Canadian Cinematographer Magazine January 2018

CANADIAN SOCIETY OF CINEMATOGRAPHERS

$4 Januar y 2018 www.csc.ca

Hochelaga TERRE DES ÂMES NICOLAS BOLDUC csc Digs Up Buried History Isaac Elliott-Fisher Defective Athan Merrick Uninterrupted

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

FEATURES – VOLUME 9, NO. 8 JANUARY 2018

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.

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Hochelaga, Terre des Âmes: Nicolas Bolduc csc Digs Up Buried History

By Fanen Chiahemen

22

Credit: Athan Merrick

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.

Uninterrupted: Vancouver Cinematographer Captures Salmon Run

By Frederick Blichert, Special to Canadian Cinematographer

Defective: The Art of Genre Shooting on A Budget

By Fanen Chiahemen

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COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 2 4 8 12 32 34 36

From the Editor-In-Chief In the News On Set Spotlight: Van Royko csc The Masters Tech Column Production Notes/Calendar

Cover Vincent Perez as Jacques Cartier in Hochelaga, Terre des Âmes.

Credit: Marlène Gélineau Payette

Canadian Cinematographer January 2018 Vol. 9, No. 8 EDITORIAL BOARD EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Joan Hutton csc 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 EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBER Bruce Marshall, brucemarshall@sympatico.ca CSC BOARD OF DIRECTORS Carlos Esteves csc Joan Hutton csc Alwyn Kumst csc Antonin Lhotsky csc Bruno Philip csc Joseph Sunday PhD George Willis csc, sasc CSC EXECUTIVE PRESIDENT George Willis csc, sasc PAST PRESIDENT, ADVISOR Joan Hutton csc VICE PRESIDENTS Carlos Esteves csc, Toronto Alwyn Kumst csc, Vancouver Bruno Philip csc, Montreal MEMBERSHIP CHAIRS Arthur Cooper csc Phil Earnshaw csc EDUCATION CHAIRS Carlos Esteves csc George Willis csc, sasc AWARDS CHAIR Andre Pienaar csc, sasc Samy Inayeh csc PUBLIC RELATIONS CHAIR Bruce Marshall OFFICE / MEMBERSHIP / SUBSCRIPTIONS 131–3085 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.

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2 • Canadian Cinematographer - January 2018

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Joan Hutton csc

T

he overriding good that’s manifested itself from exposing Harvey Weinstein as a sexual predator is the dialogue and industry introspection it rekindled regarding the debasing treatment of women

by powerful and abusive men in media. There was an attempt to do so here in Canada with Jian Ghomeshi and his despicable conduct, but it unfortunately sputtered to a halt with his acquittal by a judge. It’s taken our neighbours to the south with a cascade of accusations to bring the horrid problem back to the forefront. Better now than never to hopefully evoke positive change.

While not every woman may have suffered the brutality of a sexual assault, most will have felt at some point in their work lives the humiliation and sting of inappropriate behaviour, and mostly it’s the young and those with little power.

When I was a young woman in my early 20s, breaking into this business with dreams of becoming a cinematographer, I was working a shoot as 2nd AC. Virtually no women worked on camera crews back in those days. I had the habit then, when not needed, to stand at the ready with my hands clasped behind my back. An innocent enough stance, but on this shoot a crew member snuck up behind me and rubbed his crotch into my hands. Of course, I jumped in fright.

Not one person on the set said or did anything, so I did nothing. But I was totally embarrassed and humiliated. I was told later by the make-up artist and another woman that this particular crew member made similar sexual advances towards all females on the set. After that, I stood with my back to the wall. To this day, the incident still embarrasses and angers me.

In the past two months, the dialogue has coalesced into two industry gatherings to tackle sexual harassment and assault. The discussion results have been far reaching with endorsements for zero tolerance, industry-wide harmonizing of sexual violence policies among unions, education, victim trauma counselling, expanding the workplace to include events such as wrap parties and even a push to change labour laws. Detailed recommendations will be finalized this winter in 2018.

It’s a promising start on a path that I truly hope will turn our industry into a culture of genuine equality and respect. Everyone has the right to a safe working environment free from all forms of harassment.

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Projects shot by CSC members have been selected as 2017’s TIFF Canada’s Top Ten films, it was announced in December. Among the feature films are Adventures in Public School (Stirling Bancroft csc), Never Steady, Never Still

(Norm Li csc) and RUMBLE: The Indians Who Rocked the World (Alfonso Maiorana). Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival celebrates and promotes contemporary Canadian cinema and raises awareness of Canadian achievements in

New YouTube Channel Showcases Vintage Canadian Content

Credit: Terra Mack

In The News

CSC Member Projects among TIFF Canada’s Top Ten

Filmmaker Rob Stewart

ACCT Announces Rob Stewart Award The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television recently announced the launch of the Rob Stewart Award for Best Science or Nature Documentary Program or Series in honour of the late filmmaker Rob Stewart, whose work focused on the importance and urgency of preserving the natural environment. The award is presented annually to the team behind an exceptional science or nature documentary program that has been submitted to the Canadian Screen Awards. It comes with a cash award of $25,000 presented to the producer (series) or director and producer (program). The Academy will announce more information about this year’s nominees on January 16.

CSC Annual General Meeting

In November, the Canada Media Fund and Google Canada announced the launch of Encore+, a YouTube channel that provides free access to a wealth of memorable Canadian film and TV content. Encore+ already offers more than 300 videos of 100 award-winning feature films and television series in both official languages, including comedies, dramas, children’s and youth shows, documentaries and short films. Every week, dozens of titles will be added as part of an ongoing editorial calendar, including a number of Canadian feature films premiering on Encore+ in newly re-mastered versions. All digitizing, encoding and remastering of works is provided by Deluxe Toronto. Among the titles featured on Encore+ are Degrassi High, Due South, I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing, Little Mosque on the Prairie, Maman Last Call, Moccasin Flats, The Corporation, and The Littlest Hobo. The channel is a Canadian content discoverability and visibility tool, and through this industry-wide effort, the presenting partners also seek to ensure that rights holders and Canadian creators are the first to benefit from views of their works on YouTube, as well as test new business models for catalogue content. Working closely with Canada’s film and television producers, distributors, broadcasters, unions, guilds and other

Monday, February 5, 2018 at 6:30 pm Technicolor Toronto. Boardroom No. 1 49 Ontario Street

film. The 10-day festival runs from January 12 to 21 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto, followed by a nationwide tour stopping in Vancouver, Montreal, Regina, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa and Saskatoon. industry associations, Encore+ is spearheaded by the Canada Media Fund, with support from Google Canada, Bell Media, BroadbandTV and Deluxe Toronto.

Telefilm Canada is also a key partner in this endeavor, providing financial and promotional support.

Vancouver Stuntman Clayton John Virtue Dies Stuntman Clayton John Virtue died suddenly at Langley, BC, on October 15, 2017. Born on November 16, 1984, Virtue was described as a “larger-than-life” man, a loving husband, father, son, brother and friend who was passionate about his work, his family and his film community. He is survived by his wife Sarah; son, Kai; parents, Charlotte and Danny; and his brother, Marshall. A memorial service was held on November 4 in Abbotsford, BC.

