Scorched News

NAB 2008 - Craig demonstrates HD post production for Matrox Video Products Group

LAS VEGAS, NV - Craig was contracted by Matrox Video Products Group to demonstrate the Axio LE real time high definition editing platform in the Matrox Booth on the NAB show floor. Showing content produced by Scorched Ice Digital and Jump Studios, Craig was on hand for one on one demonstrations and showed general demonstrations in the booths theatre.

CALGARY, AB - We have started testing workflow and media handling of footage created by Grass Valley's long awaited Infinity Camera, this camera has been highly anticipated and Scorched Ice is the first in Canada to work with the camera or media. We are using Grass Valley's (formerly Canopus) EDIUS Broadcast editorial software to work with the native camera original media recorded by the Infinity camera directly onto REV PRO media which we have been using in various applications for more than a year.

CALGARY, AB - We've once again added several hundred more stock animation and motion design elements to our library which is available to all of our customers looking for an expensive look without the cost associated with creating all the graphics packgages from scratch.

EDMONTON, AB - Craig will be in Edmonton, Alberta from October 13th to 16th demonstrating High Definition editorial, file based workflow, Adobe CS3 and the most advanced application interoperability available from any vendor today. Showcasing Matrox hardware and Adobe Creative Suite Production Premium for Applied Electronics who have just opened a new office in Edmonton, join Craig and the amazing staff from Applied at the Fantasyland Hotel from October 14-16.

CALGARY, AB - We've started production on another project for Rogers Wireless in a collaboration with Creative Director, Scott Luit. This project for the Alberta division promises to be an interesting communications piece with a rich graphic package, produced in 720p HD.

AMSTERDAM, NL - Once again Craig joined the wonderful people at Digital Vision, this time at IBC in Amsterdam showing SD to 4K color grading and new Film Restoration tools by way of the Emmy award winning DVO (Digital Vision Optics) software available inside the Nucoda Film Master. Craig functioned as a demo artist on the Digital Vision booth and the DVS (Digital Video Systems) booth showing the aforementioned features in addition to the new Avid MXF integration for smooth interchange of native Avid MXF media via AAF timeline interchange, allowing multiple track edits from an Avid to me perfectly recreated in the Nucoda Film Master for in-context grading drawing from the same media used by the Avid. This promises to have a major impact on commercial and short form turn-around times.

TORONTO, ON - Craig will be in Canada's largest city for Applied Electronics demonstrating Digital Visions, Nucoda Film Master. The Film Master is a high end finishing and color grading system that handles data and video from Standard Definition to 4K digital and film originated media.

CALGARY, AB - We are in the throws of editorial and finishing on the first project for the Calgary Zoo. Upon completion of production later this month we will be posting a case study on the workflow used on this project. We are combining many formats including 16 and 35mm sources, PAL, NTSC, 720p and have shot original Varicam footage for a final mastering format of 720p.

We have sourced stock footage from companies such as the BBC and Absolutely Wild Visuals in addition to our own production on location at the Calgary Zoo. The entire project is being cut and conformed in the new Adobe CS3 Suite of applications on a Matrox RTX2 and Axio HD systems.

VANCOUVER, BC - Craig was once again in Vancouver demoing the Matrox Axio for several high profile customers on behalf of Applied Electronics Ltd. Canada's leading broadcast supplier. With an ongoing focus on high definition workflow Craig is in high demand for demo artist and consultant services across Canada.

LAS VEGAS, NV - Another annual Broadcast Convention has come and gone, this year I worked the show as a freelance demo artist for Digital Vision. I assisted two very talented colorists, Kevin Shaw and Eric Whipp in the Digital Vision theatre showcasing digital intermediate workflow on the movie Happy Feet (Eric Whipp is senior colorist at Animal Logic in Sydney Australia) and commercial grading of a Honda Commercial with Kevin Shaw. Working with and learning from these two world class colonists was a wonderful experience, as was working with all the Digital Vision staff from Sweden, England and the US., I hope to continue this relationship into the future as I work more with the Nucoda Film Master.

About Digital Vision:
Digital Vision provides innovative image restoration , enhancement , colour correction and data conforming systems that movie studios, television networks and post-production facilities use to produce and enhance feature films, TV programs and commercials. The company's Nucoda product line provides a strong suite of products for the burgeoning digital intermediate 2k/4k market. The company's award-winning products are a standard of the media & entertainment industry and are deployed at top facilities around the world.

Digital Vision AB was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, with two wholly owned subsidiaries in Los Angeles and in London. The company maintains its global presence through a network of qualified distributors. Digital Vision is listed on the Stockholm stock exchange.

