Canadian Cinematographer Magazine March 2022

VOL. 14 NO. 2

MAR 2022 ISSUE

canadian society of cinematographers

4.5K

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British

Columbia:

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MAID

with Guy Godfree csc, Vincent De Paula csc, Quyen Tran asc and Robert Popkin C’EST COMME ÇA QUE JE T’AIME with Barry Russell

WAKE with Liam Higgins

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CANADIAN CINEMATOGRAPHER | MARCH 2022

By Fanen Chiahemen

VINTAGE MEDLEY bilingual article english and french

With Liam Higgins (associate member)

table of contents

MAR 2022 ISSUE VOL. 14 NO. 2

P12

P06

AFTER THE STORM

EN FR

With Barry Russell (associate member) By Fanen Chiahemen

P22

IN CONVERSATION: MAID

P36

P42

PLOUGHING NEW TERRAIN

PAINTED LANDSCAPES

With Gordon Verheul csc and Stephen Maier (associate member) By Trevor Hogg, Special to Canadian Cinematographer

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CSC MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: Nathalie Moliavko-Vizotsky csc

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ON SET GALLERY

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THE CSC INSIGHT SERIES

With Aaron Bernakevitch (associate member) By Fanen Chiahemen

Cover: Margaret Qualley as Alex in Maid.

With Guy Godfree csc, Vincent De Paula csc, Quyen Tran asc and Robert Popkin

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Fostering cinematography in Canada since 1957. The Canadian Society of Cinematographers was founded by a group of Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa cinematographers. Since then over 800 cinematographers and people in associated occupations have joined the organization.

The CSC provides tangible recognition of the common bonds that link film and digital professionals, from the aspiring student and camera assistant to the news veteran and senior director of photography. We facilitate the dissemination and exchange of technical information and endeavor to advance the knowledge and status of our members within the industry. As an organization

dedicated to furthering technical assistance, we maintain contact with nonpartisan groups in our industry but have no political or union affiliation.

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The CSC is a not-for-profit organization run by volunteer board members of the society. Thank you to our sponsors for their continued support.

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CANADIAN CINEMATOGRAPHER MARCH 2022 VOL. 14, NO. 2 EDITORIAL BOARD FANEN CHIAHEMEN, Editor-in-Chief, editor@csc.ca CLAUDINE SAUVÉ CSC, Art Director JO ENAJE, Design and illustration SIMON EVERS, Graphic Designer PATTY GUYADER, Copy Editor GEORGE WILLIS CSC, SASC SUSAN SARANCHUK, susans@csc.ca C SC BOA R D O F D I R E CTO RS Guy Godfree csc, Chair Jeremy Benning csc Zoe Dirse csc Rion Gonzales Christina Ienna Alex Sandahl CPA Claudine Sauvé csc George Willis csc, sasc Martin Wojtunik

Canadian Cinematographer makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information it publishes; however, it cannot be held responsible for any consequences arising from errors or omissions. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the express written consent of the publisher.

The opinions expressed within the magazine are those of the authors and not necessarily of the publisher. Upon publication, Canadian Cinematographer acquires Canadian Serial Rights;

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CSC EXECUTIVE PRESIDENT George Willis CSC, SASC PAST PRESIDENT, ADVISOR Joan Hutton CSC VICE PRESIDENTS Philip Lanyon CSC Bruno Philip CSC Penny Watier MEMBERSHIP CHAIRS Arthur Cooper CSC Zoe Dirse CSC EDUCATION CHAIRS George Willis CSC, SASC Martin Wojtunik AWARDS CHAIR Arthur Cooper CSC DIVERSITY CHAIR Rion Gonzales

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CANADIAN CINEMATOGRAPHER | MARCH 2022

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STOP CHASING THE SUN. START CREATING IT.

VIRTUAL PRODUCTION EDWARD HANRAHAN | ehanrahan@whites.com Director, Virtual Production

© 2022 Pixomondo LLC

© 2022 William F. White International Inc. 05

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CANADIAN CINEMATOGRAPHER | MARCH 2022

ARRI

235

3-Perf

16:9

ISO

250D

+

500T

180º

24fps

Leica

Summilux-C

wake

Storm After the

by Fanen Chiah emen

T

he short film Wake, written by associate member Liam Higgins and directed by Martin Klapperbein, portrays a man experiencing grief after losing his wife and unborn child. Completed in collaboration with Last Frame Pictures and ambient artist Alaskan Tapes, the seven-minute film explores themes of grief, loss and mental health and aims to showcase vulnerability as a strength. Higgins, who also shot the film, talks to Canadian Cinematographer about his process and transforming pain into art.

Toronto,

Ontario:

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39'

3.8520''

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79°

20'

49.2540''

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Canadian Cinematographer: What inspired you to write this film?

Liam Higgins: My inspiration mainly stemmed from personal experiences dealing with large amounts of grief over a particularly reflective period in my life. I lost my father and my stepfather at a very fragile, adolescent age and because of that, I went through a large period of reflection about how I was handling the grief and what loss meant to me. I feel like those experiences and my development of understanding grief and loss gave me a unique perspective about the topics. I really wanted to share openly with people that honesty and vulnerability are a strength that we can use to open up to learning something about ourselves, and how we can say goodbye to our loved ones without letting go. It can be a really peaceful and un-destructive catharsis if you trust in the healing process.

at times it was moving to take the audience with our protagonist. The most important parts were showcasing space, keeping that calm meditative nature of the story in check, and feeling isolated with our character. Every single frame was composed with the idea of reflecting our protagonist’s state of mind. Whether he was feeling small against a massive landscape, feeling in his head, or detailing the focus of his struggle. Whether we were with him in a closeup or far away in a wide, every single frame was considered with detail how it would bring us back to the theme or our character’s own personal development.

CC: What was the visual tone you set out to achieve?

LH: The choice to shoot 35 mm 3-perf on the ARRI 235 and Leica Summilux-C’s came from a few main places. I wanted to portray true-tolife imagery and take advantage of the speed of our lenses to lean into heavy amounts of depth in the image while not needing to light a whole lot.

I really wanted to focus on keeping the film’s look as natural as possible while leaning into the darkness that our spaces offered. A lot of the images we took inspiration from came from photographers like Gruyaert and Alex Webb, whose early work was shot using Leica glass. Going back to the sense of naturalism we wanted for this, a lot of Webb’s work shot in Haiti and Mexico was done using either natural light or lights that were present during the taking of the image, and we wanted to stay true to that inspiration as we felt it made sense for our story. This wouldn’t have been possible without Keslow Camera. They were generous enough to provide us with everything we needed and understood how important this story was to us. The rich, deep contrast and saturation provided by our film was a huge part of the selection process for shooting on film. There was a certain depth and character to the quality of 35 mm that had to be present in this film. It creates a certain beautiful nuance I don’t think digital offers.

I had motivations to bring the colour to life in a way that maintained a naturalistic approach while keeping a deep consistent contrast from image to image without losing any detail. I had many in-depth conversations with our colourist Clinton Homuth from Artjail even before we went to camera.

This whole project wouldn’t have been possible without Clinton. I feel he’s a master of fine-tuning that painterly approach to images that feel grounded in reality.

LH: Calm, meditative and surrealist. While a lot of our visuals are inspired by the real-world scenario of someone’s loss, we introduce a darker, more introspective approach that augments reality a little bit for our main character. My goal with the visuals was to place ourselves in a bit of a solipsistic version of the space – the way in which our main character perceives his reality, which is oftentimes crumbling around us when we’re dealing with and experiencing grief. As we move towards his realizations, his experiences become more beautiful and hopeful, and that becomes translated back into his mental state when coming back to reality. Some of my inspirations were photographers like Harry Gruyaert, Gregory Crewdson and filmmakers like Andrei Tarkovsky. Their work helped paint the dark, meditative approach to the imagery and keep things understated, not to overwhelm the viewer but sit in stillness with our protagonist.

CC: How did you capture the feeling of grief visually?

LH: My hope was to create something that had an advantageous perspective that was still grounded in a harsh truth. The reality we’re faced with is as much a challenge as it is an opportunity for a lesson. That was sort of my own realization of grief – there’s always a silver lining in the worst of situations. Dealing with loss is transparently never easy, but at the very least, we can learn to move through that experience coming out on the other side as more appreciative, understanding and humbled by the pain we feel; I think that’s a net positive. I wanted to make sure people understood that message as clearly as they could. You can’t create diamonds without pressure, and as it continues to manifest within us, finding peace among the chaos is a crucial part of maturing.

CC: What techniques did you use to help the viewer identify with the protagonist?

LH: The dark, naturalistic nature of the visuals was implemented with the intent of creating a sense of rawness and truthfulness. Rarely did we augment scenes with lighting, over-light for no good reason, or take away from feeling like we were a part of the world. The rich colours of nature, the brooding storm at the end, and the angelic moments that we aimed to convey needed to be grounded in truth. For this, it was keeping the camera still to allow the audience to remain frozen in time with our character, and 08

CANADIAN CINEMATOGRAPHER | MARCH 2022

CC: What did you prioritize in your gear selection?

CC: Talk about lighting the scene in the church – how did the presence of stained-glass windows play into your approach?

LH: The lighting in the church was all natural with the exception of one Litemat in our closeup shot. Everything else was just waiting for the sun to peer in at the right time. I felt there was something truthful and holy about that. I knew from the beginning of scouting the church locations that it would have to have that natural light present in order to properly convey the feeling I wanted to. The moment the sun came out during one of the takes, we knew we made the right decision to trust our instinct.

CC: Closeups of the main actor are obviously essential to heightening the emotion in the film. How did the makeup on him affect your lighting and the tone of the image?

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LH: For the makeup department, we wanted to have our main character Michael Wamara screen ready, but also leave space for the subtle imperfections of someone who would feel weathered by pain and neglect.

