Camera Operator 2008 Spring/Summer

CAMEitA OPEitATOit VOlUME 17, N UMBER 2

Features

SPRING/ SUMMER 2008

Camera Operator of the Year I

5

THE IR OWN WORDS

The winn rand th nomin es discus the fi lms they were nominated for, and the honor of b ing nominated . .______ _

A Gala Evening

by David Frederick OC The 0 honor Lifetime Achievem nt and outstanding work on current films.

Cover

20

Solving the Mystery of Bones

by Jack Me itt oc Why the show function better with Operators to help the DP.

Pirates of Shadow Island

by Laurie K Gi lbert OC Great crew, challenging movie-but the real pirate weren't the one in front of the cam ra ...

Photo of Emily De chan I of Bone by Ray Mick haw/FOX

Teaching the New Generation

~fR2~~~~!~r~c

A film school in the Phillipine train

De~artments

2 President's letter

by Dan Knee e OC

58 Hi-Def with Jeff

by Jeff Cree SOC

60 News & Notes

am ra rews.

63 lastTake 63 Advertisers' Index 64 Roster of the SOC as of 5/15/08

(Yf

Letter from the President

T

hi in rallment ofmy 0 Pre idential column i a very pecial one. ince we last spoke many things have happened and the one that truck a chord with me more than any other wa the recently ended Writer trike. Other contracts have been ertled ince and orne may still be up for renewal at the time of thi writing, but the Writers Strike hi t home for most of you.

Some of you were up et with the Writer .

Some were sympathetic. Some were downright angry. Some of you lost homes or posse ion due to the work slowdown and sroppage . I don't mean ro take away from that when I ay the following although I'm ure some will feel I've done that by even peaking about it.

Speaking about the strike is healthy though. It help u understand what the strike wa and how it came robe. It helps u under rand what the Writer were fighting for, how well they accomplished their goals, and how their goal may not be that much different from our own. We haven't had a trike rhi enveloping in recent year and if we learn from it our future lives may be much better tl1an our past ones.

So what have we learned from the Writers trike ? What wa accompli hed? What wa lo t? Wa the timing right? The tactic ? TI1e result ? Am I tepping onto a oapbox and delivering a per onal agenda? o, I am not.

The ociety of Camera Operator is a fraternal organization. We are nor a political one. We stay out of politics for tl1e most part and only get into political terrirory when the job of the Can1era Operator i threatened.

Orherwi ewe devore our elve ro the education of our members and tudent member about the art and craft of Camera Operation and continue our commitment ro the Vi ion Center at Children Ho piral Lo Angele .

With the help of our many friend in thi industry we stay informed and educated about the new technological developments rhar con randy confront u and through our member and relationship wirh tl1e A C, Local 600, and other we continually pass on the accwnulated knowledge and experience

2

we have gathered during our careers. We are ble sed to be able ro do so. We thrive on it.

Srill, a thi strike developed, we became concerned for our elve and for rhe many, many people affected in all area of our indu try. Thoughts of doom and deva ration eeped into our mind . What effect would thi trike have? How long wou ld it go on?

One direcror friend of mine estimated b eight months, other thought more or le , ~ bur thankfully the trike did nor Ia t a Q long as many had feared.

Our friends helped ease the pain .

Mole Richard on continued ro allow u to u e their rage pace for our OperatOr 10 1 work hop . HD Expo waived their usual fee , allowing our mem ber ro attend rheir exren ive P2 workshop for free ro help offset our lack of income and in doing o rook our mind off our ab ence of work, giving us a much needed en e of accomplishment. Filmrool allowed u ro meet at their facility on occa ion and many other friend of the OC came through for our members in thi time of need. It wa great to know what a wonderful community we are part of in this Motion Picture bu ines .

Which bring me to the point of all thi .

What 's the most important gift this strike ha given u ? We've learned abour the genero ity of our indu try. We've thought about why rhing came to be the way they did, but the one thing we've learned above all other is ... what?

We've learned we can make it through anytl1ing if we have each other. The individuals that make up this industry support each other and if any one of us has difficulty, we all do. So remember, a much a orne of you may have been up et with the Writer , we need what they do so we can do what we do. We need them just a much a they need u , a much a any other part of thi Motion Picture machine need anotl1er to get a movie made.

We mu r realize rhis one and all. When we do, we have ro cheri h each other and come rogether no matter what the obstacle. That' what thi bu ine i all about. Each and every one of u loves making movie and we love each other as are ulr, becau e without each other we have nothing. That' the point of all thi . That' the point indeed.

Happy shooting.

CAMERA OPERATOR: LETIER FROM THE PRESIDE T

SOCI ETY OF CAMERA OP ERATORS OFFICERS Prt~ld(•nt

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. . • • . . . • • . • • •• D.1n Knt*f"CC

ht iu· Pr~1ck·nt . . ......... Jack Ml"t~il1 2nd Vtce Pres"l~nt . • • ..••.•• Erme Reed lrd Vice Pr(... •dcnt. .

Sccr('lill)

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CuqXJr.Jil' lia1wn . D~w1d I Fwcleritk hent> . . . • . . . • . . .. Da' td Mahlmann

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Publ,;hcors ... • . . . . lnglcDodd Publ<thmg CalhgrtlphC'r .•••.• • • • • • Came lmai lt'gJI Rep; . Davtd AdcJ,tt•ul, Gellner & Bush

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is. a rl'gis.l('rl>d tradl'm•.uk. ~ All ngh" rc-,cr\·ed.

CAM ERA OPERATOR SPRt cJSUMM ER 2008

Editor

.... )atk

Ml">~tl

'oOC

Manag•ng EchtoriAn D1rector .• L) nn Lann1ng Pos.t-ProciUtt•on Ml1nagcr Doug Ill\ Knapp SOC l.:J) out & Dc<i1gn .•••.•••••• . Lynn lannmg

over Photo . . • .••• Ray Mtckshaw Produtllnn C()(l(dtnalor\.lngk·Dodd Publi;hing CONTRIBUTOR Colin Ander..on SOC

)dirt-y Cree Much Dubm 5CX.

David r rcdcnc k SOC

laune K Gilbert Jacques )ouflrcl 5CX.

Dan Km_"C'C('

Da11d luckenbach soc )1m Me Conk<!) SOC jack Mt'S\111.

Rtck Robmson Scott P akamoto PHOTOGRAPHY

Carin Baer Phil Bra Fran~OIS Duhamel Mt>:>P Laune K Gilbert 'oOC Joel Ltplon Craig Math('ws Ray Mtckshaw Meli sa Mosely AdamT,1 lor l'<lbella VosmikO\a Ad\i

·rti~ing

D1r<.-c.tor

D.1n Dodd

For cllcopla\ adv<."f11S.1ng 1nrormation, contact: Don Dodd (!101 207-4410 ><lJ& iax: (J I 01 207- 1055 D•n lngk•Dodd.wm For

an•

IC' ubm1 coions, plea"<.' tontatt :

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Ann M.ag.azmc

PO Box 200&

Toluta lake, 4 I &I 0 Phone 18181 182· 7070 Ofl\ nght 0 2008 by th~ Soctet\ ol Cdmcr.t Operators

Carm•ra Operator" publi,ht-d "'mt-annually by the SocietY 01 amera Operata". ul"N:npt1on Roll~

USA 201yeor Out;tdc USA Sl811ear <U .S. Funds Only!

Visillhc

oc \\t-b >tie www.soc.org

pring!S umme r 2008

1t seems that every rental house claims to have the best equipment and service. Obviously, everyone can't be the best. So we'll just let the facts speak for themselves, and let our customers do the talking!' -Denny Clairmont 11

"When you deal with a company for ten-plus years I believe you really get to know their heart and soul. At Clairmont, you have a technical whiz like Denny, who is absolutely relentless when it comes to making sure equipment works at peak efficiency. "

"Clairmont has done an amazing job of supporting me every step of the way. In my last project we basically used every type of camera in their inventory. Everything performed flawlessly under every condition imaginable. With all of the variables in moviemaking, one thing is a welcome constant Clairmont quality and service. n

Tami Reiker, ASC

Clark Mathis, ASC "I had a very good experience the first time I used Clairmont, and the ACs all wanted to go there, knowing they would be looked after. After working with their L.A. and Vancouver offices I can honestly say that Clairmont makes my job easier because I don 't have to worry about the quality of the equipment. n

"It's not just about renting camera equipment from any rental house, but Clairmont camera's commitment and involvement in tailoring the equipment to your individual needs and finding solutions to your problems. "

Edward Lachman, ASC

Simon Duggan, ACS "With some rental houses you simply rent equipment. With Clairmont Camera you're really renting the whole building.

It's the people who make the difference. It all adds up as to why Clairmont Camera is more of a comfortable home than a sterile rental house. n

"I can trust that everything has been serviced in a manner that is unmatched. I have been on shoots where production chose what turned out to be poorly maintained equipment from other sources, which failed, and the down time lost on the set with the entire crew standing around cost them more than what they'd hoped to save on the lesser cost rental."

Checco Varese, a.m.c.

Michele Delorimier (DIT)

• • • • • • •

World's largest independent camera rental house (non-manufacturer) Huge inventory of Arri, Sony, Panasonic cameras -among others Unbiased support of film & digital -you choose what's best for the job Industry's widest selection of lenses and filters -many exclusive Leader in digital technology and custom support equipment In-house lens and camera testing equipment rivals the factories Proven track record of on-time order fulfillment without compromise

ClAIRMONT CAMERA FILM& DIGITAL

www. clairmont. com Hol lywood 818-761-4440 Vancouver 604-984-4563

Toronto 416-467-1700 Albuquerque 818-761-4440

''l\ film set is a complex organism. It is a living, breathing

beast that is at times uncontrollable. In the eye of the hurricane sits the camera operator; calmly sticking out his finger; seeing which way the wind blows. We are the lone tree bending, but not breaking, in the gale force winds. We are the only grown-ups in a play date of adult babies. We are the counselor and therapist. We are the Zen Buddhist.

What we do as Camera Operators is a complex set of skills that is unique in the filmmaking process."

-Mitch Dubin SOC

Camera Operator of the Year IN THEIR OWN WORDS

The SOC interviews the recipient and each of the nominees, about making the films for which they were nominated.

CAME

PERATOR: CAMERA OPERATOR OF

EYEAR

5

CAMERA OPERATOR OF THE YEAR

Jacques Jouffret soc on shooting Into the Wild

acque Jouffrer oc grew up in Pari and moved ro the United rare ro attend YU film chool. Hi recent work a a Camera peraror include Daredevil, Alan on Fire, Flightplan and ever Back Down.

J

Alas ka is right up th e re o n t he scree n. Te ll us, in pa rticular, abo ut the fi lm 's de pa rting shot.

We went ro Ala ka five rime , covering all the ea on and the fifth time, which\ as when rhar particular hot wa hot.

For hri ' death, we had had ro rop filming for about two or three week for him ro lo e the final weight. owe hot everything until then, then we left and came back two ro three week later for that cene.

Thar hot wa done with an Akela crane and a marching helicopter hot. They morphed the rwo hots into one for the final hot. There i a zoom hidden in ir and when we went up, there wa a helicopter already in the air. Mar Beck, the vi ual effect supervi or, was there ro help. We ba ically brought the Akela a far a we could, then brought rhe helicopter in to march the frame we had a be t as he could. John Trap man, the helicopter Camera Operator, wa wonderful.

Of com e, a alway , thi shot was done in complete chao , but it came our very well. 1at Beck did a fama tic job and it wa a great concept. On our ide, it wa an ea y hot, but not for the helicopter robe able ro continue the same direction of the Akela crane.

W hat was the pe rcentage of ha ndh e ld, do lly shots a nd teadicam?

Lor of handheld. Lor of readicam. Very little dolly work.

Very little rudio work of any kind. We mo dy ran rwo camera , ometime three camera . DP Eric Gautier would run the econd one and omerime director ean Penn would go on another camera. ean had authorization from Local 600 ro operate one of the camera on the how.

The rea on wa becau e we had a lor of non-professional acror in the film which actually are the true people who picked up Chri on hi journey. o ean really wan red ro have hi eye on the eyepiece for the e performance .

o, it i Emile really doing it. The kayak seq uence is mostly Sreadicam from another boat. The rig wa. in low mode most of rhe rime, nor even attached ro the boar. It wa jerry rigged in any way possible so I cou ld hold onto the boar.

That i the way can operates. ome of th e scene of the kayak cene wa splinter unit. I wou ld go off wi th Emi le at the end of the day. We were constantly moving from location ro location, owe wou ld do a lor of what I call tl1e hoe leather, bringing him in from point A ro point B. That particular cene in the grand rapid , it i Emile doing it, bur ean did it fir t ro how him the rapid . And ean did one rake with rhe Eyemo for the tight P V that you ee in the film. ean did tl1at going through and then Emile went and did it.

How wa wo rk ing w ith Sea n Pe nn ? ean know exactly what he wants. He know exacrly how the cene i going ro play. He say very little and ha a way ro get the hot. He ay , "Ju t go there and you ee the cene unfolding and you catch it and try ro do the be r you can and to tell the tory with the camera."

You know that rarely will you get anotl1er take, a second or third rake. I begged him many time for another rake.

Becau e I wa nor happy, becau e it wa uch a difficult hoot becau e of the ground and the rock and the now. It rook heer determination nor ro fall off rhe mountain. And I'm falling all over the place ... I would ay, "Another rake?" And he would ay," o."

One day he rold me, "I am not going ro give you another rake, becau e ifl do, you are going to want to make it perfect.

And I don't want you ro make ir perfect."

And he made fun of me becau e ju t before that, I wa doing a movie called 7he Holida)' with Nancy Myer , who i very well known ro do fifty, sixty, evenry take . And I wa ju t coming off that movie ro do thi one. Whoa ...

I think that I got very lucky on thi picture becau e I knew exactly what ean wanted. He did nor have to tell me much.

We never talked about ryle. We never talked about the kind of tl1ing he like and o forth. We never had ro because I knew exactly the kind of thing he wanted.

I know that ean i very much a man of rhe ' 0 . He love the film of the ' 0 and that is hi reference. It wa John Ca avere ryle acting with a little bit of Terrence Malick vi ual. That' all I needed to know.

Do yo u see a lot of Sean's footage in t he movie?

Yes, I ee ome of it. Ir' hard for me to remember who did what. Bur he would u uaUy look at it on the fir rand econd rake becau e we didn't have any video village.

We hot o much footage. The ediror rold me that we have one hundred and thirty five hour . And the rea on why i becau e this i the rory of one man, in nature, walking. He' \ alking, and climbing and kayaking, cro ing the river and all that ruff. When you look at it now, it i very fa t.

When you actually do it, and the way ean doe it, there i no rehearsal, maybe one rake. We run the camera and we never ay cur until the film roll our. I don't know what anyone i going to do, o here we go ...

How was wo rking with Eric Ga uti e r?

It was the fir t time for me to work with Eric [Gautier] and he is a wonderful man and I have great admiration for him becau e he gave can the freedom to make thi movie and hoot in any direction. He [ can] really put Eric in ituarion that for any director of photography i very hard. Bur Eric alway aid ye .

Eric aid to me, talking about the low light iruarion we shot in, "If I am not cared at the end of the day wherever we are leeping, that mean I have not done my work right."

In the kaya k sequ e nce, did Emil e Hirsch, who plays Chris, have a stuntman replace him?

