No title

JULY 2011 $5.95Canada $6.95 M E M B E R P O R T R A I T Richard Rawlings Jr., ASC “M y dad was a memb...

Author: Martha Winterhalter (Publisher)

8 downloads 430 Views 18MB Size Report

This content was uploaded by our users and we assume good faith they have the permission to share this book. If you own the copyright to this book and it is wrongfully on our website, we offer a simple DMCA procedure to remove your content from our site. Start by pressing the button below!

Report copyright / DMCA form

DOWNLOAD PDF

JULY 2011

$5.95Canada $6.95

M

E

M

B

E

R

P

O

R

T

R

A

I

T

Richard Rawlings Jr., ASC

“M

y dad was a member of the ASC, and his dad was an amateur photographer, so I had a camera in my hand by the time I was 6. I’ve been reading American Cinematographer for as long as I’ve been able to read. “AC is a fantastic tool, and the information in its pages is priceless. The key to being a true filmmaker is to not have an ego, to share your ideas and let others share theirs while working together to make a great film. You get that sense in the magazine. “Cinematography isn’t just a job for me; it’s a lifelong love of the art form. And it’s been a lifetime love affair with AC.”

©photo by Owen Roizman, ASC

— Richard Rawlings Jr., ASC

TO SUBSCRIBE BY PHONE:

Call (800) 448-0145 (U.S. only) (323) 969-4333 or visit the ASC Web site

W

W

W

.

T

H

E

A

S

C

.

C

O

M

Litepanels Sola 6™ LED Fresnel

Tomorrow’s lighting shipping Today!

Litepanels new Sola 6 LED Fresnel

Sola 6—Ready today at fine lighting dealers The first LED Fresnel that’s ideally suited for today’s cutting edge film and television work. The revolutionary daylight-balanced Sola 6™ provides the controllability and light-shaping properties inherent in a Fresnel light, but utilizes just a fraction of the power of conventional fixtures.

Versatile Sola 6 offers variable beam control from 10º to 70º and full-range dimming. Plus, the lightweight, userfriendly fixture is optimized for Litepanels’ Earth-Friendly LED technology lighting when using digital cameras.

818 752 7009 • [email protected] ®

w w w. l i t e p a n e l s . c o m

Litepanels A Vitec Group brand ®

J

U

L

Y

2

0

1

1

V

O

L

.

9

2

N

O

.

7

The International Journal of Motion Imaging

On Our Cover: Joe (Joel Courtney) gets caught up in the military’s efforts to contain a dangerous creature in Super 8, shot by Larry Fong. (Photo by François Duhamel, SMPSP, courtesy of Paramount Pictures.)

FEATURES

24 36 46 54 62

Monster Out of the Box

Larry Fong and J.J. Abrams revisit childhood adventures with Super 8

Ring of Power

Dion Beebe, ASC, ACS explores an adventurous palette with Green Lantern

36

Shot Down in Flames

Evan Glodell and Joel Hodge kick DIY up a notch with Bellflower

A Cultural Cataclysm

Yu Cao envisions an infamous chapter in Sino-Japanese relations for City of Life and Death

46

Ascending Cinematography’s Summit

The ASC convenes an international conference

DEPARTMENTS

8 10 12 14 70 72 76 80 81 82 84 86 88

Editor’s Note President’s Desk Letters Production Slate: Larry Crowne • Mortal Kombat Post Focus: Prime Focus New York Filmmakers’ Forum: Jim Matlosz New Products & Services International Marketplace Classified Ads Ad Index In Memoriam: Gerald Perry Finnerman, ASC Clubhouse News ASC Close-Up: Bruno Delbonnel

54

— VISIT WWW.THEASC.COM TO ENJOY THESE WEB EXCLUSIVES — DVD Playback: Gaumont Treasures Vol. 2 • A Clockwork Orange • Thelma & Louise

J u l y

2 0 1 1

V o l .

9 2 ,

N o .

7

The International Journal ofMotion Imaging

Visit us online at

www.theasc.com ———————————————————————————————————— PUBLISHER Martha Winterhalter ————————————————————————————————————

EDITORIAL

EXECUTIVE EDITOR Stephen Pizzello SENIOR EDITOR Rachael K. Bosley ASSOCIATE EDITOR Jon D. Witmer TECHNICAL EDITOR Christopher Probst CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Stephanie Argy, Benjamin B, Douglas Bankston, Robert S. Birchard, John Calhoun, Michael Goldman, Simon Gray, Jim Hemphill, David Heuring, Jay Holben, Mark Hope-Jones, Noah Kadner, Jean Oppenheimer, John Pavlus, Chris Pizzello, Jon Silberg, Iain Stasukevich, Kenneth Sweeney, Patricia Thomson ————————————————————————————————————

ART DEPARTMENT CREATIVE DIRECTOR Marion Gore ————————————————————————————————————

ADVERTISING ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR Angie Gollmann 323-936-3769 FAX 323-936-9188 e-mail: [email protected] ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR Sanja Pearce 323-952-2114 FAX 323-876-4973 e-mail: [email protected] ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR Scott Burnell 323-936-0672 FAX 323-936-9188 e-mail: [email protected] CLASSIFIEDS/ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Diella Nepomuceno 323-952-2124 FAX 323-876-4973 e-mail: [email protected] ————————————————————————————————————

CIRCULATION, BOOKS & PRODUCTS CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Saul Molina CIRCULATION MANAGER Alex Lopez SHIPPING MANAGER Miguel Madrigal ———————————————————————————————————— ASC GENERAL MANAGER Brett Grauman ASC EVENTS COORDINATOR Patricia Armacost ASC PRESIDENT’S ASSISTANT Kim Weston ASC ACCOUNTING MANAGER Mila Basely ASC ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE Corey Clark ————————————————————————————————————

4

American Cinematographer (ISSN 0002-7928), established 1920 and in its 91st 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 (or electronic reprints) should be made to Sheridan Reprints at (800) 635-7181 ext. 8065 or by e-mail [email protected]. Copyright 2011 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.

————————————————————————————————————

American Society of Cine matographers The ASC is not a labor union or a guild, but an educational, cultural and pro fes sion al or ga ni za tion. Membership is by invitation to those who are actively en gaged as di rec tors of photography and have dem on strated out stand ing ability. ASC membership has be come one of the highest honors that can be bestowed upon a pro fes sional cin e ma tog ra pher — a mark of prestige and excellence.

OFFICERS - 2010/2011 Michael Goi President

Richard Crudo Vice President

Owen Roizman Vice President

John C. Flinn III Vice President

Matthew Leonetti Treasurer

Rodney Taylor Secretary

Ron Garcia

Sergeant At Arms

MEMBERS OF THE BOARD John Bailey Stephen Burum Curtis Clark George Spiro Dibie Richard Edlund John C. Flinn III Michael Goi Stephen Lighthill Isidore Mankofsky Daryn Okada Robert Primes Nancy Schreiber Kees Van Oostrum Haskell Wexler Vilmos Zsigmond

ALTERNATES Fred Elmes Rodney Taylor Michael D. O’Shea Sol Negrin Michael B. Negrin MUSEUM CURATOR 6

Steve Gainer

our extended family of lightweight Optimo zooms now includes 45 – 120mm. The perfect portrait lens has finally arrived… 45-120mm Optimo zoom lens joins our award winning 15-40mm and 28-76mm family of hand-held lenses to provide a combined focal range of 15-120mm. They allow you to take fewer lenses on location without any sacrifice in performance – and without the excess weight of all the prime lenses they replace. Plus Optimo 35mm Zoom Lenses deliver the extremely fast apertures and outstanding contrast and color reproduction that have made them the optics of choice for DPs all over the world. Take our extended family of Optimo 35mm Zoom Lenses on your next shoot and experience the difference.

NEW 45mm - 120mm Actual product image may vary

15mm - 40mm

28mm - 76mm

973.812.3858 [email protected] • www.angenieux.com

Editor’s Note Any magazine that cares about its readers conducts the occasional subscriber survey, and the results of our latest one indicate that we’re on solid footing. The questionnaire yielded 84 pages of information and insights, including 33 pages of comments that ranged from unequivocal approval (“The best magazine for working cinematographers and for people interested in the craft”) to dubious business advice (“Lower the amount of ads present in each issue”). There was even a unique plea from one savvy fan: “Can I come bartend in your Clubhouse?” The data prove that AC is an excellent industry resource. A few of the numbers stand out:

Some figures confirm recent filmmaking trends: 91% of subscribers use or own a digital camera. Others buck the prevailing winds in publishing: 84% read the print edition most of the time, while 16% read the digital edition. Lighting still tops your list of interests. Coverage of U.S. studio features finished a close second, followed by articles on foreign productions and digital cinematography. New Products & Services remains our most popular monthly department. One common request was for “more technical and/or behind-the-scenes photos.” On this front, I can assure you that our staff of three (3) editors examines everyavailable photo on every production we cover, with the key word being “available.” Union rules preclude us from sending our own photographers to sets, so we rely upon images provided by studios and other production entities. These photos often require personal approvals by actors, directors, producers, publicists and marketing executives who often have specific concerns (and, occasionally, rather oblique agendas) that are not at all related to cinematography. Many of you requested more coverage of foreign and/or independent movies, but if you take a look at any year-end index in our December issues, you will find our track record on both fronts is solid. In 2010 alone, we covered 30 productions shot outside the U.S., and 26 productions that would qualify as independents. In fact, the issue you’re holding right now typifies our approach; it includes features on a Chinese film, City of Life and Death , and a very experimental indie, Bellflower, alongside articles about the summer “tent-pole” pictures Super 8 and Green Lantern. It’s worth noting, however, that ASC cinematographers, who receive editorial priority in our pages, are predominantly hired to shoot U.S. studio projects. Your survey responses also reflected a perpetual debate over whether the magazine should focus more on technical specifics (the “how”) or philosophical/creative musings (the “why”). I can assure you that we keep both lines of inquiry in mind when we assign any article. Whether an article slants in one direction or the other usually reflects the preference of that cinematographer, but we often seek out secondary sources if we feel they will bolster an article in either respect. Rest assured, your suggestions are always welcomed, and we’ll do our best to honor them.

8

Stephen Pizzello Executive Editor

Photo by Owen Roizman, ASC.

• Almost 9 out of 10 subscribers (87%) took action in the past 12 months as a result of seeing an ad in the magazine, with 64% visiting an advertiser’s website, 56% discussing an ad with others, and 33% saving an ad for reference. • 93% of our subscribers influence decision-making at one or more stages of production, including 84% who impact equipment choices and 78% who influence the buying of services; 85% who help choose rental houses and 81% who weigh in on shooting locations; and 74% who influence the purchasing of software and/or hardware during prep, 69% who impact those decisions during production, and 63% who have a say about post. • A robust 88% of you keep all issues for future reference.

ACQUIRE

www.aja.com

Acquire with AJA. From Lens to Post, capture edit-ready Apple ProRes 422 footage direct from your camera.

Ki Pro Mini. Lens to Post...in a Flash.

Ki Pro. Unify Cameras and Formats.

Portable 10-bit 4:2:2 Flash Disk Recorder

10-bit Recorder with Conversion

Designed as a miniature field recorder for creating ‘ready-to-edit’ professional digital video, Ki Pro Mini records Apple ProRes 422 (including HQ, LT and Proxy) direct from any SDI or HDMI camera. Mounted and connected to your camera, Ki Pro Mini records the ProRes footage to affordable Compact Flash media, instantly ready to edit when connected to a Mac.

Designed to unify the different formats employed by broadcast cameras, Ki Pro features AJA’s powerful hardware up/down/crossconversion and captures ProRes direct to removable Storage Module media. Extensive I/O ensures integration with all your other production gear is seamless.

Find out about our latest Acquire products at www.aja.com

B e c a u s e

i t

m a t t e r s .

At the recent International Cinematography Summit Conference hosted by the ASC, one of the discussions that representatives of cinematography societies from around the world engaged in revolved around the role of the societies in educating the next generation of cinematographers. Although we are not film schools, part of the responsibility we have is to ensure that the future of the craft is secure. We discussed ways to interact with existing institutions, as well as things we can do on an individual basis. One of the most valuable experiences a young cinematographer can have is direct interaction with a seasoned professional. I have mentioned before the unique spirit of camaraderie that exists in the ASC Clubhouse. When members hang out in the bar or the kitchen, the conversations that occur run the gamut from low scores at golf outings to innovative solutions to complex virtual-production sequences. This free-flowing exchange of information is at the heart of the way ASC cinematographers speak to each other. Lacking any hint of competition, these casual conversations are like master classes: personal, in-depth explorations of the tools and artistry that comprise our craft. Often we’ve said, “If only we could bottle this.” In a way, we have. In March, as part of our Friends of the ASC program, we kicked off a series of events called the ASC Breakfast Club. My fellow member Matthew Libatique agreed to be the first subject. After sharing a hearty breakfast with many ASC members, an eager audience listened as Matty explained his approach to such films as Black Swan, Inside Man, The Fountain, Iron Man and Requiem for a Dream , his comments punctuated by clips from several films. Among the anecdotes he shared was filming a scene with two actors by the ocean. It was a very overcast day, so he surrounded one of the actors with white cards to bring up his eyes. The actor asked if Matty could rem ove the cards, because he wanted to see the water as an emotional element for his character. Although it might have made the shot look different than Matty intended, he understood how it would affect the actor’s performance, and he complied. The event became much more than a seminar. As the conversation progressed into Q&A, the feeling in the room was one of familiarity, of hanging out with someone and hearing his stories about what he has done. This is exactly our intent with the Breakfast Club: not to lecture, but to learn through the realization that we all go through the same things, that being a cinematographer gives us experiences we all share, and what makes the difference is that we arrive at our solutions based on our individual artistic approach. This does not reduce the mystique of being a member of the ASC. It actually enhances that distinction, because the creativity w ith which you conquer the challenge is what separates you from the rest. The most effective way of teaching our craft relies on giving young cinematographers exposure to professionals in a real working environment. This is often difficult, given the concerns about personal injury and liability when someone who is not an emp loyee is injured on a set. Working through the stage facility at Mole-Richardson, honorary ASC member Larry Parker has become legenda ry for the number of grip and electric people he has trained over the decades. On another front, Hollywood CPR is a program that h as successfully placed trained interns on film and television productions at entry-level positions. Young filmmakers can also learn by volunteering to help an organization. At the ASC, we use volunteers for many functions, including our annual awards ceremony. A few years ago, a young man from Ohio named Jon Witmer came to the ASC and wanted to help. We were preparing to renovate our Clubhouse, so we put him to work packing our camera collection for storage. He was so dedicated and attentive that we later used him as a loader when we filmed interviews with ASC members for our archives. Eventually, Jon became part of my regular camera crew, and then he found his calling as the associate editor of American Cinematographer. In the final analysis, cinematography societies of the world educate by inspiring, by being open about our techniques as well as our challenges, and, above all, by simply sharing our love for what we do.

Michael Goi, ASC President

10

July 2011

American Cinematographer

Portrait by Owen Roizman, ASC.

President’s Desk

Letters Great Explanation of Important Subject I want to thank you and Christopher Probst for his outstanding article in the May issue, “Decoding Digital Imagers: Part 1.” Imaging and photonics is my world, and I found this to be a truly outstanding article. I am extremely impressed by the technical presentation, especially regarding Nyquist sampling and MTF curves, and the necessity of an optical low-pass filter. I have been explaining this particular topic to people in various fields for over a decade — I have a background in X-ray imaging — and I have rarely found such a coherent explanation of this very important subject. This article will, I believe, be of extraordinary help to people in the field. You squeezed a semester of electrical-engineering education into just a couple of pages, and you made it interesting and understandable. This topic is very near to my heart because my company, Tessive, has just launched a product for time-based pre-filtering for cameras. Our product is kind of like an optical low-pass filter, but for time instead of space. It’s a temporal-band-limiting filter for motion-picture cameras. Thank you very much for your hard work. Tony Davis Los Alamos, N.M. Can’t Wait for Part 2! I greatly enjoyed Christopher Probst’s article “Decoding Digital Imagers: Part 1,” and I look forward to the second part. This is the only article I’ve seen that covers the complete imaging path. I hope to assign it as reading for my students. I must say that I was a little surprised Mr. Probst didn’t spend more time on image-sensor noise, which ultimately puts a floor on dynamic range. CMOS censors inherently introduce more noise because they have more transistors in the signal path and because the CCD is an incredibly efficient charge-transfer device. 12

July 2011

By the way, that photo of George Smith and Willard Boyle (on page 61) shows not just an early CCD imager, but the first CCD camera. George showed it to me when he recruited me for his department. Who could resist that sales pitch? Keep up the good work! Marilyn C. Wolf Rhesa S. Farmer Jr. Distinguished Chair in Embedded Computer Systems School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, Ga. Questioning Goi’s 6 Questions I read Michael Goi’s President’s Desk column in the April issue with great interest, and I fully agree that just because something is new doesn’t mean it is better, and that the Frankenstein syndrome he so aptly describes is becoming more and more prevalent now that folks are shooting with smart phones, DSLR cameras and other devices. I do, however, question his six questions. If I capture my images on this camera, do I have any assurance that the images will not be accidentally erased or deleted? Does any camera or capture system offer such assurance? Are the captured images a true reflection of what I intended them to be, should I not be around to supervise an output of those images at a later date? With today’s incredibly powerful post tools, is any media completely “tamper proof” or shielded from the (perhaps) unwanted interventions of others? Does this camera actually make my job of filming this particular project easier, or is it making it harder and more expensive? While it’s obvious that some cameras can make a job easier and simpler to shoot, in this world of cheap and easy hype, in the end, after we have voiced our opinion (which is often, thankfully, given serious consideration), other than walking away, do American Cinematographer

we really have the last word on the choice of format? Some lucky few might, but I know that I, ultimately, do not. If I am filming in a remote area and my camera breaks down, will I be able to fix it with my multi-tool knife, or will production have to shut down? Can any camera — an Arri 435, an Arricam, a Panaflex, a Red, an Alexa or even an old Arri BL — be fixed with a multi-tool device by someone who has no special training of that type? Perhaps a faithful Bolex can, if one is very lucky. Taking a spare body along to remote locations seems like a better precaution than a multi-tool device. Who is going to be responsible for making sure that all the metadata accumulated during production and post is properly logged and stored? I was never concerned with the way film or cassettes were logged, handled and stored by the editors and post folks in the past. Why should I be concerned about that now? I trust them to do their jobs professionally, as they trust me to do mine. What is going to be the archival element for this project? Isn’t that something for the producer to be concerned with? As much as I would like to declare to the world that I am nobly and deeply concerned about the archival preservation of the MOW I am starting next week, or the 30 or so others I have shot in the past few years, truthfully, I am not at all. I have to deal with many other more pressing production issues that I feel belong more directly in the cinematographer’s backyard. Happy shooting, whatever you shoot with. Daniel Villeneuve, CSC Longueuil, Quebec ● American Cinematographer welcomes letters to the editor. Correspondence must include your name, mailing address and daytime telephone number. Please send letters to: Editors, American Cinematographer, P.O. Box 2230, Los Angeles, CA, 90078. Wereserve the right to edit submissions for length and clarity.

