VisionARRI Magazine Issue 14

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12/12 ISSUE 14

VisionARRI

The Biannual International Magazine from the ARRI RENTAL & POSTPRODUCTION ENTERPRISES

Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC, discusses shooting with ALEXA Studio cameras on the new James Bond film

Cloud Atlas Interview with filmmakers Lana and Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer

Les Misérables

Danny Cohen, BSC, on filming Tom Hooper’s big screen adaptation of the global stage sensation

Master Anamorphics

New ARRI/ZEISS Master Anamorphic lenses: the future of widescreen

ARRI M90/60

Lensless MAX Technology in a whole new 9K power class

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ARRI SERVICES GROUP NETWORK ARRI SUBSIDIARIES AUSTRALIA ARRI Australia, Sydney Cameras Stefan Sedlmeier T +61 2 9855 4300 ssedlmeier@arri.com.au AUSTRIA ARRI Rental Vienna Cameras Andreas Buchschachner T +43 189 201 07 18 rental@arri.at

ARRI Mitte, Berlin Motion Graphics, DI, 3D Wolf Bosse T +49 30 726 267 0 wbosse@arri.de ARRI Film & TV Services, Cologne DI, TV Postproduction, Sound Markus Klaff T +49 221 57165 120 mklaff@arri.de ARRI Film & TV Services, Halle (Saale) Digital Dailies, DI, TV Postproduction, VFX, Sound Steffen Scheid T +49 345 68 58 68 71 sscheid@arri.de

USA ARRI CSC, New Jersey Cameras, Lighting, Grip Hardwrick Johnson, Lynn Gustafson T +1 212 757 0906 hjohnson@arricsc.com gus@arricsc.com

INDIA Anand Cine Service, Chennai Cameras, Lighting, Grip, Film Lab, DI Tarun Kumar T: +91 44 4598 0101 contact@anandcine.com

ARRI CSC, Florida Cameras, Lighting, Grip Ed Stamm T +1 954 322 4545 estamm@arricsc.com

JAPAN NAC Image Technology, Tokyo Cameras Tomofumi Masuda Hiromi Shindome T +81 3 5211 7960 masuda@camnac.co.jp

Illumination Dynamics, LA Lighting, Grip Carly Barber, Maria Carpenter T +1 818 686 6400 carly@illuminationdynamics.com NEW ZEALAND maria@illuminationdynamics.com Camera Tech, Wellington Schwarz Film, Ludwigsburg Cameras Illumination Dynamics, Film Lab, DI, TV Postproduction North Carolina, GERMANY Peter Fleming Alexander Barthel T +64 4562 8814 Cameras, Lighting, Grip ARRI Rental Berlin T +49 89 3809 1594 cameratech@xtra.co.nz Cameras, Lighting, Grip Jeff Pentek abarthel@arri.de T +1 704 679 9400 Ute Baron Xytech Technologies, jeff@illuminationdynamics.com Auckland T +49 30 346 800 0 HUNGARY ubaron@arri.de Lighting ARRI Rental Budapest Stephen Pryor ARRI Rental Cologne Cameras, Grip ARRI PARTNERS T +64 9 377 99 85 Cameras, Lighting, Grip Clemens Danzer stephenp@xytech.co.nz Stefan Martini T +36 1 5500 420 AUSTRALIA T +49 221 170 6724 cdanzer@arri.de ROMANIA Cameraquip, smartini@arri.de Melbourne, Brisbane Panalight Studio, Bucharest LUXEMBOURG ARRI Rental Hamburg Cameras Cameras, Lighting, Grip ARRI Rental Luxembourg Cameras, Lighting, Grip Malcolm Richards Diana Apostol Cameras Martin Fischer T +61 3 9699 3922 T +40 727 358 304 Steffen Ditter T +49 40 8080 486 0 T +61 7 3844 9577 office@panalight.ro T +352 2670 1270 mfischer2@arri.de rentals@cameraquip.com.au sditter@arri.de SOUTH AFRICA ARRI Rental Leipzig CYPRUS Cameras, Lighting, Grip Media Film Service, UNITED KINGDOM Seahorse Films, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Annerose Schulze ARRI Lighting Rental, Nicosia, Paphos Durban, Namibia T + 49 341 3500 3561 London Cameras, Lighting, Cameras, Lighting, aschulze@arri.de Lighting Grip, Studio Grip, Studio ARRI Rental Munich Tommy Moran Andros Achilleos Jannie van Wyk Cameras, Lighting, Grip T +44 1895 457 200 T +357 9967 5013 T +27 21 511 3300 tmoran@arrirental.com Thomas Loher andros@seahorsefilms.com jannie@mediafilmservice.com T +49 89 3809 1440 ARRI Focus, London tloher@arri.de GERMANY UNITED ARAB EMIRATES Short term lighting hire for commercials & promos ARRI Film & TV Services, Maddel’s Cameras, Filmquip Media, Dubai Munich Cameras, Lighting, Grip Martin Maund, George Martin Hamburg Film Lab, DI, TV Postproduction, T +44 1895 810 000 Cameras, Grip Anthony Smythe, Aaron VFX, Sound, Studio, Cinema martin@arrifocus.com Matthias Neumann Hughes george@arrifocus.com Angela Reedwisch T +49 40 66 86 390 T +971 4 439 0610 T +49 89 3809 1574 info@maddels.com ant.smythe@filmquipmedia.co ARRI Media, London areedwisch@arri.de m aaron@filmquipmedia.com Cameras, Grip HUNGARY ARRI Film & TV Services, Russell Allen VisionTeam L.O., Budapest Berlin T +44 1895 457 100 Cameras, Lighting, Grip Film Lab, DI, TV Postproduction, rallen@arrimedia.com VFX, Sound Gabor Rajna ARRI Crew, London T +36 1 433 3911 Mandy Rahn Diary Service info@visionteam-lo.hu T +49 30 408 17 8534 Kate Collier mrahn@arri.de T +44 1895 457 180 ICELAND arricrew@arrimedia.com Pegasus Pictures, Reykjavik Cameras, Lighting, Grip Snorri Thorisson T +354 414 2000 snorri@pegasus.is CZECH REPUBLIC ARRI Rental Prague Cameras, Lighting, Grip Mirek Obrman T +420 234 707 502 mobrman@arri.de

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VISIONARRI

4 ALEXA MEETS BOND

14 DREAMING THE DREAM

Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC, on shooting the latest Bond instalment with ALEXA Studio cameras

Danny Cohen, BSC, talks about filming the highly-anticipated big screen adaptation of Les Misérables

8 CLOUD ATLAS

18 A NEW ERA FOR ANAMORPHIC

The Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer discuss their epic science fiction film

New ARRI/ZEISS Master Anamorphic lenses

12 CLOUD ATLAS:

20 RUBINOT

A PRODUCERS PERSPECTIVE

ARRI creates VFX for eagerly awaited screen adaptation of popular teen fantasy novel

Stefan Arndt discusses producing Cloud Atlas and working with ARRI

23 ALEXA: LATEST NEWS

Software Update Packet (SUP) 7.0

CONTENTS

24 THE SMALLEST BIGGEST LIGHT ON SET

ARRI M90/60: a new fixture with MAX Technology

26 THE BLETCHLEY CIRCLE

John Pardue sets the tone for a period crime drama with ALEXA

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28 MOVING IMAGES IN

THREE-DIMENSIONAL SPACE ARRI Commercial and partner lucie_p on creating moving images for the world of brand communication

32 INNOCENCE

Low-budget vampire feature adopts on-set system to deliver same-day dailies

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34 BRIGHTER COOLER SMALLER Latest additions to the LED-based L-Series

35 GO WIRELESS

New Wireless Remote System components

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36 ARRI MEDIA SERVICES: PROJECTS & PEOPLE

46 PRODUCTION UPDATE

VisionARRI would like to thank the following contributors: Susanne Bieger, Mark Hope-Jones, Ingo Klingspon, Wendy Mattock, Judith Petty Angela Reedwisch, Jürgen Schopper, Michelle Smith, Brigitte Wehner, Sabine Welte Front Cover Photo: SKYFALL © 2012 Danjaq, United Artists, CPII. 007 and related James Bond Trademarks,TM Danjaq.

SKYFALL Š 2012 Danjaq, United Artists, CPII. 007 and related James Bond Trademarks, TM Danjaq.

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VISIONARRI

ALEXA MEETS BOND Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC, shoots with prototype ALEXA Studio cameras on the new James Bond film Skyfall, the new James Bond film, is already setting box office records after debuting in 25 markets; in the UK it enjoyed the best ever opening weekend for a Bond movie, taking more than $32 million.

The decision to make Skyfall the first in the franchise to be released in IMAX theaters has already proved hugely successful – it took $3.5 million in 79 locations over 15 territories, averaging $45,000 per screen. That represents the best international non-summer/non-holiday opening in IMAX history.

Upping the ante in its strategy of recruiting top filmmaking talent for the latest James Bond films, EON Productions secured the services of celebrated director Sam Mendes and legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC, for its 23rd official 007 adventure, Skyfall.

Not only is Skyfall the first movie in the franchise to be shot digitally, as well as Mendes’ first digital experience, it is the first production anywhere to make use of ALEXA Studio cameras, which were supplied – alongside ALEXA Plus and M models – by ARRI Media in London.

Deakins recently spoke with VisionARRI about his work on the film.

How did you come to choose the ALEXA system for Skyfall?

VisionARRI:

Roger Deakins: I first used the ALEXA on In Time (2011) and on that film I had a huge amount of night exteriors, so I needed a camera with speed and versatility. I did side-by-side testing and found that there was so much more latitude in the file from the ALEXA than in a 4K scan of a film negative. I was also drawn to the subtle fall-off to highlights and the enormous amount of detail in the shadows. It was the first digital camera I had seen where I thought the technology had crossed the knife edge and taken us into a new world.

I knew we would also have a lot of low-light scenes on Skyfall, so I said to Sam that he should look at what I did on In Time.

I told him just to look at the actors’ eyes and I think the clarity of their eyes is probably what swayed him more than anything else.

For me there’s just a snap to the eyes that you don’t get with film. 5

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ALEXA MEETS BOND

VA: Once Sam had accepted the idea of shooting digitally, were there other advantages?

on a low budget movie, because everything is locked into a particular day and moment to shoot.

RD: Being able to shoot more than one or two takes without having to reload was quite an advantage. Not that Sam shoots a huge number of takes in one go, but sometimes he would roll the camera for two or three, which I quite liked doing, because once I’m into a shot I don’t like breaking the concentration either.

VA: You had the first prototypes of the ALEXA Studio camera. Why was it important for you to have an optical viewfinder?

Josh Gollish, our DIT, gave Sam a monitor that was as close to being color calibrated as possible, which I hope gave him a sense of confidence because there were a lot of big sets and the lighting was quite crucial in a lot of situations. It made me feel more confident, that’s for sure!

VA: So you enjoy having such high quality monitor images on set?

RD: To me the great plus is that it takes away all the uncertainty in those conversations about how the director wants the image to look. Even if someone says they want a silhouette, people have different ideas about what a silhouette actually is; now you can look at a monitor and say, “That’s what we’re shooting.” It’s a great tool, and it means that – even more than before – I want to do as much in-camera to make that monitor image look as close to what we’ll end up with as I can.

VA: Did you spend much time looking at a waveform monitor?

RD: Now and again I looked at the waveform, but that was more useful on exteriors and places where I felt that there weren’t the ideal conditions I wanted to shoot in. I would look at the waveform and decide on a point where I would be able to adjust the image later in the DI and get it closer to what I wanted it to be. It’s interesting that on these high budget movies you’ve got less flexibility, in a way, than you’d have

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RD: I think part of it is your history and what you’ve been brought up with. I just like the clarity of the image in the optical viewfinder and seeing exactly what’s in front of me, because that’s how I light. The most important thing to me is watching an actor’s face and how the light falls on that face.

You just can’t do that with an electronic viewfinder – yet. It’s true that the Studio cameras we had were only prototypes but they were flawless, we didn’t have any problems with them at all.

VA: You also had the ALEXA M and ALEXA Plus models. Were you often shooting with multiple cameras?

RD:

There was a lot of variety; probably most of the film was shot with only one camera, as though we were doing a regular drama, but then there were other scenes with many more, for example we had 11 cameras filming one big stunt of a train crashing through a ceiling. On the whole, though, I think the Skyfall production people were surprised by how little equipment we needed on a day-to-day basis, because I like to work that way – to downscale and simplify things as much as possible.

VA: You worked with Master Primes, as you often have before. Did they perform the same for digital as they do for film?

RD: The performance seems very much the same. I first tried the Master Primes on No Country for Old Men (2007) and I’ve used them ever since. I was thinking about why you would need such fast lenses when the ALEXA itself is so fast, but a lot of the night scenes on In Time were shot virtually wide open

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VISIONARRI ON SET: Sam Mendes and Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC, frame a shot with the ALEXA (left to right)

“I JUST LIKE THE CLARITY OF THE IMAGE IN THE OPTICAL VIEWFINDER AND SEEING EXACTLY WHAT’S IN FRONT OF ME, BECAUSE THAT’S HOW I LIGHT.” with the Master Primes and we did the same thing on Skyfall.

I use them because they’re the fastest, cleanest lenses that I’ve come across. I always shoot on prime lenses rather than a zoom; I dislike zooms unless they are actually being used as a zoom.

VA: Was ALEXA helpful for the visual effects elements in Skyfall?

RD: That was interesting because Steve, our visual effects supervisor, had never shot digitally and wanted to shoot on film. He’d seen another digital camera on a previous job and hadn’t been impressed, but when I told him we were shooting with the ALEXA he said he’d go and do some tests with landscapes, explosions and everything else. When he came back to me he said, “I’m going to shoot absolutely everything

on the ALEXA,” so he was really impressed. All the plates and VFX elements were done with the camera and it all looks great.

VA: How significant was the fact that Skyfall was to be released in IMAX theaters?

RD: I didn’t know that we were going to release on IMAX until after we made the decision to shoot with the ALEXA. We had also made the decision to shoot spherical and take a 2.40:1 extraction, so I was a little bit nervous when the IMAX issue came up. We did some tests straight away and in the first set the colors didn’t look great. We then found out that IMAX have their own system of conversion, which they call ‘enhancement’, so we tried another test without using that system and I thought the images looked spectacular on the big IMAX screen. ■ Mark Hope-Jones

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Cloud Atlas

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The Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer count on ARRI to tell a visually stunning tale of epic proportions

Based on David Mitchell’s complex 2004 novel of the same name, Cloud Atlas has been adapted for the big screen by acclaimed filmmakers Andy and Lana Wachowski (Matrix Trilogy) and Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run, Perfume: Story of a Murderer).

Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving and Ben Whishaw, as well as Susan Sarandon and Hugh Grant play multiple character roles in a story that takes place over the course of 500 years in different corners of the world. Shot by cinematographers Frank Griebe and John Toll, ASC, Cloud Atlas was filmed with a vast package of camera, lighting and grip equipment supplied by ARRI Rental Berlin. Postproduction was handled

by ARRI Film & TV Services Berlin, with ARRI VFX Munich contributing VFX.

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CLOUD ATLAS © 2012 X Verleih AG

VISIONARRI

VisionARRI spoke with the film’s three directors and producer Grant Hill (Matrix, Tree of Life, Titanic) about their ambitious undertaking.

Adapting David Mitchell’s award-winning novel was a formidable yet welcome challenge for the filmmakers. It was long considered unsuitable for a screen adaptation due to its episodic structure, which consists of six separate stories that take the reader on a journey from the remote South Pacific in the nineteenth century to a distant, post-apocalyptic future.

Mitchell tells the loosely connected tales chronologically and interrupts the first five, finishing them in the second half of the book after the sixth concludes – albeit in reverse order so the reader ends where they started.

“THE MASTER PRIMES ARE VERY PRECISE AND DELIVER REALLY SHARP IMAGES WITHOUT SACRIFICING TEXTURE. THERE’S SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL, A SOFTNESS THAT DOESN’T FEEL OUT OF FOCUS.”

These six stories, the filmmakers agreed, had to be woven into one coherent yet tightly knit tale. “We knew we couldn’t do a literal adaptation of the novel, which is structured more like an anthology. And although the palindrome-like structure is quite interesting, we knew we couldn’t use it,” says Lana, who wrote the first ten pages of the screenplay before the three filmmakers got together in Costa Rica to adapt the novel. Hill was thrilled with the result: “The directors came up with a wonderful script and gave us that unified narrative.”

Cloud Atlas was filmed from September through December 2011 at Studio Babelsberg, as well as on location in Scotland, Spain and Germany. Two units shot simultaneously, with one under the helm of Tykwer and Griebe and the other under the direction of the Wachowskis and Toll. Despite the enormous amount of VFX, the filmmakers decided after conducting extensive tests at ARRI Rental Berlin to shoot 35 mm with ARRICAM Studio and Lite cameras. “We knew we were

going to use a lot of prosthetics and that the makeup was going to be quite ambitious,” states Lana. “Film is just a bit kinder to human faces, whereas digital is more relentless and perfect, and we felt that it was the actors who were making the movie work more than anything else. So we were guided by a desire to make the actors look as good as we could. We like digital but we also like film. There’s something beautiful about film grain that you can never quite fake in digital, something surprising about the way it works on human faces. And we liked that the book itself has a love for older forms. So there was something beautiful about using this older format to tell this super modern story.” Tykwer points out that their decision also had something to do with the epic quality of the story, which film seems to reflect better. “Plus the nostalgia of film also played a part in it,” says Andy, adding with a laugh, “We’re not fundamentalist though.” 9

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CLOUD ATLAS

“WE WANTED THE AUDIENCE TO SEE ONE FILM; WE WANTED TO DISSOLVE BARRIERS, NOT CREATE THEM.” For these reasons the filmmakers also chose lenses from the ARRI/ZEISS Master Prime series. “It had to do with the makeup demands Lana mentioned,” explains Tykwer. “The Master Primes are very precise and deliver really sharp images without sacrificing texture. There’s something beautiful, a softness that doesn’t feel out of focus.” Lana adds: “Other lenses are more rigid in terms of the way the light rounds objects, and the Master Primes give images a more voluptuous feel.” Tykwer also feels that the Master Primes seemed to be the most flexible with different faces. “But, lenses are also an instinctive and emotional choice,” he says. ”The Master Primes were simply the better lenses for what we wanted to do.”

The 35 mm footage shot by both units was, for the most part, processed and RGB color graded at ARRI Film & TV Services in Berlin before being sent to the editing room. Later the negative was scanned in 2K and 3K on the ARRISCAN and color graded on the Lustre (by DI Producer Kenneth Stiller).

“Our footage came from two separate sources and at the end of the day it all had to fit together,” says Hill. “So we did push for a little more grading early on.” Dailies were made available to both units on ARRI’s Webgate, a secure online viewing platform, as well as on backup DVDs. “You get used to seeing your dailies on a computer screen and that’s all great,” Hill continues, “but the moment of truth always comes when you see the film on the big screen for the first time. Only then can you be sure that they were technically accurate.” Hill 10

was very pleased with the quality of the dailies, which undergo rigid quality control at ARRI on every production.

During color correction, the challenges had to do with the production’s range, states Hill. “We had footage shot on the top of a ship’s mast in the middle of the ocean, as well as footage shot in deep dark forests. We had interiors and exteriors from several periods. We shot on the sound stage and in front of the greenscreen. We had a bit of everything.

It’s a remarkable job to bring all that into balance.” ARRI’s Lead Colorist Traudl Nicholson was present on set in order to fine-tune the initial parameters, working closely with the DPs and directors. Color grading entailed two shifts working over the course of two months in the Lustre suite. “The transitions from one period to another were the most challenging,” reflects Nicholson, “especially because of the quick cuts.”

The filmmakers decided against defining individual styles for each period. “In the beginning you’re tempted to create different looks,” says Lana. “We thought about that for a moment but immediately discarded the idea because it would break the movie into six different parts. We wanted the audience to see one film; we wanted to dissolve barriers, not create them.” Her brother points out that the periods are already defined by their individual genres, of which Cloud Atlas contains many, including adventure, drama, thriller, sci-fi, and even farce. “It was hard to find the elements that keep this construction together. That’s why we chose one format (35 mm),”

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VISIONARRI

you have to create completely new acoustic worlds. Our sound team created incredible ambient sound, countless details and elements that repeat throughout, running through the film like a motif, from scratch.” Matthias Lempert and Lars Ginzel (Harrison MPC with Pro Tools 10.2) were responsible for the sound mix.

In the beginning the filmmakers discussed dubbing the actors’ voices. After all, shouldn’t all the characters played by the same actor or actress sound different? The idea, however, was quickly discarded. Instead, they decided to slightly alter the frequencies of the actors’ voices, a more natural and less jarring solution. Not just makeup and costumes, but also the sound of their voices were carefully designed for each character; they don’t just look different, they sound different.

© Eric-Charbonneau, X Verleih

The Wachowskis appreciated working with Tykwer’s score in postproduction. The German director is known not only for composing the music for his films, together with Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek, but for doing so prior to shooting. This was also the case on Cloud Atlas. “On each film there comes the moment when you have to work with a temp score,” says Lana. “It’s a terrible moment, because the music is never what you had in mind. Tom’s approach was a revelation for us.”

 DIRECTORS Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski and Tom Tykwer (left to right)

Andy affirms. So, in addition to the actors playing multiple parts and content-related connections, the format became another element weaving the stories into a convincing whole.

Similar parameters were applied during the sound design and mix. “Sound, sound design and the score are important for every film, but in the case of Cloud Atlas they have an even greater significance than they normally would: they have to guide the audience through the film,” says Hill. “They provide the through-line, if you will.” Supervising Sound Editor Frank Kruse, who was in charge of the film’s sound design, came onboard early and was present on set. During postproduction, the sound studio was located next door to the editing room.

The physical proximity facilitated the flow of information and encouraged an active creative exchange, allowing editing or VFX changes to be quickly passed on to colleagues in sound.

The challenges facing sound postproduction included not only complex and highly sophisticated chase scenes, but also stark contrasts and segues from one period to another; sequences that cut from the South Pacific in 1849 to San Francisco in 1973 and then to the post-apocalyptic world of 2346 illustrate this problem. “The sound team was great,” notes Lana. “When you’re creating these types of worlds, especially those set in the distant future – and we have two of those in Cloud Atlas –

Dominik Trimborn, Head of ARRI VFX, and his team in Munich have collaborated with Tykwer on numerous occasions and the collaboration continued on Cloud Atlas. The sheer amount of VFX shots was enormous and the scope entailed everything from retouching and compositing to complex 3D animations.

ARRI VFX took on some of these tasks. “We are proud to play in the same league with Method, who were in charge of the VFX production of Cloud Atlas, and Industrial Light & Magic,” says Trimborn.

“It was an incredibly ambitious shoot, not only in terms of the scope, but also because we were shooting with two teams in three different countries. That’s why it was especially important to be able to rely on the equipment, technically as well as esthetically. We all felt very well taken care of at ARRI,” enthuses Hill, who has shot a number of films with equipment from ARRI Rental. This time ARRI Film & TV Services Berlin and ARRI VFX Munich were involved as well. “It was incredibly useful to have Chris Berg, our Postproduction Supervisor, join us early on. He was the one who developed our integrated workflow,” Hill says. Andy appreciated having everything located under one roof: “At Warner Brothers you have to get into the car to get from the mixing stage to the DI. Here you just have to walk a few steps.” Lana adds, “ARRI was great to us.”

Cloud Atlas premiered on September 8, 2012, at the 37th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), opening in the US and Canada on October 26. On November 15 the film was released in Germany and will open in the UK in February 2013. ■ Susanne Bieger

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Copyright: Photos: © 2012 Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc

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Cloud Atlas A Producers Perspective

Stefan Arndt discusses producing Cloud Atlas and working with ARRI German producer Stefan Arndt and his production company, X Filme, were one of the driving forces behind the highly anticipated Cloud Atlas, not only when it came to the physical production, but also in terms of getting the film financed. But their involvement doesn’t end there: his company’s distribution arm, X Verleih, is also releasing the film theatrically in Germany.

Arndt produced five films last year with his production company X Filme, among them Little Thirteen (director: Christian Klandt), with a budget of 500,000 Euros, and Cloud Atlas (directors: Andy and Lana Wachowski, Tom Twyker), with a budget of 100 million US dollars.

By German standards that’s unheard of – not only because of the sheer number of productions but also, in the case of Cloud Atlas, because of the size of the film’s budget.

The experience of putting the financing together in Germany for Cloud Atlas as a positive one all round. “Everyone got on board, even though the project was rather complicated,” Arndt recalls. “A lot of rules had to be observed but, at the end of the day, we financed the film independently with only a small co-production element, making 12

Cloud Atlas a 100% German production. Everyone from the driver to the biggest financier of the project deserves an award. It was a matter of pride to all those involved to put this film together. Everyone wanted it to come out perfect. It was a risky undertaking but everyone gave their absolute best, not only the subsidies and Degeto Film, but also the banks and the lawyers. An incredible number of people worked on this project – without whom we couldn’t have pulled it off.”

Due to both budget constraints and.aesthetic reasons in regards to prosthetics and makeup, Cloud Atlas was shot on film. “One hundred million dollars sounds like a lot of money,” says Arndt. “But it’s only half of what you’d ideally need to do what we wanted to do. So we had to carefully choose the

best possible format for the massive digital postproduction effort we had ahead of us. We tested a lot. Sometimes I felt we tested more than we shot on other projects. In the end we just didn’t feel safe with the results we got shooting digital. Sure, it would have been cheaper but it involved risks, having to do with the makeup demands that could have become costly in postproduction.”

The decision turned out to be a good one. Physical production and postproduction went off without a hitch.

“Luckily we didn’t have any problems on Cloud Atlas. There were other projects in the past when we had to revisit the financing and the budgeting.” Not so in the case of Cloud Atlas.

In order to preserve Cloud Atlas for future generations, the film was archived as a separation master. This was created

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VISIONARRI

CLOUD ATLAS © 2012 X Verleih AG

 STEFAN ARNDT

“IT’S GREAT THAT THERE ARE COMPANIES LIKE ARRI AND I HOPE THAT THE TRADITION, ENTHUSIASM AND STANDARD OF QUALITY THAT HAS DEVELOPED THERE IN THE ANALOG WORLD OVER THE YEARS WILL CONTINUE TO EXIST IN THE DIGITAL WORLD.” with the ARRILASER by filming out the final data three times onto black-andwhite film stock, using RGB color separation. The advantage of black-andwhite material is that it is inert when it comes to chemical reactions, unlike color film. The separation master is considered one of the safest archiving methods today. “At least I’m not aware of a better one,” states Arndt.

The future of filmmaking belongs to the digital realm, Arndt believes, but the transition, which we are still in the midst of, brings not only incredible technological innovations but also a great deal of uncertainty. Sometimes, for example, a producer can’t help but wonder how much cheaper digital productions really are because, for all the savings, there are also new costs.

While shooting on digital formats eliminates certain costs, such as for film stock and lab work, it also creates new positions, such as data wrangler and DIT. So how much is a producer really saving? “It wouldn’t hurt if the technical world made more of an effort to shed some light on such issues,” Arndt says, “not just in terms of the financial, but also the technological changes this transition entails.”

“That’s why it was comforting to have ARRI on board. People such as ARRI’s Sepp Reidinger are like a completion bond to us. At the end of the day you don’t need money, but people who can make things happen. People who have ideas and can communicate those in an intelligible way and can show you what’s feasible in a given situation.”

Especially on massive productions such as Cloud Atlas, that sort of trust is worth its weight in gold. “It’s great that there are companies like ARRI and I hope that the tradition, enthusiasm and standard of quality that has developed there in the analog world over the years will continue to exist in the digital world.”

With five films in German theaters, among them the Cannes winner and Oscar hopeful Amour (director: Michael Haneke) and one film in production, Hai-Alarm am Müggelsee (directors: Leander Haußmann and Sven Regener), 2012 is, by all accounts, a good year for Arndt and his companies X Filme and X Verleih. ■ Susanne Bieger

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Photos: Laurie Sparham Š 2012 Universal Pictures.

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VISIONARRI

Dreaming the Dream

Les Misérables, the wildly popular musical adaptation of Victor Hugo’s epic examination of law and grace set in 19th century France, has been staged in 43 countries; translated into 21 languages; and seen on stage by over 60 million people worldwide. There have been at least 14 film versions and numerous television adaptations. So why did Tom Hooper, the Academy Award-winning director of The King’s Speech, decide to film it again, particularly under the strain of so much expectation?

“It could seem like the maddest choice ever,” says Danny Cohen, BSC, cinematographer on Les Misérables, who also collaborated with Tom on The King’s Speech and two television productions, Longford and the series John Adams.

