ICG MAGAZINE
IMAGE PIPELINES ISSUE FEATURING
WONDER WOMAN 1984
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contents IMAGE PIPELINES October 2020 / Vol. 91 No. 08
DEPARTMENTS gear guide ................ 16 replay ................ 24 refraction ................ 26 first look ................ 28 exposure ................ 32 production credits ................ 78 stop motion .............. 84
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FEATURE 01 SHE’S BACK… The demigoddess from Themyscira, who broke boxoffice records (and the gender ceiling for superhero movies) soars back into theaters – and 1980s America.
FEATURE 02 FLY BY NIGHT Monsterland’s nimble Guild camera team helps to visualize terrors both fantastical and human; shearing open the heart of modern-day America.
SPECIAL 01 REAR VIEW MIRRORS Previsualization comes into its own in the age of complex digital workflows.
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52 68
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 Clay Enos Debra Kaufman Margot Lester Valentina Valentini
October 2020 vol. 91 no. 08
Local
600
International Cinematographers Guild
IATSE Local 600 NATIONAL PRESIDENT John Lindley, ASC VICE PRESIDENT Dejan Georgevich, ASC 1ST NATIONAL VICE PRESIDENT Christy Fiers 2ND NATIONAL VICE PRESIDENT Baird Steptoe NATIONAL SECRETARY-TREASURER Stephen Wong NATIONAL ASSISTANT SECRETARY-TREASURER Jamie Silverstein NATIONAL SERGEANT-AT-ARMS Deborah Lipman NATIONAL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Rebecca Rhine ASSOCIATE NATIONAL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Chaim Kantor
COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE
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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. ICG (ISSN 1527-6007) Ten issues published annually by The International Cinematographers Guild 7755 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood, CA, 90046, U.S.A. Periodical postage paid at Los Angeles, California. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to ICG 7755 Sunset Boulevard Hollywood, California 90046 Copyright 2020, 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. Non-members 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. International Cinematographers Guild Magazine is a registered trademark.
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Love…Made Visible I once read about some Japanese businessmen who lost their jobs, but woke up every morning, got dressed for work and rode their commuter trains all day before returning home in the evening, having kept up the appearance of having a job for another day. This is just one example of how closely our identity is connected to our work, and when that work is taken away, it can be as harrowing as the financial stress that accompanies joblessness. I have been buoyed recently by the number of productions that have returned or started up, bringing our members back to work, and there has been tremendous attention paid to the safe return to our jobs. What I think has been somewhat overlooked is how many of our members are still waiting to be brought back and how difficult that is for them. Even some members who can weather the financial storm are having a hard time emotionally since losing the structure that work provides. And yet even during this time there have been inspiring examples of Guild members who have found meaning in other endeavors. For example, our still photographers set up a benefit sale of their work, which has been a success for the Local 600 Hardship Fund, as well as for the
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contributors who gave so freely of their time and creativity. From the beginning of this shutdown, we have had members making masks and shields for front line medical workers. We also have members making clear plastic shields to attach to handheld cameras when it is necessary to get close to the unmasked subjects Camera Operators are photographing. The Young Workers have spent hundreds of hours encouraging colleagues to register to vote and to provide information on voting in their states. Even during these difficult financial times, we have had many members contribute money to the Local 600 Hardship Fund to help others in need. So while it may feel like our identities have evaporated with our jobs, clearly the same values we bring to our work – collaboration, patience, creativity and dedication - have emerged to provide meaning, even as we all wait for the next call for work, which will come, even if the timetable is still unpredictable. Let’s make sure to continue to reach out to our sisters and brothers, to encourage each other as much as we can as our industry ramps back up to full production. That’s the identity of this Local, and nothing, not even a global pandemic, can alter that. For as the poet Kahlil Gibran once wrote: “Work is love made visible.” John Lindley, ASC National President International Cinematographers Guild IATSE Local 600
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I
’d be less than honest if I didn’t note there are mixed feelings about this October issue. It’s not that our annual Image Pipelines theme, which examines new and changing workflows for Local 600 camera team members, lacks in any category. We packed this month with such voices as Local 600 Digital Imaging Technician Daniele Colombera (First Look, page 28); longtime color-science expert Bill Feightner (Refraction, page 26); and ICG Directors of Photography Baz Idoine, Matthew Jensen, ASC; Jonathan Freeman, ASC; and Polly Morgan, ASC, BSC (Rear View Mirrors, page 68); all talking about their experiences with fast-moving trends like on-set VFX and color management, previsualization, remote workflows, and the preservation of creative intent from capture to final color grade. No, the reservations are more about the bigger picture at play – literally. Our cover story on Wonder Woman 1984 (She’s Back…, page 36) shot by Matthew Jensen and directed by this month’s Exposure conversation subject (page 32), Patty Jenkins, a former Local 600 camera assistant, was originally scheduled as our June cover. It was then rescheduled to be our August cover, and now – owing to the diligent folks in Warner Bros.’ marketing and distribution departments, who provided images and interviews despite the release’s being pushed to December 25, 2020 – ICG readers are finally able to read about these remarkable filmmakers. Will Wonder Woman 1984 even be released in 2020? Like everything else in this most difficult of years, no one can say with any certainty what the future may hold. That’s because among the very wide swath of devastation COVID-19 has wrought is the bedrock of theatrical exhibition. And while the recent “Return to Work Agreement,” negotiated with the AMPTP (click here),will help IATSE production crews safely return to all kinds of sets – features, episodic television, unscripted, etc. – it’s truly only the theatrical market (even live-event production continues without audiences) for which the timetable of when consumers will see the fruits of those efforts, as
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they were intended, is slip-sliding away. We can let the experts discern what the modest results from the Labor Day theatrical release of Tenet, ICG Magazine’s August 2020 cover story, presage. But when bellwethers like The Walt Disney Company push Marvel’s long-awaited new Black Widow feature from November 2020 to May 2021, and Steven Spielberg’s December 2020 release of West Side Story moves a full year, a gauge for when consumers will comfortably return to theaters is not there. That’s not for lack of trying by organizations like the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO), which in late August launched CinemaSafe, a “voluntary nationwide set of health and safety protocols for the COVID-19 pandemic era.” Those protocols, which can be accessed here, were developed in consultation with leading epidemiologists and based on protocols from the CDC, WHO and OSHA. In late July, NATO launched its #SaveYourCinema campaign, which urged moviegoers to write Congress to enact the RESTART Act (S. 3814/H.R. 7481), which, as NATO describes, “will give movie theaters access to partially forgivable seven-year loans covering six months of expenses…the campaign also presses the Treasury and the Federal Reserve to implement more relief programs under the CARES Act that help theaters of all sizes.” Everyone wants to see movies in theaters again, right? But the calculations involved in balancing public health safety with restarting a U.S. market that earned $11.4 billion in 2019 (and a record-breaking $42.5 billion globally) and employed more than 150,000 people in U.S. theaters, many of which, according to NATO, “are vulnerable individuals underrepresented in the workforce, including young people and people with disabilities,” are challenging, to say the least. Why should it matter so much if products slated for the cinema are moved over to digital platforms, thereby maintaining production levels for Local 600 and other IATSE members? What if this global pandemic (as some experts have predicted) has forever shifted how we consume entertainment? The simple answer is that filmmakers, and that includes every single member of a Local 600 camera team working on a feature project, pour their considerable skills, expertise, time and passions into creating a shared vision – they become a “cinematic family” for however short a time. Every laugh, cry, wince, punch and kiss is experienced behind the scenes during capture, just as it will be months later by a group of strangers in a movie theater, gathered for another shared experience, IRL. Nothing else quite compares.
CONTRIBUTORS
Margot Lester Fly By Night “Even though I am unable to lower a closed window shade on a plane thanks to The Twilight Zone, I do genuinely love the horror genre. Monsterland is a fantastic, suspenseful, scary and weird (in a great way) show that taps into the familiar themes of the human condition from a terrifically unsettling point of view.”
Clay Enos She’s Back…, Stop Motion “Even as the ‘set mosquito,’ I feel immensely grateful to be part of this talented band of storytelling misfits, particularly with the likes of the crew who made Wonder Woman 1984.”
CORRECTION: In the crew listing for our Hamilton feature (September 2020, Who Tells Your Story, page 74) we regret to have omitted the names of Local 600’s DIT’s Abby Levine, Joe Belack and Guillermo Tunon.
ICG MAGAZINE
David Geffner Executive Editor
Twitter: @DGeffner Email: david@icgmagazine.com
IMAGE PIPELINES ISSUE FEATURING
WONDER WOMAN 1984
Cover photo by Clay Enos
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y r t s u d In To the visionaries, the disruptors and the thousands of professionals who push the bounds of content each and every day: You are the camera crews, the journalists and the production teams bringing us information in times of confusion. You are the storytellers, the pioneers, the promoters and the magic makers crafting and delivering laughter, relief and maybe a new way of looking at the world. You are the innovators, the engineers and the trailblazers developing new products and technology that empower incredible possibilities for the industry. You see change as a call to action and challenges as opportunities. You create clarity out of chaos. This October, let’s dive deep into the products, technology and perspectives that will move media and entertainment forward.
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REPLAY
Teenage Bounty Hunters
It was the end of the production schedule for the Netflix dramedy Teenage Bounty Hunters, and there were plenty of driving shots left to do. Two days, twenty pages. “Up until that point, we had used rear projection and green screen with varying degrees of success,” describes Director of Photography Michael Berlucchi. “We tried rear projection but weren’t completely satisfied. The problem was that we didn’t have time to shoot our plates and weren’t sure of the libraries out there. In addition, we’re shooting 8K [Panavision’s DXL2 with a 2.0:1 release], and the concern was that it would resolve the screen and give up the gag.” The other challenge, according to Berlucchi, was that the plates were dark, and shot some time ago. “As they were being processed through the system,” he continues, “we would get a lot of breakup in the shadows and had no real way to combat it. We made the call and dropped in a green screen to utilize the full uncompressed files in post.”
distances sealed the deal. “We ultimately decided to go with three 16-by9-foot panels and one 4-by-12-foot panel with the 2.9-millimeter pixel pitch,” Berlucchi explains. “The 2.9 millimeter was the highest resolution wall available to us, and we had no problem with the pixels appearing on the screen.” The walls offered the flexibility of surrounding the car, which allowed the camera team to move freely around the vehicle and work at an efficient pace. Designing a move from the windshield to an over-the-shoulder through a side window was no problem. The walls were on wheels and could easily adjust if the camera was seeing off them. In addition to the moving walls, Ryan Pincott brought in eight WinVision 9 panels on a Condor, raised above the windshield to give reflections, and plates projected from a D3 server. (All images licensed through www.drivingplates.com). The setup was perfect for the story and cast. As Pincott explains, “You can shoot any environment in
As the team got further into production, the number of driving sequences increased, and the concept of video walls became more viable. But, would the 8K capture pick up the individual pixels of the tiled video panels? A trip to PRG with a camera and a series of tests with different plates at varying
a studio, so it’s easier when working with a younger cast. They aren’t out in the real world. And you’re not closing roads and getting gun permits. It also makes things more cost-effective for the production budget. Not to mention that it helps to have a crew in a controlled studio environment.”
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BY PAULINE ROGERS PHOTOS COURTESY OF NETFLIX
So how did 8K and LED walls impact the lighting? “The biggest challenge with video walls was having projected footage that stands up to the [ultra-high] resolution at which our cameras were shooting,” explains Chief Lighting Technician Stephen Grum. “During prep, we could see the individual pixels, so the walls had to be backed up as far as possible to get them slightly out of focus. Backing them up reduced the amount of interactive light on the actors’ faces in the car, but we had a lighting grid overhead to give us exactly what we needed inside.” Berlucchi and Grum decided on four 4-Bank Astera Titans that ran the length of the car on both sides. Each was set to a 16-pixel mode for chase sequences. Each tube in the bank operated independently, so different colors would run simultaneously for various looks. All of the Titan Tubes were covered in Opal to smooth out the chase, so the pixels weren’t visible when they swept the car. “Lighting Console Programmer Sam Rembert did a fantastic job of syncing the passing streetlights and other hits of light so that our lighting matched the plates,” Grum adds. They placed moving lights in front of and behind
10.2020
[versus green or blue screen] allowed me to adjust the level of in-camera shake according to the ‘road conditions,’ creating a natural result.” Grum concludes that “all in all, the video walls help give some interactive light to actors; and the reflections on the car and windows help sell it. I find the technology very promising, and it will only get better as the pixel size gets smaller and the dynamic range of these screens gets better. Production, however, needs to evaluate the footage that they run through these walls, particularly the dynamic range and ISO. Digital noise and ‘blue in the blacks’ are amplified when blown up to the size
the car, and extended overhead to give harder shadows that mimicked sodium-vapor streetlights. A few SkyPanels were used around the car to bring more interactive light and to boost the ambiance inside the vehicle. “Process cars are always an experience,” Rembert reflects. “In some cases, Production will simply run the video feed from the video company through the lighting fixtures. While this will always match, timing-wise, I feel it never looks quite right. It’s hard to match color and contrast between light and dark. Some subtleties in the video can also be missed.” Going through the footage and timing cues, then working with the DP and chief lighting technician to determine cues and levels, is a big part of the sell. “I keep a basic stock set of cues for different flicker effects and color passes in the console,” Rembert continues. “I’ll create a time-coded cue list triggering each of those cues as needed. In the end, all I have to do is hit go each time they start the video, and the lighting takes care of itself. In some cases, there is no time to pre-program each cue, and the lights must run live. On the Teenage Bounty Hunters shoot, I was able to get a monitor with the front left and right plates. This allowed me to see what was happening in each of these feeds at any given time, and adjust. Most of the shoot was time-coded in advance – but, as always, there was an extra shot or two at the end.”
How do 8K and LED walls impact the DIT’s crucial role? Nick Hiltgen says he had used the PRG video pipeline before, but it was his first time shooting 8K-HDR. “To sell the illusion,” Hiltgen explains, “we worked with an extremely shallow depth-of-field,
just to avoid any chance of reading the pixels of the screen. Additionally, we gen-locked the screen and camera together to avoid any shutter issues during camera moves. “One of the great things about the wall is that the screens also provide accurate reflections and realistic lighting,” he continues. “I found myself working very closely with the video engineer regarding the color temperature and general brightness of the screen – mainly to maintain the light look without compromising information in HDR. Aesthetically, being able to resize and move the background images on the screen physically proved to be very helpful.” “Before this sequence, I had only a little experience with the LED walls,” shares 1st AC Josh Greer. “We were shooting with Panavision T- and G-series lenses on the DXL2. It was a very sharp combination. One of the challenges we faced was finding a combination of the right distance from the wall with the desired shooting stop. This was tricky with multiple cameras, but once we had it dialed in, we could roll without adjusting the walls.” “I liked the efficiency of shooting two or even three cameras with LED walls,” adds A-Camera/ Steadicam Operator Thomas Valko, SOC. “It is better not only for camera but for actors, directors and, I’m sure, editors. That said, there were times that it took extra finessing to accurately place each screen to work for three cameras. Once we were set up, it was very quick to start filming without interruption. In the past, when shooting on process trailers, we would sometimes have to use complicated rigs involving power sliders or cranes to achieve specialty shots. The LED screens allow us to avoid some of those complications, without sacrificing camera movement or precious time on set. And the ability to see the moving backgrounds
of these screens.” “As much as I love rolling around town on a process trailer or operating rigged cameras while in a follow vehicle,” describes Berlucchi, “the immediacy and control that the Overdrive and similar systems provide is unmatched. “Being able to communicate and collaborate with the director and crew without having to yell over each other,” he adds, “or pull over to make a small adjustment, does wonders for the day and the final product. The crew came together to create a highly convincing driving sequence inside a Georgia studio.”
