Canadian Society of Cinematographers Magazine February 2017

CANADIAN SOCIETY OF CINEMATOGRAPHERS

$4 Februar y 2017 www.csc.ca

INCORPORATED Luc Montpellier csc Crafts a Dark Future

Kris Belchevski: Jean of the Joneses Ray Dumas csc: HORIZON YouTube: The Creators

Take Take part part in in thethe

HD HD Source Source && Sony Sony Workshop Workshop Series!

Series!

Images Images fromfrom the recent the recent PXWFS7 PXWFS7 Series Series Workshop, Workshop, Jan Jan 12, 2017 12, 2017 featuring featuring experts experts fromfrom Sony, Sony, HD Source HD Source and and Technicolor Technicolor

REGISTER REGISTERNOW NOWFOR FOROUR OURNEXT NEXTWORKSHOP: WORKSHOP: Addressing Addressing storage storage of:of: • 4K • 4K content content • mass • mass project project files files • personal • personal data, data, music, music, images images

Ask Ask questions questions Get Get answers answers Thursday Thursday March March 23rd 23rd 11am 11am start start Hot Hot Lunch Lunch to to follow follow

RSVP RSVP Here Here

#AskLearnNetwork #AskLearnNetwork Generation Generation 2 ODA 2 ODA technology technology http://bit.ly/2joot3w http://bit.ly/2joot3 • long • long term term storage storage upup to to 100 100 years years • legacy • legacy support support • up • up to to 3.3TB 3.3TB storage storage disks disks

hdsource.ca hdsource.ca 905 905 890 890 69056905 sales@hdsource.ca sales@hdsource.ca

A publication of the Canadian Society of Cinematographers Celebrating 60 years of excellence

FEATURES – VOLUME 8, NO. 9 FEBRUARY 2017

Fostering cinematography in Canada since 1957.

The Canadian Society of Cinematographers was founded by a group of Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa cameramen. Since then over 800 cinematographers and persons in associated occupations have joined the organization.

The CSC provides tangible recognition of the common bonds that link film and digital professionals, from the aspiring student and camera assistant to the news veteran and senior director of photography.

CORPORATE SPONSORS

Incorporated: Luc Montpellier

csc

12

Crafts a Dark Future By Fanen Chiahemen

YouTube: The Creators By Guido Kondruss

16

HORIZON By Ray Dumas csc

18

Credit: Ray Dumas csc

AC Lighting Inc. All Axis Remote Camera Systems Applied Electronics Limited Arri Canada Ltd. Canon Canada Inc. Clairmont Camera Codes Pro Media Cooke Optics Dazmo Camera Deluxe Toronto FUJIFILM, North America Corporation FUJIFILM, Optical Devices Division Fusion Cine Henry’s Camera HD Source Inspired Image Picture Company Kino Flo Lee Filters Miller Camera Support Equipment Mole-Richardson MOSS LED Inc. Nikon Canada Inc. PS Production Services Panasonic Canada Panavision Canada REDLABdigital Rosco Canada S1 Studios Toronto SIM Group Sony of Canada Ltd. Technically Yours Inc. Technicolor The Source Shop Vistek Camera Ltd. Walter Klassen FX William F. White International Inc. ZGC Inc. ZTV

9 Credit: Courtesy of Corus Entertainment

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.

Kris Belchevski Transforms Toronto into Brooklyn for Jean of the Joneses

By Fanen Chiahemen

COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 2 4 8 24 26 28

From the Editor-In-Chief In the News Spotlight: Ronald Plante csc The Masters Tech Column Production Notes/Calendar

Cover Sean Teale as Ben Larson in Incorporated

Credit: Courtesy of Corus Entertainment

Canadian Cinematographer February 2017 Vol. 8, No. 9 EDITORIAL BOARD EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Joan Hutton csc EDITOR EMERITUS Donald Angus EXECUTIVE OFFICER Susan Saranchuk, admin@csc.ca

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

EDITOR Fanen Chiahemen, editor@csc.ca COPY EDITOR Karen Longland ART DIRECTION Berkeley Stat House WEBSITE www.csc.ca

Joan Hutton csc

ADVERTISING SALES Guido Kondruss, gkondruss@rogers.com EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBER Bruce Marshall, brucemarshall@sympatico.ca 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 CHAIR Arthur Cooper csc, artfilm@sympatico.ca Phil Earnshaw csc, philyn@sympatico.ca EDUCATION CO-CHAIRS Alwyn Kumst csc, alwynkumst@gmail.com Luc Montpellier csc, luc@lucmontpellier.com PUBLIC RELATIONS CHAIR Bruce Marshall, brucemarshall@sympatico.ca NON-DIRECTOR BOARD MANAGERS Jeremy Benning csc, jbenning@me.com Dylan Macleod csc, dmacleod@sympatico.ca Bruno Philip csc, bphilipcsc@gmail.com Carolyn Wong, CarolynWong50@gmail.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.

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 Canadian Mail Product Sales Agreement No. 40013776 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses 131–3007 Kingston Road Toronto M1M 1P1

2 • Canadian Cinematographer - February 2017

Is the Canadian film and television industry doing what it’s supposed to be doing?

It’s an interesting question that’s not easily answered. On the downside, I’ve read a few criticisms lately saying that the Canadian film industry has not progressed in the last 40 years. While we’re adept at making films in Canada that pretend to be set in the United States and other global locations, a self-sustaining homegrown Canadian film industry, at least for English Canada, is still elusive.

Many good Canadian films with Canada as the backdrop are being produced; it’s just that Canadians are not seeing them. Canada, with a population of more than 35 million, should be more than capable of supporting a distinctively Canadian film industry. Unfortunately, when lumped together in a North American film market that includes 325 million Americans and their juggernaut movie industry all mixed together with the public’s fickle taste for blockbusters at the box office, Canadian films are more often than not sidelined.

Their first showings are usually short runs at movie theatres, so don’t blink or you’ll miss them. This is not a new problem with Canadian films, it’s simply a problem that we haven’t been able to fix yet, but not for want of trying. A few years ago, a group of prominent Canadian filmmakers petitioned the CRTC for “Starlight,” a specialty cable channel devoted exclusively to showcasing Canadian films. The CRTC with their weird wisdom dismissed their application, saying, basically, that there were enough vehicles available to exhibit Canadian films. I’m still waiting for that vehicle to pick me up and take me to Canadian movies.

On the upside, Canadians are very adept at making films and television series that pretend to be U.S. or other global locations. Canada’s film and television industry has been 40 years in the making and is now a multi-billion-dollar business that employs tens of thousands of people, with Toronto and Vancouver rivaling New York and Los Angeles as top production destinations. Our creators and crews are among the best in the world. The Canadian film and television industry is healthy, vibrant and expanding. Canadian cities masquerading as American are all a part of the service. It is the magic of movies after all. Canadian films can only benefit from a strong production infrastructure. We just need to ensure that they are readily and easily available for Canadians to watch.

STILL + MOTION

TORONTO MONTREAL

STUDIO + LOCATION

S1 Group: Van Packages, Camera Support & Para Reflectors With a full suite of still and motion services, we meet the specialty equipment and van services needs of smaller productions both in studio and on location. A range of van services for simple deliveries or more complex location packages is available, and our facilities are strategically located on the east side of downtown Toronto.

Our clients include: ABC Disney, A&E, Alliance Atlantis Broadcasting, BBC America, Bell Media, CTV, Fox Searchlight, FX Channel, MTV Canada, NBC Universal, Paramount Pictures, SyFy Channel.

LIGHTING & GRIP | CAMERA SUPPORT | VAN SERVICES | PRODUCTION RENTALS | EXPENDABLES

S1 Group 416.466.3024 bookings@s1group.ca www.s1group.ca

IN THE NEWS TIFF Co-Founder William (Bill) Marshall Dies

B

ill Marshall, co-founder of the Toronto International Film Festival, died on January 1 at the age of 77 from a cardiac arrest while in hospital in Toronto.

Marshall immigrated to Canada from Glasgow in 1955 and was a proud Canadian and Member of the Order of Canada, an honour he received for his many contributions to the arts. A visionary in the Canadian film industry, Marshall produced 13 feature films, including the award-winning Outrageous, along with hundreds of documentaries. He was an accomplished writer, journalist, novelist and speech writer to royalty and heads of state. He also produced numerous live theatre productions, including the Toronto production of the hit musical Hair. As an industry leader, Marshall was a driving force behind the establishment of numerous industry organizations, including the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, the Toronto Film and Television Office, and was past president of the Canadian Association of Motion Picture Producers. He also played a significant role in shaping the political landscape of Toronto, where he served as campaign manager and chief of staff for three different Toronto mayors. He is survived by his wife Sari Ruda, his children Lee, Stephen and Shelagh, and six grandchildren.

