Canadian Society of Cinematographers Magazine January 2015

CANADIAN SOCIETY OF CINEMATOGRAPHERS

$4 Januar y 2015 www.csc.ca

BANG BANG BABY

Bobby Shore csc Scott McClellan: Cast No Shadow • Remembering Roger Racine csc

A publication of the Canadian Society of Cinematographers 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.

FEATURES – VOLUME 6, NO. 8 JANUARY 2015

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 non-partisan groups in our industry but have no political or union affiliation.

Credit: Courtesy of Scythia Films

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 digital professionals, from the aspiring student and camera assistant to the news veteran and senior director of photography.

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Credit: Jim Desautels

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Bobby Shore csc Goes Bang Bang Baby By Fanen Chiahemen

Cast No Shadow: Scott McClellan Brings Light to Newfoundland Film

By Fanen Chiahemen

Crafting a Classic Look for Parks Canada By Matthew A. MacDonald

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COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 2 4 5 6 20 24 26 27 28

From the President In the News Best & Worst Advice In Memoriam Cams Part 2 Tech Column CSC Member Spotlight - Thomas Burstyn csc, frsa, nzcs Classifieds Productions Notes / Calendar

Cover: A young girl dreams of becoming a famous singer in Bang Bang Baby.

Credit: Courtesy of Scythia Films

Canadian Cinematographer January 2015 Vol. 6, No. 8 CSC BOARD MEMBERS PRESIDENT George Willis csc, sasc, gawillis@sympatico.ca PAST PRESIDENT, ADVISOR Joan Hutton csc, joanhuttondesign@gmail.com VICE PRESIDENTS Ron Stannett csc, ronstannett@sympatico.ca Carlos Esteves csc, carlos@imagesound.ca TREASURER Joseph Sunday phd JSunday1@CreativeAffinities.com SECRETARY Antonin Lhotsky csc, alhotsky@gmail.com MEMBERSHIP CO-CHAIRS Phil Earnshaw csc, philyn@sympatico.ca Alwyn Kumst csc, alwynkumst@gmail.com EDUCATION CO-CHAIRS D. Gregor Hagey csc, gregor@dghagey.com Dylan Macleod csc, dmacleod@sympatico.ca PUBLIC RELATIONS CHAIR Bruce Marshall, brucemarshall@sympatico.ca DIRECTORS EX-OFFICIO Jeremy Benning csc, jbenning@me.com Kim Derko csc, kimderko@sympatico.ca John Holosco csc, holoskofilms@gmail.com Bruno Philip csc, bphilipcsc@gmail.com Brendan Steacy csc, brendansteacy@gmail.com Carolyn Wong, CarolynWong50@gmail.com EDITOR-IN-CHIEF George Willis csc, sasc EDITOR EMERITUS Donald Angus EXECUTIVE OFFICER Susan Saranchuk, admin@csc.ca EDITOR Fanen Chiahemen, editor@csc.ca COPY EDITOR Karen Longland ART DIRECTION Berkeley Stat House WEBSITE www.csc.ca ADVERTISING SALES Guido Kondruss, gkondruss@rogers.com OFFICE / MEMBERSHIP / SUBSCRIPTIONS 131–3007 Kingston Road Toronto, Canada M1M 1P1 Tel: 416-266-0591; Fax: 416-266-3996 Email: admin@csc.ca, 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.

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2 • Canadian Cinematographer - January 2015

FROM THE PRESIDENT George A. Willis csc , sa sc

R

ecently I received an email from a film student asking whether he could interview me as part of his course’s requirement. We met at the CSC clubhouse and spent some time discussing many issues, the first of which was directly related to the question “where do I go from here?”

I’m sure we have all experienced this moment in our lives when we have had to make decisions that might have significant consequences. The worrisome uncertainty and the gnawing fear of committing to a strategy that could produce somewhat less-than-expected results. The realization that after completing three years in film school there is no guarantee of anything can be rather intimidating, unless one is fortunate enough to have a connection in the industry.

Discussions of this nature are often prefaced by, “What if …” “Maybe I could …” “Is it possible for me to …” and so on. In truth, there are no definitive answers that can be offered to assuage the pleading or the near panic that tends to become evident in the eyes of the person looking and hoping for a sign that will direct them onto the path to success.

In a world of rapidly and ever-changing technologies, I believe that one should begin with the simple understanding that just because three years of film school has been completed, there are no guarantees. I am of the opinion that film school is akin to learning to crawl and being able to stand rather wobbly in some cases.

It’s definitely not self-supporting; that comes much later. Too often, I meet students who have an expectation that once they graduate, the freelance world is waiting to snap them up. Wrong! This might sound harsh, but the reality is simply that film school is not a ticket to anywhere. It’s only a starting point.

During the ensuing discussion with this student, I suggested several approaches to address a few of the concerns that arose. First, one should begin with the assumption, “I know nothing” and be prepared to learn. Become a sponge to soak up anything and everything that might be offered by those who are qualified and experienced.

Secondly, I believe that the single most important word in the film business is “attitude,” and I explained that I would rather work with and mentor a person with limited knowledge but possessing a great attitude than someone who pretends to know everything but really knows nothing. They are a liability to me, the production and themselves.

There are those who might choose to start their career somewhere up the middle of the ladder, however, I am a firm supporter of the notion that people need to start at the bottom and work their way to whatever level is their personal goal.

Starting at the bottom should never be viewed as a negative, because each step is a building block that creates a solid foundation on which to build a secure future.

This is not only true in the film and television industry, but with all endeavours. see President page 7

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IN THE NEWS

streamlined marketing solution for the company’s divisions, which include SIM Digital, PS Production Services, Bling Digital and Chainsaw.

Credit John Narvali

New York’s Last Film Lab Closes

Member News

D

avid Greene csc is among the nominees for the American Society of Cinematographers’ 29th Annual Outstanding Achievement Awards. Greene is nominated in the television movie, miniseries, or pilot category for his work in the Lifetime TV movie The Trip to Bountiful. The winners will be announced on February 15 at a gala in Los Angeles.

Film Lab New York, the last motion picture film processing laboratory in New York City, announced it would cease operations as of December 19, 2014. The company, launched in 2011 as a joint venture between TechnicolorPostWorks New York and Deluxe New York, provided laboratory services to motion picture, television and commercial productions operating on the East Coast and around the world. The near-universal adoption of digital cinematography has led to declining demand for film laboratory services. The closure relates only to film processing and printing. Technicolor—PostWorks New York and Deluxe NY continue to operate all other services independently and as usual. Film Lab New York provided services to many of the world’s top cinematographers and directors, including Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen and Spike Lee.

David Kessler Named Deluxe Entertainment CEO; Suzanne Lezotte Joins SIM Group

TVA Group Acquires Vision Globale

Postproduction company Deluxe Entertainment named David Kassler its new chief executive in mid-November.

Kessler takes over from Cyril Drabinsky, who held the position since 2006.

Drabinsky will serve as the company’s vice chair, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Meanwhile, Suzanne Lezotte was recently appointed as director of marketing for The SIM Group. In this position, Lezotte will take the lead in creating a

TVA Group, a subsidiary of Quebecor Media, announced in November that it had signed an agreement to acquire Vision Globale’s assets for approximately $118 million. This transaction was subject to approval by the Competition Bureau. Upon completion of the transaction, the acquired operations will become part of TVA Group within the Media Group segment of Quebecor Media. Vision Globale provides soundstage and equipment leasing and post-

Write to Us

www.csc.ca Connect on-line with the CSC 4 • Canadian Cinematographer - January 2015

production services. The assets to be acquired include Mel’s Cité du cinéma in Montréal and Studios Melrose in Saint-Hubert, which facilities are used for both local and foreign film and television production, including American blockbusters.

Panavision Rolls Out Primo 70 Lenses at Camerimage Panavision in late November showcased its new line of Primo 70 lenses at the 22nd Camerimage International Film Festival. The lenses are designed to work with today’s larger sensor digital cameras. Panavision Primo 70 prime lenses are available in 11 focal lengths: 27 mm, 35 mm, 40 mm, 50 mm, 65 mm, 80 mm, 100 mm, 125 mm, 150 mm, 200 mm and 250 mm. Super 70 zoom lenses are also available in three sizes: 28-80 mm, 70-185 mm and 200-400 mm. The Primo 70 series are equivalent in size and weight to standard Primos. Primo 70 lenses are not compatible with film cameras. The internal mechanics retain a familiar Primo feel. Floating internal elements control breathing and allow the lens to perform from infinity to close focus. Currently, Panavision has made Primo 70 mounts for the Sony F55, RED DRAGON, ARRI ALEXA (standard and Open Gate), Phantom Flex4K and Phantom 65, with other cameras being assessed for compatibility. The Primo 70 series of lenses are available to rent from Panavision worldwide.

Courtesy of Canon

Canadian Cinematographer welcomes feedback, comments and questions about the magazine and its contents. Please send your letters to editor@csc.ca.

Letters may be edited for clarity and space.

