Camera Operator: Summer 2019

SOC.ORG · SUMMER 2019

VOL. 28, NO.3

SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS . SUMMER 2019

SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK

THE LION KING AQUARELA

CREATINGMOMENTS THROUGHMOVEMENT COBRA

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CONTENTS 6

DEPARTMENTS

FEATURES

6 LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT 8 NEWS & NOTES

14 SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK

Lifetime Achievement Awards and Other Events Around the Industry

10 ESTABLISHING SHOT "In Appreciation of Those Who Teach" Matthew Moriarty, SOC

24 TECH TALK "Anatomy of a Showcase" Michael Daut

30 SMOOTH OPERATOR "Right Place, Right Time" Ricardo Sarmiento, SOC

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34 FROM THE BEGINNING:

"The Unseen Seen" with Gilles Corbeil, SOC an interview by Kate McCallum

18 THE LION KING "Bringing the Human Touch to a Virtual Jungle" with Henry Tirl, SOC an interview by Derek Stettler

22 AQUARELA "Underwater POV" with Richard Stevenson an interview by Kate McCallum

ON THE COVER: Natalie Ganzhorn films a scene from SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK, directed by André Øvredal, to be released by CBS Films and Lionsgate.Photo by George Kraychyk

"A History of the SOC Magazine" Michael Frediani, SOC

40 INSIGHT Meet the Members

20 CAMERA OPERATOR · SUMMER 2019

41 SOC ROSTER 44 SOCIAL SOC

35 1

20 EMMY NOMINATIONS ®

INCLUDING

OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR A SINGLE-CAMERA SERIES (ONE HOUR) M. David Mullen, ASC

3 EMMY NOMINATIONS ®

INCLUDING

OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR A SINGLE-CAMERA SERIES (ONE HOUR) Gonzalo Amat

1 EMMY NOMINATION ®

OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR A SINGLE-CAMERA SERIES (HALF-HOUR) Tod Campbell

2

SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

11 EMMY NOMINATIONS ®

INCLUDING

OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR A SINGLE-CAMERA SERIES (HALF-HOUR) Tony Miller, BSC

1 EMMY NOMINATION ®

OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR A SINGLE-CAMERA SERIES (ONE HOUR) Dana Gonzales, ASC

CAMERA OPERATOR · SUMMER 2019

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Society of Camera Operators Gilles Corbeil, SOC Michael Daut Pauline Edwards, SOC Michael Frediani, SOC Robert Gorelick, SOC Kate McCallum Matthew Moriarty, SOC Sanjay Sami, SOC Ricardo Sarmiento, SOC Derek Stettler Richard Stevenson Ian S. Takahashi, SOC Henry Tirl, SOC

Charities Brian Taylor Membership Drive Lisa Stacilauskas Historical Mike Frediani Membership Dan Gold, Dan Turrett Technical Standards Eric Fletcher Education David Sammons

OFFICERS President George Billinger

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

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

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

PHOTOGRAPHY

CAMERA OPERATOR MAGAZINE

Tony Arnaud Karen Ballard Jason Brown Graham Burt Michael Daut Chris Flores Crystal Fortwangler David Franco Michael Frediani, SOC Christina Kaufmann Michael Legato Darren Michaels

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

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

CONTRIBUTORS George Billinger, SOC Gary Bush, SOC Stephen Campanelli, SOC

Dale Robinette Brandon Showers Maggie Storm Liz Wilson Anton Van Rooyen

TRIVIA Source imdb.com

TO SUBSCRIBE or for subscription information questions: SOC.org or 818-563-9110

FOR ADVERTISING INFORMATION (818) 563- 9110 or socoffice@soc.org For digital editions and back ißssues: SOC.org Camera Operator is a quarterly publication, published by the Society of Camera Operators.

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All rights reserved.

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Letter from the President Dear SOC Members and Camera Operator Readers: Hope you’ve all been having a productive summer! The SOC has been.

The CineGear Expo took place in early June, and was once again a great success for us. The SOC presented a talk and hosted a busy exhibit booth. We also presented a 3-day workshop in association with Drexel University in Philadelphia. Upcoming is an Underwater Camera Operator Workshop and annual SOC Tech Awards Nominees Showcase. For a full schedule of events log on to: SOC.org and click on the events tab.

As the SOC continues to celebrate our 40th year anniversary, we’re working diligently on our membership campaign to increase the membership globally with the vision and purpose of highlighting the creative contribution and role of the operator.

Please help support this effort and reach out to your friends and colleagues who are operators to invite them to join the SOC. We offer our members many benefits and the stronger we are as an organization, the more we can have input in the industry.

Camera Operator is one of the many benefits of SOC membership. Our quarterly magazine offers first-hand articles and stories from operators. In this issue we feature an article about the history of the magazine and—as we say, “Articles are written by the members for the members.” If you’re interested in submitting an article idea please reach out to our publishing team. Special thanks to all those who have contributed in the past and who have served as Editors.

Sincerely,

George Billinger, SOC Society of Camera Operators, President

AUGUST • •

August 12 Lifetime Achievement Awards Seats & Tables On Sale August 25 August BOG Meeting

SEPTEMBER •

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September 22 September BOG Meeting

• •

September 25 Lifetime Nominees Voting Opens September 27–29 Underwater Workshop @ Hydrofle

OCTOBER • •

October 7 Lifetime Honorees Voting Closes October 14 Lifetime Honorees Announced

Calendar • •

October 19 Technical Achievement Award Demo Day October 20 October BOG Meeting

MORE EVENTS Please log onto SOC.org to see all upcoming happenings.

SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

CAMERA OPERATOR · SUMMER 2019

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LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS The Society of Camera Operators has announced that the Lifetime Achievement Awards will take place on Saturday, January 18, 2020 at the Loews Hollywood Hotel. Seats and tables are now on sale. Please log on to SOC.org to reserve.

SOC UNDERWATER WORKSHOP Please join us September 27–29 for an Underwater Operating Workshop hosted at Hydroflex and Warner Bros. Ranch. We’re partnering with Hyrdroflex to bring you an extensive 3-day workshop with programs to fit all levels of proficiency. For details and to register: SOC.org

DREXEL UNIVERSITY FILM & TELEVISION HOSTS SOC CAMERA OPERATOR WORKSHOP Drexel University Cinema & Television Department (located in Philadelphia, PA) partnered with the Society of Camera Operators and Expressway Cinema Rentals to present a 2-day workshop May 31– June 1, 2019. The workshop was a great success and featured SOC members Bonnie Blake (Monk, CSI:NY, The Kominsky Method), David Sammons (Mad Men, Shameless, Survivor), Dave Thompson (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Bad Moms, Red Sparrow) and Selene Richholt (Project Runway, Chopped, America's Next Top Model).

SOC @ CINEGEAR

News & Notes NEW BOARD OF GOVERNORS The Society of Camera Operators is proud to announce our newly elected Board of Governors:

• Colin Anderson, SOC • George Billinger, SOC • Mitch Dubin, SOC • David Emmerichs, SOC • Eric Fletcher, SOC • Michael Frediani, SOC • Dan Gold, SOC • Bill McClelland, SOC • Matthew Moriarty, SOC • David Sammons, SOC • Lisa Stacilauskas, SOC • Geoffrey Haley, SOC • David Thompson, SOC • Daniel Turrett, SOC • Gretchen Warthen, SOC

SOC MEMBERSHIP DRIVE In celebrating our 40th Anniversary in 2019, and to ensure another 40 years of strengthening the time-honored craft of the camera operator, the SOC has launched a 40th Anniversary Membership Drive.

There is power in numbers and strength in community.

With the goal of doubling our membership in the next year the Board of Governors is reaching out to you today, asking all current members of all levels to take action and sign up at least one new member. If you are an Active member, sponsor a friend or colleague by signing their application.

There are many camera professionals out there who qualify for some level of SOC membership but haven’t yet joined our community.

Spread the word about the benefits of joining the SOC.

L to R: Stosh Durbacz, FujiFilm, Colin Anderson, SOC, Mitch Dubin, SOC and Johnny Mang.

The SOC Society of Camera Operators hosted a booth at Cinegear on the lot at Paramount, and presented another successful panel addressing the role of the camera operator. We were excited to present members Mitch Dubin, SOC, Colin Anderson, SOC and moderator Stosh Durbacz. The room was packed and the energy was fantastic!

Special thanks to everyone who volunteered.

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As an extension of the Membership Drive, we are also allowing Active applicants to submit their application to the SOC using the SOC Board as their sponsor.

CORRECTION In the previous issue featuring Owen Marsh, SOC his name was spelled incorrectly. Our apologies for the mistake.

SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

Establishing Shot

by Matthew Moriarty, SOC

In Appreciation of Those Who Teach

Left: THE FRONT RUNNER with Eric Steelberg, ASC in 2017. Photo courtsey of Matthew Moriarty. Right: GIRLBOSS with Zoran in 2016. Photo by Karen Ballard.

I feel like I’m at the young end of those who still came up in what I would call the "old system.” I started under a generation of DPs who were shooting film with big movie lights but also trying out a whole wave of modern tools. Looking back, I really consider it a sort of “golden age” for moviemaking—all the old-fashioned, film-based discipline but with tons of great gadgets. We still had actual dailies in a dark room filled with important, occasionally scary people—and where the rest of us went on a daily basis to either answer for, or take credit for our work. It was terrifying at times, but such a “holiest of holies” experience for anyone coming up in the crafts. Knowing you’d end up in dailies at lunch or at wrap, gave one the sense of a “game day” mentality when the camera rolled back then. I’m very grateful to have come of age in that era.

The man who taught me most of what I know about filmmaking is John Bailey, who took me on as an intern on As Good As It Gets in 1996. I've made 18 movies with him and every single time I moved up in the camera department, it was John who had taken the risk on me. When he moved me up to operator in 2004, we had a deal between us: Me: “John, please…in the event that I’m terrible, I want you to fire me. I don’t want you to feel like…”

John: “I will absolutely fire you if you’re terrible.”

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Me: “Copy that.”

Luckily, I operated that film for him and nine others after that and never got fired. We mind-melded for many of those jobs when it came to framing and style. We hardly had to say anything to get a set-up going because I’d so completely internalized his way of seeing things and—to this day—no single static composition feels quite right to me until it passes the “JB” test (which could be a whole separate article).

Once I’d started working with John, it caused me to develop relationships with all kinds of other people. Foremost among them was Zoran Veselic, the legendary focus puller. Zoran taught me most of what I know about people, how to understand them, and how to carry yourself in such a manner that people want you around 13 hours a day. He was in a class of his own in that regard, and people didn’t just want his amazing focus pulling on the job, they had a deep emotional investment in making sure he—the person—was on the job. As a result, Zoran had a very high-end list of clients, and I was just lucky to tag along as part of his package. Entirely because of Zoran, I got to work for Conrad Hall, Michael Chapman, Bill Fraker, Dariusz Wolski, Michael Ballhaus, Peter Menzies, David Tattersall, John Seale, Phil Meheux, Theo Van de Sande, Rodrigo Prieto and, most importantly for me, Don Burgess, and Eric Steelberg. I still think about Zoran every day and I miss him terribly.

SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

Sandra Valde-Hansen’s Streak of Brilliance “I’m a firm believer in using in-camera effects rather than in post.

That’s because I use filters to create an emotional change or transition in what a character feels. When you add a filter effect in post it feels forced — like an afterthought. But in front of the camera, it absolutely feels organic, part of the scene. And with a front of the lens filter, the visual story remains all the way through production and into post. No one can take that away.”

Cinematographer Sandra Valde-Hansen has worked on dozens of features and series including White Bird in a Blizzard and Now Apocalypse. She is also an AFI instructor and currently in pre-production on a Showtime® series.

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If John Bailey represented my education from grammar school to college, Don Burgess was my post-graduate degree. Don is a master of camera movement and has such a crystal-clear approach to storytelling with the camera, which comes from all the work he’s done with Bob Zemeckis. He’s also incredible at navigating logistics. When I’ve been called to shoot big action units or anything that involves a lot of “How the hell are we doing to do this?” questions, I always try to approach it the way Don would, starting with what the audience needs, working backwards to what the shots are, and only then addressing the “how” of achieving them, and what tools to use, where will the sun be at that time of day, and so on. Most importantly, Don does the one thing any camera operator values most: set you up to succeed, not fail. The best work I ever did as an operator was with Don. If he ever retires, he could teach a great film school class on how to expend zero energy on things that don’t ultimately matter to an audience, and focus your thoughts, your crew, your resources on only that which does matter.

Eric Steelberg was the first DP who I feel got the “adult" version of me, meaning I had a fair number of miles on me by the time he first hired me. Having come up with Jason Reitman, Eric was used to working “British System.” This allowed me to spread my wings in ways I never had before and we hit it off great. It also didn’t hurt that, again, I’d come as part of a “Zoran package” which gave me a level of credibility that I may not have actually deserved at the time.

Eric was also the first DP I ever worked for who was younger than me. As I’ve aged and as the business has evolved, that’s become quite normal. But I met him back in the film days and I recall it being very comforting to see that the “kids were alright” in terms of the craft. It’s no coincidence that three of the movies I’m most asked about (500 Days of Summer, Up In The Air and, The Front Runner) were shot (on film) by my good friend and master cinematographer, Eric, who now

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has almost as much gray in his beard as I do.

If I was going to pass along any advice to younger operators, I’d say the thing that benefitted me most was the quality of my teachers.

There’s just no substitute for proper teaching—to be broken down to nothing, and re-molded into a form that will have some level of usefulness in the movie business which will serve you in countless ways later in your career. I would urge everyone to seek out the best possible people you can find and figure out a way to get them to break you down to nothing, erase all the things you think know but which are wrong, and mentor you on your path toward mastery.

I would be nowhere without the teachers I had, that’s for sure.

Above, left: BIG MIRACLE with John Bailey in 2011. Photo by Darren Michaels Above, right: SAME KIND OF DIFFERENT AS ME with Don Burgess in 2014.

Photo by Dale Robinette

MATTHEW MORIARTY, SOC Matthew Moriarty, SOC was nominated for the 2019 SOC Camera Operator of the Year - Feature Film, and has spent the last 23 years in the camera department and has over 60 major cred- its in film and television. Mat- thew is grateful for the love and support of his wife, Ingrid, and their two daughters, Ella and Syd- ney. They live in Oregon’s Willa- mette Valley, where Matthew is also a farmer, a winemaker, a pilot, a drummer, a progressive activist and a very medicore piano player.

Photo by Dale Robinette

SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

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Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark The Unseen Seen

with Gilles Corbeil, SOC an interview by Kate McCallum

Photo by Anne Marie Fox

LEGION: "Chapter 10" - Season 2, Episode 2. Pictured: Dan Stevens as David Haller. Photo by Suzanne Tenner/FX

SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK. Image courtesy of CBS Films

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SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is an upcoming American horror film produced by CBS Films, Entertainment One, 1212 Entertainment, Double Dare You Productions, and Sean Daniel Productions distributed by Lionsgate. The film is directed by André Øvredal, from a script co-written by Dan and Kevin Hageman, and a screen story by Guillermo del Toro. It is based on the children's book series of the same name by Alvin Schwartz. It stars Zoe Colletti, Michael Garza, Austin Abrams, Gabriel Rush, Austin Zajur, Natalie Ganzhorn, and Dean Norris.

In 2013, CBS Films acquired the rights to the Alvin Schwartz's children's book series Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, with the intent of producing it as a potential feature film.

The film adaptation centers on a group of kids who must face their fears in order to save their town.

There's nothing more terrifying than thinking that our homes, or hometowns, and the places we feel most safe could be overrun by ghouls and frightening creatures.

Camera Operator: You have a history working with Guillermo del Toro for your amazing camera work on the Academy Award-winner for the 2018 Best Picture, Shape of Water, for which you were also nominated for the 2018 Camera Operator of the Year Award - Feature Film. How did you get this job?

Gilles Corbeil, SOC: I have worked with Guillermo since 1996 on Mimic, and with Shape of Water producer, Miles Dale since 2001. In June 2018, Reggie Robb contacted me to work on the film, I was available. I spoke with DP, Roman Ozin—he sounded very pleasant, and gave me a convincing scenario of how the director, Andre Øvredal and he have a shorthand to filmmaking. I told him I would love to do the film and that was it.

CO: Who made up your team?

Corbeil: My 1st AC was Doug Lavender, who has worked with both Roman and I on separate projects, and David McCallion was his 2nd.

CAMERA OPERATOR · SUMMER 2019

B camera operator was Anton Van Rooyen, who worked with me on Pacific Rim, and his puller was Mark Cyre with Valerie Martin as his 2nd. The DIT was Spencer Gray, QTAKE operator (a video playback system that allows overlays of existing footage with live images for visual effects) was Paul Thompson who has done several shows with Guillermo including Shape of Water. The video assist work was by Eric Buchner.

[NOTE: Guillermo del Toro is the marquee name attached to the project, but the film adaptation of Scary Stories is absolutely a team effort.]

The film is directed by André Øvredal, known for Trollhunter (2010) and The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016). Øvredal's background in horror has a solid foundation, and with del Toro's resume, the film will feature the best of both filmmakers.

CO: What locations did you shoot at?

Corbeil: We were introduced to an abandoned psychiatric hospital in St.Thomas, Ontario. It was state-of-the-art when it was first built in 1939, and held up to 2,200 patients. Now it’s creepy and perfect for scaring curious teenagers.

We were in Hamilton, Ontario for the mid60’s, wide shots. There was a fabulous drivein movie theater in East Gwillimbury, Ontario, and a great-looking scary mansion in Petrolia, Ontario.

CO: What tech did you use?

Corbeil: We used Alexa SXT and Mini cam-

eras with ARRI Master Prime Anamorphic lenses. We shot open gate on the mini and 4:3 mode on the Alexa SXT. The aspect ratio was 1:2.39 (2.40) We always used a 1/2 SFX filter, and often the 1/2 black satin.

We also used a 5% crop on our frame lines to give a bit of room top and bottom for reframing, so you could see the boom, etc, entering frame. The anamorphic setup uses up the entire sensor in OG and 4:3 mode, so it’s good to use a cropped frame line. T stop was usually T 2- T21/2 and Roman was quite particular to shoot in that range. The Master Primes are the flattest anamorphic lenses edge to edge so our two-shot close-ups were quite doable. And of course we went to diopters frequently to do our ECU work.

Spyder drone operated by Chris Black. The UAV cam op was Brett Linseman, MK-V Nexus body mounted stabilizer, Aero crane, Chapman Dollies, CO: Were there any special shot moments you’d like to share?

Corbeil: There was a character called Jangly Man who is played by Troy James. He is a very talented contortionist who I worked with on The Strain. He can walk on all fours upside down, if that makes any sense, he made Jangly Man a real creature.

CO: Did you have any challenges on the set?

Corbeil: There was a tiny set in the haunted house that required using every mode on dollies, sliders, jib arms, diopters when the anamorphic limits were breached, all while considering the young actors’ hourly con-

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straints. The cast and crew was so hardworking and focused.

CO: How was it working with kids in the “horror” genre?

[NOTE: Schwartz's stories capitalized not only on suspense, but also focused on our own innate fears. Internalized dread was morphed into living horror that characters within his stories were forced to confront.]

The fact that the picture was set in 1968 helped anchor the cast in a mood that created a hyper-awareness of the fabulous creepy spaces. The abandoned hospital was epic, and the stark lighting set up by Roman maxed out the casts’ fears of never escaping the long hallways.

CO: Would you like to share anything else to share of interest?

Corbeil: I have a cart which holds small rigs like L plates, bum dollies, mini fluid heads, lazy Suzan bearings, gun rests. It’s called the “Ding Cart.” Every couple of weeks I remove what doesn’t get used. One rig I built is a little accessory for laterally offsetting the camera from the normal centered position on a

fluid or geared head. It allows the camera to be millimeters from a wall, and makes a suspenseful moment feel more affected. The first time we used it, Andre was hooked. You can see the offset rig used in the stew scene.

CO: Out of my own curiosity, did you or other members of the crew and cast ever experience anything paranormal during production?

Corbeil: The hospital was a place we fully expected weird stuff. The basement was absolutely creepy and wet and…No, we saw no ghosts.

CO: What are you doing next?

GILLES CORBEIL, SOC

Corbeil: Nightmare Alley is next. Guillermo will direct, and I’m super excited to be a part of the team. There’s a great cast and crew—and lots of familiar faces.

I can’t wait.

Gilles Corbeil, SOC was born in North Bay Ontario. He and his wife, Christina have three kids, Emily Michael, and Hannah.

Above, left: Setting up tracking shot capturing the end of a foot chase where a vintage drive-in offers shelter to the hunted teens.

Above, right: Gilles operates Libra head on technocrane in cornfield, where lack of visual cues challenge filming crew. Photos by Anton Van Rooyen

TRIVIA: Alvin Schwartz was also known for pulling from the pages of history in some of his most noted works. The Hearse Song, one of the tales in the first volume of Scary Stories, was an actual song that gained popularity during World War I. Much like Ring Around the Rosie, the song has a macabre meaning, detailing human decomposition and the burying of human bodies.

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Major influences include; Guillermo del Torro, Stanley Kubrick, David Lean, John Frankenheimer. Credits include; Dawn of The Dead, John Rambo, The Corruptor, 16 Blocks, The Recruit, The Inlaws, Hot Tub Time Machine, Spotlight, 11.22.63, Umbrella Academy, and for Guillermo del Torro; Mimic, Pacific Rim, Crimson Peak, The Strain, and The Shape Of Water. Corbeil holds a U.S. Patent No. US5389987, a Titled A Motion translation device for positioning cameras and other aimed instruments.

