Canadian Society of Cinematographers Magazine September 2017

CANADIAN SOCIETY OF CINEMATOGRAPHERS

$4 September 2017 www.csc.ca

Mark Dobrescu csc Reboots Career with Barco Escape Format Ronald Plante csc Bon Cop, Bad Cop 2 David Moxness csc, asc in Conversation with Michael Seresin bsc

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

FEATURES – VOLUME 9, NO. 4 SEPTEMBER 2017

Fostering cinematography in Canada since 1957.

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

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.

Courtesy of Ronald Plante csc

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

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Ronald Plante csc Shoots Bon Cop, Bad Cop 2

By Fanen Chiahemen

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Mark Dobrescu csc Reboots Career with Barco Escape Format

By Fanen Chiahemen

Credit: Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox

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. PRG PS Production Services Panasonic Canada Panavision Canada REDLABdigital RED Digital Cinema 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

Credit: Craig Pulsifer Copyright: Minds Eye Entertainment

CORPORATE SPONSORS

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David Moxness csc, asc in Conversation with Michael Seresin bsc

COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 2 4 7 8 10 12 34 36 38 40

From the Editor-In-Chief In the News New Sponsors On Set Spotlight: David Greene csc, asc The CSC at 60: Members Reflect CSC Pub Night The Masters Tech Column Production Notes/Calendar

Cover Welsey Snipes in The Recall, which used the Barco Escape format.

Photographer: Darren Hull

Canadian Cinematographer September 2017 Vol. 9, No. 4 EDITORIAL BOARD EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Joan Hutton csc EDITOR EMERITUS Donald Angus EXECUTIVE OFFICER Susan Saranchuk, admin@csc.ca EDITOR Fanen Chiahemen, editor@csc.ca COPY EDITOR Karen Longland ART DIRECTION Berkeley Stat House WEBSITE www.csc.ca ADVERTISING SALES Guido Kondruss, gkondruss@rogers.com EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBER Bruce Marshall, brucemarshall@sympatico.ca CSC BOARD OF DIRECTORS Carlos Esteves csc Joan Hutton csc Alwyn Kumst csc Antonin Lhotsky csc Bruno Philip csc Joseph Sunday PhD George Willis csc, sasc CSC EXECUTIVE PRESIDENT George Willis csc, sasc PAST PRESIDENT, ADVISOR Joan Hutton csc VICE PRESIDENTS Carlos Esteves csc, Toronto Alwyn Kumst csc, Vancouver Bruno Philip csc, Montreal MEMBERSHIP CHAIRS Arthur Cooper csc Phil Earnshaw csc EDUCATION CHAIRS Carlos Esteves csc George Willis csc, sasc AWARDS CHAIR Alwyn Kumst csc PUBLIC RELATIONS CHAIR Bruce Marshall OFFICE / MEMBERSHIP / SUBSCRIPTIONS 131–3085 Kingston Road Toronto, Canada M1M 1P1 Tel: 416-266-0591; Fax: 416-266-3996 Email: admin@csc.ca, subscription@csc.ca

Canadian Cinematographer makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information it publishes; however, it cannot be held responsible for any consequences arising from errors or omissions. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the express written consent of the publisher. The opinions expressed within the magazine are those of the authors and not necessarily of the publisher. Upon publication, Canadian Cinematographer acquires Canadian Serial Rights; copyright reverts to the writer after publication.Canadian Cinematographer is printed by Winnipeg Sun Commercial Print and is published 10 times a year.

One-year subscriptions are available in Canada for $40.00 for individuals and $80.00 for institutions, including HST. In U.S. rates are $45.00 and $90.00 for institutions in U.S. funds.

International subscriptions are $50.00 for individuals and $100.00 for institutions. Subscribe online at www.csc.ca.

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2 • Canadian Cinematographer - September 2017

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Joan Hutton csc

T

here is an event taking place on October 28 of this year in Helsinki, Finland, that may prove to be a significant platform for cinematographers the world over. It’s the first IMAGO International Awards for Cinematography. In case anyone is not aware, IMAGO is an umbrella organization comprised of 50 cinematography organizations from around the world. The CSC is a full member of IMAGO, representing Canada and Canadian cinematography.

This is an elite cinematography competition from IMAGO, which is only open to member organizations. They, in turn, choose which cinematographers to submit. At this time, there are three competitive categories – Best Cinematography in a Feature Film, Best Cinematography in a Television Drama and Best Cinematography in a Documentary.

The CSC has decided to enter the winners from the 60th Annual CSC Awards into the IMAGO competition. Guy Godfree csc won this year’s Theatrical Feature Cinematography category for his outstanding work on Maudie, which captures the inner spirit and life of famed Nova Scotia folk artist Maud Lewis. Oscar nomination buzz seems to continually be swirling around Maudie. Godfree leads the CSC’s submissions in IMAGO’s Feature Film category, which allows two entries. The second is David Moxness csc, ASC. He was one of the nominees in the CSC Theatrical Feature category for his superb DP’ing on the psychological thriller When the Bough Breaks.

Gregory Middleton csc, picked up this year’s TV Series Cinematography Award for his exceptional cinematography on Game of Thrones and is the CSC’s entry in IMAGO’s TV Drama Category.

Associate CSC member Stuart Campbell is the 2017 winner of the Robert Brooks Award for Documentary Cinematography for his poignant images in Caribou Legs that helps tell the story of indigenous ultramarathoner Bradley Firth and his run across Canada to draw attention to missing and murdered indigenous women. Campbell is the CSC’s submission to IMAGO’s documentary section.

IMAGO award nominations are expected by the end of September.

Good luck to Guy, David, Greg and Stuart, four extraordinary cinematographers!

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IN THE NEWS

Yves Bélanger csc Receives Primetime Emmy Nomination

Credit: Kerry Brown

The CSC congratulates Yves Bélanger csc on his Emmy Award nomination in the Outstanding Cinematography for a Limited Series or Movie category for his work on HBO’s Big Little Lies – “You Got What You Need”. The 69th Emmy Awards take place on September 17.

Credit: John Narvali

New ARRI Lightweight Matte Box LMB 4x5

Denny Clairmont Retires as Keslow Camera Acquires Clairmont Camera Clairmont founder Denny Clairmont, one of the industry’s most respected talents in front and behind the camera, announced his retirement. Denny Clairmont, along with his brother, Terry, established the movie equipment and camera rental company in 1976. In 2011, Clairmont received the John A. Bonner Medal of Commendation from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), awarded by the Academy Board of Governors upon the recommendation of the Scientific and Technical Awards Committee. The Medal honours outstanding service and dedication in upholding the high standards of the Academy. Clairmont and Ken Robings won a Technical Achievement Award from the Society of Camera Operators (SOC) for the lens perspective system, and Clairmont has won two Emmys from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his role in the development of special lens systems. Simultaneously, rental house Keslow Camera recently announced that it is acquiring Clairmont and its Vancouver and Toronto operations.

Keslow Camera will retain the support staff and team of Clairmont’s Vancouver and Toronto facilities.

4 • Canadian Cinematographer - September 2017

ARRI in May introduced the Lightweight Matte Box LMB 4x5, a modular matte box that expands on the feature set and creative possibilities of the popular LMB-25 and includes features such as single-filter configuration for gimbals, drones, or Steadicams to clamp-on versions up to rod-mounted solutions (using either 15 mm lightweight, 15 or 19 mm studio rods). The new matte box is also compatible to legacy accessories – all clamp adapters and filter frames from the former models LMB-5, LMB-15, and LMB25 are compatible. The LMB 4x5 also maintains the streamlined design for which ARRI’s LMB range is known. The features of ARRI’s matte box line, such as tray catchers, tilting capability, and swing-away modules have been retained in the LMB 4x5 while many other features have been added. Enhancements include additional filter stage in two different versions, a tilt-and-flex adapter, as well as flags that fold flat for easier storage without the need to be removed.

Courtesy of ARRI

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Vancouver Film School Opens Performance Capture Studio Vancouver Film School (VFS) in May opened its commercial Performance Capture Studio, the only film school to offer this unique program. The school partnered with performance capture company Mimic Performance Capture, Inc. (Mimic) to build one of Canada’s largest studios. The Performance Capture Studio provides advanced stunt work, voice work, camera systems, methodology, and applied research.

This will allow VFS and Mimic to collaborate on the development and delivery of specialized curriculum and training workshops for VFS programs, staff and students.

Kees van Oostrum To Serve Second Term as ASC President The American Society of Cinematographers in June re-appointed Kees van Oostrum to a second term as president

of the organization. The ASC Board also elected its officers for the 20172018 term, including: Bill Bennett, John Simmons and Cynthia Pusheck as vice presidents; Levie Isaacks as treasurer; David Darby as secretary; and Isidore Mankofsky as sergeant-at-arms.

Van Oostrum is also the chairman and originator of the renowned ASC Master Classes, which take place several times a year.

CFC and Bell Media Announce Vision Project The Canadian Film Centre (CFC) and Bell Media recently announced a new initiative to expand the development of both virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) experiences further at the CFC. The CFC/Bell Media Vision Project will enable CFC Media Lab to scale up its IDEABOOST programming and services associated with accelerating VR and AR companies and

ARRI Celebrates 100th Anniversary September 2017 marks ARRI’s 100th anniversary, and the company marked the centenary with numerous celebrations throughout the year – including at the IBC show in Amsterdam this month – and by looking back at its rich history, assessing the values and principles that have helped it reach this milestone anniversary.

In 1917, August Arnold and Robert Richter rented a small former shoemaker’s store in Munich and set up Correction

producing VR and AR experiences.

Collaboratively designed by Bell Media and CFC, the project will not only develop consumer-facing experiences, but also identify platforms, tools and software necessary for VR’s most effective commercial delivery.