Our makeup artist Irene Brotto made sure not to go too overboard and it really reflected in keeping things more real. I think the biggest collaborator for myself and the director on this project was our production designer Frances Santiago. Her work packs a punch and the specific feelings we wanted to give to the space were crucial to the items she ended up sourcing. What we collaborated on ended up giving significantly more depth to the story and the images. We felt the props gave us more detail of who our protagonist was. Each insert was treated as its own tableau and gave us the desired effect of creating visual motifs throughout the story.

CC: What is the significance of water in the film?

LH: One of the main reasons water plays a significant role in the film is because it’s representative of both life and death, but also flow. During the process of writing this film and up to this day, meditation is a huge part of my daily practice. Water represents this film in a lot of ways. Wake means the emergence from sleep, which is where our film starts. Wake is also another word for determining the stillness or movement of waves, which is where our character ends up, and it also describes the vigil of someone who has died. Wake is present everywhere in this film. The water also represented the vast uncertainty below the surface – chaos, calm and the feeling of drowning. These all created a unique lens into who our character is and what they were experiencing throughout the film.

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Arri

Alexa

Mini

3.2K

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4444

2:1

iso800

172.8º

23,976fps

Montréal,

Québec:

45°

30'

6.08"

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73°

34'

2.122"

W

c’est comme ça que je t’aime

/

happily married

by Fanen Chiah e m en

bilingual article english and french t r a d u c t i o n / t r a n s l at i o n b y g a s to n b e r n i e r

VINTAGE MEDLEY

EN

FR

13

F

rom the opening scene of the French-language show C’est comme ça que je t’aime, there is no mistaking it for a garden-variety TV series – a long tracking shot reveals four naked bodies floating face down in the blood-filled above-ground swimming pool of an ordinary suburban home. As Mike Brant’s ballad for which the series is named blasts from a radio, deflating balloons and abandoned liquor bottles indicate a party gone terribly wrong. Even an opening credit suggesting that the series is based on a true story is somewhat disconcerting; you simply don’t know what you’re getting into.

C’est comme ça que je t’aime (whose English title is Happily Married) is the latest from writing-directing duo François Létourneau and Jean-François Rivard of Les Invincibles and Série Noire fame. Létourneau also stars in this Radio-Canada Télé series produced by Productions Casablanca and distributed by Cineflix Rights, which follows two unhappily married couples who seek to escape their mundane lives in the quiet suburb of Sainte-Foy,

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CANADIAN CINEMATOGRAPHER | MARCH 2022

D

ès la scène d’ouverture de la série québécoise C’est comme ça que je t’aime, il n’y a pas à s’y méprendre avec une série télé banale. Un long travelling révèle quatre corps nus flottant sur le ventre dans une piscine hors terre remplie de sang derrière une maison de banlieue ordinaire. La ballade de Mike Brant, C’est comme ça que je t’aime, qui a donné le nom à la série, joue, à tue-tête, d’une radio. Des ballons qui se dégonflent et des bouteilles d’alcool abandonnées indiquent qu’une fête a tourné au vinaigre. Même le générique d’ouverture suggérant que la série soit basée sur une histoire vraie est déconcertant ; on ne sait tout simplement pas vers où on se dirige.

C’est comme ça que je t’aime (dont le titre anglais est Happily Married) est le dernier-né issu du duo scénariste-réalisateur François Létourneau et JeanFrançois Rivard célèbre pour Les Invincibles et Série Noire. Létourneau est aussi une des vedettes dans cette série de la télé de Radio-Canada, produite par Les Productions Casablanca et distribuée par Cineflix Rights. On suit deux couples malheureux en ménage qui tentent d’échapper à leurs vies

“

The characters remind me a lot of earlier Coen Brothers films, especially A Serious Man. There was that lo-fi kind of feeling to the scripts; the characters were so present. When I was reading the later episodes, it reminded me lot of Goodfellas, which is one of my favourite films.

-Barry Russell

Quebec, by turning to organized crime in the summer of 1974. Létourneau plays Gaétan Delisle, a frustrated husband to Marilyn Castonguay’s Huguette, who at six month’s pregnant only appears to be a typical housewife. When the series opens, the couple, along with their friends Serge and Micheline Paquette (played by Patrice Robitaille and Karine GonthierHyndman), drop their children off at summer camp and return home to face not just an empty house, but obvious tension in their marriage.

For series DP and former musician Barry Russell, reading the scripts stirred up something like creative nostalgia. “The characters remind me a lot of earlier Coen Brothers films, especially A Serious Man,” Russell says. “There was that lo-fi kind of feeling to the scripts; the characters were so present.

When I was reading the later episodes, it reminded me lot of Goodfellas, which is one of my favourite films. And I talked to Jean-François about that. When I said Goodfellas, his eyes lit up because he’s a very musical guy, and in the show there’s a lot of music and I’m a musical-oriented

banales dans une banlieue tranquille de Sainte-Foy, Québec, en se tournant vers le crime organisé pendant l’été de 1974. Létourneau personnifie Gaétan Delisle, le mari frustré de Huguette (Marilyn Castonguay) qui, enceinte de six mois, apparaît comme la femme au foyer typique.

En début de série, le couple, avec leurs amis Serge et Micheline Paquette (joués par Patrice Robitaille et Karine Gonthier-Hyndman), dépose leurs enfants à un camp d’été avant de retrouver non seulement une maison vide, mais une tension évidente dans leur mariage. À la lecture du scénario de la série, le directeur de la photographie et musicien Barry Russell a eu l’impression que l’ensemble ressassait une nostalgie créative. “Les personnages me rappellent beaucoup les premiers films des frères Coen, particulièrement Un homme sérieux”, dit Russell. “Il y avait un sentiment “Lo-Fi” par rapport au scénario; les personnages étaient tellement présents. En lisant les épisodes 15

“

The director was very clear on what he did not want; cheap and cliché was not an option.

So we have all the elements of the ‘70s – the actors, the clothes, the cars, the sets, all of that was obviously period, but we wanted to light and film it as if we were shooting a modern project, with ‘70s inspirations.

-Barry Russell

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CANADIAN CINEMATOGRAPHER | MARCH 2022

person as well. So we hit it off right away with music, and when I mentioned Goodfellas, he’s like, ‘Have you listened to that soundtrack?’ So when I got back home I put it on, and it was just one great song after one great song.”

As in Goodfellas, the 1970s is a character in an of itself in C’est comme ça que je t’aime, the time period being central to the storyline – divorce was less common in Quebec in that era so neither couple considers it an option to escape their uninspired marriages – and Russell jumped at the chance to shoot a period series. “I really love old ‘70s and ‘early 80s Spielberg work,” the DP says. “The way he moves his camera with his characters, it just works so much. It’s super simple. But at the same time, when you really look at the shot you go, ‘Holy shit, this camera has been moving and zooming for the last five minutes and you just don’t notice it.’ And that was the approach we wanted to do. And we definitely wanted to work with zooms. So we had to find a perfect match between camera movement and zooms at the same time.”

Season One of the ten-episode series was shot in just 64 days in Montreal, which served as Sainte-Foy, and with a meagre budget, it took shrewd creative decisions to help craft a sellable period look. “The director was very clear on what he did not want; cheap and cliché was not an option,” Russell explains.

“So we have all the elements of the ‘70s – the actors, the clothes, the cars, the sets, all of that was obviously period, but we wanted to light and film it as if we were shooting a modern project, with ‘70s inspirations. I still toyed with the idea to light it all with tungsten Fresnels and HMIs, but in the end, that was not the best of ideas, considering our time limitations. So I discussed with my oldest collaborator, gaffer Hugo Roy, to see what lighting packages would fit best for this project.

suivants, ça me rappelait beaucoup Les affranchis de Scorcese, qui est un de mes films préférés. J’en ai parlé à Jean-François. Lorsque j’ai dit Les affranchis, ses yeux se sont illuminés parce que c’est un gars très musical, qu’il y a beaucoup de musique dans la série et que je suis une personne très influencée par la musique aussi. Nous avons tout de suite cliqué ensemble grâce à la musique et lorsque j’ai mentionné Les affranchis, il a dit : ‘En astu écouté la bande sonore ? ’ Alors, de retour à la maison, je l’ai fait jouer et ce n’était que des chansons formidables.”

Comme dans Les affranchis, les années 1970 sont un personnage en soi dans C’est comme ça que je t’aime, l’époque étant le cœur de l’histoire, par exemple, le divorce était moins courant à l’époque au Québec, alors ni l’un ni l’autre des couples ne le considère comme une option pour fuir leurs mariages ternes et Russell a sauté sur la chance de pouvoir tourner une série d’époque. “J’adore le travail de Spielberg de la fin des années 70 et du début des années 80.” dit-il. “La façon dont il déplace sa caméra avec les personnages fonctionne si bien. C’est super simple. Mais, en même temps, lorsque vous regardez vraiment le plan, vous vous dites : ‘Wow, cette caméra a bougé et zoomé pendant cinq minutes sans qu’on s’en aperçoive.’ Et c’est l’approche que nous voulions adopter. Nous voulions aussi absolument travailler avec des zooms. Il nous a fallu trouver le match parfait entre les mouvements de caméra et des zooms en même temps.”

