scene to screen

Cannes Film Festival 2005 specialthe international magazine

for high definition production

Sin CityRobert Rodriquez shoots on HD

Star WarsEpisode IIIGeorge Lucasblockbusterreleases

ManderlayAnthony DodMantle onshooting withHDCAM

CachMichael Hanekeon his choiceof HD

spotlight on high definition Cannes 2005

Digital movie making at CannesOnce again, high definition features areplaying a prominent role at the Cannes FilmFestival 2005. From Cach, Manderlay andSin City in the main competition, to StarWars Episode III premiered out ofcompetition, Sony high definition is provingitself with the worlds top movie-makers.

The range of high definition choices is alsoincreasing: HDV offering true 1080-linesproduction on a low budget, HDCAM formaximum flexibility for mainstreamproduction and HDCAM SR for unparalleledpicture quality. All three options deliver abalanced range of features and performanceto allow producers to choose the right toolfor the job, while avoiding the one size fitsall compromise.

Chris Dickinsoneditor

2 scene to screen cannes 2005

news

everything you ever wanted toknow about high definition atwww.sonybiz.net/hd

HDCAM is being used to create effective slowmotion at different frame rates 8

editor Chris Dickinsonchris@smallworldpublishing.co.ukcontributors Chris Bunish, Stephen Tate, Janet Anne Westart editor Karen Painterexecutive editors Peter Sykes, Richard Lewispublishing manager Jillian Chart

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Cachs inclusion in the competition shortlist atthe 58th Cannes Film Festival signals Sony highdefinitions growing reputation within the filmindustry as a serious artistic format. MichaelHanekes psychological thriller was shot onlocation in Paris and Vienna last summer withHDW-750P HDCAM camcorders.

Starring Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche,the film is about a TV presenter who receivesvideos of him and his family being filmed insecret on the street. The content of the videosbecomes more personal leading the presenterto suspect the sender knows him well.

Haneke, who wrote the screenplay anddirected, tells Scene to Screen that he hadchosen to shoot the feature in HDCAMbecause he had wanted to blur the distinctionbetween reality and video.

I wanted to make it difficult for those

watching the film to tell the differencebetween reality and the dreams of the TVpresenter and the videos that he and his familyreceive in the post. The idea was to createtension and confusion as the TV presenterloses his bearings from the mental anguish ofnot knowing the identity of his persecutor,Haneke says.

HD was able to merge the different statesof mind and make it seem more like acontinuous narrative. I am pleased with theend result and delighted with the nomination.

The director of photography was ChristianBerger and the movie was produced by LesFilms du Losange in Paris. Post production wascarried out in France, Germany, Austria andItaly.

Lise Zipci, of Les Films du Losange, says:Were pleased with the look of the film.

Michael Haneke tells Stephen Tateabout shooting with the HDW-750P HDCAM camcorder

Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow wasshot in the UK with HDCAM camcorderssupplied by ARRI Media. Kerry Conransdirectorial retro sci-fi epic, starring Jude Lawand Gwyneth Paltrow, was shot blue-screen.

DoP Eric Adkins explains: With HD, whatyou see is what you get. There is plenty incamera to work with. Sonys HD camera matrixset-ups and colour controls give you a greatlooking picture and can be set up for multiplecameras easily.

Sky Captain And TheWorld Of Tomorrow Philip Robertson won the Kodak Vision Award

for Best Cinematography at the 2005Slamdance Film Festival in January.

An RS Productions and Shoreline Filmsproduction in association with Freedonia Filmsand Zentropa Entertainments, Frozen is writtenand directed by Juliet McKoen. The movie wasshot predominantly on location in northernEngland on HDCAM.

When I read the script I immediatelyresponded to it because I felt it was so highlyvisual, and gave a cinematic space to peopleand places rarely seen on film, Robertson says.

Frozen

Cach

cannes 2005 scene to screen 3

news

Michael Manns Collateral, which earnedcinematographers Dion Beebe and PaulCameron BAFTA and LAFCA Awards for BestCinematography, was shot in HD.

Film doesnt record what our eyes can seeat night. Thats why I moved into shootingdigital video in high definition to see into thenight to see everything the naked eye cansee and more, Mann says.

The movie was shot 80 per cent digitallyusing several different cameras, including the F900 HDCAM camcorder, and recording on toSRW-5000 HDCAM SR recorders.

Aliens Of The Deep, the large screen 3-Ddocumentary film by Academy Award winningdirector James Cameron and director StevenQuale, was shot in HDCAM using a speciallycreated HD camera. The 3-D Reality CameraSystem was developed by Cameron inconjunction with Panavision and Sony.

