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September/October 2011 • V.26|No.5
Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
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A Perfect 10 Perfection is elusive. But when achieved, things come together perfectly. What’s true in life is also true in audio production software. Sound Forge™ Pro 10 software, the 10th version of the legendary audio editing and mastering application, scores a perfect 10. Long the professional standard for analyzing, recording, editing, producing, converting and resampling audio, Sound Forge Pro 10 makes a great thing even better with these new features: event-based editing, integrated disc-at-once CD burning, élastique Pro timestrech and pitch shift plug-in, plus the Mastering Effects Bundle 2 powered by iZotope™—valued at over $200, and more. Sound Forge Pro 10 delivers the ultimate all-in-one production suite for professional audio recording and mastering, sound design, audio restoration, and Red Book CD creation. Power. Stability. Reliability. This one’s perfect. Visit your favorite retailer or www.sonycreativesoftware.com/perfect to learn more.
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Markee2.0
Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
September/October 2011 Volume 26, Number 5
contents
Photo courtesy of New York Daily News
w w w. m a r k e e m a g . c o m
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features 8
Original Music
Original Music for Spots, TV and Film By Christine Bunish
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Specialty Shooters
Double Daring Lensmen By Mark Smith
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Lighting
What’s Hot in Lighting By Christine Bunish
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Spotlight – West Coast
More Than Beaches By Cory Sekine-Pettite
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Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
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Markee2.0
Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
Markee 2.0 is a results-driven magazine that has been published since December 1985. A nationwide survey of film and video industry professionals revealed that Markee 2.0 is at the top of their must-read list.
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Editorially, Markee 2.0 offers a wide range of content tailored for its diverse readership. Features span film and video production and postproduction topics to include must-read interviews with leaders in the creative community, the latest equipment and technology news, perspectives on innovative independent filmmaking, and in-the-trenches reports on shooters, editors, animators and audio pros – plus regularly-scheduled specialty supplements. Markee 2.0’s seasoned writers know the industry inside-out. That’s what makes Markee 2.0 compelling, informative and timely reading.
www.markeemag.com
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columns & departments 4
Editor’s Note
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Making TV – The Long Road To Prohibition Ken Burns has been called the greatest documentarian of our day. Here’s how his company, Florentine Films, makes documentaries. By Michael Fickes
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Making Commercials – Osiris Attitude Osiris aims to embody the creative, counterculture worldview of its audience in a recently released campaign. By Michael Fickes
36 Inside View – Blair Stribley
[On The Cover] Music houses are reaching deep to deliver memorable original tracks for projects of all kinds. Photo: © Benjamin Haas | Dreamstime.com
President/partner, Backyard/Mighty Film Co. By Christine Bunish www.markeemag.com
September/October 2011
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from the editor
Markee2.0
Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
| By Cory Sekine-Pettite
www.markeemag.com LIONHEART PUBLISHING, INC. 506 Roswell Street, Suite 220, Marietta, GA 30060 Tel: 770.431.0867 Fax: 770.432.6969 E-mail: lpi@lionhrtpub.com www.markeemag.com
‘Top Gun’ 3D? When Hollywood sees a moneymaking opportunity, the studios are quick to churn out movies and TV programs in order to get their share. This isn’t a bad thing necessarily; the target audience is provided with a great deal of affordable entertainment, and a lot of industry personnel are put to work. However, as is often the case, trends can be taken too far – too many movies shot entirely in front of blue screens, for example – before studios decide to move on to the next big thing. As is often the case, it is behind-the-scenes technology that makes many of these trends possible. For example, in the mid-1980s, many movie fans were upset by the fact that the Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) had purchased the broadcast rights to more than 100 Hollywood classics with the intention of colorizing these old films. Just because it is technologically possible, people said, doesn’t mean it should be done. In my opinion, the same can be said today about adding 3D visual effects to old movies. As I write this, studios are scheduling to re-release several films in 3D, including many Disney classics (based on the box office success of the re-released The Lion King) and Top Gun. Many other 3D re-releases certainly will follow. Granted, the technology behind these endeavors certainly is fascinating – as was the colorization process in the 1980s – but is it really necessary? When TBS colorized The Wizard of Oz and Casablanca, the outcry was over messing with Hollywood history and potentially destroying a director’s original intent. (Who’s to say what color clothes the actors wore, or what colors were used in set design, purists asked?) Will audiences really pay to see these movies in theaters again – movies many people already own on DVD – just because of a few added VFX? Based upon the popularity of recent movies filmed with new 3D cameras, such as Avatar (which made more than $2 billion worldwide) and Alice in Wonderland (which grossed more than $1 billion worldwide), the studios seem to think so. But repurposing a movie as 3D is not the same as a movie shot in 3D. Perhaps the studios believe the younger demographic, which fills most theater seats these days, doesn’t know or doesn’t care about the difference. There’s no doubt the new 3D technologies are bringing people to their local movie houses, but I believe that pushing out old films with added 3D effects diminishes the updated technology’s contemporary appeal. I very well may be proven wrong upon the re-release of Top Gun and movies like it, but until then, all I can think about when picturing old 3D movies is Jaws 3-D. And that’s an unpleasant memory in more ways than one.
Highlights Coming In November/December 2011 • Animation Studios • Mobile Production
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Copyright © 2011 by Lionheart Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. The copyright owner, however, does consent to a single copy of an article being made for personal use. Otherwise, except under circumstances within “fair use” as defined by copyright law, no part of this publication may be reproduced, displayed or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner, Lionheart Publishing, Inc. Send e-mail permission requests to editor@markeemag.com.
• Spotlight: The South
IN EVERY ISSUE: Making TV • Making Commercials • Inside View
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September/October 2011
Disclaimer – The statements and opinions in the articles of this publication are solely those of the individual authors and contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Lionheart Publishing, Inc. or the editorial staff of Markee 2.0 or any sponsoring organization. The appearance of advertisements in this magazine is not a warranty, endorsement, or approval of the products or services advertised.
Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
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making TV
Prohibition | By Michael Fickes
The Long Road To Prohibition Ken Burns has been called the greatest documentarian of our day. Here’s how his company, Florentine Films, makes documentaries. Walpole, N.H.-based Florentine Films worked for more than three years to produce Prohibition, the five-and-one-half hour Ken Burns’ documentary about the 18th amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The program aired on PBS in early October. Why the long lead-time? “We always take time to reflect on the material, which helps us make better decisions about the story,” says Buddy Squires, an Oscar-nominated filmmaker, Emmy-winning director of photography, and founding member of Florentine. Having worked on most major Ken Burns’ projects, Squires knows the process. Unlike most theatrical and television programming, Florentine Films documentaries begin with research and unscripted cinematography. Only after the lion’s share of photography, newsreels, filmed interviews and live film sequences come together is a script developed. Then comes a company-wide collaboration among the researchers, producers, editors and directors – Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, in the case of Prohibition – as the story is shaped, refined and knit together.
Researching Prohibition In researching the project, Florentine Producer Sara Botstein and her team collected archival photographs, newsreel footage, diaries, letters, music and other primary research dating from the early 19th century through the first third of the 20th century. Sources included commercial and public archives, historical societies, libraries, personal collections and experts who were interviewed on camera. Botstein’s team logged each item individually in a FileMaker Pro database along with key search words to enable searching and retrieving. Then the materials were digitized and stored. 6
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Shooting Prohibition “I shoot without a script,” says Squires, who lensed Prohibition, along with Allen Moore and Stephen McCarthy. He shot the interviews – also unscripted – and collected live footage. He shot with an Aaton XTR super-16 film camera with Kodak 7212 and 7219 film. For interviews, he used Canon 8-64 and 11-165 zoom lenses. For other material, he used the zooms, as well as a Canon 300 mm f/2.8 and Zeiss super speed primes. Live footage in Prohibition includes period speakeasies such as Manhattan’s 21 Club and Old Town Bar. Squires also shot bourbon distilleries, breweries and restored 19th century towns, such as Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts, which helped establish one of the locations. Squires used to shoot archival photography in the signature Ken Burns’ style –slow pans, push-ins and pullbacks – using an animation stand. “We discovered that a zoom lens distorted the edges of the photographs,” says Squires. Using the animation stand, Squires would aim the camera down at a photo positioned on the bed. The camera moved up and down to create push-ins and pullbacks. For pans, the bed moved north, south, east, and west. Today, the editorial team handles the camera moves on the photographs with a software application. As the research on Prohibition approached completion, Geoffrey C. Ward developed the script, which the editorial team used to create the rough cut.
