31 minute read
LETTER FROM AMERICA•RICHARD CRUDO ASC
STARMAN
The task of bringing earthly gravitas to a space oddity – using alternative, world-building looks to clearly signal narrative separations, intersections and beats across the story arc – was something that American DP, Tommy Maddox-Upshaw ASC, threw himself into wholeheartedly, when it came to considering the visual aesthetics for Paramount+’s The Man Who Fell To Earth series, created by Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet. Not to mention a little bit of cult history in the mix too.
“I had worked on succeeding seasons of big TV shows before, building on what others had created previously, but The Man Who Fell To Earth was my first real shot at world-building from scratch,” says Maddox-Upshaw, whose high-end TV credits include, Fox’s Empire S6, Netflix’s On My Block S2, and Snowfall S3/S4 for which he was honoured with an ASC Outstanding Achievement Award.
“With this show, I was given the time and the space to develop the different scenarios in the storytelling, with the aim of delivering something engagingly different.”
The ten-part The Man Who Fell To Earth series is a continuation of the story from the 1963 sci-fi novel by Walter Tevis and Nicolas Roeg’s iconic 1976 film starring David Bowie, about an extra-terrestrial who lands on Earth seeking a way to save the people on his home planet, which is suffering from severe drought, only to find himself at the mercy of human vices and corruption.
The 2022 TV series takes up the action some 45 years later, as another alien (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who goes by the name of Faraday, crashes into the oilfields of New Mexico. He is on a mission to find the brilliant, but shunned, cold-fusion scientist, Justin Falls (Naomie Harris), the one woman on Earth who can help save his species, and possibly the human race too. Whilst Faraday struggles to adapt to his earthly surroundings, and Justin’s faith in humanity couldn’t be lower, the CIA and a family of eager entrepreneurs are in hot pursuit of the visitor from outer space.
Maddox-Upshaw reveals that he was engaged on the project after having been initially interviewed, and then subsequently passed-over, by Kurtzman to shoot Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (DPs Magdalena Górka/Glen Keenan). However, a few months later Kurzman reconnected with MaddoxUpshaw, with the request that he read the first three screenplays for the impending series.
“I read those scripts and, oh my gosh, the writing was phenomenal,” recounts the DP. “Alex and I met again, when I made a presentation and we had constructive, in-depth discussions about the project. He then sent me the remaining scripts, which I ripped through.
“Things went quiet for a while, until Alex asked me to get ready to fly to the UK and Spain for the shoot. I began prep in October 2020, and Alex and I spoke about the shoot in detail every week via Zoom, due to the pandemic, over the course of five months. We met physically for the first time in London when we had boots-on-the-ground ready to start shooting in March 2021.”
As for the vision of the show, and worldbuilding in particular, Maddox-Upshaw says, “We talked about this ethereal being, Faraday, and his relationship with the Falls family, versus the people tailing him, the CIA and the Hatch family of tech entrepreneurs.
“We considered how we could depict and counterpoint a grounded intimacy on the one hand, and juxtapose that against the idea of institutions and others chasing this wanted person on the other – all while giving the audience visual clues to easily understand the crossover between different narratives in the often non-linear storytelling, and the emotions and empowerment in different scenes.”
In terms of the visual language, the surreal imagery of New Mexico landscapes in Roeg’s 1976 movie, shot by cinematographer Anthony Richmond BSC ASC, were a good, historical starting point.
“I have known Tony and his family for many years, and love what he did on that iconic movie,” says Maddox-Upshaw, “but I wanted to push what he had achieved even further in terms of shooting a drama in a sci-fi space, the extreme nature of the storyline and our central characters.”
Other references included Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland (2020, DP Joshua James Richards) for its use of Steadicam and handheld in grounding the narrative in New Mexico, plus No Country For Old Men (2007, DP Sir Roger Deakins CBE BSC ASC) to inspire the colour of the desert scenes. Additionally, The Game (1997, dir. David Fincher, DP Harris Savides ASC) and Michael Clayton (2007, dir. Tony Gilroy, DP Robert Elswit ASC) both proved insightful for their widescreen Anamorphic framing and use of different palettes to relay the narrative.