Canon Announces New Canon EOS C200 and EOS C200B Digital Cinema Cameras Canon U.S.A. in May announced the Canon EOS C200 and Canon EOS C200B Digital Cinema Cameras, the latest additions to its Cinema EOS line of professional cinema cameras. Representing the third generation of the Cinema EOS system, the Canon EOS C200 and Canon EOS C200B Digital Cinema Cameras offer two 4K video formats, Canon’s new Cinema RAW Light and MP4, optimized for those interested in recording HDR video.

shop as a film technology firm. The two friends started with just one product: a copying machine they built on a lathe Richter had received as a Christmas present from his parents. Taking the first two letters of their surnames, they christened their new enterprise ARRI. According to Dr. Jörg Pohlman, one of two executive board members at ARRI AG, the pair were still teenagers when they founded the company, so their parents had to sign the incorporation documents.

Today, the company is headquartered at the same address on Türkenstrasse, though the premises has expanded to the size of an entire city block and is just one of numerous facilities around the world, including major branches in Europe, the Americas and Asia.

Arnold and Richter were camera operators, film producers and an equipment rental outfit before they ever manufactured an ARRI camera. From the very beginning, they worked directly with filmmakers and the insight they gained helped them develop equipment that met real on-set needs.

The long history of ARRI sits predominantly in the celluloid age, but now, in the digital era, the company is bigger, employing around 1,300 staff worldwide.

The photo of the CSC Awards that appears on page 10 of the May 2017 issue was incorrectly credited to Ray Harripaul.

The shooter of the photograph is unknown.

6 • Canadian Cinematographer - September 2017

CSC WELCOMES THREE NEW SPONSORS

DMG Lumière DMG Lumière was formed when cinematographer Mathieu de Montgrand, along with his brother, LED specialist Nils de Montgrand, and gaffer Nico Goerg decided to pool their knowledge, skills and ingenuity.

The trio sensed a need in the film and television industry for robust soft lights, which were lightweight, durable, user friendly and of topnotch quality. Their Switch series, which includes the SL1, has become an unmitigated international success story. DMG’s lighting gear is designed and engineered at its corporate head office in Lyon, France, and is sold in 25 countries worldwide. DMG also has offices in Toronto and Hangzhou, China. dmglumiere.com

Keslow Camera Since 1990, Keslow Camera has been providing camera equipment for motion picture, television and commercial productions throughout North America and around the world.

Keslow has earned a reputation among the industry’s creative community for uncompromising service and innovative problem solving on projects of any size. It is also one of the largest privately-owned rental houses in North America. Based in Los Angeles, Keslow also operates locations in Chicago, Santa Fe, Atlanta, and now Toronto and Vancouver having acquired renowned Clairmont Camera Film & Digital. The acquisition allows Keslow to bring its brand of personalized service, top-quality gear and inspiration to the burgeoning Canadian film and television industry. keslowcamera.com

Urban Post Production For more than two decades, Urban Post Production has been leaving a giant footprint on many film and television shows in North America.

A multiple award-winning company (Canadian Screen Awards, Emmys, Genie’s and Gemini’s) located in Toronto that offers its clients superb technical and creative results. Led by the creative team and sound editors John Laing, Tom Bjelic and Mark Gingras, Urban Post does it all, from sound design, mixing and ADR through to foley, to picture post, where they have three simple goals – “picture done precisely, colour done flawlessly, deliverables done exactly.”

Urban Post is also the owner of the eclectic repertoire theatre and Toronto landmark, The Royal Cinema. urbanpost.ca

CSC at CSC congratulates the following members whose films were selected for the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival

Primetime Brendan Steacy csc, Alias Grace (dir. Mary Harron)

2017

Stuart James Cameron, Latched (dir. Justin Harding) Guy Godfree csc, Bird (dir. Molly Parker) Cabot McNenly, Midnight Confession

Gala Presentations Nicolas Bolduc csc, Hochelaga, Terre des Âmes

Contemporary World Cinema Stirling Bancroft csc, Public Schooled

(dir. François Girard)

(dir. Kyle Rideout)

Nicholas de Pencier csc, Long Time Running

Christian Bielz, Pyewacket

(dir. Jennifer Baichwal/Nicholas de Pencier csc)

Ben Lichty, Porcupine Lake (dir. Ingrid Veninger) TIFF Cinemateque Douglas Koch csc, I’ve Heard the Duraid Munajim, The Journey Mermaids Singing (dir.Mohamed Al Daradji)

Special Presentations Christophe Collette csc, Eye on Juliet (dir. Kim Nguyen) Discovery Norm Li csc, Never Steady, Never Still

Cabot McNenly, We Forgot to Break Up (dir. Chandler Levack) Evan Prosofsky, Möbius (dir. Sam Kuhn)

(dir. Adam MacDonald)

(dir. Patricia Rozema)

Canada On Screen Douglas Koch csc, I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing (dir. Patricia Rozema)

(dir. Kathleen Hepburn)

TIFF Docs Tomasz Kurek, The Carter Effect

(dir. Maxwell McCabe-Lokos)

Short Cuts Kris Belchevski, Shadow Nettes (dir. Philip Barker)

Graeme Ferguson, North of Superior (dir. Graeme Ferguson)

Barry Stone csc, Rude (dir. Clement Virgo) A complete list will be published in the October issue of Canadian Cinematographer after all the films have been announced.

(dir. Sean Menard)

Canadian Cinematographer - September 2017 •

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Credit: Iden Ford

Credit:Véro Boncompagni

ON SET

Crew (from left) Tony Lippa, Allen Kelly, Billy Buttery, Jeff Hicks, Lindsey Todd, Anthony Police and Jim Westenbrink csc on the set of Letterkenny.

Dylan Macleod csc (right) with A camera operator Yoann Malnati on the set of Cardinal, Season 2, in North Bay.

Ron Stannett csc on the set of Hallmark's Summer in The Vineyard.

Vincent De Paula csc shooting the feature Indian Road Trip.

Credit: Brian Aichlmayr

Credit: Kevin Speckmaier

Credit: Jenny Kim

(From left) Director Molly Flood, dolly grip Ashleigh Brady, DP Christine Buijs, 1st AD Samantha Madely, sound recordist Jason Phin on the set of ACTRA short film Orchid.

Credit: Alan Goluboff

Credit:Ramona Diaconescu

Philippe Lavalette csc (at camera) shooting the short feature INIS.

ACCEPTANCES / AWARDS / NOMINATIONS / John Banovich csc (DP) Wild Rockies “The Borderlands,” won Leo Award for Best Cinematography in a Documentary Series, June 2017, Vancouver John Bartley csc, asc (DP) Bates Motel “Forever,” won Leo Award for Best Cinematography in a Dramatic Series, June 2017, Vancouver Brad Creaser, associate member, and Stewart Whelan (DP) Cinephiliac, won Leo Award for Best Cinematography in a Short Drama, June 2017, Vancouver Ian Kerr csc, (DP) Facing Putin (documetnary), Nominated for Outstanding Lighting and Scenic Direction at the 38th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards, October 5, 2017, New York

8 • Canadian Cinematographer - September 2017

Set dresser Faolain Morell and DP Brad Rushing csc on the set of feature film Sanitatum shooting in Houston.

Duraid Munajim, associate member (DP) My Enemy, My Brother (documentary), screened at Hot Docs, April 29, 2017, Toronto, Vancouver Film Festival, September 28 to Oct. 13, 2017; (DP) The Journey (feature), premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, September 7 to 17, 2017; (DP) Path of Maryam (feature), premiering at The Montreal World Film Festival, August 24 to September 4, 2017 Brad Rushing csc (DP) Beautiful Dead Things (short), won Jury’s Choice Award at Diversity in Cannes, May 2017; won Best Experimental Short at Female Eye Film Festival, Toronto, June 2017; (DP) ASUS "Grandma on Watch" (commercial), won Castell Award Barcelona Film Festival, June 2017; (DP) How to Love, featuring Sofia Reyes (music video), Official Finalist Barcelona Film Festival, June 2017

David Greene csc, asc

CSC MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

How did you get started in the business?

As a 15-year-old kid, I volunteered at a community access television station. We operated cameras and produced our own shows. After a short departure in engineering, I came back to my first love and studied film at York University. After university, short films, independent features and music videos eventually landed me my first USA Network show for CBS. The rest fell into place after that.

Who have been your mentors or teachers?

Everyone I have had the privilege of working with.

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

The entire Coen brothers’ library, Apocalypse Now, Days of Heaven, The Last Emperor.

What cinematographers inspire you?

Roger Deakins asc, bsc; Vittorio Storaro asc, aic; and Emmanuel Lubezki asc, amc.

Name some of your professional highlights.

Becoming a member of the CSC and the ASC. What is one of your most memorable moments on set?

I did a lovely movie with Cicely Tyson. On our last day, just as we wrapped, we needed to do some sound recording of her singing. This was the remake of A Trip to Bountiful. At 3 a.m. the microphone came close to Cicely as this 90-year-old beautiful woman sang the most lovely hymns, while all of us wept and were full of emotion. What we do is about that – beautiful human experience and emotion.

What do you like best about what you do?

Telling stories and creating images from our imagination.

What do you like least about what you do?

Being away from my family.

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

Fast cameras and fast lenses.

How can others follow your work?

davidgreenecsc.com

10 • Canadian Cinematographer - September 2017

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Canadian Cinematographer - September 2017 •

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GEORGE WILLIS csc, sasc

csc president

What does the CSC mean to you?

The CSC is a forum for all those who are interested in cinematography or make cinematography a part of their life. It’s a great way for people to learn and pass on information. To obtain mentorship, to mentor, especially young people, and to me that’s very important. It’s more than

just a society of like-minded individuals.

For me it’s a passion.

What do you see as the CSC’s role within the industry here in Canada?

