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The International Journal of Film & Digital Production Techniques
Features 36 54 70 82 90
Cop vs. Robber Matthew Libatique, ASC and Spike Lee reteam on the thriller Inside Man
Into the Virtual Woods David Stump, ASC creates a fairytale world on CG sets for Red Riding Hood
The Competitive Edge
54
Rodney Taylor shoots the Tour de France for the Imax film Wired to Win
Marked Man Peter Sova, ASC puts a clever spin on film noir for Lucky Number Slevin
Sundance 2006: Frozen Moments A number of films with standout cinematography graced this year’s festival
Departments On Our Cover: A tough police detective (Denzel Washington) takes on a devious bank robber in the crime thriller Inside Man, shot by Matthew Libatique, ASC. (Photo by David Lee, courtesy of Universal Studios.)
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8 10 14 20 26 110 114 120 122 136 138 139 140 142 143 144
70 Editor’s Note President’s Desk Global Village DVD Playback Production Slate Short Takes Post Focus Tomorrow’s Technology New Products & Services Points East International Marketplace Classified Ads Ad Index 82 In Memoriam: Leonard South, ASC Clubhouse News ASC Close-Up
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The International Journal of Film & Digital Production Techniques • Since 1920
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www.theasc.com ———————————————————————————————————— PUBLISHER Martha Winterhalter ————————————————————————————————————
EDITORIAL
EXECUTIVE EDITOR Stephen Pizzello SENIOR EDITOR Rachael K. Bosley ASSOCIATE EDITOR Douglas Bankston TECHNICAL EDITOR Christopher Probst CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Stephanie Argy, Benjamin B, Robert S. Birchard, John Calhoun, Bob Davis, Bob Fisher, Simon Gray, Hugh Hart, Jim Hemphill, David Heuring, Jay Holben, Ron Magid, Jean Oppenheimer, John Pavlus, Chris Pizzello, David Samuelson, Jon Silberg, Kenneth Sweeney, Patricia Thomson, David E. Williams ————————————————————————————————————
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CIRCULATION, BOOKS & PRODUCTS CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Saul Molina CIRCULATION MANAGER Alex Lopez SHIPPING MANAGER Javier Ibanez ———————————————————————————————————— ASC GENERAL MANAGER Brett Grauman ASC EVENTS COORDINATOR Patricia Armacost ASC PRESIDENT’S ASSISTANT Delphine Figueras ASC ACCOUNTING MANAGER Mila Basely ASC STAFF ACCOUNTANT Diella Nepomuceno ———————————————————————————————————— American Cinematographer (ISSN 0002-7928), established 1920 and in its 87th year of publication, is published monthly in Hollywood by ASC Holding Corp., 1782 N. Orange Dr., Hollywood, CA 90028, U.S.A., (800) 448-0145, (323) 969-4333, Fax (323) 876-4973, direct line for subscription inquiries (323) 969-4344. Subscriptions: U.S. $50; Canada/Mexico $70; all other foreign countries $95 a year (remit international Money Order or other exchange payable in U.S. $). Advertising: Rate card upon request from Hollywood office. Article Reprints: Requests for high-quality article reprints should be made to Sheridan Reprints at (800) 394-5157 ext. 28. Copyright 2006 ASC Holding Corp. (All rights reserved.) Periodicals postage paid at Los Angeles, CA and at additional mailing offices. Printed in the USA. POSTMASTER: Send address change to American Cinematographer, P.O. Box 2230, Hollywood, CA 90078. YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support
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American Society of Cinematographers The ASC is not a labor union or a guild, but an educational, cultural and professional organization. Membership is by invitation to those who are actively engaged as directors of photography and have demonstrated outstanding ability. ASC membership has become one of the highest honors that can be bestowed upon a professional cinematographer — a mark of prestige and excellence.
OFFICERS - 2005/2006 Richard P. Crudo President
Owen Roizman Vice President
Daryn Okada Vice President
Curtis Clark Vice President
Russ Alsobrook Treasurer
Michael Goi Secretary
Kees Van Oostrum Sergeant-at-Arms
MEMBERS OF THE BOARD Russell P. Carpenter Curtis Clark Richard P. Crudo George Spiro Dibie Richard Edlund Francis Kenny Isidore Mankofsky Daryn Okada Woody Omens Owen Roizman Nancy Schreiber John Toll Roy Wagner Haskell Wexler Vilmos Zsigmond
ALTERNATES John Hora Stephen Lighthill Michael Goi Kees Van Oostrum Russ Alsobrook YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support 6
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Steve Gainer
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Editor’s Note ur biggest issue of the year so far is also our most diverse. Flipping through it, you’ll find articles on projects shot in a wide range of formats: standard 35mm, anamorphic 35mm, Super 35mm, 8- and 15perf 65mm, high-definition (HD) video, 24p HD and MiniDV, among others. It’s safe to say that cinematographers are taking full advantage of their creative options. In this era of expanding palettes, Matthew Libatique, ASC has distinguished himself as a director of photography who is more than willing to take risks, and the bank-heist thriller Inside Man reteamed him with Spike Lee, a filmmaker who has always encouraged his cinematographers to push the envelope. “Spike sort of riffs with me, gives me an idea, and then I go away and come up with a visual arc,” Libatique told interviewer John Calhoun (“Cop vs. Robber,” page 36). “At a certain point he’ll look at me and say, ‘So, what have you got?’” For the duo’s latest “joint” (Lee’s favored term for his films), Libatique responded with a look that artfully combines mixed color temperatures, cross processing, bleach bypass and a digital intermediate (DI). Not to be outdone, Peter Sova, ASC put a new spin on film-noir conventions for Lucky Number Slevin, his latest collaboration with adventurous director Paul McGuigan. Working on some highly stylized sets crafted by production designer François Séguin, Sova crafted inventive imagery that would fully embody the picture’s clever script. Jon Silberg sat Sova under the hot lights for his grilling (“Marked Man,” page 82). Leading-edge technology was put to intriguing use on Red Riding Hood, which surrounds its fairytale protagonist with computer-generated environments. David Stump, ASC was enlisted by director Randal Kleiser to shoot the project, and the cinematographer used Thomson Grass Valley’s HD Viper cameras to capture highquality images that would facilitate the show’s extensive digital compositing. Associate editor Douglas Bankston got the rest of the scoop in a detailed Q&A with Stump (“Into the Virtual Woods,” page 54). Fans of large-format cinematography will be thrilled by the fast-paced images in Wired to Win, an Imax production that uses the Tour de France bicycle race to examine how intense competition affects the human brain. Director of photography Rodney Taylor and his crew faced an array of daunting logistical difficulties during the shoot, and their inventive solutions make for a fascinating read. Jay Holben joined the peloton to pursue the full story (“The Competitive Edge,” page 70). This issue also includes our annual roundup of cinematography standouts from the Sundance Film Festival. AC ’s reporting team — senior editor Rachael Bosley, contributing writers Pat Thomson and Jean Oppenheimer, and yours truly — scoped out some of the most visually compelling entries for your edification and enjoyment (“Sundance 2006: Frozen Moments,” page 90).
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Photo by Douglas Kirkland.
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Dale Brooks, ABC-TV / Walt Disney Co
President’s Desk ur responsibility is to the visual image of the film as well as the well-being of the crew. The continuing and expanding practice of working extreme hours can compromise both the quality of our work and the health and safety of others.” A simple, elegant comment from one of the most honored and respected figures in the business. When the late Conrad Hall, ASC made this statement in 2002, he had just endured (survived, more likely) an arduous — but not particularly uncommon — schedule on Road to Perdition. His purpose was to incite reform of a policy which had over time become a type of officially sanctioned abuse. Five years earlier, assistant cameraman Brent Hershman had been killed while driving home from a shoot in a sleep-deprived state. Countless others continue to avoid a similar fate merely by luck. It remains a black mark on the industry that to date, no substantive action has been taken to rein in the environment that leads to the working of excessive hours. If you’re unfamiliar with our habits, don’t dare chalk this up to laziness or lack of enthusiasm. No other occupation I’m aware of puts in the kind of time we do. We perform our work in any number of irregular, lengthy and changeable combinations, all while being subjected to every kind of weather condition. The medical, physical and mental effects of going too long without sleep or having one’s sleep interrupted are varied and well documented, and none of them is good. The human body is capable of staggering endurance, but no one should have to call on those reserves just to make a living. During “Hell Week,” Navy SEAL candidates routinely get fewer than four hours of sleep out of a 120-hour evolution. Most of that time, they are freezing cold and soaking wet. Trainees have been known to mentally collapse, to have visions, to hallucinate. This extreme regimen is part of the toughest military training in the world. It prepares men for war. We’re not going to war, but a parallel exists in our own world. It begins with a 7 a.m. call on a Monday, and instead of finishing with an 8 p.m. wrap, it is followed by dailies and consultation for the next day with the director and producer. Then there’s travel home or back to the hotel, and perhaps a meal. No one jumps into bed the instant he walks through the door, so add at least another half-hour of decompression time. Before you know it, you’ve been awake and at it for 18-19 hours. Then gradually push that 8 a.m. call forward so that by Friday, this crucible begins at 5 p.m. and ends at 7 or 8 the following morning. Working on location? You’re most likely finishing your week on Sunday morning — and preparing to return to the set on Monday at 7 a.m. Now repeat that pattern for months on end. It’s like living in a state of constant, impenetrable jet lag. Health, relationships and quality of work suffer, and safety on set is compromised. Can you imagine asking an insurance salesman to maintain this pace? A grocery manager? An accountant? I promise you, the clerks who came up with this devilish design rarely approach a productive eight hours in their warm, dry offices. They probably don’t find themselves nodding off behind the wheel on the San Diego Freeway, either. ASC member Haskell Wexler screened his documentary Who Needs Sleep? to great acclaim at this year’s Sundance Film Festival (see page 96). The film was seven years in the making and is extraordinarily well-researched and presented, and it verifies the conclusions Hall referred to in his seminal statement. When you strip away the emotional attachments and artistic pretensions surrounding what we do, the object of our passion is seen for what it really is: a job. How abusive hours became standard procedure and why it’s allowed to continue are of no significance. What is important is that this situation needs to change.
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Global Village Mexican Charmer Duck Season Earns Its Kudos
t a time when multiplexes seem saturated with big-budget bombast, it’s refreshing to see Mexico lavish praise on the opposite sort of film: Duck Season, a black-and-white drama whose action occurs almost entirely inside a small apartment. The film swept Mexico’s Ariel Awards last year, and one of those prizes went to cinematographer Alexis Zabé. Directed and written by Fernando Eimbcke, Duck Season follows several characters whose paths cross in a Mexico City apartment one afternoon. Flama and Moko, two cynical 14-yearolds left alone for the day, resolve to entertain themselves with junk food and video games; Rita, their 16-year-old neighbor, tries unsuccessfully to bake a cake in their oven; and Ulises, a disaffected pizza deliveryman who arrives 10
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seconds past his 30-minute delivery deadline, resorts to a sit-in strike when the boys refuse to pay him. When a power outage traps them all together in the apartment, their insouciant banter slowly evolves into a tragicomic therapy session touching on youthful longing and adult disappointment. Zabé, who has worked as a director of photography in Mexico for 10 years, got his start shooting commercials and music videos right out of film school. “I worked as an assistant cameraman for four years, but I managed to do that while still being in school,” he explains. Prior to Duck Season, Zabé teamed with Eimbcke on many commercials and videos, as well as several short films. Duck Season marks the feature-film debut of both filmmakers — and most of the cast and
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14 April 2006
crew as well. “I think only the videoassist guy and the sound recordist had done feature work before!” says Zabé. The production had two months to prep, and Zabé says most of that time was spent searching for the right location. The filmmakers settled on a Mexico City housing project famous for its Socialist-era architecture and history of protest movements. “This movie is our attempt to tell a quotidian, everyday-life story in a place that’s always been associated with radical politics,” explains the cinematographer. But finding a suitable unit inside the building proved even harder. “Either the apartments were full or, when we found an empty one, it was too small or had the wrong orientation. When we finally found the right one, we went there every day for about a month, talking about the shots and starting to imagine the film sequence by sequence in that space.” This was followed by three weeks of rehearsals, which threw into sharp relief two big challenges: finding enough interesting compositions in the cramped space, and creating a consistent black-and-white look with limited resources. “On one hand, it came very naturally because I’d done a lot of shorts in similar situations, with natural light and tight location work,” says Zabé. “But on this film the challenge was mostly due to the duration of the story — how many angles can you find in one living room over a whole film?” The desire to shoot black-andwhite came out of the rehearsals. “We wanted to make this film very real, but contemporary homes are invaded by branding and advertising,” explains Zabé. “How can you compose a shot in the kitchen when the background is full of cans and cereal boxes? That adds a
Photos courtesy of Warner Independent Pictures. Bottom photo on page 16 by Fernando Eimbcke.
by John Pavlus A day at home starts out well for Moko (Diego Cataño, left) and Flama (Daniel Miranda), but their video games are soon interrupted by a power outage.
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Right: The boys find other ways to entertain themselves. Below: Director of photography Alexis Zabé hunkers down to find an angle in the apartment’s tiny kitchen as his young stars ham it up. In the background is set decorator Luisa Gualas.
lot of distraction. Black-and-white lets you focus on composition; color elements lose importance in favor of lines and shapes.” Monochrome film stock is very expensive to process in Mexico, so much so that it proved cheaper for Zabé to shoot on two color stocks, Kodak Vision 500T 5279 and Vision 250D 5246, and use a digital intermediate (DI) to take the color out. Nevertheless, Zabé and Eimbcke strove to maintain consistency throughout the shoot; they dialed
all the chroma out of their video-assist monitors and had dailies transferred to VHS in black-and-white. “We never saw this film in color at any point in the process,” notes Zabé. “Many people argued against this, and the producer was a little shocked. He trusted us completely, but he was probably sleepless for about two weeks after we told him our plan.” The cinematographer lowered costs further by filming with an Aaton 35-III 3-perf camera, which was small
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enough to wedge into nooks in the apartment. “Our big luxury was a Century Optics snorkel lens from the Eighties,” he adds. “That helped us get the camera parallel to the wall, as close as possible, and shoot facing out from it. This was especially necessary in the kitchen, which was a very hard location. It looks much bigger onscreen!” He used unfiltered Zeiss Ultra Primes ranging from 12mm to 35mm for most setups, shooting wide open to make the most of the location’s natural light. As the visuals began to come together, the filmmakers, inspired by the work of Jim Jarmusch and Yasujiro Ozu, started to compose scenes in long takes without close-ups or camera movement, relying on deep-focus framing and mise en scène to set the tone. “We’d sometimes shoot an insert to help with transitions, but after a week and a half we quit that altogether and just concentrated on the master shots,” recalls Zabé. “The editor was very worried about not having anything to cut, but we stuck to it, and it worked out fine. “We also felt [this strategy] was important because the film doesn’t have a main character,” he continues. “There are four points of view, and we didn’t want to direct the viewer’s attention to any one character with close-ups. We thought it would be more interesting to let the viewers decide for themselves.” The film does break from this framing style in a few flashbacks to formative moments in each character’s past. In one such sequence, Ulises begins by telling a story about working in an animal shelter where stray dogs were regularly put down. The camera slowly pushes in toward Ulises, who is seated on the floor. (Zabé executed this shot by locking the camera down on a simple skateboard dolly.) Then the scene cuts to Ulises’ flashback, filmed from his point of view with a handheld Aaton A-Minima; this footage was push-processed 2 stops for added grain. “This was looking into the character’s mind, so we wanted a very different look with lots of texture,” says Zabé. “We also wanted it to have a very
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rough, handheld feeling — I just moved the camera around without really looking through the lens. Also, the [animal shelter] location required that approach because we didn’t really have authorization to shoot there!” These flashbacks were filmed on the last day of the shoot, and they were a welcome treat for the crew, which had by then spent five weeks in a tiny apartment. “There were some days where cell phones were thrown against walls,” admits Zabé, “and the day we shot the exteriors was a sigh of relief for everybody.” Unfortunately, Zabé’s troubles weren’t over yet: the DI turned out to be a “very painful process.” He explains, “We were probably only the second or third feature that’s had a DI done in Mexico, and we had to iron out most of the details on the fly.” Most of his woes came in his attempts to maintain a consistent look. For example, tiny variations in the developing baths yielded visible mismatches between reels — “one would be a little greener, the next would go toward magenta, and the next would look cyan.” The only way to ensure quality control was to print every reel for each copy of the film consecutively and on the same day. Of course, that solution went by the wayside as soon as Duck Season secured a wider release. “It was released with 40 or 50 prints in Mexico, and they would print one day full of roll ones, and then the next day all roll twos, and so on,” says Zabé. “It made sense, but it was very hard to maintain consistency.” Despite those difficulties, Zabé says he would be happy to work with black-and-white again. However, he would take a different tack: “I would push for the extra money to shoot on black-and-white stock, just to avoid all the complications.” I
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DVD Playback An Unmarried Woman (1978) 1.85:1 (16x9 Enhanced) Digital Dolby 2.0, Digital Monaural 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, $14.98 “He was buying a shirt in Bloomingdale’s and he fell in love,” proclaims newly divorced Erica Benton (Jill Clayburgh) when the topic of her former husband, Martin (Michael Murphy), comes up. For 16 years, the Bentons shared a life together in their bright, two-bedroom apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, where they raised a daughter, Patti. When Martin tearfully confesses that he has fallen in love with someone else, Erica’s seemingly stable life crashes, and she vomits on the street near the SoHo gallery where she works. Scared, miserable and angry, Erica moves forward into life as a newly single woman, determined to find herself and raise her daughter with some help from her divorced women friends. After surviving several uncomfortable and unsuccessful attempts to find male companionship, Erica eventually meets a brash, friendly painter, Saul (Alan Bates), and decides to give him a chance. After making a splash at the Cannes Film Festival, where Clayburgh won the award for best actress, Paul Mazursky’s An Unmarried Woman, a feminist-minded take on the life of a single, urban female, became a critical
and commercial hit in the 1970s. To give the film a direct, realistic visual sensibility, Mazursky chose to shoot entirely on location in Manhattan, borrowing several apartments, lofts, stores and offices. He tapped cinematographer Arthur J. Ornitz, his collaborator on Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976), to film the project. Ornitz had gained a reputation for photographing New York in a gritty, realistic way with such films as Serpico and Death Wish. For An Unmarried Woman, the cameraman adjusted his eye for urban crime dramas and gave the streets of Manhattan a sunny, open and occasionally romantic quality without ever losing a sense of the real. An Unmarried Woman recently made its DVD debut courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, and the film finally looks as it should on home screens. Fans who are familiar with the drab, anemic VHS release that has been available for some time will find this DVD a revelation. The picture transfer is faithful to the look of the film; Ornitz’s careful work in brightly lit, often cramped interiors finally shines with sterile sophistication, while the city exteriors have just enough visible grain and sharpness to illuminate shadows and detail not evident in the earlier video version. The clean audio is presented in both stereo and monaural tracks. (The stereo track seems only to enhance Bill Conti’s occasionally intrusive musical score.) The DVD’s supplements comprise the film’s theatrical trailer; a collection of trailers for other Fox titles, including Next Stop, Greenwich Village and the Clayburgh vehicle Silver Streak; and a feature-length commentary by Mazursky and Clayburgh. Although the director and actress recorded their remarks separately, their comments have been integrated well. The commentary is generally absorbing, offering reminiscences about the making of the film and the
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20 April 2006
response it received. Mazursky occasionally gets carried away but manages to make some interesting, generous remarks about his cast and crew. (He notes that Ornitz had a difficult job with the practical locations but produced great results.) Though Clayburgh and Mazursky point out obvious similarities between An Unmarried Woman and HBO’s popular series Sex and the City, there is a great deal about the film that remains unique, interesting and poignant. A forerunner of the many single- or divorced- mother sitcoms that became so popular in the late 1970s, the picture also imparts a genuine sense of hope as it draws to a close on the sunny streets of an as-yet-ungentrified Greenwich Village. Things might not turn out perfectly, but there’s a chance the main character will be able to have lovers, friends, a family, a career, a sense of peace and, most importantly, choices. — Kenneth Sweeney
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005) 2.35:1 (16x9 Enhanced) Dolby Digital 5.1 Warner Home Video, $28.95 One of the most underrated releases of last year was The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, an adaptation of the celebrated novel that retains the strengths of its source material while also taking advantage of the techniques that separate film from liter-
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ature. The story of four girls (played by Amber Tamblyn, America Ferrera, Blake Lively and Alexis Bledel) coming of age over the course of a summer is aimed squarely at young audiences, but the film’s elegant visual style and sophisticated modulation of tone will be appreciated by filmmakers and film students. Sisterhood is a collaboration between two masters of the widescreen frame, director Ken Kwapis and cinematographer John Bailey, ASC (The Big Chill, The Accidental Tourist, Groundhog Day). Utilizing the anamorphic 2.40:1 frame, the filmmakers visually convey the characters’ friendships with long takes and careful compositions. Early scenes keep all four girls in the frame at the same time through blocking and camerawork, and the emphasis on composition over cutting creates a spatial unity that reinforces the intimacy between the characters. As the story progresses, the girls part company for various adventures, and the four very different locales in which they find themselves display a remarkable tonal range. Bailey has said that place is the fifth character in the film, and his use of the anamorphic format and long lenses brings the backgrounds close to the actors. The result is a series of sharp contrasts between the four storylines. This excellent DVD transfer flawlessly captures the breadth of Bailey’s palette. For example, a sun-drenched soccer camp in Baja is dominated by yellows and browns, while the Greece sequences are characterized by blues and whites that echo Raoul Coutard’s work on Contempt (a film that served as a model for Kwapis in its combination of the intimate and the epic). Another European filmmaker, Michelangelo Antonioni, is recalled in the alienating environment surrounding a girl who spends the summer working at a Wal-Martstyle superstore. With each of these storylines, the filmmakers adopt not only different palettes but also different shooting styles; the Baja section features kinetic movement and crane work, whereas the superstore sequences are visually sterile.
The best of the DVD’s supplements is a collection of eight deleted scenes that add to our understanding of the issues explored in the film. Kwapis provides an enjoyable commentary for these scenes, which, unfortunately, only add up to about seven minutes of screen time. A feature-length commentary by Kwapis would have been a welcome addition to this disc. In lieu of that, we have the featurette “Sisters, Secrets and the Traveling Pants,” which shows Tamblyn, Ferrera and Bledel watching scenes from the movie on video and commenting on them. This might be entertaining for the film’s target audience, but it has little to offer mature viewers. The same is true of “Fun on the Set,” a brief and mostly pointless making-of documentary. The film’s theatrical trailer and an interview with Ann Brashares, author of the book, round out the extra features on the disc. — Jim Hemphill
Mysterious Skin (2005) 1.85:1 (16x9 Enhanced) Digital Dolby 5.1, DTS Tartan/TLA Releasing, $24.99 In the summer of 1981, two 8year-old boys join a baseball team in their small Kansas town. Brian, shy and awkward, joins to satisfy his demanding father, while Neil, precocious and willful, joins to give his mother more time alone with her boyfriends. Although they are not friends, both boys have a life-altering experience that summer. Brian is found in his basement after a game, having awakened from a mysterious blackout with a nosebleed. His mother, sure he has been injured during a game, makes him quit the team. Neil spends much of his free time with the team’s coach (Bill
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22 April 2006
Sage), who encourages the fatherless youth to be his “special friend.” Ten years later, Brian and Neil are young men, and the events of that summer are affecting their lives in ways they don’t fully understand. Brian (Brady Corbet) has become convinced he was abducted by aliens and blacked out during their experiments; Neil (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) has developed into a shrewd hustler who recruits clients, older men, at the local playground. Eventually their separate lives intersect and lead them to come to terms with the unfortunate truth about the summer of 1981. Based on the acclaimed novel by Scott Heim, Mysterious Skin makes several shifts between 1981 and 1991 and required a look that was both realistic and occasionally surreal. Impressed by the work director of photography Steve Gainer, ASC had done on Larry Clark’s Bully, Mysterious Skin director/writer Gregg Araki offered his project to Gainer. The cinematographer made the most of the material, creating many instances of magic-hour lighting; farmland tableaux; harsh, urban exteriors; and ethereal, dreamlike sequences. The film runs the gamut visually, from the blinding, white kitchen light of the opening sequence to the lonely darkness that surrounds the characters in the final scene. Through his lighting, Gainer creates an impressive array of shadows, illuminating the many layers of blacks on display. Mysterious Skin recently arrived on DVD courtesy of Tartan/TLA Releasing, with its look well preserved. The transfer’s lighting levels always seem faithful to the film, and even the darkest scenes feature no distortion. The transfer is remarkably sharp, with some visible grain giving attention to detail throughout the frame. The sound is available in Digital Dolby 5.1 and DTS tracks, and although the latter features slightly more bass, there is little difference between the two; both are excellent, offering well-developed surround elements. The DVD features a commentary by Araki, Corbet and Gordon-Levitt, and
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although the speakers offer a few insights into the production, they eventually seem to be grasping to find something important to say. Not all filmmakers and actors excel at audio commentaries, and it’s a shame a straightforward interview wasn’t included instead. The disc also offers a strange but engaging hour-long video segment of Corbet and Gordon-Levitt reading aloud from Heim’s novel on a street in Los Angeles, as well as the film’s theatrical trailer and a selection of other TLA Releasing trailers. Released in U.S. theaters unrated, Mysterious Skin played to a limited audience last year. This is unfortunate, because a film that deals so sensitively and effectively with the prevalent problem of child abuse deserves to be seen. The difficult burden of such abuse — the overwhelming sense of loneliness and alienation that the crime can inflict on its victim — is at the heart of Mysterious Skin, giving the picture a keen social conscience. Without judging either of its main characters, two very different men, the film certainly involves us in their painful coming of age. — Kenneth Sweeney I
NEXT MONTH’S REVIEWS Midnight Cowboy (1969) Cinematographer: Adam Holender, ASC Ryan’s Daughter (1970) Cinematographer: Freddie Young, BSC The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988) Cinematographer: Sven Nykvist, ASC YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support 24
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Production Slate A Teen Odyssey and an Expressionist Homage
Wild in the Streets by Hugh Hart Even by low-budget, guerilla-filmmaking standards, Larry Clark’s Wassup Rockers struck Steve Gainer, ASC as a daunting challenge. The MiniDV slice-oflife feature, which opened the 2006 Slamdance Film Festival and will be theatrically released in June, stars seven Latino skateboarders who dress like the punk-rock band The Ramones. One day, they leave their south Los Angeles neighborhood and go skating in Beverly Hills, where they encounter suspicious police and flirtatious girls. After a night on the town, the exhausted teens return home at dawn. “When we went into this thing, there was no script, these were non-actors, and we were shooting in south L.A.,” recalls Gainer. “I’m not gonna lie: I did this film for Larry. When he hired me for Bully [2001], he impacted
my career more than anyone else.” Although Gainer was well acquainted with Clark’s methods — he also shot the director’s 2002 telefilm Teenage Caveman — Wassup Rockers proved especially difficult. For one thing, Clark was determined to shoot the entire picture on MiniDV. “That was decided before I was brought to the table,” notes Gainer. “The original concept, which is the way Larry likes to work, was ‘Grab a MiniDV camera and shoot.’ That’s wonderful for Grandma’s birthday, but for something that’s supposed to actually have a tone, that’s just not the case.” Gainer had previously used the Panasonic AG-DVX100A for a concert documentary about country-music singer Kenny Chesney. When he signed on to shoot Wassup Rockers in 2004, Gainer researched MiniDV options on the Internet and decided to use three Canon XL-2 cameras equipped with Canon’s
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14x Manual Zoom Lens; this package was provided by Alan Gordon Enterprises. “At the time, the XL-2 had just come out, and it had something like 100,000 more pixels per chip than the DVX100A,” says Gainer. He quickly realized that shooting with available light was out of the question if he wanted to avoid muddy textures. “I was terrified when I investigated a few things that had been shot on MiniDV and transferred to film. The examples I saw were grainy with soft focus, just awful. After I recovered, I got damned serious. I told Larry, ‘We really need to light this.’ “Out of the box, the XL-2 is approximately one stop slower than the DVX100A,” he continues. “Right away, that ate away at Larry’s concept of just running around and shooting. There were other issues, too; the Canon has a switch that allows it to go -3 dB; that
Wassup Rockers photos courtesy of First Look Pictures.
Kico (Francisco Pedrasa) takes the plunge in a Beverly Hills pool in a scene from Wassup Rockers.
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Above: Kico and his fellow skaters enjoy a laugh at a policeman’s expense. Below: Jonathan (Jonathan Velasquez) and Iris (Iris Zelaya) get close.
allows you to eliminate even more noise and grain, but that’s also 3 dB less light. At -3 dB, the ASA of the camera we were shooting with was somewhere around 125. So in came the lights!” Wassup Rockers began production on the skaters’ home turf, with key scenes filmed in a small house in south L.A. “The ceiling was only 8 feet off the ground, so we essentially went through the house and pre-rigged it as if we were doing an episode of The Real World,” says Gainer. “We hung 4-by-4 and 4-by-2 banks of Kino Flos everywhere, and we put diffusion on them so it didn’t look like fluorescent bulbs were blasting the actors.” Gainer and Brian Sweeney operated the two main cameras, while gaffer/cameraman Ben Gamble operated a third and shot second-unit skat-
ing footage. Shooting in cramped practical interiors was complicated by the fact that the actors moved without regard to conventional blocking. “We had seven or eight non-actors running around, never hitting any marks,” recalls Gainer. “They were truly incapable of doing the same thing twice, so it was impossible to get a matching take. This played into Larry’s concept.” He adds, “There were plenty of shots that had a camera in frame, but when you have three cameras rolling six or eight hours of tape a day, you just keep rolling and let the kids do their thing.” After filming in south L.A. for several days, the filmmakers moved on to Los Feliz for another 18 days of principal photography. The trendy neighborhood was actually standing in for Beverly Hills; Clark’s 30-page treatment called for action to take place in and around Beverly Hills High School, but after reviewing Clark’s script, the production was denied permission to film anywhere in Beverly Hills. “They were really nice to us when we scouted Beverly Hills High,” Gainer notes wryly, “but they hadn’t read the script yet.” Gainer recruited videographer Danny Minnick to film some of the skateboard sequences. “Danny’s very good,” he says. “Like most skateboard videographers, he likes to use a fisheye lens, but I didn’t want that look because Larry Clark is all about long lensing. With a 4mm lens, you can just point it in
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a direction and get a shot, but with a 50mm, you actually have to frame somebody. This project was a whole new level of skateboarding and operating at the same time, and Danny rose to the occasion and did a great job.” One of Gainer’s favorite sequences is set at night on Vine Street. He had to film the characters as they skateboard four blocks downhill to Hollywood Boulevard. The production asked him to use a Condor to light the scene, but Gainer argued for one BeBee Night Light and prevailed. “That was one of the more fun nights I had on this movie. We just aimed the BeBee light and then shot. They’re a little expensive to rent but well worth it, because they eliminate all the cabling you have to do if you use Condors. When we turned around to look in the opposite direction, we simply brought the Bebee down, backed up two blocks, stuck it back up, and were ready to go. It was extraordinary.” During the final days of the shoot, tension developed on set as the non-professional stars grew increasingly rambunctious. “The crew was exhausted because the kids weren’t listening to anyone,” recalls Gainer. “We’d be ready to shoot and one of them would just be gone, and by the time the assistant director had rounded that person up, another one was missing. Then the actors started to wrestle with the crew — unannounced, all of them would run and jump on someone. When you have a bunch of 15-year-olds waiting in a trailer for two or three hours for a lighting setup, they go bananas.” When Gainer wasn’t operating, he was glued to a waveform vector scope. “That was the greatest ally I had in the whole process, because it allowed me to set levels for white and blacks. I fought tooth and nail to keep the waveform for the entire shoot, and boy, am I glad I did. When you’ve got three cameras pointed in three directions and seven kids, how do you find consistency? The waveform was my consistency. The color-correcting phase was much more pleasant because I’d
Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC For Being Nominated By Both The 20th Annual ASC Awards And The 78th Annual Academy Awards For Outstanding Achievement In Cinematography On “Brokeback Mountain”
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been able to maintain a balance.” Nevertheless, Gainer received a shock when he saw the first output neg at Technicolor’s Complete Post, now known as Technicolor Digital Intermediates (TDI). “The first pass was bad — what we saw on the CRT monitor and what we saw projected onscreen were two entirely different things,” says the cinematographer. ASC associate member Dana Ross, senior vice president of feature-film relations for TDI, stepped in to expedite the creation of a customized lookup table, which was configured by ASC associate member Joshua Pines, TDI’s director of imaging and research. “The difference was miraculous,” says Gainer. “Suddenly, what we saw on the CRT was exactly what we saw on the big screen. That was a fabulous moment.” Gainer and colorist Wayne Hampton then spent three days grading the picture with a da Vinci 2K Plus. “We ended up with a final product which, on its own, looks quite nice. To understand MiniDV’s capabilities, look at the sequence where Kico is sitting in the bedroom with the girl from Beverly Hills. I lit it with a [Kino Flo] Wall-o-Lite and a 1200-watt HMI Par. That was an instance where I was able to light and photograph the action properly, and it looks nice.” He cites an early scene in the film as an example of the opposite approach: “When the skaters’ band is performing in a bedroom in south L.A., that’s an example of no control, no plan for what we were doing — it’s Larry Clark rawness. In this project, I tried to bridge the gap between something that’s beautiful and something very raw and real, which is what Larry really loves.” Despite the production’s challenges, Gainer says he would work with Clark again in a heartbeat. “Making this movie was very difficult on all fronts, but the result is something I think Larry’s fans will appreciate and enjoy. I now hold the record for shooting the most Larry Clark films, three. And I’m ready for number four.”
