Produce Motion Pictures Research Articles

Hue-Preserving Color Transforms for LED Wall Virtual Production Workflows

Virtual production using light-emitting diode (LED) wall display technology is gaining popularity in the entertainment industry to produce motion pictures, episodic television, live broadcast, and esports content. This new paradigm typically uses one or more large LED displays that contain millions of individual LEDs that are used to display a virtual background and/or foreground objects from a virtual scene that is simultaneously captured by the digital photographic camera on set, resulting in the so-called “in-camera visual effects.” In a virtual production workflow, digital cameras capture the actors and objects on the set in the foreground while simultaneously capturing the image shown on the LED wall behind the actors. Realtime video game rendering engines update the image shown on the LED wall to compensate for changes in camera location, camera pose, and lens focal length. Modern digital camera workflows typically include color transforms that were not designed to accurately render the large areas of saturated colors that are possible when capturing the image shown on an LED wall. Some examples of a hue shift that can occur in typical workflows are blue to cyan, red to pink, red to orange, and green to yellow. We found that these hue shifts can occur dynamically while racking focus to and from the LED wall and also statically when the LED wall is kept out of focus, which is a common technique that is used to minimize moiré artifacts. This article explores a simple modification of these common color transforms to preserve the hue of the scene while also creating a similar look to the existing color transforms.

Real-time 3D Photoacoustic Visualization System with a Wide Field of View for Imaging Human Limbs.

Background:A breast-specific photoacoustic imaging (PAI) system prototype equipped with a hemispherical detector array (HDA) has been reported as a promising system configuration for providing high morphological reproducibility for vascular structures in living bodies. Methods:To image the vasculature of human limbs, a newly designed PAI system prototype (PAI-05) with an HDA with a higher density sensor arrangement was developed. The basic device configuration mimicked that of a previously reported breast-specific PAI system. A new imaging table and a holding tray for imaging a subject's limb were adopted. Results:The device's performance was verified using a phantom. Contrast of 8.5 was obtained at a depth of 2 cm, and the viewing angle reached up to 70 degrees, showing sufficient performance for limb imaging. An arbitrary wavelength was set, and a reasonable PA signal intensity dependent on the wavelength was obtained. To prove the concept of imaging human limbs, various parts of the subject were scanned. High-quality still images of a living human with a wider size than that previously reported were obtained by scanning within the horizontal plane and averaging the images. The maximum field of view (FOV) was 270 mm × 180 mm. Even in movie mode, one-shot 3D volumetric data were obtained in an FOV range of 20 mm in diameter, which is larger than values in previous reports. By continuously acquiring these images, we were able to produce motion pictures. Conclusion:We developed a PAI prototype system equipped with an HDA suitable for imaging limbs. As a result, the subject could be scanned over a wide range while in a more comfortable position, and high-quality still images and motion pictures could be obtained.

Real-time 3D Photoacoustic Visualization System with a Wide Field of View for Imaging Human Limbs

Background : A breast-specific photoacoustic imaging (PAI) system prototype equipped with a hemispherical detector array (HDA) has been reported as a promising system configuration for providing high morphological reproducibility for vascular structures in living bodies. Methods : To image the vasculature of human limbs, a newly designed PAI system prototype (PAI-05) with an HDA with a higher density sensor arrangement was developed. The basic device configuration mimicked that of a previously reported breast-specific PAI system. A new imaging table and a holding tray for imaging a subject's limb were adopted. Results : The device’s performance was verified using a phantom. Contrast of 8.5 was obtained at a depth of 2 cm, and the viewing angle reached up to 70 degrees, showing sufficient performance for limb imaging. An arbitrary wavelength was set, and a reasonable PA signal intensity dependent on the wavelength was obtained. To prove the concept of imaging human limbs, various parts of the subject were scanned. High-quality still images of a living human with a wider size than that previously reported were obtained by scanning within the horizontal plane and averaging the images. The maximum field of view (FOV) was 270 mm × 180 mm. Even in movie mode, one-shot 3D volumetric data were obtained in an FOV range of 20 mm in diameter, which is larger than values in previous reports. By continuously acquiring these images, we were able to produce motion pictures. Conclusion : We developed a PAI prototype system equipped with an HDA suitable for imaging limbs. As a result, the subject could be scanned over a wide range while in a more comfortable position, and high-quality still images and motion pictures could be obtained.