Wha t e quipm e nt did you use?

It wa an Arricam how. We had two Lli, a435

Spring1Summer2008

CAMERA OPERA

Aaron 35 which wa the director of photography' favorite camera to work with. That wa about it. It wa very, very ba ic.

We u ed the Ultra Primes, but a very bare minimum package. Weal o had two Optimo zoom . It wa a Fuji film and it wa pretty much no light. ot even a bounce.

Did yo u a lso shoo t th e nature photogra phy?

Ye , the owl and the pider and the flower . Ye , I would do all of that when there were scene in the bu where the pace wa very confined. Eric (Gautier] would do that and I would go out ide and do all of that tuff.

I did a lot of plinter unit on thi how because of the nature that we were con tancly traveling. We had to ru h from one location to another, con tancly it eemed. owe were never able to fini h what we were uppo ed to do. o I would ray behind, either with Emile or the other actor to fini h, while the main crew was moving forward. And I would catch up the next day.

What' a o difficult on thi how wa that the locations ' ere o rem ore. Becau e ean really wanted to hoot where Chri lcCandle actually went. o when you have to wait for the equipment to arrive, it i a huge logi tical problem to go to all tho e particular location .

And the ea on ...

But yo u had lo ng days. Alas ka has daylig ht fo r ma ny ho urs.

Ye . The fir r week wa eighteen hour day . But the way of working wa very, very imple. imple filmmaking in the en e that there was one man alone and you rry to catch him doing what he i doing and trying to tell the tory with the camera. o in rhar sen e, there wa a great impliciry. Bur the condition were nor ea y.

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CAMERA OPERATOR: CAMERA OPERATOR OF THE YEAR

What about o utside of Alaska?

In Arizona, we were hooting the scene where he burn the money and walk away. And he went on the road and Sean wanted me to do a long hot with Emile a he i walking. It i the very beginning of hi journey and he i happy. He i on the road and Sean ay , "Just follow him, track him , wrap around him and on and on." o Emile and I, and my a i tanr, up we go on thi road to tart the hot and a we are leaving, ean ay to Emile, "At one moment, look at the can1era." It i a great hot and we keep going and it wa o hot. It wa abour one hundred and twenty degree that day and I wrap around him and at one moment, I come around and he' drinking water and ha a big mile on his face. And I thought that when he did that, I knew it wa o right on.

It was the perfect decision becau e at that moment, he is saying omething to all of u . Look at me. Look how great I am . But it wa all ean, definitely ean. I remember that was rill early in the film and when ean aid that, I said, "Wow, thi might be a good movie."

Wha t we nt thro ugh yo ur mind wh e n yo u hea rd yo u we re a nomin ee fo r the Ca me ra Ope rator of th e Yea r Awa rd?

I was very, very ttrpri ed. And I do nor feel that I am de erving of it for thi particular film. In a way, it wa very phy ically demanding, but in another way it was much ea ier becau ewe didn't have trailer . It wa a ju r a mall group of people trying to make this movie.

The only thing that Sean really wanted wa to be ab olurely dedicated to it a he wa . And pretty much, you were howing that in your work. No matter what, 1 wa trying to get the hot for him and that was pretty much all he cared about.

One cl1ing I learned from watching ean work, and he i an amazing director, wa eeing how he controlled the production to achieve hi goal. He doe n't ju t direct the actor , but he direct the production in the arne way. He would describe hot to me ... "OK Jacque , we're going to do thi hot and Emile is over there and you are going to do thi and that."

OK, great. And then we tart doing it and ... there i nothing prepared. There i no equipment, no tool for this hot. We'd think thi i not the way we hould do it. But then you real~ze that wa exactly the way he wanted it. /J} Photos for this article by Franrois Duhamel SMPSP. Photo of Emile Hirsch Š Paramount Vantage.

Spring/Summ r 2008

akamoto on shooting Michael . .

and Ro bert are one who think out loud and are open ro collaborated ugge cion , which make the proce very interesting and fun. You conclude wi th a ho t that ay something and doe n'r need a lor of edits.

What we re your reh ea rsals like? ere asn't a lor ofr..n,,.,.r'UIIJ needed it To

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fi:er a i. tin on uc film as Pr~tty in Pink and Ferris , Scott Sakamoto worked as a camera assistant for Has-kell Wexler on Alateuwz. Thi relation hip grew through the film B/,zze and Otber People's Mone_y before Wexler moved Sakamoto up to operate on The B,zbe. This just the start tor him a he went on to operate on such film as Road to Perdition, The /t,z/i,m job, Tirneline and Pimtes of

.flBueller's Dll"'

tbe Can路ibemz: At World's End.

What were the environmental conditions that held you back from doing the shots the way that you would ve liked to do them?

The hardest times we had were the night of cold weather we endure 路 NYC with the winds off the: Hudson River... lso there were everal cenes that took

Given the ubiquity of video assist monitors and the acrobatics of today's handheld shooting, do you still prefer to look through an optical finder?

Except for operating the teadicam and remote head -, I alway operate looking through the camera' eyepiece. prical viewing is the only way to ee the fine t derail of the er, the makeup, the hair, the wardrobe, and the only accurate way ro judge focu .

Considering your organizing, communicating and composing responsibilities, do you still feel indispensable on the job-both to the DP and to the production? \1' ithout a doubt, the Operator has there pon ibiliry to help create an image through the camera that ari fie both the direcror and the ci nemarographer. With the added re pon ibiliry ro watch for the other department like makeup, hair, wardrobe, continuity and production de ign.

All aid and done, the Operator mu t till execute the hot wi th preci ion, which make him indi pen able.

Since you are a Steadicam Operator, what do you say when a neophyte asks what it takes to be an Operator, and do I need to do Steadicam?

I tell them an Operaror needs ro know the ba ic photographic rule , principle , and compo irion and be fa miliar with the equipment and crew re pon ibilirie .

Having a special skill i alway an advantage whether it' readican1, underwater, aerial or other pecialries-electronic or phy ical.

Tell us what a typical set up process with Director Tony Gilroy would entail.

Tony come to the et very well prepared; he kn ows his cript and how important it i vi ualiy. Having Robert El wit a his DP give him incredible oppornmitie to create hi direction. Robert and him go after the cript with the concentrated goal of making the hot tell the tory to it be t abilitie , and keeping the coverage to a minimum. Both Tony

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CAMERA OPERATOR: (AMER

OPERATOR OF THE YEAR

OMI EE

place at "magic hour" which rook careful cheduling coordination and a crew able ro act quickly and preci ely.

Sprong! ummcr 2008

-

How involved you in the blocking and shot conception?

Once on the et both Tony and Robert were very open to collaboration in shot concept and I was alway welcome and encouraged to pitch an idea. I wa not part of pre-production actor rehear ai , only 'on et' rehear al .

How doe it feel to be nominated for an award by your peers in the industry and to appear before an audience to explain your elf? lr' alway an honor to be recognized for one' work kill , e pecially b your indu try peer . The nomination wa a urpri e and I am very thankful to the OC and their commitment to the arr. A for appearing before an audience, I'm alway frightened and uncomfortable!

What camera equipment was used on Michael Clayton?

We u ed a Panavi ion Platinum for the "A" camera and the Panavi ion lightweight camera for teadicam. We incorporated"ÂŁ" and" " erie anan10rphic len e throughout the how. Panavi ion ha the be t working anamorphic len e , which i why Robert El wit chooses the system.

What was the cast like to work with?

Thi was the be t and mo t profe ional ca t of actor .

Between George looney, Tom Wilkin on and Tilda winton, all were profe ional, concentrated, technical and helpful in erring up hot .

And that al o goes for all the other cast player in the making of Michael Clayton.

pnng!Sumrncr 2008

What is your next projectl I'm presently~ or king on uplicity director Tony Gilroy, again in NY live Owen and Tom Wilkin on.

Photos courtesy of cott akamoto.

AMERA OPERATOR: CAMERA OPERAT R OF THE YEAR

OMI EE

11

David Luckenbach soc on shooting 3:10to Yuma avid Luckenbach oc tarred a a camera as i tant but quickly moved up to operate on Twister, Mr Holland's Opus, Yhe X-Files TV serie., Friday Night Lights, Walk the Line and The Pimtes ofthe Caribbean trilogy. 3:10 to Yuma wa David' fourth picture with director Jamc Mangold, three of them with cin matographer Phedon Papamichacl.

D

What was the percentage of handheld, dolly shots and Steadicam in the film?

There wa a lot of teadicam. Mo t of the tuff when you ee gu on hor e in two hots, that' all Steadicam.Ju t becau e of the nature ofhor . And in mo t of the cene we hot, the actor were on hor . Very eldom did any actor it on a ladder for a dose up. Everybody wanted to be on their hor e. Which was fine, but you alway need to be able to adju t the camera when someone i on a horse bccau e a hor e never really rands till for very long. o, teadicam and a lot of handheld, but only a little bit of dolly, perhaps only ten percent w re traditional dolly hot .

But we u ed everything-doorway dollic with handheld where the grip would haul me back through the tented camp. ln the hotel room we had thi thing called the "dcnti t chair," which wa just a stool with wheel on it. You would be handheld, itting on it and do little move on a piece of plywood while you were cradling the camera. And when that wa n't low enough, I ' ould put the camera on that chair, like on a and bag and I would ju t push it around the room.

What was a typical day working with Director James Mangold and DP Phedon Papamichaell Sometime Jim would have a pretty trong idea of what h wanted to do, but he i one of tho e guy who ay •show m something" or paints with a really broad stroke of what he want and then you go and line omething up, knowing that he will most likely adju tit.

So it's kind of like ping-pong. You'll line omcthing up and once he ees it-he ha to see it is alway hi comment. He always says that he ha to ee it. You'll be there talking about it and he'll ju t cut you off and ay, "I need to sec it. Ju t show me omething."

So Phedon and I would get rogeth rand talk and I'd ee

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what Phedon want to do and we'd come up with something and how it to Jim and we'd go back and forth until we got the hot that Jim wanted.

Really, it' not a big movie in term of equipment. We were fairly low tech on it. But Jim had two little LCD monitor for A and B camera and he would look at that. So we would ju t grab a camera and throw a camera on our houlder and line up a hot.

Was Mangold a director who liked to rehearse and block?

It seemed like we went right into it a lot, but there were scene like the hotel room where he wanted to work with the actors and the character and all that. Like a lot of movie now, you kind of get kicked out of the room as a crew. And I totally understand that. It' only the director and the DP and the actor and they work on the tuff that they need to work on. But once that's done, then it' like "Let' hoot."

It' intere ting working with Phcdon and Jim becau e Phcdon has a joke that he never read the cript. Becau e he would love to show up and ju t figure out how to do it. Both he and jim like to work that way. Kind of how up and have a general id a of what you are going to do, but then, kind of. react to the environment and what i happening and go with it that way.

There were often di cu ion after blocking about how to hoot a scene. Should it be handheld, hould it be dolly hots? What do you want to do as you've rehear ed it?

Sometime , it i on a lot of film today, it wa a matter of what w the mot expedient way to do it becau e thi i just one of four scene we have to shoot today, so how can we do it quickly.

There are a lot of do e-up in the movie and Jim would alway pu h for that. We would do a take or two and Jim would ay, "Can you get do er." A lot of the performance are that, though. 1h y'rc o ubtle that, a an Operator, you would c that. You get drawn in becau e what i happening i just a ubtle mUc from Ru sell Crowe or Chri tian Bale. A subtle hift in their eye . As an Operator, you ju t wanted to drift in on them and be there for that. It is that kind of movie.

A lot ofit is the whe 1 turning inside their heads.

And Ph don love to add a low zoom to do c-ups. Real

MERA OPERATOR: CAMERA OPERATOR OF THE YEAR NOMI EE

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ubtle with a zoom gun, ju t lowly drifting in on people. So we did that a lor.

Describe how you shot the big shoot-out.

The hoot-our equence, running through the town under con rruction, that wa an existing town in Santa Fe, bur the town wa n't big enough o they were actually building et to expand the town. And they ran our of money. That was uppo ed to be a fini hed et, all rho e two by four . Bur we ended up hooting through that and it actually work really well. It i one of my favorite energetic running dolly hots hooting through all that tuff which was never uppo ed to be there.

We tarred hooting sometime in October in anta Fe and then broke for Chri rma and were upposed to go back just after ew Year' . Bur it nowed two feet over hri tma . I got the call to say that we were delayed a week becau e of the now.

In that town, they had to literally clear all the now from the rooftop , all the building , all the streets. Then the rreets were o me ed up that we had to bring in truckloads of dirt and put dirt down on the street again. They ba ically had to rebuild everything bur the building . Then when we got back to hooting, it wa LX degree out.

Did you ever use an insert car?

For the running hot through the mine, we were on a jeep and had a remote head. TI1e effect guy had built-and you can ee it in a few of the hot -a two addle rig that we could row. You could put actor on it and it had hydraulic o you could get rhi motion. Bur we would put that behind the jeep and do handheld off the jeep or off that rig, literally, trapping your elf on the ide of rhi addle rig to do the do e up and o racing down the road.

In the cene where [Ru ell Crowe] throw Peter Fonda off the cliff, we were on a Chapman with an arm and a tabilizing remote head. Thi wa a real challenge for Tony Garrido, our dolly grip who wa working the arm, becau e the road wa really rough. It wa hilly and they had these pinon tree that we couldn't cur. We were trying to get the e tight overs of guy , orne on real hor e , orne on the saddle rig. It was a real challenge.

Tell us about shooting the stagecoach scene. \X'e had the real stagecoach with hor e and then we had another stagecoach that wa 路 built on top of a gator that the effects guys built. We would u e that for close up , ba ically anytime we didn't ee hor e .

And orne of the econd unit ruff is the real stagecoach SpringtSummC'r - 008

with cameras inside of it. It is probably the real bumpy tuff you ee becau e it was the real thing.

When the guy are in ide, hooting out, we hot a lor of that at night with guy rocking the rage and me handheld rocking the camera.

What was the most difficult day of shooting?

It's actually the end of the movie. The cene where they are leaving the ticker booth and getting on the train, when Dan Evan [Chri tian Bale] get hot ... From the point they leave the ticker booth to when the train pulls out wa all hot in one day. Plu , we hot char by lunchtime, maybe a little afi:er. Then we went in and hot in the dry good store when they run in and Ben Wade [Ru ell rowe] get hot and they have that fight on the floor. We hot that all on the arne day.

It wa Madnes . We were shooting the end of the movie and, to be hone t, ju t making it up a we went along. Everyone wa ju t crambling.

TI1ar wa the Ia t day of hooting in Santa Fe. Why did you choose to operate a Steadicam?

When I tarred doing teadicam about fifteen year ago, I saw it for my elf a a way to get into operating. I saw that a lor of cl1e guys coming into the how to do teadicam were al o able to operate the econd, third or fourth camera. That seemed to be normal. I wanted to move up to operating, so I decided to go that route. I got my elf a teadicam, took the cia e and ju t tarred getting out there, trying to get work-with the intent to get into operating. I wanted not to ju t pecialize in teadicam, but I wanted to get into operating and it worked for me and I think that it i a good way to get into operating.

What did you think when you heard you were a nominee for the Camera Operator of the Year Award?