Australian Cinematographers Society Announces Passing of Louis Irving a c s The Australian Cinematographers Society in January announced that cinematographer Louis Irving ACS died peacefully on December 31, 2016. Irving was born in Queensland in 1950 but was brought up and educated in Melbourne, Victoria. In late 1970, he was one year into a three-year course in film and television at the Swinburne Institute of Technology when he saw a vacancy for a camera assistant at a local television drama production company known as Crawford Productions. He applied and got the job where he stayed for a few years before going freelance to broaden his experience and worked with Australia’s foremost cinematographers either as camera operator or shooting second unit. He was director of photography on the 1989 feature film Mushrooms for which he won a Gold Australian Cinematographers Society award and was nominated for an AFI Award for Best Achievement in Cinematography. Irving shot some of Australia’s best known television productions including 124 episodes of Water Rats, and his other credits include

4 • Canadian Cinematographer - February 2017

Bastard Boys and 20 episodes of the Dr Blake Mysteries. Louis joined the ACS on July 25, 1995, was awarded ACS accreditation on September 7, 1997, and was inducted into the ACS Hall of Fame in May 2016.

supporting and strengthening Canada’s French-language communities.

NFB Gets New Home in Toronto’s Entertainment District

Ontario is partnering with Deluxe’s Stereo D to help the company expand its digital media operations in Toronto, growing to a total of 358 jobs. Stereo D, a subsidiary of Deluxe Entertainment Services Group, specializes in 3D conversion. Its high-profile projects include converting many Hollywood blockbusters from 2D to 3D, such as Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Star Trek Beyond and San Andreas. The 358 jobs include artists, management, administration, and editorial and production staff needed not only to build the company’s 3D operations in Ontario initially, but also to support its expansion into computer-generated animation. Ontario will invest up to $4.5 million through the Jobs and Prosperity Fund to support the company’s expansion in the province.

Deluxe’s Stereo D plans to invest about $143 million in total in Ontario over five years.

In December, the National Film Board of Canada’s award-winning Ontario Studio in Toronto moved to a new home in the Entertainment District, a custom-designed space that meets its changing needs for film and interactive media creation. The new location at 145 Wellington Street West, Suite 1010, has six digital editing suites, a 20seat screening room and a virtual reality lab. Recent successes from the Ontario Studio include Stories We Tell, directed

by Sarah Polley and shot by associate member Iris Ng. The Ontario Studio is also the new space for the NFB’s Canadian Francophonie Studio (Studio de la Francophonie canadienne), headed by Dominic Desjardins, which produces French-language works from Ontario and the West that serve a vital need in

Ontario Partnering with Digital Media Industry Leader to Expand Operations

WHITES, CAMERA, A CTION! AC

•

Over 25,000 square feet of eco-friendly prep space • 8 full-service camera test lanes • 3 feature-sized camera test rooms • State-of-the-art lens projector room • Production-friendly storage solutions

whites.com

ON SET

Paul Sarossy csc, asc, bsc has been filming Tin Star (Sky Atlantic), starring Tim Roth, which wrapped just before Christmas. Shot in Calgary, here is a picture of the camera team: L to R: top row: Carey Toner ("A" op), Cherise Keown ("B" 2nd), Arthur Lefroy (trainee), Carly Stinn ("A" 2nd), Meghan Consenzo (video playback), Danny Quesnel (DIT), Regan Enderl ("B" op). L to R: seated: Cory Budney ("B" AC), Paul Sarossy csc, asc, bsc, Nicholas McKenzie ("A" AC). Absent: Dale McCready (alternating DP).

CSC Annual General Meeting Monday, February 6, 2017 at 6:30 pm 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!

The CSC Awards Gala

ACCEPTANCES / AWARDS / NOMINATIONS / Greg Biskup, Associate Member (DP) The Sublet (feature), winner for Best Cinematography at Blood in the Snow Film Festival, December, 2016, Toronto Guy Godfree csc (DP) Maudie (feature), Cinematic Vision: Collaborative Design panel, 16th annual Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival, January 2016, Toronto Cole Graham, Associate Member (Cinematographer) PUP “Sleep in the Heat” (music video), named one of Pitchfork’s top 25 Music Videos of 2016 Nicholas de Pencier csc (producer) Manufactured Landscapes (documentary), “Canada on Screen,” and Canada’s Top Ten Industry Forum, 16th annual Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival, January 2017, Toronto

will be held at the Arcadian Court in Toronto on April 1, 2017.

6 • Canadian Cinematographer - February 2017

Ronald Plante csc

CSC MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

Canada to get a different experience and expand my horizons.

By some amazing luck (I was the only participant in a contest to go study film in France!), I won a scholarship to study film at the famous Paris film school La Fémis.

That’s where I decided to become a DP, which is the coolest job on the face of the earth.

After that, I did documentary cinematography for 10 years.

Shooting documentaries in 16 mm makes you learn a lot about lighting.

Who have been your mentors or teachers?

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

When I was about 13, I saw Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and was completely blown away. This film made such an impression on me that I decided then and there that I wanted to make movies, even if I saw it on my parents’ underwhelming black-andwhite TV. For me, a silent space craft is a much more powerful image than, say, the Star Wars laser beams. Also Rembrandt paintings, in terms of lighting especially, and Jacques Tati movies have always been a great source of inspiration.

Credit Orlando Duguay

How did you get started in the business?

I first started in the business doing sound. After my Communication degree at Ottawa U, I got my first paying gigs freelancing as a soundman for CBC and TVO. I already had some knowledge of sound from my years doing college radio, and my father had a record company when I was young.

He was a radio anchor, so sound was in my DNA. But at the time, I was not satisfied with my life so I decided to go and study film somewhere other than

8 • Canadian Cinematographer - February 2017

I’ve had the chance to work with Louis Durocher, an Ottawabased DP, who taught me a lot about lighting, but also about life, which is invaluable. I also studied under Henri Alekan in Paris, which has influenced and informed the DP I am today.

What cinematographers inspire you?

Harris Savides really inspires me. I love his approach to lighting: light the room, not the actors, and everything will fall into place naturally. Roger Deakins [asc, bsc] is an inspiration for the elegance of his work and the fact that he also operates the camera. For me, framing is just as important as lighting.

Steven Soderbergh, for his freedom to work both as DP and director. Also André Turpin, the best Canadian DP in my opinion, whose body of work and scope of experience is fascinating.

Name some of your professional highlights.

I recently did the first VR shoot in 3D High Speed 4K for Samsung with Cirque du Soleil. It is actually pretty standard work, nothing groundbreaking in terms of the content, but I like to be cutting edge on a technical level.

I never snob new technology. Knowl-

edge is power. I also recently mastered the gear head, which after 25 years as a DP finally makes me feel like a free man!

What is one of your most memorable moments on set?

Meeting my wife. Shooting a scene with my daughter.

What do you like best about what you do?

Working with directors. I love the relationship with them. I learn a lot about life and art with every project. The pleasure to work with A-list actors from the U.S. and France. I love actors. I respect them, and I find that DPs and actors, in a sense, do the same job. I usually light and frame like actors act – instinctively, with emotion, striking the balance between subtlety and layers to get the right feeling without overreaching. Nothing is worse than a room that looks lit. Travelling the world and working with crew all over. Finding the master shot in a scene; it’s like a puzzle to solve, a story to discover. I love having my eye in the eyepiece. I always say that it is the camera that does the framing.

What do you like least about what you do?

The sun and cloud rolling in and out.

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

The ALEXA – it is a dream come true for DPs. Funnily enough, most older DPs love it, and younger DPs tend to go for film. Guys like Godard, Cassavetes, Michel Brault, Albert Maysles would have killed to have an ALEXA or a RED. Younger DPs can be puritanical about it, but to me the technology is a tool, not an impediment or something that makes our work less authentic.

How can others follow your work?

Instagram: rplantecsc

Kris Belchevski with the cast of Jean of the Joneses filming an interior scene.

Kris Belchevski Transforms Toronto into Brooklyn for

Jean of the Joneses comfortable truths and buried secrets.

When associate member Kris Belchevski, who shot the film, read the script for Jean of the Joneses, he was drawn to the freshness of it. “It was an all-female cast and different from other scripts I’ve come across,” he says. “There were all these comedic moments, which you can frame as anything, but then there are all these really tender moments between a mother and a daughter, or a girl and a potential love. These kinds of moments were interesting for me in terms of how we were going to show them with lighting and framing.”

Although Belchevski and Meghie did not know each other previously, the director was impressed with the cinematographer’s reel. “He is just very under-

stated and very elegant with the way he lights things,” Meghie says. “He’s not trying to overdo it; he’s trying to make it feel as natural and as appropriate as the story needs. And for me, my story is an understated comedy, and just the way he lit seemed to speak to the story I wanted to tell. We both kind of have the same philosophy on film and framing and just wanting things to be beautiful and comfortable.”

Despite being a Brooklyn-set story, most of the film was shot in strategically selected locations in Toronto. “If it were up to Stella, we would have shot the whole thing in New York, but it’s just too expensive,” Belchevski says.