“Tom had never done a musical before – well, it’s not a genre that really gets produced at all these days – but this opportunity came his way and he had some fantastic and groundbreaking ideas for how to do it.”

An unusual element of Les Misérables as a musical is that the entire story is told in song – there is hardly any spoken dialogue. The hugely significant choice Tom Hooper made

was to record all the songs live on set. The actors would each have an earpiece to hear a pianist off-set playing the music directly to them. The idea was to give them freedom and flexibility to act their parts in the moment, rather than having to act according to a pre-recorded playback, which is the usual way of doing musicals. As Cohen recalls, “Tom really had to battle to convince people that this was worth doing, and it did mean there would be massive technical implications in how to shoot and light it – but he felt it would be worth it to bring the power and truth to the story.”

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DREAMING THE DREAM

To prepare for such an epic production, Cohen first went to the source and read Hugo’s five volume novel. “It’s a really good read, a real page turner and describes just about everything about humanity,” he says. “I also saw the West End show at the start of prep, which was eye-opening. It’s a big production and you get the sense that half the audience has seen it more than once. It’s also very long at around three hours, which is fine in a theatre but unusual in the cinema – we knew from the start that we would have to leave things out, and that’s hard when so many people know the story so well.”

In addition Cohen watched many of the different film versions and was struck by the variant takes on the story. He also took visual inspiration from Visconti’s classic film, The Leopard, particularly for its street fighting scenes as the Italian revolution unfolds.

However, before any on-set decisions were required, they needed to decide what to shoot on.

“It’s interesting where we are now with filming choices,” says Cohen. “When we did The King’s Speech there was much less of a discussion about digital, even though it was just a couple of years ago.

For Les Misérables, we compared practically everything available – we did tests with 3D, 65 mm, 35 mm, ALEXA, anamorphic, spherical… Some proved too costly, some were impractical for the scale of the shoot, and while you need to make an artistic choice, you also have to be pragmatic.”

Eventually it came down to a choice of Super 35 mm spherical or ALEXA. “We shot tests side by side and compared them,” Cohen explains. “For a period production, film has more of those almost imperceptible qualities like texture, patina, grain… Of course you can do all that in post with digital images, but if that’s what you’re looking for, why bother? Also with the 35 mm I knew what to expect, so once I had discussions with the rushes grader I knew how the film would look.”

So the choice was made to shoot a classic 35 mm spherical using ARRICAM Lite and Studio cameras with Master Prime lenses – in the end, the same choice as The King’s Speech.

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“There’s something very simple about shooting film that appeals to me – it’s the camera body, it’s mechanical, a roll of film gets loaded, you take it out, it’s processed, that’s it – it’s physical,” Cohen says, “It’s what ARRI has been making for nearly 100 years – straightforward, robust, well-built cameras. With the scale of this project you would expect a few issues – we put around a million feet of film through the cameras – but largely the ARRI cameras just got on with the job.”

Having the actors singing live meant shooting with multiple cameras to

facilitate uninterrupted takes. A main unit of an ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ camera filmed throughout: ‘A’ camera was operated by Zac Nicholson, who shot the actors as close and wide as possible throughout the shoot, while the ‘B’ and ‘C’ cameras, operated respectively by Luke Redgrave and Vince McGahon, shot other parts of the action from further away on longer lenses. On heavier set-up days there could be as many as 10 cameras working simultaneously on various sets.

Cohen is a long-time fan of ARRI Master Prime lenses, and the broad range of focal lengths proved invaluable, not just

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 DANNY COHEN, BSC

“FOR A PERIOD PRODUCTION, FILM HAS MORE OF THOSE ALMOST IMPERCEPTIBLE QUALITIES LIKE TEXTURE, PATINA, GRAIN…” for optical quality but also to provide flexibility and additional storytelling options. “The lenses themselves are superb, that’s a given; but for me, particularly on this job, the choice of focal lengths was the biggest advantage.

I had access to every conceivable lens size I could possibly want, from 12 mm up to 150 mm, plus ultras at 8 mm, 10 mm and 180 mm,” he enthuses.

“Tom likes to have wide lenses very close to the actors – but if you go on a longer lens, your field of view is narrow and the point of focus is solely on the face while the background falls away.

We wanted to capture not just the performance but also what was going on behind the actor in the sets and scenery, so we shot wide with shorter lenses to keep more of the background in focus and give us more opportunities to tell the story visually.”

ARRI Media supplied the cameras and lenses, while the lighting package came from ARRI Lighting Rental. “It was a massive logistical deal, but I’ve worked with [ARRI Media’s] Russell Allen and [ARRI Lighting Rental’s] Sinead Moran for a long time and they were great – the team really bent over backwards to make everything available as we needed it and it was all easy – one less thing to worry about,” Cohen states.

The core camera crew consisted of around 15 people: three operators, three focus pullers, three 2nd ACs, a central loader and four or five grips, and this number increased exponentially on bigger days. Cohen pays tribute to them: “The whole crew really was phenomenal on this project, there was so much to do in a relatively short time and everyone worked fantastically hard.”

Cohen himself only managed to shoot on occasion – the scale of the project meant that he spent most of his time moving between sets and ensuring everything was set up as it should be. “There weren’t many scenes where the main cast wasn’t singing so it wasn’t really feasible to hive off work to a 2nd unit other than bits of stunt work and action details, and anyway Tom prefers not to do that as he knows what he’s looking for,” he says.

Much of the action was shot at Pinewood Studios, using the enormous new T stage for three key sets as well as M stage for the ‘Lovely Ladies’ number.

Lighting the sets was a major challenge due to the style and nature of the shoot.

“Having wide lenses close to the actors is all well and good but in some ways we had shot ourselves in the foot – finding places to put lights that created the right mood but were not in shot, was certainly a challenge!” says Cohen, with an air of understatement. “For instance,

T stage housed a café set that had solid ceilings, and literally the only place to put lights was next to the beams, so we hung 15 tungsten light bulbs and played with that.”

These self-imposed lighting constraints meant that, on some sets, actors were not always in the light, but Cohen chose to make a virtue of this necessity. “You make a judgment on how far you can just let things happen and create an atmosphere in the room to tell the story.

The actors were already under a lot of pressure – they had the pianist playing in their ear, they had to deliver songs take after take, and I felt it wasn’t fair to make absolute demands on how and where they could move. Smart actors can feel the light and know where to go.

I wanted to give them the freedom to make it work, and I think having them moving in and out of light and shadows has given it a more period look that works for this dark story.”

At the time of writing the four-week grade was about to start at Company 3.

“Time in the grade is a must for me,” says Cohen. “We planned everything really well but on a shoot of this scale there were inevitably things that we didn’t have time to do on the day, so this is my chance to finesse things.”

Judging by the trailer alone, the resulting film – which is set for a Christmas Day release – will pack a powerful and emotional punch, and the risks taken with shooting and lighting decisions to accommodate the live recording certainly appear to have paid off. ■ Wendy Mattock

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A new era for ARRI and ZEISS team up to develop a revolutionary set of seven Master Anamorphic lenses The magnificent seven

Innovative optical design

ARRI has announced an entirely new range of anamorphic lenses for 35 format digital and film cameras. Comprising seven high performance primes, ranging in focal length between 35 mm and 135 mm, the ARRI/ZEISS Master Anamorphic series represents a significant step forward in the technology and practicality of anamorphic cinematography.

Drawing on its unparalleled expertise in the field, ZEISS has engineered a new and cutting-edge optical design for the Master Anamorphic lenses, overcoming many of the common distortion problems associated with other front or rear anamorphic systems. Virtually no image breathing is displayed by the lenses and the problem of anamorphic ‘mumps’ (fattening the faces of performers) is automatically compensated for without any need for calibration on the set.

The near telecentric optical design also reduces color fringing and shading at the image corners.

Every one of the seven Master Anamorphic lenses has a T-stop of T1.9 and is super color matched to the other primes and zooms in ARRI’s current lens line-up. For the very first time, a perfect combination of compact form factor, minimal weight, exceptional optical performance and very high speed has been achieved in a set of anamorphic lenses. The Master Anamorphic range shares the same reliable mechanical construction as the Master Prime and Ultra Prime lenses, and has been tested for a temperature range of –40°C to +70°C.

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A sophisticated focusing mechanism keeps both the vertical and horizontal focal lengths of each anamorphic lens perfectly sharp, thereby eliminating astigmatism. It also obviates timeconsuming mechanical readjustments on the set because lens elements will not become misaligned, even in situations involving heavy vibration such as car mount shots. In essence, the Master Anamorphic lenses are less delicate and technically challenging than anamorphic lenses have been up until now; they can be used in much the same way as other modern cine lenses.

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VISIONARRI

The anamorphic look

ALEXA’s new best friends

While the Master Anamorphic lenses have consigned to history many of the problems associated with anamorphic cinematography, they have lost none of desirable visual elements that have made the anamorphic look so enchanting and popular for the last 60 years. Among these are the unique blue streak lines, reflections and flares produced by anamorphic lenses, which are highly valued by cinematographers for their artistic effect and have been optimized in the Master Anamorphic series.

Though they are also compatible with film cameras, the Master Anamorphic lenses are the first anamorphic primes to have been designed for modern digital cameras. More specifically, they are intended to perfectly complement the ALEXA Studio, M and Plus 4:3 models, all of which have a 4:3 sensor. The size and shape of this sensor is ideally suited to anamorphic image capture, maximizing image quality and faithfully rendering the optical characteristics of the lenses.

Another important and distinguishing visual facet of anamorphic images is the appearance of out-of-focus background elements, or bokeh. A newly developed iris with 15 aperture blades has been incorporated into the Master Anamorphic lenses, creating perfectly oval and evenly illuminated out-of-focus highlights. This ensures a pleasing bokeh that filmmakers will enjoy manipulating creatively.

Weighing in at under 3 kg each and with a front diameter of only 95 mm for most focal lengths, the Master Anamorphic lenses are comparatively compact and lightweight, allowing them to be used in combination with ALEXA cameras as freely as any other prime lens.

Deliveries of the Master Anamorphic 35 mm (MA35), MA50 and MA75 are planned for early 2013, with the MA100, MA40, MA60 and MA135 following later in the year.

r anamorphic

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RUBINROT ARRI creates VFX for adaptation of popular teen fantasy novel

German productions based on popular fantasy novel series are the exception rather than the rule: Rubinrot is one of them. Based on the first book of the Liebe geht durch alle Zeiten trilogy from bestselling author Kerstin Gier, it was published in February 2009 and marks the beginning of the franchise’s meteoric rise to success, staying on the Spiegel bestseller list for an impressive 54 weeks. The sequels Saphirblau (December 2009) and Smaragdgrün (December 2010) followed suit, remaining there for a total of 89 weeks. Rubinrot sold more than one million copies in Germany alone and was translated into 19 languages. Due to the trilogy’s tremendous success it is often referred to as the German version of the Twilight saga. The expectations for the film are high, making the VFX artists of ARRI Film & TV Cologne all the more proud of their contribution: the key special effects. Rubinrot was produced by Lieblingsfilm GmbH (Robert Marciniak, Philipp Budweg and Thomas Blieninger) in collaboration with mem film GmbH (Felix Fuchssteiner and Katharina Schöde), Tele München/Concorde (Markus Zimmer) and the Geißendörfer Film- und Fernsehproduktion KG (Hans W. Geißendörfer).

“Fantasy films for children and teenagers are a rare opportunity for VFX artists to abandon reality and create unique visual worlds that can only be generated on the computer,” says ARRI Creative Director Jürgen Schopper.

“You need the fantasy environment to justify such spectacular images. The producers of Rubinrot offered us the amazing opportunity to create matching looks and effects, granting us pretty much free rein. It’s a sign of trust built over the course of a number of successful collaborations.”

But what’s it about? To fully comprehend the complexities, paradoxes and implications that move the plot of Rubinrot forward one has to be Albert Einstein or have a PhD in quantum physics, as well as a degree in history with a focus on genealogy. Or one has to be one of the die-hard teenage fans of Kerstin Gier’s novels, tens of thousands of whom are currently congregating on Facebook, eagerly awaiting the release of the film. For mere mortals the book is about Gwendolyn, who, like all heroines, is sixteen and beautiful, and comes from a family with a physiological anomaly: a mysterious time travel gene that’s been in the family for generations.

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© 2012 Concorde Filmverleih

In early 2009, without anyone anticipating the trilogy’s astounding success, the producers at the Lieblingsfilm GmbH in Munich had the prescience to option the film rights. “We received the first draft of the screenplay in early March 2011,” recalls VFX Producers Markus Klaff and Katja Müller, “but it took another year and many preliminary talks before the VFX team in Cologne could get to work.”

 TIME TRAVELING with the chronograph

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VISIONARRI

“FANTASY FILMS FOR CHILDREN AND TEENAGERS ARE A RARE OPPORTUNITY FOR VFX ARTISTS TO ABANDON REALITY AND CREATE UNIQUE VISUAL WORLDS THAT CAN ONLY BE GENERATED ON THE COMPUTER.”

 ARRI’S 3D ARTISTS created the complex inner workings of the mysterious chronograph machine

One day, when Gwen suddenly finds herself in London in another era, she realizes that she too has inherited the problem and, wanting to get to the bottom of it, begins to research her family history. In her efforts to shed light on the secrets surrounding her own existence and that of an ancient order of time travelers, called ‘the sentries’, she encounters murderous villains, unexpected allies and of course – as if things weren’t complicated enough – the love of her life.

Adapted for the screen by Katharina Schöde, who also co-produced the film, Rubinrot was shot in 42 days between February 21 and April 27 in Mühlhausen, Thuringia.

Other locations included Eisenach/Wartburg, Weimar, Cologne, Aachen, Jülich, Coburg, Bayreuth and London.

Felix Fuchssteiner (Die Kurve, Draußen am See) directed the film, while the images were captured in the aspect ratio 2.35:1 on the RED Epic by cinematographer Sonja Rom (Wild Soccer Bunch 1-3).

One of the key challenges for ARRI Film & TV Services Cologne was the implementation of the numerous shifts from one era to the next, while also distinguishing between two types of time leaps: the involuntary ones, which pose quite a challenge for the heroine in the beginning, and the voluntary ones, during which a mysterious blood-activated machine called a ‘chronograph’ plays a key role.

