'After Earth' joins exclusive ultra-HD movie club
May 31, 2013 2:04 PM (ET)
By RYAN NAKASHIMA
Associated Press
http://apnews.myway.com//article/20130531/DA6KEC400.html
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Sony Corp. is taking a deeper dive into
ultrahigh-definition video as it comes out Friday with "After Earth,"
the first of Sony's three movies this year both shot and presented in
the emerging 4K digital format. At a screening for journalists, I got a
close-up look at even the pores on Will Smith's face as details were
rendered with greater clarity on the big screen.
Sony and other consumer electronics makers are betting that 4K images
will become the new standard, prompting consumers to buy fancier TVs
just as they did when high definition, or HD, rolled out over the past
decade. It could also entice more people to buy movie tickets to see for
themselves what the super-clear format is like.
But the more detailed images present a host of problems. They use four
times the number of pixels as the current HD standard, which results in
larger data files. Budget-strapped digital effects companies are having
trouble handling all that data. The cost and time to deal with the extra
visual information means the majority of the special effects shots in
"After Earth" - comprising about a third of all the shots in the movie -
were actually worked on in lower-resolution HD.
At the screening I attended, I could see details I've never noticed
before - the actors' tiny skin imperfections, or Smith's salt-and-pepper
whiskers. In a distant shot of Smith's son Jaden running down a
riverbed, I was struck by how many small rocks were defined clearly from
such a distance. Yet other shots that included computer-generated
cityscapes or otherworldly creatures looked less sharp. I was sitting in
the seventh row - close enough to tell the difference. If you sit at the
back of a theater, you might not be able to tell the difference between
4K and HD.
Sony has 15,000 4K projectors installed in theaters worldwide, with more
than 11,000 in the U.S. Other manufacturers such as Barco, Christie and
NEC also make 4K projectors.
So far, major theater chains Regal and AMC are not charging extra for 4K
screenings. AMC says nearly all of its 344 theaters have at least one 4K
projector. Regal says more than 300 of its 579 theaters have a 4K
projector. You'll have to check with your local theater to see if the
movie will be projected in 4K.
The push toward higher resolution follows the industry's emphasis on HD
in recent years. Many TV sets tout the "1080p" resolution standard, so
named because its images are 1,080 pixels high and 1,920 pixels wide. A
slightly wider version with 2,048 pixels across is known as 2K. But 4K
is 4,096 pixels wide and 2,160 pixels high. That gives 4K images 8.8
million pixels compared with roughly 2 million for high definition.
Higher-definition movies are a key component in Sony's strategy to
maximize the benefits of both owning the Sony Pictures movie studio and
making electronic gadgets.
Sony Electronics makes 4K motion picture cameras - such as the F65 used
to shoot "After Earth" - as well as 4K movie theater projectors, 4K TVs,
home media servers that play 4K movies and other technologies needed to
get ultra-HD video from one end to the other. The camera-making division
has even had talks with Sony Music Entertainment about shooting concerts
in 4K.
"It touches an awful lot of the ecosystem," says Rob Willox, director of
large sensor technology for Sony Electronics.
So far, 56 movies have been converted to 4K, the majority distributed by
Sony. Those include ones originally shot on film, including last year's
Oscar-nominated "Django Unchained." Sony's other end-to-end 4K releases
planned for this year are "The Smurfs 2," due out in July, and "No Good
Deed," set for release in October.
After Red Digital Cinema began selling a 4K camera, the Red One, in
2007, companies including Sony and Canon Inc. also began making them.
Thousands of movies have been shot in 4K, but almost all of them have
been shrunk down to HD format before being screened. One exception was
Sony's 2011 remake of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," which was shot
in 4K with a Red camera and also shown in theaters that way. Having
"After Earth" and two others on the release schedule this year marks
another milestone for the format.
"There is a new movement now where movies are actually being shot at
high resolution and finished at high resolution," says Ted Schilowitz, a
co-founder of Red. "We see huge advantages to deliver four times as many
pixels on the screen as HD."
