British Cinematographer - Issue 87

UNITING CINEMATOGRAPHERS AROUND THE WORLD

www.britishcinematographer.co.uk

Issue 87 -- May 2018

ON THE JOB

SEAN BOBBITT BSC ON CHESIL BEACH

CLAPPERBOARD

FRANCES RUSSELL BSC

INNOVATOR TIFFEN

BRADFORD YOUNG ASC

ED LACHMAN ASC | SAM McCURDY BSC | ZAC NICHOLSON BSC | AARON REID | CATHERINE GOLDSCHMIDT | EBEN BOLTER

Š 2018 Lucasfilm Ltd. All Rights Reserved

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Cinematographer Bradford Young ASC

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CREDITS / BRITISH CINEMATOGRAPHER / ISSUE 87 / MAY 2018

BRITISH

CINEMATOGRAPHER

UNI T ING C INE M AT O GR A P HE R S A R O UND T HE W OR L D

Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire SL0 0NH t. +44 (0) 1753 650101

“With film you automatically get a period look, and that’s partly how we sold the idea of celluloid capture to the producers. If you also look at the maths of shooting on 2-perf stock, it stands-up financially too.”

- SEAN BOBBITT BSC

Publisher and Managing Editor | ALAN LOWNE | +44 (0) 1753 650101 | alafilmuk@aol.com Publisher and Digital Editor | STUART WALTERS | +44 (0) 121 200 7820 | stuart.walters@ob-mc.co.uk Editor | RON PRINCE | ronny@princepr.com Head of Sales | ALAN LOWNE | +44 (0) 1753 650101 | alafilmuk@aol.com Sales | STUART WALTERS | +44 (0) 121 200 7820 | stuart.walters@ob-mc.co.uk Sales | TRACY FINNERTY | +44 (0) 121 200 7820 | tracy.finnerty@ob-mc.co.uk Design | MARK LAMSDALE | +44 (0) 121 200 7820 | mark.lamsdale@ob-mc.co.uk | www.ob-mc.co.uk Subscriptions | MATT HOOD | +44 (0) 121 200 7820 | matt.hood@ob-mc.co.uk | www.ob-mc.co.uk

CONTRIBUTORS RON PRINCE has many years of experience in the film, TV, CGI and visual effects industries. He is the editor of British Cinematographer Magazine and runs the international content marketing and PR communications company Prince PR (www.princepr.com). In 2014 he won the prestigious ARRI John Alcott Award from the British Society of Cinematographers for services to cinematography.

DAVID WOOD is a freelance journalist who writes about film and TV technology and production. He is a former technology editor for Televisual Magazine, and writes for Worldscreen, TVB Europe and Broadcast Magazine.

JOHN KEEDWELL GBCT UAV PILOT, the GBCT News Editor, is a documentary and commercials cameraman who has worked on many productions around the world.

He crosses over in both film and tape productions and has great knowledge of the new file-based formats and their methods of production.

KEVIN HILTON is a freelance journalist who writes about technology and personalities in film and broadcasting, and contributes film reviews and interviews to a variety of publications in the UK and abroad.

MICHAEL BURNS has been covering film, broadcast, VFX, animation and interactive design, in print and online, for 20 years. His work can regularly be found in such magazines as IBC Daily, Digital Arts, TVBEurope, Broadcast Tech, and more. He also works as a producer and advisor for conferences and digital agencies.

VALENTINA I. VALENTINI focuses on the art and craft of cinematography, and all that includes, as a freelance writer based in Los Angeles. She has contributed to ICG Magazine, Camera Angles, HDVideoPro, and is the West Coast Correspondent to IndieFilm3D.com and DigitalCinemaReport.com.

British Cinematographer is part of LAWS Publishing.

Laws Publishing Ltd, Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire SL0 0NH t. +44 (0) 1753 650101 | f. +44 (0) 1753 650111 The publishers wish to emphasise that the opinions expressed in British Cinematographer are not representative of Laws Publishing Ltd but the responsibility of the individual contributors.

SUBSCRIBE When you subscribe you will receive an unrivalled insight into international cinematography and production. Published six times a year, you can receive the magazine posted to your home or office.

You can now also access British Cinematographer anywhere you have an internet connection with our digital subscription. To subscribe please visit www.britishcinematographer.co.uk/subscribe For queries please contact Matt Hood on +44 (0) 121 200 7820 or email: matt.hood@ob-mc.co.uk

EDITOR’S LETTER

THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS

D

ecisions. Decisions. Whether to pack sunblock and shades, or a brolly and plastic mac? Notwithstanding the vicissitudes of the meteorological conditions on the Côte d’Azur, and the odd mixed metaphor, the 2018 Cannes Film Festival is sure to shower the crowds and participants with a shining array of new and controversial features. Despite the dearth of homegrown films in competition this year, the Brits will, as usual, throng La Croisette, Le Palais, les plages and local hotels, engaging in a diversity of debates from funding to distribution, selling concepts as well as completed productions – all as the local rosé slips down most agreeably.

The message to the world at Cannes, from British motion picture service providers is that, Brexit or not, the UK’s invitingly generous tax incentives remain intact and, in a kingdom of evergrowing studio capacity and vastly experienced crews, its business as normal. The insurance policy is good.

Take look at some of the features in this edition… Solo: A Star Wars Story, On Chesil Beach, The Woman In White, The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society and 10x10… each made in the UK with everything from micro to mega budgets, but each sharing the common factor of indefatigable British talent having brought them to life. Head to the UK Film Centre in Cannes to discover more and, if you’re a delegate, get a free cup of tea too.

Whilst it’s always a pleasure to present a panoply of productions in our pages, we’re also all about the people. And we Brits love an unsung hero or heroine. So it was with genuine delight that we encouraged Frances Russell, company secretary of the British Society Of Cinematographer for 37 years, to participate in this edition. Dedicated, indomitable, out-going, companionable and compassionate, her long career in service of the BSC, and to the benefit of the broader cinematographic world, should be an inspiration to us all. And, epitomising the industry she continues to love working in, never was there a safer pair of hands.

RON PRINCE Editor | British Cinematographer Magazine British Cinematographer | May 2018 | 03

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CONTENTS / BRITISH CINEMATOGRAPHER / ISSUE 87 / MAY 2018

IN THIS ISSUE...

07

PRESIDENT’S PERSPECTIVE

Mike Eley BSC reflects on the paradox facing cinematographers of there being more equipment to choose than ever but more corporate regulations restricting its use

49

68

On the cover...

Bradford Young ASC on Solo: A Star Wars Story

Close-Up...

Aaron Reid on 10x10

08

PRODUCTION/POST & TECHNO NEWS

The very latest news plus a preview of the 2018 Cannes Film Festival

28

SPOTLIGHT

Step inside the new look CVP

30

80

60

Clapperboard...

Frances Russell BSC

Close-Up... Eben Bolter on The Woman In White

54

70

42

Sean Bobbitt BSC speaks about shooting On Chesil Beach on film, and the challenges of shooting on the beach itself

James Oldham… makes prepossessing music as well as pretty pictures

Our special round-up from this year’s NAB in Las Vegas, plus a preview of the goodies on show at CineGear Expo in LA

58 -68

WHO’S SHOOTING WHO?

Your definitive guide to which DPs are shooting who and where

F-STOP NAB & CINEGEAR

49

CAMERA CREATIVE

Discover how Bradford Young ASC brought his stylish look to bear on Solo: A Star Wars Story

ON THE JOB

NEW WAVE

72

LETTER FROM AMERICA

CLOSE-UPS

Ed Lachman ASC on Wonderstruck, Eben Bolter on The Woman In White, Zac Nicholson BSC on The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society, Catherine Goldschmidt on The Honor List, Sam McCurdy on Lost In Space and Aaron Reid on 10x10

76

Gaffers ‘R’ Us...

Pat Sweeney

Steven Poster ASC says race, gender and pay equality are still a way off, but does see some progress

74

INNOVATOR

Tiffen celebrates 80 years in the film and TV industry

76

GAFFERS ‘R’ US

Pat Sweeney… says when you light a set, you should always be thinking about the next challenge

78

LIVE & LET DI

Discover who’s been dialling-in the most recent DI grades

80

CLAPPERBOARD

The wonderful and incomparable…

Frances Russell BSC

82

IMAGO NEWS

Paul René Roestad FNF, IMAGO president rounds up all of the latest and future events of the international federation

84

GBCT NEWS

GBCT chair Tim Potter looks at the range of organisations that can help in your time of need, whilst John Keedwell GBCT UAV Pilot considers the serious matter of safety when flying drones

British Cinematographer | May 2018 | 05

PRESIDENT’S PERSPECTIVE / MIKE ELEY BSC / BSC PRESIDENT

FOOL'S GOLD? BRITISH SOCIETY

OF CINEMATOGRAPHERS Board of Governors 2018

PRESIDENT: Mike Eley BSC IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT: Barry Ackroyd BSC VICE PRESIDENTS: Rob Hardy BSC Nigel Walters BSC Haris Zambarloukos BSC GOVERNORS: John de Borman BSC Lol Crawley BSC Oliver Curtis BSC John Daly BSC Gavin Finney BSC James Friend BSC David Higgs BSC Nina Kellgren BSC Nic Knowland BSC Phil Meheux BSC Nic Morris BSC Tim Palmer BSC Chris Ross BSC Oliver Stapleton BSC Angus Hudson BSC CO-OPTED ASSOCIATE MEMBER REPRESENTATIVE: Chris Plevin BOARD ADVISOR: Joe Dunton MBE BSC (non DoP) BSC IMAGO REPRESENTATIVE: Nina Kellgren BSC COMPANY SECRETARY: Audra Marshall

First up, huge congratulations to Roger Deakins CBE BSC ASC for winning the Academy Award at this year’s ceremony.

H

is work on Blade Runner 2049 was rightly recognised for its imagination, control and subtlety. After missing out on an Oscar thirteen times previously, it was gratifying to see him finally get his statuette. Also, it was good to hear in his acceptance speech reference to his crew, reminding us all once again that collaboration is at the heart of our craft.

Of course, we ‘share’ our illustrious compatriot with the ASC, and are proud to do so, but no one could deny us here the satisfaction of seeing a homegrown talent, former student of the NFTS and BSC member, achieving the ultimate recognition on the world stage.

Sadly, I missed this year’s BSC Expo due to filming commitments, but it was our biggest yet and, from all accounts, a great success. However, I did manage to catch the Micro Salon in Paris the weekend after. There, in the 18th Arrondissement, in the old Pathé Studios, were numerous floors crammed with every new innovation in cameras, lenses, lighting and much more. It was head-turning stuff. Students cruised the stands (the building is now home to France’s premiere film school), mingling with industry veterans, soaking in the technical wonder of it all.

It made me ponder on what these shows would have looked like in the days before the digital revolution? Film cameras developed incrementally between quantum leaps in design, whilst the introduction of new lenses played-out equally infrequently.

Now we have new cameras, glass and accessories seemingly every week. Just when you think you’ve got your head around the latest innovation, you discover it isn’t so innovative after all.

The tools available today are an amazing addition to our ability to tell stories, and they enable us to do things and contemplate shooting scenarios that would have been deemed impossible not so long ago. Never mind the fact that Steven Soderbergh’s latest movie, Unsane, was shot – in a week, mind you – on an iPhone (after Sean Baker’s Tangerine), it’s the idea that lightweight and affordable technology can make feature filmmaking a viable venture for those who previously would have regarded it the preserve of a so-called establishment.

That’s the upside.

The caveat? Well, ironically, given the panoply of choice now available, it can be less than liberating for cinematographers, especially when studios and networks start to insist on such-andsuch camera, sensor size or resolution, based on some Utopian

vision of a future home-entertainment system; as they see it, in every household should be a top-of-the-range 4K (or higher) television that must, at all costs, be fed with images originated at similar resolution. In short, we are in a situation where, at the very moment in image capture history, cinematographers have more choice than ever before, yet their ability to choose the tool for the job that they actually want, is being undermined.

After the BBC’s calamitous moratorium of S16mm film as a primary medium some years back – which very nearly killedoff the much-loved format in the UK on the basis of it not being compatible with existing delivery systems (which may have been technically convincing, even correct in a blinkered way), but which spoke rather more about engineers delivering news their bosses wanted to hear – we know how the corporate ‘vision’ can distort and manipulate, to damaging effect.

I think the knock-on effect of all this can also engender the wrong approach in those trying to get a foothold in the filmmaking world. One can hardly blame the manufacturers for trying to keep up with the various edicts handed down by the Netflix and the Amazons of this world – out of demand comes innovation. But I fear for the young souls browsing the stands at trade shows who might think that elusive Ingredient X, that new piece of kit, will turn their base-metal into gold, when it actually comes with an unattainable price-tag.