CALGARY, AB - I'm pleased to announce that I am consulting with the Calgary Zoo on the infrastructure build out for a new exhibit, in addition to working with the wonderful people at the Calgary Zoo on the content development for the new exhibit. Moving forward I will also be consulting on the transition to high definition for the Zoo and the new systems and workflow required in this transition.

LOS ANGELES, CA - Craig has just returned from a week in Los Angeles training up on Digital Vision's Nucoda Film Master with Nigel Hadley at their offices in North Hollywood . The Nucoda Film Master is a software based data conform and color grading system that can be used to master anything from Standard Definition, High Definition and the latest D-Cinema cameras that record 2k or 4k imagery comparable to that of film and of course 35mm Film originated material at either 2k or 4k.

The project was a DI (digital intermediate) and revolved around recreating the grade on an Audi commercial acquired on 35mm and scanned using a Cinetel diTTo scanner at 2k. The workflow revolved around importing an EDL from the Avid offline, conforming it with the original 2K film scans, creating the base grade, then creating the desired ‘look' for specific sequences (a forest sequence vs. a cityscape) as defined by the director and DOP. Then individual shots to further refine the color grade on a shot by shot basis as needed.

We used Nucoda's powerful tools to mask, key and motion track areas of the image to define specific regions in a shot for specific grading and also added effects and titles, setup for multiple masters was easily accomplished for a full frame film out, a cropped theatrical release, HD and SD versioning's as well, all from the same project and color managed for continuity from version to version.

It was a fantastic experience and Craig's first working on film originated media at 2k resolution within this context, the speed, toolset and power of the Nucoda Film Master is especially impressive. Coming from the perspective of an editor used to working with compositing systems the Film Master; which is divergent from traditional hardware based color grading and finishing systems, is what the people coming from a video only background are expecting in toolset and functionality. Craig firmly believes in the fact that Digital Vision's approach to color grading, data conform, the digital intermediate and workflow is unequivocally the future, today's hardware based finishing systems are likely the last to ever be created, and Craig is excited to be working with, not only an amazing system, but also with the amazing people at Digital Vision.

In addition to Craig's work as a demo artist for Applied Electronics on the Matrox Axio HD editing system, Craig will now also be providing his services to Applied as a demo artist on the Nucoda Film Master in Canada, and freelance colorist even though Craig doesn't think of himself as a colorist and cringes at the description, it is the clearest way to describe that aspect of what Craig does. Craig's conviction for Digital Vision's products and overall philosophy is strong and is looking forward to continuing to develop the relationship; Craig will be working with Digital Vision at NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) convention in Las Vegas in April of this year.

SANTA MONICA, CA - I was invited to speak on a consumer panel at Grass Valley's Media Summit in Santa Monica, California on January 30th of this year. Specifically, I was addressing the topic of File-Based, Data Centric workflow from acquisition to post-production, archival and delivery, all within a totally tape-less file based workflow.

I have not shot a single tape in over a year, now working strictly in a file based workflow, with Panasonic's P2 solid state camera's. For the last 8 months I have been using REV Pro as the storage medium of choice for my camera original media, project archival and numerous other applications. I continue to beta-test for Grass Valley and provide feedback into making an already kick ass media option even better.

With the introduction of Grass Valley's REV Pro storage medium, the ability to manage the large quantities of data generated by the newest breed of High Definition switchable cameras has finally become a reality. With an incredibly cost effective medium like REV Pro, which works out to approximately $1/GB and is totally format agnostic - meaning we can put anything on the discs we want whether it's 1080p, 1080i, 720p or any other HD or SD format its all just data in the end.

REV Pro brings the promise of full bandwidth High Definition production into the realm of reality for more and more productions. It plays a massive role in the democratization of full bandwidth HD for more studios, especially since it replaces the need for a deck, which can range from $20,000 to $70,000 or more, with a $700 drive. File-Based workflow is sweet indeed .

It's the robust, nonvolatile nature and large capacity of REV Pro that makes it such a viable alternative to tape or optical media. Whether archiving the camera original MXF media from Panasonic's P2 solid state cameras or recording directly to REV Pro with Grass Valley's Infinity camera system.

Keep an eye out in the top trade magazines for articles detailing my use of REV Pro in file based HD workflow.

Craig is at WABE (Western Association of Broadcast Engineers) conference in Vancouver as a demo artist on the Matrox AXIO HD edit system for Applied Electronics Limited.

We are always growing and building our stock image, animation and footage library and have just appended our library to include a total of 447 new animations and motion design elements including 50 1920x1080 high definition animations.

Craig is at the FTX West trade show in Vancouver as a demo artist on the Matrox AXIO HD edit system, for Applied Electronics Limited.