A Modern Take on Dr. Caligari by Elina Shatkin Words such as “classic” and “groundbreaking” are often bandied about, but few films are more deserving of superlatives than The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Directed by Robert Wiene, this seminal silent film, made in Germany in 1919, reshaped the aesthetics of the medium and launched the serial-killer genre. The dramatic lighting and expressionistic sets created a world that had never before been seen on celluloid. Although Wiene never made another film that equaled Caligari, the picture’s influence extended well beyond its era and has inspired an array of filmmakers. Among them is writer/director David Lee Fisher, a software developer and visual-effects artist known for his work in the video-game industry. The son of a NASA engineer, Fisher became interested in technology at an early age, and he says it was always his ambition to be a filmmaker. “I had a lot of interest in both computers and entertainment, so it felt natural to combine the two.” Fisher had long wanted to revamp The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, but he “wanted to approach it in a way that was respectful to the original. I didn’t want to do a modern Hollywood remake, I wanted to create something along the lines of what someone would do if he was covering a song.” His idea
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was to use backgrounds scanned from the original film and shoot modern-day actors speaking new dialogue against a greenscreen. To convey the concept to prospective backers, he captured the backgrounds from a DVD of Caligari and created a brief composite of himself walking through the town scene. Toting the demo on his laptop, he ran into producer Leonard McCleod at a Star Trek convention. “I showed it to him, and about five seconds later he agreed to do it,” recalls Fisher. McCleod singlehandedly funded the project’s six-figure budget. Fisher found a 35mm print of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari that had been spirited out of Europe during World War II; the print is owned by film restorationist David Shepard, who supported Fisher’s project and allowed his print to be transferred to DVD. The original Caligari was filmed at approximately 18 fps, and although its aspect ratio was close to 4x3, Fisher decided to finish his project in 16x9. The print was transferred in 4x3 and the new footage was shot in 4x3, and during postproduction, the tops and bottoms of both images were cropped to create a 16x9 image. “It helped with matching the shots because it gave us some leeway to move the background plates up and down,” explains Fisher. When the film was up-converted in the final digital intermediate (DI), the black bars at the top and bottom were removed and the image was enlarged to its final 16x9 output.
Caligari photos by Len McLeod; frame grabs courtesy of Highlander Films LLC.
Dr. Caligari’s charge Cesare (Doug Jones), the prime suspect in a murder, abducts the dead man’s fiancée (Lauren Birkall) and flees prosecution in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a remake of the classic German Expressionist film.
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Top right: Cinematographer Christopher Duddy shot Caligari entirely against greenscreen; this material was composited with backgrounds scanned from a print of the original film. Left column: Final composites of newly shot live action and original backgrounds.
After finalizing his script, Fisher captured 720x480 JPEGs from the DVD transfer and used them to create a shot list. By the time he brought in visualeffects cinematographer Christopher Duddy (The Abyss, Terminator 2, Titanic), Fisher had already decided to shoot with the Panasonic AG-DVX100A in 24p mode. He had decided against high-definition video because it required too much processing power in post and made the visual effects look less believable. “If we had too much resolution, it looked liked the people had been pasted into the back-
grounds,” he notes. The entire movie was shot in nine days on a soundstage against greenscreen, a feat that required extensive previsualization. Duddy and Fisher explored complex methods for matching the actors against the backgrounds, but in the end they chose a fairly simple approach. The two on-set cameras were tethered via long FireWire cables to a Pentium 4 3.2 GHz computer that was connected to a 35" plasma screen. Using the real-time sliders in Ultra Key, a lowend compositing program commonly used for corporate videos, Fisher replaced the greenscreen with the captured backgrounds from Caligari. This on-set compositing technique required Duddy to match the camera angles by eye. “Typically you shoot a background plate and collect all your data so that when you shoot the foreground elements, you can match all those perspectives,” says Duddy. “Because none of that data had been gathered from the original, I had to mostly eyeball it.” All the backgrounds and their corresponding scene numbers were logged in the computer. An actor or extra would stand on a mark while Duddy tilted, panned, zoomed, dollied, raised or lowered the camera until the shot was lined up. “I wasn’t even looking through the lens,” he recalls. “I was looking at the composite on the monitor. I could tell when something didn’t line up, but it
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32 April 2006
took a lot of finessing to get it right. Sometimes raising the camera half an inch would make all the difference.” The first shot took a daunting 41⁄2 hours to set up, but by the end of production, the filmmakers were averaging 54 setups per day. One advantage of shooting against greenscreen was financial. To shoot a reverse, Duddy didn’t move the camera, he moved the actors. “The entire time, the camera probably didn’t move within 5 feet of its position,” says Fisher. Fortunately, on the original Caligari Wiene often started rolling the camera on an empty set and then had the actors walk in. This meant less reconstruction was required because he could pull frames without any actors in them. Fisher noticed that Wiene’s film consists mostly of wide shots, but he decided he wanted to add close-ups, which Duddy accomplished by attaching to the Fisher dolly a Ubangi head on which he could mount two DVX100 cameras. “One thing I learned from James Cameron is coverage, coverage, coverage!” laughs Duddy. “With the first camera, we’d get the wide shot that was in the original, and with the second, we’d play with interesting angles.” The trickiest aspect of framing was accurately representing the ground plane (i.e., the floor). In post, actors could be digitally moved left or right as
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1. Mounting 2/3-inch type lenses with the optional LO-32BMT adaptor multiplies lens focal length by 1.37X.
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necessary, but if the camera placement was slightly off in a high-angle shot of an actor moving toward camera, the person would grow too large as he approached and would look like he was walking through the floor, an effect that could not be fixed later. Prior to the shoot, Fisher and producer Paula Elins combed through the movie and made a list of the necessary props. With a few exceptions, such as a couch in an apartment and a ramp that appears in two shots, real props were used on the greenscreen set. Fisher decided it would be too timeconsuming to either look for a matching couch or digitally remove it from the background plate, so instead, he had the actor sit on an applebox covered in greenscreen fabric. When the background was added later, it looked as though the actor was sitting on the couch in the original film. Instead of actual sets, green tape marks were placed on the floor to indicate the presence of walls, floors and other objects. For the scene in which the murderer, Cesare (Doug Jones), climbs up a tower, the actor simply walked along zigzag tape marks onstage. The only sets with three walls were the police station, the inspector’s office, and Caligari’s caravan. Because the original film’s police station scene was wellpopulated, shooting a real set was much faster than digitally extracting actors
from the background plates. “Basically, those are things we weren’t going to save any time doing in post,” notes Fisher. Another advantage of shooting these scenes with real sets was that it gave Duddy more creative options. Without the worry of matching actors to background plates, Duddy used a Century Optics Pro DV .7x wide-angle adapter to give the shots a slightly distorted feel. “Once we didn’t have to worry about matching things, we could really be creative,” says Fisher. For Duddy, the most challenging aspect of the project was lighting the full-body shots, which had to be overlit to avoid green spill. “We would literally go from a key, an edge and five lights in the medium shot to 20 times that in the
wide shot,” says the cinematographer. In medium shots where the actors’ feet were not visible, gaffer Rich Paisley laid cardboard on the ground to decrease the green spill. Duddy relied on a standard, midsized tungsten package. His basic technique was to use soft key lights (tungsten lamps bounced off unbleached muslin), very hard edge lights (for separation when the mattes were pulled in compositing), and Source Four Lekos to create slashes of light on the walls. “In the original movie, they actually painted a lot of shadows onto the sets,” he notes. “We took Lekos and put in different patterns to create the effect of light coming through windows or trees.” However, he kept stylistic flourishes to a
Sitting on a Fisher dolly, Duddy checks the composite of the most recent take. He shot with two Panasonic AG-DVX100A cameras mounted on a Ubangi to get the most coverage. Below: Rough composites were done in real time on set using the Ultra Key keyer to make sure the live-action perspective matched the background plate.
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Duddy (left) and director David Lee Fisher talk expressionism.
minimum, knowing that much of the film’s look would be created in post. “It’s the 21st-century way of lighting, especially for something like this. You can do quite a bit of lighting in post.” Adds visual-effects supervisor Josiah Holmes Howison, “That was one of the advantages of basically directing the movie in post — we could relight things and create new shadows, we could put eyelights on people.” Fisher passed each scene to Howison as soon as he had edited it, and he never saw the complete picture until close to the end of the process. Working on two Athlon 64 Dual Core XP computers built by Fisher, Howison and Fisher dove into the 10-month editing and effects process. For each scene, Howison created a rough composite in After Effects to determine whether actors needed to be moved. “I often found myself doing a lot of digital painting to extend the original sets or create backgrounds for close-ups that were never in the original,” says Howison.
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Because there was no coverage in the original, the backgrounds for the closeups were all created from the original master shot. “I did a lot of stitching together in Photoshop and imagining what a reverse shot of the room they were standing in might look like,” explains Howison, who tried to limit the digital additions to the film. “I didn’t want to create new shapes, I wanted to mimic and blend it all so nothing looked new and it all seemed homogeneous.” After finalizing the framing, the team manipulated the lighting to add shadows. “There had to be a lot of light so there wouldn’t be green spill on the actors,” says Fisher. “It’s extremely bright and flatly lit so as not to cause havoc in compositing. All the noir lighting was added in post.” Aside from a few instances where actors’ silhouettes hit setpieces, all the shadows were painted in with After Effects. “We’d use the person’s image to cast the shadow, but I did it all by hand,” says Howison. In Photoshop, he painstakingly cleaned
each frame by hand, removing scratches and dust and darkening shots that were overexposed. The film reads as black-andwhite, but Howison notes that it actually has 10-20 percent color. “If you look closely, you’ll notice there are a lot of blues and cool colors in the highlights and warmth in the shadows.” The original plates were desaturated to match the new footage, and Howison spent a great deal of time matching the black and white levels. The film also contains three shots with colored objects: twice a flower is colored lilac to convey Francis’ (Judson Pearce Morgan) awakening to the world, and in another shot, Jane’s (Lauren Birkell) lips are reddened to emphasize her sensuality. These effects were created during the DI by colorist Tyler Hawes, who worked in Silicon Color’s Final Touch 2K. The movie’s dramatic look was enhanced with a series of eight After Effects plugins, which Fisher calls his “secret sauce.” He won’t reveal what
they are but describes them as a combination of filters designed to heavily affect diffusion, color filtering and post contrast by emulating real-world filters. Each scene was composited in After Effects as a separate project and had 30-40 layers, each with its own filters. Each scene was then run through the “secret sauce.” The completed film was upconverted to 1080p at Hollywood DI, where Hawes added the final touches. “Because it was black-and-white,” says Fisher, “it was more of a contrast correction than a color correction. We experimented with a lot of different things and added a grain layer and a softening layer.” The final version was output to a high-quality, lossless HDCam SR tape, which is how it was projected for its premiere at Screamfest last fall. The festival awarded The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari three Golden Skulls, for cinematography, special effects and audience choice. I
Erratum A caption on page 50 of our January 2006 article about The New World (“Uncharted Emotions”) incorrectly states that the show’s boat-to-boat shots were accomplished with a Giraffe crane mounted on a floating platform. The crane was actually an MC88 Crane, designed by Bob Nettmann, mounted with the Nettmann 5-axis stabilized head (or Stab-C). The MC88, Stab-C and a Technocrane 30 were used throughout much of the filming. All of this equipment was rented to the production by Atlantic Cine Equipment, and the show’s Stab-C technician was Randy Greer Jr.
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Cop vs.Robber Matthew Libatique, ASC creates distinct visual environments for Inside Man, which pits a hardened cop against a resourceful bank robber. by John Calhoun Unit photography by David Lee Additional photos by John Velez he studio synopsis for Spike Lee’s latest film, Inside Man, informs us that it is the story of a “tough cop, Detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington), who matches wits with a clever bank robber, Dalton Russell (Clive Owen), in a tense hostage drama.” Director of photography Matthew Libatique, ASC, confirms that this is an accurate description of the film, which also stars Jodie Foster as a “power broker with a hidden agenda.” The cinematographer adds that he was “attracted to this test of wills between two very strong characters, and the depth each character held.”
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Libatique goes on to explain that the motive behind the robbery is not what it initially seems, and turns out to involve a significant moral issue. Inside Man is one of the few features Lee has directed that he did not also write, but Libatique notes that the director certainly has a way of a making any movie his own. “Spike is a camera-savvy, composition-savvy director,” says the cinematographer, who previously collaborated with Lee on the feature She Hate Me (2004) and a number of commercials. “He has a distinct working style; he likes to have the scene play out and get all of his
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coverage pretty much at the same time. He’s not a single-camera-setup director who gets nine shots per scene and spends all day doing it. He prefers to get the actors blocked and find out where he can place all the cameras so he can get the scene and the performance. Because of this, the actors have to perform in every shot. “I don’t think our collaboration on Inside Man would have been nearly as successful if I hadn’t shot a feature for him before,” he adds.“She Hate Me largely involved two and three cameras, and I knew that was going to be the formula on this film as well.”
Photos courtesy of Universal Pictures.
In fact, during several sequences on Inside Man, many more cameras were used. “We had some seven-camera days when we shot the police approaching the bank after the call comes in that it’s being robbed,” explains Libatique. “Spike likes to set up a grand scene with a bunch of cameras and then go into the chaos — he treats it as live theater. He’d use seven cameras in one scene but then a single camera in another. I think that’s his way of letting [the movie] breathe. For example, in the scene when the hostages are finally released, we covered the action with seven cameras, but the aftermath of that moment, as the hostages are put on buses, was covered mainly in a single crane shot that moved from one place to another, revealing things as the shot progressed.” Similarly, other scenes were covered with a single Steadicam shot.“For those, I’d create a lighting setup that would accommodate several cameras but then use a single camera to move from character to character and take you from place to place within the scene.” Most intriguing for Libatique
Opposite: Detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) faces off against resourceful bank robber Dalton Russell (Clive Owen) after an attempted heist turns into a hostage situation. This page: A mysterious power broker (Jodie Foster) has her own agenda.
is Lee’s tendency “to create visual metaphors for different characters or story points.” In Inside Man, a major goal was “to create a visual distinction between Frazier and Russell.” Russell, who masterminds the heist on the downtown Manhattan bank and takes dozens of people hostage, was generally photographed “with a Steadicam and a centered frame, an approach that suggested a person in control,” says the cinematographer. “Lighting-wise, we tried to keep the
color temperature as unified as possible in his scenes.” By contrast, Frazier, who is under investigation and is assigned to the case only because the regular hostage negotiator is unavailable, spends much of the film outside the bank, in a state of confusion about the situation at hand. “When we shot scenes with Denzel, we used multiple handheld cameras and our approach was more about the cuts,” says Libatique. “We also used a lot of different lighting
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Cop vs. Robber
Russell and his henchmen crack the safe. The film’s environments benefitted from cinematographer Matthew Libatique, ASC’s use of the widescreen Super 35mm format.
sources for the exteriors, including fluorescents, tungsten, metal halides, sodium vapors and police flashers — anything that would create a mix.” These split strategies for Inside Man were developed during preproduction. “Spike sort of riffs with me, gives me an idea, and then I go away and come up with a visual arc,” says
Libatique. “At a certain point he’ll look at me and say, ‘So, what have you got?’ That’s when I’ll pitch my idea. He’ll want to know how I’m going to do it — whether it will be cross processing or a disparity in color temperatures, whether it’s the use of Steadicam or use of different lenses. He gives me a lot of freedom
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to come up with a language, but he wants to know what the approach is before he shoots anything.” The decision to film Inside Man in Super 35mm 2.35:1 had a lot to do with the framing strategies the filmmakers had in mind for the two leads. “One of our earliest ideas was to have a centered frame for Clive’s character and a weighted frame for Denzel’s, so I wanted to work in 2.35,” says Libatique. “I thought it would create distinct negative space for each character. With Denzel’s character, framing left and framing right with a lot of negative space creates a sense of the chaos around him. You get the impression he’s a man under a microscope being watched by many.” Because the filmmakers intended to finish with a digital intermediate (DI) at EFilm in Hollywood, choosing Super 35mm over anamorphic was easy. “The greater flexibility in terms of lenses and mobility led me to use spherical,” says the cinematographer. “I
Director Spike Lee and his cast and crew work out their blocking in the bank interior.
didn’t want to have that anamorphic angst.” Arricam Studios and Lites were the production’s primary cameras, and they were augmented with Arri 435s and Arri 235s during more frenetic action sequences. Libatique used a range of Cooke S4 prime lenses. “When you use many cameras, especially with Spike, you’re inevitably using long lenses because you’re putting cameras in places that have to be farther away from the action,” he explains. “We were wider with Clive because we had the opportunity to be closer in on a single-camera Steadicam shot. There’s an inherent language created by the logistics.” Multiple cameras meant multiple operators, and there were three on Inside Man. “At the beginning of the show, I met with them to explain the visual concept so it would be ingrained in their minds,” says Libatique. “I said, ‘We want to create a sense of control and largely centered frames with Clive’s character, and we want to have movement with Denzel’s.’ Having three opera-
tors on the same character, I’d watch all three. In a handheld shot, a long lens has a little bit of movement and a wider lens is inherently smoother. I would actually talk to the operator and tell him not to be so steady. It was the first time I’d worked with so many operators where I wasn’t one myself.”
A-camera/Steadicam operator Stephen Consentino estimates that 80 percent of Inside Man was shot either handheld or on Steadicam. “The original plan was that I was going to be the B-camera operator and Matty was going to operate the A camera,” says Consentino, “but after about a day and a half of shooting,
YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support American Cinematographer 39
Cop vs. Robber Top: Vari-Lite VL1000 ERS luminaires rigged to pillars inside the bank helped the filmmakers achieve a variety of lighting effects for the interior. According to gaffer John Velez, “They have onboard dimmers, rotating gobos and CYM color mixing, so you can make them any color you can think of. I could control them wirelessly via my PowerBook and a Lanbox DMX controller, which allowed me to stand in the middle of the set and make adjustments. Matty loved it.” Bottom: 4K tungsten lighting cubes, provided by SourceMaker Lighting Balloons, were also used to illuminate the bank interior.
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we started doing a crane shot and Matty was really busy lighting. I said, ‘Do you want me to just set it up for you and operate a rehearsal?’ I did that, and he came to me at the end of the day and said, ‘From now on, just do all the operating.’ Spike moves so fast and wants to do a lot of coverage with a lot of cameras, so it’s hard if you’re a director of photography and also operating a camera — all you see is what’s happening with your camera.” Libatique adds, “Watching everybody operating at the same time, I was able to see how everything was working together. I felt like I was operating all three!” Consentino’s work also helped Libatique embrace the Steadicam for the first time. “After the shoot, Matty told me he’d never worked with an operator who shared his framing sensibilities and was really good at Steadicam,” recalls Consentino, who has 15 years of experience with the device. “I’d never worked with a director who wanted to move the camera that way,” says Libatique, whose feature credits include Requiem for a Dream (see AC Oct. ’00) and Phone Booth (AC Nov. ’02).“But I thought,‘If I’m going to light for a multi-camera situation, why not take advantage of it with the Steadicam?’ It gave me the opportunity to move the camera from one place to another in an interesting way.” Production on Inside Man got underway in the summer of 2005 and ran for 43 days. The story covers a 24-hour period, from the morning of the day when the heist begins to the morning of the next, when the crisis is resolved. There are three primary, adjacent settings: the exterior of the bank, where the police and emergency forces congregate; the lobby of the bank; and the bank basement, where the hostages are held. “We had a bank location downtown, right off of Wall Street,” says Libatique. “It was an empty building that had a beautiful lobby,
.
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Cop vs. Robber Top: One of the production’s major exterior lighting sources was the LRX II. This truck unit, designed by Dwight Crane of Toronto, has a 120' arm and robotic heads that can accommodate six 12K tungsten or HMI lamps. “Each head is independent and can also be controlled remotely,” Velez explains. “I had previously used the LRX on The Dukes of Hazzard, and I can’t say enough good things about it. One of its most impressive characteristics is that it can work in tungsten mode with the ability to dim; all you have to do is change the globes to 12K tungstens. We would often mix HMI and tungsten looks. At night we would have the array of fixtures set up with Plus Green on the HMIs and Brass or 1⁄2 Straw on the tungstens. We would mix light all the time, because that’s the way Matty lights the set. There were no rules on color temperature.” Right: A shot of the bank interior reveals the effect of the LRX light.
and [production designer] Wynn Thomas turned it into a bank.” Scenes set in the bank basement were shot at Brooklyn’s new Steiner Studios. “The stage was enormous,” notes Libatique. “It was fantastic to be able to work in New York in a space that was custom-fit for film.” The color mix he devised played most strongly on night exteriors outside the bank. “With my gaffer, John Velez, I would pick zones for different-colored lights. I’d say, ‘This zone is a cool environment, this is a metal-halide environment, this is a tungsten environment.’ Then, within the blocking, I would create a balance between two or three colors. I always had a representation of at least two colors, something warm and something cool, or something green and something blue, in the same frame so the language would stay fluid. On the exterior, I had the benefit of the police-car lights, a mobile command center with tungsten lighting, sodium-vapor streetlights, and metal-halide construction lights that
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Cop vs. Robber
Above: A Color Kinetics ColorBlaze LED unit was used to create the effect of flashing police lights. The rate of flashing was controlled with a Lanbox DMX WiFi system. Right: To light the “canyons” between New York’s skyscrapers, the crew employed an 8K SourceMaker lighting cube suspended over the street. Bottom: Detective Bill Mitchell (Chiwetel Ejiofor), Captain Darius (Willem Dafoe) and Frazier spring into action.
the police wheel out in situations like this — they flood the area with light so they can see what’s going on.” For the latter units, the production actually used 16 Arri 4K X-Lights on towers, powered by an Arri Event system, “to give us instant ‘on,’” says Velez. “Matty wanted to have a dramatic effect when night hit the scene. We put green glass on the XLights and blocked out any Arri labeling so they looked like police lights.” This look was matched on the Steiner stage with “greened-up” 4K HMI Pars aimed through the windows of the basement set.“I used the windows as the motivating light
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source in the bank at night because the power has been cut,” explains Libatique. Velez adds, “We had to go with what was on the exterior of the bank, and luckily there were windows [on the basement level]. They were boarded up when we first went to the location, but we uncovered them and the art department cleaned them.” Other major light sources used on the exterior were predominantly employed for day sequences and proved especially useful toward the end of the day in the “canyons”of lower Manhattan. One was a 10' SourceMaker 8K Cube, an HMI lighting balloon suspended over the street. Another was the LRX II, a truck unit designed by Dwight Crane of Toronto that has a 120' arm and robotic heads that can accommodate six 12K tungsten or HMI lamps. Both Libatique and Velez had prior experience with the LRX, which “resembles a Musco or Bebee but allows much more control,” says the cinematographer. Velez details, “Each head is independent and can be controlled remotely, and one of the most impressive characteristics is that it can work in tungsten mode with the ability to dim. All you have to do is change out the globe. We would often mix HMI and tungsten light; at night, we would have the system set up with Plus Green on the HMIs, and Brass or 1⁄2 Straw on the tungsten. Each head could take up to four gels; you could put a diffusion frame in there, or color. We kind of went crazy — there wasn’t one normal-colored light on set.” Most crucially, the LRX provided the filmmakers with precious extra minutes of “daylight” when the sun began creeping behind the high buildings. “We would just send it down the street with the tungsten and the HMI to give us a little warmth in our daylight when it landed,” recalls Velez.“Because it was such a powerful unit,”says Libatique, “I’d create hot spots with it or bang
it into the glass of a building to create reflections on the other side of the street. Or I would use it as a front fill.” As an example, the cinematographer cites a scene in which Frazier is introduced to Foster’s character. “The sun was going down and we were pretty much running out of ambient light. John suggested moving our LRX behind the camera and focusing all of the light very high out of frame.
All we got was the ambience from the edges of a focused source, and that bought us an extra 20 or 30 minutes of shooting. Sometimes it’s what you plan, and sometimes it’s what you think of in five minutes.” Inside the bank location, Velez’s crew, including rigging gaffer Bill Almeida and best boy Darrin Smith, floated a tungsten SourceMaker 4K Cube for ambient
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Cop vs. Robber Right: Standing beneath a SourceMaker lighting cube, Libatique takes a meter reading while preparing one of Lee’s favorite techniques: a moving dolly shot of a stationary character, which creates a surrealistic sense of movement onscreen. Below: Executing the move.
light. On the lobby’s pillars, they rigged six Vari-Lite VL1000 ERS luminaires, which Velez operated remotely with a Lanbox DMX controller. “When we were scouting, Matty said we should put moving lights up there,” says the gaffer. “We went to Scharff Weisberg, which is a specialty shop for a lot of Broadway shows. They gave us half a day and we went through a lot of gear.”
During this shopping spree, they found a Color Kinetics LED that they used as a police-car effect, and, more importantly, the VL1000, which includes CYM color mixing and rotating gobos among its features. “I’ll tell you, I’ve always been afraid of moving lights because they’re theater lights and very complicated to use [on film],” says Velez. “On film sets, we’re pretty
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much run and gun, and we try to keep things a little bit low-tech, because if something breaks down it can be a problem. But these units are tungsten, so they’re film-friendly; you can make them any color you can think of, you can shape the light, throw a little breakup in it, or bounce them into cards and throw a little fill. The Lanbox system gave me the ability to have the instrument on my laptop, so I could pan it left or right or change the color. Whereas film lights just do one job, and we might modify them with gel or diffusion, these units have a lot of personality. I’m not afraid of them anymore. Bring ’em on.” Though the contrasting visual strategies Libatique devised for the main characters play through most of Inside Man, at one point, Frazier and Dalton actually come together inside the bank. “Frazier says he wants to see the hostages to make sure they’re alive before he gives Dalton what he’s asking for,” says the cinematographer. “Dalton gives him entrance to the bank and shows him the hostages. We go through the
© Photo: Paul Good
ROBERT BENAVIDES Cinematographer on music videos for T.I., Fabolous, Daddy Yankee and Snoop Dogg. Commerical credits include: Sylvania, Sobe "Adrenaline Rush," Quiznos, & McDonald's. Currently shooting his fourth feature film.
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Cop vs. Robber Right: A robbery witness (John Speredakos) examines a series of mug shots for Mitchell and Frazier. Below: Libatique steps in for a quick meter reading as Lee observes.
entire bank, from the upstairs on location to a blend into the stage basement set, with the same Steadicam moves. We had the worlds meet by using a fluid, steady camera, but we incorporated the predominant light and color that we see in Frazier’s world.”
At times, Libatique provided a more omniscient view. For one daytime Technocrane shot, “we spend a certain amount of time on the interior with Dalton, and then we hit the exterior,” he explains. “We start on one side of the street, see the mobile command center and the
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police getting into position, show the front of the bank, and then pan to the other side. In the distance, we notice Jodie Foster sitting in a diner, and the camera goes past the police officers and into a medium shot of her sitting amongst the chaos. The idea behind that shot was to show the uniformity and control of the [bank] interior, and then go out and show the mixture of color temperatures and the way the light falls in New York, how you have moments of sunlight pouring down, reflecting off buildings or hitting the street and also very cold, shadowy areas. We show characters moving in those [varied] environments before heading into the very controlled light, where Jodie’s sitting. It was nice to construct something like that, which worked on many levels in terms of the overall language of the film. That’s where I think cinematography meets the editing process; long shots like that can reintroduce the audience to where you are in the story.”
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Cop vs. Robber
Lee and Libatique study a still photo of a setup. The cinematographer says Lee “gives me a lot of freedom to come up with a language, but he wants to know what the approach is before he shoots anything.”
