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Review: IBC is back
After a hiatus of three years, the European media and technology community was able to reconvene in beautiful Amsterdam for networking and exploration of industry trends. makers was there to test the temperature.
It may have been a smaller show than before than pandemic with 37,000 visitors – around 20,000 less than the 2019 high – but attendees were glad to be back in 3D not Zoom. The sentiment seemed to be that you don’t know what you missed until it’s gone.
In a keynote address, Walt Disney Studios explained how rapid progress in artificial intelligence is already disrupting many aspects of the traditional filmmaking process both for live action and animation. “AI is truly profoundly transforming the way you produce movies,” said Markus Gross, Chief Scientist. “We want to use AI and deep learning to create animated characters that are truly art directable in real time.”
The technology could eventually enable directors to give verbal instructions to CG characters about how to walk or which way to move in much the same way text to image engines like DALLE-2 operate today.
Another popular presentation focused on the work done by Accenture Song for Netflix’s Stranger Things season four, specifically around the VFX work to bring the main antagonist, Vecna to
life on-screen. This was all done manually with VFX Supervisor Juri Stanossek, highlighting the painstaking nature of each stage: “You are using all the experience you have to add realistic fire to a moving character because everything is different when the character is moving.”
A highlight of the IBC conference was an editing masterclass from Paul Machliss, ACE who walked the audience through his early career to his most recent collaboration with director Edgar Wright.
Born in Melbourne, Machliss first visited IBC in the late nineties working for a postproduction company after which he stayed on in London, met budding director Wright and together they worked on comedy series Spaced leading to features Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Last Night in Soho.
“With every film Edgar tries to challenge what’s possible in cinema and in editorial too,” Machliss told IBC. “Everything we did with Baby Driver, in terms of synchronising action to music, we tried to take one step further on Last Night in Soho.”
Machliss shared how his approach to editing had a major impact during the shooting of Baby Driver and resulted in the design of a portable edit system which allowed him complete freedom to locate himself anywhere on the film set.
Of his latest project, the DC Comics feature for Warner Bros The Flash, directed by Andy Muschietti starring Ezra Miller, he said: “We’re going to be utilising some very new technology in terms of getting multiple versions of the same actor on screen. It’s going to be worth the wait because it looks fantastic.”
Many of the tech developments on show were about further transitioning facility workflows into the cloud. That could soon include finishing too.
“We have achieved the ‘over the shoulder feel’ for uncompromised live reference grade monitoring in the cloud,” explained Katrina King, Content Production M&E, AWS.
WE’RE GOING TO BE UTILISING SOME VERY NEW TECHNOLOGY IN TERMS OF GETTING MULTIPLE VERSIONS OF THE SAME ACTOR ON SCREEN.
THE CLOUD EDITING
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE The solution, tested with FilmLight’s Baselight grading system, uses JPEG-XS to lightly compress pictures at 444 12-bit with a latency suitable for interactive working.
“It is visually lossless,” reported Peter Postma, MD, Filmlight. “The creative decision making is seamless.”
Studio-funded thinktank MovieLabs provided updates to its 2030 Vision for the industry to migrate all production workflows to the cloud. CTOs from Marvel, Universal, Sony, Paramount and Warner. Bros were all present to affirm that the strategy is on track.
Adobe had a presence on over 100 IBC exhibition stands, many of them highlighting the ability to work with software in the cloud. For instance, there were numerous camera to cloud demos with companies including Atomos, Teradek and Mo-Sys. Frame.io, now integrated with Premiere Pro and After Effects and included with Creative Cloud membership, now enables file sharing and real-time review and approval.
Avid returned to IBC with cloud-enabled solutions for remote working. It debuted NEXIS | EDGE, a software that provides editors with the same media access, workflow, and user experience they have come to depend on from Avid in facility environments. There was a technology preview of high-resolution Media Composer streams to Microsoft Teams, achieving what Avid called a “third monitor” experience intended to accelerate content review by creatives.
RED Digital Camera demonstrated a means to capture 8K 16-bit Original Camera Files (OCF) direct to cloud for instant on-set or remote editorial collaboration. A live stream of 8K captured content is also seen as a breakthrough for Virtual Reality 180-degree experiences.
“It makes no sense to watch a flat image when you’re shooting immersive so it is vital to come up with a way to feed the live camera to a headset,” said Lewis Smithingham, of global creative agency Media.Monks. “[With RED Connect] we are able to have a live monitor on set that is the same 8K resolution as the post files we deliver.
He added, “The entire immersive experience from capture to delivery has changed so rapidly in the last six months it is staggering.”
“ADOBE HAD A PRESENCE ON OVER 100 IBC EXHIBITION STANDS, MANY OF THEM HIGHLIGHTING THE ABILITY TO WORK WITH SOFTWARE IN THE CLOUD.”
WE ARE BACK
CIUDAD DE LA LUZ IS THE MOST MODERN FILM STUDIO IN EUROPE: A COMPLEX WITH ADVANCED AUDIOVISUAL PRODUCTION SERVICES AND ALL THE MEANS AND FACILITIES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROJECTS.
A recent image from the spectacular water tank, the jewel of the film studios.
Ciudad de la Luz is owned by the Government of Valencia, which is working to make this complex the headquarters of the largest audiovisual production center in Europe. The studios are equipped with large areas for film, television and advertising production with advanced services to meet all the needs of the national and international market.
It has six sets, three production support buildings, workshops and warehouses, exterior filming areas and a water tank for underwater filming, among other facilities and services.
Facilities: • 6 soundstages – Intercommunicated 2 by 2, with a total of 120,000 sq ft, the soundstage buildings are independent, soundproofed and air-conditioned.
•3 production support buildings – Includes the dressing rooms, hairdressing and make-up rooms, wardrobe, decoration and props storage rooms, meeting rooms, toilets and showers.
• 1 mill and workshop building – The building totals 120,550 sq ft divided into several areas for the construction of sets: stage and storage areas, spaces for creating special effects, lighting and camera equipment and wardrobe storage.
• 2 backlots – Outdoor filming areas of 18,05 acres and 19,3 acres with natural horizon, equipped with electricity supply, water and fibre optics. • Backlot tank – Located in one of the backlots with dimensions of 328.08 ft x 262.47 ft, in addition to a blue screen on one of the sides.
•Water areas – This is one of the differentiating elements of the complex compared to other production centres in the world. It has a 86,000 sq ft of backlot water tank, with a maximum depth 17,06 ft in the inner part.
• Ancillary services for post-production - Ancillary services for sound post-production, editing and mixing, and even projection rooms with advanced technologies.
Tax incentives: Spain is positioned as a very competitive and profitable shooting destination for the international industry. Investments in foreign cinematographic and audiovisual productions entitle the producer to a tax deduction of 30% of the first million euros of the deduction base and 25% if it exceeds that amount, with a maximum of 10 million euros per production.
The Region of Valencia foresees in 2023 an incentive for cinematographic and audiovisual production consisting of a direct subsidy of a percentage of around 18 to 20% of the qualifying local expenditure that occurs in the region on the occasion of production with a maximum of EUR1.5 million per production.
The Ciudad de la Luz facilities are prepared to host any type of filming.
BROUGHT TO YOU BY
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Marisol Blázquez (+34) 965 315 800 / info@sptcv.net
www.sptcv.net/ciudaddelaluz/