LOCAL 600 CREW Director of Photography Mike Berlucchi A-Camera/Steadicam Operator Thomas Valko A-Camera 1st AC Joshua Greer A-Camera 2nd AC Kane Pearson B-Camera Operator Spencer Hutchins B-Camera 1st AC Joshua S. Gilbert B-Camera 2nd AC Austin Taylor DIT’s Nick Hiltgen Michael Kim Digital Utilities Anna-Marie Aloia Patrick Kral Still Photographer Tina Rowden
(cont'd on page 26)
PIPELINES IMAGEIMAGE PIPELINES
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COURTESY OF BRUNO MUNGER / COLORFRONT
REFRACTION
William Feightner COLOR SCIENTIST
Today, preserving the creative intent from capture to finish is a challenge. Given the large array of digital cameras and myriad SDR/HDR delivery options, an effective and easy-to-implement approach to the image pipeline is needed to ensure that a consistent look is achieved throughout the various production stages. Traditional workflows of the past are no longer applicable. For example, a typical show-LUT-based workflow can only address a single output type, usually SDR. Another set of show LUT’s are required
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for HDR, which most often do not match the SDR look. If cameras from different manufacturers are used, another set of show LUT’s is required. Creating multiple finishes for today’s SDR and HDR television formats, including BT.709, HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, HLG, standard DCI cinema and the new emerging HDR cinema displays, like the 300-nit Samsung Onyx and others, is not practical nor affordable. Even if it were and if time allowed, maintaining creative consistency across all the deliverables would not be possible. Meeting future
unspecified display technologies is also a must. The so-called “holy grail” would be to match multiple image sources across all deliverables from SDR to HDR. This would maintain the creative intent; in essence, this would be a single master workflow concept, no matter the dynamic range or color gamut, no matter the source image, and all without having to manually adjust for each delivery type. The default settings deliver an image that inherently looks good, allowing the colorist to easily add the creative look.
10.2020
But, what do we mean about preserving the creative intent? The creation of images starts with capturing source footage. The source footage then goes through various transformations and is finally put up on what we call a reference master display. This is a very important concept, because this is the “hero image,” the image we want all deliverables to look like, no matter how they are viewed, i.e., in a bright or darker environment, or whether the peak brightness matches the current cinema level, or if it is a much brighter HDR experience at 1000 nits
• Does it support various ambient surround conditions, from very dark cinema to bright home environments?
or above. The looks need to be maintained across all viewing environments without having to adjust for each one. Looking at a mastering display and creating a reference image can be done in multiple stages of the workflow, from starting on set through to postproduction. In our industry, we want the “look” to be accurately maintained and to travel with the project from end to end. There are many requirements and challenges of applying a color processing pipeline when mastering for multiple displays and various surround brightness levels. I’ve found that the following criteria should be carefully considered when choosing a color processing pipeline for a mastering/delivery workflow:
vendor and only cover the specific part of the production chain where it is used, unable to hand off to the subsequent stages. The Academy Color Encoding System (ACES) is an open-source global standard and framework for interchanging digital image files, managing color workflows, and creating masters for delivery and archiving, which has the goal of addressing most of these criterias, and most vendors support it. ACES is designed to be independent of source and delivery types. In simple terms, it has three blocks:
• Does it “wake up” with a beautiful, well-balanced image without endless manual adjustments – an image ready for input from the colorist?
2. Look Management Transform (LMT), where creative intent (“look”) is imparted.
• Is there a processing pipeline not dependent on the type of source image or delivery format? • Does it support a common master workflow serving a multitude of delivery formats? • Does it handle SDR-to-HDR and HDR-to-SDR conversions? • Does it support camera-original and already graded images as sources? • Is it properly grounded in true color science, or is it based on LUT’s produced with creative grading tools? • Do the images fall apart when pushing color boundaries? • Does the workflow support various input and output nit levels? • Does it support different output color volumes with true out-of-gamut processing?
• From SDR to HDR, will the look and creative intent be maintained? There are offerings from many vendors addressing these criteria. For example, Baselight, Colorfront, Luster, Nucoda, Nuke, and Resolve are some; multiple approaches are offered by most vendors. Most approaches are unique to a particular
1. Input Device Transform (IDT), which transforms the various source images into a common scene referred to as a “working space.”
3. Output Device Transform (RRT/ODT), which couples look to the various display devices. Importantly, the LMT c an allow for customizations of the ACES pipeline. The LMT can supplement ACES in areas where it may not fully address the above criteria. Some vendors offer LMT support solutions. For example, Colorfront’s entire color pipeline can sit on top of a compliant ACES framework in the form of a parametric LMT to fully address the aforementioned criteria. What makes the Colorfront approach unique and highly effective is that it is based on a realworld human perceptual model, the Perceptual Processor. This ensures that creative intent is maintained for any type of deliverable and viewing environment. It offers a large, customizable looks library for creating just the right look for a specific scene. It offers an array of adjustments, such as scene exposure and color, looks modifications, and viewing surround brightness compensation. Most importantly, in the default setting, it wakes up with a beautiful baseline.
What will the future of the image pipeline look like? Thanks to COVID-19, we are seeing an acceleration in an area that has been my passion for many years – a fully remote and collaborative pipeline that ties on-set production through to postproduction. In fact, Colorfront offers a reference-quality streaming player that is built into our products, running either on the premises or in Amazon Cloud. It’s an industry-compatible screen with 4:4:4 High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) stream, which means clients can play a 4K file that’s visually lossless at about 30 to 35 Mbps. Right before COVID, we were playing from an Amazon Cloud Transkoder instance, and had a lightweight client receiver driving a large crystal LED screen with HDR levels up to 1000 nits. Every major studio and network wants to have remote collaboration – on set and in post, for VFX, color management, and even final grading, if necessary – and they want reference-quality abilities. Those image pipelines are arriving faster than we may have imagined and are not going to abruptly revert back [post-COVID] to the traditional model of a large group all coming together in a four-wall brick-and-mortar facility. The impetus toward creating a non-linear workflow, where various parts of a production can access the pipeline at any time, or all at the same time, has been around for a while, but it’s only in the last few years that the technology has allowed for it. Several years ago, Netflix was working toward having all of its productions upload to the cloud from set, but the connections and codecs were not yet right to be able to upload proxies and the like, as they are now. To have a director of photography working directly with his or her final colorist from the first day of production, for example, can be a huge benefit to preserving creative intent. The days of capture, dailies, editorial, and final grade in a straight line are over – they’re all happening simultaneously in a circular fashion. Once you break that linear barrier, so much more is possible, and so much more efficiency is gained.
Color Scientist Bill Feightner co-founded Efilm, where he created one of the first digital intermediate pipelines. For the last seven years, as CTO of Colorfront, he’s been leading the industry into ever more efficient remote and collaborative production and postproduction operations, while searching for that elusive end-to-end image pipeline that can match varying sources across all delivery platforms.
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FIRST LOOK
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Daniele Colombera DIGITAL IMAGING TECHNICIAN BY PAULINE ROGERS PHOTOS COURTESY OF DANIELE COLOMBERA
While most boys were playing with blocks and cars, six-year-old Daniele Colombera was exploring the tools of his future career – his father’s Nikon F and his very own Sony 8mm Handycam. “Around age 10, I started getting paid for my efforts – shooting and editing wedding videos,” Colombera remembers. “And by the time I was a teenager, I was visiting movie sets.” A family acquaintance (Paolo Sorrentino’s producer) cemented his desire to make filmmaking a career, urging Colombera to enroll at the University of Padua, where, he says, “I met Gian Piero Brunetta, one of the most renowned film historians.” While studying film in Rome, Colombera wrote a booksized thesis about cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli, who taught that learning about lighting and many other aspects of the craft was best achieved by working in the film industry – not by attending school. The book earned Colombera an award at the Venice Film Festival by the Union of Film Critics. By the early 2000s, Italian filmmakers were leaning into digital technology, so Colombera worked with VFX Supervisor David Bush to offer this new “brush” to directors and cinematographers. They tested and showcased cameras like the Sony CineAlta, ARRI D-20 prototype (collaborating with Bill Lowell from ARRI Media), and the Thomson Viper. Colombera and Bush also worked directly with such DI suite makers as Quantel, helping to create digital pipelines. Today, the Local 600 DIT has continued that relationship with such camera manufacturers as RED, ARRI, and Sony, and with such labs like Technicolor to give critical feedback on cameras and workflow features here in the United States. And it was Colombera’s ties to Dante Spinotti, ASC, AIC, that helped him achieve solid ground as a DIT. “Our first movie project together was Vinodentro, shot in anamorphic with ARRI ALEXA,” he explains. “Each project with Dante [10 so far] has been different. We adapt to the project’s unique aspects, making decisions that determine the final look – everything from Marvel’s Ant-Man and The Wasp to the indie movie Freak Show.
“The choice of the digital camera and VFX needs can influence each other,” Colombera continues. “It’s not uncommon that VFX can suggest or impose the type of camera for a specific use, or even for the entire picture. When I started collaborating with Dante, I realized the integrity of the digital negative is an absolute prerogative. “For example, on Ant-Man and the Wasp, we shot the principal photography with the actors on ALEXA 65 and then specific VFX shots and most of the miniature world on the Panavision DXL and Frazier Lens. That choice was offering an even higher resolution – great for visual effects – and a smaller sensor to be compatible with the specialty lenses deployed. We also shot clean plates and tiling for visual effects for each scene.” Colombera says that months later, when called back for additional photography, they referred to the original footage for matching purposes. “In the past, we used the reference clips and a few looks from post,” he adds. “But, here, we had an incredibly vast library of scenes and camera angles I had captured on my system during principal photography.” Using Colorfront software, Colombera showed Spinotti the live image and reference, wiping between the two on his displays, until they were both satisfied with the match. “That ended up being an incredible help, so that the editor and VFX artists could easily replace and integrate new elements in the final cut,” he recalls. Over the years, Colombera has racked up an impressive list of first- and second-unit DIT credits – Logan, Avengers: Infinity War, Terminator Genisys, Deepwater Horizon, Black and Blue, and upcoming releases Fatale, Jungle Cruise, and Them: Covenant among them. While many are under NDA, he can say that he has developed a basic platform that has adapted to each project. “While I started grading on set with FilmLight Truelight, I then collaborated with Colorfront to create On-Set Live, a powerful software that perfectly integrates with On-Set Dailies for a seamless set to dailies. Livegrade came shortly thereafter, so my colleagues and I
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FIRST LOOK
started to have more options to choose from.” Even with all of Colombera’s knowledge of complex digital camera technology, he will sometimes revert to a less-is-more approach. “It’s all about the image in relation to the story,” he describes. “On I Saw the Light, the Hank Williams biopic, we could have shot some homemade-looking clips digitally and added, in post, film emulation. Instead, I pitched the idea of testing a Super 8 camera, and the DP and director loved it.”
Colombera is currently working on the Amazon TV series Them: Covenant, which he says has been COVID-19 compliant. “The rules on set are strict, with the main goal to keep everyone healthy and at a safe distance,” he explains. “On small sets, like a house interior, only a few selected people can be around the actors. So we came up with a system that can let selected crew members watch the rehearsals live as well as the actual takes.” The camera team for Them: Covenant explored several wireless options, which all required more gear, crew-power, and time to set up. “I came up with the idea of using the existing wireless network of the stages,” Colombera continues. “We were able to broadcast the live image to the trailers parked outside and even farther to the crew parking area. Luckily, we are in a time when most smartphones and tablets are rather accurate from a color standpoint, so even make-up and costume crews can take advantage of the same image pipeline we use for the DP and Director displays. Them: Covenant, shot by Guild Directors of Photography Checco Varese, ASC, and Xavier Grobet, ASC, AMC, for Showrunnner Little Marvin, wanted a very specific look that fit the feeling of that iconic mid-century age but with a modern twist. Colombera says, “We tested myriad lenses and attachments as well as color pipelines to create a unique color palette and a cinematic look. Since it’s a provocative project
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with horror elements, it came naturally that we could experiment more than usual.” Colombera says a DIT’s involvement in keeping the image pipeline running smoothly has become more critical with each project – both creatively and financially. “We are also more involved with lighting technology, which can be a huge time-saver,” he adds. “LED’s have brought another revolution, very similar to the digital one in cameras. They offer total color and intensity control on the light source. On the other end, that revolution has brought several ‘side effects’ due to the different spectrum and wavelength of light that some generations of LED emit. So I’ve been working more closely with gaffers and lighting-console programmers. The almost infinite control of the LED lighting sources and fixtures allows for fine-tuning their emission to perform at its best with the camera model and the image pipeline chosen. This real-time control on both ends – lighting and camera – is unprecedented and has helped us achieve amazing results in a short time.” Colombera calls it a very “exciting and challenging time” for image-makers. “The job of DIT has become broader and more complex,” he offers. “Pretty much everyone has a display on hand, these days – whether it’s a TV, computer, tablet or smartphone. Although I believe that the experience of going to a movie theater is still essential, the quality of distribution and display of media products has set a bar so high, it’s pretty much pushing us to shoot with higher resolution and higher dynamic range cameras to fulfill the needs of 4K HDR displays. “It seems clear that consumer technology leads the way and demands the film and TV industry to comply,” Colombera concludes. “This requires a reliable and standardized image pipeline that efficiently channels the intentions of the filmmakers across borders worldwide. It’s our responsibility and our challenge, as DIT’s, to work with the DP to keep that bar high, and to embrace the right tools to achieve that goal.”
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“It seems clear that consumer technology leads the way and demands the film and TV industry to comply.”
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EXPOSURE
Patty Jenkins DIRECTOR – WONDER WOMAN 1984 BY VALENTINA VALENTINI PHOTOS BY CLAY ENOS
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I find it unlikely that Diana Prince, aka Wonder Woman, gets up every morning and tells her mirror: “I’m a woman and I’m going to struggle because of it.” The DC Comics superhero – created by psychologist-writer and proto-feminist William Moulton Marston – probably has a mantra closer to, “I am strong, I am proficient, I am smart, and am excellent at what I do. Now, let’s go kick some butt!”
