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The International Journal of Motion Imaging
On Our Cover: Rabble-rousing archer Robin Longstride (Russell Crowe) leads an uprising in Robin Hood, shot by John Mathieson, BSC. (Photo by David Appleby, courtesy of Universal Studios.)
FEATURES 30 42 52 64
Slings and Arrows John Mathieson, BSC sets up camp in Sherwood Forest on Robin Hood
Desert Storm John Seale, ASC, ACS faces epic undertaking with Prince of Persia
Very French Revenge Tetsuo Nagata, AFC leads crack team on Micmacs
Painting Towns White Giles Dunning captures rock tour for The White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights
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DEPARTMENTS 8 10 12 18 72 78 80 92 94 96 98 100
Editor’s Note President’s Desk Short Takes: Land and Bread Production Slate: Winter’s Bone • Harry Brown Post Focus: Frozen Tricks of the Trade: Red’s False Color New Products & Services International Marketplace Classified Ads/Ad Index ASC Membership Roster Clubhouse News ASC Close-Up: John Schwartzman
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— VISIT WWW.THEASC.COM TO ENJOY THESE WEB EXCLUSIVES — DVD Playback: The Natural • Rock ’n’ Roll High School/Suburbia • Bigger Than Life
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The International Journal of Motion Imaging
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www.theasc.com ———————————————————————————————————— PUBLISHER Martha Winterhalter ————————————————————————————————————
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American Cinematographer (ISSN 0002-7928), established 1920 and in its 90th 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
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American Society of Cinematographers The ASC is not a labor union or a guild, but an educational, cultural and professional organization. Membership is by invitation to those who are actively engaged as directors of photography and have demonstrated outstanding ability. ASC membership has become one of the highest honors that can be bestowed upon a professional cinematographer — a mark of prestige and excellence.
OFFICERS - 2009/2010 Michael Goi President
Richard Crudo Vice President
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MEMBERS OF THE BOARD Curtis Clark Richard Crudo George Spiro Dibie Richard Edlund John C. Flinn III John Hora Victor J. Kemper Matthew Leonetti Stephen Lighthill Isidore Mankofsky Daryn Okada Owen Roizman Nancy Schreiber Haskell Wexler Vilmos Zsigmond
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For a summer action movie, Robin Hood addresses some surprisingly substantial themes. “This story is about a country in crisis and big social upheavals,” cinematographer John Mathieson, BSC tells London correspondent Mark Hope-Jones (“Slings and Arrows,” page 30). “This Robin Hood has far more of a political vision — he actually starts a revolution and brings the country together. The film isn’t a romp in the woods.” Call it the thinking man’s blockbuster. Well aware that Robin Hood’s tale has been told many times, the filmmakers sought to distinguish their version not only thematically, but also aesthetically; Mathieson and director Ridley Scott referenced the work of Brueghel-dynasty painters for the film’s bleak landscapes, and deliberately shifted their palette away from the bright hues of Michael Curtiz’s 1938 Technicolor classic The Adventures of Robin Hood. “There are a lot of burned browns and dark colors in our costumes and sets,” says Mathieson. “It’s a pretty mucky-looking film.” John Seale, ASC, ACS found himself at the opposite climatic extreme on Prince of Persia, an expansive desert adventure adapted from the popular video game. Although portions of the picture were shot onstage at England’s Pinewood Studios, the production also deployed multiple units at various “hot spots” amid the shifting sands of Morocco. Seale had his hands full with shooting, coordinating the various units, integrating his images with extensive visual effects, and supervising elaborate digital-intermediate work. “I left particular finessing for the DI, and I’m not ashamed of that,” he tells Michael Goldman (“Desert Storm,” page 42). “I really feel you have to honor the schedule, even on something this big and complicated, and the DI lets you leave some simple problems alone on the set, things that might take 30 minutes or longer to fix.” On Micmacs, Tetsuo Nagata, AFC teamed with French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, a filmmaker with a firmly established flair for stylized visuals. Described by European correspondent Benjamin B as a “quirky mélange of slapstick, fantasy and broad comedy” (“Very French Revenge,” page 52), the project confirms Jeunet’s reputation for elaborate imagery. “We shot for 80 days, doing 10 shots a day — but it was never 10 simple shots!” Nagata says. Offbeat visual strategies also pay off in the concert film The White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights, which required director of photography Giles Dunning and his team to trail a pair of indie-rock icons across Canada as they performed a series of shows at standard concert halls and more unusual venues (“Painting Towns White,” page 64). Along the way, Dunning and his cohorts captured compelling footage of the White Stripes in action. Director Emmett Malloy observes, “Their dynamic onstage is like nothing I’ve seen before … Meg really is waiting to see where Jack’s going next, and that’s completely fascinating to watch through a lens. It’s as rock ’n’ roll and as punk rock as anything I’ve ever seen.”
Stephen Pizzello Executive Editor
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Photo by Owen Roizman, ASC.
Editor’s Note
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A few months ago, a firestorm of controversy erupted as a result of Avatar’s cinematography win (for Mauro Fiore, ASC) at the Academy Awards. Almost overnight, it seemed cinematographers and cinematography societies all over the world were calling for some voice of reason as to what was in store for the future of “traditional” cinematography, and what our place was in the emerging virtual-production world. I researched some trade periodicals dating as far back as the 1920s to get a sense of how the industry reacted to major changes in the way we practice our craft. What I found were some colorful comments that indicated how the onslaught of new technology was worrying devotees of cinematography: “Vulgar!” “Completely lacking in artistic relevance!” “Does not deserve to be considered cinematography!” “The death of true artistry!” “Technology run amok!” These words were used to describe such horrifying events as the birth of the sound motion picture, the introduction of three-strip Technicolor, television broadcasting, widescreen formats and 3-D filmmaking. It was amusing to see how the same words or sentiments were recycled and repurposed in response to every major technological shift that had occurred in our profession since the dawn of the motion picture. I think there’s a kind of chaos of perception at work in these shifts, a chaos born from the belief that because a technology is capable of expediting an artistic vision with more clarity and precision than was previously possible, that technology must inherently be a threat to the human elements of collaboration and artistry. As we’ve seen with all of the innovations I mentioned, the nature of how we use these tools might change, but the spirit of collaboration and creativity is actually enhanced in the process. Above all, the artistry must drive the technology. In the newly refurbished ASC Clubhouse, there is a plaque with some illuminating words about our craft from none other than Cecil B. DeMille. I think they bear repeating here. (Please note that “he” and “his” are used as universal pronouns and are not intended to exclude women from the ranks.) The missive is entitled “He Is A True Artist”: “Amid the strange ingredients of Hollywood — a world typified by the human swarm and the artistic abstraction — there is a figure unknown to the chants of promoters and glorifiers. His hand has rarely held the scepter of public acclaim, his brow is not crowned with the envied olive leaf which so often settles upon the lordly producer and queens of beauty. This figure, a giant in his industry, is the cameraman — the sine qua non of a profession which often boasts that no one in its ranks is indispensable. No one, I say, save the cameraman. I believe this is why: He is the custodian of the heart of filmmaking as the writers are of its soul … His tool is a box with a glass window, lifeless until he breathes into it his creative spirit and injects into its steel veins the plasma of his imagination … The product of his camera, and therefore of his magic, means many things to many persons — fulfillment of an idea, an ambition ... realization of dreams … He is the judge who applies the laws of dramatic effect in complete coordination and fellowship with the director who interprets those laws … Light, composition, treatment are his instruments of power, which he wields with intelligence and sensitiveness to bring to full bloom the meaning of his art … His versatile management of an intricate mechanism yields astonishing results in mood, emotion, dramatic effect … A slanting shadow becomes a shattering portent of doom … A lifeless chair instills the feeling of infinite sorrow … A dead wall awakens a foreboding of plunging terror … A flash of a man’s face rises to the grandeur of drama, inspiring and ennobling … Before his wizardry, wrinkles fade from the faces of Hollywood’s ageless, imperishable beauties … chins take on lovely contours … years melt away …. Yes, the technique of the cameraman is the technique of artistic vivisection that lays bare the inner workings of our profession. If art can be said to be the expression of beauty in form, color, sound, shape or movement, then it must be said that same art is the art of the cameraman — expressed in the boundless reaches of his imagination. For his patience and singleness of purpose in a most arduous work, he is eminently deserving of that which is justly said of few men: ‘He is a true artist.’”
Michael Goi, ASC President 10
June 2010
American Cinematographer
Photo by Owen Roizman, ASC.
President’s Desk
Short Takes
Land and Bread’s eight-minute narrative, which plays out as a slow, seemingly continuous pullback move, actually required cinematographer Isi Sarfati to deftly combine a series of zoom shots that he operated manually.
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June 2010
Land and Bread Shines on the Festival Circuit By David Heuring
Carlos Armella and Isi Sarfati were born within a few months of each other in Mexico City, but they met many years later, when they were both students at the London Film School. Admirers of each other’s work, they became collaborators when Armella asked Sarfati to shoot a short film he had written called Land and Bread (Tierra y pan). The film went on to win the Golden Lion for Best Short at the 2008 Venice Film Festival, and it has since collected a number of prizes, including several for cinematography. The eight-minute film has no dialogue or music, and appears to consist of a very slow zoom out from an extreme close-up of a barking dog to an extremely wide shot; the camera’s position never changes. A mysterious drama involving the dog, a doctor, a bleeding woman and a crying baby plays out before the camera, but most of the action is heard, not seen, as it takes place inside a corrugatedmetal shack. There are seven subtle dissolves throughout the film, and a shocking ending punctuates the tale. “I found the script quite confusing at first,” says Sarfati, “and I didn’t immediately realize the full extent of the artistic and technical challenges it posed. Little by little, I began to see the complications of achieving Carlos’ vision. The film was very clear in his mind, and my job was to understand that and translate it into cinematographic techniques.” There was no time or budget for preproduction testing. However, Sarfati did have photographs of the location — a dry lakebed — and a calculation of the sun’s position and path in relation to the shack, which was built the night before the shoot. The shot begins in full daylight and ends at dusk; natural light was augmented only by two shiny boards. “I knew the story had to be shot correctly exposed and with a natural feel — no overexposed skies or underexposed ground,” says Sarfati. “The cinematography had to be subtle exposure-wise so as not to take your attention away from the story, but aggressive framing-wise in order to create the mood the film required.” He used an Arri 435 Xtreme and an Angenieux Optimo 24290mm zoom lens. (EFD in Mexico City provided all the equipment.) The camera was on a tripod loaded down with sandbags and strapped down to prevent the slightest movement. Sarfati brought a number of zoom controls to the set and quickly realized that none of them was slow enough to cover eight minutes of constant, steady movement. To compensate, script supervisor Leny Iñiguez counted time while Sarfati manually operated the zoom control at varying speeds. “It was moving so slowly that I had to watch the edge of the frame or track a rock to be sure it was moving,” recalls the cinematographer. “We had about 45 seconds for each segment. At the beginning and end of each
American Cinematographer
Frame grabs and photo courtesy of the filmmakers.
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Sarfati takes a meter reading on location at a dry lakebed, where he worked with natural light.
segment, I would hold the zoom control all the way down so that the transitions would happen smoothly at the same constant rate. It was like being a human motion-control unit.” Sarfati worried that the changes in zoom speed would detract from the story, but he found that the variation was so minimal, even when the film was projected, that audiences didn’t appear to notice it. “It is amazing that some viewers are so drawn into the story they don’t even realize the frame has changed from the close-up to the wide shot,” he says. To keep the skies contrasty, Sarfati used a range of ND grad filters as well as a polarizer. “We didn’t know what the weather would do,” he says. “If a cloud came by in the middle of a shot, well, then a cloud came by. We wrote down the focal lengths at which each segment ended so that we could do another take if necessary. We ended up doing one scene three times because the dog caused a problem. There were two other segments we did twice, but the rest were single takes.” Land and Bread was shot on 1,400' of short ends of Kodak Vision2 250D 5205. “We knew shooting film was the right choice because so many of the other elements were uncontrollable,” notes Sarfati. “Clouds did come in and out, but when it’s overcast, you see great detail in the earth. Then, when the sun comes out,
the film holds beautiful details in the sky.” The footage was developed at Laboratory Ormaco, and the rest of the project’s post was handled at Churubusco Studios in Mexico City. Armella assembled the shots in Apple Final Cut Pro using a one-light transfer. The negative was then scanned to match the EDL, graded and recorded out to 35mm. “Very little color correction was required,” notes Sarfati. “The idea was to color-correct to the color chart and see how it looked, and it looked and felt the way we intended from the beginning.” For his work on the picture, Sarfati won the Cecilio Paniagua prize at the Almeria en Corto short-film festival in Spain, and the jury prize for cinematography at Expresion en Corto in Mexico. He also won a cinematography award at the Miami International Film Festival. “Some projects require rigid technical control, and some require me to improvise as I go,” says Sarfati. “I can’t say which approach is better; it really depends on the project. On this film, we had one setup, one lens and usually one take. Because it was a good script and we made the right cinematographic choices, it turned out great. Sometimes simplicity is the best approach.” ●
Photo by Leny Iñiguez.
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Production Slate
I
An Odyssey in the Ozarks By Patricia Thomson
“Authenticity” was the watchword for Winter’s Bone, a harrowing drama set in the Ozark Mountains about a daughter’s hunt for her scofflaw father. Director Debra Granik is a native New Yorker, and director of photography Michael McDonough hails from Glasgow, Scotland, so neither was familiar with Missouri’s remote mountain region. The longtime collaborators therefore embarked on a journey of their own, devoting two years to researching and scouting the Ozarks, then shooting on practical locations with a mix of professional actors and local nonprofessionals. Their efforts were handsomely rewarded at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where the film won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. Winter’s Bone is Granik and McDonough’s second feature, after Down to the Bone (2004), but the two have collaborated since 1994, when they began graduate film studies at New York University at the same time. “Debra and I started the same day, same class,” recalls McDonough. “We went from doing class exercises to making the short Snake Feed, then Down to the Bone, and then Winter’s Bone.” When he wasn’t working with Granik, McDonough 16
June 2010
shot Bowling for Columbine, Diggers and Quid Pro Quo, among other projects. Based on a novel by Daniel Woodrell, Winter’s Bone tells the story of 17-year-old Ree (Jennifer Lawrence), who tends her younger siblings and catatonic mother. Ree faces the prospect of losing the family home after her drug-addicted father posts it as bond and then disappears. Her quest to find him takes her from one ramshackle house to another, where she confronts tight-lipped kin and a self-protective meth culture that turns ugly when cornered. “I love the book — I think it’s Annie Proulx with a male voice,” says McDonough. He encouraged Granik and producer Anne Rosellini to purchase the rights, and he signed onto the project as an associate producer. “Michael was the first person who said, ‘I’m not having one more discussion about whether we should option this. I’m coming with my paycheck tomorrow, and everyone will throw in a third,” recalls Granik. Because of tax incentives, proximity to New York City, and the greater likelihood of encountering snow, the producers flirted with the idea of shooting in the Catskills, but the Ozarks ultimately won out. “Debra wanted to have the local flavor, local people and correct accents,” says McDonough. The duo made six scouting trips, working closely with Richard Michaels, a local guide in Branson,
American Cinematographer
Winter’s Bone photos by Sebastian Mlynarski, courtesy of Roadside Attractions.
17-year-old Ree (Jennifer Lawrence, center) struggles to take care of her younger siblings (Ashlee Thompson, left, and Isaiah Stone) in the drama Winter’s Bone, which won the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
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Right: The filmmakers work on close shots for the climactic scene, in which two women take Dee to a pond to retrieve a body. Below: A shot from the final scene, which begins at dusk and lasts into the night.
Mo., who broke the ice with the local inhabitants. Michaels introduced the filmmakers to the Laysons, an extended family with several homes in one holler; the properties were all within a half-mile radius and became the production’s key locations. “We used it much like a set,” says Granik. “We could park our vehicles long-term and become very familiar with the terrain.” The Laysons’ daughter wound up playing Dee’s little sister, “and their dogs are in every frame,” adds Granik. “There were no less 18
June 2010
than 11 of them!” The filmmakers planned to shoot in winter, true to the novel’s setting. “Winter makes any journey more arduous,” Granik observes. “When it’s cold, the idea of not having enough food becomes direr, the state of the woodpile becomes direr, and the stakes are higher for survival. There’s a kind of tenacity that winter calls upon.” Tenacity was also required of the producers — two months before principal photography was to begin, in 2008, their American Cinematographer
financier backed out. The team managed to refinance, but had to wait until the following winter to shoot. “We were 50 percent poorer but 100 percent freer,” says Granik. The filmmakers’ visual anthropology deepened during the intervening year. “We took thousands of photographs,” says McDonough. Selections went into a “look book” alongside stills from Barbara Kopple’s Harlan County USA, Justin Hunt’s American Meth, Jane Campion’s The Piano, and Bruno Dumont’s La vie de Jésus. McDonough studied The Piano and The Duellists for their use of natural light; Dumont for his desaturated, lyrical landscapes; and the early films of Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne for their handheld camera movement. “Debra loves handheld, but she doesn’t like shaky-cam,” he notes. Granik describes her goal as “a handheld camera in service to a gentle swiftness, without gratuitous movement.” Framing at 1.85:1, McDonough shot Winter’s Bone with a Red One, using Arri Master Primes and 24-290mm and 1540mm Angenieux Optimo zoom lenses. “We had great lenses, and that was important,” says McDonough. “The Red’s an inexpensive camera, but if you’re going to do it properly, you’ve got to get $200,000 worth of accessories. We were very lucky to
Right: Director Debra Granik and cinematographer Michael McDonough work out their approach to an interior. Below: With 1st AC Michael Burke standing by in the background, McDonough prepares to take a reading.
get a reasonably priced rental from Abel Cine Tech [in New York].” The filmmakers used three Red Drives, whose 320GB capacity allowed Granik to run multiple takes without breaking. “During Down to the Bone, we had a saying, ‘Still rolling,’ printed on T-shirts,” says McDonough, “and we applied the same shooting philosophy to this movie. The risk is that if a drive goes down, you lose a lot of material!” Shooting single camera, the cinematographer had a second Red for backup and occasional B-unit work. Halfway through the shoot, the A camera began inexplicably shutting down about 10 hours into the day. “I think it was the hard drive — it just gets tired,” muses McDonough. A different problem affected the backup camera. “We plugged in the same settings, but across the board, it had noise issues,” he says. McDonough decided to tap camera 20
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operator Alan Pierce for the project. “I believe that as the director of photography on a digital feature, I have to be watching the monitor and assessing the image, more so than on a film feature,” says McDonough. “The image I see through the digital camera’s viewfinder is not sufficient, I believe, to allow me to do my job properly; I’d be handing off a massive amount of my responsibility to someone else. When you’ve got a long, close relationship with a director and handheld operating is important, the trick is to find an operator who can keep the visual language consistent. I’ve worked with Al for years and knew he would get the style Debra and I have developed on our collaborations.” McDonough lit day interiors through windows using an 18K or 4Ks, supplementing inside with small tungsten units, Kino Flos or China balls. “I worked as a gaffer for years, so I know where to put lights, and we American Cinematographer
don’t move them around much once we start,” he says. That helped keep the tempo up. “Debra likes actors to feel it’s not just a series of shots. She wants them to feel like they’re in a real environment so they can stay in character for long periods of time.” In low-light interiors, McDonough dealt with the Red’s native 320 ASA by shooting without filtration and lighting as if he were using 250-ASA film and fast lenses. “The camera’s sensor is balanced for daylight, so once you get into tungsten, it’s less sensitive. With digital, I always want to get a healthy ‘negative,’ so I light up more and crush it later.” Consistent with the backwoods settings, fall-off and darkness were common in night scenes. “Through watching films like The Duellists, I got comfortable with half the actor’s face being dark,” Granik says. “For swiftness, China balls and Kino Flos are my best friends, and Michael will swing that way. He can do ornate lighting, of course, but he’s willing to strip it down to collaborate with me.” Grip equipment was also lean. An EasyRig occasionally came into play, and the crew devised some poor-man’s tracking devices. For shots of Dee walking down the road, McDonough put a Matthews bungee mount inside a van and shot through the open side door. At a cattle auction, he saw the potential of the catwalk railing to act as dolly track and fitted an adjustable CamTranSystem to ride the handrails. This tracked with Dee as she walked down the catwalk and provided some POV shots when she chased another character. For the climactic night scene, in which Dee is taken to a pond to retrieve a body, Condors were not an option. McDonough’s solution was to divide the scene into dusk, day-for-night and night-fornight, shooting the entire scene in one day. The filmmakers arrived at noon under an uncharacteristically blazing sun, donned wading gaiters, and went into the water to capture wide shots with a classic day-fornight approach: “Shoot in the daytime, avoid seeing the sky, crush it and make it a cooler color in post.” Next, they waited until dusk to shoot the scene’s opening, when Dee and two older women arrive, park and walk down to the lake. “We had about a 20-
Gail (Lauren Sweetser) is one of the friends Ree calls upon in her quest to locate her father.
