SHOT ON
ISSUE NO. 2
DAVID TATTERSALL, BSC SHOOTS NETFLIX FEATURE
DEATH NOTE ON THE BEACH
MTV’S SIESTA KEY
CAPTURED
MANHUNT: UNABOMBER
TOXIC
HULU’S FREAKISH
Contents
Issue #2 / Fall 2017
Silverdome p.16 Death Note p.4
13 Reasons Why p.20
Manhunt: Unabomber p.8 Freakish p.12
Siesta Key p.24
Gypsy p.23
Anne With An E p.28
Welcome Letter Welcome to Panasonic’s second issue of Shot On VariCam – a digital “e-zine” that profiles the creative work cinematographers and filmmakers have produced with VariCam digital cinema cameras. Since the launch of the debut issue six months ago, we’ve seen a steady increase of high profile VariCam projects from a variety of production companies, networks, studios, and streaming platforms. In this issue, we’re showcasing Death Note, shot in 4K RAW by cinematographer David Tattersall, BSC with VariCam 35 cameras and Codex VRAW recorders. Tattersall created a colorful and unique look for the project using a variety of camera tools and techniques, while taking full advantage of our high-quality VRAW format. The feature film is currently streaming on Netflix. A show that is currently receiving a lot of attention is Discovery’s first scripted television series, Manhunt: Unabomber, which tells the true story of the FBI’s hunt for Unabomber Ted Kaczynski. The eight-episode series was shot in UHD in 12-bit 444 AVC Intra with VariCam 35s and according to cinematographer Zachary Galler, the VariCam delivers a sharp but pleasing look, creating a unique aesthetic “better than any other digital camera system.” MTV’s Siesta Key is a reality/drama series that has been a big hit with young viewers. Using both VariCam 35s and LTs, DP Gareth Paul Cox – who we profiled in the premiere issue of Shot On VariCam – combines both cinema and documentary techniques to showcase
Florida’s beautiful and natural terrain. With no 4K mandate from MTV, Cox delivered 1080p ProRes files to post-production, creating a more manageable workflow. For indie filmmakers, the VariCam LT may very well be the best 4K/HD cinema camera on the market. With its compact size and Super 35 sensor that can capture 14+ stops of latitude, the VariCam LT also contains Dual Native 800/5,000 ISOs, which lets you capture lowlight shots in almost any shooting environment. Director/DP Travis Andrews demonstrated this on indie feature, Silverdome, in which he shot the majority of the film in the abandoned Silverdome stadium in Pontiac Michigan, with no water, power, or elevator service. Andrews recorded AVC-Intra 10-bit 422 files. In terms of VariCam updates, in June, we announced free firmware upgrades for the VariCam 35, HS, LT, and Pure cinema cameras that include several new features and added functions. For the VariCam LT, one of the most exciting new features is a high-speed menu mode that enables 240p RAW output for 2K (2048 x 1080) or HD (1920 x 1080). Utilizing this RAW output, Convergent Design’s Odyssey 7Q/7Q+ will soon let you record 2K/HDcropped, uncompressed Cinema DNG files. We’ve also announced a new compact cinema camera – the AU-EVA1. The compact handheld cinema camera contains a newly developed 5.7K Super 35mm sensor, Dual Native ISOs of 800/2,500, and can capture 14 stops of dynamic range. Although not part of the VariCam family, the EVA1 delivers the same V-Log/V-Gamut color space and because of its light weight (2.65-lbs.), it will be an ideal run-andgun camera for indie films, documentaries, sports, live events, commercials and music videos. Carter Hoskins
Director Broadcast/Cinema/Professional Video Systems
Killer Notebook
DP David Tattersall, BSC Shoots Netflix’s Death Note with VariCam 35s {photos courtesy of Netflix}
DP David Tattersall, BSC shot in 4K DCI (4096 x 2160) capturing VRAW files to Codex VRAW recorders.
4
Based on the manga series of the same name by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, Death Note stars Nat Wolff as Light Turner, a young man who obtains a supernatural notebook that gives him the power to exterminate any living person by writing his or her name in the notebook. Willem Dafoe plays Ryuk, a demonic god of death and the creator of the Death Note. The stylized Netflix feature film was directed by Adam Wingard (V.H.S., You’re Next) and shot by cinematographer David Tattersall, BSC (The Green Mile, Star Wars: Episode I, II, and III) with VariCam 35s in 4K RAW with Codex VRAW recorders. Tattersall had worked with Wingard on the horror television series, Outcast, and because they had a great collaboration, the DP was asked to work with him again on Death Note. Per Tattersall, he wasn’t aware of the manga series of books but during pre-production, he was able to go through a visual treasure trove of manga material that the art department compiled. Instead of creating a “cartoony” look, Tattersall and Wingard were more influenced by classic horror films, as well as well-crafted movies by David Fincher and Stanley Kubrick. “Adam is a maestro of the horror genre and he is very familiar with constructing scenes around scary moments and keeping tension,” explains Tattersall. “It wasn’t necessarily whole movies – it was more about taking odd sequences that we thought might be relevant to what we were doing. We had a very cool extended foot chase that we referred to The French Connection (shot by Owen Roizman, ASC) and Se7en (shot by Darius Khondji, ASC), which have a mix of handheld, extreme wides and long lens shots. Also, because of Adam’s love of Kubrick movies, we had compositions with composure and symmetry that are reminiscent of The Shining, or crazy wide-angle stuff from A Clockwork Orange. It sounds like a mish mash but we did have rules.” Dialogue scenes were covered in a realistic non-flashy way and for Tattersall, one of his biggest challenges was dealing with the demon character, Ryuk, both physically and photographically. The team started with a huge puppet character with puppeteers operating it, but it wasn’t a practical approach since many of the scenes were shot in small spaces such as Light’s bedroom. “Eventually, the practical issue led to us using a mime artist in full costume with the intention of doing face replacement later,” explains Tattersall. “From our testing, the approach of ‘less is more’ became a thing – less light, more shadow and mystery, less visible, more effective. It worked
INSTEAD OF CREATING A “CARTOONY” LOOK, TATTERSALL AND WINGARD WERE MORE INFLUENCED BY CLASSIC HORROR FILMS, AS WELL AS WELL-CRAFTED MOVIES BY DAVID FINCHER AND STANLEY KUBRICK. 5
