Camera Operator: Spring 2020

SOC.ORG · SPRING 2020

VOL. 29, NO.2

SPRING 2020

THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL CAMERA OPERATOR · SPRING 2020

MR. ROBOT WATCHMEN 1

SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

CONTENTS 14

DEPARTMENTS

FEATURES

4 LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT 6 NEWS & NOTES

14 THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL

SOC to Launch New Mentorship Program, SOC’s Inspirational Roundtables, SOC Presented Camera Operator Classes to AFI Students

8 ESTABLISHING SHOT An interview with Dale Myrand, SOC by Steve Yedlin, ASC

"Running on All Cylinders"

by Jim McConkey, SOC

22 MR. ROBOT "The Edge of Impossibility" an interview with Jeff Muhlstock, SOC

by David Daut

30 WATCHMEN "With Respectful Hubris" an interview with Chris Cuevas, SOC

by David Daut

40 SMOOTH OPERATOR "Everything Mentionable is Manageable" by Sam Ellison, SOC

44 TECH TALK

22

"Ang Lee’s Technical Team Discuss Stereo 3D and High Frame Rate Production" by Michael Daut

40

50 INSIGHT Meet the Members

30 CAMERA OPERATOR · SPRING 2020

51 SOC ROSTER 54 SOCIAL SOC

44 ON THE COVER: Rachel Brosnahan with Jim McConkey, SOC on the set of THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL. Amazon Prime Video/ Photo by Nicole Rivelli

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Society of Camera Operators OFFICERS

Board of Governors President George Billinger 1st Vice President Mitch Dubin 2nd Vice President Dan Turrett Secretary Lisa Stacilauskas Treasurer Bill McClelland Sergeant-at-Arms Dan Gold

BOARD MEMBERS Colin Anderson David Emmerichs Eric Fletcher Michael Frediani Geoffrey Haley Matthew Moriarty David Sammons Dave Thompson Gretchen Warthen

Awards, cont...Rob Vuona Charities Brian Taylor Membership Drive Lisa Stacilauskas Historical Mike Frediani Membership Dan Gold, Dan Turrett Technical Standards Eric Fletcher Education Mitch Dubin

STAFF AND CONSULTANTS Membership Services & Operations Coordinator John Bosson Bookkeeper Angela Delgado Calligrapher Carrie Imai Business Consultant Kristin Petrovich and Createasphere

CAMERA OPERATOR MAGAZINE

COMMITTEE CHAIRS Awards George Billinger, Mitch Dubin, Dan Gold, Geoff Haley, Bill McClelland, John “Buzz” Moyer, Dale Myrand, Benjamin Spek, Dave Thompson, Dan Turrett,

Publishing Consultant Kristin Petrovich Managing Editor Kate McCallum Layout & Production Stephanie Cameron Advertising Jeff Victor

CONTRIBUTORS George Billinger, SOC Chris Cuevas, SOC

Rod Crombie, SOC David Daut Michael Daut Rick Davison, SOC Scott Dropkin, SOC Sam Ellison, SOC Ben Gervais Kate McCallum Jim McConkey, SOC Jeff Muhlstock, SOC Dale Myrand, SOC Demetri Portelli Ian S. Takahashi, SOC

PHOTOGRAPHY Philippe Antonello Traci Chartier Elizabeth Fisher Claire Folger Mark Hill Nathan Johnson Peter Kramer Parrish Lewis Atsushi "Jima" Nishijima Demetri Portelli Van Redin Nicole Rivelli

Ben Rothstein Maggie Storm Lacey Terrell Niko Tavernise Yoshi Tong

TRIVIA Source imdb.com

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Letter from the President Dear SOC Members and Camera Operator Readers: I hope you, your family, and your loved ones are safe and healthy.

As we continue to respond to the changing environment related to COVID-19 I wanted to give you an update on how everything is going at the SOC. I am grateful to all our members. I am humbled by the continued concern within our industry, for each other, and within our communities. It is providing a sense of optimism in these unprecedented times and the challenging days ahead. Above all, your continued health and safety for you and all of your families are my biggest wish.

With the pressure of decreased revenue at the SOC and being fiscally responsible in this moment, we have initiated a change. Over the years the SOC has built an incredible magazine capturing the art and craft of camera operating. You are now viewing the Spring issue of Camera Operator magazine in an all new digital format. I hope that you like it and enjoy reading it. A lot of time and effort went into its conception and delivery. My sincere gratitude to Kristin Petrovich, Kate McCallum, Stephanie Cameron, and Jeff Victor for making that happen.

In spite of the circumstances that we are experiencing we are working hard to bring you inspired digital experiences. I wanted to give you an update on how everything is going.

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The Education Committee, chaired by Mitch Dubin, SOC, has created the SOC Camera Operating Class being taught to the Cinematography Fellows at the American Film Institute. It consists of 10 classes that are three hours in length. This series will become available to the general membership. Please contact the office for details.

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A limited series of seven SOC Inspirational Round Tables will begin on May 6 at 11am, addressing questions such as; what do we use for inspiration and what inspired us to where we are today? Participants are a group of renowned operators with diverse backgrounds and amazing career paths. Details at SOC.org

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The Education Committee also launched a mentorship program led by Geoff Haley, SOC. Geoff has devoted countless hours of his time in creating this specialized and incredible program. It is a one-of-a-kind opportunity to learn and excel from the best in the business. Details at SOC.org

In closing I’d like to say I’m very proud of our membership and how they are going forward through all this with continued optimism. It’s very encouraging and essential. And I’m very grateful to all of you.

I can’t wait for the day we are all off onto our next project and an inspiring adventure. Until then, please continue to take care yourselves, your families, and each other.

With gratitude,

George Billinger, SOC Society of Camera Operators, President

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SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

CAMERA OPERATOR · SPRING 2020

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News & Notes • Class #4 – Role of the A Camera Operator in Collaboration with

SOC TO LAUNCH NEW MENTORSHIP PROGRAM

the Director Instructors: Mitch Dubin, SOC; Dave Thompson, SOC; Keith

The SOC is launching a new mentorship program. This project will be offered under the umbrella of the SOC Education Committee and is designed to strengthen the global operator community, foster the growth of SOC membership, and continue our industry’s time-honored apprentice tradition by connecting our most battle-tested veteran members with those less experienced who may be looking for elevated proficiency and guidance navigating their burgeoning careers as camera operators. Once a mentor has been matched to his or her mentee, the program facilitates potential on-set shadowing, career advocacy, skills development, and professional support for a period of time which is pre-determined at the outset of each mentoring cycle.

All mentee candidates must be members (Active, Associate, or Student) in good standing of the SOC. For further information about this unique program on either the mentor or mentee side, please email: SOCMentorship@soc.org

Gordon, DGA (guest)

• Class #5 – Role of the A Camera Operator in Collaboration with the Dolly Grip Instructors: Jim McConkey, SOC; Simon Jayes, SOC; Jake Fountain (guest); Raymond Milazzo (guest)

• Class # 6 – The Work of the Operator – Executing the Shot Instructors: Geoff Haley, SOC and Andrew Mitchell, SOC

• Class #7 – Role of the A Camera Operator in Collaboration with the Actor Instructors: Lucas Bielan and Dave Frederick, SOC

• Class #8 – The Work of the Operator – Concept and / “Big” Shots – Part 1 Instructors: Dave Chameides, SOC and Ari Robbins, SOC

• Class #9 - The Work of the Operator – Concept and / “Big” Shots

SOC PRESENTED CAMERA OPERATOR CLASSES TO AFI STUDENTS The Society of Camera Operators Educational Committee recently presented ten three-hour classes to the AFI Cinematographer and Directing Fellows via Go to Webinar—powered by HPA/ SMPTE. These classes were taught by operator teaching teams, and in many classes guests from other disciplines were invited. The SOC will be also be presenting the classes to the SOC community available though video-on-demand. Please check SOC.org for further details.

This undertaking took countless hours and dedication as we rolled out the first class in two weeks, with the final class delivered on May 12. Thank you to all the instructors, guests, support teams, and AFI for this opportunity.

CAMERA OPERATING CLASSES:

• Class #1 – Role of the A Camera Operator in Collaboration with the Cinematographer Instructors: Mitch Dubin, SOC; Chris Haarhoff, SOC; Dana Gonzales, ASC (guest) • Class #2 – The Work of the Operator – Shooting Basic Scenes Instructors: Dave Emmerich, SOC and Ian Fox • Class #3 – The Work of the Operator – Setting up the Shot Instructors: Buzz Moyer, SOC and Dan Gold, SOC

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– Part 2 Instructors: Matt Moriarty, SOC and Dave Venghaus (guest)

• Class #10 – Closing Session Panel Discussion – Career as an Operator, Life Style, Negotiations, & Getting Started Instructors: Peter Rosenfled, SOC; Sarah Levy, SOC; Jan Ruona; Colin Anderson, SOC; and Craig Haagensen, SOC Moderator: Michael Bravin, Canon Fellow & Director of Canon Burbank

Calendar • • • •

May 24, 2020 May BOG Meeting June 28, 2020 June BOG Meeting July 26, 2020 July BOG Meeting August, 2020 August BOG Meeting Please log onto SOC.org to see all upcoming happenings.

SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

L–R: Mitch Dubin, SOC; Dave Thompson, SOC; Keith Gordon, DGA; Jacek Laskus, ASC, PCS; and Harrison Jameson Zoom for SOC Camera Operator classes presented to AFI students.

SOC’S INSPIRATIONAL ROUNDTABLES Open for all membership categories and hosted on Zoom. Each 45-minute Q&A session will feature two prominent operators discussing what inspires their creativity and furthers their creative contribution. For details visit the website: SOC.org.

DATE May 6, 11am–12pm PST May 13, 11am–12pm PST May 20, 11am–12pm PST May 27, 11am–12pm PST June 3, 11am–12pm PST June 10, 11am–12pm PST June 17, 11am–12pm PST

CAMERA OPERATOR · SPRING 2020

GUESTS David Emmerichs, SOC and George Billinger, SOC Mitch Dubin, SOC and Dave Thompson, SOC Matt Moriarty, SOC and Dan Gold, SOC Sean Savage, ACO, SOC and Steven Campanelli, SOC Jamie Silverstein, SOC and David Sammons, SOC Larry McConkey, SOC and Janice Min, SOC Lisa Stacilauskas, SOC and John “Buzz” Moyer, SOC

Mitch Dubin, SOC and Dave Thompson, SOC will lead an Inspirational Roundtable on May 13 from 11am–12pm

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Establishing Shot an interview with Dale Myrand, SOC by Steve Yedlin, ASC

Between set-ups, KNIVES OUT. On the left writer and director, Rian Johnson and A camera focus puller, Don Schroer. Photo by Dale Myrand, SOC

Dale Myrand, SOC was a nominee for this year’s SOC Camera Operator of the Year – Film for his work on Knives Out. He’s operated on many films including J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, Looper, and Collateral.

Establishing Shot is designed to explore our members’ backgrounds and career paths. Their stories…how they got started in the business, who helped them along the way, memorable projects, and future plans. Dale invited his colleague and director of photography, Steve Yedlin, ASC to interview him for this issue: Steve Yedlin, ASC: A camera operator is a bit like an ambassador in that he or she can be the face of the camera department and the main person that actors see right when they’re in the deeply vulnerable state of baring their soul for the camera. What are some strategies you use to maintain continuity of working style yet somehow also tailor that style and your demeanor to the personalities, moods, and needs of the actors?

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Dale Myrand, SOC: I think as an operator you learn to size a set up.

You pay attention to the body language and moods of those you work with. You adjust when and how to inject yourself into the process depending on the idiosyncrasies of the day. If things are a little tense, there are allies all around that can help you out. The director, the DP and the 1st AD can be great assets if you find yourself in a sticky situation. But getting the actors to trust you is a big part of making the set work. It seems so simple but one thing I do is figure out all of the eye lines with second team. When first team shows up I am the one that walks them through it. Just this one minor effort makes them realize that you have thought about them and their requirements. It helps put them at ease and begins the process of earning their trust.

Yedlin: On that same topic, camera operating can be a bit paradoxical in that—on the one hand, you want to be sort of invisible and not to be another big, loud, needy personality in a power dynamic that may already be fraught with too many of those types.

SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

CAMERA OPERATOR · SPRING 2020

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But on the other hand, you need to some extent be a figurehead and leader, both for your own department and for interdepartmental endeavors, like coordinating with ADs, actors, set decorators, stunts, wardrobe, hair, props, etc. What are some principles or tricks you use to find the right balance when you’re confronted with such a demanding paradox?

Myrand: During a setup I try and get out from behind the camera, walk around the set, and look at things. This perspective helps me find things I might not catch through the lens. While I’m doing this I also try and consider everyone’s job. If I find something that I feel needs to be addressed I reach out to the appropriate person. Most crew people are very receptive to notes if you offer them in an appropriate time frame with a positive attitude. If it doesn’t come off as an attack, everyone begins to see that they are part of a team and that their efforts are both noted and appreciated. Another important part of my process is to try and keep the set quiet during a setup.

I believe it encourages a creative environment where crew members can be at their best. Loud sets seem to have an element of panic to them that I believe hinders the process. Also, I try and remember to use deodorant!

Yedlin: Can you think of one example from Knives Out regarding shot design where planning really paid off and a second counter-example where improvisation was the hero of the shot design or execution?

Myrand: In pre-production, we set up a shot that was going to be done on a process trailer. The camera move was very precise and involved coordinating several departments. Seven weeks later when it came time to do the shot, everything was organized exactly the way Below: Rian Johnson and Dale Myrand, SOC. Photo by Claire Folger

we had discussed. In 20 minutes we had mounted the camera on the jib arm with the remote head, and were ready to pull out. The shot worked exactly as planned and our day went very smoothly. I’ve been on shows where that shot would have taken half a day. On the flipside, we had a 50-foot Technocrane shot of Marta climbing the trellis.

Having the freedom to move the camera around and look at various possibilities helped us find great shots. Things we hadn’t thought of presented themselves in the process of looking.

Yedlin: Knives Out is an ensemble piece that’s really all about the group of actors. But it also has some precise demands for the camera placement, movement, actors’ marks, and framing; often with many actors in the same shot. Did you ever find the actors either on the one hand seemingly irritated about the demand for precision, or on the other hand being unusually curious about how such elaborate choreography was being achieved?

Myrand: Rian Johnson has a steady hand on the wheel and everyone picks up on that immediately. It isn’t long before they recognize that whatever we are doing, there is reason for it. Within that dynamic it was also a set where ideas were welcomed. I don’t remember any irritation. If someone had a reason to question something we were doing or had an idea they wanted to contribute, it always seemed to come from a positive place. I think that might be one of the most valuable lessons upcoming filmmakers can learn. Make the set a positive environment. On that same note, and to the second part of your question, if the actors saw what we were doing and were curious, they always felt free to ask. I was approached many times by actors that were curious about what we were doing and how we were doing it.

Don Johnson, in particular, was always very interested in the remote head and the way we were using it.

Yedlin: Is there one shot or scene or anything in Knives Out that stands out as being especially gratifying or fun in terms of your own personal contribution?

Myrand: Certainly—the one big hand-held shot. After the reading of the will when Marta tries to escape and the entire family is on her heels. A lot of the dialogue was improvised. We did many takes, and it was really fun to find the actors, and chase the dialogue in the moment. Definitely one of those times when you are one with the actors.

Yedlin: Camera operating has many facets to the job—it’s not just the literal aiming of the camera. What are some of the unappreciated aspects that you think are often unrecognized by other departments but actually quite pivotal to a film set and/or gratifying to execute?

Myrand: I’m not sure a lot of people realize how many aspects of the process the A camera operator is involved in…how much information disseminates from that position. They know the interaction they have with you personally, but I’m not sure they know how widespread those duties are. When you block a scene and develop a game plan for executing the idea, you take on a responsibility to make it work efficiently, and every department is involved. I think the role of the

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SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

Above: (L–R) Dale Myrand, Rian Johnson, and Jamie Christopher, 1st AD. Photo by Claire Folger

operator is a big part of making the game plan successful, and I’m not sure that everyone realizes that.

Yedlin: As an operator, you work with so many different DPs and directors with wide-ranging styles. They might ask you to execute an intricately designed shot in minute detail, or they might ask you to figure out on your own what the shot even is, or they might ask you pointedly not to have any defined or repeatable shot, and to shoot chaotically. Do you have one style or another that you prefer? And, do the various styles change fundamentals of how you do other, seemingly unrelated parts of your job, or are you able to compartmentalize to some extent?

Myrand: That is such a complicated question and it gets right to the heart of the operator’s job. I don’t think I have a preferred style but I will say when I get instructions, it’s easier when they come from someone with an absolute grasp of the story we are trying to tell. For the most part, operators miss all of the pre-production discussions.

