CINE GEAR 2018 YOUR SHOW GUIDE SEE PAGE 12 definitionmagazine.com
June 2018
£4.99
REVIEWS ROSCO DMG MIX LIGHT GTECH T3 RAID STORAGE SONY A7 MKIII CAMERA FIILEX TRAVEL LIGHT
INFINITY WAR AND SOLO The cream of large format cinematography
L A V I T S E F LENS SHOOTER STARS
Our first talent compilation
WERE YOU HERE? Lynne Ramsay's dark tale
BBC 2.0
How the BBC reinvented itself
SPACE RACE 2
Augmented reality bites
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03 CINE GEAR EXPO
Definition goes to Hollywood: our first official visit to the show.
Bright Publishing Ltd, Bright House, 82 High Street, Sawston, Cambridgeshire CB22 3HJ UK
EDITORIAL EDITOR Julian Mitchell
01223 492246 julianmitchell@bright-publishing.com
EDITOR IN CHIEF Adam Duckworth CONTRIBUTORS Phil Rhodes, Adam Garstone SENIOR SUB EDITOR Lisa Clatworthy SUB EDITORS Siobhan Godwood, Felicity Evans
ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR Matt Snow
01223 499453 mattsnow@bright-publishing.com
SALES MANAGER Krishan Parmar
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ACCOUNT MANAGER Harriet Abbs
01223 499460 harrietabbs@bright-publishing.com
KEY ACCOUNTS Nicki Mills
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01223 499457 nickimills@bright-publishing.com
DESIGN DESIGN DIRECTOR Andy Jennings DESIGN MANAGER Alan Gray DESIGNER Lucy Woolcomb AD PRODUCTION Man-Wai Wong
PUBLISHING MANAGING DIRECTORS Andy Brogden & Matt Pluck
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Definition is published monthly by Bright Publishing Ltd, Bright House, 82 High Street, Sawston, Cambridge CB22 3HJ. No part of this magazine can be used without prior written permission of Bright Publishing Ltd. Definition is a registered trademark of Bright Publishing Ltd. The advertisements published in Definition that have been written, designed or produced by employees of Bright Publishing Ltd remain the copyright of Bright Publishing Ltd and may not be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. Prices quoted in sterling, euros and US dollars are street prices, without tax, where available or converted using the exchange rate on the day the magazine went to press.
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Welcome
For this issue we welcome a whole lot of new readers; this is the first official issue where we are taking Definition to Hollywood. Well, Cine Gear Expo to be exact, but how much more Hollywood could that be, with the Expo populating the backlot of Paramount Pictures? As you enter the gates you can see the bench that Forrest Gump sat on and mused over chocolates, to your right is the huge wall seen in The Truman Show, there’s Bronson Gate, and then you enter the New York City backlot where the show is based. Definition has been around for 15 years and for sale in the USA for only a year now, but maybe this part of LA is our spiritual home. This is where the art of production is cherished most in the world – not to denigrate other worldwide production hubs, but just for sheer numbers of productions, it’s hard to argue with. If you’re going to the Expo please look out for us; hopefully you won’t be able to miss us. Pick up a Slush Puppie when you pick up an issue and stay for a chat. We’ll see you there.
JULIAN MITCHELL EDITOR @DEFINITIONMAGS
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Fun at the Fair As part of its autumn schedule ITV Drama is serialising Vanity Fair on a grand scale, with shooting in and around London
scene from ITV’s Vanity Fair, which airs this September. Pictured is from Episode 4 in which Becky Sharp is teaching Rawdon Crawley to dance, and a small crowd gathers to watch. Camera operator is Roger Tooley and his Steadicam is holding a RED Dragon camera with Panavision lenses.
Director is BAFTA winner James Strong and DOP is Ed Rutherford. Filming started in Budapest, with the shoot then continuing in locations in and around London. The series will premiere on the channel internationally before premiering as an Amazon Prime Exclusive in the USA.
IMAGE Becky Sharp (Olivia Cooke) in a seemingly reluctant embrace with Rawdon Crawley (Tom Bateman) on the sea front at Deale, Kent.
07 © 2018 ITV DRAMA
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NEWS CINE GEAR
THE ONES TO WATCH
CINE GEAR EXPO 2018
Started last century but now evolved in to a cutting edge technical and educational event, Cine Gear is increasingly a ‘not to be missed’ event in the sunshine of LA ine Gear Expo first broke ground in 1996 and especially in the last few years has grown to become one of the premier events for the technology, entertainment and media industries. Cine Gear Expo attracts over 16,000 professionals from more than 60 countries over the annual four-day conference. For those that exhibit and those that visit, they know that this is a different type of trade show. Compared to the huge events like NAB in Las Vegas, Cine Gear is a laid back super-networking event out in the Californian sunshine in the glamorous setting of Paramount’s backlot. You could call Cine Gear’s an organic growth. The Expo was created by people from the industry not professional event organisers. The event is more about focussing on the needs of the community and
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draws the most dedicated specialists from all major department including Digital Media, Film, Entertainment, Post Production, Virtual and Augmented Reality, Government and Military, Sports, Live Events and even the academic world. Initially the Paramount backlot was the home for the hardware but slowly less sunshine laden spaces have been needed for workflow software, monitors and other tech that isn’t sunshine friendly. But the meat of the Expo is still content capture hardware, support equipment and the latest production services. At its centre Cine Gear is a ‘try-out’ event and increasingly a ‘knowledge’ festival. Invitees get hands-on training, gain knowledge and skills from world technology leaders and network with peers all within a professional and comfortable studio environment. The Expo is winning plenty of friends.