@csc_CDN

BEST & WORST

THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE DOWNRIGHT UGLY Advice comes in many different shades. When it’s good, it can become a career-making credo, and when it’s bad, well, we can only scratch our heads in bewilderment. Canadian Cinematographer asked full and associate members of the CSC the following question: “What was the best and the worst advice you ever received during your career?” This is part four in the series.

ROBIN MILLER csc

A

top DP, Robin Miller csc is known for shooting stunning commercials for clients such as AT&T, Ford, Budweiser and Disney. His film and television credits include series Defiance, Murdoch Mysteries and the feature Blur, to be released this year. Miller is based out of Toronto.

Best Advice Towards the end of my assisting career, I often worked with the late Derek Vanlint csc, BSC. He was comfortable and secure in his role as director and DP, and consequently Derek was generous with his knowledge and role as a teacher. We were shooting a commercial which consisted of several vignettes, and things had been going well. We were a few hours ahead of schedule. I had been riding him pretty hard over the past few jobs with questions about what he was doing and why, so I was surprised when he turned to me and said, “Why don’t you have a go at shooting the next one?”

I was nervous, but I knew I was being handed a great opportunity. With the support of the gaffer John Hertzog, and grip JC, I jumped in and I seemed to be doing all right. But at one point Derek came up to me and offered this advice: “Just make sure you like what you see.” I thought about this for a moment, stopped thinking about ratios, backlights, fill and all those other things we’re taught. I just leaned over and put my eye to the eyepiece and asked myself, “Do I like it?”

That has been one of my guiding principles ever since. Thank you, Derek.

Worst Advice “Just shoot it!”

I was shooting my first movie. How I actually got the job I’ll never know. I was knocking myself out doing 14-hour days with no overtime or turnaround on a questionable, low-budget Meatballs rip-off, but I was loving it all the same.

Somewhere into the third or fourth week, we were finishing up some coverage on a scene we had just shot. It was late. I was fussing with the lights, trying to get it just right, when the producer walked up to the camera, looked at me and said loud and clear, “What do you think you’re doing? If people get this far into the movie, we’ve already got their money, so what are we worried about? Just shoot it!” He was such a blatant picture of the low-budget producer cliché that I had to laugh. Over the course of a career, as a DP I heard “Just shoot it” many times, and some of the time it wasn’t bad advice.

However, every time I did hear it, I’d think back to that day and chuckle.

Canadian Cinematographer - January 2015 •

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IN MEMORIAN Photos courtesy of Cinéfilms & Vidéo

Roger quitta Radio-Canada en 1964 pour fonder Cinéfilms et se consacra a son métier de direction-photo et réalisateur/ producteur, mettant en images des grands ce monde dont Fidel Castro et René Lévesque et des réalisateurs tel que Oliver Stone.

Il connut une fructueuse carrière au privé jusqu’à sa récente retraite, allant jusqu’à gagner un prix gémeau pour avoir produit le meilleur documentaire catégorie portrait avec sa télésérie sur René Levesque et aussi le Lifetime Achievement Award de la CSC. Republished with permission from Cinéfilms & Vidéo Productions Inc.

Roger Racine csc on the set of the 1950 film Les Lumières de ma ville

Roger Racine csc 1924 to 2014

C

’est avec des grands regrets que nous vous annonçons le décès de Roger Racine csc, le fondateur de Cinéfilms, a l’âge de 90 ans.

Roger connu une carrière exceptionnelle et fut un des plus grands pionniers méconnus du cinéma canadien français.

Directeur-photo de son métier, Roger commença sa carrière a l’ONF en temps de guerre et participa en tant qu’opérateur de caméra a des grandes manœuvres militaires au grand nord canadien comme Operation Muskox.

Du public il passa au prive en devenant le premier directeurphoto professionnel canadien-français sur les longs-métrages comme Aurore, Enfant Martyre et Le Gros Bill. De retour au public en 1954, lors de la fondation de Radio-Canada, Roger devint réalisateur de télévision, un media qu’il adorait, et fut parmi les fondateurs de l’association des réalisateurs de Radio-Canada suite a la fameuse grève de la télévision de 1959.

ENGLISH: It is with the deepest regret that we announce the death of Cinéfilms founder Roger Racine csc at the age of 90.

Roger had an exceptional career and was one of the pioneers of French Canadian cinema, albeit an unrecognized one.

A director of photography by trade, Roger began his career at the National Film Board during the war and worked as a camera operator, filming major military manoeuvres such as Operation Muskox.

He left the public sector and became the first professional French Canadian DP on such feature films as Aurore, Enfant Martyre and Le Gros Bill. Returning to the public sector in 1954, when Radio-Canada was founded, Roger worked as a director in television, a medium that he loved, and he became one of the founders of l’Association des réalisateurs de Radio-Canada following the famous television strike of 1959.

Roger left Radio-Canada in 1964 to found Cinéfilms and he devoted his career to cinematography, directing and producing, creating images of the likes of Fidel Castro and René Lévesque, and working with directors like Oliver Stone.

He had a successful career until his retirement, managing to win a Gemini Award for the TV mini-series documentary René Lévesque, héros malgré lui, as well as a CSC Lifetime Achievement Award.

Roger Racine csc in His Own Words: Over the years, the CSC got to know Racine through a number of interviews. Here are some revealing excerpts:

Roger Racine csc while shooting the military expedition Operation Muskox, circa 1948.

6 • Canadian Cinematographer - January 2015

On how he got into the business: My eldest sister used to take me to the Capitol Theatre [in Ottawa]. We would go and see films like Tarzan. I got the bug of the cinema from a very early age, so I went to the National Film Board with my projector and some 8 mm films and [there] was MacLean, and he was more or less the See Racine page 22

President from page 2 An analogy that I would make is that of someone who is inexperienced in the culinary arts and wishes to throw a dinner party. Where to begin? Does one just go out and purchase food items and attempt to concoct a meal and hope for a favourable outcome? Of course not! It takes planning, knowhow and experience to know what works to ensure success.

Our industry is no different. For those who are anything less than prepared, there is an old adage in our business: “You are only as good as your last job.”

For anyone entering the film and television industry, I would suggest attempting anything within reason, but understand what it is that you wish to accomplish. Take it one step at a time and don’t bite off more than you can chew on any occasion. Of course, try not to make mistakes, but if you do, make sure that you learn from the experience so as not to repeat them. Be alert, accommodating, and, above all, absorb everything, and you should do well.

I wish all students good luck in finding that perfect career path.

CSC Annual General Meeting Monday, February 2, 2015 at 6:30 p.m.

Technicolor Toronto Boardroom No. 1 49 Ontario Street Following the meeting we will have a light dinner and refreshments, courtesy of the good folks at Technicolor.

Great opportunity to meet and chat with your fellow cinematographers! Hope to see you there, CSC member!

It’s time to start thinking about entering that almost perfect film you shot!

THE

Here are the categories for Directors of Photography:

TH

CSC Awards is coming…

Entry forms are on the csc website: csc.ca

Deadline is January 30, 2015 And don’t forget to nominate your 1st or 2nd AC for the Camera Assistant Award of Merit!

H Documentary H Docu-drama H Dramatic short H Music video H Performance H Commercials H Branded Content H TV Drama H TV Series H Features Here are the categories for Cinematographers: H Roy Tash (spot news) H Stan Clinton (news essay) H Webeo (web content) H Corporate/Educational H Lifestyle/Reality H News Magazine H Student Film

The gala is on March 28, 2015 at The Arcadian Court, 401 Bay St, 8th Floor,Canadian Toronto.

Cinematographer - January 2015 • 7

COVER FEATURE

Bobby Shore csc Goes

BANG BANG BABY

By FANEN CHIAHEMEN

B

ang Bang Baby could be what you get when you cross a classic Elvis movie with a nuclear disaster and some mutants. The film tells the story of a teenager named Stepphy Holiday, who dreams of escaping her sleepy town of Lonely Arms and becoming a famous singer. It’s the 1960s, and she knows little about the A-bomb or satellites. Her biggest problems are caring for her alcoholic father and dodging the unwanted advances of the town creep, while she fantasizes about her favourite matinee idol. That all changes when a local chemical plant springs a leak, spilling a mutation-causing mist, just before her famous crush rolls into town.

8 • Canadian Cinematographer - January 2015

If it sounds surreal, it’s because it is. Bang Bang Baby is an expressionistic period piece and daring fusion of styles. One newspaper called it a “mash-up of teen melodrama, drive-in romance and B-movie sci-fi of the 1950s.” At screenings it’s been called part parody, an environmental piece and a campy comedy. It’s a world of chalky pastel colours wrapped in a menacing purple mist, with visual effects that include rear projection and blue screen.

“The whole thing feels like a John Waters, David Lynch kind of fever dream,” cinematographer Bobby Shore csc offers.

“It’s really odd and strange.”

In fact, writer-director Jeffrey St. Jules was inspired to write Bang Bang Baby – his first feature film – more than 10 years ago while watching Viva Las Vegas. He says he was initially captivated by the madness of Ann-Margret’s performance, but the darker elements developed in the writing process as he explored the underbelly of escapism.

