November 2009
RRP // £6.50
British 036 Cinematographer Covering International Cinematography
ELEMENTARY... ON THE JOB ––– PHILIPPE ROUSSELOT AFC ASC ON SHERLOCK HOLMES
CAMERA CREATIVE ––– HOW JAVIER AGUIRRESAROBE AEC TACKLED THE DESOLATE LOOK ON THE ROAD EUROPEAN FEATURE ––– PLUS CAMERIMAGE 2009 PREVIEW INCLUDING TRIBUTE TO LIFETIME AWARD WINNER DANTE SPINOTTI AIC ASC CLOSE UPS ––– TONY MILLER, DIRK NEL & STEVEN POSTER ASC SHOOTING THE FUTURE ––– BRITAIN”S HEROES OF STEREO 3D & IBC 2009 REVIEW MEET THE NEW WAVE ––– BEN SMITHARD LETTER FROM AMERICA ––– MICHAEL GOI ASC & RICHARD P. CRUDO ASC ALL TIME GREATS ––– THE INIMITABLE NICOLAS ROEG CBE BSC
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Contents // Inside this issue
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An Education
Contents
In the days when digital technology seems to be putting obstacles, confusion and doubt in the paths and minds of cinematographers, and their crews, it’s refreshing to hear a master of the art providing some clarity. Normally, the towering figure of Billy Williams BSC would be seen gracing the screening and dining rooms at Camerimage in Poland. An eager watcher of new films, and an easy and inspiring conversationalist with students and peers alike, this year Billy is breaking a 10-year attendance record in Lodz. But with good reason. He’ll be collecting his OBE at Windsor Castle, with his wife Anne, and daughters Helen and Jo, all present. The award is yet another accolade for one of the BSC’s great cinematographers – an Oscar winner for Gandhi in 1982 (shared with Ronnie Taylor), and twice Oscarnominated for On Golden Pond (1981) and Women In Love (1969). He was given a Lifetime Achievement Award for his services to cinematography in Lodz in 2000. Recently Billy, who is now 80 years young, attended the Manaki Brothers Cinematography Festival in Macedonia – where he received a lifetime award, hosted a masterclass and took advantage of the opportunity to dismantle the Manaki’s original 1905 camera to study the mechanism. Thoughtfully, he observed
05 President’s Perspective: Sue Gibson BSC 07 Production / Post & Techno News: the latest news affecting DPs 10 Who’s Shooting Who?: which cinematographers are working where 12 Close-Ups: Tony Miller, Dirk Nel and Steven Poster AAC 16 To Live & Let DI: discover who’s dialling-in the DI grades 18 Meet The New Wave: Ben Smithard… wants to shoot more movies 36 GBCT News: the chairman’s statement, the latest new from the Guild
that whilst the construction materials have changed over the years, the principle of the film camera, and cinematography as an art, remain pretty much the same as they always have. For him, the heart of the matter is that, whatever the camera, the cinematographer’s chief role “is being a storyteller. It’s about where you put the camera, how you move it and how you light and frame the images. It’s about how you shoot a succession of shots that cut together to tell the story. It’s about relationships – working with the director, the actors and the other departments like design, construction, costume and makeup – not the camera per se.” On the subject of shooting digital, the quality of the images and data handling into post production, he observed, “there are technical issues, but they are all solvable problems over time. Obviously, with digital there are a number of things that you don’t have to do in-camera, and lessons to be learnt around things like costume and make-up. But, above all cinematographers mustn’t get hung up on these matters. Focus on your art.” Billy continues to conduct numerous workshops and devote his considerable energies to younger generations. He has just given a masterclass to the students at the National Film & Television School. If only we could bottle it. It’s inspiring stuff.
British Society of Cinematographers –––– Board Members:
President, Sue Gibson. Immediate Past President, Gavin Finney. Vice Presidents, Joe Dunton MBE, Chris Seager, Nigel Walters. Governors, Sean Bobitt, John de Borman, John Daly, Harvey Harrison, Tony Imi, Phil Meheux, David Odd, Nic Morris, Ashley Rowe, Derek Suter, Robin Vidgeon, Haris Zambarloukos. Co-opted Associate Member Representatives, Andrei Austin, Rodrigo Gutierrez. Secretary/ Treasurer, Frances Russell.
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International //
19 Special Feature: Plus Camerimage 2009 preview & tribute to Dante Spinotti AIC ASC 28 F-Stop Hollywood: awards season is approaching fast 29 Letters From America: ASC president Michael Goi ASC & Richard P. Crudo ASC 32 IBC Review: review of IBC 2009 34 IMAGO News: Nigel Walters BSC, president of IMAGO
Features //
24 Camera Creative: Javier Aguirresarobe AEC on The Road 26 On The Job: Philippe Rousselot AFC ASC on Sherlock Holmes 27 Shooting The Future: GB’s 3D heroes 31 All Time Greats: All Time Greats: Nicolas Roeg CBE BSC
British Cinematographer Issue 36 // British Cinematographer. Pinewood Studios Iver Heath Buckinghamshire SL0 0NH United Kingdom t/ +44 (0) 1753 650101 f/ +44 (0) 1753 650111 Publishers. –– Alan Lowne t/ +44 (0) 1753 650101 e/ alanlowne@britishcinematographer.co.uk –– Stuart Walters t/ +44 (0) 121 608 2300 e/ stuartwalters@britishcinematographer.co.uk Editor. –– Ron Prince e/ ronny@dircon.co.uk Sales. –– Alan Lowne t/ +44 (0) 1753 650101 e/ alanlowne@britishcinematographer.co.uk –– Stuart Walters t/ +44 (0) 121 608 2300 e/ stuartwalters@britishcinematographer.co.uk Design. Open Box Publishing –– Lee Murphy Design Studio Manager t/ +44 (0) 121 608 2300 e/ lee.murphy@openboxpublishing.co.uk The Publication Advisory Committee comprises of Board members from the BSC and GBCT as well as the Publishers. British Cinematographer covering International Cinematography is part of Laws Publishing Ltd, Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire SL0 0NH United Kingdom. The publishers wish to emphasise that the opinions expressed in British Cinematographer are not representative of Laws Publishing Ltd but the responsibility of the individual contributors.
Guild of British Camera Technicians –––– Board Members:
Jamie Harcourt (Chairman), Tim Potter (Vice Chairman), Lousie Ben-Nathan, Steve Brooke-Smith, Trevor Coop (Immediate Past Chairman), Sarah Hayward, John Keedwell, Rupert Lloyd Parry, Keith Mead, Darren Miller, Shirley Schumacher, David Worley, Mary Kyte (Honorary Treasurer).
The Editorial Team Ron Prince has many years experience working in the film, TV, CGI and visual effects industries. He is the editor of British Cinematographer magazine and runs the international marketing and communications company Prince PR (www.princepr.com). Adrian Pennigton is a media and technology journalist with 15 years experience. He contributes regularly to Broadcast, Media Week, TVB Europe and New Media Age.
Bob Fisher has authored 3,000 magazine articles about cinematographers and filmmakers during the past 35 plus years. He has also moderated many panel discussions for both the American Society of Cinematographers and the International Cinematographers Guild. Carolyn Giardina is a freelance journalist based in the US. She previously served as the technology reporter at Hollywood Reporter, the editor of Film & Video, and as senior editor of post-production at SHOOT. Her work has also appeared in IBC Daily News, Digital Cinema, Post and Below The Line. David A Ellis started out as a projectionist and then moved on to work for BBC Television in London as a film assistant. He has written numerous articles about the industry including many features about cinematographers.
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Dixie Bonham is a freelance entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. His work has appeared in both trade and international publications. In addition to reporting on the technical side of television and film production, he creates advertising campaigns and newsletters for many production and equipment houses. Kevin Hilton is a freelance journalist who writes about technology and personalities in film and broadcasting, and contributes film reviews and interviews to a variety of publications in the UK and abroad. John Keedwell the GBCT News Editor, is a documentary and commercials cameraman who has worked on many productions around the world. He crosses over in both film and tape productions and has great knowledge of the new formats and their methods of production.
Cover Image: Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Village Roadshow Pictures’ “Sherlock Holmes,” distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. Photo by Alex Bailey. Very special thanks to Lisa Muldowney at CCSPR for all her help & persistence with acquiring the image.
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UK // President’s Perspective
The year of getting to know us! Autumn is upon us, as is the season of film festivals. Always a good time to spot a prospective winner for the BAFTAs and the Academy Awards for next year. For those of you who have been busy working through the English summer, and who may now have a bit more time on your hands, it is a great way to charge your batteries and to see what the rest of the world has been working on as the nights draw longer. There are plenty of screeners to go and see, so don’t sit at home watching Strictly Come Dancing, go to the movies and be inspired. I know it hasn’t been a great year in terms of film production, we’ve hardly been prolific in this country, so it will be interesting to see what’s on offer in a year’s time at the festivals. Let’s hope those films that have been made this year end up being gems. As you all know the BSC has been more than busy with its Evaluation presentations, and most recently we were at IBC in Amsterdam, alongside the ASC who showed their Camera Assessment too, and at the eDIT festival in Frankfurt. Both of these presentations were to international audiences and the interest in them is growing week by week. The Bluray is nearly ready, and this format will be very useful to raise the awareness of the cinematographic issues we have today. It has taken off in such a big way I’m sure we could trail around the world giving presentations, but that is not really going to be cost effective, I’m afraid, so the Bluray is the next best option to help continue the discussion about which format to choose. We are funding this venture by way of pre-sales, so if you would like to know more, or want to order a disc, please go to www.bscine.com where you will find all you need to know. Nearly all the manufacturers have taken up our offer to re-process and grade their own camera’s material, apart from those who thought our results were as representative as they need to be. The Evaluation “ technical day” will go ahead, probably at BAFTA rather than Pinewood now, so a firm date will be set once we know their availability. Patience is a virtue, so they say, so that is what we will have to be. Apart from the Evaluation presentations we have been very busy with other events and September saw the first of, we hope, many collaborations with BAFTA, where we staged a screening of The Soloist with Seamus McGarvey BSC ASC. The evening was a sell-out and, following the performance in the Princess Anne Theatre, John de Borman BSC hosted a lively and informative Q & A with Seamus. We thank Seamus for such an entertaining evening and Kodak for sponsoring the reception. On Monday 21st September there was another great evening at the Moving
Picture Company screening room in Soho. We welcomed ASC members James Chressanthis and Vilmos Zsigmond for a Q&A of James’s film No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos The film charts the rise of Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmond who, having escaped from their homeland in 1956 after the Hungarian revolution, took Hollywood by storm and helped pioneer the “American New Wave”, designing innovative ways to tell stories. Again it was a sellout, and I urge those who haven’t seen the film to track it down, as it’s of great interest to all cinematographers. At the last Open Night in October, we were very happy to entertain Alan Cole, president of the Victoria Branch of the ACS with his wife Suzie. The evening was very well attended and we were treated to a viewing of some new short films that we couldn’t squeeze into our November New Cinematographers Night programme. They were screened in the clubhouse before the
Next year looks like it will be an exciting but challenging time for cinematographers… everywhere you turn, there are changes afoot, and new technology to learn about. evening soirée, and we hope this can be something we do more of, as it’s a great opportunity to meet new filmmakers on an informal basis, and encourage new talent. In line with raising the profile of the BSC, we now have three new Patron Members, namely, Panasonic, On Sight and Airstar. We welcome them into our group of fantastic supporters, and look forward to a happy and fruitful association with them all. There have been some very good ideas put forward from our patrons recently, and there will be more on this subject in the coming months. I mentioned in my last column that Operators Night is at Pinewood this year, and at a recent meeting with our patrons we discussed possibilities for expanding the BSC Show, along with some other exciting developments, so sorry, I can’t be more specific yet, but watch out for further developments. The BSC Show 2010 will still be at Elstree next year on March 19th and 20th and we look forward to a great show. Our next outing with the BSC Evaluation road show will be in Glasgow on November 25th at the Glasgow Film Theatre, so if you haven’t seen it yet this is your opportunity for a trip to Scotland. Following that we look forward to meeting up with our fellow cinematographers in Lodz, from 28th November at the Plus Camerimage Film
Festival. It’s always a great event and such a great opportunity to find out what’s happening in the rest of the world. Next year looks like it will be an exciting but challenging time for cinematographers, with three new cameras from ARRI being unveiled, two new formats from P+S Technik, and new cameras from Sony, and there may be more waiting in the wings. With this is mind, it’s time we all got up to speed with new technology, and everywhere you look there are courses being run. Traditionally DPs would take the opportunity to learn about new cameras on their own initiative, and as our patrons agreed we owe it to ourselves to keep abreast of how all the new digital cameras work and not rely on our assistants, be they 1st ACs or DITs , and that’s a subject that we need to address, not just in this country, but globally. Everywhere you turn, there are changes afoot, and new technology to learn about. Histograms to interpret, colour matrices to be applied, which Post House to use for which camera. So what about the light meter? Are its days numbered? Certainly not!
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www.thecinematographer.info
Sue Gibson BSC President British Society of Cinematographers
Image: 01. Sue in action at the lectern.
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UK // Production / Post & Techno News Kodak scientists get top honours Three Kodak technologists, Drake Michno, Richard Wheeler and Nestor Rodriguez, have been honoured for advances in imaging for the entertainment industry by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE). Michno, a research fellow for Kodak’s motion picture media design division, received one of SMPTE’s highest honours, the Technicolor/Herbert T. Kalmus Gold Medal, for his work on the creation of advanced silver halide-based imaging elements used for image capture in the motion picture and television industry. Spanning a 32-year tenure at Kodak, Michno’s participation has resulted in several novel camera origination films, which have received Oscar and Emmy Technical Awards. Michno’s research directly supported the creation and launch of Kodak’s Vision 3 line of motion picture camera negative films. Kodak’s Rodriguez, a senior technical associate, and Wheeler, a senior principal scientist, were recipients of last year’s SMPTE Journal Award, and will be awarded a new SMPTE Journal Certificate of Merit in recognition of their most recent article titled “Integrated Calibration and Management of Colour, Tone, and Image Structure in a Digital Intermediate System.” This piece describes a system and method for automatically creating calibration functions that convert colour, tone and image structure into a common exchange space, providing features that allow the user to accurately preserve the imaging attributes of existing motion picture film images, or to create custom renderings that are faithfully reproduced when the images are displayed on film or digital devices. “From our customers’ perspectives, the motion picture business will always be about telling stories in which the technology is transparent, where the technology works behind the scene to enable the filmmakers’ creativity,” said Gary Einhaus, vice president and chief technology officer of Kodak’s motion picture division.
Fujifilm launches 2010 Short Film competition Following the success of the inaugural Fujifilm Shorts, Fujifilm Motion Picture has unveiled details of its 2010 competition. Fujifilm Shorts is open to all UK-based short filmmakers. Entry is free and entrants can submit as many short films as they like. There is one category with an open brief with two prizes being awarded for best film and best cinematography. As in 2009, short filmmakers have the chance to win a host of prizes including Fujifilm Motion Picture film stock. Technicolor is providing a rushes package, including film processing, a
one-light transfer, sync sound and a DigiBeta deliverable. Technicolor Creative Services will also present both winners with a 35mm print of their films for this year’s awards screening. Other prizes include: a five-day lighting hire package provided by Panalux; Panavision is supplying a 35mm or 16mm camera and dolly hire package; a three-day weekend studio hire package from Island Studios; and a year’s free subscription to British Cinematographer Magazine. The cinematographer from the winner of both sections will also win a free travel, accommodation and entry to the Camerimage festival 2010. The winners of the 2009 Fujifilm Shorts competition were Outcasts, lit by Stuart Bentley, which scooped the best film award, whilst DP Richard Stewart’s work on Leaving won the best cinematography prize. Full details of the competition are available at www.fujifilmshorts.com.
Rawi grabs an Emmy Ousama Rawi CSC BSC recently won an Emmy, in the category of outstanding cinematography for a one-hour series, for his work on The Tudors. Rawi has already won three awards for his photography on this series: the 2008 Gemini Award, and both the 2008 and 2009 CSC awards, plus an ASC nomination in the episodic television category earlier this year.
Deluxe looks to future with new key appointment Deluxe has hired Oliver Ronicle as its new group sales and marketing director. He assumes the role from Terry Lansbury, who will continue to provide consultancy services to the company. Ronicle has worked in the film and television industry since 1995, including stints as a freelance BBC journalist and at Polygram. During eight years at Universal Pictures International, where he became director of technical operations, he was responsible for the post-production work on many of the company’s titles, and worked closely with Working Title Films. Before joining Deluxe Ronicle worked at Ascent Media, and oversaw the merger and rebranding of Todd AO and Soho Images as Soho Film Lab, of which he was managing director. “I am a huge supporter of film and feel very fortunate to be in a position to continue to promote traditional film services as well as develop new digital services,” said Ronicle. “The new role I have as sales and marketing director is a big one. I currently oversee all front and back-end sales for all areas of the business, as well as continually developing our marketing strategy. I really do have a unique opportunity to keep filmmakers on film whilst also growing and developing the Deluxe brand.” Along with its well-known film laboratory in Denham, Deluxe in the UK also comprises Deluxe Digital, which provides D-cinema, versioning, restoration
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and archival services, Deluxe Digital Studios, its DVD and home entertainment division, the telecine and restoration company Arion, and trailer and creative services business, The Edit Pool. In Europe, Deluxe provides front-end laboratory, DI, post production and release services, with both Deluxe Spain and Deluxe Italia operating from recently built, state-of-the-art facilities.
Smith gets new role at Panalux Panavision, one of the leading companies in the design, manufacture and rental of camera systems, has announced a new role for Steve Smith as managing director of Panalux Worldwide. Smith will assume responsibility for all Panavisionowned lighting operations, including the Panalux-branded operations in the United Kingdom, Europe, South Africa, the Asia Pacific region and Panavision Lighting in the United States. Smith, formerly the managing director of Panalux Europe, has been involved in the film and television lighting industry for over 25 years, and has played an integral part in the formation and growth of the Panalux brand in Europe and Africa. He internationalised the business as a provider of film, television and broadcast equipment, and built a number of international brands including Panalux, Panalux Broadcast & Events, Island Studios and professional photographic rental facility, Kinetic. Smith’s directive will include consolidating the operational systems, sales, marketing and services of the global bases under a single banner. “As the entertainment industry begins to rebound, there are so many opportunities for us to grow this business and I believe now is the time to make that happen,” Smith said.
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02. Images: 01. Ousama Rawi: Tudors work gets Ousama an Emmy 02. Steve Smith: worldwide role at Panalux
BSC Show 2010 dates The next annual BSC Show will take place on Friday 19th and Saturday 20th March, 2010, on the George Lucas Stage, Elstree Studios in Borehamwood. The show is the only totally dedicated event for the cinematography industry within the UK, and has gone from strength-to-strength in recent years.
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UK // Production / Post & Techno News Dedo Weigert award Dedo Weigert BVK, the inventor of precision lighting systems, was presented with the White Square Award during the recent White Square Film Festival in Moscow. It is the same award that is presented to the winning films. The main award of the camera-oriented festival went to Igor Klebanov for the film Mirage. At the same time, Weigert was made an honorary member of the Russian Guild of Cinematographers. He is now the second honorary member in the guild’s history. Weigert was also the only foreign member of the jury at this festival.
Honours for Menges and Deakins Chris Menges BSC ASC will receive the 2010 American Society of Cinematographers International Achievement Award. Members of ASC present this award annually to a cinematographer who has made significant contributions to advancing the global art form. The presentation will be made during the 24th Annual Outstanding Achievement Awards in Los Angeles on February 27, 2110. Menges was one of the five nominees during the inaugural year of the ASC competition
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in 1986 for his Oscar-winning film The Mission. He is the ninth BSC member to receive this recognition. The others were Freddie Young, Jack Cardiff, Freddie Francis, Oswald Morris, Billy Williams, Douglas Slocome, Gilbert Taylor and Walter Lassally Roger Deakins BSC ASC was named 2009 Cinematographer of the Year at the Hollywood Film Festival in September. He has earned eight Oscar nominations, including one that he shared with Menges for The Reader in 2009.
