Scott Talbot Examines The Extremes of Love in Post-Apocalyptic Drama

interview and copy written for RED

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A woman flees through a forest as gunshots ring out around her at the start of Scott Talbot’s latest short film, a post-apocalyptic thriller with a twist. Like his previous thrilling short Happy for You which explored the consequences of betrayal, The One That Got Away questions how far you would go for love.

“It’s usually framed positively, but I wanted to ask, can love go too far?” explains the writer-director. “I was taking inspiration from post-apocalyptic films but trying to separate it from the zombie genre. I wanted to create a lawless land that doesn't necessarily explain how the characters got there but acts as a setup for exploring a relationship and behavior.”

Post-apocalyptic world are usually unhinged and this is typically emphasized by shaky camerawork but Talbot was adamant he didn't want any handheld.

“Handheld is one of the first things that producers like you to have on a low-budget film because they think you can move a lot faster. You don't have to move a tripod or a dolly for each setup when you can just have your DP carry an Easyrig or gimbal around. I understand that approach but using it for this story would undermine the creative intent. I wanted the entire film to be on some sort of stabilization; on a tripod, a dolly or a slider, to deliberately go against the grain of the genre.”

Talbot acknowledges a debt to David Fincher who rarely uses handheld and achieves heightened suspense through finely calibrated composition. The 2017 psychological horror It Comes at Night (DP Drew Daniels) was another significant inspiration, he says, “because the filmmakers don't provide a lot of exposition and they tell the story in a very controlled manner.”

Like Fincher, Talbot has been using RED cameras throughout his career starting with the RED ONE then switching to the RED SCARLET-MX, the RED DRAGON 6K and now the RED V-RAPTOR XL 8K. Along this journey he has finessed a workflow that enables him to plan and shoot multiple set-ups on a tight schedule using the additional information in the R3D file to further stabilize, reframe and reposition in editorial.

“RED was the first to really push 4K and then 5K which opened the option of padding around the frame to stabilize or create a move or reposition in post without having to zoom in. RED was very early to provide this opportunity of creating extra space inside of your wider image.

“Now you can do this with pretty much every cine camera but I find that it's way easier to set up in a RED camera. With the R3D file your framing stays in the metadata so you can open it in RED software in post and know exactly what you saw on set. You can create camera moves in post. It's so special, I don't know why more people aren't doing it.

“With other cameras you'll get something like a 4.5K image that doesn't allow you to have a natural one-to-one 4K output. That means, in the end, you're going have to crop down and then rez up. But with 8K you can get the padding and then down-rez and the final image looks incredible. RED is not the only camera that you can do this with but I would say it’s the only company making it a priority in their workflow.”

For The One That Got Away, Talbot and regular DP Ben Meserve recorded 8K on V-RAPTOR XL using Signature Primes framed in 6.6K for every single shot. “This is more frame-padding than I’ve done with any other film. It allows every shot in the film to be stabilized,” he explains.

“For the creative execution I just love what stabilization does to a performance. It gives the actor more freedom room to move. For instance, if they stand up a little earlier in one take and the operator is just half a second late you can still use the take because you have the screen real estate to ensure their head won't pop through frame.

“If you’re in close-up all the time with handheld then your actor tilts their head, even slightly, the emotion or meaning behind that movement is negated by a shaky cam, whereas with a locked-shot, you can tap into the core of the performance. To me, stabilization heightens everything without it feeling unnatural. You're getting this focus on exactly what the character is doing - the tilt of the head, the little eye movement - every detail is captured. In post, working on stabilization, you notice things that you weren't noticing in the offline.”

Working with Meserve, Talbot likes to use 3D animatics to preview every shot. It means that when they arrive on set they know exactly what they’re shooting and where to put the camera. “It really lets me focus on the actors and not worry about the structure of each scene,” he says.

“Of course, if you're shooting Dune you've got 80 people to make sure that the shot that you boarded is going to be the shot that you produce and you can get a much more in-camera final move. But when you're in the woods with only 20 people and the sun is moving you need the tools to adapt.”

The primary location was outside of Portland, Oregon, where they shot for three-and-a-half days. The main house was shot for the first two days. Then they shot the cabin in the woods with the chase scene on the last half day.

“You don’t get the luxury of many takes,” he says. “It might be that the take that the actors are excelling on is not the one with the best camera movement, but with the RED workflow you can find the right pacing of the camera and really dial into it without compromising your image. This allows you to get a very polished look very quickly which on a low budget film is invaluable.”

Aside from a night scene lit by LEDs to mimic fire and another scene lit with a source outside of one of the windows they worked with natural light. This necessitated shooting in blocks so they could work with the sun to maximize the light with the efficiency of moving camera. Aerials shot on a DJI Inspire 3 by cinematographer Andrew Studer and inspired by Netflix science fiction series Dark were blended to match with the RED footage.

Having submitted The One That Got Away to festivals Talbot has already moved onto his next short film project. “With short films you have to hit the ground running,” he says. “My goal was to introduce the antagonist and then tease the ending all in the first 60 seconds. We altered the beginning a little in the edit by taking footage from the ending to heighten the anticipation. It’s still subtle, intimating that she is going to betray her friend, but it's satisfying and I guess we're literally hitting the ground running when this film starts.”

A special thank you to Director Scott Talbot for bringing the RED community behind the scenes of his work on The One That Got Away.