“I felt like it all came out of the story,” St. Jules says. “You’re already in a world where anything can happen; you don’t have to be beholden to reality. I wanted to make a movie about her fantasies and nightmares, and the genres were just ways to express those fantasies and nightmares. It seemed to fit into the world of it for me so I went with it.”

St. Jules’ musings won over last year’s TIFF crowd – Bang Bang Baby won the City of Toronto Award for Best Canadian First Feature Film for its “ingenious mixing of genres, sophisticated blend of tones and ability to create its own strange, tragicomic and original world” – a dream outcome, perhaps, for a vision that was far from easy to realize.

With no easy synopsis, St. Jules had to cultivate strong images for Bang Bang Baby from the very beginning, ultimately obviating the need for lengthy conversations about the narrative when assembling his crew and securing funding.

Shore recalls getting the call from his agent about shooting Bang Bang Baby. “Jeff and I went to undergrad together 14 years ago in Montreal, and I hadn’t seen the guy since then,” Shore says. Rather than discuss the film with the cinematographer, St. Jules simply sent the script and a look book, which Shore says “was such a weird amalgamation of different types of imagery, but somehow there seemed to be a very cohesive nature behind it.”

St. Jules is admittedly taciturn and seems to rely on a mental database of movie images to communicate. “Jeff is one of the smartest directors I’ve worked with, but it takes a while to understand where he’s coming from and his thought process,” Shore says. “He would say one thing and I would interpret it one way and a day later I would come back with ideas based on that previous discussion, and he’d say, ‘No, I don’t think I want it to be like that.’ Then he’d pull up some random clip from an Elvis Presley movie and say, ‘It should feel like this,’ and then I would get it. And that became a really fun process.”

Credit: Courtesy of Scythia Films

Actor Justin Chatwin as a rock and roll star, the subject of a young woman’s fantasies in Bang Bang Baby.

Credit: Kristof, foto-studio.com

Together Shore and St. Jules came up with a period backdrop for Bang Bang Baby that borrowed from the works of filmmakers like Douglas Sirk – an aesthetic of locked-off cameras, bold, saturated colours and lead actresses lit to look almost supernaturally beautiful. “I started to realize how much Jeff wanted to play with the idea of artifice and how much he wanted to take the tropes and techniques of 1950s filmmaking and apply that to this movie. It was fun to dive into this world where everything could be stylized, where you could really use the lighting to enhance the mood and tone of each scene,” Shore says, adding that they had a tungsten-only rule on set – no HMIs or fluorescents, which were not commonly used during that era of filmmaking. “We were using those previously accepted aesthetics as a way to foreground the artifice of this story in this weird, meta, self-referential way, kind of foregrounding the process and the technique of making the movie.”

To get that period look, Shore fitted a RED EPIC with Panavision Standard Speeds from the 1960s, which he says “flare really badly and maintain a super low contrast, and if you shoot them wide open you get these really odd chromatic aberrations around the highlights. But it just looked really appropriate with shooting digital. Their resolving power is a lot lower than new lenses. A period piece like Bang Bang Baby should have a softer more classic look, and it would be better to achieve that with the lens you’re using as opposed to using filtration in front of a newer lens.”

With the mood in Bang Bang Baby swinging from whimsical to nightmarish, the director and DP had to make sure they were always on the same page when approaching each scene, so they crafted a document that Shore calls the “fantasy-nightmare scale. We drew a giant graph that had a line in the middle. Plus 10 was fantasy, minus 10 was nightmare, and zero was our baseline, Douglas Sirk-era look. We graphed the entire script and we always had that as a reference on set to help us decide how nightmarish or fantastical each scene was.”

During Stepphy’s fantasy sequences, Shore would add giant backlights to create a glow and halo around actress Jane Levy’s head, lighting her gauzy and soft. Because the girl’s fantasies are triggered by the appearance of the teen idol she obsesses over, Shore would light him the same way. “No matter where he was, we’d stick him in as much backlight as

Bobby Shore csc on the set of Bang Bang Baby.

possible. We used a lot of stage lights, like Leko lights and Source 4s, things you can control easily. So wherever he was we would take a Leko and point it right at him and then shutter it off so it didn’t really touch the rest of the set. It helped a lot that he wore a nice white suit. We would just backlight it to the point where the white suit would be overexposed and glowing.”

For those scenes, Shore switched the lenses on the EPIC to a pre-C Series 45-90 mm Anamorphic zoom. “It’s super soft and low contrast, and you have to centre punch everything because it just is completely out of focus on the fringes,” Shore says. “It gives a different visual texture and has a shallower depth of field than the spherical Standard Speeds, which we wanted to use to really isolate Stepphy in her fantasy world by really making her the sole point of focus in these shots.”

A few sequences in Bang Bang Baby are rendered in black Canadian Cinematographer - January 2015 •

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10 • Canadian Cinematographer - January 2015

Credit: Kristof, foto-studio.com

and white, including the teen idol’s films that Stepphy watches regularly on television, and for those scenes Shore used a Panavised Cooke 25-250 mm lens. “It’s an older, softer lens and it has a lower contrast to it. We also ended up putting a stocking behind the lens to give the highlights a glow and to really give everything a bit of a softer feel to it. It’s a trick DPs would use in the ‘50s for diffusion,” Shore explains. “They’d buy black Dior stockings, stretch it behind the element of the lens and glue it down and it would diffuse the image in a very obvious way and make it very soft. It also had this weird rainbow artefact, and anything that was overexposed would have a white orb around it. I just felt like that’s how they shot black and white in the ‘50s, so we’ll just approach it in the same way.”

When Stepphy’s dreams mutate into nightmares, Shore switched up the lenses again to the modern Primo lenses, “which resolved a lot better, to give everything a more tactile, sharper, immediate feeling to it,” he says.

The visual reference for the nightmare look actually came from production designer Aidan Leroux, who years ago introduced St. Jules to the photography of Gregory Crewdson. “Crewdson would take photographs in mundane places and through really stylistic lighting, costume and set design would flip it on its head and portray the seediness and disgusting nature of these scenes,” Shore says.

To evoke that quality, Shore would employ a very theatrical and expressionistic look on Levy, often placing her in half light imbued with lavenders and deep blues. Sometimes he would put her in harder light to create a greater contrast and to enhance the dark, nightmarish quality of the scenes. “For the last act, when the fantasy and nightmare worlds collide, we changed our lighting style again to suit the tone. We used no model light on her, just soft top light without any kind of fill, and let bags form under her eyes,” Shore says. “It was far from flattering, yet all departments were on board with it, as was Jane. It was an interesting collaboration with wardrobe, which did a killer job of changing her from these really brightly-coloured frilly dresses to colourless frumpy dresses and pants. The makeup department also did a great job of making her look dull and pale. And then instead of using 50 mm or 75 mm lenses for close-ups, we would use our 27 mm Primo and shoot her close and wide without any filtration and with harsher lighting.

“One scene that foregrounds this change well is the nightmarish birthing scene of Stepphy’s soon-to-be-mutant child,” Shore continues. “We walked onto set, turned off all the lights, stuck a 60-watt clear bulb in a lamp, which we placed next to Jane, and just started shooting, knocking the lamp shade around every once in a while to add some moving shadows to the shot.”

Much of the drama in Bang Bang Baby plays out in the house where Stepphy lives with her alcoholic father, and that

Cast and crew on the set of Bang Bang Baby.

location was a three-walled set with large windows that Shore could shine big gelled lights through. “Jeffrey wanted a lot of the movie to feel proscenium and almost theatrical so you could never actually do full reverses on people. So we were only ever looking in one direction on all sets,” Shore says. “We had a grid above with a bunch of 2K Softlights and Lekos that we would use for the more theatrical lighting, little pinpoint sources here and there. But for the more fantastical scenes it was just giant lights through windows and giant bounces over the set walls. It was a bit of a challenge to achieve the look with the EPIC because it doesn’t have the best dynamic range and the highlights tend to blow out quickly. So it took a lot of light just to achieve something naturalistic even though we would have three 20Ks and a bunch of half Dinos and so many lights burning at the same time to make it look like there wasn’t really that much lighting going on at all.”

St. Jules wanted to carry the period drama aesthetic through to the set pieces outside the house so that when the leak at the chemical plant eventually sends a terrified Stepphy running into a forest, the crew approached the scene the way a Sirk-era film might do it. “We thought how would they build this in the ‘50s?” Shore says. “Well, they would build this

forest on a sound stage, just fill it with smoke and backlight and just shoot it.

“We couldn’t afford to build a forest bigger than 20 feet by 20 feet so we hid the sound stage by pumping everything with smoke,” he continues. “It’s supposed to be a mist leak, so we just backlit everything with lavender gels on all the lights to give everything a purple cast to it. So we used our limitations as a creative tool.”

Shore notes that the crew might not have been able to pull off such set pieces had it not been for the support of the rental houses that supplied their equipment. “We got our camera and lens package from Panavision when Stewart Aziz was still working there. They donated the package for the equivalent of a case of beer. He was really supportive,” Shore says.

“William F. White also stepped up and donated a massive lighting package,” the cinematographer adds. “I’ve done a lot of features with Dan St. Amour there. They were all super friendly and helpful. [Producer] Dan Beckerman also has a really good relationship with those guys. Basically everyone went to their respective vendors and people we used to work with and begged, borrowed and stole. The generosity people showed was pretty phenomenal.”