“We were able to finish the first layouts with the look in April, after the editing had made a great deal of progress,” says Mortimer Warlimont, Supervisor of Visual Effects, who was involved in developing the time leap concept for the film. A digital disappearing effect was created for that purpose: a flash of color that squeezes the person through a tiny dot in the background, more or less popping them out into another era.

This time travel effect had to work in both wide shots and close-ups. To create the required in-camera images, the actors were suspended from a rope in front of a greenscreen and pulled all the way back so that they could later be erased on the computer. Each time traveler was assigned a different colored flash, which matches the character’s representative gemstone, a concept that has to do with the inner workings of the chronograph. Gwen’s color is ruby red.

Another complex scene was set in the streets of London and was shot from a crane while the camera was slowly lowered.

The sequence, which was actually shot in Bayreuth, called for several digital set extensions to turn the quaint Bavarian town into the London of today and of 1913, including all required historical details. “This was accomplished for the most part with 3D models to balance out the lens distortions caused by the camera movement on the crane,” explains Senior Compositing Artist Min Tesch.

“Using Google Earth, we surveyed the location in Bayreuth in order to adjust the angles. Even the landmarks of the London skyline, such as Big Ben and The Gherkin, were created on the computer in 3D.” Gwen’s enemies had to look appropriately sinister. The evil count, for example, has fog-like hands, and the smoke wafting out of his fingers can telekinetically strangle the heroine – a prime example of particle animation. “And there’s the wall that turns into a face in order to frighten Gwen,” explains Müller.

“The image used as a reference for this scene was a shot of an actor’s face pushed into gauze that was stretched into a frame.

The actor spoke his lines with his face in the gauze. The scene was then recreated from scratch in 3D and animated, including the lip movements and the wall texture.”

The highlight of the film, from a VFX perspective, was the chronograph. From the outside it looked like a box-like prop that was later cleaned up digitally. But what could the intricate and, for the plot, absolutely crucial insides possibly look like?

“We put a lot of thought into that, until we got it right esthetically, and we gave the director a wide range of choices of layouts and designs,” recalls Schopper. The design was based on a pencil drawing from Katharina Schöde. In the end the team agreed on an art nouveau look with a dash of steampunk esthetic. Led by ARRI’s Head of 3D, Michael Koch, the 3D artists in Cologne created the complex inner workings and mechanics of the chronograph, including fog and particle clouds in full CG, over the course of several months.

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RUBINROT

 DIGITAL SET EXTENSIONS turned the Bavarian town of Bayreuth into London (above) and virtual snow was added to numerous shots (below)

ARRI VFX entered new territory with the linear workflows for Rubinrot, utilizing the ACES system, an innovative color space standard developed by the Science and Technology Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. “The file format was always viewed as an interim solution, created in order to combine digital data (CGI/VFX) with scanned analog material,” says Warlimont. “Now that almost everything is shot digitally and linear, it makes sense to establish a new color space that makes merging the data streams more seamless.

We really did pioneering work on Rubinrot.”

In addition, there were a great number of compositing chores to be completed, including day and night car and carriage rides that were shot in front of the greenscreen, wire removals, retouching of safety wires used by stuntmen, and muzzle fire, including a shot of a bullet firing and hitting a wall.

Also unique was the great number of back-to-back VFX shots.

For virtual effects such as snow this entailed adjustments of each shot, including wide shots and close-ups, in terms of the velocity, density, turbulence, coloring and camera tracking, sometimes for a total of 20. In some cases these effects had to be combined with others.

Many shots required numerous preliminary and alternate versions. “Just for the voluntary time leap sequence we had 22

74 versions before it all matched. Keeping track of all these versions was a challenge that asset management at ARRI VFX gladly took on,” says Compositing Supervisor Stefan Tischner, praising the work of his Cologne colleagues.

The romantic highlight of the film is the Cherry Blossom Ball at St. Lennox-College, featuring 3D-animated falling flower petals.

We can’t, of course, reveal who’s dancing with whom.

All in all, a total of 165 VFX shots were created and realized for Rubinrot between April and early October of 2012, and included fine-tuning the rendering of the full CG sequence with particle effects inside the chronograph. About 10 specialists worked on the project at that stage of the process, with a third handling 3D tasks (3ds Max from Autodesk with FumeFX Plugin) while the others handled compositing (Nuke) and supervision.

Rubinrot was made possible with the support of the Deutschen Filmförderfonds, the FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, the Mitteldeutschen Medienförderung, the Filmförderungsanstalt and the Bayerischen Bankenfonds.

All non-time travelers will have to wait until March 14, when Concorde Verleih releases Rubinrot in German theaters. ■ Ingo Klingspon

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VISIONARRI

ALEXA: LATEST NEWS SOFTWARE UPDATE PACKET (SUP) 7.0

With the release of the latest model in the ALEXA range – the Plus 4:3 – earlier in 2012, ARRI has consolidated the ALEXA system to such a degree that it now offers an unparalleled variety of options to film and program makers. Work continues to go on, however, to refine existing features and develop new hardware and software tools. To this end, the latest ALEXA software update has enhanced image quality and made in-camera SxS PRO card recording an even more attractive option for feature films.

SUP 7.0 brings some significant image quality improvements as well as exciting new recording options for feature film productions using ALEXA’s in-camera SxS PRO cards.

The Regular Speed Debayer algorithm inside ALEXA has been replaced with a new algorithm that provides even cleaner, sharper-looking images, especially on high contrast edges and in areas with fine detail. The new Regular Speed Debayer algorithm applies to all HD-SDI outputs, as well as ProRes and DNxHD images in Regular Speed mode (0.75 to 60 fps). At the same time the High Speed Debayer algorithm (for 60 to 120 fps) was also replaced with an improved version.

Of the two new recording options enabled by SUP 7.0, the first is ProRes

2K 4:3, which facilitates the shooting of anamorphic feature films onto in-camera SxS PRO cards. It works with all ALEXA cameras that are 4:3 capable (ALEXA Studio, ALEXA M and ALEXA Plus 4:3).

On spherical lens shoots, ProRes 2K 4:3 gives extra room for vertical repositioning in post, while on ARRIRAW shoots it provides the option for an extra in-camera backup. ProRes 2K 4:3 records 2048 x 1536 pixels into a QuickTime/ProRes file, supports all ProRes codecs, and works from 0.75 to 48 fps.

The second new recording option, ProRes 2K 16:9, is great for shooting feature films onto in-camera SxS PRO cards without rescaling, as would be needed with ProRes HD. ProRes 2K 16:9 works from 0.75 – 60 fps with

all ALEXA models and provides a high quality 2048 x 1152 ProRes file that is ideal for feature film productions.

Due to these new recording options, the choices of what to see in the viewfinder and MON OUT image have been re-worked. Users can decide between seeing just the image being recorded, the image with the surround view, or the image with surround view and also camera status. Other benefits of SUP 7.0 include the LCC (Low Contrast Curve) in every ALEXA by default; 3D sync for the ALEXA M; the addition of a sixth user button, achieved by moving the function of the edit button to the jog wheel; and many other user interface improvements. ■

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The Smallest Biggest Light On Set The new M90/60 joins the award-winning M-Series M40/25

ARRIMAX 18/12

M90/60

M18 24

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VISIONARRI

Since its introduction in 2005, the ARRIMAX 18/12 fixture has become a ubiquitous presence on film sets all over the world, providing massive light output for the biggest scenes. At the heart of this Oscar-winning fixture is an innovative, patented reflector that eliminates the need for spreader lenses and combines the advantages of a PAR with those of a Fresnel. The same MAX Technology has gone on to be used in a range of other ARRI fixtures, including two further lampheads in the M-Series, the M18 and M40/25. Now the M-Series is being extended with a fixture that ushers in an entirely new 9,000-watt power class – the M90/60.

The M90/60 packs a lot of punch into a small package. Light output is close to that of a 12K, while size and weight are nearer to a 6K, making it easier to transport. This is a crucial consideration for productions travelling to distant locations, as weight and space on trucks can be extremely limited.

The advent of high sensitivity digital cameras such as the ARRI ALEXA, which has a base sensitivity of EI 800, has meant that light levels on many film and television sets have fallen. In some cases, an 18K is an unnecessarily large and unwieldy fixture, and could be replaced as the biggest light on set by the M90/60. On digital productions the M90/60 could easily function as a huge keylight in many setups, for example when lighting large areas at night. Up until now the next step down from a 12K or 18K has been a 6K, but the M90/60’s new 9,000-watt power class bridges the gap and offers a perfect solution for situations where an ARRIMAX would be a bit too big or bulky.

A completely new 9,000-watt bulb has been developed by Osram, one of ARRI’s key technology partners, specifically for the M90/60. Alternatively a 6,000-watt bulb can be used, making this a highly versatile lamphead. Osram has achieved a technical breakthrough by designing the new 9,000-watt bulb to be stable at 1,000 Hz, which is a remarkable feat for such a powerful lamp. It means that the M90/60 will be an extremely useful fixture for high speed cinematography, allowing frame rates of up to 1,000 fps while delivering the large amounts of light required.

M90/60 FEATURES • New 9,000-watt power class • Superior light quality via MAX Technology • As small and lightweight as a 6K PAR • Light output close to a 12K PAR • Focusable from 17-55° • Can be operated with 9K bulb at 1,000 Hz

EB 6000/9000 BALLAST Accompanying the M90/60 is a new high speed ballast, the EB 6000/9000.

Like other recent ballasts from ARRI, it features CCL (Compensation for Cable Loss) technology and the power-saving ALF (Active Line Filter). The EB 6000/9000 is DMX compatible, dual voltage (120/230 V) and is no bigger than ARRI’s existing EB 6000 Baby ballast.

• Same size as EB 6000 Baby ballast

• Dual voltage (120/230V)

• CCL (Compensation for Cable Loss)

• DMX compatible

• ALF (Active Line Filter)

• Available in a 1,000 Hz version

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© 2012 ITV

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The Bletchley Circle John Pardue on using ALEXA to create the mood for a crime drama set in 1950s London Produced by World Productions for ITV in the UK, The Bletchley Circle is a three-part television series shot by cinematographer John Pardue using ARRI ALEXA cameras supplied by ARRI Media and a lighting package supplied by ARRI Lighting Rental.

When the team behind The Bletchley Circle met to discuss the look of a crime drama set in the early 1950s, they eschewed a bright, post-war, optimistic look for a more austere, repressed England.

“Andy De Emmony [director], Mike Gunn [production designer], Anna Robbins [costume designer] and I discussed at length how to make this period look work – the pre-1960s modernity was creeping into England, but our story was anchored in Bletchley and the war, and there was still rationing and a ‘make do and mend’ feel to everyday life,” says Pardue. “The three elements of set design, costume design and lighting worked very well together – Mike and Anna used muted colors, which I complemented with a mix of practical lights and a very soft daylight through windows for interiors.

I created a low-key mood with the lighting, an almost permanent ‘end of day’ feel. The mix of tungsten and daylight in the interiors also gave the film a distinctive style.”

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Despite the period setting, Pardue chose to shoot the drama on ALEXA. “Clearly we didn’t want it to feel digital but the ALEXA has quite a filmic look for a digital camera,” he says. “I’ve shot on film for many years and I still love that medium, but the ALEXA gives good latitude and handles mixed color very well, and it’s simple to use. It’s definitely my favorite digital camera, and it was really the obvious choice for this project.”

Pardue also chose to use Cooke S4s, selecting them for their slightly lower contrast feel and ability to bring a cinematic quality to digital material. Pardue used nearly the full range of Cooke S4s, particularly favoring the 21 mm and 40 mm focal lengths, and used a black frost diffusion filter to add more softness to the image. He also used an Angenieux Optimo zoom lens.

Pardue’s lighting choices were not dictated by the medium.

“I lit the drama as I would have for 35 mm, I didn’t need to make any concessions for shooting digitally,” he says.

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VISIONARRI

“The ALEXA beautifully reproduced the muted colors used in the design of the drama. I find that it responds like film to color temperatures; it looks very beautiful with a cold light on faces, but can also retain the detail of a darker night interior.”

The Bletchley Circle is a crime drama, which sees ex-wartime code-breakers utilizing their skills to solve a murder.

Several scenes take place at night or in dark houses, with a shadowy and chilling feel – in particular in the last episode as the main character, Susan [played by Anna Maxwell Martin], encounters the ‘Anderson shelter murderer’. The director, Andy De Emmony, and Pardue felt it was important to visually switch from Susan’s suburban domestic life to the dark world of a deranged serial killer.

“You have to be careful with darkness for TV as it can be ‘mushy’ – you need to have contrast within the darkness, and of course be able to show the audience enough of what is happening – it’s often more ‘the idea’ of darkness,” Pardue observes. “There was a sequence where Susan followed a trail of oil lamps; the ALEXA handled it very well, creating enough contrast in the shadows while the darker side of her face was defined and didn’t fall off. In another scene where Susan enters a very dark flat with a tiny amount of light coming in through the windows, we could still see the glint in her eye. The ALEXA allowed us to capture Anna’s nuanced performance and create the required tension – plus of course, shooting digitally meant there was no problem with graininess in the blacks.”

Pardue chose to shoot to a LUT of Rec 709 throughout, which worked to retain the required look and meant minimal changes in the grade. Pardue explains his choice: “Very early on, we committed to doing as much on set as we could.

We knew the kind of look we wanted and the Rec 709 LUT gave us a pretty good basic set up. It kept everything very simple, and by playing to the LUT set up for the ALEXA you play to the strength of the camera.

“We did alter the color temperatures quite a lot, for example if we were doing a night scene and wanted a moonlit feel, we found it in the color

“…ALEXA GIVES GOOD LATITUDE AND HANDLES MIXED COLOR VERY WELL, AND IT’S SIMPLE TO USE. IT’S DEFINITELY MY FAVORITE DIGITAL CAMERA, AND IT WAS REALLY THE OBVIOUS CHOICE FOR THIS PROJECT.” temperature rather than doing it in the grade later. We knew from the rushes that we had achieved the look we wanted in camera so, when we got to the grade, colorist Sonny Sheridan at The Farm did a fine job to build on what we had achieved by using Rec 709 as a basis for his grade.”

The two TV Logic reference monitors on set were also set to the LUT, as were the monitors being used in the Avid edit suite in Dublin where assembly edits were created. Pardue used the monitors with the LUT applied as a reference for the lighting, and sometimes had DVD rushes for particular scenes, but more often De Emmony and Pardue reviewed the rough cuts on De Emmony’s iPad on the morning car journey to the set. “I haven’t had many opportunities in the past to have those discussions before you get to work, but it was a great way to get into that mindset, discuss what we had, make decisions and get on with the day,” Pardue recalls.

