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Category Archives: on-set

Masters of the Air: Directors and DP Talk Shoot, VFX and Grade

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By Iain Blair

World War II drama Masters of the Air is a nine-episode Apple TV+ limited series that follows the men of the 100th Bomb Group as they conduct perilous bombing raids over Nazi Germany and grapple with the frigid conditions, the lack of oxygen and the sheer terror of combat at 25,000 feet in the air. Starring Austin Butler and Barry Keoghan, it’s the latest project from Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, the producing team behind Band of Brothers and The Pacific.

Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck

Ranging in locations from the fields and villages of southeast England to the harsh deprivations of a German POW camp, Masters of the Air is enormous in both scale and scope. It took many years and an army of creatives to bring it to life — such as directors including Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck and DPs including Jac Fitzgerald.

Here, Boden and Fleck (Captain Marvel) talk about the challenges of shooting, editing and posting the ambitious show. In a sidebar, Fitzgerald (True Detective) talks about integrating the extensive VFX and the DI.

After doing Captain Marvel, I guess you guys could handle anything, but this was still a massive project. What were the main challenges?
Anna Boden: We did episodes 5 and 6. I’d say for us, Episode 5 was a big challenge in terms of wrapping our heads around it all. Some of the prep challenges were very big because it’s really a long air battle sequence that takes up almost the entire episode, and we had limited prep and not a ton of time to do previz and work everything out ahead of time. Also, simultaneously, we were prepping Episode 6, which was going to take us on location and to a whole bunch of new spaces that the show had never been to before. Finding those new locations and doing both of those things at once required so much planning, so it was challenging.

How did you handle the big air battle sequence and working with the volume stage?
Boden: You don’t want to show up on the day and wing it. As filmmakers, sometimes it’s really fun to get on-set and block the sequence based on what the actors want to do. But you can’t do that when you’re shooting on a volume stage, where you’re projecting a lot of imagery on the wall around you. You have to plan out so much of what’s going to be there. That was new for us. Even though we’d worked on Captain Marvel and used greenscreen, we’d never used those big-volume LED stages before. It was a really cool learning experience. We learned a lot on the fly and ultimately had fun crafting a pretty exciting sequence.

I assume director Cary Joji Fukunaga and his DP, Adam Arkapaw, set the template in the first four episodes for the look of the whole show, and then you had to carry that across your episodes.
Boden: Yeah. They’d obviously started shooting before us, and so we were studying their dailies and getting a sense of their camera movements and the color palettes and the vibe for the show. It was really helpful. And our DP, Jac Fitzgerald, knows Adam pretty well, so I think that they had a close working relationship. Also, we were able to visit the set while Cary was shooting to get a sense of the vibe. Once we incorporated that, then we were on our own to do our thing. It’s not like we suddenly changed the entire look of the show, but we had the freedom to put our personalities into it.

And one of the great things about the point where we took over is that Episode 5 is its own little capsule episode. We tried to shoot some of the stuff on the base in a similar tone to how they were shooting it. But then, once we got to that monster mission, it became its own thing, and we shot it in our own way. Then, with Episode 6, we were in completely different spaces. It’s a real break from the previous episodes because it’s the midpoint of the season, we’re away from the base, and there’s a big shift in terms of where the story is going. That gave us a little bit of freedom to very consciously shift how we were going to approach the visual language with Jac. It was an organic way to make that change without it feeling like a weird break in the season.

Give us some sense of how integrating all the post and visual effects worked.
Ryan Fleck: We were using the volume stage, so we did have images, and for the aerial battles, we had stuff for the actors to respond to, but they were not dialed in completely. A lot of that happened after the shooting. In fact, most of it did. (Jac can probably help elaborate on that because she’s still involved with the post process for the whole show.) It wasn’t like Mandalorian levels of dialed-in visual effects, where they were almost finished, and the actors could see. In this show, it was more like the actors were responding to previz, but I think that was hugely helpful.

On Captain Marvel, so often actors are just responding to tennis balls and an AD running around the set for eyelines. In this case, it was nice for the actors to see an actual airplane on fire outside their window for their performances to feel fresh.

Did you do a lot of previz?
Fleck: Yeah, we did a lot for those battle sequences in the air, and we worked closely with visual effects supervisor Stephen Rosenbaum, who was integral in pulling all that stuff together.

What did Jac bring to the mix? You hadn’t worked together before, right?
Fleck: No, and we like her energy. She has experience on big movies and small movies, which we appreciate, and so do we. We like those sensibilities. But I think she just has a nice, calm energy. She likes to have fun when she’s working, and so do we, but she’s also very focused on executing the plan. She’s an organized and creative brain that we really appreciated.

Boden: I think that we had a lot of the same reference points when we first started talking, like The Cold Blue, an amazing documentary with a lot of footage that was taken up in the planes during World War II. Filmmakers actually were shooting up there with the young men who were on missions in these bomber planes. That was a really important reference point for us in terms of determining where the cameras can be mounted inside one of these planes. We tried as much as possible to keep those very real camera positions on the missions so that it felt as reality-based and as visceral as possible and not like a Marvel movie. We used some of the color palette from that documentary as well.

It was also Jac’s working style to go to the set and think about how to block things in the shot list… not that we need to stick to that. Once we get in there and work it through with the actors, we all become very flexible, and she’s very flexible as well. Our work styles are very similar, and we got on really well. We like our sets to be very calm and happy instead of chaotic, and she has a very calm personality on-set. We immediately hired her to shoot our next feature after this show, so we’re big fans.

Was it a really tough shoot?
Boden: Yeah. We started shooting in July and finished in October. That’s pretty long for two episodes, but COVID slowed it all down.

Fleck: I’ve never shot in London or the UK before, but I loved it. I loved the crews; I loved the locations. We got to spend time in Oxford, and I fell in love with the place. I really loved exploring the locations. But yes, there were challenges. I think the most tedious stuff was the aerial sequences because we had mounted cameras, and it was just slow. We like to get momentum and move as quickly as we can when shooting.

Even though this is TV, you guys were involved in post to some degree, yes? 
Ryan Fleck: Yes, we did our director’s cuts, and then Gary kept us involved as the cuts progressed. We were able to get back into the edit room even after we delivered our cuts, and we continued to give our feedback to guide the cuts. Typically, TV directors give over their cuts, and then it’s “Adios.” But because we worked so long on it and we had a good relationship with Gary and the actors, we wanted to see this through to the end. So we stayed involved for much longer than I think is typical for episodic directing.

Typically, on our films, we’re involved in all the other post departments, visual effects and sound, every step of the way. But on this series, we were less involved, although we gave notes. Then Jac did all the grading and the rest of the show. She kind of took over and was very involved. She’ll have a lot of insights into the whole DI process. (See Sidebar)

Anna, I assume you love post, and especially editing, as you edited your first four features.
Boden: I love post because it feels like you’ve made all your compromises, and now all you can do is make it better. Now your only job is to make it the best version of itself. It’s like this puzzle, and you have all the time in the world to do the writing again. I absolutely love editing and the process of putting your writing/editing brain back on. You’re forgetting what happened as a director on-set and rethinking how to shape things.

Give us some idea of how the editing worked. Did you also cut your episodes?
Boden: No, we hired an editor named Spencer Averick, who worked on our director’s cut with us. Every director was able to work on their director’s cut with a specific editor, and then there was Mark Czyzewski, the producer’s editor, who worked on the whole series after that. We worked with him after our director’s cut period. We went back into the room, and he was really awesome. We edited in New York for a couple of weeks on the director’s cut, and then we were editing in LA after that in the Playtone offices in Santa Monica.

What were the big editing challenges for both episodes? Just walk us through it a bit.
Boden: I’d say that one of the biggest challenges, at least in terms of the director’s cut, was finding the rhythm of that Episode 5 mission. When you have a long action sequence like that, the challenge is finding the rhythm so that it has the right pace without feeling like it’s barraging you the whole time. It needs places to breathe and places for emotional and character moments, but it still has to keep moving.

Another challenge is making sure viewers know where they are in every plane and every battle throughout the series. That ends up being a big challenge in the edit. You don’t realize it as much when you’re reading a script, but you realize it a lot when you’re in the edit room.

Then, for Episode 6, it was about connecting the stories because in that episode, we have three main characters — Crosby, Rosenthal and Egan — and they’re in three different places on three very separate journeys, in a way. Egan is in a very dark place, and Rosenthal is in a dark place as well, but he finds himself in this kind of palatial place, trying to have a rest. And then Crosby’s having a much lighter kind of experience with a potential love interest. The intercutting between those stories was challenging, just making sure that the tones were connecting and not colliding with each other, or if they were colliding, colliding in a way that was interesting and intentional.

How hands on were Spielberg and Hanks, or did they let you do your own thing?
Fleck: We mostly interacted with Gary Goetzman, who is Tom Hanks’ partner at Playtone. I think those guys [Spielberg and Hanks] were involved with early days of prep and probably late days of post. But in terms of the day-to-day operations, Gary was really the one that we interacted with the most.

Boden: One of the most wonderful things about working with Gary as a producer — and he really is the producer who oversaw this series — is that he’s worked with so many directors in his career and really loves giving them the freedom and support to do what they do best. He gave us so much trust and support to really make the episodes what we wanted them to be.

Looking back now, how would you sum up the whole experience?
Fleck: All of it was challenging, but I think the biggest challenge for us was shooting during COVID. We kept losing crew members day by day, and it got down to the point where everybody had to test every day and wait for their results. We would have crew members waiting three to four hours before they could join us on-set, so that really cut the amount of shooting time we had every day from 11 hours down to six.

Boden: Some days we’d show up and suddenly find out an hour into the day that we weren’t going to get an actor that we were planning to shoot with, so we’d have to rearrange the day and try to shoot without that actor. That was a big challenge.

Fleck: The great thing for me was how much I learned. Back in history class, you get all the big plot points of World War II, but they don’t tell you about how big these B-17s were, how violent it was up in the air for these guys. You think of the D-Day invasion when you think of the great milestones of World War II, but these aerial battles were unbelievably intense, and they were up there in these tin cans; they were so tight and so cold. I just couldn’t believe that these kids were sent into these situations. It was mind-boggling.

Boden: I also learned a lot through the process of reading the material and the research about the history of these specific people in the stories. But I’d say that one of the things that really sticks with me from the experience was working with this group of actors. That felt very special.

DP Jac Fitzgerald on Shooting Masters of the Air

Jac, integrating all the VFX with visual effects supervisor Stephen Rosenbaum must have been crucial.
Yes. When I started the show, I imagined that the majority of the VFX work would be done on the volume stage. But then I realized that he had a whole World War II airfield to create on location. Obviously, we had the tower structure for the airfield, and we had two planes, one of which was being towed. And it was all so cobbled together from the outside.

Jac Fitzgerald

The planes looked like they were complete, but they weren’t moving by themselves. They didn’t have engines in them or anything. What was interesting to me was the extent of the visual effects that Stephen had to do on the exteriors. We only had two plane bodies, but at any one time when you see the airstrip, there are 12 planes there or more. So there was a huge amount of work for him to do in that exterior world, which was actually as important as the VFX in the volume.

What about the DI? Where did you do all the grading?
It was predominantly in LA at Picture Shop with colorist Steven Bodner, who did the whole show. And because of the enormous amount of VFX, it was obvious early on that things were going to need to be done out of order in the DI.