One of the seminars at this year’s AFC event was a tribute to the ASC, including personal appearances by several of its members who either flew in for the occasion or who just happened to be in town. It was fascinating to hear Ed Lachman ASC and Guillermo Navarro AMC ASC talk about their rise through the industry, how they overcame setbacks and prejudice. They are human stories, shot through with an honesty and integrity that mirrors their approach to cinematography.

And, as I listened, I was reminded that the most valuable thing one can bring to being a cinematographer is all that you already have in your possession. The experiences one has in progressing to becoming a cinematographer (aka ‘life’) are what really arm you for the career ahead. When Guillermo was asked what would be the best advice he could give to an aspiring DP, he said “Look at paintings, read, travel, see, absorb….”.

In other words, for all the abundance of tools that are available today, what really matters are your brain, your eyes and your instinct. Oh, and a good script. n British Cinematographer | May 2018 | 07

NEWS / PRODUCTION / POST & TECHNOLOGY ROUND-UP

SUE GIBSON AWARD-WINNER CHARLOTTE BRUUS CHRISTENSEN DELIVERS MASTERCLASS AT NFTS

N

FTS alumna, cinematographer Charlotte Bruus Christensen DFF (The Girl On The Train, Fences, A Quiet Place), was invited to the school to accept the inaugural Sue Gibson BSC Cinematography Award, and to deliver a masterclass to an audience of NFTS cinematography students, alumni, guests from the industry and the British Society Of Cinematographers.

The award recognises a member of NFTS Cinematography Alumni who has advanced the profession of cinematography in a significant way. Sue Gibson, who passed away in July 2016, was herself an award-winning NFTS alumna and also the first female president of the British Society Of Cinematographers.

She was known for her work on feature films, including Alien v Predator, The Holiday, Hear My Song and Mrs Dalloway as well as numerous TV series such as The Forsythe Saga, Spooks, Lewis, Poirot and Death In Paradise.

Over 100 NFTS Cinematography alumni submitted votes for the five nominees who, in addition to Bruus Christensen, included Natasha Braier, Ula Pontikos BSC, Tom Townend and Vanessa Whyte.

The evening was introduced

She added,

by NFTS co-head of cinematography, “When you go to a Stuart Harris, NFTS director, Jon film school where Wardle and Mike Roberts (Gibson’s you have tutors partner). Roberts celebrated Gibson’s like Sue Gibson or life, and talked about how proud Stuart Harris and she would have been, not only with Oliver Stapleton, having the award named after her, you gain so Kodak’s Julie Taylor-Butt te tula and Sam Clarke congra but also of the nominees. much from their rd awa Charlotte on her special

A Q&A with Bruus Christensen experiences and followed led by NFTS co-head of knowledge. So to cinematography, Oliver Stapleton BSC. get an award with Sue’s name on it is such a privilege.”

Bruus Christensen talked about her process of shooting

The event sponsor was Panavision, with with directors such as Thomas Vinterberg, Denzel the drinks reception sponsored by Kodak. Hugh Washington, Aaron Sorkin and John Krasinski.

Whittaker, Panavision’s features marketing director,

On receiving the award she said, “There is commented, “Charlotte’s work has been outstanding, something wonderful about this event in that it brings and the work of all the nominees this year shows us cinematographers together as a family. This school the level of craft and innovation they put on screen. is very special to me. Wherever you go, whether you NFTS is a British institution that continues to mould are at Camerimage or even just walking around LA, the future of our industry. The school’s dedication to meeting a fellow NFTS student is special because you quality and equality are among the reasons we are share a common bond.” proud to be involved with this award.”

CTBF RELAUNCHES AS FILM & TELEVISION CHARITY

T

he Cinema & Television Benevolent Fund (CTBF), the industry-supporting charity that has been in operation for 90 years, has relaunched as the Film & Television Charity with a new mission that aims to better assist film workers.

The charity’s CEO Alex Pumfrey set out the plans to extend its reach to help people working in the sector during an industry conference – Re: Focus 2018, chaired by Kirsty Lang, presenter of BBC Radio 4’s flagship programme, Front Row – at BAFTA.

Re: Focus 2018 examined the future of working in the film and television industry from the perspective of workers and employers. The conference was opened by Cameron Saunders, VP of the Film & Television Charity and MD of theatrical at 20th Century Fox UK, and featured a keynote interview by writer, presenter and comedian Sue Perkins.

“The Charity has provided support for individuals in the industry for over 90 years, and is well-placed to respond to the challenges and pressures of those working now in the growing and fast-changing world of film, TV and cinema,” said Pumfrey. “We will continue to provide financial support to those in times of acute need, but will be extending our reach to meet the needs of all those working in the sector from the moment they join.

We will be seeking to offer new forms of practical and emotional support that can support the well-being of everyone who helps bring stories to our screens – to radically increase our impact.”

Pumfrey noted: “From our own research we’ve heard how tough and lonely it can be in film and television. With two-thirds of our industry operating as freelancers, it can feel very much as if you are ‘on your own’. People talk about long hours, job insecurity, working away from home, barriers-toentry, reliance on personal networks, managing work/life balance, especially for those with caring responsibilities, financial strain and dealing with rejection, and the lack of clear career progression. And, in a fragmented workforce, our people are particularly vulnerable to bullying and different types of harassment.

“The two new initiatives that the Charity

is introducing this year – the Film & TV Support Line, and Going Places – are immediately targeting support where people need it most and extending the Charity’s services and reach to everyone in the sector across the UK.”

The launch of the 24/7 and free Film & TV Support Line across the UK from April is the first step along the path. Not only will it help anyone who has been bullied or harassed in the industry, it will also assist those facing other problems such as mental health issues, unemployment, sickness and debt.

The Film & Television Charity is also introducing a new UK-wide travel fund.

Going Places will offer grants to cover travel and subsistence expenses for individuals needing to attend training, interviews or pitches.

The Charity has been supporting around 600 people and their families every year and also has a successful talent development programme which includes the John Brabourne Awards (JBAs), which provide a stepping stone for individuals who are talented and driven but face hurdles in pursuing their careers.

Alex Pumfrey

08 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

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NEWS / PRODUCTION / POST & TECHNOLOGY ROUND-UP

LONDON FILM SCHOOL APPOINTS DYKE AS NEW CHAIRMAN

L

ondon Film School (LFS) recently announced Greg Dyke as its new chairman.

Dyke succeeds renowned filmmaker, Mike Leigh, who stepped down on 19th March 2018, after 18 years of service.

Dyke takes over the baton at a time of major change at the school, including plans to relocate from its present home in Covent Garden to London City Island (LCI), where they will join the English National Ballet in one of the growing number of cultural hubs springing up in the East of London. The move to LCI will allow LFS to broaden its student base, offering its model of practical filmmaking and talent transformation to a larger number of UK students, meeting both individual aspirations and the skills needs of the UK film industry.

Dyke’s last major public role was as chairman of the Football Association, a role held for three years. He was previously CEO of London Weekend Television, director general of the BBC (2000 to 2004), chairman of the British Film Institute (2008 to 2016), and is currently one of three vice presidents of BAFTA. He was chairman of the BFI at the time the UK Government closed the British Film Council and handed most of its responsibilities, including the distribution of Lottery money for film, to the BFI.

Commenting on his new role, Dyke said, “This is a very interesting time to join London Film School with the changes going on in higher education, the plans to move the school to a new location, and the current success of the British film industry. Recent BFI reports

Mike Leigh

have demonstrated that there is a clear skills shortage in the film industry in Britain, a shortage which, amongst the many other things it does, the London Film School can help to fill in the years ahead. I like being involved with organisations at times of change. It will be an exciting time.”

Retiring chairman, Mike Leigh said: “What a long way we’ve come since I became LFS chairman back in 2000, and how exciting and exhilarating it is for me, as I move on, to know that I have the most perfect successor imaginable. Greg Dyke’s unique and formidable skills are exactly what we need. He takes over at a key moment in the school’s history.”

Founded in 1956, the London Film School is one of the world’s longest established graduate

Greg Dyke

filmmaking schools. It produces over 180 films a year via its Masters programmes. LFS alumni are established in film and television production in more than 80 countries. The list includes worldrenowned filmmakers including Leigh – seven times Oscar nominee, winner of the Cannes Palme d’Or and Venice Golden Lion – Michael Mann, Ann Hui and Duncan Jones, writers David Thomson and Iain Sinclair, as well as emerging talents, such as Gonzalo Maza, co-writer of Una Mujer Fantástica (A Fantastic Woman), winner of Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards.

PRODUCTION GUILD AND UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE PARTNER TO DEVELOP PRODUCTION ACCOUNTANTS

T

Alison Small

Lyndsay Duthie

10 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

he Production Guild Of Great Britain and the University Of Hertfordshire’s School Of Creative Arts have joined forces to pilot a new scheme designed to develop the next generation of UK production accountants. The move comes in response to rising demand for industry entrants as the UK film business continues its current boom in production.

Latest figures from the British Film Institute show that the UK industry is in rude health with a record-breaking combined total of almost £3bn spent on film and high-end TV production in the UK last year. British production talent is world class and production accountants are in high demand.

In a forward-thinking move, the University of Hertfordshire’s Film & Television degree course is piloting a new Production Accounting module, delivered by The Production Guild, designed to introduce existing students to the specialist field.

Lyndsay Duthie, head of the University of Hertfordshire’s Film & Television Degree programme, said, “We are delighted to be partnering with The Production Guild as part of our students' Professional Development provision. As the UK’s leading membership organisation for film and TV production professionals, The Production Guild has excellent relationships with leading production companies who are actively looking to recruit juniors.

Guy Barker

“We have a long history of working closely with business and industry and over 95% of our school’s graduates are in employment or further study within six months. This is another example of how our close links with industry are opening doors for our students and in this case, introducing them to film production areas they may not have previously considered working in.”

Guy Barker, chairman of The Production Guild and financial controller on productions such as Locke, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Mission: Impossible – Fallout, and Dunkirk, commented: “We’ve identified a growing need to develop new talent in this field. It’s important that we stay ahead of the game and ensure the right numbers of production accounting administrators and assistant accountants are entering the workforce to meet the record levels of production we’re experiencing in the UK. This new approach offers a practical and effective solution, by encouraging new industry entrants, linking them to available jobs and directly benefiting productions continuously on the lookout for new talent.”

Alison Small, CEO of The Production Guild, noted, “It’s great to be embarking upon this new pilot with the University of Hertfordshire. By reaching out to students with an interest in finance and production, we can shine a light on the excellent job prospects out there right now for new assistant production accountants with the right skills and experience. Working as a junior in this department is a great step into this exciting and varied industry. After evaluating the pilot’s impact, we hope to widen the opportunity to include students from other courses at the University.”

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NEWS / PRODUCTION / POST & TECHNOLOGY ROUND-UP

ADRIANO GOLDMAN WINS BAFTA TV CRAFT AWARD Adriano Goldman

Nic Hatch

NCAM LAUNCH NEXT-GENERATION LIGHTING AND DEPTH SOLUTIONS FOR AR Ncam Technologies, developer of augmented reality (AR) technology for the entertainment industries, launched new products and solutions at NAB 2018 that are designed to enhance lighting and depth within AR platforms for a more naturalistic look.

Real Light is designed to solve the common challenge of making augmented graphics look as though they are part of the real-world scene. Real Light captures real-world lighting (direction, colour, intensity, HDR maps), and renders it onto augmented graphics in realtime, adapting to lighting changes.

Real Depth provides a new and automated technique for sensing depth. By extracting depth data in real-time, subjects are able to interact seamlessly with their virtual surroundings for the most realistic and synergetic visual engagement.

Extreme, a new option for Ncam’s camera tracking products, provides enhanced camera tracking for severe lighting conditions, especially stage lighting including strobing effects.

Nic Hatch, CEO of Ncam, said, “These new technologies take our augmented reality platform to the next level, providing our customers with unrivalled possibilities, enabling an even more realistic look to graphics content.”

12 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

D

irector of photography Adriano Goldman received the BAFTA TV Craft Award in the Photography & Lighting: Fiction category for his work on Left Bank Pictures/Netflix’s The Crown (Episode 4). The nominees were: Johann Perry for Against The Law, from BBC Studios’ Documentary Unit/ BBC Two; Mark Patten for Taboo, a Scott Free London/ Hardy Son & Baker/BBC One production; and Stephan Pehrsson for USS Callister (Black Mirror), from House Of Tomorrow/Netflix.

In the Photography: Factual category the winner was the Camera Team on Blue Planet II (One Ocean).

The team won out against: Daniel Vernon, Daniel Dewsbury for The Detectives: Murder On The Streets; Fadi Al-Halabi, Hassan Kattan And Thaer Mohammed for Storyville, Last Men In Aleppo (Storyville) and Olivier Sarbil for The Fight For Mosul (Dispatches).

