CANADIAN SOCIETY OF CINEMATOGRAPHERS
$4 November 2012 www.csc.ca
Samy Inayeh csc: Cybergeddon • Jeremy Benning csc: World War II Heroes
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A publication of the Canadian society of Cinematographers
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Ray Dumas csc Declares War
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By Fanen Chiahemen
Photo Credit: JeReMY Llewellyn -Jones
The purpose of the CSC is to promote the art and craft of cinematography in Canada and to provide tangible recognition of the common bonds that link film and video professionals, from the aspiring student and camera assistant to the news veteran and senior director of photography.
FEATURES – VOLUME 4, NO. 6 NOVEMBER 2012
World War II Heroes: The Full Impact
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By Jeremy Benning csc
Photo Credit: Cybergeddon Team
The Canadian Society of Cinematographers (CSC) was founded in 1957 by a group of Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa cameramen. Since then over 800 cinematographers and persons in associated occupations have joined the organization.
Lighting a Virtual Apocalypse: Samy Inayeh csc Talks Cybergeddon
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By Fanen Chiahemen
COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 2 From the President 3 In the News 6 In Memoriam: Roman Kroitor 17 Tech Column 19 Camera Classified 20 Productions Notes / Calendar Cover: Still from I Declare War.
Canadian Cinematographer November 2012 Vol. 4, No.6 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Joan Hutton csc EDITOR EMERITUS Donald Angus EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Susan Saranchuk admin@csc.ca EDITOR
FROM THE PRESIDENT Joan Hutton csc
Fanen Chiahemen editor@csc.ca COPY EDITOR Karen Longland EDITORIAL INTERN Kayla-Jane Barrie ART DIRECTION Berkeley Stat House WEBSITE CONSULTANT Michael Jari Davidson www.csc.ca ADVERTISING SALES Guido Kondruss gkondruss@rogers.com CSC OFFICE / MEMBERSHIP 131–3007 Kingston Road Toronto, Canada M1M 1P1 Tel: 416-266-0591; Fax: 416-266-3996 Email: admin@csc.ca CSC SUBSCRIPTION DEPT. 131–3007 Kingston Road Toronto, Canada M1M 1P1 Tel: 416-266-0591; Fax: 416-266-3996 Email: subscription@csc.ca
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; copyright reverts to the writer after publication. Canadian Cinematographer is printed by Winnipeg Sun Commercial Print and is published 10 times a year. One-year subscriptions are available in Canada for $40.00 for individuals and $80.00 for institutions, including HST. In U.S. rates are $45.00 and $90.00 for institutions in U.S. funds. International subscriptions are $50.00 for individuals and $100.00 for institutions. Subscribe online at www.csc.ca.
ISSN 1918-8781
I
spent a sun-filled week in glorious Vancouver in September on CSC business. Besides the fantastic weather, I am thrilled to report that production on the west coast is in an upswing with many CSC members and sponsors experiencing a very busy period.
There were many highlights during the week, but the one that stands out the most was the inaugural Vancouver CSC pub night. Held at the Cove Neighbourhood Pub, 26 people attended this first event to enjoy laughs, lots of talk and to connect with fellow cinematographers and other industry members. It was a terrific gathering filled with great gusto. Good job, Vancouver! CSC members in attendance were Brian Whittred csc, Jericca Cleland csc, Karl Herrmann csc, Jill MacLauchlan Parks, Doug Baird, Vincent de Paula, Jan Kiesser csc, ASC, Michael Balfry csc, Vic Sarin csc, Norm Li csc, Keith Young and of course myself. Besides fun, my Vancouver trip also highlighted an issue that has always worried the CSC. For a national organization we are very Toronto-centric. There are several obvious reasons for this, such as distance and the membership concentration in Ontario, but I do believe we now have the technical means at our disposal to remedy this situation, if not fully, at least partially. We would like to open the CSC executive for representation especially from Vancouver and Montreal. The Executive meeting could be attended via video conferencing or Skype. We’ve had great success with Skype in other CSC situations, so why not our executive meetings? If any CSC member is inclined towards serving on our working executive, please let us know. As much as we would love to hold the Annual CSC Awards Gala in other cities, the logistics and expense makes this far too prohibitive. However, the 55th CSC Annual Awards Gala was broadcast live over the internet to a great response from those who could not attend. We would like to take this a step further with live two-way Internet hookups with simultaneous gala parties in Vancouver and Montreal. This would also benefit nominees and winners who cannot make it to the Toronto event but would find it easier to attend the gala via Montreal or Vancouver. This obviously, requires a great deal of commitment from our membership in these two cities. We would very much like to have your feedback on this gala idea. Finally, I would like to thank Steve Demeter and Ken Anderson from Sim Digital, Steve Goetz from Technicolor, Jeff Ramsay from PS Production Services, Garry Gosnell from Clairmont Camera, Jeff Flowers from Panavision and Brian Whittred csc from IATSE 669 for taking the time to meet with me.
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A special thank you goes to CSC member Gillian Stokvis-Hauer for opening her home to me and for guiding me around Vancouver including many trips to Burnaby.
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To everyone: good shooting!
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Photo Credit: Adrian smith
Laurence Anyways, directed by Xavier Dolan and shot by Yves Bélanger csc, won the award for Best Canadian Feature Film at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, while Brandon Cronenberg’s Antiviral, shot by CSC member Karim Hussain, tied as winner for Best Canadian First Feature Film with Jason Buxton’s Blackbird.
Writer-director Joanna Jang and Justin Lovell.
Rebelle
In other festival news, the short film Hostage, shot by associate CSC member Justin Lovell, was accepted into the Aesthetica Short Film Festival, which takes place in York, U.K., from November 8 to 11. The film was directed by emerging Canadian filmmaker Joanna Jang. Meanwhile, Telefilm Canada, which chairs the pan-Canadian Oscar selection committee, announced that the feature film Rebelle, directed by Kim Nguyen and shot by Nicolas Bolduc csc, has been submitted as Canada’s choice for consideration as a possible nominee in the Best
Canadian Cinematographer - november 2012 •
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In The news
Member News
ACCT Announces Canadian Screen Awards The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television recently unveiled the Canadian Screen Awards that recognize excellence in film, television and digital media productions, a direct result of industry demand. The Academy Board of Directors asked Endeavour Marketing to undertake a branding process for a new name and to design a new award statue. The inaugural presentation of the Canadian Screen Awards will be broadcast live on CBC-TV in March 2013.
The top-of-the-line professional configuration comes with a Hot Shoe Bracket CHS-1 to prevent camera body flex. Meanwhile, Blackmagic Design announced a second model of the Blackmagic Cinema Camera that features passive Micro Four Thirds lens (MFT) mount, which supports any Micro Four Thirds with manual iris and focus, and is also easily adapted to other lens mounts such as PL via third-party adapters. Blackmagic Cinema Camera MFT is identical to the original Blackmagic Cinema Camera model, however does not include lens communication, so manual lenses are used. The current model of Blackmagic Cinema Camera will be renamed Blackmagic Cinema Camera EF to let customers easily differentiate between the models. Blackmagic Cinema Camera.
The Tiffen Company Introduces the Lowel Blender 3 Light Kit
Photo Credit: Courtesy of ARRI.
