Elaborating basic principles of film production

Content of laboratory courses 

Teams of students realise a complete film production from conceptual design to post production with free choice of subject - no matter if trailer or experimental film. 
 
 Specific content: 

• idea, concept 
• screenplay, script, storyboard 
• production plan 
• shoot, lighting, set design
• editing, effects
• audio dubbing 
• additional post production 

We offer periodical support although focus should be on independent work. 

Head of laboratory

Prof. Dr. H. Behring

Laboratory assistant

Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Ronald Linder

Laboratory website

Video production AV studio

Hardware

Recording

•  Canon XL1 cameras
•  Sony VX1000 cameras
•  Sachtler lightcases 300W, 650W, 1kW
•  boom poles, microphones and EB equipment
•  mini disk / flash recorder and stereo microphone

 Editing

•  Apple G4/733 incl. CD-recorder
•  Sony DSR11
•  external Firewire harddrives

 Studio

•  Studio area with fillet, rear projection wall, programmable lighting console
•  1kW fresnel lens, DMX controlled
•  LHGL RGB white rear projection, DMX controlled
•  Zoom profiler with gobo recording

 Camera

•  Ikegami HC400W camera head + accessory
•  Panasonic AJ-D90 DVCPro docking recorder
•  Ikegami MA200 CCU
•  Ikeami RCU 390
•  Sony PVM 9045M video monitor

 Video direction / Avid workstation

•  JVC KM3000 video controller
•  Sony PVM14N5E video monitors
•  Sony PVM20M4E video monitors
•  Panasonic AJ-D950 DVCPro magnetic tape recorder
•  Sony UVW1800P Beta-SP magnetic tape recorder
•  Komtech Blackburst generator + distributor
•  Yamaha O2R mixer
•  Genelec 1030A monitor speakers
•  sgi ZX10 + 2x 21“ display + graphic tablet
•  Avid 10x73GB fibrechannel array

 Audio dubbing

•  Apple G5 Quad
•  Digidesign 192 IO and SYNC
•  Focusrite Control24
•  RTW 10800 surround monitor
•  Tascam DA20 MK2 DAT recorder
•  Genelec 1031A monitor speakers and Genelec 1092A subwoofer (5.1)

 EB audio

•  Sound Devices 302 and Sound Devices 788T
•  Shure FP33 portable mixer
•  Fostex PD2 portable timecode DAT recorder
•  microphones + accessory + radio link
•  Studiobox speaker's booth for 1-2 persons

Software

Videolabor

• Final Cut Pro HD
•  After Effects
•  Pro Tools

 Studio

•  Avid DS
•  Final Cut studio
•  Pro Tools HD
•  Logic Pro

Video editing area

The area for video editing includes ten editing work stations equipped with Apple G4. For editing itself we use Final Cut Pro. Besides digital video editing you can perform layering and compositing (the superimposition and fade-in of several visual layers into moving images) with this. For advanced video processing (color correction, titeling, image animation etc.) we have After Effects. As we shoot with semi professional Mini-DV cameras in the lab every workstation has a DV-video recorder and a secondary video monitor. There is no need for digitalization as the Mini-DV format converts to digital data itself. So you just have to move the data from tape to the harddisk - we call this process "capturing". For this every computer has a FireWire (IEEE 1394 or Sony "iLink") interface which can transfer the video data with 3.6 MB/s. For video editing the recorder as "DV-Bridge" supports visual control by receiving realtime images from the computer, converting them and playing them via video monitor.

Studio area

The 200 sqm studio offers a seminar area for up to 30 to 40 persons, a darkened production area with studio headlamps, a hollow groove for horizon free recordings and a translucent rear projection wall for recordings with blue or green screen technique for masking or free choice of the background. For this we can enlighten the wall with 2x5 LHGL lights (each consisting of a red, green, blue and white fluorescent tube) which can be controlled seperately. Our programable lighting console controls this matrix and regulates the brightness of the slideable studio headlights which sit in 4 m height.

Cameras

The studio has three TV camera heads made by Ikegami, which either can be remote controlled as studio cameras with integrated CCU from the video production room or can be used with a docking recorder on location by EB teams. Recording is carried out in DVCPro 25/50 format.

Video production room

Here we have a video console and remote units for remote controlling the three studio cameras. This enables us to produce live shows. The core of our professional video equipment are the video edition workstations with Final Cut Pro and Apple 8-Core computers. Here you can edit and process video sequences in SD and HD.

Video sound composing

A speaker's booth and the corresponding production room offers the possibility to professionally set films to sound and music. A Pro Tools TDM HD3 System on an Apple G5 with integrated DSP sub-processors and external A/D-converter is the perfect tool for recording, editing and automatised mixing of high-quality audio elements or whole audio-for-video projects. The DSP chips process the effects in realtime and transmit the audio to a studio sourround soundsystem. A DVD production audio format (Dolby AC3 for Dolby Digital playback) can be encoded and transmitted to the DVD authoring environment.

Project administration: Prof. Dr. Heiner Behring
Equipment, booking and lending office: Ronald Linder