Production Slate he surrounds himself with to do their jobs. He’s more of an actor’s director and a storyteller. He’s not the kind of director who comes to you in the morning and says, ‘Today we’re going to shoot at 37.5 fps, and I need this very complex camera move here….’ It was a very playful but very concentrated set, with no unnecessary problems at all. “I’ve been lucky to have this kind of shooting experience several times in my professional life. Sometimes the people are wonderful but the weather is ghastly, but we shot Larry Crowne in Los Angeles, so the weather was perfect, too!” Rousselot says he typically does not previsualize a look for a project, “especially before I talk to the director. There are projects where you have to plan things on a technical level, of course, but in general I try not to decide on any particular look too early in the process. I’ve found that you can intellectualize the look and style of the film all you want in preproduction, but when you get to the day Sparks fly between Larry Crowne (Tom Hanks) and his public-speaking of the shoot, those ideas often mean nothing. So I try to stay away instructor, Mercedes Tainot (Julia Roberts), in Larry Crowne, directed by Hanks and shot by Philippe Rousselot, ASC, AFC. from that cerebral construction and see what develops on set.” The filmmakers decided to shoot anamorphic 2.40:1, a Crafting a “Gentle” Look somewhat unconventional choice for a romantic comedy. “What I By Jay Holben like about anamorphic is that it gives the actors a lot of presence,” says Rousselot. “I really prefer the widescreen format, either Super Larry Crowne (Tom Hanks) is an Average Joe. He works hard. 35 or anamorphic, but the advantage of anamorphic is that you He enjoys life. Since completing a stint in the U.S. Navy, he has been double your focal length — you’re always double wide of the same working at U-Mart, where he has earned Employee of the Month lens in spherical. This is a real advantage, especially on location, as status a record nine times. But when the store must trim its budget, you can’t always push out a wall or back up enough to get the feel Crowne is laid off — because, his boss says, he has no college of the location. With anamorphic lenses, that’s built in, which means degree. Crowne goes back to school to jump-start a new phase of you can also use longer lenses to help separate the actors from the his life. There, he meets Mercedes (Julia Roberts), a burnt-out public- background and give them more presence in the frame. For me, speaking instructor, sparking a relationship that could change both romantic comedies are all about the actors, and giving them the of their lives. most presence in the frame is of paramount importance.” Larry Crowne marks a return to the director’s chair for Hanks, Rousselot chose Panavision’s G-Series anamorphic lenses, who tapped Philippe Rousselot, ASC, AFC to shoot the comedy. “I’m which “are very good lenses, and were particularly great for this generally not that attracted to comedies, but this sounded like an movie because of their size. I knew we were going to shoot a lot of incredibly fun project,” says Rousselot. “I also have good relationSteadicam, and the G-series lenses are well suited to that, so we ships with many of the people involved, including Julia Roberts, didn’t have to rent a separate set [of lenses] for Steadicam work.” whom I worked with on Mary Reilly; the assistant director, Katterli He chose two Kodak Vision3 stocks, 500T 5219 and 250D Frauenfelder, a dear friend of mine; and the production designer, 5207, which have both become favorites of his. “The more I use Victor Kempster, a good friend with whom I’d never had a chance them, the better I am with them,” he notes. “When I constantly use to work. Larry Crowne afforded me the chance to collaborate with the same stocks, knowing how they’ll react in any given situation all of these people. becomes instinctual. I don’t need to test or experiment or wonder; I “In all, this was a really pleasurable film to work on,” the cine- don’t have to think about my contrast or what I might lose in the matographer continues. “The atmosphere every day was very easyshade. I used [Kodak Vision2 500T] 5218 for a very long time, and I going, and the work was very straightforward. We even finished a think 5219 is a significant improvement over what was already a week ahead of schedule because everything went so smoothly! Tom great stock. I’ve been shooting with 5219 since it came out. Both and Julia were there before call and extremely prepared. As a direc[5218 and 5219] allow me to build contrast on the film. Because I tor, Tom is very efficient; he doesn’t waste time thinking about things tend to light softly, I like stocks that can give me some contrast.” that aren’t important to what is being shot, and he trusts the people Well known for his use of soft light, particularly Chinese 14

July 2011

American Cinematographer

Larry Crowne photos by Bruce Talamon, courtesy of Universal Pictures.

I

Near right: Rousselot lines up a shot on location in Los Angeles. Far right: One of the cinematographer’s signature Chinese lanterns helps illuminate a scene with George Takei.

lanterns, Rousselot stayed true to form on Larry Crowne, creating a look he describes as “gentle.” He elaborates, “This is a film where all the characters are nice — even the villains aren’t that bad. All the characters are facing some kind of problem in life, and you empathize with them. To me, that suggested a gentle approach, and by that I don’t just mean contrast or quality of light, but also color. Sometimes, when you want to be more dramatic or harsh, it isn’t always just hard light or shadows that can do that, but also a kind of dissonance that you can create through combinations of colors. Larry Crowne was really much more about creating a visual harmony. “I don’t do what people call ‘comedy lighting,’” he continues. “I didn’t flood every set with light so you can see every detail. Actually, I don’t really think about the genre of a movie when I’m lighting; I approach each scene and consider that specific situation and mood and what it should feel like. “The characters aren’t always smiling in a comedy, so the lighting doesn’t always have to be ‘funny’ or bright. I tried to approach some locations, like Larry’s apartment, a little more moody than you’d normally see in a comedy. I keep a fair amount of shadows, especially in the moments after Larry has lost his job and isn’t sure what he is going to do. “I do everything I can to pay respect to the actors’ faces — that’s really what it’s all about,” he continues. “My number-one rule is to photograph the actors as well as I can. You start to learn how to light people from the moment you meet them, and as 16

July 2011

you work with them, you see them in different light and different situations — at meetings, in the hallway — and you start to make mental note of what works for their faces and what doesn’t. You store away all that information and then decide how to apply that within the film.” Although much of the production shot on location in and around Burbank, Calif., and the campus at California State University-Dominguez Hills (which doubled for the fictional East Valley Community College), three primary sets were built onstage at Paramount Studios: Crowne’s apartment, Mercedes’ apartment and Mercedes’ classroom. Rousselot attests that his approach to stage lighting is very simple. For daylight outside windows, he uses a combination of direct light from Nine-Light Maxi-Brutes and ambient light from 6K Spacelights. He uses tungsten sources for both daylight and night looks and prefers to not utilize a “moonlight” feel on night interiors. “I don’t usually like to have light coming from the windows at night,” he explains. “I think it is in conflict with any interior lighting. In real life, when you have a lamp lit inside a room, you don’t seen moonlight inside as well, so I usually never mix one and the other. “For day and night interiors, I’ll start with lighting the location. If it’s daytime, it’s sunlight coming through the windows and maybe a little fill, created by bouncing into white paper on the ceiling or on stands out of frame. Then I’ll think about the actors, and I often help to refine their faces by putting a Chinese lantern on a Fisher boom, like a microphone boom, and moving around the set as they move. American Cinematographer

“Night is the same. It always starts with a logic of what practicals are on, what would the light be in this situation, and then I take care of the faces,” he adds. Larry Crowne went through the digital-intermediate process at EFilm in Hollywood, with Rousselot supervising from Deluxe Laboratories in London. With the facilities linked up, Rousselot could collaborate with EFilm colorist Mitch Paulson via speakerphone as they watched identical 2K footage in real time. “It was just like being in the same room, except I couldn’t hit Mitch on the head when he went in the wrong direction!” Rousselot laughs. “Actually, I wouldn’t do that, anyway! “Tom [Hanks] and [producer] Gary Goetzman originally wanted to warm up the overall look and brighten the picture a bit, but I showed them that look and then a much more natural look, the way we’d shot it, and they agreed that the natural look was much better for the film.” Rousselot concludes, “As simple as the movie may sound, the shoot was never boring. I get bored when I’m sitting around and waiting for people who can’t make up their minds. On Larry Crowne , we were always moving, always shooting. It was a wonderful energy and environment.”

TECHNICAL SPECS 2.40:1 Anamorphic 35mm Panaflex Millennium XL Panavision G-Series Kodak Vision3 500T 5219, 250D 5207 Digital Intermediate

➣

Top: Shao Kahn gathers his power as he prepares to kill Raiden. Bottom: Liu Kang looks on as Raiden receives a vision from the future.

Kombat Cinematography By Michael Goldman

As with feature films, the reboot of a popular video-game franchise is a big deal. Thus, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, in partnership with N etherRealm Studios, made careful choices in reworking Mortal Kombat, taking the classic title back to its roots both visually and in terms of story. In part, that meant returning to more graphic fighting and violence, but it also returned original characters, designs and an extended narrative to the game via a single-player story mode broken into 16 “chapters,” interspersed with competitive game play. It’s a narrative designed by Ed Boon, co-inventor of the original game, to determine the direction and performance of whatever characters a player is using at a given time. N etherRealm’s creative team built those chapters on the foundation of a particular range of cinematography techniques, which were incorporated in the animation stage as storytelling devices, according to Dominic Cianciolo, N etherRealm’s cinematic director on the project. Cianciolo explains that the title of “cinematic director” put him in charge of directing the story chapters, editing them and serving as layout director of photogra18

July 2011

phy for them. Essentially, he was in charge of all camera-related aspects of the production outside of lighting. The game’s environment unit handled lighting during creation of fight sequences specifically, setting lighting templates that Cianciolo’s team followed while building the story mode. Dave Pindara, the game’s environment director, says the main priority for lighting was to simply provide players with clear visual definitions of the characters and all visual effects that might come into play during the fights. “By default, each character has a pre-defined rim light built into his materials, which helps to place him on top of the world [where the fighting arena is located],” says Pindara. “We then add a American Cinematographer

very small amount of bounce tinting representative of the unique arena, which has to work for all the characters. Our default lighting rig is adjusted to match the intensity and light direction of the environment.” In all other areas, Cianciolo made camera decisions for the narrative story, tapping his background in directing, cinematography, animation and previsualization work. He notes that the basic production pipeline for the game, which was produced over 17 months between September 2009 and early this year, was fairly straightforward for such a sophisticated video game. Body-movement data was collected through a traditional motion-capture shoot. All previsualized imagery was built in

Frame grabs courtesy of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

I

Top: Liu Kang tackles Shao Kahn as the two engage in “mortal kombat.” Bottom: Kitana discovers Shang Tsung’s hideous cloning experiments.

Autodesk’s Maya animation software and edited in Adobe Premiere Pro, with Maya also used for special-effects animation. Additional body and hand animation was created using Autodesk’s MotionBuilder. Final material throughout the game was “shot” using a customized version of the Matinee tool (which N etherRealm dubbed “Cinema”) of the Unreal 3 game engine, which essentially functions as a sophisticated non-linear editor that permits artists to assemble and edit animation, visual effects and props, and then shoot that edited data with virtual cameras. N etherRealm customized Matinee to include a user-friendly interface for setting 20

July 2011

up depth-of-field and to create more accurate visual representations of real-world depth-of-field effects. The company also added a “Post FX” tool to enable artists to do basic color corrections to imagery within Unreal. Final scenes ended up in the game in two basic forms — either as scenes that run real time in the game engine at 60 fps to match the game’s fighting sequences, or as pre-rendered movies that are separately placed on the game disc, running at 30 fps in order to fit the additional movie content on the disc. As state-of-the-art as that process was, Cianciolo emphasizes that the nature American Cinematographer

of the camera movement in the computer was more sophisticated than a typical fighting-genre video game. “Story has always been the key element of Mortal Kombat,” says Cianciolo. “Even when the game was in arcades in the early 1990s, players could read bios of the characters, accompanied by still imagery. Now the fights are separated by traditional dramatic scenes that set up the next fight, and so on, making it a feature-length interactive movie. So we approached the cinematography as though it was a narrative project, and we used all available camera tools in Maya and Unreal to make that work with the same underlying cinematography principles you’d apply to a feature. “I put together a style guide at the outset and outlined the emotional journey of each character, and how that should be reflected in the camerawork,” he continues. “Some chapters have a still [stationary] camera on a tripod, and then we adjust the focal length; some chapters, where there is more action, have a constantly moving camera, and we adjust focal length and framing from there. So, instead of doing highly stylized cinematography, whenever we moved the camera, we treated it as a real camera move. You’ll see Steadicam shots, crane shots, dolly shots and so on during the course of the narrative, but each move is tied to a particular creative point.” Cianciolo says the goal with the

Raiden and Liu Kang plead for the intervention of the Elder Gods.

virtual cinematography was to mimic a Super 35mm camera aperture — in this case, 1.77:1. “The final, actual camera aperture and size are determined by the programmers, and that was set before we started making the game,” he notes. “But certainly, we were trying to mimic real 35mm cameras visually. There was no need to attempt film grain because Ed Boon wanted the images to play back at 60 fps in real time to make the game respond to controls properly. Grain wasn’t feasible under such circumstances; we wanted a high level of detail in the fighting environments, and there is extensive blood and gore in the fighting sequences. It didn’t make sense to pile too many effects on top of each image to render frames at that rate. We did post-processing effects to mimic the effects of a digital-intermediate process, and stylistically, we were trying to emulate 35mm photography.” The techniques Cianciolo’s team employed included, among other things, a strategic alternation between moving and locked shots for the purpose of building emotion. They also attempted to alternate between dolly and handheld mounts to subjectively capture the characters’ different emotional experiences. The team also employed a nuanced approach to camera angles, Dutched framing, depth-of-field adjustments and focal-length changes within scenes. “These are standard considerations for traditional motion-picture work, but this 22

July 2011

level of sophistication is still somewhat unusual in the fighting-game world,” adds Cianciolo. “There are limitations, of course, because it’s a different medium. We have to be careful, for instance, about how much we move the camera, not in terms of the move, but in terms of the environment. If we move the camera too much, it might require building new assets [for the background]. But the overall goal was to create a feel that would suggest these images were filmed in the real world.” Cianciolo cites a few examples involving key characters. Kitana, for instance, begins as a villainess and goes through an evolution before switching sides in the conflict at the heart of the narrative. “We aren’t sure of her origins, so we kept the focal length around 75mm and increased the amount of blur on her at the beginning, and also added Dutched framing to create an off-balance feel,” Cianciolo explains. “As she changes, the amount of Dutching increases and the focal length gets more pronounced, and as soon as she gets her purpose back, the framing goes to a level horizon, we bring her focal length back a bit, dial back on the depth-of-field and make a few other subtle adjustments.” For the pivotal character Liu Kang, a human warrior who is the defender of Earthrealm, the goal was to showcase the character’s stability and sense of purpose. “Therefore, we stayed primarily with static framing,” says Cianciolo. “We kept the horizon level, limiting rotation to basic panAmerican Cinematographer

and-tilt, and when the camera did move, it simulated dolly movement — straight, steady lines — to suit his serious persona.” By contrast, Stryker is a N ew York Police Dept. detective who has no knowledge of the Mortal Kombat universe until he is pulled into the game. Therefore, when he enters the narrative, he has to push through a sense of confusion over the transformations in the world, and everything he has ever believed, while simultaneously fighting his way through monsters invading New York. “We wanted the player to participate in Stryker’s chaotic journey, so we went for a camera style that mimicked combat photography,” says Cianciolo. “That meant exaggerated movement, additional camera shake and much less precise framing. The camera also stays close to the actors, shooting with wide lenses, in order to help create a sense of intimacy with the action.” These creative uses of the virtual camera lie at the heart of the success of the interactive story within the game, according to Cianciolo. “There is a common misconception in the wider 3-D business that anyone can do virtual camerawork,” he says. “I think it’s important to educate people to understand the intricacies and the craft that go into building shots and deciding how to use them. There simply is no substitute for real-world camera experience and education.” ●

It Starts & Ends Here “FotoKem’s nextLAB™ Mobile allows DPs to bridge the gap between production and post while maintaining control over the look, and assures producers that camera original elements are being safely managed near location. Dailies can now be delivered with incredible speed and quality thanks to nextLAB™ Mobile and the expertise of FotoKem.” Amy Vincent, ASC

FotoKem’s nextLAB™ Mobile is an award-winning, unified post production system that brings powerful workflow capabilities to the set and near location, with dedicated support designed to streamline finishing.

www.fotokem.com Follow us on Facebook & Twitter

© 2011 FotoKem Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Monster Out of the Box A military train wreck unleashes a mysterious creature in Super 8, shot by Larry Fong and directed by J.J. Abrams. By Iain Stasukevich •|• 24

July 2011

S

et in 1979, Super 8 is a story about the relationship between a boy and his father, only this tale also includes a devastating train wreck carrying top-secret military cargo from Area 51. The deadly cargo escapes and wreaks havoc on the sleepy town of Lillian, Ohio, where the boy, Joe (Joel Courtney), and his friends are about to finish shooting their latest Super 8 movie. The boys’ filmmaking venture, a zombie flick calledThe Case, had special resonance for director J.J. Abrams and cinematographer Larry Fong, who first collaborated when they were kids. Fong recalls, “I had a friend who lived across the street from J.J., and we’d make Super 8 movies while J.J. was across the street working on his own Super 8 stuff. Eventually,

American Cinematographer

Unit photography by François Duhamel, SMPSP. Photos and frame grabs courtesy of Paramount Pictures.

J.J. and I started making movies together. I wasn’t the cameraman, though. I remember helping him out with special-effects makeup!” “The DNA of Super 8 is this weird, geeky obsession we had with the magic of making movies when we were kids,” says Abrams. “Larry had to shoot this movie because our references were exactly the same. We lived them together.” Footage from The Case appears throughout Super 8 , and Abrams and

Opposite: Joe (Joel Courtney) and his father, Jackson (Kyle Chandler), attempt to survive a mysterious creature’s onslaught on their Ohio town in Super 8. This page, top to bottom: Joe and his friends set up a scene for their Super 8 movie; Alice (Elle Fanning) and Joe study a mysterious object; Alice and the others face their worst fears.

ww.theasc.com w

July 2011

25

◗

Monster Out of the Box

Top and middle: The kids survey the wreckage after a military train crashes. Bottom: The budding filmmakers put in some work at their school.