ATTENDANCE AT CINE GEAR EXPO IS NOW AROUND 16000 AND GROWING ABOVE Cine Gear 2018 is again at the Paramount backlot.
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CINE GEAR NEWS
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1. ARRI
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Celebrating its 101st year in the film business, ARRI will be showing its range of digital cameras including the new LF large format camera with the new range of Signature lenses that have been designed for exclusive use with the new camera. Also on show will be their new wireless system, high-end lenses, professional camera accessories and growing stable of lighting including the latest SkyPanel S360 LED light. Products include the ALEXA 65, ALEXA SXT, ALEXA Mini and AMIRA cameras, Master Anamorphic lenses and SkyPanel, L-Series and M-Series lights. A major new software update for the Skypanels will also be on show with updated FX and extended colour control. There is also a new stage mode with smooth dimming to zero. www.arri.com
2. BLACKMAGIC DESIGN
There was a time a few back that Blackmagic launched a new camera nearly every year, maybe those times are back as they have just updated their pocket cinema camera with a 4K version. The all new Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K has a similar handheld form factor to its predecessor with full 4/3 HDR sensor, automatic dual native ISO with up to 25600 ISO for low light performance as well as a claimed 13 stops of dynamic range. The new camera is looking to eliminate external recorders, as it features a USB-C Expansion Port, this allows customers to record using the internal SD/UHS-II and CFast recorders or directly to the same external disks they will use for editing and colour correction. The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K will be available from Blackmagic Design resellers worldwide later this year for only US$1,295. www.blackmagicdesign.com
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3. CANON
There is only one camera to see on the Canon stand at Cine Gear. That’s the new Canon C700 FF. The FF stands for full frame and we can welcome Canon in to this exclusive club. Being able to downsample in full-frame format with high frame rates is key to keeping the full-frame aesthetic with FF. Also the size of this full frame camera is significantly smaller than its competitors. Other products lined up to be displayed on the stand include the EOS C700, EOS C200 and a range of high-end lenses such as the CN E18-80mm T4.4L IS KAS S and CN-E70-200mm T4.4L IS cine-servo lenses, as well as professional reference display monitors. The EOS C200 is the first Cinema EOS camera to feature Cinema RAW light format. It’s been designed to take the complexity out of delivering high-quality footage, with benefits including an advanced AF system that provides reliability and accuracy when shooting 4K, and a high-quality LCD panel and Dual Pixel CMOS AF. www.canon.co.uk
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4. COOKE
For over 100 years, Cooke has been at the centre of the filmmaking business. This is a company steeped in tradition that has been listening to the community it serves for generations, and while it’s hugely aware of its legacy it’s also remarkably forward looking and is constantly pushing the frontiers of technology to offer new and innovative products. On the stand at Cine Gear will be one of these, /i Technology, which enables film and digital cameras to automatically record key lens data for every frame shot and provide it to post-production teams digitally, a process that is invaluable to post-production teams and which greatly speeds up the editing process. Visitors will be able to handle and experience the likes of Cooke S7/i Full Frame Plus and Cooke Panchro/i Classic prime lenses, Cooke S4/i, Cooke Anamorphic/i, Anamorphic/i SF (‘Special Flare’ - pictured) optics and the Cooke S4/i and miniS4/i lenses with and without coatings. www.cookeoptics.com
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SHOOT STORY INFINITY WAR
Beyond Infinity As the number of Super Heroes and Star Wars films increase so does the camera data WORDS JULIAN MITCHELL IMAGES DISNEY
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INFINITY WAR SHOOT STORY
f you're even a little bit invested in the MCU, Marvel Cinematic Universe for all you non-believers, you would have already seen Infinity War and maybe more than once. The idea here in play is basically more - more action, Super Heroes, plot twists, deaths (sorry) and of course cameras and camera data. As I write this, the film is touching on a billion dollars income worldwide and we’re not even passed a week yet. Everything is maxed out in the MCU. We’re also on the edge of the newest Star Wars movie, Solo: A Star Wars Story. Shot again with the ARRI Alexa 65 by DOP Bradford Young but this time with ARRI’s Prime DNA lenses. Infinity War was shot with Panavision's Ultra 70 series. Bradford was poetic with his love for the ARRI glass on Solo, “Lenses and format have to be ready to adapt to my particular taste. DNA glass is a revelation and revolution in my journey to anchor my artistic residue into a particular story – truly my way of seeing, thus my way of feeling. No other glass has afforded me this opportunity. It’s a true gamechanger!” Marvel has always been big fans of the ARRI Alexa 65 look and lens choice, it’s the biggest camera sensor out there after all. They demand of their suppliers like Pinewood Digital that the amount of data is dealt with, that’s over 30MB per frame and of course with digital you always shoot more than you need. Pinewood have been here before and well versed in scaling up what they already have. That mainly means more ways to transport and receive the data and then to process the data and pass it on, it’s a data factory. But ironically beating that 30MB per frame is the way Pinewood manage their film scans which now come out at over 100MB per frame being scanned at 4K 16-bit. The great thing for Pinewood here was that much of the shooting was done at Pinewood Atlanta so having control of the process inside their own studios made it that much easier, it was just more data than they had ever processed before. 65 THE MAGIC NUMBER Here are some interesting facts that show that the Alexa 65 is doing its bit to keep cinema alive. The 65 now has 72 feature film credits in three years, with 41 of them using Alexa 65 as the main unit 'A' camera. Also since @DEFINITIONMAGAZINE |
