Tag Archives: Arri

ARRI Introduces 360 EVO Stabilized Remote Head

ARRI has introduced a new top-of-the-line stabilized remote head, the 360 EVO. Building on the success of the SRH‑360, it features 360-degree rotation on both the roll axis and the pan axis, a more robust design and remote system integration. The 360 EVO also shares a new GUI and multiple accessories with the Trinity 2 body-mounted stabilizer, creating an integrated lineup of hard- and soft-mounted stabilizer options.

Since the launch of Trinity 2, operators have been taking advantage of its 360-degree rotation on the roll axis, revolving around the optical center of the lens. Now, the same technology has been scaled up for the ARRI 360 EVO three-axis stabilized remote head, opening up new shot possibilities for dramas, commercials and music videos. Users can achieve even more dynamic roll-axis shots by mounting the head to a crane, for example, or a cable cam above a live broadcast event.

The 360 EVO runs on the same software platform as Trinity 2, with the same intuitive GUI displayed on its touch-screen remote control panel. The two products also share cables, brackets and SAM plates for mounting different cameras. They can also be controlled by the same tools, such as ARRI’s Digital Remote Wheels DRW-1 and new Digital Encoder Head DEH-2. According to ARRI, this means Trinity 2 users can invest in the 360 EVO without having to double up on accessories or learn new workflows. By offering both systems, ARRI enables pros to extend their services to a production, increase their workdays and reduce setup times.

LBUS connectivity enables efficient digital and metadata workflows, while the new software and GUI are focused on long-term Unreal Engine integration to facilitate virtual production. In the future, plug-and-play control of the 360 EVO over the internet will be possible when using an authorized repeater cloud service, providing exceptional flexibility of control options.

With its remote system integration, 360-degree roll-axis rotation, payloads up to 30kg, compact size, versatile connectivity, high-capacity 12/24 V camera power supply and rock-steady stabilization, even at long focal lengths, the 360 EVO offers a price-performance ratio that makes it a budget-friendly product for the cine and broadcast markets.

First shipments of the 360 EVO, as well as upgrades for SRH‑360 owners, will begin in Q1.

 

AJA at NAB With New Dante, Updates to ColorBox, FS-HDR, More

AJA will be highlighting new products and updates at NAB in Las Vegas that are designed for Video-over-IP, color conversion and management, streaming, remote production, and data management and curation workflows.

New Dante AV 4K-T and 4K-R Converters: In partnership with Audinate, AJA has released two new converters: Dante AV 4K-T, which converts 4K/UHD/2K/HD/VESA SDI and HDMI 2.0 to Dante AV Ultra signals; and Dante AV 4K-R, which converts Dante AV Ultra signals to 4K/UHD/2K/HD/VESA SDI and HDMI 2.0. Both converters enable transport and control of low-latency, high-quality 4K/UltraHD/2K/HD/VESA IP video and audio to and from 12G-SDI or HDMI 2.0 devices over a 1 GigE Dante AV network.

AJA Dante AV 4K-T and 4K-R are available for $2,495 each.

ColorBox v2.0: AJA ColorBox v2.0 firmware adds user-requested features for color-managed workflows to the converter, including an add-on license to expand ColorBox’s Colorfront Engine video processing options with TV Mode and Live Mode. With the update, the latest v1.6 BBC HLG LUTs are supported. An Orion-Convert update is also now accessible with a gamma compensation function to ensure compatibility between different color conversion philosophies. The firmware also comes with support for overlaying frame lines or other graphics; five additional built-in test patterns; and Light Illusion, Portrait Displays Calman and QTake Video Assist integrations.

ColorBox is available today from AJA’s reseller network for $1,995, with optional licenses for Colorfront at $995, the Orion-Convert pipeline at $695 and the BBC HLG LUT pipeline at $145 .

FS-HDR v4.2: AJA’s new v4.2 firmware for the FS-HDR real-time HDR/WCG converter/frame synchronizer with Colorfront Engine video processing introduces a new Colorfront TV Mode that uses color science capabilities from Colorfront. The firmware also introduces Live and Film Mode updates, including support for ARRI LogC4 and Sony S-Log3 transforms. BBC HLG LUTs have been updated to v1.6, including a new combination LUT for camera shading in live productions and a new LUT based on Color Appearance Model (CAM).

FS-HDR is available now from AJA’s reseller network for $9,569. The v4.2 firmware update is available via AJA’s AJA support page.

Helo Plus v2.0 Firmware: New v2.0 firmware for the AJA Helo Plus H.264 streaming/encoding/recording device includes several improvements. The update introduces two new licensable features, including simultaneous multi-channel stereo audio streaming/recording and PlayToStream, which lets users leverage a previously recorded program for a future streaming event.

Helo Plus is available now for $1,869, with v2.0 improvements (outside of PlayToStream and simultaneous multi-channel stereo audio) available next month for free via the AJA support page. At the same time, PlayToStream and multi-channel stereo audio streaming/recording options will be available for $199 and $99, respectively.

AJA Diskover Media Edition Updates: Additions to AJA Diskover Media Edition data management and curation software include expanded search capabilities, analytics improvements such as integration with the Xytech Media Operations Platform, and Illegal File Name and Hash Differential plug-ins. Play and preview capabilities are enabled via the CineSys Cineviewer Player plug-in. An Oxagile plug-in handles content delivery tasks for IMF packages.

AJA Diskover Media Edition users with active licenses can access these updates now. The software is available for $11,995 per license.

AJA Bridge Live v1.14: A firmware update for AJA’s multi-channel UltraHD and HD live video solution for remote production, contribution, collaboration, streaming, and delivery, AJA Bridge Live v1.14 introduces optional perpetual JPEG XS I/O licenses. Additional improvements include RTMP input, support for ST 2022-7 hitless redundancy, and input auto-reconfiguration.

Bridge Live v1.14 will soon be available for existing users with an active maintenance agreement for download from AJA’s website. Users without a maintenance agreement can access bug fixes within v1.14 but will not receive new feature access.

Bridge Live is available starting at $15,999. Optional, perpetual Bridge Live JPEG XS01 and Bridge Live JPEG XS04 licenses can be purchased for $1,500 per HD channel and $6,000  per UltraHD/four-channel HD, respectively.

Main Image: FS-HDR v4.2

RRR

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

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 Anka Malatynska on HBO Max’s Pretty Little Liars‘ Dark Reboot

Born in Communist Poland and now living in the United States, DP Anka Malatynska has worked on everything from shorts to episodics. Her recent projects include HBO Max’s Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, Amazon’s I Know What You Did Last Summer and four episodes of Hulu’s Monsterland.

Malatynska has continually sought out and created work that is bold and diverse. When describing her work, she says, “My signature style is slightly heightened. I am a sucker for beauty and visuals that allow me to step into another world and forget about the world I live in.” When she’s not on-set, she’s teaching her craft. She spent a large part of the pandemic teaching remotely from Nicaragua and has also served as a visiting professor of cinematography at Northwestern University in Qatar. Before that, she taught at Northern Arizona University. Malatynska likes to say, “Cinematography is my church and daily bread.”

We recently spoke with Malatynska about her work on Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, which co-creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is billing as a “new chapter” of the original Pretty Little Liars story — and not a reboot. The new chapter also has a different feel than the original. When discussing the look of the show, she says, “It’s much more seeded in the horror genre, both visually and story-wise. It’s a lot darker.”

Let’s find out more…

How early did you get involved in planning for the reboot?
I got involved after they already shot the first two episodes. So while I wasn’t there for a lot of the planning, I was there for about 90% of the execution of the work — which also took a lot of planning.

What direction were you given about the look of the show?
In general, the direction was that we wanted to keep it edgy and push the envelope. We wanted to get really creative shots and think outside of the box when it came to camera placement. We also wanted to use the horror/slasher genre as a pool of active references for what we are trying to achieve and emulate.

How did you work with the colorist? Was there a DIT on this show? Were you working with on-set LUTs?
Luckily, I had just finished I Know What You Did Last Summer with the same colorist (Shane Harris from the Picture Shop), who was our final colorist on Pretty Little Liars. Immediately when I took the show over, he and I were on the phone about what wasn’t working within the structure of the LUT we were using. I felt very lucky that I got teamed up with someone I had just finished working with, whose eye I trusted. This really streamlined the post production process because we communicated directly with each other.

Our DIT was Andrew Pisano, and we had light grade on-set every day, so we were using the show LUT and using CDLs to really dial in the look of specific scenes. When I came in after the second episode, the final colorist and I changed the show LUT a bit. I think the first two episodes were a little too dark for post to deal with, even though those episodes look spectacular. I don’t think the original team did anything wrong; they just really wanted to protect a really dark look.

We changed that a bit so we didn’t run into issues like people disappearing into the background. We were able to change the show LUT without changing the look of the show. The LUT just gave a little bit of protection for the darkest pieces in the frame.

