Technical stuff

ACS France has just moved into new premises a few hundred metres from the old address – we’re still in Buc, a town that was once a hotbed of aviation and aerobatics – and now Louis Blériot has his own Airpark.

After Coldplay and Andrea Boticelli’s concerts in 2012, Muse’s concert in July 2013 4K Live records by United, a dutch subsidiary of Euro Media Group, Euro Media Group was on BNP Paribas Tennis Masters in Bercy (Paris). On the 4 Sony F55 cameras were used 2 PL mount Angénieux zoom lenses : the Optimo 28-340 and the Optimo 15-40. Ronald Meyvisch, New Technology Officer by Euro Media Group gave Angénieux his feedback.

Some specials memories of the filming... Touching and exciting! With the mountain theme as the color changes of November were beginning. It was a wonderful opportunity to work on two great projects where the action took place in the mountains. ACS France conducted its aerial shots in the Maurienne Valley and Mont-Blanc for two feature films which are currently showing at this time.

After working on the film Les Petits mouchoirs, ACS France has rejoined much of the same team around Christophe Offentsein who just finished making his first film, En solitaire. He made the film with the duo Canet-Cluzet, photographed by Guillaume Schiffman, AFC, all on a boat for the race Vendée Globe in Lorient Bay and the Canary islands.

Since their last meeting at Camerimage 2012, Philippe Ros, AFC, and Roberto Schaefer, ASC, AIC, have an ongoing conversation about what really makes up the look of the captured image from various digital cameras, and how people in all disciplines of the industry are overlooking other important elements to be concerned with, other than 4K, or2K, or 8K capture or which camera to use, such as:
- How and when the debayering is implemented after the recording of the files
- The curves implemented in the camera (i.e. Arri Alexa or Sony F35), or those implemented in post (i.e. Lin to Log with the Sony F65)
- Which system to use to transcode and intake those image files.

With its perfect ergonomics, its bright reflex viewfinder, its low noise, and, above all, with its chromatic finesse and its skin tone rendition never before seen in digital images, the Penelope Delta camera has shown that it is the worthy descendant of the Penelope film camera.

During our first meeting with Jean-Pierre Améris, I understood that this film would have a very distinctive graphic universe because of its story and historical setting and because of the visual references from films and paintings that were given to me (Sleepy Hollow, Sweeney Todd, by Tim Burton, Dracula, by Francis F. Coppola, etc.).

Lumex launches the "Energy Center", a new generation of secure power source. Already at the forefront of new technologies such as the “Agilight” lighting crane and the “Twin Pack” mobile secure power sources, Lumex adds the “Energy Center” to its range of innovative products now available for rent.

Before our meeting with Didier Diaz, CEO of Transpalux – an associate member of the AFC –, regarding the recent opening of the Studios de Paris at the Cité du Cinéma in Saint-Denis, he took us on a tour of the new facility that he directs.

For several months we’ve been talking with Irena Gruca from FilmPRO Magazine about the qualities of Digital Intermediate and connected issues. In this article I have the opportunity to recap the discussion.
Special thanks to Irena Gruca who gave authorization to AFC to publish this article released in “Intermediate” european magazine launched by CineArte (Germany) & FilmPro (Poland).
This article has received some more inputs after the last Camerimage and the Micro Salon 2012.

The first publicly available images filmed with the new Delta-Penelope camera were shown by Eclair on November 17, 2011 with Catherine Athon, Aude Humblet, Thierry Beaumel, Caroline Champetier AFC, and Jean-Pierre Beauviala in attendance.
This camera is the first “4K” with an optical viewfinder and an internal SSD recorder for full resolution uncompressed images that are totally open to whomever wants to debayerize them in their own way.

Yves Cape, AFC, SBC, signal us an interesting aricle wrote by our Belgian colleague Louis-Philippe Capelle, SBC, about RAW Mode published on Belgian Society of Cinematographers web site.
In the article, he gives details on this uncompressed pictures recording format and ask questions about the advantages, consequences and drawbacks.

• Read the article on SBC web site.

Announced a few months ago, the Technicolor 3D system (developed for 35mm projectors) will be installed in 25 of the 150 screens of the New York Bow Tie chain...

I met Philippe Parain during the presentation of the new Fuji film, on the 24^th of September last year.

In discussing the quality of the Angénieux zooms, I told him of my "doubts" about the historical flaws, particularly distortions.

On Thursday, November 26, after giving a presentation at the Architectural School of Saint-Etienne, I took advantage of the proximity of St. Héand, and visited Angénieux.

Following our discussions at the Satis and AFC Micro Salon shows, six members of the AFSI (French association of sound recordists) came to us, so that we could shed light on the issue of the noise made by HMI light sources.
Since we had to start somewhere, we proposed a meeting on our premises, so as to glean great ideas for future development. We therefore borrowed some used K5600 units from our rental house customers, as well as ballasts from different manufacturers, and brand new bulbs.

After seeing Slumdog Millionaire this winter, knowing that some shots had been filmed with the Canon D5 Mark II, I asked Olivier Garcia, (a vision engineer, with whom I work when I shoot digital), to test this device.
We filmed a few shots in Paris, which we watched in the big DI room at Digimage with Laurent and Guillaume. Despite many flaws, the Canon, thanks to its large sensor, proved very interesting, and greatly impressed us.

On the evening of September 24, 2009 Fujifilm presented its its new Eterna Vivid 500 film stock, with footage including tests shot by some members of the AFC. Caroline Champetier briefly expressed the spirit of our participation in such an event, and we publish her words below for reference.

On September 2^nd at the Espace Pierre Cardin, the Technical Commission of the FICAM (French federation of the cinematographic audiovisual and multimedia industries) and the Image department of the CST (French Superior Technical Commission) invited many professionals involved in the creation, production, postproduction and broadcast of television fiction to a morning presentation of the results of a joint working group, "Super 16 - HD". With the friendly authorization of the CST, which organized this meeting, we propose an account of this event, written by Herve Lefel, member of the department of the CST Image department.