I think the CSC’s role in the industry is to be a flagship to steer cinematography, not only in terms of the North American status, but globally. That’s why we belong to IMAGO. What would you like to see in the future for the CSC? I would like to see the CSC have its own space, give it the recognition and the character of the society that we are all a part of. I would also like to see a lot more people getting involved to promote the CSC and really take it forward to become more than what it is right now. I think we need to build up what we now refer to as our brand.

Credit: Kerry Brown

YVES BÉLANGER csc What does the CSC mean to you?

It really underlines where I am from. It puts me in contact with other guys who do the same job as me. It’s very simple. It’s an organization but I feel a part of a group.

How has the CSC influenced your thinking, your work and how you do things?

Sometimes when I read the magazine, you read about other DPs in Canada, they have this technique and you think, “Ah, that’s a good idea. I’m going to try that.” So I would say the magazine especially.

What would you like to see in the future for the CSC? Don’t change nothing. Become bigger if you want, but stay the same where everyone can talk to each other.

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Why did you become a CSC member?

The CSC is a reminder that within the larger international filmmaking community there is also a family closer to home that celebrates the love of cinematography. The support and shared knowledge here among peers and colleagues with a shared love of the same craft is what drew me to become a member.

What does the CSC mean to you?

It’s an acknowledgment for the shared respect we have for the contributions cinematographers make as artists.

What has belonging to the CSC done for your career?

It’s a legitimizing force in Canada among some producers, for one, but to me the most valuable thing about it has been the sense of community it’s made me feel a part of. It’s easy to exist in a vacuum as a DP and never cross paths with another cinematographer. The CSC ensures we keep in touch.

Credit: Jennifer Lee

September marks the month the CSC was officially founded in 1957. To commemorate the occasion, Canadian Cinematographer asked members to reflect on the society, the impact their membership has had on their place in the industry and on their careers, and to share their hopes and dreams for the future.

MAYA BANKOVIC, associate member

STUART CAMPBELL, associate member Why did you become a CSC member?

Originally, it was because of my good friend, Chris Mably csc. We got to talking one day and he was telling me how he was feeling like the community needed some new, more active members and I should apply. And with my own further research, I decided it would be a great thing.

What does the CSC mean to you?

To be part of the society is a level of excellence and achievement. For me personally, it’s also a level of acceptance. I had a somewhat different route getting into cinematography, and becoming part of the CSC is a validation of the work I’ve done to get to where I am today.

What would you like to see in the future for the CSC? It would be amazing it there was an official “club house” where you could go to on any given night to meet and talk to other members.

Credit: Kristine Tsui

MEMBERS REFLECT

Credit: Jordan Masciangelo

THE CSC AT 60

GUY GODFREE csc Why did you become a CSC member?

I draw a lot of inspiration from my peers in the Canadian film community, and being a CSC member gives everyone the opportunity to contribute to and learn from that community.

Photo courtesy of Vic Sarin csc

Credit: Eugene Sunday

JOE SUNDAY, PhD csc board chairman

Credit: Shea Reid

ANDRÉ PIENAAR csc, sasc What does the CSC mean to you?

Being a member of the CSC gives me pride and a sense of belonging to a community of cinematographers and other professionals with the common goal of furthering the highest standards in all aspects of our industry. It’s also a great point of reference and exchange of ideas.

What has belonging to the CSC done for your career?

As far as my own career goes, the CSC has allowed me to be engaged with like-minded professionals thereby making me feel woven into the fabric of our industry and, on a more obvious level, has given me a public platform in the form of the awards shows and the magazine.

What does the CSC mean to you?

The CSC is a reminder of the incredible and important work that has happened in the decades before my time, and the decades that will come after.

It is that reminder that I try to find inspiration for my contribution to this community.

What would you like to see on the CSC wish list for the future?

I think that the society does an incredible job in education initiative, I would like to see that continue. I think the education programs could continue to expand beyond technique but into narrative workshops and the meaning for what we do.

VIC SARIN csc Why did you become a CSC member?

When the CSC started in the late ‘50s, cinematographers were very much in the forefront of making films. The idea for me was to join the CSC to be a part of this new era, to be part of this new era of filmmaking. I mean, I was totally in love with images, so I felt I should be part of it.

What does the CSC mean to you?

CSC membership gives you so much more strength, and the CSC brings people together. So we have a home and place where we can communicate to each other, otherwise we are just disconnected. Because communication to me is one of the key things in life and this is how we communicate, through images, so why not bring these people together.

MATT BENDO, associate member

Why did you become a CSC member?

Because I know it’s the highest recognized society for cinematographers in Canada, and I know that they have a reputation of being a great community that has a large talented roster.

Which CSC member has had the biggest influence on you and why?

I’d say, George Willis csc, sasc and Carlos Esteves csc have probably been the two biggest influences for me. I have taken the workshops and I have emailed them. They are very easy to talk to; they’re very knowledgeable.

What has belonging to the CSC done for your career?

Joining the CSC as an associate member I find gave me some credibility and legitimacy as a cinematographer. It also gives me a community that I can try to learn from, I have people I can contact if I have any issues, and they are all interested in helping me in problem solving.

Credit: John Narvali

Why did you become a CSC member?

I was co-owner of ARRI Canada, and Fritz Spiess csc had asked me on certain occasions to help him explain the science behind technologies and innovations that were happening, and one day he said, “Joe, you should be providing more services. Please come on board as somebody who can explain a lot of what’s going on.”

What does the CSC mean to you?

As a person who’s a technologist at heart, I was never one who was ever happy to sit down in front of a computer. The only joy that I got was when I was dealing with creative people in creative industries who had technology as a part of what they did, and that was where I realized that my real goal in life was to be associated with these people in a sense. For my own sanity, I have to be around creative individuals.

Canadian Cinematographer - September 2017 •

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RONALD PLANTE csc Shoots

By Fanen Chiahemen

Courtesy of Ronald Plante csc

2 P O C D A B , P BON CO Ronald Plante csc with director Alain Desrochers.

T

he sequel to Bon Cop, Bad Cop – Erik Canuel’s 2006 comedy featuring rebellious francophone cop David Bouchard (Patrick Huard) and straight-laced angloOntarian detective Martin Ward (Colm Feore), who reluctantly join forces to solve a murder – finally hit the big screens this year. The original became one of Canada’s topgrossing films and something of a cultural phenomenon mostly by mining the comedy in the linguistic differences and cultural friction between anglophones and francophones.

The sequel, Bon Cop, Bad Cop 2, directed by Alain Desrochers, works the intervening 11 years into its plot – Bouchard and Ward are a decade older, but still retain much of the same character traits. This time around, Ward, who has moved up from the Ontario Provincial Police to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, runs into Bouchard, who’s still with the Sûreté du Québec, by chance while investigating a car theft ring. The two once again cooperate to infiltrate the organized crime ring only to discover that the auto-theft business is actually a cover for a far more sinister – and border-crossing – plot, pushing the film into thriller territory and offering a comedic commentary on current U.S. politics. Although

14 • Canadian Cinematographer - September 2017

Bon Cop, Bad Cop 2 still gets laughs out of the differences between the two cops, it also raises the stakes in the characters’ personal drama and ramps up the action, featuring car chases, explosions, fights and gun play usually served up in Hollywood blockbusters. Cinematographer Ronald Plante csc says he welcomed the opportunity to work on such a highly-anticipated sequel.

“I was really happy because there’s not too many big films in Canada that you can get a sequel for. We don’t have that tradition like big American films. We don’t have a franchise tradition in Canada,” the DP says. “I always said to Alain, ‘This is our James Bond. This is our franchise.’ So we have a responsibility along with the luxury of doing it. I was happy to be involved in that.”

Other than the odd reference to gags in the first movie, the filmmakers took a fresh approach to Bon Cop, Bad Cop 2, and Plante says he gave himself the mandate of making a classic film that would age well. “My main thing was I want people to look at it and say, ‘Wow, that’s a cool film.’ Even though we’re not American and don’t have that kind of budget, we had a great production designer, and to me it was very

Images courtesy of Ronald Plante csc

important to make a film that has some class and some coolness factor. I said to Alain that for me, my reference was Skyfall. I don’t have Roger Deakins’ [ASC, BSC] talent or experience, but I said, ‘Let’s try to do a Deakins-style, cool, classy action movie,’ so I used the same lenses, the same camera and everything, just to be as close as possible to the Deakins way.”

Even though Plante is not particularly keen on over-planning and storyboarding, he adapted his style to the needs of the film. “There was a good amount of preparation and there is obviously a lot of action in the film, so of course it was storyboarded. You don’t have a choice,” he says. “With action scenes, you need to be able to communicate with everybody.

But Alain, like me, is a very instinctive person, so even though you had those big things to be prepped, we kept in mind doing it in a free way. So I used a lot of the Russian arm. You can be very instinctive with that piece of equipment because you’re free. The Russian arm for the big action scenes was very helpful to keep the spirit of being free to move and to be able to look everywhere, for safety and for stunts. To me, to be free is a great thing. So it's basically a very instinctive approach and a very in-the-moment feeling but with tools that make you able to do it.

“It was not so much a multi-camera shoot,” he continues.

“I don’t like multi-camera shooting anyway, and I don’t like multi-camera action scenes. I think it’s very 20th century.

That’s not the way we do movies now. We rehearsed the stunts a lot in real time just to make sure everybody is safe, but after that we went very free spirit.”

Referencing Deakins, Plante employed the ARRI ALEXA with Master Primes. “That’s basically the Roger Deakins kit.

I’ve been using the Master Primes lately and I love them

Above: Cast and crew prepare to shoot an action sequence.

Below: Actors Colm Feore (Martin Ward) and Patrick Huard (David Bouchard) in a still from Bon Cop, Bad Cop 2.

“

“We don’t have a franchise tradition in Canada. I always said to Alain, ‘This is our James Bond. This is our franchise.’ So we have a responsibility along with the luxury of doing it.”

