specifically in regards to the writers strike and what is happening with the crews and post production. In the Vancouver area the shows are starting to shut down which is starting to have a ripple down effect in the post production industries. A strike is never well timed but this now leaves post production people scrambling to do one of two options. Either they lay off their employees to save a little bit of money or if they have deep pockets they can try to weather this and keep people on. To get laid off is a wake up call that this industry has changed and many job positions are freelance. You’ll be better prepared if you are vertically integrated so that you can do a number of jobs and do them well. Case in point is being a colourist with on-line capabilities at the same time. It’s up to you to make sure you are trained, that you seek out the training that will make you future proof. There’s a sidebar in my website that can direct you towards classes in Final Cut Pro, Color, and colour correction in Avid Express. Major manufacturers of Nucoda and Baselight both offer colour classes as well as DaVinci. Now a day, with the workstation model being adopted, the other 8 hours of time spent at a colour correction system is doing editing. Therefore, it would be a good idea for you to learn part of that whether it be conforming or just dropping in visual effects shots, doing outputs or dirt fixes. With automation improving, the job market is starting to shrink and you just want to make sure if you’re in it for the long haul that you have the tools that you need to weather this out. I was on a DaVinci for over 20 years and in the last 5 years I’ve found it necessary to re-invent myself just to stay current. Sometimes I feel like I’m pedaling a bike endlessly but that’s the model for today, it’s change, change, change. If you want to work in this industry it’s all about being versatile and keeping up with technology. Make sure you lift up your eyes and see the forest for the trees and hopefully you’ll have a long and prosperous career in the television industry.