Fong originally intended to return to their roots and shoot that material on Super 8. However, CGI had to be integrated into some of the footage, and the visual-effects team at Industrial Light & Magic found it too difficult to manipulate the grainy Super 8 image. ILM encouraged the filmmakers to shoot 35mm and create the Super 8 look in post, “but I couldn’t bear the thought of doing that,” says Fong. “I asked if we could compromise and shoot that material on Super 16 instead. It bummed J.J. and me out, but we couldn’t ignore ILM’s predicament.” For footage in The Case that didn’t require CGI, Fong did shoot some Super 8, using a Classic Professional (a restored and updated Beaulieu 4008) obtained from Pro8mm. For the Super 16mm material, he used an Arri 16SR-3. He shot Kodak Vision3 200T 7213 and 500T 7219, matching the 35mm negative he used for the rest of the picture, and operated the camera in a loose, clumsy fashion to create an amateur look. Abrams even got into the spirit of things, jumping in to operate a few shots with the children. Fong lit The Case with hardwarestore clamp lights with normal light bulbs, along with vintage hard quartz lights, pointing them at the actors with deliberate clumsiness and creating multiple, obvious shadows on the walls. “It was fun and much less stressful to shoot that stuff,” he recalls. “It was like reverting to childhood. Everyone was 26

July 2011

American Cinematographer

Top: Director J.J. Abrams coaches his young castmembers. Bottom: Cinematographer Larry Fong takes a meter reading on location.

laughing and smiling.” The main visual reference for the rest of Super 8 was a sci-fi classic from the 1970s: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, shot by Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC (AC Jan. ’78). “The look of that movie informed all my choices, from lighting schemes to color and lenses, as well as the format we shot in, 35mm anamorphic,” reports Fong, who used Panavision’s older anamorphic lenses, the C-Series and E-Series, for most of the picture. (He adds, however, that Super 8 takes a distinctly modern approach to camera movement, making liberal use of Steadicam and Technocrane moves throughout the picture.) Fong’s approach to lighting Super 8 was different than anything he’d ever attempted, though sometimes more out of necessity than style. “Most of the story takes place at night, and our key cast of minors had a fixed amount of work hours and could not shoot past midnight,” he says. “That meant that as many scenes as possible had to be covered by three cameras, frequently at opposing angles. Lengthy relighting for close-ups was not an option. Most scenes were lit for the master shot, and

the B and C cameras might not always obtain the most flattering light from their respective angles. Day-exterior scenes were often filmed with the sunlight shining undiffused into the actors’ faces. “Many cinematographers would prefer backlight, but we just had to embrace the fact that a lot of our shots were going to end up frontlit, and not lit as softly as we would like,” he continues. “Early on this was a point of discussion ww.theasc.com w

with my colleagues, but when I looked through the camera, oddly, it wasn’t so bad. I just had a feeling that it would work, and when I saw the dailies, I realized we’d hit on something. I can’t explain it, but the vibe, the tone, was exactly right.” Fong also discovered that a lot of practical sources were making their way into his frame, particularly in wide night exteriors. “Instead of large soft sources close to the camera, we were using large July 2011

27

•|•

ILM Projects Terror

•|•

and subtracted one image from the other, like ‘A minus B.’ ‘A’ is the image that has the projector light plus ambient light, and ‘B’ is the image with only ambient light. When you subtract B from A, you’re left with the light coming from the projector.” The trick with shooting at 48 fps is that the two sets of images didn’t line up perfectly. Libreri compares the offset to video interlacing. Also, shooting at twice the normal frame rate meant the XL2s’ shutters were spinning twice as fast, reducing the motion blur caused by the actors’ movements. In post, Libreri’s team used The Foundry’s Kronos plugin for Nuke to line up and add the proper amount of motion blur to each clip so they could be matched and keyed. Distorting the image when it played on the actors’ faces posed another challenge. “The solution was stereo triangulation,” says Libreri. “If you know the relative position and orientation of two cameras and draw two lines [to them] from a single point

in space, one through the center of each lens to a projected point on the image plane, you can calculate where it will be in three-dimensional space.” Two Sony PMW-EX3 cameras triangulated the actors’ positions and features in 3-D virtual space for the purposes of distorting and compositing the finished projector images back into the scene. With a chuckle, Libreri recalls that shooting the scene with the strobe light going off raised a few eyebrows on set. “I was trying to convince Larry [Fong] and J.J. [Abrams] that it would all work, and footage would magically be projected on the kids’ faces in the end. “That’s why J.J.’s movies are so great,” he muses. “He is a true believer in the magic of visual effects, and he was happy to let us develop a custom technique for his film.” — Iain Stasukevich

I

n a short scene in Super 8 , amateur filmmakers Joe (Joel Courtney) and Charles (Riley Griffiths) discover that their only surviving bit of Super 8mm footage of a massive train wreck is fogged and damaged, and they get into a heated argument, stepping in front of the projector while it’s still running. The simplicity of the scene is deceptive. Because the projected footage would have to incorporate CGI — it offers a glimpse of a mysterious creature escaping from the wreckage — there was actually no footage to project when the scene was shot, so the filmmakers had to find a way to shoot the scene and add the projected image in post. Visual-effects artists would also need to apply an appropriate level of distortion to the image while it’s projected onto the boys. To achieve the objective, Industrial Light & Magic visual-effects supervisor Kim Libreri proposed what he calls a “diabolically complex” post technique. He and his team borrowed an old Super 8 projector from the production’s props department and modified it to use a high-powered LED bulb instead of a standard tungsten projection bulb. Motion-control cameraman Steve Switaj built a box that generated a 48Hz signal to sync the production’s main cameras, Panaflex Millennium XL2s, with the bulb in the projector. The shots that required compositing would be captured at 48 fps, and on every other exposed frame of film the LED projector lamp would go off. The result was two separate shots from the same camera. “Imagine playing back this footage at full speed,” explains Libreri. “On the odd frames, you only see the ambient light in the room, without anything coming from the projector. On the even frames, the projector light is on in addition to the ambient light. “Because we were only interested in the light coming from the projector, we took these two sequences of images

28

July 2011

American Cinematographer

Top and middle: The military moves in to confront the terrifying events threatening the town. Bottom: After discovering a network of tunnels beneath the town cemetery, our heroes use sparklers to light their path. Supplemental light sources were used to boost the illumination.

hard sources a quarter of a mile away,” explains gaffer Jim Grce. The lighting package was the same for all night exteriors: a 15-6K Bebee Night Light, nine 18K LRX Raptors distributed among three 120' Condors, and a mobile LRX Piranha armed with six 12K HMI Pars (which could be interchanged with tungsten bulbs). “You have to position lights like that way ahead of time and hope you’ve made a good guess as to where the camera’s going to be, because they take hours to move,” Fong remarks. “Sometimes you can’t move them because they’re behind a building or up against a mountain. You’ve only got so many choices as to where you’re going to place lights that big, and our cameras were pointing in so many directions that we’d inevitably end up looking right at one of them.” Viewers familiar with Abrams’ work will recognize his trademark lens flares streaking across the screen. The director even occasionally asked for lights in the frame to specifically create the effect. “We did it in the suburbs, and we even did it in the middle of nowhere,” Fong recalls. “At first some of us were scratching our heads — we’d do ww.theasc.com w

July 2011

29

◗

Monster Out of the Box

This page and opposite: Reference diagrams shows the crew’s approach to a cave set built on stages in Playa Vista. The instrument key for both diagrams is on the facing page.

a dolly shot, and a light would come into the frame behind the actors’ heads and flare out the lens. [The light] is clearly not the moon, and there are no streetlights or any other sources in the scene. It’s obviously a ‘movie’ light.” “I know it sounds crazy, but a lens flare reminds me that anamorphic lenses are amazing, gorgeously designed pieces of glass that interact with light in a beautiful way,” explains Abrams. “Flares can be purposeful and additive, and at the right time they remind me, in a good way, that I’m watching a movie. It doesn’t take me out of it. I think it draws me in deeper.” Joe immerses himself in helping his friend Charles (Riley Griffiths) finish The Case as a way of coping with the recent loss of his mother, but after 30

July 2011

the kids capture a spectacular train crash that unleashes a very large passenger into the Ohio countryside, they quickly find themselves playing parts in a real military cover-up. The train crash was filmed at Firestone Ranch in Agua Dulce, Calif. In the sequence, the kids are filming one of the pivotal scenes for The Case when they see a train approaching in the distance and decide to incorporate it into the film. They roll the camera, and as the train approaches, Joe notices a pickup truck parked on the tracks. The train collides with the truck and derails, smashing through the depot. Fong says the establishing shot of the depot is the biggest night exterior he has ever photographed. The depot platform was only about 40' long, but American Cinematographer

Abrams wanted the tracks to extend miles into the horizon, and the location was actually boxed in by mountains and hills a few hundred yards away. To suggest the view Abrams wanted, Fong had his crew place red lights of decreasing size on poles of decreasing height along the tracks’ suggested trajectory, and dot the nearby mountains and hills with lightbulbs to suggest homes and other buildings in the distance. Keeping the LRX and Bebee lights out of frame while lighting to a high-enough stop for some of the lenses was a challenge. “Anamorphics can be tricky to work with at night,” says Fong. “For this scene and other night exteriors, I usually pushed 5219 by one stop because the longer lenses were so much slower. I always tried to light to a

T41⁄3. That’s a lot of light, but in the end the focus pullers didn’t mind the deeper stop!” There was only one chance to get the train w reck, and although the sequence featur es a lot of C GI, the special-effects team had to build a trac k and pull a r ig through the depot like a battering ram. The stunt was covered by nine cameras, with Fong remotely operating one on a crane arm. The A camera, operated by P hil Carr-Forster, was on a 50' Technocrane. B-c amera operator Colin Anderson was on a speeding dolly, as was C-c amera operator John Skotchdopole. Some Arri 435s were strategic ally placed ar ound the action, and two loc ked-off Eyemos in crash bo xes wer e positioned near the platform. After two day s of scouting , prep and rehearsal, the destruction itself only took about five seco nds. “Most of the

pressure was on the special-effects artists bec ause they had to tr igger the ram that destr oyed the building ,” notes Fong. “They also rigged fireballs and air cannons loaded with safe debr is. The only thing we had to keep c lear of was the ram as it was pulled thr ough the building, which was pr e-scored for the destruction. They cut halfway thr ough all the lumber, so we kne w what pieces were going to br eak and wher e they would land. We had stunt doubles for the kids r unning away fr om the depot and used a long lens on one of the cameras to make it look like they wer e closer to the explosions than they r eally were.” Soon af ter the crash, strange things start happening around town — dogs disappear, motors go missing from cars, and ther e ar e my sterious radio transmissions and electr ical disturbances. The kids begin to suspect that www.theasc.com

these e vents ar e r elated to the train crash, specifically to the grainy impr ession of something mo ving in the footage they c aptured. (S ee sidebar on page 28.) The military soon reaches the same conc lusion, and soldiers arr ive to take the childr en captive in a militar yprison bus. Night dr iving scenes on the bus were accomplished with poor man ’s process, with a r eal bus placed on a blacked-out stage. Fong approached the lighting practically, working with Gr ce to make the vehic le essentiall y light itself. The bus’ s existing light fixtur es were swapped out for LiteGear LiteCard 8s, flexible , adhesive-bac ked LED array s measur ing about 2 1⁄2" x 41⁄2" and about as thin as a cr edit card. The LiteCards wer e installed in two parallel rows running the length of the bus’s roof and wired through the chassis to a po wer sour ce in the floor . The July 2011

31

Monster Out of the Box

#!$

!"

%!&$ ' (!&&) **+ **+ ,&! ' &"- & (! ' ./+ !" &"- 0!1!! & 2 & & 0( ' & ! (! "!"3!0 % ' & ! ",! 45 ' & ! ! 1! 6 /755#

' ,&& (& 0!1!! 8*5+ 895+

A large rig designed by gaffer Jim Grce, rigging gaffer Roger Meilink and key grip Gary Dodd was used to simulate the array of lights emanating from a spacecraft hovering over the town’s main street.

32

July 2011

American Cinematographer

fixtures could also be stuck to magnets and quickly applied to the vehicle’s metal interior. “The LiteCards made moving around in the bus really easy,” says Fong. “They gave us a lot of light for their size. We were able to shoot at around a T4, and all we had to do to for an additional keylight or eyelight was come in with more LiteCards or a small Kino Flo.” When the creature attacks the bus and knocks it off the road — a night-exterior stunt staged in Simi Valley, Calif. — the creature itself is mostly unseen, its presence teased with interactive lighting effects. A chase sequence was programmed into wireless DMX dimmers to control the LiteCards’ output in order to suggest an electrical disturbance caused by the creature. With their captors temporarily distracted by the accident, the children escape and flee back to their neighborhood. Back in town, the kids find that military tanks have taken control of the

Photo courtesy of Larry Fong.

◗

THE CAMERA OF CHOICE TRULY CINEMATIC. RELIABLE. EASY. COST EFFICIENT. FUTURE PROOF. Leading cinematographers, producers and directors are selecting the ALEXA digital camera system for every type of production, from television dramas, commercials and music videos to major international 2D and 3D feature ﬁlms. To name only a few:

3D FEATURES

2D FEATURES

TV PRODUCTIONS

COMMERCIALS

47 RONIN ASTERIX & OBELIX FINAL DESTINATION 5 HUGO CABRET LIFE OF PI SPY KIDS 4 THE THREE MUSKETEERS WICKIE & THE TREASURE

2 DAYS IN NEW YORK ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER AMOUR ANONYMOUS EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE KILLER JOE NOW PROM

BORED TO DEATH BORGIA DOWNTON ABBEY SERIES 2 GAME OF THRONES HOW TO MAKE IT IN AMERICA IN PLAIN SIGHT LAW & ORDER: SVU MAFIOSA MORT D’UN PRÉSIDENT

ARMANI CITROËN D&G WATCHES DHL DIOR LACOSTE MERCEDES NINTENDO

OF THE GODS

www.arridigital.com

THE JURY II

NIKE

◗

Monster Out of the Box

Fong leads the charge of the light brigade.

streets in order to confront the creature. The attack was shot on location in Weirton, W. Va., and the crew spent several nights lighting wide swaths of

the neighborhood with the LRX and Bebee lights. The production even bought a couple of vacant houses in the neighborhood for the express purpose of blowing them up. “We drove tanks up and down their streets and fired off rounds in the middle of the night, and instead of complaining, the residents would bring out the lawn chairs and blankets and quietly enjoy the show,” says Fong. “They even clapped when J.J. said ‘Cut!’ Everyone was so cooperative and generous. We couldn’t have done it without them.” Because of the tight schedule, every scene, from big action sequences to intimate dialogue scenes, was meticulously planned and pre-rigged — a tall order for a film in which action often transitions from interiors to exteriors within a single scene, night and day, in different cities, weeks apart. “We were in multiple locations every day, and our rigging gaffer, Roger Meilink, was a master at the logistics of rigging and

wrapping multiple locations at once,” says Grce. “Having wireless DMX control over all of our dimming was a huge time saver, because we used a lot of interactive lighting throughout the shoot to [suggest] explosions, burning houses, electrical disturbances and so forth.” One of the scenes that worried Fong the most called for a seemingly simple lighting effect: after the kids discover a network of tunnels beneath the town cemetery, they explore it using only Fourth of July sparklers to light their way. “When I first read that in the script, I panicked, because the tunnel scene is meant to be pitch black except when a sparkler is lit, and I knew a real sparkler was not going to put out any light,” says Fong. “But Jim and his guys came up with a way to simulate the effect.” The actors carried real sparklers, which burned out within minutes, and to simulate their effect, Grce’s crew

created LED ribbons that could be handheld, as well as clusters of DMXcontrolled LiteGear LEDs that could be waved around off screen. Key light and fill were created with 1x1 LiteGear LEDs following a similar color and chase sequence. The labyrinthian tunnel set was built onstage at Raleigh Studios in Playa Vista, Calif., with the top left open to facilitate the placement of backlights and 60 6K spacelights for general ambience — “Movie darkness,” quips Fong. On occasion, the camera was dropped into the set from above with the Technocrane. Tracking the source of a powerful energy field, the military is eventually led to the town’s water tower. There, they discover that the creature has hoarded machinery and electronics to build a spacecraft. As the craft hovers over the town’s main drag, it emits a spectacular array of light — the result of a 22' square interactive-lighting rig designed by

Grce, Meilink and key grip Gary Dodd. Suspended from a 200' Champion crane, the rig housed 60 separate DMX-controlled lamp heads mapped to light specific areas of the location: the actors, the mill, the car lot, the street and the background. Eight vertical six-Par MaxiCoops lined each side of the rig, and inside the frame they formed were 10 horizontal MaxiCoops. All MaxiCoops were lamped with alternating medium-flood and narrow-spot Par64 bulbs and gelled with Cyan 30. Eight 1,200-wattdaylight-balanced PRG Bad Boy spots were positioned beneath the rig and programmed to suggest searchlights on the bottom of the ship. Finally, eight Atomic 3000 Xenon strobes were laced throughout the rig to send flares into the lens. For Fong, making Super 8 was like another boyhood adventure behind the camera with Abrams, only this time their work was writ large. “It was kind of unbelievable sometimes,” the cine-

matographer recalls. “J.J. would call ‘Cut!’ after we blew up a two-story house, and we’d just look at each other and laugh. After all this time, how crazy is it that we’re still doing this?” ●

TECHNICAL SPECS 2.40:1 Anamorphic 35mm, Super 16mm, Super 8mm Panaflex Millennium XL2; Arri435, 16SR-3; Eyemo 35; Classic Professional (Beaulieu 4008) Panavision C-Series, E-Series; Zeiss Superspeed Kodak Vision3 200T 5213/7213, 500T 5219/7219 Digital Intermediate

®

The Cooke Look

One Look. All Speeds

cookeoptics.com

CookeOpticsLimited

T: +44 (0)116 264 0700

British Optical Innovation and Quality Since 1893.

Canada, South America, USA: T: +1-973-335-4460 35

Dion Beebe, ASC, ACS and his collaborators weave palette into plot for Green Lantern. By Michael Goldman •|•

Ring of

36

Power

July 2011

G

reen Lantern is a movie that deals directly, intimately and constantly with the issue of color. After all, it’s a comicbook-sourced movie, and, as cinematographer Dion Beebe, ASC, ACS notes, “color is an integral part of the comic-book canon.” In this case, however, Beebe is referring to far more than the title or lead character (played by Ryan Reynolds), a common human who earns the right to wear a powerful, energy-emitting ring to fight the forces of evil as part of an intergalactic organization. Rather, Beebe is referring to the strategic use of color for thematic and story purposes. It was the challenge of how best to design, capture and then modify

American Cinematographer

Unit photography by François Duhamel, SMPSP and Nels Israelson. Photos and frame grabs courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.

