Live TVU Solutions Beat at the Heart of New Genre of Filmmaking in First-Ever Festival of Ephemeral Cinema

BARCELONA – February 9, 2021 – Technology from TVU Networks, a market and technology leader in cloud and IP-based live video solutions, was at the heart of a global, virtual film festival.

Held in Barcelona, the First International Festival of Ephemeral Cinema of Catalonia featured a series of fictional films streamed live directly from their location, with post-production occurring simultaneously. This was the first virtual exhibition of this method of live storytelling dubbed ‘The Cinema Ephemere’ by creators Efimero Films.

Using a TVU One 4K compact, mobile transmitter, the films were captured and streamed to viewers directly from their real-world location. According to Efimero Films’, CTO, Bernat Aragones the video quality, freedom of movement and connectivity provided by the TVU One transmitter enabled production of these ephemeral films in a way that was previously impossible.

“The TVU Networks’ solution is at the core of the concept of the Cinema Ephemere,” said Aragones. “With this form of cinema, narrative fiction is transmitted live from a real location. The complex camera movements and the intricate choreographies between the actors and the cameras in real locations would not be possible with traditional cabling and infrastructure. And the incorporation of new technologies such as 4K and HDR into TVU products heighten the viewer’s experience even more with incredibly vibrant and detailed images.”

All streaming, audio and video post-production, including color correction, titles, and subtitles was handled from a control room at Antaviana Films, a Barcelona-based post-production and digital effects company.

“Having a central control room in conjunction with our TVU One units meant we could get to any location we wanted,” added Aragones. “We weren’t tied to an OB van or a soundstage. We could shoot and moved freely in the mountains, along a long commercial street, or within a factory building without any restrictions at all.”

Employing the TVU One mobile transmitter insured filmmakers entirely wireless, frame-accurate, multi-camera synchronization on all of the festival’s live productions, which is essential to the success of Cinema Ephemere. The 5G-ready unit is the first cellular pack solution with true 4K 50/60P 10-bit transmission. It incorporates H.265 encoding to deliver broadcast-quality HDR video at as low as 3Mbps using TVU’s patented Inverse StatMux Plus technology.

“Having our TVU One at the center of the festival’s enabling technologies and to empower creators like those from Efimero Films is a tremendous honor,” said Rafael Castillo, VP of Europe, TVU Networks. “They’ve taken advantage of everything that makes TVU technology stand out – low latency, powerful connectivity and pristine video quality – and applied it to an exciting new genre of filmmaking. I can’t wait to see what’s next for Efimero Films and the Cinema Ephemere.”

Check out a brief, behind-the-scenes look at production of the Cinema Ephemere on TVU Networks’ youtube channel.

The films shown during the festival were as follows:

“La Flor a la Boca”
Based on an original text by Luigi Pirandello L’uomo dal Fiore in bocca.
Directed by Montecarlo. Cast includes: Ferran Audí (Undercover, The Mallorca files) and Chap Rodríguez.

“Carolina ou a doma de um leopard”
Based on Eva Hibernia’s play about the Brazilian poet Carolina María de Jesús
Audio-visual direction by Bernat Aragonés and performed by Kelly Lua (Elisa y Marcela, Foodie Love)

“El Café del Punt I Apart”
Piece with fragments of “The Idea of Europe” by George Steiner
Directed by Montecarlo and performed by Òscar Intente (Malnazidos, Tres Dies Amb la Família)