Photo byStephane Christina Kaufmann Photo by Malenfant

SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

TECH ON SETameras with

TRIVIA: The poster art is based on the story Harold, which is featured in the third book.

iC XT Min orphic Alexa S e Anam im d r P r e ast , 30’ an ewee 4 ARRI M e P n e a iliz r, Chapm -V stab K M , lenses, s ne Spyder hnocra crane, 50’ Tec o r e A k ead, is Blac Libra H

by Chr t il u b drones e Unit of Dron

Harold. Image courtesy of CBS Films

TRIVIA: The film is based on the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark book series published in the 1980s, written by Alvin Schwartz and illustrated by Stephen Gammell.

CAMERA OPERATOR · SUMMER 2019

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The Lion King Bringing the Human Touch to a Virtual Jungle with Henry Tirl, SOC an interview by Derek Stettler

THE LION KING - Featuring the voices of John Oliver as Zazu, James Earl Jones as Mufasa and JD McCrary as Young Simba, Disney’s “The Lion King” is directed by Jon Favreau. In theaters July 19, 2019. © 2019 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Walt Disney’s 2019 The Lion King is a remake of the beloved 1994 classic animated movie of the same name.

Directed by Jon Favreau to resemble a BBC wildlife documentary, the movie may appear to consist of live-action photography, but in fact consists entirely of photorealistic computer-animation. Featuring the vocal talents of an all-star cast, including Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Beyoncé, as well as James Earl Jones reprising his role from the original movie, the story follows Simba, a young lion who must embrace his role as the rightful king of his native land following the murder of his father, Mufasa, at the hands of his uncle, Scar.

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SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

TRIVIA: This is Jon Favreau's second live action Disney movie based on a Disney animated movie after directing The Jungle Book (2016).

ASC’s focus puller, is a good friend of mine

Despite being a completely computer-animated remake of an animated movie, the production nevertheless sought to complement its photorealism with authentic camera movement, turning to camera operator Henry Tirl, SOC to add a human touch. Camera Operator spoke with Tirl to discover how this ground-breaking movie was captured.

Camera Operator: Please tell me a bit about your background and how you came to be a camera operator.

Henry Tirl: It’s a long story, but I’ll try to summarize. I’ve been working with cameras all my life, my father was actually a cinematographer. I was born in Prague, and in 1968 when the Russians invaded, my parents put me in the car and we fled to Sweden where we found political asylum. So I grew up in Sweden from seven on, and moved to the United States when I was 18. Before that, however, my parents moved to the US and I stayed in Sweden to live on my own at 15, working for a production company in southern Sweden as an on-staff camera assistant. It turned out they were poorly managed and going into bankruptcy, and I found myself a broke and starving teenager when I got a phone call from my parents early one morning, inviting me to live with them in Dallas, Texas. I said yes, and soon began working out of Texas as a camera assistant over the course of about nine years, working on smaller non-union projects as a 1st AC and larger union productions as a 2nd AC, including the first Robocop. At the time, there was a tremendously talented core group of filmmakers in Dallas, all of whom went on to become legendary camera assistants and camera operators, including Mitch Dubin, SOC, who I met for the first time in 1987.

One day, I got a call to go up to South Dakota to work on an ultra-low-budget nonunion movie, which turned into Dances with Wolves. After that, I left Dallas and moved to Los Angeles to begin my career as a camera operator, moving in with my girlfriend at the

CAMERA OPERATOR · SUMMER 2019

time, who I met on the set of Dances with Wolves.

I’ve been very fortunate to have worked on the smallest of projects and the biggest of projects, and I learned a tremendous amount from the filmmakers in Dallas during my time working as a camera assistant. I lean on those lessons every single day.

CO: Such an interesting and adventurous career path! What are examples of some of those lessons that have really guided you?

Tirl: More than anything else, it’s about the process of how you work on set. We are all there to serve the film. No matter how stressful and frantic things get on set, or how little time there is, never work in a panic, because it will cause you to make mistakes. No one will remember the circumstances of why a shot is ruined, but your enormous mistake will remain. You must be organized, fully present and focused at all times. And also, it’s not always about making a cool shot, it’s about whether the shot will work to tell the story. What precedes it? What follows it? As an operator, try to always think about the bigger picture.

There are many rules and conventions in filmmaking, though sometimes it’s okay to break those rules and stray from the path; but the best way to stray from the path is to know the path to begin with.

CO: Wonderful advice! So how did you get hired to work on such a cutting-edge and innovative project as this summer’s retelling of The Lion King?

Tirl: Well, I must be honest and say that a lot of this was way over my head; the technology was so new and beyond my understanding. But the filmmakers didn’t need an operator who knew anything about this process, that was not the criteria. They needed someone experienced. The very simple version of why I was hired for The Lion King is because Tommy Tieche, Caleb Deschanel,

and someone I’ve worked with on many projects. We have great respect for each other and he suggested I would be a good choice to work on this project.

CO: So what was the process of filming like? I know this movie is in fact entirely animated, despite the photorealism. So how did you actually operate the camera?

Tirl: It’s very interesting. To begin with, you have to be familiar with the concept of pre-vis, or pre-visualization. At this point in history, visual effects artists can create entire worlds on the computer with any camera movement imaginable, including moves we can never make in real life. When pre-vis started infiltrating our world, this is something that very quickly became apparent. On this project, they essentially animated the entire movie as a super elaborate pre-vis, with a 3D, 360 world mocked up for every scene. The brilliant visual effects master, Robert Legato, ASC, realized that to make the hyper-photorealistic animated movie that Jon Favreau envisioned, they would need realistic acquisition of the images, with the slight imperfection of the human touch, and the reactionary move of a camera operator, in order to add organic realism to it, in contrast with the sterile and clinical computer-generated camera moves. So that’s what they decided to do.

Whether it was hand-held, on a fluid head, on a dolly track, a crane, or my Steadicam, they shot every scene the traditional way, just without the camera. There were sensors on every tool we used, and the whole room was filled with sensors distributed throughout, all keeping track of the camera’s position and feeding that into the virtual reality pre-vis set that had been created for each scene. I hesitate to say camera, because there were none, so I’ll say camera apparatus. What we actually used were physical representations of the camera, in my case, I brought my Steadicam to Panavision where the genius Dominick

19

Aiello created custom-cut steel blocks on either end of iris rods mounted to a plate. This was to have the weight, balance, and inertia of a real camera; essentially a sophisticated version of the practice weights Steadicam operators use to train themselves at home.

So wherever we positioned this camera apparatus in 3D space, down to the inch in terms of height and even tilt, the sensors would respond and show on our monitors what we were looking at in the VR scene. It was incredibly surreal.

What was essentially happening was the reverse of what happens on a normal set, where the camera transmits the footage to video village. In our case, video village transmitted the footage to my monitor based on how I moved the camera apparatus. I had no references for what I should be looking at or what elements of the scene were going to enter the frame as I moved, because I only saw what appeared on my monitor. So we made lots of tape marks on the carpet during rehearsals. It was very tricky for that reason.

CO: That is incredible. I’m still wrapping my mind around it. So how were lenses chosen?

Tirl: The visual effects team had programmed lens options into their computer systems, complete with modeling the properties of the lenses and how they respond to light depending on their focal length and f-stop. So Jon [Favreau] and Caleb [Deschanel] simply chose what lens they wanted and applied it to the shot. All parameters of the shot could be chosen and programmed in the computer, including camera settings like focus, iris, and slow motion.

There were almost all the traditional members of the crew, including a gaffer, dolly grip, and focus puller, and in the morning Caleb would come to set, put on a pair of virtual reality goggles, and step into the virtual reality set placing lights and bounces and crafting the look of each scene by using remote controls and directing the on set visual effects technicians.

CO: Clearly there were many memorable moments on set during this whole expe-

rience, can you talk about one of those moments?

Tirl: Here’s one example of something I’d never experienced before: because it’s a jungle and there was nothing flat, I would often find myself walking past a cliff and ending up 15 feet above our characters. In those cases, the technicians simply adjusted my presence within the space of the virtual set, so in some cases I was walking backwards up a cliff! Every single parameter was controllable. If some of the characters were running too fast for me to keep up with—they are lions after all—the virtual size of my steps would be adjusted so that, for instance, each step I took was twice as big as in reality.

There was also a memorable moment that was dubbed “The Magic-Carpet Ride.” For the famous Hakuna Matata sequence, they wanted me to walk with the characters the whole time. But the characters were traveling over a great distance over uneven terrain as they sing the song, and there’s no stage big enough to walk this distance with them. So the process that was devised was to attach me

Henery Tirl, SOC on the set of THE LION KING. Photo by Michael Legato. © 2019 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

with a digital leash of sorts, about 20 feet in virtual length, to Pumba, the warthog character played by Seth Rogen. So I could move anywhere within and around a 20-foot radius of the character, but I could never move beyond that distance, even if I kept walking away in reality. So the scene was played back and I could just move in and out and around them, but I was bound to them and actually taken along for the ride; like being dollied alongside them on a magic carpet.

CO: You mentioned Seth Rogen. So let me ask you about the actors. First, to summarize: you operated in a large open room with real production equipment augmented with sensors, in order to capture shots inside a 360-degree pre-vis’d virtual reality set. So how exactly did you work with the actors?

Tirl: I didn’t! The actors had done all of their voice acting to the pre-vis, like on a traditional animated movie, prior to me operating in the actual scenes. So in the room, on the real-world set, there were no actors in mo-cap suits or in front of green screen. The actors’ performances were already programmed into the animated virtual reality that I was operating in. Every single take I did had the same performances from the actors. Their actions and voices

started and stopped during takes like playing and pausing a movie.

CO: Amazing. So looking back, what are your thoughts about what this means for the way movies will be made going forward?

Tirl: I actually refer to this process as “SteamPunk,” because on one hand we were using a very traditional method of acquiring camera movement, but we were using out of this world, cutting-edge technology that was still being invented during production. And I want to really commend the filmmakers for trying to bring an organic humanity to an animation process that, quite honestly, needs it.

It’s certainly going to change things. I remember at one point Emmanuel Lubezki, ASC and Alejandro González Iñárritu came by and took a little tour of what we were doing. They put the goggles on and they were crawling around the floor and you could just see the gears turning in their heads. They would look at each other and nod, figuring out right then and there what they could do with the technology and how they wanted to use it.

I immensely enjoyed the experience of working on this movie, but I personally hope that it is not the singular future of filmmaking.

The real world is something to behold, it’s

TECH ON SET:

Steadicam; Cu stom Panavision Ste adicam weights on sled in place of camera; Nat uralPoint OptiTrack sen sor system; GPI PRO. where we all live, and there are visceral experiences and organic moments that can only happen on real sets in the real world. Plus, I love working with actors!