We aren’t privy to all of the little decisions that have been made with regard to shot ideas and style. On a lot of shows I get a week during the tech scout to see the locations, hear the conversations, and get a feel for what they are after. Once you start shooting you take what you have learned and offer up the style that you think they are after. If you get feedback that is consistent, it doesn’t take long before you and the

CAMERA OPERATOR · SPRING 2020

dolly grip figure out what they like and what they don’t. If every day is a new day, hitting a stride can be much more difficult but fortunately, most shows seem to develop a rhythm pretty quickly. I don’t think the fundamentals of the way I work will change much but you might pick different arrows from your quiver, depending on what those in charge seem to want.

Yedlin: When you go from one project to another and the styles are very different, does it take a while to get re-acclimated, or does it just feel like starting back up where you left off?

Myrand: If you have worked with the director and DP before, you have probably developed a shorthand. This helps ease the transition from a previous job. Some jobs might take a few days of adjustment, others…you fall right into it. One thing for sure, I don’t like chaos on set. I’ve never had a good experience when those in charge prefer a day filled with chaos.

Yedlin: The dolly grip is such a close collaborator with the camera operator, and there is so much art and finesse in doing that job well.

Might you have any advice for up-and-coming dolly grips—something that might surprise them about the working style of some of the most seasoned dolly grips? And I don’t mean technical stuff about operating the gear but about shot design and the bigger picture.

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Myrand: I think that shot design and the bigger picture are more innate abilities than learned abilities. However, I think an up-andcoming dolly grip can certainly expand upon their innate abilities by watching and listening. Being involved cognitively is the best way I know to up your game. This extends to shot design. Seasoned dolly grips tend to think about the job of the operator. I get so many great ideas from dolly grips, the suggestions they come up with often make the shot easier and better. If I could give advice to newer dolly grips it would be to learn the math, which is a big part of shot design. If you make the measurements and put the post where it needs to go, the shot is easy. Put the post in the wrong spot and you end up fighting

it. They should also have a firm grasp on which dolly configurations will get the camera to the height requirements for the shot, have them in your head or on a cheat sheet so decisions can be made efficiently.

Yedlin: Last question. Which do you like better: panning or tilting?

Myrand: [Laughs] Wow, that’s a tough one! Both have their attributes. Tilting has the ability to lift you up or take you down. It can be an emotional roller coaster. But panning…panning often takes you on a path of discovery. It takes you on the arc of the scenes emotion.

If I were to be honest, I guess I would have to say, both at the same time. That way you get it all!

STEVE YEDLIN, ASC Director of Photography Steve Yedlin’s passions and curiosity are focused on the art and science of motion imaging and photographic lighting. From the broadest emotional scope of visual storytelling to the narrowest mathematical granularity of image science, Yedlin’s obsession is not exclusionary.

The cinematographer is a long-time friend and collaborator of writer/director Rian Johnson. The two filmmakers’ work together began when both were teenagers with the making of homemade short films with unlikely titles such as Thesaurus Thief and Hey Lady, You Dropped Your Wallet, and has evolved today to include the highly regarded, if no less singular, feature films Knives Out, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Looper, The Brothers Bloom, and Brick.

When he’s not working with Johnson, Yedlin enjoys exploring the flexibility of his craft with a variety of directors and projects. His range of work has managed to include intense indie dramas, Hollywood visual effects spectacles, comedies (both broad and dark), horror films, and the occasional documentary.

He has an ongoing personal project of studying the finer nuances of color science. This has led to the development of his own custom methods for the mathematical modeling of physical photochemical processes in order to better emulate traditional film response when using digital image acquisition.

Photo by Nathan Johnson

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DALE MYRAND, SOC Dale Myrand, SOC grew up in North Dakota. In 1984 he moved to Hollywood and enrolled in Columbia College, graduating with a four-year degree in film. He began his career as a camera assistant in 1986. Since then Myrand has worked on several movies and TV series as either the assistant camera operator or camera operator. His credits include such projects as Star Trek (2009), Looper, Don Jon Addiction, Hours, Star Trek Into Darkness, Phenomenon, Se7en, S.W.A.T., Jerry Maguire, the pilot for Bosch, Lion King, and Knives Out. Above: On the set of DON JON ADDICTION. Photo by courtesy of Dale Myrand

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SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS EDUCATIONAL WORKSHOPS

The SOC offers online and in person workshops and learning for members in all categories.

LOG ON TO SOC.ORG FOR EDUCATION OFFERINGS.

CAMERA OPERATOR · SPRING 2020

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The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Running on All Cylinders

by Jim McConkey, SOC

Rachel Brosnahan, Amazon Prime Video / Photo by Philippe Antonello

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SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is an American period comedy-drama web television series, created

by Amy Sherman-Palladino, that premiered on March 17, 2017, on Prime Video. The series stars Rachel Brosnahan as Miriam "Midge" Maisel, a housewife in late 1950s and early 1960s New York City who discovers she has a knack for stand-up comedy and pursues a career in it. The rest of the main cast consists of Alex Borstein, Michael Zegen, Marin Hinkle, Tony Shalhoub, Kevin Pollak, Caroline Aaron, and Jane Lynch. Following the premiere of the pilot episode to critical acclaim, the series was picked up by Amazon Studios.

Jim McConkey, SOC was the recipient of the SOC Camera Operator of the Year – Television Award in 2020 for his marvelous work on renowned television show Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

BEGINNINGS The first thing that I have to say is that I’m very fortunate. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is the kind of job that doesn’t come along very often. The show takes you back in time to the the 1950s and 60s of New York City, Paris, Miami, and Las Vegas. Our DP, David Mullen, ASC, describes his lighting as “industrial optimism” and “aggressively pastel.”

Together with the production design of Bill Groom, the vibrant and colorful costume design by Donna Zakowska, and the aegis of Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino, who write, direct, and produce the show, as well as the skilled ensemble of actors, I find myself in the best job that I could imagine as a camera operator.

My first experience on a film set was working with my older brother Larry. He was photographing a documentary about Sonny Rollins called Saxophone Colossus at Opus 40, a sculpture park in Saugerties, New York. I had studied film at Cornell but never considered it as a career. That day I got to run mags from the film loader out to the three camera operators and back. The day was over before I knew it and I was helping load the equipment into the back of my brother’s van. The director, Robert Mugge did the unexpected.

CAMERA OPERATOR · SPRING 2020

He put seven 20 dollar bills in my palm and thanked me. Money, music, and appreciation! I didn’t realize it at the time, but that concert film would take me into the world of music videos, low-budget movies, and my love of Steadicam and camera operating.

I spent the next 25 years learning this craft.

It isn’t something that you can just download and own—you have to fight for it, fail at it, make mistakes, and eventually succeed while working with a large group of differing personalities and temperaments. You have to learn how to assess the situation at hand. Experience tells you when and when not to suggest new possibilities. Who you talk to, and how you talk to them, is just as important as what you talk about. If you don’t say it the right way and to the right person, it may get misinterpreted and that will cause problems.

WHAT IT TAKES I have to say quite honestly that I might not have been the best choice to work on a show like The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel until this point in my career. It is a show that runs on all cylinders and attempts things that are far beyond the scope of most shows that I’ve worked on. In part this is because Amy and Dan are exceptionally talented and collaborative, and they are not content to limit themselves to easy solutions. They will ask if it is possible to do something quite challenging. We always want to say “yes” and, of course, that leads to constant pressure of

trying to succeed. We haven’t yet had abject failure but we have come close. The pressure to succeed at this type of show with its sometimes very long oners is high. We have to block out the pressure and simply concentrate on making the shots happen. The Palladinos and producer Dhana Gilbert shield us from the dire reality of the time frame. We seem to pull it together time after time and I know that this is a testament to the skill level of this crew.

Years and years later, I look back and realize how far I’ve traveled in this business, decades spent building the skill sets necessary to be able to effectively manage the time allotted to create images. Each day has its limitations and the best days are when you feel like you’ve accomplished something beyond what you had imagined possible. That is through the power of collaboration. If you have many skilled and talented people working together, the result will be better.

THE TEAM Anthony Cappello is our 1st AC and what he does goes far beyond simply pulling focus. He is always watching the frame as a filmmaker.

He gives me criticism at times about the speed and tempo of a pan to reveal something, or a move through a narrow doorway ending in a static moment that has to hit perfectly. At the end of each take I ask him what he thought about it. He will talk about how he could make focus better if I could just help him with the timing of a reveal. Usually that will result in

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Rachel Brosnahan and Jim McConkey, SOC on set at American Airpower Museum in Long Island. Amazon Prime Video / Photo by Nicole Rivelli

better timing for the story. He helps me edit in my head. I have to admit that sometimes my ego can get in the way, but his goal is always to deliver our best. I listen and use his criticism to change for the better. Our 2nd AC, Kellon Innocent, gets better and better each season. It is difficult to work for demanding people and I realize that at times I can be too demanding, not understanding the nuance of problems that he has to face each day. He keeps the ship upright, helping Anthony stay centered so we both can think a bit more clearly. He has a calming voice and thinks two or three steps in advance so we never are waiting. This team is ideal for this show.

BRINGING IN NEW TECH It became clear on Season 1 that this show had to start embracing newer technology. My

brother, Larry McConkey has had a collaborative relationship with Tabb Firchau and Freefly Systems since 2013. He worked with both Freefly and Klassen FX to build the first wireless wheels system for the MōVI. He then started designing ways to use the MoVI with the Steadicam and eventually built a dedicated, stripped down Steadicam system for the MoVI Pro, which Amy dubbed the “Wonderstick.” It allows for what amounts to a beautifully stabilized human-mounted crane. This system led us down a new path to being able to do shots we only dreamed about. It did require both Larry and I to work together as one operator. He had to manage getting the camera where it needed to be in a graceful way. We used headsets so that I could do countdowns to stops or nuance a wraparound, and he would let me know when he was about to change his

TRIVIA: The pilot episode of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel was one of Amazon Video's most successful ever, achieving an average viewer rating of 4.9 stars.

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movement; we had to be in concert. If he stopped and I continued or vice versa there would be a visible bauble.

We both got better at it but it came to be assumed that every imagined shot was possible even when we weren’t sure it was. That again is the strength of this show—everyone from the top down gives us the space to fail but to also ultimately succeed. This type of environment requires a lot of technical depth. As an operator it is most important to spend time with the DP and director to figure out the shot. For it to be successful you need a camera department that can prepare the equipment and solve any problems that might come up.

To achieve this, Kellon, Greg Principato (B camera operator) and Niknaz Tavokolian (B camera 1st AC) traveled up the Delaware River to Stockton, New Jersey to visit with Larry to learn the ins and the outs of the MōVI Pro. It has a lot of intricacies that need solving in as little time as possible in the heat of the moPhoto by Stephane Malenfant ment. Along with 2nd AC Jieun Shim, the B

SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

Alex Borstein, Rachel Brosnahan, and Jim McConkey on set at Crandon Park Beach, Key Biscayne, Florida. Amazon Prime Video / Photo by Nicole Rivelli

camera team is always ready in an instant to jump into the fray.

sense (like in a group dinner table scene) but it isn’t our style.

I have to thank Eric Moinier for this experience; he was the alternating DP on the first two seasons of the show and recommended me to David Mullen. He did an excellent job of lighting the sets in the same way that David did; I felt a seamless transition each time they switched back and forth.

Rehearsals begin with all the actors reading the words aloud; then the creative vortex of blocking the actors begins. I make sure to watch where Amy and Dan are observing the action from, and how they move the actors around the space to create movement. If it is possible to lead the dialogue with specific choreography that takes us to the next line, to the next space, then they do it. It isn’t necessary always to see everyone speaking all the time. They dance within the space letting the words stitch everything together. At the end of a rehearsal I will pull out my Artemis Prime Director's Finder, invented by my friend Nic Sadler. It is an iPad with a mount for our Panavision Primo lenses. Extremely accurate, it allows Amy or Dan to look at the image together with me and the DP. As I follow the action with the Artemis, I get physically maneuvered around by Amy and it is a lot of fun. It helps resolve complex blocking in a very effi-

A TYPICAL DAY A typical day on the Maisel set is daunting.

Our cast often has to handle a seven or eightpage scene (once we had a 12-page scene).

The pacing is fast and the dialogue, sometimes overlapping, rolls off their tongues with such skill and rapidity that there is no obvious place for an edit. A different show might shoot a master followed by traditional coverage, over-the-shoulders and singles in multiple directions. Not to say that we don’t occasionally do that as well when it makes

CAMERA OPERATOR · SPRING 2020

cient manner. Amy has experience with dance choreography and it shows. I feel that I have to empathetically absorb all her years of dancing and learn to dance myself, which of course I do with the Steadicam. The rehearsal is recorded on the Artemis, becoming a great asset during the rush to light the set. It becomes apparent very quickly where a light can be put but more importantly where a light cannot be put. And therein is the genius of our DPs who always seem to have a solution to 360-degree revolving shots. Lights fade in and out. Flags are pulled out just in time to not photograph them. There is non-stop ‘Hollywooding’ of furniture in and out. Our key grip, Charlie Sharron and our gaffer, Jenny Scarlata always have solutions and they do it almost as fast as the dialogue in the scene.

TECHNICALLY STRESSFUL MOMENTS Most of these tightly choreographed and sometimes lengthy shots can become technically stressful and complicated. Some of that is just

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TRIVIA: The first TV show on a streaming platform to win the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series.

Rachel Brosnanhan, Alex Borstein, and Sterling K. Brown with Jim McConkey, (A) Camera dolly grip, Jake Fountain, and boom operator, Carmine Picarello, .

Amazon Prime Video / Photo by Philippe Antonello

trying to remember all of the solutions that you’ve figured out before but now you’re in the fifth minute of a seven-minute shot and the last thing you want to do is to make a mistake and have to start all over at the beginning.

Again, I am fortunate to have Jake Fountain as my dolly grip. He is invaluable as a teammate in solving the arithmetic to these shots. He pays attention and takes notes in all the rehearsals.

He, like Anthony, is invested in these shots.

He has opinions and suggestions and puts down all the cueing marks. We wear headsets and he is constantly prompting me with what is coming up, much like car rally races where the passenger is warning the driver of the upcoming turns and twists of the road Harold. Image courtesy of CBS Films as they drive at incredible speeds. I can’t remember it all but he can. He reminds me of tempo and transitions. He taps me to warn me when I might hit a wall. If a scene has 20 separate camera marks that I have to hit, he

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will help me avoid confusion and sometimes point to the next mark so I don’t blow by it.

He helps me stabilize sometimes when I’m running out of gas. I couldn’t do this type of show without this type of help. If I screw up, then we all go back to the beginning and start over. That brings me to the actors…

na (who sadly passed away recently) with

THOSE MARVELOUS ACTORS

gether and the only way out is to keep mov-

Rachel Brosnahan plays Midge. Midge’s character generally has the lion’s share of the dialogue although Tony Shaloub, who plays her dad, and Marin Hinkle, who plays her mom, also have a lot to say. Mix in Alex Borstein, Michael Zegen, Kevin Pollak, Caroline Aaron, Matilda Szydagis and Brian Taranti-

these type of shots for our actors. Where a

an enormous amount of dialogue. They always deliver and I’m left with a tremendous amount of respect. They all have to own this material and have to learn the intricacies of all the choreography as much as I do. We go into these scenes as a team. We’re in it toing. I know full well the difficulty of doing more traditionally shot show might offer the actors a respite or a sense of relief by breaking up a scene with additional coverage, we tend to continue the shot. We may do additional coverage but, in general, if it’s working and it’s interesting, the consensus is that it

TRIVIA: Amy Sherman-Palladino explained the show concept as follows: "I wanted to do a story about a woman who thought she'd scored...She'd gotten it all, and then, bam, it all falls apart. And in falling apart, she discovers an ambition and a need to speak, and a voice that she just frankly didn't know was there."

SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

Katie McConkey (daughter, guest slating) with Jim McConkey, SOC. Amazon Prime Video / Photo by Nicole Rivelli

TECH ONAleSxEaT Minis;

vised (3) Pana 16x9; 4 Log C, 4 4 4 s e Pro R primes; n Primo io is v a n a P ro; ; Movi P m a ic d a e St on ve; Keny Betz Wa X Gyros

doesn’t need a cut. Of course, that means we do a lot of very long takes. The other side of that is that we can focus all our energy on that one shot and have the time to make it special and memorable. The last thing I’d like to say about Rachel is that she really helps me solve tricky camera moments. She is particularly intuitive in helping me get around to the other side of the set with a look or a slight move which makes the camera move seem justified and honest. I don’t enjoy unmotivated camera movement. She always makes it look easy and makes my operating so much better. It is a dream to work with all these actors in that they all want to help the flow and timing because they are as invested as the rest of us on its success. I guess the look and the feel of this show is the end product of all of this.