Credit: Courtesy of Scythia Films

BANG BANG BABY

Bright, bold colours highlight the dreams of a teenage girl in Bang Bang Baby.

Meanwhile, on set every department muscled through the gruelling two-month shoot, despite not having an adequate budget, on sheer belief in the project, Shore says. “It was definitely the hardest shoot I’ve been on,” the cinematographer reminisces with some measure of fondness. “Everyone stepped up to help everyone else. You were never waiting on the art department or the electrics or grips, especially key grip TJ Richardson. He and his guys really carried this movie on their backs. Whenever anything was vague in terms of what department should take care of a particular task, the grips ended up handling it and did a killer job. And that all came from the fact that there was such an originality to the tone and the approach to Jeff ’s script,” Shore says.

Yet St. Jules was always open to input from Shore and other creative heads, which the director says enriched the final product. “The reason we have the DP and the production designer and all the creatives is so they can bring their own thing to it and make it better than what you would have imagined,” St. Jules posits. “In many respects, what Bobby and Aidan brought visually is better than what I would have imagined on my own.

All in all, I’m really happy with the way it turned out.”

Canadian Cinematographer - January 2015 •

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FEATURE

Cast No Shadow Scott McClellan Brings Light Credit: Jim Desautels

to Newfoundland Film

12 • Canadian Cinematographer - January 2015

By FANEN CHIAHEMEN

F

ilmmaker and St. John’s native Christian Sparkes says he has always felt that children are a great lens through which to see the world. “Because it’s an honest lens,” the CFC Director’s Lab alumnus says. Sparkes had worked with children on several films and television shows, but he found the ideal material for his first feature, Cast No Shadow, in screenwriter Joel Thomas Hynes’ treatment of a summer in the life of a troubled 13-year-old boy attempting to navigate his tumultuous world in a rugged seaside town.

Raised by an abusive and criminal father and preoccupied with thoughts of his dead mother, Jude Traynor (played by the screenwriter’s son, Percy Hynes White) uses his imagination as a coping mechanism, but he also lashes out frequently and resorts to delinquency.

The lonely and neglected boy dreams up the source of his troubles: an evil cave-dwelling troll, which the boy must appease with trinkets he keeps in a treasure chest in a crawlspace under his house.

Although Cast No Shadow goes to some dark and unsettling places and features elements of fantasy and thriller, it was shot against the autumnal beauty of Newfoundland, and months before principal photography, Sparkes and cinematographer Scott McClellan – whom the director had met a decade ago in the film program at NSCAD University in Halifax – headed to Bell Island to scout locations. “It is really one of the definitive landscapes in the movie,” McClellan says. “It has a couple of little villages on it. Otherwise it’s very secluded and sparsely populated.”

Indeed, the Atlantic backdrop was the perfect canvas to explore some of the themes in the film, McClellan says. “Jude is a small boy all alone in the world. So it was important to show the dichotomy between the character and his setting by shooting these big wide vistas and having him as this very small character in these settings, expressing his loneliness in that way,” he says.

As the boy changes, though, the world around him starts to look different too, as do the overtones of the images that McClellan crafts. “There is something very romantic about childhood, and that’s something we tried to portray visually by having lush warm landscapes and warm colours and very comfortable inviting places,” the cinematographer says. “It’s not until later when he begins to lose hope, and that magic that has been his world dwindles and things desaturate a little bit and the palette becomes cooler.”

McClellan opted to shoot on a RED ONE with Zeiss Super Speeds, a package obtained from SIM Atlantic

Canadian Cinematographer - January 2015 •

13

Cinematographer Scott McClellan (with camera) shooting on Bell Island with director Christian Sparkes (right) and first AC Andrew Hills (left).

Previous page:

Credit: Jim Desautels

Jude carries found treasures to a seaside cave to appease a troll he has dreamed up as the source of all his troubles.

in Halifax at a reduced rate thanks to camera manager Jeff Wheaton. “The nice thing about using Super Speeds with the budget we had is that they are such fast lenses, they allowed us to shoot in lower level lighting scenarios,” McClellan says.

With the RED, McClellan was also able to shoot virtually all the daylight exteriors in natural daylight, with only the aid of some negative fill and some bounce.

But Sparkes called the film Cast No Shadow partly because the idea of shadows was “such a strong image in the film and was very prominent in the script,” the director says. “The idea of the shadow as an alter ego, a mirror image of yourself, but a darker image of yourself. The idea is that if you cast no shadow you can keep the evil at bay.” The title of the film seems to underline McClellan’s approach to the cinematography in keeping with that imagery. “We always wanted shadow to be a manifestation of Jude’s darker tendencies, his bad habits and his faults,” he says.

The cave where Jude’s imaginary troll lives was actually a cluster of Second World War-era ammunitions storage bunkers, built into Newfoundland’s Southside Hills. With no power in the bunkers, McClellan relied heavily on batterypowered LEDs to simulate various lighting sources within the cave. The director of photography used daylight balanced 1x1 LED panels to simulate early morning ambient skylight in various backgrounds inside the cavern. The cinematographer also used battery-powered ARRI LoCasters on boom arms in close-ups to simulate light from the lantern the boy carried with him into the cave.

The lantern was in fact fashioned by gaffer Ryan Hernandez who outfitted it with a 300-watt bulb from a Fresnel. The electrics then ran a cable hidden in the actor’s clothing as he carried the lantern in wide shots “so we could get the right exposure levels in these wide shots for the fall-offs that we needed. And we would ND the camera-facing side of the lantern so that the hotspot in the lantern wouldn’t blow out

14 • Canadian Cinematographer - January 2015

quite as much but still have a greater fall-off behind the light,” McClellan says.

The other important location in the film is the crawlspace where the boy keeps his treasure chest of trinkets. “It’s where he’s the safest; he goes there to be alone with his imagination,” McClellan says. “There had to be a certain magic to that place that didn’t exist anywhere else in the movie. When we shot in there I warmed it up more than I regularly would, softened it with filters more than I had the rest of the movie, and I gave it a more comfortable cocoon-like quality that had a hint of magic to it.”

Jude also finds some relief through a friendship with a reclusive woman named Alfreda, and an abandoned house on Logy Bay was dressed with quirky lamps and candles to serve as Alfreda’s home. “It was a very old house, but Xavier Georges, the production designer, really did a fantastic job dressing the sets,” McClellan says, adding that he was able to go “with a more candlelit light quality in there, and it really made the home a very comfortable and inviting world for Jude.”

Shooting day for night inside the house, key grip Miles Barnes and his crew would black out the windows and then McClellan would carry the candles with Kino Flos. “We used long two-bulb Kinos that we would diffuse and warm up a little bit with some light CTO. And then we would really black wrap a lot of what that Kino was doing to eliminate as much fill as we could and sculpt it into something that looked more like a warm candlelight,” he says. “In the wide shots we’d try and vignette the edges of the frame however we could to keep everything very confined and cozy between Alfreda and Jude.”

By contrast, scenes with Jude’s father, being a negative force in his son’s life, were lit darker. “In a lot of scenes he is walking through shadow or standing in shadow,” McClellan says.

“Not necessarily his whole body but his face at least.”

In a scene that McClellan considers one of the best in the

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Canadian Cinematographer - December 2014 •

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16 • Canadian Cinematographer - January 2015

of stalactites and stalagmites made by Xavier and his team.

And that helped us shape the wide shots into something that looked like a more natural cave. For the lantern we hid a 1K behind the wooden cut-outs and had the gaffer tilt the 1k to mimic the movement of Jude’s lantern swinging. And Jude is lit very harshly by this lantern, and it’s the only time in the movie you see any lighting like that. Everything that was once romantic and idealistic is now seen in a harsh broad spotlight. It’s an unforgiving light and shows everything for what it really is.”

Despite the harsh realities that Cast No Shadow depicts, the film swept the 2014 Atlantic Film Festival, winning six awards, including Best Cinematography, Best Direction and Best Atlantic Feature, an undoubtedly sweet triumph for the cast and crew. “When you’re not paying people a whole lot, sometimes there is a bit of guilt about pushing people too hard,” the director says. “But everyone was passionate about the film and stayed really engaged and did their best work.”

Credits: Jim Desautels

film, Jude’s father comes upon his son in the kitchen and begins to verbally abuse him. “You see Jude in a late day sunlit kitchen and Dad almost in complete shadow at one point when he’s bearing down on Jude at his worst. And that was something we really achieved through careful blocking,” McClellan explains. “It was a matter of putting Jude in a specific place so he was lit better, and putting Dad where he was kept shadowy. Sometimes Jude had return to help bring his level up a little bit, and sometimes Dad had a bit of negative to help bring his level down a bit. But there were no lights in the room for that scene. There were two 1200s outside the windows going through some light diffusion and we warmed a quarter CTO and also a 575 coming through window.”

Tense scenes between father and son also played out during car rides at night, and McClellan was careful with the way he lit those. “One thing I don’t like about night driving scenes is when it feels like the dashboard is lighting the characters.

