ICG Magazine - October 2019 - Image Pipelines

ICG MAGAZINE

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contents

IMAGE PIPELINES October 2019 / Vol. 90 No. 8

DEPARTMENTS gear guide ................ 14 zoom-in ................ 22 unscripted ................ 26 exposure ................ 30 production credits ................ 70 stop motion .............. 82

SPECIAL Pipe Masters ................ 34

40

JOKER

Lawrence Sher, ASC, reteams with The Hangover’s Todd Phillips on an origin tale for DC Comics’ most popular villain.

FOR ALL MANKIND For All Mankind marks a huge splashdown for Apple’s new streaming service – and a compelling reimagining of world history.

EPIC IMAGES On-set compositing brings VFX back to the set, providing cinematographers with added control and flexibility.

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PRE SI DE NT 'S LE T TE R

Choice and Circumstance We follow many different paths in our careers.

Some choices are considered, while others are made for us by circumstance. I like to think my career path has been a little bit of both.

In 2001, I was shooting and editing cooking shows for PBS. It was a great job that I found creatively rewarding (as well as financially lucrative). But had I not, one day, dropped off rental gear at Liman Video Rental (LVR), in New York City, I may never have become a DIT. Let me explain.

In 2001, there was a threatened strike by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), so TV producers were preparing to shoot their episodic series – traditionally shot on film – on video. This was so they could produce shows under an agreement with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) instead of SAG. It was also technically feasible because Sony had brought the first 24-frame progressive camera to market, the F900 CineAlta.

As it turned out, LVR had received the contract to provide the equipment to what would be one of the first two network series shot in New York City with the F900, The Education of Max Bickford.

My curiosity was piqued; when I found out Michael Mayers would be Max Bickford’s cinematographer, I arranged an interview. Michael and I had bounced around many of the same circles, often comparing notes on the jobs we lost to the same small group of cinematographers. When Michael hired me for Max Bickford, I became one of Local 600's first "DIT's."

With technology's rapid evolution, the craft of the digital imaging technician has changed greatly since those days. In this issue of ICG Magazine, readers will meet many Local 600 DIT’s, who, by circumstance or choice have become leaders in the field. They come to the job with various backgrounds and skillsets. Some have strong on-set color skills; some know computer technology; some are workflow specialists. What they all possess is a dedication to the craft of filmmaking and tremendous work ethic.

I, too, am extremely proud of the work our Local has done in promoting the role of the DIT. In these last eighteen years, we have gone from a handful of members in the classification to well over 500 nationwide. All this as Local 600 DIT’s have continually faced the challenges of a position that was initially agreed to as being “temporary”

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by the producers to help in the transition from film to video capture. And as the technology has changed from on-set live color of essentially a video camera to designing and maintaining the myriad workflows of contemporary digital cameras, our DIT’s have evolved the craft – always with the prime intention of preserving the integrity of the cinematographer’s purview over the image, as well as to ensure the safekeeping of the digital assets of producers.

This month’s ICG Magazine is themed around image pipelines, i.e., the workflow of how what is captured makes its way through the post process to final delivery; and DIT’s, of course, are integral to the process of maintaining the creative integrity of the captured image. The communication necessary for doing this is complex due to the number of people involved. Having union craftspeople who are both technically savvy and diplomatic in expressing the needs of a project is critical to the pipeline’s success. The importance of all those involved in creating and capturing these images extends to Local 600 members on set: the vision of our cinematographers; the expertise of our camera operators; the skills of our camera assistants, loaders, utilities and DIT's – all working as a unified creative force. And, of course, without our still photographers and publicists, it would all be futile – who would even see the fruits of our labor?

The art of filmmaking (and yes, that is how we still refer to it regardless of the medium used) is collaborative. The camera department is a tightly run team all focused on the same goal of delivering the visual images that create lifelong memories – both for those of us in production, and those who are consumers. Whatever path your career is taking – by choice or by circumstance – stand proud to be a part of this unique alliance.

Lewis Rothenberg National President International Cinematographers Guild IATSE Local 600

T H E A R T O F M U LT I - C A M E R A M O V E M E N T

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October 2019 vol. 90 no. 08

Publisher Teresa Muñoz Executive Editor David Geffner Art Director Wes Driver EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Tyler Bourdeau STAFF WRITER Pauline Rogers ACCOUNTING Glenn Berger Dominique Ibarra COPY EDITORS Peter Bonilla Maureen Kingsley CONTRIBUTORS Kevin H. Martin Debra Kaufman Niko Tavernise

INTERNATIONAL CINEMATOGRAPHERS GUILD Local 600 IATSE NATIONAL PRESIDENT Lewis Rothenberg NATIONAL VICE PRESIDENT Dejan Georgevich, ASC 1ST NATIONAL VICE PRESIDENT Christy Fiers 2ND NATIONAL VICE PRESIDENT John Lindley, ASC NATIONAL SECRETARY-TREASURER Stephen Wong NATIONAL ASSISTANT SECRETARY-TREASURER Jamie Silverstein NATIONAL SERGEANT-AT-ARMS Deborah Lipman NATIONAL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Rebecca Rhine

COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE Spooky Stevens, Chair

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ADVERTISING POLICY: Readers should not assume that any products or services advertised in International Cinematographers Guild Magazine are endorsed by the International Cinematographers Guild. Although the Editorial staff adheres to standard industry practices in requiring advertisers to be “truthful and forthright,” there has been no extensive screening process by either International Cinematographers Guild Magazine or the International Cinematographers Guild.

EDITORIAL POLICY: The International Cinematographers Guild neither implicitly nor explicitly endorses opinions or political statements expressed in International Cinematographers Guild Magazine. ICG Magazine considers unsolicited material via email only, provided all submissions are within current Contributor Guideline standards. All published material is subject to editing for length, style and content, with inclusion at the discretion of the Executive Editor and Art Director. Local 600, International Cinematographers Guild, retains all ancillary and expressed rights of content and photos published in ICG Magazine and icgmagazine.com, subject to any negotiated prior arrangement. ICG Magazine regrets that it cannot publish letters to the editor.

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POSTMASTER: Send address changes to ICG 7755 Sunset Boulevard Hollywood, California 90046 Copyright 2018, by Local 600, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States and Canada. Entered as Periodical matter, September 30, 1930, at the Post Office at Los Angeles, California, under the act of March 3, 1879. Subscriptions: $88.00 of each International Cinematographers Guild member’s annual dues is allocated for an annual subscription to International Cinematographers Guild Magazine. Nonmembers may purchase an annual subscription for $48.00 (U.S.), $82.00 (Foreign and Canada) surface mail and $117.00 air mail per year. Single Copy: $4.95 The International Cinematographers Guild Magazine has been published monthly since 1929.

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or years, our October issue has been themed around that nebulous industry term, “workflow.” So, I’m happy to report that theme has been retired in favor of an equally malleable concept – Image Pipelines. And while the idea of a filmed project traveling through a pipeline sounds limiting, the reality is the converse – ever since the advent of digital cinematography, "the pipeline" has been expanding at an alarming rate (at least in human terms). Colorists, editors, VFX supervisors, CG artists, producers, executives, clients, and other stakeholders all have a role to play before the image captured on-set ever reaches a consumer's screen.

Thankfully, there is a specific union member tasked not only with safeguarding the captured image on set but also helping to preserve the creative intent of the director and the cinematographer throughout production.

The digital imaging technician (DIT) is a union classification that originated nearly 20 years ago, and a position Local 600’s new president, Lewis Rothenberg, was instrumental in founding. This month’s Special Feature, Pipe Masters (page 34), gives voice to 18 DIT’s from all areas of the industry, including features, episodic television, and commercials. We asked them to not only to share their thoughts about the tools they use to be successful but also to shed light on the DIT’s role, as it seems to be draped in mystery.

For me, two quotes stand out from the article: one from Eastern Region DIT Jaime Chapin (recently covered in our feature on Netflix’s Emmy-nominated series Russian Doll, May 2019, page 44) and the other from Central Region DIT Nick Hiltgen. Chapin says one undervalued function of DIT’s is their ability to create efficiency from production through post-production.

“Being on set during production, the DIT can help keep consistency in both color and exposure from setup to setup,” she notes in the article. “During the DI, this allows the director of photography to focus on finessing the look they created on set rather than spending their time with base corrections and adjustments.”

Hiltgen puts forth an even more emphatic

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case for the value the DIT brings to any project, noting that the position is being shortchanged, especially in episodic production. “For many TV shows, the DP will be unable to attend final color correction, so the only notes that they can give are what’s being done on set,” he correctly observes. “A DIT allows the DP to get their vision across far more succinctly than typed-up notes from a viewing on PIX/DAX. Add in the extra set of eyes, monitoring focus and exposure –especially in HDR and on multi-camera, location-heavy shows – and I wonder how any show can justify not having a DIT.” At the heart of the DIT’s craft, of course, is a world that feels under siege from evolving technology – something a certain ubiquitous tech giant from Cupertino, CA knows a lot about.

This issue marks our debut story on original content from the new Apple TV+ streaming service. For All Mankind (page 54) imagines a world where Russia beat the United States to the moon, sparking an ongoing technological war.

One smart thing Apple executives did in taking this “giant leap” into original content was to hire a team of TV veterans, including Guild cinematographers Stephen McNutt, ASC, CSC, and Ross Berryman, ASC, and Creator Ronald D. Moore (Exposure, page 30), better known for such hit Star Trek spin-offs as Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager, as well as the Emmywinning reboot of Battlestar Galactica.

Working with Jay Redd, Senior VFX Supervisor at Sony Pictures Entertainment, along with seven-time Emmy-nominated Production Designer Dan Bishop (The Good Place, Mad Men), Moore, McNutt and Berryman referenced old-school, shot-on-film space movies. As Berryman shares in the article: “Stephen and I both thought The Right Stuff (lensed by Caleb Deschanel, ASC) got things just right. It didn’t feel like a period piece, but more like you were there. So rather than affecting the image, we preferred to let the wardrobe and art departments convey most of that period feel.”

The pipeline those early NASA engineers created to bring images back from the moon was, like the space pioneers they supported, a trip into the unknown. The men and women of Local 600 deftly wrangling a burgeoning image pipeline on film and TV sets are equally heroic in their commitment and dedication, and this issue salutes them.

CONTRIBUTORS

Debra Kaufman (Epic Images)

“I first started writing about compositing in the days of optical printers, covering the transition to digital intermediates. It’s a delight to see the technology come full circle to make compositing a real-time, in-camera effect. Proof positive is the selfie on this page, which was taken in Nice, France, and where I’m digitally composited in real time with my fantasy vacation destination!”

Niko Tavernise

(Wild Card, Stop Motion) “Shooting on film sets I’ve figured out that there is a balance of being tactically proficient for capturing completely candid shots, not reflecting and keeping out of actors’ eye lines, and also being friendly and polite so as not to terrify people with my look. It’s taken years, but I think I’m comfortable now shooting in New York City, and around the world, dressed all in black at all times.”

ICG MAGAZINE

David Geffner Executive Editor

Twitter: @DGeffner Email: david@icgmagazine.com

OCTOBER

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ZOOM-IN

10.2019

Nina Chadha

BY PAULINE ROGERS PHOTO BY IATSE LOCAL 669 UNIT STILL PHOTOGRAPHER KIMBERLY FRENCH, SMPSP

Raised in the small town of Marion, OH, Nina Chadha’s interest in film began at a young age. Her penchant for tinkering with electronics, as well as a lifelong love for Bollywood movies, sent her down a career path that would eventually lead to the film and TV industry.

One of Chadha’s first business ventures focused on web and mobile app development. Her company was commissioned to build out a website for IATSE Local 600 Director of Photography Cale Finot. “Cale invited me to a set he was visiting to pick up some clips for his website, and it changed my life,” Chadha recalls. “I started asking a ton of questions and talking shop with DIT Tony Kwan. With

his oversight, I even tried my hand at colorgrading a shot.

“Unbeknownst to me,” Chadha continues, “the DP, Eric Steelberg [ASC], was standing right behind us. He said something I would really take to heart: ‘Nina, you should become a DIT. All the DIT’s I use are camera guys trying to learn the computer side. But I’d much rather have a computer person that learns the camera side, since all cameras are now computers.’” Soon after Steelberg made his suggestion, Chadha built her first rig and never looked back.

Local 600 members continue to play a large part in Chadha’s career. Finot helped her understand the fine details of optics and lighting. Steelberg taught her the

importance of color separation and saw her potential as a DIT. He went on to hire Chadha on her first union commercial.

“Eric also hired great AC’s who helped me,” she adds. “Keith Davis, for example, showed me how to quickly jam timecode on a pharmacy commercial. Simon England showed me how to properly fetch a lens on a car commercial. Zoran Veselic allowed me to come into West Coast Camera and learn about different types of glass. Other DIT’s have been amazingly supportive as well – the wealth of knowledge and the connections gained from them have allowed me to work on projects like Top Gun: Maverick, A Star Is Born and Wonderland.”

When asked about her most challenging (cont'd on page 24)

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10.2019

assignments, Chadha notes the recent sequel to Top Gun, with the ground-toair unit helmed by Aerial Director of Photography David Nowell, ASC. “It was a helicopter ride every day for the crew with our minimal gear to get to the mountain top where we were shooting,“ Chadha recounts. “My challenge was to create a lightweight DC-powered Pelican system that could monitor four cameras at once and allow me to oversee the exposures for each feed. We also recorded a quad-split so post could sync later, because we were shooting off-speed.”

There was also an Adidas Original commercial shot by Alexis Zabe. “The director came to set with an old camcorder that he had picked up at a thrift store,” Chadha explains. “The VHS footage needed to be offloaded, and post didn’t want to deal with it. But the camera’s S-Video out was broken. A BMD dock, part of my kit, seemed to work but the result looked insane – there

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were too many frame errors. To be safe, I made a duplicate tape by buying a VCR through Amazon Prime Now’s free twohour delivery. I experimented with the dupe with an old frame-synchronizing deck from the deepest, darkest depths of a closet at Panavision Hollywood. [Thanks, Tom!] The camcorder stuff all made the cut. And it looked awesome.”

Chadha describes being a DIT as the perfect blend of creative and analytical. “I get to constantly mess with electronics, troubleshoot problems, color-grade beautiful images, and even put together and manage complex data workflows and color pipelines,” she shares. The Local 600 member also looks forward to where the DIT craft is headed, with larger resolution sensors, ever-more complex workflows, HDR and more camera systems.

“This makes the DIT position more in-demand than ever,” Chadha insists.

As a member of the Society of Cinematic

Imaging (SCI), she is all about promoting, defining, and growing the position of DIT as a valuable and integral part of the cinematic process.

As if these exciting challenges were not enough, Chadha is also a new member of ICG Local 600’s National Executive Board (NEB). “I felt that getting involved would be a great way to help give back,” she explains.

“It also seemed that working, active DIT’s were a bit underrepresented, so I wanted to join [the NEB] to offer a unique perspective to all the varied issues we face in our union and the industry.”

Assigned to the Finance and IT committee, Chadha hopes to get a chance to use her fiscal efficiency and her developer background to modernize the backend system of the Union.

“I hope that some of the things that we have been discussing internally will move forward to help benefit every member by streamlining many of the day-to-day challenges we have been facing.”

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Don Burgess, ASC &

Corinne Bogdanowicz

BY PAULINE ROGERS PHOTO BY GREG GAYNE

The relationship between a Director of Photography and Colorist may well be one of the most crucial in these days of multiple camera formats and changing deliveries.

It takes a healthy respect, an artistic vision that is in sync, a collaborative shorthand – and a sense of humor.

“Especially when I’m in Light Iron’s Atlanta facility and Corinne is in Hollywood, and we’re color-correcting via Skype,” laughs Don Burgess, ASC, recalling a recent teaming with Corinne Bogdanowicz on Christmas Chronicles. “He’d be pointing to a shot that might not be what I was seeing,” Bogdanowicz adds. “The delay took a little getting used to. But we’ve worked so long together, and are so in sync, I could catch what he was looking at.”

It’s that trust and understanding that has fostered successful projects like two Muppet movies (2011, 2014), Flight (2012), 42 (See ICG Magazine, April 2013), Allied (2016), Monster Trucks (2016), Same Kind of Different Me (2017), Wonder (2017), Christmas Chronicles (2018) and Sextuplets (2019). And while the capture, correction, and delivery

processes often change from show to show, this creatively in-sync pair love the challenge each film presents.

Their working relationship began with Muppets. While Bogdanowicz wasn’t involved in the pre-production process (crucial now with every project they do), their biggest challenge was representing the color of these iconic characters correctly in post. “It was a learning curve,” Burgess admits. “It was our first working experience and we had to figure out what happens with resolution – texture and cloth – when you are working with puppets. We also had to find the best way to make sure the audience was looking at the Muppets and not the person controlling them.”