Setting out on his quest to define the worldbuilding looks for the show, Maddox-Upshaw worked with Panavision optical gurus Dan Sasaki and Guy McVicar on his lens choices. To convey the intimacy and rapport between Faraday and the Falls family, he selected large-format Varial spherical lenses, which offer close-focus capabilities, and had them adjusted to yield warmth in colour, plus texture via what the DP describes as “bleeding flares”. He also opted for a Laowa 24mm f/14 2X Macro Probe for extreme close-ups on eyes and ears to illustrate Faradays observation and adjustment to the world, as if he were an inquisitive child.
By way of contrast for scenes involving the CIA and the Hatch family, Maddox-Upshaw selected Panavision G-series Anamorphics, which were also slightly tweaked to deliver comparatively colder, sharper, more clinical and institutionalised-looking imagery.
The different looks from the two groups of lenses optics were compounded with a small set of LUTs, developed his regular colourist, Pankaj Bajpai at Technicolor (now Picture Shop, a Streamland Media company).
Images: Aimee Spinks/Showtime. Copyright 2021 Showtime Networks Inc. All rights reserved.
Maddox-Upshaw says that, for a good while now, the Sony Venice camera has been his weaponof-choice, as he prefers its colour separation,
rendition of skin tones, and abilities to deliver colour integrity in over- and under-exposed areas of the image, as compared to alternative digital capture devices. The show was shot at 6K in 16-bit X-OCN XT (extended tonal range Original Camera Negative) to deliver high-quality imagery overall and especially for the visual effects work in the show, as each episode features around 300 VFX composite shots.
“Celebrating the broad diversity of brown, as well as white, skin tones was very important to me in this production,” he says. “For example, Faraday, Justin and Justin’s father all have different complexions and shades of brown skin, and the Sony Venice does such a great job of representing that colour separation – at both ends of the exposure spectrum – whether it’s a dark or bright scene.”
Production on The Man Who Fell To Earth took place between March and November 2021. Locations around London and nearby countryside doubled for the show’s Seattle and Langley, Virginia, settings, whilst a quarry outside the city stood-in for New Mexico. Interiors were shot in a large warehouse, since bulldozed, near Wembley, North London, with the season finale shoot incorporating The Royal Albert Hall. The New Mexico exteriors were shot in Almería, Spain.
Maddox-Upshaw framed for a widescreen 2.40:1 extraction, to bring a sense of the epic, make the most of the landscapes, and provide storytelling opportunities with single and multiple characters in the frame.
Most scenes involved two-cameras, with Andrei Austin operating A-camera/Steadicam assisted by Rene Adefarasin on focus, and George Grieve on B-camera supported by Joanne Smith. Maddox-Upshaw oversaw the cinematography on the first four episodes, plus half of episode 10. The other DPs were Adam Gillham, who shot episodes 5, 6 and 9 and the other half of episode 10, with Balazs Bolygo BSC HSC shooting episodes 7 and 8. The gaffer was Wayne Shields.
“The different lenses, LUTs and ways of moving the camera, all combined to create the foundational building blocks of the visual story arc right across the show, which Adam and Balasz easily picked-up and absolutely rocked,” he remarks. “We went spherical, more close-up, warm and intimate for Faraday and the Falls, and shot Anamorphic and more clinical and cooler when we see Hatch and the CIA.
“Of course, things got more complicated when the storylines entwined and the characters interacted in the same space. When there was a scene involving with both sets of characters, but the scene was empowered by the Hatch’s or the CIA, we shot Anamorphic using a LUT somewhere between the two set looks. When Faraday and Justin have the emotional upper-hand, we would capture them in spherical with a warmer-looking LUT.”