Real-time 3D Photoacoustic Visualization System with a Wide Field of View for Imaging Human Limbs

Background :A breast-specific photoacoustic imaging (PAI) system prototype equipped with a hemispherical detector array (HDA) has been reported as a promising system configuration for providing high morphological reproducibility for vascular structures in living bodies. Methods :To image the vasculature of human limbs, a newly designed PAI system prototype (PAI-05) with an HDA with a higher density sensor arrangement was developed. The basic device configuration mimicked that of a previously reported breast-specific PAI system. A new imaging table and a holding tray for imaging a subject's limb were adopted. Results :The device's performance was verified using a phantom. Contrast of 8.5 was obtained at a depth of 2 cm, and the viewing angle reached up to 70 degrees, showing sufficient performance for limb imaging. An arbitrary wavelength was set, and a reasonable PA signal intensity dependent on the wavelength was obtained. To prove the concept of imaging human limbs, various parts of the subject were scanned. High-quality still images of a living human with a wider size than that previously reported were obtained by scanning within the horizontal plane and averaging the images. The maximum field of view (FOV) was 270 mm × 180 mm. Even in movie mode, one-shot 3D volumetric data were obtained in an FOV range of 20 mm in diameter, which is larger than values in previous reports. By continuously acquiring these images, we were able to produce motion pictures. Conclusion :We developed a PAI prototype system equipped with an HDA suitable for imaging limbs. As a result, the subject could be scanned over a wide range while in a more comfortable position, and high-quality still images and motion pictures could be obtained.

World War I medical films and photography.

Medical photography in the Armed Forces preceded U.S. involvement in World War I, but 1917 marked the beginning of a new era in the depiction of military medicine. Dating back to the Civil War, the Army Medical Museum staff had included clinical photographers such as William Bell, E.J. Ward, Charles Throught, and C.J. Blacklidge, whose graphic plates are vividly reproduced in the “Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion.” 1 The Museum’s new Instructional Laboratory, created in November 1917, targeted a threefold audience—troops in training, medical officers, and the civilian world, including especially medical professionals—and endeavored to produce motion pictures and still photographs of more transcendent value. Practically speaking, graphic arts offered exciting new tools for medical training. Some of the 137 motion-picture films produced by the Instructional Laboratory outlined hands-on matters including insect control, with titles like “Mosquito Eradication” and “Fighting the Cootie.” The best known and most controversial motion-picture production of the new Laboratory was the four-reel film “Fit to Fight,” described as a “venereal disease photo play” that dramatically depicted both moral and clinical consequences of wayward behavior. 2 While a General Order issued in January 1918 had limited the practice of photography in the American Expeditionary

The Academic Geography Video Genre: A Methodological Examination

AbstractThis article compliments the video “Across Space: Finding the farm in the city.” It first outlines key methodological considerations in the production of a video in the academic geography video genre, including technology, scripting, editing, and the implications of authorship related to each of these. Then it discusses the intellectual aims of the video, which are to (i) show where the farm is represented in the city, (ii) show that by using the categories of urban and rural it allows us to attach values to places of a certain character, sometimes unjustifiably so, and (iii) demonstrate the transformative properties of space, i.e., how the meanings of artifacts change when they are used in different spatial contexts. The article concludes with methodological suggestions for other videographers wishing to produce motion pictures that relate themes frequently undertaken in academic geography.