La première saison de la série de dix épisodes a été tournée en seulement 64 jours à Montréal, servant de Sainte-Foy, et à cause d’un maigre budget, il a fallu prendre des décisions astucieuses et créatives pour façonner un look d’époque crédible. “Le réalisateur était ferme sur ce qu’il ne voulait pas, rien de bon marché ni cliché, ce n’était pas une option,” explique Russell. “Nous avions tous les éléments des années 70, les acteurs, les vêtements, les 17

“On the day of the screen tests, I had my key grip [Camille Bergeron Bégin] paint all kinds of bounce boards with colours and textures that I wanted to test for skin tones and moods. I had brown bounce boards, I had beige bounce boards, greys, you name it. I had 20, 25 kinds of bounce boards, silks, all kinds of textures that we would test with modern lights, like LEDs. The thing was to test modern lights through vintage material, and it worked out super well,” he says. “I asked the guys to texture all my bounces with different colours, different textures. Same thing with gels, I would mix different colours together with different textures on them and shine HMIs through to see the results. I never wanted it to be clean, So I just textured everything between the lights and the subjects, I wanted it to be more believable, more organic. Every scene has smoke in it, every scene. The props person was going nuts, but I had to absolutely have texture for the lighting to give it that ‘70s feeling. All the actors are basically smoking in almost all the scenes, so it was super justified. Even if it wasn’t, I would just smoke the place. I was inspired by DPs like Vittorio Storaro [ASC, AIC], who would use smoke to beautifully control his lighting. I absolutely love that.

So there’s texture in the air and the light is hitting that texture.”

Russell’s astute gear selection helped anchor the show in the ‘70s. “The main thing was the lenses. Since we wanted to play with zoom lenses, I had to find a match between vintage lenses and modern zoom lenses because I didn’t want to be stuck in low light situations,” he says. “So we tested a whole bunch of lenses. We decided to go with Zeiss Superspeeds, and we chose Angenieux zoom lenses for the zooms. They worked super well together.”

For Castonguay, who plays pregnant housewife-turned-gang leader Huguette, Russell would use a 32 mm standard Zeiss for all her exterior scenes. “It’s one of those things where the lens chose the actor,” the DP says. “Whenever she’s there with that gun I would choose the 32. It just felt right, and I found it worked super well. The longest lens we had was a 50, 18

CANADIAN CINEMATOGRAPHER | MARCH 2022

voitures, les décors, tout était d’époque évidemment, mais nous voulions éclairer et filmer comme si nous tournions un projet moderne avec des inspirations des années 70. Je jouais avec l’idée d’éclairer avec des Fresnels tungstène et des HMI, mais en fin de compte ce n’était pas la meilleure idée, compte tenu de nos contraintes de temps. J’ai alors discuté avec mon plus ancien collaborateur, le chef électricien Hugo Roy, pour voir quel kit d’éclairage serait le mieux pour ce projet.

Le jour des tests de look, j’ai demandé à mon chef machiniste (Camille Bergeron-Bégin) de peindre plusieurs panneaux de réflection avec des couleurs et textures que je voulais tester pour les tons de chair et les ambiances. J’avais des panneaux de réflection bruns, beiges, gris, j’en avais 20, 25 de toutes sortes, ainsi que des diffuseurs, des soies et toutes sortes de textures que nous voulions tester avec les éclairages modernes comme les DEL. L’idée était de tester des éclairages modernes au travers de matériaux rétros et ça a très bien marché,” dit-il. “J’ai demandé à mon équipe de texturiser tous mes réflecteurs avec différentes couleurs, différentes textures. Même chose avec les gélatines, j’ai mélangé différentes couleurs avec différentes textures et j’ai fait passer des HMI au travers pour voir l’effet. Je ne voulais jamais rien de net et propre, alors j’ai tout texturisé entre l’éclairage et les sujets, je voulais que ce soit plus crédible, plus organique. Chaque scène est enfumée, chacune sans exception.

L’accessoiriste devenait fou, mais il fallait absolument que j’aie de la texture dans l’éclairage pour donner cette impression des années 70. Pratiquement, tous les acteurs fument dans presque toutes les scènes, alors c’est bien justifié. Sinon, j’enfumais la place tout simplement. J’étais inspiré par des directeurs photo comme Vittorio Storaro [ASC, AIC], qui utilisait la fumée pour contrôler merveilleusement son éclairage. J’adore. Il y a alors de la texture dans l’air et la lumière frappe cette texture.”

Le choix astucieux des objectifs par Russell a aidé à ancrer la série dans

which we only used for flashback scenes. I did not want to play with any long lenses on the show. I wanted the camera to be with the characters, to be closer with them on wider lenses. It was super important to me to go wide and close.”

Russell operated an ARRI ALEXA Mini in a 2:1 aspect ratio, but Rivard’s commitment to not overshoot and overcut presented “a very, very interesting way to be operating the camera,” according to Russell. “It would ask me to be ready to operate, to be available for a 240-degree field of view.

So it would ask us to set up dollies and zooms in a way to be always ready to turn around with a character if we wanted the character to go in one way, and then come back. And usually people would do that on Steadicam. But we didn’t want to use Steadicam on this show because that was one of the things that we loved about the ‘70s. They used dollies to move the camera, and that was super important for us. So that would dictate the way that I would operate the camera. So it was challenging in that manner, but it made the shot so much more authentic. We just wanted to flow with the story and flow with the characters.”

“

J’opère la caméra comme si je jouais de la guitare, c’està-dire par instinct.

Je suis influencé par tout ce qui m’entoure. Il y avait beaucoup d’impro dans le groupe avec qui je jouais, c’était du jeu très instinctif.

Mon approche pour tourner pour le grand écran ou la télévision est la même.

les années 70. “L’important, c’était les objectifs. Puisque nous voulions jouer avec des zooms, je devais trouver une correspondance entre les objectifs rétro et les zooms modernes parce que je ne voulais pas être coincé dans des situations de faible éclairage,” dit-il. “Nous avons alors testé une grande quantité d’objectifs. Nous avons arrêté notre choix sur les Zeiss Superspeeds et nous avons opté pour les zooms Angénieux. Ils ont fonctionné très bien ensemble.”

Pour Castonguay, qui personnifie Huguette, la femme au foyer enceinte devenue leader de gang, Russell a utilisé un Zeiss standard de 32 mm pour toutes les scènes extérieures. “C’est un exemple où l’objectif a choisi l’acteur,” dit le DP. “Lorsqu’elle apparaît avec cette arme, je choisis le 32. Ça semblait la chose à faire et j’ai trouvé que ça marchait super bien.

Le plus long objectif, que nous avions, était un 50, que nous utilisions uniquement pour les scènes de retour en arrière. Je ne voulais pas jouer avec des objectifs longs sur la série. Je voulais que la caméra soit avec les personnages, plus près d’eux, avec des objectifs de plus grand angle. C’était super important pour moi d’y aller large et de près.”

Russell a utilisé une ARRI ALEXA Mini avec un ratio de 2 : 1. Mais l’engagement de Rivard, de ne pas surtourner et ni surcouper, a présenté “une façon très intéressante d’opérer la caméra,” d’après Russell. Je devais être prêt à opérer et être disponible pour une prise de vue à 240 degrés. Ça nous a alors demandé d’installer les chariots et les zooms pour pouvoir toujours se retourner avec un personnage si nous voulions que celui-ci aille dans une direction et revienne.

Normalement, on utiliserait un Steadicam. Nous ne voulions pas utiliser de Steadicam pour cette série parce que c’était justement une des choses que l’on aimait des années 70. Ils utilisaient des chariots pour déplacer la caméra et c’était super important pour nous. Ceci dictait la façon dont j’allais opérer la caméra. C’était alors un défi, mais ça rendait la prise de vue tellement plus authentique.

Nous voulions tout simplement avancer avec l’histoire et avancer avec les personnages.”

Moreover, much of Russell’s camera operating needed to be in service of the comedy. “The timing is super important. Every camera move is decided upon, and it’s all in the timing,” he explains. “Say the actor would turn around and say his or her line, and there’s a breath there, I would push in on that breath. It was all a question of being with the actors. So I would talk to them. I would ask them, ‘Okay, when you come in, at what moment are you saying those lines? I need to know because I’m moving the camera exactly on that word.’ I can’t be late; I can’t overshoot it.

So there was a huge discussion between the director, the actors and myself to get the comedy right between them and the camera.

De plus, la majorité du travail de Russell à la caméra devait être au service de la comédie. “Le timing est super important. Chaque mouvement de la caméra est prévu et tout est dans le timing,” comme il l’explique. “Disons que l’acteur ou l’actrice se retourne pour dire sa réplique et qu’il y a une respiration, je dois m’approcher de cette respiration. C’était une question d’être avec les acteurs. Alors je leur parlais et leur demandais, 'Lorsque tu arrives, à quel moment distu ces répliques ? Je dois le savoir parce que je déplace la caméra exactement sur ce mot. Je ne peux pas être en retard, je ne peux pas le compenser.’ Tout ça créait des discussions entre le réalisateur, les acteurs et moi-même pour avoir le bon timing de la comédie synchronisé entre eux et la caméra.

“I wanted the camera to be a character in itself, I wanted the camera to be part of the scene,” he adds. “I didn’t want the camera shooting the scene. For me, there’s a huge difference. That’s what I was talking about with the Coen Brothers and Goodfellas, the camera is part of the show, it’s not filming the show. There’s a huge difference there. I didn’t want to be witnessing actors playing. I want the camera with them.”

Je voulais que la caméra soit un personnage en soi. Je la voulais comme faisant partie de la scène,” ajoute-t-il. “Je ne voulais pas la caméra en train de filmer la scène. Pour moi, ça fait une énorme différence. C’est ce dont je parlais à propos des frères Coen ainsi que du film Les affranchis, la caméra fait partie de la scène, elle ne la filme pas. Il y a une énorme différence ici. Je ne voulais pas observer des acteurs en train de jouer. Je veux la caméra avec eux.”

-Barry Russell

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Russell applied his philosophy when operating the camera during another infamous sequence in the above-ground pool: “In the beginning, we had it on a tripod. But when we finished the first scene I go to Jean-François and I’m like, ‘Man, I need to go handheld with this.’ He wasn’t sure to begin with and I’m like, ‘Trust me, I have to do this, I’m going to show you.’ Just the way they were moving within that scene, I was able to position myself just perfectly with them and have the camera be part of that scene. So the whole point is to have the camera with them, being part of the scene, being a character almost in itself.”