Opposite: Fearless test pilot Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) inherits a ring that earns him entrée with the intergalactic peacekeeping force the Green Lantern Corps in Green Lantern. This page, top: Endowed with Lantern powers, Jordan rescues his boss, Carol Ferris (Blake Lively). Middle: Dion Beebe, ASC, ACS checks his frame. Bottom: Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard) threatens the peace on Earth.

these colors that attracted Beebe to the project. The comic-book world, he suggests, offers filmmakers “a particularly visual genre” to explore. “In Green Lantern , green relates to the power of will,” Beebe explains. “Red is the power of anger. Yellow is the power of fear, and so on. Our approach to color in the film was firstly to define how to represent these colors. There are many shades of green, so which is the right one? What shade of yellow defines ww.theasc.com w

July 2011

37

◗

Ring of Power

Right: A fateful encounter with Abin Sur (Temuera Morrison) changes Jordan's destiny. Below: Jordan experiments with his ring at home.

fear? These decisions were made together with [director] Martin Campbell, [production designer] Grant Major and [costume designer] Ngila Dickson. “I took a slightly more vibrant approach to color and lighting,” he adds. “At times, we were also more graphic with lighting — a little more defined, a little more high-contrast than something I would apply to a drama. Creating a dynamic aesthetic in this genre was definitely a major challenge.” Beebe wasn’t the only one feeling challenged, given that Green Lantern is a tentpole picture full of visual effects (about 1,500 shots) that were still being worked on a few weeks before the film’s release. “I read the script and loved the story, but I was also horrified by the chal38

July 2011

lenges of the technical process,” recalls Campbell, whose recent credits include Edge of Darkness and Casino Royale (AC Dec. ’06). “We had a lot of bluescreen to deal with, we created an entire planet [called Oa], and our main character had to wear a virtual uniform. It can be overwhelming at the beginning, but you get the best people to help you, and you learn as you go along. For me, Green Lantern was an amazingly dense learning experience.” Although the extensive CGI prompted the filmmakers to consider shooting digitally, they decided on film after testing the available digital cameras. “We really liked what we were seeing on film in terms of contrast range, and in our testing we were looking at high-key situations,” says Beebe. American Cinematographer

“HD stood up well in most situations, but in firelight and high-contrast scenarios 35mm looked even better. “Another consideration was that Martin has always worked with film, and there did not seem to be reason enough for him to acclimate to HD for this project,” he adds. Beebe chose Kodak Vision3 500T 5219 for all stage work and night exteriors, Vision3 200T 5213 for most day exteriors, and Vision2 50D 5201 for day exteriors set during flashbacks to when Hal Jordan (the Lantern’s alter ego) was a boy. Working with Panaflex Millenniums and Platinums and Arri 235s, Beebe used Panavision Primo prime and zoom lenses and an Angenieux Optimo 15-40mm lightweight zoom. According to 1st AC E.J. Misisco, the workhorse lenses were a 90mm Primo Macro (for close-up ring shots and inserts), a 1090mm Primo Compact Zoom (for all the crane work, including plates for flying sequences), and a 24mm Primo prime (for classic hero push-ins), of which there are fewer than a dozen in service worldwide. Misisco asked Panavision to reserve one of the 24mm Primos for Beebe early on, and he notes that Campbell fell in love with the lens because of his preference for shooting close to actors with wider lenses. Also, the production used a Panavised Century Swing/Shift System for flashback

sequences to help give that footage a unique look. Green Lantern was shot in and around New Orleans in early 2010, with two main challenges constantly looming over the production. The first was how to best use the signature color green in lighting, photography and visual effects. The second was how to visualize the Green Lantern’s full-body suit, which fits like a second skin and constantly emits light. The suit’s emissive green energy is a visual effect that constantly interacts with real and virtual environments, essentially becoming a bluish-green aura that subtly goes white in the middle as the intensity of the beam grows. The question of how much green light should be used on actors and props in those scenes was always at the forefront of the filmmakers’ discussions. They eventually concluded that they didn’t want to “over-egg the pudding,” in Campbell’s words. “The temptation was to light everything green or textured green, but we resisted that temptation,” says the director. “We figured white, neutral light would be a better approach.” Beebe elaborates, “We ran tests where I played around with the idea of interactive light emanating from the Lantern’s ring and body, and we realized that lighting people with green light on a

film set doesn’t work. You end up with an overall wash of green that’s distracting and doesn’t flatter any actor’s face. [This method] also would have tied us to a specific green gel color, which would have limited our ability to manipulate the shading in the DI. So we decided to not apply any green [light] during the shooting process at all, and instead use neutral white light to give ourselves maximum flexibility in post. We used a slightly cool, white light to create interactive elements that the visual-effects team could combine with [CG light] as needed.” Beebe’s gaffer, John Buckley, calls this “creating an open palette so that our

work would not interfere with color transformations that would be completed in post. Our neutral white — a 20K through Full Grid at about 3,200°K — worked nicely for this purpose.” As for the Lantern’s suit, the filmmakers immediately ruled out a practical costume and opted to make it entirely CG for the whole picture. In prep, they tested using latex and silicon pieces of the suit in combination with CGI, but it was too complicated to get the material to move according to the story’s needs, according to Kent Houston, a visualeffects supervisor who was on set throughout the shoot. ➣

Sinestro (Mark Strong, top photo) addresses a gathering of the Corps and warns of an impending threat to the universe.

ww.theasc.com w

July 2011

39

◗

Ring of Power

Right: Hammond hatches his evil schemes in a massive laboratory. Below: For flying sequences, Reynolds was suspended in front of bluescreen while the camera — mounted on a Technocrane — moved around him.

“When the suit was static, it looked quite nice, but there were problems with motion and with the concept that it emits its own light,” explains Houston. “We found that the way the material folded, the time it took Ryan to put it on, and Ryan’s own comfort level all weighed against [using a practical suit]. We also knew that in the end, we’d 40

July 2011

have to do a lot of digital work on it, anyway. We decided we’d have more control with a fully CG suit; that would enable us to sculpt Ryan’s physique to the character, and give us full control over lighting and color without worrying about folds in the elbows, armpits and knees.” Sony Pictures Imageworks, the American Cinematographer

film’s lead visual-effects house, created the virtual suit, and Beebe’s team photographed elements for it in collaboration with Jim Berney, Imageworks’ onset supervisor. For this work, Reynolds wore a gray marker-tracking outfit and white LED necklace that provided emissive light elements that could be used to build the light-emitting Green Lantern logo on the character’s chest. Determining how to film the character on set evolved out of research into the Simulcam approach that was employed on Avatar (AC Jan. ’10), according to Beebe. “We looked at Simulcam, which is basically an intricate system of witness cameras that lets you track what you’re doing on the studio floor and matches virtual moves to it, almost like real-time comping,” he recalls. “But you have to build a 360degree virtual environment in the computer that they can use to track with the camera on set, and generating those backgrounds wasn’t practical for us. “Instead, we used a sort of scaleddown witness-camera setup, which

G e m

4:4:4

TM

n

Award Winning Uncompressed Recorder!

Essential Upgrade for the Sony F3

-4:4:4 RGB S-Log 10-bit -Low Power, Weight, Size, Cost -$5995 with transfer-station, hard case

Full 3D Option will be available for $1,995 when the Gemini 4:4:4 ships! TM

www.convergent-design.com

www.gemini444.com

++720-221-3861 ++803-278-0941

◗

Ring of Power

Fueled by willpower, the power ring can create whatever Jordan can imagine. Much of the interactive light from the ring and energy suit was created with an LED ribbon.

involved Sony PMW-EX3 prosumer cameras that were synced and gen-locked with the film cameras, and would shoot off-angle whenever we had Ryan in his suit or Sinestro [played by Mark Strong] in his suit, which is also virtual. That gave the visual-effects artists the information they needed to build the dimensional suit.” The white LED necklace Reynolds wore for this work — an LED ribbon controlled by 9-volt batteries — was custom-designed for the production by LiteGear. “We needed a light source that was alive on Ryan to help us feel the pulsing energy of the suit,” says Buckley. “The LEDs were perfect because they could move with him. We attached them with Velcro and gelled them with ½ Minus Green. They gave us good interactive light elements.” For shots of the Lantern, Beebe and his camera team had to carefully frame Reynolds’ mid-chest area, where the pulsating Green Lantern logo would be added in post. “[A-camera operator] Peter McCaffrey and I talked constantly about focal lengths,” Misisco recalls. “We had to know if we should be seeing the whole symbol or only half of it. Some close-ups would stop under his chin, and then we would have to get creative about framing the symbol in or, in some shots, out.” As the project rolled on, special motion-capture shoots of Reynolds in his tracking suit became routine. Typically, six witness-camera operators worked in 42

July 2011

concert with Beebe’s camera crew, but took direction on framing, camera position and angles from Berney. Part of their challenge was filming Reynolds’ face and neck so that Imageworks could create what Berney calls “the blend line,” where the suit merges into the character’s neck. “There

“We needed a light source that was alive on Ryan to help us feel the pulsing energy of the suit.” is no suit collar or hard edge to glom the head onto,” says Berney. “Close to the camera, you see the suit as part of the skin, a natural transition to real skin. To achieve that, we had to come up with a technique to mimic or duplicate all the muscle movements of the neck — and there are more muscle movements and combinations on the neck than in the face. So we put tracking markers on Ryan’s face and neck to get movements where we could do a one-to-one correspondence and extrapolate not only American Cinematographer

facial motion, but also neck motion.” Imageworks tweaked a version of its facial-movement-tracking software to work for neck movement. Eventually, the team shot separate face-capture and neck-capture sessions of Reynolds and later combined that data with data from whole-body shots, tracking the CG suit up the actor’s neck. Green Lantern required a range of other lighting effects and light-capture techniques. The biggest set piece is a giant government lab designed to house a large, mysterious machine that scans aliens. Buckley used a 60' 12-strand rope light configured out of pieces he found in China to build 12 separate but identical circuits that could be set to pulsate in unison with the pounding of the giant scanner. Dimmer-board operator Brian Booth controlled the lights through a Whole Hog 3 during filming. Other techniques were employed to capture real-world light elements to use in various combinations to build interactive light. For wide shots that showed entire environments being impacted by a light blast, Beebe had his crew place lights on poles, controlled by dimmers, so that cameras could track swirling, radiant light around characters to enhance the effect of the Green Lantern. “Actually, the idea got bigger,” Beebe notes. “With the help of key grip Don Reynolds and his crew, we rigged a 10K bulb to the end of a 50-foot Technocrane. That allowed us to reach

◗

Ring of Power camera, it’s the other way around. We can grab the HDRI light and apply it to characters within a day, and then spend the rest of our time doing whatever’s necessary to make it look cooler. “The Spherocam was important for the neck blend because we had to mix CG skin with real skin, and that required spot-on lighting,” he adds. “It’s basically a video camera with a fisheye lens that spins around and grabs 22 stops of data. You can do it at just about any resolution [up to 50 megapixels], and it gives you great range. On a tripod, you can use it in two positions and, with Spheron’s softGreen Lantern and Sinestro speak with a Guardian of the Green Lantern Corps. ware, triangulate points and quickly build rough geometry for match-move across the frame and move with the post. The Spherocam “let us do first-pass purposes.” action. It became a real dance involving lighting that, not so many years ago, With CGI playing such a central lighting, grip, camera and the actors.” would have required eight passes to do role in the picture, the production’s previBerney says the visual-effects right,” he notes. sualization work was exhaustive, encomteam tapped the Spherocam high“It used to be that integrating passing storyboards, 3-D previs (created dynamic-range-imaging system to elements was 90 percent of the work, by Pixel Liberation Front), and an extencapture real-world light elements on set and making it look good was the last 10 sive concept-art display created by Major. to utilize for first-pass lighting work in percent,” Berney continues. “With this The production designer calls the latter

44

“the concept room,” explaining that he strategically arranged the key handdrawn and computer-generated concept art and storyboards so that crew members could literally walk through, learn about the virtual environments, and discuss the nature of those shots. “The movie had a huge amount of concept artwork done,” says Major. “About a third of the story takes place off Earth, so it was really important to give everyone some idea what those environments would look like. The concept room enabled us to give an overview of the whole film in artwork. It helped everyone, cast and crew alike.” McCaffrey recalls, “The entire camera crew would walk through there together. That kind of reference material always helps when you have to shoot lead actors against screens. The concept room gave us a solid idea of the final product, and it gave us a great understanding of the scale of the scenes and the sizes of different characters, some of which are

aliens and bigger than humans. It really helped me with simple things like eyelines and composition.” Among the other things filmmakers had to visualize was how, exactly, to make Green Lantern fly — he can literally soar through space. “That was a lot of Technocrane work,” says McCaffrey. “We suspended Ryan in front of bluescreen and created dimensional moves below, around and above him by pushing the camera toward or around him, so that the background will seem to move in post, where they can further dimensionalize it. We essentially gave them a body and a face to combine with the virtual suit.” At press time, Beebe was grading the picture at Technicolor Hollywood, where he was working with colorist Mike Hatzer. “We did a lot of testing in preproduction to arrive at a visual scheme, and the DI gives us the opportunity to really refine it,” says the cinematographer. “And, of course, it’s a great

tool for ensuring that all the CGI blends seamlessly with the live-action material. “I am working closely with Mike to find the right tone,” he concludes. “‘One of our many challenges is making sure the integrity of all these very specific colors, especially green, remain consistent and relate back to the comics.” ●

TECHNICAL SPECS 2.40:1 4-perf Super 35mm Panaflex Millennium, Platinum; Arri 235 Panavision Primo, Angenieux Optimo, Century Swing/Shift Kodak Vision3 500T 5219, 200T 5213; Vision2 50D 5201 Digital Intermediate Stereoscopic Conversion

WORLD CLASS HMI

COME SEE THE LIGHT BRILLIANT HMI LIGHTING SOLUTIONS AVAILABLE FOR RENTAL AT THESE PREFERRED LOCATIONS: ADORAMA RENTAL CO

distributed by www.bronimaging.com (800) 456-0203

45

Director Evan Glodell and cinematographer Joel Hodge bring indie ingenuity to a wild romantic ride with Bellflower, shot with cameras Glodell created.

ShotDown

By Iain Stasukevich •|•

in

ellflower, the feature debut of director/writer Evan Glodell and cinematographer Joel Hodge, tells the familiar tale of a young man who meets a girl, falls in love, has his heart broken and must come to terms with the fallout. How it tells the tale is another thing entirely. Glodell plays Woodrow, who, along with his best friend, Aiden (Tyler Dawson), spends his days paying homage to Lord Humungous from Mad Max and preparing for a global apocalypse by outfitting his 1972 Buick Skylark (dubbed “Medusa”) with a flamethrower. After Woodrow becomes smitten with Milly (Jessie Wiseman), Aiden and their boyhood warrior fantasies soon take a backseat to his new relationship. But all things must end, and although a global apocalypse never arrives, Woodrow’s world is annihilated when Milly betrays him. Glodell finished the first draft of the script forBellflower in 2003, around the same time he met Joel Hodge, who was working in the same building in Camarillo, Calif. Glodell was producing local commercials at a startup company, and Hodge was working as a camera operator for a production company across the hall. The two quickly realized they shared an interest in making movies. The five years that passed before they actually rolled on Bellflower were filled with small projects such as music videos and commercials, which helped them sharpen their skills and muster the resources to start production. “Every time we

46

July 2011

gained access to someone who could help us, we said, ‘We’ve got this script,’ but nobody really seemed to care,” recalls Glodell. “Finally, we decided we’d just have to make it ourselves.” Glodell, a tinkerer and avowed “camera geek,” started developing what would become the Coatwolf Model I, a hand-built 2K digital camera. His first experiments were sparked by the popularity of 35mm cinema adapters for consumer video cameras; he was excited by the possibilities they offered but deterred by the high price tag. Despite a lack of experience with camera optics, he relished the challenge of building a comparable solution for a fraction of the price, and started picking up surplus optics wherever he could find them. “I started cutting up glass and messing around with things until I had something that worked,” explains Glodell. “My first test version was hacked out of some camera from the 1940s. “It was a lot of work, but by the time I was finished, I’d taught myself how all the different elements affected each other,” he continues. “It was a real obsession. I realized that using your own lens mounts and your own focusing mechanisms opens up a lot of doors, creatively speaking.” By the summer of 2008, Glodell’s R&D had yielded five different iterations of lens mounts, each an evolution over the previous model: one would add a tilt-shift bellows, while the next would enlarge the focal plane. A turning point came

American Cinematographer

Photos courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories.

B

Flames

Opposite: Best buds Woodrow (Evan Glodell, left) and Aiden (Tyler Dawson) arm themselves for the apocalypse in Bellflower. This page, top: The duo’s arsenal also includes a vintage Buick Skylark equipped with flamethrowers. Middle: Woodrow’s infatuation with Milly (Jessie Wiseman) leads him to a dark place, both emotionally and physically. Bottom: Cinematographer Joel Hodge shot most of the movie with the Coatwolf Model I, a hand-built 2K digital camera.

when he heard about Silicon Imaging’s SI-2K Mini, which is essentially a 2⁄3" machined aluminum box with a 2048x1152-pixel CMOS sensor — much more customizable than Sony’s CineAlta or Panasonic’s VariCam. “I kept begging [Silicon Imaging] to let me test the camera,” recalls Glodell. “Finally, they sent us one, and it had a 16mm C-mount, so I started collecting vintage 16mm lenses at thrift and junk stores.” Knowing that the Mini would be far less forgiving of photographic errors than even the best consumer-level HD camcorders of the time, he set about developing a cleaner, more robust camera system. The Model I’s anatomy came to include the SI-2K imaging head, a corrective group, an imaging surface, a lens with a focusing mechanism, and proper spacing through the bellows to the taking lens by way of a Nikon mount. The imaging plane, a spinning ground glass powered by AA batteries, is between 35mm and 4½" in size. (Many of the specs are a product of experimentation.) Proper spacing between the corrective optical group and the imaging plane is achieved by adjusting the two along a pair of rails on the camera’s base. Glodell purchased used Nikon doublers at camera stores, chopped the mounts off and then ww.theasc.com w

July 2011

47

◗

Shot Down in Flames

Top: Woodrow and Milly take an impulsive road trip that jump-starts their relationship. This frame illustrates the soft, hypersaturated images produced by the Model I, although director Glodell prefers to describe the aesthetic as “emotional.” Middle: While shooting the movie’s climax, Glodell and Steadicam operator Ari Robbins (a.k.a. “Steadi J”) set up the Coatwolf Model II, designed with an optical system that included photocopier and photo-enlarger parts to produce “an unreal look that nobody had seen before,” according to Glodell. Bottom: The filmmakers kluge together a car rig while road-testing their methodologies.

48

July 2011

attached them to the back of the lenses he wanted to use. The Model I was designed to accept a mix of lens sizes with slight modifications. Glodell’s lens-selection process was meticulous and discriminating, but followed instinct more than any technical mandate. “Once you get into it, you start to learn which lenses will give you the right look,” he explains. “We used some Linos, a couple of Fujinon industrial-application lenses, and optics meant for still cameras, scientific applications and military applications. I think some were designed for old surveillance cameras. We even used photo-enlarging lenses and projection lenses. Sometimes we didn’t know what a given lens was originally made for, and a lot of them don’t even have focusing mechanisms.” The easiest ways to describe the images captured by the Model I are “soft” and “hyper-saturated,” but Glodell prefers to use the term “emotional.” He adds, “The main thing to understand about the cameras is that they’re aesthetic devices. The way they’re designed, you can point it at something and think it looks either sad or weird. Joel and I aren’t educated about cinematography in any formal way; we’ve just been experimenting for a long time.” The filmmakers wanted the first part of Bellflower to look rather dreamAmerican Cinematographer

like, the middle to look more gritty and real, and the end to look “hyper-unreal.” The Model I was used for everything except night exteriors, for which Hodge operated a stripped-down Mini outfitted with only a C-mount lens to make the most of the chip’s base-level 250 ASA. (These scenes were manipulated in the color correction to match the look of the rest of the film, the only effects not produced in-camera.) An entirely different camera, the Coatwolf Model II, was built for the movie’s feverish climax. Hodge recalls the birthing process: “Evan was in a little room for months, trying to make this camera perfect. He was so focused on the insides that the [camera body] would be this giant thing, and I’d say, ‘How am I supposed to pull focus when the knob is on the front of the camera and it’s a doorknob?’” “Or a wrench,” adds Glodell. The Model II, like the Model I, was constructed from scrap photographic parts. Glodell used angle grinders, saws, files and a Dremel tool, “which works surprisingly well for cutting glass,” he observes. He describes the result as “a large-format stillphotography camera. The imaging plane is something like 4½ inches diagonally. I’ve since made one that’s substantially bigger, but I’m still trying to get it to look right. We’ve shot a couple things with it, and the results look cool, but it’s not ready.” Glodell explains that his goal with the Model II was not the clean, crisp images produced by high-quality large-format photo lenses. Instead, he chose to utilize photocopier and photoenlarger parts in the optical system. Taking lenses were mounted to a square, metal plate and fixed to the front of the camera with four bolts. “We can use insane projection optics with a shorter back-focus distance,” says Glodell. “Because the camera has no physical shutter, you can go right up to the focal plane, or you can crank the bellows out to use more traditional lenses with a longer back focus. The whole idea was to get an unreal look that nobody had

The director and his crew tinker with the Model I. Note the duct tape holding the camera together. Cinematographer Joel Hodge is seated on ground at left in bottom photo.

ww.theasc.com w

July 2011

49

◗

Shot Down in Flames seen before.” The shot for which the Model II was devised is a simple setup: a medium shot of Woodrow walking down the street towards the camera, his face and shirt soaked in blood, as Courtney (Rebekah Brandes) looks on in terror. The scene is a decisive moment for all the characters involved, and the shot of Woodrow is its focal point. “It looks like it was shot on a telephoto lens from 200 feet away,” says Glodell, “but the camera was right in front of me on a Steadicam [rig].” Glodell and Hodges were so excited by the resultant look, they had to fight the urge to use the Model II for every scene they shot after that. In the end, they used the camera for just one other sequence, a montage of beach scenes. Operating the Model I is easy, says Hodge. “We spent a lot of time trying to make it compact,” says the cinematographer. “It sits easy on your shoulder. It’s lightweight. The focus is right where it should be.” Because the Model II is more specialized, it is more difficult to maneuver, he continues. “With any other camera, you can put it on your shoulder, and all the controls are where you’d expect them to be. But the Model II is rough, and you can’t grab it in certain areas because you’d crush it.” Hodge controlled the cameras’ exposure, shutter, frame rate, look-up tables and recording functions with a 15" MacBook Pro running SiliconDVR. The computer was linked to the cameras via CAT-5 Ethernet cable, and files were recorded to the laptop hard drive in Cineform Raw. The image was monitored on a 7" monitor through the MacBook’s VGA output, but the laptop’s port went bad a few days into production, so the laptop itself was used to frame shots. This meant that handheld and Steadicam shots required an assistant to walk with the laptop tethered to Hodge or Steadicam operator Ari Robbins. One particularly awkward setup required Hodge to hang out a car window while

Scenes set in Woodrow’s house were shot with different versions of the Model I. In the top photo, the camera is equipped with a Silicon Imaging 2K imaging head, and in the bottom photo it’s rigged with the SI-2K Mini.