The Tiffen Company, a manufacturer and distributor of accessories for the still imaging, video, motion picture, and broadcast markets, is now shipping the Lowel Blender 3 Light Kit. This new kit combines three colour-changing Lowel Blender LED fixtures, with stands and AC adaptors. The Blender has a full-mix brightness of 50-foot candles at 6 foot, and each light draws only 16 watts of power. It can be powered by its auto-setting AC adaptor or a host of DC battery options, from camcorder battery sleds to professional 12-volt sources.
ARRI kit
ARRI Introduces Ready-To-Shoot Kits for Blackmagic Cinema Camera Blackmagic Design recently announced that ARRI has introduced ready-to-shoot kits for Blackmagic Cinema Camera. The kits include ARRI’s Mini Base Plate MBP-3 and Camera Cage System, offering a non-obstructive solution for the mounting of accessories through industry standard 3/8-16” and 1/4-20” interfaces, as well as a Universal Cable Safe System CCS-1, which protects internal electronics against accidental stress when using HDMI, USB or audio cables. ARRI’s MBP-3 was designed to fit small form factor cameras, such as Blackmagic Cinema Camera, through dedicated adapter plates. The ARRI PCA sets for the Blackmagic Cinema Camera come in several different configurations. The basic configuration adds an aluminum left side Support Arm CSL-1, providing solid support for handles and accessories, while still allowing for the use of handgrip and controls.
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The company also announced the availability of a special Steadicam bundle configuration – the Steadicam Pilot 2nd Unit System, which includes the Steadicam Pilot and Merlin2 camera stabilizing systems, as well as the Merlin2’s Arm Pin Kit, sold as one complete package. The new system enables shooters to do both handheld shots and a more traditional camera stabilization operation using the arm and vest. The addition of the Merlin2 Arm Pin Kit lets the Steadicam Operator utilize the arm and vest for both the Merlin2 and Pilot Sled.
New Appointments at William F. White Dan St. Amour, Vice-President, Commercial Production Services, will oversee the Whites Interactive department, which he helped launch in 2010; David Hardy, Vice-President, Industry & Government Relations, will promote, enhance and reinforce Comweb/WFW’s market leadership position; Mike Harwood, National Director, Technical Support & Development, will be responsible for the research, development and certification of new technologies for both WFW and Canada’s film and television industry; Jeremy Walsh, National Director, Rental Maintenance, will be responsible for the coordination and management of the company’s national Lighting & Grip Maintenance departments as well as Manufacturing.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Blackmagic Design.
Foreign Language Film category at the 85th Academy Awards, to be held in Los Angeles on February 24. The nominations for the Academy Awards will be announced on January 15.
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Canadian Cinematographer - november 2012 •
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T
he Canadian film industry lost a pioneer with the death of filmmaker and IMAX co-inventor Roman Kroitor on Sept. 16. Born on December 12, 1926, in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Kroitor produced dozens of films with the National Film Board, including Paul Tomkowicz: Street-railway Switchman, Nobody Waved Goodbye, the Candid Eye series, Giles Walker’s Bravery in the Field, and John N. Smith’s First Winter. His creative partnerships with Wolf Koenig and Colin Low resulted in some of the NFB’s most acclaimed documentaries of all time, such as Glenn Gould: On & Off the Record, Lonely Boy, Stravinsky and Universe. His collaboration on the ground-breaking multi-screen project In the Labyrinth for Expo 67 in Montreal set the stage for a new era in cinema. Co-directed by Kroitor with Colin Low and Hugh O’Connor, and co-produced with Tom Daly, In the Labyrinth was an immersive cinema experience that caused a sensation at the Montreal world’s fair during Canada’s centennial year. The presentation used 35 mm and 70 mm film projected simultaneously on multiple screens. That process led to the development of the single-projector giant-screen system that helped redefine the possibilities of cinema: the IMAX film system. Kroitor conceived the idea for the IMAX with cinematographer Graeme Ferguson csc in the autumn of 1967. Their goal was to create the world’s most sophisticated film-projection system. In an interview
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Courtesy of national Film Board of Canada.
In MeMoRIAM
Remembering Canadian Film Pioneer Roman Kroitor
in the December 2010 issue of Canadian Cinematographer, Ferguson explained that after Expo 67, he and Kroitor realized that there was an audience for large-format films. “It wasn’t just because it was multi-screen. It was because the screens were bigger; because we had more projectors to fill the screens,” Ferguson said. “I was at Roman’s house one afternoon, and he and I were discussing the fact this was a very successful but very cumbersome way to project films. We asked each other, ‘Wouldn’t it be better to have a single, large-format projector to fill a large screen? We talked for about an hour, and within that hour we had sketched out the screen size that could be used and the film format that would be capable of filling it. The idea of a horizontal 65 mm film format with 15- or 16-perf pull across was really worked out in the first few minutes. We said to ourselves, ‘Let’s invent this new medium.’” Kroitor went on to co-produce the first
IMAX film Tiger Child, which premiered at Expo ‘70 in Osaka, Japan. Ferguson also credits Kroitor with helping to change the way 3D was employed in film with Stephen Low’s 1990 film The Last Buffalo, which Kroitor co-produced with Sally Dundas. “For the first time ever, they showed that 3D could be an art form,” Ferguson says. “And the current 3D boom – which is exemplified by Avatar and some other very good 3D films – really was encouraged by Steve Low and Roman showing the way with that one film.” Reflecting on his partner, Ferguson recalls: “Roman was always interested in the future. He was always inventing things and picking up things that nobody had tried yet.” Kroitor is survived by his wife Janet and children Paul, Tanya, Lesia, Stephanie and Yvanna.
Š Kodak, 2012. Kodak is a trademark.
Film Matters. Tell the world why at www.kodak.com/go/filmm atters Film. No Compromise.
Canadian Cinematographer - november 2012 •
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By Fanen Chiahemen
hile Ray Dumas csc has spent years honing his craft shooting music videos, short films and documentaries, for his first feature, he wanted a project he could really sink his teeth into as a cinematographer. Then an acquaintance handed him a script for a feature he was producing called I Declare War, and Dumas knew he had found the material he was looking for. “Once I read the script I fell in love with it,” Dumas says. “The subject matter is a little bit risqué, and the film pushes the boundaries in terms of what the children do and say.” The risqué subject matter are the war games children play, and not just in the physical sense, but what happens when an everyday game of war between two groups of neighbourhood friends takes an ugly turn and descends into an orgy of betrayal, cruel tricks and crudeness. Written by Jason Lapeyre, who co-directed with Robert Wilson, I Declare War is an honest portrayal of how kids talk and behave amongst themselves. Unique, too, in the film is that it takes place in real time, that is, over the course of an hour and a half on a hot afternoon in a forest. Yet it was shot in 21 days in Morningside Park, a regional
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park east of Toronto, and those bounds presented Dumas with his greatest challenge: “How do you sustain an audience’s interest for that long in one location?” The answer was to opt for a kinetic style of cinematography, keeping the action moving almost all the time. “The kids are playing a game of war, so there isn’t much hanging around,” he says. “So there are very few set-up shots, the camera’s moving constantly. I kept things alive by doing a lot of Steadicam, a lot of jib arm crane shots.” The secondary challenge was the “busy visual information” the location provided, Dumas says. “With all the leaves in the trees, it becomes a riot of information to the eye; it becomes actually uncomfortable,” he explains. He therefore decided to forgo wide shots or establishing shots. “We played out this movie almost entirely in close-ups, and the approach was to shoot at an extraordinarily shallow depth of field even though it takes place in the day time. We chose the densest part of the forest so we could shoot low light, and the backgrounds became very soft and dreamlike, very painterly.” When it came to lighting the dense forest, Dumas adopted the
less-is-more philosophy, focusing on reducing light sources rather than adding them. “We purposely chose the darkest part of the forest so we could control the light rather than letting the sun dictate what was going to happen,” he explains. “Basically, I would always have one large source, a punchy 6K HMI, just to act as the sun and break through the small branches. The rest would be ambient light, and I did a lot of bouncing light off the floor to light the actors’ faces.” The crew also played on the characteristics of the forest to reflect storyline and character. For example, the section of the forest serving as a base for the squad whose leader has become particularly unhinged is the densest, which meant even at the height of the afternoon there was very little exposure. “So we basically let that play as such and only added basic fill to supplement the look,” Dumas says. The other side of the forest, home to the other team’s base camp, while still dense, is greener and lusher, lending it more of a jungle-like feel. “That was a bit more challenging because I had a lot of patches of bright sunlight. Instead of trying of keep the information in very bright patches of sunlight in the background, I would let them blow out, and it was very effective in giving a dreamlike look,” Dumas says.
