Bertone Visuals

An excerpt of a Bertone Visuals Aerial Productions shot with the Sony CineAlta Venice Camera for the first time ever in 6K Full Frame mode with an exposure index of 2500ISO.

We were flying a Pursuit Aviation AStar helicopter completely designed for aerial filming, the SONY Venice Camera and the Cooke S7/i 32mm T2.0 Large Format Prime were hosted in a state of the art gimbal system Shotover K1.

Bertone Visuals Digital Intermediate Dept. processed all the color grading using a professional color reference monitor SONY BVM X300.

COOKE S7/I FULL FRAME PLUS LENS FIRST CHOICE TO SHOWCASE SONY VENICE CINEALTA CAMERAJuly 20, 2018

With only a four-day advance notice, and under strict non-disclosure, cinematographer Gianluca Bertone of Bertone Visuals in El Segundo, CA had to plan out the nighttime aerial production that would eventually show off Sony’s new VENICE CineAlta camera system — as well as the new Crystal LED Display System — at Sony’s NAB press event four months later. Flying three-night missions for Sony, Bertone was tasked with acquiring the absolute best footage in 6K, so that Sony could show the best images possible from its newest 15 f-stops capable digital cinema camera and on its newest 10-bit HDR 440-inch wide display (8K x 4K).

“This would be the first time that the camera’s ISO 2500 exposure index would be used, and the images had to be perfect for Sony at NAB,” said Bertone. “Back in December, the VENICE was not yet on the market, but two Sony engineers arrived at LAX with the camera, and immediately brought the camera to Pursuit Aviation’s hanger at the Van Nuys airport. Over the next day and a half, pilot John Tamburro and ShotOver tech camera co-operator Andrea Bassani and mounted the camera on Pursuit Aviation’s helicopter.”

Bertone had two missions to accomplish for Sony with his three nighttime flights: test the VENICE’s main features, which had already been publicly announced, and test the newest non-public features — that meant shooting in Sony Raw X-OCN (for the best colour depth) at 6K full frame using 2500 ISO base.

“You now have a digital cinema camera that can shoot at ISO 2500 — which is great for night exteriors, dark interiors, working with slower lenses or where content needs to be graded in high dynamic range, while maintaining the maximum shadow detail,” explained Bertone. “And that means your lens has to perform perfectly.”

While aerial footage is typically shot with zoom lenses, one prime lens — each from a different lens manufacturer — was chosen for each mission, as lenses can’t be changed while airborne. “I was able to pick the lenses, and Cooke was at the top of my list,” added Bertone. “I own a number of Cooke Anamorphic/i Primes — renting more lenses when needed — as well as a set of S4/i Primes, so I know the great quality and great ‘Cooke Look’ that I was able to deliver. My choice for Sony was a Cooke 32mm S7/i Prime. And I fully understood why Sony wanted to shoot with a variety of lenses — it makes perfect sense when shooting demo footage of a camera.”

We have been busy at Bertone Visuals this year and it is time now to give you some updates about what we have done so far and what are we going to do next.

As some of you might know, Bertone Visuals is not a conventional camera rental house, but a creative and technological HUB that supports productions at many levels. We provide services from our two facilities located in El Segundo and Burbank as well as on set locations. Our philosophy consists in providing seamless and reliable solutions for filmmakers that produce content in the digital cinematography era. We interact with Directors, Cinematographers and Producers to help them in their visual endeavors.

More specifically, we implement for our clients custom workflows solutions, camera rigs and digital acquisition systems to enhance visual quality, data safety and overall efficiency in 4K productions of movies, TV shows and commercials. This process requires a lot of R&D, investments and the ability to quickly adapt to a fast pace industry where cameras, sensors software and formats constantly change with a high rate of obsolescence. We strive to keep our standards high and up to date with technology so that directors, cinematographers and producers can allocate more time to do their main jobs with a peace of mind that a skilled team is overseeing the whole digital pipeline.

