F35: Dumb question for Mitch. Odsy- HD to UHD?

I mean the whole Amira/ALEXA up-rezzing business. When the ALEXA came out, ARRI didn't even like to call it a 2.8K camera - it was a "2K" camera. I think they were probably quite cautious because at the time ARRIRAW recording was still relatively rare.

I cannot imagine ARRI's engineers were anything other than mortified when they got told they had to create a "4K" picture out of the 2.8k/3.2k/whatever sensor. ARRI were one of the companies trying to fight the misinformation that had become common since RED's inception.

I heard the other day that Netflix had "banned" use of the Alexa/Amira for 4K material, however I don't seem to be able to find anything online to corroborate that, so it may be incorrect.

Yeah, ARRI changed their 4K tune like Sony did once the 4K pressure started squeezing them out of the market. No surprise there. Companies will do what they have to do to stay afloat. Marketing is just that.

I have also heard the Netflix bit. If they did indeed ban ARRI from their productions, more interesting to know would be if they have "unbanned" it after the 4K upscalling feature was added, which would make no sense really since it is still the same camera.
 
I heard the other day that Netflix had "banned" use of the Alexa/Amira for 4K material, however I don't seem to be able to find anything online to corroborate that, so it may be incorrect.

I don't know about that exactly, but Netflix does have a 4k mandate, as mentioned here in regards to Daredevil: http://hdguru.com/netflix-video-maker-shoots-for-highest-common-denominator/

Perhaps not banned, but since Netflix requires a 4k DCP delivery, Arri had to make that an option, or lose the business on Netflix Original productions.
 
I've definitely read a few articles with people having considered the F55 because they HAD to deliver "4K" and didn't fancy RED, so they didn't really have many options left.

I would have thought that they wouldn't really be happy with upscaled AMIRA stuff. I am fairly sure the only reason the Amira offers it is because it does not have ARRIRAW so there is no other way to upscale from the original bayer data.
 
I heard the other day that Netflix had "banned" use of the Alexa/Amira for 4K material, however I don't seem to be able to find anything online to corroborate that, so it may be incorrect.

I don't know about the Alexa being "banned", but the cameras used are supposed to shoot "4K". The F55 that I just bought was used on a Netflix show that had to be shot 4K and had to be an F55. The DP wanted to shoot on Alexa, but because it had to be "4K" and Sony/Sony pictures was connected to the show it HAD to be the 55. My understanding is that someone from Sony was there all the time to make sure that there were no problems or issues with the 55's so there wouldn't be any extra ammo for the DP that wanted to shoot Alexa.
 
Yeah I haven't been able to find anything about it, I don't know whether Netflix took extra steps to deal with ARRI's sneaky "4K" mode.The articles I read pre-dated that.

The BBC have historically been tricky too - they banned Super16 material for their "HD" programs but later changed their minds.

They also initially outright refused to accept anything shot DSLR, but later changed their minds it seems - what the motivation was, I don't know.
 
I would have thought that they wouldn't really be happy with upscaled AMIRA stuff. I am fairly sure the only reason the Amira offers it is because it does not have ARRIRAW so there is no other way to upscale from the original bayer data.

Are you joking? The Amira kicks the ass of any system currently out there. I cant imagine what you mean by that.

I guess Netflix will have to stop showing all films then. This 4K BS is really out of hand. I could just tell someone that a 5D movie was shot 4K and show it in a 4K TV and not one person would ever be able to tell. Dof, focus accuracy, filters, lighting contrast... all can change "4K" into 1.5K and often does.

BU**SHI*.
 
We're talking about commissioned Netflix "Originals" here, not the entire Netflix catalog of streaming content. The mandate is for their original programming, the productions of which are funded from their coffers. While I'm sure Netflix would prefer to have 4k masters their entire streaming catalog, that simply isn't possible - there are titles that viewers want to watch that just weren't shot that way, and Netflix isn't going to dump titles people want to watch if they aren't 4k. But they won't commission new internal content that isn't 4k.

Does this mean you have a better chance of your small time movie getting Netflix distribution if it's in 4k? Possibly. But it it was a festival darling, and is the talk of the town, I'm pretty sure they'll want it no matter what you shot on.
 
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