However, Dumas, as well as the directors, quickly realized that technological tools would only go so far when shooting a film like I Declare War with a group of young actors, most of whom had limited experience, and that restraint would be their biggest asset. “We all basically agreed that the strongest element of this film was going to be the children’s performances. We didn’t have the budget to create enormous sets or do huge explosions, so we knew that this film was going to succeed or fail based on the performances of the kids,” Dumas says. “And how I dealt with that was I wanted to be, as a cameraman, right in there with the kids, up close. We didn’t do any dolly shots or traditional coverage on long lens. I got very close in with the actors. And being in that much control operating and lighting, I was able to move faster and give the kids the time they needed to get their performance. “And something really interesting happened when I saw the rushes on a bigger screen at REDLAB,” Dumas continues. “Because we shot in such low light and we were right up in the kids’ faces, the irises in their eyes were wide open. And it makes for a very powerful impact on an audience. It has a very subliminal effect
Photo Credit: Ray Dumas csc
About 50 per cent of I Declare War was shot handheld using a Klassen suspender rig (a camera attached to the front of a vest transfers the weight to the hips) giving Dumas, who did most of the camera operating, more stamina. “It affects the way handheld looks,” he says of the rig. “It’s a lot less jittery.”
Dumas also opted for two RED MX cameras, as well as his own Cooke Panchro/i lens kit, which he had modified so they would open up beyond the 2.8 T-stop. “They are essentially 2.5, and I had that modified so that when the iris was wide open the bokeh– which is a technical term for the way the leaves in the iris open – was a perfect circle. Because I knew that when I would be shooting wide open, I was going to allow any flares to happen naturally, and I wanted those flares to be circular and not give away the shape of the iris.”
Left: PK on the hunt. Darker shadow areas and overall desaturation of colour lend an ominous air to the territory occupied by the opposing team. Above: The cast of I Declare War on location in Morningside Park, Toronto.
Canadian Cinematographer - november 2012 •
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Joker in the green forest.
when you’re standing in front of somebody and their irises are wide open. There have been studies that say that’s what happens when you fall in love. When you’re with a person and you’re talking very close to them and you’re developing a relationship, the iris tends to open right up, and it creates a sense of closeness and connection, and that’s where this film succeeds tremendously. Anyone who watches the film ends up falling in love with these kids. That was the single most successful thing I did on this film.” Dumas adds that the children were a pleasure to work with, taking direction well and eager to try all suggestions. In fact, being so eager to shoot, they kept the crew on their toes. “The kids were more impatient when we were not shooting. As soon as the cameras were rolling they were gung ho and ready to go,” he recalls. Helping the production move along quickly was a DI station set up on location in the forest. “We brought in a Da Vinci system so we could look at rushes and set looks right on the spot. That made it very easy,” Dumas says. “We would be watching the rushes while we were setting up the next shot. We were doing basic colour correction on set so when it was edited it already had a very good look to it, and then we just had to go in and massage it. My DIT Kent McCormick [from Bling] gave me a thumb drive that I could bring home with me, play with and then pass back to him to make corrections. I was so fortunate to get him on my set.” Dumas is quick to also highlight the contribution of his focus puller Michael Bailey, who had “the challenge of having to pull focus under extraordinarily difficult conditions – miniscule
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Shooting wide open in low light caused the pupils of the children’s eyes to dilate in close-ups, creating a powerful subconscious connection with the audience.
depth of field, moving cameras, and child actors.” Bailey agrees that focus pulling was a particularly difficult task on I Declare War, which premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival and won the audience choice award at this year’s FantasticFest in Austin. “We would do loose blockings, but no one was ever really tied to marks,” he recalls. “There wasn’t a formalized structure to how the shots would play out. I tried to pull a lot by eye, especially with Steadicam shots. I would take tape measurements and try to pull by eye as best I could.” Dumas goes so far as to say, “Without Michael we would not have had a movie. The forest would get so dark by the end of the day that I would have to switch over to Zeiss high-speed lenses – an older set of high speed that go to 1.3 – just to have enough light to shoot. And when we were doing moving Steadicam shots at a T 1.3 Michael might have had a depth of field of an inch, which meant he would have to choose which eye would be in focus on the actor. And what he did was nothing short of a miracle,” he says.
Photo Credit: JeReMY BennInG
Image from Canon 5D POV mounted on gun.
T
he premise of this project was to intersperse the interviews with the veterans – some of whom were telling parts of their story for the first and possibly last time – with visualisations of their stories in a way that would convey the real firepower and resulting horror, fear and tragedy of war. If a veteran recalled that he had been hiding in a house when a V2 rocket landed on a church opposite, we would faithfully recreate this setting and use the same type of explosives. When a building blew up, the audience would be able to see a realistic result rather than a movie pyro effect or CGI. Channel 4 Specialist Factual Commissioning Editor, David Glover, explains that the series uses “actual demonstrations rather than reconstructions. It is a radical approach to bringing historical testimony to life.”
Pre-production I came on board for the visualisations which were all set up and shot in Canada. For this part of the production a suitable site where huge explosions could be safely set up and executed was sought. A large military base in New Brunswick where major explosives testing is carried out was located. Here, we could build sets without fear of hurting or disturbing anyone.
Heroes II: The Last es World War ri se 4 l ne an ging Britain’s Ch l way of brin ul and nove rf we po a d ras represente -motion came ration slow ne ge st te fe. La history to li evocative capture in employed to re we es ns osions of and le of real expl and impact on ti na to rienced detail the de tually expe r of those ac we po d an ze ving the same si a series of mo Illustrating . II r Wa ions d in Worl , the explos ed veterans li Al ed ag with e realinterviews e to tell th oric footag st hi re ra ed Impossible supplement Co-producers survivors. e th of s ie life stor rtainment dom and Ente United King e th in y es Pictur photograph director of ed ch oa pr da ap here he One of Cana ra team, and lead the came to c cs g in ese highly Jeremy Benn capturing th went about ey th w ho explains ences.* charged sequ
Before the main shoot started, the producers cut a three-minute teaser to convey the style of the programme and showed this to the base commander and a Canadian government representative for veteran affairs. They were both very moved by this and appreciative of the way in which we would be using cutting-edge technology to tell the stories in a new way, especially to younger audiences, in order to enhance understanding of what these people had been through.