At the beginning of 2015 we completed our point of presence in the San Fernando Valley to conveniently serve the community of filmmakers in the Burbank area. Our facility there consists of a 4K grading room featuring a full Mac-based DaVinci Resolve system and a Sony 4K projector capable of Digital Intermediates in environments such as Rec 709, P3-DCI and ACES. Since its opening in April the color bay has worked on two 4K episodes for an upcoming TV Shows and two feature film projects. Additionally, the suite, which is next to a sound stage, it has also been used as "screening room" for lens and camera testing allowing DPs to try multiple combinations of sensors and cinema lenses in the stage and then watch the results immediately on a projector with a Colorist in the room. We believe that this set-up is a powerful combination that allows a unique opportunity in town for digital cinematographer .

Cinematographer David Stump ASC was one of the first director of photography to use this service and he tested with us Sony F55 and Sony F65 cameras with Leica Summilux C and Cooke S4i. He also created there LUTs to be used in camera as well as on production monitors that were equipped with Fujifilm Is-Mini LUT boxes for Color Management purposes.

We are very grateful to Mr. Stump for the time he spent with us in the stage and in the grading room sharing his stories and his knowledge in digital cinematography. The experience was so great that we get involved for several months in three of his working projects.

After a short period of decompression in July, we are now getting ready for episode three and four of a future 4K TV Show that is going to be captured with a cluster of Sony cameras: F65, F55 and FS7. Bertone Visuals will not just provide cameras, lenses and accessories, but also digital acquisition systems, color management solutions, storage, transcoding, archiving and near set color correction on location, whereas the final DI will be executed at our new Burbank facility in September of this year.

Bertone Visuals Sony F55.

The CineAlta Sony F55 is the latest addition to our cine camera department. It has been accessorized in great detail to be highly flexible and friendly toward First ACs and Camera Operators.

Indeed, we selected mechanical accessories from Vocas a manufacturer from Netherlands that makes solid parts with a great design and also a pleasant overall aesthetic.

Although not visible in the pictures above, at Bertone Visuals we are very satisfied about the hand-held style configuration that we came up because it features nice wooden handle with a start & stop button together with adjustable metallic arms connecting to the camera plate with robust “rosette” joints. For those customers that might not like to have the articulated extension arms connected directly with the base plate, we also offer, as an alternative, a “rosette” support piece that mounts on the light weight 15mm rods. In doing so the position of the handles it is shifted more forward and the distance from operator’s chest is much more increased and comfortable.

For this camera package we envisioned an usage on the fluid head with the 19mm studio rods or with the 15mm studio rods although this last solution requires an additional Arri Quick Release on the bottom.

As official follow focus for the package we recommend the O’Connor CFF-1 since it is accurate, solid and mainly offers the possibility to be mounted on 19mm rods as well as on 15mm rods with an adaptor.

When the camera is in studio mode with 19mm rods we offer the Arri Matte Box MB28 that comes with a rich kit of adaptor rings, hard matte mask and barn doors. When the camera is used hand-held style with the light weight mini 15mm rods we suggest our light weight clip-on Matte Box Arri LMB15 which also comes with a rich kit of accessories.

The last, but not least important mechanical accessory for this F55 package is the MTF lens adaptor. This mount adaptor allows to mount Canon EF lenses on a camera that normally features a PL mount. At Bertone Visuals we have a full set of six Canon Cinema CN-E primes that besides being 4K certified lenses they also have 11 iris blades for nice circular bokhe. However, the PL mount is always an option if DPs want to go for our Zeiss CP2 or our Cooke S4i or for the phenomenal Leica Summilux-C.

For on board monitoring we have a wide variety of choices: TVLogic 5.6”, Transvideo Rainbow HD 7”, Leader LV5330, SmallHD AC7 or the SmallHD DP7 that has the possibility to render the Sony S-Log, besides many other advanced features like “high brightness” (it doesn’t need a sun hood) and preview LUTs.

One key accessory of our Sony F55 is the Switronix JetPack that not only converts a V-lock mount to an Anton Bauer Gold Mount, but it also offers multiple kinds of power plugs to provide juice to accessories via two P-Taps, one 5V Lemo, one 7.2 V Lemo, and one 12V Lemo. With the Jetpack by Switronix it is easy to add to the F55 a Cine Tape, powering a monitor if you don’t want to use batteries and you have plenty of options for lens control devices such as the Preston FI+Z, or the single channel Axis 1 by Hocus products.