Canadian Cinematographer - September 2017 •

15

“

Courtesy of Ronald Plante csc

Upper row: Key grip Yanka Pelltier (with headsets); boom operator Catherine Bellazzi; B camera 1st AC Eric Bensoussan (and CSC Camera Assistant Award of Merit winner 2017); and prop master Stephane Brunel.

Lower row: A camera 1st AC Filippo Viola and DP Ronald Plante csc.

the pt ul sc I en th d an it at ok lo I , it ht lig st “When I light a scene, I don’t ju t n’ do u yo it pt ul sc u yo n he w d An g. in lighting, and that means a lot of cutt story. e th d an t ar he ur yo , es ey ur yo h it w ht need a lot of equipment. You lig It’s really sculpting the light.”

because they are super sensitive; they have a velvet feel to them. And we used the ALEXA in the open gate mode. Usually when you frame, there is a safe area around the edges,” he explains. “And when you shoot open gate, you don’t have any safe area; you use the whole size of the sensor. A bigger sensor makes for much more resolution, and you’re losing depth of field, which makes it more anamorphic, but it’s not anamorphic. So there’s something nice about it because you have less depth of field. It’s very tough for the focus puller because you don’t have any depth of field, basically, but I have a great focus puller. It’s my friend Filippo Viola who’s done my focus pulling for 20 years.”

Plante typically favours minimal lighting, but again he embraced the lighting needs of the larger-budget action film. “As a DP on a film, my job is to be right. Not to be beautiful, but to be right for the movie. That’s my main goal. Since I was doing an action movie, I decided to light a bit more obviously and a bit more beautifully because I’m allowed to. I had the right to over-light,” he says. “So I did a bit more of the traditional lighting on this film than usual because I had the stamp of approval from the history of cinema to say, ‘Okay, go and have some fun with it.’ I always have source lighting anyway, so the light has to come from somewhere that’s obvious. I

16 • Canadian Cinematographer - September 2017

have a great crew and they know how I light usually.”

The film was shot on location in Montreal, and he relied on production designer Jean-François Campeau to design sets with lighting built in. “I tell my production designers now that they are the new gaffers because of the way I like to shoot,” Plante says. “Jean-François understood that very well, so he made my job very easy.

“We had a huge lighting kit on this film, truckloads of lighting,” he continues. “We had 18Ks, but my main lighting was the SkyPanel,” ARRI’s line of compact LED fixtures.

The most challenging sequence on Bon Cop, Bad Cop 2 involved a chase scene shot on Montreal’s Décarie Expressway.

“They closed the highway for us for two weekends, but the car chase scene was for 5 km,” Plante says. “Back in the day, in Hollywood style, I would have put lights everywhere. But first of all, we didn’t have that budget, so I decided I wouldn’t use any lighting. The only lighting was in the car itself. We used super small LEDs and that was the main light for the whole scene, and I had to use zooms. I did tests prior to that and I pushed the camera’s sensitivity up to 1600 and I always used almost open shutter which gives me more sensitivity.”

Plante says he is already comfortable with special effects because “every movie nowadays has special effects” and that

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“

Courtesy of Ronald Plante csc

Plante and A camera 1st AC Filippo Viola shoot a scene with Feore and Huard.

a ’s at th , ow ‘W y, sa d an it at ok lo to le op “My main thing was I want pe at kind of th ve ha t n’ do d an an ic er Am t no re e’ w cool film.’ Even though t an rt po im ry ve as w it e m to d an , er budget, we had a great production design .” or ct fa ss ne ol co e m so d an s as cl e m so to make a film that has

lighting is the key to effective special effects shooting. “You really have to know lighting, especially when you light in a natural way, you have to know lighting that doesn’t show,” he says. “Your special tool is your brain and your knowledge, basically, because it’s all about lighting. When I light a scene, I don’t just light it, I look at it and then I sculpt the lighting, and that means a lot of cutting. And when you sculpt it you don’t need a lot of equipment. You light with your eyes, your heart and the story. It’s really sculpting the light.”

Instrumental to achieving the look he wants is surrounding himself with a team that understands his philosophy, he says, citing his grip team of Yanka Pelletier and Nicolas Mignot as an example. “They are with me a lot lately and they work in a non-traditional way. It is a mix of European and American gripping,” Plante explains. “The grips and electrics do not work the same way depending on which part of the world you are in, and as a DP you always have to change the way you think. So in short, Yanka does all the camera rigging and moves, and Nico does all the flagging, diffusions, bounces and so on. It is the best method I’ve seen anywhere in the world.”

The DP also praises Denis Noël Mosther, his B camera operator, as well as his gaffer Bruno Ferland, who he started working with two years ago after meeting him through Yves Bélanger csc. “[Ferland] is very good and very important for me,” Plante says. “Because when I’m operating he’s at the monitor, so he’s my second set of eyes. Say I’m doing a shot or I’m on a crane or something, he does the iris. Historically

18 • Canadian Cinematographer - September 2017

it was the camera assistant who adjusted the iris, but now it’s more the gaffer because he’s the best person to adjust the iris other than me; it’s not the camera assistant.”

The skills of the experienced cast on Bon Cop, Bad Cop 2 also facilitated the process of shooting, Plante found. “First of all, to work with those two actors, Colm Feore and Patrick Huard, they’re very technical actors,” he says. “Colm is a real machine as far as his technique of acting. And he knows everything – he knows the lenses, he knows where the camera is, where the focus is, so you can ask him anything and he will do it to help you technically. Patrick Huard [who also wrote the screenplay] is also a very technical actor, so it’s perfect; it makes the job much easier. And the feeling on the set was very pleasant.”

Having just shot one of Canada’s highest-profile feature films, Plante notes that movie theatre attendance has waned over the years, yet he does not despair because he believes there are still plenty of storytelling opportunities in other mediums. “Nobody goes to see films on the big screen anymore, but I’m not saying storytelling is dead,” he stresses.

“And I’m not sad, because I want people to see stories. All the latest films I’ve watched, I’ve seen on the small screen and it was okay – I laughed, I cried, I had a good time, and that’s the main thing. I’m about to go and shoot a big HBO series with A-list stars, and I’m very happy. I know people will see it; there’s going to be millions of viewers. So for me it’s all the same now whether you shoot for TV or you shoot for a feature; there is no big difference.”

Canadian Cinematographer - May 2017 •

27

Mark Dobrescu csc

Reboots Career with BARCO ESCAPE Format

By Fanen Chiahemen

“I was like, ‘Holy cow, what Photographer: Craig Pulsifer Copyright: Minds Eye Entertainment

have I stepped into?’ I was going from not shooting much at all to shooting the latest technical format.

I was a bit worried.”

W

hen the Saskatchewan government eliminated the province’s film tax credit in 2012, Mark Dobrescu csc was among those in the screen-based industry who contemplated leaving the province – or the industry – after watching work dry up almost instantly (Canadian Cinematographer, February 2013).

The elimination of the Saskatchewan Film Employment Tax Credit, which since 1998 had generated an average of $44.5 million in economic activity annually and helped create more than 800 jobs a year, “affected my career greatly,” Dobrescu says. “All of the productions just dried up here completely.

I found myself going from shooting features and TV series to shooting extremely low-budget commercials and oneday type of industrials. There was no industry, so to speak. I found myself checking out the various parts of the country, as I was planning to pack up and move.”

Dobrescu also implemented a temporary moratorium on

22 • Canadian Cinematographer - September 2017

A crash scene from The Humanity Bureau.

shooting. “I wanted to let my emotions about the whole industry settle down because I was extremely aggravated with it all. So I bought some rental properties and decided to be a landlord and flip properties for a while and work a different side of the brain,” he says. But after a few years of that, he started to get the itch again. “I thought, ‘I got to get back to shooting films.’”

Not long after that, Kevin DeWalt, CEO and president of Minds Eye Entertainment (Forsaken, The Tall Man), contacted Dobrescu with news of an upcoming science fiction movie, asking the DP if he was still interested in shooting.

“He said, ‘There is a Saskatchewan component in this, but we’ll probably be shooting somewhere else, so I can bring a few Saskatchewan crew members along. Can I put you forward?’” Dobrescu recalls.

The DP jumped at the chance. The movie was The Recall – featuring Wesley Snipes in an alien invasion story – and it was

Credit: Travis Cloyd

DP Mark Dobrescu csc with the REDs.

to be shot in the Barco Escape format, which projects a film on three screens by adding two 2.39:1 aspect ratio screens at a 45-degree angle to the side of the main screen. The result is an immersive 270-degree panoramic experience, with a display aspect ratio of 7.17:1. “It’s another storytelling tool,” Dobrescu explains. “You could be in the theatre watching the centre screen, and then suddenly up come the other screens, totally enveloping you.”

At the time, only one film had been shot natively in the format, although a few, such as Star Trek Beyond, had been formatted to Barco in post. Never having shot in the format, Dobrescu’s joy at getting the job quickly gave way to apprehension. “I was like, ‘Holy cow, what have I stepped into?’ I was going from not shooting much at all to shooting the latest technical format. I was a bit worried,” he confides. But the production flew him down to Los Angeles for a presentation on Barco. “So then we started to under-

stand the technology in prep and away we went,” he says.

Things got a little more complicated once on set. As Dobrescu explains, only about a third of The Recall was to be shot in the format, and the version of the film destined for DVD and on Netflix would be shot regularly. “So you also have to protect the other format, the native movie that’s on the 2.39:1,” he explains. “If you just concentrate on [the Barco format] you find yourself with not enough coverage for the rest of your movie. And vice versa, if you focus on the 2:35 aspect ratio there will not be enough room to blow up that image to fill three screens, so it’s a real dance.”