Shots like those made Inside Man “a pretty cool film from an operator’s standpoint,” says Consentino. “Working with Matty was great because he’s one of those guys who really wants to find something interesting in every shot.” For example, when hostages are released, and at other moments of high tension in the film, Libatique encouraged Consentino to use progressively shorter shutter angles. “You normally shoot with a 180degree shutter, but we were going down to 90, 45 and even 22.5 degrees on the action scenes,” says the operator. The technique creates “this feeling of frenetic action because it eliminates any motion blur that is normally in the shot. It gives you a very anxious feeling while you’re watching the movie.” Another distinctive technique was used for a series of interrogation scenes with hostages that appear
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throughout the film. “It’s a flashforward, a bit of a time jump into the interrogation,” says Libatique. Most of Inside Man was shot on Kodak Vision2 500T 5218, with some Vision2 Expression 500T 5229 used inside the bank during daylight hours “to minimize the difference in color temperature between my tungsten on the interior and the natural daylight of the exterior.” But Libatique photographed the interrogation scenes with Kodak Ektachrome 100D 5285 reversal film, which was cross-processed and put through a bleach bypass. “It’s a daylight stock, so typically if you shot it with tungsten light it would come out extremely warm,”he notes. “Using a bleach bypass neutralizes the color temperature and creates more contrast than simply crossprocessing. Basically, it unifies all the color. Spike wanted a look that would jump out and tell you you’re
somewhere else. It’s an extremely volatile technique, though. When you try to apply correction, the film moves in very strange ways. The cross-process as well as the bleach bypass changes the ASA from 100 to 320.” During the DI process at EFilm, where Libatique worked with colorists Steve Bowen and Steve Scott, this footage required some special attention. “It had to be scanned with a Spirit DataCine rather than the Northlight we used for the rest of the film,” recalls the cinematographer. “The negative was simply too dense for the Northlight to perform the task.” Otherwise, “I was pretty much adhering to the original concept and balancing that footage out in a smoother way. It’s difficult to match all of your shots meticulously when you have three cameras and one lighting setup, so I spent the majority of the DI just
adhering to the original vision of the disparity in color temperature, which I can accentuate, versus the unified color temperature.” Libatique points out that the ability to do a DI makes it easier for a filmmaker like Lee to envision creative visual approaches, and has perhaps even helped make unconventional techniques, such as mixing color temperatures, more practical and acceptable. “Although I still believe 90 percent of what you have to accomplish is in camera, the DI gives us flexibility. Cameras can roam free, and as cinematographers we can embrace a less meticulous lighting setup. If you know you’re going to a DI, and you know you’re going to shoot three cameras and do a single Steadicam move that lasts for eight minutes, you can create a broader lighting scheme. We can’t necessarily beautify it in the end, but at least we can fine-tune the language and the
precision. Because of Spike’s willingness and motivation, when you look at Inside Man you can see we created a language through that effort.” I
TECHNICAL SPECS Super 35mm 2.35:1 Arricam ST, LT; Arri 435, 235 Cooke S4 lenses Kodak Vision2 500T 5218, Vision2 Expression 500T 5229, Ektachrome 100D 5285 Cross Processing and Bleach Bypass by Technicolor (New York) Digital Intermediate Printed on Kodak Vision 2383
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f e a t u r e s
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A P O C A LY P T O Mel Gibson . DP: Dean Semler, ACS, ASC
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d a y s
Into the
Virtual Woods Through real-time compositing live on set, director of photography David Stump, ASC puts a virtual spin on Red Riding Hood. Interview by Douglas Bankston Unit photography by Brian To hen director Randal Kleiser paid a visit to his college roommate, George Lucas, on the set of Star Wars — Episode II, he watched actors performing against bluescreen on an otherwise empty stage, and later viewed them as composites in a virtual, computer-generated (CG) environment. Kleiser wondered if such a process could be employed live on stage with realtime, on-set compositing serving as a visual reference for the cast and crew. He had long been developing a musical version of Red Riding Hood, and he decided to use it as a “proof of concept” project. Kleiser brought Brian Frankish aboard to produce this tongue-in-cheek retelling of the classic children’s fable, which stars Morgan Thompson as Red, Lainie
W
Kazan as Grandma, and Joey Fatone as a big, bad, shape-shifting werewolf with an insatiable appetite. TAG Entertainment financed the picture for about $2.75 million — a very low figure for a project that would rely on new technologies in an unproven process. Frankish knew exactly who could navigate this uncharted digital territory: David Stump, ASC. However, this wasn’t exactly an adventure into the unknown for the visual-effects specialist, who has worked on such projects as Deep Blue Sea, X-Men, Hollow Man, The One, Flightplan and Garfield. Stump has been building camera-equipment encoders and working with the data they provide for two decades. In fact, in 2001, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented Stump, Bill
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Tondreau, Alvah Miller and Paul Johnson with a Technical Achievement Award for the conception, design and development of data-capture systems that enable superior accuracy, efficiency and economy in the creation of composite imagery. So for Stump, the one intangible on Red Riding Hood was that no one had yet attempted to drive and record virtual environments in real time for an entire feature; therefore, no such system for doing so existed. Stump had to put one together from scratch. He recently sat down with AC to detail his approach to the project, showing sequences from a DVD to illustrate some points. American Cinematographer: Tell us a bit about your experiences with data-encoding technology.
Photos and frame grabs courtesy of TAG Entertainment, David Stump and Randal Kleiser.
Opposite: Red Riding Hood (Morgan Thompson) warily crosses a bridge on her way to Grandma’s house. The bridge is real, but the woods behind her are computergenerated. This page: Cinematographer David Stump, ASC (background center, wearing red shirt) finetunes a move on the set. In the foreground is no mere video village, but rather “video nation.”
David Stump, ASC: I’ve been doing this type of work for 20 years, driving things with encoders before CGI was ever seriously considered as a technique for visual effects. We did a number of things back when I was a stage cameraman at Apogee Productions. For example, we’d do a dolly move and drive a motorized focus with a look-up table (LUT) encoded from the track. Back in those days, I did a Northern Telecom commercial for Jim Spencer and Boyd Shermis where we needed to dolly in to a guy working on a telephone switcher. We dollied right into macro focus on a circuit board that was in the guy’s hand. Rather than ask the 1st AC to try to hand-focus that image take after take after take, I programmed a computer so that for any position of the dolly track, focusing would take data from the LUT. We could push a dolly around by hand, and the focus always knew where it needed to be because it would look up where it was on the track. It was a motion-control tech-
nique that we pioneered. When did you start using encoding technology in conjunction with CGI? Stump: When I worked for John Dykstra [ASC] on Batman Forever, he asked me to develop a system that would actually do some of the same things I’d been doing at Apogee with the encoders. Recording camera-support devices on Batman for our CGI work was a fairly straightforward exercise in inventing hardware. I built a kit that I could strap onto a Chapman or Fisher dolly, a kit for the Titan crane and a kit to use on fluid heads. Nolan Murdock of Panavision built me two prototype electronic geared heads that had encoders built into the primary axis drives. I was able to take data off our camera platforms and cranes and dollies and turn that into meaningful 3-D data for the CGI artists, who were able to use that data to track matte paintings and set extensions and track 3-D objects into the images. Remember,
that was during the days before tools were developed to reverseengineer camera movements. So the way you used the technology on Red Riding Hood is actually a progression of the application? Stump: Right. I continued to evolve those systems, and in fact, I later turned it into a rental tool. We did effects like the elevator sequence in Hollow Man and used that technology to record moves on a laptop computer, then play them back as motion-control moves for 1⁄2-, 1⁄4or 1⁄8-scale miniature work on the effects stage. You could take the same 3-D data and export it to the CGI 3-D department. They could use our motion data to create 3-D objects that would fit inside the liveaction and motion-control pieces. Once you have that data, it’s the same for all the systems, so it was a fairly simple leap to take the data and port it out as RS422 data in real time to a Maya or Softimage workstation, which was what Randal was
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American Cinematographer 55
Into the Virtual Woods By using CG and HD backgrounds, the filmmakers were able to place Red Riding Hood in exotic environments without breaking their modest budget.
unknowingly asking me to do. I explained to him that I had experience with what he wanted to do and had in fact already built a lot of machinery for it. This was a low-budget project. How did that impact your shooting schedule? Stump: It was an extremely short and demanding schedule. I think we eventually shot for 20 days. Did the fact that you were driving virtual sets help, or is it easier to generate sets and composite later? Stump: It’s a lot harder to drive virtual camera moves on set, because you have to take all the artists who would be doing that part of the CGI and postproduction onto the set and give them a place to
work, stable power, live data feeds and video. It becomes performance art. The number of monitors, wires, computers and electronic devices for Red Riding Hood was astounding. The first time you try anything, it’s going to be handmade and cumbersome. Nevertheless, in about 11⁄2 weeks I was able to assemble a team of CGI artists who could use an RS422 feed of the data. I brought VizRT from Europe onboard to translate the encoder data into virtual data. I wired encoders to everything, including an Aerocrane, a remote head, several geared heads, fluid heads, dollies — all of our gear. I got the Panavision geared heads back that I had used and set those up to work. We had two CGI artists;
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56 April 2006
three guys to run the VizRT system, which was the motion engine that output and translated my 3-D coordinates to Maya and Softimage; and two video-assist technicians to record video assist and pull mattes from it in such a way that the material from Softimage or Maya could be the background elements behind the bluescreen foreground. We also had a digital-imaging technician to mind the down-convert and record the HD material — the high-resolution material for the real compositing in post that would match the proxies we were creating onstage. Then we also had the traditional HD camera crew. The night before we were supposed to start shooting, we switched everything on for the first time and tested it, and it worked great. From the beginning, we were recording meaningful 3-D data and driving Softimage and Maya backgrounds on set. It was really gratifying to see that with about a two- or three-frame down-convert delay from HD to standard definition, we could almost immediately synchronize the live down-converted images to the Mayarendered images in low-resolution composites on our stage — we could see the virtual forest moving in time with the live-action forest in the foreground from our cameras.
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Into the Virtual Woods Right: Stump checks the framing of the big, bad werewolf (Joey Fatone) on the monitor while B-camera operator B. Sean Fairburn looks over his shoulder. Below: Stump (at camera) and the crew prepare to shoot in the “scary woods.”
Were these backgrounds created before you started production? Stump: Yes. For the purpose of our exercise, the CG artists developed an onionskin world for the woods. There was a first, second, third and fourth layer of trees, and each layer could be taken as a sort of band that we could spin to orient it with respect to our live-action world. We could then lock it in place and watch it move in sync with liveaction images. Which camera did you use? Stump: I chose Thomson Grass Valley Vipers because as far as
I could tell, they had the biggest signal I could get out of an HD camera. Because it’s a 10-bit log signal, I figured it would be the best HD signal we could use for doing post bluescreen/greenscreen composites. I started out trying to record in FilmStream mode, and I discovered that we were so far ahead of the workflow curve that no real solutions existed for recording 10-bit log material live onstage. I thought I could find a disk solution, but at that time devices such as the S.two recorder hadn’t been built yet. And this was way before the HDCam
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58 April 2006
SRW solution. There was one digitaldisk recorder system from Europe called Director’s Friend, but when I contacted them, they were in the process of going out of business because they were so ahead of the curve, no one understood what the point of their machine was! With no disk-recording solutions available, I went to Plus 8 Digital and talked to [president] Marker Karahadian, and the biggest recording system we could come up with for recording the Viper at that time was D-5 video recorders with the Viper in 10-bit HDStream mode. That was the biggest gamut signal we could then record. This ultimately ended up working very, very well, but I think doing shows like Red Riding Hood and pushing the envelope in recording HD is part of what contributed to the development of these new tools. Once we started to press for recording solutions, they began showing up. One of my axioms about filmmaking is that it’s easy to spot the pioneers — they’re the ones lying face down in the prairie with arrows in their backs. How many cameras did you use?
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Into the Virtual Woods
Stump: We used two Vipers, two D-5 decks and a mountain of monitoring equipment. You get a more literal representation of the image shooting in the HDStream mode than you do in the raw FilmStream mode, so what kind of monitors did you use? Stump: We got a fairly good representation of color and contrast on set because we were working in 10-bit HDStream. We used a variety of Sony monitors, and for the downconverted material we had a 52" plasma screen on which Randal watched the actual composite. By and large, I will look at one small Sony CRT monitor for color, but I’m actually more interested in waveforms and vectorscopes when I’m doing HD because they really are the most telling and informative tools you can have on an HD set. I judge exposures by those. Did you do any on-set color correction? Stump: In this case, I thought it best to get the quality and the most information. My philosophy for HD is: monitor the signal, get the biggest signal you can afford onto your recording medium, and worry about finessing color correction in post. I grabbed frames from the material and imported them into Adobe Photoshop. I color-corrected frame grabs and printed reasonably
close approximations of what I intended to do to grade the movie later, and saved those in a notebook. Remember, this was almost three years ago, and the whole notion of color-correction workflow was a mystery. Now it’s a hot topic. A number of these kinds of projects happened subsequently, including Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow [see AC Oct. ’04] and Sin City, but I don’t think any of them tried to do low-res, real-time comps of the material on the set. Was lens choice a factor? Stump: I used two Canon 4.752mm HD zooms. I chose that lens because I already had a detailed plot of its focal length and a look-up table for use with our VizRT reality engine. The two zooms were closely matched. Is there a part of the focal range you have to avoid for this type of work? Stump: I tried to stay above 6mm. Looking at your résumé, one might assume you served as both director of photography and visualeffects supervisor on Red Riding Hood, but that wasn’t the case. Stump: Because shooting this movie involved so much new technology, I could not divide my efforts that way. Trying to do visual-effects supervision as well would have been
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60 April 2006
too distracting. Randal made a deal with a small CGI company in Utah, Sandman Studios, and its people did the supervision. I had so much machinery to figure out and so many problems no one had ever encountered before, as well as lighting the stage and the actors. I don’t think I would have survived if I’d tried to do effects supervision at the same time. How large a soundstage did you require? Stump: I would have liked a much bigger stage, but we had budgetary constraints from the getgo. We settled on an old, converted warehouse whose ceiling was much too low for what we were doing. There were steel support pillars throughout the stage floor, so when we built our forest, we had to strap tree fronts strategically to the steel pillars. It was interesting, because we had to build the pillars into every foreground bluescreen set we made. We made a couple versions of the forest; one set was the straight, tall, redwood forest where it was easy to hide the pillars, and the other was the ‘scary woods,’ which consisted of bent and gnarly trees. If you look closely, there are a number of straight and tall redwoods dotted among the gnarly, Z-shaped trees in the scary forest! As we progressed, Brian Frankish got another job out of the country, and D. Scott Easton moved up to producer from production manager. With the money we had, Scott was very generous in getting me the tools necessary to make this movie. It’s a kid’s movie, lighthearted entertainment, but it has enough of an adult perspective that parents can enjoy it, too. Let’s talk about some specific scenes. Stump: For the first few scenes in the living room, Randal wanted a very desaturated look [above], as if there isn’t much life in the scene until Grandma’s story
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Into the Virtual Woods
begins to unravel. Outside the windows and the door of the house is an all-HD location environment. Among the backgrounds we used for the work were computer-generated images and acquired HD backgrounds. Acquired how? Stump: They were images we went out and shot purposely and scans from high-resolution stills. It was an exercise in cut-and-paste. If there’s an HD background being tracked outside, we would take a still proxy and drive that in 3-D, and that
still image would follow our camera moves. Was everything onstage greenscreen? Stump: Most of the time we used bluescreen, but in this instance the living-room interior was decorated mostly in blue, so we used greenscreen outside the windows and doors. What are the differences between bluescreen and greenscreen in this type of work? Stump: It depends entirely on the foreground object, but bluescreen tends to be a bit noisier, so the problems with eliminating noise are worse in compositing. But either technique can be made to work well. How often did you have practical props, dressings and walls in the virtual environment? Stump: Grandma’s House was the only set where we had mostly practical items. It was 50-50 practical-virtual, but the ‘woods’ set was a plot of land that had some practical trees, dirt and shrubbery on the ground while the rest was bluescreen. There were some entirely CGI environments. The shot of Kazan kissing the lens [top left] is an almost entirely CGI shot we added to a practical book. We did all of the ‘lithographic’ illustration shots in post as photographic exercises and CGI treatments to real images.
YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support 62 April 2006
We made the really wide-angle foreground shot with a 3.5mm Abekus 180° wide-field lens. Against a bluescreen, Lainie Kazan walked right up and kissed the lens. In the lighthouse shot [below left], all Red Riding Hood had was a piece of blue rail to put her hand on toward the end of the shot and a blue floor to walk on with a path for her to follow marked with blue tape. The lighthouse interior is mainly CGI, and as she comes down the stairs there are areas of practical rock walls. Above the stairs is a CGI rock wall tracked in to match. So everything below, such as tables and cabinets, is practical? Stump: Yes. Most of the prop material down below is practical [below right]. Everything above the stairs, except for the stair piece, is CGI. How close was the on-set composite to the final composite? Stump: It was much rougher. We did all the on-set compositing and down-conversion in standarddefinition video. It was kind of choppy and gritty, but it was an indication of what was to come. We actually did a pretty neat shot where we start looking up at the lighthouse, actually inside, and then pull down through while looking up at it and then pull back. To see that visualized onstage was pretty interesting. We understand that post took two years. Stump: Yes, strictly because of budgetary issues. To do more than
1,000 composite shots for a movie that had a budget of less than $3 million, time was what had to give. It just took forever to do all those composites. So there were other projects at the post house that would bump the priority of this down? Stump: Right. Only one company worked on this, Sandman Studios. Were you able to color-correct the finished shots? Stump: Yes, but it was difficult to finesse the comps on the money we had. Fortunately, we were able to afford a digital-intermediate session at Technicolor, which enabled me to do a lot of touchup and color correction. [Vice President of postproduction operations] Greg Ciaccio, colorist Tony D’Amore, and Mark Chiolis of Thomson Grass Valley were extremely helpful in getting this picture finished. Tell us about the bridge shot. Stump: In this shot [above] you can see the start of the woods, and there are several trees here and then the rest are CGI. These backgrounds are some practical shots we did. We added bluescreen foreground elements to stock-footage background plates. The scene has a CGI sky and a practical bridge piece that we matched into an existing bridge in the stock footage; we replaced the middle of the bridge with our practical bridge. And Red Riding Hood and her bike? Stump: This is an all-practical
YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support 63
Into the Virtual Woods
background. We painted apple boxes on the blue set and she went up and down over the painted boxes as though she were traveling over the rocks [top left]. What was the average setup time for a shot? Stump: We moved very fast. I guess that owed partly to Randal’s thought-out concept and partly to my experience with perspective techniques and bluescreen. By day two or three, everyone had settled into a routine that made the shots go quickly. We could get the camera in place and get the CGI world oriented and arranged and then put a composite shot up in a rapid-fire order. What was the on-set keying tool you were using? Stump: For the CGI composites there were a number of tools. We used Primatte Keyer and the Avid Nitris NLE. We also used Adobe Premiere and After Effects and Apple Shake compositor. For a lot of the work on set, we just used a small Panasonic switcher. For the shot of Joey lounging
on a tree [above], it was interesting to see the tree constructed as CGI on set while we were there. The artist built it into the shot, and we put Joey on top in real time — right here, right now — on set. Randal wanted a very cut-and-paste art direction to this sequence. Yes, there are parts where he zips from place to place in a cartoon fashion. How was that treated on set? Stump: We just knew that was coming and did a representation of it to keep our place. It was mostly an editorial exercise. For the cartoon effect of the large wolf’s ability to completely conceal himself behind a skinny tree, we did a multiple-pass swing on the boom as close as we could. We did two passes of it and lopped it together as a comp on the set as a placeholder for the editors and the post team. The foreground trees in this scene are practical, but the background distant trees are all CGI. All of our forest sets employed practical foreground trees. The trees more than 20 feet away are all CGI. What was your approach to lighting this, knowing that you would have all of these virtual backgrounds? Stump: That was the most difficult part for me, because when
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64 April 2006
you’re doing a bluescreen shoot you have to treat the bluescreen as one lighting environment and the foreground subject as another, completely separate environment. But I had 1,000 square feet of space to light. There was a U-shaped wraparound bluescreen for which I had to light the floor, the sweep and the screen to the ceiling at a level from which we could pull matte keys yet still keep a moody look — all in a stage that had a ceiling way too low for me to exercise enough control over the lighting. I was constantly hanging teasers and cutting lights. My gaffer, Michael Off, and key grip, Paul Threlkel, struggled mightily to isolate the two lighting scenarios from each other. As a result, we were mostly able to get good contrast in the foreground while still maintaining proper bluescreen levels in the backgrounds. How did you maintain some lighting expression on the subjects’ faces? Stump: That really was the hardest part. In fact, in the ‘Hunter Arrives’ scene [top right] we tailored individual lighting scenarios to specific background shots. Where Hunter is backlit, he is very contrasty and low-filled while a good bluescreen key level is maintained in order to match the plate back-
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current prices of DLT storage at 25 cents a GB,
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you can compare $50 worth of storage in DLT for
are only saving the viable footage onto the P2
200 GB, whereas the equivalent videotape would
card. This concept alone can dramatically cut your
cost $200. Saving content to an IT device is less
media budget, since with tape, you can’t save just
expensive than tape.
the good takes.
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The Advantages of Variable Frame Rates
necessary storage to be taken. This frees up space
Digital cinematography has come a long way in
on the P2 card to record more.
making more visually appealing, cinema-like images.
Also, the HVX200 captures in discrete progressive
Variable frame rate shooting is a main reason why.
frames, not interpolated frames. So, when you look
Rec and Play at 24fps Standard recording speed for movie production (playback at same speed)
Overcranking Rec at 48fps
➔
Shooting at twice standard shooting speed
Play at 24fps Provides half-speed slow-motion with standard playback
Undercranking Rec at 12fps
➔
Shooting at half standard shooting speed
Play at 24fps Provides 2x quick-motion with standard playback The HVX200 employs the same variable frame
through the viewfinder while shooting in 24p, you
recording technology as the VariCam and is the first
are watching exactly what is being recorded, in
hand-held HD camcorder to do so. The shooting
true 24p fashion.
frame rate in 720p native mode can be set for any of
The advantages of shooting in variable frame rates
11 steps (12, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 30, 32, 36, 48, 60
are only limited by your imagination. Special effects
fps) between 12fps and 60fps.
such as creating a dream-like feeling, motion blurs,
Unlike VariCam, however, the HVX200 records the
warp-speed effects, time-lapse creations, ghost
progressive frames onto the P2 cards, not to tape. It
effects, strobe effects, and much more, are all done
does not need to flag the frames for later extraction
in-camera, which yields a more organic, and realistic
in post-production. As a result, fewer frames are
feel to the effects.
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captured onto the P2 card, allowing for only the
Ultra Versatility The AG-HVX200 combines with the Intel-A-Jib™ variable-length jib arm and Varizoom’s VZ-MC100 remote pan/tilt system to create spectacular special effects. Visit www.industryadvanced.com
P2 Cards With P2 cards you can select recording formats from DVCPRO HD, DVCPRO50, DVCPRO and DV. The models are:
HD Monitoring BT-LH1700W - 17" Widescreen BT Series Multi-Format Color Production Monitor
AJ-P2C004HG - 4GB P2 Card AJ-P2C008HG - 8GB P2 Card
This widescreen production quality monitor features two auto-switching SDI / HD-SDI inputs, waveform monitoring, and freeze frame/split screen functions. A desk stand is included.
Visit www.panasonic.com/broadcast
Visit www.panasonic.com/broadcast
Focus Enhancements
P2 Store AJ-PCS060G - Portable DVCPRO® HD/50/25 P2 Store Drive The P2 Store is a rugged, portable hard disk unit with a P2 card slot that quickly transfers the content of P2 cards. It can hold the contents of up to 15 4GB P2 cards. Using a USB 2.0 interface, the contents from the P2 store can be transferred to compatible NLE systems. It can be used in the field for content offload or in the studio for transfers. Windows and Apple OS compatible. Visit www.panasonic.com/broadcast
P2 Drive AJ-PCD10 DVCPRO® HD/50/25 P2 Drive This is a P2 card reader with five P2 card slots that can be installed externally or internally on Windows or Apple OS computers. With the use of an external AC adaptor and USB cable, it can also be used as a stand-alone external drive. YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support Visit www.panasonic.com/broadcast
The FS-100 is a Direct To Edit™ (DTE) HD recorder that records dropout-free DV, DVCPRO, DVCPRO50 or DVCPRO HD video streams via FireWire while in the field. Connect it directly to a Mac, notebook or desktop PC to edit content directly from the FireStore, thereby eliminating digitizing. The FS-100 provides long recording times (up to 90 minutes), removable battery power, a compact rugged design and Comprehensive Graphical LCD. Visit www.FOCUSinfo.com
VariZoom The Rock-DVX-ZFI enables single-handed, smooth control of variable-speed zoom and precise control of focus and iris with individual thumb dials, all from a tripod or shoulder support handle. The DVX-FI is an iris, focus controller that can be used separately for an assistant focus/iris operator. It may also be used by one operator to offer left and right hand controls for simultaneous operations with two hands. Visit www.varizoom.com
Non-Linear Editing Through strategic technology partnerships, Apple, Avid and Canopus have announced the support of the DVCPRO HD native file recorded onto P2 cards by the AG-HVX200. The results are products that offer maximum compatibility with existing software, including IT-based system platforms, nonlinear editors and network servers. The NLE models are:
Final Cut Pro 5.04 Visit www.apple.com
Canopus EDIUS HD/SD/SP/Broadcast, EDIUS Avid Xpress Pro HD, Avid NewsCutter family, NX/NXe/Professional (with Broadcast Upgrade Option) Avid Media Composer Adrenaline HD YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support Visit www.canopus.com Visit www.avid.com
AJA
Cinemek
The HD10A HDTV Analog-to-Serial Video Converter is a miniature, highquality, 10-bit analog-to-digital converter for HDTV. It accepts YPbPr analog HD and outputs three duplicate HD-SDI signals. It provides 1080p, 1080i and 720p with internal or external sync. Optional 12V power.
Cinemek’s premiere product, the G35, is an ingeniously versatile director’s finder that can be mounted onto almost any camera device for 35mm lens viewing and depth of field preview.
Gates HVX200 Professional Underwater Housing Reliable, durable, and dependable. Don’t Take a Chance...Take a Gates! Visit www.GatesHousings.com
Visit www.cinemek.com
Visit www.aja.com/hd10a
Kata Bags Available for the AG-HVX200 are: Equinox Underwater Products MC-61 Multi-case and EFP Bag. Bogen Filters Bogen offers a number of filters perfect for use with the AG-HVX200. Two special filters are the Clear UV HD which is intended to be used as an optical flat protection filter, and the Formatt Circular Polarizer.
Designed and customized exclusively for the HVX200, this new underwater housing allows videographers ease of use in virtually every critical camera function.
Visit www.kata-bags.com
www.underwatervideohousings.com
Visit www.bogenimaging.us Manfrotto
For-A The MC-10AD converts component SD and HD signals from the camera portion of camcorders and provides a genlocked SDI or HDSDI signal so that the camcorder can be utilized in a system application. Visit www.for-a.com
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The 503,351MVB2K is the perfect complement for the HVX200, featuring a professional fluid video control and a lightweight, two-stage aluminum tripod with upper twin-leg design for greater rigidity and a built-in shoulder spreader allowing you to adjust the legs at two different angles. Visit www.bogenimaging.us
HD-06WA-HVX
.6X Wide Angle Adapter HVX200
HD-FESU-HVX
Super Fisheye Adapter HVX200
HD-75CV-HVX
.75X Wide Angle Converter HVX200
HD-16TC-HVX
1.6X Tele-converter HVX200
AD-8616-00
+1.6 Achromatic Diopter 86mm
AD-8620-00
+2.0 Achromatic Diopter 86mm
AD-8626-00
+2.6 Achromatic Diopter 86mm
FA-8286-00
82mm to 86mm Adapter Ring
P & S Technik Available for the AG-HVX200 are: P+S Technik Mini35 Digital Image Converter. Expand your creative potential and use the P+S Technik Mini35 Digital Image Converter with the Panasonic HVX200 and 35mm film lenses to create visual effects that were once the exclusive realm of 35mm film. P+S Technik Mini35 Breakout Box is the power terminal at the center of the Mini35 Digital Image Converter system, providing video outputs and power coordination via a professional battery for long-running operation of the camera, Mini35 and various camera accessories, including professional viewfinder and additional monitoring. Visit www.zgc.com/zgc.nsf/product/pstechnik
PortaBrace
Tiffen Tiffen brings you filters to use in a variety of shooting situations. Designed primarily for professional shooters, they produce results that are pleasing, less harsh and less brassy.
Visit www.centuryoptics.com
Redrock The M2 Cinema Lens Adapter combines with the AG-HVX200 to provide the ultimate Indie package for cinema-style video. The Redrock M2 enables you to create truly film-style images with the HVX200 by adapting 35mm lenses to achieve the shallow depth of field and angle of view desired for the cinema look. Visit www.redrockmicro.com
Custom fit to the AG-HVX200, the RSHVX200 Mini-DV Rain Slicker is made of durable, waterproof material to keep out rain, wind, and dust. It incorporates flaps, vinyl windows and zippered openings to make operating the camera easy and efficient.
Davis and Sanford’s Pro Steady Stick – SSPR0SI2 – a professional portable camera support with a padded, swivel belt holster, 2” belt and arm that supports cameras up to 30 pounds and shifts camera weight from shoulder to torso.
Steadicam Flyer – The Steadicam® award-winning Flyer and F-24 Flyer camera stabilization systems are ideal for the HVX200. Features newly designed vest, HD/SD monitor, tool free adjustments and lightweight design system sled. Visit www.tiffen.com
Visit www.portabrace.com Sachtler
Schneider, Century Precision Optics Available for the AG-HVX200 are: continued in next column...
Sachtler System 6 SB SL MCF (system code #0650) – Professional/Broadcast quality tripod system includes DV-6 SB SPEEDBALANCE fluid head with 10step counterbalance, illuminated touch bubble & 5-step fluid drag, combined with the new double-extension, carbon fiber Speed Lock CF 75 tripod with patented quick-clamping system and mid-level spreader. YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support Visit www.sachtler.com
Vocas Available for the AG-HVX200 are: VOCAS Clip-on DV matte box with internal eyebrows & accessory shoe. VOCAS DV Wide-angle matte box on rail system with integrated shoulder support. Visit www.vocas.com
For more information on the HVX200, visit www.panasonic.com/aghvx200
YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support ©2006 All Rights Reserved
Vehicle to vehicle crane provided by Evin Grant at www.evingrant.com
ground that also is very contrasty. When he gets down off his horse, it’s a prettier look and he gets more facial light. I managed to light each and every shot to fit what we knew the background was going be. Doing that shot by shot must have been difficult when you had to move so fast. Stump: It’s why I gave up the notion of trying to be the effects supervisor at the same time. I thought it would be more beneficial to the production if I just focused on getting good images on tape. Did you light the actors from the floor with small units to reduce clutter? Stump: Depending on the size of the shot, I frequently would walk in a 4-by-4 with a Nine-light and soften it with 250, 216 or Opal in the foreground. For very tight shots, I would get in with a little 1K and Tweenie softboxes. We could only afford so much lighting, but my gaffer was very resourceful. That shot of Joey [top left] is a special lighting thing I did for Randal, with a little 1940s-style, soft, isolated eyelight. Randal wanted a ‘movie’ look to things. This picture is a combination of really stylized looks and techniques from cartoons and kids’ stories. Red has very white skin compared to the others [top right]. Did you have to take that into consideration? Stump: Yes, it was a constant issue, because I could darken Morgan a little bit with makeup, but
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Into the Virtual Woods
she just didn’t wear makeup well. At the same time, Lainie is very oliveskinned. To put them in the same picture, we had to make them up to be closer to one another in shade and tone, and I was constantly monitoring the waveform/vectorscope levels to see how they looked together. Once I had it recorded well, I could touch it up in post, but then again, this show suffered from the issues of budget. We really made the best of limited resources.
Do you think this type of filmmaking works for smaller-budgeted films because you are able to get so much more out of virtual sets? Stump: Absolutely. It has been proven by later shows that made plenty of money, including Sky Captain and Sin City, which used a simpler variant of the technique to do very effective filmmaking. Moreover, I think you can make a different kind of film with this technique. Given the resources we had, I
think we pulled off something fairly extraordinary, and I know for a fact that the next time this is done, it will be far more refined. Is the lighthouse pulldown [above] just a virtual camera move? Stump: Yes, that was a virtual move going to a practical camera move. We actually laid out the first half of the move as a CGI hookup then played it back and told the computer when to go to the second half in order to join the two moves. It was pretty interesting onstage.
OPTIMO 15-40 T2.6 At 3.9 lbs. the lightweight OPTIMO 15-40 T2.6 is what you have come to expect from the OPTIMO family The OPTIMO 15-40 mm features a new optical design that propels its performance above and beyond virtually any lens. In addition, this new design completely eliminates breathing and ramping.
At 3.9 lbs the OPTIMO is perfect for all hand held and Steadicam applications.
