[by Carolyn Giardina, www.thehollywoodreporter.com]

The Boise, Idaho-based company’s 53-foot van is equipped with an extensive range of production, VFX and post tools.

Boise, Idaho-based company Silverdraft is rolling out a digital studio on wheels.

Dubbed the Silverdraft MobileViz, the 53-foot van is equipped with an extensive range of production, VFX and post tools and aims to bring more postproduction — and visual effects — on set. With this infrastructure, powered by a proprietary supercomputer, Silverdraft aims to create a faster, more collaborative approach to filmmaking.

The mobile digital studio could also displace existing technologies and shift on-set roles. It might even leapfrog some of the on-set tools now in development.

Manufacturers have started to offer smaller and lighter production tools. Post houses — including Deluxe, Fotokem LightIron and Technicolor — have meanwhile been offering portable “digital labs,” which typically take the camera footage and create dailies, backups, files for editorial and the like. They offer a starting point for the color grading process.

Silverdraft is taking that concept even further by incorporating previz, motion capture and other sophisticated VFX tools along with editing, color grading and finishing. The company suggests that users in fact could record — 2D or 3D — from the digital camera directly into the truck, where work could begin immediately.

“This would replace (many) on-set tools,” said Silverdraft’s head of business developmentMichael Cooper, who is an EFILM Digital Laboratories alum. “It would be all inclusive. We’re taking the digital facility on set. All of the key creatives can be there, making creative decisions. I think it can result in better collaboration.”

He added: “I think overall, budgets will possibly come down — I say possibly because producers might move the money (to different line items) to get more onscreen.”

In addition to on-set or on a lot, MobileViz could also be used for a VFX-intensive production requiring additional computing resources.

The MobileViz truck can be customized, though it already includes tools such as Autodesk MotionBuilder, Maya and 3ds Max; Mental Images’ Mental Ray renderer; Chaos Group’s Vray; Qube render management from PipelineFX; Apple Final Cut Pro and Avid editing; and on-set dailies and color management capabilities. It also has 20 terabytes of solid-state storage.

The computing technology within Silverdraft Mobileviz was developed by Srinidhi Varadarajan, who is director for the center of high-end computing systems and associate professor in the department of computer science at Virginia Tech University. In 2004, he received the MIT Technology Review Award.

According to Silverdraft, the first Mobileviz trailer offers 30 teraflops processing (plans for additional trailers include higher processing speeds).

In related news, Silverdraft has formed strategic partnerships with pre-visualization business the Third Floor; software developer Autodesk; VFX artist/director Alex Frisch; performance capture company Knight Vision; and Workflowers, a VFX and digital intermediate workflow consultancy.

Recent testing has included the use of proprietary technology from the Third Floor–whose previz credits include Avatar–and Knight Vision to find ways to make high-end motion capture techniques accessible by using the MobileViz trailer as a mobile control room.

“Filmmakers need the ability to direct the digital world in same way (and at the same time) as they are composing in the live action world,” said Third Floor CEO Chris Edwards.“Filmmakers have not had the ability to do this simultaneously, outdoors and with a lightweight technology.”

See the original post here: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/silverdraft-rolling-mobile-digital-studio-167901

[by Mimi Turner, www.hollywoodreporter.com]

The News Corp. Europe and Asia chairman and chief executive sits on a media summit panel with ‘Avatar’ director James Cameron.

3D TV production might be a headache but it’s a headache broadcasters will have to get used to, News Corp Europe and Asia chairman and chief executive James Murdoch told the Abu Dhabi media summit Tuesday.
Murdoch, who was in conversation with Avatar director James Cameron for a panel at the Gulf state’s second annual annual media powwow, said that there was more and more demand for the 3D format.
“Customers will not want big events that are not in 3D at some point in the future because it is such an exciting and immersive experience,” he said, according to a report in the Financial Times.
Murdoch and Cameron both agreed that the current mode of filming events in 2D alongside a film crew for 3D was expensive and inefficient, but said that the next generation of cameras would hopefully fix the problems.
“That’s the way we do it now,” Murdoch said of the dual-teaming approach.
“It’s very hard and it’s not just the camera positions, it’s the directors and the producers and the outside broadcast units [who are different], so now it’s the two big trucks sitting outside [venues] because they want different angles, they want different things.”
But Cameron, basking in Avatar’s $2.8 billion at global box office, urged studios to invest in the more costly 3D format rather than opting for the less expensive 2D-to-3D conversion process which he said meant they risked “harming themselves with that cautious approach.”
“I think it will be difficult in a few year’s time for photographers and filmmakers to say that 3-D is too tricky to figure out,” Cameron said, according to reports.
See the original post here: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/james-murdoch-3d-tv-production-167857