Cameron is already working on a newgeneration of the camera system, recording onHDCAM SR. His forthcoming feature, BattleAngel, based on a Japanese manga series ofnovels by artist Yukito Kishiro, is due for release in 2007.

Action adventure Superman Returns is currentlybeing shot in Australia with high definitionGenesis cameras supplied by PanavisionAustralia, recording onto HDCAM SR recorders.

A Warner Bros. Pictures presentation of aPeters Entertainment production, in associationwith Bad Hat Harry Productions, SupermanReturns stars newcomer Brandon Routh. Thefeature is due for release in June 2006.

Collateral Aliens Of The Deep

In a continuation of its pioneering efforts toexpand digital cinema, Lucasfilm shot the last ofthe Star Wars episodes with Sony F950 CineAltaHD cameras recording onto HDCAM SRtechnology.

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith,written and directed by George Lucas, is beingshown out of competition at Cannes and isreleased worldwide this May. The whole moviewas shot in 4:4:4 RGB.

Lucas was supported throughout the

production by Sony and other vendorcompanies to ensure the seamless integrationof myriad pieces of new technology.

Star Wars producer Rick McCallum says HDhad many benefits. George Lucas loves digitalcinematography for the quality and clarity ofthe images, McCallum says. For me, shootingdigitally makes everything so much simplerbecause the process is more efficient, moreaccessible and more cost effective. We startedplanning with our vendors a year before we

started shooting. We shot in Australia,Thailand, China, Switzerland, Italy, England and Tunisia (and did) six months of model shooting at ILM. Our vendors service andtechnologies made all the difference to thesuccess of our shoot.

Plus8Digital, which supplied five F950 HDcameras to the production, organised thevendor group, which included Sonyrepresentatives for HDCAM SR.

There wasnt one critical piece in thewhole picture chain that wasnt completelynew technology, says Marker Karahadian,president of Plus8Digital, a digital motion-picture technology rental company with officesin Burbank, California, Vancouver and NewYork City.

Lucasfilm saw the possibility for 4:4:4 RGBrecording while shooting miniatures forEpisode II and viewed the new technology asthe high-performance bar for the productionof the Star Wars finale.

Everyone was very pleased with theefficiencies of the system and how all theequipment worked, Karahadian reports.

Plus8Digital supplied five HDcameras to Lucasfilm for Star WarsEpisode III: Revenge of the Sith.Chris Bunish reports

Superman Returns

Star Wars Episode III

George Lucas loves digital cinematographyfor the quality and clarity of the images. For me, shooting digitally makes everything so much simpler Rick McCallum

British cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle,working with Lars von Trier, has again beenhonoured at Cannes in 2005 for theirpioneering work in digital movie-making.

Von Triers slavery drama Manderlay,starring Bryce Dallas Howard, William Defoe,Danny Glover and Lauren Bacall, was shot on aCineAlta F900 HDCAM camcorder by DodMantle, repeating the innovative 360-degreeshooting technique von Trier employed on thetrilogys opener, Dogville, which was shortlisted at Cannes in 2003.

Dod Mantle first won recognition at Canneswith his ground-breaking handheld digitalcinematography on Thomas VinterbergsFesten, winner of the 1998 Prix Spcial du Jury.

Speaking from his home on the Danishcoast, Dod Mantle tells Scene to Screen thatthe rapid evolution of digital technology hadcontributed to the record number of filmentries at this years festival.

This is a good time to be in film-making.With the technology out there, there is noexcuse for DoPs not to be producing goodfilms on a low budget, he says.

Manderlay is the second part of USA Land of Opportunity, von Triers trilogy aboutAmerica. Set in the American South during the1930s, it follows Grace, heroine of Dogville, toa plantation in Alabama. Appalled by theslavery she finds there, she vows to right ahorrible wrong.

Grace is played by Bryce Dallas Howard,replacing Nicole Kidman, who played the rolein Dogville.

Von Trier is currently writing the screenplayfor the final movie and Dod Mantle says thatshooting was expected to begin in December

and carry on through to the Spring of 2006.On Manderlay, Dod Mantle says he had put

the lessons learned shooting Dogville inHDCAM to good use.

Dogvilles cast had been filmed on a blackfloor marked out with nine acting areas, ratherthan a studio set. The idea was to bridge thegap between theatre and film. In Manderlay,the concept is the same but we used a lightfloor which enabled me to create better areasof light and darkness. Dogville was filmed on aclosed stage about half the size of a footballpitch. This time we used a bigger stage to giveus more room, he says.

The film was also graded differently toDogville. I hired a colour grader to be thereduring the shoot to improve contrast andresolution while we were filming.