Ask them each about their favorite pairings, and they’ll come up with different answers – 42 and Flight. But both agree on what was critical in each case was their preparation together. “By the time Don started shooting, we had talked things out so he would know what he could do on set and what we could do in post,” Bogdanowicz explains.

In the case of 42, with shooting being done on the RED camera, lenses, focal lengths, and filter testing were key to prep the period feature, which chronicled the early years of Jackie Robinson. Considerations included: could different lenses be matched if scenes were cut differently? What were the characteristics? What kind of diffusion and blooming could Burgess use that Bogdanowicz could recreate in post?

How would the color temperature of the light as they traveled across the South and California, shooting on different baseball fields, impact the cinematography?

“I shot test footage on a baseball field, and we talked about the level of saturation for each period feel,” Burgess recalls. “We wanted to bring a subtle feeling of each period in Jackie Robinson’s career. As he moved up through baseball history, the images would be less and less vintage and cleaner. And, once he put on the Dodger blue uniform – this iconic color image would reproduce as vibrant as we could make it.”

Pre-production coordination was crucial, because, as Bogdanowicz explains, “there was the possibility that scenes from one game [period] might be cut into another in post, and we wanted to make sure they would blend.”

Flight, as Burgess describes, is the story of a pilot who is an alcoholic, and how he deals with a plane malfunction in flight. “Eventually, he figures out how to fly upside down and land the plane,” Burgess relates. “Our challenge,” Bogdanowicz (cont'd on page 28)

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“When it comes down to it,” Burgess says, “our core process hasn’t changed. It’s still all about the shorthand we’ve developed together, and our collaboration in preproduction ­– even when we work remotely.”

adds, “was to take his tragedy and make it as real as possible, to put the audience in a seat of that airplane. The best way was to make it as natural as possible,” Burgess says. “The emotions of the characters had to be perfect.”

So did the “flight” effect.

“We did a lot of testing on the sound stage,” Burgess shares. “The effects of the rolling fuselage, the changes of cameras and lights. Testing which shots for which we would roll the cameras, where the cameras would move, where they were still. And when we would roll the set.

“Then there was the lighting aspect,” he continues. “How to take artificial light and make it real sunlight. What we would have to do in post to color-correct to make the sun look real.”

“We had to have every element planned, before day one,” says Bogdanowicz. “Like with The Christmas Chronicles, we had many elements – action, massive visual effect comps. All that had to be blended to make everything natural – and real.”

Speaking of The Christmas Chronicles, shot and posted last year, a lot had changed by then in the pair’s workflow. “It was made for Netflix, for television,” Burgess describes, “so we had two different deliveries.”

“The first Muppets was Rec.709 and P3, and we did the 2K theatrical first,” adds Bogdanowicz. “For Christmas, we had to do an HDR master color correction.”

“Each delivery responded differently to the colors,” Burgess continues. “Highlights.

Darkness. Not the same. We had to do an HDR digital negative that responded in both

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worlds. Corinne and I were so in sync by this project, we knew how far we could push everything in each direction and get back into the zone for both the large theatrical format and television.”

HDR had a significant effect on the film’s final look. “You can’t hide anything with HDR,” Bogdanowicz says, “and we were dealing with a great many VFX. We pulled mattes for every shot – and talked about how we would integrate the reindeer and elves. This was the project where we worked remotely. Once we got used to the Skype delay, Don would point out what bothered him, and I’d go in and present a change. It all worked out great.”

Sextuplets is another film that derived great benefit from the pair’s working shorthand.

“It’s one guy playing six characters,” Burgess explains. “We were shooting using a Techno Dolly where we would record something like 20 shots for a sequence – and redo those 20 shots six times. They had to be lit the same way and blended to make sure they felt like they were shot at the same time.

We also had to do major tests/shots up front, with different prosthetics, for each version of the character. Each make-up ended up with different light.”

“I would look at the shots on the big screen at Light Iron and be able to see potential problems,” Bogdanowicz recounts.

“The tests allowed us to develop distinct color shifts, start warm and go cold – and find a range of cold and desaturation.”

One added speed bump to the show:

“Corinne was very pregnant at the time,” Burgess smiles. “So during color timing, we kept asking her if she was okay. ‘I’m good until Friday,’ she told us. We got to a point where we were going to have an ambulance standing by. [Seriously.] On Friday, we did our last pass. And she had the baby on Saturday.”

New image pipelines include adjusting to Baselight so Bogdanowicz can prepare for three-color space deliveries. “But when it comes down to it,” Burgess says, “our core process hasn’t changed. It’s still all about the shorthand we’ve developed together, and our collaboration in pre-production –­ even when we work remotely. We’ve done enough together that Corinne knows what I am going after – and she’s always prepared. Today, we’re able to do more with the image – the ability to work in 4K, shooting in 8K and finishing in 4K is all about how to get where we want to go faster. But the overall aesthetic is the same.”

Conversations about upcoming projects include designing Santa’s Village for The Christmas Chronicles 2, directed by Chris Columbus. “We’ll tie in lots of locations and time periods all over the world on this one,” Burgess says. “It’s always a good thing to shoot footage and get into the DI bay to design the look before we start shooting.”

As of this writing, Burgess is on location, shooting test footage to bring back to Light Iron and Bogdanowicz. “Our collaboration has come a long way since that first Muppet movie,” he concludes. “And we’re both looking forward to using all the tools at our disposal to make this one of the most enjoyable holiday adventures of the season.”

OCTOBER 3–13 2019

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ICG MAGAZINE

EXPOSURE

Ronald D. Moore

BY KEVIN H. MARTIN PHOTO COURTESY OF APPLE

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Showrunner Ronald D. Moore’s writing career began with the sale of a spec script to Star Trek: The Next Generation. He was soon invited to join the writing staff, advancing through the ranks, and later cowriting the series’ acclaimed swan song, All Good Things, along with the first two Next Generation feature films. After joining Trek spinoff Deep Space Nine, Moore’s penchant for grittier storytelling channeled spy novelist John Le Carré in from the cold – of space – with Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges, which delved into the dark underbelly of the paradisiacal Federation in ways that hinted at what was to come with his reboot of Battlestar: Galactica, less than a decade later. The first season of that series earned a Peabody. In addition to delivering beyond expectations with space battle excitement, the BSG reboot dealt with hot-button real-world topics that seem even more relevant in retrospect, portraying subjects ranging from compromised chief executives to debating the ethics of torture.

After mounting a successful adaptation of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander novels for Sony and Starz!, Moore created the Apple TV+ streaming series For All Mankind, which postulates a world in which Russia beat America to the moon. Moore’s involvement in the series is all encompassing, as evidenced by Local 600 camera operator Tim Spencer’s obser vation. “ There’s nothing more interesting in the filmmaking process than when Ron comes in to explain how the backstory informs where we are going, and gives us a clear idea of what he hopes we’ll achieve,” Spencer says. “Ron has a genuine voice that always carries some message or context beyond plot, and getting to hear that helps keep me anchored to the story we’re telling.”

ICG: While alternate history stories have been around for a while – Philip K. Dick’s source novel for The Man in the High

Castle was published in 1962, for example ­– the idea of For All Mankind seems a fresh one. Ronald D. Moore: There are two parts to the origin. One, having grown up with the Apollo program, I was one of those kids who watched all the liftoffs and moonwalks, which led me to a lifelong love of science fiction, specifically Star Trek. As a kid, I assumed this enormous space program was going to expand into manned missions to Mars and exploring the solar system.

With a fundamental belief we were going much further than we actually did, I found it heartbreaking when the U.S. space program kept getting cut back.

And the other part? Zack Van Amburg used to be one of the co-presidents of Sony Television, and when he became one of the presidents of the new Apple service, I came in for a meeting and he mentioned how doing a show about NASA in the 1970s/Skylab era – which we’d discussed years earlier – was

one he still liked. But the story of NASA in that time was depressing, with budget cuts and ever-decreasing objectives. I suggested a show about the program we were promised but didn’t get – what if the space race had continued and we had gone boldly out into space? [A conversation between Moore and astronaut/consultant Garrett Reisman led to the notion of Russia beating America to the moon.]

NASA artists generated a lot of conceptual art in that time – seen in government brochures and Time Life coverage. Was any of that visual material, extrapolating the next steps in space, utilized as a basis for For All Mankind’s moonbase? We let ourselves be guided by the archival imagery and the facts of actual manned spaceflight.

To do an alternate-history piece about such a defining moment, I wanted the audience to really believe this is the way it could have happened. We told our costume, visualeffects and production-design teams that everything we did had to have a logical basis.

We wouldn’t let the Apollo spacecraft do things that weren’t possible, and we wouldn’t invent sci-fi kinds of vehicles. All of our departments did a ton of research, and we had consultants to vet our ideas and scripts, so there was tremendous attention to detail.

For cinematography, you chose a regular collaborator of yours, Stephen McNutt [ASC, CSC], plus Ross Berryman [ACS, ASC]. Why the mixing of veterans with new blood? When beginning a show, I think you must try to navigate through the waters using a combination of fresh perspectives along with reliable past collaborators. Writers David Weddle and Bradley Thompson are associates going back to Deep Space Nine and Galactica, while Naren Shankar dates back to The Next Generation – all the way back before that to college. Production designer Dan Bishop worked with me on Carnivàle, and [executive producer] Maril Davis and I have been in partnership for many years. Stephen has shot other projects for me since Galactica [Outlander, Helix, and Caprica], While Ross, and visual effects supervisor Jay Redd – who comes from feature films – were very solid new contributors.

VFX technology has come a long way since you started on Trek. Have CGI options increased the visual possibilities for storytelling? Actually we took the approach of deliberately being less cinematic – not that it wouldn’t look beautiful, but in the main, we

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“You try to instill a culture or atmosphere that results in better work because people are being acknowledged for their contributions.”

wanted authenticity. We limited our in-space cameras to perspectives and visuals that were familiar. In film and stills of vehicles in space from that era, the stars don’t actually photograph. So I decided we wouldn’t show starfields, either. We wouldn’t actively avoid a gorgeous shot, but it wouldn’t ever happen at the expense of credibility, which was an approach Jay liked. By keeping to real-world scales and speeds, and shooting scenes from hull-mounted cameras, plus not having sound in space – which is an approach people talk about but almost never wind up doing – it let us go much further toward reality.

When you first stepped up from staff to showrunning, were there any particular lessons you took from DS9’s Ira Steven Behr and TNG’s Michael Piller? I definitely took cues from both Ira and Michael, right from when I first got my feet wet showrunning the last season-and-a-half of Roswell. After spending ten years at Trek, my biggest takeaway from Ira was that the showrunner is first among equals. Making everybody kowtow to your vision is not the way you pull the best idea – which should always win – out of the room. You need to encourage an atmosphere that encourages people to fight for things, so that everybody works together to make the best possible show each week. Every series has its DNA, and you have to work hard as showrunner to sustain that. I was on Carnivàle for Season One, and that was difficult. The writers didn’t like each other, with breaking the stories so acrimonious that I had to talk to writers individually to get them to play nice. It wasn’t fun, and I told myself to never let things go down that way again. So I’m very careful to maintain cohesion there, and for the show

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at large. Every series takes its cues from the person at the top, so the way you behave and interact with people carries in all directions.

I’m not on the set often, but when I am, people do notice how I conduct myself with cast and crew and the directors. You try to instill a culture or atmosphere that results in better work because people are being acknowledged for their contributions.

What was your collaboration like with the crew when visiting the set? [Laughs.] I tried to stay out of the way as much as possible – I don’t really have a job on the set and don’t want people feeling like I’m looking over their shoulder. That said, I always try to answer questions about what we’re doing and why. I also wanted them to know their efforts were appreciated and that all the hard work was paying off, that the show we were creating was special and that they’d be proud of it in the end. I felt very good that we didn’t have any major issues in the production pipeline. At the very end, when I look at the shows, if I may be so bold, I don’t see a bad one in the bunch. We have a very high batting average for the season, and our team is the reason why.

What was it like to make a show for the world’s most influential tech company, and a streaming series at that, which you had never done? When you’re doing 20 or more shows, that’s a real marathon, and it is hard to maintain quality. Inevitably, there are some episodes you are too exhausted to really fix properly. When you’re doing 13, you can spend your energy on all of them. As for working with Apple, it was still the same job. Making a TV show hasn’t changed much, and I was still dealing with the same day-

to-day problems and challenges. I knew the stakes were high for Apple, but I tried not to think about that and just do the job.

Are there any ideas or visuals that were planned for Season One that didn’t wind up happening? I don’t think there was anything we had to hold back on or save for Season Two. If there’s another season, we’ll be moving forward in time, out of the 1970s.

In terms of resources, we got everything we needed from Apple. It was developed from the very top, so all the support was there. Like any show, there were budget compromises and the context of not having unlimited time, but that’s just the business.

In terms of your past work, have you revisited any favorite Trek or Galactica episodes? I sometimes pop in BSG’s 33 to watch as a standalone. Funny you should mention that. My daughter just turned eighteen and asked to see Galactica for the first time. This last weekend we watched the miniseries and [the first episode] 33. I was kind of bracing myself for disappointment – I don’t rewatch the material very often – but I was very touched and impressed with how good the shows were. The cast was unbelievable, and the visual effects were successful, so it was very satisfying. It felt kind of timeless, so I don’t think the show will date in a bad way.

Going forward, will it be more television?

I recall you were involved in the story for Mission: Impossible 2 and a feature script that fell into development hell for Freddy vs. Jason. The feature business is so constricted. I have no problem with the big tentpole films and superhero movies, outside of how they have squeezed out everything except small art-house stuff. It takes forever to get anything greenlit, so the process becomes exhausting before you even get started. In television, they say “yes” or “no” and off you go to make it or work on something else. I still read scripts and look at cuts of Outlander but have handed off day-today showrunning to Dan Roberts. I’ll probably continue in that capacity. And we’re talking about the possibilities for a second season of For All Mankind. So it isn’t that I wouldn’t try doing another feature, but my passion is definitely to keep doing television.

Pipe

Masters HERE’S WHAT LOCAL 600 DIGITAL IMAGING TECHNICIANS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT MANAGING ON-SET IMAGE PIPELINES ON PROJECTS ACROSS THE U.S. B Y PA U L I N E R O G E R S P HO T O S C O U RT ESY O F T H E D IT'S U N L E S S O T HE RWISE NO T E D

PHOTO OF TIFFANY ARMOUR-TEJADA BY ALI GOLDSTEIN

Local 600 digital imaging technicians are crucial partners in any image pipeline. Yet, what they do, how they do it, and what they use can seem shrouded in mystery for many of their production partners. For this workflow-centric issue, ICG Magazine reached out to DIT’s from all the Guild’s regions. We wanted to hear honest answers about what they use to further creativity in their craft, and how they see their position impacting a dynamic and everchanging industry. The response was… phenomenal, to say the least.

“As a DIT you have to be fast, adaptive, and mobile. I like to have all the necessary tools on my on-set cart, so I can make instant adjustments before shooting.”

NATALIE CARR WESTERN REGION

“It may seem pretty basic, but I always carry lightweight baby stands, Cardellini clamps, and my own stinger. I am ready sooner if I don’t have to ask grip or electric for this stuff.”

NATE BORCK CENTRAL REGION

PHOTO BY PATTI PERRET

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“THE REFERENCE VIDEO AND STILLS I PULL WHILE CAMERAS ARE ROLLING ALLOW ME AND MY DP TO REVIEW OUR WORK IMMEDIATELY, THE NEXT DAY, THE WEEK FOLLOWING, AND ON THE LAST DAY OF PRODUCTION.” SHANNON COOK CENTRAL REGION

“The one tool I’ve found I can’t live without is the AJA IO 4K. It allows me to take hundreds of stills (in Livegrade) with the press of a button for up to three cameras. I am also able to push any of these stills back out to my monitors for my DP to reference accurately for lighting.”

CHASE ABRAMS WESTERN REGION

“Most of my jobs are multiple camera, and my Leader 5381 is a tool I rely on. I can monitor up to four SDI signals simultaneously and make different waveforms easier to see by using a different waveform color for each input channel.”

TIFFANY ARMOUR-TEJADA EASTERN REGION

“There are very few projects that are not digitized in some manner for the post-process. This makes workflow an important part but is often overlooked because production and post-production budgets are two separate items.

The traditional fix in the post mindset can be extremely costly.”