minute window to shoot all of that,” says McDonough. “We had maybe two takes.” With the light nearly gone, the second, slightly zoomed-in take required them to switch off the electronic shutter for extra exposure. “Debra and the editor loved the tighter shot, but to me, it’s the one shot in the movie that looks like video,” admits McDonough. “Because there’s no shutter, there’s a smearing effect.” Night-for-night was trickier still. Filming on dry land, with the camera angled low, the filmmakers shot close-ups of the women in the boat, retrieving their gruesome catch. “We used 4-by-4 Kino Flos with 250 diffusion in the foreground, and bounced a 2K Fresnel into a trough of water to create the ripple effect of moonlight on the pond,” says McDonough. The difficult part was matching the day’s earlier footage. “The background was lit with our 4K HMI Pars because we needed some extra intensity, some edgelight on the branches and trees, to mimic the intensity of the sunlight we’d encountered in the day-for-night shoot. We also back-/edgelit the actors with a couple of 2K Blondes. We were able to minimize the color difference between the tungsten and HMI lights in the digital intermediate, as the whole palette was shifted quite dramatically.” After RAW data was converted to 10-bit DPX files, McDonough spent six days on the digital grade at Technicolor New York, where he worked with colorist Tim Stipan on an Autodesk Lustre Incinerator platform. The finalized files were recorded 22
out to 35mm, and a festival print was struck on Fuji Eterna-CP 3513DI. “Once the prints went through the IN/IP stage, I found the Fuji print stock too low-contrast, so our general-release prints will be done on Kodak Vision Premier [2393],” notes McDonough. Granik was pleased when she saw Winter’s Bone projected on the big screens at the Sundance and Berlin film festivals this year. “I wanted the Red reps in there so I could say, ‘Baby, it held up well!’” she says. McDonough also gives the Red positive reviews, but with qualifications: “Even though it’s a beautiful image, it’s a frustrating workflow.” With Panavision’s Genesis, he explains, you can shoot tests, colorcorrect them and then plug those look-up tables back into the camera to have that metadata ride with the dailies. But with the Red, “you can only affect the image coming out of the Red on the monitor, not in the camera. So you have to go back to zero in post, and that’s frustrating. But I believe digital cinema is the future, and it’s going to get better.”
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I
England’s “Dirty Harry” By Mark Hope-Jones
To younger audiences who think of Michael Caine as Bruce Wayne’s affable butler, Alfred, in recent Batman films, his turn as the ruthless title character in Harry Brown might come as something of a shock. But to those familiar with Caine’s work in such classics as Get Carter (1971) and the Harry Palmer series, it is a welcome return to darker territory. Harry Brown, which focuses on a retired military serviceman who lives in a terrifyingly lawless housing project in a nameless English city, is the feature-directing debut of Daniel Barber, who earned an Academy Award nomination for the 2007 live-action short film The Tonto Woman (codirected with Matthew Brown). The film is the third feature credit for cinematographer Martin Ruhe, following Control (AC Nov. ’07) and The Countess (2009). 24
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Ruhe and Barber first collaborated on a commercial for British television. “We were talking about the commercial, but even then Daniel told me he was prepping this feature and that he’d send me the screenplay,” recalls the cinematographer. “The commercial went well, and from then on I was sure I wanted to do the feature. Daniel is a very visual director, it was a chance to work with Michael Caine, it would be a challenge to make, and I liked the screenplay.” Harry Brown was the first British feature production to shoot with the Sony F35, a decision influenced both by budget and the script’s high quotient of night scenes. “I didn’t have a lot of experience with digital, and we tested the F35 alongside Arri’s D-21 and Panavision’s Genesis,” says Ruhe. “We didn’t consider the Red [One] because of its compression levels and because it isn’t very sensitive. For a short time, we considered shooting real anamorAmerican Cinematographer
Harry Brown photos by Dean Rogers, courtesy of Harry Brown Productions Ltd./Samuel Goldwyn Films.
Above: Retired soldier Harry Brown (Michael Caine) takes the safety of his neighborhood into his own hands in Harry Brown. Right: One of the local hoodlums (Sean Harris) gets too close for comfort when Brown turns up to buy some guns.
phic in Mscope with the D-21, but in the end, it came down to the Genesis and the F35, and I felt the F35 was a bit more advanced in its image quality. “After shooting night tests, I decided to rate the camera at 1,000 ASA, add some gain and shoot in HQ mode for night scenes,” he continues. “That, combined with [T1.3] Arri Master Primes, allowed us to go very low-light for night scenes, which meant our sets blended into the surroundings and looked very real.” Aside from two weeks at Elstree Studios, Harry Brown was shot on location in some of the least charming neighborhoods London and the surrounding area has to offer. “We went to all the glamorous places,” jokes Ruhe. “Hackney for the drug den, Romford for the hospital, Woolwich for the cemetery, and Elephant and Castle for the estate [housing project]. Michael Caine actually grew up near Elephant and Castle; the estate wasn’t there when he was young, but he’s in a mural on one of its walls!” Estates in the U.K. are associated with welfare housing, drugs, poverty and crime. This is the environment in which Brown lives peacefully, until a gang of disaffected youngsters savagely murders his best friend. The lackluster police response stretches Brown’s patience, and when he is mugged at knifepoint after drowning his sorrows at the local pub, his old military training kicks in — he turns the blade on his assailant, and then becomes a vigilante determined to avenge his friend’s death and clean up the estate. To establish a lighting approach for the location night exteriors, Ruhe and gaffer Julian White shot tests at the Elephant and Castle estate. “We liked how stills taken with long exposures in the real locations looked, so in terms of lighting, we tried to take it from there,” recalls Ruhe. “When you take stills on these estates at night, they actually look very aesthetic and nice, with mixes of greens and oranges.” This encouraged the filmmakers to develop a fairly relaxed approach to matching light sources. White notes, “Practically all the sodium lights on that estate have a slightly different color temperature — some are old, some are discolored, and some burn brighter than others. After the first recces, I suggested to
Right: Cast and crew prepare to shoot one of the film’s many low-light scenes. This one, featuring Brown’s interrogation of another young miscreant, was lit with a single 100-watt bulb (visible at right). Below: In a shot from the scene, Brown gets tough.
Martin that we should try to be dirty with it. Often cinematographers try to keep a look consistent, but the nature of the location and the story meant we didn’t have to worry too much about consistency. “Originally, we thought of using normal fixtures, like Arri X lights,” continues White. “But cost was an issue, and there were also concerns about how we’d rig and hide everything. When we did the camera tests, we brought in two lamps: a 400-watt sodium-vapor Atlas and a 400-watt mercury-vapor floodlight. They’re fairly 26
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brutal, but they do the job, and you can even have them in shot. A tungsten lamp with Full CTO would almost match the sodium, so if we did use tungsten, we didn’t stress about tweaking things or changing gels all the time. For the low light levels we wanted, the output of the Arri X lights was actually far too much, so we ended up turning those off and using the sodium-vapor and mercury-vapor lights. Daniel wanted to see all the streetlights in the backgrounds, so we had to try and keep everything around the camera quite low. We were kind American Cinematographer
of testing as we went along, but it worked very well.” This gritty look was continued into many interior scenes, including one in which Brown interrogates a gang member in the burned-out apartment of his dead friend. “I wanted that to be as raw as possible,” says Ruhe. “I considered what might actually be in a burned-out apartment, and thought there could be one lamp with a broken shade — essentially a naked bulb. It wouldn’t be enough to let you see everything in the room, and there would only be a little bit of light coming in from outside. I suggested that to Daniel, and he was daring enough to go with it.” One of the few scenes to be shot on a studio set, the interrogation was lit with a single 100-watt domestic light bulb dimmed down to about 80 percent. Outside the windows, a mixture of fluorescents and sodium-vapor units provided a slight glow and the suggestion of streetlight. Repeating a technique they successfully used on Control, Ruhe and White positioned the bare tubes and bulbs behind the window and diffused them with bubble wrap; the bubble wrap broke up and softened the light, making the sources look much farther away. For focus puller Tim Battersby, this was one of many scenes shot at T1.3 that
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Above: The production films in the tunnel where some of the bloodiest action occurs. Right: Cinematographer Martin Ruhe at work in the film’s key location, a grim housing project.
required all his skill to keep sharp. “It is very difficult, and with HD, you’re either bang-on or bang-off focus-wise,” he says. “With film, you’ve got that little bit of latitude within the depth of the film stock, but with HD, it’s almost like focusing onto a piece of glass. You can’t have both the character’s eyes in focus if he turns his head; you have
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to go for one or the other. I was using an onboard monitor and had a Cine Tape on, but they only go down by the inch, and we were working at fractions of an inch. A lot of it was tape measures and keeping my fingers crossed!” Ruhe adds, “It was a hell of a job for Tim because the Master Primes go up to 150mm, and we were so often at
T1.3. I don’t know anybody else who could have done it. With focal lengths, Daniel would always want to go as long as the scene would allow, so we were often at around 75mm. “We also used an Angenieux Optimo 24-290mm for day exteriors,” says the cinematographer. “For day scenes, I
rated the camera at 500 ASA and used an 85 filter. To be honest, in tests, I couldn’t see any difference between using an 85 and resetting the camera to 5,600°K.” The onboard monitor Battersby used for pulling focus was an Astro, which Ruhe also used extensively. “Probably the most useful thing was the waveform display on the Astro — I used it more than my light meter,” says Ruhe. Supplementing this was a 17" monitor that showed live images in HD, though playback was only available as a composite picture. Ruhe usually operated the F35 himself, and single-camera setups were the norm. “We shot most of the movie on dollies or legs,” he says. “There’s a riot scene and a shootout that we did handheld, but with Harry, the camera only really starts to move when he does. At the beginning, it’s very static, and we tried to find frames within the frame so he appears locked in. We wanted a claustrophobic feel for those early scenes.” Brown finally discovers exactly how his friend died when he sees footage of the killing that one of the gang members captured on his cell phone. These images
echo the movie’s opening sequence, in which two hooligans on a motorcycle film their shooting of a young mother and are then hit by a truck. For these shots, Ruhe needed to find an appropriately low-resolution video camera that would still work on the big screen. “We tested a couple of cameras, including the SI-2K [Mini], but the quality was too good,” he says. “We also tested real mobile phones, but in the end we used a Sony DCR-PC2E, a slightly older Mini DV camera. They were provided by Take 2, who supplied all of our camera gear. We gave a camera to the two guys on the bike and let them ride around to give the footage an authentic feel. That scene and the killing of Harry’s friend were a mix of actors operating shots and second-unit work [directed by Ben and Joe Dempsey].” Harry Brown’s desaturated color palette was achieved mainly in the digital grade, carried out on a Baselight system at Framestore in London. “We desaturated the image a bit and worked on the contrast levels — with HD, it’s tricky to keep detail in the blacks at low light levels, and we had tons of those,” says Ruhe. He and Barber
also utilized sharpening tools. “It wasn’t really needed on long-lens shots, but on wider shots,” notes Ruhe. “For example, there’s a wide shot of Harry sitting beside his wife in the hospital, and it was nice to add a bit of sharpness to his face so your eye was drawn to him.”
TECHNICAL SPECS 2.40:1 Digital Capture Sony F35, DCR-PC2E Arri and Angenieux lenses Digital Intermediate Printed on Fuji Eterna-CP 3513DI
●
ERRATUM In our coverage of Lebanon (April ’10, p. 20), colorist Andreas Froehlich was incorrectly identified as an employee of Geyer Cologne. He is the manager/senior colorist at Head Quarter GmbH, also in Cologne.
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John Mathieson, BSC brings a brawny aesthetic to Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood. By Mark Hope-Jones •|•
Slings and
Arrows T he fable of Robin Hood, the archetypal philanthropist outlaw with a hands-on approach to redistributing wealth, is one of the oldest in English folklore. Literary depictions of him and his band of merry men as popular heroes first emerged in narrative ballads of the 14th century, and continue to this day. Motion pictures took up the mantle from their earliest beginnings; cinematic adaptations of the story number in the dozens and now have a history that spans more than a century. The latest adaptation is the current release Robin Hood, directed by Ridley Scott and shot by regular collaborator John Mathieson, BSC. “I think it’s great for England’s biggest director to make
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this quintessential English tale, set in an English landscape,” says Mathieson. “It seems natural and logical that Ridley should make Robin Hood — and do it his way. This story is about a country in crisis and big social upheavals. This Robin Hood has far more of a political vision; he actually starts a revolution and brings the country together. The events bring about the Magna Carta, which was the beginning of all of our democracies, in a way. The film isn’t a romp in the woods.” Scott and Mathieson have worked together several times since their first film together, Gladiator (AC May ’00). Most recently, they paired up for Kingdom of Heaven (AC June ’05), a medieval saga set just a short time before the
American Cinematographer
Photos by David Appleby, Kerry Brown and Greg Williams, courtesy of Universal Studios.
Opposite: Royal archer Robin Longstride (Russell Crowe) aims to spark a revolution in Robin Hood. This page, top: Robin leads his key men on horseback: Allan A’Dayle (Alan Doyle), Will Scarlet (Scott Grimes) and Little John (Kevin Durand). Middle: John Mathieson, BSC gets medieval with his light meter. Bottom: the newly crowned King John (Oscar Isaac) confers with a key adviser, Sir William Marshal (William Hurt).
historical period covered in Robin Hood. This meant that various elements of their visual approach to a story based around the Crusades had already been established, although the two films take place against quite different backdrops. Whereas Kingdom of Heaven incorporates dramatic desert landscapes in the Holy Land, Robin Hood plays out entirely in northern France and England. Scott brought up the work of the Brueghel dynasty of painters as a www.theasc.com
June 2010
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Slings and Arrows
visual reference for European winter landscapes, and Mathieson traveled to Brussels to view some of their work. “Ridley wanted to shoot the pastoral English countryside — he wanted that kind of Brueghel landscape,” recalls the cinematographer. “We had two fantastically harsh winters, but unfortunately, we kind of missed them both [because of production delays]. That look of black trees against a hilly, snow-covered landscape was something we were after.” In terms of a color palette, Mathieson says he and Scott wanted to avoid the rich greens and reds that characterize one of the most famous Robin Hood adaptations, Michael Curtiz’s early Technicolor production The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). “There are a lot of burned browns and dark colors in our costumes and the sets,” says Mathieson. “It’s a pretty mucky-looking film, but we did shoot in the summer, and our ideal would have been to shoot right through the winter. I just love the winter light in the U.K. — the slow, long sun. It was a very wet summer, so we did get a lot of overcast skies, but an overcast sky in summer is not very interesting because there’s no movement in it. It’s often just a flat white, and you want more gray.” Robin Hood was shot in Super 35mm rather than anamorphic for a
Top: Robin takes aim during a forest battle. Middle: Our hero seeks the counsel of Sir Walter Loxley (Max von Sydow). Bottom: After being relieved of his duties by the king, Marshal is taunted by his replacement, Godfrey (Mark Strong). Top right: Godfrey musters his troops.
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American Cinematographer
number of practical reasons, according to Mathieson. “Everyone thinks Ridley is a purist in his photography, and he is, but he loves a zoom lens,” says the cinematographer. “If you’re doing a tracking shot, you can strengthen the composition throughout without it feeling like a zoom. It’s just more convenient to zoom in a bit and go again than to spend time changing the lens while everyone’s waiting. And if you’ve got to climb a hill, you’d rather take one zoom than a whole box of lenses. “Another consideration was that anamorphic zooms start at around a T5.6 and only look good at T11, and in the woods, you want to be at T2.8 or less,” he continues. “Also, ’Scope lenses aren’t that long, and you want long lenses when you’re shooting horses and landscapes. We were up to a 1,000mm and longer. We had an [Optica] Elite [T2.8] 120-520mm with a doubler on it. We also used a [Panavision] Primo 3:1 135-420mm, often with a doubler. It’s a good device if you’ve got a big stunt and a lot of horses; it gives you a nice, thick shot of the melee of battle, creating a documentary look that makes you feel like you’re right in it. We also had the new 19-90mm Panavision Compact Zoom, which was very good,
Top: Isabella of Angoulême (Léa Seydoux) informs John of Godfrey’s duplicity when he is still a prince with aspirations to the throne. Fireplaces and candles had to justify the light in some fairly cavernous sets built at Shepperton Studios, so the crew employed single-wick, double-wick and triple-wick candles on chandeliers and candelabras to create a strong impression of source lighting. However, as Mathieson notes, “You also have to put some ambience in the room. For that, we’d often use space lights very low down or simple batten strips with household bulbs hanging overhead.” Bottom: Isabella and John share a more intimate moment.
and some [Angenieux] Optimos — the 15-40mm and 28-76mm both have a very useful range. Every time we could use a zoom lens, we did. You need a good range of lenses and a lot of telephoto when you’re shooting with so many cameras, because you’ve got to stay out of each other’s way.” The production often had up to a dozen Arri cameras — Arricam Studios and Lites and Arri 235s — running at once. The principal camera operators were Peter Taylor, Martin Hume and Paul Edwards. “Chris Plevin did a lot of www.theasc.com
operating as well, and Paul and I both did some Steadicam work,” adds Mathieson. “We only limited ourselves to two cameras when we were onstage at Shepperton. The rest of the time, we seemed to have hundreds of them. I think every camera technician I know turned up at some point during the shoot!” The second unit, led by director/cinematographer Alexander Witt, was also extremely large. “Sometimes it was bigger than we were,” notes Mathieson. “I’ve done three or four films with Alex, and he knows what June 2010
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Slings and Arrows
Right: Marion (Cate Blanchett) pours the wine while having dinner with Robin and Loxley. Below: The fair maiden’s feelings for Robin grow stronger with each encounter.
