american cinematographer magazine october 2010

O C T O B E R 2 0 1 0

M E M B E R P O R T R A I T

John C. Newby, ASC

W W W . T H E A S C . C O M

TO SUBSCRIBE BY PHONE:

Call (800) 448-0145 (U.S. only)

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y first memories of cinemaare the downtownCleveland film palaces

showing Ben-Hur and Lawrence

of Arabia — incredible 70mmcolor imagery projected onto ahuge screen. Later, my brothertook me to an ‘art-film’ theater tosee the black-and-white vision ofOrson Welles’ The Trial. Fromthen on, I was hooked oncinematography.

“I remember readingAmerican Cinematographer

between reel changeovers andarc trims while working as anIATSE projectionist in Boston.What a joy to project The

Godfather and The French

Connection and read the articleson how those films were made!

“I have never stoppedreading AC, and I believe themagazine is now the best it’s everbeen. Cinematographers are notsolely technologists, and AC

strikes a healthy balance betweenartistic and technical dialogues.That’s the joy of cinematography:the blending of mechanicalknowledge with the creative eyeto form an illusory world.”

— John C. Newby, ASC

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The International Journal of Motion Imaging

28 With Friends Like These…Jeff Cronenweth, ASC “friends” David Fincher on the Facebook saga The Social Network

42 Zero-Sum GameRodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC and Oliver Stone manipulate the stock market for Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps

54 Bloody ValentineGreig Fraser and Matt Reeves lend macabre ambience to the vampire drama Let Me In

66 Welcome to the JungleAdam Arkapaw creates simmering tension for the Australiancrime drama Animal Kingdom

DEPARTMENTS

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— VISIT WWW.THEASC.COM TO ENJOY THESE WEB EXCLUSIVES —ASC Conversations on Cinematography: Richard Crudo, ASC interviews Victor J. Kemper, ASC

about The Friends of Eddie CoyleDVD Playback: The Ghost Writer • The Secret in Their Eyes • Red Riding trilogy

On Our Cover: Mark Zuckerberg ( Jesse Eisenberg) helps Facebook become a phenomenon in The Social Network, shot by Jeff Cronenweth, ASC. (Photo by Frank Ockenfels, courtesy of Sony Pictures.)

8 Editor’s Note10 President’s Desk12 Short Takes: “Lakairomania”18 Production Slate: Enter the Void • Indie 3-D72 Post Focus: Advanced Digital Services78 New Products & Services86 International Marketplace88 Classified Ads88 Ad Index90 Clubhouse News92 ASC Close-Up: Jim Denault

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If you’re a member of Facebook — and most of youprobably are — you’ve already heard about The SocialNetwork, David Fincher’s movie about the creation of theenormously popular website. Shot by Jeff Cronenweth,ASC, the drama focuses on the site’s young, Harvard-educated architects, who learned that the hard realities ofbusiness can turn friends into “frenemies,” especially whenbillions of dollars are at stake.

As Fincher tells Michael Goldman (“With FriendsLike These…,” page 28), the filmmakers sought to create“a righteous workflow” by outfitting Red One digitalcameras with the new Mysterium-X 4K sensor. Cronenwethsubmits, “I was confident that the Red would allow us towork light, move fast, handle low light and still get rich visu-

als. We could still monitor and regulate exposures, if you will, but our footprint was very small— we didn’t even have a DIT [digital-imaging technician]. We had a video-playback tech torecord data, and one camera assistant managing data and sending everything to editorial.”

Another movie about the vicissitudes of business, Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps,continues the saga of Machiavellian stock trader Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), an icon ofthe ’80s who summed up that decade’s financial excesses with the classic phrase “Greed isgood.” To put a contemporary spin on Gekko’s market maneuvers, director Oliver Stoneteamed with Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC, whose first task was to formulate visual strategies thatwould distinguish the sequel from the original (shot by Robert Richardson, ASC). “Our theorywas that if color means information and information is power, we’d introduce more intensecolor whenever a character had more power, and less intense color when he had less,” Prietotells New York correspondent Iain Stasukevich (“Zero-Sum Game,” page 42). “That allowed meto visualize the emotional arc of the characters and their positions within this world.”

Let Me In, the stylish U.S. remake of the Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In(2008), manages the tricky task of staking out new ground for a story that drew widespreadacclaim. In another article by Stasukevich (“Bloody Valentine,” page 54), Greig Fraser, a brightnew star in the cinematography universe, says he and director Matt Reeves took steps thatwould help them avoid making a carbon copy of the original film. “I loved the script Matt sentme, and from that point on, I knew I couldn’t see the original until I finished our film,” saysFraser. “Matt encouraged everyone else on the crew who hadn’t seen it not to watch it,because he wanted all of us to bring our own take on the story.”

The Australian crime drama Animal Kingdom, recently released in U.S. theaters, offers amaster class in suspense. Aussie correspondent Simon Gray analyzes this intense picture withcinematographer Adam Arkapaw (“Welcome to the Jungle,” page 66), who defined the film’scharacters in revealing close-ups. “It’s an old adage that that’s where a cinematographer earnshis money,” he says, “but in this film, the faces are really where the heart of the story lies.”

Stephen PizzelloExecutive Editor

Editor’s Note

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8

INTRODUCING

[email protected]

I am really looking forward to the day that my cinematography career gets started. I’m seri-ous. I’ve shot more than 50 features and television shows, won awards, and establishedmyself as an industry leader on a number of fronts, but I feel like a beginner.

Every time I sit in a movie theater and watch extraordinary work by another cine-matographer, I feel a sense of pride that I’m in the same profession, and hope that somedayI’ll be a professional cinematographer. Right now, I’m in the experimenting stage. I’ll trydifferent things, and I constantly pick up new ideas and new techniques from just aboutanywhere — a visit to the art museum, an edgy fashion magazine, a particularly well-writ-ten passage in a book, a jazz piece I’m hearing for the first time. All these things and morecontribute to the toolbox of visual inspiration that I test on everyday filming jobs so I can beready when I turn professional.

When will I turn pro? That’s a hard question to answer. Right now, I’m having toomuch fun playing with the possibilities of what cinematography can bring to a project. Andbecause each project is a unique and different entity, I can’t really apply the same techniquesI used on another project. I have to do something different every time so I can see if there’sany limit to the extent of my imagination.

There’s an exercise I practice on every project: I never go with my first idea for lightinga scene. The first idea is going to be the most obvious way to shoot it, and you’ve probably done it before and were success-ful at it, which is why you feel compelled to do it again. Throw out that idea and look for the second idea. I guarantee itwill be much harder to find, but also more interesting to watch.

Sometimes that second idea comes from the pressure of the moment, from the need to get something done nomatter what. When Conrad L. Hall, ASC was filming Jennifer 8, the production was days behind schedule, and they wereabout to start lighting a complex night sequence in which Andy Garcia explores corridors in a building with a flashlight. Theproducers asked Conrad how much time it would take to light the scene. Recognizing the responsibility they were puttingon him to help get the production back on schedule, Conrad called his gaffer over and asked to see the flashlight Garciawould be holding. He took out his light meter, read the intensity of the beam from a few feet away, and told the produc-ers “We’re lit.” Conrad taped reflective material on his body and instructed Garcia to point the flashlight at him occasion-ally as he walked down the hallway so the light would kick back into his face. Conrad danced around the camera just outof shot to vary the angles of the reflection. Just like that, Conrad brought the production back on schedule, and the light-ing effect was perfect for the scene.

When we come to the set ready to play, leaving our minds open to new possibilities, we expand the visual texture ofthe movie and free ourselves from the shackles of it becoming a job.

My parents were placed in internment camps during World War II, despite the fact that they were American citizensborn in the United States, and they were subsequently denied the kind of educational opportunities they wanted. Theyalways told me, “Never have a job. Do what you love to do, but be the best at it, and somebody will pay you for it.” It wasa bold statement coming from people who were denied the right to do it themselves, but I took it to heart. Though moneywas very tight when I was growing up, I was encouraged to dream, and I dreamed big. I loved making movies with theneighborhood kids. It was a lot of work, but it was all play. When I declared at age 8 that I wanted to go to Hollywood andmake movies, my parents told me, “Then that’s what you should do.”

When will I turn pro and make all this playing around into a career? With any luck, never.

Michael Goi, ASCPresident

President’s Desk

10 October 2010 American Cinematographer

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A Blazing Skate VideoBy Iain Stasukevich

Shooting skate videos is a lot harder than it looks. For starters,it’s helpful to know how to ride a skateboard. The person with thecamera often rides around after the skater, capturing difficult trickswhile speeding down a steep hill or through a parking lot or play-ground. To frame a trick, you have to get the takeoff, the trick andthe landing all in one shot. Between takeoff and landing, no editingis allowed.

Patience is key. On a bad day (or night), the skater might notland a single trick. The younger ones are easily distracted and lessinterested in what’s good for the camera than they are in having fun.For these reasons and many others, the “go, go, go” method ofshooting skate videos isn’t particularly suited to the “hurry up andwait” of Hollywood filmmaking, but that hasn’t stopped cinematog-rapher Marc Ritzema and director Ty Evans from trying.

After making his mark as a skate-video director in the mid-1990s, Evans hooked up with Spike Jonze’s Girl Skateboardscompany. He and Jonze co-directed two well-known skate videos,Yeah Right! and Fully Flared, sandwiching clever visual effects andexplosive action sequences (shot on film) between more traditionallyshot scenes.

Ritzema skated for Vans while studying film and communica-tion at Biola University, but when he injured a knee ligament, hisathletic career came to an end. “I had to concentrate more on myfilmmaking,” he recalls. “I worked for a couple of years as a projec-tionist and a grip and an electrician while doing everything I could toput together a cinematography reel.”

His reel gained him admission to the American Film Institutein 2002, and two years later, on a shoot for St. Vincent’s “JesusSaves, I Spend,” he met Colin Kennedy, the staff director/videogra-pher for skate company DVS. Kennedy invited Ritzema to join himin the 2008 Transworld Skateboarding “Skate and Create” videocompetition. “I was able to go back to my roots and combine myknowledge of cinematography with skateboarding to help Colinwin the competition,” says Ritzema.

Ritzema’s winning collaboration with Kennedy, along withtheir 2009 entry, caught Evans’ attention. “Marc has an eye,” Evanssays. “He really knows how to design a shot.”

Collaboration between a director and cinematographer israre in skate videos, notes Ritzema. “Each company tends to useone guy, a director who shoots and edits his own stuff,” he explains.“And some professional skateboarders only allow onedirector/cameraman to shoot them.”

“Lakairomania” (referring to sponsor Lakai), Ritzema andEvans’ entry in Transworld’s competition this year, won the top prize.The concept sounds like a scene out of The Warriors: A gang ofskaters in a post-apocalyptic world finds itself in a bombed-out junk-yard filled with ramps and obstacles. They throw Molotov cocktailsat the ramps, lighting them on fire, and then skateboard throughthe flames.

The budget didn’t allow for a full crew, generator and studiolights, so the filmmakers lit using flame bars, flame cubes and fire-balls, in addition to six narrow-beam Par cans gelled with Full CTBto provide contrasting color and highlight parts of the set. “This wasthe first time I’ve used a special-effects team as my primary lightingdesigners,” says Ritzema. “We placed the flame bars and cubes in

Short Takes

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For their entry in this year’s

TransworldSkateboarding

“Skate andCreate” videocompetition,

director Ty Evans and

cinematographerMarc Ritzema

fashioned apost-apocalyptic

junkyard filledwith ramps andobstacles and lit

with practicalfire effects.

I


specific areas where we needed a fireelement to silhouette the skater at theclimax of the trick. From there, we’d fill theframe with other flame bars, sparks andpools of water to obtain as many layers of

light as possible.” The Par cans were used toadd detail and help the skaters see wherethey were taking off and landing when theset wasn’t lit by fire.

Even before the cameras started

rolling, the filmmakers were feeling theheat. Each team usually gets nine days tocomplete a project, but because of thesubject matter, fire marshals had to be onset at all times. The set was an industrialwarehouse in Carlsbad, Calif. The firepermit only allowed eight-hour days, andweekend work was prohibited. Once theschedule was worked out, Ritzema andEvans had just four days to shoot.

Setups took place around one obsta-cle or ramp, and once it was lit on fire (usinga flammable viscous paste called “burnbutter”), six skaters sometimes had just twominutes to perform a trick. Ritzemadescribes the set as “total chaos. We’d havethe skaters do their trick over and over. Ifthey didn’t land it, they’d run around thecamera and try it again until the burn butterwent out. Often we shot for two minuteswith every skater and wouldn’t land a singletrick.”

The pyrotechnics group monitoredthe heat in the warehouse ceiling to makesure the emergency sprinklers wouldn’tactivate. After a few applications of burnbutter, they’d shut the set down and openup the warehouse to let the smoke andheat evaporate. It took about 30 minutes toreapply the burn butter, turn on the lights,and get the skaters back into the ware-house to do it all again. “We only got oneor two setups a day, about 10 tricks,because it was such painstaking work,”notes Ritzema.

For each scene, Ritzema set up asmany as six cameras to capture the tricksfrom different angles. He used a Red One(shooting 100 fps with the Mysterium-Xchip), a Canon EOS 5D MKII (at 24 fps), twoCanon EOS 7Ds (at 60 fps), a Rebel T2i (vari-able fps), and a Panasonic AG-HVX200(variable fps), shooting coverage fromdifferent angles. Using flames as keylightmade it difficult to judge exposure duringsetup time, so Ritzema had to wait until agiven scene was blocked and the pyrotech-nics were ready to go. Once the skatersstarted their first run, he’d roll camera andcheck the Red’s onboard waveform to makesure the exposure was proper, then run tothe HDSLRs to match the look. By the timethe athletes were ready for their second try,all the cameras were dialed in.

“On the very first shot, I exposed

Top and middle:The skaters lightup the bombed-

out landscape withMolotov cocktails

and proceed toskate through the

burning wreckage.Bottom: Evans (in

white shirt) showsRitzema (wearing

leg brace) andcompany the

proper techniquefor throwing an

incendiary bottle.


more for the mid-tones and the detail in theramps with the edging from the Par cans,”recalls the cinematographer. “Once theflames burst, they were completely blownout. There was no detail in the flames, andyou could see everything in the warehousethat you didn’t want to see.”

With the Red’s sensor set to daylight-balanced 800 ASA, the shutter set to 90degrees (“which makes the flames nice andcrispy”), and a Cooke 18-100mm T3 zoomat T4/5.6, Ritzema found he could actuallyunderexpose the image by as many as 3stops. “It maintains the flames, and theywere really nice and orange,” he says. “Iknew there was a ton of information in theR3D files that we could bring up later on —the little edgelights and things I did with thePar cans. We’d take the shot over to our DITcart, which had a Red Rocket card, and startplaying with it. The MX sensor has a lot ofinformation in the tail of the curve, so wejust lifted up the signal until we saw whatwe wanted.”

Ritzema used the Canon 7Ds and 5Das secondary cameras. Although 80 percentof “Lakairomania” is Red footage, theHDSLR content ended up informing thefinal look of the video. “Because theMysterium sensor has a much widerdynamic range, if we intercut it with thefootage from the Canon cameras, we’dhave to really compress it down,” he notes.“But we nailed those 5D and 7D exposuresto the point where we weren’t really limitedin what we could do with the Red.”

When he spoke to AC, Evans was stillediting the video, prepping it for a 4:4:4online at Bandito Bros. in Los Angeles. “Idon’t even care if we win,” he remarks. “Itwas such a great experience that I’m glad Igot the chance to do it at all.

“This competition really helps [skate-video] directors see the value in workingwith a cinematographer,” he adds. “I’d liketo see that collaboration happen moreoften.”

The video is posted online athttp://skateboarding.transworld.net/. ●

Top and middle: A crane captures some of the skating action. Bottom: In addition to the flame effects,Ritzema employed narrow-beam Par cans gelled with Full CTB to highlight parts of the set.

www.aja.com

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Contemplating a Colorful AfterlifeBy Benjamin B

Gaspar Noé’s Enter the Void is an unabashedly strange film.Some might consider it avant-garde fare, but its beautiful imagery —including dark apartments featuring halos of warm light, brightTokyo night exteriors, and nightclubs full of vibrant, pulsating lights— is accessible to all. The film was shot by Benoît Debie, who previ-ously collaborated with Noé on Irreversible (AC April ’03).

Enter the Void starts as a POV film, with the camera standingin for the eyes of the invisible hero, Oscar (Nathaniel Brown). Ayoung American living in Tokyo, Oscar makes a living selling psyche-delic drugs, while his sister, Linda (Paz de la Huerta), works as a strip-per. The film begins with Oscar smoking DMT, which triggers a long,vivid hallucination. He then stumbles off to sell some drugs in a darkbar. When the police rush in to arrest him, he takes refuge in thetoilet, where he is shot. Oscar dies on the spot and becomes a kindof ghost.

The movie then combines Oscar’s astral hovering with flash-backs of his life. The astral projection, very loosely inspired by TheTibetan Book of the Dead, involves the camera soaring above Tokyostreets, swooping over walls and hovering on ceilings, watchingthose closest to Oscar, mostly Linda. Oscar’s memories are presentedin an unusual way: we see the darkened silhouette of his back on theside of the frame, or sometimes smack in the middle. These views areblended to recall the siblings’ traumatic childhood, and their recentadventures in Tokyo. Oscar’s ghost sees his own ashes go down adrain, witnesses Linda’s mourning, and watches as she struggles with

despair and hope. In a spectacular sequence, Oscar sees Linda makelove at a “Love Hotel” that is full of rooms with luminous, matingcouples.