Can you talk about the differences working on TV episodes versus films?
I think one of the biggest differences is that on a film, I typically get to sit in with the colorist for at least a week going through all the scenes. In TV it starts to happen while you are shooting, so that review process has to be a lot more streamlined. I’m not going into a color correction day with a colorist in LA or New York, I’m reviewing these episodes on my iPad and communicating with the colorist from there.

Usually I’m doing it while working on another show late at night. So I think the biggest difference is time. When you are shooting a television show, you don’t want to rely on post production to shape the image. You want to get the image as close to your vision as possible during the shoot because the color correction process is going to have to be a lot faster and a lot more streamlined with a lot fewer hands on the controls.

I’ve run into DPs who say, “We’ll fix in post.” I think to myself, “When are you going to fix that in post? You are already going to be on a different show with no time.” It’s also fun and exciting to rely on the cinematography and the lighting of what you are actually capturing on-set instead of thinking, I will do it later… because there never is a later.

What cameras and lenses did you use for Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin?
We used the DXL2 – Millennium DXL 8K Red Monstro body with Panaspeed 70mm primes. So, large-format lenses on a large-format camera. I had just shot an independent film with the same camera package with some of the lenses, so when I found out what they were shooting on, I thought it was a wonderful gift. I had sense of relief because it’s exactly what I would have chosen. On the DXL, the chip has a very natural curve. It’s very soft in a way. It’s the most natural-looking image, the most filmlike and natural. It has a little bit of texture.

Using the DXL2, we shot in 5K, so it made all our lenses perceptively a little tighter. I love epic, exaggerated wide shots in horror; they give the sense that something is off without distracting from the story. I would jump out to 8K resolution on our camera and our 17mm lens to incorporate a wider iris forced perspective of our Millwood world.

Some examples of that are the Y2K party warehouse in Episode 3, or the hand-held sequence when Mouse is freaking out in her room in Episode 7. There is something off, but you can’t quite put your finger on it — the perspective is forced. We used a lot of wider and closer frames to put the viewer right there in the experience of our Pretty Little Liars. There is an immediacy to this kind of storytelling.

Where was the series shot, and how long was the shoot?
The series was shot in upstate New York in the Catskills. A lot of us lived in Woodstock, so we lived in our fake town of Millwood. We really leaned in to using existing locations in upstate New York, which have that small-town, picturesque and creepy-cabin-in-the-woods vibe.

They started shooting the first two episodes last summer in August and September. Then they took a break to review what they had done and started back in October. We shot all the way to the beginning of May this year. Close to a year in the making.

Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin has a much different vibe than the original series. Did you go back and watch the original series at all for research?
It was 100% on purpose. For those who had a chance to see the behind-the-scenes video that HBO Max just put out, the creators really wanted to lean into the slasher genre with a Michael Myers type of figure. We didn’t want to do a reboot of the same show. We wanted to use the show to create these characters. It’s much more seeded in the horror genre, both visually and story-wise.

I did a little research on the original show and was very excited to be part of this reboot because of how the creators approach the show. It was really highly stylized and dark. It’s not just visually exciting, but the stories are also deep and exciting.

You were the cinematographer on Amazon’s I Know What You Did Last Summer and Hulu’s Monsterland, which are both darker shows too. Do you gravitate more toward the horror genre?
As a cinematographer I love playing with darkness. I love pushing to the very edge of how dark I can go, of how dark a studio or network will let me go. I’m very attracted to dark imagery. I love thrillers, horror and sci-fi because those genres really allow me to be very expressive.

However, I’m currently working on a very different show (NCIS: Hawai’i) right now. Very glam and high-key. I’m trying not to pigeonhole myself in one thing. Instead I’m trying to learn new things and expand my palate. But my friends do call me the Queen of Darkness. I think we really achieved something spectacular with Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin. Just how dark and yet how beautiful and glamorous it is.

How would you describe your signature style as a cinematographer?
I would describe it as slightly heightened. I am a sucker for beauty and visuals that allow me to step into another world and forget about the world I live in. I am much more interested in different versions of reality, rather than attempting to be a documentarian. Even when we are trying to make something feel normal, for me in a movie, I am always longing for a sense of magic in the visual.

Is there one piece of equipment that you can’t live without?
A camera. I feel like equipment changes. I feel like lighting has evolved. There are some light fixtures that I really love working with. Specifically, Titans and Helios. Being able to control them on a dimmer board makes all the difference because they are quick and easy. I love those tools.

Are there other tools I can’t live without? Cinematography. It’s not necessarily about the tool; it’s about what you will be able to say with that tool and how you will use it. It’s not the camera that makes a great cinematographer. It’s the mind and the eye and the aesthetic choices of the individuals.

DP Chat: Hurt Cinematographer Jorel O’Dell  

In some ways it seems like DP Jorel O’Dell’s path was always meant to lead to cinematography. His love of film started early while shooting 35mm stills with his dad when he was just 6 years old. “I’ve been shooting reverse negative and black-and-white my whole life,” he explains. “I learned and understood the ‘exposure triangle’ and even exposure compensation when shooting with a flash by the time I was 8 or 9 years old. This all translated wonderfully when I went to film school at 20 years old and started shooting on 16mm film.”

DP Jorel O’Dell

Along the way, O’Dell had other interests, including acting in theater, something he did all over the world. “That time was very much a study for me in directing and writing, as I was internalizing so much of these two crafts and distilling that into my own voice through performance.” While he enjoyed acting, he always felt his path was behind the camera in some way. “In film school, I only felt like we were being shown filmmaking from the perspective of the director. Often with so many classic examples of historically impactful directors being ‘auteur,’ I found this later to be more destructive than helpful in what I see now as being the absolute most collaborative form of art.”

This all laid a perfect foundation for O’Dell’s path to cinematography. “Eventually I had a camera that could also shoot HD video, and I started shooting projects for actor friends of mine. I realized I had the skills necessary to achieve successful results there. I threw myself fully into this position on set, and so many opportunities came my way. I just never stopped learning or experimenting with new ideas with lighting and camera movement. It became my obsession.”

Jorel O’Dell  

DP Jorel O’Dell

While his CV is long and includes films (The Birthday Cake), TV series (Made From Scratch) and commercials (Lauren Conrad Collection), one particular film stands out. In the Sonny Mallhi-directed horror film Hurt, released last month, Tommy returns home from military deployment to surprise his wife, Rose. He seems to be suffering from PTSD but is still eager to go to the couple’s favorite Halloween attraction, the Haunted Hayride. Seems like a great idea, right? Well, in addition to Tommy’s shaken and traumatized emotional state, a masked killer is hunting for victims at the hayride.

The film originally premiered in 2018 at the Fantasia Fest, but the director did a recut, which is the version available now on Amazon. “I am so proud of Sonny for making this cut,” O’Dell says. “There are some really creative story edits that just make the emotional ride fall into place. It is a strong film now.”

Jorel O’Dell  

Hurt

Let’s find out more from O’Dell about Hurt and how he likes to work…

How would you describe the look of Hurt?
The look of Hurt is absolutely filmic, dark and terrifying. I felt my job was to stay out of the way entirely. I lit every moment to feel realistic, rural and seamless. I wanted my work to be invisible. Stylistic and illustrative choices are not a good fit for a film like this. Two of Sonny’s very few broad-stroked references were Chinatown and Texas Chainsaw, with Texas being the stronger of the two.

I shot on my ARRI Alexa Mini and pushed to use an UltraScope anamorphic lens for beautiful texture, spherical aberration, skin tones and flares. I usually don’t like the general meandering choice to use flares just because they’re “cool.” I protected the lens for the most part and very selectively let the flares rip in a few choice moments.

Jorel O’Dell  

Jorel O’Dell

What about your lenses?
The budget was so tight that I was only allowed to have one lens, so I picked the 40mm, of course. I brought along a 6-foot soft-edge graduated (.9 for the nerds), which ended up living on my lens for day exterior setups and helped create an oppressive feeling to the frame at monitor.

Also, I found it fitting that Chinatown had also been shot primarily with only one lens, a 40mm anamorphic, and that was a reference of Sonny’s, so that felt like we were getting on the same page. That was how I helped sell the idea of anamorphic for the project. And I really had to sell it. (Laughs). It took a while to get a yes on that, but I’m so happy I did.

We had two other lenses donated to us from a dear friend of mine, Felix Pineiro, who happened to recommend me for the job in the first place and was one of the editors. He gave us his 65mm and 135mm Leica Macro Rs, which I used for the close- ups. I protected those frames from spectral highlight and bokeh in the background and foreground in hopes of not taking the viewer out of the anamorphic atmosphere.

Jorel O’Dell  

Hurt

It’s always a dance using mixed format, as post production should know ahead of time that we’ll have to crop spherical footage to match the 2.39 we’re planning to deliver in. That all worked out quite well in the end.

What did your lighting package look like for Hurt?
Minimal! I mean, it could have been worse, I suppose, but we originally shot this five years ago, before most LEDs had taken over the planet.

