Post people in camera halls

Posted By Max Burgess on September 20, 2010 10:35 am | Permalink
Once upon a time in the land of Post Production there were simple format choices. When I started to work as an edit assistant, there was only Digi-Beta (maybe some old Beta-SP's kicking around somewhere) and occasionally some Panasonic formats. These days we need to consider a whole host of file-based formats, especially as they all seem to require a slightly different workflow.

This is why I am seeing more and more post production people walking around the camera halls at IBC. It is now as important to stay abreast of the happenings in Hall 7 (where most of the post vendors are located) as it is halls 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 (camera and other production equipment). Knowing what is happening with the cameras always gives you an idea of what to expect in a job and how to deal with it.

This year the Arri Alexa was quite prominent, in its bid to reclaim some ground lost to the Red camera. Speaking of which, those clever people at Red again managed to generate hype without even having a stand at IBC. Red camera's could be seen at most stands and Ted (the leader of the revolution!) was seen a few times brandishing the much anticipated Epic camera.

Canon seems to have pulled a march on Sony with the XF 105 and 100 hand-held HD cameras that shoot at 50mbs and are BBC approved for acquisition, which trumps the EX range that is still struggling for broadcast approval while they only shoot 35mbs. Expect to see the 4:2:2 MPEG2 MXF media coming to an editing system near you soon.