What’s shooting on Fuji? Features and TV dramas employing Fuji stocks include: Hereafter, DP Tom Stern ASC AFC, dir Clint Eastwood; Tamara Drewe, DP Ben Davis BSC, dir Stephen Frears; Untitled 09, DP Dick Pope BSC, dir Mike Leigh; La Mula, DP Ashley Rowe BSC, dir Michael Radford; Blitz, DP Rob Hardy, dir Elliott Lester; The Day Of The Flowers, DP Vernon Leyton BSC, A Game Of Thrones, DP Sean Bobbitt BSC, dir Thomas McCarthy; A PassionateWoman, DP Tony Coldwell, dir Kay Miller & Antonia Bird; A Royal Wedding, DP Magnus Agustsson, dir James Griffiths. Commercials and promos include: PG Tips commercial (Hammer & Tongs) DP Denzil ArmourBrown; McDonalds commercial (Moxie), DP Richard Mott; John Lewis Christmas commercial (Blink), DP Carl Neilson; Actimel Yoghurt commercial (Rogue Films), DP Tom Townend; Twinings Tea
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commercial (Outsider), DP John Lynch; McCains Foods commercial (Partizan), DP Dan Bronks; Marks & Spencer commercial (Serious Pictures), DP Clive Tickner BSC; Cheryl Cole music promo (Between The Eyes), DP Dan Bronks; James Morrison music promo (Partizan), DP Tom Townend; Leona Lewis music promo (Cherry Films), DP David Johnson; Pixie Lottmusic promo (Cherry Films), DP David Johnson; Coronation Street Ident (ITV Creative), DP Ross McLennan.
light” using a minimal number of lights in combination with dedicated modulating, shaping and structuring reflectors. “When you really observe natural light, you can learn so much from it. The rest is what people want to introduce as a vision or their own emotion, which you call creation or design,” says DP Christian Berger AAC. Lighting designer Bartenbach, of Bartenbach LichtLabor, who holds patents both in Europe and wordwide, has invented highly-efficient, glare-free system technologies, daylight redirection and innovative sun-shading systems. Seven feature films have employed the CRLS system, including this year’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner, The White Ribbon, which Berger lit exclusively with the system. The Panibeam luminaire, which has precision-engineered, parallel beam, is the centrepiece of the CRLS system and comes in two versions: the RLS-70, with a 70cm beam diameter, powered by a 1.2 kw lamp; and the RLS-40, which has a 40 cm beam diameter, and is powered by an 800w lamp. The luminaires employ a narrow shaped, short arc HMI lamp. The quality of the light, from hard to soft, is achieved by respective Paniflectors reflectors, which are available in various shapes. The reflectors eliminate the use of additional shutters, flags and grip equipment. The modular nature of the CRLS system allows the equipment to be quickly set up using lightweight Panigrip supports. It will be exhibited at Cinec 2010. For more details visit www.pani.com.
Collection Society British cinematographers represented by the BSC, GBCT, and the Guilds of Editors and Television Cameramen, are in negotiation with the trade union BECTU to discuss the financial feasibility of establishing a new British collecting society. This would also enable cinematographers to collect residuals from previously untapped sources such as Denmark and Sweden, as well as the established sources of Germany, Finland and Austria. It is expected the combined strength of a new collecting society will enable effective lobbying for authors’ rights in the British parliamentary system and in Brussels.
Cine Reflect The Foundry Lighting tackles camera System issues goes into production
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After prototype demos at ARRI (GB) London for the BSC in 2004, plus further introductions at Cinegear, Los Angeles, in 2006, the Berger & Bartenbach Cine Reflect Ligting System (CRLS), co-developed by DP Christian Berger AAC and lighting designer Christian Bartenbach, is now in series production and available from Pani Projection & Lighting in Vienna. As the development of ever-more sensitive film emulsions and digital sensors has required the redefinition of light, it was the initial aim of Berger & Bartenbach to ban oversized luminaires from the set, and to produce instead an “aesthetic
British software developer The Foundry is collaborating with lens manufacturer Cooke Optics, to incorporate Cooke’s /i Technology into Nuke visual effects compositing software. /i Technology enables the recording of accurate, frameby-frame lens and camera data, saving visual effects artists hours of time in post production by eliminating the need to guess lens parameters and camera information. The Foundry has also recently incorporated metadata support for Red cameras into Nuke. Les Zellan, chairman and owner of Cooke Optics, said, “The use and support of metadata is becoming increasingly prevalent in post circles. As budgets and timeframes continue to shrink, providing
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UK // Production / Post & Techno News
post teams with metadata from /i-enabled lenses saves time and money while allowing them to focus on their creativity.” “Cooke are one of the first manufacturers to really embrace metadata and understand its power,” said The Foundry product manager Richard Shackleton. “A lot of time is spent in the post process getting information from pictures in order to do a better job, but often that information might be very basic or even guesswork. Cooke /i lenses provide real and accurate data which is invaluable.” The Foundry has also developed RollingShutter, a new plug-in tool for After Effects and Nuke, which tackles the imagedistortion problems often experienced by users of CMOS cameras. Rolling shutter effects are commonly found with video cameras employing CMOS image sensors, which record every frame line-by-line from top to bottom of the image, rather than as a single snapshot of a point in time. As parts of the image are recorded at different times, moving objects can become distorted and appear skewed. 3D tracking during VFX post production can become difficult as the tracking points themselves are unstable. The RollingShutter plug-in can vastly improve the look of distorted footage, by either minimising or eradicating image distortions.
Rocket Fuel for Red
material. It was created for cost-sensitive indies, filmmakers, and post-production facilities, and includes an Nvidia Quadro FX3800 SDI board, Red’s Red Rocket card, and Assimilate’s Scratch Cine 4K post workflow. The company has also announced new sales of its Scratch DI system in London to DI boutique MFX London and start-up DI house 179.
What’s shooting on Kodak? Features employing Kodak stocks include: Harry Potter VII, dir david Yates, DP Eduardo Serra; Your Highness dir David Gordon Green, DP Tim Orr; The Eagle Of The Ninth dir Kevin Macdonald, DP Anthony Dod Mantle; 4321 dir Noel Clarke, DP Franco Pezzino; Hard Shoulder dir Nicolas David Leanm, DP Steven Priovolos; Ironclad dir Jonathan English, DP David Eggby; Basement dir Asham Kamboj, DP Ali Asad. UK TV productions include: Five Days II, DP Stephan Pehrsson; Merlin, DP Dale McCready; and South African TV productions include, Strike Back dir Daniel Percival, DP Steve Lawes; Laconia dir Uwe Janson, DP Michael Schreitel.
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Assimilate has launched Rocket Fuel, a software/hardware bundle that enables real-time ingest, conform, delivery and output of Red One 4K digital camera
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01. Dedo Weigert: eyeing up his White Square gong 02. Chris Menges: top honour from the ASC 03. 04. Foundry: taking the wobble out of CMOS images
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UK // Who’s Shooting Who?
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01. Images: 01. I see no ships: (l-r) Sophie Hervieu - standby art director, Erik Alexander Wilson - cinematographer, Richard Ayoade - director, and Gary Williamson production designer on a recce for Submarine. 02. Nigel Willoughby. 03-06. Swinging With The Finkels. 07. Eye eye: Jallo Faber FSF in action on Wallander ©Nille Leander Vålnaden.
Wizzo Features... says that after completing the drama Murderland for ITV starring Robbie Coltrane, which premiered at the NFT earlier this month, Erik Wilson is lighting the comedy feature, Submarine, an adaptation of the novel by Joe Dunthorne, directed by Richard Ayoade and produced by Andy Stebbing and Mary Burke though Warp Films with support by Channel 4. Magni Agustsson has recently wrapped on the feature length drama Royal Wedding for Tiger Aspect, directed by James Griffiths, for whom he also shot Free Agents. Duncan Telford is set to shoot the feature Trip City written and directed by Trevor Miller (who also wrote the book of the same name) and produced by Nick Franco. Damian Bromley is shooting a block of the series Strikeback for director Ed Hall through Leftbank Pictures on location in South Africa. David Rom is shooting the independent feature Hamill (working title), a true story of a deaf fighter who succeeds on the professional wrestling circuit, directed by Oren Kaplan and written and produced by Joseph McKelheer. Vision’s Ed Rutherford is currently shooting Joanna Hogg’s second feature in the Scilly Isles; Richard Mott has recently wrapped on the feature Nowhere Fast which tells the story of three boys living on a housing estate in Liverpool, was shot on the Red camera and is directed by Martin Wallis; Adam Frisch shot the feature Shank over the Summer, a fresh and gritty action film for the youth generation, directed by Mo Ali. And finally, congratulations to Martin Ruhe, whose feature Harry Brown, directed by Daniel Barber, and featuring Michael Caine in full-on vigilante mode, is scheduled for release soon. Independent’s... Ben Davis BSC is shooting Stephen Frears’ new feature, Tamara Drewe. Anthony Dod Mantle BSC DFF is shooting Kevin MacDonald’s Roman military drama, Eagle of the Ninth, in Scotland and Budapest. Jess Hall BSC
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is currently grading his latest feature, The Baster, due for release next year. Sam McCurdy BSC has just started work on Rupert Goold’s Macbeth, a filmed version of the recent RSC production starring Patrick Stewart and Kate Fleetwood. Seamus McGarvey BSC, who recently joined the agency, is currently shooting Mitch Glazer’s Passion Play in Puerto Rico, starring Mickey Rourke and Megan Fox. Dick Pope BSC is lensing Mike Leigh’s as yet unnamed latest, and in any days off he is working on the DI for Gurinder Chadha’s It’s a Wonderful Afterlife and checking show prints for the forthcoming release of ‘Me and Orson Welles’. Chris Ross finished shooting E4’s new comedy series Misfits. Ashley Rowe BSC is currently shooting Mike Radford’s La Mula, in Spain. Based on the novel by Juan Eslava Galan, it tells the story of a soldier who protects a mule during the Spanish Civil War. Ben Seresin is on Tony Scott’s new thriller Unstoppable, in Pittsburgh and Portugal, starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pine. Oliver Stapleton BSC has completed Troy Nixey’s Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, in Australia. Ulf Brantas is shooting Let It Snow, one of a selection of short films being directed by Sam Miller for SKY. It is one of ten silent films being made for transmission at Christmas this year. Eigil Bryld just finished shooting Barry Levinson’s film You Don’t Know Jack in New York. It tells the life and work of Jack Kevorkian, an advocate for doctor-assisted suicides. Cinders Forshaw BSC is currently shooting a Poirot single film, Halloween Party, for Granada directed by Charles Palmer. John Ignatius is about to start shooting series II of Ladies of Letters for ITV. Kieran McGuigan has just gone into pre-production on Larysa Kondracki’s The Whistleblower. Filming in Budapest and starring Rachel Weisz as Kathryn Bolkovac. John Mathieson BSC is shooting Rowan Joffe’s remake of Graham
Greene’s thriller Brighton Rock. Starring Helen Mirren and Pete Postlethwaite. David Odd BSC is lensing Vera Stanhope for ITV. A detective single film directed by Adrian Shergold. Mark Patten shot a short film with Brett Foraker called Natural Selection and continued to work with Brett on Deep And Crisp And Even: A Ten Minute Tale to shown as a collection of silent shorts leading up to Christmas. He’s also been doing commercials. Ben Smithard (page18) completed Three Kings with Richard Eyre, another one of a selection of 10 short films by SKY being made for transmission at Christmas. He is now lensing Jeremy Lovering’s Money for BBC2. Mark Waters just wrapped Mark Elliot’s dark comedy feature Powder. He is just about to start work on Series 11 of Doctor Who shooting in Cardiff. Simon Coull, Benoit Delhomme, Jess Hall, Dan Landin, Roman Osin, Ben Smithard, Joost Van Gelder and Ed Wild have all been on commercials and music videos. Dinedor Management’s... Steve Annis and Eric Maddison FSF are to be congratulated for their nominations in this year’s Music Video Awards. Eric Maddison FSF is in Vancouver shooting the feature Dark Days for Sam Raimi’s Dark Horse Entertainment, Trevor Forrest has been grading on Ben Miller’s Huge, and has been shooting commercials. Peter Field is second unit operator on Universal’s Your Highness, directed by David Gordon Green and starring Natalie Portman and James Franco. Steve Annis lensed his first feature film Pimp for Splendid Films. Florian Hoffmeister is on Tony Grissoni’s Syncing Feeling, Ian Moss worked on Lehman Brothers for the BBC, directed by Michael Samuels, Hubert Taczanowski lit Micro Men for Saul Metzstein and Darlow Smithson, Mike Fox BSC shot The Naughties for the BBC, Faces of America for PBS and children’s show The Bopps for The Little Entertainment Company. Jim
O’Donnell is shooting dailies on Merlin for Shine Television. Steve Buckland has completed the comedy pilot White Van Man for Granada, and has gone on to shoot The Bill for Talkback Thames. Peter Butler wrapped on Casualty for the BBC, and after a stint shooting additional photography on BBC’s Larkrise to Candleford, has gone on to The Bill. Peter Thornton has been shooting The Good, the Bad and The Gorgeous for Lime Pictures, Tom Townend, Ben Filby and Pete Ellmore have all been lensing commercials. Matt Cooke shot a music documentary with Bobby Gillespie from Primal Scream. Dion M Casey has been Steadicam operating on commercials, and a trailer for E4’s Misfits. Franklin Dow shot a music video for Kids In Glass Houses and a commercial for Tomy. Over at McKinney Macartney Management... Stuart Biddlecome has been filming 2nd unit on Jonathan English’s latest film Iron Clad. Balazs Bolygo is filming On The Tracks for director Ed Talvern. Ben Butler, Denis Crossan BSC, Shane Daly, John de Borman BSC, John Lynch, John Pardue, Clive Tickner and Michael Wood have all been shooting commercials. Gavin Finney BSC is in Budapest grading Going Postal the third Terry Pratchett adaptation for Sky/The Mob. Graham Frake is in prep for the First Men In the Moon with Mark Gatiss and Damon Thomas directing. Richard Greatrex is shooting Moby Dick with Mike Barker. Mark Partridge is back among the villages Oxfordshire for the return of the hit BBC series Lark Rise To Candleford. Having just completed filming on Miss Marple Chris Seager BSC is in prepping Five Daughters for Phillippa Lowthorpe for the BBC. Darran Tiernan recently shot a short film Cold Turkey for Gavin Keane through Parallel Films. He has also completed the Discover Ireland campaign for Brian Durnin. Fabian Wagner is shooting Hustle for Luke
Issue 35
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British Cinematographer // Covering International Cinematography
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UK // Who’s Shooting Who?
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Watson through Kudos, and recently lensed Survivors with David Evans for the BBC. The news from United Agents... is that Barry Ackroyd BSC is busy on commercials as are Brendan Galvin and Alwin Kuchler BSC. Simon Richards is shooting second unit on Mike Barker’s Moby Dick in Malta. Eduardo Serra AFC ASC continues on Harry Potter and Tony Slater-Ling is shooting an episode of Dr Who in Croatia, to be directed by Jonny Campbell. Haris Zambarloukos BSC is now fully on board Kenneth Branagh’s Thor in LA. Marcel Zyskind will grade Michael Winterbottom’s The Killer Inside Me when he finishes his Danish film Skyskraber. Danny Cohen BSC is in pre-production for Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech. Andrew Dunn BSC continues shooting Greg Berlanti’s Life As We Know It in Atlanta. Lukas Strebel is in prep on James Kent’s Anne Lister after his return from LA where he received the Emmy 2009 for best Cinematography for a Miniseries or Movie. Steve Lawes remains in South Africa working on Left Bank’s Strike Back, whilst David Higgs BSC’s previous works Gerard Johnson’s Tony, Red Riding 1983 directed by Anand Tucker and Phil Claydon’s Lesbian Vampire Killers were all screened at the Dinnard film festival. Dale McCready is now grading the second series of Merlin, and John Conroy has begun work on Stuart Orme’s Jack Taylor in Ireland. Charlotte Bruus Christensen is currently grading Oliver Ussing’s Magtens Fryster. Neus Olle has a feature in the London Film Festival once more this year, Three Days With The Family, and she is in line to shoot another feature in Barcelona before Christmas. Carlos Catalan has just wrapped in Wales on Hattie Dalton’s Barafundle Bay with Tom Burke and Benedict Cumberbatch and is now grading Cherry Tree Lane. Benjamin Kracun has completed documentary feature Arshiel Gorky, directed by Cosima
Spender in the US and is busy with commercials. Zac Nicholson did lots of Steadicam and 2nd unit on feature film Swinging With The Finkels. Tat Radcliffe has just had his feature film La Dopia Ora with Giuseppe Capotondi screened during the British Film Festival and has been enjoying the fantastic reviews of his work on BBC’s Criminal Justice. Philipp Blaubach has also had his highly acclaimed film The Disappearance Of Alice Creed screened at The British Film Festival. Tim MauriceJones was awarded The White Hitchcock for Best Cinematography for his work on Dominic Murphy’s feature White Lightnin. And on the commercials front Simon Chaudoir, Stephen Keith-Roach, Stephen Blackman have all been busy. David Higgs BSC won an AICP award for his work on Guy Ritchie’s Nike commercial. Lenhoff & Lenhoff’s... Derick Underschultz is currently shooting Happy Town in Toronto for producers Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec and Gary Fleder. The ABC/Disney project is about a sheriff confronted with the unsolved mystery of a half-dozen child kidnappings over the past decade in a small mid-western town. David Tuttman is currently shooting Damages in New York for producers Todd Kessler, Glenn Kessler, Daniel Zelman and Mark Baker. Starring Glenn Close, the show has won multiple Emmy Awards including two years in a row for Best Actress. It should be noted that while Ms. Close was accepting her Emmy Award before a live national telecast, she only thanked 2 people – her line producer, and her amazing cinematographer for helping her with the role. Sara Putt Associates report that... Will Pugh has been in Spain shooting Modern Masters: Picasso for IWC Media. Jan Joneaus is confirmed on the feature Albatross for Cinema NX, Dir: Niall MacCormick. Mike Brewster continues on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
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Parts 1 & 2 with director David Yates, and Nick Dance is still on Skins IV in Bristol for Company Pictures. Oliver Cheesman is doing The Bill and Rab C Nesbit, and Paul Lang is in embedded with US Marines in Iraq filming a documentary for C4 about Abraham, directed by Rageh Omaar. Pete Edwards is doing more Horrible Histories alongside the factual children’s reality show Relic shooting at The British Museum. As for operators… Gareth Hughes has been in Berlin shooting Soko Leipzig for Fernsehproduktion GmbH. Vince McGahon is in Spain operating on La Mula for Integral Films, Julian Morson is operating on Stephen Frears latest Tamara Drewe for Ruby Films, Joe Russell finished on Dr Who in Cardiff and is back in London on a block of Holby, and Rick Woollard has been in Turin with his Steadicam shooting a Nike app for the I-Phone for AKQA. Meanwhile, over at Digital Garage... Pete Hayns was in Canada shooting the latest David Attenborough project First Animals for Atlantic Productions. Jeremy Humphries is on Police, Camera, Action for Optomen. Chris Openshaw is back from the US after shooting Amanda Holden: Fantasy Lives for ITV and has gone straight out to Qatar on a project for Serious Pictures. Bruno Sorrentino has been in Italy shooting Greek Myths for BBC. Casarotto Marsh’s... Remi Adefarasin BSC continues to work on the next instalment of the Meet The Fockers franchise Little Fockers, which is being directed by Paul Weitz. Over in Belfast Sean Bobbitt BSC is due to start shooting the next HBO project Game Of Thrones, which is being directed by Tom McCarthy. Natasha Braier has been touring festivals with The Milk of Sorrow and recently won the Golden Camera 300 at the Manaki Brothers cinematography festival in Macedonia. Julian Court has just started on new BBC project Luther, directed by
Brian Kirk. It stars Idris Elber (who was the infamous Stringer Bell in The Wire), as the new renegade detective on the block. Edu Grau has been touring various festivals to promote Tom Ford’s feature A Single Man, to great critical acclaim. For Blast and the BBC Matt Gray will shortly start on Lennon Naked starring Christopher Eccleston as John Lennon. Rob Hardy is due to start shortly on Justin Chadwick’s latest feature The First Grader, with Origin Pictures. Set in Africa it’s the inspirational story of a man in his 80s who goes back to the village school to finish his interrupted education. For Kudos David Luther begins shooting the second series of Law And Order. Chris Menges continues on Ken Loach’s Route Irish, which is currently shooting in Jordan and Liverpool. Shooting for Marc Munden’s new project Anywhere But Here has just starting for Wojciech Szepel. Urszula Pontikos has been working on a short film The Pit, with director Rupert Raby, set in the Cambridgeshire Fens, which is part of the Guiding Lights programme. MY Management’s... Robbie Ryan BSC has started shooting Jeremy Brock’s film Slave, directed by Gabriel Range at Pot Boiler Productions/Slate Films. Shooting will take place in Sudan, London and Kenya until February. After finishing Doc Martin series 4, Simon Archer BSC is confirmed on block 3 of Ashes To Ashes, until just before Christmas. Roger Bonnici has started prep on the production Bishaas, shooting out in Bangladesh. Principle photography starts on 30th November and will take him up until the middle of March 2010, the director is Indra Bhose of BBC World Service Trust. Steve Chivers and Ray Coates are shooting commercials. Jallo Faber FSF is grading Wallander, which he shot in September and October in Sweden with director Michael Marcimain at Yellow Bird. MY Management is now representing Nigel Willoughby, Anders Flatland and Ekkehart Pollack.