Like Dogville, a rack of PD150P DVCAMcamcorders was attached to a rig above thestage to capture what von Trier has describedas Gods point of view.

Dod Mantle used 15 overhead cameras,three more than in the first film. I wanted toachieve the weird perspective of a Breugelpainting by attaching more cameras at evenodder angles, he says.

Filming a predominantly black cast against ablack background presented Dod Mantle witha unique set of lighting problems, but it ledhim to discover a new effect. Shooting with awide aperture in either low lighting, or filmingonto a dark surface, the CineAlta creates aninteresting texture just before the signalbecomes too weak to pick up anything. Itssomething Id like to explore further.

Zentropa, von Triers company, owns theF900 used to make Dogville and Manderlay.

interview

4 scene to screen cannes 2005

The fact that we couldrely on one camera toshoot so many hourswith virtually noproblems speaksvolumes for the SonyCineAlta. Its aworkhorse andcompletely reliable. Ididnt need a back-up Anthony DodMantle

Anthony Dod Mantle tells StephenTate how he shot Manderlay inHDCAM with Lars von Trier

Manderlay star Bryce Dallas Howard (above) and

Lars von Trier with Danny Glover (opposite, bottom).

Gods view (opposite, top) was achieved with a rack

of PD150s.

Manderlay

interview

cannes 2005 scene to screen 5

The main reason we chose HD is becauseLars shoots a lot of material. The camera isrunning from the moment the rehearsals startin the morning. Most of this extra footagedoesnt get used, but some does. With thiskind of volume, it is better to be burning HDtapes rather than film.

Lars had the camera rig, the Lars-cam,strapped to his back to ensure freedom ofmovement. It was very intuitive. He wanted tosee everything in 360 degrees, which is anightmare to shoot. We had more than 1,000lights on the ceiling and many more around thestage, all set on dimmers.

The fact that we could rely on one camerato shoot so many hours with virtually noproblems speaks volumes for the SonyCineAlta. Its a workhorse and completelyreliable. I didnt need a back-up.

Dod Mantle says he was not convincedinitially that technology had all the answers.There seems to be a push right now to makethe whole image sharper and sharper. I think itwould be unwise to lose the classic cinematradition of using depth of field to guide theviewers eye to one area of the screen wherethe story is being told.

If you bombard the viewer with too muchinformation, there is a danger that it willcompete with the space that you should bereserving for emotional content.

Dod Mantle was able to decrease the depthof field on the Sony CineAlta by adjusting thelighting and recalibrating the camera.

With careful lighting and a slower shootingspeed, you can break down the depth of field.Another method is to use film lenses.

Dod Mantle has known von Trier for 20years. He helped research the orthodox churchcommunities in Scotland for Breaking theWaves, which won a Grand Prix in 1996.

Breaking the Waves is the first part of vonTriers Golden Heart Trilogy, inspired by achildrens book from his childhood about asmall girl who sacrifices herself to help others.The other two films in the trilogy are Idiots andDancer in the Dark, which won the Palme dOrin 2000.

Lars von Trier never bargains with thecritics or panders to the viewer and I would bean idiot to suggest he tried to make moreconventional films.

We have a good relationship. We tease, weargue and we have a lot of fun. He is a bright

lad with a unique vision and I rate him as oneof the great directors.

Like Roman Polanski, he understands a lotabout the technical side. Even when he comesto me with outlandish ideas, he is always awareof the practical complexities of making themhappen. For me, thats the sign of a greatdirector, he says.

Dod Mantle, who moved to Denmark in1985, was recently awarded the EuropeanCinematographer prize for bestCinematographer by the European FilmAcademy for his work on Dogville and DannyBoyles 28 Days Later.

Dod Mantle started working with von Trierin the mid-1990s, around the time of theDogme 95 Manifesto, with its 10 rules of film-making. The Manifesto was signed by von Trier,Vinterberg and fellow Danish directors SrenKragh Jacobsen and Kristian Levring.

6 scene to screen cannes 2005

cover story

Sin City

Robert Rodriquezs Sin City, in theOfficial Selection at Cannes, wasrecorded on HDCAM SR, with visualeffects created by CafeFX. ChrisBunish reports

Having contributed numerous visual effects(vfx) shots to Robert Rodriguezs Spy Kids 3-D:Game Over and Kerry Conrans innovative SkyCaptain and the World of Tomorrow, CafeFX isno stranger to creating backgrounds for actorsshot on green-screen. So when Rodriguezbegan production on Sin City, CafeFX jumped atthe chance to devise backgrounds for the entire45-minute segment The Big Fat Kill, starringClive Owen and Benicio Del Toro.