BTS: Nobody 2

IBC

Cinematographer Callan Green on the colourful visual aesthetic of action comedy sequel

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Universal Pictures’ 2021 action film Nobody took $57 million on a budget of $16 million trading on the unlikely premise of suburban family man Bob Odenkirk as an undercover special ops agent. The sequel, also from writer Derek Kolstad and producer David Leitch - the creators of the John Wick franchise - dials up the slapstick as trouble follows Odenkirk’s ‘Hutch’ even while he tries to relax on holiday.

Whilst the fight action scenes are staged with typical aplomb, the job of director of photography Callan Green ACS NZCS was to elevate the look of scenes deliberately set in an unremarkable water park.

“When I first got off the bus for the recce, having previously only seen photos, my first reaction was how are we going to shoot this and make it interesting?” recalls Green who began his career as a clapper loader and assistant camera on Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings. “The script had a whole summer vibe and that was a massive change from the first film.”

The first film’s visual aesthetic was influenced by the signature styling of Korean action movies, with rich, vibrant colours and deep, inky blacks. Nobody 2 had scenes set in the countryside and in daylight neither of which are conducive to high octane suspense.  With director Timo Tjahjanto, Green decided to juxtapose calmer sunlit family scenes with percussive action sequences.

“For my first camera test I just started playing around with colours. I decided to go with pink and mauve and deep blue and green. Basically, I threw a bunch of colour at it and spoke with production designer Michael Diner about including these colours into the set.”

Like the first film, the sequel is shot Winnipeg, central Canada, with a principal location at an actual RV waterpark called Lilac. A small funfair at the park was enlarged as a set construction on site with studio interiors. This amusement park, its arcades and strings of neon lightbulbs, provided Green with the opportunity to play with colour.

“My gaffer (John Clarke) came up with the idea of using a new LED rope light that we could put on each side of the cages that contained the arcade machines. I thought for a second that it might be a little bit overkill but it definitely added to it.

“Then, for the showdown which is set at night, we had multiple Creamsource Vortex8 LED lights dotted around the whole location that we were able to use as backlight or a side light. We had overhead cranes carrying dozens of Astera LEDs to give us a soft overhead ambience and lighting on the ground for faces to balance the contrast. When you’re surrounded by almost like tennis court lighting you can then just bring the colour and volume of the illumination up or down as suits.

“I wanted to add a lot of haze, potentially too much at times, because there's so much blackness around you that without it you don't have that 3D kind of feel. That, mixed in with anamorphic lenses helped it come to life, I felt.”

Since Nobody was shot (by Pawel Pogorzelski) on anamorphic lenses Green settled on this choice before choosing his camera.

“We definitely wanted widescreen and also to lend the film the cinematic quality of a big, bold action film.” He changed up the camera package from Hawk V-Lite 2x with RED HELIUM to Panavision T-Series anamorphic with ARRI Alexa 35 which Green calls “a beautiful combo.”

With colourist Dave Hussey at Company 3 Green created a set of LUTs from which he selected one and then tweaked it slightly after a camera test.

“The way I like to work is to get as many stills references as I can and I'll go to the director and present them with a overall view of what I feel the film should be like, colour wise. I would have read the script at least once by that point, and so I'll be picking ideas from particular scenes and using still references from Shotdeck and Pinterest which have the right colour and vibe. From that I can figure out if we're on the same page or not. I tend to work from stills rather film references because I find it much easier to find the right options.”

Green has also begun using AI as inspiration for looks. “It’s a more specific way of looking at colour, tone and vibe. I don’t really know yet quite how to use AI but it is something that I want to do to be able to create a scene or a storyboard and to just throw up some ideas.”

The choreography of the action scenes were led by Leitch’s 87North Productions and second unit director Greg Rementer were shot multi-cam including an extended fight scene on a pleasure cruiser which is perhaps the most slapstick in the film.

“I was originally pushing to do it all on a gimbal on green screen but we didn’t have the budget,” he says. “Doing it on LED [Volume] would have been even better but there’s no way that was going to happen because the quote we got was something ridiculous like $800,000, so we bit the bullet, and shot it over five days on the water. It was two or three days of main unit, and then two or three days more of second unit with stunt doubles.

“Luckily, the weather held up the whole time. It rained one morning, but they graded it through for consistency. It was difficult because we had to drive the boat down one direction and then I couldn't turn the boat when I wanted to keep it backlit or side lit and also we were in and out of cloud.”

Green requested that the solid metal roof of the boat be removed to permit more light and, since the boat is themed as a rubber duck, he leant into duck yellow, replacing the roof with yellow perspex.

“The one thing I'm really comfortable with is framing. I love to get right in there, especially on anamorphic to really show off what's happening. I also like to keep the camera moving. So that was the choice that Timo and I made, to generally keep the camera moving, maybe add a little bit more handheld and just get in close where we can.”

Green grew up in a suburb outside of Wellington, NZ and began taking stills when his mom bought him a camera. When his brother got into acting his interest in filmmaking was sparked.

In 1993 he helped shoot a commercial for peanut butter “voted the year’s worst ad in New Zealand” he smiles, but encountered an ARRI film camera for the first time. Asking the key grip on set how he could break into the industry the advice that came back was ‘A lot of hard work mate.’”

Green studied photography at high school and got a job as a video split operator (now known as VTR operator) immediately on leaving.