Meghie instead sought to find in Toronto “those older buildings that fit in Canadian Cinematographer - February 2017 •

9

Credit: Tom Adetuyi

J

ean of the Joneses, Torontoborn writer-director Stella Meghie’s first feature film, is a comedy-drama profiling a multigenerational Brooklyn-based family of women who find themselves at a crossroads. The film’s titular character, Jean (Taylour Paige), is the main focus – a young literary sensation whose romantic troubles seem to have stalled her ability to produce a follow-up success.

Meanwhile, the women are rocked by the arrival of the family patriarch who shows up unannounced at a gathering only to drop dead on the doorstep. In trying to unravel the mystery of her recently deceased estranged father – and give him a dignified funeral – Jean leads her family to uncover and face some un-

By Fanen Chiahemen

Jean considers a potential new love interest.

and have the kind of vibe that feels New York or Brooklyn,” she says. “And Kris was great for that too because he kind of knows New York and also has great taste, so it was always nice on scouts to have a sounding board in someone who not only could talk to me about the pros and cons of shooting in a space, but also on a taste level if it felt right for the story.”

After settling on a location, the crew would complete the look by changing street signs, putting up U.S. flags and avoiding Toronto landmarks. “Stella stressed this a lot, that we couldn’t show anything a Toronto audience would recognize,” Belchevski says.

Sometimes during the shoot, though, the crew would lose locations at the last minute, and Belchevski, a Toronto native, was able to suggest locations that would work, sometimes just an hour before they were scheduled to shoot.

“Then it was, ‘Okay, we have this exterior location, how are we going to photograph it so it looks like New York? How are we going to light it?’ So you have to be creative that way, and it was interesting in that respect.”

Taking stylistic cues from iconic New York directors like Woody Allen – relying on strong performances playing out in front of the camera, and minimal cutting, for example – not only informed the aesthetic but also worked for the

10 • Canadian Cinematographer - February 2017

film’s modest budget. “I try and fit as much of the master into the frame and keep the action in the whole scene. I remember we shot a scene with our main character Jean and her little niece, and I think we ended up laying 200 or 300 feet of track, and we just did the whole scene like that and at the end it just pans through a door,” Belchevski says.

“It’s just interesting when you don’t have cuts because you allow a lot more of the performance. The performance is what it is at that point; you’re not trying to hide anything within a cut. It just becomes really seamless, and if you’ve got a really good performance it becomes really engaging.”

He says he operated the camera mostly on sticks to achieve that aesthetic, employing just simple pans or tilts. “It’s kind of cool, though, because when the camera does move, it becomes quite powerful. Because the audience just gets used to the camera being kind of pinned to one position and then it has to pan around,” he says.

Belchevski suggests that having a cast of experienced actors goes a long way for a cinematographer working with a modest budget and tight schedule. “We worked with some very experienced actors [including Michelle Hurst, Gloria Reuben and Sherri Shepherd], and they were instrumental to knowing how to block a scene. Sometimes it’s tough to

block a scene, and when you have very experienced actors they go, ‘Okay, I’ll just go here and then I’ll do this here.’

Or you can just tell them, ‘Hey, I’m having a little bit of trouble keeping the frame and we want to keep it all in one shot,’ and they say, ‘Okay, cool, I’ll do this and this,’ so that was really helpful from my end.”

For the single-camera shoot he selected the ARRI AMIRA, supplied by Affiliated Equipment. “All the ALEXA family cameras are essentially the same sensors in different boxes. They can do slightly different things, but it was a good camera for this because it’s a little more efficient than a regular ALEXA. It doesn’t take as much battery power, it’s lighter and it’s easier to move around. We shot 3.2K, and based on Stella’s references, we shot it 1.85 as opposed to 16x9.”

His lens choice was the Zeiss Super Speed MK III “just because they’re older glass,” he says. “Stella and I talked about how we didn’t want the film to feel too sharp and too clinical. So we went with an older series of lenses just to give it more of a softness.”

William F. White provided a small lighting package consisting of some small tungsten lights and Chimeras, which came in handy for some of the many interior scenes in the film. “For interior stuff, usually I’d use an overhead Chimera, like a large 5 by 7 foot Chimera, but it wasn’t a very deep Chimera so you could plug it up to the ceiling and it wouldn’t fall into the frame.

And a lot of it was shot with two 4Ks, one at the back of the house and one at the front of the house. We’d keep those going once the light dropped and we were able to extend the day a bit more.”

His main tools for lighting, however, were “a lot of practicals and diffusing and position fixtures,” he says. “And then at night it was interesting because Toronto has the same colour, those same orange-y sodium vapour lights as New York, so it worked well. The only thing we had to be conscious of was not to show the streetcar power lines.”

Jean’s individuality through her sense of style, dressing her in bold scarves, embroidered jackets and animal prints. “I leaned a lot on the wardrobe stylist. She was amazing. She created these beautiful costumes for Jean, and I kind of fed off that. So the costuming was mostly what affected the colour palette,” the cinematographer says.

Meanwhile, Meghie searched diligently until she found the stylish interior locations and props that she wanted in the film to serve as a backdrop to the personal drama, whether it was a prewar loft with exposed brick walls or a plush blue couch melting into a deep blue wall.

“I kind of just didn’t settle until I found the right things to shoot,” she says. “I just was very demanding even with our budget to make sure it looked the way I wanted it to look. And then within those spaces, Kris Belchevski with writer-director Stella Meghie. honestly, Kris just really down and then just tagged it in the co- helped create the vibe and helped craft lour timing so it looked a little bit more the shots that made everything look beautiful, even in spaces that weren’t like morning.”

The biggest lighting setup was the fu- necessarily beautiful.” neral scene, which was shot night for Belchevski notes that Meghie’s unwavday, Belchevski says. “We had to get ering dedication to her strong visual some bigger fixtures, M40s and 4K and narrative sense was ultimately what fixtures, and punch those through the got the film made. “She was incredibly windows and up on scaffolding,” he specific, which is one of her strengths,” recalls. “And the reason for that was he observes. “It was the fact that she we shot in a real funeral home and we wrote the script so she knew the charcouldn’t shoot during the daytime in acters inside and out, and she has a case they had someone come in, so it very strong personality. She’s like, ‘This had to be done at night. We asked the is how I want it,’ but she was still cool funeral home if we could start putting and very collaborative. For her to be up scaffolding during the daytime, and that strong about it and then to also be they were fine with that as long as we able to take advice was great. And that’s were mindful of people coming in. It what makes a director good to work was one of those scenes where we had with. The person just has to be cool; to get a proper generator and light it up.” they have to have a good aesthetic and Belchevski says the film’s strong colour a good sense of style, and then the drive palette was dictated mostly by costume to put that through. She didn’t take no designer Avery Plewes, who expressed for an answer a lot of the time.”

Credit: Teri Brennan

Belchevski recalls how he lit a morning scene with Jean and her love interest who have just spent their first night together: “It was completely natural light; I didn’t turn one light on. I remember we wanted to play it one way and I said to Stella, ‘Let’s play it towards the windows because it will be really beautiful; it will be like morning, there will be this calmness and you’ll feel really connected to it because you’re not faking anything.’ Then we ran the whole scene in one take with no cuts. We shot that in the afternoon as the sun was going

! h s cra spl

ash

!

It’s the most powerful, portable, rugged, cord-free LED on the planet! Ultra-compact Stella Pro is designed to handle any environment while delivering beautiful cinema quality light. Waterproof to a depth of 100 meters, you can do things with the Stella not possible with conventional lights.

Available in 1000, 2000 and 5000 lumen models at Vistek.

The Visual Technology People

15

| MISSISSAUGA | OTTAWA TORONTO Canadian Cinematographer - January 2017 • CALGARY | EDMONTON

VISTEK.CA

INCORPORATED Luc Montpellier csc Crafts a Dark Future

T

he original Syfy series Incorporated (airing on Showcase in Canada) follows the travails of Ben Larson (Sean Teale), a young executive living in the year 2073 – where mega-corporations have unlimited power – as he infiltrates a dangerous biotech company to save the woman he loves.

“Essentially, the show is about a potential dark future,” DP Luc Montpellier csc explains. “It’s taking issues with the environment and government and with big business and consumerism of today, but amplifying it to show us a possible future for society if our world keeps going the way it’s going.

And that’s really what I gravitated to the most when I read it.

Essentially, a bunch of environmental crises have happened, natural resources are very much treated like currency, green spaces and everything natural has become a very in-demand commodity. Countries we’d consider developing today have been turned into shacks and shanty towns. The classes have been more deeply divided and the middle class has been pretty much eroded.”

Incorporated’s executive producers include the Oscar-winning duo Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, and the show also stars Eddie Ramos (Teen Wolf), Dennis Haysbert (24) and Julia Ormond (Legends of the Fall, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Mad Men).

