SOLO STORIES
Fullest Star Wars coverage
HOW WAS IT?
The Cine Gear experience
PERIOD TWIST
New take on costume drama
MAJESTIC
The Crown Season 2 definitionmagazine.com
July 2018
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EVOLVING EPISODICS
How to shoot sci-fi for Netflix
SEXThe AND POLITICS look of an English scandal MEGATRENDS: A CHANGING WORLD SEE PAGE 57
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03 ARRI DNA:
A Star Wars Story – ARRI creates the right 50mm optic.
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Definition is published monthly by Bright Publishing Ltd, Bright House, 82 High Street, Sawston, Cambridge CB22 3HJ. No part of this magazine can be used without prior written permission of Bright Publishing Ltd. Definition is a registered trademark of Bright Publishing Ltd. The advertisements published in Definition that have been written, designed or produced by employees of Bright Publishing Ltd remain the copyright of Bright Publishing Ltd and may not be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. Prices quoted in sterling, euros and US dollars are street prices, without tax, where available or converted using the exchange rate on the day the magazine went to press.
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Welcome
It was so obvious if you thought about it. While the core story of the series of Star Wars movies was untouchable in terms of its look, the offshoots, the Star Wars Story series didn’t have such restraints and were much more open to interpretation. Within that interpretation came the opportunity for the DOP to investigate different formats and tones. Last year we had Rogue One: A Star Wars Story with DOP Greig Fraser championing a camera format that was still wet behind the ears and new to ‘A’ camera territory. He pushed for the ARRI ALEXA 65 camera even with the drought of glass which would work with it. Now we have Solo: A Stars Wars Story and DOP Bradford Young is again bringing darkness to these ‘single subject’ tales. He was also tough on his supplier and was even unsure about digital as 35mm film seemed more of a comfortable choice for him. Bradford wanted a dark and gritty look, which would reflect the tale of Hans Solo ten years before the first ever film appeared. So he was looking at it as a period piece. He wanted lenses that would give him this dark quality and allow him to play around in the shadows. ARRI was put under enormous pressure to create such a lens, a 50mm model which formed the origins of its DNA range. They made it, see the picture above, but if you want to know where the base optics are from, DNA means: Do Not Ask.
JULIAN MITCHELL EDITOR @DEFINITIONMAGS
JULY 2018 DEFINITION
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NEWS FEATURE
VITEC GROUP EXPANDS IN BRITAIN Something old, something new: established Vitec Group opens new building
he Vitec Group’s Production Solutions Division has opened a new facility, on a new site in Bury St Edmunds, UK, a town where they have been since 1964. The new 66,000 square foot Vitec Production Solutions UK headquarters is the latest achievement in Vitec’s ongoing investment in Bury St Edmunds and in British engineering and manufacturing. Employing close to 200 people, the new facility is the design home of the company’s teleprompting and broadcast camera
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ABOVE Supporting its positive view of the future, Vitec Group has opened a new UK HQ.
support brands, including Autocue, Autoscript, O’Connor, Sachtler and Vinten. The factory includes an advanced carbon-fibre cell for the manufacture of the award-winning camera tripod, flowtech. “After a 54-year presence in Bury St Edmunds, the investment in this new purpose-built site reflects the success of our premium brands in the global marketplace,” said Stephen Bird, Group CEO. “We’re very proud of the outstanding accomplishments of our people and our products, and
the industry leadership they have built in key areas of the broadcast market.” The Vitec Group employs around 1700 people in 11 different countries across the globe and is organised into three divisions; imaging solutions, production solutions and creative solutions. The Vitec Group plc is publicly traded on the LSE with 2017 revenues of £378.1 million. In 1910, William Vinten founded a company to manufacture projection machines for Kinemacolor, the world’s first successful colour motion picture
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FEATURE NEWS
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THE REAL REASON OUR BRANDS HAVE REMAINED AT THE CUTTING EDGE
process. Over the ensuing decades, W Vinten Ltd would go on to invent and commercialise groundbreaking cameras and, later, camera supports, cranes, dollies and pan-tilt camera heads. Early on, the BBC standardised on Vinten equipment, a partnership that remains strong today. The company relocated to Bury St Edmunds in the mid-1960s and later changed its name to The Vitec Group. The Vinten name lives on as a leading manufacturer of manual and robotic camera support systems and accessories.
