10
Cooke Speed Panchros
creates vintage-look
Bohemian Rhapsody
Cinematographer
Tom Sigel chose a
full range of Cooke
Speed Panchros,
with a new housing
and updated
mechanics from
ARRI Rental UK, to shoot the early years
of rock group Queen documented in the
production of Bohemian Rhapsody. To
capture the “idealistic energy” of Freddie
Mercury (in red T-shirt) and his “future
bandmates” in the 1970, Sigel made use
of a vintage set of Cooke Speed Panchros,
with a light net at the back of the lens and
a LUT for the Alexa SXT that was specifically
designed for the period. This set-up was
used for the entire first act of the film, with
Sigel relying mostly on the 40mm lens, with
the 25mm, 32mm and 50mm as secondary
lenses.
LMG adds Artist and
Bolero to rental portfolio
The Show Technology division of LMG, a
provider of audio-visual equipment in the
US, has added Riedel Communications’
Artist 64 digital matrix intercom frame and
Bolero DECT-based wireless intercom to
its rental equipment inventory. LMG will
deploy its initial purchase of 10 Bolero
belt packs in standalone mode for smaller
live events, and will integrate the wireless
intercom with an Artist 64 mainframe
for larger corporate projects and live
productions, such as awards broadcasts.
Shane Smith, director of audio services,
LMG, said: “We know we can count on
quality products from Riedel, so it was an
easy decision to bring in Bolero and an
additional Artist frame.”
PANELLISTS
Dr Ahmad Zaki
Mohd Salleh
Director Technical Operations
TV Networks
Media Prima
Phan Tien Dung
CTO
Vietnam Digital Television
Mike Whittaker
Executive Vice-President
and CTO, Asia-Pacific and
the Middle East,
Fox Networks Group Asia
April 2012 2018
December
Merging real
world with virtual
Graphics creation is bound
by no rules. Marrying that
with digital technologies, it
unleashes a whole new world
of interactive graphics and
experiences. Josephine Tan
writes more.
I
n recent years, interactive experiences
— such as augmented reality (AR),
virtual reality (VR), or even mixed
reality (MR), which combines virtual
and real environments — have drawn
great awareness in the gaming indus-
try. In 2016, the launch of Pokémon
Go, an AR mobile game developed by
Niantic, showcased to the world how
computer-generated graphics can be
merged with real-world surroundings.
It was also in the same year that Sony
launched PlayStation VR, a VR system
for its PlayStation 4 console that aimed
to take gaming to the next level of im-
mersion and transport players into the
virtual world of their games.
Electronic gaming and eSports are
part of the media convergence that is
taking place right now with respect to
both content and technology, declares
Brian Olson, vice-president of product
management, at NewTek.
He tells APB: “In many ways, eSports
is paralleling traditional sports with the
formation of leagues and arenas, along
with investments to fuel the expansion
of this new industry. At the same time,
video games are starting to look more
like movies with photorealistic render-
ing and complex storylines.
“Media and entertainment produc-
ers now look at a much bigger landscape
when they bring creative content to
market. There is a lot of crossover in the
execution and marketing of movies, TV
and video games. That same crossover
is occurring with professional sports
teams and their eSports corollaries.
“As audiences are shrinking for lin-
ear live sports, broadcast TV and thea-
trical release motion pictures, media
companies can recover those viewers
by accessing the growing number of
gamers and eSports aficionados.”
RV Krishnan, vice-president graph-
ics for Asia-Pacific, Vizrt, similarly iden-
tifies eSports and the gaming industry as
a “new opportunity” for media compa-
nies to tap into, with gamers targeted as
a new pool of audience. He elaborates:
“In addressing this opportunity, eSports
is helping to shape some of the tech-
nologies and workflows in traditional
broadcasting as well. These changes are
seen in creative, as well as productions
and operations.
“Billions of dollars are poured into
creating games with intensive plots and
strategies, excellent graphics and ani-
mation that are interactive and highly
addictive in terms of great visual quality,
and using of tools like AR, VR and MR
to enrich the user experience. Visual ap-
peal is enhanced with sophistication in
creative tools like photorealism, lighting
techniques and sophisticated shaders to
create real world look and feel.”
He highlights that broadcasters
have begun to consider some of these
tools that were originally intended
for gamers and eSports for use within
programming of news, sports and
general entertainment. This, in turn, is
helping to bring about a “big change”
in visual quality, and enhance viewer
experiences, he adds. “Designers have
❝ Billions of dollars are
poured into creating
games with intensive plots
and strategies, excellent
graphics and animation
that are interactive and
highly addictive in terms
of great visual quality, and
using of tools like AR, VR
and MR to enrich the user
experience. ❞
— RV Krishnan, Vice-President
Graphics, Asia-Pacific, Vizrt
more powerful tools now to work
with, including better modelling and
animation tools, and higher realism in
creating virtual environments. What
this represents for producers is better
storytelling tools, where visualisation is
more impactful and pleasing.”
On the other hand, he explains that
broadcasters are looking to extend their
reach beyond the traditional viewership
while using the new tools that originate
and appeal to younger audiences, which
has not been part of its viewer base
earlier. For instance, some broadcast-
ers are increasingly covering eSports,
and even building dedicated eSports
channels to cater to this new viewership.
Furthermore, they are bringing
“a new level of professionalism and
production quality standards and op-
erational efficiencies” to live eSports
productions, thus enabling and broad-
ening the appeal of eSports in general.
Krishnan continues: “Visual impact
of photorealism is very significant.
This is driving developers of graph-
ics hardware and software developers
to bring high dynamic range (HDR),
high-quality physically based rendering
(PBR) of textures, global illumination,
reflections and drop shadows to create
‘real world materials’. Character mod-
elling and animations are being used
with telling effects in entertainment and
sports.
“VR and 360 videos have been slow
to take off so far, largely on account
of the limitations of the technologies
themselves. The challenge for broadcast-
ers and broadcast vendors, as always, is
to marry technological advancements
with workflow efficiencies and ease of
use. This will continue to be the focus
among broadcasters as they strive to
balance between audience engagement
and production efficiencies.”
While content is moving into new
realms, the technology behind video
games and eSports is “slowly moving
into traditional media production”,
NewTek’s Olson highlights, adding
more horsepower and lowering costs
for producers who want to push the
envelope or create environments that
will draw non-traditional audiences.
However, regardless how immersive or
realistic these interactive video games
have to offer, it all involves the creation
of graphics and combining them with
video images — and that can all be
done via graphic systems and virtual
sets, which have been around in video
production for several decades.
In an attempt to fuel produc-
tion opportunities and content crea-