he’s doing. We’d talk about our work, but they were very quick conversations.” The film’s titular character, played by Russell Crowe, begins the story as Robin Longstride, an archer in King Richard’s army. Returning from the Third Crusade, the army stops to lay siege to a castle in France and reclaim monies previously paid as ransom to the French monarch. This sequence was filmed at Bourne Woods 34
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in Surrey, England, where Mathieson and Scott also shot the opening scenes of Gladiator. A huge set of the French castle was built for exterior scenes. Key grip Gary Hymns recalls, “The castle was 60 feet high, and we lifted a 30foot Technocrane onto the top with a Lee Lifting crane. We also had a Strada crane parked by the castle and swung it in as the horses charged, then lifted it 60 feet in the air.” All-terrain vehicles proved espeAmerican Cinematographer
cially useful at the location, as the castle was built atop a hill, with a village set positioned below it. In particular, the Raptor, a self-leveling vehicle supplied by Chapman, was in almost constant use. “We could put a 30-foot Technocrane on the Raptor, drive it in and push a button, and it would level itself,” says Hymns. “With a 30-foot arm, you’ve instantly got a 60-foot track that you can put anywhere you want in no time at all, so it’s incredibly versatile.” Other vehicles included quad bikes and a six-wheeled Gator supporting a hard-mounted Steadicam (for traveling shots of galloping horses). The trickiest problem for Mathieson at this and other woodland locations was the heavy summer foliage. “The woods were an absolute pain,” he says. “When a beech tree throws its leaves out in high summer, no light comes down to the ground. Nothing grows under them because there’s no light. Your light meter reads nothing at all. I was underexposed, even when I was pushing [Kodak Vision3 500T] 5219 one stop, sometimes more, and shooting wide open. I can deal with underexposure, but the quality of the light was very flat because the trees covered everything. When you put a
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Slings and Arrows
Right: Director Ridley Scott blocks out a scene in the woods. Bottom left: The crew deploys bounce cards amid the trees. Bottom right: Scott, enthroned in his director’s chair, concentrates on a shot.
long lens on, the background went mushy green. It was very difficult to get good contrast and separation. We used smoke and did what we could.” In combination with the smoke, large lights were used to provide dappled backlight, though getting them into position was quite a challenge. “We got a woodsman in with a huge saw, and he swung about from tree to tree, cutting down limbs for us,” says Alan 36
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Martin, the film’s gaffer. That cleared paths for light to reach the forest floor, but left the problem of how to get the fixtures into position. “It’s difficult, because if you’re doing a fast-moving sequence and you start putting up towers, they just get in the way, and then you spend even more time taking them down.” The solution was to lift the lights into place with a crane. “We used 18Ks and 100K SoftSuns,” American Cinematographer
continues Mathieson. “The good thing about the SoftSuns was that if we stacked one on top of another, we could look straight at them, because they formed a single round source up in the trees — that was our low sun. They were great. They didn’t actually light the scene that much, but they gave us a bit of light and depth in the distance, something bright in the background.” Though some of the difficulties
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Slings and Arrows created by the summertime shoot were addressed in the digital intermediate, carried out at Company 3 with colorist Stephen Nakamura, Mathieson maintains that “a lot of the timing could have been done photochemically were it not for the 800-plus visual effects shots. CGI was often used to complement and extend landscape shots, allowing us to bolster the number of horses and soldiers to make it look like an army. You used to have to lock the camera off for shots like that, but you can do a surprising amount of movement now, and that’s good, because it makes the CGI less obvious.” Maintaining an authentic feel to action scenes was important to the cinematographer. “It’s a down-and-dirty action film, so we didn’t want our visual-effects shots sticking out. A lot of those shots are very real, with multiple cameras and a lot of stunt men, riders and extras, so it was a matter of supplementing them. Arrows were put in [digitally] because with CGI, you don’t have to cheat the direction the archers are pointing. But we still shot some arrows on set. My father came down one day, and he used to be a professional soldier and wasn’t too worried about arrows raining down on him. He had experience marching right through them!” One important advantage that visual effects brought the production was the ability to position camera operators in shot. Mathieson explains, “For a lot of the CG material, Ridley would stick a camera right in the middle of the action, so we’d all have to dress up in silly outfits and try to disguise the camera. We looked embarrassingly awful, but Ridley could put us right in there and then remove the camera [in post]. There was a lot of camera removal! We could go for the shot and worry about it later.” The closing battle in Robin Hood takes place on a vast beach where French invaders are met by the English forces. Filmed over two difficult weeks at Freshwater West in Wales, the sequence involved 1,500 cast and crew
Top: In an English camp, Robin challenges Little John to a sleight-of-hand game. Middle: Robin and his steed gallop into battle against French invaders in a major sequence shot at Freshwater West in Wales. Bottom: A determined Robin won’t let water slow him down.
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American Cinematographer
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Clods of dirt fly through the air amid the heat of battle. As he did on Gladiator, Mathieson used different frame rates and shutter angles to lend extra impact to action scenes.
members shooting action both on land and in the water, and called for more than 10 cameras. “The tide was our biggest problem because it was coming in so quickly,” recalls Hymns. “All the grip equipment and cranes were mobile, so we’d form a line, and as the sea came in, we’d retreat 50 yards, line up again and shoot until we had to go back another 50 yards. We had various tracking vehicles with cranes and remote heads, and a helicopter for the widest shots. Gary ‘Gizza’ Smith, our best boy grip, did a fantastic job rigging a Libra head onto a jet ski, which chased around all the landing craft coming in. I was with Paul Hymns on the Giraffe crane, which was mounted on a 25-foot trailer behind a tractor that backed us as far into the sea as we could go. We stayed out there in wetsuits and shot from the crane, pulling out at the last moment.” Continuing an approach he used
on Gladiator, Mathieson utilized different frame rates and shutter angles (most often 60-degree, and occasionally 45-degree) for this battle sequence and others. “Ridley likes that visceral stuff, especially for fights,” says the cinematographer. “If you narrow the shutter on a guy who’s wearing chainmail and armor and is soaked from fighting in the sea, he’s going to look a lot more agile than if you shoot with normal speed and shutter angle. There isn’t much slow motion, but we did go for a hard, crisp look — arrows are visible in the air, and you see the highlights on swinging swords. If you take away motion blur, you make everything crisper, and it gives action more adrenaline.” For studio night interiors at Shepperton, fireplaces and candles had to justify the light in some fairly cavernous rooms. “I think that candles should look as though they’re actually
“If you take away motion blur, you make everything crisper, and it gives action more adrenaline.”
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Slings and Arrows
Left: Mathieson mans an Arricam on location. Right: Robin and his men encounter the enemy.
lighting a ‘candlelit’ scene,” says Mathieson. “I like candles to give a bit of exposure to the area they’re in, so I tried to shoot as wide as I possibly could with the zoom. Obviously, you could shoot on primes, but for speed, we really had to use zoom lenses, and pushing the 5219 helped.” Using large numbers of single-wick, double-wick and triple-wick candles on chandeliers and candelabras gave a strong impres-
sion of source lighting, but Mathieson notes that “you also have to put some ambience in the room. For that, we’d often use space lights very low down or simple batten strips with household bulbs hanging overhead. You can’t be too noir about it. Candlelight is actually quite soft, and it does fill a room.” Fireplaces were a useful source, particularly in King John’s sizeable throne room. “[Production designer]
Arthur Max put a huge fireplace in that set, and John asked him to make the back and the sides removable, so if we weren’t looking directly at the fire, we could put in a lighting rig,” says Martin. “We had a row of Six-light Maxi-Brutes behind the fire that we wired to a dimmer so we could pulse each individual bulb. That, with a combination of gels, gave us the desired effect. We could make it as
fierce or as low as we wanted.” A menu of gels that Martin and Mathieson selected in advance helped create unique looks for different times of day and night on the interior sets. Blue gels in windows were often combined with warm gels inside to create contrast between interior and exterior light. Mathieson notes, “You can mix color temperatures in the frame more now, especially because of the control you have in the DI. That said, I did try to gel [lights] and shoot as though we’d be doing a photochemical finish, because if you expose the negative properly with the right colors at the right temperatures, you get a head start on the final timing.” Though he used many different gels, Mathieson avoided putting filters in front of the cameras whenever he could. “I’m always putting lights really close to the edges [of the frame], so if you put a piece of glass in front of the lens, you’re basically pushing the lens element forward, and you can get more flares. Also, with nine
cameras, you’re not going to stop and say, ‘Let’s all change filters!’” Scheduling conflicts prevented Mathieson from participating in most of the digital grade, so Nakamura worked with Scott instead. Several looks had been created when the visual-effects plates were graded, so Nakamura had a reference for the majority of scenes. Color correction was done on a DaVinci Resolve using 2K proxies; the final filmout was at 4K. “We tested a 2K filmout and a 4K filmout with the same grade to show Ridley how they looked, and he preferred the grain structure of the 4K version,” recalls Nakamura. Mathieson joined Nakamura for an intense few days toward the end of the grade. “I spent what time I could with it, and then I had to let it go, and that was fine,” says the cinematographer. “I think a lot of films look the same these days because there’s too much fiddling around in the DI. A scene might be slightly underexposed
or overexposed, and if you leave it the way it is, there’s a visual rhythm when all the scenes are cut together. If you fiddle with every frame in every single scene, there’s no journey in the film photographically.” ●
TECHNICAL SPECS 2.40:1 4-perf Super 35mm Arricam Studio, Lite; Arri 235 Optica, Angenieux and Panavision lenses Kodak Vision3 500T 5219; Vision2 50D 5201, 250D 5205 Digital Intermediate Printed on Kodak Vision 2383
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Desert
John Seale, ASC, ACS and his collaborators conquer daunting logistics on the period adventure film Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
Storm
By Michael Goldman •|•
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dapted from a video game created by Jordan Mechner, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time follows an adventurous prince, Dastan ( Jake Gyllenhaal), who joins forces with a princess, Tamina (Gemma Arterton), to prevent an ancient dagger with magical powers from falling into villainous hands. The project, which director Mike Newell calls “a gigantic undertaking,” was in production throughout much of 2008, incorporating, at times, four or five separate units working on four desert locations in Morocco and on 10 stages at 42
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England’s Pinewood Studios. According to the film’s director of photography, John Seale, ASC, ACS, Kristian Davies’ book The Orientalist, which features paintings of life in Persia and other parts of ancient Arabia, was the primary inspiration for the movie’s visuals. “The book is a beautiful collection of visual material, and we based the [look] and a lot of the lighting on that — knowing, of course, that we could finesse many of the details in the digital intermediate,” says Seale. “In particular, we wanted very dramatic skies, the kind you could spend a year looking for and never actually film for real. [Visual-effects supervisor] Tom Wood worked hard on lots of sky replacements. We also used the DI to focus attention on certain parts of the frame, like those painters did when they focused light on what they wanted you to concentrate on.” In addition to helping the filmmakers achieve a painterly aesthetic, Prince of Persia’s 1,400 or so visual-effects shots often required extensive set extensions and the blending of practical photography with CGI, making the acquisition of plates on location and onstage equally complicated. Thus, the nuances of lighting were a central issue throughout the shoot.
American Cinematographer
Unit photography by Andrew Cooper, SMPSP. Images courtesy of Disney Enterprises, Inc. and Jerry Bruckheimer, Inc.
Opposite: Prince Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal) takes up arms against a lethal Hassansin (Thomas DuPont) in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. This page, top: Dansan partners with Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton) to safeguard a magical dagger. Bottom left: The nefarious Nizam (Ben Kingsley) has his own plans for the dagger, which can turn back time. Bottom right: Cinematographer John Seale, ASC, ACS prepares for action.
It all started in Morocco, where 2nd-unit director/cinematographer Alexander Witt and his crew filmed particularly challenging stunts and captured hundreds of plates for visualeffects shots. Key grip Tommaso Mele recalls that his crew continually found themselves maneuvering Fisher 10 and 11 dollies, a 30' Technocrane mounted on a Raptor utility vehicle, a variety of diffusion materials, and dozens of bluescreens and greenscreens around the desert to film horse stunts, hand-to-
hand combat, armies on the march and other action. For the look in Morocco, the filmmakers referenced exterior scenes in Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven (AC June ’05), which Tom Wood had also worked on, and which was also partly shot in Morocco. “Morocco has such a pitiless blue sky at that time of year — almost no weather changes,” says Newell. “Tom was well aware of this, and he showed John and me several panoramic shots in Kingdom of Heaven www.theasc.com
so we could see the progression of visual-effects passes they’d done with cloud and sun manipulations. We decided to [emulate] some of that.” The sky-replacement work on Prince of Persia was achieved sometimes with 3-D effects, and other times with CG matte paintings that incorporated stills Wood had shot with his Canon 5D. (Some of these stills were actually captured in London, just outside Pinewood Studios.) “We all understood that the digiJune 2010
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tal grade would be absolutely vital for achieving what we wanted to achieve, and we decided to do a lot of the color composition at that end stage,” continues Newell. “John Seale then figured out how to produce a negative that would suit that.” Newell and Seale agree that the extensive DI work, carried out at Ascent 142 in London with Company 3 colorist/ASC associate member Stefan Sonnenfeld, was practical and necessary for a production that simply couldn’t dot every “i” and cross every “t” as it swept across the world on a constricted timeline. “I left particular finessing for the DI, and I’m not ashamed of that,” says Seale. “I really feel you have to honor the schedule, even on something this big and complicated, and the DI lets you
Top left: Dastan scales a castle wall, a set built onstage at Pinewood Studios. Top right: The castle set came within feet of the lighting grid, requiring bluescreen to hide the ceiling and equipment. Middle: The Pinewood sets were used to film a massive castlestorming sequence. Bottom: Space lights provide ambience as Kino Flo Image 80s illuminate the bluescreen.
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leave some simple problems alone on the set, things that might take 30 minutes or longer to fix. So part of my job during the shoot was to determine what we could leave to the DI process while we maintained our schedule.” Prince of Persia was shot in 4-perf Super 35mm, and Seale took his customary approach, shooting a single, high-speed film stock (Kodak Vision2 500T 5218), using multiple cameras, and relying almost exclusively on zoom lenses — in this case, Panavision’s 11:1 24-275mm Primo, 3:1 135-420mm Primo, and new T2.8 19-90mm Compact. “Phil Radin at Panavision, our ‘camera angel,’ gave us two of the very first Compact zooms, and great little weapons they are!” says Seale. (The production also used a variety of Primo prime lenses.) “500-ASA negative does a lot for you, and it will handle midday [scenes] if you just haul it back — you put a whole lot of 85ND filters in front of the lens,” continues Seale. “As the light expires, you start pulling the NDs out to increase the ASA. And if the color temperature shifts toward the warmth of a late afternoon, you start pulling the 85 out in small quantities as well. I developed this whole filter system on The Mosquito Coast (AC Feb. ’87), and I haven’t used a slow-speed stock since then. “I shot first unit [on Persia] with four cameras, trying to get performances without having to spend five hours on it. We were using four cameras all the time,
cross shooting, and the actors and the editors loved it because it’s more organic. The main challenge, of course, is lighting for so many cameras, but that’s solved by lighting 360 degrees — at least, it is when you have a gaffer like Mo Flam. The bigger challenge is lighting a bigger background, especially if there are lots of visual effects. But I’m finding there are little things you learn when cross shooting, like how to use one person’s backlight as another person’s fill. The bottom line is, if you use multiple cameras and cross shoot, it’s going to work out if you know what you are doing, light ahead in your mind, and make sure each of those cameras is productive.” Prince of Persia’s technical requirements grew even more complicated once the project landed at Pinewood, because enormous sets were built on those stages. Newell calls that leg of the shoot “a huge circus and a colossal shebang,” noting that multiple stages and units were active almost constantly. At the center of the madness was a crucial action sequence, Prince Dastan’s storming of an ancient Indian castle. Originally, the filmmakers hoped to build the castle set in Morocco, but early in production, they realized that was impractical — the most suitable location was in a windy region, close to some mountains. “We were very worried the set might blow over,” says Newell. Therefore, the sequence was moved to Pinewood and changed from daytime to nighttime to make it more logistically feasible. On Pinewood’s James Bond Stage, production designer Wolf Kroeger and his crew created a massive set piece representing the fortified Eastern gate of the castle, and the top of the set was just a few feet from the large lighting grid that was required for the sequence, which starts at night and finishes in morning light. “The lighting rig was a problem,” concedes Witt, whose second unit filmed much of the action at the castle. Extensive bluescreen was required to hide the grid and lighting equipment, but in some areas,
The film’s 1,400-plus visual-effects shots, supervised by Tom Wood, often called for sky replacements and the seamless blending of practical photography with CGI.
the set was too close to the grid to utilize bluescreen adequately. “It’s a big action scene that involves a lot of actors, stuntmen, horses and fire,” says Witt. “Most of the lights hanging from the ceiling were skirted space lights, and we dimmed them or turned some on or off to suggest changes in time of day. For sunlight and highlights, we used about 10 20K Molebeams and 15 20K lights on scissor lifts, adding CTO as necessary. In the www.theasc.com
end, they had to do more work in post than they originally intended to take out the rig and clean up some shots. In that sense, almost every shot in the sequence is an effects shot.” Seale notes that the nature of the set made it virtually impossible to correctly light all of the bluescreens, and occasionally the bluescreens proved useless. “The set, in places, was within 2 meters of the grid; it was a nightmare to light and fully cover the actors’ backJune 2010
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A wall of 144 Martin Stagebar LED fixtures was constructed behind a giant “crystal” setpiece and controlled by Chris Gilbertson’s Light by Numbers system to create interactive lighting effects that served as a template for the visual-effects team.
ground with blue,” says the cinematographer. “It would have been a hell of a schedule and money-burner if Tom had demanded perfect, even light for that. Fortunately, he wasn’t too finicky about that as long as he could cut a good edge. The software and the artists’ skill level has improved so much that they can work around such problems so we can 46
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keep the whole thing moving along. That saved me a lot of angst.” Meanwhile, the production had eight other stages going at Pinewood much of the time. Confronted with the challenge of maintaining a brisk shooting pace despite the logistics, detail and interaction those separate shoots required, particularly where lighting was American Cinematographer
concerned, the filmmakers essentially “threw the kitchen sink at the problem,” says Flam, the key gaffer. More specifically, he credits Chris Gilbertson’s Light by Numbers system for enabling the filmmakers to have as many dimmers and moving lights as they needed across multiple stages, with efficient control and a detailed data record. “With Light by Numbers, all the lighting changes are recorded and repeatable, so if we had to come back to a scene, we had all the details about how it was lit,” says Flam. “In addition to the first and second units, we had a few visual-effects units going, and they all used the system. The first unit could establish a look that could easily be repeated by other units.” Gilbertson served as key dimmerboard operator at Pinewood, managing a team of three operators who moved from stage to stage. “Our control desks are easy to physically maneuver, with pneumatic tires, handles, rain covers and so on, so we could move them whenever
Lighting diagram courtesy of Light by Numbers.
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Desert Storm we needed to, which meant the production didn’t have to pay to have desks all over the place. We could load all the stage files into each of the four systems we had and simply move them around. This did, of course, require some careful file management, but it saved the production a lot of money.” Among the reams of visual effects in the film, there are two sequences that serve as particularly effective illustrations of the cooperation between the camera department and the visualeffects team on set. The first is the “dagger-time” effect that appears several times in the film. A riff on The Matrix’s famous “bullet-time” effect (AC April ’99), which stops or visually slows down time, “dagger time” relates to a key story point: the dagger Prince Dastan seeks to protect can literally turn back time. Portions of the effect were shot by Wood’s crew with a specially cabled nine-camera rig from Panavision that was configured at Double Negative, one of the visual-effects houses on the project. According to Wood, Panavision technicians designed a cable combination that would sync each of nine PanArri 435s, with eight of them slaved to a master so that their shutters opened and closed at exactly the same time. Wood explains, “We shot it on a bluescreen stage using the nine-camera array, which was similar to the Matrix array but used motion-picture cameras instead of still cameras. Each camera was running at 48 fps with a 90-degree shutter angle; that gave us crisp, clean stills of the action that we could run backward in post. In the computer, we could put a virtual camera any place at any time within the sequence and see everything compressed into one frame, like a long exposure image. Then, through that frame, we could travel around the whole scene.” Seale adds, “The light level for this high-speed work had to be T16, and the first unit had shot the original scenes at T2.8. Mo kept records of our lighting and then replaced those lamps with larger units, or sometimes used two lamps instead of one, in the same basic spots to get the
Top: An aerial camera rig captures a daring rooftop chase. Middle: The crew captures a Steadicam shot on location in Morocco. Bottom: Seale regularly rolled up to four cameras simultaneously throughout the production. “If you use multiple cameras and cross shoot, it’s going to work out if you know what you are doing, light ahead in your mind, and make sure each of those cameras is productive,” he says.