CO: Agreed. So what did you do after working on such a unique project as The Lion King, and what are you working on next?

Tirl: After The Lion King, I went to New York to work on John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum as A camera operator and Steadicam operator, working with Dan Laustsen, ASC, DFF, the cinematographer behind The Shape of Water. After that, I operated Steadicam on Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood. And right now I’m about to go to France to shoot a film called Still Water, with director Tom McCarthy and cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi, ASC, both of whom I worked with on Spotlight.

HENRY TIRL, SOC Henry Tirl, SOC has worked with cameras all his life. The son of a cinematographer, Tirl was born in Prague, and started his career as a teenager working as a camera assistant in Sweden before making his way to the United States at the age of 18. Before becoming a camera operator, Tirl worked as a camera assistant on films such as Robocop and Dances with Wolves. As a camera operator and Steadicam operator, Tirl has been fortunate to have worked with great filmmakers on films such as Straw Dogs, Trespass, Expendables 2, Out of the Furnace, Love and Mercy, Dunkirk, John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum, 2019's The Lion King, and most recently Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood.

Photo by Michael Legato. © 2019 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

TRIVIA: Jon Faverau revealed in an interview that he brought James Earl Jones back as the voice of Mufasa because: "I see it as carrying the legacy across. Just hearing him say the lines is really moving and surreal, the timbre of his voice has changed. That served the role well because he sounds like a king who's ruled for a long time."

CAMERA OPERATOR · SUMMER 2019

21

Aquarela Underwater POV with Richard Stevenson an interview by Kate McCallum

Underwater camera operator, Richard Stevenson on location for AQUARELA. Photo courtesy of Richard Stevenson

Aquarela is a deeply cinematic journey through the transformative beauty and raw power of water. Writer, director and cinematographer, Victor Kossakovsky; cinematographer, Ben Bernhard; underwater camera operator, Richard Stevenson; and crew travel the world to capture the raw and wild beauty of water. From the frozen waters of Russia’s Lake Baikal to Miami in the midst of the wrath of Hurricane Irma to Venezuela’s mighty Angel Falls, this film brings forth the

22

majestic power of water—the Earth’s most valuable resource.

Underwater sequences in the film are pure visual poetry and we were able to interview Richard Stevenson to learn more about his work on this exquisite film: Camera Operator: What is your background? How did you become an operator and how did you get involved with Aquarela?

Richard Stevenson: I started work as an underwater camera operator completely by chance. I have been a diver for nearly 30 years (I’m 50 this year) and back in 2003, I became involved with a TV shoot on the shipwreck of the Britannic that lies in 380’ of water. I provided the dive boat for the shoot and was also working as one of the wreck exploration divers but the production company’s cameraman couldn’t dive that deep, so they asked me to get some shots from inside the wreck and

SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

Aquarela is a deeply cinematic journey through the transformative beauty and raw power of water.

I was hooked! From 2003 I have worked tirelessly to develop my filming skills and camera knowledge and for the last 10 years have been full time in underwater TV and film work covering all aspects of film work Aquarela started as a phone call after I had just come back from working on BBC’s Blue Planet 2 program out in Costa Rica. I was having lunch after just arriving back home and the opportunity to travel and film under the ice in Greenland was one I could never pass up.

CO: What did you do to prepare for this film?

Stevenson: In my pre-TV diving career I had spent many hours diving inside shipwrecks, exploring flooded caves and also diving under the ice mainly in Norway and Russia, so I felt comfortable with the environment in Greenland. The challenge would be using cinema equipment in the film locations, in particular the glacial lake, but that’s part of the attraction of working on location!

CO: What was your experience like working on this unique film? Any particular challenges and how did you overcome them?

Stevenson: I was shooting with the Alexa Mini which I own the housing for, but we soon realized that having a 90’ cable to surface wasn’t always going to be an optimum set up plus the other guys were shooting topside at the same time, so I ended up under the ice with just the camera and housing which was great fun and quite liberating!

We took a helicopter onto the glacier one day to film in the melt water lakes which was very exciting and a little nerve wracking as we came into land on the glacier. I was sat up front with the pilot and asked him how he knew where to land safely on the glacier, his answer was, “I will let you when we’ve landed…” The water temperature was barely above freezing but it was an incredible experience to be under water on top of a glacier, definitely one to remember.

CAMERA OPERATOR · SUMMER 2019

CO: Who made up the production team?

frames-per-second, as projectors with the

Stevenson: The director and cinematographer, Victor Kossakovsky, cinematographer, Ben Bernhard, 2nd Unit camera operators, Derek Howard and Ainara Vera, and drone operator, Pete Maughan.

ability to project at 96-frames-per-second are extremely rare today, but when the time comes that the capacity is there, Aquarela will be one of the first films to be shown at that speed.

CO: What locations did you shoot in?

Stevenson: We tried some under ice shots near Torsuqqattaq but the vis wasn’t great so we went south nearer to Disko Bay and got much better conditions, and then we went up onto the glacier for a day to film in the perfectly blue water lakes. It’s a humbling experience to be underneath an iceberg listening to it creaking and groaning as it moves slowly around in the water CO: What advice do you have for operators looking to work with underwater shooting?

Stevenson: It’s a hard niche to fit into that’s for sure, I would say make friends with an operator who’s working on the shoots you’d love to be involved with and then learn as much as you can whilst working as an assistant to that person CO: What’s did you do after Aquarela and what’s next for you?

Stevenson: After Aquarela it’s been a good three years of solid work since which has been exciting and taken me to fabulous locations.

I’ve been fortunate to be involved with cave diving shoots in France, wreck diving shoots in the Great Lakes, back to the wreck of the Britannic for the 100th anniversary and many more shoots as well, I even shot some scenes for the new Tomb Raider film with Alicia Vikander Recently, I spent another month under the ice in Norway working on the new James Bond film, that was also a mind-blowing experience for an entirely different set of reasons!

NOTE: Aquarela was shot at 96 frames-persecond and will be shown in theaters at 48 frames-per-second, double the typical 24

RICHARD STEVENSON Richard Stevenson is a highly experienced deep wreck and cave diver who became an underwater camera operator. He opened Waterproof Media in 2009, and owns and operates underwater housings and cameras for cinema and documentary broadcast, supporting underwater and marine filming solutions. Credits include; Dr. Who, Poldark, Tomb Raider, and the BBC's Blue Planet 2 to name a few.

Underwater camera operator, Richard Stevenson on location for AQUARELA. Photo by Jason Brown

23

Tech Talk

Anatomy of a Showcase

8K Digital Camera Comparison (8KDCC) for the Giant Screen Cinema Association

by Michael Daut Editor’s Note: This past spring, as the managing editor of CAMERA OPERATOR magazine, I was fortunate to attend the GSCA: Giant Screen Cinema Association on behalf of the SOC. The GSCA is a trade association whose membership includes more than 260 organizations in 20 countries. Member organizations include giant screen filmmakers, distributors, theaters, suppliers, manufacturers, and students from around the world. GSCA was founded in 2006 with the unification of the Large Format Cinema Association (LFCA) and the Giant Screen Theater Association (GSTA). Like the SOC, the GSCA is a member-driven organization with a full-time staff that works to meet the association’s needs and promote its members’ interests.

The test was produced by GSCA executive director Tammy Martin Seldon and Michael Daut, GSCA Technical Committee co-chair and director and producer. James Neihouse, ASC, served as director of photography, Jay Holben, Eli DiFiore, and Jason Pundt, served as camera operators.

The test included the Arri Alexa 65, Canon C700 Full Frame, Panavision DXL-2, Red Weapon Monstro VV and Sony Venice cameras. All tests were shot with the Leica Thalia Full Frame lenses, provided by CW Sonderoptic/Leica.

This article summarizes their findings which we felt would be of interest to our readers.

METHODOLOGY AND RESULTS Several years ago at GSCA, the Technical Committee started a new initiative called BBOWS, or “Bring Back our Wide Shots.” BBOWS was a demo that compared that year’s state-of-the-art 4K digital cameras to 1570 giant screen film. This was the first time digital video camera went up against 1570 film. As a result of the demo, the consensus was that digital cameras, by and large, were starting to hold their own against time-honored giant screen film. This went through a second and third revision.

24

Then, building upon BBOWS, in 2017 the Technical Committee created a demo called SOAR, this time using digital cameras only.

Save Our Aspect Ratio (SOAR) demonstrated techniques for shooting 1:1:85 aspect ratio content and mastering it in 4:3 aspect ratio.

The GSCA received excellent feedback about SOAR, and Rick Gordon from RPG Productions did a fantastic job editing and presenting this demo.

In 2018, the GSCA, under my direction as Technical Committee co-chair, took camera testing to another level with the 8KDCC. This 8K Digital Camera Comparison put five of today’s most technologically advanced 6K and 8K resolution digital cameras headto-head for the first time, in a showcase to see how they perform in a number of conditions. Our team created some rather punishing shooting conditions for the cameras. The 6K and 8K cameras in the test (in alphabetical order) were: ARRI Alexa 65 Canon C700 Full Frame Panavision DXL Mark 2 RED Weapon Monstro Sony Venice 6K x 4K What did the GSCA want to evaluate?

1.

2.

3.

4.

Dynamic range Evaluate sharpness (with charts) Beauty shots with moving detail in the shots Performance in low light and varying shooting conditions

(sunlight, overcast, indoors) 5. Fine detail performance 6. Flesh tones 7. Aspect ratio - shoot cropped and with frame extension demonstrate crop to 4:3

SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

Left: James Neihouse (l) and Jay Holben (r) set up multiple cameras at Universal CityWalk.

Right: Setting up a shot with multiple cameras at Universal CityWalk. Photos by Miacael Daut

8. For maximum consistency the crew used the same lens for

all tests 9. Ultimately the tests would reveal how these cameras could be used to capture content that could be converted to 4:3

aspect ratio to fill the native screen space of giant screen theaters.

10. No value judgments on the performance of the camera. Let the tests speak for themselves. Critical to maintain good

relationships with vendors who donated cameras for the test.

GATHERING EQUIPMENT To secure the cameras, lenses, support, and peripheral gear, we enlisted the help of James Niehouse, award-winning giant screen film cinematographer and ASC member. James, on behalf of the GSCA reached out to Arri, Canon, Panavision, RED, and Sony for the camera, and Leica for the prime lenses. My team contacted a local equipment rental house for tripods, support gear, and peripherals. All totaled we gathered about $1.5M worth of equipment. Special thanks to James Neihouse, ASC, and Tammy Seldon, GSCA Executive Director, for helping make this happen and to Andrew Oran and the team from FotoKem who generously provided all post-production and mastering services.