Finally, the JetPack has a USB power out port that becomes extremely useful when you have to power wireless HD transmitter such as the Paralinx ArrowPlus, the Paralinx Tomahawk or the Teradek Bolt Pro. With the diffusion of the Mōvi M10 these new SDI and HDMI video transmitters and receivers became very popular also on hand-held camera set-ups and with a piece of Velcro and a USB port or a P-Tap the DP the First AC and the Director can see the video feed on a SmallHD DP7 with handles and a X-Port on the back of it.

The X-Port is a new product for power management introduced at NAB 2014 by SmallHD manufacturer of on board monitors.

To complete this discussion about “power” we recommend to use with the Sony F55 the Anton Bauer VCLX CA2 as block batteries and the PAG Gold Mount as on board batteries.

The very cool aspect about these british expensive batteries, PAG, is that they are “stackable”! Which means that you can pile them up on the rear of the camera or on the recharger itself. For instance, If you have only two slots available on the battery recharger (Anton Bauer T2) you can stuck-up them on top of each other up to four batteries per channel and a dual re-charger turns into a eight batteries re-charger!

Now they are my favorite batteries and accordingly to their yellow stickers they have no restrictions on flights differently from the Anton Bauer HCX batteries.

The Sony CineAlta F55, differently from the Sony F5 and the Red Epic features a global shutter, that although is not comparable to a rotative mechanical shutter like the one on the Sony F65 it is a very useful addition because it prevents artifacts and jello effect when for any reason the camera has to be panned or tilted abruptly. Another important positive aspect of the F55 is its small foot print and light weight that makes it suitable for a new gimbal such as the new Free Fly System Mōvi M15.

This camera can record compressed footage in camera via SXS pro+ media cards using the new XAVC Sony codec. However, for theatrical releases where color depth and resolution comes very handy, we recommend to use the Sony AXS-R5 16 bit raw recorder that records .mxf footage in 2K and 4K up to 240 frames per second. Differently from other cameras, the transcoding to HD for the editor is not mandatory anymore, because if the non linear editing workstation is powerful enough the .mxf 4K footage can be imported directly on the time line of Premiere CS6/CC or Avid Media Composer. In January I shot two HFR (high frame rate) productions in cinema 4K resolution (not UltraHDTV) and the editing was executed smoothly natively in 4K at Bertone Visuals with Adobe Premiere CS6 on a old generation Apple Mac Pro 3.3Ghz with 32GB of RAM and a 6G SAS raid 5 connected to it. Sony makes available online a free plugin for Premiere CS6/CC and Avid Media Composer to import .mxf Sony raw clips coming from F65, F55, F5 and Nex FS-700 with AXS-R5 4K/2K Raw recorders. Finally, Sony also offers a free Raw Viewer that allows to set up looks, save LUTs, export a CDL and it also transcodes 4K .mxf Raw into an Apple ProRes Codec, or in a DPX sequence if needed.

Finally, with the Sony F55 is possible to shoot using the new Log curve S-Log 3 Cine and also with the more traditional S-Log 2 curve to maintain compatibility with the Sony F65 that is in the process to be upgraded to this new Log curve after firmware 4.0. Basically, the S-Log 3 cine curve is less steep on the graph than the S-Log 2 and the blacks get expanded in a way that gives more options in a color correction session.

Hope you found this blog post informational about the potential of the Sony F55, but if you still have questions please do not hesitate to contact me by email with questions.

Cinoflex Rig for Canon C500 PL

One of the latest 4K motion picture cameras that has been added to the Bertone Visuals Rental Department is the Canon C500 PL.

We did not limit to offer to our clients just a camera body, indeed we put together a complete camera package that is a real working solution to shoot movies because it has all the features that a first AC and a Camera Operator need on set.

The C500 shape out of the box recall a medium format photography camera body and although it has an internal battery that is not designed to distribute power to accessories and neither to last long. Also its viewfinder is placed in a central position (like other Japanese camcorder Sony FS-100 and Sony FS-700) which might not be the best ergonomics choice if the operator needs to shoot also hand-held style. In order to solve this basic configuration problem we added to our camera rig one of the best Electronic Viewfinder the Alphatron 3G EVF, which uses a HDsdi cable rather than a HDMI cable. The only downside of this EVF is that is extremely delicate when it comes to direct exposure of the screen to sunlight (it burns out!), so it is important that the camera operator remembers to cover eye piece when he does not use it.

