High Definition 24p Cinematography Showcased At NAB

By Perry Sun, Exclusive To Widescreen Review

12-Apr-00

At the 2000 National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, some attendees were treated to a special exhibition, a progress report on the highly touted Sony HDW-F900 high definition camera. This is the very camera, which, along with specially designed lenses from Panavision, will be used by Lucasfilm for principal photography of ""Star Wars: Episode II"" this summer in Australia, Italy and Tunisia. Organized and presented by Fletcher Chicago, a company specializing in the sales and rental of high definition video equipment, the showcasing of the performance of the HDW-F900 took place at the United Artists Theatres Showcase 8, located nearby the convention. Several examples of digital cinematography shot at 24 frames-per-second (fps) and 1080p were shown, using both a BARCO DLPô-based projector (with conversion to 60 fps interlaced), and traditional 35mm film, having been transferred from the high-definition video.A panel of industry professionals were present to discuss their work with the demonstrations, including Leon Silverman, Executive Vice President of LaserPacific Media Corporation, and Larry Thorpe, Vice President of Acquisition Systems for Sony Electronicsí Broadcast and Professional Company. The ""digital"" cinematographers who shot the moving images were also on hand.LaserPacific provided the post-acquisition digital video processing, EFILM performed the video-to-film transfer, and Sony of course provided the HDW-F900 cameras. For the presentation, Thorpe provided digital clips of both 35mm and HD-sourced shootings of scenes from some television programs. The capability of 24p high definition cinematography to produce a moving image on a cinema-sized screen was downright impressive. Spatial details, color gamut and contrast range were stunning for video technology, and revealed qualities similar to those offered by film. Because the BARCO projector wasnít the state-of-the-art DLP Cinemaô system, the HDW-F900ís performance could not be evaluated to its fullest possible extent. Nonetheless, the 35mm film transfers of the HDW-F900 images showed that digital technology is seriously getting close to what weíve been seeing from traditional cinematography standards all these years.