I had two 9-light Molefays. That saved my butt. Then two M18s, four 650s, one 4×4 Kino bank, about $200 worth of flood lights and a mix of tungsten bulbs I sourced from Home Depot once we had finished scouting all the locations. What we mostly didn’t have was hands. I worked with a 1×1 G&E crew, if you call that a crew. I call it two guys! (Laughs)

Any tips for other DPs who have limitations on equipment and a project that takes place mainly at night?
Ah, yes. Well, it’s a drastically different world now thanks to LED technology. For example, I have built my own custom lights with Johnathan Cushing from Cush Light that weigh mere ounces, run off nickel battery barrel taps and can be controlled diode by diode in DMX control. I can’t recommend Cush Light enough as a go-to source for bespoke LED builds and the countless other light sources available, like Astera, Aputure, Astra, SkyPanel, Creamsource, Dedolight, etc. These have all changed the game.

Hurt was a challenge that my crew and I will simply never, ever have to face again. No production should have to face what we did simply because easier tools exist now, and they’re less expensive, very reliable and far more mobile and flexible.

Hurt

The film’s director, Sonny Mallhi, likes unconventional framing. Is there a shot in the film that was outside of the box for you?
I absolutely love the opportunity and freedom to explore framing, so it wasn’t much of a stretch for me to jump right in with bells on. But there is one scene in the backyard when Rose’s sister and husband come over just after Tommy gets back. The entire scene is shot in only extreme closeups.

I could not understand why Sonny was adamant about shooting this one scene this way, but now I see it cut together, and it’s incredible. It is subjective entirely to Tommy’s experience. Perhaps this is the first civilian gathering he’s had since the hell of war had its way with him. He suffers the first PTSD panic attack that we see here, and the conversation in the scene is all but meaningless, except for the tones of jealousy that we start to feel from Tommy. He’d been gone so long that another man, Rose’s sister’s husband, had all that time to get close to his wife. It’s crazy to think this way, but that’s what mental illness can induce in people, and I could feel those wheels turning in his head as I watched it.

Hurt

The coverage Sonny had me get was just incredible, in my opinion. I’ve never seen a scene quite like this, and it set me up early in the film to feel that this character was very dangerous. I love this setup structurally in the script, and even more in our execution of it, thanks entirely to the vision Sonny had.

Did you use a LUT? Did you work with a colorist?
It was shot with a filmic LUT that I built for us. I am still a film-oriented kind of shooter, so I always try to get my image as close to what the director loves as I can on the shoot day. I ultimately set the look there and with my contrast in lighting each scene. I think it’s well worth the time to shoot lens tests in appropriate light with as much design as is available: actor, makeup, wardrobe, hair and location, if possible. We had this opportunity to a certain extent, and it didn’t seem to matter a ton to Sonny. It felt like he was happy with it but kind of just categorized it as something that would take care of itself later. There were more pressing issues to solve at that time, and great pressures were building up. So I just went with it. I knew this project was going to be different than most other films.

I’m not sure if the budget is public knowledge or not, so I’ll just say that it was the lowest-budget film I’ve ever worked on. It is rather unthinkable that we could make a film of this caliber with next to no budget. It’s actually amazing to me, and I’m really proud of what Sonny accomplished in the end result.

Jorel O’Dell  

Jorel O’Dell

Sadly, I was not a part of the color workflow. I don’t know who it was or what they used. But it was already very close to what I had delivered on set. Ultimately, the colorist did exactly what I had hoped for with an unsettling patina, slightly de-sat, crunchy look that mitigated the green channel. Ultimately, both Sonny and I had agreed that we were going to dirty up the green no matter what. Because it’s Halloween night in the film, we knew October trees were our end goal.

I can say that I’m very happy with the color. It’s about a stop to a stop-and-a-half under where I shot it, so I might have asked for a little bit more out of the toe of the curve (ha!), but it works so well in the film that I’m just happy all around.

Is there a director or showrunner that you would like to work with that you haven’t gotten a chance to yet?
Oh, there are so many that it’s hard to keep track. I just finished shooting as second unit DP and A camera operator on a Cassian Elwes production with director Gigi Gaston and DP Byron Werner. It’s called Nine Bullets. I’d love to continue working with them in any fashion.

ARRI Opens Mixed Reality Studio for UK Productions

ARRI has opened a new mixed reality studio in the UK. Equipped with an LED volume comprising a 343-square-meter LED wall installed in partnership with NEP Live Events production and technical specialist firm Creative Technology, the studio is one of the biggest permanent mixed reality production spaces in Europe.

Located at ARRI’s UK facility in Uxbridge, with camera, grip and lighting packages available on site from ARRI Rental, the 708-square-meter (7,621-square-foot) studio is available for hire to short- and long-form productions of any kind, as well as for events, education and R&D.

The LED volume consists of a main, “in-vision” curve that is 30m wide by 5m high (98.4ft x 16.4ft); two moveable and tiltable side screens, each 3m wide by 4.2m high (9.8ft x 13.8ft); and a height-adjustable ceiling of 9.6m by 9.6m (31.5ft x 31.5ft). A back curve measuring 18m wide by 4.2m high (59.1ft x 13.8ft) completes the fully encapsulated yet adaptable space and can be programmed to display 360-degree imagery that — even when not in frame — casts dynamic, fully integrated lighting effects onto the performers and the scene being shot. The in-vision curve is constructed from ROE Visual Ruby 2.3 panels, while the side screens, ceiling and back curve use ROE Visual Carbon CB5 panels.

Much like with ARRI’s modular facilities, technical support can be tailored to the requirements of each production, with the full weight of expertise from ARRI, Creative Technology and their respective partners available in the form of preproduction advice and creative production services. For productions new to mixed reality, technical support can extend to a full script-to-screen service.

Studio design and systems integration came from the ARRI Solutions Group, which can facilitate complete turnkey installations globally. Other cutting-edge technology companies have contributed to the construction and workflows of the stage and will provide ongoing support. Creative Technology designed and installed video walls, playback systems and a number of powerful control solutions; Mo-Sys supplied a StarTracker camera tracking system and VP Pro XR; Epic Games provided its flagship real-time 3D creation tool, Unreal Engine; and Nvidia’s RTX A6000 GPUs power the image processing.

Markus Zeiler, ARRI executive board member, adds: “In addition to this commercially available studio in the UK, we have also built LED volume stages at our facilities in Burbank, California, and Munich, Germany, providing space for our technicians and clients to conduct R&D, testing and demonstrations. … ARRI, with its partners, is here to help filmmakers embrace mixed reality and use it creatively.”

 

 

 

 

DP Chat: One Night in Miami’s Tami Reiker

Inspired by true events, director Regina King’s One Night in Miami tells the story of Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Sam Cooke and the evening of February 25, 1964. Based on the play by Kemp Powers, who also wrote the screenplay, the film shows these four icons as they gather in a Miami Beach hotel room to celebrate Ali’s (who was still going by Cassius Clay at the time) surprise win over Sonny Liston and to talk about much more than boxing.

Tami Reiker (left) on set

The film, which stars Kingsley Ben-Adir, Eli Goree, Aldis Hodge and Leslie Odom Jr., earned three Oscar nominations: Best Supporting Actor for Odom, Best Adapted Screenplay for Powers and Best Original Song (“Speak Now”). Director King earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Director.

We checked in with the film’s cinematographer — Tami Reiker, ASC — to talk about her process, working with director King and more.

How early did you get involved in One Night in Miami?
Regina and producers Keith Calder and Jess Wu Calder sent me the script, and I loved it. I was also a huge fan of Regina King. I made a lookbook with my visual ideas and met with Regina. We really hit it off and had similar visions for the look and feel of the film.

What direction were you given from the outset about the look? It’s a period piece, so how did you go about giving it that feel?
From our first meeting, Regina and I discussed a rich, vibrant and saturated film. We wanted the vibrant blues and greens for Miami and warm tones in the hotel room. Regina and I worked closely with production designer Barry Robison and costume designer Francine Jamison-Tanchuck. We were constantly sharing color ideas, fabrics and paint chips.

For Regina, authenticity was crucial, and we referenced the actual events and locations. We studied photographers Saul Leiter, Garry Winogrand, Neil Leifer and Eve Arnold and the painter Jacob Lawrence.

For the fight scene, the GOAT book (“Greatest of All Time. A Tribute to Muhammad Ali”) by Taschen became our bible. It had color photos of the fight between Cassius Clay and Sonny Liston, and we found the shot for the overhead from the book.

How did you work with the colorist on this?
The colorist for the film was Light Iron’s Ian Vertovec. The producers, Keith and Jesse, had worked with him before and highly recommended him. We instantly hit it off.
I had Ian use the LUT and files from the DIT as our starting point. We had set a look while shooting that was very close to how we wanted the film to feel. Ian did an incredible job and was such a pleasure to work with.