The Last Picture Show? Timing and Order of Movie Distribution Channels

Movies and other media goods are traditionally distributed across distinct sequential channels (e.g., theaters, home video, video on demand). The optimality of the currently employed timing and order of channel openings has become a matter of contentious debate among both industry experts and marketing scholars. In this article, the authors present a model of revenue generation across four sequential distribution channels, combining choice-based conjoint data with other information. Drawing on stratified random samples for three major markets—namely, the United States, Japan, and Germany—and a total of 1770 consumers, the empirical results suggest that the studios that produce motion pictures can increase their revenues by up to 16.2% through sequential distribution chain timing and order changes when applying a common distribution model for all movies in a country and that revenue-optimizing structures differ strongly among countries. Under the conditions of the study, the authors find that the simultaneous release of movies in theaters and on rental home video generates maximum revenues for movie studios in the United States but has devastating effects on other players, such as theater chains. The authors discuss different scenarios and their implications for movie studios and other industry players, and barriers for the implementation of the revenue-maximizing distribution models are critically reflected.

The Last Picture Show? Timing and Order of Movie Distribution Channels

Movies and other media goods are traditionally distributed across distinct sequential channels (e.g., theaters, home video, video on demand). The optimality of the currently employed timing and order of channel openings has become a matter of contentious debate among both industry experts and marketing scholars. In this article, the authors present a model of revenue generation across four sequential distribution channels, combining choice-based conjoint data with other information. Drawing on stratified random samples for three major markets—namely, the United States, Japan, and Germany—and a total of 1770 consumers, the empirical results suggest that the studios that produce motion pictures can increase their revenues by up to 16.2% through sequential distribution chain timing and order changes when applying a common distribution model for all movies in a country and that revenue-optimizing structures differ strongly among countries. Under the conditions of the study, the authors find that the simultaneous release of movies in theaters and on rental home video generates maximum revenues for movie studios in the United States but has devastating effects on other players, such as theater chains. The authors discuss different scenarios and their implications for movie studios and other industry players, and barriers for the implementation of the revenue-maximizing distribution models are critically reflected.

RICHARD M. FRIED. The Man Everybody Knew: Bruce Barton and the Making of Modern America. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee. 2005. Pp. xv, 286. $27.50

Bruce Barton at last has not only a biography, but a solid one that carefully explains him in several important contexts. Although best known in American history survey texts and lectures as the author of the 1920s bestseller, The Man Nobody Knows (1925), Barton achieved distinction in business, politics, and religion, as well as writing. He should be placed in the front ranks of American modernists. Though not an intellectual, Barton influenced minds with his advertising skill. As Richard M. Fried notes, the British observer of America Alistair Cooke said it best when he called Barton the “Moses of advertising” (p. 224). The description would have delighted Barton. Barton did not invent modern advertising, but he was perhaps its best practitioner. He built on the already established promotion of brand names and institutional advertising to include full-service features for clients from producing motion pictures to designing delivery trucks. Through his powerhouse Madison Avenue firm he made clients like General Motors and General Electric household names. He helped transform advertising from nineteenth-century patent medicine hucksterism into a sophisticated profession that promised happiness to consumers. He aided in the transition from a puritanical producer ethic to a more therapeutic consumer one by linking advertising, which increasingly relied on psychological manipulation, with traditional values. Barton insisted that advertising provided a service, and he lived long enough to practice his craft successfully in print, radio, and television. Fried concludes that while Barton improved the image of advertising, his work still had a connection with “illusion, suggestion, and magic” (p. 86). Borrowing from Jackson Lears, he suggests that consumerism perhaps replaced some of the mystery and magic lost in the transition from medieval culture to the modern age.