AN EYE ON LENSES We don’t use a lot of lenses. Mostly the 24mm or 30mm Panavision Primo. The 24mm is

CAMERA OPERATOR · SPRING 2020

very useful for these all-in-one preceding and following shots. The 27mm sometimes takes away the feeling that you are inside and with the action. We try not to be too observational or outside and contemplative. The camera attempts to be with the actors and explore the scene with them. We have to be careful not to do any closer shots with this lens, though, as it can be the wrong choice for that. We found that the 30mm is the perfect lens for singles.

The Palladinos are not fans of the super tight close-up. A single at its tightest might be another director’s medium close-up. Another generalization of the show’s style is that the camera moves when the actor moves. We try not to show our hand at what is coming. We like the actor to discover it for us. We do use longer lenses at times, especially when we attempt two camera coverage, but it’s rare.

Many of the singles preclude the use of the second camera as we are too close to the actor and the eyeline has to be tight. David Mullen uses the 1/4 Schneider Hollywood BlackMagic diffusion to complete the look.

THE DIRECTORS It is a daunting task to be asked to come in as a guest director on this show. We have a couple of guest directors each season. There simply isn’t enough time for Dan and Amy to direct them all. We’ve had Scott Ellis, Jamie Babbit, and Dan Attias. I feel they have done an excellent job of walking through that door and keeping the style and pace of the show. David and I feel a great obligation to help in these circumstances wherever we can, to harness Amy/Dan’s consciousness when they’re off writing more scripts. Everyone who works on the show knows the “Maisel look and feel” and it’s apparent if it is not surfacing on some scenes.

THE ART OF PERIOD DESIGN The backdrop of the show is a unique challenge. It feels as though we’ve fallen back in time. From costumes to sets the audience has to believe it. We do get into some challenging

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Rachel Brosnanhan with Jim McConkey, 1st AC, Anthony Cappello, (B) Camera dolly grip, Joe Wannemacher, and set stills photographer, Nicole Rivelli. Photo by Philippe Antonello

situations. We needed to create Las Vegas in a gigantic Queens wedding venue as the Las Vegas from the late 50’s no longer exists. The set was filled with gambling machines, craps tables, and roulette wheels from that period.

In addition, real dealers and pit bosses were hired as background. Our visual effects supervisor, Lesley Robson-Foster helps create everything the production design team can’t.

With only a false front that looks like the exterior of a Vegas hotel, when Midge and Susie (Alex Borstein) exit, the camera pulls back and booms up to reveal the thriving strip with cars and neon and life. Our location was the empty runway of Floyd Bennett Field with period cars driving up and back along with effects lighting. It looks believable in the final shot. Another scene, among many where Lesley amazed me with her skills, was a walk-and-talk with Rose (Marin) and her brother Oscar in an oil derrick field in Oklahoma. We used a cornfield on Staten Island with NYC in the skyline. The footing was very rough as the cut corn stalks poked up everywhere. I had a long tracking shot backwards; Charlie Sherron helped by putting matting down underfoot. Lesley created functioning oil derricks and erased the mat-

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ting I walked on and managed to create a sense of the vastness of this area. One last example, in Florida, we had a sunrise scene which was shot at sunset of Midge (Rachel Brosnahan) and Lenny Bruce (Luke Kirby) walking out of the lobby of his hotel, passing by the swimming pool and seeing vistas of period Miami, on the way to his hotel room door. We raced to the Lenny hotel location to shoot before the sun went down. Scheduling meant it had to be completed that evening with no back-up plan. David Mullen needed consistency in the dropping light as evening approached. Lesley and David came up with a plan allowing us to shoot four cameras simultaneously. I started high on an 18’ Tulip Crane with a standing platform for me with my Steadicam. As Midge and Lenny exited the hotel towards me, Charlie and Jake boomed me down and I stepped off to follow the two actors as they headed for the pool. Simultaneously, Greg Principato was on a long lens head-to-toe shot of the actors, walking in profile with a modern day Miami in the background, in the final version Lesley replaced it with a period Miami. Greg managed to keep me out of his shot for the most part. Our DIT, Charlie Anderson, manned

a wide shot from the exterior second floor of the hotel which saw me as well. As we approached the door of Lenny’s hotel room Greg and Charlie’s cameras no longer had a useable shot which left me with the only shot of the actors, in front of the door, in a two shot, Lenny to the left and Midge to the right. As Lenny opened the door to reveal the inside of the room, I saw Larry’s camera staring straight back at me. Of course, his camera also saw me and my Steadicam in between the two of them. I wore green hospital scrubs and had a small green screen shroud on the front of the sled. Lesley erased both me and Larry from the scene! As Midge made the decision to walk away, I pulled back and panned with her leaving Lenny in the foreground smoking a cigarette. The doorway was clear of me which allowed Larry to shoot a plate of the background in the last few seconds of light. The amazing thing to me is that the scene appears flawless.

THAT MARVELOUS ONER The scope and grandeur that is created on this show make it exciting to operate. The first scene of Season 3 is one of the most

SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

challenging I have ever done. It is the introduction of Midge and Susie’s characters to a USO show in a giant airplane hangar on a military base outside of New York somewhere. It was an enormous scene with 800 extras as soldiers watching a stage filled with dancers in full plummage. We had to cover the drive up in the Jeep with the dialogue between Midge and Susie. The plan was for them to pull into the hangar and Midge would walk up on stage and be introduced to the soldiers and then down the other side of the stage to meet up with Susie again as they got into another Jeep and drove away.

Amy wanted to know if it could be done in one uninterrupted shot, from outside to inside the hangar. It was a 7 and 5/8 page scene with almost continuous dialogue. Of course I said “yes!”

We had two excellent drivers. The cast Jeep was driven by stuntman Luke Vexler dressed in uniform, and I was seated on the back of an electric E car driven by Dermott Traeno.

Jake Fountain (dolly grip) was next to me keeping me safe and in charge of releasing me from my safety when needed. Dermott had to start the shot driving in reverse very quickly as we tracked with the actor’s Jeep on the far side of a line of period airplanes. As the Jeep came around the far end it started approaching us and we had to reverse directions. There was a significant amount of inertia and gusty wind that I needed to dampen, so I used a KS-6x6 gyro in addition to the Betz-Tools Wave. We were now driving forward on the E car and accelerating fast so the Jeep would come up close without having to slow down. Both drivers did an amazing job of staying close to one another side by side with, at most, a 3-inch gap, at speed.

I leaned out of the E car as far as the safety harness would allow. Jake held on to me as I pushed the Steadicam so that it was almost inside the Jeep—I knew that Amy wanted to feel like we were magically inside the Jeep with them. As we came into the hangar, we pulled away from the Jeep and stopped in a wider profile shot. We used the advancing officer’s approach to the jeep as the moment to release the safety which Jake unclipped and helped get me off of the E car. I pushed in

CAMERA OPERATOR · SPRING 2020

TRIVIA: Amy Sherman-Palladino was inspired by childhood memories of her father (a standup comedian based in NYC). and met them as Midge and Susie got off the Jeep and had an extended conversation with the officer. He then walked toward the stage with the actresses in tow which forced me back into a preceding walk-and-talk. They stopped again at the bottom of a staircase.

He left and another officer took Midge up the stairs to the stage as I ran up a parallel ramp. As they stopped at the stage edge I had to pull in front to reveal a waiting Miss America, Mary Ann Mobley, who then passed by the camera and headed toward center stage. There is more dialogue and then Midge is introduced by the off-camera emcee. I pulled with Midge and panned fast to a medium wide profile which revealed all of the soldiers. I found that this move, which was very fast, caused a kick from the gyros so I turned them off during the shot to allow them time to decay before I hit this moment.

We traveled in profile to find yet another officer on the other end of the stage waiting for her. Without stopping she descended a set of stairs while Jake spotted me onto a ramp so I could get down fast enough and pull around to a frontal shot of Midge on the ground floor, just as Susie re-entered the frame and we see Shy Baldwin, the crooner, up on stage. The ramp I traveled down had to be pulled out of the shot very quickly by four grips to avoid seeing it in the frame. The first officer re-entered the shot and escorted the actresses to a waiting Jeep. They were loaded into the Jeep. As it pulled away I also pulled back to reveal soldiers cheering as they stood on the wings of a plane.

There is something rare that happens when you watch a well done, unedited scene. You stop thinking about it and it just allows you to ride along. You film a scene uninterrupted as long as it keeps working with the correct pacing and performances. As an operator, this is a dream job. We will be starting up on Season 4 this fall. I am looking forward to looking back in time with an extremely talented group of filmmakers.

JIM McCONKEY, SOC Jim McConkey, SOC has been working as a camera operator and Steadicam operator in film and television for over 30 years. He was the recipient of the SOC Camera Operator of the Year – Television Award in 2020, and is most recently known for his work on renowned television shows such as Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Netflix’s Maniac and Living with Yourself, and HBO’s Temple Grandin. Earlier credits include Alfonso Cuaron’s Great Expectations, Michael Mann’s Ali, The Basketball Diaries, Marc Forster’s The Kite Runner, Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zisso, and Richard Linklater’s Before Sunset. He’s also worked on popular feature films such as School of Rock, The Intern, Men In Black 3, How to Lose A Guy In 10 Days, The Proposal, and How To Be Single.

He is currently filming Stephen King’s Lisey’s Story for Apple TV+. McConkey is a graduate of Cornell University and currently works in New York.

Photo by courtesey of Jim McConkey

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Mr. Robot The Edge of Impossibility

an interview with Jeff Muhlstock, SOC by David Daut

MR. ROBOT, Episode 411, (L–R) Christian Slater and Rami Malek. Photo by Elizabeth Fisher / USA Network

After a two year hiatus, Mr. Robot returns with its fourth and final season which leads Elliot Alderson (Academy Award winner Rami Malek) deeper down the rabbit hole of painful discoveries as he grapples with his own sense of identity as well as his role in the aftermath of a failed societal revolution.

SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

TRIVIA: The main cast along with creator Sam Esmail went to hacking seminars in preparation for their roles. In addition, Rami Malek had a typing instructor to prepare scenes involving programming.

Camera Operator: Mr. Robot just recently finished its fourth and final season, but there was a bit of a pause before we got here. Two years elapsed between the third and fourth seasons of the show, and during that time you were hired on as operator for the final season. When were you approached about coming onto the crew?

and I got onto it, I just decided to own it and slowly but surely give it my own kind of taste. I gained the confidence of Sam [Esmail]—who is really in charge of everything. Tod obviously was the cinematographer and lit it and was consulted on everything, but ultimately every frame and every shot of that show had to be approved by Sam Esmail.

Jeff Muhlstock: Probably just about two months before they started production on the final season. Basically when they started crewing up. I essentially got the referral through my focus puller—my “A” first who was Bobby Mancuso; he turned me on to Tod Campbell, the cinematographer. They thought I’d be a good fit, Tod and I met up, and the rest is history after that.

We even called it the “frame game.” Once he would tell us what he wanted, we’d set up, and once we were at a place where myself and the dolly grip and everything was roughly dialed in, we’d get his approval on it and he would either make an adjustment or say, “Thumbs up, let’s go.” And it relatively short time, that process became easier and faster and he trusted me. I think essentially what started happening is I decided to embrace the look and make it my own. I would offer things up and in a relatively short period of time, he was all-in. Collaborative while still keeping his look and his style. I probably dialed it back a little bit on short-sided frames, but fortunately I liked that look—I liked the idea of what he was doing— so it was an easy adjustment for me.

CO: Had you worked with Tod Campbell on anything previously or was this your first time getting to work with him as DP? Muhlstock: This was the first time. Tod was totally cool and collaborative, we got along perfectly from the moment we spoke on the phone, straight through production. Tod was a pleasure and just a great guy! I think they were cautious, but felt that my personality fit the show.

CO: Obviously coming onto this last season you were replacing Aaron Medick who had worked as the operator on the previous three seasons. How much freedom were you given in being able to influence the look and bring your own methodology to it, or were you pretty locked into an existing style?

Muhlstock: As you know, the show has a very specific look and style to it. In fact, it’s one of the few shows that you can turn on and instantly know it’s Mr. Robot. Obviously the have a very strange aesthetic with short-sided frames and really gigantic headroom and a lot of unconventional looking frames, so going into it I was nervous about that, but as time progressed

CAMERA OPERATOR · SPRING 2020

CO: As you mention, Sam Esmail is both the showrunner and director of every episode this season, and I believe the last couple seasons as well. What was it like working with him in both of those dual roles?

Muhlstock: Extraordinary. I mean, he’s a brilliant guy who really has a specific aesthetic that he stays true to, and I have tremendous respect for that. You know, you get on these shows where it’s alternating directors, alternating DPs, what have you; it was so refreshing to be on a show that had one vision, one leader, and one path to take, so for that, it was extraordinary. It might have also been some of the most difficult things I’ve ever done, but it’s an extraordinary experience working with a guy at that level. It’s like watching an athlete have the best season of their career.

CO: You mentioned the very specific style of the show, but especially later in the season, there was some very playful experimentation in changing up that style and doing something very different. For example, the fifth episode has virtually no dialogue. Can you talk a little bit about what it was like to plan that episode out and to shoot it as well as working with the actors?

Muhlstock: As an operator, you don’t get that opportunity very often where essentially it’s all about the visuals. Of course there’s tremendous sound design and music that went into this as well, but that particular moment of the story lent itself to work as a silent episode. It was extraordinary! What was weird about it is because we cross-boarded the entire season—because you can do that when you have one director and one team of writers that are there all the time—we shot pieces of that episode over a six-month period, maybe a little bit less. There were days where it was almost impossible to know which episode you were working on. I looked at it as more like a 13hour movie, so it was difficult to know— other than the fact that there was no dialogue—that that was the episode we were working on. Every day there was some kind of epic shot that was happening, whether it be a really long oner or something else.

Everything was nonconventional with Sam. He wouldn’t cover scenes in the way a normal television director would cover it, so it was hard to determine at times that, “Oh, this is the silent episode,” so I wasn’t even conscious of it at certain points, I just viewed it as part of the story. I wasn’t fully aware of how it was all going to come together until I saw it when it aired.

CO: I imagine there’s a similar feeling that comes from the interesting way the show is edited, at times deliberately trying to disorient the viewer. How do you approach shooting these scenes that could be shown in different pieces across the episode or even across the season? Of course

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TRIVIA: Creator Sam Esmail made this show after being disappointed with the poor portrayal of computer hacking.

MR. ROBOT, Episode 402, (L–R) Jeff Muhlstock, SOC and Christian Slater. Photo by Peter Kramer / USA Network

there’s a plan for how that’s going to play out, but when you’re on the day shooting I imagine that can be tricky to wrap your head around.

Muhlstock: It is! And no one is really, entirely privy to what that plan is. The plan remains in the head of Sam Esmail. I don’t think anyone was really, fully aware of what was going on other than he. He has that capacity to tell a story like I’ve never seen before.

I certainly had my doubts along the way— there were times at take 26, you know, we’d be like, “Really? Are we really going again?”

But when you see the outcome of what he put together, it all made sense. It’s like, “Of course! Of course that’s why he did it; it’s such a pivotal moment of the story, it had to be perfect.” As painful as some of those days were—when you’re taking about shots that go into the high 20s of takes, and in some cases they’re four or five minutes long—

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when you spend the majority of the day on one shot, it’s extraordinarily challenging, and it’s impossible to wrap my head around what part of the episode this is. From my standpoint, all I really wanted to do was operate his vision properly and do it to the best of my ability, and that just showed to work.

If I was able to execute a shot that was in his mind, then we succeeded. Like I said, it was incredibly challenging at times, but also incredibly rewarding to go home and say, “Holy crap, look what we just did!”

So, it’s kind of wild. It’s also this mad collaboration with my dolly grip [Joe Belschner] and my focus puller [Bobby Mancuso] and in some cases three other people that are involved with a crane shot, between a guy on a bucket and the guy down on the pickle, our Libra head operator [Lance Mayer], it’s kind of amazing when a team works that hard to one vision. It really was extraordinary.

CO: Is there any particular moment that stands out as sort of exemplary of that?

A particularly challenging shot or scene where on the day, you were just banging your head against the wall, but to see it finally come together was really rewarding?

Muhlstock: [Laughs] There were probably a good couple of times a week where I felt that way, to be honest. Every day was a challenge, but there was certainly a handful of shots that were kind of next-level for us in terms of difficulty. I would have to say that some of the Steadicam—even though there wasn’t an enormous amount of Steadicam work on this show—the times when we did have it, it was very difficult. There’s a scene where it had to connect to a stuntman falling down a hill—this was also in episode five, the silent episode—it was part of a chase sequence. It’s a oner that runs just over a minute long, not horribly long. It’s in fact the shot I submitted as my

SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

TRIVIA: Every episode name in Season 2 ends in an "encrypted file" format. Whereas every episode in Season 1 uses a "video file" format.