At first, they thought that my two episodes [5 and 6] would be the first ones to have the DI, as Adam Arkapaw was unavailable to do his episodes [1 through 4] because he was working on another film. At the time they thought they would go in and do my episodes and start prepping and setting the look for episodes 1 through 4 as well. Then it became clear that the DI schedule would have to adjust because of the enormity of the VFX.

Stephen Rosenbaum spent a lot of time making the footage we’d shot and all the VFX worlds collide. I think he had an extraordinary number of people from vendors around the world involved in the project, so there was certainly a lot of cleaning up to do. We all did a lot of work on the look in the DI, trying to make it as seamless as possible. And then again, because episodes 1 through 4 needed so much VFX work, we did my episodes and then we did 7, 8 and 9, and then we went back to 1 through 4. It was certainly a lot of jumping around. I wish that we could have mapped it all from beginning to end, but it wasn’t to be.

Industry insider Iain Blair has been interviewing the biggest directors in Hollywood and around the world for years. He is a regular contributor to Variety and has written for such outlets as Reuters, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe.

Writer/Director Celine Song Talks Post on Oscar-Nominated Past Lives

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By Iain Blair

In her directorial film debut, Past Lives, South Korean-born playwright Celine Song has made a romantic and deceptively simple film that is intensely personal and autobiographical yet universal, with its themes of love, loss and what might have been. Past Lives is broken into three parts spanning countries and decades. First we see Nora as a young girl in South Korea, developing an early bond with her best friend, Hae Sung, before moving with her family to Toronto. Then we see Nora in her early 20s as she reconnects virtually with Hae Sung. Finally, more than a decade later, Hae Sung visits Nora, now a married playwright living in New York. It stars Greta Lee, Teo Yoo and John Magaro.

Celine Song directing Greta Lee

I spoke with Song about the post workflow and making the A24 film, which is Oscar-nominated for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. It also just won Best Director and Best Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards.

How did you prep to direct your first film? Did you talk to other directors?
I talked to some amazing directors, but what they all said is that because only I know the film that I’m making, the way it’s going to be prepped is a process that only I can really know. You need really strong producers and department heads, which I was so lucky to have. I was able to draw on their experience and advice for every step of the way.

You shot in Seoul and New York. Was it the same sort of experience or was it different going back to Seoul?
The filmmaking culture is very different in both places. In New York, there is a very strong union, and in Korea there isn’t one. Also, the way that you secure locations is different. In New York, if you want to shoot somewhere, the mayor’s office knows about it. Korea is still a little bit like guerrilla filmmaking. You show up to a location and try to get it right. You can’t really get permits for things in Korea.

The story takes place over three separate timeframes. Did you shoot chronologically?
No. We shot everything in New York City, and then we had a set built for the Skype section. Then we went to Korea, prepped it for another month and shot there for 10 days.

You and your, DP Shabier Kirchner, shot 35mm. What led you to that decision?
It was my very first movie, so I didn’t know how hard it was going to be. I don’t have experience shooting on digital or film. I don’t know anything. I think part of it was first-timer bravery. I don’t know enough to be afraid. That’s where the fearlessness came from. But it was also informed by the conversations I was having with my DP. We talked about the story and how the philosophy of shooting on film is connected to the philosophy of the movie, which is that the movie is about time made tangible and time made visible. It just made sense for it to be shot on film.

Celine Song on-set

You come from the theater, where there is obviously no post production. Was that a steep learning curve for you?
Yes, but you do have a preview period in theater, when you see it in front of an audience, and you keep editing in that way. But more importantly, I’m a writer. So part of post is that I don’t think of the movie as just what I see on screen and all the sound design and every piece of it. To me, it is a piece of text. So just as I would edit a piece of my own writing, I feel like I was looking at the editing process very much like editing text.

Then of course in film, it’s not just the writing on the page. It’s also sound, color, visuals, timing… So in that way, I really felt that editing was about composing a piece of music. I think of film as a piece of music, with its own rhythm and its own beat that it has to move through. So in that way, I think that that’s also a part of the work that I would do as a playwright in the theater, create a world that works like a piece of music from beginning to end.

With all that in mind, I honestly felt like I was the most equipped to do post. I had an entire world to learn; I had never done it before. But with post, I was in my domain. The other thing I really love about editing and VFX in film is that you can control a lot. Let’s say there’s a pole in the middle of the theater space. You have to accept that pole. But in film, you can just delete the pole with VFX. It’s amazing.

Did editor Keith Fraase, who is based in New York, come on-set at all in Korea, or did you send him dailies?
We sent dailies. He couldn’t come on-set because of COVID.

What were the biggest editing challenges on this?
I think the film’s not so far from the way I had written it, so the bigger editing choices were already scripted. The harder bits were things that are like shoe leather — the scenes that hold the movie together but are not the center of the emotion or the center of the story.

One example is when Nora is traveling to Montauk, where we know that she’s going to eventually meet Arthur (who becomes her husband). We were dealing with how much time is required and how to convey time so that when we meet Arthur, it seems like it is an organic meeting and not such a jarring one. I had scripted all this shoe-leather stuff that we had shot – every beat of her journey to Montauk. We had a subway beat; we had a bus beat. We had so many pieces of her traveling to Montauk because I was nervous about it, feeling it was not long enough. But then, of course, when we actually got into the edit, we realized we only needed a few pieces. You just realize that again, the rhythm of it dictates that you don’t need all of it.

Where did you do all the sound mix?
We did it at all at Goldcrest in New York.

Are you very involved in that?
You have no idea. I think that’s the only place where I needed more time. We went over budget… that’s a nicer way to say it. That’s the only part of the post process where I really was demanding so much. I was so obsessed with it. The sound designer’s nickname for me was Ms. Dog Ears. I know different directors have very different processes around sound, but for me, I was in that room with my sound designer Jacob Ribicoff for 14 hours a day, five days a week, and sometimes overtime, for weeks. I wouldn’t leave.

I would stay there because I just know that sound is one of those things that holds the film together. Also, with this movie, the sound design of the cities and how different they are and how it’s going to play with the compositions — I had such a specific idea of how I wanted those things to move. Because again, I do think of a film as a piece of music. So I was pretty crazy about it. But I don’t want people to notice the sound design. I want people to be able to feel like they’re actually just standing in Madison Square Park. I want them to be fully immersed.

Obviously, it’s not a big effects movie, but you have some. How did that go?
I think it’s a bit of a subjective thing. Actually, looking at it, I’m like, “Well, does that seem good to you?” I’m showing it to my production designer and my DP and I’m like, “This looks OK to me, but I wonder if it can be better. Would you look at it?” So I relied on many eyes.

I give credit to Keith, but also to my assistant editor, Shannon Fitzpatrick, who was a total genius at catching any problems with VFX and having such a detailed eye. I think she’s one of the only people who really noticed things that I didn’t notice in the VFX. I’m like, I think that looks fine, and then she would say point to this one thing in the corner that’s not working. There are people at A24 who’re also amazing at catching sound and visuals because that’s their job. They’ll point out what sounds strange or what looks strange. So you have so many people who are part of the process.

Who was the colorist, and how involved were you with the grading?
It was Tom Poole at Company 3, which is where we edited and did color and everything. I love the process because I showed up after Shabier and Tom had already gone through the whole film and graded it. They did amazing, beautiful work. Then I would come in and give notes about certain scenes and then we’d do them. Of course, while they were grading it, they’d send me stills, and I’d give notes on the stills before going into the suite. Also, Shabier and Tom have worked together a lot, so they already kind of had a rhythm for how they wanted to color the film.

What sort of film did you set out to make?
Since this was the first film I’d directed, I felt like the main goal was to discover the language of my movie. It was beyond just trying to tell the story the best way I could, from the script stage to the post. I think that was the goal throughout. But the truth is that I really wanted the language of the film to be my own language, and I wanted to learn and have a revelation for myself of what my movie is.

I know it is partly autobiographical. How much of you is in Nora?
It really was inspired by a true event of sitting between my childhood sweetheart, who had come to visit me from Korea, and my husband who I live with in New York City. So this is very autobiographical, and the feeling that I had in that very personal moment is the inspiration for the whole film. But then once you turn it into a script, which is an objectification process, and then you turn it into a film with hundreds of people — and especially with the cast members who have to play the characters — by that time it has become very much an object. Then with post, it’s about the chiseling. It’s about putting together an object that is to be shared with the world.

A film is so different from writing a play. Was it a big adjustment for you?
I know theater because I was in it for a decade, probably more, so I knew the very fundamental difference between the way a play is made versus how a film is made. For example, I was taught that in theater, time and space is figurative, while time and space in film is literal. So that means there are different kinds of strengths and weaknesses in both mediums when it comes to telling a story that spans decades and continents. And, in this case, because my joke is always that the villains of the story are 24 years and the Pacific Ocean, it actually needs the time and space to be seen literally… because there needs to be a reason why these two lovers are not together. So the children have to be literally there, and Korea and New York City have to feel tangible and literal.

I assume you can’t wait to direct again?
Oh, I can’t wait. I want to wake up and just go to set tomorrow. That’s how I feel. I’m trying to shoot another movie as soon as I can.

Industry insider Iain Blair has been interviewing the biggest directors in Hollywood and around the world for years. He is a regular contributor to Variety and has written for such outlets as Reuters, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe.

NBCUni 9.5.23

Getting the Right Look for Oscar-Nominated Anatomy of a Fall

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Securing the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and clinching five Oscar nominations, Anatomy of a Fall is a gripping family saga unraveling the startling collapse of an ordinary household. Under the helm of Justine Triet, her fourth directorial venture paints a dizzying portrayal of a woman accused of her husband’s murder, set amidst a suffocating ambiance. Graded at M141, colorist Magali Léonard from Chroma Shapers shares her workflow on this film, discussing both the artistic and technical details.

“Justine and director of photography Simon Beaufils reached out to me early on, even before the filming commenced, during the camera trials. I had previously collaborated on the grade for Justine’s Sibyl, a project where Simon also served as the lensman. This marked my second project with Justine and sixth with Simon,” says Léonard.

The director and DP worked closely with Léonard, who worked on Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve Studio, throughout the entire post process, making sure the film’s feel translated to the screen.

“Justine envisioned a raw, contrasting narrative embracing imperfections and flaws, aiming to create something visceral and sensual,” explains Léonard. “This vision particularly manifested in the trial sequences, characterized by flushed skin tones, sweat and tangible fatigue.

“I translated that vision alongside Simon’s directives into the visuals, meticulously attending to facial expressions and skin tones,” she continues. “We closely collaborated in crafting a visual identity, starting with extensive camera trials during preproduction involving hair, makeup and costumes.”

During the initial phases, Beaufils conducted tests on 2-perf 35mm film, allowing Léonard to emulate the film’s appearance when calibrating the digital camera tests. “This served as the cornerstone to unearth the film’s ambiance and visual identity,” she says.

Triet and Beaufils opted for a large-format camera paired with Hawk V lite anamorphic lenses, despite the film’s aspect ratio of 1.85. “The anamorphic lenses infused a richness of colors, flares and distinct blurs, softening the digital sharpness of the sensor. Simon was a pleasure to collaborate with, crafting exquisite imagery encapsulating intricate emotions,” she adds.

“My approach to the visuals was iterative, manipulating contrast through DaVinci Resolve’s custom curves, followed by adjustments in colors, saturation, and highlights. Subsequently, I introduced grain to impart a more pronounced aesthetic, a process initiated from the rushes onwards, laying the groundwork for the film’s overarching mood,” Léonard shares.