Toronto-Based Startup Offers Peer-to-Peer Equipment Rental

The Toronto-based company Shuttershare recently launched its online platform where members can post cameras, lenses, lighting and other equipment for rent. The platform aims to enable owners of camera equipment to generate additional income. After creating a profile, members are taken through a secure verification process, before setting their price and listing their gear. Members can also request rentals directly through the platform at shuttershare.io.

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 will be held at the Arcadian Court in Toronto on April 14, 2018.

Award entry forms are available online at csc.ca. The entry deadling is January 31, 2018.

4 • Canadian Cinematographer - January 2018

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CSC at ProFusion 2017 November 7 and 8, 2017, Toronto

Vistek is the Platinum Sponsor of ProFusion 2017

Tony Devai (right) of Technically Yours Inc. speaks to a customer.

CSC booth with Justin Chambers, Carlos Esteves csc, Justin Lovell, George Willis csc, sasc

Joseph Sunday and Stephen Reizes csc at the CSC booth.

Customers at the Vistek booth.

Michael Jari Davidson (second from left) talks with visitors at the CSC booth.

CSC Welcomes New Sponsor

T

he CSC is pleased to announce that postproduction and visual effects house Red Square Motion (RSM) has become the society’s newest corporate sponsor. Located in Toronto, RSM is a full-service operation that caters to the local and international filmmaking market. It was founded in 2009 by award-winning cinematographer Pasha Patriki csc to help fill the postproduction gaps for the independent filmmaking community at the time, who wanted to finish their films in 4K. RSM was a success as soon as it opened its doors, and in eight short years it has become a top-flight boutique operation servicing filmmakers at all levels with its postproduction creative wizardry and technical sophistication.

6 • Canadian Cinematographer - January 2018

Photos: Carolyn Wong

Kevin Rasmussen and Joseph Sunday talking with visitors at the CSC booth.

Canadian Cinematographer - October 2017 •

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Credit: Andrew Bako

On Set

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Credit: Justin Dawson

Credit: Pauline Heaton csc

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3

4 1. Keith Murphy on the set of The Exorcist: The Next Chapter, Season 2, “Rockin’ de Lo Mode.”

2. (From left) Key grip Rick Schmidt (behind lens), cinematographer Jarrett Craig, stand-in Mariah Johnson and director Bruce McDonald shooting Heartland, Episode 11.

Credit: Tim Davidson

3. DP Todd M Duym (left) with director Jorn Threlfall (right) on location in New Mexico shooting the short film Dawn.

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4. Pauline Heaton csc, underwater cinematographer on the set of The Detour with marine coordinator Bolivar Sanchez at the Pinewood water tank in the Dominican Republic.

5. Associate member Lauchlan Ough working on the documentary 12 Neighbors in Ghana.

ACCEPTANCES / AWARDS / NOMINATIONS / Iris Ng, associate member (DP) Shirkers (feature documentary) screening at 2018 Sundance Film Festival, Park City, Utah, January 21, 2018; NUUCA (short) screening at 2018 Sundance Film Festival, Park City, Utah, January 18-28, 2018 Tony Wannamaker csc (DP, director, UAV pilot) Chief Doreen of the Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation (documentary short) screened at Quinte Canadian Film Festival, September 29 to October 1, 2017; screening at Belleville Downtown Doc Festival, March 2-4, 2018; Kingston Canadian Film Festival, March 1-4, 2018; Toronto Short Film Festival, March 12-16, 2018 Jeff Wheaton, associate member (DP) Black Cop (feature) Won Best Atlantic Feature Film, Atlantic International Film Festival, NS, September 18, 2017;

8 • Canadian Cinematographer - January 2018

screened at Cinefest Sudbury Int. Film Festival, September 21, 2017; won Best Canadian Feature Film, Vancouver Int. Film Festival, BC, October 3, 4 & 13, 2017; won Best Canadian Feature Film, Edmonton Int. Film Festival, October 6, 2017; screened at Festival du nouveau cinéma, Montreal, October 10 & 11, 2017; screened at Chicago International Film Festival, October 17, 21 & 23, 2017; won Excellence in the Art of Filmmaking, Tallgrass Film Festival, Wichita, KS, October 19 & 20, 2017; won Best Narrative Feature Film, St. Louis International Film Festival, MI, November 5, 2017; screened at Cork Film Festival, Ireland, November 11, 2017; screened at African Diaspora Int. Film Festival, New York, November 28, 30 & December 1, 2017

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Canadian Cinematographer - September 2017 •

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10 • Canadian Cinematographer - January 2018

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CSC Lighting Workshop October 21-22, 2017, Toronto

Photos: Gayle Ye

Sama Waham and Tess Girard

Carly Brenner with camera

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Carlos Esteves csc

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George Willis csc, sasc

CSC Lighting Faces Workshop November 11-12, 2017, Toronto

Photos: Jared Lorenz

An actor in a demonstration.

An actor sits for a lighting demonstration.

George Willis csc, sasc demonstrates

Carlos Esteves csc demonstrates.

Canadian Cinematographer - January 2018 •

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Photo: Brice Picard

CSC Member Spotlight

Van Royko csc

How did you get started in the business?

I did an undergrad and a masters at Concordia University in Montreal. One of my buddies started directing music videos and I got my first break shooting low-budget hip hop videos. One of these clips brought me to Cuba where I decided to shoot a little city portrait during off hours. I put it on Vimeo and it got the attention of some directors who hired me for some ads and TV docs.

Who have been your mentors or teachers?

Daniel Cross, Mila Aung-Thwin, Nettie Wild, Sturla Gunnarsson, and right now Denys Arcand is teaching me a bunch.

What cinematographers inspire you?

12 • Canadian Cinematographer - January 2018

Robbie Ryan bsc, isc, Thimios Bakatakis, Wolfgang Thaler, Emmanuel Lubezki amc, asc.

Name some of your professional highlights.

Shooting Monsoon for four months in the Indian rains is an adventure that is hard to top. I keep trying though…

What is one of your most memorable moments on set?

During one of my first documentaries, we launched a sort of sting operation to capture pickpockets on hidden and long lens cameras. It was a lot of fun to do and turned into a magical scene.

What do you like best about what you do?

I love transforming a fleeting moment

into something that will have an effect on many people over time.

What do you like least about what you do?

Airports, very small but expensive pieces of gear. Egos.

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

In the big picture, the CCD/CMOS because it has made image making much more accessible. On a more zoomed-in level, the gimbal stabilizer – it opens a lot of new pathways for cinematography both in fiction and doc.

How can others follow your work?

vanroyko.com. I do some Instagram under my handle vanroyko.

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Hochelaga TERRE DES ÂMES Nicolas Bolduc

csc

Credit: Marlène Gélineau Payette

Digs Up Buried History

Nicolas Bolduc csc

14 • Canadian Cinematographer - January 2018

“

There was something very intelligent about the way he was shooting – very stylistic but also very thought of and well balanced in the frames, as well as the mise-en-scène. He does tableaus that are very operatic; he loves the epic feeling. He also loves the idea of juxtaposing strong visual ideas and powerful characters, and that’s very masculine in a way, but he does it with a very feminine sensibility.”