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Of the new opening, Alan Hollis, Divisional CEO, Vitec Production Solutions, commented, “Through the years, our people have been our greatest asset and the real reason our brands have remained at the cutting edge of innovation. Our new divisional headquarters has been designed to reflect our people-centric approach, with workspaces focused on communication and collaboration. I would like to congratulate the crossfunctional team that has made the move a success, all of the fantastic
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ABOVE Keeping it in the family: Elaine Vinten officially opens Vitec’s new facility.
people of Vitec Production Solutions and the broader Bury St Edmunds community.” The official opening celebration included key company and community representatives such as Elaine Vinten, the wife of Bill Vinten (son of Vinten founder William Vinten); members of Vitec’s Board of Directors and leadership team; Bury St Edmunds community figures; contracting companies for the new facility’s design and construction; and current and former staff members.
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SHOOT STORY LOST IN SPACE
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LOST IN SPACE SHOOT STORY
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The techniques of shooting TV episodics are being refined by some very experienced crew. Netflix’s Lost in Space is a great example WORDS JULIAN MITCHELL IMAGES NETFLIX he TV and movie business is also a people business – something DOP Sam McCurdy can attest to, as his star has risen alongside that of his friend, Director Neil Marshall. These two Newcastle lads started out shooting and directing some quite dark material, with adult-oriented drama including Dog Soldiers, The Descent, Centurion and a stint on Game Of Thrones before Netflix commissioned them to take on the heavy lifting on Lost in Space, a more family-friendly show. “I hadn’t really done any family drama,” says Sam on being faced with filming the ‘Swiss Family Robinson’ in space. “But we knew we weren’t afraid of going dark in the style of maybe Jurassic Park or some of the later Harry Potter movies. We wanted to push that family limit but not too far.” Netflix itself was very keen to keep the show family friendly but with an edge. It is their first attempt at that kind of science fiction, a story that was very much about the characters and their journeys. It had to be family based but still gripping.
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“From my experience on Game Of Thrones, the overall style of the piece emanates more from the content than the way we photographed it,” says Sam. “You try and allow the script and story to define the style of what you end up doing. You’d think that if you put a dozen episodes of Game Of Thrones back to back that they would end up looking very similar. We were given carte blanche on that show as directors and cinematographers so the characters within those stories were also defining the style. “I really like that way of working as you don’t go in paying homage to anything or referencing any other content. You may use some material as a tonal reference but then let the script dictate how everything was photographed. For instance, in the pilot and the second episode of Lost in Space we kept the camera very static to let the family introduce themselves in their new environment. New planet, new ship and the rest. This allows the audience to take everything in, so there wasn’t a lot of handheld; in fact we kept well
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FEATURE VERA
MATCHING THE MASTERS More great cinematography from UK series Vera. This time DOP Stephen Murphy talks about using Fujinon zooms to enhance Master Prime glass WORDS JULIAN MITCHELL IMAGES ITV
STEPHEN AND HIS DIRECTOR USED AN OLD BUT TRIED-AND-TESTED MOVIE TECHNIQUE USING FUJINON TELEPHOTO LENSES
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s we’ve mentioned before in Definition, the UK drama series Vera has become a hotbed for superb cinematography. Series eight particularly had some amazing examples, including episode one, shot by Stephen Murphy. Episode one was a grisly tale from the off, involving a blackened body found in an abattoir incinerator; perhaps it’s no wonder Stephen wanted to darken the mood. “I wanted this season opener to have a darker, moodier feeling to it,” he says. “It had some very visual locations right from the start, with the abattoir, the seaside landscapes, the moors... so I was aiming for a Scandi-Noir version of Northern England. “I tried to keep most of the interiors feeling like they were lit from a large single source outside the windows, letting the light fall off very naturally inside. To achieve this, I’d usually work with Gaffer extraordinaire Tony Cook to use large HMIs (18K HMI Fresnels and ARRI M90s) pushed through layers of Day-Grey muslin, sometimes double diffused through an additional layer of Lee 129 Heavy Soft Frost. If necessary I’d supplement
close-ups with a 4x4 key light, usually a Kino Flo four-feet 4tube through a frame of Lee 129 using a DOP Choice Snap Grid to keep the light off the walls. I’d usually add a light amount of atmosphere too. I’m not a huge fan of LED lights so I try to favour larger HMI or Tungsten Fresnels outside the set with smaller lamps and practicals indoors.” NARRATIVE GLASS Stephen and his director had definite ideas for focal lengths to make the most of the Vera personality but also used an old but tried-and-tested movie technique using Fujinon telephoto lenses. “For our interior coverage the director (Paul Gay) and I found a very nice visual language relying primarily on a 25mm for our wide shots and moving physically closer on a 40mm for our close ups. While we did use other focal lengths when needed, that initial limited lens choice gave us a visual core that worked incredibly well and gave a very consistent, classical visual style. “For our exterior coverage I had something slightly different in mind. I had wanted to carry a set of
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VERA FEATURE
long telephoto zooms with me to compliment the Master Primes I was using so I tested and then used the Fujinon HK Premier 24-180mm and 75-400mm, both of which are a great match for Zeiss and Leica glass. I had an idea their range and compact size would be useful in several locations, but I also wanted to try shooting our exterior wide shots on a longer than usual focal length, to try and compress the backdrops, and give a slightly more dramatic look to the city and some of the landscapes we would be shooting. “The character of the Fujinon zooms was a nice match to the Master Primes particularly in terms of their contrast, sharpness and how they rendered colours, especially all the delicate shades of grey blue in the sea in our coastal locations. The 75-400mm was surprisingly small for such a long focal length zoom, especially compared to something like the Hawk 150-450mm which is a similar focal range. The smaller size and weight of the lenses helped to keep us light on our feet which is a distinct advantage on any busy TV drama schedule.”
