Digital Cinema Society

DCS UPDATE February was a difficult month for us here at DCS; in addition to the upsetting developments in Ukraine, we lost two longtime members, friends and industry icons, Douglas Trumbull and George Dibie, ASC.  Following are short tributes including clips from DCS activities they participated in.  On a more ... [ Read: Newsletter 167 - Draft - Do Not Publish ]

Blackmagic Design has announced the Blackmagic Camera 7.7 update designed to improve the sensor performance for the Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K. This update refines the camera's demosaic algorithm, leading to a more neutral color balance and enhanced sharpness of shadow details for better overall image quality. Blackmagic ... [ Read: Blackmagic Design Announces Camera 7.7 Update for the URSA Mini Pro 12K ]

Michael Nesmith, best known as a member of The Monkees, passed away recently at his home in Carmel Valley, California at the age of 78.  I grew up with the Monkees, like all the kids my age, but later got to know Michael as a Filmmaker when I was hired to serve as DP on an ABC special in the 1990's that was every ... [ Read: Remembering Mike Nesmith -- Much More Than a Monkee ]

by James Mathers Cinematographer and Founder of the Digital Cinema Society (Excerpted from the December 2021 Digital Cinema Society eNewsletter) The world of in-person events and entertainment has been thrown into chaos amid an explosion of COVID-19 cases.  While this might seem like a headline from March ... [ Read: DCS Continues to Adapt to a World Impacted by the Covid-19 Pandemic ]

Over the past several months Netflix has been working on ways to increase production resources around workflows to help provide better guidance and best practices. As a result, they created a web portal known as the Partner Help Center to help filmmakers successfully navigate the rapidly evolving technology associated ... [ Read: Netflix Offers Filmmakers Tech Guidance via Partner Help Center and YouTube Channel ]

In this practical demo, Cinematographer and Founder of DCS James Mathers and Cinema Lighting expert Ron Sill set up various light modifiers designed to work with the ARRI Orbiter to show their effect lighting on-camera talent.  Featured products include ARRI Orbiter Lenses as well as Soft Boxes from both DoP Choice ... [ Read: James Mathers and Ron Sill Explore Light Modifiers for the ARRI Orbiter ]

After the success of our first Los Angeles area event since the start of the pandemic held October 23rd at Camera Division, we decided to take our show on the road.  So, on December 8th, we held an event in Chicago at Atomic Imaging/Golan Studios. Featured technology included Infinity Photo-Optical lenses for Micro/Macro ... [ Read: DCS Returns to Live Chicago Area Event ]

BB&S Lighting has added a Compact Bicolor Fresnel to their family of Compact Beamlight LED fixtures. The small (5.5-in/14cm) Fresnel draws just 38W and outputs over 2400 lumens, tunable from 2700 to 5600°K. The new CFL features a genuine curved glass 90mm Fresnel lens for an even field distribution and sharper ... [ Read: BB&S Lighting Introduces New Compact Bicolor Fresnel ]

by James Mathers Cinematographer and Founder of the Digital Cinema Society (Excerpted from the November 2021 Digital Cinema Society eNewsletter) I shared earlier this year in an essay for DCS that I finally decided the time was right to invest in a mirrorless stills and motion camera. With an original Canon ... [ Read: Picking A Mirrorless Camera With a Little Help From My Friends ]

IBC has announced that the in-person convention scheduled to take place on December 3-6 at The RAI auditorium in Amsterdam, has been cancelled. The move follows growing concerns about the COVID-19 situation in The Netherlands, which has deteriorated over the past week, and feedback from the IBC exhibitor and ... [ Read: IBC 2021 has been Cancelled ]