Much the same can be gleaned from talking to Wonder Woman 1984 co-writer/director Patty Jenkins. Before 2017’s Wonder Woman, which broke box-office records worldwide, Jenkins was most known for her debut feature, Monster. Four years out of the American Film Institute, with some eight short films in her pocket, Jenkins wrote and directed the dark drama, which swept the film festival and awards circuit, and was rated by Roger Ebert as the best film of that year (2003) and number-three best film of the decade. Jenkins has also directed dozens of commercials and TV shows, including the pilot and final episode of AMC’s The Killing, for which she won a DGA Award; Fox’s Arrested Development; and the pilot episodes for ABC’s Betrayal and Exposed. But before all that, Local 600 crews will recall her career as a Guild camera assistant and focus puller. Over eight years, on mostly music videos and commercials, Jenkins honed her filmmaking skills and unflappable work ethic. I spoke with the film industry’s “real Wonder Woman” about how she thinks more women can get into the seat she’s in, and how being a Union camera assistant was the foundation of her success. Going from camera assistant to director – AFI notwithstanding – is a big jump. How daunting was it? Patty Jenkins: It was all I’d ever wanted to do. I had been a painter, and I crossed over into wanting to make films. But I never wanted to be a cinematographer – it just wasn’t something that I ever considered doing, so it felt like I had no choice but to transition. I loved being a camera person, and I learned so much. But I got to a point where I
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knew that my ultimate goal was to make my films, and I was so busy as a camera person I was never getting any closer to that goal. Going from highend commercials as an assistant to small short films as a director wasn’t daunting – by the time I was making a feature, I’d made about eight short films. Interestingly, when I made Monster, people kept commenting that they were surprised how I never seemed to get tired. I was so confused as to what they meant, and then I realized that shooting every day for 10 years was incredibly helpful for making the transition into directing. Working really hard, for a lot of hours a day, is not something you’re unfamiliar with in the camera department. [Laughs]. Working in camera was a tremendous benefit to where I am now. What were the barriers when you were making that transition? There was every barrier that ever existed. It’s super hard to break into directing for anyone, let alone a woman with no feature experience. I got really lucky that I happened to get into a situation where I wrote Monster. If that hadn’t happened, if I didn’t have that script and Charlize Theron didn’t want to be in it, I don’t know how I would have done it. Every other avenue I looked at – doing TV or getting an internship – was just not available. So, it was very fortunate that I just had the screenplay that people wanted to do. What were the barriers for you to then move into directing a franchise project like Wonder Woman? My pilots had gotten bigger and bigger, so I was used to working at a larger scale. And I’d already
been working in those very high-end commercials as a camera person. But there was still a transition. The most complex thing in making a major film – a superhero movie, which is almost always very effects-heavy – is that you have to be directing it every day, start to finish. From pre-production, you’re already directing it, and all the way into post, you’re still directing it. The biggest thing for me was learning how to plan special and visual effects shots. I needed to get a handle on knowing at what point I had to make that decision and how far in advance I had to plan things, because all of those shots start happening even before you’re shooting. It becomes a very long and complex directing exercise. Do you see similar barriers in the industry now, compared to when you were making your first film? It’s a radically different world, and that is exciting. And I hope that lasts. I will say that just like I got lucky getting to write Monster, I also got very lucky that [Monster] happened to be a sensational B-movie topic – that’s one reason it got made. A woman’s point-of-view story would’ve been almost impossible to get made. But this happened to be about a serial killer and a lesbian, and you could cast two famous women to play something that would be marketable, straight to video at the very least. Why are there still such clear barriers to seeing women as directors? I don’t know. You could be a producer, that’s acceptable somehow, but not a director. People just don’t associate the two things with each other for whatever reason. And, honestly, even after the success of Monster, nobody wanted to make the movies I wanted to make. They all wanted me
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Was there a single most challenging VFX moment for you on this show? It’s actually one I can’t talk about until the film comes out, but there are two scenes that required completely VFX environments that were super-interactive. That was both an unbelievable challenge to shoot and see through all the way to the end, as you have to match lighting of what is happening via LED screens all around the actors, and then create the environments afterwards to match. And make them great-looking! For other sequences, Matt and [VFX Supervisor] John Moffatt and I had to be in sync every step of the way. You all have to be on the same page to pull such things off.
JENKINS LINING UP A SHOT ON LOCATION WITH MATTHEW JENSEN, ASC.
to make their movies, which were all generated from the same stereotypical point of view that I didn’t sync up with. When I had the script of something that I wanted to make, they weren’t even interested in reading it! I felt a real mistrust in women’s creative impulses, as if those were somehow foreign. But, thankfully, a lot of that thinking has changed – there’s more accountability. People are now saying that we need not only different directors, but different points of view. You have worked with many cinematographers – as both an assistant and a director on commercials – and most of them have been men. Do you think there’s an imperative for female directors to hire female DP’s? In theory, of course, because we want gender equity across the board in this industry. But I also feel it’s a complicated conversation because you are always looking for the person who is the exact right fit for that project. And because I hire so many women anyway, I don’t feel like I have to hire anybody in any given department. I happened to have linked up with [Director of Photography] Matt Jensen [ASC], and he and I have the type of working relationship that I love, and I love those results. So, in our case, we just happened to have a good thing going, but certainly, I have considered and loved other female DP’s and think that that would be a great set to be on. Wonder Woman broke box-office records. Was that your “I made it!” moment? I’ve had those moments of stepping back and saying, “Wow, I cannot believe this is happening.” Interestingly, as the first woman
to direct a movie of that size, it was sort of a given that the movie was going to make more money. But it exceeded those expectations, and that was a surreal and magical moment. Was Wonder Woman 1984 always a given, or was that directly because the first one was so successful? Both. I was already planning it in my mind and working on what I thought the idea would be. Of course, the studio wouldn’t have made a second one if the first one did poorly, so…[laughs]. [Laughs.] Certainly not if you’re a woman… Exactly. And often there’s that thing of women not getting asked to do the follow-up even when they made a successful movie in the first place; somebody else would come in and do the sequel. So, it wasn’t a given, but it was something that I totally believed was going to happen. Along with having a story and co-screenplay credit on WW84, you’re a named producer [as is Gal Gadot]. Neither of you was a producer for the first film. Is that something important for directors to consider when signing onto projects? It depends. In my case, I’m very involved in every step of production, so it makes sense. Some directors aren’t interested in being bothered with all those other, sometimes non-creative details, and I feel both ways are valid. I’ve enjoyed not being a producer on things where you can just focus on what you’re doing, but in the case of Wonder Woman 1984, I was doing the job anyway. So, it was important for me to get that credit.
Do you use previsualization for the most complex VFX scenes? We absolutely previsualize for almost everything complex, or have very clear story boards if not. That doesn’t mean that a lot doesn’t happen on the day. Non CG and real incamera effects change things, and you have to work the other way around. But having a clear plan is your best bet for making things look great. It also allows VFX the most time to work on shots, because they can be doing a lot of the R&D phase of building elements and methods even before you shoot the scene or shot. Some people come into these movies wanting to wing it and not have previs, but I strongly suggest they reconsider that model, because on these films it’s the other way around of what you might think. Previs does not lock you in and hold you back from directing. It is your only shot to direct beautifully and allow yourself the time to make things look great. There are still very few women entrusted with blockbuster franchises. What’s your best advice for women to break that glass ceiling and direct big-budget films? Well, having a rigorous technical background, as I did in camera, is a huge benefit. And I think that that’s true for anybody, male or female, but I definitely think it made the difference in my career. This is such a technical art form, and I’ve seen a lot of women directors be discounted because of the belief that they won’t handle all the technology. It’s absurd, but it’s just there. The truth is, I worry just as much about male directors being given an [undeserved] shot; like writers directing a first project and it’s a tentpole film. That baffles me, because it’s such a technical job. You need to understand so much about filmmaking to maintain a level of control on set and create a smooth experience for everyone on these movies. My advice would be to tune-out the gender thing and throw yourself into being an absolutely proficient technical director, who understands as much as you can about how everything works. That’s what I have seen in common with most of the directors who succeed in these kinds of movies. They’ve had a long education and are comfortable with all of the different aspects of filmmaking. Be rigorous about it.
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BACK... TH E DE MI G O D D ES S F RO M T HE MYSCIR A, WHO BR OK E BOX O FFI C E R EC O RD S ( AND T HE GE N DE R CE IL IN G FO R S UPERHERO MOVI ES ) , S OA RS B AC K IN TO T HE AT E R S – AN D 1980S A M ERICA .
BY: VALENTINA VA L E NT INI PHOTOS BY CL AY E NO S
FRAMEGRABS C OURT ESY OF WAR NER B R OS .
Wonder Woman, the first superhero franchise with a female protagonist to open in theaters, exceeded all expectations for its distributor, Warner Bros., when it opened in 2017.
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The period story, set during World War I, was so successful, the question of a sequel was not if but when. That day has (almost) arrived with Wonder Woman 1984, originally slated to open in March but rescheduled several times due to COVID-19 and now on track for a late December release. WW84, the ninth installment in the DC Extended Universe, is also a period story but set in a time and place with which its director of photography, Matthew Jensen, ASC (who returns with Patty Jenkins again directing), is very familiar. “I grew up near Alexandria, Virginia,” Jensen reflects. “In 1984, I was 12 years old, so, unlike the first movie, this is a world for which I have direct visual references.” In Wonder Woman 1984, Princess Diana (Gal Gadot), who hails from the island nation of Themyscira, populated by Amazon women, is ensconced in Washington D.C. as her alter ego, Diana Prince, where she faces off with two new foes – Cheetah (Kristin Wiig) and Max Lord (Pedro Pascal) – threatening the safety of the world. As in the first film, we are shown glimpses of Diana’s childhood in Themyscira, with the added story point of her reuniting with Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), her Americanpilot boyfriend believed to be killed in the first film. For WW84, Jensen’s fourth superherofocused film (including Chronicle and Fantastic Four), the DP took a low-key visual approach, which seems to be counterintuitive to a project of such massive size and scope. “It was the opposite problem with the first Wonder Woman,” Jensen states. “For that film we were dealing with a desaturated world, in terms of the sets and wardrobe, and had to re-introduce color. Here, my basic philosophy was to light the actors in a clean, neutral, and glamorous way while keeping those bold colors in the background; we wanted the actors to stand out from that environment, without overloading the visuals with an assault of neon-type lighting and color palette.” Jensen’s chief lighting technicians, led by Chris Prampin for the U.S. portion and David Sinfield for the international shoot, stuck to primary colors in the background, coming up with clever ways to introduce red, green, and blue lighting with fixtures. Close coordination with the art department and wardrobe was required because both had swathes of bold color within their palettes. Adds Jensen: “I just felt like the less I did, the more that their work would show up and would add to the overall look.” Jenkins (Exposure, page 32) who, with Wonder Woman, became the first woman to direct a studio-led superhero movie, had met Jensen on a dark comedy she was preparing to shoot in 2016. Jensen’s work on Filth (2013), shot on Kodak 35 mm, which she wanted to use for her first blockbuster, impressed her. His superhero movie experience was also a plus. “Matt would have shot that dark comedy,”
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Jenkins recounts. “But I ended up [shifting gears to] Wonder Woman, which had much bigger challenges. I knew I needed someone like Matt who had done these epic-type films. I also knew his work was incredible – on Chronicle, in particular, I thought the VFX and cinematography were beautifully blended.” “Patty keeps me on my toes,” Jensen smiles. “She made it impossible to get complacent with the look or to ride the coattails of the first film. And we learned a lot from that first movie about what works well for this particular franchise. I certainly was very familiar with the actors and how to shoot them, but everything else was new.” The most dramatic change, capture-wise, for WW84, which, like Wonder Woman, was shot on film, was the addition of the IMAX format, which bookended two larger-thanlife sequences. The decision to shoot IMAX was partly due to one of the film’s producers, Oscar-nominee Chuck Roven, who had used the format on The Dark Knight movies. “As tricky as IMAX is,” Jensen notes, “the results are stunning. You get all the clarity and sharpness associated with digital, yet you have that color fidelity that only film has; you
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have the benefit of film lenses and that great cinematic depth-of-field fall-off. It’s mindblowing.” First AC Ray Milazzo, who assisted on 90 percent of the IMAX capture for Chris Nolan’s action film Tenet (ICG Magazine, August 2020) and had worked with Jensen on Fantastic Four and I Am the Night, agrees. “I don’t think in our lifetime we’ll see a 15-perf digital sensor, so IMAX is your main option if you want to go with a larger format.” Milazzo says there are challenges, but not because of the format itself. “It’s expensive, it has to be custom ordered, it can’t be returned, and Kodak needs at least a four-week lead to create the stock, which, of course, only gives three minutes of filming time for every 1,000 feet of 15-perf,” he relates. “Logistically it’s big and cumbersome,” adds Milazzo, who shot all of the 35mm portions of WW84 and the D.C. portion of the IMAX sequences, and worked in tandem with U.K. 1st AC Sam Barnes for a smooth transition. “Of course, you can also put [IMAX] into aerials, on a gyro, even on your shoulder if you want; you can do almost anything with it now. I just think people are apprehensive about it at the beginning.” Jensen and Jenkins wanted to shoot the
entire project on 65mm 5-perf for added clarity and resolution; but when that proved to have financial and logistical barriers, they decided to pick specific sequences to shoot in large format. Once IMAX was confirmed for the opening and closing sequences, 65mm 5-perf was used to augment the dialogue portion of those IMAX sequences. And the two formats blended easily in the DI. The bulk of WW84 was shot on Kodak Vision3 50D 5203, 250D 5207, and 500T 5219, creating a distinct jump in resolution between the IMAX 1.90:1 aspect ratio and the 2.39:1 of anamorphic 35mm , and necessitating a 4K finish to ease those transitions. ALEXA 65 was used for an underwater section in the opening IMAX sequence, and ALEXA XT for a scene at the Lincoln Memorial at night, as well as inside the L’Enfant Plaza metro station. In both locations, strict restrictions prevented Jensen from lighting to the degree he needed for film, so a 1280 ISO was necessary, easily handled by the ALEXA XT’s sensor. International filming, which included the Canary Islands and Almería, Spain, was handled by the mainly U.K.-based crew. While the Washington D.C. unit featured a Local 600 team, A-Camera Operator Simon Jayes, SOC, accompanied Jensen overseas. Production
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meetings began right after Wonder Woman was released, along with the first IMAX tests; shooting wrapped in December 2018 with some additional photography over summer 2019 and coloring in November. “We went through a rigorous testing process to outline our workflow, as it’s complex when you’re mixing these formats,” Jensen explains. “We looked at The Dark Knight and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Dunkirk and other Warner Bros. movies that had used IMAX, and how they presented in the theater. That 1.90 on an IMAX screen feels like your peripheral vision is suddenly filled with image and then shrinks back down, so we worked to make that jump less perceptible.” Ultimately, the mix of formats led to an all-4K release, which added another layer
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of configuring to the pipeline. Warner Bros. Postproduction Supervisor Tim Grover, whose credits include the Fantastic Beasts films, Paddington 2 and Edge of Tomorrow, came on early in prep to help with budgeting, scheduling, and lab-coordinating. “Thirtyfive millimeter is straightforward,” Grover describes. “It’s just a matter of shooting on it, scanning once in 4K at Company 3, using those as our master files for rushes and the digital intermediate. The 65 millimeter and IMAX film were more complicated.” With various ways to accomplish the blended formats, WW84 ultimately sent its film negative to FotoKem LA for processing, then scanned that footage at 2K as a temporary resolution on a pin-registered scanner, all of which meant a delay in seeing dailies. In some
instances, the process took several weeks, and the more material shot in 65mm, the further behind the team got. “The good thing,” adds Grover, “is that we had video assist that allowed the editors to cut with the video taps. They pretty much knew what they had, but official rushes clearance was not available until the negative had been processed and scanned, and no prints were made.” Once dailies finally came, the editorial team would overlay with the video taps to cut and screen at a higher quality. Then the negative was rescanned at 8K to be used for visual effects plates. With that locked cut, nonVFX 65mm was also scanned at 8K for the DI. De-spotting, an extremely time-consuming but necessary step to get the film cleaned to a high enough standard for the 2D 4K DCP’s,
TOP: MATTHEW JENSEN, ASC, SAYS DIRECTOR JENKINS (ABOVE) MADE IT “IMPOSSIBLE TO GET COMPLACENT WITH THE LOOK OR TO RIDE THE COATTAILS OF THE FIRST FILM.” OPPOSITE: JENKINS SAYS WW84 HAD THE OPPOSITE CHALLENGE TO THE DESATURATED WORLD OF THE FIRST FILM. “HERE, MY BASIC PHILOSOPHY WAS TO LIGHT THE ACTORS IN A CLEAN, NEUTRAL, AND GLAMOROUS WAY WHILE KEEPING THOSE BOLD COLORS IN THE BACKGROUND,” JENSEN EXPLAINS.
