Canadian Society of Cinematographers Magazine November 2016

CANADIAN SOCIETY OF CINEMATOGRAPHERS

$4 November 2016 www.csc.ca

Travelling to

WESTWORLD with Robert McLachlan csc, asc

Neil Cervin csc Impastor Dave Lam Sudden Master

A publication of the Canadian Society of Cinematographers

FEATURES – VOLUME 8, NO. 6 NOVEMBER 2016 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.

10

Credit: HBO Canada

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.

Robert McLachlan csc, asc Travelling to Westworld

By Trevor Hogg, Special to Canadian Cinematographer

CORPORATE SPONSORS

Courtesy of TV Land

18

Impastor LEDs Light the Way for Neil Cervin csc

By Fanen Chiahemen

22

Credit: Ryan Fisher

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

Sudden Master Dave Lam Busts Kung Fu Moves for Web Series

By Fanen Chiahemen

COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 2 4 6 8 26 28

From the Editor-In-Chief In the News New CSC Members Spotlight: Jeremy Benning csc Tech Column Production Notes/Calendar

Cover: Ed Harris as The Man in Black.

Credit: HBO Canada

Canadian Cinematographer November 2016 Vol. 8, No. 6 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 - November 2016

T

he best line I’ve read lately was a sarcastic lament from a cinematographer in an online discussion about the new iPhone7 Plus dual camera system: “When is someone going to build a camera with a phone in it?” It’s a very funny comment, but it’s also peppered with a good dose of chagrin. With the digital age, cameras have become more compact, complex and for the most part cheaper.

There is more variety in gear than ever before and the possibilities for image gathering and management seem to be limitless. Some say, disparagingly, that cinematographers have become obsessed with technology, specs and the latest camera flavour to hit the market. I say that’s good. Obsession is not a dirty word here at all. These are the tools of our trade and we need the technical skill and knowledge to manipulate them intimately for us to ply our craft as professionals.

However, cameras, lights, lenses, digital information are simply just that – tools. Anybody with a few thousand dollars can literally buy a digital motion camera and shoot images that are technically through the roof in quality. But try taking that same pocket full of money into a shop to buy a cinematographer’s eye, lyrical image storytelling or an artistic interpretation of light, and technology comes crashing into a brick wall. Cameras are simply objects without a skilled and talented DP taking charge.

I always smile a bit when I see job posting for cinematographers and the main qualification is being able to operate or owning a RED or some other popular camera. This has always struck me as backwards and quite naive. Any producer worth their salt will first secure a DP whose skills best align with their production. The camera is almost inconsequential at this point, because a good DP will know what to do and what gear to use.

As much as filmmaking is an art form, it is also a business with as many variations as there are deals. Producers choosing cameras before choosing a cinematographer is not all that new. A variation of it existed in the days when film was king. The cinematographer’s artistic prerogative was to choose the film stock, but producers could just as easily say, “We’re shooting on 5247 because I got a great deal.” It wasn’t right, but the times I saw this happen, the cinematographers bit the bullet and produced beautiful images. Gear matters, but not as much as a talented and skilled cinematographer, because they’re the ones that turn mere pictures into artistic visions on the screen.

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

on September 13.

Madrzyk, who is already an accomplished independent filmmaker with several feature films, short films and music videos to his name, is awarded $3,000 towards completing his third year of film studies at Ryerson University.

In other news, William F. White also announced the exclusive launch of a new mobile app in association with Croogloo Inc., Left to right: Willim F. White Chairman/CEO Paul Bronfman, scholarship designed to streamline and digitize the way crew winner Adam Madrzyk, Whites VP Business Development Rick Perotto. information is distributed and obtained. Croogloo will also provide its user base with the unique opportunity aul Bronfman, chairman/CEO of Comweb Corp. and to plan, review and execute orders for WFW’s production equipment provider William F. White International Inc., equipment, making it easier and more efficient to process announced Adam Madrzyk as the winner of the inaugural orders and facilitate production planning.

William F. White/Vilmos Zsigmond Cinematography Scholarship

P

ARRI Announces Completion of ALEXA SXT Development ARRI in September announced that development of the ALEXA SXT cameras (Super Xtended Technology) is completed. The company said it will now provide upgrades to all ALEXA XT EV, ALEXA XT Plus and ALEXA XT Studio cameras shipped in 2015 and 2016. While keeping the sensor and user interface of the original ALEXA design, the capabilities of ALEXA SXT cameras (ALEXA SXT EV, ALEXA SXT Plus and ALEXA SXT Studio) have been extended. SXT cameras can manage more recording formats and handle more processor-intensive tasks such as calculating looks with 3D LUTs or colour space conversions to Rec 2020, all in real time. The new ARRI look management offers a range of unique looks while making it easy to maintain and share the cinematographer’s intended look on set, in dailies and in editing. An optional mild noise reduction helps when shooting

4 • Canadian Cinematographer - November 2016

in low light. The new media bay can accept a wide range of media, including SxS PRO cards, SxS PRO+ cards, CFast 2.0 cards, XR Capture Drives and the new, high-performance SXR Capture Drives. All that horsepower allows frame rate increases for various recording formats, and ProRes will be recorded super-safely via a RAID function.

Meanwhile, the ARRI Group announced the launch of an initiative called the International Support Program, designed to support filmmakers who are working on distinctive projects with an international edge.

Through the program, ARRI will offer multifaceted support ranging from coproduction, development and access to state-of-the-art ARRI equipment, to postproduction and international sales.

The company’s support will be tailored to the individual needs of each

selected project, helping filmmakers’ ideas come to life and make their way onto the big screen. Filmmakers from all over the world can apply online with their feature films or documentary film projects. The company officially unveiled the program at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Nikon Acquires Mark Roberts Motion Control Nikon Corporation recently announced that it will acquire all shares of Mark Roberts Motion Control Limited, which designs, develops and manufactures robotic solutions that enable remote and automatic capture for a range of clients, including in broadcast and film production. Nikon and MRMC aim to develop this new market further by utilizing MRMC’s robotic motion control solution together with Nikon’s imaging related technologies and its broad sales channels.

Courtesy of William F. White

Credit: Tom Sandler Photography

IN THE NEWS

William F. White Announces Inaugural Winner of the Vilmos Zsigmond Cinematography Scholarship

ASC Releases “Cinema Display Evaluation Plan and Test Protocol” The Technology Committee of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) recently announced the publication of its “Cinema Display Evaluation Plan and Test Protocol,” which defines a method for the visual evaluation of parameters that characterize next-generation cinema projection and active screens. As part of the industry’s move to high dynamic range (HDR) and wide colour gamut, the document represents the first step towards the goal of identifying where value is created from the filmmaker’s point of view. It is available for download now on the ASC Web site (theasc. com). The “Cinema Display Evaluation Plan and Test Protocol” explores the capabilities in projectors and displays that go beyond those commonly found in cinema today. The focus is on deeper blacks, practical primaries for wider colour gamut, effective contrast ratios, and optimal peak white levels for HDR cinema. Phase one of this work focuses on understanding how

different parameter values impact the perception of image quality, establishing a baseline for further testing. The “Test Protocol” is the work of the Next Generation Cinema Display (NGCD) subcommittee of the ASC Technology Committee. The ASC Technology Committee is chaired by Curtis Clark, asc. The NGCD subcommittee is co-chaired by Michael Karagosian, Eric Rodli, and Steve Schklair.

TriBro Studios To Expand One of Canada’s newest film studios, TriBro Studios, announced in September plans to expand its production facilities in Toronto, by adding a 30,000 sq. ft. purpose-built sound stage to its existing 100,000 sq. feet of production space. Construction on the sound stage may begin as early as late fall. TriBro Studios, located at 6 Curity Ave., has been operating at capacity since the building opened in the fall of 2015, prompting the expansion. The Warner Horizon-produced television series People of Earth (on which Jonathon Cliff csc is a DP) is currently in production at TriBro Studios.

BEND IT, SHAPE IT, ANY WAY YOU WANT IT.

The LEDGO Versatile LED is like no other lighting unit.

It’s completely flexible. You construct it yourself using a completely detachable frame, so you can assemble it in the shape that suits your shot. No wonder they call it the Versatile. You can bend it, roll it, wrap it, and because the Versatile is waterproof, it’s great for rainy days. Features include: bi-colour 3200K-5600K, CRI 95, WiFi, and fully dimmable.

ACCEPTANCES / AWARDS / NOMINATIONS Guy Godfree csc (DP) Maudie (feature), Atlantic Film Festival, The Gordon Parsons Award for Best Atlantic Feature, Halifax, September 2016 Michael Jari Davidson, Associate Member (DP) First Round Down (feature), Hamilton Film Festival, November 7, 2016; (DP) Heir (short), A Night of Horror International Film Festival, Sydney, Australia, November 24, 2016; (DP) Save Yourself (feature), 13th annual Another Hole in the Head Film Festival, San Francisco, November 2016 Michael Savoie csc (DP and co-director) Mr. Zaritsky on TV (documentary), selected for the Whistler Film Festival, November 30 to December 4, 2016 Simon Shohet csc (DP) CFL “What We’re Made Of” (commercial), won Applied Arts TV Advertising Award for Cinematography - Single, Toronto, September, 2016 Brian Stewart, Associate Member (Producer, co-director, Cinematographer, Camera Operator and Location Audio Recordist) Capture, Kill, Release (feature), Torremolinos International Fantastic Film Festival, Spain, Oct 27 - Nov 1, 2016, The Blood in the Snow Canadian Film Festival, Toronto, Nov 24 – 27, 2016, Fright Night Film Festival, Louisville, KY, November 25- 27, 2016 Ian Toews csc (director, cinematographer, producer) Bugs on the Menu (documentary), Devour! The Food Film Festival, Wolfville, NS, November 2, 2016

Rotolight Anova Pro Not only is the new Anova Pro 43% brighter, the light is more accurate, featuring a CRI>96. The exciting new cineSFX mode allows you to create special effects, such as fire, lightning, neon, gunfire, and more. You can even control FX on other lights with FX slave.

Available in bi-colour and fixed colour 5600K Flicker free true aperture dimming • Built in Display, manual controls, DMX, HSS flash, and V-Lock • •

The Visual Technology People

TORONTO | MISSISSAUGA | OTTAWA CALGARY | EDMONTON

VISTEK.CA

Credit: Jonathan Bregel

New CSC Members

Credit: Benoit Bureau

Oliver Millar csc

Credit: Milosz Rovicki

Catherine Lutes csc

Nathalie Moliavko-Visotzky csc

Write to Us

www.csc.ca Connect online with the CSC

Geneviève Perron csc

Instagram DP of the month: Brendan Uegama csc@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.

6 • Canadian Cinematographer - November 2016

@csc_CDN

SOMETIMES FEELING SMALL MEANS LOSING YOURSELF IN THE BIG PICTURE.

Jeremy Benning csc

Photo credit: Rafy/Syfy

CSC MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

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

Growing up, my parents had a National Geographic subscription. I was fascinated by the photos. The idea of expressing the feeling of a time or place through an image inspired me to learn about photography. I also loved René Magritte and his surreal dream-like paintings. In my teens I became obsessed with the photographs of Elliott Erwitt, the way he could capture a magical moment in the mundane. The film Baraka left its mark on me; it’s a visual poem.

How did you get started in the business?

When I was 16, I started volunteering at Cable 10 Mississauga. For three years I tried everything there. However, I knew cinematography was the career I would pursue. All the while I was also working as an usher at a local movie theatre. There I met cinematographer George Lomaga who was a part-time projectionist. After high school, George offered me a PA/grip job on a small drama he was shooting. On that project I met a young Steadicam operator named Ray Dumas. Ray and I clicked

8 • Canadian Cinematographer - November 2016

and he took my number. A week later he’d referred me to the music video company Black Walk Productions, and I started PAing there. That was the start of the path that led me to where I am today. I worked my way up there from PA to electric, best boy and gaffer and eventually DPing.

by the people I came up with like Chris Soos csc, Adam Marsden csc, Ray Dumas csc, Marcus Elliott, Dylan Macleod csc and Brendan Steacey csc. I love seeing what they create as there is a connection to a common past and how that translates into different voices and interpretations of the craft.

Who have been your mentors or teachers?

Name some of your professional highlights.

As I mentioned previously, Ray Dumas was a big influence on my start as a Steadicam operator. I worked with the trend-setting DP Chris Soos csc as his best boy and gaffer around the time he hit it big with Floria and Marilyn Manson. I was also lucky to be mentored by veteran A cam operator Harald Ortenburger csc. He got me on some big American films as a Steadicam op. I learned a great deal from him about classic dramatic blocking, framing, movement, etc.

The doc work I have done for BBC, National Geographic, Discovery and History Channel have taken me to some fascinating parts of the world – filming skeletal remains of Mayan human sacrifice victims deep in a flooded cave in Belize; shooting human sperm running through the Rockies from a helicopter for The Great Sperm Race; Crashing through high seas in racing yachts off the coast of Tenerife for four days for Saudi Airlines; being able to be part of telling the tragic story of our residential schools for We Were Children. The last two years of shooting the space opera The Expanse has been the culmination of my entire career’s worth of expertise and intuition and has been a massive highlight.

What cinematographers inspire you?

There are the usual big international names like Delbonnel, Lubezki, Savides, Khondji, Lachman, Pope, Burgess.

But I also have been incredibly inspired

• see spotlight page 25

Canadian Cinematographer - November 2016 •

21

DP Robert McLachlan csc, asc.

10 • Canadian Cinematographer - November 2016

Robert McLachlan csc, asc Travelling to

WESTWORLD Futuristic theme parks have a tendency of going horribly wrong for patrons and staff when it comes to author and filmmaker Michael Crichton, who is famous for producing scientific thrillers. The former physician made his feature directorial debut with the 1973 film Westworld in which the whims of guests are indulged by android hosts in a Western frontier setting. Forty-three years later the concept gets updated for the small screen by HBO, J.J. Abrams, Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy.

By TREVOR HOGG,

Special to Canadian Cinematographer

Photos HBO CANADA

Canadian Cinematographer - November 2016 •

11

Meteo Mingo as Boy and Evan Rachel Wood as Dolores.

Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Ford.

Angela Sarafyan as Clementine.

T

he original was told through the eyes of Richard Benjamin’s character and the machines were seen as being purely bad,” notes Robert McLachlan csc, asc, who lensed three of the 10 episodes of Westworld as well as extensive reshoots on the pilot episode after a major role was recast. “[For this version] they approached it evenly from both sides because you have to get engaged with all of the characters. The hosts are certainly much more multi-dimensional by the end of the series.”

In addition, another science fiction classic had a major impact on the way the new series was shot, according to McLachlan. “Blade Runner was much more of a template for the show than the original Westworld. The influence that it had on this is one of the cooler components of what is a cool show,” he says.

Westworld has a large cast that features Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, Evan Rachel Wood, James Marsden, Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Luke Hemsworth and Clifton Collins, Jr. The writers

12 • Canadian Cinematographer - November 2016

were secretive about the scripts and storyline for Westworld, McLachlan says. “Most of us had no idea where the arc was going or the incredible intricacies that lay ahead from the plot standpoint. This meant Jonah or Lisa or one of the writers needed to be on set to critically, and sometimes seemly cryptically, assess wardrobe and other character details which occasionally made the AD’s job hard. Game of Thrones [Editor’s note: See Canadian Cinematographer, April 2013] also guards the scripts religiously, but at least we do have all 10 scripts in front of us when starting photography; that allows us to block shoot the whole season simultaneously with two crews, which is efficient location-wise. For Westworld we just had to be able to roll with it, like Napoleon’s battle plan which

“One of the appeals and guilty pleasures of Westworld was getting to shoot on all of the ranches and locations that classic Westerns Top: Thandie Newton (right) as Maeve Millay. Bottom: Ed Harris (right) as The Man in Black.

have been shot in over the years just outside of Los Angeles.”

– Robert McLachlan csc, asc

was, ‘First we go there and then we see what happens.’ It’s not to say that you don’t have your grips or electrics or Cavalry or artillery ready to go depending what venue you’re in.

“The big thing that I had to keep in mind, and we had to disabuse most of the directors who came in, was the notion that they were here to make a Western, because it’s not a Western,” McLachlan continues. “It’s futuristic science fiction. The Western part was secondary.”

Nevertheless, for the principal photography, the crew used iconic locations. “One of the appeals and guilty pleasures of Westworld was getting to shoot on all of the ranches and locations that classic Westerns have been shot in over the years just outside of Los Angeles. We were based in Melody Ranch,

which had been so named by its former owner Gene Autry. Deadwood was the last well-known show based there, and before that Gunsmoke and Bonanza. We went in and gave the town a facelift to make it fresh. They brought in a steam train and station at the end of the street.

Later in the season, we took the whole train out to a ‘76 ranch in Simi Valley for a fun scene that the visual effects team enhanced and completed,” the DP says.

“There are two small stages at Melody that housed the underground diagnostic centre and control room sets,” he continues. “The dead storage facility was an abandoned shopping center and some diagnostic centre stuff was done at Beverly Design Center which was the inspiration for the main labs set. It was complete with non-gimbaling glass everywhere.”

Sets were repurposed, such as the diagnostic centre which was made to look like a hall of mirrors, he adds: “Massive layers of glass and glass with dark backgrounds reflected everything back so every setup required careful masking of Canadian Cinematographer - November 2016 •

13

Jeffrey Wright as Bernard Lowe.

Right: Rodrigo Santoro as Hector Escaton.

the camera and hiding any lights. Because the basic lighting was built into the ceiling of the set and mostly came from above, you needed to find a way to sneak something in to clean up a character’s eyes.”

Smartphone technology also comes in handy for exterior shots. “We would do our best to make the most use of the location and backlight. I used iPhone apps such as Helios and Suntracker with Artemis (a film lens and camera simulator that uses these great little iPro lenses made by Schneider Optics which attach to your phone or iPad) to plan as much as possible well in advance,” McLachlan says.

“Jonah, like his brother [director] Christopher Nolan, dislikes using green screen and feels that it unconsciously throws you out of the story,” the DP points out. “I think that’s true of any badly executed visual effect or even bad camera operating or over-theatrical lighting. The control room was created with this huge rotating topographical map that the technicians use to keep track of the whole theme park. Any of the features or TV shows I’ve done over the last 10 years

14 • Canadian Cinematographer - November 2016

would have just wrapped that in green and animate on top of it after the fact; whereas this one was on a huge hydraulic lift that rose out of the floor and then rotated mechanically. The image of the park was projected by a digital projector from above that was in sync with the rotating stage which was a big turntable with the contours of the landscape on it. It is very cool and looks real because it is.”

McLachlan notes that Westworld set itself up the way many other North American TV series do where the DPs alternate so that each one can prep their own alternating episodes. He was responsible for Episodes 3, 5 and 7. “It takes the pressure off shooting every single one, although, personally, I like getting into the groove, doing all of them and having good

Westworld is “big, smart, complex, visually impressive, and should have a universal appeal,” McLachlan says.

Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Robert Ford and Jeffrey Wright as Bernard Lowe.

Shannon Woodward as Elsie and Sidse Babett Knudsen as Theresa.

crew members report back to you about upcoming locations and sets. On Westworld I was sharing DP work with an excellent Irish cameraman named Brendan Galvin for whom it was his first TV series. The script delivery schedule came as a bit of a shock to him, but after 425 plus episodes of TV, I’m kind of used to it,” he says, adding that he collaborated with three different directors. “I worked with Neil Marshall who has done a couple of iconic Game of Thrones episodes on 3, Jonny Campbell on 5 and Stephen Williams, who got his start in television in Toronto, on 7. Neil is down-to- earth, solid, and knows action and what he wants. Steven Williams was fantastic and is a cracking smart guy.”

Key members of the crew included veteran moviemakers,

McLachlan says. “I brought on Len Levine and key grip Mike Anderson, neither of whom had done episodic TV before. They brought along a ‘we’re going to do things right’ feature mentality to it that infuses Game of Thrones.

Camera operators varied, but Steve Matzinger was there for the whole time.

We had a superb camera focus puller named Mike Weldon who’s a Hollywood legend.”

McLachlan chose to shoot on film using Kodak 500T/5219, which he shot exclusively on, as well as 250D/5207 and 50D/5203. “Apparently that was going to be a given if Jonah was going to do it. That was exciting for me to go back to do that, although I quickly realized how we’ve all been spoiled with not having to reload after every 12 or 13 minutes of filming. I’ve always been a big proponent of using the same film stock for everything whether you’re inside or outside because I don’t like the way the grain looks different when they’re all cut together side by side,” he says. “We shot with both Arricam LT and ST from Otto Nemenz in L.A., as well as my trusty Arri 435. They’re beautiful film cameras that Canadian Cinematographer - November 2016 •

15

McLachlan prepares to shoot a scene.

The crew shoots the steam train.

were fitted with HD video tapes. On the pilot they had used the Leica Prime lenses, Angénieux zooms and shot 3 perf.”

A lot of the lighting was supplied by Leonetti Cine Rentals as well as by Levine, McLachlan says, adding that they had approximately 15 days of principal photography to shoot each episode. “For day exteriors we had a bunch of ARRIMAX lights. Inside we had a lot of LED and Kino Flo lights,” he says.

Because of the schedule, and to give the editors enough ma-

16 • Canadian Cinematographer - November 2016

terial, the crew had two cameras running much of the time, and on action sequences sometimes they had four or five cameras rolling. “I did use a Russian Arm for one big chase scene involving bad and good guys on galloping horses. That worked great. I also used a Grip Trix with a Steadicam and another camera mounted on it. We used a mechanical horse to get close-ups that worked fabulously well. They’ve come a long way,” McLachlan says.

Cool colours define the underground headquarters while earth tones dominate the theme park in the show. “I have to give credit to the production design and what it is you’re photographing,” McLachlan remarks. “The high-tech sets had cool lighting and all of that glass added a green tone to everything. If I had been there to set up the whole thing I might have used Cooke lenses for all of the up top Western stuff and Zeiss lenses [for the underground headquarters scenes] to organically accentuate the difference between the two, but we couldn’t afford to carry two complete lens packages off the top. I used Schneider Hollywood Black Magic filtration when I was up in the Western world and would shoot with no filtration when I was down inside the clinical lab.

“A slightly timed pass was done on the transfer from negative to digital so the dailies would look okay, but they also did a raw pass so when doing the final colour timing, all that information was there,” the DP continues. “As I recall, they were only doing 2K transfers because it was going to be insanely expensive to do 4K or 6K which of course film is capable of.” Shane Harris from Encore served as the colourist for Westworld. “I believe that Jonah will be supervising the final colour grading of all of it; he is astonishingly well-versed in the technical side of things and knows what’s possible. Jonah knows how to go in and make use of Power Windows and all of the other tools that you have in a colour suite,” McLachlan says.

McLachlan was going to shoot Episode 9, but last November production for Westworld went on hiatus after completing Episode 7. “Because we were quite a few weeks behind schedule, HBO chose to regroup and get the scripts in order.

I couldn’t go back because I was committed to doing Ray Donovan in the New Year. I understand that they tweaked Episode 3 and Stephen Williams went back to shoot some more material for our Episode 7,” he explains.

McLachlan reveals that the episodes he is most looking forward to seeing in their entirety are the fifth and seventh.

“There’s some stuff in there you have definitely not seen in your average fantasy or Western before and people are really going to dig it. It’s been a year, and there’s enough water gone under the bridge that it’s going to be fresh to me,” he says.

When it comes to Westworld becoming the successor of Game of Thrones on HBO, McLachlan remarks, “I hope it is for them. I can totally see that. It’s big, smart, complex, visually impressive, and should have a universal appeal.”

Your New Go-to Lens For the 21st Century

A True, Front Anamorphic Zoom

NEW

Cooke 35-140mm Anamorphic Zoom

Like the Cooke 20–100mm for 35mm, the standard lens during the last century, our new Cooke 35–140mm Anamorphic/i zoom will be your go-to lens for the new era of anamorphic filmmaking.

Cooke’s new patented optical design brings together a unique combination of attributes in one lens: Shoot from very wide angle to telephoto with a 4x zoom ratio. And, like our Cooke Anamorphic/i prime lenses, the new 35–140mm zoom is a true, front anamorphic with 2x squeeze, offering oval bokeh and the other coveted characteristics you want when shooting anamorphic.

There’s more: Oval bokeh throughout zoom and focus, colour and depth of field characteristics matched to the Anamorphic/i primes, /i Technology, and The Cooke Look®, of course.

A 4x true, front anamorphic zoom with the creative flexibility that cinematographers have waited years to have. The new Cooke 35–140mm Anamorphic/i zoom.

Your new go-to lens for the new era.

British Optical Innovation and Quality Since 1893.

cookeoptics.com

T: +44 (0)116 264 0700 Canada, South America, USA: T: +1-973-335-4460

Images courtesy of TV Land

Michael Rosenbaum plays a gambler who assumes the identity of a dead Lutheran pastor in a small town to avoid paying a debt.

18 • Canadian Cinematographer - November 2016

Impastor LEDs Light the Way for

Neil Cervin csc

By FANEN CHIAHEMEN

I

n the TV Land comedy series Impastor, Buddy Dobbs (Michael Rosenbaum), a gambler on the run from loan sharks, manages to evade capture in a twist of fate by assuming the identity of a recently deceased gay Lutheran pastor and setting up a new life in a small town called Ladner.

Aside from the pilot episode, which was shot by Clark Mathis (also a director and producer on the show), Neil Cervin csc shot the series, which is now in its second season.

Most of the action on Impastor plays out in the homes of the main characters, the church where Buddy preaches, and in cafes and boutiques in the town. The production shot three days a week in a studio with a swing set and two days on location (in the British Columbia towns of Ladner for Season 1 and Cloverdale for Season 2).

When shooting in the studio set standing in for Buddy’s new home, Cervin and his crew kept it bright with light pumping through the windows. “We used some big guns for that,” the cinematographer says. “A couple of 20Ks hung from the grid to smash sun in through the front of the house, 5Ks through the side windows and 10Ks in the back. We usually had some colour on the lights, 1/2 straw gel for sun and cys 60 for the moon, as well as sodium for a streetlight glow at night. We used the practicals to motivate our lighting inside, particularly at night. We liked to have practicals in the shot to add colour contrast and a bit of bling in the backgrounds but dimmed so that they didn’t take the audience’s eye away from the actors.”

Although the crew used some LED lights on Season 1, on the second season, “We used LEDs just about everywhere we could,” Cervin says, and the difference was a game changer.

Impastor producer Warren Carr offers: “I started leading the green movement here in Vancouver and have been part of the Hollywood green producers’ association when it first started up, and have always been looking at ways to have a more efficient way of shooting – to use less electricity in general, create less heat, use less expendable material – and when these particular lights came out, it was a perfect opportunity to do so.”

In the studio sets, Cervin says, “We could get such a bright

exposure with LEDs and blow it up to such a large extent that people don’t realize it’s in a studio because it’s just so bright.” Outside the sets, the crew had street scenes visible through the doors and windows, with extras walking back and forth and cars driving by. Those exteriors were lit in the studio with Mac Tech 960ls LED Sled lights. “These big LED fixtures replaced all the space lights in the grid from Season 1. They made a huge difference to the heat levels inside the studio and were actually a lot brighter,” he says. “We saved a lot of power – in fact, so much so that we cancelled one of our generators – had way less air conditioning, we weren’t constantly changing out blown bulbs with all the costs associated with that, and they provided a very realistic daylight or night look. Actors and the makeup department liked them as well because actors required less touch-ups, which also saved us time and kept the momentum going, which helped keep the comedy fresh.”

Cervin’s team had the Mac Tech lights fitted with daylight tubes for the day work and gelled just one light in each unit with cyan 60 for when they wanted night light. The lights are DMX controllable, allowing the crew to make adjustments from an iPad. They even put a couple of 480s Sled lights on rolling stands to pump in a soft glow through windows when needed.

Other tools Cervin and his team liked included the Astra LED panels, which they used inside as the go-to light for lighting actors or for a splash of light in the background.

“When using it to light actors, we would usually fire an Astra through a 4x4 muslin frame for a nice soft and flattering light. Firing light through two muslin frames was even better, but we would step up to a Kino CELEB 400Q as that required a bit more firepower,” he says. “The lighting crew also made up little chimeras for the Astra with full grid cloth inside and a Kino crate to control the soft light. We would use the little chimeras in tight locations.

“They also made practical lamp-shaped gobos for the chimeras so that when they were seen in reflection they looked like house lamps,” he continues. “The Astras are only 1’ x 1’ Canadian Cinematographer - November 2016 •

19

Stills from Season 2 of Impastor.

but they are quite powerful. They can run off a camera brick battery at full power for a couple of hours. But they were usually dimmed so they would last up to four hours. You can also adjust the colour temperature from tungsten to daylight via the two dials in the back of the units.”

The crew also used ladder lights – a rope ladder with 4’ LED tubes in them – to light the suburban street cyc (cycloramas) from behind the studio. They had them fitted with daylight tubes for the bulk of the cyc but had tungsten tubes where the cyc had windows to give the neighbourhood windows a pleasant tungsten glow at night. “That worked incredibly well. They also took up very little space, were easy to hang, used very little power and produced virtually no heat,” Cervin notes.

When shooting in the church, the crew generally lit it from the exterior, blasting HMIs through the windows, he says. “We’ll actually have 20 x 20s up taking the light off the windows off the far side, introducing a bit of contrast. And throwing light on stained-glass windows behind, we generally had a couple of Dedo lights on the cross behind Buddy.

And then we would throw a room filler into the back with a 4K and throw that into the ceiling just as a bit of an ambience and that does our wides. And then for coverage, we’d use the Kino Flo CELEBs through muslin if we could or we’d be using a 4K bounced into an 8’ x 8’ frame book light.”

20 • Canadian Cinematographer - November 2016

Using LEDs on Season 2 also saved the crew the logistics of replacing bulbs as they had frequently done on the first season. “Replacing bulbs required a lot of man hours. Every week we were changing bulbs, which means we were hiring lifts to send guys with a rig and there’s a danger associated with that too,” Cervin says.

Although the production had two cameras on set, Cervin says only one was employed most of the time. “We found that with some of our sets it was difficult to get two cameras in there and over the shoulder at the same time, so we started going 6K on the REDs and then in post we would punch into 4K, which is significantly tighter than 6K. And we’d extract a close-up out of the one take. So you’d get two shots out of the one take. And what we’d call it was a 6K-4K extraction,” he explains. “I let makeup, wardrobe and continuity know that we were planning to extract a single out of these shots. Basically it saved us a setup and time, and we had better continuity. The actors liked it because we were not doing as many takes. It was a really effective tool. We’d use it on some wide shots as well so we’d get two sizes out of a wide. So if we were gonna shoot 6K and were planning on doing an extraction, we’d go to 6:1 compression which is what we normally shot at, and if we were shooting 5K, we’d shoot it 8:1 compression. That way we didn’t overload our post department with too much data. 6K at 11:1 compression is the same data as 4K at 6:1.”

For lenses, Cervin says he generally shot with a 24 mm or a 35 mm, rarely going past a 50 mm. “The 35 [Zeiss] Super Speeds, which is a 30-year-old lens, covers 6K and gives a nice, lovely soft look,” he says. “We would always do a closeup of Buddy on a 32 mm about 3 feet away from him so he would always be isolated. Buddy is a fish out of water in this town so he always had his own clean close-up.”

Cameras were operated predominantly on a dolly, Cervin says, giving a special mention to A camera operator Glen Dickson and dolly grip Rob Tucker. “Those guys were just magic; they could move the camera anywhere seamlessly. We had some intricate moves that they could just make flow. But we also would go handheld when appropriate particularly when going back to Buddy’s dark past. Our awesome 1st AC Rob Wood kept everything sharp and we often shot at T1.3.

That helped us blow out the backgrounds in the studio and sell the exterior look,” he says.

When it came to shooting exteriors, Cervin says that even though he would generally use natural light with bounce boards, there were instances where having LED lights saved the production time and money. He explains: “We got caught in a situation on Season 1 where we had a scene with two actors sitting on a park bench. We started the scene a bit late in the day, so light was already fading. A storm was coming in, so the dark clouds only made the situation worse. We hung 4’ Kino CELEBs from a goal post rig behind the actors for back-

Mircea Monroe as Alexa Cummings, the treasurer of Ladner Trinity Lutheran Church.

light and keyed them with 2’ CELEBs. The light was dropping like a stone but because we were able to quickly adjust the levels of the CELEBs via their inbuilt dimmers, we were able to maintain a realist balance. In the old days we would have been throwing in scrims and gels, more diffusion and moving the lights back, and we simply would not have been quick enough to maintain that balance. We finished the scene with the cameras shooting at 1280 ASA and the CELEBs on just 3 per cent. To the naked eye it almost looked like night but on the monitors it was still day. We would not have been able to get that shot had we been using HMIs or tungsten lights. It was just the speed at which you could adjust the LEDs and a lower light level that you can actually get them down to that enabled us to make it work.”

The experience of shooting Impastor was overwhelmingly positive for Carr as well, who notes, “Quantifying what it meant for us in terms of the financial aspect, on the surface [the LED lights] were really expensive, but when you start digging down, we were saving several thousand dollars a week in portable air conditioning, we were saving a signifi-

cant amount in electricity because we weren’t using incandescent lighting or HMI lighting, which sucks up a lot of energy, and we weren’t using things that would normally get burned and colour shifted our gels when using the other kinds of heat-generating lights. So to me it was quite a great thing to do. I’m a huge fan of being green, I’m a huge fan of new technology, and Neil of course is a master at new technology, and I love his work and love to work with him. And his crew that he brought on were quite spectacular in terms of researching new goods and new technologies that would make the job easier and be more efficient.”

Cervin predicts, “If we’re lucky enough to get another season, we’ll try and change pretty much everything we can to LEDs. In due course, I think with battery technology improving as well, an 18K HMI will be a plasma light or an LED light and the ballast will be a battery. That’s where it’ll go because LED lights are getting bigger; the batteries are getting more efficient. It’s going to be a more comfortable working environment with less heat, that’s for sure, and the energy use is going to go way down.”

Canadian Cinematographer - November 2016 •

21

Sudden Master

DAVE LAM

Busts Kung Fu Moves for Web Series

By FANEN CHIAHEMEN

S

udden Master is a kung fu action web series about a young woman named Alex Cheng who inherits her late father’s martial arts studio and finds herself fighting to uphold the family legacy in an underground competition against the MMA Daggers, a rival team who see kung fu as an inferior pastime. To defeat the rogue’s gallery of mixed martial artists, Alex must find courage and master key kung fu principles. Touching on themes of tradition, vengeance and love, Sudden Master uses stunt performers from the Resident Evil franchise, as well as Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim and the drama series Lost Girl, and is choreographed by world champion martial artist Alan Tang.

Associate member Dave Lam, a Northern Shaolin kung fu martial artist since 1996, shot the five-episode series, which is featured content on OMNI’s YouTube Channel. Other key creatives include Romeo Candido (director), Samantha Wan (series creator and star), Davin Lengyel (producer and editor) and Richard Young (co-creator and writer).

“We didn’t want it to look like a typical web series, so there

22 • Canadian Cinematographer - November 2016

is a little more drama to it even though it is part comedy too.

We wanted it to look a little whimsical,” Lam explains. “So in the fight sequences we tried to make it look just raw, no filters, just hard light and hard shadows, and everything else is a little more whimsical. I guess you could say a bit more romantic.”

Because the series involves so much action, the crew did a lot of previsualization in prep, including “days and days” of choreography practice, Lam says. Despite the number of fights in the script, the crew only had five days to shoot the series, much of it in a functioning kung fu studio in Mississauga, Ontario. “Our schedule was so fast, all our turnarounds were about 30 seconds,” Lam says. “So I had 30 seconds to re-light for close-ups and get the camera positions in place.”

Candido wanted a window to backlight the kung fu studio, so production designer Sebastian Harder built a fake window in front of a wall. “It’s just flats, there’s not even glass in there because we just put diffusion to soften it. I shot an Arri 575 daylight HMI through there and made it look like that was a

Sudden Master is a comingof-age story about a girl who must defend her father’s martial arts school in an underground high-stakes competition.

window. And then I had another light up on top just on a sky high, a 1200 LTM HMI, just to fill everything in and some other fill here and there.”

Although they wanted a lot of the scenes to look like day, they didn’t have the stop or the lights to make it brighter, so they went with a darker look, Lam explains. “I didn’t want the lights to be unmotivated either, so I didn’t want to throw lights in the front for no reason,” he says. “We wanted it to look as natural as it could be, so all the main lighting should be coming from the window or from the top and the fill would just be really dim, more like an eye light.”

The director had told Lam it should look romantic in the kung fu studio and in some scenes in a bedroom between Alex and her boyfriend because those scenes are mostly flashbacks. “So I would throw a quarter black Pro-Mist in front of the lens to give it that softer look,” Lam says. “We would throw lights in the back whenever we could to just get a little shoot-through or a little bokeh, just something to give a bit more depth here and there. We got pieces of glass – a pitcher or any kind of rounded glass – and we would just mount it on a C-stand and put it really close to the lens to shoot through to create some depth or little bit of foreground that was obscure.”

The kung fu training area was the biggest lighting setup on the series, Lam says. “We had the 575 behind the fake window and we would move it occasionally. We’d change the time of day or put some sodium vapour on the lamp to make it look more night or whatever the scenes called for. We had a long four in the front to just do some general fill, and the 1200 to back light the actors from the right side of the camera” he says.

He also supplemented his film lights with 1x1 LED panels and occasionally some Fresnels. “LEDs were used to do some fill or backlight.” Lam says. “And then my gaffer, Chris Leung, he was really gung ho, he would be beside me all the time with a little light when they were fighting because those little lights are battery-powered so he can walk with me. So when we were doing all the fight scenes, he would run around with me to fill in a little. They were F&V lights, and those lights are great because they’re fast. You can change the colour temperature whenever you like on the fly and they are dimmable.”

Canadian Cinematographer - November 2016 •

23

For lenses, he used Zeiss Super Speeds in a RED EPIC DRAGON. “We needed the stop because they were 1.3 and everything was really dark already. Romeo really likes shallow depth of field, so with a lot of shots the close-ups were really narrow,” Lam says. “And my focus puller, Andrei Mates, I don’t know how he did it all because we had no time to get marks; all the focus was on a wireless and we would just go.

And the shot was almost always wide open or 2.8, and he would always nail it.”

Although everything was shot on sticks and dolly, as well as the occasional 4’ slider in the flashbacks, fight scenes were all handheld, and that’s where Lam’s 20 years of martial arts training paid off. “It was not necessarily shoulder mounted, it was just me holding the top handle and swinging around here and there, and my martial arts really helped” he says.

“Alan, the fight choreographer, had everything shot on his iPhone and he would say, ‘I want you to mimic that.’ And because I was shooting on the RED, it wasn’t really that heavy, it was pretty nimble. We had a wireless monitor and wireless focus, the lens and the camera and that was it. It was a pretty light package because we had no filters on it and no matte box because we wanted it to look raw and gritty.

“So if they went low, I would get low. If they went high, I would go high. And I knew where the attacks were going and I knew how to follow the action,” he explains. “I would drop into a horse stance and shoot the whole scene that way, and you wouldn’t see the camera shaking as much. I even wore my kung fu pants and my shoes.”

Postproduction was completed at Deluxe, which Lam says “was wonderful.” In fact, he indicates that no amount of kung fu training would have made the shoot possible without a reliable crew, given the parameters they were shooting in.

“My team was great,” he says. “Sometimes I would say, ‘I wish I had a net on that light,’ and they would fly in a net as we were about to roll. With the time crunch, we had very little time to swing around. A lot of the time things would be too dark, and if I didn’t have my team with me, it would have been so difficult. Because they were reading my mind.

I would be sitting there looking at something and thinking, ‘I need a light,’ and I’d look to my left and Chris, my gaffer, would be right next to me with the light, ready to go. I didn’t have to call it out, he just knew.”

Sudden Master, which is in English and Mandarin, won the award for Best Action Adventure Series at Vancouver Web Fest in May, an accolade that Lam attributes to its uniqueness. “It’s pretty niche. I mean, culturally it covers a lot – it’s Canadian, it’s got an Asian director and an Asian DP. And it’s bilingual too and it’s an action, comedy and a drama. I don’t think there are a lot of action web series. This one had a good amount of everything – it has a great story, great comedy, great drama, good fighting and you see the character grow, and it is also very cultural,” he says.

24 • Canadian Cinematographer - November 2016

Actor Allen Keng.

The crew sets up a scene on the five-day shoot.

• spotlight from page 6 What is one of your most memorable moments on set?

Witnessing and feeling the shock wave of 400lbs of high-order explosives destroy several two-storey buildings from an underground bunker on D-Day to Victory.

O MOSS

What do you like best about what you do?

I really enjoy the process of working out the visual approach of a project with the director and the rest of the team, and then getting on set and executing that plan.

To me that’s where the rubber meets the road and the results are right in front of you. I also really enjoy the final grading process, something I push to be part of.

What do you like least about what you do?

Sometimes there are negative politics and egos that can get in the way of what we do, which involve a careful tap dance to avoid getting caught up in them.

I do not enjoy that part of it, but it is a part of the job and something any DP learns to navigate. I also wish we worked fewer hours. To me the hours and the impact on our personal lives is the greatest sacrifice.

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

Steadicam. How many other film-related inventions in the last 40 years have created such a huge side industry and so many amazing careers? Then there is LED lighting, which in my work on The Expanse has completely come into its own. I can’t imagine a set of mine now that is not dominated by LED lighting. The control, versatility, low heat, power and compactness allowing light to be tucked into the smallest nooks is the way forward and allows for so many more ways of using light.

How can others follow your work?

jeremybenning.com Canadian Cinematographer - October 2016 •

25

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 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).

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.

26 • Canadian Cinematographer - November 2016

V

irtual Reality, excuse the pun, is a reality. The technology has matured to a commercially viable product, headsets are in market and content is being created all over the world. More importantly, it’s more affordable and accessible and pretty much ubiquitous.

And it’s in documentaries where VR is establishing a beachhead beyond gaming. The advantage being its ability to put the audience into the frame as never before. Last spring, the Hot Docs Festival in Toronto featured a plethora of VR, 360 and interactive offerings and globally, VR docs are creating a buzz for their ability to put the audience into an emotionally evocative experience.

Among those was Chris Milk and Gabo Arora’s Waves of Grace which explores the story of a young Ebola survivor nursing the infected. He’s got lofty goals for both his work and the medium, and has also collaborated with Arora and Barry Pousman in Clouds Over Sidra, shot with the United Nations and UNICEF, which puts the audience, you, inside a Syrian refugee camp.

That virtual experience was powerful enough to trigger $3.8 billion in donations, twice the amount of previous campaigns, according to reports. Other activists’ groups like PETA are taking note, but to really flourish as a powerful storytelling tool, VR must go beyond the short-term impact of shock tactics, and that’s where the next challenge emerges.

Ana Serrano, chief digital officer of the Canadian Film Centre, sees it as another tool in the storytelling suite but not the end game in and of itself. In a game-playing mode, she says, VR is in its element. There is no limit of a temporal box, she argues, because the player continues through levels, or fails, and starts again. The story exists in the moment, in the VR space and in the imagination of the player. “Really, you have to tell the story with VR as a spatial concept, not a temporal one,” she says, which will be the challenge Photo credit: Mike Tjioe

EQUIPMENT WANTED

VR Ready for Its Close-up… or Three-Quarters TECH COLUMN

CLASSIFIEDS

… Or Wide for producers, directors and writers alike in conceptualizing content for the medium.

The mainstream narrative is locked into the three-reel concept because it is rooted in the Aristotelian narrative, a format used for two or more centuries and indelibly tattooed into our subconscious. Some directors have played with it, notably Memento (2001), written and directed by Christopher Nolan. Still, despite the fragmentation of the linear storyline, the audience still ends up putting those pieces back into order within their own consciousness to digest and make sense of the story.

“So as with any interactive story, you have to ask, how do you balance the control? In VR you are giving the audience control to explore the story rather than just tell the story,” Serrano says. “How much guidance do you have to give the audience in the story to tell it?”

When it comes to VR, the art of storytelling, that quintessential element of the cinematographer’s skill set, will have to adapt to the medium, rather than the medium adapting to the narrative, Serrano suggests.

“I see VR with layered video options,” she says. “It could be a story in 20 minutes but that story in 20 minutes morphs into different points of time. You could experience a dialogue between a man and a woman at the same location over a period of time from when they first meet to when they sign the divorce papers. It makes us that fly on the wall in the same space, and that’s the visceral nature of VR because we all dream of being that fly on the wall.”

You Focus On The Shot

We’ll Focus On The Rest

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.

Unparalleled Optics.

Optimized Camera Systems.

Inspired Engineering.

World Wide Service. www.panavision.com

Canadian Cinematographer - November 2016 •

27

PRODUCTION NOTES

12 MONKEYS III (series)

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

to February 1, 2017

Toronto

19-TWO IV (series)

DP Ronald Plante csc

to December 14

Montreal

ALIAS GRACE (miniseries)

DP Brendan Steacy csc

to November 15

Toronto

ANNE (miniseries) ANNE OF GREEN GABLES: THE GOOD STARS (TV movie)

DP Bobby Shore csc

to February 3, 2017

DP Mitchell Ness csc

to November 4

Etobicoke Vancouver

ARROW V (series)

DP Gordon Verheul csc (odd)

to April 19, 2017

BATES MOTEL V (series)

DP John Bartley csc, asc

to January 24

Vancouver

BEAUTIFUL VOICE (feature)

DP Thomas Harting csc

to November 22

Burnaby

BELLEVUE (series)

DP Eric Cayla csc

to December 9

Montreal

CAUTION: MAY CONTAIN NUTS IV (series)

DP Wes Doyle csc

to November 21

Edmonton

CHEVAL-SERPENT (series)

DP Jérôme Sabourin csc

to February 17, 2017

Montreal

LA CHUTE DE SPARTE (feature)

DP Daniel Villeneuve csc

to December 17

Montreal

CLUBHOUSE AKA LEGION (series)

DP Craig Wrobleski csc (alternating episodes)

to December 16

Burnaby

CONVICTION (series)

DP Gavin Smith csc Camera Operator/Steadicam Keith Murphy

to December 15

Toronto

DC’S LEGENDS OF TOMORROW II (series)

DP David Geddes csc, asc Producer Glen Winter csc

to January 10, 2017

Burnaby

DEATH WISH (feature)

B Camera Operator Alfonso Maiorana

to December 14

Montreal

DESIGNATED SURVIVOR (series)

B Camera 1st Assistant Jim Chirayouth Saysana

to December 8

Toronto

DISTRICT 31 (series)

DP Marc Gadoury csc

to March 17, 2017

Montreal

THE FLASH III (series)

DP C. Kim Miles csc (odd)

to April 22, 2017

Vancouver

FORT JAMES II (series)

DP Glen Keenan csc Camera Operator Peter Sweeney

to December 5

St. John’s

FREQUENCY (series)

DP Kamal Derkaoui csc Camera Operator Danny Nowak csc

to December 13

Burnaby

FRIEND OF BILL (feature)

DP Luc Montpellier csc

to December 9

THE GOOD WITCH III (series)

DP John Berrie csc B Camera Operator Paula Tymchuk

to December 19

GREEN HARVEST (series)

DP Colin Hoult csc (alternating episodes)

to April 30, 2017

Toronto

HEARTLAND X (series)

DP Jarrett Craig

to December 6

Calgary

HOCHELAGA, TERRE DES ÂMES (feature)

DP Nicolas Bolduc csc

to January 26, 2017

Montreal

IMAGINARY MARY (series)

B Camera Operator Pieter Stathis csc

to December 6

Burnaby

Toronto

iZOMBIE III (series)

DP Michael Wale csc

to January 10, 2017

North Vancouver

LEGACY (feature)

Camera Operator Andreas Evdemon

to November 11

Etobicoke

MAN SEEKING WOMAN III (series)

DP Samy Inayey csc

to November 16

Toronto

MAGICIANS II (series)

Tandem/2nd Unit DP Brian Whittred csc

to November 7

Vancouver

MECH-X4 aka MTX (series)

DP Neil Cervin csc

to March 14, 2017

Vancouver

THE MIST (series)

DP Andre Pienaar csc, sasc CamOperator Forbes MacDonald Jr.

to November 16

Halifax

MURDOCH MYSTERIES X (series)

DP James E. Jeffrey csc & Yuri Yakubiw csc Camera Operator Brian Gedge 1st Assistant Kevin Michael Leblanc

to December 2

NO TOMORROW (series)

DP Thomas Burstyn csc, nzsc

to December 21

North Vancouver

ONCE UPON A TIME VI (series)

DP Tony Mirza

to March 31, 2017

Burnaby

PURE (miniseries)

DP Thom Best csc

to November 8

Dartmouth

REIGN IV (series)

DP David Makin csc & Michael Storey csc B Camera Operator/Steadicam Andriss Matiss

to December 15

SHADOWHUNTERS II (series)

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

to May 16, 2017

THE SHAPE OF THE WATER (feature)

B Camera Operator J.P. Locherer csc

to November 11

SOMETIMES THE GOOD KILL (MOW)

DP Serge Desrosiers csc

to November 18

Montreal

SUITS VI (series)

Camera Operator/Steadicam Michael Soos

to November 16

Toronto

SUPERNATURAL XII (series)

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

to April 26, 2017 to December 6

Calgary

to December 12

Burnaby

TIN STAR (series)

DP Paul Sarossy csc, asc, bsc

TREASURE HOUND (feature)

DP Stirling Bancroft csc

WHEN CALLS THE HEART IV (series)

DP Michael Balfry csc

Toronto

Vancouver

CALENDAR OF EVENTS NOVEMBER 4, CSC Lens Testing Workshop, Toronto, csc.ca 5-6, CSC Camera Assistant Workshop, Toronto, csc.ca 10-20 Rencontres internationales du documentaire du Montréal, ridm.qc.ca 12-13, CSC Table Top Lighting Workshop, Toronto, csc.ca 30-Dec. 4, Whistler Film Festival, Whistler, BC, whistlerfilmfestival.com

28 • Canadian Cinematographer - November 2016

DECEMBER 3, CSC Post Work Flow, Toronto, csc.ca JANUARY 19-29, Sundance Film Festival, Park City, Utah, sundance.org 31, CSC Awards entry deadline, csc.ca

The sky just got bigger.

SkyPanel goes long: the S120-C The highly acclaimed ARRI SkyPanel range of LED soft lights is growing, with the new SkyPanel S120-C joining the S60 and S30 family of products. The S120 is twice as long as the S60, but weighs nearly the same. Its larger light aperture makes a great soft light even better. Retaining the same features and color tuneability as its smaller counterparts, the S120 consumes less than 400 watts, yet it is slightly brighter than the S60-C and has an outstanding efficacy of 90 lumens per watt.

S30-C

Explore the new SkyPanel: www.arri.com/skypanel

S60-C

SOFT LIGHTING | REDEFINED

S120-C

the magnificent

FS 7

As a filmmaker, you’re in for an eye-opening experience. Already a favourite with the run-and-gun crowd, Sony’s FS7, when outfitted with the latest SteadyShot lens, becomes a whole new production camera. The new partner? Sony’s new E-mount Super 35mm 18-110mm F4 OSS PZ power zoom with in-lens stabilization.

It’s the new go-to lens for the movie-maker on the go.

Compact and lightweight but heavy on professional features, this new Sony lens is designed to deliver extremely high image quality, ideal for 4K cinema. Sony’s Smooth Motion Optics (SMO) minimizes focus breathing and focus shifting. And with advanced operability, featuring three separate rings to adjust focus, zoom and aperture, this new E-mount lens is perfect for professional productions.

Want to be always-on-the-ready to grab a quick shot? Ask for the Sony combo, the magnificent FS7 with 18-110mm F4 lens, at Vistek.

COMMERCIAL PRO VIDEO 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