The EVF is not the only monitoring-out that a production crew needs to operate a motion picture camera. Therefore, we also included in the C500 PL rig a SmallHD AC7 monitor with its light sun-hood.  The 7" SmallHD AC7 monitor  is used by the 1st AC to pull focus and it can be adjusted for a comfortable angle of view because is mounted on a UltraLight Arm.

At this point we have a power need for the EVF and for the SmallHD AC7, but probably many other accessories will also need to be safely powered from a common power distribution source. For our camera package we thought about popular accessories such as a Cinetape (radio based meter), a Remote Follow Focus Preston G4 FI+Z and last but not least a Codex S Onboard Recorder for the 4K Canon Raw.

The Codex S Onboard Recorder is usually essential for a Canon C500 PL package because without it, the recording would not be in 4K resolution, but just 2K compressed on CF cards.  The 512GB Codex S capturedrives are designed to capture uncompressed 4K Canon Raw up to 60fps, whereas for higher HFR (High Frame Rate) values ( from 61fps to 120fps) the recorded raw file switches to half of its vertical resolution.

Roughly counted, all those accessories come to #5 devices and a camera body to be powered. 

The Bertone Visuals solution to solve all of the power distribution issues and others is actually the red coloured Cinoflex rig.

Indeed, the Cinoflex rig not only provides a lot of useful “holes" to the Key Grip  and to screw-in mechanically many accessories, but mainly it has an Anton Bauer Gold Mount that allows to use one or two Anton Bauer batteries (with an additional fin shaped plate) and plenty of power and HDsdi video connectors to neatly connect all of the aforementioned accessories.

Basically, the whole concept reminds me of how Panavision accessorized its film cameras in the past or more recently the CineAlta Sony F55.

Finally, our C500/Cinoflex rig has a Vocas mount/bracket on the back which provides a physical support to the Onboard Codex S recorder, a set of adjustable Shape WLB handles in the front of the rig and a Letus MCS leather pillow underneath the main plate to allow to comfortably shoot hand-held style.

Hence, when you use the Bertone Visuals C500 PL rig, you have a really complete 4K Motion Picture Camera that can be used, at the same time, either in Studio configuration or in “hand-held" mode without the need to use any tool (wrenches/screwdrivers) to switch between the two options.

The kind of approach that we used for the C500 is not different from the philosophy that we previously used to “transform" the prosumer camcorder Sony FS-700 into a movie-making-machine (you can see a couple of pictures of that rig in previous posts on this blog).

Hope all of this could help to make Producers understand that camera accessories are as important as the quality of the camera to get the job done.  

I think that another conclusion that can be drawn on this subject matter is that certain camera rental prices published on the web are not really meaning too much since the camera body by itself is not all you need to shoot!

Cinematographer Shane Hurlbut ASC, designed his own C500 Powered Studio Raiser / Rig for Need For Speed, which is the first Studio movie shot with Canon C500 PL/EF.  His exact rig might not be on the market yet, but it is much more compact than the Cinoflex that I explained above, but it is exclusively available for rent at Revolution Cinema Rentals in San Fernando, CA.

In my opinion both of these rigs have their pro and cons. Actually, they both work well overall, so in the end it comes really to the personal taste of the DP and his first AC to decide which one of the two rigs is better for their production. 

Bertone Visuals was involved in the camera tests during the pre-production of the movie Need For Speed (Dreamworks) and provided to Director Scott Waugh and his DP Shane Hurlbut ASC , the Dardo DIT Cart for Data Management, technicians, a DIT, Leica Summilux-C Lenses, Cooke S4i Primes, Arri Alexa Plus 120fps, Codex M, and finally the Sony Cinealta F65 with mechanical rotary shutter.

It was an incredible experience, very challenging because there were 9 different cameras and most of them were dual recording, which means raw and compressed footage from most of the camera bodies at the same time and often recording in HFR mode.  The biggest reward was to hear always the same comment from Local 600 professionals on set: “we never saw anything like the Dardo before."

The Bertone Visuals Dardo cart was delivering three different shuttle drives to Production at the end of each day of the test with an average of 250GB of data ingestion every 15 minutes for 10-12 hours a day.  Also it was delivering a raw back-up on LTO-5 media supports the following day.

