JamieG Analysis

Earlier today I was listening to “Digital Production Buzz“. This week’s audio podcast is defiantly a 5 star episode if you’re interested in the mind field that is the advantages and disadvantages of all the prosumer cameras and different codec’s and standards they use.

Adam Wilt was a wealth of information, and you have to concentrate hard to take in all the jargon as it flies fast and thick. One question stuck in my mind.

“Where is Prosumer digital Video going? What are we likely to see next?”

Adams answer was. “More of the same!” Meaning more of the proprietary, little by little introduction of capabilities. (Which I hope this blog post will hopefully reduce.)

I personally do a lot of encoding for FILMs going to theatres around Australia. Considering this I wanted to voice my opinion on the direction we should be going in.

Philip Hodgetts, the guy behind digital production Buzz, has a saying he uses every week.

“Test the entire workflow before you start your production”.

Considering this, let’s look at the future of the END FORMAT of the distribution content specifically for film.

Talking to cinemas owners, the switch to digital cannot happen fast enough. The main reasons for this are many and complex, but as usual it is all about money. But in real terms, if you plan to release a film 1 to 2 years from now, there is a very high chance that by then, it will never go to film. This should then lead to the question?

“What will the distribution format for films be when it all goes digital.”

Well we have two main contenders.

1. DCI, JPEG2000
2. H.264 but using new profiles, namely High 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 at 10 or 12 bit colour up to 4k

Considering this, we now know we are most likely to EXPORT OUT OF OUR ONLINE EDITING SYSTEM DIRECTLY INTO THE DISTRIBUTION FORMAT. What a time saver and cost savings that will be for low budget films.

Choosing between DCI and H.264, at this stage of the game will be based on how you’re going to distributer. It’s another complex argument I will not cover today.

Back to the topic. How does this affect the future of Prosumer cameras?

Well, considering that AVCHD, (The acquisition name for the use of H.264) a new and most popular format for acquisition using non tape formats is starting to make waves in the industry, the lines are starting to join the dots.

If you consider the Hi End acquisition equipment, such as Viper etc. These cameras record files in uncompressed 4:4:4 1920×1080 at 10bit colour. H.264 at High Profile 4:4:4 with 10bit colour will give you similar capabilities apart from introducing a level of compression. Still, for under $10,000. This is a no brainer.

Consider the RED camera. It is literally rocking the foundations the film maker industry. However, it has one MAJOR issue. It uses a proprietary codec REDraw. This does have some advantages, however, the technology that the RED camera uses is likely to be adopted by other manufactures. Do we want them all using their own proprietary codecs?

Defiantly NO!

This is what STANDARDS are for.

So, the future of cameras is recording 4:2:2, or 4:4:4 at 10 bit colour and between 2K and 4K resolution. The only codec (supported by SMPTY) with specs that cover these requirements is H.264.

Now, before I finish, I want to encourage you the reader, as a consumer of these devices, to make it loud and clear to Sony, Panasonic, etc that THIS IS WHAT WE WANT.

If they have their way, they will keep making incompatible, non-standard devices as, in the long run they make more money, as you keep upgrading every 1-2 years as better cameras using better CCD’s and codecs come to market. Let’s cut the crap and request exactly what we need and what are most likely to use for film distribution in the future.

ADDITION: development of codec support of H.264 in editing software has been very slow. This does not stop it from being a good aquisition format in terms of quality per $ spent. however, this does introduce post production issue/costs that will be addressed in the near future.   Also transcoding to intermidiary codecs is also a suggested move, for this and other codecs like HDV.