By Debra Kaufman
At last year's HPA Tech Retreat, the Supersession was all about The Lost Lederhosen, a daylong filmmaking experiment focusing on cloud-based technologies, ultimately resulting in an 11-minute short film. Joachim JZ Zell, who developed the concept, wrote the script, gathered the team and produced it, is back for another Supersession at this year's HPA Tech Retreat. In concert with co-producer Mark Chiolis, Zell is producing The Found Lederhosen (working title), which builds on the premise of last year's endeavor of using cloud-based technologies for as many tasks as possible - and even brings back actors Barbara Wilder (as Heidi) and John Baumgaertner (as Festmeister Hans).
But that's where the similarities end. It's a different starting point, says Zell. Last year, the locations were all in Palm Springs and Hollywood. This year, we have filmmakers on different continents, each telling different stories with different actors and different cultural aspects. For this production, the cutting-edge cloud technologies will enable productions on four continents: North America (Hollywood and Mexico City); Europe (London and Vilnius, Lithuania); Australia (Brisbane) and Asia (Dubai and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia). Each filmmaker in each location will create a script of how artists survive the global COVID-19 lockdown, explains Zell. Each location will have different cultural aspects, but global trade, amazingly, helps everyone get their hands on the latest, greatest technology.
Zell and Chiolis first found supervisors for core studio functions, bringing on board Sony/Audio's Adam Levin as audio supervisor and Arjun Ramamurthy as VFX supervisor. Zell took on the role of post production supervisor. After contacting filmmakers around the world, teams from the various locations firmed up. The only guideline was to implement local COVID restrictions and create a story where global COVID lockdown is somehow part of it. Although all the regional films are still in production, Zell drops hints of how different they will all be. In Dubai, the story will be set among the Bedouin; in London, the story focuses on a painter, a singer and a dancer and how they stay motivated. In Mexico City, we see skateboarders navigating the city's empty streets. In addition to these stories, Origin Point, which grew out of RED's in-house production company, will be making a behind-the-scenes documentary with footage from around the globe.
For the Supersession, Zell and Chiolis will highlight different aspects of each production We'll pick the most impressive technology for each site and focus on that, to keep it exciting, says Zell. If a specific product was used on all the productions, it will only be showcased in one of the productions. For each short production, attendees will see a two-minute clip, paired with the documentary footage. But for audience members that want to take a deeper dive, says Zell, each production will have links to see, for example, how every production was edited or handled with VFX. There is an unlimited stream of information we'll make available, he notes.
Each region will create its own cloud-based workflows within the overall framework, but they'll have lots of participating technology vendors to choose from. The winners and honorable mentions of this year's HPA Engineering Awards were invited to participate, which brought EIZO, Eluvio, Moxion, Frame.io, Teradek and Sohonet on board. Other technologies that will be involved in the making of the productions include Blackmagic Design Ursa, RED Komodo, ARRI Alexa, Sony Venice, Evercast, Panavision, Samara, Resolve, Nuke, Colorfront, and Baselight. HPA is about technology, says Zell. All these companies are strong partners and the cloud makes it available to everyone.
For streaming, the productions rely on Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. Editing solutions are both Avid and Adobe. Teradici and BeBop help interface two machines in the cloud, and Frame.io and Teradek are showing management of remote streaming data, with 5th Kind configuring the streaming workflow in Mexico City. Brisbane used Moxion and QTake to monitor content and process instant dailies.
Working behind the scenes will be local editors, colorists and sound and VFX professionals, with some of them available for remote work for other productions. In Australia, Mandy Walker, ASC, ACS will be the consulting cinematographer as will Steve Yedlin, ASC for Hollywood. Colorist Greg Fisher at Company 3 in London is also involved, as well as Skywalker Sound.
The Supersession itself will be interactive, with attendees able to attend virtual breakfast roundtables and convene in breakout rooms. In referring to the HPA Awards ceremony as a model for how the Supersession will run, Zell notes, the HPA core team does an amazing job to bring us the correct platform to create the most interactive solution possible. He adds that this year's Supersession isn't simply about showing off cloud and remote technologies. In 10 years, hopefully, this period we're going through will be history, he says. But let's document what the situation is that we're in now - how artists survived and how technology made it possible.
The HPA Tech Retreat Supersession will be presented on February 23 and February 24 from 10 am to 1 pm.
Most recent headlines
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Scripps Research study links sleep variability with sleep apnea and hypertension How consumers' digital activity trackers could enable personalized health s...
23/12/2025
How guilas Cibae as Dominican Winter League Games Are Locally Produced for Glob...