Canadian Cinematographer - January 2018 •

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I

By Fanen Chiahemen

n 2010, cinematographer Nicolas Bolduc csc had the opportunity to shoot a few Air Canada commercials with renowned director François Girard (The Red Violin, Silk). “We travelled the world together to shoot these commercials – Argentina, Hong Kong, London, Paris. It was very exciting, and we got to know each other in a very special context,” Bolduc recalls. “We got along so well I went, ‘Oh my God, I would love to make film with this guy.’ I’d always admired the way he worked, and I think he’s one of the most interesting directors in Canada for sure.”

During those commercial shoots, Bolduc observed that “there was something very intelligent about the way he was shooting – very stylistic but also very thought of and well balanced in the frames, as well as the mise-en-scène. He does tableaus that are very operatic; he loves the epic feeling. He also loves the idea of juxtaposing strong visual ideas and powerful characters, and that’s very masculine in a way, but he does it with a very feminine sensibility.”

Bolduc got a chance to experience Girard’s grand filmmaking style when the director called upon him to shoot his sixth feature, Hochelaga, Terre des Âmes (Hochelaga, Land of Souls), a historical drama that Girard also wrote. In the film, after a sinkhole opens in Montreal’s Percival Molson Stadium during a football game, a Mohawk archeologist named Baptiste Asigny (played by rapper-actor Samian) traces the unearthed artifacts to the Iroquois village of Hochelaga, where Jacques Cartier (depicted in the film by Vincent Perez) is believed to have come face to face with the Iroquois people in 1535. The film imagines the Montreal Island from as far back as 1267 before it was colonized by Europeans, through to a deadly smallpox outbreak in 1687, the Patriots’ Rebellion of 1837, to the present day, and it is noted for its painstaking commitment to authenticity – in addition to French and English, Indigenous languages, including Mohawk and Algonquin dialects, are spoken in the film.

“For years I’ve been working outside Quebec and Canada, working everywhere but in Montreal, and I realized I’ve never shown my city in my feature films, and I felt a great need to come back home and show where I live and dig for my roots; that was the original impulse,” Girard says. “From there I got caught into the different waves of immigration and looking for my roots. I found multiple occupants of the land, starting with the First Nations.”

True to Girard’s style, the process of crafting the look of Hochelaga was atypical. “We didn’t storyboard anything or go into shot lists,” Bolduc recalls. “We did discuss how we wanted the film to feel. It was a lot of evenings of him playing piano as we were drinking wine and just getting to know each other as collaborators and artists, seeing what our sensibilities were and how far we wanted to go with this film, what kind of visual thread it needed.”

According to Bolduc, Girard did not have any film references for Hochelaga, but instead had “historical references and char-

16 • Canadian Cinematographer - January 2018

Samian as Mohawk archeologist Baptiste Asigny.

“

The best tools to tell a very good story is through camera and camera movement. We wanted something that felt alive; we didn’t want the film to feel concrete or rooted into a kind of story that people have heard or seen before.”

Credit: Max Films Credit: Max Films

Above: Jacques Cartier (Vincent Perez) comes face to face with the Iroquois people. Below: Coach Mario Ricci (Tony Nardi) talks to his team ahead of a football game in Montreal’s Percival Molson Stadium where a sinkhole opens.

acter references that come from opera and other places, which gave me another take on the way he shoots, so it becomes a very original piece because the references deal with time and history.”

“I believe aesthetics should come from the roots, the subject, the characters, the situations,” Girard offers. “I don’t tend to impose visual or narrative aesthetics on a story and on characters.

I think the look of the film should come from the roots of the film.”

“In the end, François said, ‘I want to do something that makes this film vibrate. There has to be movement, it has to be visually never stopping,’” the DP recalls. Knowing that the key to achieving Girard’s vision lay in the camerawork, Bolduc captured most of the action in the film with the Steadicam. “About 95 per cent of the film we shot on Steadicam, moving with the actors and creating a feeling of floating from one place to another,” he says.

“So there was never a shock from one era to another because it was in the same organic aesthetic. We moved with the actors,

we stopped with them, we’d go back into action with them. It made a lot of sense to do it that way, and I love to work that way because it’s not a question of lighting and colour timing; I think those are very artificial tools to tell a story. The best tools to tell a very good story is through camera and camera movement. We wanted something that felt alive; we didn’t want the film to feel concrete or rooted into a kind of story that people have heard or seen before.

“That’s one thing I love to bring to the table when I make movies – I love to keep the mise-en-scène very open,” he adds. “I don’t want to lock a director into one frame, one direction, one shot and then one frame, one direction and a counter shot. I think it’s important that we can feel a sort of flow. Because the story was flowing between all these periods, for me it was important to have a single aesthetic that could follow through the whole film even though there were many periods and many timelines.”

Canadian Cinematographer - January 2018 •

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Credit: Max Films

Baptiste sets out to find evidence of the village of Hochelaga.

Because most of the film was shot on Steadicam, Bolduc used the ALEXA Mini with Hawke lenses flown in from Germany. “I think this is the fifth film I’ve shot with Hawke lenses.

I just love the way they feel, the bokeh, that whole imprecise, imperfect feeling of the lenses. You have something very soft and eerie about them, something very old school that feels timeless in a way. That was important. I didn’t want to use anything that was crisp and perfect,” he says.

Creating the look through the camerawork rather than the lighting suited him and the way he works. “I’m someone that doesn’t light a lot and I like to keep things as realistic as possible, most of the time anyways,” he says. “And because all the environments are so different from one another [in the film], for me there wasn’t anything in the lighting that made any sense to bring everything together. It was actually impossible because of the different periods. I did use some filtration to keep a bit of a feeling for skin tones.

“

That’s one thing I love to bring to the table when I make movies – I love to keep the mise-en-scène very open. I don’t want to lock a director into one frame, one direction, one shot and then one frame, one direction and a counter shot. I think it’s important that we can feel a sort of flow. Because the story was flowing between all these periods, for me it was important to have a single aesthetic that could follow through the whole film even though there were many periods and many timelines.”

18 • Canadian Cinematographer - January 2018

“The only real moments where I did use lighting were in some modern interiors, like in apartments and all the scenes in the 1800s,” he says, citing one scene in which a pair of French patriots seek shelter in the home of a wealthy matron during the Patriots’ Rebellion. “I lit with a lot of HMIs outside the windows.

We had a very tight schedule and we had to keep a very stable ambiance throughout one scene that lasted 10 minutes, and it didn’t make any sense for me not to light it, so we prepared the house almost like a stage. We lit around the house everywhere, and I was able to work around, almost in 360 degrees. Every angle was beautiful and the set decoration was stunning, so I didn’t have to relight every scene. I could just go from a close-up to a wider shot in another room or wherever we felt the mise-enscène would take us.”

