New Media (IV): HD Post Production Forum, a part of the high definition media series, was staged at Wei Hing Theatre of City University of Hong Kong. Screening of excerpts from major Hollywood movies by means of a digital cinema projection system, courtesy of Hiller Pharma , Christie Shanghai and EVS, kicked off the event. More than two hundred members, professionals from the broadcast and film industries and students in attendance were impressed by the presentation. Before the HD workshop presentation, Tony Chow, Honorable Chairman of the Hong Kong Society of Editors, gave an opening speech in which he expressed his pleasure to be invited to participate in the HD post production workshop. Hugo Kwan, a seasoned editor from a local post production house Cinedigit, shared his experience of the workshop organized by the section in October. HD footage shot during the HD cinematography workshop last year was used as material for the HD non-linear editing exercise, and the four-minute clip resulting from the post production workshop was screened. Kwan made comparison of SD and HD editing and found practically no difference in terms of operation except the file size of HD material was larger. He also pointed out that HD video rendered more details in the shadow areas.
 
Entitled "The Changing Landscape of Motion Picture in the Digital Age," Derek Wan of All in One Productions (New York) highlighted the trends in acquisition and post production workflow. He pointed out that in the States there is an increase in the number of HDTV programs and material of film origin will go through the process of digital mastering and eventually be telecined to create a variety of video release formats. Wan also hinted at the new technology such as CMOS imager which records red, green and blue signals vertically in the same pixel and foresaw that hybrid use of film and HD will continue in the second century of cinema.
 
In his presentation, "Mastering for Digital Cinema," Masashi Nakamura from Imagica (Japan) cited that digital cinema has gradually gained popularity in Japan. He offered some useful tips on transferring film to video such as color grading, subtitling and formatting. Regarding new development, 4K "Super HD" is in the offing but there are still a number of outstanding issues to be ironed out, these include standards of projection and compression, and whether digital cinema will really make a business sense. S. Fujioka from Sony office in Hong Kong focused on "HDTV Contents Creation Update" and gave an overview of the current HD contents creation adopted by the production and TV industries. The latest developments of HDTV in Australia, China, Korea, Japan and the US, and HDTV transmission of the World Cup Soccer Game were also highlighted.
 
The forum was followed by the annual dinner party which took place in the same premises. More than seventy members and guests were present and they valued the opportunity of the gathering in light of their busy working schedules and fast moving Hong Kong's life style. The event was enlivened by the lucky draw with prizes donated by various companies. The forum and the annual dinner were sponsored by Sony Corporation of Hong Kong Ltd. and Chinam Associates Ltd, the distributor of Canon lenses.