Photo Credit: Craig Morgan
The project was very collaborative and well planned. We had to think about everything from camera/personnel housings and lens protection to cabling. So from February to June 2011 there was much discussion between myself, Crispin Reece, the director, and the British and Canadian production teams, with pictures, information and feedback from prototype tests being bounced backwards and forwards. Quite apart from the obvious safety considerations, many of the Jeremy shooting with the 32mm 5/i from inside a blast shelter. Canadian Cinematographer - november 2012 •
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Photo Credit: JeReMY Llewellyn -Jones
Photo Credit: JeReMY BennInG
Photo Credit: JeReMY BennInG
Camera operator Jason Vieira readies the Phantom Gold in its blast housing.
Jason Vieira and Ryan Acker lift the camera blast housing onto the tripod.
set-ups literally could not be repeated – most of what we were shooting was going to be blown to smithereens, and in some cases we would be using genuine World War II vehicles that could not be replaced. We were very aware that we couldn’t just show up and hope that this worked! out of harm’s way Crew safety was paramount. There were bomb shelters for the crew and a team of specialist explosives experts to advise on how to keep both ourselves and the equipment safe at all times. For each set-up the precise amount of explosives and resultant risk were calculated and the appropriate precautions put in place. Much thought was given to the best ways in which to protect the cameras while leaving them relatively easy to operate. After researching the housings available on the market, we decided we were going to have to make our own. Max MacDonald, our special effects expert, was able to advise on exactly the strength of blast these were going to need to be able to withstand. The housing we developed comprised a metal tube that opened in half so that the cameras could be adjusted. The end product wasn’t a thing of great beauty but it provided a very effective combination of protection for the gear and usability. None of the main camera gear was damaged, which is quite remarkable considering
Did you know?
BOKEH
e” meaning “blur” or “Bokeh” (from the Japanese “bok c quality of the heti aest the or , “haze”) is the blur s of an image or, more blur, in the out-of-focus area renders out-of-focus specifically, the way the lens lens aberrations and in points of light. Differences gns to blur the image desi lens aperture shape cause some eye, while others proin a way that is pleasing to the nt or distracting good’ duce blurring that is unpleasa and ‘bad’ bokeh, respectively. e that lie outside the Bokeh occurs for parts of the scen ble around small visi most n depth of field and is ofte re f lections ular spec as such ts, background highligh is not limited to highand light sources. However, it of-focus regions of lights and can occur in all outthe image.
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Landing craft takes a direct hit from underwater mine.
the size of the blasts, some of which involved as much as 400lbs of explosives. It wasn’t just the camera and lenses that needed safeguarding – great attention was paid to protecting the long runs of cables involved and, again, no cable was damaged in the entire shoot. Sim [Digital] helped custom-build a fibre optic cable system that allowed us to connect to the cameras from a much longer distance than normal (for some set-ups as far as 600 or 700m). For heavy shrapnel blasts at close range to the cameras, we protected the cables with sheets of 3/4” plywood laid on top, and then rubber carpets at further distances. This often meant laying down a couple of hundred metres’ worth of protection. One of the main problems of enclosing the camera in a metal tube for long periods in the Canadian summer would be overheating. The metal housings were painted white on top to deflect the sun, plus the camera’s internal thermal sensor could be monitored remotely, and a fan was included in each housing. Very high speed We shot for 17 days, recording several events each day with four Phantom cameras; two Gold and two of the newer Flex model that can record up to 2500 frames per second. Recording was to HDCam decks. On an earlier pre-shoot in the winter, we had used a Weisscam HS-2 from P+S Technik, also a good camera, but for the main shoot we found that it was not possible to control the Weisscam from far enough away and so, after testing various models, we opted for the Phantoms. We also used GoPro minicams to get in closer to the action and, for some sequences, played with unusual viewpoints, for instance, mounting a Canon 5D on the end of a machine gun to achieve spectacular POV shots running through the undergrowth, looking down the barrel of the gun towards the muzzle flash. A major challenge of the shoot was the triggering of the camera’s capture mode. With the extreme frame rates involved, the maximum capture time was just 4 to 8 seconds, so the cameras had to be triggered immediately before the blast. If incorrect, we’d miss the start of a blast. We controlled the cameras from laptops in the safety of the military’s personnel bunkers and we took full advantage of the Phantom’s customizable pre-trigger times.
Cinematic images For the lenses, I went straight for Cooke 5/i and Panchro/i prime lenses. I have always used Cookes and purchased my own set of Panchro/i lenses last year to shoot Afghan Luke, a feature film about the aftermath of the war in Afghanistan. I really wanted to capture these moving stories with the best lenses available and I have always loved the “painterly” look of Cookes. What I mean by painterly here is the way Cooke lenses handle focus fall-off, blurred backgrounds (“bokeh”) and contrast. This way of defocusing out-of-focus areas of the frame is part of the signature “Cooke look.” Cooke has a way of making sharp yet gentle images with their optics. The resulting images are velvety and smooth with a shallow depth of field that leads your eye to the subject, bringing a naturalness to each scene. For this series, I wanted the viewer to experience the scene as a sympathetic witness rather than as if watching a scientific explosives test. This look would also help the linking from archive footage to the interviews and reconstructions. On set I dialled in a contrasty, desaturated look to our monitors to allow us to preview the final graded look while the Phantoms captured the full range of colour and contrast. This allowed the colourist to have all the information needed to push and pull the image in the final grade. The precious lenses were protected with a form of Perspex polycarbonate called Lexan; we would have preferred glass but had to accept that plastic was the most protective. Tests with different thicknesses were conducted, and at all stages we had to defer to the explosives experts – when you’re dealing with metal shrapnel flying at 22,000ft per second, you go with what will protect most effectively! Lexan can be bulletproof so we were able to put the lenses into serious harm’s way without worrying (well, not too much). Shooting through a piece of plastic obviously meant some optical degradation, but with these high-performance lenses we didn’t lose too much detail. At times, set-ups were almost like shooting still life; we would frame a composition with a beautiful shot of a church, then this would begin to shatter in extreme slo-mo, creating a contrast of serene horror. The human presence is implied; the viewer knows there are people in the church or in the landing craft from details like a knapsack on a wall or boots drying in the sun, a helmet flying through the air – little details that bring home that there were people involved in these horrifying situations. It’s all in your mind. You don’t need to see the people – in some ways it is scarier not to. Fireballs and f lashes We shot largely wide open to capture the blasts and fireballs, using only available light. Some of the incendiary bombs were shot at dusk to take advantage of the last vestiges of daylight before the set was lit up by the bright explosions of magnesium and phosphorus sparks, the fireballs creating their own light sources.