It' obviously very humbling at first. I'm thankful to the 0 for cl1i . It' great to be among the nominees. There a bunch of great film in your top five film . A lor of great work on all of them. I think that it' a great thing that the SOC is doing this.

Right: David Luckenbach oc.

Background photo: Russell Crowe a Ben Wade and Chri tian Bale a Dan Evan in 3:10 to }uma. Photo by Melis a Mo ely, '"' Lion gate.

In the souvenir book for the OC Awards, this phoro was erroneously attributed ro a different photographer.

AMERA OPERATOR: CAMERA OPERATOR OF THE YEAR

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Colin Anderson soc on shooting There Will Be Blood A frer working in the ouch African film industry for eleven .!"\.year , Colin Ander on moved into as i ring in Lo Angele . Making the leap ro operating, he worked with DP Robert El wir on Syrimza and Good ight and Good Luck before joining force again on There Will Be Blood.

Describe your experience shooting There Will Be Blood.

Working with Director Paul Thoma Ander on on There "Vill Be Blood wa an unbelievably invigorating experience.

He i an extremely complex man wirh a very clear concept of what he want ro do. Rehear al were alway private, with actor Daniel Day-Lewi, himself and DP Robert El wit.

Once happy with the scene he would block it with a finder and et up very pecific hot . He alway had a very preci e view of what len he wanted to u e and how ro frame it. Even

though we were hooting anamo rphic he in i ted on centerpunching aU CU and M U. Paul wa deeply involved in all technical a peer of the film. We hor abour 40,000 feet of len re r and Paul went through them all picking what and E he preferred. He would chen specify on- er which len he wanted ro u e. We had very few rehear al , and with rhe high level ofimen iry on the er, one felt you couldn't a k for more.

Tell us a little about your equipment on the movie.

We u ed Panavi ion equipment on There Will Be Blood with rhe and E cries anamorphic len es. Weal o used a 43mm len from a 1911 Pathe camera rhar Dan Sasaki ar Panavi ion convened ro anamorphic. Ir was amazingly sharp in the center with a dramatic fall-off ar the edge which gave rhe frame a wonderful period feel. Panavi ion i my y rem of choice becau e it i o rugged. On There Will Be Blood the condition were horrendou ar rime , and being three hour from the neare r airport made it rather imporranr ro have a reliable y rem.

I prefer ro look through an optical finder a I don't think anything can replace rhc connection ro

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th e frame that one ha by looking through the finder. Apart fro m bei ng able ro ee techn ical problem more ea ily-focus, boom hadow , etc- I think your reaction are o much more immediate an d in rincrive.

W hen hand-holding rhe ca mera, I now use rhe handl es. I u ed ro hold rhe matte-box bur changed ro handle on ~Jriana. Every shot wa hand-held on that movie and I found u ing handle ro be le tiring a you could brace your el bows again t your midriff and al most rest in that position. On longer take and long len e, I find ir ea ier ro hold ir steady.

A an Operator, I feel ab olurely indi pen able ro the DP and the production as we are , that viral link between conand re ult .

P houldn't have to bother with the nut and bolts of up a hot. Lately, with orne of the DP that I work with, Dan Mindel for example, I have become increa ingly involved in couting and pre-production meeting , which I find is an enormou help when we come to do the cene on the day.

What were some of the operating challenges on There Will Be Bloodl

horizon. He liked ro walk right next ro me watching rh e monitor, o often I couldn't get the 4x4 double as do e as I would have liked. Marfa, Texa , our main location i al oar 5,000 feet o I became wi nded fa irly quickly on ome of the Aat our running shots.

This was my first collaboration with Paul Thomas Anderon [PTA], and I hope it will continu e into the future. I don't believe there i one of his film that I haven't liked. Thi was my third film with Robert Elswit, the other two being ~Jriana and Good ight and Good Luck. I cann ot ay enough good thing about Robert. H e i an Operator' dream, having rhe perfect balance of giving you the freedom of choice and co n tructive advice where nece ary. Robert doe a lor of operating himself but i nor cared of u ing two cameras ru1d lighting fo r both. On Good Night and Good Luck ru1d Syriana, we al mo t al ways had two cameras on every shot, often at right angle ro one another.

Daniel Day-Lewis has left an enormou impress ion on me.

It wa fa cinaring to see an actor embrace a character o completely, both on and off the et. He ha truly set the bar with hi level of commitment and focu , while rill being approachable for technical adjustment .

I'll never forger TWBB becau e it has the mo t difficult hot I have ever done as a readican1 Operaror: it wa th e hot of D aniel and [the boy] HW approaching the Sunday ranch for the first time. Paul only used the last part of the shor in th e movie that was over Daniel and HW. When we did it, the hot started back about 400 feet, went through a small arroyo, up the other ide and then a gentle uph ill ro rhe hou e where they meet Abel. The hot hold in a lock-off for about a minute and then pan iliem our. It was almo r exacdy four minute long and at magic hour so there wa not much resting between takes. After two or three rehear al and eight take , I wa exhau ted. To make matters wor e, the light was dropping like a stone so we had to change from the 40 C to the E. I'll never forget the Dolly Grip Jeff Kunkel having to upport me as my legs were buckling underneath me. Unbelievably, we ended up hooting that particular scene a total of five time . The first two time were repeats for performance and then they recast Eli unday so we had to re-shoot it. The last few times were also for performance. The one thing that really truck me about PTA was the amount of re- hoot he would do. If my memory erve me correctly, the cene where the local are handing out the pins to the oil worker at the rig was re-shot four times.

What was it like when you heard that you were nominated for the Camera Operator of the Year award?

It' extremely Rattering to be nominated by my indu try p eer as the e are the people that understand the mo t about camera operating and can appreciate the difficulties involved in achieving some of the shots. One alway feels that peer approval carrie much more weight than anyone else' .

able to operate peripherally, to use a monitor to free one's eye to anticipate any number of quick moving and unexpected po ibilirie that can affect framing deci ions. It depends on the type of movie that you're doing. If it i the type of film where everything i planned out preci ely and you don't want any other con equence except for the one that has been di cus ed, then you might use the eyepiece exclu ivel . If you're doing a tion or unscripted shooting it is bert r ro find a way ro see what i going on around you so that you can react to it. I find that ometime I may do a little of both. ometimes u ing the eyepiece for omething important ro kn w if the focu wa good or that you got pa t the fore 路r f rand and then to clo e the eyepiece and tran fer my vi ion to a conveniently placed monitor to react to rhe chao that can en ue and then po sibly back to the eyepiece. I u e whatever metl1od I can that captures what we need in the ea ie t manner with the highe r percentage of confidence in ucce . I hare ro crew it up. Sometime you don't get a econd chance.

Jim McConkey soc on shooting The Kite Runner A fter working up rhe rank from a camera PA to Fir t AC amera perator, Jim Me onkey ha operated on uch film a Romeo is Bleeding, Great Expectations, Ali and 1he Hoax.

He fir t worked with DP Roberro chaefer on th movie tay with director Marc For ter, and their relation hip ha grown to include tranger Than Fiction and At Last before reuniting on 1he Kite Run1ler.

I'\. and then to

Considering your organizing, communicating and composing responsibilities, do you still feel indispensable on the job-both to the DP and to the production?

A good perator is alway indi pen able. Your job i to figure our how to make the shot berrer. How many rime I've been on a er where there is seemingly no rime ro figure out an wer to all the que tions before you are acrually shooting.

In this in ranee, if the DP i trying to find the best way to light a et, rhe director is trying to find the be t way ro tell an actor what to do, and the produc r i tell in you that you ha e to be out of the location in rwo hour with no coming back, a great Operator can be invaluable in helping bring many divergent force together so that everyone effective! works together. Whether that means framing ugge tion or as yet unthought-of solutions and the politics of smoothing out the proces , a good Operator can increase productivity and make "good" hot "great."

Do you still prefer to look through an optical finder when you operate?

I alway prefer to look through the viewfinder ifl can for o many rea on . It i the imple t way to catch orne of the more obvious blunder that can be made, from eeing len Aare 路 and clearly eeing focu to seeing bad thing in the hot that you can't alway catch on a monitor. That being aid, there i a lot to be gained in orne circum ranee from being

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CAMERA OPERATOR:

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Since you are a Steadicam Operator, what do you say when a neophyte asks what it takes to be an Operator, and do I need to do Steadicam?

A lor of people are attracted to the Steadicam initially because it i exciting to do. It is omething that you can learn how to do that can feel like a dance between your elf and the ubject. Not all people are good dancer , though, and the proper rep mu t be learned to rna ter it. Being a good conventional Operator i such an important rep e pecially if you wi h to include teadicam in your bag of trick . A good perator under rand the power of an unmoving frame, something that let the cene unfold and then ro make a camera move in concert with me action to another moment. Too many neophyte teadicam operaror who have little conventional operating experience make the mi rake of moving all the time. They get wrapped up in me ph ical experience of doing teadicam and mi rhe big picture of what i actually being achieved. My best advice i to learn the ba ic , rhe building block of conventional operating and chen tran fer that knowledge to the readican1 if you want to tr it.

Ml EE

pringl umm r 2008

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Tell us what a typical set up process would entail.

My relation hip with Mark For ter, the director and Roberto chaefer, the DP, is one that I cheri 路h. I love to' ork with them because they ask me to be there to offer idea and u estions. Mark works with the actors and feels out what they want from the cene. He tries to incorporate actors' idea into hi plan. Roberto listen and occa ionally whi per to Mark about how to make change that might affect lighting and compo ition. The actor go away and then we

had to be made a we were hooting and Mark and Roberto alwa gave me pace to explore olurion on my own. Bur again, nor much rime to me up.

You shot in some difficult conditions. Tell us a little about that.

Shooting at altitude wi th no time for yo ur body ro adju t ro it can everely hamper your ability to do phy ically demanding hot . D olly h t became even more important. \'(/e ran into mini andstorms that hut u down for hour at rime and cau ed u to change how an d when we did coverage. The torm luckily abated in time ro get the wide hot.

What is the nature of your previous working relationship with Director Mark Forster and DP Roberto Scha fer?

Mark and Roberto, the Fir t AD lichael Lerman nd I had previou ly worked together on tay and tmnger Than Fiction. It feels that at this point we have a shorthand ba e in tru t that make our days work. We all re peer one another and there is rarely any shouting... If we run into a wall or a time con traint we all help to solve it.

How does it feel to be nominated for an award by your peers in the industry and to appear before an audience to explain yourself?

It i an amazing feeling to be called up on a Friday evening and told you are nominated for thi wonderful award. At fir t I thought it was an elaborate practical joke by on of my friend . I was o excited to learn that it wa real! This i 路 the fir t time that thi a' ard has been given and I wi h everyone had the chance to be celebrated for what they lo e to do.

huddle, di cu ing rhe po ibilities. If I have any ideas about hot , I menti n them at that point. Mark goe away and I et up the hor wi th oberco. I fine-rune it as much a po ible. lark come back and ee what we' e accomplished. Again there i a huddle and we finalize th hot as much as po ible before rhe acrors return.

Mark For rer i an unusual and wonderful director. He will a k your opinion. He will a k ou if you have any ideas for additional h t , much to the 1 ' i tant Director' fru trarion. If you how him omerhing d he loves it he may change the enme wa the cene i hot. He i very flexible as long as the tory i not getting rwi ted. We had lot of scene that take place on the ground n they are connected to hot way up in the ky with the kites. He allowed me to play with the vi ual effects team and design orne of the way to ee e kite fight . He kept me involved in many aspects that are nor nece arily in th job de cripti n fCamera Operator.

Did you get to rehearse much?

We didn't have a lor of time ro pia with on Kit. Runner.

You pretty much had ro get it right rhe first or se ond time and move on. That required a lor of conver ation the day before on rraregie for ucce the next day. We w uld rehear e, but nor to death ... e pecially ince a lot o our actor were real people, Mark wanted to let them be as real as po ible without roo much di cu ion. ometime choice pring!Summer 2008

What camera equipment was used for the show?

For this how, Roberto wanted to u e Arriflex. We had the Arricam Studio and Lite cameras, the Ma ter Prime len e , and the Arri 15.5-45 zoom and Angenieux Optima 24-290 zoom len es. We had to be very mobile and flexible. The location were demanding and the ground underneath nor alway predictable. We also had a camera technician,Jeroen Henriks, who worked all night cleaning our camera and ke ping them in working condition. We had a coup! of accident , one where a van unrelated to the movie dro e into our turnaround spot on a remote mountain pas and it dipped the side of our 'camera vehicle'... a cu tom hine e job... Zoren, the focus puller, and I narrowly avoided contact but our tru ty Arricam ST took the brunt of it and wa knocked to the gr und. What to do when you're in the middle of nowhe 路e nd you need to re n truer a camera body? Jeroen c e ro the rescue and r bui lt it with are part.

Another int re ring challeng in hooting in Chin wa that no helicopter could be u ed. It wa a security issue on th border of Pakistan and Afghanistan I gue ... We had to e a mall remote control helicopter and achieve all of our aerial in chi manner. Q0te are triction ... It all came ut well though I think. Though I thank d for image tabilizario n. =t> CA ERA OPER T R:

AMER

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What was the cast like to work with?

The cast wa the most amazing part of working on thi film. The adult actor were from Iran, Egypt, Afghani tan and England and were profe ional actor . The kid were real kid from Kabul. Thi was a completely new world for them and the entire crew felt drawn to protect them and make this a great experience for them. The movie centered on some taboo ubject matter in that part of the world and a uch wa very difficult for the kid to deal with. It i a tribute to the production that there was a concerted effort to get the e kid out of Kabul and into the United Emirate when it became clear how thi movie might affect them and their future in their homeland. I've never heard of a tudio involved in the relocation bu ine s. Even with the kid 'inexperience to a film et, it was amazing to ee how guiclcly they adapted.

They were hitting mark and unblocking them elve from the camera.

They did not have a lot of experience with Engli hand I had none with their language, but it didn't eem to be a problem. It i incredible how much i expre ed in intonation and phra ing and the emotion that are communicated in the eye .

Tell us a little more about the overall experience of shooting Kite Runner.

We rayed mo t of the film in Ka hgar, a city in China that i the furthe t inland of any city in the world. A uch eafood wa not on the local menu a much a mutton. lutton wa everywhere. Everything melled of mutton,

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AMERA O PERATOR: CAMERA OPERATOR OF THE YEAR

ta ted of mutton, reeked of mutton. It eemed to get into everything. It wa nece ary to get rid of the mell and ta te and the only effective option wa through the consumption of wine.

We looked forward to being welcomed at the end of our day by a man who ran a mall hack that old wine. Surpri ingly good Chine e wine. He wa one of the nice t fellow that I met in China even when he had drunk a few. He alway gave away more than he old. He alway at with u and talked, though hi Engli h wa a good a our Chine e. After a couple ofbotcle of Great Wall red it eemed no one had trouble communicating. Through month of shooting we mu t have broken many of hi wine gla se . We were do e to packing up and leaving one night and noticed he had a worried look on his face. We di covered that for every gla broken he was charged an exorbitant rate by the hotel. We took up a collection and bought fifty new wine gla se and pre ented the e a well a a refrigerator to him on our final night. He cried and thanked u and proceeded to drink u under the table. When we returned to Beijing we realized our wonderful wine in Ka hgar wa probably the wor t wine we'd ever had but it canceled out the mutton o I till remember it fondly. I'm not o ure that thi i a funny anecdote but it i a wonderful memory.