Although it takes place in the future, the show’s creators and co-executive producers Àlex Pastor and David Pastor – the Spanish filmmaking brothers whose credits include The Last Days and Self/less – still wanted to base the look in a reality that would be recognizable to today’s audiences, Montpellier says. “So in the show you see things that are a bit futuristic, but it’s always based on what we all know. And that’s what I loved the most about it. It was a real access point for me,” he says.

Using the pilot – shot by Ben Nott – as a template to build upon, Montpellier and the producers created a future world in which humanity is divided into two societies – the Green

12 • Canadian Cinematographer - February 2017

By Fanen Chiahemen

Zone, inhabited by the rich, and the Red Zone, inhabited by the poor. “All the corporate private communities – very much like you see in the U.S. right now, where there are gated communities with guards, some of these corporations even have their own private armies – those are called Green Zones, where everything is clean and clinical and controlled and beautiful and idealized,” the DP explains. “And everything outside of those walled cities are called Red Zones, which are the shanty towns with all the poverty, essentially.”

Montpellier was instrumental in developing the look of the Red Zone, which was only minimally ventured into in the pilot. “The Pastor brothers wanted to really explore that world and make it very immediate and treacherous and real so that you got a real sense of what it was like to live outside the Green Zone. So that was something we really developed to an extreme so that when we go from the Green to the Red Zone you have a real departure,” Montpellier says.

“It really was a dream scenario because the light was a lot more honest and raw and real in the Red Zone, and in the Green Zone, it was very controlled and very much like Apple computers. It was clean but also very cold in a sense. There’s not really any warmth and people are essentially dressed in the same tones. The whole Green Zone had an extremely limited palette that Tamara Deverell, the production designer, beautifully designed. It’s a cool, gray, steel environment, as opposed to the Red Zone where it was all about the earth tones, red and passion tones and chaos.”

To further delineate the two worlds, Red Zone scenes were shot handheld with lightweight zoom lenses, while Green Zone scenes were shot on sticks and dolly. “The Red Zones were supposed to be chaotic, so it was good to keep those a bit less planned because you were able to let the camera be looser, the actors were looser and they could walk anywhere they wanted on the set,” Montpellier says. “We largely had sets in the Red Zone that we could shoot 360 so that we could go anywhere we wanted with the actors. We had a very structured story, but when it came to blocking and camera, it was a very freeing scenario, and I made the camera wireless in the sense that the operators weren’t hindered by any kind of video cables that were coming out. And it was important to have the freeness of film.

“As a matter of fact, for the Red Zones I utilized a lookup table that Technicolor Toronto developed over the years with me during my transition from film to digital,” the DP continues.

“So I’m still using lookup tables that [colourist] Mark Cooper at Technicolor – who’s pretty much done every project I’ve done – developed using the lookup tables that are based on Fuji print stock. So that gave the Red Zone a little bit more of a texture. Also, in postproduction we used algorithms to really enhance the grain, so we added digital grain to the Red Zone. There are also a lot of flashbacks within the show, usually in the Red Zone, so I had this added challenge of creating a look for flashbacks. And when we went to flashbacks we intensified the digital grain by 500 per cent. The algorithms that existed are very organic and natural, and they’re not very big, so with the combination of the ALEXA camera and this postproduction technique, it’s quite possible to get these filmic looks, and that to me was the key for the Red Zone. We wanted to feel the image on screen, as opposed to when we went to the Green Zone and we cancelled out all of that grain.”

Most of the Red Zone scenes were shot at the former Lever Brothers soap factory in Toronto. “That is kind of a fixture in the Toronto film location scene,” Montpellier says. “Basically it’s an old soap factory that has been pretty much gutted, and there’s a beautiful structure to the whole area. It was one of our really big locations that we were able to really morph into different Red Zone environments. It’s almost like a little bit of a backlot in that there is a lot of concrete and crumbling walls, so a lot of the time we knew that we could just enhance it with production design and some digital stuff if needed.”

Deverell basically transformed parts of the old factory into alleyways and streets that could stand in for various exteriors and that could be shot practically, and the production “would on occasion stick a green screen at the end of the street to extend the countryside and the city,” Montpellier says.

“In that location we sometimes went to really old film techniques,” he continues. “There was a rule on the show that whenever we’re in the Red Zone we wanted to minimize seeing green because everything’s supposed to be dead outside the Green Zone. But at Lever Brothers, on one end there was a huge lush forest area, so we created a barrier of smoke that we would use as a visual wall, and we’d backlight that, so we could shoot in that direction.”

By contrast, Green Zone scenes emphasized the sharpness and the cleanliness of the image, and utilized more composed frames, Montpellier explains. “These people live in boxes and

are very much repressed in a lot of ways,” he says. “It’s like the hand of the corporation is keeping everyone down, even though they own everything.”

Shooting Green Zone scenes required much more digital enhancement – whether it was digitally altering practical sets or shooting on green screen – as technology in that society is supposed to be significantly more advanced. The crew shot a lot of those scenes in some new developments in Mississauga, Ontario, “where the houses pretty much all look the same, and we would enhance digitally and put solar panels on the existing houses,” Montpellier says.

They also shot some scenes in a self-storage facility “because there are a lot of clean lines there,” he says. “It was just a real fun and challenging process to find the skeleton of real locations that we would be able to enhance. It was a tremendous amount of work. There was very little we could just walk in and shoot naturally.”

The Green Zone scenes were also primarily lit with lights built into the sets, whereas in the Red Zone, Montpellier employed practicals, as well as older technology like incandescent bulbs and fluorescents. “We just knew that for a futuristic environment, LEDs would be key in creating the quality of light that we wanted in the Green Zones,” he says. “And with LEDs, we could also change the colour and have it fully controlled by a board operator. I think we had kilometres and kilometres of these LED strip lights that we installed.

“That was an element throughout the entire show that I had a lot of great fun working on with Tamara, figuring out what these things were going to be because in my ideal world, we would be using practical lighting on the set to light the actors. You can’t get better than that; there’s no more honesty of light,” he says.

For example, Deverell designed a futuristic kitchen within Ben Larson’s home “that was all interactive with LED lights inside that the actor could go up to and actually touch the stove and the cook top and the light would just shift,” Montpellier says.

“The show is about a potential dark future. It’s taking issues with the environment, government, big business and consumerism of today, but amplifying it to show us a possible future for society if our world keeps going the way it’s going.”

– DP Luc Montpellier csc Dennis Haysbert as Julian Morse.

Canadian Cinematographer - February 2017 •

13

Credit: Courtesy of Corus Entertainment

light very much the way we’re used to when it comes to skin tone.”

In the end, Toronto-based MOSS LED supplied the show, Montpellier says, adding that the production “pretty much cleaned them out of their stock.”

One room that was tough to light was a set called “the quiet room,” essentially a padded interrogation room, Montpellier explains. “Tamara designed the entire room like a cube and had these foam cones sticking out, hundreds and hundreds of cones very close together. The notion of that room is that corporations bring people in there to torture and to interrogate. So it was really important again that we showed the kind of cold environment that the Green Zone is, especially this part of the Green Zone. But it was a challenge to get it to the colour we wanted because a lot of that was done with light. In that room, we used the [Chroma-Q] Color Force LEDs. They’re these big strip lights that are used a lot these days. So the whole scene was illuminated from the floor using this technology.”

The production ran at least two ALEXAs all the time, sometimes with an additional one on a Steadicam, and used two sets of Leica Summilux prime lenses. On some episodes Montpellier supplemented DP Luc Montpellier csc (standing, left) with Episode 106 director Nick Gomez the ALEXAs with a Sony a7S outfitted with Rokinon (lying down) and A camera operator Sean Jensen. primes in order to get the camera into tight places.

“And it was interesting because our set decoration depart- Having DIT Josh Jinchereau on set was indispensible, Montment was able to largely become kind of a lighting technician pellier says. “It’s really important to have a DIT,” he stresses. for me,” he adds. “I really had to work closely with Tamara “There is a tendency, especially in Hollywood, to omit that and with the set decoration people. It was a lot of fun because position from TV productions, I guess because they treat it I collaborated with these art departments in ways I hadn’t be- like film, but I really do believe it’s important, especially for a new show. I was able to tweak at least my dailies and have fore. It also enabled us to move quickly.”

Although the production spent “thousands of dollars” on things match up for the editing process. Specifically with difLED technology, they had to be diligent about selecting ferent environments, I think the texture of the visuals is such “the type of LEDs that are appropriate for film production,” a necessary aspect to experiencing the story. I would go at Montpellier explains. “They had to have the quality of light lunch time and in the evenings after we wrapped and spend a that you require – what we call the CRI (colour rendering good hour just looking at dailies before they went out, just to index) value. There’s lots of LED technology out there, and make sure they were exactly the way I wanted them and also a lot of it is really cheap. Everyone thinks it’s amazing, but a because I was using this print lookup table. Josh on set would lot of people don’t know that there is a very small amount of apply the print lookup to the dailies so that it was at least LED technology suitable for film production that recreates starting from a place that we both understood was where I wanted to be. That’s what I love about lookup tables; it does take away a lot of guesswork and it enables you to be a lot more creative in the process of dailies, and on top of that I wanted the texture of film print that I love so much.”