50

July 2011

American Cinematographer

Top: In a shot captured with the Model II, Woodrow embarks on a bloody rampage. Middle: Robbins works out a shot with the camera mounted on a Steadicam rig. Bottom: The camera’s exposure, shutter, frame rate and look-up tables were controlled with a 15" MacBook Pro.

strapped to the roll cage with a belt, with one hand operating the camera and the other operating the laptop on the car roof. “We finally gave up and bolted the laptop to the camera,” says Glodell. “The Model I is a big aluminum frame, and when you bolt the laptop to it, the screen is right under your face.” Color and exposure settings were baked into the image on set using custom presets in SiliconDVR’s built-in Iridas color-management system. Glodell and Hodge made up most of the presets on the spot. “Because we knew the mood of the film inside and out, we could go to a scene and play around with the image until we got the feeling that fit,” says the director. The lighting package consisted of whatever the production could borrow that week: Kino Flos, a couple of 650watt Fresnels, a Redhead and a small selection of dichroic Fay lights. “Lighting was always a treat, as we always seemed to be just short a light or some necessary item and had to rig something up with what we had on hand,” says Hodge. “Our gaffer, Paul Edwardson, and Evan and I would usually make something work. “In the finale of the film, there’s an intense scene that takes place in Milly’s kitchen, and we wanted it to have an unreal, crazy feel. For most of our interior setups, we used natural light and reflectors — we had one reflector and a white board or bathroom mirror ww.theasc.com w

July 2011

51

◗

Shot Down in Flames

Glodell ponders his options while assembling one of the cameras on a workbench.

52

to move light around where we wanted. But we really wanted this scene to be special, so we grabbed every light we could find to fill all the windows and entrances with light. Then we realized we were short on diffusion, so a couple of us pulled off our white T-shirts, and we used those. I think it turned out to be one of the coolest shots in the movie. I recommend always wearing a white undershirt, ’cause you never know when you might need it!” Principal photography lasted 90 days and was achieved with a crew of volunteers, with pickup days and postproduction taking place throughout the following year. The filmmakers continued to tweak the images after Bellflower was accepted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where it was screened on HDCam-SR tape. Hodge notes that two drawbacks of the Coatwolf cameras’ DIY architecture are dirt and light leaks. “If you were outside for 10 minutes, you’d get dirt in the camera,” he recalls. “It’s just the

nature of the cameras, but at some point we decided we liked it and that was the way it was going to be.” Unfortunately, that point came after they had carried out the color correction and picture cleanup at Tunnel Post. Glodell explains, “When the film got into Sundance, we borrowed money and called in a favor from a friend at Tunnel to get it as perfect as possible for the festival because we thought it was our big break. Tunnel did a wonderful job cleaning up the dirt and did a full color-correction pass. But when we saw the final product, it seemed wrong, even though it was beautifully done. “Tunnel stayed with us and helped the whole way; they set us up in one of their editing bays with a properly calibrated monitor and let us go crazy,” he continues. “We did the final pass on color in Final Cut Pro, swapping shots out [for] some of our old stuff that was [corrected] in FCP, [Adobe] After Effects and in-camera with looks [LUTs] made in Iridas. We were going

Another view of the camera, this time equipped with a militarystyle handgrip.

in and out of FirstLight, changing looks and tweaking using Final Cut plug-ins and whatever other plug-ins were on the machine in the editing bay. “It was a huge, expensive learning experience for us,” Glodell concludes. “But I think we did what was best for our movie.” ●

TECHNICAL SPECS 2.40:1 Digital Capture Coatwolf Model I, II; Silicon Imaging SI-2K Customized lenses/lens assemblies

www.panther.tv w ww.panther.tv

Panther Panth her

D Dolly olly TThe he n new ew d dolly olly generation g e n e rat i o n • • • • •

LLowest owest ccolumn olumn dolly due tto o 3-stage ccolumn olumn EEquipped quipped with the new H High-Low igh-Low TTurnstile urnstile New Limit pr programming ogramming New high-lo high-low-platform w-platform cconcept oncept Crab, Crab, FFront ront and R Rear ear st steering eering

Steering options:

w www.panther.tv ww.panther.tv V VacuRigg acuRigg, a camer cameraa vvacuum acuum tr tripod ipod and rrigg igg sy system stem

SSee ee mor e about the P anther pr oducts aatt more Panther products e.g. e.g. TThe he

- automatic vacuum pump system - battery operated - various suction pads - extremely rigid - payload uo to 100 kg/220 lbs

PANTHER P ANTHER G GmbH mbH R Raiffeisenallee a i f fe i s e n a l l e e 3 | 8 82041 2041 M Munich unich | Germany G e r m a ny T+ +49.89.613 49.89.613 9 900–01 00–01 | F + +49.89.61 49.89.61 3 31 10 00 00 [email protected] ontac [email protected] | w www.panther.tv w w.panther.tv

C a m a d e u s FFilm i l m TTechnologies echnologies Camadeus 7 358 Radford R a d fo r d A ve. | N or th H 7358 Ave. North Hollywood, o l l y wo o d, C CA A 91605 91605 T+ 818-764-1234 [email protected] contac [email protected] +818-764-1234 w w w.panther.us www.panther.us

53

A Cultural

Cataclysm C

hinese cinematographer Yu Cao remembers the exact day that director Chuan Lu first mentioned his interest in making a film about one of the most infamous events in modern Chinese history. “It was 2003, and Chuan and I had just completed the last shot on Kekexili:Mountain Patrol, when he turned to me and said, ‘I want to make a film about the Nanking Massacre.’ As he described the story, my mind filled with faces — the faces of those who survived the war and those who did not.” City of Life and Death would, indeed, become a film about faces, but because of the politically sensitive nature of the subject matter, Lu and Cao would have to wait four years before exposing a single frame. The events collectively known as the Rape of Nanking took place in 1937, during the second Sino-Japanese War, when the invading Japanese Imperial Army laid siege to the city. During the first six weeks of the occupation, an estimated 300,000 Chinese — half the population — were slaughtered. More than 20,000 women and girls were raped and murdered. City of Life and Death is told through the eyes of several

54

July 2011

City of Life and Death, shot by Yu Cao, re-creates a tragic chapter in Chinese history. By Jean Oppenheimer •|•

characters: Lu Jianxiong (Liu Ye), who leads the fight to defend Nanking; Miss Jiang (Gao Yuanyuan), a young teacher in the city; Kadokawa (Hideo Nakaizumi), a morally conflicted Japanese soldier; and Mr. Tang (Fan Wei), a husband and father who collaborates with the enemy in the hopes of keeping his family safe. Released in China in 2009 (under the title Nanjing! Nanjing!), the film polarized audiences; some were outraged by the sympathetic portrait of Kadokawa, who becomes increasingly distraught over the atrocities committed by his fellow soldiers. The picture also won numerous prizes, including best film awards at the 2009 Asia Pacific Screen Awards and the 2009 San Sebastian International Film Festival, and cinematography prizes at those festivals as well as the 2010 Asian Film and Golden Horse awards. The filmmakers began a full year of preproduction in October 2006. The first decision Lu and Cao confronted was whether the picture should be black-and-white or color. Cao worried that the massacre scenes might be too much for audiences to bear in color. He also questioned whether so much

American Cinematographer

Unit photography by Haisheng Huang. Photos courtesy of Kino Lorber.

blood would create problems with government censors, who must approve every Chinese film for release. The cinematographer shot tests at Kodak’s Cinelabs in Beijing, starting with two Kodak black-and-white negatives, Plus-X 5231 and Double-X 5222, which were printed onto Kodak blackand-white print stock 2302. The footage was too grainy. “We didn’t want audiences to think they were watching a documentary,” explains Cao, who answered AC’s questions via e-mail with the assistance of two translators, Longlong Song and Raymond Lam, HKSC. “We wanted them to feel that they were watching something that was happening in front of them right now. We wanted a documentary feel but with a more poetic style. “We wanted the image to be sharp and fine-grained, with very even contrast,” he continues. “After testing all the Kodak color negatives, I chose Vision2 50D 5201 and 200T 5217. I found that 5201 has the sharpest, finest grain and very rich contrast, so I tried to use it as my main film stock. I used 5217 for interiors and night scenes. I didn’t want to use a 500-speed stock because the images wouldn’t have been as smooth.” During testing, his 5201 and 5217 footage was printed onto both 2302 and a black-and-white intermedi-

Opposite: Lu Jianxiong (Liu Ye, left) and other Chinese prepare for a grim fate in a scene from City of Life and Death. This page, top: The Japanese soldiers celebrate in the streets of Nanking. “I filmed this with Arri Master Primes when the midday sun was the strongest to get a hard image,” notes cinematographer Yu Cao. “The ground was very bright, almost white.” Bottom: Japanese soldier Kadokawa (Hideo Nakaizumi) falls in love with a Chinese “comfort girl.”

ate stock, Eastman High Contrast Panchromatic Film 2369. “I liked 2369 a lot,” he says. “It produced a very modern black-and-white effect; it was very sharp, with fine grain and great latitude.” At that point, however, the producers nixed the idea of releasing on any black-and-white stock, citing the high cost of doing so. Cao then tested printing on Kodak Vision 2383, and he found the stock was so sensitive it affected the RGB levels, and colors sometimes bled through. Colorist Ping Ma tried fineww.theasc.com w

tuning the look-up tables, and the lab’s production manager, Jin Xu, suggested changing the angle of the light bulb on the printer. That helped, but the images still lacked the contrast and grain the filmmakers desired. To boost the contrast, Ma and a Lustre engineer designed a special plug-in to increase the grain, and then the team did a full bleach bypass on the print. The combination worked. Lu and Cao wanted a final aspect ratio of 2.40:1, and although Cao is “crazy about anamorphic for its beautiful lens flares and shallow depth-ofJuly 2011

55

◗

A Cultural Cataclysm

Top: The streets are strewn with corpses in the wake of the Japanese invasion. Bottom: Large-scale action scenes mingle with tight close-ups, like this one of Kadokawa.

field, which produce very poetic images,” he and Lu also wanted to shoot most of the movie handheld, and to get very close to the actors. The filmmakers therefore decided to shoot Super 35mm. They shot mostly 3-perf but used 4-perf when they couldn’t find enough cameras modified for 3-perf work. Cao operated the A camera, and Lei He, a longtime collaborator, oper56

July 2011

ated the B camera; both shouldered Arricam Lites. For large-scale action scenes that required additional cameras, an Arri 535B, a Moviecam Compact and an Arri 235 came into play. (All cameras were rented from Cinerent Beijing.) Cao recalls that the filmmakers’ primary visual reference was the photography of three people: Robert Frank, whose work the cinematograAmerican Cinematographer

pher describes as “quiet but very powerful”; Robert Capa; and Lu Nan, whose series on Chinese Catholics “expresses a kind of human dignity,” says Cao. The cinematographer’s decision to light some scenes with only candlelight was influenced by the artist Georges de la Tour, while the “extreme framing” in Pasolini’s The Gospel According to St. Matthew is echoed in City of Life and Death ’s tight close-ups of individual characters and some medium to wide shots framing groups of people. Cao favored 40mm for close-ups and extreme close-ups, 27mm for medium to wide shots, and 75mm or 100mm lenses for some “beauty female close-ups.” When filming crowds, he and He would remain in one place as the actors moved around or past them. Keeping his feet firmly planted on the ground, Cao moved his body slightly to give these scenes a kind of floating feeling. “Chuan joked that I was playing tai chi with the camera,” he recalls. For most of his work on the film, Cao decided to mix Arri/Zeiss Master Primes and Ultra Primes and Cooke S4 primes. (Angenieux Optimo 17-80mm and 24-290mm zoom lenses were used occasionally.) “In black-and-white, the contrast of a lens can have an effect like [a different] color tone in color film,” he notes.

Master Primes (ranging from 16mm to 100mm) were used mostly for scenes depicting combat, the murder of civilians, and low-light scenes. “I like the Master Primes’ sharpness and high contrast, and the way they reveal the texture and details in faces,” says Cao. For most scenes involving women, such as the first time Kadokawa visits a “comfort girl,” Cao switched to “the softer and lower-contrast” Cooke S4s. “The beautiful flare [you get with] these lenses creates a warmth, like the warm tones in color film,” he observes. “The anti-flare coating on new primes is getting more and more powerful, so when I need flare, I use S4s. “On exterior scenes, my base stop was T2.8, sometimes even T1.3 [with the Master Primes],” he continues. “In fact, we worked wide open most of the time. Of course, shooting handheld and wide open is a nightmare for the focus puller, but my first AC, Tan Yongheng, did a superb job. I don’t think I could have finished the film without him.” Sets for City of Life and Death were built on location in Tianjin and Changchun. “Chuan doesn’t like to film anything onstage,” notes Cao. “We chose Changchun, in northeast China, because that was the first soil to be invaded by the Japanese. Chuan believed [that location] would give the

Top: The Japanese herd Chinese civilians off the streets. Bottom: Much of the picture was shot handheld, with Cao (left) shouldering the A camera and operator Lei He (right) handling the B camera.

film a hard-to-explain power. The harsh, hot sunlight there is what we needed.” One practical location, a historic church in Tianjin, was used for two scenes in the film, and Cao recalls that it required his most complicated lighting setup. Production designer Yi Hao spotted the church during an initial scout and recommended it to Lu, and ww.theasc.com w

when the director scouted it, he was struck by the beautiful sunlight that illuminated the church interior through three large, south-facing windows. However, this light only occurred for about three hours a day, from 10:15 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., so Cao and his gaffer, Tianming Chen, had to devise a lighting scheme that would facilitate full days of shooting. No lighting equipJuly 2011

57

◗

A Cultural Cataclysm coming in from the north side of the church, Cao’s crew used nine Nine-light Maxis through Rosco 3030 Full Grid Cloth diffusion. Another 24-light Dino (also through Full Grid) was placed on the east side of the church. The west side of the church had the highest window, and there Cao used two 12K Pars without diffusion. Once everything was in place, “we worked liked crazy” to achieve the shots, recalls the cinematographer. “Between 10:15 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., I would turn off the direct HMIs and the Dinos on the south side. After 1:30, when we lost the sun, we turned every light on. When everything was lit up, it looked wild with all those different

A church that features prominently in the action was a practical location in Tianjin that required Yu’s biggest lighting setup. Three south-facing windows provided beautiful natural interior light, but only for about three hours a day.

“Fortunately, with black-and-white, color temperature doesn’t matter.”

ment was allowed inside the church, and no cherry pickers or cranes were allowed outside the structure. The only option for placing lights outside was scaffolding. “We had seven days to get the two church scenes, and only one night to set up all the lighting and cabling,” recalls Cao. “We built 70 sections of scaffolding, and we used every light fixture we could get our hands on. Fortunately, with black-and-white, 58

July 2011

color temperature doesn’t matter — you only have to worry about brightness. So I was free to use a combination of lights.” Outside the three large windows, Chen’s crew placed three 24-light Dinos on scaffolding and three Ninelight Maxi-Brutes on the ground. Additionally, two 18Ks and two 12K Pars were positioned to look down on the action from outside a high window on that same wall. To simulate daylight American Cinematographer

color temperatures! One of our producers dreamt of releasing a color version of the film, but I told him, ‘Forget it. There isn’t a lab in the world that can adjust this mixture of colors!’” The first church scene is early in the film, and it shows several Japanese soldiers entering the church, rifles drawn, and finding hundreds of Chinese civilians cowering in terror. As the soldiers advance, the crowd parts in front of them, and the soldiers suddenly panic and start firing. Cao wanted to use lens flares to suggest the soldiers’ disorientation. To obtain the effect, he used the Cooke lenses and blasted a 24light Dino through a dusty window behind the men. The second church sequence finds all the women huddled inside, and

the Japanese inform them that if 100 women don’t “volunteer” to be “comfort girls” for Japanese soldiers, all of the women will be killed. Slowly, individual hands go up, waving gently and bathed in shafts of light pouring through the church windows. For Lu and Cao, the sunlight suggested a kind of purity and even hope, as these women sacrifice themselves for the greater good. Cao used the Optimo 24-290mm at the long end of the lens for close-ups of the hands. (This scene actually required three additional cameras. B-camera operator He captured a wide angle using a Grip Factory Munich GF-8 crane and

Top: Japanese soldiers enter the church and find scores of civilians. Middle (from left): A-camera 1st AC Yongheng Tan, Cao, He and B-camera 1st AC Yuan Liang take a break during filming. Bottom: Chinese women brave a snowstorm to trek across the city.

ww.theasc.com w

July 2011

59

◗

A Cultural Cataclysm

Yu meters the light for a candlelit game of mahjong as an unidentified crewmember adjusts a Chinese lantern (partially visible at left) that’s bolstering the light level from just outside the frame.

Scorpio Mini Head SB92. The C and D cameras were on dollies.) Cao favored a shallow depth-offield for most of the picture, but he strove for deep focus in the battle sequences. “There’s a lot happening in the frame and a lot of smoke and dust, and we wanted the audience to see clearly the position of the characters, the relationship between them, and [what is happening in both] the foreground and background. “We had a great special-effects supervisor, Col. Wei Xin Cai, who has worked on almost all major war films in China since 1980,” continues the cinematographer. “He was very excited when he heard City was going to be a black-and-white film, and he did a lot of fog and smoke testing with me. We also tested the proportion of fire, smoke and debris for the explosions. With his help, I was able to shoot most of the exterior scenes with available light — his gray and black smoke were my best

DIGITAL INGENUITY

Scene from “Derriére les Murs” © Stéphanie Dupont

60

The most comprehensive digital Lab Lab for on-location dailies.