Editing Prohibition Prohibition research materials included thousands of digitized photos and dozens of hours of newsreels. “We spent days looking everything over,” says Tricia Reidy, who edited the program along with Erik Ewers and Ryan Gifford.
September/October 2011
[Above] Prohibition co-directors Ken Burns and Lynn Novick.
While the editors studied, apprentices assembled a 5.5-hour outline that included the narrator’s audio plus the audio and footage from the interviews. The rough cut filled in the blanks. “We use Avid [Media Composers] to tell the story,” says Reidy. “Illustrating the narration is the jumping off point, but we also look for opportunities. For instance, we found newsreel footage of men removing a saloon sign and loading it into a cart along with photos labeled ‘last day before Prohibition’ showing men clinking glasses.” In another happy accident, Wynton Marsalis was recording some music for the show and decided to whistle “Hard Times.” Reidy pounced on the tune and put it together with the montage. “It was a lovely opportunity,” she says. Once completed, the EDL of the rough cut went to Goldcrest Post in New York City for finishing – more than three years after research into on the project got underway.
Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
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making Commercials
Osiris | By Michael Fickes
Osiris Attitude Osiris aims to embody the creative, counter-culture worldview of its audience in a recently released campaign. Osiris began making athletic shoes for skateboarders in 1996. Focusing on designs endorsed by pros, the company expanded into other action sports. Today, Osiris wants to go large by expanding into lifestyle apparel. A recently released commercial campaign began the process. Showing its counter-culture roots, Osiris eliminated the ad agency from the process and went straight to a director and production company – Nicholaus Goossen of Futuristic Films of Venice, Calif., and Denver – whose work had impressed the Osiris creatives. A commercial and music video director, Goossen also has directed a couple of features: Grandma’s Boy and The Shortcut. Several of his recent music videos had a dark, unconventional style that Osiris hoped to tap for its brand. “The campaign creative is largely Nick’s,” says Futuristic Executive Producer Brendan Kiernan. The idea called for gritty, realistic black-and-white spots with skateboarders, competitive cyclists, and urban artists. The Osiris creatives and Goossen fleshed out the idea and cast athletes and artists who currently serve as Osiris brand spokespeople. The personalities include skateboarding pros Pierre-Luc Gagnon and Corey Duffel; Darryl Tocco, a competitive BMX rider; a rapper named Del, who is well-known in the action sports world and happens to be a cousin of Ice Cube; and Risk a well-known Los Angeles street artist. For the shoot, Goossen wanted to highlight a sensibility he describes as “renegade-ish” and counter-cultural. “The commercials are about athletes and artists who have the determination to themselves as individuals and creative forces,” Kiernan explains. www.markeemag.com
In the footage, Goossen captures the skaters and BMX rider performing stomach-churning and sometimes dangerous acrobatics. Del records a driving rap and Risk creates a spectacular street-art rendering of the Osiris logo. Using a new Red Epic camera, Goossen shot enough footage to put together a 30-second spot featuring each spokesperson at work. “Nick insisted on shooting each in his own environment,” Kiernan says. “Del and Corey Duffel were shot in San Francisco. Darryl Tocco lives in Carlsbad. Pierre Luc-Gagnon lives in San Diego, and Risk is from east of Los Angeles.” Goossen also mounted a Canon 5D Mark II twice to get point of view shots. For instance, we see close-ups of Corey Duffel as he rides a motorcycle up one of San Francisco’s steepest hills in preparation for a wild and dangerous descent by skateboard. The multi-talented Goossen edited the spots, too, using Apple’s Final Cut Pro. He made a :30 and a :60 using clips of each spokesperson, followed by :30s focused on the individuals. The footage was in color, and Goossen drained the color out in post to get to black and white. All of the color went except for one orange accent per spot tied to Risk’s elegant treatment of the Osiris logo. The skateboards have orange hardware underneath. The bicycle has orange handle grips. Del’s rap features an orange microphone. “Those items were actually orange in the original shoot,” Kiernan says. “Sometimes pulling the rest of the color out was tricky, especially when there wasn’t enough separation between the orange and the surrounding colors. Often, we went frame by frame
[Above Top] Professional BMX rider Darryl Tocco spins his way through a rugged concrete environment in Carlsbad, Calif.
[Above Bottom] Professional skateboarder Corey Duffel speeds down a San Francisco hill.
where the orange bled into other parts of the image and repainted what we wanted in black and white. The spots also show portraits of each spokesperson against an orange background. In the portraits, the spokespeople offer determined looks to the camera. Corey Duffel goes a step further and grimaces. Risk appears holding up a can of orange spray paint in one hand and a large knife in the other. He slams the can onto the knife blade, filling the screen with orange paint that evaporates to reveal the Osiris logo. Didn’t Nike find a way to break out by stepping up and just doing something like that? View the commercial at www.osiris shoes.com.
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ORIGINAL MUSIC for Spots, TV and Film BY CHRISTINE BUNISH Photo: © Federico Caputo | Dreamstime.com
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Whether its capturing the essence of today’s Grand Ole Opry, tapping an extraordinary musical career for the benefit of commercial advertisers, evoking the emotions of 9/11, or painting a picture in sound for a heartfelt new documentary, music houses nationwide are reaching deep to deliver memorable original tracks for projects of all kinds.
www.markeemag.com
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Original Music
Aircast Goes Custom for Pickers and Pickers
[Above] American Pickers Frank Fritz (left) and Mike Wolfe from the promo for their History Channel program. Photos: A&E Networks
[Below] Title squence for the new Opry Live.
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As the custom scoring division of production music giant Megatrax, Aircast Custom Music (www.aircastmusic.com) has the ability to create music from the ground up for clients, as well as modify existing library tracks and deal with copyright issues. The vast majority of its work, however, is custom, and Aircast’s credits for TV programming and promos are wide ranging. Recently, The History Channel asked the company to score a promo for its popular collectibles-hunting series, American Pickers. The playful :30 promo depicts the hosts showing off their often outlandish finds in a stop motion-style video layered against a changing background of rural landscapes. “Our big direction for the promo was stylistic. They also needed some hit points to go with the animated visuals they had in mind, and they wanted something with a certain fun factor,” recalls Aircast’s Creative Services Director, Randy Hart. The result is a driving rock track that reflects the freewheeling nature of the hosts’ picking. “It’s kind of a raw, harsh electric guitar yet it bounces along – it’s not dark, it has a lot of life to it,” says Hart. “Virtually all age ranges are attracted to the show. We didn’t want to alienate older viewers with a track that was so raw and in-your-face that it would appeal only to those who like that sound. We needed a track with a certain quality and integrity to it.” Earlier, Aircast teamed with The History Channel and sponsor Mercedes on a cross-promotion celebrating Woodstock: Now & Then, which tasked the company with devising a new arrangement of Canned Heat’s iconic “Goin’ Up the Country.” “They needed a succinct, :30 version that worked musically with a tight, clean ending,” Hart explains. “It had to sparkle sonically – the instrumentation needed to be a bit cleaner and brighter than the original recording by virtue of today’s recording techniques.” The famous flute line itself was irreplaceable. “It was instantly recognizable, and we wanted to engage viewers as quickly as possible,” he notes. Aircast, headquartered in Nashville, just completed a new theme for the famous Grand Ole Opry, whose Opry Live telecasts are now seen on Great American Country (GAC), and radio broadcasts are syndicated by Westwood One. “For their re-launch on television they wanted a high-energy, contemporarysounding piece, primarily guitar-based, that had an identifiable sound or logo” for branding opportunities, says Hart. The TV theme, which accompanies a bold graphic montage of today’s top artists, is a far cry from the acoustic guitar and vocals one might associate with the Opry’s heritage and its cadre of older artists, Hart said. “The production values are similar to those of contemporary country recordings,” he points out. “It’s very electric – banjo, four or five guitars, organ, piano and a percussion loop for a bit of a subtle bounce. It definitely sets the tone for the show, which features a lot of contemporary artists.” The package that Aircast delivered for the Opry was typical of a project of this type. It featured an array of deliverables starting
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with the :30 theme, which was cut live; longer and shorter variations edited from the :30; and :05 bumps, which also were recorded live. “With a program package like this you always want sonic or musical continuity going in and out of commercials to remind viewers what they’re coming back to,” says Hart. “Themes and promos are a unique animal,” he emphasizes. “There’s an important relationship between the piece of music and the entire production. It’s kicking off the show; it has to mirror what you’re about to see. It takes a special skill set to set the tone and tell the story in that short a time frame.”