The final DI was graded jointly by colourists Pankaj Bajpai and Sam Chynoweth in London. Maddox-Upshaw participated remotely from his home in LA, using a calibrated iPad in a room fitted with black-out curtains. The work mainly revolved around finessing the colour of the different storylines, as well as integrating the final VFX shots, overseen by VFX supervisor Simon Carr. “I loved the challenge that Alex set for this show,” remarks Maddox-Upshaw. “He works fast, and I stayed close to him so that we could communicate clearly and respond quickly to make adjustments. He has a positive creative energy that made things fun, and we developed a great relationship that has endured way beyond the production. We talk and text most weeks and share thoughts about movies that we have seen.”
SHALL WE DANCE?
By Darek Kuźma
Cinematographer Tristan Oliver BSC made Coppelia, Steven de Beul, Ben Tesseur and Jeff Tudor’s fine fusion of live-action ballet and fairy-tale 2D/3D animation, shine in all its whimsical glory.
The sheer thematic and technological capaciousness of the filmic medium grants those who dare to think outside the box the freedom to experiment, thus projects such as Coppelia are brought to cinematic life. Inspired by choreographer Ted Brandsen’s Dutch National Ballet’s modern reimagining of Arthur Saint-Léon and Léo Delibes’s 19th century ballet of the same name, the familyfriendly film melds a charming love story and a playful morality tale, to deliver a graceful spectacle of balletic movement, non-verbal displays of emotions and sparkling visuals that does not need spoken dialogue to convey its themes in a relatable way. When everyone in town falls under the spell of charismatic cosmetic surgeon, Doctor Coppelius, feisty Swan must save her sweetheart, Franz, before his heart is used to spark life into Coppelia, the robotwoman the Doctor has created.
Taking Coppelia’s singular form into consideration, and the fact that the directors did not have much experience in feature animation projects, let alone shooting ambitious live-action hybrids, the producers looked for a lensperson well-versed in both worlds. Tristan Oliver BSC, known for his meticulous stop-motion work on Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) and Isle Of Dogs (2018), plus Aardman films such as Chicken Run (2000) Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The WereRabbit (2005), quickly warmed to the idea.
“I shoot a lot of animation, I shoot some live-action, but I hadn’t really tackled the dance thing before. And it’s always been a medium that I loved,” notes Oliver. “I felt that the challenge was sufficient to justify doing it.” The challenge included capturing the movement of the cast made up of classical dancers from places like Sierra Leone, Brazil and The Netherlands, against greenscreen whilst working under a tricky time constraint. “We had a big stills photographic stage in Amsterdam at our disposal, but the shoot had to be in July. That is when the Dutch National Ballet takes its holiday, and it was the only time the dancers were available. We worked for the whole month, only two days off, with one pickup day later on,” states Oliver. “We also used some of the material from a week-long test shoot we had in March, making that 32 shooting days in total.”
He admits the film’s budget was moderate for such a bold effort of mixing dancers with two-dimensional animated backdrops and a slew of CGI characters, thus he chose a combo of ARRI Alexa Mini and Angénieux zooms.
“I wanted the 24-290mm and the 15-40mm Angénieux Optimos, a combination I had used to good effect on Loving Vincent (2017), which was another fast and furious schedule, but they could only afford Optimo Styles. Unfortunately, the spherical aberration was quite severe and the optics just didn’t match the project’s demands. After our first day I exchanged them for a set of Cooke S4s,” says Oliver. “It was all about finding a way to give the directors what they wanted. We started shooting 16:9 but they decided to go to 1.85:1. Luckily, I was working with a little push-in so I could accommodate that change.”
Coppelia is set in a pastel-coloured, fairy-tale town, where the heroine spends her days working in a fruit-juice café and dreaming about the handsome boy from a nearby bicycle repair shop. Yet during the shoot all of it had to be imagined.