Refinement and Collaborative Efforts
In the later stages of the digital intermediate process, Léonard revisited the nodes used to establish the visual identity for fine-tuning. “I ventured into more daring suggestions, striving to refine highlights and specular lights while infusing subtle diffusion. For instance, we enhanced the saturation in the blues while preserving the rawness inherent in the set design and costumes,” she elaborates.

For the courtroom sequences, the grade underwent an evolution mirroring the unfolding of the trial toward a denser, golden atmosphere. “It was crucial to accentuate the actors’ facial expressions while retaining the initial appearance of a slightly rugged and textured visual, a tangible and vibrant material,” says Léonard. “I embraced the notion of allowing the visuals to unfold their utmost potential as the narrative progresses.

“Throughout the grading process, we frequented the Max Linder Cinema to screen the film under theatrical conditions, gaining insights into the visuals and enabling me to make finer adjustments to the final look. For instance, through these screenings, we discerned that certain scenes would benefit from heightened saturation or contrast,” she concludes.


SmallHD Intros Ultra 7 Durable and Ultra-Bright Monitor

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SmallHD has introduced the Ultra 7, a new ultradurable and ultrabright flagship monitor as part of its Smart 7 Series. Ultra 7 features a next-generation platform powered by the same technology that drives SmallHD’s 4K production monitors and integrates with Teradek’s new Bolt 6 wireless platform. The price is $2,999.

“When we set out to design our next generation of ultrabright handhelds, we knew we had to create a monitor that was a major leap forward,” explains Greg Smokler, VP cine products. “Ultra 7 combines the processing power of our 4K production monitors with a rugged chassis and heat-management system built to withstand the harshest production conditions.”

Ultra 7’s color-accurate touch screen can display up to 2300 nits full-screen luminance, allowing for visibility in any environment. The monitor’s 6G-SDI inputs allow ingest and pass-through of up to 4Kp30 video signals, enabling critically accurate focus and detail when zoomed in pixel to pixel. Dual two-pin power connectors allow users to output power for accessories, SmallHD’s PageOS software can be controlled flexibly via touch screen or joystick, and large tactile buttons offer customization and functionality.

As SmallHD’s Smokler mentioned earlier, the Ultra 7 is durable. It’s the company’s first IP-certified monitor at IP53, which is defined by protection against ingress of liquids and fine particles. Also, a sealed heat management system allows the Ultra 7 to operate in variable temperatures ranging from 0 degrees Celsius to 40 degrees Celsius. The machined chassis is strengthened by a new design that includes raised edges protecting the front glass of the display and shock-absorbing silicone bumpers that help with tumbles and impacts.

Quick-Release Sunhood: SmallHD says its commitment to ergonomics in the Ultra 7 extends to the reimagined quick-release sunhood (sold separately). This new design clips onto the front of the monitor without tools or screws, using hidden magnets for quick conversion to a three- or four-sided hood. The new sunhood is constructed with an antireflective felt underside that protects the monitor glass when the hood closes and transforms into a durable cover.

Teradek Bolt 6: Users can purchase an Ultra 7 with a fully integrated Teradek Bolt 6 transmitter or receiver inside the same-size chassis as the standard model. These integrated wireless monitors feature a new rugged antenna cap to reduce antenna damage and will be available in Bolt 6 750 and 1500 range models. Ultra 7 RX kits will ship with handles, a padded strap and a Wooden Camera Micro Battery Plate (GM, VM or B-mount).

Smart Connectivity: An integrated Ethernet and five-pin USB port enable flexible PageOS-integrated camera control options – anchored to every page – for ARRI, Red and Sony Venice cameras, while TX and RX models will support wireless camera control over the clear airwaves of the 6GHz spectrum.

 


DP Linus Sandgren on Saltburn’s Shoot, Dailies and Color

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By Iain Blair

Swedish cinematographer Linus Sandgren, ASC, has multiple award noms and wins under his belt, including an Oscar for his work on the retro-glamorous musical La La Land. His new film, Saltburn, couldn’t be more different.

Written and directed by Emerald Fennell, Saltburn is a dark, psychosexual thriller about desire, obsession and murder. It follows Oxford University student Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) who finds himself drawn into the world of the charming and aristocratic Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), who invites him to Saltburn, his family’s sprawling estate, for a summer never to be forgotten.

Linus Sandgren

I spoke with Sandgren, whose credits include First Man, Babylon and American Hustle, about making the film and his workflow.

What was the appeal of doing this film?
It was two things. The script was brilliant; it was very suspenseful and exciting. I was drawn in by the buildup, how Emerald had it constructed, and I couldn’t stop reading. It was also very exciting for me because I hadn’t really done this type of film before. It was a unique story with a unique approach to this sort of psychopathic character — how you feel an affection for him, a sort of sympathy. It’s also so dark and funny.

I was also excited to talk to Emerald because of her work on Promising Young Woman, which I loved. Her directing of that film was excellent, and she was making very bold decisions. Then we had a call, and I was very impressed by her. She’s just so brilliant when she explains her vision, and you’re really drawn into her storytelling.

Tell us a bit about how you collaborated on finding the right look.
I typically don’t find the look [based on] different films. It’s more abstract than that, and a good approach is to just talk about it and see what words come up. Emerald said things like, “Desire or unachievable desire. Beauty and ugliness. Love and hate.” Suddenly you get images in your head, and one was of vampires. The family are like vampires, and Oliver is obviously a vampire who loves them so much he just wants to creep inside their skin and become them.

So there was some sort of metaphorical layer I was attracted to, and Emerald had a lot of vision already in terms of visual references — from Hitchcock movies about voyeurism to silent horror movies and Caravaggio paintings. We grounded it in some sort of gothic vampire core, but the story couldn’t just start there. We had to fool the audience a little bit and not explain that right away but have imagery that could be in that vein. The language was basically that the days could be sunny and bright and romantic, while the nights would be dangerous and dark and sexy. It was these discussions we had early on that inspired the lighting style and the compositions.

Tell us more about the composition.
Emerald wanted it to feel like the house was a dollhouse that we could peek into, and she wanted it to have a square format. It all made sense to me with that in mind, as well as the voyeuristic approach, where you focus on one singular thing more than if you go scope. It feels like you can see much more that way, so that allowed us to do things in a more painterly style. As soon as we started shooting that way, we knew we were right using an aspect ratio of 1.33×1 because we felt that we could be more expressive.

So compositions were a little bit as if you’re watching an oil painting, a classic type of composition, and we’d block the scenes within a frame like that without really cutting, or we’d go in really tight on something. It was sort of that “play with it a little bit” thing. Also, the approach is slightly artful more than cinematic. I feel like we thought of the shot list in another way here. It would be more, “How can we tell this story in a single shot, and do we need another shot, and if so, what is that?” Probably that’s just a really tight close-up. So we had a slightly different way of blocking the scenes compared to what I’ve done before. It was about creating that language, and the more you nail it before you shoot, then it solves itself while you start working on each scene.

What camera setup did you use, and what lenses?
We shot Super 35mm film in a 1.33×1 aspect ratio, which is the silent aspect ratio. We used Panavision Panaflex Millenium XL2s. It’s the same as silent movies, basically, for perf, and we used Panavision Primo prime lenses.

Did you work with your usual colorist Matt Wallach in prep?
Yes, the team was Matt Wallach (Company 3 LA) and dailies colorist Doychin Margoevski (Company 3 London). The dailies software was Colorfront’s On-Set Dailies. I have worked with Matt on dailies for many movies and lately in the DI. We set this up together, but he wasn’t able to come over to London to do the dailies, so he was involved remotely and was watching stills from the dailies Doychin did.

Tell us about your workflow and how it impacts your work on the shoot.
My workflow is always that the film gets scanned, in this case at Cinelab in London, and then developed and scanned in 4K. So it’s a final scan from the beginning, and we don’t touch the negative again. Then it goes to Company 3 for dailies. But before the dailies are distributed, the colorist sends me stills from his grading suite in dailies so I can look at the color. It’s just a few stills from the different scenes, and takes a week or two for us to dial it in. Matt gets the footage; he uses his instinct, and we apply a Kodak print emulation LUT. Then he works with the printer lights to see where he has the footage, and he does what he feels is right, with perhaps contrast or lower blacks.

He then tells me what he did, and we look at it on the stills he sends me. That’s when I’ll say go a little colder or darker or brighter or whatever. But usually after a few days we dial it in and get the look down. But, as I said, we spend a little more time in the beginning to make sure we have it right, and it also has to do with me knowing that we’re doing the right thing with the lighting — perhaps I’ll need to add more light for the next scene.

This has been our way of working since Joy in 2015, which was the first thing Matt and I worked on together with dailies. That process is really good because nowadays the iPad is like P3 color space, and it looks really good when you have it at a certain exposure, and that becomes our look. That’s why it’s so important to set that in the dailies because once we’re in the DI, I don’t want to change it. I just want to adjust things, like match the shots to each other or fix a face or do something else without changing this sort of look. The look should be there already.

That’s what I like about film too; it adds something to it. I feel like I know exactly how it’s going to look, but it looks 5% better or different with film because it gives me things that pressure me when I see it. It’s like, oh, look at the halation there, or look at those blue shadows. There’s something always going on that’s hard to actually imagine, as you don’t see it with your eyes, even if you know it’s going to be there. So that’s a nice thing. Basically, if you looked at the dailies on any of my previous films, I didn’t touch it much. That’s why I usually like having the same colorist do the dailies as the DI, but it couldn’t be helped on this one.

Dailies colorist Doychin Margoevski was great. He’s also got a great eye for darkness, and he’s not afraid of letting it be dark. So as I noted, the three of us dialed it in together initially, and then he sent stills to me and Matt, and we looked at them. That way, Matt was very familiar with the footage when we came to the DI, and he’s used to being with a timer and keeping track on the whole project. Matt also did the trailers, so all that is solid control.

I heard that you shot all the stately home interiors on location at just one house?
Yes, it was a 47-day shoot, all done in the one country house and in a nearby country estate for some exteriors, like the bridge scene. Otherwise, all the exteriors and interiors are at the same house. Then we shot at Oxford and near Oxford for some interiors, and then London. We built only one set, which was the bathroom. That was built inside of a room, and the two rooms next to it were Oliver’s and Felix’s bedrooms. They were completely painted and dressed and made up as their rooms, as they didn’t look that way at all when we came in. It’s the red corridor that was important going into the bathroom, and then the bathroom and then the rooms.

 

I assume the huge maze was mostly all VFX?
Yes, the whole maze is visual effects combined with the practical. When we’re down there walking around, it’s all practical, and we had these hedge walls that were moved around so we could get through. The center of the maze with that big statue in the middle was built by production designer Suzie Davies and her team. It was all VFX for the big, wide exterior overhead maze shot and the wide shot from the windows. VFX supervisor Dillan Nicholls and Union did all the effects.

What was the most difficult scene to shoot and why?
That’s a good question. I think the scenes of Oliver’s party. We had to be careful with the property, so we couldn’t drive around too many condors or cherry pickers, and we had to shoot different scenes over a few nights all over the place — from one end of the house to another end of the garden. We would be inside of the maze and outside at the discotheque or inside at the red staircase. And all of that had to be prelit to work 360, basically.

It was daunting to light, but we could eventually position lights and condors and sneak them in from other angles. So it was a little complicated. We had to plan it out, but thanks to the really good special effects department, we could fog it all up. Suzie Davies helped with fire flames so we could send practical lights in there to make it all look like a big party.

Are you happy with the way it turned out?
Yes, I’m really proud of it. It’s a special film for sure, and it was a really fun shoot… and different. It’s so refreshing to have a director that dares to do what you think is right, just the way you want to, so you don’t have to restrict yourself. I love working with Emerald. She’s very fun and, I think, brilliant.