“American Moviemakers: The Dawn of Sound” at the Museum of Modern Art

“AMERICAN MOVIEMAKERS: THE DAWN OF SOUND” AT THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART EDWARD JAY PERSHEY “Talking pictures” is an old-fashioned term. Nowadays we simply call them movies because all movies have synchronous sound. But movies were first produced commercially as silent films, and only after 30 years or so was it possible to add sound to the moving image. “American Moviemakers: The Dawn of Sound,” a traveling exhibit that opened at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City in October 1989, looks at the time in the late 1920s when sound became a practical reality and the first successful “talkies” played in theaters across the country. This small exhibit, a joint production of MOMA and the American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) Archives, is geared for theater and auditorium lobbies and traveled around the country during 1990. However, the exhibit is only the tip of the iceberg for a much larger restoration project involving several insti­ tutions (primarily the University of California, Los Angeles [UCLA], Film and Television Archives) to restore the Vitaphone movies, early sound-on-disc films produced by Warner Brothers, Metro-GoldwynMayer (MGM), and First National studios between 1926 and 1931. The traveling exhibit includes screenings of these wonderfully re­ stored Vitaphone classics. For movie lovers and restoration aficio­ nados, “The Dawn of Sound” is a feast for both eyes and ears. To review briefly the history of sound movies and the role of Vitaphone movies in that history, commercial movies in the United States started in 1892-93 with experiments at Thomas Edison’s laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey. In the specially built “Black Maria” studio, the Edison lab created motion pictures in a form that established standards of technology and practice that molded the industry for years, to the present in some instances, as 35-mm film continues to be used today. Edison’s original conception of movies included the idea of synchronous sound, and his famous patent caveat Dr. Pershey is director of the Tsongas Industrial History Center in Lowell, Massa­ chusetts. He was formerly curator at the Edison National Historic Site in West Orange, New Jersey, and is a trustee of the Thomas A. Edison Black Maria Film and Video Festival for modern independent filmmakers.© 1991 by the Society for the History of Technology. All rights reserved. 0040-165X791/3201-0009$01.00 106 “American Moviemakers: The Dawn of Sound” 107 of 1887 made the analogy between phonographic recordings (which were themselves barely a practical reality in 1887) and the recording of moving images for eventual playback. His early experiments with moving pictures coupled photographic emulsions with phonographic wax recording media. Simultaneously recording both sight and sound, storing the two kinds of data on different media, and then reproducing them synchronously proved to be possible but frustratingly difficult using the mechanical and electrical technology of the early 1890s. Edison’s crew dropped sound movie experiments to focus on the problems and opportunities of silent him technology. Other experimenters around the world did the same. Except for sporadic trials and partial successes over the next thirty years (the most notable being the Edison “Kinetophone” system using oversized cylinder records in 1912—13), the movies people paid to see in theaters were silent visual treats, the only sound being that of the live accompaniment of piano, organ, or orchestra. “The Dawn of Sound” in this exhibit refers to the collaborative work between AT&T and three Hollywood studios in the late 1920s. The work of AT&T and Western Electric on long-distance telephony during the period startingjust before World War I involved improve­ ments in microphones, amplifiers, and loud-speaking telephones. Also, AT&T was developing electrically recorded phonograph re­ cordings. Sometime in 1922 Edward Craft, assistant chief engineer at Western Electric, became interested in the possibility of putting these various technologies together into a system for producing motion pictures with synchronous sound. The system developed during the mid-1920s became the very successful Vitaphone. Using 16-inch disc recordings, it played long enough at 33*/3 rpm (six to ten minutes) to match to one reel of 35-mm silent motion picture. The discs were electrically recorded and played back using an electrical amplifier to drive loudspeakers. Standard silent movie...

A SCHLIEREN SYSTEM USED FOR MAKING MOVIES OF SOUND WAVES

A schlieren system has been used to produce motion pictures of acoustic wave interactions with cylinders. Details of the system are described.

Numerical Investigation of the Dynamics of Small Stellar Systems.