“I’m very much a fan of smart science Thrilled to be working on his first science fiction show, a genre he loves, Incorporated particularly appealed to Montfiction, things that can give me thought pellier because it has something to say. “I’m very much a about whatever subject it is.” fan of smart science fiction, things that can give me thought about whatever subject it is,” he says. “And this just kind of hit all the notes for me as a science fiction fan.”

– DP Luc Montpellier csc

14 • Canadian Cinematographer - February 2017

Eddie Ramos as Theo.

Credit: Courtesy of Corus Entertainment

Allison Miller as Laura Larson.

Julia Ormond as Elizabeth Krauss.

Sean Teale as Ben Larson, an executive living in the year 2073 where mega-corporations have unlimited power.

Canadian Cinematographer - February 2017 •

15

Courtesy:YouTube

(L-R) Carlos Esteves csc, Beela Agy – Bright N’ Boldly, Jeremy Rupke – The Hockey Movement, Brandon Owusu – Bizzy Boom, Bruna Soares – Bizzy Boom, Brittany Sarah – Brittany Sarah.

The Creators

By Guido Kondruss

T

he large room was bathed in twilight as dazzling images leapt from a screen being intently scrutinized by a group of young adults. They were watching the demo reel of cinematographer George Willis csc, SASC, who was recounting the visual logistics of each shot and scene, while occasionally being peppered with questions from the viewers. This was no ordinary audience and this was no ordinary viewing room. Watching the screen were 18 of Canada’s top emerging YouTube creators, and this was the newly-minted YouTube Space in Toronto. Their energy and creativity permeated the room.

These creators are successful at producing videos for their own YouTube channels, which have garnered anywhere between 30,000 to 100,000 subscribers each. YouTube invited them to

16 • Canadian Cinematographer - February 2017

Photos by: Carolyn Wong

Toronto for a week to take part in their very first NextUp program in Canada, a creative incubator to help them improve their production and Internet skills.

“YouTube recognizes that its creators are the lifeblood of the platform,” says Mark Swierszcz, manager, YouTube Space Toronto. “This program and this space helps them ramp up their content, ramp up their knowledge and ramp up their ability to speak with marketers, brands and agencies to get to that next level.”

The Canadian Society of Cinematographers partnered with YouTube to help creators up their game. The CSC team consisted of cinematographers Carlos Esteves csc, Willis, sound recordist Chris Best and editor Arthur Ditner from Tattersall Sound & Picture.

“It’s very inspiring, working with this

new generation of very, very smart people,” Willis says. “We went through the basics with pro gear and technique, but we also showed how things can be done with a bit of ingenuity. This seemed to resonate with the creators.”

Fellow instructor Esteves couldn’t agree more. “Our job is to participate with them on their NextUp productions, answer questions and help solve problems,” he says. “And at the same time, show them how one job relies on another in filmmaking to enable a project’s goal and vision.”

It’s east meets west with 26-year-old Cayla Gallagher and her YouTube channel “pankobunny,” which has 37,000 subscribers. Gallagher uses western and Japanese fusion cooking to create what she calls edible cuteness. Working from a countertop set on her dining room table, using a DSLR camera and what-

ever light streams through her window, Gallagher produces as many as five food videos a week. She says the YouTube NextUp program will make a big difference with her channel in so many ways, especially with lighting.

“I film exclusively with natural daylight because I have no idea what I’m doing with lighting, so I talked to Carlos a lot,” Gallagher says. “He’s helped me so much that I now feel like I finally understand how light works. In fact, Carlos drew up a lighting plan for my kitchen last night and brought it in this morning saying, ‘This is what you need to do the lighting.’ Both he and George have gone above and beyond what I could have ever asked for.”

YouTube Space Toronto is the only one of its kind in Canada and is located downtown at George Brown College in their School of Design building. It’s one of nine YouTube facilities around world. Besides Toronto, there are Spaces in New York, Los Angeles, São Paulo, London, Paris, Berlin, Mumbai and Tokyo. The Spaces were built to allow YouTubers to learn, to connect with each other and to create their videos. The facilities are free and open to those who qualify, which means a YouTube channel with at least 10,000 subscribers.

The Toronto YouTube Space houses two studios. One has a purpose-built set that changes a few times a year, while the other studio is a black box, where creators can build their own sets, shoot green screen or go wherever their creativity takes them. The studios are equipped with lighting grids, audio gear and are 4K ready, shooting with Sony FS5 and a7S II cameras. There are also two fully-equipped editing stations available for use. By sliding back dividers, their large educational/events room can be extended into the lobby to create a third even larger studio.

“It’s about 1200 square feet that can be booked by creators for larger events or shoots,” Swierszcz says. “We’ve had a real range of projects through the doors from a Bollywood dance video to a pia-

(L-R) On set with Jeremy Rupke – The Hockey Movement, Beela Agy – Bright N’ Boldly and Brandon Owusu – Bizzy Boom.

no performance with white drapes. It’s a very adaptable space, designed by the third year George Brown students.”

32-year-old Chris Ramsay is a card magician, whose tricks are dazzling.

So much so that over100,000 viewers have subscribed to his YouTube channel. Ramsay says that his NextUp experience was intense, fun and ultimately rewarding.

“It’s all about creating better quality content,” he says. “It’s been an incredible week with a load of valuable information. But now it’s up to us as creators to take all this new information and make it work for us.”

The CSC-YouTube collaboration continues with two upcoming workshops in tabletop lighting and how best to work with green screen.

George Willis csc, sasc helps with slating.

For more information on YouTube Spaces: youtube.com/yt/space/index.html

Chris Ramsay – Chris Ramsay Canadian Cinematographer - February 2017 •

17

HORI

By Ray Dumas csc

A

t the Canadian World exposition in Montreal commemorating Canada’s 100th birthday in 1967, a unique film called Canada 67 was exhibited. It was commissioned by Walt Disney himself and shot by founding CSC member and legend Fritz Speiss. Shot in Circle-Vision 360 with multiple synchronized 35 mm cameras in a circular array, the film was projected onto nine screens in an enormous surround theatre at the Expo ‘67 Bell Telephone Pavilion. It took nine months to shoot and was a 22-minute soliloquy to Canada featuring footage of our great land from coast to coast. Afterwards it spent many years showcasing Canada to people from around the world at Disney’s Epcot centre.

To commemorate Canada’s Sesquicentennial, a new project called SESQUI was born as part of the Canada 150 Signature Initiative to showcase the best in Canadian culture and innovation. The centrepiece of this exhibit will be a new 20-minute, 360-degree cinematic experience called HORIZON of which I was very proud to be a part.

This new film was shot digitally and will feature a seamless 360-degree by 180-degree inverted dome projection. That is to say, the audience will be in the middle of a large inflatable dome and experience the film all around them including directly above.

Credits: Ray Dumas csc

The Team

VR guru David Robinson, who provided the live stitching.

18 • Canadian Cinematographer - February 2017

The film, conceived and executive produced by Andrea Stewart and Joanne Loton, is directed by Drew Lightfoot, someone with whom I have worked for a long time and respect immensely. With so much ground to cover, my director of photography duties were split with Toronto DP and REDLAB Digital co-founder Vinit Borrison, with each of us splitting the provinces up on different legs that covered the four seasons. Over the course of the shoot, we tapped the particular skill sets of Jeremy Benning csc, Stephen Chung and associate member Duraid Munajim for additional

IZON our subjects to get very close to the camera to keep things dramatic and immersive. We were therefore faced with the task of designing our own camera mounts that perfectly aligned multiple cameras as close as physically possible to allow for the image overlap necessary for stitching. After testing 6 and 5 camera arrays that allowed for subjects to get within 8 or 9 feet of camera before falling apart, we settled on a very elegant Practically every aspect of this project from pre-production 3 RED EPIC camera array. REDs were chosen for their highto final exhibition required heavily adapting existing technol- resolution, compact size and dependability in the field.

The CAD-designed body mounts were machined in ogies or creating entirely new systems from scratch. When camera prep began in late 2015, we started to look at existing aluminum and custom made for us by a team at Réalisations Inc. in Montreal. At around 30 off-the-shelf solutions and found pounds fully built, our three ourselves travelling all the way to stripped down RED bodies were Silicon Valley to test several rigs squished together in a pattern in various stages of development. that practically had them touchVR was already taking off by then ing each other. So tight was the and it seemed like new rigs were formation that custom cables popping up on a weekly basis. In and touch screen mounts had to the end, none of them fully met be designed. our requirements for SESQUI. After testing many lenses, we First and foremost, we needed opted for Canon ultra-wideresolution because of our large angle -15 mm zooms. These still projection format. Our final imcamera lenses set to 8 mm were age is 12868 pixels wide at the Ray Dumas csc during the shoot of the choir scene in Prince just wide enough to cover the base and 4096 pixels from hori- Edward County. Background photo: Northern Lights , Yukon full 360, including the zenith zon-top-horizon with an equivapoint and provide a bit of additional coverage beyond the lent resolution of approximately 9K. Secondly, we needed our camera system to be robust enough 180-degree horizon point for breathing room. Being zooms, to handle harsh conditions. All of our gear had to be tested in they were much slower (T4) than I had hoped for, but the California in a cold room at temperatures of up to -40 de- faster film primes we tested were either too large or not sharp grees Celsius. Many of the off-the-shelf systems were failing enough on the edges to give us a uniform stitch. in cold temperatures or were simply not robust enough for Another issue was that we could not filter in front of the lens to control the stop by using NDs in bright daylight situations. what we were going to subject them to.

