[ 00:00:19 ] It’s been two years since we talked.
[ 00:00:22 ] We were here two years ago to launch a science version 1.0 to the industry and it wasn’t particularly new at that time. It had actually been in development for 10 years but it was finalized as a version one with the confidence that it wasn’t going to change for a while and that really helped get a quick manufacturer who is comfortable with implementing the specifications for color management from camera all the way through to display and design visual effects and on set in the middle. So in the two years we’ve seen broad spread adoption from small indie films commercials to big tentpole movies there is one that just opened last weekend that used aces the end superhero movies. And what we’re also finding is that in other markets where you wouldn’t think that car management was top of mind for them turns out car management is now top of mind in particular in video games. Epic’s Unreal Engine now includes Acer support for more cinematic look we are seeing some activity in virtual reality with any brand new technology that comes out despite technology the first thing that the companies and the practitioners and the film makers and content creators or in the case of or the experience creators tried to do is just get a picture up on display. And that’s largely what that part of the industry has been going through. And as you get the basics down like not dropping frames or getting sufficient spatial resolution you then work your way down the list to the other more nuanced parts of the system which include color management.
[ 00:01:59 ] So we think that the time is right for the various virtual reality display manufacturers to get together and agree on display calibration standards.
[ 00:02:11 ] So then you can have a robust robust code management throughout the system which any visual storytelling or visual entertainment medium must have because that’s part of the quality of the picture and the experience for the end user the value of standards is that you have a common infrastructure that everybody can innovate on top of the pieces of the system that nobody makes any money on like file formats. Nobody makes any money on file formats. It’s the content that’s carried around in those file formats and various display platforms where the real value is. So if you don’t have that plumbing in a standardized way there’s no market to grow. If you look at the motion picture industry the reason that that one of the reasons why I grew into a global 40 billion dollar business over 120 years or so is because of the 24 frames per second frame rate standard the sound standards that came along the line the aspect ratio standards as it came along the line that there’s plenty of room for creative flexibility within those standards if the standards are done right. But you have to nail down certain aspects of it. We wouldn’t have had the Transcontinental Railroad if the the space between the rails was not standardized. Imagine going to Home Depot and buying screws and there’s no such thing as 6:32 or 10:24 or whatever the numbers are. Those are all standards. So in terms of color management and display calibration standards it’s the same thing in the digital world. You have to have the basics nailed down. Otherwise there’s no room for growth there’s no room for innovation.
[ 00:03:59 ] Again it provides the foundation for one to innovate on top of if you go back to what happened in visual effects and the groundbreaking movie for visual effects digital visual effects was Jurassic Park and the comment from people that left the audience was Boy those dinosaurs were so believable I couldn’t tell the real ones from the fake ones. So the technology had progressed to the point where you could have seamless integration of that and you only get that if your if your platform underneath gives you those tools so in the case of mixed reality or augmented reality formats if what you’re really trying to do is building the fake dinosaurs with the real dinosaur as well then those are the pieces that you have to take care of.
[ 00:04:41 ] Now you may want to have your fake dinosaurs look very different from the real dinosaurs so you still want that control the creative control. And that’s the real benefit that these sorts of standards like aces provides the content or experience creators is control over their experience and their content. I think cinema will always be cinema and virtual reality is now just beginning to figure out what virtual reality will be. Same thing with augmented reality. In my opinion they are different things. One is called content the other has experience. Those are those are very very different things.
[ 00:05:35 ] Well in any innovative environment where you’re creating something new there will just by the very nature of innovation that will be new ways of approaching things so when you talk about lots of color management there’s lots of proprietary color management mechanisms that are unique to the company or the facility that is working in that environment. And that’s one of the benefits you get with digital technologies if you know how to write software if you learn a little bit about math and science you can roll your own.
[ 00:06:04 ] You can make up your own way of doing that’s largely what happened for many years as we move away from motion picture film and all the standards that came from that. And the industry flourished under that but you get to a point where innovation is limited. So now that we have new technologies coming online like high dynamic range Well everybody has a different opinion about what a high dynamic range image a good high dynamic range images and that’s that’s a necessary dialogue and debate to have right now.
[ 00:06:33 ] But then you move away from the need for specialized color management because now you’re talking about something different. So everybody needs to get on the same plane in terms of moving the bits around because that’s already figured out now. And there’s no reason to really differentiate. There is a reason to differentiate on the new things because you’re still trying to figure it out and where quite often happens when you get a new medium or new technology it leverages off of what you already have. Think about what happened when television first came and it was basically a shooting stage plays and it wasn’t until multi-camera shoots came came on board that you got some new creative possibilities with that and go back even further when motion pictures first started it was the same thing.
[ 00:07:20 ] They were just static blocked off shots until the camera started to move around and then the technology evolved and the sound was added. Where that art form really flourished. And I think you’ll see the same thing with these new forms of experience that are coming on line.
[ 00:07:44 ] So in the two years since we released Ace’s 1.0 to the industry as I mentioned earlier it’s found widespread use.
[ 00:07:52 ] It’s established itself as a core management archiving and digital image interchange platform sufficiently enough where we can now begin to go to work on taking it to the next level. So in service of that we have some new leadership of the project that’s still under the auspices of the Motion Picture Academy but we have heads of technology production of technology from Marvel Studios HBO the locks that are leading the effort and we have issued a call for participation to the entire industry to people using a service. The experience people the people there are new to aces to take it to the next level and make of the things that are a little challenging to do within that infrastructure a little easier and bring more functionality to it to to help these next generation content experiences.
[ 00:08:39 ] Just be a little easier to create if you want to get more involved and you want to put your imprint on the in and color coding system.
[ 00:08:55 ] We encourage you to go to ISIS central dot com. That’s the easiest portal for everything for filmmakers for equipment manufacturers for facilities people for engineers. That’s the place to have a discussion. And there are connections from other user groups online into the central and vice versa or really trying to do is build the community and involve all of the existing communities that are out there.
[ 00:09:17 ] So we we reduce the standards that are useful to everybody.
Thought Gallery Channel:
Backstage Conversations
Backstage Conversation Season: 2017