Pardue did most of the operating himself, with an occasional 2nd unit for certain scenes covered by cameraman Mike Parker. “Andy is a very experienced director, he knew how he wanted to build the shot and shoot it, and he’s generally a one-camera director,” says Pardue. “In The Bletchley Circle there’s

a lot of information to gather and puzzles to solve, which visually could have been rather boring, but we kept the camera moving with quick cuts to retain the tension and urgency. Then we would slow down for more emotional scenes.”

Schedules were tight throughout the shoot, with limited time to capture several scenes on the Bluebell Railway and at St Pancras station. As Pardue explains, “We shot most of the drama in the train carriages handheld over two days – the ALEXA is well-balanced which made it easy to move around. We also had half a day to shoot a complicated scene at St Pancras avoiding the Eurostar and other modern furnishings to create a 1950s station full of steam trains and busy station life, seamlessly cutting back to cheated cutaways that we had shot at the Bluebell Railway.”

The Bletchley Circle was a tough shoot with a tight schedule, and shooting ‘period’ in London comes with its own set of problems. However, the team were very pleased with what they achieved.

“The ALEXA was a good choice for this project and we were all really pleased with the way it looked in the finished grade. It was an easy camera to manage digitally and comfortable to move around and operate.” ■ Wendy Mattock

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Moving Images in Three-dimensional Space

© BMW AG

The motion design team of ARRI Commercial and its partner lucie_p

 BMW SHOWCASE 2012

ARRI COMMERCIAL AND LUCIE_P JOINED FORCES ABOUT A YEAR AGO AND HAVE SINCE BECOME A GROUNDBREAKING MOTION DESIGN TEAM CAPABLE OF TAKING ON OLYMPIC-SIZE CHALLENGES. THEIR MOST RECENT COLLABORATIONS REFLECT THE PARTNERS’ EQUALLY HIGH STANDARDS, AS WELL AS THE GROWING SIGNIFICANCE OF MOVING IMAGE DESIGNS FOR CLIENTS. Maximum emotional energy for BMW Pixels of light flood a three-dimensional space, then gather and form a shape: an athlete, a computer-generated image of the highest quality. This CGI athlete was part of the chosen creative concept developed by lucie_p and ARRI Commercial for its client, BMW, to create content for the movie theatre that was part of BMW’s London Showcase 2012.

The film used the pavilion’s theme ‘Driving the Future’ and presented BMW as the world-leading car manufacturer when it comes to sustainability. “We associated each of BMW’s three brands – BMW, BMWi and MINI – with Olympic sports,” explains Rico Reitz, Creative Director, ARRI Commercial. “The key visuals were a 400 m track star representing BMW, a pole vaulter as BMWi and a beach volleyball player as the Mini.”

The visual through-line connecting the worlds of these different brands was light, a visual design element that also reflects the Olympian spirit. The athletes were created with light particles, and three multi-colored light beams merged the different brands at the end of the film under the umbrella brand. “50 3D shots, each with 40 layers, really paid off,” adds Reitz.

“We created a highly realistic 3D model of a universal athlete using never-before-seen light worlds, and showed him from unusual and seemingly impossible camera angles.”

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A key part of the success of the presentation was the team’s specially designed in-house cinema, according to Tina Maria Werner, General Manager of lucie_p: “In our cinema we were able to watch the film as it would later be projected to evaluate its impact prior to the event and to optimize the results.” The finished film brought to life the brand equity standards of the cars, and fired up the pavilion visitors who were captivated by the unique images and the cinematic score composed specifically for the film.

Science Fair The cinema was also used to design the stage show Night of Innovations. The show was the centrepiece of a star-studded gala that took place on 10th August in Essen, Germany, with actor Orlando Bloom, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and German TV personality Anker Engelke among the 2000 invited guests. The event kicked off the 13-day Science Fair 2012, a technology fair hosted by ThyssenKrupp and 200 partners to introduce young people to scientific fields such as mathematics, computer science and the natural sciences.

The key atmospheric element of the two-and-a-half hour stage show was a 250-square-meter LED screen. Angenehme

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© BMW AG

“WE CREATED A HIGHLY REALISTIC 3D MODEL OF A UNIVERSAL ATHLETE USING NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN LIGHT WORLDS, AND SHOWED HIM FROM UNUSUAL AND SEEMINGLY IMPOSSIBLE CAMERA ANGLES.”

Unterhaltungs GmbH and Brandsome hired lucie_p and ARRI Commercial to create the animated logo for the Science Fair as well as to design the show’s multimedia wall. The latter became an integral part of the program, used for the show’s lead-in and introductions to the various segments throughout, to provide cues for the hosts, and for the outro.

The centrepiece of the program was a 19-minute trip through the history of technology, from its very beginnings to the present, in the form of a stage show involving the German TV Ballet Ensemble. “In shows and during large public events, large-scale motion designs are becoming more popular – partly because LED screens are becoming more affordable,” explains Philipp Bartel, Head of Commercial at ARRI. “The onstage presentation blends with the atmospheric quality of the light and the vibrant images of the moving image presentation, creating interactive possibilities and revealing unique perspectives. We are particularly proud of Nights of Innovation, which allows audiences to experience the fascinating world of science, technology and innovation.”

Bosch goes digital: first-rate infotainment at the IFA booth In the case of the Science Fair, the idea was to create a visual spectacle. For the IFA booth of Bosch, the household appliance manufacturer, the intention was to highlight the philosophy behind the newest product lines, while emphasizing the importance the brand places on its designs. 127 monitors were placed next to each other, wrapping around a 3000square-meter booth like a ribbon made of moving images.

The monitors displayed generic worlds that represented themes such as ‘freshness’ and ‘water’, but also included productrelated themes such as ‘100% efficiency’.

As with all of their collaborations the lucie_p and ARRI Commercial design teams split the tasks to play to their individual strengths. While lucie_p developed the creative concept and took care of consulting and client support matters, ARRI Commercial was in charge of the actual production and ensured that the highest technological standards were being met. After the client, Wenger & Wittmann, had articulated their goals, the motion design team translated these into visuals and sound. First, a mood board was created with visual approximations for each topic. Once they were approved, storyboards were drawn. Then the content was animated and edited into finished films. To test the effectiveness of the animation within the moving image installation, a model of the eventual installation was set up to provide a visual reference.

The agency and the client were able to track the progress of their project throughout the process.

During the production phase, six 50” monitors identical to the ones later used at the booth were set up in lucie_p and ARRI Commercial’s design studio to preview all the moving images and to optimize the results during final approval. “One particular challenge was that all the individual elements of the program had to be used interchangeably and out of order during the trade show,” recalls Werner. “We created a building block concept that allowed the client to play all the images and sounds out of sequence.” The ‘moving image ribbon’ was a highlight of the Bosch booth and a key element in creating the desired atmosphere. 29

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© BOSCH

MOVING IMAGES IN THREE-DIMENSIONAL SPACE

 BOSCH IFA

IDEENPARK

© BMW AG

“OUR MOTION DESIGN TEAM IS A ONE-STOP SHOP. WE OFFER EVERYTHING, INCLUDING CREATIVE IDEAS AND CONCEPTS, TECHNICAL EXPERTISE, PRODUCTION AND POSTPRODUCTION SERVICES FOR MOVING IMAGE DESIGNS, EVEN MUSIC.”

1+1=3 The concept of collaboration that Philipp Bartel and Tina Maria Werner had prior to joining forces in the fall of 2011 is paying off. Clients are getting more for their money thanks to the companies’ permanent affiliation, which allows the partners to bring their individual strengths to the table, thereby improving the cost-benefit ratio for their customers. “Our motion design team is a one-stop shop. We offer everything, including creative ideas and concepts, technical expertise, production and postproduction services for moving image designs, even music,” says Werner. And brands appreciate this approach more than ever, according to Bartel: 30

“Our current projects show that clients from every sector, regardless of size, are coming to us. We offer moving image installations for conventions and exhibits, 3D visualizations, 3D video mapping, outdoor building projections and much more.

We have the resources to meet any challenge. We can add personnel during key phases, while still being able to move incoming projects along and offer the best quality possible.”

And their success speaks for itself: audiovisual presentations are part of any brand marketing strategy that takes the experiences and expectations of clients and consumers seriously – and the lucie_p and ARRI Commercial team is the perfect partner for these types of projects.

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 A POWERFUL TEAM: Philipp Bartel, Head of Commercial at ARRI and Tina Maria Werner, General Manager of lucie_p

Philipp Bartel and Tina Maria Werner discuss the role of moving images in the world of brand communication today.

Innovative communication through moving images is more sought after than ever. Why is that?

VisionARRI:

Philipp Bartel: Ever since commercials started to play an increasingly important role online, consumers and customers alike express a preference for this emotionally powerful format – and not just on the computer screen. Whether it’s in the subway or on a smart phone or digital billboard, we all expect audiovisual presentations of the highest quality. And good just isn’t good enough. We expect more than old-fashioned TV commercials, more than pre-rolls that delay the beginning of online videos. Innovative motion designs, therefore, are the way to go.

VA: But why is the moving image such an important communication tool?

Tina Maria Werner:

Moving images have the potential to infuse brands with positive emotions and to make them memorable: we remember what we’ve seen more easily than what we’ve smelled. The human brain recalls messages that appeal to several senses at once more easily. That’s why image and sound are a particularly successful symbiosis. It’s what makes the moving image a highly effective tool.

VA: Some of the brand representatives are reluctant because of the costs involved – what’s your response?

PB:

The costs aren’t as high as one would expect. Whether it’s HD cameras, visual effects software or LED screens, the technical resources used during the production and projection of moving image designs have improved significantly in the past few years in terms of quality, while becoming much more affordable at the same time. Whether we are talking about cinematic company profiles for homepages or small or large convention presentations, computer-generated product presentations or outdoor building projections – there’s an affordable solution for every brand.

VA:

How should moving images be used?

TMW: That depends on the brand and the challenges it faces.

If you have a product that’s very complex, then a video is the perfect tool to illustrate the complexities in an engaging way.

Designers who want to highlight the esthetic value and creativity behind their products can do so using moving image presentations at conventions. Clients who want to create a feeling of familiarity and a sense of passion can accomplish this by making their customers become part of an installation through the use of moving images. There are numerous other examples because moving images are as unique as a brand – and a convincing presentation communicates that best. ■

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Innocence Vampire thriller sinks its teeth into on-set dailies

Line producer Gary Guidice discusses why the low-budget, independent film used an on-set system to deliver same-day dailies.

Why did you decide to shoot Innocence digitally?

VisionARRI:

Gary Guidice: Certainly budget played a large part but, in particular, the ARRI ALEXA has really revolutionized filmic imagery in a way that no other camera system is doing right now. If it was strictly a cost issue I don’t know that the decision would have been as straightforward. But the fact that you can create beautiful and cinematic imagery combined with the cost and convenience of digital made it an easy decision for us.

VA: You chose to shoot ProRes onto the on-board SxS PRO cards over recording ARRIRAW, why was that?

GG: Again, cost was a factor. Convenience was a factor. But also David Morrison the DP knew that he wanted to do a lot of handheld on the movie - and we did do a lot of handheld.

Our operator Alan Pierce [Winter’s Bone] is probably one of the finest handheld operators in the business. I think we felt that the added weight of the ARRIRAW recording systems might limit the cameras agility in a way. This also had a lot to do with why we went away from a traditional tethered DIT scenario. ARRIRAW verses SxS was not a simple decision for us though. We have a lot of VFX in the movie and there was a thought that we needed to shoot ARRIRAW in order to give our VFX supervisor the room he needed to do his work. With ARRIRAW, reframing, blowing up, depth of image is practically limitless. With ProRes there are definite limitations but, with our research and some testing, we concluded that ProRes would be sufficient for us.

Why did you decide to use an on-set solution for your dailies as opposed to a lab?

VA:

GG:

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We weren’t at first until Gus [Rental Manager, ARRI CSC],

Photo: Jojo Whilden

As more productions move to digital acquisition, a growing number are employing dailies processing solutions on- or near-set. Innocence, a teen vampire tale directed by Hilary Brougher and shot by cinematographer David Rush Morrison, made the decision to adopt such a route, choosing an ARRI ALEXA and mobile digital dailies package that utilized Colorfront’s On-Set Dailies system. Camera, lighting and grip equipment was supplied by ARRI CSC, based out of Secaucus.

“…THE ARRI ALEXA HAS REALLY REVOLUTIONIZED FILMIC IMAGERY IN A WAY THAT NO OTHER CAMERA SYSTEM IS DOING RIGHT NOW.” Chris MacKarell [Digital Workflow Supervisor, ARRI CSC] and Ryan Dwork [Rental Agent, ARRI CSC] brought it up. I think we were back and forth about a traditional DIT or a loader/lab when they brought the idea to us. With some exploration and research – time was of the essence because it was very late in our prep period at the time these conversations started – we concluded that the on-set solution that ARRI CSC was proposing offered us the same reliability, service, quality, and, affordability as traditional lab dailies. And this seems to be the direction that production workflows are going, so I’m keen to be ahead of the curve or at least current. And the producers were very supportive of the idea so that made it easy.

VA: Could you talk more about the ‘immediate’ effect that having this solution provided?

GG: When dailies are created by a facility, the process never really allows for any shooting crew to be involved in the timing of the dailies – perhaps the DP can send some stills of what he’s expecting or there can be some conversation via email, maybe by phone at lunch. In any case, it’s very minimal.

Photo: Nicole Rivelli

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VISIONARRI

 SETTING UP A SHOT David Rush Morrison, DP; Ethan Borsuk, 1st AC; Al Pierce, operator; Hilary Brougher, director (left to right) Photo: Walter Thompson

 AT THE VIEWFINDER of the ALEXA: David Rush Morrison

With a DIT you get that immediacy but you are tethered and the DIT’s focus is usually on that, so they usually won’t go so far as creating editorial files too. With us having the cart on set it was kind of the best of both worlds. Ben Schwartz [DIT] was creating our editorial and dailies files and we were literally coloring footage within minutes of shooting it. The DP could walk over to Ben and grade with him, which is impossible with a conventional lab workflow. They could walk over and solicit Ben’s advice and have all of the tools of the cart at their disposal to verify what had been shot – is the lighting too low, will we be able to time this out in the DI the way we want to at this exposure, etc. This can all happen within a few minutes while they are setting up the next shot or while the actors are getting changed. And our project hasn’t seen the full spectrum of this benefit yet as we are still editing.