well for this character who is mostly seen hiding in the shadows. It’s similar to the first Jaws movie. The shark is strangely more scary and ominous when you only get a few glimpses in the frame here and there – a suggestion. And that was our approach for the first 75% of the film. You might get a brief lean out of the shadows and a quick lean back in. Often, we would just shoot him out of focus. We’d keep the focus in the foreground for the Light character and Ryuk would be an out of focus blob in the background. It’s not until the very end – the final murder sequence – that you get to see him in full head to toe clarity.” Tattersall shot the film with two VariCam 35s as his A and B cameras and had a VariCam LT for backup. He shot in 4K DCI (4096 x 2160) capturing VRAW files to Codex VRAW recorders. For lensing, he shot with Zeiss Master primes with a 2:39:1 extraction. “This set has become a favorite of mine for the past few years and I’ve grown to love them,” reveals Tattersall. “They are a bit big and heavy, but they open to a T1.3 and they’re so velvety smooth. With this show having so much nightwork, that extra speed was very useful.” In terms of RAW capture, Tattersall tried to keep it simple, using Fotokem’s nextLAB for on-set workflow. “It was almost like using a one light printing process,” says Tattersall. “We had three basic looks – a fairly cool dingy look that sometimes falls back on the saturation or leans in the cold direction. I have a set of rules but I occasionally break them. We tried as much as possible to shoot only in the shade – bringing in butterfly nets or shooting on the shady side of buildings during the day. It was Adam’s wish to keep this heavy, moody atmosphere.” Tattersall used a few tools to capture unique visuals. To capture low angle shots, he used a P+S Skater Scope that lets you shoot low to the ground. “You can also incorporate floating Dutch angles with it’s motorized internal prism, so this was something we did throughout,” says Tattersall. “The horizon line would lean over to one side or the other.” He also used a remote rollover rig, which allowed the camera to roll 180-degrees when on a crane, giving Tattersall a dizzying visual. “We also shot with a Phantom Flex to shoot 500-fps,” continues Tattersall. “We would have low Dutch angles, an 8mm fish eye look, and a Lensbaby to degrade the focus even more. The image could get quite wonky on occasion, which is counterpoint to the more classic coverage of the calmer dialogue moments.” Although he did a lot of night work, Tattersall did not use the native 5,000 ISO. “I have warmed to a new range of LED lights – the Cineo Maverick, Matchbox and Matchstix. They’re all color balanced and they’re all multivaried Daylight or Tungsten so it’s quick and easy to change the color temperature without the use of gels. We also made use of ARRI Skypanels. Outside, we used tried and tested old school HMIs or 9-light or 12-light MaxiBrutes. There’s nothing quite like them in terms of powerful source lights.” Death Note is also a very colorful film and there are several sequences where art direction was based on neon light environments. “[Art
“ THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I USED THE VARICAM,” CONCLUDES TATTERSALL. “I WENT IN WITH A LITTLE TREPIDATION BUT I QUICKLY GREW TO LIKE THE CAMERA AND ITS SMOOTH AND NATURALISTIC LOOK.”
Director] Tom Hammock decorated one striking exterior street location with different colored neons,” explains Tattersall. “It had blue and green neon and another cafeteria set where the dominant practical lighting was this quite saturated cobalt neon. We kind of ran with it. There’s one sequence where the Light character and his father have this conversation outside the house amongst a group of police cars and we tried to light the whole thing just using the police car flashing lights.” Death Note was finished at Technicolor by colorist Skip Kimball. “The grade was mostly about smoothing out the bumps and tweaking the contrast” explains Tattersall. “Since it’s a dark feature, there was an emphasis on a heavy mood – keeping the blacks, with good contrast and saturated colors. But in the end, the photographic stylization came from the camera placement and lens choices working together with the action choreography. “This is the first time I used the VariCam,” concludes Tattersall. “I went in with a little trepidation but I quickly grew to like the camera and its smooth and naturalistic look.”
6
To watch Death Note, visit www.netflix.com (You will need a Netflix membership to view)
Official trailer for Death Note https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvxNaSIB_WI
For more information on the VariCam 35s, please visit http:// www.us.panasonic.com/varicam
VARICAM TECH SPECS
CAMERA: VARICAM 35 RESOLUTION: 4K (4096X2160) ORIGINAL CAPTURE FORMAT: VRAW LENSES: ZEISS MASTER PRIMES
7
DP Zachary Galler shooting a scene handheld with the VariCam 35.
8
Deadly
Pursuit Zachary Galler Shoots Discovery Channel’s Manhunt: UNABOMBER with VariCam 35s {photos courtesy of Discovery Channel}
Manhunt: UNABOMBER tells the true story of the FBI’s hunt for Ted Kaczynski – better known as the Unabomber – the deadliest serial bomber in history. Discovery’s first scripted series, the eight-episode show follows FBI Agent Jim “Fitz” Fitzgerald (Sam Worthington), who used forensic linguistics to identify and capture Kaczynski (Paul Bettany). The series was shot by cinematographer Zachary Galler with VariCam 35 cinema cameras. After dropping out of film school, Galler got his start in the industry working as a truck driver for a lighting rental house. Working his way up as a gaffer lighting music videos and commercials, Galler got his first big break in 2014, shooting director Mona Fastvold’s indie feature, The Sleepwalker, which played in competition at Sundance. For Manhunt: UNABOMBER, Galler got involved through director Greg Yaitanes (Banshee, House), who directed all eight episodes. “Greg had been talking to me about a couple other projects and when he brought up this one, it seemed like a really great fit,” says Galler. “I created a couple of look books for him and we talked a lot about the themes of the script. It really went from there.” During prep, Galler had the luxury of having outlines of all the scripts before shooting, as well as knowing that Yaitanes would be directing all of the episodes. After
reading through the first few scripts, Galler knew he would have to create two different worlds. “Kaczynski was an anti-technology hermit who lived in the middle of the woods making sophisticated mail bombs,” explains Galler. “Then you have the main character of the show, Jim Fitzgerald, who’s basically existing within the framework of the FBI behavior analysis unit. Just the way those two stories run concurrently, I felt there was going to be a lot of interesting things we could do visually, especially with scale.” Galler wanted to visually show the differences between the FBI offices – where people sit under fluorescent lights for years – in contrast with the Unabomber’s cabin, which is a 12 x 12-foot room out in the middle of the woods. Galler also wanted to show the insides of bombs that Kaczynski built. “Visually, the challenge was to try and capture each one of those settings next to one another and capture the scope of their sizes,” he explains. With a 4K delivery requirement from Discovery, Panavision set up a shootout with a RED Dragon, Sony F55 and VariCam 35, which impressed Galler the most. In developing the look of the series, Galler pulled several film stills from David Fincher’s 2007 film, Zodiac (shot by Harris Savides, ASC) and Alan J. Pakula’s 1976 drama, All the President’s Men (shot by Gordon Willis, ASC). “For All the President’s Men, I was influenced by the look of the