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Desert Storm
Seale prepares to film some of the local talent in one of the four desert locations the production visited in Morocco.
increased stop that was necessary. The success of a complicated shoot like this depends on the crew’s ability to understand and execute what’s needed, and the camera, grip and electric crews were a great group of very keen and coordinated guys and girls.” The second unusual effect that required on-set solutions was a giant,
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light-emitting crystal, “about the size of a redwood tree, but with sand swirling around inside of it, depicting moments of certain characters’ pasts,” says Wood. The effect is triggered when a character plugs the magic dagger into the crystal to rewind time, giving him great power. Wood estimates that about half of the light and image projections are CGI,
but he credits Seale’s lighting team for creating a unique production solution to allow real-world light to meld with the effect, and for creating an on-set template for the visual-effects team to follow. Flam, Gilbertson and U.K. gaffer Steve Costello worked with the visualeffects team and the art department for months on various options for creating a close approximation of the final interactive lighting effect, with the goal of mapping lights to a video image of similar color and intensity. They finally settled on a specially designed LED wall. “We decided to create a wall of LEDs and run video content through it, sort of like a big TV,” says Gilbertson. “This was the most expensive option, but it meant we could actually run the visual-effects element live on set, while still getting the stop that John and Mo needed. We used 144 Martin Stagebars to create the LED wall, which measured approximately 14 feet by 10 feet. This
totaled more than 5,000 DMX channels, which were then driven by 10 DMX universes [signal streams] from a [Maxedia] media server. The server was loaded up with lots of different versions of the visual-effects element that would be added later. We then drove the media server with the normal lighting desk and controlled brightness, speed and other aspects of that content.” Flam suggests that these kinds of solutions have been in use for years in the theater world, but are now being incorporated more seamlessly into motion-picture production. “They use color changers and moving lights on Broadway and in rock ’n’ roll shows all the time, but we don’t in film unless there is a specific challenge,” says Flam. “We’re starting to find out that there are lots of interesting things we can do with this technology!” More generally, Seale observes that cinematography and visual effects on epics such as Prince of Persia are
evolving together into one interconnected whole. “For shows like this, cameramen should go hand-in-hand with the visual-effects guys to accept their awards,” says Seale. “What Tom and his team contributed to the cinematography on this picture is massive.” Newell is even more effusive on this point, noting that traditional divisions between departments have little meaning in the modern filmmaking landscape. “If you’re a cinematographer and you think you can just shoot a scene, deliver it to the visual-effects team and then step aside so they can do their magic, you are badly deceived,” declares the director. “On Prince of Persia, I felt there were actually three directors: me, John Seale and Tom Wood,” continues Newell. “Alex Witt and his second unit also made great contributions to figuring out the look and executing it. Directing a film like this is like being chairman of the board of the Ford
Motor Company: what you’re trying to achieve is so huge that all departments have to be interlocked.” ●
TECHNICAL SPECS 2.40:1 4-perf Super 35mm Panaflex Platinum, Lightweight; PanArri 235, 435 Panavision lenses Kodak Vision2 500T 5218 Digital Intermediate
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Very French
Revenge Tetsuo Nagata, AFC films the whimsical thriller Micmacs for director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. By Benjamin B •|•
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irector Jean-Pierre Jeunet has imprinted a strong visual style on all his films, and he has been associated with top French directors of photography and with the pioneering of cinematography techniques. He began by collaborating with Darius Khondji, ASC, AFC, on two films co-directed with Marc Caro, Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children, which launched a renaissance of the ENR photochemical process in France. With Bruno Delbonnel, ASC, AFC, Jeunet made Amélie (AC Sept. ’01), which helped pioneer the use of the digital-intermediate to create a distinctive look, and A Very Long Engagement (AC
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Dec. ’04), which brought Delbonnel the first ASC Award ever given to a foreign-language film, as well as an Oscar nomination. For his latest picture, Micmacs (French slang for “muddles” or “intrigues”), Jeunet teamed with Tetsuo Nagata, AFC, who has won Cesar awards for Officer’s Ward and La Vie en Rose (AC June ’07). Nagata’s other feature credits include Blueberry, Narco, Until the Lights Come Back and Splice. He is also known for his commercial work, and before shooting Micmacs, he worked with Jeunet on a number of commercials, including a lavish spot for Chanel No. 5. Micmacs begins when a soldier dies by stepping on a mine. His young son, Bazil (Noé Boon), becomes obsessed with the mine’s French manufacturer. The film cuts to the adult Bazil (Dany Boon), a gentle dreamer who works in a video store. When a shootout goes wrong outside the shop, Bazil is shot in the head, and the doctors decide to leave the bullet where it is. After he loses his job and his home, Bazil is adopted by a group of oddball scavengers who live in a junkyard. One day, while scavenging, he comes upon two neighboring weapons firms and realizes that one of them built the mine that killed his father, while the other made the bullet that is lodged in his brain. Bazil decides to
American Cinematographer
Frame grabs and unit photography (by Bruno Calvo) courtesy of Epithète Films/Tapioca Films and Sony Pictures Classics. Additional photos courtesy of the filmmakers.
Opposite: Bazil (Dany Boon, left) listens in as fellow Micmac Remington (Omar Sy) helps him set a trap for a pair of arms dealers. This page, top: Young Bazil (Noé Boon) sees his mother (Lara Guirao) receive word of his father’s death. Bottom: An arms dealer’s security guards mock Bazil when he turns up to request compensation.
take his revenge upon the heads of both companies, and, with his friends’ help, devises a series of far-fetched strategies to sabotage the weapons factories. Micmacs is a quirky mélange of slapstick, fantasy and broad comedy. As is often the case with Jeunet’s films, it presents a world filled with Rube Goldberg devices interspersed with poetic, childlike epiphanies. Upon meeting with AC in Montmartre, Jeunet acknowledges that Micmacs is a genre-mixing collage from his cinematic “idea box.” He explains, “I wanted to do a film about vengeance, a film with strange, original characters — a bit like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs — and also wanted to do a story about arms dealers. I knew that it was a little risky to do a cartoon with a serious theme behind it, but I didn’t hold back. “I put everything I had in it,”
continues the director. “There are many very different references that the viewer might or might not see, including the films of Sergio Leone,
“I knew it was a little risky to do a cartoon with a serious theme, but I didn’t hold back.”
Mission: Impossible, classic cartoons and the films of Buster Keaton.” The director even confesses to borrowing an idea from the Fox television series www.theasc.com
Prison Break, joking that “they stole two or three ideas from me, so I stole one of theirs.” Sitting down with AC in Paris, Nagata recalls that during prep, Jeunet asked him to do all he could to “to shoot very quickly.” The cinematographer fulfilled this request. “We shot for 80 days, doing 10 shots a day — but it was never 10 simple shots!” Like many of Jeunet’s films, Micmacs is dense, peppered with short shots and laced with complex camera moves. On top of its fast-paced schedule, the production encountered bad weather throughout the shoot, which called for many exterior locations. “Of course, all the storyboards called for sun, and we had mostly rotten weather,” says Nagata. In fact, exteriors, with changing weather, posed the greatest challenge to Nagata. “It was often a race against time, so I went for simplicity,” he says. June 2010
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Very French Revenge “I tried to eliminate the unnecessary and only use the essential.” Sometimes, as for a scene outside the St. Eustache church, it was a matter of just using reflectors and bounce boards on one of the rare sunny days. While shooting a friendly encounter between the junkyard crew and some drug dealers on a street on a gray day, Nagata added contrast to the flat natural light by using negative fill, setting up a 20'x40' wall of black butterflies. “I blocked the whole street,” he says. “It made the foreground darker than the background. If I had tried to add lighting instead, it would have quickly become absurd.” The production spent a week shooting a sequence that takes place by a canal, where the Micmacs gang uses a cannon to shoot two of their own across the water to sabotage a munitions dump. For day exteriors like this one, Nagata used three or four Jumbo Dino lights (with 16 narrow-beam 1K bulbs), which he left uncorrected. “I put them far away, and they got mixed with daylight,” he says. “It looks like a setting sun, warming up the scene the way Jean-Pierre likes it. Of course, this doesn’t work when the lights are too close to the actors.” Nagata often added a small, handheld HMI (800-watt or 1.2K Cine Par) with a Chimera made of 1⁄4
Right: Director of photography Tetsuo Nagata, AFC risks his soul to work with one of the film’s more unusual set pieces. Bottom: Director JeanPierre Jeunet lines up a slightly high angle on his main characters.
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American Cinematographer
Left: Bazil eavesdrops as Remington, pretending to represent an African dictator, meets with arms dealer Nicolas Thibault De Fenouillet (André Dussollier, left). Below: A closer shot from the scene.
Medium Grid Cloth diffusion to bring out the actors’ faces. “I usually like to light from the back or the side, but on this film, I was more generous with the light and brought the source more to the front.” A day-interior meeting between one of the weapons manufacturers, Nicolas Thibault De Fenouillet (André Dussollier), and Remington (Omar Sy), a Micmac disguised as a revolutionary in search of arms, takes place in the ornate Train Bleu restaurant, a Belle Epoque landmark, as Bazil eavesdrops. The characters sit at a table sidelit by a giant window. Nagata positioned 6 12K HMIs outside, creating a powerful sidelight. He complemented this with a tungsten source bounced on a 12'x12' frame of Full Grid Cloth for fill. Nagata notes that he sometimes modulates the color of bounced light with different materials. “I go shopping for fabrics in an open-air market with my gaffer, Patrick Contesse, and I have a good collection of tissues and papers,” says the cinematographer. “Beige is a classic for skin, and a little pink works well with women.” Nagata was not very involved with the camera moves or the framing on Micmacs, as Jeunet considers composition to be an essential part of the director’s job. “I like what Kurosawa said: if you take a frame
from a film and put it on a wall, it should look like a painting,” says Jeunet. “I give a lot of importance to the graphic quality of each shot, prob-
“I give a lot of importance to the graphic quality of each shot.”
ably because I started in animation.” The director is known for his meticulous preparation, which culminates in a shooting script that features precise storyboards alongside the text. The process of découpage (shot breakwww.theasc.com
down) starts with Jeunet’s rough sketches, which are rendered by a storyboard artist. “The second step is to reproduce the storyboard on location with interns or real stand-ins who resemble the actors,” says the director. “I may change or find new things, and I take stills. Then I go back home and edit the stills to create a sequence [that leads to a definitive storyboard].” On the set, Jeunet will further refine his shooting plan by setting up the shots with a video viewfinder mounted with 35mm lenses. “I always use video viewfinders because with the screen, you can easily put the lens on the ground or high up,” he explains. “When I see directors using old-fashioned optical viewfinders, I tell myself they’re not going to lie on the ground because it’s wet or dirty, so they may end up with banal frames because they have limited themselves.” ➣ June 2010
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Very French Revenge
On a Paris rooftop, Bazil gathers intelligence on an arms dealer by dropping a microphone down his chimney.
Nagata reveals that the filmmakers tested the Red One for Micmacs but found the latitude “reduced,” so they instead opted to shoot 35mm, mainly with a Panaflex Millennium XL. The cinematographer suggested shooting with Panavision Primo Classics and an Angenieux Optimo 14-50mm zoom. “Jean-Pierre likes the sharpest possible image, and he always shoots with a wide angle,” he notes. Micmacs was mostly shot with 21mm, 24mm, 27mm, 30mm and 35mm Primo Classics, whose close-focus capabilities suited Jeunet’s camera placement, which is typically very near the actors. According to Jeunet, the main lens on the production was the 21mm. “My telephoto lens is a 35mm!” he jokes. He finds long focal lengths “boring because they compress everything. Wide-angle lenses create something stronger; they give expressiveness to the eyes, to the look, to the set, and you get more depth of field. It’s a real style. Look at the films of Orson Welles, Sergio Leone and Stanley Kubrick.” Many directors avoid wide angles when doing close-ups because they can distort a face, but “because I use actors with interesting faces, that’s not a problem — on the contrary, it makes them even more graphic,” says Jeunet. “But it’s a more delicate matter with women, so I always do tests with them.” He selects a focal length and 56
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lens height to suit each actress, and he notes that wide-angle lenses can actually flatter some female faces. “I’m often shooting down, and because short focal lengths work well with big eyes, they give a doe-eye effect because the eyes look bigger from above. From below, it becomes ugly.” Many of the shots of Bazil are
“Long focal lengths compress everything. Wide-angle lenses create something stronger.”
from below. “A man can take an angle from below,” states Jeunet. “Micmacs is a story of a man who grows as he takes his vengeance, so we wanted to see Bazil grow; we didn’t want to crush him. The camera is never at eye level; I find that boring.” Nagata shot Micmacs on a single film stock, Kodak’s Vision3 500T 5219. “On almost every film, American Cinematographer
you end up at the end of the day with the sun setting, and sometimes you’re even shooting close-ups with night falling,” says the cinematographer. “On one of my projects, I used three stocks, and I had to go from 50-ASA to 250-ASA and then to 500-ASA for one scene. It was all mixed up, and it was terrible when I did the timing.” He adds that he has found the grain of 5219 “the same” as that of slower stocks. Color is a distinctive element of Jeunet’s style, and all of his films are dominated by warm colors. Micmacs, however, also contains less typical gleams of cyan, blue, green and even mauve, especially in the night footage. “I go more toward warm colors than cold ones,” acknowledges the director. “I’d like to try other colors, but it’s also true that when the sky is gray and you’re shooting the gray buildings of Paris, the only way to save the image is to go toward warm colors.” Nevertheless, he continues, “with Tetsuo, we made some other color choices.” Nagata recalls that he and Jeunet “spoke about using complementary colors.” In many of the night scenes, Nagata added strong, cold colors to the warm palette. A good example occurs early in the film, when Bazil is shot in the video store. Nagata lit the video-store interior with a mixture of cyan-, green- and orange-gelled Kino Flos, replacing the existing fluores-
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Right: This frame grab of the accident that sends a stray bullet into Bazil’s head illustrates Nagata’s effort to mix cold colors into the warm palette Jeunet favors. Below: Bazil lies critically wounded in the video store.
cents with practicals, and added warm ceiling light through diffusion on Bazil. During the exchange of gunfire outside, the bikers slide down sodium-yellow streets in a garish landscape featuring green and mauve façades and blue neons set up on a bridge. “It’s cruel lighting, with a dirty feel to it,” says Nagata. Later, when Bazil tucks in under a cardboard cover alongside the river, there is a similar mix of green practical fluorescents, colorful lamps in the background, and an orange streetlight on the hero. Some night scenes are set on a rooftop where Bazil does a crude form of wiretapping by dropping microphones down chimneys. Nagata’s crew suspended 6K helium balloons just outside frame to create a blue moonlight cast, and lit Bazil’s face with an orange wash. “That’s intentional,” 58
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says Jeunet. “I wanted the feeling to stay warm. It’s that simple.” The film’s main interior set is the junkyard “cave” where the
“It’s cruel lighting with a dirty feel to it.”
Micmacs live and work. The production shot for some 10 days in the set, created by production designer Aline Bonetto. Nagata lit the cave with warm pools of light using suspended American Cinematographer
250-watt and 500-watt practicals. Hidden Kino Flo tubes added small alcoves of other hues: gold, green and orange. Nagata added an underexposed toplight by shining space lights gelled with cyan through a Grid Cloth ceiling above the open parts of the set. The final effect is an image made of warm highlights and subtle, cooler darks. “If the tungsten bulbs were 2,700°K, then I had, say, 3,600°K to 4,000°K coming from above,” says the cinematographer. One of the most elegant lighting setups is the stylish, dark-walled apartment of arms dealer Marconi (Nicolas Marie). Nagata says he asked Bonetto to cover the set with a translucent ceiling made of “a material used for lampshades, like a plastic resin.” Nagata hung space lights above, creating a very soft toplight, which he complemented with practicals and a soft fill — “very little, almost nothing” — to bring out the eyes of the armed Africans who take Marconi prisoner. Nagata created the fill with one of his favorite fixtures, a Source Four Leko, through a Chimera. Jeunet notes that the lighting setup was “very practical because we could shoot extremely quickly. The metal of the guns, the gangsters’ black skin, and the set are magnifique. It’s a very beautiful light.” ➣
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Right: African rebels (from left: Laurant Mendy, Doudou Masta and Marc Stussy) show up at Marconi’s apartment to take him prisoner. Below: The Micmacs’ junkyard cave mixes warm highlights and subtle, cooler darks.
Visual-effects supervisor Alain Carsoux was often on the set. Although Micmacs’ visual effects are not elaborate, they are key to the poetic feel of the film. Carsoux and his team at Duran Duboi are responsible, for example, for Jeunet’s trademark inserts of images inside the frame to represent thought balloons, as when Bazil’s bullet acts up and he calms himself with rote memories. Carsoux observes that CGI is sometimes done in “2½-D,” not quite 3-D. He explains that a true 3-D virtual 60
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object is expensive and time-consuming to create, so he often opts for digital effects that mix 3-D CGI objects with 2-D photographic plates. As an example, he cites a crane move at the end of Micmacs that cranes up to reveal a canal and a Parisian landscape behind sand dunes created to look like Morocco. The final image, he says, is “a series of layers, not continual like real 3-D.” In this example, the challenge was to make the 2-D elements — the trucks, the barge and the Paris cityscape — move relative to the foreground dunes in a American Cinematographer
convincing way as the crane moved up. “It’s a bit like what we do now to convert 2-D movies to 3-D [in post] — you break the image up into layers and move them relative to each other.” Carsoux adds that the 2½-D technique can only be done with objects that are in the distance, because close objects change too much with movement and therefore require full 3-D rendering. Another key collaborator on Micmacs was colorist Didier Lefouest, who has worked on many commercials with both Nagata and Jeunet. Lefouest explains that the color timing of Micmacs began with tests during prep and continued with graded dailies throughout production, so the look was pretty well defined by the time the filmmakers began the DI. Like Carsoux, Lefouest was often present during the shoot. The dailies footage was telecined on a Spirit, and Lefouest timed the footage every day using a DaVinci. Jeunet viewed HD dailies with his crew using a projection setup in a trailer. Whenever there was a major change in location, or another grading issue, Lefouest would go to the set to review his timed dailies with Jeunet and Nagata. ➣
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Very French Revenge
For the film’s climax, 2-D plates and 3-D CGI mingle in a crane shot that reveals a Parisian cityscape behind some sand dunes that the Micmacs are trying to pass off as Morocco.