Shooting scenes in the forest demanded careful planning. “The big challenge was just trying to figure out how much smoke to put in the forest and make sure we’re in the right environment for the sun to hit,” the DP says. “There are a lot of exteriors, so we were working with the weather in the fall and thus very short days. It was complicated, but at the same time I think it created something realistic about the period because Jacques Cartier did arrive in the fall, so we needed that accuracy in the film. That was the one thing François wanted to be very truthful with, since everything else was completely fictitious.”

Another difficult situation arose when the crew was filming the scene in which Cartier meets Iroquois Chief Tennawake (Wahiakeron Gilbert). “That scene was supposed to be shot outside, and then a day before we were supposed to shoot the scene the weather reports came in and we learned it was going to be the biggest rainfall in the last 10 years. It was unthinkable to remain outside,” Bolduc recalls. “We couldn’t change the dates, so we decided at the last minute to shoot the scene inside. So we shot it inside the long house, but it was super complicated because it was windy and raining so much outside that during the scene, the lights I put overhead outside were actually moving in the wind. You can see the light moving on the actors sometimes.

And then the grips and set decorators were trying to cap the water that was leaking from the roof! In the end, I think it’s probably one of the scenes I’m most proud of because it remained very simple and I think we got away with an insane situation and

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“

Because it’s a film I’ve never seen, I was driven to tell this story, and in Quebec we don’t have a lot of films that are period and that actually mention the history of influential native characters. It’s a part of our history we’ve hushed a lot in Canada, and having the opportunity to do something that talks about our roots, who we are and where we’re from, and not just what the history books are saying – for me it had a true impact on wanting to tell the story.”

Nicolas Bolduc csc

we made something that’s even more pretty than if we had shot outside. And it also became a more powerful way to tell the story – having this very small space felt more dangerous; you felt the French couldn’t get away from the place. It created tension.”

Although Hochelaga was a location shoot, a few scenes taking place in a cabin in the woods were shot on stage. “The production designer François Séguin built this really nice cabin, but since I hate shooting on stage and making it look like it was on stage with unbalanced back light that makes no sense, I really wanted to use the tools I had there. I tried to light as naturalistically as possible like if we were on location, so I used a lot of fire light and the light coming through the cracks of the skins that were acting as doors and windows. So it was very simple, but at the same time we were on a stage so we could control it.” One of Girard’s main collaborators over the last 20 years, “[Séguin] brings a lot to the table in terms of power and inspiration. He’s very good and precise with his research, and since he’s done many period films, I think it paid off because he brought many amazing details in the sets. For me, collaborating with [Séguin] was easy because his ideas were dead on,” Bolduc says.

In a scene depicting a bedridden character during the smallpox epidemic, “We don’t see much of the space; we feel the space more than we see it,” the DP notes. “The idea wasn’t to shoot the space, the idea was to shoot the character. So we focused on the actors, on the characters, on what they were feeling, the claustrophobia of the space itself and, in the end, we didn’t shoot the space, but the space felt strong and it influenced the acting of the actors.”

20 • Canadian Cinematographer - January 2018

At a time when there is much discussion about reconciliation with the country’s Indigenous people, Bolduc says he hopes the film can be a tool to help inspire more national soul-searching, as it did in him when he first read Girard’s script. “Because it’s a film I’ve never seen, I was driven to tell this story, and in Quebec we don’t have a lot of films that are period and that actually mention the history of influential native characters,” he offers.

“It’s a part of our history we’ve hushed a lot in Canada, and having the opportunity to do something that talks about our roots, who we are and where we’re from, and not just what the history books are saying – for me it had a true impact on wanting to tell the story.”

In late September, it was announced that Hochelaga, Terre des Âmes will represent Canada in the race for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar at the 90th Academy Awards in March, and while Bolduc was thrilled by the news, he indicates he’s not surprised by the notice the film is getting, despite the specificity of its subject matter. “I think everybody needs to see this film,” he says. “The themes in this film are something that not just Canada, but also the US, is ashamed of, and a film like this – that wants to talk about reconciliation – could only be done by passionate people from Canada with governmental grants.

It couldn’t have been done in any other context. It’s important to talk about these subjects that we rarely talk about in films.

As filmmakers, we’ve got to be able to express feelings we have about deep issues like our relationship with the natives that we’ve kept underground for the last 400 years. And to dig them out, literally in this film, is a great and beautiful thing.”

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Canadian Cinematographer - January 2018 •

29

Uni

20 • Canadian Cinematographer - January 2018

interrupted Vancouver DP Athan Merrick on Capturing Salmon Run

By Frederick Blichert, Special to Canadian Cinematographer

Cinematographer Nicolas Teichrob was my right-hand man on this project.

He was on nearly every shoot and would relieve me operating when cold took over and sometimes be pulling remote focus, other times running safety in fast-moving currents and rapids. We have creative symmetry on set where words sometimes aren’t even needed to know what the next task is or the way to improve the current image. The images have his fingerprints all over them.

Canadian Cinematographer - January 2018 •

23

Credit: Nicolas Teichrob - nicolasteichrob.com

L

ast summer, Vancouver’s Cambie Bridge came to life each night, the buzzing traffic on its surface eclipsed by the sights underneath where director Nettie Wild’s Uninterrupted was projected for an audience of 30,000.

Uninterrupted was shot over three years and follows the migration of sockeye salmon in the Adams River in British Columbia. The resulting half-hour film installation was projected onto the various surfaces of the bridge’s underside, having been painstakingly digitally mapped for optimum projection quality.

At a time when overfishing and increasing fears surrounding BC salmon farms make headlines, the film’s resonance was undeniable, using a dense urban space to provide viewers with an immersive glimpse into a vital ecological process otherwise invisible to the average city dweller.

To kick off the screenings, representatives of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations welcomed the audience onto their traditional territories to the sound of drums, a reminder that the Adams River runs through their traditional territory, where Wild and her crew filmed the bulk of Uninterrupted. The welcome was no less significant in light of recent efforts by environmentalists and First Nations groups to stop salmon farms on the BC coast, including occupations of farms throughout the summer, as wild salmon populations dwindle, threatening delicate ecosystems and livelihoods.

“

I like to say about this project that the salmon are the greatest challenge, and they’re also the greatest creative benefit. They’re a wild animal. You can’t communicate with them, so they really taught me patience.”

Sometimes to create the images we want we have to bring out the big tools –Phantom Flex 4K from Keslow Camera (formerly Clairmont Camera). Of course, this was on an art installation/documentary film budget. So DIT Luke Campbell is also prepping to pull a bit of focus and capture the images via cables running to shore, and I am prepping the package to jump in with the fish. This is after a couple-mile hike with all the gear to get to the best spot on the narrow river for light. Credit: Nicolas Teichrob - nicolasteichrob.com

Director Nettie Wild watches with a monitor connected via SDI. Sometimes to create the image we want we keep it simple. I am a big subscriber to the KISS method – keep it simple, stupid.

There’s this fascination with cages and accessories and rigs.

Sometimes you need that, often you don’t. Doesn’t matter to the image at all.

Credit: Nicolas Teichrob - nicolasteichrob.com

One of the composition decisions was to shoot portrait when there was an image that we felt could play and fill the entire bridge.