This was the first time we were given anopportunity to work on an entire film, albeit ashorter one, where every shot of the film wasan effect, says vfx supervisor Jeff Goldman.Sin City was an exercise in integrating the liveaction into the visual effects, something of areversal from the usual vfx process.

Senior vfx supervisor and CafeFX co-ownerDavid Ebner was on set at RodriguezsTroublemaker Studios in Austin, Texas for partof the green-screen shoot where F950 highdefinition cameras recorded the actors toHDCAM SR.

Shooting digitally enabled Rodriguez andco-director Frank Miller, author of the series ofhard-boiled graphic novels based in thefictional Sin City, to work quickly, stagingapproximately 60 set-ups per day. In post,CafeFX was charged with merging the live-action tale brimming with booze, broads andbullets with the stark, black-and-white world of Sin City, known worldwide to fans of Millers novels.

Back in CafeFXs Santa Maria and SantaMonica studios, hand rotoscoping andtraditional key pulls were employed to extractactors from plates in some 600 shots.

Enhancing the process was HDCAM SRs10-bit 4:4:4 colour space format. HDCAM SRwas developed with more bandwidth whichretains full-frame resolution for luminance andchrominance channels, ultimately allowing formore accurate data for our tools to work with,says Goldman.

At the same time, CafeFXs digital artistswere designing and building the virtual sets ofSin City in the CG department. Creatively,Robert Rodriguez gave us quite a bit of leewayin realising Sin City, says Goldman. Ourreference was the Sin City graphic novel thatour story was based on. Rodriguez shot verytrue to the original book down to very similarcamera angles and compositions.

Much of the story, which is set at night witha storm brewing and then unleashing adownpour, takes place in the back alleys of OldTown and at a tar pit.

Brick buildings, graffiti, fire escapes, trashcans, trash everything youd normally put ona set we had to build and texture with real-world pictures of brick and asphalt, forexample, or procedurally-generated textures,he explains.

HD video offers a way of potentiallyextracting matte information in an entirely newway, he says.

HD video offers a wayof potentiallyextracting matteinformation in anentirely new way Jeff Goldman

Benicio Del Toro (right) and Roasario Dawson

(bottom) star in Sin City, in competition at

Cannes 2005. (Photos courtesy Rico Torres

for Dimension Films)

HDCAM SR has quickly gained acceptance asthe preferred post and mastering format forfilm and TV production.

HDCAM SR employs the latest codec and,by using very mild compression ratios and thelatest technology, visually loss-less images aremaintained even though many generations.With 12 audio tracks, HDCAM SR is perfect forfilm mastering.

London post house Pepper has recentlybought the latest HDCAM SR VTR for DigitalIntermediate (DI) work. Jethro Harris, head ofoperations at Pepper, says: Were doing moreand more feature film DI work and feel thatHDCAM SR, with its low compression rate, isthe ideal format to enable us to offer ourclients the best quality results.

HDCAM SR is a lot more manageable thanworking with 2K data files on hard drives andworking in HD allows us to make real timegrading decisions, rather than waiting forlengthy renders. Also, the film lab we use forrecording back to film, Digital Film Lab inCopenhagen, also uses HDCAM SR and thisallows us to offer a high quality result all theway through to the film out.

French facilities company, GroupeTransatlantic, which comprises TransatlanticVideo and MediaLab, has also recently installedtwo HDCAM SR VTRs.

We have found that HDCAM SR gives usexceptional quality. says Jean-Christophe Coin,technical director for Groupe Transatlantic.

The HDCAM SR mirrors all the editingcapabilities of the F500 HDCAM and DigitalBetacam decks, including pre-read editing,variable speed and jog playback.

We bought the first HDCAM SR in Francefollowing our tradition of buying first, explainsAlain Gouby, technical director at Paris digitallab GTC Video.

HDCAM SR is used for film projects thatare mastered and distributed on HD ortransferred back to film but with HD timing.Its not just to be first with the new

technology, but at GTC we believe that Sonyhas a savoir faire that is unequalled by othermanufacturers.

Digimage have committed to deliver severalinternational co-productions shot and postproduced in high definition. We have had ourHDCAM SR for about eight months, saysmarketing director Angelo Cosimano. The4:4:4 option with 12 audio channels offers usan ideal solution for mastering feature films.

We use hard drives as the intermediateelements in post production but this involves alot of manipulating to achieve a 4:4:4 highquality recording, explains Coin.

Remastering is very challenging and theHDCAM SR will allow archive houses toeternalise their valuable products, particularlyfor films produced before 1999, says Coin. Asmore and more TV broadcasters are pushing usto deliver in HD, the HDCAM SR will save ustime and as an investment is strategicallyimportant for us.