MR. ROBOT, Episode 412, (L–R) Christian Slater, Jeff Muhlstock, and Rami Malek. Photo by Elizabeth Fisher / USA Network

SOC nominated shot. But in any event, it’s a shot that had to connect to a stuntman falling down a hill, and then we kind of do the old “Texas switch” as Rami [Malek] pops his head up into the shot. Obviously we weren’t making him fall down a hill.

From there he runs down steps, jumps onto a city bus that then takes off and moves, and then I have to do a 180-degree spin to see the police chasing after him, and then another 180 pan back to him, all while moving on a bus. This was certainly a moment I knew I had to get this thing right. That shot felt to me like one of the hardest that I’d done, certainly up until that point of production. I think it probably ended up in the neighborhood of a dozen or so takes before they decided they just can’t make this guy fall down the hill anymore for obvious reasons.

The challenge was the bus had to leave at the perfect time, the police had to show up

CAMERA OPERATOR · SPRING 2020

around the corner just at the perfect time, the switch from the stuntman to Rami had to be perfect, and they didn’t want to do a visual effect. The end result, I think they probably stitched two takes together, though I’m not exactly sure where or when that happened, but my guess is they probably tightened the gap between when the stuntman fell and when Rami popped his head up—there’s probably a little stitch in there when that happens—but the rest of it had to be done practically. There’s no faking getting onto that bus and spinning around and catching the cops chasing after him.

might have even asked to do another one and I was frustrated that it wasn’t perfect, and it was that moment where Rami said to Sam, “This is the guy that you want on your team,” knowing that I had been in the business for 30-something years as a Steadicam operator, he just made mention to that. He just made mention to that, like, “This guy’s been working this many years and he wants to go again, and that’s the kind of guy you want on your team.”

CO: Yeah, it’s this sort of intricate dance where you have to get all the pieces in the right place at the right time. It’s a hell of a thing.

Sam responded by saying, “I have him on my team!” Or something like that. “That’s why he’s on my team!” That was a pivotal moment in terms of our relationship shooting, in terms of trust, so that was kind of a great moment in the series for me when we got to that level.

Muhlstock: It was wild. And that was the moment for me and Rami where…they felt like they pretty much had it, and I think I

CO: And if I’m not mistaken, shooting for this season began, what, one day after Rami Malek won the Oscar for Best Actor?

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TECH ON SET:

Panavision DXL2 8K cameras with RE D Monstro sensors, Panavisi on Primo 70 lenses, Libra and Libra MINI remote heads, 30 ’, 45’, 50’, and 65’ Moviebird Te chnocranes, 25’ Scorpio crane, St eadicam, MōVI Pro

MR. ROBOT, Episode 412, Rami Malek, photo by Elizabeth Fisher / USA Network

Muhlstock: [Laughs] That is correct! Day one for Rami, they had an Oscar cake prepared for him. I got to meet him the day after he won the Oscar.

CO: Wow! That’s pretty incredible. This show was kind of his breakout role and to come back to that one day after winning the biggest award in the business, what was sort of the feeling like on set during those first few days?

Muhlstock: Pure jubilation! Rami is the show, no question about it. This guy is just an extraordinary talent and everyone was so proud to be a part of his career. For me as the new guy, it took a little bit just to get to know everybody, but as it happened— and it happened relatively quickly—I can understand why everyone loves Rami so much. He is nothing but a professional on set. He wants it, he cares about every element of it, he’s a team player, and it makes

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a lot of sense why he won an Academy Award. He’s of that level. You don’t get to work with actors of that level that often and what a joy to be in the front row seat watching him perform every day.

CO: For shooting on this season, what kind of equipment did you use?

Muhlstock: I’ve never had this much equipment on a show. We essentially had two Libra heads full time, every day for the run of the show. A Mini Libra and a full-size Libra head, teched by none other than Lance Mayer who sat next to me for the whole run of it. That in itself is kind of extraordinary, I mean, who does that? We essentially had a crane of our choice I’d say about 90% of the run of the show. I don’t think we used less than a 30-foot Technocrane, but we went to a 30-foot Techno, 45-foot Moviebird, 65foot Moviebird, 50-foot Techno; there were probably a few occasions where we had a 23-

foot Scorpio crane as well–telescopic cranes.

Our key grip, Richie Guinness, would build these huge steel decks so a 50-foot Technocrane could sit at the height of the wall on the stage so that the crane arm could actually negative into a shot—not just go over it, but actually go down into it. That was kind of a crazy ordeal where he could pull a 50-foot crane up onto a steel deck that’s 18 feet off the ground.

But I had the support of Richie Guinness, key grip and Joe Belschner, my dolly grip and I couldn’t have done any of this without them. Very often we would just push a Libra head around on a dolly. There was probably a large percentage of this show that I wasn’t even in the same room, just operating a remote geared head and keeping communication with my dolly grip who was driving around on a dolly and a Libra head.

That was basically our go-to. Also obviously Steadicam, I think there’s also a couple of

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TRIVIA: Elliot (Rami Malek) and Darlene (Carly Chaikin) use the Python and Ruby programming languages for creating their various hacks and exploits.

MR. ROBOT, "Hello Elliot" Episode 413, Jeff Muhlstock, photo by Peter Kramer / USA Network

[MōVI] shots that came into play where we did kind of a magnet rig where we had the grips walking with the MōVI, I’d be operating the head remotely, and we had a magnet system that would click onto a crane and be lifted up into the air. We experimented with that on a couple of shots.

There was my camera department as well.

Lead by the great Bobby Mancuso as my A first. Working all the time at the lens minimum focus on a moving camera, wide open iris, atmospheric smoke…his focus work was magical and unmatched! We used Panavision DXL2s with the Monstro version of that for Steadicam and smaller for handheld. Beautiful camera. We shot at 8K with a 15% window—15% outside of the frame that was recorded, but not used for framing so that they could stabilize and reposition and do what they wanted to do in post. It was a really smart way to work. If you’re going to use 8K, you might as well save some

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of that for some help later. And of course the Primo 70s—that was pretty much a prime lens show, though there are zooms as well, but they were very specific and planned, so we would put on a conventional zoom lens, 11:1. With the zoom lens, though, we would lose a little bit of resolution because it wouldn’t cover the sensor size.

That’s basically it. We had cranes! We had every toy we wanted. If there was a bigger crane, we would have gotten it. Monster Remotes, who supplied the cranes out here, just got a 75-foot Techno and I’m sure we would have had that every day if they’d had it in time. There’s only one in New York right now. [Sam] just wanted bigger and higher! It was almost comical. Pretty much every day we’d get to a scenario where we were just a couple inches off on something. He would push the frame and either the dolly wouldn’t fit by an inch or the lens was just a few millimeters too tight—it always pushed just to

the edge of impossible. Every single shot was always pushed just to the edge of impossibility. I don’t know if that was by intention or just by chance or by some crazy genius that he is, but it became a laughing thing.

CO: We’ve talked a lot about the more heavily stylized aspects of the show—like that shot from Episode 5 and all that went into making it. Two episodes later, though, you did something wildly different again that eschews almost all the stylistic traits of the series in favor of something more like a classical five act play. What was it like diverging so dramatically from the established look of the show for this one episode?

Muhlstock: I think everybody was nervous about that, but it was really something that Sam wanted to try. And again, the story drove that—that style and that choice was really an interesting way to tell that part of the story. It really was like a

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MR. ROBOT, Episode 412, (L–R) Jeff Muhlstock, Rami Malek, and Christian Slater. Photo by Elizabeth Fisher / USA Network

stage performance, and we covered it like a stage performance. The irony of that is—and I love that episode—but for me it’s actually the least amount of my work in that episode.

We brought in five other operators and shot it multi-camera as if it were live and essentially did not break the act. I don’t really know for sure how much editing went into that part, obviously every camera was recording all the time, but [Sam] played it as if he were doing a cut live, and he knew in his mind exactly where he was cutting. And I was actually on vacation for part if it, so I think I missed two of the acts, but essentially what we did was we rehearsed for a full week and then shot for a full week. It was totally different from anything Sam had done or anything on this show, but that’s what he does! He cut into widescreen for that to give it an anamorphic look which just seemed to fit the set visually better, so it was really kind of amazing.

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Again, you’re talking about the performance of the actors on this show; everybody puts on their A-game for Sam, they know how demanding he is. He asks for performances out of actors to the point where he can bring an actor to tears. He’s so demanding, but the trust on that set was like nothing I’ve ever seen. These great actors trusted any note Sam gave. They believed in him and they trusted it, and that’s what they got: this incredible project from the mind of Sam Esmail.

I know I keep saying that, but think about what this guy does! In the first season he had an episode that was kind of like a sitcom with a laugh track, and then he does this one with the five act, classical, almost Quentin Tarantino-esque structure, then he does a silent episode—it’s just kind of wild! And then he has an episode with sort of a Back to the Future kind of vibe as well. So, he’s obviously using things from stuff he likes and he makes it his own and it’s amazing.

CO: Right, it’s sort of like remixing or sampling—taking these elements from other things and using them to say something new in his story.

Muhlstock: It is. It’s very effective, and it’s incredibly unique to this show. It’s really like no other. I was very nervous about taking the job, my son was actually the one who finally talked me into it because he had watched the season previous. I had not seen anything! I had never watched the show—once I signed onto it I started watching obviously—but I was nervous about it! I was like, “I don’t know if I’m going to like this.” But it challenged me in ways I’ve never been challenged before, and boy, I hope I can find something even close to as exciting as this again. As a camera operator it was an amazing experience creatively, personally, emotionally, professionally. Just amazing.

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Above, left: MR. ROBOT -- Episode 412.

Right: "Request Timeout" Episode 408.

Photos by Elizabeth Fisher / USA Network

JEFF MUHLSTOCK, SOC Born and raised in New Jersey, Jeff has been working as a camera operator in the film and television industry for almost four decades. A film major and graduate of The School of Visual Arts in 1985, Jeff began his career shooting documentaries. Operating for MTV during its infancy, camera movement and musicality became the driving force for a career in Steadicam. With the aid of Garret Brown’s workshop in 1990, Jeff quickly became the go-to Steadicam operator for live television, leading him to win three Emmy Awards and eight nominations. In more recent years, Jeff’s career has shifted towards feature films and scripted television. With its unique style and attention to detail, Mr Robot has been the culmination of his near 40 years of experience and his proudest work to date. Jeff has been married to his wife Helane for 32 years and they have two children together.

A writer and film critic for close to ten years, David Daut specializes in analysis of genre cinema and immersive media with bylines at Lewton Bus, No Proscenium, and Heroic Hollywood.

David studied at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and currently works as a freelance writer based out of Orange County, California.

Photo by Niko Tavernise

Photo courtesy of David Daut

CAMERA OPERATOR · SPRING 2020

DAVID DAUT

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Watchmen With Respectful Hubris

an interview with Chris Cuevas, SOC by David Daut

Tim Blake Nelson as Looking Glass and Regina King as Sister Night, photo by Mark Hill / HBO

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Billed by series creator and executive producer, Damon Lindelof as a “remix” of the seminal comic series of the same name, HBO’s limited series, Watchmen, returns to this world of “costumed adventurers” created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons three decades after nuclear armageddon was narrowly averted thanks to the appearance of a giant, extra-dimensional squid. Now, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the police wear masks to hide their identities from a militant hate group known as the Seventh Kalvary, and officer Angela Abar (Regina King) must investigate the murder of her chief of police and the connection it has to Tulsa’s violent past.

Camera Operator: As someone who is chronically behind on TV series I’m interested in watching, I only just barely caught up with Watchmen. I realize I’m a few months late to the party here, but I hope you’ll indulge me for a moment in gushing over how good this show is. Just from front to back, remarkably smart, remarkably assured; it takes an impossible proposition—picking up the torch from the original graphic novel and carrying it forward—and pulls it off in a way that feels both meaningful and necessary.

How familiar were you with the source material coming into this project? Obviously Damon Lindelof has an almost religious reverence for the original comic series, but then other members of the creative team like Nicole Kassell (who directed the pilot along with episodes two and eight) came onboard with no prior knowledge of the book. Where along that sort of spectrum do you fall?

Chris Cuevas: Well, that is a very kind thing to say, as that was certainly our concern and our intent.

I would say very, very familiar. I grew up devouring comic books and I’ve probably read Watchmen 30 times. To say I was “attached” to the material would be an understatement.

Even as a kid (I was 11 when the first issue was released), I think it really resonated for me as a unique type of storytelling. Not everything was laid out or implicitly explained—there were no “thought bubbles” that were so pervasive in the

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medium at that point (with the exception of Rorschach’s journal entries or Dr. Manhann's voice-over). It forced you as the reader to interpret motivation, emotion and intent solely based on the writing, framing, and illustrations.

Also, narratively, it used a lot of techniques that have been incorporated into a variety of storytelling today—flashbacks, foreground elements, match cuts…All those elements are an influence on my own sensibilities.

CO: You came onto Lindelof ’s previous series, The Leftovers, in the show’s second season. Obviously he is a fan of your work as you stayed on through to the end of The Leftovers and then came back for Watchmen. How did you get on his radar initially?

Cuevas: I got hired onto Season 2 of The Leftovers when Ben Semanoff, SOC turned it down. I think at the time he wanted to spend some time at home and wasn’t interested in traveling to Austin, Texas. Mimi Leder, who had taken over The Leftovers in the latter half of Season 1, contacted me and asked if I was interested. I had worked with Mimi on two episodes of the HBO show Luck, (one for Season 2 that never aired).

I knew of The Leftovers and, of course, Damon’s work. Mimi sent me the script for the first episode of Season 2 and set up a meeting with her lead DP, Michael Grady. The script completely upended expectations and reinvented the series. It introduced all these new, incredible mysteries, and the characters were

optimistic and seemed to have very clearly defined goals. It was excellent, but I was slightly worried that nothing was going to be resolved. When I met with Grady, he was gregarious and enthusiastic, but also incredibly astute about every aspect of filmmaking and production. I think he appreciated my concern and assured me that although the greater mystery of the Departed was probably never going to be solved, there would be a resolution to the story.

I honestly don’t remember how or why I started talking to Damon. I think I struck up conversations with him, Tom Perrotta, and Tom Spezialy (all writers)—analyzing the script, discussing allegory and literary references—and very much praising the multilayered meaning that seemed to be pouring out of these scripts. I’m guessing this somehow led to a conversation between Damon and I about Alan Moore. We clearly shared a love for his work that went well beyond Watchmen and we both held a deep appreciation for Moore’s storytelling genius.

As we all worked together so closely, I think I started to get a sense of what techniques worked for that particular story. I can’t emphasize enough how great it was to work with people that fostered that level of input and creativity. By the end of Season 3, I suggested something so drastic that Damon said to me, “You don’t know what kind of shit storm you just walked into.” I’m guessing that was one of the moments where I gained his trust because it was clearly a discussion they had been

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Chris Cuevas, SOC Steadicam/A Camera Operator, photo by Van Redin / HBO

having in the writers’ room and it showed that I wasn’t intimidated to push an idea if I thought it benefitted the story.

It was around that same time we were in Australia shooting—I vividly remember Damon and I on the porch of this house they had built on a barren hill. We were discussing the end of the show and he was being cautious and guarded as usual and he told me that he was being offered Watchmen again. I just shook my head and said, “Well, you’re certainly a glutton for punishment.” I think it’s pretty well known how much hammering he had received by a vitriolic fan base that felt betrayed by some of his work in the past.

In my opinion Watchmen was a next-level risk. I was of the mindset that I didn’t need to see the comic translated to the screen. I appreciated Watchmen in its original medium, just as I might appreciate a novel for its prose. However, I also knew that if Damon

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didn’t write it, Warner Bros. was going to get someone else to do it—maybe someone who didn’t love or understand it quite as well. Damon was better suited than anyone else to tackle the challenge.

We kept in touch through email and it seemed pretty clear that given the circumstances, I would probably be given the opportunity to participate. It never came to the point where I had to ask for the job outright, because he ultimately hired Nicky Kassell, whom I had worked with a few times already. She contacted me to ask me if I wanted to do the pilot. I was already on another show, but both the DP (Darran Tiernan) and director (Craig Zobel) knew there was a chance I was going to get Watchmen and let me take a month off to do the pilot—which I am eternally grateful for.

I read the script with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. The only thing I knew be-

fore I read it was that it took place in Oklahoma. I read it and I was floored. Damon had given me something as a fan that I didn’t even know I wanted—a sequel to Watchmen.

What I particularly enjoyed about it was that it very much continued the theme of the graphic novel—which I always felt was the moral conundrum of what defines evil. The framework was now race instead of politics, but the ambiguity was very similar.