Shortly afterward he found himself part of the rapidly growing local filmmaking scene jumpstarted by Weta and LOTR. “Peter Jackson used to get me to clean his glasses for him. He was really lovely to me. He’s one of many people I’ve met along the way who took me under their wing.”

He won a place at Sydney’s prestigious national film school, leaving in 2003 with a Masters in arts and cinema and never looked back.

Based in London since 2015 Green’s work has included second unit on Christopher Robin, Fast F9 and Fast X, The Witcher and on all nine episodes of Masters of the Air. He shot four episodes of Guy Ritchie’s crime caper series The Gentlemen, a block of Gangs of London (season 3) and another block of four eps of BBC crime drama Guilt.

“Filmmaking for me is about having fun and it's about making a happy set. That’s why the prep work is so important so that on the day everyone knows what we're doing. I've done a lot of TV and the schedules are insane. Everyone wants everything to be bigger and better, so it all happens in prep.

“I’ve noticed that the more that I prep, the happier I am on set. I've also stopped drinking coffee! It was a happy set for Nobody 2 and you get that from a brilliant crew who are just top of their game, and that also comes from selecting the right people in the interviews at the beginning.

“I don't necessarily select gaffer, grip, A camera and so on by what they’ve done before. It’s more about the vibe that I'm getting from them when I interview them. For me, the best crew is a crew that gets on well.”

ends

 

Land, Air and Sea: Flying Pictures has it all

British Cinematographer

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Flying Pictures are the ‘one-stop-shop’ for all aspects of aerial filming, spanning helicopters, planes, drones and even hot-air balloons, including the design and manufacture of specialist equipment to capture the shot. 

Drone filming has long since passed from being an unwieldy toy with novelty value to being a multifaceted and agile suite of tools for extending storytelling possibility. As the techniques and technologies have matured so too has the workflow and the experience of specialist teams of operators, pilots and logistics that help directors and DPs shape their creative vision. 

“We don’t just rock up and offer the classic aerial shot to open a scene,” says James France, aerial camera operator with Flying Pictures. “Our skills and knowledge combined with a growing arsenal of equipment is at the disposal of directors and cinematographers to solve all manner of problems, efficiently and creatively.” 

Flying Pictures is the world’s oldest aerial service company, pioneering aviation filmmaking since the 1970s. Innovation has always been central to the business which, back in 2015, expanded its helicopter filming division by adding the most advanced and experienced drone crews. 

“We’ve worked in some of the most testing places; from high altitude shoots, to filming ships over the oceans, from scene-setting shots of London to action packed sequences in the jungles of South America and Asia,” says Will Glover, Flying Pictures’ director. 

Credited on over 350 productions, Flying Pictures has coordinated and filmed some of the most memorable aerial stunts and action scenes including the Queen parachuting at the London Olympic Games, to filming Tom Cruise riding his motorcycle off one of the largest cliffs in Europe, capturing one of the most dangerous stunt sequences in film history. 

The overall trend has moved away from the single elevated view for an establishing shot to embedding aerial cinematography within a production’s camera, VFX and art departments for all manner of creative solutions with the sole goal of enhancing the narrative. 

“Being able to pivot as a unit, integrate into the wider production and to gel communication together, is of critical importance to make sure the shoot runs smoothly,” says France. “Even on medium or large-size projects people need to pivot much more than you anticipate. That could be due to a script rewrite or a cast sickness, or simply just not having the right equipment or crew, that’s where we can step in and offer a creative solution. With the history and experience of Flying Pictures, we’re not just a drone crew, we’re an integral part of the camera department.” 

He explains, “At Flying Pictures we work with the locations teams on a scout to figure out the type of technology solution and size of unit suitable for the sequence and the logistics of achieving it. We’ll work with VFX departments to capture background plates and to world build and to create the story universes.” 

France recently collaborated with Martin Ahlgren, ASC on an ‘Untitled Jason Statham’ project for director Ric Roman Waugh in the UK and southern Ireland. Needing to get a close-up of the main cast located on a boat but lacking a tracking vessel, the production turned to France’s team.  

“We deployed a drone to achieve an incredible medium close-up tracking shot all the way across the harbour, which you just wouldn’t be able to get with any other camera.” 

France joined Ahlgren and Waugh again for the 42-day shoot for Greenland: Migration, the forthcoming sequel to 2020’s eco-themed blockbuster starring Gerrard Butler. This project involved coordinating and filming aerial sequences on location in London Docklands and Iceland using varied drone systems from a 35kg heavy lift drone to carry a Venice 2 and Panavision lenses to the lightweight and nimble DJI Inspire 3 with an impressive 8K camera system. 

“At the time we were shooting in Iceland there was a volcanic eruption on the Reykjanes Peninsula which made filming a little tricky to navigate but it was actually a perfect backdrop for an apocalyptic storyline, so it worked really well. 

France has been a member of the Flying Pictures team since 2017 and has gravitated from shooting on high end commercials for the likes of Lloyds Bank, Google and Ford and dramas like Pennyworth and Intergalactic to operating on major motion pictures to include Kandahar, Kraven The Hunter, Blitz and Greenland 2. Along the way he has acquired a wealth of experience. 

“It can be quite tricky for the drone department to get access to a production’s directors and DPs and I see it as part of my job to try and break down that communication barrier. I want to make sure that we’re completely on the right creative path so that the camera language established for each production is married to our aerial photography. 

