'After Earth' joins exclusive ultra-HD movie club
Associated Press
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Updated 11:09 am, Friday, May 31, 2013
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sony Corp. is taking a deeper dive into ultrahigh-definition video as it comes out Friday with "After Earth," the first of Sony's three movies this year both shot and presented in the emerging 4K digital format. Sony and other consumer electronics makers are betting that 4K images will become the new standard, prompting consumers to buy fancier TVs just as they did when high definition, or HD, rolled out over the past decade. The cost and time to deal with the extra visual information means the majority of the special effects shots in "After Earth"— comprising about a third of all the shots in the movie — were actually worked on in lower-resolution HD. At the screening I attended, I could see details I've never noticed before — the actors' tiny skin imperfections, or Smith's salt-and-pepper whiskers. Higher-definition movies are a key component in Sony's strategy to maximize the benefits of both owning the Sony Pictures movie studio and making electronic gadgets. Sony Electronics makes 4K motion picture cameras — such as the F65 used to shoot "After Earth"— as well as 4K movie theater projectors, 4K TVs, home media servers that play 4K movies and other technologies needed to get ultra-HD video from one end to the other. The cinematographer of "After Earth," Peter Suschitzky, says he picked Sony's F65 digital camera after side-by-side comparisons of footage taken by other digital and film cameras. Sony executives say the increased pixel count has made its F65 camera more sensitive than either film or other digital cameras in low-light situations, enabling filmmakers to shoot with more natural lighting. The increased number of pixels involved in 4K movies creates extra work for special effects artists, especially on effects that require a human touch, such as the pixel-by-pixel cutouts of objects in each frame known as "rotoscoping." Jeffrey Okun, chairman of the Visual Effects Society, a nonprofit organization of Hollywood special effects practitioners, says that making the change to all-4K effects will be difficult but necessary. Gerald Belson, a media industry consultant for accounting and consulting firm Deloitte, says the price is "already at the level of some of the early 1080p sets." The 4K format is also an easier upgrade for most people than 3-D, which in most cases requires wearing special glasses that people find uncomfortable, says Sweta Dash, an analyst with research firm IHS iSuppli. Reported by SFGate 6 hours ago.
Associated Press
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Updated 11:09 am, Friday, May 31, 2013
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sony Corp. is taking a deeper dive into ultrahigh-definition video as it comes out Friday with "After Earth," the first of Sony's three movies this year both shot and presented in the emerging 4K digital format. Sony and other consumer electronics makers are betting that 4K images will become the new standard, prompting consumers to buy fancier TVs just as they did when high definition, or HD, rolled out over the past decade. The cost and time to deal with the extra visual information means the majority of the special effects shots in "After Earth"— comprising about a third of all the shots in the movie — were actually worked on in lower-resolution HD. At the screening I attended, I could see details I've never noticed before — the actors' tiny skin imperfections, or Smith's salt-and-pepper whiskers. Higher-definition movies are a key component in Sony's strategy to maximize the benefits of both owning the Sony Pictures movie studio and making electronic gadgets. Sony Electronics makes 4K motion picture cameras — such as the F65 used to shoot "After Earth"— as well as 4K movie theater projectors, 4K TVs, home media servers that play 4K movies and other technologies needed to get ultra-HD video from one end to the other. The cinematographer of "After Earth," Peter Suschitzky, says he picked Sony's F65 digital camera after side-by-side comparisons of footage taken by other digital and film cameras. Sony executives say the increased pixel count has made its F65 camera more sensitive than either film or other digital cameras in low-light situations, enabling filmmakers to shoot with more natural lighting. The increased number of pixels involved in 4K movies creates extra work for special effects artists, especially on effects that require a human touch, such as the pixel-by-pixel cutouts of objects in each frame known as "rotoscoping." Jeffrey Okun, chairman of the Visual Effects Society, a nonprofit organization of Hollywood special effects practitioners, says that making the change to all-4K effects will be difficult but necessary. Gerald Belson, a media industry consultant for accounting and consulting firm Deloitte, says the price is "already at the level of some of the early 1080p sets." The 4K format is also an easier upgrade for most people than 3-D, which in most cases requires wearing special glasses that people find uncomfortable, says Sweta Dash, an analyst with research firm IHS iSuppli. Reported by SFGate 6 hours ago.