[Left] Randy Hart, Aircast's creative services director.
Mutato Muzika Ramps Up Spot Work After Feature and TV Success LA’s Mutato Muzika (www.mutato.com) is “reinvigorating” its commercial music side after a period which saw company founder and Devo member Mark Mothersbaugh concentrating on recording with the band and scoring numerous movies and TV shows. “I drifted away from spots,” he says, “but I’ve got some new people working with me in production, including Natalie Montgomery who was formerly with Wieden + Kennedy, and we’re ramping up so we’ll be in full swing by the end of the year. We’re also partnering with Funkhaus to create a new website and Internet presence.” Although he’s more accustomed to long-form composing these days, Mothersbaugh enjoys writing music for commercials. “Thirty-second spots are like mini movies: So much information is packed into them. Films, even TV shows, have space in them. But commercials are airtight, very intense and compressed. That kind of makes them exciting and fun. There’s so much energy in a :30 – every second is precious and important.”
[Above] The Oscar Niemeyer-designed building on Sunset Strip, which houses Mutato Muzika.
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Original Music
[Right] Mark Mothersbaugh, Devo frontman and founder of Mutato Muzika.
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He notes that using songs for commercial tracks seems to be a lasting trend. “Songs seem to solve the problem people have communicating with their clients – they’re a safe area. When you have a song, you have a place to start the discussion. Music is difficult to talk about: Words are less satisfying from a descriptive standpoint. But when you stay in the world of songs, it’s a comfort area for people. You can tell them, ‘This is piece we want to use.’” Mothersbaugh says he isn’t insulted if a customer comes to cutting-edge Mutato with a song in mind. After all, Mick Jagger once told Mothersbaugh that he had produced Jagger’s favorite version of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” “I’m up for mutation, reinterpretation and turning things inside out,” he says. “We get called about music people have heard in films and on TV.” Including his own compositions. “Agencies call and say, ‘We’re temping spots to your music from this Wes Anderson film or from Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, but we don’t have the money for a 95-piece orchestra. Another spot composer told me he’s asked to knock off my stuff every month.” Faster turnarounds for commercials and high expectations from clients competing in a pressure-cooker environment mean music houses do more hand-holding with customers than ever before. “You used to send the music and sit back,” Mothersbaugh recalls. “Now you have to be on top of the client almost hourly. They’re looking for someone to solve problems for them.” Recently, he collaborated with colleague Chris Kennedy on music for a tongue-incheek spot for Google TV’s Logitech Revue, which featured the ultimate Kevin Bacon fan (played by Bacon himself). The whimsical track “helped keep everything together and moving along,” he says. “It had to be all about Kevin, but we didn’t want anything that would seem creepy or put him in a weird light.” Mutato is well known for scoring George Clooney’s hilariously deadpan black-andwhite spots for Martini, which aired in Europe and have the feel of lush continental films. “They had to feel that you were at the Cannes Film Festival – that kind of atmosphere,” says Mothersbaugh. In the ‘El Toro’ spot, he discovered that recording real mariachi players didn’t work as well as classically trained orchestral players who played to picture more effectively. Mothersbaugh usually records in Apple’s Logic, although he sometimes goes straight to a room with guitars and drums. Mutato’s own studios meet most live recording needs – in fact, half of his feature work has been recorded inhouse. At press time, Mothersbaugh was still working on four features and a mountain of episodic television: Season four of Spike’s Blue Mountain State; season three of Cartoon Network’s The Regular Show; plus HBO’s new Enlightened and Showtime’s
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new House of Lies, which showcase his “Thomas Newman side” and “acidic and electronic, veering towards club” tracks, respectively. He also recently played in a “Super Band” with Bootsy Collins, rapper Biz Markie, Questlove and Erykah Badu for the hit kid’s TV program Yo Gabba Gabba!. Such diverse musical experiences boost his spot music capabilities, Mothersbaugh believes. “I’m not a guy who does music for commercials every day, and there are advantages to that. I think there’s more of a chance to get something fresher and more original sounding than if you go to a music house where the people are feeling fatigued from pumping it out all the time.”
[Left] One of the many unique instruments Mutato Muzika uses to produce original music for its clients.
Stephen Arnold Music Takes on 9/11 Anniversary for CNN When CNN was looking for moving and inspirational music for its coverage of 9/11 – Ten Years Later, the news network came to Dallas-based Stephen Arnold Music (www.stephenarnoldmusic .com) for a package to brand and unify the weeklong commemoration. CNN required music to anchor a range of shows and promotions in the lead up to the 10th anniversary of the attacks, and it needed an arrangement to play behind live coverage of the unveiling of the 9/11 Memorials in Shanksville, Pa., and at Ground Zero. “CNN didn’t want us to create something that was overly dark and somber,” says Stephen Arnold. “The music had to be a thread among all the programming, yet it all had to be a little different. After doing three scratch tracks, they latched onto a track that had a nice balance of reflection, hope and optimism.” Stephen Arnold Music crafted modular tracks that the network could combine for various promos and use to support programming such as Dr. Sanjay Gupta Reports: Terror in the Dust; Beyond 9/11: Portraits of Resilience; Footnotes of 9/11; and Beyond
[Above] Stephen Arnold at the ProMax Digital Lounge.
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Original Music
[Above] Stephen Arnold Music composed moving and inspirational music for these television specials on the BP oil spill and 9/11.
Bravery: The Women of 9/11. The monumental main theme primarily featured strings, French horn and orchestral percussion, all recorded live in Texas. The second, sparser arrangement, used during the Ground Zero and Shanksville dedication ceremonies, took a slightly different direction with classical guitar, strings and a touch of textural vocals. The project had Stephen Arnold Music walking a “tightrope” of emotions, reports VP of Creative Services, Chad Cook. “It had a strong brand to it and an emotional tie to viewers. But we couldn’t go to the dark side of the tragedy: We had to mark the moment and move on.” The company is no stranger to creating music with “a strong emotional connection,” he notes. It won a Promax Gold Award for “God Bless Louisiana,” an inspirational track written for ABC affiliate WGNO-TV/New Orleans following the oil disaster in the gulf. “We got the voiceover first [actor Wendell Pierce from Treme] when typically the last thing you work with is the voiceover,” says Arnold. “It was like a Deep South pastor giving a tent revival speech in the heat. Wendell’s voice was almost the melody – I just had to come up with the chords. So I grabbed my guitar and began to play a few little licks.” Arnold hired New Orleans-based musicians to record the drums, organ, bass, guitar and piano for two spots called “Hardship” and “Hope.” They jammed and produced a two-minute track, which was edited for the :30 spots that truly resonated with New Orleanians. “One of the values of custom music is the ability to fine tune your emotional message to your brand,” says Cook. “We’ve never seen a bigger response than we did from these spots. They went beyond TV station branding to connecting the station to the community and all it had been through.”