Thirdly, the array had to be compact. We were travelling to Closing down the iris was not an option because even the some very inaccessible locations and weight was obviously slightest amount of dust on such a wide-angle lens becomes going to be an issue. More importantly, the cardinal rule for a huge black dot at higher stops, especially on such a large good VR is keeping the lenses and sensors as close together as projection format. We therefore set our limit to F5.6 to avoid possible to maintain a stitchable image when objects get close the problem. Dropping the ASA on the RED wouldn’t work to camera. Large, multiple camera arrays are great for shoot- because it adversely affected the curve and we needed maxiing ultra high-def images of landscapes, but when a subject mum dynamic range. Manipulating the shutter angle also gets too close, parts of them literally disappear when they sur- wasn’t an option because of strobing issues, although we did pass the coverage area between lenses. Drew wanted to allow opt to shoot at 90 degrees when possible to reduce motion

photography. The crew was handpicked for their ability to think on their feet and adapt to difficult situations, a real group of bonafide MacGyvers.

Credit : Brent J Craig

The Prep

Canadian Cinematographer - February 2017 •

19

Credit: Mark Moher

The team in Whitehorse assembles the "minimalist" package. (Standing) Soundman Ian McGettigan celebrates the crew's arrival while director Drew Lightfoot takes a nap.

blur. Motion mounts between the lens and camera body seemed like an obvious solution and did a good job of controlling the stop, but we discovered that they were causing serious polarization issues on the edges of frame that included sky and made stitching very difficult. In the end we went old school and took advantage of the Canons’ builtin rear filter slot. Colin, our assistant, sourced out some vintage Kodak Wratten ND gel and we used it to control exposure without affecting depth of field or shutter angle.

In our prep phase we also discovered that no one rig was going to cover all of our needs and that specialized setups would be required. In the end, we travelled with five separate camera arrays that each suited a purpose: the 3 RED array was utilized for the majority of the film in any situation that was scripted and shot in a controllable, well-lit environment. For situations where exposure was a concern, we also had a separate Sony A7-S array. Even though we used the same T4 Canon zooms on the Sonys, we took advantage of the higher ASA capabilities of the camera to shoot certain night scenes. For time lapse, such as the Northern lights in the Yukon, we had a Canon 5D DSLR array and a custom-built electronic trigger system also designed by the team at Réalisations Inc. Underwater shots were done with an Abyss housing with five GoPro Hero4 cameras. This housing features curved optical glass lenses that correct the aberrations associated with flat optics underwater.

Finally, for off-the-cuff or dangerous situations, we had some simple 360 GoPro arrays that we could whip out at a moment’s notice or put in harm’s way. Unscripted shots in the film like one where we encountered big horn sheep on the side of the highway while travelling through the Northwest Territories could not have been captured otherwise.

Credit: Ray Dumas csc

The Shoot and its Challenges

Director Drew Lightfoot wearing snow "camouflage" in order to hide from the allseeing camera rig. Ghost Lake, Alberta.

20 • Canadian Cinematographer - February 2017

Shooting in 360 forces you to rethink all of the basic methods of filming you take for granted.

Where do you hide lights if the camera can see everything? How do you move the camera when you can be nowhere near it when it is rolling? How do you monitor your image to set up and execute

your shot? Even something as simple as slating required some serious trial and error. (In the end, for the rigs that did not have a synch box, covering the camera array with a bucket and setting off a camera flash inside did the trick.)

For the most part, lighting for exteriors took the form of detailed scouting and scheduling for best light. Many shots were executed in early light or sunset. Weather was always a factor but we were incredibly lucky throughout the shooting and never got rained out. One of the prettiest shots opens the film and is a direct homage to the famous Canadian film Helicopter Canada. In the shot, we watch a helicopter approach until it positions itself directly over a group of aerialists suspended on a circular truss. We set up for sunrise but we awoke to heavy cloud cover. Our set was in an airfield near Hamilton, Ontario, but our chopper was flying out of Toronto and would take a half hour to reach our location. We came close to calling the day but decided to take a chance. The sky opened up just as we could see the helicopter appear on the horizon.

For night scenes and interiors we only used lighting that both provided source illumination and also worked practically for artistic effect. For example, our choir scene in Prince Edward County took place inside a beautiful barn.

To create a warm soft atmospheric light, we suspended large China balls in the rafters, which, besides providing light, gave the viewer a visual treat when looking above.

Another scene involved skateboarders at night underneath a highway overpass. We underlit their skateboards with LED strips and simple battery packs to great effect. For a scene with dragon boaters on the Rideau Canal, we sourced 40’ long waterproof LED rope lights that we were able to affix directly to the hulls and power with battery packs equipped with inverters.

Moving the camera was a particular challenge. In our tests, we knew that the camera generally had to be very low to the ground whenever we had subjects close to camera, otherwise we would be losing the lower parts of their body. This made traditional dollies impossible as we had nowhere to hide the grip.

One rig that we used extensively was a specialized RC camera car from Freefly. The suspension had to be modified to handle the extra weight, and we needed to find an alternate power source for the three cameras as

O MOSS

Canadian Cinematographer - January 2017 •

23

Credit: Mark Moher

Drew Lightfoot surveys the sunrise to shoot the Baie En Joie Acadian dancers in La Dune de Bouctouche, New Brunswick.

traditional batteries would be much too big and heavy. We were able to modify the tiny lithium ion batteries used to power MōVI gimbals to power our cameras and transmitters.

One particularly difficult shot had us driving the RC car on the frozen surface of Cold Lake Alberta, as ice boats whizzed by at high speed. The car could not maintain traction on the ice and kept spinning out of control. Our grip, [affiliate member] Justin Beattie, removed the rubber tires from their rims and pushed dozens of thumb tacks through the rubber.

When he re-installed the tires and we ran it at top speed, it worked like a charm.

Other methods of moving the rigs were battery-operated sliders, pulley systems for vertical shots, and a motorized dolly that we devised using standard track, a skateboard dolly and a simple step motor we sourced from Laird FX. Our most complex setup was for aerial shots in the Northwest Territories. Drones were not an option for our A camera simply because of the weight factor nor were traditional helicopter mounts. We had to get the camera far enough from the helicopter that it wouldn’t occupy the majority of the frame and be small enough to paint out. We ended up suspending the camera rig on a 50’ tether attached to the belly of the aircraft. To prevent the camera from spinning uncontrollably, we used a torpedo shaped Klauscam system with internal Gyroscopes. For additional stabilizing, we attached a gimballed stabilizing flight head by the folks at Russian Arm mounted directly beneath the Torpedo. This rig was used to do flyovers of figure skaters on a frozen mountain lake. My favourite move, however, was one of the easiest to achieve.

22 • Canadian Cinematographer - February 2017

In the aforementioned opening shot with the aerialists, we needed a 60’ dolly move that could be perfectly timed with the helicopter and end perfectly centered in the middle of the circular truss. We laid our track at a very slight downward incline so that gravity would propel the move. We set the cameras on a Western Doorway dolly with baby legs set just high enough to allow me to lie on my stomach just underneath.

When the helicopter approached I was able to launch myself at the perfect moment and use my gloved hands directly on the rails to brake to a stop. With our miraculous break in the cloud cover, it worked on the very first try.

Monitoring was also a huge challenge. From the beginning we decided that we wanted to be able to properly visualize our shots in real time, full 360. Without that, we would never have the confidence that our cameras were functioning perfectly and that our shots were well positioned. This job fell to our only non-Canadian crew member, David Robinson, a charming Englishman who is a renowned live event broadcast guru working out of New York. He was able to create a portable live-streaming wireless system, rough stitch the multiple images and link it to an Oculus rift viewer. Without it, we would have been flying blind, and as far as I know, it was the first time it has been done in this fashion.

This is just a small sample of the challenges we faced daily.

A remarkable amount of troubleshooting, creative problem -solving, gerrymandering and teamwork were necessary to make this project come to life. It also made for one of the most enjoyable professional experiences of my career.

For more information on HORIZON go to sesqui.ca

The Cooke Look

®

Original photo, Luke Varley

One Look. All Speeds

"I had never shot a comedy, but the series Fleabag was an easy choice. Phoebe Waller-Bridges scripts are inspirational and so is she. There is a subtext and dysfunctionality to Fleabag that I was interested in underscoring. I wanted to expand my pallete from the darker Hopperesque environments that I do frequently to something brighter.