Photos for this article by Phil Bray, courtesy ofParamount Vantage.

OMI EE

Spring/Summer 2008

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I

T

he 0 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award were pre enred at the Academy ofTelevi ion' Golden on Theater on February 16'h. n all account it wa a consummate success. Hor d'oeuvre and open bar before, coffee and de sert after, allowed honoree and gue ts to mix and mingle with indu try great , friend and family.

OC Pa t Pre idem, Corporate Liai on and Event Producer David Fred erick acknowledged Platinum, ilver and Ia ic level pon or . lr i through rhe e pon or that rhe can reach our and recognize the achievement of the honoree in uch a plendid fa hion and al o upport our contribution to the Vi ion Center of Children Ho piral of Lo Angele .

Bruce are of Below the Line and Hollywood Q&A returned a Emcee. Hi thorough knowledge and quick wir enlivened the pre entation.

The Honorees and their Presenters Garrett Brown soc, recipient of the fir t OC Hi to ric hor ( 1998) for readicam work in Bou.ndjo1路 Glory, preenred the Governors Award to long rime friend and collaborator, Joe Dunton M B E usc. Brown regaled the long hi tory of ervice and dedication provided by Dunton to camera cre\ and producer worldwide. urrenrly,Joe i a VP and Governor of the Briri h ociery of inematographer and it i hi pa ion to en ure thar today' generation of filmmaker benefit from the va r experience of their predece or . He i

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AMERA O PERATOR: SOC AWARD

forever keen to embrace new technology, forever inventive and eager to experiment, The late great Freddie Franci B thought that "Joe, like an racle, hould be locked away in a room available for con ultation at all time ."

0 Pre idem D an Kneece pre enred the Pre idem' Award to Robert Prime A c, a longtime upporrer of and participant in the 0 , and a frequent in rructor and mentor for a piring Camera perator . Prime came to the podium with an enormou notebook labeled" OC peech" that made most in rl1e audience ga p. He explained that hi colleague Alan Daviau A , who wa known for hi extended acceptance peech at the A C award , helped him prepare hi remark . What en ued in read, after th comic relief, wa an inspiring-and brief-pre entation illu crating hi s fondnes for Camera Operator and the 0 . tephen H Burum A S C pre ented the Mobile Camera perator Award to Larry McConkey o c. Their relationhip goe back to 1998 on films such as Mission Impossible, Car/ito's /1/ay, and nake Eyes. McConkey alread has a ammy for hi Hi torical hot on GoodFellas. He aid, "I hope that my ucces e and tho e of the other member of my generation of teadicam Operator will in pire all tho e that follow to surpa our achievement ." aJeb D e chanel A c hared the merit , warmth and accompli hment of Camera Technician Award winner cott R athner, who pa sed away Ia t year. cott' wife Cheryl and hi children were on hand to a cept the award in hi honor. pringl ummer 2008

Perer Ro enfeld o ' raped recollection added poignancy to the touching video about con' life and accompli hment . eamu McGarvey B c, \ ith everal cinematography nomination on the feature film Atonement, poke for hi good friend and rill Photographer Lifetime Achievement honoree, Fran~oi Duham el s fP S P . McGarvey's charm and parkle wa perfect for gently guiding the audience from orrow over the late con Rathner to appreciation of tho e still\ irh u , as he de cribed the character of Duhamel' photograph and working ryle. (Duhan1el' er photograph filled the evening' program and tribute book of both the tar and the working crew.) Duhamel aid , "Don't forger that on a movie et, people make a movie, not a photo e ion. [The till photographer i ) an invited gue t-the only per on who ha nothing to do with the actual making of the film , ju t an ob erver. Bur you are ague t with an important job-duplicating a director' vision through the medium of photography."

Actor/ director Michael Keaton spoke warmly of hi friend and collaborator, amera Operator Lifetime Achievement honoree M itch Dubin so c. Keaton' glowing remark about

Spring/Summer 2008

Dubin' acco mpli hment and method howed knowledge of the inner working and profe ional nuance of the amera Operator. Dubin' acceptance peech wa from the heart and exhibited great enthu ia m for hi role a the calm in the eye of the torm. He told of the good fortune through hi career to have worked on ome great movie and with exceptionally talented filmmaker . He poke about hi love of the craft, collaborating wicl1 the other craft on et, being a team pia er, and working with director and haring their vi ion. He love itting front row center and wirne ing the magic of a great actor' performance. Mitch Dubin could not imagine doing anything el e. We're glad he doe n'r!

The Russian Ark i a 99-minure feature film con i ring of a ingle readicam hot traveling through the rooms of the Hermitage Mu eum in t Perer burg, Ru sia. It i the longest feature fi lm ever created in a ingle rake, and the man who carried it offi Sreadicam Operator Tilman Buttner, who

CAMERA OPERATOR:

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received the Hi torical hot award. Larry McConke so c, legendary for long teadicam shot , gracefully pre emed Tilman with his award with hi teeth clenched in appreciation of being bested in this category. teadicam inventor and legend Garrett Brown o rook the stage and then on hi knee hook Tilman' hand in a grand ge ture of appreciation of hi accompli hment. To add to the pirit of the celebration, Tilman agreed to walk from the lobby to accept hi award wearing the newe t teadican1 equipped with a Panavi ion ene i can1era di playing a live HD picture on the big creen on the rage. It wa a brilliant execution, in tuxedo, and he wa hardly out of breath when making hi acceptance peech.

The pay tribute to the equipment pro-vider for de igning and producing the exceptional equipment that we call our roo! eta Camera perator.

The new Ultra 2 i the lighte t, toughe t, trong-e t, mo t advanced teadicam ever. Pre enting the award wa Pre idem and teadicam in tructor/ world cia teadicam operatOr, D an Kneece.

Accepting the Technical Achievement award were T iffen Company pre idem Steven Tiffen, Steac:Ucam Ultra 2 inventor Garrett Brown, J erry Holway and Robert Orf and Tiffen' We t oast Operation Chief, Frank Rush.

Dean Semler ASC, having recently u ed the Panaviion Gene i for Apocalypto, Click, and the current Get mart, ha now dedicated him elf tO the Gene i HD camera y tern. Dean wa the perfect choice tO pre em the Technical Achievement Award to Panavi ion Inc for their Gene i digital cinema camera. Accepting the award for Panavi ion wa John Galt, their enior ice Pre idem of Advanced Digital Lnaging. To over ee the creation of the Gene i can1era, Galt came from ony Picture High Definition Center a the VP of the HD Technology Development. Hi exten ive engineering background and Panavi ion' experience have created a high performance electronic imaging y tern with unprecedented ver atility. The Gene i camera i now a major part of the land cape offeature fi lm and television production.

D avid Frederick soc presented the OC Distingui hed ervice Award to George Spiro Dibie A c. It i well known that George defended the camera operatOr po ition in the IA Hollywood contract that kept u working on every union film and television project. He till participate in SO

22

CAMERA O PERATOR: 50

AWARD

program and gather hi A work hop and eminars.

colleague to join u in our

New Award Displays Current Talents It i mandatory that we continue tO di play the need to have talented Camera Operator a part of production no matter what the union contracts dictate. There is no better way to exemplify thi than to celebrate working Camera Operator on popular and critically acclaimed film of our day. TI1i wa me rea on for creating me newe t 0 honor category- am era Operator of the Year.

The award wa pre emed by a Camera perator legend, the man known to have collaborated with the fabulou ly talented DP Gordon Willis A c and who became a world renowned DP him elf: Michael C hapman ASC. From the celebrated feature film and nominee on page 5-18 of thi i ue, me active member hip voted to elect Jacques Jouffret o c a the fir t Camera Operator of me Year. ongratulation to Jacque for hi outstanding arti tic effort and tamina in the Ala kan wilderne s on Into the Wild.

SOC Awards Background ince 19 9 me 0 ha been gathering to appreciate the fellowship of the craft and to celebrate the effort and accompli hmem ofi member and it indu try upporter . ince meir inception in 1981, the e OC Gala award pre entation have celebrated the truth of the effort behind me cene , the typically un ung heroes of me creen, the brilliantly talented and elfle s craft people who have dedicated meir live to meir craft. It i the humility and heart, not the glamour and glitz, which are honored at the awards.

Hi Def Awards Show The image projected onto me Televi ion Academy' onstage creen were breathtaking. The live pre entation was captured by three Panavi ion Cine Alta F 950 et up by Andy Romanoff, Bob Harvey, Marker Karahadian and Mike Kovacevich of Panavi ion. Brian cott' On Your Mark Production provided the Operator and hot election, and OC charter member Jay efcy was the DIT. SONY Electronic provided and in talled me brilliant Sony R110 (lOK lumen) 4K digital projector with a i ranee from OC corporate affiliate Dhanendra Patel and Andrew Stucker.

Thi brought a dynamically bright cri p and clear Hi-Def Spring/Summer 2008

-

image of both the live presenter and award peeche and the HD video clip of the honoree ' accomplishments.

Produced and directed by Phil chwartz o , the honoree egments were hot in HD on the Pana onic HVX200 by OC member Robert C Fi her. All film clip were enhanced to 10 Oi re olution and edited by Bob Joyce. Aiken Wei o was A ociate Producer. pecial OC appreciation goes to Kino Flo' Frieder Hochheim for providing the tudio pace and lighting for the interview .

The entire evening's pre entation wa captured, uncompre ed, on the DV digital data torage device, GV$9000 2V VTR/DDR Di k Ba e HD DI Recorder. (Complete detail : www.gv 900.com) Thi allowed for the eamle data capture of the entire event as well a uncompre ed rorage and playback of our recorded egment .

After the event, Chri Knell ofFireLine tudio edited a web tream with a very hort turnover time and accelerated workAow, working directly with the digital capture file . pring/Summer 2008

The thank Kri ten Petrovich for providing the HDExpo Corporate affiliate upport with the Award event web tream for the econd year.

Additional Credits Mark Lange' California Event taff erved deliciou and beautifully pre ented food and drink, while idney Frank Importing provided Tommy Bahama Ultra-Premium Rum cocktails: Tommy' Mojito, Co mopolitan and Golden un et.John torie' jazz guitar, ax and ba quartet provided lively and entertaining mu ic for the reception and quick mu ical elections for each honoree approaching the podium.

Plea e join u at next year' Lifetime Achievement Award .

~ AMERA OPERATOR: SOC AWARD

23

the fictiriou Jeffer onian In tirute. But it i the romantic tension between Bones and Booth that provide the through line of the how and make up a lor of it overall character.

Ju t completing it third eason, the Bones vi ual have been helmed by Gordon Lon dale for the past two season . A veteran cinematographer, hi credi t include Northern Exposure, The Magnificent even and High chool Musical. When Lon dale joined " Bones, he brought with him ~ longtime collaborating amera ~ z Operator reg Collier o g and Don Muirhead o .

The romantic ten ion between Bones and Boocl1 (David Boreanaz) provide Collier' vast experience me how and makes up a lot of it overall character. include C Y:NY and Emily's Reasons Why Not as well a The ach week, foren ic anthropologi t Temperance "Bone " Magnificent Seven, Providence and orthern Exposure (a I ' Brennan, MD (Emily De chanel ) and her foren ic team AC) with Lon dale. A veteran teadicam operator, Muirhead help FBI Agent eeley Booth (David Boreanaz) solve (unfortunately on a leave of ab ence at the time of thi interview) ha worked on World's Fastest Indian and Because my teriou death by meticu lously analyzing the evidence at

E

Lon dale help me investigative mood of me cene by adding a bit of armo ph ere.

26

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I aid o a well as collaborating with Lon dale on the High choollvlusical erie .

"To me, my Camera Operator are key," ays Lon dale. "I couldn't do the how without them. My A and B Operator are equally important and I feel the arne way about our as i rant . Greg ha been with me ince orthern Exposure and Don, who i on our B-camera, has worked with me for fifteen year . o by horrhand, I can tell them what the cene i and they can do it. That aves us a lot of time. Having that experience with me ha really helped. From day one on Bones, we were moving forward." hot primarily on the Fox lot, the Bones camerawork and lighting varie from epi ode to epi ode.

"The producer are pretty free Aowing on our show," Lon dale explains. "And thi make thing really fun . Hart Han on, the creator of the how, will not alway go the ame direction with every cript. o if he goe a different direction with the characters, I can go a different direction with the lighting and the camerawork. We've done orne where we u e teadicam for only one scene and other epi ode where Don pring!Summ r 2008

doe n't take the teadicam off for the entire how." " ordon i a big fan of handheld photography," ays oilier. "But he only likes to use it if it is driving the tory point forward , o we're Aexible. This i the orr of how that jump from tandard mode, to handheld, to Steadicam, to remote head very easily. We u e all the tool we can and integrate them into the ryle of the show. We don't try to call attention to it like, 'Hey, now we're Steadicam! Hey, now we're handheld. Hey, now we're on a crane.' We try to make it all seamle ."

As the feel of each script change , the look and feel of the visuals adapt accordingly. " ometime we have really dark cene becau e of the nature of what is going on," de cribe Lon dale. "In one epi ode, there was a u peered murderer in theJeffer onian In titute. o Ian Toynton, our producer, said that we should keep the whole how dark and moody becau e we never know what i happening nex1:. And then there are other epi ode , where we mix the dark cene when we are finding dead bodies with brighter humorou scenes. So the show AMERA OPERATOR:

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27

doe nor have ju r one look.

All our work i determined by the cene them elve .

That i what the producer have a ked me ro do. They love the dark look, but do not think that it alway work , e pecially when rhere i a cene that require humor.

Luckily, that allow u to experiment with the dark, no light on the hadow ide of the face, a well as the brighter, more comedic lighting."

"On Bones; Collier add , "certain thing may change from epi ode to epi ode, bur there i alway a con i tency of ttucrure that run through every epi ode. I think that' really important.

When the mood is more comedic, Lonsdale changes the lighting to fit the cene.

Even when we are running our oflighr or running our of rime in the day, the look and level compo irion and framing of each hot e pecially when of quality of our work doe nor change." omething change and we need to think on our feet. And Lon dale includes hi OperatOr in the proce a early a because rhe OperatOr i the one who ha to pull off the hor, po ible in each setup. it i really important that he i included in the creation ofir.

"A lot of rimes as a direcror i trying to explain what they I watch Gordon and the direcror a they walk around the need," he explain , "I walk them right over ro the Operator . ser. l ger a en e for where they want the camera and I can ger I don't want to li ten to the directOr and then try to tell that in motion before they a k for ir. the OperatOr what he want . I let them talk ro each other I've got a good relation hip with Gordon and our returnbecau e that communication is e ential to the how. It work ing director on thi how, o they give me the broad rroke a lor better." and I fill in the finer point . oilier add , "I'd like ro think that one of my bigge r I like to think that I can walk into a hot, work with a contribution ro the how i my opinion and input to the director and DP, block it our, make adju tments that don't require a lot of change and have the fore ight to anticipate what problem might occur. I help direct attention ro where it need to be all in preparation to complete the hot a nece ary.

I really have fun on thi how. Every day I come in ro a new challenge. It ha a great balance. Bones ha a little bit of everything. It' funny, ir' erious, and jumping around thematically allow u to jump around creatively with rhe camera to complement that tyle."

Bones use an Arri camera package from Otto emenz.