9
office scenes,” explains Galler. “The way they did a lot without doing all that much. The scenes are not flashy with tight lenses moving around on Steadicam, but much more controlled with slow dolly shots. Zodiac was more about the lighting and color reference and the way you didn’t feel the camera’s presence. I really wanted to take a cinematic approach and we wanted everything to be about choices. “The big fear going in,” continues Galler, “was that the VariCam was a camera I had never used before. This series was the biggest project I had done, so I was worried about not having my usual bag of tricks. Within a week, I was really psyched about the camera.” Galler shot in UHD (3840 x 2160) in 12-bit 4:4:4 AVC Intra at 23.98-fps. Because he didn’t have a D.I.T. on set designing custom LUTs, he went with standard Rec 709. Renting gear out of Panavision Atlanta, he mainly used rear filtered Primo primes with Tiffen 1/8 ProMist filters. Instead of using visual effects, Galler tried to capture specialty shots practically. “There was one episode where most of it was shot with Panavision Ultraspeeds that have a layer of coating taken off so they flare more easily,” explains Galler. “We also used portrait lenses that have a center weighted focus that fall off on the edges. We used those on these Eureka moments where a character is figuring something out. And then we used a lot of different macro lenses for extreme close-ups.” To capture typewriter keys hitting the paper, Galler used the Innovsion Probe 6000. “The Probe 6000 is a an 18” long, ½” thick aluminum metal tube with a small fixed lens opening,” says Galler. “It’s also
a T45 with a little fiber optic light on the end. The art department built these perfect replicas of these bombs and we could just stick these things inside it. We could move through the wires and parts of the bomb and there would have been no way to do this without constructing a giant prop bomb. These bombs were small and all of them were originally made to be mailed.” For lighting, Galler kept everything motivated as a general rule, doing his best to create a “slightly beautified reality.” He had control over fluorescents in the FBI offices and he did a lot of work with LEDs. “I really like to keep lights away from actors as much as possible, especially when you’re moving fast. We would turn everything on and start taking lights away. My key grip, Chris Birdsong, had these great things that he had taken from another project. We called them ‘schlepers’ but they’re basically thick pieces of plastic with magnets on them so we could quickly go in and take out fluorescent overheads on one side of an actor to add shape.” Galler would use big lights as far away as he could to create daylight in the offices because he wanted the environment to feel oppressive. For the Unabomber’s cabin, they built two sets – one in the woods and the other was built in a studio on an ex-army base property near Atlanta. For daylight scenes, he punched through the cabin windows with HMIs bouncing through interiors. For night shooting, he lit with handheld camping lanterns and LEDs that were the size and shape of a cigar. Galler often shot at 5,000 ISO and dialed down
10
VARICAM TECH SPECS
CAMERA: VARICAM 35 RESOLUTION: UHD (3840X2160) ORIGINAL CAPTURE FORMAT: 12-BIT 444 AVC INTRA (V-LOG) LENSES: PANAVISION PRIMOS AND ZEISS ULTRA SPEEDS
to 2,500 and was very impressed at how the VariCam 35 held shadow detail. Color grading was done at Light Iron Postby colorist Ian Vertovec. “It was mainly touchup,” says Galler. “Ian elevated things a bit and the LUT he applied was a little more refined than Rec 709. We started with a Kodak film emulation and took some of the yellows out. I did try and keep it contrasty and sharp. The VariCam has a special thing going on where it looks sharp but still has a pleasing look. I’m of the mind set where I try and embrace digital technology instead of trying to dumb it down with older glass. I feel aesthetically, the VariCam does that better than other digital camera systems. I think it has a new look, which I’m excited about.”
“ THE VARICAM HAS A SPECIAL THING GOING ON WHERE IT LOOKS SHARP BUT STILL HAS A PLEASING LOOK. I THINK IT HAS A NEW LOOK, WHICH I’M EXCITED ABOUT.”
For more information on the series, visit www.discovery.com/tv-shows/manhunt-unabomber/
Official trailer for Manhunt: Unabomber https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF8RLY-3wJk&t=3s
For more information on the VariCam 35s, please visit http:// www.us.panasonic.com/varicam
- DP ZACHARY GALLER 11
Toxic Town DP John Smith Shoots Hulu’s Freakish with VariCam 35s {Photos by Rachael Thompson/Hulu}
12
Hulu’s Freakish is a horror series that follows a group of high school students who are trapped inside their school during a Saturday detention after an explosion at a local chemical plant. The series, shot by cinematographer John Smith (Containment, Revenge) with VariCam 35 cameras, just wrapped its second season. It is produced by Awesomesness TV, a part of Dream Works New Media. Smith got involved with the production through producer/director Chris Grismer, who he had worked with on the WB series Containment, which was also shot on VariCam 35s. “It’s an interesting concept and different from anything I’ve done before,” reveals Smith on Freakish. “When I read the first script, I was excited, but unfortunately it’s extremely low budget. The horror genre was new to me so I thought I’d take a whack at it.” Knowing the budget would be challenging, Smith knew he and his crew would have to move fast. “I’d already shot with the VariCam on Containment and the camera immediately jumped out to me as the camera to shoot this show,” he reveals. “I could shoot at 5,000 ISO and roll in an ND6 and that could be the main look of the show.” In developing the look, Smith and Grismer shared their own photography, which included Grismer’s large collection of Polaroids and Smith’s long exposure night photography. They also were influenced by filmmakers Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro’s 1991 feature film, Delicatessen. “A lot of it was just trial and error,” explains Smith. “Chris trusted me to deliver a look that was not overly dark because Hulu streams in H.264 and most young people are watching content on their phones nowadays. We didn’t want it to look like a traditional horror series – think The Breakfast Club meets The Toxic Avenger.”