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1950 there have been roughly 160 theatrically released 70mm films of which Alexa 65 now accounts for 33%. Since Alexa 65's inception 70mm analogue film production has also grown, illustrating an overall growth in the larger format in general. Also Ant-man and the Wasp is also using Alexa 65 and ARRI DNA lenses and there’s a new Spiderman movie coming next year. As the number of large format cameras increase you may think that productions would look elsewhere for their new camera aesthetic especially as the number of lenses out there are huge now. But if you have seen previous Alexa 65 productions like The Revenant or Rogue One: A Star Wars Story you will appreciate the medium format look and that shallow depth of field that someone at Marvel and LucasFilm is so in love with. So who is the winner here? Probably ARRI Rental as Infinity War’s main camera unit shot with 14 Alexa 65s and the other unit shot with nine. For Infinity War nearly half the Alexa 65 cameras in existence were in use. Hold on, weren’t there only around 30 cameras in the whole world! “That day was the biggest on-set data shoot ever,” commented Thom Berryman from Pinewood Digital, “The biggest day that we had was getting on for 40 TeraBytes for the two units. But we had planned for this as we could see there were
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ABOVE The latest
Star Wars, Solo, shot on the Alexa 65 camera and used the ARRI DNA lenses.
LEFT Infinity War at
one point used 23 Alexa 65 cameras across two units.
THE BIGGEST DATA DAY WE HAD WAS GETTING ON FOR 40 TERABYTES FOR THE TWO UNITS JUNE 2018 DEFINITION
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SHOOT STORY YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE
In Plain Sight It’s a testament to the creatives involved in You Were Never Really Here that a warped time frame produced such a great looking film WORDS JULIAN MITCHELL IMAGES WHY NOT PRODUCTIONS ot the most prolific director, Lynne Ramsay last made a full-length movie in 2011 (the horror-parenting film We Need to Talk About Kevin). Back then the gear list almost encapsulated the period setting with Panaflex Millenium and Platinum film cameras with C and E series lenses, and an appearance from Canon’s 5D Mk II DSLR, which was the digital camera of the moment. Her and DOP Tom Townend’s initial feeling for You Were Never Really Here was 35mm and anamorphic lenses – that’s until the accountant got involved and the ARRI Alexa, with a myriad of glass, became the more affordable choice. “I wanted to persuade Lynne that digital could easily emulate film and the only difference between the two was that the camera wouldn’t have a mag of film on the top of it.” That film-to-digitalconversion conversation was commonplace around five years ago, but Tom still fields the ‘I want to make it look like film’ question all the time when shooting on digital. However, Tom reckons that digital is 80% of what he shoots now. “Lynne was resistant to the idea initially because it was not what she was used to. We actually shot a test on Kodak 500T film alongside the Alexa, day and night, just on a street corner and took that into a grading suite to really prove that the look of 35mm could be emulated, and we added grain as well. That satisfied Lynne and I promised her there was no difference in working practice. As it happened, of course you don’t have to re-load every ten minutes and the camera will keep on rolling, something that she really embraced. It suited her and Joaquin Phoenix to shoot without
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interruption just to see what would happen. I think she mildly regretted it when she came to the edit. If she’d had the discipline of film imposed on her the natural breaks would’ve come with that. “From my point of view I don’t treat them differently from each other, I meter everything, but interestingly 800 ASA on a light meter does not automatically translate into the correct exposure as it should be on the Alexa. Why that is I don’t know. It’s a guide at any rate. We only ever had one monitor on set which was Lynne’s and my monitor, and I would occasionally look just for some sort of assurance of what it was we were shooting. “The ARRI Alexa was a budgetary decision that was foisted on us from on high. The production happened very quickly so there weren’t many decisions made on the look we wanted. I’ve known Lynne for twenty years, in fact she was leaving film school just when I was joining. In no time at all we were scouting for locations so in a way the discussion was not so much about a look but more about, does this location work for both our needs? There was no obvious reference film we both wanted to emulate, it just kind of happened, and it happened so quickly that there wasn’t time to do the usual navel gazing as you usually do in big productions. I think this had to do with how well Lynne and I know each other.” The quickness of the production decisions were down to lead actor Joaquin Phoenix, who initially couldn’t do the movie but then had a hole in his schedule – only if the film could start almost immediately. The novella the film is based on describes Phoenix’s character as someone who is hiding
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YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE SHOOT STORY
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LEFT Joaquin Phoenix showed admirable lack of vanity, and was not concerned by how he was lit.