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COUNTRYSIDE CHARACTER As other DOPs have found, the landscape from the Vera series almost begs you to use it as a character but Stephen would take it one step further using the Fujinon zooms. “The visual relationship between location and character is always particularly important to me. Newcastle upon Tyne, where the show is shot, is full of incredible landscapes, both natural and urban, and myself and Paul both wanted to let the show breath as much as we could by finding interesting wide shots to contextualise the drama. Using these longer Fujinon zooms at a great distance instead of a more traditional wide angle lens just helped to enhance that cinematic quality. “The added benefit of the Fujinon zooms was we could work a little quicker in certain locations. For example we had one sequence set on a beach against the backdrop of a fast-approaching tide. We had a very narrow shooting window because of tide times. We had to work extremely quickly and efficiently and the zooms really helped us in that regard. I used both the 24-180mm and the 75-400mm with a 2x doubler to
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compress the background, making it feel like the incoming tide was closer than it actually was. The effect on the 400mm (800mm) was fantastic. The telephoto style worked brilliantly to enhance the drama of this scene and the practical aspect of working on zooms helped us dramatically with our schedule. “Using longer lenses for wide shots is a well-used technique that’s been popular since Tony and Ridley Scott started making commercials. It’s still very popular in features but doesn’t seem to get used as much
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IMAGES The character of the Fujinon zooms was ideal for capturing the grey blue shades of the coastal locations.
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SHOOT STORY A VERY ENGLISH SCANDAL
Hounded
As a very successful feature film DOP, Danny Cohen felt the pace of modern television production helped a bonkers story WORDS JULIAN MITCHELL IMAGES BBC
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A VERY ENGLISH SCANDAL SHOOT STORY
here are certain threads running through the professional life of DOP Danny Cohen. These are feature films, Oscars and Director Stephen Frears. There is also his relationship with RED cameras. Danny’s last few features include The King’s Speech, Les Misérables, The Danish Girl, Florence Foster Jenkins and Room. Four out of those five movies involved actor Oscars. His last few films also featured his partnership with Stephen Frears, who he teamed up with again for the BBC’s A Very English Scandal. The fact that Danny can breeze in and out of serial television from such a fruitful features career says all you need to know about the lessening creative skills gap between films and TV but probably mostly about his relationship with Frears. The big difference is the time it takes to shoot something interesting for television against the time you have to achieve that in film. The conclusion is that modern day television drama is far more complicated than it’s ever been and the audience is also expecting a similar visual experience to that they get in the cinema. “I don’t think you can discriminate between TV and films anymore,” comments Danny. “Potentially TV is more complicated because you don’t want people to change channels; films are easier in that respect as you have a captive audience to some degree in a cinema. Television has to be a little bit cannier as it has to captivate its audience and hang on to their eyeballs for longer and encourage them to come back for the next episode. “Having said that I don’t think I would have done anything differently if this was a feature. The choices I’m
making are about the story being told; hopefully you’re telling the story in the best way with the best images irrespective of where it’s being viewed.” PERIOD PIECE Although the story of the politician Jeremy Thorpe covered a couple of decades it was decided from early in the production that the look would be period. “Because I’ve done quite a few things with Stephen he lets me get on with it. His approach is he knows exactly what he doesn’t like and if he’s getting what he likes he just gets on with it. That’s what is quite fun, you get a lot of freedom to do it as you want to. He will definitely shout if it’s not what he’s after. If he’s getting the images in front of him and the performances from the actors he kind of rolls along with it which is brilliant.” Stephen’s real skill as a director is to laser focus on the narrative and how this particularly convoluted story is played out. The story is told over three one hour episodes so for Danny it’s like shooting two feature films with quite a few different locations spread over nearly 20 years. “It was a very
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ABOVE Stephen Frears on the set of A Very English Scandal. LEFT Ben Whishaw as Norman Scott.