I suspect when we get into the DI later this year, there will be some scenes where our DI colorist can just plug in the look that they created on set and work from that instead of starting from scratch or from the very generic Rec 709.

VA: Were editorial happy with the files generated by the cart?

GG: Yes. When exploring all of the different options around production workflow, inevitably one of the questions was: is the assistant editor going to do the transcoding for editorial?

That would occupy a significant amount of an assistant editor’s day and also delay the editor being able to work with the footage. Relieving our editorial team [Peter Frelik, assistant editor and Keith Reamer, editor] of that duty was huge for them. We had happy editors and the footage always arrived

 ON LOCATION shooting in Riverside Park, Manhattan

in great shape. We had thorough technical conversations in preproduction about how they wanted to receive their dailies.

There are a lot of details to decide on, and having that tight communication with everyone during prep really set the stage for a smooth workflow once we started shooting. Keith and Peter are old pros and they would have been vocal if anything were amiss.

VA: Did the images and metadata meet production’s expectations?

GG: Absolutely. First and foremost David was capturing beautiful images on set, which is something no technical advancement should ever try to circumvent. Ben was able to dial in David’s desired look the rest of the way. Everyone was happy with the footage. In fact, we just screened the assemblage for the producers and the director with the editorial footage and everyone is over the moon. As far as the metadata, again I heard no issues or complaints from editorial.

We did a test conform of a two-minute sequence when we wrapped principal photography and that went smoothly, so all of the master footage and the editorial footage is matching up nicely.

VA: Would you recommend other productions look at this approach to dailies?

GG: Yes, I think it makes a lot of sense for a production to look at it. There is a lot of versatility in how you can apply this system and I suspect you can come up with one that makes sense for your production and budget, etc. ■ Brigitte Wehner

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Brighter Cooler Smaller The ARRI L-Series of LED Fresnels now offers a tungsten model and optional active cooling ARRI’s L-Series of LED lights, which launched with the color-controllable L7-C model, has quickly been accepted by the industry as an efficient, ecofriendly and cost-saving alternative to traditional tungsten Fresnels. Now a dedicated tungsten model, the 30% brighter L7-T, has been released, alongside an option for active cooling that reduces both the weight and the size of L7 units, making them perfect for location shoots.

L-Series fixtures reduce electricity usage by 75%, permitting huge savings to be made in studio environments and greatly diminished power needs on location. Further savings are brought about by the exceptional life span of the LED light engine, which lasts around 200 times longer than a conventional tungsten bulb.

The L7-T is a single-color, 3200 K tungsten version of the popular L7-C, providing in excess of 30% more light while maintaining the same size and weight, and offering the same calibrated color quality. It is particularly suited to applications requiring maximum intensity for a given fixture size. L7 lampheads also provide the same light quality and simplicity of use as conventional tungsten Fresnels, and can easily be used alongside them.

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ACTIVE COOLING A new active cooling option for both the L7-C and the L7-T premiered at IBC, while still providing energy savings and impressive light output, it is now in a smaller and lighter package. Featuring a super quiet fan, L7 lampheads equipped with active cooling are ideal for low-ceilinged studios, portable lighting kits and location use, as their reduced size and weight make them easier to transport and allow them to be used in spaceconstrained environments.

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GO WIRELESS New wireless control options with the WCU-4 and CLM-4 ARRI’s Wireless Remote System is a sophisticated toolset for wirelessly controlling lens and camera functions on set. At IBC 2012 ARRI announced the new Wireless Compact Unit WCU-4, which will be the most sophisticated and user-friendly remote control on the market, succeeding the WCU-3.

The WCU-4 is an all-inclusive hand unit offering up to 3-axis of lens control. It includes a newly designed, super-smooth focus knob with adjustable friction and backlit, pre-marked focus rings that are readable in the dark. The whole unit is completely splash proof, further enhancing its typical ARRI reliability.

An advanced built-in iris slider has its scale on the 3” display, providing clearly readable T-stop numbers.

Included on the left side handle is an ergonomically designed, pressure-sensitive zoom knob. A user-programmable button underneath the handle permits rapid access to functions such as quick zoom (zap) or setting marks. An optional hand strap provides extra stability and leaves the thumb of the holding hand free, thus allowing even the most challenging simultaneous shifts of iris and focus.

The large 3” transflective display reflects ambient light and remains clearly visible even in direct sunlight, while also saving battery power. It provides enough room for status information of camera and hand unit, measured distances from ultrasonic devices or lens data in a graphical form. Focus, iris and zoom marks or limits can easily be set by pressing one of the sealed, backlit buttons next to the display. ARRI Lens

Data Display is integrated and when used with the ALEXA camera, the unit displays camera settings and status; it will even be possible to control ALEXA with the WCU-4 following a future software update.

One of the most groundbreaking new features of the WCU-4 is the option to use tactile feedback for electronic markers, limits or warnings. Essentially, focus pullers can set soft rather than hard stops, and the unit will vibrate to warn them when they are at their pre-set markers or limits, or if a camera warning occurs. This allows them to keep their

eyes on the performers at all times, leading to greater accuracy of focus.

Users can save their preferred settings on an SD card, enabling them to immediately personalize any WCU-4, anywhere in the world. The WCU-4 is designed to be expandable; new firmware versions can swiftly be installed to the unit via SD card. Various mounting points allow future accessories to be mounted, including brackets for mini monitors or iPod Touch. The unit is powered by an affordable camcorder battery and is compatible with existing ARRI motor controllers equipped with the white coded radio modem.

CONTROLLED LENS MOTOR CLM-4 Also unveiled at IBC, was a new Controlled Lens Motor CLM-4, available with various different gear modules. Flexible and highly affordable, the CLM-4 is a compact and lightweight lens motor which is faster and quieter than the CLM-2. The CLM-4 will prove especially useful in tight situations with limited space, since the gear modules can be mounted either side of the motor.

The motor offers rod-to-rod mounting options, as well as the standard rod bracket. The clamp console is adjustable and, crucially, the motor cable is detachable, allowing quick and easy on-set maintenance and trouble-shooting.

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ARRI Media Services: Projects & People New Chief Executive for the ARRI Rental Group ARRI has appointed Martin Cayzer as Chief Executive of its global network of camera and lighting rental operations. In this new role, Cayzer will have global responsibility for ARRI’s diverse rental businesses and service capabilities, with plans to extend global reach, grow the customer base and enhance market leadership.

MARTIN CAYZER

Prior to joining the ARRI Rental Group, Cayzer served as Managing Director of Panavision Asia Pacific for 13 years, responsible for its own operations and third party distributors throughout the region. He has 30 years experience through roles in a number of industry organizations in the UK, New Zealand and Australia, serving on the Board and as Chair of the Australian organization Ausfilm; a partnership organization between private industry and government responsible for connecting the international film community with Australia’s screen incentives, talent and facilities.

Cayzer says, “ARRI has a long history at the forefront of camera, digital intermediate and lighting technology and with the successful introduction of the ALEXA camera range and LED lighting systems, continues to be a leader in an industry in transition. It’s exciting to join ARRI at this particular time as it firmly stakes a key role in the future of our industry.

The ARRI Rental Group is a large and diverse group of companies. My role is to grow and link these businesses to create a truly global rental network that will support our increasingly mobile customers with the best technical solutions.”

ARRI Media introduces ALEXA Data app ARRI Media has released ALEXA Data, a free iPhone application that enables users to determine storage requirements when planning a shoot with any camera from the ALEXA family.

By inputting the relevant format into the data calculator (which might be ARRIRAW, uncompressed HD, ProRes or DNxHD), as well as the frame rate, users can immediately see how much time, or data capacity, is required. Simple controls and a single-screen interface allow a quick decision to be made about how many SxS cards, data packs and/or external hard drives a production will need.

The ALEXA Data home page also offers quick links to the ALEXA User Manual and Pocket Guide WebApp. To download the ALEXA Data app, search ‘ALEXA Data’ in the iTunes App Store.

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VISIONARRI

ARRI Lighting Rental ready to equip lighting directors with ARRI L-Series LED fixtures ARRI Lighting Rental in London now has significant stock levels of the ARRI L7-C LED-based Fresnel lamp. The versatility, efficiency and performance of the L7-C will appeal to lighting directors working on a diverse range of production types, allowing ARRI Lighting Rental to expand into the broadcast market and build on its core business of supplying lighting packages to major feature film and TV drama productions.

The L7-C is the top-of-the-range lamphead from ARRI’s L-Series, first launched in 2011 and now recognised as a breakthrough in the integration of LED technology into the film and broadcast industries. L-Series fixtures reduce electricity usage by 75%, permitting huge savings to be made in studio environments and greatly diminished power needs on location. Further savings are brought about by the exceptional life span of the LED light engine, which lasts around 200 times longer than a conventional tungsten bulb.

This extreme efficiency, coupled with the high quality of light output for which ARRI is world-renowned, makes L7-C lamps uniquely interesting to lighting directors for outside broadcasts or events, as well as the traditional situations in which a Fresnel might be used. The fixture’s precise control of color temperature and plus/minus green provides further creative options to lighting professionals.

“The L7-C is a fascinating and versatile lamp,” says Tommy Moran, Managing Director of ARRI Lighting Rental. “LED is here to stay and the L7-C brings quantifiable benefits in terms of being eco-friendly and drawing very little current. Of course, that’s doing myself out of revenue from generators, and the total color control of the L7-C also does away with the need for gels, but I have no doubt that these lights represent a big part of the future.”

Also reflecting ARRI Lighting Rental’s dedication to providing customers with a wide range of the most upto-date fixtures from ARRI is the company’s inventory of M-Series lights. The ARRIMAX, M18 and M40/25 lampheads all feature ARRI’s groundbreaking MAX Technology reflector design, which eliminates the need for spreader lenses and combines the advantages of a PAR with those of a Fresnel. The M-Series fixtures already on the shelf at ARRI Lighting Rental will soon be joined by the latest member of the family – the M90/60 – an affordable 9K HMI with light output close to that of a 12K, but similar in size and weight to a 6K, so easier to transport.

The ARRI Rental Group’s commitment to stocking the latest and most advanced fixtures across the group means that L7-C fixtures will also be available from ARRI Rental Germany as of January 2013.

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ARRI Media Services: Projects & People ARRI Film & TV opens in the heart of Berlin In October ARRI Film & TV opened a second location in Berlin. Now, in addition to Hohenzollerndamm, there is also a facility in Auguststraße 48, right in the creative heart of the capital.

ARRI Mitte’s core business is postproduction for feature films and commercials. The new ARRI flagship facility is spearheaded by Frieda Oberlin, Head of Production – Feature Films, and Wolf Bosse, Head of New Business Development.

Bosse studied graphic design in Braunschweig and Berlin. During the nineties he freelanced as a creative director, working for various productions in the German-speaking world and in New York. Between 1998 and 2000 he worked for ARRI Munich as a Senior Digital Artist and then went on to join the management team of Pictorion das Werk in Berlin.

In February 2012 he returned to ARRI, bringing his extensive experience and insider knowledge – particularly in the realm of motion graphic design and on-set supervising – to the newest ARRI facility in Berlin Mitte. VisionARRI asked Bosse about the concept behind ARRI’s latest Berlin venture.

VA:

What will ARRI Mitte be focusing on?

WB: We see ourselves as a creative addition to the ARRI locations at Hohenzollerndamm in Berlin and Türkenstraße in Munich. This allows us to provide the full range of services to our clients. We provide everything digital postproduction has to offer: digital grading, visual effects, compositing and editing, as well as developing motion graphic concepts. We also have our own grading cinema with 2K projection right here in the center of town.

VA: What projects are you currently working on and who are your clients?

WB: Frieda Oberlin and I were able to bring Til Schweiger’s company, Barefoot Films, to ARRI Mitte and so far we have worked on three of their feature films: Guardian Angel, Kokowääh 2 and Grossstadtklein – the directing debut of Tobias Wiemann, which Til Schweiger and Tom Zickler produced. These were the first digital productions for Barefoot Films, shot on the ALEXA provided by ARRI Rental Berlin. Most recently, we have finished color grading Matthias Schweighöfer’s new movie Schlussmacher, also shot on ALEXA.

We are also very well connected in Berlin’s advertising world and are working on campaigns for Nikon, Hornbach, BMW and Audi. In other words, all the major advertising agencies interested in moving images.

What was the reason for opening a second ARRI location in Berlin?

VisionARRI:

Wolf Bosse:

Clearly the proximity to our customers.

Many directors, DPs, production companies and advertising agencies are working in the vicinity. It’s the perfect location for another full-service postproduction facility. We are located in our own town house, a charming location, with a close-knit team of 14 people.

And we offer parking, a major plus in this part of town, although most clients walk or ride their bikes. Our bike rack is always crowded.

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Other projects include director Pepe Danquart’s Run, Boy, Run!, which we color graded, as well as a project for Wim Wender’s company, Neue Road Movies, called Kathedralen der Kultur – a 10-part TV documentary in 3D and 2D about the ‘souls’ of buildings such as the Berliner Philharmonie. We are also in talks to work on Wender’s next feature film, Everything Will Be Fine.

We should also mention the music video for the popular German band Tote Hosen and the new Berlinale trailer.

We are purposely mixing things up a bit.

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VISIONARRI

 ARRI MITTE: Philipp Orgassa, Matthias Schweighöfer, Bernhard Jasper, Hannah Lea Maag, Dan Maag (left to right)

VA: You mentioned commercials. What’s ARRI Mitte’s USP when dealing with that group of customers?

WB: We are not only attracting clients working nearby, but also have access to a large pool of digital artists.

Animation directors, art directors and designers, both local and international, find our new setup very appealing. In other words, ARRI Mitte doesn’t just offer our clients all the technological novelties, but also a complex and multifaceted creative service right on their doorstep, which makes us an active player in the field.

Technology-wise, ARRI Webgate is another USP: a fantastic tool, currently used primarily in the feature film world for rushes, that I would like to introduce to the

advertising world. I’m convinced that Webgate is a tool that will take commercial production to a whole new level, for example, when viewing various edits and to compare deliveries. This will facilitate the decision-making process on international productions, especially for agencies with offices on different continents. Even though the advertising and feature film worlds will use Webgate quite differently, the tool as such will prove incredibly useful for both, thanks to its clear logistics, easy log-in process, quick data transmission and, last but not least, its elegant appeal.