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FEATURE BBC TELEVISION CENTRE
BBC 2.0
Television Centre in London enjoyed iconic status as the home of the BBC before the building was sold in 2012 and the Corporation moved out. Now the Beeb is back on site – and it’s 4K ready... WORDS JULIAN MITCHELL PICTURES STUDIOWORKS
BELOW AND LEFT The versatile new studio space at Television Centre is equipped to deal with a variety of programme types, from panel shows to sitcoms, from light entertainment to chat shows.
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or those brought up in the UK, the BBC’s Television Centre was known as the place where the Corporation lived, where it made its programmes and where all the fun happened. The building was originally opened in 1960, and was the biggest TV production facility of its kind in the world at the time. The site has been undergoing major redevelopment works since 2012 when it was sold by the BBC to the property company, Stanhope plc. Last September, BBC Studioworks, a commercial part of the BBC, reopened three state-of-theart studios as well as post-production facilities on the site, to create the centrepiece of a newly transformed vibrant and creative media quarter in London’s White City. Now, the new broadcast facility is being used by broadcasters and independent production companies to make all kinds of content, in a versatile
environment boasting the latest in broadcast technology. There’s even room for a studio audience – should you need it! TC1 is the flagship studio at 10,800 square feet, with seating for 600. It’s fully 4K-ready, including 4K cameras and 4K glass (with a couple of minor tweaks it could produce a 4K show tomorrow) cabled in SDI and fibre for normal SDI workflows or IP-based workflows. All this fulfils Studioworks’ desire for a fully futureproofed studio. The other two studios are upgradable to 4K as well, with work, ensuring ‘a foot in both camps’ and not too much of a stretch for TC2 and TC3 to run 4K productions. Conversations with production companies about 4K productions have taken place, and, Studioworks say, ‘We’re ready when they are...’ 4K FUTURE PROOFING Television Centre’s audio and video
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BBC TELEVISION CENTRE FEATURE
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A VERSATILE ENVIRONMENT BOASTING THE LATEST IN BROADCAST TECHNOLOGY
routing required future-proofing to support 1080p50, UHD1 and other HDR formats, and emerging IP standards. Imagine Communications provided a Platinum IP3 routing platform solution across the three studios to enable the most challenging applications in a live production environment. The powerful signal routing, distribution and monitoring capabilities of Platinum IP3 have been selected to allow Studioworks to adopt any future technology innovations. The routing solution features one 28RU frame dedicated to Studio TC1, and one 28RU frame handling studios TC2 and TC3. In addition to Imagine Communications SDI routing for traditional HD contents, Sony provided the IP infrastructure, enabling 4K. Speaking about the technology fitout project, David Conway, managing director at Studioworks, said, “The broadcast infrastructure and kit we have selected needs to be robust and flexible to meet the demands of our customers. Having undertaken 18 months of customer consultations and technical evaluations, we believe we have established a technology ecosystem that meets our customers’ requirements both now and in the future.” For cameras, visions mixers and monitors, BBC Studioworks employed Sony’s ‘open standards’ approach to integrate 4K IP solutions with existing HD facilities, offering @DEFINITIONMAGAZINE |
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optimum value and choice for incoming productions. Sony studio cameras, including HDC-4300’s and XVS switchers, and more than 200 monitors, including OLED screens, have been installed across the three TV studios. There is also a range of Fujinon lenses. Across the three studios, Television Centre provides over 22,000 square feet of shooting space as well as fantastic new postproduction facilities, all served by an array of flexible technical and support areas. The revamped TC1, TC2 and TC3 studios range in size, and can accommodate all genres and styles of programming, from sitcoms and panel shows, to major ‘shiny floor’ entertainment and event shows – live and pre-recorded. The facility now boasts a range of new technologies to the benefit of Studioworks’ clients, with major investments made in equipment ranging from the aforementioned 4K studio cameras and lenses, to the latest in gallery control desks. All this helps to make Television Centre an industry-leading production hub. FUJIFILM LONG TERM Elom Bell, the procurement manager from Studioworks, explained the technical situation they were in when looking for new gear for the studios. “It was a strange situation when we were re-equipping, as major formats like UHD and HDR were on the horizon so we had to employ a lot JUNE 2018 DEFINITION
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FEATURE ASCENDING STARS
Our first talent compilation lists the rising stars of European-based cinematography
ow do you pick one talented DOP from another to compile a list like this? It has to do with their credits, their word-ofmouth credibility but mostly what they bring to the screen. With all our stars we have noticed certain ways that they work that pushes the art a little bit further on. New ways of framing for instance, using the new technologies of lighting in ways that change the direction that lighting is headed, new ways to move the camera and perhaps new ways to use colour. For sure our list is compiled subjectively but then researched from opinions emanating from the industry. We then had to decide when an ascending star legitimately becomes just a star of DEFINITION JUNE 2018
cinematography. Does your first movie credit stop you being a rising star or does a Netflix, Amazon or Hulu commission have the same effect? It’s perhaps not that cut and dried, as some BBC programming has been part-funded by US companies and will naturally settle on Netflix, for instance. Just by reading these bios from our list you will get a sense that our stars had been destined to ascend in this industry by some of the awards they have already been given, so easy for us you could say to identify them. But we still needed confirmation from the industry; and not just from their peers and set-buddies but also from creatives further up the workflow, as in grading rooms and editing bays. So it is with great pride that we
present our first talent list. We will listen to our readers as to how we can perhaps elongate our lists to other areas of the industry and other talent groups. But most of all we will be keeping an eye on this carefully compiled set of talented people and wish them the best of luck in their ascending life in one of the best industries in the creative world.