“To do that, we like to work closely with production on a day-to-day basis so we can make those minute changes that means that our camera language, our lens choices, our movement choices all marry up to the story and also with what everyone else is doing on the ground, whether that’s how the grips are utilizing the cranes, dollies and tracks or whether, actually, the shot is conveying a moment of stillness or sadness and no camera movement is necessary.” 

As camera technology gets smaller and lighter this can increase flight times and lend further creative potential to shooting longer scenes, one takes and handoffs.  

“Systems are coming to market which have longer signal range and better battery life which makes the whole package more robust and reliable and gives the production more options.” 

Instead of going to a drone team and having one custom built heavy lifter you can now expect a drone unit to build and fly multiple different systems all transported and managed on location from the same van. “It gives you so much more creativity to conjure up a shot, plan and execute it on the day,” France says.   

Flying Pictures is one of only a handful of companies in the UK to hold an OSC operating permission from the CAA meaning it can fly both heavy and light lift drones as close as 10m from public, buildings and vehicles that are not under our direct control. This opens up a world of opportunities for city centre aerial filming and makes productions life easier requiring fewer lock offs, fewer marshals and fewer permissions ultimately saving time and money. As such, it has extensive experience filming in central London and restricted areas including military bases, airports, diplomatic homes and even Royal Palaces. 

A new world of dynamic camera movement possibilities

The last few years have seen a surge in FPV (First Person View) filmed content. Much smaller than traditional drone systems and flown from the point of view of the pilot, these devices enable productions to position the aircraft much more precisely and achieve some sensational high speed action. 

Camera packages range from stripped-down GoPro systems up to the RED Komodo cine camera. “Our FPV pilots are highly skilled and have years of training allowing them to operate to the limits on every shoot,” says Glover. 

Standard FPV drones

Typically, just FIVE inches across standard FPV drones carry a small payload, something like a GoPro or DJI Action Cam or potentially ZCam E1. Extremely fast and agile with a fixed mount camera, these drones are great for flying in small spaces, through woodlands, chasing bikes or flying under boats. 

“We offer different types of standard FPV drones, some are designed for outright speeds and agility, some designed with safety in mind with enclosed props and even rubber bumpers,” France says. “The best way to evaluate what you might require is to have a chat with one of our in-house pilots, talk through what you’re looking to achieve and we can offer the best advice. It might be you need a variety of different systems to achieve your vision.” 

‍Hybrid FPV drones 

Standard FPV drones offer a great new perspective but shots are limited, usually to a forward-facing fixed mount shot that rolls with the roll of the drone. That’s why Flying Pictures invested in Hybrid FPV drones. As with traditional drone operation these are flown by a pilot via goggles but have a camera and gimbal controllable by a separate camera operator giving the unique ability to get into tight spots accurately and also having the ability to frame the shot perfectly.  

Payloads vary on these systems but Flying Pictures try to keep them as lightweight as possible with the maximum payload being something like a RED Komodo, ZCam or Freefly Ember. 

“We use smaller gimbal systems providing reliable stable and controllable shots at very high speeds,” says France. “We’ve tried and tested these gimbals in some of the harshest environments with exceptional results. Flight times on these systems varies drastically depending on flying style and payload. Typically, we expect to see flight times of around 5-10 minutes but this can be reduced if flying a heavy payload extremely dynamically.” 

Micro FPV drones

Flying Pictures operate micro FPV drones weighing less than 250g that comply with EU regulation regarding open category drone operations.  

“We’re able to fly these systems over people, buildings and vehicles not under our direct control,” France says. “They’re also designed to be super safe, with small enclosed propellers and stripped out GoPro camera to get the weight down to the bare minimum. 

For achieving breathtaking building drop shots, flying over things that normally wouldn’t be possible or simply trying to replicate ‘that bowling alley shot’ then micro drones could be just the job. 

Expand your water-based options

For water-based action sequences, Flying Pictures also own and operate purpose-built camera tracking catamarans that enables productions to capture dynamic shots on the water. The vessels are equipped with advanced camera tracking technology, ensuring stability and precision, even in challenging conditions.  

“Our crew has extensive expertise in building and operating tracking vehicles both on land, and on the water. With experience on Sail GP, the America’s Cup yacht racing and hundreds of Top Gear episodes, we can customise solutions for land or water tracking sequences,” says Glover. “Whether it’s a fast-paced chase scene, a scenic aerial shot, or a smooth tracking shot on the water, we have the expertise and equipment to bring your vision to life.” 

All under one roof

“We put our comprehensive resources at your disposal,” says Glover. “We have an in-house operations team, an expert engineering department with unparalleled technical expertise, vehicles from helicopters and drones to boats and custom-built tracking vehicles plus all variety of camera systems, gimbals and Shotovers meaning we can tailor the camera and lens packages to suit any requirement. 

“Plus, we have experienced pilots and camera operator teams with years of experience in creative collaboration with production to deliver the most exacting and outstanding shots you need.” 

IBC2025: 5G Finally Winning for Live Sports

Streaming Media

Rewind to last year and 5G was still more proof of concept than real world scenario. Not any more.

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“5G is here and real,” said Brad Cheney, VP, Field Operations & Engineering, Fox Sports at the IBC2025 trade event in the Netherlands.

Fox been trailing 5G for transmitting feeds as part of an outside broadcast for the best part of a decade. Now 5G is a staple of its sports coverage, including at the US’ biggest event, Super Bowl.