Issue 36
www.thecinematographer.info
11/11/2009 11:10
UK // Close Ups
12 // 40
Steven Poster ASC, The Box Writer/director Richard Kelly and cinematographer Steven Poster ASC first came together in 2001 for the schizophrenic story of Donnie Darko, renewed their teaming for the postapocalyptic style Southland Tales and recently finished Kelly’s big screen adaption of Richard Matheson’s six page 1970 Playboy-published short story Button, Button called The Box. The relationship the two have developed over the years has become extremely effective in creating their nothing-iswhat-it-seems stories. “It’s a kind of symbiosis,” Poster explains. “Our styles are so similar. What I like to do visually, to express, dovetails with what he likes. It’s not the same thing, but the same sensibility. When I see a tone, for instance, a tone of light, it’s what he was thinking. When he sees movement, it fits.
“We tried to keep mid-gray anywhere between 20%-50% on a 100% scale” “We really have so much fun exploring,” Poster adds. “We have these little sessions where he wants camera two inches that way and I want it two inches that way. We’re not arguing about a hundred feet. We’re arguing about an inch or two.” As with all of Richard Kelly’s projects, The Box is a little bit science fiction, and a lot of Kelly’s creative way of exploring a variety of themes that are important to him. He’ll tackle global politics, the energy crisis and explore suspense, love, drama and the American Family. For The Box, Kelly’s testing the strength and commitment in an American family, there is another level of exploration. A different form of capture. Digital, using the Genesis camera. “Shooting digital is wonderful,” says Kelly enthusiastically. “I fell in love with it immediately.” Although Poster is extremely adept at working with the Genesis system, so comfortable that it feels like he’s working in film, the team knew that they had a different kind of challenge with The Box – the time period. While HD has made amazing strides in capturing present-day stories and huge other-world sagas, it is only recently that cinematographers have begun to attempt to stretch the technology to capture different time periods. With The Box, one of the key
elements that needed to be addressed was presenting a story set in 1976 that had the look and feel of 30-some years ago. “To choose a digital medium as a mechanism to photograph the past could be a little dangerous proposition,” Kelly admits. “I’ve seen it backfire in period pieces, in daylight exteriors, with motion blur, wide shutter, and more.” Kelly is aware that modern technology can get in the middle of the capture often taking the viewer out of the moment and that can be the ruination of a project. “We knew we had to be specific with our filtration and shutter speed, the photographic light conditions, and how we handled daylight exteriors, interiors,
night, and kept a consistence to the look from day to night, interior to exterior, and without motion blur on the Steadicam sequences,” says Poster. “There was a concern, before using the Genesis, that in digitally shooting a period piece you get that temporal feeling of live television,” Poster explains. “There is no way to explain it. It’s just a difference in quality and emotional response to the images. When we tested the Genesis, we found that, as long as we weren’t using a 360 degree shutter and moving the camera too fast, you didn’t get that. Once we were assured of that, we could easily move forward.” The next step was to find the “look” to properly explore the suburban world of
the Lewis family (Cameron Diaz and James Marsden) circa 1976, as they struggle to stay even and then struggle to survive, once they are given the simple wooden gift box that spirals their lives out of control. “Creating the feel of 1976 had more to do with testing the kind of look that might have existed during the time period,” explains Poster. “My first instinct was to treat the Genesis like film and go back to the kind of filtration used during those years,” he explains. “I looked at what I thought might have been the diffusion; Mitchell A and B, for example. We tested low-cons, contemporary Pro Mists and Glimmer Glass (not available in that time period), to see what they would do.
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UK // Close Ups
Close-ups were researched and written by Bob Fisher, Dixie Bonham and Ron Prince. Images: 01. 05. Cameron Diaz 02. The Box 03. James Marsden & Cameron Diaz 04. Frank Langella & Cameron Diaz
The changes needed came when Poster dreamed up a new idea to enhance the image. However, most scenes were shot with 0db gain and a 180 degree shutter. For nights they would boost to 3db gain and 270 degree shutter. “There was almost no visible noise at any setting. What was there was a pleasing texture that looked more like film grain than noise” Poster said. Poster uses a spot meter and 18 percent gray card to get his exposures. He expanded his method of reading the gray card in the scenes by placing the card in the light that he was reading and then adjusting the exposure with the waveform monitor. “We tried to keep mid-gray anywhere between 20%-50% on a 100% scale,” Gitlin explains. “I’ve begun to suggest this procedure with other productions and some cameramen like the consistent results.” Image was recorded to
“When we tested our combination of various filters and combinations we also tested to see how the Genesis handled mixed lighting sources,” he adds. “We spent a couple of hours in the Public Library in Boston, because there was every kind of florescent, incandescent, and daylight there all in one place. The combinations would have to handle it all.” Poster and team also tested a location that was a sewage plant, where the only light they could use was sodium vapour. “We tried the old filtration and found it didn’t return the same look we would have expected. We found that a Tiffen Pro Mist in a lower number allowed us to capture the baseline look.” To make sure Kelly and Poster could stay true to the look they created for 1976, Laser Pacific’s Colorist came to the set in Boston. “He could take a look at what we had in terms of contrast and saturation, where we placed the blacks and whites, and we could come up with a base LUT for the two locations, importing that into the GDP box from Panavision that was carried by D.I.T. Alan Gitlin,” Poster explains. “This kind of team work was extremely successful and we found that it wasn’t a stretch for us to define a curve and quality of lighting to shape a consistent image.” That said, Gitlin’s job as the Digital Imaging Technician was straight forward.
“We knew we had to be specific with our filtration and shutter speed, the photographic light conditions, and how we handled daylight exteriors, interiors, night, and kept a consistence to the look from day to night, interior to exterior, and without motion blur on the Steadicam sequences” SRW-1where the signal and speed could sometimes be changed. And then, of course, there were just a couple of horror stories – behind and not in front of the camera. “We had a Richard Kelly style car crash sequence,” Poster recalls. It was below zero out and snowing. At times the wind got up to 45 miles-perhour. We lost a big chunk of our lighting because it was too windy to put up some of the condors. The big concern, however – the temperature of Panavision’s Cine Primo lenses. We had to keep them true while dealing with the cold.” Panavision’s leading engineer quickly built a heated eyepiece for the camera to keep it from fogging. And, to keep the trueness of the lenses when we weren’t shooting the team wrapped heating pads around them. Low-tech often times really does come to the rescue!
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Issue 36
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11/11/2009 11:10
UK // Close Ups DP Dirk Nel, Swinging With The Finkels Yes, you guessed it. As the title suggests, Swinging With The Finkels is the tale of a bored suburban couple with marital problems, who decide to spice things up by trying out non-monogamous sexual activities with another couple, but with comedic results. The £4m production is the first feature from director by Jonathan Newman (Father’s Day, Mustang Drift) and was spawned from his ten-minute short Sex With The Finkels, which caught the eye of veteran producer Deepak Nayar (Bride & Prejudice, Bend It Like Beckham, Buena Vista Social Club) during a stint on the festival circuit in 2008. The new feature was produced though Nayar’s production company Filmaka, and stars American actress Mandy Moore and Martin Freeman (Love Actually, The Office, Hot Fuzz) as the Finkels. It was shot on locations in Dulwich, Mill Hill, Tower Bridge, Kensal Rise, Primrose Hill and Cambridge.
“Coming from handheld documentaries and docudramas to the two Finkel productions was a healthy learning curve...” Both the short and the feature versions were shot by DP Dirk Nel, who hails from Cape Town, and who has an impressive list of TV credits to his name, including the Emmy-nominated and RTS award-winning Children Of Beslan, two episodes of Simon Schama’s BBC series The American Future: A History and BBC’s Killers’ Paradise about femicide in Guatemala. He is currently in Cape Town shooting two blocks of BBC/Discovery Channel’s big-budget drama doc series History Of America. “Coming from handheld documentaries and docudramas to the two Finkel productions was a healthy learning curve, but the experience makes me want to do more films,” says Nel. “It’s a tribute to Deepak’s belief in the project that the feature film off the ground so fast. We met in December of 2008 and by April the finance was in place and we started shooting.” On getting a greenlight, Nel’s first considerations were the choice of camera and format, to meet the demands of the tight 26-day shooting schedule. “We had a number of technical issues using the Viper camera on the short film, so I set about researching and testing a range of 4 and 2-perf 35mm cameras to see how we could retain high image quality, but keep costs down,” he explains. “The budget meant that we were not going to be able afford to do DI post production if we shot on film, and would have meant us taking a photochemical post production route. Also, the tight schedule meant that we would not time to finesse things on set, like flagging walls, so we were going to need to do a range of fix-its in post. Sadly, I ruled out film, and started looking at digital cameras.”
14 // 40 Tests that Nel shot using a Red camera proved to be too high in contrast when viewing the 35mm print. He was looking for a softer, smoother, more gentle look, more akin to a film camera. After three weeks of testing a range of other digital cameras, he plumped for the Sony F35. “The F35 has superb latitude and, when you’re shooing in the right lighting conditions, it’s hard to tell the difference between it and 35mm,” he says. “I think it will do well, which I hate to say, as I love film. But I was very impressed, the pictures look gorgeous.” Nel framed the production in 2.35:1 Anamorphic, using a selection of Cooke S4 prime lenses, “I looked at using Anamorphic lenses, but because the viewfinder on the F35 will not convert the image into an Anamorphic image it would have made it very difficult to frame so we opted for the spherical lenses and cropped into the sensor” There was no filtering on the lenses at all, as Nel found the camera to be “inherently soft and smooth. The actress has such fantastic skin anyway, so I was able to leave filtering out completely.” The cameras and lenses were hired from Take 2. Speaking about the look of the film, Nel says, “Jonathan was resolute in wanting the production to have a bright, slick, polished feel, with the images being all about the actors and their performances. We referenced a range of American romantic comedies and thought that Sleepless In Seattle was the sort of look we wanted to achieve. Sleepless was shot by the late Sven Nykvist. That style is not easy to accomplish, but was beautifully shot by him. I did a lot of three-quarter front lighting and filling-in to highlight things like the actors’ eyes. Coming from documentaries, this was a bit of a new departure for me. Also, the use of tracks, dollies and steadicam are all quite conventional in features, but were also quite a big jump for me.” The lighting package came from Panalux. “We didn’t have a massive lighting package – just the standard 18k, 6k, 4k, 2.5k, Kinoflos, 650s pups, blonds and redheads. But Pat Sweeney, my gaffer, taught me a new trick with Depron foam. Depron is a lightweight polystyrene sheet that is used as an underlay for laminate floors. You can make model aeroplanes from it too. But when it’s clipped on to a lamp it gives a wonderful quality of softness and diffusion to a directional light. I saves you a lot of time and trouble with bounce lighting, and you can clip it to anything up to a 10k before it melts.” Pre-production testing with the F35, development of LUTs and the final DI grade were done in cooperation with colourist Gareth Spensley (The Damned United, This Is England) at Molinare, who Nell says “knows Baselight like the back of his hand and has an effortless touch.” “We set up LUTs for the different day, interior and exterior shots, and applied these on set to whichever situation we were in,” says Nell. “Using Cinetal monitors on-set we could extract frame grabs, store them on a drive and import them later into Photoshop as references for each day’s shooting, as well as sending them to the director for approval of the grade. We watched the dailies on DVD, and would then view the full 2k images at Molinare on a weekly basis, which is when we saw the F35 really come to life.”
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Issue 36
www.thecinematographer.info
Images: 01-03. Swinging with the Fingels 04.-09. The Turn of the Screw
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UK // Close Ups DP Tony Miller, The Turn Of The Screw Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a spooky story for the adults to watch with a glass of sherry and a box of After Eights, after the children have been tucked up in bed. It probably won’t get any more chilling than the bold reworking of the classic Henry James tale The Turn Of The Screw. It was the first use Aaton’s new Penelope camera in the UK, and was lensed by Paris-based British DP Tony Miller, whose recent and varied credits include BBC Films’ Meerkats (2008), the Oliver Parker-directed comedy I Really Hate My Job (2007), and the BBC/Ruby Films drama Small Island, directed by John Alexander. Originally published in 1898, James’ novella is ostensibly a ghost story that has lent itself well to operatic and film adaptations, not to mention dozens of different critical interpretations as to what exactly the nature of evil is within the story. Throughout his career James was attracted to the ghost story genre. He was not fond of literature’s stereotypical ghosts, old-fashioned ‘screamers’ and ‘slashers’. Rather, he preferred to create ghosts that were eerie extensions of everyday reality, “the strange and sinister embroidered on the very type of the normal and easy,” as he described it. The result has been a long-standing critical dispute over the reality of the ghosts and the sanity of Ann, the young governess, played by Michelle Dockery (Cranford, Red Riding), which says he Miller has rexamined “through light, and shade, and darkness”. The Turn Of The Screw follows Ann, who is sent to a country house to take care of two orphans. But malevolent, supernatural forces stalk the children in her care, and her fight to save her charges from these supernatural beings comes at a cost to herself and her sanity.
“I usually tend to light and operate, so I can take risks...” The 90-minute production was filmed at Brympton House in Somerset over five weeks. Directed by Tim Fywell and produced by Colin Wratten, it also stars Sue Johnston (The Royle Family, Waking The Dead) as Mrs Grose and Mark Umbers (Mistresses) as the Master. It was adapted by Sandy Welch (Emma, Jane Eyre), and reset in the 1920s, when Britain was still imbued with the grief of the First World War. Speaking about his creative inspirations for the project, Miller points to the 1961 production of James’ novella, entitled The Innocents, shot by Freddie Francis. “The Innocents was framed in Cinemascope, which was very much in vogue at that time, and ironically our production used a 2-perf frame as well. I shot using Aaton’s new Penelope camera, which is a delightful piece of equipment. It’s very small, quiet, lightweight and easy to load. It’s also quite economical, because with 2-perf for TV, you get nearly nine minutes per roll, while with 3-perf you are at about five minutes. It sounds like a
dreadful pun, but I can’t actually think of anything negative to say about this new camera. I’m convinced it’s going to give film a new lease of life. “I usually tend to light and operate, so I can take risks through the viewfinder – for example, when an actor doesn’t hit their mark and goes into semi-darkness. I see the film emerge through the viewfinder, and the Penelope is an operator’s camera.” Describing the look of the new production, Miller says, “As this is a ghost story, I tried to create a somber and chilling mood, with a dark look and strong contrast. An influence for me was Patrice Chéreau’s film Gabrielle set in about the same period, which is very much a film of manners and high emotion. What interested me was the intensity and the visual language. “I would have liked to have shot it in B&W, to immerse us in the period, but that wasn’t an option. So I desaturated the colours. I took digital stills on set every day using the Kodak Look Manager system with the aim of trying to get the rushes as close to the look of the film so that everyone from the BBC, the editors and director could get used to the look so that when we came to grade it, we could maintain this look. I intentionally left things quite dark and dropped faces off quite radically.” Miller’s other chief visual reference were the works of realist painter and printmaker Edward Hopper. “He’s one of the most cinematic of painters,” he says. “He’s always interested in what is hidden in shadow, and will often partially obscure faces. That half-darkness often creates a sense of loneliness and desolation. The Turn of the Screw is a film with a deep psychological subtext. So we looked very much at leaving things in halflight, often not lighting both sides of the face, framing in profile and leaving characters in silhouette. In Hopper’s paintings, light and shadow do more than just create a mood; they harbour and reveal the thoughts and emotions of characters. For a ghost film, that atmosphere was essential, especially as we are never sure of their true existence.” Miller used three Kodak film stocks, the new 250 daylight (5207), 5201 and 5219. “The Vision3 250D 5207 was amazing. I underexposed it quite considerably. The main actress Michelle Dockery, who plays the governess, has porcelain like skin, delicate and light. To stop her skin overtly reflecting light was very difficult, but I found that the nuances of this new stock were superb particularly when I was desaturating it.” As for lenses, Miller used his own set of Cooke S4s. “What’s weird about 2-perf is that the frame size falls between 16mm and 35mm, and it took me about a week to relearn the lenses for this format,” he says. In terms of filtering, Miller says that rather than using off-the shelf filters, he resorted to his tried and trusted formula of Christian Dior 10 denier stockings, as they produce classic soft effects. Returning to the Penelope camera, Miller has some interesting news for DPs eyeing the digital market. “The prospect of Aaton’s digital back for the Penelope (to be shown at NAB-2010) is very exciting. Digital cameras are typically large and unergonomic, and my experiences have been mostly depressing. The prospect of a digital back means that we may be able to continue to shoot like this in the digital age.” The Turn of the Screw is slated for transmission on BBC on Boxing Day. Post is being done at Molinaire using Baselight for an HD delivery.