RAW All popular RA AW camera formats Unlimited shots, takes and versions in one view Fast, accurate conform Powerful Powerful sound sync World-class World-class color grading Multiple simultaneous delivery outputs

www.assimilateinc.com www .assimilateinc.com

Mac or PC: $4,995

silks and black flags, and his white smoke provided me with highlights and separation between foreground and background. He was almost like my gaffer for exterior scenes! I never used silks, which would have limited the freedom of my shooting. The sun flickering through the smoke produced a beautiful effect — characters appear half silhouetted. “For battle scenes, Chuan Lu and I decided to do long takes and not to cut a lot within the scenes. We used four cameras, each in a different area, and shot it like a relay, with one camera starting, then the action being picked up by the second camera, and so on.” He adds that the director doesn’t use storyboards, even for complicated action scenes. “All the filming is done spontaneously.” To light night scenes, Cao used practical firelight, candlelight and lanterns, boosting the light level with more of these sources off camera. One

such scene shows some characters playing mahjong in Tang’s apartment by candlelight. Cao augmented the practical candlelight with off-screen candles and Chinese lanterns (holding 100-watt and 300-watt household bulbs dimmed down). “We shot that scene with the Master Primes wide open,” he notes. Throughout the shoot, the filmmakers’ emphasis was on the emotions of the characters at hand. “Chuan leaves all the camerawork, composition and lighting to the director of photography — he tells you only how a scene should feel emotionally,” says Cao. “For us, [in addition to] storytelling, the camera’s most important role is to express emotion.” ●

TECHNICAL SPECS 2.40:1 3-perf and 4-perf Super 35mm Arricam Lite; Arri 535B, 235; Moviecam Compact Arri/Zeiss Master Prime, Ultra Prime; Cooke S4; Angenieux Optimo Kodak Vision2 50D 5201, 200T 5217 Digital Intermediate Bleach Bypass by Cinelabs

61

Ascending Cinematography’s

Summit

The ASC hosts an international gathering of delegates from 24 other societies. •|•

T Top photo: Attendees gather for a gr oup snapshot on the ASC Clubhouse steps. First r ow, left to right: Curtis Clark, ASC; Hilda Mercado, AMC; Fred Goodich, ASC; Michael Goi, ASC; V ilmos Zsigmond, ASC; Joan Hutton, CSC; Richard Andry, AFC; Michael Holm, DFF; Isidore Mankofsky, ASC. Second row, seated: Vincent Cox, ASC, BSC, SASC; Jacek Laskus, ASC; Angelos V iskadourakis, GSC; Theo Van de Sande, ASC; Marijke Van Kets, SBC; Sandra Stojanovic, SAS. Thir d row, standing: Lucas Jodogne, SBC; Martim Vian, AIP; Pascal Lebegue, AFC; Simon Riera, NZCS; Car oline Champetier, AFC; Predrag Bambic, SAS; Jaroslaw Szoda, PSC; Haakan Holmberg, FSF; José Roberto Eliezer , ABC; Zoran Hochstätter, ZFS; Jouko Seppälä, FSC; Joe Dunton, BSC; Ron Johanson, ACS; Jan W eincke, DFF; Nigel Walters, BSC. Fourth row, standing: Denis Lenoir, ASC, AFC; Yuri Neyman, ASC; Yiannis Daskalothanassis, GSC; Karl Walter Lindenlaub, ASC; Slawomir Idziak, PSC. Last r ow, standing: Mark Irwin, ASC, CSC; Billy Park , KSC; Stephen H. Burum, ASC; V asco Nunes, AIP; Martin Preiss, ACK; Hee-Seong Byeon, KSC; Radan Popovic, SAS; Peter James, ASC, ACS.

62

July 2011

American Cinematographer

he ASC convened an ambitious International Cinematograph y Summit in early May, inviting every cinematographer societ y in the world to send r epresentatives to Hollywood to par ticipate. Joining ASC members at four days of events were cinematographers from 24 of those societies: Australia (ACS), Belgium (SBC), Brazil (ABC), Gr eat Br itain (BSC), Canada (CSC), the Cz ech Republic (A CK), Denmark (DFF), Estonia (E SC), Finland (FSC), F rance (AFC), Gr eece (GSC), Ital y (AIC), Kor ea (K SC), Mexico (AMC), the Netherlands (NSC), New Z ealand (NZ CS), N orway (FNF), Poland (PSC), P ortugal (AIP), S erbia (SAC), S lovenia (ZFS), S outh Afr ica (SASC) and Sweden (FSF).

Photos by Matt Turve, Alex Lopez and Isidore Mankofsky, ASC.

The agenda covered areas of concern for cinematographers everywhere, including how new and evolving technologies affect the role of the cinematographer, how to mentor aspiring filmmakers, the challenges of preserving digital motion-picture materials, and promoting artistry in today’s world. Participants were shuttled to various studios and companies for tours and demonstrations of new technologies, and at the close of each day, everyone enjoyed dinner at the Clubhouse. Day one focused on events at Sony Pictures, starting with an informative seminar on 3-D cinematography led by Buzz Hays, the executive stereoscopic 3-D producer for Sony’s 3-D Technology Center, and Bruce Dobrin, principle architect of the Center. Hays and Dobrin covered many of the most important elements of 3-D work, including convergence; the proper scaling of images; how to create “depth cues” to maximize the 3-D effect; how to identify the “sweet spot” in a theater; and common problems that arise in 3-D shooting. Attendees were then treated to a screening of The Arrival , a short test film showcasing Sony’s new F65 camera that was written, directed and shot by Curtis Clark, ASC. Clark, who chairs the ASC Technology Committee, was on hand to answer questions. ( The Arrival will be covered in next month’s Short Takes column.) The next stop was the ASC Clubhouse, where the delegates discussed how to improve communication among their societies, and how to raise the profile of cinematographers everywhere. ACS President Ron Johanson summed up the importance of this mission: “Once we leave this venue, we must not stop talking to each other. There are people out there in the wide world that don’t even know what a cinematographer does.” Steven Poster, ASC, president of the International Cinematographers Guild Local 600, suggested more publicity and outreach. “We need to raise our collective profile,” he observed. BSC delegate Joe Dunton suggested the

1

3

2 4

5

1. The seating configuration in the ASC’s Great Room; 2. Zoran Hochstätter, ZFS and Ron Johanson, ACS lead the march to Stage 7 on the Sony Pictures lot; 3. Joan Hutton, CSC; 4. Elen Lotman, ESC; 5. and 6. Delegates absorb the “3-D and the Cinematographer” seminar at Sony.

6

ww.theasc.com w

July 2011

63

need for an official academy for cinematographers that could provide guidance to professionals and, especially, students. Pointing to photos of awardwinning ASC members that adorn the Clubhouse walls, he said, “We owe it to the people on those walls to share information. We need a research center. We need some kind of regulating body to prove what companies are saying is actually true. The phrase ‘Unless you learn from the past, you won’t know the future’ is especially important for young people.” CSC President Joan Hutton picked up on this theme and led the discussion into its next topic: how best to educate the next generation. “We

1

2 4

3 1. Yiannis Daskalothanassis, GSC; 2. Jaroslaw Szoda, PSC; 3. Michelle Lee, executive secretary of the KSC; 4. David Morin and Curtis Clark, ASC host the “Virtual Production and Virtual Cinematography” seminar at Universal Studios; 5. KSC president Hee-Seong Byeon with fellow KSC members Billy Park and Phillip Yoo; 6. Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC tests the light levels at the Academy’s “Solid State Lighting” seminar; 7. Delegates absorb information in the Academy’s Linwood Dunn Theater; 8. ASC associate member Jonathan Erland addresses the seminar guests.

“The ASC has exactly the same fears and problems we do; this is why we all need to work together.”

5

6

8

7

64

July 2011

American Cinematographer

need to foster a mentorship mentality,” she stressed. “Kids today come out of film school with no concept of what a film picture looks like, so they’re satisfied with a flat video picture. I started out as a second camera assistant, but we’re losing that on-the-job training.” Jacek Laskus, ASC lamented, “What I’m seeing are a lot of images with no thought behind them. If we don’t start teaching the visual language of cinema, it will disappear.” Another topic that emerged was artist’s rights. Nigel Walters, BSC, who also serves as president of Imago (the European Federation of Cinematographers), noted that while the cause of filmmakers’ rights (espe-

cially those pertaining to film “authorship”) has made progress in several European countries, it has come under siege in others. He suggested that by presenting a united front, cinematographer societies could make more progress in this area. “I cannot affect anything in my country,” maintained Zoran Hochstätter, ZFS. “[In Slovenia] people don’t know what we do. We have no effect on the Ministry of Culture. We’re hoping togetherness will produce some effect. The ASC has exactly the same fears and problems we do; this is why we all need to [work] together.” Capping off the day’s discussion, ASC President Michael Goi addressed a question that seemed to be nagging at many participants. “Someone asked me if cinematographers were becoming obsolete,” he said, recalling an encounter with an individual who insisted to him that anyone who picks up a digital camera can be a cinematographer. “My retort to this guy was, ‘If you pick up an electric guitar, does that make you Eric Clapton?’ Well, he didn’t even know who Eric Clapton was.” Day two began at Universal Studios’ Virtual Stage 1, an 80'x40'x20' motion-capture stage outfitted with a dedicated camera and jib arm, a greenscreen cyc, Lightcraft Technology’s Previzion real-time camera-tracking system and adjacent editing bays and work spaces. Technical director Ron Fischer provided an overview of the space, and then David Morin, chair of the Joint Technology Subcommittee on Virtual Production (which includes the ASC, the Art Directors Guild, the Visual Effects Society, the International Cinematographers Guild, the Previsualization Society and the Producers Guild), discussed the evolution of virtual production, from the introduction of computer graphics up to today’s productions, on which the visual effects are increasingly visible on set as the filmmakers shoot. Virtual-production supervisor Glenn Derry then shared anecdotes from his experiences working

2

1 3

5

4 1. The “Previsualization and the Cinematographer” seminar; 2. Billy Park, KSC; 3. Stephen H. Burum, ASC; 4. Curtis Clark, ASC and Fred Goodich, ASC; 5. Haskell Wexler, ASC and Tamara Goldsworthy document the previs seminar; 6. A handson demo at Panavision; 7. Honorary ASC member Larry Parker lets there be light at Mole-Richardson; 8. Surrounding ASC associate member Michael Parker are (from left) Philip Yoo, KSC; Nigel Walters, BSC; Philippe Vie, NSC; and Vincent Cox, ASC, BSC, SASC.

6

8 7

ww.theasc.com w

July 2011

65

1

on productions such as Avatar and the upcoming Real Steel. “Now that we’re all filled with fear for our jobs,” joked Goi, “can we take a look at some demonstrations?” Visual-effects company Eden FX and previs companies The Third Floor and Proof obliged with live demonstrations that composited a live actor into a virtual environment with a CG costar animated via motion-capture, all in real time. Following the demos, attendees were encouraged to try out the tools for themselves. Upon returning to the Clubhouse, the participants continued to discuss the increasingly virtual nature of blockbuster

2

3

6

5

4

7 1. Michael Goi, ASC; 2. Glynn Speeckaer, SBC with Lucas Jodogne, SBC and Marijke Van Kets, SBC; 3. Predrag Bambic, SAS; 4. Jan Wiencke, DFF; 5. Radan Popovic, SAS; 6. Martin Preiss, ACK; 7. Joan Hutton, CSC; James Chressanthis, ASC; David Morin; Glynn Speeckaer, SBC; Curtis Clark, ASC, Fred Goodich, ASC; Yuri Neyman, ASC; and Haskell Wexler, ASC; 8. Nigel Walters, BSC; 9. Slawomir Idziak, PSC; 10. Simon Riera, NZCS; 11. Vasco Nunes, AIP; 12. Jaroslaw Szoda, PSC; 13. The conference in progress.

8

9

11

10

12

13

66

July 2011

“At this point, it’s important we embrace every form of imagemaking we can.”

American Cinematographer

films, as Chris Edwards, Colin Green and Brian J. Pohl of the Previsualization Society presented an overview of previs and emphasized the importance of the cinematographer’s participation throughout the process. The presentation segued into a discussion of the merits of previs on intimate dramas and other productions that do not incorporate a heavy use of visual effects. Recognizing the shifting landscape created by virtual-production practices, Johanson noted that the ACS has introduced a virtual-cinematography award, which distinguishes between virtual camerawork and virtual lighting. Poster applauded the idea, noting, “At this point, it’s important we embrace every form of image-making we can.” Summit participants spent most of day three at the Academy of Motion

Picture Arts & Sciences’ Pickford Center in Hollywood, where Andy Maltz, Ray Feeney, Jonathan Erland and Milt Shefter of the Academy Science & Technology Council provided overviews of some Council projects, including an evaluation of solid-state lighting, an assessment of the spectral sensitivity of various digital cameras, the new Image Interchange Framework for digital workflows, and the challenges of preserving digital motion-picture materials. (Information and updates on these projects can be found at www.oscars.org/science-technology/ council/projects/index.html.) The solid-state-lighting presentation featured a test film shot by Daryn Okada, ASC, showing how various solid-state sources affect the look of makeup, wardrobe and set decoration as compared to tungsten lighting. The IIF discussion included footage from the TV series Justified, the workflow’s first official industry outing (AC March ’11), and remarks by Francis Kenney, ASC, the series’ director of photography, and Richard Crudo, ASC, the second-unit cinematographer. The digital-preservation discussion was highlighted by the announcement that the Council will soon publish The Digital Dilemma: Part 2 , which examines how independent filmmakers, documentarians and non-profit archives are contending with the preservation of digital materials. (The original Digital Dilemma, published in 2007, focused on major studios. See AC Dec. ’08.) Finally, John Bailey, ASC joined Grover Crisp, Sony Pictures Entertainment’s senior vice president of asset management, film restoration and digital mastering, and Andrea Kalas, Paramount Studios’ vice president of archives, to discuss concerns related to digital preservation, and how Sony and Paramount approach the task. On the last day of the summit, participants toured Panavision’s Woodland Hills facility and MoleRichardson’s facility. — The Editors ●

1

3

2

5 4

7 6

1. Opening-night festivities at the ASC Clubhouse; 2. Michael Parker of Mole-Richardson; Bob Hoffman of Technicolor; Ray Feeney of the Academy Sci-Tech Council; Larry Parker of Mole-Richardson; and Stephen Lighthill, ASC; 3. Suzanne Lezotte of Panavision with Richard Crudo, ASC and Feeney; 4. Karl Walter Lindenlaub, ASC chats with AC executive editor Stephen Pizzello; 5.Richard Andry, AFC with Frieder Hochheim of Kino Flo and Theo Van de Sande, ASC; 6. Andry with Jan Weincke, DFF and ASC events coordinator Patty Armacost; 7. Kim Snyder of Kodak; 8. Predrag Bambic, SAS; Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC; Zoran Hochstätter, ZFS; Suki Medencevic, ASC; and Dana Ross of Technicolor.

8

ww.theasc.com w

July 2011

67

2

3

1

4 5

6 7

8 9

10

68

July 2011

1. Daniel Pearl, ASC; James Chressanthis, ASC; Theo Van de Sande, ASC (seated); and Philippe Vie, NSC; 2. Chris Marchitelli of Sony with Frank Kay of J.L. Fisher; 3. Bill Roe, ASC with Mike Zakula of Kodak; 4. Peter James, ASC, ACS; V ince Pace of PACE; Denny Clairmont of Clairmont Camera; and Zoe Borys of Fletcher Camera; 5. Brian Goldberg (far left) and Frank Balkin (far right) of Paradigm flank Alar Kivilo, ASC and Mark Irwin, ASC, CSC; 6. Tom Fletcher of Fletcher Camera with Philippe V ie, NSC; 7. Richard H. Kline, ASC; Beverly Wood of Deluxe; and Larry Parker of Mole-Richar dson; 8. Denis Lenoir, ASC, AFC and Caroline Champetier, AFC; 9. Gil Hubbs, ASC; Owen Roizman, ASC; Rodney Taylor, ASC; Francis Kenny, ASC; and Bill Roe, ASC; 10. Bruce Doering, executive director of IATSE Local 600; Judy Doherty of Kodak; Laur en Lung of Kodak; Valentina Valentini; and Steven Poster, ASC, president of IATSE Local 600.

American Cinematographer

First row, seated: Zoran Popovic, SAS; Adam Frisch, FSF; Eric Maddison, FSF; Marijke Van Kets, SBC; Radan Popovic, SAS; Larry Parker; Suki Medencevic, ASC; Richard Crudo, ASC; Francis Kenny, ASC; and Donald A. Morgan, ASC. Second row: ASC executive assistant Delphine Figueras; Checco Varese, ASC; Haakan Holmberg, FSF; Jouko Seppälä, FSC; Philippe Vie, NSC; and José Roberto Elizer, ABC. Last row, standing: Theo Van de Sande, ASC; Johnny Jensen, ASC; Dante Spinotti, ASC, AIC; Richard Andry, AFC: Elen Lotman, ESC; Jan Weincke, DFF; Michael Holm, DFF; Simon Riera, NZCS; Martim Vian, AIP; John Newby, ASC; Martin Preiss, ACK; Predrag Bambic, SAS; and ASC events coordinator Patty Armacost.

Thanks to all of the sponsors who made this conference possible: CAMERON - PACE Group Clairmont Camera Cinelease, Inc. Company 3 Createasphere Dattner Dispoto and Associates Deluxe EFilm Fletcher Chicago Fujifilm International Cinematographers Guild, Local 600 IATSE J.L. Fisher

K5600, Inc. Kino Flo Lighting Systems Kodak Laser Pacific, LLC Lee Filters Mole-Richardson Company Panavision Paradigm Sony Technicolor The Tiffen Company United Talent Agency NBC/Universal

A special thanks to all the companies that hosted presentations during the four days: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Sci-Tech Council Mole-Richardson NBC/Universal Panavision Sony

Post Focus I

Prime Focus Expands in New York By Iain Stasukevich

A high concentration of post facilities is making Manhattan’s West Village look increasingly like the Stateside version of London’s Soho. Technicolor, Deluxe, PostWorks and Mega Playground have offices in the area, and this month Prime Focus will open a new, 13,500-square-foot facility at 345 Hudson St., just a few blocks from its former, smaller home. Anthony Matt, the managing director of operations for Prime Focus, and Mary Martin, the company’s joint managing director, are overseeing the transition and the recruitment of new talent at the facility. “We’ve always been focused on digital services, and cameras such as the Red and the Alexa have helped us become more competitive because we don’t need to deal with the film prints as much anymore,” says Matt. The full-service post facility specializes in the transfer, color correction, conform and mastering of film and high-definition-video content. “In N ew York it’s a real mixed bag, so we go after all the work we can get,” notes Matt. “We’re seeing revenue growth throughout the recession because we’ve never limited ourselves to just being one kind of facility.” Regular clients at Prime Focus New York have included A&E, IFC, The Criterion Collection and HBO. Features that were recently finished at the facility include the independent films Herb & Dorothy, Vidal Sassoon: The Movie, Kumaré and Kinyarwanda. Prior to its expansion, the New York office operated with a staff of 25, including colorists Alex Berman and Eric Alvarado, making it the smallest of Prime Focus’ operations. (It also has facilities in Los Angeles, London, Vancouver and Mumbai.) New York’s expansion is long overdue, says Matt. “You never want to say no to anybody when they want to bring you work,” he says. Under managing director Simon Briggs, Prime Focus N ew York is working on doubling the size of its staff while aggressively pursuing commercial finishing and broadcast work, particularly in the 70

