‘The possibilities are endless,’ proclaims Stonehenge Post president Glyn Evans of the ever-evolving post-production technology available to him and his competitors.

A partner in Toronto-based Stonehenge (formerly Stonehenge Filmworks), Evans says he and partner/senior creative director James Musselman are always astonished by advances in the field. Their shop, he says, has had an uncanny knack of being able to forecast exactly when to jump on board a technology, and he is extremely pleased with its new Sony Linear 24P high-definition online post system.

24P is the format of the new Sony HDW-F900 hdcam, whose 24 frames per second capture rate and 180-degree shuttering are similar to those of a motion picture camera. In dispensing with film stock, 24P presents an economically attractive alternative, especially in the areas of documentaries and mows. Stonehenge’s post system is switchable between the 24P format and the popular 1080i hd format.

The post system is a sizable purchase for the 15-year-old company, which started with one online Beta suite.

‘We knew we wanted to be a leader in hd, and we have always embraced new technology, from Avid to dvd authoring to animation and graphics,’ says Evans. ‘We’ve been very carefully studying the evolution of hd. We wanted to be part of it, and it is absolutely the right time to go down that road.’

With a broad base of clients working on a number of different kinds of projects, many of them documentaries, Stonehenge sees the 24P system as a key component to where it wants to go in the post-production community. Evans says the shop wants to offer its clients a complete vertical integration of services, having observed that the more high-end equipment it acquires, the more the industry takes note.

‘This is a whole new philosophy in post houses, which have had to reinvent themselves over the past few years,’ he says. ‘There is a shift going on – we are looking at this as more partnering with our clients than playing service bureau. People are looking to us to consult with them on the technology, starting off in hd and working through digital formats – offline and online editing as well as dvd and Web streaming. It all has to be part of the equation now. With the complexity of the new digital domain you really have to take a different approach to project management. It’s a very exciting time to be around because of that.’

Evans says there has been a great deal of interest in 24P from domestic and international producers alike. Much of that interest has been generated by 24P’s ability to transfer from an hd master to ntsc to pal and other formats. He also believes that every member of the production team, from the producer, director and cinematographer on down must keep aware when shooting 24P of the differences between video and film.

‘hdtv’s revolutionary because it is such an advanced form of videotape in terms of quality and image,’ he says, ‘but 24P takes it to the next step.’

Evans believes 24P represents another step within the industry toward an hd-intensive marketplace.

‘I think it is going to have a really dramatic effect on the landscape,’ he says. ‘You have certain gurus declaring ‘film is dead,’ and that will certainly have a big impact. I don’t think it’s quite true, but the migration is going to happen a lot quicker than people think.’

One producer working with Stonehenge and its 24P system is Stuart Samuels of Stuart Samuels Productions. Originally from New York, Samuels says he moved to Canada because of its leadership potential in the hd field. Working with Stonehenge on his series Urban/Wild, after having produced more than a dozen hd projects, Samuels likens the reluctance of producers and directors to explore the digital realm to ‘making silent movies’ when sound was first introduced in the 1920s.

With George Lucas shooting the next Star Wars movie on 24P and a number of independent producers taking similar advantage of the efficiency of digital and hd moviemaking, Evans feels technology such as Stonehenge’s 24P post system is a necessary investment.

‘It really is a big shift in thinking, but it’s a technology which solves problems, so it becomes a very practical solution,’ he says. *

-www.stonehenge.ca