Nicky paired me up with her DP, Andrij Parekh, and I hired my friend Liam Sinnott (who had done The Leftovers with me) as the focus puller. We hooked up in Atlanta and hired local crew out there to round out the department.

CO: Because this TV series is picking up where the original comic series left off (give or take 34 years), there was already an established benchmark of sorts for what this world is supposed to look like

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TRIVIA: The Tulsa Massacre of 1921 by white supremacists against the black community in the beginning of the show is a real historical event.

Chris Cuevas, Steadicam/A Camera Operator, photo by Mark Hill / HBO

in Dave Gibbons’ iconic artwork. Even so, there’s still a translation that needs to happen in adapting static drawings into motion pictures as well as accounting for more than three decades of passed time.

How did you and the series’ creative team go about settling on the look and texture of this show?

designers, the visual effects supervisors, the editors and probably every person on set. Everyone had an idea as to what the Watchmen “look” and “tone” was.

At the beginning, I think Nicky relied very heavily on the storyboards—many that were constructed by an artist who used the previz as a template. My interpretation was that she used these as a basis and then had Andrij help her conceptualize that into an actual plan for the pilot.

Cuevas: Oof. That is a tough one. Well, obviously a bulk of that credit goes to Nicky— who pulled together a team that really attempted to harness the look of the comic. Of Now, clearly I don’t have the same responsicourse, we weren’t trying to recreate Watchbilities, stress or pressures of the director and men—Zack Snyder made that attempt althe cinematographer, so for me, storyboards most frame for frame. We had new material, and shot lists are sometimes counterproducbut I think many of us wanted it to have the tive. My framing and operating decisions are feel and tone of the comic. Now the tough usually very spontaneous based on what I’m part was that the definition of “tone” was encountering on set. open to interpretation. There are obviously a lot of people with a lot of input, including This technique is actually a major contrast Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro)the anddirectors, Russell Bufalino in graphic novel… A good amount of the writers, the producers, the (Joe Pesci) to the THE IRISHMAN. Photo courtesy of Netflix Moore’s original scripts are available to various cinematographers, the production

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study and you’ll notice that he can spend paragraphs describing a single frame. He appeared to be so calculated and controlling that the artist is mostly beholden to this elaborate and meticulously constructed idea that Moore has rattling around in his head.

Frankly, I think that type of planning is hard to achieve on a TV schedule and even if it is, it can sometimes create a rather soulless product. I understand the necessity (especially with comics, animation, or visual effects), but the workflow on a set allows for more immediate inspiration.

The best method to maintain a tone was to simply ask myself, “Is this a frame I would see in Watchmen?” If the answer was “yes”, I would shoot it. If it wasn’t—well sometimes I’d have to shoot it anyway, but I would try to fix it. Some of the visiting directors had been told that I was a lunatic fanboy so they would get really excited if they thought we

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Regina King as Sister Night, photo by Mark Hill / HBO

were directly referencing a frame from the comic. I wasn’t so much interested in that type of homage as opposed to just capturing the essence of Moore’s techniques. Just by reading the scripts, I obviously had preconceptions of what shots I thought were necessary, but again, nothing could really be implemented until I saw a set and a rehearsal.

Personally, I knew that an important element was using the set to give details of the story that might otherwise be overlooked. In the comic, everything is in focus. So the label on a can of beans that is in the foreground or an image in a framed picture would be just as sharp as the silhouette of a character that is speaking in the background. Well, I knew we weren’t going to shoot at a 5.6 stop or anything like that because in modern cinema we like to shoot everything at 1.4 or a .9 or something insane like that. Liam introduced the sliding diopter (which varies from a traditional diopter) to Andrij, and we definitely

tried to incorporate that into the storytelling—more so when Greg Middleton came aboard for the series. With that tool we were able to at least take advantage of different set pieces, or props that added to the worldbuilding that I think is such an important part of the story. Our set dresser, Nick Hood, who was also a giant Alan Moore fan, was instrumental in helping us force those types of Easter eggs into the frame.

I also wanted to incorporate a shit ton of slow zooms—but no one was on board. If you look at Watchmen—and quite frankly most of Moore’s work, it is pervasive with zooms.

People don’t understand zooms in comics— it doesn’t register in the same way—because obviously it’s not actually moving. In fact, I found that there were a lot of people who had trouble interpreting the actual language of a comic book. People could read it, but I think oddly enough, it’s like appreciating music or any other art form—it’s hard to

fully grasp unless you’ve had either guidance or experience. In our medium, there is this weird resistance to zooms nowadays, but I find it is a great way to increase subtle tension. Thankfully, post added a bunch of zooms. I know it pissed off the cinematographers, but I knew it was necessary and I was happy they did it.

Another thing that I was hoping to incorporate from the comic was off-screen dialogue.

I like how Moore would have images that weren’t directly tied to a scene, but were representational of the dialogue or action. We didn’t do much of that either, but some of that technique exists in Episode 8, where we were actively trying to hide the identity of Dr. Manhattan for 30 pages of dialogue.

I think most, if not all, of the sets and costumes were approved by Damon, so he still had a heavy hand in the tactile look of the show. Greg, who became our lead DP, real-

Louis Gossett Jr. as Will Reeves, photo by Mark Hill / HBO

ly took it upon himself to try to mold the dark, very controlled lighting and camera work. He was very particular and incredibly well prepared. Each night, he would send us still frames he had taken on a scout, lighting and camera notes, as well as drawings and equipment lists. I was very impressed with his commitment. Both Xavier Grobet (who was our alternating DP) and Alex Disenhof (who shot a bulk of the Blonde Man [Jeremy Irons] material and Episode 9), really tried to adhere to Greg’s sensibilities.

All of them were adamant to avoid unmotivated camera movement. They also tried to get us to lock frames when possible. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t—it really depended on the circumstances of course.

CO: The original comic series famously functioned as a deconstruction and commentary on the legacy of superhero comics up to that point. In finding the look

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for this series, did you look to what other superhero movies and TV shows are doing in an effort to either comment on or differentiate from that larger landscape in terms of style?

very traditionally as an action piece—but looking at the rough cut, you didn’t know if it was an American Hero Story clip, or something else entirely different. The editor kind of rescued that scene in my opinion.

Cuevas: Hmm. Nicky had a look book— I’d have to look at it, but I remember The Conformist being a reference. Se7en…no superhero movies or TV shows that I recall. I certainly wasn’t thinking about any of that stuff. We clearly didn’t do a lot of those “commercial break” push-ins. There wasn’t a discussion about avoiding it, it just didn’t fit in to the bleak, noir tone we all were trying to adhere to. There were the American Hero Story segments that were meant to incorporate that style of filmmaking to differentiate it from our “real world.” We got a little stuck in Episode 3 when we introduced the character of Laurie Blake staging a bank robbery to capture a masked vigilante. That was a situation where we were shooting the scene

CO: What equipment did you use to shoot the series?

Cuevas: ARRI Alexa Minis, and Leicas for the pilot. For the series, Greg wanted those giant Cooke S5s (that almost no one seems to have). We used the Steadicam a good amount in the pilot and Episode 6, but sparingly otherwise. We did a ton of crane work and we used the Ronin with the Master Wheels and the Klassen SlingShot. None of us knew too much about the Ronin at the time so that was a lot of trial and error. I’ve since become pretty familiar with it and have found it to be an incredibly useful tool.

At one point we discussed using the Trinity for Episode 6. I tested it out during a month

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Steven Norfleet as O.B. Williams, photo by Mark Hill / HBO

long hiatus, but explained that if I was going to have any hope of using that thing successfully I would need to probably take a crash course that was only being offered in Toronto at the time. It’s very different than the Steadicam—you become more of a fulcrum for a crane arm and maneuvering the joystick takes some finesse. I knew if we tried to “wing it” on the day, we would just be setting ourselves up for disaster. There is no time for that level of experimentation on a television schedule.

Sending me to Toronto at the time wasn’t really a viable option, and neither Greg nor our director Stephen [Williams] were interested in hiring another operator to just do the Trinity—so we ultimately abandoned the idea and figured out alternative methods to get the shots we needed.

I tried to use the P+S Technik Skater Scope when possible. Michael Mann introduced it to us many, many years ago and it’s become an invaluable tool. Much like the Steadicam,

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Ronin, or crane—once you start seeing what can be accomplished with these tools, you start designing shots to really take advantage of the equipment. The only problem with the Skater is that it is a 5.6 and no DP wants to light to that!

rules or boundaries that you’ve fabricated for yourself or the show. It can also get really tedious and boring if you’re watching eight or 10 hours of the exact same type of filmmaking. I think we had enough variance in our techniques that it never felt too methodical.

CO: In the case of this show, you also have the unique challenge of tackling stories in certain episodes that call for a pretty dramatically different approach to visual storytelling, while also making sure they still feel like part of this larger whole. How would you define that core “essence” that kept the series feeling stylistically coherent while still allowing for some pretty big leaps in technique?

Overall, I think each department was excellent at simply trying to maintain their own consistency. The technical aspects only played a small role in the cohesiveness of the story which was actually constructed by the writing, the performances, and the score.

Cuevas: I don’t know. In terms of camera work, I like to use whatever tool is right for the shot or the scene. In trying to adhere to a “style” it can sometimes be creatively prohibitive if you’re too adamant about particular

Obviously the tone was something we were all obsessing over, but I was mostly preoccupied that we weren’t doing justice to these incredible scripts. I will say that the producers were gracious enough to show me very rough cuts of episodes one, two, and three.

It was an invaluable education because each episode was shot by a different DP and I could see what was working and what wasn’t.

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TRIVIA: A large portion of Adrien Veidt's scenes (from episodes 1-8) were shot in Wales prior to the series principle photography in Georgia.

Regina King as Angela Abar and Louis Gossett. Jr. as Will Reeves, photo by Mark Hill / HBO

So personally, I let my interpretation of Alan Moore’s sensibilities guide my decisions when I was given the freedom to do so.

Christ.” I told him, “Well, usually that’s an important factor.” He told me he was going to pitch it to Damon.

CO: Along those lines, we have to talk about Episode 6: This Extraordinary Being. I’m sure we could do a whole feature article digging into the technical craft of this one episode alone, but could you speak a bit to how you pulled off the visual magic trick at the heart of telling this heartbreaking story of Angela viscerally experiencing her grandfather’s memories? How much of it was accomplished through editing tricks and how much was a choreographed dance between you, the crew, and the actors?

These scripts were not coming out with any real frequency. We were struggling with tone and schedules on set and I think they were having philosophical arguments about the impetus of trauma. We took a month hiatus and I came home to Los Angeles. I didn’t tell anyone except Liam, but I scheduled a double hernia operation while I was home. I thought it might give them cause for concern if on the eve of doing an episode that was pitched as a single Steadicam shot, their operator was recovering from surgery.

I knew it wasn’t going to be shit. I was fully healed in seven days—back in the gym and on a ski vacation.

Cuevas: Stephen, the director came up to me before the script was written and told me “I want to do the next episode like Birdman.”

I asked him, “Have you read the script?”

He said, “No.” I thought to myself, “Jesus

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During that hiatus, we lost a lot of crew—the B op, the gaffer, my focus puller, our key 2nd, our utility, and our B 2nd. That made such an

ambitious episode even more difficult. Fortunately, we had some great people step in.

The script for Episode 6 came out and Greg and Stephen were working out the details of how to make it happen. They shot a bunch of tests with second team and an iPhone and would send me these clips. The Artemis is a deadly tool by the way. Everyone shoots with that thing booming up and down, wrapping around, and shoving it against a wall, then showing you the footage and saying, “Okay, now you do it with a real camera.” Greg was relatively more thoughtful, of course, and asked for my input on how I thought we could actually accomplish the work.

I had gone through this before on other shows that were inspired by Chris Haarhoff, SOC and Chivo [Emmanuel Lubezki]. Nine times out of 10 it’s a gimmick and totally pointless, plus it is massively compromised on a television schedule. You look at Birdman, or

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Chris Cuevas, Steadicam/A Camera Operator, photo by Mark Hill / HBO

Children of Men, Gravity, or 1917—these are movies that had a huge amount of prep and planning that went into achieving those incredible shots. We had 11 days.

I read the script and understood the concept—and the idea was that we were going to hot swap Regina [King] and Jovan [Adepo] live in camera as frequently as possible.

Timing was crucial. It took a level of concentration that was really challenging. I think the most takes we did was 29? Our A dolly grip, T.S. [Hale], would remember. The hardest shot we did wasn’t on Steadicam or hand-held or on the crane—but on a damn dolly around the dinner table. The set was so small. It was one of the few times where it took a few quick experiments to figure out what was going to work. Initially, I thought I might be able to use a head on a super smooth butt dolly that could float around the table. That was ill-conceived, because even as great as those casters were, there was

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always a moment where a transition would create this unavoidable bump. At lunch (I’m not sure we had even done a shot that morning), I built the Steadicam in low mode, thinking I could float around the table. No room. Finally, we collapsed the PeeWee and put a two-foot slider on it. I was hunched over and contorting my body as T.S. was desperately trying to time his moves perfectly with actors coming in and out of the set and dialog being swapped back and forth. It was brutal, of course, when they cut in flashback frames to emphasize story points, but I get it—and ultimately it doesn’t matter. It serviced the story better and I think helped clarify things for the audience.

The whole thing would have been a mess without Regina King and Jovan Adepo. I had worked with both of them on The Leftovers, and Regina and I have worked together on different projects for something like 15 years. Their willingness to trust me and our

mutual respect of the work and our relationships contributed a great deal in our success.

CO: Obviously, Episode 6 is the most deliberately attention-grabbing hour of the series, but were there other episodes you’d like to highlight for being either particularly challenging or moments you’re particularly proud of?

Cuevas: Everyday was challenging and internally torturous, because I held myself and the work to such high expectations. I’m immensely proud to have worked on it and happy with other people’s work, but sadly I only see my own flaws and missed opportunities. I can only do so much—I'm not in charge and hopefully contributing to an overall greater vision, but I felt a responsibility to the legacy of Watchmen and I only hope that I was able to recapture some of the literary presence that meant so much to me as a fan.

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CO: At least at the time of this writing, Lindelof has held pretty firm in his assertion that this one season represents everything he had to say about Watchmen, and— somewhat surprisingly—HBO seems fairly content to honor that decision. In a time where big franchises seem destined to continue on until the heat death of the universe, what does it feel like to come onto a show that you know has a fixed endpoint from the very beginning?

Cuevas: [Laughs] We didn’t know it had a fixed end point until the media announced it!

I had my suspicions. I am happy it ended. So many shows go on too long and just become boring and complacent. I don’t need endless hours of the same content—stylistically or

narratively. Most episodic TV feels like it has all sorts of scenes that are either blatant exposition or tedious filler. I don’t think Watchmen ever suffered from that.

The comic ends on sort of a cliffhanger, “What’s going to happen with Rorschach’s journal? Is Veidt’s secret going to be revealed?”

It’s a curious question, but I wasn’t clamoring for the answer. Our series ends very much in the same way and I think the story could continue, but maybe it’s a stronger piece as something more finite. Of course, if it did return, I’m sure I’d be desperate to participate.

The comic had so many layers to it that it was something I could read time and time again.

There are very few dramatic series I will re-

CHRIS CUEVAS, SOC

visit—The Prisoner, Twin Peaks, Leftovers, and now, hopefully, Watchmen. The real commonality between those series is that they force the viewer to think. It’s not passive viewing and it’s not simple entertainment. I know Alan Moore has divorced himself entirely from the property, but I hope someone he knows and trusts, encourages him to watch our show and he gets some level of enjoyment knowing that he inspired so many of us to try and create something that is even fractionally worth carrying the name Watchmen.

Below: Chris Cevas on the set of WATCHMEN. Photo courtesy of Chris Cuevas.

TECH ON SET:

ALEXA Minis, Leica Chris Cuevas grew up in Seattle listening to rap music cam eras, Cooke S5 lenses, and reading comic books. At 18 he moved to New Ste adicam, Ronin with York City to attend NYU Film School. He finished Ma ste r Wheels, Klassen his schooling at the University of San Francisco and Slin gSh ot, P+S Technik moved to Los Angeles in 1997 where he started workSkater Scope ing as a film loader on a low-budget film. After working as a 2nd AC and a focus puller, he moved up to operator in 2010. He currently lives with his wife and son in Montrose, California and hopes to move back up to Seattle at some point in the future.

Photo by courtesy of Chris Cuevas

TRIVIA: In antiquity, Ozymandias was a Greek name for the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II. Lady Trieu's mother (the original Bian/Cleaning Lady) uses the password "Rameses II" to access Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias' computer in Episode 9.