13
“WE DIDN’T WANT IT TO LOOK LIKE A TRADITIONAL HORROR SERIES – THINK THE BREAKFAST CLUB MEETS THE TOXIC AVENGER.” - DP JOHN SMITH
In the show, the town is covered by a chemical cloud blanket and to illustrate that, Smith and team built what Smith called ‘snow globes’ filled with smoke outside the set windows, ranging from four to 12 feet deep. “We needed a way to bring the horror of the chemical cloud that’s right outside the school,” explains Smith. “Like in Delicatessen, we chose a sickly orange color for the cloud that permeates a lot of the day stuff. At night, we went with a greenish glow so we can differentiate between day and night with visual clues that time has passed.” For the first season, Smith shot in 2K because Hulu was concerned about workflow and storage costs. For the second season, Smith shot in 4K because he convinced them how much better the show could look. “It’s just hard drives so it’s not that big a deal but because we are delivering AVC Intra files, it sometimes requires editors to get their heads around it,” reveals Smith. “They’re very ProRes oriented so anytime you’re delivering in a different wrapper, it takes some adjustments. They eventually saw that AVC Intra is a much better format and Hulu was quite happy with it.” Instead of 10-bit 4:2:2, Smith captured AVC Intra 12-bit 4:4:4 UHD (3840 x 2160) files in the 16:9 aspect ratio. “I want that extra color depth when I go into color timing,” explains Smith. “I know that a lot of people say it’s not a huge difference but for me to tweak the colors exactly the way I want them it is a huge difference and it’s markedly apparent. I try not to shoot 4:2:2 if I can help it.” Smith shot the series with Fujinon Cabrio zooms, including the 19-90 and the 85-300. “They’re light enough that you can use them handheld or on Steadicam, and I only need two lenses per camera,” explains Smith. “For
what we did they were really good lenses on that camera. They really performed well. They’re T2.9 lenses and in a pinch, I can put an ND 3 and take myself off my normal shooting stop, which was around a 4 and shallow it out to a 2.8 to get specific looks we needed.” Working with post house The Institution in Burbank, Smith created approximately a dozen LUTs while shooting tests of performers wearing “freak” make-up on set. “Our base look was sort of a desaturated look from straight Rec 709,” says Smith. “Then we built a desaturated look with three different levels of crushed blacks so we could bring more darkness into the sets.” For season two, Smith shot a fair number of exteriors. With a small lighting budget, instead of using lighting for his exteriors, he built LUTS to better view colors, or to judge how much desaturation they would use on location. I always shoot with LUTs just because I don’t want a standard look and I find skin tones to be a bit too warm for my taste so I’m always scaling those back a little bit. I save all my LUTs from other shows I’ve done because I tend to re-use them.” Per Smith, out the box, the VariCam’s Rec 709 is quite good. “I shot a couple of commercials with it in between Containment and Freakish and I’ve been very impressed with the color space,” he reveals. “It looks very natural, the skintones are really creamy and soft just like the [ARRI] Alexa. But it holds the highlights so much better. That to me is super impressive.” Shooting at 5,000 ISO has allowed Smith to shoot a lot of scenes with nothing but practicals. He does sometimes shoot at 800 ISO for day exteriors because he would have too much depth of field, even with NDs. “We had a bunch of scenes where the kids are in a grocery store,” explains Smith, “and we turned off everything in the store. The actors were carrying Coleman lanterns and that’s how we lit the scene.” For the first season, Smith timed all of the episodes at The Institution. “A lot of the work that we did was bringing the look back from being so dark,” Smith says. “On set we really went for it and had really deep shadows, a lot of sidelights, and a couple of black actors. Everybody liked the look during dailies but once we saw what the compression was doing when we looked at it on an iPhone, it was obvious we needed to scale some things back, especially on the black actors. We needed to go in and lift the dark side of their faces.”
VARICAM TECH SPECS
CAMERA: VARICAM 35 RESOLUTION: UHD (3840X2160) ORIGINAL CAPTURE FORMAT: 12-BIT 444 AVC INTRA (V-LOG) LENSES: FUJINON CABRIO ZOOMS
To watch Freakish, visit www.hulu.com/freakish (You will need a Hulu subscription in order to view)
Official trailer for Freakish https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1npbOr5MGE
For more information on the VariCam 35s, please visit http:// www.us.panasonic.com/varicam
14
Jason Momoa stars as Declan Harp in Frontier. (Photo courtesy of Netflix )
15
Redemption Travis Andrews shoots indie feature Silverdome with VariCam LTs {photos courtesy of Travis Andrews}
Opened in 1975, The Silverdome, located in Pontiac, Michigan, has seen much better days. The stadium, known for its unique fiberglass fabric rooftop held up by air pressure, was once home to the NFL’s Detroit Lions and NBA’s Detroit Pistons, host of WrestleMania III, concerts by Led Zeppelin and The Who, and even a Mass by Pope John Paul II. Closed in 2006 and abandoned since 2013, one of America’s largest and most famous stadiums is scheduled for demolition later this year. The wreckage is the main setting for Silverdome, a low-budget indie film directed and shot by filmmaker Travis Andrews with two VariCam LT cinema cameras. It tells the story of Jack Franco (played by Glenn Pakulak), a former quarterback of the USFL Michigan Panthers, who is on a downwards spiral after the end of his pro football career. “He’s kind of in a depressed state and he leaves his family and goes to the place where he had all of his glory, which was at the Silverdome,” explains Andrews. “He is trying to decide what he’s going to do with his life. Whether he continues down the same dark path or does he find the courage to battle his demons and make changes.” Pakulak, himself a former NFL punter, teamed with writer Ted Kluck and producer Chris Regner to put together the low-budget film. “Glenn was a cast member of a Bravo show that I did called Most Eligible Dallas and I was a camera operator on the series,” says Andrews. “We kind of stayed in touch and they were looking for someone to shoot this film and he reached out to me. I thought it sounded like a great project and would be a great first feature for me, which was part of the attraction.” Before shooting began, since he had never visited the Silverdome, Andrews did a Google image search for “Pontiac Silverdome” because he wanted to see its current state. “The pictures I saw online were pretty incredible,” reveals Andrews, “and it really set into place on how I envisioned shooting it.” During pre-production, Andrews brought in a few of his regular crew (operators Chase Miller and Nick Craig, audio Joe Parisi) from the reality and documentary world. “We work well together and there was never any disconnect,” says Andrews. “We knew going in that we had to work at a fast pace shooting multiple scenes a day.” Per Andrews, Miller and Craig were instrumental on Silverdome’s look and feel. “I wanted to incorporate some subtle camera movement to give the film a more organic feel. Having Chase and Nick shoot handheld for the majority of the time really accomplished that.”