SHOT DESIGN AND LOCATIONS To accomplish the goals stated above, we set out to find locations that would challenge the cameras to reveal their unique characteristics at the edges of their capabilities. We knew that we needed a variety of outdoor and indoor locations at different times of day, so we secured the following locations in the Los Angeles area for the shoot:

• Paramount Ranch • An Airbnb penthouse in downtown Los Angeles

CAMERA OPERATOR · SUMMER 2019

• Grand Park • Walt Disney Concert Hall • Grand Avenue • Universal Studios CityWalk • Mousetrappe Studios For each set-up we rolled a group of three cameras and then a group of two cameras simultaneously to match the action and the framing as closely as possible. We used matching Leica prime lenses with focal lengths to match the sensors in each evaluated camera.

We shot full-frame on all the camera with the intention of cropping for 4:3, so we had extra space on the sides of the frames of the widescreen cameras and extra headroom on the top of the frame to keep the primary subjects in the lower third of the frame to display properly after the imagery was cropped to 4:3.

Cropping the imagery would lower the total resolution of the content, and the resulting resolution varied based on the aspect ratio of the chips in each camera. In every case, we scaled the pixels vertically to achieve native 6K resolution.

The edited demo would be presented in two resolutions: 4K (4096 x 3072) for the IMAX Laser projector, and 6K (6144 x 4608) for the E&S ESX digital dome system.

THE SHOTS FROM EACH LOCATION Paramount Ranch

1.

2.

3.

4.

WS of Western Town WS of Church Building WS of Western Street with actor in foreground in the shade WS of Large Tree from Shadow with bright background

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Downtown LA Penthouse

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

WS of Interior facing windows (available light only) WS of Penthouse Exterior - Day WS of Penthouse Exterior - Early Evening (2 separate shots) WS of Penthouse Exterior - Magic Hour (2 separate shots) WS of Penthouse Exterior - Night WS of Penthouse Exterior - Night (Panning shot)

Walt Disney Concert Hall

With the exception of the shots done inside Mousetrappe Studios, we tilted the cameras up after each take to shoot above the frame, so that shot extensions could be added in post-production, thereby increasing total true resolution and natively matching 6K and even 8K resolution after these extensions are added.

DIGITAL INTERMEDIATE WORKFLOW Transcoding Methodology

• Canon C700: files transcoded to ACES AP0 16-bit EXR

1. WS of Concert Hall - Sunrise

using Canon’s RAW tool

Grand Avenue

• All other cameras: files transcoded to ACES AP0 16-bit EXR using manufacturer settings processed by FotoKem nextLAB software • All footage was pulled same-as-source aspect ratio and resolution

1. WS of the Broad building - Day Grand Park

1. WS of Grand Park Fountain - Day (Shooting into sun) 2. WS or Grand Park Fountain - Day (Shooting into sun)

ALT shot 3. WS of Grand Park - Day (Panning shot)

DI Methodology

• DI completed on DaVinci Resolve in ACES (Resolve color-managed) at 6K (6144 x 4608) 1.33 • Exported both ACES and p3d65 deliverables • Part 1: cropped to fit 6144 x 4608 pixel-for-pixel – some were scaled and extracted to achieve this • Part 2: full capture width and height placed within 6144 x 4608 container (this resulted in a black bar at the top of the frame)­—all were scaled to be framed within the 6K

Universal Studios CityWalk

1. WS of Mall Facing USH Globe - Magic Hour (2 separate shots) 2. WS of Central CityLoft Rotunda from above - Night 3. WS of Central CityLoft Rotunda - ground level - Night 4. WS of King Kong Neon Sign - Night Mousetrappe Studios

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

FotoKem performed a base color grade to match the look of the cameras to one another, but performed no extensive color mastering. In a DI for a feature, more work would be done to optimize colors, highlights, shadows, etc. which will be done in a future test with the existing footage.

Flesh Tone Test - group 1 (MS) - Tungsten lighting Flesh Tone Test - group 1 (MS) - Daylight Flesh Tone Test - group 2 (MS) - Tungsten lighting Flesh Tone Test - group 2 (MS) - Daylight Camera Resolution Charts

CAMERA INFO Sensor Size (Millimeters)

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Camera

Horiz.

Vert.

Diag.

ARRI 65

54.12

25.58

59.86

Canon C700FF

38.1

20.1

43.1

Panavision DXL

40.96

21.6

Red Monstro

40.96

Sony Venice

36.2

Lens

Aspect Ra7o

Na7ve Resolu7on

Dynamic Compression Range

2.11:1

6560 x 3100

14+

17mm

1.9:1

5952 x 3140

15+

46.31

18mm

1.9:1

8192 x 4320

16

5:1(?)

21.6

46.31

18mm

1.9:1

8192 x 4320

17+

2:1

24.1

43.5

20mm

1.5:1

6048 x 4032

15+

None

SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

RECORDING INFO Camera

Recording Format

Na1ve ISO

Internal ND

ARRI 65

ARRIRAW

800

no

Canon C700FF

RAW

800

yes

Panavision DXL

RedCODE RAW

1600

yes (?)

Red Monstro

RedCODE RAW

640 - 1280

no

Sony Venice

X-ONC ST/ LT

500 / 2500

yes

NATIVE AND CROPPED RESOLUTIONS (4K) Camera

Native Resolution Resolution after 4:3 Crop (4K) - native

Resolution after 4:3 Scale Percentage Crop (4K) - scaled

ARRI 65

6560 x 3100

4133 x 3100

4096 x 3072

(2%)

Canon C700FF

5952 x 3140

4187 x 3140

4096 x 3072

(5%)

Panavision DXL

8192 x 4320

5760 x 4320

4096 x 3072

(100%)

Red Monstro

8192 x 4320

5760 x 4320

4096 x 3072

(100%)

Sony Venice

6048 x 4032

5376 x 4032

4096 x 3072

(72%)

NATIVE AND CROPPED RESOLUTIONS (6K) Camera

Native Resolution Resolution after 4:3 Crop (6K) - native

ARRI 65

6560 x 3100

4133 x 3100

6144 x 4608

121%

Canon C700FF

5952 x 3140

4187 x 3140

6144 x 4608

115%

Panavision DXL

8192 x 4320

5760 x 4320

6144 x 4608

16%

Red Monstro

8192 x 4320

5760 x 4320

6144 x 4608

16%

Sony Venice

6048 x 4032

5376 x 4032

6144 x 4608

30%

RESULTS Based on the goals stated above, it would violate the intention of the research in this study to draw conclusions that place one camera above another; however, we can state general observations about the results.

Resolution after 4:3 Scale Percentage Crop (6K) - scaled

1. In both native resolution and cropped resolution, all

cameras looked surprisingly comparable, even though the amount of scaling from native to 6K varied from 16% to 121%. This is probably the most unexpected and sur prising result. The resolution charts revealed the challenges with scaling more clearly; however, the shots themselves did not reveal the scaling artifacts as much as we had expected.

CAMERA OPERATOR ¡ SUMMER 2019

27 1

2. Native color reproduction varied considerable between

7. Ultimately we proved our hypothesis that there is no

the cameras, especially in the red tones. All tests were processed with a basic color grade, but could be tweaked further in a more extensive DI session. Once again the goals were to show what type of image each camera produced natively without too much post-processing. The Canon natively produced the most inaccurate reds and the RED Monstro produced the most natural-looking reds.

3. The amount of noise varied from camera to camera, with

the Sony Venice appearing to be the noisiest in night scenes

and the ARRI 65 appearing the cleanest in the same scenes.

4. In good lighting conditions, all cameras performed equally

well and all held up very nicely when cropped and scaled to

4:3 in 4K and 6K 5. As we do further work with the footage, we will learn more

about the capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses of each camera.

6. Some cameras handled highlights better than others,

evident when we adjusted exposure in the DI sessions. The

RED and Panavision cameras maintained very little data in

the highlights (which burned out on these cameras), where

the rest of the cameras recorded more detail in the highlights.

perfect camera for every application, but rather DPs and directors should match the ideal camera to the type of shot needed and use a variety of cameras to shoot a project, rather than choose one camera only.

NEXT STEPS AND THE FUTURE In March 2019, the GSCA Tech Committee presented a second round of tests using the 8KDCC footage that include dthe following:

1. Full DI color, brightness, and contrast timing for specific

shots to optimize all aspects of the picture.

2. Shot extensions were added from the original shoot to

increase the base resolution of each scene.

3. We created a sequence that walked the audience through the

process of the DI to show the work needed to improve the

clips and examples of shots before and after the DI work

had been done.

The footage is available for future demos, and the entire 8KDCC can be made available to GSCA members for review on giant screens.

Please contact Tammy Seldon at tammy@giantscreencinema.com for more information.

STEPHEN CAMPANELLI, SOC ON LARGE FORMAT Sully was the very first movie that I had worked with in an IMAX large-format situation. IMAX gave Clint and I a great tour of their facility and what they could offer, and Clint made the decision to go ahead and make the film this way.

We ended up using an Alexa 65 IMAX camera, I was hoping to get the mini version of it, but it was not available during the time frame that we were shooting the movie. We were going to be in confined spaces on an airplane so I was hoping for a lighter camera to work with. We ended up using the full-size Alexa and although it was a little heavy, I made it work. I really enjoyed the challenge and the experience shooting in IMAX. Your brain has to shift a little from normal operating, and realize the huge scale that this movie will be seen. Framing ends up a little different, you are a lot more aware of your composition, and how the end result will look like. You also have to be aware of what's in your frame because—it's such a large format that any small detail that doesn't belong in the shot will be seen.

One of the big challenges was the shallow depth of field that this format creates. Luckily, we had the legendary Tony Rivetti as our focus puller, and he did an amazing job! We did a lot of Steadicam

28

Courtesy of Stephen Campanelli and some hand-held so it was physically a little bit of a challenge, but I was very impressed that the IMAX version of the Alexa wasn't as bulky as I had thought. They did an incredible job squeezing it all in there, and creating a stunningly beautiful sensor.

I really think large format photography will eventually be the new norm. I think the resolution and sharpness that it brings adds to the whole cinema experience. We all went to the world premiere of the movie in New York where it was shown on a stunning IMAX screen, and it was very impressive to see all of our hard work up there on a massive scale.

STEPHEN CAMPANELLI, SOC has been a camera operator for over 35 years, and has been with Clint Eastwood for 25 of them.

He continues to strive to find new technologies, and new ways to tell great stories with his camera.

SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

Which brings us to the current setting. I am involved in large format digital cinematography more and more every year. From commercials, to films like Godzilla-King of the Monsters (2nd unit)—to the show I’m currently on Lovecraft Country for HBO. Large format has become a staple for shows heavy with VFX, second units, and is now almost becoming the norm. ARRI LF, Sony Venice, Red. The demand for high resolution, and the ability to make adjustments in post-production has become an integral part of our creative process. I’m sure it is only going to grow, and I am happy to be involved with this growth in any way I can.