MOVIETECH DEPLOYS SONY VENICE ON INAUGURAL EUROPEAN FEATURE Camera, lens and grip specialist, Movietech, has dispatched its newly-acquired Sony Venice camera to support cinematographer Florian Hoffmeister BSC on Official Secrets, the camera system’s debut on a European feature.

Directed by Gavin Hood, Official Secrets, which stars Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes and Matt Smith, is based around the true story of Katharine Gun, the former British intelligence Mandarin translator at GCHQ, who made the headlines surrounding the 2003 invasion of Iraq, when she leaked a secret memo exposing an illegal spying operation.

Movietech is servicing the Yorkshire-based production with a comprehensive camera and lens package based around the Venice. A powerful addition to the range of imaging technology available at the company’s Pinewood Studios base, the Venice is the first dedicated full-frame, large format digital camera system from Sony.

Speaking about the project, Movietech MD John Buckley, said, “This is the very first time the Venice has been used on a feature in Europe. Naturally we are extremely proud to be providing Florian with both the camera and lens package for the shoot. Venice is proving to be an important investment for us. We’re delighted with the interest it has generated not only from our colleagues in features but from all areas of our industry.”

FIILEX ANNOUNCES THE Q8 TRAVEL FBuilding on its successful Q-series LED fixtures, Fiilex has introduced the Fiilex Q8 Travel. It is the first in the series to come with a customized 8-inch Fresnel lens designed specifically for the proprietary 300W DiCon Dense Matrix LED.

The product offers one of the longest Fresnel zoom ranges in the industry: 12° 60°, with a high quality of the light throughout the zoom range. The Fiilex Q8 Travel can flood any wide space with an even spread of light, or focus into a spot with a well-defined edge and uniform beam profile near the centre, with no hot spot.

The Fiilex Q8 Travel addresses three major lighting needs of every film/video production. First, it produces high quality light with the ability to smoothly blend with ambient lighting or precisely match lights from other fixtures. Second, it has a solid construction.

The robust housing ensures the fixture can withstand harsh transportation conditions and rough handling during rigging. The third is the easy-to-use interface.

The LCD display and manual control knobs are sleek, intuitive, and responsive. They allow for accurate adjustments and will help filmmakers establish faster and more efficient workflows on set.

The Fiilex Q8 Travel is DC powered.

It works with included AC/DC adapter or can connect to many qualified 48VDC batteries.

With all the features mentioned above and a weight of only 16 pounds, The Fiilex Q8 Travel is a great LED lighting fixture for on-location use.

FILMFABRIEK PRESENTS NEW SMALL-FORMAT FILM SCANNER Filmfabriek, developer of archival film scanning equipment, presented its new sprocketless, small format, film scanner during NAB 2018.

Filmfabriek has sold nearly 100 scanners worldwide. Films digitised with its scanners are used in various applications including commercials, short films, documentaries, museum presentations and other broadcast and non-broadcast applications.

The majority of material being scanned today is not recent footage, but at least 50 years old.

Consequently, its scanners are designed to be extremely user friendly, negating the need for specialist dedicated personnel, and delivering a positive experience for those who may not have had previous film experience.

The 2018 model, shown at NAB, features a range of new functions such as: intuitive software design for operators with no previous experience; sprocketless transport, with adjustable tension and wide tolerance for shrunken film handling; and auto calibration for sprocket sensor, camera lighting and transport tension.

The company also showed a range of archival film gates at NAB, for multiple film formats including Super 8mm, Super 16mm and 9.5mm Pathé, magnetic and optical, 8/16mm sound heads, wet gate scratch removal, and 2K image restoration software.

Enabling creativity through technology.

ZEISS CP.3 and CP.3 XD Lenses

// INNOVATION MADE BY ZEISS

ZEISS Compact Prime CP.3 and CP.3 XD lenses The ZEISS CP.3 lenses offer the perfect combination of high image quality and reliable usability. They exhibit the clean, crisp characteristics ZEISS is known for. The compact and light-weight design is ideal for handheld, gimbal, drone and Steadicam applications.

The ZEISS CP.3 XD version features innovative and ground-breaking lens data technology to speed-up and simplify the workflow on set and in post-production. The ZEISS eXtended Data is a unique technology which is based on the Technology and provides information about the lens’ distortion and shading characteristics in real time. www.zeiss.com/cine/cp3

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* /i is a registered trademark of Cooke Optics Limited used with permission

customercare.uk@zeiss.com

NEWS / PRODUCTION / POST & TECHNOLOGY ROUND-UP

LIGHT IRON EXPANDS TO ATLANTA P ost-production creative services provider, Light Iron, also a member of the Panavision family of companies, has opened a new facility in Atlanta, Georgia, to support the local production community. The expansion is the fourth since Panavision acquired Light Iron in 2015, bringing Light Iron’s US locations to six, including Los Angeles, New York, New Orleans, Albuquerque and Chicago.

“Opening Light Iron Atlanta is central to Panavision’s commitment to provide end-to-end services for our customers,” said Kim Snyder, president and CEO of Panavision.

“We are excited to amplify our post resources in the thriving Atlanta market.”

Peter Cioni, Light Iron’s chief financial officer, added, “Light Iron has been supporting Georgia-based productions for years through our mobile dailies services. Now, with a team on the ground, productions can take advantage of our facilitybased dailies with talent that bring the finishing perspective into the process.”

The company’s Atlanta staff recently provided dailies services to season one of Kevin (Probably) Saves the World, season three of Greenleaf, and the features Uncle Drew and Superfly.

With a professionally calibrated theatre, the Light Iron Atlanta Clark Cofer facility has hosted virtual DI sessions from its LA facility for cinematographers working in Atlanta. The theatre is also available for projecting camera and lens tests, as well as private screenings for up to 45 guests.

The new location is led by director of business development Clark Cofer, a well-known member of Atlanta’s production and post industry. Cofer most recently represented Crawford Media Services, where he encouraged sales to companies such as Lionsgate, Fox, and Marvel. He currently serves as co-president of the Georgia Production Partnership, and is on the board of directors for DeKalb County Film and Entertainment Advisory Board.

BFI APPOINTS NEW DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION AND SKILLS

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Ralph Young (LEE Filters sales director) receives the award on behalf of the team

LEE FILTERS RECEIVES AWARD FOR PROGLASS IRND FILTERS LEE Filters has received another award for its range of ProGlass IRND filters. This time the readers of UK photographic magazine, Photography News, voted the LEE ProGlass range as Best Filter of the year. UK Sales director Ralph Young accepted the award on behalf of LEE Filters at the UK Photography Show in March 2018. Earlier in March, the LEE ProGlass range was also voted Accessory Of The Year at this year's prestigious Amateur Photographer Awards.

14 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

he BFI has appointed Leigh Adams as its new director of education and skills. Developing and implementing the strategic ambitions of BFI2022, Adams will be responsible for the BFI’s nationwide film education and skills strategy, demonstrating the educational and cultural importance of the art of film and its role inspiring the next generation of a creative workforce.

Bringing to the BFI over 20 years of experience in secondary education, largely in leadership roles, Leigh was most recently head teacher at Costello School, Basingstoke. With a specialism in media studies, he has shaped and delivered the media diploma in two schools, led on a successful bid to become a SSAT Media school, revitalised Adult Learning provision, leveraged many positive partnerships with the media industry and higher education providers, managed high level stakeholder engagement and translated national policy into regional and local delivery.

The BFI is a world leader in education, learning and training for film and the moving image and Adams will continue to forge partnerships with UKwide and international education organisations, cultural venues and digital platforms. Leigh’s remit includes managing BFI Education’s UK Learning programmes, including the offer at BFI Southbank and the hugely successful BFI Film Academy, which provides opportunities and training for 16–19 year-olds.

He will oversee funded partners including Into Film, which works with thousands of UK

schools reaching over one million 5-19 year-olds and develop with them a manifesto for film in the classroom. Leigh will also manage the delivery of the recently announced UK Film Skills Strategy with Creative Skillset. Reporting to CEO Amanda Nevill, he will manage a team of 13.

Adams said, “I am delighted to join the BFI to help deliver its ambitious BFI2022 strategy, which focusses on celebrating and documenting our diversity, culture and heritage through increased access and inclusivity. The UK film industry is in rude health and I am excited to be entrusted with a key role in developing and leading the delivery of the next generation of educational and skills provision. It is paramount that there is continued exponential growth in the number of opportunities for all young people to engage both as the audience and workforce. This challenge is central to my new role and I am excited to work with the established existing team to achieve”.

Amanda Nevill, CEO of the BFI, said, “Leigh brings valuable experience of the education sector to the BFI, coupled with a successful track record of leading large scale and ambitious changes to the schools he has worked in. I look forward to him driving forward our vital and wide-ranging film education and skills portfolio, ensuring opportunities to enjoy film are open to everyone across the UK – whether that is watching films, developing skills or forging a career in the screen sector.”

We are extremely proud to have supported Director of Photography Bradford Young ASC, Gaffer Perry Evans, Rigging Gaffer Ossa Mills, Best Boy Ricky Pattenden and the entire Crew on Solo: A Star Wars Story +44 (0) 1753 65 62 62 info@pinewoodmbs.com www.pinewoodmbs.com

© Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved

NEWS / PRODUCTION / POST & TECHNOLOGY ROUND-UP

SONY SHIPS VENICE TO UK CUSTOMERS T he first UK consignment of Sony’s nextgeneration motion picture cameras have now been received, with Sony specialist dealers CVP, Top-Teks and Visual Impact getting their first units, along with Pinewood rental house Movietech. The full-frame system camera is already booked on a string of high-profile shoots as the market embraces its creative potential and gears up for the spring shooting season.

Since its launch last year, Venice has generated significant interest within the global cinematography community for its full-frame sensor, colour science and user-friendly operation.

“Venice demonstrates our commitment to developing tools that support directors, DPs and cinematographers in bringing their vision to the screen”, said Claus Pfeifer, head of technical sales – Media Solutions, Sony Professional Solutions Europe. “We were committed to bringing the camera to market before the spring shooting season began, and the fact that the camera has already been specified for shoots is testament to the market appetite for a creative tool that promises natural skin tones, elegant highlight handling and wide dynamic range due to the newly-developed full-frame sensor. We are proud that dealers have chosen to work with us to help the industry unlock the potential of this one of a kind camera.”

Sony Specialist Dealer, CVP Group, was among the first European dealers to receive shipment of the camera for a high-end commercial shoot. Jon Fry, sales

KINO FLO LAUNCHES

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ino Flo’s Celeb 850 LED DMX family line now includes Yoke Mount and Pole-Op models. These two models are designed with built-in electronics mounted on the centre of the fixture, which makes them ideal for hanging in the studio.

One of the largest LEDs in the industry, the Celeb 850 measures 45” x 26” (114cm x 66cm), at only 6” (15cm) in depth. The fixture puts out 111FC at 10ft (1251 LUX at 3M), but only uses 5.0A (120VAC). All Celeb 850 models have the same menu options, one white and two colour menus, with a Kelvin range from 2500K to 9900K with full green/magenta, gel, hue/saturation and RGB colour control features.

Additional features include presets and custom settings, full-range dimming without flicker or colour shift. Light levels do not change when

16 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

director, commented: “Venice is the most exciting camera to emerge from Sony over the last five years and holds huge potential with cinematographers and the creative community. It signals a new and exciting era for digital cinematography and we’ve already received substantial interest. Like us, our clients recognise that Venice’s outstanding image quality combined with CVP's total commitment to customer support opens an excellent gateway to high-end, high-quality shooting.”

Top-Teks, which supports Sony’s full CineAlta range, including Sony’s renowned PMW-F65 Super 35mm camera, delivered its first two Venice units to leading independent rental company, MovieTech, which are already in use on Official Secrets, lit by DP Florian Hoffmeister BSC.

Mike Thomas, sales director, said: “The full frame Sony Venice has been well-received by the community and the first tests have come back extremely positive. There is a want in the industry to try something new and have looks that inspire the users to create rather than tread the same path.

Orders for the Venice reflect this desire with growing numbers of rental houses and owner operators getting in the queue for the latest high-end cine camera.”

Rob Newton, marketing director at Visual Impact Group elaborated, "Sony’s Venice represents a significant milestone in the future of filmmaking, highend drama and commercials, and is a fantastic addition to Sony’s CineAlta family. It ticks so many boxes in terms of specifications and usability, with its full frame sensor offering a real USP for creatives. We’ve already delivered a unit to Video Europe and have bolstered our own rental fleet to cater for substantial levels of industry demand in large format, cinematic quality."