16
17
18
VARICAM TECH SPECS
CAMERA: VARICAM LT RESOLUTION: 4K (4096X2160) ORIGINAL CAPTURE FORMAT: 10-BIT 422 AVC INTRA (V-LOG) LENSES: TOKINA CINEMA ATX ZOOMS For more information on Silverdome, visit the official Instagram page at https://www.instagram.com/silverdomefilm/
Official teaser trailer for Silverdome https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57SAlz1-GEI
For more information on the VariCam LT, please visit http://us.panasonic.com/varicam
Like many low-budget indie features, Silverdome was shot on a very challenging schedule. “It was only 12 days total, including travel, a walk through and a read through,” says Andrews. “We jumped right into shooting and shot at a fast pace – 10 total days of shooting, 8 days at the Silverdome and then two days outside of the dome and that included all of our B-roll. It was very ambitious.” Andrews shot in 4K (4096 x 2160) at 23.98fps and recorded 10-bit AVC-Intra 422 files with two VariCam LTs operated by Miller and Craig. He captured his AVC-Intra files in V-Log and he also recorded separate 2K proxy files in Rec 709. For monitoring, they used two SmallHD DP7 OLEDs. The production crew’s biggest challenge was the Silverdome location since they were essentially shooting in a condemned building with no power, water or elevator service. “Everything had to be carried in through the stadium stairs,” says Andrews. “It really led to the kind of gear we would use. We also had to run everything off batteries, including lights, so that really limited what we could bring in.” For lighting, Andrews lit the Silverdome
location with just a few lights and mainly relied on two Litepanels Astras, which are 1 x 1 LED panels that are bi-color. He also used Kinotehnik Practilites, which are small LED Fresnel lights that run off batteries. “We set everything up using what natural light was already there as the main source,” says Andrews. “We just used our small lights to spotlight something in the frame, a hairlight, or just to fill in the dark areas in the background, as opposed to bringing in big lights.” Because he was typically shooting in extreme lowlight environments, Andrews shot with the VariCam LT’s native 5,000 ISO for the majority of the film. His original plan was to shoot at 5,000 the entire shoot but even with the LT’s built-in ND filters, the crew had to stop the lenses down too much in broad daylight, therefore going to native 800 ISO. One of the most difficult sequences to shoot was the final scene, which takes place at the top of the Silverdome on a narrow catwalk. “The only way to get up there was by stairs through the upper level of seats, and a small staircase behind the scoreboard,” explains Andrews. “It was a night scene and it was completely pitch black. We could see some city lights on the horizon so we
19
brought our two Astra lights and put them up on top of an air handler. And by shooting in V-Log, we had enough detail in the shadows to pull it out in post. That was pretty much as dark as you could get while still capturing a usable image.” Andrews shot Silverdome entirely with zooms, employing Tokina Cinema ATX zooms, including the 11 – 16mm T3, 16 – 28mm T3, and 50 – 135mm T3. He shot clean with the lenses except for polarizers on day exteriors. “We were usually between a T.3 and a 5.6, favoring a 5.6 most of the time,” explains Andrews. “Creatively, it was exactly what I wanted, but it was a bonus for my operators not to be chasing super shallow depth of field.” “I was really impressed at how well the color looked, especially the skin tones,” continues Andrews. “Sometimes digital cameras can look weird with varying skin tones but the VariCam was true from what I was seeing with my eye. If not, a little better looking.” From the time of this writing, the producers of Silverdome have begun post-production and are currently raising funds to complete the film and are looking for distribution.
20
Teen Angst DP Andrij Parekh Shoots Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why with VariCam 35s {Photos by Beth Dubber/Netflix}
One of the most honest portraits of teenage life, 13 Reasons Why is a Netflix series based on the 2007 young adult novel by Jay Asher and adapted by Brian Yorkey. Set in Northern California, the 13-episode series, starring Dylan Minnette and Katherine Langford, tells the story of a high school student, Hannah Baker, who kills herself after perceived humiliation by friends and schoolmates. Two of the show’s executive producers include pop star Selena Gomez and Academy Award winning writer/director Tom McCarthy (Spotlight, Win Win), who directed the first two episodes of the series. McCarthy worked with cinematographer Andrij Parekh (Show Me a Hero, Blue Valentine) with Panasonic VariCam 35 cinema cameras. During prep, Parekh tested the VariCam 35, Alexa 65, and the Sony F55. One of the main reasons he selected the VariCam 35 was due to the camera’s native 5,000 ISO setting for lowlight shooting. “The sensitivity in the VariCam is quite remarkable,” reveals Parekh. “It was a very clean 5,000 ISO, unlike what you would get out of an Alexa at 5,000.” Parekh and McCarthy re-watched a lot of teen movies from their youth and John Hughes’
21
The Breakfast Club (1985), Gus Van Sant’s Elephant (2003) and the TV series My So Called Life (1994) were big influences on the look of the series. Regarding The Breakfast Club, Parekh liked the film’s naturalistic look, as well as the subjective views for each character. For 13 Reasons Why, Parekh and McCarthy decided to create two different looks – one that depicts the present, or aftermath, and one that shows the past, leading up to Hannah’s suicide. “The show is basically about a teen girl’s suicide and shows the past and present,” explains Parekh. “I wanted to separate them visually but not make the visual differences too pronounced. To create these looks, we used anamorphic 2:1 lenses for the past and spherical lenses for the present.” For the past, Parekh chose Hawk V-Lite anamorphic lenses. He liked the Hawks because they were lighter than most 2:1 anamorphic lenses. “We shot a lot of handheld for the past so having a lighter lens was important to me,” explains Parekh. “I also love the focus fall off on the wider end. The Hawks have all the great characteristics of anamorphics – the center being sharp and the edges being a little softer. With the VariCam 35’s native 5000 ISO, we were shooting
with anamorphics (f/2.2 – 2.8) with an ND .6 or .9. For night exteriors, that was really unheard of and a first for me.” Because the series is viewed in the 16:9 aspect ratio, Parekh had to center cut the 2.40:1 frame. “By doing this, you basically end up using a little less of the 4K digital negative,” he explains, “but what it did give us was a softer, more romantic look for the past.” For the present, Parekh selected Leica Summilux C-series prime lenses because the lenses “have a softness and roundness to them but also allowed us to light a little harder and more dramatically to counteract that softness. The Leica lenses render digital in a very pleasing way. The focus fall off is fantastic at T-1.4 and we were shooting them wide open all the time.” Parekh captured UHD (3849 x 2160) AVC Intra 444 files to ExpressP2 cards. “Most of our audience are probably going to watch the show on their iPhones or iPads, or maybe a television at home. AVC Intra was perfect for broadcast, and it didn’t require massive data storage.” One of Parekh and McCarthy’s biggest challenges was the short amount of time they had to create the appropriate style for the show. Since he was shooting only the pilot and second episode, Parekh had 12 or 13 days for each episode. (Cinematographer Ivan Strasburg, BSC shot the remainder of the series.) “It’s always difficult when you’re working with a new director and you don’t have a shorthand yet to come up with a style that feels specific and organic to the material,” explains Parekh. “Tom and I found it pretty quickly, through watching specific films
for the subject matter and because we both have similar tastes.” During the shoot, Parekh used native 5,000 ISO mainly at night and was greatly impressed at the lack of noise. For day shooting, he shot at native 800 ISO. In terms of lighting, Parekh revealed that he lit with the same amount of light as with any camera but the crew didn’t have to struggle when shooting on longer lenses. In terms of lighting, Parekh puts all his lights through bleached or unbleached muslin. “Whether it’s HMIs through muslin or Kino Floss through muslin, I always try to take the electronics out of the lighting and cameras. So, I use muslin, which is an organic cloth that counteracts that. What you end up doing is using
more light because it cuts a tremendous amount, but I still like the softness the muslin gives you.” 13 Reasons Why was posted in Los Angeles at Encore Hollywood and graded by colorist, Laura Jans Fazio. Parekh was able to help grade the first two episodes. “Laura basically helped me set up the LUTs at the beginning, and then she came in and did the DI at the end,” says Parekh. “The grade for me is always the polishing of the shoes and not necessarily creating a look. Netflix gave us Alexa emulation LUTs, which we doctored to create our own LUTs that Laura used. Our LUTs were put into the cameras ahead of time and I had all our monitors calibrated to each other. I also calibrated our monitors to Laura’s monitor so we were all on the same playing field.”
