Technicolor has an iPhone App for That…
MobilizedTV continues to run a series about iPhone apps aimed at film/TV professionals. Technicolor Creative Services, one of the world’s largest
providers of production and post-production services to the motion picture/broadcast/cable/advertising/home entertainment markets, has come up with an iPhone app useful for editors and others in the post process. Robert C. Rodriguez, supervisor of technical operations at Technicolor Creative Services spoke to MobilizedTV today about Technicolor’s iPhone app, which is a data rate calculator. “If you’re an editor working on FCP or Avid or you’re receiving your media from us on a drive, the question would always come internallly on how much storage the editor should send us,” says Rodriguez. “No other post houses are creating iPhone apps right now.” So, Technicolor stepped into the fray, to create one for its own customers…and anyone else who wants to download the free app. According to Rodriguez, this is just the first of several Technicolor apps planned for release.
Anyone involved in offline media knows well that it’s better to provide storage, that can be used over and over again, rather than rent a drive from the post house. But how much storage is required? Technicolor’s iPhone app can do the calculations, for every step of the post process, from offline to finishing, and for everything from offline proxy-res media to uncompressed 2K.
Rodriguez reports there are two parts of the application. “On the data rate side, people always want dailies or want to digitize to a certain file type or codec,” he says. “They want a Quicktime file, but that’s a generic term because there are so many different kinds of Quicktime files. And they don’t know the different storage requirements for each kind of file. We can get those questions from a DP wanting to cut a reel of his work, an offline editor and even internally from our own project managers.”
“Nine times out of ten, those questions come to me or to other folks who walk around with calculations in their head,” he says. “The goal was to put those calculations at everyone’s fingertips. It’s not the only place to get the information–we’ll answer the question by phone or email–but we wanted to package it together for the first foray into iPhone apps and we’ll certainly give you a link to it.”
This iPhone app can be helpful whether the project is shooting film or digital acquisition cameras like the RED. “You take shoot days times the number of hours you’re shooting,” says Rodriguez, who notes that you can input the information in drop-down menus. “The way we have it broken down, you start with either an uncompressed codec, 8 bit or 10 bit, or any of the major compression formats. We handle DV, DCPRO, HDV, Avid DNX HD as well as all the Apple ProRes formats. After you select your compression type, you select your frame size (for editing in HD, there’s a drop-down menu for all flavors of HD), select your frame rate, and select your audio (there are different sample rates and channel configurations) and the duration. Once you’ve popped all the information in, it’ll give you your storage requirements.”
Because Technicolor is synonymous with film, the second part of the iPhone application is a film calculator. “You select your film format (8mm to 35mm), input the length of the film in feet or meters, select frame rate, and it’ll give you the running time all the way down to in frame counts,” says Rodriguez.
Although there are other tools out in the marketplace to calculate storage, Technicolor’s iPhone app enables producers, cinematographers and others to do the calculations in the field. “It’s self-contained,” says Rodriguez. “You don’t have to go to the web or boot up a laptop.”
The app is also an important message to Technicolor’s customer base. “It really shows clients and non-clients alike that we support digital acquisition as well as film,” he says. “This app will do the calculation of any kind of digital acquisition.”
Tags: Apple ProRes, Avid DNX HD, Avid offline editor, codec, data, data rate calculator, FCP offline editor, film calculator, iPhone app, MobilizedTV, post process, Quicktime files, RED camera, storage, Technicolor Creative Services, uncompressed 2K
This entry was posted on Monday, December 14th, 2009 at 12:36 pm and is filed under Devices, Home Feature.
Hi Robert,
pretty nice. Does it convert time code to foot and frame? if not that would be a nice feature as well to figuring running time.
jim
Mr. Rodriguez isn’t really correct in saying that no other post facility has created any iPhone apps. The Mill - one of the top facilities in the UK - created a color correction app for the iPhone several months ago. I’m sure there are others as well, but it’s nice for Technicolor to have released this app.
This is just what I need. Back in the day, S8 and 16mm frame counts and runtime calc, especially with slo-mo, kept you on budget and kept you from being caught short. I wish I had this app then.
What are the chances of getting an Android version? Good I hope, since I don’t have an iPhone…
TYPO: “After you select your copmression type,”
when will the app be available?
btw check out videofest on the iphone
The app is available NOW - you should be able to find it in the app store. It went up about two weeks ago. What’s the link for the videofest on the iPHone?