The Venice system is capable of capturing visuals in a plethora of formats, including full-frame 24x26mm, Super35 and Anamorphic. It is built-upon the established CineAlta workflow allowing 10bit XAVC recording directly to SxS cards or 16-bit RAW, X-OCN on the attached AXS-R7 recorder. The camera’s on-board PL and forthcoming E-mounts, and connectivity options, allow the system to be tailored for many lens possibilities. E-Mount support will launch with a v2.0 firmware upgrade in summer 2018.

Following market feedback, Sony will also enable 25p recording in 6K Full Frame mode, as well as a new Dual Base ISO feature supporting ISO2500 with the launch of FW V2.0 in summer 2018.

NEW CELEB AND FREESTYLE FIXTURES selecting Kelvin settings. The Celeb 850 also comes with standard DMX and wireless DMX (Lumen Radio), and universal voltage input 100-240VAC. The Centre Mount was introduced in October 2017. Yoke Mount and Pole-Op models will be available in May 2018. In addition, the Yoke Mount version will also be available as a kit.

Kino Flo Lighting Systems’ new FreeStyle 151X LED DMX Controller replaces the Select/ LED controller model 150X. The two models have the same feature set and software. These controllers are interchangeable between Select 20/30 or FreeStyle 21/31 fixture heads and use the same head extensions. Both models will

be supported with future software upgrades as they become available.

The introduction of the FreeStyle Controller name reflects the increased popularity of the FreeStyle fixture with the ability to remove the LED panel from the plastic housing, slip into a Gaffer Tray accessory or use as an individual panel.

The FreeStyle 151X can dial in an expanded Kelvin colour temperature range from 2500K to 9900K with full Green/Magenta, Gel, Hue/Saturation and RGB colour control features.

Additional features include presets and custom settings, full range dimming without flicker or colour shift. Light levels do not change when selecting Kelvin settings. The FreeStyle 151X comes with standard DMX and wireless DMX (Lumen Radio), universal input voltage 100-240VAC and 24VDC. The FreeStyle 151X LED DMX Controller will be available in March 2018.

The company has also launched a new 8W LED Daylight Bulb. In a daylight environment, the bulb is rated at 4600 Kelvin. It gives a warm look of an incandescent with a more natural appearance to a household practical. Cool to the touch, its classic bulb design casts a wide, 310-degrees of light dispersion compared to other LED bulbs that only emit light from the top. They are available in 120VAC and 230VAC.

© 2016 MARVEL & ABC Studios © 2017 MARVEL & ABC Studios

WWW.RED.COM

NEWS / PRODUCTION / POST & TECHNOLOGY ROUND-UP

OOOK AUDIO LAUNCHES ROYALTY-FREE MUSIC LIBRARY

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ook Audio has launched a royalty-free music library, aimed at the professional videography market. It links video editors with high-quality compositions, crafted and curated and available via Oook’s new portal. Features include ease-of-use, exclusive tracks and a simple licensing mode with a user-centric approach, which can be used in films, and across the full range of video sharing websites.

The production market, including advertising agencies, corporate video producers, small independent producers and individuals making personal videos, currently face difficulty finding music of the right quality, which is pre-cleared for social media like Facebook Live, Insta stories, YouTube and Vimeo. Once found and licensed, users often complain about the poor availability, choice of track genres and styles and unresponsive and unhelpful customer service.

Oook Audio solves this with a user-centric platform with exclusive, high quality, carefully curated royalty free audio tracks. The platform draws on over 100 years of experience its founders have as composers to meet composer requirements as well as those of users. Oook tracks offer affordable music in a wide variety of tracks genres and styles via clear and simple licenses. Features include a search bar that understands the customer’s needs and helps them navigate the library immediately.

Tracks on the Oook platform, are fully royalty-free and a cue sheet is not required. Original audio tracks can be licensed by individuals and professionals for use in personal projects, advertising, internet programmes, TV, radio, any media and multimedia projects.

TAKE 2 APPOINTS ALAN PIPER AS NEW MANAGING DIRECTOR

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ake 2, supplier of professional digital and motion picture equipment, has appointed Alan Piper as its new managing director. In this role, Piper will be responsible for leading business development, strategy and leadership to drive brand growth for the company. He will also spearhead the development and implementation of a more client-centric culture that focuses on service, working closely with existing Take 2 staff.

Piper brings close to forty years of experience in the film industry to the company. He was most recently MD at Red Europe Ltd where, during a nine-year stint, he grew the team to a business of 30 people, and was responsible for the sales and service for Red products throughout EMEA was well as significant revenue generation.

Prior to this, he was group operations director at Lee Lighting Ltd within the Panavision Europe Group, and also served in senior technical sales roles at Cine-Europe, Panavision and ARRI (GB) Ltd.

SCREEN CRAFT RIGHTS HAS COLLECTED £4M: IS SOME OF THAT YOURS?

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ver £4million pounds has been collected from European sources by Screen Craft Rights for the benefit of cinematographers and HODs working on British film and TV productions since it was established as a collecting society in 2011.

The total distribution for the year to April 2018 was just under £620,000, almost double the £350,000 of the previous year. This sum received a further boost by the settlement of a claim for back-tax of £295,000 owed to craft heads by German Federal Tax Authorities.

This was successfully negotiated by SCR’s chief executive Suzan Dormer and later cleared by HMRC. It was SCR's good fortunate to secure Dormer’s services from the beginning. She worked in the industry representing the interests of directors for 30 years. Whilst general secretary of the Directors Guild she was involved with the establishment of the Directors and Producers Rights Society, the DPRS which later became Directors UK.

Discussions are on-going with the possibility of securing a possible agreement between SCR and a Swiss Collecting Society. This follows disclosure that payments in Switzerland may not be restricted, as hitherto, to “homegrown” talent. Collecting arrangements are payable to SCR under EU Law by Germany, Sweden, Austria, Finland and Norway. Future residuals for British craft recognition will depend on the terms of the Brexit Accord. Unless such an arrangement (as exists between Norway and the EU), is ratified it would probably be optimistic and unwise for cinematographers, editors, designers and costume designers to expect further residuals too far into the future.

The success of Screen Craft Rights is an example of the collective wisdom and determination by the BSC, GBCT and GBTE to collaborate with BECTU. The collaboration between the craft organisations and BECTU was steered by BECTU assistant general secretary, Martin Spence, prior to his retirement. The initial founding members were later joined

18 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

by the BFDG representing set designers. The SCR collecting society members owe much to the expertise of Dormer who has patiently sifted through many thousands of programmes to find residuals owing to eligible HODs. Present membership comprises 493 cinematographers, 497 editors, 151 production designers and 119 costume designers and stands at 1,260.

184 new members and estates joined in 2017.

The distribution of January 2018 resulted in payments totalling £500,000 to just one thousand members. Suzan Dormer has estimated an additional 3,644 people are on the database. Every one of 850 individuals listed on the www.screencraftrights.org website is due over £135 payment upon registration. The cost is a one-off fee for £35. As a non-profit organisation SCR costs are the lowest of any comparable European organisation. The main distribution this year will be in the Autumn, however the hunt for missing non-members and beneficiaries will continue.

Outstanding back payments over several years from Germany, Austria and Norway have now been cleared and the administrative procedure will be relatively straightforward compared to the tangled web of screenings, documentaries, features, TV dramas, studio productions, etc. The complexity of the task facing Dormer meant unravelling broadcasts' transmission and timings of programmes across five nations, encompassing formulae involving points systems, length of screen time, genre of the work, and broadcast channels.

The points system in Germany varies between 3 to 100, the guideline for differing payments to “authors”.

One reason for the establishment of IMAGO, the European Federation of Cinematographers, by the BSC, AIC, BVK and AFC some 27 years ago, was to fight for co-authorship rights for all cinematographers. The EU have made promises to modernise copyright laws. To date, they remain promises. Time may be just running out for SCR professionals regarding residuals. Despite Brexit, a ray of light may exist through our Irish members.

CINELAB LONDON APPOINTS NEW HEAD OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Cinelab London recently recruited Sonji Clarke as its new head of business development. She joins the company from Deluxe Media Services where she was head of client services.

Her experience also includes stints at Technicolor and Ascent Media.

“Sonji has exactly the right skillset to help us expand our business, whilst maintaining a focus on the high level of service that our clients have come to expect of us,” said Cinelab London’s sales director Roger Harlow.

Cinelab’s recent projects include film processing for Lucasfilm’s The Last Jedi, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread, and the upcoming Mission Impossible – Fallout, which was shot by cinematographer Rob Hardy BSC.

“The team at Cinelab are connected by their passion for film,” said Clarke. “I really wanted to be part of that. I’m delighted to be working closely with their clients in order to help grow the business.”

The Cooke Look

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Photo by Aeric Adams

One Look. All Speeds

"Since the Alexa Mini went 4:3 I had shot with nothing but 2:1 squeezed lenses in either 16:9 crop mode or full screen 2:40 totally humbled by the extraordinary and daring magical imagery. Then, I was sharing cinematography on Dynasty with Michael Karasick and Starr Barry when it abruptly became a Netflix show and were obliged to shoot 4K. I suggested that we use the Canon C700 coupled with the new Cooke Panchro/i Classics because The Crown was shot so exquisitely by Adriano Goldman using vintage Cooke Speed Panchros (rehoused by TLS). I loved that dreamy forgiving and painterly palette.

By Spring 2017, Cooke had recreated the look of the old lenses using modern glass and barreling. Our timing was perfect. We took delivery of the first two partial sets of the new Panchro/i Classics supplementing them with the vintage Panchros. The new lenses still bloom lovingly until 3.5/4 and have the curved focus field of the originals.

The 9 linear iris blades allow for a glorious bokeh. It gives you the quality and feel of anamorphic, especially when shooting wide open.

T2.2

T2.0

T2.3 T2.3

T2.0

We are sure that the look of the show photographed by these lenses was a big contributor to the pick-up of the back 9 episodes."

T2.8

Rodney Charters, ASC, CSC, NZCS Dynasty, Netflix television series

British Optical Innovation and Quality Since 1893.

cookeoptics.com

T: +44 (0)116 264 0700 Canada, South America, USA: T: +1-973-335-4460

T1.4

NEWS / PRODUCTION / POST & TECHNOLOGY ROUND-UP

PINEWOOD MBS LIGHTING AND CHROMA-Q DEVELOP LED WENDY LIGHT

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inewood MBS Lighting innovations think-tank, has collaborated with Chroma-Q to develop Brute Force, a brand new LED alternative to a quarter Wendy light.

Extending the Chroma-Q range of effective, energy-efficient products, the new fixture has been rigorously tested by PMBS in a variety of ‘real world’ scenarios to ensure optimal functionality across a variety of applications.

The technical teams of both companies worked closely together to create a true LED, full-colour, RGB-W lamphead that draws 15amps at 240V. Robustly designed and fully dimmable, the Brute Force has an extended CCT range between 2,000K and 10,000K. Each unit features 96-way mappable pixel control with RDM, DMX and optional wireless operation. For greater flexibility, the on-board multi-point fixings allow units to be easily combined to form a full Wendy.

Although developed in partnership with MBSi, unlike other proprietary products, the Brute Force is to be made available industry-wide through Chroma-Q.

PMBS has invested its technical expertise, however the key objective is to see this new lamphead being adopted throughout the industry.

Speaking about the product, Chroma-Q’s global brand manager, Paul Pelletier said, “In creating the Brute Force, our teams have introduced an incredible new alternative to the traditional Wendy. Having MBSi involved in the project has allowed us to design and build a fixture that has been properly tested and proven to perform prior to launch. I am confident that it will be accepted throughout our industry as a versatile, effective light source”.

As a company recognised by the BAFTA-led Albert initiative, and a supplier that supports an environmentally sustainable future for the industry, Pinewood MBS Lighting is keen to share its knowledge to help productions achieve their true potential in this area. The introduction of the Brute Force is an example of an on-going commitment to making energy efficient alternatives more widely available.

Talking about MBSi, PMBS technical director

FUJINON INSTALLS NEW HDR LENSES AT BBC STUDIOWORKS' FLAGSHIP STUDIO In September 2017, BBC Studioworks, a commercial subsidiary of the BBC, reopened its studio and post production facility at the world famous Television Centre, incorporating some of the most state-of-the-art technologies in the UK studio industry.

The three studios, as well as the facility’s edit suites, have already played host to programming for a range of broadcasters and production companies.

As well as installing a new fleet of 4K television cameras, screens and switchers, no fewer than 22 Fujinon 4K HDR TV lenses were also installed, enabling productions to be shot in both 4K and HDR. The order included two Fujinon UA80x9 1.2x EXT’s, five Fujinon UA14x4.5BE’s and 15 Fujinon UA27ｘ6.5BE’s.

Elom Bell, procurement manager at BBC Studioworks, said of the company’s decision to invest in new 4K lenses, "Television Centre needs to offer clients the very latest technology, with the full capability of hosting 4K and HDR productions. In the case of the lenses we provide, we need to ensure they last for many years to come. Fujinon delivered on-time and spent a whole day on-site, helping to test and configure all of the lenses”.