To watch 13 Reasons Why, visit www.netflix.com (You will need a Netflix membership to view)
Official trailer for 13 Reasons Why
For more information on the VariCam 35, please visit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JebwYGn5Z3E
http:// www.us.panasonic.com/varicam
VARICAM TECH SPECS
CAMERA: VARICAM 35 RESOLUTION: UHD (3840X2160) ORIGINAL CAPTURE FORMAT: 12-BIT 444 AVC INTRA (V-LOG) LENSES: LEICA SUMMILUX C-SERIES PRIMES HAWK V-LITE ANAMORPHIC LENSES
22
Secret Identity DP Bobby Bukowski Shoots Netflix’s Gypsy with VariCam 35s {Photo by Alison Cohen Rosa/Netflix}
In the Netflix series Gypsy, Naomi Watts (King Kong, Mulholland Drive) stars as Jean Holloway, a psychotherapist who begins to develop dangerous, intimate relationships with people close to her patients under an alias. The ten-episode series is shot by cinematographer Bobby Bukowski (Arlington Road, The Messenger) with VariCam 35 cameras. With Netflix requesting 4K RAW acquisition, Bukowski approached Oliver and Erik Schietinger, principals of TCS in New York City. After hearing from him about the shooting style and look he was pursuing, they recommended the VariCam 35 for the shoot and ultimately supported the production with the rental of two VariCam 35s outfitted with Codex V-RAW recorders. “DPs we’ve worked with have been impressed with the VariCam 35, especially its native 5000 ISO feature,” explains Oliver Schietinger. “It sounded ideal for Gypsy. Bobby told us he wanted to light softly, using ambient light, without using direct light. The VariCam really opens up new possibilities in low-light shooting, and essentially puts ‘two film stocks into one camera’ at the disposal of the cinematographer.”
Bukowski conducted extensive tests of the VariCam 35, trying out the dual native 800/5000 ISOs for interiors and exteriors, as well as daylight and natural light settings. He then took the footage to a DI suite to evaluate. “I was pretty astounded at the 5000 ISO’s performance – there was not nearly as much noise as I’d anticipated,” he said, “and what noise existed was quite pleasant – like analog film grain. Beyond low light handling, I found the camera’s color space quite pleasing as well.” Gypsy was mainly shot in built studio interiors representing Holloway’s home and office. A much smaller portion of the footage was shot in day and night exteriors on location. The two VariCam 35s, outfitted with Cooke S5/i prime lenses, were largely utilized in studio mode, with Bukowski doing some Steadicam and handheld work. The DP said he predominantly shot at 800 and 1250 ISOs, but would occasionally go to native ISO 5000 to “exploit existing light.” He also used ISO 5000 when lighting talent. “Obviously, we wanted our star to look soft and beautiful, and we were never lighting directly,” reveals Bukowski. “I would often shoot at 5000 ISO and bounce light multiple times, off one white card then to
23
another, then directing through a diffusion frame. I can’t imagine working that way with another camera – the camera essentially changed the way I light.” “That’s the greatest gift of the VariCam: the impetus to drop old habits, reinvent techniques and re-define who you are as an artist,” he continues. “It’s both wonderful and exciting to look at your craft through a different prism.” Gypsy was posted at Harbor Picture Company in New York City, under the supervision of colorist Joe Gawler.
To watch Gypsy, visit www.netflix.com (You will need a Netflix membership to view)
Official trailer for Gypsy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y67_16zSMwk
DP Gareth Paul Cox uses both cinematic and documentary techniques to shoot Siesta Key.
24
Endless Summer Gareth Paul Cox Shoots MTV’s Siesta Key with VariCam 35s and LTs {photos courtesy of MTV}
Over ten years ago, before the explosion of social media, MTV’s Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County (2004) and its spin-off, The Hills (2006), were huge hits amongst the Generation Y set, aka, millennials. Part reality show, part narrative soap, both series glamorized the lives of the young and beautiful in Southern California. Now, MTV’s new docu-series, Siesta Key, takes the tried and tested concept and moves it to Florida, following a new group of young adults confronting issues of love, heartbreak, betrayal, class, and looming adulthood as they spend the summer together in their beautiful hometown. The series, set on a small barrier island off the coast of Sarasota, was shot by cinematographer Gareth Paul Cox with VariCam 35 and LT
cinema cameras. Cox got involved with the project through one of Siesta Key’s creators, Warren Skeels, whom he had worked on several projects with since his days at the American Film Institute. A big advantage of having Cox on board is that he grew up in Central Florida and knew the geography. “I could predict how we could best structure the camera department because I knew how harsh the environment would be,” says Cox. “The heat and the humidity, and being in and around water – you really have to prepare for that, especially for personnel.” Since the show has no scripts and the cast are non-actors, Cox and team wanted to shoot in a documentary style with a cinematic look.