For me it never really feels natural. It’s just too close to the actors,” the cinematographer says. “So for these car scenes we put the car on a low-rise flatbed so they didn’t have to drive; they could focus on performances, and that allowed me to light with lower levels. It was very simple; we ran everything off of batteries for that and we mounted a couple of small battery-powered brick lights to suction cup spigots on the front hood of the car and on the back. And then I covered the windshield with a silk and then some extra diffusion on top of that, and we softened it up as much as we could.

“And then because we were driving in such rural areas where there wasn’t a lot of ambient light or streetlights or light from homes or anything, we put a 1x1 panel on a roof, shooting into the background dimmed with diffusion and then dimmed that down as well,” McClellan continues. “And it was just so you could pick up a little bit of what was happening in the background of the shot in terms of trees passing by, just to give it more of a sense of movement.”

In the final act of the film, the boy is confronted with the consequences of his actions in a sequence that takes place in one night, beginning at a local dance. “That’s when we went from a warmer colour palette to a cooler palette,” McClellan says. “So he starts at this dance where he is lit by these sodium vapour-looking lights. Then he leaves the area, goes back to his house which is now dark. You then see that the warmth of crawlspace is now gone, and it feels like moonlight is lighting a lot of it. Even when he goes back to Alfreda’s for the penultimate scene, it’s all now feeling like moonlight is lighting the interior of the house instead of warm candlelight.”

When Jude finally visits the cave at the end of movie, he is “left by himself with the cold realities of his circumstance,” McClellan says. “And you just see his shadow on the wall of the cave. For that we had an open-face 1K that we used to carry the lantern that the boy had, and we had it hidden behind these set pieces, which were basically these wooden cut-outs

In Cast No Shadow a 13-year-old boy with a tough life uses his imagination as a coping mechanism.

Bottom: Cinematographer Scott McClellan shoots the final scene in a cave in the Southside Hills. “I hate having bags on the camera while I’m working with it, so I would challenge first AC Andrew Hills to make me custom fitting bag covers that were easy to work around. He rose to the challenge and since then I’ve heard from other people that he’s still making these covers, and they’re amazing!”

Top:

Canadian Cinematographer - December 2014 •

17

FEATURE

A Building of Destiny

Crafting a Classic Look for Parks Canada

I

n August 2014, I had the pleasure of working with a phenomenal team on a video recreating the historic 1864 Charlottetown Conference that led to the Confederation of Canada.

Parks Canada had commissioned the video for Province House National Historic Site in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, to replace one that had been made in 1999. The task of producing this ambitious video fell to Tim Joyce of Sound Venture Productions in Ottawa, who enlisted director Jocelyn Forgues with whom I had collaborated several times before.

The new 15-minute video, called A Building of Destiny, will be available in both English and French for the next several years and tells the story of the Charlottetown Conference and the role of Province House. The utmost goal was, therefore, to produce a video that would stand the test of time, and that would continue to resonate with audiences long after the cinematic trends of today have been exhausted. With that in mind, I worked diligently with Tim and, especially, Jocelyn, to develop a visual grammar for the project that would inform our decisions on set.

The video includes a host (Sonia Boileau) speaking directly to the audience; scenes re-enacting historic speeches, meetings, and other events related to the historic deliberations about the Confederation of Canada; and several graphic elements, including maps, archival photographs, and paint-

Actors Josh Weale, Mathieu Arsenault, Dennis Trainor, Jamie Cordes, Tim Wartman and Matt Putnam in a still from the video.

18 • Canadian Cinematographer - January 2015

By MATTHEW A. MACDONALD

ings, all seamlessly integrated with the live action material.

We decided on a classic, deliberate look and feel for the project, intent on eschewing the more casual, handheld style of cinematography that is quite popular today and which I felt may date the picture. We did several things to achieve this, including remaining on a dolly for most of the shoot. This alone resulted in a very fine, deliberate style of composition and camera choreography, made possible in large measure by the incredible talent of key grip and dolly grip Peter Chartier.

For my lighting design, the idea was to light primarily from outside the windows in our various interior locations. We had the privilege of shooting in some gorgeous locations, including Province House, but also the Lieutenant Governor’s residence. Lighting through the windows allowed us to maximize our use of these spaces, give the actors more flexibility of movement, and achieve a consistent, natural look while still being able to control the light. My main source for these day interiors was a 12K HMI Fresnel.

For a major scene involving the Fathers of Confederation in Confederation Chamber at Province House, we mounted the 12K on a scissor lift outside a second-storey window and aimed it at an angle down the length of the long table in the centre of the room. This created a beautiful beam of simulated sunlight on all the actors seated around the table.

To add texture to the background, we placed small mirrors on the floor behind the table to cast scattered reflections of the light on the wall; the effect was striking. The scene was further augmented by fill from a Kino Flo and an 800W HMI Joker through diffusion.

In lighting a scene in an elegant room at the Lieutenant

second, the fact that the Zeiss Super Speed lenses tend to wash out at wider apertures.

This is an example of a commissioned video project where the conventions of traditional cinematography and filmmaking were not luxuries, but necessities to achieve a particular, classic look. It was an exciting project to work on and I hope you have enjoyed reading about it.

TECHNICAL SPECS: 16:9 H Digital Capture ARRI ALEXA 2K H Zeiss Super Speed Mark III Matthew A. MacDonald is a cinematographer based in Ottawa, but originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia.

He became an associate CSC member in 2014.

Credits: India Joyce

Governor’s residence, which stood in for a restaurant where George-Étienne Cartier, John A. Macdonald and George Brown were meeting, we bounced the 12K into a 20’x20’ sheet of natural muslin positioned at an angle immediately outside the windows, and augmented this with an 800W Joker through the window from outside and another 800W Joker bounced into natural muslin on the inside. The directional 800W Joker through the window served as the key light for the host, who was seated in the foreground and who I wanted to set apart visually from the historical drama unfolding behind her. Helping me achieve all this was a superb team of local technicians, but especially gaffer Jon Olts, a consummate craftsman and artistic collaborator. Jon helped me immensely in refining my lighting designs and implementing my ideas.

As for the camera, we chose the ARRI ALEXA because of its overall image quality, the elegant way it handles skin tones and colour in general, and its incredible ease of use. To further achieve a classic look, I used a set of Zeiss Super Speed Mark III lenses, which have a pleasing, slightly softer look than some more modern lenses and render colours and flesh tones beautifully. As for grading, I found that the built-in ARRI LCC look gave us almost exactly the colour rendering we wanted, which simplified our work on set and reduced the need for tweaking in post. All of our camera, lighting, and grip equipment was supplied by Affinity Production Group in Ottawa, and I am very thankful for the assistance of Ron Gallant and his team at Affinity.

Finally, for scenes involving only the host, we remained relatively wide, shooting variously with an 18 mm or 25 mm lens and positioning the camera closer to her. The idea was to bring the host closer to the audience visually, lending immediacy to her presence. By contrast, for the re-enactment scenes, we favoured slightly longer lenses in the 35 mm to 85 mm range. To further distinguish the two looks, I used a 1/4 black frost filter for the historical re-enactment scenes.

We had considered using haze, but that was not appropriate, given the historic locations we were shooting in and the desire not to shower the valuable artefacts they contain with mineral oil!

Throughout the project, I exposed consistently for T4 to achieve a pleasant, manageable depth of field. This also gave our actors, and first camera assistant Brian Sharp, some much-needed breathing room. Two other considerations were important in this regard. First, the desire for some depth in the images to remain true to my idea of a classic look, and

Top: Cinematographer Matthew MacDonald (with camera)

rehearses a shot in Province House with first camera assistant Brian Sharp (left) and director Jocelyn Forgues (arm raised) looking on. Bottom: Preparing for a shot in Confederation Chamber in Province House.

Canadian Cinematographer - January 2015 •

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Credit: George Willis csc, sasc

…Cams: Part 2

S

tick a camera on pretty well anything and you have some sort of “cam.” It can be as simple as attaching a rope to the top handle of a camera for a “Ropecam,” “Swingcam” or a “Danglecam.” You pick the name.

At the other end of the spectrum are custom rigs with price tags into five

20 • Canadian Cinematographer - January 2015

figures. No matter the cost or sophistication, rigs exist to provide those extra special shots we crave as cinematographers. What follows are three cams that I designed and built for those one-of-akind shots. I might add that these rigs were built before digitization and the ultimate cam, the GoPro, was invented.

By GEORGE WILLIS csc, sasc

I love wood, PVC (polyvinyl chloride) and aluminum! They’re my favourite materials for building rigs. Being easy to use and machine, plus the option of immediate modifications, made them my construction choice for the “Woodcam.” With the camera almost always a couple of inches off the ground, the shot was to take off at a trot across a street, mount a sidewalk, jump a 2-foot hedge, cut across a lawn with the sprinkler going, as a ball gets kicked from under the lens, down a small rockery, over a child’s wagon, through a garage, out a back door, climb four steps into a house, with a sharp 90-degree right turn into a kitchen, across a floor and up to the refrigerator freezer door at 5 feet. All in one take please!