PrimalScream Demonstrates the Power of Music for New Doc A story of personal courage and survival, the feature documentary The Power of Two profiles twins Anabel Stenzel and Isabel Stenzel Byrnes and their battle with the fatal genetic disease Cystic Fibrosis (CF). Defying all odds, the sisters have survived double lung transplants and become authors, athletes and global advocates for organ donation. When Academy Award-nominated director Marc Smolowitz first contacted Nicole Dionne, creative director at LA’s PrimalScream Music & Sound, about scoring the doc, she thought it was a medical documentary. “But it was an emotional, passionate story about the twins that hit me hard,” she says. “I’ve been offered to music supervise movies before and never done them. I always knew the first one would be something I was passionate about, and my mind started clicking just based on my initial creative call with Marc before I even saw any footage.” Dionne selected the doc’s two composers, Tim Easton and Kyle Moorman, who each started to work based only on Dionne’s verbal picture-painting: The doc was still being edited and footage was available only randomly. Dionne also began collecting songs that meant a lot to her, compiling a soundtrack by bands and singer-songwriters who are a rising stars in the music industry. “I didn’t want any trendy songs,” says Dionne. “Kyle’s work is unique and inspired – his electronic sounds are great and very progressive. Tim is fully acoustic; his guitar work is so in-the-moment – it hits you right away. The two of them couldn’t be more opposite, yet they inspired and motivated each other as artists on this film.” Early on, Dionne proposed 15 songs for the doc, all of which ended up in the film, “some for their musical aspects, [and] some for their lyrics.” Sara Melson’s 14
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“Feel It Coming,” whose lyrics express that something better is coming soon, accompanied the story of young Anna Modlin, another CF transplant recipient and two other sequences. “It so aligned with the film that [Anna] asked, ‘Did Sara write it for me?’” Dionne recalls. She thought that Juliette Commagere’s haunting “Skyscraper” would work perfectly over the opening titles, providing an immersive musical counterpoint to a lyrical rough cut she saw of the twins at a swimming competition.
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[Above] Anabel and Isabel Stenzel from the documentary The Power of Two.
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Original Music
[Above] Nicole Dionne of PrimalScream with songwriter Gus Black.
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Dionne also selected Gus Black’s “The Afterlife,” a simple and affecting vocal with guitar that was written about his child being his own afterlife, to draw together the different transplant philosophies of the American and Japanese cultures and reflect the concept that organ donation is an afterlife. She chose Mindy Gledhill’s “Anchor,” a piano track with a beautiful lyric about being someone’s anchor when the world is spinning around, for Anabel’s wedding sequence. And Remy Zero’s “World,” produced by Dionne, adds an especially poignant touch to the end credits since the band’s drummer died of CF. Throughout, Dionne deftly placed songs with lyrics around the film’s considerable narration so they would not compete with but only support the storytelling. When The Power of Two was finished, Dionne hosted a screening at her home for all the artists included in the soundtrack and for the real-life stars of the doc. “When the film ended, no one moved,” she recalls about what has proved to be a transformative experience for the participants. “Many of the artists are now giving their time to CF and performing at events. It’s rare for a film to have had this kind of connection with its musicians.” The Power of Two premiered during DocuWeeks, the prestigious Oscar-qualifying doc showcase held in LA and NY, and has been selected for the Tokyo Film Festival. It also had gala screenings in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., with live performances by the artists involved in the soundtrack.
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Double-Daring
LENSMEN Specialty Shooters Tempt Fate, Garner for Elusive Footage BY MARK SMITH
[Clockwise from Top Right] Behind-the-scenes of a Hansaplant bandage commercial. Photo: Bob Carmichael
Start your engine! The Pike’s Peak International Hill Climb. Photo: JSP Broadcast Inc.
Getting close to the action: A tornado in Harper, Kan. Photo: Martin Lisius
A Norbert Sport rig helps Mike Hess shoot extreme sports. Photo: Mike Hess
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Depending on what type of gig a shooter has, he or she could unwittingly find himself or herself in a nerve-wracking or downright scary scenario. If you lens corporate projects, you’re probably fairly safe. But if you’re on an ENG shoot, who knows? However, the thrill seekers are another breed. They shoot cars that go zooming by them at 100 MPH, and skateboarders who might be speeding if they went that fast in a car. They might do it in all sorts of crazy weather, possibly when pulling themselves up the sides of mountains while hoisting a heavy camera. Among other things. Would you or I do it? Probably not. But they not only do it, they do it often, with gusto. Sometimes, they even dedicate their careers to acquiring specialty footage. What makes these guys tick? Read on.
[Below]
Tellin’ It on the Mountain
Getting an overhead shot of the “Pike’s Peak finish line.
Companies that offer specialties don’t necessarily ignore other profit centers in the markets. That thought has not been lost on John “Sandy” Santucci, owner of Denver’s JSP Broadcast Inc. While its corporate division shoots various projects, JSP also focuses on sports production. “The more extreme, the better,” he says. Covering sports in the Rocky Mountains often means conquering its rugged terrain, as JSP’s crew did during the production of the annual Pike’s Peak International Hill Climb auto race. It debuted on Altitude Sports and Entertainment this fall and is now in national distribution. The shoot is difficult, mainly due to scaling the majestic mountain, which reaches 14,100 feet into the sky. Starting at 9,300 feet, JSP placed its camera setups at various positions along the 12.42-mile narrow, steep and slippery mountain road course. JSP relied on the Sony EX-1, XDs and Z1Us for the shoot. “We had six cameras along the course: One at the start, two at the finish line and others at various junctures along the course, plus the all-important helicopter shot,” he says. “When you have a race car zooming by at more than 100 MPH, it can be tough to get a sharp image.” An important asset to the production was the use of an aerial camera, in this case a Sony XD Cam with a Cineflex mount, setup by Angel City Air of L.A. The copter followed most of the racer’s runs; also key to the production were a myriad of POV cameras, including more than 100 GoPros and Contours, mounted inside and outside several cars at various angles. Once camera locations were secured, crews then dealt with the given hazards of the production: the unpredictable all-season weather; the constant 30- to 40-MPH winds at the finish line; and the other issues, such as dirt in the cameras and on the lenses. “It’ll be nice to not have that problem next year when the entire road is paved [which has been far from the case] for the race,” Santucci says. Safety for the crew is a primary concern, so camera positions are chosen with utmost care, though a car could roll or slide off the course; but so far, it’s all been good. “Those positions allow for great long shots, too,” he says. Already, it’s time to think about next year’s event. “This is second oldest motor sports race in the country – and definitely the highest,” says Santucci “Hopefully, 2012 will be our first year to shoot it in 3D. We’re working with a few networks to partner with us.” www.markeemag.com
Photo: JSP Broadcast Inc.
[Bottom] Interviewing one of the Pike’s Peak drivers. Photo: JSP Broadcast Inc.
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Specialty Shooters
A Man for All Elements
[Above Top] A so-called supercell captured in Upton County, Texas, in 1999. Photo: Mark Lisius
[Above] Filming Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Photo: Mark Lisius
[Right] Aftermath of Greensburg, Kan., tornado from 2007. Photo: Mark Lisius
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No one can call Martin Lisius faint of heart; nor is watching his productions for those concerned about their tickers. That’s because Lisius, founder of Prairie Pictures’ StormStock in Arlington, Texas, is a storm chaser extraordinaire. And unlike many of his brethren, he’s not concerned about being pigeonholed. “I specialize in extreme weather,” Lisius says. “That’s about it.” The Texas resident lives there for good reason: “I’m pretty sure that it’s the only state that has hurricanes, tornados and blizzards,” he says. Chasing the worst weather imaginable actually requires keen forecasting skills, so Lisius analyzes raw data culled from the Internet and uses forecast models from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to prepare about 100 tornado forecasts a year to determine where he can find a supercell (a storm system producing thunderstorms with rotating winds sustained by a prolonged upward draft that may result in hail or tornadoes) that might hit anywhere from Texas to the Dakotas. “That’s where I usually shoot,” Lisius says, adding, “I also look for large damaging hail, torrential winds and hard rain.” It’s those tornadoes and supercells that he likes best. “Hurricanes are relatively easy to forecast, once they approach the U.S. coastline, to within a couple of days of landfall,” he says, “and blizzards are relatively easy, too; I just have to look for a upper-level storm system moving toward the West Coast of the United States, toward the Rockies and onto the Plains States.