66
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Weight: Length: Aperture: MOD: Format:
3.9 lbs. (1.75 kilos) 7.3 Inches T2.6 (no ramping) 2 feet (0.6m) Full 35
One of the fun things about doing this was watching that lightbulb turn on for people. For example, when we did this long pullback hookup shot, there were several people who understood the technique for the first time after we did it. What we did was point the camera at the rafters of the stage and start to do the pullback to learn how to join the two moves together. When it came time to do the two moves, I took a little square of bluescreen, positioned it above the camera on a couple of C-
stands, and shined a light on it so we could pull a matte from it, and that enabled us to have a matte area to put the CGI background into. From there, we pull down into our practical set. It was quick and dirty, and there were some holes where it joined to the bluescreen that was on the walls of the stage, but I could see a couple of my camera assistants watching as this all went together, and, like everyone on the crew, they had their moment of ‘Ahhh, now I get it.’ That continued to happen for
different departments over the entire course of the production. I
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TECHNICAL SPECS 16x9 High-Definition Video Thomson Grass Valley Viper (in HDStream) Canon HD and Abekus lenses Digital Intermediate
Opposite and this page: A virtual camera move that travels down the center of Red’s lighthouse home and a practical camera move across a practical livingroom set were stitched together in real time onstage. Near left: Director Randal Kleiser confers with Stump on the next shot in the woods.
ARRISCAN • Fully compliant with DCI specifications • 4 fps at 3k/2k resolution • Digital ICE infrared based dust & scratch removal • Keycode based workflow
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The
Competitive Edge
The Imax film Wired to Win uses the Tour de France to examine the human brain’s response to competition and physical stress. by Jay Holben Unit photography by JoAnna Baldwin-Mallory and Denys Clément YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support 70 April 2006
ong considered one of the most grueling professional sporting events in the world, the Tour de France bicycle race spans 20 days and covers more than 2,000 miles. This incredible trial of physical and mental endurance was the perfect backdrop for the new Imax film Wired to Win, a detailed
L
Opposite: Bike racers in the Tour de France peloton barrel down the road on their way to Paris. This page, top: In the high Pyrenees, pilot Fred North closes in on a shot not allowed during the actual Tour, for obvious reasons. Bottom: Director of photography Rodney Taylor says his goal was to take viewers “as deep into the race as we could.”
look at how the human brain responds to the rigors of physical stress and makes strategic judgments. Produced by Partners HeathCare System, the parent organization of Harvard-affiliated teaching hospitals, physicians and researchers (with the help of OrthoMcNeil Neurologics and the National Science Foundation), Wired to Win “illustrates how a healthy brain works, and how cyclists in the Tour de France use the mind … to integrate a huge amount of information to execute a plan to beat the competition,” explains neurologist Dennis J. Selkoe, M.D., one of the project’s advisers. Director of photography Rodney Taylor, whose credits include Alaska: Spirit of the Wild, Ultimate X and Swimmers, says Wired to Win “turned out to be the most challenging Imax project I’ve ever shot.” Although the film uses the 2003 Tour de France as its backdrop, it isn’t a sports movie, nor is it necessarily about the race. “I liked the idea that this was a science movie and not a sports movie,” says Taylor. “After we made Olympic Glory
[1999], it became outdated very quickly because every [prospective viewer] already knew what had happened in the games. I was excited that we were going to cover the race in such a way that it didn’t matter what the results of the race were. We were merely using the event to tell the story of the brain.” In early 2003, Wired to Win director Bayley Silleck and co-writer Daniel Ferguson asked Taylor to shoot the film, and he quickly accepted their offer. To prepare, they
traveled to France for the Paris-Nice bicycle race in March 2003 in order to get an idea of the challenges that lay ahead. “We took along Jim Sanfilippo, our key grip, and Fred Weigle, the production’s key camera assistant, and got as deep into the race as we could,” recalls Taylor.“We were able to get into one of the coach’s chase cars and get right into the race, but we quickly realized we would never get the shots we wanted to from a car — you simply can’t get close enough. I wanted the kind
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American Cinematographer 71
The Competitive Edge Right: Cyclist Jimmy Casper prepares to undergo a postcrash MRI exam during the 2003 Tour before rejoining the race on the following day. Bottom left: An example of MRI scanning showing brain activity based upon thought and emotional response. Bottom right: A CGI depiction of the neural networks and synaptic junctions within the human brain. This image was produced by the Brussels-based company nWave Digital.
of shots you see on TV every year, close-ups of the riders as they’re racing along; they’re done from the back of camera motorcycles for French television. I knew I didn’t want to shoot those sequences in 35mm and blow them up to 65mm. Even though the transfers have gotten much better in the last few years, I didn’t want to compromise on the resolution. I also knew we couldn’t have a shaky image from the back of a bike on a huge Imax screen — no one would be able to watch that!” The 2003 race covered just over 2,080 miles, starting in Paris and proceeding through Lyon,
Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Nantes before returning to Paris for the finish. The course would take the riders through six major mountain passes, and tight groups of cyclists would be traveling anywhere from 30 mph to 60 mph, in some cases faster. At each stage of the race, the officials would close the roads to all traffic, making access through or around the race route nearly impossible for the production team. Planning camera coverage looked nearly impossible. “We finally figured the only way to cover the race and get what we were looking for was on a motor-
YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support 72 April 2006
cycle,” says Taylor. “The ASO [Amaury Sport Organization, the body behind the Tour de France] wouldn’t allow any vehicle other than a two-wheel motorcycle to get anywhere near the riders. We couldn’t have a sidecar; it had to be two wheels only. We decided the only way to achieve what we wanted was to put a Libra head on the back of a motorcycle and run that along with the racers. The problem was how to control the Libra. On some of the course, that wasn’t too much of a problem, because we could put an operator in a chase car back with the coaches and support teams and
granular synthesis is not a
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The Competitive Edge Right: Casper struggles to survive the tortuous climbs in the French Alps. Below: One example of the scientific transitions used in the film. Moving from the cyclist’s painful experience, the film illustrates how the brain reads pain in the sensory cortex and reacts by triggering endorphins to help the cyclist continue in the race.
keep line of sight to the motorcycle; but once the tour moved into the mountains, there was no way we could keep up line of sight to operate the Libra. Finally, we decided the only way to make it work was to put an operator in a helicopter and have him fly above the motorcycle.” It was a good solution, but it didn’t quite solve the whole problem. First the filmmakers had to mount the Libra on the back of a BMW motorcycle, and then they had to find someone crazy enough to drive it. “We talked to a bunch of drivers, and they all said we were nuts,” says Taylor. “Eventually we found this crazy Frenchman, Patrice Diallo, who had driven a camera bike for the race for the past 20 years. It was wonderful, because he knew all the race officials, riders and coaches — everyone. When he saw our rig for the first time, he said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding!’ But he gave it a shot.” The chief problem with a gyrostabilized platform on the back of a motorcycle is that the gyro mechanism is constantly fighting to balance out the cycle. As the driver
YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support 74 April 2006
moves into a curve and has to lean the cycle into the curve, he is suddenly fighting against the gyrostabilizer, which is trying to keep the camera upright. The driver then needs to over-correct to keep the bike on the road. Diallo eventually overcame his initial trepidation and got the hang of the driving with the rig. The crew was seldom able to reload the camera because there was only one way to physically reach Diallo: the team in the helicopter had to find a place ahead of the peloton (the main group of cyclists) where the craft could land. Diallo would speed up, race past the racers and meet the helicopter, and the crew would reload the camera as the racers passed by. Diallo would then speed up to the peloton to resume working. “To catch up with the racers, Patrice was racing along the mountainside at close to 100 miles per hour with the camera rig on the back of the bike,” marvels Taylor. “He was a madman, but he was instrumental in getting the footage we needed.” Although reloading the camera was no small feat, a far more troubling challenge arose during development of a system to control the Libra head on the back of the BMW. “The Libra is wireless, but it’s good for only short-range distances, from a few hundred feet to about a half-mile, and we knew there was a good chance we would often be several miles away, especially in the mountain pass,” explains Libra technician Jon Philion. “In order to cover those distances, we had to come up with a system that was stronger, and we also had to coordinate the radio frequencies with the ASO and with emergency-response crews, team communications teams, et cetera. It was nearly impossible to find a set of unused frequencies. In the end, we wound up in the military range at about 900 MHz, and we built a system that could operate
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The Competitive Edge
Live-action transitions into 4K CGI follow the sound wave of a warning shout through the cyclist’s ear and into the brain. There, it triggers both survival and strategic responses that allow the rider to skirt disaster.
about 5 miles away from the actual rig.” The cycle cam actually required six discrete frequencies that were cleared by the French military: one to control the Libra head, one for video playback, one for focus control, one for aperture control, one for camera on/off control, and one for communication. Taylor wanted to shoot as much material as possible in 15-perf 65mm. “We talked about using 35mm on the motorcycle, but I really didn’t want to do that,” he says. “We tried out an 8-perf 65mm camera, but I wasn’t happy with the lens selection.” He wanted to shoot the Libra motorcycle footage with a 40mm lens. “In 65mm, the 40mm lens is very wide, and I wanted that feeling. I wanted to get the camera as close to the riders as possible and really put the audience in the race. When we switched to the 8-perf 65mm camera, the widest I could go was 30mm, but the 30mm in 8-perf is longer than the 40mm in 15-perf, and it still has that fisheye look. Even though we could get a longer film load in the 8-perf camera, I really wasn’t happy with what I was seeing. We tried it on the Libra for one day but switched back the next day because the 40mm lens in Imax was so much better.” Taylor had four cameras at his disposal for the first week of the race, and three for the remainder
YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support 76 April 2006
of the shoot. His main camera, which was under the command of 2nd-unit director/cinematographer Larry Blanford (Minority Report, Tears of the Sun, The Rock), alternated each day between the Libra head on the back of the motorcycle and a Gyron Stab-C mount in the helicopter for aerial footage. It was an MSM 9801, a relatively new 15-perf 65mm camera that has all the functions of an Arri 435 and weighs 56 pounds, roughly half as much as the IW5 and IW5A 15-perf 65mm cameras. (The MSM 9801’s Steadicam configuration is an astounding 38 pounds — with lens and 500' of film.) The camera’s light weight enables its users to utilize some traditional 35mm camerasupport equipment that was not previously available to Imax productions, including Steadicam, cranes and, especially important for Wired to Win, remote heads. For one week of the shoot in the mountains, Taylor had a second MSM 9801 (operated by Steve Ford), but budget constraints forced the production to send it back. Rounding out his camera package were an Iwerks 8-perf 65mm and an Aaton 35-III 35mm camera; the latter, operated by Philippe Ros, was used to gather behind-the-scenes footage and interviews. The ground units proved to be just as challenging to arrange as
What’s innovative, efficient, fast, light, and has built-in potential for saving considerable time and money during and after your shoot? The new Cooke 15–40mm S4/ T2 CXX zoom lens for 35mm/Super 35mm. It can do things that other zooms can’t.
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The Competitive Edge
Above: The crew prepares for a shot in the Alpes Maritimes, just north of Nice. Working with the latest in French production vehicles made from a modified Renault, the crew was able to capture images that put the audience in the thick of the race. Below: Key grip Jim Sanfilippo monitors the crane/Libra rig as the crew and riders head back uphill for another take.
the motorcycle rig. A mere three months before the race, Taylor and Silleck scouted the Tour de France course and selected their key positions for each day’s stage of the race. (The race is run in daily stages, each between 80 and 140 miles long.) Because sizable crowds gather to watch the riders, the filmmakers knew they would only get one setup per day from each ground unit. Silleck and Taylor selected the most advantageous and scenic spots for covering each stage and set their positions via GPS coordinates. “Because we weren’t necessarily covering the outcome of the race, we
could focus on the locations that were the most photogenic and would help tell our story, instead of worrying about which positions would get the best coverage of the race,” notes Taylor. However, even though the filmmakers had marked out their ground-camera positions and informed race officials of those details, there was no guarantee the spots would be available on race day. “It’s a zoo out there,” says Philion, who oversaw the Libra operation from the helicopter every day. “There were constantly spectators running all over the place, even in
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the middle of the road! Apparently, half the sport for the riders is dodging spectators.” Anticipating big and occasionally rowdy crowds, the production sent spotters to camp out and hold the camera positions as much as three days in advance.“Even then, it wasn’t easy to get into position,” says Taylor. “We had two support vans that traveled with the ground unit, a grip van and a camera van. We always made sure we had risers with us so we could get the camera position above the crowd. That helped us work around the more inebriated spectators. We had to do whatever we could, because we only got one shot at it per day. We had three minutes of film, and once the racers passed, that was it for the day. Luckily, we never really lost a day and got everything we needed.” Taylor filmed most of the project on Kodak Vision 250D 5246; he shot a few rolls of Vision2 500T 5218 as well. “I really wanted to shoot [Eastman EXR 50D] 5245 for its color saturation, but I knew we would be shooting in all kinds of lighting situations, and that meant I needed more versatility. In the end, thanks to the bold colors of the riders’ uniforms, we actually got a very saturated look after all.” He rated the 5246 slightly overexposed at about 160 ISO.“When we went into production, [Vision2 250D] 5205 wasn’t available yet,” he adds. “Otherwise, I probably would have shot that. We tested some [Vision2 500T] 5218, and although it had the most latitude, it wasn’t quite as colorful as 5246. “I also wanted to be able to use polarizers, because we knew this film would be shown in a lot of dome theaters, and you have to be very careful to control your sky exposures when you’re shooting Imax for those venues,” he continues.“I use polarizers and a lot of ND grads to bring the sky down. If you’ve got a lot of bright sky in a
dome theater, the crosslight pollution becomes a problem and just kills your contrast. Because the Imax screen is so large, the grad line is spread over such a large area that you never see the line. When shooting Imax, I use an ND grad all the time to help focus viewers’ eyes down toward the main subject on the screen. It’s a lot like using limited depth of field to control the audience’s attention in 35mm. In our case, we’re using brightness control to trick people to look down.” Overall, exposure was not easy to judge, especially for Blanford, who was operating from the helicopter and making streetlevel exposure calls for the Libra camera from up to 5 miles away. “Larry had a video-assist feed in the helicopter, but the video-assist in Imax is horrible,” says Taylor. “Most of the time, he could barely make out an image. Quite often, Patrice would have to find our main riders, start pacing them, put the camera in the right position and then radio Larry that he was pointed at the right guys and could start shooting. Larry did an amazing job almost totally blind.” All of the aerial footage and Libra-cam footage was recorded on a portable digital-video clamshell, and this often became the production’s main dailies. There were two non-racing days during the tour, and Taylor traveled to Paris both days to watch projected dailies. “Another big concern with Imax movies is panning speeds and strobing,” notes Taylor. “You have to be very careful about how fast something is moving through the frame, or you might make your audience sick with the strobing onscreen. When you’re following cyclists at 40 miles per hour, it can make some shots very difficult — if you use a lens that’s too wide, all you get is strobing. I found that by focusing on the crowd on the far side of the street and letting the rid-
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The Competitive Edge Taylor frames a shot with the MSM-9801 as Daniel Ferrell assists. In its lightest configuration, the camera weighs about 38 pounds and can be used on a Steadicam or even handheld.
ers go by in the foreground, the riders became a speedy blur that suggested how fantastically fast they were going. “We also did some Steadicam work, especially in Tour City, the camp where the riders finished up every day. Larry McConkey came out to do our Steadicam shots; we
did quite a few of them with the MSM 9801, but it has a side-to-side magazine that made it difficult for Larry to keep the rig balanced while the film transferred over. The Iwerks 8-65 has an inline magazine that was easier for him to deal with, so we used that to follow the action.” In another departure for an
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Imax film, Taylor even worked in some handheld photography. “We wanted to go for a kind of vérité style, so we did a bit of handheld with the 15-65 camera. I like the look of handheld, but you have to be careful. You can’t walk too much or do any quick pans. You really use it as a quick method of reframing and then shooting. You can take a step or two, but much more than that becomes too much movement for the Imax screen. Sometimes we were thrown into a situation with a bunch of press photographers, and handheld was the only way to maneuver and get the shot.” Although most of the main photography was completed with the 2003 race, the production returned to the course site the following year to shoot pickups that helped fill out the storyline. Also, safety concerns had kept the motorcycle and ground crews off the road
in the downhill mountain passes, where the cyclists’ speed topped 60 mph, so the filmmakers re-created key downhill moments using a small team of professional cyclists and some extras. “We rented an Audi station wagon, and Jim Sanfilippo turned it into an impromptu Shotmaker,” recalls Taylor. “We could put the camera anywhere from inches off the pavement to 8 feet in the air with the Libra head, and we could flip down the tailgate and shoot out the back. During their training, professional cyclists often ride very close to a pace car, and because they were used to that kind of arrangement [our cylists] were able to ride up to within inches of the camera in the back of the Audi while racing downhill at 50 or 60 miles per hour. We got some amazing shots that way.” When asked whether he had considered shooting digitally and
transferring to 65mm to ease some of the production problems, Taylor responds, “I don’t think digital [video] is there yet for Imax. I know James Cameron is doing digital 3-D, but that in essence is doubling the image to create the resolution. For 2-D shooting, I’m not convinced digital is capable of getting a real Imax image. Also, each stage of the Tour de France takes place between about 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. — the worst lighting you could ask for on a digital shoot. “The finished film mixes 1565mm, 8-65mm, 35mm and even some video from TV coverage. Quite often we couldn’t get to the finish line each day, or we couldn’t beat French TV’s 10 camera positions with our one, so we wound up ‘paneling’ some video into the film. There’s a shot at the end of the race that’s video, and it looks horrible on the Imax screen — you can see
every scan line. But it’s an extremely dramatic and important moment that needed to be in the film, and it works wonderfully for the story.” I
TECHNICAL SPECS 1.33:1 65mm and 35mm Imax MSM 9801 (15-perf 65mm); Iwerks MSM 8870 (8-perf 65mm); Aaton 35-III 65mm: Hasselblad 30-350mm and Pentax 800mm lenses 35mm: Zeiss 40mm and Century Minolta 28-70mm lenses Kodak Vision 250D 5246, Vision2 500T 5218 Transferred to 70mm by FotoKem Printed on Kodak Vision 2383
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Marked Man Peter Sova, ASC lends a stylized look to Lucky Number Slevin, a gangster tale with plenty of plot twists. by Jon Silberg
ucky Number Slevin is a thriller/comedy hybrid whose unexpected acts of brutality and moments of comic relief keep the audience guessing. The picture was shot by Peter Sova, ASC and directed by Paul McGuigan, who previously collaborated on Gangster No. 1 (see AC June ’02), The Reckoning and Wicker Park. Slevin echoes Gangster No. 1 in a handful of ways: it concerns a decades-long rivalry between two
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gang leaders (played by Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley), and it’s peopled with sociopaths who think nothing of killing each other. But Slevin unfolds on a larger canvas and offers a broader range of tones. Set in present-day New York, the film concerns a mysterious young man, Slevin (Josh Hartnett), who finds himself caught in the middle of a war between the two gangsters, The Boss (Freeman) and Schlomo (Kingsley). The rivals live
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in sprawling penthouse apartments that face each other. Other characters include Mr. Goodkat (Bruce Willis), a hit man of questionable loyalties, and Slevin’s neighbor Lindsey (Lucy Liu), who gets caught up in the danger. The film flashes back to the 1970s to depict an event that has bearing on Slevin’s circumstances: a gambler’s devastating loss at the racetrack. Sova says he finds it inspiring to work with McGuigan because the
Photos courtesy of The Weinstein Co.
Unit photography by Attila Dory
director is thoroughly involved in designing the look of the project at hand. “Paul has tremendous knowledge about filmmaking and a terrific visual sense,” says the cinematographer.“He did a lot of fashion photography before he started directing, and he has strong ideas about cameras, costumes and production design. When we first met, we established that we had similar thoughts about the way a camera should move to complement a scene, and by now we have a shorthand; each of us knows what the other will think of an idea.” Although the filmmakers planned from the outset to finish Slevin with a digital intermediate (DI), Sova worked carefully to create as much of the look in camera as possible. This was partly because of his own preference, but also because he was concerned about how much time the modestly budgeted production would allot for the DI suite. His caution proved beneficial in ways the filmmakers could not have predicted; Sova and McGuigan were so dissatisfied with the look of their first DI that they moved to another facility, Technicolor Digital Intermediates (TDI) in Burbank, and started from scratch — with just six of the 20 allotted days left to do the work. Slevin was shot in 3-perf Super 35mm. “Paul and I had made our previous two movies in Super 35, and we liked the visual excitement and dynamic of the widescreen frame,” says Sova.“Also, I knew the DI meant we wouldn’t have to deal with an optical blowup.” The filmmakers wanted to achieve visuals that were very rich and low in grain, and they wanted the 1970s sequences to have a slightly warm, more saturated feel. To minimize grain, Sova shot most of the picture on two emulsions in Kodak’s Vision2 family, 200T 5217 and 500T 5218; he overexposed both by a stop. He used two Fuji Super-F emul-
sions, 250T 8552 and 250D 8562, for the flashbacks. “I didn’t want to create the ’70s look with colored filters because I knew there was a chance some of that material might end up somewhere else in the story than where it was originally scripted, and I was afraid the transition might be too much. We also worked with the period costumes in a different way; they were more colorful than the present-day wardrobe. We achieved a different look, but it is fairly subtle.”
Sova also considered using period lenses, Super Baltars, on the production’s Panaflex Millennium and XL bodies to distinguish the flashbacks from the contemporary material. “Baltars were used on The Godfather, and I thought they might help give the ’70s scenes a certain feel, but the visual differences weren’t what Paul and I intended. I thought they’d fall off a bit on the side like other older lenses do, and they didn’t.” Instead, he decided to shoot the entire picture on Primo
Opposite: Slevin (Josh Hartnett), a would-be patsy for a pair of New York crime lords, proves to be more resourceful than he initially seems. Above: The Boss (Morgan Freeman) gives Slevin a daunting ultimatum. Left: Peter Sova, ASC (left) works out a scene with director Paul McGuigan.
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Above: Custommade 20' lighting rigs (far left) were used to illuminate the show’s TransLite backings, which provided both day and night views of the New York skyline. Gaffer Sylvan Bernier explains, “Each tube had six 2K quartz bulbs in front of reflectors. Many gaffers use Skypans or other large, strong sources [for TransLites], but I’ve found smaller sources give you better control of the look.” Below: Sova checks his meter on the show’s “black set,” which served as the apartment occupied by Ben Kingsley’s character, Schlomo. The set was built on a soundstage in Montreal.
lenses — primes and 17.5-75mm and 24-275mm zooms — and distinguish the flashback material with light Schneider Black Frost filtration on the lens. To create a good, dense negative for the DI, Sova strove to maintain a stop of T2.8 throughout the shoot. “If a shot done at T8 is cut in with a shot done at T2.8, there will be a big difference in contrast and color that you’ll have to take time to even out in the DI,” he notes. “The Primos have the best resolution between T2.8 and T4, so I tried to shoot right in that range, maybe going up to T5.6 for the exteriors. That way, I knew if we had very little time in the DI, we wouldn’t have to
spend it making shots match” In fact, Sova was loath to leave anything to the DI unless absolutely necessary. “If it’s going to take an hour and a Condor to take the light off the front of a building, and I could [achieve the same thing] with a window in a DI in five minutes, I have to be reasonable, of course. But when it makes more sense to do it in the camera, that’s how I want to work.” One sequence Sova spent quite a bit of time on in the digital suite was the horse race, which is shown in several flashbacks and plays a crucial role in tying up the disparate storylines. He and McGuigan wanted to bathe the race
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action in golden tones, and although the cinematographer considered accomplishing that with colored filters,“we had the horses for a limited amount of time, and we had six operators working at different positions. I was concerned that even if they all used colored filters, it wouldn’t be a unified image.” Furthermore, all of the cameras were mounted with long lenses, and Sova didn’t think it appropriate to enforce his T-stop discipline on the focus pullers, who needed a deeper stop to keep the horses in focus. “Because of all the factors in play, this sequence was the kind of thing we really had to do in the DI,” he says. Given that Sova was keen to build color and contrast into the negative, it’s no surprise he was very meticulous about lighting. But he acknowledges that McGuigan’s method, which allows for lastminute changes in blocking if a better idea presents itself, made this particularly challenging. “Paul doesn’t just go in and shoot a master and some close-ups,” says Sova. “I light for 360 degrees most of the time. I like that Paul will take time to consider new ideas. He doesn’t always act like he’s got the answer right away, and I’m like that too. Even if the blocking has been planned out, I want him to be able to change something without taking an hour to change the lights. I always try to do enough pre-rigging to make that possible.” The two hero sets in Slevin are the respective lairs of The Boss and Schlomo. The Boss inhabits a lush environment of varnished wood, while Schlomo lives in a dark, sarcophagus-like suite of black stone. The production built The Boss’ home in a modest soundstage in Montreal, shot all of those sequences, and then dismantled that set and replaced it with Schlomo’s apartment set. The construction crew had 72 hours to change the sets, and Sova’s team had 24 hours to rig
Photos on this page by Sylvan Bernier.
Marked Man
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Marked Man
Above: Gun in hand, Slevin prepares to do the Boss’ bidding. Sova reserved special praise for production designer François Séguin’s highly stylized sets. “François has done a lot of theater, and he’s fearless. He will go all the way with an idea.” Below: Slevin and Mr. Goodkat (Bruce Willis), who bills himself as a “world-class assassin,” leave murder and mayhem in their wake.
the lighting. Knowing that each of those 24 hours would be precious, Sova and his gaffer, Sylvan Bernier, tried to rig as many lights as possible for both sets using Photometric calculators, which enabled them to determine where the lights should go and how much gel or diffusion would be required to achieve the desired look. Sova has high praise for the Montreal crew, especially production designer François Séguin. “François has done a lot of theater,
and he’s fearless,” says Sova. “He will go all the way with an idea, and he came up with the really gutsy idea of an all-black set [for Schlomo’s apartment]. Nobody builds black sets, but he argued that the characters would stand out against it. After some discussion, we decided to go for it. He used a kind of faux stone that worked very well.” For both sets, Bernier set up rows of Super Spot Par cans to rake down the walls and help separate the actors. In Schlomo’s apartment,
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these lights were a slightly cool 3600°K, and in The Boss’ home they were just under 3000°K. “Sure, I could have changed the color temperature in the DI,” says Sova, “I would have been hard-pressed to really separate the actors from the walls. You can take hours just working on that [in a DI], and if you push it to lighten the walls, you’ll get grain. I didn’t want any grain in this film. I wanted clean, strong images.” In order to allow the actors as much freedom as possible in the sets, Sova used large sources from far away so falloff would never be an issue. An Arri 20K on a cherry-picker positioned outside the sets was usually the main light, and then several 12Ks were positioned around the windows. By powering up certain lights, the crew could very quickly fine-tune the direction and intensity of the main light. They also bounced and diffused light from the ceiling to create a shadowless base. Outside the windows, TransLites simulated night and day views.“We lit the TransLites from behind with custom-made 20foot lighting rigs,” says Bernier. “Each rig had six 2K quartz bulbs in front of reflectors. Many gaffers use Skypans or other large, strong
YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support
Marked Man Caught up in a case of mistaken identity, Slevin finds a sympathetic listener in Lindsey (Lucy Liu), a compulsively curious coroner.
sources, but I’ve found smaller sources give you better control of the look. The problem with TransLites is that even though people work very hard to make sure the bright and dark areas are not too far apart, you still have to use light to adjust them. You want to be precise,
but you also want something powerful enough to make it feel like it’s 2, 3 or even 4 stops over if it’s supposed to be daylight outside. These rigs worked very well.” Sova was not familiar with the personnel or equipment at the post facility the production originally
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chose, but nothing could have prepared him and McGuigan for what they encountered.“It was a total disaster!” says McGuigan. “I’m savvy about telecine, but that’s a simple process compared to a DI. You’re never sure that what you see in the [grading] session will be what you finally get on film. Peter Sova does beautiful work; he did so much to make this look like a classical movie — very smooth, very silky. And it came out looking like a horror movie, incredibly grainy and contrasty. What’s worse, they tried to blame it on Peter, the lenses, anything other than themselves. A producer often chooses a facility because it gives him a good deal, or because he’d rather work in another country’s currency, but that can be a very bad idea. That facility might not have the best [equipment], or the personnel might be inexperienced. The first post house we used
for a DI at a really good facility, I might have left more of the film’s look to that part of the process,” he says.“But this project proved to be a good example of how the ‘oldschool’ method can really pay off.” I
Sova shares a light moment with Liu on the set.