THE CHOICES I’M MAKING ARE ABOUT THE STORY BEING TOLD @DEFINITIONMAGAZINE |
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SHOOT STORY THE WOMAN IN WHITE
The period paradigm Period dramas are a genre that the UK does very well and there is a never ending thirst for them, but is there anything new to bring to them visually WORDS JULIAN MITCHELL IMAGES BBC ave we reached peak period drama? The popularity of Poldark would suggest otherwise but DOP Eben Bolter wasn’t interested in pursuing the BBC’s The Woman in White as he felt he couldn’t bring anything new to the genre. “When my agent told me that the BBC were making The Woman in White as a five-part miniseries, I said that I wasn’t interested at all. The idea of a BBC serial drama to me was so done that I could see it already and have seen it a million times before. But my agent then went on to say that there was a young director, Carl Tibbetts, and he was also a Black Mirror director. The feeling was that they might be looking for something a bit different so to read it with that in mind.” Eben took the interview and it was his reluctance that the director liked. “I told him that period drama was a genre with visual tropes like candlelight and soft lenses but for
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me ‘period’ is a location. It’s set in Victorian England so yes, you’ve got gas lights and candles, moonlight and daylight, so you have all these things from the period. But the story itself it actually a thriller so why do we have to fall in to the trappings of the genre? Why can’t we just make a modern thriller the way maybe Fincher would approach it with, say, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; but just set it in Victorian England?” That’s what Eben told the director he was interested in and he agreed that he wanted to do something new and different. Something that would push against the tried and tested genre. “Let’s use wide lenses and people’s faces. Let’s use punchy moves, snappy pans, snappy tilts. If we’re on a track let’s be moving with a person, let’s be urgent and distinctive. Really get psychological with lenses and camera moves.”
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THE WOMAN IN WHITE SHOOT STORY
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SHOOT STORY SOLO
Brown Dirt Cowboy Being involved in one of the spin-off Star War movies allowed DOP Bradford Young to engage his passion for experimenting WORDS JULIAN MITCHELL IMAGES DISNEY / LUX MACHINA
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SOLO SHOOT STORY
n the beginning, Bradford Young considered the shooting of Solo: A Star Wars Story as a simple exercise. He understood the tone that had been put forward: a contrasty, cowboytype yarn about the bad boy of the Star Wars universe, but without the stress of a revolution or the presence of the Force. He already had his reference movies – such as McCabe and Mrs Miller, the 1971 Western starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie – and images from this and many other similar movies covered his office walls as he put together his vision. “It all made sense to me as I love Westerns – the plan was that I would use film and would flash the negative and do all the things they did in the seventies.” Further to this, Bradford decided to meet fellow Star Wars Story DOP Greig Fraser on the set of Rogue One where he was using ARRI’s Alexa 65 large-format camera for the first time. “I saw the 65 and thought, ‘Wow, this is interesting’, and saw it as an option. Eventually we looked at 35mm, 65mm film, at the Alexa 65, and standard Super 35mm digital choices. I didn’t like the Alexa 65 at first, it just didn’t feel natural, I didn’t think it was giving me everything I wanted. It felt right for a portraiture format but not natural as a landscape; however, with ARRI’s help we made it work, and then I was on the hunt for the right lenses. “There’s all the 35mm glass that I thought I knew well, but you learn how manufacturers’ glass have subtle differences, then you put 65mm in to the mix and it becomes really interesting. From there I became less excited about the format; the actual sensor size became less important to me. It was more important that I was bearing witness to glass that I had literally never seen before, glass that had never been used on movies before. So we were really breaking rules – not
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shooting Panavision glass was one of those, not shooting anamorphic, so that’s another rule broken. Every day was like reinventing the wheel, but the format was at the mercy of the optics.” THE ONE Bradford cares deeply about the idea of customising the look of a movie and ‘sealing the imprint of the films that you make’. “It was part of the reason that I chose the ARRI DNA glass, so I could be part of something and see it in the making. We were trying our hardest to figure out what looks best; it was getting there but, honestly, I wasn’t impressed. I started thinking maybe I should just go to Panavision, but one day Neil Fanthom (director of technology) from ARRI said to me, ‘I’ve got this lens, you’ve got to see this lens’. Also Andrew Prior (head of cameras and digital systems at ARRI Rental) said, ‘Come by and check out this lens – we think you’re going to like it’. I came in and you could tell there was a vibe about the place, Neil knew that what I really wanted to see in DNA glass was in this one lens. It was a 50mm and we put it on the camera and, literally, I was like: ‘This is it’. It was super special. It’s hard to articulate how something is different from the other thing, but I knew
COME BY AND CHECK OUT THIS LENS – WE THINK YOU’RE GOING TO LIKE IT...