The first step for Dobrescu and director Mauro Borrelli was pre-selecting exactly which scenes were to be shot in the format. “Because when you’re filming it, you’re looking almost at 270 degrees. Your aspect ratio is 7.17:1, so you’re shooting a real strip of the format. When you’re in prep you have to design the look of your film; you have to understand that you Canadian Cinematographer - September 2017 •

23

“There’s still nothing going on in Saskatchewan. We have a movie studio sitting empty and very little support. It’s one of those things, though – I’m in my mid-50s, my kids, my wife, our friends, everybody is here.”

Photographer: Darren Hull Copyright: Minds Eye Entertainment

Wesley Snipes sets R.J. Mitts’ broken leg in a scene from The Recall.

might not get the lights in the exact spot you want,” the DP says.

Using four 6K RED DRAGONs, Dobrescu had two options for how to approach camera placement. “One where we had a plate designed and we had three cameras on the tripod or the dolly – one shooting forward, the other off to the right a bit, and one off to the left. So they had a slight overlap, which they could adjust in post but that would cover a whole 270-degree aspect ratio,” he explains. “Now, another way was to shoot with just one RED, and because it’s 6K you have all that room to get down to the 2K format movie theatres use, and we can then in the camera put in witness marks for that 7.17:1 aspect ratio so it would almost be like a ribbon down the middle of your viewfinder. So most of the things you were filming were with extremely wide lenses – a 10 mm or 12 mm would then become a 35 mm. And you’re not as worried about the aberrations in the corners of the frames that curve in or getting a fisheye look because you’re actually only pulling out the centre strip of the images; all that other stuff is irrelevant.

“And the operation gets very difficult because you’re trying to protect the other part of the movie that’s going to be played on DVD, so if you have a person walking from left of frame all the way to right of frame, they’re going to walk across three screens in the theatre, and that’s not going to work on DVD, so you have to design it so that you have it a little bit more on the centre screen,” he continues.

“Also, when I was blocking the actors with the three cameras, I would make sure that the centre screen could be used in a separate edit. So say there are two actors having a dialogue.

If I put one in the centre screen and one in the right screen,

24 • Canadian Cinematographer - September 2017

I’d block them so they could be individual shots so that in the edit for DVD, they could pull the right-hand screen and edit in that one. So we had a scene where the characters were sitting around a fire, and it worked perfectly having one character in one screen, one in the other, and the third in the other, so technically I was banging off three shots of a conversation in one frame, and then you could stitch it together in editing.”

Despite working in a new format, Dobrescu still operated the camera himself. “You’d have your three cameras on this special dovetail, and so I’d be looking at three monitors simultaneously. So it always became interesting when there was camera movement going on. You’d really have to look at all of them,” he says.

Making sure your focus plane is even when shooting in Barco format is particularly tricky, he points out. “The threecamera rig has all of the focus units slaved together. That ensures that the three screens are seamless as you cannot have the background of one screen sharper or softer than the other screens. That being said, if you have actors in more than one screen and you want them all sharp, you must block them so they all fall in the same focus plane,” he explains.

As it happened, Dobrescu would also be asked to shoot two more films in the Barco format – The Humanity Bureau (a futuristic dystopian thriller starring Nicolas Cage) and Distorted (a psychological thriller starring John Cusack and Christina Ricci) – so he could tweak his approach to shooting in the format, learning from the experience he had on each film.

“As we’ve done a few more now, I see what the benefits are of using three cameras versus the single camera,” he offers.

“The single camera can be used a lot for exteriors because if

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#

Credit: Craig Pulsifer Copyright: Minds Eye Entertainment

Credit: Courtesy of Barco

The three-screen Barco Escape format

you’re outside, you have this almost straight panorama anyway within the landscapes. The three cameras really work when say you’re inside and your centre camera’s looking at the living room and the left camera’s looking down a hallway. So it gives a little bit more of an angle to cover 270 degrees, whereas with the single camera you’ll always only get a 180-degree look because it’s just a straight panoramic. But if I were doing a classic scene at a dining room table, then I’d use the three cameras, whereas if they were outside by a car or something I might use the single camera.”

Dobrescu highlights the contrast between the lighting styles he adopted on The Recall and The Humanity Bureau even though he shot them back to back in the Barco format. “On The Humanity Bureau, we decided to try and go a little bit more film noir style where you’re letting the shadows play more and then trying to fill them; just a basic template. So if a person is in a room in a house, my main source of light, if it’s daytime, is coming in from the windows,” he explains.

“I would just bring in a large HMI source or a soft LED source and that’s how I would light. Even though it might not be hitting my actor, that’s where my main source of light was coming from, and then I would always just augment a little eye light. So I really allowed the actors to not worry about the light, to just walk in and out of the light however it fell. I was never trying to light them perfectly. I only wanted a natural feel, and partly because of the format, too, I didn’t want to be burdened with so many lights on a set that you have to avoid, and so it’s easier to bring in something through a window, hide a small LED behind something and away you go,” he says. “[On The Recall and The Humanity Bureau] I worked quite

26 • Canadian Cinematographer - September 2017

Actor Nicolas Cage in a scene from The Humanity Bureau.

closely with production designer Kathy McCoy to ensure I had numerous practical lighting sources on the set and windows constructed on nearly every wall of the sets,” he adds.

“My gaffer Peter LaRocque and I designed the lighting so that our main source, either HMI or par cans, would come in through the windows. We then augmented the set with Kino Flo Celebs or Dracast Bi-Color LEDs. I really love using LEDs on the set as they generate no heat and are easily controlled with dimmers and colour correction control. The Humanity Bureau was more exterior while The Recall had the larger set construction.

“For The Recall, a more science fiction-based film, there was a lot more lighting needed inside the spaceship and things like that, so I used a lot of atmosphere and got my lights up really high,” he says. “Lots of Source 4s, and par cans, but I always had a smaller source just a little off camera just so I could always get a very soft eye light into somebody if they didn’t fall into where I wanted the perfect light because of the format.”

Colour timing and grading in the Barco format functions much the same way as on non-Barco projects, only there is more to do, Dobrescu says. “I’ll do the centre screen for the main movie so they have the template for the look of the film,” he explains. “So if it’s a panoramic, they know they can just pull up all the information from the centre screen we did, and if there’s a problem they can send me the information and I’ll say, ‘Knock that down a little bit more on this side or whatever.’ But you have to add the extra post cost – technically another 40 minutes of your movie, another 40 minutes of colour – because of these other screens, so I’m sure the post cost would be higher.”

Portions of The Recall were also shot in virtual reality as a bonus feature and for marketing purposes, Dobrescu says.

“Virtual reality is a different beast altogether. It’s like you’re shooting a stage play, so if there’s lighting involved, you have to look and see where you can hide the lights. Because the VR rig was six Blackmagic Micro 4K cinema cameras, so it shoots completely spherical – everything is seen except for the feet,” he explains.

“So when you have the VR glasses on, you can look to the left, to the right, anywhere. For example, you have the actor walking right up to you, saying the line, and then if you turn your head you might see a car come barrelling in, so you’re right in there, as though you’re interacting with all the actors.

And you can turn all the way around and look back where you came from.”

The production minimized the logistical challenges by making all the VR scenes in The Recall daytime exterior shoots, so Dobrescu didn’t need to add any lights. “I’d just make sure I blocked the actors so they’re mostly side lit,” the DP says. “Night-time stuff would always have to be magic-hour daylight so that we could get exposure and hide some lights, which we could then time down later.”

Despite having to quickly master new tools and techniques, Dobrescu is happy to have revived his career. “This has now given me a step up in conversations with producers in L.A.,”

he says. “I’ve now shot three-quarters of Barco movies that have been shot worldwide.”

For now, he plans to stay in his home province, even though, he says “there’s still nothing going on in Saskatchewan. We have a movie studio sitting empty and very little support. It’s one of those things, though – I’m in my mid-50s, my kids, my wife, our friends, everybody is here.”

“Virtual reality is a different beast altogether. It’s like you’re shooting a stage play, so if there’s lighting involved, you have to look and see where you can hide the lights. Because the VR rig was six Blackmagic Micro 4K cinema cameras, so it shoots completely spherical – everything is seen except for the feet.”

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28 • Canadian Cinematographer - September 2017

David Moxness csc, asc in Conversation with Michael Seresin bsc ar for the Planet of the Apes, which hit theatres this summer, is the sequel to the 2014 science fiction blockbuster Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and the third installment in the Planet of the Apes reboot series. War was shot in Vancouver from October 2015 to March 2016, using the new ARRI ALEXA 65, with Clairmont Camera serving as a base for the camera equipment. The film was also shot in 2D and then converted to 3D by New Zealand-based visual effects company Weta Digital. During the shoot, David Moxness csc, asc visited the set to interview DP Michael Seresin bsc (The Life of David Gale, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Angela’s Ashes). Having also shot Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, this was Seresin’s second Apes shoot with director Matt Reeves. The cinematographers discussed, among other things, the process of making the film, what differed from Seresin’s previous shoot with Reeves, and the ins and outs of shooting with the ALEXA 65. The following is an excerpt of their discussion.

Michael Seresin bsc

Photos courtesy Twentieth Century Fox Canadian Cinematographer - September 2017 •

29

A scene from War for the Planet of the Apes.

David Moxness csc, asc: The last time you shot native 3D and this time 2D ALEXA 65 mm. What was the reason for not electing to go native 3D? Michael Seresin bsc: I wouldn’t have minded. Matt was frus-

trated it took so long to get everything up and running because there’s this sort of circle where everything has to talk to one another electronically, and if it doesn’t, you can’t shoot, and just setting everything up took a long time. We’re using a lot of Technodolly on this, just for the repeatability of the moves, the visual effects, and that’s okay, but it does slow us down a bit. Last time we had a bit more guesswork involved and when it came to the postproduction and the editing, it was a bit of a nightmare at times, apparently. But I would have been fine shooting native 3D. I don’t think the film needs 3D, but these are decisions taken a long way from us. You know, this is a sort of a global blockbuster if you like, and I think a lot of markets where there’s a premium paid for 3D cinemas, they get a better return, especially the Chinese market, I understand.