AC met up with Debie at Cannes in 2009, right after theworld premiere of Enter the Void, and recently continued theconversation by phone. We met separately with Noé in Paris.

Noé says the details of Enter the Void’s dream are groundedin his analysis of his own perception. For example, he wanted toavoid the color blue because that color is absent from his owndreams, and he sees himself in silhouette in his memories anddreams. For verisimilitude’s sake, Noé also added a “blinking effect,”one or two recurring black frames, to Oscar’s POV in post.

The director explains that he dislikes using professional light-ing instruments. “I have a phobia of movie lights,” says Noé. “I don’tlike having equipment on the set that would prevent me from turn-ing the camera around. Benoît and I had an agreement on Irre-versible and on this film that there would be no movie lights on theset.” He concedes, however, that exceptions were made on Void inorder to create the strobe lighting in the nightclub, and to allow forsome impressionistic washes of changing colors.

In keeping with the director’s request, Debie achieved mostof the film’s lighting practically, with in-frame lamps or fluorescenttubes. The bulbs were often on dimmers to allow for speedy lightchanges, with the added benefit of warming the color. Apartmentinteriors were mostly lit with practicals, and the strip club’s dressingroom set was keyed with a frame of 30-watt bulbs around themakeup mirror. Oscar’s death in the bathroom is harshly lit with asingle bare bulb, as is the twice-repeated image of him in a bath-

Production Slate

Ente

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ame

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and

Wild

Bun

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ourt

esy

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ebie

.

In Enter the Void, a young man

(Nathaniel Brown)relives keymemories

following hisdeath, often

appearingsilhouetted in

the frame.CinematographerBenoît Debie shot

this scene onlocation in

Tokyo withavailable light at

T1.3, using a daylight-balanced

negative. Selectivedefocusing was

done in post.

I


room mirror, which is the only time we actu-ally see his face. To create the portrait’slugubrious hue, Debie had the tube abovethe mirror gelled with Plus Green and Straw.The rest of the effect was, he says, a matterof dimming and exposure.

Debie explains that the script calledfor color changes in the middle of somescenes to reflect the ghost’s mental state. Toadd such touches of color, the cinematogra-pher used Japanese programmable LEDpanels designed for discos, which allowedhim to make changes on the spot. By vary-ing the red, green and blue diodes, Debiecould get a full rainbow of hues. “We wereable to get beautiful purples, which are diffi-cult to get on film,” he notes. “What’s more,the panels were very light and easy to hide,and very fast to set up.” LED panels werealso used to simulate flashing neons outsideOscar’s apartment windows, and to add atouch of red to the dressing-room scenes.

For scenes in the strip club, Debieused Mac 700s and Mac 2000s to programstrobing, beam sweeps and color changes.“The problem with strobes is that it’s difficultto synchronize with the shutter; with theseautomated lights, we could control both thespeed and the length of the flash,” he says.Linda dances on a translucent platform,beneath which Debie placed Mac 700sbouncing off a white surface or shiningdirectly up, creating a pulsating box of light.For the surreal Love Hotel sequence, Debiecombined LEDs, Mac 2000s and 700s, andsmall bulbs placed between the numerouslovers. “For the small bulbs, I used a dimmerto simulate the pulse of the heart during thetake,” says the cinematographer. “Theeffect was finished as CGI.”

Color is an essential part of Enter theVoid’s look, and Debie helped to define thepalette by shooting mostly with Kodak’sVision3 250D negative. Tungsten sourcesappear warm on a daylight-balanced nega-tive, so Debie’s choice heightened theorange tones of the dimmed practicals.Noting that Tokyo’s streetlights are close todaylight, he says he also shot the night exte-riors on 250D, keeping the urban lightsources relatively white, often with a touchof green. “And I avoided blue,” he addswith a smile.

“The danger when you are doing avery colorful film,” he continues, “is that it

In the top two frames, Oscar’s sister, Linda (Paz de la

Huerta), strips at a Tokyonightclub. Programmable Mac

700s and 2000s were keysources for these scenes. In

the third frame, 30-wattpracticals illuminate Linda’s

dressing-room tryst with herboyfriend. Right: Debie on

location in Thailand foranother project.


in post. (The extensive visual-effects work,including selective defocusing of manyscenes, was supervised by Pierre Buffin atBuf Compagnie, a co-producer of the film.)

Debie shot most of the film wideopen, at T1.3. “When you’re using smallbulbs, like we were, you have to do that,”he says. “We didn’t add any lighting to theTokyo streets at night. I’d just do a little stopchange if I saw a light that was too bright. Ipreferred to underexpose to keep somedetail in the highlights.”

Most of the movie was shot with a9.5mm lens in Super 16; a 16mm lens wasoften used for the 35mm opening. To shootthe astral view, the filmmakers used a Pega-sus or a Technocrane, depending on theroom they had on set. Noé was the cameraoperator for most of the film, with Debiedoing some of the handheld work. “Oper-ating was the best place to be in order tohave the control of what would end up on

the editing table,” explains Noé.Irreversible is made up of a reverse

chronology of 13 one-shot scenes, andEnter the Void also contains many suchuninterrupted scenes. “I had this movie inmind when I shot Irreversible, so bothmovies are filmed in similar ways,” saysNoé. “I decided to shoot one-shot scenesbecause I wanted the whole trip to look likeone continuous movement of the mind.”The director confesses to cheating a coupleof times when he needed to use differentportions of different takes. For example,when Linda learns that her brother hasdied, Noé had the image blurred so as tohide a dissolve to another take. In anotherscene, the movements from two cranes,one swooping up the façade of a nightcluband the other coming down on the otherside of the building, were blended to createthe illusion of a single shot.

“I try to come home with 10 or 15takes that are very different,” says Noé. “Atthe editing table, I exclude all those thatdon’t work. Sometimes you hesitatebetween two or three very different possi-bilities. Sometimes you end up choosing thescene according to the emotion of theprevious scene. It’s like seating people at adinner: it depends on who is in the nextchair. You can also notice when you go tothe editing room that the scene has gonevery far from what you initially intended,but mostly that’s a good thing, because it’slike real life coming in.”

“One of Gaspar’s great qualities isthat he pushes you to experiment,”observes Debie. “If, for whatever reason,something doesn’t work out as he hoped,he will never reproach you. He tells you,‘Let’s try it, and if it’s not good, tomorrowwe’ll do something else.’ That allows you totake a lot of risks. He is searching, and hetherefore pushes others to do the same.”

TECHNICAL SPECS

2.40:1Super 16mm and Super 35mmAaton XTR-Prod; Arricam LiteZeiss and Arri lensesKodak Vision3 250D 7207/5207, 500T 7219/5219Digital IntermediatePrinted on Kodak Vision 2383

can become a little gaudy. I wanted us tostay in a restrained color palette — therange is more or less between purple andorange or yellow. We tried to keep a unityto the colors.” Occasionally going to fluo-rescent green, he adds, “was a way ofallowing you to rediscover the color that therest of the film is bathed in. It’s good to putin another color; otherwise, your eye does asort of white-balance so that you don’t seethe colors anymore.”

The opening of Enter the Void,before Oscar’s death, was shot in Super35mm, with an Arricam Lite and Arri MasterPrimes, and the rest of the film was shot inSuper 16mm with an Aaton XTR-Prod andZeiss Ultra 16 primes. Noé explains that theidea was to heighten the visual realismwhen Oscar is alive. He notes, however, thatthe 16mm was so good that it was some-times difficult to see the difference, andgrain was therefore added to some scenes ➣

Above: A singlebare bulb

illuminatesOscar’s POV ofhis own body.

Right: Oscarglimpses

himself in thebathroom

mirror, the film’sonly close shot

of his face.


3-D on a ShoestringBy Jay Holben

There’s no doubt that Hollywood isin the midst of a 3-D craze. What was oncea curiosity or an Imax specialty is now thenew hot button for the industry. You mightsay 3-D is the new HD.

As filmmakers scramble to createcontent for 3-D features, 3-D cable channelsand 3-D HDTVs, they are discovering andfine-tuning workflows and methods. Cine-matographer Andrew Shulkind is at theforefront of this activity, only he’s focusingon the low-budget side of the spectrum,working alongside Los Angeles productioncompany World War Seven. “Our dive into3-D started on a project for Lionsgate,” saysShulkind. “We were making five mixed-martial arts movies for a total budget of $20million, and [World War Seven co-founder]David Shafei, who was directing one of thefilms, In the Gravest Extreme, came to meand said, ‘Can we do this in 3-D?’ I said,‘Why not?’”

The rule of thumb for an action filmbudgeted at $4 million is to move fast andbe agile, which is not common in the 3-Dworld. “We needed to make 3-D workwithin the existing 2-D infrastructure thatwe know and rely upon — bulky rigs wereout,” continues Shulkind. “I did someresearch and talked to [3-D experts] VincePace and Lenny Lipton before I startedworking on coming up with our own rig.We partnered with Stereoscope, who’dbeen working on rigs for Cunima HDcameras, which can accept PL-mount andC-mount lenses. They’re small enough to fitwonderfully in a parallel rig and get a veryclose interocular distance. Their small sizekeeps the rigs light, so you can easily putthem on a Steadicam or use them hand-held.”

In order to prove that budget-conscious 3-D was possible, Shulkind andWorld War Seven partners Shafei and JoshFerrazzano shot a test action scene, a nightexterior. “We tested six different rigs thatnight,” says Shulkind. “We had the Cunimarig, an Iconix rig and a Red One rig. We hadboth parallel and beam-splitter rigs for allthree cameras. We also had some rigs thatwe threw together quickly on cheese plates.The idea was to test everything we could to Ph

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Top: Workingwith productioncompany World

War Seven,cinematographer

AndrewShulkind has

helped fine-tunelow-budgetstereoscopicworkflows,

incorporatingsuch cameras as

Canon’s Vixiaconsumer HD

camcorders.Middle:

Shulkind alsocollaborated

withStereoscope tocreate 3-D rigs

for small CunimaHD cameras.

Bottom:Shulkind on set.

I

H o l l y w o o d8 1 8 - 7 6 1 - 4 4 4 0

V a n c o u v e r6 0 4 - 9 8 4 - 4 5 6 3

T o r o n t o4 1 6 - 4 6 7 - 1 7 0 0

A l b u q u e r q u e5 0 5 - 2 2 7 - 2 5 2 5

M o n t r e a l5 1 4 - 5 2 5 - 6 5 5 6

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F e l i k s P a r n e l lC i n e m a t o g r a p h e r

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see what worked and how far we couldpush things.”

Shulkind has experimented withother cameras for 3-D, including the SiliconImaging SI2K Mini, the Canon EOS 5D MKIIand the new Panasonic AG-3DA1. He sayshe was especially surprised by the results hegot with Canon’s consumer Vixia HD HFS200 and HF M32 camcorders on anotherproject. “I was very skeptical about theCanon Vixias in a professional setting, butwhen I saw the results, I was quiteimpressed. In low light, they performedbetter than the Red because of their sensi-tivity. With the double resolution you getfrom left eye and right eye in 3-D, the image is so sharp that sometimesyou can’t distinguish between the Red, theSI2K and even the Vixias. It’s about findingthe most appropriate tool for the job.”

“When we use the Vixias together,parallel, on a cheese-plate rig, we can get aninterocular distance of 2.75 inches, which isgood for subjects 6 to 10 feet from thecamera,” says Ferrazzano. “Utilizing theLanc [Local Application Control Bus system],we could actually slave the two Vixiastogether. They don’t actually have a Lancport, so we had to hack into the hot shoeand formulate a workaround, but once wedid, it worked great. Focus, zoom, iris are allslaved together. We don’t get perfectgenlock, but we do get it within a couple ofmilliseconds, which all stereographers willsign off on.”

The team also discovered it could useless expensive and less cumbersome rigs toshoot their stereoscopic images. “There aretwo schools of thought in doing 3-D: doconvergence on set, or do convergence inpost,” says Ferrazzano. “We found therewas almost no difference between the two.In fact, it’s almost more desirable to do it inpost because you don’t have the lens distor-tion that can come from toeing in on set;that takes a lot more time and is prettyexpensive to correct in post. One of thethings on set that takes the longest is settingyour convergence. Why take the time to doit there, when you have more time andmore freedom to do it later?”

“That’s really our big secret,” addsShulkind. “We made the decision to shooteverything parallel on set, and then do ourconvergence and 3-D effects in post. It

made shooting a lot faster and allowed usto push the stereo further on each shot.”

“Really, you’re going to be makingconvergence adjustments in post anyway— that’s the nature of the beast,” notesFerrazzano. “You can take your time with a70-inch monitor and really fine-tune theeffect. It does require that you sacrifice afew pixels of resolution, but the trade-off inwhat you get in time and creative control faroutweighs the minute loss in resolution.Also, because you can get all kinds ofkeystoning artifacts by converging on set,you’re often sacrificing more resolution bycorrecting those than you would fromconverging in post.”

World War Seven carefully struc-tured its workflow, and although Ferraz-zano won’t reveal all the ingredients of the“secret sauce,” he notes, “There’s a lot ofsoftware coming online every day andmaking things easier. We’ve streamlined theprocess so that we’re muxing [multiplexing]stereo masters on set and then sending a 2-D proxy to the editors. We cut everythingin 2-D and then conform that back to 3-Dand do our convergence pass.”

“With tools like the Cinedeck,you’re basically getting a three-in-one box,monitor, SATA storage and a device thatautomatically locks the two clips together inreal time,” says Shulkind. “From there,you’ve got a standard tapeless workflow,and it doesn’t matter that you’re shooting3-D.”

“Producers love 3-D because of theversioning it offers,” attests Ferrazzano.“We’re shooting 3-D, of course, but withthe click of a button, we can offer an HD 3-D master for 3-D TVs, we can create ananaglyph version for the Web or release onDVD, and we can, of course, create a 2-Dversion. It all comes from one master.” (Atpress time, the company was midwaythrough shooting the five Lionsgate films,and exhibition details were unavailable.)

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Director David Fincher declares that his team employed“a righteous workflow” for The Social Network, a digi-tally captured feature that details the development ofthe Facebook website by Harvard University students

in 2003. According to Fincher, his team, which includedcinematographer Jeff Cronenweth, ASC, managed tosimplify while significantly advancing the data-based work-flow methods employed on Fincher’s The Curious Case ofBenjamin Button (shot on high-definition video and 35mm;AC Jan. ’09) and Zodiac (shot on HD video; AC April ’07).

Fincher had used Thomson’s Viper on Zodiac, and theViper and Sony’s F23 on Benjamin Button, but when hestarted prepping The Social Network, he made an early decision to adopt Red One cameras and data-managementtechniques for the project. Friend and fellow filmmakerSteven Soderbergh offered Fincher the use of Soderbergh’sown Red cameras, and around that time, Red was preparing to introduce its new Mysterium-X 4K sensor.

With FriendsLikeThese...

With FriendsLikeThese...

David Fincher and Jeff Cronenweth, ASC help beta-test Red’s Mysterium-X chip on The Social Network,

which chronicles the founding of Facebook.

By Michael Goldman

•|•

www.theasc.com October 2010 29

Fincher persuaded Red to upgradeSoderbergh’s cameras with beta-version MX sensors, and he andCronenweth shot The Social Networkwith them, recording mainly to 16-gigabyte CF cards.

“Viper technology was a fewyears old by the time we started thisproject,” explains Fincher. “I wascomfortable with it and liked thebandwidth and the pictures I got, but… Steven [Soderbergh] let me use hisRed Ones on some Nike commercials,and I just felt the Red was future-compatible. It’s light and small, and Icould walk away from the set at the endof the day with a wallet full of CFcards, take them to the editorialdepartment, download them, and goback and use them again. I call it arighteous workflow.

“Red’s new chip was in the betastage when I started prepping SocialNetwork, and I felt that if the companycould guarantee the chip’s stabilitythroughout our shoot, it was a riskworth taking,” continues the director.“[Red CEO] Jim Jannard did that, sothe decision was easy. When I broughtJeff Cronenweth in, I said, ‘If you don’tlike the tests, we can discuss making achange, but otherwise, this is how Iwant to go.’ We went into a digital-Uni

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Opposite (from left):Eduardo Saverin(Andrew Garfield),Dustin Moskowitz(Joseph Mazzello),Mark Zuckerberg(Jesse Eisenberg) andChris Hughes (PatrickMapel) experimentwith computerizedsocial networking atHarvard University.This page, from top:Zuckerberg andSaverin strategize;Saverin works out acrucial equation thatspeeds up theFacebook program;cinematographer JeffCronenweth, ASC(foreground) and keygrip Jerry Deats lineup a shot with theRed camera.


intermediate suite, and the 4K imageswe saw made Jeff happy.”

Cronenweth had previously shotmusic videos and the feature Fight Club(AC Nov. ’99) for Fincher, and had alsoshot second unit for the director’s films

Seven (AC Oct. ’95) and The Game (ACSept. ’97). When Fincher offered tobring him aboard Social Network,Cronenweth had not used the RedOne with the new chip, though he haddigitally captured commercials with

the Red, Thomson’s Viper and Sony’sF35. Cronenweth says he quicklybecame comfortable with the MX chipafter testing, and he believes the Redsuited the “reality-based” aesthetic ofthe project at hand. He also felt theRed would help the production workaround the fact that it had no access tothe Harvard campus, where much ofthe story takes place. “We had to treadlightly when shooting near Harvard,while at the same time maintain highstandards,” says Cronenweth. “I wasconfident that the Red would allow usto work light, move fast, handle lowlight and still get rich visuals. We couldstill monitor and regulate exposures, ifyou will, but our footprint was verysmall — we didn’t even have a DIT[digital-imaging technician]. We had avideo-playback tech to record data, andone camera assistant managing dataand sending everything to editorial.The video-playback tech received thenormal 720 out signal for video assistvia normal cabling.”