Marc Horner, marketing manager for Fujinon TV Lenses at Fujifilm UK, added “Light entering the lens is the first step in any production and anything that is lost at this stage cannot be recovered. This is why we have ensured our lenses contain the best technology to ensure every last detail is captured, and the blacks stay as black as possible.”

Since opening in September, Strictly Come Dancing’s popular spin off show, It Takes Two, and star-studded chat show, The Jonathan Ross Show, were some of the first productions to record at BBC Studioworks’ Television Centre facility.

20 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

Steve Howard commented “MBSi provides us with a central point from where to share creativity, to innovate and introduce new thinking that can enhance the way we support our clients. Through our collaboration with Chroma-Q we are proud to have taken this ethos a step further and are committed to sharing our knowledge in a way that can benefit the industry as a whole. In a creative industry we have to offer more than just power saving in the products we are looking to replace. We are delighted with the ability of the Brute Force to combine its comparable output and spread to a quarter Wendy with the benefits of intelligent, controllable, full colour LED illumination.”

CANON RELEASES NEW UHD LENSES

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anon has released a bevvy of new lenses: a medium, telephoto, field-box lens - the UJ66x9B, plus three ENG/EFP broadcast lenses - the CJ24ex7.5B, CJ18ex7.6B and CJ14ex4.3B. Launched under a completely new lens category, UHDgc, the models feature smooth operability, whilst maintaining high lens-build standards.

Built on Canon’s optical design technology, the CJ24ex7.5B, CJ18ex7.6B and CJ14ex4.3B deliver 4K resolution, from the centre of the screen to the very edges. Special coatings and internal lens barrels, designed to prevent reflection and reduce ghosting and flaring, allow the operator to capture hightonality images. Thanks to an optimised arrangement of fluorite and UD glass, chromatic aberration is reduced, providing greater clarity. With no loss of sharpness or colour fringing around the image edge, this quality is paramount for events, such as sports or concerts, when viewers want an enriching, detail-heavy experience.

With compact and lightweight bodies, the CJ24ex7.5B, CJ18ex7.6B and CJ14ex4.3B offer significant mobility for the camera operator, especially those in documentary-making and news generation. An ergonomically designed grip means the lenses fit comfortably in the hand, offering an excellent feel and minimal strain on the shoulder.

Canon says that the finest optical materials have been used in the UJ66x9B to achieve a high 66x magnification with a focal range of 9mm to 1,200mm. A new floating inner focus system grants further improvements in resolution, delivering class-leading 4K broadcast quality.

This new lens also offers excellent focus operability, even in challenging situations, such as tracking a player running down a pitch. It provides a stable servo performance (0.6 second high-speed zoom) from wide angle to telephoto, enabling the camera operator to confidently capture 4K content, for example during a fast-paced sporting event. Even the slightest vibration can impact image quality when shooting in 4K, but thanks to the UJ66x9B’s built-in Image Stablisation (IS), servo technologies are employed in the lens to guarantee 4K performance, during imbalanced shooting environments, even when panning.

NEWS / PRODUCTION / POST & TECHNOLOGY ROUND-UP

SUCCESS AT MICRO SALON ITALIA

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he sixth edition of Micro Salon Italia took place on March 16th and 17th at the renowned Cinecittà Studios in Rome. This edition of the event far exceeded even the most optimistic expectations, with a record attendance of over 4,500 visitors and 56 exhibition stands – comprising 40 international companies and 16 Italian firms.

The most visited stands, during the event, were ARRI, Panasonic and Red Digital Cinema. Italian rental house, Panalight, received a resounding success with the debut of Panavision DXL2 camera and its new Scorpio Arm. Panalight’s stand was visited by many well-known names in the international film industry, including Vittorio Storaro AIC ASC, Luciano Tovoli AIC, Joe Dunton OBE BSC and also DP John Conroy, who is shooting the feature The Name Of The Rose at Cinecittà Studios.

Massimo Proietti sh Vittorio Storaro AS ows C AIC the Panavision DX L2

RED INTRODUCES GEMINI 5K S35 SENSOR

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ed digital cinema has introduced the new Gemini 5K S35 sensor for its Red Epic-W camera. The Gemini 5K S35 sensor leverages dual sensitivity modes to provide greater flexibility for a variety of shooting environments – whether creators choose to shoot in standard mode for well-lit conditions or low-light mode for darker environments.

In low-light conditions, the Gemini 5K S35 sensor delivers cleaner imagery with less noise and better shadow detail. Operators can easily switch between modes through the camera’s on-screen menu with no down time. The Gemini 5K S35 sensor offers an increased field of view at 2K and 4K resolutions compared to Red’s higher resolution Helium sensor. In addition, the sensor’s 30.72mm x 18mm dimensions allow for greater anamorphic lens coverage than with Helium or Red Dragon sensors.

“While the Gemini sensor was developed for low-light conditions in outer space, we quickly saw there was so much more to this sensor,” said Jarred Land, president of Red Digital Cinema. “In fact, we loved the potential of this sensor so much, we wanted to evolve it to make it have a broader appeal. As a result, the Epic-W Gemini now sports dual-sensitivity modes. It still has the low-light performance mode, but also has a default, standard mode that allows you to shoot in brighter conditions.”

Built on the compact DSMC2 form factor, this new camera and sensor combination captures 5K full format motion at up to 96fps along with fast data speeds of up to 275MB/s. Additionally, it supports Red’s IPP2 enhanced image processing pipeline in camera. Like all of Red’s DSMC2 cameras, Epic-W is able to shoot simultaneous Redcode RAW and Apple ProRes or Avid DNxHD/HR recording and adheres to Red’s dedication to Obsolescence Obsolete, a core operating principle that allows current Red owners to upgrade their technology as innovations are unveiled, as well as move between camera systems without having to purchase all new gear.

The Red Epic-W with Gemini 5K S35 sensor is available for purchase at select Red authorised dealers globally and online. Alternatively, Weapon Carbon Fiber and Red Epic-W 8K customers will have the option to upgrade to the Gemini sensor at a later date.

Red cameras have been used on features including Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol.2 and The Hobbit trilogy, television series such as Stranger Things and Godless, and magazine covers including Vogue and Harper's Bazaar.

22 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

Panalight

VERSION 2 DELIVERS LED PRECISION WITH LITEPANELS GEMINI Broadcast and event lighting rental specialist, Version 2, has introduced the latest addition to its range of low energy lighting products – the new Litepanels Gemini LED softlight fixture.

Created specifically for use in the film, television and media industries, the Gemini’s on-board control system has three fully-featured lighting modes capable of delivering virtually any colour: CCT Mode, for true daylight and tungsten, with +/- green fine-tuning; HSI Mode, for control over hue, saturation and intensity, to create any colour in the 360° colour wheel at any intensity from 0-100%; and Gel Mode, designed to replicate the industry’s most popular gel sets with a daylight or tungsten source.

Speaking about the new fixture, Version2 managing director Nick Edwards said “We’ve been looking into purchasing a perfect soft light solution for some time. I believe we now have the workhorse our industry has been waiting for. Alongside the fixture’s power and versatility, the Gemini is both convenient and agile. The built-in power supply and no external ballast means rapid deployment and fewer cables”.

Pat Grosswendt, gaffer and co-founder of Litepanels commented: “While we all work in the industry, we also realise the importance to have the gear to match any adventure production put your way. We created the Litepanels Gemini for smart, dependable gaffers, LDs and crew members, which is why we are so happy that Version 2 have chosen to make it available.

Version 2 are trailblazers within the UK rental market, providing the best in both service and gear.”

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NEWS / PRODUCTION / POST & TECHNOLOGY ROUND-UP

CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

A

ustralian actress Cate Blanchett heads the jury at the 71st annual Cannes Film Festival, from 8 to 19 May. She is supported in selecting the various award winners – including best film, director, actors and screenplay – with some renowned Hollywood names, in a jury comprising five men and four women from seven nationalities and five continents.

Filmmakers Ava DuVernay and Denis Villeneuve, plus actors Kristen Stewart and Lea Seydoux, are joined

by Chinese star Chang Chen, French director Robert Guediguian, Burundian singer Khadja Nin and Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev, who won the Cannes Jury Prize for Loveless in 2017.

The relatively low number of female directors in official competition has been criticised, and Cannes artistic director Thierry Freaux has been conscious of gender balance in the jury. Whilst he called the allegations of sexual misconduct against Harvey Weinstein “an earthquake” for the movie industry, he said the quality of films, not gender quotas, remained the overriding factor in choosing this year’s contenders.

Asghar Farhadi’s psychological thriller Everybody Knows, starring Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz and Ricardo Darín, opens this year’s festival. New movies by Spike Lee and Jean-Luc Godard also feature in the lineup. Lee’s BlacKkKlansman concerns the real-life story of Ron Stallworth, a black police officer in Colorado who went undercover in 1978 to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan.

Godard’s movie Le Livre d’Image (The Image Book) is said to be “a revolutionary song in five chapters”.

Among those also invited to compete are dissident Iranian film director Jafar Panahi with Three Faces, and Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov with Leto (Summer) - a film depicting the life of a Soviet rocker in the 1980s’ Leningrad underground music scene.

Oscar-winning director Pawel Pawlikowski’s new film Zimna Wojna (Cold War) should reveal some new faces.

For Brits and international filmmakers thinking about shooting in Blighty, the UK Film Centre is open throughout the festival in the International Village Riviera. The centre hosts topical industry events, showcases UK films and co-productions, and is an information point for the UK film industry.

Pinewood Studios Group has one again taken a boat near the Palais from where it will host events promoting its UK and international studio, creative and post productions services. Pinewood MBS Lighting will attend as part of the Pinewood Group presence.

24 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

The The festival festival will will celebrate celebrate the the 50th 50th anniversary anniversary of Stanley of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey A Space Odyssey with the world premiere of an unrestored 70mm Cate Blanchett heads the jury print, introduced by shot Todd Haynes’ Wonderstruck director Christopher (2017), Wiener Dog (2016), Carol (2015) and I’m Nolan, who will not There (2007), plus Steven Soderberg’s Erin Brockovich also hold a masterclass discussing his filmography, his (2000) and The Limey (1999) using Angénieux glass. passion for Kubrick’s work and shooting on film.

The AFC is partnering once again with the CST

Speaking of which, Kodak is celebrating the 13 at the Espace Pantiero, where colleagues from over the Cannes films shot-on-film, with Kodak Motion Picture world are welcome for coffee or a glass of French wine.

Film representatives including Sam Clark, Julie TaylorDP Jeanne Lapoirie AFC is a member of the Caméra Butt, Vanessa Bendetti, Ileana Leyva Gonzalez and d’Or jury and AFC members with films in competition Kodak global MD Steve Bellamy. include Eric Gautier AFC with Ash Is Purest White,

Official Selection Films shot on Kodak include Ash Hélène Louvart AFC with Lazzaro Felice and DP Rémy Is The Purest White, Shoplifters, BlacKkKlansman, Lazzaro Chevrin AFC with Plaire, Aimer Et Courir Vite (Sorry Angel).

Felice, Sorry Angel, Leto, Un Couteau Dans Le Cœur and Ayka, with Chuva E Cantoria Na Aldeia Dos in the Un Certain Regard category, and Diamantino In Critics Week. Director’s Fortnight movies originated on celluloid include Les Everybody Knows (dir. Asghar Farhadi) – opening film Confins Du Monde, Pájaros de Verano and Petra.

At War (dir. Stéphane Brizé)

Of other cinematographic interest, ARRI The Wild Pear Tree (dir. Nuro Bilge Ceylan) is hosting invitation-only “Cocktails with ARRI & Ayka (dir. Sergei Dvortsevoy) Directors’ Fortnight”, where it is also showing its Dogman (dir. Matteo Garrone) newly-released Alexa LF camera, plus Alexa Mini Le Livre d’Image (dir. Jean-Luc Godard) and Amira, its Trinity rig and popular SkyPanel Un Couteau Dans Le Cœur (Knife + Heart) (dir. Yann Gonzalez) LEDs. ARRI Media has an international booth Asako I & II (dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi) at Marché du Film, and Rafiki, a production Sorry Angel (dir. Christophe Honoré) supported by ARRI’s International Support Girls Of The Sun (dir. Eva Husson) Programme, will have its world premiere and Ash Is The Purest White (dir. Jia Zhang-Ke) compete in the Un Certain Regard section.

Shoplifters (dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda)

CW Sonderoptic, manufacturer of Leica Capernaum (dir. Nadine Labaki) lenses, is hosting a series of VIP, invitationBurning (dir. Lee Chang-Dong) only drinks/lunches at Nespresso Plage, and BlacKkKlansman (dir. Spike Lee) screening short films that will compete in the Under the Silver Lake (dir. David Robert Mitchell) Leica Cine Discovery awards.