“The goal was that 5G had to be deployable, easy and should not involve a lot of engineers. We are now able to do that. We needed upload of 120Mbps constantly across the network because that gives us the response our broadcast teams are used to. Together with Verizon we achieved that at two successive Super Bowl and are replicating it at multiple events.”

5G has really started to deliver for live broadcast, confirmed Jake Kornblatt, VP, Verizon Business. “Previously, when I’ve come to IBC, 5G was proof of concept. Now there are actionable use cases in sports and connected venues delivering real RoI.

“At Taylor Swift concerts too the younger generation are not just taking pictures but streaming live to Insta or Facetime to bring that experience to people who aren’t in the venue. That is what our upload capability does. We see the same thing in sports.”

At Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, Fox Sports were returning video to iPads over 5G under 200ms. “We run hundreds of belt packs from Bourbon Street onto the field with no latency, no trading off multiple sets of gear and no loss of communication – that was not possible before,” said Cheney.

Verizon has deployed private 5G across all NFL venues. “On the fan side this enables cashless checkout, accelerated access, facial recognition – all things that maximise revenue for teams and leagues and improve fan experiences,” said Kornblatt. “We provide critical gameday connectivity for teams and broadcasters including Fox Sports. The same tech can be taken internationally to NFL games in Dublin, Madrid or London. We even have a private 5G demo here at the IBC in Hall 14.”

Verizon is the official telco partner for FIFA World Cup 2026 in North America & Mexico. “FIFA is one of the most tech heavy companies there is,” Kornblatt said. “We will be with them step by step to deliver the greatest show on earth and that includes connecting refs and coaches and team members throughout the event.”

In the session: Live sports at scale: Breaking new ground with emerging technology the focus was on how sports broadcasters can deliver more content to more platforms faster than ever.

“The Paris Olympics had over 60 concurrent streams at any time and 300 events on any day,” explained Mansoor Fazil, Director of Global Platform Engineering, NBCU. “That’s a huge challenge with scheduling and observability of operations. Preparation and having resiliency at every layer of your stack is essential.”

BT, a distributor for TNT Sports in the UK, has pivoted to doing encoding in the cloud. “The biggest pain point is the transition from broadcast viewing to OTT,” said Colin Phillips, Principal Architect IPTV, BT. “We constantly set new bitrates records for our network. Last season we had 33.7TB of Premier League football over our network. Managing those volumes has been a key concern for us as a telco. We have though been seeing bitrate savings up to 60% in our trials.”

Marcos Obadia, SVP Global Engineering and Media Technology, TelevisaUnivision said, “There are still a lot of manual conversations that have to happen to ensure the experience is flawless from subscriber management to encoding.”

JioStar reaches a billion people with cricket broadcasts in dozens of languages for the India domestic market.

“It’s a very complex operation,” said Prashant Khanna, Head, Production Services, Studios & Production Tech with understatement. “Can you react to the first moment a viewer issue arises and address that constantly and instantly. There are so many variables at play unlike in a traditional linear environment. Here you run in multiple directions to see what could be causing the issue. The ability to identify that sooner and allow fewer people to do it at much bigger scale would be extremely helpful.”

AI on the brink of transformation

If there’s one type of content almost immune to the impact of AI it is live sports. Mike Darcey, former COO at Sky predicted that the authenticity of live sport will become even more distinctive in the age of AI. 

“Tier 1 sport is the only distinct, non-replicable content around and going forward it only becomes more and more standout among an infinite pool of other content.” 

Nonetheless, AI is being used to supercharge production behind the scenes and spruce up presentation onscreen.

Warner Bros. Discovery CTO Avi Saxena explained, “We cannot have an army of humans tagging live content for every goal, yellow card or record being broken. We can and are using AI to detect key moments. Cues can be based on the tone of a commentator’s voice or spectators’ interactions. We can scale that to any sport or country.” 

For example, medal alerts during the Paris Olympics coverage alerted fans when a gold medal was about to be won, allowing them to watch the moment and then return to their original stream.

Saxena said WBD is developing a AI tool to enable fans to replay key highlights of live matches just 3-5 seconds behind the live stream. 

“AI is transforming the world in ways no-one envisioned,” said Saxena. “Media and AI intersect in a very unique way. These are features in our products at different scales, under active development and some experimentation.”

WBD is investing in hundreds of innovations in AI throughout its business from content creation to consumption, he said.

He identified metadata as the key. “The amount of metadata that can be extracted is insane. It has jumped from a few hundred data points to millions and millions. The problem is to optimise ways to extract it all and then activate it in our products.”

 

 

 

Adobe unpacks power of Premiere Pro: “Video editors are now dangerous.”

RedShark News

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Adobe is at IBC promoting Premiere Pro 25.5, which now comes with over 90 real-time GDP accelerated “modern, gorgeous transitions affects and animations,” the company’s Jason Druss, Sr Product Marketing Manager told RSN.

There’s even a ‘Surprise Me’ button, which completely randomises the selection and throws up completely new ideas for your video package.

“Press one button and it randomises everything so you completely change the look of a transition and, if you want, it will never use the same transition or effect twice. You can get lost in exploring and experimenting all the many ways you can boost your video.”

These transitions and effects are courtesy of technology from Film Impact which was recently acquired by Adobe.