LYNDEL CROSLEY WESTERN REGION

“ON E OF THE M OS T UN DER STA TED R OLES OF A DIT IS CR EA TIN G EFFICIEN C Y FR OM P R ODUCTIO N THR OUGH P OSTP R ODUCTION . BEIN G ON SET DUR IN G P R ODUCTION , TH E DIT CA N HELP KEE P CON SISTEN CY IN BOTH COLOR A N D EXP OSUR E FR OM SETUP TO SETUP . ” JAIME CHAPIN EASTERN REGION

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MICHELE DE LORIMIER WESTERN REGION

THE LOUISIANA SET OF THE OSCAR-NOMINATED INDIE FEATURE, MUDBOUND , COURTESY OF DIT NATE BORCK / NETFLIX

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PHOTO BY FRANCOIS DUHAMEL, SMPSP

“People need to understand that, for features and TV, there is usually a loader on the job handling the footage and a post house or DIT off-site handling the deliverables.

With commercials, the DIT is doing all of this, often without help.”

“DITS HA VE TO BE CA LM , P R ECISE, A ND VER SA TILE. IT’ S CR ITICA L TO FIN D A N A R EA WHER E WE CA N A SSESS THE WO R K WITHOUT A N Y DISTR A CTION S.” JOSHUA GOLLISH WESTERN REGION

“For many TV shows, the DP will be unable to attend final color correction, so the only notes that they can give is what’s being done on set. A DIT allows the DP to get their vision across far more succinctly than typed up notes from a viewing on PIX/DAX. Add in the extra set of eyes, monitoring focus and exposure – especially in HDR and on multi-camera location-heavy shows – and I wonder how any project can justify not having a DIT.” NICK HILTGEN CENTRAL REGION

“La te l y , I hav e f o u n d my se l f t ro ub les h o o t i ng t h e RF env i ro nment fo r t h e ent i re s et . My p r i o r i ty i s to e n su r e a s t a b le feed fro m t h e c a mera a nd reli a b le c o nt ro l of o the r an c i l l ar y d e v i c e s r e l a t ed t o t h e c a mera . To a c h i ev e t h i s , I h a v e t o w o rk clo s e l y wi th o the r d e p ar tment s t o pla n w h i c h c h a nnels w e us e, a nt enna t y pes a n d i d e n ti f y an y o the r thi n gs w e c a n do t o i mpro v e t h e RF env i ro nment , li ke rem o v i n g u n n e e d e d d e v i c e s, t urni ng do w n t h e t ra ns mi s s i o n po w er, et c et era . ” KEVIN ZANIT WESTERN REGION

DIT MANINDER SAINI ON THE SET OF GEMINI MAN [DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY DION BEBEE, ASC, ACS] PHOTO COURTESY OF MANINDER SAINI

“BEING A DIT IS A BALANCE OF DEMANDS, FIRST IN MAKING SURE THE TECHNICAL ASPECTS HAVE ALL BEEN THOUGHT THROUGH AND SET UP PROPERLY; AND, SECONDLY, TO MAKE SURE ALL THE NECESSARY QUESTIONS HAVE BEEN ASKED AND ANSWERED DURING PREPRODUCTION SO THAT THE ACQUISITION MEDIA IS RECORDED PROPERLY FOR POST.” MANINDER “INDY” SAINI WESTERN REGION

“C O N T R A C T ING SCHE DULE S A RE IN C R E A S I NG PRE SSURE ON C R E W S T O MAKE TH E IR D A Y S . AS W E MOVE FO R W A R D , OUR GROW ING TO O L S E T W ILL PROVIDE M OR E IN N OV AT IVE W AYS TO C A P T UR E CONT E NT .

H O W E V E R , THIS COME S W IT H T H E I NCRE ASE D R E S P ON S I B ILIT Y OF S T A N D IN G F I RM ON SAFE H OUR S A N D W ORKING C O N D IT IONS. ” SAM MCCONVILLE WESTERN REGION

DIT JOSHUA GOLLISH (BACK) WITH ROGER DEAKINS, ASC, BSC, ON THE SET OF UNBROKEN . PHOTO BY DAVID JAMES

“THE HARDEST PART ABOUT BEING A DIT IS THAT ONE PERCENT OF THE TIME WHEN YOUR EQUIPMENT MALFUNCTIONS OR ISN’T WORKING QUITE RIGHT. IT IS IN THOSE MOMENTS THAT YOUR KNOWLEDGE BECOMES YOUR MOST IMPORTANT ASSET. IT’S ESSENTIAL TO KNOW HOW THE IMAGE YOU SEE IN PERSON TRANSLATES ONTO THE SCREEN. IF YOU DON’T HAVE A BASIC UNDERSTANDING OF COLOR THEORY, THEN IT’S VERY DIFFICULT TO COME UP WITH SOLUTIONS TO HELP CREATE A BETTER PRODUCT.” CHLOE WALKER EASTERN REGION

“The Oscium WiPry 2500x is an essential tool for me. It can transform your smartphone or tablet into a dual-band spectrum analyzer.

With location-based shoots, it’s essential to know your operating environment – with 4G, LTE and soon 5G devices all competing for limited space in an already crowded 2-5GHz spectrum, it is an important aspect that often gets overlooked.”

JEFFREY HAGERMAN EASTERN REGION

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“My 3D printer lets me make things quickly in custom colors and configurations. I have designed and printed various device brackets, battery terminal covers, control panel buttons, and lens controller rings. I am constantly looking for areas to improve the on-set workflow, with the 3D printer being my tool of choice.”

SAM PETROV WESTERN REGION

“I USE AN AMPLIFI MESH NETWORK TO EXPAND MY NETWORK. THE MESH POINTS ALLOW ME TO TRIANGULATE THE NETWORK AROUND THE SET AND KEEP CONSTANT COMMUNICATION WITH MY LUT BOXES AND THE CAMERAS THEMSELVES. THE COMPANION APP ALLOWS FOR PRIORITIZING OF DEVICES AND SIGNAL STRENGTH MONITORING.” RYLAND JONES WESTERN REGION DIT RYLAND JONES SUPPORTING DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY JAMES LAXTON, ASC, ON THE GEORGIA SET OF AMAZON STUDIO'S THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD / PHOTO BY KYLE KAPLAN

“ T H E MO S T I MPORTA NT THI NG FOR M E A S A D I T I S T O W O R K W I TH THE DP A ND A LLOW H I M/ H E R T O N O T HA V E TO DEA L W I TH THE T E C H N I C AL SI DE OF W ORKFLOW .”

JONNY REVOLT CENTRAL REGION

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LAWRENCE SHER, ASC, RETEAMS WITH THE HANGOVER’S TODD PHILLIPS ON AN ORIGIN TALE FOR DC COMICS’ MOST POPULAR VILLAIN. B Y K E V I N H. MA RT IN P H O T O S BY N IK O TAV ER NISE / WARNER BROS .

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While Batman’s origins are better known to some fans than their own genealogies, the beginnings of his greatest nemesis, The Joker, remain tantalizingly ill defined in both comics and film. Batman co-creator Bob Kane claimed the arch-villain’s appearance was inspired by actor Conrad Veidt in a silent film; but in terms of backstory, it wasn’t until Alan Moore’s graphic novel The Killing Joke was published that readers got a possible accounting – one disputed by the character himself – suggesting a failed comedian who turns to crime and then becomes disfigured.

Co-screenwriter/director Todd Phillips began developing Joker in 2016, with Warner Bros. intending it to be the first in a series existing separately from the DC Extended Universe. “I liked the idea of telling this story of Arthur Fleck [Joaquin Phoenix] and what he becomes while trying to capture the look, feel and tone of a character study from the 1970s,” Phillips states. “I knew we’d be relying heavily on the performances, and with Joaquin agreeing to take the part, we had one of the true greats. I also knew I wanted Larry Sher [ASC] to shoot it. This is my sixth movie with Larry, and in my opinion, he is one of the great DP’s. I always tell him that if he changed his name to Lorenzo, he’d probably get even more respect.”

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her, who was challenged by the idea of tackling the origin story without treating it like comic-book material, says Phillips wanted the look to be old-school and gritty. “The superhero film is the most ubiquitous genre over the last decade, what with the resurgence of Marvel and DC,” Sher describes. “But we came at it sideways, from the idea of exploring a villain in a serious way. It doesn’t rely on the usual comic-book movie things, like endless fistfights. It does contain some action, but the big difference is how it’s loaded with tension. There’s a slow-building arc, like a pot boiling, with small bubbles growing larger.

“We like dark characters, even in comedies like The Hangover films,” Sher continues. “War Dogs and Due Date were both explorations of human nature as well as comedic. Our philosophy throughout is not to fall victim to doing things in a way that is what you’re supposed to do. Just because it is a comedy doesn’t mean you light it differently. If the scene’s energy is dark, then you let that guide you rather than putting in a lot of fill because that is the old expectation.”

Of course, expectations for Joker are almost limitless, given the many different screen characterizations, which range from Cesar Romero’s TV baddie to Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning turn. “Without even counting animated versions, there have been something like seven incarnations of this character on film,” Sher notes, “with Jared Leto’s version something apart from Heath’s, and both of them from Nicholson’s. Part of that difference comes out of the makeup, which involved all of us, especially with Joaquin’s input. Todd said that Joaquin is our greatest special effect, and he dazzles in a way that means you don’t need people flying around in capes.”

Phillips and co-writer Scott Silver had described the Joker in their screenplay, but that was just the start of his visual development. “Our great concept artist Hugh Sicotte took the first shot at illustrating concepts for the character,” the director describes. “I presented those to Joaquin, and he weighed in with his thoughts and ideas. From there we went to makeup [designer/department head] Nikki Ledermann, and she started applying makeup to him as we started camera tests. We’d see that one shade of blue read too deep and that another blue had a nice handmade feel and texture – that’s a great example of the

LAWRENCE SHER, ASC

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JOAQUIN PHOENIX AND WRITER/DIRECTOR TODD PHILLIPS. SHER SAYS PHILLIPS DESCRIBES PHOENIX AS "OUR GREATEST SPECIAL EFFECT," WHO DAZZLES IN A WAY "THAT MEANS YOU DON'T NEED PEOPLE FLYING AROUND IN CAPES." IMAGE PIPELINES

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“ N E W Y O R K [ I N T H AT E R A ] W A S A B R O K E N - D O W N C I T Y, A N D W E W A N T E D A L O W - K E Y A N D N AT U R A L I S T I C L O O K , NOT LETTING THINGS POP TILL WE GET TO ARTHUR B E C O M I N G J O K E R .”

Director Todd Phillips

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ACCORDING TO SHER, “LENS PROXIMITY” (WHICH RANGED FROM CANON, ZEISS, NIKKOR AND LEICA-R SERIES) WAS A BIG PART OF THE CREATIVE DISCUSSION, AND "FIGURING OUT HOW BEST TO PUT THE CHARACTER'S PSYCHOLOGY UP FRONT."

collaboration that goes into every movie, even when they don’t involve such a level of experimentation. People were really into and loved the idea of what we were trying to do.” [Michael Mario’s Prosthetic Renaissance executed the final character makeups.]

How best to visually enhance the dramatic tension was a prime concern of the filmmakers. “Based on what Todd and I discussed, portraying moments of intimacy in a way that makes the character more engaging was key,” Sher recalls. “We played up the dichotomies – there are times when we are some ways off from [the Joker] and he’s very small, which are contrasted with shots where the camera is only a couple feet away. Lens proximity was a big part of the discussion, figuring out how to best put the character’s psychology up front.”

This led to a lengthy testing period, during which shooting on film in 65mm was seriously considered. Sher and Phillips thought a 1.85 aspect ratio felt right, and planned for 35mm “well into the eleventh hour, when we decided a larger format would let us isolate our lead even further from his environment, owing to the lesser depth of field,” the cinematographer explains.

Having recently shot Godzilla on ARRI 65, Sher could show Phillips the benefits to shooting Joker digitally. “Joaquin’s

performance was going to come out in some situations where one take would be all we’d get,” Sher recalls. “So shooting large-format in low light, pretty much wide-open on these lenses, we needed to know if we nailed it, and not have to wait a day for film to come back from L.A. – if there were technical issues with focus. With [the ARRI 65] a 40mm or 60mm can give you a medium-lens feel, but still show the field of view of a wider lens, conveying the psychological feeling of being closer to the actor. While the latent ARRI 65 sensor is in 2.20 aspect ratio, we were still able to keep our 1.85 within that, using a five percent top and bottom blowup. 1.85 translates to something like a 5K or 5.4K image, and from there we finished in 4K.” ARRI Rental supplied a camera package that included a pair of ARRI 65s, plus an ARRI LF and ARRI Mini. Sher used a variety of lenses, which he describes as a “Frankenstein” version of a lens set. As A-Camera 1st AC Greg Irwin, describes: “In addition to the DNA and Prime 65 glass, Larry wanted to explore 35mm lenses for their size, weight, minimum focus and lens speed. They would never fully cover the sensor, but our five-percent extraction was enough to give us a fighting chance to minimize vignetting. It took us a month to

go through a couple of hundred lenses and find our set. We found which lenses had to be rebuilt from the inside by opening up the iris blades or changing the rear element.

We manipulated the lenses mechanically, detuning them to match in contrast and color, and also changed coatings. We had a large mix, ranging from Canon to Zeiss, Nikkor and Leica R-series.”

Sher met with Company 3 colorist Jill Bogdanowicz to consult on a show LUT. “Jill’s father, Mitch, had worked in Rochester at Kodak for decades,” Sher reveals, “and he came on to help create a look based on Kodak’s [EXR 200T] 5293.

Taking this emulation to the nth degree meant mapping 5293 into the ARRI 65 log profile. We used it throughout, putting it into the DI station so dailies just transferred straight across.”

While Phoenix would often deliver welcome surprises, Phillips stresses that the other elements of filmmaking had to be precisely worked out beforehand. “You want the movie to feel organic, but that requires every point to be evaluated at length during prep,” he emphasizes. “Larry and our producers put together a kind of ‘murderer’s row’ of New York crew people, including Gaffer Steve Ramsey and Key Grip Tommy Prate, so that helped guarantee there would be no bad surprises. That’s not to say we are

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MORE THAN ANY OTHER ACTOR A-CAMERA OPERATOR GEOFF HALEY, SOC, HAS WORKED WITH “PHOENIX GOES WHERE THE MOMENT TAKES HIM. IT’S THRILLING TO WITNESS,” HALEY DESCRIBES. “BUT ALSO A BIT UNNERVING BECAUSE EVERY TAKE IS UNIQUE.”

one of those films where everything gets a previs and then you go out and shoot that previs; but we left our surprises in the hands of the actors, after having prepped all the looks we wanted the film to have.”

Finding New York City locations from the late 1970s/early ’80s was also a major challenge. The New Jersey–born Sher recounts vivid memories of the era, “where the subways were littered with graffiti, and Times Square certainly didn’t look like it does today,” he smiles.

“Production Designer Mark Friedberg kind of went berserk – in a great way – to bring an authenticity to our version of Gotham,” Phillips adds. “New York [in that era] was a broken-down city, and we wanted a low-key and naturalistic look, not letting things pop till we get to Arthur becoming Joker, which is when the movie takes a turn with both its look and its vibe.”

“So many things have changed,” Sher states. “Like streetlights being LED instead of sodium-vapor. We figured that some aspects that didn’t look period could be addressed either with the aid of the art department on ground-level changes and through subtle use of visual effects.”

Gaffer Ramsey notes that with the switch from sodium-vapor to LED for streetlights, another solution presented itself. “Whenever we found a night location,

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local city contractor Welsbach Electric would swap out the modern LED Cobra heads for period sodium-vapors that they’d held onto,” he explains. As for transforming LED units into period lighting, Ramsey says it took “a month’s lead time to order them in, but we got these dimmable, high-intensity LED lights from China called ‘corn lights.’

They needed only a bit of gel to stand in for sodium light once we installed them into a fixture. When we needed the impression of mercury vapor while shooting in an alley, the Art Department would find us fixtures to gut, inside of which we could then install RGBAW LED strips. When Larry wanted a very yellow color for the phone booth, we used RGBAW.” To enliven interiors, dimmer-board operator Rich Porta provided a fader wing that Sher kept at his monitor. “So when a TV was on in Arthur’s apartment, or there were flickering fluorescents in the hallway, we had direct control of up to 20 channels,” Ramsey adds. “It gave Larry options for intensity and rate of flicker without having to get into all the programming that goes into these effects.” The fader wing also morphed into a standard tool used for the duration of shooting. “It was a fast way to make last-minute adjustments for key light fixtures,” Ramsey continues. Other wireless lighting enhancements included Astera

PixelTubes for stairwells and Astera Light Drops AX3 that provided a TV effect when boxed in sets of eight units.