DOES YOUR FIRST MOVIE CREDIT STOP YOU BEING A RISING STAR? DEFINITIONMAGAZINE.COM
ASCENDING STARS FEATURE
Richard Stoddard
Richard won the BAFTA Cymru for his work on feature The Passing/ Yr Ymadawiad directed by Gareth Bryn. He shot feature Just Jim directed by Craig Roberts, That Good Night starring John Hurt and the remake of The Watcher in the Woods directed by Melissa Joan Hart. He picked up the BAFTA Cymru for television drama Hinterland/Y Gwyll, with his other drama including Being Human and ITV’s Bancroft. Richard has worked with directors including Ed Bazalgette, Daniel O’Hara, John Hayes and Steve Bendelack. Kit wise, he always uses his ARRIHEAD 1 geared head, and prefers shooting with anamorphic lenses, in 2.35:1 aspect ratio. @DEFINITIONMAGAZINE |
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Chloë Thomson
A cinematography graduate of the National Film and Television School, Chloë has shot a number of award-winning films, and her work has been screened at festivals including Cannes and Sundance. In 2017, Chloë was named a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit and shot Requiem for BBC1 and Netflix. Previous credits include Ellen, her first feature-length TV drama, for Channel 4, which won a BAFTA Cymru and a Broadcast award for Best Single Drama; and Damascus Cover, her first fiction feature film. Shorts include Natasha Khan’s I Do, which premiered at Tribeca 2016, Jonah (Best Cinematographer, Underwire 2013) and Volume (Best Short Film, BIFA 2012). JUNE 2018 DEFINITION
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FEATURE LOOK OF LENSES
THE LOOK OF LENSES
Fresh from the NAB show we look at the latest lens technology and thinking as new physical formats are let loose WORDS PHIL RHODES he goals of lens designers have changed. In the past, clarity and precision were the priority. Now, older glass that’s comparatively lacking in contrast and sharpness is snapped up by cinematographers keen to take the edge off digital origination. Ed Moore, director of photography on episodes of Vera and Shetland, describes the situation simply: “Most DPs are
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desperate to use any kind of old, weird lens... vintage anamorphic is terribly popular. I’m not criticising that, I’ve done it myself. There’s the perception that digital is too clean and that introducing unpredictable artifacts from older lenses is going to help with that. It’s to do with authorship, now that things get graded without us – having a look that’s sort of built into the shot.”
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LOOK OF LENSES FEATURE
Cinematographer Cathal Watters, ISC, considers lenses in a way that epitomises current thinking. Veteran of the beautifullyphotographed Peaky Blinders and recently engaged on feature film duties in both the US and his native Ireland, Watters could call upon practically any tool available to the modern cinematographer. An owner of Zeiss’s popular Super Speed lenses, Watters’ experience also includes the Angenieux Optimo 24-290mm zoom, ARRI’s Alura zooms, Ultra Primes, anamorphics – in short, a shopping list of the best lenses in the world. But for the feature Papi Chulo, shot in Los Angeles in 2017, Watters chose a very different path. “I knew all the modern anamorphics, so I got this three-lens set of LOMO anamorphics. One of them was in [terrible condition]. I couldn’t pull focus on the 35mm – you could set focus but you couldn’t pull it. But it was beautiful. I’d ping light into it, and the characteristics were just beautiful, they were softer than the modern anamorphics.” A few weeks later, on another collaboration with Peaky Blinders director David Caffrey, Watters found himself considering the same option again for, “a murder mystery over six half-hours. We’re going to shoot it on Super Speeds, but I suggested I get the LOMOs I had in LA... I’m going to shoot the cop world on anamorphic and the other world on Super Speeds.” These are not lenses for every job. “I tested the two sets – all of them are different. Even with the 35mm, one was massive, one was small. I’m contemplating getting an Alura – it’s really nice glass.” Bill Bennett, ASC, is a veteran of commercials for a long list of major automotive manufacturers, and echoes Watters’ comments. Having recently photographed footage for ARRI’s launch of the Alexa LF
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RIGHT AND BELOW
Bill Bennett works with an ARRI Signature prime on Joy Ride. Pic credit Ken Dooley.