My first thought was to call one of those super-fit Steadicam guys who can make the camera “float like a butterfly.”

But I had confined spaces and tricky turns to deal with, and this was definitely not Rocky with Garrett Brown running up the front steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art with loads of room to maneuver. Nix the Steadicam.

I then figured that with the shoot a week away, I could learn to run and breathe over a long sustained period of time while holding about 30lbs in my right hand or I could pass the job onto an up-and-coming marathonrunning camera operator built like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Both these ideas of course were more comical than they were ever practical.

My solution was a bit of trial and error.

I started by cutting two pieces of ¾” medium density fiber board and connected them with four threaded rods.

I now had a basic “cage” in which to mount the camera, a bare bones ARRI III with a 200-foot magazine. Someone suggested that I use a 400-foot mag to get more takes per roll, and he wasn’t

kidding! I mounted a wide-angle 14 mm lens to the body, along with a basic motorized focus and a custom-made French flag.

Framing the shot was going to be a problem, so I mounted a small video recorder/monitor to the rig. So far so good!

After initial tests, a small gyrostabilizer unit was added to steady the rig on the horizontal axis. Also, because the rig was mere inches from the ground, a “skid-plate” was attached to protect the lens from damage. Just as I began to joyfully think that this strange assembly might just work, I realized the Woodcam needed an auxiliary handle of some sort so that I could raise the rig 5 foot at the end of the shot. After all, this was no Steadicam. The answer was to add a “grab handle” onto the basic frame to assist in lifting the assembly up to the freezer door.

In theory, the construction of the Woodcam was relatively simple, but in practice I was jolted by a rude realization – the thing weighed a ton. I could barely lift it, yet alone run with it onehanded! Off with the French flag, lens flares are kind of cool! Off with the gyro unit, nobody would care if I developed a hernia anyway. Bring on the smallest and lightest weight video monitor that I could find and try again!

I also had another little problem to do with the 14 mm lens. If I took big steps, my running shoes came into frame.

The obvious solution was to take smaller steps, which we did. Guiding the Woodcam while the first assistant pulled focus and the grip carried the batteries, we ran in mini-step unison, almost on our tiptoes all tethered together by the umbilical power cords. It took 14 takes to get it right, and we were not exactly a pretty picture running in short lock-step, but it all worked out well and the Woodcam was very much worth the effort.

standing at the edge of the railing on deck. The distance from the deck to the water is about 50 feet. The shot calls for the camera to follow the action as the figure falls towards the camera and splashes into the water, holding the end frame solidly.

Hmm… Not that easy of a shot. First of all, the camera operator must be able to follow the action with the camera in the water, as a stunt person falls 50 feet and splashes down about 3 feet in front of the lens, and the final frame must be partially submerged. Secondly, the crew is floating in ice cold, 30-foot deep water, holding onto a camera and waterproof housing weighing 90 pounds.

If that’s not difficult enough, the production is also budget challenged, so there is no money to rent a Hydroflex Aquacam with remote head, let alone a medium-size crane arm mounted to a barge or floating platform. A not so easy shot has now become a very difficult one.

So how does one float the camera in a locked-off position, operate and then hold a rock-steady end frame with no ready-made technology? Enter the much cheaper “Floatycam.”

Here’s how I built it. At my local dive store, I consulted with a dive buddy to establish the float-to-weight ratio for this particular situation. I then took my design to Filmair, the company that built the “giraffe” crane, and had them weld a framework out of aluminum. A little heavy, but this was the best material for the rig. The framework consisted of two cubes, with the ability of one cube to rotate within the other, to provide the camera tilt for the follow shot. Attached to the outer cube were two sub-frames that hinged down and locked into position almost like wings.

The camera sits on a platform within the smaller of the two cubes, which is see Cam page 22

The Floatycam

A couple of years ago, the small foldup kids’ scooters were all the rage, and I thought it might be fun to rig a camera to one of them for an upcoming (kids’ drink) commercial. I bought a scooter and did some basic modifications to strengthen the chassis, but most of the work went into building the camera mount out of PVC and aluminum. Rigidity was required to hold and stabilize an ARRI 435 and the “Scootercam” was born. The mount could be adjusted to face the front or the rear of the scooter, the idea being to keep the small wheel in frame, so that the viewer would know that the camera was actually sitting on a scooter. The main requirement, we soon discovered, was that Scootercam, because of the small diameter of the wheels, had to run on a smooth surface. I added a counter-balance and an outrigger wheel on one side to keep the camera clear of the pavement and harm’s way. Additional rigging was required to secure a small monitor on the handlebars to act as a viewfinder. I only used the “Scootercam for one shoot, but it was great fun to design and build!

Being an underwater cinematographer and operator, I was called to discuss some second-unit shooting for a feature. The producer said it was a fairly simple night scene shot, where the camera, with a wide-angle lens at water level, shoots up the side of a ship at harbour. The ship is painted black and is silhouetted against an almost black sky. The camera frames up on a figure dressed in light-coloured clothing

Canadian Cinematographer - January 2015 •

21

Credit: Phots courtesy of Cinéfilms & Vidéo

a month, and I became assistant to some of the greatest filmmakers who ever walked on this earth.

On the film business: If you come with a project, a real, wonderRoger Racine csc, right, date unknown. ful great project, the first question they ask is, “Will it make monRacine from page 6 ey at the box office?” It hurts because to administrator at this time. I said, “I’m me the first question we should ask is, very much interested in film and I “Will it make a good film? Will it make heard that you’re looking for posi- a film that will stay part of what our tions.” The funny part of the story is descendants will see in 50, 100 years?” that John Grierson came out of his of- The film business is a business, yes, fice, with his Scottish accent, and he but it’s got to be more than a business. says, “Well, show me those films, young Without substance it’s nothing. man.” And I put the film on the projector, and he looked at maybe 10 minutes, On the power of film: Film is one of the greatest instruments and he said, “This young man seems to have some talent, give him a job.” So for communication. It shouldn’t be MacLean hired me at the salary of $60 used just for selling chocolate bars, it Cams from page 21 adjustable in height. This will determine how far in or out of the water the camera lens will be placed. With the camera in place, the entire rig weighed close to 150 pounds and it still needed to float on the water surface.

A floatation test combined with some rudimentary math allowed me to arrive at what kind of equipment would be required to keep this monster afloat.

A trip to Canadian Tire resulted in the purchase of eight small inner tubes that were attached to the rig via some crucifix-shaped adjustable arms. These, in turn, slid into brackets on the main frame and provided the necessary buoyancy, which could be adjusted by varying the inflation pressure. Once again, it all sounded great in theory, but I wasn’t able to test Floatycam until the night of the shoot, which became a “do or sink” situation.

Shooting black on black is fun at times, but certainly not at night in a harbour, in water at around 10 degrees Celsius, with oily fumes wafting through the air.

22 • Canadian Cinematographer - January 2015

Floating in the water and looking up at the ship certainly put a new light on a situation – with very little light. The first challenge was holding the very specific frame steady while avoiding flares from the lights. Trying to hold position in the water during and after the stunt action in a slight breeze proved to be impossible. Without an anchor we were drifting all over the place. That’s it, an anchor!

We tied a sash to the rig, and sandbags were attached to the sash cord. Standby divers then positioned them on the murky bottom of the harbour channel.

This took some time, because the “anchors” needed to be constantly reset until everyone was satisfied with the framing.

Okay, here we go, this is it. Frame the shot. Where the heck is the stunt person? Oh, there he is, the light speck in the completely black frame. “Stand by, roll camera.” Oh no, the frame is even darker with the mirror spinning.

“Action!” Got him, got him. Well, not quite. We discovered that even while the video camera and monitor

should be used for education, it should be used for culture, and it should be used for getting people’s minds better, not just their stomach, not just their body. Because take the mind away [and] we’re just a gorilla, you know?

On his hopes for Canadian cinema: I think that Canada as a country will have to find its own soul and its own directors and writers and so on. And I hope I live long enough to see that. I would be a very, very happy person.

On last year’s screening of his film Ribo ou “Le Soleil sauvage” for the first time in North America at Montreal’s Cinémathèque québécoise: The only thing I have to say is thanks for coming. Our profession is a means of communication, and when it’s non-communicable it is no longer cinema. had been adjusted to allow maximum brightness, the external LCD monitor was not showing enough clarity for perfect framing. The solution was to “jury rig” an old-style black-and-white tube monitor that allowed the definition we needed. The monitor sat in a small boat floating next to the rig. As difficult as the situation was, as I had to look at the monitor set at almost 90 degrees to the camera, I now at least had a very good image and the next take was perfect.

Chalk one up for the Floatycam.

The rigs that I have built during my career have added enormously to the creative side of filmmaking and made my professional life more interesting as a result. The best part of the process for me is the challenge and then devising a viable solution. The next best thing to designing is when I got to actually build them myself.

Have you designed and built your own rigs? Do you have pictures or diagrams?

Canadian Cinematographer would love to hear from you about your inventions.