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To capture phenomenal weather events, such as Hurricanes Ike and Gustav in 2008, and (of course) Katrina in 2005, Lisius employs various cameras. “When I want something beautiful, it’s the Arri 35-3. But I sometimes shoot with the Sony PMW-EX3 because it’s dependable and has a fairly lightsensitive 1/2-inch chip,” he says. “For lightning, I use the Arri or the Sony HVR- Z1U. It shoots superior lightning images because it’s a CCD camera; the newer HD cameras usually feature CMOS sensors, which are horrible for shooting lightning because of their rolling shutters.” While Lisius – who notes that he captured the first-ever tornado on 3D this past June in Nebraska – focuses on a narrow niche, he serves an expansive clientele of spot, film and doc producers who work with clients such as Allstate and ABC News, movies such as An Inconvenient Truth and The Devil Wears Prada, and various IMAX features. He’d be remiss, of course, not to mention his much-needed “raincoats” and cases from manufacturers such as Kata and Porta-Brace. He sure couldn’t live without them. “What I do is like shooting in a shower with a camera for five or six hours,” Lisius says. “That’s shooting in a hurricane. It’s almost like being underwater.”
[Above] Following a storm, snow covers the roof of this mountain home in Utah. Photo: Mark Lisius
A Specialty With More While Lisius sticks to extreme weather, Bob Carmichael, director/DP of Denali Productions in Boulder, Colo., has honed his focus on the wonders of the great outdoors – among other things. While his productions featuring nature’s wonders and vastness are intriguing, they also can be frightening. He has “expert-level experience in the water, the mountains and the air,” he says, and was “on the ground floor of pioneering adventure mountaineering and rock climbing work, shooting in the vertical environment,” placing booms on “air stations” that accommodated cameras mounts, tripods and even boom arms.
[Above] More behind-the-scenes footage of Denali Productions producing a bandage spot for German client Hansaplant. Photo: Bob Carmichael
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Specialty Shooters
[Right] Denali Productions crew hoisted several feet up to capture a rock-climbing scene. Photo: Bob Carmichael
Carmichael started acquiring footage in the 1970s when he produced an early rock climbing video for U.S. TV; in 1979, he produced a film about extreme skiing in the Grand Tetons, marking “the first time that that sport was introduced to the American public,” he says. Speaking of film, another marquee moment occurred in 1989, when Denali shot the open to Star Trek V: The Final Frontier – with an Arri 435 – from 2,500 feet up the southwest buttress (or “The Nose”) of El Capitan in Yosemite Valley. A recent Denali gig involved shooting a spot for Hansaplast (band-aids sold in Germany) via agency Beiersdorf. “For the close-up, we used a Harold Lloyd-type arrangement where we weren’t that high up the cliff,” he says, “but the ground dropped away toward the canyon,” creating a dramatic impression. “Our pick point for the pulley – or sheave – was about 100 feet up the cliff,” Carmichael says. “Then we ran a static-line through a winch, which allowed me to go up or down at any point much faster than strictly Jumars speed.” All told, it was a busy, one-day shoot. “We moved from one side of the canyon to another, chasing light. We used a stunt double in the early morning, so our [climber]
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could be in place for the next set up – 700 feet below the establishing shot. We worked at the ‘speed of safety’ with an experienced eye toward the logistics of shooting in the vertical,” he says. The camera of choice? The Arri 235. But while Carmichael markets his specialty, it doesn’t define him. “I’m a visualist,” he says, noting other spot shoots for Merrill Lynch, Ford Motor Co. and Cadillac; and the music video “Story” for Maroon 5, which was culled from stills and accented with fashion lighting via Denali’s photoGRAPHICvideo process. Still, he’s often thinking about his next move on the side of a big rock, especially with an extreme 3D project in development. “We’re constantly innovating to get around with equipment on vertical cliffs,” he says. [Above]
Up Close & Personal
Mike Hess filming a young skate-
Mike Hess did it. Then he retired from it and bought a camera. Now, he’s back boarder in a California skatepark. Photo: Mike Hess at it – at age 52 – and he’s still shooting. Skateboarding, that is. Hess, of Hess Images in Newport Beach, Calif., a former pro skateboarder and the 1978 Hang 10 World Pro-Am’s slalom champion, is skating down hills again; but on this day, he’s shooting 13-year-old Travis Clark, an up-and-comer who Hess is capturing doing an aerial backflip out of a bowl. “I’ve only gotten footage of three people who have been able to do this in 25 years,” said Hess, who has been shooting skateboarders since he retired from the sport in the early ’80s, these days with a Canon 5D Mark 2 and the Sony Z5U. Hess also uses a bracket that he helped develop with the K-Tek Boom company called a Norbert Sport that ensures that he shoots “ultimate buttery smooth video,” he says. “It’s hard to hold the camera steady in this sport, but this device makes it easy. “You can add a sound mic or monitor to it, too,” says Hess, and the Norbert Sport’s compact size and handle “allows the shooter to hang the camera into a skateboard bowl or to shoot any subject that’s speeding above you.” While he’s made his name in skateboarding, Hess also is a presence in the worlds of snowboarding and surfing. In the snow, he shoots from under a ramp for those “in your face” shots. “I get as close as a foot from my subject,” says Hess. “Sometimes, I have to move my camera pretty quickly. I use the Norbert when I turn around backwards at 50 MPH or a GoPro with a Norbert Tadpole.” Hess uses a similar approach on the sand. “When I film big wave surfing in Hawaii for Surfline.com, I use a Sony D5U, sometimes with a custom doubler” that’s made by Century Optics for long-distance shots. Pipeline shooting, if you’re looking into the ocean, is on the right; the left side is called back door. Hess shoots “hard angles” from land, which are “like shooting into the tube, or straight-on angles for fast action. If I shoot down low, it makes the wave look even bigger. The Sony D5U has a sloWith thousands of crews around the world, we mo feature that’s great for that shot.” find the right one for your shoot. Crew Connection. All told, Hess is a man on the move. “Most of the people say that I’m the youngest 52-year-old they’ve ever seen,” he says. “Kids can’t keep up with me so I must be doing something right.” www.markeemag.com
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What’s Hot In
LIGHTING Mole-Richardson 24K Daylight PAR
Litepanels Sola ENG MKII
MoleLED 12-Pack
ARRILITE 750 Plus
Litepanels Hilio
W
hat’s hot in lighting today is largely about what’s cool. Energy-efficient LEDs have made major inroads in film and video production, especially as LED fixtures become more versatile. But that’s not to say development of tungsten and daylight luminaires is at a standstill. Cinematographers and lighting designers typically seek a blend of fixtures for the best results, and they have more options than ever to choose from.
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Mole-Richardson Shines in Two Arenas Hollywood’s venerable Mole-Richardson Company (www.mole.com) is pursuing two tracks these days, continuing its role as a big lamp provider offering large tungsten PARs and Fresnels, as well as introducing its first LED products. “We’re producing everything from half-amp, efficient LED sources to the biggest fixtures that draw approximately 200 amps,” says Paul Royalty, director of sales. “Talk about a frenzied engineering department!” The manufacturer is making its debut in the LED arena with the MoleLED 12-Pack, a soft light available in tungsten and daylight, which “looks and acts like the traditional tungsten soft lights we’ve been making since the ’50s,” Royalty says. “What’s different from everybody else’s LEDs is that we’ve worked with OSRAM to develop a remote phosphor LED that really mirrors the spectral sensitivity of film. We ran five film tests over a 12-month period with the A.S.C. and Kodak until we got to the point where they couldn’t discern the difference in light quality for film between a regular tungsten fixture and our LED.” The MoleLED 12-Pack, which is now shipping, has garnered kudos from “those who pay attention to color and light quality. The reaction has been phenomenal. They’re so thankful that we put in the amount of work we did to get it right. We’re not trying to force people into using only our LEDs now. But we’re showing how they can be integrated into existing packages with no worry about color shifts.” Coming in the fourth quarter is the MoleLED Single. It boasts the same attributes as the 12-Pack, but is available in a package of three individual LED circuit boards with a controller. “That allows it to work like a car kit with DMX or wireless DMX control,” explains Royalty. “It can run off of batteries for more than three hours.” He expects the MoleLED Single to do “exceptionally well,” thanks to its versatility and compact form factor. “You can use it anywhere you need to tuck a light – by a computer monitor, behind a desk, up in the corner of a room.” On the big light front, Mole-Richardson received “a tremendous amount of requests post-IBC” for its 24K Daylite HMI Fresnel, the latest in big HMI lamp technology. “We’ve been doing big fixtures better than anyone for the last 80 years, so it’s in our wheelhouse,” notes Royalty. A pair of 24K Daylites has been used in the latest Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises, for the run of the production as the shoot has traveled from the UK to Pittsburgh to LA. Although “a lot of companies are not focusing on tungsten R&D,” Royalty says, MoleRichardson has chosen to take a different approach. The company has worked with GE to develop three separate lamps, he said, the new HX 2K; the HX 5K, which has been “growing exponentially” year to year; and the year-old HX 12K 208V. “The lamps are designed to work axially or horizontally,” Royalty explains. “Traditional filawww.markeemag.com
[Above] Mole-Richardson 5K Tungsten PAR
[Below] MoleLED 12-Pack
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Lighting
[Above Right] Mole-Richardson Tungsten PAR
[Below] Litepanels Sola
ments in the 5K and 12K range don’t like to operate in that position. When you put them in a PAR fixture they give the technician or cinematographer 97-percent reflective efficiency. So with our most popular 5K tungsten PAR it’s like getting the light output of a traditional 10K Fresnel – you get almost twice the efficiency and you can shape the beam with PAR lenses. You get the power and versatility of a PAR, but in 3200K tungsten without big, thick Fresnel glass.” The 2K tungsten PAR, which can be plugged into a wall outlet or Edison circuit, delivers the equivalent light of a 5K Fresnel. Looking ahead, Royalty expects Mole-Richardson to continue pursuing these two paths. “Over the next 12 months, you will see more on the LED side – spotlights and Fresnel types,” he says. At the same time, “we’re listening to market demands for bigger fixtures. We’ll introduce a dedicated 24K tungsten Fresnel. We have had success with 24K HMIs and will implement those design characteristics with the tungsten fixture to dissipate the heat and get better performance out of the lamp.”