L-R: Tami Reiker and director Regina King on set

How was it working with a director who is also an actor?
Regina had a clear vision of the film she wanted to make; she’s very clear-sighted and discerning. Regina is definitely an actor’s director, which is exactly what this film needed. Regina and I were connected at the hip for four months, every waking hour working on our shots, scouting locations and planning out the days. She is a collaborator on every level.

Where did you shoot and for how long?
The film was pretty evenly divided between days and nights. Having enough time is always the main challenge. You always feel the ticking clock and the countdown to sunrise. A few of the challenges we had on the film occurred in the rooftop scene. The roof was built on shipping containers outside the stage in LaPlace, and we had 280 degrees of darkness to make it look like Miami.

Were there many night shoots versus day shoots? Can you talk about challenges?
The film was pretty evenly divided between days and nights. Having enough time is always the main challenge. You always feel the ticking clock and the countdown to sunrise. A few of the challenges we had on the film occurred on the roof top scene — the roof was built on shipping containers outside the stage in La Place, and we had 280 degrees of darkness to make it look like Miami.

The second night on the roof, the fog and a light mist rolled in and really bloomed our lights, but we made it all work in the end. Ian really helped with this in the color timing; he was able to increase the contrast on the shots where the fog had bloomed the lights and make the two nights match.

How did you go about choosing the right camera and lenses for this project? Why was this the right combination of camera and lenses?
Regina wanted the audience to have an immersive experience … to feel like you are actually in the room with these four men. I suggested to Regina we use the ARRI Alexa 65. The large format and 6.5K give you incredible detail and shallow depth of field. We didn’t have the budget for Alexa 65, but ARRI Rental Burbank worked with the producers to make it affordable on our budget. I chose the Prime DNAs for their softness and the ability to shoot wide open at T2.1, so we always had the shallow depth of field. You can really feel this in the hotel room, where the cameras are floating on jib arms and shifting the perspective.

Can you describe the lighting? Any happy accidents?
Every day was a moment of discovery in the hotel room. Having the camera operators manually operating on floating jib arms allowed them to organically react to the actors.

Now more general questions… How did you become interested in cinematography? 
I came to cinematography through a passion for still photography.

What inspires you artistically?
I’m inspired by film, photography and travel. I’ve been very fortunate to have travelled the world for shoots and always find inspiration in exploring new countries.

What are some of your best practices or rules you try to follow on each job? 
You learn so much about yourself on each movie. I would say I work hard on patience and leading with kindness.

What’s your go-to gear (camera, lens, mount/accessories) – things you can’t live without?
I always bring my EasyRig. It’s been all over the world with me, it’s a size small and the rental houses never have small EasyRigs.

Finally, do you find that there are more female DPs working or being given the opportunity to work?
There is wave of female DPs emerging. It’s exciting to see the change in the industry and more doors opening for female cinematographers.

ARRI’s Remote Solutions Toolkit for Safe Productions

ARRI has introduced Remote Solutions, a toolkit that can be customized to meet near-set and off-set workflows. This remote production ecosystem allows pros to safely and immediately get back to work without compromising operational and creative control.

 

The ARRI Remote Solution enables pros to:

  • Remotely control ARRI cameras, lights, remote heads, and accessories
  • Leverage proven technology from an industry veteran
  • Produce premium, unequaled cinematic quality with near-set and off-set workflows for broadcast, cinema, live events, corporate, sports, music video production, fashion and more

Applications such as Stellar, the intelligent lighting control app from ARRI, provides a smart way to control professional lighting. It allows gaffers to change color temperature and output without touching lights or approaching talent. Products such as the WCU-4 and the ERM (External Radio Module) allow crews to control focus and camera movement from a greater distance and through barriers such as concrete floors or walls while the SRH (Stabilized Remote Head), allows cinematic movement of the camera and can be combined with a robotic dolly for near-set movement without approaching talent. Simultaneously, web control allows cinematographers and gaffers to creatively and technically control the camera and lighting from another room or even another continent. The result is cinematic quality, no matter the crew’s distance or location.

“The pandemic has accelerated change and forced productions to adapt,” explains Stephan Schenk, GM, ARRI Global Sales & Solutions. “With travel limitations and new requirements for social distancing onset, our connected ecosystem of industry-proven tools can be customized to create safe sets, whether working near-set or off-set, without compromising the creativity or technical control of production. This is just another way we at ARRI are enabling and supporting filmmakers.”

 

 

DP Chat: Good Boys cinematographer Jonathan Furmanski

By Randi Altman

Cinematographer Jonathan Furmanski is no stranger to comedy. His resume is long and includes such projects as the TV series Search Party and Inside Amy Schumer, as well as Judd Apatow’s documentary, The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling.

Jonathan Furmanski

So when it came time to collaborate with director Gene Stupnitsky on the Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg-produced Good Boys feature, he was more than ready.

Good Boys follows three 12-year-old boys (Jacob Tremblay, Brady Noon and Keith L. Williams) as they discover girls and how to get in and out of trouble. Inspired by earlier coming of age films, such as Stand By Me, Furmanski aimed for the look of the film to have “one foot in 2019 and the other in 1986.”

We reached out to Furmanski to find out about Good Boys, his workflows, inspiration and more.

Tell us about Good Boys. How early did you get involved in this film, and how did you work with the director Gene Stupnitsky?
Good Boys was a great experience. I interviewed with Gene and the producers several months before prep started. I flew up to Vancouver about a month before we started shooting, so had some time to sit with everyone to discuss the plan and style.

Everyone gave me a lot of room to figure out the look of the film, and there was universal agreement that we didn’t want Good Boys to look like a typical pre-teen comedy. Each conversation about the photography started with the idea that, despite the story being about three 12-year-old boys in a small suburban town, the film should feel bigger and more open. We wanted to show the thrill and fear of adolescence, discovery and adventure. That said, Gene was very clear not to undermine the comedy or constrain the actors.

How would you describe the look of film?
My hope was that Good Boys would feel like it had one foot in 2019 and the other in 1986. We got a lot of inspiration from movies like Stand By Me, The Goonies and ET. I didn’t want the film to be slick-looking; I wanted it to be sharp and vibrant and with a wider point of view. At the same time, it needed some grit and texture — despite all the sillier or crazier moments, I very much wanted the audience to be lulled into a suspension of disbelief. So, hopefully, we achieved that.

How did you work with the director and colorist to achieve the intended look?
We were very lucky to have Natasha Leonnet at Efilm do the final color on the film. She locked into the look and vibe. We were immediately on the same page about everything.

I obsess over all the details, and she was able to address my notes — or talk me off the ledge — while bringing her own vision and sensibility, which was right in line with what Gene and I envisioned. Just like on the shoot, I was given a lot of room to create the look.

You shot in Vancouver. How long was the shoot?
We shot for about 35 days in and around Vancouver.

How did you go about choosing the right camera and lenses this project? Can you talk about camera tests?
I spent a bit of time thinking about the best camera and lens combo. Initially, I was considering a full-frame format, but as we discussed the film and our references, we realized shooting anamorphic would bring a little more “bigness.”

Also, we knew we’d have a lot of shots of all three boys improvising or goofing around, so the wider aspect ratio would help keep them all in a nice frame. But I also didn’t want to be fighting the imperfections a lot of anamorphic lenses have. That “personality” can be great and really fun to shoot with, but for Good Boys, we needed to have greater control over the frame. So I tested every anamorphic series I could get my hands on — looking at distortion, flaring, horizontal and vertical sharpness, etc. — with a few camera systems. I settled on the ARRI Master anamorphic lenses and Alexa SXT and Mini cameras.

Ultimately, why was this the right combination of camera and lenses?
Well, I’ve shot almost every scripted and documentary project in the last five years on some model of Alexa or Amira, so I’m very familiar with the sensor and how it handles itself, no matter what the situation. And I knew we’d shoot ARRIRAW so would record an awesome amount of information. I’m so impressed with what ARRIRAW can handle; sometimes it sees too much. But really, there’s so much to think about while shooting, no matter how much you like the image in front of you, it’s reassuring to know you have heaps of information to work with.

As for lenses, I wanted a package that gave me all the scope and dimensionality of anamorphic without the typical limitations. Don’t get me wrong; some of the classic anamorphic series with all their flaws can be beautiful and exciting, but they weren’t the right choice for this film. I wanted to select how much (or how little) we had in focus, and I didn’t want to lose sharpness off the center of the frame or have to stop way down because we needed three boys’ faces in focus. So the Master anamorphics ended up being the perfect choice: a big look, great contrast and color rendition, lovely depth and separation, and clean and sharp across the frame.

Can you talk about the lighting and how the camera worked while grabbing shots when you could?
One of the challenges of working with three 12-year-olds as your lead actors is keeping things loose enough so they don’t feel fenced in, which would sap all the energy out of their performances. We worked hard to give each scene and location a strong look, but sometimes we lit a little more broadly or lensed a little wider so the boys had room to play.