SOME FEEL IT’S STARTING TO LOOK TOO SHARP, TOO CLINICAL, TOO CONTRASTY
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camera, Bennett was among the first to use the new Signature Primes created to serve that camera and its full-frame imaging sensor. “ARRI made the decision to move away from ultra-sharp, ultra-contrasty lenses towards lenses that were specially designed to be a little bit smoother in contrast. The Ultra Primes and Master Primes were designed in the film era, when film was the organic, smoothing part of the imaging chain. “These digital sensors have the potential to be much sharper. Combine them with ultra-sharp, ultra-contrasty lenses like Master Primes and some cinematographers feel it’s starting to look too sharp, too clinical, too contrasty. There’s no secret that a lot of cinematographers have taken to using older, classic lenses made 60 years ago. Super Baltars, Speed Panchros, that sort of stuff, to compensate for the super electronic digital look.” All of this has been going on since the dawn of digital cinematography, though the new popularity of full-frame sensors, has meant that these widely-held feelings about excessive sharpness have met the need for more coverage head-on. Bigger chips are the first thing mentioned by lens expert Matthew Duclos, of the eponymous Los Angeles optical workshop. In his world the emergence of full-frame has created a demand for ways to use existing lenses on larger-format cameras, regardless of their ability to provide a vintage look. “At the moment, one of the biggest trends is larger format lenses,” Duclos confirms. “We first had the [expander] concept maybe three years ago when the RED 8K
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VistaVision camera came out. A friend, Phil Holland, had one of those cameras and he had a lot of Super 35 glass that he wanted to use. It didn’t take that long to come up with the concept – it’s exactly the same as the concept of the tele extender. The part that took time was refining the design to balance performance and versatility. It’s very easy to make an extender, it’s difficult to make an expander that maximises the image quality.” The application, though, was relatively prosaic compared to Watters and Bennett’s desire for oldworld charm. “The Fujinon Premiere zooms were the poster child for our expanders,” Duclos says, “since they start at T2.” The loss of brightness caused by spreading the same image out over a larger imaging sensor is equivalent to the loss of nearly a stop of light, so users need to start with a reasonably fast lens to begin with. For people who want to start out with a lens that can already fill a full-frame sensor, Duclos is quick to mention a comparatively recent release. “The Sigma primes are extremely popular,” he says. “I think the price to performance ratio is nearly unbeatable. They’re the closest anyone’s come to a modern set of Master Primes. They’re compact, lightweight, fast, the image quality is excellent. I don’t think anyone has come even close.” From this we can see that the market for cinema-style lenses, which has been surprisingly buoyant for decades given a very narrow audience, shows no signs of slowing. At the same time, the move toward very large sensors in high-end cameras can mean that a favourite lens set is no longer an option... JUNE 2018 DEFINITION
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USER REVIEW DMG MINI MIX
DMG MINI MIX Rosco’s buyout of French Canadian company DMG has resulted in a new programmable LED light with phone app user interface WORDS PHIL RHODES opular as LEDs are, they aren’t anywhere near replacing big movie lights. The biggest point source is probably the rare and expensive Mole Tener LED, at 1600W, while the biggest HMIs are fifteen times that. Still, development of LED tools for the film industry is helped out by the massive R&D spend targeting domestic and commercial lighting, and it seems very likely that one day, every light on a film set will be based on LEDs – and it’s increasingly clear that they will also offer programmable colour. Rosco’s launch of a light implementing exactly that suggests that one of the world’s top filter companies has seen change coming and is keen to pre-empt it. Rosco acquired DMG Lumière in September 2017, presumably with an eye on their Mix series of LED panel lights which provide both conventional white light and full colour mixing effects. To date, though, lights capable of doing
RIGHT The MiniMix has a great phone App and user interface. Finger pickin' good.
BELOW The DMG
Mini Mix lights with various Rosco gels.