“I knew the storyboards and had a bit of previz, but the everyday reality were X marks on the floor, standins in blue suits, a bunch of props, and some chromakey blue and green walls,” says Oliver. “We didn’t have any real backdrops and the geography of the town was ill-defined back then. When someone went through a doorway, I wasn’t always certain where the doorway was.”
Oliver claims that the biggest technical challenge was “the amount of bluescreen, greenscreen, and yellowscreen we had to use. This was an all-enveloping environment with different colours enhancing different aspects of the project. Also, because the dancers were so athletic, moved so fast and were capable of leaping huge distances into the air, it required an entirely different way of using the camera.” It was during the test shoot when they realised the planned 16 x 9m greenscreen was insufficient. “As soon as the dancers left the ground, we had nothing. So we ended-up with a greenscreen that was 90-metres long and more than 20-metres in height.”
Along with the fact that they were working with non-professional actors who needed additional time to warm-up before each dance sequence, this led to a number of other issues.
“Because the greenscreen’s height was so significant, there was quite a lot of green contamination to the skin tones. I needed an awful lot of light to make the performers look aesthetically-pleasing, whilst maintaining flat light for the greenscreen.”
That is why the producers decided to shoot the only existing set – the heroine’s kitchen – against a yellowscreen. “It was supposed to be in different shades of yellow, so there wasn’t any other way to stop the green contaminating into the skin.”
A lot of less adept lensers could have had problems with camera movement in an environment like this, but Oliver had a number of tricks up his sleeve to make the directors’ ideas work.
“We had a Technocrane for big group sequences to get the camera in and out of the dancers’ space without interrupting their process, the rest was shot mostly off a dolly. An elegant family project like this needs a smooth style to make a greater impact. When you’re following dancers and going around them, it’s just much easier to have a dolly on a track and operate the old-fashioned way to get that look.” Apart from the Technocrane shots, Oliver operated the camera himself.
Lighting these scenes against the enormous greenscreen was a different matter. For instance, tracking shots of a bunch of youthful characters joyfully pirouetting their way through the bright town centre.
“They were dancing the length of the studio. I had two guys running along with a four-metre Ultra Bounce on a wheeled stand and another guy pushing a 5K on a stand to keep up with the fill. For day exteriors I also used a bunch of Space Lights as well as two ARRI T12s to key the daytime stuff,” notes Oliver. “It was quite a layered work. The trick was to light the greenscreen and, at the same time, shape everything else, to give it some texture and character.”
Lighting night scenes presented another level of challenge, particularly because at one point the characters are lured into a laboratory of the nefarious cosmetic surgeon who uses his technology to steal their human essence and power his robotic ballerina.
“The lab has this dark pink/purple feel to it. I had Asteras and RGB LED strips about three metres long with a diffuser on the front, and worked them close to the performers to give them that pink and purple glow,” Oliver explains. “For night-time exteriors I had a big China ball with a punchy bulb on a boom to replicate
played with colour a lot, and used a lot of very warm gels for the keys – amber, salmon, lavender gels to give the images more niceness and glow. Also, for softening the key back to make the sequences more family-friendly kind of surreal.”
All in all, Coppelia’s message of the importance of being yourself and believing that beauty is in the eye of the beholder shines through every shot of the film.
Though the story ends on a decisively optimistic note, Oliver’s adventure with Coppelia had a slightly less happy ending.
“We shot it pre-Covid, in 2019, and when the time had come for the DI, much to my disappointment the producers couldn’t afford the remote grading. I sent them some notes but that’s it, my hands were tied.”
street lights, while Asteras, kept just out of the line of the camera, gave me extra fill and shape.”
If this was not layered enough, Coppelia includes a number of dreamlike fantasy sequences in which the heroine imagines herself living an idealised life with her flame.
“It was just a mixture of every light source I had. I also
Whilst he says he would have done it differently, more contrasty, Oliver is nonetheless happy with the experience.