In the first quarter of 2013 the Dardo DIT Cart was the most demanded DIT cart in Hollywood.  However, we had only one Dardo cart and we couldn’t be in more than one production at the time so clearly we yield the right of way to Need For Speed. More tk...

In the last two days I gave a presentation at Band Pro Film & Digital in Burbank,CA about the different DIT carts available at Bertone Visuals for rentals. For me it was a particularly important and intense moment because it was the first time in history that a 4K projector fed by a Mobile Color Correction system was projecting 4K raw video played at 24 fps from all existing 4K digital motion picture cameras.

The image above shows the Dardo cart in action on set while BV was participating into a massive Studios camera test with 9 different digital cameras (F65, F5, Alexa M, Alexa 4:3, Red Epic, Black Magic Camera, Canon C500PL, Canon 1Dc 4K and GoPro.)

Bertone Visuals DIT cart will be showcased at Band Pro Film & Digital on Thursday 02/07/13 at 10:00AM and with a second repeated session at 4:00 PM.

The event will be focused on basic workflows for the Sony F series cameras (F65-F55-F5).

The Dardo Cart among other software uses Assimilate Scratch Lab 7 and DaVinci Resolve 9 as core apps.

What is interesting about the BV Dardo Cart is that regardless of the fact that the apps require different dedicated hardware (from AJA Kona and Black Magic Design) to output a HD-sdi video signal to the Broadcast Monitor, both world coexist seamlessly on the mobile system. This technical achievement (on a mobile post unit) has been reached by our R&D implementing a Thunderbolt dual channel technology.

With the Dardo a trained DIT can execute in a reliable way the following tasks:

1. Data Management :

- ingesting media from a wide variety of cameras ( F65-F5-F55-Red Epic-Canon C500-Arri Alexa-Black Magic Design-Canon 1Dc 4K.) - ingesting media from 3-4K Raw Recorders: Codex S and Codex M, Sony SR4 and convergent Design Gemini. - making multiple copies simultaneously on 3-4 shuttle drives - executing Copies with Checksum Error Checks. - executing a LTO-5 back-up on 1.5TB/3.0TB cartridges via BRU Producer Edition. - check the integrity of the clips (artifacts might always be there) with a almost universal video player.

2. Color Management:

Not all the cameras today can overlay on Director’s Monitor a “nicer look” than the flat Raw for the DP and the Director. In order to achieve a non-destructive and not embedded “look”, skilled DITs or Near Set Colorists can create custom LUTs, Rec 709 LUTs with proper software that generate 1D or 3D LUTs.

Through a portable LUT box in between the Dardo Cart and the Video Village, DPs and Directors can experiment their look and send by email to the final post production facility their vision (CDL) Color Decision List.

This on-set LUT making is the main reason for the Tangent Element Panel on the Dardo Cart. In order to make the process more “ergonomic” the DIT/Colorist can seat to the right of the cart where a Boland Monitor duplicates the main GUI of the Apple Mac Pro Retina Display and he/she can watch a color calibrated Sony Oled PVM1741 below the GUI.

3. Finally, Transcoding and Audio Sync options are available and suitable for Commercials.

However, we recommend a more powerful cart such as the Bertone Visuals Dreadnought for these two tasks that most of the times require also a separated professional since in a multiple cameras environment, ingesting the media is already a delicate and compelling task.

With that in mind we used a excellent Raid 5 solution that besides being very fast it is also very reliable.

It’s reliable because it has been built with corporate rated 6G/ SAS hard-drives.

Also the 20 TB Raid has a dedicated Controller (Areca) which doesn’t interfere with the data transfer of other SAS data traffic (Codex S, Codex M, Quantum LTO-5 Drive)

I’m concluding here pointing out the fact that the Dardo Cart doesn’t necessarily require a lift gated Camera truck or a Cargo Van to be delivered on set.

Indeed, it has been designed with “modularity” in mind and it can break down in three separate modules: 1. Lid Box 2. Core Cube and 3. Wheels.

First F65 Anamorphic Aerial Footage

Monday April 8th NAB 2013 will take place like every year at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Bertone Visuals as its tradition contributes to the show with its own 4K contents shot with the Sony CineAlta F65 4K camera exactly like we did last year with the first self produced F65 camera test shot at Joshua Tree National Park. That camera test, still available on Vimeo and on this blog, was subsequentially licensed to Black Magic Design for the implementation of the DaVinci Resove 9 manual and its tutorials.

