By S3D Centre, Emily Carr University of Art + Design

To re-iterate: We are researching not only the standalone benefits of higher frame rates in S3D, but also the effect of VARIABLE HFR on aesthetic and immersion in the context of a single narrative.

Post Production Considerations

We were at this years SMPTE Symposium, where the 2012 topic was HFR. We have been dealing with many post production considerations over the past months, and this is an area of concern echoed relentlessly at the Symposium.

From smpteconnect.blogspot.ca:

“Paul Chapman, senior vp of technology at Burbank-based postproduction facility Fotokem, led a discussion of some of the challenges that high frame rates bring to post, during SMPTE’s symposium on high frame rates for digital cinema.
 For starters, he asserted that support from creative editorial is lacking and needed. This was a sentiment echoed by additional speakers, including Disney’s Howard Lukk, who did however single out Adobe’s Premiere Pro as offering HFR support.

Chapman reported that he conducted an informal survey of dailies vendors, and his findings suggest that all are now testing high frame rates. He expects to see quite a lot of development in this area during the next 12 months. He reported that Fotokem’s NEXTlab near-set dailies system is already working on a HFR project.

Nico Recagno of SGO (the maker of the Mistika postproduction system, which is in use at Park Road Post on The Hobbit) said that managing dailies at HFRs is “horrifically difficult,” citing challenges including time code, methods of viewing and QC, and sound sync.

Recagno added that the biggest concern that he is hearing from colorists is getting proper calibration during color grading. He and Chapman both urged the community to create HFR standards in some of the discussed areas, including time code.”

We are also members of the SMPTE 21DC high frame rate study group and can echo that these are very new concerns. Furthermore, there are simply not many software applications/dailies software and hardware already capable of S3D toolsets, let alone HFR 3D toolsets. SGO Mistika has been reckoned as the ultimate HFR 3D toolset, but with its steep price point we have found it to be out of reach for the majority of filmmakers. Denise has been a user (and Beta tester) of Avid Media Composer and Symphony for S3D already, so we were able to test it on our HFR 3D material. Avid already has functional S3D toolsets so this made the process of attempting the playback of HFR 3D simplified. Before we go more into this process, we will share some specs on our post production toolsets: [more…]

Source: S3D Centre, Emily Carr University of Art + Design