All of P+S Technik congratulates Danny Boyle, Anthony Dod Mantle and their team ! The feature film Slumdog Millionaire was by far the greatest winner of yesterday's 81st Academy Awards Ceremony. The vivid movie about a slum kid that wins a Million in a TV show received as much as eight Oscars amongst those are Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Cinematography and Best Director! The combination of a brilliant story, together with technology offering flexibility and efficiency in production and processing of digital footage, made Boyle’s exceptional concept for recording possible: A series of “sets” in Mumbai where used. These sets were actually live locations, meaning only the actors and the crew knew about the shooting of the film, therefore securing true authenticity. The authenticity of these shots proved to be ingenious in gaining the required credibility of the modern fairy tale.

A professional image recording device was needed, but only a device that would not be distinguishable as a movie camera could be used, therefore not jeopardising the real live situation of the unknowing extras. The solution was a hand-held setup: the SI-2K Mini camera head, which can be separated from the rest of the camera body. The head houses a 2/3” CMOS image sensor. In this way, the ‘eye’ of the digital camera can be handled similar that that of a handheld cam. It can also be attached onto a helmet or under a train. The components recording the footage can be placed elsewhere, e.g. in the backpack of Dod Mantle. “You can capture a bit of the life that’s going on around you without people realizing it and becoming self-conscious”, Boyle notes. Thus, the SI-2K Mini enabled them to devise a unique visual style that perfectly suited to the story.
Besides the flexibility of the SI-2K, this digital technology allows to control the quality directly on set by checking the footage on site. Accordingly, the digital technology makes possible the production and handling of large amounts of footage. On the set of Slumdog Millionaire four SI-2Ks have been in operation simultaneously at times. Although it was planned to shoot primarily on 35mm film and to use the SI-2K Mini only for the hand-held scenes in the Mumbai slums, as it facilitates extreme flexibility in shooting methods. In the end, Boyle was so pleased with the Mini’s performance and operation ability under such difficult conditions in the slums, that more than half of the movie was realised with the SI-2K.
The breakthrough of new technologies is always based on the work of pioneers. The British cameraman Anthony Dod Mantle is well-known for being one of these leading pioneers. His 2nd Unit Camera Operator and DIT, the German Stefan Ciupek, has a reputation as a specialist in the HD-Technology. The equipment came from the company Pille Filmgeräteverleih (Wiesbaden/Köln), which supported the new technology not only as the first ones, but also modified the cameras and recording devices in an up to now unique way to adapt to the difficult conditions in the hot and narrow slums of Mumbai. Ciupek determined that the laptops would have to be packed in dry ice so they wouldn’t fail in India’s intense heat. According to Wolfgang Damm, the technical coordinator of Pille, the company “went over the boundaries of technical know how for this film”.

[Official Slumdog Website ]

The Berlinale Talent Campus is an international summit of the most talented up-and-coming filmmakers. The six-day programme is designed for young directors, producers, screenwriters, cinematographers, set designers, sound designers/composers, editors, visual artists and film critics/journalists from all over the world. The Campus is an annual event that takes place parallel to the Berlin International Film Festival.
This year, the Berlinale Talent Campus focused on Turning Points, and addressed the theme: "Suddenly, It All Happened – The Turning Point In Close-Up".

P+S Technik was represented by Anna Piffl, who unwrapped a PRO35 for Sony EX3 and a SKATER Mini Dolly to the enjoyment of a group of young and talented filmmakers. They had the chance to probe and prove the equipment in a short clip production over the days. We like to thank all participants of the Talent Campus as well as the visitors of the Berlinale. We’re hoping all of you have had a good time in Berlin.

[Official Talent Campus Website]

The Micro Salon hosted by the AFC was held at the legendary FEMIS School in Paris, and for the first time was held over 2 days (17./18.02.). Alfred Piffl, CEO of P+S Technik and Andrew Steele of EMIT, our authorized dealer for France, represented P+S Technik on site. The Micro Salon was visited by the complete who’s who of the film industry parisienne. Our clients enjoyed the P+S Technik booth, and also our products provoked huge interest: The 3D Stereo Rig has been assembled with two HD Cameras and was an eye catcher. The SI-2K Mini with Digi Prime lens and optical viewfinder has been besieged by interested folks.
Many thanks to all visitors of the MicroSalon and special thanks to all customers, business partners and friends of P+S Technik. We would be pleased to welcome you to further trade fairs during this and next year.  

[Official Micro Salon Website]

For the first time P+S Technik products were in exhibition at the LLB Show in Oslo. VideoUstyr the newly authorized reseller for Norway handled this local show with expertise and know-how and presented a wide range of P+S Technik products including the SI-2K digital cinema camera, PRO35 and MINI35 Image Converters and the complete SKATER dolly product family.

The first restoration projects applying the P+S Technik SteadyFrame Scanner are finished. Working for MB-Babelsberg, PostFactory has restored and re-mastered 12 films from the late DEFA production phase. Therefore PostFactory scanned the 12 films in 2K, processed and backed up the data, and produced new HD-Mastertapes in Standard HDCamSR 4:4:4. It was the first time the newly developed SteadyFrame 2K Scanner from P+S Technik was used, which has been specially designed for archive applications. This scanner works with an area sensor and a careful-action sprocket-free film transport system for scanning great quantities in short time without harming the film material. It delivers optionally data in DPX, TIFF or CineForm Intermediate format, keeping all options open for restoration, colour correction and vfx. Thanks to its image stabilisation software, the SteadyFrame results have an extreme image steadiness – useful for visual effects shots filmed on 35mm. The scanned film data was colour-corrected on a Baselight system and simultaneously processed with PF-Clean. The restoration software can be linked directly with Baselight and insert the restored frames back into the timeline. 

The films were produced in the early 90’s by DEFA successor companies. Between others, they include “Der Verdacht” by Frank Beyer/Ulrich Plenzdorf and “Zwischen Pankow und Zehlendorf” by Horst Seemann, for instance. Many of the films do not just document post-reunification Germany, but are also early examples of the “Berlin School”. They focus on the stark reality of everyday life, with the stories often set in socially disadvantaged communities, and tackle problems in human relations. Two examples are:

“Herzsprung” by Helke Misselwitz, featuring Ben Becker, Eva Maria-Hagen and Günter Lambrecht, depicts life in a dismal, dead-end backwater somewhere in the Mark Brandenburg region of former East Germany. After reunification, social structures have collapsed, and Herzsprung is also on the skids economically. Shortly after the Wall comes down, Johanna a young mother-of-two loses her job in a factory canteen. Then she falls in love with a mysterious black man…

“Der Blaue” (1993) is a re-discovered gem. Lienhard Wawrzyn’s movie features Manfred Krug and Ulrich Mühe, and is the first film to deal with betrayal and reconciliation in connection with the Ministry of State Security (Stasi). In the film, Ulrich Mühe plays a GDR victim who exposes a Stasi informer, played by Manfred Krug.

The series also contains German-French co-productions like “The Machine” with Gerard Depardieu and “A French Woman” by Régis Wargnier, with Emmanuelle Béart.

03. - 05.03.09   Cab Sat, Dubai
13. - 14.03.09   BSC New Equipment Show, London
18. - 20.03.09   CPS, Moskau

For future events please see [Event Calendar P+S Technik]