ABOVE Director Ron Howard, overseeing work on set. BELOW Brand new glass kept life interesting for DOP Bradford Young.
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SHOOT STORY THE CROWN
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The Crown Estate
Now Season 3 is in production, award-winning DOP Adriano Goldman dissects the already well-decorated look WORDS JULIAN MITCHELL IMAGES NETFLIX rom the first episode of Season 1 of The Crown, DOP Adriano Goldman set the scene. He wanted room for the actors to operate so he decided on big singlesource Soft Suns coming through the windows, placing them well away from the talent. He wanted acting on the edge of the light, he wanted you, the audience, to see the realness of the scene with digital but he wanted to control the harshness with vintage Cooke Panchro glass.
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“My approach is realistic,” he begins, “I always start from a realistic perspective. Check the rooms, see where the light should be coming from, add a few things – usually practicals, but it should feel real. The goal was to never make it look Hollywood or Cinderella like. You should be able to believe the characters, the space, the places that you’re visiting. It should feel real, you should be able to see the fabrics, see the wrinkles on people’s faces. It’s not
ABOVE Right from Season 1, the look of The Crown was set (Claire Foy as the Queen).
supposed to be super glossy, but it is for some reason.” Now, Adriano is prepping for Season 3 with a new cast including a new queen, Olivia Colman. The year is 1966 and that could mean a change of shooting style to match the period: handheld and heavy with cuts. But he is wedded to the style that has arguably inspired other DOPs looking to push on the period genre and also garnered him awards. “We know we have to evolve with the look as we go through the decades,” he says, “we know we have to present something that is fresher. “Season 3 starts in 1966/67 so rock ’n’ roll is already there. We’re going to see much more of what is happening outside the palace via different characters. We have Tony Armstrong-Jones taking pictures with his little Leica of a voting day. There will be scenes with the youth of Britain at the time, the changing culture, the haircuts, the fashion and so on. You’ll DEFINITIONMAGAZINE.COM
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THE CROWN SHOOT STORY
WE DECIDED HOW TO SHOOT IT IN A VERY ORGANIC WAY; WHICH SEQUENCES DESERVE MORE COVERAGE
definitely feel a different period but that doesn’t mean that we’re going to go handheld or question all the visual rules, but there will be new elements and freshness. Especially as you have an entirely new cast. “On the other hand as a DOP I’m also a little bit afraid of changing too much when you’re presenting a new cast. Maybe visually you have to stay consistent in a sense, you don’t want to scare the audience. Of course we want to embrace a few changes but I think overall it needs to look like The Crown somehow. We need to evolve within this look that we all love. But there will, of course, be changes. I’m thinking we will probably keep the same camera body and still use vintage lenses but probably newer ones. I was using Cooke Panchros from the 50s so now I will use Zeiss Superspeeds from the late 60s and 70s. They still deliver a more period, more romantic look but they are newer. These are a few of the things that I’m considering.” @DEFINITIONMAGAZINE |
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ABOVE The Queen strutting her stuff – in keeping with original director Stephen Daldry’s mantra, ‘it’s all about rhythm.’
ABOVE Giving the actors space on set and to create a sense of reality, DOP Adriano Goldman keeps his light sources out of the way.
