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Apple technology helps make 'Courage'
by Dennis Sellers - www.maccentral.com
The Swedish Blue Sky film company [www.bluesky.se] and Canadian company Sky High Entertainment [www.shemovie.com] used Apple technology for their upcoming, large format film, "Courage" which is designed to appeal to risk takers -- and those who like to watch risk takers in action.
"From the moment we are born, we are risk takers at different levels," Peter Degerfeldt, co-producer, co-editor and co-camera operator for "Courage", said in an Apple Hot News article [www.apple.com/hotnews/articles/2001/07/courage]. "That's what "Courage" is about."
The idea for a film about risk taking originated in the minds of BASE jumpers (BASE stands for Building, Antenna, Span and Earth -- jumping off of fixed objects) Degerfeldt and Göran Widenby, who've jumped regularly since 1976, according to the story.
Degerfeldt and Widenby researched the best places to film extreme examples of jumping. They used 13 Macs -- including Power Macs and PowerBooks --- equipped with software such as Final Cut Pro 2, Avid Composer, After Effects, Storyboard Artist and Photoshop. They teamed up with Sky High Entertainment and Canadian writer Marc Farfard to film, produce and edit "Courage" for IMAX and other large format film distribution mediums.
The "Courage" film crew based their operation on a floating editing station so they could edit on site. Large-format filmmakers use special cameras to capture footage, though they still take advantage of digital video.
"Since we often can't see the footage until weeks after the shoot, DV is a blessing," Degerfeldt told Apple. "We can use a mini CCD camera to look into the film camera's ground glass and record it out as DV, which is called 'dv-tap.' So, after each take, we can monitor the scene on a big screen using a digital projector and know how to proceed next with our filming."
"Courage" will start playing at IMAX and other large film format theaters around the world in late 2001. The 38-minute film will premiere in Stockholm's IMAX Cosmonova Dome theater November 1. "Courage" is expected to show up in about 350 other theaters around the world in early 2002.
Besides the use of Mac hardware and software to make "Courage", Blue Sky, which was formed to merge Degerfeldt and Widenby's passion for aerial sports with a desire to make "impossible films", uses QuickTime for its Web page animations. For that matter, so does Sky High Entertainment was started in 1997 by Carl Samson.
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Two-year-old girl makes tandem skydive
A two-year-old Dutch girl made a tandem jump with her father at the Para Centrum Texel in Holland. Dutch skydiving instructor Herman Landsman jumped with his daughter Demie from a plane above the Dutch island of Texel free-falling 10,000 feet in less than a minute before he opened his parachute for a smooth final five minute descent. Mother Karina Willerup, who jumped at the same time and was holding hands with Herman during the freefall, said her daughter, who turns three in September, was overwhelmed by the whole event but keen to jump again.
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New CSPA Canadian Record
The C&NT Committee of the CSPA [Canadian Sport Parachute Associations] has ratified the following Canopy Formation record:
Category D-3, CF longest Sequence (Sequential)
Competition Record - General Category
Sequential Canopy Formation: 11 points
Plaid Jackets: Gavin Adams, Lyal Waddell, Michael Wallace, Aidan Walters, John Smith [video].
June 28, 2001
WAG 2001 - Spain
Previous record: 10 points
The performance has been entered into the CSPA Record Book and Certificates are being issued. CSPA congratulates the parachutists on their splendid achievement.
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Video Award from Omniskore
The OmniSkore "Totally Unofficial Most Excellent FS Video Award" goes to Brian Vacher of the UK women's team VMax. Well-framed, steep, and steady makes for easy judging. There were many other excellent camera flyers at the World Meet, but Brian's work caught the Wagner brothers' eye every time they saw his team on dropzone TV. Since great team video work like his goes largely unrecognized, Omniskore did it at the World Air Games in Spain in July. Great job Brian!
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