Email: editor@csc.ca

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Blackmagic URSA Racks It Up a Notch or Two

W

hen Blackmagic Design first arrived on the scene it attracted a lot of attention for what it offered in a small box with its initial Cinema model. For $3,000, it shot 2.5K, 12-bit RAW with 13 stops of dynamic range into standard, removable SSDs. Not bad, but for many it remained a “prosumer” model, not ready to take on the REDs, ARRIs and Sonys.

Enter the URSA and the focus is back on the latest disruption from the California-based company. It’s quite the box of tricks: first, it looks more like a “camera,” which addresses the subtle snob factor that worked against the initial entries.

Second, it shoots 4K with a Super 35 sensor, offers 12 stops and 12-bit RAW with 12G-SDI and internal dual RAW and ProRes recorders. Third, the price: US $5,995for the URSA EF and $6,495 for the URSA PL. Fourth, and this is really interesting, it’s user upgradable.

That last feature isn’t trivial. In the digital world what you launch this morning is already obsolete by evening because someone has something on the go in a lab somewhere, hankering to eat your lunch. Engineering the camera so that a reasonably mechanically-minded owner can unscrew four holding bolts and get to the sensor and replace it themselves

Courtesy of Blackmagic

without special tools or an electronics degree is forward thinking.

“There’s no micro surgery required,” according to Bob Caniglia of Blackmagic Design, which launched the camera at NAB 2014. “It really is a user upgrade, though some resellers may offer it with clean rooms and expertise.” He said the concept for URSA came out of customers’ feedback. The result is a body with a 10-inch flip-out LED screen monitor but no Electronic View Finder. It sounds strange, and it will take a little getting used to, as will the pair of 5-inch touch screens that control the camera’s settings and functions along with a row of buttons along the bottom.

24 • Canadian Cinematographer - January 2015

On the left side, there are all major settings and buttons; on the right are the feedback settings such as format, frame rate, shutter angle. It also tracks time code, levels, audio waveform and a spectrum scope for focus. There’s a carry handle on top and a shoulder plate add-on option but that’s basically it, though Caniglia says third-party manufacturers are already jumping on bolt-ons to allow customized rigs.

The data is captured to dual recorders with dual CFast card slots, which can be swapped out during capture. When the first card is full, the second card will kick in while the full card is swapped out for a blank media. Recording rate is up to 350 MB/s.

The URSA is now Blackmagic’s top-of-the-line camera product, which kicks off with a U$995 pocket cinema digital 16, the aforementioned Cinematic camera and a studio camera now priced at US$1,999, the production 4K camera with a Super 35 sensor and many of the URSA features without the LCD screen, the Broadcast version optimized for Ultra HD with a B4 lens mount, broadcast lens control connection and an onboard ND filter wheel. There’s also an HDMI version with no sensor.

It also runs with standard cables, Caniglia notes, meaning no more searching for the right proprietary cable.

The body is larger to accommodate cooling for faster frame rates and to keep the internal fan quiet, and the size also allows a cinematographer, AC and soundperson to have access without crowding each other out.

Working with the URSA is a bit weird at first, reports West Coast DP Kholi Hicks, who prides himself on “making ambitious projects on a micro budget” (see his URSA clip at / vimeo.com/campcomet), because you keep looking for the viewfinder. “Yet there’s an almost zero learning curve and that LCD is really bright and big,” he says. In a forum posting he called it “dah bear” because it was so big, but said he soon started to get comfortable with it. “The dummy side has the touch button screen so you don’t have to mess around.”

Still, he says, it is a strange-looking beast: “It’s like a Handycam from circa 1995 especially when that screen is folded out.” It doesn’t act like his grandfather’s Handycam, though, and that’s the story. “What I found is that you lose the urge to walk away and check the client monitor,” he says. “I don’t know how much time I spent doing that before. The 10-inch screen is right there; you don’t have to walk away, you can see everything in the shot.”

There’s sometimes a little lag on movement but not enough to make it a problem, and he says he test drove an early-stage model before it went into production. He also liked the portability, being able to hoist it as a handheld camera while the balance with the lens on was good and the weight also see Tech page 26

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Thomas Burstyn CSC, FRSA, NZCS

WHAT FILMS OR OTHER WORKS OF ART HAVE MADE THE BIGGEST IMPRESSION ON YOU?

My favourite film is The Conformist, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, cinematography by Vittorio Storaro asc, aic. I love the collaborative spirit between director and cameraman so evident in their work. The light and colour in the paintings of Bonnard, Vuillard and the Nabis School. Also the light of J.M.W. Turner and John Singer Sargent.

HOW DID YOU GET STARTED IN THE BUSINESS?

At 16 my mom suggested I channel my love for photography into filmmaking. She thought I should become a director. Thanks, Mom! WHO HAVE BEEN YOUR MENTORS OR TEACHERS?

When I was 16 years old I landed a summer apprenticeship with Dennis Gillson at the National Film Board of Canada.

Mr. Gillson was a knowledgeable and tolerant teacher and for decades after he always took the time to respond to my technical conundrums.

WHAT CINEMATOGRAPHERS INSPIRE YOU?

lights and represent the pinnacle of that special director/cinematographer collaboration I find so fulfilling.

Also, working with director Gaylene Preston on the New Zealand low-budget mini-series Hope and Wire. We shot the film according to my Simple Cinema© philosophy to great success. Achieved six hours of complex drama in eight weeks of stylish shooting (10 hour days) for $3 million.

WHAT IS ONE OF YOUR MOST MEMORABLE MOMENTS ON SET?

Basking in Paul Newman’s respect on Where the Money Is and weathering Harvey Keitel’s abuse on City of Industry.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE BEST ABOUT WHAT YOU DO?

I live for the collaboration between director and cameraman, and inventive solutions to storytelling that rely on imagination and courage. Taking the photographic road less travelled.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE LEAST ABOUT WHAT YOU DO?

The politics and bureaucracy of my job make me crazy.

WHAT DO YOU THINK HAS BEEN THE GREATEST INVENTION (RELATED TO YOUR CRAFT)?

Vittorio Storaro asc, aic for his baroque approach, Haskell Wexler asc for his simplicity and Christopher Doyle for his inspired craziness.

Digital acquisition in all its forms have helped democratise and liberate cinema.

NAME SOME OF YOUR PROFESSIONAL HIGHLIGHTS.

HOW CAN OTHERS FOLLOW YOUR WORK?

All four films I made with director John Irvin (Crazy Horse, City of Industry, When Trumpets Fade, and The Boys and Girl from County Clare) are personal high-

SELECTED CREDITS: Some Kind of Love, Defiance,

Tech from page 24 comfortable. “It wasn’t tippy at all side to side,” he says. “And it felt good on the shoulder.”

There will be some learning curves for those used to working with ARRIs or

26 • Canadian Cinematographer - January 2015

www.cloudsouth.co.nz

This Way of Life, Hope and Wire

REDs, but they aren’t too steep.

The big selling point, he says, is that the URSA is a clean rig that can be used on a tripod or separated and shoulder held as a run and gun. “I’ve started using it for sketches when I look at a job

so we can see what to expect,” he says.

“The monitor is really liberal and easy to position and I don’t have to constantly fiddle with it.”

Ian Harvey is a Toronto-based journalist who writes for a variety of publications and covers the technology sector.He welcomes feedback and eagerly solicits ideas at ian@pitbullmedia.ca.

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, 604-229-0861 or peter@peterbenison.com.

EQUIPMENT FOR SALE FOR SALE : Preston FI+Z (RF) remote follow focus package.

Includes: MDR1, 2X DM1 motors(Jerry Hill style), Microforce zoom control, Iris controller, hand unit, speed booster (12v-24v)+ fast charger.

Panavison, RED, Arri power cables/run cables. + brackets/ various lens gears/marking discs.

ASKING $9,000 for more info and a detailed spec list please contact: Greg Biskup (647) 405-8644, greg@ biskupcine.com DEDO KIT FOR SALE 3 X 24 Volt, 150 watt heads Multi voltage input Power supply with North American and European power cords 3 – 3 pin supply cables 3 – 3 pin extension cords 3 – light stands 1 – light stand extension Contained in a rugged Pelican 1600 case.

All in full working order.

Selling for $2500 or best offer. This kit new sells for $3500.

If you’ve worked with these lamps you know what they can do- nothing like ‘em.