Litepanels Expands Product Options During the last few years, there’s been “a definite shift toward LED lighting in the film and ENG/EFP markets,” says Chris Marchitelli, vice president/glob-
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al marketing at LED pioneer Litepanels (www.litepanels.com), a Vitec Group brand. LEDs generate less heat than other fixtures, are easy to move with battery and AC power sources, and produce a soft, pleasing light, he notes. Little wonder they are turning up in CNBC’s new London studios, the White House press briefing room and the announce booth for Super Bowl XLV. But some prospective users still have been apprehensive about using LEDs that are mostly balanced toward daylight. “Now we’re able to produce more tungsten-balanced lights, and we’ve seen the adoption rate pick up,” Marchitelli reports. “We’re seeing broadcast look at LED studio lighting. They’re able to save money cooling the studio and on the actual power draw. In some case studies, people swapping tungsten fixtures for LEDs see their ROI in less than three years.” Offering talent comfort, ease of use, high-quality light and environmentally friendly operation, LEDs appear to the best thing since night baseball. But Marchitelli says, “The challenge we have is educating the marketplace. Many people managing studios rarely think of lighting as a place to save money. Their lighting grid has been there for years, and they are not aware how inefficient it is.” Customers have more Litepanels products to choose from than ever before. The company launched a four-inch version of its DMX-controllable Sola LED Fresnel, which is daylight balanced, at IBC; tungsten-balanced fixtures are in the works. Hilio also debuted at IBC. A high-powered light, it’s comparable to fixtures with a 1000W output and is capable of throwing illumination over 20-25 feet. “Although compact and lightweight in profile, Hilio is a wide, soft flood light than can be used like an HMI,” Marchitelli points out. “We finally have an LED able to compete with sunlight. Until recently, there was no LED with enough punch to produce that kind of strong throw.” Another IBC launch was Croma, an on-camera LED fixture that offers dial-in variable color temperature control. The compact Croma can be mounted atop a camera or on small stands and is daylight- and tungsten-balanced. “It’s perfect for the HDSLR market, for outdoors or indoors,” says Marchitelli. “It’s able to match the ambient room color and give an even, soft, balanced light.” He promises more new products for NAB 2012. “We were the first to come out with professional LED lights and are working hard to retain that leadership role,” he says. “We’re the only LED company able to offer such a wide breadth of product lines and provide customers with so many options.”
[Above] Litepanels Croma, an on-camera LED fixture.
[Below Left] Litepanels Hilio
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Lighting
Marchitelli notes that Litepanels is “still a small, U.S.-based brand. Everything is designed and built here. There are a lot of overseas companies making lower-quality knockoffs – we’re constantly fighting that. Sometimes people buy inexpensive lights and find that the color temperature isn’t quite right and they don’t last long. It’s a real case of you get what you pay for. As the LED lighting frontrunner, it is our job to point out that Litepanels’ improved quality of light, versatility and reduced carbon-footprint benefits are also smart business.”
ARRI Gains Efficiencies Across Product Lines [Below] ARRI L7-C
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At ARRI (www.arri.com), the goal is to deliver lighting fixtures that are more efficient than the previous generation of its products or those offered by its competitors. “Improved efficiency is all about electrical efficiency: how green you can be by reducing the amount of electrical consumption and any negative aspects to manufacturing or the by-products of using the lights,” says John Gresch, vice president/lighting products for ARRI Inc. in Burbank. “Our core group of customers is filmmakers who have developed certain styles and looks over the years. How do you make a more efficient light that doesn’t compromise what they’re looking for? That’s where the challenge is.” About four years ago, ARRI redesigned the majority of its tungsten-based Fresnels using more energy-efficient True Blue lamp housing technology; True Blue for its HMI Fresnels followed. Around the same time, the company launched a new HMI optical system with ARRIMAX (MAX) technology, starting with the largest S.E. HMI bulb: the 18K. The ARRIMAX 18/12, dubbed the most powerful HMI on the planet, netted ARRI a scientific Academy Award. MAX technology has since been applied to other size fixtures. The 1800W M18 is “the brightest HMI light you can plug into a 20A 120-volt outlet,” says Gresch. “It’s been extremely popular.” Coming in January is the 4K M40. Last year, the 750W ARRILITE 750 Plus combined MAX technology with an HPL lamp in a tungsten unit that consumes 25 percent less power than the old 1000W fixture and produces 20 percent more light. The ARRILITE 2000 also has been redesigned with the MAX technology. ARRI also has embraced the fluorescent market with its Studio Cool line and the LED arena with its Caster series. “People often mix fluorescent, tungsten and now LEDs,” notes Gresch. “We’re careful to point out that one technology doesn’t necessarily replace another on the artistic side.” ARRI’s LoCaster location-based LED and remote-controlled BroadCaster feature an internal mixing chamber for a homogenous, diffused light free of multiple shadows and with no “squint factor” for talent. They also boast adjustable color temperature, adjustable plus minus green and adjustable intensity, the latter without changing color temperature. The popular lights are used individually, in two-light kits or in larger arrays, says Gresch, and are deployed by NFL Sports and NBC. The flagship L-Series line of LED Fresnels made its debut at NAB 2011. “The LSeries ties everything together,” says Gresch. “They use an internal mixing chamber and come in a choice of tungsten-balanced (L7-T), daylight-balanced (L7-D, available beginning next year) and color- controllable, which has been getting the most attention.” The L-7C color controllable unit features a unique function mode. “You can shift from Cor-
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related Color Temperature (CCT) to the hue and saturation mode where you can call up any color in hue and dial in the amount of saturation. It’s very exciting!” The fixture has the same form factor as a 1000W tungsten Fresnel and can be used as a substitute for that luminaire, while gaining three to four times more electrical efficiency. Its optical system is quite focusable – only a single shadow is produced and the light can be cut with a barn door. It has on-board dimming control and a light engine whose life approaches 50,000 hours. The L-7C is expected to ship by the end of the year. “A number of studios want to use this technology,” notes Gresch. “We’ve rolled them out to the HFF film school in Munich and have quite a few orders in the states; we’re demo’ing [sic] them at the A.S.C. now.” Gresch thinks the industry may be entering “an awkward phase” with pressure from management for productions to go green, translating to buying and using increasing numbers of LEDs. “The bosses say ‘you’d better buy LEDs,’ while those on the creative team say they can’t go all-LED because it would compromise artistic integrity. So it’s important to develop [efficiencies] based around tungsten and HMI-based products for proper film rendition even on today’s digital media. “Yes, LEDs are going to become even more versatile, but you need to keep a reality check on things.”