Russell can easily draw parallels between his approach as a cinematographer and his style as a guitarist for the Montreal-based band DJ Champion. “I operate the camera the same way I would play guitar, which is by instinct,” he says. “And everything around me influences me. In the band that I played in a lot of it was improv, so it was very instinctive playing. I approach movie making and television making the same way. I have an idea of what I’m going to do. I have inspirations of a work I love and that influences me, and when it’s time to do it, I’m super influenced by the actors, because being a performer myself before, I know how to gauge myself with them. It’s super instinctive.

“My music background brings me mood as well,” he adds. “In the morning before the shoot, I go in the camera truck, I close the door, I read what I need to do that day and I put songs to inspire me for my day. It can be anything from Coltrane to Little Simz to IDLES, I listen to everything. I just like to immerse music in everything that I do. And I’m always listening to music, always, new stuff, old stuff. It just enhances the art approach, I guess.”

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Russell a appliqué sa philosophie alors qu’il opérait la caméra lors d’une autre séquence tristement célèbre dans la piscine hors terre: “Au début, nous l’avions mise sur un trépied. Après la première scène j’ai dit à JeanFrançois ‘je dois y aller à l’épaule’ Il hésitait au début et je lui ai dit, ‘Faismoi confiance, je vais te montrer.’ Grâce à la façon dont ils se déplaçaient dans la scène, j’ai pu me positionner parfaitement avec eux et avoir la caméra comme faisant partie de la scène. La caméra, étant pratiquement un personnage en soi.”

Russell fait facilement un parallèle entre son style de directeur photo et son style de guitariste au sein du groupe montréalais DJ Champion. “J’opère la caméra comme si je jouais de la guitare, c’est-à-dire par instinct, ”dit-il. “Je suis influencé par tout ce qui m’entoure. Il y avait beaucoup d’impro dans le groupe avec qui je jouais, c’était du jeu très instinctif. Mon approche pour tourner pour le grand écran ou la télévision est la même. J’ai une idée de ce que je vais faire. Le travail que j’aime me donne des inspirations et m’influence. Lorsque c’est le temps de le faire, je suis super influencé par les acteurs, parce que mon expérience personnelle de performeur me permet de me mesurer à eux. C’est super intuitif.’’

“Mon bagage musical me donne des états d’âme aussi,” dit-il. “Le matin du tournage, je vais dans le camion caméra, je ferme la porte. Je lis ce que j’ai à lire pour la journée et je fais jouer des chansons pour m’inspirer pour la journée. Ça peut être n’importe quoi, du Coltrane en passant par Little Simz jusqu’à IDLES. J’écoute de tout. J’aime immerger la musique dans tout ce que je fais. Et j’écoute toujours de la musique, toujours, de nouveaux trucs, de vieux trucs. J’imagine que ça améliore l’approche de l’art.”

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MAID In Conver sation:

with Guy Godfree csc, Vincent De Paula csc, Quyen Tran asc and Robert Popkin

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in conversation: maid Frame pulls courtesy of Netflix

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A Relay for Surreal Vérité

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n the first episode of Netflix’s breakout hit series Maid, 25-year-old Alex makes the lifechanging decision to leave the trailer home she shares with her emotionally abusive alcoholic partner, Sean, who is also the father of her young daughter, Maddy. Unemployed and lacking formal education, Alex has no means to support herself and her child, so she takes a job cleaning houses, as she and her daughter bounce from domestic violence shelters to mouldy subsidized apartments, all while grappling with her dysfunctional family, including her mother, Paula, who struggles with undiagnosed bipolar disorder and her newly sober father, Hank.

Series creator and showrunner Molly Smith Metzler adapted Stephanie Land’s New York Times best-selling memoir Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive into the 10-episode limited series, which stars Margaret Qualley (Alex), Nick Robinson (Sean), Billy Burke (Hank) and Andie MacDowell (Paula). Released last fall, Maid quickly became one of Netflix’s most watched shows internationally, according to media reports.

By all accounts, few TV series have captured the cruelty of poverty in America with as much nuance and unflinching detail as Maid, the oftenuncomfortable emotions it generates made all the more palpable through the actors’ strong performances, as well as its carefully crafted images.

Flashback scenes and fantasy sequences depicting Alex’s private thoughts and insecurities are among the creative choices that make the viewing experience of watching Maid so visceral.

The three cinematographers behind the look of Maid – Quyen “Q” Tran (Episodes 1, 2, 9 and 10), Guy Godfree csc (Episodes 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8) and Vincent De Paula csc (Episode 5) – worked closely with digital imaging technician Robert Popkin to craft a look for the show, with Tran also directing Episode 8. The four of them recently sat down for a conversation highlighting the important but often misunderstood role of a DIT, perhaps all the more instrumental on a series shot by multiple DPs. As Popkin puts it, the number one priority of a DIT is maintaining the integrity of the image, and the collaboration with DPs often begins in preproduction, as was the case on Maid.

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Quyen Tran: We did a lot of testing and a lot of looks before we actually started shooting because we were trying to go for very visceral vérité with surreal moments. There are these moments where Alex pops out of the present situation and goes into a flashback or surreal moment, or a magical realism moment. So it was important to distinguish between those three.

And so we tested a lot of lenses. We went with Panavision Vancouver, used the Panaspeeds as the main set, but then detuned a couple of lenses for these moments of surrealism. We detuned the lenses to create a more smooth, soft, vignette-y feel. And so those lenses had lower contrast.

And we had more rainbow flares, characteristics which were used in very specific moments, but overall, we went for a very naturalistic approach.

Robert Popkin: We explored a number of different filmic emulation LUTs, knowing that we’d want to use the film grain process. [Digital colourist] Tim Stipan supplied a number of them, I built a couple of them, and we just flipped through them in the camera test. And we got to a couple that we liked.

And then that’s where Tim and Q took the footage from the camera test.

Ultimately, the decision was made to use K1S1, which is kind of an off-theshelf, standard LUT, but it also makes the image look more natural, doesn’t look too tweaked, which would have been the wrong look for this show.

Guy Godfree csc: Q did a great book of images from camera testing, a visual reference book of the look to demonstrate the intent to the rest of the creative team, and for myself and Vincent to reference as well. That was something that you did with Rob, is that correct?

Tran: That’s correct. Rob was very involved in the camera tests because what we were trying to do is establish one LUT and so Rob and I talked about the different looks, and Rob is a photographer so he has an incredible eye and would bring so much to the table with regards to the look that we were going for. There was a lot of nighttime involved, so we didn’t want something that was too aggressive. You want to use just one LUT for a show, just for the post workflow aspect of it, just to make things smooth, make sure everything matches up. So we created a couple of different looks and then LUTs, which created a very soft palette. Working together with production designer Renee Read, we developed a palette that was suitable across the board that would accept a LUT, which we could then in post grade with some grain and colour treatments, as well. Because for the flashbacks and those other moments we used a Super 16 2-stop push for the grain. I use this program called LiveGrain just to help smooth out everything and it just gives a more filmic look without actually shooting on film. From the camera test, we took those screen grabs, and then I made a little book for Vincent and Guy as a guide; it’s very specific and intentional.

I think Vincent and Guy did a phenomenal job and just elevated the show even further after I left, and Rob of course was so important in the camera test development.

Vincent De Paula csc: I got the look book as well, and it was very easy for me to identify with and connect with the story, this organic, raw, naturalism. It’s kind of my language. It’s almost like light is a stage for the actors and you let them perform. And on this show, because it was pretty much handheld the whole show, it’s like a dance with the actors. We dance with them on the stage, and we follow the story with them. One of the things I like about working with the DIT is I rely so much on you guys to allow us to capture 26

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“

As DPs, you don’t often get to work side by side; having a good DIT on team keeps you cohesive.

For us, Rob was that collaborator.

- Guy Godfree csc

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the vision that we have, to remind us that we have a vision that we want to still carry throughout the whole of the post pipeline.

Godfree: As DPs, you don’t often get to work side by side; having a good DIT on team keeps you cohesive. For us, Rob was that collaborator. It’s actually one of the topics I think is interesting. Because Sean’s trailer set was consistent top to tail on the show. And we all had to take it down in all kinds of weather, nights, days, transitions, ins, outs, splits. We were all over that place. Which means we all had different approaches to the same set. It is fun to see the similarities and the differences.

Tran: Guy was so wonderful because he really worked hard to maintain the integrity of the look that [director] John [Wells] and I established in the pilot, and we had multiple conversations, and he would even text me or call me throughout his block of shooting. I just feel very lucky and fortunate to have brought this wonderful team on who were so willing to take on the 28

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baton and continue the look. But Rob in the DIT position is so instrumental in maintaining that because what I love to do is catalog the shot so that we are able to very quickly reference those images. Let’s say you’re shooting in the trailer set, and then weeks later, we have to shoot a pickup. I’m like, “Hey, Rob, can you go to Episode 101, scene 28, Charlie,” and he’s quickly able to pull it up, we can take a look at it, we can look at continuity, which is a huge asset to have with the DIT, and that’s not necessarily in the job description. I really love to quickly pull up those reference frames so that we can look at the lighting and the continuity and make sure that everything is kosher, because when you’re shooting pickups especially, you want to make sure that it’s within that world. So that’s where I really rely heavily on the DIT not just as continuity, but also when I’m operating the camera. He is my second set of eyes.

Popkin: Speaking about the stills references, I think that’s one of the biggest tools to help an incoming DP know what we did previously. I think part of

Top right: Tran and Godfree set up a shot in one of the many difficult access forest locations for Episode 8.

Middle:Tran consults storyboards for a complex sequence in a forest created entirely by the art department outside Sean’s trailer.

Bottom: DIT setup on the back of a gator to facilitate quick company moves between distant locations in a remote forest.