DM: How has this experience been with the ALEXA 65 lenses? And I’m assuming those were the only lenses available for this?

MS: No, there were some older lenses – the vintage series

which were filling the ALEXA 765, then there are odd lenses here and there. There are apparently some Russian lenses, which I didn’t have time to figure out. But see we had, I think, at one time eight cameras, that’s about 48 lenses. We had like a third ´ of the world’s 65 mm cameras and it’s all very well

30 • Canadian Cinematographer - September 2017

saying, “Shoot this,” but then you need all the backup. For example, there’s nothing in Canada, there’s nothing in the west coast of the U.S. – it comes out of either New York, London or Munich. So you can’t just call up and say, “We need another two cameras for tomorrow.” You have to be super well organized for that.

DM: The last Apes movie, Dawn, was shot in multiple locations. I understand this time you shot entirely in Vancouver?

MS: Everything’s been in Vancouver, which works really well,

because we need the sort of light you have here, with, you know, even when it isn’t raining, it is.

DM: Did you find that this time of year in the Vancouver area, the Pacific Northwest, is usually pretty limited in daylight hours? Did that favour the story or strain the shooting schedule?

MS: We did what is euphemistically called French hours.

True French hours are midday to 7:30, [but] we did like a nine-hour day without a break and that went pretty well. And we got through a lot, but also we did night work. We had like 35 nights, so very long nights.

DM: What were the specific challenges that you discovered shooting the 65 mm format with the ALEXA? Anything that you hadn’t predicted?

MS: Well, I’m not a technical cinematographer. For me, the most important thing is the lens. That’s it. What’s behind it

A scene from War for the Planet of the Apes.

– whether it’s a box or a whatever, or hand-cranked – doesn’t interest me that much. And it never really has. I’m not into technology particularly because for me everything operates around that little piece of glass, and it doesn’t matter what you got there – a close-up on my face, or the whole world.

I’m not a massive fan of digital, only because there’s so many choices out there. I grew up with film – you take a decision and you hope it’s the right one, and you stick to it. There’s a lot of kids who think that the digital world is the way to filmmaking. I say no, the principles of light, composition and camera [movement] has got nothing to do with the electronic or digital world. It’s your imagination. That’s all it is. And imagination is an abstract anyway.

DM: Do you have a favourite lens then?

MS: I love Leicas. I just got this 35 mm SL digital, and there’s

just a rigour somehow in the making of their lenses. I love the Leica Summilux. The last two films I’ve done on those. I think they’re brilliant lenses. They’re very expensive because they take a lot of work to make. There’s just something inherent in the construction, the design and the manufacture of a Summilux which is absolutely stunning. And there may be times that production can’t afford it or whatever, but if they were the only lenses around, I’d be fine. I wasn’t so much into lenses in my earlier days. I don’t even know why I got into them, but all of a sudden, I became obsessed with them.

Maybe because what’s behind the lens changed so much, and the one constant is a lens. I love Arriflex too. My introduction to digital is when I took over on Gravity [DP Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki ASC, AMC] and I went in for a weekend and ended up shooting half the film or something, and Chivo

had ALEXA 35s, and I think Ultra Primes. The thing about Arriflex [is] the chip is the closest to film. I think a combination of the Leica lenses and the chip that’s in the ALEXA is the closest to film.

DM: Now, I remember reading about the last Apes film you did, you shot a very shallow depth of field in regards to 3D. MS: Yeah, well, we did both shallo w 3D and shallow depth of field.

DM: Is the shallow depth of field, presumably shooting wide open, something you like to do generally?

MS: I’ve done the last three movies because it worked. I

don’t do it as a matter of principle because otherwise the focus blurs the world, and they’ll gang up and I’ll be executed.

Again, it sort of goes with dark stuff. I do like mystery, I do like darkness, I do like that you don’t quite see what’s going on. I mean I’ve never shot a comedy comedy, I’ve done films with comedy in it, but I like darkness. I really do.

DM: Was there any discussion or intention going into this one to sort of match the look of the last Apes film you did?

MS: Matt and I have a very good rapport, and when he called

me and asked me to shoot the previous one, I said, “Why did you call me?” And he said, “I like your aesthetic.” We had a discussion about other stuff and then he sent me maybe a Canadian Cinematographer - September 2017 •

31

“For me, the most important thing is the lens. What’s behind it doesn’t interest me that much.

And it never really has. I’m not into technology particularly because for me everything operates around that little piece of glass, and it doesn’t matter what you got there – a close-up on my face or the whole world.”

Reeves and Seresin discuss a shot.

couple hundred images – paintings, photographs, postcards, images from his films, other films, and films I’d shot. And so we could sit, like you and I now, and discuss aesthetics and light and all the rest of it, and you interpret it, I interpret it. And I think once Matt sent all that stuff through to me, I knew what he was after. Most of it was single source, which is why I got out of commercials. I mean, the most beautiful light is the sun. The next most beautiful light – equal – is the moon, the third one is a candle, and the fourth one – which we sadly don’t use very much, but I do love – is an arc. Arc is the most beautiful light ever. I wanted to get them up here, but they couldn’t afford them.

DM: Are you shooting native ISO 800?

Did you do much testing in prep?

MS: We’re shooting everything at 640 on this because it

seems the RED, for this chip, it resolves best. I didn’t do any tests on it. Took the studio ages to agree, which again was financial. I did lens tests in London and Los Angeles, then came here and just started the process, so most of my prep was scouting lighting, etcetera. I didn’t do as many camera tests as I would have liked to.

DM: And do you have a preference shooting 35 mm, or 65 mm, or is does it depend on what the project is and where you’ll be shooting?

32 • Canadian Cinematographer - September 2017

MS: I mean, the scale of this film is big. There are some films where 65, [there] would be no point to do it, with the external costs I guess. And I think in the era of Super 35, the quality there is pretty close to 65. I don’t know about some of the others like VistaVision and things like that. I don’t know enough about that, but Super 35 is pretty close. It’s like 20 per cent less.

DM: But again, it hits on the storytelling, how do you best tell the story.

MS: Yeah, and I think also the good thing about 65 is sometimes we shoot a medium shot, we don’t have time to do a close-up, and visual effects say, “It’s okay, we can blow it up 40 per cent with no loss of quality.”

DM: Forty per cent. That’s pretty amazing.

MS: Well, it’s a consideration. I would not think like that, but

occasionally we’ve really been up against it and I said, “Matt, look, are you happy if we can go into there from there, because then you’ve got it?” And the visual effects guy says, “Yeah, we’re fine,” so we move on, because we have to do all these other passes. You know, when you got the humans and the apes together, then you do the whole thing. Then you get rid of the apes, you do the human parts. Then you get rid of all of them and you shoot the background, so it’s a very timeconsuming process.

DM: Yeah, and that’s the artistry of the cinematographer, to make the journey cohesive from many different elements. But that’s a good point that you make, though, that the cinematographer’s craft should be more involved in the post phase of these films.

MS: Well, studios have never liked paying us to do that even when

it was films, so as with most things, it’s money, but also time. A lot of cinematographers are, you know, on other projects…

You Focus On The Shot

DM: But the times that you have sat in with Weta, do you find them pretty collaborative?

MS: I just did it once. Yeah, very much so.

DM: That’s good. It’s nice to be involved all the way through. I always grew up that way, thinking that’s part of our job as cinematographers. Sometimes it feels like we’re getting pushed off to the side.

MS: Well, now with the digital colourists [and] some of the

operators, boy, oh, boy. You know, I don’t need them to interpret, I truly don’t. I’ve talked to the director, we’ve discussed it, the production design, the look, the light, everything else.

And I do it. And all of a sudden, somebody else comes along and says, “I think this,” and I go, “You know what, pal? Just do as I say, please.” It’s like, to sound a bit pretentious, we’d paint it and then somebody comes along and says, “Well, that piece needs to be a bit this, that piece needs to be a bit darker, a bit lighter, a bit this, a bit that.” Maybe to see more, a director is probably the only one who – if he’s a visual director, or visually aware – he’ll make a comment, but I truly don’t need anybody to interpret it for me.

We’ll Focus On The Rest

DM: I’m sure you’re exhausted after this.

MS: Well no, I need to do something small, to get back to my

roots a little bit, because once you do films like this, you get a bit typecast. So, you know, I could probably start next week on another monster like this, but I don’t, no. I got to have a life. I don’t want to wake up dead one morning and say, “Fuck it, all I did was 45 movies and that’s it.”

DM: And you got a new camera and a great lens there.

MS: There you go, and I got a couple more, and I got a vine-

yard too, so I gotta go and drink some wine.

DM: Ah, there you go! Perfect. Thank you so much for taking the time, I really appreciate it.

Unparalleled Optics.

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This interview has been edited for space and clarity Canadian Cinematographer - September 2017 •

33

CSC Pub Nights Monday, June 5, 2017 Le Cheval Blanc, Montreal

MontrĂŠal photos: Charlie Laigneau

Camera assistant Wissam Salem (right) talks with a young filmmaker.

Paul Hurteau and Bruno Philip csc testing mini LED cube light.

(From left) Eric Cayla csc, Nathalie Moliavko-Visotzky csc, Bruno Philip csc and George Willis csc sasc.

Toronto photos: Justin Lovell

Canadian Society of Cinematographers and the Canadian Cinema Editors Pub Night Celebrating their 60th and 10th anniversaries Wednesday, June 14, 2017 Madison Avenue Pub, Toronto

Clockwise from left: Joan Hutton csc and Powys Dewhurst, producer/sponsorship and business development for Urban Post Production.

Douglas Koch csc, Carolyn Wong, Irene Willis, George Willis csc, sasc and Rod Crombie.