We kept as much lighting out of the room or rigged overhead as we could so the locations wouldn’t get claustrophobic or overheated. And the operators were able to adjust their frames easily as things changed or if an actor was doing something unexpected.

Any challenging scenes that you are particularly proud of or that you found most challenging?
Without question, the most challenging sequence was the boys running across the highway. It was the biggest single scene I’ve shot, and it had multiple units shooting over five days — it was really tough from a coordination and matching perspective. Obviously, the scene had to be funny and exciting, but I also wanted it to feel huge. The boys are literally and figuratively crossing the biggest barrier of their lives! We got a little lucky that there was a thin layer of haze most of the time that took the edge off the direct sun and made matching a bit easier.

The key was sitting with our AD, Dan Miller, and coming up with the most advantageous shooting order, but not hopping around so much that we lose continuity or waste tons of time resetting everything. And almost every shot had VFX so our key grip, Marc Nolet, drilled small washers into the tarmac for every camera position and we took copious notes so we could go back if necessary, or second unit could come in and replicate something. It was a lot of work, but the final sequence is really fun and surprising.

Now for some more general questions. How did you become interested in cinematography?
I went to film school with the idea of being a writer/director, but I discovered very quickly that I wasn’t really into that. I was drawn immediately to cameras, lenses and film stocks, and I devoured all the information I could find about cinematography. My friends started asking me to shoot their student projects, and it took off from there. I’m lucky that I still get to work with some of those college friends.

How do you stay on top of advancing technology?
I don’t find it too difficult to stay on top of the latest and greatest camera or light or other widget. The basic idea is always the same, no matter how new the implementation, and when something truly groundbreaking comes along, you hear about it quickly.

Of course, many of my friends are in the camera or lighting departments, so we talk about this stuff all the time, and there are great online resources for checking out gear or swapping ideas. Probably the best place to learn is at events like Cine Gear, where you can see the latest stuff and hang out with your friends.

What inspires you artistically?
It’s easy to find inspiration almost anywhere: museums, books, online, just walking around. I also get great inspiration from my fellow cinematographers (past and present) and the work they do. The DP community is very open and supportive, maybe surprisingly so.

What new technology has changed the way you work?
The two innovations that have impacted my work most are digital cinema cameras and LED lighting. Both have afforded me a more lightweight and efficient way of working without sacrificing quality or options.

Jonathan Furmanski

What are some of your best practices or rules you try to follow on each job?
I credit my documentary work for teaching me to keep an open ear and an open mind. When you listen, you can prepare, anticipate or hear a key piece of information that could impact your approach. This, of course, leads to improvisation because maybe your idea doesn’t work or a better idea is presenting itself. Don’t be rigid. I also try to stand next to the camera as much as possible — that’s where all the action is.

Explain your ideal collaboration with the director when setting the look of a project.
It’s exactly that… a collaboration. I don’t want to be off by myself, and I don’t want to just pass information from one person to another. The best director/DP relationships are an extended, evolving conversation where you’re pushing a clear vision together but still challenging each other.

What’s your go-to gear — things you can’t live without?
I think the ARRI Amira is the best camera ever made, although I’m a bit of a chameleon when it comes to cameras and lenses — I don’t think I’ve used the same lens package twice on all my narrative projects. The two things I must have are my own wireless monitor and a good polarizing filter; I want complete control over the image, and I don’t like standing still.


Randi Altman is the founder and editor-in-chief of postPerspective. She has been covering production and post production for more than 20 years. 

DP Chat: Brandon Trost on the Ted Bundy film Extremely Wicked

By Randi Altman

To say that cinematographer Brandon Trost was born to work in the entertainment industry might not be hyperbole. This fourth-generation Angeleno has family roots in the industry — from his dad who did visual/physical effects, to his great uncle, actor Victor French (Little House on the Prairie).

Channeling his innate creativity, Trost studied cinematography at The Los Angeles Film School. His career kicked into high gear after winning the Best Cinematography award at the Newport Beach Film Festival for He Was a Quiet Man.

He has collaborated with Seth Rogen on several films, including The Interview, Neighbors and Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, The Night Before and This Is the End. Additional credits include The Diary of a Teenage Girl, The Disaster Artist and Can You Ever Forgive Me? His most recent project — now streaming on Netflix — Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, the story of serial killer Ted Bundy (Zac Efron) but this time told from his girlfriend’s perspective.

We reached out to Trost to find out about his process and his work on Extremely Wicked.

You’ve worked on a range of interesting projects from different genres. What attracts you to a story?
A movie can be told 100 different ways, so I ask myself where a movie can go — what’s the potential for doing something different? Especially if it is a genre I haven’t done. I really love jumping around.

And, of course, it all starts with the script and who the filmmakers are on a project — and synergy among us all during the interview process.

Tell us about Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. How would you describe the general look of the film?
It’s a period movie first and foremost, but we wanted to elevate the production value as much as possible – on a tight budget. The director, Joe Berlinger, is a prolific documentarian. He really wanted to preserve his documentary sensibilities but with a cinematic, nostalgic quality to our approach. A lot of the film is shot handheld because we wanted to create an intimate portrait of the scenario, as horrifying as it is!

How did you go about choosing the right camera and lenses to achieve the look?
I chose Alexa Mini because of its size — I knew I’d be operating a lot, and Joe wanted a lot handheld. I also wanted to be able to make decisions on the fly and follow the actors as they tell this story. We had two cameras and mounted them with Panavision C Series anamorphics. I love these lenses. Each one has a specific characteristic. Plus, they are the same lenses of the era (made in 1968 and upgraded for today’s cameras), which matches the 1970s period we are depicting on screen.

Is there a challenging scene that you are particularly proud of how it turned out?
There is an extensive sequence covering the Miami trial, which was the first one ever televised. It was a phenomenon back then, and we wanted to capture some of that energy. We were strapped for time and lighting was built into a courtroom set. We also used a courtroom location that was augmented to mimic set. We had so many pages to shoot, so I chose not to bring in any additional lights.

Plus, the execution was challenging. With so many long courtroom scenes back to back, we didn’t want it to feel monotonous. With the cameras and lighting set up, I could stand in the courtroom with the freedom to follow a character. I was like an invisible fly on the wall. That helped get us through all the material and infused some energy into the shots.

The sequence ends with Ted Bundy’s statement after firing all his lawyers and ultimately representing himself. We did that shot as a slow zoom, capturing this emotional, impactful speech — even though he’s lying! We zoomed all the way to just Zac’s eyes. His performance was so great, and the results are very satisfying, knowing we could have used twice as many days to shoot these scenes.

I’m glad I had the freedom to make bold choices, and that closing zoom is the only time we broke from shooting handheld. It has a very ‘70s, voyeuristic feel.

How did you become interested in cinematography?
As a kid, I always thought I’d do effects like my dad, but he saw my creative side and encouraged me to explore it. When I went to film school, I learned I had a knack for cinematography. I loved movies, and coming from a family who has worked in all sectors of the industry for four generations, I grew up with film.
Finding a frame feels innate to me, but it’s taken a lot of practice to get to where I am now.

What inspires you artistically?
I love the challenge of finding the right image to tell the story and using the right light to achieve that image. As a crew, we all have a different job, but we are all building the same house. We all bring a piece of ourselves to what we do, and it becomes like solving a puzzle to tell the director’s story and create it collaboratively with everyone. Imagery can be so powerful; you can use it to push a scene and evoke a feeling, whether it’s loneliness, strength, optimism or sadness. Camera and lens choices, movement, lighting… it all feeds into completing the puzzle.

I also find cinematography to be very instinctive. If I design a rulebook with the director early on a film, I know it’s just the foundation, something to build from. I like to be reactive – and lean into what feels right in the moment.

How do you stay on top of advancing tools that serve your vision?
I read industry mags, but also through the DITs on set, or the camera houses. I get shown new things and how they work. Or I’ll ask if they have heard about something. This builds my awareness for understanding fundamentals of the tool in case I want to use it.

What are some of your best practices or rules you try to follow on each job?
I’m a big lens guy. For me, the lenses make the movie, and I’m loving using vintage glass. Cameras are being designed with more and more resolution, and I’m always trying to add an analog softness. With every advancement in sharpness and noise reduction, I’m usually trying to take the electric edge off. I rely on lenses to help do that — or I’ll “stress” the camera at a higher ISO or do something in post with texture and grain. I’m usually trying to tear the image apart a little bit.

Panavision has even taken old lenses and customized them optically for me to create a more “shattered” look when it was right for the story.

And everything could go out the window if it serves the purpose of the story. It’s important as a DP to leave your artistic baggage behind if the story guides you to do something different. The story dictates how I work, and as a DP. I have to be flexible in my approaches. That’s what makes this work fun!

Has any recent or new technology changed the way you work?
The tool I use the most is my iPhone. I’ve got the Artemis app with the Director’s Viewfinder and the Cinescope app for adjusting aspect ratios, etc. I haven’t held a light meter in years.


