IMAGICA 4K AND BEYOND WITH BLUEFISH444
01 September, 2014
An old company in the video production industry established in 1935 is IMAGICA. It was announced on October 30, 2013 that a 4K acceptable non-linear editing room was added ahead of next-generation TV programs at the Shinagawa production center, which was the base of the TV program production. 4K is currently the most requested item by manufacturers in the industry, but incorporating it into the production scene is still viewed as something for the future. 4K equipment was introduced by our company a little while ago, but this time around, it will be the introduction of a genuine non-linear editing system. Our introduction may be a litmus test for future 4K production in the industry.
Why introduce 4K now?
4K is still much more costly and difficult to operate compared to HD. Why did our company decide to introduce it given these conditions?
“It was a big deal when the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications announced that a 4K test broadcast would be moved up by two years and begin in 2014 and not from 2016. According to the ministry, a 4K broadcasting environment would be set up with the 2014 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil soccer world cup as the goal, in a 4K/8K roadmap announcement. An environment in which 8K could be experienced would be arranged for the 2016 Rio Olympics and the aim was to be able to view both 4K/8K in a TV broadcast at the 2020 Olympics. With this, there was a companywide policy to genuinely incorporate 4K into the company as well,” said Mr. Kyo Yanagisawa, the TV production I unit ED teamline manager at the company.
Bluefish444 introduced and 60P decisive
There are many small and medium-level managers who voice that there is almost no 4K work at the present time, but requests focusing on TV program production at IMAGICA have rapidly increased and the recently extended 4K non-linear editing room is operating at full capacity.
“The offers to each key station, in particular, have increased. There’s almost everything, such as sports, music, documentaries and dramas, but no variety shows. It looks like it will increase in the future.”
“Bluefish444 (4K 60P Epoch I 4K SuperNova) is the system used in the 4K non-linear editing room which is operating at full capacity. The application is Adobe Creative Cloud. Crescent is a domestic general sales agent of Bluefish444. Other 4K 60P company systems would introduced by IMAGICA in the middle of 2013 and it was introduced because of its user-friendliness.”
“We express our total support for 4K 60P production at our company. The 4K 60P system is limited in editing, color collection and finishing work and we introduced it after quite rigorous internal verification with cooperation from Crescent.”
Motion Capture Studio
There was also a wide motion capture studio which introduced “Vicon”, a motion capture system to the IMAGICA Shinagawa production center. It was originally just the diversion of something in a television program recording studio with a high ceiling (6.6m) that excels in sound insulating properties.
The former Toyo Links was a CG production company that later changed to Links and Links Digiworks, and later merged with Motion Capture Group, originally the IMAGICA group, and is currently known as the Mocap group. It has changed as an organization, but the advantages of this group are its personnel and almost all the knowledge being passed on through them. Mr. Ryuji Tominaga, the IMAGICA TV production Iunit Mocap technical director, is one of those people.
“The breakdown of clients is 80% game and amusement related production companies, and 20% being movie-related and other companies. We mainly focus on data services. At IMAGICA, we directly communicate with directors and CG designers and make proposals related to filming techniques and data production after gaining a deep understanding of the aim of the production and data specifications. We begin by analyzing the contents of a product for filming, and do the necessary preparation of motion lists, cast lists and CG model set-ups for prop and setting production, studio settings, castings and rehearsals. Everything related to motion captures from the recordings of actual performance to post-processing and delivery would be coordinated.”
The floor dimensions are 20m(L)x13m(W)x6.6m(H) and the basic capture area is 12m(L)x8m(W)x4.5m(H) but it can be customized to an area suitable according to the contents. There are 22 Vicon T160 devices and the number of personnel doing simultaneous recording is a maximum of 6 people. They say that there is an insufficient amount of advertising to the industry even with this many motion capture studios.
“I want to use this opportunity to advertise to you that IMAGICA has ‘motion capture service’” (TV Production Iunit Mocap Senior Supervisor Mitsuo Inoue).