Exposure was set manually on the Phantoms and I relied on Sony OLED PVM-740 monitors, viewed from the safety of the shelters, for confidence in this. Generally I erred on the side of being slightly under to avoid burnt-out skies or over-blown fireballs and also used ND graduated filters to control bright skies. Setting exposure was mainly down to experience and knowing the latitude of the Phantoms to gauge how they would handle the bright bursts of light. We also had to deal with extreme contrasts; direct transitions from flashes of bright light and fireballs to heavy black smoke. Again the Cookes coped with this brilliantly without any double imaging or ghosting. Most of the explosions were shot at 1000–2500fps; viewing this amount of power at these frame rates was incredible – you see the shock wave, the dust rising, things you would never see with the naked eye. heavy work This was a physically demanding shoot. There were seven of us on the team who did everything from dealing with the cables for each shot to moving the heavy housings – it really was an “all hands on deck” project. In order to provide the stability and protection required in the face of the massive explosions, the assembled tripod/housing units weighed in at 300lbs, which provided a significant challenge when it came to moving them around. In fact, with all the obvious hazards present, the only injuries resulted from handling the camera housings. We all knew this was a one-off opportunity and everyone pitched in, knowing the results would be worth it. The evocative series that has resulted is testimony to this.
KIT LIST
2 x Phantom Golds 2 x Phantom Flexes 1 x Weisscam HS-2 1 x Set of Cooke 5/i T1.4 lenses (25, 32, 50, 65, 75, 100) 1 x Set of Cooke Panchro/i lenses (18, 25, 32, 50, 75, 100) 1 x O’Connor 2575 fluid head 1 x O’Connor 2060 fluid head 4 x Sets of Tiffen ND soft grads 4 x Schneider in-tray rota Polas 2 x Sony PVM-740 7.4” HD OLED monitors 2 x Panasonic 1760 17” LCD monitors 6 x GoPro Hero cameras 1 x Canon 5D MKII 1 x Set of Nikkor AIS primes 1 x Fotodiox Nikkor to Canon lens mount adapter 1 x Small HD DP-6 monitor 1 x Transvideo CineMonitor HD6 SBL 6” LED backlit monitor 2 x ARRI LMB-5 matte boxes 2 x ARRI LMB-15 matte boxes 2 x Sony HDCam S280 portable recorders 4 x 800 metre rolls of Telecast f ibre optic cable This article was f i rst published in Zerb, the journal of the Guild of Television Cameramen www.gtc.org.uk/publications/zerb.aspx. See more about the GTC at www.gtc.org.uk.
Canadian Cinematographer - november 2012 •
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LIGHTING A VIRTUAL APOCALYPSE: Samy Inayeh csc Talks Cybergeddon
Photo Credit: Cybergeddon Team
By Fanen Chiahemen
S
et in the world of cyber-terrorism, Internet identity fraud and computer hacking, the digital crime thriller Cybergeddon follows an ambitious young FBI agent who heads up a task force that monitors and prosecutes those who use the Internet for negative ends, unleashing chaos on global financial government structures.
Cybergeddon is the brainchild of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation creator Anthony Zuiker; the other big name attached to it is actor Olivier Martinez (Unfaithful, Taking Lives). Aside from having star power, it also has a first-of-its-kind distribution model, being released in 10-minute instalments on Yahoo! over nine weeks in 25 countries. Director of photography Samy Inayeh csc – a Dubai-born Torontonian – says he and Venezuelan-American director Diego Velasco were conscious of the fact that Cybergeddon was likely to be viewed not just on widescreen computer monitors and bigscreen TVs, but also on mobile devices, which set the foundation for the way they shot it. “We both knew that at its best it would be seen on a big-screen TV and at times in a movie theatre, and at its worst people would be watching it on their iPads or even their iPhones,” Inayeh says. “We were making a film that could potentially be watched on lunch breaks or on a bus on your way somewhere, so it had to be always moving and always energetic and always sustaining interest visually.” Velasco elaborates, “Because the film is going to be viewed on
14 • Canadian Cinematographer - november 2012
An action scene from Cybergeddon.
computer screens, iPhones and iPads, we wanted a style that’s bold, colourful and aggressive yet grounded, so people feel like what they’re watching is real and feel like whatever happens to the characters can happen to us.” However, the producers also wanted a final product that would stand up on the big screen. “They always maintained that they wanted something that didn’t just feel like a TV movie. They wanted something that if they were watching it in a theatre it would still look good. So lighting-wise I lit it essentially like a motion picture that was intended for the big screen,” Inayeh says. The trouble was he had to achieve the desired look without an arsenal of slick tools at his disposal. “The misconception was that because Anthony Zuiker was involved and it was being financed by big companies like Yahoo! and Norton we had more money than we actually did,” the cinematographer says, laughing. “In fact our lighting budget was smaller than budgets I’ve had on even smaller projects. The money went very quickly to the large cast, to the amount of stunt sequences and action sequences, and the amount of sets and locations that we had.” Fortunately, he was working with a director who has a background as a cinematographer. “My experience coming up through the camera department really allowed me to be very efficient and to save a lot of conversations, and Samy and I could
Both knew that lighting efficiently would mean being creative with existing light. “We would just strategize,” Inayeh explains. “We would frame the action in such a way that we knew we would already get a lot of support from what was existing by shooting at the right times of the day or taking advantage of streetlight and
existing artificial light often just supplementing it slightly or subtracting it. We could actually get a lot more bang for our buck that way. We said no to lighting if we didn’t have time for it. Or we would go to a location and instead of putting lights on we would turn lights off, and in the end we were able to get that aesthetic.” To capture the light, Inayeh, who comes from a film background, relied on the ALEXA because of its latitude and sensitivity. “I had a really strong idea of what I could get away with, having shot a lot of commercials and music videos with that camera,” he says. “Often times we’d just be shooting out on the street with nothing but an LED brick light, and we’d be able to see for miles. And we’d get these perfectly beautiful images where it probably looked like we’d spent a little extra time and effort lighting it. “One time we had a very big scene that we were shooting in a library. In the scene, two of the main characters walk in from
the bright sunlight outside. They walk around the corner to a big foyer and then into a library with 30-foot high ceilings and large windows. Everybody was panicking at the beginning of the day because we were running out of time. So using a couple of really strategically placed key lights and relying on the robustness of the ALEXA’s image and latitude, we were able to do this page-and-a-half scene where they come from really bright light, go through a dark foyer, then go into a much brighter room. I was able to light it in 20 minutes, in one single beautifully executed Steadicam shot, pulled off by the always great Mike Heathcote, and have it come out wonderfully.” By keeping the camera moving and getting copious amounts of coverage, Inayeh was able to create a visual language that was dynamic, bold and fast-paced. Two ALEXAs ran alongside each other for almost every shot of the film, with some strategically placed digital SLRs and Go-Pros thrown in for action and stunt scenes. “Often times it would be a very hectic camera department. Our first ACs Rob Tagliaferri and Jurek Osterfeld did a wonderful job of keeping the departments organized, pulling off super tricky shots and keeping me laughing,” Inayeh recalls. “There were days where we would have five or six cameras running on a given scene. It was a challenge in that way. I’d had enough experience with digital SLRS to know we could get the images to a place where they looked nice enough or clean enough to cut rather seamlessly with the ALEXA footage.” Inayeh was also impressed with the 45250 Zeiss Fuji Alura zoom lens. “It was beautiful. We pretty much lived on it on B camera. I was surprised at how good the glass was, how sharp and good the tracking was, and how good the colour rendition and contrast was.” Working with a director who liked to take risks pushed Inayeh to ignore some of the traditional rules of shooting. “Diego was always looking for new ways to look at things and cover the action and place the camera,” Inayeh says. “He never wanted anything to be the same or conventional. He almost never wanted to do a master.”