“It was a pleasant challenge, and I like to collect those. Like Loving Vincent or Where Is Anne Frank (2021, dir. Ari Folman), I’ve been doing this long enough so I don’t need to take my career in any one direction. I’m looking for anything that’s interesting, really.”
ACTS OF KINDNESS
By Darek Kuźma
Director Nihat Seven’s micro-budget Room 7 caused cinematographer Ali Cihan Yilmaz to harness much of the considerable experience he has amassed over two decades of shooting in his native Turkey.
To say that Mike, a 70-year-old homeless retiree, is bitter would be a gross understatement. During a meeting with the local council he is told that he may be given temporary housing, but will have to wait several years to get permanent accommodation. After all, this is London. The thing is, Mike is a conservative Brit and the rundown hostel he is sent to is full of immigrants and refugees barely making ends meet themselves whilst waiting for the council’s decision. Thus, Mike is furious. But even though he would rather sleep on the streets, it is winter and he has to swallow his pride and move into a small room. Room No.7.
As Mike gradually warms to the residents, chiefly Can and Su, Turkish refugees crammed in their room with a small girl and an infant, he gets a glimpse of the bureaucratic limbo in which the immigrants are forced to linger.
Though it uses elements associated with the grand tradition of British social realism, Room 7 specifically deals with the ordeals faced by Turkish immigrants, and was made by Turkish filmmakers living in the UK.
“I met Nihat and others four years ago when I arrived in London with my wife. We started making shorts, but our goal was always to make a feature. We wanted Room 7 to be something we’d be proud of,” says Yilmaz.
Yilmaz was more than equipped to handle such a passion project, having gradually climbed up the
cinematography department ladder.
“I finished filmschool but learned everything on film sets. I started in 1996 as a loader, I worked on negative 16mm and 35mm film. Then, I became a focus puller, a camera assistant, a camera operator, finally a DP. I’m proud of this progression,” explains Yilmaz. “This film was definitely a challenge, not just time-wise, but also because during prep we met with real immigrant families, listened to their stories, and saw the conditions in which they lived.”
Before Yilmaz and his director prepped and shot the film, during April/May 2021 in and around London’s Tottenham district, the DP says they had spent countless hours discussing its many aspects.
“Nihat wanted to make a movie that was as simple as possible, focused on storytelling. We watched a number of films together – not necessarily to copy some elements, rather to put ourselves in the right state of mind,” says Yilmaz who lists the filmic works of Ken Loach, Paolo Sorrentino and Andrey Zvyagintsev as main inspirations. These included I, Daniel Blake (2016, dir. Ken Loach, DP Robbie Ryan ISC BSC) in terms of storytelling, and Leviathan (2014, dir. Andrey Zvyagintsev, DP Mikhail Krichman) for its composition and use of colour.
Initially, Yilmaz considered shooting Room 7 with ARRI Alexa LF to give it some scope, but when the budget forced him to look for other options, he
I try to run friendly sets with a supportive vibe
realised that Sony Venice actually suited the project far better.
“The Sony Venice gives you so many opportunities to adapt to lighting conditions, colour temperatures, to shoot high key and low key. I matched it with a set of brilliant Cooke S4s, then sometimes diffused the brightness of practical lights with Hollywood Black Magic to break the sharpness S4s gave to the Venice.”
Apart from Angénieux EZ-1 and EZ-2 and Optimo Zooms, that Yilmaz used in June for pick-up shots of London exteriors, that was the extent of his camera equipment.
It was crucial to use Mike’s evolving perspective to portray Can and Su’s increasing anguish – especially that Can, an experienced construction engineer, has to work in a meat factory because no British employer wants to hire him – yet find in this bleak situation moments of happiness and camaraderie between people of different origins, cultural backgrounds and skin colours. Thus, the filmmakers knew Room 7 has to be shot on location.
“It had to have an aura of authenticity,” says Yilmaz. “For example, Can’s job interview was shot at the headquarters of the British Alevi Federation in Edmonton, while Mike’s hospital appointments were at the Medi-Park Clinic in Haringey’s Green Lanes.”
