missiondigital.co.uk
His Dark Materials (2019) BBC, HBO / Director: Tom Hooper Cinematographer: Suzie Lavelle BSC On Set DIT: Alex Golding, Phil Humphries Digital Lab Operators: Ram Tripathi, Matt Pugh, James Khan, Matt Williams
As digital cinematography gained traction, my specific skillset was increasingly in demand. I teamed up with Jody Neckles and Tom Mitchell with a view to providing training for DITs and this idea combined with the idea of a company being the sum of its individuals coalesced into building our own business model and forming Mission Digital was the result. The idea of what can be achieved as a community remains a core value for the business.
When you think about cinematography, the impression is that it has profoundly changed over the last 20 years. Most cinematographers want a single camera to point at the actor and to tell that story. You think of the historical changes in cinematography and most people would agree the switch from black and white to colour was the most significant. Next to that would be the introduction of VFX and CGI, but the impact on cinematography seems to have not been acknowledged. You might not say VFX has an impact on cinematography, but it does to support the visual narrative and that links directly to our services.
Small Axe (2020) BBC, Amazon Studios Director: Steve McQueen Cinematographer: Shabier Kirchner On Set DIT: Jacob Robinson
Constant Evolution Mission is one of the world’s leading DIT and digital dailies services companies with an exceptional list of feature film and high- end drama credits.Mission’s technicians support many of the world’s most in-demand cinematographers with an explicit agenda to enable the creative team to focus on storytelling with the confidence that the integrity of their vision will be communicated from the point of capture all the way to post and the final master.
The Future Virtual production will no doubt have an increasing impact on cinematography. It provides context for the on-screen talent to react with, unlike the coldness of green screen.
A shared agenda is to reduce the time between the studio’s capital investment and seeing the finished project. You spend five years developing a script, six months in pre-production, three months in production and nine months in post. What can you do to reduce that timetable? We’re probably tapering off what you can currently do to accelerate the production process. And everyone would love to accelerate the pre-production and post production processes.
Artificial intelligence will definitely have an impact. We’re already working within an increasingly global context with work distributed to VFX artists around the world. A predictable next step will be getting that camera negative into the cloud for VFX work more rapidly.
As a business, Mission’s focus is on scalability, consistency and field-ready solutions supported by highly skilled and company trained technicians. Mission’s vision is to better connect the worlds of pre, production, post and VFX within one holistic workflow from data integrity to consistent colour management and efficient VFX metadata collation.
The net result? Seamless post and VFX workflows to follow where the savings can be better applied to creative outcomes. Mission’s new facility at Shepperton Studios includes 4K HDR monitoring and laser projection within a grading theatre, ideal for reviewing rushes and setting up colour pipelines, DI and final grade alongside further lab services and technical support. The facility has high-speed internet connectivity and an industry-first, direct connection to AWS for clients looking for the fastest and most secure back up of their native assets to the cloud. The Shepperton Studios location brings Mission’s unique offer even closer to their customers.
robust approach. Yes, you can save your assets in the cloud but for the majority of our customers there is still the need to hold and ‘own’ a physical asset. With ccktech we have installed the Spectra T50e and more recently T120 Tape Libraries saving to LTFS and LTO 7, LTO 8 and soon LTO 9 as tape storage capacity has continued to grow exponentially. LTO has such a small footprint. Spectra Logic are preferred because they have LTO Tape Libraries specifically built with media customers in mind. Their Media Lifecycle Management system ably demonstrates how they understand our needs. I’m interested to understand more about their hybrid approach to working with cloud storage which sounds in line with our company ethos.”
Mark Purvis, Managing Director, Mission “I don’t expect anything from CCK except good service. They always go the extra mile. We trust in ccktech’s advice and judgement and feel that we always get good value without the need to shop around.”
Spectra T120
ccktech.com
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