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ORGANIC SHOOTING Right from Season 1 The Crown has developed an enviable rhythm which came from the initial director Stephen Daldry. This is the key element that drives everything Adriano shoots. “So although we followed the same kind of rules with the same types of framing and so on, it’s supposed to be a classic or classy show so we don’t struggle much when we ask ourselves, does this look too conventional? We’re used to this type of framing and composition as that’s very much what we like about the show. Especially when I’m working with director Ben Caron or Stephen, we have the overall look in our minds from the very beginning. You don’t have to question yourself, you’re concentrating on finding elegant framing and simple ways to cover the scenes. “Although when you watch the episodes they don’t feel too pacy, when you break down the scripts, they are pacy, because of the number of
sequences we have prepped for, so you can cover everything in a very simple way. You have 50 minutes of screen time and around 90 sequences. “We don’t question our approach every single time we come back to the show,” explains Adriano, “you basically confirm things that everybody likes and then you question a few things that you might have done wrong in the previous season. You have to keep moving; you don’t need to start from scratch and recheck and question your own options of taste. So it’s a little easier in that sense. “We read the script and decided how to shoot it in a very organic way; which sequences deserve more coverage, which can be done in a couple of shots. This is something we all learnt from Stephen, including Ben Caron. I keep hearing this sentence in my mind from Stephen: ‘It’s all about rhythm.’ The Crown is not pacy but it does have a very nice rhythm. For instance we could come from two pages of dialogue, which could become static and boring, but the next scene should be a little bit more dynamic and maybe we should consider a camera move. For me it works the same way, I could be finishing this sequence on a very tight shot on a word from the newspapers for instance. So I know the next shot should be a massive vista somewhere in Scotland for instance.
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“For Season 3 I’m shooting a four-episode block back to back and I’m still not sure if I’m going to stay all the way to the end for episodes seven to ten. I’m glad to be at the very beginning of the season in case there is something we have to change or just check. Also we’ll establish a short list of rules that we will present to the new directors and the new DOPs.”
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GEAR HP ZBOOK X2
HP ZBOOK X2 LAPTOP HP has come up with a new design for its latest laptop that will appeal to those who like a keyboard and their fingers to work with
WORDS JULIAN MITCHELL
he unpackaging moment is often ridiculed but is still the first rung on the ladder of many video tech reviews. The catch is that if the packing transmits a good message to you about quality and attention to detail then there is a good chance that the actual hardware will do the same. Big tick for the new HP Zbook x2 in this respect; and the experience doesn’t end when you peel away the protective layers from this new detachable PC from the kings of hardworking workstations. Someone at the industrial design department at HP has been let loose a bit; first we saw the new VR backpack which has all the angles of a sci-fi movie prop, and now the x2 which is the perfect design partner. This is a solid unit; some may say a bit heavy but I think the just-over-
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2kg weight with both parts together is reassuring. Tablet mode only brings the weight down to 1.65kg. For sure, coming from using an iPad Pro the weight may surprise you, but this product is more of a real computer than solely a tablet. SPLIT PERSONALITY Anyone looking to buy an x2 will be doing so for one reason and that is its ability to detach the screen from the keyboard and move into what HP calls ‘tablet mode’. Microsoft with their Surface products and Apple with its iPad Pro have already done the same, but there are few other similarities. The x2 splits the keyboard and screen in an unbalanced way – the detached Bluetooth keyboard is just millimetres thick while the screen hides the PC beneath it. Cleverly, even when detached the keyboard still works remotely. Sans keyboard, the x2 turns into a very powerful screen-based computer. Our review product was rocking the latest i7-8650 processor with 32GB of RAM and a single terabyte SSD. The screen is their award winning DreamColor version with a UHD 3840x2160 pixel spec. Twinned with tablet mode is the pen. This isn’t any normal nib but one
with Wacom technology inside it. It works beautifully, even twinning with the computer as you approach it. The pen comes with a selection of digital nibs but if you want finer or different types you can buy replacements. The ones we used were very sensitive and almost no latency was detected; HP claim 4096 pressure levels and also that its pen will never need to be recharged. The HP ZBook x2 is something of a revelation product from HP. The basic design is a joy to use even from a Mac Head like me. You will find yourself combining the keyboard and the touch interface while you do your emailing and surfing, but detach the screen and enter full tablet mode with the pen and your design or editing work is coolly efficient and a great place to be. Check the HP site for the specs but all the connections you could want are there, including HDMI1.4; USB3.0; and two USB 3.1 Type-C Thunderbolt 3 (DisplayPort 1.2).
ABOVE the x2’s keyboard works even when physically detached. BELOW The x2 in tablet mode.