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Spotlight
West Coast
The West Coast More Than Beaches
From scorching deserts to snow-capped mountains to lush forests, the West Coast has you covered.
[Top]
Our western-most states can provide virtually any type of landscape – urban or rural – needed for your productions. With few exceptions, there still are tax incentive dollars to be had, so Markee asked the state film offices in Alaska, California, Oregon and Washington to explain their incentive packages and to express the advantages for shooting in their states.
Oregon
[Middle] Washington
[Bottom] California
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B Y C O RY S E K I N E - P E T T I T E Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
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Alaska Film Office What comprises your current incentive package? What are the qualifications? Alaska has an aggressive Incentive Program for Film and Television Production – up to 44 percent. Here’s the breakdown: The base rate is 30 percent. Additional uplifts are available for hiring Alaska residents (10 percent), offseason production (October thru March – 2 percent) and productions filmed in rural locations (2 percent). In addition, Alaska has no state income tax and no statewide sales tax (although some communities have local sales taxes). The Incentive is a transferable tax credit based on expenses incurred in Alaska (including wages and salaries). We require a minimum of $100,000 of qualified expenditures in Alaska and an audit by an independent, Alaskalicensed CPA. We do not require the company to be domiciled in Alaska; however, they will need to procure an Alaska Business License. In addition, we do not have minimum requirements for principle photography days or Alaska hire – we encourage you to hire as many Alaskans as possible through the additional 10-percent uplift for their wages, but there is no requirement. Unlike some incentive programs, both above-the-line and below-the-line expenditures can qualify, and our program doesn’t have salary or project caps. Rentals and purchases through Alaska companies, as well as in-state food and lodging expenses, can qualify. All transportation costs in state can qualify and half the dollar value of transportation to and from Alaska as well. Call the Alaska Film Office with questions about specific expenses. If such a package currently is unavailable, is your state working toward providing incentive programs? Alaska’s incentive legislation currently sunsets in 2013. However, a 10-year extension of the program (with an additional $200 million in tax credits) is pending before the legislature and has already passed the Alaska Senate (unanimously!). What notable movie and TV productions are underway (or pending) in your state? A wide variety of productions ranging from microbudget films to major non-fiction television series to largebudget independent features are working in the state. What local production companies are on your radar? Alaska has a number of production companies and production service companies (and crew) that are uniquely qualified to work in Alaska’s sometimes challenging conditions. The Film office maintains an online listing service of Crew, Support Service providers and Talent. Visit www.film.Alaska.gov and look for “Find People and Services” in the menu. Describe the versatility of geography and locations available in your state. From alpine peaks to misty shorelines, quaint coastal towns to suburban neighborhoods, wide-open tundra to deep dark forests, farms to fishing boats, glaciers to beaches, railroads to goldmines, year-round snow to barren sand dunes – Alaska has great locations for almost any www.markeemag.com
[Above] Farm near Palmer, Alaska – Pioneer Peak in the background. Palmer is about 40 miles north east of Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city. In the 1930’s the federal government enlisted farmers from the upper Midwest to settle the Palmer area and establish farms, many of which still operate. The area has many of the characteristics of small town, farm country – in an amazing setting. Photo © 2011 Dave Worrell
project. And don’t forget unbelievable natural light that ranges from a “magic hour” that lasts for several hours to summer sunshine that lasts 20 hours and more! Across Alaska are a nearly unlimited number of potential filming locations – so unless they’re looking for sun-baked cactus in the desert, we can help realize a filmmaker’s vision. Within the context of movie and TV production, what makes your state unique? Alaska is unique from many perspectives: we have more shoreline than all the “lover 48” states combined; we have North America’s highest peak (and glaciers so large they can only be seen in their entirety from orbit); we have wilderness and (small) city-scapes – often within minutes of each other; our locations are second to none – but filmmakers often remark that Alaska’s people were the best part of shooting in the state; we’re part of the United States, and have the benefits of “domestic” production; our incentive program is aggressive, easy to access and not threatened. But most of all, Alaska is “Alaska” – America’s last frontier. It’s a place with unlimited opportunity and a welcoming spirit. And it doesn’t hurt that the state is drop dead gorgeous. Alaska: not just another pretty place! September/October 2011
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Spotlight
West Coast
California Film Commission What comprises your current incentive package? What are the qualifications? California’s Film & Television Tax Credit Program provides credits against income and/or sales and use taxes on qualified expenditures. The original, five-year, $500-million program was enacted in 2009 and recently extended for an additional year through fiscal 2014-15. Tax credits range from 20 to 25 percent, depending on the type of production. Those eligible for a 20-percent tax credit include feature films with budgets from $1 million to $75 million, movies of the week (MOWs) or miniseries with a $500,000 minimum budget, and new television series with a $1 million minimum budget licensed for original distribution on basic cable. Projects eligible for a 25percent credit include TV series planning to move production to California after shooting all prior seasons outside the state, and independent films with budgets up to $10 million. Qualified films must shoot 75 percent of their production days (or 75 percent of their total production budget) in California, and begin principal photography within 180 days of tax credit approval. The current (2011-12) fiscal year of the program is fully subscribed, and there is a waiting list for any projects that apply. Applications for the next fiscal year’s $100-million allocation will be accepted starting June 1, 2012. More information about the California Film & Television Tax Credit Program is available at http://film.ca.gov/ incentives.htm. What local production companies are on your radar? California is home to countless production companies, film studios and post-production facilities. All of the major U.S.-based studios are headquartered in the Los Angeles region.
[Above] Avenue of the Giants: This world-famous scenic drive in northern California is a 31mile section of old Highway 101, which features more than 51,000 acres of redwood groves. It is considered the most outstanding view of these giant trees in the entire 500mile redwood belt. The Avenue of the Giants is surrounded by Humboldt Redwoods State Park, which has the largest remaining stand of virgin redwoods in the world. Photo courtesy of California Film Commission
What notable movie and TV productions are underway (or pending) in your state? California hosts productions of all sizes and budgets. Each year, more than 200 feature films and countless TV series, commercials and documentaries are produced in the Golden State. A small sampling of recent and current projects includes: • Feature Films: Drive, Moneyball, Batman, Gangster Squad, Argo, J. Edgar, Rampart, We Bought a Zoo, Horrible Bosses, HBO’s Hemingway and Gelhorn, In Time, The Muppets, My Mother’s Curse and Super 8. • Television: Dexter, CSI Miami, House, Sons of Anarchy, Body of Proof, Justified, The Office, Glee, American Horror Story, Parenthood, Private Practice and NCIS. 32
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Describe the versatility of geography and locations available in your state. California has moderate weather with an average of 315 sunny days each year. Its diverse landscape ranges from more than 800 miles of coastline to mountains, deserts and everything in between. A few examples include: • The Sacramento Delta, which doubles for Asia or the American South • South Mammoth Mountain, which doubles for the Himalayas • Antelope Valley Fairgrounds, which doubles for West Texas • Mendocino County, which doubles for the East Coast, and • Ridgecrest, which doubles for the terrain of other planets. Within the context of movie and TV production, what makes your state unique? California is acknowledged as the leading center for entertainment production. While many regions boast about production infrastructure, California has the ability to sustain more than 100 large-scale productions simultaneously. The state is home to a critical mass of production infrastructure (crews, equipment, locations, sound stages, etc.) that is unmatched anywhere in the world. Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