The cinematographer of "After Earth," Peter Suschitzky, says he picked
Sony's F65 digital camera after side-by-side comparisons of footage
taken by other digital and film cameras. Although some people prefer
film for its sometimes grainy, soft, romantic look, Suschitzky says
those benefits are lost when shown in theaters with digital projectors,
as many are today.
He says he likes the look of the movie and regrets that special effects
scenes were mostly done at the lower standard.
"True 4K is amazingly detailed," he says. "The movie is only half in
true 4K. I'm sad about that. It still looks good."
Sony executives say the increased pixel count has made its F65 camera
more sensitive than either film or other digital cameras in low-light
situations, enabling filmmakers to shoot with more natural lighting.
There were some low-light scenes in "After Earth," such as when Jaden
Smith's character is in a cave, but I didn't notice any particular
clarity there. Where I did notice extra detail was in scenes that were
slow and still, and where the actors' faces were shot close up.
Chris Cookson, the president of Sony Pictures Technologies, keyed in on
how the F65 camera catches subtleties.
"Look at how much more lifelike the eyes and faces are," he says. "I
personally think there's more life in human beings when you see them in
a way that doesn't have that filtering effect when you're looking at HD."
The increased number of pixels involved in 4K movies creates extra work
for special effects artists, especially on effects that require a human
touch, such as the pixel-by-pixel cutouts of objects in each frame known
as "rotoscoping."
Working entirely in 4K means a movie could take up to 30 percent more
time, as well more money on labor and better computers, says Jenny
Fulle, chief executive of The Creative-Cartel, which handled the special
effects in "After Earth."
The extra cost and time is one of the reasons that the sci-fi flick
starring Tom Cruise, "Oblivion," was released in 2K in April. It would
have cost an extra $1.5 million to finish the film in 4K, according to
Sony Electronics' business development manager, Keith Vidger.
Jeffrey Okun, chairman of the Visual Effects Society, a nonprofit
organization of Hollywood special effects practitioners, says that
making the change to all-4K effects will be difficult but necessary. He
calls it "another leap in quality."
"No industry has made more leaps in a shorter amount of time than the
visual effects industry," he says.
Ultimately, 4K may mean new TVs for consumers, too.
At the International CES gadget show in Las Vegas in January, several
electronics manufacturers including Sony, Samsung Electronics Co. and LG
Electronics Inc. showed off smaller sizes of 4K TVs whose screens
spanned as little as 55 inches diagonally.
Sony's 55-inch ultra-HD TV is selling at Best Buy for $5,000. Gerald
Belson, a media industry consultant for accounting and consulting firm
Deloitte, says the price is "already at the level of some of the early
1080p sets." His firm predicts that within five years, 4K TV prices will
drop below $1,000.
The 4K format is also an easier upgrade for most people than 3-D, which
in most cases requires wearing special glasses that people find
uncomfortable, says Sweta Dash, an analyst with research firm IHS
iSuppli. The company predicts companies will ship nearly 1 million
ultra-HD sets this year, growing to 7.1 million in 2015 and 20.8 million
in 2017.
Even though there isn't much 4K video content now - and 4K broadcasts
are likely years away - Dash says the format will likely become popular
as TV set prices come down and content grows. But she warned that
studios, theaters and electronics makers need to explain exactly what
people are watching.
Some movies - like "After Earth" - have portions rendered at a lower
standard, and some TV sets touted as 4K have only about 1,000 pixels
vertically, robbing consumers of half of the extra pixel definition they
think they're getting.
"If the content and the picture quality is not up to their expectations,
it can impact this negatively," she says. "The more you clarify, the
better. The less confusion, the better the adoption of the new technology."
---
Online:
Sony's presentation on 4K: http://bit.ly/bIv3pK
Regal's 4K theaters: http://bit.ly/18EoLoH
"After Earth" site: http://www.afterearth.com
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