Industry insider Iain Blair has been interviewing the biggest directors in Hollywood and around the world for years. He is a regular contributor to Variety and has written for such outlets as Reuters, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe.


Certification

AJA ColorBox Earns Red Camera Certification

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AJA’s ColorBox, a color management and color conversion solution, has been certified as compatible with Red’s lineup of cinema cameras. This designation required rigorous testing across the Red family of products to ensure compatibility.

For live and scripted television, ColorBox’s Red-Compatible Certification Level spans a wide range of Red cameras and ensures that production pros can use their preferred camera to capture and color correct footage live. This can be done with Red-provided look-up tables (LUTs) using the AJA Color Pipeline or Red Log3G10 processing supported by AJA ColorBox’s optional Colorfront license.

certificationA third-party hardware control panel, like Skaarhoj or Cyanview, then allows operators to control either mode with tactile controls akin to those available with broadcast cameras. ColorBox’s Red-certification status also ensures cinema production pros can seamlessly operate their Red cameras and ColorBox together on-set for streamlined .

“ColorBox is the first Red-certified product for video processing, and this certification is a huge stamp of approval for color workflows built on Red technology,” shared AJA president Nick Rashby.

 

 


Scoop

FutureWorks Uses Next-Gen Color Workflow on Netflix’s Scoop

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Mumbai, India’s FutureWorks created a new pipeline for Netflix India courtroom drama Scoop, taking imaging data all the way from the set to the edit suite. As well as creating a new workflow that boosts efficiency while ensuring quality visuals, FutureWorks also covered the entire picture post process and rental services on Scoop – including dallies, the online, grade, VFX and finish.

Produced by Matchbox Shots, the Hindi-language series was directed by Hansal Mehta, with Pratham Mehta serving as director of photography and Michele Ricossa as lead colorist. The show follows a prominent crime journalist implicated in the murder of a rival reporter.

ScoopFutureWorks began to develop this workflow following its live color grading work on the 2022 film Jersey. Based on the challenges experienced on Jersey and taking advantage of the lull in productions during the pandemic, the studio started to evolve its DIT process to enable the team to work more efficiently. This is particularly important on-set. The aim was to empower the colorist to work with the DP and director while they’re still on set, so that any issues could be flagged before reaching the edit suite.

“We needed a process that would support everybody,” says Rahul Purav, head of color at FutureWorks. “So, we started to think about extending the imaging process beyond just color. We focused on creating an on-set monitoring process, as well as QC.”

“With Rahul, we managed the workflow of the DIT setup prior to the shooting,” explains Ricossa. “I was on set the first two or three days of the shoot to check with the DP and the DIT team on how to work on the dailies and if the look was working as intended. After that, I had a short session at FutureWorks to review some of the footage on the HDR setup. A few weeks later I went on-set one more time to a different location to check if everything was holding up properly look wise. Then, I reviewed the dailies on the private cloud streaming service, giving minor notes to the DP and to the DIT team. Everything went smoothly.”

Ricossa graded Scoop using FilmLight’s colorspace T-log/E-gamut. Only VFX shots were converted in ACES to facilitate the VFX workflow. “The look of the show, and the grade of individual clips later on, was shared with the VFX team thanks to the Baselight’s BLG system. When possible, we had a few back and forths between the DI and the VFX to fix issues and get the best out of it,” explains Ricossa. “The most challenging part of the show was to match some of the stock footage. Baselight’s tools and color management system helped a lot to achieve the grade I had in mind.”

In FutureWorks’ workflow, everything is done remotely. During shooting, the systems record and monitor video signals wirelessly. This means that there’s no distraction or interruption for the cinematographer, but when required, they can talk to FutureWorks’ on-set DIT who has a studio-grade monitor under their control. This helps the directorial team to verify that everything they’re shooting is correct, while they’re still on-set. This includes color, but also extends to other areas like lenses, focus, and exposure levels.

Transcoding is monitored throughout the process to highlight any areas of concern. If there are issues, such as reflections or unwanted props in the shot, these can be dealt with at the time of shooting or flagged for fixing by the VFX team. Everything is captured as an Movie file with embedded metadata so that all of the data from the shoot ends up with editorial. “It’s like there’s a third eye watching you and helping you while you’re shooting and editing,” says Rahul. “As a colorist, I think it’s imperative that everybody in the chain is aware of what’s happening on the shoot, right from the beginning to the very end. This makes communication much more efficient, as notes from the cinematographer can be embedded into the metadata of the particular shot, which is very helpful later on in the process.”

This new process was absolutely key for the shoot on Scoop, which lasted for 100 days. A team of four people tested the system first, with FutureWorks having since streamlined the crew to three — one experienced DIT technician for on-set QC and another two for data management. All team members are very experienced and have trained for a long time so that they can integrate with each other on the shoot, ensuring that all the necessary data is captured and transcoded.

“When you take that experience on location, it’s an asset to the cinematographer, the director, and the production as a whole,” explains Purav. “Throughout the shoot on Scoop, the director and cinematographer continually came over to verify shots on the imaging cart, demonstrating that our new pipeline is already proving to be useful for the directorial team.”

The revamped pipeline — which had to meet the specifications required by Netflix productions — includes Livegrade Studio, Codex and Silverstack for transcoding, and FilmLight Daylight for rendering dailies. One of the key challenges in implementing the new workflow was understanding the protocols of each camera. If certain protocols didn’t work with the new system, the team had to find different ways to sync the data. FutureWorks also collaborated closely with manufacturers and vendors, including Sony and Codex, to troubleshoot any problems.

“While we had a few teething problems initially, we were able to work them out within a couple of days, and it was smooth sailing from that point on,” says Purav.

Since its successful debut on Scoop, FutureWorks has rolled out the new imaging process on several other projects.

 

Podcast 12.4

Atomos Cloud Studio for Live Production and Remote Collaboration

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Atomos Cloud Studio, a new suite of cloud-based video production services, is now available. It offers a range of subscription-based tools for remote collaboration and live production.

The suite includes Atomos Capture to Cloud, Atomos Stream and Atomos Live Production (currently in beta) and uses the Connect range of network-enabled monitor-recorder devices: Atomos Connect for Ninja V and Ninja V+ and Shogun Connect. Zato Connect supports Atomos Capture to Cloud and Atomos Stream.

This approach gives users a way of future-proofing their workflows. Users can not only update and feature-enhance Atomos camera-mounted devices in the field, but they can also easily integrate the devices into remote and collaborative productions anywhere in the world.

Atomos Capture to Cloud offers direct integration with Adobe Camera to Cloud, powered by Frame.io. This is the gateway to a powerful, flexible and, most importantly, immediate way to share content from a camera with remote team members.

“We see it as augmenting video production,” says Trevor Elbourne, CEO of Atomos. “Filmmakers and video content producers everywhere can access Atomos Cloud Studio to collaborate and share their work faster than ever before, create a polished live production or stream content to the platform of their choice directly from the camera.”

Basic camera-to-cloud functionality and 720p proxy quality are free, and users can add more features by purchasing a monthly subscription plan. For around $5 per month, users can register up to five devices, all capable of uploading 1080p proxy files while recording because of Atomos’ file-transfer technology. Moving through the four subscription tiers makes it possible to deploy more devices, with greater control over the proxy quality. It also extends into live production, with “on-air” time credits that can be purchased as part of a monthly plan or topped up when demand dictates.

“Think of it as similar to a phone SIM tariff,” adds Elbourne. “You choose a plan that best suits your needs, but if you find that you need more live production hours, you can easily scale up. Or for quieter periods, you can scale down. It’s cost-effective and completely flexible.”

Atomos AirGlu wireless sync technology has been integrated into Atomos Connect and Shogun Connect and is an essential ingredient of the Capture to Cloud workflow. AirGlu locks multiple Atomos devices or compatible cameras, audio recorders and software applications together so that they share the same frame-accurate timecode. According to Atomos, AirGlu simplifies the nature of multi-camera production and transforms a traditionally complex workflow into one that filmmakers at any level can deploy.

 

Podcast 12.4

Sundance: DP Derek Howard on Shooting Plan C Doc

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The Sundance documentary Plan C, directed by Tracy Droz Tragos, follows Francine Coeytaux and the team who established Plan C — a grassroots organization dedicated to expanding access to medication abortion.

DP Derek Howard

Droz Tragos follows the group as they look for ways to distribute abortion pills while following the letter of the law. Unmarked vans serving as mobile clinics distribute medication to those who cannot get help in their own states.

The doc was shot by DP Derek Howard and edited by Meredith Perry (who will be talking to us about her role in the film in the near future). We reached out to Howard, who got involved in Plan C near the start of production. “I believe there had been just a few research shoots completed before we really got the camera package organized and started getting out there filming,” he says.

Let’s find out more…

How did you work with the Tracy Droz Tragos? What direction were you given?
This was the second project I worked on with Tracy, so we had a little bit of experience working in the field together. Tracy owned the camera package we were using — Canon C500 Mark II with Cooke Panchro primes — so she has a good understanding of the technical side of things. We would agree on a few focal lengths we were going to favor and omit medium shots for the most part. I would have a lot of freedom in terms of composition and lighting, and we would often check in with each other about swapping primes at appropriate breaks. After a few shoots it became pretty intuitive as to when it would make sense to change lenses and go closer or widen out.

Once we got into a good groove, we didn’t have to communicate about these choices so much, and it just started to flow as the style was established. We were lucky to have an incredible editing team (Meredith Perry and Beth Kearsley, who cut on Adobe Premiere). They were putting together sequences throughout shooting so I could review what was making the cut and focus in on the style more precisely.

What about working with the colorist? What are some notes that you exchanged? Who was the colorist?
We graded Plan C using Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve with Brian Hutchings in several remote sessions over Zoom and using Frame io. We would do a quick pass of the entire film, establishing looks at the beginning of each scene, and then skip ahead to the next one so he could work independently once we’d set some parameters.

DP Derek Howard

Then after some days, we’d have another pass, make more detailed adjustments and just build things from there. A lot of the notes were to do with highlight control, color temperature shifts and depth enhancements. We wanted our heroes to have a warm and inviting aura and to lean in to certain seasonal shifts. Often, we’d want to create a feeling of more depth by darkening certain foreground or background areas and helping to direct the viewer’s eye. We would often key specific colors and have them pop in saturation to emphasize certain details, like someone’s nail art or the color of their eyes.

As you said before, you shot on the Canon camera? 
Yes. We shot Plan C on the Canon C500 Mark II with Cooke Panchro/i Classic primes in Super 35mm crop sensor mode. This camera is an ideal choice because it is small and lightweight, can record continuously for long periods of time with minimal battery consumption, and has internal Rawlite. The Cooke Panchro primes are a fantastic pairing with this camera, as they are compact, fast and have a nice softening translation of the image that cuts the digital sharpness and has very pleasing flares and bokeh.

DP Derek Howard

Can you talk lighting?
I took advantage of available lighting as much as possible, positioning subjects close to windows or away from direct light sources. Overhead lighting fixtures would be turned off, and sometimes we would use practical lamps for a little lift in the ambient levels. On very few occasions, I would use some 750-watt tungsten lamps shot through diffusion to key an interview and sometimes some bounce or white cloth to lift faces.

Are there some scenes that stick out as challenging?
The biggest challenge while shooting Plan C was to find creative solutions for filming subjects who needed to remain anonymous. We would return to some of the subjects several times throughout the film, and they needed to have their identities protected, so I had to explore how to film an interview with them and capture their presence and vibe without showing any full faces.