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Oregon Film What comprises your current incentive package? What are the qualifications? There are two programs. One is called the Oregon Production Investment Fund (OPIF). The other is the Greenlight Oregon Labor Rebate. Basically, with those two programs, if you spend over $1 million in the state you would get a cash rebate of 20 percent on goods and services and up to 16.2 percent on labor. There’s one caveat: the Oregon Production Investment Fund is an annual allocation [funds are distributed to productions via rebate checks]. There is a fixed amount of money. Right now, we have so many projects that we’re fully allocated through 2012. The Greenlight Oregon Labor Rebate [however] is a rebate on certain taxes that get collected; there is no cap to that. If such a package currently is unavailable, is your state working toward providing incentive programs? We just got our programs extended for six years, so they’ll be in place until 2018. There’s always the hope and the possibility that we could get more money sent to the OPIF fund, but there’s no legislation that currently is allowing for that. What notable movie and TV productions are underway (or pending) in your state? Television and animation have been very successful here. As far as TV goes, the TNT series Leverage has shot here for the last three years, and they’ll be doing season 5 (their fourth one in Oregon) next year. The Independent Film Channel show Portlandia shoots here; they just completed their second season. And NBC has a show called Grimm that is currently in production. There are a couple of different animation companies here that have been doing some high-profile projects. There’s a company called Bent Image Lab that are finishing up a project called Jingle All the Way, which is a stop-motion television special that will be airing on the Hallmark Channel around Thanksgiving. They’re reconnecting with that whole stop-motion animation holiday special tradition. And a much bigger project from LAIKA Animation Studio is currently production their second feature film called Paranorman (in theatres 8/17/12). They are the producers of the Academy Award-nominated film Coraline. The collection of those five projects has really kept us pretty busy. Lake Shore Entertainment also did a feature film here earlier in the year with Amanda Seyfried called Gone, which does not yet have a release date. What local production companies are on your radar? Oregon has always had a really strong advertising community. [Those companies] have started doing branded entertainment and things like that. There’s a very full list of companies on a website called sourceoregon.com. www.markeemag.com
[Above] An historic mining town, Jacksonville, Ore., was first settled during the Gold Rush in 1851. It is known as Southern Oregon’s first settlement, and today more than 100 of Jacksonville's buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Recently, the town was voted one of the “Top 10 Coolest Small Towns” by Budget Travel magazine. Photo courtesy of Oregon Film
Describe the versatility of geography and locations available in your state. For television in particular, the close proximity to L.A. definitely is advantageous on certain projects. And you combine that with such a diverse landscape – even within the city of Portland – but when you look out into the entire state… Leverage, for example, is set in Boston, so they shoot Portland to look like Boston. There’s another film worth mentioning called Meek’s Cutoff that was shot in eastern Oregon in a desert area that no one really expects Oregon to be. But the state is one of the few places in the country where you can find a lush rainforest, urban areas, mountainous ski areas (Mount Hood is only 1 1/2 hours from downtown Portland and features year-round snow.), and a desert all within a one-day drive. Within the context of movie and TV production, what makes your state unique? One thing that producers really have a tough time budgeting for – until you experience it you really can’t figure out how it impacts your production – is Oregon being a no sales tax state. Compared to other places, you’re immediately getting a 7-, 8- or 9-percent break on the cost of goods. That’s one of those things people budget for on their second project in Oregon, but on their first project it becomes a nice surprise. September/October 2011
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Spotlight
West Coast
Washington Filmworks What comprises your current incentive package? What are the qualifications? Washington’s Motion Picture Competitiveness Program sunset on June 30, 2011. While we were able to raise our annual allocation of $3.5 million between January and June of this year, all of the funds have been allocated to productions. If such a package currently is unavailable, is your state working toward providing incentive programs? Washington Filmworks is currently strategizing about how to get the program renewed during the 2012 legislative session, which takes place from January to March 2012. What notable movie and TV productions are underway (or pending) in your state? • 21 and Over – Relativity • The Apostles – Exclusive Media Group
[Above] Known for its acres of dense forests, Washington also is home to rural farm settings, rugged coastlines, and towns and cities of all size and shape. And let’s not forget the modern beauty of Seattle’s skyline, which features the landmark Space Needle. Photo courtesy of Washington Filmworks
Describe the versatility of geography and locations available in your state. Few states in the United States can match Washington for sheer geographic variety. While famous for its acres of dense forests, Washington also is home to snowy mountain peaks, rolling sandy dunes, vast fields of corn and wheat, rugged coastlines and sprawling valleys. But locations in Washington are not limited to just natural beauty. Towns and cities of all size and shape stretch across the state, from the world-renowned Seattle skyline to sleepy beach communities, working-class logging towns, suburban neighborhoods and even remote ghost towns that predate Washington’s statehood.
What local production companies are on your radar? To find a full list of full-service production companies in our area, please visit our online crew and production resource database at www.Washington ProductionIndex.com. Within the context of movie and TV production, what makes your state unique? In addition to the scenic beauty of Washington, the Evergreen State has always attracted artists, creative thinkers and entrepreneurs. For the film and TV industry, this translates to a surplus of creative minds and passionate workers all helping to create a deep and talented cast and crew base. Within the production centers of Seattle and Spokane, filmmakers can find production resources for preproduction all the way through post. Always on the cutting edge of technology, Washington also is home to nationally renowned sound design facilities, animation studios and editing houses.
Editor’s note: The state of Hawaii was contacted for this feature, but could not provide answers by our deadline. We will include the Hawaii Film Office in a future issue.
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September/October 2011
Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
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September/October 2011
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Inside View
Backyard/Mighty Film Co. | by Christine Bunish
Blair Stribley President/partner – Backyard/Mighty Film Co. • Venice, California (www.backyard.com)
Markee: Backyard opened in Chicago in the early 1990s and signed directors Kevin Smith and Rob Pritts, who are still part of the company today in California. How has commercial production changed over the years you’ve been in business? Mr. Stribley: There are a lot more people doing it – it’s a very competitive field. And the industry has gone global. I think the SAG strike in 2001 pushed the business to be global, which wasn’t necessarily bad news for us since we’ve done a fair amount of work in China, Prague and South America. We’re shooting for multiple platforms: longer pieces for the Internet, banner ads pulled from parts of a campaign, footage for a client toolbox, even spots for different markets with different casts. On the tech side, the ARRI ALEXA seems to be the camera of choice at this point. It can save you some money, but it’s also very valuable for performance-based commercials. Directors don’t have to worry about letting the film roll to get a certain rhythm going – they can get more interesting performances without being interrupted for mag changes. Markee: Who is on Backyard’s directors’ roster? Mr. Stribley: At the beginning of the year, we decided to refocus efforts more on our roots in performance and comedy. Our directors are Kevin, Rob, Chace Strickland and Mac Carter; we don’t necessarily want to keep the company at four directors, but we don’t want to be a 25-director shop either. Under 10 is where our heads are at. Mac joined us last spring from Anonymous. He captures a kind of subtle 36
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amusement and the quiet moment; we all like his filmic style, natural art direction and very natural performances, and [we] felt he’d be a good mix with us. Chace’s work is very slice-of-America. He’s great at capturing magic moments in a natural way that looks beautiful. His recent work includes campaigns for Crayola and Kohl’s. Rob’s real skills are in casting and getting performances from the talent; he’s also good at mocking a genre. He did the LG “Instant Expert” campaign that airs all over the world except in the U.S. Kevin’s strength is observing human behavior. He stays very busy and gets a lot of return business. He’s also very good with VFX, as you can see in a recent Cobra golf spot. Other work has been for CCM Hockey, Comcast and V8.
tion with a younger audience. Jesper directed the Cannes Bronze Lion-winning Nettbuss spot through his company in Stockholm and did a Honda commercial through Backyard.
Markee: Earlier this year you launched Mighty Film Co. in Venice with Tom Duff, president of Optimus. How is Mighty different from Backyard? Mr. Stribley: We had been thinking for the past few years about starting a new brand that would attract different types of directors who would enable us to work with a broader range of the market. Phil Brown moved over from Backyard and has directed a spot for First National Bank out of Omaha. Rob Sanders did one of the first Mighty projects: a Porsche campaign. Jesper Ericstam, Kim Nguyen and Alexander Paul also joined Mighty. Alexander just directed a short film, The 10th Floor, and is very adept with automotive spots; he’s embarking on a high-end car campaign. Kim was formerly with MTV, and she has a very strong visual sense and great connec-
Markee: Sounds like you have your hands full. Mr. Stribley: Yes, running two companies does keep us busy. There are also projects and opportunities that we are involved in that represent diversification of our core business, while still working with brands. Brands are looking for new ways to reach consumers: They’re still using commercials to reach a broad audience, but they’re also exploring opportunities outside traditional commercials. So we are looking at creative ideas in different arenas. While we have always been creatively strong, one of our biggest strengths over the years has been the experience of working with us. We’re not necessarily the most hip and trendy, but the word we keep hearing from agencies and even crews is “solid,” which is a great compliment.
September/October 2011
Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
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