Alex Proyas has never shied away from utilizing the latest digital technology to make his films. I remember getting a call from him back in 1994 when I was cutting “Civil Wars” for Steven Bochco Productions, one of the first network shows to be edited digitally on the Avid. The company had given the director my name to give him some feedback on what is was like cutting long-form on the Media Composer as he was considering using the system on his first American feature, “The Crow”.  So it came as no surprise to me when I heard he and his cinematographer, Simon Duggan were shooting his latest film “Knowing” with the RED ONE digital cinema camera. The film, which opened last week, is the largest budget film to date to shot with the RED.

From Wired

Alex Proyas has made plenty of films in traditional fashion, shooting Dark City, The Crow and I, Robot on old-fashioned celluloid.  For his new sci-fi thriller Knowing, the Australian director decided to go digital for the first time and put the ultrahigh-resolution RED camera to the test.  Now that he’s worked out the kinks, Proyas says, “There’s no going back.”

The activist filmmaker Robert Greenwald has tried for years to speed up the production process for his documentaries. Now, he says, he is creating one he can release almost immediately, in stages.

Mr. Greenwald is showing “Rethink Afghanistan,” a skeptical view of America’s war strategies, in five parts on the Internet, with the implied hope that it will contribute to the foreign policy debate.

ASL Gear is a company that designs and manufactures accessories for the Red ONE and other HD camera systems. The Remote Interface Box, or RIB Kit is comprised of two of the company’s products, RIP and RIB (remote interface breatkout box) designed to provide crews using the RED some more robust interface options for getting video, audio and timecode signals in and out of the camera.

From the company’s website.

Now you can finally plug full size XLR’s and BNC cables directly into your RED ONE® without the need for adapters. You also get Genlock and Timecode functions via the BNC panel. The ‘RIP’ provides quick and easy access to the RED’s I/O interface. The RIP easily attaches to the connector side of the camera and can be used in Stand Alone Mode, or with the ‘RIB’ Break-Out Box

In the video above RED user Jay A. Kelley reviews and explains how this product came about and how it can be used to make camera crews lives a bit easier when shooting with RED  in the field.

Frank Capria has been at the forefront of digital content creation technologies since its earliest beginnings. New England based Capria was one of the first adopters of digital editing on the Avid Media Composer upon the systems release in 1989. His credits include work on landmark PBS series including, Eyes on the Prize, Frontline, Nova and American Experience. In 2001 Frank went on to found Kingpin Interactive, a New Media services company, which created award winning programming, websites, and motion graphics for fortune 500 companies, start-ups and non-profits.

Along the way Frank has become a widely known teacher, writer, and evangelist regarding the developments in technology which have revolutionized the way post-production creatives accomplish their work. For nearly a decade he wrote about the rapidly changing landscape of his profession in the pages of DV Magazine and has taught classes at the Maine Media Workshops. So it seemed a natural seque when late last year he accepted an offer from Avid Technology to join their team as a Senior Product Designer.

On a recent trip back east I had an opportunity to sit down with Frank and ask him a few things about the state of digital editing and what’s happening in his new digs at Avid.

Download this program
	QuickTime Movie HD 768×432
	iPod/iPhone/iPod Touch 640×360
	Windows Media Format 640×360

Part V of my interview with Chris Dickens. In this segment I ask Chris if he had any indication that the film was going to be the worldwide phenomenon it has turned out to be. I also ask him what it is like to be in the center of the awards season vortex.

More from this series
	QuickTime Movie HD 768×432	Part I	Part II	Part III	Part IV	Part V
	iPod/iPhone/iPod Touch 640×360	Part I	Part II	Part III	Part IV	Part V
	Windows Media Format 640×360	Part I	Part II	Part III	Part IV	Part V

As editors, who often live with a film for an extended period of time, it becomes like one of your children. In this segment I ask Chris about sequences from Slumdog he is especially proud of, or ones that hold a special place in his heart. We talk about some of the directors he admires who have influenced him, his fondness for stories told in a non-linear way and how his director Danny Boyle encouraged him to take risks and try new ideas while cutting the film.