Robert Popkin

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my job working with alternating DPs is to as much as possible inform them of a look that’s been established, you know, how we approach the camera settings in this particular set, and this is the look that we did here. And you back that up with the stills references. We bring that up on the screen, so here’s how we approached this on the last episode. And, of course, every DP works a little bit differently, and so you have to make sure that every DP is comfortable working how they work but then they also are informed of what we did previously.

Godfree: I would download the day’s stills to my iPad, and it was so useful.

Also, I could reference Q’s stills from her episodes. What was very useful was that you would see what had been done before on a given set and it gave you permission to go, “Oh, Q went that far?” And we wouldn’t try and do the same thing necessarily, but you knew what the basis was, and you allowed yourself to evolve within it, which was great.

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Popkin: Yeah, and you could be given permission to follow your instincts.

Like, if you saw what we did before, then you’re like, “Okay, now I can trust my instincts and shoot it however I feel it should be knowing how it was before,” instead of just trying to emulate a particular look that was set up at the beginning of the pilot.

Godfree: It happened in the Social Services office. Because I think that was shot early on in the pilot block, and when I got there later in Episode 6, I was like, “Do we turn these practicals on? Can I push from the windows to keep the shape, or do I hold the top light?” You have all these questions, and so seeing what’s done before, it gives you permission and insight to go, “Oh, yeah, I’m going to embrace that; I’ll go with that,” or go, “No, I feel like I want to do something different today, because it’s a different day, it’s a different scene, a different place.” So just having a point of reference was really fun for me.

De Paula: I used to say that the gaffer was my best friend on set. And I think now the DIT is my best friend on set. You know, when I was in Europe, I was always operating on my shows. But when I moved to North America, it’s more the operators. I like to stay away from the [video] village as much as I can, because I like to be part of the performance. And that trust I have with you guys, I have trust in you to create that vision that I want to carry throughout the show. You can’t operate and look at the other monitors.

Developing that trust takes time, but I want to have that trust, then it’s just so smooth and it’s more fun. But I’ve noticed through the years that there’s so much on your plate these days – whether camera management, data management, workflow management – to protect our vision.

Godfree: Q set the look in the pilot block, I picked it up, Vincent did one and I took another block, and then Q comes in as a director – and I’m shooting – and she says, “Okay, we’re going to really wind this up.” We had such

permission to go for it, because she set the show’s look, we speak the same language; we really started to mature the approach and change things.

And it was really satisfying, because this is the part of the show where it starts to get darker, the episode where [Alex] is pulled into the couch. This was this great idea that Q had about her being swallowed, and it was so satisfying to do. Our only “studio” build, we were in this curling rink; we built a little section of the trailer with a false wall behind the couch.

Tran: But I think one of the beauties of setting up a look is knowing when to break it. And especially in Episode 8, where everything goes upside down. I wanted to really literally make the world go upside down, and so I broke all the rules. I got Guy on board and was like, “We’re going to do this episode, we’re going to build a forest, we’re going to build stage.” So I think part of the beauty of knowing to break rules is when you understand them so well and you know the characters, you know the evolution of the story, that

33

The crew prepares for a beach scene.

Robert Popkin

when it comes to a certain point in the narrative, you are able to take those chances and you’re able to leap off the very strict guidelines that you set up initially to create something that is a huge turning point in the story. It was just so wonderful to know the language of the show so well because you set it up and then to have the opportunity to direct to then go in a totally different direction.

De Paula: I think it’s really important breaking those rules that you have established because it makes it even more meaningful as well. Maid was 34

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this raw, organic handheld feel. And when it came to my episode, the episode with this house, I wanted to give a personality, a character to this house as well. And for me to allow the viewer to get into that was to maybe start getting into the dolly. So, there’s going to be a studio-mode dolly creep in that we do that maybe we haven’t seen much before, but, automatically, the viewer gets into that because I’m breaking a rule that has been established before where everything is handheld. All of a sudden, this perspective of this house inserts a new kind of language. And I think being allowed to do that is what we strive for as cinematographers.

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PLOUGHING NEW TERRAIN B y T re vo r H o gg,

Special to canadian cinematographer

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superman & lois

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©2021 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

oth as a god-like figure and as an investigative journalist, Superman/Clark Kent has faced many adversarial forces, but what about fatherhood? The CW production Superman & Lois explores what would happen if the Man of Steel married his Daily Planet colleague Lois Lane and moved back to Smallville to raise their twin sons. After being introduced as the title characters in fellow Arrowverse series Supergirl, Tyler Hoechin and Elizabeth ‘Bitsie’ Tulloch take centre stage with Jordan Elsass and Alex Garfin portraying their offspring Jonathan and Jordan Kent. Serving as an executive producer and showrunner is Todd Helbing (The Flash) who established the visual aesthetic with director Lee Toland Krieger (Shadow and Bone) and cinematographer Gavin Struthers asc, bsc (The Witcher).

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A camera on the Scorpio 30 crane captures the Kent brothers (played by Alex Garfin and Jordan Elsass) as they are hoisted high up in the Kent barn set on location for Episode 115, Season 1 finale.

Stephen Maier

“

There is a new world that is coming up in the first few episodes of Season 2, which was complicated, exciting and challenging for the colour palette, camera and visual effects. It was the first time we were in a meeting and there was silence in the room. A lot of people were scratching their heads going, ‘Can we do this?’ At the end of the day, we came up with a plan and it turned out awesome.

– Gordon Verheul csc

Brought on as alternating cinematographers and returning for Season 2 are Stephen Maier (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) and Gordon Verheul csc (Smallville) along with senior colourist Shane Harris (Reminiscence) at Picture Shop. Just as Superman & Lois was about to go to pilot, the coronavirus lockdown delayed the production for six months. “There were schedule changes and brief shutdowns in those early stages when it was all new for everybody,” according to Maier, who was responsible for the odd numbered episodes beginning with 103. “It’s funny how things become routine quite quickly. People have become used to being tested three times a week and wearing masks. It is still far from being ideal.”

Yet crowd scenes have become more difficult because of the pandemic.

“If we’re doing a football night, we’re limited for 60 to 100 people,” Verheul notes. “The logistics involved are massive. You’re trying to lens so it still feels like college football in the U.S.” Verheul had previously been a cinematographer on the CW series, which explored the teenage struggles of Clark Kent. “It has been interesting because from the start they wanted a big departure from Smallville in terms of style and writing. I also did eight seasons of Arrow where we constantly moved the camera. This is much more painterly and composed,” he says.

Visual inspiration came from feature films ranging from Interstellar and Zodiac to Man of Steel, which was heavily referenced to get the scope and scale worthy of one of the most famous superheroes in the world. Setting this production apart from the other big screen and small screen iterations of the Superman franchise was the story that Helbing decided to tell. “Todd wanted it to be family real-life drama which just happens to involve a superhero,” Maier notes. “We tried to keep the family and Smallville scenes grounded and relatable.”

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The majority of the directors helmed one of the 15 episodes. “Part of our job as cinematographers on series is to maintain the look of the show but at the same time embracing what the incoming director might bring,” Maier remarks. “We had seven or eight days to prep, and this season we will have 10 to 11 shooting days per episode. Gordon and I had two months off after Season 1 and then I came back to do Episode 201. It felt like we hit the ground running. I’m still the odd [number] DP!” Critical to the process is the tone meeting, which includes the director, producer, first AD, cinematographer and writers. “We go through the script together and say, ‘This is the aesthetic for that scene, and these are the story points we need to get,’” Verheul states. “It serves as a reminder for when we’re shooting. With incoming directors, we also do extensive storyboard sessions but mostly for the visual effects shots, which are a big negotiation between a lot of departments.”

Instigating the shooting with Cooke Xtal Express anamorphic lenses was pilot director Krieger who wanted a classic anamorphic look, but with older glass creating inherent imperfections in the imagery. “We decided to use older lenses that have falloff in the corners and weird flares,” Verheul notes.

“Each lens has a colour shift, so it gets funky trying to balance every time there was a lens change. The challenge was to make these lenses work within a TV production schedule.”

One of the hero lenses was the 75 mm. “We could use it for a closeup but also a wide shot,” Maier states. “The 150 mm is glorious for closeups, but for the right moment, and not to be overused. Because the Xtal Express lenses were uncharted territory for everybody, in the early stages we also carried Panavision B Series but didn’t keep them. The Panavision D Series 40 mm is a hero lens because the Xtals get bendy when they go wider than 50 mm. The Panavision 55 mm Macro is a special lens for us.” Krieger was

The crew sets up an intricate action sequence in a Vancouver location playing a bank in Mexico, Episode 109.

Stephen Maier

also responsible for the 2.2:1 aspect ratio. “Our aspect ratio is so wide that you could almost shoot two people at a time in a closeup because its going to be the same size,” Verheul remarks. “It is a different way to compose a show.”

Shooting with Panavision Millennium DXL2 and RED WEAPON was not a problem as both cameras share the same RED MONSTRO sensor. “The DXL2 is too big to put in certain situations with smaller mounts so that’s why we carried the RED WEAPON as well,” Maier states. “The B camera will work a lot but not on every single setup; that’s the nature of shooting anamorphic because with the scope of it you sometimes can’t get the other camera in. We don’t like to compromise eyelines. On most of the action sequences, we will usually have a third camera. This year we swapped the MONSTRO for the Panavision DXL-M. It’s all the same sensor but are more in line with the accessories for the DXL2. We’re shooting at 7K. The full sensor would be 8K but with wider anamorphic lenses the corners start vignetting, and there is less resolvable focus area in the frame. I light to f/4 all of the time and from there either a bit more or less depending on the needs of the scene.”

On the floor, the majority of light sources are LED. “There will be large tungsten sources coming through windows, like 12Ks and 20Ks, but also Molebeams for a harder source,” Maier explains. “There are a lot of SkyPanels, LiteMats, Astera Titan Tubes and almost everything is through our lighting console.