Three Faces (dir. Jafar Panahi)

Every year, the “Pierre Angénieux Cold War (dir. Pawel Pawlikowski) ExcelLens in Cinematography” ceremony turns Lazzaro Felice (dir. Alice Rohrwacher) the spotlight on a DP whose work has marked Yomeddine (dir. AB Shawky) the history of world cinema. This year, Ed Leto (L’Été) (dir. Kirill Serebrennikov) Lachman ASC will receive this award. He has

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NEWS / PRODUCTION / POST & TECHNOLOGY ROUND-UP

STUDIO NEWS: Barry Ackroyd BSC and Rob Hardy BSC at Pinewood © BAFTA & Alecsandra Raluca Dragoi

Pinewood Studios: directors from BAFTA’s

Elevate initiative visited Pinewood Studios on 22nd March. They met BAFTA-winning DPs Barry Ackroyd BSC and Rob Hardy BSC, who shared useful tips and advice while exploring and testing out the latest in camera technology, provided by Movietech.

The directors then had the opportunity to tour Pinewood’s state-of-the-art facilities – gaining further insights into film processing at the Kodak Film Lab, the Underwater Stage and digital dailies with Pinewood Creative Services.

BAFTA Elevate focussed this year on female directors looking to progress in high-end television and features. It aims to address the disparity between the ratio of male and female film school graduates (50:50) and the ratio of men and women in industry directing hires (87:13). It also aims to improve the visibility of female directors, to address claims that female directors are desired, but difficult to find.

Nadya Jary, group brand director, Pinewood Studios Group, said: “Pinewood are proud to support BAFTA Elevate, especially in a year when they have chosen so many talented women for the programme.

We believe that talent is the lifeblood of our industry and it needs opportunities for collaboration and learning from others in order to thrive.”

Dagenham Studios: Barking and Dagenham

Council has appointed Pacifica Ventures, in partnership with Media Content Capital, as the preferred builder and operator of the new Dagenham East film and media complex.

The site will include 12 new sound stages covering some 264,000sq/ft as well as workshops and warehouses for lighting and grip operations, plus at least 95,000sq/ft of production office space. The new facility will also include: an extensive post-production, visual effects and media technology complex; speciallyrigged stages for job training programmes with local educational institutions; a multi-format large-screen theatre auditorium; and, a major event

centre and large screen auditorium including VR and immersive 3D attractions with studio tours.

Announcing the plans, Darren Rodwell, the leader of Barking and Dagenham Council, said: "In the face of fierce competition, Pacifica Ventures - MCC emerged as the clear winner based on their track record and commitment to making the film and television studios a cultural and community asset for the borough, for London and for Britain’s film industry.

“The complex will be an exciting new visitor destination too - an East End epic - that will create thousands of quality jobs and educational opportunities in a huge range of disciplines. I am confident that it will make Barking and Dagenham more famous for films than Fords.”

Elstree Studios: recently ran its annual Elstree Film Festival for young people. Working collaboratively with Elstree University Technical College (UTC), the project offered masterclasses, expertise and guidance from the world of filmmaking to participating Hertsmere schools students. The film festival celebrated the heritage and filmmaking at Elstree Studios and how it has impacted the lives and livelihood of local residents.

Roger Morris, MD of Elstree Studios and chairman and co-founder of the Elstree University Technical College said, “Elstree Studios has and always will be an important integral part of the local community.

The economic benefits to the local community reach much further than for the people who just work at the studios. Currently filming at Elstree Studios is hit Drama series “The Crown”, who use the Studios, studios backlot and locations all over Hertfordshire.

Local Hertsmere residents have stories

Dagenham

26 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

© BAFTA & Alecsa ndra Raluca Drag oi

linking their families to the Elstree studios over the years. Elstree and Borehamwood were once known as “The British Hollywood” and we want to celebrate that by using our film and television industry expertise to encourage and inspire the filmmakers of the future.

The film, television and theatre industry in the UK is booming and we hope young people will recognise the career opportunities that it creates.”

In other news, Elstree hosted Hertfordshire ProConnect, a networking evening, part-funded by ERDF, as Festival Formula joined Creative England in sharing tips and tricks of the trade of selling films into the festival circuit. The event came at a poignant time for Hertfordshire, where the film, TV, video, radio and photography creative sector has been named the region’s fastest growing by number of businesses in Nesta’s Creative Nation report.

Bottle Yard Studios: ITV has commissioned hit quiz show Tipping Point for a further two years, with a total order of 354 episodes from producers Fizz, the entertainment arm of RDF.

Hosted by Ben Shephard and currently in its 8th series, Tipping Point will return with 330 regular episodes and 24 of its prime-time variation Tipping Point Lucky Stars – across 2018 and 2019. This will be the 5th series of Lucky Stars, which has to date welcomed over 100 celebrities and raised nearly half a Bottle Yard million pounds for charity.

To accommodate production of the super-sized order, Fizz will film the new episodes at Bristol’s expansive Bottle Yard Studios, with the production teams based out of RDF West’s Bristol offices.

A game of knowledge, skill and tactics, Tipping Point is centered around an extraordinary machine filled with counters worth thousands of pounds. The iconic machine has been assembled in an 8,000sq/ft studio at The Bottle Yard. Control rooms and all backstage elements of production will also be based at the Studios.

Roger Deakins CBE, ASC, BSC on your Oscar, ASC and BAFTA wins for the visually stunning Blade Runner 2049.

We thank you for choosing ARRI equipment and ARRI Rental to support you.

www.arri.com

Academy Awards

ASC Awards

Best Cinematography

Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases

British Academy Film Awards Best Cinematography

Photos: Stephen Vaughan © 2017 Alcon Entertainment, LCC. A Warner Bros. Pictures and Sony Pictures Entertainment release.

CONGRATULATIONS

SPOTLIGHT / CVP

METAMORPHOSIS

Jon Fry (sales director) with Mark Forth (managing director)

For over 30 years, CVP has been equipping directors of photography with the camera, lens and grip brands that keep the industry moving. But, a look beyond the digital façade reveals far more than a simple ‘online box shifter’.

Y

oung, vibrant and passionate, this is a company that is re-assessing the way in which it supports cinematographers and crews across all areas of the industry.

Having recently completed a successful management buy-out, CVP’s newly-formed management team consists of Mark Forth, Jon Fry, Darren Simpson, Yevgeny Subbotin and Mansukh Kerai. All are established industry professionals whose years of experience have been gained working alongside some of the world’s most respected purveyors of professional imaging equipment.

Speaking with managing director Mark Forth and sales director Jon Fry at CVP’s stylish central London show space, it is apparent that, whilst they maintain a deep respect for the company’s history, it is very much what lies ahead that excites them. The pair are relaxed, confident and comfortable in each other’s company.

Their passion for what they do is evident as they enthuse about the ways in which CVP is evolving.

Forth, in particular, speaks about ‘the now’ and what the company can offer the future of the industry, whilst Fry is lyrical on the technical capabilities and support provided by the company. As Fry says, “Of course there is the equipment, but what we specialise in is selling the expertise to make the kit work, for all customers, at all levels”.

Ten years ago the company stocked around 40 brand items. Today it holds over 700, and boasts a support team that is able to inform, advise and educate on every single item. Brands including Sony, ARRI, Cooke, Angénieux, RED, Zeiss and Leica fight for shelf space at the company’s West London distribution hub.

28 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

It is, however, interesting to observe that, although often perceived as a ‘sales-only’ operation, the sheer breadth of the team’s knowledge and experience adds an extra dimension to their approach to business.

A tour through the CVP engineering, testing and technical departments reveals levels of support more often associated with rental houses.

Both Forth and Fry highlight the commitment to service that the CVP team has created across the entire customer experience – from initial enquiry and advice on the most suitable equipment solution, through to the after sales care.

Forth comments: “We are about helping ensure filmmakers of all styles and ability have access to, and are properly supported with, the exact equipment they require to achieve their vision.”

Fry adds, “We only focus on what we are good at and, fortunately, we have the depth of expertise in-house to allow us to make sure every aspect of our business is covered.”

As an approved reseller, CVP carries out manufacturer warranty repair services on behalf of a host of major brands, allowing it to closely manage the returns process and provide a more personal, ‘priority’ service to the customer.

“The key is to keep the customer working,” says Fry. “In the event of a client experiencing an equipment issue, access to our in-house resources can help drastically reduce down time on a production. There are plenty of instances where we have been able to seamlessly keep the customer working whilst an issue is addressed”. Fry adds “We do whatever it takes to keep the customer satisfied and have even flown around the world to hand-deliver equipment direct to location”.

Approved reseller status also means that CVP is often first past the post with the latest technological advances. The current crop of cinematographic tools stocked includes the much talked about Sony Venice and ARRI’s Alexa LF. However, new ‘flagship products’ are merely the tip of the iceberg.

A glance across the warehouse shows an impressively broad selection of accessories and ancillary items, readily available in their hundreds.

With such a vast product range, CVP has pioneered numerous ways in

which the sale and distribution of equipment has been made slick, simple and accessible. Impressively, it has succeeded in creating a huge online presence without deviating from the personal approach on which it prides itself.

Central to this ethos are training sessions that CVP facilitates at its venues throughout the country.

The company clearly understands the need to invest in the end-user and regularly provides opportunities to experience new technology, both in person and via online tutorials and live webcasts.

As Fry continues, “We’re happy to supply the tools that the industry needs, and we’re even happier when we know our products are being used properly.

All our training is completely free and can prove to be invaluable for both the end user and ourselves.”

It is obvious that neither Forth nor Fry fear change and, if anything, are both eager to instigate it wherever possible. Change is afoot even for the room in which they currently sit, as plans are underway to replace it with something rather different.

Fry explains, “We are evolving the way in which we connect with our audience. In particular we are looking at ways to interact more closely with cinematographers, gaffers and production in general.”

Their vision for the future includes the newlyestablished CVP/ARRI Creative Space, located in Charlotte Street, London, W1. Billed as “much more than a showroom”, this ultra-stylish creative space is about to open its doors as a professional networking hub which will be made available to many factions of the industry.

Built over two floors and loaded with state-of-the-art facilities, Charlotte Street is just one example of the level of investment CVP is making on behalf of its customers.

Further developments are hinted at, including the announcement of additional creative centres that will allow person-to-person interaction and provide networking opportunities for professionals from all areas of the industry. However, additional details will be revealed in due course as the MD and sales director are already shifting their attention to projects even further down the line.

The team’s enthusiasm for their industry is clear.

They move quickly, they focus on the detail of what they do and they are committed to investing in their company for ‘the now’ and for the future.

As Fry concludes “We are a team and we are all here to stay. We are not just here to grow the company, but to stick around and see the fruits of our labours”.

With this new leadership and a clear vision for the future, CVP seems well positioned to face the challenges of a rapidly evolving industry. Watch this space! n

WHO’S SHOOTING WHO?

Combat zone… Fabrizio Sciarra wielding the camera on Krypton

S

creen Talent: Adam Sliwinski is shooting It’s Christmas, Eve... for Crowne Media. Andy Hollis recently shot Wannabe for Bullion Films. Bart Sienkiewicz is currently lighting the sci-fi feature film Transience with director Carl Strathie.

Intrinsic: In features, Cathal Watters ISC has finished Papi Chulo in Los Angeles, and is now prepping Rosie in Ireland, where James Mather ISC is also shooting Extra Ordinary. Malcolm McLean is splinter unit DP on The Voyage Of Dr Doolittle. George Burt has graded Black Site. Martin Roach is preparing for the zombie movie Prizoners, and Gabi Norland is lighting the short films First Disco and Straight Eight. Ruairi O’Brien ISC has started Flack for Hat Trick, whilst squeezing in more second unit on Humans. Richard Donnelly continues lighting The Last Kingdom in Budapest. Rasmus Arrildt DFF has wrapped on the second series of Harlots, and is now in Prague to start Lore. Andrew Johnson lit more Holby City. New client Bebe Dearkin is lighting her first block of Origins in South Africa. Jorge Luengas AEC is spending six months as second unit DP on the latest Strike Back. Tony Coldwell has finished the grade on Free Rein, and George Geddes is operating dailies for Outlander. Chris O’Driscoll is shooting Babies, the documentary series for Netflix, and Martin Roach shot the Pipers Price documentary in Peru. Arturo Vasquez SVC, Brian Strange, Dave Miller, David Liddell, Ed Lindsley, George Burt, James Mather ISC, Lynda Hall, Mark Nutkins, Martyna Knitter, Robert Shacklady, Simon Weekes and Tobias Marshall have been busy with commercials, corporate films and music promos.