3D DCP’s, IMAX, and Dolby Vision 2D/3D DCP’s, plus home-entertainment releases, was also employed. “Patty loves the look of film,” notes Grover. “Especially its sense of movement. The pans in digital particularly bother her. But, of course, these days, it’s time-consuming to do it all on film, with labs who’ve pared-down over recent years. Thank goodness we still have skilled staff who can do it. Because it was definitely worth the effort.” Jensen describes Jenkins as a “method director,” meaning if the story calls for a battle scene on Pennsylvania Avenue or Amazons honing their skills on Themyscira, Jenkins wants to shoot those moments in
Washington D.C. and on a tropical island, while keeping the CGI portions as seamless as possible. In that respect, VFX supervisor John Moffatt and his team of hundreds were on the same page. “VFX is always trying to communicate clearly across every single department so that we don’t end up in a conversation at the end where the director [isn’t happy],” describes Moffatt, whose credits include five of the Harry Potter films, United 93 and Atonement. “I think there are many interpretations when someone tells me they want as little VFX as possible. My job is to understand what that means to them and why they’re saying that. In this instance, it meant that if we could shoot it practically, we would.” In fact, Jenkins began planning shots
many months out to ensure as much of the film could be done in-camera as possible – a holdover, perhaps, from her days as a Local 600 camera assistant. One such example was a location Moffatt scouted in Spain’s Masca Valley (chosen by Jenkins as a location for the opening shot of Themyscira), where maps of the area helped to build a previsualization of the scene, which in turn allowed Moffatt to help plot the helicopter’s course for VFX plates. Working with Aerial Director of Photography Jeremy Braben, Moffatt rigged an IMAX film camera to the Shotover helicopter mount for specific backplates, to which he later added matte-painted elements and full CG environments. IMAX tiles of various valleys were also captured to help create distant views seen from within the stadium scene looking
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out to the island. “If what was shot practically needed changing or augmenting,” Moffatt continues, “then we’d always have it to use as a benchmark and the look-book as reference. What we try bringing to the table in VFX is knowing what the reference is for every single scene. If we’re not on the same page, literally, then we’re going to reach a point somewhere in the DI when I’m presenting a shot as a final in the visual effects review, and the director is going to say, ‘That’s not what I wanted because it doesn’t look like what we shot.’” As for Jensen’s aim to ground the movie in simplicity, it was particularly apparent with camera movement. Jensen says he wanted it to be reminiscent of movies from that period – Steven Spielberg movies in particular. References included Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark. Both he and Jenkins sought that epic Spielbergian style, which often excelled at making technique invisible. “Those movies did that so well,” Jensen insists. “The modern approach is much more self-reflective, where the camera’s aware of itself. Spielberg routinely did longer shots – Raiders of the Lost Ark is made up of quite a few long takes, but you don’t realize it.” Jensen wasn’t necessarily capturing very long takes, mostly 60 to 90 seconds, which operator Jayes says isn’t common for action movies. “The goal was to let the action unfold in-camera rather than through cuts,” reflects Jayes, who has worked with Jensen and Jenkins on I Am the Night, and with Jensen on a few seasons of True Blood. One prime example is the opening mall sequence, shot in Alexandria, VA in a recently closed mall that featured 60 stores. When Diana bursts into the mall to confront a group of baddies, we see a series of classic Spielberglike camera moves – long tracking shots with handoffs in which the camera flows from a character’s face down to what they’re holding and back up to their face and then pans across the room to see a bad guy in the background.
“We were working on multiple planes of action,” Jensen describes. “Something else we noticed about those 1980s action movies was that many seemed to want to place the viewer into the action like you’re witnessing this spectacular action from a normal person’s point of view. So, we’d have a shot of Wonder Woman from the point of view of one of the mall bystanders.” Adds Jayes: “It was a choice not to be aware of camera movements, and to place [the camera] where the action was unfolding. Rather than unmotivated camera moves, which call attention to the filmmaking, there were more handoffs between story points as the camera followed the action.” Throughout the film, Jayes and his team used dozens of different tools to support the wide array of camera systems they were employing. In the mall, specifically, they got a lot of use from the Libra remote head for wire work, as Diana lassos herself from one floor to another. For other tracking shots, they utilized Super-Technocranes and electric Patriot Camera Cars, as well as dollies. For the rest of the shoot in Europe, they relied heavily on a Maximus 7 remote head for A camera. “I’m not sure I’ve ever been on a project that has used such a wide range of equipment and specialized rigs,” Jayes concludes. “I’m forever grateful to the teams who made that all possible, especially [U.S. Key Grip] Walter ‘Bud’ Scott and [U.K. Key Grip] Kevin Fraser.” Jenkins herself can’t overstate the importance of collaborative teamwork in helping to bring Wonder Woman back to the big screen. “I [want] everybody talking constantly. I used to be very one-on-one with my creative meetings and a bit private about the process,” she concludes. “But making these big movies, I’ve realized that having creative meetings in front of everybody becomes so important because somebody down the line might have to carry something through, and if they’re hearing you and the DP talk about it, they can better understand the intention of things; and that’s a real benefit.”
LEFT: A-CAMERA OPERATOR SIMON JAYES AND HIS TEAM USED DOZENS OF SUPPORT TOOLS, I.E. A LIBRA REMOTE HEAD FOR WIRE WORK IN A VIRGINIA MALL, AS DIANA LASSOS TO DIFFERENT LEVELS. “I’M NOT SURE I’VE EVER BEEN ON A PROJECT THAT HAS USED SUCH A WIDE RANGE OF EQUIPMENT AND SPECIALIZED RIGS,” SAYS JAYES.
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LOCAL 600 CREW U.S. MAIN UNIT Director of Photography Matthew Jensen, ASC A-Camera/Steadicam Operator Simon Jayes, SOC A-Camera 1st AC Ray Milazzo A-Camera 2nd AC Blake Collins B-Camera Operator Jamie Sterba, SOC B-Camera 1st AC Eric Guerin B-Camera 2nd AC Seth Gallagher C-Camera Operator Brooks Robinson, SOC C-Camera 1st AC Patrick McArdle C-Camera 2nd AC Michael Panczenko IMAX Tech Scott Smith DIT Eduardo Eguia Loader Kalli Kouf Digital Utility Danny Caporaletti Still Photographer Clay Enos Unit Publicist Lee Anne Muldoon U.S. 2ND UNIT Director of Photography Tim Wooster A-Camera Operator Christopher Moseley A-Camera 1st AC Mark Bain Loader Mike Prior PICTURED: (L TO R) TOBY HEFFERMAN, FIRST AD / PATTY JENKINS, DIRECTOR / KEVIN FRASURE, KEY GRIP / SAM BARNES, 1STÂ ASSISTANT CAMERA PHOTO BY CLAY ENOS
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N I G MONSTERLAND’S NIMBLE GUILD CAMERA TEAM HELPS TO VISUALIZE TERRORS BOTH FANTASTICAL AND HUMAN; SHEARING OPEN THE HEART OF MODERN-DAY AMERICA.
G H T BY: M A RGOT CAR MICHAEL LESTER
PH OTO S BY B AR B AR A NITKE / HULU
“Having a pelican come out of a man’s stomach – that takes some planning.”
That quip, from Eagle Egilsson, ASC, a director and executive producer of the new Hulu series Monsterland, gives you some idea of the unique perspective of this supernatural anthology, developed by writer/producer Mary Laws (Succession, Preacher, The Neon Demon). With its focus on incredible tales, a strong visual aesthetic, and visual/special effects, Monsterland, shot by Local 600 Directors of Photography Anette Haellmigk and Anka Malatynska, required a talented, agile crew and seamless processes. 58
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“I love the horror genre, but I so often find that horror on screen is just a series of cheap thrills and jump scares,” Laws reflects. “I’m deeply inspired by films like Repulsion and Rosemary’s Baby and Get Out – horror that grapples with a difficult subject or offers an insight into human life. I was drawn to [the source material] Nathan Ballingrud’s North American Lake Monsters because the stories were so deeply human. The book offered a way to talk about real people and real issues inside of the genre…the complicated nature of being human. You can do terrible things, but that doesn’t necessarily make you a monster. Or does it? This question is at the heart of the series.” That question is also what appealed to Haellmigk, a two-time Emmy nominee and a three-time ASC Award nominee, for Game of Thrones. “It’s very different from what I’ve seen,” she offers. “It’s not like a horror show. It’s much deeper and touches your inner core in a not totally comfortable way. It’s real but it’s not real. You can relate to it.”
BELOW: OF THE SHOW’S “MAGICAL REALISM” APPROACH, MALATYNSKA SAYS THE REALISM IS FROM “A SUBDUED SINGLESOURCE LOOK, AND THE MAGIC FROM MORE UNMOTIVATED SOURCES THAT MANIFEST AS SHAFTS OF LIGHT,” NOT UNLIKE A GREGORY CREWDSON-ESQUE BACKLIGHT.
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The visual language for Monsterland began in the writers’ room, where, as Laws explains, “in addition to story ideas, we surrounded ourselves with art and imagery that inspired the language of the show. Screenwriting is three-dimensional, and I try to encourage all the writers to put on paper what they see in their heads. Specific, visual writing is the jumping-off point for the cinematographer, director, and designers who come into the conversation after the script is written.” The production team blended those written cues with inspiration from the dreamlike (or perhaps nightmarish?) images of still photographers Gregory Crewdson and Todd Hido to create “visually stunning moments that are juxtaposed against a very normal, recognizable world,” Laws adds. “Having that foundation helped to greatly influence the nuances of our design throughout the season,” shares Production Designer Ola Maslik. “We designed with the mindset of being very deliberate in our spaces. This helped the otherworldly creatures come to life.”
The anthology format also created the opportunity to bring on eight different directors, each possessing a strong, individualistic voice. “Being that each episode was so unique, the show and our mindset ended up morphing into creating eight mini-movies,” Maslik adds. The major visual touchpoints were captured on a board in the production office to guide directors in adapting the foundational elements to their vision. Haellmigk says Sony VENICE with Leica Summilux lenses was chosen as the capture system to better accommodate the tight schedule, multiple locations, and available light for interiors and night exteriors. “The VENICE protects the shadows and lets go of some of the highlights,” Haellmigk explains. “When you work with an experienced colorist, you can bring it back with beautiful results. I work a lot with Optimo zooms as primes, and brought that [setup] onto Game of Thrones. On Monsterland, we had a full set of primes, but on these schedules, you have to
make adjustments quickly. The time it takes to change the lens – we can achieve the same look with little zooms.” Monsterland’s look most closely resembles magical realism, which mirrors the narrative. Malatynska, whose camera operating credits before she moved over to the DP’s chair included HBO’s Emmy-winning comedy Insecure and reality hits like The X-Factor and RuPaul’s Drag Race, explains that the realism is from “a subdued single-source look, and the magic from more unmotivated sources that manifest as shafts of light,” not unlike a Crewdson-esque backlight. Base patterns – single-direction soft sidelight, limited fill, and withheld drastic backlight – established the feel for most of the action. “Unless, of course, it was all backlight or shafts of light. That was always a signifier of the monster in some way,” Malatynska states. Chief Lighting Technician Richard Ulivella prepped with Haellmigk to establish the light
patterns and ideas that were repeated through the anthology. “We visited LiteGear for a demo, tested various ideas, reviewed look-books, and got some extra time visiting our bigger locations,” Ulivella remembers. Camera moves drive home the emotion behind the action. “As the tension would build, we would move the camera in ways to emphasize it,” describes A-Camera Operator/2nd Unit DP Rachael Levine, SOC. “We would be classical when needed and handheld when it was necessary to respond to the actors more organically. Each episode found its own rhythm.” Like a scene from Episode 101, “Port Fourchon, LA,” when Toni (Kaitlyn Dever) enters the coastal waters. Shot in New York in late October (cue cold temps, rainy skies, and a rising tide), the crew, led by Haellmigk, had to quickly change the blocking for a critical crane shot. “Most of the sequence is shot on a Libra Head mounted on a Technocrane, except for the elements right on the beach, which were
handheld,” describes 1st AC Andy Hamilton. “Bill Jones made some incredible moves on the crane, all while fighting the elements. We were wet and freezing by the end of the night, but still got some great shots.” Steadicam Operator Billy Green, SOC recalls another sequence in Episode 102, “Eugene, OR” (also shot by Haellmigk), in which Nick (Charlie Tahan) searches for an unwelcome guest in his home. “It involved a number of different Steadicam moves and configurations that followed him throughout the tense scene,” Green explains. “There were some eerily slow moves, fast moves with abrupt stops, counter moves, low-mode-to-high-mode shots, et cetera. The nice medley of shot styles helped build the scene.” The season finale, Episode 108, “Newark, NJ,” even boasted several lens drops, with one being on Steadicam. “Since we were in low mode on the Steadicam and because we used the ARRI 8R lens – you can see the whole world with that thing – we had to remove the matte box and rods,” Green adds. Hamilton and Key
BELOW: HAELLMIGK USED SONY VENICE BEACUSE “IT PROTECTS THE SHADOWS AND LETS GO OF SOME OF THE HIGHLIGHTS. WHEN YOU WORK WITH AN EXPERIENCED COLORIST, YOU CAN BRING IT BACK WITH BEAUTIFUL RESULTS.” TRIEU TRAN IN EPISODE 106 “PALACIOS / PHOTO BY CRAIG BLANKENHORN / HULU
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Grip Kevin Lowry snuck into the room as Green started settling into his final position. “Kevin unlocked the PL mount and Andy took the lens off. I held the Steadicam with my legs to prevent it from flying upwards – because of the change in weight – and continued to sway the camera until the lens was fully removed. Special shout-out to our dolly grip, Sally Foster, for making sure this all went according to plan during the shot.” Levine observes that being entrusted with the role of 2nd Unit DP, is always an honor. “I’ve been encouraged to push higher with my skills,” the longtime operator notes. “People like Andrij Parekh, on Succession, and now with Anette, Anka, and Mary Laws on Monsterland. It’s often a struggle for women operators to gain ground, so to be supported by this [female] creative team with second unit was amazing.” Challenges for 2nd Unit on the series mostly revolved around gear. “Tight budgets and schedules mean making the best of what we can afford,” Levine continues. “I remember being on a rig shooting car-to-car without any follow-focus or filter package. Thankfully it was a sunny day, which allowed plenty of depth of field to keep the mermaid’s tail in focus,” she smiles. “For the interior with Charlie in Episode 102 [“Eugene, OR”], we were running out of daylight and didn’t have a full lighting package. It was hard to match bright sunlight streaks and keep the cinematography consistent – without any big elements to match on the turn-around. We rolled with it, and in the end, you couldn’t even tell the shot was a miss [laughs.] And Charlie’s acting was so phenomenal, no one will ever notice the light changed.” With a quick production pace (about 10 days per episode), careful collaboration and frictionless workflows were needed to ensure creative intent on set translated to the screen. Haellmigk set the look with Senior Colorist Joe Finley at SIM Los Angeles – Rob Sciarratta, senior colorist at SIM New York, refined looks and finished the episodes. That image pipeline was essential since the color space of the onset SDR image was different from the HDR color space used in the online edit. Explains Malatynska: “Without specific color control that ensures the intent on set is preserved, you can end up with a show that looks nothing like what the DP intended. There is so much room in the HDR that unless you have controls, you might not recognize the end result if [postproduction] doesn’t know the DP’s intent.” Continuity was ensured because Ulivella and DIT Ted Viola had their eyes on the color and lighting across all episodes. “It was and always is imperative to ensure that creative intent on set is preserved throughout the chain,” Viola relates. “The most important factor in creating a workflow with two DP’s is
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consistency: the ability to quickly view what you’ve already shot, what’s next, and how they match or compare to what’s coming.” Also crucial is being aware of any departure from the look, when needed, and if/when that may require correction. Viola used Pomfort Live Grade for CDL’s and creating the base LUT, which was modified during pre-production and tests. He worked closely with Kimberly Rudolph, SIM International’s general manager, on the workflow path and calibration. Early on, they used the UltiMote system for full control of the cameras. Viola’s DIT cart also featured two 24-inch Flanders CM250 monitors. He used DaVinci Resolve for full-resolution still capture and for reviewing stills from SIM after the shooting day was complete and before dailies were delivered. “We compared as we went from episode to episode,” Viola continues. “Anette and Anka had a threshold for how far we could go with color and contrast. Having Rich in the tent with Kevin, Anette, and/or Anka was key, as that way BELOW: A-CAMERA OPERATOR/2ND UNIT DP RACHEL LEVINE, SOC (BEHIND CAMERA WITH ANKA MALATSYNSKA AND DIRECTOR BABAK ANVARI TO HER LEFT) SAYS THE CAMERAWORK WAS “CLASSICAL WHEN NEEDED AND HANDHELD WHEN IT WAS NECESSARY TO RESPOND TO THE ACTORS MORE ORGANICALLY. EACH EPISODE FOUND ITS OWN RHYTHM.” OPPOSITE PAGE/BOTTOM: LAUREN MILLS IN EPISODE 107 “IRON RIVER, MI” SHOT BY ANKA MALATYNSKA.