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11/11/2009 11:10
UK // Live & Let DI
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To Live & Let DI Following its recent move to new locations in Pinewood and Soho, the team at Technicolor has picked up the pace with challenges and tight deadline coming thick and fast. No more apparent is this than on one of its most recent major feature projects, Guy Ritchie’s fresh take on the tale of Sherlock Holmes, due for release at the end of the year. The project, one of Technicolor’s largest assignments, required the company to handle the preview and the DI simultaneously, with staff in every department working around the clock, from rushes and dust-busting to grading and editing. Cinematographer Philippe Rousselot, and the rest of the production team, took up residence at Technicolor’s Lexington Street facility in Soho, to ensure the work in all its complexities was completed and perfected to their high standards. They also used a specialised globeshrinking set-up that allowed Ritchie and producer Joel Silver to be based in one of Technicolor North Hollywood’s theatres and carry out real-time grading sessions whilst Rousselot was based in London. After the DI, Technicolor London delivered multiple digital negatives on its ARRI film recorders, with the lab at Pinewood producing intermediate reels for final release printing at Pinewood as well as Technicolor’s other labs in North Hollywood, Mirabel, Rome and Bangkok. Technicolor UK has completed the DIs on a range of movies. These include BBC/Scott Free Production’s Churchill At War, lensed by Adam Dale; Universal/ Working Title’s Hippie Hippie Shake, shot by Michael Seresin BSC; Terry Gilliam’s Dr.Parnassus which was lensed by Nicola Pecorini; Ealing Studios’ From Time to Time, lit by Alan Almond, plus Ealing Studio’s remake of Dorian Gray, shot by Roger Pratt; Revolution Films’ The Unloved, lit by Thomas Townsend; Optimum’s Is There Anybody There, shot by Rob Hardy, and 20th Century Fox’s stop-motion flick Fantastic Mr Fox lensed by Tristan Oliver. Also getting a DI recently were The Debt, Marv Films/ Pioneer Pictures thriller about three young Israeli Mossad agents on a secret mission capture and kill a notorious Nazi war criminal, directed by John Madden and lensed by Ben Davis; and Um Hussein, a Human Films’ drama about a mother who takes her son to Iraq to find his missing father, directed by Mohamed Al Daradji, with Dan Salzmann the DP. Soho post boutique The Look was responsible for picture post production on the second series of the BBC’s flagship five-part drama Criminal Justice. The BAFTA-winning series aired in October. All the work was carried out on The Look’s Quantel eQ finishing system with Thomas Urbye as colourist, combined with the company’s Genetic Engineering shared workflow infrastructure. The new series received a favourable verdict: “It looks beautiful,” said the Guardian’s Vicky Frost, “a contained colour palette at times doing as much storytelling as the dialogue and score.” “The director and DP Tat Radcliffe had a clear vision that they wanted to
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grade the images to complement the beautiful imagery and performances on a scene-by-scene basis, meaning the look changes as the series unfolds,” said Urbye. The production was shot on Sony 900R cameras and delivered to The Look on over 300 tapes. The conform was done using an AAF from the offline Avids, and HD material ingested into the company’s Genetic Engineering shared storage using Quantel’s Max prep station. This meant creative work could start immediately on the eQ. “We handled the online, the full grade and then the UK and international deliverables on HDCAM SR,” added Urbye. “Much of the work was clientattended – we find that clients are very pleased that we do the grade and the online in the same machine, and if they want to tweak something, it’s never too late as the eQ has everything we need in a single suite.” Urbye said that each of the five episodes of Criminal Justice took two days to grade and then a couple of hours of online work with the director and producer. Urbye has no desire to grow The Look into a mega-facility on the back of its continuing success. “I see it as more of a members’ club, where my clients come to do their best work in a relaxed, creative environment where they know everyone.” It was this philosophy that brought the BBC’s Desperate Romantics, lensed by DP Kieran McGuigan, to The Look. “This industry is built on relationships and that is how we have won these fantastic jobs,” concluded Urbye. “Quantel sees it the same way and works hard to maintain a great relationship with me.” Light Illusion… did remote DI work on Freight, a UK Indy production written and directed by Stuart St. Paul, lensed by Carl Summerscales, and shot on Red. It is a dark and moody film, focusing on an Eastern European people trafficking gang operating in Leeds. This was an unusual grade in a number of ways, and was more about setting an overall look for the film
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that worked well with the story’s gritty content and dark mood, than making sweeping changes to the images. It was also unusual in that the grading was done remote in Madras, India by Steve Shaw without the client present as other work meant it was not possible for any of production team to join the grading sessions. A lot of use was made of the Internet to pass images and Quicktime clips back and forth. The Red images were decoded at 4K using RedLOG, and CameraRGB, with exposure set as per the camera metadata, and then Nyquest re-sized to 2K for the DI. Lip Sync Post… has been very busy doing a glut of DIs and deliverables. First up, Mr Nice, the life story of Howard Marks the notorious Welsh drugs smuggler, set for February 2010 transmission, starring Rhys Ifans and produced by Independent and Kanzaman, It was directed and lit by Bernard Rose. DI grader Stuart Fyvie
used the IQ Pablo to grade and intercut archive footage from the ‘60s and ‘70s with 35mm from the main shoot, as well as Phantom Hi-speed footage. Creative looks and grain treatment included B&W and sepia toning, plus a special “trippy reversal” to reflect to the periods and experiences in this entertaining film. Also getting a DI treatment was Sam Taylor-Wood’s Nowhere Boy, which tells the never-seen-before story of John Lennon’s childhood set for a Boxing Day release. A co-production between Aver Media, Ecosse Films, Film4, Lipsync Productions and UK Film Council, it was lensed by Seamus McGarvey BSC ASC, and graded on Pablo iQ by Fyvie, who said, “We wanted a grade that would let the photography shine through, so we scanned the Anamorphic negative at 6K, and did the DI at 4k resolution. The grade was to make it as beautiful and as authentic as possible. There were a few ‘fixes’ here and there as part of the
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UK // Live & Let DI
DI, such as simple continuity issues that can’t always be spotted on the set, one of many reasons we grade with a big screen as well as CRT monitors.” The Super 16mm production Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, a biopic of Ian Dury, shot by Christopher Ross and Brian Tufano BSC, was graded by Lee Clappison, It saw Lip Sync experimenting with ARRI’s Relativity as well its own grain reduction/addition techniques to make a good-looking master. Watch out for Rocketmen, a Dangerous Films, BBC Worldwide and Sony Pictures documentary feature, about 50 years of NASA, which required an awful lot of balancing of footage from different sources, noise reduction, grain reduction reframing 4:3 for 1.85. Ascent 142… did the full post on BBC One’s latest adaptation of the Jane Austen classic Emma, including the
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rushes, picture post, grade and audio. The 4 x 60-minute drama, which was shot on 35mm 2-perf by DP Adam Suschitzki, also became the first 2-perf recipient of Ascent and Kodak’s 2 and 3-perf scheme. The scheme offers TV dramas competitive rates for film processing and rushes in line with the traditionally cheaper cost of processing Super 16 film stock. Last year the BBC’s flagship autumn drama serial Tess of D’Urbervilles was the first drama to take advantage of the 3-perf scheme. This follows a successful campaign which Ascent waged with the BBC last year to prove that 2 and 3-perf 35mm stock is a viable format alternative to HD for TV productions still wanting to shoot on film. Ascent 142 senior colourist Jet Omoshebi worked from a conformed master using a Da Vinci 2K, with sound and dialogue added so that Suschitzky and director Jim O’Hanlon could maximise the creative choices open to them. According to Omoshebi her brief was “not to hark back to the past but to provide a modern take on the traditional costume drama by strengthening the contrasts and the colours and keeping it modern in terms of texture.” She adds “It was nice to be able to make a drama on 35mm – it gives you much more creative leverage in terms of sharpness of depth and depth of field. You haven’t got anywhere near the amount of grain so you are able to push and stretch things out in telecine much more.” Ascent Media… has been appointed to clean and transfer over 1,250 hours of historic newsreel film from the Netherland’s main film archives. The Europe-wide tender was called jointly by the Netherlands Institute of Sound and Vision (Beeldengeluid), the Dutch Film
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Museum and the Dutch National Archive. Ascent won the contract by pulling together its digital and film lab facilities, including the Soho Film Lab, TK One and the Film Clinic. The post house will carry out ultrasonic cleaning of 16mm film footage and digibeta transfer in a massive five-month contract that will involve 55 hours of telecine transfer per week.
Images:
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01. Light Illusion: graded the feature Freight remotely in India 02. 03. Lip Sync: Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, the biopic of Ian Dury, was shot by Christopher Ross and Brian Tufano BSC, and graded by Lee Clappison. 04. Ascent 142: Jet Omoshebi was the colourist on the BBC’s 35mm 2-perf production of Emma, lensed by Adam Suschitzki
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UK // Meet the New Wave
We’ve identified a new wave of cinematographers who... have a decent slew of productions under their belts... are not upstarts, but not quite of “a certain age” either... are not yet members of the BSC... but who have the potential to become the next Alwin, David, Ernest or Chris.
Ben Smithard Filmography (so far): The Damned United (feature 2009), Day Of The Triffids (TV 2009), Freefall (TV 2009), Cranford (two series, TV 2007-09), A Short Stay In Switzerland (TV 2009), Instinct (TV 2007), The Street (two eps, TV 2006), Vincent (two eps. TV 2006), Wire In The Blood (one ep, TV 2005), Spooks (two eps. TV 2002)
film after I had left film School.
When did you discover you wanted to be a cinematographer? At home watching Jaws when I was 9 or 10.
What are you proudest moments? Becoming a father, and getting my first film.
Where did you train? Bournemouth and Poole College Of Art and Design. What are your favourite films? Amadeus (dir Milos Forman, DP Miroslav Ondrícek, 1984), The Conversation (dir Francis Ford Coppola, DP Bill Butler, 1974), Paris Texas (dir Wim Wenders, DP Robby Müller, 1984), Lawrence Of Arabia (dir David Lean, DP Freddie Young, 1962). They are all films about troubled people, talented or otherwise, like all of us. What’s the best advice you were ever given? Hugh Whitaker at Panavision said, “Keep your mouth shut. Watch, listen and learn”, when I went to visit Peter Biziou shooting a
Who are your DP/industry heroes? Milos Forman, Francis Ford Coppola, Chris Menges and Peter Biziou. Have you won any awards or received any nominations? A few nominations. No wins!!
What’s the worst knock-back/rejection you ever had? Too many to mention. Rejection seems to happen on a weekly basis. Tell us your best and worst moments on set. Best moment – the last day of shooting on my first film. Worst moment – the first day of shooting my first film! Real best moment – meeting my wife. Tell us your most hilarious faux pas? We were shooting a commercial and had rented an ARRI 435. When the sound recordist turned up I realised that it was a sync-sound shoot and I had not read the script properly. Panavision got me a Moviecam in about 30 minutes flat and nobody knew, until I confessed to the
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18 // 40 producer my mistake. I should have kept my mouth shut. Away from work, what are your greatest passions? Photography, photography books, and my family of course. What one piece of kit could you not live without? A stills camera. Which productions are you most proud of to date? The Damned United, Freefall, Cranford, Day Of The Triffids and The Street. What’s weirdest place you’ve ever shot in? Havana, Cuba. It’s beautiful but mad. What’s the hardest shot/thing you’ve had to light/frame? A music video where we had a motion control rig, Photosonics shooting at 1,500 fps, another 35mm camera, Steadicam, etc, all in one night, and a hell of a lot of lights. Tell us your hidden talent/party trick? No tricks. But I can change a nappy with my eyes closed! In the entire history of filmmaking, which film would you love to have shot? Lawrence Of Arabia, Goodfellas, Amadeus, The Last Emperor or Platoon.
What’s the best thing about being a DP? It’s the best job on the set. The mix of art and science/technology. What’s the worst thing about being a DP? Politics. Losing jobs. Being complained at for shooting too much film stock! Not having enough time to shoot things well. Give us three adjectives that best describe you and your approach to cinematography? Enthusiastic. Committed. Decisive.
What are your current top albums? Anything that’s West African.
If you weren’t a DP, what job would you be doing now? Photographer. Doctor. Architect. Lawyer.
Can you tell us your greatest extravagance? Photographic equipment and photographic books.
What are your aspirations for the future? More movies, commercials and dramas. I’m desperate to shoot a documentary too.
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Special Feature // Plus Camerimage
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It’s time to don your thermals, Plus Camerimage 2009 is about to kick off in the city of Lodz, Poland. Here are just some of the highlights of the 17th edition of the festival of cinematography, which will be held from 28th November ––– 5th December. Miss it, miss out.
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of the Mohicans) and won the BSC Award (L.A. Confidential) and many more. It is impossible to detail the unique contributions of Spinotti, even in a book. However, Michael Goi ASC, president of the American Society of Cinematographers echoes Mann’s words – and sums up Spinotti’s contributions. “I think in a previous existence, Dante Spinotti would have been a Renaissance painter,” Goi says. “His cinematography,
“Dante brings, along with this incredible talent, a grace and charm that represents what all of us would like to be in our best moments.”
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Spinotti gets Lifetime Award Cinematographer Dante Spinotti ASC, AIC will be the recipient of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Spinotti was born in 1943 in Tolmezzo Italy and raised in a rustic environment near Venice. He began taking still photographs and making enlargements in a homemade darkroom when he was11 years old. At 17 he went to Kenya to work with an uncle who was a documentary and news film director/cinematographer. When he returned to Italy, he began shooting commercials, documentaries and dramas for RAI, the state television network. Dino De Laurentiis discovered Spinotti and brought him to the United States in 1986 – to shoot Manhunter, the breakout film that began the long personal and professional relationship with director Michael Mann (Manhunter, Last of the Mohicans, Heat, Insider, Public Enemies), and which launched the young cinematographer into the world of mainstream blockbuster feature films. Spinotti is a spectacular lighting cameraman, and the aesthetic of the manipulation of light and how light falls is an area of expertise most prized, director
Michael Mann explained recently. “Dante’s aesthetic, to me, involves the way a light wraps around objects and people and can generate mood, sometimes having things appear to be unlit, as well as the more formal approach to lighting, such as the use of high-intensity arclights in daytime, in day exteriors on Insider, to generate pools of light that illuminate the air a character might walk through. “A perfect example of Dante’s lighting that I love is the tense scene of Al Pacino as Lowell Bergman waiting in the lobby of the hotel in Louisville to see whether or not a potential whistleblower, Russell Crowe’s Jeffry Wigand, will or will not show up. The very particles there seem to be charged with anticipation. Dante is always flexible and my good friend.” Spinotti’s credits are varied. Although well-known for his paring with Mann, he has shot high-profile projects with Bruce Beresford (Crimes of the Heart, The Contact), Herbert Ross (True Colors), Michael Apted (Blink, Nell, Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Trader which is now in pre-production), Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential), Bret Ratner (The Family Man, Red Dragon, After the Sunset, X-Men: The Last Stand), and more. He’s been nominated for two Oscars (The Insider, L.A. Confidential), three ASC Awards (The Insider, L.A. Confidential, The Last of the Mohicans), nominated for a BAFTA (L.A. Confidential) and won the BAFTA (The Last
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whatever the subject, always has a feeling of being classic, perfectly blended with the film. Look at the lush greens and soft overcast skies of The Last of The Mohicans, the coolly modern urban landscapes of Heat, or the noir of Hollywood in L.A. Confidential. It is the work of an artist with an unlimited palette and an imagination to match. “He brings, along with this incredible talent, a grace and charm that represents what all of us would like to be in our best moments. He is a gentleman, a reminder that the cinematographer is more than the job he or she performs, but also the figure amongst the cast and crew who carries the responsibility of guiding his fellow artists on their visual quest and bringing the best out of their contributions. “I called Dante once while I was filming on location, and asked him how he did a certain lighting effect I saw in one of his movies. Dante asked me, with his richlytoned Italian accent, ‘Well, Michael, how do you think I did it?’ I responded that I had two theories, one simple and one complex. He asked me for the simple one, and I told it to him. He said ‘That is exactly how I did it.’ That is Dante Spinotti. Simple. And absolutely perfect.” Billy Williams OBE BSC, a previous winner of the Camerimage lifetime achievement award, commented, “Many congratulation on a well deserved lifetime achievement award to Dante Spinotti. This year, Camerimage honours one whose superb cinematography has engaged audiences in so many films with his distinctive and individual style. My very best wishes to him.”
Images: 01. The legend that is Dante Spinotti 02. Rewers 03. Jar City 04. The Four Seasons of the Law 05. White Night Wedding 06. Athanassia
20 // 40 Get Low opens the show The opening ceremony of this year’s festival will take place on Saturday, November 28th, and features a premiere screening of Get Low, with participation of the director of the film, Aaron Schneider, cinematographer David Boyd ASC, producer Dean Zanuck, representatives of Polish co-production company, TVN: Dariusz Gasiorowski and Justyna Pawlak, as well as Polish executive producer, Konrad Wojterowski. Get Low, which stars Bill Murray, Robert Duvall and Sissy Spacek, is a movie spun out of equal parts of folk tale, fable and real-life legend about the mysterious, 1930’s Tennessee hermit who famously threw a rollicking funeral party whilst he was still alive. It will also be the first film screened within the main competition.
Competi –tions Main: judges on the jury include Ed Lachman, Igor Luther and Phil Méheux BSC, and will be scrutinising around15 titles, including… Get Low, dir. Aaron Schneider, DP David Boyd, USA Public Enemies, dir. Michael Mann, DP Dante Spinotti, USA I, Don Giovanni, dir. Carlos Saura, DP Vittorio Storaro, Italy Reverse, dir. Borys Lankosz, DP Marcin Koszaka, Poland The Dark House, dir. Wojtek Smarzowski, DP Krzysztof Ptak, Poland Lebanon, dir. Samuel Maoz, DP Giora Bejach; Lebanon , Israel , France, Germany Polish Films: sponsored by the Plus network operator, this competition includes eight of the latest Polish feature films produced after August 30th 2000, which are The Dark House, General Nil, I Am Yours, My Flesh My Blood, Piggies, Reverse, Snow White And Russian Red and Zero. Student Etudes: always worth a
look to see what the next generation are up to. The Etudes judges include Sir Alan Parker, as chairman, plus Allen Hughes, Michael Seresin, Pawel Pawlikowski, Don Burgess, Lilly Kilvert and Oliver Stapleton. The winners will have their films presented in Student World Panorama.
Documentary: Sponsored by Discovery Networks Central Europe, one of highlights will be Image Of The World - World In Images. This year it divided into two categories: short films (up to 60-minutes) and feature length films (more than 60-minutes). The feature jury includes Lech Majewski as chairman, plus Lawrence Grobel, John Dyson Barbara Bilinska (Discovery) and Karl Walter Lindenlaub. The short films jury comprises of Terry Sanders, Johannes Kirchlechner LouisPhilippe Capelle, Erik Daarstad and Magda Szczawinska (Discovery)
07. Storaro & Saura
Music Video: successfully initiated in
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2008, this section is devoted to the art of short-form cinematography that illustrates and accompanies a work of music. Around a dozen music clips will be under the scrutiny of the judges, with gongs for best cinematography and best music video. Brett Ratner chairs the jury, that includes Piotr Metz and Martin Coppen.
European Film Review This part of the festival for 35 mm features was created in 2004 and presents the most interesting European productions that are not known in Poland, nor yet released in Europe Highlights include review of Greek films such as Athanassia and The Four Seasons Of The Law, and Icelandic Cinema, featuring films from producer, director, writer and actor Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, Children Of Nature, Jar City and White Wedding Night.
Documen -tary Film Review A special thematic section entitled Turbulent Coexistence will present around fifteen documentary films examining Polish-Jewish relations in the 20th century. The films will uncover annals of history which we would like to forget, as well as looking at the possibilities of new communication and harmonious cohabitation between two ethnic groups. Among the screened films will be Neighbours by Agnieszka Arnold, touching upon the pogrom of the Jews in Jedwabne, Us And Them by Elzbieta Nekanda-Trepka, about a catholic priest propagating ecumenical ideas, and The March Of The Living, by Grzegorz Linkowski where a priest meets the man who killed his Jewish relations. There will also be a panel discussion entitled The Conflict Of Words And Image In Documentary Film at the Polonia Cinema, this year’s centre of the documentary section. Panellists include writer/journalist John Dyson, Michael Neubauer head of bvk – the German Society of Cinematographers, and Terry Sanders.
PLUS CAMERIMAGE 2009 SPECIAL AWARDS: Lifetime Achievement Award:
Dante Spinotti
Previous Lifetime Achievement Award winners include: Sven Nykvist (Sweden – Fanny And Alexander, Persona) Vittorio Storaro (Italy – The Last Emperor, The Conformist, The Spider’s Strategy) Witold Sobocinski (Poland – Gate of Europe, The Wedding, Pirates) Laszlo Kovacs (Hungary – Easy Rider, Paper Moon) Conrad Hall (USA – American Beauty, Road To Perdition)
Giuseppe Rotunno (Italy – All that Jazz, Casanova, Roma) Haskell Wexler (USA – In the Heat Of The Night, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest) Vilmos Zsigmond (Hungary – Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, The Maverick) Billy Williams (UK – Ghandi, Women In Love) Owen Roizman (USA – The French Connection, The Exorcist) Freddie Francis (UK – The Innocents, Glory, Straight Story) William Fraker (USA – French Connection, Bullit, Rosemary’s Baby) David Watkin (UK – Out Of Africa, Chariots Of Fire, Tea With Mussolini) Tonino Delli Colli (Italy – Life Is Beautiful, Once Upon A Time In America, The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly) Robby Muller (Netherlands – Dancer In The Dark, Breaking The Waves, Korczak) Stephen Goldblatt (UK – Closer, The Cotton Club, The Pelican Brief) Pierre Lhomme (France – Camille Caludel, Cyrano de Bergerac, Le Divorce)
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Other awards Duo Award: Director Cinematographer:
Carlos Saura & Vittorio Storaro
These are genuine masters of their craft. Saura (born 1932) reinvigorated Spanish cinema after years of stagnation. Storaro (born 1940), an Italian cinematographer, is acknowledged as one of the greatest contemporary cinematographers, a threetime Oscar winner and was awarded the Camerimage Golden Frog in 1994. When they first collaborated in 1995 on the film Flamenco it was evident to the critics that they had the same attitude (not as common as might be expected) that the art of cinematography is the basis of cinema, that a film is what you see. Together they have already made five films: Flamenco, Taxi, Tango, Goya In Bordeaux, more recently I, Don Giovanni, and have been working again for the sixth time on Flamenco Flamenco. Award to the Polish DP for Outstanding Contribution to the Art of Film:
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Dariusz Wolski
Wolski rose to fame thanks to the American super-production Pirates of the Caribbean, which he lensed for director Gore Verbinski. It was a great critical success receiving various prizes, but also a box-office hit with an army of fans. The unique, gloomy atmosphere of the camerawork, which had first been fully used in the film adaptation of the comic book The Crow (dir. Alez Proyas), became Wolski’s hallmark. It was spotted by Tim Burton, one of the most original contemporary directors. After successful Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of
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recognition, Starski has been awarded many prestigious prizes, among which the most important is the Academy Award for his production design for Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List. Starski’s work for The Pianist won recognition in the form of two awards, a French Cesar and a Polish Eagle. His project for Andrzej Wajda’s film Pan Tadeusz also received the Eagle Award. In film circles, Starski is considered a specialist in the field of the 19th-century production design, as well as WWII and The Holocaust. Award for Outstanding Achievements in Documentary Filmmaking:
Terry Sanders
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Fleet Street he hired Wolski for his next film project – Alice in Wonderland (2010). Other credits include Romeo Is Bleeding (dir. Peter Medak), Crimson Tide, The Fan (dir. Tony Scott), A Perfect Murder (dir. Andrew Davis) and Bad Company (dir. Joel Schumacher). Award to the Producer with Unique Visual Sensitivity:
Richard Zanuck
Pre-eminent as an independent producer and a former studio head, Zanuck has earned numerous awards and citations for his achievements in his more than 40 years of filmmaking. Among them, perhaps the most significant and the one that bears the greatest testament to his well-earned stature, is the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences’ Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, which was bestowed upon him and long-time associate David Brown in 1991. This illustrious accolade, given only 36 times in the Academy’s history, recognises Zanuck as a creative producer whose body of work reflects a consistently high quality of motion picture production. Zanuck was also granted an Oscar as a producer of Driving Miss Daisy. His other credits include such titles as Jaws, Planet of Apes, Big Fish and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street among others.