TECHNICAL SPECS Super 35mm 2.35:1 (3-perf)
made some incredible mistakes. The images looked nothing like what we intended.” McGuigan and Sova eventually got permission to start from scratch at TDI in Burbank, where they’d had a positive experience with the DI on Wicker Park. “They scanned the negative with a 4K
Spirit, and then we did the grading on a da Vinci, which I like. We worked with [colorist] Trent Johnson, who is excellent.” If Sova hadn’t taken such care with the picture’s look during principal photography, Slevin might have been a disaster. “If I’d known for sure that I would get four weeks
Panaflex Millennium, Millennium XL Primo lenses Kodak Vision2 200T 5217, Vision2 500T 5218; Fuji Super-F 250T 8552, Super-F 250D 8562 Digital Intermediate Printed on Kodak Vision 2383
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Sundance 2006:
FrozenMoments Artful images abound in Park City, Utah. by Rachael K. Bosley, Jean Oppenheimer, Stephen Pizzello and Patricia Thomson
ur coverage of this year’s Sundance Film Festival begins with a grim fantasy about a terrorist attack on Los Angeles and ends with a breezy black comedy about the tobacco industry, proving that this year’s festival slate was nothing if not diverse. Though the exuberance that greeted the comedy Little Miss Sunshine (shot by Tim Suhrstedt, ASC) gave this year’s festival a family-friendly vibe, there was plenty of adult material to go around. Perhaps inevitably, the war in Iraq was the subject or subtext of several projects, and one of these, the documentary Iraq in Fragments, won three major awards: cinematography, directing and editing. Judging the festival’s Dramatic Competition were cinematographer Nancy Schreiber, ASC; actor Terrence Howard; and directors Alan Rudolph, Miguel Arteta and Audrey Wells. The Documentary Competition jury comprised film editor Joe Bini; directors Alexander Payne, Andrew Jarecki and Zana Briski; and producer Heather Rae. Cinematographers Tom Richmond and James Longley won their first Sundance Awards for
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Excellence in Cinematography this year, Richmond for the drama Right at Your Door, and Longley for the documentary Iraq in Fragments (which he also directed and co-edited). AC covers these and other projects in the pages that follow. Right at Your Door Cinematographer: Tom Richmond Director: Chris Gorak Some Sundance regulars compared Right at Your Door to last year’s breakout thriller Open Water, but director of photography Tom Richmond notes that although both movies are low-budget thrillers by first-time directors, and both focus on a couple in trouble, Right at Your Door “has really got three main characters: Brad, Lexi and the house.” He adds wryly, “If there were another co-star, it would be plastic and tape!” Right at Your Door, for which Richmond won the prize for Excellence in CinematographyDrama, takes place mostly in a single practical location: a hillside house overlooking Los Angeles. Written and directed by Chris Gorak, an experienced production
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designer (Lords of Dogtown) and art director (Minority Report), the film examines what might happen if Los Angeles were hit by a series of dirty bombs. Leaving geopolitics aside, the story focuses on a young couple’s reactions to the crisis over those 48 hours. Lexi (Mary McCormack) has already headed to work when her husband, Brad (Rory Cochrane), hears the news: multiple explosive devices have been detonated downtown, near Century City, and at Los Angeles International Airport. Commuter traffic was the target. After attempting to find his wife and being turned back by police, Brad stays home, glued to the radio. He learns that the bombs were biological weapons, and citizens must stay home, seal their houses, and avoid contact with people who have been contaminated by the toxic particles. He does as told, and soon, ash is falling on his lawn like snow. When his panicked, coughing wife returns, Brad follows the official line and refuses to let her inside. “Help is on the way,” he assures her through layers of plastic. As the story progresses and authorities start rounding up citizens at gunpoint, Brad tapes himself into ever-
Right at Your Door photo by Jim Sheldon, courtesy of Thousand Words.
smaller portions of the house, allowing Lexi and a neighborhood boy refuge in other rooms. As conditions worsen, “help” becomes an ambiguous, even frightening prospect, and the couple deals with their past and uncertain future through a wall of plastic until the authorities — who have their own agenda — finally arrive. Richmond (Palindromes, Little Odessa, A Midnight Clear) was intrigued by numerous aspects of Right at Your Door when he first read the script. “In our society, the home is the symbol of safety, security and family togetherness,” he notes.“In this film, that idea is shattered and turned upside-down.” Richmond had a hand in choosing the house, which had to have a view of the Los Angeles skyline, be in a somewhat isolated location, and offer multiple interior views from one end of the house to the other. “As much as possible, we tried to shoot from one room to another,” says the cinematographer. “We wanted to keep [visually] describing the space and blocking parts of the frame to make you feel [that the characters] were always closed in or closed out.” As the story progresses, the house becomes increasingly subdivided by sheets of plastic. “The film was shot chronologically, and it really had to be,” notes Richmond. “Normally you’d do that for the actors — and it was great for them — but it was our other hero, the house, that demanded it.” With cast and crew hemmed in by walls and plastic barriers, the production needed a free-roaming camera — two, in fact. From the outset, Gorak envisioned shooting the film handheld with two cameras, for the sake of speed and the actors. Although high-definition (HD) video was the format on the table when Richmond came aboard, the tangle of cables and monitors HD entails “would have
In Right at Your Door, a young woman (Mary McCormack) who was exposed to toxic substances released by a dirty bomb rushes home to find that her husband (Rory Cochrane) won’t allow her inside. Below: Director of photography Tom Richmond.
made the situation nonfunctional by day three,” he says. Furthermore, with an 18-day schedule, no budget for an HD engineer, and numerous daylit shots featuring windows, he was concerned about maintaining visual consistency. He also was dissatisfied with the low-contrast, softedged look of the HD-to-film transfers he screened at two post facilities, EFilm and FotoKem. For all of these reasons, the filmmakers decided to use Super 16mm instead. That approach triggered another commitment: a digital intermediate (DI) to create the high-contrast, desaturated look that takes over after the toxic ash falls. “We wanted to make it almost monochromatic — not necessarily realistic, but more of a subjective experience,” says Richmond. He decided to use a single negative, Kodak Vision2 500T 7218. “I underexposed everything a bit, so it was rated at [ISO] 650 or 700. I wanted the picture to deaden and fall to black sooner; white wasn’t important, but black was.” He used two Arri 16SRs, mounting the A camera with Zeiss Superspeed prime lenses and the B camera with a Canon (T2.5) 8-64 zoom. Working with two cameras, the rule of thumb was “a camera had to be with one actor or the
other, not both.” Gorak usually did three to four takes.“With every take, we moved the camera, even if it wasn’t a perfect take,” says the director. “That’s how we got all that footage. Not only were we moving the camera, we were also potentially changing the lens with every take. That gave us the feeling of being everywhere.” Richmond adds, “One camera would get the perfect shot and the other would hunt for an interesting angle. Shots on the wide end were made with a prime for better resolution and a more stable image.” Richmond operated the A camera, while Robert F. Smith, Joseph Setele and Rob Baird took turns manning the B camera. “Everybody knows the disadvantages of using two cameras,” notes Richmond. “My work on this
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Sundance 2006: Frozen Moments movie was more about learning the advantages and embracing them.” He saw some dividends early on. During the intense scene when Lexi returns home, she is at the front door, pleading with Brad through its window.“Normally I would have shot through the window, then shot him,” says Richmond. “But we were able to put a camera perpendicular to Brad and get an over-the-shoulder of Lexi. We got two crazy, emotional performances in the same shot that never could have been achieved had they been shot separately. That was fairly early in the shoot, and it was so gratifying it inspired me to keep trying as hard as I could in every situation.” Making a disaster film on a tiny budget also meant being strategic with visual effects. Rather than creating a single spectacular sequence, Gorak chose to pepper the film with brief glimpses of the city skyline under a growing cloud of black smoke. To create these, visual-effects supervisor Joe Bauer layered footage of smoke generated by oil fires in Kuwait onto Richmond’s skyline shots.“We were pretty addicted to the idea of a handheld movie, and it blew me away that Joe didn’t have a problem doing a matte into a handheld shot,” says Richmond. “That’s something you couldn’t do a few years ago.” The falling ash was biodegradable paper blown into the foreground and supplemented by matte extensions. To achieve eerily beautiful shots of ash blowing in the wind, Richmond rolled while the specialeffects unit was laying down the ash. (In the same vein of efficiency, Gorak avoided hiring a helicopter by stealing all those shots — he asked the camera operators to shoot the sky whenever a helicopter happened by.) The plume of ash eventually blocks the sunlight from Brad and Lexi’s house. To lower the contrast and achieve continuity on these
sequences, Richmond relied heavily on the DI. His five days with FotoKem colorist Tom Sartori largely involved fine-tuning contrast and desaturating the image. Even before the bombs hit, “we wanted a warm look, but not full color,” says the cinematographer. “Next we started draining out the warmth, and then after the ash hit, we lost the green, toning down the deep-background foliage. Eventually, the picture is almost black and white. It would have been virtually impossible to color-time this film photochemically — it had more shots per reel than any movie I’d ever worked on. The DI allowed us to frame-store, and we could look at 80 pictures at once. It was a kind of grid to grade by.” In awarding Richmond the cinematography prize, the Sundance jury noted that he had worked wonders inside the house. “Sometimes we cinematographers are given a great gift: shooting in Tuscany in 17th-century palaces, shooting the neon of Vegas, or shooting the gritty streets of Newark,” said juror Nancy Schreiber, ASC.“And sometimes the script dictates shooting a 90-minute film almost all in one suburban house. Sometimes we have to light fear, frame panic and compose betrayal. Tom was incredibly inventive in making this house work in an emotionally diverse way. He did it with precision, skill, and beauty — and on such a low budget. It was masterful.” — Patricia Thomson
Iraq in Fragments Director/Cinematographer: James Longley It’s been three years since the United States invaded Iraq, and judging from the lineup at Sundance, that’s the amount of time it has taken to fund, shoot and
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finish the first wave of independent films on the subject. This year, three documentaries and one dramatic feature had Iraq, Afghanistan or the war at home as their focal point. One of those films, Iraq in Fragments, quickly generated festival buzz and ultimately came away with awards for cinematography, directing and editing in the documentary category. That’s quite an accomplishment for James Longley, who directed, shot, co-edited and co-produced the film. The 36-year-old had made only two previous documentaries: the Student Academy Award-winning Portrait of Boy With Dog (1993), an anamorphic, black-andwhite short film he made while studying at the All-Russian Institute of Cinematography in Moscow; and the feature-length Gaza Strip (2001), which looks at the lives of ordinary Palestinians in Israelioccupied Gaza. By 2002, when Longley was casting about for his next subject, the drumbeat of imminent war in Iraq had begun, and he latched onto it. The question was, how to get inside Iraq? He first managed to hop on the coattails of journalists following Rep. Jim McDermott, a Democratic congressman from Seattle, into Baghdad. But Longley’s efforts to obtain permission to shoot were brushed aside by indifferent Iraqi officials. When he returned in February 2003, two weeks before the invasion, he got no further with permits, but by paying small bribes to police, he was able to capture an hour of B-roll footage on Baghdad’s bustling streets. (This material appears in the opening shots of Iraq in Fragments.) To his great frustration, Longley had to sit out the war in Cairo because officials refused to renew his expired visa. After the bombing of Baghdad, however, re-entry was easy. “There was no government, no one to issue visas,” he says. Longley moved to
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Iraq and stayed there for two years, eventually accumulating 300 hours of footage. As with Gaza Strip, his intent with Iraq in Fragments was to create a vérité portrait of the common people. Initially, he wanted to film 10 stories in different parts of the country and planned to create both a multi-part television series and a stand-alone feature.“My initial plan was grandiose,” he admits with a laugh. He did manage to shoot six stories and ultimately wove together three for the final film, one each in Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish territory. The idea of an eventual transfer to 35mm influenced his choice of digital-video (DV) camera. Knowing he would work complete-
Stories set in Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni regions of Iraq are interwoven in the documentary Iraq in Fragments, which was directed and shot by James Longley (top photo).
ly handheld, he wanted something light — at least lighter than the Sony-DSR500 he’d used on Gaza Strip. He also wanted something inexpensive so he could afford backup cameras, and something small enough to be discreet. Additionally, he wanted to avoid interlaced video and opt for 24-fps progressive scan. “I’d blown Gaza Strip up to 35mm, and it looks fine for a video blowup, but you can definitely see in motion that the frame rate doesn’t quite match,” he notes. Longley settled on a Panasonic AG-DVX100, adding a DVX100A when the upgrade came onto the market midway through production. Using the 24p Advanced Pulldown setting, he shot in 16:9, and he opted to continue with this format on the DVX100A rather than switch to the new “squeeze” mode on the upgraded camera. Early on, he decided against an anamorphic adapter because he intended to shoot numerous handheld close-ups. “The extra anamorphic glass on the front of the camera would have made that trickier, and the weight of an anamorphic front also throws the camera off-balance,” he explains. Rather than shoot full frame and crop to 16:9 in post, “I felt confident enough in my fram-
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ing that I just went straight into letterbox and kept my original framing through to the 35mm transfer.” Ultimately, the MiniDV footage was transferred to hi-def at Modern Digital in Seattle, output to an HDCam submaster, and then recorded to 35mm at Alpha Cine Labs in Seattle. Well-composed, close-up photography is a hallmark of Iraq in Fragments, particularly in the first chapter, which focuses on Mohammed Haithem, an 11-yearold who works for an auto mechanic and sporadically attends school. The camera often lingers on the boy’s doe eyes as he listens to elders talk politics or watches life on the dusty streets. A voiceover monologue reveals his thoughts and aspirations. “I didn’t just want to bring the viewers into Mohammed’s neighborhood, I wanted to put them inside his head,” says Longley. “I wanted them to see what he saw and hear what he heard, including the sound of his own thoughts.” To achieve an aesthetic of intimacy, Longley favored wideangle close-ups. “In order to have that kind of human contact where you see into people’s eyes, really get the texture of their faces and know what they’re thinking just by looking at them, you need to get close to them,” he says. “I was mostly pretty wide. I shy away from telephoto, which looks a lot like surveillance.” Wide angle is “the kind of close-up I prefer. You can have the subject in the foreground on one side of the frame, and things are still happening in the background on the other side of the frame. That’s just a more interesting way of framing shots.” For rendering detail and texture, Longley found the DVX100 responded best to wide-open apertures. Sometimes he also increased the shutter speed to help capture detail, as in the crowd scenes and dust storms in chapter two. “I ran the gamut from normal to 1⁄500.
Iraq in Fragments photos courtesy of Type Cast Pictures.
Sundance 2006: Frozen Moments
Tibor Szakaly
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Sundance 2006: Frozen Moments Sometimes I was making those decisions because of exposure. The more important thing was keeping the iris wide open. I would use ND filters to darken the scene and then open up the iris. But if it was still too bright, I might increase the shutter speed in order to get the correct exposure with the iris wide open.” Of course, equipment alone can’t achieve intimacy. It was Longley’s human relationships, built slowly over many long months with his subjects, that allowed him to capture unguarded moments. These include Mohammed in quiet reflection, Kurdish shepherds playing in a sunflower field, and Shiite leaders working through the logistics of regional elections. At times, his access was truly unique, as when he accompanies a Mehdi Army militia on a raid in an open-air market in Najaf, where they beat suspected alcohol merchants. Longley is right there in the jeep as they speed away, packed between armed militants whose faces are hidden behind scarves. “I was lucky,” he says. “Friends of mine who were doing the same kind of work were kidnapped in exactly the same places by exactly the same people.” Longley stayed in southern Iraq for 14 months, until the breakdown of security became untenable, at which point he moved north to Kurdish territory. “Sometimes your life is on the line to get different scenes,” he says, “but if you’re able to pull through and have something formally interesting that doesn’t feel like the camera operator is about to get shot, that is something people haven’t seen before, that’s the look I was going for.” His luck also held with his cameras, which never broke down despite terrible abuse. Summer temperatures routinely soared to 115°F. “At one point, the camera got so hot during the filming of a brick factory that the Rycote wind cover on my microphone caught on fire,” he
recalls. “Sweat was always dripping off my forehead onto the LCD screen. It was a nightmare.” Dust was another hazard, and Longley had to resort to gaffer tape. “The camera’s user manual tells you not to tape up the camera — it needs the little cracks to breathe and release heat — but there was just no way around it. To get a shot, I’d be lying on the ground in front of a thousand people in prayer on some big square, and it was very dusty. It was a matter of taking gaffer tape and closing off every opening of the camera, then peeling back a bit when I needed to open the cassette door and hoping a whole pound of dust wouldn’t float into the camera at that moment.” He would let the camera roll a few seconds to allow Panasonic’s self-cleaning head to do its job. In the end, “I didn’t lose any important material to drop-out, [and] I never had a need to service the camera heads during the two years of filming. I was lucky in all respects on this film.” — Patricia Thomson
Who Needs Sleep? Cinematographer: Haskell Wexler, ASC Directors: Wexler and Lisa Leeman Featuring interviews with those who labor behind and in front of the camera and medical experts who specialize in the field of sleep, the documentary Who Needs Sleep? targets the long work hours that have become the norm on U.S. productions — and in other American industries — and argues that the practice does far more harm than good. Shot by Haskell Wexler, ASC, who co-directed with editor Lisa Leeman, the film is also a tribute to Wexler’s friend Conrad L. Hall, ASC, who spoke out against long hours shortly before his death in 2003. (See Filmmakers’ Forum,
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AC May ’03.) Wexler began working on Sleep seven years ago, after the accidental death of camera assistant Brent Hershman during the filming of Pleasantville sparked widespread support of “Brent’s Rule,” a petition mandating a 14-hour workday on the set. (Hershman fell asleep at the wheel after a 19-hour day that had been preceded by four 15-hour days.) Written by Pleasantville director of photography John Lindley, ASC and his gaffer, Bruce McLeery, “Brent’s Rule” attracted more than 10,000 signatures in less than a year and put the problem of long hours on the agendas of guilds throughout the industry. Wexler, an early adopter of MiniDV on the 1999 documentary Bus Riders Union, began documenting events with his Sony PD-150. “I thought this was a great story of how a grassroots movement let something be known, and the system responded and agreed to do something about it,” he says. “I thought I was going to make a film about how Brent’s accident brought the Hollywood community together — actors, writers, directors, producers and others. Then the bottom fell out.” As Lindley recalls in Sleep, the petitions “disappeared into a black hole” at the International Cinematographers Guild, IATSE’s Local 600, and were not seen again.“The issue didn’t just go away,” says Wexler. “It died.” Over the next few years, Wexler’s project became something else: a critique of America’s “24/7” work culture that uses the motionpicture industry as an example of a disturbing and largely unpublicized trend. As he notes in the film, “These are bad times for all workers, not just film workers.” But given the glamour that attends the movie business, the irony is acute; the glimpse Wexler offers of Hollywood labor practices might surprise viewers who know Tinseltown only by
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Above: Haskell Wexler, ASC pays a visit to Julia Roberts to discuss the film industry’s long working hours in Who Needs Sleep? Right: Wexler takes aim at sleep specialist William C. Dement, M.D.
its glittering veneer. Along the way, Wexler compiles grim evidence of how sleep deprivation affects physical safety and psychological well-being. “Statistics show there’s an epidemic of sleep deprivation in this country that’s developed incrementally over the past 10 years,” he says. “One study found that on a Saturday morning in Los Angeles, there were about 150 drivers on the road who were legally drunk because of sleep deprivation. With traffic the way it is, you’re spending a good hunk of your life going to and from work.” And when work itself is a 15- to 20hour day, the results can be devastating. “Turnaround [time off between one day’s wrap and the next day’s call] doesn’t count the time you spend getting home,” notes Wexler. “Another colleague who died [in an accident] while I was making this film, [camera operator] Michael Stone, had been called for 3 p.m., worked till 4 a.m. the next day, and had to be back on set that day at 10 a.m. The day he crashed, he practically hadn’t had any sleep at all. “To me, the overall tragedy is how many of us in our culture do things that are unproductive, unsafe and unhealthy, and we do it because we say we have to,” he says. “Work is not your life. It’s an important part of your life, especially if you work in a creative field, but it’s not your life. “These long hours were happening long before Brent’s death, but the problem accelerated when
the studios became part of multinational corporations. Budgets for all kinds of films are worked out in office towers in Thailand or Switzlerand, by guys in front of computers who are in touch with marketing people here:‘This kind of story is like movie X or Y, and if it has this kind of actor, if we can make it for X dollars, and if we can release it at that time of year, we’ll give it a tentative go.’ Then the apparatus starts. Along the way, other elements come into it, and when the producer finally gets it he’s got a jigsaw puzzle, and he’s got to put those pieces in place in a certain amount of time in order to make the picture. “The terrible thing about it is, there’s no face on the bad guy. If you were making a film about Enron, you’d be sure to include the guy who ran Enron. What was in front of my camera were decent people trying to function in the system, doing what they perceive to be their jobs.” Wexler notes that the problem isn’t limited to studio films: “Independent pictures at some point want to be dependent, because in order to reach the audience they have to have a lot of money [behind them].” One key to avoiding long hours is “having a director who has some oats with the big guys. I’ve been terribly lucky because I’ve worked with good
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directors, well-organized directors who had an element of independence that few of them have now. I’ve not personally suffered from long hours, except on [the HBO telefilm] 61*, and [director] Billy Crystal and I knew going in that those hours would be long because of the complications of filming baseball. No way would I say I was tired, even though we were working 16- and 18-hour days.” As Sleep recounts, Hall experienced similar hours on his final film, Road to Perdition. During the wintertime shoot in Chicago, “we were working 14-hour, 18-hour days, and we were going nights into days, days into nights,” recalls camera operator Scott Sakamoto. (Darryl Zanuck, the film’s producer, tells Wexler he recalls three 20-hour days.) Upon returning to Los Angeles, Hall drafted a statement he intended to make public: “As directors of photography, our responsibility is to the visual image of the film as well as the well-being of our crew. The continuing and expanding practice of working extreme hours can compromise both the quality of our work and the health and safety of others.” Wexler recalls, “Conrad asked Roger Deakins [ASC, BSC] and me to take it to the ASC board, which eventually endorsed it, and Vilmos Zsigmond
Who Needs Sleep? frame grabs courtesy of Perigo Productions.
Sundance 2006: Frozen Moments
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Sundance 2006: Frozen Moments [ASC] subsequently took it overseas, where it was endorsed by cinematographer societies in many countries. When I went abroad to shoot some material for this film, I was surprised to find they were all familiar with it. “It’s a loaded statement, and one of Conrad’s points is something I don’t think people in the ASC think too much about. We do think a lot about our art and our position as artistes, and that’s very important, but as directors of photography we’re the foremen of the crew, and that means we have to look out for the crew’s welfare. A number of cinematographers are really good about that, but some aren’t.” Over the course of the Sleep shoot, Wexler conducted interviews on a number of sets — film, television and commercial — and several times he was escorted away with varying degrees of courtesy.“I always got permission to visit, but in a handful of instances word came down from somewhere after I got there, and someone would arrive to tell me I’d have to speak to someone’s attorney before I could interview anyone.” He was nonetheless able to interview dozens of workers, among them cinematographers, operators, gaffers, makeup artists, editors, producers, directors and actors. He used supplemental lighting only inside his car, where he used a single light panel LED. “They’re terrific little lights because you can dim them without changing the color temperature, they generate no heat, they can run on a battery, and they’re only 2 inches thick.” Sleep also incorporates material shot by Joan Churchill, ASC; Kevin McKiernan; Alan Barker; Tamara Goldsworthy; Sonia Angulo and Rita Taggart.“I’d usually just call up a friend and ask, ‘Are you doing something Wednesday or Thursday?’” says Wexler. “Kevin felt my film should be more personal, and he also gave me some advice on
structure that was very helpful. Joan was the one who recommended [editor/co-director] Lisa Leeman. I believe the editor of a documentary should be credited as co-director because they have such a hand in shaping the movie. I was researching a lot of things and throwing a lot of material on Lisa.” Among the footage that didn’t make the cut was an interview Wexler conducted at the Pentagon about the use of sleep deprivation in basic training and interrogations. “The military has done an awful lot of research on sleep deprivation — it’s the ‘acceptable torture’ of choice, and it’s also behind a lot of friendly-fire incidents. I had all kinds of great stuff, but [producer] Tamara Maloney said,‘Do you want to make a threehour movie that will turn off all the Republicans?’ So I said, ‘Okay.’ When it’s my own film, I really need another person to be strong with me. Then I argue with them. Sometimes I win.” Sleep closes with a salute to the grassroots movement 12On/12Off, which was recently founded by cinematographer Roderick Stevens in an effort to promote a 12-hour workday on set. Wexler says if Hollywood’s labor practices change, “it will be through a grassroots movement like Rod’s, or because the bottom line is affected, or perhaps through litigation — the sleep doctors have testified in some cases [involving accidents caused by sleep deprivation] that have been settled quietly, and insurance companies are starting to notice. I don’t look for leadership from the union. Originally unions were to represent workers and get us better wages, better conditions, better hours. Now they see their job as delivering a competent, compliant workforce.” — Rachael K. Bosley
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Cargo Cinematographer: Sean Bobbitt Director: Clive Gordon “Dead men tell no tales,” declares the law of the high seas, and in Cargo, the captain and crew of a decrepit bulk freighter go to chilling lengths to enforce this proverb. The tense psychological thriller boasts an unnerving ambience that makes its “damned voyage” memorably suspenseful. The tale begins in the African republic of Ghana, where a brash young backpacker, Chris (Daniel Brühl), runs into trouble after stealing a bracelet from a local merchant. Relieved of his European passport while scuffling with a pair of policemen, Chris takes refuge in a seedy waterfront bar, where he meets the burly, hard-drinking crew of the Gull, a cargo vessel bound for Marseilles. Seeing his chance to elude the authorities, Chris sneaks aboard the ship but is quickly discovered. He soon learns that the boat’s brooding, inscrutable captain (Peter Mullan) has a very low regard for stowaways, but is strangely willing to cut Chris a break if he can coexist with the crew — whose bizarre behavior makes the HMS Bounty look like the good ship Lollipop. Subsequent surprises complicate Chris’ attempt to survive the hostile environment and eventually force him to make some difficult moral choices. The effective menace of Cargo can be partially attributed to its makers’ documentary backgrounds and handheld approach, which lend the action a realistic intensity. Director Clive Gordon honed his cinematic chops on a number of quality docs, including The Unforgiving and The Betrayed, while Texas-born cinematographer Sean Bobbitt cut his teeth as a freelance news cameraman for CBS in London, a job that allowed him to
travel throughout Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Bobbitt says he then pursued documentary work but always harbored a desire to work on dramatic features. “It’s quite difficult to make that transition, but I got very lucky,” says the 47-year-old cinematographer, whose big break came in 1999. “[Director] Michael Winterbottom was making a film called Wonderland and wanted a documentary cameraman to shoot it. That became my transitional film.” Bobbitt’s blend of documentary and feature experience put him on good footing with Gordon. “I think one of the reasons Clive chose me for the project was our common background. I understood where he was coming from, and we shared a common vocabulary while talking about the film. He also felt comfortable that I had more dramatic-feature experience, because he knew I could bring something different to the film than a straight-ahead documentary cameraman could.” The cinematographer’s previous work in Ghana gave him a working knowledge of that country, but he notes that the film’s waterfront bar was actually a set built at a studio in Barcelona by production designer Jordi Yrla and his crew. “The lighting was a combination of practicals, Kino Flos, China balls and Misers, which are 300-/500watt Arri Fresnels,” he details. “That scene is the first time we see the captain, and to make him stand out I used a 1K Pup to give him a backlight rim. There’s a candle on the table in front of him, and to augment that we used a gagged-up practical inside a little wire cage — a 100-watt bulb on a dimmer — along with some F2 diffusion and 1⁄4 CTO on the table itself.” The picture’s initial exteriors were shot in Ghana, which Bobbitt rates as “one of the easier West African countries to shoot in, and one of the safest and most civilized.
There’s no real gun culture, and it’s a former British colony, so English is the major language. It also has a small, burgeoning film industry. In fact, Mission: Impossible III was supposed to shoot some scenes there, but the production pulled out at the last minute. We actually benefited from that, because a company called Planet Films had been set up
to facilitate their needs, and they had all of the connections necessary to communicate with the government. Planet also helped us with location scouting, managing and permissions, and also with sourcing local actors, crew and equipment. They made our lives much easier.” Nevertheless, the filmmakers still faced some daunting logistical
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Left: In Cargo, a young stowaway (Daniel Brühl, left) makes the mistake of a lifetime when he boards a ship helmed by a mysterious captain (Peter Mullan, right). Right: Director of photography Sean Bobbitt scopes out his options in Ghana, Africa.
issues that included securing the use of an actual cargo ship in Barcelona. Bobbitt observes, “Shooting at sea is always problematic, but in our case it was made even more difficult because the boat we found was an abandoned Bulgarian bulk freighter. It had been sitting untouched in Barcelona’s harbor for almost four years, so it was in a very poor state. Its electrical systems were dangerous, and the engines and generators didn’t work. It took a lot of effort to make the ship seaworthy and get the required safety clearances.” Once the production had permission to shoot aboard this rust-bucket, the crew gave it a major overhaul. After determining which cabins and corridors would be shown onscreen, they rewired the existing fixtures in those areas, augmenting the lighting with compact Kino Flo units that could be easily hidden in the cramped quarters. For scenes of the crew eating meals together in a small dining area, Bobbitt employed an overhead baylight that he dubbed a “Gordy box” (in honor of Gordon Willis, ASC, who made the technique famous with The Godfather). The bay contained 4x4 Kino Flos installed above 1⁄2 grid diffusion and had long skirts hanging from the sides to control spill.“It was an invaluable technique
in that particular situation, where we had the camera working effectively in 360 degrees,” he says. Bobbitt notes that from his first reading of the script, he envisioned the film in widescreen. To save money and also maximize options for a digital intermediate (DI), he shot the film in 3-perf Super 35mm. “The widescreen format helps emphasize the sense of claustrophobia on the ship, because you see more of the walls as you move through the boat. It also makes any sort of movement through the corridors much more dynamic.” He shot most of the movie handheld, employing Arricam Lites equipped with Cooke S4 lenses. “I did a fair amount of damage in terms of bumping cameras against the walls and knocking light fixtures off them, but it was all good fun.” Although many scenes were shot on the real ship, “all of the scenes set in the hold were actually done in a warehouse outside of Barcelona. It’s physically impossible and extremely dangerous to shoot in the hold of a bulk freighter. There’s very limited access and all sorts of safety issues. So we built a set instead.” The Spanish warehouse proved to be less than ideal for the production’s needs, however.“It was
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very important to convey the full scale of the hold, because we had to create the sense that a number of people could hide in there without being easily found. Our set therefore had to be nearly as high as the real hold, which was more than 23 feet tall. In the warehouse, that left me just 12 feet above the set to place my lights. I didn’t have a lot of throw, and without the throw, I needed to use more instruments and try to arrange them so that all of the light would be coming from the same angle.” To solve this problem, the crew built a centrally positioned, overhead scaffold that ran the length of the set. “The idea was that there would be two settings in the hold: a daylight setting, where cracks of light were creeping in, and a nighttime setting, which would consist of the ship’s internal lighting,” explains Bobbitt. “To create the sense of daylight and maintain the correct angle of light without having a lot of throw, I was hoping to have four 18Ks with special Pyrex lenses, which would give me a very strong, very direct light. But we could only find two of those units in all of Europe, so I augmented them with a pair of Arri X-Lights.” During the DI, which was carried out at Chimney Pot in
Cargo photos by Nicolás Geller, courtesy of Wildbunch.
Sundance 2006: Frozen Moments
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Sundance 2006: Frozen Moments Stockholm, Sweden, Bobbitt worked with colorist Mats Holmgren to fine-tune his images, which were shot primarily on Kodak Vision 2 500T 5218 and Vision2 200T 5217. “I’ve done a lot of work with Vision2 stocks, and because I knew we were going to do a DI I was looking for maximum latitude, while at the same time trying to hold the grain down. I think 5218 is fantastic in that regard. We shot our day exteriors on 5217, but the bulk of the film was shot on 5218.” Bobbitt’s primary goal in post was to help convey the tale’s increasingly sinister tone by creating a progressive and evocative color scheme. “We start off in Africa with very warm earth tones, very saturated colors with almost no blue at all. As the journey progresses and Chris’ emotional state begins to deteriorate, we shift into a much cooler feel with various levels of desaturation. By the time we reach the end, the images are very cold and desaturated. To create that arc during principal photography, I used lots of CTO and amber gels for the African material, and then varying degrees of CTB as we worked toward the colder feel. We used the DI to enhance the saturated look of the African footage and to very carefully grade the shift from those scenes to the later scenes.” The DI also enabled Bobbitt to erase all traces of a tugboat that was used to tow the hero ship out to sea for wide, establishing shots of the freighter in motion. He adds, however, that no special tricks were used to capture a shot of Chris being dangled precariously over the ship’s hull by vengeful crewmembers. “We captured an overhead shot of that moment by mounting the camera on a small jib arm, and the rest of the scene was shot handheld. Daniel was really being held over the side by six very large men, so I think his look of terror is fairly genuine!” — Stephen Pizzello
The World According to Sesame Street Cinematographers: Nelson Hume and Christine Burrill Directors: Linda Goldstein Knowlton and Linda Hawkins Costigan When a press and industry screening of a documentary about Sesame Street attracted a capacity crowd at Sundance, it was hard to tell which contingent was more surprised. Then again, perhaps a distributor from Australia summed it up best: “Who doesn’t know Sesame Street?” Even if you’ve been a Sesame Street fan since childhood, The World According to Sesame Street reveals something about the beloved children’s program you might not know. It is broadcast in 120 countries around the world, and in roughly 20 of those, the show is actually a co-production between the Sesame Workshop in New York and a handful of artists and educators in the country at hand. The goal is to tailor Sesame’s mantra of “tolerance, love and respect” to a given audience in ways that are culturally relevant as well as culturally sensi-
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tive, and the challenges in each market are quite different. The World According to Sesame Street goes behind the scenes on three such co-productions — Bangladesh, Kosovo and South Africa — that were in different stages of development in 2004, when production on the documentary commenced. In Bangladesh, where children often begin working as early as age 3, a Sesame team led by Nadine Zylstra strives to create a program (Sisimpur) that will honor the Bangladeshis’ vibrant theatrical tradition and also meet with the
The World According to Sesame Street photos by Linda Goldstein Knowlton & Linda Hawkins Costigan, courtesy of Participant Productions.
