At this week’s HPA Tech Retreat in Palm Springs, the American Society of Cinematographers premiered its Standard Evaluation Material II (StEM2) project — a 16-minutes short film that was made to offer a consistent baseline while evaluating a myriad of different technologies and workflows used to produce and display movies and episodic series, with an eye toward maintaining the filmmakers’ intent.
The test material will be available on an ASC website, for free in roughly 25 theatrical and home TV formats, including combinations of 2K, 4K and 8K resolution; standard and high dynamic range (HDR10 and Dolby Vision); and Dolby Atmos, 7.1, 5.1 and stereo sound. A behind-the-scenes video is also in the works.
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The completed short film was screened during the HPA event, while the details of the project were discussed during a panel featuring writer/director/producer Jay Holben, producer Wendy Aylsworth, producer and post supervisor Joachim “JZ” Zell, and second unit director/cinematographer and stunt coordinator Steven Shaw (who also has a brief appearance as a scientist in the short).
The Mission follows a group of scientists aiming to thwart the plans of an evildoer and is highlighted by a car chase through the desert, which was shot over five days last summer. This included interior and exterior locations at the Blue Cloud Movie Ranch in Santa Clarita; ARRI Creative Space in Burbank using its LED wall for virtual production and for video playback for plates for interiors of the car chase sequences; and Studio 60 in downtown Los Angeles for additional interior and night exteriors.
Zell noted that before starting production, the ASC’s Motion Imaging Technology Council created a list of what they hoped to test with the images. This included high dynamic range scenes, detail in dark scenes, wide color gamut elements, motion jutter, integrated test charts, in-camera VFX, compression and various lighting conditions, and skin tones.
The test also involved a range of technologies, including various digital cinema cameras and lenses with metadata capabilities and virtual production techniques.
Shaw emphasized safety and “nobody gets hurt on my sets,” adding, “we weren’t going to crash any cars, we were just going to do high-speed precision.”
StEM2 represents the same sort of wide initiative as the 2004 production of the 12-minute StEM short — a scene from an Italian wedding in various lighting conditions — that was led by the ASC and studio consortium Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI), which was used to evaluate and set technical specifications for digital cinema in its early days.
The Mission was produced with backing (monetary and/or services) from 33 studios, technology companies and other stakeholders, including a seed grant from Epic MegaGrants, and support from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Science and Technology Council.