◗ With Friends Like These...

Right: As part ofan initiationritual in the

freezing cold, a“grand

inquisitor”throws some

tough questionsat Harvard

students, whomust remove a

piece of clothingafter each

wrong answer.Below: Director

David Fincher(right) works out

a scene withEisenberg on

location.


The production carried two ofSoderbergh’s Red Ones (Build 21)upgraded with MX chips and outfittedwith Arri Master Prime lenses. KeslowCamera supplied the team with theMaster Primes and a third Red One.(A second unit, which focused oncrew-race footage, was outfitted withtwo lightweight Kevlar Red bodiesthat Red made specifically for the film-makers.) Soderbergh’s cameras wererun most of the time, with PeterRosenfeld operating the A camera andCronenweth on the B. The productionutilized the Redcode 42 compressionscheme, but Red also upgraded soft-ware so the production could go ashigh as 36 fps and still stay withinRedcode 42. The movie was shot 2:1(4096 x 2048) for a final aspect ratio of2.40:1.

Most of the time, the 4K imageswere recorded directly to CF cards. Forlong dialogue scenes or data-eatingspeed-change sequences, however, theteam also used Red-Ram and Red-Raid drives. The filmmakers visualizedwhat they shot “rather simply,” accord-ing to Fincher, on a pair of Panasonic

BT-LH 1760 HD focus monitors.Rather than calibrating the monitorswith a variety of look-up tables, theyrelied on the basic Redcolor defaultLUT, saving their fine-tuning for thedigital grade. Cards were sent to edito-

rial each day and offloaded, with aneditorial assistant backing up each cardto two separate hard drives and LTOtape before returning the cards to set.No physical media were used fordailies; instead, the production relied

Left: Harvard’screw team rowsdown the CharlesRiver in Boston.Below: The crewfilms a scene inwhich two of theteam’s memberswork out at theuniversity’spractice facility.


on the Pix System online media plat-form, staying in the data realmthroughout.

Cronenweth says there wereseveral advantages to having MX-configured cameras at his disposal.“Dynamic color range, improvementin latitude, highlights not vanishing asquickly into clipping areas, and actually

extending the toe area — those thingswere beautiful,” he enumerates. “Mostof this picture, like many of David’smovies, takes place in low-light situa-tions, so those things were helpful tous.”

Rosenfeld also enjoyed his firstencounter with the Red. “We prettymuch used it as if it were a film

camera,” says the operator. “It’s a digi-tal movie, but there were no laptops inthe camera department, no DIT, andwe were never burdened with having todub or copy cards on set. We rarelyviewed playback through the camera,as the video-assist operator handledshot evaluation in a traditional fashion.The only cables were the traditional


Clockwise from top: Sean

Parker (JustinTimberlake), the

flashy co-founderof the Napster file-

sharing service,offers to join

forces with theFacebook team;

Saverin andZuckerberg find

themselves atodds; Zuckerberg

ponders aproblem.


ones used on any video-assist tap; theyran to David’s HD monitor.

“Also, I liked the eyepiece,because with the bigger chip, I couldreally sign off on focus, which is hardto do with digital cameras,” continuesRosenfeld. “There’s an area operatorscall the ‘lookaround,’ an area that isn’trecorded in the aspect ratio. It’s usefulfor spotting intrusions or violations,like tracks or booms or stands. Withmost other camera systems, if you see itin the eyepiece, it’s too late, but with

the MX chip, there is a littlelookaround built into the format. Thiswas the first digital-cinema system I’veused where the eyepiece monitor wassharp enough for me to actually seefocus.”

Cronenweth notes, however,that manipulating depth-of-fieldremains a challenge. “If filmmakersshooting digitally choose to use depth-of-field as a storytelling tool, then it’simperative to control the exposure tocontrol focus,” he explains. “We shot

Clockwise from top:Hijinks ensue at the house thatserves as Facebookheadquarters; coedstake a big hit; Parkerand his cohortscelebrate theirsuccess.


tivities of the chip or sensor and whatthe effect of those filters might be. Weused IR neutral-density filters tocontrol the warm effects that the NDsinherently bring, and to give our blue-light-sensitive chip a better chance atcapturing the images the way wewanted them.”

Fincher’s goal was straightfor-ward photography in real-world light.“What David wanted was evidentright away,” recalls Rosenfeld. “Helikes symmetry — balanced composi-tions, strong lines, level frames, zerokeystone effects. He favors [dolly]track and avoids cranes as much aspossible. I believe there is only onehandheld shot in the entire movie.David was so clear on what he wantedvisually that camera placements andfocal-length choices were easy tomake.”

Because the production couldn’tshoot on Harvard property, the univer-sity facilities were re-created onstage inLos Angeles. Great care was taken toensure that all of the set lighting wasmotivated practically, according toCronenweth. There was a heavyreliance on fluorescents and smalltungsten lights hidden in ceilings, ageneral favoring of small units to createlittle pockets of light and shadowthroughout the old buildings depictedin the movie. “Much of it was practi-cals and simple lights, basic Fresneland Kino Flo fixtures,” says gaffer


with the [T1.3] Master Primes wideopen most of the time. When we wentoutside, which was rare, we had toreally stack ND filters to get the expo-sure down and achieve a comfortableamount of depth-of-field. Whenshooting digitally and stacking filters,one must always remember the sensi-

Right: Eisenbergexchanges

dialogue withactress Brenda

Song in a car scene

photographed onstage. Below:

Zuckerberg findshis idol, Parker,

devilishlyseductive when

the two meet fordrinks in anightclub.

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removing the memory card from ALEXA and

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A CLEAR PATH THROUGH POST


Harold Skinner. “We also usedLightcraft 4-foot 2Ks and soft-lightrigs I call ‘covered wagons,’ which arebasically lamps in a 4-foot cylinderwith protective grids approximately 12inches in diameter. Inside each arecommon globes, 75-watt PH211s,

250-watt ECAs, 500-watt ECTs, andso on. We also used little clip-on lightsthat we called ‘budget busters.’”

The inclination to keep thingssimple pervaded the shoot. As anexample, Skinner points to a scene thattakes place in a Bay Area club in low

light. In the scene, Napster co-founderSean Parker ( Justin Timberlake) triesto educate Mark Zuckerberg ( JesseEisenberg) about business strategies inthe online world. Cronenweth says hestarted with a complex Technocraneshot that looked 180 degrees from thebottom floor of the club to a second-floor VIP area. Fincher wanted toenhance the chaos of the club aroundthe two men while making Parker’slecture sound sinister.

The notion of lighting the twoactors from their tabletop wasproposed, and it was expanded to cuelight and color changes to the beat ofthe ambient music. Skinner’s teamdevised a solution by using LEDmedia panels to splash colorfulQuickTime movies onto the actors’faces. “A dance-floor lighting rig and afew other moving lights were interact-ing in the background, but the tablewas the only keylight in the scene,”says Skinner. “We had LED mediapanels built into the tables, and thelight emanating from them was a series


Right: Saverin’smercurial

girlfriend, Christy(Brenda Song),

burns one of hisgifts as her

jealousy grows.Below: Erica

(Rooney Mara)breaks up withZuckerberg, an

emotional blowthat sets him onthe path toward

socialnetworking.

of QuickTime movies as fractalsanimated on the LED screen, comingthrough the screen below a diffusedsurface. We used 11mm LED tilesfrom PRG and controlled everythingfrom a Virtuoso DX2 console and anMbox Extreme Media Server.”

The Social Network’s first shot, anight exterior that plays during theopening titles, was perhaps the mostcomplicated piece of the movie tocapture. The sequence depictsZuckerberg racing through HarvardSquare and the university gates.Capturing the sweeping panoramicnight exterior required all three RedOnes; images from the cameras werelater tiled together into a single imageto create an establishing view ofHarvard Square, with the university inthe background. The obstacle was thefact that most of the property picturedin the sequence was owned byHarvard, and therefore off-limits.“Fortunately, we had the support of thecity of Cambridge, and their workersreplaced all streetlight globes thatwouldn’t give us our desired mercury-

vapor feel for the entire two-blockarea,” says Cronenweth. “Then, we hidour own globes [on dimmers] on theback side of the same streetlights tocreate bigger pools of light underthem. We also used various parkingspots to create as many edges as possi-ble with tungsten 10Ks and 5Ks to

separate Jesse out from the dark bricksof the campus.”

Cronenweth’s crew also set upsome moving lights to play asEisenberg passed certain locations onthe street. But the team still faced theproblem of how to properly backlightedges of the iconic brick arches at


Left: Zuckerbergtestifies at adeposition duringthe legal battlefor Facebook.Below: Priminghimself for ameeting with agroup of “moneymen” who burnedParker, Zuckerbergdons defiantlyinsouciant attire.


Harvard Square that serve as a campusentrance. The shot, as designed, neededthe backlight, but the filmmakersweren’t allowed on campus. Fincher’ssolution was to hire a street performerto set up his performance cart insidethe gate, and to have Cronenweth’screw place in that cart a portable,battery-powered light source — two500-watt ECT Photo Floods hookedup to an 1,800-watt inverter/batterypack — designed to fire up only whenthe filmmakers were shooting.

The most specialized lighting,however, was required for the movie’smost complicated visual effect: about15 face replacement-shots used to

make two different actors appear asidentical twins, Cameron and TylerWinklevoss. The brothers were cham-pion rowers who crewed at Harvardand later sued Zuckerberg overFacebook’s creation. Fincher couldn’tfind a set of identical twins who satis-fied his requirements, so instead, hehired one actor, Armie Hammer, toplay Cameron, and another, JoshPence, to supply the body and bodymovements for Tyler. The filmmakersused a combination of split-screenshots and digital face replacementswhenever the brothers interacted, espe-cially during rowing sequences. Forthose shots, the production turned to

Lola Digital. “Armie looked the mostlike the real brothers, so I wanted to usehis face,” says Fincher. “I realized wecould use a lot of split screen, evenmoving split screens. As long as we hada plate I liked and enough data aroundthe second take, we could just rack thebackground of the second take. As longas the actor didn’t go out of frame, wecould split-screen it back in. We didthat a lot; the actor would go out the Aside and back in the B side, and thenwe would track the plate on the B sideto an A plate, and rotoscope it all backin and track it to the plate. But whenthey were rowing, we had to do facialreplacement.”


Diagrams provided by gaffer Harold Skinner, on this page and the next, detail the crew’s lighting strategies for a two sequences. The path shown above was laid out to follow Zuckerberg as he races through Harvard Square and onto the university’s campus (visible at upper right).

Lola’s visual-effects supervisor,Edson Williams, says the idea was notto build an all-CG head of the actor, asin Benjamin Button, but to shootmultiple cameras on Hammer andproject that imagery onto Pence’s face.“We put tracking dots on Josh’s face,and then he and Armie would interactas if they were two different people inthe scene,” says Williams. “After prin-cipal photography was done, we’dcapture that photography and analyzeit to find the body double’s lightingpatterns. We would then re-create thatlighting on a stage and project it ontoArmie as he sat stationary in a chair.”

The approach is based on

science pioneered by Paul Debevic, but instead of using Debevic’s movablelight stage, Lola simplified things.“Paul has a clever technique to mimicreal-world lighting on a stage, but we had two problems: the immenseamount of data processing required,and the Red One’s rolling shutter,”Williams explains. “We used Reds, butDebevic’s system works with pulse-width modulation, which is an energy-efficient way to control LEDbrightness using a fixed frequency [upto 3,000 hertz], with only the durationof each pulse changing. But with theRed’s rolling shutter, pulse-widthmodulation can cause flickers because

the scanlines don’t sync with thepulses. So instead we went with 12[Litepanels] Bi-Color LED panels,which don’t use pulse-width modula-tion, and change brightness withoutflicker. We controlled the panels with programmable DMX lightingcontrols, and we’d visually match ourset lighting to the lighting on Armie’sface that was recorded on location.”

As Hammer delivered his linesin the DMX-controlled environment,Lola would capture his facial move-ments with four Reds, and then theteam would project that footage to aCG model of his face, tracked toPence’s movements with Boujou and

This diagram shows the crew’s approach to the streets just south of Harvard Square, where they shot sequence that leads to a club.


PF Track software. CG tweaks to the face were done in Maya, and everything was composited usingAutodesk’s Flame, which was impor-tant, according to Williams. “What welearned on Benjamin Button was thatprojecting faces is really about shadowsand light,” he says. “This way, we had alot of control over shadows and lightbefore the projection, and could adjustlighting on the footage we shot ofArmie before we projected it to thegeometry tracked onto Josh. It’s sort ofa 2-D process with 3-D assistance.You’re not creating a CG face, you’reprojecting real skin onto geometry.”

The crewing sequences, shot bythe second unit aboard two-manracing sculls, posed another problem:the cameras were too heavy for theboats. Fincher asked Red if there was away to somehow lighten the load. “TheEmpacher boats are fragile and flex alot, so we needed lightweight cameramounts and bodies,” explains


Tracking dots were applied to the face of actor Josh Pence to help facilitate visual-effects techniquesthat would replace his features with those of co-star Armie Hammer (left), allowing the two actors to

play identical-twin athletes Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.

40

Cronenweth. “Red stripped the Onesdown and gave them carbon-fiberbodies; they weighed less than 6pounds each. That freed us to placethem wherever we needed withoutinterfering with the integrity of theboats or compromising the athletes’performances.”

Red’s close partnership withFincher continued through post: Redinvited the filmmakers to do the entireDI process on Red Studios’ Stage 4 inHollywood. There, a 20'x40' theatricalscreen and a Sony SRX T420 4Kprojector were available for colorist IanVertovec of LightIron Digital, whograded the picture on Quantel’s PabloNeo. (The movie’s assembly work washandled by Fincher’s editorial team,which sent media to Vertovec as DPX-sequence equivalents of reels on harddrives.) After the color timing wascomplete, the picture underwent anoise-and-grain-reduction sweep atReliance MediaWorks’ Lowry Digital.

The finalized files were filmed out at2K at Technicolor, where David Orrtimed the answer print. (Technicolorand Deluxe Laboratories did therelease printing. LightIron Digitalcreated the DCDM master.)

“I think the MX chip made ahuge difference in the DI,” saysVertovec. “With digital cameras, youoften fight the signal-to-noise ratio inshadows. You often get a lot of conta-mination in colors down there, becauseyou try to boost the signal, but you alsopush it down to avoid a lot of dancingin shadows. With the MX sensor,when stuff goes dark, it just goes dark.When you look at your waveformmonitor, blacks are almost a solid linebecause there is almost no noise. Davidwanted the picture to be dark andmoody, and they didn’t overlight it onset and then ask me to push it down.We could move things around,certainly, but still stay at the low lightlevel they wanted.” ●

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In Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, the ostensibly reformedcorporate raider Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) isreleased from jail and quickly gets caught up in another webof professional and personal intrigue. This time the key

players are Jacob Moore (Shia LaBeouf), an up-and-comingtrader who is engaged to Gekko’s daughter, Winnie (CareyMulligan), and an evil hedge-fund manager, Bretton James

(Josh Brolin), who double-crosses Jacob’s mentor, LewisZabel (Frank Langella), ruining Zabel’s life and promptingJacob to seek revenge.

When director Oliver Stone offered the project toRodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC (Alexander; AC Nov. ’04), thecinematographer embraced it as “a great opportunity to learnmore about this particular world, especially how it looks,” he

A Zero-Sum Game

Rodrigo Prieto, ASC,AMC helps OliverStone manipulate

stocks on Wall Street:Money Never Sleeps.

By Iain Stasukevich

•|•


says. “My visual references for the stockmarket are mostly what I see on thenews, as well as Oliver’s first Wall Street[shot by Robert Richardson, ASC; ACDec. ’87]. I knew it would be importantto get firsthand experience with thisworld of trading and high-flying societybefore I tried to photograph it.”

The first thing Prieto did wastravel to New York City to scout locations and meet with a number ofpeople working in the stock market. Hediscovered that many traders Moore’sage had to mop up after their mentors in the wake of the financial meltdown,and consequently found themselves“suddenly handling hundreds ofmillions of dollars each day. This wascritical to understanding what wasgoing on for someone like Jacob.”

Another interesting discoveryhad to do with how information isdiscussed and shared. “In that world,information is called ‘color,’” notesPrieto. “When you’re exchanging infor-mation, you say, ‘I have color.’ For thecinematographer, of course, that’s animportant concept. I decided to exploredifferent ways of using color that wouldbe realistic and also enhance the drama.”He singled out the dominant colors ofU

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Opposite:CinematographerRodrigo Prieto,ASC, AMC usedin-camera tricksto achieve thisshot of stockfigures scrollingacross the faceof trader JacobMoore (ShiaLeBeouf). This page, top to bottom: Freshout of prison,Gordon Gekko(MichaelDouglas) goesback toscheming; Mooreand Gekko flankmalevolenthedge-fundmanager BrettonJames (JoshBrolin); Moorehelps his fiancée, Gekko’sdaughter, Winnie(Carey Mulligan),with thegroceries.


the financial world: green for stocks onthe rise, and red when they’re in decline.“The effects of the stocks correlate tothe performance of traders, so there’s alot at stake where those colors areconcerned,” he points out.