T2.3

I chose the new Cooke Anamorphic/i lenses. They are not perfect and they distort — the whole point of anamorphic lenses. I mainly used the 32mm and 50mm.

In prep I shot Phoebe from different angles and heights on all focal lengths to learn what worked best. She is incredibly photogenic but the wider lenses, especially the 32mm, worked great just above her eye line. It made us feel complicit.

We shot 2-39-1 format to use the width of the frame for multiple relationships and tensions to exist in the same frame. I also tried to create a style where the camera becomes another player with the viewer unaware that it is shot completely handheld.

T2.8

T1.4

The Cooke Anamorphics have a very beautiful look, with all the characteristics of the S4s in anamorphic form. They were the perfect choice for this dramatic comedy.”

Tony Miller, BSC Fleabag Amazon Studios original series Nominated for 2016 RTS Craft & Design Award for Photography

British Optical Innovation and Quality Since 1893.

cookeoptics.com

T: +44 (0)116 264 0700

T2.0

Canada, South America, USA: T: +1-973-335-4460

The Masters

“In recognition of those who have made an outstanding contribution to the art of cinematography.”

2017 is not only the CSC’s 60th anniversary, it also marks 30 years of recognizing extraordinary excellence through the CSC’s Masters Award. This special honour is conferred upon cinematographers who have transcended from just practicing their craft into leaders of their craft by influencing the cinematic art form through their exceptional creativity, technical skills and ingenuity. Originally called the Kodak New Century Award, it was renamed the Masters Award in 2014 to reflect industry changes brought about by the digital age.

In celebration of the CSC’s 60th anniversary, Canadian Cinematographer is presenting a 10-part series on the exceptional cinematographers who have received the Masters Award. This is part two.

By Guido Kondruss

24 • Canadian Cinematographer - February 2017

Robert Bocking csc 1990

R

ight from the beginning, nature loomed large for Robert Bocking csc. Born in 1936 in Port Arthur, Ontario (which is now Thunder Bay), and into a family who were trappers and hunters, Bocking was immersed in the Canadian wilderness from an early age. His interest in images was stimulated by his Grade 7 teacher who introduced Bocking to the world of photography. As a teenager, Bocking had an interest in motion picture making, but with no film schools in Canada at the time, he enrolled in the Photographic Arts program at Toronto’s Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, where he learned the nuances of lighting, and specialized in commercial photography.

After graduating in 1958, Bocking found himself back in Port Arthur, working at a photofinishing plant. With his first paycheques, Bocking bought his very first motion picture camera, a Bolex RX-5, and began learning cinematography on his own.

It was when the legendary wildlife cinematographer and sound recordist Dan Gibson csc hired Bocking to film nature scenes in surrounding provincial parks that he found himself back in the woods, in a new profession.

While Bocking also shot commercials and industrial films during his career, it was his nature cinematography that brought him many accolades and to the attention of the National Geographic Society where he produced and shot 10 awardwinning films on natural history. These films were shown to tens of thousands of students in classrooms throughout the United States and Canada. Whether shooting from a helicopter flying at a heart-stopping 45-degree angle to capture the splendour and awe of Virginia Falls on the South Nahanni River, or waiting patiently in a forest blind to film that perfect wildlife moment, Bocking’s cinematography simply didn’t record nature, it educated viewers.

Bocking has also been honoured with the CSC’s Bill Hilson Award for “outstanding service contributing to the development of the motion picture industry.” Bocking is retired from active filmmaking, living in Toronto.

Kenneth Post csc (1922-2002) 1991

Manfred Guthe csc 1992

en Post csc was born on a frigid January day in 1922 in Windsor, Ontario. The coldness of that day seemed to foreshadow his exploits as “Canada’s Arctic Cinematographer” almost four decades later. As a young man, Post worked for the Sentinel Review in Woodstock, covering daily news as cub reporter and photographer. As war clouds spread over Europe, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1940, training in its photographic unit to maintain cameras on aircraft to record mission results. He was attached to the legendary RCAF 407 “Demon” Squadron as part of Britain’s Coastal Command and later to Wellington bombers in North Africa. It was here, in the Tunisian desert, that Post shot his first moving images with a Bell and Howell 70DR. After the war, Post opened his own photo studio in Woodstock, photographing everything from weddings to livestock, but it was not until 1955 that he was once again involved with moving pictures, shooting newsreel footage for a London, Ontario, TV station, eventually gravitating to Toronto. His newsreel speed, coupled with his keenly visual eye and journalistic attention to detail quickly established Post as a top-flight documentary cinematographer and director. In 1959, he made his first trip to the Canadian Arctic, igniting his passion for the north and its people.

In the ensuing two decades, Post travelled 17 more times to the far north, solidifying his reputation as an expert in extreme cold weather cinematography.

Mostly lauded for his documentary work, Post also ventured into features and TV movies, and was the DP on TVOntario’s Emmy-winning drama Inside/Out. Post’s cold weather skills were much in demand for the Arctic drama The White Dawn and for the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, where he was perilously perched high on a mountain ledge on Baffin Island, contributing stunning visuals for the movie’s infamous ski chase scene.

or Manfred Guthe csc, it was always about the lighting.

Born near Frankfurt, Germany, in 1946, Guthe immigrated with his parents to Canada when he was 11 years old, settling in Midland, Ontario.

While in high school, Guthe became involved with theatrical lighting design. He was spellbound with how lighting could shape the mood and the story of a stage play. Guthe became a lighting director in the Ontario Summer Stock Theatre during the early 1960s, and while he loved his work, making a living was a different story. In 1965, Guthe was hired by the CBC to do television lighting. Occasionally he worked in their film department and discovered that the director of photography controlled the lights. That’s where Guthe wanted to head. After three years, he left the CBC and began working his way through the ranks of the film industry from camera assistant to camera operator and eventually to his goal of DP. Although Guthe started in documentaries, he quickly moved into theatrical features and television series that grabbed his creative interests. During his career, Guthe was the DP of dozens of theatrical films and television series. His filmography includes the features Oddballs (1984), Too Outrageous! (1987), and The Midday Sun (1989). For television, he was the DP on the popular series Road to Avonlea (19901996) for which he won a CSC Best Cinematography award; North of Sixty (1993), and the award-winning movie of the week Butterbox Babies (1995). Guthe says the most important aspect of being a cinematographer is to drive the visual story by creating a film’s look of which lighting is an intrinsic element. It is an approach that has garnered Guthe several award nominations and wins, including the 1977 Best Cinematography Award from the New York Film Festival.

Guthe divides his time between Toronto and San Miguel De Allende, Mexico, where he’s published several photo books on Mexican architecture and street life.

K

F

Canadian Cinematographer - February 2017 •

25

TECH COLUMN

Canon’s New C700 Takes Its Place in the Light

26 • Canadian Cinematographer - February 2017

like an ARRI AMIRA; has a side control panel that looks similar to the Sony F5/55; and an assistant’s panel that looks very much like the one for the Varicam 35 and LT.” Under the hood, then, what does the C700 have that any other camera in its price range doesn’t, and how does it stack up against those cameras priced below its $45,000 tag? The Canon EOS C700 EF/PL and EOS C700 GS PL are both 4K ready with frame rates up to 59.94P/50P and 2K up to 200p/240p in sensor crop mode, or 4K RAW up to 100P/120P transferring to the optional dockable Codex RAW recorder. They come with the Canon Super 35 mm CMOS sensor which has a pixel count of 4.5K (EOS C700 GS PL at 4.2K) and 4K DCI or 4K UHD can be recorded up to 810Mbps.

Like the Sony F5/55, it’s a modular design, and the EF/PL is the first Canon cinema camera with a global shutter, which means it’s a great cam for sports or other fast-moving shoots. Canon thinks documentary makers shooting natural history subjects will like the high-res video capture at low noise and shallow depth of field with a high ISO of up to 102,400 and built-in ND filters giving up to 10 stops of control on both models.

It even comes with an Ethernet port to allow live HD streaming over the web

or connection via an optional wireless transmitter. The EVF also gets high marks.

Canon says EOS C700 is a flagship camera designed for high-end cinema and television production, which has been five years in development. It’s banking on that HDR acquisition, the 4.5K sensor with 15 stops of dynamic range, combined with the dockable Codex RA recorder, making it a lead unit in 4K production with secondary units such as the EOS C300 MKII and the XC15.

Beyond ENG and docs, where there are points for the auto-focus system, which is highly tuned and locks in like a guided missile making for great run and shoot capture, Canon thinks DPs shooting dramas will like the Dual Pixel Focus Guide feature, which they claim is “is ideal for greater control and accuracy.”

The consensus online – and you should take the unit for a test drive to form your own opinions – is that the C700 is great camera which should have debuted three years ago but that the price tag – $45,000 is going to cause pause for thought.