"Gordon has u ed Otto' as long a I've known him," explains ollier. "They do Fla hlights create more ten ion as Brennan and Cam di cover a body in an incinerator. a great job for u . We have

28

AMERA OPERATOR: SOLVI

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pringl ummer 2008

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an LT and an T. I'm on the ST, which I like a lot. I like the viewing y rem and the ergonomic of the camera. It i a real comfortable camera to get into. I have alway been a big fan of the Arrihead II and the e Angenieux zoom len e are incredible. We have a 12-1 and a 4-1. They are our workhor e

pring!Summer 2008

lenses, but we also have a er of Ultra Prime .

The LT i often built for teadicam and remain there.

Don, our B-Camera Operator, wiU u e our C body which i a Moviecam Compact Mark II. He prefer the LT, but if it look like we are going to jump to Sreadicam it i ea ier to u e the C camera body."

Bone ha everal tanding et , the large t of which i the Jeffer on ian In titute et which take up the entirety of rage 9.

"I alway feel that standing et hould be your home," explain Lon dale. "It i a place that should be ea ie ton the crew lighting-wi e. I try to hang [plenty of] Light in the ceiling anticipating what may happen.

Thi i e pecially true in the big area of our Jeffer on ian ln titute et. I knew that they would want to walk and talk all over the floor, o I tr to have enough light there so they can do a walk and talk with the addition of very few additional light . A lor of times, we go in there and it' more a matter of AMERA OPERATOR :

SOL VI

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THE MYSTERY

OF

80 ES

29

rurning exi ring lights off for a certain scene, and for other , turning a few more lights on. I kind of overlight the set initially and turn light on and off as needed. Thi save u a lot of time in the long run.

All the lights our ide the window can lide back and forth.

I can pot them or flood them a needed. They can be quickly diffu ed if the cene call for that, or I can go hard light. The grip can change the color if nece ary. It' a pretty ver atile Ct."

Although they make the mo t of their et and other location on the lot, Bones makes frequent trips to practical location .

"The fir t thing I do at a practical location," ay Lon dale, "i look at what is existing, what I have to work with that will

al o work within the cene that we are hooting. ometime it is a matter of turning lights off and upplementing with our own units. We u e what i there for the wide shot , then we may cover up the ceiling lighting and relight for the do e up .

Other time , there i nothing there, owe bring in everything. But I look at all the et and all the location a a que tion of how can I light my rna ter to be t complement getting the do e-ups and coverage quickly.

Recently, we hot an epi ode of Bones on the et ofKel ey Grammer' itcom, Back to You. When I walked in and looked up, there were a million light . That's becau e in the itcom world, they never know where the actors are going to be week to week. o they have lights everywhere ju t to be ready. For me it was uch a challenge to decide which one we

needed to keep the Bones look becau e we couldn't touch or move them. Bur they had lights everywhere I needed one, o it was pretty exciting."

"Going on location is always harder on u ;路 ay Collier. "We had an epi ode Ia t week where we hot in San Pedro. It wa a memorial funeral on the beach, a five-page cene with even speaking actor and about thirty extra .

The next day we were at a marina on the pier. The cene were all handheld and all the equipment needed to be phy ically carried onto the beach and down the pier and back.

We were dependent on natural light both day , o we probably had le than ten-hour day . But I'll tell you, at the end of both day everybody wa exhau ted.

That i the challenge a lot of time , ju t the amount of excursion you put in to achieve what need to be done. ometime the challenge are the logi tic . We walk in and say, "Thi i a great place to hoot. ow how are we going to pull it off?" And then we figure it our. We figure out how the cameras are going to get down there. We figure out

30

CAMERA OPERATOR: OLVI G THE MY TERY OF

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pringl umm r 2008

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where the Operators are going to be and how we are going to hoor rhe cene."

When the Lo Angele location do nor quite match the look of the location the script demand , the producer move to vi ual effects to help them out creatively.

"I would ay that every epi ode ha at lease one or rwo cene where we replace our background , ay Lon dale.

"A lot of time , they'll put some DC architecture in the background of our hot .

Shooting in LA, we don't have the Virginia background . o we hoot the foreground of our cene knowing that they'll put in the lu h Virginia background or hesapeake Bay in the di ranee.

We'll end a team back Ea t to hoot plate for u . Then, here again t green creen, we'll hoot the foreground of Booth and Brennan. When ic' done, they are om on the quare in Wa hington D .

The only thing I do differently for the e hot i try to march the lighting from the DC plate . I also keep track of the len e and camera height to make ure it i believable." hooting3-perf. Lon dale has Kodak Vi ion 2 5299 HD Color can loaded in hi camera magazine .

"I really love it. Ir' a great rock. You can't print it o you have to do a digital intermediate if you are going to film. Bur

Becau e of Lonsdale' pre-lighting plan, walk and talks take on I

32

CAMERA OPERATOR:

OLVI G THE MYSTERY OF 80 E

for relevi ion, it is a fantastic rock. It allow me to hoot in a practical location with 2000 A A and tie my lighring into the exi ring lighting, which i ju t awe orne.

On the rage, I rate it at lOOOA A and when I need a little more, I can rate it a high a 2000. Outdoor I rate it at 320 with the 85 filter a the ba e expo ure. It handle the highlight really well.

We've talked about shooting HD and will mo t likely calk again with the new 5K RED camera chat' coming our or perhap abom the ene i . We'd rather go to that t pe of HD format than the 21.3 inch chip camera ."

The fa t pace of epi odic televi ion demand a rotating group of directors for any eries.

Bone i no exception.

"That' one of the fun parr of working on epi odic relevi ion;' explain oilier. "You know the returning director and know how co work with them. And when a new director come in, it is exciting. You are hoping char they bring omething fre h ro the how. I won't ay omething new to the how, becau e there i n't a lor new you can bring to a erie becau ewe already have a style, we have a look. Bur that' why they bring in new director , to ee what new blood they can bring to the how."

Gordon add , "The good directors have watched every epi ode chat ha been done, o they come in already knowing the Spring/Summer 2008

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The workspace urrounding the foren ic team (TJ Thyne & Eric Millegan) owes it high tech look to the work of the entire Bones crew.

what i a Bones thing and what i n'r. We'll go through ever cene and di cu what rhe look i going to be. Mo r rime that will determine whether it i going to be handheld, dolly, or readicam. We know all tho e thing before we ever tart the epi ode.

L1 addition I have a logi tic meeting with my camera, grip, and electric department . I go through what we are doing in each cene each day o everyone can be prepared and ready."

Even with all that preparation, the daily push of the televi ion chedule put a lot of demand on rhe crew.

"Televi ion doe move fast," ay Lon dale. "A lot of time , the guy are having to operate and a i ton rehear al . But I've been an a i tanr and I've been an Operator too, o I know what the have to do to get the hot. When we have to, we ju r ay they need a minute to et thi up and other time I know the can get ir."

"On a hard hor," oilier explain . "I'll just tell people, 'I'm going to need a couple here before I'm up to speed on thi .

We've ju r got to figure thi out.' Experience determine when 0 ~ you can ay that. You can't do that with every shot, but when - you do, people under tand. ยง You don't want to a k the fir t team for too many rehear al , ~ becau e mo t actors want to keep it fre h. The great thing ~ about thi ca tis they'Ll alwa give you a much technical With a forensic ream member fighting for her life, Lon dale put rehear al a you need. I'll look at them and ay, 'I don't need a omber edge on the Lighting in this ho pita! cene' ith Booth. a performance, we ju t need to work out the technical .' David

look of the how. Bur I alwa have a lunch meeting with a director before we tart hooting. We go through the cripr and talk about the thing he or he want to do and about

34

AMERA OPERATOR: OLVI G THE MYSTERY OF

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Spring/Summ r 2008

and Emily are great about that. And Ryan ' eal, who come in a lor a ague t cast member, ju r look ar me and ay , 'Greggy, what do you need?' That makes my job ea ier, bur ou don't want to abu e char." erring rhe mo r our of any hooting day demand working on-the-fly a much a it doe following a pree tabli hed plan. " omerime ," Lon dale explain , "I'll get the A-Camera to follow an acror and then turn to B-Camera and ay, 'I need chi , I need a do e-up here and that close-up there.' o they pick up hor a the cene progresses. I always have radio contact with my Operator , o ifl need to change omething even in the middle of a cene, I can do ir. We can ger the hor we need and move on to the next cene. I have found thar radio have been totally helpful in being able to communicate with my Operator . I can be irring ar the monitor wirh the director and right afi:er the hor, Greg can come on the radio and let me know of a problem and I can let the director know he didn't get a particular part of rhe cene. Radio to me are ju t a key to peed."

"E pecially in TV:' ays Collier. "To be able to make an adju tment ro make the director of photography or the director happy in tantaneou ly make the entire proces so much faster and moocher."

"Bones hoot an eighr day epi ode," ay Lon dale, "but we'll alway have ar lea tone day of full on 2"d Unit per epi ode. To keep rhe look of the how con i rent, Erik

pringl umm r 2008

Mes er chmidt, my gaffer, wrote what we call the 'Bible.' Ir i a everal page document which outline the look of Bones.

The people that come in to hoot 2"d Unit, borh rhe DP and the gaffer , are given thi .''

A-Camera Operator Greg Collier ha moved up to DP on many of the e 2"d Unit day . " o matter how big or mall an additional unit I go out with as a OP;' ay Collier, "Gordon alway makes ure char

AMERA OPERATOR: OLVI G THE MY TERY OF

80 ES

35

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l ha e an Operator with me. There is never a que tion about that. The perator and DP po ition are two different job with their own ta k .

It' been a great les on for me to have the opportunity and have an Operator. I get to concentrate on watching the lighting and working with the director. I don't have to jump back and worry about the camera work and framing. And that i a compliment to the Operator we have."

With extra unit on every schedule, Bones needs to bring in additional Operator for each epi ode.

from that day and l'U read them, but you really don't know what' going on.

Walking onto a set, especially on a TV how that i e tabli hed, you are really walking into an organic personality of it own. And you real! have to figure out quick how you are going to adapt into that per onality and how ou're going to fit. ometimes it work , and sometimes it doe n't.

That i the really, really tricky thing for me about operating.

I've" alked onto orne et and tarred talking to the director or I tart talking to a producer or DP and ... they don't want

"Having a Camera Operator allows me to make a mUCh more beautiful piCtUre/' -Gordon Lonsdale "When I bring in a day player," say Lon dale, "they have to be ju t a good a my A- amera Operator because I'll use them anywhere I can to get a hot. If their camera i in the right place, they become the A-Camera for that hot. I u e all my camera a if they are the be t Operator in the world and that th y'Uget the shot for me."

A an Operator, Collier know the difficulty of coming onto an establi hed how.

"When I'm a day player, he says, "one of the harde t thing i to walk onto a et totally cold. Odd are l have not een the how and I certainly haven't read the cript. I might get page

36

AMERA OPERATOR: OLVI G THE MY TERY OF 80 E

to talk to me. I ju t go over and sit by the camera. Every se t is different and you ju t figure that out. ometime I'll go talk to a director and people will be like, ' ee, the other Operator don't talk to the director. They ju t wait for him to talk to them .' You feel your way.

You just have to be bold and ay, 'Thi i what I need to be.'

Be confident in your era& a an perator o that when you walk in, you ju t ay, 'Thi i how I do my job.' Be confident in that and proceed. You figure out the dynamic of the how and modify your approach to a imilate a quickly a po ible. pringiSummer 2008

It' hard a a day player, which i why we try to have the people that we do bring in, come in more often. Then, they're familiar with the how. The 're familiar with the per onality of the et."

A a former Operator, Lon dale enjoys getting behind the camera.

"I love operating," he ay . "It wa really hard for me to give it up becau e it i one of the mo t fun jobs on the et. When we have ituation where we only have room for one person, like in a car or on an extremely mall et, I take the opportunity to be with the director.

Bur generally I find I don't have that luxury o I have to give all the great hot , the crane hots and other fun hot like that to my Operator .

I can't a enough about the importance of m Operator .

I could not do a show without them. They do more than ju t operate the camera. They are my other et of eye on the set.

The be t thing about having a Camera Operator is that it allows me to make a much more beautiful picture. Becau e when I'm tuck on the camera and trying to operate and light the picture at the a.me time, a lor of time there are lighting thing that I would love to change bur can't. When you rand back and let your perator do hi job, then you can look at lighting. You can look at the actor ' face , you can adju t a key light and do aU the Lirde thing that you can't do when you have your two hand on the wheel and are looking through the len ."

Through all the pre ure that a weekly episodic chedule exerts, the Bones crew work like a well-tuned engine.

"It i one of the be t camera crew I have ever worked with;' ay oilier. "Our fir t a i tant , teve' pike' Barne and Maurizio ' ino' Dono are two of the mo t experienced and be t focu puller I have ever worked with. They are in an elite league of their craft.

When you have guy at the level of their experience, it brings in a dynamic that elevate the camera department to a very profe sional po ition. There are a lot fewer mi take .

There' a lot le equipment being em back and forth becau e it wa damaged or improperly u ed.

When I can remove my elf from the a i rant' job and just focu on my work, it make me a better Operator. That i what we have here on Bones.

That goe for the dolly grip a well. Gerrit Garret en is my dolly grip and he' a very ea oned profe ional. And when you work with people at thi level, you don't have to explain a much. You just turn to them and they ay, ' Yeah, yeah, I know.' And the next take, it ju t happens."

"Every per on on my crew i important," ay Lon dale.

"Hopeful! in the cour e of a day or in the cour e of a week, I can compliment them and make them realize how important they are to me. And then , I find that the return are great; they give me o much to help make the how better."

~

-

Pirates of

shadow Island

by Laurie K Gilbert soc

PHOTO

prin

COURTE Y OF

ummer 2008

Ric LAWE

, PRODUCER

T

hailand ha been a filmmaker ' Mecca for decade becau e it offer a unique blend of exotic location , highly experienced crew , co t effective production upport, en ational food and a truly charming culture. With clever ca ting, background and prop selection, the Thai country ide can pretend to be virtually any tropical country in the world. ur project wa conceived a an HD film for cinema that wa going to take full advantage of all the ingenuity and re ource that Thailand ha to offer to put Hollywood tyle production value on the creen, but for a more reasonable A ian tyle budget.

Filmmaking has always been a collaborative art form and on thi venture, the executive producer wa from Au tralia, the director and the editor were both from the UK and the co -producer and upport crew were all experienced international and Thai profe ional . The actor originated from Singapore, U A, UK, with additional ca t who were a combination of Thai ba ed We terner and Engli h peaking Thai .

There appeared to be a lot of talent and experience both in front of the camera and in the production team and once date were confirmed and airline ticket i ued, key per onnel Aew in from around the world to meet at the Bangkok production office of CAMERA OPERATOR: PIRATE OF SH ADOW I LA D

39

The crew et up the remote head to film the tribal banquet

an exciting motion picture project to be called Shadow

Island.

With only 21 day to hoot a multitude oflocations and complex equences on land and at ea, the producer had chosen to go with a ream of two DP/ Operator who would both have equal raru in the production and who would combine their experience and talent with their complementary kill to keep the production moving at a fa t, co t-effecrive pace.

D P Carroll Raver had 30 years' experience operating globally from ew York shooting car commercials and agency film project . He wa a tout ebullient giant of a man who wa quietly confident in hi craft and yet an extraordinary raconteur and entertainer. Hi imitation of a Texa pigcalling competition had the We remer on the crew rolling in the ai le and the Thai crew taring with stunned amazement.