Sher says that if they could shoot without lighting it at all, they would.

“Not out of laziness, but as a choice,” he maintains. “Todd knows that if you take all day to control the light, spending hours setting up big silks to mimic a certain look, you’re setting yourself up for something with a very ‘movie’ feel. And we both have knee-jerk reactions to scenes that feel too perfect. Todd shot one scene with Arthur in a phone booth with just a sixteen-minute window. We rehearsed it the hour before the sun went down with a stand-in, and then just blew through it with six setups while the light was perfect.”

Instead of sweeping, operatic camera moves, Joker used a lighter touch.

“When we moved the camera, it was very subtle work,” Sher recalls. “I’ve worked a lot with [A-Camera operator] Geoff Haley, whose focus was on the ‘design shot,’ the ‘conservative’ shot, for lack of a better word, while B-Camera, which I operated, could be more daring.

“We didn’t use the cameras to just get tight and wide on the same take, but instead would get something way off-axis,” Sher

MOST OF NEW YORK CITY'S STREETLIGHTS HAVE BEEN UPDATED TO LED UNITS, SO AS GAFFER STEVE RAMSEY RECALLS, "WHENEVER WE FOUND A NIGHT LOCATION, CONTRACTOR WELSBACH ELECTRIC WOULD SWAP OUT THE MODERN LED COBRA HEADS FOR PERIOD IMAGE PIPELINES SODIUM-VAPORS THAT THEY’D HELD ONTO."

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“ T O D D K N O W S T H AT I F Y O U TA K E A L L D AY T O C O N T R O L T H E L I G H T, Y O U ’ R E S E T T I N G Y O U R S E L F UP FOR SOMETHING WITH A VERY ‘MOVIE’ FEEL. A N D W E B O T H H A V E K N E E -J E R K R E A C T I O N S T O S C E N E S T H AT F E E L T O O P E R F E C T.” Lawrence Sher, ASC

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continues. “I might be on a piece of dance floor or a piece of track, then slowly move the camera throughout in as imperceptible ways as possible. Sometimes we’d both be handheld, and I’d watch Geoff to see where he was going so he wouldn’t photograph me.

We’d do this little dance around Joaquin as he performed. Even when we sometimes wound up on opposite sides of the line, the stuff still cut together nicely.”

Haley says that more than any other actor he’s worked with, Phoenix goes where the moment takes him, with an almost reckless abandon. “It’s thrilling to witness, but also a bit unnerving, because every take is unique, and the pressure loomed large for Greg and me to capture it perfectly,” Haley shares. “Whether it was Joker’s impromptu apartment dance with his mother, or his unexpected pratfall in a bank lobby, this was a world with no rehearsals and constant improvisation. There was rarely a chance for a second bite at the apple.”

Irwin says that pulling focus via a monitor [a 13-inch unit with a Preston handset and Cinetape] helps him tell the story more effectively. “It opens my horizons,” the AC insists, “and is better than doing the math in my head with the old by-hand technical pulling. Joker benefitted from this, because we did unique things cinematically. I would make sure with take one Larry and Todd got exactly what they needed. That was important because Joaquin’s magic is right there and we had to be ready for anything. Take two, I would reach for something a little off-point if I saw it emerge, and Geoff, having worked with me for so many years, would pick up on that and start panning toward what I seized on.

I’d accommodate his inspirations on the fly, as well. Take three could be even crazier – sometimes these approaches wouldn’t work, but when there’s a possibility of magic happening, it’s worth the risk.”

While the bulky ARRI 65 can be challenging for fast-paced handheld or Steadicam work, Haley says he tried not to let its cumbersome nature impact their fleet-footed approach. “ Tight-spaced locations meant cramming ourselves into uncomfortable corners, and we rarely pulled apart sets even when we shot on stage,” he describes, “because the time saved not pulling a wall might afford an extra set-up at the end of the day.”

Sher concurs: “If you take thirty minutes to pull a wall, the actors go to their trailers, which can create drag. Compromising a little on the ‘perfect’ shot to wind up with something off-axis can work out better, especially with a unique film like Joker. Even on stage when [walls are] wild, nine times out of ten I don’t pull, because the integrity sometimes exists right there within those

four walls, under that ceiling. Plus I tend to light sets as fully three-dimensional spaces rather than for a particular shot, which lets me just jam through coverage.”

One major set featured a talk show hosted by Robert DeNiro’s character, where Sher notes, “we stayed true to period tech. We had a lighting consultant who had worked on The Tonight Show and knew the gear. In the wide shots, the lighting is visible, so you can see 5K and 2K Mole-Richardsons, plus old Zip and Cyc strips. Elsewhere in the film, when it was appropriate, I wound up using a lot of older tungsten, in addition to LED.” For years, cinematographers often bemoaned dealing with mixed-color lighting on location, but now that realistic look has become more desirable. “One of the beautiful things about films in the 1970s and 80s,” Sher continues, “was that cameras got light enough so you could get away from the perfectly controlled studio shoots and get out into those streets. You’d see cool-light and warm-light fluorescents playing together with daylight coming in the window – mixed-light scenarios tied into the idea I like that nothing is balanced and perfect.”

“If you look at Taxi Driver,” adds Ramsey, “you can see how [period] film stocks reacted to a mix of fluorescents. Today, it’s sometimes hard to even find fluorescent units – especially units that haven’t been cleaned up, with the bad CRI and major green spikes. Even Manhattan subway platforms have changed into something closer to true 3200 degrees. We were adding green to household and industrial fluorescents to get them back into that ugly range. We had traditional sodium wall pack-type fixtures that went on stands to sprinkle into backgrounds. We had blue metal-halide too; it added a bit of green, creating a nice mix of off-color sources.

Years spent struggling to correct the look, and now we’re struggling to make it look bad again!”

Haley, who says he’s spent the last three years shooting Marvel films, calls Joker a breath of fresh air. “There wasn’t a pre-vis, wire-rig, blue screen or mo-cap suit to be found, no fancy rigs or intricate oners; it was all fairly low-tech by modern blockbuster standards,” he concludes. “I loved shooting among the gritty chaotic streets and subways, helping tell this story of a well-meaning guy who spent his life being battered around by an abusive society.”

While Gotham was mostly visualized on New York locations, set extensions were used for embellishment. “Hugh drew all

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the VFX set extensions ahead of time, based on his ideas and input from Mark and me,” Phillips relates. “VFX Supervisor Edwin Rivera came up with lots of useful concepts while offering some brilliant solutions to problems we hadn’t even conceived.” [VFX work was split between Scanline and Shade.]

On Godzilla, Sher had tried to keep the film in a P3 colorspace through most of the pipeline – for Joker, he took it a step further.

“The monitors and dailies were all P3,” he recounts. “There was a Rec.709 version that Editorial could cut to, but everything I saw was P3, which for me was very important because there’s a translation going on when you view in a different colorspace.

It’s human nature to get used to how something looks during editing, and then get a shock when you go into final coloring.

By having P3 there all along, you can avoid this. I recognize the various issues with this approach, but I feel everybody needs to agree on a single colorspace.”

Phillips appreciated this, noting; “Larry always works his butt off getting the dailies to look the way we want them. And while Jill [Bogdanowicz] at Company 3 is certainly an additive factor in our process, we’re not relighting the look in DI. It’s more about subtlety, in terms of matching highlights and making sure everything integrates.” Bogdanowicz used Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve to fine-tune the 5293 emulation.

Sher, who says he’s “immensely happy” with the final grade, notes how the team was able to carry the Kodak 5293 feel straight through, embellished by the addition of 5293 LiveGrain. “Even when doing VFX reviews, I’d think, ‘That looks great without further tweaking,’ since they used that same LUT.” And while he’s yet to tackle the HDR version at press time, Sher feels strongly that the final product should look essentially the same.

“Whether the movie is viewed in 4K,

HDR or low-fi, it should not in one version appear enhanced, but as just another deliverable,” Sher concludes. “The hardest thing for any filmmaker is probably, after seeing his or her movie in the theater, catching it streaming or on Blu-ray and wondering why it suddenly seems so garish. What happened to the colorspace?”

Ultimately, John Quartel led Company 3’s Color Science department in designing “sister LUT’s” for different versions, including HDR for projection and Rec.709 for home video.

Reflecting on the project and its relationship to comic book and cinematic versions of the character, Phillips readily acknowledges that the title Joker provided leeway to take more chances.

"We're using the IP in a very different way than past adaptations," Phillips concludes. "And if we had called this movie Arthur, I don’t know that Warner Brothers would’ve been jumping through all the hoops we had them jump through to make it. It was a hard sell, but I have to say Warners was incredibly bold in letting us take this character and deconstruct him in such a way.”

LOCAL 600 CREW Director of Photography Lawrence Sher, ASC A-Camera Operator/Steadicam Geoff Haley, SOC A-Camera 1st AC Greg Irwin A-Camera 2nd AC Tony Coan B-Camera 1st AC Tim Metivier B-Camera 2nd AC Sarah May Guenther Loader Carrie Wills Utility Keith Anderson DIT Nick Kay Still Photographer Niko Tavernise Publicist Larry Kaplan

“THE MONITORS AND DAILIES WERE ALL P3, WHICH FOR ME W A S V E R Y I M P O R TA N T B E C A U S E T H E R E ’ S A T R A N S L AT I O N G O I N G O N W H E N Y O U V I E W I N A D I F F E R E N T C O L O R S P A C E .”

Lawrence Sher, ASC

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One Giant Leap FOR ALL MANKIND MARKS A HUGE SPLASHDOWN FOR APPLE’S NEW STREAMING SERVICE – AND A COMPELLING REIMAGINING OF WORLD HISTORY.

B Y K EVI N H. M ART I N P HO T O S C O U RT ES Y O F APPL E

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PHOTOS BY NICOLE WILDER

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While the history books are clear about how the United States beat the U.S.S.R. to the moon in 1969, there remains the little-known saga of Luna 15, an unmanned Soviet probe launched just ahead of NASA’s historic Apollo 11 journey. As Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were still down on the lunar surface, the Russian craft made its descent, intending to scoop NASA’s efforts by hauling back moon-dust to Earth ahead of the American crew. Instead, the probe crashed on the surface, just a few hundred miles away from Tranquility Base.

Showrunner Ronald D. Moore [Exposure, page 30] went well beyond this event in creating the new Apple TV+ streaming series For All Mankind, positing an alternate timeline where the Soviets succeed in landing a man on the Moon ahead of the Americans. That left turn in history leads to decades of an unabated space race, and the U.S. struggling to catch up – much like the dawn of the space age when Soviet satellites and cosmonauts were orbiting overhead long before their American counterparts blasted skyward.

Stephen McNutt, ASC, CSC, shared Director of Photography duties for Season One with Ross Berryman, ASC, ACS. McNutt, an Emmy nominee for Moore’s Battlestar Galactica reboot, recalls the creative team reviewing past space features, as well as NASA archival footage.

“I was a fan of Kodachrome, and at first we were leaning toward emulating that look,” McNutt recalls. “But we decided keeping things cool, more in the range of Ektachrome [EF 150], with its cyan feel, was the best way to go. Ross and I both remember the period and liked that tonal range, feeling it would provide a realistic and natural look.”

“The Right Stuff [shot by Caleb Deschanel, ASC] was a movie Stephen and I both thought got things just right,” Berryman adds. “It didn’t feel like a period piece, but more like you were there. So rather than affecting the image, we preferred to let the wardrobe and art department convey most of that period feel.”

Other key creatives for the series included Production Designer Dan Bishop and VFX Supervisor Jay Redd, a selfdescribed “space nerd.” Redd’s first question for Moore was whether the series should be photoreal. “Ron said, ‘Absolutely – 100 percent,’” Redd states. “That only increased my excitement, because I cared very much

about historical accuracy. I also suggested going for an analog feel – like the effects were shot through physical lenses, and not being afraid of natural flares or bounce light getting stuck between layers of glass.”

Redd says the approach throughout was exploratory, “often searching for the most dramatic way to show important technical aspects,” he relates. “That might mean going to ex-astronaut and consultant Garrett Reisman with a model in hand, asking if it was okay to rotate a ship much faster than would be done in reality. Hopefully, Garrett would concede that we could go a bit beyond without really breaking things too badly.”

McNutt notes that the series’ main camera system, the Sony VENICE, was a “game-changer,” owing to its extremely good latitude and ease of use for both assistants and technicians. First AC Stephen Pazanti, for example, appreciated the VENICE’s easy-to-navigate menu setup as well as the built-in eight-step ND filters.

For lenses, McNutt says he didn’t feel it was necessary to go all the way back to Baltars, “so we used Cooke S4's throughout,” he adds. (Otto Nemenz International supplied all cameras and lenses.)

Color science aside, the big revelation for McNutt and Berryman was the ISO 2500 setting on the VENICE. “The image is so amazingly clean that you only ever see a bit of noise on plain gray walls,” McNutt observes. “Ross and I realized there were lots of creative opportunities for us when playing the ambient light levels. The first time we went to 2500 was in a conference room. There were lights above, but we wanted it to be lit softly from the outside, to just hit the backdrop with a soft light, so that the light would naturally come from the window. We had muslin for a slight return bounce from the opposite wall. I couldn’t believe how great it looked. To the naked eye, however, it was like they were sitting in

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CINEMATOGRAPHERS MCNUTT AND BERRYMAN BOTH PRAISE PRODUCTION DESIGNER DAN BISHOP, WHO WAS ABLE TO RECREATE HOUSTON'S MISSION CONTROL DOWN TO THE NUTS AND BOLTS. " DAN DID ALL OF HIS IMPECCABLE ART DIRECTION DESIGNS TO THE SPECS OF THAT PERIOD," MCNUTT MARVELS. PHOTO BY JUSTIN LUBIN, SMPSP

the dark, and some of the actors were a little uneasy about that, but we felt it gave a nice texture to the whole scene.”

Berryman adds that the 2500 ISO setting was used for perhaps 75 percent of the show, such as low-light-level scenes in the Apollo command module and the lunar lander.”

DIT Mike DeGrazzio, who managed the image pipeline on set, relied on a pair of 25inch Flanders Scientific DM250 monitors, while Video Village employed 17-inch Sony units. “They were all calibrated by Sony’s 24P Dailies,” DeGrazzio recounts. “Phil Squires made sure our video and show LUT’s were in line, so what we viewed on-site matched the daily suites. I used Livegrade Pro to create the CDL’s, running the raw camera image through two Flanders BOX I/O’s to manipulate the log image. Co-producer Elicia Bessette deserves a lot of credit for tying production and postproduction efforts together so seamlessly.”

To avoid surprises in post, an onset HDR review was made possible via a 700-nit-capable Sony monitor. “That permitted rudimentary HDR onset viewing,”

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DeGrazzio continues. “It gave us an idea of how bright our highlights could be and what details could be extracted from shadows on the HDR feed. Colorfront provided us with the generator, inside a rack-mounted AJA FS HDR. We still favored the traditional look, but in some shots, like the lunar lander interior, we could utilize the HDR monitor to get an idea of how far we could go.”

McNutt elected to use smoke in all earthbound scenes. “Even though we liked the Ektachrome look, we weren’t dealing a reversal-stock look in terms of contrast,” he explains. “After researching the actual cigarette-smoke levels at Mission Control, we saw that when a door opened, clouds would pour out. So that justified our approach.”

Both cinematographers praised Bishop, who was able to recreate Houston’s Mission Control down to the nuts and bolts. “Dan wrote all of his impeccable art direction designs to the specs of that period,” McNutt marvels. “The consoles were authentic, but there was a huge hassle finding period monitors. The big screens used RP. It was a difficult set to work, so cranes were often the way to go.”

Lighting Mission Control was its own odyssey, where banks of lights were used to duplicate the look of the fluorescents in the real control room. “I told producer Steve Oster we needed all that in LED, with every single bulb on a separate circuit,” McNutt continues. “That let us light up what we needed and to reduce those lights as needed remotely, to give shape to the room. There was no other way to adjust these, since it would mean going in with a man-lift, and we didn’t have catwalks or green-beds – it all happened from down on the floor. I have used honeycombs in my lighting since Battlestar, usually powder coated black. They come from Texas, where they’re made for NASA and jet planes. KinoFlo uses a version of them now, and visually, they resemble snap-grids. When I showed them to Dan, he loved them and wanted them put in their raw silver form into the overhead panels, which gave us some needed directionality.”

The series, shot entirely in Southern California, benefited from historic Mar Vista retro locales. “The abandoned Boeing facility in Long Beach stood in for an Air

Force base and various NASA facilities,” Berryman states. “Hangars at Santa Monica Airport were useful after some substantial set dressing was done, and that was helpful with the realism, as opposed to settling for doing things green screen, which never quite gets you there.”