Lifetime Achievement Award to the Director:
Volker Schlöndorff
Schlöndorff is the first Academy Award winner in post war Germany. Already during his studies he started learning the craft of filmmaking from the best French directors - Louis Malle, Jean-Pierre Melville, Alain Resnais. His directorial debut Young Törless, won him the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes Films Festival in 1966, and his The Tin Drum – a Golden Palm in 1979 and an Academy Award. He made a number of acclaimed films like The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, Germany in Autumn, Swann in Love, Death of a Salesman, The Voyager, The Ogre, The Ninth Day, Strike. Most renowned achievements of Volker Schlöndorff, will be presented at the Festival in the review of his films and an album on his life and work specially published by Plus Camerimage organizers. Lifetime Achievement Award to the Production Designer:
Allan Starski
Watch out for a special exhibition in the Festival Centre in the Grand Theatre, of the work of Allan Starski. A Polish production designer, whose work has gained an unquestionable international
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A director, producer and writer, Sanders has been granted the Academy Award twice. He has directed and/or produced more than 70 award-winning dramatic features, theatrical documentaries, television specials and a large body of portrait films of major American artists, writers and musicians. He is considered to be one of the greatest contemporary documentary filmmakers. His documentary filmography includes such great productions as Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision, The Legend of Marilyn Monroe and Fighting For Life among others. A retrospective of his films will be part of the documentary Image Of The World – World In Images section. Special Award to the Editor with Unique Visual Sensitivity:
Thelma Schoonmaker This American, three-time Academy Award-winning film editor has worked with director Martin Scorsese for over thirty-five years. She met Martin Scorsese while both were students at New York University and has edited all of Scorsese’s films since Raging Bull. Schoonmaker has received six Academy Award nominations for best editing, and won three times for Raging Bull, The Aviator, and The Departed. Her professional output is an impressive list of film editing credits. She is considered to be one of the greatest contemporary film editors.
BSC Film, Digital Evaluations & Imago: The British
22 // 40 very latest news from the conference on authors’ rights held recently in Seville.
Workshops & Seminars: If
you want to get up close and personal with some of today’s greatest cinematographers, and learn how they use cameras, lights and equipment, then you cannot afford to miss Dante Spinotti and Vilmos Zsigmond presenting their art and craft with the usage of Panavision equipment. Donald McAlpine ACS ASC will conduct a workshop with ARRI. McAlpine, who was Oscar-nominated for his work on Moulin Rouge! and received this year’s ASC International Award, says, “After shooting more than 50 films over a 40-year career, the struggle has been to approach each film as if it was my first. Every film should be a new exciting adventure: most are. In this seminar I will attempt to show an example of this process.” Oliver Stapleton BSC, whose films include The Proposal and The Cider House Rules, will lead an ARRI lighting workshop. Making use of a full-size car, Stapleton will reveal how to achieve believable in-car sequences on a budget with a technique known as Poor Man’s Process. “Most films include a bit of car work at some stage or another,” says Stapleton. “Impressive results can be achieved with this process, so it’s an important skill to learn; it’s also a lot of fun!” During the course of the workshop there will also be a presentation of ARRI’s new digital camera systems. Kodak will host its usual seminar, with a review of the Industry, highlighting the latest Vision3 filmstock technology, and talk about 35mm 2- and 3-perf as an alternative shooting formats. It is also hosting a VIP dinner.
Plus Camerimage Market:
Companies like ARRI, Hawk (Vantage), Panavision, Sachtler, Sony, Panasonic, K5600 will have stands in the main foyer in the Grand Theatre. The following are set to exhibit in the new centre in main building on mezanine floor and top floor: Tiffen, Cmotion, Grip Factory Munich, Camelot Berlin, Cooke, KGSD, Ilab, New York Filmgear, Photon Beard, VFX Solutions, Scubacam, MK-V Europe, BSC and GBCT.
The future: Frank Gehry, the
Society of Cinematographers will present its Film & Digital Image Evaluation 2009, which examined the perfomance of18 different film and digital formats. The forum will take place in the Polonia Cinema. IMAGO will hold a panel-discussion, including the
renowned American architect, creator of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, will be a very special guest of this years Festival. Together with festival director, Marek Zydowicz, he will present a concept project of the new Festival Centre, which is to be built within the New Lódz City Centre, and become a future modern seat of the Festival.
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Feature // Camera Creative
Bad day sunshine
Images: 01. 02. Movement: Aguirresarobe deployed Steadicam to follow the characters, but went handheld for moments of danger 03. Mantra: ‘The sun is the enemy’ was a regular saying. 04. 05. Colour: mainly monochrome, apart from flashbacks which gradually drain of colour. 06. Strategy: As much as possible shot in-camera
Many people thought it wouldn’t be possible to transfer Cormac McCarthy’s 2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Road into a film. But, working under the auspices of director John Hillcoat, Spanish cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe AEC might just have pulled off a masterpiece, writes Ron Prince. The Road is the post-apocalyptic story of a journey taken by a father and his young son over a period of several months, across a landscape blasted by an unnamed cataclysm that has destroyed all civilization and most of life on earth. It stars Viggo Mortensen as the Man, Kodi Smit-McPhee as the Boy, with Robert Duvall as the Old Man and Charlize Theron as the Wife. The setting is extremely bleak. The sun is obscured by a layer of ash so thick that the pair often breathe through masks, and plants do not grow. The surviving remnants of humanity have been largely reduced to thoughtless violence and cannibalism. Realising that they will not survive another winter in their location in the mountains, the father leads them through a cold and desolate landscape towards the sea, sustained by a vague hope of finding other “good people” like them. They have nothing, except memories of a
The most important thing for me as a director of photography is finding new aspirations, new places, new spaces that are absolutely different life gone by, a pistol to defend themselves against lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food, and each other. The task of translating a world totally devoid of sunlight into the grey-toned brush strokes, that were nonetheless photographed in colour, fell to director of photography Javier Aguirresarobe. AEC. Aguirresarobe, who lives in the Basque country in Northern Spain, has enjoyed collaborations with such noted filmmakers as Woody Allen on Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Pedro Almodovar on Talk To Her, Alejandro Amenabar on The Sea Inside and The Others, Victor Erice on The Quince Tree Of The Sun (Special Jury Award at Cannes Film Festival, 1993), Milos Forman on Goya’s Ghosts, and James Ivory on The City Of Your Final Destination. He is winner of the National Prize for Cinematography in Spain, as well as six Goya awards. The
Road posed a new proposition for him. “A dull land is very difficult visually to bring to a film,” says Aguirresarobe. “So my life became more enriched with this production, but also more difficult.” But to hear him tell it, he wouldn’t have it any other way. “I think the most important thing for me as a director of photography is finding new aspirations, new places, new spaces that are absolutely different. I encountered this with The Road. It really was the film of my dreams, because in the book Cormac McCarthy portrayed an apocalyptic landscape, a terrain denuded of sun.” Aguirresarobe says he was surprised to be approached by director John Hillcoat (The Proposition) to shoot The Road. “He could have chosen many other cinematographers, but came to me as he had seen many of the films I have photographed. I don’t like brilliant light, nor conventional lighting. I prefer the semidarkness, and have brought many different visual styles to the films I have shot.” Aguirresarobe received a seven-page document of recommendations written by Hillcoat, on the visual aspects and language of the film. “There were two words that kept appearing in the text, “darkness” and “coherence”, and these needed to be applied from the first to the last shot. The sensation he wanted to get across was the same as in the book – devastation, no sun, and that we are alone on this earth. The cinematographer has to be first and foremost an artist, and your achievement is to have made people believe in what’s happening on the screen. That was a great challenge here.” Aguirresarobe had a three-hour interview with the director, during which he was asked how he would solve the filming and lighting requirements. “My immediate answer, that I had no previous knowledge, must have impressed him. I said that I’m not a DP who fixes things later in post, but someone who shoots as much as possible in-camera, on the set, on the day. I also said that one of the ways to keep the right lighting and consistency would be to shoot day-for-night whenever we could, and to use every opportunity to use the natural light during dawn and dusk.” Principal photography took place during the winter months of 2008, with production taking place in Pennsylvania, including Presque Isle State Park and the Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike, and at several locations in Oregon, and also New Orleans in Louisiana. The final scenes were
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shot on the shore of Lake Eerie. “We had some amazing locations,” he says. “Around New Orleans we found an incredible, devastated situation due to the destruction caused by hurricane Katrina in 2005. Also, the eruption of Mount St Helens some 20 years ago, left trees naked of leaves, and gave us some impressive images on locations in Oregon.” The biggest challenge, he says, was working with the weather, and maintaining visual continuity over more than 50 locations and 60 days of exterior shooting. And maintaining the “confidence to do the job correctly. Because this is an exterior film, we were always outside and dealing with the different climates and the changing weather.
The cinematographer has to be first and foremost an artist, and your achievement is to have made people believe in what’s happening on the screen “I came up with two sayings that became popular with the crew. One was, ‘The sun is the enemy’ and the other was, ‘Anything is possible on The Road.’ We were actually very lucky with the weather in the end, as the direct sun stayed away most of the time.” For the production, Aguirresarobe selected a brace of ARRICAM LT cameras, hired from Otto Nemenz in Los Angeles. His chosen stock was Kodak Vision2 5218, 500 ASA. “I had to bear in mind the lighting conditions I was going to work in. This stock is very fast and sensitive, and proved to have great versatility in the lab processing. We shot Super 35mm format, rather than Anamorphic, so that we could take advantage of the Cooke S4s lenses, which give a more luminous look to the images. Also, on a practical level, they are lighter than Anamorphic lenses, which would be a big advantage for the type of on-the-road shooting we were going to do.” The lighting package was minimal, with Aguirresarobe using HMIs, softlights and fluorescents sparingly. A dynamic of the daily production was not so much the lighting, but the constant need to block out light. “The lighting concept was one of using natural light as much as possible, and to avoid illuminating the faces of the characters too much. It’s an interesting exercise to have to keep on reducing or eliminating light. The grips and gaffer were vital to my lighting strategy on this film, and played a fundamental role in shaping the nature of the exterior and background illumination. They were constantly having to fix up large silk or black screens and diffusing cloths to dampen the light of the sun, or bouncing HMIs off white screens to make things less bright.” Camera operator on the production was Matias Mesa, with Dan Kneece on Steadicam. Focus puller on A camera was Glenn Kaplan, with Peter Gerathty the puller on B camera. Key grips were Manny Duran and Joe Ruiz, gaffer Jim Plannette and best boy Rick Maddux. The production designer was Chris Kennedy, with costumes
conceived by Margot Wilson. The film contains many scenes of the Father and Boy together at night, often beside a fire. “These are often the most touching moments in the film where we become part of the evolving relationship between the two characters,” he says. “They have intimate conversations, exchange looks, and there are lots of close ups. I wanted to give these scenes a special kind of brightness, but just using the firelight was not enough. So we always gave these scenes extra-special attention, being very careful to add subtle lighting using Softlights. I have to say that, along with my amazing crew, I had a high level of cooperation with the actors, especially Viggo and Kodi. They were like allies.” In terms of day-for-night, Aguirresarobe says his technique was not to over-expose the negative. “I pulled 2-stops for the whole film. What I tried to achieve with this method was to retain a subtle contrast in darker areas of the image. The filmstock was a great help on this score, as was the corresponding development technique at Technicolor New York. The chromatic tone is lower than usual, helping to add to the sense of gloom.” The only genuine splashes colour in The Road come during flashback sequences. These cover a span of time – normalcy before the cataclysm, the nuclear family in confined survival mode, the birth of the Boy, and the eventual disappearance of the hopeless Mother. Each was purposely designed by Aguirresarobe to get progressively darker, with the colour gradually diminishing in each flashback as the visual story moves towards its main monochromatic thrust. In terms of camera movement, Steadicam was one of three main ingredients in the filmic language of the movie. “John was concerned that Steadicam moves might not be suitable in terms of following the characters, but I convinced him that if it was used properly it could follow the characters well. Good Steadicam depends on the operator. I used Dan Kneece, and we got a great result. When any special moves were required, such as during moments of tension – for example, when the Father and the Boy come across the gang in the truck – we went to handheld. The result is that there is a constant debate in the film between the Steadicam, the handheld and the more static moments besides the fire.” The DI on the production was completed at Company 3 in Los Angeles with Aguirresarobe in attandance. “We were very happy with the way the images looked from the shoot, and the coherence of the lighting throughout. The film had to involve the audience in the gloom, but without overdoing it. So we really didn’t do too much during the DI to alter the images.” “I want people, when they leave the cinema after watching The Road, to have an impression of what can happen to this earth, that this could happen to them,” he concludes. “The biggest victory will be if the audience can believe in the reality and sincerity of the story while watching it in an artificial envirnment, that they see there is a truth to this story.” The result is a genuinely engaging and moving cinema experience, that had some of the critics in tears at the press screening. What’s more, The Road is the type of movie that always seems to do well during the awards season. So it will be interesting to see what happens next!
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Feature // On the Job
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Watching the detective Philippe Rousselot AFC ASC on Sherlock Holmes Ask any relative, friend or stranger about Sherlock Holmes. If they were born and raised on this planet, the chances are excellent that they are familiar with the fictional detective and his faithful companion Dr. Watson, writes Bob Fisher. The concept and characters were born in the fertile imagination of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a medical doctor whose first short story about Holmes and Watson was published in 1887. The first Sherlock Holmes movie was an eight-minute black and white film produced in Denmark in 1908. Some 20 feature-length films, plus numerous radio and television series and movies have followed in its wake. The new Sherlock Holmes film was produced by Village Roadshow. Robert Downey, Jr. portrays Holmes and Jude Law is cast in the role of Watson. Other main characters include Inspector Lestrade, Sir Thomas and Irene Adler, who are respectively played by Eddie Marson, Jamie Fox and Rachel McAdams. It was the first collaboration between Philippe Rousselot AFC ASC and director Guy Ritchie. Rousselot brought an eclectic range of experience to the project. He rode the crest of the French New Wave during the dawn of his career as an assistant cameraman on three films shot by Nestor Almendros ASC in 1969 and 1970. Rousselot has earned some 60 cinematography credits since shooting his first film at the age of 25. He won an Oscar for A River Runs Through It and received other nominations for Hope And Glory and Henry And June. He earned three BSC nominations and claimed top honors for Hope And Glory and Interview With The Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles, which also won a BAFTA award. “I read books about Sherlock Holmes when I was in my teens, but I don’t recall seeing any movies or television series,” he says. “I usually don’t look at DVDs of franchise-type movies, because I don’t want to be influenced by what has been done before, but I watched of every film that Guy Ritchie has directed.” British director Ritchie’s credits include an array of fast-paced urban dramas set in contemporary times, but he is perhaps best known for Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels (1998, DP Time Maurice-Jones). During their first meeting, Ritchie told Rousselot he envisioned shooting in period settings with a bit of grunge added. “Grunge is atypical for a Victorian era movie,” Rousselot observes. “They tend to have elegant settings and polished looks, but I agreed that it was the right look.” They also agreed to compose Sherlock Holmes in Super 1.85:1 format. “It was how we both saw the story in our minds,” he explains. “There were locations where the heights of buildings, Tower Bridge and other backgrounds are like silent characters. You can never rationalise those decisions. It was a gut feeling.”
There was also an upfront decision to put final touches on the look during digital intermediate (DI) timing. Rousselot explains they anticipated integrating visual effects, including explosions, and enhancing a period look at a time when gas lamps lit the night. Rousselot met with location manager Marc Somner during an early stage of preproduction planning. They scouted practical locations in London, Manchester and Liverpool, including city streets, wharfs and docks on the River Thames, Tower Bridge, which was being constructed when the story was set, and a 19th century gaol. He also met with production designer Sarah Greenwood and wardrobe designer Jenny Beaven who helped to establish a sense of time and place with hints of grunge.
Day-for-night
“Guy was explaining his vision for a night scene on the docks in Liverpool while we were scouting that location,” he recalls. “I told him I didn’t think it was a good idea to shoot at that location at night if he wanted
the audience to see the river and miles of backgrounds. Even if we had all the Musco lights in the world, it wouldn’t have looked real. I also told him that we could shoot day-for-night and make it look real.” Rousselot shot a day-for-night test on The Thames. He timed it with Adam Inglis at Technicolor, the DI colorist he was going to work with on the film. “I knew that I could push the film a bit to get more details in the shadows and highlights the way the human eye would see them at night,” Rousselot comments. “I framed some shots with the river in the
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Images: 01. 02. Heroes: Jude Law as Dr. Watson and Robert Downey JR. as Sherlock Holmes in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Village Roadshow Pictures’ action/ adventure mystery Sherlock Holmes, distributed by Warner Bros. 03. Action: Director of Photography Philippe Rousselot on the set Photos by Alex Bailey. Photos Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
“I always start with trying to motivate lighting, but that can be challenging on this type of period film,” Rousselot says. “The oil lamps people used didn’t light the night the way electric bulbs do. Some parts of London were lit with arc lights on giant towers. It was a rather harsh blue light, but that’s not common knowledge, so I decided
to bite the bullet and depart from reality. It’s an action movie with things happening that we want the audience to see. I found a place between reality and drama.” Rousselot covered interior and darker exterior scenes with Kodak Vision 5219 (500T) film and most daytime sequences with Kodak Vision 2 5205 (200D) negative. He was generally using both cameras, which were almost constantly moving, either on the Technocrane, on a Steadicam or dolly, and occasionally handheld. “It depended on the location and the emotions we wanted to evoke,” he says. The two main characters interact in most scenes. Rousselot notes that the use of two moving cameras gave the actors more freedom to ad lib and improvise. He adds that it also enabled him and his crew to move faster with fewer takes required. “Guy and I were usually together at a monitor near the cameras and actors,” Rousselot says. “Four to six takes was average, and sometimes as few as two. There were times he amazed me. We would start shooting a scene, and Guy would say this isn’t working. Within 20 to 60 minutes he changed the scene, and it was perfect.” Technicolor, in London, did frontend lab work and provided HD dailies. Additional scenes were filmed on stages in a former armory in Brooklyn, New York, including sets for the Baker Street apartment shared by Watson and Holmes. Sherlock Holmes is scheduled for release by Warner Bros. in December.
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I decided to bite the bullet and depart from reality. It’s an action movie with things happening that we want the audience to see. So I found a place between reality and drama.
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foreground and the sky and buildings in the background. I knew that I could play with the sky and make it dark enough to look like night. I also darkened the sun to make it look like the moon, and played with colours and tones of clouds and put a reflection of the sun on the water.” After Ritchie saw the results, he agreed to shoot a number of day-for-night scenes. The camera crew assembled by Rousselot was mainly made up of people he had worked with when he shot Charlie And The Chocolate Factory in London. They included A camera operator Des Whelan, Steadicam/B camera operator Vince McGahon, first assistants Julian Bucknall and Ollie Tellett, and second assistants Lewis Hume and Jason Dully. Rousselot had collaborated with gaffer Chuck Finch on Hope And Glory. It was Rousselot’s first co-venture with both visual effects supervisor Chas Jarrett and The Visual Effects Company in London. Panavision provided a couple of Millennium cameras, a set of prime lenses
ranging from 14 to 150 mm, 3:1 and 11:1 zooms and a Technocrane. Lighting gear came from Panalux, and Studio Equipment provided dollies.
Lighting and movement
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Feature // Shooting the Future
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Heroes of British 3D 3D stereo is currently the hottest ticket in town and by all accounts is likely to outlast all previous attempts to sustain it, writes Adrian Pennington. Although much of the noise is being driven by Hollywood studios, less well documented are the strong British roots of the current 3D stereo boom, which date back half a century. That link comes full circle in November when Channel 4 airs a week of 3D stereo programming, including remarkable colour 3D newsreel of the 1953 Coronation, filmed by director Robert Angell and cameraman Arthur Wooster BSC with Charles W. Smith as stereo technician. Channel 4’s two-hour long documentaries, The Queen In 3D, weave excerpts of extraordinary 35mm footage unearthed from BFI archives with freshlycommissioned 3D material of the Queen, and other members of the royal household, at events such as the Highland Games and a Windsor garden party. According to producer Alan Hayling of Renegade Productions the intention is not only to showcase the Queen as viewers have never seen her before, but also to tell the story of the groundbreaking 3D experiments and the pioneers behind them. Wooster and Angell, now in their eighties, were enticed out of retirement to recount their experiences to camera and to recreate some of the stereoscopic techniques they helped to originate.