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.

Images courtesy of Canon

T

he first thing people notice about the Canon C700 is that it looks like a video camera. Why is this a thing? Well, take a look at the C700 predecessors, the C100, C300 and the C500. The earlier C-series seemed awkward to work with unless you were on a tripod or in a rig.

Enter the C700, which comes as the EOS C700 EF/PL and EOS C700 GS PL. This is a camera any Canon fan working in ENG who favours a shoulder position is going to like at first look.

Those ENG shooters and anyone else who works primarily with natural light are also going to especially like the low light capability which is probably the standout feature of this camera. There’s an ISO of up to 102,400 and built-in ND filters, with up to 10-stops.

Reaction has been mixed, and I’ll defer to the guru of all things cinemagraphic and technical, Philip Bloom, who notes on his blog (philipbloom.net): “For the first time, Canon has made what looks like an ergonomic, shoulder-mountable camera that shares a lot of similarities with its competition. In fact, if you look at the C700 closely, the design is a real hybrid of several other cameras.

The front end of the camera looks very much like a C300; it is long and thin

CLASSIFIEDS EQUIPMENT WANTED 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.

SERVICES

You Focus On The Shot

DRONEBOY - We provide safe, reliable and spectacular drone-based aerial cinematography throughout Canada. We have Transport Canada SFOCs in place for all regions, and a large fleet of set-ready drones, and experienced crews for all your camera flying needs. We are flying everything from the new Sony A7S2 to Red Dragon and the new Arri Mini. www.DroneBoy.com | 1-866-783-7871 20% Off to all CSC members! Looking for a Green Screen Studio?

Greensuite209 is owned and operated by a CSC member, and is now offering 20% off our regular studio and equipment rental rates for all CSC members! We are a 1750 sq. ft. green screen studio in South Etobicoke just south of William F Whites. We have a 11’ X 29’ X 14’ Digicomp sloping green screen.

Check us out online at www.gs209.com and contact us for any further information! email: Booking@GS209.com.

HD Source is well-known and respected for their excellent SERVICE department and truly skilled technicians. As an Authorized Sony Service Depot, HD Source professionally maintains, repairs, and performs crucial upgrades to a wide range of equipment, including HD and 4K. HD Source also proudly services and accessories. Canon Broadcast lenses, and boasts an on-staff Canon-trained and experienced Lens Technician. HD Source understands how important each piece of equipment is, and will get it operating and back to you as quickly and as cost-effectively as possible.

Call Alnoor at 905-890-6905, email him at alnoor.remtulla@ hdsource.ca, or drop by HD Source anytime at 1670 Enterprise Rd. (Dixie & 401).

We’ll Focus On The Rest

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 HILL’S VIDEO PRODUCTIONS – Burlington, Ontario New SPRINTER Production Van coming. HDSDI fiber boxes for long runs.

Need more for your shoot? RED Scarlet camera – Zeiss Compact Prime lenses, Grip Gear, Kino Flo’s, Silks, Apple Boxes, HMI’s, Doorway Dolly | Call Rob Hill | 905.335.1146 | Cell 905.875.5272 | studio@hillsvideo.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.

Unparalleled Optics.

Optimized Camera Systems.

Inspired Engineering.

World Wide Service. www.panavision.com

Canadian Cinematographer - February 2017 •

27

PRODUCTION NOTES

12 MONKEYS III (series)

DP David Greene csc, asc (odd) & Boris Mojsovksi csc (even)

to February 1

Toronto

ADVENTURES OF NAPKIN MAN II (series)

DP/Operator Mitchell Ness csc

to February 15,

Toronto

AMOUR COUGAR: AU-DELÀ DU MYTHE (documentary)

Serge Desrosiers csc

to February 28

Montreal

ANNE (miniseries)

DP Bobby Shore csc; Camera Operator Andreas Evdemon

to February 3

Toronto

ARROW V (series)

DP Gordon Verheul csc (odd)

to April 19

Vancouver

BATES MOTEL V (series)

DP John Bartley csc, asc

to February 24

CHEVAL-SERPENT (series)

DP Jérôme Sabourin csc

to February 17

Montreal

DC’S LEGENDS OF TOMORROW II (series)

DP David Geddes csc, asc Producer Glen Winter csc

to February 24

Burnaby

DESIGNATED SURVIVOR (series)

DP Colin Hoult csc (alternating episodes) B Camera 1st Assistant Jim Chirayouth Saysana

to April 28

Toronto

DISTRICT 31 (series)

DP Marc Gadoury csc

to March 17

Montreal

FARGO III (series)

DP Craig Wrobleski csc

to May 2

Calgary

THE FLASH III (series)

DP C. Kim Miles csc (odd)

to April 22

Vancouver

GIRLFRIEND’S GUIDE TO DIVORCE (series)

DP Laszlo George csc, hsc

to March 31

Vancouver

GREEN HARVEST (series)

DP Colin Hoult csc (alternating episodes)

to April 30

Toronto

KILLJOYS III (series)

DP Bruce G. Worrall csc

to May 12

Toronto

LETTERKENNY III (series)

DP Jim Westenbrink csc

MECH-X4 aka MTX (series)

DP Neil Cervin csc

to March 16

Aldegrove

MEDITATION PARK (feature)

DP Peter Wunstorf asc

to March 2

THE MOUNTAIN BETWEEN US (series)

B Camera Operator/2nd Unit DP Roger Vernon csc

to February 24

Coquitlam

OCTAVIO IS DEAD (feature)

DP Daniel Grant csc

to February 14

Toronto

ONCE UPON A TIME VI (series)

DP Tony Mirza

to March 31

Burnaby

THE PARTING GLASS (feature)

DP Guy Godfree csc

to February 10

Toronto

PRIVATE EYES II (series)

DP Christopher Ball csc & Pierre Jodoin csc (alternating episodes) 1st Assistant Pierre Branconnier B Camera Operator Brad Hruboska

to May 19

Scarborough

REBOOT: THE GUARDIAN CODE (series)

DP Vincent de Paula

to March 24

Saanichton

SHADOWHUNTERS II (series)

DP David Herrington csc & Mike McMurray csc; Data Management Technician Marc Forand

to May 16

Mississauga

STRAIN IV (series)

DP Alwyn Kumst csc (alternating episodes) B Camera Operator J.P. Locherer csc

to April 11

Toronto

SUPERNATURAL XII (series)

Co-Producer & DP Serge Ladouceur csc; Camera Operator Brad Creasser

to April 26

Burnaby

TOM CLANCY’S JACK RYAN (series)

B Camera Operator Alfonso Maiorana

WYNONNA EARP II (series)

DP Gerald Packer csc

to April 13

Calgary

ZOO III (series)

DP François Dagenais csc

to June 16

North Vancouver

CALENDAR OF EVENTS FEBRUARY 6, CSC Annual General Meeting, Technicolor Toronto 7, February Freeze, William F. White, Toronto, februaryfreeze.com 3-12, Victoria Film Festival, Victoria BC, victoriafilmfestival.com 13-17, CSC Awards Juries 23-March 4, Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois, Montreal, rvcq.com

Write to Us

www.csc.ca Connect online with the CSC

Montreal

MARCH 1-12, Canadian Screen Awards, Toronto, academy.ca/Canadian-screenawards 2-5, Kingston Canadian Film Festival, Kingston, ON, kingcanfilmfest.com 23- April 2, International Film Festival on Art, Montreal, artfifa.com APRIL 1, CSC Awards, Arcadian Court, Toronto, csc.ca April 27-May 7, Hot Docs, Toronto, hotdocs.ca

Follow us on Instagram to see featured full members' work @canadiancinematographer

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.

28 • Canadian Cinematographer - February 2017

@csc_CDN

It’s all in your hands

MASTER GRIPS FINGERTIP CONTROL OF LENS AND CAMERA

ARRI MASTER GRIPS. TRULY CINEMATIC.

www.arri.com/ecs/mastergrips

Mic support attachment improvements LCD VF hood and support rod

4K/UHD/HD resolutions with longer record times with the new 256GB XQD card

New electronic Variable ND system

BT-2020 colour space support

New (with kit) 18-100mm Power Zoo Parfocul E-mount lens

10 assignable buttons New easy eject XQD card slots for more efficient card swapping

New more robust lens locking mechanism Improved adjustable grip arm

Cinesational Sony’s new FS7II is creating quite a stir with cinematographers, for all the right reasons.

Thanks to its many ergonomic and operational improvements, the 4K Super35mm FS7II is simpler and easier to operate. In addition, the new FS7II’s impressive list of technical innovations is, for many, all the incentive they need to move up from the original FS7 to the new Mark II. All told, Sony’s new kid on the scene is quickly becoming the go-to camera for demanding filmmakers.

Check it out for yourself at Vistek.

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

PHOTO | VIDEO | DIGITAL | SALES | RENTALS | SERVICE

The Visual Technology People

VISTEK.CA