The hard-ceilinged location interiors complicated lighting, but even studio shoots, these days, can compromise setups.

“Today, whether we are on stage or location, I’m finding that more often than not, walls don’t move,” notes Camera Operator Mike McEveety, SOC, “and it becomes challenging to get the shot the director wants. Rather than laying dance floor and doing the shot on a dolly, being able to move and adjust, we compromise by putting the camera on sticks and a slider.”

Depending on scheduling, the main unit would sometimes split in two. “Our B-Camera crew would be the A-crew on the double-up unit,” A-Camera 1st AC Stephen Pazanti reports. “Then we would add two new B-Cams on each. I was fortunate to be able to put together a top-notch crew.

Second AC Jorge Pallares stepped up to the challenge of B camera 1st AC [early] in the season. He did an amazing job with the help of a truly professional B-Cam 2nd AC Arthur Zajac. Camera Utility Roberto Ruelas handled everything I threw at him through the season without a hitch.”

This all-hands-on-deck teamwork paid dividends when the crew began shooting the cramped capsule interiors, including the command module from last year’s First Man [ICG October 2018]. “We selectively beefed up the practical lights,” describes McNutt, “because it is difficult to shape the room since you can’t flag anything inside.”

“Steadicam Operator Tim Spencer was able to give us some great stuff inside the command module,” adds Berryman, “where there is no room at all, so you could only take off one or two panels and shoot what was left. It took some wrangling and headscratching to get the angles needed to tell the story.” Toward the end, McNutt notes, “we were able to remove a few more panels and began using the snorkel lens system [see below.]”

Pazanti says the Sony Rialto camera extension system, provided by Sony’s Dan Perry in beta form, was helpful in these scenes. “The Rialto is a tethered system that allows the image sensor block to detach from the camera body about 10 feet without loss of functionality,” Pazanti explains.

“This helped us get shots in tight quarters that wouldn’t fit the whole camera body.”

The Rialto came into play while production was still considering using a Frazier lens. “Then we found the Venice

MCNUTT SAYS HE AND BERRYMAN WERE LEANING TOWARD EMULATING A PERIOD KODACHROME LOOK. BUT WE DECIDED TO KEEP THINGS COOL, MORE IN THE RANGE OF EKTACHROME [EF150] WITH ITS CYAN FEEL," MCNUTT SHARES. PHOTO BY JUSTIN LUBIN, SMPSP "

has a kind of detachable retina,” Spencer acknowledges. “It can’t hold motors, so we had to jury-rig that. It was great to be able to take the lens off, but if there’s no way to put a motor on it, you can’t pull iris or focus.”

Extensive use was also made of the Century Precision MK2 snorkel lens system (also provided by Nemenz). “This was the most I had ever used a snorkel,” Pazanti admits. “At times we had two in use [simultaneously], with the cameras mounted on Technocranes [provided by Cranium Cranes] that helped get into the

small windows in the space modules and to attain a floating or zero-gravity look. Tim and Mike were very creative in their use of this tool.”

The higher ISO of the VENICE offset the four-stop loss linked to the snorkel, giving the AC’s a better shot with maintaining focus. “My SmallHD 1303 HDR focus monitor gives me excellent image clarity with 1500-nit brightness,” adds Pazanti, who pulled focus remotely with a Preston FIZ3.

“It has many settings available to assist with different aspects of lighting, such as peaking and backlight levels.”

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black so they wouldn’t show up,” Berryman recounts. “We were on a crane the whole time, which cut down on dealing with crew footprints, but even so, it only worked some of the time.”

In most instances, the visors were removed with post VFX replacing them and adding appropriate reflection imagery, which was often shot on a 6mm fisheye or created digitally. To give the impression of the moon’s one-sixth gravity, both actors and stunt performers were rigged with wiring to enable them to “bunny hop” over the terrain. Scenes not requiring dialog were shot at 32 frames per second.

For All Mankind serves up a lot of visual effects ­– from the Earth to the Moon – with both space vessels and aircraft. “It was a dictum from Ron Moore that we not be too flashy with camera movement when shooting green screen cockpit work,” Berryman shares. “The idea was to shoot like there was an actual rig mounted on a jet. He was very emphatic about that, which restricted us in a good way, with no 180-degree moves around the cockpit.

Locking things off made it seem more credible than flashy, which is important STEPHEN MCNUTT, ASC, CSC / PHOTO BY JUSTIN LUBIN, SMPSP when creating an alternate history.”

And while verisimilitude was essential for credibility, there were artistic and cinematic considerations at play with the VFX. “Space is pretty monochromatic,” Redd explains. “The moon is essentially black and white, with a few tone shifts. To make sure these images don’t come off like Unlike Apollo 13, shooting Zero-G scenes light the surface of the moon, Stephen had black-and-white photography, we expanded on NASA’s “vomit comet” aircraft was not wanted a backup in addition to his Softsun. the palette just a tiny bit, shifting the hues. an option, making old-school ingenuity the But when we got going there was only one, We let the color of sunlight play warmer, norm for all microgravity setups. Objects and of course, it burned out. We were close and used the foil on the LEM to play color. floated on monofilament wire among the enough to a replacement that we could race Depending on the scene objectives, we actors helped to complete the illusion. to get one instead of having to come up with might cheat in a bit of fill. When portraying Spencer notes that, “we had fantastic some partial solution to keep shooting.” night in space, you still have to be able to directors on every episode who brought a lot The lunar surface set was built on see something. The Earth could play as a big of good ideas. Sergio Mimica-Gezzan used Sony’s Stage 27, once home to The Wizard blue bounce card – Earthlight!” to be Spielberg’s First AD, and he had also of Oz. McNutt’s 100,000-watt SoftSun was To maintain the live-action feel, worked on Ron’s past shows. He came up placed in one corner of the set and raised via Redd had his CGI vendors create digital with the idea [during prep] of flipping the scissor lift to an appropriate height, creating versions of the physical filters employed capsule up ninety degrees and putting the a strong single-source key, used mainly to by Production. “There’s a very limited filter actors on parallelograms – a kind of teeter- backlight the actors in space suits. Key Grip selection,” he adds. “And we didn’t want our totter – while mounting the cameras at a Curt Griebel set up a giant black duvetyn space exterior stuff to feel or look different ninety-degree angle. They’d go on three-axis iris that could move side-to-side or close from what Ross and Stephen were doing. heads attached to cranes. At first, I didn’t and open up to focus the light and shadows. Plus, we rendered most all of our scenes quite understand the notion, but once the Rather than playing the light as a straight with a feeling of indirect diffuse light, like camera’s sense of up and down becomes white, it came through in the 3800-4300 the wonderful global illumination you get confused, you open up to the possibilities. Kelvin range, with both cinematographers from real surfaces. We used the photoreal We even began to order in more equipment using just the lightest touch of fill, if ray tracer renderer Arnold, as well as to take things further or to achieve a specific necessary, at the same color temperature.

RenderMan.” tough-to-get angle.

Reflections in the helmet visors of Rather than assigning vendors to “And being in L.A. was a godsend the astronauts proved problematic. “We specific episodes, Redd broke up the work because you can get anything within thirty surrounded most of the stage with blackout by type. or forty minutes,” Spencer continues. “To material and had the crew wrapped in “Pixomondo did most Earth scenes,

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LOCAL 600 CREW Directors of Photography Stephen McNutt, ASC, CSC Ross Berryman, ASC, ACS A-Camera Operator/Steadicam Tim Spencer A-Camera 1st AC Stephen Pazanti A-Camera 2nd AC Chris Sloan B-Camera Operator Mike McEveety B-Camera 1st AC Jorge Pallares B-Camera 2nd AC Arthur Zajac DIT Mike DeGrazzio Utility Roberto Ruelas Still Photographers Justin Lubin, SMPSP Nicole Wilder Publicist Linda Colangelo ROSS BERRYMAN, ASC, ACS (L) WITH DIRECTOR ALLEN COULTER / PHOTO BY TRAE PATTON

including Saturn V launches, while Method Studios handled space and lunar stuff,” he states. “We ran simulations to create variations in how the engine burns look, both in full gravity and Zero-G – most of what we did was create variations in color temperature and trajectory, based on fuel types and no atmosphere. How the engine burns on Earth looks very different in space. Lunar gravity was another area we tried with slightly higher and lesser gravity, to see if we can capture the beauty of the way [lunar dirt] regolith gets kicked up by boots or during liftoff.”

Boutique house Rogue One took care of wire-removals for Zero-G and one-sixth gravity, plus various monitor burn-ins. “We had dozens of TV’s and monitors displaying real footage plus created imagery, to help with the journalistic aspect that was key for Ron,” Redd continues. “Our imagery had to look period-appropriate, which meant going down some rabbit holes to figure out arcane bits about Westinghouse cameras from 1968, and seeing how the video channels broke up on the edges and

even what kinds of glass were used. Other factors included the frame rates and frame drops on imagery broadcast from the Moon.

We’re a 4K show, but Ron agreed it would be fun to break the image up, even on material we created, adding chromatic aberration to help match to the archival footage.”

McNutt weighed in on Sony’s L.A.-based grading effort remotely from Vancouver and admits there is still concern over the HDR version. “Those HD highlights can pop in a way that can let an artificial look rule things if you’re not careful,” he cautions.

“HDR is in its infancy and it might serve to take the viewer out of the fantasy.” McNutt has yet to view the final HDR version, so he says, “we’ll see.”

Redd’s concern during finishing focused more on compression issues.

“It’s tricky with macroblocking to figure out how the compression will play on various streaming services,” he acknowledges. “When we’re in space, with ships against endless black, I might art-direct a bit of sun halation into the frame. That creates a subtle gradient, but

in a compression scheme, it can turn into banding. We might put a bit of extra grain to cut into that; there’s something beautiful about the dithering with grain as it breaks up those gradients into something more palatable.”

In future seasons, McNutt hopes the series will show the advances in technology.

“Our moon-base reflects an industrial approach,” he concludes. “But as we progress, there may be more selfilluminated sets, as in other space movies.

Sunshine was one that had some stunning visual interiors, and that development will make things more visually interesting.”

Redd says they saw a lot of NASA art for rockets and equipment that never wound up getting built, “so future seasons might take inspiration from that,” he concludes.

“For this one, we all got to be kids again, playing with space toys, figuring out how a ship would turn when making translunar injection. I’m a huge fan of models and miniatures – they were a big reason I got into visual effects – so for me, it was Christmas every day.”

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Epic

O C TOBER 201 9 62 PHOTO COURTESY OF LUX MACHINA/LUCASFILM, LTD.

Images ON-SET COMPOSITING BRINGS VFX BACK TO THE SET, PROVIDING CINEMATOGRAPHERS WITH ADDED CONTROL AND FLEXIBILITY. B Y D EB RA K AU F M AN

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PHOTO FROM SIGGRAPH DEMO COURTESY OF EPIC GAMES

In a downtown Los Angeles studio during SIGGRAPH 2019, a man sat astride a motorcycle, on a set that was a landscape of dirt, rocks and boulders, against a spectacular sunset. The man was real, but everything else was digital – and the in-camera composited image was extraordinarily photorealistic. With Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4 as the enabling real-time technology, a group of companies collaborated to show off the future of onset compositing. “It was a coalition of the willing,” describes David Morin, head of Epic’s Los Angeles Lab. “We got together to show what’s possible.”

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF EPIC GAMES

Epic wanted to demonstrate version 4.23 of Unreal Engine, which, said Morin, is on a “very nimble, fast development” track, based on feedback from industry professionals. The other partners at that SIGGRAPH demonstration included ARRI, which provided the camera; Magnopus, whose VR Scout is a multi-user tool that lets the creatives “scout” a virtual location; Quixel, which specializes in development of photorealistic environments with highresolution scans and photogrammetry; Profile Studios, which provides camera tracking as a key to re-computing the image in real time as the camera moves; and Lux Machina, which connects the real and digital worlds with proprietary hardware and software tools. Epic Games’ Unreal Engine general manager Marc Petit reports that it has 13 OEM partners

in the broadcast space. “In the film space, people are building their own solutions with Unreal Engine as the platform,” he explains.

Virtual production – the ability to marry real and digital elements in camera and on set – isn’t new. Peter Jackson with The Lord of the Rings, Robert Zemeckis with The Polar Express, James Cameron with Avatar, and Steven Spielberg with A.I. Artificial Intelligence are all examples of tech-savvy directors who, early on, cobbled together solutions for on-set compositing. That whet the appetite of directors, cinematographers, and actors who liked the idea that they wouldn’t have to imagine what the visual effects or digital creature would look like in the scene. Cinematographers, in particular, could see the digital imagery married with physical elements on set, rather than in an

endlessly iterative process in post.

Local 600 Director of Photography David Stump, ASC, has used a variety of new onset compositing systems, including Ncam, Mo-Sys, and ARwall; he also co-developed a data-capture system to improve the “accuracy, efficiency and economy” of composited images (which received an AMPAS Technical Achievement Award with Kuper Systems’ Bill Tondreau and Lynx Robotics’ Alvah J. Miller and Paul Johnson). “To me, a big piece of the future of cinematography is cinematographers’ owning the hybridization of image generation,” Stump relates. “The thing I think nobody sees coming is mapping game-engine footage to panels of all sizes and shapes to create environments that you just couldn’t create any other way except CG as a post exercise.”

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The interest in compositing on-set grew when Nvidia’s GPU’s became more powerful, and Epic Games’ real-time game engine achieved new benchmarks. “There’s a transformation going on with real-time tools,” Morin explains. “We’re in the process of rewriting everything we wrote in the last 30 years – real time at 60 frames per second or more as opposed to hours per frame.”

In fact, companies now providing solutions for on-set compositing have been working for years – waiting for the technology to catch up with their goals.

Lightcraft Technology chief executive Eliot Mack founded his company in 2004 after he began to learn the traditional visual effects process. “The existing toolset was so difficult and frustrating that I decided to start a company to create a real-time device,” Mack says. Lightcraft’s firstgeneration tool, which debuted in 2006, was Previzion Virtual Studio System, which won a Primetime Emmy Engineering Award in 2013. Previzion, which was able to track hand-held camera motion in real-time and composite the shot in the camera’s eyepiece, was used in episodic TV, on shows like Pan Am, Once Upon a Time and V. John Simmons, ASC, worked with Lightcraft’s early system on Disney’s twotime Emmy-winning Pair of Kings. “We had a stage dedicated to Lightcraft, and it was pretty incredible to work with,” Simmons recalls. “I was able to light my sets to match the reality of the [digital] backplates. When the kids are on the beach, you see the shadow of the pier against the ocean that isn’t there.

I was able to create the same angle of light, so you believe it.” Simmons particularly liked the fact that he could adjust elements of the process. “Before, there would have been a VFX shot against green screen, and I would have possibly been locked into it – especially if I weren’t there the day they did the compositing. I’d just have to live with it. With Lightcraft, I could make a lot of

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF LUX MACHINA/LUCASFILM, LTD.

compositional adjustments on the fly.”

And the composited image was something Simmons could share with an actor on set. “It allows [actors] to feel the reality of what they’re doing,” he continues.

“An actor accidentally leaned against the green screen cyc, but it’s a castle wall in Lightcraft. When he puts his shadow against the cyc, it’s falling on a castle wall. All that is so amazing.”

Mack and his Lightcraft team soon realized that the Previzion technology wouldn’t scale. “We were using other peoples’ lens-data information, sensors and hardware, and it was too complex to operate,” he recounts. “We’re directing our tools toward the cinematographers on set, orienting the technology around the filmmakers.”

About five years ago, Mack says, he saw the latest generation of game engines and realized he’d found the answer. Lightcraft could build its own tracking and measuring hardware, with its own software for keying, and connect to Unreal Engine for the 3D rendering, creating an easier workflow.

Another technology advancement that has facilitated Lightcraft and similar systems is an improvement in camera sensors. “In the mid-2000s, you had a twothirds-inch electronic chip,” Mack relates.

“Today, the electronic CMOS 35-millimeter imagers can get fantastic images at a relatively lower cost. There is far less noise, and the Super 35-millimeter size looks and feels like motion-picture images,” he notes.

Lightcraft first built an HD version of Halide FX and is about to introduce its 4K version.

“People want to finish in 4K in real time, and HDR will probably end up being part of it,” Mack adds. He reports that, in France, Halide FX is being used to create finished shots live on air. “About half of the people use it as finished shots, as opposed to on-set composited shots,” he says.