Prieto also started thinking interms of color saturation. “Our theorywas that if color means information and

information is power, we’d introducemore intense color whenever a charac-ter had more power, and less intensecolor when he had less,” he says. “Thatallowed me to visualize the emotionalarc of the characters and their positionswithin this world.” For example, whenthe film begins, Gekko’s world isrendered in muted colors to reflect that

he is essentially powerless because hehas been imprisoned for more than 20years. As he regains power, strongercolors start coming back into his world.By contrast, Bretton James’ world isinitially portrayed with intense colors,deep shadows and strong highlights, butas his fortunes take a turn for the worse,that look becomes more muted.

The depiction of some characters’worlds doesn’t change, adds Prieto. “Allof Lewis Zabel’s environments feature alow level of color saturation, and wekept Jacob’s world in the middle range.”

To determine how to best carryout his color theory, Prieto did extensivetesting in prep. He initially consideredmixing Fuji and Kodak film stocks, buthe eventually determined that Fujistocks were his best bet. “Fuji [Eterna]400 [8583] is grainier than the otherFuji stocks, and it’s less contrasty andhas decidedly muted color saturation, soit was a good choice for all of Zabel’sscenes, Gekko’s release from prison, andJames’ downfall,” he explains. “The newEterna Vivid 500 [8547] has strongcontrast and intense color saturation,which helped to convey the sense of

◗ A Zero-Sum Game

Right: To addemphasis to

Gekko’smomentousrelease from

prison, Prietocaptured thescene with aremote head

mounted on atelescoping

crane. Below:After emergingfrom captivity,

Gekko findshimself behindthe times withsome catching

up to do.

power and energy I was looking for torepresent James’ world at the peak ofhis power, as well as Gekko’s laterscenes, when he has regained his verve.”For the “middle range” look of Moore’sscenes, as well as scenes showingGekko starting to regain his footing, heused Eterna 500 8573 and Eterna 2508563, which “reproduce color accuratelyand have good grain structure.”

Prieto carried over his colortheory into his lighting, working withgaffer Bill O’Leary to find LED unitswith independently controlled RGBbulbs that would allow them to mix colors without using gels. Theyended up choosing Color KineticsColorBlaze and ColorBlast fixtures,which they used for situations rangingfrom posh society dinners to hip night-clubs. “We mostly used the ColorBlaze48,” says Prieto. “For some applica-tions — to uplight slim columns, forexample — we used the ColorBlast TRLED spotlight.”

One scene that relies on theLEDs’ customizable abilities depicts acharity event at the MetropolitanMuseum of Art. It’s a long scene, and

Gekko and hisfuture son-in-lawget down tobusiness inMoore‘sluxuriousapartment inmidtownManhattan,which Prieto lit with acombination ofnatural light,skirted heliumunits andstrategicallyplaced smallerfixtures.


Prior to Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Iworked with Rodrigo on Alexander [AC

Nov.’ 04], where he did an elegant jobunder very difficult conditions around theworld, and on the documentariesComandante [2003], Persona Non Grata[2004] and Looking for Fidel [2004], whichwere shot on the fly with digital cameras.Through time and experience, Rodrigohas gained my absolute trust, and not onlythat, but also my liking. I find him to be agentleman on set at all times, even underthe most difficult conditions. He is anelegant man with great dignity and style.He’s able to share his innermost thoughts,as well as assuage my own doubts. He hasbecome a good friend. And we share thetravails of having daughters of a young andrebellious age.

Our preproduction conversations onWall Street were always squeezed inbetween other things, but we’d got throughthe whole script by the time we shot. Ofcourse, the script changed, but the generalformat was set. Rodrigo is a highlymethodical cinematographer and worksinside a certain framework that he createsin advance, but he is also able to improvise.We were always on the run; we ended updoing more than 40 locations in 57 days,which about matched the speed of theoriginal Wall Street, but on that film, weshot on a set a lot, whereas on this film, weworked with existing locations that wehunted over a period of several months.

The weather in New York changedconstantly, and we had to move quite a bit,sometimes up to three locations a day.

When we had spontaneous eruptions ofweather, I always found Rodrigo to be verypractical, and he would make adjustmentsaccordingly. If worse came to worst, weknew we could “save” a scene in the DI, butthere were not many to save. In fact, it wasan economically shot film; I only shotabout 350,000', whereas in the past, Iwould have shot more film to protectmyself. We knew we’d have a very shortpost period — we were finishing the filmin early December, and at that time, thestudio wanted to release it in April — andthe more footage we had, the more we’dhave to cut. So knowing what we wantedwith the camera was very helpful towardsmaking a quicker edit. Even though weended up with a later release, I was veryhappy with the film the way it was, and Idon’t feel that we shortchanged ourselves.

Modern technology is everywherein the film. One event that particularlyinfluenced us was a ballgame at Metsstadium, where I saw a stunning new lasersystem for the scoreboards and video play-back. We got on it right away, and Rodrigobegan experimenting with ways to createreflections on the actors’ faces at variousmoments in the trading-floor scenes. It’s avery interesting effect in the movie andplays powerfully. I suppose it’s a modernversion of what Bob Richardson [ASC]did back in 1987.

The styles of the two Wall Streetfilms reflect the eras in which they wereshot. When Bob and I did the first film, Iwas in love with a tobacco filter for variousreasons, and we carried a lot of that into the

•|• Reflecting on a Creative Partnership •|•


film. In the 1980s, the color of greed wasyellow, and it all seemed so new, shiny anddecadent. By the 2000s, that decadencewas acceptable and ordinary; there was nonovelty in it. As a result, this film has aharder surface where the richness and thedecadence are ingrained. It’s not necessaryto highlight it; it’s part of the atmosphere.I think it represents a new generation ofvisual ruthlessness, if you want to call itthat.

In the opening title sequence, there’sa wonderful shot we got with a Spydercamthat climbed, in a corkscrew motion, theentire side of a skyscraper to revealManhattan in a way that has never quitebeen seen before. It ends with a digitalmove through a window to get into thestory and the dialogue inside an office. Itwas an amazing shot done in-camera.Another favorite scene in terms of cine-matography is the MoMA ball, where welit the walls of a cavernous hall with LEDlights and put very bright, white Kino Flosunder the tables, adding a rich visual glowto the entire hall. I also loved the rich, darkinteriors in the Federal Reserve Board.[Production designer] Kristi Zea madesure we found the richest locations withgreat wood surfaces.

I kid Rodrigo and call him“Velázquez” when he tortures himself withself-doubt. He has the profile of a Spanishnobleman, which makes me laugh. I shallalways think of him as one of thoseSpanish painters of light from the 16thcentury.

— Oliver Stone

“Through time andexperience, Rodrigo

has gained myabsolute trust.”

all of the key characters make anappearance, beginning with the red-carpet arrivals. The exteriors were shoton location, but the interior was a set;production designer Kristi Zea mockedup the old Cunard Cruise Line build-ing in downtown Manhattan to resem-ble the museum lobby. Prieto used theLEDs to uplight the interior walls withrelaxing blue hues and “just a pinch of

magenta” for the pre-dinner cocktails.Hidden under acrylic sheets coveringthe top of each table were the keylights,10 2' Kino Flo tubes configured in awagon-wheel pattern on the main char-acters’ tables, and color-corrected tung-sten fluorescent tubes for everyone else’stables. “We had very little time to shoot,and with this approach everything waslit no matter which direction we shot,”

says Prieto. “We used two cameras toget shots of all the tables, so we had tobe able to move around quickly.” Overthe whole area, two 30' 24K heliumballoons skirted with black clothprovided a toplight ambient level forfill, around 2½ stops under key.

After dessert, when everyone’sfeeling a bit looser, the lighting washingthe walls shifts toward red as Gekko


Clockwise fromtop: Screens andmonitors becamea key visualelement inscenes on thetrading floor;Prieto capturesan over-the-shoulder onLeBeouf; thecinematographerswings a camerainto position as apair of heliumunits illuminatethe room.

and James butt heads and Moore findshimself in the middle of it. At the endof the night, Gekko gets into an argu-ment with his daughter, and theirconfrontation carries outside to themuseum steps. Prieto illuminated theoutside of the building with greenLEDs to contrast with the red carpet.He explains, “Winnie has a deepresentment and distrust of her fatherand the world of finance, so I wantedto surround them with the colors ofthat world.”

The filmmakers wanted toincorporate the city into the story-telling as much as possible, and theMeatpacking District takes centerstage in a sequence that shows Mooreand his friends out clubbing, weaving adrunken path through the trendyneighborhood. “That area has becomevery modern,” Prieto notes. “Oliverwanted to exaggerate the colors, take ita little beyond what would be consid-ered a realistic night exterior. We hadto light Jacob and his friends walkingacross streets, down sidewalks and pastshops, and we used all sorts of tricks tohide lights. There were hundreds ofunits pre-rigged for this scene.”

The scene starts as the charactersleave one of the clubs, bathed in an


◗ A Zero-Sum Game

Top and middle:Exteriors of the

MetropolitanMuseum of Art

were shot at theactual location,

where Prieto usedgreen LEDs to

create contrast withthe red carpetascending the

steps. Bottom: KinoFlos (hidden

beneath tablecoverings), LEDs

and heliumballoons lend

elegant ambienceto the museum’s

interior, a set builtby production

designer Kristi Zea.


◗ A Zero-Sum Game

intense blue glow cast by a bank ofeight 4' Super Blue Kino tubes. Theywalk down the street, through the lightof a couple of 2K Blondes gelled with ½CTO, and cross into an area lit by SuperGreen Kinos. They continue movinginto the light cast by metal-halide prac-ticals, then through a stretch lit by eight4' Kino Flo fixtures lamped with stan-dard Cool White tubes. Fill wassupplied by small, battery-powered

Sourcemaker handheld balloons withmetal-halide bulbs inside. To heightenthe slightly off-kilter vibe of the scene,Prieto’s crew positioned strips of strob-ing orange, red and white LEDs alongthe path of the shot. “It was a lot of funto create 20 or 30 different moments oflight, but it was very labor-intensive,”Prieto recalls. “I was lucky to have sucha great crew. No matter how complexthe challenge, I could count on Bill to

make it happen without breaking asweat. Rigging gaffer Richie Ford madesure that all the lighting would be inplace before we arrived on set, key gripTom Prate would take care of everysingle crazy idea I had, and with firstAC Zoran Veselic, I knew the camerawas always taken care of.”

Shooting the scene was also achallenge, given that Stone wanted theactors to move and interact in long, fluid takes. On set, Prieto guidedSteadicam/B-camera operator MaceoBishop through the side angles, close-ups and wide shots, with the cameracircling the actors. “Maceo was a greatasset and saved the day constantly,” saysPrieto. “Every time we did an angle, itwouldn’t be just a piece, it would be thewhole four minutes. Every time weadjusted the angle, we had to relight.That was pretty complicated.”

To create additional ambiencefor the scene, the Standard Hotel,which looms over the MeatpackingDistrict, was uplit with LED lights thatsubtly shifted from blue to red. Othernearby buildings were accented withred-gelled 12-light Maxi-Brutes and

Right and below:Prieto applied

color theory to hislighting for varioussettings, including

posh societydinners and hip

nightclubs. He andgaffer Bill O’Leary

sought out LEDunits with

independentlycontrolled RGB

bulbs that wouldallow them to mix

colors withoutusing gels. They

eventually settledon Color Kinetics

ColorBlaze andColorBlast fixtures.

Arri T-24s and T-12 Studio Fresnelsgelled with either Lee 013 Straw Tintor 728 Steel Green.

Sometimes Prieto’s approach tonight scenes meant blending in withthe cityscape as much as possible. Ascene set in Moore’s mid-town apart-ment serves as an example. “The viewfrom that location was incredible —you could see all of Manhattan from thewindow,” notes Prieto. “We used Dinosand 10Ks to uplight the buildings forseveral blocks, and we even put ourlights in some of the windows in thebackground. In the distance, we had acouple of Arrimax 18Ks aimed at the

Empire State Building from a nearbyrooftop. When it came time to shoot,Oliver asked me which direction wewanted to favor, and I said, ‘Well, thewindow, because we’ve lit all thosebuildings.’ Oliver wasn’t even awarewe’d done it! Carey Mulligan thought Iwas joking, so I got on the walkie withBill and asked him to have one of ourlights moved. When it moved in the fardistance, everyone was surprised it wasnot actual street lighting. For me, thatwas a big compliment!”

Prieto also had opportunities to

execute simpler lighting designs. Afterthe IRS comes calling for Zabel, theembattled CEO holds an emergencymeeting in his private boardroom —actually the boardroom of theMetropolitan Life Insurance Co. — adark womb of polished wood andornate furnishings. Prieto was able touplight the intricately carved wood-work with tiny Dedolights, but therewas no possibility of rigging other

fixtures, so he floated a 30' 24K heliumballoon, skirting it with Duvetyn tokeep the walls dark for a chiaroscuroeffect. He had the camera mounted toa 30' Technocrane so he could float itaround the room, grabbing shots inevery direction.

Because technology is a criticalcomponent of the stock market’s flow ofinformation, the filmmakers strove todevise ways to depict it creatively. Stone

“Every time we did an angle, itwouldn’t be just a piece, it would

be the whole four minutes. Everytime we adjusted

the angle, we had to relight.”

came up with montages, dubbed “rumormills,” that show information beingdelivered via text message or e-mail, andPrieto suggested incorporating TV

screens and computer monitors intosome close-ups of characters on thetrading floor. “I didn’t want to just havea shot of a person and then a shot of a

monitor,” says the cinematographer. “Iwanted to be a little more subjective,punctuating certain key moments byplaying with reflections and projectionsof data on the actors’ faces.”

This effect was created totally in-camera. To achieve it, the actors werepositioned behind a piece of glass thatreflected the graphics of an offscreenmonitor. Other moving numbers andgraphics were projected directly on theactors’ faces with a 6K digital projector.The result is like a triple-exposure,with some numbers floating in theforeground while green and rednumbers crawl across the actors’ faces.In the background, computer screensflicker with activity. “We initially didthis only with Jacob, but Oliver liked itso much that we started doing it withother characters on the trading floor,”says Prieto. “It shows that they’re livingin the same world. This concept wastaken further by the visual-effects teamat Crazy Horse Effects for other

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Moore’s big ambitions are symbolized by this shot of him admiring New York’s ever-evolving skyline.

moments of the movie, including themontages where we see split-screensof many traders using technology tospread information.”

Shooting 3-perf Super 35mm,Prieto used an Arri package: ArricamStudios and Lites and Arri MasterPrimes. “This story needed a sharpnessand a hardness that I felt we could onlyget from the Master Primes,” heobserves. Throughout the shoot,Deluxe New York processed footageand generated HDCam-SR dailies,which were graded by Steven Bodner.The production was able to takeadvantage of a new Deluxe LUT calledDigiPrint, which renders the HDtransfer with film-print emulation; theLUT was applied immediately afterthe negative was scanned, before anyimages were color corrected.

“Our dailies were very close towhat we’ll be able to achieve in thefinal grade,” says Prieto. “Steve Bodnerwas a great asset for me and a great

partner in this production. I’d sendnotes every day, and he’d just nail it.”Prieto supervised the final grade atEFilm in Hollywood, working withlongtime collaborator Yvan Lucas.

Nailing the look early on wasimportant to Prieto, who strives toaccomplish as much as possible in-camera, despite the advantagespresented by the digital intermediate.“When you over-manipulate the imagein post, when you start adding contrastand shifting color information, you’reactually reducing that information, andthe image can start to look like it wascaptured with a digital camera,” heexplains. “That’s why I’m so carefulabout choosing film stocks and therelease-print stock. I want to achieve thecolor and density that I’m going fororganically.” ●

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Re-imagining the acclaimed Swedish vampire drama Letthe Right One In for American audiences, the new filmLet Me In follows 12-year-olds Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and Abby (Chloe Moritz), whose burgeoning

romance is complicated by the fact that he is human and sheisn’t. In his search for a cinematographer, director MattReeves wanted “someone who could find beauty in the real,”and after seeing Jane Campion’s Bright Star (AC Oct. ’09), hesent the script to cinematographer Greig Fraser. “There’s avery natural, poetic feel to Greig’s work,” says Reeves. “All ofmy instincts about this film were borne out and exceededwhen I met him.”

When he received the script, Fraser knew of theSwedish film (directed by Tomas Alfredson and shot byHoyte Van Hoytema, FSF, NSC), but hadn’t seen it. “I lovedthe script, and from that point on, I knew I couldn’t see theoriginal until I finished our film,” he says. “Matt encouragedeveryone else on the crew who hadn’t seen it not to watch it,because he wanted all of us to bring our own take on thestory.”

During prep, Reeves and Fraser studied Rear Window,The Shining and The Exorcist to develop ideas about how tocreate a pervasive sense of dread. “When I say we watchedThe Shining, I mean we really watched The Shining,” says

A young boy falls for a vampire in themoody and macabreLet Me In, shot byGreig Fraser and

directed by Matt Reeves.

By Iain Stauskevich

•|•

BloodyValentine


Fraser. “From the word go, you justknow that something terrible is goingto happen in that film.” Reeves adds,“We used a sort of classical, almostHitchcockian style to immerse theaudience in Owen’s point-of-view, oroccasionally another character’s point-of-view; throughout the film, you seewhat Owen sees married with closeshots of him watching. But at certainmoments, we juxtaposed that withshots that were more distant to create afeel of inexorable dread, and that wasthe Kubrick influence.”

