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Disney’s New Camera Tech Splices Together Footage So Editors Don’t Have To

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Eyes Of A Generation.com

Soon, We’ll ALL Be Obsolete!

When videotape came to television in the late 50s, about 40% of network employees were let go because now, a set could be erected once and a weeks worth of shows could be shot in one day. Back then, that was called “time shifting” and the daily routine of erecting and striking sets for “live” shows faded away.

BY CHRIS GAYOMALI1 MINUTE READ

The mad scientists at Disney Research have developed a new way to film big, sweeping scenes in a fraction of the time.

The team has reportedly built software that algorithmically puts together footage taken from multiple cameras at a time, splicing them altogether into one coherent video–maybe like a car-chase montage you’d watch in an action flick, or a cinematic football game a la Friday Night Lights but from the perspectives of the audience. This is accomplished by parsing out what each camera is focused on, and algorithmically figuring out what, exactly, is the most interesting thing that everyone is watching.

Imagine you’re at a Beyoncé concert, and everyone’s eyes are looking at the same thing: Beyoncé. (Duh.) Since everyone is looking at the same thing, but from different angles, the algorithm can edit together all that footage, and approximate a final product that an editor would otherwise have to assemble piecemeal.

“Though each individual has a different view of the event, everyone is typically looking at, and therefore recording, the same activity–the most interesting activity,” Yaser Sheikh, an associate research professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon University tells PhysOrg. “By determining the orientation of each camera, we can calculate the gaze concurrence, or 3D joint attention, of the group. Our automated editing method uses this as a signal indicating what action is most significant at any given time.”

Disney’s New Camera Tech Splices Together Footage So Editors Don’t Have To

Say “so-long” to long hours in the video editing room. Maybe.

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9 responses to “Disney’s New Camera Tech Splices Together Footage So Editors Don’t Have To”

  1. Danny Skarka

    If you look at the news channels, you’ll see cam ops. Even steadicams. When it’s serious…it has people. Still, no need to leave the industry. Learn the new skills.

  2. Seth Greenspan

    Thankfully at CNN all of our prime time shows still use 4-6 cameras run by people, although robotics are increasingly creeping in. I rue the day a natural-feeling, smooth, human-like face recognition and follow system is developed. That will be the day this industry dies a tragic death.

  3. Charles MacDonald

    Normally every scene in a movie has some reason to be, perhaps plot development, perhaps building tension, perhaps foreshadowing. It is not just cutting for continuity. MIGHT be useful in a sports broadcast where the action is more or less preprogramed (back and forth) but even that would miss the stolen puck, or the interception in the back field.

  4. Paul Remo

    This theory/software can only work with Social Media photography. This will NEVER fly in Televisions shows or movies. Do to the fact there is no emotional cutting, nor CU of people reactions. Nearly follows an object in 3D space and try’s not to jump-cut. Read the white papers

  5. Neil Bobrick

    I think it should be noted here that TV stations no longer do TV shows. They do plenty of news, but nothing you could call a ‘show.’

    As far as the switchboard operator, letting them all go was moronic. The station looses money. When a potential client calls and has to wait to hit 7 to get sales, then after hitting 7 they get another menu to get a human. That’s insane. Speaking in a language that management can understand, you are loosing money.

  6. Michael Hayne

    and gosh how great movies etc are these days… he said…

  7. Gary Walters

    Computers just do not have the ‘heart and soul’ of a camera operator. Too much pre-programming by Directors for shots on programs. Example: if actor Ed Ames did the infamous tomahawk throw on Tonight now, would the camera had picked it up as impulsively via robotics? It is those ‘magic moments’ that are now lost to automation.

  8. Bruce A Johnson

    Meh. Any monkey can throw shots together at random; it takes an EDITOR to know what they *mean.*

  9. Eyes Of A Generation.com

    Thanks to Charlie Huntley, one of the busiest guys in television, here’s something that kind of puts thing in perspective.

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