Justin Lovell, Scott McIntyre and Carolyn Wong.

34 • Canadian Cinematographer - September 2017

Canadian Cinematographer - June 2017 •

29

The Masters

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

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

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

By Guido Kondruss

36 • Canadian Cinematographer - September 2017

Albert (Bert) Dunk csc, asc 1999

I

t was as if Bert Dunk csc, asc was always meant to be a cinematographer. Born in Regina in 1944, he was raised in the rural town of Weyburn, Saskatchewan. As a young boy, Dunk became an ardent fan of the Walt Disney shows. While he enjoyed the productions themselves, it was the occasional behind-the-scenes episodes, showing how Disney made their films that piqued his interest and foreshadowed his future. As an adolescent, Dunk was enamoured with his Kodak Brownie camera and learned to develop his own black and white prints. In pursuing a growing interest in cinematography, Dunk persuaded a local magazine shop to stock American Cinematographer, devouring each new issue from cover to cover. Following his cinematography dream and a thirst for production, Dunk left the confines of Saskatchewan after high school for New York, to study at the Germain School of Photography.

After graduation, Dunk’s foot in the door was as a 3rd assistant camera on productions in New York City. He worked his way through the ranks and was a camera operator by time he returned to Canada and Toronto in the early 1970s.

Dunk earned his first DP credit on the television series Police Surgeon. This sparked a new direction in Dunk’s career that straddled both Canada and the United States. An avowed technophile, Dunk has used his skill and acute eye to shoot dozens of features, TV movies and series including the hit series Cagney & Lacey, and the horror classic Incubus.

Known for his rich and creative images, Dunk has been honoured with the CSC’s Best TV Series Award and is a three-time winner of the CSC Best TV Drama Award. He also holds the distinction of being the first CSC member invited to join the American Society of Cinematographers.

Dunk is currently the Technology Supervisor at Sheridan College’s Screen Industries Research and Training Centre at Pinewood Toronto Studios.

Richard Leiterman csc (1935-2005) 2000

John Bartley csc, asc 2001

orn in the gold mining town of Dome Mine in Northern Ontario, Richard Leiterman csc grew up in Vancouver.

An engineering school dropout, Leiterman worked a series of jobs from labourer to crewing on tugs to jobbing around Europe, all the while wondering what he wanted to do when he grew up.

On the advice of a friend and future collaborator, the legendary Allan King, Leiterman enrolled in a University of British Columbia filmmaking course which ran over six weekends.

While the course was rudimentary and brief, it was enough to highlight Leiterman’s natural talents with the camera and ignite his passion for filmmaking.

Leiterman promptly sold his car to buy a 16 mm Bell & Howell hand wind camera and began shooting news and honing his skills in his new-found craft. It is during this period that Leiterman developed and mastered his cinéma vérité technique that he coupled with an innate compassion for his subjects. He gained their trust, which allowed him to work as if were invisible, uniquely capturing the human dramas unfolding before his lens. It was an innovative style that was integral to Leiterman’s success as a documentarian. He was the cinematographer on landmark social documentaries such Running Away Backwards, High School and A Married Couple. American novelist and filmmaker Norman Mailer ranked Leiterman as “one of the five or six best direct-cinema cameramen in the world.”

Leiterman also turned his formidable talent to theatrical dramas. His first feature was the iconic Goin’ Down the Road, where his vérité style contributed to its success. Leiterman went on to help further define Canadian film in the 1970s and the ‘80s with movies such as Wedding in White, The Far Shore, Who has Seen the Wind and Silence of the North.

Leiterman shot more than 90 films during his career, garnering many accolades for his work, including CSC Awards, a Canadian Film Award, a Genie and three Emmys

ohn Bartley csc, asc says the best professional advice he ever received was to “light the set, then turn off half the lights and shoot.” This was discerning guidance that looms large in his career. Bartley was born in Wellington, New Zealand, in 1947, to a father who was in the military and a mother who worked in live theatre. It was through his mother that Bartley was befriended by stage technicians who gave him grounding in theatrical lighting and stage mechanics.

However, New Zealand couldn’t hold on to the 20-yearold Bartley, and his wanderlust led him to Sydney, Australia, where he was introduced to television production after being hired by a local television station as a lighting director.

Two years later, Bartley found himself in Canada, and by 1976 he was working as a gaffer out of Vancouver. It was at this point in Bartley’s career, that he began moving towards cinematography, while being mentored on set by the likes of Sven Nykvist asc, Tak Fujimoto asc, Frank Tidy bsc and a host of other top DPs. Ten years later, Bartley was shooting commercials and music videos, with features and television series not far off in the future. It was his work on the brooding and wildly popular sci-fi series The X-Files that brought Bartley international attention and acclaim. Because of the stunningly dark and shadowy look of the series, Bartley is credited with rewriting the visual language of primetime television. At the time, TV images were almost universally bright and relatively flat, however, through his judicious low lighting techniques, Bartley lifted his images to a new cinematic plane, making them indistinguishable from theatrical features. Bartley received numerous nominations and awards, including an Emmy for his cinematography on The X-Files. Bartley’s impact on episodic television continues through his muchlauded cinematography on series such as Lost and Bates Motel, each of which have earned Bartley Emmy awards.

B

J

Canadian Cinematographer - September 2017 •

37

TECH COLUMN

Technology Changes but the Vision Never Wavers

A

ny way you cut it, 60 years is a milestone.

In 1957, Canada’s nascent film industry grew to become a collaborative network with the creation of the Canadian Society of Cinematographers. Sixty years later, it is an august institution, inspiring new generations of cinematographers. Along the way, technology has come and gone but the essentials remain the same: tell the story.

Back in the day, when the CSC was launched, film was king, formatted in 8, 16 and 35. Cameras were heavy, dollies monstrous and lights huge. The 1960s saw optical soundtracks replaced by magnetic tracks on the film itself. Cameras had names like Mitchell, Oricon and Bolex; they were big and bulky and had fixed lenses on turrets with parallax viewfinders.

CBC TV debuted in 1952, opening up work for cinematographers, but it took until 1966 for the first colour broadcast.

The first 70 mm IMAX film, Tiger Child

by Donald Brittain, debuted at Expo ’70 in Osaka.

Four years later, avid Canadian naturalist Dan Gibson csc, who invented the patented Dan Gibson Parabolic Microphone – which excels at capturing low frequency sound – trained some Canada geese to follow his voice from a walkie-talkie strapped to the wing of a radio-controlled model plane.

Taking it one step further, he built a bigger RC plane mounted with a highspeed camera to film the geese in flying formation at 400 frames per second for his film Wings in the Wilderness. Arguably, it was the first drone camera setup in Canada.

Advances over the next 20 years would be more incremental as miniaturization with transistors and printed circuits be-

38 • Canadian Cinematographer - September 2017

came more common. ENG switched to digital capture via tape, while film still ruled in features and other productions. The arrival of the CCD (Charged Coupled Device) as a sensor was the tipping point in the 1980s with Sony leading the way.

Tape gave way to memory cards, and by the early 2000s the Thompson Viper was being hailed as a faster, more efficient moviemaking tool. It was tapeless, feeding via cables to a hard drive, but given the problems with digital technology crashing and getting corrupted, many were cynical it would replace film.

Then the pace of change kicked into overdrive. Just a decade ago, digital was a long way from 35 mm or even 70 mm.

In 2007, the standard consumer digital Handycam captured 720 by 480 pixel frames; HD started at 920 by 720, and HD of 4K at 4096 by 2440 was just on the horizon. Then there were the issues around how to capture that raw torrent of data and how to store it safely.

Along came RED ONE. At NAB 2006, Oakley sunglasses founder and entrepreneur Jim Jannard unleashed a digital, tapeless HD cam with a 1920 by 1080 pixels sensor capable of capturing 20 minutes of footage onto a 16GB solid state flash drive with optional twin 2.5 inch hard-drives on board totaling 320GB. By 2007, production was struggling to keep up and iterations have followed. In 2010, ARRI made it official with the launch of the 2K ALEXA. Digital was here to stay.

And the edge is still being pushed. Last year, Panavision partnered with RED to create their own version around the S35, the Millennium DXL, while RED rolled out their Weapon 8K and EpicW 8K. The gap between digital and 35 mm has shrunk and the trickle down is that

This doctor makes studio calls.

almost all digital video devices – from iPhones to GoPros are capturing better quality images, while Blackmagic is also democratizing storytelling with its affordable lineup, including the new Super Digital 16 pocket camera.

In between, all manufacturers have jumped in – Sony’s F5/55, ARRI’s ALEXA, Canon and others are designing newer, lighter boxes to meet the demands of a new generation of cinematographers. The barrier to entry isn’t financial anymore; the only limitation is in creative vision.

Along the way, there have been a few casualties. Film is no longer king. Processing houses have all but closed up and gone. Postproduction has shifted to digital workflows with much of the initial processing being done on set with mobile workstations.

What hasn’t changed, though, says Bert Dunk csc, asc – whose first IMDB credit is as the cinematographer for a 1964 documentary America’s Crisis – is the work. It’s still often a 12-hour or more day and it’s

still down to the DP to get the shot. “If you were a cinematographer, you didn’t worry about whether you got the shot – you knew,” he says. “I never lost any sleep at night over the rushes. You shot at night, wide open, 2.8 and you knew it was going to be okay.”

Out in Vancouver, Vic Sarin csc, himself celebrating 50 years in the industry, says he was never really a technophile at heart. To him, they were just tools to tell the story. Cinematographers were magicians, he says, nodding to his film Keepers of the Magic which interviews eight iconic filmmakers including Roger Deakins asc, bsc; John Seale asc, acs; Vittorio Storaro asc, aic; and the late Gordon Willis asc (Canadian Cinematographer, September 2016).