It has become seamless changing levels and colours.” The footage was

captured REDCODE RAW. “There is only one show LUT that we have kept since the pilot, which has a certain level of contrast and desaturation. The world of Smallville, the farmhouse and high school especially when outside has a tobacco amber tone. We’re filming in Vancouver, which has a lot of cooler tones but it’s supposed to be Kansas, so we wanted to keep that warmth to Smallville. When we’re in the Superman world I play with the saturation, use some harder light and bring some different colours into the mix, as well as move the camera more, leaning into a superhero style more than the grounded realism of Smallville.”

Principal photography takes place in British Columbia with two full stage locations situated in Richmond, the exterior farmhouse and farm based in Ladner, and Smallville on a backlot in Cloverdale, a suburb of Surrey. “There are more sets coming online like a local Quick Mart and a few other small apartments for some of the characters to live,” Verheul states. “We have a full greenscreen stage, which is where we’ll do all of the flying and bigger visual effects sequences like the Fortress of Solitude.”

A custom spinning rig was made for the flying scenes and camera shakes were done practically. “If Superman is fighting someone in the air where they would both be horizontal, it was much more time efficient and easier on the actors if they can be vertical,” Maier reveals. “The stunt team will often go away to design or rehearse something, do their previs that they film on their iPhones, cut it together and show it to us. We have a close collaboration with special effects in regards to atmospheric smoke and 39

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haze. The gags that they come up with help to exemplify the strength of Superman, such as him lifting a car.”

Key crew members include A camera operator Brian Rose, B camera operator Mark Cohen, A camera 1st AC Jaron Hickerty (Nicholas McKenzie on Season 1), B camera 1st AC Krista Stumph, gaffer Aaron Stewart, key grip Marc Nolet, DITs Mike Sankey (with Maier) and Rich McSweeney (with Verheul), dailies colourist Frank Robinson, and final colourist Shane Harris.

(Tricky scheduling and availability resulted in several A camera operators working on Season 1 – Dean Heselden, Jim van Dijk, and Sean Elliott). Live colour grading sessions are conducted between Los Angles and Vancouver.

“I am lucky to have worked with Shane before,” Maier remarks. “It didn’t take him long to get the look of the show dialled in. The majority of the colours are captured in camera.” Harris has previous experience working with footage shot with Xtal Express lenses. “This is either the ninth or tenth show I’ve done with these lenses. The Xtal Express gives it a cinematic look. It’s more to do with how the falloff happens and the focal point being in the centre than having an impact on the colour. I will put window walls but won’t say that’s a direct result of the lens. Sometimes I will sharpen some areas because the falloff is where they want more focus. If you sharpen just the eyes then the shot looks in focus; that’s the one trick I learned working with those lenses.

“It’s a moody show by television standards,” Harris observes. “The visual effects companies are looking at the plate with the greenscreen through the show LUT and they’ll do a middle of the road grade. From that point, I do all of the grading and windows that make the show Superman & Lois. I try to make Smallville look period, like late 1960s early 1970s. It is desaturated but has good contrast and a tinge of warmth. The whole thing is slightly desaturated, and to get colour separation we put a lot of cyan in the shadows. The Gazette is cooler in the shadows and more like a work

environment than a happy sunny place.”

The final grade compensates for the tight shooting schedule. “Such is the way of TV. There are numerous times where there isn’t the time to light it exactly the way that they want. In Episode 201, the cut changed so the scene that was shot in the middle of the day now had to be at dusk. When I’m trying to make it dusk, it is a bit harder because the highlights are bright, and you can only mute them so much without making them look like video. It becomes a balance,” Harris says. The established worlds remain the same in Season 2. “The submarine scene in Episode 201 is like The Hunt for Red October or Crimson Tide; that’s its own thing and is a world we haven’t seen yet.”

For Maier, one of the hardest scenes to shoot occurred during the Season 1 finale. “The fight between Superman, Steel, the turned-evil version of his son Jordan and the soldiers was shot in a huge working quarry so there were massive safety protocols, hard hats, and steel-toed boots. But adding the fact that it was in our heat wave, with temperatures approaching 40ºC with dust, and no escape, made it particularly punishing! Not to mention three cameras, a Technocrane, three lifts for sun control, and a stunt rigging crane for wire work, all in late June where the sun reaches its most overhead and least friendly lighting position. It was a fun scene to shoot despite all that, though.”

The tasks are not getting any easier for Season 2. “There is a new world that is coming up in the first few episodes of Season 2, which was complicated, exciting and challenging for the colour palette, camera and visual effects,” Verheul remarks. “It was the first time we were in a meeting and there was silence in the room. A lot of people were scratching their heads going, ‘Can we do this?’ At the end of the day, we came up with a plan and it turned out awesome.”

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Painted Land

RED EPIC

5K 2.35:1

iso800

180º

23.98fps

Sony FX9/ FS7

4K

iso2000

180º

23.98fps

true west

dscapes

b y Fa n e n C hiahemen

C

hances are if you live outside Alberta, you’ve never heard of John Scott, but to locals he is akin to a movie star. After all, he’s worked on some of the biggest films in recent decades, including The Revenant, Legends of the Fall, Unforgiven and Days of Heaven.

Scott has been servicing the motion picture industry since the 1960s, wrangling animals and coordinating stunts for Hollywood productions, with multiple Oscar-winning films to his credit. Now in his later years, Scott is still going strong and was recently awarded the Chester A. Reynolds Award at the 60th Western Heritage Awards in Oklahoma, an award presented to a living honoree or group that has notably perpetuated the legacy of the American West.

“If you’re a filmmaker in Alberta, you’ve definitely either heard the name John Scott, filmed with his horses or on his land, or worked with one of his stunt riders,” associate member Aaron Bernakevitch says. “I worked on a film on his ranch early in my career as a digital technician. Actually, Christophe Collette [csc] was the cinematographer on it.”

Clavius lenses and Angenieux EZ zooms

Longview, Alberta: 50°30'58.5"N | 114°11'06.3"W

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Bernakevitch lines up a sunset shot of Scott with camera operator Jamie Wensley. (From left to right: Jeff Murias, Vicki McFadyen, David Whyte, Aaron Bernakevitch, Jamie Wensley and John Scott.)

Cary Schatz

Bernakevitch recently had the opportunity to work more closely with Scott while lensing True West, a feature documentary profiling Scott’s career directed by Calgary-based filmmaker Victoria McFadyen. The film was captured in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and in southern Alberta, and Scott’s larger-than-life personality is reflected in the majestic landscapes surrounding his Longview ranch.

“As important as he is, so is his ranch. It was just as important to portray the location as a character in the film,” Bernakevitch explains. “The landscape there is incredibly diverse and rich; and he has a considerable number of animals, horses, buffalo, etc. So highlighting the ranch itself was as important as John."

Interviews with Scott and industry colleagues are threaded through the film set against the backdrop of picturesque exterior scenes. “For us, it was integral to create a moving postcard with our vistas, with crafted and composed imagery, allowing the simple motion of John and his horse coming through the frame,” Bernakevitch says. “I mean, there’s definitely shots you can tell that are set up and well-composed, where we had a rehearsal, all of our shots with the Black Arm, but then there’s quite a bit of stuff that’s off-the-cuff, more like a vérité style documentary. The film has a full spread of fly-on-the-wall, hang out and wait till something happens, 44

CANADIAN CINEMATOGRAPHER | MARCH 2022

and also we have a plan, we’re shooting at this time, he’s going to move left to right, and we’re going to shoot from 4:00 to 4:30 here, then we’re going to move over to this hill at 6 p.m. for blue hour. We were calculated with that photography but then we also wanted to do the day-to-day stuff justice as well by not interfering with what’s happening.”

Bernakevitch’s shots, thoughtfully edited by Ron Joe, manage to achieve a filmic visual grammar in True West, which won Best Cinematographer (Unscripted over 30 minutes) at the 2021 Alberta Film and Television Awards (Ampias), as well as Best Editor at the 3rd Annual Stinger Awards in 2020. “The imagery does speak for itself but holding on those static frames when we have John move from left to right and allowing John to guide the viewers’ eyes was a big thing for us. And letting those shots breathe in the edit, not rushing through them,” Bernakevitch offers.

In a twist of fate, the interruption to the shoot that was brought on by the coronavirus-induced lockdown ended up resulting in a much richer film.

“We started pre-pandemic, and it almost turned into a different movie essentially, because the pandemic allowed us to visit the ranch over every season,” Bernakevitch says. “We were there in summer and fall and winter and spring. So it really allowed us to show all aspects of the landscape with all the different colours, which was quite a treat to be honest, because had

we gone with our original plan, we would have pretty much shot everything in the fall and winter.”

“

Any time there was a herd, we wanted it to feel like flowing water because there’s something just magical about seeing a herd of animals move as a group.

- Aaron Bernakevitch

The other main support operators included Jamie Wensley on B camera, as well as camera operators David Whyte and Vince Varga, and drone operator Darryl MacDonald. “The pandemic restriction still allowed us to kind of work in a small documentary capacity,” Bernakevitch maintains.

“Which was great because I think for the larger-footprint films, they didn’t have the same luxuries as we did, considering the subject matter that we were filming.”

Bernakevitch had shot a number of projects with McFadyen involving horses, but for True West they sought to compose some particularly poignant sequences with animals. “With this film, any time there was a herd, we wanted it to feel like flowing water because there’s something just magical about seeing a herd of animals move as a group,” Bernakevitch states. “So there’s quite a few shots with well composed frames of animals moving through and we’re static, letting the animals guide the viewer’s eyes as if they are flowing like water, which was our intention.”

Bernakevitch used the RED Epic, Sony FX9, Sony FS7, as well as a Black Arm, the DJI Inspire 2 and the Mōvi Pro for the broad range of filming 45

Final tweaks to the Black Arm as David Whyte grabs a low angle shot of Scott.