Malatynska says the episode is the most “out-of-the-box” she’s ever done. “I feel it’s my ode to Vilmos Zsigmond’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I worked with [BAFTA Award winner] Babak Anvari, whose feature directing I admire greatly. I think we achieved something that has a unique, powerful visual language that pushes boundaries while meticulously supporting the narrative arc of the story.” “Anka had to come totally prepared with a plan to get this sequence quickly without cutting corners on such a cinematic moment,” Laws concludes. “It was a magical night on set where everyone, from the PA’s to the AD’s to the actors to the SFX operators, were working in perfect rhythm to get this scene done on time. I get emotional thinking about it even now, because moments like those are why I do what I do. That’s the essence of filmmaking – when everyone is working in perfect harmony toward the same goal.”
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we were all in the loop.” Because they could make live adjustments, often snuck in as a subtle fade or transition, Ulivella says he “rarely had to send a lamp op somewhere to tweak something at the last moment. We learned right away the value of the wireless control. Chuan-Chi Chan, my programmer, is an absolute wizard on the console with great timing, a sharp eye for color, and a great design sense of her own,” Ulivella praises. Ulivella’s team, and his facility with LED’s, made intricate and complicated lighting setups doable despite the tight schedule. “Richard was the master of pulling off complex light cues at 5 a.m. when we had an hour left to shoot,” Malatynska smiles. “I would give him references for the feel of the scene, or the direction of the light, and ask him to use the same units and gel patterns from the [other] episodes to keep that anthology feeling like it’s all happening in the same world.” Episode 108, “Newark, NJ” (lensed by Malatynska), called for ambitious setups in terms of scale and concept. “We had everything from alien interdimensional portals to theatrical stage lighting to one of our many tricky locations with tight spaces and limited access for even small lifts,” Ulivella recalls. “That turned into one of the most rewarding episodes to make.” Mole Beams created a column-of-light effect, and a theatrical light from Clay Paky, called the Mythos II, produced the thin pillar of light from above in the audience seats. The rest was achieved with follow-spots and the house rig at the Kings Theater. The special-effects team was also called upon to make complicated effects fast. As Makeup Effects Department Head Jake Garber, an on-set rep for KNB EFX Group, Inc., explains: “On a show like this, there’s no time to fly out as necessary. You need to be there on set to explain the processes and how things could be shot to look better. There are limitations to what we can do, so if it’s shot a certain way we can hide any sins that might be present due to our short build time.” One such example is the “water spirit” in Episode 106, “Palacios, TX.” “The mermaid was pretty neat,” Garber admits. “There are a lot of places to hide things on the suit with scale patterns and long hair, and you can do a lot of digital clean-up. But when you’re working in water, there are safety issues with electricity and hypothermia beyond the usual accommodations for comfort, safety, movement, and bodily functions. That was a lot to consider.” Ditto that crazy bird Egilsson mentioned in the opening of this story. In Episode 104, “New York, NY,” a man cuts his stomach open, and a demonic pelican emerges and flies out the window. The sequence was achieved with a combination of FX makeup,
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puppetry and CGI. The sequence was shot in less than half a day. “It’s nothing but hard work in episodic, and the expectation is that you’ll get work done in a certain number of hours and days,” relates Egilsson, who directed the episode, which was shot in seven-and-a-half days. “You have to come in with a plan. Page by page, scene by scene. Having people around you with the same attitude and outlook makes it easier. We didn’t even go over our hours.” Another difficult SFX moment occurred in the season finale (“Newark, NJ”). At the story’s climax, an angel slits its throat and covers two naked lovers in a flood of magic blood. “Keep in mind this is a practical location, so special effects had to build a trough to protect the living room’s hardwood floor from the deluge,” Malatynska explains. “It’s a very sensitive scene that necessitated an intimacy coordinator, as the special effects didn’t really allow for a closed set. On top of it we only had one shot at the first pour because once the living room was covered in blood after the first take, we just didn’t have the time or the budget to reset for a safety take.” Camera and effects had to be on their games. “Whenever we were doing a blood gag, the camera guys always asked where the blood was going to go,” Garber laughs. “It’s a legit question and I always have to say, ‘It’s an organic event.’ We can determine with 60 to 70 percent accuracy where it will go, but that’s a big variable. If you’ve got a gallon of liquid going at you, you’d better just bag the equipment.”
ABOVE: A-CAMERA OPERATOR/2ND UNIT DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY RACHEL LEVINE, SOC / PHOTO BY PATRICK HARBRON BOTTOM: B-CAMERA OPERATOR/STEADICAM BILLY GREEN, SOC OPERATING THE CAMERA SLIDER ON EPISODE 105 IN PLAINFIELD, IL. PHOTO BY BARBARA NITKE
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LOCAL 600 CREW SEASON 1 Directors of Photography Anette Haellmigk Anka Malatynska A-Camera Operator/ 2nd Unit Director of Photography Rachael Levine, SOC A-Camera 1st AC Andrew Hamilton A-Camera 2nd AC Corey Licameli B-Camera Operator/Steadicam Billy Green, SOC B-Camera 1st AC James Daly B-Camera 2nd AC Andrea Bias DIT Ted Viola Loaders Anjela Coviaux Billy Holmani Utility Yev Shrayber Still Photographers Barbara Nitke Patrick Harbron PHOTO BY PATRICK HARBRON
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REAR PRE-VISUALIZATION COMES INTO ITS OWN IN THE AGE OF COMPLEX DIGITAL WORKFLOWS. BY: D E BR A KAU F M A N
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FRAMEGRABS THIS PAGE COURTESY OF THE THIRD FLOOR
The Mandalorian’s Creator/Executive Producer Jon Favreau is a maestro of what he calls “virtual cinema,” so Director of Photography Barry “Baz” Idoine knew he would be deeply involved in previsualization for Season 2 of the wildly popular Disney+ TV series. As Idoine remarks: “Previs is a valuable tool for understanding how the written word transforms into a visual language. But it was also important for us to understand how to use – to the greatest creative extent possible – the digital content on the LED screens. We could fully understand what shots were needed to tell the story and how we would execute them.”
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The Third Floor has been the show’s dedicated previs team since Season 1, responsible for blocking and visualization of the scenes in every episode. Its artists have used virtual production tools and The Third Floor’s realtime workflow in Epic Games’ Unreal Engine to collaborate with the directors, production design team and directors of photography to execute their creative visions. “Unlike a 2D drawing, we could truly evaluate the scale and proportion of how it looked through a lens,” Idoine says. “The director, in consultation with the cinematographer, could block a scene with digi-doubles inside those sets.” Previs, he says, “made it much more efficient” and able to optimize the digital sets. With previs, Idoine and Mandalorian Pilot Director of Photography Greig Fraser, ASC, ACS, could play with the lighting in the digital environment. “It gave us the chance to fully exploit the lighting scenarios,” Idoine adds. “The more we understood how we would block and shoot the scene, the more we could digitally adjust the quality, shape, and direction of the light. We were able to do any type of camera move in any setting with a very accurate representation of the lenses. Every day, we’d line-up the shots, and it was beautiful to see.” This type of ideal scenario The Mandalorian employed, with the director of photography intimately involved in previs, hasn’t been the norm. Previs has historically been an earlyphase endeavor, as artists come on to work with directors in pre-production or even during pitching. It has also frequently been focused on complicated VFX sequences. By the time the director of photography joins the production, the previsualization is often finished or the approach to a VFX scene already conceived. “The earlier everyone can collaborate, the better,” says The Third Floor Cofounder/Visual Effects Supervisor Eric Carney. “We would love to collaborate with the DP from the beginning, but if the production doesn’t schedule it, they’re not available for the process.” But, as The Mandalorian proves, that paradigm is changing. A director or producer who embraces previs as a creative tool (think James Cameron) is much more likely to involve the director of photography in the previs phase. Matthew Jensen, ASC, who worked with Idoine on The Mandalorian’s second season, says that “Jon [Favreau] was emphatic in getting us involved early in the process, so I had a better idea of what was needed.” Jensen notes that even dialogue scenes were previsualized for Favreau, “to make sure the visual language was in the style of the show,” he continues. “It would give Jon a firm idea of where we were headed. The actors could still add things in a dialogue scene, but it gave them and us a structure to work from.” Jensen agrees with Idoine that previs made for a more efficient shooting day. “It helped us to zero-in on exactly what we needed, so we tended not to waste a lot of time over-covering the scene,” Jensen adds.
“We would encounter a problem on set, and I’d know how to go around it more nimbly than if I’d just been handed a previs. For me, it’s opened up a whole new way to prep. The style is more cohesive when I’m involved at an earlier stage.” The art/science of previsualization has gone through a few technology inflection points from its genesis back to silent films. Disney Studios is credited with being the first to use storyboards in the late 1920s, in which scenes and gags would be sketched out. With affordable video in the 1970s, the video animatic became one of the first major paradigm shifts. That was overtaken by the advent of digital tools – nonlinear editing, desktop computers, and nascent 3D software. Some of the earliest previs took place at places like Industrial Light & Magic, which was already pushing the boundaries of computer-generated imagery, and in close partnership with directors like George Lucas. In fact, veterans of Lucasfilm founded two of Hollywood’s major previsualization studios, Halon Entertainment and The Third Floor. Both companies have embraced the latest wave in previs: real-time game engines from Epic Games (Unreal Engine) and Unity Technologies. According to Halon Entertainment Head of Production Richard Enriquez, the company (founded by Dan Gregoire in 2003) adopted Unreal Engine as a core component of its pipeline in 2015. “At the time, real-time artists were specialists, and productions didn’t necessarily want to absorb additional costs when the old paradigm was serving them well,” Enriquez describes. “But with forwardthinking partners like [Visual Effects Producer] Ryan Stafford seeing the potential of real-time workflows, we were able to tackle specific cinematic needs, while our development team knocked out visualization-specific tools to make it all hum.” Halon Entertainment’s first feature film project with the Unreal pipeline was War for the Planet of the Apes (2017), and he says, “Now everyone in our shop is fluent in the [Unreal Engine] software.” Enriquez says the relationship between previs personnel and directors of photography varies project by project. On Ad Astra, Hoyte van Hoytema, ASC, FSF, NSC, worked closely with Halon’s supervisor to dial-in the desired look for the outer-space and atmospheric sequences. Halon’s VAD (virtual art department) team also worked closely with Fraser on The Mandalorian. On many films, however, the visual-effects supervisor determines the lighting in previsualization. “Whenever possible, we prefer to collaborate directly with the key creatives, but we are frequently involved with projects so far in advance, it’s not unusual that the cinematographer isn’t on deck yet, and the VFX supervisor steps in to establish the proxy look and mood of the scenes,” Enriquez adds. The Third Floor has a similar origin story.
ABOVE/MIDDLE: THE THIRD FLOOR’S WORK FOR SEASON 1 OF THE MANDALORIAN INCLUDED PRODUCING TECHNICAL VISUALIZATIONS TO HELP INFORM STAGE SHOOTS, AND ALSO SUPPORTED VIRTUAL PRODUCTION FILMING FOR SPEEDER BIKE AND BLURRG RIDES / COURTESY OF THE THIRD FLOOR, INC. AND LUCASFILM LTD.
BELOW: HALON ENTERTAINMENT’S FIRST FEATURE WITH THE UNREAL PIPELINE WAS WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES (2017). “NOW EVERYONE IN OUR SHOP IS FLUENT IN THE [UNREAL ENGINE] SOFTWARE.”
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ABOVE: HOYTE VAN HOYTEMA, ASC, FSF, NSC, WORKED CLOSELY WITH HALON’S PREVIS TEAM TO DIAL-IN THE LOOK FOR THE OUTER-SPACE AND ATMOSPHERIC SEQUENCES ON AD ASTRA.
BELOW: GAME OF THRONES SEASON 8 FINALE WORKING WITH THE THIRD FLOOR IN THEIR PATHFINDER TOOLSET, JONATHAN FREEMAN, ASC, SAYS HE COULD “VIRTUALLY SCOUT” A SET, EVEN BEFORE IT WAS BUILT. “WE USED A VR HEADSET, WITH A HAND CONTROLLER AND WALKED THROUGH A 3D MODEL OF [PRODUCTION DESIGNER] DEB RILEY’S PLANS.”
