American Cinematographer - September 1992 - 91

Century
Points East

scope
The ideal periscopic relay

Eye

on

Postproduction

system for miniature, product,

special effects, and motion
control photography.

by Brooke Comer

□ 1:1

view

Post houses in the Eastern

region have been
busy. R/Greenberg's digital video suite
was the spawning grounds for "Dancin
the new Diet Coke spot in which Paula
Abdul dances in sync with a young Gene
Kelly, clowns around with Groucho Marx,
and shares a drink with Cary Grant. The
Lintas/NY-created spot was shot by Steve
Horn and edited by Dennis Hayes of Den¬
nis Hayes Editorial. The spot was filmed
using R/Greenberg's new state of the art
field motion-control system, whose capa¬
bilities include track, boom, tilt, pan, zoom
and focus. R/Greenberg's Ken Eyring su¬

pervised the visual effects, Nancy
Bernstein produced, and Ed Manning
manned the motion control camera with
motion control engineers David Munez
and Eric Chamberlain. The
team included

digital post
Paug Agid, Burtis Scott,

Michael Nicholas and David Elkins
The R/Greenberg gang also helped Miller
Genuine Draft Light bring a stone statue to

life, using Symbolics hardware for model¬

ing, Softimage's Actor module for charac¬
ter animation, and R/Greenberg's propri¬
etary Imrender system for rendering. CGI di¬
rector/technical supervisor was Joe
Francis, and Matt Elson was CGI modeler.
agency team from Backer

The

Spielvogel/NY included producer Mary
Mclnerney, art director Doreen Fox, and
copywriter Grant Pace. The spot was di¬
rected by Graham Henman of HKM Pro¬
ductions ♦ National/Boston was the
site for the production and post of "Rebel¬
lion II: The Parents Strike Back." The

MTV-style spot for WLVI-TV's daily com¬
edy line-up was cut by staff editor Larry
Anderson. Paintbox graphics created inhouse were looped in an Abekas A-62 and
rotoscoped into the video. Anderson also
created motion control effects by combin¬
ing various tape speeds to underscore the
wacky nature of the spot - in which par¬
ents zap their children and trap them in TV
sets. National/Boston also produced and
posted a highly stylized marketing video for

Avid

Technology starring the likes of

Composer,

a

coverage.
□ Fast. f2.8,

T3.8.
Versatile. Adapters
available to accommodate

□

digital nonlinear editing

most

what else

-

an

Presidential race in "Decision '92." As the
USA flies forward, individual states morph
into stars that take their place on a waving
American flag. Each element was morphed

individually so that several animators could
on the project at once, then fit it back
into the entire piece. Effects included states
turning into stars, stars morphing into the
network's three letters, and a flag in the
background morphing into the election cov¬
erage logo. Paintbox images were created
by art director Mark Hoffman and designer
Marian Levine. Digital compositing was
done with 3-D graphics and transparent still
images in National's all-digital Edit D by
staff editor Chris Hengeveld. The anima¬
work

tors used the "Cluster" program

to create

cameras.

Interchangeable adapters for
cine, video and 35mm SLR
lenses.

Adjustable back focus.
Highest professional optical
and mechahical quality.
C Custom systems available.
□
1 I

Avid, while in-house

French created a pulsating
score, and the mix to pix. National New
York is proud to be home to MTV program¬
ming out of New York. Among the series in
National's TV-1 studio are: Yo! MTV Raps,
MTV News (including Week In Rock and
Day in Rock), Awake on the Wild Side,
Hangin' with MTV, and Like We Care.
Day in Rock is transmitted by satellite from
National's studio. ♦ Telezign Computer
Animation/Design created patriotic ani¬
mation for NBC News' coverage of the

professional video and

16- and 35mm cine

benefits and functionality of the Avid.
Staffer Doug Dowling was writer, direc¬
tor and co-designer with colleague Doug
Reed. Larry Anderson offlined the video on
composer Ken

camera

of film lenses on video
cameras with no loss of

system. To make its point, the video adopts
a nonlinear graphic approach to capture the

-

for the

taking lens alone! Permits use

Beethoven, Stravinsky, Van Gogh, Mozart,
Bach and Freud. The theme, "Great Minds
need Great Tools," suggested that the late
greats would be intrigued by the Avid Me¬
dia

Relay System. Field of

same as

Ask for

Jeff

precision optics

Giordano:
10713 Burbank Blvd.
Phone: 818-766-3715

N.

Hollywood, CA 91601
Fax: 818-505-9865

4 IN THE WORLD!
1 IN E U R O P E:
KENWORTHY-NETTMANN SNORKEL

FEATURING:

-ZOOM
-HORIZON
ROLL
-TILTING
MIRROR
-FILM AND
VIDEO

EXCLUSIVE
EUROPEAN

D-8000 MUNICH 50
LERCHENSTRASSE 5
TEL: 0 89/3 5130 44

the morphing effects the project required.
♦ Videomix audio engineer Grant Gillette
used Sonic Solutions' NoNOISE and
DeCRACKLE processes to get the crackle
out of source music for a feature film. "That
Old Black Magic" and "Nights in White

September 1992

CAMERA SUPPORT EQUIPMENT

89
American Cinematographer - September 1992

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