“Users have been using their Film Impact tools for almost 15 years now. The first thing we did when they joined us was to made their effects and transitions available for all users in Premiere Pro.  The great thing is that it's included at no additional cost so everyone can work with it from within their plan.”

In fact, the 90 baseline transitions and effects are completely customisable so the number of possible variations runs into the hundreds of thousands.

“They elevate your edit. They make your story stand out from transition essentials to fun options like earthquake and camera shakes to beautiful glows and blurs that really augment and elevate your cinematography and your colour grading.

“And when you do find a customisation that you love, you can save it as a preset and, share it with your buddies or with your colleagues.”

Mapping Same Techniques to New Skills

Druss is an editor himself with 20 years’ experience. He says with the new power of Premiere Pro,  “Video editors are dangerous. Now an interdisciplinary video editor can cut and do motion graphics, grade colour and do audio. By staying in a paradigm that you're used to — dragging and dropping transitions and effects — you are able to get high quality, innovative motion design and animation outputs. It’s quite astonishing.”

Adobe has also added more functionality to the search panel for media intelligence, so it's easier to find audio clips with assistive AI. More dynamic waveforms give you the ability to edit and tweak multiple audio transitions and fades at the same time.

“So many little quality of life improvements just make an editor's day that much brighter,” he said.

Premiere Pro on iPhone

Druss says he’s been editing on his iPhone for a couple years now but now Premiere has an app for iPhone, “It is best-in-class craft precision video.

“It is multi-track. There's real audio waveforms. In a field like social media, where every millisecond counts for your audience to stop them from scrolling, you can edit with precision. You can take b-roll and literally put it over a track.

“Plus, since we have full access to Adobe Stock, you can import Adobe fonts, you can access music, images and video through Adobe Stock right on the phone. There's amazing generative AI with Adobe Firefly, which is commercially safe. That’s important to know for anyone wanting to do GenAI on the go.

“The coolest thing is to generate sound effects powered by AI. You can generate a sound effect of the text prompt, but you can also record your own voice effect into the phone. That audio clip goes up to the cloud and comes back a couple of seconds later, transformed into bespoke sound effect for you to add instantly to your production.”

How finicky is it to edit on timelines and finesse tracks on a small screen, we wonder?

“If you're of the younger generation it’s just quite natural,” he says. “For those of a certain generation, myself included, you'd think it takes a little getting used to, but when you see the multi-tracks and the waveforms on Premiere for iPhone it just makes sense. It really is the timeline experience of Premiere on your phone.

“When you're finished, you can share it to your files, app, or photos or whatever. You can also send it to desktop. I can choose to share it with my project or desktop and send everything up to the cloud. When you open up Premiere Pro on your desktop the project will be right there for you to check or polish or publish, as you wish.”

The AI Question

To what extent should professional film editors in Hollywood be concerned about AI taking chunks of their job in the future?

“GenAI is an additive tool and an enhancement. I don't think we're running into a world where AI is replacing human creativity. Art and commerce and creative output is made by humans. AI helps us work faster and more efficiently, and sometimes, you know, saves our butts.”

An example: what if you needed a few frames to complete the story but you didn’t manage to shoot the video you need? AI can generate the b-roll you need and, with Adobe, you can do so safe in the knowledge that it was trained on footage that it had explicit permission to use.

IBC2025: Supply chain efficiencies won’t save sinking legacy media

Streaming Media

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One word dominated conversations at broadcast equipment show IBC this week – and it wasn’t AI.

Efficiency is on everyone’s lips. With little genuine tech innovation around the legacy media business and the vendors who supply it are battling to survive by stripping cost and speeding processes. Applying artificial intelligence to pretty much everything seems to offer the only hope for broadcasters needing to balance the books before their audience is vaporised by streamers, social media and YouTube.

Delegates arrived at IBC this year in a state of flux, unsure of the direction to turn as tumbling economics and AI frenzy turn the industry inside out. 

Broadcast kit trade body IABM set the scene: “This marks the second year we see a progressive decline, with a softening in market confidence and an increase in negative sentiment following a peak in 2023,” said its Head of Knowledge and Insight, Chris Evans.

The impact of Covid, global conflict and tariffs (real or threatened) have put media into a tail spin – but arguably these macro forces have only hastened the inevitable.

“The streaming wars are over. Netflix has won. Let’s move the fuck on,” media cartographer Evan Shapiro told IBC.

The IABM highlighted French broadcaster TF1’s first of its kind ‘partnership’ with Netflix (to allow the streamer to distribute its programming) as a strategy that could be replicated.

“Limiting content distribution alienates the next generation of audiences, for whom content is more important than platform,” said Evans.

The traditional media market is “stagnant” according to Shapiro “while Netflix has doubled its value from $200bn to over a half a trillion dollars.” He was referring to the challenge faced by studios like Disney and WBD which retain (currently) the weights of a linear business.

For Shapiro, the real battle is no longer between streamers but between traditional media and what he called the “big tech Death Stars” - YouTube, TikTok, Amazon.

“Big tech is big and it’s in a dominant position, but it’s not in control. The audience is.”

Reaching that audience before it deserts entirely to social and streaming is the headache facing broadcast media executives.

“Media production has been done the same way for 60 years,” said Lewis Smithingham, EVP at strategic consultancy Monks. “The biggest change has been the way we have to deliver. Audiences are more fragmented and they are across a wide number of locations. We cannot use a straight line of sight any more since there is no primary platform.”