Photo Credit: Cybergeddon Team
just look at each other and know exactly what we’re thinking and cover scenes in a very efficient way,” Velasco says.
Olivier Martinez in a scene from Cybergeddon.
Inayeh recalls Velasco’s ingenuity in one scene that required an establishing shot of police cars racing into a building: “We were hunting for a place to put the cameras to cover the action. And then Diego had this wonderful idea of, ‘Why don’t we just put the camerain the back seat of the third police car?’ So I got into the back seat with the camera and the stunt driver. We tore off down the street with the ALEXA, stripped down to a battery and a lens, in the back of the car. We came tearing up in front of the building, and my A cam operator Mike Heathcote, who was brilliant, was hiding behind a tree. So as the car comes up, he runs out and opens the car door. I’d lean out and he would grab the camera and he would go running into the building with the police officers. We didn’t do any other coverage of that sequence. We didn’t do a wide shot of the building, we just did that one shot that was so full of energy and life. That was the third day of filming, and at that moment I looked at Mike and said, ‘This is how we’re going to shoot the rest of this movie.’ “We were always encouraged by Diego,” Inayeh continues. “If this would be the obvious way to light it, we had to say to ourselves, ‘Let’s work against the way we’ve been trained or conditioned. Or the way we’ve seen things done already.’ And every time we did a take, Diego would say from behind the monitor, ‘Give me something different, give me something else.’ Sometimes we would do 20-minute takes and just keep resetting in the middle of the take. So we never had a moment to relax or fall into a sense of complacency in terms of the visual style. And we always had to be alert and thinking, ‘Okay this shot’s going great, but Diego’s bored already so when he calls reset he’s going Canadian Cinematographer - november 2012 •
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to want something different.’ It was very challenging and tiring and very invigorating. A lot of the film was shot handheld too, so it was a very physically challenging shoot.”
Photo Credit: Cybergeddon Team
Inayeh credits the support of his crew for being able to pull it off. “Everybody rose to the occasion. My gaffer Chad Roberts and my key grip Anthony Police were always up for it and kept an eye out for me while trying to keep up with a really fast-paced schedule. “The focus pullers, Rob Tagliaferri and Jurek Osterfeld, were amazing, as was my second unit DP Michael Jari Davidson,” he says. When it came to watching dailies, Inayeh had two rotating drives he would watch ProRes QuickTime files on. “It became very clear that operating on the film, as well as lighting for two cameras all the time, and trying to light sets ahead was daunting for me. I was on my feet all day from the minute I showed up on set to the minute I went home, I never had a chance to sit down,” he says.
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Producer Anthony E. Zuiker and actress Missy Peregrym on the set of Cybergeddon in Toronto.
Fortunately, he had what he calls “a remarkable and incredibly talented” DIT in Baha Nurlybayev. Because Inayeh didn’t have very much time to spend with him, Nurlybayev “would create looks and then he would come to set and find two minutes where I would be sitting on the dolly and not have a camera in my hand, and show me the stills on an iPad of the shots he was working on. And I’d scroll through the stills really quickly and give him quick, rapid-fire notes of what I wanted changed and how I wanted them to look. And he never fell
behind and he always managed to get the dailies looking the way I wanted them to. It’s not ideal, but it worked and that’s the way we needed to approach things on this film, for sure. “Every day we’d look at the dailies and go, this is looking cool, this is looking like a movie I’d want to go see. It’s got a more artistic feel to it for an action film. It’s a spare, simple, yet beautiful looking film,” he says. Cybergeddon is available online at yahoo.ca.
The Beauty of the Clam Light is Illuminating
T
here are curves and there are curves and then there are curves on cars. And therein lies the challenge. Try capturing every nuance, every sexy arch, the gleam of the paintwork and the shine of those rims, and pretty soon it’s apparent: you’re shooting a mirror. As American director of photography Charles Barbee notes on his website: “There are a lot of drop-dead gorgeous car commercials being seen on television today, but the art of lighting automobiles is nothing new really. The art of lighting car bodies is as old as our understanding of how to paint or draw photo-realistic images, which involves a thorough understanding of the interplay of light and shadow on objects, textures and surfaces in the real world.” To avoid all those reflections in the bodywork and to capture the sex appeal, he said, back in the day they used to hold a cotton “sheet” (aka “rag”) over the car to get the perfect light. By the 1950s they went to bounce lighting. It wasn’t perfect, but it’s all they had. With modern vehicle design ever more evolved with sharper, more intense angles, more specialized lighting evolved, as Barbee notes eloquently: “Modern automobile body design today is described by designers as ‘tense,’ meaning the lines and curves change shape often and thus create more unpredictable results where reflections are concerned. This is because many complex shapes are being blended seamlessly, as though a membrane has been smoothly prodded into one continuous, compound shape. These shapes provide very unconventional reflective patterns and have given rise directly to the idea of ‘liquid light,’ where the reflections flow continuously from one shape to the next as the viewpoint changes, rather than starting or stopping or changing shape abruptly where one surface ends and another begins.”
By Ian harvey
So where the rubber meets the road there’s the Clam Light, developed in Toronto by Dwight Crane to solve those challenges associated with lighting those curves. The Clam Light is a massive half-cylinder of sheer light which is suspended from three points and thus can be manipulated along its XYZ axis. It can be hung from an interior studio ceiling or suspended from a crane, and it’s no coincidence the latter option is available through Dwight Crane as well, since their film industry expertise evolved from their crane business 35 years ago. At about $10,000 a day, give or take, it’s not cheap, but it delivers. “It’s really all about getting that beauty shot,” said David Dwight, who designed and built the Clam Light. “And it is really geared just to automotive, though we had one production rent it from us as a prop one time. They wanted something cool in the background I guess. We did use it once for helicopter too.” The assembly also comes with filter frame assemblies, ready for standard gels, he said. And one of the biggest features is the lack of clutter. “We had one production where they were prevented from cables running on the street because of a bylaw so they used it to light the whole street from above and it was completely clean.” The unit is 16 feet wide, 36 feet long and 6 feet high at the apex of the arch, and weighs about 2,900 pounds, including the three onboard chain motors, Dwight said. Inside there are 32 1,500-watt FGT incandescent bulbs which can be dimmed and sequenced. Running over the bottom is a onepiece bleached seamless muslin with two removable inner layers of silk, which Dwight said means the light is perfectly clean. Canadian Cinematographer - november 2012 •
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TeCh CoLUMn
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Dwight Crane.
Clam Light
“There are no leopard spots or anything like that,” he said. The unit draws 450 amps – about 150 per leg and needs a three-phase input, 120-208 volts. It’s all controllable through six Socapex connectors to a console and the now ubiquitous iPhone controller app, he said. “Having the fixture wired so that each lamp within the fixture can be controlled individually provides ultimate in control, only limited by the user’s imagination, dimming, chasing or any other pattern,” said Dwight. “In combination with the beached white seamless muslin, cutters between the lamps provide a more defined shadow line and the ability to colour correct the lamps.”