July 2011

realm of reality TV. A larger room for Smoke and Flame work is part of the plan, and the new facility also includes a Dolby 5.1 mixing theater and larger, dedicated online rooms for Final Cut Pro and Avid DS; offline rooms are also available for rental. The New York facility will be connected to Prime Focus’ other facilities through the proprietary Global Digital Pipeline, which will enable the New York team to tap the company’s global network of visualeffects artists. Matt is also keen for the New York office to become more involved with Prime Focus’ 3-D conversion process, known as View-D, which was developed on projects such as Avatar (AC Jan. ’10) and Journey to the Center of the Earth (AC Aug. ’08). Currently, the process is being used by George Lucas for the stereo conversion of Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace. “View-D has been driving a lot of our new hires because it’s been very popular, and we’re ramping up to accommodate the demand,” says Matt. A member of the N ew York Stereoscopic Society, Matt is thrilled “to bring my 3-D passion to post,” he says. “I’ve been shooting stereo slides on film and digital for several years. I’ve always wanted to do more of that kind of work with cinematographers, and now we have the proper facility to do it.” Noting that complete 3-D post services require “a huge technical kit and a stereo DI room,” Matt explains that the New York office “is delaying offering stereoscopic services until we settle in — a lot of the capital upgrades to the facility are just tied to building out the space.” A stereo DI room (outfitted with a Baselight 8 and a Christie 2K projector) is in the works, as are Nuke and Fusion workstations for stereo conversions. “What sets us apart is that we’re able to see the project through the filmmaker’s eyes,” says Matt. “A lot of our workers are filmmakers in their own right. I’ve made documentaries. Our online editor is a visual-effects artist and cinematographer. The guys in the machine room also work on set and do their own productions. Quite a few of us have filmmaking backgrounds, and clients can see that we care about their projects just as much as they do.” ●

American Cinematographer

Filmmakers’ Forum Shooting High Speed By Jim Matlosz

A year or two later, I met Conrad Kiel at Photo-Sonics and became one of his technicians. For the next 13 years, I worked on everything from commercials to features, learning about the mainIn the early 1990s, when I was working as a first assistant and tenance and application of high-speed cameras. stage manager at Perpetual Motion Pictures in Pacoima, Calif., I first The basic concept of high-speed cinematography is to slow saw a Photo-Sonics high-speed camera. I became enamored with its down action you can’t see with the human eye. The technique mechanical aspects, and, driven by an insatiable appetite to learn all began as an industrial and military application, and then people forms of cinematography, I resolved to dig deeper. started to apply it to feature films — first for miniatures, to give them scale, and then as a narrative tool to enhance drama. It also quickly became a favorite in sports and advertising. Most normal variable-speed motion-picture cameras max out around 120-150 fps, which means anything above that qualifies as high speed because you’re dealing with specialized equipment. Two of the cameras I used a lot in the beginning were the Photo-Sonics 4C and 4ER, the Ferraris of film cameras. The 4C ran up to 2,500 fps, which means the film is going through the gate at over 102 mph. The 4ER would max out at 360 fps, or about 20 mph. That’s an incredible feat of engineering: 4-pinregistered with 12 pull-down claws. When you look at the movements in those cameras, it really is like looking at the engine of a Ferrari. The 4C and 4ER are still in use, but they are being phased out in favor of their digital equivalents. (More on that later.) The first thing to know about high-speed cinematography is that it’s an expensive proposition. Thanks to digital cameras, film stock isn’t much of a factor any more, but shooting more frames per second means more light, and more light means more money. More light also means that the cinematographer has to learn to look at light in a different way. If you’re used to looking at 100,000 watts of light on a person’s face, your eyes can adjust, and you know what looks right. But if you’re only accustomed to shooting 24 or 48 fps with a 1.2K HMI or a 5K, cranking up 100,000 watts of light is like suddenly finding yourself in a Ferrari when you’ve been accustomed to tooling around in a Volkswagen. The key is to know your basics. When I’m on a set, I know I’ll need at least a pair of 20Ks for my key light, a pair of 20Ks for fill, and a couple of 10Ks for edge lighting — and that’s for a small shoot. For a Nike ad featuring Kobe Bryant, I lit half a basketball Top: For an HBO spot directed by Angus Wall, Jim Matlosz shot the uncorking of a champagne bottle with a Photo-Sonics 4C camera and two 20K Mole-Richardson lights. Prop rigger Tom court with at least six 20Ks (seven if you count the Margules is shown here on set. Bottom: Matlosz (left) with director Richard Yelland. one positioned straight overhead) and two Mole 10K 72

July 2011

American Cinematographer

Photos courtesy of Jim Matlosz.

I

Pars, which were in the prototype stage at that time. (They were soon added to my lighting package.) I used a similar setup when I shot Shaquille O’N eal against a greenscreen at 1,000 fps on the 4C and at 360 fps on the 4ER, with the cameras side-by-side. I started with 20 5K space lights in a half-court space. My key lights were four 20Ks, a pair of 20Ks for fill, and what we dubbed the “Par tree,” which comprised something like 20 1.2K Par cans mounted on a vertical stand. It helps to keep your directors and producers aware of the tools you’re going to need. In prep, the director and I will usually work out the best frame rate for the shot, and I’ll then light above that in case we want more. If I’m doing a spot with highspeed and 24-fps elements, I’ll start by lighting for high speed. If we want to go down to 24 fps, I’ll use ND on the lens or scrim the lights. I try not to change f-stops because that changes the look, but f-stops also depend on what I’m shooting. (For example, I wouldn’t want to shoot 1,000 fps at f16 unless it was specifically requested. We’re talking about a $15,000 lighting setup.) I still subscribe to the general rule of cinematography that your best f-stop is f5.6, but I’m happy anywhere between f4 and f8. HMIs pack a punch, but they tend to only go to 150 fps flicker free. After that, all bets are off, and you’re then dealing with shutter angles. (Film-camera shutters are in whole numbers, and digital shutter angles are in decimal places.) You can find your flicker windows with a cheat sheet, but you can also just do the math: In the U.S., all of our lights operate on a 60Hz system, so you can adjust your shutter and frame rate by multiples of 60 to get rid of the HMI ballast flicker. I’ve also seen 1K tungsten lights flicker at super-high frame rates. The theory is that because 1K globes don’t push out enough energy to keep the tungsten filament constantly lit, you might actually see the alternating current going through the globe. Narrowing your shutter angle when shooting high speed will make anything moving fast through the frame start to strobe. It works well for sports action. If you want water to sparkle as it flies off the face

Top and middle: Matlosz and his crew deploy a Phantom HD camera to shoot elements for a L’Oréal commercial directed by Tryan George. Bottom: A stand-in faces 100,000 watts of light as he is framed for the next take on a DTS 3-D spot Matlosz shot with an IDT highspeed camera for director Ross Cheng.

ww.theasc.com w

July 2011

73

Top: Matlosz also employed a Phantom camera for a Chicago Blackhawks spot he directed. Bottom: The author (left) takes five while shooting a casino commercial.

of a boxer who has just been punched, you might choose a sharp shutter angle. But at 1,000 fps, a 180-degree shutter angle is 1/2,000th of a second, and the water will still sparkle and dance through the air with a little bit of motion blur. I usually use a 180degree shutter angle no matter what the frame rate is, but with a digital camera, you can open up all the way to 360 degrees, which gives you an extra stop in your back pocket. N o matter what the rules are, the 74

July 2011

decisions you make depend on your aesthetic preferences. I was a fan of tungsten lighting even before I started shooting high speed. I’m an organic guy, so if you give me a choice between a cold, blue light and a warm, orange glow, I’m going to choose the warm glow. That isn’t always appropriate for the job, but it’s what I’m going to lean toward. Another difference between HMI and tungsten lighting is that HMIs don’t provide you with full-spectrum light. HMI American Cinematographer

light has no yellows or reds, so you have to add those colors with gels.Changing to the digital format has certainly affected the way I work. As my good friend Rodney Taylor, ASC, told me, “We’re all working from within a box now,” the box being your histogram and waveform. I am completely floored by the quality Vision Research has given us with the Phantom camera. The new Phantom Flex shoots up to 2,500 fps and has a true 800 ASA. What I love about that is that I can add a polarizer and still work at around 200 ASA. I’m a big fan of the polarizer; it’s the only filter I cannot imitate in post. I use it to knock down highlights and make colors pop. I know if I give my post team a nice, colorful image with reduced kicks from intense highlights, I’m giving them a better image to work with. Digital cameras have made highspeed cinematography accessible to the point where it’s being used on low-budget shoots. Instead of rolling over 1 million feet of film, you can walk away with a few terabytes of data. The great thing about shooting high speed is the discovery. Many of us who have shot high speed for a long time have developed what we call our “high-speed eye,” which allows us to see things we believe other people can’t. When I’m driving down the freeway at 65 mph and something gets kicked up off the road, I can identify what it is as it goes flying by my car. I guess it’s just because I’m used to looking at something in real time and having to know how it did or didn’t work at 1,000 fps. It took me more than 20 years to get to that point. My advice to those just starting out would be to do as much research as you can. Read books about cinematography. Watch movies and commercials that speak to you. Call a cinematographer. Work as an assistant. Spend time on set. Find an aesthetic you like and do the research to find out how it was achieved. The more knowledge and experience you have, the more your job will become like second nature. ●

VANCOUVER CONVENTION CENTRE

New Products & Services JVC Unveils 3-D Camcorder JVC Professional Products Co. has introduced the GY-HMZ1U ProHD 3-D camcorder. With an integrated 3-D twin-lens design powered by JVC’s proprietary large-scale integration chip for highspeed processing of HD video, the GY-HMZ1U can simultaneously record each left and right image in full 1920x1080 resolution. The camcorder features dual 3.32 megapixel CMOS sensors (one for each lens) and delivers 34 Mbps AVCHD recording in 3-D or 24 Mbps in 2-D. Video can be recorded with time code at 60i to provide smooth motion or 24p for a film-like effect. The GY-HMZ1U canalso capture 3-D time lapse and 3-D stills. “With the new GY-HMZ1U, video-production professionals get true 3-D with full HD resolution,” says Craig Yanagi, national marketing and brand manager. “3-D production can be extremely complex, but this camcorder makes 3-D more accessible to independent filmmakers, commercial and corporate production houses, and even educational markets.” For additional information, visit http://pro.jvc.com. Ikan Introduces VX7e, Acquires Cinemáge Ikan has introduced the VX7e, a 7"HD-SDI monitor with Peaking and False Color. The VX7e is equipped with Monochrome and Color Peaking features, which highlight sharp lines and stark contrasts for optimal focus control. The False Color feature utilizes a full spectrum of assigned color indicators, ensuring flawless exposure. The VX7ealso provides every connection professionals need, including HD-SDI, HDMI, composite and component inputs. Other features include a screen resolution of 1024x600, Moveable Pixel to Pixel, Blue Gun and Digital to Analog Conversion. Controlling the monitor is intuitive thanks to front-and-center controls. In addition to the included AC adapter, the VX7e comes with Ikan’s BP2 adapter plate, and users can specify whether they want the Sony L, Sony BP-U, Canon 900, Canon LP-E6+ or Panasonic D54 battery plate. Ikan also offers the PBK-17 professional battery-mount system, allowing the VX7e to be used with Anton/Bauer or Sony Vmount power options. 76

July 2011

• SUBMISSION INFORMATION • Please e-mail New Products/Services releases to: [email protected] and include full contact information and product images. Photos must be TIFF or JPEG files of at least 300dpi.

In other news, Ikan has acquired the Cinemáge product line from Cine-tal Systems, Inc. “This is a great opportunity for us to expand our product offering,” says Kan Yeung, CEO of Ikan Corp. “The Cinemáge product line has a reputation for unmatched color accuracy and quality.” Ross Grasse, head of international sales for Cinemáge’s product line, adds, “We will invest in and expand this line while continuing to procure and manufacture all Cinemáge-related materials in the domestic U.S., providing Cinemáge customers with the samequality and innovation to which they are accustomed.” For additional information, visit www.ikancorp.com. Fujifilm Manages Color with CCBox Fujifilm Corp. has unveiled CCBox, its Image Interchange Framework-based on-site color-management tool. CCBox is one component of an evolving color-management system that applies the Academy’s IIF workflow. The hardware tool incorporates a new algorithm based on the IIF to achieve a high level of flexibility and precision. With this system, cameras can be calibrated easily on site, while the calibration of monitors is fully automated. The pixel-by-pixel analyzing function dramatically simplifies the analysis of shooting conditions. CCBox also features a new color-grading interface, and the adjustments made by the system can be handed over to a post facility to ensure an effective workflow. For additional information, visit www.fujifilmusa.com. Hurlbut Visuals Opens Rental Division Shane Hurlbut, ASC has unveiled Hurlbut Visuals DSLR Cinema Rentals, designed to equip filmmakers with a productionready DSLR-camera system. The camera packages have been put together by Hurlbut and his team based on their collective experience working with DSLR systems in extreme conditions on two features, 25 shorts and more than 100 commercials. Thanks to the cameras’ small profile, a 15camera package can fit in a 1-ton truck with room to spare. Each rental package includes everything you need to turn the DSLR into a professional motion-picture-capture device. PL and PV mounts are available, as are Leica, Zeiss, Canon and Nikon lenses, all

American Cinematographer

modified to work with 32-pitch focus, iris and zoom gears. Hurlbut Visuals also offers custom camera supports, including Shoulder Cam, Man Cam, Helmet Cam, Stripper Cam, Action Cam, Chipper Cam, Crash Cam and Sniper Cam. For additional information, visit www.hurlbutvisuals.com. Radiant Images Expands In addition to expanding its facility, Los Angeles-based rental house HD Camera Rentals has changed its name to Radiant Images to better reflect its scope of work, which includes prep and post services, 2-D and 3-D cinema solutions, and designing and building custom rigs. Radiant Images’ expanded facility — which now measures more than 20,000 square feet — has been designed with client comfort and convenience in mind. It includes an 8,000-square-foot prep area with eight spacious bays, a high-precision lens and sensor diagnostics room for on-site testing, a kitchen and conference room for client use, dual loading docks, and a private and secure 4,000-square-foot prep facility for major productions.

“Since we began six years ago, our reputation has grown as innovators and problem solvers,” says Michael Mansouri, Radiant Images’ co-founder. “We like to think that we provide a spark of creativity to the projects we are involved in by discovering new and better ways to utilize cameras

and gear. This type of hands-on, creative approach benefits our clients and has been the main reason for our growth.” For additional information, visit www.radiantimages.com. Petrol Bags Unzips DigiSuite Petrol Bags has introduced the DigiSuite DSLR Camera Case. The front lid of this semi-hard suitcase-style carrier unzips quickly to reveal a central compartment contoured to fit up to two DSLR cameras with lenses attached. Detachable internal dividers help secure contents and create pockets for storing a mattebox, camera plate, follow focus, camera light, viewfinder, cables and more. With the dividers removed, the DigiSuite can serve as a regular suitcase. On the lid’s interior, a padded pouch can hold a personal computer with up to a 17" screen. Contents are surrounded and cushioned by padded fabric. Twin brackets on the bottom of the DigiSuite allow for quick connection of Petrol’s Snaplock wheel and trolley system.

The exterior features a plastic, exchangeable logo frame for personal branding. Additional features include cold-molded laminate panels for extra protection, auxiliary zippered storage pouches for personal accessories, an exterior front pocket, top and side carrying handles, and dual-directional easy-glide zippers. The DigiSuite is constructed of black 900D and ballistic nylon fabrics. For additional information, visit www.petrolbags.com. Vinten Adapts to 3-D Vinten has introduced the 3-D Wedge Adapter for stereoscopic production. The device balances rigs that cannot be mounted to a conventional head in a balanced position. It is designed to facilitate the proper balancing of 3-D beamsplitter rigs and allows more clearance for the under-slung camera, which increases the available downward tilt. The 3-D Wedge offsets the head’s level position by a few degrees so the balance mechanism produces a back-torque when the camera is level, moving the payload’s center of gravity forward of the tilt axis. The 3-D Wedge Adapter integrates seamlessly with Vinten’s full range of heads and allows the option of shooting in 2-D and 3-D. “All of our adapters are designed to help improve the versatility and usability

Focal Press Launches FilmSkills Focal Press has launched FilmSkills, a subscription-based educational resource that promises to bring Hollywood insiders directly to the computers of a new generation of film students. “Digital tools are transforming book publishing and education,” says Focal Press publisher Elinor Actipis. “We are proud to offer our world-leading content on a platform that allows our customers to learn this visual art with visual tools.” To create FilmSkills, Focal Press has partnered with more than 200 industry experts, including cinematographers, directors, studio and network executives, and equipment manufacturers. “Filmmaking is a collaborative art,” says FilmSkills co-creator Jason Tomaric. “With FilmSkills, we’ve recreated that collaborative atmosphere so young filmmakers can learn from the best filmmakers in the world.” FilmSkills covers the entire process from writing to distribution and organizes each lesson into multimedia modules. Features include more than 100 videos featuring working professionals and academic experts, downloadable tools, companion text from Focal Press books, instructor resources, and social-media features that allow students and teachers to continue their conversations. In conjunction with FilmSkills, Focal Press has also launched the website www.masteringfilm.com, which features free tips, techniques, interviews and articles, all designed to help visitors become better filmmakers. For additional information, visit www.focalpress.com, www.filmskills.com and www.master ingfilm.com. 78

July 2011

American Cinematographer

of Vinten’s products,” says Peter Harman, Vinten’s product manager. “The new Wedge Adapter can help users to deliver 3-D performance without compromising creativity. The Wedge Adapter is a significant addition to our extensive range of accessories; it is able to perfectly balance the often heavy payloads used in 3-D broadcast, and proves that Vinten is 3-D ready.” For additional information, visit www.vinten.com.

OConnor Glows with Marking Disks OConnor has introduced Glow-inthe-Dark Follow Focus Marking Disks. The rings are standard-size flat marking disks designed for use with the OConnor CFF-1 follow-focus unit; they are also compatible with many other standard focus wheels. The glow-in-the-dark design provides maximum visibility to an assistant working in a dark location. The phosphorescent marking rings join OConnor’s family of lens and camera accessories, including the CFF-1, O-Box WM mattebox and O-Grips handgrip system. The Glow-in-the-Dark Follow Focus Marking Disks are sold for $30 each and in sets of 10 for $290. For additional information, visit www.ocon.com. Movcam Accessorizes Sony F3 Movcam has introduced a support system for Sony’s PMW-F3 digital camera. The kit includes a mattebox, follow focus, front handle, battery mount, and 15mm lightweight-support and 19mm studio rod modules that are compatible with standard cine accessories. The support also includes

two 19mm rods for the camera top, allowing more accessories to be attached. The support’s top handle has been designed for better balance when using the camera with a long lens, and the system also boasts two side handles; all of the handles feature a focus hook to assist the first assistant. For additional information, visit www.movcam.com. AbelCine Rents Frezzi Juicebox Frezzi Energy Systems has introduced the Universal Juicebox 600W, a dualvoltage broadcast-equipment power supply made in collaboration with AbelCine. The Universal Juicebox is designed to power the AbelCine UniBob Universal Breakout Box for complete power management of all camera accessories on 2⁄3" and digital-cinema cameras. It was designed with the Arri Alexa, Sony SRW-9000PL and Phantom Flex cameras in mind, but it can also be used to power any 2⁄3" camera and all of its accessories, including lens controllers, lights, onboard monitors and recorders. The Lemo-8 dualvoltage port is standard for use with the Sony F23 and F35 and the Panavision Genesis. The additional XLR-4 and XLR3 ports on the Universal Juicebox allow it to power a variety of 12-volt and 24-volt devices. The unit measures 4.5"x5"x11.75", weighs less than 6 pounds and accepts worldwide input voltage. The Universal Juicebox is available for rent exclusively through AbelCine. For more information, visit www.frezzi.com and www.abelcine.com. ●

International Marketplace

Alura Carry Handles TM

toll free: 877-467-8666 www.oppenheimercameraproducts.com

80

July 2011

American Cinematographer

SUPER16INC.COM Top-notch camera and lens servicing Ask about Ultra 16! T: 607-642-3352 [email protected] Toll-free: 877-376-6582 FREE ESTIMATES

Classifieds CLASSIFIED AD RATES 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. N o agency commission or discounts on clas si fied advertising.PAYMENTMUSTAC COM PA NYORDER. VISA, Mastercard, AmEx and Discover card are ac cept ed. Send ad to Clas si fied Ad ver tis ing, Amer i can Cin e ma tog ra pher, P.O. Box 2230, Hol ly wood, CA 90078.Or FAX (323) 876-4973. Dead line for payment and copy must be in the office by 15th of second month preceding pub li ca tion. Sub ject mat ter is lim it ed to items and ser vic es per tain ing to film mak ing and vid eo pro duc tion. Words used are sub ject to mag a zine style ab bre vi a tion. Min i mum amount per ad: $45

EQUIPMENT FOR SALE Arri 435ES very complete package plus 18-100 Zoom lens, Arri Varicon. Excellent prices Contact [email protected] 14,000+ USED EQUIPMENT ITEMS. PRO VIDEO & FILM EQUIPMENT COMPANY. 50 YEARS EXPERIENCE. New: iLLUMiFLEX LIGHTS & FluidFlex TRIPODS. www.UsedEquipmentNewsletter.com AND www.ProVideoFilm.com EMAIL: [email protected] CALL BILL 972 869 9990, 888 869 9998. World’s SUPERMARKET of USED MOTION PICTURE EQUIPMENT! Buy, Sell, Trade. CAMERAS, LENSES, SUPPORT, AKS & MORE! Visual Products, Inc. www.visualproducts.com Call 440.647.4999

CLASSIFIEDS ON-LINE

SERVICES AVAILABLE

Ads may now also be placed in the on-line 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].