Half man and halffi h, he never mi ed a ingle opportunity

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CAMERA OPERATOR: PIRATES OF SHADOW ISLA D

to jump in the ea and although he was a stranger to Thailand, he was delighted to combine the challenges of working in a new country with learning about its proud people and their deep, historic culture.

I have pent more than twenty years shooting drama and documentarie throughout A ia and wi th a olid foundation hooting current affair on film, am adaptive, fa t and deci ive in my cinematography and in my operating. What eventually evolved between u wa a formula we called Ma ter Cam and Magic Cam. Carroll was happie t setting up the big master hot that rook full advantage of aU the production value in the extraordinary locations our talented Thai a sociate procured for u . Once the rna rer hot wa et and the actors had e tablished how they would play the scene, I worked our independently how be t to tell the sto ry with a eries of rapidly acquired do e up that complemented Carroll' wide pring!Summer 2008

hot. If the performance and ae thetic of the hot worked for me on take one, my camera grip team would quickly relocate my camera and I would find another hot election, o that at the end of maybe three double-camera take , the editOr would have a huge election of different image from the Ma ter Cam and the Magic Cam, tO tell hi wry. The e evolutionary practice made very time-effective u e of both operatOr 'talent and skill . hadow Island wa hot for cinema on rwo Cinealra HD camera upplied by inerent Bangkok, rhe arne com pan that mo r of the camera crew, light and production equipment also came from. Thailand ha o many feature film in production at any given time that the e local film teams eem to operate together full time and rhey were all highly experienced con ummare profe ional , a well a being truly charming people.

At the time the film wa hot, Thailand wa very new ro HD cinematography for cinema relea e and in reality our equipment wa extremely imple and ba ic by current global production randard . We had rwo Cinealta Sony F900 camera bodie . arroll had an Angenieux Cine len adaptor with a et of prime and an Angenieux 10: lien . I hot 95% of the film on three uperb ba ic len e 1Omm, 20mm and 40mm Zei s uper- peed which were designed to fir direccly onto my camera body. We had one Miranda back, a randard definition monitor and a range of filter -that was it! o HD monitor, no DIT, no HD playback-but we did have two DP/ Operator, an incredibly experienced Thai camera upport crew, a clever cript and a much profe ionali m, pas ion and fun a it' po ible for one multinational crew ro exude!

After a week of pre-production and cultural adaptation, the first location on the call heer was a small beach in the rown of arrahip, a horr drive outh from the recreational city of Patrya. Ar dawn on the first hoot day, a convoy of gaffer, grip, can1era and audio vehicle ail rendezvou ed with Tracking the cast in the jungle as the I land begin to claim it victim . pring!Summer 2008

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the honey wagon that had already e tablished their po ition at the edge of the Thai jungle. Multicultural introduction were made throughout the crew and any of the We terners new to the graciou culture ofThailand were quickly ma tering the legendary "wai" greeting with palm pre ed rogether and a courteou bow of the head. Within an hour of arrival, the large crew of more than 80 people had bonded over a hot breakfa t into a tight production team and uddenly it was time to et up the fir t hot of the film.

The creen rory of hadow Island begin on the ill-fated day that a mall group of China Sea i lander ob erve an

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ominou looking chooner anchor off hore and a fully laden cutter depart the hip and head for their village. A the cutter ride up onto the beach, ruthle pirate tride confidently a hore to evaluate the island and it inhabitants for spoil and booty. nee the pirate chief di cover that large green emerald play a ignificant part in the pi ritual practice of the native , the inc itable fate of the imple i lander i quickly ealed in blood but not before the my tical i land i enveloped in a cur e that will be active for generation to come.

Match di olve tO the pre ent day-to the home of a very rich and equally ruthle antique dealer in Bangkok who eem to have a very dark foundation to hi enormous wealth and ocial , ucce . Hi on ha recently graduated from univer ity and a a reward for hi hard work and academic endeavour , the father ugge t that hi on and three tudent friend take hi boat, D estiny, tO the arne littl e tropical i land where he and hi rudent friend celebrated their po t graduation freedom ome thirty yea r previously.

Oblivious to the true motives of his father, the on accept the offer, make contact with the trange, eafaring kipper of the D estiny and the following day ali five of them et ail for ome well earned tropical re t and Spring/Summer 2008

recreation. What the on doe not realize i the i land cur e had been activated by the father who role emerald from the i land that became the foundation to his m reriou wealth.

The father know that a debt mu r be paid and that iffate cannot claim from one generation, it will claim from the next. Within a very horr time the rudent adventurer di cover that their pre ence on the i land may be far from accidental and by the rime they realize that their live are being offered in acrifice, it i roo late to rever e the inevitable. One by one, they fall victim to the terror a the I land it elf stalk them and begin ro kill them.

Where the production wa faced with budget challenges, the cripr writer conceived an ingeniou roryrelling device in the form of a comic book which depict the hi tory of an i land cur e and it destructive effect on vi iror to the i land.

One of the rudent has bought the comic book from a my reriou Chinaman and plan to read it later on rhe i land.

If the film crew faced in urmOLmtable problem recreating elaborate drama equence or expen ive pecial effect , we

could imply introduce them into the film a equence from the comic book, at the post production rage. hadow Island wa shot 100% on location and there wa nor a ingle hot originating in a studio. We never ee the pirate before they approach the beach in their cutter, o the original pirate hip wa hor as a miniature in front of blue creen. The iruation wa very different with the Destiny however and we had complex day and night multi camera horror equence to recreate on what wa very limited deck pace. The olution wa to locate the Ma ter Cam tripod on deck and the Magic Cam pulling the dialogue revere with the camera operator handholding and harne ed "over the side" of the ship-a little radical perhaps, bur both flexible and effective! All the boar sequences were hot at sea thi way and even when the ca t and crew wa uddenly engulfed in a tropical rorm, the actor modified their line to integrate the dramatic thunder and lightning into their dialogue ... "The cur e ofThe I land is already upon u . Hurry, we have very little rim e!" =*>

The pi rare begin co rurhle ly kill rhe native and claim the spoil - large green emerald . pring!Summer 2008

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alway eemed to be driven by a my terious, emi-familiar hinaman , rather than the local Thai . At one stage I found my elfharnes ed backward on the tiny tailgate of one of these machine , shooting forward with the aid of a rever ed monitor and looking directly into the tartled face of the Bangkok commuter behind me.

One of the mo t pectacular location in the film i a huge bat cave that in the to ry i hidden behind a dramatic waterfall at a warerhole we found in one of the national parks. The waterhole i the original ource of the raw emerald which the native prince is obliged to retrieve from a ecret cache when the pirate threaten her fatl1er' life. The pirate never di cover tl1e cave behind the waterfall, but the antique dealer did on hi original vi it and both generation of the arne family eventually eal their re pective fate by de ecrating the idol a they attempt to teal the emerald .

The bat cave location wa literally the volume of a cathedral and we had to run power cables and tran port our equipment through long narrow crevice and low wet tunnel . The main body of the cave had thou and of talactite and talagmite covering its urface, and a small Rowing river Peter, the on of the antique dealer, negotiate the price of the com ic with the on the Roor of the cave was fed from the wet m terious Chinan1an. cliff! out ide. It wa both impractical and unreali tic to try and light the va t wall of the cave it elf, but offer the my tical comic in return for a simple prayer at the the Rowing river gave u the in pi ration for an improvi ed local temple were all hot in a very old Chine e warehou e in olution. My grip made me up large, hallow, aluminum tray Bangkok that we dre ed with ru tic helve , fake antique in which I Roared hard of mirror glued to mall piece of book and backlit pider webs. Throughout the film, our poly tyrene. When the tray and mirror were placed in the transport for the talent was tl1e ubiquitous ruk-ruk that

The extravagant man ion that depicted the home of the antique dealer wa a palatial country home located out ide Bangkok which has hosted innumerable televi ion commercial and drama crew . All the cripted jungle equence were hot in genuine jungle location around Thailand and the inclu ion ofindu trial ized wind and rain machine allowed u to increa e the malevolence of the undergrowth a The Island it elf tarts to take it revenge on the sacrificial victim .

The atmo pheric equence where a my terious Chinaman

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Radical camera operator olutions to space chaJienges on the Destiny.

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Right: A the rudents first arrive on the i land, there i little indication of the malevolence and tl1e fate that await them . Master am and Magic am are working in eamle ynchronization.

Below: hooting the ricks ha, sequence that develop the relation hip between aptain Robard of the Destiny and hi four pas engers, u ing tl1e local ver ion of a camera car.

river hallow and hit with the SK we created a dancing pattern of controllable light that would partially illuminate and reflect the texture of the cave wall behind the talent.

For three week we ro e before dawn, improvised cinematographic olutions all day and era hed into bed with the belief that we were creating a multi million dollar motion picture pecracle for a fraction of that price.

Theca r e pecially gave the production 100%, in what were ofi:en extreme and difficult environmental condition the faced live cobr , treacherou ea current , ho rile jungle quick and and icy cold waterfall , with never a ingle complaint. n the 21 sc day of hooting we wrapped the Ia t hot of the film standing in the freezing water at the mouth of the bar cave and celebrated with congratulatOry beer and a en e of profe ional pride and optimi m for the final film.

But a one of the actOr had o eloquently improvi ed during cl1e lightning torm, "The cur e of The I land i already upon us" and omewhere between the initial "wai" to car and crew, and the anticipated ediringproce , all the wheel feU off the project through lack of lubrication .

The real pirates strike ...

Unbeknownst tO the production crew, all had nor been well behind the cene and the creen credit claimed by one of the enior creative talent of the film hadn't rood up to the due diligence in rigared by the inve tor for the film. The finance that the inve rors kept promi ing the producer throughout the film wa never forcl1coming. The producer alway believed they had enough money tO actually hoot the film, o they cho e tO pre on with what limited finance they po e ed, confident that they could ub equencly project dramatic ru he onto an HD cinema screen to attract potential inve cor .

Afi:er the hooting had wrapped another enior member of the creative ream, perhap a little up er at nor being paid immediately, tried to exact a far higher price man had been agreed and when that tactic failed, he "liberated" the rna rer

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CAMERA OPERATOR: PIRATE OF SHA DOW I LA D

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tapes and concealed them weU beyond the reach of the film ' producer . He chen e cabli hed a web ice outside the country that totally denigrated the profe ional reputation of the production team who were trying to refinance the project.

Any chance the producers ever had of getting new inve tor and guiding Shadow Island through po t production to global cinema release vircuaUy disappeared the day the master tapes were hidden, especiaUy after the de cruccive influence of the web ice kicked in globally.

Money wa craped together to hire international lawyer and the web ice wa finaUy do ed down after a year online, but che damage to the producers' credibility and the integrity of the project appeared to be irreparable. Arre t warrants were issued in Thailand for the instigator and there are w1 ub tantiaced torie of dramatic hotel and airport takeout with ecret flight to alternative Thai airport as at least one per on ought to elude the police, avoid arre t and e cape the country.

More chan eighteen months after the hooting wa wrapped and ail the crew had returned unpaid to our home , expen ive legal pres ure prevailed and the tapes were finally returned to the producer in Thailand.

Phoenix-like attempt are now Jane is the fir t victim of the I land's cur e as she i sucked into the quicksand.

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being made to re-finance rhe po r in Hawaji and ger a version of rhe film into fe rivals and ar least onto DVD o rhar all of u can finally be paid orne rime in rhe furure!

Unfortunately Y DOP arroll Raver will nor be able ro join me to pre ent our final film ar rhe festival becau e he lo t hi fight wirh cancer Ia t year and pa ed away peacefully in hi sleep. We all hone cly believe he i now setting up all rhe Ma ter hot in the big rudio in rhe Icy. Tho e of u who worked o hard together in Thailand have so far received little in return for our energy and creativirybut what we do have now i rhe wi dom and hind ight rhat come only from experience.

My memorie of operating along ide rhe legendary {a ter Cam Raver make me appreciate rhe pricele intangible reward of having worked wicl1 one of rhe mo r talented, profe ional and entertaining camera crew in the A ia Pacific Region, to create omerhing rhat almo r might have been extraordinary.

Laurie K Gilbert oc Cam Laurie K Gilbert is a DOP shootingfeaturefilms, commercials and documentaries from a production based in outh East Asia. He is also an expert o.lfihore marine helicopter aerial cinematographer and will soon be taking his specialist skills to China to shoot the global coverage ofthe Olympic ailing Regatta. www.limage.tv AKA Magic

The chief' daughter tries to ave her father by retrieving the emeralds from their ource at the waterfall. p ring/Summer 2008

AMERA OPERATOR: PIRATES OF SHADOW ISLA D

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ebu, Prulippine .

n the and overlooking the water, waying coconut filled palm tree are ilhouerred again t a picture po rcard unri e. Thi ound like the perfect backdrop for a big Hollywood movie, bur in acrualiry, it i the home of the International Academy of FiJm and Television. haring a home with Bigfoot Entertainment on the outhea t A ian resort i land of ebu, Philippines, the chool i a unique intertwinement of an educational facility and a rare of th e art production environment. On any given day you can ee a rudent production hooting in one corner of the compound and a feature motion picture hooting on one of two N C-17 ound rated rage .

I wa one of three Hollywood mentor who tarred teaching at the chool when it opened in 2004. Thi i an extraordinary opportunity for rudents who want a career in camera to learn and ab orb a much a po ible in one of the mo t unique learning/ production environment in the world.

The capabilities to hoot almost any kind of production you can think of are here. There are four 3Smm ArriAex motion picture camera package , three ony F-900 CineAlta camera package , one RED camera package, a tele copic crane, tate of the art Dolby mix theater, full foley and ADR rudio, and everal edir bay -the works. ince my rarr with IAFT, I have come back to Cebu three pnngiSummer 2008

time a a Mentor and Bigfoot Entertainment con ultant. I have taught cour e in cinematography, high definition, and camera operating. In 2004 I helped train over 200 cameramen at AB B , the large t relevi ion nen ork in the PhiJippine .

Passing the Torch There i an old aying, "Tho e who can, do. Tho e who can't, teach."

In today' entertainment indu try, nothing could be further from the truth. Anyone teaching the next generation of am era Operators needs to be on the cu p of ever-changing technology. They need to be at the top of their field.

Here at IAFT, all of our mentor are working profe ional .

Thi i the experience that today' rudent are looking for.

They want to be taught by people with real world experience.

To further thi experience, the IAFT ha a clo e relationhip with Bigfoot Entertainment. Learning and reaching at our facility can often re ult in production opporrunitie . For example, I am currently the Director of Photography on Bigfoot Entertainment' late t feature film , Deep Gold.

In many ca e , tudent right out of film chool eek to fill the ranks of what they feel i their rightful place behind the camera. The simple fact is that the person who e eye cover

AMERA OPERATOR: TEA HI G THE

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AMERA OPERATOR: TEA HI G THE

the viewfinder ha one of the mo t tru red positions on et and that po ition i an honor that needs to be earned.

When I wa a econd i rant cameraman, I u ed to admire the pre tige of the amera Operaror.

Within the camera department, the Camera Operator wa a po ition of honor and re peer. Teaching cinematography and camera operating is omerhing very important. I an1 working ro pre erve a breed that often eem on the edge of extinction.