25
Having worked in narrative films, commercials, and documentaries, Cox had to pull techniques from all those genres. “Our young cast were not used to having cameras around so there was a learning curve,” reveals Cox. “We knew going in that we needed to be able to follow reality and to understand that we can’t miss certain moments. We wanted to create an infrastructure and a style visually speaking that supported that.” One of the biggest influences for the look of Siesta Key was director Harmony Korine’s 2012 film Spring Breakers, which was shot by Benoît Debie. “We really liked the film’s saturation of scenes and how Florida became a character,” explains Cox. “For Siesta Key, we wanted to showcase Siesta Key and the surrounding area
VARICAM TECH SPECS
CAMERA: VARICAM 35 AND LT RESOLUTION: HD (1920X1080) ORIGINAL CAPTURE FORMAT: PRORES (V-LOG) LENSES: FUJINON CABRIO ZOOMS
as a character so we incorporated a lot of highspeed and off-speed photography. A lot of our additional footage of the show was shot at 48fps, or up to 120-fps. If a storm was coming in with lightning and rain, we would try and break one camera away to get that footage. We really wanted to capture the natural beauty of Florida.” Cox shot with four VariCam 35s and two VariCam LTs, capturing full HD (1920 x 1080) ProRes files. “We weren’t asked to deliver in 4K so we wanted our workflow to run smoother with less data management,” he explains. Although most of the show is captured handheld, Cox did use a [DJI] Ronin with an Easyrig Vario 5 outfitted with a FLOWCINE Serene to eliminate some of the vertical bounce. For lenses, Cox employed Fujinon Cabrio zooms lenses, which included 19-90mms (T2.9) and an 85-300mm (T2.9-4.0). “One of the reasons I chose the VariCams as the foundation of the camera department was because I knew that native 5,000 ISO was going to give us a lot,” says Cox. “We were going to be shooting a lot of scenes in clubs or dimly lit areas where we wouldn’t be able to add lighting or control the environment. We wanted zooms with a nice range and we really didn’t need the extra speed primes provide.” Cox captured in V-Log and monitored using the camera’s default Rec 709 viewing LUT but also sometimes monitored in V-Log. “I didn’t design any LUTs this time around because our workflow was so quick since we were essentially following the real lives of these people,” he explains. “We just didn’t have the time to be
switching LUTs and I didn’t want the process to get overly complicated for my operators.” Instead of dialing in his ISO setting, Cox kept it at either native 800 or 5,000. “It wasn’t because I didn’t want to lose control, but it was more about consistency for the image,” he explains. “I knew if we started shifting it around, it would get chaotic because of our workflow, timeline and turnaround. I knew post would need us to go through color grading very quickly and I didn’t want our colorist to deal with different exposure luminance values.” For lighting, Cox’s go-to lighting instrument was the LITEGEAR LiteMat. “We had the advantage of having Hisham Abed as a director on our show,” explains Cox. “He is also a director of photography and he was one of the original guys who worked on Laguna Beach and The Hills. Hisham had an entire set of LiteMats that were custom built – T1s and T2s – that are bicolor. We also had a small lighting package and made good use of 1.2K HMIs, 200 HMI Pars, Source Fours, and small Tungsten Fresnels.” Because of the harsh Florida sun, Cox used polarizers to control specular highlights. “The big advantage of shooting on the beach at Siesta Key is that the sand is so white and pure that it actually gives you a nice bounce, a relatively balanced exposure when dealing with skin tones,” explains Cox. “During shooting, it was turtle season and due to our permits, we couldn’t put anything on the ground when shooting on the beach. We had to ‘Hollywood’ in a bit of negative fill.” The series was finished at Geiger Post in
26
Hollywood by colorist Nathan Morgan. “The look did change from the Rec 709 look we had on set,” explains Cox. “I’ve worked with these cameras for a few years now so I feel confident on where I can push its limits and the latitude. If we had a solid negative, we can really go in a lot of directions. We’re accentuating the highlights but we’re also shifting where skin tones are. A lot of times, we’re pulling information out of the negative where some of the saturation might have fallen flat because we shot on overcast days. We were still able to pull the color information out, as well as accentuate it. “With every project, there are always high ambitions on where you want it to end up,” says Cox. “You always have to make certain sacrifices and compromises to make the reality happen, which was very literal on this project.”
For more information about the series, visit www.mtv.com/shows/sieta-key
Official trailer for Siesta Key https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_EW9JM2u3A
For more information on VariCam 35 and LTs, visit http:// www.us.panasonic.com/varicam
John Kelleran Shoots Travel Channel’s Hotel Impossible with VariCam LTs Hotel Impossible is a reality television program in which struggling hotels receive an extensive makeover by veteran hotel operator and hospitality expert Anthony Melchiorri and team. DP John Kelleran shot season eight of the Travel Channel’s popular series with VariCam LTs. Kelleran has more than two decades experience shooting reality/documentary projects, including extensive travel assignments. Working for production company Atlas Media in New York City, Kelleran shot a dozen Hotel Impossible hour-long episodes in locations ranging from Palm Springs, Fire Island and Albany, NY, spending five days in each locale. The previous year, Kelleran had shot episodes of HGTV’s Caribbean Life and Mexico Life with Panasonic AJ-HDX900 P2 HD camcorders. “When the Hotel Impossible project came my way several months later, I felt obliged to take a serious look at the VariCam LT,” says Kelleran. “Its Super 35mm sensor, low weight and power consumption, and of course, the classic image handling was very attractive to me.” What was new to Kelleran was the VariCam LT’s Dual Native ISOs of 800/5000. “I tested 5000 ISO by shooting in my own basement at night, and had my son illuminated only by a lighter and whatever light was coming through the small basement window,” he recounted. “It was one foot candle at best and the footage showed spectacular light on the boy.” The production rented three VariCam LTs from Talamas (Watertown, MA). Kelleran captured 1080p AVC Intra 422 files, and utilized the LTs’ standard EF mounts. “The VariCam LT is hands down the best camera available for the kind of work I do,” continues Kelleran. “It lets real things happen in front of you that you can capture without any intrusive manipulation of lighting.”
Lenzworks Shoots Season 2 of Relative Race with 12 VariCam LTs Photo courtesy of BYUtv Utah-based production company Lenzworks recently shot the second season of Relative Race, a co-production with broadcast partner BYUtv, with a dozen VariCam LTs. A pairing of a race against time with a genealogy hunt, Relative Race pits four couples against each other in a race from Miami, FL to Boston, MA, with required stops along the way to complete challenges, then meet and stay with relatives they previously didn’t know existed. The prize for the winning couple: $50,000. Tom Zdunich, Lenzworks’ President/Creative Director and coExecutive Producer of Relative Race, says the VariCam LT was chosen on the basis of its ergonomics, lightweight body, and lowlight performance. Lenzworks rented the VariCam LTs from Division Camera in Los Angeles, CA and fielded four crews, one assigned to each couple. Overall,
27
the 12 VariCam LTs were used 70% handheld and 30% on tripods. They shot a mix of formats, with primary interviews and computer screens shot in 4K AVC Intra 422, with the balance and lion’s share of footage shot in ProRes 422 HQ in 1080p. “All our DPs concurred that the VariCam LT’s low-light capabilities were invaluable,” notes Zdunich. “Our videographers were lighting less, and shooting a lot more, with the freedom to capture moments that last season would have been lost because we were stopping down to light.” Zdunich said that more than half of total footage was shot at native 5000 ISO, including virtually all interiors at the relatives’ homes, as well as some outdoor sequences. “We achieved a nice, natural image, which was our goal,” says Zdunich. “In terms of image production, the VariCam LT isn’t overly saturated and handles shadows very well.”
