One of the other things is does is it allows us to black balance the CCD once per frame as well. So, as the camera heats and cools, you're not going to get shading errors and things like that in the signal that you would if you had a black-balanced camera and forgot to. So it does give us a couple of benefits.

If for some reason the shutter fails, because it is a mechanical part, and that does tend to happen once in a while, it will look just like an IT camera. So nothing happens, you still continue shooting, if you get highlights, you'll get a little bit of vertical streaking.

DMN: But you could adjust the shutter to whatever speed you want, too.

Chiolis: Actually, we've used that for an effect, where you can stop the shutter, and in effect what you've done is given yourself a 360 degree shutter. The camera's always open. That makes for some unique kind of looks, depending on what you're going after.

In addition to the mechanical shutter, it also has an electronic shutter, and you can set that within the range that you would with any other camera. Most of what we've been doing is mimicking a film camera and setting the shutter at about 180. 180 at 24 frames per second seems to capture the look that people are desiring right now, and that's easily dialed in as well.

DMN: So what happens to that signal after it comes off the CCDs?

Chiolis: We're taking the 12-bit linear signal off the CCDs and we're converting that into a 10-bit log digital signal, and then basically it's going right out to a hard disk recorder. Normally when you run through video processing, you're going to put in gamma and knee, contour correction and other things in the signal to get it looking like 709 video, so that you can actually see an accurate representation of what your eye is seeing. We take the total raw data and record that onto the disk. What that gives us is a digital IP. It's a flat, washed-out picture with a green tint to it, because the green CCD has the tendency to pick up more of the light than the red and the blue do.

So what happens is, when you look at it, it's not going to look as it would to your eye or on the finished product. If you look at a piece of IP film, it's going to look weird to the eye. When you go into finishing, you would take it through the same process you would for film -- conform it to an offline EDL, and then go ahead and color correct it through a Da Vinci, just like you would a piece of film. At that point, there's an anti-log or a lookup table put to it, and it corrects it back out to linear space, you do all your color correction, and you can output it there. What we're doing is providing the creative person and the producer and anybody else who's involved in the project more data to play with.

DMN: All the raw data is there, so it gives you more latitude, more flexibility.

Chiolis: Yes. We are getting two or three more stops out of it than you would over a normal 4:2:2 signal. Obviously, it does not have the range of film. We're not claiming that. Because we play in both the film and video arenas, we think there's a time and a place for both media. All we're saying is here's another tool for you, the a creative person -- use it where you see that it's appropriate.

DMN: Where do you think it's appropriate?

Chiolis: One of the areas we see it being appropriate is for blue screen/green screen. A lot of the time when you're shooting blue screen/green screen with film, you don't want grain coming into play. You don't want the little bit of weave and jitter that you're going to get, making it harder to key and track. So we think that if you use the Viper when it's appropriate for blue screen/green screen, and intercut that with filmed material, it'll mix in quite nicely after it's been composited.

DMN: Then you can add grain, if you want to, to match the film's grain.

Chiolis: Absolutely. We haven't developed a software program for that, but I think there are people who have.

DMN: There certainly are.

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