Let Me In opens with a shotreminiscent of the opening of TheShining: a wide aerial shot of a snowymountain road at night. An ambulanceand police escort appear from around abend in the road, near the center of theframe, and the camera begins a slowpush in, but not on the vehicles. “Itzooms straight forward without a panor a tilt,” details Fraser. “Throughoutthe film, we tried to use a few of thoseuninflected zooms to comment on themood of a scene rather than the action.The camera isn’t emotional; it doesn’treact to things. There are a few shotsthat are handheld, but for the mostpart, we wanted the camera to beimpartial.”

The idea of a detached, voyeuris-tic perspective is a key visual motif inthe story. Many of the tale’s charactersare detached emotionally and physi-cally. Eye contact between children andadults is rare; Owen and his mother,whose face we never really see, almostU

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Opposite: After befriending Abby (Chloe Moritz), Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee) discovers that she’sa vampire. This page, from top: Owen demonstrates Rubik’s Cube in a frame grab that shows anartful use of anamorphic lens flare; the crew captures the shot; cinematographer Greig Fraser (at

camera) and director Matt Reeves (directly behind Fraser) prepares a close-up of Moritz.


◗ Bloody Valentine

never share the same frame. The film’sintense focus on Owen’s perspective iswhat draws the audience into the story.“Without using literal POV shots, wetell the story mostly through whatOwen sees and experiences,” saysFraser. “The uninflected zooms are usedsparingly, to briefly remove us from hisworld.”

Through testing, the filmmakersdecided that the anamorphic 2.40:1format would suit the project best, andFraser chose to combine Panavision’sC-Series, E-Series and G-series lensesin his camera package. Reeves observes,“You don’t usually see a film this inti-mate in a widescreen proscenium, butthere’s something amazing about beingin a claustrophobic space and still beingable to take in the width of that frame.Greig and I also agreed that [anamor-phic’s] shallow depth-of-field wouldhelp build a sense of mystery, a sense ofthe uncanny.” Fraser adds, “Withanamorphic, the actors could movearound the frame without us having tomove with them.”

The production tapped Pana-vision optical engineer Dan Sasaki todevelop several custom anamorphichigh-speed lenses, as well as somespecialty POV glass. The eight lensesSasaki created, some as fast as T1.4,effectively halved the amount of foot-candles required by standard anamor-phic lenses. The specialty glass included

In a sequence thatrecalls Hitchcock’sRear Window, the

troubled Owenspies on neighbors

through a toytelescope. A special

lens simulated the chromatic

aberrations of thetelescope’s cheapplastic elements.

a peephole lens with exaggerated fish-eye distortion, a lens meant to simulatethe chromatic aberration caused bycheap plastic elements in a toy tele-scope, and a fractured diopter for thePOV of a character whose face wasburned with acid. Of the latter device,Sasaki explains, “At first I thought wecould under-correct the lens and makeit look really ugly with astigmatism anddistortion. Greig was trying to suggesthow things would look to you if some-one fractured your eye, so I made a lensattachment that would screw onto thefront of the regular anamorphic lens. Itgave the light a crystallized, facetedlook, but it was very random andwould redirect the light and flare.”Sasaki designed the lens with a tilt-shift bellows that allowed Fraser tocompound the effect.

Let Me In is set in the 1980s inAlbuquerque, N.M., and the visuals aremeant to evoke the movies of that era,when color negatives exhibited morecontrast than they do today. Shootingon location in Albuquerque in the falland winter, Fraser used Kodak Vision250D 5201 and Vision3 250D 5207 forday scenes, and his grip/electric team,led by key grip Kurt Kornemann andgaffer Jay Kemp, relied on the existingcloud cover for diffusion, using the

From top: Abby plays with Owen’s puzzle in her shabby apartment; a frame grab demonstrates Fraser’s strategic use of anamorphic composition; Chloe gets sick after Owen coaxes

her to try a piece of candy on their first date.



snow-covered landscape as an enor-mous bounce. To bolster the bleak-looking light, 12-light Maxis, 10Ksand Arri T-12 Studio Fresnels weresoftened with Grid Cloth rangingfrom ¼ to Full, or bounced off muslinframes. (Only two scenes were shot indirect sunlight, which implies “a senseof merriment and happiness,” saysFraser.)

The line between day and nightis the line between life and death forAbby, and the line between misery andcomfort for Owen, who must endurethe daily torment of bullies at school.The protagonists take refuge in thenight, whose look is defined by fluores-cent greens and blues, sodium-vapororanges and tungsten yellows. “Oursodium and fluorescent sources werenot corrected except in the apartment-courtyard scenes where the tungstensconces were prominent in the back-ground,” says Kemp. “Initially, the lab[Deluxe Hollywood] was doing a slightgreen reduction, causing the practicalson the apartment building to go a bitmagenta. We countered with the addi-tion of 1⁄4 Minus Green on the sodi-ums, to slightly correct, and made theappropriate notation for the lab.”

Owen and Abby’s first meetingtakes place at night in the apartmentcourtyard, and the pale orange glow ofsodium-vapor practicals lends analmost monochromatic look to the


On a quest forblood to slakeAbby’s thirst,the vampire’s

guardian(Richard

Jenkins) hidesin the back seat

of a car andattacks one of

its occupants ata gas station.

The crewexploited a

roofless propcar to capture

parts of thesequence.

scene. Fraser’s crew created the effectwith modified industrial sodium-vaporfixtures and custom T Pars built by LosAngeles-based gaffer Phil Walker; theT Pars were fitted with 500-watt and1K sodium-vapor bulbs. Kempcontrolled the T Pars’ light with RagPlace 8'x8' frames of Light and 1⁄4

Grid and fabric grids.In the playground scene, the

light alternately hits the actors directlyor bounces off the snow. “Direct lightcan be harsh and unforgiving, andthere were times when we manipulatedlight to make Abby seem less feminineand Owen more feminine,” says Fraser.Eyelights were Litepanels Minis or1x1s corrected to match the sodiumvapors with a mix of Lee 147 Apricot,

1⁄2 Plus Green and CTO gels. “Weused those Litepanels in nearly everyscene,” notes Kemp.

The neutral tones of the play-ground represent neutral territory forthe children, but their home livescouldn’t be more different. Owenshares a tungsten-dominated apart-ment with his weary, divorced motherthat, for all its shabbiness, still feels likea safe haven compared to Abby’sdwelling, a fluorescent-dominatedspace that is sparsely furnished withsecond-hand odds and ends. “In addi-tion to the color temperatures, it’s also

the quality of light,” says Fraser.“Tungsten has a familiar feel to it, andfluorescent feels electric and artificial.”

Devised by production designerFord Wheeler, the sets for both apart-ments were lit with large, roundsources Kornemann created calledDiving Bells. “They’re essentially over-sized space lights that fill the roomwith a general ambience and can beaugmented with additional lights from

above and the side,” says Fraser. Sewedup by B-dolly grip Ian Hanna, theproduction’s Diving Bells were 15'-tallcones of Full Black Grid (or Duvetyn)with a 9'-wide base comprising twolayers of Rosco Cinegel 3004 1⁄2 SoftFrost diffusion. They can be equippedwith almost any type of source; 6Kspace lights were used in Owen’s apart-ment, and Kino Flo Flathead 80s withCool White bulbs were used in Abby’s

“There were times when we

manipulated light to make Abby

seem less feminineand Owen more

feminine.”

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“In Owen’s apartment, we used alot of practicals, and we augmented theDiving Bell with either a 3-Lite or 6-Lite Barger Baglite with a Lighttoolschimera and fabric grid,” explainsKemp. “When Owen was alone, we lithim with a sodium source from thewindows and had the Diving Bell over-head. By contrast, there were almost nopractical sources anywhere in Abby’sapartment. Other than her eyelight,the Diving Bell was our sole sourcethere; it was just enough to define theshape of the environment.”

The Diving Bells were primarilyused for stage work, but the crew alsotook them on location to illuminate thearcade where Owen and Abby go ontheir first date. Kinos with Cool Whitetubes were used inside and out, thefilmmakers’ tribute to the scene inKlute in which Jane Fonda and DonaldSutherland make a nighttime trip to alocal market. In both cases, saysReeves, “You know these two peopleshouldn’t be together, but you see in theway she looks at him that she’s fallingfor him.”

Fraser lit the arcade interior witha bright, slightly green cast, and in theparking lot, the crew rigged a DivingBell with two Cool White Flathead80s, creating a pool of light that looked


Top:A neighbordiscovers one of

Abby’s victims.Middle and

bottom: Afterbeing hospitalized,

the victim beginstransforming into avampire, but bursts

into flames whenan unwitting nurse

allows daylightinto the room.

like it was coming from the fixturesinside. Fraser notes, “We didn’t want itto look overly cool, but if we wentwarm, it would have felt forced. Weneeded that scene to be as realistic aspossible.”

Abby needs blood to live, andslaking her thirst requires her “father”(Richard Jenkins) to kill someone inthe night, drag him into the woods,hang him upside down and drain hisblood into a plastic jug. “The mostterrifying part of the script was thewords ‘Ext. Woods-Night,’” Fraserquips. “This is the first time I’ve shotanything in the snow, in the woods, inthe dark.

“Abby’s father is not a vampire— he’s a human with bad eyesight,” hecontinues. “In order to see what he’sdoing, we figured he’d have to usesome kind of work light.” Accordingly,the filmmakers gave Jenkins a brightcamping-light practical that wasmodified by dimmer-board operatorTheo Bott and filled with all the CoolWhite compact fluorescents thatwould fit. Kemp recalls, “It was a fairlypure source, but if we needed to givejust a bit of an edge to something orextend the throw of the lamp, we usedsmall HMI sources gelled with PlusGreen.”

At one point, the father’s grislyactivity is discovered, and he abandonshis tools and lamp and flees into the

woods. In determining how best tocreate night lighting on a larger scale,Fraser and Kemp considered a Musco,but they “decided it was such a broadsource that it would have made thesnow too bright and the trees toodark,” says Fraser.

Instead, they used more than 301K Source Four ellipsoidals. “We’dshape the light for every tree, or everytwo or three trees,” says Kemp. “We

used the built-in blades to keep thelight off the snow and on the trees,crosslighting and backlighting in theforeground and mid-ground clusters.It was painstaking but quite effective.”Additionally, T-12s and 12-lightMaxis lit the larger clusters of trees inthe far background, and 1K Fresnels orLekos served as keylights.

Another lighting challenge washow to create a “no-light” feel for the

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“This is the firsttime I’ve shotanything in thesnow, in the

woods, in thedark.”


final scene in Abby’s apartment, a dayinterior in which all the windows aretightly covered. “Realistically, you’d belooking at a totally black screen,”muses Fraser. “To make the audiencebelieve they’re looking at an image thathas no light, you have to pursue a feel-ing of absolute darkness.” Achievingthe effect involved a good deal of test-ing with Kodak’s Vision3 500T 5219,and Fraser eventually decided to over-expose it by one full stop.

Lighting the set called for thesubtlest of approaches, with noperceptible key or fill, just a shallow-focus image on the verge of darkness.The trick was to source the light fromabove without directly hitting thewalls. Kemp used several Octopuses, asmall version of the Diving Bell thatfeatures eight Duvetyn flaps hangingoff the side like tentacles; each held a1K or 1.5K tungsten JEM Ball (goingthrough a secondary diffusion ring, aswith the Diving Bell), and Frasercould direct the light or change theillumination levels by raising or lower-ing the flaps.

Throughout the production, thefilmmakers strove to avoid strongcolors. In the digital grade, which wascarried out at 2K at Company 3 in


Underwatercameras were usedto capture Owen’sdistress after he’s

thrown into aswimming pool bya group of sadistic

bullies.

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Santa Monica, Fraser worked withcolorist Shane Harris to desaturate theimage a bit further, but little else wasdone to change what was on the nega-tive. “In a film like this, there has to bea level of honesty about the color ineach scene,” says the cinematographer.

“If we show the audience a 1980sschool or arcade that isn’t fluorescent-lit, they’ll know we’re having them on.”

“The most saturated scenes arein the apartment courtyard, under thesodium-vapor lamps,” says Harris, whoworked on a DaVinci Resolve. “For the

day exteriors, we tried to give skintones and shadows a silvery look,which we did by adding blue to thoseareas.” Referencing stills Fraser took onset (with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1), the colorist also fine-tuned the1980s look, lifting the blacks and


64

This page:Another of the

guardian’sblood-

gatheringmissions was lit

by a camping-light practical

modified withCool White

compactfluorescents.

Opposite: The victim is drained.

suppressing the mid-tones. “Greig made the movie look

exactly the way I hoped it would,”marvels Reeves. “He told me at onepoint, ‘The most important thing I cando is give you as much time as youneed. I can light this to make it look

beautiful, but at the end of the day, itwill mean nothing if the drama isn’tthere.’ I’ve never had a cinematogra-pher say that to me. His respect for theactors, the schedule, and my job as thedirector affected the film profoundly.”

●

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65

family’s alpha male, an armed robber who is in hiding fromthe authorities; Craig (Sullivan Stapleton), an unstabledrug addict; and Darren (Luke Ford), the youngest.Complications arise when Pope’s friend and partner, Baz( Joel Edgerton), decides he wants to go straight while thefamily are relentlessly pursued by the police, personifiedchiefly by Sgt. Nathan Leckie (Guy Pearce) of the homi-cide squad. After falling in with the Codys’ renegade wayof life, Jay quickly finds himself linked to the murder oftwo policemen. While in police custody, he is urged byLeckie to turn in his newfound family, and whether he willconstitutes much of the story’s drama.

Arkapaw and Michôd met in 2008, when Arkapawshot a short film the director had co-written. They becamereacquainted while attending a talent-developmentprogram at the Melbourne International Film Festival, andMichôd subsequently sent Arkapaw the script for AnimalKingdom. “When I read the script, I knew the film wouldbe a dream opportunity,” says the cinematographer. “Davidhas a commitment to concise storytelling and what I woulddescribe as a ‘sinewy’ aesthetic. The simmering, broodingtone of the script gave me goosebumps, and the cast read


The winner of this year’s Sundance Film Festival GrandJury Prize in World Cinema was the hard-hittingAustralian crime drama Animal Kingdom, which wasrecently released in the United States by Sony Pictures

Classics. Written and directed by David Michôd and shotby Adam Arkapaw, the film follows the criminal exploits ofthe Cody family as seen through the eyes of a young rela-tive, Joshua “Jay” Cody ( James Frecheville). After thedeath of his mother from a drug overdose, Jay moves inwith his maternal grandmother, Janine ( Jacki Weaver),matriarch of the Cody boys: Pope (Ben Mendelsohn), the

Welcome to the

JungleWelcome

to the Jungle

A “sinewy aesthetic” defines the Australian crime dramaAnimal Kingdom, shot by

Adam Arkapaw.

By Simon Gray

•|•


like a Who’s Who of contemporaryAustralian film.”

Although Animal Kingdomfocuses on violent criminals, Michôdand Arkapaw agreed that it wasessential to present all the charactersas real people. “One of the mostimportant aspects of my job on thisfilm was the close-ups,” notesArkapaw. “It’s an old adage that that’swhere a cinematographer earns hismoney, but in this film, the faces arereally where the heart of the storylies.”

Commenting on the film’sminimalistic style, he continues, “Thetension in the story increases gradu-ally and constantly, and we didn’twant that to be broken by flights ofcinematic fancy. We decided the bestway to achieve this was to develop ashooting style that allowed the actorsas much freedom as possible. AnimalKingdom is an ensemble piece told, forthe most part, from Jay’s point ofview. We worked hard to find hisperspective and configured thephotography accordingly. Anotherconsideration [in terms of the style]was that a lot of scenes have up toeight characters inhabiting the samespace, so wherever possible, we had nolighting or grip hardware inside; thisallowed the actors to explore and usethe space.

“David and I decided that everyshot in the film should have a begin-ning, middle and end. By that I meanthat we might start on a close-up ofBen with James in the background,and that then becomes a two-shot asBen moves out of frame and Sullivanjoins James in the background, andthen it would become a close-upagain, but this time of Jacki as shecomes into shot at the end of thescene. This approach allowed theactors to get into a flow with theirperformances.”

Arkapaw also strove to tailor hiscamerawork to the characters. “Asimple example of this approach isthat the rock-solid Leckie characterwas primarily shot in static frames,Ph

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Opposite: Policeofficer NathanLeckie (GuyPearce, right)pays a surprisevisit to Jay(JamesFrecheville) inhis new anddangeroushome. This page(top to bottom):Cody familymatriarch Janine(Jacki Weaver)reassures herson Craig(SullivanStapleton) as heryoungest son,Darren (LukeFord), listens;cinematographerAdam Arkapaw(at camera)observes asdirector DavidMichôd preps ascene withWeaver andLauraWheelwright,who plays Jay’sgirlfriend;Janine, Baz (JoelEdgerton) andthe familydepart therestaurant.


whereas the unpredictable Pope wasfilmed more from-the-hip to suggestthat he could do anything, and thecamera would have to react as best itcould.”