Randi Altman is the founder and editor-in-chief of postPerspective. She has been covering production and post production for more than 20 years. 

Colorist Christopher M. Ray talks workflow for Alexa 65-shot Alpha

By Randi Altman

Christopher M. Ray is a veteran colorist with a varied resume that includes many television and feature projects, including Tomorrowland, Warcraft, The Great Wall, The Crossing, Orange Is the New Black, Quantico, Code Black, The Crossing and Alpha. These projects have taken Ray all over the world, including remote places throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Africa.

We recently spoke with Ray, who is on staff at Burbank’s Picture Shop, to learn more about his workflow on the feature film Alpha, which focuses on a young man trying to survive alone in the wilderness after he’s left for dead during his first hunt with his Cro-Magnon tribe.

Ray was dailies colorist on the project, working with supervising DI colorist Maxine Gervais. Gervais of Technicolor won an HPA Award for her work on Alpha in the Outstanding Color Grading — Feature Film category.

Let’s find out more….

Chris Ray and Maxine Gervais at the HPA Awards.

How early did you get involved in Alpha?
I was approached about working on Alpha right before the start of principal photography. From the beginning I knew that it was going to be a groundbreaking workflow. I was told that we would be working with the ARRI Alexa 65 camera, mainly working in an on-set color grading trailer and we would be using FilmLight’s Daylight software.

Once I was on board, our main focus was to design a comprehensive workflow that could accommodate on-set grading and Daylight software while adapting to the ever-changing challenges that the industry brings. Being involved from the start was actually was a huge perk for me. It gave us the time we needed to design and really fine-tune the extensive workflow.

Can you talk about working with the final colorist Maxine Gervais and how everyone communicated?
It was a pleasure working with Maxine. She’s really dialed in to the demands of our industry. She was able to fly to Vancouver for a few days while we were shooting the hair/makeup tests, which is how we were able to form in-person communication. We were able to sit down and discuss creative approaches to the feature right away, which I appreciated as I’m the type of person that likes to dive right in.

At the film’s conception, we set in motion a plan to incorporate a Baselight Linked Grade (BLG) color workflow from FilmLight. This would allow my color grades in Daylight to transition smoothly into Maxine’s Baselight software. We knew from the get-go that there would be several complicated “day for night” scenes that Maxine and I would want to bring to fruition right away. Using the BLG workflow, I was able to send her single “Arriraw” frames that gave that “day for night” look we were searching for. She was able to then send them back to me via a BLG file. Even in remote locations, it was easy for me to access the BLG grade files via the Internet.

[Maxine Gervais weighs in on working with Ray: “Christopher was great to work with. As the workflow on the feature was created from scratch, he implemented great ideas. He was very keen on the whole project and was able to adapt to the ever-changing challenges of the show. It is always important to have on-set color dialed in correctly, as it can be problematic if it is not accurately established in production.”]

How did you work with the DP? What direction were you given?
Being on set, it was very easy for DP Martin Gschlacht to come over to the trailer and view the current grade I was working on. Like Maxine, Martin already had a very clear vision for the project, which made it easy to work with him. Oftentimes, he would call me over on set and explain his intent for the scene. We would brainstorm ways of how I could assist him in making his vision come to life. Audiences rarely see raw camera files, or the how important color can influence the story being told.

It also helps that Martin is a master of aesthetic. The content being captured was extremely striking; he has this natural intuition about what look is needed for each environment that he shoots. We shot in lush rain forests in British Columbia and arid badlands in Alberta, which each inspired very different aesthetics.

Whenever I had a bit of down time, I would walk over to set and just watch them shoot, like a fly on the wall quietly observing and seeing how the story was unfolding. As a colorist, it’s so special to be able to observe the locations on set. Seeing the natural desaturated hues of dead grass in the badlands or the vivid lush greens in the rain forest with your own eyes is an amazing opportunity many of us don’t get.

You were on set throughout? Is that common for you?
We were on set throughout the entire project as a lot of our filming locations were in remote areas of British Columbia and Alberta, Canada. One of our most demanding shooting locations included the Dinosaur Provincial Park in Brooks, Alberta. The park is a UNESCO World Heritage site that no one had been allowed to film at prior to this project. I needed to have easy access to the site in order to easily communicate with the film’s executive team and production crew. They were able to screen footage in their trailer and we had this seamless back-and-forth workflow. This also allowed them to view high-quality files in a comfortable and controlled environment. Also, the ability to flag any potential issues and address them immediately on set was incredibly valuable with a film of such size and complexity.

Alpha was actually the first time I worked in an on-set grading trailer. In the past I usually worked out of the production office. I have heard of other films working with an on-set trailer, but I don’t think I would say that it is overly common. Sometimes, I wish I could be stationed on set more often.

The film was shot mostly with the Alexa 65, but included footage from other formats. Can you talk about that workflow?
The film was mostly shot on the Alexa 65, but there were also several other formats it was shot on. For most of the shoot there was a second unit that was shooting with Alexa XT and Red Weapon cameras, with a splinter unit shooting B-roll footage on Canon 1D, 5D and Sony A7S. In addition to these, there were units in Iceland and South Africa shooting VFX plates on a Red Dragon.

By the end of the shoot, there were several different camera formats and over 10 different resolutions. We used the 6.5K Alexa 65 resolution as the master resolution and mapped all the others into it.

The Alexa 65 camera cards were backed up to 8TB “sled” transfer drives using a Codex Vault S system. The 8TB transfer drives were then sent to the trailer where I had two Codex Vault XL systems — one was used for ingesting all of the footage into my SAN and the second was used to prepare footage for LTO archival. All of the other unit footage was sent to the trailer via shuttle drives or Internet transfer.

After the footage was successfully ingested to the SAN with a checksum verification, it was ready to be colored, processed, and then archived. We had eight LTO6 decks running 24/7, as the main focus was to archive the exorbitant amounts of high-res camera footage that we were receiving. Just the Alexa 65 alone was about 2.8TB per hour for each camera.

Had you worked with Alexa 65 footage previously?
Many times. A few year ago, I was in China for seven months working on The Great Wall, which was one of the first films to shoot with the Alexa 65. I had a month of in-depth pre-production with the camera testing, shooting and honing the camera’s technology. Working very closely with Arri and Codex technicians during this time, I was able to design the most efficient workflow possible. Even as the shoot progressed, I continued to communicate closely with both companies. As new challenges arose, we developed and implemented solutions that kept production running smoothly.

The workflow we designed for The Great Wall was very close to the workflow we ended up using on Alpha, so it was a great advantage that I had previous experience working in-depth with the camera.

What were some of the challenges you faced on this film?
To be honest, I love a challenge. As a colorist, we are thrown into tricky situations every day. I am thankful for these challenges; they improve my craft and enable me to become more efficient at problem solving. One of the largest challenges that I faced in this particular project was working with so many different units, given the number of units shooting, the size of the footage alone and the dozens of format types needed.

We had to be accessible around the clock, most of us working 24 hours a day. Needless to say, I made great friends with the transportation driving team and the generator operators. I think they would agree that my grading trailer was one of their largest challenges on the film since I constantly needed to be on set and my work was being imported/exported in such high resolutions.

In the end, as I was watching this absolutely gorgeous film in the theater it made sense. Working those crazy hours was absolutely worth it — I am thankful to have worked with such a cohesive team and the experience is one I will never forget.

Helicopter Film Services intros Titan ultra-heavy lifting drone

Helicopter Filming Services (HFS) has launched an ultra-heavy lift drone that incorporates a large, capable airframe paired with the ARRI SRH-3. Known as the Titan, the drone’s ARRI SRH-3 stabilized head enables easy integration of existing ARRI lens motors and other functionality directly with the ARRI Alexa 65 and LF cameras.

HFS developed the large drone in response to requests from some legendary DPs and VFX supervisors to enable filmmakers to fly large-format digital or 35mm film packages.

“We have trialed other heavy-lift machines, but all of them have been marginal in terms of performance when carrying the larger cameras and lenses that we’re asked to fly,” says Alan Perrin, chief UAV pilot at HFS. “What we needed, and what we’ve designed, is a system that will capably and safely operate with the large-format cameras and lenses that top productions demand.”

The Titan combines triple redundancy on flight controls and double redundancy on power supply and ballistic recovery into an aircraft that can deploy and operate easily on any production involving a substantial flight duration. The drone can easily fly a 35mm film camera while carrying an ARRI 435 and 400-foot magazine.

Here are some specs:
• Optimized for large-format digital and 35mm film cameras
• Max payload up to 30 kilograms
• Max take-off mass — 80 kilograms
• Redundant flight control systems
• Ballistic recovery system (parachute)
• Class-leading stability
• Flight duration up to 15 minutes (subject to payload weight and configuration)
• HD video downlink
• Gimbal: ARRI SRH3 or Movi XL

Final payload-proving flights are taking place now, and the company is in the process of planning first use on major productions. HFS is also exploring the ability to fly a new 65mm film camera on the Titan.