During post, select footage was scanned at 4K using an Arriscan at Digimage Cinema in Paris. Lefouest then did a preliminary timing of the scanned material. “Because I did the dailies for six months, I knew the images by heart,” he says. “With JeanPierre and Tetsuo, we knew exactly
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where we were going, and we had the work print as a reference. After production wrapped, we did one more week of artistic research together, and then I worked for two weeks on my own, redoing the timing and also preparing my windows, knowing that Jean-Pierre would have certain
requests.” The DI, he notes, often involved isolating portions of the graded image with windows and refining them over time. Lefouest describes his work as similar to that of a cabinetmaker: “I sand, then varnish, then sand again, then varnish again, until it’s perfect.” (Ed. Note: The DI
TECHNICAL SPECS 2.40: 1 3-perf Super 35mm Panaflex Millennium XL; Arri 435 Panavision and Angenieux lenses Kodak Vision3 500T 5219 Digital Intermediate Printed on Kodak Vision 2383
workflow comprised 4K scanning, 2K color correction and a 4K filmout.) Summing up his collaboration with Nagata, Carsoux, Lefouest and the others in his cinematic family, Jeunet notes, “We’re all craftsmen. The production designer will look at a set and bring things to it that perhaps
no one will ever notice, but which she needs to tell the story. Likewise, the cinematographer will tell his own version of the story with his lighting. Each person has his own version of the story, and the director is the one who combines them.” ●
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The White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights follows indie-rock icons on a unique tour of Canada. By Iain Stasukevich •|•
Painting Towns “R
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ock documentaries are easy to make,” says director Emmett Malloy. “Put 10 video cameras onstage and get some talking backstage.” But Malloy, an experienced music-video director, recognized that The White Stripes’ first tour of Canada presented an opportunity to do something different. The result is The White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights, a compelling twist on the “rockumentary” format that offers dynamic performance footage shot at both standard concert halls and smaller, eccentric venues boasting lots of local flavor. While directing the video for the band’s song “Icky Thump” in 2007, Malloy spent some time between setups with front man Jack White, who confided that the itinerary for the duo’s first Canadian tour, which would celebrate their 10th anniversary, was filled with secret shows and stops in remote locations. Malloy was intrigued and urged White to consider filming the tour. “Jack liked the idea,” says Malloy, “so we formed a small crew and hit the road with them — but not with the intent of making a film. In our minds, we were documenting a moment, and that allowed everyone to just let things be. Nobody was overthinking it. There was no deadline and no pressure. We weren’t sure how the footage would be used.” The crew comprised Malloy, director of photography 64
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Giles Dunning, camera operator/editor Tim Wheeler, camera assistants Hassan Abdul-wahid and Jeremiah Pittman (who doubled as a sound recordist) and producer Mike Sarkissian. (Camera assistant Vincent Foeillet took Hassan’s position during the second leg of filming.) “Working with musicians is a very visceral experience because you’re reacting to something live,” notes Dunning, who has shot concerts for such acts as David Bowie, The Rolling Stones and Ben Harper. The White Stripes’ process was especially spontaneous. With little more than an inkling of what town they’d land in next, the filmmakers spent their two weeks on the tour racing to keep up with White and his bandmate and former wife, drummer/vocalist Meg White. Dunning recalls, “We shot all of the most unique cities on the tour, ending at their last date, which was their 10th anniversary show. They were doing two shows a day, a matinee and a showcase. We’d fly overnight from one town to the next, maybe get two hours of sleep on the way, go out with cameras and start scouting the towns, then go to the main venue and check out the lighting conditions.” After filming the show, they’d jump back on the plane and do it all over again. Jack White’s boundless energy and focus quickly set the bar for the filmmakers, according to the cinematographer. “The first day of our first stop, in Whitehorse, we got up early
American Cinematographer
Photos by Autumn de Wilde. Frame grabs and photos courtesy of Three Foot Giant and Giles Dunning.
and went out to scout the town, thinking Jack would be asleep, and then we ran into him walking around — he was also scouting the town, just as intrigued to be there as we were,” recalls Dunning. There was a short learning curve when it came to figuring out how closely the filmmakers could follow Jack and Meg. “After the first show, Lalo Medina, their road manager, slammed the door in our faces because it was his job to preserve their privacy,” says Dunning. “When they come offstage after a show, they need their moment. But a few days later, they started letting us in [on that moment].” Malloy adds, “Our biggest advantage was that Jack and Meg already knew us from the music-video shoots. They understood that we would take care of them. This isn’t my film; a lot of my personality is in it, but it’s a film for The White Stripes.” Most of Under Great White Northern Lights was shot on Super 16mm, whose imagery Malloy describes as “romantic and more in tune with the band” than digital formats. ( Jack White has always been a vocal proponent of “old school” musical instruments and technologies.) The main cameras were two 16mm Bolexes and two Aaton XTR-Prods, and the production carried two Canon zoom lenses, an 11.5165mm and a 7-63mm; this gear was provided by Panavision Hollywood. “The Aatons were perfect for this job because they’re so light,” says Dunning. “That’s especially important when you’re shooting for 21⁄2 hours straight.” (Additionally, some backstage footage was captured with a Panasonic AGHVX200.) During prep, the filmmakers bought all the Eastman Tri-X 7266, Plus-X 7265 and Ektachrome 7285 they could find. “In the end, we used most of it,” says Dunning. “It’s rare that people go out and shoot this much reversal, but one of the things people respond to when they see the film is the look of the reversal stock.” Shooting reversal poses its share of obstacles, chiefly the extremely narrow latitude of 6 or 7 stops. “In a
Opposite: The White Stripes — lead singer/guitarist/ keyboardist Jack White and drummer/ vocalist Meg White — slowdance onstage after wowing the audience with their 10th anniversary concert. This page, top to bottom: Onstage cameras capture the Stripes’ intuitive musical interplay; Jack attacks his keyboard with characteristic abandon; director of photography Giles Dunning observes an outdoor show.
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PaintingTownsWhite concert setting, the lighting range can be very wide, and you’d typically choose a stock that’s more forgiving,” says Dunning. “We only had two cameras onstage at a time, and there was no radio contact. It’s not the ideal way to shoot a concert documentary, but the payoff is the beautiful image; you get really dense blacks and a slight vintage look.” The cinematographer emphasizes that a good rapport with the show’s lighting director, in this case Susanne Sasic, is key when shooting a live event. Most of the lighting tweaks for the Stripes’ tour were worked out a few hours before each show, during the sound check. “I tried to spot the things that might make the show difficult to shoot,” says Dunning. “A lot of the work is balancing what’s already there. One of the first steps you have to take when you’re shooting in color is working out the different color temperatures, particularly the spotlights. You just have to be careful to not destroy the look of a rock ’n’ roll show. “We were going for a somewhat naturalistic feel on this,” he continues. “I usually have at least six cameras onstage for concert films, but I wanted to pare it down this time. We also wanted to avoid swooping cranes and dollies, which feel very contrived to me.” Malloy notes, “I
Top: Dunning films Meg as the band prepares to “showboat” with an impromptu concert staged on the water. Middle: The Whites share a tender moment at the piano while reflecting on their lives and career. Bottom: The musicians admire nature’s handiwork while inspecting an ice floe during some downtime.
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PaintingTownsWhite
wanted to give the film a single-camera feel. I like those moments where you can tell [the operators] are finding their footing.” There are a lot of moments when the shot goes out of focus, or Jack does something unexpected and the operator has to reposition himself quickly. “Even if you’ve worked with Jack before, that doesn’t give you the ammunition to keep up with him!” says Malloy. “We didn’t have a set list, headphones or a video village. These venues were small enough that we could give each other hand signals! “I was fortunate to be working with cameramen who knew the music well, and when one angle got cut off, they’d find another angle,” continues the director. “They’d let the shot go out of focus if it worked for the song, and they usually knew where the performers would be at just the right moment.” “The beautiful thing about operating with musicians is that you’re responding to the music, and your work is very intuitive,” says Dunning. “It’s also good to be familiar with your camera because you’re pulling your own focus while your second AC is across the way, shooting with a Bolex!” To keep things visually interesting, Dunning approached each show in a different way; he shot one on blackand-white reversal, the next on color reversal, one with a tripod, the next handheld, and so on. “You don’t feel like
Top left and right: The filmmakers capture evocative images of a humble cemetery. Middle: Inspired by the sartorial elegance of the White Stripes’ entourage, director Emmett Malloy dons a snazzy tie and fedora. Bottom: Meg offers a Mona Lisa smile as she’s captured on the move.
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Left: Color footage highlights the band’s signature use of red as part of their visual image. Right: Jack proves he can fill a big niche in rock.
you have to play it safe with Jack and Meg. You can push the limits with them and you’ll get something very unique-looking,” he says. Under Great White Northern Lights crackles with energy, owing as much of its intensity to Dunning’s cinematography as it does to the relationship between the Whites onstage. The
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cameras get so close to them it feels as though each performance is under a microscope. “Certainly, their dynamic onstage is like nothing I’ve seen before,” says Malloy. “The way they read each other and the way they stare each other down is remarkable. Meg really is waiting to see where Jack’s going next, and that’s completely fascinating to watch
through a lens. It’s as rock ’n’ roll and as punk rock as anything I’ve ever seen.” On top of their grueling showcase schedule, the Stripes played “secret” matinees in each town at unusual venues — a bowling alley, a retirement home, on a boat, and even on a city bus. One of Dunning’s favorite locations was Iqaluit, the capital of Canada’s Nunavut
province, where the production shot “You Don’t Know What Love Is.” He recalls, “It was dusk for one hour there. Jack and Meg played their showcase at 11 p.m., and when we left the club it was still daylight, and kids were running around and playing. We shot Jack and Meg walking across some rocks on the shore by these red and white houses, and that black-and-white footage is some of the most beautiful stuff in the movie.” Dunning wanted to get a timelapse shot of the tide going out (using a Bolex and a Norris intervalometer), but because of the band’s schedule, no one on the crew could stay with the camera. He ended up leaving it with one of the locals and came back the next day to retrieve it. Under Great White Northern Lights was recently released on DVD and exhibited on HDCam-SR at festivals, including South by Southwest. In the final telecine transfer, carried out at New Hat Post in Santa Monica by
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colorist Beau Leon, some additional color effects were applied, and some grain was added to the HD footage to help it blend better with the Super 16mm material. Leon also helped Dunning increase the saturation and contrast in a bit of footage shot with Vision2 500T 7218, which was used for locations where Dunning needed to squeeze a few extra stops out of the ambient light. Dunning and Malloy had free reign to film whatever they pleased, but Jack was given final cut. “There were some specific angles he didn’t want us to include, and he was always asking us to crush the black in the telecine,” says Dunning. “The band always had editorial control, and knowing that made them feel freer with us. “The real beauty of this documentary is that we got to do things the way we did,” he adds. “The way these specialty film stocks keep disappearing on us, they’re becoming more special
and more unique. No matter how many thousands of feet you shoot, there’s nothing like the beauty of film and the surprises that come with it.” ●
TECHNICAL SPECS 1.78:1 Super 16mm and Digital Capture Aaton XTR-Prod; Bolex; Panasonic AG-HVX200 Canon lenses Eastman Plus-X 7265, Tri-X 7266, Ektachrome 100D 7285, Kodak Vision2 500T 7218
New LEE
Urban effect filters Create a Sodium effect with tungsten or daylight
Think LEE www.leefilters.com 71
I
Adding Chills to Frozen By Michael Goldman
The recent release Frozen typifies how the independent film world is evolving, with traditional and digital techniques coming together to make complicated productions affordable. On the production side, the filmmakers adopted a traditional approach, shooting 3-perf Super 35mm for a final aspect ratio of 2.40:1. On the post side, they adopted a digital workflow that enabled much of their visual-effects work to be done during the digital-intermediate process. Directed by Adam Green and shot by Will Barratt, Frozen tells the tale of three skiers trapped on a chairlift on an isolated mountain. Principal photography, which took place at a ski resort near Ogden, Utah, over five weeks, was “the hardest shoot I will ever have,” says Barratt. Working largely at night in sub-zero tempera-
Nearly half of the 260 visual-effects shots in the indie thriller Frozen are snow effects created during the digital-intermediate process at Lit Post.
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tures, the crew battled to maneuver a 50' Super Technocrane, various lighting rigs and other equipment up the mountain and into position to film actors suspended 48' in the air for hours at a time. “The decision to shoot practically was easy,” says Barratt. “We’ve all seen big-budget films where the greenscreen effects look fake, and for another thing, Adam and I felt we could get better performances from our actors if we actually stuck them on a chairlift. And they really were stuck — they came down for lunch and for a bathroom break. Plus, budget-wise, shooting on the mountain was more affordable than getting a large greenscreen.” For night scenes, which dominate the film, “we wanted a moon-glow feeling, soft lighting, so we had to have moonlight bouncing off the snow back up to the actors,” says the cinematographer. “To do that, we put Nine-light Maxi-Brutes under the actors and basically pounded the light into the mountain. That gave us a soft bounce that resembled moonlight reflecting off snow.” Visual-effects supervisor/colorist Tyler Hawes and his team at Lit Post in Los Angeles devised an affordable method for digitally transforming the snow flurries captured in camera into a blizzard that pervades the film and becomes, in essence, a character in the drama. They accomplished this entirely within a DI pipeline built on the foundation of Digital Vision’s Nucoda Film Master system. There are 260 visual-effects shots in the film, and Hawes created half of them, almost all snow effects, while color-timing the picture. He explains that although the production captured lots of snowy footage on location, the look of those scenes varied widely, and a consistent, dramatic blizzard was required to fulfill the story’s needs. “Ironically, after they went to great lengths for realism by filming on a remote mountain, the footage looked like it had been shot onstage because you [couldn’t] see the weather and environment around the actors — there was just blackness,” says Hawes. “Naturally, they couldn’t sit around waiting for the clouds and moonlight to be just right so that the background would show up. Also, the script calls at certain points for certain weather hits, making weather a supporting character. So we had to finesse the snow and light to bring more realism and authenticity to the scenes.” The filmmakers decided not to attempt to do any of the snow effects with CGI; Green wanted to avoid artificially generated elements for the sake of realism, and the production didn’t have the time or money for 3-D effects work. Hawes’ team had successfully added rain and fog to Green and Barratt’s previous collaborations, the features Hatchet and Spiral, and Hawes believed a similar approach would work for snow in Frozen. His team used both real snow and snow machines to shoot additional snow plates using both 35mm and digital (Red One) cameras, and then brought them into the DI session to stitch it all together. “Originally, we talked about me just doing the color correction, and making effects separate,” Hawes explains. “Then, we
American Cinematographer
Images courtesy of Lit Post.
Post Focus
added simple effects like wire removals and things I could easily do with the Nucoda system. But there was this bigger challenge of how we could create, with a limited budget, about 20 minutes of snow and other weather effects. Ultimately, the plan we came up with deeply involved the DI process. The Nucoda system allows you to do respectable compositing, where you can take multiple layers or clips, composite them together, and then grade them in the context of a final composite. I figured that with my experience as a compositor, I could put together convincing snow elements and combine them with the original photography. If we’d done this same thing with CGI and a desktop-based visual-effects pipeline, it would have taken longer to get it right, because everyone would have been viewing it separately, on different monitors, apart from the main photography.” Hawes calls this a “converged workflow,” noting that other effects in the film did incorporate some CGI, and says the strategy “paid off once we got a rhythm” because, in the DI suite, it took “an average of about 20 minutes a shot to get it all done. We got all the weather stuff done in less than a week.” Hawes suggests that keeping the snow effects in the DI suite increased creative opportunities for the filmmakers, particularly for Barratt, who could be more involved than he might otherwise be in the visual-effects pipeline. “Artists prefer to move quickly, and if you’ve got 130 weather shots going out to separate facilities and then coming back to you, you’ve got to remember what you were thinking some time ago,” says Hawes. “On Frozen, we all sat down together and built the effect we wanted. Integrating so many of the effects into the DI was great for Will, because it gave him back some of the control the cinematographer often loses with CGI.” In the end, Hawes believes this workflow saved the production weeks of time and offered “about 75-percent cost savings compared to a traditional approach.” He presumes, like most industry professionals, that CGI will always require a separate pipeline, separate tools and separate artists. However, for 2-D effects involving certain kinds of compositing work, Frozen was, perhaps, ahead of a rising curve. 74
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Autodesk Unveils 2011 Lineup Autodesk has introduced the 2011 versions of its Digital Entertainment Creation Software for 3-D modeling, animation, effects, rendering, compositing, digital sculpting and 3-D painting, as well as the 2011 releases of its creative finishing products for visual effects, editorial finishing and color grading. The complete line offers users improved interoperability, new creative tools and accelerated workflows, while the creative finishing products introduce an end-to-end stereoscopic finishing workflow for film and television productions. Of the Digital Entertainment Creation Software releases — comprising Maya, 3ds Max, Softimage, Mudbox, MotionBuilder, FBX asset-exchange technology, HumanIK 4.5 middleware and Kynapse 7 middleware — Maya 2011 is a particular standout. Marc Petit, Autodesk’s senior vice president of Media & Entertainment, notes, “Autodesk Maya 2011 takes Digital Entertainment Creation workflows to new heights with a new customizable user interface, new high-performance viewports and a new 3-D editorial interface.” Now available for Snow Leopard, Maya 2011 also boasts enhanced tools for character animation, including non-destructive live targeting; integrated color management; asset structures for pipeline connectivity; and improved rotoscoping. Augmenting Maya’s stereo computer graphics capabilities, the 2011 releases of Flame, Flare, Smoke and Lustre offer stereoscopic capabilities designed to
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help implement 3-D finishing with minimal disruption to existing creative workflows. “3-D is core to what we do at Autodesk, so being a leader in end-to-end stereo workflow capabilities is a natural extension for us,” says Stig Gruman, Autodesk’s vice president of digital entertainment. Key new stereoscopic features include cross-product support for the FBX 2011 software; a stereoscopic camera rig and object support in Action, Flame and Smoke’s 3-D compositing environment; concurrent stereoscopic visual effects, editorial finishing and grading workflow; and stereoscopic monitoring and preview modes. Launched in December 2009, Smoke for Mac OS X has rapidly gained ground in Mac-based creative workflows by offering an all-in-one editorial finishing solution. Also available as a turnkey solution for the Linux operating system, Smoke 2011 boasts new tools for editing, viewing and compositing stereoscopic content; drag-and-drop conform of AAF or XML files from Apple Final Cut Pro or Avid Media Composer; and native in-application support for Red RAW and H.264 QuickTime media. The 2011 releases of Flame and Flare help further integrate advanced 3-D capabilities with the addition of new creative tools such as a GPU-based pixel-shader rendering pipeline, which improves the quality of rendered results and enables support for new texture mapping and lighting effects; a new Substance procedural texture library with over 100 near-photorealistic textures that can be applied to 3-D objects, 3-D text or surfaces; native in-appli-
cation support for Red RAW and H.264 QuickTime media; and support for individual rendering layers when soft-importing OpenEXR media files. Additionally, both products feature 3-D compositing enhancements such as support for multiple outputs in Action, including z-depth, normal and matte passes; and support for diffuse, parallax, reflection and specular mapping. Finally, Lustre 2011 gives colorists additional control over color and lighting effects in both stereoscopic and standard grading workflows. New features include support for grading of OpenEXR media files, Red workflow enhancements with support for Red Rocket through Mac Wiretap Gateway and open management of grading metadata. For additional information, visit www.autodesk.com.