New to our camera services offerings is a new 'steady-cam' system from Glidecam, This system is built for camera's weighing up to 15 pounds. It is perfect for the Panasonic HVX-200 High Definition camcorder, DV, MiniDV and HDV cameras.

It's optimal operating weight allows for a fully configured camera with matte box, Anton Bauer batteries, wireless microphone systems etc. As the ideal inertia and balance points are when the system is at it's maximum operating weight.

We have acquired a new SD/HD edit system, featuring the complete Adobe Production Studio Premium suite of software including Premiere Pro 2.0 and After Effects 7.0.

Built on the bomb proof Boxx Technologies 3DBoxx 7000 Series and the Matrox RTX2 Realtime HDV, DV and Compressed SD and HD hardware built from Matrox's award winning Axio Architecture. Inside this powerhouse is 1.25 Terabytes of fail-safe protected storage.

We have also purchased a Blackmagic Design, Multibridge Pro Media Converter and Editing board and breakout box. This extends our in-house HD capabilities to include: SDI/HD-SDI and HD-SDI 4:4:4 RGB Input & Output, everything from Standard Definition to 2K Digital Film Resolutions are supported. And all from within the same powerful new Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 edit environment, which is now standard on all out editing systems.

We have acquired more stock animation, motion graphic elements, imagery, music and Sound FX. Our In-House library continues to grow allowing us to offer even more value to our customers. Bringing your communications project to us means full access to our library, saving you time, and money as we have everything indexed and searchable to aid in finding the right shot, animation or sound to take your project to the next level.

Today we have added:
10,000+ Sound FX
2 new stock Music Collections
Several Hundred more Animations
4500+ Pictures and Images

Craig Van Horne has received a nomination for a Best Editor (Drama under 60 minutes) award in the 2006 Alberta Film & Television Awards. The nomination has been made for Craig's work on the Midpoint 'Perfecting the Art of Indifference' music video. Producer, Chris Hudec - Director, JP Rizzuto.

From a record number of entries (640), the nominated finalists for the 2006 Alberta Film & Television Awards represent a wide range of production companies throughout Alberta.

The 24 judges were given the challenge to select 6 Finalists in each category from an impressive list of submissions. Several categories set new records for the number of entries, including "Best Documentary Over 30 Minutes" (25 entries), "Best Commercial" (26 entries), "Best Director Non-fiction Under 30 Minutes"(26 entries), "Best Editor Non-fiction Under 30 Minutes"(40 entries) and "Best Animator/Graphic Artist" (25 entries).

The 2006 Alberta Film & Television Awards is scheduled for Saturday, April 29th in the magnificent new Hall D at The Shaw Conference in Edmonton starting at 4:45pm. Hosts for the special evening include actor Tom Jackson plus news anchors Jennifer Martin (CITY-TV) and Mark Connolly (CBC).

Happy New Year to all. We are extremely optimistic about the coming year. We will be posting a new company vision this month, it has been 5 years after all we should update some of those things. Our transition to HD is heating up and we are expecting to make some big announcements in that area shortly as well.

We have purchased a new plugin to allow for easy project transfers to Pro Tools from Premiere Pro for audio sweetening; with the addition of the Automatic Duck PPRO plugin, all of our edit suites now easily export OMF files for quick and simple collaboration with our professional sound studio partners.

We have upgraded our Avid Xpress Pro HD system to include the Avid Studio Toolkit HD software package. Enhancing this Avid suite with additional 3D design and compositing functionality along with adding in another option to our DVD authoring capabilities with Avid DVD.

Scorched Ice had acquired a new stock footage library, with thousands of clips in a wide range of categories this augments our existing library nicely. We are also planning to acquire several more library's in the coming months to bring our in house collection to well over 10,000 clips to allow us to offer a greater level of value and accessibility to our customers.

Scorched Ice Editor Craig Van Horne has been further developing our knowledge and skill working with High Definition. Craig has been working on the new Matrox Axio High Definition Editing system. Craig worked with pre-release beta versions of this platform and is currently freelancing as a demo artist on the Matrox Axio.

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Scorched Ice Digital is now a division of Scorched Media Corporation. Scorched Media was incorporated in 2002 to serve as the parent to businesses in the Scorched Media group of companies and is now fully active.

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January 10, 2005

We've upgraded one of our Avid suites to handle 720p High Definition video. Keep an eye out for a major addition to our service offerings with a new High Definition edit suite coming Q2 of this year.

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January 8, 2005

Post production begins on Midpoint's "Perfecting the Art of Indifference" music video. Premiere for the video expected at the end of January. Information about the premiere party will be posted when more information becomes available.

