Visited Peter Jackson today...

Barry! Envy! Green! Me! :D

That's so cool that you got to take a trip to NZ. I would kill to get a chance to hang out with the WETA guys.
 
RayFrisby said:
Any idea what he's shooting with it Barry, is it fx, green screen, is he using it on any current projects ?
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Well, it's not just "it", it's that Peter has bought two of them himself for use personally, and his companies (WETA Digital, and WETA Workshops) have also bought them, for use professionally. Today I had a few guys from WETA at the Wellington HVX workshop and I got to talk to them at length, about what they've been doing and what they plan on doing, but I'm not necessarily allowed to share that -- I did have to sign a nondisclosure agreement about the particulars. They told me it was okay to share that I had visited, and that they have them, but not necessarily to say specifically what they're being used for.
 
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Mike Poindexter said:
Did you get a chance to sit in his personal theater?
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I got to see much of the empire, but not all of it. Saw some of Wingnut, toured WETA Workshops, drove by Park Road Post... it's really a very extensive operation they have there. I was most impressed by the attitude that seemed to permeate it though; people were extraordinarily skilled, but also seemed most happy to be working there too. That's a powerful combination indeed!
 
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Shaw said:
That's so cool that you got to take a trip to NZ. I would kill to get a chance to hang out with the WETA guys.
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WETA guys are really, really cool. Like I said above, I had three of them in the seminar today so they could learn the ins and outs of their HVXs, and I got a chance to talk with them, and they're just so dang cool. Jabez Olssen is perhaps the nicest guy in the world, he was the Avid Editor on Kong and I talked to him at NAB and now again here in NZ.

I did see a snippet of something they'd shot on their HVX, and it was flabbergastingly cool. I tried to get 'em to post it here but it's not something that they can share, so sorry, no -- but for what they're doing, the HVX seemed to be very well matched.

One fun note, I told the WETA Digital guys today I'd heard they had a Sony Z1; they said "oh, yeah, that." I said I'd heard they used it in Kong, they said "well, no, not really, I mean -- if we needed a plate for compositing and we'd forgot to shoot it on film, we might run out in the parking lot and shoot a plate of a plant or something on it. But no, we don't use it, it's stuck on a shelf somewhere. We'd sell it off if we bothered to get around to it." So, uh, he said this as he's attending a course on how to use his new HVX... :thumbsup:

NZ is a really, really cool place. Wellington has a certain San Francisco vibe to it. Can't wait to get to the South Island and see what it has to offer (other than a blanket of snow in July!)
 
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Sounds like the type of place we'd all like to work. Its good to hear Peter Jackson has more than the one camera for himself and WETA is also using them.
I had a feeling you would be asked not to disclose what they were working on !!
I'm sure we will see it soon enough on a special 'behind the scenes' from one of his movies.
 
They are such cool people aren't they? I worked on all the Lord of the Rings DVD's so I got to go down for 3 weeks during Kong and met everyone, and toured WETA (which is so amazing, and Richard Taylor is about the nicest guy on the planet). My biggest complaint with New Zealand was the food was so good I gained 10 pounds in 3 weeks!

Glad you had a good time down there Barry. I too had a wonderful experience down there.
 
Barry, that's flippin' sweet news! Peter got me interested in filmmaking with his production diaries on LOTR and more recently with Kong. No one else is opening up the process like that and it's amazing.
 
oh man that sounds awesome. please tell me you have and can share some HVX volcano footage. i'm glad to hear that you admire peter jackson's earlier work.
 
Too cool Barry!

Since Barry knows Peter and the community knows Barry, does this mean one degree of separation for dvxusers?
 
Flabbergastingly Cool - Great words, Barry

Flabbergastingly Cool - Great words, Barry

Barry_Green said:
...

I did see a snippet of something they'd shot on their HVX, and it was flabbergastingly cool. I tried to get 'em to post it here but it's not something that they can share, so sorry, no -- but for what they're doing, the HVX seemed to be very well matched.

....
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That's great, I know you signed an NDA, but can you at least tell us if they are planning on incorporating the "flabbergastingly cool" HVX footage on a project for the big screen?

--

Rob
 
dvInsight said:
That's great, I know you signed an NDA, but can you at least tell us if they are planning on incorporating the "flabbergastingly cool" HVX footage on a project for the big screen?

--

Rob
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Unfortunately, no I can't. They were quite specific about a few things, and revealing any details about that particular project was one of the things they said couldn't be done.

But it was really cool. :)
 
Bokes said:
I was wondering the same thing.
I see a lot of big time directors are using the HVX- but on what?

(I almost brought my HVX to Paris to film "home movie" footage.
But it would have been too heavy and it cost too much $$ to have anything happen to it. I took the DVX instead.)
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I would say mostly for home movies. Seriously... if I were that rich, I'd buy the Varicam or a Sony F950. For WETA, I could see them using it for their scale-model sets (miniatures, I believe).
 
VERY cool to hear! i've heard WETA is prepping HALO right now. not sure how legit that info is... hopefully another script is going to be used. the draft was a little lacking, to be nice...
 
gregcotten said:
I would say mostly for home movies.
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Uh, no. Nice try, but no -- he told me what it was for, and it's not home movies!

For WETA, I could see them using it for their scale-model sets (miniatures, I believe).
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That's a great point, and a place where an HVX would have unique advantages. Makes a lot of sense.
 
Barry_Green said:
That's a great point, and a place where an HVX would have unique advantages. Makes a lot of sense.
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My guess would be live-action plates for 3-D footage, especially if not displayed full screen (footage mapped to a quarter-screen or smaller polygon would yield a very high-def image, and it could be at 4:2:2 and 24 fps).
 
I have to say, there are titles to threads that catch my attention, and then there are titles to threads that REALLY catch my attention.

"Visited Peter Jackson today..." is definitely up there on the "Zoinks" meter! Sounds like a great time!

By the way, received my HVX book today and began reading at lunch. 50 pages in and already learned a ton!!!
 
There may only be 1 degree of separation between most here, but since I also have a Sunset Orange Honda Element (same as Barry), that put's me at like 3/4 degree :sticking-tongue-out smilie: :evil:
 
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