His proscription was ‘Cloud Native Agile Production’.

“We can use software running in the cloud to get to these new audiences – because software moves at a much faster rate. There is a misconception with cloud that it is expensive. Well, yes, if you leave it on the whole time. If you leave your aircon on the entire summer it is expensive. What we need to do as an industry is take the efficiencies in traditional IT and bring it into production.”

It seems strange that we’re even talking about a reticence to move to cloud but it only demonstrates the huge lift and shift operation that most broadcasters and studios are still going through.

“We now have real world experience of helping broadcasters navigate the shift from satellite and fibre to an IP first infrastructure,” said Stephen Stewart, Executive Member, IET Media Technical Network. “We’re not just talking about cloud-based disaster recovery - now cloud is beginning to redefine broadcast.”

Vendors like Imagine, Avid and Grass Valley have shifted their hardware based products of a decade ago into cloud. Noting this, Marc Aldrich, CEO, Zixi said, “The elements that were once purpose built are now into the cloud. The industry is going through a massive transformation but cloud introduces a level of agility that allows you to achieve greater efficiency than ever before. “

Martins Magone, CTO at Latvian-based SaaS cloud playout vendor, warned against co-opting existing hardware into the cloud. “It will not work. Microservices are the key.”

Anastasia Melnikova, Solutions Architect, Gcore which offers CDN, hosting and edge cloud services said if broadcasters wanted to stay competitive they needed not just cloud but AI.

“The AI infrastructure and the streaming structure is converging,” she said. “The direction of travel  is that broadcasters will have one cloud provider that can do CDNs, encoding and all the digital AI models for subtitles and content moderation.”

Examples of how AI is now delivering efficiencies in the media supply chain abounded at IBC. Warner Bros. CTO Avi Saxena was among those talking up the impact of AI in-house at the company.

AI is to scale subtitling. Tech built on Google’s Vertex AI development platform is automatically converting video content into text to make HBO Max’s captions more accurate. This cuts costs relating to generating captions by up to 50%, while creating new file captions can also take up to 80% less time, he revealed.

“If we did ten languages before now we can do 20 languages without blowing up the cost and without taking two years to do it. We are using GenAI in very carefully chosen approaches where it makes sense but still keeps the core of our business safe.”

Tubi is doing something similar by using multi-modal AI to extract rich semantic scene-based metadata from its catalogue of 300,000 titles.

“Folks spend a hundred hours a year on streaming services finding something to watch,” said Blake Bassett, VP of Product for Tools & Infrastructure, Tubi. “Humans are hit by 7GB of information every day – this is the same amount that people used to consume in a lifetime. But if you know a lot about your content and a lot about your audience you can then accurately infer what other content they might like using AI and surface fresh content.”

In tests this using AI to tag and surface content outperformed third party data. “We’ve seen double digit increases in watching, conversion and retention,” he said.

Tubi are using similar multi-modal AI to match the right ad to the right person at the right time. “Do that in a way that works for brands and audiences and we can charge an elevated rate to advertisers.”

All of the talk about AI at IBC concerns efficiencies in the supply chain. Very little concerned GenAI’s ability to create content itself. In fact, this issue was studiously avoided as a ‘no comment’ by vendors like Adobe when asked. That’s because GenAI and content creation is a sensitive issue.

It’s kind of deemed okay if captioning and translation teams lose their jobs under the mask of ‘AI efficiency benefits’. Such folk fly under the radar. No-one here is yet grasping the nettle of front line artist redundancies even though the freelance market is being decimated.

“Using GenAI for final pixel content creation is the biggest dilemma at Warner Bros, said Saxena. “We build around content creators. We have IP, we work with actors and we want to be very respectful of that. We're moving very cautiously so as to not alienate the bread and butter of this business. We still think generative AI is not going to replace talent.”

Yet making film and TV is as expensive or even more expensive than ever. Mike Darcey, former COO at Sky TV turned industry commentator highlighted this is the next big bottleneck.

“The cost per hour of big shows is getting beyond the budgets of many ad-funded broadcasters. There are still powerful commissioners who decide what to greenlight and what risks to take which means many creative ideas do not see the light of day,” he said in a IBC keynote.

“We need to consider the possibility that it will no longer cost $100m to make a movie, or $10m an hour for high end TV. It might soon be $10k or less, which would seem to mean it would be open to almost anyone with a good idea. It’s brave to exclude that possibility entirely.” 

IBC2025: An industry being taken over by creators

Streaming Media

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“We consider broadcasters as creators,” YouTube told an audience of traditional media at IBC in Amsterdam this week but it is far from clear if broadcasters fully understand the implications.

At IBC, a trade show for technology that underpins the business of TV, the rise of YouTube, the growing professionalisation of content creators and the attempts by vendors to court them was a notable trend.

Fish where the fish are

A billion hours of YouTube is watched on TVs every day and broadcasters need to figure out how to adapt.

“The biggest myth is that YouTube cannibalises TV,” said Justine Ryst, MD, YouTube France. “What we observe is that YouTube is the best ally to TV. Our job is completely different to TV. We do not commission content nor own IP. We offer a global playground for creators with tools to analyse and monetise your audience with global reach.”

She added, “We consider broadcasters as creators.”

Self-described ‘Media cartographer’ Evan Shapiro urged broadcasters to wake-up to the facts and change.

