Plaster City Digital Post HDI Screening/Seminar (3/15 & 3/16)

Illya Friedman

Illya Friedman

Well-known member
Hello Everyone,

Tonight I went to the 9:PM Plaster City Digital Post HDI Seminar. The event is happening again tomorrow, Thursday, 3/16, and it's free. The event is in Hollywood and last I heard there's still space if anyone wants to go. The link to RSVP is here:

http://www.plastercitypost.com/events.php

The event takes place in the new screening room which features a beautiful 30' screen. All the footage is projected from a brand new CP2000 2K theatrical digital projector. The creative and technical gurus of Plaster City are on hand and they present their HDI post workflow and show samples of footage from various different origination formats all projected on the 2K.

There's footage from the DVX100, SDX900, HVX200, Varicam, F900, Super-16mm, 3-perf 35mm, 35mm and Super-35mm. The HVX200 footage was from my project and I thought it looked truly fantastic. I had never seen the finished project 2K projected on the big screen and it was jaw-dropping gorgeous.

During the Q&A there were several questions about P2 and workflow of the project, and afterwards some very nice praise from audience members. Even if you've saw my 3-minute HVX reel at DV Expo, Moviola or Panasonic event, it's worth it to see the footage on the big screen. I thought it compared very well against the more expensive HD and film formats.

A couple of the real highlights of the presentation are the live 2K color-correction demo performed by colorist, Ian Vertovic. He explains the benefits of the Final Touch system and shows a live example of the range of possibilities. I also really enjoyed Otto Arsenault motion graphics reel, all kinds of really amazing 2D & 3D titles and graphics. I had never seen his reel before, and it was truly fantastic!

I.
 
This sounds like something I wanted to do with people in the LA area. Glad to hear you got a chance to see the HVX footage up on a 2K. Now I have someone on here that has seen what this camera can do on the big screen also.
 
Illya, thanks for the very detailed post and impressions. However, I have one question for you: your footage was shot at what resolution? 720p or 1080p?
 
HVX footage looks awesome on big screen

HVX footage looks awesome on big screen

I was at the Plaster City event tonight as well, and I had seen the footage
from Illya's test before at Moviola. I absolutely agree--
with the 2K projector, the HVX footage looked AMAZING on the big screen.
AMAZING! Incredibly rich images which looked so much like film. This really was a jaw-dropping experience.
If you can, you gotta check it out!

Illya, I'm curious, was the filmout screening you did at Laser Pacific as amazing-looking as this? thanks.

Richard
 
I want to choose my words carefully on this. The second film out at Laser Pacific was damn amazing, although different from the 2K at Plaster City to be sure.

The 35mm grain disguised any noise that may have been present in the HD master. This was very encouraging because we knew we were shooting the most challenging kinds of scenes for noise. Also in the film print the blues were slightly less saturated, and overall the sharpness was slightly diminished when compared to 2K, which was not at all unexpected. Still because of this, I think that this made the 35mm print feel very much like an excellent blow up from a Super-16mm. The 2K was amazingly sharp, and rock solid as it should be with zero gate weave.

What I found most interesting was that the HVX 2K projection looked really, really, similar to the higher format HD cameras (and film formats) digitally projected. It goes to show, if you can work on the long end of the lens and light you scenes carefully, it's possible to fool people that the HVX is a much larger camera.

There were quality differences increases between the Varicam and the F900. Although not as much as you might expect. The F900 has about 30% more resolution, but the difference in visible sharpness is perhaps only 10-15%. Depending on how each camera is set-up and shot, this difference could become negligible.

I thought that the Varicam footage had a more graceful knee slope and that some footage looked far less like video/HD when compared to some of the F900 shots, not all, but some for certain. The HVX is a rung down from the Varicam. But it's far closer then you might think.

There's no straight line in a price vs. performance chart with HD Cameras. It's become very similar to most consumer electronics. After you reach a certain price point, it costs big bucks to make a smaller jump in quality.

What I'm about to say is a bold statement, but I feel confident that's it's 100% true. Properly shooting the HVX will undoubtedly give you the most image quality for your buck (as of today), and yes including the XL-H1 and HD XDCam, on any quality big screen digital projection. If you can afford the high end, you should shoot it. If not, the HVX will give you the best image with the lease amount of technical compromise.

I.
 
Illya Friedman said:
Properly shooting the HVX will undoubtedly give you the most image quality for your buck (as of today), and yes including the XL-H1 and HD XDCam, on any quality big screen digital projection. If you can afford the high end, you should shoot it. If not, the HVX will give you the best image with the lease amount of technical compromise.

