PRESS RELEASE

23/11/2015

Sussex Academics Launch New Filmmaking iPhone App at SIGGRAPH Asia

A new filmmaking iPhone app has been unveiled by scientists from the University of Sussex. It packs all the tricks and tools of hefty professional filmmaking kit into the palm of your hand.

Dr Phil Watten, Dr Patrick Holroyd, Dr Marco Gilardi and Carly Brownbridge unveiled the new technology at the prestigious SIGGRAGH Asia conference – an annual mecca for the computer graphics and interactive technologies industries held in Kobe, Japan earlier this month.

The quirkily named ‘MAVIS’ was developed over the last year by a small team at the Media Technology Lab (MTL) within the University of Sussex. Phil, Patrick and Marco were inspired to develop a user-friendly interface that would surpass existing apps such as Filmic Pro, while offering real-time visualisations showing exposure, colour and focus.

Phil says:

"MAVIS makes professional filmmaking possible by just reaching into your pocket. The iPhone is a powerful, portable video recorder capable of producing some really impressive images - but we knew that the functionality was limited in terms of real-time control over exposure, colour, focus, frame rate and resolution. The functionality requirements came out of the needs we had on our own shoots, and has led to an interface that is responsive and intuitive in a fast pace environment. We've designed an intuitive app that gives filmmakers all the control they'd expect from thousands of pounds of bulky equipment – at the cost of a simple app you can download onto your iPhone."

MAVIS was developed over the last year by a small team at the Media Technology Lab within the University of Sussex.

ENDS

Contact Details

For more information, technical specifications or to speak to the MAVIS development team please contact hello@shootmavis.com or phone +44 1273 872832

Screenshots and more information can also be found on the website: www.shootmavis.com

The MAVIS app can be downloaded via the App Store - www.apple.co/1jOc99G

Technical Specification

MAVIS has been designed from the bottom up to pack professional production tools into your iPhone. MAVIS gives you real-time full-scale video scopes, exposure and focus visualisations and audio metering. It also brings a natural interface to give you full flexible manual control while recording.

Exposure

The real-time waveform monitor shows the detailed brightness of the video you are recording. The waveform monitor is full scale - which means that black is represented by 0 and white by 1. This shows you the maximum dynamic range for recording so you can adjust shutter speeds and perfect your lighting without additional light-reading equipment. You can also view exposure information using the False Colour visualisations.

Colour

The full-scale vectorscope shows the precise colour analysis of your scene as the camera interprets it. Accurate representation of white and colour consistency - regardless of the white point.

Recording

Record in resolutions up to 4K*, frame rates up to 240fps and bitrates up to 50Mbit/sec. With iPhone 6s and 6s Plus you can capture 4K (UHD) video with audio or capture the maximum resolution of the iPhone 6s sensor with 4K (4:3) at a resolution of 4032x3024*. You can also capture 120fps in 1080p* on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus

Shoot now. Reframe later.

Resolutions shot in 16:9 as offered by the iPhone camera. Resolutions in 4:3 store pure pixels. This means that the aspect ratio of the recording is based on the pixels the camera is offering. In these modes, the preview video is cropped to 16:9 to help framing. But MAVIS is an acquisition tool, so we don't want to throw pixels away. MAVIS will record many more pixels at the top and bottom of the frame. These are all accessible in post and will help later with things like reframing.

*Device restrictions apply 
- 4K (UHD) with audio and 120fps in 1080p available on iPhone 6s and 6s Plus 
- 4K (4:3) without audio available on iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s and 6s Plus 
- Resolutions above HD limited to maximum 30fps
- iPad and iPhone 5s limited to maximum 2K at 30fps

About the developers of MAVIS

About Dr Phil Watten

Dr Phil Watten is the Director of the Media Technology Lab at the University of Sussex. He is a specialist in production, content creation, creative technologies, app development and broadcast.

About Dr Patrick Holroyd

Dr Patrick Holroyd has worked at the Media Technology Lab since 2008. He graduated from his PhD in 2012 and specialises in digital, mobile and broadcast technologies.

About Dr Marco Gilardi

Dr Marco Gilardi has worked at the Media Technology Lab since 2011. He completed his PhD in 2015 and specialises in computer graphics and GPU programming.