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FilmLight Offers Low-Cost Baselight, Streamlines HDCam-SR Workflow FilmLight has announced a low entry price point addition to its Baselight range of nonlinear color-grading systems. Known simply as Baselight, the new system offers facilities a cost-effective way to benefit from the performance and feature set associated with the product line. Priced at $95,000, Baselight is a fully featured color-grading system capable of handling all inputs and delivering multiple output formats up to and including duallink RGB 4:4:4 HD. Configured to work as part of an integrated, file-based workflow with comprehensive support for industrystandard editorial systems, Baselight includes a GPU renderer, Blackboard control
surface, Baselight Kompressor and 12TB formatted RAID 5 storage. The system is fully upgradeable up through the top-ofthe-range Baselight Eight and benefits from FilmLight’s comprehensive range of global support, maintenance, training and specialist consultancy services. Additionally, during the recent National Association of Broadcasters conference in Las Vegas, FilmLight demonstrated an on-set workflow incorporating Truelight On-Set to apply 3-D LUTs to the output from a Sony F35 camera in real time. The Truelight system also allows pre-defined looks and primary color-correction conforming to the ASC Color Decision List to be applied near set after recording. The CDL information created on set can be easily embedded as auxiliary data and recorded on the HDCam-SR tape to be used as a starting point for the final grade in Baselight, or burned into shots to create digital dailies. FilmLight also demonstrated the Baselight’s native grading support for the standards-based high-quality 440Mb MPEG-4 SStP (Simple Studio Profile) codec, on which HDCam-SR recording is based. SStP is now available as MXF-wrapped media for near-real-time exchange over a GB Ethernet connection from the latest SRW-5800/2 VTR and can be decoded in real time within Baselight. “We are very pleased to be working in partnership with Sony to help develop and support these new HDCam-SR filebased workflows,” says Wolfgang Lempp, FilmLight’s founder and technical strategist. “The inclusion of SStP closes the gap between compressed and uncompressed high-end workflows, and will eventually lead to a cost-effective and efficient 4K workflow.” For additional information, visit www.filmlight.ltd.uk. ●
Tricks of the Trade I
Using Red’s False Color By Claire Walla
Like most cinematographers, Chase Bowman measures light for relative exposure values and adjusts his iris settings accordingly. But he doesn’t use a light meter. “I’m kind of embarrassed to say it because I was brought up on film, but I leave my light meter at home now,” he says. Instead, he uses False Color, a function on the Red One digital camera, which he has been using since 2007. With the click of a button, False Color covers the onscreen image with a multi-hued overlay, using a scale that ranges from Purple (1 IRE) to Red (108 IRE), with Green (44 IRE) balancing out the two extremes at 18-percent gray. The concept is not so different from other cameras’ built-in light meters, like the histogram (which displays temperature values via bar graph), or a zebra pattern (an overlay of slanted lines that lean left or right, depending on whether the image is over- or underexposed). However, Bowman maintains that color representation is more direct with False Color. “I’ve even had my script supervisor pick up on it and give me exposure advice,” he reports. “Really, it’s that easy.” While shooting the feature Second-Story Man in January, Bowman not only set all his exposures using False Color, but also communicated on set with color-coded instructions. “We were doing a lot of day-for-night shots, and we didn’t have enough money for [lighting] balloons or other nightexterior lighting tools, so it was all about exposure level,” he explains. “My gaffer and I came up with a [rubric] for how we were going to establish moonlight, and it was all color-coded: purple for things that didn’t need any detail [straight underexposed], light blue for the majority of the shots, and essentially no color [the midtones] for specific highlights.” If an actor was standing in the snow amid a cluster of trees, for example, Bowman set his exposure so that the leaves in the trees were purple, the snow was light blue, and the actor’s face was no color. “I knew that as long as there was ‘no color’ on the actor’s cheek at any given time, it wasn’t totally underexposed,” he notes. Bowman is quick to add that there’s nothing wrong with using a light meter with the Red. However, he believes it makes sense to follow a digital-specific method when shooting a digital format. Part of this has to do with the way digital technology has impacted the production process. In the same way that digital cameras allow filmmakers to maintain the momentum of a shot by
eliminating the frequent need to stop and reload, False Color allows the cinematographer to get an instantaneous light reading without venturing away from the camera. “I would do a quick flash [of False Color] during a take, and as soon as the director yelled ‘Cut,’ my gaffer would go right into fixing the problem because he knew exactly what I was referring to,” recalls Bowman. “It got to the point where we didn’t even have to talk about it, and that made production more fluid.” Another reason Bowman likes False Color has to do with its ability to quickly capture the whole scope of light within a frame. He points to a car-mount shot from Second-Story Man as an example. In a medium shot, the camera looks through the rear window of a car onto a young girl who’s peering back toward the camera. “The girl’s skin is very dark, but there was also the reflection of the trees and the glare of the sun to consider when setting the exposure,” explains Bowman. “A light meter wouldn’t do much to get an overall feel for exposure — the angle of incident of the reflected light would be one problem.” But False Color could capture everything within the frame at one time, allowing Bowman to see exactly how the character’s skin responded to the speckled veil of sun and shadow that complicated the shot. False Color also helps when motion is a factor. This is the case for settings overrun by intelligent lights that constantly move and change, but it’s also true for more basic action shots. If a scene calls for someone to throw a baseball, for instance, the cinematographer can set the camera to False Color, watch the ball move across the screen, and mark exactly where the light affects the object while it’s in motion. “You can take an instant reading with a light meter and get a feel for the space,” adds Bowman. “But you can’t spot-meter a moving baseball.” Bowman attributes the great benefit of False Color to the inherent differences between film and digital. “Film is a much more forgiving medium. If you blow out a highlight on a car, it looks great because it looks natural. But with digital, as soon as the highlight goes, you know you’re watching digital. “For me and a lot of the cinematographers I know, using the Red has been all about trying to create the illusion that it’s film,” he continues. “We’re trying to find something we can maybe call ‘Digital 35.’ Without question, the key to that [with the Red] is protecting highlights, and that’s a big part of what False Color does for me.” ●
False Color allows an instantaneous light reading without venturing away from the camera.
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the compressed dailies are recorded on a standard SDHC card and can then be removed for immediate editing on Avid or Final Cut Pro systems. An overscan output for monitoring will provide a view beyond the frame borders. Output video options include HDSDI at 4:4:4 and 4:2:2. Aaton also plans a provision for an unlimited number of cascading 3-D LUTs to preview the cinematographer’s intentions and to store settings for later use in post. The next iteration of the Penelope-Delta will be shown at the IBC show in Amsterdam in September, with an eye to releasing the system in early 2011. For more information, visit www.aaton.com. Aaton Introduces Penelope-Delta By Benjamin B French camera manufacturer Aaton showed the first prototype of the Penelope-Delta digital camera system at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in April. The Penelope-Delta is a digital magazine that adapts to Aaton’s Penelope 35mm film camera, thus enabling the same camera body with lens and optical viewfinder to be used to shoot either 35mm or digital. The conversion between film and digital use is estimated to take less than 30 minutes. Penelope-Delta’s digital sensor is a Bayer-pattern CCD built for Aaton by Dalsa Corp. Aaton announced a unique dual-sensitivity feature, which, the company states, allows for the sensor’s base sensitivity of 800 ISO to be reduced to 100 ISO. The camera is also said to have very low noise at its 3,200 ISO setting. Penelope-Delta is designed for image capture at a resolution exceeding 4K. The dynamic range is 13 stops. Aaton is known for its cameras’ ergonomics, and the Penelope-Delta extends the company’s “cat on the shoulder” philosophy to the digital arena. The weight of the Penelope-Delta will be 16.5 pounds, including two onboard Li-Ion batteries and the internal Solid State Disk recorder. The camera’s low power consumption should allow for three to six hours of operation, depending on the ratio between record and pause modes, without having to swap the onboard batteries. Additionally, a custom operating system enables a four-second boot-up, and the noise level is measured at 19 dbA, a low value attributed to wide vents and a large, slow-moving fan. The Penelope-Delta will simultaneously record two file formats onboard the digital magazine: uncompressed RAW at up to 800MB/second in a DPX wrapper, and compressed dailies in Avid’s open DNxHD format, either in the low-res 36MB/sec flavor, or in higher quality 10 bit. The uncompressed files are internally recorded on a lightweight, removable DeltaPak that contains four 2.5" SSDs; 80
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Panasonic Unveils 4 ⁄ 3 " HD Camcorder Panasonic Solutions Company has announced the AGAF100 AVCCam HD camcorder, a professional micro 4⁄3" video camcorder optimized for high-definition-video recording. Targeted at the video- and film-production communities, the AF100 delivers the shallow depth of field and wider field of view of a large imager with the flexibility and cost advantages of compatibility with a growing line of professional-quality micro 4⁄3" lenses, filters and adapters. The full 1080 and 720 production camera offers superior video handling, native 1080/24p recording, variable frame rates, professional audio capabilities and compatibility with SDHC and SDXC media. The design of the AF100’s micro 4⁄3" 16:9 MOS imager affords depth of field and field of view similar to that of 35mm movie cameras in a less expensive camera body. Equipped with an interchangeable lens mount, the AF100 can utilize an array of lowcost and widely available still camera and cine-style lenses. “Designed in consultation with the filmmaking community, the AF100 eclipses the video performance of other cameras in this price range,” says Joe Facchini, vice president of Sales & Product Management, Media & Production Services, Panasonic Solutions
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Company. “Ideal for film schools and independent filmmakers, this affordable digitalcinematography camera employs an advanced professional AVC/H.264 Hi Profile AVCHD codec compatible with a wide range of editing tools and affordable players.” The AF100 records 1080/60i, 50i, 30p, 25p and 24p (native) and 720/60p, 50p, 30p, 25p and 24p (native) in AVCHD’s highest-quality PH mode (maximum 24Mbps). Ready for global production standards, the camcorder is 60Hz and 50Hz switchable. Furthermore, the camcorder boasts built-in ND filtering and dramatically reduced video aliasing. Standard professional interfaces include HD-SDI out, HDMI, time code recording, built-in stereo microphone and USB 2.0. The AF100 also features two XLR inputs with +48-volt Phantom Power capability, 48-kHz/16-bit two-channel digital audio recording and support for LPCM/Dolby-AC3. With two SD slots, the AF100 can record up to 12 hours on two 64GB SDXC cards in PH mode. The AG-AF100 is scheduled to ship by the end of this year. For more information, visit www.panasonic.com.
Canon’s XF305, XF300 Go Tapeless Canon U.S.A., Inc. has introduced the XF305 and XF300 professional camcorders. Both employ the Canon XF Codec (MPEG-2 4:2:2 50Mbps codec) for capturing and recording native 1920x1080 video onto affordable and widely available Compact Flash (CF) cards. Uniting video, audio and metadata into a single file, the camcorders use an MXF File Wrapper — a widely supported open-source format — to maximize compatibility with existing industry infrastructure and nonlinear editing systems. Both models include a Genuine Canon 18x HD L-series lens with a 35mm equivalent zoom range of 29.3-527.4mm.
The lens also boasts a Full Manual Focus mode with mechanical “hard” end stops and distance markers for professional operability and repeatable manual focus. To minimize chromatic aberrations and provide a compact size and weight to the lens while also delivering a resolution of approximately 1,000 TV lines, Canon utilized HI-UD (highindex, ultra-low dispersion), UD and aspherical lens elements. The lens also features a new SuperRange Optical Image Stabilizer system with Dynamic and Powered modes for optimal performance in the greatest variety of situations. At the heart of the XF305 and XF300 are three native 1920x1080 CMOS image sensors developed and designed by Canon, as well as Canon’s proprietary DIGIC DV III Image Processor, which ensures natural colors and captures tonal gradations and shadow detail with remarkable accuracy. The DIGIC DV III Image Processor also powers Canon’s innovative Face Detection Technology, an autofocus option that can significantly reduce the effort required when camera operators work alone. Additionally, Canon’s new XF Codec boasts excellent color detail, and the 4:2:2 color sampling offers twice the color resolution of HDV and other 4:2:0 formats. To ensure compatibility, Canon has worked in cooperation with such editing- and postproduction-software developers as Adobe, Apple, Avid and Grass Valley. To maximize the camcorders’ adaptability across various production environments, each model can record at multiple bit rates, resolutions and variable frame rates for slow and fast motion. At 50Mbps (Continuous Bit Rate) 4:2:2, the camcorders can capture 1920x1080 resolution at 60i, 30p and 24p or 1280x720 resolution at 60p, 30p and 24p; at 35Mbps (Variable Bit Rate) 4:2:0, they can capture 1920x1080 60i/30p/24p or 1280x720 60p/30p/24p; and at 25Mbps (CBR) 4:2:0, they can capture 1440x1080 60i/30p/24p. Additional professional features include variableinterval for time lapse, frame-record for stop-motion animation and a photo feature for frame grabs. Each camcorder features a freely rotating 4.0", 1.23-megapixel LCD monitor that can be positioned at either the right or left side of the camcorder body. The LCD 82
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monitor can provide a display of the camcorders’ built-in waveform monitor and vectorscope to aid in achieving accurate exposure and color levels; it can also show peaking, edge-monitor focus and magnification, enabling the user to confirm critical focus. The camcorders are also equipped with a 0.52", 1.55-megapixel color electronic viewfinder, providing ample resolution for critical focus and approximately 100-percent field-of-view coverage for accurate framing. Both camcorders feature a built-in stereo microphone as well as dual XLR inputs for external audio sources; the camcorders support 16-bit PCM audio at 48 kHz with automatic and manual audio level adjustment. The XF305 also features industry-standard HD-SDI output, genlock and SMPTE time code (in/out) terminals for
Arri, Fujinon Collaborate on Alura Zooms Arri and Fujinon have partnered to create a completely new family of modern cine zoom lenses. Using the latest in optical design technology and innovative manufacturing techniques, the Arri/Fujinon Alura Zooms combine the highest optical performance with an amazingly small size, weight and price. The wide Alura Zoom 18-80 and the long Alura Zoom 45-250 are a set of matched PL-mount cine zooms designed for use with both film and digital camera systems. Both zooms exhibit excellent optical performance, and their size and weight have been kept practical, allowing crews to work fast on the set. Both lenses share a maximum open aperture of T2.6. Great care has been taken during the design phase to ensure that the T-stop remains truly consistent over the entire zoom range, avoiding a decrease in light level across the zoom range common with other lenses. This is especially beneficial when the Alura Zooms are used on digital cameras, where a drop in light level quickly becomes visible. Alura Zooms exhibit high contrast and high resolution for sharp, punchy images. While the special optical design ensures an evenly illuminated image on the
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multi-camera or 3-D productions. The XF305 is priced at $7,999 and the XF300 is priced at $6,799, and both models are expected to be available in late June. For more information, visit www.usa.canon.com. Angenieux Adopts Cooke’s /i Technology Thales Angenieux and Cooke Optics Ltd. have announced a partnership agreement in which Thales Angenieux will incorporate Cooke’s /i Technology into its lenses. Cooke’s /i Technology enables film and digital cameras to automatically record key lens and camera data for every film frame shot and provide it digitally to postproduction teams. The technology streamlines both production and post, saving significant time and costs and eliminating
sensor or film plane, internal reflections like flares and veiling glare have been greatly reduced through the use of Fujinon’s multilayer EBC (Electronic Beam Coating) lens coating. This ensures maximum light transmission and a high-contrast image with clear highlights and true, deep blacks. Color fringing is minimized through the use of extraordinary dispersion glass. Breathing has been greatly reduced, especially at the wide end. Nine iris leaves provide round out-offocus highlights and a pleasing, organic bokeh. Alura Zooms are compatible with Arri digital and film cameras as well as Arri accessories, and they have been constructed for the rough conditions of professional production. Large, easy-to-read, precision focus scales on both sides of the lenses aid focus pulling. Additionally, the zooms’ color characteristics and handling are matched to existing prime lenses in Arri’s repertoire. For additional information, visit www.arri.com and www.fujinon.co.jp.
guesswork while enabling greater creative freedom. The /i capability is now built into an external box (a prototype of which is pictured) that will connect to existing Angenieux lenses; moving forward, Thales Angenieux will incorporate /i Technology into new lens designs. Philippe Parain, managing director of Thales Angenieux, France, says, “/i Technology is an astounding development for our industry and one which drives it forward. We are delighted to work with Cooke to incorporate this technology into our lenses, in order to advance in the streamlining of the film-production process.” Les Zellan, chairman of Cooke Optics, notes, “We have great respect for Thales Angenieux and are thrilled to welcome them to the growing /i family.” Thales Angeniuex is the latest in a distinguished group of companies to adopt /i Technology. The growing list includes Aaton, Arri, Avid, Cinematography Electronics, CMotion, Mark Roberts Motion Control, Preston Cinema Systems, Red, The Pixel Farm, Service Vision and The Foundry. For more information, visit www.cookeoptics.com and www.ange nieux.com. Zeiss Fits Compact Primes to DSLRs Optics specialist Carl Zeiss has introduced Compact Prime CP.2 cine lenses, specially designed for HDSLR cameras. Compact Prime CP.2 lenses deliver great flexibility by introducing interchangeable mounts that allow the lenses to be used with a wide range of cameras, from traditional cine to HDSLR systems. Available with three different mounts — PL, EF and F — this new family of Zeiss lenses enables cinematographers to be completely free in their choice of camera systems while ensuring a high consistency of images. Furthermore, the lenses can be upgraded to any number of existing or future cine and still cameras while enabling cinematographers
to continue using the same set of lenses. Like their predecessors, Compact Prime CP.2 lenses are made for a rigorous life on set. The ergonomics have been improved compared to standard SLR lenses. The longer focus rotation and the possibility for manual focus give users the flexibility they demand. The iris opening consists of 14 high-precision blades, which stay consistently round and symmetrical over the entire T-stop range, translating into natural and pleasing out-of-focus highlights and a smooth bokeh. The modern lens design and tight tolerances ensure low distortion, high resolution and excellent color rendition. Compact Prime CP.2 lenses cover a full-frame 24x36 image format without vignetting, and they are based around a common aperture of T2.1 for the standard set. For additional information, visit www.zeiss.com. Panavision Panavises iPhone Panavision Inc. has launched the Panascout location-scout application for the iPhone. Panascout simulates the cinematographer’s viewpoint from a professional cinema camera and boasts an intuitive workflow allowing filmmakers to capture
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the cinematic qualities of any location and record metadata including GPS, compass heading, date/time, voice notes and a sunrise/sunset readout. “We are pleased to offer filmmakers a unique and cost-effective application that supports the specific needs of users within our industry,” says John Buccola, Panavision’s chief information officer. “Leveraging the capabilities of the iPhone with Panavision’s years of service in the film industry has resulted in a fantastic new tool for production.” Photos in the app can be framed in 2.40:1, 1.85:1, 1.78:1 and 1.33:1 aspect ratios. Panascout allows user to upload directly to Final Cut with Final Cut Server, MobileMe and SmugMug, and users can also e-mail images and metadata directly to colleagues. Panascout also lets users find Panavision suppliers anywhere in the world, purchase Panavision apparel through the Panastore, review the complete Panavision equipment reference library in the technical center and visit the online screening room in the media center. Panascout can be purchased through iTunes for $9.99. For additional information, visit www.panavision.com and www.panascout.com. Litepanels Illuminate Sola Fresnels Litepanels, a Vitec Group company, has introduced the Sola series of LED Fresnels. Offering beam control of 70 degrees to 10 degrees, the daylight-balanced Solas provide the controllability and singleshadow properties inherent in a Fresnel light while utilizing a fraction of the power of conventional fixtures. Sola Fresnels are available in three models. The Sola6 weighs 6 pounds and draws 75 watts, producing an output equivalent to a 650-watt tungsten unit. The Sola12 weighs 14 pounds and draws 250 watts, providing the equivalent output of a 2,000-watt tungsten fixture. The SolaENG is designed for both on- and off-camera mounting, measures 4"x4"x5" and weighs only 10 ounces; the fixture draws 30 watts and produces an output equivalent to a 250-watt tungsten source. Like all Litepanles, Sola Fresnels feature instant dimming from 100 percent American Cinematographer
Kodak Adds Super 8 Ektachrome Stock Kodak has introduced a new colorreversal film available in the Super 8mm format. Kodak Ektachrome 100D Color Reversal Film 7285 is a daylight-balanced 100-speed film incorporating bright, saturated colors and fine grain with excellent sharpness. “Super 8mm film is a versatile, affordable option for filmmakers who require the image quality and flexibility of film,” says Chris Johnson, product manager for Kodak’s Entertainment Imaging Division. “Kodak’s commitment to R&D continues to raise the bar for image quality. One benefit is that Super 8 is now a terrific option for students who want to hone their skills, as well as for professional filmmakers who want to craft a distinctive look for their project.” The Super 8 film format is supported by a network of laboratories. One of the leading facilities in the U.S. supporting the Super 8 format is Pro8mm in Burbank, Calif. “Our customers have been clamoring for Kodak to offer the 100D product in the Super 8 format,” says Phil Vigeant, president of Pro8mm. “The results our customers can produce with a Super 8 camera and a 50-foot cartridge of Super 8 film scanned to HD are amazing.” One of the leading facilities in Europe supporting Super 8 is WittnerCinetec. “The increased saturation of the 100D film makes colors just pop,” says company President Daniel Wittner. “We are glad to see Kodak continuing to support this important format.” For additional information, visit www.kodak.com/go/motion, www.pro8mm.com and www.wittnercinetec.com.