Animal Kingdom was shot in 3-perf Super 35mm for a final aspectratio of 2.40:1. “That aspect ratio isusually reserved for very polished, big-budget films, so we decided it wouldbe an interesting stylistic choice, giventhat our production design and light-ing were so raw,” says Arkapaw. Heused three Kodak Vision2 stocks,500T 5218, 50D 5201 and 250D5205. “Because our lighting aestheticwas pretty raw, we were often strug-gling to shoot around the T2.8-T4mark I was aiming for,” he recalls.“We used 5218 for all night scenes,because we were trying to get as muchambient exposure as possible on exte-riors and wanted to limit film lightson interiors; I tried to rate it at 320ASA where possible. 5201 came inhandy because we shot in summer,and the sun was often high in the sky,creating strong contrast. I love how5201 performs in that situation; in thedigital grade, you can dig right intothe blacks without grain issues, andthe highlight control is terrific. Weused 5205 for interior day scenes andexterior dusk scenes.”

Arkapaw does his own operat-ing, and he chose a PanaflexMillennium XL. “I love that camera,”he notes. “It’s so comfortable on theshoulder, and it can easily and quicklybe transformed into such a solidproduction-mode camera. As a bonus,you look really cool in on-set photos!”

Animal Kingdom was a mixtureof handheld and static shots, with thefinal decisions often being made onset. “David and I would watch arehearsal and then finalize what sortof camera move would augment theenergy of the scene,” recalls Arkapaw.“The actors all gave so much that wewere mindful of responding organi-cally to what they brought to eachscene.”

The basic lighting kit supplied

◗ Welcome to the Jungle

Top to bottom:Darren and Pope

Cody (BenMendelsohn)

consult in theirhome; Pope

develops strongsuspicions about

Jay following aconsultation with

the family lawyer;Craig has a

meltdown withthe police in hot pursuit.


by gaffer Karl Engeler comprisedmainly 4K to 6K HMI Pars, KinoFlos and LED lights. “I love the waytungsten stock responds to CoolWhite tubes, so we used those exten-sively throughout the film, especiallyin the background to help createdepth,” explains Arkapaw. “I alsoused them throughout the policestation to create a sterile-lookingenvironment. Our goal was a sort of‘unlit’ look. [Production designer]Joey Ford and I spent a lot of time inprep finding appropriate practicalsfor the locations from which I couldmotivate all the lighting — all theway down to the lights in the Codys’fish tank!”

The cinematographer notesthat Animal Kingdom’s almost docu-mentary-style visuals run counter tothe way such subject matter is usuallyapproached by filmmakers. “In manyof the films David and I looked at inprep, it was apparent that there canbe a tendency to light such brooding,violent subject matter in a very darkand stylized way, but David felt verystrongly about establishing a distinct,tangible Melbourne as the backdropto our story,” he says. “His determi-nation to avoid showing off in favorof a naturalistic look influenced thechoice of locations as well as how thesets were lit.”

One memorable scene forArkapaw was a day exterior/interiorin which Leckie turns up at theCodys’ front door just as Pope ischasing Jay around the house withthe intention of beating him to apulp. “This was the first scene weshot with Guy Pearce, and we wereall dead keen to give a good accountof ourselves on that day,” recalls thecinematographer. “I was freaking out,thinking, ‘Why did this scene have tobe in a tiny doorway, stuffed withfour actors and containing two pagesof dialogue?!’ In prep, David and Ihad talked about the Leckie-Popeduel as a White Knight vs. BlackPrince type of engagement, andthrough our blocking of the scene,

Top (from left):1st AD PhilJones, 1st ACJem Rayner, keygrip GlennArrowsmith,Michôd andArkapawprepare toshoot. Middle:The Codys don’tlike the latestnews from theirattorney.Bottom: Janinelistens keenly asthe lawyersquestion Jay.

we found a lovely, almost poetic wayto squeeze everyone into the doorway.Jay was sandwiched between Leckieand Pope, with Leckie glowing in thehot Melbourne summer sun, andPope hiding himself away in the darkinterior. Then Janine swaggers in,looking amazing with her mascara

running down her face, and immedi-ately sets about manipulating the situ-ation to her own advantage. The scenesays so much about all the charactersin such a short time, and in such acramped space.”

Arkapaw’s biggest setup was anight sequence in which two police

officers are called into an ominouslyempty street to check out an aban-doned stolen car, which has beenplanted there by the Codys. To re-create the effect of street lamps liningthe road, Engeler and his team placedthree 60' boom arms that eachsupported two 4K HMI Pars,

Left: After ramming Jay’s vehicle, Pope moves in for the kill. Right: Arkapaw goes handheld to capture the scene.

70

◗ Welcome to the Jungle

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filters

Create a Sodium effect

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650 Industry Sodium

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Kodak Vision2 50D 5201,250D 5205, 500T 5218


Printed on Kodak Vision Premier 2393

complete with diffusion and mercury-vapor gel packs (1⁄2 CTO and WhiteFlame Green). 2.5K HMIs and a 10KMoleBeam were positioned at both

ends of the street. “Around the car, weused LED light panels and Kinotubes, and fill was provided by a [KinoFlo] Blanket-Lite,” adds Arkapaw.

“We desperately hoped for a streetwith a beautiful vignette of leaves tolight through, but the Victoriansummer had been so hot that almostall the trees in Melbourne had losttheir leaves before autumn had evenbegun!” ●

Arkapaw lines up a shot with Rayner assisting.

71


ADS Advances a Different Side of PostBy Jon D. Witmer

In traversing the postproduction landscape, any project willpass through varied terrains, all of which are critical in delivering thefinished content to viewers and preserving the final project for futuregenerations. HD and SD duplication, SD standards conversion,up/down/cross conversion, electronic file encoding and delivery, DVDauthoring, tape restoration — these are the types of offerings inwhich Advanced Digital Services specializes. “ADS provides a varietyof digital services, including digital file encoding and transcoding, aswell as multiple distribution platforms,” says Brad Weyl, thecompany’s chief operating officer. “We believe our mission is to be amastering and sub-mastering facility and a distribution company formotion-picture studios, independent producers and broadcasters.”

Weyl recently guided AC through the company’s 28,000-square-foot facility in Hollywood, highlighting its many services andunderscoring the core tenets of ADS’ philosophy: quality, securityand reliability. “Though we have a huge facility and the ability to dealwith a large volume of material, we’re small enough that the specificdetails of our customers’ orders never get lost,” says Weyl. “A largepercentage of the material we process here — advertising, publicityand short-format material — needs to be turned around in 24 hoursor less. We are detail-oriented, and we have operational staff in thebuilding 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”

ADS was founded in 1994 by Andy McIntyre, the company’schairman, president and CEO. For a number of years, the companysplit its services between two facilities — one in Hollywood and onein North Hollywood — but in 2002, ADS consolidated its operation.Weyl notes, “We designed this facility with multiple work areas inmind so that we can separate different types of jobs. One of ourphilosophies is to provide the proper tools to accomplish the job ina timely and efficient manner while building quality and integrityinto the product as we go. Throughout the facility, everything is inte-grated into a system that allows the operators to continuously moni-tor the quality of the workflow, from checking signal performanceand integrity on scopes and monitors to critical listening on high-performance speakers and the like as they do their jobs.

“We also offer 100-percent QC for HD and SD in both tapeand file formats,” Weyl continues. The facility’s ground floor housesa dedicated tape QC area, with multiple stations set up for both HDand dual-SD (NTSC and PAL) work. Weyl details, “We support all ofthe various tape formats for HD and SD. We view the material fromhead to tail and do a computer-generated report on it. We live andbreathe by the spec books and spec sheets from the studios andbroadcasters to make sure that what’s sent to our customers meetsbroadcast, FCC and studio requirements.”

The ground floor also houses ADS’ shipping and receivingarea. Everything that is delivered is bar-coded and entered into thecompany’s Xytech-based tracking system, which is used to track

Post Focus

I

Advanced DigitalServices’

Hollywoodfacility includes a

DigitalOperations

Center, whichhouses multiple

stations forencoding and

quality-checkinglibrary contentfor studios and

independentproducers.

orders and manage the inventory. Through-out every step of the pipeline, security is ofparamount concern. Weyl notes, “Thefacility has undergone multiple MPAA sitesurveys, and some of the studios havebrought in their own security teams anddone site surveys. We make sure ourcustomers feel comfortable and confidentthat we’re taking good care of theirassets.”

A large media area and an onlineedit room — capable of linear tape-basedand nonlinear file-based work — sit at theheart of the ground floor. Weyl explains, “Inthe media area, we capture material fromHD or SD tape and create files for DVDauthoring, for posting to FTP sites, or forproprietary file distribution via platforms likeSmartJog. From file-based material, weexport out to videotape; an independentproduction that doesn’t have the infrastruc-ture to export to tape can send a drive tous, and we can then export either a finalproduct or work files. We’re running multi-ple Final Cut Pro HD systems, multiple Digi-tal Rapids encoders, two Sonic Solutions’Scenarist DVD-authoring systems and avariety of tape and computer equipment.”

In broad strokes, the ground floor isfocused on short-format material requiringfast turnaround, while the second story isset up to tackle more time-intensiveprojects. For example, the Digital Opera-tions Center houses multiple encode

stations where, Weyl explains, “we’retaking HD content from a studio library andencoding it to whatever format thecustomer requires, such as a JPEG2000 file,100-percent QC’ing it and sending it backout as a file for our customers to store inmultiple locations so they have safetycopies. We’re also doing a lot of library-typework that’s pushed out to end users such asAmazon, Netflix, Hulu and iTunes.”

For file-based deliverables, hecontinues, “we can push the files off to ourcustomers via a few different methods. Oneis across SohoNet, a closed-loop fiber-opticnetwork. We also have multiple 100-megabit connections in and out of thebuilding, along with 270-megabit fiber-optic connectivity in and out of the build-ing, so we can do a real-time HD or SD play-out or receive.”

Another key aspect of ADS’ servicesis tape-based restoration work utilizingSnell & Wilcox Archangel and the DRS Digi-tal Restoration System. When working withold 1" or 2" tape, Weyl explains, “we’lldetermine whether it needs to be baked ordehumidified, after which we can do a passand bump it up to a digital-tape format.”Then, working from the digital tape, the SDArchangel workflow “takes out film dirt,film weave, grain, noise and video dropouts in a real-time process,” Weyl details.“We do a QC to identify any large thingsthe Archangel didn’t remove, and then we

At the heart of ADS’ duplication, standards conversion and up/down/cross-conversion services, the machine room is equipped to handle tape- and file-based SD (NTSC and PAL)

and HD content.

73


can go back in frame-by-frame using DRSto remove those.

“After that, we take a pass throughour audio department to remove hiss, popsand crackle. We’re set up in here for lineartape-based work, as well as file-based workutilizing Pro Tools.” Services handled by theaudio department also include layback offoreign audio tracks for foreign distribution,Dolby encoding and final audio conformingfor independent features.

In recent years, ADS has becomeactively engaged in digital-cinema packag-ing, utilizing Clipster to deliver content.Additionally, the facility already offers some3-D services for both tape- and file-basedworkflows. The next step the companyforesees is the creation of a state-of-the-artWeb-based file-delivery platform, which willenable customers to stream or download(in various file formats) works in process andfinished content.

“We’re partners with ourcustomers,” says Weyl. “We instill in ourstaff the question, ‘If this were your project,how would you deal with it and make itbetter?’”

ADS, 948 N. Cahuenga Blvd., LosAngeles, Calif., 90038. For more informa-tion, visit www.adshollywood.com.

Oasis Imagery Opens Hollywood FacilityOasis Imagery has opened the doors

of its on-set production and post facility.The company delivers services to bothstudio and independent communities,supporting feature film, episodic television,commercial and trailer projects.

“In building our facility, we thoughtabout tomorrow’s technology,” says ScotBarbour, chief visionary officer of OasisImagery. “For example, the recent resur-gence of 3-D has provided a gamut of newtechnologies from acquisition to delivery.We have positioned ourselves to provideservices for these and other new develop-ments on the horizon.”

Oasis Imagery specializes in techno-logically advanced and cost-effective file-based workflows. The company’s 27,000-square-foot facility includes a 5.1 audiomixing suite, an 1,800-square-foot sound-stage, and a THX-, Dolby- and DTS-certified50-seat 2-D/3-D theater capable of RealD,

Oasis Imagery’s recently opened facility includes (from top) a 5.1 audio-mixing suite, multiple 3-D-capable editorial and color-timing bays, and a 50-seat 2-D/3-D DI theater.

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color correction, creative and onlineconform, scanning and recording, visualeffects, sound editorial and mixing, duplica-tion, transcoding, and digital cinema pack-aging.

Oasis Imagery, 6500 W. SunsetBlvd., Los Angeles, Calif., 90028. For moreinformation, visit www.oasisimagery.com.

Visual Data Debuts 3-D WorkflowVisual Data Media Services in

Burbank, Calif., has unveiled a 3-D work-flow for feature films and television thatfeatures unique pipelines for promos, trail-ers, mobile platforms and display projects.The 3-D pipeline is the latest component ofVisual Data’s full spectrum of services,which include editorial, color correction,subtitling, encoding and digital-cinemapackaging.

“Increasingly, we are seeing ourclients include 3-D in their plans for every-thing from theatrical promos and videogames to home content and mobile deliv-ery,” says Ruben Garcia, vice president of

Dolby 3D and XpanD 3-D projection. Begin-ning with on-set dailies, Oasis Imagery’s 3-Dworkflows allow the Final Cut Pro or Avideditor to work in 2-D or 3-D at any timeduring the editorial process. Multiple 3-Deditorial bays also allow editors to work inparallel and check any edit on both localmonitors and in the 3-D screening theater.

“We’re really excited about ourbeautiful theater,” notes Adam Green,Oasis Imagery’s chief technology officer.

“Most facilities have one or two formats for3-D viewing, but we chose to install all threeof the most widely used 3-D technologies.This means that a director can view his colorgrade in RealD one minute and switch toDolby 3D or XpanD the next.”

Oasis Imagery’s on-set services allowfilmmakers greater creative control duringproduction. Streamlined on-set workflowsallow a cost-effective transition to the DI.Additional services include 4K/2K/HD DI,

76

Filmmaker Craig RossJr. (right) employedVisual Data Media

Services’ full-service,cost-effective

stereoscopic workflowfor the independent

production Jane.

technical services for Visual Data. “Formajor studios and independent filmmakers,3-D has become a viable creative, technicaland business choice, and we’ve set up anefficient and cost-effective workflow toservice their needs.”

By providing a full service offering,Visual Data is able to manage all of the vari-ables that 3-D technology entails anddeliver content in any format a clientrequires, from the initial project through 3-D stereoscopic digital cinema files fortheatrical delivery and soon 3-D Blu-ray.John Trautman, president of Visual Data,notes, “We understand that there are manyways that content holders need to use theirmaterial in today’s market. A 3-D promocan be a 2-D promo in some circumstances,and a 2-D broadcast may need to beconverted down the line. With the intro-duction of our new pipeline, we feel wehave created the most effective and afford-able way of making great 3-D available toour clients.”

For additional information, visitwww.visualdatainc.com.

Assimilate, Telairity Collaborate for Remote 3-D Post Assimilate and Telairity have

announced a remote 3-D post network,which enables the immediate exchange of3-D files for real-time or off-line reviewsamong clients, talent teams and post artistsanywhere in the world. The transit ofmassive 3-D files via this remote networkresults in significant time and budgetsavings while also allowing post teams towork with clients regardless of geographi-cal distance.

Post artists working in AssimilateScratch v5.1 send two streams of data files(one each for the left and right eye) to the3ality 3Play Pro stereoscopic display proces-sor, which creates a single multiplex streamthat is then sent to the Telairity H.264encoder for compressing the imagery. Fromthe encoder, an H.264 (MPEG 4) multiplexstream carries the high-quality imagery overIP to a small set-top box at the client end.The encoder bit rate can be adjusted at thepost end to accommodate the bandwidthat the client end; clients can then review the

files either in real time with the post facilityor offline at their convenience.

For offline reviews, clients can selectfrom the play list, review, and use the HTMLremote/review/comment capability inScratch 5.1 to update and tag comments tothe content, and return those comments tothe post facility, where the notes are fed toand updated in Scratch 5.1. This reviewprocess is fast and can be repeated as oftenas necessary for a production.

“Via the Telairity encoder, posthouses will be streaming the highest quality3-D imagery data to their clients for trueborderless collaboration in a highly secure,broadcast-quality solution,” says Ben Silva,senior vice president, worldwide sales,Telairity. Jeff Edson, CEO of Assimilate,adds, “The time savings and low cost of thisprocess will rapidly increase the availabilityof 3-D content for theatrical releases andTV productions.”

For additional information, visitwww.assimilateinc.com and www.telairity.com. ●

77


Martin Adds Mac 2000 Conversion KitMartin Professional has made it

possible to easily convert two wash lights— the Martin Mac 2000 Wash XB andMac 2000 Wash — into a powerful beamfixture with an inexpensive conversion kitthat installs in minutes. Ideal for any eventwhere both beam and wash effects arerequired, the conversion kit gets the mostout of existing lighting gear, eliminatingthe need to invest in a completely newfixture.

The Mac 2000 Beam XB upgrade kit consists of a new frontlens module with micro-Fresnel lens and a set of four beam-effectgobos/apertures. The kit installs in less than 5 minutes; the compo-nents can be easily uninstalled and the fixture returned to a standardWash configuration at any time.

The 1,500-watt Mac 2000 Beam XB delivers a fat, tight andamazingly bright, hard-edge beam, perfect for big beam effects andlong throws. Even at very narrow beam angles, output is outstandingwith very high intensity. The fixture is made possible by a combinationof efficient, high-efficacy optics. An electronic ballast offers hot-lampre-strike and flicker-free light, and if users require the fixture to matchthe power output of existing 1,200-watt fixtures, a reduced 1,200-watt mode can also be employed, saving energy and increasing lamplife.