Although there are some productions todayshot on HDCAM they are often post produced

on standard definition. These programmes willbe remastered using the HDCAM SR deck andits the start of a very big market opportunity.For special effects work and CG production,many post houses use a lot of hardware such asDiscreets Flame or Inferno and require 4:4:4.

When the new HDCAM SR was deliveredsix months ago we were delighted with howeasy it was to use and 4:4:4 is ideal when goingback to film, says LTCs production managerGregory Sapojlekoss.

HDCAM SR enables an RGB workflow to beused throughout post production and clientdelivery, it keeps the content within the sameRGB colour space as the original film andremoves the need to matrix to YUV.

HDCAM SR functions very much with thesame ease we are used to with DigitalBetacam, says a satisfied Gouby. To master inHD it is not essential to originate in HD, as didcinematographer Dani Kouyats Ouagasaga.

Ng Maron, directed by Jean-ClaudeFlamant, was shot in Super 16, but masteredentirely in HDCAM SR. We also have recentlyworked on Jean Pierre Chabrols La DemoiselledHonneur, Dernier Trappeur and the animatedfilm, Le Renard.

From acquisition to mastering to archiving,the adoption of HDCAM SR will definitely stepup quality to a higher level and automating thearchive process is now possible.

cannes 2005 scene to screen 7

HDCAM SR is becoming the formatof choice for mastering and postproduction. Janet Anne West reports

The 4:4:4 option with 12 audio channels offersus an ideal solution for mastering feature films Angelo Cosimano

HDCAM SR

high definition refined

Jean Pierre Chabrols La Demoiselle dHonneur, post

produced at GTC Video

digital cinema

Bent Hamers Factotum waspremiered at the Trondheim Film andTechnology Festival on a Sony 4Kprojector. Stephen Tate reports

4K projector

Sony is miles ahead ofthe competition. Itsgoing to lead this fieldfor the foreseeablefuture because none ofits rivals are anywherenear developingcomparable technologyAndrew Perkis

The inaugural Trondheim Film and TechnologyFestival 2005 heralded a landmark in cinemahistory with the first European screening of afull length feature film on the revolutionarySony 4K projector.

More than 400 people saw the worldpremiere of Factotum on the SRX-R110projector during Aprils festival. It was screenedat Trondheim Kino, an 18-screen multiplex thathas become the first cinema venue in Europeto install a 4K projector.

The Trondheim Festival 4K screening wasco-ordinated by Professor Andrew Perkis, chairof digital imaging at the Norwegian Universityof Science and Technology in Trondheim.

Over the past few years, the universitysdepartment of electronics and telecoms hasbeen collaborating closely with Sony in thedevelopment of digital cinema technology.

Perkis says the Sony 4K projector wouldhave a huge impact on the industry, though thepublic would have to wait a little longer before4K arrived at their local cinema.

The big issue is cost. Who pays for theupgrade? The cinema owner, the filmdistributor or the producer? Once thatsworked out, 4K will happen quickly, he says.

Prof Perkis says the people who sawFactotum on 4K were awe-struck by the depthand detail of the image. I asked one cinema-goer afterwards what they had thought of it.They were speechless.

In technical terms, 4K gives you a truer andcrisper image that almost looks and feels like3D because the depth of field is so incrediblysharp.

When you get this kind of 3D feel, you getmore people engaged. It was the talk of thetown in Trondheim. Ive no doubt the futurehas arrived, he says.

Factotum is about poet laureate of thegutter Charles Bukowski and is based on theAmerican authors autobiographical secondnovel of the same title.

The movie was written and directed by

Norways Bent Hamer and stars Matt Dillonand Lili Taylor. Shot on location in Minnesota,the film was acquired on 35mm then masteredon to Sony HDCAM SR. The master tape wasthen played back on a SRW-5000 deck to the4K projector.

The projector is powered by Sonys ownSXRD (Silicon Xtal Reflective Display) chip,which was developed in-house to cope withthe 4096 x 2160 pixel resolution of 4K. TheSXRD chip has more than four times as manypixels compared to a 2K projector.

Perkis says: Sony is miles ahead of thecompetition. Its going to lead this field for theforeseeable future because none of its rivals areanywhere near developing comparabletechnology.

You really notice the difference when yougo back to 35mm. Digital projection iscompletely still, whereas analogue projectionshakes. Digital images fill the whole screenwhereas you notice the rounded cornersof film.

The Trondheim Kino cinema (below) installed the

Sony 4K projector to show Factotum (bottom)

for more information on where to find all Sony high definitionfacilities and equipment, visit www.sonybiz.net/hdcam