The kit is owned by a retired documentary DP based in Vancouver and photos of the kit are available. Please contact me if you’d like to purchase or for more information and I’ll put you in touch. Ian Kerr csc tel 604 307 4198 Cooke Speed Panchro 18mm 1.7/T2. “C” Mount, Nice condition. From United Kingdom #572079, asking $1,800.00 Barry Casson csc Office: 250-721-2113 bcasson@speakfilm.com Canon Wide angle Lens J11A X 4.5 B4 IRSD and Canon Servo Zoom Control ZSD-300 Value 27 000$ Asking only 3 000$ Elmo Suv-Cam SD ELSC5C and accessories New Value 1 200$ Asking only 100$, Anton Bauer UltraLight & Ul Soft Box Asking only 150$, Frezzi HMI Sun Gun & Frezzi Soft Box Value 1 700$ Asking only 400$, Porta Brace Rain Slicker for Pro Camcorder RS-55 like New Asking only 150$, Script Boy Wireless T.C. System needs minor repair Asking only 100$, Shure Mixer FP33 & Porta Brace audio mixer case Asking only 450$, Sony Monitor SD PVM-14N1U new Asking only 50$, 2 Camera Canon Dig Rebel 10Mp XTi, Sigma 70-300 F4-5.6 Super C-AF, 4 Canon Batteries and accessories Asking only 550$, Porta Brace monitor Case for Panasonic BT-LH910 like new Asking only 100$ andrepaul@me.com or call 514 831-8347 Panasonic AJ-HDX900P 290 drum hours, $7500.00 Canon KJ16ex7.7B IRSE lens, $5000.00 CanonJ11ex4.5B4 WRSD lens, $4500.00 Call Ian 416-725-5349 or idscott@rogers.com

Asahi Pentax spotmeter(just serviced) 425.00 Minolta Colormeter III F 750.00 Spectra Professional IV 250.00 Spectra Professional IV A 300.00 Minolta SpotmeterF(need repair) 100.00 Bernard Couture: p.bc@sympatico.ca; 514-486-2749 Professional U/W housing from renowned world leader Amphibico.

2006 Sony HVR-A1U camera with 0.7x wide adapter and all accesories.

2006 AmphibicoEVO-Pro housing with .55x wide conversion and flat port. Rare model built in small quantity.

Most camera functions accessible.About 60-70 dives.

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3.5’’ LCD Monitor, rebuilt in 2010. 2 compact Discovery 10W HID lamps by Amphibico with batteries and chargers.

Spare o-ring for all. Soft and hard carry cases. All in good condition.

E-mail or call for photos and more information.

514-941-2555, daniel@dvdp.ca Transvideo Titan HD Transmitter and Re¬ceiver kits. $3000ea. 2 for $5500. Similar in style and operation to the Boxx Meridian. 1- Angenieux 25-250 T3.9 Arri PL mount, std film gears on focus, zoom, and iris (32 pitch-mod 0.8), lens support and collar, shipping case included $2900 1Tamron 300mm F2.8 Arri bayonet mount with PL adapter, std film gear on focus (32 pitch-mod 0.8), 42mm filters: clear, 2 x 85, shipping case included $900 Contact: stephen.reizes@gmail.com Panasonic 3D Professional Full HD Video Camera (AG-3DA1) The AG-3DA1 is the world’s first professional, fullyintegrated Full HD 3D camcorder that records to SD card media. The AG-3DA1 will democratize 3D production by giving professional videographers a more affordable, flexible, reliable and easier-to-use tool for capturing immersive content as well as providing a training tool for educators.

At less than 6.6 pounds, the AG-3DA1 is equipped with dual lenses and two full 1920 x 1080 2.07 megapixel 3-MOS imagers to record 1080/60i, 50i, 30p, 25p and 24p (native) and 720/60p and 50p in AVCHD. Camera is very new. Includes Kata Carrying case, 4 batteries.

Asking price: $17,500 (includes tax).

Will ship out of province.

To view photos/questions email frank@tgtvinc.com or call 416-916-9010.

Proline 17 inch Teleprompter Included is both PC AND Mac versions for our industry leading Flip-Q teleprompter software. Flip-Q automatically “Flips” the secondary output on your laptop so both the operator and talent will see perfect reading left-right text. The ProLine 17 standard LCD panels are the lightest weight, lowest profile designs in their class. In addition, they offer both VGA and composite video inputs adaptable with any computer output or application. They also offer flexible power options including 100-240V AC or external 12v DC input.

Price includes Tripod attachments and Pelican carrying case.

Complete tool-less set-up.

Asking Price: $2,000 (includes tax) To view photos/questions email frank@tgtvinc.com or call 416-916-9010.

Sony PMW-F3 with S-log firmware. Low hours, Excellent condition. Kaiser top handle, 32GB high rate card. $3500.00. Gemini 4:4:4 Solid State recorder now PRORes capable, with eSata and Thunderbolt readers, lots of accessories, case, 512GB and 3x 256GB solid state drives/ cards. Excellent condition. $3000.00 IBE-Optics HDx35 PL to B4 adapter comes with power cable and soft case. Used on F3 and Alexa for superb results. $3000.00. Willing to sell

everything as a complete package for $8500.00 Available for everything.

Contact John Banovich 604-726-5646 or JohnBanovich@gmail.com 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) 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 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 DVCAMdockablerecorder $1,000; (3) Sony PVV-3 Betacam recorders $500 each; (3) Mitsubishi XL25Uvideo projectors $500 each; (1) Mackie 1604VLZ audio mixer $500; (1) Glidecam PRO2000 camera stabilizer $200; (1) GlidecamDVPRO RIG camera stabilizer $300; (1) Yamaha P2075 amplifier 75W stereo/150W mono $500; (3) HVR-Z1U Sony HDVcamcorders $1,000 each; (1) Sony DSR-300 DVCAM camcorder $1,500; (1) For-A VPS-400D 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 HILL’S VIDEO PRODUCTIONS – BURLINGTON Looking for a unique shooting control room? Rent our 32 ft.

1981 Bus complete with control room and audio.

HDSDI fiber boxes for long runs. Great for keeping warm on those multi camera shoots. www.hillsvideo.com Rob Hill – 905.335.1146 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.

Do you travel between Toronto and Hamilton for production every day? Need a place to: screen dailies, host your production office that’s close to both? Hill’s Production Services www.hillsvideo.com. We are a full Service Production Company with cameras and edit bays for making EPKs. Some grip gear, if you find yourself in the field, short of one or two items. Hill’s also has office space and a mobile screening room. Located just off the QEW in Burlington.

Check us out 905-335-1146 Ask for Rob Hill.

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.

Canadian Cinematographer - January 2015 •

27

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EQUIPMENT WANTED

CSC Member Production Notes 30 vies V (series); DP Marc Gadoury csc; to March 27, Montreal Arrow III (series); DP Gordon Verheul csc (odd); to April 20, Vancouver Bates Motel III (series); DP John Bartley csc, asc; to February 24, Vancouver Beauty and the Beast III (series); DP David Makin csc and Michael Story csc (alternating episodes); Data Management Technician Marc Forand; Trainee Alan Ruth; to February 8, Toronto The Drop (series); DP Mitchell Ness csc; to March 20, Toronto The Expanse (series); DP Jeremy Benning csc; to March 4, Toronto Fargo II (series); DP Craig Wrobleski csc; to May 20, Calgary Flash (series); DP C. Kim Miles csc (odd); to April 10, Vancouver The Good Witch (series); John Berrie csc; B Camera Operator Paula Tymchuk; to February 29, Toronto The Interior (feature); DP Othello Ubalde; to January 30, Toronto and Salt Spring Island iZombie (series); DP Michael Wale csc; Camera Operator Greg Fox; to January 27, North Vancouver Lise watier, une vie à entreprendre (documentary); DP Serge Desrosiers csc, Montreal Marilyn (mini-series); Camera Operator/Steadicam Keith Murphy; B Camera Operator Peter Sweeney; B Camera 1st Assistant Kevin Michael Leblanc; to February 6, Toronto Motive III (series); DP Ryan McMaster csc (even); to January 30, Burnaby Pinkertons (series); DP Thom Best csc; to March 16, Winnipeg Proof (series); DP Bernard Couture csc; to April 27, Vancouver Reign II (series); B Operator/Steadicam Andris Matiss; to April 13, Toronto Remedy II (series); DP Stephen Reizes csc and D. Gregor Hagey csc (eps 207-8); to January 21, Etobicoke The Strain II (series); DP Colin Hoult csc (alternating episodes); B Camera Operator J.P. Locherer csc; to April 29, Toronto Supernatural X (series); DP Serge Ladouceur csc; Camera Operator Brad Creasser; to April 21, Burnaby When Calls the Heart II (series); DP Michael Balfry csc; to March 5, Burnaby

Calendar of Events JANUARY 22-Feb. 1, Sundance Film Festival, Park City, Utah, sundance.org 30, CSC Awards entry deadline, csc.ca FEBRUARY 2, CSC Annual General Meeting, Toronto, csc.ca 3, February Freeze, William F. White Centre, Toronto 15, ASC Awards, Los Angeles, theasc.com6-15, Victoria Film Festival, Victoria BC, victoriafilmfestival.com 18-19, ACTRA Conference, Toronto, actra.ca 19-28, Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois, Montreal, rvcq.com 25, CSC Lens Testing Module Workshop, Toronto, csc.ca 26-March 1, Kingston Canadian Film Festival, Kingston, ON, kingcanfilmfest.com MARCH 7-8, CSC Camera Assistant Workshop, Toronto, csc.ca 19-29, International Film Festival on Art, Montreal, artfifa.com 28, CSC Awards, Arcadian Court, 401 Bay St, Simpsons Tower, Toronto, csc.ca APRIL 10-19, Cinéfranco, Toronto, cinefranco.com 23-May 5, Hot Docs, Toronto, hotdocs.ca 25-26, CSC Lighting Workshop, Toronto, csc.ca CANADIAN SOCIETY OF CINEMATOGRA PHERS $4 September 2013 www.csc.ca CANADIAN

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