RITC Interview with Synthetik, Head Producer of the New NIN Blu-Ray [After All Is Said And Done] Release Date in 2010:

Here is the interview with Sasan, I would like to give a big thank you for letting me have the opprotunity to get some info on their project to bring to the NIN Community. This thing is going to be amazing. Keep checking RITC for new content on this piece!

Here is a basic overview of the project so far:

Link to Facebook fan page: http://bit.ly/59bS3f
Link to AAISAD's Twitter: http://twitter.com/synthetikz

At the moment, we're in the primary editing phase. What that means is that we've taken the footage and down res'd it to 16:9 standard def files, so that our computers are able to handle the edit. (Some songs have more than 24+ HD camera angles, and even the most robust computers cannot handle processing that much information at once). Each primary edit of a song is subjected to a peer review process for quality, style, continuity and feel. Once the song has passed peer review it is given the green light to be incorporated into the master edit, which will be comprised NOT of the down res'd footage, but rather of full HD footage, and will be synced to our sound engineered multi-sourced stereo mix of the concert, in addition to the 5.1 mix of the concert - both of which we are painstakingly laboring over to make sure we ensure the utmost quality and fidelity from the audio to convey the gravity of that night's performance. Upon picture lock, the project will then be exported for color correction - to ensure continuity of visual feel, then sent for blu-ray and dvd authoring, and then sent for packaging and printing.

The crew of the new NIN Live Release "After All Is Said And Done"

Questions-

1. What sources did you use for the 5.1 surround sound mix and how do you got about processing the 5.1 mix in the studio?

We're not gonna give away too much on this one. We'd like to keep some of this a surprise. What i can tell you is that it's a multi-sourced mix, including several known sources, and several unknown sources. Specifically as it relates to the 5.1 mix, our approach is one of fidelity. In another words we want to recreate the concert experience as accurately possible. To simply things greatly, perhaps even oversimplifying, we'll be moving sources that were recorded from the back of the venue, for example towards the back of the mix, those sources which were recorded on the right of the venue towards the right of the mix, etc etc. All of this is being done with a professional audio engineer, with whom we're working out of two full fledged studios with all the appropriate rigs, gear and software. You might have seen the pic of us working out of the studio already.

AAISAD in the Studio

2. How many sources will the film have? and are they all HD?

From the very beginning, the entire premise of the project was to document the performance in HD and only HD, and we've insisted on staying true to that. It's something we're quite proud of. To date, we have almost 1 Terabyte of footage, from over 24 unique sources all of which are in HD.

All the Sources From The Wiltern - All Fan Recordings

3. What kind of programs do you use for editing/producing this DVD?

As a fan made project, we immediately had to face the question of "will we use whatever software we each have and then try and stitch things together later?" Having spoken with a number of people over at TOIOU, I quickly became aware of the difficulties with this approach, and it became apparent that it was something I wanted to avoid. In turn, I organized the project to operate exclusively out of Final Cut Pro. It's a robust, intuitive, and accessible software suite.

4. How many people are involved in this project?

Well, that's a hard question to answer. The core team is myself (the project lead), 5 video editors, 1 audio engineer, 1 color corrector, and 1 blu-ray/dvd author (also lending his expertise to motion graphics). These are all professionals who are contributing their time and effort for free, for love of NIN. One tremendous strength of our project has been that I've kept the entire team local to the Los Angeles area, which means we can conduct regular meetings, and do away with a lot of the technical difficulties and delays associated with working with a non-local team.

Aside from the core team though, we're working with 2 content creators, 1 web designer, and several artists who are working on packaging and disc designs. We've also been blessed to work with several eminent technical consultants. Philip Hodgetts, for example, a reknowned HD guru, has helped us tackle the issue of preserving the utmost visual quality in converting all of the extremely varied sources to a common format for purposes of editing, not to mention choosing codecs, framerates, adding pulldown, etc etc etc, and he's been absolutely instrumental to our project.

Wish Screenshot

5. Will you have a website for the release or in the near future?

Yes. The website has been painstakingly put together, and is essentially complete as we speak. We intend to, simultaneously, unveil the website and our project promo/trailer together. More importantly though, the website will act as central hub for the project, where people can get the very latest info and exclusive downloads, and, of course, place orders for copies.

Somewhat Damaged Screenshot

6. How can we (as fans) obtain copies? Will there be an SD/HD version?

As mentioned above, the website will be the only place orders can be placed for blu-rays and dvds. Naturally, the DVD version will be in SD, as there's no other choice, and the Blu-Ray version will be in HD. We'll also be releasing [after all is said and done] as in torrent format for download.

7. When can we expect to see this released?

Though we have an approximate date in our minds, this is one of those questions that's best left unanswered for now. We'd rather not create any expectations and then possibly let people down. There are many technical hurdles and production aspects that have yet to be hammered out. What I can say, and I've said before, is that we believe our timeline will move along quicker than TOIOU's just by virtue of having learned from them, and also as a result of the local nature of our team.

8. What was the highlight of the Wiltern show?

Personally, I always love spending time with the other fans. It's a really cool bonding experience. I can't say how many great people I've met at these concerts, "Wave Goodbye" in particular. As far as the show goes though, the final moments of In This Twilight were the most impactful for me... you could see it in each of their faces - Robin as he raised his guitar and then paused as if though in disbelief, Ilan as he stood up and raised his hands, Justin as he bowed down almost in tears laying his bass down, and Trent as he closed his eyes and pensively struck those final notes - that they knew what it meant... that they were leaving an era of their lives behind. That was the most impactful to me. That was the highlight. I knew they appreciated us and that they would miss us.

Again, thank you Sasan for doing the interview. Remeber, stay tuned to RITC and synthetikz twitter for up to date news on this release!

Survivalism Screenshot