Top: A young girl has fun with a Muppet on Sisimpur, the Bangladeshi version of Sesame Street. Middle: Cocinematographer Christine Burrill captures an over-theshoulder. Bottom: Cocinematographer Nelson Hume finds an eager subject.
approval of the government, which controls the nation’s only television station. In Kosovo, a Sesame team led by Barbara Nikonorow contends with the fallout of a very recent war that has left Albanians and Serbs totally segregated and deeply suspicious of each other. And in South Africa, where one local says “everyone is assumed to be HIV-positive until you know his status,” Sesame co-producer Naila Farovky and her collaborators on Takilani Sesame detail the challenges of creating the country’s first preschool HIV/AIDS curriculum, whose centerpiece is an HIV-positive Muppet. Throughout the far-flung shoot, which happened intermittently over almost two years, directors Linda Goldstein Knowlton and Linda Hawkins Costigan worked with one director of photography on each coast, Nelson Hume in New York and Christine Burrill in Los Angeles. (Additional operators helped out in some locations.) Burrill was unavailable for an interview, but Hume spoke with AC by phone about his work on the documentary. “We all grew up with Sesame Street, and this sounded like a really interesting project,” says Hume, whose credits include the documentaries Keeping Time and Robert Stone’s Hollywood Vietnam. “The Lindas and I had a mutual friend, producer Alicia Sams; I had worked with Alicia, and she put the three of us together. When I met the Lindas on our first shoot in New York, I could tell they would be fantastic to work with. “I don’t know that I knew how long the project would turn out to be,” he continues. “For me it was about 11⁄2 years with lots of breaks in between. I went to Bangladesh three times and Kosovo twice and shot in New York intermittently [at Sesame headquarters]. I’ve never actually met Chris [Burrill], but I know she went to Bangladesh at least once and
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Sundance 2006: Frozen Moments filmed all the material in South Africa and El Salvador [the site of another co-production that is glimpsed in the film]. It was tons of work, and it would’ve been really, really hard for one cinematographer to do all of it.” In fact, Hume and Burrill were assisted by additional operators in the States and overseas, largely because some key events could not be predicted. In Bangladesh and Kosovo, for example, a variety of developments made the respective co-productions’ fates uncertain for a time; in Bangladesh it was catastrophic flooding, a political assassination, and a nationwide strike, and in Kosovo it was a fresh outbreak of violence that put the Serbian enclave in lockdown mode.“A lot of things were happening in Bangladesh, and there was just no way for us to be there all the time,” says Hume. “The Lindas found a great shooter there, Mohiuddin Ahmed, and some of his footage — including shots showing the Sisimpur set being built — is my favorite in the whole film. He was a wonderful guy who really understood the project and did great work. In Kosovo we worked with Avni Ahmetaj, who had shot a lot for CNN and was extremely competent. He was our fixer when I was there, and he did some additional shooting.” Although the Kosovo sequences are among the tensest in the picture, Hume says the danger for the production remained “fairly abstract.” He recalls, “We could feel the tension in the air and it was still fairly raw, but I was in Belfast briefly in 1984, and that felt much more like a city under siege — the British soldiers were running from door to door, whereas in Kosovo they were strolling around. Life was going on, only with a big security hand over everything. We did feel quite a bit of tension in the Serbian enclave, where there’s a much bigger mili-
tary presence with security checkpoints and so on. But overall, I’ve felt more tension shooting in certain parts of New York.” He adds, “The Lindas did a lot of work to make sure we didn’t travel into [potentially risky] areas until a lot of checking around had been done.” Sometimes both directors would come along on a shoot, and sometimes Costigan would head to one location while Knowlton went to another. “They work very well together and independently, and they were very much on the same page,” says Hume. “Shooting docs like this is a very intimate process — the entire crew is three or four people. You can’t help but become immersed in the subject matter, and that allows you to enter each scene with an informed eye. I knew what the Lindas were looking for in terms of story arc and detail.” He adds that soundman Ben Posnack was invaluable on the shoot. “On projects like this, where you don’t have access to rental houses when gear goes down and helpful hands are hard to come by, you need someone like Ben. We’ve worked together for many years, and I rely on his technical ingenuity and his humor.” The filmmakers started the shoot with a Sony PD-150, and a few months into production they bought a second camera, a Canon XL-2. “I liked the Canon more, which worked out well because Chris preferred the Sony,” says Hume. “To make sure the Canon footage matched up with the Sony material, I shot 60i [interlaced] in the 4:3 aspect ratio. I knew transferring to 35mm would help blend our material as well. “I tried to capture the visual signatures of the countries we covered,” he continues. “Bangladesh is an explosion of colors glowing in the hot sun, whereas Kosovo is characterized by concrete, old
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snow, smoke-belching power plants and oppressive cloud clover. The New York material is the endless cubicle maze and Crayola colors of Sesame headquarters.” Although he was unable to participate in the color-correction and transfer to film (carried out at EFilm), he was pleased with what he saw onscreen at Sundance. “The stylistic differences between Chris’ material and mine were insignificant, and I was happy with the transfer.” Hume carried a compact Lowel lighting kit on his shoots, and he tried to do supplemental lighting in all interviews and office scenes. “I designed it to fit in one Pelican case: an Omni/Tota, an Omni Pro and a 500-watt Rifa Lite. The Rifa is great for interviews, and I used it whenever I could.” The filmmakers were given free reign at Sesame Workshop, with the proviso that they never photograph a “dead Muppet” — any Muppet that wasn’t on a puppeteer’s hand. “We were adopted into the Sesame family, and they got used to us being around,” says Hume. “A good example of what we had to get in New York is the scene where the Muppet maker there is videoconferencing with the Bangladeshis, who were [at Takilani Sesame studio] in South Africa, and he’s showing them the Muppets and talking about what might suit their program.” (This was a lastresort arrangement Sesame made when the Bangladeshis were unable to obtain visas to travel to New York.) Hume is especially pleased with another Sesame Workshop sequence, which shows the Bangladeshi minister of women and children’s affairs visiting the team and finally informing them of the government’s decision regarding Sisimpur. “There were a lot of players in that scene, and we were trying to be as discreet as possible
yet also cover the action,” he says. “[Editor] Kate Amend did an amazing job with that, and the suspense really comes through.” — Rachael K. Bosley
Thank You for Smoking photos by Dale Robinette, courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures.
Thank You for Smoking Cinematographer: James Whitaker Director: Jason Reitman The equal-opportunity satire Thank You for Smoking throws political correctness out the window. Its hero, Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart), is the tobacco industry’s chief spokesman, a smooth-talking spin doctor whose genial amorality suffers only a momentary hiccup when he begins to question what kind of example he is setting for his young son (Cameron Bright). In a fairly unusual step for a comedy, director Jason Reitman and cinematographer James Whitaker decided to shoot the picture in anamorphic 2.40:1. “People generally don’t think of comedies as being widescreen,” concedes Whitaker (Running Scared, The Cooler). “But I like the way the backgrounds become soft and slightly dreamy, like a Monet painting. Anamorphic gives a look to something that is notoriously difficult to assign a look to, unlike, say, a chiaroscuro film-noir world.” Reitman tapped Whitaker for Thank You because he was impressed by the cinematographer’s gritty, tobacco-stained imagery in The Cooler (see AC Dec. ’03). But somewhat ironically, the palette for Thank You is at the opposite end of the spectrum. “Although Jason and I wanted parts of the film to have a slightly tobacco feel, overall we emphasized clean and bright and a feeling of airiness to help make the controversial subject more accessible,” says Whitaker. To get that look, he used large, soft sources whenever he could. For day interiors, he lit
through windows with a pair of 18Ks through 12'x12' or 20'x20' frames of 1⁄4 or 1⁄2 grid cloth, flooding the room with light. “For closeups in those scenes, we’d bring something inside the room, like a 4K Par through full grid placed about 5 feet from the actor. I love the way grid cloth wraps light around faces.” Most of the picture was shot on location in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. For the office where Naylor works, the production found a spot on the 13th floor of L.A. Center Studios. “That required a bit of improvising,” Whitaker recalls with a laugh. “I discovered that if I took six or eight Kino Flo Image 80s, lined them up against the wall on the window side of the room, and put a 12-by frame of 1⁄2 Frost in front of them, it created a beautiful window-light feeling. The fixture is only 3 feet deep with the rag in front of it, so we could easily fit it inside the room and keep it out of frame.” Although Whitaker loves to use toplight, he reserved it for two settings in Thank You: the tobacco club where Naylor meets the industry’s head honcho (Robert Duvall), and Bert’s Bar, where Naylor lunch-
Above: In Thank You for Smoking, tobacco-industry spokesman Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart, right) enjoys lunch with his fellow “Merchants of Death” (Maria Bello and David Koechner), who represent the alcohol and firearms industries. Left: Director of photography James Whitaker.
es with his two lobbyist buddies (played by Maria Bello and David Koechner) from the alcohol and firearms industries. The threesome refers to itself as “the MOD Squad” — for “merchants of death.” The tobacco-club sequence was filmed at a former hotel in Pasadena, and it commences with a long Steadicam shot that follows Naylor down a staircase, through two rooms and into the main room. Although it was filmed as one long shot, the material was cut up in the final edit. “We thoroughly prerigged that location,” says Whitaker. “My gaffer, Patrick Lennon, and key grip, Stuart Abramson, hung several Par cans in the foyer area and
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Sundance 2006: Frozen Moments then hung 30 or 40 Babies and Tweenies throughout the rest of the location to create pools of light.” All units were gelled with 1⁄4 CTO, and a bit of smoke was pumped into the room for added atmosphere. This warm, moody look is repeated at Bert’s Bar, where the MOD Squad eats lunch. Three or four scenes take place there, all of them in the same corner booth at the back of the room. The scenes were shot at a bar in Los Angeles. “That was probably our most challenging location,” says Whitaker. “I really wanted to pull them out of that corner booth into the center of the room so I’d have an easier time lighting!” Instead, he used toplight: Gem Balls going through a frame of either 250 or 1⁄4 grid. “We boxed it in so the light wasn’t spilling everywhere and added whatever we needed for fill.” During prep, Whitaker and first-time director Reitman talked a
lot about Wes Anderson’s films. “Everything in those movies is carefully set up and kind of presented,” muses Whitaker, “and we wanted [a similarly] conservative yet stylized look and feel. We moved the camera only when we wanted to accentuate a point.”An example is the sequence in which Naylor reads a damning article that a journalist (Katie Holmes) has written about him. The sequence consists of four or five vignettes: a Hollywood agent (Rob Lowe) reading the article in a newspaper; Naylor’s boss reading it in his office; members of the public reading it; and a man reading it on the subway. “Those compositions are almost architectural in nature,” says Whitaker. “When we get to the shot of Naylor, there’s a slow push in and then — wham! — he slams the paper down on the table and we go right into his face.” Throughout the shoot,
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Reitman and Whitaker would “go into a room, look around, and say, ‘This room would look great from here. Now let’s put the actors in it,’” recalls the cinematographer. They deviated from that only for scenes of Naylor and his son. “We’d go for more traditional coverage — longer lenses, more two-shots, more overthe-shoulders,” affirms Whitaker. “The goal was to emphasize them together.” Thank You was predominantly shot with a single camera, a Panaflex Millennium that Whitaker operated, but occasionally a Millennium XL (operated by Danny Nichols and Tom Lohmann) was added to the mix. Whitaker notes that Lori Killam and Jim Roudebush at Panavision Woodland Hills “took great care of me.” He used Primo primes, C-series lenses (for Steadicam and handheld work), Eseries 135mm and 180mm lenses,
and an 11:1 (48–550mm) Primo zoom. The 40mm lens turned out to be ideal for the look the filmmakers wanted, so it was the workhorse lens. 1st AC Donald Burghardt “did a great job,” adds Whitaker. Day interiors and exteriors were shot on Kodak Vision2 250D 5205, and Vision2 500T 5218 was used for all night material and for a few day scenes that needed the extra speed. Several sequences in the picture were shot on video. When Naylor appears on two talk shows, “we used the Digi-Beta cameras that existed in the studios where we shot,” says Whitaker. “When we wanted to show things happening from Naylor’s perspective, we switched to film.” For a “safety video” Naylor watches in his hotel room, Reitman wanted a really low-quality look and opted to use an old video camera. A montage of Naylor’s trip with his son
was recorded in the MPEG mode of a digital still camera, as though father and son had shot it themselves. Whitaker tested some special lab processes during prep, including Deluxe Laboratories’ propriety CCE and ACE silver-retention processes, but he always thought a digital intermediate (DI) would be the best way to finish the film. The filmmakers received approval to do a DI after wrapping, and Whitaker subsequently graded the picture at EFilm with colorist Natasha Leonett. He says he is particularly pleased with a scene depicting a U.S. Senate hearing that was shot on a very short schedule. “We lit the room [the Mason’s Lodge in Pasadena] with two 8,000-watt Fisher helium balloons, and we supplemented that with small, homemade box lights. We used 60-watt household bulbs in the box lights,
which are made of metal and have foamcore sides. You can put in whatever diffusion you want; we went mainly with full grid. We had box lights in two sizes, 2 by 2 feet and 4 feet by 16 inches. They’re beautiful, and you can mount them on C stands or anything else.” Over the course of his chat with AC, Whitaker repeatedly praised Lennon, his regular gaffer for the past five years.“Pat’s collaboration is really valuable to me and I trust him completely. We’re just in sync on things, which saves a lot of time.” He also cited Thank You’s production designer Steve Saklad and costume designer Danny Glicker, with whom he was collaborating for the first time. “There were no interdepartmental conflicts at all,” he says with a smile. “It was a thoroughly pleasant experience.” — Jean Oppenheimer I
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Short Takes The Refugee Experience in Hungary Right: A helicopter menaces a group of refugees in Before Dawn, a short film that earned kudos at Sundance this year. Below left: A lone refugee (János Kalmár) escapes the roundup. Below right: A Pegasus crane proved invaluable on the shoot.
he Hungarian short film Before Dawn, which received an honorable mention at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, takes place in what appears to be one continuous shot that lasts for 13 minutes. In the moments just before sunrise, a cargo truck pulls up on a country road that wends through rolling hills. Dozens of refugees hiding in the long grass on both sides of the road rise up and scramble onto the truck. The truck pulls out, but military vehicles and a helicopter appear and force the truck back to its original spot. The refugees pour out of the truck and are rounded up by
T
soldiers. At the end of the movie, after everyone has gone away, one refugee who has managed to evade capture stands up and into a big close-up. Mátyás Erdély, the film’s director of photography, explains that Hungary has served as a gateway to the West since it joined the European Union, and because of that it has a large population of refugees. “I think this is a universal story,” he says of the film.
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Before Dawn director Balint Kenyeres is a close friend of Erdély’s and a fellow graduate of the University of Drama and Film in Budapest. The events that take place in the movie were originally part of a feature script Kenyeres had written, but when the director realized this single scene would make an effective short film, he set about trying to raise the money to make it. “Hungary, like every other European country, has a state-funded film industry,” says Erdély. “Every project shot is funded by the state.” The application process is elaborate, and Erdély estimates that 20-25 features and the same number of shorts are funded each year. Before Dawn was more expensive than the average Hungarian short film — it ultimately cost the equivalent of about $50,000 — and Kenyeres worked for more than a year to get sufficient funding. While Kenyeres was putting the project together, Erdély was studying in the cinematography program at the American Film Institute. Before Dawn was shot in July 2004, during the summer break between Erdély’s first
Frame grabs and photos courtesy of Mátyás Erdély. Production photos by Rebeka Pal.
by Stephanie Argy
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Director of photography Mátyás Erdély on location.
and second years at AFI. Although nothing was storyboarded, Erdély and Kenyeres had long discussions about the size of the shot at any given moment of the camera move, how far the camera should be from the characters, and other visual details. When they scouted the location, they came up with the specific choreography. In fact, says Erdély, they brought along a small digital-video (DV) camera and essentially shot the whole movie without any of the actors in place. “Balint
was very specific in what he wanted,” recalls the cinematographer, “and the final product is very close to what we discussed.” Erdély says the 60 or so extras who played refugees really were refugees, and the soldiers were played by actual soldiers as well as stuntmen. The key cast member, though, is the man who rises up into the close-up at the end of the movie. “That face tells us the story,” says Erdély. “We knew if that character was cast well, the film would work.” Because that face was so important, Kenyeres undertook a very long search to find the right person; he met with actors from abroad, went to refugee camps, visited homeless shelters, and met illegal immigrants in Hungary. Just before the shoot was scheduled to commence, a friend recommended a sculptor, János Kalmár, who had never worked in film. Upon meeting Kalmár, Kenyeres liked him so much that he hired him on the spot, without doing any tests.
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A hero behind the scenes was Erdély’s focus puller, Árpád Horváth. “He couldn’t make any mistakes, and we were shooting wide open,” says the cinematographer. “He was in a very scary place, but he did a really good job.” Before Dawn was shot in Super 35mm 2.35:1 with an Arri 435 and a Cooke S4 25mm prime. Erdély used Kodak Vision2 500T 5218 and left it uncorrected to give the footage a cool tint that could be further enhanced during post. To execute the elaborate camera moves, Erdély used a Pegasus crane mounted on a dolly. “It’s a brilliant crane, about 33 feet long,” says Erdély, who adds that his dolly grip, Miklós Herczeg, was “fantastic.” The cinematographer used only one light, a pocket Par with a Chimera, which he brought in for the close-up at the end. Although the events in the film take place in the moments just before dawn, the movie was shot at sunset on two successive days, but the days
started in the early morning. During the day, Erdély and Kenyeres began by doing rehearsals with all the vehicles and then added the extras and lead characters into the choreography. Erdély explains that beginning with broad strokes and progressing to fine details helped preserve the actors’ energy. “You don’t want your actors, even your extras, to get exhausted before you start to finesse things.” Even the helicopter that menaces the refugees became a performer. “The pilot was brilliant, and he had a perfect sense of the camera,” says Erdély. He adds that the pilot rehearsed his move once and then was told to fly low on his next pass, which was an actual take. “He flew so low he actually moved the camera, and this take is in the film.” Kenyeres and Erdély planned to shoot the movie in a single shot, but toward sunset on the first day, they realized that wouldn’t work. “There was a huge crisis,” remembers Erdély. Then
they found they could hide a transition when a truck passes close to camera, and they meticulously measured everything so the shot could be matched the next day. “We knew the height of the lens, the speed of the truck, and how close to the camera to move the truck.” Erdély says they were so successful at re-creating the onscreen look and motion that they didn’t have to do much in post to match the two shots, which are combined with a very fast dissolve. Principal photography was hectic, partly because the lighting conditions were changing quickly. “We lost a stop between the first part of the take and the last part of the take,” notes the cinematographer. “You can’t tell, but the film gets darker as it goes on, and it should really be brightening up.” They had time to do four or five takes each day; they started with the lens at around T4 and opened up the aperture more with each successive take until it was wide open. After the shoot, the footage was
scanned at 2K resolution at Focus Fox in Hungary, and Erdély and Kenyeres spent a few hours doing color correction on a da Vinci 2K. Before the shoot, they considered two looks, one greenish and one steel blue, and they ended up selecting blue because they felt it better evoked the lighting conditions that precede sunrise. The duo spent about two hours on a Discreet Inferno to combine the two halves of the movie and do final color tweaks. By the time the graded files were ready to be recorded to 35mm, Erdély had returned to Los Angeles, so Kenyeres mailed him tests, which he screened at Deluxe Laboratories. “I approved the first test prints and had to choose between two or three slightly different densities,” says the cinematographer. Before Dawn made its debut at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival and has since screened at more than 40 festivals, including Sundance. I
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Post Focus
The Virtual World of Mezzo by Douglas Bankston Perfection is difficult to achieve in the commercial world. Brutally short production and postproduction schedules hamper the fine-tuning of shots and visual effects, but the visual nature of the commercial — rapid-fire imagery, smash cuts, small-screen presentation — helps to conceal those flaws.
For the Djarum Mezzo cigarette spots “Race” and “Leap,” Sway Studios in Westwood, California, refused to adhere to the “good enough” commercial philosophy. The effects-laden spots, in which couples race through an idyllic architectural setting, were treated as big-screen, mini motion pictures; they were shot on 35mm, scanned at 2K, and visual-effects work was performed at full 2K resolution. The amount of roto-
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scoping, tracking and compositing was extensive because the world the actors were running through was an entirely computer-generated (CG), photo-realistic environment. “This is the most complex CG spot I’ve done,” says visual-effects supervisor Robert Nerderhorst. “It’s also the biggest project Djarum has done, and its first CG spot.” The agency’s original storyboards depicted a group of people running in an all-white environment, which would have been much simpler to realize. Director Joseph Kosinski’s take on the context was drastically different. “The goal was to create a setting that was both stylish and timeless,” he says. “Because the agency’s concept was so abstract, I wanted the environment to feel as authentic and tangible as possible.” Kosinski created specific look treatments, including in-depth previsualizations using 3ds Max, to show the agency. “In our videoconference call with the agency,” recalls Nederhorst, “it was clear they were concerned about the
Photos courtesy of Sway Studios.
For two Djarum Mezzo spots, Sway Studios composited live action into an idyllic, computergenerated environment. Below: To gain maximum detail and latitude, the live-action greenscreen portion of the commercials were shot on 35mm film and scanned at 2K resolution, with visual effects also finished at 2K. Depth of field in the CG environment was accomplished with D2’s Nuke compositing software.
process because they were new to it. It’s a good thing we did the previz as religiously as we did, because we had two days to shoot the entire campaign. With the motion-control rig, we knew it was going to be a challenge, so we really had to stick to our previz and shooting boards. Our script supervisor, Daughn Ward, was constantly communicating with the AD and AC to make sure we had everything we needed. Being in direct contact with those people was key to our success on set.” Kosinski adds, “When the agency arrived on the day of the shoot, they said, ‘It’s all computer generated?’ They couldn’t believe there was nothing on the stage.” There was something on stage: greenscreen, and it was on the walls, the floor, and even the ceiling. The Sony soundstage measured 150' long, 40' deep and 25' high, large but not quite large enough, which meant the greenscreen was a bit too close to the action. The result was a significant amount of green spill on the actors, who were wearing white. Values on parts of the actors when compared to the background were often the same, which caused headaches for the Primatte Keyer and a keyer written by Sway’s compositing supervisor, Marc Rienzo. “The whole theory behind my keyer is to be able to pick the background green values and then the foreground green spill,” says Rienzo. “It was written with heavy spill in mind — to be intelligent, if you will, about how to separate the foreground.” Nederhorst adds, “Once we realized the keys weren’t going to be perfect, we told Claudio Miranda, the director of photography, to just make the people look pretty and we would make the rest work.” This required a hefty amount of tracking and roto work on the actors; aiding this process were the one-light 2K scans from Pacific Title, which provided much better subject definition, particularly in hair. “My initial idea,” says Kosinski, “was to shoot this at the Getty Center, but they don’t allow commercial shoots. The client then asked for the word ‘Mezzo’ to be embedded in the complex, so at that point we decided to do a unique design.” The intricately designed mountaintop
Left: Director Joseph Kosinski and visual-effects supervisor Robert Nederhorst plan the next shot. The extensive greenscreen caused a significant amount of spill that the lighting package couldn’t overcome completely. To complicate matters, the actors wore white. Below: Kosinski checks framing of a motion-control shot. Note the greenscreen ceiling, which was necessary for a shot of an actor jumping over the camera while the camera was pointed toward the CG “sky.”
complex was built by designers Kevin Cimini and Oliver Zeller in consultation with the director. Nederhorst says, “The idea was to do branding, but instead of placing their logo everywhere, we integrated their gold, red and white colors into the environment.” The distant, cloud-enshrouded mountains were constructed using Terragen, a terrain- and environment-generating software written by U.K.-based Matt Fairclough. High-dynamic range (HDR) lighting also was generated in Terragen based on HDR images Nederhorst and Kosinski had taken in the Santa Monica Mountains. “We took the HDR lighting samples into 3ds Max and lit it with Chaos Group’s V-Ray [so that] all we had to do to change the lighting on the environment was essentially change out the HDR,” explains Nederhorst. “You’ll see really sharp shadows that start to fall off, just like you get in the real world.”
(Actors’ shadows are also CGI because of the difficulty in pulling shadow keys.) “We gave Claudio a series of rendering tests for him to use as key, fill and color-balance references so we could get a good match,” says the director. “From these images, he was able to reproduce the sun angle. He also used a cool fill light, so as we shifted the color balance around, the lighting on the actors always blended with our environment. It ended up matching perfectly, and Claudio deserves a tremendous amount of credit for that.” After Kosinski edited together low-resolution proxies of the footage in Adobe Premiere, Nederhorst’s visualeffects team went to work. Tracking was done by hand because the encoded Kupermotion data from the mo-co rig used on set made the virtual camera in the CG environment inaccurate. “It doesn’t take into account the shake of
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Guava Performs Massive Feat by Stephanie Argy To drum up support for community-service programs, United Way created the “Lend a Hand” campaign, a series of PSAs starring players in the National Football League (NFL). One of the spots focuses on children’s literacy and features Atlanta Falcons offensive lineman Keith Brooking, as well as more than 100,000 digitally generated children. Created by New York-based Guava in collaboration with freelance artist Philipp Hartmann, the effects were done largely in Massive Software, an application that generates 3-D crowds in a way that is different from most computer-animation programs. The PSA opens with Brooking reading Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham to a small group of children. As he holds up the book to show them the pictures, the view widens to reveal he is sitting in the middle of the field at the Los Angeles Coliseum, reading to a stadium full of kids. As Brooking takes in the magnitude of the task before him, the voiceover announcer appeals to viewers to help by volunteering for literacy programs through United Way. Alex Catchpoole, Guava’s visualeffects supervisor on the spot, says everyone knew from the start that the stadium crowd would have to be done as an effect, but they weren’t quite sure how to accomplish it. The traditional
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way to approach the task would have been to shoot a number of plates, moving extras from seat to seat to fill the stadium in stages, and then composite all the different views in post. The problem with that was the scale of the Coliseum, which seats as many as 100,000 spectators. “We quickly realized that unless we could have thousands of children there on the day, we would be there for months trying to fill every seat,” says Catchpoole. The solution turned out to be a combination of 150 real children and more than 100,000 digital kids created in Massive. “The children closest to the camera were all real, and as you get farther away the digital kids begin to take over, intermingling with the real kids,” says Catchpoole. After the stadium material was shot, the Guava team began by filling up the rows immediately in front of the camera with footage of real children to create what Catchpoole calls a “real-kid buffer” between the viewer and the digital kids. “That turned out to be a little more complicated than we expected because the kids fidgeted, and some turned to the camera and waved,” he says. The artists ended up doing “quite a bit of head replacement” to make the real children look the right way. Massive’s digital characters needed something to sit on, so Hartmann created a replica of the stadium and its seats in Cinema 4d. “We got in touch with an architectural firm that had
Photos courtesy of Reactor Films.
the head,” notes Kosinski. Frame rates for some mo-co shots went as high as 150 fps for slow-motion work. Some of those were slowed down even further in post to 300 fps using the Kronos retimer plugin. A sweeping camera move through the CG environment that follows a runner who hurdles a small, reflective pool of water is actually two motion-control moves stitched together. Explains Nederhorst, “The environment was built for the first part of the camera’s move, and for the second move, when the camera shift happened, the actual 3-D terrain was rotated.” Compositing was performed with Digital Domain’s Nuke software. “Nuke is blindingly fast and allows for giant scripts and thousands of operators,” says Nederhorst. “Using EXR files, we embedded different channels of data — RGB, alpha, Z-depths and reflections, speculars, normals and so on. Nuke deals with those very elegantly. It also allowed us to build lens-aberration tools and other custom operators like the Rienzo Keyer pretty easily. Nuke is designed by compositors for compositors, and that makes it an ideal choice in a fast-paced, high-end environment.” Nuke also was used to adjust depth of field in the CG environment. “About 95 percent of the time, we matched the live-plate depth of field,” says Nederhorst. Kosinski cites a closeup of a runner’s foot as a good example: “That’s one we matched exactly to the plate. Even the foot behind her is slightly out of focus. That shot didn’t work completely until we blurred out the foreground as well.” Color correction and conforming were completed in Assimilate’s Scratch, and then the completed spots were down-converted for the television market. Given that the commercial lasts only 60 seconds, many of the details Nederhorst and his visual-effects team put in each shot might be missed by the casual viewer, but their efforts certainly didn’t go unnoticed. The client referred to the Mezzo campaign as “the best thing we’ve done,” and it was the only commercial nominated for a Visual Effects Society VES Award for Outstanding Compositing.
worked on the Coliseum, and they sent us a blueprint of the stadium,” says Catchpoole. Ironically, that digital model is never rendered as a visible element. “It’s kind of a ghost that the digital kids could sit on so that when they were combined with the live-action footage of the stadium, their positions would match.” The model was then handed off to Hartmann so he could create and animate the crowds. Hartmann notes that whereas most animation programs are based on key framing — wherein the artist sets certain poses for characters and the computer fills in the frames in between — Massive is based on artificial-life technology, which means that characters are created, assigned certain traits, and then allowed to respond to stimuli. “You have to rethink the whole process,” says Hartmann. “For the first two weeks, you’re looking for the buttons you’re used to, but Massive’s method is actually much easier.” The program ships with a number of built-in characters called “Ready to Run Agents,” which can be modified to suit a given project. In this case, Hartmann started with a character called Stadium Guy, who performs actions common among spectators at big sporting events — clapping, cheering, standing up to see what’s going on, for example. Hartmann worked with two other freelance artists, one in Israel, the other in San Francisco; they used photos taken of kids on the shoot day to create new bodies that could be applied to Massive’s Stadium Guy skeleton. The whole figure was scaled down to childlike proportions, and skin color, hair and clothing were mapped onto the figures. “We chose from different sets of variables, and Massive multiplied those so we ultimately got thousands of variations of that one kid,” says Hartmann. The new character, dubbed Stadium Kid, was then given some new actions specific to the ad’s script, such as straining to hear and fidgeting. “By setting variables, we could control how active they were, how likely they were to scratch their heads or shuffle around,” says Hartmann. “During the shoot, I
Opposite: A final image from a United Way “Lend a Hand” spot that combines a small number of real children and hundreds of CG ones. This page: Elements shot on location at the Los Angeles Coliseum.
thought the kids were crazy and difficult to handle. But in the CG realm, we had to calm down the digital kids’ motion so they’d match the real kids.” Catchpoole and Hartmann found that the amount the digital children moved had to be scaled up or town, depending on where a character was sitting. “”There was quite a bit of direction involved, similar to extracting a performance,” says Catchpoole. He explains that a level of movement that worked well in the foreground would be much too small and hard to read in the background — “It looked like everyone was asleep.” He adds, “But if we’d had 150,000 real children on the day, the same issue would have come up — and a lot of others would have come up too!” Once the actions began to look right, Hartmann started rendering out the crowd in sections, about 7,0008,000 children at a time. “Each frame
took about five minutes to render, which wasn’t too bad considering the amount of geometry,” says Hartmann. Guava artists then composited the sections with the original footage in Flame. Catchpoole also did a little extra finessing in Flame. For one shot that was relatively close to the kids and looking across the backs of their heads, the digital children weren’t mixing that well with the real ones. Using stills from the shoot, he went through the shot and did head replacements, tracking still images of real heads onto the backs of the digital children. “About 10 rows of digital kids have real heads, which really helps sell the scene,” he says. Hartmann says Massive’s artificial-life technology proved perfect for the United Way spot. “It’s literally dynamic, which makes it so realistic,” he says. “It imitates life in a way you don’t control. You just set up an environment and let it go.”