Regrettably, when it came to their main hostel location, the filmmakers had to compromise. “Because of Covid, shooting in an actual hostel was out of the question. We shot footage of corridors and the manager’s office in a hostel for immigrants in Dalston, but ours had to be designed from scratch,” says Yilmaz.
The producers did not have the means to rent a stage and build a set, so they scouted Tottenham, in north London, for a building similar to a real hostel, and then leased it from the local council. “It was a tight schedule, 24 shooting days and around a month of prep, including adapting the building to our needs with help from the art department, but it was worth the effort. “For day interiors, I tried to be as natural as possible with the lighting, mainly to get a realistic feel, although there just wasn’t room to put in large fixtures. For example, on the floor that has the shared kitchen, which becomes a meeting place for our characters, I used a 4ft RGB Quasar Science Tube on the ceiling, and supported it with Aladdin Fabric and Fomex Rollight LEDs, as well as an Aputure Light Storm 300D MKII that served as a practical,” says Yilmaz. “I had a variety of light sources when shooting individual rooms, from a Tungsten package of 300w, 650w, 1Kw, 2Kw Fresnel and Dedolight 400D to LiteGear LiteMat 2
and ARRI SkyPanel S60, but I still tried to put as many practicals as possible.”
Having a limited space to control the realistic look, Yilmaz says he partly relied on sunlight. “People in the UK probably don’t notice it, but the sun is quite consistent here. In Turkey, its colour temperature and angles vary much more. I had to diffuse it a bit because we shot winter in April and May, but it was the right approach. There is more sunlight in the film’s second half, when the light and colours get slightly warmer, representing the passage of time and Mike’s changing attitude.”
Because the story is centred around Mike, Can and Su, we only get a brief look at the hostel’s other residents, but the narrowness of the corridors and the claustrophobic feel of the building is almost tangible. The tightness of the location also meant Yilmaz could not use dollies or devise complicated camera movement, which meant he focused on shooting handheld and on a slider.
As for night exteriors, Yilmaz often had to light from the outside. “I shot at 2500 ISO, which Sony Venice handled just beautifully, using a package of Par lamps – such as ARRI M-Series M18 and M40s, ARRILUX PocketPars – as well as Chimeras. Then, during post, I worked with my colourist, Bülent Tanoba, for two weeks to smooth out any rough edges.”
The DI process is usually about putting the final touches, but Tanoba was involved in Room 7 in quite a more collaborative way.
“Bülent owns a small studio, and we were able to grade on DaVinci Resolve in ACES without any time pressure. Even before prep, I had sent him a number of my visual references and asked for his input. Then, after some time passed, we established a look based on both of our ideas,” asserts Yilmaz.
“In post, we sat together for a couple of days, and then Bülent worked alone implementing what we discussed, before we met again for several days. After that, we invited the director who made some little adjustments, but was happy with what we had achieved.”
It seems to be particularly relevant, in the case of a bittersweet drama whose message is about looking out for one another during times of increasing isolation, that Yilmaz brought an inclusive, consultative agenda to the shoot.
“Some DPs may disagree, but I try to run friendly sets with a supportive vibe,” he says. “Yes, we have to be organised and efficient, but I strongly believe in team effort and admitting that I don’t know everything. I’m constantly learning, I like to ask my crew what they think, or if they have better ideas. We’re in it together, we deal with problems together and find solutions together.”
Even though Room 7 offers a very sombre experience, it is filled with small acts of kindness that make the story oddly uplifting. Such as in a scene when Mike intervenes, when he see the indifferent hostel manager trying to take advantage of Can and Su for the umpteenth time. Or when the family of Turkish refugees organise a birthday party for a grumpy old Brit who wanted to throw them out of his country.
Yilmaz concludes, “I’m proud of this film. Could it be better, and have more scope? Sure it could, but we shot it then and there, and we put our hearts and souls into making it as emotional and interesting as we could. I don’t know how the audiences will react to our film, but I definitely feel fulfilled.”
