Our “Denise” spot has been accepted to be featured on Sony’s VideON Online Network - a website dedicated to educating and entertaining the professional production community.

Kmotion Media’s submission, a TV spot for Aurora Health Care, passed Sony’s multi-tiered review process, to be one of the few TV Commercials Sony has accepted.

See the spot on the Sony VideOn Network (direct link)

Kmotion shot the spot with Sony’s newest CineAlta video camera. The camera is Sony’s first professional handheld digital production camera with a cinematography grade, Super 35mm imager.

To take full advantage of the CineAlta’s Super 35mm sensor, Kmotion also invested in a set of matched Carl Zeiss Prime cine lenses. Like all Zeiss Prime cine lenses, they are manufactured with absolute precision and tailored to the demands of professional cinematography. The Zeiss Prime lenses deliver low distortion, high resolution and excellent color rendition for sharp, punchy cinematically rich images.

The Aurora Health Care spot is the first project Kmotion Media has completed with the Sony CineAlta camera.

Here’s the first spot we shot with our new Sony CineAlta video camera - Sony’s first professional handheld digital production camera with a cinematography grade, Super 35mm imager.

To take full advantage of the Super 35mm sensor, we invested in a set of matched Carl Zeiss Prime cine lenses (also used in this spot). These gorgeous lenses deliver low distortion, high resolution and excellent color rendition for sharp, punchy cinematically rich images.

This Sony CineAlta camera was just released in March 2011 and joins the latest Panasonic digital cinema video camera in Kmotion's production line-up. Released in January 2011 that camera is the first hybrid combining a video camera with a DSLR camera.

Both cameras have a wide array of high-end features including the coveted 1080/24p format favored by filmmakers. Both cameras are able to record at just about any frame rate allowing Kmotion to create high-rez fast-motion or slow-motion effects right in camera. The CineAlta is also capable of high-end 4:4:4 sampling ratio, providing the highest color resolution possible. This allows us the ability to push the color grade and apply multiple layers of visual effects while maintaining pristine picture quality.

We love our new toys!

We’ve just updated the “NEWS” section of www.kmotionmedia.com.

The page now features a user-specific customized 3-D world made of cardboard windmills, rolling hills of denim and other stitched-together elements. The 3D scene was made once and then the sun and moon were made to move through the scene as it would during a 24-hour cycle.

Those scenes were then assigned a specific time-of-day, which was then programmed to play based on each web-user’s clock settings.

So, a viewer on the other side of the earth might see a daytime scene, while a nighttime scene will play for a viewer on the opposite side of the earth. Each user will view a customized movie, based on their computer’s time settings.

Adding to the Emotional Experience: Color Grading and VFX (Visual Effects)

When a project reaches the post production phase, the visuals have been captured. If an exterior scene shows XYZ’s logo signage displayed outside of their corporate office, that’s the scene we will have to work with.
But what if it was shot on a gray overcast day?
What if the piece is supposed to highlight XYZ’s cutting edge new approaches?
What impression would that overcast shot impart?
The tools we work with at Kmotion allow us to use various techniques to develop that shot to strengthen the message and deliver the right emotional reaction.

Visual treatments to this one brief scene might include:

-Bringing up and adding color to the scene.
-Cutting out the gray overcast sky and adding a bright blue one with gorgeous optimistic clouds.
-A subtle cloud movement that would allow a ray of light to hit the logo/sign just right (and with the beat of the underlying musical score).
-A lens flare that grows out of that glint.

All of this might occur in a 3-second scene and might be quite subtle, but it would send a meaningful message to the viewer - one much stronger than the original overcast sky scene.

We use the Post Production Color Grading and VFX phase to not only correct, but also enhance a project.

Correct:

Improve the overall look.
Correct subjects’ skin quality (Smooth out blemishes, wrinkles, redness, etc.).
Correct any issues in the scene (remove signs, shadows, reflections and other imperfections).
Correct any footage issues (over or under exposure, etc.).

Enhance:

Reinforce or develop a color palette.
Create a signature look.
Direct the movement of the viewer’s eye.
Add to the story.
Add elements to the scene.

Questions we frequently ask ourselves as we work through the process:

What are we communicating?
How do we support that visually?
How can we add meaning to the visuals?
Where do we need to focus the eye?
How can the image be improved?
Which color pallet and effects would best add to the emotional experience.