It’s that ability to sequence, to create the illusion of movement with the lights chasing across the surface of the subject which caught Toronto-based DOP Dylan Macleod csc’s eye while shooting a car commercial a few years ago. “We had matted the shot and we had to have the car driving along the side of a wall,” he said. “And to get the illusion of movement we sequenced the lights. It worked really well.” Macleod has used the Clam a couple of times, both for car commercials, but muses it could be fun to tease some “magic hour” effects from it on features or even music videos. “It has this perfect light, almost surreal, soft,” he said. “You could almost see it shooting a couple on a park bench or in a music video. Of course, it’s expensive so the production manager is probably going to talk you out of it!” Still, he said, the cost is somewhat of an illusion as well. “If you had to build something like that for that effect, you’d have three electricals, three grips for a day to build it, then again on shooting and then again for tear down, that’s three crew days so it adds up quickly,” he said. “With the Clam, they come in, set it up and take it down. When you compare the total cost of each it’s not that expensive for the Clam.”
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Ian Harvey is a veteran Toronto-based journalist who writes for a variety of publications and covers the technology sector. He TORONTO HALIFAX welcomes feedback and eagerly solicits subject matter ideas at ian@ 416-444-7000 902-404-3630 pitbullmedia.ca. 416-444-7000 902-404-3630
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Canada Client: Panavision _____________________________________________________ Docket:PAN-COR-1634-08R1 ________________ CSC News Media: _____________________________________________________ Placement: ____________ W x 2.125" H N/A Trim Size:5.25" ______________________ Safety: ____________________ Bleed: N/A ________________ B&W 7, 2010 Colour: ________________________ Publ. Date: 2010 _________________ Prod. Date: Jan ____________ Tel: 416-423-9825
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18 • Canadian Cinematographer - november 2012
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Edmonton Film Cooperative wants your unused Arri 35 mm camera. Do you have film cameras languishing on a shelf? Give it a new life, give it to a film coop and we will give you a healthy tax credit. Have a 35BL, a 235, a 435 gathering dust because everyone is Red cam nuts? Have other great camera accessories? Let us know, let’s make a deal. Contact Andy @ rentals@fava.ca and work a great deal. SHORT-TERM ACCOMMODATION FOR RENT Visiting Vancouver for a shoot? One-bedroom condo in Kitsilano on English Bay with secure underground parking, $350 per week. Contact: Peter Benison at 604-229-0861, 604-229-0861or peter@peterbenison.com. Liberty Village Office Space Approximately 1,250 sq ft of fully furnished, turn-key office space in prime Liberty Village location available to established television or new media production company in shared office setting. Features include glassed boardroom, 2 closed door offices, internet access, alarm system and shared kitchen. Please reply by email to john@hlp.tv or call John at 647.891.4027 EQUIPMENT FOR SALE Nikkor AF-S VR 500mm F 4 IS ED Lens. Super rare and very hard to find!!! Serial # 204153 Perfect condition. Not a scratch on it!!! Only one year old. Included Hard Shell Case, Lens Hood, Lens Strap, Case strap. Come with Manfrotto Carbon Fiber tripod, Jobu head and Jobu Mounting Bracket. Asking price $9000.00 gandalf-merlyn@shaw.ca, 604.566.2235 (Residence), 604.889.9515 (Mobile) BL III Camera Kit $3750 Or Best Offer gandalf-merlyn@shaw.ca, 604.566.2235 (Residence), 604.889.9515 (Mobile) ARRIFLEX BL3 BODY WITH PL MOUNT, 4 PERF MOVEMENT, VARIABLE SHUTTER, FULL 35MM GATE, VIDEO TAP ELBOW, 2 X ARRI 400’ BL MAGAZINES, 2 X POWER CABLE, CASES FOR CAMERA, MAGS. BL IV Camera Kit $8,950 Or Best Offer gandalf-merlyn@shaw.ca, 604.566.2235 (Residence), 604.889.9515 (Mobile) ARRIFLEX BL4 BODY WITH PL MOUNT, 4 PERF MOVEMENT, VARIABLE SHUTTER, FULL 35MM GATE, ARRIGLOW MODULE AND ARRIGLOW GROUNDGLASS IN RED, CEI COLOR 4 VIDEO TAP CAMERA AND ELBOW, CEI ELECTRONIC RETICLE GENERATOR, BL4 VIEWFINDER EXTENSION, WIDEANGLE EYPIECE WITH HEATED EYECUP, POWERCABLE FOR HEATED EYEPIECE, ARRIFLEX 4 x 5 SWINGAWAY MATTEBOX, ARRI FF2 FOLLOW FOCUS WITH EXTENSION, WHIP AND 2 GEARS, 15MM ARRI SLIDING BASEPLATE SET WITH 2 X 18” AND 2 X 12” STAINLESS STEEL 15MM RODS, 5 X ARRI 1000’ BL MAGAZINES, 2 X ARRI 400’ BL MAGAZINES, 3 X DOUBLE POWER 12 VOLT BATTERIES, 2 X 12 VOLT CHARGES, POWER CABLE, CASES FOR CAMERA, MAGS, MATTEBOX, ETC.,FILM TEST HAS BEEN SHOT. gandalf-merlyn@shaw.ca, 604.566.2235 (Residence), 604.889.9515 (Mobile) JVC GY-DV300 Broadcast Quality camcorder. 4x3 or 9x16 switchable 750 horizontal lines with several extra batteries and carrying case. Plus and external Shure VP88 stereo microphone with Rycote bracket and wind screen with high wind cover and extra mic cables. Asking $ 1200.00. Contact Robert Bocking csc 416 636-9587 or rvbocking@rogers.com for more information.