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Sony’s 4K Digital Projector by Tricia Louvar It was not a question of what but when, and after eight years of testing and research, Sony has effectively delivered on its digital-cinema promise. Developers negotiated their own twist with silicon and liquid-crystal microdisplays in direct competition with Texas Instruments’ DLP cinema technology. Sony’s 4K digital projector, the SXRD (Silicon X-tal Reflective Display), expands the choices available in the digital-cinema marketplace. Sony’s currently available models include the SRX-R110 (10,000 ANSI lumens screening up to 40' wide) and the SRX-R105 (5,000 ANSI lumens screening up to 25' wide). Starting this fall, the company will introduce a 20,000-lumens version. For now, both SXRD models offer resolution of 4,096 horizontal pixels x 2,160 vertical pixels, currently four times the number of pixels in high-definition (HD) video. Each RGB color panel in the SXRD has 8.8 million pixels embedded in 1.5" of silicon. It costs about $0.01 per pixel on a 4K projector, compared to $0.04 for a 2K DLP cinema projector (based on Sony’s SRX-110 and Christie’s CP2000H package price, respectively). The SXRD pixel density is a diminutive world only visible under a microscope, which is surprising, considering the entire gunmetal-gray chassis weighs 240 pounds and measures 18"H x 28"W x 52"L. Its noise level is 65 dB, making it equivalent to a normal conversation. The imaging device is void of shifting brightness or colorimetry. The technology improvements result in color consistency within the display container. “The significance of liquid crystal is its super-high resolution, very high contrast, very fast switching speed, and 12-bit driver,” says Gary Mandle, senior product manager for professional displays in Sony Electronics’ broadcast and production systems division. Mandle explains that the light passing through the liquid crystal twice is a result of reflective technology. This
improves the contrast of the cell-gap depth, allowing for half the amount of flare, dramatically improving the blacks. The uniformity in the liquid crystal increases contrast due to less flare, which therefore increases resolution because there is no need for spacers in the optical area. Part of the SXRD technology, Mandle states, deals with the VAN liquid crystal changing state, he continues. “It’s a vertically aligned neumatic [VAN] crystal that provides a complex vertical/horizontal rotation, offering very high light-control properties and very fast movement.” This reflective design lessens motion smear and perpetuates deeper blacks. For 3-D display, a much higher refreshing vertical scan) rate is necessary because images are being sent to both eyes. The projector output needs to switch at twice the speed of a 2-D display, in essence one 2-D display per eye. The faster the refresh rate the better the effect. Most systems run around 120 to 140 frames per second. With more calls for 3-D projection coming in, Sony’s SXRD will have the capability to refresh at 200 fps, which should yield a better image and better 3-D realism. The contrast ratio for the SXRD is specified at 1,800:1, but 2,000:1 is more typical. “No matter how great the machine is, if those in the field do not employ the standards then digital projection will not deliver its promise of
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visual supremacy to film projectors,” remarks Daryn Okada, ASC, who worked on the DCI StEM Digital Projection Test Film and participated in the subjective DCI compression system evaluations. “The entire ‘system’ needs to be put in place with DCI specifications in order to build long-term success.” Controlling the projected image so it remains repeatable and consistent is a shared goal for DCI and Sony. As of July 2005, the DCI version 1.0 specifications state the digital-projection system is essential: “Its job is to change digital image data into light that appears on the screen.” For the SXRD, a DCI-compliant projector, the throw distance is variable, depending on which lens is used, screen size, and so forth, but its average range is 30' to 140'. However, digital projection might alter the look of the film if it isn’t used creatively. “If the post process is not accessible for cinematographers, [digital projection] could affect the overall image in negative ways,” notes Okada. “It might, for example, add harshness to an actor’s face. Picture quality on a digital projector for films not shot in HD is the largest variable in the industry. In terms of retaining creative intent, the workflow from camera negative to digital format isn’t an exact science yet.” Some SXRD adopters include
SkyScan; Full Throttle Films, Inc. (VER); the National Geographic Society and Silicon Graphics, Inc. Although most theater owners are still considering the possibilities of digital projection, Landmark Theatres jumped at the chance to incorporate digital projectors into more than 30 of its venues. “We wanted to roll out digital projectors that gave us the opportunity to gain experience with the best-of-breed projectors,” says Mark Cuban, co-owner of Landmark Theatres. “We rolled out both Sony and Texas Instruments’ digital projectors, and we’ve been thrilled with both.” Steven Soderbergh’s Bubble, released in January, was the first feature-length, “day-and-date”modeled film projected with the SXRD. “Bubble was shot on HD, which enabled Steven to optimize a beginning-to-end digital experience with the look he wanted,” says Cuban. “With digital cinema, the movie will look like what the director envisioned [because it won’t] have to go through duplications and printing processes,” says John Kaloukian, general manager for display systems at Sony Electronics. “The all-digital production allows the director and cinematographer the ability to produce what they see in the camera. Audiences get a first-run show.” Some have speculated that digital cinema might reignite consumers’ interest in attending big-screen films, but Okada notes, “We have to remember that movies find success with an audience because the story affects the audience on an emotional level, and that cinematography is in large part what communicates the story.” For more information, visit www.sony.com/sxrd and www.dci movies.com. I
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Tomorrow’s Technology ASC’s Technology Committee Helps Shape the Future by Curtis Clark, ASC inematographers have formed the cornerstone of the filmmaking process since its inception by persistently using their mastery of evolving motion-picture technologies to create expressive images, while endeavoring to ensure that those images are faithfully reproduced. Since its founding in 1919, the ASC has consistently played a leading role in influencing an array of motion-picture technology developments — film stocks, cameras, lenses, lighting, lab processes and film projection among them — and has in many cases contributed to the establishment of industry standards. The ASC Technology Committee, which had its inaugural meeting in January 2003, represents the continuation of a well-established ASC tradition of working diligently to ensure that motion-picture technology developments advance the art and craft of filmmaking. Our action agenda over the last three years has demonstrated our determination to thoroughly understand how new digital technologies are radically transforming the traditional motion-imaging process. Our objective is to influence the development of these technologies in ways that best serve the creative needs of cinematographers and their filmmaking collaborators. In this new era of hybrid film and digital motion imaging, cinematographers must understand how the convergence of these technologies impact the new tools they need to master so they can better manage the integrity of their images within the new workflow practices. An early challenge and major success for our Technology Committee was the well-known collaboration with Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) to produce original film material designed for testing digital projection for digital cinema (see
C
Tomorrow’s Technology, AC Jan. ’04). Known as the StEM (Standard Evaluation Material), the results have become the industry’s definitive film-origination reference source for evaluating digital projection and compression of digital motion images. The remarkably positive, collaborative experience we had with DCI gave our Technology Committee invaluable working experience with project-driven goals and results. The enthusiasm and dedication from our members, associates and invited contributors set a high standard for our future activities. To serve the committee’s agenda more efficiently, we created several permanent subcommittees whose tasks are to focus on defined aspects of the workflow. These subcommittees include camera, digital intermediate, digital display, advanced imaging, archiving, and workflow. The workflow subcommittee, our newest, has become the principal working group where the ASC has extended its involvement with other organizations representing key positions in the filmmaking process; these include the Art Directors Guild, the Producers Guild of America and the Technology Committee of American Cinema Editors. Our Technology Committee has developed a close, project-based working relationship with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Technology Council. At IBC in 2005, an important collaborative relationship between our Technology Committee and the prestigious German Fraunhoffer Institute for Integrated Circuits was announced. Quoting from the press release, the two groups “have decided to work closely together to advance and intensify technological research in the area of professional cinematography. The main objective is to ensure a smooth inte-
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gration of new technologies in the field of professional cinematography while identifying and protecting the needs and requirements of cinematographers …. The overall approach is to establish seamless workflow solutions from image acquisition through postproduction to archiving.” To effectively deal with the scope of challenges facing our Technology Committee, it was deemed imperative that we include the best film and television industry technology experts along with our ASC members and ASC associate members. This strategy has created a unique industry forum that has generated a successful dynamic of constructive contributions from diverse and complimentary areas of expertise. Our unique technology forum has emerged at a truly critical juncture in the evolution of imaging technologies for our motion-picture industry. The traditional film-based production workflow, which is currently being rapidly transformed into a complex, hybrid film/digital imaging chain, will someday become predominantly digital. There is one ironic exception: film currently appears to be the only medium to meet long-term archival requirements. If new and improved open-architecture workflow solutions are to be successfully deployed, they will need to be embraced by multiple industry players (filmmakers, studios and service providers) in what is becoming an increasingly diverse group of technology suppliers. The ASC, through its Technology Committee, has demonstrated critical leadership by establishing a forum that is bringing manufacturers and service providers to the table and asking them to support new initiatives to create effective, efficient open-architecture workflow solutions. We are proving that there is much to be gained by all from iden-
tifying common interests. A good example of this is the ASC-CDL, a color-decision list that enables cross-platform interchange of primary RGB — “lift,” “gain” and “gamma” color-grading settings between different color correctors. In fact, without industry agreement on open-architecture solutions, transition to digital is proving more problematic and costly than necessary while running the risk of negatively impacting filmmakers’ ability to efficiently and effectively utilize its creative potential. The Technology Committee is currently working on several important projects: The ASC-CDL project is being led by our digital-intermediate subcommittee. Although this was initially considered by many to be an unrealistic goal, the brilliant work of the subcommittee has resoundingly proved the doubters wrong. The ASCCDL is well on its way to becoming recognized as an important look-management component of an industry open-standard workflow practice. Inspired by the DI subcommittee’s success with the ASCCDL, Josh Pines developed a digital printer-light system that emulates traditional RGB film printer lights. A Camera Assessment Series for evaluating the engineering specifications and image-capture performance characteristics of the latest production-ready digital motion-picture cameras, which include the Arri D-20, the Dalsa Origin, the Panavision Genesis, the Sony 950 and the Thomson Viper. Working closely with the Academy Science and Technology Council, our camera subcommittee and workflow subcommittee (which includes the active participation of the Art Directors Guild Technology Committee, Producers Guild representatives, and the Technology Committee of ACE) are in the process of planning and scheduling. Our workflow subcommittee is making tremendous progress in thoroughly analyzing current hybrid film-digital imaging workflow practices while looking at ways to optimize the workflow, with a view to recommending open-architecture solutions. Our advanced imaging subcommittee is closely collaborating with the Academy Science and Technology Council to
reevaluate the accuracy of the longstanding CIE 1931 “standard observer” color-matching process for identifying colors based on an additive color mixture of red, green and blue primaries. There are known issues with the 1931 viewermatching functions, but we are attempting to discover how serious they may be on a practical basis. The important twopart article “The Color-Space Conundrum,” which appeared in the January and April 2005 editions of American Cinematographer, was a project of our Technology Committee. Written by AC associate editor Douglas Bankston, it does a wonderfully thorough job of explaining color-space issues, along with workflow practices both current and future. (It can be accessed online at the ASC Web site: www.theasc.com.) The ASC Technology Committee has also participated in joint meetings with the Hollywood branch of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), hosted seminars about our work at CineGear, and made presentations to students at the American Film Institute. We will continue to expand our connections with other industry groups and participate in joint meetings and seminars. We are also nearing first-phase release of our digital primer, which is intended as a guide to help filmmakers better understand the integration of digital technology and tools in the workflow. We plan to update this primer/guide on a scheduled basis. The ASC is planning a Technology and Education Center as a key component of our new building project. This center will further enable the committee’s work while providing an invaluable educational resource for our members and associate members, the broader filmmaking community, technology research, and student education. It will incorporate a magnificent screening room designed to be a definitive reference-viewing environment for today’s and tomorrow’s mission-critical image evaluations and workflow solutions. Although there are other forums and organizations addressing the complex technology changes within our
industry — such as the SMPTE, the AMPAS Science and Technology Council and ETC (the University of Southern California’s Entertainment Technology Center) — the ASC is unique in that it brings cinematographer end-users and their key filmmaking collaborators together, along with technologists and key technology companies. Our mission is to encourage a collaboration that will better facilitate development and refinement of urgently needed digital tools that will best serve the requirements of visual storytelling for filmmaking in the 21st century. The author is the chairman of the ASC Technology Committee. I Following is a list of the chairs and cochairs of the ASC Technology Committee and its subcommittees. ASC TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE Curtis Clark, ASC, Chairman Daryn Okada, ASC, Steering Chairman Steven Poster, ASC, Vice-Chairman Richard Edlund, ASC, Vice-Chairman Sol Negrin, ASC, East Coast Chairman Ellen Kuras, ASC, East Coast Vice-Chairman ADVANCED IMAGING SYSTEMS Gary Demos, Chairman Phil Feiner, Vice-Chairman CAMERA David Stump, ASC, Chairman Richard Edlund, ASC, Vice-Chairman DIGITAL ARCHIVING Grover Crisp, Chairman Garrett Smith, Vice-Chairman DIGITAL DISPLAY Glenn Kennel, Chairman Jerry Pierce, Vice-Chairman Steven Poster, ASC, Vice-Chairman DIGITAL INTERMEDIATE Lou Levinson, Chairman Joshua Pines, Vice-Chairman METADATA David Stump, ASC, Chairman Greg McMurry, Vice-Chairman STEERING Daryn Okada, ASC, Chairman WORKFLOW Al Barton, Co-Chairman Howard Lukk, Co-Chairman Gary Morse, Co-Chairman
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Flying over New York’s skyline at roof height, Robert Goodman (left) tests the LS Gyro aerial mount in a Eurocopter Twinstar helicopter piloted by Chris Blanton. LS Gyro creator Arnie Itzkowitz, seated in the front passenger seat, operates the Sony SRW1 HDCam SR recorder.
Testing Aerial Exposures’ LS Gyro Aerial Mount by Robert M. Goodman Two years ago I tested an early prototype of Aerial Exposures’ Gyro Stabilized Platform that was poised to alter the economics of shooting aerials. That platform sold for less than 10 percent of the competing systems. I recently had an opportunity to test the newest version, the LS Gyro model, which will be introduced at NAB this month. This compact system is priced under $21,000, so I was interested in seeing what improvements its inventor, Arnie Itzkowitz, had made based on feedback from cinematographers. The purpose of the aerial mount is to eliminate the low-frequency vibrations that helicopters or planes generate from their rotors and engines. A welldesigned aerial mount will hold the camera steady in relation to the horizon and relative to the aircraft. Itzkowitz, a professional photographer and lifelong pilot, started shooting video three years ago, and that led
to the development of the Gyro Stabilized Platform. The original version suspended the camera from a crossbar and used gyroscopes to maintain the camera in a level position. The footage had a nice floating quality, though the mount limited me to shorter focal-length lenses than I preferred. Radical movements of the aircraft resulted in slow pitch and yaw drift because of the pendulum effect inherent in the mount’s design. That design also made it difficult to set the camera’s horizontal position, and to do a smooth, controlled pan. The new LS Gyro platform retains the same 12"x15" footprint the original platform had and continues to use Kenyon Labs’ tungsten gyroscopes for stabilization. Holes on the cameraplate mounting unit’s support arm allow KS-6, KS-8 or KS-12 gyros to be mounted in any combination you choose. The 24"-high upright arms on the LS platform are shorter than the original model because the platform has been completely redesigned. The camera-mounting unit is now suspended from forks on two upright
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arms using aviation-quality bungee cords that isolate the camera from lowfrequency vibrations. Underneath the plate to which the camera’s tripod plate is attached is the mounting support for the gyros. The gyro support arm hangs from a ball joint, which makes it easy to level the camera and set a tilt angle. Two handles on the camera-mounting unit can be used to control the tilt, pan and cant of the camera in flight. The upright arms are mounted on a plate that floats on a ring of aircraft-quality ball bearings attached to the base plate, so you can pan the arms 360°. Eye bolts at the corners of the base plate are used to secure the platform to the aircraft using tie-down straps. Aerial Exposures’ platform is constructed of thick-gauge, aviation-quality aluminum. The camera’s tripod plate can be screwed directly to the platform’s flat mounting plate or to the lightweight Bogen quick-release plate and mount supplied with the system. The platform’s flat mounting plate is 21" above the base. If you’re mounting heavier cameras, I recommend removing the cast-aluminum quick-release mount and securing the camera directly to the platform’s plate. The footprint when a camera is mounted on the platform is 12"x15" and about 30" high. The LS Gyro platform is compact enough to use in even the smallest helicopters or any other moving vehicles where it would be advantageous to place a camera on a stabilized platform. The first time you mount a camera on the system, the balance might need to be adjusted using weights to level the horizontal position of the camera. The amount of balancing you’ll need to do depends on whether the camera is centered over its tripod plate. The angle of tilt is set by moving the camera forward or backward on its tripod plate to adjust its center of gravity.
Photos on pages 122 and 123 ©2006 Carl Laskiewicz, Photo Facts.
New Products & Services
Goodman preps the Thomson Viper camera on Aerial Exposures’ new LS Gyro aerial mount, installed in Liberty Helicopter’s Eurocopter Twinstar.
Aerial Exposures packages the LS Gyro platform in systems with two KS-12 gyros or three or four KS-8 gyros. 24-volt power inverters, cables and a wheeled shipping case are included, and the platform, camera-plate mounting unit and gyros must be disassembled to fit into the case. A twin KS-12 LS Gyro system ($20,500) is designed to support cameras between 15-35 pounds. The LS Gyro platform weighs 41.5 pounds, and each KS-12 gyro weighs 15 pounds. One 24volt power inverter is required for each KS-12 gyro (20 pounds each). These inverters are too large to fit into the wheeled case. The wheeled case with two KS-12s and the LS Gyro platform has shipping weight of 105 pounds. The payload weight of a twin KS-12 gyro system with its two inverters is 112 pounds. The four KS-8 LS Gyro system ($19,500) supports cameras between 1522 pounds. KS-8 gyros weigh 5 pounds each and use a much smaller inverter that fits into the wheeled shipped case. This system with the inverter in its shipping case weighs 97 pounds. The three
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KS-8 LS Gyro system ($16,500) supports cameras under 12 pounds. The LS Gyro platform is modular; the size and number of gyros attached can be changed as often as necessary. Unlike high-end systems that typically provide operators with remote controls to position the camera, the LS Gyro platform is a manual system. Any camera in the supported weight range can be used on this platform, whereas high-end systems typically are designed for specific cameras. Another advantage of the LS Gyro platform is the FAA considers it to be cargo because no tools are required to mount it in an aircraft. Other systems are more expensive to purchase and rent partly because the FAA must approve those mounts for use in every make and model of helicopter or airplane for which it is intended, and then a mechanic must certify each installation. Liberty Helicopters in New York provided a Eurocopter AS355F2 Twinstar (piloted by Chris Blanton) and a Eurocopter AS350BA A-Star (piloted by Chris Tomlin) so Carl Laskiewicz could photograph me using the mount for this article. Plus 8 Digital loaned me a Thomson Grass Valley Viper, a Fujinon 7.8X20 HD servo-zoom lens, a Sony SRW-1 recorder, and a Leader 5750 portable waveform/vectorscope. I set the Viper up for FilmStream mode with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and rated the camera at 400 ASA. The dual-link HD-SDI output of the camera was recorded on Sony BCT40SR HDCam SR at the 440SQ setting. The Viper was mounted on a LS Gyro platform stabilized with two KS-12 gyros. We balanced the camera’s horizontal position using two 15mm rails and a small weight. We removed the right door of the helicopter and secured the platform to the rear right passenger seat after removing the seat cushions. Ratchet tie straps were hooked to the platform’s eye bolts and to the eye bolts in the helicopter that secure the seat belts. I was secured with the standard waist and shoulder belt. We took off from Linden Airport, flew north along the Hudson, crossed and circled midtown and Times Square,
and then flew south down the East River to Battery Park and the Statue of Liberty. I tested the mount’s ability to handle a wide variety of shots and movements, from tracking the chase helicopter to circling buildings and tracking moving cars across a bridge. The new design makes tilting and panning far easier to do than the original system did. It also eliminates more vibration than did the original design. There was no visible vibration if I kept the focal length of the lens under 145mm. Noticeable bounce occurred when the lens was zoomed to its maximum focal length of 156mm. The LS Gyro platform is not capable of doing the extreme tight shots of distant objects that are possible with more expensive aerial mounts. However, you can get excellent, vibration-free footage after a bit of practice and can obtain nearly all the other shots a director might want. The lower overall height of the new platform also gives you enough clearance to mount an LCD monitor on the camera using an Israeli arm. To get good results with any system, practice is important, but practicing with most aerial mounts is an expensive proposition, even if you own a helicopter. The LS Gyro platform performs the same way in a car as it does in the air. Consequently, you can practice with this platform mounted in a truck or SUV all day for far less than an hour in the air would cost. The most expensive LS Gyro platform system costs less than a two-week rental for the high-end aerial systems. Overall, this platform is less expensive to rent and fits into smaller helicopters that are less expensive to operate. The LS Gyro mount is not as sophisticated as an ultra-high-end system, but it can enable you to shoot smooth aerial footage safely and at a ridiculously low cost. Now aerials are affordable for even the smallest independent film. For more information, contact Aerial Exposures: (800) 786-4153, www.aerialexposures.com. Robert M. Goodman is the author of the Goodman’s Guide field manuals for cinematographers and shoots film and digital media.
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Avid Introduces Symphony Nitris Avid Technology, Inc. has introduced its Symphony Nitris system, a nonlinear SD and HD finishing system that offers real-time editing and effects for multi-stream 10-bit HD and SD media. It also offers HD Total Conform with the industry-standard Avid Media Composer product family. Avid Symphony Nitris brings together the real-time performance of the Nitris Digital Nonlinear Accelerator hardware with the creative and corrective tools and multi-format mastering and versioning capabilities of Avid Symphony software. “Professionals who live and breathe the world of finishing for TV programming, commercial spots, and high-quality SD video production have come to rely on the expansive features and rock-solid stability of Avid Symphony,” says Dana Ruzicka, vice president of Post Solutions for Avid. “The system has become a trusted online workhorse, enabling editors, producers and production managers to offer a unique set of creative services and build profitable businesses. With Symphony Nitris, we’re catapulting this toolset into the HD realm with the unbeatable performance of our Nitris hardware. Every day, thousands of professionals sit down in front of our Avid Xpress and Media Composer to tackle the storytelling process. Now they can take comfort knowing that every nuance they create will be automatically re-created in Symphony Nitris. Finishing artists can invest their time where it counts most: delivering completed projects in breathtaking HD.” Avid Symphony Nitris offers a user interface that will be instantly familiar to trained Avid editors and extends that interface across the entire workflow of any film or video production using Avid systems. System highlights include: HD Total Conform: Avid Symphony Nitris system re-creates every detail of an offline edit from other Avid systems in full HD resolution. This
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offline-to-finishing conform is critical to professionals working in the most demanding post environments and enables content creators to complete HD projects in less time with greater accuracy. Guaranteed real-time performance with Nitris hardware: Avid Symphony Nitris delivers powerful realtime editing, effects and compositing performance. Users can work with up to two streams of 10-bit HD media or eight streams of 10-bit uncompressed SD media, each with primary and secondary color correction, DVE, a key, and a title — all in real time. Expansive video and audio I/O for high-quality formats: Avid Symphony Nitris supports digital and analog video and audio capture, SDI and HD-SDI digital video I/O, and eightchannel digital audio I/O at 24-bit 96 kHz. Video format support includes DV25, DV50, MPEG IMX, Meridien JFIF and ABVB resolutions, plus uncompressed 601 in both 8 and 10 bits. More than 10 HD resolutions, including 720p/59.94 and 1080p/24, are supported in 8 and 10 bits as either uncompressed HD or Avid DNxHD files. Avid Symphony software offers advanced real-time primary and secondary color correction (including patented NaturalMatch technology), motion tracking, image stabilization, scratch removal, real-time 10-bit titling, and hardware-accelerated real-time 16-bit SpectraMatte chroma keying. After completing HD projects, users can easily generate multiple customized versions and deliver in formats that include NTSC (4x3 and 16x9), PAL (4x3 and 16x9), Web, film and DVD with point-and-click ease. Project collaboration through the Avid Unity MediaNetwork allows users to take advantage of real-time, simultaneous DV, SD, and Avid DNxHD file sharing with all other Avid nonlinearediting systems connected to Avid Unity. Avid Symphony Nitris, which comprises Avid Symphony software and Avid Nitris hardware, is qualified for HP xw8200 workstations and is
priced at $89,995. The system is expected to ship later this year and will be available through Avid’s worldwide reseller channel. For more information, visit Avid at www.avid.com. OmniTek XR OmniTek has unveiled the OmniTek XR, an “extreme resolution” waveform monitor and image analyzer for postproduction. Designed specifically for colorists and postproduction editors and digital-intermediate use while working with high-resolution HDTV and Dual-Link images, the XR builds on OmniTek’s previous native Dual-Link waveform monitor, produced in 2003.
The XR system is available in three “options,” Dual-Link, Motion/ Capture, and Advanced. The Dual-Link option enables 4:4:4 RGB/ YCbCr inputs and “2K” format images to be monitored with the XR system in addition to providing real-time output of 4:2:2 data from the 4:4:4 dual-link input, or the generation of 4:4:4 dual-link SDI outputs from a 4:2:2 SDI input. The Motion/Capture option enables real-time capture, storage, and play-out of uncompressed images and sequences in any format supported by the system. Finally, the Advanced option (which includes the Motion/Capture option) provides the “time-shift” event-based data recording facility where a user-defined input error can be configured to trigger a capture of video data from the live input. Any of these options can be used on their own or in conjunction with the others. Utilizing 256x oversampling, the system ensures the most accurate monitoring, and new waveform generation
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algorithms give user-adjustable, highquality, pin-sharp displays. Furthermore, full 1024-pixel-high waveforms show the true 10-bit resolution of input SDI signals, and arbitrary combinations of components may be displayed simultaneously, such as YRGB and vectorscope, or YCbCr and Composite. A unique region-of-interest control enables the user to accurately identify different areas of the source image, and the horizontal zoom range works from a few pixels to 1 line, 2 line, 1 field, through to full-frame displays. The XR also features low-pass, differential and “bowtie” filters and can generate pseudo-composite SD waveform displays from HD or SD sources in real time. The fully scalable vectorscope may also operate on the selected region-of-interest. Other features of the XR include real-time histogram displays in YCbCr, RGB, or Composite color spaces; a minipic proxy that is especially useful when working in 24p and 2K video formats, which are not generally supported by video monitors; a customizable graphics display; two SDI outputs (which, with the Dual-Link option, may be configured as dual- or single-link independently of the source image format) and an analog component video output for monitoring purposes; continuously monitored video status, checking for errors and changesof-state, as well as audio status monitoring; a flexible safe-title and safeaction cage overlay system, adjustable in size, position, and aspect ratio; and event logging and alarms. OmniTek also supplies a range of dedicated control surfaces such as keypads and touch-screens for the XR system. For more information, visit www.omnitek.tv or call +44 (0) 118 988 6226 V1 HD Video Disk Recorders Doremi Labs has launched two V1 high-definition-video disk recorders, the V1-HD and the V1-UHD, offering the superior resolution of HD video in a compact, stand-alone package. Both units can record and playback HD or SD video, compressed or uncompressed, on
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internal removable drives. The V1-HD features JPEG2000 video compression up to 300 Mbits/sec, touting “visually lossless” recording. This HD video compression allows for more than 12 hours of high quality video recording on just one removable hotswap drive. For applications where the image quality cannot be compromised, the V1-UHD features uncompressed HD video recording. (As an option, the V1UHD is available with JPEG2000 compression capability.) Other highlights of these
recorders include independent record and play operation; the capability to create video clips, loops and play lists from the front panel; smooth fast- and slow-motion playback; a front panel video monitoring LCD screen; frame accurate control via RS-422 or Ethernet using standard control protocols; file transfer (to and from the recorder) of video clips and still images via Ethernet; and 2K dual-link 4:4:4 recording 24p/24psf at 10- or 12-bit. For more information, visit www.doremilabs.com or call (818) 5621101. Wafian HR-1 Recorder Wafian has introduced the HR-1 on-set, 10-bit, Direct-to-Disk HDSDI Recorder. Utilizing the award-winning CineForm Digital Intermediate format, the Wafian HR-1 records full resolution 1920x1080 and 1280x720 from the HDSDI feed. The recorder can store up to nine hours of 10-bit 1920x1080 24p footage in the “safety first” (mirrored) configuration, or up to 18 hours in the extended storage (striped) configuration. The HR-1 is controlled by the
front panel touch-screen LCD, and recording is a simple one-button operation. Recording directly to disk, footage can be reviewed immediately after shooting with the speed of nonlinear access. Afterwards, clips can be transferred to the editing station over Gigabit Ethernet at 2-3x real time. A particularly useful application of the Wafian HR-1 is to record directly from the JVC ProHD GY-HD100U camera, which shoots 1280x720 4:2:2 frames and can stream a full 60 frames per second down its component outputs. While the HDV tape format to which the camera records can only support 30 fps 4:2:0, recording direct-todisk takes full advantage of the camera’s capabilities. For more information, visit www.wafian.com, call (858) 951-0051, or e-mail
[email protected]. Cinemáge from Cine-tal Cine-tal Systems has introduced the Cinemáge product family. Combining Cine-tal’s IDS (Intelligent Display Server) technology and a calibrated fullresolution LCD display, Cinemáge provides quantitative video analysis, color previsualization, video-signal quality assurance, real-time collaboration between acquisition and postproduction, and an integrated OmniTek DualLink Waveform Monitor and Vectorscope. Cinemáge allows both critical visual analysis and digital quantitative analysis of HD-SDI or HD-SDI Dual-Link signals in either YCbCr or RGB, linear or logarithmic, at 8 or 10 bits. The Cinemáge display features a full-resolution 1920x1080 calibrated display with superior black-level performance. A pixel-to-pixel mapping of the input signal to the display — avoiding resizing, filtering, or other image-
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degrading pixel manipulations — provides an accurate display of input signal data. The display is calibrated to user-defined white point, gamma and luminance level via an automated calibration system with a full-spectrum photometer. A full manual calibration allows the user to set custom RGB levels while taking measurements with the photometer. Full signal routing with the Cinemáge system allows the user to route any signal source to any output or process. The user can monitor input 1 with color processing for previsualization while sending the same signal to output 1 without any processing. Input signals can be routed independently to one of two HD-SDI outputs, one Dual Link, or the DVI output. Cinemáge also features a cage generator (with standard and custom cages), a head-up display (providing real-time information on signal sources), a split-screen function (allowing the simultaneous display of two signal sources), and a real-time pan and zoom feature (for pixel level analysis and display). Every system setting can also be saved as a preset for quick recall. Intelligent Display Server technology, a joint technology development between Cine-tal and OmniTek, provides image processing, signal routing, frame stores, color manipulation (3-D LUTs) and test and measurement all in a network appliance configuration. Internal to IDS is a powerful image processor that generates real-time data about the HD video stream. In turn, the data is
used to generate waveforms, vector scopes, gamut information and status of the incoming video signal. IDS also provides for display calibration and profiling as well as input-signal color grading for pre-visualization. All data and operations can be performed over a LAN, WAN or wireless network with any Web-enabled device. For more information, visit www.cine-tal.com. Tel (317) 576-0091 Pro Sandbags from Microdolly Hollywood Microdolly Hollywood, the manufacturer of the Pro Line of precision-built ultra-light camera dollies, jibs, mounts and remote pan/tilt heads designed for crews that need to travel light and set up quickly, has introduced a Pro Line of sandbags. These double-pocket sandbags come three to a pack and can be
Inc.
