14 April 2016 – For her new IMAX documentary (‘A Beautiful Planet’), director Toni Myers knew she wanted footage from the International Space Station (ISS). But sending up a crate of IMAX equipment was not going to happen. So astronauts did the shooting with Canon 4K digital cameras – the photos downloading straight to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
NOTE: 4K resolution, also called 4K, refers to a display device or content having horizontal resolution on the order of 4,000 pixels. Several 4K resolutions exist in the fields of digital television and digital cinematography. In the movie projection industry, Digital Cinema Initiatives (commonly referred to as DCI) is the dominant 4K standard. I made the move to 4K last year, obtaining GoPro consumer 4K video production cameras for my video crew for about $3,000. They will get cheaper. For my photo/video readers that’s shooting at 2704×1524 at 30fps enabling high resolution, cinema quality capture. We shot 22 videos in Barcelona with that equipment, and we just shot a new series in Rome, Italy on math, predictive coding and AI – all cinema quality capture – that looks stupendous. And those are just the rough cuts without editing.
I learned about A Beautiful Planet from Signe Brewster, a contact of mine who is a science and technology writer with experience in robotics, virtual reality, 3D printing, drones and space. Some details:
Myers arranged for a Canon EOS C500 4K Digital Cinema Camera and two Canon EOS-1D C 4K cameras to be transported from Earth to the ISS in November 2014 via an unmanned supply ship, and were received by NASA astronaut Terry Virts, astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti from the European Space Agency and Cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov.
This was the first time that 4K cameras were brought aboard the space station for a commercial film project. During a six-month mission at the ISS, Virts, Cristoforetti and Shkaplerov worked closely with NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Butch Wilmore, Scott Kelly, and Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to take turns using Canon’s advanced digital cameras and lenses to film footage of lightning storms, the continents, volcanoes, coral reefs and bright city lights on Earth for the film. One of the film’s greatest and most dramatic highlights, the striking imagery of the Northern Lights – yep, the aurora borealis – was captured by NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren. These awe-inspiring images were previously unattainable in such stunning resolution.
From the Canon press release:
The Canon EOS C500 4K (4096 x 2160-pixel) Digital Cinema Camera is capable of originating uncompressed RAW output for external recording to meet the demands of premium cinematic productions and other top-quality production markets. It features a Super 35mm, 8.85-megapixel CMOS image sensor, DIGIC DV III Image Processor and an expansive range of recording and output options specifically for 4K and 2K image acquisition. The compact, lightweight Canon EOS-1D C Digital SLR camera delivers outstanding video performance and provides video recording at 4K (4096 x 2160-pixel) or Full HD (1920 x 1080-pixel) resolution to support high-end motion picture, television production and other advanced imaging applications.
Toni Myers has been editing, writing, producing and directing films specifically tailored for IMAX since 1971. Her most recent documentary feature film, 2010’s “Hubble 3D,” has grossed nearly $70 million.
I was invited to a sneak-peak of A Beautiful Planet and IMAX is a perfect format for the film’s spectacular and immersive imagery. It will start hitting theatres in earnest after the premiere in NYC this weekend. See it.
A note on GoPro and design
GoPro is a powerful global brand, thanks in large part to its innovative cameras and accessories that capture moments other cameras just miss. They always have a large presence at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
And talk to their big data architect and director of business intelligence on how they wrangle, transform, and make sense of diverse, real-time data, and their Hadoop data management strategy, and how their dashboards and reports leverage disparate datasets and wow … impressive.
But it has struggled to keep up momentum since its initial public offering in 2014 as competition from phones — like Apple’s — and drones has increased, putting pressure on innovation.
It was not moving fast enough. And it certainly has not done enough to take advantage of its brand’s strength among its niche audience of action sports enthusiasts, and the possibility to sell products other than cameras.
Then this week … ta da! .. the company snagged Danny Coster, who has worked for Apple for more than 20 years and holds more than 500 design patents. His contributions to Apple design are legendary. It was a rare defection from the elite and secretive industrial design team at Apple. (GoPro shares rose 20 percent on the news and trading was more than double the three-month average volume).
So now they have an Apple veteran to head their design efforts, to get their mojo back.
Why is design important? Design is not just what something looks like and feels like. Design is how it works. Steve Jobs mastered that. Good design is building a product around users and keeping its branding consistent. It’s artistry and engineering
Look at the iPad. Six years after the iPad came out, we’re STILL debating whether or not you can actually make things with it. Jeez. So a test. Go on the app Tilt Brush. I guarantee within minutes you’ll be crafting flowing, gorgeous stuff … in midair.
For my e-discovery readers, it explains the growth and strength of design mavens like Brainspace, Logikull, and Mindseye. They combine the worlds of design, technology, and business. These are not three different things.
And that’s why I think we are onto another level of perspective – virtual reality is going to completely change design. The sensation of creating in virtual reality is nothing short of godlike the first time you try it. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that you can literally draw in glowing light, burning fire, or shimmering stars.
But it’s gutturally (is that a word?) remarkable because you can walk around the room, viewing your creations from any angle – even crouching down or moving your nose just inches away – and your mind accepts them as real. Ok, real enough. But use a magical paintbrush to paint the reality they you can otherwise only imagine … and then mock-it-up in 3D (soon to be 4D).
Designing a house? You can add a window to see how it increased light. A schoolroom? You could craft a taller chair that allowed the back row students to see over the kids in the front of the room. An app? You can simulate running an iPhone loaded with your startup’s latest app in that space.
No, you’ll never actually forget that there’s a 1.2 lb pair of goggles on your head. Our mind knows virtual reality is fake. But your limbic system ain’t so sure (hat tip to my neuroscience readers). When you combine that phenomenon with how good a creation feels in virtual reality, design gets interesting, really fast.
More in my next post.
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