Equipment for sale!! All equipment in excellent shape!! Panasonic AJHDX900P High Definition Camera, Panasonic Stereo Microphone, Canon Zoom Lens 8x160 (J20a x 8B4 IRS), Dionic 90 Anton Bauer Batteries & charger, Anton Bauer mini fill light 12 V, Marshall 7” HD-SDI LCD Monitor & accessories, 2 x Porta Brace camera bags, Sony Digital Betacam (DVW700) and accessories, Sachtler fluid head VIDEO 20 III & Sachtler tripod legs fibre & fibre case. Call 613-255-3200, Total $ 25,000.Item for sale: Meerkat Jib Arm, made by FILMAIR INTERNATIONAL. This is a mini jib for full compliment 35mm camera, lens and mattebox combination. It is a fixed length jib, very easy and fast set-up. Can be used on any dolly or tripod. Jib arm is in very good condition. Comes with four weights and case. Full specs are on website: http://www.filmairinternational.com/camera_mounts.asp#MEERKATJIB Price $ 2,400. Contact: Milan Podsedly csc milan.podsedly@gmail.com cell: 416 409-5758 Super 16 Bolex H 16 conversion, Switar 10mm, Macro Switar 26mm, Macro Switar 75mm Pistol grip, filter holders, Nikon to C mount adapter $2900.00 Call Antonin 647 999 7172 PL mount prime lens set (Sony) 35mm, 50mm 85mm all T2.0. Mint condition. Used briefly for one shoot $5200.00 John Banovich, csc 604-726-5646 JohnBanovich@gmail.com Panasonic BT-S950P 16:9 / 4:3 SD Field Monitor for Sale (Excellent Condition) - $100. Portabrace included Please contact Christian at (416) 459-4895 or email cbielz@gmail.com OWN A PIECE OF CINEMA HISTORY: selling a vintage Bell & Howell 2709 camera with mags. THE film camera of the 1920s and ‘30s; assorted other goodies. Contact: dkoch198@hotmail.com. VIDEO & AUDIO GEAR FOR SALE: (2) HVX-200 Panasonic P2 Camcorders $1,500 each; (1) DSR-1500 Sony DVCAM recorder, $1,500; (1) Sony DSR-1 DVCAM dockable recorder $1,000; (3) Sony PVV-3 Betacam recorders $500 each; (3) Mitsubishi XL25U video projectors $500 each; (1) Mackie 1604VLZ audio mixer $500; (1) Glidecam PRO2000 camera stabilizer $200; (1) Glidecam DVPRO RIG camera stabilizer $300; (1) Yamaha P2075 amplifier 75W stereo/150W mono $500; (3) HVR-Z1U Sony HDV camcorders $1,000 each; (1) Sony DSR-300 DVCAM camcorder $1,500; (1) For-A VPS400D 8 input SDI switcher $2,700; (2) Sony WRT822/WRR861 wireless transmitter/ receiver – no mic - $750 each; (2) Sony BRC-300 remote control P/T/Z cameras $1,990 each. Call Ted Mitchener at ZTV Broadcast Services 905-290-4430 or email ted@ztvbroadcast.com. SERVICES Need your reel updated? Looking for an editor? I am a CSC associate member who is also an editor with my own FCP suite. I am willing to trade my edit suite time in exchange for rental of your gear, or shooting advice, or both. Please send email to miurabucho@gmail.com. Camera Classified is a free service provided for CSC members. For all others, there is a one-time $25 (plus GST) insertion fee. Your ad will appear here and on the CSC’s website, www.csc.ca. If you have items you would like to buy, sell or rent, please email your information to editor@csc.ca.
Digital Camera Assistants Course The course will be conducted by working professional camera assistants and cinematographers who will not only teach, but share their wealth of production know-how and technological knowledge gained from years of on-set experience. Learn the varied skills necessary for a camera assistant working in digital formats New digital cameras and technologies are being introduced into the Film and Television industry at lightning speed. Keeping on top of emerging technologies and techniques poses unique challenges for everyone. The CSC Digital Camera Assistants Course eliminates the mystery and provides its participants with the tools necessary to work in today’s production world.
November 17 – November 25, 2012 or February 9 – February 17, 2013 Toronto, Canada. $1,350 CDN Continental breakfast, snacks and lunch will be provided
For an application and detailed itinerary please visit the CSC website: www.csc.ca or phone 416-266-0591 Canadian Cinematographer - november 2012 •
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CLAssIFIeDs
EQUIPMENT WANTED
PRoDUCTIons & CALenDAR
Production notes Arctic Air II (series); DOP Bruce Worrall csc; OP Wayne MacConnell; to December 14, Aldergrove Arrow (series); DOP Glen Winter csc and Gordon Verheu csc (alternating episodes); OP John Davidson and Doug Craik (alternating episodes); to December 4, Vancouver Bates Motel (series); DOP Thomas Yatsko and John Bartley csc, asc; to January 24, Vancouve Beauty and the Beast (series); DOP D. Gregor Hagey csc; OP Sean Jensen; to December 20, Toronto Bomb Girls II (series); DOP Eric Cayla csc; OP Andris Matiss; to December 10, Toronto Call Me Fitz IV (series); DOP Ian Bibby; J.P. Locherer csc; to December 14, Dartmouth Cracked (series); DOP Norayr Kasper csc; OP Dino Laurenza; to December 10, Etobicoke Cult (series); Attila Szalay csc,HSC; OP Richard Wilson; to December 13, North Vanvouver Defiance (series); DOP Thomas Burstyn csc, FRSA, NZCS; OP Jim Van Dijk; to November 12, Toronto Degrassi: The Next Generation XII (series); DOP Mitchell Ness csc; OP Jason Webber; to November 5, Toronto Emily Owens M.D. (series); DOP Bob Aschmann; OP Neil Seale; to December 4, North Vancouver Falling Skies III (series); DOP Nate Goodman; to December 19, North Vancouver Fringe V (series); DOP David Geddes csc & Michael Wale csc; to November 29, Vancouver Hannibal (series); DOP Jim Hawkinson (pilot) & Karim Hussain (Eps 3-13); OP Mark Willis; to February 13, 2013, Toronto Heartland VI (series); DOP Craig Wrobleski csc; OP Damon Moreau; to December 7, Calgary Hemlock Grove (series); DOP Fernando Arguelles (Eps 2-13); OP Kevin Jewison; to December 14, Toronto Horns (feature); DOP Fred Elmes; to November 23, Burnaby Life With Boys II (series); DOP Bentley Miller; to December 7, Toronto Mortal Instruments: The City of Bones (feature); DOP Geir Andreassen; OP Robert Stecko; to November 2, Toronto Motive (series); DOP Mathias Herndl aac; to February 26, Burnaby Red Widow (series); DOP David Wagreich; OP Trig Singer; to November 15, Vancouver Orphan Black (series); DOP Stephen Reizes csc; to February 12, Toronto Republic of Doyle IV (series); DOP Malcolm Cross; OP Tony Guerin; to December 14, St. John’s Robocop (feature); DOP Lula Carvalho; OP Angelo Colavecchia; to January 14, 2013, Toronto Rookie Blue IV (series); DOP David Perrault csc; OP Frank Polyak; to January 25, 2013, Mississauga Rogue (series); DOP Keiran McGuigan BSC; OP David Crone; to November 30, Vancouver Seed (series); DOP David Makin csc; OP Forbes MacDonald Jr; to December 14, Dartmouth Swindle (MOW); DOP Thomas Harting csc; to November 1, North Vancouver Warehouse 13 IV (series); DOP Mike McMurray csc & David Herrington csc (alternating episodes); OP David Towers; to November 6, Toronto White House Down (feature); DOP Anna Foerster; OP Francois Daignault; to November 28, Montreal Wolves (feature); DOP Gavin Smith csc; OP Perry Hoffmann; to November 1, Toronto
Calendar of events November 1-4, Vancouver Asian Film Festival, vaff.org 3-4, CSC Advanced Car Lighting Workshop, Toronto, csc.ca 6-11, Reel Asian International Film Festival, Toronto, reelasian.com 8-11, Silver Wave Film Festival, Fredericton, swfilmfest.com
Subscribe online to Canadian Cinematographer at www.csc.ca 20 • Canadian Cinematographer - november 2012
7-18, Rencontres internationales du documentaire du Montréal, ridm.qc.ca 17-25, CSC Digital Assistants Course, Toronto, csc.ca 21-25, Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival, aboriginalfilmfest.org Nov. 28-Dec. 4, Whistler Film Festival, Whistler, BC, whistlerfilmfestival.com One-year subscriptions are available in Canada for $40.00 for individuals and $80.00 for institutions, including HST. In U.S. rates are $45.00 and $90.00 for institutions in U.S. funds. International subscriptions are $50.00 for individuals and $100.00 for institutions. Subscribe online at www.csc.ca.
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