FILE 4K 2009

Co-director, Co-producer and Stage Manager

In July 2009, I was part of a team of artists, film-makers and computer scientists to produce two high profile and historic events at FILE (Electronic Language International Festival). We premiered a 4K feature film across three continents, streamed live from Brazil to the US and Japan.This was accompanied by an HD video teleconference (VTC) between the three sites. This was the first time a feature length 4K film was streamed across three continents and the first uncom- pressed HD VTC between the northern and southern hemispheres.

 

The 4K film Enquanto a Noite não Chega (While the Night Does Not Come), by Beto Souza and Renato Falcão, was shot on a RED camera, edited and color-corrected in São Paulo, Brazil. Its premiere took place simultaneously in São Paulo, San Diego and Yokohama via network streaming during FILE 2009. In order to discuss the importance of streaming 4K cinema over optical networks, a HD VTC was also organized to occur between the same 3 sites one day after the premiere. The 15 person VTC panel had as participants: the Brazilian Minister of Culture, the president of Mackenzie University, the coordinators of several Brazilian networking companies as well as remote participants in San Diego and Japan.

 

While the first wave of digital cinema has been installed at HD resolution, 4K cinema offers significant improvements in quality while demanding a more sophisticated means of processing and distribution. The resolution of each frame of 4K cinema is four times that of High Definition video, comprising 3840x2160 pixels per frame. The resulting image has tremendous clarity and can provide new aesthetic methods for film makers to pursue. Through this work, the new creative affordances of 4K cinema were highlighted, along with the new capabilities of cinematic distribution, production and experience.

 

Funding and support for this work was provided by: The Center for Research in Computing and the Arts at UCSD, Calit2 at UCSD, CineGrid, Intel Corp., IBM, Zaxel Inc., FILE, Sony Corp., Mackenzie University, University of São Paulo, RNP, FAPESP, ANSP, Telefonica, Foundry Networks, MackPesquisa, Padtec, O2. RNP is supported by the Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT) through a management contract.

 

Cinegrid 3D 4K

At the CineGrid 2008 and 2010 Workshops, I was part of a team of researchers at UCSD that showed one of the first demonstrations of both live computer generated 3D 4K and pre-recorded 3D 4K animations. The program included a selection of artworks as well as biological, meteorological and topographical visualizations.

The resolution of each frame of 4K cinema is four times that of High Definition video, comprising 3840x2160 pixels per frame. We employed passive stereoscopic techniques using circular polarizing filters and glasses to create a 3D experience. The resulting immersive image has tremendous clarity and depth to provide new aesthetic methods for artists to pursue. Through this work, the new creative affordances of 3D 4K cinema and interactivity were highlighted.

 

 

Publications:

 

Margolis T., Brown S., Cornish T., Bracho H., Stanton M., Carvalho T., Redigolo F., Castro F., Kaneko K., de Almeida J.,Inacio da Silva J., de Souza E., (2010) “Tri-continental premiere of 4K feature movie via network streaming at FILE 2009”, Future Generation Computer Systems, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 5 December 2010