SHOWSTOPPERS. . .
Reporting by John Keedwell GBCT, Dylan Bruce, Kirsty Hazlewood and Ron Prince.
Opposite: (top clockwise) CVP’s impressive LED virtual set; Cinelab’s Adrian Bull and OxScan film scanner; AC PeePod with part Wendy; Frances Russell BSC and DP Doug Milsome BSC ASC. This page: (descending) Cineo R15 lamp array; Movietech’s MasterBuilt 35mm; Illuminatrix panellists (l-r) Yana Rits, Ashley Barron ACS, Catherine Derry, Vanessa Whyte and Simona Susnea; Movietech’s Masterbuilt 35mm (again); and new Zeiss Supreme 15mm prime.
It was great to be back at the BSC Expo after two years of the world standing still. Held at Battersea Evolutions, it was pleasantly busy, the organisation excellent, and the atmosphere more like a party. Wider aisles were a welcome change, making it easier to get around when things got crowded.
Some things had clearly changed in lighting, with LED lights almost everywhere, with very few, if any, large HMIs on the stands. It was suggested the showfloor looked like the Las Vegas Strip due to the sheer volume of lighting fixtures on display, all changing colour, and some even had water running over them! All in all, an entertaining couple of days.
CVP took up its regular, colossal stand, spanning the entire mezzanine level, and partnered with leading manufacturers to showcase the latest in production solutions, and also presented a brand new virtual production stage. Partner brands featured included: Angénieux, ARRI, Blackmagic Design, Canon, DJI, Cooke, Leitz, Red, Sony, Tribe7 and Zeiss. CVP worked with Disguise, Ncam, TrackMen, ARRI and GhostFrame and Roe Visual to create an impressive live, real-life LED stage whereby visitors could watch themselves become immersed into completely virtual environments.
The ACO (Association Of Camera Operators) – formed to celebrate and promote the technical/ creative skills of the camera operator – was thronged with attendees, where camera operator Alexis Castagna reported a lot of interest from potential new joiners. Members of The Mark Milsome Foundation – established in memory of camera operator Mark Milsome, who was killed whilst filming a car stunt – were in attendance to highlight the need to educate and promote health and safety practice, with its Online Safety Passport Course, which takes 90-minutes and costs £20.
Amongst all the many digital devices on display, the team at Kodak had plenty of interest from filmmakers wanting to shoot on analogue film, especially with 35mm originated productions like The Northman (DP Jarin Blaschke) and Conversations With Friends (DP Suzie Lavelle ISC BSC), not to mention commercials and music videos, revealing the continual currency of celluloid. And Cinelab – renowned champions of celluloid production – had taken the trouble to haul its head-turning OXScan 65mm scanner into the expo, which offers 12K output on a five-perf Todd AO-frame, and up to a whopping 28K per frame in IMAX.
Turning to cameras, lenses, filters and other associated widgets… on the Panavision stand was the Panavision Millennium DXL2, a camera for now, and also for the future. Its 8K capabilities are based around the Red Monstro large-format sensor, delivering an impressive dynamic range with 16 stops of latitude, 35 Megapixels and 1,600 Native ISO, at up to 60fps.
The DXL2, plus Panavision large-format lenses, offers an optimum system for creating image attributes such as a shallower depth-of-field, greater magnification and a wider field-of-view, to produce a softer, natural-looking image, more closely attuned to the way the eye sees.
Sony reported a very healthy footfall at its stand, where pride of place was given to the Sony Venice 2, another camera for now and the future. The new camera, now shipping, builds on the strength of the original Venice with new features including a more compact form-factor, internal recording and the option for two different sensors: the newly-developed full-frame 8.6K sensor or the original 6K Venice sensor. The Venice 2 also inherits popular features from the original Venice including colour science, Dual Base ISO of 800/3200, and 8-stops of built-in ND filters, with 16-stops of latitude.