Cary Schatz

techniques employed on the shoot. “In the documentary space, the Sony F series cameras are great for run-and-gun doc work,” he maintains. “So that was our flagship camera for interviews and for most of the situational stuff we were filming with John. And then for the Black Arm day, we wanted to increase the quality. We knew we wanted to do some high-speed 4K shots, and Sony’s are limited on that, so the RED Epic came out to play, and I think it was for the best because just the detail that we were able to capture in the sunset and the sky, and the dynamic range of the RED really outshines the Sony sensor. There were a couple of days where we captured highspeed shots, you know, shooting at 240 and 120 frames, so the RED Epic was the camera of choice for that.”

Although Bernakevitch employed Angenieux EZ zooms for Black Arm and gimbal work, the majority of the film was lensed on Richard Gale’s vintage rehoused Clavius Lenses. “They’re very painterly in my mind, and also very creamy and they’ve got a richness to them; the 38 mm is my favourite of the set. More than half the film is shot on that lens,” he says. “And we didn’t want to shoot on a clean modern lens because we just felt it kind of takes away a bit of the emotion of the landscape. So the imperfections of these older lenses were the perfect fit.”

As a film industry veteran, Scott could be more than just a subject during the shoot. “The wonderful thing about John is that the movie industry is like second nature to him,” Bernakevitch says. “He understands we want 46

CANADIAN CINEMATOGRAPHER | MARCH 2022

to get a shot, we want to move left to right. And he knows his land and his ranch, so he was almost like a location scout for us on the film. He knew where the beautiful spots were and the nice vantages. All of the horseback photography when we’re on the Black Arm is very calculated in terms of time of day, who’s moving in the frame, etc. It was paramount to capture those shots in the best light possible.”

Aside from a treasure trove of tales from his adventures over the years wrangling “everything from an ant to an elephant,” as he puts it, Scott had much wisdom about working in the industry that Bernakevitch could draw from. “He’s a strong ally to have on any set,” Bernakevitch says. “He’s got a calm temperament; he’s very patient, and he’s so organized and prepared, because he completely understands the ins and outs of the industry itself.

The added component of working with large groups of animals and knowing what to expect from them, from a safety standpoint, and his ability to just know how to plan for success is his greatest strength and a nice takeaway from John. Any day we shot with him was a smooth and organized event.”

csc member spotlight illustration by Jo Enaje

csc

What films or other works of art have made the biggest impression on you?

Quels sont les films ou autres pièces artistiques qui vous ont le plus influencée ?

Turner’s paintings for the light and the movement in them. Cassavetes’ The Killing of a Chinese Bookie initiated my desire for the work I am doing now. The Exterminating Angel by Luis Buñuel; the French New Wave; The Wild Bunch by Sam Peckinpah; Raging Bull by Scorsese; The Sacrifice by Tarkovsky; I am Cuba by Kalatozov; India Song by Marguerite Duras; The Deer Hunter by Cimino; films by Ken Loach, Leigh, Frears, Lynne Ramsay, Chantal Akerman, Varda, Almodovar, Sorrentino, Cuarón, Wim Wenders...

More recently Chloé Zhao’s The Rider, and C’mon C’mon by Mike Mills.

La lumière et le mouvement dans les tableaux de Turner. J’ai eu un coup de foudre en voyant au cinéma « The Killing of a Chinese Bookie » de Cassavetes, c’est là que j’ai décidé de faire des images pour raconter une histoire. J’ai été marquée par « l’Ange exterminateur » de Buñuel, La Nouvelle Vague française, « The Wild Bunch » de Sam Penckinpah, « Raging Bull » de Scorsese, « Le sacrifice » de Tarkovsky, « I am Cuba » de Kalatozov, « India Song » de Marguerite Duras, « The Deer Hunter » de Cimino, les films de Ken Loach, Leigh, Frears, Lynne Ramsay, Chantal Ackerman, Varda, Almodavar, Cuarón, Sorrentino, Wim Wenders, et plus récemment « The Rider » de Chloe Zhao et « C’mon C’mon » de Mike Mills.

How did you get started in the business?

I worked five years with young delinquents and at some point I wanted to make a film about and with them, but my path changed when I was offered a job as a set PA on a film by a friend. At the end of this same year 1st camera assistant David Douglas and Glen MacPherson csc, asc, who was his 2nd, invited me to join them as a trainee. What luck! This was in 1978.

Comment avez-vous débuté dans le métier ?

Après avoir travaillé cinq ans auprès de jeunes délinquants, j’ai voulu faire un film avec eux et sur eux, mais en cours de route on m’a offert

bilingual article english and french t r a d u c t i o n / t r a n s l at i o n b y g a s to n b e r n i e r

NATHALIE MOLIAVKO-VISOTZK Y

EN FR

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Who have been your mentors or teachers?

I worked my way up as 2nd and then as 1st assistant cameraperson for many years and had the chance to work with our best cinematographers in Quebec. I learned from them on some of our best films such as Léolo by Jean-Claude Lauzon and Denys Arcand’s films shot by Guy Dufaux. I also assisted Pierre Mignot and had the great privilege to work on two of Robert Altman’s films. Alain Dostie gave me the opportunity to travel around the world as 2nd unit DP on Silk by François Girard. All these years, Michel Brault’s work has been an inspiration.

de travailler comme assistante de production sur un film, et à la fin de cette année-là, le 1er assistant à la caméra David Douglas et son 2ème à l’époque Glen MacPherson csc, asc, m’ont offert d’être leur stagiaire , quelle chance ! C’était en 1978.

Qui ont été vos mentors ou enseignants ?

Gordon Willis asc; Henri Alekan, Vittorio Storaro asc, aic; Conrad L. Hall asc; Sven Nykvist asc; Sir Roger Deakins asc, bsc, CBE; Philippe Rousselot afc, asc; Néstor Almendros asc; Raoul Coutard, Emmanuel Lubezki asc, amc; Guy Dufaux; Bradford Young asc; Claire Mathon and many others.

J’ai gravi les échelons d’abord en tant que 2e assistante à la caméra et ensuite comme 1re assistante pendant plusieurs années. J’ai eu la chance de travailler avec les plus grands cinéastes au Québec. J’ai appris d’eux en travaillant sur des films parmi nos meilleurs, comme « Léolo » de JeanClaude Lauzon et les films de Denys Arcand tournés par Guy Dufaux. J’ai aussi été l’assistante de Pierre Mignot et j’ai eu le très grand privilège de travailler sur deux des films de Robert Altman. Alain Dostie m’a donné l’opportunité de voyager à travers le monde en tant que directrice photo de la 2e unité sur « Soie » de François Girard. Tout au long de ces années, le travail de Michel Brault a été une inspiration pour moi.

Name some of your professional highlights.

Quels sont les directeurs de la photographie qui vous inspirent ?

Having my first feature film as a DP, Les Fantômes des trois Madeleine, being selected at the Directors’ Fortnight in 2000 and being there in Cannes.

Being Denys Arcand’s DP on An Eye for Beauty, a great experience. When Catimini, by Nathalie Saint-Pierre, won best film at the Angoulême Festival.

It was her second feature film and our second collaboration.

Gordon Willis asc; Henri Alekan, Vittorio Storaro asc, aic; Conrad L. Hall asc; Sven Nykvist asc; Sir Roger Deakins asc, bsc, cbe; Philippe Rousselot afc, asc; Néstor Almendros asc; Raoul Coutard, Emmanuel Lubezki asc, amc; Guy Dufaux; Bradford Young asc; Claire Mathon et plusieurs autres.

What cinematographers inspire you?

Nommez-moi les faits saillants de votre carrière professionnelle.

What is one of your most memorable moments on set?

In 40 years here are a few of them: when I was focus puller on films directed

by Robert Altman. Working on a David Mamet film as camera operator.

Being the camera operator for Marlon Brando on The Score. Rob Hahn, the DP, shot the film with two cameras only when Brando was in a scene because he was always improvising.

Sleeping in the artist’s studio of one of our greatest painters, Jean-Paul Riopelle. I was shooting a documentary on him, on l’Isle-aux-Grues, and the only space to sleep for the crew was in his studio so full of images and his imaginative world. Claude Miller telling me that the images I shot as 2nd unit DP were an inspiration for the shooting of his film Voyez comme ils dansent. The documentary Frameworks by Helen Doyle took me around the world filming war photographers where at some point we had to do some shots in Phnom Penh in the stadium where so many people were killed.

That was a very troubling moment to live.

Clockwise from top left: 1. Les fleurs oubliées 2. Pink Lake 3. Le règne de la beauté (An Eye for Beauty) 4. Silk 5. Le règne de la beauté (An Eye for Beauty) 6. Pink Lake 7. Rouge sang 8. Silk 9. Les fleurs oubliées

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CANADIAN CINEMATOGRAPHER | MARCH 2022

Que mon premier long métrage comme DP, « Les fantômes des 3 Madeleine » ait été retenu à la Quinzaine des réalisateurs en 2000 et d’avoir été là à Cannes. D’avoir eu la chance d’être la directrice photo de Denys Arcand pour « Le règne de la beauté », une formidable expérience.

Lorsque « Catimini » de Nathalie St Pierre a remporté le prix du meilleur film au Festival d’Angoulême, c’était son deuxième long métrage et notre deuxième collaboration.

Quels ont été vos moments les plus mémorables sur les plateaux ?