Credit: Nicolas Teichrob - nicolasteichrob.com

The experience of swimming with thousands of fish about to complete their life cycle is truly ethereal and transcendent. After talking with many viewers under the bridge over the course of the summer, I am confident we succeeded in bringing that magic to the viewer.

Credit: Nicolas Teichrob - nicolasteichrob.com

24 • Canadian Cinematographer - January 2018

Here’s the image from the previous shot on the bridge. 4K 60fps. We shot the reflections of the trees on the water and played with altering the reflections through simple rock tosses to break the plane until light ran out on the day. We were very careful to avoid showing the edges of the river or items on top of the water, as that would destroy the mysticism of the images. Credit: Athan Merrick

There are obvious challenges involved in shooting a film destined to be projected onto an enormous, uneven, and oddly lit structure like an urban bridge. “When I joined the project, I knew that they had chosen the Cambie Bridge as the exhibition space,” recounts Uninterrupted DP Athan Merrick, who shot the project along with cinematographer Nicolas Teichrob. “We made a lot of decisions based on the space and orientation of the bridge. It’s very different from a screen. It’s much larger, and it’s a 360-degree environment, all above you, in front of you, and behind you, when you’re standing in the middle of the space.”

One of those decisions involved shooting vertically to achieve shots that could be projected across the full length of the bridge. For all the hand-wringing around videos shot in portrait mode these days, it was necessary to pull off the desired effect. “A lot of people complain online these days about vertical video with phones,” Merrick says, but he has no regrets, achieving some of the film’s most impressive moments this way.

Another peculiarity of the shoot involved compositions that would make full use of the bridge and capitalize on certain preferable parts of the structure, topside. “It was very natural for us to choose key elements of a frame and put them in the upper centre of the screen, if we were framing for a more horizontal frame,” he says.

Possibly just as complicated as the screen were the fish themselves. “I like to say about this project that the salmon are the greatest challenge, and they’re also the greatest creative benefit,” Merrick says. “They’re a wild animal. You

“

When I joined the project, I knew that they had chosen the Cambie Bridge as the exhibition space. We made a lot of decisions based on the space and orientation of the bridge. It’s very different from a screen.

It’s much larger, and it’s a 360-degree environment, all above you, in front of you, and behind you, when you’re standing in the middle of the space.”

Canadian Cinematographer - January 2018 •

25

The site of Uninterrupted, a 360-degree canvas 360-degree canvas on the underside of a downtown Vancouver concrete bridge. The visual goal: Transport the viewers from the city to the river. The bridge becomes the river. Viewers should “swim” with the fish. Credit: Athan Merrick

The free public art show ran from June through September five nights a week and inspired tens of thousands of people. The show started with a couple hundred viewers every night. By the end of the run, there were more than 1500 viewers a night. It gave me a tremendous opportunity to network over the course of the run extending invitations to producers, directors and colleagues. I especially want to thank Alwyn Kumst csc for coming out and “breaking the bread” with me during his busy schedule filming The Flash. Credit: Athan Merrick

26 • Canadian Cinematographer - January 2018

The viewing experience would change depending on your location.

Many people came back many times to take advantage of the unique experience. Credit: Athan Merrick

can’t communicate with them, so they really taught me patience.

Sometimes you go scout a location on the river, and the day before there’s thousands of salmon, and you show up the next day with hundreds of pounds of camera gear, and there’s no fish.

“They’re also a huge benefit, because we knew that the red salmon, when they’re spawning in the fall, only show up in the rivers for a couple weeks. So we had two or three weeks in October to shoot. And then what we would call the chromes, the silver sockeye salmon, would only show up for a week in June/ July.” Of course that predictability still didn’t leave much time to shoot or compile a full film. That limited window meant shooting over multiple seasons, multiple years. “You physically could not get enough footage to make a film.”

In early shoots, there were some significant limitations on what equipment Merrick could use. “The budget for the project, when I started shooting, was very modest. Our gear reflected that. On every shoot, we shot with a Panasonic GH4 in an underwater housing, which was our main underwater camera,” Merrick says. “We did that because that’s what they could afford but also because it had a really great macro lens. Panasonic, for their micro 4/3 system, has one of the best macro lenses on the market. And it had 4K resolution.”

They also used a custom-made, five-camera GoPro rig, built before multiple GoPro VR systems were on the market. The rig went a full 180 degrees, and the images it captured could be stitched together to make better use of the bridge. And for topside filming, capturing the water from above, Merrick used a Sony FS7 package.

One important feature that Merrick had to keep in mind was how motion would transfer over to the enormous screen. “We always knew that very high-speed filming was essential for the bridge, because it’s such a large area, and you’re standing under it, and these massive images are moving above you. If things are moving too quickly, it can become disorienting to the viewer, so we knew with the speed of the water and the speed of the fish, we were going to need that high speed.”

Initially they used the Phantom Miro, “which shoots full HD 1,000 frames per second. Both top-side and a bit underwater.

But that camera has so-so colour, and very limited dynamic range,” he says. “Eventually we were able to get a Phantom Flex4K, which does the 1,000 frames per second at 4K and has amazing dynamic range and amazing colour. That basically eliminated any limitations in the image we wanted to get. We were limitless.”

Of course, shooting and editing a project like this was just step one. These images had to then make it onto the bridge. “It was one of the most—if not the most—complicated digital projections ever done on the planet. There were eight Christie digital projectors running to cover the entire bridge,” Merrick says.

While Uninterrupted was conceived with the Cambie Bridge in mind, the producers are now considering ways to expand the project to other cities and spaces. A VR experience is also being discussed, though for now, the likeliest next step will be a return to Cambie next summer, where it has already proven a huge a success.

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Canadian Cinematographer - January 2018 •

27

Defective

The Art of Genre Shooting on A Budget

By Fanen Chiahemen

28 • Canadian Cinematographer - January 2018

“As a kid, I was really inspired by big effects movies from the ‘80s like Terminator and Aliens, and the idea of having an Orwellian police state script that had a group of enemy characters that could be visually interesting, right away I could totally see how I could homage some of my favourite stuff.”

I

ndependent films with tiny budgets are part of virtually every filmmaker’s career and are often the bread and butter of budding cinematographers. While they can offer invaluable opportunities to hone one’s skills, it takes particular ingenuity to protect the production value on a complex genre film

without the luxury of a sufficient budget.

Take Defective, an independent feature set in a dystopian future where the protagonist, Rhett Murphy, and his estranged sister, Jean, are forced to flee a militant police state after witnessing the dark secrets of a nefarious corporation. Despite its lean budget, Defective, which was shot

in and around Brantford, Guelph and Kitchener, features blockbuster elements like full body-suited bad guys, lots of action, big-budget camera moves and many special effects.

Associate member Isaac Elliott-Fisher was key to integrating such big-budget elements into the film. As well as being a Canadian Cinematographer - January 2018 •

29

Credit: John Milakovich

cinematographer, Elliott-Fisher dabbles in concept art and comic illustration, and he not only shot Defective, he also oversaw the production design, designed some of the main costumes and props, and built some of the sets. He had been looking for a feature film to sink his teeth into, and when Defective came along, it afforded him the perfect opportunity to leverage his range of skills to enhance the film’s production value.