3D in ‘53
“We were commissioned by Associated British Pathé to shoot a 20-minute film called Royal Review of the June Coronation, and of succeeding days on the royal barge, at the Derby and presentation of Colours at Edinburgh,” explains Wooster. “Most broadcasters at the Coronation were filming black and white live transmissions (video had only just been invented) while we were shooting exteriors in Eastman Colour with an ASA of little more than 20, using a camera that took six people to move and with no time to choreograph the shots.” Wooster and Angell used dual Newman Sinclair cameras facing inward on a baseplate toward two mirrors at 45-degree angles. Wooster’s rented Newman Sinclair’s were positioned outside Buckingham Palace while a second rig of ARRI cameras, shot by Godfrey Jennison, was located on Admiralty Arch shooting the procession along The Mall. “Each rig needed a technical stereographer who would use a slide rule to determine how close the nearest object would be to the camera,” recalls Angell. “We were keen to achieve a naturalistic look and shoot nothing that would detract from the story.”
Angell and Wooster’s company Film Partnership was building on the landmark success of the first stereoscopic films (outside the Soviet Union) made two years earlier by Raymond Spottiswoode and his brother Nigel. An Oxford graduate employed by the National Film Board of Canada, Spottiswoode had been tasked by the BFI to create a series of 3D shorts for the 1951 Festival of Britain, where they were showcased in the Telecinema, a futuristic 400-seat theatre equipped with a silver screen, created especially for the event.
The strong British roots of the current 3D stereo boom date back half a century. Spottiswoode’s productions, including two Norman McLaren direct-drawing animations and Royal River, a pictorial of the Thames, were shot on twin, three-strip Technicolor, devised by Spottiswoode, with separate film for left-eye and righteye and images separated by polarising spectacles. He also created a system of image alignment control for strain-free 3D viewing and, with his brother Nigel and Charles W. Smith, published the optical requirements for 3D polarised filmmaking in the SMPTE Journal of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers in October 1952 – arguably the first coinage of the term 3D and the blueprint for all future stereoscopic production. The Spottiswoodes established Stereo Techniques Ltd, and produced 18 shorts between 1952-55, some in co-production with Wooster and Angell’s Film Partnership. Among them were the first 3D travelogue Summer Island about Madeira, Sunshine Matters about open-cast mining, and London Tribute, a film of Queen Mary’s 1953 funeral cortege, whose print is believed lost. Clips from these and other 3D projects, like Northern Towers made for Shell Petroleum, and Eye On The Ball, which depicted cricket, badminton, football and snooker, are being premiered as part of the C4 season. Sadly the techniques they pioneered were largely ignored when the 1953 Hollywood rush began. 3D films in the US were shot as a marketing gimmick without adequate preliminary tests and with crews given just a few days’ notice that their next film was to be in 3D. Most had limited knowledge and even less interest. Money and support from sponsors eventually fizzled out and Raymond Spottiswoode died, largely unheralded for his contribution, in 1970. Charles W. Smith continued to evangelise and expand on Spottiswoode’s work, calling for international 3D broadcast standards as early as 1993, before his death in 2004.
Images: 01. 02. Generation: Arthur Wooster shooting with his Newman Sinclair in 2D 01.
03. 04. HRH: Queen Elizabeth II in 3D
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3D generations
Wooster’s successful career entailed second unit photography on multiple Bond films, his last being Die Another Day (2002), but intriguingly his son David is now playing a major role in the UK’s revival as a centre for 3D expertise. His company, Can Communicate is the central technical supplier and consultant for the 3D week on C4, which also features a Derren Brown magic spectacular from Objective Productions and an archive compilation of 3D clips. The programmes are being transmitted in ColorCode, which is claimed by its Danish inventor to produce superior colour imaging to the familiar red-cyan of traditional anaglyph. Viewers will wear glasses, distributed free at Sainsbury’s, fitted with an amber filter which conveys colour information, and a blue filter for depth perception. Can Communicate worked with the BFI and both producers to supervise and post the archive and 3D material, as well as restore the archive footage. A 2K Spirit telecine was made of the left and right eye negative before digital restoration
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(some dust busting and removing of larger blemishes). These files were imported into Can Communicate’s Quantel iQ Pablo for 3D correction and grading. For the live action shoots P+S Technik mirror rigs, supporting Sony EX3 camcorders, were supplemented with Can Communicate’s own side-by-side Bolt and Calcutta rigs. “On one shoot we used mirror and side-by-side rigs, as we were looking to shoot close-up footage of the Queen, as well as wider shots where the side-by-side rig works better,” explains David Wooster. This is, in a sense, a retro 3D experience and, as much as it is a valid 3D viewing experience using traditional 2D broadcast methods, Can Communicate’s line on 3D is that the future is using the new 3DTV screens using polarised or active glasses. “We don’t see this as cutting-edge in terms of the viewing experience, even though we have shot and edited the footage using the latest technology,” says Wooster.
World leader?
Just as it was in the early ‘50s the UK is arguably a world leader again - this time in stereoscopic broadcast production. Spurred on firstly by the BBC’s breakthrough live satellite transmissions, and now by BSkyB’s impending launch of Europe’s first 3D TV service, producers like Can Communicate, Inition and Principal Large Format are in high demand. The latter outfit is run by Phil Streather, a veteran of IMAX 3D productions and Sky 3D TV tests, who recently produced a unique attraction film for the London Eye which combined 3D with physical and multi-sensory effects like touch and smell. That’s a digital enhancement harking back once more to the 1950’s gimmick Smell-OVision. Who knows, perhaps that is due for a revival next?
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International // F-stop Hollywood
Awards season arrives Awards season has arrived, and as the activity level started to rise, Roger Deakins BSC ASC was scheduled to be feted at the Hollywood Film Festival Awards, writes Carolyn Giardina. Deakins, who reteamed with the Coen brothers on this year’s A Serious Man, earned the “Hollywood Cinematographer Award,” presented during the October 26th awards dinner, at the famous Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. Additional honourees who distinguished themselves in the crafts categories include costume designer Colleen Atwood (Nine and Public Enemies) and visual effects supervisor Scott Farrar (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen). This year, awards season started with a surprise. One morning in late June, outgoing-Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science president Sid Ganis assembled the Hollywood press to announce that this year the Oscars would go from five to 10 best picture nominees, recalling some of Hollywood’s memorable years in the ‘30s and early ‘40s. Not surprisingly, this rule change became the talk of the town. Will it impact the box office? Will blockbusters such as last year’s hit The Dark Knight be more likely to earn a nod? The Academy also decided to present its honourary trophies during a separate Governors Awards event, which this year will be held on November 14th, at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood. The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award will be presented to producerexecutive John Calley, and Honorary Awards will go to actress Lauren Bacall, producer/director Roger Corman, and cinematographer Gordon Willis ASC. Willis, a two-time Academy Award nominee for Zelig and The Godfather, Part III, has lensed more than 30 films including The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, All The President’s Men, Annie Hall and Manhattan. The ASC recently got its awards event underway with the announcement that it has dedicated its 2010 Heritage Award for outstanding achievement in a student film to the memory of Richard Moore ASC. The award is annually
re-named in dedication of a person who made noteworthy contributions to advancing the art of cinematography. “Richard Moore was a true visionary who co-founded Panavision and was responsible for significant advances in filmmaking technology,” said ASC president Michael Goi. “He was also an exceptionally talented cinematographer whose credits include The Reivers, Myra Breckinridge, Sometimes A Great Notion, The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean, and Annie, among other memorable films.” Moore died of natural causes in 2009. The Richard Moore ASC Heritage Award will be presented during the 24th Annual ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards on February 27, 2010. Chris Menges is set to receive the ASC International Achievement Award on February 27th.
eDIT Filmmakers Festival
October began with the eDIT Filmmakers Festival in Frankfurt, the annual event presented by the State of Hessen with partners IMAGO and American Cinema Editors. Ricardo Aronovich AFC, whose credits include Klimt and Missing, accepted the IMAGO Tribute Award during the event’s opening gala, attended by an estimated 700 guests. The inaugural IMAGO Tribute Award was presented last year to Guiseppe Rotunno AIC. IMAGO president Nigel Walters presented the award to Aronovich, following a musical number. “I was very excited when I saw all of the singers in white come onto the stage tonight. I thought you started to play cricket,” he said with a smile to the audience, as he reached the stage. Also during the gala, editor Chris Lebenzon ACE, a two-time Oscar nominee for Tony Scott’s Top Gun and Crimson Tide, received the event’s Festival Honours. Lebenzon is known for working with directors Tony Scott and Tim Burton, as well as producer Jerry Bruckheimer. He is currently editing Burton’s Alice In Wonderland for Disney. A Festival Honours Tribute remembered
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the late Albert R. Broccoli, for his work as creator of the James Bond franchise. Christoph Waltz was saluted with a special achievement award for his performance in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. “Christoph Waltz’s Col. Hans Landa joins a list of glorious evildoers,” said Tom Atkin, co-director of the Festival. This is only the second time that the Festival bestowed its special achievement award. Programme highlights included a look at the BSC Camera Evaluation Series, presented by BSC president Sue Gibson, past president Gavin Finney and colourist Gwyn Evans. “There are a lot of hidden costs in downloading data and subsequent postproduction effects,” Gibson said. “The fact is that some of the processes that used to be purely the domain of postproduction are in the domain of the shooting crew. This had to be taken into account when budgeting.” Aronovich also brought a message about digital production costs, saying: “What you don’t spend on film stock, you will spend on post production.” He also commented on investment in digital production gear, noting the technology is still changing. “Take any video camera today. How long will it last? It’s an enormous investment because it is the whole chain. It is the camera and the postproduction machinery, which will become obsolete.” On the subject of archiving, he pointed out that film currently remains the only method known to last 100 years or more. AFC members presented a session on Day for Night. Imago representatives from countries including England, France, Belgium, Bulgaria and Norway attended the eDIT Festival.
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allowed for the advances of visual effects through the use of optical printing.” Additional speakers included Dunn’s daughter Nancy Dunn, Academy Governor Bill Taylor, visual effects supervisor Michael Fink, and Science and Technology Council members Johnathan Erland and Garrett Smith. Recently named Academy president Tom Sherak introduced the programme.
What you don’t spend on film stock, you will spend on post production
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Celebrating Linwood Dunn
AMPAS recently held a special event to celebrate Linwood Dunn ASC whose pioneering work in the art and science of motion picture production includes the development of the Acme-Dunn Optical Printer. During his career, Dunn served as an Academy governor in both the cinematography and visual effects branches, and his work can be seen in classics from Citizen Kane to West Side Story. The sold out programme began with a reception and panel discussion, followed by a screening of a newly struck print of Citizen Kane. “The genius of Citizen Kane pervades every frame,” said moderator Craig Barron, a governor of the Academy’s VFX branch. “The production’s creative freedom
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03. Images: 01. Cut: editor Ricardo Aronovich AFC accepting the IMAGO Tribute Award in Frankfurt 02. 03. Men of letters: ASC president Michael Goi ASC, and former president Richard P. Crudo
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International // Letters From America
Are you experienced? Michael Goi ASC, president of the American Society of Cinematographers, says that whilst the DP’s art is increasingly about collaboration with other crafts, they mustn’t forget the inspirations that inform their work. As our craft moves forward into the constantly changing waters of digital technology, we as cinematographers find ourselves once again adapting to this new landscape. Previsualization, which originated as a tool for determining the elements necessary to construct an effects-laden sequence, is now edging into the realm of visual design. As more and more of the aesthetic decisions on a production are put into place earlier in the process, it is important that the cinematographer be present at the start. The ASC’s involvement over the past year with the Art Director’s Guild and the Visual Effects Society in the Joint Technology Subcommittee On Previsualization is an example of the kind of interaction that is necessary to define the new paradigm of working relationships within the industry, and what each of our roles are. While it is a popular concept to tout ourselves as the “authors of the image,” the reality is rapidly becoming one of collaboration with other crafts and coordinating our efforts toward a common goal.
As the tools and techniques of virtual production more widespread, the cinematographer must be the person the production turns to for the overall aesthetic. As the tools and techniques of virtual production become more sophisticated and widespread, the cinematographer must, and should be, the person the production turns to for the impact that lighting and composition have on the overall aesthetic. That a project is primarily put together on a computer, rather than a soundstage, is of no consequence; the approach to visual storytelling is the same. The inspiration for the way light, shadow, colour and movement are used for dramatic effect still rests with the cinematographer. The balance of imagination and practical knowledge, mixed with an almost militaristic ability to lead a crew, makes the position of cinematographer unique and indispensable. And it is necessary
for all these qualities to exist in order to do the job. One cannot have great artistic instincts and no idea of how to accomplish them. Inspiration is a difficult thing to quantify, but it is at the heart of what we do. We do not illuminate sets merely to get enough light for a proper exposure; we mold and shape light from an emotional perspective, one that comes from a wide variety of influences. Cinematographers frequently reference other works while developing the unique style for the project we’re shooting. Often it’ll be another film. Many times it’ll be a painting, a still photograph, clips from a magazine or even a piece of music. Anything that stirs an emotion carries with it the seed that can be adapted to another expression of art. But your own life experiences frequently inspire the most sublime transpositions into cinematographic form. Permit me to describe an instance from my own life. It was late afternoon, 31 years ago. I was riding in a car with some friends, and we stopped for a traffic light. I was in the passenger seat and I looked casually out the window. And there she was. She was brunette in her mid-twenties, about 5’ 5” tall. She was wearing older but not faded blue jeans and a sleeveless white blouse. She had on brown sandals with straps that crossed her feet twice, and no polish on her toes or fingers. She was clutching a laundry basket filled with dry, semifolded clothes. She was waiting for a bus. The orange tone of the low sun reflected off the glass windows of a building across the street, throwing softly speckled patterns of light on everything around her. The warm summer breeze wafted her hair lightly, and she stepped toward the curb and craned her neck to look down the street to see if the bus was coming. She reached her right hand up to brush her long hair out of her eyes. She wore one ring, a simple silver one. The traffic light changed about 15 seconds after we stopped and my friends and I went on our way. She never saw me, and I don’t believe my friends ever saw her. She wasn’t especially remarkable; she wasn’t a drop-dead beauty or a trafficstopping bombshell. Yet not a month has gone by in 31 years where I haven’t thought of that girl. As cinematographers, we keep a mental catalogue of these experiences to draw on as needed. They inspire our art and speak to the depth of our ability to understand how our circumstances affect our state of mind, how we find substance in our physical surroundings. And they create memories
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as vivid as something happening right now, moments we have deemed important in our lives, sometimes not knowing why. I have no doubt that someday I will be approached to film a scene that has the same ethereal quality of my encounter with that girl 31 years ago, and I will break down the technical components necessary to make it achievable and understandable to all the other craftspeople involved in creating motion pictures: the camera assistants who must order the proper lenses; the electricians who need to get the right lights; the grips who will need to rig the cranes; the assistant director who must schedule it at the right time of day; the art department who must have props in the proper color palette. In a virtual production, I will work with the computer artist to make the effect of that warmly speckled light look and feel just right, and I will design the composition to accentuate the elements that made that moment memorable. To the new generation of cinematographers, the next wave of image-makers, the future is wide open. Be less concerned with counting pixels and more concerned with having a life. Take a break from debates about
29 // 40 To the new generation of cinematographers… the future is wide open. Be less concerned with counting pixels and more concerned with having a life. how many “Ks” are necessary to have in a camera, and instead go do something you’ve always thought about doing but never made the time for. The tools will always evolve. The number of people involved in the process of creating moving images may increase or decrease. But the inspiration will always be yours. That’s what makes you a cinematographer. Michael Goi ASC President American Society Of Cinematographers
Which is better... film or digital? Richard P. Crudo ASC says that movies have never looked the same for very long, and that cinematographers must get used to the constant evolution of image-making technologies. You’d think that by this stage of the game everyone would have figured out the issue for themselves, but that would assume people are actually using their heads. Instead, the question keeps coming on like a runaway train. Which is better...film or digital? The other night I caught a screening of Michael Curtiz’s 1940 pirate spectacular, The Seahawk. Photographed in luminous black and white by Sol Polito ASC, it’s one of those great studio productions that were so common at the time: carefully crafted and lovingly mounted in every way. About halfway through something dawned on me that foresaw as the once-and-forall reply to the above-mentioned query. It doesn’t matter. No, I’m not throwing in the towel. I’m also not giving over the quest for perfection to an acceptance of the adequate. To any doubters, remember this: master cinematographers will always be able to deliver technically adept and artistically astute pictures, whatever the equipment they’re handed. But while this answer might sound
flip to those of us who have felt that way from the start, it’s worth looking into the reasoning behind it. Too many people, among them a number of cinematographers and close associates, forget that the path of the technology we use has always been a forward-marching one. Proof as it relates to The Seahawk is that movies have never looked the same for very long. What appeared to be bold and cutting-edge to audiences in 1940 would have been beyond their imagination in 1930. Accordingly, by 1950 Polito’s silvery display would have seemed hopelessly outdated to those very same people. The identical principle applies today except that too many of us continue to insist on confusing our tools for the results they deliver. Let me be straight. I was brought up as part of the final generation for whom film was the only viable choice. My sensibilities were formed under the tutelage of cinematographers who, in many cases, began their careers assisting the genuine pioneers of the industry. The tendency for most of us to prefer shooting
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International // Letters From America
on film (myself especially!) is natural. It’s also a matter of taste more than anything else. If any of us were born into a world in which images were exposed only through the bottom of a soda bottle, that’s what would have contributed most heavily to what we accept as the norm. Under the context of that moment, everything beyond would be perceived as either a threat or an opportunity. Certainly much of what has passed for progress in our world of late has been inferior to what stood before it. But speak for a moment with almost any young person – in the business or out of it – and you’ll once again be faced with the coldest of realities: things are always changing. Concerned about evolving technologies and the effect they’re having on what we do? Just remember that the huge flatscreen TV you have on the wall at home delivers a far different look than the black and white Magnavox your parents had sitting in the corner so many years ago.
Early in my career as a young assistant cameraman, I was paired up with an old pro who was on the precipice of retirement. You’d recognize his type in an instant - one of those gruff, hard-case New York City characters who have all but disappeared from the scene. At the end of a somewhat chilly first day he let his guard down a bit by addressing me directly for the first time. “Kid,” he said, “what you’re trying to do right now is like becoming a blacksmith when the automobile had just been invented.” There was no malice in his delivery but he had struck his point with regard to the inroads being made by video at that time. I can’t say I was troubled by it; I was so headstrong in my desire to learn cinematography that nothing could have deterred me from that course. What’s ironic is that today you can still hear traces of the same sentiment from a variety of sources, each of whom should have a more lucid grasp on what’s happening in our world.
Master cinematographers will always be able to deliver technically adept and artistically astute pictures, whatever the equipment they’re handed.