Photo by Chris Flores

ROBERT GORELICK, SOC ON LARGE FORMAT I have had experience shooting large format since the early 1990’s. The first time was a 70mm Vista Vision element for a Batman theme ride at Disneyworld. I remember using an ARRI 70mm 2C with Vistavision mags and lenses on a Steadicam as I was driven through the sets of Batman Returns on a golf cart shooting background plates for the ride. That particular job presented a challenge for me on Steadicam, as the film traveled through the magazine horizontally, and it was difficult to keep the camera level as the weight of the film passed from one side to the other. Fortunately, the company wanted off horizon to help create a swooping effect of the background to enhance the feeling of movement for the ride!

The next experience was while I worked as an additional operator on the movie Far and Away, which was shot almost entirely in 70mm with Panavision cameras and lenses. The camera was heavy, but not nearly as heavy as an IMAX camera. Then there came a gig for the band N Sync which was shot in 70mm with Filmworks cameras and Hasselblad lenses and directed by John Bailey, ASC. These cameras were similar to IMAX and weighed a ton. Much like IMAX they were cumbersome and difficult to load and we were shooting an extremely tight concert schedule with camera placement and shots designed to be in specific places at specific times during songs. We were running all over the stadium with this enormous camera on Steadicam. I clearly remember my 1st AC dripping with sweat as he tried to reload the camera within seconds in the dark and in ridiculous positions. Good thing we were young!

Then came the legendary film The Dark Knight. Chris Nolan and Wally Pfister, ASC gave us everything we needed to be prepared for this. Lots of prep, and a very patient approach to what we were about to take on. I believe that this was the first full-length feature film to be shot primarily in IMAX. Their commitment to their vision has pushed IMAX and large format cinematography in general to what it is today.

CAMERA OPERATOR · SUMMER 2019

BOB GORELICK, SOC has been in the motion picture industry since 1981. He started as a production assistant and worked his way up through the camera department. Now, almost 40 years since he began his career he is still active and continues to work as a camera operator on some of the most popular movies and television shows shooting today.

Photo by Maggie Storm MICHAEL DAUT is an immersive media specialist, working as an independent writer/producer/director in Los Angeles. 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 worked for over 20 years at Evans & Sutherland developing a library of shows for the digital fulldome community. Michael’s current clients include K2 Studios, a giant screen film production and distribution company, and Moodswings, LLC, creators of the visual music show Mesmerica, currently playing in digital dome theaters across North America.

Because of this groundbreaking first step, there are now over 60 giant screen films converted to fulldome digital. He also produced the first two 8K Digital Dome Demos for Giant Screen Cinema Association and co-produced 2016’s True8K digital dome event and 2018’s HD Digital Camera Comparison with members of the GSCA Technical Committee.

29

Smooth Operator Right Place, Right Time

by Ricardo Sarmiento, SOC

On the set of MONEY MONSTER above Wall Street NYC. Photo by Tony Arnaud

I knew in college that I wanted to be a filmmaker. I started in prelaw but then took a film class and was hooked. I was drawn to cameras and the idea of traveling the world. Most important was that I wanted to tell stories.The reality, though, was that I had no connections in the film industry, none. I came from a working-class family in the Bronx. I wasn’t sure if I could ever break into the film world. So I took part-time jobs after I graduated until I could figure out how to get my foot in the door.

One of those jobs was working as a bartender in the East Village (NYC). On a summer afternoon in 1988, a bunch of film crew guys walked into the bar for lunch. They were older, some grey-haired,

30

possibly grips based on how they were dressed, and the tools they had. I overheard them talking about a commercial they were shooting up the block. I knew that my only chance to get into the film industry might be right then. So I approached and told them my story, and that I would be grateful for any suggestions. In a scruffy New York accent, one of the grips told me, “Kid if you ever want to be a DP you are going to have to learn about lighting and cameras.

You need to work at a rental house where they will teach you about the equipment. That is the only way you will learn to be able to get into the union. I’ll give you the number of my friend who runs Lee Lighting, the largest lighting house in NYC. Call him in the morning.”

SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

I called his friend every Monday to ask for a job. It took about two months of phone calls but finally one Monday I was offered a job answering phones as a rental clerk. For a year I answered calls. All of the big movies in town called for their lights. I learned a lot about lighting equipment but I knew that this wasn’t enough to become a DP or join the union. I started calling camera rental houses across NYC. Finally, a manager from Camera Service Center (CSC) called me with good news. He told me I got the job because I called him every Monday for almost 4 months—and he wanted me to stop calling! But I didn’t care why I got the job—I had the job. I spent almost two years learning about each camera and lenses. I also got to meet top camera assistants who would come in to prepare cameras—the ACs. The ACs often become friends with the people that work at the rental houses because you help them prep their packages. Some of these ACs would eventually hire me once I got into the union. My time at CSC laid the groundwork for me to learn the technical side of being a camera assistant. This helped me pass the Union Camera Assistant Test so I could join IATSE-Local 644 (now 600). I’ve been a member ever since.

I then spent 12 years as a camera assistant learning from some of the best DPs and camera operators in the business, working on feature films, music videos, commercials, and documentaries. I was shaped during that time into the kind of camera operator I would eventually become. I soon started to DP music videos and commercials.

I had a few operator jobs but I didn’t move primarily into camera operating until Spike Lee suggested to his then director of photography, Ellen Kuras, that she bring me on to be one of the camera operators on his experimental film, Bamboozled. I love being part of the entire filmmaking process and being a camera operator is a part of it that I enjoy very much—it’s challenging work but that makes it the most rewarding.

Learning the technical aspects of film equipment is a necessary step to becoming a camera operator. But that isn’t all that it takes—a camera operator has to translate what the director wants to say in each frame. What the camera operator sees in the eye-piece is what the viewer will see. Everything inside that box is the story. How that box moves and what happens inside it is how we tell the story. The operator doesn’t make the decision about where the camera is placed but you translate the decisions made by the director or DP. We see the story for the first time before anyone else, from every rehearsal to when the camera rolls the first frame. It is a huge responsibility because we have to make sure to stay true to the story. It’s a wonderful feeling when you know that by moving or keeping the camera steady, you are evoking feeling for the viewer.

Every camera operator is also faced with situations when they have to find solutions to problems. You have to figure out how to execute what a director needs, sometimes that will be easy, sometimes

CAMERA OPERATOR · SUMMER 2019

not. You might even end up in difficult circumstances but need to provide stellar results. When I was working with Spike Lee on the documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, he needed to have an emotional view of the devastation left behind after the levees broke and destroyed the Lower Ninth Ward. There were many, many blocks of streets where houses were leveled. Entire houses were ripped to shreds, with only pieces of houses and furniture. He sent me out to document the devastation.

We couldn’t afford to rent an expensive camera platform but because I had worked on big budget movies I knew how to make it work with what we had. The only tools I had to document this were a spring-wound Bolex 16mm camera and an Arri-Flex Super 16 camera (SR-3). The route I chose is not recommended because it is dangerous. I got on top of a 15-passenger van, put down a blanket and laid my body down. I told the driver to go slow, to crawl along.

I was able to secure myself and cradle the camera in my hand. I held the camera perpendicular to the houses as we drove down every single street. I captured the streets with a 10mm Swittar wide lens. I decided to tell the story by setting the Bolex camera into a slow motion mode of 36 fps. By driving slowly down every street and filming in slow motion, I could diminish the bumpiness of hand-held.

Taking this approach also allowed me to create an effect of looking down onto the houses. At the same time, I could see the devastation into the distance because of my position. The effect provided wide travelling shots that showed movement through a silent neighborhood. Not a person, not a living tree, not a house, not a pet.

Nothing. To see an entire neighborhood devastated by a levee was a powerful image. These images became a key part of the film. I used different film stocks, color reversal, cross-processed, black and white reversal film stock. Spike edited it back and forth depending on what the voiceover was saying. A mixture of the black and white and color reversal gave those scenes an ominous almost jarring effect.

Sometimes as a camera operator you also have to face your fears, and help others overcome their own. On that same project, we needed to secure aerial shots for Spike Lee. I was nervous because we had to hire a different type of helicopter than we would normally use, a smaller and less powerful one that doesn’t normally support camera operations (most of the helicopters and pilots we would usually use were busy working for news stations, or were no longer around poststorm). It also didn’t help that I suffer from a fear of heights, and using a different helicopter set-up on top of that made my nerves worse.

It turns out I wasn’t as nervous as my camera assistant who shared with me that he had recently been in a serious helicopter accident.

I told him that this shot we needed to get was bigger than our fears.

We eventually found someone who agreed to meet us on top of Superdome, at the time the only working teleport. One of the con-

31

ditions the pilot insisted on was that we couldn’t wear hats. He was worried that with the heavy winds and me filming out of the helicopter with the door removed that a hat would fly off and get caught in the rear rotor, causing us to crash. I said, “Okay, but you know I’ll have a 20 pound, hand-held camera on my shoulder that could theoretically fly out?” He said, “Yeah, but just really hold on to it.”

Off we went on that cold, cloudy November day to fly over the Lower Ninth Ward. Despite our fears, we went out and came back with especially powerful images.

Each small step led to where I am today. I asked for advice and help when I needed it. What also worked for me was being bold and taking chances. One of my favorite moments was when I was working as a camera assistant on the music video for the title song of Spike Lee’s Crooklyn. We were in the Marcy Projects in Brooklyn when the camera blew a fuse. The rest of the crew had switched out each fuse but nothing worked. Because I had spent so much time working at CSC, I knew they had missed a hard to find one. I jumped in and said, I know what’s wrong, I can fix it. Just give me five minutes. I’ll never forget Spike Lee over my shoulder asking, are you sure you can do it? How much longer? How much longer? I said, I got it. I fixed it. In this key moment 25 years ago, I created a relationship with Spike Lee who has since hired me to work with him on 12 feature films, four documentaries, and over 30 commercials and music videos. Had I not stepped up as a young person on that set to fix the blown fuse I might not have ended up working with Spike Lee on Blackklansman or have been nominated for that work as Camera Operator of the Year. That’s how things happen in life—spontaneous moments where you boldly jump in and take a chance. You have to trust yourself and stay the course. I knew one fuse that needed to be fixed, and that moment changed it all. I was pretty certain I could fix it, but anything could have gone wrong. There is a saying, the only way to get to the sweetest fruit is to climb out onto the skinniest branches. It’s the scariest place to be but that’s where the best fruit lies…

RICARDO SARMIENTO, SOC Ricardo Sarmiento, SOC was nominated for the 2019 SOC Camera Operator of the Year - Feature Film Award, andhas built a body of work that makes him increasingly recognized for his ability as both an artist and a professional. With a range which includes feature films, documentaries, commercials and music videos, Sarmiento prides himself on his ability to be adaptable. He has spent over two decades infusing his career with breadth and depth, and has surrounded himself by the best.

Sarmiento was born in Bogota, Colombia and his family came to NYC when he was 3 years old. He grew up in the Bronx and went to school for film at Hunter College in Manhattan. He has lived in NYC ever since.