Despite a surprisingly compact size, the Mac 2000 Beam XBincludes all the proven features of the Mac 2000 Wash XB, includingfull color mixing, color wheel, smooth dimming, strobe, variable CTCand zoom; the motorized zoom generates a wash effect instead of ahard-edge beam, and can be zoomed from tight to wide. A CMCYcolor-mixing system offers a broad spectrum of colors, and the unitalso features an interchangeable, four-position (plus open) colorwheel, allowing designers to customize shades and complementperfectly the color-mixing system. Additionally, a continuously variablecolor-correction system adds the flexibility to gradually and smoothlyincrease or decrease color temperature, which is useful for smoothingout color temperature inconsistencies when working alongside olderlamps.

The fixture allows for smooth fading via a combineddimmer/shutter. Mechanical dimming is from 0 to 100 percent, andthe shutter offers rapid strobe effects up to 10Hz with instant openand blackout. In addition to mechanical dimming, an optionaldimming wheel can replace the color wheel. Additionally, a gobowheel with four static beam-effect apertures (plus open) allows forwider or tighter beam effects as well as multiple beams or cone looks.

The Mac 2000 Beam XB is constructed of rugged, modularcomponents for easy maintenance. It has an auto-ranging switchmode for worldwide use.

For additional information, visit www.martin.com.

Chauvet Launches Legend Chauvet has introduced the compact

Legend 300E Spot and Legend 300E Beammoving fixtures, which boast a bright outputthat surpasses that of fixtures with higherpower ratings, allowing lighting designers tocover a larger area with fewer fixtures.

The Legend 300E fixtures’ brightoutput is due to a carefully designed opticalpath and a powerful Philips MRS Gold 300/2MiniFastFit lamp. The MiniFastFit socketallows for quick and easy lamp changes.

Both fixtures come with CMY and CTO color-mixing systems,which feature vector speed for super-smooth color changes. Addi-tionally, each fixture has a variable-speed color wheel with seven purecolors and white, split/linear colors and rainbow color.

An advanced control system allows for quiet, fast and precise(16-bit) head movements. Both the Spot and Beam fixtures feature apan range of 540 degrees and a tilt range of 270 degrees. Automaticpan-and-tilt correction and pan-and-tilt locks are standard features.

The Legend 300E Spot features two variable-speed gobowheels. One is indexed and has seven rotating “slot-n-lock” glassgobos in addition to open and gobo shake; the other gobo wheelhas eight fixed gobos plus open. The fixture also ships with two extragobos. Additionally, the Spot fixture features static frost, a three-facetrotating prism, an iris, a shutter with variable speed, focus control, awide zoom range of 4 to 20 degrees and a 16-bit dimmer.

The Legend 300E Beam projects a bright 3.67-degree beam.It has seven rotating and shaking gobos plus white, a three-facetrotating prism, and variable frost. Both the Spot and Beam unitsfeature high-efficiency electronic ballasts and power supplies withpower-factor correction for reduced interference and better compli-ance with local utilities.

For additional information, visit www.chauvetlighting.com.

Barco Shows New MovesBarco has announced a broad spectrum of enhancements,

upgrades and new products geared toward strengthening its digitallighting and moving luminaire product lines. The company hasexpanded the capabilities of the DL.3 digital light, the Axon mediaserver and the DML-1200 digital light and unveiled two new prod-ucts, the SDI-DMX Mixer Pro and the 850-watt Intellaspot XT-1.

New Products & Services• SUBMISSION INFORMATION •

Please e-mail New Products/Services releases to:[email protected] and include full contactinformation and product images. Photos must be

TIFF or JPEG files of at least 300dpi.

For the DL.3 digital light and theAxon media server, Barco has advanced thecore capabilities with version 2.0 software,providing additional media streams, newfeatures and additional creative effects.Included are new digital shutters, improvedblending functionality, new innovative diag-nostic tools, an increase in the number ofavailable graphic layers (from three to nine),and an overall enhancement that enablesmore effects to be used simultaneously.Version 2.0 software also improves legacyDL.2 fixtures with an additional media layer,new effects and new system diagnostics.

Each DL.3 fixture now ships with animproved color space and a significantincrease in brightness. Using a state-of-the-art QuaDrive optical engine, the DL.3 nowproduces higher luminosity with improvedcolor accuracy and clarity, providing a 20-percent increase in color space. Exclusive tothe Axon media server, each unit now shipswith dual HD-SDI inputs as standard. For theDML-1200 digital light, the unit’s latest soft-ware upgrade expands the system’s func-tionality with new configuration featuresthat include settings for high-altitude mode,lamp modes, default imagery, shutdownoptions and selectable aspect ratios (4:3,16:9 or 5:4). Additionally, the software nowenables the projector toolset while DMX isconnected.

The SDI-DMX Mixer Pro is a hybridswitcher that offers users the ability toswitch, mix and matrix four video inputs tofour video outputs directly from any DMXlighting controller. Today’s controllers arerequired to interface with an ever-increasingnumber of sources and destinations, such asDL.3s, DML-1200s, Axon media servers,cameras, projectors and screens. To easeand simplify the overall control task, the SDI-DMX Mixer Pro places the power of videoswitching and crossfades directly into thelighting designer’s hands.

Finally, the Intellaspot XT-1 is anadvanced professional moving luminaire,offering remarkable innovations in optics,lamp configurations, high lumen output,energy efficiency, zoom range and overallfeature set, all at a highly economical pricepoint.

“We are pleased to introduce such afull range of new products and enhance-ments,” says Chris Colpaert, vice president


of creative lighting for Barco. “In particular,the XT-1 is destined to amaze the industrywith its efficiency, high output and low price.Together, these advances demonstrate ourcommitment to the technology and ourkeen desire to address our customers’requests.”

For additional information, visitwww.barco.com.

E:cue Provides Lighting Control E:cue Lighting Control, part of the

Osram company Traxon Technologies, hasintroduced the Lighting Control Engine, ahigh-performance lighting-control serverthat combines the interactivity of thecompany’s previous Media Engine 2 and theoptimum performance of the LightingControl Server.

Designed to control large andcomplex projects, the LCE is a high-perfor-

mance server installed with the E:cue Light-ing Application Suite 5.2. This versatilecentral control unit orchestrates all devicesand fixtures within a project and can outputDMX/RDM, e:net, Art-Net, KiNET and otherprotocols; it can also integrate variousaudio/video, external triggering and otherdesired devices and content. The LCE can bemounted in a 19" rack and controls up to65,536 DMX channels.

A built-in touch-screen monitorhoused on the front panel of the durablealuminum casing provides user interactionwith custom graphical user interfacedesigns, including pictures, buttons andfaders with various colors, shapes andpatterns. The screen can also be used formonitoring lighting installation parametersand status of various devices in a lighting-control system.

Via RS232, DMX, MIDI, Ethernet(UDP), SMPTE time code and digital drycontact inputs, the LCE can integrate varioustechnologies and devices for triggering andexternal control. Additionally, the lighting

show file running on the LCE is triggered viaa real-time astronomical clock and an inte-grated Web server for remote control via aWeb browser.

The LCE is designed to work withoutinterruption, ensuring permanent installa-tions run smoothly. Additional LCEs can alsobe configured to backup the master LCE inthe event of a failure.

For additional information, visitwww.ecue.com and www.traxontechnologies.com.

iPad Gets LuminairSynthe FX has released the Luminair

for iPad, a desktop-class, multi-touch, DMXlighting-control app for Apple’s iPad. Lumi-nair uses the Art-Net protocol to transmitDMX data over Wi-Fi, giving users wirelesscontrol of color-mixable LED fixtures,dimmers, studio lighting, moving lights,media servers and any other DMX-enabledequipment.

Luminair for iPad includes suchfeatures as editable quick-touch cues,project-based color swatches, pop-upcontextual controls, external keyboardsupport and a user-configurable UI. The appis also built for future expansion.

“Luminair for iPad is the result ofover two and a half years of multi-touchdevelopment,” says Ryan Hisey, founder ofSynthe FX. “The speed at which users cannow interact with their lighting designs isabsolutely incredible, directly as a result ofmulti-touch and Luminair’s innovative UIdesign.”

Luminair for iPad can be purchasedand downloaded directly from the iTunesApp Store. For more information, visithttp://synthe-fx.com.

DBP Backpack from DedolightDedolight has expanded its portable

studio line of soft case lighting kits with theDBP Backpack, designed to easily, comfort-ably and safely transport classic Dedolightfixtures as well as the company’s 200 Seriesunits.

The DBP Backpack measures26"x17"x10.2" and, when empty, weighs13.2 pounds. Top and side handles guaran-

tee maximum portability in any situation,and an additional pouch on the side allowsfor transporting softboxes up to the size ofDedolight’s 5' Octodome. Inside, the standcompartment runs along the middle of theBackpack, with compartments on eitherside for light heads, ensuring the user’s loadis balanced. Two horizontal belts furtherstabilize the Backpack.

Like all other Dedolight portablestudio soft cases, the Backpack is made ofnear-indestructible materials and stands upto the rigors of daily work on any produc-tion.

For additional information, visitwww.dedolight.com.

Lightronics Illuminates Par4Lightronics has introduced the Par4

fixture, which features a durable, die-castaluminum housing and aluminum reflector.Rated at 800 watts maximum, the fixtureutilizes a 575- or 750-watt halogen bulbwith a bi-pin G9.5 base. The fixture comesequipped with four interchangeable lenses(VNSP 15 degrees, NSP 19 degrees, MFL 21-34 degrees and WFL 30-51 degrees) and afilter frame.

The versatile Par4 produces as muchlight as a 1,000-watt Par can with a reduc-

tion in electrical consumption of up to 40percent. The interchangeable lens allowsusers to stock one type of lamp, with thefour lenses available to meet the require-ments of any mounting location.

The fixture is available in black, silveror white, and is covered by a two-yearwarranty from Lightronics. For more infor-mation, visit www.lightronics.com.

Ikan Adds to LED RangeIkan has expanded its LED lighting

range with the introduction of the iLED 155,Multi-K, ID500 and ID400 LED fixtures.

Measuring 6"x3.25"x1.375" andweighing only .85 pounds, the iLED 155 isperfectly suited to on-camera operation. The5,600°K fixture draws less than 10 watts ofpower and operates on 12-24 volts. TheiLED 155 kit, which sells for $349, includes achoice of DV battery plate (Sony, Panasonicor Canon), an AC power supply, a shoemount, Full CTO Gel, 1⁄2 CTO Gel, Opal Gel,1⁄4 Minus Green Gel and a soft carrying case.

The Multi-K on-camera LEDmeasures 4.9"x4.3"x1.6" and weighs .8pounds. The fixture boasts 144 LED bulbs inred, white and yellow for an adjustable colortemperature range from 2,800°K to6,500°K. With an operating range of 12-18volts, the fixture can run on six AA batteries,


a 12-volt DC input or a D-tap power cable.The Multi-K kit sells for $499 and includes anAC adapter, a camera shoe mount and a softcarrying case.

The portable, wireless, 5,600°KID500 weighs 5.8 pounds and measures13.8"x7.5"x2.7". The 30-watt fixture oper-ates from 12-14.4 volts and comes with anRF remote control, giving users control over

the fixture’s power and the ability to regulateeach of the unit’s four light banks; thecontrol operates on three separate channels,allowing users to control three ID500s fromone remote. The fixture (with power cordand remote control) sells for $499. Ikan alsooffers an ID500 three-light kit for $1,699;each kit includes three lights, three stands,three power cords, one bag for the lightsand one bag for the stands.

The four-bulb ID-400 measures8.5"x2.5"x5.5" and weighs 3.6 pounds. Inaddition to standard AC power, the fixturecan be powered via a professional batteryplate. Selling for $499, the ID-400 comeswith an AC adapter, a light stand adapterand an RF remote control offering threechannels and a range of more than 500'.

For additional information, visitwww.ikancorp.com.

Gekko Spotlights Kezia 200FGekko Technology has introduced

the Kezia 200F white-optimized spot lamp. “The Kezia 200F is optimized for use

in film production or studio broadcast,” saysDavid Amphlett, Gekko’s founder andmanaging director. “It allows precise adjust-ment between 2,900° and 6,500° Kelvin,including presets for selection of 2,900,3,200, 4,300, 5,600 and 6,500°K via DMXor an optional rear panel. A built-in color-

feedback system ensures color temperatureremains constant when the light is dimmed,as ambient conditions change or as the unitages.”

Drawing less than 200 watts ofpower, the Kezia 200F is comparable inoutput intensity with a 1K tungsten fixturewhile generating far less heat than tradi-tional lamps. Interchangeable optics providebeam angles of 20, 35, 60 or 80 degrees.According to Gekko, output intensity is8,300 lux at 1 meter, 1,900 lux at 2 metersand 900 lux at 3 meters.

The Kezia 200F joins the Kezia 50E,50F and 200E. All four models are based onGekko’s Kleer Color LED technology, whichprovides a very broad-spectrum light withprecisely controllable color temperature. TheKezia family is supported by a range ofreflector options, honeycomb louvers, barn-door accessories and diffusion gratings.

For additional information, visitwww.gekkotechnology.com.

ETC Introduces Hot, Cool LEDsElectronic Theatre Controls, Inc. has

introduced two bold color-spectrum-specificadditions to its line of Selador LED lighting

fixtures: Fire and Ice. Fire features a warmwash of saturated reds, oranges and amberswhile Ice provides a palette of indigo, blue,cyan and green — and a touch of red. Anintegral addition to the Selador Vivid lineup,Fire and Ice offer brightness performanceequal to or exceeding that of conventionaltungsten Par fixtures while saving dramati-cally on electricity.

Tom Littrell, ETC’s fixtures productmanager, says, “These are truly the tools of anew stage-lighting design: super-high-inten-sity LED color washes bright enough to blendseamlessly with your conventional fixtures’output, while slashing power consumption.Ice, with its bright, rich hues, is up to 90percent more efficient than conventional Parwashlights gelled blue.

“Most productions regularly employdeep colors in their rigs — keeping blues andreds in use at all times,” Littrell continues.

Boca Flasher Builds Brick LightBoca Flasher has introduced the SBL-

WWW Brick Light, which provides homoge-nous, high-output white light and featuresCLD control technology to ensure smoothlinear response across the completedimming curve (0-100 percent).

The SBL-WWW is available in twobuild options — one for DMX512 controland one for use with standard dimmers —both of which offer a choice of six colortemperatures: 2,700°K, 3,000°K, 3,500°K,4,100°K, 5,000°K and 6,500°K. Addition-ally, the fixture is available in 1', 2' and 4'configurations, with 48 1.2-watt, high-

output white LEDs per linear foot. Theweather- and abrasion-resistant unit sportsan aluminum housing with a durablepowder coat finish and a 180-degreeadjustable base.

For additional information, visitwww.bocaflasher.com.

“Fire and Ice provide those coveted colorspectrums at brightness levels that are usableall over the stage.”

Changes in LED technology have alsoprompted ETC to upgrade its Vivid fixture tothe Vivid-R, which provides a 50-percentincrease in light output while consuming 10percent less power than the original Vivid.Vivid-R combines high-power Luxeon RebelLEDs and high-efficiency lenses for its colorproduction and lighting punch. Because ofthe low heat output of all Selador Series LEDfixtures, Vivid-R’s colors can be blazing with-out overheating the talent.

For additional information, visitwww.etcconnect.com.

Robert Juliat Profiles AledinRobert Juliat has introduced the

Aledin LED Profile Framing Spotlight, whichdelivers excellent output, framing and projec-tion from an extremely low-powered, 85-watt LED light source.

Based on Robert Juliat’s 600SX Seriesprofile, the Aledin benefits from the fameddouble condenser optical system and retainsall the features of a standard Robert Juliatprofile. Aledin’s low power consumption is ofvalue where power availability is limited,while a choice of color temperature (3,500°Kor 5,800°K) makes it a perfect solution for avariety of environments. Additionally, thefixture boasts no UV or IR emissions.

Other features of the Aledin includebuilt-in framing shutters and compatibilitywith metal, glass or plastic gobo materials.The fixture includes a built-in, electronic,flicker-free, dimmable PSU with direct DMXinput — no external dimmer is required —and the color temperature remains consistentthroughout the dimming range. The Aledin isavailable in three zoom ranges and can also

be purchased as a retrofit kit for RobertJuliat’s 600 Series Tungsten, 400 SeriesQuincy and Figaro luminaires.

For additional information, visitwww.robertjuliatamerica.com.

K5600 Accessorizes Joker-Bug with Big-EyeK5600 has released the Big-Eye

accessory for its Joker-Bug lighting system.The Big-Eye turns any Joker-Bug into a giant,focusable Fresnel beauty light.

The 24" Big-Eye converts the Joker-Bug to a large, hard-light source with natu-rally defined shadows. The Big-Eye packageweighs 22 pounds (with a Joker-Bug 800), isfoldable for easy transport, and is quick andeasy to set up.

For additional information, visitwww.k5600.com.

Elation Professional Filters, Shapes LEDsElation Professional has introduced

the LSF Series of Light Shaping Filters, whichinstantly give any LED fixture made by anymanufacturer a wider, smoother beamangle. The Light Shaping Filters can attach toa gel frame or the inside of an LED’s casingin minutes to add 10, 20 or 30 degrees tothe fixture’s beam, or a linear beam shapeeffect ideal for stage or wall grazing.