New CFast 2.0 card for ARRI Alexa Mini and Amira cameras

ARRI has introduced the ARRI Edition AV Pro AR 256 CFast 2.0 card by Angelbird, which has been designed and certified for use in the ARRI Alexa Mini and Amira camera systems and can be used for ProRes and MXF/ARRIRAW recording. (Support for new CFast 2.0 cards is currently not planned for ALEXA XT, SXT(W) and LF cameras.)

ARRI has worked closely with Angelbird Technologies, based in Vorarlberg, Austria. Angelbird is no stranger to film production, and some of their gear can be found at ARRI Rental European locations.

For the ARRI Edition CFast card, the Angelbird team developed an ARRI-specific card that uses a combination of thermally conductive material and so-called underfill to provide superior heat dissipation from the chips and to secure the electronic components against mechanical damage.

The result, according to ARRI, is a rock-solid 256 GB CFast 2.0 card with stable recording performance all the way across the storage space. The ARRI Edition AV PRO AR 256 memory card is available from ARRI and other sales channels offering ARRI products.

Academy honors 18 Scientific and Technical achievements

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced that 18 scientific and technical achievements represented by 34 individual award recipients, as well as five organizations, will be honored at its annual Scientific and Technical Awards Presentation on February 11.

“This year we are particularly pleased to be able to honor not only a wide range of new technologies, but also the pioneering digital cinema cameras that helped facilitate the widespread conversion to electronic image capture for motion picture production,” says Ray Feeney, Academy Award recipient and chair of the Scientific and Technical Awards Committee. “With their outstanding, innovative work, these technologists, engineers and inventors have significantly expanded filmmakers’ creative choices for moving image storytelling.” 

Unlike other Academy Awards to be presented this year, achievements receiving Scientific and Technical Awards need not have been developed and introduced during 2016. Rather, the achievements must demonstrate a proven record of contributing significant value to the process of making motion pictures.

The Academy Awards for scientific and technical achievements are: 

 Technical Achievement Awards (Academy Certificates)

Thomson Grass Valley for the design and engineering of the pioneering Viper FilmStream digital camera system. The Viper camera enables frame-based logarithmic encoding, which provides uncompressed camera output suitable for importing into existing digital intermediate workflows.

Larry Gritz for the design, implementation and dissemination of Open Shading Language (OSL). OSL is a highly-optimized runtime architecture and language for programmable shading and texturing that has become a de facto industry standard. It enables artists at all levels of technical proficiency to create physically plausible materials for efficient production rendering.

Carl Ludwig, Eugene Troubetzkoy and Maurice van Swaaij for the pioneering development of the CGI Studio renderer at Blue Sky Studios. CGI Studio’s groundbreaking ray-tracing and adaptive sampling techniques, coupled with streamlined artist controls, demonstrated the feasibility of ray-traced rendering for feature film production.

Brian Whited for the design and development of the Meander drawing system at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Meander’s innovative curve-rendering method faithfully captures the artist’s intent, resulting in a significant improvement in creative communication throughout the production pipeline.

Mark Rappaport for the concept, design and development, Scott Oshita for the motion analysis and CAD design, Jeff Cruts for the development of the faux-hair finish techniques, and Todd Minobe for the character articulation and drive-train mechanisms of the Creature Effects Animatronic Horse Puppet. The Animatronic Horse Puppet provides increased actor safety, close integration with live action, and improved realism for filmmakers.

Glenn Sanders and Howard Stark for the design and engineering of the Zaxcom Digital Wireless Microphone System. The Zaxcom system has advanced the state of wireless microphone technology by creating a fully digital modulation system with a rich feature set, which includes local recording capability within the belt pack and a wireless control scheme providing realtime transmitter control and timecode distribution.

David Thomas, Lawrence E. Fisher and David Bundy for the design, development and engineering of the Lectrosonics Digital Hybrid Wireless Microphone System. The Lectrosonics system has advanced the state of wireless microphone technology by developing a method to digitally transmit full-range audio over a conventional analog FM radio link, reducing transmitter size, and increasing power efficiency.

Parag Havaldar for the development of expression-based facial performance-capture technology at Sony Pictures Imageworks. This pioneering system enables large-scale use of animation rig-based facial performance-capture for motion pictures, combining solutions for tracking, stabilization, solving and animator-controllable curve editing.

Nicholas Apostoloff and Geoff Wedig for the design and development of animation rig-based facial performance-capture systems at ImageMovers Digital and Digital Domain. These systems evolved through independent, then combined, efforts at two different studios, resulting in an artist-controllable, editable, scalable solution for the high-fidelity transfer of facial performances to convincing digital characters.

Kiran Bhat, Michael Koperwas, Brian Cantwell and Paige Warner for the design and development of the ILM facial performance-capture solving system. This system enables high-fidelity facial performance transfer from actors to digital characters in large-scale productions while retaining full artistic control, and integrates stable, rig-based solving and the resolution of secondary detail in a controllable pipeline.

Scientific and Engineering Awards (Academy Plaques)

Arri for the pioneering design and engineering of the Super 35 format Alexa digital camera system. With an intuitive design and appealing image reproduction achieved through close collaboration with filmmakers, Arri’s Alexa cameras were among the first digital cameras widely adopted by cinematographers.

Red Digital Cinema for the pioneering design and evolution of the Red Epic digital cinema cameras with upgradeable full-frame image sensors. Red’s design and innovative manufacturing process have helped facilitate the wide adoption of digital image capture in the motion picture industry.

Sony for the development of the F65 CineAlta camera with its pioneering high-resolution imaging sensor, excellent dynamic range and full 4K output. Sony’s photosite orientation and true RAW recording deliver exceptional image quality.             

Panavision and Sony for the conception and development of the Genesis digital motion picture camera. Using a familiar form factor and accessories, the design features of the Genesis allowed it to become one of the first digital cameras to be adopted by cinematographers.

Marcos Fajardo for the creative vision and original implementation of the Arnold Renderer, and to Chris Kulla, Alan King, Thiago Ize and Clifford Stein for their highly-optimized geometry engine and novel ray-tracing algorithms which unify the rendering of curves, surfaces, volumetrics and subsurface scattering as developed at Sony Pictures Imageworks and Solid Angle SL. Arnold’s scalable and memory-efficient single-pass architecture for path tracing, its authors’ publication of the underlying techniques, and its broad industry acceptance were instrumental in leading a widespread adoption of fully raytraced rendering for motion pictures.

Vladimir Koylazov for the original concept, design and implementation of V-Ray from Chaos Group. V-Ray’s efficient production-ready approach to raytracing and global illumination, its support for a wide variety of workflows, and its broad industry acceptance were instrumental in the widespread adoption of fully ray-traced rendering for motion pictures.

Luca Fascione, J.P. Lewis and Iain Matthews for the design, engineering and development of the FACETS facial performance capture and solving system at Weta Digital. FACETS was one of the first reliable systems to demonstrate accurate facial tracking from an actor-mounted camera, combined with rig-based solving, in large-scale productions. This system enables animators to bring the nuance of the original live performances to a new level of fidelity for animated characters.

Steven Rosenbluth, Joshua Barratt, Robert Nolty and Archie Te for the engineering and development of the Concept Overdrive motion control system. This user-friendly hardware and software system creates and controls complex interactions of real and virtual motion in hard realtime, while safely adapting to the needs of on-set filmmakers. 

The A-List: Director Tom Tykwer on ‘A Hologram for the King’

By Iain Blair

Tom Tykwer, the multi-faceted German director/writer/composer/producer, first burst onto the international scene with his 1998 thriller Run Lola Run. Since then he’s directed such diverse films as Heaven, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, The Princess and the Warrior, Cloud Atlas (with the Wachowskis) and The International. His latest is A Hologram for the King from Roadside Attractions.

Based on Dave Eggers’ novel, A Hologram for the King is set in recession-ravaged 2010. It stars Tom Hanks as Alan Clay, an American businessman who, broke, depressed and freshly divorced, arrives in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to close what he hopes will be the deal of a lifetime: selling a state-of-the-art holographic teleconferencing system to the Saudi government.

But, of course, nothing goes as planned. Adrift and alone in an unfamiliar land, Alan befriends a taxi driver who chauffeurs him through the desert to the “King’s Metropolis of Economy and Trade,” a surreal ghost town of vacant skyscrapers and half-completed construction projects. Baffled by the bureaucratic reception he gets at the so-called “Welcome Center,” Alan struggles to figure out why his small IT support team is being forced to spend its days in a sweltering tent as it preps for the big presentation. Worse, because of the Saudi way of doing business, he’s unclear if the king will ever show up for the long-scheduled meeting.