STEADICAM ARM QUALITY SERVICE OVERHAUL AND UPDATES. QUICK TURNAROUND. ROBERT LUNA (323) 938-5659.

ww.theasc.com w

July 2011

81

Advertiser’s Index 16x9, Inc. 80 AC 1, 81 Aja Video Systems, Inc. 9 Alan Gordon Enterprises 80 Arri 33 Assimilate 60 AZGrip 80 Backstage Equipment, Inc. 79 Bardwell & McAlister, Inc. 11 Barger-Lite 80 Bron Imaging Group - US 45 Burrell Enterprises 80 Cavision Enterprises 17 Chapman/Leonard Studio Equipment Inc. 19 Chemical Wedding 71 Cinematography Electronics 79 Cinekinetic 80 Clairmont Film & Digital C3 Codex Digital Ltd., 21 Convergent Design 41 Cooke Optics 35

82

Deluxe C2 DV Expo 83 Eastman Kodak C4 EFD USA, Inc 13 Film Gear 77 Filmtools 6 FotoKem 23 Gemini 3D Camera 77 Glidecam Industries 15 Hive Lighting 6 IBC 87 Kino Flo 52 Kobold 45 Lite Panels 2 Matthews Studio Equipment 81 Maine Media Workshops 79 M.M. Muhki & Sons 81 Movcam Tech. Co. Ltd. 43 Musicians Institute 34 New York Film Academy 44 Oppenheimer Camera Prod. 80

Panther Gmbh 53 PED Denz 80, 81 Pille Film Gmbh 81 Power Gems Limited 61 Pro8mm 80 Shelton Communications 80 Siggraph 75 Super16 Inc. 81 Sylvania 5 Tessive LLC 6 Thales Angenieux 7 VF Gadgets, Inc. 80 Willy’s Widgets 80 www.theasc.com 4, 82, 85 Zacuto Films 81

September 20-22, 2011 Pasadena Convention Center www.dvexpo.com

For more than ten years, the Digital Video Expo has been the destination for content creation professionals to explore the latest technologies, learn from world-class professionals and connect with peers who share the same passion. This year’s show will feature over 100 exhibitors, Apple and Adobe training sessions by Weynand, production and post conference sessions from DV magazine, and more networking events and free content than ever before. FREE exhibits only pass and early bird rates available until August 31, 2011. Register now at dvexpo.com and use code ACM.

CONNECT WITH US! @DigitalVideoExpo

Digital Video Expo

Digital Video Expo

Bold, Fresh Ideas to Inspire and Excite.

For information about exhibiting contact: Jacqueline Gospodinoff 3ALES$IRECTOR\ \JGOSPODINOFF NBMEDIACOMsSusan Shores, East Coast Sales | 212-378-0400 ext. 528 | [email protected] Jeff Victor, West Coast Sales | 847-367-4073 | [email protected]

In Memoriam

Gerald Perry Finnerman, ASC, 1931-2011

Emmy-winning cinematographer Gerald Perry Finnerman, ASC died on April 6 at the age of 79. Finnerman was born on December 17, 1931, in Los Angeles, Calif. His father, Perry Finnerman, also an ASC member, was a contract cinematographer at Warner Bros. who worked on such series as Cheyenne, 77 Sunset Strip, Bronco, Colt .45, Lawman and Maverick. After honing his skills as a combat cameraman, the junior Finnerman joined his father’s crew as a camera assistant. When his father died, in 1960, Finnerman began working with Harry Stradling Sr., ASC. Stradling promoted Finnerman from focus puller to operator, and when Stradling left Warner Bros., in 1964, Finnerman went with him. At Paramount, they worked on the feature How to Murder Your Wife; at Universal, Moment to Moment; and at Columbia, Walk Don’t Run. Finnerman’s allegiance paid off two years later, when Stradling recommended him to Desilu Productions for a new series called Star Trek . Finnerman got the job, thereby becoming one of the youngest cinematographers working in Hollywood. (He was 32.) He drew heavily from lessons he had learned while working with his father and Stradling. “Harry once told me, ‘When you take the lights around so far that it scares people or it scares you, that’s when it looks good,’ and that’s what I used to do [on Star Trek],” Finnerman told AC (Oct. ’94). “I used to take that light way around until I got scared, and then it had dimension. That’s what Star Trek had: dimension.” Charting the galaxy-spanning adventures of the crew of the starship Enterprise, the show was also marked by dynamic dolly moves and a great deal of ingenuity with incamera effects, including forced perspective. “I think much of the look also came from the placement of lights and the use of colored gels,” Finnerman said. “We changed walls from gray to blue to green, depending on the mood and what we wanted to say about that planet. One day we created a purple 84

July 2011

sky. Another day, the same set looked like a hot desert in March. A third day, it was deep blue. We did it with filters and lights. “On a show like Star Trek, you have to push the envelope,” he added. “The result of playing it safe is a diet of pabulum.”

Finnerman stayed on the series for its three-year run, and he also notched credits on Mission: Impossible for Desilu. In 1968, he shot the telefilm The Sunshine Patriot for director Joseph Sargent, and based on the strength of that work, he was offered the film The Lost Man , starring Sidney Poitier, with whom Finnerman would also work on They Call Me Mister Tibbs! and Brother John. In 1969, Finnerman and some collaborators were scouting from the air for a production that was to shoot in Colorado, and the plane crashed. Only Finnerman survived. In an interview with TV Guide, the cinematographer recounted, “I wore a metal brace around my hips, up my back and down my chest for six years. I learned a great lesson, though. No matter how tough things are on set, no matter how much people scream … I do not get excited. It has given me a quiet approach to life.” In the midst of his recovery, in 1970, Finnerman joined the ASC after Stradling recommended him. It was to be an active membership, indeed, as Finnerman served as a vice president, a member of the Board American Cinematographer

of Governors, and as the chair of the Membership, Constitution and Bylaws, and Strictly Social committees. Finnerman continued to shoot series, features and telefilms throughout the ‘70s and into the ‘80s. He earned Emmy nominations for the series Kojak, From Here to Eternity and The Gangster Chronicles , and he won an Emmy for the telefilm Ziegfeld: The Man and His Women. In 1985, he began shooting the first of five seasons of Moonlighting, a series that afforded him even more opportunities for experimentation than Star Trek did — as well as the opportunity to direct. Following the investigations of the Blue Moon Detective Agency, comprising Maddie Hayes (Cybill Shepherd) and David Addison (Bruce Willis), the show consistently played with the tropes of a host of genres. The noirinspired episode “The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice,” for example, was shot in black-and-white. “Working on the production of an episodic TV show entails long, hard hours, and it can be very stressful work,” Finnerman told AC (July’ 86). “If you are going to put yourself through that, you might as well be doing something which you can be proud of.” Finnerman’s efforts on the series were rewarded with two Emmy nominations and two ASC nominations. He served on the Cinematographers Peer Group of the Board of Governors Election Board of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences from 1995-97, and in 1996 he was inducted into the Producers Guild Hall of Fame for his work on Star Trek. In 2002, Finnerman officially changed his ASC status to “retired.” “In the end, people are going to come to you, and if something was less than perfect, you can’t blame it on the camera, lens, film or the operator,” said Finnerman. “You’re the one they picked to do the job right. It’s your responsibility. “Never be lazy. Try to be creative … If you are having a good time, you are probably doing good work.” — Jon D. Witmer ●

Clubhouse News

Top: Christopher Manley, ASC (left) and AC associate editor Jon D. Witmer. Bottom (left to right): Matthew Mendelson, Oliver Lanzenberg and associate member Volker Bahnemann.

86

July 2011

and remember, you can’t do it alone.” “Your stomach’s a lot smarter than your intellect, so do what feels right,” advised Wages. Isaacks agreed, noting, “What a cinematographer does is really in his heart and his head.” Libatique, Manley Kick Off ASC Breakfast Club Matthew Libatique, ASC was the guest of honor at the Society’s inaugural Breakfast Club in March. Held at the Society’s Clubhouse, the event began with a light breakfast, during which Libatique mingled with the capacity audience. Everyone moved indoors after the meal, and the cinematographer sat down for a Q&A with AC associate editor Jon D. Witmer, screening clips from Requiem for a Dream , The Fountain and Inside Man . Libatique then took questions from the audience. Christopher Manley, ASC took the hot seat for the second Breakfast Club in May. In a wide-ranging conversation with Witmer, Manley discussed lessons he learned in film school, his early work on set as an electrician, and some of the strategies he employed on the series Threat Matrix, CSI: NY and Mad Men; he screened clips from all three shows. Manley then took questions from the enthusiastic audience. The ASC plans to hold Breakfast Clubs on a regular basis. For information on future events, visit www.theasc.com. Churchill, Wexler Attend Doc U Joan Churchill, ASC and Haskell Wexler, ASC recently joined documentarian James Longley for a panel discussion moderated by filmmaker Richard Pearce at The Cinefamily in Los Angeles. Presented by the International Documentary Association, the discussion was a part of the “Doc U” series of seminars and workshops for aspiring and experienced documentary filmmakers. The panel focused on the philosophical and technical challenges faced by documentary cinematographers. American Cinematographer

Schneider Participates in ShortsLab Aaron Schneider, ASC recently participated in “ShortsLab: Chicago,” presented by the Sundance Institute. The one-day filmmaking workshop was held at Columbia College Chicago, and was aimed at filmmakers looking to improve their storytelling techniques, learn about the world of production, and explore platforms to showcase their work. Schneider joined director Jared Hess to share lessons learned while conceiving and developing the short films that launched their respective directing careers. Pfister Wins ACS International Award The Australian Cinematographers Society recently named Wally Pfister, ASC the recipient of the 2011 ACS International Cinematographer of the Year Award for his work on Inception (AC July ’10). The ACS International Award is open to any featurefilm cinematographer, of any nationality, working on the international stage. Previous recipients include Dion Beebe, ASC, ACS; Emmanuel Lubezki, ASC, AMC; Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC; Anthony Dod Mantle, BSC, DFF; and Robert Richardson, ASC. Bahnemann Presents Awards Associate member Volker Bahnemann recently presented the first annual Volker Bahnemann Awards for Cinematography at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts Maurice Kanbar Institute. Matthew Mendelson won in the graduate division, and Oliver Lanzenberg took home the award for undergraduates. Both students received grants to help fund their thesis projects. The N YU grant was conceived to inspire future generations of cinematographers and empower talented students to realize their artistic potential; recipients are selected by the faculty. ●

Photo of Clubhouse by Isidore Mankofsky, ASC; lighting by Donald M. Morgan, ASC. Manley photo by Matt Turve. Bahnemann photo courtesy of Arri.

J.L. Fisher Hosts Industry Mixer J.L. Fisher, the Society of Camera Operators, the International Cinematographers Guild and the ASC recently held their sixth annual mixer and BBQ lunch, hosted by J.L. Fisher in Burbank, Calif. Facility tours were provided, and a host of camera-support manufacturers and vendors set up booths outside to show off their latest tools and technology in a relaxed, cordial atmosphere. During the event, the SOC presented the “Moving Camera Operation Seminar,” which included members of the SOC and Locals 600 (camera) and 80 (grips). ASC President Michael Goi moderated “Dialogue with ASC Cinematographers.” The panel — which comprised Society members Richard Crudo, David Darby, Levie Isaacks, Victor J. Kemper , Isidore Mankofsky and William Wages — focused primarily on camera movement. Offering advice to the aspiring filmmakers in attendance, Darby said, “Keep your head down, do good work

RAI Amsterdam Conference 8-13 September : Exhibition 9-13 September

IBC2011 Experience the future IBC is the premier annual event for professionals engaged in the creation, management and delivery of entertainment and news content worldwide. • 48,000+ attendees from more than 140 countries

• FREE entry to the Connected World for IPTV and Mobile

• over 1,300 key international technology suppliers

• FREE access to the Production Village showcasing 3D camera rigs, DSLR’s and professional studio cameras

• agenda-setting conference with 300+ high-proﬁle international speakers • world-class demonstrations of groundbreaking technology such as stereo 3D • IBC Certiﬁed Training Programme - hands on training for production and post production professionals

• FREE movie screenings in The IBC Big Screen • FREE entry to the prestigious Awards Ceremony • FREE entry to the IBC “What Caught My Eye” sessions • FREE access to the latest developments in broadcast technology showcased in the Future Zone and New Technology Campus

www.ibc.org IBC Fifth Floor International Press Centre 76 Shoe Lane London EC4A 3JB UK T +44 (0) 20 7832 4100 F +44 (0) 20 7832 4130 E [email protected]

at r w no giste r iste rg/re g Re bc.o w.i w w

Close-up

Bruno Delbonnel, ASC, AFC

When you were a child, what film made the strongest impression on you? Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal (1957). Which cinematographers, past or present, do you most admire? Sven N ykvist, ASC showed me that light can be psychology. With Gianni di Venanzo, light can be architecture; with Giuseppe Rotunno, ASC, AIC, light is lyrical; with Vadim Yusov, light is spiritual; with Gordon Willis, ASC, light is a Greek tragedy; with Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC, light is emotional, and with Freddie Young, BSC, light is epic. I also admire Bob Richardson, ASC; Harris Savides, ASC; Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC; Janusz Kaminski; César Charlone, ABC, and Emmanuel Lubezski, ASC, AMC for exploring new ways of telling a story with light, just as Billy Bitzer, Eduard Tisse, Fritz Arno Wagner and Gregg Toland, ASC did. What sparked your interest in photography? Seeing that cinematography is definitely an art. Where did you train and/or study? I studied philosophy. Then I directed a short film and had Henri Alekan, AFC (Beauty and the Beast ) as my director of photography. He was a master. Working with him for only a week made me understand that I wasn’t a director. I spent more time talking to him about light and composition than I did talking to the actors. Who were your early teachers or mentors? I didn’t really have any. I guess I learned by looking at films. I was a camera assistant, and I don’t think an AC can learn from a director of photography. But when you watch films at home, you can freeze the frame and study how the cinematographer lit a shot. I did it then, and I still do it. (I still don’t understand how Roger Deakins and Bob Richardson do some light … they have to explain it to me!) What are some of your key artistic influences? Music, architecture and sculpture, because they are all based on a structure and harmony. We could imagine a script being a score and play with light as if it were a variation on a theme. Light can be like a symphony with different movements, or like a Frank Gehry building with a lot of curves instead of straight lines, or like a sculpture with empty spaces inside a plain, marble block. Those different fields in art are playing with opposition: slow vs. fast, melodic vs. atonal, black vs. white, empty vs. plain. Cinematographers play with light vs. shadow. I’m being a bit simplistic, but that’s the roots for me, I guess. My main influence is contemporary art. It’s amazing how far some artists go. We have a lot to learn from them.

88

July 2011

How did you get your first break in the business? When I was 22, there were a lot of American and British cinematographers coming to France to shoot, and very few camera assistants could speak English. I could because I’d just spent a year living in New York. I had no talent whatsoever, but I could at least communicate with the cinematographer! What has been your most satisfying moment on a project? Prep is always the most satisfying moment, because that’s when you define the look of the film with all your dreams and desires. The shoot brings you back to the reality of what you can and cannot do. The shoot is disappointment with good surprises. Have you made any memorable blunders? You don’t want me to tell everyone how bad I am, do you? I’ve made them all. What is the best professional advice you’ve ever received? When I was an AC, a gaffer told me, ‘Don’t run on a set,’ because you show everyone that you probably forgot something. I still don’t run on set, and I try not to forget too many things. What recent books, films or artworks have inspired you? Modern British Sculpture at the Royal Academy of Art in London, David N ash’s sculptures at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Lars von Trier and Jørgen Leth’s film The Five Obstructions , and photography by Thomas Ruff, Elger Esser, Thomas Struth and Andreas Gursky. Do you have any favorite genres, or genres you would like to try? I don’t think so. If you weren’t a cinematographer, what might you be doing instead? A fireman. At least I would have the feeling of doing something useful for the community instead of being so selfish. Which ASC cinematographers recommended you for membership? Michael Chapman, Guillermo Navarro and Woody Omens. How has ASC membership impacted your life and career? I met [ASC members] Vilmos Zsigmond, Laszlo Kovacs, Conrad Hall and Bob Richardson the first time I was nominated for an ASC Award, and they told me they really liked what I did on Amélie. I thought, ‘What is happening? I’m in front of four legendary cinematographers, and they are talking to me as if I were one of their peers. I really have to show them something better the next time I meet them.’ ●

American Cinematographer

Over the years, Clairmont Camera’s Lens Department has always been the most supportive and innovative for my needs. They’ve modified specialty lenses as well as found me a matching set of the older style Cooke Speed Panchros to film with. Recently they were the first to test and acquire the latest lenses I was looking for on a project. I can also say that I’ve never been at a loss with their vast filter inventory to find the right filter combination to achieve the look and style I wanted in color or in black & white. In the end, it’s not just about renting camera equipment. It's about Clairmont Camera’s commitment and involvement in tailoring the equipment to your individual needs and finding the right solution to your problem. Ed Lachman, ASC

www.clairmont.com

© Kodak, 2010. Kodak and Vision are trademarks.

HIGHER DEFINITION x3 As our family grows, so do the possibilities of ﬁlmmaking. The KODAK VISION3 Film family has raised the bar for high-deﬁnition capture — with unrivaled highlight latitude, reduced grain in shadows, ﬂexibility in post, and of course, proven archival stability. Now with the addition of KODAK VISION3 200T Color Negative Film 5213/7213, we’ve developed a ﬁlm that performs superbly in both controlled interiors and in challenging high-contrast exteriors. It’s time to look forward to the future with more options and no compromise. Learn more at kodak.com/go/200t

No title

No title

No title

No title

No title

No title

No title

No title

No title

No title

No title

No title

No title

No title

No title

No title

No title

No title

No title

No title

No title

No title

No title

No title

No title

No title

No title

No title

No title

No title

Recommend Documents