“It’s the story about the mentality more than the technology,” he says, noting that true visionaries ignore the limits of technology and always endeavour to push beyond.

Still, like Dunk, he feels the advent of digital, which brings many eyes to the monitor during capture, has shut out at least one intimate aspect of cinematography. “Before, it was you who had that relationship, you were the one eye looking into the camera,” Sarin says.

“You were the first audience to watch the film as it was being made. Today it’s done by committee.”

introducing the cineluxe collection from tenba.

Tenba is the first to bring a “doctor bag” style opening to backpacks and a carry-on compatible rolling case, giving filmmakers a big picture view of their gear and quick access to it.

The Cineluxe series features a host of new features, like Tenba’s exclusive Flex-Core dividers, a small footprint perfect for working in tight spaces, and a rigid protective shell.

Available in rolling bag, backpack and shoulder bag models – a bag that’s good for whatever you need to carry.

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.

The Visual Technology People

23 31

Canadian Cinematographer - April 2017 • Canadian Cinematographer - March | MISSISSAUGA | OTTAWA TORONTO CALGARY | EDMONTON

VISTEK.CA

DP Bernard Couture csc (alternating episodes)

to April 16, 2018

Vancouver

ANGRY ANGEL (TV Movie)

DP Eric Cayla csc

to September 12

Toronto

ARROW VI (series)

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

to April 26, 2018

Vancouver

BURDEN OF TRUTH AKA CAUSE IN FACT (series)

DP David Makin csc

to October 19

Winnipeg

CARDINAL: BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS III (series)

DP Dylan MacLeod csc Camera Operator Yoann Malnati

to November 24

North Bay

DAMNATION (series)

Camera Operator John Spooner csc

to October 31

Calgary

DC’S LEGENDS OF TOMORROW III (series)

David Geddes csc

to February 26, 2018

Burnaby

DESIGNATED SURVIVOR II (series)

DP Michael Storey csc B Camera First Assistant Jim Chirayouth Saysana

to April 18, 2018

Toronto

DRAGGED ACROSS CONCRETE (feature)

Camera Operator Danny Nowak csc

to September 16

Vancouver

EXCORCIST, THE II (series)

B Camera Operator Daniel Abboud

to November 14

Burnaby

EXPANSE, THE II (series)

DP Jeremy Benning csc

to December 8

Toronto

FLASH, THE IV (series)

DP Brenton Spencer csc & Alwyn J. Kumst csc

to April 21, 2018

Vancouver

FRANKIE DRAKE (series)

DP Thom Best csc

to October 26

Etobicoke

FUGUEUSE (feature)

DP Pierre Gill csc

to November 10

Montreal

GEORGETOWN (feature)

Camera Operator Peter Sweeney

to September

22 Toronto

GOOD DOCTOR, THE (series)

DP John Bartley csc, asc

to December 15

Coquitlam

GOOD WITCH, THE IV (series)

DP John Berrie csc

to December 14

Toronto

GHOST WARS (series)

DP Thomas Burstyn csc, nzcs

to September 8

Vancouver

GREEN HARVEST (series)

DP Colin Hoult csc & Glen Keenan csc (alternating episodes)

to October 6

Toronto

HEARTLAND XI (series)

DP Jarrett Craig

to December 4

Calgary

IMPOSTERS II (series)

1st Assistant Ciaran Copelin

to December 1

Toronto

LIFE SENTENCE (series)

DP Kamal Derkaoui csc & Camera Operator David Bercovici-Artieda

to January 12

Burnaby

LE TRIOMPHE DE L'ARGENT (feature)

DP Van Royko csc

to November 8

Montreal

MAGICIANS III (series)

DP François Dagenais csc

to December 14

Vancouver

MURDOCH MYSTERIES XI (series)

DP Yuri Yakubiw csc Camera Operator Brian Gedge 1st Assistant Kevin,

to December 8

Toronto

Michael Leblanc ONCE UPON A TIME VII (series)

DP Tony Mirza

to April 2, 2018

Burnaby

RIVERDALE II (series)

DP Brendan Uegama csc

to March 21, 2018

Langley

RUPTURES III (series)

DP Marc Gadoury csc

to October 12

Montreal

SHADOWHUNTERS III (series)

DP Mike McMurray csc

to May 15, 2018

Toronto

SUPERGIRL III (series)

Camera Operator Pieter Stathis csc

to April 24, 2018

Langley

SUPERNATURAL XIII (series)

DP Serge Ladouceur csc Camera Operator Brad Creasser

to April 27

Burnaby

SUITS VII (series)

Camera Operator Michael Soos

to November 21

Toronto

TAKEN II (series)

DP David Makin csc

to February 6, 2018

Toronto

THE QUEEN OF SIN (MOW)

Serge Desrosiers csc

to September 30

Montreal

UNTITLED ROBERT ZEMECKIS PROJECT (feature)

DP C. Kim Miles csc

to October 19

Burnaby

VICTOR LESSARD II (series)

DP Jonathan Decoste csc

to December 15

Montreal

WORKIN’ MOMS II (series)

DP Maya Bankovic Trainee Robert Murdoch B Operator/Steadicam Brad

to October 4

Toronto

North

Hrubroska X-FILES EVENT II (series)

DP Craig Wrobleski csc

to December 21

X-MEN: TEEN SPIRIT (feature)

B Camera Operator Alfonso Maiorana

to September 30

Vancouver

CALENDAR OF EVENTS SEPTEMBER 2017 7-17, Toronto International Film Festival, tiff.net 20-Oct. 1, Calgary International Film Festival, calgaryfilm.com 28-Oct. 7, Edmonton International Film Festival, edmontonfilmfest.com 28-Oct. 13, Vancouver International Film Festival, viff.org OCTOBER 12, HD Source Open House, Toronto, hdsource.ca

WRITE TO US

Connect online with the CSC, www.csc.ca

EQUIPMENT FOR SALE I have 15 - 3x3 Tiffen filters for sale - fogs, Promists Grads, 812's etc. all with cases $185.00 - contact Barry Casson csc - 250-721-2113 or e-mail bcasson@speakfilm.com TIFFEN ULTRA STEADICAM , HD Ultrabrite color monitor ,HDMI Decimator 2,Iso-elastic arm, 4-24 volt batteries, 1-Pag battery charger 24v,1-Lentequip battery charger 12/24v,Klassen vest and carrying bag, 1 Preston F1+Z transmitter 1 Preston MDR-1 receiver,1 Preston control, 2 motors, 2 batteries, charger, numerous Hill motor mount brackets rossette brackets and rods, 1 long dovetail plate,1 short dovetail plate, 1 docking bracket,1 fgs wheel chair/dolly adaptor,rain cover, too many cables, hard cases and accessories to list.This rig was well maintained looks new,all it needs is a few upgrades. $ 35000.00 can 416 817 3938 or acadian@rogers.com Rick Kearney Preston FIZ 2 kit - $13,000 2 x Arri MB-20 studio matte box $8,000 Arri LMB-15 Clip-on matte box - $1,200 Power-Pod Classic - $13,500 Please contact Michael Balfry csc @: michaelbalfry@gmail.com for a complete list of items.

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

This is to be used to mount a Mitchell BNCR camera in order to place it on display.

Anyone with access to such a tripod or with information about one, please contact me: rawi@earthlink.net 416-691-6865

CAMERA CLASSIFIED IS A FREE SERVICE PROVIDED FOR CSC MEMBERS. For all others, there is a one-time $25 (plus GST) insertion fee. Your ad will appear here and on the CSC’s website, www.csc.ca. If you have items you would like to buy, sell or rent, please email your information to editor@ csc.ca.

Montreal

14, CSC Advanced Post Workflow Workshop, Toronto, csc.ca 21-22, CSC Lighting Workshop, Toronto, csc.ca NOVEMBER 7-8, ProFusion, Toronto, profusionexpo.com 11-12, CSC Lighting Faces Workshop, Toronto, csc.ca 17, CSC Lens Testing Module, Toronto, csc.ca 18-19, CSC Camera Assistant Workshop, Toronto, csc.ca DECEMBER 2-3, CSC Tabletop Lighting Workshop, Toronto, csc.ca Follow us on Instagram to see featured full members' work @canadiancinematographer

Canadian Cinematographer welcomes feedback, comments and questions about the magazine and its contents. Please send your letters to editor@csc.ca. Letters may be edited for clarity and space.

40 • Canadian Cinematographer - September 2017

CLASSIFIEDS

PRODUCTION NOTES

A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS II & III (series)

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ARRI ALEXA MINI. TRULY CINEMATIC.

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TUES. NOV. 7 & WED. NOV. 8, 2017 | METRO TORONTO CONVENTION CENTRE

ProFusion is a must-see event.

It’s been a banner year for new product introductions. From January on, manufacturers have unleashed wave after wave of new cameras and camera stabilization devices.

Come and see incredible advances in drones, live production gear, lighting and more.

The excitement continues and culminates at ProFusion.

ProFusion is famous for showcasing first-in-Canada product launches. So get ready to see more new gear under one roof than you ever thought possible!

And it’s not just about new gear. What sets ProFusion apart from any other trade show is the way you get to experience the new gear, along with the industry’s most celebrated speakers, in an intimate, interactive environment.

There is a lot to see and do this year: • Explore ProFusion’s massive showroom • Meet the world’s leading photo & video manufacturers • Enjoy one-of-a-kind product demonstrations, including the DJI drone experience • Enjoy presentations from internationally-renowned photographers

• Witness demonstrations by trailblazing filmmakers • Be there to see exciting new imaging products in Canada for the first time • Network with industry professionals at the event • Take advantage of unbeatable Show Specials, and more!

TUES. NOV. 7 & WED. NOV. 8, 2017 | METRO TORONTO CONVENTION CENTRE •

REGISTER FREE: www.profusionexpo.com

Presented by The Visual Technology People