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In 2004, Carney, Chris Edwards, Barry Howell, Nick Markel, Joshua Wassung and Hiroshi Mori established a dedicated previs company after working together at Lucasfilm. The Third Floor built its pipeline around best-in-class tools, including Autodesk’s Maya – a widely used 3D software tool for VFX and animation. In the following years, the previsualization toolbox expanded to include motion-capture technology. Inspired by Avatar’s (2009) groundbreaking use of a virtual camera, The Third Floor created its own version, taking scenes from Maya and using Autodesk’s MotionBuilder to capture, edit, and play-back animations. In 2016, The Third Floor adopted Epic’s Unreal Engine, which, Carney says, allowed the company to leverage what they were doing in Maya with motion capture, VR, and the virtual camera in a real-time environment. Carney points to The Third Floor’s use of Unreal for Season 8 of HBO’s Game of Thrones and two tools his company created to add more power. “Pathfinder is a virtual location and set design tool that can run in VR,” he explains. “It enabled Director of Photography Jonathan Freeman, [ICG Magazine, Master Class, September 2020] to walk around sets that were still in the design phase with a VR headset, including those scanned-in from art departments.” The iPad-powered Cyclops is a “Simulcam-lite” tool. It uses Unreal and ARkit, part of iOS, to composite CG elements like set extensions and CG creatures into the tablet’s camera feed. Carney says The Third Floor is
extending existing tools and adding features and usability. “Imagine a world where we develop similar tools for different departments,” Carney adds. “As computers get faster, we could have a tablet-based app for cinematographers to adjust the lighting in the previs and/or virtual environment in real time, using virtual versions of lighting equipment they’re familiar with. We can do this now to some degree, but the lighting is not quite realistic, or adjustments can’t be made on-the-fly. The way light behaves when going through a piece of muslin, for example, is still hard to simulate in real time.” Jonathan Freeman, ASC, who shot multiple episodes of Game of Thrones, including the series finale “The Iron Throne,” says that “heading into Season 8, we knew it was going to be the most complex and ambitious season to date, with many sets to be fully built [like King’s Landing and the Winterfell battlements] or partially built, with VFX extensions, like the Throne Room. “Production Designer Deb Riley had the idea of using virtual reality to bridge concepts between departments,” Freeman adds. “Thus the previs team from The Third Floor built a system that let us explore and plan in 3D VR prior to finalizing construction. Working with The Third Floor in their Pathfinder toolset, we could virtually ‘scout’ a set, even before it was built. We used a VR headset, with a hand controller, and walked through the virtual set, which was a 3D model of Deb’s plans. The controller let us
explore angles as we would on a real location. At the press of a button, you could switch your view to different heights, as if on a crane. VR was not only a tool that gave the directors and cinematographers the opportunity to explore these sets before construction plans were finalized, it also inspired how we would film them.” The Third Floor’s Pathfinder controller also had a viewfinder, which could capture 2D stills and video representing camera moves. “This allowed us to directly photo-board the shots and provide accurate camera data, like position and focal length,” Freeman shares. “Using the same 3D software, The Third Floor was able to input this data into their previs. The process saved weeks.” Polly Morgan, ASC, was involved in the previs for both Lucy in the Sky and A Quiet Place Part II [ICG Magazine, Noises Off, April 2020] and said both were collaborative experiences. For Lucy in the Sky, Morgan “was very specific” with the VFX department on the lenses she planned to use to film [actress] Natalie Portman on stage, who would then be composited into the space station. “I would review the shots the previs team built in a screening room with the VFX supervisor and the editor and give them notes, remotely and on set,” Morgan recalls. On A Quiet Place Part II, she donned a VR headset and was able to explore the set created by the art department. “We needed to cut out a large section of the train that the creature had
BELOW: FOR FORD V FERRARI, HALON ENTERTAINMENT CREATED PREVIS THAT HELPED. DIRECTOR JAMES MANGOLD AND DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY PHEDON PAPAMICHAEL ASC, MAKE A PLAN FOR MAKING SHOTS LOOK LIKE THEY WERE FILMED AT 200 MPH WHILE MAINTAINING SAFE SPEEDS FOR THE STUNT CREW. / COURTESY OF HALON ENTERTAINMENT
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ABOVE: THE THRONE ROOM SEQUENCE FOR GAME OF THRONES FINAL EPISODE WAS VISUALIZED TO PLAN FOR A DRAGON THE SIZE OF A 747 WITHIN THE INTERIOR SET, WITH THE THIRD FLOOR CREATING FLESHED-OUT PREVIS (PICTURED) TO HELP INFORM THE FINAL SET DESIGN AND SHOOT. IMAGE COURTESY OF THE THIRD FLOOR, INC/ HBO
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BELOW: THE EURON “ONE’R” SHOT IN GAME OF THRONES SEASON 8, EPISODE 5 (SHOT BY FABIAN WAGNAR) TIED TOGETHER ACTING, STUNT AND DRAGON PERFORMANCES ACROSS A CONTINUOUS CAMERA MOVE. PREVIS BY THE THIRD FLOOR (UPPER LEFT) AND PRE-ANIMATION FROM IMAGE ENGINE (UPPER RIGHT) WAS USED BY THE THIRD FLOOR AND THE SHOW’S MOTION CONTROL TEAM TO PROGRAM A MOVING LED EYELINE FOR THE ACTORS AND DRIVE A VIRTUAL PRODUCTION FIRE SHOOT (LOWER LEFT AND RIGHT) USING PRACTICAL PYROTECHNICS AND A SUSPENDED CAMERA. / COURTESY OF THE THIRD FLOOR
ABOVE/BELOW: FOR GREYHOUND, SCHNEIDER, A SELF-TAUGHT PREVIS ARTIST, PRE-ANIMATED THE USS KEELING’S FINAL DRAMATIC ENCOUNTER WITH A TORPEDO THAT WOULD LATER DRIVE THE LIVE ACTION PLATE PHOTOGRAPHY ON SET. AFTER TAKING OVER 10,000 PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE USS KIDD, SCHNEIDER AND 2ND UNIT DIRECTOR STEVE QUALE USED PHOTOGRAMMETRY TO CREATE A HIGH RESOLUTION MODEL OF THE SHIP.
attacked,” she continues. “It had to be done in the right place, and the lighting had to be correct. Being able to be in the virtual space before the actual train carriage was brought to the location was very helpful.” Previs, concludes Morgan, is a powerful communication tool between all the departments. “With previs, we can all agree on an idea of how something will look in the end and then work towards that. It’s timeconsuming, but it gets rid of confusion and misunderstanding, which can create mistakes later on and be quite costly.” For Apple TV+’s streaming hit Greyhound [ICG Magazine, May 2020, From the Bridge], director Aaron Schneider, ASC, was hands-on with the previsualization for the World War
II action-adventure, working closely with Director of Photography Shelly Johnson, ASC. Schneider, who has done his own previs on past projects, built an in-house previs team with additional visual-effects producer Bernice Howes. Although the team primarily used Autodesk Maya, they also relied on NVIDIA’s WaveWorks, an ocean-simulation tool that was coded for use in Maya and enabled them to float objects in a physically accurate way. Johnson says previs was also used to create a bird’s-eye view of the movie’s threeday engagement fighting U-boats. “The previs provided us with clarity for the engagement itself and how to best place our characters and camera in the middle of it,” he reports. “I could also reference night sources such as interactive lighting from star shells or burning
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SAFETY VIZ by Debra Kaufman
USC’s Entertainment Technology Center, in conjunction with partners, just made Ripple Effect, its latest R&D short film to test how to get back to work in a COVID-19 era. A futuristic tale about how a young girl stands up to an increasingly militaristic government, Ripple Effect was executive-produced by Eric Weaver, Greg Ciaccio, and Kathryn Brillhart, who partnered with filmmaking studios and numerous vendors to address virtual production, remote workflows, and strategies to protect against transmission of the virus on sets. To combat COVID-19, the Ripple Effect team created Safety-Viz, “a way to visualize and iterate a safety plan using a to-scale scan of the location in a game engine” to enable real-time remote collaboration among producers, the 1st AD, the COVID safety team, and technicians on set. Safety-Viz has two parts. In the first, the team collaborated with ICVR, an interactive specification developed by LG Electronics, Analogix Semiconductor, Tencent and Dell, to define how virtual reality source (VRS) devices, such as smartphones, PCs, and other consumer electronics, connect and interoperate with headmounted displays (HMD). The goal was to develop a safety tool for LiDAR scans and real-time iteration for scale-accurate zones for shot setups. With that valuable information, DigitalFilm Tree created a pre-production visualization process powered by realtime game-engine technology, with a focus on safety procedures. “We used LiDAR here in an innovative way,” explains DigitalFilm Tree Founder/Chief Executive Ramy Katrib. “We’re able to create a virtual environment and set up virtual cameras with the correct lenses. In touring the space, the different departments can immediately see potential problems.” Iterations enable the production team to safety-tweak the environment to allow for six-foot distancing as well as production considerations, such as where to put cameras. Katrib says he’s done three private demos, two for a Hollywood studio and another for a major streamer, and they’ve all expressed interest. 76
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vessels that would shift on the horizon as our ship maneuvered through the action.” Schneider adds that the bird’s-eye previs animations helped him bridge the gap between Tom’s performance and the “virtual battles” taking place around [Hanks’ character] that would come later in post. “By referencing the bird’s-eye maps animated at true nautical speeds and distances, we could ensure everyone’s performances adhered to real-world speeds and positions,” Schneider describes. “On set, Tom and others could gather around my iPad and build a ‘tactical awareness’ of what was going on around them. With their mind’s eye and imaginations full, they could then engage with the ‘virtual world’ as actors. Tom could put all the mechanics aside and concentrate on building a fully nuanced performance.” Schneider points out that “postvis” was an invaluable tool in bringing the “virtual battles” to life during the editorial stages. “Previs laid the foundation for the basic structure of what we shot,” he continues. “But as you move through the edit, there are always missing pieces. Working with a postvis crew allows you to build on ideas that previs set in motion and generate new footage where you need it.” As previs becomes more widespread, many creatives are adding on a range of filmmaking tools, from “pitchvis” to “techvis” and “postvis.” And with easier-to-use, less expensive digital tools being introduced every day, previsualization – once the domain of VFX-heavy blockbusters – is becoming more common on indie films and TV shows. DigitalFilm Tree Founder/Chief Executive Ramy Katrib explains how his company was able to previs Season 2 of Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy. “We previsualized these massive scenes and sets across three episodes,” Katrib shares, adding that they also worked with more than one of the show’s directors of photography. “We can give the DP metadata for such information as the distance between the camera and the actor,” he says. “The tool itself is visual, so it empowers the entire imaging community.” Another growing arena for previs is being tapped by Visualization Supervisor Pepe Valencia, who founded BARABOOM! Studios in Culver City in 2009 to provide visualization for film, TV, games, commercials, and themed entertainment. His boutique studio has its headquarters in Los Angeles and a branch in Valencia, Spain. BARABOOM! relies on a Perception Neuron suit for motion capture, which costs a fraction of the other popular mocap solutions, and the affordable Glassbox DragonFly, a cross-platform virtual camera under the Unreal Engine platform. The company is now working on a Madison Square Garden project in Las Vegas, and, for the first time, thanks to the efficiency of virtual production tools, are providing end-to-end visualization of a 96-minute live-action movie with CG elements. “With previs, you can analyze the entire movie and improve accuracy and creativity in production,” concludes Valencia. “We are constantly aiming for new levels of precision and detail, which can be easily transferred from the computer to the real, practical world.”
BARABOOM! STUDIOS FOUNDER PEPE VALENCIA USING VIRTUAL SCOUTING TOOLS AND VR IN UNREAL, TO BRING CREATIVE INPUT INSIDE VIRTUAL PRODUCTIONENVIRONMENTS. / COURTESY OF BARABOOM! STUDIOS
CINEMATOGRAPHY - POST PRODUCTION - DIGITAL WORKFLOWS During these challenging times, The Studio continues to offer innovative solutions for your projects. Contact us for all your cinema production, post or workflow needs.
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PRODUCTION CREDITS COMPILED BY TERESA MUĂ‘OZ 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 compiling this section. 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 MuĂąoz at teresa@icgmagazine.com 78
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First Man / Photo by Daniel McFadden
Still Photographers, Publicists, Additional Units, etc.). Please note
20TH CENTURY FOX “911” SEASON 4
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JOAQUIN SEDILLO, ASC OPERATORS: SPENCER HUTCHINS, SOC DUANE MIELIWOCKI, SOC, PHIL MILLER, SOC ASSISTANTS: KEN LITTLE, CLAUDIO BANKS, ERIC GUERIN, DAVID STELLHORN, ERIC WHEELER, JIHANE MRAD STEADICAM OPERATOR: PHIL MILLER STEADICAM ASSISTANT: ERIC WHEELER CAMERA UTILITY: PAULINA GOMEZ DIGITAL UTILITY: DUSTIN LEBOUEF
“STATION 19” SEASON 4 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: DARYN OKADA, ASC OPERATORS: RON SCHLAEGER, MARIANA ANTUNANO, BRIAN GARBELLINI ASSISTANTS: TONY SCHULTZ, HANNAH LEVIN, WILLIAM MARTI, GAYLE HILARY, GREG WILLIAMS, TIM MCCARTHY STEADICAM OPERATOR: RON SCHLAEGER STEADICAM ASSISTANT: TONY SCHULTZ DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: ANDREW LEMON UTILITIES: GEORGE MONTEJANO, III, ROBERTO RUELAS SPLINTER UNIT DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: BRIAN GARBELINNI
ABC STUDIOS