This year we graded the video starting with an official LUT from S-Log 2 to Rec 709 color space. The anamorphic footage was shot using a Hawk 75mm C series X 2.0 prime lens in conjunction with a SpaceCam gyrostabilized Systems mounted on a turbine powered A-Star helicopter piloted by the SAG movie pilot John Tamburro. The video will be displayed at NAB 2013 on a LG 4K Ultra HD TV set at Aberdeen’s Booth #N4919. Aberdeen designs Servers and Storage solutions for Post Houses and his Accounting Executive Steven B. Cohen contributed in the summer of 2012 to development of the Bertone Visuals DI Suite in El Segundo, CA.

A true 4K resolution video is going to be played also during the Fusion I/O party on Tuesday and the 4K DPX 10 bit sequence will be hosted on super fast Solid State Drives directly mounted on PCIe 3 cards.

Finally, Bertone Visuals Rental will have one of its Sony F65 at Focus Optics (lens manufacturer for the Ruby series PL Zoom 17-24mm T2.8) and many Cineped Rotary Sliders installed at BandPro Film and Digital booth.

Here we are! One of the most complete DIT cart is now finally available for rentals. Dardo is a solution for feature films and high end commercials shot in Raw 16-14-10 bit. It has been designed with the Arri Raw and Sony F65 workflow in mind and besides its data management and editing features BV Dardo is also capable of becoming a Mobile Color Correction suite for On Site Colorists. Dardo is the ideal partner for shooting with the Bertone Visuals Alexa Plus with the Codex since it has the Codex VFS software pre-loaded and the Codex SAS Transferring Station. The captured 3K Arri Raw footage can be stored in the 20 TB raid 5 (all constituted by 3TB corporate rated hard drives) and through the Virtual File System software from Codex Digital it is possible to transcode in Apple Pro Res or Avid DNxHD with plenty of embedded metadata, LUTs, ALE and CDL files. Moreover , it is possible to process the same tasks with the Sony CineAlta 16 bit 4K Raw files sources using a combination of software and hardware such as Sony SR-PC 4 (10Gigabit Ethernet or eSata), Sony SR-D1 (USB 3.0 or eSata) and Assimilate Scratch Lab running on the MacBook Pro 15" Retina Display. The cart has multiple input/output pci video cards and a Aja Break Out Box that makes possible not only to edit with the Adobe CS6 Production Suite, but also to grade in Da Vinci Resolve v. 9 or create LUTs and using Assimilate Scratch Lab for dailies and sound synchronization.

The MAC OS X graphic user interface (GUI) is displayed on a light Boland 16:9 monitor, whereas the color critical monitor is the Sony Oled PVM1541 Tristar. The DIT or the On Set Colorist can comfortably operate seated in front at both monitor with the luxury of an excellent Tangent Element Control Panel and Apple Bluetooth Keyboard and Track Pad.

Finally, regardless if the compact dimensions, BV Dardo offers LTO 5 back up that allows to store 3TB on removable cartridges that get handled by the industry standard software BRU Producer Edition.

Everybody in town these days is trying to get a Cine Ped system to try it on set. I have done it once and since then I never stop using it and I have always one or two with me when I'm involved in a production.

As you can see in the picture above that I have taken at Bertone Visuals Studio in El Segundo,CA the weight of a Sony CineAlta F65 fully geared-up with a 24-290mm PL Angenieux Optimo was not that much of a big deal for the Cine Ped system with the Quattro that can handle smoothly up to 85 lbs.

Anyway, I thought that it can be very informational to read what Shane Hurlbut ASC has to say about the Cine Ped so here there is the link to his recent blog-post enjoy it: 

This is what the Bertone Visuals Sony FS700 Cinema Style camera looks like and it is available for rent now.

As it comes out of the box from Sony the camcorder does not have a lot of accessories and records its footage on a 32GB high capacity SD card as 8 bit AVCHD Sony Codec.  