Sarmiento has worked under acclaimed industry leaders, such as: Ellen Kuras, Matthew Libatique, John Singleton, Jodie Foster, and most notably, Oscar-nominated Spike Lee, having worked with him steadily since Malcolm X, and most recently BlacKkKlansman.

He is consistently inspired by and proud of his contribution to meaningful filmmaking. “To me, being part of meaningful filmmaking is to tell the stories that connect us all to each other. It’s a way to be connected. I am always looking for ways to give to others.”

A member of IATSE Local 600 since 1991, Sarmiento has worked internationally and spends most of his time now in New York. He is currently in Pittsburgh working as B camera operator on Season 2, Manhunt: Long Wolf.

Photo by David Franco

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Photo by Crystal Fortwangler

SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS EDUCATIONAL WORKSHOPS

Join the SOC in 2019 for Camera Operating Workshops taught by working professionals.

These workshops are designed to sharpen your skills, teach techniques for operating, better understanding of the roles and responsibilities on set, and to elevate the craft of camera operating.

• Underwater Camera Operating Workshop • Operating in the 4th Dimension - Working with Telescopic Cranes • Camera Operating for Cinema & TV • Camera Operating for Live & Sports Production • Running the Set – the Role of the Operator

SOC members will receive details via emails in addition to priority registration and discounts.

Workshops will be noted if non SOC members are able to register.

CAMERA OPERATOR · SUMMER 2019

33

From The Beginning A History of the SOC Magazine

by Michael Frediani, SOC Historical Chair

1993

2017

“We needed to get the word out to the film community about the Society of Operating Cameramen,” recounted our fourth president Randall Robinson, SOC describing his motivation to generate this magazine. He continues, “There were good magazines published for decades such as American Cinematographer and International Photographer. We wanted to create a journal ‘by members for members’ so I reached out, along with our treasurer Douglas Knapp (SOC), to solicit stories from men and women on the sets. The best stories really are first-hand experiences from our camera operators and associate members.”

Robinson adds, “In the beginning I searched though the many papers and records handed down, plus Bob Marta’s President’s Newsletters which gave me this burning desire for an SOC magazine. We made tiny steps, using a Xerox machine to publish the first issue. But if we wanted color and a prestigious look and quality, we needed to do something about our lack of a budget. I turned to Bill Hines (SOC) who I had known early on when he worked at F&B Ceco rental house. He knew many of the industry suppliers, so I made him our first Corporate Liaison. Bill reached out to the equipment vendors to ask for support.” Thanks to Robinson, Hines and the earlier Board of Governors we are still benefiting from our synergetic relationship with our Corporate Members to this day.

Speaking with Randall’s managing editor, Doug Knapp, SOC for this story he shared with me the formative steps of what was then entitled The Operating Cameraman magazine. “I had a PC computer and laser printer. Randall had a Macintosh computer so we initially worked independently then copied to floppy disks. Randall did most of the writing and I learned how to do layout. Because we both lived on the Westside of LA we would meet at a coffee shop in Marina del Rey to exchange disks. Remember, this was before email was available to us.”

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1991

The first issue (dated January 31, 1991) was created on a Xerox machine with a beautiful B&W photograph of a camera crew silhouetted on a soundstage wall.

Knapp continues, “I believe in the beginning we wrote using Word Perfect, hand-pasted the B&W photos within the accompanying stories, and then a printing house in North Hollywood photographed our typed pages with a large-format camera. They developed the negative, created a contact print onto a copper plate, then their Miehle press inked the plate creating the signatures.”

NOTE: A signature is a group of pages that are printed on both sides of a single sheet of paper that once folded, trimmed, bound and cut, become a specific number of pages. If you are printing an 8-page booklet, then you would have an 8-page signature. Signatures are always divisible by 4.

That first ‘magazine’ featured stories by SOC members Owen Marsh (see his profile article in the recent Spring 2019 edition), past president Bill Clark, and Howie Block who reported 232 members at the time. Bob Feller announced that the next Lifetime Achievement Awards banquet would be presented at the Calabasas Inn, while David Stump outlined a plan to create T-shirts for members. Newly-elected president and editor Robinson wrote in part, “I have had the pleasure

SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

The original color photo was cost prohibitive so Knapp had to make it sepia instead.

to stand before you and introduce films for our Heritage Film Series for the past three years…Bob Marta championed our goals in the very formative years…past president Mike Benson had the idea to donate the Dolby sound system at the Louis B. Mayer Theater at the Motion Picture Home, and he acquired Arnold Schwarzenegger’s leather Terminator jacket to raffle benefitting the Eye Care Clinic at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.” Robinson continues, “We all need to work to further the name of this organization. It’s important to see that your screen credits include the SOC initials after your name…I would like to see the growth of the European side of the SOC. We encourage the members abroad to organize and form meetings…” These ideals are still important to the SOC here in 2019.

Pacoima, California. To view a guided tour of their 1927 Hollywood headquarters see this link: vimeo.com/150307093 Much work needs to be done to honor other historical moviemaking sites in Hollywood and around the country.

Flashing back to 1992, the magazine reported the first Technical Achievement Awards at our SOC banquet, honoring ARRI for their spinning mirror reflex viewing system developed in 1932. Panavision’s 1972 creation of their Panaglow ground glass that helps define the frame for camera operators during low light filming, and Cinema Products for Garrett Brown’s Steadicam camera stabilizing system introduced in 1976. That issue has great technical specs of each device.

“The original color photo was cost prohibitive so Knapp had to make it sepia instead. The cover was an awesome panoramic shot when you laid open the magazine’s front and back covers,” Knapp related. Photographer John R. Hamilton captured this action photo at Ford’s Point in Monument Valley (1964) and it is published in his book Thunder in the Dust.

These honors have been an important part of the SOC Awards, and we are proud and grateful that two of the three companies remain as Corporate Members, while Cinema Products was sold to Tiffen who is also an SOC Corporate Member, and graciously hosts our office and Board of Governors monthly meetings in Burbank.

Robinson mentioned placing a historical plaque at 935 Vendome St., Los Angeles for Laurel & Hardy’s Music Box (check it out), and another in Cottage Grove, Oregon to commemorate Buster Keaton’s The General. The only plaque placed since was in 2015 at the old Mole-Richardson Company building in Hollywood, now demolished. The plaque can be seen at the entrance of their new building in

Also in our second issue Liz Bailey, SOC, who was a member of Behind The Lens: An Association of Professional Camerawomen, created a panel of distinguished camera crew members including; Allen Daviau, ASC who told the crowd, “We all must learn more about video because our two technologies are merging.” How prescient he was back in 1991.

CAMERA OPERATOR · SUMMER 2019

35

In closing, I invite you to explore as many of our back issues as you like by going to this link: issuu.com/cameraoperators While online take a look at Spring/Summer 2004 that celebrated 25 years of the SOC and a compilation article I wrote highlighting the first 13 years of this magazine. Additionally, check out our 35th Anniversary of the SOC, Summer 2014 Volume 23, Number 3 with stories by members recollecting the early years of the Society.

1995

And so it goes 28 years on, most of the articles in Camera Operator magazine are generously contributed by our membership. With each issue it’s a pleasure to read ‘life on the set’ stories that we can relate to.

And for those hoping to do what we do, you can learn from some of the ‘best in our business.’ I’m continuously delighted by the proficiency our members exhibit when their fingers aren’t wrapped around the wheels of a gear head, but instead tapping out stories on a keyboard.

Multi-talented members to be sure.

We owe a debt of gratitude to those who exhibited vision and dedication that propelled this magazine to where it is today.

EDITORS HISTORY:

• Founding Editor, Randall Robinson, SOC 1991-1995 • Michael Frediani, SOC • Bill Hines, SOC • Stan McClain, SOC • Jeff Goldenberg, SOC • George Stephenson, SOC • Douglas Knapp, SOC • Mike Chapman, SOC • Lynn Lanning • Georgia Packard, SOC • Paul Babin, SOC • Dan Kneece, SOC • Jack Messitt, SOC • David Frederick, SOC • Dan Coplan, SOC • Jennifer Braddock • Martha Winterhalter • Kate McCallum

2003

2011

SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS . WINTER 2015 . VOL. 24, NO. 1

MICHAEL FREDIANI, SOC Michael Frediani, SOC has been an SOC member since the mid-1980s, first as an associate member, then an active member since the early 1990s.

He was elected president in 1995 and again in 2011 contributing articles and serving as editor of this magazine in the interim. Frediani is currently a 20-year member of the Board of Governors.

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SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

Society of Camera Operators SOC TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 2020 SOCAWARDS.COM

Online Submission Open!

The Society of Camera Operators’ Technical Achievement Award online submission is now open until September 16, 2019. The Award is given for a technology that is used by the camera operator, camera crew and on-set productions.

There is a $925 administrative fee per submission. Submissions will be reviewed by the Technical Committee in person during Demo Days on October 26, 2019. SOC members are also invited to participate in this industry event. Submit technology at: SOC.org/techawards The Technical Achievement Award will be presented at the SOC Lifetime Achievement Awards on January 18, 2020 at the Loews Hollywood Hotel.

Past awards recipients can be found on the Awards' site – SOCAwards.com.

Seats and table go on sale August 12 · Purchase your seats today SOCAwards.com CAMERA OPERATOR · SUMMER 2019 Photo by Niko Tavernise

39

Insight GARY BUSH, SOC What was one of your most challenging day on set? Hand-holding a Panavision Panaflex GII for extended periods for a high drama narrative in the limited space of a small car’s interior.

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

I have always wanted to be on set operating on a music video for Van Morrison and then be asked to sit in on drums!

Credits: Death Cab for Cutie, Summer Skin (music video), Don McLean: American Pie (documentary), Atmosphere Say Hey There (music video), Interpol Investigates (documentary series), Jimi Hendrix: Hear My Train a Comin’ (documentary) Photo by Brandon Showers

PAULINE EDWARDS, SOC

Photo by Liz Wilson

What was one of your most challenging shot or challenging day in the industry? I worked on an underwater runway shoot and even though I'd been a diver for 10 years, I had never done it with camera equipment. Aside from focusing on diving, I had to make sure they were framed correctly and I wasn't in their way.

What would be the most important improvement you would like to see in our industry? I know there's a strong push for inclusion and diversity right now, but people still look at me with amazement when they see me with a camera on my shoulder. They make sure to let me know that they've never seen a black female camera operator before. I know I'm not the first, I know we're out there. I'd just like to get to the point where no one is surprised and it's just the norm.

Credits: Huge In France, On My Block, Rhythm + Flow, Bring It, The Real Housewives of Orange County

SANJAY SAMI, SOC

Photo by Martin Scali

40

What was one of your most challenging shot or challenging day in the industry? On The French Dispatch we had a shot that needed to start on an ECU of a radio very low, a pull back to reveal Edward Norton adjusting the dials, then a rapid stand up with him and chase down a corridor and up a flight of stairs. Extras, furniture and walls all had to move in shot.