Teaching amera Operating i a pa ion. Mo t people think operating i an ea y gig unti l I get their eye in the viewfi nder and put them on a geared head .

A I teach our ucceeding generation of filmmaker , I con randy fight their urge robe a one-man how.

With an HD camera in one hand and a virtual post-production house on their laptop, they do not initially think of film as a collaborative art.

Because of thi , we work hard ro in rill EXT GE ERATIO

OF OPERATORS

a collaborative pirit in our young filmmaker.

Thi i particularly important to in rill in our young DP . The importance of having an Operaror i taught from Day ne. I impre upon them how many more creative opporrunitie cl1ey will have as D P if they have an peraror by their ide.

The Role of the N ew Generation of Camera Operators The bu ine of production ha changed and the next generation of amera peraror must be versatile and flexible. The more they know and under rand about High Definition and the smaller HDV format , the more succe fu l they will be tarring out.

Even more important i mar they under rand a wide variety of production format . With the increa e in reality TV and YouTube, Operaror mu t be ready ro work wim different video format at a moment' notice.

Spring/Summer 2008

Additionally they need ro underrand rhe different ryle of operating for varying genre .

There i a big difference between hooting a reality how compared to a dramatic feature film . But today' Operaror i expected to know them both in order ro urvive in roday's indu rry. A educator we try ro give them a wide a foundation a po ible.

Understanding the Craft of Operating The respon ibilirie of operating the camera don't tart when action i called nor rop when the director call cur. A good Operaror i involved in erring up the hot and the choreography of the camera and acror.

I it the Camera peraror' job to under rand rhe one hundred eighty degree rule or eye line? The an wer i ab olurel ye . I reach Camera Operating from rhe ground up tarring at the preader . The more you know the more valuable you are a a Camera perator.

Even a technologic change our craft, we alway tart with the ba ic , with the five ' ofCinemarography.• A rrong foundation i rill the best educational ba e for a young filmmaker.

However, where the rubber hit the road, everything you've learned in four year of chool can be era ed in one day on rhe job. ucce i being ready for the opportunity when it pre ent it elf. Preparation i the key, but in the end, nothing rake the place of old fa hioned experience! Unfortunately, experience cannot be taught in chool.

Through our relation hip with Bigfoot Entertainment, !AFT rudents are often fortunate enough to get the opportunity for actual production experience on a feature film. But like in Hollywood, they need ro tart at the bottom.

Our rudent are not always willing ro do thi , and many coff at

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the thought of being an a istant or hooting behind the scene footage. But this opportunity is ju t the first look at the harsh real world of the entertainment indu try. Like school it elf. it will be what they make it.

Sending Our Students into the Real World I meet o many young students who graduate from school, have business cards made, and elf-proclaim them elve a Direcror ofPhorography. Granted, they may have won everal award and making chi move might get them the nod co omething bigger. While thi i not outside the realm of po ibiliry, the chance of that happening are very lim. Pounding the pavement ro make little headway i the more likely route.

I am reminded of my fir t month landing in Lo Angeles knowing nobody. "How do I get in the main rream?" I remember finding all the major rental hou e in Lo Angele .

I would make my round visiting Panavision Clairmont Camera, and all the others and meeting what I refer ro as the super assistants like Kenny ishino. TI1ese were the real deal a i rant who worked on huge blockbu rer feature films.

More importantly, the e super a i rant repre ented the top of the line, the best in their craft, and they helped reach me the imple rhing like prepping a camera package.

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CAMERA OPERATOR: TEACHI G THE

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Some would con ider tarring as an assi rant or prep tech a tarring at the borrom. I don't discourage any student from following a different pacl1, but they need to under rand the importance oflearning the language of the bu ine and who the players are before jumping in head first. I remind them in order ro rake one rep forward, you mu t often rake two reps back. A lor can be gained fir t working in a lower capacity on big projects than taking a larger project in a higher capacity for which you're not prepared.

Recent graduates will rarely enter the indu try and do things like they did in film chool or even the way I did it. ~>

OF OPERATORS

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etting rea onable expectation i e pecially difficult with our eager, ideali tic young filmmaker .

A an in trucror, I ride rhe fine line between healthy encouragement and the reality of the indu try.

Like aU reacher , I try to impart my experience to the rudent in hope they wiU learn through my ucce es and failure .

Bur the answer ro the rough que tion often need to be learned through rough experience . The e le on are rarely reachable to tudents.

A a reacher, it i my dury ro prepare them

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Director of Photograph contact information included when a ailable To ub cribe or team more about Production Alert, Plea e i it out web ite at: www.productionalertu a.com

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the be t I can. But like all of us who came before them, my rudent must make their own journey to a career. And each of thei r p ath will be different.

I ju t hope that I have given them the tool they need to ucceed.

Emmy Awar·d winner Rick Robinson soc is aformer U Marine Combat Cameraman and was par·t ofsinger Michael Jackson's famed documentary film unit. He has served as a faculty member of Columbia College H ollywood and UCLA Extension, and has taught at the Los Angeles Film chool and at the International Academy ofFilm and Television in Cebu, Philippines. He is currently the DP on thefea turefilm D eep Gold.

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ne of the many plea ure of working for a company like Band Pro is the ability to maintain close relationhip with the manufacturers. These relationship allow acce to the internal loop of information concerning developing product . La t year I had the pleasure of working with ony in the final development, and helping with the introduction of the F23. This year I have had acce s to a preproduction F35 camera y rem. The buzz on thi camera ha been very trong ince Omnibu ofJapan relea ed a preliminary brochure on the product at last year' IBC. For this reason I thought I would give you an early look at the F35 prior to the product' relea e later rhi year.

0

F35 Basics To better understand the F35 you must first start at the ba i of thi new camera, the F23. ony rook a distinctively different approach in developing the F23 than with any other camera. The camera wa de igned to provide the maximum performance supported by the current technology and was nor con trained by any of the current HD rran mission tandard . Data wa collected for more than four year u ing the member hip of the A C, OC and other uch organizations to esrabli h the criteria and feature et of the camera. ize, weight, body de ign and configuration were ali established for what wa to become a new line of cameras, the Sony "F Serie ."

The F35 is a continuation of thi development. The F23 and F35 hare a common chassi de ign with the only differences appearing on the front plate due to the two ryle of lens mount . The F23 u e a B4 mount and the F35 use an Arri-de igned PL mount to accommodate the different type of imaging technology u ed in the respective models.

Input and output connector are the arne between the two model , as are ali the control interface and power connection .

The F35 uses an adapter box to provide a clean 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 ignal from one of the two VTR ports.

The EL panel on the operator ide of the camera and on the as i tant' panel provide aU the nece ary control for the production, afi:er the initial erup i performed.

Camera Processing Camera processing is a! o identical with the two cameras.

The e cameras u e newly de igned 14-bit analog to digital converters with signal proce sing up to 36 bit to provide unprecedented color gradation and dynamic range. The F35 will provide equivalent performance to the F23 in dynamic range, which relate to approximately 12 to 13 top depending on the transfer curve elected for use.

Like the F23, the F35 has the expanded HyperGamma curves and Sony Log transfer curves in railed to maximize the bandwidth of the processor. While nor a truly RAW signal, the e curve provide an expanded data set from the randard linear recording. Just remember that when using the pring!Summer 2008

ony Log, the viewed image will be very flar. Thi may give more latitude in the po t production proce , but you may want ro run a LUTon the ignal to make it more pleasing for viewing.

The F35 Color Gamut The F23 introduced the next level of color rendition in electronic camera . either the F23 nor F35 needed to be lim ired ro rhe color standard of the current rran mi ion randard becau e the e camera were not de igned for thi type of production. Sony wa able to provide a color gamut for the e camera that wa out ide of the gamut of average film rock . Like the F23, the F35 can u e the Wide Color Gamut or can limit the output to the DCD f randard ba ed on the project need.

The F35 Imager Technology The principal difference between the F35 and the F23 is the imager technology utilized in the camera.

The F23 u e three 2.2 million pixel, progre ive canning, 2/3 " CCD mounted to a wideband prim. TI1e F 5 rill u e C D technology, bur instead of a dedicated imager for each co lor, the F35 utilize a large-format single imager that ha dedicated RGB pixel . Due to the use of a ingle imager, the F23 utilize an Arri PL type len mount.

The F35 C D imager ha 12.4 million pixel and is the ize of a 3-Perf uper 35mm image, 13.5 X 24 Microns. The pixels are arranged in a rriped pattern, with each column having a Red , Green or Blue color filter applied. Each pixel i a igned to a macro pixel that is made up of two pixels of each color. Each of the e macro pixels is 12.3 X 8.2 microns in ize, or approximately the arne ize of mo t film grain. If you do the math you will find that thi work out to a 16:9 a peer ratio that i 1920 x 1080 effective pixel in ize. Th i de ign negate the need to apply any type of Bayer Filtering in the po r production proces . The key to thi de ign i that the imager provide a target ize and pixel ize that nearly duplicate film. Therefore, depth of field will be nearly identical to that of35mm film, making the film to high definition rran irion a impler proce for camera a isrant and director of photography.

The imager de ign i nor without it limitations. The F35 imager i limited to a frame rare of50P and is nor capable of pring!Summ r 2008

the 60P of the F23. The other limitation i in mear rejection where the F23 i 2 Yz stops better. The F35 also has a slightly lower en iriviry than rhe F23, bur thi i le than a Yz stop.

Using PL Mount Lenses Having a PL mount on an electronic camera may allow the use of all of the PL mount len e available in the marker.

Dr Winfried cherle ofZei informed me that mo t PL mount len e are not fully aberration corrected like the B mount high definition len e . A 35mm film y rem doe not require rhi degree of correction ince the movement of film in the gate conceal the e error . He recommend the u e of the newer de igns in 35mm film len e such as the Ma rer Prime , a they rend to have a higher MTF and are better with aberration correction than many of the older de ign .

Even with this limitation taken into con ideration, the F35 greatly expand the director of photography' palate of randard and pecialry len es. Unlike the B4 mount cameras, these len e can be directly mounted to the F35 camera without any adapter that could induce hading and other type of error of irs own.

HDCAM-SR Recording Both the F23 and F35 have been de igned to utilize the Sony SRW-1 tran port in one of two docking port . Thi camcorder configuration provide both 4:2:2 or 4: :4 recording capability. The e recording are 10 bit 1920 X 1080 in both interlace and progre ive recording format .

HD AM- R doe nor ub- ample like mo r of the other recording format , o you will be recording a full 1920 X 1080. The F35 will provide variable peed recording with ramping from 1-30 fps in 4:4:4 and 1-50 fps in 4:2:2. Add the optional HKSR-1 03 board to cl1e SRW-1 rran port and the 4:4:4 capabilirie go to 1-50 fp . You can eparare the RW-1 from rhe camera by adding a RP -1 proces or and u ing either dual link or ingle link HD - DI to interconnect the camera and recorder, bur ramping and recording above 30 fp are no longer po ible. TI1e adapter box output u ed to feed the RW-1 I RP -1 configuration can a! o be u ed to feed other device like the Codex di c recorder.

Conclusion With irs root going back to the F23, the F35 should be a rrong addition to ony' "F eries" camera . The new camera basically offer the proven Gene i imager attached to the proce sor of the F23, a lineage that promi e uperior performance. And it deliver . The ability to maintain the depth of field of35mm cine, combined with the u e ofPL mow1t len e , may remove barrier to the u e of high definition by traditional film director of photography.

CAMERA O PERATOR: HI D EF WITH j EFF

59

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News & Notes Correction: Dave TOLSKY took toys to Childrens Hospital and zvas in the related photos in the pecial Awards issue.

SOC Members Get Career Coaching

T

he 0 held a Career Coaching eminar caught by Je ica itomer, who wa on the ICG taff for 15 year .

Je ica ha helped guide countle member of the camera local co reach per onal career goal , including everal big time DP and Operator. We were honored by her participation in the OC educational program .

Held at the Mole Richardson cage in Hollywood, A, four days of cia e helped SOC member sharpen their networking kill and caught them new ways to help direct their career onto the right path. Focu ing on new bu inc cool and career path goal , tho e that attended are already on their way to career breakthrough .

jessica ito mer can be reached at: 323-356-4687 www.thegreenlightcoach.com or je s ica@thegreenlightcoach.com

DOLLIES • JIBS • MOUNTS • POWER HEADS

L www.microdolly.com

Tripod Killer 1. o matter how inho pitable the location the Cinesaddle i easy to use路 to et it up just put it down.

2. mall- Compact- Portable. Weigh I than two pounds.

3. Get hots from angl not po ible with any other camera upport.

4. Available in five different izes. Works with all film video and till cameras.

5. Absorb vibration. e it on a car, bike boat, helicopter anything. Mounting kit is included with all professional model .

Everything you want to know about the Cinesaddle including treamed video clip can be een on our web ite:

www.cinekinetic.com Cinekinetic U A 345 w. 85th tree! ew York Y 10024 Telephone: (212) 202路0675 Email: info@cinekinetic.com

-

WARNER BROS . ST UDIO FACILITIES

PHOTO

LAB

A COMPLETE

IMAGING RESOURCE

Servicing the needs of the motion picture industry for over 60 years.

~000 Warner Boulevard Buildmg -4-4 • lower Level

Burbank. CA 91522

WBphotocollection.com Select photographic prints available for purchase.

818.954.7118 wbphotolab.com photolab@wamerbros.com

CINE TAPE MEASURE • Continuously calculates distance between camera's focal plane and the subject • Displays accurate measurements in feet/inches or meters/centimeters • Small, light and quiet ultrasonic rangefinder

REMOTE CONTROLLER • Selectable near and far limits are useful when the subject is in a crowd or behind objects • Near limit setting is used to ignore closer objects in over the shoulder shots • Provides a convenient remote display for crane shots E-Mail : info@CinemaEiec.com Web: www.CinematographyEiectronics.com 5321 Derry Avenue, Suite G • Agoura Hills, California 91301 • USA • Phone (818) 706-3334 • Fax (818) 706-3335

ADVERTISERS' INDEX BandPro ................ 31

Hot Gears .... . .......... 53

BigVi ion ............... 61

lsaia &

o ................. 3

hapman-Leonard ......... 50

j. L. FISHER ............. IB

ine Gear Expo ........... 19

Litepanels, Inc. . .......... 24

Cinekinetic ............... 61

Microdolly ............... 60

in ma Vi ion ............ 56

Musicians lnterguild ....... 57

inematography Electronic

. 62

orthwest Film Institute ..... 52

inevideote h ............ 61

Otto

lairmont

Panavision ............... 38

am ra .......... 4

Deluxe Laboratorie Ea tman Kodak Filmot

........ 9

emenz International .. 33

Panther Dollie

ran

.... 62

o. . .. .. ... BC

Production Alert .......... 56

hnic Canada Ltd. . .. 53

Schneider Optics .......... 37

Filmtools ................ 53

OC Wear ............... 63

Fuji Motion Picture Film .... IF

liffen ................... 55

Fujinon ................. 47

Warner Bros Photo Lab ...... 62

Glide am ................ 30

Za uto .................. 53

Spnng!Summer 2008

SOC WEAR Wear the 0 logo proudly on a hat or t-shirt.

Available for purchase at 0 workshops, on the 0 web site, or from Filmtools.