McKinney Macartney Management: Stuart Biddlecombe is filming the next series of Cold Feet, with Rebecca Gatward directing. Mick Coulter BSC is lighting pick-ups for The Hustle with Chris Addison, along with shooting commercials. Seamus Deasy is filming Royally Ever After in Ireland, with director Lee Friedlander. Sergio Delgado is currently on Silent Witness, with Diarmuid Goggins directing. Gavin Finney BSC has completed cinematography on the new BBC drama Good Omens, with director Douglas Mackinnon, on location in London and South Africa. Jean Philippe Gossart is prepping Lore for Amazon, with Christoph Schrewe directing.

Steve Lawes is shooting the film To Care For All, with Pip Broughton, for BBC Wales. Sam McCurdy BSC is lensing Into The Badlands in Dublin, with Paco Cabezas. Andy McDonnell is on Arkley Bridge with Jo Stevenson directing.

Arthur Mulhern has been shooting commercials, while his work on the feature documentary, No Greater Law, premieres at Tribeca. John Pardue BSC has completed on Luther with Jamie Payne. Chris Seager BSC is prepping on the feature, Six Minutes To Midnight, with Andy Goddard at the helm. Mike Spragg BSC is shooting Strikeback with Bill Eagles. Richard Stoddard is prepping on Call The Midwife, with Syd Macartney directing. Simona Susnea has been shooting commercials, as well as working tirelessly to promote Illuminatrix. Darran Tiernan is filming $1, a thriller series for CBS with director Craig Zobel.

Robin Whenary is prepping on Ackely Bridge, with Penny Woodcock directing. Ben Butler, Denis Crossan BSC, Sebastian Milaszewski, Alessandra Scherillo and Clive Tickner BSC have been shooting commercials.

Wizzo & Co: welcome Diana Olifirova to the roster. Diana, an NFTS graduate, was nominated for Best Cinematography at Underwire Film Festival for her work on the short film All Of Me, directed by Daphne Schmon, and was named the BSC Emerging Cinematographer Of The Year. Congratulations to Franklin Dow, his documentary Skatistan, To Live And Skate Kabul was selected for Vimeo’s Top 100 staff picks of the decade for SXSW. Hubert Taczanowski is prepping BBC1 drama The Wilsons, directed by Richard Laxton, shooting in Belfast. Inspired by a true story, this three-parter is set in 1960s London, 1940s London and India in the 1930s. Gary Shaw is shooting Fortitude III with Kieran Hawkes on location in Svalbard, Norway.

Dale McCready is shooting the second season of Tin Star, a Sky Atlantic co-production shooting in Calgary, Canada, starring Tim Roth and Christina Hendrick.

Matthias Pilz is now lighting the feature Surviving Christmas directed by James Dearden. Nicola Daley ASC has completed the BFI feature pilot Londonstani, directed by Nirpal Bhogal, and continues shooting the BBC1 documentary on Asian life in the North, Leicester Sings, whilst her feature, Pin Cushion, directed

by Deborah Haywood, continues on the festival circuit.

Sverre Sordal has completed on the feature Ilkley, directed by Harry Michell. Richard Mott is shooting the thriller The Corrupted, directed by Ron Scalpello.

Jan Richter-Friis DFF has been lensing a documentary about the legendary Senegalese singer Baabamaal, directed by Kevin MacDonald. Tim Sidell has wrapped a pilot for the as yet Untitled BFI-funded feature directed

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1

New - Sony VENICE with Cooke S7/i Full Frame Plus Primes

23/04/2018 16:40

Brrr… Robert Shacklady GBCT on a very cold spring/ summer fashion shoot

Working rapi Lee Valley W dly… Andy Hollis at shooting W hite Water Centre, annabe for Bu llion Films

Special dietary requirements…

Martin Roach and friend at The Guinea Pig restaurant in Peru

Colourful character…

Jorge Luengas

by Rob Morgan, and will shortly begin grading feature Two For Joy, directed by Tom Beard, starring Samantha Morton and Billie Piper. Karl Oskarsson has graded the feature End Of Sentence, directed by Elfar Adalsteins, starring John Hawkes.

Ryan Kernaghan is confirmed on block one of ITV drama Vera, to be directed by Paul Gay. David Procter has wrapped the Netflix Original drama The Innocents. Dan Stafford-Clark is shooting Desiree Akhavan’s new series The Bisexual. Patrick Meller has graded Ninian Doff’s debut feature, shot on location in Scotland, and will start prep on his next feature in the summer. Adam Gillham has wrapped on the last episode of Lucky Man, with director Louise Hooper. David Rom has been shooting Ackley Bridge, directed by Penny Woolcock. Duncan Telford has wrapped on the comedy series Sick of It, starring Karl Pilkington, with director Richard Yee. Rasmus Heise’s feature I Kill Giants, directed by Anders Walter, starring Zoe Saldana, was released in the US and will hit UK cinemas soon. Nick Dance BSC has wrapped and graded season four of Poldark, with director Joss Agnew. Oli Russell shot the pilot Breeders, directed by Ben Palmer, and also Carol And Vinnie, directed by Dan Zeff. Ruben Woodin Dechamps is shooting a C4 drama with director Dionne Edwards on location in Cardiff. Matthew Emvin Taylor’s Sundance premiered short Careful How You Go, starring Phoebe Waller Bridge, continues on the festival circuit.

Charlie Goodger shot a pilot with director Jim Archer, and Adam Barnett has been shooting days on Ackley Bridge. Antonio Paladino worked with Gabe Turner,

Frozen fish fingers for tea again… "yeah, right" says Chris O’Driscoll

Dan Bronks with Tiny Bullet and Fede Alfonzo with Simon Ratigan. Ross McLennan has been working with Daryl, and Theo Garland shot a major spot for Top Gear and worked with director Pensacola. Molly Manning Walker shot with Billy Boyd Cape and Geej Ower, and Will Bex shot for Scott Lyon and Nicholas Jack Davies.

Ben Magahy shot a major campaign for Stylewar and also worked with Giorgio Bruni.

MY Management: is super-proud and superexcited to welcome cinematographer Todd Martin to its roster. Check out his work and collaborations with directors such as Anderson Wright, Tucker Bliss and Duncan Winecoff on the agency’s website. Stuart Dryburgh ASC NZCS is shooting a pilot for a drama series set in New York’s Bellevue Hospital. Inspired by Dr. Eric Manheimer’s memoir ‘Twelve Patients: Life & Death At Bellevue Hospital’, the series is described as a character-driven medical drama that follows the new director of Bellevue Hospital, whose maverick approach disrupts the status quo. It’s been a non-stop start to 2018 for Aaron Reid with commercials, music videos and short films. He’s been shooting with directors Rollo Hollins, Andrew Gillman, Natalie Ibu, Matt Westrup and the fabulous Savannah Setten, and joined forces with production companies like Joyrider, Great Guns, Artemisia Films, Citizen and Pulse. Keep an eye out in this magazine and a screen near you for 10 x 10, directed by Suzi Ewing, which Aaron shot last year. In honour of International Women’s Day, Catherine Goldschmidt worked with production company, Archers Mark, to produce Queen Rules - a video with director

Libby Burke Wilde.

Queen Rules is a campaign to get gender equality conversations on the table. The project began when a five-year-old girl questioned why the king ranks higher than Ho, ho, ho… Adam the queen in a deck of Sliwinski shooting cards. Catherine has It’s Christmas, Eve for Crowne Media also been shooting the short Evie, with director Miranda Howard. Ben Coughlan teamed-up with Electric Light Studios, Friend, Lemonade Money and Tangerine Films on shoots including a Samsung TVC directed by Alan Harca, various music videos and an evening with Justin Timberlake at the Roundhouse in London. Petra Korner wrapped on a project for Bad Wolf in Cardiff and Venice – a TV adaptation of Deborah Harkness’ novel ‘A Discovery Of Witches', directed by Sarah Walker. Sy Turnbull worked with director Rylee Ebsen on a Snapchat shoot in LA, through Conscious Minds and collaborated again with directors Henry Mason on Food Lion and Malia James on a music video for Khai called ‘Fade Away’. All of this before heading to Texas to shoot a commercial for Cox Cable with director Kevin Bolger. David Lanzenberg has spent a month in Vancouver shooting Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina for Warner Bros. with director Lee Toland Krieger. >>

British Cinematographer | May 2018 | 31

WHO’S SHOOTING WHO? / CINEMATOGRAPHERS ROUND-UP

He tumbled for her…

Paul Mackay on the shoot for Mr Probz 'Space For Two’

No teddybear picnic…

Bart Sienkiewicz with key grip Felix Milburn-Foster on sci-fi feature Transience.

Photo by Ben Trombacco

e…

Having a gay old tim on Clark DP Dan Stafford- exual the set of The Bis

Robbie Ryan BSC ISC has continued his collaboration with director Noah Baumbach on his next film. The story follows an unfolding divorce that spans from New York City to Los Angeles and stars Scarlett Johansson, Laura Dern, Sunrise or su Adam Driver and Greta Ed Lindsley on nset?… locati Gerwig. Paul Mackay shot in the Arctic Ci on rcle for Knock Knock with director Jamie MauleFfinch on a Ford spot, More Than for VCCP with Martin Davey, and music videos for Mr Easy with director Luke Biggins and JME with Mathew Walker. Filming for The Science Of Stupid series six saw Simon Rowles teaming up with IWC Media. In between, he fitted in shoots for CPL, Rob & Romesh and a Maltesers advert for The Outfit and director Mark Henderson. He then headed out to Cape Town with ITV and director Jimmy Hedger to shoot with Katie Price.

John Perez started the year with a shoot in Bangkok for P&G, followed by a trip to Cuba with director Sophie Muller for the latest Kylie Minogue music video, and then on to Mallorca for a JD Williams summer shoot with Pretty Bird. Andrew Boulter did another trip to Kuwait to shoot with director Drago Sholev for Kuwait Bank, before heading off to Dubai with director Nizar Sfair to shoot for Hyundai with Real Image. Ekkehart Pollack was in Cape Town shooting with Aleksander Bach on a Mercedes ad with Anorak, followed by TVCs for Porsche and BMW in LA with director Knut Burgdorf, then a quick trip home to Berlin, before heading back out to LA for another Mercedes commercial with director Markus Walter.

I really can see your house from here… Todd Banhazl on location for Blow The Man Down

32 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

David Wright has been back-to-back shooting music videos, a short film and commercials, teaming up with My Accomplice, Sticker Films, Fraction Bros, A+E Networks and Viasat World. He has just completed a Diadora ad with director Salim Adam and Next spot with directors That Jam. Jo Willems ASC SBC joined forces with director Gary Freedman on a few projects, including a Peugeot 208 shoot in Bangkok with Le Pac. He’s also worked with Park Pictures on Nissan with Nathan Price in LA, and with Biscuit Filmworks’ director Aaron Stoller on a Planet Fitness TVC. Dominic Bartels lit a number of projects with Spring Studios including Breitling, Elemis & Estee Lauder. He also linked up with director Sam Faulkner for a Dove shoot via Great Guns, and a Furniture Village ad with Complete and director Marcus Thomas.

He then headed off to Minneapolis for his annual visit to Paisley Park for the Prince celebrations. Nicolaj Bruel DFF headed back to Rome to grade his latest feature Dogman, due to be released this year - possibly at Cannes film festival. He also re-collaborated with Matteo Garrone for the next Dolce & Gabanna TVC with British actress Emilia Clarke, also shot on location in Rome for 360 Degrees Film.

Todd Banhazl has been shooting Blow The Man Down in Maine, a feature about a bunch of salty women making trouble in a fishing town, co-written and co-directed by Bridget Savage-Cole and Danielle Krudy.

Marcello Dapporto has been shooting in his native Italy on campaigns for Acqua Essenziale through Filmmaster, Eni in Milan with Matteo Pellegrini at Mercurio, Grotta in Rome with

production company Tea Time. Hakon Palsson headed to a shoot in beautiful Croatia. Adric Watson partnered with Partizan to shoot Calzedonia for director Ozzie Pullin, before flying to Dusseldorf for a Sports TVC for Marken Films and director Philip Brown. Tuomo Virtanen FSC worked with director Vesa Manninen for Reset in Milan, and on Heineken through Sonny London on location in Nice and Monaco.

Gerry Floyd is in Texas shooting The Phantom, a twisty thriller set in the world of police corruption.

It’s produced by Andrea Cornwell and directed by BAFTA and Grierson-winning documentary director Patrick Forbes, who is making his feature debut.

Jallo Faber FSF shot with director Aaron Ruell in Mexico City, and in LA with The Perlorian Brothers, before teaming up again with Movie Magic director Igor Borghi for another TVC for Tim in Rome. Tim Spence has been working on shoots with The Mill for BT Hub and Heineken.