ARRI has just begun to make the results of its extensive research and development efforts in the realm of feature film production available to the advertising world. So there’s a great deal of opportunity here.

ARRI Sound acquires Jörn Poetzl’s legendary foley studio When Poetzl, one of the most renowned foley artists in Germany, decided to retire he surprised everyone at ARRI Sound with an offer to sell his studio in Munich Giesing, including the entire prop collection he had accumulated over the years. Over the course of his long career Poetzl had created sounds for hundreds of productions, including popular films such as Run Lola Run, Resident Evil, The Miracle of Bern, Good Bye, Lenin! and The Baader Meinhof Complex. “We were presented with an amazing opportunity to acquire the entire inventory that this master of his trade had amassed over his career,” says Sound Division Manager Daniel Vogl. “For us, it also meant we could hit the ground running, working with the best catalogue of foley props out there. ARRI Foley Artist Michael Stancyk will now call the foley studio his home.”

Bringing Poetzl’s studio into the ARRI family helped ease some logistical problems at ARRI Sound.

“Up until now, we used one studio for both voice and foley recording,” notes Vogl. “This required frequent set up changes, costing valuable time. Now the studio that was previously shared is exclusively used as an ADR recording studio for feature films.”

 FOLEY ARTIST Michael Stancyk

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ARRI Media Services: Projects & People Mortimer Warlimont joins ARRI Media Services as Visual Effects Supervisor

MORTIMER WARLIMONT

Mortimer Warlimont joined the ARRI VFX team in April to provide customers with creative, conceptual and technical support. Warlimont gained his extensive experience working in special effects for film, TV and commercials. After graduating from high school he studied analog SFX and model making. In 1996 he joined Magicon GmbH as a senior model maker and was responsible for commercials for McDonalds, Burger King, BMW, MediaMarkt, Toyota, Ferrero, VOX and Pro7, to name but a few, as well as feature films such as The Thirteenth Floor, Anatomy 1 & 2, Arac Attack and the Emmerich films The Patriot and 10,000 B.C. He then made the transition from SFX into VFX due to an ever growing demand for VFX from film as well as TV production companies. After freelancing for more than three years as a compositing artist, Warlimont joined Scanline VFX as a Senior Compositing Artist in 2007 and worked as lead compositor on international projects such as The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, 2012, The Ghostwriter, Immortals, Looper and, last but not least, Marvel’s The Avengers, as well as on local fare, including Lissi and the Wild Emperor, Wickie the Viking and Desert Flower. VisionARRI spoke to the new VFX Supervisor and to ARRI Head of VFX Dominik Trimborn about the organizational changes resulting from the expansion of the VFX team.

Which areas at ARRI VFX will be strengthened by the incoming supervisor?

VisionARRI:

Dominik Trimborn: The rapid growth of the ARRI VFX division has to be handled properly. The number of projects has doubled in the last two years, while the size of our team has remained the same. At the same time, prices in the VFX sector have dropped drastically.

We can only compensate for that by continuing to improve communication and adopting a seamless operating pipeline for current projects. David Laubsch and Stefan Tischner are two excellent supervisors in charge of operations, but we needed someone who could take over the task of assisting the customers, creatively and technically. Also, as head of ARRI VFX, I’m responsible not only for the Munich offices, but also for Berlin and Cologne. That, sadly, leaves me less and less time to work directly with our customers. Mortimer will also lend a hand to Abraham Schneider, who’s taken on the role of Technical Director and, as such, is in charge of optimizing, overseeing and technically standardizing the organization and infrastructure of the ARRI pipeline that connects Munich, Berlin and Cologne, which is used for asset management purposes. The main goal for 2013 is to continue to streamline the structure and logistics of these ARRI VFX locations.

A question for the new VFX Supervisor: What are your strengths?

VA:

Mortimer Warlimont:

I’m very result-oriented. The main questions for me are: what’s the goal and what’s the quickest way to accomplish the task at hand? Even if

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there is a standardized procedure in place already, it’s always exciting to find an even simpler and more efficient solution. That might be a trait of people, like myself, who are self-taught because most of what I know I taught myself early on and have since perfected.

VA: What are your expectations related to your new position at ARRI? MW: Most of all, to be in direct contact with customers and to help shape the overall projects they are working on. To not just complete a few shots on the computer, but to work on the concept, to create designs and to ensure that it all makes sense – that the artwork and the look really work for the story the client is trying to tell.

VA:

What can customers expect from you?

MW: Because of my background I bring extensive on-set experience to the table. I really like being on the set and think you only understand DPs and directors when you work side by side. Plus, I know VFX and SFX very well. It allows me to help clients find the best possible solutions, whether VFX solutions or in-camera shots, early on in the planning stages of a project.

VA: Do you see yourself more as a creative person or a technical guy?

MW: I try to combine the creative with the technical, to be creative in a way that is technically and economically feasible. It is also my job to ensure that a project is completed in the time allotted and meets the highest quality standards, thereby ensuring the best possible results for the customer.

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VISIONARRI

ARRI Worldsales grows its portfolio “Family entertainment made in Germany is enjoying enormous popularity worldwide and is quite successful at the international box office,” says ARRI Acquisitions & Sales Director Moritz Hemminger. “That’s why ARRI Worldsales has added three more titles to our growing catalog.”

The first of the three is Die Vampirschwestern (Claussen+Wöbke+Putz Filmproduktion; director: Wolfgang Groos) based on Franziska Gehm’s eponymous and successful children’s book series. After screening the trailer, presales were completed for the Benelux countries and also Estonia. “The response at the American Film Market (AFM) showed that teen vampires, thanks to Twilight, are still popular,” says Hemminger. “We are currently in final negotiations with several other international distributors.” Die Vampirschwestern screened in the highly regarded Enfant Terribles section at the renowned FICX International Film Festival in Gijón.

to potential buyers at the Toronto Film Festival in the form of a special promo. Another title is Die andere Heimat (ERF Filmproduktion München), from the renowned director of the Heimat family saga, Edgar Reitz. A teaser of the film was presented in Venice.

“It’s a tradition because all the films in the Heimat series have had their world premier in Venice,” explains Antonio Exacoustos, Head of ARRI Worldsales. “Reitz is held in high esteem in Italy.”

Both titles were also presented at AFM. “We are aiming to premiere both of these films at A-list festivals next year, some of whom have already expressed interest,” adds Exacoustos.

Another family entertainment highlight is V8 – Du willst der Beste sein (Rat Pack Filmproduktion, B.A. Filmproduktion/ARRI), the latest franchise from Wild Soccer Bunch creator, writer and director Joachim Masannek. This time the story is set in the world of go-cart racing, with characters that not only race, but also build their own carts.

The current hot-button issue, the banking crises and its effects on people’s lives all over the world, is the topic of another film in ARRI Worldsales’ portfolio: The Domino Effect (The Domino Effect B.V.), from Dutch director Paula van der Oest, whose film Zus & Zo was nominated for an Oscar in the category Best Foreign Language film. The Domino Effect was presented recently at the Warsaw and Busan Film Festivals and at AFM.

The third title, an absolute classic, promises to garner a great deal of attention in 2013 due to its impressive visual effects: Das Kleine Gespenst (Claussen+Wöbke+Putz Filmproduktion, B.A. Filmproduktion/ARRI; director: Alain Gsponer), based on Otfried Preußler’s wildy popular children’s book that has been translated into 30 languages.

ARRI Worldsales is also offering some notable dramas such as Exit Marrakech (Desert Flower Filmproduktion, B.A. Filmproduktion/ARRI), the latest film from Oscarwinning director Caroline Link, which was introduced

In Ourense, Sao Paulo and at AFM, ARRI Worldsales presented Little Thirteen (X Filme Creative Pool) to potential buyers. The student film and graduation project of director Christian Klandt (HFF Potsdam) takes a look at the shocking life of the ‘porn generation’, adolescents in Berlin incapable of forming emotional connections who resort to sex in order to experience closeness.

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ARRI Media Services: Projects & People A full schedule for ARRI Film & TV’s VFX department It’s been an eventful second half of 2012 for ARRI Film & TV’s VFX department and there won’t be much downtime in 2013.

“Things around here didn’t slow down over the summer,” ARRI Head of VFX Dominik Trimborn is proud to report, looking back on a number of completed projects. “And there won’t be any downtime between now and the end of the year.”

Among the recent projects: the Wachowski/Tykwer epic Cloud Atlas (X-Filme Creative Pool), a film based on children’s book series Die Vampirschwestern (Claussen+Wöbke+Putz Filmproduktion) and Rubinrot, the first film from the teen romance and time travel trilogy Liebe geht durch alle Zeiten (Lieblingsfilm, mem Film, Concorde, Geißendörfer).

But ARRI VFX also tackled some interesting challenges on Ludwig II (Bavaria Pictures, Warner Bros.). The biopic about the Bavarian fairy tale prince Ludwig II included a number of dream sequences, one of which shows him riding across Lake Starnberg on horseback.

“That was a rather complex shot. The horse had to be

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filmed in front of a greenscreen, while the water and the mountains for the background had to be generated on the computer,” explains ARRI VFX Supervisor Abraham Schneider. “Water simulations are one of the most demanding tasks of VFX work because it’s incredibly hard to make it look realistic.” Other highlights include scenes showing Neuschwanstein Castle under original construction, for which in-camera shots had to be combined with 3D set extensions, and a scene where Munich’s Odeonsplatz had to be filled with 3,000 people for a wide shot. “In order to keep the lighting consistent,” recalls Schneider, “we had to shoot extras one at a time in front of the greenscreen and later create a crowd, adding them to the final shot on the computer.“ The rest of year belongs to V8 – Du willst der Beste sein (Ratpack Filmproduktion, Universal), a family movie for race cart fans from director Joachim Masannek.

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VISIONARRI

Upcoming projects include: Leander Haußmann’s Hai-Alarm am Müggelsee, the kidnapping drama 3096 Natascha Kampusch (Constantin), directed by Sherry Hormann; the high-profile TV movie Der Fall Hagedorn (ARD-WDR, Westside Filmproduktion), about a dramatic child kidnapping case in former East Germany; and the Norwegian project Pioneer, for which ARRI VFX Cologne will create numerous 3D underwater sequences, including a research submarine. “The previz for the shots in question are already completed and 3D modeling is underway,” says Trimborn. Meanwhile, the VFX team in Munich is looking forward to compositing the 3D elements for the adaptation of the classic children’s book Das kleine Gespenst (Claussen+ Wöbke+Putz Filmproduktion).

It’s one of the most VFX-heavy projects ever to be completed in Germany and will be released theatrically in 2013.

ARRI Sound Munich invests in studio technology and infrastructure

ARRI Sound has acquired a new backend (Harrison XRange) for its largest sound studio, Stage 1 (roominside-a-room construction, 220-square-meter room with 42-square-meter screen). The new mixing console of Stage 1 now has 336 channels, instead of 160, offering more than twice the capacity. Studio A (80-square-meter room with 20-square-meter screen) has had a major upgrade as well. The backend has been exchanged and now offers 160 input channels, therefore doubling the studio’s performance. Also upgraded was the Avid Pro Tools hardware, thereby bringing all ARRI sound departments, including Berlin and Cologne, technically up to date. Consolidating the technology and the fact that both studios, Munich and Berlin, are now acoustically at the same standard makes data swaps more or less seamless. “Plus, the members of ARRI’s sound team are extremely flexible and don’t mind spending a few weeks in Berlin instead of Munich,” says ARRI Creative Sound Division Manager Tschangis Chahrok-Zadeh.

“We wanted to make Studio A more interesting for feature films with a mid-range budget – films that can’t afford a sound mix on Stage 1 but need more technical capabilities than Studio A previously offered,” says ARRI Sound Division Manager Daniel Vogl, explaining the recently implemented changes. “We believe we’ve closed a crucial gap for our customers. Stage 1 is now available for premium, high-end productions, while Studio A offers the perfect solution for feature films with a medium-size budget.”

Chahrok-Zadeh adds: “Until now we couldn’t properly service those films because we had to switch studios during the workflow. This meant we did an initial mix in Studio A and then, towards the end, moved to Stage 1. Now we are able to complete smaller projects, from start to finish, in Studio A. This also means our customers save money because they get more for the same price.”

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ARRI Media Services: Projects & People ARRI Media Services supports the fight against xenophobia ARRI Rental and ARRI Film & TV recently sponsored a public service announcement (PSA)

by Munich’s Lichterkette e.V., supplying camera equipment and handling postproduction. director Marcus H. Rosenmüller, producer Robert Marciniak and their production company Lieblingsfilme. Other renowned supporters were Iris Berben, Doris Dörrie, Amelie Fried, Billie Zöckler, and the Sportfreunde Stiller, as well as Munich’s mayor, Christian Ude. ARRI provided all the equipment (an ALEXA camera, lenses, grip and lighting), as well as an AVID edit suite and postproduction services free of charge.

“Lichterkette e.V. is a charity that ARRI Media Services supports wholeheartedly,” says ARRI Creative Director Jürgen Schopper, who was on hand on set as VFX supervisor during the shoot (DP: Stefan Biebl). “As a Munich-based company of world renown, ARRI wants to join this plea for tolerance and mutual respect.”

“ARRI WENT ABOVE AND BEYOND IN SUPPORTING US AS WE WERE MAKING THIS PSA. NOT JUST WITH TECHNICAL SUPPORT, BUT WITH IDEAS AND SUGGESTIONS ON HOW WE COULD REALIZE OUR VISION, WHICH MADE IT ALL THE MORE FUN FOR US TO WORK ON THIS PROJECT!” Director Markus H. Rosenmüller

In the fall of 1992 several arson attacks on shelters for asylum seekers were carried out in Germany.

To condemn these crimes four private citizens from Munich organized a candlelight vigil on December 6, 1992, where more than 400,000 people gathered to make a stand against xenophobia and right-wing extremism.

Twenty years later the charity Lichterkette e.V. is commemorating these events with a public service announcement called München schaut hin! (Munich doesn’t turn a blind eye), which will premiere during an event at Munich’s Literaturhaus. It is also an appeal to continue to oppose any and all forms of xenophobia and discrimination, and a reminder that the issues are still as relevant as ever.

