- MEGAPIXEL EXCLUSIVE:
A UK first! An exclusive Showing of BBC’s EARTH - BBC HD Research at Megapixel!
- HD? - Forget the pixel count says UEA Professor
- HD versus Film? Cinematographer and HD guru Paul Wheeler gives us his take!
- Sony and HD: the Games Up!
- Creator of Viva Piñata: Next Generation Games: Art or Technology?
- Grahame Weinbren unveils new artist generated technology: LimoHD
- Malcolm Le Grice (“probably the most influential modernist filmmaker in British cinema”- Screen Online) speaks at MEGAPIXEL
- EMMY and BAFTA winning computer animator Mike Milne joins MEGAPIXEL!
- MEGAPIXEL examines the world of Visual Effects
- Lev Manovich is MEGAPIXEL Keynote Speaker
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MEGAPIXEL EXCLUSIVE:
A UK first! An exclusive showing of BBC’s EARTH
Thanks to distributors Lionsgate, we have a unique showing of the BBC’s greatest nature/wildlife film ever, Earth.
This remarkable breath-taking story is narrated by Patrick Stewart and filmed with high definition cameras to create an unforgettable journey through the changing seasons and daily struggle for life across our planet, from rarely seen stunning landscapes to the smallest details in the lives of ourplanet’s wildest and most elusive creatures.
This is a newly mastered cinematicversion of the award-winning BBC television series Planet Earth, originally shot in HD, and has never been seen cinematically until now! At MEGAPIXEL you’ll be able to see the full 90 minutes in HD, for free!
With an unprecedented production budget of $25 million, Five years in production, over 2,000 days in the field, and using 40 cameramen filming across 200 locations, shot entirely in high definition, this is the ultimate portrait of our planet capturing rare action and impossible locations with frequent use of super-slow-motion and amazing motion-controlled time-lapse cinematography.
If you’ve seen the TV series, now see the HD film and be amazed.
Megapixel would like to thank Matt Smith from Lionsgate and Jon Thompson from The Worx for their efforts to secure this great exclusive for Megapixel.
Not in cinemas until November 16th!
So what exactly is HD? We’ve called in the experts. The BBC have actually been creating and experimenting withHD for over 5 years. Key BBC HD personnel give us the inside knowledge on how one of the worlds greatest broadcasters is dealing with High Definition.
Ian Potts, Senior Producer with BBC Factual Programmes will introduce us to HD - a jargon-busting, demystification of what HD really is, and just how much it changes the way things are shot and broadcast.
Steve Wallis, Head of Business & Operations at BBC High Definition TV will give us a look at how BBC's HD trial channel has been working, and will explain what the key issues are for broadcasters. The BBC have conducted many tests and experiments with the different flavours of HD. Steve will explain why broadcasters are investing so much in the art and technology of HD.
Lastly Ian Potts will talk about HD filming, and the choices available if you want to shoot HD for the BBC. He'll examine the kind of cameras that are out there, and will tell us how fast things might be changing.
As a special insight into the ‘look’ of HD, the BBC will also be showing various clips from the best of their HD output so far- stunning images and music from across all the genres. You'll see the best bits of familiar programmes like Planet Earth, Bleak House, The World Cup, Wimbledon, Silent Witness, Later with Jools but ALL IN HD. You’ll be able to judge for yourself how HD is changing the face of TV.
HD? - Forget the pixel count says UEA Professor
Professor Graham D. Finlayson, from the School of Computing Sciences at the University of East Anglia, and founding member of the Colour & Imaging Institute, Derby, will be presenting research at Megapixel regarding a different way of looking at High Definition. For about the last 10 years, the digital camera market has been obsessed with the number of pixels. New cameras can have 10, 12 or more Mega-pixels per image. Yet, the need for so many pixels is questionable: digital cameras now have around twice the number of colour receptors that we ourselves have and yet we see the world in perfect clarity! Moreover, from a signal processing point of view, too many pixels means that the resulting raw images are often very noisy.
At the University of East Anglia, (and spin-out company Im-Sense Ltd), Professor Finlayson has been developing a technology for making better looking images, not by focusing on the number of pixels, but rather by a unique mathematical algorithm which delivers images that look like those we ourselves remember seeing: the processed images are more appealing and vivid (in fact, they appear to have higher definition). Professor Finlayson argues that this approach is entirely consistent with
our own visual system where the eye records an image but the picture we see is the result of extensive cortical processing. Professor Finlayson will show results of his research and explain why he believes a major part of the high definition story will be the processing of images and not just the pixel count of the acquisition device or the resolution of the display.
