Outlook 2015: MTI Film's Larry Chernoff - Look to IP broadcasters
Larry Chernoff
Issue: December 1, 2014

Outlook 2015: MTI Film's Larry Chernoff - Look to IP broadcasters

Larry Chernoff
CEO
MTI Film
Hollywood
www.mtifilm.com

Forecasting trends in post production is similar to taking the trip from LA to Vegas by car.  It seems like it should be a breezy, five-hour drive assisted by clear signage, but miss the I-15 and you’re off to Reno.

Right now for post production there are so many signs we should be paying attention to that we might find ourselves taking a wrong turn because we didn’t finish reading one when the next one popped up.

HD, UHD, HDR, HFR, rec 2020, ACES, IMF? Please…where’s my gun? 2015 is going to have to be a year of careful assessment of what the broadcast folks are going to want — once they figure it out. We know that the IP broadcasters are gunning for UHD content because, for the moment, they alone can deliver it.  

Now everyone listen up: UHD (alright, I’ll call it 4K too) is going be de rigeur in the near future — maybe not 2015, but it’s definitely the real launch year. Talk about HD HDR, UHD HDR, UHD rec 2020 and IMF is going to increase exponentially, so when having lunch with your favorite post executive whose facial expression has that look of quiet desperation…be kind.  

This is really a whacko time. Or, just tell them not to worry about it since we can’t, as of this writing, see any of it anyway.  

Remember the scene in The Graduate, when the character Mr. McGuire, played by Walter Brooke, tells Dustin Hoffman that the word of the day is “plastics”? Well, the new word of the day is “monitors”. You can’t shoot and post what you can’t see. Actually, tell them not to worry since that’s what we facilities do — worry for them. Wow, 2015 might be the rebirth of the facility!

This year, I’m looking forward to CES. That’s where we’ll find out more about our industry than anywhere else. And when I go, I’m going to be real careful to get on the I-15.