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Concerned about evolving technologies? The huge flatscreen TV you have on the wall delivers a far different look to the black and white Magnavox your parents had. This past September, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences held an event that examined a large number of the film formats that have been used since the invention of the medium. The first example shown was The Arrival Of A Train At La Ciotat, photographed by the Lumiere Brothers in 1895. Three hours later the evening closed in bookend fashion with the 2K projection of a 4K originated image of a sleek locomotive rolling lazily through the Arizona desert. A gasp was heard throughout the Goldwyn Theater when it lit up the screen, much as I’m sure a similar sound swept across the audience present with the Lumieres. As impressive as this most modern of technologies looked (even a Luddite would have to admit so), post-screening discussions with those in the know found a near-unanimous agreement that something was missing out there among the cactus and rattlesnakes. The bulletproof texture of the digital image – super, super sharp, and deeply saturated – was almost too much to take, as if an other-
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30 // 40 worldly hyper-reality had overtaken the genuine item. But this brief glimpse of the future couldn’t be blamed for its absence of heart or humanity. Those will come when the right context is introduced, and only when placed in the hands of an artist. Then, as the great baseball player Yogi Berra used to say, “It’ll be déjà vu all over again.” We will adjust and learn to bring our history and traditions and feelings to the new technology. More importantly, a fresh generation will mature with that standard as the only one they know. They’ll bend it, break it...indeed they will perfect it. And eventually, just as they think they’ve achieved the ultimate solution, something else will come along to push the game up the field even further, no doubt unsettling many of them in the process. So get used to it. Movies don’t look the same as they did at the time of The Seahawk in 1940. For God’s sake, they don’t look the way they used to in 2005! It’s funny about movie stars, though. Nobody looks like Errol Flynn anymore, but you never hear any complaints about that. Richard P. Crudo ASC
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11/11/2009 11:10
International // All Time Great
Nicolas Roeg CBE BSC
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Notable cinematographer and director Nicolas Jack Roeg was born in 1928 and got hooked on films from an early age. As a child he would often go to the cinema with his sister to see the latest offerings, sometimes staying in the cinema to see the film twice. “The cinema always appeared magical to me – it seemed so marvellously unusual,” he said. “The retention of the image is such an extraordinary thing which we take it so much for granted. It affects every single attitude we have towards life, to any sort of continuity of existence, the past and the future.” Roeg started in the business making tea for a small documentary studio in Marylebone, London. He then moved on to the cutting rooms at De Lane Lea in the capital’s Wardour Street. He worked with Gladys Brimpts, whose husband had started the ACT. He said in those days they dubbed French films into English. With Brimpts’ help he got a job at MGM Elstree in its camera department as a loader, where he met the great cinematographer Freddie Young. Roeg said that he had no idea about photography when he joined the camera department. He is quoted by the Guardian as saying: “It wasn’t through a love of photography, but rather through my love of film, and the telling of stories through film. Later I couldn’t think how anyone can become a director without learning the craft of cinematography.” He remained at MGM for two years, becoming a focus puller. He pointed out that there was no proper training back then. Film schools didn’t exist, you just learned as you went along. Roeg said: “I’ll never forget, working
for the late American cinematographer Joe Ruttenberg on The Miniver Story (1950). Ruttenberg had worked on The Philadelphia Story (1940) and Gigi. (1958) He probably taught me the biggest lesson of all about photographing a movie. He said, ‘Never forget Nic, you’re not trying to enter a photographic society with your work; you are trying to illustrate the story. It’s the scene that must be served. The movie is made through the cinematography.’ It’s quite a simple idea, but it was like a huge revelation to me.” He went through the ranks and became a director of photography, working on a number of memorable films. The late Alex Thomson BSC worked with him on a number of them as his camera operator. Films they collaborated on include Fahrenheit 451 (1966), Eureka (1984) and Lawrence Of Arabia (1962). Roeg won’t take any of the credit for Lawrence, giving the credit to Freddie Young. He said he was on the picture’s second unit for around three months. Total shooting took around eighteen months. Asked if there are any cinematographers he admires today he said: “There is a long answer to that question because there are so many I would hate to exclude. When I say so many, even when there are four or five, that is a lot. But there are more than that because of the amount of material being shot. There seem to be more films reviewed every week than ever before.” Roeg, who usually used the same crew, said he hasn’t got a favourite type of camera, sometimes using more than one make. On Eureka, for example, he used Arriflex and Mitchell.
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31 // 40 In 1968 he went on to direct. His debut film was Performance, which he shot and co-directed with the late Donald Cammell. The film, which was released in 1970, was shot with Arriflex cameras. Another film he shot and directed was Walkabout (1971). Asked which film took the longest to shoot as a cinematographer, he replied: “The longest shoot was Far From The Madding Crowd (1967), because it went through the seasons. It was very interesting and I enjoyed working with John Schlesinger very much.” Roeg has also directed for television. Films include Sweet Bird Of Youth (1989) and Heart Of Darkness (1993). Asked what he thought of today’s movies and does he think they are as good as films past, he said: “Oh yes, everything goes in phases. Things become original and then they become obvious and then normal and everyday. New young film makers bring new thoughts and attitudes, and the old attitudes take time in going away.” Roeg went on to direct a number of memorable films. Again, Alex Thomson worked with him on several of them, this time as director of photography. Roeg talked about one of his classics Don’t Look Now (1973) starring Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland. “Sutherland and Christie were great, they brought a certain truth to the piece. It was not a long shoot, it was quite confined. We did four or five days in England. We then had five or six weeks in Venice. It was difficult to move equipment in Venice; you have to go by canal. Logistically the film was very difficult. We shot in continuity and the film worked very well.” Other notable films include The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976), Bad Timing (1980) and Insignificance (1985). Speaking about the shoot, he said: “One doesn’t think in terms of time, one thinks in terms of life. The film may take six weeks to shoot but it’s not only that, there is the editing of it, so that is a very difficult question. Emotionally getting over a film can sometimes affect your life – putting your life in it.” Does he have any favourites and what does he think about the business today, including digital cinema? “No I don’t have favourites, they are all part of your life. Everything in the business is changing. The financing, the ability and availability, the
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The retention of the image is such an extraordinary… it affects every single attitude we have towards life, to any sort of continuity of existence, the past and the future. laboratory work, everything is changing. Technically things have changed because of digital. The one thing that does remain the same is the translation of the art on to film or chip. Digital is wonderful. My children’s grand children will probably say ‘why was it ever called film?’ I also admire the look of film today, it is wonderful.” He was awarded the CBE for services to the film industry and has won several awards for his work, including the Golden Palme at Cannes for Insignificance. Roeg has been working on Night Train. Shooting hasn’t started yet and he is reluctant to talk about it in case it doesn’t come to fruition. Anthony B. Richmond BSC is lined up to do the cinematography and Roeg’s son Luc is one of the producers. He said: “It’s possible we will shoot in digital and film, or we may just shoot digitally.” His last film Puffball was shot using film and digital cameras. Regarding 35mm he said: “Some films are still being shot with film, more out of remembrance of things past.” Roeg, who comes over as a deep thinker has had a life long passion for the movies and has no intention of putting away his director’s chair just yet. He said he wouldn’t know what to do if he retired. Roeg lives in West London with his third wife Harriet. Interview and article by David A Ellis Images: 01-03. Fahrenheit 451: (l-r) Reg Hall grip, Tony Richmond loader, Nic Roeg DP, Alex Thomson operator,
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and Kevin Desmond focus puller
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Feature // IBC Review
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Halls 7/11: Not as convenient as they should be Life is never simple, even though the intention is there. At this year’s International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam not all camera and associated hardware companies were in Hall 11 and some post-production manufacturers opted out of Hall 7 to be elsewhere. So apologies to those exhibitors but the focus of this round-up is Halls 7 and 11, which, to an extent, had an agenda set by the buzz around IBC as a whole. Report by Kevin Hilton. Stereoscopic was a central topic, with luminaries in the field out in force for D-Cinema Day during the conference programme, while the RAI’s screening theatre got a 3D workout showing Monsters vs. Aliens and 16-minutes from James Cameron’s much heralded Avatar. The means of shooting 3D movies was in evidence around Hall 11. P+S Technik showed three new systems; each is of a different size and designed for all cinematographers, not just specialist stereographers. The mid-sized mirror box works with cameras including the SI-2K, Red One and Sony HDW-750, plus lenses including DigiPrimes, ARRI UltraPrimes and Cooke. A bigger version for wideangle lenses was scheduled for autumn/ winter this year. Motorisation is available through Cmotion and Chrosziel lens control systems.
market. Matthews Studio Equipment had a roster of kit, including the Intel-a-Jib a modular system, extending to 10 feet in two minutes with no need for tools; the Red Dolly for crabbing and fast reverse angles; the Round-d-Round Doorway Dolly, with a 6 feet turning circle; aluminium billet Monitor Mounts; and the MAXine lighting stand. As shown by Monsters vs. Aliens, animation is a large area of 3D production and Mark Roberts Motion Control showed its recently launched S3 Stereoscopic
style, robust case. People still talk blithely about a “Steadicam”, overlooking the point that there are now several variations on the gimbal support introduced back in 1976. That number increased at IBC with the arrival of the Ultra2c, described as a “basic version” of the Ultra2, and the Archer 2. This last product has a 3.2-inch sled, which is based on a “pack and go” principle, currently patent pending, to reduce its size by over 30 percent.
Stepper Unit to demonstrate how one camera can be used to shoot stereoscopic stop-frame footage. After shooting the “left eye” the camera is slid into position to be the “right eye”, with motion control taking care of alignment. The S3 is designed as a cost-effective way of making 3D animations and is designed for DSLR cameras. MRMC also introduced the SFH-30 compact pan/ tilt head, which can hold cameras of up to 15kg. Operation is by a joystick, pan bars, hand wheels or wirelessly from a PDA or mobile phone option. Microdolly showed a new power pan/tilt head. The Model III moves the camera either using a clutch-driven cable drive or motors controlled remotely by a digital joystick. Able to support cameras up to 20kg in weight, the head is easily transportable and comes in an attaché
Lenses & filters
Images: 01. People watching a 3D screening at IBC 09 02. Microdolly Model III 03. Cooke lenses 04. 05. Cintel diTTo Evolution 06. Element Technica Mantis 07. Moyen module. The Binocle 3D rig as a mirror rig
Fujinon showed its PL-mount zoom lenses, which made their debut at NAB. The first in the series is the 18-85mm T2.0 (HK4.7x18F), with the range completed by further zooms, including the 14.5-45mm T2.0, 24-180mm T2.6, and 75-400mm T2.8-T4.0, which should all be on the market by December. Where there are lenses there are filters and Schneider Optics displayed diffusion models for film, DSLR and HD video shooting. Also on the stand were Century Pro Series HD lens accessories for leading 43mm front lens thread camcorders, including the Canon HV 40 and HF 11 and Sony’s HDC-TM300K and HDC-HS250K. Tiffen had its Digital HT multi-coated filters, along with the Dfxv2 software
Stereo
French company Binocle is challenging P+S’s dominance in Europe and displayed its three support systems: the Brigger I, II and III. These can be configured for either mirror or side-by-side operation, shoulder or Steadicam-mounted, and have motorised lens apertures. Binocle also produces software for monitoring images, including live correction and real-time control, and post-production tools to deal with misaligned pictures and disparities between left and right. “In 3D it is important to have control,” observed a spokesman. Element Technica is an American manufacturer with a continental sounding name and introduced a new range of stereoscopic rigs offering lighter weights and lower cost. The Technica 3D Series is based on a proprietary machined aluminium mounting that does not need any tools to attach the cameras or achieve alignment. The rigs can be either mirror or side-by-side and accommodate cameras from the SI-2K Mini to the Red One. The housings have integrated motors for controlling interocular and convergence settings. Element Technica also produces the Mantis handheld support and V-Dock accessory mounting, proof, showing that while 3D is the ‘Big Thing’ right now, single cameras still need to be supported, so traditional hardware still dominates the
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Lens technology continues to evolve and manufacturers add to their ranges to provide a full choice for cinematographers. Cooke Optics launched the 5/i prime range and gave a preview of the “affordable” Panchro. The 5/i is “a stop faster than the S4” and designed for low light shooting, for which it has a dimmable, illuminated focus ring and two individually toggled scales, one for the DP, the other for an assistant. The Panchro should be available by the end of the year and is PL-mounted for 35mm and digital cameras. “The S4 will continue to be for main shooting,” commented company chairman Les Zellan, “while the 5/i is for night work. The Panchro will appeal to low budget filmmakers, documentarians and big budget productions that need multiple cameras, a second unit or VFX work.”
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package, which offers over 2000 standard and special filtering effects. Also on the stand was the Lowel Blender, which allows blended colour to be matched with a mixed light source. Settings include tungsten or LED for daylight shooting and a combination of the two.
Lighting
LED lighting is now firmly established in film and was conspicuous around Hall 11. On the Gekko stand were the kelvin TILE for soft-light working and the full-production version of the kedo, claimed to be the “world’s first focusable single-source LEDbased spot lamp”. ARRI broadened its LED offering with the PAX Panel Kits. These come in two forms: PAX1 and PAX2 are designed for small sets, remote locations and working on
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the hoof. Also new were the Background Lighting Module (BLM), intended for cyclorama, screen and rear illuminated panels, and the LED Caster Series, which uses a tuneable white source and specially designed optical to produce single shadow rendering. Other new luminaires included the True Blue Daylight lamps and the M18, based on the Arrimax. There was big camera news from ARRI in the form of a line of 35mm format digital cameras. With the working name of Alexa, these work on CMOS sensors and are due to ship in the second quarter of next year. The lightweight cameras are designed for filmmaking and broadcasting, with an entry-level model up to a more fully featured version. It is understood that
ARRI now has a healthy-looking forward order book for its new cameras. ARRI occupies a sizeable presence in Hall 11 but with its post-production products it provides a link to Hall 7. The Arrilaser 2 is the next step in the development of the company’s film recorder, offering recording speeds of 0.9 sec./frame at 2K and 1.5 sec./frame in 4K. Also new is Relativity, a de-graining program that offers Texture Control, Film Simulation and SpaceTime Conversion.
Autodesk launched Lustre 2010 grading software and The Foundry tackled the problem of skew and wobble from CMOS cameras with its RollingShutter plug-in for After Effects and Nuke. Cintel extended the capabilities of its film scanning technology with diTTo evolution. Based on the diTTo scanner the new product has fast shuttling and a 3.2D range of density. Also new for IBC was the imageMill2 picture processor, which now has network and data file management capability. Cintel’s noise and film grain tool, Grace, is due for delivery later this year, together with Steady, an image stabiliser. There were new extensions for Quantel’s sQ server - Virtualisation, Open Identity Model and Web Services - and
an addition to the Pablo colour corrector. Cubebuilder allows 3D Look-up Tables (LUTs) to be created and used within Pablo without having to leave the program. Quantel has also been working with other manufacturers and announced that Red Rocket accelerator boards can now be plugged directly into Pablo, iQ and eQ systems. There is also integration between the sQ and the EVS XS server, controlled by IPDirector. That in itself was enough to get round in a few days, regardless of tracking down errant companies hiding in Halls 6 and 10. Perhaps everyone of interest to British Cinematographer readers will be together in just two locations next year - one can hope at least.
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Post production
In Hall 7 itself DVS demonstrated its new Venice video server and the Clipster DI workstation working in conjunction with Red and stereoscopic workflows,
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International // Imago 27 hours in Budapest Masterclasses invariably involve an act of generosity from master to pupil, the sharing of decades of experience with an unselfish spirit. The invitation to visit the Budapest Cinematography Masterclass for 27 hours was an experience to be treasured in my imaginary search for the perfect masterclass. An early morning hotel breakfast is not the usual time to encounter lively film students. The first to appear with the typical live-in look was Barbaros Gokdemir, the lone Turkish participant, who informed me that the most useful aspect in the previous three days had been the lectures. Lectures are harder to come by in developing film countries such as Turkey.
Visiting anywhere with Vilmos in Hungary is the nearest experience to being with royalty in England. On the bus journey to the magnificent Korda Studios the various advantages of this style of “hands on” masterclass, with lectures and analysis carefully choreographed, were to be revealed to me by various scholars and participants. Behind my front seat sat a young Russian couple, Anastasia Skorodumova and Yuri Korbeynikov. An instant rapport was established when I discovered their tutor in Moscow was Igor Klebanov RGC, president of the Russian society. Anastasia looked about 20 years old but informed me with pride she was the youngest professor of photography in her country. Vilmos later could not believe it! Two teams filmed each day on the eight sets under the supervision of their Hungarian “masters” Elemer Ragaly and Vilmos Zsigmond. Each of the eight scholars selected has a strict time allocated of 4 1/2 hours and a limited supply of film. These studio exercises are projected, discussed and analysed the next day. A new team then plans the following day’s shooting of one of the eight “fantasies of the little DP” stories, which had been scripted before the classes commenced. The director of the masterclasses for ten years, former actor Janos Xanthos, appeared on rushes dressed as a bear. This was a man who had clearly won the affection and goodwill of everyone. The inspiration for the day came from Elemer Ragaly HSC and Vilmos Zsigmond.ASC, the “masters” for the week. Over on set a young Englishman, Tom Sugden from Westminster Film School was leading his team, but experiencing the pressures of time on the Triumph Of The Painter. The previous day Deepu Unni (FTII) had impressed with a record number of set-ups in the time allocated to finish his film. His Akbar or even Clive Of India manner of directing left a lasting impression on his fellow scholars and participants, but he finished the task with acclaim. With healthy competition between young cinematographers from nineteen nations inevitable, there seemed to be a feeling that had bookmakers been involved India and Russia would have been front-runners with
Hungary rapidly closing. As beauty is in the eye of the beholder there were no official winners or losers to be declared. The previous day’s screening of No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo and Vilmos had made a profound impression on everyone. This “must see” experience for film lovers had evaded me at Camerimage and by one day in Budapest, so I had to wait a few weeks more before catching up with it at the BSC’s London showing. The DVD comes out next year and should be obligatory viewing for all Film Schools. The closing hours of my short time in Hungary were filled with an invitation from Vilmos to accompany him on a surprise visit to the set of The Eagle Of The Ninth where my friend Anthony Dod Mantle DFF BSC was involved in a night shoot. Visiting anywhere with Vilmos in Hungary is the nearest experience to being with royalty in England. To avoid confusing the young cinematographers the fact that Anthony was rating his stock at 2000ASA was not mentioned the next morning when my final few hours were spent viewing short films previously shot by the participants. The former NFTS student Sam Care’s contribution Kid impressed, but proved difficult to identify either as a long short or a short long! Rules are meant for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools and Sam bent them to his advantage All that remained afterwards was the group photo and the trip home. The generosity of spirit of the Hungarian cinematographers some twenty years ago in setting up this now famous biannual masterclass has been assisted by cinematographers from all over the world. It is a working example of international cooperation through friendship, which IMAGO is attempting to match. The sponsors who make it all possible financially should not be forgotten and neither should use of the stage facilities at the Korda Studios. The message with which the great Hungarian cinematographer Gyorgy Illes HSC inspired his students Vilmos Zsigmond and Tibor Vagyoczky was their responsibility to train the next generation, Well they are doing it!
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Nigel Walters BSC President IMAGO
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Images: 01. “I dont think they believed me when I told them I am shooting at 2000 ASA “- Anthony Dod-Mantle DFF BSC
Manaki.
with Imago President, Nigel Walters BSC and Vilmos
The 30th anniversary celebration of the Manaki Brothers Festival took place in its home town of Bitula, Macedonia, this year festooned in pink, a reminder of the appointment of its first female festival director, Labina Mitevska. The week was an outstanding success for film lovers and organisers. IMAGO celebrated this special occasion by holding a “masterclass with London-born cinematographers Peter Suschitzky ASC and Billy Williams OBE BSC. A packed audience was generous in its appreciation of these two cinematographers, both of whom were presented with lifetime achievement awards, elegant miniatures of the original camera a Bioscope no300 manufactured the Urban Trading Company of London and Paris. The actual camera, bought in London in 1905 by the brother Yanaki, and used to shoot the first documentary in the Balkans, was viewed by Billy Williams who recalled that his father would have used a similar
03. Manaki. Celebrating 30 years of Cinematography
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Zsigmond ASC. 02. The Budapest Master Class 2009 at the Korda Studios in Bitula 04. Billy Williams CBE BSC with statue to Milton Manaki 05. Billy with original Bioscope No 300 06. Thre three RA’s of the French Association. Richard Andry, speaking, Robert Alazraki, on screen with... 07. The recipient of the Imago Tribute of 2009, Ricardo 05.
Aronovich AFC, ADF and ABC
06.
07.
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camera when he began his career. Earlier in the festival another British cinematographer, Anthony Dod Mantle DFF BSC, was given a special Golden Camera 300 for his outstanding contribution to the film art. Also receiving an award for her outstanding contribution to world cinema was Spanish actress Victoria Abril. The jury, chaired by Peter Suschitsky, also included Russian cinematographer Yuri Klimenkon, Serbian director Slobodan Sijan, and academic Minas Balalchev. They viewed twelve films in competition before finally awarding the Golden Camera to Natasha Braier for her cinematography on The Milk of Sorrow/La Teta Asustada, a Spanish/Peruvian co-production. They described her work as a courageous and original point of view. Tom Stern AFC ASC won the Silver Camera for his “very accomplished work on Tsar”, a Russian production and the bronze was awarded to Stephane Fountaine for his “skill with the visual tone of The Prophet”. The audience Award went to Gigante with its young Uruguayan cinematographer, Arauco Hernandez-Holz, a film which had already notched several European prizes. The official programme selector was the artistic director, Blagoja Kunovski.