More from this series
	QuickTime Movie HD 768×432	Part I	Part II	Part III	Part IV	Part V
	iPod/iPhone/iPod Touch 640×360	Part I	Part II	Part III	Part IV	Part V
	Windows Media Format 640×360	Part I	Part II	Part III	Part IV	Part V

In Parts III and IV Chris and I go on to speak about technical issues and the fact that the film was a hybrid; shot on both 35mm film and digital. Chris cuts on the Avid, and the complexity of post production was compounded by the fact that the 35mm elements were shot 3-perf, a technique where the exposed image fills the entire surface area of the frame without any matte area or “wasted space”. 3-perf is an excellent solution when shooting in 1:1.85 aspect ratio because it reduces the cost of film stock and processing by 25%. The digital acquisition was done with Silicon Imaging’ SI-2K MINI, a new camera from a German manufacturer which is gaining popularity for it’s flexibility and size. The entire “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” portion of the film was shot with the SI-2K MINI, in addition to much of the breathtaking material captured in the slums of Mumbai.

More from this series
	QuickTime Movie HD 768×432	Part I	Part II	Part III	Part IV	Part V
	iPod/iPhone/iPod Touch 640×360	Part I	Part II	Part III	Part IV	Part V
	Windows Media Format 640×360	Part I	Part II	Part III	Part IV	Part V

Here is Part II of my interview with Chris Dickens, award winning film editor of this year’s Slumdog Millionaire. In this installment I ask Chris how he connected with Danny Boyle and what were some of the of the more creatively challenging aspects of making the film.

More from this series
	QuickTime Movie HD 768×432	Part I	Part II	Part III	Part IV	Part V
	iPod/iPhone/iPod Touch 640×360	Part I	Part II	Part III	Part IV	Part V
	Windows Media Format 640×360	Part I	Part II	Part III	Part IV	Part V

Today we present Part I of a multi-part series with award winning film editor Chris Dickens. Chris is the recipient of this years “triple crown” of editing awards for his work on “Slumdog Millionaire”, for which he took home the American Cinema Editor’s (A.C.E.) EDDY Award, the British Academy of Film an Television Arts (BAFTA) award and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Academy Award.

I had a chance to sit down with Chris the Friday before the Academy Awards here in Los Angeles, and although I had a pretty good idea, we didn’t know that two days later he would take home the Oscar. We spoke a bit about his career and went into depth about both the creative and technical aspects of his work on Danny Boyle’s hit film. The project, which was released by Fox Searchlight Pictures received a total of eight Oscar’s at this years ceremonies, an excellent showing for an independent film which was budgeted at around 15 million dollars.

Here in Part I, I ask Chris what drew him to the editing profession and how he got his foot in the door in his native country, the UK.

More from this series
	QuickTime Movie HD 768×432	Part I	Part II	Part III	Part IV	Part V
	iPod/iPhone/iPod Touch 640×360	Part I	Part II	Part III	Part IV	Part V
	Windows Media Format 640×360	Part I	Part II	Part III	Part IV	Part V

Here is Part II of my interview with Skywalker Sound supervising sound editor Matthew Wood. In this segment we focus on Matthew’s work on Disney/Pixar’s WALL-E. Matthew worked closely with his mentor, the lengendary Ben Burtt, on the project, who supervised the sound design and also played the voice of the lead character, WALL-E.

We go on to talk about how he managed multiple projects of such a large scale (he was simultaneously doing WALL-E and Star Wars: The Clone Wars) and some of the cutting edge tools he learned, including Symbolic Sound’s Capabara Kyma. Matthew also give us some insight into working in animation and the unique approach he and Ben were able to take to create the audio environment for the film. Enjoy!

By Lawrence Jordan

iPod/iPhone/iPod Touch – Small
Windows Media Format

Link to Matthew Wood Interview Part I