American Cinematographer - September 1992 - 38

40 Deluxe Editorial & Production Suites

Editorial

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■VcAf£gtj.e\
ysjest

on

bytes of
some

memory, and begin doing
of the things Foundation Imag¬

ing is doing. As the addiction takes
hold, a user can easily wreck his or
her credit card, because the sky's the
limit when considering the amount
of peripherals that can be added.
First-time camcorder users normally
need to add two TBCs and an en¬
coder or genlock so they can convert

computer images onto videotape,
and then wipe or dissolve the image
with the digital effects switcher. With

Los Angeles * CA * 90025 * (310) 207-0921

dual time-base corrector (such as
the Kitchen Sink offered by Digital
a

Creations),

the built-in TBCs

or

found in the Sony 5000 consumer Hi8 camcorder and new 3000 Hi-8

Deck, it is possible to do any of the
Toaster Switcher effects between two

prerecorded

sources of video. An
encoder converts the RGB signals to

NTSC standards so it can be re¬
corded on a VCR. A genlock can sub¬

ON

stitute any

background color in the
graphics with an incoming video sig¬
nal. This way the CG is matted over
the video.

TIFFEN

One can't playback 24-bit
images live through the computer.
One can, however, couple the
Toaster to a Sony industrial Hi-8 9650
single-frame recording VCR and au¬
tomatically send rendered 24-bit
color images onto videotape one

UFTRA

frame at

CONTRAST
FITTERS...

a

time. This is

a

much

cheaper alternative than outputing
directly to a digital film recorder. A
top-of-the-line Toaster system with
32 megs of memory running at 28
megahertz with a 200-megabyte
hard drive will cost in the neighbor¬
hood of

$10,000.
An

overriding consider¬
production is to make
things affordable. Science fiction
priced itself out of the television
ation in every

"The Tiffen Ultra Contrast filter

images. It is truly

an

gives
innovation!

a very

different visual approach to

my

market in the '70s and '80s with

Night exteriors are absolutely fantastic because the Ultra Contrast filter
doesn't flair highlights, headlights or even a "Night Sun" light.
Given the contrast and

extremely sharp resolution produced by today's

lenses and films, the only way to effectively control an image's contrast
is with the Tiffen Ultra Contrast filter. When I use the Ultra Contrast filter,
I

am

able to

use

minimal fill

No other filter has

helped

light and produce

me

in these

areas as

a

beautiful effect.

much."

William A. Fraker, ASC, President

of American Society of Cinematographers, has
"Heaven Can Wait", "Looking For Mr. Goodbar", and
currently photographing "Memories Of An Invisible Man" for Warner

earned Oscar nominations for
"1941He is

Brothers Studio.

Tiffen

TiFFEN
Manufacturing Corp.

Tiffen Technical Center

36

90 Oser Ave., Hauppauge, NY 11788

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3500 W. Olive Ave., Suite 810, Burbank, CA 91505 * 1-800-593-3331

ex¬

pensive, non-thought-provoking
shows like Buck Rogers and Battlestar
Galactica. People insisted there was
no room for sci-fi on TV,
yet Star Trek
has been

on

since its

sometimes two

cancellation,

three times

a
day.
producers can now say
they can afford to make effects shows
at a price that won't break studios'
budgets. Hopefully, Babylon 5 will be
the resurgence of a big boom in sci¬
or

With CG,

fiction for television. As a part
of that resurgence, the Video Toaster
ence

revolutionize the visual effects
industry for TV.
▲
may
American Cinematographer - September 1992

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - September 1992