What is your most memorable day in the industry?

My first day on the set of Silence and meeting Martin Scorsese.

The person who helped you most in your career?

Probably Wes Anderson.

Credits: The Grand Budapest Hotel, The French Dispatch, The Life of Pi, The Letters, Moonrise Kingdom

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 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 Ted Ashton Jr. Kjetil Astrup 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 John James Beattie Jonathan Beattie Jonathan Beck Tim Bellen Garrett Benson Brian Bernstein Justin Besser George M. Bianchini George Billinger *

CAMERA OPERATOR · SUMMER 2019

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 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 Grant Culwell Francois Daignault 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 Tetsuyuki Domae Rick Drapkin Scott C. Dropkin David Drzewiecki Mitch Dubin Simon Duggan, ACS Orlando Duguay Mark Duncan Jeffrey Dutemple Allen D. Easton Pauline Edwards William Eichler David Elkins 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 Michael Ferris 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 Rusty Geller 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 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 Chris Hayes Nikk Hearn-Sutton Mike Heathcote David Heide Dawn J. Henry Alan Hereford 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 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 Mark LaBonge Thomas Lappin Per Larsson Jeff Latonero Sergio Leandro da Silva Richard Leible Alan Lennox Rachael Levine Ilan Levin Mikael Levin Sarah Levy Jimmy Lindsey, ASC Abigail Linne Hugh C. Litfin John Lizzio Christopher Lobreglio Henry “Hal” Long Patrick Longman George Loomis Benjamin Lowell Greg Lundsgaard Kenji Luster Guido Lux 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 Parris Mayhew Peter McCaffrey Bill McClelland Jim McConkey Calum McFarlane David B. McGill Patrick McGinley Ian McGlocklin Michael P. McGowan Christopher T.J. McGuire Aaron Medick Alan Mehlbrech Luisa Mendoza Hilda Mercado Olivier Merckx Matias Mesa Jack Messitt Mark J. Meyers Mike Mickens Duane Mieliwocki

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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 Marco Naylor Robert Newcomb Julye Newlin George Niedson William Nielsen Kenny Niernberg Terence Nightingall Kurt Nolen Randy Nolen Austin Nordell Casey Norton William O’Drobinak Mark D. O’Kane Michael D. Off Andrew William Oliver Tony O’Loughlan John Orland Brian Osmond 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

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Carl Prinzi Adrian Pruett James Puli Louis Puli Kelly Pun Ryan Purcell Yavir Ramawtar Hector Ramirez Juan M. Ramos James B. Reid 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 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 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 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 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 Bill Waldman 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 Jeffrey Wilkins Ken Willinger Tom Wills Chad Wilson David A. Wolf Ian D. Woolston-Smith Santiago Yniguez Brian Young Lohengrin Zapiain Chad Zellmer Brenda Zuniga

ASSOCIATE MEMBERS 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 John Bailie

Blaine Baker Denson Baker Ryan Vogel Baker Scott Gene Baker 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 Mary Brown Rochelle Brown Donald Brownlow 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 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 Edward Endres David T. Eubank

Allen Farst Nicholas A. Federoff Ellie Ann Fenton Kristin Fieldhouse Stephanie Fiorante Tom Fletcher Mike Fortin Tammy Fouts Michael A. Freeman Fred M. Frintrup Hiroyuki Fukuda Ruixi “Royce” Gao Sandra Garcia Henry Gelhart Geoffrey George Hannah Getz Jake Glaviano Daniel Godar Michael Goi, ASC Al Gonzalez Geoff Goodloe John M. Goodner Giulia Governo Noble Gray John Greenwood Adam Gregory Phil Gries Ryan Grosjean 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 James Hart John Hart Kyle Hartman Jason Hawkins Adam Heim Andres Hernandez Orlando Herrera Daniel Hertzog Anthony P. Hettinger John M. Hill, Jr. Andrew Hoehn Chris Horvath Nichole Huenergardt Brett Hurd Jake Iesu Toshiyuki Imai Andrew A. Irvine Gregory Irwin Michael Izquierdo Mark Jacobs Neeraj Jain Jennie Jeddry Keith Jefferies Lacey Joy Henry Bourne Joy IV Jessica S. Jurges Timothy Kane Ray Karwel Frank Kay April Kelley Alan G. Kelly Mark H. Killian 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 Barbie Leung Alan Levi Mark Levin Ilya Jo Lie-Nielsen Jun Li Tian Liu Niels Lindelien Marius Lobont Eamon Long Gordon Lonsdale Dominic Lopez Bob Lord Jasmine Lord Carl Nenzen Loven Justin Lutsky Christopher Lymberis Dominik Mainl Steven Mangurten Max Margolin Aaron Marquette Nicole Jannai Martinez Emma Massalone 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 ModlinLiebrecht 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

SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

Tiffany Null Jorel O’Dell Bodie Orman Pascal Orrego Jarrod Oswald Paul Overacker Justin Painter Larry Mole Parker Steven D. Parker 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 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 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 Anil Singh Michael Skor Jan Sluchak Joshua Smith Robert F. Smith Tyson Smith John Snedden Laurent Soriano David Speck Picha Srisansanee Derek Stettler Michael Stine Landis Stokes Joshua Stringer Aymae Sulick

Jeremy Sultan Andy Sydney Tiffany Taira Fabian Tehrani Matthew Thorp John Twesten Jonathan Tyler Thomas “Joe” Tyler Justin Uchendu Gary Ushino Daniel Urbain Sandra Valde Thomas Valko Michael Velitis Nick Vera Benjamin Verhulst Marshall Victory Jesse Vielleux Breanna Villani Miguel Angel Vinas Terry Wall Louis-Pascal Walsh William Walsh Neil Watson Jared Wilson Ryan Wood Peiqi “Eric” Wu Tim Wu Watcharawit “Koon” Ya-Inta Tim Yoder Yasutomo Yoshida Scot Zimmerman Evan Zissimopulos

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

Band Pro Film & Video Blackmagic Design Brother International Corporation Canon, USA Inc. Carl Zeiss Microimaging, Inc. Chapman/Leonard Studio Equipment CineDrones Cinema Devices Cinemoves Inc. Codex Cooke Optics Limited Core SWX CW Sonderoptic Duclos Lenses Freefly Systems Fujifilm/Fujinon Filmtools, Inc. Geo Film Group, Inc. Helinet Aviation Services History For Hire Imagecraft Productions, Inc. JL Fisher, Inc. Keslow Camera KitSplit Inc. Litepanels Manios Digital & Film

CAMERA OPERATOR · SUMMER 2019

John M. Grace Ron McPherson Rafael Nobre Mauricio Vega Ralph W. Watkins

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 Adam S. Ward

HONORARY

STUDENTS

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 Kennedy-Marshall 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

Jack Armstrong Jamie Araki Reynaldo Aquino Sammy Avgi Melissa Baltierra Zakrey Barisione Bedik Bedikian Ziryab Ben Brahem Caitlin Brown Jian Cao Stephen Carlus Carmen Chan Jiayao Chen Yongmin Choi Petr Cikhart Autumn Collins Richard Colman Dennis Connelly Andrea Damuding John Darian William Dauel Dakota Diel Michael A. Garcia Sam Gilbert Christian T. Hall Yuqiao Han Marisa Harris Myles Anthony Holt LaKisha Renee Hughes Carolyn Scott Hunt Piankhi Iknaton Daniel James Crystal Kelley Sung Yen Lai John P. Lansdale Shangche Lee Eric Liberacki Guilherme Costa Ari Linn Tianyi Liu Bali Majji Francesco Malandrino Jeff-Steven Arevalo Mojica Fabian Montes Joshua Montiel

Matthews Studio Equipment Monster Remotes Other World Computing Panasonic Cinema Panavision Preston Cinema Systems Pursuit Aviation RED Digital Cinema Schneider Optics Sigma Sim International Sony Electronics That Cat Camera Support Tiffen Transvideo Ver Wooden Camera Zacuto USA

EDUCATORS

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 Jerry Fuller Dick Fisher Anthony Gaudioz Wynn Hammer Ken Hilmer Gary Holt

Takuya Nagayabu Lucien Night Rui Jiang Ong Ruben Palacios Connor Pollard Melissa Pratt Karina Prieto Macias Cheng Qian Ryan Richard Matthew Richter Marco Rivera Edgar Santamaria Emil Schonstrom Simon Sidell Carley Steichen Jennifer St. HilaireSanchez Amara Stinson Grace Thomas Joshua Thomas Kendra Tidrick Romas Usakovas Akina Van de Velde Anna Vialova Gideon Watson Kehan Yang Linxuan “Stanley” Yu Cong Zhou Yiyao Zhu * Past SOC President Current as of August 1, 2019.

AD INDEX Amazon Studios 2-3 amazonstudios.com Blackmagic Design 5 blackmagicdesign.com Chapman/Leonard Studio Equipment C2 chapmanleonard.com 37 CineGear Atlanta cinegearexpo.com Back Cover Cinemoves cinemoves.com 9 J. L. Fisher jlfisher.com Leitz Cine Wetzlar 13 leitz-cine.com NAB Show NYC 38 nabshowny.com Schneider Optics 11 schneideroptics.com That Cat Camera Support 7 cameraslider.com C3 Tiffen tiffen.com

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Social SOC

Curated by Ian S. Takahashi, SOC society_of_camera_operators

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society_of_camera_operators @seancamop #gameofthrones #societyofcameraoperators ———————————————————————— #bestJobEver #thesoc #cameraOperator #Photographer #Camera #Lens #DirectorOfPhotography #Cinematography #Cinematographer #Videography #Photography #Videography #PhotographyIsLife #CameraSupport #CameraAccessories #SOC #bts #movies #film #TheSOC ———————————————————————— brookaitken What any one of us wouldn’t give to shoot that! georgebillinger Truly appreciate your work Sean!

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society_of_camera_operators “At the end of the world” with @kevin_descheemaeker SOC ———————————————————————— #TheSoc #bestJobEver #thesoc #cameraOperator #Photographer #Camera #Lens #DirectorOfPhotography #Cinematography #Cinematographer #Videography #Photography #Videography #PhotographyIsLife #CameraSupport #CameraAccessories #SOC #bts #movies #film ————————————————————————mickey.mov Good Job.

bobscottnyc It’s when the vehicle filming the cars looks way cooler than the cars.

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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 44

SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS · SOC.ORG

W H AT W I L L Y O U C R E AT E ?

INTELLIGENT HORIZON ASSIST AVAIABLE NOW FOR STEADICAM M-1, ARCHER 2, SHADOW, SHADOW V, ULTRA 2, CLIPPER 3, & GPI PRO SYSTEMS tiffen.com/steadicam/voltsystem The TIffen Company, LLC. 90 Oser Avenue • Hauppauge, NY 11788

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