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Everything Mentionable is Manageable

Smooth Operator

by Sam Ellison, SOC

At work on I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE, photo by Atsushi “Jima” Nishijima

At the beginning of March 2020 I was in Calabria, the windblown tip of Italy’s boot, operating the camera on a scrappy, exciting new film by an ingenious director, Jonas Carpignano. I was living in a little house by a nearly-deserted beach, with my wife and two-month-old daughter along for the ride. By day I was shooting super 16mm with a cast of rambunctious teenage non-actors, and by night I was changing diapers and drinking grappa. It was an indie filmmaker’s dream.

But now, at the end of the same month, I’m at home in self-imposed quarantine with a case of existential whiplash. Soon after our production shut down and we scrambled back to New York City, the whole world came to a screeching halt. Needless to say, this is a time unlike any other in living memory, and just like the rest of us I have no idea what’s coming next, or what the film industry will look like when these words appear in print. This pandemic has produced more than enough amateur philosophers, so I’ll spare you my personal views on the situation, but I can’t write anything about cinematography or camera operating today without recognizing that most of us have no idea when we will be able to go back to our jobs.

With all this uncertainty in the air, I’ve been reflecting on recent projects and thinking about how to face the unexpected as a camera operator. Or, more simply, how to keep cool under pressure. How

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to adapt. How to confront a set of really difficult circumstances and respond by taking a deep breath, listening, paying attention. Trying to understand what your role should be in solving a particular problem.

How to count the cooks in the kitchen before you put on your chef ’s hat. How each day, each scene, each shot demands thoughtfulness, and sometimes submission.

In 2019, I operated the A camera for my friend Jody Lee Lipes on I Know This Much is True, an HBO limited series by director Derek Cianfrance, starring Mark Ruffalo in the roles of two twin brothers.

It was one of the most difficult, grueling, unpredictable productions I have ever been a part of. We had a 114-day schedule for six 1-hour episodes, shooting 35mm with tons of motion control (due to the whole twins thing) and an entire episode set in the 1920s. But the most challenging aspect of the show stemmed from Derek’s disdain for anything that felt too controlled or preconceived. I love this about him, and I find his style inspiring and invigorating, but it made for very hard work. It felt like Derek wanted everyone—the actors and the crew—to be functioning at their breaking point, the bleeding edge between art and failure. He often wanted to be rolling the camera the very first time an actor set foot on a new set, with no instructions given and no clear idea what the physical action would be. We usually rolled out on every take without cutting (shooting 2-perf gave us 20

SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

Getting familiar with Ikegami cameras on A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD, photo by Lacey Terrell

minute takes), and we absolutely never did formal blocking. Plus, I often had an Optimo 24-290 on my camera, with a Microforce dialed all the way down to zero, creeping in slowly to the end of the lens. And for each scene between the brothers we had to come back to the same motion control set-ups 3 months apart, because Ruffalo gained a substantial amount of weight to play the second twin. Our camera department, led by masterful 1st AC Aurelia Winborn, 2nd AC Liz Hedges, and B 1st AC Kali Riley, deserves a huge amount of credit for making it all work. We didn’t stop struggling against our limitations, but we realized that the struggle was part of what made the footage beautiful.

sections of the film that take place within the “neighborhood” we used a set of five Ikegami 323 tube video cameras that Jody tracked down in an exhaustive search to find exactly the same machines that would have been used for the original production in the 80s and 90s.

These were some of the last functional bodies left in the world, and they were in England. In order to test them I personally flew out to Manchester, rented a car, and drove across the countryside to a farmhouse outside the city of Lincoln, where Paul Marshall and Richard Harris run a company called Golden Age TV. We shot some lighting tests on their (remarkably well preserved) fleet of Ikegamis, and went to their local pub for lunch.

Oh, and also our whole set burned down one night, along with our fully loaded camera truck and countless vintage picture cars. That happened on a Thursday, and we were back up and rolling again on Monday morning. It was a wild show.

Once we were up and running in Pittsburgh for principal photography, a big part of my job was copying camera moves from the original Mister Rogers’ show using the clunky old gear we had shipped over from the UK. The opening scene of the film is a good example—we wanted the framing of Hank’s singsong entrance to be exactly the same as the single long take that opens most Mister Rogers’ episodes.

This was easier said than done. I had never used pedestal cameras before, and while these were in great shape for their age they were certainly not as reactive as the high-performance gear we’re used to using today. Again, I found myself in the position of having to make peace with limitations, accepting my struggles. Rewatching the orig-

Marielle Heller’s A Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood was the previous film I operated. Jody, Aurelia, Liz and I worked together on this one as well, and it presented a totally different set of challenges.

Our mission this time, besides capturing a wonderful performance by Tom Hanks, was to replicate the photography of the original Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood television series as closely as possible. For the

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With dolly grip, Chris Cazavilan on the television series STRANGERS, photo byYoshi Tang SOC

inal television show after each day on set, I began to appreciate how the camerawork in the show is often charmingly bumpy, and that (maybe) I was getting a more authentic image by battling with the worn old pedestals than I could have gotten with modern support.

I guess what I’m saying is let’s all take a deep breath. There’s a line from A Beautiful Day…that sticks with me, something Hank’s Rogers says to console Lloyd Vogel’s family as they confront the death of his father, “Everything mentionable is manageable.” We can look our problems in the eye without being overwhelmed. The world is certainly crazy right now, and it may be even crazier by the time you’re reading this, but there will still be movies on the other side.

Operating a motion control setup from the back of a biscuit rig on I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE, photo by Atsushi Nishijima

SAM ELLISON, SOC Sam Ellison, SOC feels very honored to have recently joined the ranks of this Society! Based in New York City, Sam was nominated for the SOC Camera Operator of the Year - Feature in 2020 for his work on A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.

His other recent credits include: I Know This Much is True, A Chiara, Vox Lux, Academy Award-winner Manchester By The Sea, and the television series Strangers. Sam’s debut feature as a director, the documentary Chèche Lavi (Looking for Life), premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in January 2019, and has since played at more than 30 festivals around the world. He holds a BA from Harvard College an MFA from Stanford University. Photo courtesy of Sam Ellison

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SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

The Society offers different levels of membership for individuals and manufacturers in the production community – Active, Associate, Educator, Student and Corporate.

Ang Lee’s Technical Team Discuss Stereo 3D and High Frame Rate Production

Tech Talk

by Michael Daut

Ang Lee (left) with DOP Dion Beebe, ASC, ACS as operator Daniele Massaccesi, SOC listens to the lens choice. Savannah Georgia, 2018. GEMINI MAN, photo by Paramount stills photographer Ben Rothstein

In early March 2020, the Giant Screen Cinema Association (GSCA) presented a demonstration of the new Cinity system, the new high frame rate (HFR) cinema projection system developed

by Christie for Huaxia Film Distribution. The system uses two Christie RGB laser projectors displaying content in 4K, 120 – frames-per-second per eye stereo 3D, high dynamic range, with 28 fL of brightness per eye. Academy Award winning filmmaker, Ang Lee, kindly provided clips from his latest film, Gemini Man (featured in the 2020 fall issue of the magazine), shot in the native format of the Cinity system. Presenting the clips at the demo were Ang Lee’s stereographer, Demetri Portelli, and technical supervisor, Ben Gervais.

Camera Operator magazine had the privilege of sitting down with Demetri and Ben to talk about the demo and most specifically the process behind creating Gemini Man and working in 3D and HFR. Camera Operator: Tell me a little about your background in the industry and how you got involved with 3D and high frame rate production.

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Demetri Portelli: I’ve been a cameraman / technician since 1995. When 3D came along; I was a few years into shooting HD (with less 35mm projects) so with the arrival of digital 3D my instinct was to learn stereo shooting as quickly as possible. I had no idea how visually creative this work would become, that the technology could really help the filmmaker design a different storytelling opportunity to connect with the audience.

I met Ben on Resident Evil where we used Phantom cameras on a PACE 3D rig. We have been working together for over 10 years putting tools and creative control into the director and cameraman’s hands on the set.

This trajectory has involved new explorations to find better techniques to create a much more comfortable viewing experience which is boosted by massive amounts of visual information. For example, it is only due to HFR/120FPS that we can now completely ‘lock’ onto an actor’s eyes and track that performance across the screen. This work is driven by Ang Lee who pushes all his craftspeople to see the new potential, saying “You’re not really an artist unless you’re working outside of your comfort zone.”

Ben Gervais: Shooting in stereo or in high frame rate is intimidating to a lot of people because it’s very complicated. My background in engineering really helped me come at it from that angle. I’m thinking

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Daniele Massaccesi, SOC on GEMINI MAN in Columbia, 2018, photo by Ben Rothstein

about how we can simplify things and make them less complex and intimidating. We never want a director to be overwhelmed by the technology. Creating amazing technology is incredible, but actually making it usable for artists on a real-world schedule in a real-world situation is essential. That’s where I really started to sink my teeth into a lot of these problems. That’s one of the ways we got a name for ourselves by taking the stuff and saying, “Twenty cables is not acceptable. It’s got to be two cables: one cable for power and one cable for everything else.” The camera assistants can understand that. The director can understand that. All of a sudden now when we have to run around with a Steadicam there’s not this ridiculous circus of stuff upon stuff upon a million cables that everyone is tripping over.

Portelli: Stereo shooting is so much of what we do. We are shooting real (native) 3D, and we’re in a business where not many people are doing that in narrative theatrical movies, but luckily native 3D photography is more evident in giant screen documentary production.

Stereo shooting is a huge stepping-stone for people. It’s really a fast education at the beginning trying to get everyone on board. It can get really big and really intimidating. We’re not here to intimidate

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people. We’re here to say it’s been done, and it can be done. People will find excuses not to shoot native 3D because they’re full of fear. It’s managing these fears that is an important part of what we bring to the process. But they also need to know the potential.

CO: Right, and I think one of the big fears is managing a 3D rig on the set instead of doing post conversion from 2D to 3D later.

We did a demo for the GSCA Conference last year that highlighted the different effects that you can produce by shooting in native 3D as opposed to converting everything. It’s a matter of choosing the results you want ahead of time.

Gervais: Yeah, I would absolutely agree with that. One of the things people say is, “That’s expensive.” There’s two parts to that, there’s obviously up-front costs of shooting in stereo (and that’s not actually a huge cost—the equipment and personnel), and then there’s the perceived idea that you have to extend your schedule. The schedule is the big driver of your budget. With experienced people with the right equipment, that’s not such a big stumbling block. Having said that, in Hollywood in particular there’s a bit of a different equation that happens with regards to shooting in 2D and then converting to 3D

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later, and that has to do with risk management. The way a lot of Hollywood studios approach stereo is that as long as the director is not insisting one way or the other, they prefer to go the conversion route because studios, especially these days, are all about being risk-averse as much as possible. A creative property is inherently risky anyway.

What they want to do is wait until the movie is already in the can to decide in the edit whether the film is worth the investment of 3D conversion. They can’t do that if they’ve spent the money up front.

They’ve already committed to making it 3D, even though in a lot of instances it would have been cheaper to shoot in 3D natively. In the GSCA environment that’s even more evident because, whenever you convert a shot, that shot becomes a VFX shot. There are so few VFX shots in use on most documentaries that is would be silly in a lot of ways to think that turning every shot in your movie into a VFX shot is going to somehow be cheaper than to shoot it natively in 3D. The other element to all of this too is that you’re getting the artistic clarity—there is a lot more information you’re capturing in the shoot.

If you’re just taking information and duplicating it into another eye, and then doing some hand paint to fill in the occlusions, that’s not really serving the viewer, particularly if we’re talking about something that should appear natural and real.

Portelli: We talk a lot about the big information visual “bump” by shooting high frame rate and native stereo. That is really evident going back through the history of 3D as well. How much of a big mental bump that information is from the two lenses. It’s much more similar to how the human eye sees naturally. Now we have higher frame rate (HFR) and 4K resolution to add to this visual clarity and sense of realism on screen. The movement is so natural and true.

CO: One of the things that struck me from the demo and the discussion we had is that it seems that shooting a 2D movie and shooting a 3D movie are very different in terms of the results that you get on screen. By simply converting a 2D movie to 3D without approaching it as a 3D movie from the beginning seems to be ignoring some of the essential qualities of 3D. What do you think about that?

Demetri: Absolutely. What people don’t realize if they haven’t shot 3D is that those decisions being made by the craftspeople working that day—the director, the cinematographer, the actors, and the camera operator, those decisions are made when you see how the camera moves and feels, how you block, and how you work with it. We have called native 3D with HFR a new medium that has its own set of essential qualities that can be explored. 2D to 3D conversion definitely can be used effectively and the work that is being done is getting better and better.

It’s a matter of selecting the right tools for the right results. When we were working on Hugo, Martin Scorsese said, “I’m not going to look at 2D. I’m not making a 2D movie; I’m making a 3D movie.” We had five 3D monitors on set, and he was making and editing and watching his sequences back in 3D with a 3D monitor in the edit suite. So the intention and the process, and Ang said this too, is that he’s learning every day and every hour as he goes. This really falls into a specific and tight

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working relationship with the camera operator in doing pans, going hand-held, etc. Interesting challenges we’ve had—you would treat that extremely differently in 2D. The audience will get what they paid for if the intent from the outset is to craft moments, and sequences, and a storytelling experience that’s got sound, that’s got color, that has depth: it’s got all the ingredients in the hands of a chef who will create the best possible 3D film with intentionality and as much visual information to guide and inform the process.

Gervais: To think of it in another way, if you did a movie in color, you would never hire a production designer who was color blind. That’s not the sort of thing you would do. It’s very much the same thing with stereo and high frame rate. You want to see those results up front, and yes we want to plan for a lot of them, but there are those moments on a film set where by virtue of the fact that the director, the crew, and everyone else is seeing in stereo and high frame rate that they may be able to make decisions that they may not otherwise have been able to make that help the film. The effect of that can’t be overestimated.

Portelli: With Gemini Man we were able to have dual laser projectors on location to view dailies every night at 120fps per eye, this was instrumental in testing and shooting for the director to work with DOP Dion Beebe, ASC, ACS, and camera operator Daniele Massaccesi, SOC to design lighting, shots and movement that works in this format.

CO: How did 3D become a jumping off point to exploring HFR? Ben: We always knew academically that HFR was the right thing to do. Anyone who has done any study of moving images knows that one of the inherent properties of low frame rate is judder. It used to be seen as a problem. The old ASC manual in the appendices has all these tables for camera operators. If you have this frame rate set on your camera, and you have this lens, pan the camera at this speed, but please stay away from these speeds. Over time film language evolved and audiences evolved and met in the middle. Some of this became instinctual for the operators, and some of it is what the audience adapted to accept. These were 2D movies, and apart from a select group of the population, you’re not going to make them sick by moving the camera. A 2D movie is just a picture on a wall.

As soon as we get into stereo—and this was the universal note from every director we introduced to stereo—as soon as you pan the camera for the first time, the first time they have a rig up in a studio, they say, “That looks awful! That’s wrong.” We have to explain to them that your brain wants to believe this image is real, now that you’re seeing it in stereo, and it’s having a problem doing that because of the low frame rate. Some directors are more accepting of that than others.

Most of the time up until we did high frame rate, they said we have to change the shot because it’s hard to watch.

The real question to answer was how do we get rid of judder, the underlying problem? You can compensate for judder with additional

SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

motion blur by adjusting the shutter angle of the camera, but then this additional blurring obscures detail. The more motion blur we have the more the resolution goes down, and suddenly that person you’re panning to catch up to, you can’t see their face because there’s so much motion blur. The only real answer is to have higher frame rate. Academically we knew that for a long time, but only recently with people like Peter Jackson, James Cameron, and Ang Lee doing these experiments and finding out what they actually mean to cinema can we solve those problems. These solutions create a whole new host of problems. As Ang calls them the “old movie tricks” don’t work anymore, and we have to find new ways to make people’s faces look good and operate the camera, do makeup and hair, and make sets look real, and all those sorts of things. It’s the constant process of answering a question only to discover more questions. Eventually you get to a place where there are fewer questions and more and more answers, and then you can start shooting your movie.

CO: In some ways it sounds like you are reinventing the medium and the language that accompanies it by throwing away old conventions and embracing new ones.

Gervais: Absolutely.

CO: As you were starting to work with high frame rate, how did you choose 120fps as your ideal number to hit?

Gervais: Mostly it started on Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (see article soc.org/project/billy-lynns-long-halftime-walk). Very very early, when we were just starting to get involved on the project, a discussion happened.

Ang had seen Jim Cameron’s high frame rate demo. Jim did a test of high frame rate. He did shots at 24, 48, and then 60fps. Ang then did his own test for a movie that he subsequently didn’t go into production on, where he tested the same frame rates. He said, 60 looks great, but the problem was that we’ve got this giant installed base of projectors and viewing devices that only work at 24. The film distribution model that existed at that point, which was about the time that The Hobbit came out, was really geared to 24-frames-persecond. Distributing anything else was kind of scary. We knew we had to stay compatible.

So the question became, how do you get your 24 frame movie from your 60 frame master?