One of those is Sam Nicholson, ASC, who is also chief executive/founder of Stargate Studios. Nicholson first used in-camera previs with Previzion for ABC TV’s Pan Am, so director Thomas Schlamme could see the composited images. Nicholson used the same system for The CW’s Beauty and the

“ IT PUTS THE POWER

IN THE HANDS OF THE CINEMATOGRAPHER. FOR ME, IT’S PLAYING AN INSTRUMENT AND HEARING THE MUSIC.” SAM NICHOLSON, ASC CHIEF EXECUTIVE/FOUNDER OF STARGATE STUDIOS

LIGHTCRAFT TECHNOLOGY AT WORK FOR A ROAD COMPOSITE FROM THE STARZ SERIES AMERICAN GODS , VFX SUPERVISOR DAVID STUMP, ASC AND FINAL COMPOSITING BY STARGATE STUDIOS' SAM NICHOLSON, ASC / PHOTOS COURTESY OF ELIOT MACK

Beast. “It puts the power in the hands of the cinematographer,” Nicholson insists. “For me, it’s playing an instrument and hearing the music. The cinematographer can control the lighting of the virtual environment.

With a green screen, it takes weeks, and cinematography is a real-time medium.”

Nicholson says an even bigger change has come with Nvidia providing GPU horsepower and Epic providing real-time rendering and ray-tracing, combined with LED walls or giant monitors. “Everything is finished pixels on set,” Nicholson adds.

And the virtual production workflow has enabled TV shows to ramp up the number of visual effects. For HBO’s upcoming series Run, Nicholson notes that they are doing 4,000 VFX shots over the next ten weeks in Toronto – an impossibility not too long ago.

Most of the action takes place on two train cars where Nicholson’s crew has placed a row of 4K Samsung QLED monitors, situated perpendicular to the crane. Run is shooting with four RED 8K cameras and four 8K Sony VENICE cameras, in 6K, and lighting with ARRI SkyPanels and L-series

LED lights that are tied to playback. Western Digital has provided G-Technology storage that can handle 200 terabytes of data every week, and, on set, they have four DaVinci Resolves and “all the sync cards from Blackmagic Design.” “The images look real, and we treat it as if we’re really on a train,” Nicholson describes. “That’s opposed to each VFX shot’s having a price tag.”

used on the 2013 Columbia Pictures feature White House Down. Hatch credits the movie’s co-producers/visual effects supervisor and producer Volker Engel and Mark Weigert for the White House VFX shots, with driving the use of Ncam.

“We had a virtual set of the entire White House and its grounds,” Hatch remembers. “[Director] Roland [Emmerich] could look through the lens and make framing, zoom and focus choices. I remember him Ncam Technologies is another system changing the shot because he knew what it that enables on-set compositing. Chief was going to look like. That was the moment executive Nic Hatch came out of visual I knew Ncam would be a great filmmaker’s effects, working for Film, Moving Picture tool.”

Company and Imageworks in Los Angeles.

Hatch notes that Ncam has focused on As he moved into a focus on previsualization, markerless camera tracking, with multiple he found it frustrating that, in production, optical and mechanical sensors that were the cinematographer couldn’t look through developed and manufactured in-house. the lens and see VFX in real-time. “They “The remit we set ourselves is to track would always end up fixing it in post- any camera, any lens, any rig, anywhere,” he production,” Hatch laments. adds. Ncam Reality 2019 brought additional Along with partners, Hatch founded support for the Extreme Camera Bar, which Ncam in London in 2012. (The company can track environments subject to dynamic now has a Santa Monica office.) The beta lighting changes. Lens profiling has also version of its Ncam Reality product was first been refined, and the number of supported

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video capture cards has expanded Hatch says that inserting VFX at the previz stage requires an Ncam trained representative to interface with the on-set camera team, i.e. “talking with the First AC to get the system rigged and install the reference monitor to visualize the previz assets,” Hatch adds. “The system is fairly plug-in-play, so there isn’t much required by the cinematographer to have it be successful. What it does do is provide [directors of photography] more creative control than they anticipated.”

Ncam has been used on Walt Disney Studios’ The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, Lucasfilm’s Solo: A Star Wars Story, Sony Pictures Television’s Outlander and HBO’s Game of Thrones, among other projects.

The technology is also used for live events including sports and Esports events,

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such as the 2019 NFL Super Bowl and the Fortnite World Cup events.

Proof that virtual production is a true market can be found at Lux Machina, a company that opened its doors to service the Walt Disney Pictures feature Tomorrowland in 2015. Lux Machina chief technology officer Phil Galler says the company started designing playback and display solutions “to bring the virtual world to reality.

“We’re a bit like a systems integrator,” Galler adds, “bringing together all the pieces to make a virtual production work.” Galler also is quick to note that Lux Machina works closely with cinematographers, i.e., Claudio Miranda, ASC, on Tomorrowland; Greig Fraser, ASC, ACS, on Rogue One and Bradford Young, ASC, on Solo; among others. The firm

also is heavily invested in R&D to provide custom solutions for virtual production as well as offer additional services, including playback and operations. Galler says it’s not just franchise features that use virtual production, as Lux Machina provides services for live broadcasts for the Oscars, Emmys, Golden Globes and other events.

“On every single project we’ve been on for in-camera visual effects, people think that they’ll see 25 to 50 percent of the shots that won’t need further work in post,” Galler concludes. “They’re willing to take the risk. Then they find out that 90 percent of the shots were successful on set.” With those odds, it’s no surprise that Simmons echoes the thoughts of many cinematographers in the industry when he states: “I can’t wait for the opportunity to use [virtual production] again.”

LEFT: NCAM'S ON-SET VFX TECHNOLOGY IN USE ON LUCASFILM'S SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY , SHOT BY BRADFORD YOUNG, ASC / PHOTO COURTESY OF WALT DISNEY PICTURES/NCAM

RIGHT: BEFORE AND AFTER FRAMEGRABS OF NCAM'S TECHNOLOGY IN USE ON THE NUTCRACKER AND THE FOUR REALMS , SHOT BY LINUS SANDGREN, ASC, FSF / FRAMEGRABS COURTESY OF WALT DISNEY PICTURES/NCAM

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PRODUCTION CREDITS COMPILED BY TERESA MUÑOZ – AS OF SEPTEMBER 1, 2019 The input of Local 600 members is of the utmost importance, and we rely on our membership as the prime (and often the only) source of information. In order for us to continue to provide this service, we ask that Guild members submitting information take note of the following requests: Please provide up-to-date and complete crew information (including that the deadline for the Production Credits is on the first of the preceding cover month (excluding weekends & holidays).

Submit your jobs online by visiting: www.icg600.com/MY600/Report-Your-Job Any questions regarding the Production Credits should be addressed to Teresa Muñoz at teresa@icgmagazine.com 70

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First Man / Photo by Daniel McFadden

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“SCHOOLED” SEASON 2 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: STEVE GAINER OPERATORS: JONATHAN GOLDFISHER, BEN GAMBLE ASSISTANTS: SHAREEN SALEH, JOSEPH CHEUNG, KYMM SWANK, GINA VICTORIA DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: MIKE BOSMAN DIGITAL LOADER: MIMI PHAN

BERKSHIRE OAKS “I CARE A LOT”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: DOUG EMMETT OPERATORS: JOSEPH LINDSAY, SCOTT LEBEDA ASSISTANTS: NOLAN BALL, DANIEL MASON, RICHELLE TOPPING, CHRIS MALENFANT LOADER: CHRIS BOYLSTON STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: SEACIA PAVAO

BIG BEACH TV PRODUCTIONS

“SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS” SEASON 2 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: ADAM BRICKER OPERATORS: CHLOE WEAVER, BEN VERHULST ASSISTANTS: CHARLIE PANIAN, TIFFANY NATHANSON, MARIELA FERRER, RYAN MONELLI STEADICAM OPERATOR: BEN VERHULST DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: TYLER GOECKNER-ZOELLER CAMERA UTILITY: ANDREW PAULING STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: MERIE WALLACE

“OZARK” SEASON 3

BONANZA PRODUCTIONS, INC. “SHAMELESS” SEASON 10

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: ANTHONY HARDWICK OPERATORS: CHRISTIAN HERRERA, CHRIS HOOD ASSISTANTS: RYO KINNO, DARBY NEWMAN, DAVID BERRYMAN, SAL ALVAREZ LOADER: MAYA MORGAN DIGITAL UTILITY: BROOKE MAGRATH STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: PAUL SARKIS

CALLING GRACE PROUCTIONS, LLC “I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JODY LIPES OPERATORS: SAM ELLISON, ERIN HENNING ASSISTANTS: AURELIA WINBORN, KALI RILEY, ELIZABETH HEDGES, ALISA COLLEY, KYLE PARSONS LOADERS: TONI SHEPPARD, ANJELA COVIAUX STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: ATSUSHI NISHIJIMA

CBS

“BULL” SEASON 4 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: DERICK UNDERSCHULTZ OPERATORS: BARNABY SHAPIRO, MALCOLM PURNELL ASSISTANTS: ROMAN LUKIW, SOREN NASH, MICHAEL LOBB, TREVOR WOLFSON DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: THOMAS WONG LOADERS: QUINN MURPHY, NIALANEY RODRIGUEZ

“CAROL’S SECOND ACT” SEASON 2 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: CHRIS LA FOUNTAINE OPERATORS: BRUCE REUTLINGER, KRIS CONDE, GEORGE LA FOUNTAINE, CHRIS WILCOX ASSISTANTS: JEFF ROTH, BRIAN LYNCH, CHRIS WORKMAN, JOHN WEISS, CRAIG LA FOUNTAINE CAMERA UTILITIES: CHRIS TODD, VICKI BECK DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: SHAUN WHEELER VIDEO CONTROLLER: ANDY DICKERMAN

“ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT” SEASON 39 LIGHTING DESIGNER: DARREN LANGER DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: KURT BRAUN OPERATORS: JAIMIE CANTRELL, JAMES B. PATRICK, ALLEN VOSS, ED SARTORI, HENRY ZINMAN, BOB CAMPI, RODNEY MCMAHON, ANTHONY SALERNO CAMERA UTILITY: TERRY AHERN VIDEO CONTROLLERS: MIKE DOYLE, PETER STENDAL

“EVIL” SEASON 1 DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: FRED MURPHY, TIM GUINNESS OPERATORS: AIKEN WEISS, KATE LAROSE ASSISTANTS: ROBERT BECCHIO, RENE CROUT, ALISA COLLEY, SANCHEEV RAVICHANDRAN DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: DAVE SATIN LOADERS: VINCE LARAWAY, KATE NAHVI, BRIANNA MORRISON

“MAN WITH A PLAN” SEASON 4 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: GARY BAUM, ASC OPERATORS: GLENN SHIMADA, TRAVERS HILL, LANCE BILLITZER, ED FINE ASSISTANTS: ADRIAN LICCIARDI, JEFF GOLDENBERG, ALEC ELIZONDO, CLINT PALMER, JASON HERRING UTILITIES: DANNY LORENZE, SEAN ASKINS DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: DEREK LANTZ VIDEO CONTROLLER: JOHN O’BRIEN

“NCIS” SEASON 17 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: WILLIAM WEBB, ASC OPERATORS: GREGORY PAUL COLLIER,

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CHAD ERICKSON, DOUG FROEBE (VIDEO) ASSISTANTS: JAMES TROOST, HELEN TADESSE, NATHAN LOPEZ, YUSEF EDMONDS LOADER: ANNA FERRARIE STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: MIKE KUBEISY

“NCIS: LOS ANGELES” SEASON 11 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: VICTOR HAMMER OPERATORS: TERENCE NIGHTINGALL, TIM BEAVERS ASSISTANTS: KEITH BANKS, RICHIE HUGHES, PETER CARONIA, JACQUELINE NIVENS STEADICAM OPERATORS: TERENCE NIGHTINGALL, TIM BEAVERS STEADICAM ASSISTANTS: KEITH BANKS, RICHIE HUGHES DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: JOHN MILLS DIGITAL UTILITY: TREVOR BEELER STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: RON JAFFE PUBLICIST: KATHLEEN TANJI

“ROYAL FLUSH” SEASON 1 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: PHILLIP LANYON OPERATORS: KENNY BROWN, STEVE MATZINGER, MARK LABONGE ASSISTANTS: JAMIE FELZ, CASEY MULDOON, JAMES BARELA, LUIS GOMEZ, DAVE EGERSTROM,

ERIC GUTHRIE, CARLOS LOPEZ-CALLEJA, NATT VINYUWONGE STEADICAM OPERATORS: KENNY BROWN, MARK LABONGE DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: MARC CLANCY DIGITAL LOADER: SAMAR KAUSS DIGITAL UTILITY: KYLE JACOBS

ASSISTANTS: JEFF ROTH, BRIAN LYNCH, CRAIG LA FOUNTAINE CAMERA UTILITIES: CHRIS TODD, VICKI BECK, TREVOR LA FOUNTAINE DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: RYNE NINER VIDEO CONTROLLER: ANDY DICKERMAN

B UNIT DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: CHRIS MABLY OPERATOR: MARK LABONGE ASSISTANT: NATT VINYUWONGE DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: SCOTT RESNICK DIGITAL UTILITY: STEPHEN LING

LIGHTING DIRECTOR: MARISA DAVIS PED OPERATORS: ART TAYLOR, MARK GONZALES, ED STAEBLER HAND HELD OPERATORS: RON BARNES, KEVIN MICHEL, JEFF JOHNSON JIB OPERATOR: RANDY GOMEZ HEAD UTILITY: CHARLES FERNANDEZ UTILITIES: MIKE BUSHNER, DOUG BAIN, DEAN FRIZZEL, BILL GREINER, JON ZUCCARO VIDEO CONTROLLER: RICHARD STROCK STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: RON JAFFE

“SEAL TEAM” SEASON 3 DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: J. MICHAEL MURO, ALAN JACOBY OPERATORS: DOMINIC BARTOLONE, MATT VALENTINE ASSISTANTS: TODD AVERY, ANDREW DEGNAN, ARTURO ROJAS, RYAN JACKSON STEADICAM OPERATOR: DOMINIC BARTOLONE STEADICAM ASSISTANT: TODD AVERY DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: RAUL RIVEROS LOADER: NOAH MURO

“THE NEIGHBORHOOD” SEASON 2

“THE TALK” SEASON 10

CMS PRODUCTIONS

“CHASING THE CURE” SEASON 1 DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: GUY MOSSMAN, DUSTIN PEARLMAN, SEBASTIAN SOKOLOWSKI ASSISTANTS: JAMIE STEPHENS, ANDREW BAXTER, JEN WHALEN

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: CHRIS LA FOUNTAINE OPERATORS: BRUCE RUETLINGER, KRIS CONDE, GEORGE LA FOUNTAINE, CHRIS WILCOX

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®

COOLER WATERS PRODUCTIONS, LLC “BETTY” SEASON 1

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JACKSON HUNT OPERATOR: ALLISON ANDERSON ASSISTANTS: BRYAN HEFFERNAN, MEGAERA STEPHENS, GREGORY PACE, GOVINDA ANGULO LOADER: JOSUE LOAYZA STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: ALISON ROSA

CRANETOWN MEDIA, LLC

“AWKWAFINA AKA NORA FROM QUEENS” SEASON 1 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: KATHRYN WESTERGAARD OPERATORS: KYLE WULLSCHLEGER, CHRIS ARAN ASSISTANTS: TIM TROTMAN, ZACK GRACE, CAROLYN PENDER, ALEXANDER DUBOIS LOADER: SEAN MCNAMARA STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: ZACH DILGARD

DC COMICS

“STARGIRL” SEASON 1 DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: SCOTT PECK, MIKE KARASICK OPERATORS: DEKE KEENER, RYAN WEISEN ASSISTANTS: ADAM CASTRO, JUSTIN COOLEY, BILLY MCCONNELL, CAITLIN TROST STEADICAM OPERATOR: DEKE KEENER STEADICAM ASSISTANT: ADAM CASTRO DIGITAL UTILITIES: BECCA BENNETT, KELLY HARLE DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: JONATHAN KLEPFER

JONATHAN ROBINSON STEADICAM OPERATOR: GRAYSON AUSTIN DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: BRIAN STEGEMAN STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: SKIP BOLEN

DUMMY 1, LLC

“DUMMY” SEASON 1 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: CATHERINE GOLDSCHMIDT OPERATORS: BRIAN FREESH, APRIL KELLEY ASSISTANTS: LAUREN PEELE, MINMIN TSAI, DAVID EDSALL, JASON ALEGRE STEADICAM OPERATOR: BRIAN FREESH DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: PETER BRUNET CAMERA UTILITY: JOHANNES KUZMICH STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: NICOLE WILDER

EDUVISION, LLC

“UNTITLED AMY HOGGART PROJECT” SEASON 1 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: RYAN SCAFURO OPERATOR: NADINE MARTINEZ ASSISTANTS: IAN BRACONE, ANTHONY DEROSE

ENDEMOL SHINE

“EXTREME MAKEOVER: HOME EDITION” SEASON 1 DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: ROB WHITAKER, JOHN IKENOUYE OPERATORS: KAKO OYARZUN, JASON FORD, JEREMIAH SMITH ASSISTANTS: DAVE KAPLAN, JUSTIN WITT, JERRY HUDGENS, BLAKE WADDELL, ELIE VERBLE JIB OPERATOR: CHRIS SCHULTZ JIB TECH: BRYCE BONN

DELTA BLUES PRODUCTIONS “QUEEN SUGAR” SEASON 4

DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: ANTONIO CALVACHE, KIRA KELLY OPERATORS: GRAYSON AUSTIN, ROB STENGER ASSISTANTS: TROY WAGNER, RY KAWANAKA,

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EYE PRODUCTIONS, INC.