En voici quelques-uns au cours de mes 40 ans de travail : avoir été à la mise au point de la caméra pour des films de Robert Altman, avoir travaillé comme opératrice de caméra sur un film de David Mamet et avoir été l’opératrice de la caméra sur le film « Le grand coup », mettant en vedette Marlon Brando. Je me rappelle que le directeur photo Robert Hahn tournait à deux caméras seulement lorsque Brando était dans la scène parce que celui-ci improvisait constamment. Avoir dormi dans le studio d’un de nos plus grands peintres, Jean-Paul Riopelle. Je tournais un documentaire sur lui à L’Isle-aux-Grues et le seul endroit disponible à l’équipe pour dormir était dans son studio rempli d’images de son monde imaginaire. Que Claude Miller m’ait dit que les images que j’avais faites en tant que directrice photo de la deuxième unité étaient une inspiration pour le tournage de son film « Voyez comme ils dansent ». Le documentaire « Dans un océan d’images » d’Helen Doyle m’a emmenée autour du monde pour filmer des photographes de guerre et à un moment donné nous avons dû prendre des images dans le stade de Phnom Penh là où tant de personnes avaient été tuées. Ce fut un moment très troublant à vivre.

Nathalie Moliavko-Visotzky csc Milosz Rovicki

What do you like best about what you do?

Qu’est-ce qui vous plaît le plus dans ce que vous faites ?

Feeling and making come true what the director imagined; creating the images by playing with light in relation with the emotions the actors express. Witnessing a great actor’s performance. And it’s also a great feeling when the crew is in symbiosis with the making of a film.

J’aime sentir et comprendre ce que le réalisateur ou la réalisatrice imagine et réussir à mettre en images leur vision, en jouant avec la lumière selon les émotions exprimées par les acteurs et actrices. C’est un privilège d’assister à la performance d’un grand acteur ou d’une grande actrice. Et c’est aussi une formidable sensation lorsqu’une équipe est en symbiose.

What do you like least about what you do?

Qu’est-ce que vous aimez le moins dans ce que vous faites ?

When communication and relations between key persons on a film are dysfunctional or tense. I have seen it happen between a producer and a director, a DP and a director, an actor and a director, and so on.

What do you think has been the greatest invention (related to your craft)?

Lorsque la communication ou les relations entre des personnes clés sont dysfonctionnelles ou tendues. J’en ai vues entre un producteur et un réalisateur, entre un directeur à la photographie et un réalisateur, entre un acteur et un réalisateur et ainsi de suite.

Qu’a été la plus grande invention en rapport à votre métier ?

The digital camera and the LED technology.

La caméra numérique et la technologie DEL How can others follow your work?

Comment peut-on suivre votre travail ? nathaliemoliavko-visotzky.com nathaliemoliavko-visotzky.com 50

CANADIAN CINEMATOGRAPHER | MARCH 2022

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on set gallery

Associated member Daniel Green with 1st AC Steven Turcotte on a recent shoot in the Prairies.

Nicolas Chabot

Associate member Daniel Green with 1st AC Steven Turcotte on a recent shoot in the Prairies.

Nicolas Chabot

Matt Altstadt (affiliate member) and DP Gabriel Lima on a recent shoot of a music performance concept video.

Elisa Gomez

Operator Aiden Zanini from DeepSee Media gets ready to head underwater with an Alexa LF in a Gates housing for a Josh Ramsey music video. Shot at Watervisions in Vancouver.

Philip Lanyon csc

Director Joyce Wong, DP Philip Lanyon csc and A camera operator Dany Lavoie line up a shot on the set of the Netflix series Fakes.

Photo courtesy of Philip Lanyon csc

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CANADIAN CINEMATOGRAPHER | MARCH 2022

Powerful performance for professionals

Nanlux is a premium brand of high-output LED lighting designed for the rigours of daily on-set use, including the Evoke 1200: a rugged IP54rated 1.2KW LED spotlight that delivers powerful output comparable to a 1.8KW PAR or 2.5KW HMI Fresnel – fully dimmable and flicker-free, even at super high frame rates.

Cinematographer Chris Oben (associate member) and crew take the long walk back to the trucks after wrap on the feature film Crimson Point, directed

by Raul Sanchez Inglis.

Craig Minielly

Associate member Daniel Green with 1st AC Steven Turcotte on a recent shoot in the Prairies.

Nicolas Chabot

Featuring intuitive menu operation and rugged construction, the Dyno 650c and Dyno 1200c ultra-bright RGBWW softpanels deliver precisely accurate high output with ultra-wide 2700K to 20,000K CCT operation and a wide 160-degree beam angle for more coverage with fewer fixtures.

Associate member Adam Madrzyk on the set of the feature film The Family.

Brian Hamilton

The Nanlux TK140B is a thin-panel bi-colour 160-watt LED that offers a bright and accurate no-compromise soft-light solution with a wide 2700K to 6500K colour temperature range. Also available in a 280-watt TK280B, plus the TK200 and TK400 daylight versions.

To learn more about Nanlux products, contact Vistek’s Commercial Solutions Group, see in store or at vistek.ca.

(L to R) Gaffer Josh Alkoff, B cam operator Ashley Iris Gill, DP Ricardo Diaz csc, director/ producer Jennifer Holness, and director/producer Sudz Sutherland.

Courtesy of Ricardo Diaz csc

TORONTO | MISSISSAUGA | OTTAWA CALGARY | EDMONTON

VISTEK.CA

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canadian society of cinematographers

THE CSC INSIGHT SERIES

Additional behind-the-scenes footage available at the CSC YouTube channel

T

he CSC Insight Series consists of interviews with CSC members sharing advice about career paths in cinematography or filmmaking through various approaches and levels of production. The series, available on the CSC YouTube channel, was initiated by DP Jason Han (associate member) in conjunction with the CSC’s Online Content Committee, with new members featured each month. With the latest series of interviews just launched – featuring Jeremy Benning csc, Zoe Dirse csc, Guy Godfree csc, Jordan Oram, Alan Poon csc, Claudine Sauvé csc and Bobby Shore csc – Han reflects on the development of the series.

Associate member Jason Han All images Jeremy Benning csc

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CANADIAN CINEMATOGRAPHER | MARCH 2022

On the inspiration: The inspiration to start the CSC Insight Series started from my own curiosity. It’s quite easy nowadays to find answers to technical questions about how to use a certain light or equipment, but extremely difficult to find answers about the psychological aspect of the career. I found myself constantly reaching out to other DPs to pick their brains about basic to advanced information, such as how agencies work, advice on how to improve my career path, networking, how to get certain types of work, crew relationships, and many other types of advice. One day, I thought it would be really nice if I could listen to highly experienced cinematographers giving advice or talking about their biggest challenges and how they overcame them. Then during COVID when I had some downtime, I started a YouTube channel interviewing highly established cinematographers. It was quite a big hit and grew quickly. One day I reached out to Jeremy Benning about this, and he was super excited about the idea of creating this series for the CSC. We’ve been working on this series since 2021 with the goal of ramping up the episodes as we go along.

Bobby Shore csc Zoe Dirse csc Jeremy Benning csc Alan Poon csc

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(L-R) Bobby Shore csc, Jordan Oram (associate member), Javon Williams, Tony Acheampong and Jason Han (associate member). Williams and Acheampong provided crew support via the CSC’s collaboration with Hire Higher, which aims to connect Black, Indigenous and POC talent with the commercial production industry through outreach, education, advocacy, and mentorship.

Jordan Oram (associate member)

On the vision: Our mission has always been to provide a highquality and free alternative cinema educational system to cinematographers. I like to define it as cinematography career “psychology” because we really are most interested in the psychological aspect of the career, rather than the technical. We do however get technical questions as well, since the career tends to be quite technical. But overall, we are most interested in learning about a DP’s experiences in their career, for example, how they got to

56

B Cam operator Tony Acheampong

where they are, how they “levelled up” and other insights into their creative process. The idea here is for these videos to provide upand-coming cinematographers with valuable perspectives from their respected peers who are speaking from their own experiences. I think mentorship and the concept of reaching out to specific cinematographers to ask questions is fantastic, and this isn’t meant to replace those personal mentorships. It’s meant to help many cinematographers cover baseline questions so that they can ask better and more specific questions once they get to the next stage.

CANADIAN CINEMATOGRAPHER | MARCH 2022

On what’s to come: I’m so excited for what’s coming this year for the Insight Series as we are really ramping up production! It was quite difficult last year as it started as a proof of concept without a budget, and it was a bit of a solo mission. This year we have really upped the production quality by upgrading to multi-cam, virtual production studios. We now have an excellent team behind the series, with Jeremy Benning leading the helm as our EP, and Francis Luta, who is our online content producer.

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The new VENICE 2 is a blockbuster sequel Everyone knew that the hugely popular Sony VENICE cine cam would be a hard act to follow, but the next-generation VENICE 2 is one of those rare sequels that improves on the original without abandoning what already made it great.

only that: like the original, the VENICE 2 image sensor block is interchangeable. Both new VENICE 2 models drop the original SXS slot and incorporate the AXS recorder into the body, and enable you to record ProRes and X-OCN formats internally.

The VENICE 2 inherits popular features from the original VENICE, including colour science, Dual Base ISO and eight stops of built-in ND filters. But what makes the VENICE 2 special is its new sensor and smaller form factor. Leveraging the latest in digital imaging technology, the VENICE 2 is equipped with a new full-frame image sensor that offers 16 stops of latitude, clean shadows, highlights that roll off and natural skin tones.

With a dual ISO range of 500/2500, the 6K VENICE 2 can shoot at speeds of up to 120 fps at 4K and 90 fps at 6K. The 8.6K VENICE 2 boosts the dual ISO range to 800/3200 and shoots up to 60 fps at 8.2K; 90 fps at 5.8K. The 8K sensor offers 16 stops of HDR; the 6K sensor boasts 15+.

To find out more about the amazing new Sony VENICE 2, contact Vistek’s Commercial Solutions Group.

If you think the only thing better than having a 6K sensor might be having it in 8K, the VENICE 2 is available in both. And not

COMMERCIAL SOLUTIONS GROUP Direct: 416- 644-8010 • Fax: 416-644-8031 Toll-Free Direct: 1-866-661-5257 • CommercialVideo@vistek.ca

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