Leitz delivered something special, with the newly-announced Leitz Elsie prime lenses as well as the Leitz Zooms, Leitz Primes, and other premium cine lenses. The Leitz Elsie lenses are a brand new design, made just for cinematography, with character to spare and a high performance. Leitz also showed, Henri, the director’s viewfinder, which combines the Leica SL2 camera system with various lens mounts and ergonomic support.
Movietech Camera Rentals (acquired by Sunbelt Rentals since the expo), offers one of the format cinematography with optical precision in a distinctive silver body. Gecko-Cam lenses, such as the 13 Vintage Ultra Primes that go from 14mm to 180mm, plus the Genesis G35, from 14mm T3.0 to a 135mmT2.0, give a modern vintage look with highend mechanics. Also on show were Hawk Anamorphic lenses. The Hawk 1.3x glass provides desirable Anamorphic qualities, such as barrel distortion, flares and elliptical bokeh combined with very high resolution. A rather special lens set are the Vantage One Sphericals, with a range of nine starting at 17.5mm up to 120mm, all with an aperture stop of T1.
Zeiss displayed its new 15mm T1.8 Supreme lens, the latest addition to the current range that now goes from 15mm to 200mm. Consistency across coverage, colour matching, colour rendering, aperture, focus and iris rings, size, weight and
ergonomics are all important design criteria, and all lenses in the family cover cinematic sensors from Super35 and smaller to full frame and beyond (FF+), making them well-suited for current and future camera systems. Most feature a fast T-stop of T1.5 with a few exceptions, the 15mm and 150mm both at T1.8, and the 200mm at T2.2. The compact, lightweight design and ultra-smooth focus mean users will enjoy fast, easy and comfortable handling, even in extreme temperatures and conditions.
Over at LEE Filters the new LEE Elements Variable ND Filter is now available in convenient 82mm screw-in form, allowing users to achieve six to nine stops of precise ND adjustment, without affecting the image colour, and bypassing the need to carry separate ND options. These NDs combine fluid-smooth adjustment rings, with positive end-stops and clearly-defined stop markers to achieve exactly the desired amount of density adjustment and prevent cross-polarisation.
Amongst the selection of quality cameras and lighting at ARRI, what also caught the eye was Curt O. Schaller, product manager for ARRI camera stabiliser systems, demonstrating the improvements made to its formidable Trinity rig. The length of the vertical post has been reduced making it smaller and more manoeuvrable. Many parts and cables are standard from the camera department, such as 19mm bars and control cables, meaning a broken cable can be temporarily swapped with no issues.
It is easy to rig too, has 12G video, a wider receiver, plus a quick removable plate to put on a hand grip control. It has hot-swap batteries with the battery hanger accepting any power via the adaptor that senses 24V or 12V and the application takes what it needs. 360-degree rotation is possible for shots that you would have seen in the award-winning film 1917 (DP Sir Roger Deakins CBE BSC ASC).
At its eye-catching booth, Pixipixel, the London-based camera, grip and lighting rental company, showcased its new Mechanix range of bespoke accessories for cameras, engineered in-house. Attendees were able to demo some of the new, custom-designed kit, including the Mechanix Lanyard Bracket, that fits seamlessly to the base of an ARRI HI-5 unit, and the Mechanix CineTape Mounting Mod, that allows for an easy attachment to a camera or other accessories.
As for moving cameras around, if you saw the 2022 Oscars ceremony, you may well have noticed several remote systems moving around the audience. These were designed and delivered by Bristol-based company Motion Impossible. Its Agito offers multiple configurations to suit different filming needs. As a free-roaming remote dolly system, it can be used to create smooth camera movements up to two metres in height. Its moves are fast, accurate and repeatable, and can achieve the same movements as most other equipment on the market, including rickshaws, jibs, dollies, sliders and tracking vehicles.
Of particular note, Agito Magtrax, which we saw