We used long lenses, like a 75mm or 100mm, to film abstract details such as hands, feet, the edge of a face or a silhouette by a window. Over the course of a long interview, it gets difficult to find new angles and compositions, so searching for fresh ways to convey a subject’s presence without actually seeing them clearly was a big obstacle. We were able to overcome that mostly through experimentation and abstraction made possible in large part thanks to the prime lenses we were lucky to have available to us.

DP Derek Howard

Looking back on the film, would you have done anything different?
Of course. With every project, when you watch it, you can’t help but critique your own work and think about different things you would have done. So much time passes from production to premiere that by the time you are watching the final film, you always feel like you have evolved in your style or learned things that you would have applied to the shoot.

With Plan C, I would have liked to have a few portable, battery-powered fixtures, like an Astera tube or an MC Lite to quickly add little accents to a scene. Having compact, battery-powered lights than can produce any color you might need are super-handy and flexible if you need to adjust a scene super-quickly. Often in verité situations, there is no time for lighting, but having these types of fixtures allows for very fast enhancements that can help elevate a scene a lot.

Any tips for young cinematographers?
Pay attention to the content of a scene as closely as possible. Once you are feeling the moment and are as present as possible, you will intuitively operate the camera differently than if you are just focusing on all the technical factors. React to the emotions in each scene; allow your humanness to be a part of your handling.

Be as prepared and researched as possible before shooting, but during filming, turn that part of your brain off and work from the gut. All the prep is still inside you, but I find the best moments come when you put that in the background and let your intuition take the lead. Remember to look away from your monitor or eyepiece from time to time and look around the scene for other details or things that are happening out of frame that might be valuable to incorporate.

 

RRR

RRR‘s Director and DP Talk Shoot, Post, Visual Effects

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By Iain Blair

RRR is an Indian superhero movie and an international hit, thanks to its story, VFX and blend of emotion and action.

S.S. Rajamouli on-set (center)

Directed and co-written by S.S. Rajamouli and shot by his longtime cinematographer, KK Senthil Kumar, RRR (which stands for Rise, Roar, Revolt) tells the “true” story of two guerrilla fighters — Komaram Bheem and Alluri Sitarama Raju – who took on the British Raj in the 1920s. It features a cast of thousands and an even bigger army of post and VFX teams behind the scenes.

The long collaboration between the director and cinematographer goes back some two decades. I talked with them about making the ambitious film, which is getting its fair share of Oscar buzz, the challenges of the shoot and dealing with post and VFX.

S.S. Rajamouli (left)

What sort of film did you set out to make, and how far did it push the envelope for you?
S.S. Rajamouli: I want my films to blow audiences away with extraordinary action scenes and set pieces, so we really pushed all that, but we also need to have very strong emotional characters. That’s what I set out to do on this, and I think we succeeded.

Can you talk about integrating post and all the VFX?
Rajamouli: We began right at the start of prep. The big challenge on this was the huge volume of things – the sheer number of people involved in all departments, the huge amount of VFX shots, all the data and so on. It was easy to get lost in all that and lose sight of what we were trying to do in terms of the story and characters.

This is your eighth film with your DP, KK Senthil Kumar. Talk about what he brings to the party.
Rajamouli: He brings a sense of calm to the set. I tend to jump around, trying to see what I need to do next, and the rest of the team follows my emotional outbursts. If I’m strong, the unit’s strong. If I’m dull, they’re dull. They all take after me. But Senthil is the one guy who doesn’t care about the director. He only cares about the film and how to get the shot done. He’d never compromise, so there’s all that trust, and that’s very important.

How tough was the shoot?
Rajamouli: It was very tough, but it helped that we had a lot of experience dealing with big productions with lots of extras and locations and costumes and so on. What made this so challenging was all the VFX and animation sequences, especially the ones with animals interacting with humans on different levels.

Is it true it took several years to shoot?
Rajamouli: It’s true. We originally planned for two years, including prep and all the post work, but because of COVID, we took another two years to complete it all, so it was about a year of shooting spread out over two years, and four years total to complete the film.

That must be some kind of record, right?
Rajamouli: No, before this we did this two-part series, Baahubali 1 and 2, which took us five years to do, so this was much shorter. (Laughs)

Tell us about post. Where did you do it?
Rajamouli: We did 85% of it at Annapurna Studios in Hyderabad, my hometown, including all the editing, the sound and Atmos mix, some of the VFX and the DI.

A. Sreekar Prasad cut this. What were the main editing challenges?
Rajamouli: We had assistants, of course, but he was the only editor. He’s very experienced, and the main editing he did was not on the film so much but on the script. I gave him the script before we began shooting, and he had a lot of suggestions and ideas that were very helpful. We talked a lot about shots, how long they should be and so on, but more than that, we focused on the characters and their development. Then the moment I start shooting, I start editing.

My team does the edit after a few days of shooting, and we send the rushes to the editor, so by the time we complete a particular sequence, 80% of it is already cut. Then that’s sent off to the VFX team. That’s the process.

There are a lot of amazing VFX. Who did them, and what was entailed?
Rajamouli: There are so many that I lost count. There are well over 2,000. VFX supervisor V. Srinivas Mohan helped oversee shots coming in from all over the world, as we had so many companies working on it, including MPC, Digital Domain, Red Chillies, Firefly, ReDefine, Craft VFX, Mind Visions, Knack Studios, Betta VFX, Makuta, DNeg and several others.

It was a huge job. For instance, that sequence where all the tigers and wild animals escape happens right before the intermission, and it was the most complicated sequence I’ve ever shot. It took over 50 days to plan, which is more prep and previz and planning than you’d do on an entire normal, medium-sized film. And we had over 2,000 extras with different sets of costumes.

Just to get certain elements, like the pipes moving like snakes, took 10 days just to prep. And there were no real animals used in the sequence. It was all VFX. But in big set pieces, like the train crashing into the river, we used a lot of miniatures combined with VFX and real fire and cleverly mixed it all to make it look seamless.

Did it turn out the way you first envisioned it?
Rajamouli: Yes, but we’ve been very surprised by the big reaction to it around the world. I make films for the Indian market, which is very big, but audiences everywhere have really embraced it. I’m very happy about it.

Cinematography

RRR

K.K. Senthil Kumar, ISC

Senthil, how long was prep?
K.K. Senthil Kumar: It took about a year, and we did a lot of camera tests and lens tests. This is one of the biggest films ever made in India, and I wanted to capture that epic quality and make it a really immersive experience for the audience. ARRI had just come out with the new Alexa LF, and it was perfect for us. This was the very first Indian film to be shot on large format.

I shot with ARRI Signature Primes, which are some of the sharpest lenses you’ll ever find. It’s almost like a 3D feel, and that combination of the LF and the ultra-sharp lenses meant that the film could be screened in a wide range of formats, from Dolby Vision to IMAX and 3D.

You must have used a lot of cameras on this?
Kumar: No, I generally just shot with one Alexa LF, which I operate myself. For the big action sequences, we used maybe two, but a maximum of three, at any one time.

I assume you did a lot of previz?
Kumar: Yes, a lot, especially for all the big action sequences, including the chase one in the forest with the tiger, when we introduce Bheem. That was one of the first we previz’d. Then we did the train blast sequence on the river. Then the big sequence that takes place right before the interval in the middle of the film, when Bheem lets all these wild animals escape from a truck, and we have tigers and leopards flying through the air and attacking the British soldiers.

We also had to do a lot of stunt viz, as this was such a huge production, and everyone had to know what was going on and understand the storyboarding and previz and how all the CGI worked with all that. 

This is your eighth film together. Talk about the look you and SSR went for, especially as a lot of it is set at night.
Kumar: We’ve been working together for nearly 20 years now. We did our first film back in 2003, and since then they’ve been getting bigger and bigger and more complicated. My first goal for this was to make it look authentic and not fake in any way.

I knew what I wanted in terms of the look, but the way I work is just to shoot it all clean and then spend a lot of time in post and grading, working on the image and developing the look. I have a DIT on-set, but I do nearly all the coloring and manipulation in the DI, not on location.

RRR

K.K. Senthil Kumar

How did you even keep track of your work on such a long schedule?
Kumar: We keep a continuity book for every shot with every detail — where the camera is placed, its height, how it’s placed, exposure, focus, all the lighting. That way, if for some reason we need to redo the shot later as a pickup or for CG plates, we know exactly what we did originally and can then keep the continuity.

What about the DI? Who was the colorist, and how closely did you work with them?
Kumar: We did all the grading in Hyderabad at Annapurna Studios with colorist Shiva Kumar. I show Rajamouli what we’re doing, and he may have a few notes, but he basically leaves the DI up to me. That took about eight months, and there was a lot of coordination with all the VFX teams as the shots came in.

So all the back and forth with them is why it took so long, but it turned out looking great. I’m very happy with the way it looks.

Industry insider Iain Blair has been interviewing the biggest directors in Hollywood and around the world for years. He is a regular contributor to Variety and has written for such outlets as Reuters, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe.

DP Mandy Walker on Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis: Shooting, LUTs, More

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By Iain Blair

Aussie cinematographer Mandy Walker, ACS, ASC, who collaborated with Baz Luhrmann on his sprawling epic Australia, teamed up with the director once more on Elvis. An epic in its own right, Elvis conjures up the life and times — and rise and fall — of this rock ‘n’ roll icon. Starring Austin Butler as the poor white kid from Tupelo, the film is told from the point of view of Elvis’ manager, Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks). And as Oscar season starts up, it’s been getting a lot of buzz. And for her part on the film, Walker has become the first woman to take home the AACTA’s Best Cinematography award for Feature Film in Australia, and she has been nominated for an Oscar in the same category.

Mandy Walker

I spoke to Walker, whose credits also include Mulan and Hidden Figures, about the challenges of shooting Elvis, the cinematography and working with the DIT, DI and VFX.

This is an epic story. How did you approach the look of the movie with all the different eras stretching from the ‘50s to the ‘70s?
We basically divided the story into two parts and used different lenses to tell the story. For the first part, when Elvis is growing up in Tupelo, I shot spherical in what we called “black-and-white” color that’s a desaturated look with pushed blacks. Then, once he got to Las Vegas, we used anamorphic lenses — old glass from that period, with more aberrations. We also had different LUTs for each period.

When Elvis is 10 and running to the Pentecostal tent, we shot it with the black-and-white color look. It was a very considered color palette that we’d researched from the period. Then, by the time Elvis got to Hollywood, it was more Kodachrome-looking, and I had more depth of field, more color in the lighting and more contrast. Then in Vegas, there were bright, garish colors, very ‘70s, with lots of flares.

This is your fourth collaboration with Baz. How did it work on this?
Baz is very good at explaining the story he’s making and the whole emotional journey. Then it’s a matter of me interpreting all that visually. And as he’d been working on this for 10 years, he’d done so much research, and the visuals are so important in this.

Fair to say that initially the camera seems to be constantly moving – right from the carnival Ferris wheel scene at the start?
Yes, we wanted it to fly. But later, when it all settles down and the drama gets heavy, the camera moves far more slowly so you focus on the situation. When Elvis is with his mother, it’s slower. Then later, in his Vegas hotel room when he can’t sleep, the mood is darker, and the camera reflects that.

How long was the prep?
We had a lot of prep on this movie — 16 weeks — and we went through everything meticulously. We were just about to start shooting when we had to shut down for four months when Tom Hanks got COVID, so we had even more time to do tons of testing on cameras, lenses and so on. Baz loves to test and experiment, and we also worked closely with all the other departments – not just costume and art direction, but all the VFX. Really, post is part of prep now on a film like this.