“GREY’S ANATOMY” SEASON 17 DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: HERB DAVIS, ALICIA ROBBINS OPERATORS: FRED IANNONE, STEVE ULLMAN, LESLIE MORRIS ASSISTANTS: NICK MCLEAN, FORREST THURMAN, KIRK BLOOM, LISA BONACCORSO STEADICAM OPERATOR: STEVE ULLMAN STEADICAM ASSISTANT: FORREST THURMAN CAMERA UTILITY: MARTE POST STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: LISA ROSE
“JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!” SEASON 18 LIGHTING DIRECTOR: CHRISTIAN HIBBARD OPERATORS: GREG GROUWINKEL, PARKER BARTLETT, GARRETT HURT, MARK GONZALES STEADICAM OPERATOR: KRIS WILSON JIB OPERATORS: MARC HUNTER, RANDY GOMEZ, JR., NICK GOMEZ CAMERA UTILITIES: CHARLES FERNANDEZ, SCOTT SPIEGEL, TRAVIS WILSON, DAVID FERNANDEZ, ADAM BARKER VIDEO CONTROLLER: GUY JONES STILL PHOTOGRAPHERS: KAREN NEAL, MICHAEL DESMOND 2ND UNIT DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: BERND REINBARDT, STEVE GARRETT
AFN PRODUCTIONS-TELEPICTURES “THE REAL” SEASON 7
LIGHTING DIRECTOR: EARL WOODY, LD OPERATORS: KEVIN MICHEL, NATE PAYTON, STEVE RUSSELL, CHRIS WILLIAMS STEADICAM OPERATOR: WILL DEMERITT CAMERA UTILITIES: HENRY VEREEN, SALVATORE BELLISSIMO, ANDRES VELASQUEZ, JR. JIB ARM OPERATOR: JIM CIRRITO VIDEO CONTROLLER: JEFF MESSENGER
A VERY GOOD PRODUCTION, INC. & WAD PRODUCTIONS
“THE ELLEN DEGENERES SHOW” SEASON 18 LIGHTING DIRECTOR: TOM BECK PED OPERATORS: DAVID WEEKS, PAUL WILEMAN, TIM O’NEILL
HANDHELD OPERATOR: CHIP FRASER JIB OPERATOR: DAVID RHEA STEADICAM OPERATOR: DONOVAN GILBUENA VIDEO CONTROLLER: JAMES MORAN HEAD UTILITY: CRAIG “ZZO” MARAZZO UTILITIES: ARLO GILBUENA, WALLY LANCASTER, DIEGO AVALOS
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: CAROLINE MILLS STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: RON JAFFE PUBLICIST: KATHLEEN TANJI
AMERICAN HIGH “BLAN B”
“THE NEIGHBORHOOD” SEASON 3
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: SANDRA VALDE OPERATORS: NEAL TEN EYCK, NICH MUSCO ASSISTANTS: CHERYN PARK, JUSTIN MARZELLA, JADE BRENNAN, DAVE MASLYN LOADER: JOSIAH WEINHOLD
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: CHRISTIAN LA FOUNTAINE OPERATORS: BRUCE REUTLINGER GEORGE LA FOUNTAINE, CHRIS WILCOX, KRIS CONDE CAMERA UTILITIES: CHRIS TODD, VICKI BECK ASSISTANT: CRAIG LA FOUNTAINE VIDEO CONTROLLER: CLIFF JONES
BEACHWOOD SERVICES
“DAYS OF OUR LIVES” SEASON 55 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: VINCE STEIB OPERATORS: MARK WARSHAW, VICKIE WALKER, MICHAEL J. DENTON, STEVE CLARK CAMERA UTILITIES: STEVE BAGDADI, GARY CYPHER VIDEO CONTROLLER: ALEXIS DELLAR HANSON
“THE GOLDBERGS” SEASON 8 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JASON BLOUNT OPERATORS: SCOTT BROWNER, NATE HAVENS ASSISTANTS: TRACY DAVEY, GARY WEBSTER, JENNIFER BELL PRICE, MICHELLE BAKER DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: KEVIN MILLS LOADER: DILSHAN HERATH
LIGHTING DIRECTOR: MARISA DAVIS PED OPERATORS: ART TAYLOR, MARK GONZALES, ED STAEBLER HANDHELD 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
“SHAMELESS” SEASON 11
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: ANTHONY HARDWICK OPERATOR: SYLVAIN D’HAUTCOURT, KRISTY TULLY BOTTOMS ASSISTANTS: RYO KINNO, DARBY NEWMAN, DAVID BERRYMAN, TIM LUKE LOADER: MAYA MORGAN DIGITAL UTILITY: AMI MARISCAL
CETERI, LLC
“INVASION AKA RAY JAMES” SEASON 1
CBS
“DIARY OF A FUTURE PRESIDENT” DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: LOWELL PETERSON, ASC OPERATORS: RORY KNEPP, SOC, PAUL PLANNETTE ASSISTANTS: JOHN C. FLINN, IV, JOHN POUNCEY, CANDICE MARAIS, DON BURTON STEADICAM OPERATOR: RORY KNEPP, SOC LOADER: BOBBY HATFIELD LIGHTING
DESIGNER: DARREN LANGER DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: KURT BRAUN OPERATORS: JAMES B. PATRICK, ALLEN VOSS, ED SARTORI, HENRY ZINMAN, BOB CAMPI, RODNEY MCMAHON, ANTHONY SALERNO JIB OPERATOR: JAIMIE CANTRELL CAMERA UTILITY: TERRY AHERN VIDEO CONTROLLERS: MIKE DOYLE, PETER STENDAL
“NCIS” SEASON 18 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: WILLIAM WEBB, ASC OPERATORS: GREGORY PAUL COLLIER, 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 12 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: VICTOR HAMMER OPERATORS: TERENCE NIGHTINGALL,
DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: THOMAS YATSKO, TONY CUTRONO OPERATOR: JOEL SCHWARTZ ASSISTANTS: KEITH JONES, KOJI KOJIMA DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: RYAN DEGRAZZIO LOADER: MIKE RUSH ARRAY TECH: JAMES THIBO
“THE TALK” SEASON 11
BONANZA PRODUCTIONS, INC
“ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT” SEASON 40
“THE STAND AKA RADIO NOWHERE”
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: ARMANDO SALAS OPERATORS: JONATHAN BECK, WYLDA BAYRON ASSISTANTS: BRETT WALTERS, STEPHEN KOZLOWSKI, JEFF TAYLOR, CHRISTOPHER CAFARO DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: PATRICK CECILIAN LOADER: ANABEL CAICEDO LIBRA HEAD TECH: PAUL BODE
CMS PRODUCTIONS
“JKOMC/LESSONS 114” DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JOHN MCCABE OPERATORS: RAMULAS BURGESS, WALTER RODRIGUEZ ASSISTANTS: INES PORTUGAL, MATT DEGREFF, TOMMY SCOGGINS, SARAH GUENTHER DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: BJORN JACKSON
“SRUMC/LESSONS 11O” DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JOHN MCCABE OPERATORS: RAMULAS BURGESS, WALTER RODRIGUEZ ASSISTANTS: INES PORTUGAL, MATT DEGREFF, TOMMY SCOGGINS, SARAH GUENTHER DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: BJORN JACKSON
COOLER WATER PRODUCTIONS, LLC “BETTY” SEASON 2
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JACKSON HUNT OPERATOR: JOEY DWYER ASSISTANTS: MEGAERA STEPHENS, GOVINDA ANGULO, JOSH REYES, HELEN CASSELL LOADER: EMMA HING
OCTOBER 2020 PRODUCTION CREDITS
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DISNEY/FOX 21
“QUEEN OF THE SOUTH” SEASON 5 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: ABE MARTINEZ OPERATORS: DOMINIC BARTOLONE, MATT VALENTINE ASSISTANTS: JASON GARCIA, DAN MCKEE, RIGNEY SACKLEY, ZANDER WHITE STEADICAM OPERATOR: DOMINIC BARTOLONE STEADICAM ASSISTANT: JASON GARCIA DIGITAL LOADER: ADAM LIPSCOMB
EYE PRODUCTIONS, INC. “DYNASTY” SEASON 4
DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: STAR BARRY, ROGER CHINGIRIAN OPERATORS: BRETT MAYFIELD, BROWN COOPER ASSISTANTS: COLIN DURAN, RYAN ABRAMS, ALEXA ROMERO STEADICAM OPERATOR: BRETT MAYFIELD STEADICAM ASSISTANT: COLIN DURAN DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: ERIC HENSON DIGITAL UTILITY: JIMARI JONES
GOVERNMENT ISSUE, LLC
“SCREAM 5 AKA PARKSIDE” DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: BRETT JUTKIEWICZ OPERATORS: MATT DOLL, MIKE REPETA ASSISTANTS: PATRICK BOROWIAK, DEREK SMITH, ROY KNAUF, DARWIN BRANDIS DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: ANDY BADER LOADER: JILL AUTRY DIGITAL UTILITY: CATARINA MENDEZ STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: BROWNIE HARRIS
HORIZON SCRIPTED TELEVISION, INC. “ANIMAL KINGDOM” SEASON 5
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: LOREN YACONELLI OPERATORS: SCOTT DROPKIN, BROOKS ROBINSON ASSISTANTS: DAVE EGERSTROM, PATRICK BENSIMMON, ERIC GUTHRIE, CRISTY ARBOLEDA STEADICAM OPERATOR: SCOTT DROPKIN STEADICAM ASSISTANT: DAVE EGERSTROM DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: JEFFERSON FUGITT DIGITAL UTILITY: GOBE HIRATA STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: EDDY CHEN
“THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT” SEASON 1 DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JAY FEATHER, HILLARY SPERA OPERATORS: THOMAS SCHNAIDT, SANDY HAYS ASSISTANTS: ALEXANDER WORSTER, ANDREW JUHL, CAMERON SIZEMORE, ALEX DUBOIS LOADERS: FRANCIS MILEA, AMANDA URIBE, JAKOB FRIEMAN
JAY SQUARED PRODUCTIONS, LLC “MANIFEST” SEASON 3
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: ANDREW PRIESTLEY OPERATORS: CARLOS GUERRA, RYAN TOUSSIENG ASSISTANTS: ANDREW PECK, WESLEY HODGES, CORNELIA KLAPPER, KAIH WONG LOADERS: WILL FORTUNE, PHILIP THOMPSON STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: ELIZABETH FISHER
KENWOOD TV PRODUCTIONS, INC. “JUST ROLL WITH IT” SEASON 3
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JOSEPH W. CALLOWAY OPERATORS: KEN HERFT, BRIAN GUNTER, GARY ALLEN, JACK CHISHOLM DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: ARMEN ALLEN CAMERA UTILITY: LISA ANDERSON, TERRY GUNTER, RYAN ECKELBERRY, ROGER COHEN JIB ARM OPERATOR: JOSH GOFORTH
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OCTOBER 2020 PRODUCTION CREDITS
JIB ARM TECH: JEFF KIMUCK VIDEO CONTROLLER: KEITH ANDERSON BEHIND THE SCENES: DAVID LIZ, STEVEN PAUL
MESQUITE PRODUCTIONS
“FOR ALL MANKIND” SEASON 2 DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: STEPHEN MCNUTT, ROSS BERRYMAN OPERATORS: TIM SPENCER, MIKE MCEVEETY ASSISTANTS: STEPHEN PAZANTI, JORGE PALLARES, DARIN KRASK, ARTHUR ZAJAC STEADICAM OPERATOR: TIM SPENCER DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: MIKE DEGRAZZIO DIGITAL UTILITY: ROBERT RUELAS STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: JONNY COURNOYER
“THEM: COVENANT” SEASON 1 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: CHECCO VARESE, ASC OPERATORS: JOSEPH ARENA, JOSHUA TURNER ASSISTANTS: MARK STRASBURG, NICK INFIELD, DAVID O’BRIEN, ARLEN COOKE STEADICAM OPERATOR: JOSEPH ARENA STEADICAM ASSISTANT: MARK STRASBURG DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: DANIELE COLOMBERA LOADER: DIANA DE AGUINAGA PETTERSSON DIGITAL UTILITY: MIRANDA RIVERA STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: URSULA COYOTE
NARROW ISLE PRODUCTIONS “OUTER BANKS” SEASON 2
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: J.B. SMITH OPERATORS: BO WEBB, MATT LYONS ASSISTANTS: LARRY GIANNESCHI, IV, WILLIAM HANND, MATTHEW KELLY JACKSON, DOMINIC ATTANASIO LOADER: NICK CANNON CAMERA UTILITY: DANIEL BUBB
NBC
“AMERICAN AUTO” PILOT DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: BENJAMIN KASULKE OPERATORS: SHELLY GURZI, JACOB PINGER, ROBERT SPAULDING ASSISTANTS: FAITH BREWER, NICO MARTIN, ANDY SYDNEY
“CHICAGO MED” SEASON 5 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: LEX DUPONT, ASC OPERATORS: FAIRES ANDERSON SEKIYA, JOE TOLITANO, BENJAMIN SPEK ASSISTANTS: GEORGE OLSON, KEITH HUEFFMEIER, SAM KNAPP, PATRICK DOOLEY, JOEY RICHARDSON, MATT BROWN STEADICAM OPERATOR: FAIRES ANDERSON SEKIYA LOADER: CHRIS SUMMERS UTILITY: ELIJAH WILBORN STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: ELIZABETH SISSON
“CHICAGO PD” SEASON 7 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JAMES ZUCAL OPERATORS: VICTOR MACIAS, DARRYL MILLER, SETH THOMAS ASSISTANTS: JOHN YOUNG, DON CARLSON, DAVID WIGHTMAN, JAMISON ACKER, KYLE BELOUSEK, NICK WILSON STEADICAM OPERATOR: VICTOR MACIAS LOADER: MARION TUCKER DIGITAL UTILITIES: CHRIS POLMANSKI, STEVE CLAY
“F.B.I.” SEASON 3 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MARC RITZEMA OPERATORS: AFTON GRANT, JAMIE SILVERSTEIN ASSISTANTS: LEE VICKERY, YURI INOUE, GEORGE LOOKSHIRE, NKEM UMENYI STEADICAM OPERATOR: AFTON GRANT LOADERS: RAUL MARTINEZ, CONNOR LYNCH
“RUTHERFORD FALLS” SEASON 1 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: ROSS RIEGE OPERATOR: HARRY GARVIN ASSISTANTS: BIANCA BAHENA, VANESSA WARD, ALDO PORRAS LOADER: BRIAN WINIKOFF CAMERA UTILITY: CHRIS DE LA RIVA
“SUPERSTORE” SEASON 6 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JAY HUNTER OPERATORS: ADAM TASH, DANNY NICHOLS, MIGUEL PASK ASSISTANTS: JASON ZAKRZEWSKI, BRANDON MARGULIES, ERIC JENKINSON, RYAN SULLIVAN, ESTA GARCIA, RIKKI ALARIAN JONES LOADER: GRACE THOMAS
NETFLIX PRODUCTIONS, LLC
“COUNTRY COMFORT” SEASON 1 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: GEORGE MOORADIAN, ASC OPERATORS: RON HIRSHMAN, RANDY BAER, DAVE DECHANT, ELI FRANKS, MICHELLE CRENSHAW, HELENA JACKSON JIB OPERATOR: MICHAEL JAROCKI ASSISTANT: CONNOR HECK DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: ELENA GOMEZ CAMERA UTILITY: KATE STEINHEBEL DIGITAL UTILITY: ERINN BELL TECHNOJIB OPERATOR: ELI FRANKS VIDEO CONTROLLER: RICK DUNGAN
“THE CREW” SEASON 1 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: BILL BERNER OPERATORS: ALAIN ONESTO, MARK RENAUDIN, JIMMY O’DONNEL, MIGUEL ARMSTRONG ASSISTANTS: JASON KNOBLOCH, BRENT WEICHSEL, KYLE GORJANC DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: DAVE SATIN LOADER: SHAUN JOYE DIGITAL UTILITIES: ANTHONY BENEDETTI, LEWIS ROTHENBERG STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: ELIZABETH FISHER
“THE HARDER THEY FALL” DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MIHAI MALAIMARE OPERATOR: DAVE CHAMEIDES ASSISTANTS: SHAUN MAYOR, LIZA BAMBENEK, MARCUS DEL NEGRO, KATY JONES STEADICAM OPERATOR: DAVE CHAMEIDES DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: ELI BERG LOADER: JASMINE HARVEY DIGITAL UTILITY: OSCAR CIFUENTES STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: DAVID LEE PUBLICIST: CLAIRE RASKIND
NKZ PRODUCTIONS, INC.
“THE BACHELOR” SEASON 24 DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: DENNIS WEILER, CHAD GRIEPENTROG, ANDRE MARTINEZ OPERATORS: DOUG HENNING, MARK JUNGJOHANN, IVAN DURAN, MARTIN MOURINO, TIM STAHL, ANDREW RAKOW, EZRA EPWELL, NICK TULLY, ERICA SHUSHA, JEREMY GUY, SUZIE WEIS ASSISTANTS: YOGI NEELY, TYLER DETARSIO, DAVE OSTERBERG, THOR FRIDLEIFSSON, NICK MILLER, JAY STAMM, JEN CHMIELEWSKI, TAYLOR GILMARTIN CAMERA UTILITIES: APPLE SCHLOSSER, MICHAEL WILLIAMSON JIB OPERATOR: RANDY GOMEZ, JR. VIDEO CONTROLLERS: RICHARD STROCK, MARC SURETTE
PACIFIC 2/1 ENTERTAINMENT GROUP, INC.
“AMERICAN CRIME STORY: IMPEACHMENT” SEASON 4 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: SIMON DENNIS, BSC OPERATORS: ERIC SCHILLING, JAMIE STERBA ASSISTANTS: DAVID LEB, NATHAN CRUM,JARED WILSON STEADICAM OPERATOR: ERIC SCHILLING DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: SPENCER SHWETZ DIGITAL UTILITY: SHANNON VAN METRE
PICROW STREAMING, INC. “MODERN LOVE” SEASON 2
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: YARON ORBACH OPERATORS: PHILIP MARTINEZ, LUCAS OWEN ASSISTANTS: WARIS SUPANPONG, BECKI HELLER, RANDY SCHWARTZ, NATHALIE RODRIGUEZ LOADERS: MATEO GONZALEZ, BRIAN M. LYNCH
PROP, INC.
“LISEY’S STORY AKA FACES” SEASON 1 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: DARIUS KHONDJI, ASC OPERATOR: JIM MCCONKEY ASSISTANTS: ERIC SWANEK, TYLER SWANEK, EDDIE GODLBLATT DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: GABE KOLODNY LOADER: MADELEINE KING
OUR HOUSE PRODUCTIONS
OPERATORS: MITCH DUBIN, SOC, JOHN CONNOR ASSISTANTS: CHRIS WITTENBORN, HUNTER WHALEN, ERIC ARNDT, SHANNON DEWOLFE, ERIC HINGST DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: RYAN MCGREGOR LOADER: CHRIS SUMMERS DIGITAL UTILITY: EVA JUNE STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: ELIZABETH MORRIS
ROCART, INC.