to 0 with no noticeable color shift. The SolaENG provides manual focus and dimming control via camera-lens-style ergonomic controls. The Sola6 and Sola12 provide on-fixture motorized control of focus and local dimming via a convenient touch screen and are also remotecontrollable via their integrated DMX interface. Output is fully flicker free and remains consistent even as the battery voltage drops. Employing Litepanels’ ultra-efficient LEDs, Solas draw significantly less power than conventional tungsten lights and generate very little heat. The fixtures have a universal AC input and can be used on any 85-245-watt power worldwide. Additionally, the SolaENG runs on 10-20 volt DC sources such as camera batteries, or it can be powered via an AC adapter. For additional information, visit www.litepanels.com. Lighting Solutions from BriteShot BriteShot Inc. has introduced a trio of lighting products for film and video productions: the Luminator 1 LED fixture, the Space Light Wrap and the Thermal Rain Blanket. Able to produce any color temperature from 2,800°K to 6,800°K with no color fringing and using only 2.5 amps of power at full intensity, the lightweight Luminator 1 boasts long life and incredibly low heat. It takes less than a minute to change lenses, taking the luminaire from spot to flood (with multiple degrees in between). The Luminator 1 is easily handheld even while turned on, and it can be controlled wirelessly. BriteShot’s Space Light Wrap utilizes a special flame-retardant material that doesn’t fray to wrap around space lights, replacing duvetyn. The long-lasting, lightweight Space Light Wrap snaps on and off easily. The weatherproof Thermal Rain Blanket has been tested to tolerate the heat emitted from an 18 or 20K fixture even when in direct contact. Each blanket
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features 8 sensibly spaced grommets for suspending the cover over a light, or to tie the blanket to the light or a frame. BriteShot also offers a special tie-down cord designed to withstand temperatures up to 1,000°F. Measuring 4'x5' and weighing less than 7 pounds, the Thermal Rain Blanket can be easily folded for storage and transportation. For additional information, visit www.briteshotinc.com. Steadicam Tango Cuts a Rug The Tiffen Co. has introduced the lightweight Steadicam Tango, providing floor-to-ceiling boom range with lateral reach, full stability, intuitive control and simple construction for use with today’s small-form-factor HD cameras. The Steadicam Tango balances and feels like a single sled carrying all components. It provides a comfortable, centered operating position even at full up/down boom. The Tango incorporates rugged, allmechanical construction and uses a conventional Steadicam sled with the 6pound Tiffen Tango extension. “There are no electronics, gyros, wiring, connectors or power-hungry components,” says ASC associate member Garrett Brown, inventor of the Steadicam. “It also has a large-aperture interior cable path for camera/CCU interconnection. With your eyes closed, it feels like a normal Steadicam.” Features of the Steadicam Tango include 9' of continuous elevation and traverse with back-pan and back-tilt; 360degree pan and +/-90-degree tilt throughout the boom range; optimum pan and tilt inertia at all times; the ability to fit the camera into small openings with full angular control; rapid conversion from Tango mode to conventional Steadicam; stability when walking, running and climbing stairs; silent operation with no servo motor noise; and ultra-rapid traverse, elevation, pan and tilt. For more information, visit www.tiffen.com.
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Matthews Shines with Hot Flags Matthews Studio Equipment has introduced Hot Flags. Designed as an alternative to previous high-temperature flags, Hot Flags allow precise cutting of light at relatively close distance to large, heatproducing HMI and tungsten fixtures. “Metal gets very hot, retains heat and takes a long time to cool off,” says Ed Phillips, owner of MSE. “Not Hot Flags. Made of a special, patented, thermal-resistant fabric, they not only dissipate heat rapidly, allowing for easier handling and faster tear-down of the lighting setup, they weigh about one-half the weight of metal
hi-temp flags.” Hot Flags come in four sizes: 18"x24", 24"x26", 48"x48" and 24"x72". For additional information, visit www.msegrip.com.
P+S Technik Goes Freestyle P+S Technik has expanded its 3D Stereo Rig product family to include the Freestyle Rig, designed in collaboration with camera operator and stereography expert Philippe Bordelais. The Freestyle Rig incorporates patented Carbon Formula One technology to deliver an ideal combination of load
can carry a wide range of professional lenses and cameras weighing up to 15.4 pounds per camera. A range of ergonomic mounting accessories are available to prepare the rig for shoulder, crane and dolly use. For additional information, visit www.pstechnik.de.
capacity, stability, form and weight. The Freestyle Rig’s construction offers maximum stiffness and dimensional stability even under heat; a lightweight, slim and compact design for mobility and portability; integrated motorization for optimal balance; and great ease of use with complete adjustability. Integrated motors for the stereo base and convergence adjustment optimize weight distribution and balance and are compatible with a number of wireless remote-control systems. The Freestyle Rig American Cinematographer
Woods Hole Shares 3-D Camera Systems The Advanced Imaging and Visualization Laboratory at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution — the world’s largest private, nonprofit ocean research, engineering and education organization — is expanding its Woods Hole Imaging Systems 3-D HD production services, making its 3-D camera rigs available to outside groups. The custom 3-D rigs have been specially designed for natural history, science, documentary and sports applications where image quality, reliability and overall equipment size are critical. Woods Hole Imaging has a proven track record of constructing ultra-small, low-power, highresolution mini 3-D camera systems capable of performing from 14,000' below sea
level to the reaches of outer space. “Our smallest 3-D camera rigs weigh in at approximately 4 pounds and can be operated by a single individual,” says William N. Lange, AIVL research specialist. “When we put a camera system in a submarine, once that sub goes down, the system just has to work. That mentality is in everything we do.” In the past five years alone, AIVL has developed over 30 ultra-small, high-resolution 3-D systems. While they have mainly been used for underwater applications, AIVL recently developed a new line of terrestrial 3-D rigs, including ones that support high-end Sony, Red and Phantom cameras. For additional information, visit www.whoi.edu.
Panther Strikes with U-Bangi II Panther has introduced the U-Bangi II, a multi-purpose horizontal tracking system for use on dollies, tripods, stands or any flat surface. The U-Bangi II includes a double Euromount and a counterweight bar, and it features newly designed end pieces with an 80mm connector. Compatible with all Panther accessories, the U-Bangi II is available in 2' 11", 4' 7", 6' 7" and 9' 10" lengths. For additional information, visit www.panther.tv. Miller’s Compass Leads the Way Miller Camera Support’s range of Compass premium fluid heads now includes the Compass 25 model with 100mm ball leveling, capable of supporting camera payloads from 8 to 30 pounds. The stylish, operator-friendly design of the Compact 25 incorporates selectable pan-and-tilt drag settings and an illumi-
Specialty Products for Film, Video, & HD Oppenheimer Camera Products’ current offerings include the OppCam Panhandle System, LCD Monitor Yoke Mounts, Arriflex 235 On-Board System, Handheld GripSets, Macro & Ultra Wide Lenses and our Angenieux & Fujinon Carry Handle Systems. We are currently developing a series of on-camera LCD Viewfinder Brackets, Support & Shoulder Mount Systems for Canon DSLR cameras, and Universal Monitor Yokes. We also create custom products for our clients. Oppenheimer Camera Products has been an innovator of elegant, practical, reliable camera accessories since 1992. Our products are used by rental houses, production companies and cameramen around the globe. We welcome your suggestions and input!
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nated bubble level while maintaining a low profile and light weight. The Compass 25 incorporates five pan-and-tilt fluid-drag settings combined with a four-position selectable counterbalance system. A quick release camera-mounting system utilizing the standard Euro camera plate — common to Miller’s Arrow range of fluid heads — allows the Compass 25 to integrate easily into existing camera-support inventories. “Both of our Compass 15 and 20 fluid-head models have been strong performers during their first year on the market,” says Grant Clementson, managing director of Miller. “With such a positive reaction for the performance and design of the new Compass range, we are pleased to now offer users with larger camera configurations the option of using our Compass 25 fluid head.” For additional information, visit www.millertripods.com.
Sachtler Updates Video Heads with S1 Models Sachtler, a Vitec Group brand, has introduced the Video 18 S1 and Video 20 S1 100mm fluid heads. Based on the fieldproven robustness and technology of Sachtler’s Video 18 and Video 20 ENG/EFP heads, the S1 models provide a wider payload range and lower minimum 88
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MYT Works Rolls Out 3 in 1 Dolly MYT Works has released the MYT 3 in 1, a patent-pending dolly system delivering ease-of-use, versatility and near-limitless mounting options. Considerably reducing setup time, the 3 in 1 allows for impromptu dolly moves and static shots. Users can dolly the camera on the MYT Glide, switch to a static shot with the MYT Hi-Hat and revert back to tracking using the MYT Skate without ever having to dismount the camera. MYT Works owns and operates its
own shop in Brooklyn, NY, complete with a state-of-the-art CNC milling machine. The MYT 3 in 1 is a made-to-order dolly glider, custom designed to fit the needs of any
payload, making them ideal for a variety of camera systems, from heavily accessorized newsgathering camcorders to lightweight DSLRs. The Video 18 S1 and Video 20 S1 offer expanded 16-step counterbalance to enable extremely fine center-of-gravity adjustment for a wide range of camera payloads. Both heads can accommodate cameras as lightweight as 4.4 pounds, and both feature a Boost Button that instantly expands the payload range upward when working with heavier systems; the Video 18 S1 can handle up to 33 pounds regularly and 39.6 pounds in Boost mode, while the 20 S1 can handle up to 39 pounds regularly and 55 pounds in Boost mode. The S1 heads feature Sachtler’s Speedbalance technology, an ergonomically designed counterbalance knob, storage positions for spare camera screws and seven steps of drag for both pan and tilt. A newly designed self-illuminating Touch Bubble requires only one battery, and the Touch & Go camera-attachment plate features tap holes for the viewfinder extension adapter. For additional information, visit www.sachtler.us.
Petrol’s Cambio Supports, Protects Petrol Bags has introduced the Cambio convertible equipment bag/camerasupport system. A carry-on sized smoothrolling camera carrier, the Cambio transforms into a lightweight support system for small video camcorders, allowing users to travel lighter and set up quickly. The Cambio features an ultra-wide U-shaped opening for quick and easy access. The main compartment offers ample
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production. Etienne Sauret, CEO of MYT Works, says, “The MYT family of Gliders was designed and built strictly from a filmmaker’s point of view, and every facet and function reflects a desire to build one multipurpose integrated system that [can] satisfy the most demanding of professionals.” The MYT 3 in 1 sells for a base price of $950 with the option to upgrade and customize additional features. For more information, visit www.mytworks.com.
room for a camera, tripod head and important accessories, and twin straps of hookand-loop material anchor the bag’s front flap in an open position when inserting and removing the camera or converting to the support system. Additionally, Petrol’s proprietary sliding pipe system (SPS) secures the camera and keeps it in place within the bag’s interior, which is fully padded for maximum protection. Within the Cambio is an expandable (up to 56"), rigid, nickel-plated center steel column, which can accommodate cameras weighing up to 9.9 pounds. Cast magnesium lever clamps ensure fast and secure column adjustment. The bag is also equipped with a patent-pending frame and axle support trolley with integral handle and camera platform, which features a 75mm ball head-mount adapter. An optional lightweight micro fluid head allows for quick attachment and conventional pan and tilt movements. The freestanding Cambio is braced by a self-latching extendable aluminum double-bar tube leg; the leg expands and retracts quickly and easily with just the touch of the leg’s latch paddle. When using the support system, Cambio’s patented heavy-duty jitter-free wheels and axle can be chocked to prevent rotation, adding extra stability. Additional features include an open side pocket, front and side pockets, an exterior zippered front pocket with a personal organizer, removable grid internal dividers for custom configuration and polypropylene-injected legs that lift and safeguard the bottom of the bag from damage and adverse elements such as dirt and water. The suggested list price for the Cambio is $699 for the bag alone or $799 for the full system, which includes the CMH Cambio Micro Head. For more information, visit www.petrolbags.com. K-Tek Intros Norbert K-Tek has introduced the Norbert Camera Mounting System, a solid foundation for the latest generation of video-capable DSLRs and HD video cameras. The flexible system has mounting options for both tripod and handheld use, and its lightweight, machined-aluminum base frame can be used to mount a variety of produc-
tion tools, including external viewfinders and monitors, light sources, audio recorders and microphones. At the core of the Norbert is the machined-aluminum base frame, with 23 standard-dimension hot-shoe mounts and numerous drill holes throughout for nearlimitless flexibility when mounting accessories. The base includes a 1⁄4-20 tripod screw mount with quick-release plate, making camera-battery changes fast and simple. To accommodate numerous camera types, including DSLRs with attached battery grips, K-Tek offers an offset base plate. Mounting to the base frame via its own quick-release plate, the offset base plate effectively moves the camera back from the frame. K-Tek also offers a dualhandle kit for smooth and comfortable handheld shooting. The handle can be mounted in two orientations, holding the Norbert either from the bottom or the top. For more information, visit www.ktekbooms.com. Ikan Takes Elements into 3rd Dimension Ikan has expanded its Elements line with the Stereoscope configuration, a lightweight, portable solution for those needing a 3-D camera setup. The Stereoscope is upgradable, customizable and collaborative with other Ikan Elements products. Designed for use with prosumer and
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professional-grade camcorders and HDSLRs, the Stereoscope incorporates two 15mm rails over which the camera mounts smoothly glide. The system boasts extremely durable, lightweight, anodizedaluminum construction, and it can be mounted to tripods and jib arms or operated handheld via other Elements components. Additionally, the Stereoscope weighs only 3 pounds, making it extremely easy to transport. The Stereoscope sells for a recommended price of $399. For more information, visit www.ikancorp.com. 16x9 Supports Noga Griffin Arm 16x9 Inc. has unveiled the Noga Griffin Arm, which is designed to hold lights, small cameras or monitors, and any other production accessory requiring an extended articulation mount. At the heart of the Griffin Arm is the Flip-lever safety catch, which quickly and easily locks and releases all three of the arm’s articulated joints at once. The arm features variable-friction load adjustment, and when locked, there is no play in either the lever or any of the arm joints. Made up of two equal-length arms and three articulating joints, the Griffin Arm’s overall length is 22"; at full extension, the arm can support up to 10 pounds. The versatile arm can be mounted on a light stand or anywhere else with a grip clamp. Each arm has an industry-standard 5⁄8 pin threaded at one end in 1⁄4-20 and at the other in 3⁄8-16 for additional mounting options. The Noga Griffin Arm has a recommended price of $190. For more information, visit www.16x9inc.com. Anton/Bauer Powers Dionic HCX Batteries Anton/Bauer, a Vitec Group brand, has introduced the Dionic HCX battery. The latest addition to the company’s successful Dionic series of high-current batteries, the Dionic HCX offers a 120 watt-hour capacity and a brand-new motion-detection sensor that protects against capacity loss. After a two-week period without a load, the Dionic HCX automatically goes into “deep sleep,” significantly reducing self-discharge and allowing extended stor-
New age with nearly zero capacity loss. To “awaken” the battery for normal use, users need only move the battery, activating the motion-detection feature, which significantly increases the overall life of the battery by mitigating lithium-ion battery selfdischarge. Anton/Bauer also plans to integrate the HCX with the Anton/Bauer Battery Management System, which will allow users to program the inactivity time length prior to the battery going to sleep. “We’ve spent many years innovating new, powerful and advanced solutions for our customers, so it’s no surprise that we’re debuting one of our most exciting product developments during our 40th-anniversary year,” says Michael Accardi, president of Anton/Bauer. “With the addition of the Dionic HCX, we now have more solutions than ever for our customers, across many different battery chemistries. Whether our users are looking for a powerful NiCad, lithium-ion or nickel metal hydride solution, they know they can count on us to equip them with the best solutions for their needs, and that we’ll be there to help them make the smartest choice.” Weighing 2.4 pounds and measuring 5.47"x4.06"x3", the Dionic HCX is capable of withstanding high instantaneous current draws in addition to 10-amp sustained current draws. The Dionic HCX can power a 40-watt camera with a 20-watt light for over two hours. The battery also offers an enhanced LCD RealTime fuel gauge, allowing users to quickly and easily check their run time, with the display showing up to nine hours of run time when used under low-power load conditions. The new LCD display clearly indicates remaining run time and battery capacity, showing the number of hours available with a seven-segment display surrounded by arcs indicating 15minute intervals. A battery “gas gauge” indicator also shows remaining capacity in 20-percent intervals underneath the remaining run-time indicators. The Dionic HCX registers under the 160-watt capacity prohibited for air travel, allowing users to bring up to two HCX batteries on board both domestic and international airlines. For additional information, visit www.antonbauer.com. ●