“The genre was first and foremost what attracted me,” he says. “As a kid, I was really inspired by big effects movies from the ‘80s like Terminator and Aliens, and the idea of having an Orwellian police state script that had a group of enemy characters that could be visually interesting, right away I could totally see how I could homage some of my favourite stuff.”

Elliott-Fisher found true camaraderie in director Reese Eveneshen, who wanted to go back to the old science fiction and action movie traditions. “We discussed how those films were produced back then – films had a different way of covering scenes and using big master shots and more traditional camera movement. We wanted a dirtier, grittier shooting style like the way Terminator is shot in kind of a ‘from-the-hip’ and very ‘indie film’ way and with as much practical effects as we could get away with,” Elliott-Fisher recalls.

Elliott-Fisher began drawing as a child,

30 • Canadian Cinematographer - January 2018

Left: Isaac Elliott-Fisher Right: Shooting a night scene for Defective.

“We wanted a dirtier, grittier shooting style like the way Terminator is shot in kind of a ‘from-the-hip’ and very ‘indie film’ way and with as much practical effects as we could get away with.”

and his upbringing also played a role in how he developed his skills. “My dad is a general contractor, so we built stuff all the time,” he says. “My mum was an artist, and I was homeschooled, so I was lucky to be around those things all the time and develop a skill set of being able to build you a house, fix your car and shoot your movie as well as design it. So I could apply those skills in an environment wherein people are trying to do independent sci-fi and they cannot afford dedicated production designers or concept artists.”

His philosophy to designing the costumes for the futuristic SWAT unit (known in the movie simply as SUITS) was to create a silhouette that’s “instantly recognizable,” he says. “Things I was taking into consideration was having interesting points of focus on the costume itself and then using an asymmetrical overall design. If you just put them in SWAT gear, they’re just another SWAT team, and there’s nothing to really draw the eye to a point of focus. Good design is part of what makes characters like Ro-

bocop, Terminator, Predator, Hellraiser’s Pinhead, and Darth Vader so memorable.”

It’s an approach he feels is best used even for the “good guys” in genre and action movies. “Like the old Power Rangers had simple lines that came to a simple point of focus. There was a centrepiece even to the design of the costume or something to draw you in,” he says.

After coming up with the silhouettes for the SUITS, Elliott-Fisher then integrated the film’s surveillance element into their costumes. In Defective, the SWAT team wear suits with two lenses fitted into their masks. “The lenses are where the asymmetry comes in, where you’ve got the nice big one on one side, and that’s that point of focus,” he explains. “The larger lens off to one side subconsciously lends itself to a camera looking at you more than if there were two lenses of the same size; they would just look like eyes. But this way it feels like there is a walking surveillance camera looking at you. It’s subconsciously more off-putting.”

Elliott-Fisher also designed and built

Colin Paradine plays Rhett Murphy One of the protagonists, Jean.

eight studio sets in a warehouse in Brantford. “The deeper we got into filming the movie, the more demands there were on the locations – we needed to cover the walls in blood and stuff like that,” he says. “And it was easier to build sets like the basement of the log house that they end up in at the end of the movie than it was to go find a basement in somebody’s house that would work for the demands on that particular location.”

He enlisted his father, and together they built dozens of flats that had different textures on them. “Some were for the basement and some were for the hallway where Rhett fights all the SUITS,” he says. “That is an existing hallway in a building, but we added one of the walls because the hallway was too wide. So we compressed the space down

by adding a whole new wall, and we added vertical lighting into that fake wall as well. And then we repainted the entire space so we could go in there and coat it in fake blood. And then those same flats could be torn down, moved into the empty warehouse space and built into other sets.”

Elliott-Fisher shot the film on his own RED EPIC fitted with Zeiss ZF2 prime lenses and Black Diffusion FX filters.

His camera operation went back to “classic ‘80s action, where the cameras weren’t as handheld as often as they are now, so we were relying a lot on dolly and slider moves,” he says.

Working with his own modest lighting and grip package, they kept the lighting set-ups small and didn’t want “to do the kind of standard three-quarter, big soft source front light that is more synonymous with glossy Hollywood pictures,” he says. “I wanted to shoot with deeper shadows and lots of back lights; you’re not necessarily seeing into the eyes of the characters all the time. It’s grittier and more practically motivated. I’m usually lighting with something, but I’m all about window motivation. I’d rather feel like it’s coming from the environment.”

He shot primarily with older Kinos and a couple of Arri L7Cs because “even though they’re only 1K, they’re every colour you want them to be,” he says.

“They’re super versatile, they produce little to no heat, although they are super big and bulky for just being a 1K equivalent. Then we had a 1.2 HMI we could use for heavier stuff.”

In the end, Elliott-Fisher says the production adopted the philosophy Eveneshen attributes to director David Cronenberg: “Write the story you want to write and then try and make it work.”

The cinematographer adds that it’s best to “just be brave and try crazy new things and not overthink what gear you do and don’t have; just do it. We made Defective for a ridiculously low budget in comparison to what people think we made it for. It’s all about having those right people around you who are passionate and excited, and they all chip in and you can advance your skills and do new and cool stuff.”

Canadian Cinematographer - January 2018 •

31

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This past year was not only the CSC’s 60th anniversary, it also marks the 30 years of recognizing extraordinary excellence through the CSC’s Masters Award. This special honour is conferred upon cinematographers who have transcended from practicing their craft into leaders of their craft by influencing the cinematic art form thorough 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.

This is part seven in a continuing series highlighting the exceptional cinematographers who have received the Masters Award.

By Guido Kondruss

32 • Canadian Cinematographer - January 2018

Harry Makin csc 2005

B

y age 12, Harry Makin csc was taking snaps of his hometown Winnipeg with a Kodak Brownie camera. Fascinated by the process, Makin built his own darkroom as a teenager and lopped off the back of a Brownie so he could use it as an enlarger.

At 17 Makin left school, and for the next four years he pounded iron as a blacksmith apprentice for the Canadian National Railroad. As a young adult, Makin jumped at the chance to indulge his passion for photography professionally, when he was hired by a local advertising agency to set up their photographic department. By 1959, Makin was employed by the Winnipeg CBC station as a stills photographer, and that’s where his education and transition to cinematographer began. A new TV station in a new industry, Makin multitasked from processing film to studio lighting. Eventually, home became the film department as a cameraman shooting news reels and documentaries.

As Makin’s experience solidified, his adeptness at technology and artistic imagery became noted. After a two-year assignment setting up a film and television department for the West African nation of Ghana, Makin returned to Canada and Toronto where he left the confines of the CBC to strike out on his own.

Much in demand for his powerful visual interpretations, Makin shot dozens of documentaries and scripted narratives, and hundreds of commercials of which two garnered him CSC Awards. He was the director of photography on director Eric Till’s A Fan’s Notes – which was accepted into competition at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival – and on the critically acclaimed 1974 miniseries The National Dream: Building the Impossible Railway for which Makin won his third CSC Award. He has also been recognized internationally numerous times, receiving awards from organizations such as the New York Film Festival and WorldFest.

Makin is retired and divides his time between Manitoulin Island in Ontario and Sarasota, Florida.

Robert McLachlan asc, csc 2006

Pierre Gill csc 2007

T

B

he riveting cinematography of Robert McLachlan csc, asc can be seen on three of the most influential and complex episodic television shows of this decade: the awe inspiring Game of Thrones, the film noir-influenced Ray Donovan and the complex Westworld.

Although born in San Francisco on March 23, 1956, McLachlan was raised Vancouver. The son of an artist, McLachlan was surrounded from an early age by art and creative images. It was his father, an avid photographer, who encouraged McLachlan to pursue still photography as an adolescent. However, McLachlan’s resolve to become a cinematographer was cemented after watching the visual work of Conrad Hall asc in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and later Walkabout, shot by Nicolas Roeg bsc. McLachlan studied fine art at the University of British Columbia and advanced film courses at Simon Fraser University.

In 1979, McLachlan founded his own production company where he produced, directed and shot numerous documentaries for organizations such as Greenpeace, the NFB and the BBC. McLachlan won several awards for his environment and conservation films, and was making a name for himself as a documentarian. By 1990, McLaughlin sold his share in his production company and was devoting his efforts and ambition exclusively into pursing dramatic cinematography. It was with the critically acclaimed viewer favourite Millennium where McLachlan set a new cinematic benchmark for TV series. He developed a distinctive style for the moody series by desaturating the colours and lighting as if it were a black-and-white film.

McLachlan has shot more than 60 dramatic productions and has received many accolades for his cinematography. He has won an astounding 10 CSC Awards for his cinematography, three of which are for his work on Millennium. McLachlan has also garnered four American Society of Cinematographers nominations, three of which are also for Millennium.

McLachlan is currently based out of Toronto.

orn in Montreal on May 18, 1964, the cinema for Pierre Gill csc did not loom large in his early life. It was only after the 19-year-old Gill began studies at Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf in Montreal that a new world unfolded before him. It was here that he shot his first Super 8 film, and the adroitness of Gill’s visuals was spotted immediately by teachers and students alike.

He became a much-favoured student cinematographer, winning several awards. It was déjà vu for Gill later as a student in Concordia University’s film school. His talent as a cinematographer quickly shone through and Gill was once again much in demand and winning more awards.

After graduation, cold reality hit Gill. Although he was a successful student cinematographer, he could not land a job in Quebec’s film industry. To solve the problem, Gill co-founded Kino Films. Hiring fellow students who also had difficulty finding work, Kino became a highly successful production company producing commercials and music videos. However, it was the dramatic narrative of features and television that beckoned his cinematography ambitions. Gill sold Kino three years after forming it to strike out on his own.

His reputation as a top-tier cinematographer, whose work was always unique and captivating no matter the project, grew quickly. Gill became known for his dynamic framing that drew viewers into a scene, all the while pushing the story forward. Gill was the eye behind the lens that created the stark images for the disturbing feature Polytechnique and mesmerizing beauty of the biopic Maurice Richard. He has filmed around the world with many prominent directors such as Denis Villeneuve, Jean-Marc Vallée and Charles Binamé. Gill has received many tributes for his work, including eight CSC Awards, two ASC Awards, three Genies, three Jutras and one Gémeaux.

Gill continues to be based out of Montreal.

Canadian Cinematographer - January 2018 •

33

Tech Column

Prime Time for Leica

T

here are lenses and there are lenses, and when Leica announces new lenses, it tends to get attention.

So there’s a fair bit of buzz around the new Thalia prime series, which should be hitting the shelves at rental houses in Canada just as this column is published.

CW Sonderoptic, a sister company to Leica Camera, which makes the Leica Summilux-C and Leica Summicron-C primes, rolled out nine prime Thalia Lenses designed for large sensors at last spring’s NAB. They also introduced their Leica M 0.8 Cinema Lenses, which are modelled on the classic Leica M lenses used in still photography, and two new Leica Cine MacroLux Diopters at plus 2 and plus 0.5 at a 95-mm diameter.

What’s cool about these announcements is that both the Thalia and the M 0.8 build on the company’s optics experiences with still photography. Instead of starting from scratch to design these lenses, Leica looked at what they already knew about optical groupings on 35 mm cameras.

There’s quite a history to Leica, of course.

They are among the legendary camera and

34 • Canadian Cinematographer - January 2018

lens makers of this world, creating the first compact photography camera in 1914 in Germany as the Ernst Leitz Wetzlar company. The company later changed its name to Leica, derived from (Lei)tz (Ca) mera, and didn’t actually start making production still cameras until the 1920s.

Leica was initially famous for its compact still cameras and the first to use standard cinema stock 35 mm film. That’s because the camera started out in 1911 as a device to test a film’s exposure response before feeding it into a movie camera. They even made a moving picture camera prototype in 1911 but decided on still cameras for production.

The first camera – which subsequently went into still production – had a superbly precise mechanism, and by 1925, a new model, the Leica 1, was introduced. It had a specially designed 50 mm f/3.5 lens, based in part on the Cooke triplet designed in the late 1800.

The rest is history. Despite their high price, those early Leica cameras remained prized for their mechanical quality, compact nature and optics, and remain highly collectable today. The new

generation of digital stills cameras are just as impressive. The superb quality of lenses on their still cameras also attracted attention from cinema camera makers, with Bolex making adaptors back in the 1930s, while more recently Leica R-lenses are being modified to fit a Blackmagic rig.

By the way, Ernst Leitz Canada (ELCAN, a subsidiary of Leica at the time) designed the 70 mm IMAX projection system in 1970 and in 1983 collaborated with Panavision for a line of lenses.

Still, despite all this heritage, the first Leica cinematography lenses didn’t appear until the founding of CW Sonderoptic in 2008. By 2012 the first Summilux-C lenses appeared, followed

by Summicron-C lenses in 2013.

Five years later, they are rolling out the Thalia line, which borrows again from this lineage to create a large-sensor footprint in keeping with the trend of 4K becoming 8K and beyond.

With that long tail heritage, you’d have to think these are pretty special groups of glass, and you’d be right. “We saw this trend developing for a while and

understood there weren’t a lot of optics available for larger sensors,” CW Sonderoptic GmbH’s Marketing Manager Kimberly James says. And so the R&D department got to work creating a capture of 60 mm, up from their previous 54 mm by taking a cue from their medium format line of still camera lenses.

“In a sense, the basis of the Thalia was already there,” she says. “There are some changes, of course, such as the iris being a completely perfect circle regardless of the aperture setting with 15 blades. It creates a wonderful bokeh.”

While each lens maker has a goal in what they want the final capture to be – the Cooke look being a warm, creamy and romantic look, for example – the Thalias are designed not to be overly sharp. The point being that digital is too harsh, too real, and the struggle for the cinematographer is to restore some of the mystery and romance of film back into the digital image.

While the coatings have changed, the formula remains a secret sauce, and the mechanics of the optical groupings have also changed. Again, it’s an industrial secret at this stage.