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December 13, 2004

'Midpoint' Music Video Shoot
'Perfecting the Art of Indifference'

Scorched Pictures provided the camera equipment for local Calgary band Midpoint' first music video. 'Perfecting the Art of Indifference' was shot on the mini35 with the Canon XL2 on the back end of the camera system, shot in 16x9 wide screen at 24p with Cine color settings the imagery this camera system produced was astounding for the DV format.

This was the first project to shoot with the mini35/XL2 camera system in Western Canada and will not be the last. The full promise held by the mini35 image converter is now being realized with the introduction of the XL2 camera body.

The crew pushed the camera to the hilt for the dramatic portions of the video, taking advantage of the XL2's extended image control settings, the director of photography chose to press the blacks, swing the color phase toward green and drop the red from the RGB gains to produce a unique look that fit the mood of the piece.

Chris Hudec - Producer
John Paul Rizzuto - Director
Adrian Pagano - DOP
Jordan Barrow - Camera Asst
Jared Macdonald - P.A.
Julie Rizzuto - Set design / Set Photo
Justin Rizzuto - Hair and Makeup

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October 8, 2004

Scorched Pictures has completed the second round of camera testing the new Canon XL2 digital video camera with the Mini35 Digital image converter from P+S Technic. Click on the images below to enlarge.

There are several advantages to using the XL2 with the Mini35 as opposed to the XL1s. Without restating the obvious with respect to the new native 16x9 chips and 24p capabilities, in addition to the massive amount of control over the image in camera. The XL2 offers some features that streamline the Mini35 camera system, for starters we no longer need the cumbersome battery adapter to connect the B&W monochrome viewfinder to the camera body.

With the XL1s the connector for the B&W viewfinder had to be plugged into a battery adapter that supplied power to the viewfinder and made the necessary plug conversion so it could be plugged into the body of the XL1s. Now the XL2 takes the feed directly from the B&W viewfinder and supplies it with power. This is particularly good as it removes one battery from the camera system and when using the Anton Bauer battery adapter on the XL2, we can get extremely long battery runs powering both the camera and viewfinder.

Secondly the weight of the camera system with the XL1s tended to be back heavy with the MA200 XLR microphone adapter and the Anton Bauer battery adapter mounted a significant distance from the camera body. With the XL2 and it's built in XLR inputs the Anton Bauer batter adapter hugs the back of the camera body significantly redistributing the weight of the system closer to the center of the camera.

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October 1, 2004

Scorched Pictures has completed the first round of camera testing with the new Canon XL2 digital video camera body mounted to the P+S Technik Mini35 Digital Image Converter. This camera system is extremely promising as it brings native 16x9 wide screen capabilities combined with 60i, 30p, and 24p frame rate to the Mini35.

With a massive amount of image control for a camera in this category, filmmakers can now take control over their acquisition with in camera controls for Gamma, Knee, Black Levels, Color Matrix, Vertical Detail, Coring, Color Gain, Color Phase, Film Grain, Master RGB Gain, Setup Level, Master Pedestal, Skin Detail and more.

Now imagine putting this recording unit onto the Mini35 Image Converter, because of the XL2's removable lens we are able to mount directly to the Converter cutting low end glass out of the equation and reaping the benefits of high quality 35mm Cine lenses. From Cooke S4's to Carl Zeiss Super Speeds and Ultra Primes a full range of 35mm film glass is compatible with this camera system.

The Mini35 allows for a full 35mm academy aperture film frame to be resolved and then transmitted to the XL2's image sensors and because we go directly into the CCD's avoiding low-end optics found on similar cameras in it's category we get the benefit of doubling the lines per millimeter the XL2 is capable of recording further enhancing the already remarkable image quality produced by the Canon XL2.

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June 2004

Scorched Pictures supplies Mini35 Camera System to feature film in Edmonton Alberta, entitled 'Little Pictures' this independent film is truly unique. We will post more information and a film synopsis soon.

If you haven't heard of the guys involved with this film, keep an eye out for them. These are are some of the brightest up-and-coming young filmmakers in the country.

Produced by TypeFilms & Black Walk Production
Type Films Website

Director:
DOP:
Editor: William Beauchamp
Dominic Manca
Aden Bahadori

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March 9, 2004

Scorched Ice Digital Post is pleased to announce it's ongoing collaboration with Emmy Award winning Colby Films of Washington D.C......

Scorched Ice Digital Post has just completed editorial on two biographical works on Peter Lougheed and Dick Haskayne for the Woodrow Wilson Center of Washington D.C.

Carl Colby of Colby Films and Scorched Ice Digital Post are continuing to collaborate on selected projects moving forward with several exciting new initiatives.