longer: 8,26 m / 22 ft lighter: 79 kg / 174 lbs faster: 1,5 m/s / 5 ft/s camera max.: 13 kg / 30lbs
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Advertiser’s Index 16x9, Inc. 92 Abel Cine Tech 7 AC 22, 94 Aja Video Systems, Inc. 27 Alan Gordon Enterprises 93 Arri 35 ASC 1 AZGrip 92 Backstage Equipment, Inc. 83 Band Pro Film & Digital 5 Barger-Lite 85 Bron Imaging Group/Kobold 23 Burrell Enterprises 92 Camera Essentials 93 Cavision Enterprises 59 Chapman/Leonard Studio Equipment Inc. 61 Chimera 67 Cine Gear 95 Cinematography Electronics 85 Cinekinetic 92 Cinerover 92 Clairmont Film & Digital 17 Convergent Design 40 Cooke Optics 6 Dell 9 Deluxe 49 Denecke 93 Eastman Kodak 13, C4 EFD USA, Inc. 57
Film Gear 89 Filmotechnic 6 Filmtools 83 FTC West 92 Fuji Motion Picture 47 Gekko 76 Gemini 4 Glidecam Industries 19 Grip Factory Munich/GFM 85 Hydroflex 91 Innoventive Software 83 Innovision 92 J.L. Fisher 25 JEM Studio Lighting 90 K5600 15 Kino Flo 29 Koerner Camera 81 Laffoux Solutions, Inc. 92 Lee Filters 71 Lensrentals.com 90 Lights! Action! Co. 92 Litegear 6 Los Angeles Film Festival 79 Maine Media Workshops 81 Matthews Studio Equipment 93 Mole-Richardson 50, 92, 93 Movie Tech AG 93 MP&E Mayo Productions 93 MSM 4 Nalpak 93 New York Film Academy 11 Nila 63
P+S Technik 14 Panther Gmbh 51 PED Denz 41, 93 Photon Beard 93 Pille Film Gmbh 93 Powermills 39 Pro8mm 92 Production Resource Group 75 PRO-A 89 Reel FX 89 Rag Place, The 77 Rosco Laboratories, Inc. 70 Schneider Optics 2 Service Vision 28 Shelton Communications 93 Siggraph 73 Sim Video 69 Sony Electronics C2 Stanton Video Services 87 S.Two 21 Super16 Inc. 92 Technocrane 91 Telescopic, LLC 94 Thales Angenieux 37 Tiffen C3 Transvideo International 62 VF Gadgets, Inc. 93 Viking Power Systems 94 Visual Products 77 Welch Integrated 99 Willy’s Widgets 92 www.theasc.com 76, 91 Zacuto Films 93
Oppenheimer Camera Prod. 87, 92
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June 4-5, Expo and Premier Seminars June 3-5, The Film Series & Competition June 6, Master Class Seminars The Studios at Paramount, Hollywood, CA phone: 310.472.0809 fax: 310.471.8973 email:
[email protected]
www.cinegearexpo.com
American Society of Cinematographers Roster OFFICERS – 2009-’10 Michael Goi, President Richard Crudo, Vice President Owen Roizman, Vice President Victor J. Kemper, Vice President Matthew Leonetti, Treasurer Rodney Taylor, Secretary John C. Flinn III, Sergeant-at-Arms MEMBERS OF THE BOARD Curtis Clark Richard Crudo George Spiro Dibie Richard Edlund John C. Flinn III John Hora Victor J. Kemper Matthew Leonetti Stephen Lighthill Isidore Mankofsky Daryn Okada Owen Roizman Nancy Schreiber Haskell Wexler Vilmos Zsigmond ALTERNATES Fred Elmes Steven Fierberg Ron Garcia Michael D. O’Shea Michael Negrin
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ACTIVE MEMBERS Thomas Ackerman Lance Acord Lloyd Ahern II Herbert Alpert Russ Alsobrook Howard A. Anderson III Howard A. Anderson Jr. James Anderson Peter Anderson Tony Askins Charles Austin Christopher Baffa James Bagdonas King Baggot John Bailey Michael Ballhaus Andrzej Bartkowiak John Bartley Bojan Bazelli Frank Beascoechea Affonso Beato Mat Beck Dion Beebe Bill Bennett Andres Berenguer Carl Berger Gabriel Beristain Steven Bernstein Ross Berryman Michael Bonvillain Richard Bowen David Boyd Russell Boyd Jonathan Brown Don Burgess Stephen H. Burum Bill Butler Frank B. Byers Bobby Byrne Antonio Calvache Paul Cameron Russell P. Carpenter James L. Carter Alan Caso Michael Chapman Rodney Charters James A. Chressanthis Joan Churchill Curtis Clark Peter L. Collister Jack Cooperman Jack Couffer Vincent G. Cox Jeff Cronenweth Richard Crudo Dean R. Cundey Stefan Czapsky David Darby Allen Daviau Roger Deakins
Jan DeBont Thomas Del Ruth Bruno Delbonnel Peter Deming Jim Denault Caleb Deschanel Ron Dexter Craig Di Bona George Spiro Dibie Ernest Dickerson Billy Dickson Bill Dill Stuart Dryburgh Bert Dunk Lex DuPont John Dykstra Richard Edlund Frederick Elmes Robert Elswit Geoffrey Erb Scott Farrar Jon Fauer Don E. FauntLeRoy Gerald Feil Steven Fierberg Gerald Perry Finnerman Mauro Fiore John C. Flinn III Ron Fortunato William A. Fraker Tak Fujimoto Alex Funke Steve Gainer Ron Garcia Dejan Georgevich Michael Goi Stephen Goldblatt Paul Goldsmith Frederic Goodich Victor Goss Jack Green Adam Greenberg Robbie Greenberg Xavier Perez Grobet Alexander Gruszynski Changwei Gu Rick Gunter Rob Hahn Gerald Hirschfeld Henner Hofmann Adam Holender Ernie Holzman John C. Hora Tom Houghton Gil Hubbs Michel Hugo Shane Hurlbut Tom Hurwitz Judy Irola Mark Irwin Levie Isaacks
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Andrew Jackson Peter James Johnny E. Jensen Torben Johnke Frank Johnson Shelly Johnson Jeffrey Jur William K. Jurgensen Adam Kane Stephen M. Katz Ken Kelsch Victor J. Kemper Wayne Kennan Francis Kenny Glenn Kershaw Darius Khondji Gary Kibbe Jan Kiesser Jeffrey L. Kimball Adam Kimmel Alar Kivilo David Klein Richard Kline George Koblasa Fred J. Koenekamp Lajos Koltai Pete Kozachik Neil Krepela Willy Kurant Ellen M. Kuras George La Fountaine Edward Lachman Ken Lamkin Jacek Laskus Andrew Laszlo Denis Lenoir John R. Leonetti Matthew Leonetti Andrew Lesnie Peter Levy Matthew Libatique Charlie Lieberman Stephen Lighthill Karl Walter Lindenlaub John Lindley Robert F. Liu Walt Lloyd Bruce Logan Gordon Lonsdale Emmanuel Lubezki Julio G. Macat Glen MacPherson Constantine Makris Denis Maloney Isidore Mankofsky Christopher Manley Michael D. Margulies Barry Markowitz Steve Mason Clark Mathis Don McAlpine
Don McCuaig Seamus McGarvey Robert McLachlan Geary McLeod Greg McMurry Steve McNutt Terry K. Meade Suki Medencevic Chris Menges Rexford Metz Anastas Michos Douglas Milsome Dan Mindel Charles Minsky Claudio Miranda Donald A. Morgan Donald M. Morgan Kramer Morgenthau M. David Mullen Dennis Muren Fred Murphy Hiro Narita Guillermo Navarro Michael B. Negrin Sol Negrin Bill Neil Alex Nepomniaschy John Newby Yuri Neyman Sam Nicholson Crescenzo Notarile David B. Nowell Rene Ohashi Daryn Okada Thomas Olgeirsson Woody Omens Miroslav Ondricek Michael D. O’Shea Anthony Palmieri Phedon Papamichael Daniel Pearl Edward J. Pei James Pergola Don Peterman Lowell Peterson Wally Pfister Gene Polito Bill Pope Steven Poster Tom Priestley Jr. Rodrigo Prieto Robert Primes Frank Prinzi Richard Quinlan Declan Quinn Earl Rath Richard Rawlings Jr. Frank Raymond Tami Reiker Robert Richardson Anthony B. Richmond
J U N E
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Bill Roe Owen Roizman Pete Romano Charles Rosher Jr. Giuseppe Rotunno Philippe Rousselot Juan Ruiz-Anchia Marvin Rush Paul Ryan Eric Saarinen Alik Sakharov Mikael Salomon Harris Savides Roberto Schaefer Tobias Schliessler Aaron Schneider Nancy Schreiber Fred Schuler John Schwartzman John Seale Christian Sebaldt Dean Semler Eduardo Serra Steven Shaw Richard Shore Newton Thomas Sigel John Simmons Sandi Sissel Bradley B. Six Dennis L. Smith Roland “Ozzie” Smith Reed Smoot Bing Sokolsky Peter Sova Dante Spinotti Terry Stacey Robert Steadman Ueli Steiger Peter Stein Robert M. Stevens Tom Stern Rogier Stoffers Vittorio Storaro Harry Stradling Jr. David Stump Tim Suhrstedt Peter Suschitzky Alfred Taylor Jonathan Taylor Rodney Taylor William Taylor Don Thorin John Toll Mario Tosi Salvatore Totino Luciano Tovoli Jost Vacano Theo Van de Sande Eric Van Haren Noman Kees Van Oostrum Ron Vargas
Mark Vargo Amelia Vincent William Wages Roy H. Wagner Ric Waite Michael Watkins Jonathan West Haskell Wexler Jack Whitman Gordon Willis Dariusz Wolski Ralph Woolsey Peter Wunstorf Robert Yeoman Richard Yuricich Jerzy Zielinski Vilmos Zsigmond Kenneth Zunder ASSOCIATE MEMBERS Alan Albert Richard Aschman Volker Bahnemann Kay Baker Joseph J. Ball Amnon Band Carly M. Barber Craig Barron Thomas M. Barron Larry Barton Bob Beitcher Mark Bender Bruce Berke Bob Bianco John Bickford Steven A. Blakely Mitchell Bogdanowicz Jack Bonura Michael Bravin William Brodersen Garrett Brown Ronald D. Burdett Reid Burns Vincent Carabello Jim Carter Leonard Chapman Mark Chiolis Denny Clairmont Adam Clark Cary Clayton Sean Coughlin Robert B. Creamer Grover Crisp Daniel Curry Ross Danielson Carlos D. DeMattos Gary Demos Richard Di Bona Kevin Dillon David Dodson Judith Doherty
Cyril Drabinsky Jesse Dylan Jonathan Erland John Farrand Ray Feeney William Feightner Phil Feiner Jimmy Fisher Scott Fleischer Thomas Fletcher Salvatore Giarratano Richard B. Glickman John A. Gresch Jim Hannafin William Hansard Bill Hansard, Jr. Richard Hart Robert Harvey Charles Herzfeld Larry Hezzelwood Frieder Hochheim Bob Hoffman Vinny Hogan Cliff Hsui Robert C. Hummel Roy Isaia George Joblove Joel Johnson John Johnston Marker Karahadian Frank Kay Debbie Kennard Milton Keslow Robert Keslow Larry Kingen Douglas Kirkland Timothy J. Knapp Ron Koch Karl Kresser Doug Leighton Lou Levinson Suzanne Lezotte Grant Loucks Howard Lukk Andy Maltz Steven E. Manios Robert Mastronardi Joe Matza Albert Mayer, Jr. Bill McDonald Andy McIntyre Stan Miller Walter H. Mills George Milton Mike Mimaki Rami Mina Michael Morelli Dash Morrison Nolan Murdock Dan Muscarella Iain A. Neil www.theasc.com
Otto Nemenz Ernst Nettmann Tony Ngai Mickel Niehenke Marty Oppenheimer Walt Ordway Michael Parker Warren Parker Doug Pentek Kristin Petrovich Ed Phillips Nick Phillips Jerry Pierce Joshua Pines Carl Porcello Howard Preston David Pringle Phil Radin Christopher Reyna Colin Ritchie Eric G. Rodli Daniel Rosen Dana Ross Bill Russell Kish Sadhvani David Samuelson Peter K. Schnitzler Walter Schonfeld Juergen Schwinzer Ronald Scott Steven Scott Don Shapiro Milton R. Shefter Leon Silverman Garrett Smith Stefan Sonnenfeld John L. Sprung Joseph N. Tawil Ira Tiffen Arthur Tostado Bill Turner Stephan Ukas-Bradley Mark Van Horne Richard Vetter Joe Violante Dedo Weigert Franz Weiser Evans Wetmore Beverly Wood Jan Yarbrough Hoyt Yeatman Irwin M. Young Michael Zacharia Bob Zahn Nazir Zaidi Michael Zakula Les Zellan
HONORARY MEMBERS Col. Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. Neil A. Armstrong Col. Michael Collins Bob Fisher David MacDonald Cpt. Bruce McCandless II Larry Parker D. Brian Spruill
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Clubhouse News
Top: John Bailey, ASC. Middle, left to right: Daryn Okada, ASC; visual-effects editor Mark Herman; colorist Dave Cole; visual-effects supervisor Bryan Hirota; digital-imaging consultant Mike Inchalik; and AC associate editor Jon D. Witmer. Bottom: Nancy Schreiber, ASC and cinematographer Jared Abrams.
Bailey in Residence at UCLA, Judges Student Competition John Bailey, ASC has been named the Kodak Cinematographer-in-Residence for the spring quarter at the University of California-Los Angeles’ School of Theater, Film and Television. With Kodak’s support, the residency program was inaugurated 11 years ago by UCLA professor and ASC associate member William McDonald. Bailey’s program began with a screening of Paul Schrader’s Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, 98
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Society Doubles Down at NAB ASC members participated in a number of panels at this year’s National Association of Broadcasters conference in Las Vegas. Society President Michael Goi, ASC joined Curtis Clark, ASC; David Stump, ASC; and producers Michael Manheim and Nick Abdo for “PGA/ASC Camera Assessment Series: Illuminating Digital Cinema Cameras and Digital Cinematography,” moderated by producer Lori McCreary. Daryn Okada, ASC; visualeffects supervisor Bryan Hirota; colorist Dave Cole; visual-effects editor Mark Herman; and digital-imaging consultant Mike Inchalik participated in “Taming the Wild, Wild West of Digital Filmmaking,” moderated by AC associate editor Jon D. Witmer. Rodney Charters, ASC and Steven Poster, ASC joined producer Jason Clark, digital-imaging technician Lewis Rothenberg and associate member Andy Romanoff for “The 21st Century Camera Crew and How it Works,” moderated by journalist David Geffner. Michael Bonvillain, ASC joined director Ruben Fleischer, production designer Maher Ahmad and visual-effects supervisor Paul Linden to discuss “Big Idea, Small Budget: Zombieland’s Production Innovations,” moderated by journalist Josh Dickey. ASC, AC at ShowBiz Expo At the recent ShowBiz Expo in Los Angeles, Society members Frederic Goodich, Francis Kenny, Geary McLeod and George Mooradian participated in the American Cinematographer
panel “Acting: The View from Behind the Camera,” moderated by AC contributing writer Stephanie Argy. The conversation focused on the relationship between actors and cinematographers, with the panelists discussing on-set etiquette, building trust with actors and working with actor/directors. AC contributing writer Jay Holben moderated the “Seeing Red” panel, which focused on working with the Red One. Panelists included cinematographer/AC technical editor Christopher Probst, cinematographers Ryan McNeely and Al Satterwhite, Red Digital Cinema’s Jon Sagud and Keslow Camera’s Brad Wilson. Schreiber Goes Beyond Still Nancy Schreiber, ASC has been selected to lead a series of “Beyond the Still” Canon EOS Moving Image workshops. Produced by Createasphere in cooperation with Canon’s Live Learning program, the workshops will enable hands-on learning, interaction with experts and mentored shoots, offering a detailed overview of capturing video with Canon’s EOS DSLR cameras. ASC associate member Kristin Petrovich Kennedy, president of Createasphere, notes, “HDSLR technology is part of a growing number of creative conversations for image makers, and as that interest has grown, the need for high-quality, expert training has grown along with it. We are looking forward to working with our colleagues at Canon to present a workshop that is of real value to students, [and] we are thrilled to have Nancy with us to debut the EOS Moving Image workshop.” For additional information, visit www.usa.canon.com/canonlivelearning. Canon Salutes Explorers of Light Canon U.S.A. Inc. has named Society members Russell Carpenter, Rodney Charters, Shane Hurlbut and Crescenzo Notarile “Explorers of Light.” The program recognizes imaging professionals who serve as ambassadors for Canon products. Cinematographer Alex Buono and still photographer Damian Strohmeyer were also added to the group. ●
Photo of ASC Clubhouse by Isidore and Chris Mankofsky. Photo of John Bailey, ASC by Bob Primes, ASC. NAB photo courtesy of NAB.
after which McDonald interviewed Bailey about his work on the picture. The following week, Bailey screened Mike van Diem’s Karakter, shot by Rogier Stoffers, ASC, NSC, and then discussed the film with Stoffers. Also, Bailey has been selected for the second consecutive year to judge the regional entries of the 2010 Kodak Film School Competition. The competition is designed to recognize the work of current students and recent graduates in the Asia Pacific region, Latin America, United States/Canada and Europe.
Rafael Puentes, Rafael Mayoral-Parracia, Christopher Graham and Tim Hardy at the RED production workshop in NYC
Hands-On Workshops and Networking Events New Two-Day RED Production Workshop with Jon Firestone • July 24-25, 2010 in New York City • August 21-22, 2010 in London, UK For Program Details and Registration, visit: www.studentfilmmakers.com/workshops
Never Stop Learning. Never Stop Networking.
John Schwartzman, ASC
When you were a child, what film made the strongest impression on you? I grew up in Hollywood, and my father was one of the first entertainment attorneys in the business during the 1960s and 1970s — a very exciting time in American cinema. As a high-school student, I worked for Hal Ashby during the summer, and he showed me a rough cut of Coming Home (1978). It was an epiphany; it opened my eyes to the power of film. Which cinematographers, past or present, do you most admire? ASC members Gregg Toland, Vittorio Storaro, Gordon Willis and Robert Richardson, and a thousand others.
The result was an unmemorable film, but it was the start of a career for a young cinematographer. What has been your most satisfying moment on a project? Getting hired! Every film has its satisfying moments; they’re usually things that are very personal or little things that worked that you weren’t sure would work. One of my favorites: Running out of the dugout with Dennis Quaid and a Steadicam during a real Texas Rangers baseball game in front of 40,000 people (for The Rookie). Even Dennis was nervous. Have you made any memorable blunders? My career is made of memorable blunders. Fortunately, a ‘blunder’ in 1997 is a ‘style’ in 2001 and a ‘work of genius’ in 2010.
What sparked your interest in photography? My first experience in a black-and-white darkroom at Talking Tree Ranch summer camp in Malibu Canyon, 1965, and riding on a Titan Crane with Laszlo Kovacs, ASC, as a 10-year-old.
What is the best professional advice you’ve ever received? From my grandfather, Carmine Coppola: What you do with your non-working time is more important than what you do with your working time.
Where did you train and/or study? I studied fine art at the Oakwood School, which led to work-study for high-school students at Art Center College of Design. The most profound experiences were with a Chinese Art teacher while on ‘Semester at Sea’ during college, and, of course, at USC film school. Who were your early teachers or mentors? The man who taught me to believe in my own work was Vittorio Storaro, whom I pestered throughout the making of Tucker: A Man and His Dream. I was hired to shoot EPK footage but used the job to get unique access to one of the most important cinematographers in the history of cinema. What are some of your key artistic influences? As a kid, Norman Rockwell; as a teenager, Eugene Smith and Ernst Haas; in my 20s, Gregg Toland and James Wong Howe, ASC. And, of course, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Russell Chatham and all the other great painters in museums around the world. How did you get your first break in the business? After film school, I shot a short film for a writer who wanted to direct, and he promised me that if the short became a feature, he would hire me to shoot it. When it became a feature, the completion-bond company wouldn’t approve a first-time director and a first-time director of photography. I asked Peter Collister, who wasn’t in the ASC at the time, to co-shoot the movie with me because he was ‘bondable.’ He did the most altruistic thing anyone has done for me and said yes.
100
June 2010
What recent books, films or artworks have inspired you? At 50, I can barely remember if I had oatmeal or bacon and eggs for breakfast, but, seriously, I was inspired by the Mark Rothko Chapel at the Tate Modern, and the National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian, which I had the fortune of shooting. Do you have any favorite genres, or genres you would like to try? The next one I get to try. I am a cinematographer, and I would like to think I can do them all. If you weren’t a cinematographer, what might you be doing instead? A sommelier. Being a wine expert has its perks. Which ASC cinematographers recommended you for membership? Allen Daviau, John Toll and Caleb Deschanel. How has ASC membership impacted your life and career? It’s a great honor to be selected to become a member of the oldest fraternal organization in Hollywood. Winning the ASC Award from my peers, people who understand the daily rigors of cinematography, is the highest honor a cinematographer can get. Also, the ASC is the only place where we cinematographers get to see each other. ●
American Cinematographer
Photo by Deana Newcomb.
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