Did you do lots of shot lists and storyboards?
Yes, but not for everything. It was more about making the connections between scenes and sequences. For instance, for the bit when young Elvis runs from the gas station to the juke joint to the tent — that was all storyboarded, as it was all a build.

We also built the Beale Street set and Graceland exterior and interior, all on stages and backlots. That way, we could design all the camera moves and transitions and rehearse stuff physically on the sets before we even shot. Pretty much everything was shot on the biggest stages they had at Village Roadshow in Australia, and we also shot on three backlots for the carnival and Beale Street stuff.

Was there any talk about shooting in some of the real locations in the US?
Yes, early on, but we all soon realized we couldn’t, as it’s all changed so much now. Memphis doesn’t look anything like it used to when Elvis was there, and the same with Vegas. That’s why we had to recreate it all from scratch. There is a bit of archival footage of ‘70s Vegas in there, but that was it.

Mandy Walker on-set

How did you make all your camera and lens choices?
We decided to shoot on the ARRI Alexa 65, and Baz and I decided to go that way very early on. It’s an epic story, so why not shoot on an epic format? Then, when Baz was in LA around August 2019, we met up with [optical engineer] Dan Sasaki at Panavision and went through all these different lens iterations — some on 35mm and some on a 65mm camera — until we got to the right ones that were specially built for us.

I heard you also used a special Petzval lens?
Yes, mainly for all the flashback sequences and drug episodes. It’s based on an old projector lens from the 1800s and has a focal length of up to 160mm. Dan made anamorphic and spherical versions of it for us. It was perfect for helping to create that feeling of disorientation we wanted in those scenes because the focus is on the center of the frame and the edges are softer and fuzzier. It gives you this great vortex effect.

Did you work with a colorist in prep on any LUTs?
I did all of that with my DIT, Sam Winzar, and we began very early on in prep and testing. Baz and I would look at colors and lighting, and then we’d refine them when we got to our location or set. We put together a lot of references for the LUTs so all the transitions would be very smooth from one period to another, and we always knew where we were in time. Those LUTs translated into dailies. Sam and I would go into dailies every night, and if we had four or five cameras running, we’d tweak them a bit to make sure they were all balanced. Then Kim Bjørge, our dailies colorist, also ended up becoming our DI colorist.

Isn’t that very unusual?
Very. It was a big step up for him, but he’d been working on the film the whole time and knew it inside out. It worked out really well.

I assume there was a lot of bluescreen and set extension work, especially for the big concert scenes?
There was a lot, as we built all the stages and auditoriums for the concerts and shows. We didn’t use any real theaters, and the film’s full of big sequences, like the famous ’68 Comeback Special set piece. That was huge, as it was the high stage and backstage area and about a third of the audience. All of that was built, along with the whole studio and control room. So we used bluescreen for the rest of the audience and extending the auditorium.

It was the same for the hayride, the early concert sequence. We had about a third of the audience and built the whole stage and backstage again. We used a lot of set extensions for stuff like Beale Street. We built four blocks, but just one level. So the second story and the rest of the street were all added in post. Everything was very carefully planned out, and we did a lot of tests in prep so we all knew exactly what was in frame and what would be added later in post.

The Russwood Park concert is another good example. We shot all of that on a black stage. I put up stadium lights, and that sequence was all extended as well. All the split-screen stuff was planned too. The VFX team worked closely with us and did a great job of integrating with our in-camera work. I was quite involved in integrating all the VFX and post work with them, and we had a lot of VFX companies, like MPC and Luma, working on it. (Other VFX companies included Method, Slate, Mr. X, Rising Sun Pictures and Cumulus VFX).

We did it at The Post Lounge in Brisbane, and they also handled all our dailies and processing. I did all the sessions remotely since I was in LA on the Warner lot in the DI suite — I could see all the images from The Post Lounge in real time, and that’s how we did it.

We did quite a lot of work, especially adding some LiveGrain to match the older film stocks and for when we intercut with archival footage and for stuff like all the 8mm home footage sequences. VFX also added a lot of artifacts to those scenes. But I do have to say, the finished film you see is very close to how our dailies looked. It really did turn out the way we first pictured it, and I’m very proud of the way it looks.

Industry insider Iain Blair has been interviewing the biggest directors in Hollywood and around the world for years. He is a regular contributor to Variety and has written for such outlets as Reuters, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe.

DP Chat: Learan Kahanov on Shooting Kevin Smith’s Clerks III

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New York City-based Learan Kahanov is a 30-year industry veteran, contributing to a wide range of television and feature films. While an NYU student, he got experience working in the grip and electric departments, leading him to focus on lighting and working as a gaffer. A year after earning his BFA in film, TV and radio, he got the call to be the gaffer on director Kevin Smith’s Chasing Amy.

Kahanov

Learan Kahanov

In 2000, Kahanov hung up his electric tool belt to focus full-time on cinematography. His DP credits include independent films such as A Perfect Fit, The Insurgents and Reunion and the television series Madam Secretary (check out our interview with him for this show), For Life and Stargirl.

Kahanov recently returned to his roots working with Smith again, but this time as director of photography on Clerks III. We asked him to tell us more about this full-circle opportunity.

Tell us about Clerks III. How early did you get involved?
My good friend David Klein, ASC, who shot the original Clerks movies, was unavailable to do the third and asked if I’d be interested. I said yes, and within two weeks I was at Kevin Smith’s comic book store, Secret Stash, in New Jersey.

Kahanov

What direction were you given about the look Kevin wanted?
Kevin is an interesting director when it comes to visuals. We wanted to honor the style of the earlier films, especially the black-and-white original, but since Clerks III takes place in the present, the visuals needed to reflect that.

How would you describe the look? And can you talk more about how the previous films played a role in developing the look?
I think of the movie as having three looks. There was a certain approach to all the scenes at the convenience store that was a throwback to how the original was composed, but I did “pretty up” the lighting.

Then, there is the movie within the movie; I wanted to ensure we were honoring the first two films while still updating the look. The original was shot in 16mm black-and-white — not even Super 16 — and Clerks III is shot with an 8K large-format sensor.

For the movie-within-a-movie sequences, we matched all the shots to the original. We would have reference photos from the first films on our phones or monitors and match the size and angle in the sequences, which often was a challenge due to the different formats of the original and the new film. While Kevin never really had comments on my lighting, he did have specific thoughts on where the camera was placed and the compositions therein. He is very specific when he wants to be, but he mostly had me set up all the shots after a brief discussion, as we did not “shot list” anything traditionally.

KahanovHow did you work with colorist Ken Sirulnick to achieve the intended look?
Ken and I had worked on a concert film (SUSS – Promise Live) that I produced and shot, and we had a great rapport. When it came time to talk seriously about post production on Clerks III, I suggested Ken, who works at Goldcrest Post in New York City. Dan McGilvray, our post producer and an EP, worked out a scenario where Goldcrest was able to set up a remote color suite in the production office housed in Smodcastle in Leonardo, New Jersey.

Since we started talking about post in preproduction, we were able to test different things before we were even done shooting. One of those involved discussions with Suny Behar from LiveGrain, who showed us how the LiveGrain system could help us. We found that we didn’t need to add much grain to the image at all and liked what we had straight out of the Red camera. We did add some grain to the newly shot black-and-white footage, however.

Ultimately, the tests and prep saved us enormous amounts of time and money, allowing us to dial in a look before the final edit was complete. When it came time, Ken had a couple of days alone to set a base look. Afterward, we were able to sit together for the duration of the color grade and work together to finesse the scenes and make all the different deliverables. Ken has a great eye and knows what I like.

What were some notes you gave to Ken to make sure you got what you wanted?
The look was very natural. Most of my notes were about adding elements to help enhance what we wanted to highlight. Some things were about cleaning up what I couldn’t do on-set (darkening walls or floors), and some was done to clean up some faces, but mostly it was about shaping the image to enhance the story.

How did you go about choosing the right camera and lenses for this project? Why was this the right combination?
I knew we were working with a lower budget, and I wasn’t going to have a full truck of lights and gear, so light sensitivity was a major factor. We ended up testing the dual-ISO Sony Venice and the Red Monstro VV. I make a distinction about the Red sensor over the camera “body” because we ended up feeling that the Red system was the best option, and this is how it all landed.

Our main camera body was the Red Ranger (with Monstro chip), and our B cam was the Red Weapon (DSCM2). The C camera was used not only to film some scenes but also as the on-camera prop for what the characters used to make their movie. I wanted two Ranger bodies because they are all-in-one bodies with all the connectivity we needed, but due to availability, we ended up with the DSCM2 Weapon (albeit the same sensor), and it was a blessing in disguise. We were able to use the Weapon for Ronin gimbal/stabilizer work and whenever we needed to get the camera smaller.

Any challenging scenes that you are particularly proud of?
There was one situation where we had planned on shooting in a hospital chapel, but we had to move the scene to the waiting area outside the ER. We started losing light outside due to a storm, but we pushed through. It actually benefited the sequence because there was a natural progression from when we left the seating area to watch what was happening in the operating room and when we returned to the seating area. At that point it was even darker.

While we were shooting the second half of the scene, there was a lightning strike in the distance outside the windows — it couldn’t have timed out better. Later, in sound design, they added a thunder crack, and it just made the scene so much funnier and more visceral. Some things you just can’t plan.

What inspires you artistically?
I am a firm believer in story first. All cinematographers have their own aesthetic and style. I am not an exception, but I also pride myself on being a chameleon — using my creative and technical expertise to what the story in the script requires while still leaving my mark on the project.

What’s your go-to gear (camera, lens, mount/accessories) – things you can’t live without?
My career has spanned ultra-low-budget movies to major network and premium cable TV shows. I have worked with all kinds of gear and resources or lack thereof. So there is no particular gear I “must have,” but instead I hold on to lighting techniques. So, whether I have a full truck of lighting gear or just a handful, I know how to use the resources to create the emotion on-camera that the project requires.

The Woman King Director Gina Prince-Bythewood, Editor Terilyn Shropshire

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By Iain Blair

The Woman King director Gina Prince-Bythewood is one of the most versatile storytellers working in film and television. Her eclectic resume includes writing and directing such feature films as Love & Basketball, The Secret Life of Bees and Beyond the Lights.

Director Gina Prince-Bythewood

Prince-Bythewood’s newest is The Woman King for Sony’s Tristar Pictures. It tells the story of the Agojie, the all-female unit of warriors who protected the African Kingdom of Dahomey in the 1800s. Inspired by true events, The Woman King follows the epic journey of General Nanisca (Viola Davis) as she trains the next generation of recruits and readies them for battle against an enemy determined to destroy their way of life.

The behind-the-scenes creative team includes Prince-Bythewood’s longtime editor Terilyn A. Shropshire, DP Polly Morgan (ASC, BSC), VFX supervisor Sara Bennett and composer Terence Blanchard.

I spoke with the director about making the film, editing and dealing with all the VFX. Editor Shropshire joined the conversation as well.

Can you talk about the post prep?
We put the team together very early on, starting with my editor Terilyn Shropshire who’s cut every project of mine and is such a close collaborator. She can do it all – great drama, great action – and I can’t imagine doing this without her. My visual effects supervisor Sara Bennett, who did my last film The Old Guard, also came on very early, and so did Corinne Villa, our first assistant editor. She’s done a couple of projects with me and Teri, and she’s an invaluable part of the team. It’s great to have a close-knit post team like this where we all know each other and work together well.