I.
Click to expand...
Bold statement, yes. But seeing as you're speaking from experience, we appreciate you sharing!
 
Illya Friedman said:
What I found most interesting was that the HVX 2K projection looked really, really, similar to the higher format HD cameras (and film formats) digitally projected. It goes to show, if you can work on the long end of the lens and light you scenes carefully, it's possible to fool people that the HVX is a much larger camera.
Click to expand...

Illya, I was there tonight and saw your footage in all its glory. I 100% agree with your statement. The HVX footage looked almost identical in quality to the Varicam. I was blown away. I knew the camera was spectacular, but to see it projected at that size... It made me feel even more confident. I can't wait to bring my movie down there to watch it in its full glory.

Anyone wanting to get an overall cost breakdown on the HDI (HD-DI) system that Plaster City has going, really should call Michael Cioni. He offered filmmakers a complete itinerary of how much it would be. There were some extremely intelligent, focused, driven, and precise technicians presenting tonight. They really impressed all of us with their professional attitude mixed in with charm and humour. :) Stephen's technical savvy and Michael's focused spirit, followed by Ian's laid back charm really got everyone feeling like this is definitely a post house you can feel good about, and that your precious footage is in good hands.
 
Not to mention they are an IT based facility completely set up to edit and finish DVC-ProHD. You couldn't ask for a more HVX/P2 friendly post house.
I second Rush's statements above.
 
Hey I,

I wish I could have been there to see the footage. For someone shooting their first feature with the HVX, your words are very reassuring :) Thanks for sharing.


Andrew
 
It sure was great P20. And we all got that vibe from them, that they are young people like us wanting to help other young people. When Evin and I talked about our project, we were never interrupted or overshadowed in any way, even when we added to their knowledge base. They were very accepting and gracious. Michael is very approachable too, and he freely offered anyone in the room a free consultation. :)
 
Yeah, the screening was a real eye opener. The guys at Plaster City rock. If I ever have any post done outside, I'm going to them for sure.

Good catchin up with you Rush. Hey Evin, I didn't get to say hi while we were there...next time.
 
Nice seeing you too Al. Also, Beatrice was there as well, do you know her DVXuser name?
 
HVXguy said:
Is there anyway you could post a full-res quicktime of your demo that was transferred to film?
Thanks
Click to expand...

Possibly. My involvement with production was both technical and creative, but my involvement with post was only creative. I need to get the people involved on the post technical side involved to make it happen and those people have moved on to other gigs now.

While I'd love it to be on-line in full res, I'm not sure if the whole project in full res will happen. Perhaps we can get a sample full-res clip up. The plan is for the complete project to go up at some point, although it'll likely be lower than full-res, and/or a friendlier bandwidth codec.

I've been working on music clearance for a few weeks now, so hopefully I'll know soon if we are going to get it. As always, after I learn more I'll post an update.

I.
 
The guys at Plaster City Post had some very humble beginnings... The story I heard involved a garage. When I met them a few years ago they were about 4 people.. in a tiny two-room office.

I'm really glad they've had such tremendous growth and success in recently years and that despite the new building, equipment and staff, they haven't lost that the spirit of Indy humility and DIY determination. For me, that's what sets them apart.

I.
 
I'm going to do some more HVX testing with those guys, especially concerning 1080P aquisition. They really think 720 is the way to go, but Barry and I have seen significant advantages to 1080 that we think could be seen on projectors like the one at PCDP.

Anyway I'm trying to get a feature off the ground right now so it maybe sooner than later.
 
evinsky said:
I'm going to do some more HVX testing with those guys, especially concerning 1080P aquisition. They really think 720 is the way to go, but Barry and I have seen significant advantages to 1080 that we think could be seen on projectors like the one at PCDP.
Click to expand...

Evin, it would be nice to see you or Barry explore this issue in much more detail, weighing the pros and cons of both modes, and post a thread on it. There was another thread on here today on the same topic, a DP claiming that 720 was the way to go.
 
720 is the way to go for 85% of the projects I shoot. Commercials, TV shows, Industrials all the normal teleproduction uses of HD material. Even for filmamking that has a DVD or HD DVD primary distribution channel it's probably still the best format. But for theatrical projection the small but visable difference in quality when shooting 1080 can be truly appreciated, provided the artifacts some have mentioned can be mitigated by shooting techique. Specifically PCDP mentioned some highlight problems with 1080 material that has brightness levels way over 105 IRE. I have yet to see any of these issues on my monitors, including refrence HD-SDI CRTs.
But it could be an abberation that the 2k projector amplifies. It's hard to know for sure but that's what I want to test. And I can't do that without thier help and theatre.
 
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