Since 24 is not a factor of 60, basically what it means is that you have to turn every shot into a visual effects shot. You’ve got to “optical flow” your 60-frames-per-second master down to 24fps. Some frames will be fine because they land on the right multiple, but

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then other frames will not, since the optical flow algorithm with invent different information in both eyes, you will have to have a visual effects artist go in on those frames and fix them. This is a real problem and is very, very expensive.

The camera we had elected to use could do up to 120 frames per second, and we knew, worst-case scenario, even if we don’t find a better way of doing it, if we shoot our movie at 120 frames, that means we can throw away four out of every five frames to get a 24fps movie, and we could throw away one out of every two frames to get a 60fps movie. Even though we hadn’t really figured out what we were going to do, at that point we had some ideas about how to do different types of frame blending and knew about different tools available to us to try.

We were full steam ahead into production and we knew this would work. Even though it’s more data, we know that we can get both our deliverables, so Ang can have his 60 frame shots. We also didn’t know which portions of the movie were going to be high frame rate—just part of the movie or all of it—and to make that decision before you shoot the scene when you don’t really know what it’s supposed to look like and how it’s going to edit together is scary.

It made a lot more sense to shoot everything at 120fps and sort it out later, sort of kick the ball down the road, as it were, to make some of those decisions later in post. That bought us a lot of time and allowed us to do further experiments to figure out how to make our better version of 60. If you just drop every other frame it doesn’t look quite

Camera configuration shooting backwards from motorcycle.

Photo by Demetri Portelli

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as nice as adding a little motion blur, because it will still have less motion blur than 24, but it eliminates the last remnants of some judder if you use some motion blur. That essentially how we got to 120fps as sort of our mastering format.

Portelli: The great thing is the giant screen industry doesn’t have the same obstacles we’ve had with certain film critics debating, “What is cinema, and what is allowed to be considered cinema.” I think that the new aesthetics and format of high frame rate will be much more free in documentary production to explore these truthful and immediate images. The majority of the critics have also viewed only 60fps single projector and so they are not commenting on the master format we have been shooting and finishing, but finally we see some good news for more cinemas to show this work.

CO: I agree. I think the challenge is that so many people have been turned against high frame rate just by some of the experiments that have happened, the way critics have responded to them, and the “soap opera” effect that people describe. This is something I did NOT experience in the full 120fps per eye Cinity system demo that we did for the GSCA Film Expo. That’s something I thought was fascinating and unexpected. What’s your take on this? How caption, credit does this technical threshold change things and make everything look that much more realistic?

Gervais: I think a lot of it really has to do with the content itself. I think you’ve really got to produce content that is engaging to people.

As soon as someone grabs onto a story and starts getting emotionally involved with the characters and what is on the screen, they will quickly drop their criticism of other technical issues with a film. There’s a million examples, like YouTube for example, where the people making the content are not technically sophisticated and the “craft” is really not great, but the story is really compelling and people get into it. Obviously, once we get past a certain threshold: resolution, brightness, frame rate, and stereo, those things combine together in what we’re doing to create something different from what traditional cinema is that in a lot of ways it helps you divorce this new format from cinema. It’s about making something that is different and unique enough that it stands on its own as a separate kind of experience, rather than something that is only a slight improvement to what audiences had before.

Portelli: I’ve used the phrase, “The proof is in the pudding,” and it goes to exactly what you said, it’s not enough to see a lesser version of this new medium. You’ve seen “the whole shebang” as Ang calls it: 120fps, 28 fL of brightness, HDR, stereo, 4K. It’s physiologically a different experience. It’s more comfortable and is available now.

CO: Ben and Demetri, thanks so much for your time and for sharing your experiences with us.

Left: Ang Lee with the hardware. Right: Stereotec 3D rig build with ARRI M cameras and Leica Lenses. Photos by Demetri Portelli

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SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

Demetri Portelli (left) and Ben Gervais (right), on GEMINI MAN in Columbia 2018, photo by Ben Rothstein

BEN GERVAIS, Technical Producer & DEMETRI PORTELLI, Stereographer / Stereo Supervisor Ben Gervais and Demetri Portelli have been partners at the forefront of Hollywood motion picture technology for the past decade. They have broken new ground both technically and artistically, and their work has proven that digital 3D can succeed with cinematic results of incredible quality. They started together on the Resident Evil franchise using Phantom cameras to shoot high frame rate stereo content in slow motion. On Hugo they were the first to use the Alexa for Martin Scorsese’s 3D foray, which won multiple 3D awards, including the best cinematography Oscar. They went on to win Cameraimage’s Best 3D Award for their work with Jean-Pierre Jeunet on The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet, achieving more dynamic, mobile shots by using the very first Alexa M cameras. Their recent work with Ang Lee on both Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk and Gemini Man has involved more customized solutions for shooting, on-site dailies, lab processing, and post-production. Their goal: to give the filmmaker full autonomy and freedom to both shoot and display his finished product with the highest quality image possible.

MICHAEL DAUT Michael Daut is an immersive media specialist, working as an independent writer/producer/director in Los Angeles. Michael brings a wealth of experience within the giant screen cinema and digital fulldome industries. He is an award-winning writer, producer, and director for fulldome videos, theatrical productions, music videos, live concert videos, commercials, documentaries, corporate videos, and trade show presentations. He most recently served as the Director of New Business Development for Mousetrappe, an experience design and production studio in Burbank. Previously he worked for over 20 years at Evans & Sutherland, where he was instrumental in developing a library of shows for the digital fulldome community. Photo by Maggie Storm

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Insight Photo courtesy of Rob Crombie

ROD CROMBIE, SOC What was one of your most challenging shot or challenging day in the industry? There have been many challenging shots, but one really sticks out. I was brought out as a daily Steadicam operator on a show, Rebound, The Legend of Earl ‘The Goat’ Manigault, and the shot was to do a step-off from a 30’ crane into the middle of a basketball game, chase the ball down the court, lead the ball back up the court for the winning basket and then step back onto the crane as the crowd goes crazy. The intricacies of the shot required 15 takes to get six good ones.

What is the job you have yet to do but most want to do?

I would like to try underwater operating. It would be a completely new challenge for me.

Credits: Schitt’s Creek, The Beaverton, The Stanley Dynamic, Nikita, Lost Girl

RICK DAVISON, SOC What was one of your most challenging shot or challenging day in the industry? Any shot walking backwards in front of Claire Danes.

She’s like a gazelle!

What would be the most important improvement you would like to see in our industry? I would like to see our industry adopt the 10-hour workday introduced by Marvel. You basically end up being paid for a 12-hour day because of all the meal penalties. You get to have a life and it’s a safer schedule for our crews.

Credits: Being a Dad, Black Widow: Atlanta Unit, Palmer, Raising Dion, Homeland Photo by Traci Chartier

SCOTT DROPKIN, SOC

Photo by Parrish Lewis

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What was one of your most challenging shot or challenging day in the industry? One of my most challenging shots was while I was on a movie in New Mexico. We spent the whole day on one shot. It started on a vehicle moving down a city street, then it became a hand-held shot following our actors getting out of their car and into a bank where there was a shoot-out and a robbery.

What is your most memorable day in the industry? One of my most memorable was days in the industry was completing the above-mentioned shot. Anytime production plans to spend the entire day on one shot always makes things a little more nerve racking. But when everything comes together (camera, actors, SFX) there is always a great feeling of accomplishment.

Credits: Yellowstone, Animal Kingdom, Chicago P.D., Drunk History, The Chi

SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

SOC Roster CHARTER MEMBERS Lou Barlia Parker Bartlett Paul Basta Michael Benson * Stephanie Benson Rupert Benson Jr. Bob Bergdahl Howard Block Donald R. Burch Jerry G. Callaway David Calloway Philip Caplan Mike Chevalier Bill Clark * Dick Colean Steve Conant Jim Connell Rick Cosko Jack Courtland Elliot Davis Sam Drummy Joe Epperson Michael Ferra Ron Francis William Jay Gahret Jim Glennon Ray Gonzales Jerry Good Jack Green, ASC Gil Haimson Peter Hapke Lutz Hapke Bill Hines Jim Hoover Bill Howard John Huneck Wayne Kennan, ASC Bob Keys Gary Kibbe David Kurland Norm Langley Thomas Laughridge * Steve Lydecker Brice Mack III Joe Marquette Jr. Owen Marsh * Bob Marta * Bob McBride Ed Morey Tom Munshower Fred Murphy Al Myers Lee Nakahara Jay Nefcy Rik Nervik Leigh Nicholson King Nicholson John G. Nogle Dan Norris Skip Norton David B. Nowell, ASC Wayne Orr Richard Price Ernie Reed Arnold Rich

Randall Robinson * Parker Roe Sam Rosen Peter Salim Lou Schwartz Chris Schwiebert Michael Scott Bob Seaman Hal Shiffman Roger Smith Fred Smith Michael St. Hilaire Ray Stella Joe Steuben John C. Stevens Carol Sunflower Bill Swearingen Joseph F. Valentine Ron Vidor Sven Walnum

ACTIVE MEMBERS Peter Abraham Steve Acheson, Jr. Grant Lindsay Adams Jamie Alac Danny Alaniz Michael Alba Jeffrey Alberts Shanele Alvarez Colin Anderson Nathan Anderson Philip Anderson Kevin W. Andrews Zefred Ansaldo Andrew Ansnick Mariana Antunano Christopher Arata Francois Archambault Joseph Arena Robert Eugene Arnold Wayne Arnold Will Arnot Eli Aronoff Ted Ashton Jr. Kjetil Astrup Sébastien Audinelle Mark August * Andrei Austin Grayson Grant Austin Jacob Avignone Daniel Ayers Jesse Bactat Lonn Bailey Scott Baker James Baldanza David Baldwin Jr. James Ball Christopher Banting Jeff Barklage Angel Barroeta Vincent Bearden John James Beattie Jonathan Beattie Jonathan Beck Tim Bellen

CAMERA OPERATOR · SPRING 2020

Stefano Ben Garrett Benson Brian Bernstein Justin Besser George M. Bianchini George Billinger * Howard H. Bingham Daniel Bishop Maceo Bishop Bonnie S. Blake Jason Blount Jeff Bollman John Boyd Katie Boyum Hilaire Brosio Garrett Brown Kenny Brown Pete Brown Scott Browner Neal Bryant Stephen Buckingham Robin Buerki Gary Bush Rod Calarco Stephen S. Campanelli J. Christopher Campbell JR D. Campbell Susan A. Campbell Jeffrey Canfield Stewart Cantrell Jose A. Cardenas Robert Carlson Jeffrey Carolan Michael Carstensen Peter Cavaciuti Vincent Cerone Dave Chameides Lou Chanatry Charles Chen Joe Chess Jr. John Christopher Cuthbert Anthony Cobbs Craig Cockerill Steven Cohen Marcis Cole Keith Colodny Kris A. Conde Andrew Glenn Conder Brown Cooper Dan Coplan Fares Corbani Gilles Daniel Corbeil Luke Cormack Ross Coscia Javier A. Costa Richard J. Cottrell Tom Cox Rod Crombie Bradley Crosbie Jeff L. Crumbley Chris Cuevas Grant Culwell Joshua Dallera Nicholas Davidoff Markus Davids

Collin Davis Richard W. Davis Roberto De Angelis Andrew A. Dean Anthony Deemer William Demeritt Kris Andrew Denton Kevin Descheemaeker Joel Deutsch Don Devine Kenny Dezendorf Twojay Dhillon David E. Diano * Troy Dick Jim van Dijk Alfeo Dixon Timothy Dolan Tetsuyuki Domae Rick Drapkin Megan Drew Scott C. Dropkin David Drzewiecki Mitch Dubin Simon Duggan, ACS Orlando Duguay James Duhon Mark Duncan Jeffrey Dutemple Allen D. Easton Pauline Edwards William Eichler David Elkins Sam Ellison Jason Ellson David Emmerichs Kevin J. Emmons Ramon Engle Ezra Epwell Alex Escarpanter Steve Essig Brant S. Fagan Diane L. Farrell Dianne Teresa Farrington Gregory Faysash Jesse Michael Feldman Ellie Ann Fenton George Feucht James Anthony Firios Andrew Fisher Lance Fisher Dawn Fleischman Torquil Fleming-Boyd Michael-Ryan Fletchall Eric Fletcher Christopher Flores Michael Flueck Houman Forough Felix Forrest Ian Forsyth Justin Foster Steve G. Fracol Malkuth “Mo” Frahm Keith Francis Tom “Frisby” Fraser James Frater David J. Frederick * Michael Frediani * Brian Freesh Steven French

Dan Frenkel Guido Frenzel Mick Froehlich Jeff Fry Michael Fuchs Michael Fylyshtan Paul M. Gardner David Gasperik Eric Gerber Michael Germond George R. Gifford William Spencer Gillis Christopher Glasgow Mark Goellnicht Daniel Gold James Goldman Robert Gorelick Roger Grange Afton M. Grant Chad Griepentrog Ric Griffith James Gucciardo Robert Guernsey Robert Guertin Pedro Guimaraes Craig Haagensen Chris C. Haarhoff Jess Haas Bob Hagerty Kevin Haggerty Geoffrey K. Haley John Hankammer Simon Harding Tim Harland Joshua Harrison Matt Harshbarger Daryl Hartwell Kent Harvey Zack Haskell Chris Hayes Nikk Hearn-Sutton Mike Heathcote David Heide Dawn J. Henry Alan Hereford Orlando Herrera Steven F. Heuer Kevin Hewitt Brandon Hickman David Hirschmann Jamie Hitchcock Scott Hoffman Abe Holtz Jerry Holway Paul Horn Casey Hotchkiss Bradley Hruboska Colin Hudson Ashley Hughes Philip Hurn Matthew Hutchens Spencer Hutchins Alexa Ihrt Dave Isern Christopher Ivins Eugene W. Jackson III Jerry Jacob Francis James Alec Jarnagin

Gary Jay Simon Jayes Andrew “AJ” Johnson Christopher D. Jones Quenell Jones Steven Jones Sven Joukes Henry Joy IV John H. Joyce David Judy Mark Jungjohann David Kanehann Mark Karavite Lawrence Karman Jason Kay Derek Keener Adam T. Keith David Kimelman Taro Kimura Dan Kneece * Rory Robert Knepp David T. Knox Beth Kochendorfer Robert Kositchek Bryan Koss Bud Kremp Kris Krosskove Jay Kulick Mark LaBonge Robert LaLonde Thomas Lappin Per Larsson Jeff Latonero Sergio Leandro da Silva Richard Leible Alan Lennox Rachael Levine Ilan Levin Mikael Levin David Levisohn Sarah Levy Abigail Linne Hugh C. Litfin John Lizzio Christopher Lobreglio Chris Loh Hal Long Patrick Longman Jessica Lopez Benjamin Lowell David Luckenbach Greg Lundsgaard Kenji Luster Guido Lux Erin Lynch Rob Macey Vincent C. Mack Paul S. Magee Giuseppe Malpasso Kim Marks Justin Marx Jared G. Marshall Cedric Martin Adam Marschall Philip J. Martinez Daniele Massaccesi J. Steven Matzinger Nathan Maulorico Brennan Jakob Maxwell

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Parris Mayhew Peter McCaffrey Bill McClelland Jim McConkey Calum McFarlane David B. McGill Patrick McGinley Ian McGlocklin Michael P. McGowan Christopher T.J. McGuire Ossie McLean Aaron Medick Alan Mehlbrech Luisa Mendoza Hilda Mercado Olivier Merckx Matias Mesa Jack Messitt Mark J. Meyers Mike Mickens Duane Mieliwocki Mike Milia Darryl Miller Marc A. Miller Phillip Miller Thomas Miller Ethan Mills Andrew Mitchell William Mitchell William Molina Mike Mollica Mitch Mommaerts Christopher Moone Mark Emery Moore K. Neil Moore Matthew Moriarty Josiah Morgan Dana Morris Josh Morton Manolo Rojas Moscopulos John “Buzz” Moyer Jeff Muhlstock Nick Müller Michael James Mulvey Scott T. Mumford Peter Munson, Jr. Keith Murphy Sean Murray Saade Mustafa Dale Myrand Yoshinobu Nagamori Leo J. Napolitano Sarah Natoli Marco Naylor Robert Newcomb Julye Newlin George Niedson William Nielsen Kenny Niernberg Terence Nightingall Kurt Nolen Randy Nolen Austin Nordell Loy Norrix Casey Norton Connor O’Brien William O’Drobinak Mark D. O’Kane Michael D. Off Andrew William Oliver Tony O’Loughlan John Orland Brian Osmond