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QUASAR SCIENCE Q-RAINBOW RGBX The growing, but still quite niche tube light market includes this new solution from Quasar Science WORDS ADAM GARSTONE
he LED revolution has produced a bewildering variety of new lighting fixtures, in an astonishing array of form factors. Of the new forms, the linear lamp has really taken off – either as Kino style arrays, or as individual tubes. Quasar Science has a new linear, multicolour LED lamp – the Q-Rainbow RGBX. Available in 2ft 25W, 4ft 50W and 8ft 100W, the lights have a built-in power supply that handles anything from 100V to 265V, as well as 10V to 26V DC. The tube itself is very sturdily manufactured, with the back half an aluminium extrusion (which also seems to function as a heat sink) and a white, plastic diffuser on the front. Each end is protected by a thick, rubberised cap (removable) that should give some protection against water and dust ingress – though there is no quoted IP rating. It makes for a @DEFINITIONMAGAZINE |
surprisingly hefty and strong structure – though probably not strong enough for Lightsaber battles with the sound department. One end of the tube has a Neutrik powerCON TRUE1 power connector (beneath a rubber cap) and the power switch. The other end has the DC input, DMX IN and OUT and the user interface. There is wireless DMX support as well as wired. MENUS The user interface is a small OLED screen, with left, right and select buttons, and is extremely simple – just scroll through the menu options with the left and right buttons and select with, er, well, with the select button. There are the usual colour temperature presets, as well as continuously variable steps (100K). There are also primary and secondary colour presets – though the firmware in the review unit had a weird bug
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where it was impossible to reset the colour back to white. Other options include HSL and +/- Green. More fun are the effects, my favourites being Short Circuit – flashy electrical style, and the Police Light, which imitates red and blue police car lights (though I believe there’s a law against impersonating the police, strictly speaking). Sadly, there is no Lightsaber option – you have to make the noises yourself. The DMX implementation allows Lead/Follow mode, so that a single Rainbow lamp can control several others – including over wireless – meaning you can build panels from multiple tubes. At around £505 for the 2ft tube, £670 for the 4ft, and £895 for the 8ft (all prices excluding VAT) the Quasar Science Q-Rainbow RGBX series isn’t cheap, but they are extremely solidly built, flexible linear lights.
A SINGLE RAINBOW LAMP CAN CONTROL SEVERAL OTHERS
ABOVE All the colours of the rainbow at your fingertips, but you have to supply your own Lightsaber audio. JULY 2018 DEFINITION
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4K CAMERA LISTINGS
DEFINITION’S 4K CAMERA LIST
We’ve decided to take the brakes off the list as far as capture resolution is concerned. Now our starting point is 4K; after that the sky’s the limit
ARRI ALEXA LF 90FPS
14 + STOPS
LPL MOUNT
4448x3096
ARRI ALEXA MINI SxS / SXR
ARRI’s long awaited large format camera arrives with a package of camera, new lens mount and new Signature lenses. Expect plenty of use by Netflix. Sensor tech is still the ALEV-III technology with big photosites.
SPECIFICATION
200FPS
14 STOPS
PL MOUNT
2880x1620
SxS
New features include the EXT Sync function, which allows sensors and operational parameters of up to 15 ALEXA Minis to be synchronised to a master ALEXA Mini. Slaves can assume parameters like frame rate, shutter angle or ND setup of the master.
SPECIFICATION
SENSOR – FORMAT AND SIZE
CMOS, 36.70x25.54 mm - 4448x3096, ø 44.71 mm
SENSOR – FORMAT AND SIZE
CMOS, 16:9 (1.78:1), 23.8x13.4mm – S35
FRAME RATES
ARRIRAW: 0.75 - 90fps ProRes: 0.75 – 60fps
FRAME RATES
Up to 200fps in ProRes
LATITUDE (STOPS)
14+
LATITUDE (STOPS)
14
LENS MOUNT
LPL with PL-to-LPL adapter
LENS MOUNT
PL, EF, B4 w/ Hirose connector
EXPOSURE INDEX
EI 800
DIGITAL SAMPLING
2880x1620, uncompressed ARRIRAW/1920x1080
RECORDED BIT DEPTH FORMAT AND TIME
16 bit linear ALEXA Wide Gamut/Log C colour space. Output colour spaces: Log C, Rec 709 or Rec 2020
RECORDED BIT DEPTH FORMAT AND TIME
3.2K: 3200x1800; 4K UHD: 3840x2160 (up-sampled from 3.2K); 4:3 2.8K: 2880x2160 (up to 2944x2160)
RECORDING RESOLUTIONS
Sensor modes – LF Open Gate 4448x3096; LF 16:9 3840x2160; LF 2.39:1 4448x1856
WEIGHT (KG)
2.3 (camera body with titanium PL lens mount)
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4K CAMERA LISTINGS
ARRI ALEXA SXT EV 120FPS
14 STOPS
PL MOUNT
2880x2160
ARRI ALEXA SXT W
SxS/SXR
SXT ALEXAs get the sensor from ALEXA, the electronics from the A65 and the colour management from AMIRA. In-camera rec is ProRes 4K UHD/CINE. A direct response to requests for cutting-edge digital capture with traditional elements of the film cameras.