Back in Jeddah, the stressed-out salesman winds up in the hospital, where he is treated by a beautiful and empathetic Muslim doctor (Sarita Choudhury). As Alan gets to know his new Saudi friends better, cultural barriers break down and he begins to contemplate the possibility of a fresh start in a land where tradition and modernity meet in perplexing ways.

I recently caught up with Tykwer to talk about his process on the film.

What do you look for in a project and what was the appeal of making this?
I always look for something different — something that fits my sensibilities. I never want to repeat myself, and that can happen so easily if you’re not careful. I think this was a surprise for me too. I love Dave Eggers’ writing.  I actually tried to turn an earlier book of his into a TV show but it didn’t happen.  When I read this book I immediately felt I knew how to shoot it, so we met and I told him my ideas. I felt that as bleak and dark as the book is, there’s a lightness and sense of hope and a lot of comedy in the attempts of the characters to bridge two very different cultures. And despite all the cultural and political and religious barriers, there is communication. We can reach out to others.

How did you deal with all the restrictions of shooting in Saudi Arabia?
We shot some stuff there, but we couldn’t take the actors there; we ended up shooting most of it in Morocco. The biggest challenge for me was recreating the abstract “King’s Metropolis of Economy and Trade,” this sort of ghost town in the middle of nowhere in Saudi Arabian desert. I went there and to Jeddah and took photos of all the locations, and then we recreated some of it in the Western Sahara, the most southern part of Morocco, where there’s absolutely nothing —no film infrastructure at all. Plenty of films have been shot in Morocco near the cities in the north, but not down there, so we had to ship in everything — the crew, all the equipment and so on. We didn’t have a huge budget, so it was very challenging. We all stayed together in a little hotel, which had power just two hours a day. It was like camping.

Do you like the post process?
I love it, and if you feel confident about the material it’s heaven, since there’s none of the pressure of the shoot, the money worries and so on. But I do feel post isn’t as relaxed as it used to be. In the old days you could spend a year on post and no one would complain, but now everyone wants you to hurry up. I look at post and the editing as very similar to writing. You constantly reshape and re-phrase as you do post.

Where did you post?
I always do post in Berlin, and we also shot some of the interiors on stages there.

The film was edited by Alex Berner, whose credits include Jupiter Ascending, and who worked with you on Cloud Atlas. Tell us about that relationship and how it worked.
He wasn’t on the set, although he did visit us a couple of times. We sent him dailies and he would start cutting and assembling and send me stuff to look at. But I’m so busy on a shoot that I barely have time to look at anything, so I rely on him. I shoot a lot — it was anamorphic 35mm, for probably the last time — and he’ll get four to five hours of material and then start boiling it down to three or four minutes.

After the shoot, we spent about three months going though all the material, and then I took a two-month break to work on Sense8, this sci-fi show for Netflix, and that break was a real gift. You step back and see it more objectively. So then we cut for another two or three months and had a two-hour cut. This felt a little slow, so we trimmed it down to under 100 minutes and did some test screenings, which I actually like. It shows you very quickly where the film drags and the bits that only interest you, not the audience.

Obviously, there are a lot of VFX. How many?
Quite a few hundred shots, done by Rise VFX and Arri, who worked together. The big thing was creating the ghost city. The tent was real, and so were various bits of road we put in. But there were no buildings at all, so we took this very modern office building in Rabat and scanned it in. Then we used this big empty construction site we found in Casablanca and scanned that in too. I like working with VFX, and I like it when the VFX and art department collaborate closely. It should always be one vision.

Can you talk about the importance of music and sound in the film?
It’s so important to me, especially as I compose with Johnny Klimek prior to shooting. It’s very different from the usual way of doing it as we compose most, if not all, the music before the shoot, and the editor has all that to use as he cuts. We never have to use temp music. As usual, we composed the music at home, and then recorded it in Leipzig, and we did the final sound mix at Arri in Berlin.

What’s next?
I’m doing this big TV series called Babylon Berlin — it’s 16 episodes, all set in the 1920s, which is the equivalent of eight films in terms of running time. I love the details of post, and there’s going to be a lot as there’s nothing left in Berlin from that period now. I want a street movie look, so it’ll be hard to do, but it’s an exciting challenge.

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 John Seale on capturing ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’

This film vet goes digital for the first time with Alexa cameras and Codex recorders

Mad Max: Fury Road is the fourth movie in writer/director George Miller’s post-apocalyptic action franchise and a prequel to the first three. It is also the first digital film for Australian cinematographer John Seale ASC, ACS, whose career spans more than 30 years and includes such titles as The English Patient (for which he won an Oscar), The Mosquito Coast, Witness, Dead Poets Society and Rain Man.

Facing difficult conditions, intense action scenes and the need to accommodate a massive number of visual effects, Seale and his crew chose to shoot principal photography with Arri Alexa cameras and capture ArriRaw on Codex onboard recorders, a workflow that has become standard among filmmakers due to its ruggedness and easy integration with post.

Warner Bros.’ Fury Road, which takes place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, was shot in Namibia. The coastal deserts of that African country are home to sand dunes measuring 1,000 feet high and 20 miles long. Frequent sandstorms and intense heat required special precautions by the camera crew.

FRD-11255.JPG

“I’d shot plenty of film-negative films in deserts and jungles under severe conditions, but never digital,” notes Seale. “So I was a bit worried, but I had a fantastic crew of people who had done that… had worked with digital cameras in jungles, deserts, dry, heat, wet, moist, whatever. They were ready and put together full precaution kits of rain covers, dust covers and even heat covers to take the heat off the cameras in the middle of the day.

“We were using a lot of new gear.” Seale adds. “Everything that our crew did in pre-production in Sydney and took to Namibia worked very, very well for the entire time. Our time loss through equipment was minimal.”

Seale’s crew was outfitted with six Arri Alexas and a number of Canon 5Ds, with the latter used in part as crash-cams in action sequences. The Alexas were supported by 11 Codex on-board recorders. The relatively large number of cameras and recorders helped the camera crew to remain nimble. While one scene was being shot, the next was being prepped.

“We kept two kick cameras built the whole time and two ultra-high vehicles rigged the whole time,” explains camera coordinator Michelle Pizanis. “When we when drove up (to a location) we could start shooting, rather than break down the camera at one site and rebuild it at the next.”

Fury Rd 173 john e Fury Rd 160 john 2
John Seale on location shooting Mad Max: Fury Road.

The original Mad Max is remembered for its gritty look. Fury Road took a different route due to the film’s heavy use of visual effects. “The DI and the post work is so explicit; almost every shot is going to be manipulated in some way,” Seale explains. “Our edict was ‘just shoot it.’ Continuity of light wasn’t really a question. We knew that the film would be cut very quickly, so there wouldn’t be time to analyze every shot. Intercutting between overcast and full sun wasn’t going to be a problem. On this film, the end result controlled the execution.”

In order to provide maximum image quality and flexibility for the post team, Seale and his crew chose to record ArriRaw with the Alexa cameras. That, the cinematographer notes, made Codex an obvious choice as only Codex recorders were capable of reliably capturing ArriRaw.

“The choice to go with Codex was definitely for the quality of the recording and post-production considerations,” says Seale. “Once again, we were a little worried about desert heat and desert cold. It changes so much from night to day. And during the day, we had dust storms, dust flying everywhere. We sometimes had moisture in the air. But the Codex systems didn’t fail us.”

Shooting digitally with Codex offered an advantage over shooting on film as it avoided the need to reload cameras with film negative in the blowing winds of the desert. “There is a certain amount of paraphernalia needed to shoot digitally,” Seale says. “But our crew was used to that. They built special boxes to put everything in. They had little fans. They had inlet and outlet areas to keep air circulation going. Those boxes were complete. Cables came out and went to the camera. If we were on the move, the boxes were bolted down so that they were out of the way and didn’t fall off. Sometimes we sat on them to get our shot.”

FURY ROAD

RF interfaces were used with the Alexa cameras to transmit images to a command vehicle for monitoring by director George Miller, who was not only able to review shots, he could edit material to determine what further coverage was needed. “For George, it was a godsend,” says Seale. “That refined the film shooting and made it a lot quicker than the normal procedures.”

It was that sort of flexibility that made shooting with Alexa and Codex so appealing, adds Seale. “I was a great advocate of digital 10 or 15 ago when it started to come in. Film negative is a beautiful image recording process, but it’s 120 years old and you get scratches and dead flies caught in the reels. It’s pretty archaic.

“I think the way digital has caught on is extraordinary. Its R&D is vertical, where film development has stopped. The ability of digital to record images coupled with the DI, where you can change it, manipulate it, allows you do anything you like. I know with Mad Max, it won’t look anything like a ‘good film image’ and it won’t look anything like a ‘good digital image’ — it will look like its own image. I think that’s the wonder of it.”

Director George Miller recently appeared at Comic-Con and seems to agree with Seale, “It was very familiar,” he said about returning to the Mad Max world. “A lot of time has passed. Technology has changed. It was an interesting thing to do. Crazy, but interesting.”