23/12/2025
BitFire's Jim Akimchuk on Supplying Scalability and Customization in the Clo...
23/12/2025
CAMB.AI Enables European Athletics to Offer Multi-Language SupportPlan is to eventually offer translation into all languages spoken in EuropeBy Ken Kerschbaumer...
23/12/2025
Analysis: As sports media values trend negative, scarcity and quality are king By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Monday, December 22, 2025 - 14:08
Print ...
23/12/2025
ESPN, Disney, and NBA Return to the Animated Altcast Fray With Second Edition of...
23/12/2025
End the Year on a High Note and Donate to the Sports Broadcasting Fund Today! By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Tuesday, December 23, 2025 - 12:25 pm
...
23/12/2025
The year is winding down, the weather outside is frightful, and it's the perfect time to escape into a story that warms the heart. For listeners looking for...
23/12/2025
A Zeus motor is hot fire tested at L3Harris' Camden, Arkansas, solid rocket ...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Lightware will exhibit several major product innovations at ISE 2026, including the new USB-C BOOSTER-V1, Google Meet. integration for various Taurus UCX models...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Taking the Stage at Carnegie Hall-On a Global Scale Boston Conservatory Orchestra students reflect on their epic concert marking the 80th session of the UN Gene...
23/12/2025
Experience the power of WO Automation for Radio's newest service, the System Effectiveness Review. Designed to help you achieve more, a System Effectiveness...
23/12/2025
23 Dec 2025
VEON's Beeline Kazakhstan and Rakuten Symphony Collaborate to A...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
How Steamy Can It Get? Single's Inferno' Season 5 Pre...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
33 Million Global Viewers on Netflix Watched Jake Paul vs. Ant...
23/12/2025
New technique lights up where drugs go in the body, cell by cell Scripps Research scientists developed a technique that maps drug binding in individual cells th...
22/12/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Presidio's Neerav Shah on the Role of Its Captiva...
22/12/2025
Hitting the bullseye: Sky Sports readies itself for the biggest PDC World Darts ...
22/12/2025
Unique skillset: Bringing new directors to the world of darts at The Worlds with...
22/12/2025
Gravity Media prepares for a flight of fancy with the PDC World Darts Championsh...
22/12/2025
One hundred and eighty: Gravity Media on hitting the production bullseye at the ...
22/12/2025
The Famous Group's Jon Slusser on Fascinating Fans Through Immersive Content...
22/12/2025
ESPN's Meg Aronowitz on Continuing High-Quality Broadcasts of Collegiate Spo...
22/12/2025
ESPN Takes Data-Driven Storytelling to New Heights with MNF Playbook with Next ...
22/12/2025
For a decade, popular German podcast Fest & Flauschig has hosted an annual Chris...
22/12/2025
Paramount Scores Largest Share Increase Among Distributors as Paramount and CBS...
22/12/2025
New multi-year deal integrates Roku's data to fuel Nielsen's measurement suite
Roku gains access to Nielsen's streaming ratings, showing The Roku C...
22/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
22/12/2025
Berklee Wrapped 2025: Our Top News and Stories A look back at a year highlighted by faculty milestones, major film and television projects, Bob Dylan's ho...
22/12/2025
The works of Plato state that when humans have an experience, some level of change occurs in their brain, which is powered by memory - specifically long-term me...
22/12/2025
Partnership integrates complementary satellite data and AI analytics to enhance security, infrastructure, and environmental monitoring solutions for global cust...
22/12/2025
Workflows allow you to create a sequence of planned events which may be added to your template(s) or inserted directly into your sequential or background playli...
22/12/2025
Monday 22 December 2025
Sky extends PGA TOUR partnership until 2029, as Sky Spo...
22/12/2025
Back to All News
Global Anime Hits and New Releases Take Center Stage at Jump Festa 2026
Entertainment
22 December 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied to clipboar...
22/12/2025
Siobh n McSweeney, Rory McIlroy, Elon Musk, Catherine Connolly, Jim Gavin, Ivan Yates and Traitor Paudie Moloney lead new characters for Callan Kicks the Year 2...
22/12/2025
Winner announced in the picturesque surroundings of Wicklow's Avondale Tower and Treetop Walk
Andrew Trimble wins the show in his first series as coach
Th...
22/12/2025
The 2025 winners have been announced today, Sunday 21 December, for Ireland's largest choral competition Choirs for Christmas hosted by RT lyric fm.
Ove...
21/12/2025
Back to All News
Legoshi and Haru's Story Reaches Its Finale: BEASTARS Fin...
By Debra Kaufman