SPECIFICATION
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120FPS
> 14 STOPS
PL MOUNT
2880x1620
SxS
Based on the ALEXA SXT Plus, the SXT W has replaced the SXT Plus and Studio models with an industrial version of the Amimon chipset for wireless transmission. ARRI has ruggedised the W mainly for feature work.
SPECIFICATION
SENSOR – FORMAT AND SIZE
16:9 or 4:3 sensor mode. 4:3 output only for ARRIRAW and ProRes 2K recording
SENSOR – FORMAT AND SIZE
16:9 or 4:3 sensor mode. 4:3 output only available for ARRIRAW and ProRes 2K recording
FRAME RATES
At 16:9 – 0.75-120fps/60fps max when recording 2K ProRes/speeds adjustable with 1/1000fps precision
FRAME RATES
At 16:9 – 0.75–120fps/60fps max when recording 2K ProRes/speeds
LATITUDE (STOPS)
14+
LATITUDE (STOPS)
+14
LENS MOUNT
54 mm stainless steel LDS PL mount
LENS MOUNT
PL
DIGITAL SAMPLING
2880x2160 uncompressed ARRIRAW
DIGITAL SAMPLING
2880x1620, Uncompressed ARRIRAW/1920x1080
RECORDED BIT DEPTH FORMAT AND TIME
SxS PRO 64GB; SxS PRO+ 64GB; SxS PRO+ 128GB; LEXAR 3600x CFast 2.0 cards 256GB; XR Capture Drives 512GB; SXR Capture Drives 1TB & 2TB
RECORDED BIT DEPTH FORMAT AND TIME
16-bit linear internal image processing in full ALEXA Wide Gamut/Log C colour space. Target output colour spaces: Log C, Rec. 709 or Rec. 2020
WEIGHT (KG)
6.5 (SXT EV body with PL mount)
ARRI ALEXA 65 60FPS
> 14 STOPS
XPL MOUNT
5120x2880
ARRI AMIRA SXR/XR
With a sensor larger than a 5-perf 65mm film frame, ALEXA 65 heralded the start of large format. Now shooting as a main production camera for Netflix, Amazon and the rest. Only available exclusively through their global network of rental facilities.
SPECIFICATION
200FPS
14 STOPS
PL MOUNT
2880x1620
CFAST
Amira is now split up into standard, advanced and premium. Features include in-camera grading with preloaded 3D LUTs, as well as 200fps slow motion. From reportage and corporate films to TV drama and low-budget movies. Multicam mode too.
SPECIFICATION
SENSOR – FORMAT AND SIZE
ARRI A3X CMOS sensor, 54.12x25.58mm active image area. Open Gate aspect ratio of 2.11:1 (6560x3100)
SENSOR – FORMAT AND SIZE
Single CMOS, 16:9 (1.78:1), 28.17x18.3mm – 35 format
FRAME RATES
Capable of recording 20-60fps (open gate) using new SXR media. XR drives allow 27fps
FRAME RATES
Up to 200fps in ProRes
LATITUDE (STOPS)
14+
LATITUDE (STOPS)
14
LENS MOUNT
ARRI XPL mount with Lens Data System (LDS)
LENS MOUNT
PL, B4 mount w/ Hirose connector
DIGITAL SAMPLING
1.78 crop mode (5-perf 65mm): 5120x2880 and 1.50:1 crop mode – 4320x2880
DIGITAL SAMPLING
2880x1620, uncompressed ARRIRAW/1920x1080
RECORDED BIT DEPTH FORMAT AND TIME
Codex SXR Capture Drive 2000 GByte capacity Max. frame rate capability: 60 fps (Open Gate) Recording time: 43 minutes at 24 fps
RECORDED BIT DEPTH FORMAT AND TIME
HD 1920x1080, 2K 2048x1152, 3.2K ProRes 3200x1800 4K UHD 3840x2160
WEIGHT (KG)
10.5
WEIGHT (KG)
4.1 (camera body with PL lens mount)
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JULY 2018 DEFINITION
15/06/2018 15:12