SMART LENSES | FEATURE
IMAGES Different lens data systems on show
an extra step and that sort of thing is a barrier to people.” FUTURE USE Overall, though, Cattermole is positive. “Metadata in the past, more than three years ago, has been helpful but nowhere near as common and as complete as it is now. It’s no replacement, in my opinion, for camera reports that are taken on set. If you’re working on, for example, an anamorphic project, Arri Master and Cooke Anamorphics support this. If you’ve got that information, it can dramatically decrease the amount of time you spend on it simply because of anamorphic lens breathing.” In the end, lens data could be sent and stored in many ways, and the problem is ensuring everyone chooses the same way.
that exist between camera and workstation. Erik Johansson is a software engineer at Filmlight, whose role includes working on reading and writing different movie files. “I’ve been involved in acquiring lens metadata from Sony Venice, camera files, Red files...” he says. Filmlight’s Daylight dailies tool is often used to extract data from proprietary formats to the EXR frames preferred by VFX artists. “It’s something that’s been gaining traction this year, I think,” Johansson continues. “One of the first people to really ask for it was Marvel with movie projects that were setting up for production this summer. They wanted lens metadata, so we did that for them. The key feature they’ve been asking for is when you read a file that includes lens metadata, that it comes through into the EXR files. There is a lens correction plug-in coming for Baselight as well, and we’ll use the lens metadata to drive that plug-in.” Still, according to David Cattermole, a layout lead at Framestore, things are not always perfect. “We were burned on this – when you shoot Alexa Mini, and you shoot ProRes, you get sidecar files. The ProRes doesn’t support lens metadata. If you use ArriRaw or R3D, you can get that support. We did a lot of research into this stuff and advised the DOP that we’d like to use this camera and this lens, and in the end we didn’t realise until the end that we got sidecar files that we had to sync. It was
David Stump has perhaps the best possible answer: “I’m a member of the Ampas, and I’m working on the next-generation ACES project. I’ve managed to convince the group that it’s vitally urgent to finish this part of the imaging chain for ACES 2. We’re working hard to define all of the parameters in a way that can be Smpte standardised.” Being involved in production and post gives Stump a perspective that encompasses the technical and the practical sides of things. “The tried-and-true technique for saving money is that a production manager makes deals with the crew and says I won’t pay you that much, I’ll pay you $20 less, to beat people up for their hourly rate or their price for doing the VFX on a show,” he explains. “That can’t be the only place to look for savings. It’s time to give them a few efficiencies.”
RIGHT Zeiss’s new CP3 lenses came in two models – the XD had this output
OCTOBER 20 1 9 | DEF I N I T ION 55
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