HD Versus FILM? Cinematographer and HD guru Paul Wheeler gives us his take!
Megapixel is pleased to welcome the award winning Director of Photography, author and HD guru, Paul Wheeler.
Paul’s work has spanned Film and TV, celluloid, videotape and now disc. He’s written the authoritative text on HD “High Definition Cinematography” (Focal Press) and has shot work in almost every format from DV to 65mm film including HD.
Paul’s TV credits are equally impressive- from cinematography on TV series like Inspector Morse (which he got a BAFTA nomination for), Lovejoy, The Saint and even Fawlty Towers, to Trevor Nunn’s Merchant of Venice film and Martin Clunes’ Hunting Venus.
His expertise is much in demand in education too- he has twice been Head of Cinematography at the National Film and Television School (NFTS) and also been Head of Cinematography at the Royal College of Art (RCA), an unparalleled record. He is currently the tutor in Advanced Cinematography at the New York Film Academy in London, when filming commitments permit.
Paul will cut through the hype and tell us how HD is changing the face of film and tv and demystifies the technologies of high definition and 24P cinematography, laying out the REAL advantages and disadvantages of using HD versus film.
Sony Electronics have been heavily involved in bringing HD to the masses, but not just through the TV screen. Sony Computer Entertainment have too, through the enhanced capabilities of the Playstation 3, which has represented a leap in visual quality as well as gameplay. The next generation is now here, and we welcome three speakers who have had a big part in making it a reality for gamers.
Firstly we welcome Dan Rubenfield, whose work as a game designer spans 11 years, working on such titles as Ultima Online and Ultima IX: Ascension to Star Wars Galaxies and Deus EX. Dan’s talk at Megapixel is on the production changes and new design focus required as display technologies push from the early 1980's to well into the 21st century.
Secondly, Martin Binfield, (Senior Artist at Sony, producing character art and animation for titles such as GhostHunter, Medievil PSP, Getaway 3, and Heavenly Sword) teams up with Art Director John Clark to present an anecdotal account of the effect HD has had on Next Gen game production. Binfield and Clark will touch on a number of creative issues stemming from HD technologies- not the least of which is the effect resolution has on representation. Crucially, how much will HD affect our choice of subject matter?
John Clark, originally a painter and sculptor, exhibiting across Europe, brings an invaluable fine art perspective to bear on games creation to this Megapixel presentation.
Creator of Viva Piñata: Next Generation Games: Art or Technology?
Ryan Stevenson is the Senior Concept artist behind the visually stunning (and addictive) Viva Piñata game on the Xbox 360.
After four years in development, UK game developer Rare Ltd’s Viva Piñata, released last year, was a milestone for both the british company and the Xbox platform, attracting a new demographic with its stylish graphics.
Ryan will talk about how the design of a ‘Next-Gen’ (now current Generation!) game evolves- and how great artwork and style are more essential than ever.
Showing original artwork from the game and his personal sketches, Ryan will comment on where he feels Games will be going in an HD world.
With his passion for art and the act of creating Ryan can always be found with either charcoal covered hands, working in his sketchbooks or glued to the screen of a well travelled laptop with Wacom pen in hand.
Following the success of Viva Piñata (one of the few recent games to spawn a TV series and toys) Ryan is now working on a Next Generation incarnation of an old cult 8-bit game, Banjo Kazooie.
Grahame Weinbren unveils new artist generated technology: LimoHD
We’re pleased to welcome international media artist and filmmaker Grahame Weinbren to MEGAPIXEL
Grahame has completed six full-scale interactive cinema installation projects between 1983 and 2006, which are exhibited in museums and galleries internationally. The Erl King (collaboration with Roberta Friedman, 1983-5), was one of the first works to combine interactivity with cinema, and was recently acquired by the Guggenheim Museum.
Weinbren is currently collaborating with software engineer Isaac Dimitrovsky on the development of LimoHD, a low-cost full color uncompressed high definition cinema technology, designed primarily for his own projects. Grahame will be showing examples of this unique HD system at Megapixel and discuss the technical limitations and shortcomings of commercial HD, whilst emphasising the importance of artist-generated tools.
Weinbren has published and lectured for three decades on cinema, interactivity, and new technology, and is on the editorial board of the Millennium Film Journal.
Malcolm Le Grice (“probably the most influential modernist filmmaker in British cinema”- Screen Online) speaks at Megapixel
Born in 1940, and a leading light of 60’s and 70’s radical and experimental film making, Malcolm Le Grice will give a film artist’s perspective on the push to greater realism that HD technologies seem to promise, and what tactics moving image artists might use to comment or circumvent such an agenda.