filled with sand, shot, stones or even water. The bags are made of sturdy ballistic nylon with comfort-grip handles and loops for hanging on light stands or tripods. Ideal for jib counter weights, the Pro Line sandbags can travel flat and be filled on location. Visit www.microdolly.com for further information, or call (818) 8458383. FilmLight Baselight v3 FilmLight Ltd. has unveiled the newest version of its color-grading system, Baselight v3. Features of v3 include stack manager, forthcoming GPU grading, Blackboard support, software optimizations, a new workstation platform, and the dual-core AMD Opteron
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processor, which increases processing speed across the whole Baselight range. The new AMD Opteron processors, when coupled with FilmLight’s unique Baselight Four and Baselight Eight cluster architecture, also enable clients to grade two real-time streams of uncompressed 4K media. With v3, the Baselight Eight system will support up to 48TB of disk space, enabling users to keep multiple projects online simultaneously. Other capabilities of Baselight v3 include: a 3-D additive and subtractive keyer, which, based on a new algorithm, isolates areas in different parts of the color space and manages them within the same matte strip; support for scratch audio as well as field rendering and 3:2 pulldown for video grading and deliverables; a scene detector that is able to break long-form content into separate shots for easier shot-based grading; support for OpenFX plug-in architecture; stack manager, which greatly simplifies the management of complex grade stacks; and real-time grain reduction of a vertical slice of a 2K image, providing the colorist with a way to tune the grain reduction for each part of the image in real time. Baselight, Baselight Four and Baselight Eight system pricing starts at $145,000. Baselight v3 is free to customers under maintenance contracts. The Baselight Blackboard control surface is supported from v3 and pricing starts at $48,000. For more information, visit www.filmlight.ltd.uk. YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support 132
6th International Trade Fair for Motion Picture Technology, Postproduction and Event Engineering Munich September 16 – 18, 2006
cinec 2006 www.cinec.de Highly specialized trade fair for all film professionals and one of the most significant fairs of the film industry: Cameras, Camera Support & Grip, Film, Lighting, Optics, Sound, Accessoires, Services, Publishing, Postproduction and Digital Editing HIGHLIGHTS cinecAward For outstanding innovative developments cinecForum Ancillary program with focus on THE FUTURE OF CINEMATOGRAPHY Topic 2006: Professional Digital Cinematography
cinec Award
New From Digital Vision Digital Vision, a leading developer of advanced digital-media applications specializing in film and video solutions, unleashed an array of products and services centered on its DVNR1000 and Nucoda DVO image-enhancement workstations. Prior to the release of the Nucoda DVO (Digital Vision Optics) Station, Digital Vision’s image-enhancement algorithms had only been available in hardware and utilized standard video I/O formats. The Nucoda DVO Station, though, includes software versions of the popular AGR4 ME grain management and electronic noise reducer and ASC3 ME film dirt and random scratch concealment tools, and these tools work at any resolution from SD video to 4K data. Furthermore, both tools utilize Digital Vision’s latest PHAME motion estimation algorithms, allowing colorists and restoration artists to automatically eliminate film dirt, random scratches, video dropouts and electronic noise, as well as control the look of film grain, without generating unwanted artifacts. The DVO Image Enhancement software is also available as an add-on option for users of the Nucoda Film Cutter and Nucoda Film Master systems. Another available upgrade for Nucoda users is the new 8-core, 4processor workstation that provides a 10-fold increase in speed for datacentric color correction. The 8-core platform, incorporating the latest 64-bit AMD Dual Core Opteron processors and nVIDIA graphics processing units, supports real-time 4K color correction, as well as work in 2K, HD and SD resolutions. In fact, the platform supports all standard data-centric I/O and 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 SD and HD video I/O. Additionally, the Nucoda system allows the platform to process files stored on a SAN, meaning that project data does not have to be moved into a local environment. Nucoda version 3.0 has also become available for Film Master (Digital Vision’s comprehensive primary and secondary color-grading system) and Film Cutter (a resolution independent, data-centric editing, conforming, effect
Organizer: ALBRECHT GmbH Tel.: +49–89–27294820, FAX: +49–89–27294822,
[email protected]
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and previsualization system that runs on standard PC hardware). 3.0 incorporates key aspects of Digital Vision’s technology in Nucoda products, with available support for DVO, Valhall (the control surface designed specifically for colorists), and comprehensive video I/O tools for video ingest and playback. In addition to improvements to the user interface, 3.0 also features enhanced editorial capability not usually found in data and DI environments. For operators looking to use and upgrade their telecine for 2K workflow, Digital Vision has announced the 2K option for its DVNR1000 image enhancement workstation, providing what the company calls “the fastest motion compensated grain management and scratch concealment tools available today.” Also available thanks to a joint effort from Cintel and Digital Vision is the new dataMill, a calibrated 2K and 4K data transfer engine that operates at speeds of up to 15 fps and offers high-speed data scanning at the
touch of a button. DataMill can also be configured to provide real-time SD or HD 10-bit log outputs that are ideal for high-speed DI processing. For more information visit www.digitalvision.se. Geevs MR Broadcast Video Server Gee Broadcast Systems Ltd. is shipping its Geevs MR family of flexible servers for postproduction, production, and transmission. The Geevs MR servers tightly integrate with Lightworks Alacrity and Touch nonlinear
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editors, providing smart metadata exchange and other integrated features. Designed for the broadcast industry, Geevs acts as a platform for a variety of software clients that fulfill specific customer requirements. The standard Geevs client, provided with each Geevs MR, is able to provide control over capture, media management, editing and playout. These functions are all built into a single user interface that can be run locally on the server or remotely over a network. Servers in the Geevs family include Geevs SD, Geevs MR, and Geevs
MR+. Geevs MR is a High Definition, multi-channel ingest and playout server designed to handle whatever content the user can work with. Geevs MR+ can handle all of the media formats of the MR as well as MPEG2 encoded HD material, in addition to supporting Iframe and IBP encoding. Geevs servers and Lightworks Alacrity and Touch combine to create a fast flowing, complete video network. Shots can be ingested from camera or VTR and reviewed and edited on Lightworks within seconds when used within the Sharknet editing environment. Geevs servers further boast open architecture designed to allow the easy addition of new features as hardware technology continues to evolve at its rapid pace. Gee Broadcast Systems Ltd., +44 (0)1256 810123, www.geevs.co.uk. New from Pandora Image-processing specialist Pandora International has a range of
product innovations, including the PiXi Revolution (a suite of products consisting of a combination of software modules running on ultra-fast proprietary accelerators), the PCI Express Interface (a multichannel optical transceiver card), the Resize Engine and the DVI-D interface. Pandora’s Resize Engine allows full resolution 2K or 4K — and in the future 8K — images to be processed and viewed in real time on an HDTV monitor. The Resize Engine also features high quality pan-scan and zoom controls. The new Dual Channel DVI-D interface allows PiXi Revolution users to directly drive a 2K projector, enabling images to be viewed as they would appear in the cinema. Additionally, DVI and HDTV outputs on the interface can operate in different color space, both RGB and YUV modes. Both the Resize Engine and the DVI-D interface work with the Kodak Display Manager System, accurately displaying a simulation of projected print film as well as calibrating, characterizing
and leveraging 3-D LUT technology to enable everyone in the postproduction workflow to have a consistent visual reference. The system also includes a gamut-alert function to display colors that are outside the display device gamut but reproducible on film. For more information, visit http://pogle.pandora-int.com. I To be considered for a product review in New Products & Services, contact Associate Editor Douglas Bankston to make arrangements at (323) 969-4333; E-mail:
[email protected]; product shipping address: 1313 N. Vine St., Hollywood, CA 90028; postal service mailing address: 1782 N. Orange Dr., Hollywood, CA 90028. For press release submissions, please include any images and full contact information with submission. Images may be sent as color slides, color or black-and-white prints, or digital files (Mac Photoshop TIFF or highquality JPEG format, 300 dpi) on CD. E-mailed image attachments must be a minimum of 300 dpi in the aforementioned formats. Mailed materials will not be returned without a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
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Points East Shooting Lonesome Jim in Rural Indiana by John Calhoun
relatively rural slice of central Indiana definitely rates as the filmmaking hinterlands, with the closest real support in terms of equipment and crew to be found in Chicago. But that doesn’t matter too much if you don’t need a lot in the way of equipment or crew. This was true for Lonesome Jim, a $500,000 production produced by the New York company InDigEnt, whose shoestringbudget credits include Personal Velocity.
A
Shot by Phil Parmet, Lonesome Jim was a small production even by indie standards. Directed by Steve Buscemi, Lonesome Jim was originally prepped as a 35mm feature for another company; at the time, Buscemi was collaborating with cinematographer Lisa Rinzler, who had shot his directorial debut, Trees Lounge. When the financier backed out, InDigEnt stepped in “and offered to do the film with a considerably reduced budget, in a considerably reduced timeframe, and provided we shot on MiniDV,” recalls Parmet. By that time, Rinzler was expecting a baby, and Buscemi asked Parmet, his collaborator on Animal Factory, to take over. “Lisa and Steve had scouted locations, and the film was cast and ready to go,” says Parmet. “I had two weeks of prep, but everything was pretty locked in.” That included the Panasonic 24p DVX100A camera, which at the time was state of the art among prosumer models, and which had been used on a number of InDigEnt projects. “I had shot
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a feature, 13 Moons, on the Sony PD150,” says Parmet, “but the DVX100 was so far superior that there was no real question about what camera to use.” Using such a small camera made shooting in tight practical locations much easier than it would have been otherwise. The films follows a depressed writer (Casey Affleck) who returns to his hometown to find his family (played by Mary Kay Place, Seymour Cassel and Kevin Corrigan) in even worse shape than he is. A local nurse (Liv Tyler) helps lighten the emotional load. Inspired by the works of Midwestern artists Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood, and by the “simple elegance” of Walker Evans’ stills and John Huston’s film Fat City (shot by Conrad L. Hall, ASC), the filmmakers proceeded with a kind of care that belied their meager budget and 19-day shooting schedule. “We were trying to create a sense of classical composition and heightened dramatic feeling,” says Parmet, who is also a still photographer of some note. “But I think to a very great
Photos courtesy of IFC Films and Phil Parmet.
Right: In Lonesome Jim, a melancholy writer (Casey Affleck) returns to his Indiana hometown for some solace but doesn’t find much of it. Below: Director of photography Phil Parmet.
extent, films are influenced by where you shoot. And again, we were limited by what we had to deal with.” The “tiny” crew was led by Chicago gaffer Bill Frye, Los Angeles key grip Vince Palomino and Los Angeles 1st AC/B-camera operator Rory Muirhead, but was filled out by “local people and apprentices,” says Parmet, who operated the A camera. There were no generators, so “I had to choose a lighting package that could be plugged into the walls, was small and compact, and could be easily moved around by people who had very little experience. We had a lot of Kino Flos, Dedolights and Peppers — the biggest lights we had were 1.2K HMI Pars.” As for other equipment, “Vince drove out to Indiana in his Caddy, which he’d loaded up with all this grip equipment and rolls of gel. With his own gear and expendables we couldn’t afford, he saved the day.” MiniDV’s limitations soon became apparent. Shots like the opening image of Affleck running for a bus were give a long-lens effect by a Century 2X Tele-converter, because the DVX100 comes equipped with a noninterchangeable Leitz-approved zoom lens. In addition, says Parmet, “I have two serious complaints about the camera: the zoom controls make it impossible to make a smooth zoom move, and the focus doesn’t have positive stops on it.” Postproduction had as much of a homemade feel as production did. “We did the final color correction on Final Cut Pro, using After Effects as a Power Windows supplement,” says Parmet. “That version was shown at Sundance [in 2005], and it looked pretty good. But I’d kept the contrast down in that color correction because I was constantly thinking about the fact that we were going to do a film transfer; when the material was filmed out, it would pick up contrast in the process. When I did the film-out color correction later on, I actually upped the contrast, and when I did the [home-video] transfer, I upped the contrast even more and crushed the blacks a bit.” The transfer to 35mm was done
at EFilm in Hollywood. “MiniDV can be pretty noisy in the shadows, and it’s not terribly sharp,” notes Parmet. “You want to shoot wide open because the medium has infinite depth of field, and you want to decrease that a little bit. As soon as you start opening all the way up, those lenses, which are not really professional quality, start deteriorating, particularly in wide angle. So we did a little bit of digital sharpening at the filmout stage.” Although he was occasionally dissatisfied with the DVX100A, the cinematographer says its images have a quality he appreciates. “To me, it doesn’t look like film and it doesn’t look like video; it’s sort of a hybrid. I’m glad it
doesn’t look like film, because it’s not film. It has some artifacts, but I kind of like them; it has its own sort of charm, I guess. The bottom line is that you can be artistic in any medium. If you expect it to be film, you’ll never be satisfied, and the same is true if you expect it to be top-end video. It is what it is. “I think there will always be worthy ideas and talented filmmakers who can’t or won’t fit into the commercial economic model of the day,” he concludes. “What’s great is that these cameras and other new DV tools give those people the opportunity to find their audiences.” I
The production’s Panasonic DVX100A appears dwarfed by the rig Parmet and his enterprising crew devised to film Jim and a sociable nurse (Liv Tyler) on the road.
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Classifieds CLASSIFIEDS ON-LINE Ads may now also be placed in the online Classifieds at the ASC web site. Internet ads are seen around the world at the same great rate as in print, or for slightly more you can appear both online and in print. For more information please visit www.theasc.com/advertiser, or e-mail:
[email protected].
All classifications are $4.50 per word. Words set in bold face or all capitals are $5.00 per word. First word of ad and advertiser’s name can be set in capitals without extra charge. No agency commission or discounts on classified advertising.PAYMENT MUST ACCOMPANY ORDER. VISA, Mastercard, AmEx and Discover card
are accepted. Send ad to Classified Advertising, American Cinematographer, P.O. Box 2230, Hollywood, CA 90078. Or FAX (323) 876-4973. Deadline for payment and copy must be in the office by 15th of second month preceding publication. Subject matter is limited to items and services pertaining to filmmaking and video production. Words used are subject to magazine style abbreviation. Minimum amount per ad: $45
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The Visual Products ads you see here are just a sample of the thousands of motion picture items we have available. All equipment comes with a money-back guarantee! Check out our continuously updated complete list online at www.visualproducts.com or call us at (440) 647-4999.
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USED EQUIPMENT. PRO VIDEO & FILM EQUIPMENT COMPANY. YYePG Proudly “LOCATION SOUND FOR Presents, VIDEO” Thx for DVDSupport ! (888) 869-9998. learn how to mix and record quality sound to your video camera!!. 139 WWW.SOUNDFORVIDEO.COM or EBAY (search word) LOCATION SOUND. P+S Technik PRO 35 Adapter for Rent: 610-337-3333.
EQUIPMENT FOR SALE PRO VIDEO & FILM EQUIPMENT COMPANY. USED EQUIPMENT. (888) 869-9998. Large Dolly and Crane Selection: Egripment, Elemack, Jibs and more. Including remote camera cranes 25’+ height with remote head. For details call Visual Products, Inc. (440) 647-4999. Moviecam SL camera package with 3 lightweight 400’ magazines, video assist, spare board, and much more. Call Visual Products, Inc. for great price. (440) 647-4999. NEED USED EQUIPMENT? PRO VIDEO & FILM EQUIPMENT COMPANY. (888) 869-9998. www.ProVideoFilm.com. Cooke 18-100mm T3 PL Mount fully serviced w/case $11,800.00. Call Visual Products, Inc. (440) 647-4999. WORLD’S SUPERMARKET OF USED MOTION PICTURE EQUIPMENT VISUAL PRODUCTS, INC. CALL (440) 647-4999. Moviecam camera packages available in stock now. Call Visual Products, Inc. (440) 647-4999. Sachtler, Cartoni and Ronford fluidheads available fully serviced at Visual Products, Inc. (440) 647-4999. 8,000 USED ITEMS. PRO VIDEO & FILM EQUIPMENT COMPANY. (888) 869-9998. Moviecam magazines for sale. Call Visual Products Inc. (440) 647-4999. New and Used Steadicam equipment www.whitehousesteadisales.com or call 805-498-1658. Arriflex 35 BL1, BL2 and BL4S, and Evolution camera packages for sale. Call Visual Products, Inc. (440) 647-4999. 300mm T2 Nikkor for sale. Contact Robert Primes, ASC, (323) 8518444,
[email protected] . Lighting Lighting and More Lighting HMI and Tungsten best prices anywhere far too many to list. Call with your requirements. Visual Products, Inc. (440) 647-4999. BUY-SELL-CONSIGN-TRADE. 40 YEARS EXPERIENCE. CALL BILL REITER. PRO VIDEO & FILM EQUIPMENT COMPANY. (972) 8699990. Arri 35-3 3rd generation camera for sale, with an orientable viewfinder door, WA eyepiece, also a fixed viewfinder door with Sony B&W CCD camera (NTSC), CEI speed base, 3x 400’ magazines, 2x triple 12 volt batteries, 3x 12 volt battery chargers, 7x various ground-glasses, 2x power cables, Rt side handgrip, US$ 20,000 Or Best Offer. Also, a complete set of Zeiss T2.1 PL primes, from 14mm to 135mm, some as a set of 6 for US$ 13,900 OBO, and the rest singly varying from the 14mm at US$ 5,900 OBO to the 40mm at US$ 2,750 OBO. Also a NEW, never been used, Nikkor 300mm T2.0 that has been converted to neutral with a PL adapter by Century, as well as 400mm, 600mm, and 800mm Canon lenses, all converted to PL by Century. All of this equipment was my personal camera equipment and was never in rental house use. All are in excellent condition. See my web page for the complete listing and prices. The buyer pays shipping and insurance FOB Los Angeles, CA. http://www.wfb4.com/35mm_Motion_Picture_Camera_Equip_for_Sa le.html or e-mail me at
[email protected] and I will send you the listing. Bill Bennett, ASC USED EQUIPMENT. PRO VIDEO & FILM EQUIPMENT COMPANY. (888) 869-9998,
[email protected]. www.ProVideoFilm.com. STEADICAM used & new equipment. Arms, Vests, Sleds. Visit our website at www.steadyrig.com to view our range of products. Camera/Projector Manuals Hard-to-find, out-of-print www.hollywoodmanuals.com. PRO VIDEO &
[email protected].
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COMPANY.
Advertiser’s Index Abel Cine Tech 43 AC 16a-b, Alan Gordon Enterprises 139 Amphibico 131 Arri 68-69 ASC Press 15, 130, 143 Backstage Equipment, Inc. 127 Band Pro Film & Digital 5 Barger-Baglite 6 Bolex 143 Broadcast Video Rentals 45 Bron Kobold 18 Brooks Institute of Photography 127 Burrell Enterprises 138 Cavision Enterprises 24 Chapman/Leonard Studio Equipment Inc. 129 Chimera 108 Christy’s Editorial Supply 139 Cinebags 138 Cinec 133 Cine Gear 141 Cinekinetic 10 Cinema India 103 Cinema Vision 138 Cinematography Electronics 105 Cinemills 132 Cine Power International 8 Clairmont Film & Digital 12-13, 29 Cooke 77, 123, 130 Coptervision 89 Dalsa 25 Denecke 139 Du-All Camera 138 Eastman Kodak C2-1, 9, C4 EFD, USA Inc. 123
Film Emporium, Inc. 138 Filmtools 105 Finnlight 139 Fletcher Chicago 88 Flying-Cam 6 Elsevier Science 124 Fuji Motion Pictures 21 Fujinon 41 Full Sail 75 Gamma & Density 112 Gillard Industries, Inc. 139 Glidecam Industries 87 Go Easy Lighting 80 Hand Held Films 138 Hybrid Cases 138 Hydroflex 128 Imagica 113 Innovision 18 International Film & TV Workshop 105 Isaia 125 JBK Cinequipt 138 JEM Studio Lighting. Inc. 126 J.L. Fisher 61 K 5600, Inc. 57 Kenwell 4 Kino Flo 67 K-Tek 138 Laffoux Solutions, Inc. 138 Lightning Strikes 47 Lights! Action! Company 138 Lite Panels 135 Los Angeles Film School 93 MAT Spec. Remote Camera Sys 49 Microdolly Hollywood 139 Mole-Richardson 35 Motion Picture Services 131 MP&E 138
SITUATIONS AVAILABLE
VISUAL PRODUCTS-LARGEST SELECTION OF USED MOTION PICTURE EQUIPMENT, AATON TO ZEISS. WARRANTY ON ALL EQUIPMENT. PH (440) 647-4999. OR FAX (440) 647-4998 OR VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT: www.visualproducts.com.
Wanted: Experienced motion picture camera technician. Experience with Cameras, Lenses and accessories a big plus but we would consider training someone who is dedicated. Friendly atmosphere in Burbank, Ca. Great pay, Full Benefits. Please call Jay at Camtec, Inc. 818.841.8700
WANTED
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CASH FOR YOUR EQUIPMENT NOW! MOTION PICTURE EQUIPSTEADICAM ARM QUALITY SERVICE OVERHAUL AND UPDATES. MENT 16MM OR 35MM WANTED: CAMERAS, LENSES, QUICK TURNAROUND. ROBERT LUNA (323) 938-5659. TRIPODS, DOLLIES, CRANES, LIGHTING, EDITING. VISUAL YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support Storm Chaser® Stock weather footage & pictures, consulting, product PRODUCTS, INC. PH (440) 647-4999 OR FAX LIST TO (440) 647endorsements. www.stormchaser.com 4998.
Nalpak 126 NBC/Universal 63 Nevada Film Commission 101 New York Cine Equipment 111 New York Film Academy 97 Osram Gmbh 27 Otto Nemenz 95 P+S Technik 23 Panasonic Broadcast INSERT Panavision International 56-57 Panther 119 PED Denz 51 Photo-Sonics, Rental 24 Pille Filmgeraeteverleigh 138 Powermills 129 Professional Sound 128 Pro8mm 6 Sachtler 59 San Antonio Film Commission 119 Satellight X 50 Schneider Optics/Century 2 Schumacher 79 Service Vision 34 Sim Video C3 SMS Productions, Inc. 139 Sony Electronics INSERT Spectra Film & Video 139 Stanton Video Services 132 Ste-Man, Inc. 66 Sydney Film School 125 T8 Technology Company 81 TCS, Inc. 65 Technicolor Creative Services 7 Techniquip/Sunray 11 Technocrane S.R.O. 85 The Camera House 31 Thomson Broadcast 19 Transvideo 99 Ultra Camera Mounts 138 Vancouver Film School 73 VF Gadgets, Inc. 139 Videocraft Equipment 139 Visual Products, Inc. 124 Vocas Systems 109 Welch Integrated 134 Willy’s Widgets 138 Zacuto Films 15 ZGC, Inc. 23, 77, 123, 130
WHERE HOLLYWOOD’S PROFESSIONALS MEET. Exhibition & Seminars: June 23, 2006 10:00am-6:00pm June 24, 2006 10:00am-5:00pm Location: Wadsworth Theatre & Grounds, West Los Angeles, California Master Class Seminars: June 25, 2006—Los Angeles 310/470-0870 •
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CINE GEAR EXPO MIAMI November 2006 YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support
In Memoriam Leonard South, ASC by Robert S. Birchard Leonard South, ASC, a former Society president and longtime member of the ASC Board of Governors, died on January 6 in Northridge, California. Although he was a wellrespected director of photography, South was perhaps best known for his work as an assistant cameraman and camera operator on a long list of films for Alfred Hitchcock, beginning with Strangers on a Train (1951). South worked on 14 pictures with Hitchcock, including Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958) and North by Northwest (1959). “Hitch spoiled me for other directors,” he once said. “I look for part of him in other people, and it’s not there. Hitch was always trying to push the limits on techniques and to be different.” South was born on Long Island, New York, in 1913, and he became interested in movies and cinematography while watching film crews work around the Famous Players-Lasky/Paramount studio in Astoria, Queens. He came to Hollywood around 1933 with a goal of landing a job in the movies, and through a friend he managed to find work in the camera department at Warner Bros. South served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, working at “Fort Roach,” the Hal Roach Studio in Culver City that was given over to the military for the production of training films. After the war, he returned to Warner Bros. where he began working for Robert Burks, ASC as an assistant cameraman. Burks became Hitchcock’s cinematographer of choice on most of his classic thrillers in the 1950s and ‘60s.
South’s devotion to Burks was absolute. “My father had opportunities to become a director of photography much earlier than he did, but he was loyal to Robert Burks,” says South’s son, Leonard II. It was only after Burks’ death in 1967 that South struck out on his own as a cinematographer; his first credit was I Sailed to Tahiti With an All Girl Crew (1968) — not exactly a classic, but it offered him an opportunity to indulge in his dual passions for filmmaking and sailing. Although his résumé as a director of photography would come to include such features as Hang ‘Em High (1968, a shared credit with Richard Kline, ASC); Hitchcock’s Family Plot (1976); and Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (1977), much of South’s career as a first cameraman was spent working in television. “Dad was a man of strong opinions,” says his son. “He loved sailing but despised power boats, and he was an
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old-time film man who held the prejudice against television shared by so many ‘feature people’ in those days. But he came to like working in TV, as long as it was shot on film. He absolutely hated video.” Part of the appeal of working in TV was that South could stay close to home. When his son showed an interest in becoming a cameraman, he did everything he could to discourage the young man’s interest. “I was young and newly married, and Dad blamed the failure of his first marriage on his work,” says Leonard II. “He advised me to pursue a career in film editing because I could stay in town and get home at a reasonable hour, at least most of the time.” South was the cinematographer on such memorable series as That Girl, Night Gallery, The Rockford Files, The Associates, 9 to 5, Designing Women and Coach. He retired in 1989 at age 76. “He did a lot of three-camera shows,” says his son, “and a good part of the appeal as he got older was he could work maybe three or four days a week and have some time to rest up between episodes.” South was president of the ASC from 1989-1990. “It surprised me a little that he would become president of the Society, because he was never a guy who needed to be in charge,” his son says. “But my dad loved everything about the ASC. I don’t think he ever missed a meeting when he wasn’t working.” I
Clubhouse News on such series as The White Shadow, China Beach and Moonlighting, as well as features such as Scarface and Where the Buffalo Roam. During that time, he was also cutting his teeth as a 2nd-unit director of photography. In 1991, Palmieri shot his first series as a cinematographer, Dark Justice. Since then he has notched credits on VR5, Orleans, Murder One, Total Security, Providence, Presidio Med and ER. He is now photographing and occasionally directing the Emmy-winning series Monk. New Member After more than 30 years in the business, Anthony R. Palmieri, ASC has been welcomed into the Society’s cadre of active members. Born in the Bronx in 1953, Palmieri went to work as a lighting technician for the 13th Street Theatre and Peter Runfolo when he was still a teenager. At the age of 16, he worked on his first feature, loading for cinematographer Victor J. Kemper, ASC on The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart. More work as a loader and 2nd AC followed, returning Palmieri to Kemper’s camera crew and also placing him under the tutelage of Gordon Willis, ASC on Little Murders and The Godfather. In 1972, Palmieri went on location in Colorado to serve as 1st AC for Tak Fujimoto, ASC on Badlands, and from there he made a permanent move to Los Angeles, where he worked as a 1st AC for the next eight years. In 1980, he jumped to camera operator and worked
New Associate Member John W. Johnston, sales and marketing manager for Kodak Entertainment Imaging-U.S. East and Mid America Region, is the Society’s newest associate member. He credits his passion for the movies to his 32-year career with the Kodak Motion Picture Business Unit, which introduced him to Hollywood and the magic of cinematography. During his tenure at Kodak, he has held positions in sales, marketing and management, working in Rochester, Dallas, Atlanta, Los Angeles and New York. Johnston’s industry affiliations include the Association of Independent Commercial Producers, the New York Production Alliance, the Advertising Club of New York and the Rochester High Falls Film Festival. I
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ASC CLOSE-UP Sol Negrin, ASC When you were a child, which film made the strongest impression on you? Many films of the late ’30s and ’40s impressed me. It’s hard to pick just one, but some notable black-and-white pictures that come to mind are Citizen Kane, Casablanca, The Long Voyage Home, The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Magnificent Ambersons. The incredible look of Technicolor was evident in Gone With the Wind, which was outstanding in a time of blackand-white. Which cinematographers, past or present, do you most admire? As my career was starting, I particularly admired ASC members Gregg Toland, Harry Stradling Sr., Lee Garmes, Ernie Haller, Stanley Cortez and Hal Rosson, and BSC members Freddie Young, Jack Cardiff, Geoffrey Unsworth and Guy Green. Some present-day cinematographers I appreciate are [ASC members] Allen Daviau, Haskell Wexler, John Seale, John Toll, Jack Green, Gordon Willis, Owen Roizman and the late Connie Hall. What sparked your interest in photography? At first, photography was just a hobby. I was hoping to be a naval architect but my math was not up to par, so I was advised to change my major. I switched to the High School of Industrial Arts in New York City, which then was the only school in the country that taught both still photography and filmmaking. I majored in photography and eventually segued into film. Where did you study and/or train? During my last year of high school, I took a part-time job that later became a full-time position with a commercial/industrial film company called Hartley Productions. I got a ground-floor, hands-on education on everything related to filmmaking, in 16mm and 35mm. I remained there for 11⁄2 years and then became a freelance assistant cameraman; I worked on commercials, documentaries, industrials and, eventually, feature films and television. Who were your early teachers or mentors? I was fortunate to work with the marvelous documentary cinematographer Peter Glushanok, and also with ASC members Torben Johnke, Joseph Brun, Gerald Hirschfeld, Jack Priestley, Harry Stradling Sr. and Lee Garmes. These were my mentors and teachers as I came up through the ranks, and I learned a great deal from each of them. What are some of your key artistic influences? I worked with some of the top directors in the business and absorbed their techniques, and we worked together to achieve the artistic effects they desired. I enjoyed collaborating closely with directors to achieve a mutual understanding about lighting and composition in order to make their films as interesting and exciting as possible. How did you get your first break in the business? I was recommended by a cinematographer named Jack Etra, whom I had assisted, to shoot a pair of television documentaries about two West African nations emerging from colonial rule. It was an exhilarating experience, and I’m very proud of those films. What has been your most satisfying moment on a project? On most projects, the satisfaction came from knowing I had done my very best. While shooting the series Kojak in New York, I worked with many different directors and often received their praise for a job well done. My work on that show led to three of my five Emmy nominations.
Have you made any memorable blunders? I was in London shooting some commercials, and the director wanted a scene lit in a very low key that suited his eye. I tried to explain that the exposure would not be sufficient, but he insisted I shoot it his way. Sure enough, the result was unacceptable, and I got the blame. The lesson? In most cases, you should follow your instincts. What’s the best professional advice you’ve ever received? From Harry Stradling Sr.: ‘Never be afraid to take a chance. It may be the best thing you ever did.’ What recent books, films or artworks have inspired you? I currently teach cinematography at one of the local colleges on Long Island, which allows me to screen many of the older pictures that inspired me. Films like Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil and Paths of Glory remain just as significant today, and they are excellent learning tools for aspiring filmmakers. There are many well-photographed contemporary films, but a few that come to mind are the Godfather trilogy, Road to Perdition, The Girl With the Pearl Earring and A Very Long Engagement. Each projects to the viewer a definite feel for the eras of their stories. One of my favorite inspirational artists is Edward Hopper, whose published works illustrate many of the elements of lighting, color and composition that influenced my work. Do you have any favorite genres, or genres you would like to try? It’s hard to say. What I admire is when a cinematographer can replicate a look of a certain period, as Eduardo Serra, ASC, AFC did in The Girl With the Pearl Earring. If you weren’t a cinematographer, what might you be doing instead? I probably would have been stuck with my father as a partner in his garment business, which I detested! My father was great, though, and he became very proud of my success in the film business. It wasn’t ‘my son, the doctor,’ it was ‘my son, the cinematographer!’ Which ASC cinematographers recommended you for membership? Gerald Perry Finnerman and Harry Stradling Sr. How has ASC membership impacted your life and career? In 1943, I read my first issue of American Cinematographer, which featured many of the fine cinematographers of the time. I knew right then that I wanted to be an ASC member, which became one of my career goals. The day I was accepted was one of the most memorable of my life. The camaraderie of being in the company of such talented individuals is something I never expected, and I’m honored and happy to be a part of such a distinguished society. To top it off, I am proud to note that my son, Michael Negrin, is also a member. I
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