“SIDE HUSTLE” SEASON 1 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MICHAEL FRANKS OPERATORS: GEORGE LA FOUNTAINE, KRIS CONDE, ELI FRANKS, BOB MCCALL TECHNOJIB OPERATOR: ELI FRANKS TECHNOJIB TECH: COREY GIBBONS ASSISTANT: VERONICA DAVIDSON CAMERA UTILITIES: ERINN BELL, RICHARD FINE, CHRIS COBB DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: DEREK LANTZ VIDEO CONTROLLER: BARRY LONG
“BIG BROTHER” SEASON 22
OPERATORS: JONATHAN HALE, CHARLES NUNGESSER, KARIN PELLONI, CALVIN BECK, LAURENCE AVENET-BRADLEY, EMMA PANTALL, JANETTE STAUB, ADAM MARSCHALL, AYMAE SULICK, ADAM SENATE, GEOFF HALE, CHRISTOPHER LOCKETT, DWAYNE SMITH, CASE NORTON, JEREMY BROWN, DALE PILUS, REBECCA ROBERTS, STEVE DARMIS, MELISSA HOLT, KATE STEINHEBEL, BRANDON FRYMAN, JOHN IKENOUYE
REDHAWK PRODUCTIONS, IV, LLC “FARGO” SEASON 4
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: DANA GONZALES, ASC
ROSE CITY PICTURES, INC.
“THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK” DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: KRAMER MORGENTHAU, ASC OPERATORS: JULIAN DELACRUZ, CHRIS REYNOLDS ASSISTANTS: GLENN KAPLAN, ANTHONY DEFRANCESCO, ADAM RUSSELL, COURTNEY BRIDGERS DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: ROSS CITRIN LOADERS: DAVE GALLAGHER, MIKE WILLIAMS LIBRA HEAD TECH: PIERSON SILVER STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: BARRY WETCHER, SMPSP
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, EDGAR VELEZ LOADERS: JAMES PARSONS, CHARLES GRUNDER JR., ALYSSA LONGCHAMP STILL PHOTOGRAPHERS: JOJO WHILDEN, SMPSP WILL HART, DAVID GIESBRECHT
SCREEN GEMS PRODUCTIONS, LLC “SHRINE”
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: CRAIG WROBLESKI OPERATOR: SCOTT LEBEDA ASSISTANTS: DANIEL MASON, NOLAN RUDMAN-BALL, THOMAS BELLOTTI, RICHELLE TOPPING LOADER: JOSHUA WEILBRENNER STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: DANA STARBARD
SEEKER PRODUCTIONS, INC. “DIANA”
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: DECLAN QUINN, ASC OPERATORS: PETER AGLIATA, HEATHER NORTON, CHRISTOPHER GLEATON, GERARD SAVA, LYN NOLAND, CHARLIE LIBIN, STANLEY FERNANDEZ, CHRISTINE NG ASSISTANTS: NINA CHIEN, JASON BRIGNOLA, DAN CASEY, JOHNNY SOUSA, JORDAN LEVIE, MICHAEL CSATLOS, KYLE REPKA, WALTER RODRIGUEZ, GAVIN FERNANDEZ, NATE SWINGLE, KANSAS BALLESTEROS, AUSTIN RESTREPO STEADICAM OPERATOR: DENNY KORTZ
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CAMERA UTILITY: ROBERT BENEDETTI, ANTHONY DEFONZO, KEITH CONOD, JAMES WASHBURN, MIKE CUNNINGHAM, SETH ORENSTEIN, PATRICK DOYLE DIGITAL IMAGING TECHS: TIFFANY ARMOUR-TEJADA, GUILLERMO TUNON LIBRA TECH: SEBASTIAN ALMEIDA,SEAN FOLKL SCORPIO TECH: CRAIG STRIANO
SONY
“JEOPARDY!” SEASON 36 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
“WHEEL OF FORTUNE” SEASON 37 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JEFF ENGEL OPERATORS: DIANE L. FARRELL, SOC, L.DAVID IRETE, RAY GONZALES, MIKE TRIBBLE CAMERA UTILITY: RAY THOMPSON HEAD UTILITY: TINO MARQUEZ VIDEO CONTROLLER: GARY TAILLON JIB ARM OPERATOR: MARC HUNTER STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: CAROL KAELSON
SOUTH BAY PRODUCTIONS “LET’S BE REAL” PILOT
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: KEVIN ATKINSON OPERATORS: MICHAEL BRIAN HART, GABE DINIZ, RYAN HOGUE ASSISTANTS: DAVID ERICKSON, KEN BENDER, ERIC WHEELER, LANI WASSERMAN DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: DAN MOSES
TOPANGA PRODUCTIONS, INC. DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: CLIFF CHARLES OPERATORS: ELI ARONOFF, RICARDO SARMIENTO ASSISTANTS: DEAN MARTINEZ, JELANI WILSON, KELLON INNOCENT, BRIAN GRANT LOADER: JAMES ABAMONT
TRULY ORIGINAL ENTERTAINMENT
“MOM” SEASON 8
“SHAHS OF SUNSET” SEASON 9
OPERATORS: JOSH BARNET, JEREMIAH SMITH, TJ YERKE ASSISTANTS: CARLOS CAMACHO, LANCE HARWELL, MATT HACKBARTH
UNCLE GEORGE PRODUCTIONS, LLC “SERVANT” SEASON 2
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MARSHALL ADAMS OPERATORS: MATTHEW CREDLE, NATHAN LEVINE-HEANEY ASSISTANTS: NICHOLAS HUYNH, ANTON MIASNIKOV, JAMES MCCANN, LEON SANGINITI, JR. LOADER: SEAN GALCZYK CAMERA UTILITY: RYAN BALDWIN STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: JESSICA KOURKOUNIS
UNIVERSAL
“LAW & ORDER: SVU” SEASON 22 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MICHAEL GREEN OPERATORS: JONATHAN HERRON, MICHAEL LATINO ASSISTANTS: CHRISTOPHER DEL SORDO, MATTHEW BALZARINI, JUSTIN ZVERIN, EMILY DUMBRILL LOADERS: MAX SCHWARZ, JASON GAINES STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: MICHAEL PARMELEE
“THE BIG BAD WOLFES” PILOT
STARZ POWER PRODUCTIONS, LLC “POWER BOOK II: GHOST”
DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: CHRISTOPHER LA VASSEAUR, AARON MEDICK OPERATORS: FRANCIS SPIELDENNER, NICOLA BENIZZI ASSISTANTS: MICHAEL GAROFALO, CHARLIE FOERSCHNER, RODRIGO MILLAN GARCE, ALIVIA BORAB DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: ROB MUIA LOADER: ANDREW DAILEY STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: MYLES ARONOWITZ
SWIRL FILMS
“THE GIRL IN THE BASEMENT” DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: PIERLUIGI MALAVASI OPERATORS: DANIEL FRIEDBERG, DANNY ECKLER ASSISTANTS: TYLER HARRISON, ALEX GALVEZ STEADICAM OPERATOR: DANNY ECKLER DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: BRIAN MERWIN
THIMBLE PEA PICTURES, LLC
“UNTITLED ANNA DELVEY ART PROJECT” SEASON 1 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MARYSE ALBERTI OPERATORS: GEORGE BIANCHINI, JOHN PIROZZI ASSISTANTS: JAMIESON FITZPATRICK, KEITT, CORNELIA KLAPPER, EVE STRICKMAN DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: DOUGLAS HORTON LOADER: JONATHAN PERALTA STILL PHOTOGRAPHERS: NICOLE RIVELLI, LIZ FISHER, CHRIS SAUNDERS
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OCTOBER 2020 PRODUCTION CREDITS
“B POSITIVE” SEASON 1 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: GARY BAUM, ASC OPERATORS: ALEC ELIZONDO, TRAVERS HILL, LANCE BILLITZER, EDDIE FINE ASSISTANTS: ADRIAN LICCIARDI, MICHELE MCKINLEY, JEFF ROTH, CLINT PALMER, JASON HERRING DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: DEREK LANTZ VIDEO CONTROLLER: JOHN O’BRIEN UTILITIES: RICHARD FINE, DAN LORENZE
“FOR LIFE” SEASON 2
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: GARY BAUM, ASC OPERATORS: ALEC ELIZONDO, TRAVERS HILL, LANCE BILLITZER, EDDIE FINE ASSISTANTS: ADRIAN LICCIARDI, MICHELE MCKINLEY, JEFF ROTH, CLINT PALMER, JASON HERRING DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: DEREK LANTZ VIDEO CONTROLLER: STU WESOLIK UTILITIES: DAN LORENZE, RICHARD FINE
USS PRODUCTION SERVICES, LLC “USS CHRISTMAS”
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MICHAEL MAY OPERATORS: DARRELL SHELDON, JOSEPH D’ALLESANDRO ASSISTANTS: DANIEL TUREK, ALAN ALDRIDGE, SETH LEWIS, ELI WALLACE-JOHANSSON DIGITAL UTILITY: CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: BROWNIE HARRIS
WARNER BROS
“BOB HEARTS ABISHOLA” SEASON 2 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 VIDEO CONTROLLER: JOHN O’BRIEN DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: T. BRETT FEENEY STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: MICHAEL YARISH PUBLICISTS: KATHLEEN TANJI, MARC KLEIN
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 UTILITIES: ALICIA BRAUNS, COLIN BROWN, JEANNETTE HJORTH VIDEO CONTROLLER: KEVIN FAUST DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: BENJAMIN STEEPLES STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: ROBERT VOETS PUBLICIST: MARC KLEIN
“YOUNG SHELDON” SEASON 4 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: BUZZ FEITSHANS, IV OPERATORS: NEIL TOUSSAINT, SOC, AARON SCHUH ASSISTANTS: MATTHEW DEL RUTH, GRANT YELLEN, BRAD GILSON, JR., JAMES COBB STEADICAM OPERATOR: AARON SCHUH STEADICAM ASSISTANT: GRANT YELLEN DIGITAL LOADERS: BAILEY SOFTNESS, JENISE WHITEHEAD STILL PHOTOGRAPHERS: ROBERT VOETS, MICHAEL DESMOND, DARREN MICHAELS, NICOLE WILDER
WAR PARTY/SCULPTOR. “COP SHOP”
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JUAN MIGUEL AZPIROZ OPERATOR: ALEX ELKINS ASSISTANTS: ANDREW BRINKMAN, BESS JOHNSON, SCOTT FORTE, AUSTIN TAYLOR DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: CHRIS RATLEDGE LOADER: ERIN STRICKLAND
WOODBRIDGE PRODUCTIONS “S.W.A.T.” SEASON 3
DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: FRANCIS KENNY, ASC, CRAIG FIKSE OPERATORS: TIM DOLAN, BRIAN PITTS, MICHAEL OTIS ROPERT ASSISTANTS: RYAN PARKS, LOGAN TURNER, THANE CHARACKY, RILEY PADELFORD, JUSTNI QUACH, MIKE FAUNTLEROY CAMERA UTILITY: CARL LAMMI LOADER: TREVOR BEELER
COMMERCIALS CMS
“LC MEDIA, LLC” DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: TONY STEWART ASSISTANT: DUSTIN RAYSIK
“SCOTTISH RITE” DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MARTIM VIAN ASSISTANTS: PATRICK KELLY, MICHAEL TORRENT RODRIGUEZ
HOUND
“JACK IN THE BOX”
PACIFIC RIM FILMS
STIR FILMS, LLC
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: STUART DRYBURGH OPERATOR: STANLEY FERNANDEZ ASSISTANTS: GLENN KAPLAN, HAFFE ACOSTA, ADAM RUSSELL, DERRICK DAWKINS DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: KAZIM KARAISMAILOGLU LIBRA TECHS: JOSH PRESSGROVE, SEBASTIAN ALMEIDA
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: DOUGLAS GORDON ASSISTANT: PATRICK KELLY
“DICK’S SPORTING GOODS”
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: GILES DUNNING ASSISTANT: JAVIER SANTOS AUDERA DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: SCOTT BECKLEY
M SS NG P ECES “SAMSUNG”
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: KAI SAUL ASSISTANTS: NICOLAS MARTIN, ALAN CERTEZA STEADICAM OPERATOR: CHRIS CUNNINGHAM DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: BEN HOPKINS
“AIRBNB.ORG”
“OLD NAVY”
“AMERICAN FAMILY INSURANCE” DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: ERIC SCHMIDT ASSISTANTS: LILA BYALL, KIRA HERNANDEZ DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: JOHN SPELLMAN
WOODSHOP STUDIOS, INC.
PARTIZAN ENTERTAINMENT
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JODY LEE LIPES ASSISTANTS: AURELIA WINBORN, ALISA COLLEY DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: ANTHONY HECHANOVA
WORLD OF WONDER DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JAKE KERBER ASSISTANTS: NICOLAS MARTIN, ALAN CERTEZA DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: CJ MILLER HEAD UTILITY: STEVE ANSON
PARK PICTURES
MJZ
“HPHC”
“DANCE”
“ARBY’S”
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: TOM LAZAREVICH ASSISTANT: CLINT MORAN DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: MICHAEL BORENSTEIN
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: TODD MARTIN ASSISTANTS: EVAN WALSH, JOSHUA BOTE LOADER: GREG HOWARD
“OLIVE GARDEN”
PULSE USA
MUSIC VIDEOS
“SPECIAL K”
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: DARREN LEW ASSISTANTS: JOHN CLEMENS, SCOTT MILLER DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: JEFFREY HAGERMAN
ICONOCLAST
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: IRV BLITZ ASSISTANT: CLIFF THENARD DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: MICHAEL BORENSTEIN
RAKISH
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: IRV BLITZ ASSISTANT: CLIFF THENARD DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: MICHAEL BORENSTEIN
“MCDONALD’S”
“CVS”
“HASBRO-HHH LAUNCHERS”
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: TAMI REIKER, ASC ASSISTANTS: MATTHEW MEBANE, SAMUEL KIM DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: JASON JOHNSON
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: NATHAN SWINGLE ASSISTANT: JILL TUFTS DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: MATTHEW DORRIS
SANCTUARY CONTENT
OLD HARBOR PRODUCTIONS
“PROJECT DANCE” DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: CHRISTOPHER RIPLEY OPERATOR: OSVALDO SILVERA, JR., SOC ASSISTANT: WILLEM VAN VARK STEADICAM OPERATOR: OSVALDO SILVER, JR., SOC DIGITAL UTILITY: JENNIFER GALIPAULT
“PREMERA BLUE CROSS”
O-POSITIVE
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: DANIEL BOMBELL ASSISTANTS: DAVID RHINEER, JONATHAN WERTZ DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: SEAN MCALLISTER
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MARYSE ALBERTI OPERATOR: REBECCA ARNDT ASSISTANTS: MEGAERA STEPHENS, ADRIANA BRUNETTO-LIPMAN, CHRISTINA CARMODY, TRICIA MEARS DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: PAUL SCHILENS
SIBLING RIVALRY
“COORS SELTZER”
“PERSIL PROCLEAN” DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: DANIEL STEWART ASSISTANT: ROBERT LAU, MITCH MALPICA DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: JOE BELACK
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EAST COAST & EUROPE ALAN BRADEN INC. Alan Braden Tel: (818) 850-9398 Email: alanbradenmedia@gmail.com
OCTOBER 2020 PRODUCTION CREDITS
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STOP MOTION
10.2020
Clay Enos UNIT STILL PHOTOGRAPHER WONDER WOMAN 1984
One of the great treats of filmmaking is to uniquely access and spend time in all kinds of places. On WW84, we closed down Pennsylvania Avenue (in Washington, D.C.) for days, littered it with our set dressing, and blissfully made movie magic. At the end of one of those scorching hot days, a setting sun complemented an epic stunt with our lead actress, Gal Gadot.
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ICG MAGAZINE
IMAGE PIPELINES
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