Reimagining A Classic DP Bobby Shore Shoots Netflix’s Anne with an E with VariCam 35 cameras {photos courtesy of Netflix}
28
Anne with an E is a filmed adaptation of the classic coming-of-age 1908 novel, Anne of Green Gables, by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. The seven-episode Netflix series, created by Breaking Bad writer/producer Moira Walley-Beckett, tells the story of Anne Shirley (played by Amybeth McNulty), a young orphaned girl who is sent to live with aging siblings by mistake. With smarts and a magnetic personality, Anne not only transforms the lives of siblings Marilla (Geraldine James) and Matthew Cuthbert (R.H. Thomson), but the entire town they live in. The series was shot by cinematographer Bobby Shore, CSC with VariCam 35 cinema cameras. Shore landed the job for Anne with an E based on an interview for another project with executive producer Miranda de Pencier. “While we were talking about her feature, she told me about developing a re-imagining of Anne of Green Gables,” explains Shore, who admits he never read the book, nor watched any of the filmed adaptations. “We just started throwing out references on how you could do it in a more interesting way and all our references turned out to be the same. It was mainly about approaching the story in a much grittier, almost cinema vérité kind of way, as opposed to something too clean or Merchant Ivory like.” Shore used a few visual references in developing the look of the series, including Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights, Jane Campion’s The Piano and Bright Star, and Cary Fukunaga’s Jane Eyre. He also was influenced by the photography of Sally Mann in how she captures landscapes. During prep, Shore knew he would have to shoot in 4K because of Netflix’s 4K mandate. He also didn’t have time to perform extensive testing. “Out of all the cameras we tested, the VariCam felt the closest to the Alexa in terms of dynamic range and color, which was my main point of reference since I know it so well.” Because of the large amount of footage they were capturing, Shore decided to capture 12bit 4:4:4 AVC Intra files in V-Log instead of RAW. Due to the short prep time, Shore had difficulty at first in finding an appropriate LUT for his V-Log footage. “I don’t like anything Rec 709 related – it’s way too contrasty and colorful,” explains Shore. “I was basically trying to come up with a lower contrast LUT that still looked good.” Shore felt that the lighting had to feel naturalistic because “the minute you start feeling
29
VARICAM TECH SPECS
CAMERA: VARICAM 35 RESOLUTION: UHD (3849X2160) ORIGINAL CAPTURE FORMAT: 12-BIT 444 AVC INTRA (V-LOG) LENSES: PANAVISION STANDARD AND SUPER SPEED VINTAGE PRIMES
the artifice of lighting, that’s when you lose the audience.” One big challenge on stage was that production built hard ceilings and no wild walls so it had to be lit like a location. “The blue you get from a sky, or the warm light you get from the sun bouncing off the ground, that’s what we ended up doing on the soundstage,” says Shore. “We used a lot of HMI and Tungsten lighting intentionally so we would have these drastic kinds of changes in color temperature where the background of one room would be completely blue, but the foreground of one room would be very warm and orange.” Although there were many scenes shot in candlelight, Shore almost never used VariCam’s native 5,000 ISO, except for a shot on a moving train going through the woods. “For the most part, there’s so much light everywhere and lenses are pretty fast,” explains Shore. “In my opinion, things usually look better underexposed. When someone is sitting next to a candle on a table, the
face is going to be a little soft and dark, and that’s just what it should look like.” Shore used a variety of Panavision standard speed and super speed lenses from the 1960s to the late ‘70s. “I wanted older lenses that didn’t resolve well with weird chromatic aberrations when you open them up all the way,” explains Shore. “I wanted to show how this precocious young girl sees the world, so having these unique characteristics that the lenses provided was something that would enhance her unique point of view.” Anne with an E was posted at Technicolor in Toronto where Shore worked with colorist Jim Fleming. “Once we figured how V-Log responded to highlights, midtones, and shadows, compared with ARRI Log C, I was extraordinarily pleased with the way everything looked,” says Shore. “It’s like learning a new film stock – you do the work to best achieve the look you’re going for with the tools you have.”
30
For more information about the series, visit www.mtv.com/shows/sieta-key
Official trailer for Anne with an E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5qJXYNNINo
For more information on VariCam 35, please visit http:// www.us.panasonic.com/varicam
Florida State’s Seminole Productions Covers The Field With VariCam LTs Seminole Productions, the video production unit of Florida State University’s College of Communication and FSU Athletics partner, deploys VariCam LTs to shoot cinematic features and opens for display on the state-of-the-art Panasonic large-format LED video boards that are installed throughout Doak Campbell Stadium. The VariCam LT is also being used to shoot segments and interviews for The Jimbo Fisher Show and Seminole Sports Magazine, both half-hour weekly television shows airing on the Fox Sports Sun Network. (Fisher is head coach of FSU Football.) Mark Rodin, Executive Director of Seminole Productions, explains that while the video boards are 1080/60p models and the sports magazine shows air in HD, the VariCam LT affords him the opportunity to “shoot in 4K with HDR now. Shooting in the 4K space lets us move the image around to create beautiful video for a broad variety of uses. “The fact that VariCam LT has 240-fps super slow-mo built into the cost of the camera is a key benefit,” continues Rodin. “We are utilizing the camcorder on the sidelines for every football game for game action and player reactions, and altogether the resulting segments have a real cinematic look.” He notes that the VariCam LT’s dual native 800/5000 ISOs were another inherent asset of the camcorder. “Shooting in low light at ISO 5000 is making for some very creative effects with the players and more dramatic opens and features for the fans in the stadium.” Seminole Productions utilizes the VariCam LT throughout its 17 varsity athletic programs. For more information about FSU Athletics, visit www. seminoles.com.
RTM Productions Goes Under the Hood with VariCam LTs Most weekends, auto enthusiasts can literally get their fix by watching the two-hour PowerNation TV block of four shows – Detroit Muscle, Engine Power, Truck Tech, Xtreme Off Road. All four shows are shot on six VariCam LTs and three AGDVX200 4K handheld cameras. RTM Productions’ company president Matthew Hawkins says, “There were only a handful of cameras that met our criteria of having a large sensor, HDR, VFR, simultaneous recording options and 4K output. With its standout asset of dual native 800/5000 ISOs, as well as all these features, the VariCam LT led the way.” RTM Productions shoots 92 episodes (23 of each show) each year. The facility house six separate
production studios, one assigned to each of the block shows, the fifth to PowerNation Interstitials and PowerNation Daily. The sixth studio is dedicated to PowerNation Garage, a new show that is distributed digitally and can be found online at PowerNationTV.com While acquisition and editing is 4K based, PowerNation shows are delivered in 1080i. “We’re ready to deliver in 4K, and we’re preserving our 4K masters for residual use,” reveals Hawkins. “The Panasonic cameras have stepped up our game,” he continues. “Shooting and lighting are easier, and we’re delivering an improved end product, with a greater level of detail that our enthusiast audience craves.”
31
https://www.facebook.com/panasonicprovideoUSA/ https://twitter.com/PanasonicProAV https://www.instagram.com/panasonicprovideo/
Website: us.panasonic.com/varicam If you would like to subscribe to Shot On VariCam, please email us at VideoProductionSolutions@us.panasonic.com