“Customers have been asking forwider diffused LED lighting fixtures withoutlosing a lot of output, and our new LightShaping Filters provide an easy, cost-effectiveway to attain this,” says Eric Loader, directorof sales for Elation Professional. “Using oneof these filters, you can widen the beam of anarrow-beam-angle LED Par like our Opti Tri30 and convert it into a fixture suitable for astage or wall wash.”

The LSF Series has been designed to

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equipment. The KF32 displays a smoothbeam gradient that responds especially wellto the latest generation of HD cameras. Thelamps work side by side with traditionaltungsten sources without corrective filtra-tion, while drawing 1⁄10 the power perlumen compared with incandescent fixtures.

For additional information, visitwww.kinoflo.com.

Arri Ballasts Enable High-Speed ShootingArri’s next generation of 1,000Hz

High-Speed Ballasts promise to set a newbar for flicker-free illumination in digitalhigh-speed photography. The new ballastsare available in four different wattageconfigurations: EB 125/200-watt DigitalHigh Speed, EB 400/575-watt Digital HighSpeed, EB 575/1,200-watt Digital HighSpeed and EB 2,500/4,000-watt Digital HighSpeed.

Arri’s electronic ballasts traditionallyoffer a flicker-free mode to supply the lampwith a 75Hz square wave current; this modeworks perfectly for high-speed photographywith analog film cameras shooting up to150 fps. The new High-Speed Ballastssupply the lamps with a 1,000Hz squarewave current to achieve high-quality flicker-free images even at frame rates exceeding1,000 fps.

For additional information, visitwww.arri.com.

Pixled Flexes LED Mesh Pixled has introduced the F-37L, a

37mm flexible mesh LED video displaydesigned for both backdrop applicationsand creative LED applications.

The F-37L’s ultra-slim, flexible meshconstruction offers the perfect combinationof design flexibility and speed of deploy-ment. The F-37L can be formed into anyshape or molded over any object, or it canbe deployed as a flat LED video screen. Withits ultra-lightweight construction, IP63 ratingand quick roll-out design, the F-37L can beused in almost any venue, indoors or out,and installed quickly.

The F-37L uses Nichia SMD LEDs at apixel pitch of 37.5mm, both vertically andhorizontally, with viewing angles greaterthan 120 degrees both vertically and hori-zontally. The combination of pixel pitch, light

output and 57-percenttransparency make the F-37L an ideal solution formassive wide-canvas back-drops, delivering sharp, crispvideo images.

Each F-37L panelweighs 5.11 pounds andmeasures 11.8" wide,47.2" high and 0.95" deep.It is available in either awhite or black finish and isCE and ETL listed. The maximum power drawper panel is less than 100 watts, with an inputfrequency of 60Hz, a refresh rate greater than240Hz, and an operating temperature rangeof -4° to 122°F.

For additional information, visitwww.pixled.com.

Shadowstone Introduces LED BandsShadowstone has introduced a range

of customizable LED Band Lighting Kits. Ideallysuited to cramped quarters where power andheat are major concerns, the LED Band Light-ing Kits are perfect for close-up lighting or asa supplement to other light sources in a studioor on location.

The basic Band Lighting Kit consists of16' bands of Warm White (3,000°K), CoolWhite (6,000°K) and RGB LEDs. The Kit alsoincludes a DMX Pocket Console, a DMX Inter-face Module, a local dimming power supply,non-dimming power supplies and a variety ofaccessories such as T and L junctions andother connectors that allow for customizationof band configuration.

The bands can be cut on site to lengthsas small as 2" for the white-light LEDs and 4"for the RGB band. Multiple adhesives, Velcroand other mounting options are also includedto further facilitate individual productionneeds. The Band Lighting Kits can be adaptedfor waterproof applications, and the kits arealso available in specific kits of only WarmWhite, Cool White or RGB arrangements.

For additional information, visitwww.shadowstone.com.

OmniSistem Lights Up NiteAvailable in either RGBA or white-only

configurations, OmniSistem’s Omni Nite LEDCurtain is made of ultra-thin lightweight fabricand features wide Velcro straps for secure

preserve as much power as possible whiledispersing light; the filters provide up to 92percent light transmission. “Our LSF filtersare unique in that they give you a widerbeam angle without sacrificing muchoutput, and they also smooth out the beamof any LED fixture that does not have aperfect field of light,” says Loader.

Light Shaping Filters are available infour different beam angles: 10 degrees(LSF10-24), 20 degrees (LSF20-22), 30degrees (LSF30-24) and 60 degrees by 1degree (LSF601-24). With the first threeversions, the beam angle is widened bothvertically and horizontally, while the 60x1version broadens the angle 60 degrees hori-zontally and only 1 degree vertically, makingit ideal for long, flat wall washes.

Each LSF filter sells for $139.99 andcomes in a large sheet that the user can cutto the desired size; each sheet measures24"x24", except the 20-degree filter, whichmeasures 24"x22".

For additional information, visitwww.elationlighting.com.

Kino Flo Expands True MatchLamp RangeKino Flo has introduced tungsten-

balanced, high-lumen, high-color-renderingTrue Match 96-watt KF32 Twin Lamps andTrue Match 55-watt KF32 Quad Lamps. TheKF32 Twin Lamps fit Kino Flo’s VistaBeamand Vista Single fixtures, while the KF32Quad Lamps are designed for the company’s

BarFly line.Like other

lamps in the TrueMatch family, theKF32’s color (CRI 95)is formulated byKino Flo to matchthe spectral sensitiv-ity curves of HD anddigital film imaging


installation on truss or goalpost rigs. Both theRGBA and white-only configurations are avail-able in two sizes: 10'x20' and 20'x20'. TheOmni Nite is controllable via 4 channels ofDMX512.

The Omni Nite comes equipped with acanvas travel case and a dedicated controllerwith eight auto programs. The travel casefeatures adjustable straps and holds both thecurtain and the controller.

For additional information, visitwww.omnisistem.com.

Rotolight Upgrades RinglightRotolight has introduced the upgraded

RL48-A LED Ringlight and Rotolight Stand.Featuring soft, natural and “shadow-less”continuous light output as well as an expandedoperating range of studio-accurate colortemperatures, the RL48-A is ideally suited toHDSLR cinematography. The fixture can mountbelow a mattebox, over a shotgun microphoneor accessory shoe, on a spare tripod or via anarticulated arm.

The revised Rotolight RL48-A is 35-percent brighter than the previous model anduses the latest generation pro-grade ultra-bright LEDs. The fixture boasts a wider colorpalette, delivering perfectly calibrated 6,900°,5,600°, 4,100° and 3,200°K. It can be dimmedwith extreme accuracy using neutral densityfilters over a range of 1.5 aperture stops. Anewly designed water-resistant switch keepsadverse weather out and prevents accidentaloperation of the unit, allowing greater opera-tional flexibility. The fixture also featurescompletely redesigned opto-electronics andproprietary circuit boards for enhanced perfor-mance, along with a new internal cover platethat incorporates a redesigned batterycompartment to further protect the electronics.

Weighing only 5 ounces, the RL48-Afeatures a matte black, water resistant,rubberized outer layer, which effectively elimi-nates reflectivity and acoustic resonance. Thering design incorporates a universal 38mm

microphone mount that allows the fixtureto be fitted onto virtually any standard shot-gun microphone. 48 special high-outputLEDs provide the equivalent of a 50-watttungsten hot bulb, delivering a widelydispersed light with soft, diffused shadows,resulting in evenly balanced illuminationwith a long throw. Power is provided bythree AA lithium, alkaline or rechargeablebatteries, which typically provide more thanfour hours of extended non-stop operation,over which the color temperature remains

highly stable.Rotolight has also introduced the

Rotolight Interview Kit, comprising twoRL48-A Ringlights, a belt pouch, two Roto-light Stands and an Add-On Color FX FilterKit; the Filter Kit contains a selection of Leefilters. The complete kit weighs less than atraditional v-lock battery and fits inside thebelt pouch, making it incredibly easy totransport.

For additional information, visitwww.rotolight.com. ●

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Kucinsky Becomes AssociateChet Kucinsky, the chief operating

officer for Technicolor North America Film,has joined the ASC as an associate member.He began his management career with RCAbefore joining Pacific Dunlop AutomotiveBatteries. In 1990, he joined Technicolor’sparent company, Thomson, where he helda number of positions as the company tran-sitioned from consumer electronics tomedia and network services. Kucinskybecame Technicolor North America’s COOin 2005, and he now oversees the activitiesof Technicolor’s North Hollywood andMirabel, Quebec, facilities, including front-end services, 35mm and 70mm releaseprinting, and preservation and restoration.

Deschanel Takes ManhattanCaleb Deschanel, ASC recently

completed his first foray into theaterdirecting with the one-act, one-personplay Burning in China. Written by GaryMoore, a friend of Deschanel’s since theywere students at Johns Hopkins University,the play was staged at the Fourth StreetTheater as part of the New York Interna-tional Fringe Festival. The performancewas bookended by video footageDeschanel shot in 1989 while visitingMoore in Shanghai.

Members Meet, Greet Student Academy Award WinnersThe 2010 Student Academy Award

winners recently spent time with ASCmembers Jonathan Erland, Victor J.Kemper, Michael Goi, Karl WalterLindenlaub, Isidore Mankofsky, DarynOkada and Woody Omens. Thirteenstudents from 11 colleges and universitieswere honored: Varathit Uthaisri won thegold medal in the Alternative category forSurface: Film from Below, Emily Henrickswon the Alternative silver medal for Multi-ply, Jennifer Bors won the gold medal inthe Animation category for Departure ofLove, Isaiah Powers and Jeremy Caspershared the Animation silver medal forDried Up, Andres Salaff won the Anima-tion bronze medal for Lifeline, Ruth Fertigwon the Documentary gold medal forYizkor (Remembrance), Maria Royo wonthe Documentary silver medal for Redis-covering Pape, Kevin Gordon and RebekahMeredith shared the Documentary bronzemedal for Dreams Awake (SuenaDespierto), Luke Matheny won the goldmedal in the Narrative category for God ofLove, Kim Spurlock won the Narrativesilver medal for Down in Number 5,Lubomir Kocka won the Narrative bronzemedal for The Lunch Box, and Tanel Toomwon the Honorary Foreign Film award forThe Confession.

Taylor, Anderson Converse With VlahosPeter Anderson, ASC recently

joined Paul Vlahos, color scientist andimage compositor Price Pethel, and DeluxeLaboratories’ David Gray in conversationwith special-effects pioneer Petro Vlahosfor a panel discussion presented by theAcademy of Motion Picture Arts andSciences’ Science and Technology Council.The panel was moderated by Bill Taylor,ASC, an Academy governor. Since the1940s, Petro Vlahos has served the motion-picture industry as a design engineer, fieldengineer and systems engineer. His wide-ranging patents have covered camera-crane motor controls, screen-brightnessmeters, safe squib systems, projectionscreens and more. He also created theanalog and digital hardware and softwareversions of Ultimatte, the first high-qualityelectronic compositing system.

Kodak Archives “OnFilm” CampaignKodak has launched an online

archive of its long-running “OnFilm”campaign. Begun in 1988, the advertise-ments have highlighted the art of film-making through philosophical and inspira-tional remarks from cinematographers andother filmmakers; more than 250 filmmak-ers have so far been featured. The archivecurrently goes back to 2005, and Kodakplans to eventually include everyone whoparticipated in the campaign.

“The objective of the campaignwas to interview members across theentire film community,” says ASC associ-ate member Judy Doherty, Kodak’smarketing director for the Americas.“Since the inception of ‘OnFilm,’ that hasbeen an ongoing goal: to continue thatlegacy and to build on this heritage formany years to come.”

To view the “OnFilm” archive, visitwww.kodak.com/go/onfilm. ●

Clubhouse News

Top: Seated (left to right) are ASC members JonathanErland, Karl Walter Lindenlaub, Daryn Okada, WoodyOmens, Michael Goi, Victor J. Kemper and IsidoreMankofsky. Standing (left to right) are Andres Salaff,Emily Henricks, Rebekah Meredith, Jeremy Casper,Ruth Fertig, Maria Royo, Varathit Uthaisri, Jun Oshimi,Bobby Webster, Luke Matheny, Rasto Trizma, StuartBury, Lubomir Kocka, Kevin Gordon, Jennifer Bors,Isaiah Powers, Tanel Toom and Kim Spurlock. Bottom(left to right): Peter Anderson, ASC; Price Pethel; PetroVlahos; Paul Vlahos; David Gray; and Bill Taylor, ASC.


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When you were a child, what film made the strongest impressionon you?Seeing Mary Poppins (1964) at Radio City Music Hall with my mom madean impression, probably as much because of theplace as the film itself. We had a big family anddidn’t get out to movie theaters often, so most ofmy movie watching was Saturday afternoon TV,The Million Dollar Movie. I saw everything from PT-109 (1963) to Attack of the Mushroom People(a.k.a. Matango, 1963). Actually, I am still freakedout by Attack of the Mushroom People.

Which cinematographers, past or present, doyou most admire?It’s a long list, and it changes often based on whatI’ve been watching. All of the usual suspects arethere. At this moment, I’m thinking about theunforced naturalism in the work of Robby Müller,NSC, BVK, especially in his films with Wim Wenders and Jim Jarmusch. Itmade a big impression on me when I was in college and had a lot to dowith inspiring me to move from still photography to motion pictures.

What sparked your interest in photography?I’ve been fascinated by photography ever since I can remember. My dadbought me a camera when I was 7, mostly to keep me from messingaround with his Kodak Retina Reflex.

Where did you train and/or study?I went to the Rochester Institute of Technology to study Photo Illustration.At the time, I thought I would be a magazine photographer. I admired thework of Duane Michaels and liked the way he was able to slip betweenadvertising and his own personal work. I hoped to do something like thatwhen I graduated. Instead, I came across the New York indie films of JohnSayles, Jim Jarmusch and Spike Lee — RIT had a good film society, andRochester has a great art house, The Little Theater. RIT didn’t offer a majorin film at that time, but I was able to take a few courses in basic film-making and film history.

Who were your early teachers or mentors?Martin Rennalls, Erik Timmerman and Malcolm Spaull were film instruc-tors at RIT. When I was first starting out as an electrician, Denis Maloney,ASC and his gaffer, Tom Trovato, taught me a lot about how to make afeature film. Director Michael Almereyda taught me a lot about theprocess behind creating compelling frames and expressive camera move-ment. On the set, I feel like I am mentored every day by the crew anddirectors I work with; there’s always something new to learn, and most ofthe people I work with have seen and done more than I have.

What are some of your key artistic influences?The photography in Life magazine, and Realist and Romantic paintings.

How did you get your first break in the business?My friend Jane hired me to shoot and edit video packages for theRochester City School District cable-access channel.

What has been your most satisfy-ing moment on a project?In Nadja, there’s a shot where thevampire, Nadja (Elina Lowensohn), isleading her brother, who’s on astretcher, through a doorway. Justbefore she goes through the door, shelooks back and has a line. I noticedwhere Elina did this and had the ideato set a flag so that as she movedforward and looked back, her facedisappeared into shadow. It was achilling effect.

Have you made any memorable blunders?I’ve made too many to remember, most involving me saying some-thing I shouldn’t have said rather than anything technical.

What is the best professional advice you’ve ever received?From Tim Beiber: ‘Show up early, don’t sit down, and act like yougive a shit.’ It’s easy to remember and has far-reaching implications.

What recent books, films or artworks have inspired you?I thought Let the Right One In was amazing in terms of creating afrightening atmosphere without obtrusive special effects. I reallyappreciated the simple, controlled directing and photography.

Do you have any favorite genres, or genres you would like totry?I think Attack of the Mushroom People is due for a remake.

If you weren’t a cinematographer, what might you be doinginstead?I would probably be some sort of engineer, automotive or aeronau-tical, or I might own a bike shop. I am fascinated by machines.

Which ASC cinematographers recommended you formembership?Sol Negrin, Owen Roizman and Nancy Schreiber.

How has ASC membership impacted your life and career?It’s a little early to tell because I’ve been pretty busy since I got in lastAugust. When I meet another ASC member for the first time at anevent, it gives us another thing in common, which helps break theice. I’m still waiting to learn the secret handshake, though ….

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Jim Denault, ASCClose-up

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RODNEY TAYLOR, ASCONFILM

“I really believe in the power of cinema. The age of

silent movies is behind us, but we still experience

stories by watching images projected on a

screen. My goal is to help make films I believe

in by using cameras, lighting and lenses to tell

stories in ways that go beyond spoken words.

We made That Evening Sun using the 35 mm

anamorphic format with a photochemical finish.

The director, Scott Teems, wanted an organic

feeling that I believe you can only achieve using

film. Audiences can feel the difference, which

evokes emotional responses that pulls them

deeper into stories. I believe the cinema can

play an important role in our world if we give

talented filmmakers the freedom to tell stories.”

Rodney Taylor, ASC launched his career as

a cameraman for ESPN. He transitioned

to shooting IMAX® documentary and

narrative films, including Alaska: Spirit

of the Wild, Wildfire: Feel the Heat, The

Legend of Loch Lomond and Wired to Win.

In 2003, he received a Kodak Vision Award

for his accomplishments in large format

cinematography. His narrative film credits

include Swimmers, Save Me, Home of the Giants

and That Evening Sun starring Hal Holbrook.

For an extended interview with Rodney Taylor, ASC, visit www.kodak.com/go/onfilm

To order Kodak motion picture film, call (800) 621-film. © Eastman Kodak Company, 2010. Photography: © 2010 Douglas Kirkland

american cinematographer magazine october 2010

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