The Dangers of AI Imaging and the Virtual Future of Cinematography

The advent of April brought Cinema Month to RedShark, and with it more glimpses into the future. And, again, NAB was upon us.

Film Month gave us the opportunity to see how technology was changing the way DPs worked. Neil Oseman looked at the various apps that allowed previewing shots, as well as augmented reality software that offered virtual stand-ins. What makes this new world even more interesting is that it’s all software readily available to all of us.

Neil wrote: “The rise of visual effects in film has worried some DPs, feeling that the authorship of the image was being taken away from them. However, as virtual reality and augmented reality become more accessible, this trend may well turn. Virtual production technology allows the DP to see the entire shot he is filming, not just a green screen which may or may not be replaced by the background he was expecting. And if a DP can quickly preview a 3D shot on their phone, that opens up a lot more possibilities for collaboration than the current norm where preview tools are only available to VFX teams.”

Read The virtual future of cinema.

The Risks of AI to Authenticity

Meanwhile, David Shapton examined the effects of AI on the authenticity of images. With smartphones and other devices becoming increasingly reliant on AI to produce images of a quality that belies the sensor used to capture them, how much can we really trust what we see?

This has particular ramifications for legal evidence, which we also looked at with respect to video compression. But if someone takes a photo of a crime committed with a phone and the image has been manipulated by artificial intelligence techniques, can it be considered accurate and true?

David wrote: “I think the video for evidence should be ‘clean’ and not AI-processed. Of course there will always be a level beyond which the AI ​​will fabricate stuff unless it is specifically told not to.

We are only at the very beginning, and the law (and politics) still lags behind the technology. So get ready for some ‘interesting’ legal cases.

Read With AI involved, can we rely on images again?

RedShark goes back to school

Film Month continued with a deep dive into the role of educational institutions in nurturing new talent. RedShark’s Maari Innes looked at what universities offer and the actual relevance of the subjects and experience they offer.

“Since the industry is constantly changing due to new and improved technologies, the challenge is to find the right type of equipment suitable for educational purposes. To have robust, scalable and cost-effective image technology that enables their students to learn how to use the latest technologies to have the skills needed to enter the industry. Above all, giving students the freedom to create their own gives them the confidence and motivation they need at the start of their career. As an alumnus, you really learn by doing and having the opportunity to learn using industry standard equipment is key to doing that.”

Read RedShark returns to school.

Why are modern interfaces sometimes so slow?

From a technology perspective, Phil Rhodes decided to shed some light on something that many of us have wondered: why, despite today’s processing speed of computers, are user interfaces sometimes still slow and slow?

The reasons, it turns out, are many and not so simple. Suffice to say that while processing has become much faster, the data load and code complexity have increased exponentially since the old days of the ZX Spectrum.

To give just one example of what’s going on under the hood, Phil wrote: “Modern computers, including phones, have multiple layers of code, most of which would exceed the memory limits of a ZX Spectrum hundreds of times, between the hardware that reads the touchscreen and the hardware that drives the display . Worse, some of this code may be written in interpreted languages ​​such as Java (on Android) or C# (on Windows), or a language that causes endless controversy over its interpretation: Objective-C (on iOS). Interpreted languages ​​trade computer time for programmer time – they make code easier to write, but slower to run, a Faustian boon.”

Read Why aren’t modern interfaces as responsive as expected?

DaVinci Resolve 18 is coming to public beta

Black Magic Design’s DaVinci Resolve has undergone a huge update with version 18 entering public beta. Those familiar with the company’s public betas know that most of the time the software is pretty reliable at this point. Version 18 of Resolve featured a huge range of new capabilities, using the software’s neural engine.

Collaborative work has been much more streamlined and the company has used Blackmagic Cloud to eliminate the need to rely on third parties for such projects. With Resolve 18, it’s even possible to live stream a 12-bit image anywhere in the world for client-grade monitoring.

New AI-powered features include animal and object recognition for quick masking, and a new depth map effect to allow separate classification of foreground from background among many others.

Read Blackmagic Design Reveals DaVinci Resolve 18 Public Beta and Important Cloud Updates.

April means NAB

After a long hiatus, NAB Show finally resumed operations, and with it, virtual production featured prominently. With Covid affecting the visual arts industries so strongly, there has been much discussion about the future role of major trade shows. However, as anyone who attended NAB will attest, it was wonderful to see so many faces in person, once again.

Maybe the show wasn’t as big as it used to be, but there was no shortage of technology demonstrated. Phil Rhodes delved into the role of motion control in virtual production, as well as the various technologies showcased that power the latest generation of LED volumes.

The success of the show this year bodes well for next, when we start the cycle all over again!

Read all of RedShark’s NAB Show 2022 coverage.

NAB 2022: we’re talking video over IP with Matrox

Speaking of NAB, we had a great chat with Matrox’s Dan Maloney. Network video is another technology that has come to the fore in 2022. Dan showed us the latest developments from Matrox, including its ConvertIP system, which can take SDI or HDMI signals and convert them for transmission over a network. IP and vice versa with zero latency and up to 4K resolution.

Read NAB 2022: We’re talking IP video with Matrox.