Did you do a lot of previz?
We did a lot of stunt-viz because we had a lot of epic battles, so Polly and I could really work out how we wanted to CG them, but also so we could really hone the fighting style. We wanted to do something really distinct, as they’re female warriors based on true life, and we’ve never seen this before. What does it look like, women fighting and beating men?

Danny Hernandez was our stunt and fight coordinator and designer, and it was supremely important that we had all that stuff worked out ahead of time. And we had a couple of very complex stunts that Sara helped previz as well.

Talk about how you collaborated on the look with Polly Morgan.
Early on, I talked to her about two phrases that summed up what I wanted: “intimately epic” and “pretty gritty.” The story is epic in scope, but it’s also about the relationships between the women. I wanted the women to look beautiful and to be shot beautifully, but for it to look real and of its time period. I didn’t want it to just look glossy.

How tough was the shoot?
It was hard work because we shot for 63 days, all on location in South Africa, but that’s where it needed to be filmed to get the real environments and spectacular vistas. I didn’t want it to be a bluescreen movie shot in Atlanta or wherever, and it was important for the actors to be dropped into the real African environments and not to see the usual cars, shops and planes and so on. We created a whole 360-degree world of this epic historical action drama.

Where did you post?
We did my director’s cut at PacPost in the Valley, which was great because then we could have not just Teri and her team of assistants there but also our whole VFX team. Even though they’re based in London, we had them stay out here, as there was so much real-time information to deal with. We also had our music editors, and we mixed all the sound on the Sony lot in Dolby Atmos. The big problem during post was that our release date got pushed up by two months, so it’s been a real scramble to get it all done in time.

Do you like the post process?
I love post, but the first three weeks of my director’s cut are really hard. I’m still studying what happened on-set. I haven’t fully separated from the shoot yet, and you can’t help but think about the stuff you didn’t get. It takes a while to get past that and to focus on the coverage you did get and to see the film you actually shot. You just never know what you have until you start putting it all together.

Viola Davis and director Gina Prince-Bythewood on the set of The Woman King

Talk about editing with Terilyn.
We’ve worked so much together, and there’s so much trust. When I’m shooting, she’s my first audience, and I really rely on her. When you’re shooting it’s all moving so fast. You feel stuff on-set, but you don’t know if it’s translating. It’s only when you sit down together later that it all starts to become clearer, and Teri puts together such great assemblies that then it’s a process of building on that. And while the first part of the director’s cut is hard, it’s also my favorite part because it’s just the two of us working away.

Once that 10-week period is over, you have to bring in everyone else in to the process. But when it’s a movie you believe in and love, it’s a good process as you’re fighting for your vision.

L-R: Terilyn Shropshire and Gina Prince-Bythewood

Terilyn, what were the big editing challenges?
Terilyn Shropshire: Time and volume since there was a lot of film shot, with first and second units often shooting simultaneously. I always aim to watch it all as soon as possible, so my assistant had a real challenge trying to turn around the dailies for me so I could give some feedback about the coverage. It helped that I was on-set. We began editing last October, and we only just locked picture, so it’s been almost a year now.

Terilyn, can you walk us through your editing process?
Shropshire: We started editing in Cape Town and then moved back to LA after production wrap. We used Avid Media Composer 2018.12.12. on the macOS platform. The Sony engineering team was phenomenal in minimizing downtime during the transition back to the States. We were able to transfer a lot of our media ahead of our arrival back in the US.

The team was able to restore our media to a different Avid Nexis, allowing us to hit the ground running, and we were able to use Jump Desktop for the first week in the US. It gave us time to get acclimated and to ensure we could adhere to health and safety protocols. As post continued, we used Jump Desktop to create a really solid remote workflow. The ability to jump in from home or from the mixing stage has proven to be extremely valuable.

This film has a lot of VFX. Can you talk about working with VFX supe Sara Bennett, who co-founded London’s Milk VFX?
Right from the start we talked about authenticity and that all the VFX had to help build this historical epic and the world of 1823 in West Africa. It all had to look real, not just in terms of removing anything modern in the frame, but in terms of the VFX feeling totally part of the environment. Sara completely embraced that. We did a ton of research, and she also worked very closely with the production designer and pulled from the artwork and illustrations we had.

When people think of “world-building” they tend to think of the huge Marvel movies, but anytime you create a world people haven’t seen – whether it’s Braveheart or Gladiator – you go through the same highly detailed process to make all the VFX as seamless as possible.

Sara was on-set for the whole shoot, which was very important because she’d let me know if something would work or not. Then she came back here to LA for post and stayed all the way through our first preview, which was also very important because often the VFX tell the story even if they’re not finished. So I gave her my wish list of the VFX shots I wanted finished for that preview and my cut for the studio, and she worked with her team and did some postviz for a lot of the VFX that’d help with the storytelling.

We did have a lot of VFX, and Sara and Milk did the bulk of the work, but there was so much to do that we also had some other vendors, including Egg VFX, Untold Studios, Nexodus, Host VFX, Jellyfish and Clear Angle.

Gina Prince-Bythewood on-set

How involved are you in the DI and how important is it to you?
I love the DI, and it’s so crucial. I like to discuss the look and then give the colorist and the DP a week to work on it together before I go in. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the choices available to you, and it’s such a specific talent they bring to the DI. We did it with colorist Walter Volpatto at Company 3.

We had a great LUT on-set, and we’re enhancing that and making sure the women all look beautiful and that the colors are rich and full for all those kingdom scenes. There’s also a whole different element of the city where the slave trade is centered. We wanted that to look far grittier and harsher, so we were working on the contrast between those two very different worlds. I’m really happy with how the film’s turned out.

Industry insider Iain Blair has been interviewing the biggest directors in Hollywood and around the world for years. He is a regular contributor to Variety and has written for such outlets as Reuters, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe.

Smart 5

SmallHD Intros Smart 5 Series of 5-inch Touchscreen Monitors

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SmallHD has introduced the Smart 5 monitor series, comprising the Ultra 5, Cine 5 and Indie 5 touchscreen displays. Including two additional wireless versions of the Ultra 5 (TX/RX), these five compact 5-inch touchscreen monitors are all powered by the PageOS 5 Software Toolkit and designed to fit any production need. 

“The Smart 5 series was designed in response to significant demand for smaller touchscreen monitors with the same quality and functionality of SmallHD’s Smart 7 and Ultrabright Series,” says Dave Bredbury, product manager for CS Cine. “We shrunk the display and increased the overall capabilities. Finally, users have access to our camera-control licenses for ARRI, Red and Sony Venice on a 5-inch monitor.”

The Ultra, Cine, and Indie monitors in the Smart 5 Series represent three tiers of brightness, I/O capability and physical interface options to match a range of on-set workflows. All monitors will come equipped with multi-touch interfaces. The Cine 5 adds a joystick and back button for a new way to use the company’s camera-control functionality. The Ultra 5 offers supplemental, customizable function buttons for quick access to monitor and software functions while wearing gloves. Each monitor is encased in a unibody chassis crafted from anodized aluminum and features multiple mounting points.

Users can choose from three great product offerings. “For example, if someone wants the top-of-the-line 3,000-nit powerhouse with physical buttons and an ethernet port, we have the Ultra 5,” adds Bredbury. “If they want to save some money while still being able to control their Red Komodo with a daylight-viewable touch screen, then the Indie 5 or Cine 5 would be the way to go.”

The included PageOS 5 toolset includes EL Zone exposure assist, best-in-class waveform and false color, look-around camera control, advanced Teradek RT overlays and more. The PageOS 5 UI is known for offering quick and repeatable setups and full control over all parameters and display tools. Individual monitor details are as follows:

Ultra 5 combines touch-screen functionality with a full complement of front-facing physical buttons for maximum control in cold weather. It provides a brightness level of 3,000 nits, two 3G-SDI (I/O) ports, two HDMI 2.0 (I/O) ports, an ethernet port for optional ARRI and Sony Venice camera control, two-pin locking power connector and a locking five-pin USB for Red camera control. Ultra 5 will ship this fall.

Additionally, SmallHD and Teradek have joined forces to integrate the new Bolt 6 wireless technology into the Ultra 5 monitor, creating the Ultra 5 Bolt 6 RX 750 and Ultra 5 Bolt 6 TX 750. These models enable 6GHz connectivity, eliminate the need for additional cables or batteries, unlock full wireless camera control and work seamlessly with a hand-held Teradek RT for full wireless FIZ control. The RX monitors are available with integrated Gold Mount or V-Mount options, and all Ultra 5 wireless monitors are fully cross-compatible with all Bolt 4K devices over the 5GHz band. Ultra 5 RX 750 and Ultra 5 TX 750 are expected to ship in early January 2023.

Cine 5 combines a touch-screen experience with a side-mounted joystick and back button, 2,000 nits of brightness, 3G-SDI (I/O), HDMI 2.0 (I/O), two-pin locking power connector and a five-pin locking USB for Red camera control. Cine 5 will ship this fall.

Indie 5 offers a touch-screen-only interface with a physical power button and sliding touch-screen-lock switch. The most lightweight and streamlined of the trio at just 14.4 ounces, Indie 5 provides 1,000 nits of brightness, 3G-SDI (I/O), HDMI 2.0 (I/O), a barrel power input and a micro-USB port for Red camera control. Indie 5 will ship before the end of the year.

 

 

DP Alicia Robbins

DP Alicia Robbins: Dual ISO and Forests for Netflix’s Keep Breathing

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Netflix’s Keep Breathing is a character drama that deals with emotional struggle as well as mental health issues all wrapped in a survival series. It’s about a strong female lawyer, Liv, lost in the woods after her small plane goes down in the Canadian wilderness.

It was shot on a Sony Venice with Zeiss Supreme Prime Radiance lenses by DP Alicia Robbins, who captured both the beauty and dangers of the Canadian wilderness. It was shot all around Vancouver, including at Vancouver Film Studios and several practical locations in the city. The wilderness scenes were captured in forests from Squamish to Whistler.

Alicia Robbins

Known for her work on series Grey’s Anatomy and Soci Circle as well as feature films such as Babysplitters, Forever Not Maybe and The Wedding Invitation, Robbins took the time to talk to us about her work on this Netflix limited series.

Tell us about Keep Breathing? How early did you get involved in planning? What direction did you get about the look they wanted?
I was hired for Keep Breathing well before Block 1 even started. I knew I wouldn’t be coming in until Block 2 to shoot Episodes 4, 5 and 6, but I was already getting to have creative discussions with the producers about the direction I would take for the second block well in advance of my start date.

For my block of episodes, the storyline takes a dramatic shift as our character decides to brave the wilderness and begin a journey to find an escape. Therefore, the show creators and I wanted there to be a change in the style of cinematography. When Liv was on the move, the camera was on the move. We accomplished this with the use of many tools, such as Steadicam, Taurus-based telescoping cranes and wire cam in the forest.

For Episode 5, this is where the visuals take an even larger turn. Liv has fallen into a cave and hit her head badly, resulting in lucid dreaming. Her dreams begin to blend with the present and past. The forest starts to infiltrate her dreams, and her past shows up in unexpected places. For this episode, I was told by our producers to “go wild” with the visual design, so I did.

This episode is a visual whirlwind of flickering lights, camera transitions from her past to present, saturated colors and surreal lighting. Lighting cues were often used throughout the episode for light fluctuation, and lighting would come from areas that you wouldn’t expect and in colors that wouldn’t be natural to the environment. We had to be very planned out in how our scenes blended together. Many times you would see young Liv exit a scene, and then it would be adult Liv turning the corner of a hallway. Keeping these transitions fluid required detailed planning and shot-listing between me and the director, Rebecca Rodriguez.