“We now have a melding of mainstream media and the Creator economy into what I call the Affinity economy,” he said. “It's a whole new set of rules. What's fascinating is that traditional media tends to dismiss, the Creator economy, or be afraid of it, but if they really understood that - if they embraced the Creator economy, they could dominate it. But they just choose not to right now.”

For people under the age of 35, YouTube is far and away the number one television device, Shaprio added. “In second place is Netflix and number three is TikTok. I think that the traditional media players don't understand that these Generations matter, and then if they don't adapt and change they're going to lose Millennials, Gen Z and Gen Alpha forever.”

There is some movement. The IABM reported at IBC that the emergence of YouTube as the top TV viewing platform in the US in the past six months (and second behind iPlayer in the UK) is not just driven by the creator economy.

“Broadcasters are leaning into the platform as an opportunity to increase the reach of their content, and commissioning original, digital-first material designed for these platforms,” said IABM analyst Chris Evans.

In the UK the leader is Channel 4 which has grown its audience on YouTube by 169% since putting volumes of content, including long form, on the platform a year ago.

“Younger audiences are moving digital first and while we would like them to come to our app the marketing cost and effort became too hard,” said Grace Boswood, Director of Technology & Distribution the broadcaster. “We fish where the fish are. That’s the logic of our YouTube strategy.”

She admitted that some C4 execs remain sceptical of the YouTube partnership. “To make it work it has to be 1+1 =3,” Boswood said. “We sell our own advertising around our longform content on YouTube with a revenue share that allows our sales team to do their job. They can sell at a better rate than YouTube’s team making it financially positive for us and the risk of experimentation worthwhile.”

The broadcaster remains selective about what the content it publishes outside of its own platforms. Tentpole show Great British Bake Off, for example, remains on TV.

“The discovery of Channel 4 on YouTube is what we need to work on. The more data we get about the audience on the platform is vital.”

Vendors accessorise the iPhone

Broadcasters are not alone in attempting to reach younger demographics. As video technology democratises the business of media creation its leaves vendors scrabbling for margin. Is it possible to retrofit broadcast gear for the creator market?

Several exhibitors were launching new product at IBC directly targeting the TikTok generation.

“The creator market is huge,” declared Peter Barber, CEO at video monitor and recorder maker Atomos. “We're seeing the evolution of the creator market. Creators who once filmed everything on their phone now want to increase their production value. They realise that if they want their video to look better than the next creator, they do that with more professional cameras.”

Atomos has expanded its range of products targeting creators to include a cloud platform for media storage, backup, sharing, and review (ATOMOSphere), a video co-processor for smartphones (Ninja Phone) that lets you record from professional HDMI cameras and the ability to live stream straight into Grass Valley’s AMPP production environment, all from a mobile setup.

The ecosystem is built around the iPhone and it’s not the only company which is now accessorising for Apple.

Blackmagic Design introduced the Camera ProDock, a sub-$300 device with a variety of connectors that attaches to an iPhone and enables additional production flexibility from storage and audio to batteries – helping turn the iPhone into a more professional video tool.

The iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max can already record 4K at 120 frames a second. “With the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max you are now getting optics and capabilities that extends over and above many traditional hardware cine cameras, but because the iPhone only has one USBC connection point you're either going to use that to charge the phone or for one other accessory,” said BMD’s Simon Westland.

Blackmagic also has an app for the iPhone that gives users greater control over parameters like frame rate and white balance.

Adobe has just launched an app for Premiere Pro editing on an iPhone which includes multi-tracks  and audio waveforms. “In a field like social media, where every millisecond counts for your audience to stop them from scrolling, you can edit with precision,” said Jason Druss, Adobe’s Sr Product Marketing Manager. “You can take b-roll and literally put it over a track.”

Fussing with timelines on a small screen might seem anathema to pro editors used to working on Avid or indeed Adobe Premiere’s desktop version but you’re only showing your age, said Druss.

“If you're of the younger generation it’s just quite natural. For those of a certain generation, myself included, you'd think it takes a little getting used to, but when you see the multi-tracks and the waveforms on Premiere for iPhone it just makes sense. It really is the timeline experience of Premiere on your phone.”

Canon, a camera brand which transformed itself from stills to video to cater for the changing needs of the prosumer market, also targeted creators with its latest Cinema EOS model.

Creators are pro kit buyers

“The creator market seems to be where everything's going,” said Philip Harpley, technical product specialist at Canon Europe introducing the new EOS C50. This is a video first market opening up the Pro end of the photo camera market to more video options.”

This camera can shoot 7K video and 32 megapixel stills but importantly it’s the first EOS to feature the full frame 3:2 open gate recording. This enables creators to capture vertical as well as horizontal shots at the same time, output both to different memory cards, primed for social media.

Visiting IBC for the first time was Justin Dawson from the All Things TechIE Podcast. “This is a techie dream to have cranes, cameras and movable devices all here.”

His number one pick of the show was Stream Deck Studio, a control surface for broadcast environments made by Elgato.

Video and podcast producer Laura Wilkes from Communicating for Impact was also looking for kit to buy. “I'm looking for lights that we can use in small spaces and also for a pop-up studio to expand our current kit. I've already been to Sony to check out the FX2 camera if you're thinking about upgrading your camera too.”

Asked how many creators he thought were present at IBC, Atomos’ Barber said, “Pre-Covid the industry was siloed. Broadcast here, prosumer there. Now those lines are blurred.”