view Abstract Citations (1) References Co-Reads Similar Papers Volume Content Graphics Metrics Export Citation NASA/ADS Numerical Investigation of the Dynamics of Small Stellar Systems. Sherman, Nevin W. ; Kinman, Dewayne Abstract A computer program for numerical integration of the classical N-body problem is in operation. It was designed to yield 4 or 5 significant figures after lO~ integration steps. Integral checks, such as total energy and angular momentum, appear to confirm a sufficiently slow error buildup to achieve this ideal. One exception is caused by extremely close encounters. A technique for handling these cases has been detailed, but the programming complexities involved prevent its inclusion in the present program. The computer time required per integration step is short enough to make feasible the study of small stellar systems (<500 stars). Plots of the projected star positions at successive times are photographed, producing motion pictures of the dynamical evolution of the cluster. Periodically the integrated coordinates and velocities are sampled to produce certain meaningful frequency functions (histograms), and the ten general integrals. These integrals monitor the accuracy of the integration. Simultaneous ancillary calculations are made to facilitate our examining the pertinence and validity of the concepts of equipartition of ei~ergy and relaxation time. The potential of the stellar distribution, and its acceleration upon a uiiit mass, are determined as functions of distance from the cluster center. We are calculating a cluster containing 380 stars, the stars being of several mass classes. The initial meai~ density is about 10 times that of the solar neighborhood. The initial positions are pseudorandom throughout a sphere of radius R. The initial velocity directions also are pseudo-random; their magnitudes are a simple function of radius. These initial conditions can be readily changed. A complete integration step for a 380-member star cluster requires 23 sec of LARC computer time. For our density distribution, such a step averages 2000 to 4000 yr. Thus, the calculation of 20 to 40 million years of cluster history consumes about 70 h. Publication: The Astronomical Journal Pub Date: 1964 DOI: 10.1086/109432 Bibcode: 1964AJ.....69R.149S full text sources ADS |

Synchronous ¼-In. Magnetic Tape for Motion Picture Production

Synchronous 1/4-in. magnetic tape can be used in various stages of motion picture production. With proper modifications of existing commercial equipment, 1/4-in. tape can be made to do practically everything possible with 35-mm sprocketed magnetic film. Savings in cost and storage space can be more than 90%. This new technique is equally valuable for producing motion pictures for television.

Laboratory for Development Work on Color Motion Pictures

Precise control of all of the laboratory operations in producing color motion pictures is essential to obtain release prints of high quality. A description is given of a new building and equipment especially designed to carry on development work on all the laboratory phases of producing motion pictures in Ansco color.

Violence, 1947: Three Specimens

JOHN HOUSEMAN, co-founder with Orson Welles of the Mercury Theater, divides his time between producing motion pictures in Hollywood and directing plays on Broadway. Producer of The Blue Dalia, he recently completed Your Red Wagon for RKO, and is now producing Letters From an Unknown Woman at Universal-International. He is also president of Pelican Productions, and a director of the Coronet Theater.

Stroboscopic-Light High-Speed Motion Pictures&lt;!--&lt;xref ref-type="other" rid="fn1-10.5594_J16610"&gt;*&lt;/xref&gt;--&gt;

A discussion of various methods of producing motion pictures at speeds higher than at present attainable with intermittent mechanisms; followed by a description of a high-speed motion picture camera (1200 frames a second, on 35-mm. film) using intermittent light from mercury-arc stroboscope lamps developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Several examples of the use of the lamp are given.

Recent Improvements in Equipment and Technic in the Production of Motion Pictures&lt;!--&lt;xref ref-type="fn" rid="fn110.5594_J05440"&gt;*&lt;/xref&gt;--&gt;

Many improvements have been made in recent years in the equipment used in producing motion pictures. This paper describes some of the uses and advantages of the new equipment, and the problems involved in adapting it; and refers to the personnel of the sound crew, the use of velocity microphones, a new kind of visual amplitude indicator, the use of cloth and hard surfaces in set construction, the advantages of process projection, and the new silent Debrie motion picture camera.

The Merger Movement in the Motion Picture Industry

T is universally agreed that the motion picture industry is today one of the leading industries of America. The rapid transition of motion pictures from the arcade penny peepshows of yesterday to the colossal feature films of today is without parallel. Within a period of a little over two decades, the industry has progressed by such unprecedented leaps and bounds that today it is of gigantic proportions. The legal status of its representative component units in their various workings is in some ways yet undetermined and undefined at law, because of the fact that the industry is of such comparatively recent origin, and also because it has had such rapid and unusual growth. From the business of merely producing motion pictures, the leading organizations in the industry have of recent years reached out into the field of distributing their own productions, while several have even gone to the extent of controlling and operating theaters for the exhibition of their own productions.