How would you describe the look?
The intended look for Keep Breathing was very dramatic. We wanted to capture the haunting beauty of the Canadian wilderness. As scary as it would be to be lost in it, you can’t deny the beauty that surrounds Liv. We wanted to show that off — how there could be beauty in this solitude, and how this solitude forces Liv to address her past. We wanted to maintain a level of rich contrast throughout, playing with a lot of negative fill.

We also made sure that certain color palettes only became visible when we were addressing certain aspects of Liv’s life. For instance, the color red was representative of her mother, so red plays a role in several pieces of art direction that throws her back into remembering her mother as a child. Red becomes a stronger color in our palette as she begins to hallucinate, and she is forced to face her childhood trauma of her mother leaving her. By the time we get to the last episode, the color red is no longer prominent since she has let go of her mother as a painful memory.

How did you work with the colorist to achieve the intended look? Did you use on-set LUTs?
We worked with Jill Bogdanowicz at Company 3 for our final color. She is an extraordinary artist. One of the ways Jill works is that she sees the color and contrast that the DP is practically using on-set and enhances it, pushing the intentions of the DP’s visuals a bit further.

The episode we really had fun with was Episode 5. When I was shooting Episode 5, I could only take the surrealism to a certain level practically, but we knew we wanted to push the look in post once Jill had her hands on it. I had told her that I loved her work on Joker and John Wick and not to be shy about handling some of our colors in that way for Episode 5. What she came up with was a look reminiscent of cross-processed film. I loved it, so that was the direction we headed with that particular episode.

DP Alicia Robbins

It was exciting to see my work taken to a whole other level that I couldn’t achieve practically. On-set we worked with a very simple show LUT that got us in the ballpark of the contrast we were hoping for. But we really didn’t do much live grading. We knew we would have ample color time with Jill in post, so we reserved most of the color for those sessions.

Why was the Sony Venice the right camera for this project?
We chose the Sony Venice for its exceptional dynamic range, and the dual ISO made it essential to the night work we would do in the forest. We chose Zeiss Supreme Prime Radiance lenses as the workhorse lenses along with an 11:1 Angenieux Zoom. The Zeiss Radiance lenses have a very clean look with beautiful contrast. The flare of the Radiance is on the bluer side, which is very different than a lot of flares. They also have a beautiful 18mm lens that looked gorgeous on the full-frame sensor.

In the forest, having a wide lens like that — with undistorted edges — was key for showing off the space. (Now Zeiss has a 15mm Radiance, which I wish I had had when I was shooting this show.) Canon K35 lenses were also chosen for some flashback scenes, which were softer and had a warmer flare, giving it contrast to the forest, where we used the Zeiss Radiance primes. We also played with Lensbaby lenses for specific shots that needed a surrealistic look.

Can you describe the lighting?
I love using a large variety of lighting tools. You name it, we probably used it. For the daytime work, balloons were often used for negative fill, bounce or overhead silks if there was enough room. I loved using 10K Molebeams for beautiful, warm sunlight that would streak across the forest environment. Astera tubes were also very useful for eye lights and for creating the Northern Lights in the middle of the forest, which was a whole other challenge in itself.

Our workhorses were often ARRI S60s and S30s and sometimes an S360. We ran all of our LED units and tungsten units through a central DMX board that my gaffer could control right by my monitors. This was very helpful in Episode 5, when we had many lighting cues.

Were there any “happy accidents” captured?
I definitely had a happy accident in Episode 4, when I strategically placed Liv in an area of the forest where I knew the God rays would reveal themselves once we pumped in a little bit of atmosphere (provided there was no cloud cover). Sure enough, at the right time of day, the sun barely pushed through the trees, and a hit of atmosphere created one of the most iconic frames of the series.

Shooting on that terrain must have been challenging. Can you talk about that?
One of the main things that drew me to this project was the fact that it would be shot mostly in the Canadian wilderness. I love to camp, and I consider the forest one of my happy places. So I was incredibly excited to film in that location.

There were definitely challenges in the physicality of the space. Simply moving around with equipment and lighting was really tough, so everything had to be thought out precisely to know exactly what we should have where. Some of the locations were in areas that had never really been filmed before, so the only way to get to them was with off-road vehicles. But filming in these untouched areas truly gave the show a new look that hasn’t been seen before. Planning was key for filming in the forest locations.

One of the biggest challenges was how to accomplish the ending river sequence. We wanted to be in the water as our stunt actress braved the whitewater rapids of the river. This is where the Sony Venice was truly an amazing tool. We were able to go in Rialto mode, with the front end in a splash bag and the back end bagged on a whitewater raft. We hired an incredibly skilled whitewater camera team to follow our stunt actress down the river with the Sony Venice. This — in combination with strategically placed cameras on the riverbank, drone work and our main actress being filmed in a bluescreen water tank that had simulated rapid flow for her close-ups — created the show’s incredibly exciting ending sequence.

Any scenes that you are particularly proud of or found most challenging?
There was a sequence in Episode 6 where Liv sees the Aurora Borealis, and it is so bright that it lights up the forest around her. For this, I had ARRI S60s below in the ravine lighting the fronts of the trees, while behind Liv, I had 100 Astera tubes on the backs of the trees lighting up the rest of the forest. Then we had all of the lights in sync with each other, creating a wave of blues, greens and magenta to feel as if the Northern Lights were lighting up the forest. In combination with the VFX Aurora Borealis that they put in the sky, it was a very powerful visual since it’s really when Liv begins to accept the beauty of the forest around her. It was intended to have a magical quality to it, and I feel we pulled that off.

How did this shoot differ from others you’ve been on recently?
I was coming off Grey’s Anatomy, which as you know is a hospital drama. Shooting in the Canadian wilderness couldn’t be farther from this. I was up for several projects at the time I was interviewing for Keep Breathing, but in my heart, I knew this was the project for me. I knew it would be very challenging, but I was looking for something truly artistic to sink my teeth into.

DP Alicia RobbinsHow did you become interested in cinematography?
I first became interested in cinematography when I was a PA on a small movie that came through my hometown in Alabama. I was already interested in filmmaking but wasn’t completely sure what aspect I wanted to pursue. On that film, titled Rustin, the DP was Wally Pfister (ASC). This was before he really became a famous DP. I observed him and was so impressed by the way he commanded the set, and I was truly intrigued by the technical knowledge he had for the camera and lighting. I thought, “That looks like a really cool job.” He’s the one that guided me toward applying to AFI. The rest is history.

Are you always on the lookout for new technology to use in your craft?
I am fascinated by technology that will help advance a story. I am always striving to learn new techniques, new equipment, new ways of lighting and moving the camera. However, I don’t use gimmicks simply for the sake of using them. The technology has to serve the story and the character’s journey. I get really excited when I’ve found a new way to achieve a look and it captures the essence of the story.

What new technology has changed the way you work (looking back over the past few years)?
LED lighting and dual ISO! Wow, this has changed my life. I’ve always been a fan of LED lighting since some of the first units came out. But now the advancement of LED lighting is so good with the brightness and color rendition.

Alicia Robbins on-set (far right)

Also, the use of dual-ISO cameras such as the Sony Venice. I love being able to get a clean image at 2500 ISO and run my LED units in ranges from 1% to 10% intensity. As a result, you can keep the lighting levels so low that you don’t have light bouncing all around a space, so you don’t have to use excessive flags to keep the spill down. I can achieve a high-contrast look without too much grip gear simply by keeping the light levels very low. This is a technique that I’m using more and more, sometimes even for day interior work.

What are some best practices or rules you try to follow on each job?
I try to be as prepared as possible. Sometimes this is very difficult if scripts are coming in at the last minute, but having a solid plan going into a project before your first shoot day is key.

Explain your ideal collaboration with the director or showrunner when starting a new project.
It is always a pleasure when your director or showrunner is on the same page with you visually. I enjoy working with someone who is open to my ideas of how to tell the story visually. I know I have a solid understanding of what makes a story work through camera and lighting, and when I have collaborators that are open to my ideas, it works really well.

I’m not a DP that likes to be simply dictated to: “Camera goes here, moves this way, this lens, etc.” I don’t think any DP likes to work that way. I’m always looking for a collaboration on the visual design. However, I’ve also been in situations where I’m doing almost all the visual design on my own. This isn’t ideal either. It’s sometimes hard to find that collaboration with a director where you help each other out and it’s a fluid discussion of ideas.

You have to have a lot of meetings with your director beforehand to get a sense of what they like and what they respond to. Sometimes it isn’t talking about visuals at all, but just going for a hike or having lunch to get a sense of their personality. I like to get to know my directors as people. It helps me gauge how I need to handle my team and myself on-set once we’re in the thick of it.

What’s your go-to gear (camera, lens, mount/accessories) – things you can’t live without?
For shooting, it’s a camera that has dual ISO. I  always want the option to run a higher ISO and still have a clean image. For my personal gear, I carry around an Insta360 camera. This captures 360 video or stills in a high resolution. I use this tool for location scouting or to capture lighting setups that I’ve done. This little camera always lives in my backpack.

What about some tips for other females looking to get into cinematography?
It’s important to shoot your own content. You never know what project might get you your “break.” Even after years of pursuing your craft, you also have to be willing to do free passion projects if the story is something you’re drawn to or the collaboration could lead to other work.

My break came after 15 years of pursuing cinematography. I shot a free short for a friend I really wanted to collaborate with, and that short earned me an Emerging Cinematographer Award through the Local 600. Doors opened up after that.

Also, maintain connections with people you think will help you out down the line. It’s key to stay in touch with potential mentors. You have to remember that working DPs get very busy, so don’t be discouraged if someone you have reached out to doesn’t get back to you right away. Try again a few weeks later. If they are open to helping you out, they won’t see your persistence as a bother; they will see it as dedication.

Teradek

Teradek Integrates With Sony’s Ci for Camera-to-Cloud

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Teradek and Sony have teamed to provide productions more flexible camera-to-cloud workflows. Sony’s Ci Media Cloud will natively integrate with Serv 4K and Prism Flex, Teradek’s 4K HDR encoding solutions, allowing any camera used on-set, in-studio or remotely to upload footage to Ci directly from Teradek’s encoders.

With this new integration, production teams will have the ability to review, edit and deliver proxy files more easily. This fast file transfer will speed content acquisition workflows while still delivering frame-accurate files for cutting, color grading, frame grabbing, commenting and annotating. Content can be clipped, reformatted and shared without leaving the cloud.

Because it’s in the cloud, this workflow will avoid duplicating content across multiple systems, allowing the processing to come directly to the content. It also allows internal and external stakeholders to work together while maintaining secure boundaries.

Sony’s Ci provides content acquisition portals, real-time collaboration, automated transcoding, rough-cut editing, QC and archive functionality in one SaaS offering. This integration will provide on-set configuration on the market. It will also allow productions to onboard team members without user limits and create a fully customizable target folder structure. Files can be optionally stored in users’ own Amazon S3 buckets so they can maintain control of their content. Plus, automatic notifications will let teams know when new content is uploaded.

Teradek Serv 4K and Prism Flex will connect to Sony’s Ci with a unique 8-digit code, allowing for simple configuration without the use of additional apps. Serv 4K also provides local iPad client monitoring and a Gold/V-mount solution for camera-back setups. Prism Flex offers live streaming and point-to-point decoding.

This new integration is expected to be available in fall 2022.