“BLUE BLOODS” SEASON 10 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: GENE ENGELS OPERATORS: STEPHEN CONSENTINO, GEOFFREY FROST

ASSISTANTS: GRAHAM BURT, JACOB STAHLMAN, MARTIN PETERSON, KENNETH MARTELL DIGITAL IMAGING TECHS: RYAN HEIDE, STEVE CALALANG LOADERS: MICHAEL FULLER, JOHN KEELER STILL PHOTOGRAPHERS: CRAIG BLANKENHORN, PATRICK HARBRON

“MACGYVER” SEASON 4 DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MICHAEL MARTINEZ, CHRISTOPHER DUDDY OPERATORS: IAN FORSYTH, PAUL KRUMPER, GREG BALDI ASSISTANTS: AL COHEN, TREVOR RIOS, MICHAEL TORINO, STEFAN VINO-FIGUEROA, EASTON HARPER, TYLER BASTIANSON STEADICAM OPERATOR: IAN FORSYTH STEADICAM ASSISTANT: AL COHEN DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: GREG VANZYCK DIGITAL UTILITY: BRIAN FREDERICK

“MADAM SECRETARY” SEASON 6 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: LEARAN KAHANOV OPERATORS: JAMIE SILVERSTEIN, LISA SENE ASSISTANTS: HEATHER NORTON, DAMON LEMAY, HILARY BENAS, EMILY DEBLASI STEADICAM OPERATOR: PETER VIETRO-HANNUM DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: KEITH PUTNAM LOADERS: KRISTINA LALLY, RAUL MARTINEZ STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: SARAH SHATZ, MARK SCHAFER

FIVE PINTS HIGH, LLC

“FIVE POINTS” SEASON 2 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MOIRA MOREL ASSISTANTS: SYMON MINK, JORGE GOMEZ, NINA PORTILLO, SOPHIA BRUZA DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: EMILIO MEJIA

FLETCHER STREET, LLC “CONCRETE COWBOYS”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MINKA FARTHING-KOHL OPERATOR: DREW SARACCO ASSISTANTS: ANTHONY DEFRANCESCO, MICHAEL TOLAND, ADAM RUSSELL DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: ROBERT STRAIT LOADER: COLLIN WELCH STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: JESSICA KOURKOUNIS PUBLICIST: JACQUELINE BAZAN

FUQUA FILMS

“THE RESIDENT” SEASON 3

FX NETWORK

“IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA” SEASON 14 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JOHN TANZER OPERATORS: ADAM SKLENA, DAVE GASPERIK, DAVE HIRSCHMANN ASSISTANTS: GAVIN WYNN, ANGELICA GIANGREGORIO, NOAH BAGDONAS CAMERA UTILITY: JOHN GOODNER DIGITAL UTILITY: MICHAEL BAGDONAS STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: PATRICK MCELHENNEY

HOP SKIP AND JUMP PRODUCTIONS, INC.

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: BART TAU OPERATORS: MATT DOLL, ANDY FISHER, CHRISTIAN SATRAZEMIS ASSISTANTS: JUSTIN DEGUIRE, APRIL RUANE CROWLEY, JENNIFER RANKINE, TAYLOR CASE, MIKE FISHER, GRACE PRELLER CHAMBERS STEADICAM OPERATOR: MATT DOLL STEADICAM ASSISTANT: JUSTIN DEGUIRE LOADER: TREY VOLPE DIGITAL UTILITY: RYAN ST CLAIR

“GOOD TROUBLE” SEASON 2

2ND UNIT DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: ANDY FISHER STEADICAM OPERATOR: CHRISTIAN SATRAZEMIS

DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: PETER MENZIES, JR., ACS, ADAM SUSCHITZKY, BSC, CHRISTOPHER NORR OPERATORS: GEORGE BIANCHINI, BOB SCOTT

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MARCO FARGNOLI OPERATORS: NICK FRANCO, PATRICK ROUSSEAU ASSISTANTS: SETH KOTOK, JEFF SALDIN, DANNY GARDNER, ANDREEA CORNEL STEADICAM OPERATOR: NICK FRANCO DIGITAL UTILITY: AUBREY STEVENSON DIGITAL LOADER: RYAN POLACK

HORIZONTAL SCRIPTED

“THE RIGHT STUFF” SEASON 1

ASSISTANTS: MARY-MARGARET PORTER, OGI SAROVIC, DERRICK GUTIERREZ STEADICAM OPERATOR: GEORGE BIANCHINI DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: JASON BAUER LOADER: JAIME STRIBY DIGITAL UTILITY: JAKE SCHNEIDERMAN STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: GENE PAGE PUBLICIST: ERIN FELENTZER

JAY SQUARED

“BLINDSPOT” SEASON 5 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: ANDREW PRIESTLEY OPERATORS: PYARE FORTUNATO, PETER RAMOS, JOHN ROMER ASSISTANTS: ANDREW SMITH, ALEKSANDR ALLEN, CHRISTIAN BRIGHT, BRYANT BAILEY, DEBORAH FASTUCA DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: CHLOE WALKER LOADERS: DARNELL MCDONALD, ANDREW BOYD STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: PHIL CARUSO

“MANIFEST” SEASON 2 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: SARAH CAWLEY OPERATORS: CARLOS GUERRA, RYAN TOUSSIENG ASSISTANTS: ANDREW PECK, WESLEY HODGES, TRICIA MEARS, KAIH WONG LOADER: WILL FORTUNE

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LOADERS: CONNOR LYNCH, NKEM UMENYI STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: MICHAEL PARMELEE

“BLUFF CITY LAW” SEASON 1 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MIKE SPRAGG, BSC OPERATORS: MATTHEW PEARCE, BRENT SHREWSBURY ASSISTANTS: DAVID LEB, BETTY CHOW, MATTHEW CABINUM, JARRETT RAWLINGS STEADICAM OPERATOR: MATTHEW PEARCE LOADER: CONNOR KING DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: JACOB LAGUARDIA STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: KATHERINE BOMBOY

“THE QUEST AKA COMING 2 AMERICA” DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JODY WILLIAMS OPERATORS: BILLY O’DROBINAK, WILL ARNOT ASSISTANTS: BAIRD STEPTOE, SR., BAIRD STEPTOE, II, EMIL HAMPTON, BLAIR WINDERS STEADICAM OPERATOR: WILL ARNOT LOADER: NAJEE RAWLINS DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: STUART HIGGINS DIGITAL UTILITY: TOREY LENART STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: QUANTRELL COLBERT PUBLICIST: STACI R. COLLINS JACKSON

“WILL & GRACE” SEASON 11

MAIN GATE PRODUCTIONS, LLC “GOD FRIENDED ME” SEASON 2

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JON DELGADO OPERATORS: THOMAS SCHNAIDT, DANIEL HERSEY ASSISTANTS: BLACKFORD SHELTON, III, MARCOS RODRIGUEZ QUIJANO, BEHNOOD DADFAR, ALFONSO DIAZ DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: CHANDLER TUCKER LOADERS: ANGEL VASQUEZ, MIGUEL GONZALEZ STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: MICHAEL PARMELEE

MANHUNT PRODUCTIONS, INC.

“MANHUNT: LONE WOLF” SEASON 1 DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JOHN LINDLEY, ASC, ERIC MOYNIER OPERATORS: NICHOLAS DAVIDOFF, RICARDO SARMIENTO ASSISTANTS: BRADEN BELMONTE, ABNER MEDINA, BENEDICT BALDAUFF, JASON CIANELLA LOADER: BRIAN BRESNEHAN DIGITAL UTILITY: KIMBERLY HERMAN STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: LEWIS JACOBS

NBC

“ALMOST FAMILY” SEASON 1 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: TIM BELLEN OPERATORS: ARTHUR AFRICANO, JONATHAN BECK, CAITLIN MACHAK ASSISTANTS: ALEX BELLEN, JOSEPH METZGER, WARIS SUPANPONG, YVES WILSON, JONATHAN MONK,

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RANDY SCHWARTZ LOADERS: GIANNI CARSON, IVANA BERNAL STILL PHOTOGRAPHERS: LINDA KALLERUS, CARA HOWE

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: GARY BAUM, ASC OPERATORS: GLENN SHIMADA, TRAVERS HILL, LANCE BILLITZER, ED FINE ASSISTANTS: ADRIAN LICCIARDI, JEFF GOLDENBERG, ALEC ELIZONDO, CLINT PALMER, JASON HERRING UTILITIES: DANNY LORENZE, SEAN ASKINS DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: DEREK LANTZ VIDEO CONTROLLER: STUART WESOLIK STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: CHRIS HASTON

“BROOKLYN NINE-NINE” SEASON 7

NETFLIX PRODUCTIONS, LLC

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: RICK PAGE OPERATORS: PHIL MASTRELLA, LAUREN GADD, JOEL TALLBUT ASSISTANTS: JAY LEVY, BILL GERARDO, DUSTIN MILLER, WILLIAM SCHMIDT, CHRIS CARLSON LOADER: NICK GILBERT DIGITAL UTILITY: KURT LEVY STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: JOHN P. FLEENOR

“ARMY OF THE DEAD”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: ZACK SNYDER OPERATOR: JOHN CLOTHIER ASSISTANTS: TREVOR LOOMIS, BRADEN BATSFORD, CHRIS SLOAN, BRENDAN DEVANIE STEADICAM OPERATOR: JOHN CLOTHIER DIGITAL LOADER: MIKE PRIOR STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: CLAY ENOS

“CHICAGO PD” SEASON 7

2ND UNIT DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPY: IAN SEABROOK

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JAMES ZUCAL OPERATORS: VICTOR MACIAS, DARRYL MILLER, SETH THOMAS ASSISTANTS: JOHN YOUNG, JAMISON ACKER, DON CARLSON, KYLE BELOUSEK, DAVID WIGHTMAN STEADICAM OPERATOR: SCOTT DROPKIN, SOC LOADER: NICK WILSON UTILITIES: MARION TUCKER, ALAN DEMBEK

“F.B.I.” SEASON 2 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: TARI SEGAL OPERATORS: AFTON GRANT, CHARLES ANDERSON ASSISTANTS: LEE VICKERY, NICALENA IOVINO, GEORGE LOOKSHIRE, SEBASTIAN IERVOLINO

“HUBIE HALLOWEEN” DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: SEAMUS TIERNEY OPERATORS: BELA TRUTZ, TOM FITZGERALD, MARK LABONGE ASSISTANTS: E GUNNAR MORTENSEN, JAMES JERMYN, JAMIE FITZPATRICK, MATT HEDGES, SAMUEL LÜSTED, CHRIS MALENFANT DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: MATT DORRIS LOADER: MATTIE HAMER CAMERA UTILITY: FUAD PANJALI STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: SCOTTY YAMANO PUBLICIST: TAMMY SANDLER

“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.”

Sandra Valde-Hansen’s Streak of Brilliance

The Schneider-Kreuznach True-Streak® effects filters include Confetti, Rainbow, 6-Point Star and colored streaks in blue, green, red, gold and many more in popular professional sizes.

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.

818.748.3369 • 800.228.1254

www.schneideroptics.com

NICKELODEON

“ALL THAT” SEASON 11 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MICHAEL FRANKS OPERATORS: BOB MCCALL, JOHN DECHENE, JACK CHISHOLM TECHNO-JIB OPERATOR: ELI FRANKS ASSISTANTS: MEGGINS MOORE, DEREK LANTZ, JOSE GOMEZ DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: GARY TAILLON VIDEO CONTROLLERS: BARRY LONG, KEITH ANDERSON

“HENRY DANGER” SEASON 5 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MIKE SPODNIK OPERATORS: TIM HEINZEL, CORY GUNTER, SCOTT OSTERMANN, DANA ROBERT ROSS CAMERA UTILITIES: BILL SEDGWICK, JIM ELLIOTT, DOUG MINGES JIB UTILITY: RYAN ELLIOTT STEADICAM OPERATOR: DANA ROBERT ROSS VIDEO CONTROLLER: JIM AGNOR

OLIVE AVENUE PRODUCTIONS, LLC “CASTLE ROCK” SEASON 2

DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: RICHARD RUTKOWSKI, JEFF GREELEY, JOHN LINDLEY, ASC OPERATORS: DENNY KORTZE, LAELA KILBOURN ASSISTANTS: TIMOTHY SWEENEY, ROBERT BULLARD,

JASON BRIGNOLA LOADERS: JOSHUA WEILBRENNER, MATTIE HAMER STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: DANA STARBARD

ONE-HORNED WONDER PRODUCTIONS, LLC “UNICORN”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: ANDREW RUSSO OPERATORS: ELLIE ANN FENTON, CHRIS LOH ASSISTANTS: MATTHEW BOREK, MICHAELA ANGELIQUE, DARRIN P. NIM, ERIC KIM STEADICAM OPERATOR: CHRIS LOH DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: SCOTT RESNICK STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: MICHAEL MORIATIS

PARAMOUNT

“DEFENDING JACOB” SEASON 1 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JONATHAN FREEMAN OPERATORS: JASON ELLSON, JODY MILLER, JOHN GARRETT ASSISTANTS: CHAD RIVETTI, M. DEAN EGAN, ZACK SHULTZ, TALIA KROHMAL DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: NICK PASQUARIELLO LOADER: THOMAS BELLOTTI STEADICAM OPERATORS: JASON ELLSON, JODY MILLER DIGITAL UTILITY: AUDREY STEVENS STILL PHOTOGRAPHERS: SEACIA PAVAO,

CLAIRE FOLGER, ROBERT CLARK PUBLICIST: DIANE SLATTERY

“THE RUNAWAYS” SEASON 3 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MICHAEL WOJCIECHOWSKI OPERATORS: RON BALDWIN, CHRIS MURPHY ASSISTANS: KEN BENDER, ROBYN BUCHANAN, JAN ZARKOS, JORGE PALLARES LOADER: GEORGE MONTEJANO STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: MICHAEL DESMOND

PART II

“A QUIET PLACE 2” DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: POLLY MORGAN OPERATORS: MATTHEW MORIARTY, STEVE MATZINGER, STANLEY FERNANDEZ, JR. ASSISTANTS: STEVE CUEVA, HAYDN PAZANTI, RON WRASE, KATHERYN IUELE, ROBIN BURSEY LOADER: JOSH SCHNOSE LIBRA HEAD TECH: JOHN BONNIN STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: JON COURNOYER

PICROW STREAMING, INC. “UTOPIA” SEASON 1

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: SHAWN KIM OPERATORS: BEAU CHAPUT, CHRIS REJANO

OCTOBER 2019 PRODUCTION CREDITS

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EDGAR VELEZ LOADERS: JAMES PARSONS, CHARLES GRUNDER JR., ALYSSA LONGCHAMP STILL PHOTOGRAPHERS: JOJO WHILDEN, WILL HART, DAVID GIESBRECHT

SHOWTIME PICTURES

“RAY DONOVAN” SEASON 7 DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: RON FORTUNATO, MAURICIO RUBINSTEIN OPERATORS: ERIC SCHILLING, PATRICK QUINN ASSISTANTS: MICHAEL ENDLER, JUSTIN WHITACRE, JOSHUA WATERMAN, BRIAN GRANT, JR.