Lichterkette e.V. was able solicit the help of numerous famous supporters to create this PSA, among them

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In München schaut hin! a local resident of a foreign nationality is brutally attacked in a Biergarten, a traditional Bavarian outdoor pub. Several onlookers come to his aide, taking a stand against violence and hatred. Eventually even the statue Bavaria, a colossal 18-meter monument in Munich’s Theresienwiese, joins in by reaching down, grabbing the perpetrator and giving him a piece of her mind. For this highlight of the PSA, ARRI Film & TV’s VFX department created a computer generated 3D model of the statue, applied the necessary texture and animated it.

Two versions of the München schaut hin! PSA were created: a longer version for use in movie theaters and a shorter one for broadcast purposes and for display on digital screens in subway stations and other public places.

10729 Vision ARRI 14 AW5_A4 15/11/2012 11:33 Page 45

VISIONARRI ON LOCATION: DP Stefan Biebl, director Marcus H. Rosenmüller and ARRI’s Creative Director Jürgen Schopper (left to right)

ARRI VFX Team Head of VFX: Dominik Trimborn

Compositing Trainee: Christina Greiner

VFX Producer: Nina Knott

Head of 3D: Michael Koch

VFX Creative Director: Jürgen Schopper

3D Artist: Markus Hund

Senior Compositing Artist: Stefan Tischner, Mortimer Warlimont

3D Trainee: Kim Karic

Compositing Artist: Thomas Hansen

ARRI identifies projects to co-produce Cherry-picking from among a large selection of possible candidates, those in charge at B.A. Filmproduktion/ARRI are confident they have chosen the most promising productions to co-produce.

“Exit Marrakech from Oscar-winner Caroline Link (Desert Flower Filmproduktion), V8 – Du willst der Beste sein from Wild Soccer Bunch author Joachim Masannek (Rat Pack Filmproduktion), the war drama Run, Boy, Run! (director: Pepe Danquart; ARD-BR) and the tragicomedy Sein letztes Rennen (director: Kilian Riedhof; Neue Schönhauser Filmproduktion) are projects we have recently decided to co-produce because we see their potential, not just for the German but also the international market,” says Antonio Exacoustos, ARRI Head of Worldsales and Production.

Locally, the search for interesting co-productions will most likely focus on Berlin and possibly the state of North Rhein-Westphalia, suggests Exacoustos.

Internationally, the emphasis will be on large, English-language co-productions with family-oriented content. “Prestigious art house projects from renowned directors,” explains Acquisitions & Sales Director Moritz Hemminger, “are also an exciting option and definitely fit the producing strategy that ARRI is pursuing.”

Becoming a member of the European Producers Club (EPC) was, according to ARRI Worldsales Consultant Wolfram Skowronnek-Schaer, another step in the right direction. It allows ARRI to take an early look at projects, often still in the writing stage, to evaluate possible participation options and the projects world sales potential.

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PRODUCTION UPDATE

ARRI RENTAL Title

Production Company Director

DoP

Equipment

Das kleine Gespenst

Alain Gsponer

Matthias Fleischer

ARRI ALEXA

Gerhard Schirlo Jana Marsik

ARRI ALEXA ARRI ALEXA, Lighting, Grip

Kokowääh 2 A Most Wanted Man

Holger Haase Leander Haußmann, Sven Regener Til Schweiger Anton Corbijn Jim Jarmusch Erik Skjoldbjærg Pepe Danquart

Yorick le Saux Jallo Faber Daniel Gottschalk

Claussen+Wöbke+Putz Filmproduktion Da geht noch was!

Olga Film Hai-Alarm am Müggelsee X Film Creative Pool

Only Lovers Left Alive Pioneer Run, Boy, Run!

Barefoot Productions A Most Wanted Man Production Pandora Film Pandora Film bittersuess pictures

The Borgias (Season 3)

Mid Atlantic Film

Crossing Lines

Stillking Films, Tandem Communications

Zappelphilipp

Neue Schönhauser Filmproduktion Hager Moss Film

Lena Fauch und die Pflicht zu schweigen Tatort – Macht und Ohnmacht

X Film Creative Pool

Neil Jordan, John Maybury Daniel Percival Andy Wilson, Eric Valette Hettie MacDonald Hannu Salonen Connie Walther

Adrian Cranage ARRI ALEXA Benoit Delhomme AFC ARRI ALEXA, Lighting, Grip ARRI ALEXA ARRI ALEXA, Lighting, Grip ARRICAM Studio & Lite 2-perforation, ARRI ALEXA, Lighting Paul Sarossy BSC, CSC, ARRI ALEXA, Lighting, Grip Pierre Gill Laurent Barès ARRI ALEXA, Lighting, Grip

Birgit Gudjonsdotztir

ARRI ALEXA, Lighting, Grip

Johannes Fabrick

Helmut Pirnat

ARRI ALEXA, Lighting, Grip

Thomas Stiller

Phillip Sichler

ARRIFLEX 416, Lighting, Grip

ARRI LIGHTING RENTAL Title

Production Company

Director

DoP

Gaffer

Best Boy

The World's End Red 2

Blank Pictures R2 Productions

Edgar Wright Dean Parisot

Philomena Belle One Chance The Two Faces of January Game of Thrones (Season 3)

Philomena Lost Child Pinewood Films No.3 One Chance Films Zelus Pictures

Stephen Frears Amma Asante David Frankel Hossein Amini

Bill Pope ASC Enrique Chediak 2nd Unit: Harvey Harrison BSC Robbie Ryan BSC Ben Smithard BSC Florian Ballhaus Marcel Zyskind

John Colley Andy Long 2nd Unit: Steve Foster Andy Cole Mike Chambers Paul McGeaghan Mark Clayton

Darren Harvey Mark Hanlon 2nd Unit: Anthony Goulding Paul Cronin Steve O’donaghue Will Kendal Benny Harper

Fire & Blood Productions

Alik Sakharov

David Katznelson BSC Chris Seager BSC

Vikings

World 2000, Take 5 Productions Cowboy Films Universal Media Studios International Carnival Film & Television

Ciaran Donnelly Johan Renck Kevin Macdonald Christopher Guest

John S. Bartley

Dragon Unit: Tom Gates Wolf Unit: Rocky Evans Terry Mulligan

Dragon Unit: George White Wolf Unit: Mark Gay Kevin Scott

Franz Lustig Roberto Schaefer ASC, AIC

Mark Clayton Larry Prinz

Benny Harper Richard Potter

Geoff Sax

David Higgs

Dan Fontaine

Terry Montague

STV Romer Films

Marek Losey Edward Hall

Balazs Bolygo HSC David Higgs BSC

Warren Ewen Dan Fontaine

Kudos (L&O)

Matt King

Simon Archer BSC

Chris Bird

Anthony Goulding John Walker/ Chris Mortley Toby Flesher

Selfish Giant Film Big Talk Productions Daybreak Pictures

Clio Barnard Richard Laxton Simon Cellan Jones

Mike Eley BSC Tim Palmer Tony Slater-Ling

Paul Murphy Colin Thwaites Paul Murphy

Peter Gilmour David Owen

How I Live Now Family Tree Murder on the Homefront The Poison Tree Restless Law & Order: UK (Series 4) Selfish Giant Him & Her The Politicians Husband

BSC

ARRI CSC Title

Production Company DoP/Lighting Director Gaffer

Noah The Wolf of Wallstreet

Paramount Paramount

Matthew Libatique ASC Rodrigo Prieto ASC, AMC

The Americans FX Networks/USA Elementary CBS Delivery Man Dreamworks

Richard Rutkowski Ron Fortunato ASC Eric Edwards

Graceland Wish You Well The Voice Homeland

Edward Pei ASC Frank Prinzi ASC Alex Van Wagner Nelson Cragg

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Fox Television Wish You Well, LLC Finnmax Pacific 2.1

John Velez Bill O’Leary

Equipment

ARRICAM, HD-IVS ARRICAM, HD-IVS, ARRI ALEXA Studio, Codex Recorders, Lighting & Grip Jimmy Dolan ARRI ALEXA, Lighting & Grip Kevin Janicelli ARRI ALEXA, Lighting & Grip Ken Shibatta ARRICAM, HD-IVS, Lighting & Grip Fred Valentine ARRI ALEXA Doug Shannon ARRI ALEXA, Lighting & Grip Oscar Dominguez Automated Lighting Tommy Sullivan ARRI ALEXA

Serviced by ARRI CSC NJ ARRI CSC NJ ARRI CSC NJ ARRI CSC NJ ARRI CSC NJ ARRI CSC FL Illumination Dynamics NC Illumination Dynamics LA Illumination Dynamics NC

10729 Vision ARRI 14 AW5_A4 15/11/2012 12:24 Page 47

VISIONARRI

ARRI FILM & TV - POST PRODUCTION SERVICES - FEATURES Title

Production Company

Fünf Freunde 2 Sam Film Da geht noch was! Olga Film Der Kanal Zum Goldenen Lamm Filmproduktion Großstadtklein Barefoot Film Hai-Alarm am X Filme Creative Pool Müggelsee Lagerfeuer zero one film Ostwind Sam Film Pioneer Pandora Film Rubinrot Lieblingsfilm Run, Boy, Run! bittersuess pictures Schlussmacher Pantaleon Film Sein letztes Rennen Neue Schönhauser Filmproduktion V8 – Du willst der Rat Pack Filmproduktion Beste sein

Director

DoP

Services

Mike Marzuk Holger Haase Marc Rensing

Bernhard Jasper Gerhard Schirlo Tom Fährmann

Digital Dailies, DI, HD-Mastering, Sound, Lab Digital Dailies, DI, HD-Mastering, Lab Digital Dailies, DI, HD-Mastering, Sound, Lab

Tobias Wiemann Leander Haußmann, Sven Regener Christian Schwochow Katja von Garnier Erik Skjoldbjærg Felix Fuchssteiner Pepe Danquart Mathias Schweighöfer Kilian Riedhof

Martin Schlecht Jana Marsik

Digital Dailies, DI, HD-Mastering, Sound, Lab Digital Dailies, DI, HD-Mastering, Sound, VFX, Lab

Frank Lamm Torsten Breuer Jallo Faber Sonja Rom Daniel Gottschalk Bernhard Jasper Judith Kaufmann

Lab, Rushes, DI, HD-Mastering DI, HD-Mastering, Sound, Lab VFX, DI, Lab VFX Lab, Rushes, DI, HD-Mastering DI, Lab Digital Dailies, DI, HD-Mastering, Lab

Joachim Masannek

Benjamin Dernbacher

Digital Dailies, DI, HD-Mastering, Sound, VFX, Lab

ARRI FILM & TV - POST PRODUCTION SERVICES - COMMERCIALS Client

Title

Agency

Production

Director

DoP

Redcoon McDonald’s Carrera McDonald’s

So viel Billig gab’s noch nie Independent und Kids Go und RC Junge Liebe und Schlaflied Shape 12/2012

Neverest Heye & Partner

Mr. Bob Film Tony Petersen Film e+p commercial Markenfilm Crossing

Sven Bollinger Rey Carlson Reiner Holzemer Gregor Schnitzler

Thomas Kürzl Peter Mayer Peter Aichholzer Andi Berger

Food Hüttengaudi EOFT 2012 Messebespielung Paris Olympia London 2012 Perlweiss Schönheitszahnweiss

Heye & Partner

Ernst Kalff Diverse

Sebastian Cramer Diverse

Rico Reitz Jan Voss

Murnauer Nik Summerer

MVG Medien Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co McDonald’s EOFT Skoda BMW Markenvertrieb GmbH

Heye & Partner

welovefilm

BECC lucie_p Bloom Project

Rapid Eye Movement HelliVentures lucie_p lucie_p Lüthje Schneider Hörl Film

ARRI MEDIA Title

Production Company

Molly Moon: Amber Entertainment The Incredible Hypnotist Red 2 R2 Productions Sunshine on Leith DNA Films, Black Camel Pictures Kick-Ass 2 Marv Films Southcliffe Warp Films The Two Faces Zelus Pictures of January Game of Thrones Fire & Blood Productions (Season 3) The Royle Family Jellylegs Productions Christmas Special The Café (Season 2) Jellylegs Productions Calvary Octagon Films Call the Midwife (Season 2) Mr Selfridge

Director

DoP

Christopher N. Rowley Dean Parisot Dexter Fletcher

Remi Adefarasin

Enrique Chediak George Richmond

ARRI ALEXA Studio & Plus 4:3, Codex Recorders, Grip ARRICAM Lite, HD-IVS, ARRIFLEX 435 & 235, Grip ARRI ALEXA Studio, Master Primes

Jeff Wadlow Sean Durkin Hossein Amini

Tim Maurice-Jones Matyas Erdely Marcel Zyskind

ARRI ALEXA Studio, Codex Recorders, Grip ARRI ALEXA, Master Primes, Grip ARRI ALEXA Plus 4:3, Grip

Alik Sakharov

David Katznelson Chris Seager BSC Jeremy Hiles

Caroline Aherne

Equipment BSC

BSC

ARRI ALEXA, Codex Recorders, Grip ARRI ALEXA

David Marsh Larry Smith BSC

ARRICAM Studio & Lite 3-perforation ARRI ALEXA

CTM Productions

Robin Sheppard John Michael McDonagh Minkie Spiro

Simon Archer BSC

ARRIFLEX D-21, Grip

ITV Studios

Michael Keillor

Owen McPolin

ARRI ALEXA, Alura Zooms, Grip

In the last edition of VisionARRI, the surname of Martin Schlecht was spelled incorrectly within the production update list of ARRI Film & TV - Features. We would like to apologise for the mistake.

Published by the ARRI Rental Group Marketing Department. 3 Highbridge, Oxford Road, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 1LX United Kingdom The opinions expressed by individuals quoted in articles in VisionARRI do not necessarily represent those of the ARRI Rental Group or the editors. Due to our constant endeavour to improve quality and design, modifications may be made to products from time to time. Details of availability and specifications given in this publication are subject to change without notice.

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10729 Vision ARRI 14 AW5_A4 15/11/2012 11:40 Page 48

THE PERFECT PARTNERSHIP: ALEXA & THE ARRI RENTAL GROUP Combine ALEXA with the ARRI Rental Group’s unrivalled knowledge and experience in supplying high-end cameras and you’ve got the perfect partnership.

With the addition of the ALEXA Studio, ALEXA M and ALEXA Plus 4:3, the ARRI Rental Group’s family of ALEXA cameras has grown into a versatile production system that can accommodate all styles of filmmaking, including anamorphic.

Whichever of the ALEXA cameras or many ALEXA output options best suits

THE MOST COMPLETE DIGITAL CAMERA SYSTEM EVER BUILT

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