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Kako Oyarzun Georgia Tornai Packard * Heather Page Nick Paige Curtis E. Pair Victor J. Pancerev Noah Pankow Andrew Parke Patrick J. Pask Micah Pastore Al “Tiko” Pavoni Matthew Pebler Paul C. Peddinghaus Karin Pelloni Andre Perron John Perry Matthew A. Petrosky Jonathan F. Phillips Alan Pierce Theo Pingarelli John Pingry Jens Piotrowski Joseph Piscitelli David Plakos Matt Poynter Carl Prinzi Sasha Proctor Adrian Pruett James Puli Louis Puli Kelly Pun Ryan Purcell Yavir Ramawtar Hector Ramirez Juan M. Ramos James B. Reid Juan Pablo Reyes John Rhode Dax Rhorer Selene Richholt Alicia Robbins Ari Robbins Peter Robertson Brooks Robinson Dale Rodkin Eric Roizman Sharra Romany John Romeo Peter Rosenfeld Jesse Roth Rafael Sahade James Sainthill P. Scott Sakamoto Sanjay Sami David M. Sammons Joel San Juan Juanjo Sanchez Bry Thomas Sanders Milton A. Santiago Ricardo Sarmiento Daniel Sauvé Gerard Sava Sean Savage Ron Schlaeger Michael Scherlis Mark Schmidt Job Scholtze Vadim Schulz Richard Schutte David Jean Schweitzer Fabrizio Sciarra Bob Scott Brian Scott

Ian Seabrook Dave Selle Benjamin Semanoff Lisa Sene Barry Seybert Barnaby Shapiro David Shawl Chelsea Lee Shepherd Osvaldo Silvera Jr. Gregory Smith Kelsey Smith Marques Smith Needham B. Smith III Teddy Smith Vanessa Smith Dean Robert Smollar John Sosenko Andy Sparaco Mark Sparrough Benjamin Xavier Spek William Spencer Gills Francis Spieldenner Lisa L. Stacilauskas Charles Stancliff Robert Starling Meagan Stockemer Thomas N Stork Timothy Sutherland David L. Svenson Kenichi Taguchi David Taicher Ian S. Takahashi Yousheng Tang Jaron Tauch Gregor Tavenner Brian Taylor Christopher Taylor Gregory Taylor Paige Thomas David James Thompson John Toll, ASC Eduardo Flores Torres Remi Tournois Neil C. Toussaint Jamie Trent Bryan Trieb Bela Trutz Michael Tsimperopoulos Chris Tufty * Dan Turrett Brian Tweedt Joseph Urbanczyk Matt Valentine Dale Vance, Jr. Paul D. Varrieur Leandro Vaz Da Silva Ron Veto Adi Visser Stefan von Bjorn Rob Vuona Michael J. Walker Timothy N. Walker Gareth Ward Gretchen Warthen Mic Waugh Raney “Bo” Webb Aiken Weiss Drew Welker Alex Wentworth Des Whelan Robert Whitaker Mande Whitaker Parker Whittemore

Peter Wilke Jeffrey Wilkins Ken Willinger Tom Wills Chad Wilson David A. Wolf Ian D. Woolston-Smith Santiago Yniguez Brian Young Lohengrin Zapiain Chad Zellmer Mirko Zlatar Brenda Zuniga

ASSOCIATE MEMBERS Olivia Abousaid Christine Adams Justin Aguirre Jeechul Ahn Brian Aichlmayr Colin Akoon Jamie Alac Tyler Allison Ana M. Amortegui Greg Arch Fernando Arguelles Michael Artsis Joshua Ausley Richard Avalon Laurence Avenet-Bradley John Bailie Blaine Baker Denson Baker Ryan Vogel Baker Richard Bakewell Jeffrey Ball Thomas Bango Tyson Banks Michael Barron Craig Bauer Adam Wayne Beck Trevor Beeler Andres Bermudez Justin Berrios Robert Beverlin Nicholas Bianchi Alicia Blair Stas Bondarenko Peter Bonilla Jean-Paul Bonneau David Boyd Katherine Brennan Maksim Brenner Mary Brown Rochelle Brown Donald Brownlow Deborah Brozina Clyde E. Bryan Sasha D. Burdett Jorge Bustamante Leslie McCarty Chip Byrd Eusebio Cabrera Anthony Q. Caldwell Calvin Callaway Justin Cameron Ryan Campbell Jack Carpenter David John Carroll Marc Casey Quaid Cde Baca

Kirsten Celo Johanna Cerati Kenneth Chan Jac Cheairs Ian Chilcote Damian Church Celeste Cirillo-Penn Kerry Clemens Mark Cohen Gregory Paul Collier Antoine Combelles Nathan J. Conant Shannon Connally Chad Cooper Christopher “Chase” Cope Gabriel Paul Copeland Gareth Paul Cox Richard P. Crudo, ASC Jack Cummings Chad Daring Farhad Ahmed Dehlvi Enrique Xavier Del Rio Galindo James DeMello John Densmore Johnny Derango Caleb Des Cognets Ronald E. Deveaux Vincent DeVries Eric Druker Matthew Duclos Keith Dunkerley Colin Duran Brian James Dzyak Robert Eagle Richard Eldridge Edward Endres Pedro Escobar David T. Eubank Calvin Falk Allen Farst Nicholas A. Federoff Ellie Ann Fenton Stanley Fernandez Kristin Fieldhouse Stephanie Fiorante Tom Fletcher Mike Fortin Tammy Fouts Michael A. Freeman Fred M. Frintrup Hiroyuki Fukuda Ruixi “Royce” Gao Sandra Garcia Geoffrey George Hannah Getz Shingo Gima Jake Glaviano Max Gleiser Daniel Godar Michael Goi, ASC Al Gonzalez Emily Gonzales Geoff Goodloe John M. Goodner Adam Goral Giulia Governo Noble Gray John Greenwood Adam Gregory Phil Gries Matthew Griffith Ryan Grosjean

Heather Grothues Tomasz Gryz Lauren Guiteras Josef “Joe” Gunawan Shelly Gurzi Marco Gutierrez Jason Hafer Badra Haidra Bob Hall Adam Hamer Mufeng “Derek” Han Tobias Winde Harbo David “DJ” Harder James Hart John Hart Kyle Hartman Jason Hawkins Adam Heim Xavier Henselmann Andres Hernandez Daniel Hertzog Anthony P. Hettinger John M. Hill, Jr. Andrew Hoehn Christopher Horne Chris Horvath Nichole Huenergardt Brett Hurd Jake Iesu Toshiyuki Imai Andrew A. Irvine Gregory Irwin Michael Izquierdo Mark Jacobs Neeraj Jain Jendra Jarnagin Jennie Jeddry Keith Jefferies Lacey Joy Jessica S. Jurges Timothy Kane Ray Karwel Frank Kay April Kelley Alan G. Kelly Mark H. Killian Dae Hyun Kim Douglas Kirkland Sean Kisch Christian Kitscha Michael Klaric Michael Klimchak Nick Kolias Mark Knudson Robert Kraetsch Brian Kronenberg Robert La Bonge Michael Landrian Laurence Langton Tung Le Hoang Khang “Khann” Le Nguyen Barbie Leung Alan Levi Mark Levin Ilya Jo Lie-Nielsen Jun Li Tian Liu Niels Lindelien Jimmy Lindsey, ASC Marius Lobont Eamon Long Gordon Lonsdale

SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

Dominic Lopez Bob Lord Jasmine Lord J’mme Love Carl Nenzen Loven Justin Lutsky Christopher Lymberis Dominik Mainl Bala Santosh Majji Max Margolin Alex Marmalichi Aaron Marquette Nicole Jannai Martinez Emma Massalone Megan Masur Joshua Mayes Brett Mayfield Ray McCort David William McDonald Mike McEveety Josh McKague Nathan Meade Rocker Meadows Marcel Melanson Alexandra Menapace Sophia Meneses Christopher Metcalf Jonathan Miller K. Adriana Modlin-Liebrecht Madelyn Momano Michael Monar Kenneth R. Montgomery Autumn Moran Vincent Moretto Dean Morin Mark Morris Evan Morton Matthew C. Mosher Damon Mosier Jekaterina Most David Mun Matthew Murnan Nicholas Matthew Musco Hassan Nadji Sam Naiman Navid John Namazi Zach Nasits Michael Nelson Colemar Nichols Dennis Noack Chastin Noblett Jose Maria Noriega Louis Normandin Crescenzo G.P. Notarile, ASC Tiffany Null Jorel O’Dell Bodie Orman Pascal Orrego Jarrod Oswald Paul Overacker Justin Painter Larry Mole Parker Steven D. Parker Weerapat “Art” Parnitudom Andrew Parrotte Florencia Perez Cardenal Angelica Perez-Castro Mariia Perlifonova Anthony Perrella, Jr. Mark W. Petersen

Jon Philion Tyler Phillips W. S. Pivetta Ted Polmanski Robert Primes, ASC Joe Prudente Delia Quinonez David Rakoczy Unnikrishnan Raveendranathen Jem Rayner Brice Reid Claudio Rietti Nathan Rigaud Mario Rodriguez Tyler Rocheleau Andy Romero Tim Rook Peter J. Rooney Daria Rountree Jordi Ruiz Maso Jan Ruona Dylan Rush Kish Sadhvani Christian Salas-Martos William Tanner Sampson Sean Sanchez Becky Sapp Christian Satrazemis Chris Sattlberger Nick Savander Steve Saxon Ryan Schultz Angelia Sciulli Carolyn Scott Christopher Seehase Brian Sergott Alexander Seyum Sathish Shankutty Haley Shepard James Shipley Yael Shulman Stephen Siegel Peter Sikkens Karina Maria Silva Pierson Silver Anil Singh Kingkan Siripiriyakul Michael Skor Jan Sluchak Joshua Smith Robert F. Smith Tyson Smith John Snedden Laurent Soriano David Speck Derek Stettler Michael Stine Landis Stokes Joshua Stringer Aymae Sulick Jeremy Sultan Andy Sydney Tiffany Taira Julio Tardaguila Fabian Tehrani Matthew Thorp John Twesten Jonathan Tyler Thomas “Joe” Tyler Justin Uchendu Gary Ushino Daniel Urbain

CAMERA OPERATOR · SPRING 2020

Sandra Valde Thomas Valko Michael Velitis Nick Vera Benjamin Verhulst Marshall Victory Jesse Vielleux Breanna Villani Naomi Villanueva Miguel Angel Vinas Zachariah Vincent Terry Wall Louis-Pascal Walsh William Walsh Grant Walther Neil Watson Jared Wilson Ryan Wood Peiqi “Eric” Wu Tim Wu Daniel Wurschl Watcharawit “Koon” Ya-Inta Tim Yoder Yasutomo Yoshida Scot Zimmerman Evan Zissimopulos

CORPORATE Abel Cine Anton Bauer Arri, Inc. Atomos B&H Foto & Electronics Corp.

Band Pro Film & Video Blackmagic Design Canon, USA Inc. Carl Zeiss Microimaging, Inc. Chapman/Leonard Studio Equipment CineDrones Cinema Devices Cinemoves Inc. Cooke Optics Limited CW Sonderoptic Duclos Lenses Fujifilm/Fujinon Filmtools, Inc. Geo Film Group, Inc. Helinet Aviation Services History For Hire JL Fisher, Inc. Litepanels Matthews Studio Equipment Monster Remotes Panasonic Cinema Panavision Preston Cinema Systems RED Digital Cinema Sigma Sony Electronics That Cat Camera Support Tiffen Wooden Camera

EDUCATORS John M. Grace Ron McPherson Rafael Nobre Mauricio Vega

Ralph W. Watkins

HONORARY John Bailey, ASC Tilman Buettner James Burrows Alexander Calzatti Trevor Coop Roger Corman Dean Cundey, ASC Bruce Doering Clint Eastwood Tom Hatten Ron Howard Gale Anne Hurd Sarah Jones Michael Keaton Ron Kelley Kathleen KennedyMarshall Jerry Lewis Gary Lucchesi Larry McConkey A. Linn Murphree M.D. Diana Penilla Steven Spielberg Robert A. Torres George Toscas Roy H. Wagner, ASC Alfre Woodard

RETIRED MEMBERS Aldo Antonelli Paul Babin Tom Barron Al Bettcher James Blanford Bruce Catlin Ivan Craig Richard A. Cullis George Spiro Dibie, ASC Robert M. Feller Michael Ferris Dick Fisher Jerry Fuller Anthony Gaudioz Rusty Geller Wynn Hammer Ken Hilmer Gary Holt Robert C. Horne Douglas H. Knapp Michael Little Heather MacKenzie James Mann Stan McClain * Michael McClary Ron McManus Mike Meinardus Emmanuel Metaxas Robert “Bob” Moore Sol Negrin, ASC David L. Parrish Aaron Pazanti Richard Rawlings Jr., ASC Andy Romanoff Frank Ruttencutter Carl Schumaker Sr. Chuck Schuman Philip D. Schwartz Guy Skinner George B. Stephenson Gene Talvin

Joseph N. Tawil Ronald Veto Bill Waldman Adam S. Ward

STUDENTS Jack Armstrong Reynaldo Aquino Sammy Avgi Gloria Bali Melissa Baltierra Zakrey Barisione Bedik Bedikian Ziryab Ben Brahem Caitlin Brown Jian Cao Stephen Carlus Carmen Chan Jiayao Chen Shijun “Maomao” Chen Shun Man Cheung Yongmin Choi Petr Cikhart Charissa Clark Autumn Collins Richard Colman Dennis Connelly Guilherme Costa Andrea Damuding John Darian William Dauel Dakota Diel Erik Eiser Michael A. Garcia Sam Gilbert Christian T. Hall Yuqiao Han Marisa Harris Gergely Harsanyi Myles Anthony Holt Guanchun Hu LaKisha Renee Hughes Carolyn Scott Hunt Piankhi Iknaton Daniel James Crystal Kelley Sara Kinney Sung Yen Lai John P. Lansdale Shangche Lee Yoo Seok Lee Eric Liberacki

Emily Lien Bocong Lin Ari Linn Tianyi Liu Rodolfo Gabriel Macalintal Eythan Maidhof Francesco Malandrino Steven Mangurten Jeff-Steven Arevalo Mojica Fabian Montes Joshua Montiel Takuya Nagayabu Lucien Night Andi Obarski Ruben Palacios Connor Pollard Ino Yang Popper Melissa Pratt Karina Prieto Macias Cheng Qian Ryan Richard Matthew Richter Marco Rivera Edgar Santamaria Emil Schonstrom Simon Sidell Carley Steichen Jennifer St. Hilaire-Sanchez Amara Stinson Grace Thomas Joshua Thomas Romas Usakovas Akina Van de Velde Anna Vialova Gideon Watson Watcharawit “Koon” Ya-inta Kehan Yang Linxuan “Stanley” Yu Cong Zhou Yiyao Zhu * Past SOC President Current as of May 1, 2020.

AD INDEX Blackmagic Design 3 blackmagicdesign.com Cinemoves Back Cover cinemoves.com J. L. Fisher 5 jlfisher.com Leitz Cine Wetzlar 9 leitz-cine.com That Cat Camera Support C2 cameraslider.com Tiffen C3 tiffen.com

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Social SOC

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Wrapping up their latest! Operator @steadijew SOC

Colin Anderson, SOC - Rise of the Skywalker - #theco-

with 1st AC @focusmonkeyindustries and 2nd AC @

linanderson - with Focus Puller @stedirox for DP @

gisellegonzalez

dan_mindel ASC BSC SASC

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#bestJobEver #thesoc #cameraOperator #Photog-

#TheSoc #bestJobEver #thesoc #cameraOperator

rapher #Camera #Lens #DirectorOfPhotography

#Photographer #Camera #Lens

#Cinematography #Cinematographer #Videography

#DirectorOfPhotography #Cinematography

#Photography #Videography #PhotographyIsLife

#Cinematographer #Videography #Photography

#CameraSupport #CameraAccessories #SOC #bts

#Videography #PhotographyIsLife #CameraSupport

#movies #film #TheSOC

#CameraAccessories #SOC #bts #movies #film

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instakyle Hyper ice is crucial to every production

barrywetcher Love that guy even if he is a Laker

karenabad @steadijew is lyfe.

fan..#thecolinanderson

Follow the SOC membership on Instagram. See iconic photos from behind-the-scenes, on-set backstories, and images that inspire. Join in the conversation! @ Society_of_Camera_Operators 54

SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

THE EVOLUTION OF THE STEADICAM M-SERIES

The Steadicam M-2 is the most integrated and adaptable Steadicam system ever created. Not only does the M-2 offer a lighter weight and lower cost high end system, it also features the revolutionary Steadicam Volt™ technology directly built in for a sleeker, more versatile rig. Learn more by visiting tiffen.com/M-2

CAMERA OPERATOR · SPRING 2020 ©2020 The Tiffen Company. All trademarks or registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.

The TIffen Company, LLC. 90 Oser Avenue • Hauppauge, NY 11788

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SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG