CANADIAN SOCIETY OF CINEMATOGRAPHERS
$4 October 2016 www.csc.ca
Shoot the Messenger ARTHUR COOPER csc Daniel Grant csc Into the Forest Greg Biskup The Sublet
A publication of the Canadian Society of Cinematographers
FEATURES – VOLUME 8, NO. 5 OCTOBER 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.
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.
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Credit: Rafy
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.
Shoot the Messenger: Arthur Cooper csc Breaks TV Rules By Fanen Chiahemen
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The Sublet: Greg Biskup Milks Baby Blues for Terror By Fanen Chiahemen
COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 2 4 5 6 22 26 28
From the Editor-In-Chief In the News From the President The Bishop Who Ate His Boots Lighting the Dark Tech Column Production Notes/Calendar
Cover: Lyriq Bent stars in Shoot The Messanger. Credit: Rafy
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Canadian Cinematographer October 2016 Vol. 8, No. 5 CSC BOARD MEMBERS PRESIDENT George Willis csc, sasc, gawillis@sympatico.ca PAST PRESIDENT, ADVISOR Joan Hutton csc, joanhuttondesign@gmail.com
FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
VICE PRESIDENTS Ron Stannett csc, ronstannett@sympatico.ca Carlos Esteves csc, carlos@imagesound.ca TREASURER
Joan Hutton csc
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 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
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2 • Canadian Cinematographer - October 2016
W
hen CSC President George Willis csc, sasc asked me to take over the reins of Canadian Cinematographer as its editor-in chief, I decided, after seriously thinking it through, to accept the position. I’ve been here before as a CSC past president, so I’m well aware of the effort involved and the demands the magazine makes on one’s time. But ultimately, I’ve always found it extremely satisfying heading the only Canadian publication devoted exclusively to cinematography. I look forward to being involved with the magazine again and I thank George and the CSC Executive for their vote of confidence. Four extremely talented cinematographers have recently become full members of the CSC, giving them the right to bear our Society’s initials after their name. My sincerest congratulations to Catherine Lutes csc, Oliver Millar csc, Nathalie Moliavko-Visotzky csc and Geneviève Perron csc, all of whom have shown consistent skill and artistry practicing our craft throughout their careers. Besides their exceptional cinematic abilities, there is a notable aspect to this group of new csc’s that needs mentioning. For the first time the number of women to emerge from a bi-annual CSC Membership Selection Committee as full members has surpassed men. It’s no secret that cinematography has always been, and still is for the most part, a male-dominated profession. I should know because when I started more than 40 years ago, there were no accredited women cinematographers or even women camera assistants in Canada at all. It was very much a closed boys’ club then, and sexism was rife. It was a difficult path to follow. The worst was not even being considered for a job solely because of my sex. But I was determined to become a top-notch DP and eventually became the first woman admitted to the CSC as a full member. Over the years, attitudes have changed for the better, role models have developed for young female cinematographers and doors continue to open for women. At first it was a trickle, but with time, more and more women began choosing cinematography as a profession, all the while proving over and over again that we are more than capable of the task. This is not to suggest that the CSC or the cinematography profession in general has gender parity because they do not. There is still a long road to travel in this direction. However, to have three women admitted at one time as full members of the CSC because of their high level of achievement is extremely encouraging, inspirational and an indication that women cinematographers are gaining ground and making an impact. For me personally, this is a very emotional and gratifying event.
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IN THE NEWS Credit: Sepia Films
In other news, Nicholas de Pencier csc, whose documentary film Black Code (Mercury Films Inc.) was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, was among the eight nominees for the 11th annual CMPA Feature Film Producer Awards by the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA). De Pencier was nominated for an Established Producer Award, which recognizes an experienced producer for their entire body of work. The $10,000-award went to Roger Frappier, whose feature film Two Lovers and A Bear (Max Films) was shot by Nicolas Bolduc csc and also screened at TIFF.
Vic Sarin csc.
Wanda To Add 150 IMAX Theatres in Landmark Deal IMAX Corp. and IMAX China Holding, Inc. recently announced IMAX’s largest new theatre deal ever – 150 additional theatres with Wanda Cinema Line Corp. Under the agreement, the theatres will be built throughout China over six years, starting next year, with 110 of these theatres scheduled to be installed by 2020. This agreement builds on a partnership that dates to 2007, when Wanda Cinema opened its first IMAX theatre in Dongguan, China. Wanda Cinema currently operates more than 160 IMAX theatres and is Asia’s largest cinema owner. This deal is in addition to a 2013 agreement between the companies under which Wanda committed to deploy 120 new theatres by 2020. IMAX’s total number of theatre signings year to date has reached 284, including
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Courtesy of Mongrel Media
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wo films shot and directed by Vic Sarin csc – the drama A Shine of Rainbows and the documentary The Boy from Geita – won awards for Best Feature Film and Best Documentary feature, respectively, at the Moondance International Film Festival in Boulder, Colorado in September. Sarin was also a keynote speaker at the festival.
Nicholas de Pencier csc
229 in China, eclipsing the company’s previous annual global record of 277. The IMAX film format was co-developed by Graeme Ferguson who is an honorary CSC member.
Deluxe Toronto Adds Dolby Atmos Mixing Theatre Deluxe Toronto recently announced that it has extended its capabilities, adding a new Dolby Atmos mixing theatre geared toward episodic production to its facility. It features equipment and layout identical to the studio’s existing three episodic sound theaters, allowing for consistent and flexible review sessions for all of the 10 to 12 projects simultaneously flowing through Deluxe Toronto. The facility also houses a large theatrical mix theatre with 36-channel Dolby Atmos sound and a sound stage for ADR recording.
Instagram DP of the month: Arthur Cooper 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.
4 • Canadian Cinematographer - October 2016
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FROM THE PRESIDENT George A. Willis csc, sasc
WE’VE GOT YOUR BACK.
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he Canadian Society of Cinematographers is very much an organic organization that is constantly expanding or even contracting as we search for new ways do things that best suit our membership. I’ve always felt that we should never let talents within the CSC lie dormant, but should always be utilized to the society’s best advantage. This outlook, coupled with the growing demands of being CSC president, has prompted me to make a change in the workload so that I can devote more time and effort to other CSC projects and initiatives. I’ve therefore decided to step back as editor-in-chief of Canadian Cinematographer. Traditionally, the CSC president has always assumed the position of editor-inchief as a part of their duties. While I’ve enjoyed my time at the helm of Canadian Cinematographer, situations do change and need to change. The only question remaining here was who would take over the magazine, which is such a huge part of the CSC identity? Well, there really is only one person and she is tailor- made for the job. That is Joan Hutton csc. As president of the CSC for 22 years, Joan’s fingerprints are all over the magazine right from its infancy onward. She took what was essentially a onepage newsletter over two decades ago and turned it into the CSC News, which eventually morphed into our glossy Canadian Cinematographer magazine that has become a must-read for anyone involved in Canadian cinematography. On top of being a multi-award winning director of photography, Joan has impeccable editorial judgement and skills, and I was ecstatic when she agreed to accept and once again become editor-in-chief of Canadian Cinematographer. We all know that the magazine will climb to new heights under her guidance. Although I will no longer be involved with the day to day running of Canadian Cinematographer, I will not be far away as CSC president, contributing the occasional president’s column and articles. In fact, I will be reporting in an upcoming issue on the IMAGO General Assembly, which just took place in Bitola, Macedonia, coinciding with the Manaki Film Festival, the oldest cinematography film festival in the world. The CSC is a full member of IMAGO, a global umbrella group representing 49 cinematography societies and associations from around the world. IMAGO is a leader in defining and lobbying for tolerable working conditions and visual ownership rights for cinematographers.
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| MISSISSAUGA- June | OTTAWA TORONTO Canadian Cinematographer 2016 • CALGARY | EDMONTON
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VISTEK.CA
Special Screening
The Bishop Who Ate His Boots DP Richard Stringer csc (1944 – 2007) October 23, 1:00 p.m. (sold out) 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. Bata Shoe Museum 327 Bloor St W, Toronto. Cost $15.00
Inset: Richard Stringer csc, Bishop Isaac Stringer
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he Bishop Who Ate His Boots is a documentary about the work of Bishop Isaac Stringer, an Anglican missionary who was stationed in the Arctic in the early 20th century as directed and filmed by his grandson, the late Richard Stringer csc, who served as vice president of the CSC from 1998 to April 2007. A labour of love and a personal quest
CSC at
to learn more about his grandfather, Stringer documented the Bishop’s treacherous journey to the north and his efforts to convert the Inuit to Christianity. Unfortunately, Stringer passed away before completing the film, which was later finished by his many friends and colleagues. Family friend Gayle Singer will be on hand to introduce the film, and a tour of “Art & Innovation: Traditional Arctic Footwear from the Bata Shoe Museum Collection” will complete the afternoon. Tickets can be purchased online at batashoemuseum.ca/ tickets or by calling 416.979.7799 x445
2016
CSC congratulates the following members whose films were selected for the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS Maya Bankovic, Below Her Mouth (dir. April Mullen) Nicolas Bolduc csc, The Bleeder (dir. Philippe Falardeau) Nicolas Bolduc csc, Two Lovers and A Bear (dir. Kim Nguyen) Steve Cosens csc, Mean Dreams (dir. Nathan Morlando) Guy Godfree csc, Maudie (dir. Aisling Walsh) DISCOVERY Kris Belchevski, Jean of the Joneses (dir. Stella Meghie) Daniel Grant csc, ARQ (dir. Tony Elliott) Chayse Irvin csc, Godless (dir. Ralitza Petrova)
TIFF DOCS Nicholas de Pencier csc, Black Code (dir. Nicholas de Pencier) Derek Rogers csc, The Skyjacker’s Tale (dir. Jamie Kastner) SHORT CUTS Daniel Grant csc, Emma (dir. Martin Edralin) Catherine Lutes csc, The Smoke (dir. Rebecca Addelman) Ian Macmillan, Your Mother and I (dir. Anna Maguire) Cabot McNenly, Ape Sodom (dir. Maxwell McCabe-Lokos) Evan Prosofsky, A Funeral for Lighting (dir. Emily Kai Bock) TIFF CINEMATHEQUE Herbert S. Alpert csc, asc, A Cool Sound from Hell (dir. Sidney J. Furie)
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SOMETIMES FEELING SMALL MEANS LOSING YOURSELF IN THE BIG PICTURE.
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rug deals, prostitution rings, street shootings. Welcome to the world of Shoot the Messenger, the suspenseful eight-episode drama airing this month on CBC that goes deep into Toronto’s underbelly. The series follows Daisy Channing (Elyse Levesque), a young journalist working on her first murder case, who becomes entangled in a web of urban gangs, the political class, corporate powerbrokers and the police. The hour-long drama was created and written by Sudz Sutherland (who also directed five episodes) and Jennifer Holness (who also produced). Lyriq Bent (Rookie Blue, The Book of Negroes) stars, along with Alex Kingston (E.R., Doctor Who) and Lucas Bryant (Haven). Series DP Arthur Cooper csc tells Canadian Cinematographer how he made Shoot the Messenger stand out in the television landscape.
and maintain a consistent look and feel through all episodes. The block-shooting schedule also meant that we had more location moves, set shifts and costume changes. It was very challenging. CC: How would you describe the look of the show and how did you come up with it? AC: I said to Sudz, “I want people to watch our show and say, ‘I want our show to look like Shoot the Messenger.’” With each project, I strive for a certain originality but I want to be true and authentic to the story world of the project. This is a medium where practically everything has been done before. It’s how you’re combining those things, making them work and telling the story – that’s where you can find originality. I don’t think that Shoot the Messenger looks like any other show, which I’m very happy about. I would say the show has an edgy realism to it. We tried not to make it super-stylized with the lighting. There are a lot of elements of “ripped from headlines” to the story. We all work long hours, and while the crew can look like the dog’s breakfast behind the camera, the actors have to look their best. I always want to make the cast look great but not in an overly stylized way, no matter the look of the show.
Arthur Cooper csc Breaks TV Rules By FANEN CHIAHEMEN Photos by RAFY
Canadian Cinematographer: Shoot the Messenger is an ambitious show, with lots of drama, action and intrigue, as well as four different directors across the series [Dawn Wilkinson, TW Peacocke and Grant Harvey directed Episodes 4 through 6 respectively]. What was the biggest challenge for you and the crew? Arthur Cooper csc: The biggest challenge was scheduling around cast availability. Alex Kingston drove a lot of the schedule because she was shooting Doctor Who in England, and she only had a two-week window, but she’s in all eight episodes. All four directors of the series had to shoot her out in those two weeks; it was a huge logistical challenge. We had certain directors come in for literally a day or two, or sometimes a partial day, as we had to block shoot all eight episodes at once. As the cinematographer, it was important to keep the look of the show consistent. Each director will have their own unique vision, and I work with them and the producers to find a visual continuity
CC: So if you’re not using stylized lighting, in what ways did you give the show its look? AC: A lot of the difference in the show is a more naturalistic approach to the colour palette. We felt that giving the show a look that felt more realistic would allow the audience to relate more strongly with the characters and story in a different way than with very stylized lighting. I try to very much be in tune with the environment we’re in and not do anything that is unrealistic for the space. I work with the motivation from practical and natural lighting sources and mould it into something that looks great and reflects the mood and scene. But probably the biggest difference on our show is how we’re trying to break from traditional framing. I think in 90 per cent of the shows on TV, if you turn the sound off and just looked at the framing, you would see similar composition over and over. For example, what is considered a medium shot or the way they frame an over-the-shoulder shot. The framing of this show changes what is Canadian Cinematographer - Octoberr 2016 •
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typical for those shots. We wanted framing that was striking. We referenced several shows, including Luther. Sudz and I made a decision that what we wanted for the look of the show was to keep the lighting more naturalistic and a little grittier, but it would really be non-traditional framing that would help enhance the story.
be considered when lighting a scene. I would sometimes have a little sidebar with the director about how they would block the two of them. For me, it was better to have Elyse with her back to the light because I could have the tiniest little bounce and get some light onto her, and then Lyriq got the key light. That was part of the reason I chose the ALEXA – it has great latitude. I matched that with the ARRI/ Zeiss Master Primes, which are unbelievable lenses, crazy sharp and open up to T1.3. A combination of those with the ALEXA, and it’s unbelievable what you can shoot. You can often shoot available light, depending on the location, even at night time. And that’s without pushing the ISO of the camera. I shot almost everything on the entire show at 800 ISO because with the Master Primes you don’t need more stop than that. We had two cameras on set; almost every setup was two cameras. My goal is always to choose the gear and lighting for fast set-ups to allow as much time as possible for the director and cast.
CC: How is the framing unique on Shoot the Messenger?
CC: Were you shooting much handheld?
AC: We used a lot of low angles on the show. I worked with Rupert Lazarus, our production designer – we have a good rapport – and I told him every set we’re in needs to have a roof because we’re going to have low angles; we need to see lighting fixtures. That was a part of the framing – looking up and including those practicals when we could. Many of our shots had lots of head room. When I’m operating and someone says, “Give me a medium shot,” I know what most people mean by that. For Shoot the Messenger, we changed the frame from where it would traditionally be, but nothing so overt that it really disrupts the audience. Unusual angles and framing became part of the look and mood of the show and added tension.
AC: We probably had the camera in handheld mode at least 50 per cent of the time, and it was what I would call “good” handheld. There is a convention that using more of a handheld look will make something feel more documentary-like. But most good documentaries have great camera work. The idea was to give a bit of life to the frame and not be dead static. A show like House of Cards is so measured in its camera work to the point where it’s almost mechanical. It’s the way [David] Fincher shoots, he over-scans the frame; he frames within his frame so he can stabilize shots and actually slightly reframe in post if he needs to. So the idea on that show is if they do a pan or a dolly, when they land, it locks the camera off and nothing moves. And so if he doesn’t like that end frame, he can adjust it. But it’s very smooth and measured and gives the frame a kind of weight. So we considered some of that idea with our show because we share elements of that sensibility. There are two worlds in Shoot the Messenger – the very street side of it, with drug deals, prostitution rings, and people being killed; it’s much more edgy. Then we have the other side that’s all politics. In those situations, we tried to have things be more stable and solid, a little bit House of Cards, but not an exact reference. We tended to be much more on the dolly with smoother moves. Whereas on the streets, when we’re in the middle of a covert meeting and
DP Arthur Cooper csc
CC: What was your camera and lens package? AC: We used the ARRI ALEXA. There’s something about the way it renders skin tones that I really liked, especially on a show such as this where we have so many different skin tones and often in the same frame. Our lead actress, Elyse, has skin that is almost translucent; she literally radiates light. The tiniest little light source, and she just glows, and she has many scenes with Lyriq, who has a very dark skin tone. The contrast between the two skin tones was something to
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someone gets shot, there is a little bit of chaos in the camera movement. We didn’t want it to be super shaky and jarring. I think there are a lot of shows when trying to inject energy can be indiscriminate and really shake the camera around a lot, and we didn’t want to go that way. We tried to create an edginess and energy with our framing. CC: Can you talk about how you approached the lighting on this show? AC: We wanted the spaces to feel like real places, so there are scenes where I used nothing, just natural daylight coming in through windows. Like in the opening scene [a love scene in a bedroom between the lead character and the detective, played by Bent], I used the window as a giant soft source and then when we got in closer, brought in some little bounces. Quite often with darker skin tones you can get away with subtly reflecting the bounce as opposed to actually lighting the person. It’s a bit like lighting cars when you want to reflect something white in it, but you’re not actually hitting the object with a light. If I were to put in a super-diffused soft Kino Flo the audience would start to feel a source. I didn’t want this, I wanted the lighting to feel natural and be motivated by practical sources. It was important to carry this aesthetic into post. [Affiliate member] Walt Biljan, our colourist, is awesome. Because this is the opening of the series, we spent more time doing colour correction. While we wanted the scene to feel like magic hour, we were also establishing the natural look and feel of the show and didn’t want false sources of light. To shape the light, I used blacks and bounces. We used a bunch of different types including muslin, foamcore, styro and Roscolux. The Roscolux is really nice because it has that mottled surface so it’s not a hard bounce; it’s still soft but it’s got a bit more kick because it’s shiny. Quite often I wasn’t able to light through windows because of the locations. There’s a scene we shot in a restaurant in Hamilton, by the marina. There was a wall of windows probably 20 or 30 feet high, looking out at the water, and the day was bright and sunny. I brought big soft sources in to help wrap
Co-creator/writer/director Sudz Sutherland with Cooper.
Director Dawn Wilkinson with Cooper.
Cooper on set.
Canadian Cinematographer - October 2016 •
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the light from these windows around the cast. But it was so bright out there, probably a 12-stop difference between outside and inside the restaurant. The windows were so massive there was no way we could gel them or put NDs on them, so I had a couple of 18Ks and a couple of 4K Pars. We used these to lift the level and get the light wrapping inside the restaurant enough that it wasn’t so hot out the windows. CC: Can you talk about lighting exteriors and night scenes?
Top: Cooper favoured the ALEXA for the way it renders skin tones,” especially on a show such as this where we have so many different skin tones and often in the same frame,” he says. Middle: Camera operation was more stable on Shoot the Messenger in scenes depicting the political world. Bottom: Cooper worked mostly with the motivation from practical and natural lighting sources.
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AC: For a lot of the night scenes we didn’t necessarily use a lot of big lights. I would take my cues from the available light at the location, shaping it and making shadows where we wanted shadows. I didn’t want it all to be beautiful, sexy lighting, I wanted it to be motivated by what the environment told us. We had to find a way to light the night and still make it feel real, and part of that was the choice to let certain things go a little dark and fall off. For example, in the night scene in the first episode, in a lot of the shots there were sodium-vapour lights. So the light I chose to use on the foreground actors was sodium to match the practicals. Lighting really comes out of the story and location and what’s happening at the time. My team, Loreen Ruddock (gaffer) and Mitch Holmes (key grip) are amazing, their teams did a great job with all the logistics and locations and trying to get ahead of the shooting crew as much as possible, prepping everything before we got there. A lot of times I didn’t get to see locations in advance, I would walk into a space and roll with what was there. Shoot the Messenger was a tough shoot with a lot of nights and we spent many split days over a complicated schedule. It took great collaboration of the whole crew to achieve the look and feel. I am very happy with the show – it truly reflects what Sudz and I had envisioned from our earliest discussions. The show is sophisticated and dynamic and will stand out in a sea of great looking TV.
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Cooke was the obvious choice for El Clan because we got the perspective without losing definition and we got the Cooke Look for our period film." – Cinematographer Julián Apezteguia, ADF
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SHOOTING
Into the Forest By Daniel Grant csc
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nto the Forest is set in the not-too-distant future, where two young women – Nell, an aspiring academic, and Eva, a dancer – live with their widowed father in a remote mountain home somewhere on the West Coast. But there has been an unexplained power outage throughout the land and without electricity or access to gasoline, the family is slowly cut off from the outside world. Then when their father dies in a freak accident, the girls are left to fend for themselves, battling starvation, invasion and despair, and testing the limits of their endurance and bond. I had the pleasure of working with director Patricia Rozema as director of photography on this film, which has many complex themes that Patricia and I discussed in prep. Foremost in my mind was the relationship between the two sisters, Nell (played by Ellen Page) and Eva (played by Evan Rachel Wood), and their relationship to the forest around them. With the majority of the film taking place inside their home over the course of several months, finding the main location was our first major challenge. The house is another character in the film, as is the forest that surrounds it. We wanted the forest to be almost always visible in the frame so its presence would be felt in every scene. We finally found a suitable house in Pitt
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Meadows, B.C., in a mid-century design, with large floor-to-ceiling windows in many of the rooms. In addition, production designer Jeremy Stanbridge added reflective surfaces wherever there was an opportunity for them, so that even if the camera was facing away from the windows, we would often see moving branches reflected in mirrors or glass picture frames. We wanted viewers to feel like they were going on a journey with these characters, and we decided on a visual language that would evolve throughout the film. In the first act, the camerawork would be more classical and controlled, and as the film went on it would become more unpredictable and unstable. At the same time, we didn’t stick to any hard and fast rules. Generally, we went with the approach that felt right for the scene and its context within the film. Shooting in sequence as much as possible, Patricia and I spent quite a bit of time in prep and on weekends during shooting discussing and refining the shot list as the film came together. During prep we did a wide range of tests to determine the camera and lens combination for the film. I considered shooting RED, as the DRAGON sensor had just come out and I was very impressed with how much it had advanced. The smaller size would have been an advantage on some of the tighter spaces we had
to shoot in. I knew candlelight would be an important light source, and I had the notion that I would love to light many scenes exclusively with candles. But through testing at SIM Video Toronto (who were kind enough to provide cameras and some space for me before leaving for B.C. to start official prep) I found that in high-contrast situations, shooting in candlelight with the OLPF low-light sensor created subtle horizontal streaking on the DRAGON sensor. The ALEXA still seemed to have a slight advantage in low light, and so knowing how much candlelight and night exteriors were in the film, that was the route to go. Patricia and I discussed a look that would be highly subjective, and we looked at many references in prep, including The Piano and Black Swan. We were after something that would be both elegant and also have a certain rawness. After testing many different lens options, both Patricia and I liked how the Zeiss Super Speed MKII lenses looked wide open in candlelight. They had a softer quality that took the edge off the digital image, and have a very pleasant glow around bright highlights. The film had quite a few lighting challenges. The power is out in the house for the majority of the film, and so light sources were limited to daylight-motivated sources and flashlights and lanterns near the beginning of the film when they still have batteries, which transition to candles and their fireplace as the batteries run out. We saw this as another opportunity for the film’s language to evolve over time. Early in the film, the night interiors are lit predominantly with the colder light of modern LED flashlights and lanterns. As their batteries run out, this look is replaced by the warmer light of candles and firelight. This shift in colour helped signify their increasing distance between them and modern civilization. At times, shooting at 1600 ASA and a T1.4 aperture, it was astonishing how much exposure we got off a few candles. Sometime we
even found ourselves placing diffusion frames in front of candles for close-ups. Usually, instead of adding any fill light, a small amount of atmospheric haze provided the right amount of subtle fill in the shadows. I had the great pleasure of working with gaffer John Dekker, who made 4’ “covered wagons” (batten strips lined with household bulbs and covered with chicken wire and diffusion). John wired the bulbs so they could be on separate channels of a flicker generator. This became our primary source for augmenting firelight, as the long source created a convincing shape to feel the flicker blend in a convincing way. Throughout the film, we favoured a singlesource lighting approach. Patricia always favours using two cameras (sometimes three in a few situations) and cross-shooting as much as possible. Having come from mainly singlecamera projects where I have the luxury of concentrating on one frame at a time, this was particularly challenging. Often in these situations, when I’m predominantly using sidelight, I’m able to avoid too much compromise by keeping the cameras at 90 degrees from each other so that one will be shooting a medium or close-up shot and the other will be in profile. Lighting for two close-ups at opposite angles, I found that our single-source approach really helped. I usually tried to suggest blocking that would result in a side-lit situation and then would bring in a 4x8 frame of heavy diffusion that would allow both actors to be lit in a pleasing way. Key grip Allister Foster was invaluable in helping to hide these sources in the many windows of the house, often lining up several 4x4 frames, alternating them with perpendicular 4x4 floppy siders to create a long source that would still be hidden from reflection. Day exteriors around the house were particularly challenging, as the house was in a small clearing surrounded by thick forest, and often in the morning and afternoon the clearing would be in deep shade, which would quickly
Max Minghella and Ellen Page in a still from Into the Forest. Canadian Cinematographer - October 2016 •
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transition to very contrasty harsh sunlight in the middle of the day, so shooting long scenes over the course of the day was difficult. Knowing that we had to match several different forest locations to look like a single consistent forest, generally I shot towards the sun as much as possible, going by the usual rule that it’s often easier to control and match backlit shots. One exception was a tense scene where Eva encounters a threatening drifter named Stan. Wanting a more uncomfortable and tense atmosphere for this scene, which we took the full day to shoot, we scheduled it to shoot with the sun always behind the camera, creating a much harsher, contrasty look. I have to admit that while shooting this, I couldn’t help feeling that I had made a terrible mistake, watching the actors squint painfully into the sun. After seeing the scene cut together (very skillfully by editor Matt Hannam), I eventually saw that the technique was effective in supporting the very powerful performances. When the family goes on a trip to town, it involved some night-time scenes where no electric sources like street lamps would be present. These scenes in- Daniel Grant csc cluded a night-time driving scene through the woods, which took some thought. I found an article on Alejandro González Iñárritu’s 2006 film Babel where cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto discussed how they shot driving scenes in the night-time desert. All the light is motivated from the headlights of the car, and I liked how the blackness of the desert made the characters feel completely alone and isolated. We chose a narrow stretch of road with thick forest on either side. The car interiors were shot with a process trailer, and we mounted Kinos on the roof, pointed away from the car to dimly light the trees as we passed, as if from the headlights bouncing off the pavement. For the exteriors, including an unsettling scene when the family pulls over and encounters a couple of potential bandits on the side of the road, I wanted to see a tunnel of light extending outward from the Jeep, leaving the rest of the frame black to emphasize the family’s isolation. The only source of light was the car’s actual headlights, and the local transportation department was kind enough to provide extra flood lights as practicals on the front bumper of our picture vehicle. Night exteriors in the forest had to be convincingly lit for
“[Director Patricia Rozema] would often remind us that the most cinematic thing you can put in the frame is the human face.”
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moonlight, which is always a challenge in cinematography, as it seems to be impossible to replicate what the eye sees at night. A recent film I took inspiration from was Ain’t Them Body Saints, shot by Bradford Young. I liked Young’s use of single-source lighting and bold contrast, and through some research found that the night exteriors were lit using an 8x8 “moon box.” Looking for a similar approach, John Dekker suggested the 16’ Airstar lighting balloons, which have the option of tungsten or HMI daylight. Knowing we wouldn’t be able to gel the balloons, we decided that our “moonlight” look would be full daylight, which I would then desaturate and add a bit of cyan to in the colour grade. Being my first time using lighting balloons, I was amazed by the ability to move them around at will. As my preference was usually to look towards the light, having the ability to float it above the frame was amazing. Particularly for a climactic night exterior rain scene near the end of the film, this created a beautiful broad reflection on the rain and the wet ground. One location that provided many cinematic opportunities was Eva’s dance studio that is a separate building just outside the house. Jeremy Stanbridge did an incredible job of transforming a carport into a studio, complete with a sprung floor and wall-length mirrors on two sides, as well as a full wall of windows on a third side looking onto the forest outside. Patricia and I asked for a panel of one of the mirrored walls to have a partial mirror, so that we could shoot through it into the studio without seeing our reflection and create an infinity mirror effect. Night scenes in the dance studio were lit entirely with practicals and a few hidden Dedo lights to avoid seeing reflections. Part of the story also has the sisters going deep into the forest to their childhood refuge, a massive hollowed-out Douglas fir stump. We went to Vancouver Island to scout several old growth forests that had trees with 8’-plus diameters and settled on one near Campbell River, B.C., that had the access we would need to get crew and gear in and out. Jeremy created the 12’ exterior of the stump out of foam, which was brought in and assembled in pieces. The interior was shot in a studio in Vancouver. The interior had a 12’ diameter and was built in quadrants so that we could fly out walls and facilitate two-camera shooting. Generally, though, we kept the lenses within the walls of the set so that we would maintain the intimacy of being inside the stump with the actors. Lighting the interior was an interesting challenge. I asked Jeremy to provide a roof as part of the design that would let in a small amount of dappled light, but I felt the main motivation for the daytime scenes should be the doorway and that we would want to look towards that doorway for depth and to keep the characters in partial silhouette. We also wanted to avoid the use of green screen for the exterior, and so Jeremy and his team created a partial exterior layer of greens that we lit with a large amount
of overexposure. The interesting part was trying to imagine what the light would be like in such an environment. Key grip Allister Foster had the roof of the set on chain motors and flew a 12x12 ultrabounce “flyswatter” at a 45-degree angle above the roof, which we bounced 2x 4K pars into. In addition, we had an 18K as far back as possible coming in directly through the small doorway and a 20x20 bounce behind that with additional 4K pars hitting it to fill in any gaps between the foliage when we looked directly out the doorway. The roof of the set was lifted just a small crack to create a low level of ambient light coming from above the frame. Even with all that light, we were still shooting wide open inside the stump, as we were just allowing the smallest amount to peek through the gaps in the roof, door and walls. A slight amount of atmospheric haze (which in fact we used in almost every interior throughout the film) provided a bit of extra depth that seemed to help sell the authenticity of the set. The film was graded by Lorne Wright at Finale Editworks in Vancouver where I joined him for five days wherein we finessed the final look. Lorne worked in DaVinci Resolve 11, in DCI-P3 colour space, at 2K resolution, and he did a wonderful job of preserving the natural tones of the forest exteriors while also often accentuating the contrast of the night scenes. In a few cases, it was necessary to change a few daytime shots to dayfor-night, and Lorne handled these beautifully. Into the Forest has been one of Ellen Page and Evan Rachel Wood star as two sisters fending for themselves in a the most rewarding projects I’ve remote mountain home after an unexplained and prolonged power outage. had the chance to be a part of. At the time, it was a big step up for me in terms of scale. I above all, Patricia, who I learned from every day, and who, have to admit being a bit intimidated going into the proj- even with all her experience and knowledge, loved to experiect and working with a much larger crew than I was used ment and try new things whenever the opportunity arose. to, but I was amazingly fortunate to have the support of Throughout the film, though, she always kept the focus on many great collaborators – gaffer John Dekker, key grip the storytelling and performances, and she would often reAllister Foster, focus puller Mark Cooper, B camera/Stea- mind us that the most cinematic thing you can put in the dicam operator Brad Whitlock and AD Andrew Shea. And frame is the human face. Canadian Cinematographer - October 2016 •
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Halloween Special
THE SUB
Greg B
Milks Bab for Terro
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BLET
Biskup
by Blues or
I
n the psychological thriller The Sublet, a new mother struggles to cope with postpartum depression and her newborn baby, while her husband neglects her to tend to his career. The film’s title refers to the home where the young family live, apparently the site of some past violent event, and Joanna, the new mother, can’t tell whether the creepy happenings in her new home are a sign of a haunting or simply the unravelling of her fragile mind. DP and associate member Greg Biskup tells Canadian Cinematographer how exploring the film’s themes – loneliness, isolation, motherhood, depression – in a tight space provided opportunities to create suspense. By FANEN CHIAHEMEN
Canadian Cinematographer: What sets The Sublet apart from other films of this genre? Greg Biskup: I don’t think The Sublet necessarily aims to set itself apart from other films in the genre, but more importantly pays homage to the stylistic and atmospheric nuances of ‘70s and ‘80s horror films. Director John Ainslie and I were inspired by films like The Shining (1980), Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and Possession (1981). These films gave us a jumping-off point in terms of the mood we wanted establish for The Sublet. All of these films successfully created tension in the camera operating, and secondly in their stylistic yet naturalistic approach to lighting. CC: Where did you and the director find the main elements of horror or suspense in the story? GB: The whole film takes place mainly in one location – the apartment – so you as a viewer feel very confined. The only time we’re out of the apartment is for establishing shots or when we peer into the outside world through an apartment window. Other than that, the whole film exists in this Canadian Cinematographer - October 2016 •
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tiny apartment. A lot of people that watch the film say they feel claustrophobic and uneasy. You really start to feel the psychosis of the environment and our protagonist after being trapped in the space for the whole film. CC: What did you use technically to create or enhance that feeling of tension visually? GB: In terms of the visuals, to enhance the claustrophobia, when our protagonist Joanna is at her worst, everything was shot on tight lenses with a shallow depth of field. Both John and I favoured the 65 mm and 85 mm in our Zeiss T1.3 Super Speed kit. During the more grounded moments in the story, I opted for a wider 24 mm. I like starting wide and pushing in to a final close-up. While only being feet away from the actor, you get this enhanced close-up and a scope of the surrounding – a technique that DP Emmanuel Lubezki [ASC, AMC] uses a lot in his films that I’ve really come to admire. John also encouraged me to experiment with more unconventional techniques. I had my first AC Tyler Shoemaker seat and then unseat the lens off the mount, pulling the back element away from the sensor while shining an LED flashlight toward the back element. This created a distorted, disfocused and ghosted image while I operated the camera, enhancing the chaos and detachment of Joanna’s mental state. Staying true to those seminal horror films, I chose to shoot the film primarily handheld. I feel this adds to the frantic energy of the story and allowed me to explore the space a little more freely as I needed, especially for sequences with our characters running throughout the apartment. For the dream sequences, we relied on more fluid movements, with Steadicam operated by Mitch Mommaerts. And for more stylistic and polished shots, we opted for our PeeWee on a track. I was extremely fortunate to have the support of suppliers William F. White for our lighting and grip package and Panavision Canada for camera and support. I owe a lot to both suppliers. CC: How did you approach and design the lighting? GB: Everything was to be quite bleak and naturalistic, relying on a hard source, typically a window as our key, with hard shadows, letting things fall completely to black with little fill. For this, we made a lot of references to artists like Rembrandt and Caravaggio, as well as photographer Gregory Crewdson, whose work relies heavily on this approach. 98 per cent of the film was shot in an old factory in Guelph, Ontario, that Black Fawn had leased for the duration of the production. Production designer Vince Moskowec and I worked together to design the layout of the apartment so
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that each room would be optimized for lighting. Choosing the size and location of each window was a cinematographer’s dream. This also allowed gaffer Spencer Johnston and I to pre-light and rough in our overhead lighting plan before rolling cameras. For our lighting set-up outside our main set, which was the kitchen/living room, we had 6K HMI Pars outside the window bounced into ultra bounce as our key. For our night interiors, I relied on various practicals, which we had lined on a dimmer board throughout the apartment. CC: What were the challenges of shooting in one main location? How did you compensate for the lack of set changes? GB: The biggest challenge for me was keeping things exciting and new but maintaining consistency. This meant whenever we returned to a room in the apartment, we’d constantly be changing our visual axis, or finding new places to find our best angles. And shooting in a standing set allows you to be more creative – shooting from overhead or moving walls to get the shot. When you’re confined to the space, you really have to get creative to keep things feeling fresh.
CC: Director John Ainslie used to be a DP. How did that affect your process with him? GB: With John it was actually very easy. We started our relationship by sitting down and watching films that we had a common interest in. In the preproduction process, John would constantly send me reference material like photographs or film stills. This constant feeding of material really helped establish the look we wanted to achieve early on. John, having worked as a cinematographer, could speak the same language as me. He understood what I wanted from the image and my needs from production. I feel it must be difficult as a cinematographer-turned-director to distance yourself from the process, but John never once stepped on my toes. He gave me full reign of the look of the film and was incredibly supportive in my choices. CC: Can you talk about the colour grade? GB: We did our colour grade at REDLAB in Toronto over a four-day period with colourist AJ McLauchlin. AJ had a true understanding of the film and the mood we wanted to
create. He really helped us push the whole “darkness” of the film, maintaining the consistent cool blues in our shadows and pushing our blacks to the legal limit. It was important to the story that as our protagonist further falls apart, we’d start introducing more greens and blues to the image. We started cleaner with a more traditional contrast, and as the film goes on, we pushed the image to a sickly state that I think serves the story well. Working under such a tight post schedule, we were able to set a look after just two passes of the film, a testament to the work of AJ and his team at REDLAB. CC: What do you like best about shooting a horror film? GB: The thing that I like about shooting horror is you can push the visual boundaries with little justification – the typical shooting conventions don’t always apply to horror. There is a certain kinetic energy to the camera movement and the framing that doesn’t exist in other genres. Coming from a more traditional narrative headspace, I found this incredibly refreshing.
Working with a baby was the biggest challenge, says Biskup. “You wait for the baby to stop crying, so everything comes to a standstill. You had to be careful around the baby, so if you’re pre-rigging for next the scene you’re conscious all the time when a baby’s on set.”
Greg Biskup on the set of The Sublet. Canadian Cinematographer - October 2016 •
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Halloween Special
Micha Dahan csc shoots a scene for Bed of the Dead.
Lighting the Dark By C. MCRAE, Special to Canadian Cinematographer
Credit: Nick Montgomery
T
hey are guilty pleasures we don’t like to admit indulging in – horror movies. As a teen, sitting in your best friend’s basement watching Friday the 13th (with the volume down), you’re feigning cool, but you know you’re not sleeping tonight. Why do we delight in these irrational, disturbing, almost psychologically damaging images and themes? There is an innate human fascination with horror. Chris Alexander, writer, critic, director and die-hard horror fan,
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elaborates: “It’s an exploitation of that basic primal, human fear. We have this perpetually underlying dread and anxiety about death and what lies beyond. Horror movies draw that to the surface and throw it in our face, where we digest it in small bites. It becomes entertainment. It’s akin to bungee jumping to the precipice of death, then we bounce back. Somehow we convince ourselves we have control.” Creating the cinematic content to fulfill this need is an exhilarating, no-
holds-barred adventure that many filmmakers embark on, and the relationship between director and DP is particularly crucial. George Mihalka (director of the cult classic slasher film My Bloody Valentine) elucidates: “A good horror film is the result of a combination of things, but creating the right mood through the cinematography is paramount. It has to feel credible. Much of this is the result of the cinematographer/director partnership. You have to find that balance. The whole point of horror films
is to bring the audience in, not to keep them at arm’s length, observing from the outside, and it’s the level of understanding between these two key people that makes it work.” Toronto-based Black Fawn Films’ most recent horror release, Bed of the Dead, directed by associate member Jeff Maher and shot by Micha Dahan csc, exemplifies the challenges and rewards of creating compelling visual content on a shoestring budget. “Jeff pitched a film idea about a haunted bed that kills people who had committed sins,” Chad Archibald, Black Fawn Films’ co-owner/executive producer, says. “He wrote a treatment and we came to the next big question: who the hell is going to come in and DP for him? With a first feature, the weight of the world is on your shoulders. It was really important to find someone Jeff could trust behind the camera. [Black Fawn Films’ co-owner] Cody Calahan introduced Jeff to Micha and they immediately hit it off.” Maher explains, “Micha’s work was very interesting to me. Usually I can look at an image and tell you, to a certain extent, what lights may have been used and how they were positioned to achieve the effect, but I couldn’t figure it out with a lot of Micha’s previous work. He has a very organic and experimental style, which I’m a big fan of. I knew I wanted someone who wasn’t scared to try new things but who would also be able to rely on the tried and tested old techniques when the clock was ticking. He’s not there to make pretty pictures for his reel. His only interest is to add visual subtext to the film through lighting and camera movement, which is all that matters to me.” Dahan adds, “Shooting for another DP could have gone either way. Fortunately, Jeff and I rapidly developed the visual language. Among the films we referenced were The Babadook (Radek Ladczuk, DP) and Be Kind, Rewind (Ellen Kuras, DP). On set, we found a shorthand immediately. In fact, at some point, Jeff and I stopped using words and begun to speak in sound effects. Why waste words when we were reading each other’s minds anyway? We must have looked insane. Our resources were limited, so we had to be extremely efficient. We knew right off the bat that we would not have the ability to re-light very often. One radical
O MOSS
Canadian Cinematographer - October 2016 •
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Credit: Nick Montgomery
Bed of the Dead director associate member Jeff Maher.
Still from Bed of the Dead.
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decision we made was to paint the set with glossy paint. Unusual, yes, but this allowed us to compose deliberate reflections of established practical lamps into the blue walls. We used 100w peppers with diffusion, dimmed down so that they don’t actually cast any light on the scene, but rather are reflected by the gloss. One can see the texture of the plaster, the brush strokes, the scuffs. All of these details tell an additional story of the room and of the bed.” “It was funny because the majority of the shoot took place in one giant room with nothing to break up the light,” interjects Archibald. “I remember every day I would come in and there would be more pieces of foam core and little things, hanging from the ceiling, on stands, everywhere! It looked absurd, to actually see what they were doing to manipulate this light, but when I looked in the frame it was fantastic!” “We made a bunch of charley bars, with which we’d strategically throw shadows onto the set,” Dahan explains. “Lighting is really about shadows. Our collaboration was a reminder of the naïve passion that drew me to the industry years ago. We were kids with video cameras again. It was less about perfection, and more about the spirit of the process.” In the case of Bed of the Dead, it appears to have worked: the film premiered to a sold-out audience at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal in July and will be screened at a number of genre film festivals throughout North America and Europe. In a fickle industry, horror films really put things into perspective. For as long as humans have been communicating through visual art, terrifying, macabre themes have played relevant and culturally important roles in our collective consciousness. We are obviously expressing something that needs to be shared.
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TECH COLUMN
Defying Gravity Opens Up New Angles
G
arrett Brown’s Steadicam is revered in the world of cinematography, but a lot has changed since his 1975 invention literally changed the way we captured images. In the last few years, the arrival of brushless digital motors and selfcorrecting gimbals has meant more freedom to frame and pursue movement – the essence of “movies” – than ever before. Dolly shots, sliders and 360 platforms have opened doors at lower and lower pricing, and takes, which were once complex and costly, have become commonplace. As a DP and camera operator for at least 30 years, Adam Teichman has seen that evolution unfold before his eyes and now he’s making his own contribution to the story of cinema capture development with his Antigravity Rig. In addition to having worked on sets most of his life, covering just about every job from runner to grip to operator, he’s also been fascinated by the engineering behind getting the take. He’s no trained engineer, but in today’s parlance, he’s a maker, what we used to call a tinkerer. About three years ago, he had an idea to take the concept of a gimbal and make it better, not by re-engineering the platform itself, but by creating a more ergonomic interface between man and machine. The result is his body-mounted, suspension system for camera gimbals. It’s lightweight, flexible and compact enough to get up close and personal with the talent and squeeze into tight interior setups like a kitchen, yet can capture at floor level and rise up to nearly 10 feet (depending on the height of the operator) with a simple arm movement. The effect, from the operator’s point of view, is like being underwater, freed
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from gravity, without the need for counter weights. In fact, he said, hanging around between takes is a breeze. “With some harnesses, they’re so heavy you can’t wait to hang it up, but with this, you really don’t feel it as much,” he said. His company, Cinema Devices, based in Los Angeles, has started shipping the rigs after debuting them and creating a lot of buzz at last spring’s NAB. Production is starting to ramp up, but they’re still in early stages yet, he said last July. They’re not cheap at US$10,000 – not including the gimbal, camera, monitor screen and other connections, but compared to, say, a Steadicam rig or other body rigs or even a boom platform, it’s a bargain and meets Teichman’s goal of putting cinema technology into the hands of lower-budget productions. “We use 6061 aluminum for the frame with a tension cable, like a high-tension archery bow,” he said. “When you’re operating, you’re not fighting the weight and you’re not weighed down by counterweights. So really it’s an extension of your arms. There are 26 roller bearings in the design so it moves very smoothly and easily.” The rig also does not introduce any sounds of its own as it’s all mechanical with smooth sealed bearings, he adds. Teichman hired an engineer to design the rig after he came up with the concept working in his garage when not working on set. His previous version was like something out of Transformers with big arms and gas shocks, but he realized it was just too bulky. Access to digital motors and controls and related technology prompted him to scrap it and start again. “So much of what was out there was really adapted from something else and were Band-Aid solutions,” he said. “We designed this
from the ground up with specific parts.” Having used a Steadicam and other rigs, he knew how tiring it can be. “We designed this so the weight of the camera and the gimbal rest on the lower body and can be easily adjusted while in the harness,” he said. “It takes the stress off your shoulders, which in turn takes the stress off your lower back.” The rig is much like a Russian arm, he said, but instead of being mounted on a vehicle, it’s mounted on the operator. “Also, the way you lift it up – the human arms are great shock absorbers too – there’s no shake or side to side,” he said. “And there’s almost no arc, which is good for focus.”
Ian Harvey is a Toronto-based journalist who writes for a variety of publications and covers the technology sector. He welcomes feedback and eagerly solicits ideas at ian@pitbullmedia.ca.
Images courtesy of Cinema Devices
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You Focus On The Shot
We’ll Focus On The Rest
HILL’S VIDEO PRODUCTIONS – BURLINGTON Looking for a unique shooting control room? Rent our 32 ft. 1981 Bus complete with control room and audio. HDSDI fiber boxes for long runs. Great for keeping warm on those multi camera shoots. www.hillsvideo.com Rob Hill – 905.335.1146 HILL’S VIDEO PRODUCTIONS – Burlington, Ontario New SPRINTER Production Van coming. HDSDI fiber boxes for long runs. Need more for your shoot? RED Scarlet camera – Zeiss Compact Prime lenses, Grip Gear, Kino Flo’s, Silks, Apple Boxes, HMI’s, Doorway Dolly | Call Rob Hill | 905.335.1146 | Cell 905.875.5272 | studio@hillsvideo.com Do you travel between Toronto and Hamilton for production every day? Need a place to: screen dailies, host your production office that’s close to both? Hill’s Production Services www. hillsvideo.com. We are a full Service Production Company with cameras and edit bays for making EPKs. Some grip gear, if you find yourself in the field, short of one or two items. Hill’s also has office space and a mobile screening room. Located just off the QEW in Burlington.Check us out 905-335-1146 Ask for Rob Hill. CAMERA CLASSIFIED IS A FREE SERVICE PROVIDED FOR CSC MEMBERS. For all others, there is a one-time $25 (plus GST) insertion fee. Your ad will appear here and on the CSC’s website, www.csc. ca. If you have items you would like to buy, sell or rent, please email your information to editor@csc.ca.
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Canadian Cinematographer - October 2016 •
27
PRODUCTION NOTES
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); DP Bobby Shore csc; to February 3, 2017 ANNE OF GREEN GABLES: THE GOOD STARS (TV movie); DP Mitchell Ness csc; to November 4, Etobicoke ARROW V (series); DP Gordon Verheul csc (odd); to April 19, 2017, Vancouver BATES MOTEL V (series); DP John Bartley csc, asc; to January 24, Vancouver THE BEAVERTON (series); DP Gerald Packer csc; Camera Operator Rod Crombie; B Camera Operator Daniel Abboud; to October 28, Toronto BELLEVUE (series); DP Eric Cayla csc; to December 9, Montreal CHEVAL-SERPENT (series); DP Jérôme Sabourin csc; to December 19, 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 10, 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; 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, Toronto GREEN HARVEST (series); DP Colin Hoult csc (alternating episodes); to March 15, 2017, Toronto HEARTLAND X (series); DP Jarrett Craig; to December 5, Calgary HOCHELAGA, TERRE DES ÂMES (feature); DP Nicolas Bolduc csc; to January 13, 2017 IMAGINARY MARY (series); B Camera Operator Pieter Stathis csc; to December 6, Burnaby iZOMBIE III (series); DP Michael Wale csc; to January 10, 2017, North Vancouver THE LAIR (MOW); DP Mark Irwin csc, asc; to October 28, Burnaby 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 April 1, 2017, Vancouver THE MIST (series); DP Andre Pienaar csc, sasc; Camera Operator 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, Toronto 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, Toronto ROGUE IV (series); DP Francois Dagenais csc; to October 19, Vancouver THE ROMEO SECTION II (series); DP Brendan Uegama csc; to October 12, Vancouver SAVING HOPE V (series); DP David Perrault csc; 1st Assistant (alternating A & B) Pierre Branconnier; to October 31, Mississauga SHADOWHUNTERS II (series); DP David Herrington csc & Mike McMurray csc; to May 30, 2017, Mississauga THE SHAPE OF THE WATER (feature); B Camera Operator J.P. Locherer; to November 11, Toronto SUITS VI (series); Camera Operator/Steadicam Michael Soos; B Camera Operator Peter Sweeney; to November 16, Toronto SUPERNATURAL XII (series); Co-Producer & DP Serge Ladouceur csc; Camera Operator Brad Creasser, to April 26, 2017, Burnaby TAKEN (series); DP Boris Mojsovski csc; Camera Operator/Steadicam Iain Baird; to October 26, Toronto TIN STAR (series); DP Paul Sarossy csc, asc; bsc to December 6, Calgary TULLY (feature); Underwater DP/OP Ian Seabrook csc; to October 1, Burnaby THE WANTING (feature); DP Adam Swica csc; to October 21, Toronto WHEN CALLS THE HEART IV (series); DP Michael Balfry csc; to December 12, Burnaby WORKIN’ MOMS (series); Maya Bankovic; B Camera Operator Brad Hruboska; to October 28, Toronto ZIVA POSTEC (documentary); DP Nathalie Moliavko-Visotzky csc; to October 22, Montreal
ACCEPTANCES / AWARDS / NOMINATIONS John Bartley csc, asc (DP) Bates Motel “A Danger to Himself and Others” (series), nominated for Primetime Emmy Outstanding Cinematography – Single-camera series, Los Angeles, September 18, 2016 Jarrett Craig, affiliate member (DP) Heartland “Season 10, Episode 1” (series), gala screening celebrating a decade of Heartland, Calgary International Film Festival, October 1, 2016 Richard Ciupka csc (DP) Nouvelle Adresse year 3 “Episode 34” (series), nominated for Best Fiction photography at the 31st Gémeaux Awards, Montreal, September 18, 2016 Micha Dahan csc (DP) Blur (feature), nominated for Best Cinematography at Berlin International Film-Maker Festival of World Cinema 2016 Michael Jari Davidson, associate member (DP) First Round Down (feature), World Premiere, Atlantic Film Festival, Nova Scotia, September 18, 2016; Edmonton International Film Festival, Edmonton, October 4, 2016 Catherine Lutes csc (cinematographer) The People Garden (feature), Grand Cinematography Prize won at Rhode Island International Film Festival, August 2016; Imposter (short film), screening at New York Film Festival, October 1 and 2, 2016 Gregory Middleton csc (DP) Game of Thrones “Home” (series), nominated for Primetime Emmy Outstanding Cinematography – Single-camera series, Los Angeles, September 18, 2016 Iris Ng, associate csc (DP) Making a Murderer (Episode 10, Additional Photography, Ep. 1 to 9), Primetime Emmy Awards, nominated for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series, Los Angeles, September 18, 2016 Vic Sarin csc (director, writer, cinematographer, producer) Keepers of the Magic (documentary), selected for the Vancouver International Film Festival, September 29 to October 14, 2016; A Shine of Rainbows (feature), Best Feature Film winner and The Boy from Geita (documentary), Best Feature Documentary winner, Moondance International Film Festival, Boulder, Colorado, September 3 to 5, 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 Ian Toews csc (director, cinematographer, producer) Bugs on the Menu (documentary), Green Carpet selection at the Calgary International Film Festival, September 21 to October 2, 2016; selected for the Environmental Film Festival, Australia – Melbourne: October 4, Brisbane,: October 14, Canberra: October 15, Sydney: October 20, 2016; Heartland Film Festival, Indianapolis, IN, October 21 to 29; Devour! The Food Film Festival, Wolfville, NS, November 2, 2016 Andrew Watt csc (DP) Chokeslam (feature), closing gala film at the Calgary International Film Festival, September 21 to October 2, 2016 Roger Williams, associate member (DP/director/producer) RiverBlue (feature documentary), selected for Vancouver International Film Festival, September 29 to October 14, 2016 Kelly Wolfert csc (writer/producer/director/cinematographer) Brett Kissel - Stepping Inside the Circle (short), selected for the Calgary International Film Festival, September 21 to October 2; Edmonton International Film Festival, September 29 to October 8, 2016
28 • Canadian Cinematographer - October 2016
CALENDAR OF EVENTS OCTOBER 1, William F. White Filmmaker Open House, Toronto, whites.com 5-6, ProFusion, Toronto, profusionexpo.com 22-23, CSC Lighting Workshop, Toronto, csc.ca NOVEMBER 4, CSC Lens Testing Workshop, Toronto, csc.ca 5-6, CSC Camera Assistant Workshop, Toronto, csc.ca 12-13, CSC Table Top Lighting Workshop, Toronto, csc.ca 26, CSC Post Work Flow, Toronto, csc.ca
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