Is the imposing statue of Milton Manaki, standing with his camera 300 outside the Cultural Centre the only one in the world to commemorate a cinematographer? The festival has been revitalised. The Macedonian film authorities are raising funds to build a new cinema in Bitula where the first one in the Balkans was started by the Manaki Brothers in 1921. Is the imposing statue of Milton Manaki, standing with his camera 300 outside the Cultural Centre the only one in the world to commemorate a cinematographer? Answers to this question would be appreciated. At the closing ceremony, the delight of the audience that the festival had been restored to Bitula, was demonstrated by the applause for a speaker who mentioned his admiration for courage and determination for its citizens who had demonstrated in pouring rain at the previous years’ festival closing in Skopje. The Award to Billy Williams was presented by the President of Macedonia, Dr Gjorge Ivanov. People power had seen the 2009 festival return to its home: to where visitors from many lands are able to enjoy the kindnesss and hospitality of the people of Macedonia, along with the sixty films and a variety of other events to help the appreciation of film. The IMAGO Tribute was presented to the festival director, Labina Mitevska, to commemorate thirty years of contribution by the Manaki Brothers Festival in furthering an understanding of the art of cinematography. IMAGO would like to express its thanks for the selfless assistance of Gwyn Evans, colourist at the Hat Factory and Torquil Dearden, editor, in the preparation of the film reels for Peter Suschitsky and Billy Williams.
eDIT The second cinematographer to be awarded the IMAGO tribute by his peers was Ricardo Aronovich AFC ADF ABC. Ricardo, responsible for many films in Europe and South America (Missing), is also known as “Mr 5.6” due to his research and writing on the optimum stop for lenses. He was amazed to see the IMAGO trophy in the form of a Spectra Meter was pointing (by complete co-incidence) to 5.6. This tribute was bestowed by fellow cinematographers in respect and admiration of his contribution to the cinematographic art over many decades. The Cultural Minister for Hessen, Eva Kuhne-Hormann, presented the IMAGO Tribute in Frankfurt where IMAGO has concluded a successful second year of collaboration with the 12th eDIT Filmmakers Festival. The AFC provided a distinctive contribution to events with Philippe Ros and Luc Drion entertaining with an insight into their remarkable cinematography on the film Oceans that will launch in Europe in 2010. Above the sea shot on 35mm, below High Definition. A French AFC threesome, by another co-incidence also three RA’s, Ricardo Aronovich, Richard Andry and Robert Alazraki, gave a distinctive and quirky Gallic exposition of “day-for-night” with illustrations and contradictions to match. Other IMAGO cinematography events included Wallace And Gromit, introduced by animation cinematographer Dave Alex Riddett and Tom Barnes, head of camera at Aardman. Ricardo Aronovich was interviewed by Peter Twiehaus prior to the screening of his film Klimt, Louis-Philippe Capelle SBC gave an illustrated talk on his recent experiences of shooting the feature Dictator in Iraq, and his fellow Belgian Kommer Kleijn SBC gave an update on the latest technical specification in digital imagery. The BSC Evaluation road show was hosted by Sue Gibson BSC and Gavin Finney BSC and supported by the colourist responsible for the final image Gwyn Evans of the Hat Factory in London. IMAGO would like to express its appreciation to the eDIT organisers for their continuing support by giving cinematographers a platform to entertain and inform in Frankfurt.
societies seeking a way forward in ensuring payment for those rights. In Germany Jost Vacano BvK is fighting for the right of the cinematographer to examine the accounts of the production company responsible for his acclaimed film Das Boot. The first legal hurdle has been overcome. This is not for a share of the profits, which may be manipulated at will, but for a share of the revenues gained from the exploitation of the film. The BVK, the German Society of Cinematographers has drawn up a document, which includes suggestions about the cinematographers’ share of the revenues deriving from the exploitation of the audiovisual work. This proposal has been presented to the Producers Alliance and discussions will hopefully soon be underway leading to a ruling under German law. The Italians are expecting the outcome of an important court case in the new year
European societies are in something of a mess... progress is being made, but is slow and fragmented. and Vittorio Storaro AIC ASC will have updated their latest position at the IMAGO Seville Conference on authors’ rights held earlier in November. British cinematographers appear happy to receive their benefits from other countries and have not reported any lobbying to improve the position in the United Kingdom. The French are reluctant to upset their established arrangements. Their cinematographers can sign a participation
contract granting them a slice of any profits. The Scandinavians have as ideal a situation as exists in Europe. The Russians and several other countries in the former Soviet Block report a deteriorating remuneration since they achieved their autonomy. The Bulgarians have full rights; the Romanians, thanks to Caucescau, no longer have any rights. In short European societies are in something of a mess. Progress is being made, but is slow and fragmented. Time is running out for the fight to retain the cinematographers control of the image after principle shooting has taken place. IMAGO is suggesting a way forward would be to encourage those countries that have already granted rights to cinematographers (eleven in Europe), to expand that contractual obligation to include the grading period and the right to attendance at the DI. This is the area under most threat and of the greatest universal concern to cinematographers. Enshrined in the IMAGO Model Contract is a clause that the cinematographer is responsible for any kind of image control, participating in optical work, digital effects, colour grading, digital postproduction, film of digital colour timing including scanning for master and DVD. In general all kinds of postproduction work relating to the photographic image. The findings and recommendations from the Seville Conference will be presented at Camerimage for further discussion, which will eventually lead to later analysis at the EU.XXL Forum in Vienna next spring. From there recommendations are taken to the European Union for further discussion.
Les droits des auteurs The fundamental issues of concern to cinematographers worldwide is how to retain control of the image for which they are responsible after it has been captured in camera, and how to participate in the income made by exploitation of the cinematographic or audiovisual work, besides earning the production fees. In many European countries the rights of cinematographers to be regarded legally as co-authors of the cinematographic or audiovisual work have been granted. In Spain the cinematographer is now regarded as co-author of the film by the new Spanish cinema law. The AEC is justifiably proud of its part in the establishment of a new commission to study intellectual property rights. Negotiations are taking place between the president of the AEC, Porfirio Enriques, and the Spanish collecting
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THE CHAIRMAN SPEAKS.
Belonging... I began to write this as I waited in a lay-by near Nottingham for the AA to fix my car. I was on my way North for a day’s work and the old jalopy decided to get all steamed up. Not surprising when we are all expected to arrive on location as if by Tardis (i.e without it taking any time and at no cost!). Have a look around the car park next time you arrive on location and try to spot a car that’s less than about 7 years old. I bet you don’t see many. Anyhow, I digress. No more whinging please, we’re British! I had just been to a memorial service in Chobham commemorating the life and work of Peter Newbrook BSC who was a colleague of my father’s when they were in the Army Kinematograph Service.at Wembley Studios in 1945. A mere 64 years ago! How nice it was to see so many friends and colleagues of Peter’s paying tribute to his character both professionally and personally. He was a wonderful man by ALL accounts. And it made me think how good it is that we have societies such as the BSC and the GBCT. The simple notion of “Belonging” to our Societies is a very basic human need. To have the opportunity to be among and to be able to easily communicate with, our friends and colleagues - especially when times get tough and we need a shoulder or a helping hand. Both Frances Russell and Dee Edwards have been wonderful recently in helping to rally the troops for the support of colleagues and I would like to take this opportunity on all our behalves to thank them for their precious time and humanity at all hours. Good luck to you all on the work front. It’s seemingly very thin on the ground right now, and I‘m getting rather bored of being told that the DOP will be operating himself. Oh sorry, I did say no more whinging, didn’t I? Maybe see you at Camerimage ‘til then, all the best, Jamie Harcourt GBCT Chairman
36 // 40 Do You Really Need A Loader? The issue of whether to hire a loader or not was raised some years ago as digital shooting came into prominence. Along with this came the idea that raw stock and processing apart, shooting digitally was going to be considerably cheaper than film because everything was going to be shot in half the time and less crew were required to achieve this. The GBCT Board realized that in this ‘digital’ shooting context, the generic term ‘loader’ offered a trap of its own making: the mistaken ‘no film, no loader’ concept and that the term should be dropped in favour of reverting to the job title of ‘Second Assistant Camera’. The Board put out a notice to all interested parties – BECTU, Pact and the trade directories, asking them to co-operate by listing focus pullers as 1AC’s and loaders as 2AC’s. Thus we hoped that the new (in fact old) terms would become standard and to a large degree they have. It is again time to remind people that a 2AC’s work is totally different to that of a DIT. Those asking the question of whether you still need a ‘loader’ on a digital shoot if you are also employing a DIT technician are only displaying their ignorance of the differing roles and responsibilities of the working camera crew. It matters not a whit if loaders deal in rolls of film or tape or hard-drives because, though the safe handling of the latter is of supreme importance, that handling forms almost the least part of their jobs. Fully trained 2ACs – second-assistants, loaders, clapper-boys/girls, whatever you want to call them – have full-time responsibilities on the crew in which they are expected to fully function in and supervise the following: • Guaranteeing there is always enough recording material – digital or film – on the camera/s or standing-by, or on order, at all times during the shoot, be it a day, a month or several. • Directly assisting the 1AC in lens changing, matte-box selection, filter mounting, and flagging lights. • Helping the grip to modify the dolly setup or positioning; cable running, video/ monitor function and placement. • Loading equipment onto or off the camera car; moving camera gear on set-up changes, getting distant lenses and other equipment off the camera car or camera trolley when needed. • Setting up zoom-controls, remote focus and their cabling. Charging and supervising battery use. • Ordering and stock-listing all negative or recording stock. • On line-ups, accurately marking the actors’ feet and marking zoom positions on the control units. • Operating the zoom-lens on rehearsals and shooting, as specified by the operator. • Controlling the rise-and-fall on the dollyarm on rehearsals and shooting when required by the operator. • Marking-up and inserting the clapperboard. • Logging all scenes and takes and marking selected ‘prints’; giving camera notes to script supervisors. • Making out detailed negative-report sheets or tape cassette/hard-drive logs
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going to be working exclusively for the DoP and the Director and will have his work cut out for him monitoring the image during the lighting, rehearsal and shooting periods, i.e, every minute of every day. He will not and cannot do what a ‘loader’ has to do, and it is naïve to even think so.
and ensuring the exposed/recorded material is clearly labeled, stored and packed securely before it goes off to the labs or post-house. • Liaising daily with the labs/post-house for the DoP. • Completely preparing and setting-up a 2nd camera for shooting. • Act as 2AC on BOTH cameras AND 1AC on 2nd camera, if additional crew is not brought in. In addition to all this – none of which is even slightly exaggerated – they have to organize refreshments and run minor errands for the crew who cannot get away while they are working. Often 2ACs can’t even do that because they are simply run off their feet and cannot themselves get away. When a producer asks if you can drop the 2AC off your crew, ask him if he really has enough money in the pot to be able to afford this. The job of 2AC, though sometimes and mistakenly thought to be of junior rank or experience, is of enormous importance. Well-trained 2ACs are indispensable. The best of them are worth their weight in tax-breaks and save a producer a significant amount of time/money by being multi-talented at multi-tasking. On a busy shoot, the lack of a full camera crew is guaranteed to cost a producer hours of the shooting day and contribute to a noticeable drop in screen quality. ‘Loader’* is a serious misnomer for these camera technicians, because actual loading forms only the smallest part of their jobs. It shows the parlous state of our industry when all this has to be pointed out to some producers who should make it their business know what their crews actually do in order to get the job done efficiently, economically and quickly. Of course, you can make movies with less crew. You can erase even more expenditure from the written budget by dropping off the loader and the camera operator; and if you are willing to shoot everything off a tripod, you can dump the grip, too. However, you rarely see such films in the cinema because they never get a release. Some major television channels even started a trend of cutting out camera crews altogether. They built rigs to hold camcorders for strapping to the shoulders of ‘writer/reporters’ – quickly ‘trained’ into a cameramen/directors – and sent them out all over the Third World doing cultural pieces to camera. These pieces were so boring to look at that the channels seem to have dropped this monumentally stupid idea. Imposing the false economy of cutting crew to save production expense is the act of an untutored amateur or, at least, a truly aged-in-the-wood bean-counter. If producers want to finish their films in, or even under, the scheduled and budgeted parameters which they themselves have set, then they must employ the people to do it. There is an elementary truth about filmed drama: If you want to work fast and efficiently and to the best achievable quality standards, then you have to have more people, not less. Quality and economy has to be bought. It doesn’t happen simply by having one or two established names on the credits. It has to be bought by applying an equation: Time + money + equipment + manpower + ability x experience Thus, the first way to save a great deal of production expense is to call in a producer who fully understands the filmmaking process. Going back to the issue of 2AC vs. DITs. The most telling point of all - if a ‘DIT man’ is employed on a digital shoot, he is
The UK is the only country in the world to introduce a set of skills based qualifications specifically aimed at industry professionals to further their careers The GBCT’s motto for the past 30-odd years has been “The Care, Quality and Commitment to Cinematography….”. It’s therefore not surprising that several Guild Members are part of specialist groups that - working alongside Skillset[1] - are developing a variety of qualifications and standards for the industry, aimed at skilled professionals to further their careers. The success of the Grips and Crane Technicians National Vocational Qualifications awarded by City & Guilds means that properly qualified technicians are now the accepted norm on productions. “If you’re using a certain type of crane, you must have a Level 2 Crane Technician, a Level 2 Grip and an Advanced Level 3 Key Grip in charge – and preferably a trainee as well so they can learn. Depending on the type of shot you are after, that has to be the absolute minimum number of personnel you use. This is the sensible thing to do – not just for health and safety reasons but for the shot itself – you get it done far more quickly and efficiently. Experienced producers realize this and not only health and safety inspectors are aware of it but insurance companies have cottoned onto this ‘safe, sure, cost effective and quick’ approach”, says GBCT Member Dennis Fraser MBE, the driving force behind the qualifications. Building on that success, two separate groups of Script Supervisors and 1ACs have been working on three Diplomas aimed at Continuity/Script Supervisors, Focus Pullers (1ACs) and Clapper Loaders (2ACs). Two of the Diplomas have very recently been validated and will be academically and vocationally managed by the Skillset Screen Academy at the Ealing Institute of Media (EIM); the third is currently going through the final stages of verification. The Level 2 Diploma is for Clapper Loaders (2ACs) and the Level 3 Diploma is for Focus Pullers (1ACs). The Continuity/ Script Supervisors qualification is one that will encompass feature film and television drama. And as with other film and tv industry qualifications these Diplomas involve being observed and assessed at work in order that people are able to demonstrate their knowledge and practical competence. This is done by collecting ‘evidence’ (that you do have experience) to build your portfolio of work (call sheets, shooting schedules, unit lists that list your name in a particular role etc) so that it can be checked by your assessor when they are observing you do a certain job. Once a person has successfully completed the work involved in gaining their
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Mike Fox, Camera Operator Associate BSC and one of the 4 Founder Members of the GBCT
Standards, Qualifications And Diplomas
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Next Issue.
Coming soon, the next issue of British Cinematographer... Special Focus
––– The BSC at 60! Celebrating a diamond, with a timeline of events in the society’s history
Camera Creative
––– Vilmos Zsigmond on shooting with Woody Allen
Close Ups
––– Piranha’s in 3D stereo & The Prisoner
Gaffers Of The World Unite
––– New section where gaffers speak!
Also available online at www.thecinematographer.info The completely re-designed Issue 37 of British Cinematographer coming soon...
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qualification and are then subsequently assessed, they will gain a Skillset Skills Passport to evidence their achievement and receive a University of the Arts London awarding body Diploma. Further information about the Diplomas for 1ACs, 2ACs and Script Supervisors can be obtained via Skillset’s website (www.skillset.org), the Ealing Institute of Media Skillset Screen Academy Office (Email: kulvinder.madahar@wlc.ac.uk) or by contacting the GBCT (Email: info@gbct.org). But all this is only building on, improving and adding to, the Skillset Standards that already exist. In parallel with the work being done in the Camera Department, Skillset is discussing various solutions regarding qualifications with (amongst others) Hair & Make-Up, Costume/Wardrobe, Sound and the Special Effects departments. Any info updates will be posted onto Skillset’s website in due course.
A D.I.T By Any Other Name The GBCT has been researching the new grades being used with HD cameras. This research has shown that two new functions have developed ad hoc and the name Digital Imaging Technician (DIT) has been applied to both of them. The high level function brings some of the skills and insight of a colourist on to the set combined with an expertise in the manipulation of the chosen HD system. These technicians have a name that derives from their use in the USA - the Digital Imaging Technician (DIT) – which has been established by usage and more formally by IASTE. The job description drawn up by the German Society of Cinematographers and adopted by IMAGO (once it has some of the downloader functions removed from it) confirms the spread of the usage of the name “DIT” across Europe. Thus, it would be foolish to stand Knut-like in front of this progress. Which bring us to the vexing question what should we call the other (downloader) function? The feedback from across the camera department has been universal – ‘DIT’ is not the right name. Irrespective of the confusion this engenders with the more senior function of the same name, everyone felt it to be inappropriate. No clear consensus could be gathered from the feedback, but the front runners were “Digital Technician”, “Central Downloader”, “Digital Data Technician”, “On Set Digital Technician” and “Digital Film Technician”. The term “Data Wrangler” has also been used to refer to this function, but is problematic as it can also used for a post production function. Some of these names have merit and it will be important that the name adequately describes the full nature of the grade. Another factor in the decisions to be made – in the UK - is the tax status implications of the name we choose. Words like “assistant”, “loader” and “wrangler” have implications of employee status rather than those of a self-employed worker and thus should be avoided. The BSC has been consulted and discussions have also taken place with Skillset and the Camera Department Branch of BECTU to clearly define the job descriptions for these grades. Thought and work continues…
38 // 40 GBCT WHOSE CREW IS THIS! PRODUC -TIONS & STILLS RTS award winning Director of Photography NICK DANCE GBCT is currently shooting the fourth series of SKINS for Channel 4. Having successfully shot the mystical series BO AND THE SPIRIT WORLD, DoP, MIKE SPRAGG, GBCT will not be at Camerimage this year as he is shooting the remake of BOUQUET OF BARBED WIRE with a team that includes all Guild members – Camera Operator, 1AC, 2AC and Grip - until 20 December for Mammoth Productions and ITV. DoP, DENIS BORROW, GBCT continues to work (in nice weather) with Piers Morgan in Marbella, Las Vegas and Shanghai for Splash Media and ITV. Having worked on LEGACY with DoP Jonathan Harvey, Steadicam Operator MIKE SCOTT, GBCT has recently been in Tripoli covering Libya’s 40 year celebrations. Having completed work on POIROT with DoP PETER GREENHALGH, GBCT, Focus Puller, DERMOT HICKEY, GBCT and GBCT Camera Trainee TOMMY HOLMAN are now working on the ITV series MISS MARPLE with DoP CINDERS FORSHAW. The feature film YOUR HIGHNESS completed shooting in Northern Ireland in October with a crew that comprised many Guild members including Camera Operator
04. 01. Camera Crew on the “Skins 4” shoot using the 01.
Chapman Trike Electric Tracking Vehicle for cycling shots. L-R 2AC Ben Massey, 2nd Camera Operator Rob Macgregor, 1AC Andrew “Wiggy” Wiggins, Director of Photography Nick Dance GBCT and Grip Matt Budd 02. CREW AT WORK: “NANNY McPHEE 2” It’s such a Glamorous Job - someone’s got to do it! Left to right. Philip Sindall (A cam Op, GBCT), Russell Diamond (A cam Grip), Matt Poynter (A cam 1st AC, GBCT), Mike Eley (DOP) 03. The camera crew of “CHASING COTARDS” - a short film shot on the Vista Vision ‘Elephant Ear’
02.
camera for IMAX presentation. Back Row: David Lewis - Electrician, Carolina Schmidt Holstein - Gaffer, GBCT CAMERA TRAINEE - NIALL CULLINANE, DoP - STEVE
GERRY VASBENTER, GBCT and Associate BSC, Key Grip RUPERT LLOYD PARRY GBCT and on 2nd Unit 1AC JULIAN BUCKNALL GBCT, Grip IAN BUCKLEY GBCT amongst others. DoP ROBERT SHACKLADY GBCT has been grading the movie “Life Goes On”, shooting commercials and lighting an avant gard piece for top fashion Designer, Jasmine DeMilo. First Assistant Camera HILDA SEALY GBCT has just finished working on the feature “Swinging With The Finkels”, directed by Jonathan Newman, DP Dirk Nel, 2AC Ruth Woodside and on 2nd Unit Operator ZAC NICHOLSON GBCT, 1AC NATHAN MANN GBCT and GBCT Camera Trainee CHRIS NUNN shot on the Sony F35 from Take 2 Films.
BROOKE SMITH GBCT, James Ray - Grip. Middle Row:
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Liz Calvert - Best Boy, Camera Operator - SHIRLEY SCHUMACHER GBCT, Andy Bowman - Vista Vision Technical Supervisor. Bottom Row: Ed Dark - Director; GBCT CAMERA TRAINEE - ANGEL VAN DEN AKKER 04. Left to Right. Ian Adrian (B cam Op), Russell Ferguson (B cam 1st AC), Emma Edwards (B cam 2nd AC, GBCT) (NANNY McPHEE 2)
Tim Potter, Focus Puller GBCT Vice-Chair
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