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“JEOPARDY!” SEASON 36

MY

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JEFF ENGEL OPERATORS: DIANE L. FARRELL, SOC, MIKE TRIBBLE, JEFF SCHUSTER, L. DAVID IRETE JIB ARM OPERATOR: MARC HUNTER HEAD UTILITY: TINO MARQUEZ CAMERA UTILITY: RAY THOMPSON VIDEO CONTROLLER: GARY TAILLON STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: CAROL KAELSON

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“WHEEL OF FORTUNE” SEASON 37

ASSISTANTS: PAUL DEMARTE, DEAN M. SIMMON, ERIC ARNDT, SHANNON DEWOLFE STEADICAM OPERATOR: BEAU CHAPUT STEADICAM ASSISTANT: ERIC ARNDT LOADER: RYAN SHUCK CAMERA UTILITY: CHRIS SUMMERS STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: ELIZABETH MORRIS

RANDOM PRODUCTIONS, LLC

“LOVECRAFT COUNTRY” SEASON 1 DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: ROBERT MCLACHLAN, MICHAEL WATSON OPERATORS: BOB GORELICK, BILL SAXELBY ASSISTANTS: STEPHEN EARLY, KEITH POKORSKI, NICHOLE CASTRO, LAUREN GENTRY LOADER: CORY BLAKE CAMERA UTILITY: KYLE FORD STILL PHOTOGRAPHERS: ELI ADE, D. STEVENS

“THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA” DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MARTIN AHLGREN OPERATORS: STEWART CANTRELL, GARRETT DAVIS ASSISTANTS: ADRIANA BRUNETTO-LIPMAN, KEVIN WALTER, AMBER ROSALES, SCOTT MILLER DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: PAUL SCHILENS LOADERS: MATT ALBANO, BABETTE JOHNSON STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: MICHELE K. SHORT

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REPRISAL 1 PRODUCTIONS, LLC “REPRISAL” SEASON 1

DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: LARKIN SEIPLE, SHAWN PETERS OPERATORS: GRANT ADAMS, MICHAEL REPETA ASSISTANTS: PATRICK BOROWIAK, DEREK SMITH, ROY KNAUF, DARWIN BRANDIS DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: ANDY BADER

REUNION 2017, LLC

“THE CONNERS”SEASON 2 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: DONALD A. MORGAN, ASC OPERATORS: RANDY BAER, VITO GIAMBALVO, JOHN DECHENE, JOHN BOYD ASSISTANTS: STEVE LUND, KENNETH WILLIAMS DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: VON THOMAS CAMERA UTILITIES: MARIANNE FRANCO, ERINN BELL

SAN VICENTE PRODUCTIONS, INC. “THE BLACKLIST” SEASON 7

DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MICHAEL CARACCIOLO, SAADE MUSTAFA OPERATORS: DEREK WALKER, DEVIN LADD, PETER RAMOS ASSISTANTS: DANIEL CASEY, GARETH MANWARING, MIKE GUASPARI, JAMES GOURLEY, EDWIN HERRERA,

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JEFF ENGEL OPERATORS: DIANE L. FARRELL, SOC, JEFF SCHUSTER, RAY GONZALES, STEVE SIMMONS, L. DAVID IRETE, MIKE CORWIN CAMERA UTILITY: RAY THOMPSON HEAD UTILITY: TINO MARQUEZ VIDEO CONTROLLER: GARY TAILLON JIB ARM OPERATOR: RANDY GOMEZ, SR. STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: CAROL KAELSON

STALWART FILMS, LLC

“DISPATCHES FROM ELSEWHERE” SEASON 1 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JAKOB IHRE OPERATORS: THOMAS WILLS, CHONG PAK ASSISTANTS: MICHAEL LEONARD, LEON SANGINITI, JAMES MCCANN, SEAN GALCZYK DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: PAUL SCHILENS STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: JESSICA KOURKOUNIS

STARLING PRODUCTIONS, LLC “THE STARLING”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: LAWRENCE SHER OPERATOR: MICK FROEHLICH ASSISTANTS: JULIE DONOVAN, GAYLE HILARY, FAITH BREWER, JOHN RONEY LOADER: EMILY GOODWIN REMOTE HEAD TECH/OPERATOR: JAY SHEVECK

STU SEGALL PRODUCTIONS, INC

UNTITLED PUPPET SHOW, INC.

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: PETER DEMING OPERATOR: KIM MARKS ASSISTANTS: DAVID EUBANK, JENNIFER LAI, DWIGHT CAMPBELL, MARK BAIN DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: KYLE HOEKSTRA DIGITAL LOADER: RINNY WILSON STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: WILLIAM GRAY

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: FREDERIC FASANO OPERATORS: MARK SPARROUGH, PATRICK MINIETTA JIB ARM OPERATOR: SHAUN HARKINS ASSISTANTS: ANDREW PECK, CHRISTIAN CARMODY DIGITAL UTILITIES: BARBARA BIANCO, CHARLES KEMPF

“THE GOOD LORD BIRD” SEASON 1

SOUNDVIEW PRODUCTONS

“13 REASONS WHY” SEASON 4 DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: KEVIN THOMPSON, TOMMY LOHMANN OPERATOR: STEPHEN BUCKINGHAM ASSISTANTS: JASON GARCIA, SAM LINO, TIM GUFFIN, ANNE LEE DIGITAL LOADER: ANTHONY ROSARIO STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: DAVID MOIR

UNIVERSAL

“LAW & ORDER SVU” SEASON 21 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MICHAEL GREEN OPERATORS: JONATHAN HERRON, MICHAEL LATINO ASSISTANTS: CHRISTOPHER DEL SORDO, MATTHEW BALZARINI, JUSTIN ZVERIN, EMILY DUMBRILL LOADERS: JASON RASWANT, JASON GAINES STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: MICHAEL PARMELEE

“NEVER HAVE I EVER” SEASON 1 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: RHET BEAR OPERATORS: PATRICK MCGINLEY, BRIAN HART ASSISTANTS: BLAIR ROGERS, PETER DEPHILIPPIS, GEOFF GOODLOE, ULRIKE LAMSTER LOADER: BRITTANY MEADOWS DIGITAL UTILITY: CARL HELDER

“UNTITLED PUPPET SHOW”

WARNER BROS

“ALL AMERICAN” SEASON 2 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: NIKHIL PANIZ OPERATORS: CARLOS ARGUELLO, ERIC LAUDADIO ASSISTANTS: JON JUNG, BLAKE COLLINS, JON LINDSAY, MEL KOBRAN DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: URBAN OLSSON STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: KEVIN ESTRADA

“ALL RISE” SEASON 1 DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: DAVID HARP, CYBEL MARTIN OPERATORS: TIM ROARKE, STEPHEN CLANCY, SHANELE ALVAREZ ASSISTANTS: MATT GUIZA, KRISTI ARNDS, RANDY SHANOFSKY, ADAM TSANG, COLLEEN LINDL, ANTHONY HART STEADICAM OPERATOR: STEVE CLANCY STEADICAM ASSISTANT: KRISTI ARNDS DIGITAL UTILITY: MORGAN JENKINS LOADER: BENNY BAILEY

VIDEO CONTROLLER: JOHN O’BRIEN DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: T. BRETT FEENEY STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: MICHAEL YARISH PUBLICIST: KATHLEEN TANJI, MARC KLEIN

“MOM” SEASON 7 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: STEVEN V. SILVER, ASC OPERATORS: CARY MCCRYSTAL, JAMIE HITCHCOCK, SOC, DAMIAN DELLA SANTINA, CANDY EDWARDS ASSISTANTS: MEGGINS MOORE, NIGEL STEWART, SEAN ASKINS, MARK JOHNSON, WHITNEY JONES CAMERA UTILITY: ALICIA BRAUNS, COLIN BROWN, JEANNETTE HJORTH VIDEO CONTROLLER: KEVIN FAUST DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: BENJAMIN STEEPLES STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: ROBERT VOETS PUBLICIST: MARC KLEIN

YNFS PRODUCTIONS, LLC

“LITTLE VOICE AKA STARLING” SEASON 1 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JIM FROHNA OPERATORS: RACHAEL LEVINE, AARON MEDICK ASSISTANTS: CAI HALL, GREGORY FINKEL, PATRICK BRACEY, EMMA REES-SCANLON DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: JESSICA TA LOADERS: KYLE TERBOSS, DONALD GAMBLE STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: GREG ENDRIES

“BOB HEARTS ABISHOLA” SEASON 1 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: PATTI LEE, ASC OPERATORS: MARK DAVISON, CHRIS HINOJOSA, JON PURDY, MICHELLE CRENSHAW ASSISTANTS: JEFF JOHNSON, VITO DE PALMA, MARIANNE FRANCO, ADAN TORRES, LISA ANDERSON, ALICIA BRAUNS, LANCE MITCHELL, JORDAN HRISTOV

OCTOBER 2019 PRODUCTION CREDITS

79

COMMERCIALS

KALEIDOSCOPE PRODUCTIONS

SMUGGLER

ARTS & SCIENCES

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JON HOKANSON ASSISTANTS: MARY ANNE JANKE, MICHAEL RODRIGUEZ TORRENT

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JAMES WHITAKER OPERATOR: JOSH MEDAK ASSISTANTS: LAURA GOLDBERG, LILA BYALL, ERIC MATOS, NOAH GLAZER DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: RYAN KUNKLEMAN

“KFC”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: ALEX DISENHOF ASSISTANTS: BUDDY ALLEN THOMAS, GARY BEVANS DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: CHRIS CAVANAUGH TECHNOCRANE OPERATOR: NAZARIY HATAK REMOTE HEAD TECH/OPERATOR: JAY SHEVECK

CMS

“WILD TURKEY” DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: LUKE MCCOUBREY OPERATOR: ALEX KORNREICH ASSISTANTS: ETHAN MCDONALD, DANIEL HANYCH, LUCAS DEANS, MARCUS DEL NEGRO

HEY BABY FILMS

“AD COUNCIL NHTSA” DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: ROB HAUER ASSISTANTS: LIAM MILLER, PAULINA BRYANT DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: RAFFI VESCO

HUNGRY MAN “OIKOS”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: NEIL SHAPIRO ASSISTANTS: TRAVIS DAKING, RYAN VOISINE, NOAH GLAZER DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: LEE SUMNERS

“TOYOTA-SMARTPATH”

MJZ

“COST PLUS” DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: AUTUMN DURALD OPERATOR: JOSH MEDAK ASSISTANTS: CHRIS STRAUSER, NIRANJAN MARTIN, HENRY NGUYEN DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: DAN SKINNER JIB ARM OPERATOR: PETER TOMMASI REMOTE HEAD TECH/OPERATOR: DREW DUMAS

“MCDONALD’S” DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: NEIL SHAPIRO ASSISTANTS: PHIL VOLKOFF, NOAH GLAZER DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: ANTHONY KWAN

MOXIE PICTURES “AT&T”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: ROBERT YEOMAN OPERATORS: PATRICK LOUNGWAY, GEORGE BILLINGER ASSISTANTS: JOHN HOLMES, MARK SANTONI, HECTOR RODRIGUEZ, ROXANNE STEPHENS, BRANDON SZAJNER DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: DANE BREHM

“VERIZON” DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: SCOTT HENRIKSEN OPERATOR: JOE LAVALLEE ASSISTANTS: PETER MORELLO, JOE CHRISTOFORI, NATE MCGARIGAL STEADICAM OPERATOR: CHRIS CUNNINGHAM DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: DAVE KUDROWITZ

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: KARINA SILVA ASSISTANTS: JONATHAN BOWERBANK, WALTER RODRIGUEZ, DEB PETERSON DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: CHARLEY WESTON

“IBM”

“VISA” DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: CHRISTOPHE LANZENBERG OPERATORS: LIAM CLARK, WILL DEARBORN ASSISTANTS: LILA BYALL, ALEX SCOTT, KYLE SAUER, NOAH GLAZER STEADICAM OPERATOR: LIAM CLARK DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: ELHANAN MATOS

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: LANCE ACORD, ASC OPERATOR: JOSEPH MESSIER ASSISTANTS: BRAD ROCHLITZER, LUIS SUAREZ, TRAVIS DAKING DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: STEVE HARNELL

RADICAL MEDIA

“SOCAL HONDA”

JOINERY

“TOYOTA” DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: FEDERICO CANTINI ASSISTANTS: ERIK STAPELFELDT, JOSHUA COTE, DAISY SMITH DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: EDUARDO EGUIA HEAD TECH: WILL ZIGNEGO

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OCTOBER 2019 PRODUCTION CREDITS

“SANDY HOOK PROMISE” DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: AUTUMN DURALD ASSISTANTS: DANIEL HANYCH, NOAH GLAZER DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: DAN SKINNER

SPITTN IMAGE

“FX NETWORKS LD S1 PROMO” DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: PAUL TOLTON OPERATOR: CHRIS ROBERTSON ASSISTANTS: GREG BENITEZ, JEFF CAPLES, GUS BECHTOLD, LAWRENCE LIM STEADICAM OPERATOR: MIKE MCGOWAN DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: STEVE HARNELL

SWEETSHOP “LEXUS”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MICHAEL FITZMAURICE OPERATOR: RAFAEL LEYVA ASSISTANTS: GREG BENITEZ, JOSEPH CANON, JASON ADLER, MATT BERBANO DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: STEVE HARNELL

REMOTE HEAD TECH/OPERATOR: JAY SHEVECK

PARK PICTURES

“PAPA JOHN’S PIZZA”

“CARMAX”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: ERIC SCHMIDT ASSISTANTS: LILA BYALL, NOAH GLAZER DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: JOHN SPELLMAN

RSA FILMS “ADVIL”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: PAUL MEYERS ASSISTANTS: LUCAS DEANS, CAMERON KEIDEL MOVI CAMERA OPERATOR: REID MURPHY DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: TED PHUTHANHDANH

THE DIRECTORS BUREAU “BLUE SHIELD”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: AUTUMN DURALD ASSISTANTS: ETHAN MCDONALD, MARCUS DEL NEGRO DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: STEVE HARNELL

TOOL OF NORTH AMERICA “TOOL OF NA”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: LUKE MCCOUBREY ASSISTANTS: WALTER RODRIGUEZ, CHASE SCHUTLZ

UNTITLED “JEEP”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JEFF CRONENWETH ASSISTANTS: RICHARD HAWKINSON, BOB WEBECK, PATRICK LAVALLEY DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: MCKAY JOHNSON

VIACOM/NEW MEDIA REMOTE PRODUCTIONS, INC. “MTV/GEICO”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MATTHEW WOOLF ASSISTANTS: MANASH DAS, SETH CRAVEN DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: MICHAEL BORENSTEIN

WORLD WAR SEVEN “CHILI’S”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: GILES DUNNING OPERATOR: MARK EVANS ASSISTANTS: NITO SERNA, WILL DICENSO, NOAH GLAZER DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: SCOTT BECKLEY

WOODSHOP “KFC”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: TOM LAZAREVICH ASSISTANTS: CLINT MORAN, ERIN ENDOW DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: STEVE HARNELL

MUSIC VIDEOS LONDON ALLEY

“CHARLIE’S ANGELS” DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: ROB WITT ASSISTANTS: NICOLAS MARTIN, ALAN CERTEZA

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OCTOBER 2019 PRODUCTION CREDITS

81

STOP MOTI ON

UNIT STILL PHOTOGRAPHER

Niko Tavernise

This photo of Joaquin Phoenix as The Joker was shot at Steiner Studios in Brooklyn. My only true talent, vanishing in the darkness, helped immensely on this film, giving the actor more room to become his alter ego without an extra camera in his face. And finding an angle from a rooftop, through a curtain or above the set in the rafters gave director Todd Phillips a different perspective on his movie. My favorite thing to shoot is an angle that no one thought of, and being able to execute within a couple seconds of seeing it in my head helps. Without our amazing camera team; hair/make-up; costumes; props; our DP, Larry Sher; and the artists who designed and built these sets; this image would never have existed. And, of course, Joaquin: if you are lucky enough to get to see him act in person, you’ll find there is no one else like him.

82

O C TOBER 201 9

Nancy Schreiber, ASC

YOUR CRAFT CAPTURED When DP and longtime EOS 5D series user, Nancy Schreiber, ASC heard about the new EOS C700 FF, she had to try it.

Housing a 5.9K full-frame sensor, the C700 FF pairs exceptionally well with the anamorphic and full-frame lenses you know and love. With built-in anamorphic de-squeeze capabilities and RAW capture, the C700 FF image draws viewers into your story.

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Š2019 Canon U.S.A., Inc. All rights reserved. Canon and EOS are registered trademarks of Canon Inc. in the United States and may also be registered trademarks or trademarks in other countries.

FX9

Full Frame Creativity – Full Frame Exmor R sensor

– Fast Hybrid Auto Focus

– Dual Base ISO: 800 & 4000

– Enhanced mobility and ergonomics

– 15+ stops of latitude

– 4K 4:2:2 10bit internal recording

– Electronic Variable ND with Auto ND

– Cinematic color science with S-Cinetone™

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