These lenses are premium priced to buy, but are expected to do well as rentals.

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.

Canadian Cinematographer - January 2018 •

35

Camera Operator Andreas Evdemon

to March 28

Toronto

ARROW VI (series)

DP Gordon Verheul csc & Bruce Worrall csc (alternating episodes)

to April 20

Vancouver

BETWEEN EARTH AND SKY (feature)

Camera Operator Keith Murphy

to February 7

Etobicoke

THE BEAVERTON II (series)

DP Gerald Packer csc

to February 2

Scarborough

BLUE BOOK (series)

DP C. Kim Miles csc

to April 26

Surrey

COLONY III (series)

C Cam Operator Stirling Bancroft csc

to February 16

Burnaby

DC’S LEGENDS OF TOMORROW III (series)

DP David Geddes csc, asc (even episodes)

to February 26

Burnaby

DESIGNATED SURVIVOR II (series)

DP Michael Storey csc (alternating episodes) B Camera First Assistant Jim Chirayouth Saysana

to March 23

Toronto

FALLING WATER II (series)

B Camera Operator Perry Hoffmann

to March 20

Toronto

FLARSKY (feature)

DP Yves Bélanger csc B Camera Operator Alfonso Maiorana

to January 16

Montreal

FLASH, THE IV (series)

DP Brenton Spencer csc (odd) & Alwyn J. Kumst csc (even)

to April 21

Vancouver

FORT JAMES III (series)

DP Philip Lanyon

to April 1

Saint John’s

THE GOOD WITCH IV (series)

DP John Berrie csc

to February 2

Toronto

IMPULSE (series)

DP David Greene csc, asc & Colin Hoult csc (alternating episodes)

to January 26

Etobicoke

iZOMBIE IV (series)

DP Ryan McMaster csc & Michael Wale csc (alternating episodes)

to January 18

North Vancouver

LIFE SENTENCE (series)

DP Kamal Derkaoui csc Camera Operator David Bercovici-Artieda

to January 12

B urnaby

MOUTHPIECE (feature)

DP/Operator Catherine Lutes csc

to January 27

Toronto

ONCE UPON A TIME VII (series)

DP Tony Mirza

to April 2

Burnaby

RIVERDALE II (series)

DP Brendan Uegama csc

to March 21

Langley

SHADOWHUNTERS III (series)

DP Mike McMurray csc & David Herrington csc (alternating episodes)

to May 15

Mississauga

SUPERNATURAL XIII (series)

DP Serge Ladouceur csc Camera Operator Brad Creasser

to April 27

Burnaby

TAKEN II (series)

DP David Makin (odd episodes) csc

to February 6

Toronto

TITANS (series)

DP Boris Mojsovski csc & Brendan Steacy csc (alternating)

to May 21

Toronto

UMBRELLA ACADEMY, THE (TV series)

DP Craig Wrobleski csc B Camera Operator Peter Sweeney

to July 11

Etobicoke

WINGS OVER EVEREST (feature)

DP Danny Nowak csc

to April 27

Vancouver

WYNTER (pilot)

DP Samy Inayeh csc

to February 13

Winnipeg

JANUARY 18-28, Sundance Film Festival, Park City, Utah, sundance.org 31, CSC Awards entry deadline, csc.ca FEBRUARY 5, CSC Annual General Meeting, Technicolor Toronto

36 • Canadian Cinematographer - January 2018

MARCH 11, Canadian Screen Awards, Toronto, academy.ca/awards/ 1-4, Kingston Canadian Film Festival, Kingston, ON, kingcanfilmfest.com 8-28, International Film Festival on Art, Montreal, artfifa.com

Classifieds

Production Notes Calendar

ANNE II (series)

EQUIPMENT FOR SALE 35 4x5.6 Schneider filters: ND’s, color correction, diffusion, grads 2 138mm Tiffen Tobacco, Sunset grad 2 138mm Schneider Tru Pola, 85 Pola 2 138mm Schneider CU diopter #1, Cu Diopter • includes case and pouches for every filter.

• Excellent condition • 4x5.6 and 138mm. clears included Today’s value in U.S. dollars $13,705 U.S. Selling price $9,500 CDN PLEASE CONTACT: Bert Tougas H: 514-634-2374 C: 514-913-2376 I have 15 - 3x3 Tiffen filters for sale - fogs, Promists Grads, 812's etc. all with cases $185.00 - contact Barry Casson csc - 250721-2113 or e-mail bcasson@speakfilm.com TIFFEN ULTRA STEADICAM , HD Ultrabrite color monitor ,HDMI Decimator 2,Iso-elastic arm, 4-24 volt batteries, 1-Pag battery charger 24v,1-Lentequip battery charger 12/24v,Klassen vest and carrying bag, 1 Preston F1+Z transmitter 1 Preston MDR-1 receiver,1 Preston control, 2 motors, 2 batteries, charger, numerous Hill motor mount brackets rossette brackets and rods, 1 long dovetail plate,1 short dovetail plate, 1 docking bracket,1 fgs wheel chair/dolly adaptor,rain cover, too many cables, hard cases and accessories to list.This rig was well maintained looks new,all it needs is a few upgrades. $ 35000.00 can 416 817 3938 or acadian@rogers.com Rick Kearney Preston FIZ 2 kit - $13,000 2 x Arri MB-20 studio matte box - $8,000 Arri LMB-15 Clip-on matte box - $1,200 Power-Pod Classic - $13,500 Please contact Michael Balfry csc @: michaelbalfry@gmail.com for a complete list of items.

Looking for a set of old, no longer used, standard legs with Mitchell base. Or any type of disused heavy camera support.

This is to be used to mount a Mitchell BNCR camera in order to place it on display. Anyone with access to such a tripod or with information about one, please contact me: rawi@earthlink.net 416-691-6865

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.

@canadiancinematographer @csc_CDN

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.

APRIL 14, CSC Awards, Arcadian Court, Toronto, csc.ca

The front line of image control

ARRI FILTERS Renowned Full Spectrum ND Filters from ALEXA Mini and AMIRA now as front filters Highest contrast and truest color transmittance for HDR capture Multiple layers of coating for easy cleaning and prolonged filter life Fast inventory tracking through unique, laser-engraved barcodes

ARRI FILTERS. TRULY CINEMATIC.

www.arri.com/filters

The genius of Renaissance masters reborn in a full-frame digital motion picture camera.

Housing a 36x24mm full-frame 6K image sensor, VENICE is designed specifically to meet the demands and performance of high end cinematography.

With its user friendly design, clear and simple menu navigation, its ability to capture in almost any format and aspect ratio, the appeal of VENICE is obvious. As a filmmaker, you can focus on what’s in front of you, not on the camera.

Enjoy a grand tour of VENICE with a short trip to Vistek.

FULL-FRA ME

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A N A M ORPH IC

COMMERCIAL PRO VIDEO • Direct: 416-644-8010 • CommercialVideo@vistek.ca PHOTO | VIDEO | DIGITAL | SALES | RENTALS | SERVICE

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S PH ERICA L

S U PER35

The Visual Technology People

VISTEK.CA