New Bond takes a shot at 4K
 

"Quantum of Solace," the 22nd film in the James Bond franchise, will feature a complex visual effects shot captured digitally in 4K resolution, which offers four times the amount of picture information typically captured by most digital cinematography cameras.

The shot for the Marc Forster-helmed title is being lensed using eight shutter synchronized 4K Origin cameras from Dalsa, one of only two companies now shipping 4K digital cinematography cameras. Specifics are being kept under wraps, but the shot will feature Daniel Craig in his role as James Bond and Olga Kurylenko as the film's lead Bond girl, Camille.

Director of photography Roberto Schaefer and consulting visual effects cinematographer David Stump collaborated on the shot.

"The Dalsa Origin was the only uncompressed, high-resolution, low-noise camera system we could count on to do what we needed to do," visual effects designer Kevin Tod Haug said.

Added Stump: "Working with uncompressed 4K gave us the ability to mine the maximum amount of detail from the scene."


Dalsa shipped the camera packages from Los Angeles to Movietech Camera Rentals at Pinewood Studios in the U.K., where both companies prepped the cameras, which recorded 4K data to eight Codex digital disk recorders. In total, more than 3.8GB of image data were recorded every second, Dalsa Digital Cinema president Rob Hummel said. The Codex disk packs were delivered to Sohonet in London for backup, after which the files were delivered to London-based visual effects house Double Negative.

"For the effects to keep pace with audience expectations, we need to keep upping the ante," Stump said.

"Solace" is scheduled for release Oct. 31 in the U.K. and Nov. 7 in the U.S. and elsewhere.

I recently got to take a look at a RED camera, which is the only other 4K camera around. It's native 4K, but the 2K is still quite adequate. A 4K camera makes HDTV look like VHS, in terms of definition and image quality (larger "film" area is part of it).

Adrian Paul should be Bond.