Write to: Society of Camera Operator

P.O. Box 2006 Toluca Lake, CA 91610 or order online: www.soc.org

CAMERA OPERATOR: LAST TAKE

63

Roster of the Society of

CAMERA OPERATORS CHARTER Parker Bartlell Paul Basta Mrchaol Benson lerry G Callaway Joe Epperson William Jay Gahret Peter Hapke orm langk'Y lee akahara Jay cfcy leigh icholson Dan

orris

Davrd B owell, Ernie Reed Mrchacl Scoll Mrchacl t Hilaire Ray tella Joseph f Valentrnc Ron Vidor

ACTIVE Jonathan Abrams Bernie Abramson

Art Adams Ieven A Adelson BrctAIIcn Derek MAllen leeAIIrson Robert Reed Altman olin Anderson Jack Anderson Aldo Antoncllr Mrguelangel Aponi<>-Rros Tl'd Ashton lr Mark August Paul Babin Randall B Baer Chri topher Baffa Lonn Bailey

Markus Davids

Rory Robert Knepp

Jam1e ilvcrstcm

John

Bruce [ Davis

Kris Krosskove

Jules Labanhe Erwm landau George r lang Robrn lawless John lazear Scrgro Leandro ilva Joshua Lesser Ken Libby Jimmy W Lrndscy ttugh litfin Mrcha I E Little lynn lockwood George Loornrs David Luckenba h Allan lum U Greg lundsgaard Kenji luster Vincent Mack

Philip Smdall Guy Skmncr John Sosenko Andy Sparaco Mrke Spodnrk Sandy Spooner Edward B pnnger Greg 51 Johns liSCJ L tacilauskas Robert larlrng George B tephcnson Danrel Sllllrng

Mark Forman

Richard W Davis R.1y de Ia Molle Kris Andrew Denton

Joel Deutsch David [ Diano

Try Dr k lan Dodd Todd A Dos Reis Rrck Drapkrn Mrtch Dubin Jerry Dugan rmon Duggan, A Barry I' Dycus Allen D Ea>ton Davrd [ Elkins Jason [llson David Emmerichs Kevm J Emmons Alex Esbcr James Etheridge Brant 5 Fagan Tom Faigh Diane l Farrell Dianne Teresa Farring10n

Mrchael fems Kenneth Ferro

Drck Fisher rarg Fikse Aaron ntzgcrald Enc riel her Houman Forough Ieven G Fracol ick rranco

Marc Andre Bt"rthiaumc Lance Bilhtzcr

Thomas Fraser David I frrocrick Mrchael Frl'dianr MrkeA Freeman Buddy Fries J ff fry Jack Garrell Davrd Gaspcrrk Rusty Geller Mrchacl Genne Vito Giambalvo Brll Gierhart Daniel Gold Allen Gonzales Robert Gorelrck Davrd Allen Grove lee Grover

Bonme

john Gunsclm.ln

Vin ent Baldino

Jerry Banalcs Jeff Barklage Rrc.1rdo Barreda Tom Barron

Gary H Baum Gu) 'OrrTliln Bee Tim Sellen Richard Benda Jeb Bergh Blake

Jason Blount Bob BotCilc io Richard Bolter I larry C Box Denise Brassard M1chael Brennen Garrett BrO\vn

ott Browner Robin Bucrki

Gal') Bush tephen 5 Campanelli Susan A Campbell C.1p1 Jose A Cardenas Mrchacl W Chambliss lou Chanalry Joe Chess Jr Julian ho1nackr Joseph v Cicio Jeffl lark Jeffrey R Clark Anthony obbs Ieven Cohen Gregory Paul Collrer Andrew Glenn onder Mrchacl Condon Tom Connole Dan oplan Javier A osta Ivan ra1g Andre1 r.Jnt~ch

Jeff ree Rod Crombie aleb rosb) L)·ndcl rosley Rrthard A ullrs Michaell Culp Joscph D'AI sandro

Aneue Hacllmrgk Danrel Hagoucl Anthony llardwrck hns ttayes Davrd ltaylock Ieven F Heuer Ronald Hrgh harlcs M Ihi I, Jr )oachrm Hoffmann Abc Holtz Jerry Holway ascy Hot hkrss William tephen Howell II Gary Huddleston Jeffrey G l lunt Phrlrp Hurn David Insley lcv•c lco..1a ks

H ather MacKenzie

Paul 5 Magee Davrd Mahlmann James Mann )rm McConkey Mrchacl P McGowan hnstopher TJ McGurre Maurice KM Guire Aaron Mrorck Robert L Mehnert Ja k Messllt Marc Mrller Andrc'\v Mrlchell William Molina Dav1d Monroe Robert Bob Moore Dcms Moran Don Murrhead Many F Mullrn Scon T Mumford an Murray Jon Myers Leo J apolitano Julye ewlin Wilham R ielsen, Jr Randy olen Tamas P Nycrgcs William O'Drobrnak Russell Ofria lames 01 ovi h

M1kc Pierce Jcns PiotrO\\'ski

Joseph Pi itellr Robert Presley· John Radzik Kevin Rrley Mark A Rrlchre Randall Robinson Rrck Robrnson David Rohman

EugcneW Ia kson Ill Jerry M )a ob Alec )arnagm Mr hael )aroc~r imon)aycs Peter Jensen Mrchacl A Johnson tcven Jones Jacques Jouffrel John II Joyce Davrd Judy David Kanchann Mark Kara\ 1te Mrchael Karp Wayne l Kelley

Andy Romanoff Peter Rosenfeld Mrchael Roth Dave Rutherford Torn 0 Sanders Mrchacl Santy Richard J Schae er Ron Schlacger Gregory J Schmidt Thomas Schnardt Chu k Schuman Philip D Schwartz Bob oil Alicia raft hnng Khallrd J habazz Brad Shreld Geoffrey C Shotz Osvaldo Silvera

Vernon Kifer

Douglas II Knapp

Mi hael tumpf Bricm Sweeney

James H wccney Brll Swrnghamer TajTeffaha David James Thompson Richard Tied mann John Toll, A Tsuneyuki Tornetaka John Trapman Mr hael Tsrmperopoulos hrisTufty Robert Ulland Joseph Urbanczyk Matt Valcnune Paul D Varrieur

tefan von BJorn Brll Waldman Mrchacl J Walker Mark Warshaw William Webb Aiken WCISS Tom Weston

Kit Whitmore.

Bnan Keith Wilco

Jeffrey Wilkins Bill Williams Joe )ody Williams had Wilson Dana D WinscmJn RL Wise tan D Woolston-Smith Noel Adrian Wyall Peter C Xiqucs Warren Yeager Carolina Zorrilla de San Manfn

Andrew William Oliver

lu 1 Olivrerr Mark Ri hard Olsen John Orland Wayne Orr Rafael Ortiz-Guzman Gcorgra Tornar Pa kard hark'S Papcrt David l Parrish Patn k J Pask Phrlrp Pastuhov William F Pccchi )r

Christopher lvin

Dan Kneece

Sandra tojanovic

AS OCIATE John Addocks David 5 Adclstcrn leonard lance Allen Ill )on l Anderson James Baldanza Karen Beck Bruce Bend r Jaron Berman

lephen Blanor Jeffrey Bollman Peter Bonrlla David Boyd John Boyd M.11a Broz armen Cabana

Davrd S Campbell Brute Cardozo

Paolo Cascio Rrchard T Ca ro tephcn Mark iappclla Robert E ollrns Mrchelle Crenshaw Rrchard P rudo, A icholas Davrdoff )ames A Den nell Ronald Oc•eaux Jorge Devono Davrd Drbble George Spiro Dibre, A Kevin Do...mey Paul A Du los Bert Dunk, Kerth Dunkerley IC\icn Duval

Bnan James Dzyak Keith Iceberg Eisberg Chnstopher Ekstern Archre Fletcher

Flrnn Ill. A

Peter F fnntrup Rrchard Garbull )ames P Garvey Hank Grfford Wayne Goldwyn AI Gonzalez r redcri Goodi h, ASC Afton M Grant Dave Gregory Phrl Gnes Kevin M I taggerty )am WHan Robert Hayes Anthony P Hellrnger john Hrll Ken l hlmer oil HoffrTliln Melrssa Holt hns Hood )rm Hunter arrie lmai

Davrd Richert Alicia Robbrns Ken Robmgs Peter J Rooney David Rosner Douglas Roth Marvin Ru5h, A hereen l Saryecl Mehran Salamali

Sol egnn. ASC King icholson John G ogle Aaron Pazan11

Robert H Peebles Arnold Rrch Sam Rosen Frank Rutten uner

Germano Saracco, AI

Carl Martrn Schumacher, Sr Bob Seaman hristran Sebald!, )an Sluchak Don Sprro Owen Stephens Tara Summers David Tolsky Rcmi Tournoi

John Tra•er John Twestcn lreven Van llulle Crarg W Walsh Brian Watkins ElkeWeiss Shaun Wheeler Gregory LWhrte Pol CWnght TonyYarlen Vilmos Zsigmond, A5C

Gregory lrwrn Blake B jackson leo Jaramillo John han ell Jennings f-rank [ Johnson, A Broderrck Jones Kurt )ones Kevrn Kemp Douglas Kirkland HO ORARY Michael Klimchak john Barley, ASC Craig Kohlhoff James Burrows Robert La Bongc Tilman BUttner George La fountarne, A5C Alexander Calzatu Thomas Lappin Trevor Coop Stevan Larner. ASC Roger orman Lee Davrd Laska-Abboll Dean Cundcy, A Greg le Due Bruce Ooer•ng Taggart A lee William A Fraker. A C Mark R lern Jack Green, A5C Tom Hanen Alan J Levi Mark Lcv1n Ron Howard Adrian L1 ciardi Ron Kelley Kathleen Kennedy-Marshall llya )o lr<>- relsen lcph n lighthrll, AS Jerry lcwrs )ong lm larr) McConkey Colleen Ann Lrndl Rick Mrtchell Jefferson Loft reid A Unn Murphree MD Roland I luna Jay Roth Tony Magaleua Ieven Sprelbcrg Duane Manw•ller Robert A Torres Emily Marchand George Toscas Rrchard Marks Roy Wagner, AS Haskell Wexler, A5C James Mathers Jrm M.1tlosz Dr Ellen Matsumoto RETIRED BJ McDonnell Gary Ol)·n Armstrong Joseph T McDonnell Ill Eugene Ashbrook John McPherson, A5C Stewart Barbee Charles Mrnsky, ASC lou Barlia KAdriana Modlin Rupert Benson )r Manhew Mosher Bob Berry Richard Mosier AI Bettcher hah Mund II Joe Blarsdell Joshua S arms James Blanford John Newby Vee Bodrero icholas izich Donald R Burch Crescenzo GP 10tarile Philip Caplan John O'Shaughnessy Bru e Catlm Andrew Parke Jim Connell Steven D Parker Robert Feller Randy Peck Gerald P Finnerman. A5C Karin Pellonr Jerry Fuller Mall hew A Petrosky Gil Ha1mson \Vynn Hammer Astrid Phillrps W PI'CIIa lutz Hapke Ted Polmanski Gary Holt Robert C Horne Serge T Pouprs Boris Price Bob Keys Robert Pnmes, A5C Joseph Longo Andrea Quaglro Steve Lydecker lrz Radley Ch-ven Marsh Udo Raven tern Bob Mana Richard Rawlrng Jr. A5C tan McClam Marcia Reed Mrchael McClary Bill Reiter Ron McManu Sandy Rentmeester Emmanuel Metaxa Brian D Reynolds Ed Morey

Richard Salvatore Hal hrffman Phrl Stern David utton

GeneTalvrn Pernell Tyus ven Walnum

Ben Wolf

CORPORATE ARRI Brll Ru sell BARTECH E Gl EERI G )rm Bartell BEXEL CORPORATIO, J hn Keesee BIR 5 & SAWYER, I ' Bill Mcuer CHAPMAN/LEO ARD STUDIO leonard T Chapman Christine I Huenergardt CLAIRMO T CAMERA Denny Clarrrnont DELUXE LABS, I C leve Van Anda DOGGICAM Gary Threhges EASTMA KODAK COMPANY Cunrs EJones FILMTOOLS tan McClam FOTOKEM Bill Brod ~n FUJI PHOTO FILM U A Sandra Kurotobr FUJI '0, ,I ' Chuck lee CEO FILM GROUP, INC George olan HYDROflEX. I ' Pete Romano I AlA CO Roy tsaia )l FISHER COMPANY )rmmy l Fisher Frank Kay LEE FILTER tA DIVI 10 OF PAr AVI IQ, • I '() Sean Hrse OCO 'OR E 'GINEERI G LABORATORIES Joel johnson OTTO EME Z I TER ATIO Al, I ' Frnz Heinzl Otto

cmenz

1

PACE TECH OLOGIES Vin enzo M Pace

PA AVI 10 ' l'hrl Radon PHOTO-SONI • I Conrad Kiel SCH 'EIDER OPTIC E TURY DIVISION Bill Turner 50 Y ELECTRO I , INC Dhanendra Patel TECH ICOLOR I CFI Adam Chuck Robert Dcnni VINTE , I C Pe1cr Harman

Peter Vinton WILLIAM FWHITE LTD COM WEB GROUP Paul Bron(man William F While

Ro cer urrem a of 5/1 5/ 08

64

CAMERA O PERATOR:

SOC ROSTER

Spring/Summer 2008

J. L.Fisher Motion Picture & Television Equipment Patent applied for

"J.L. Fisher products are proudly made in the U.S.A."

DOLLY ACCESSORIES I

1

.....

FULLY ARTICULATED SKATEBOARD WHEELS Skateboard Wheels : for J.L. Fisher Model1 0 and 11 Dollies. The skateboard wheels incorporate articulating trucks allowing all32 wheels to maintain contact with the track for better control and stability, on both straight and curved round track.

All 32 wheels maintain contact on both straight and curved round track

~~~~ Each set of 2 wheels can swivel independently

New products designed to let you work faster, easier and more productively!

Accessory Carts: for J.L. Fisher Model10 and 11 Dollies.

A timesaving and efficient way to transport and store Dolly accessories from the grip truck to location . One cart for boards and one for other Dolly accessories. Designed for ease of use in many different terrains. The use of the two carts assures ease of movement and maneuverability.

Seat Offset Low: This seat offset is for use on the model 10 Dolly to give the camera operator comfort and flexibility when shooting at low angles; for example, using the low level head.

Waffle Adapter: (WAT), used on the J.L. Fisher Model 10 Dolly, raises , lowers or offsets the Multi-Position Level Head (SLT) and the Quick Change Low Level Head (LHT). The Waffle Adapter Plate indexes every 30 degrees on the Dolly's lift beam. The Level Heads (LHT, SLT) index every 30 degrees on the Waffle Adapter. This allows a wide variety of camera positions unavailable with other products.

AVAILABLE FOR RENTAL WORLDWIDE J .L. Fisher, Inc. 1000 Isabel Street, Burbank, CA 91506 U.S.A. Tel : (818) 846-8366 Fax: (818) 846-8699 Web : www.jlfisher.com e-mail : info@jlfisher.com

J.L. Fisher, GmbH Emii-Hoffmann-Str. 55-59 50996 Koln, Germany Tel : +49 2236 3922 0 Fax: +49 2236 3922 12 Web : www.jlfisher.de e-mail : info@jlfisher.de