both white and coloured light really well have been comparatively rare, often sacrificing the colour quality of the white light as a necessary compromise to offer colour mixing. It’s worth a quick recap on why this is difficult. There is no such thing as a white-emitting LED; there are only blue LEDs topped with a phosphor, often chosen so that the blue light from the LED and yellow light from the phosphor
combine to create white. Crucially, the phosphor can’t convert light to a deeper blue than the blue of the LED, and converting blue light all the way to red light, at the other end of the spectrum, is hard work. It’s also not possible to create good quality white light by mixing red, green and blue LEDs. Instead of a continuous spectrum of white light, the result would have three sharp spikes, and struggle to properly illuminate anything other than colourless subjects. These issues can be dealt with through careful design, though, and doing so well is key to the success of a light such as Rosco’s new baby. MINI MIX The device under review is the Mini Mix, a panel 205x885mm (8x23in) rated at 100W output. It will find a use lighting anything from the smaller corners of a film set to a
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DMG MINI MIX USER REVIEW
sit-down interview, with a useful ability to create accent coloured backlights or illuminate blue or green screens effectively using highly saturated light. Removable diffusion panels offer a degree of control over the output pattern, and the light is compatible with DMG’s add-ons for their existing SWITCH lights, including dome, snapbag and grid accessories. In general it is a diffused softlight with a beam angle near 180˚. The larger SL1 Mix is twice the length and is rated 200W; an even larger version, the Maxi Mix, is planned. The LED panel sits in a machined aluminium frame, with attention to detail in the physical construction. Steel helical inserts protect the threads, and the latching mounting points will be familiar to users of other flat-panel and fluorescent lighting. A handgrip and ball-andsocket mount compatible with ⁵⁄₈” lighting spigots will fit the central latching point, while the controller and power supply can go either side, or be mounted elsewhere. The physical layout depends on whether the user wants to snap the controller and power supply (or battery) onto the back of the unit. This arrangement is fairly common among LED lighting, and means @DEFINITIONMAGAZINE |
that a working light may need five parts – the mains lead, power supply, controller, the intermediate cable and the light itself. The ability to snap it all together integrates the individual parts nicely, though, and it’s only a factor if it’s dismantled. The light’s party piece is its control system. White mode offers control over colour temperature from 2850K to 7500K with magentato-green correction available either as a percentage of the maximum or expressed in terms of plus or minus-green filters. Magenta-green correction is important because, alongside colour temperature, matching difficult practicals becomes possible. Gel mode emulates a selection of filters from Rosco’s range, with the option to base the simulation on light sources at either 3200K or 5600K. For arbitrary colours, there’s a mode which makes full hue and saturation control available. APP The Mix series naturally includes DMX control, but also talks to the MyMix smartphone app over bluetooth without requiring any extra hardware. The Android version of the app used in this review, marked version 0.9, was described
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as “in beta” by the company and was a little incomplete, with only a few of Rosco’s gels and lacking the interesting Source Match option which allows users to select a colour from a photograph taken with the phone’s camera. There are issues with how accurate that can ever be, given that a smartphone’s camera is not a precision colorimeter, but it’s an interesting feature nonetheless. In general, the app seems well designed, with large active areas for dragging to control the various parameters or the option of numeric entry for specific numbers. It’s also intended to talk to Rosco’s presence on the internet, delivering updates for the app and new firmware for the lights (sensibly, updates to the lights must be manually confirmed). Users can also save and share colour swatches, an idea which might particularly find favour with big lighting teams on big productions. The feature set, then, is pretty comprehensive, but that’s only useful if the output has good colour quality. Sheer output, measured one metre from the face of the light, is around 2470 lux at 3200K and 2210 lux at 5600K, equivalent to about an f/11 at 1/50s exposure on an 800 ISO camera. Intensity is controllable
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ABOVE Various screens from the new App with colour space details.
THE APP SEEMS WELL DESIGNED, WITH LARGE ACTIVE AREAS FOR DRAGGING JUNE 2018 DEFINITION
90
4K CAMERA LISTINGS
DEFINITION’S 4K CAMERA LIST
We’ve decided to take the brakes off the list as far as capture resolution is concerned. Now our starting point is 4K; after that the sky’s the limit
ARRI ALEXA LF 90FPS
14 + STOPS
LPL MOUNT
4448x3096
ARRI ALEXA MINI SxS / SXR
ARRI’s long awaited large format camera arrives with a package of camera, new lens mount and new Signature lenses. Expect plenty of use by Netflix. Sensor tech is still the ALEV-III technology with big photosites.
SPECIFICATION
200FPS
14 STOPS
PL MOUNT
2880x1620
SxS
New features include the EXT Sync function, which allows sensors and operational parameters of up to 15 ALEXA Minis to be synchronised to a master ALEXA Mini. Slaves can assume parameters like frame rate, shutter angle or ND setup of the master.