In addition to being a prolific filmmaker, (with a film/videography listing almost 50 works produced between 1965 and 2001) Le Grice played an influential role in the critical and institutional promotion of avant-garde cinema in Britain. In the '60s his work was informed by a deep hostility towards the 'illusionism' of Hollywood and other commercial cinemas.
Especially renowned for the seminal “Berlin Horse” (1970) Le Grice’s experimental, independent and avant-garde work has explored the complex relationships between the filmmaking, projecting and viewing processes which constitute cinema as a medium, which HD threatens/promises to change.
Le Grice was also a pioneer in the educational domain, initiating the trend towards establishing filmmaking sections in art colleges.
As an author, Abstract Film and Beyond, and more recently Experimental Cinema in the Digital Age provide both a historical and a philosophical context for the British and European avant-garde cinemas.
Le Grice carried out the first experiments with computer-based film making in Britain (Your Lips 1 (1970)), and though it was a preoccupation that he laid aside after 1971, it came to dominate his media practice (along with research into digital art) from the 1980s onwards. Since 1997 he has headed the media research programme at the University for the Arts in London.
EMMY and BAFTA winning computer animator Mike Milne joins MEGAPIXEL!
Mike Milne, Head of Computer Animation at Framestore-CFC, one of Europe’s leading post production houses and the man behind the seminal “Walking with Dinosaurs” and “Walking with Beasts” series will be speaking at Megapixel on the changes in CG production over the last decade and how HD will affect the way CG is made and animated.
In 1992 Mike started the computer animation department at Framestore CFC, which has grown to become Europe's largest digital effects & animation studio.
In 1997 Mike was CGI supervisor on the title sequence of “Tomorrow Never Dies”, then formed a new team at Framestore to make the landmark BBC television series 'Walking with Dinosaurs', followed by many subsequent series which have won an unprecedented three BAFTAs, seven Emmys and six Visual Effects Society awards.
In 2002 Mike was elected to the Council of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and is a visiting professor at Bournemouth University. Mike is currently director of Computer Animation at Framestore CFC and has recently worked on the TV series "Primeval".
MEGAPIXEL examines the world of Visual Effects
Paul J Franklin, Visual Effects Supervisor for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Batman Begins, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, has agreed to speak on the role of seamless and invisible effects in Film at MEGAPIXEL.
In 1998 Paul became one of the co-founders of Double Negative, setting up the 3D department and supervising the computer animation for the company’s first feature film project, Pitch Black.
Paul has driven the development of 3D animation at Double Negative, building the department from an initial handful of people to a team of over 200 artists and software developers. As one of Double Negative’s Senior VFX Supervisors Paul recently oversaw Double Negative’s work on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix which marked the facility’s largest and most complex project to date.
Paul also worked as a Pre-Viz artist on DaVinci Code and a Visual Effects artist on Die Another Day. As such, his knowledge and experience of how the Real and the Spectacular can be evoked by digital techniques is unparalleled. Paul will show examples of ‘invisible effects’ and talk about the arsenal of tools and techniques that the modern film director can call upon.
Lev Manavich is MEGAPIXEL Keynote Speaker
Lev Manovich, new media theorist and author, has agreed to be the keynote speaker for “MEGAPIXEL: the impact of HD technologies on the Screen Arts and education” conference, to be held on 10 and 11 October in Cambridge.
Lev Manovich is the author of Soft Cinema: Navigating the Database and The Language of New Media which has been hailed as "the most suggestive and broad ranging media history since Marshall McLuhan." Manovich is a Professor of Visual Arts, University of California, San Diego and a Director of The Lab for Cultural Analysis at California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology
Lev will be talking on the topic of visual resolution and about his work with 4k Cinema. 4K offers approximately 4,000 horizontal and over 2,000 vertical pixels – or roughly four times the total number of pixels than the widely used 1080i HDTV format (and 24 times that of a standard broadcast TV signal).
Lev is now starting to work on a series of projects with visualisation and computer graphics researchers to develop cultural applications for these displays.
Bookings and full itinerary for MEGAPIXEL will open in the first week of September
MEGAPIXEL: The impact of High Definition technologies on the Screen arts and Education Conference, Anglia Ruskin University and Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge 10th-11th October 2007
pixelLev Manovich’s website is www.manovich.net.
Soft Cinema: Navigating the Database (The MIT Press, 2005), The Language of New Media (The MIT Press, 2001)
