MPC has posted a video on YouTube showing the creation of a “Data Lab”, a data processing cluster, designed to process the data from 56 RED cameras shooting simultaneously.
MPC set up this mobile Data Lab in a hotel room in Toronto to capture and process the data from a shoot with 56 RED cameras shooting simultaneously. The data was processed to give the editor the rushes the same day with enough time to put together an edit and change anything for the next day. Forty one hours of footage was processed over the course of the three day shoot.
I count somewhere around 27 Apple Cinema Displays iMacs, But they only show a pair of MacPro’s and a few 2U Rack systems. If I can get more specs, I’ll update. Video after the break.
Update 9/5/2009: We’ve got more info on what this is.
via YouTube – 56 RED Camera mobile Data Lab.
Update: Over on the Red User Forums, Brent Craig has the following details:
It was a Nike spot, directed by Jonathan Glazer who is known for doing really really big commercials. Check out his Sony spot that took several weeks to shoot with all effects being done in camera! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC-wPteyl6U The AD told me that there were days on end where they sat waiting for the perfect light but never rolled a frame.
The gear was put together by Sim Video and they rocked it, from what I hear. I wasn’t on the job (they called me for 3 different positions, but they were too late) but I was prepping at Sim and watching the endless Fedex deliveries of cameras from all over North America. Imagine how complicated it would be to even keep track of subrented gear from many many suppliers!
Chris Parker from Bling Digital did the video assist and managed, with the support of Sim’s fibre optic gear and several other suppliers, to get all 57 cameras displayed and recorded on 50″ plasmas for the director. The PM told me that the video assist budget alone was more than most commercial budgets!
The shoot was the talk of the town, but was also very unusual because there was so much secrecy involved – everyone wanted to talk about it but no one could say very much. As far as I know the spot hasn’t aired yet, they might be saving it for the Superbowl or the Olympics.
Those are 27 iMacs not the new Cinema Displays . The bezels are a dead giveaway that they are not the new LED ACD’s.