SPECIFICATION
SENSOR – FORMAT AND SIZE
CMOS, 36.70x25.54 mm - 4448x3096, ø 44.71 mm
SENSOR – FORMAT AND SIZE
CMOS, 16:9 (1.78:1), 23.8x13.4mm – S35
FRAME RATES
ARRIRAW: 0.75 - 90fps ProRes: 0.75 – 60fps
FRAME RATES
Up to 200fps in ProRes
LATITUDE (STOPS)
14+
LATITUDE (STOPS)
14
LENS MOUNT
LPL with PL-to-LPL adapter
LENS MOUNT
PL, EF, B4 w/ Hirose connector
EXPOSURE INDEX
EI 800
DIGITAL SAMPLING
2880x1620, uncompressed ARRIRAW/1920x1080
RECORDED BIT DEPTH FORMAT AND TIME
16 bit linear ALEXA Wide Gamut/Log C colour space. Output colour spaces: Log C, Rec 709 or Rec 2020
RECORDED BIT DEPTH FORMAT AND TIME
3.2K: 3200x1800; 4K UHD: 3840x2160 (up-sampled from 3.2K); 4:3 2.8K: 2880x2160 (up to 2944x2160)
RECORDING RESOLUTIONS
Sensor modes – LF Open Gate 4448x3096; LF 16:9 3840x2160; LF 2.39:1 4448x1856
WEIGHT (KG)
2.3 (camera body with titanium PL lens mount)
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4K CAMERA LISTINGS
ARRI ALEXA SXT EV 120FPS
14 STOPS
PL MOUNT
2880x2160
ARRI ALEXA SXT W
SxS/SXR
SXT ALEXAs get the sensor from ALEXA, the electronics from the A65 and the colour management from AMIRA. In-camera rec is ProRes 4K UHD/CINE. A direct response to requests for cutting-edge digital capture with traditional elements of the film cameras.
SPECIFICATION
91
120FPS
> 14 STOPS
PL MOUNT
2880x1620
SxS
Based on the ALEXA SXT Plus, the SXT W has replaced the SXT Plus and Studio models with an industrial version of the Amimon chipset for wireless transmission. ARRI has ruggedised the W mainly for feature work.
SPECIFICATION
SENSOR – FORMAT AND SIZE
16:9 or 4:3 sensor mode. 4:3 output only for ARRIRAW and ProRes 2K recording
SENSOR – FORMAT AND SIZE
16:9 or 4:3 sensor mode. 4:3 output only available for ARRIRAW and ProRes 2K recording
FRAME RATES
At 16:9 – 0.75-120fps/60fps max when recording 2K ProRes/speeds adjustable with 1/1000fps precision
FRAME RATES
At 16:9 – 0.75–120fps/60fps max when recording 2K ProRes/speeds
LATITUDE (STOPS)
14+
LATITUDE (STOPS)
+14
LENS MOUNT
54 mm stainless steel LDS PL mount
LENS MOUNT
PL
DIGITAL SAMPLING
2880x2160 uncompressed ARRIRAW
DIGITAL SAMPLING
2880x1620, Uncompressed ARRIRAW/1920x1080
RECORDED BIT DEPTH FORMAT AND TIME
SxS PRO 64GB; SxS PRO+ 64GB; SxS PRO+ 128GB; LEXAR 3600x CFast 2.0 cards 256GB; XR Capture Drives 512GB; SXR Capture Drives 1TB & 2TB
RECORDED BIT DEPTH FORMAT AND TIME
16-bit linear internal image processing in full ALEXA Wide Gamut/Log C colour space. Target output colour spaces: Log C, Rec. 709 or Rec. 2020
WEIGHT (KG)
6.5 (SXT EV body with PL mount)
ARRI ALEXA 65 60FPS
> 14 STOPS
XPL MOUNT
5120x2880
ARRI AMIRA SXR/XR
With a sensor larger than a 5-perf 65mm film frame, ALEXA 65 heralded the start of large format. Now shooting as a main production camera for Netflix, Amazon and the rest. Only available exclusively through their global network of rental facilities.
SPECIFICATION
200FPS
14 STOPS
PL MOUNT
2880x1620
CFAST
Amira is now split up into standard, advanced and premium. Features include in-camera grading with preloaded 3D LUTs, as well as 200fps slow motion. From reportage and corporate films to TV drama and low-budget movies. Multicam mode too.
SPECIFICATION
SENSOR – FORMAT AND SIZE
ARRI A3X CMOS sensor, 54.12x25.58mm active image area. Open Gate aspect ratio of 2.11:1 (6560x3100)
SENSOR – FORMAT AND SIZE
Single CMOS, 16:9 (1.78:1), 28.17x18.3mm – 35 format
FRAME RATES
Capable of recording 20-60fps (open gate) using new SXR media. XR drives allow 27fps
FRAME RATES
Up to 200fps in ProRes
LATITUDE (STOPS)
14+
LATITUDE (STOPS)
14
LENS MOUNT
ARRI XPL mount with Lens Data System (LDS)
LENS MOUNT
PL, B4 mount w/ Hirose connector
DIGITAL SAMPLING
1.78 crop mode (5-perf 65mm): 5120x2880 and 1.50:1 crop mode – 4320x2880
DIGITAL SAMPLING
2880x1620, uncompressed ARRIRAW/1920x1080
RECORDED BIT DEPTH FORMAT AND TIME
Codex SXR Capture Drive 2000 GByte capacity Max. frame rate capability: 60 fps (Open Gate) Recording time: 43 minutes at 24 fps
RECORDED BIT DEPTH FORMAT AND TIME
HD 1920x1080, 2K 2048x1152, 3.2K ProRes 3200x1800 4K UHD 3840x2160
WEIGHT (KG)
10.5
WEIGHT (KG)
4.1 (camera body with PL lens mount)
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JUNE 2018 DEFINITION