The non linear editing software Adobe Premiere Pro is capable to ingest directly without rendering this format and there is a free player somewhere on the Internet called VLC that allows to play this file format as well on Mac OS platforms. The NEX FS 700 UK comes together with an E mount Zoom lens from 18mm to 200mm, which is a good solution if you are thinking to shoot something ENG style and you need Auto Focus capability.

Nevertheless, we configured our own version "Cinema Style" to pull out the maximum out of this extraordinary Super Slow Motion camera.  Basically, we are offering the FS700 plain basic or with a sophisticated Cinema Style rig which includes: 15mm light weight rods, ergonomic adjustable handles, shoulder pad, Anton Bauer Power, Cheese Plates, Electronic Viewfinder and the famous Sound Devices PIX 240 10 bit external recorder. The recording on the Pix 240 is 10 bit and allows to save in Apple Pro Res 4:2:2 for Final Cut or in DNxHD for Avid. The transferring of the files from the fast SSD plugged in the PIX to the Laptop or to the external drive can happen via USB 3.0, Firewire 800 or eSata connectivity.

Finally, we decided to use a 16X9 Inc PL mount adapter so we can get access to CP2 cinema lenses, Cooke S4i, Panchro  or even Zoom lenses that will allow a much more professional quality.

The Movcam cheese plates provide a useful support for the mounting of any additional accessory such as an on board camera monitor (TV Logic 5.6") on Noga arm if we are planning to have a First AC pulling the focus. In that case we can still add to the package an O'Connor CFF -1 follow focus and a light Arri LM15 Matte box.  

It took almost 9 months for Producers and DPs to become familiar with the Codex, and now its rental activity at the Bertone Visuals Camera Rental Department has really picked up.

Not long ago, Producers couldn’t figure out why they should allocate financial resources for the rental of an external Codex Recorder when they could instead rent two fancy cameras for their production for the same amount of money. Although Producers are not DPs or DITs, they usually pay the bill for DI and Post, and they have recently discovered the advantages of grading raw vs. compressed footage (Apple Pro Res, AVCHD, DNxHD, etc…). They have learned that Colorists will execute their grading sessions more efficiently with the Raw material as opposed to compressed. Why? Because with Raw footage (14-16 bit), the colorist is going to spend more time Grading rather than solving problems and trying to pull out acceptable masks for local/selective adjustments.

Another interesting phenomena that I’ve noticed is that sometimes a “Take” gets discarded because it wasn’t properly exposed, even though it rendered a better action than any other “Take.” Well, here, we are dealing with another great benefit of shooting in Arri Raw with the Codex: almost all the “Takes” become usable because they inherently contain more data information. For example, when a Colorist needs to increase only the brightness of a talent’s face, the Colorist can simply Push-Up a stop in a Power Window (DaVinci Resolve), but if the Colorist tries that without Raw, annoying artifacts will show up, making the “Take” unacceptable. This is an extremely valuable characteristic.

Another advantage is that Arri Raw footage using the Codex conceptually resembles film stock. What I mean is that film stock contains a sequence of frames, not a single file, and that is true for the Arri Raw footage as well. When you open a folder containing a scene that was shot in Arri Raw, you don’t see a single file (like with an Apple Pro Res — .mov), but you instead see a sequence of frames progressively numbered. With the single file, I have seen its encoding so corrupted that it can’t be opened with anything – the file is simply lost forever, usually at great expense.

Furthermore, there are additional benefits when you shoot raw with the Arri Alexa Codex:

1) The DIT can embed useful metadata for post production facilities (think of those who make CGI/VFXs, how much they will appreciate having immediate information about the focal length of the lens used - Cooke S4i / Arri LDS systems.)

2) The .ari files are 3K resolution, so they look appropriate for theatrical releases.

3) The Codex has its own VFS (Virtual File System) software that’s capable of generating deliverables — transcoding easily from Raw to editing formats such as those used by Avid Media Composer or Final Cut.

Additionally, with the new Abobe CS 6 Production Suite, Arri Raw can be ingested directly by Premiere Pro, which sounds absolutely remarkable.

Finally, the last feature I really like about shooting with the Alexa Codex is that footage can be transferred using only the Codex transferring station. That is an important safety feature against unauthorized copies. The digital magazine encapsulates the SSDs inside, and they can only be read by a computer with both Codex software and hardware, which is different from SXS cards that can be easily copied by anyone with a USB reader attached to his laptop.