Globe-trotting Paul O’Callaghan spent a week in Manchester shooting with Jack Weatherly for Techna Mobile, before heading off on a family trip to Boston. He was then straight back to work, joining forces again with director Nigel Simpkiss at 76 Ltd for CNN Production Culture Change. Then, a trip to St Petersburg for ITV Titles, and back to London for a New Balance Shoot with Mike Fisher.

Will Humphris headed out to Nepal offering his talent for a charity shoot for the Nepalese Youth Foundation, directed by Lisle Turner. The shoot was for Capsicum Re, who helps to raise money for the >>

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WHO’S SHOOTING WHO? / CINEMATOGRAPHERS ROUND-UP

A Tobler-home?...

Todd Martin at a very special location

foundation and describes their corporate responsibility next series of Death In Paradise. Maja Zamojda is commercials with directors David Barr for Irish Tourism, to create a better world in which to do business and in prepping for the new period drama, The Spanish is recceing for BReel’s forthcoming Royal Caribbean which to live. Will also had two feature releases recently Princess. Chas Bain is currently shooting The Last shoot and has recently completed an ambitious short – Scott & Sid tells the true story of two misfits who meet Kingdom III, directed by Erik Leijonborg and Jon East. film Belittled with director Claire Tailyour. Mark Patten at school, where they form a tight bond and deal with Ole Birkeland BSC is shooting Judy, directed by Rupert has been shooting with Dan Chase for Ford at 2am, the vicissitudes of adolescence together, and 3 Storeys, Goold and starring Renee Zellweger. Henry Braham Vodafone for Filmmaster with director Carlos Signon, an intriguing film full of twists and turns. Over the course BSC is prepping Disney’s Maleficent 2, starring Angelina Lavazza with Federico Brugia, and with Traktor on a of three acts, dark secrets and past regrets are revealed, Jolie, directed by Joachim Betstars job. Stephan Pehrsson BSC is lighting Les and it becomes clear that life in a small community is not Ronning. Jordan Buck has been Miserables for Inside and out… quite what it seems. This Hindi thriller drama was filmed busy on various commercials director Tom Adam Etherington in Mumbai and directed by Arjun Mukerjee. Ryan Hope with directors including Dan Shankland. Dick shooting The has been in LA working on his music and a film script.

Emmerson at Somesuch, Carly Pope BSC lit Dark Outside Mel Griffith, Marcelo Durst, Steve Chivers, Roger Cussen, Nick Collett, Samuel Edward Norton’s, Bonnici, Richard Stewart, Vincent Warin and Tomas Taylor and Ilka & Franz at Motherless Brooklyn.

Tomasson have been working on their own projects.

Tat Radcliffe BSC

Berlin Associates: Sarah Bartleshas graded Yann Smith is preparing to shoot a block of Demange’s White Boy Nyela’s Dream for Sky Kids, with Rick. Christopher producer Paul McKenzie and director Ross BSC is shooting Paul Walker. Jamie Cairney is lighting Danny Boyle’s new Sex Education, an Eleven Films’ feature, written by production for Netflix, with producer Richard Curtis and s John Jennings and director Ben Taylor. starring Lily James. liver Curti d drive… O Shut up an ng as 2nd unit DP ont Catherine Derry has been framing Ashley Rowe BSC is ki us or BSC w series Tr commercials, including a Veet spot for shooting Stephen the Getty W hadda ya re Recipe. Ollie Downey is shooting the final Poliakoff’s new drama, and director ckon… Hakon Palsson two episodes of the re-launched Summer Of Rockets. Martin morning in CrThor Saevarsson on a co ld oatia shootin series of Doctor Who, with Ruhe is lighting Catch-22, a g for Erste Ba nk director Jamie Childs. Len new six-part series based on Gowing is shooting Moving On Joseph Heller’s novel, directed for LA Productions/BBC One, by and starring George with producer Donna Molloy.

Clooney. Dan Trapp lit spots Suzie Lavelle is lighting Curfew for Jaguar with Spark 44 and for Tiger Aspect, with director Danone with Jonas Odell at Colm McCarthy. Ian Moss Nexus. Ed Wild BSC is recently lit a drama shooting Warrior for documentary about Sonny Cinemax on location in South Africa.

Liston in South Africa for Raw Erik Wilson is shooting Netflix and The Jim Henson TV. Annemarie Lean-Vercoe Spring Studio. Oliver Company’s The Dark Crystal: Age Of Resistance. is lensing Suffragettes, a Curtis BSC has been

ARRICrew: Jeremy Hiles ACO worked A-camera Eye, eye… it’s Kelvin Richard w drama documentary for shooting Toast, with and Steadicam with DP John Pardue and director Jamie orking on Apple Tree House 2 Brook Lapping. Kelvin director Gregg Payne on the fifth season of Luther. Barney Piercy Richard worked on Apple Masuak and Fernando recently operated B-camera on a couple of commercials Tree House 2.

Ortega at Chief. Ben with DP Bob Pendar-Hughes – one for Sky Sports F1

Independent Talent: Eigil Bryld is in prep on Davis BSC is shooting season called The Race Starts Here, directed by Simon Jennifer Fox’s feature film The Torture Report, to be Marvel’s Captain Ratigan, the other filmed in Prague under director Kevin directed by Scott Burns. Simon Dennis has re-united Marvel, starring Brie Larson. Anthony Dod Mantle DFF Thomas. Paul Edwards ACO has been on Steadicam with Ryan Murphy on Pose, a period piece set in 1980s BSC ASC has finished shooting Marjane Satrapi’s dailies chasing a small blue box around space and time.

NYC. Cinders Forshaw BSC is currently shooting Nyela’s Radioactive. Kit Fraser is in New Orleans shooting Having returned from Belfast, where he was on the Dream for YouTube Red, directed by Isabelle Sieb. Eric Babak Anvari’s new feature, starring Armie Hammer and Dragon unit of the eighth season of Game of Thrones, Kress is shooting Danish TV crime show Those Who Kill.

Dakota Johnson. Sam Goldie worked with Indy8 Oliver Loncraine ACO is working with director Simon David Luther has wrapped on Das Boot, directed by director Ed Housden for Captain Morgan and Poppy de Crane as A-camera operator on the second unit of The Andreas Prochaska. John Mathieson BSC is working on Villeneuve at Partizan for John Frieda. Stuart Howell Voyage Of Doctor Dolittle. Tom Wade had a great time Rob Letterman’s latest film, Detective Pikachu. Sam shot The Widow for ITV/Amazon with director Sam collaborating with director Sharon Maguire on a TV Renton is currently overseas shooting Living The Dream.

Donovan. Seamus McGarvey BSC ASC has finished teaser for the episodic comedy Conny, and also Ben Smithard BSC has reunited with director Gurinder shooting Drew Goddard’s Bad Times At The El Royale, operated on a Premier League campaign for production Chadha on her latest feature, Blinded By The Light. Mark starring Chris Hemsworth and Jeff Bridges. Andreas company Hogarth. Derek Walker ACO GBCT has been Waters worked on TV series Cuckoo, and will soon be Neo lit the feature Red Devil, directed by Savvas D busy with Steadicam dailies on the second unit of both heading back out to the Caribbean to resume on the Michael. Aadel Nodeh Farahani is busy shooting Detective Pikachu and The Voyage Of Doctor Dolittle. >> 34 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

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WHO’S SHOOTING WHO? / CINEMATOGRAPHERS ROUND-UP I do like a stroll along the prom prom prom…

Gabi Norland shooting on Straight Eight

Cuddling the camera….

DP Rasmus Arrildt DFF. Photo by Liam Daniel.

Viridescent…

1st AC Karl Hui looking a bit green on Paddy's Day

Iain Mackay ACO is operating on The Little Drummer Girl, a six-part drama directed by South Korea’s Park Chan Wook and shot by Woo-Hyung Kim.

United Agents: Remi Adefarasin BSC is lighting Lyrebird in Holland/UK, with director Dan Friedkin. Søren Bay DFF is shooting Unforgotten 3 with director Andy Wilson. John de Borman BSC did pick-ups on the feature Slaughterhouse Rulez. John Lee is in South Africa on the second block of The Widow directed by Olly Blackburn. Paul Sarossy CSC ASC BSC is back on Tin Star. Tony Slater Ling BSC is prepping director Adrian Shergold’s feature Cordelia.

Gavin Struthers ASC is shooting Nightflyers in Ireland for UCP/SYFY, based on the novella by George R.R. Martin. Haris Zambarloukos BSC GSC is shooting Artemis Fowl for director Kenneth Branagh. Barry Ackroyd BSC has been busy with commercials, including a new campaign for director Brian Lee Hughes in Vilnius through Iconoclast. Alan Almond BSC recently shot some additional photography for Harlots, directed by Philippa Langdale.

Danny Cohen BSC has graded Stephen Frears’ A Very English Scandal, and has been busy with commercials including Milka for director Thomas Skoging in Buenos Aires and Patagonia for Acne, Lucozade for Harold Einstein in Spain through Outsider and also a music video for James Bay directed by Phillip Andelman in London. Martin Fuhrer BSC worked on an Irish documentary, directed by Aisling Walsh. David Higgs BSC is continuing on Origin, concentrating on block five for Left Bank/Sony Pictures. Kieran McGuigan BSC has graded series three of Humans and Laurie Rose BSC is shooting pilots, short form and Never stump idea… James Da ed for an MōVI for a Sk vis on the y Crick lit by DP Chris et ad, Clarke

36 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

grading Overlord. Bet Rourich is working on commercials and John Sorapure continues acting as second unit DP on Dark Crystal.

Simon Tindall is in Fraserburgh shooting Born To Run for Scott Graham, after which he begins prep on Chris Foggins’ Fisherman’s Friends. Si Bell is prepping the opening block of Britannia 2 for director Luke Watson. Charlotte Bruus Christensen DFF is reading scripts and considering her next project. Sara Deane is prepping for a feature film shooting in Cyprus.

James Friend BSC is shooting War Of The Worlds for director Craig Viveiros and Mammoth Screen. David Marsh is in Manchester on No Offence 3. Anton Mertens SBC is lighting the feature The Spy for Swedish director Jens Jonsson. Neus Olle is available. David Raedeker has wrapped on Undergods for director Chino Moya.

Niels Reedtz Johansen’s Walk Like A Panther, which he shot for director Dan Cadan and Fox International Productions, is now in cinemas. Kate Reid flew to Belfast to do additional photography on a splinter unit for Game Of Thrones. Kate has also shot a commercial campaign for RSPCA for director Michelle Coomber in London through Royle Productions. Joshua James Richards is working on commercials in the US. Ed Rutherford is lighting the four-part drama Cheat for Two Brothers Pictures and director Louise Hooper. Anna Valdez Hanks is lighting the opening block of Clique 2 for director

Happy Seeing the wood for on thelocation… trees…

Suzanne Smith Iain Mackay on the sethas of a smiley moment The Little Drummer Girl with Korean DP Woosh

Andrew Cumming. Ben Wheeler is taking meetings.

Magni Agustsson’s commercials include a Xiaomi campaign for director Stuart Douglas in Los Angeles, via Nice Shirt Films. Alex Barber’s recent spots include Heineken for The Bobbsey Twins in Cape Town through Blink, and Samsung for director Mark Jenkinson in London for Rogue. Simon Chaudoir’s recent commercial projects include Azzaro with Santiago & Mauricio, through Insurrection, and more recently Oppo for director Antoine Bardou Jacquet in Prague for MidiMinuit. Lasse Frank lit for Ikea with Dougal Wilson through Blink, and Snickers for director Andreas Nilsson, via Biscuit. Florian Hoffmeister BSC is shooting the film Official Secrets in the UK for director Gavin Hood. Stephen Keith-Roach lensed commercials for Samsung, with directors Dom & Nic in London through Outsider, and Giff Gaff for director Ed Morris at Rattling Stick. Tim Maurice-Jones BSC’s recent spots include Babbel for director David Shane in Slovenia, through O Positive, Visa for Traktor via Rattling Stick, and a Qatar campaign, also for Traktor in Spain and Doha. Alex Melman has been busy with Bahlsen for Rocky Morton through MJZ and Heineken for directors Big Red Button in Slovenia through Biscuit. Jake Polonsky BSC has wrapped on Billions series three in New York. Tristan Oliver’s critically acclaimed feature Isle Of Dogs, directed by Wes Anderson, was the first animated feature in history to open the Berlinale Film Festival. Glynn Speeckaert ASC AFC SBC shot a Leclerc ad for director Lars Blummers in Marseilles for Big Productions. Simon Richards lit a Co-op campaign for director Gus Filgate in London through Bare Films.

Peter Suschitzky shot a commercial for Asus with director Ben Briand in London through Stink. Joost Van Gelder shot an Argos ad in Cape Town, for director Matthijs Van Heijningen via MJZ. Daniel Vilar just lit an Elagolix project with director Theresa Wingert for 24/7 and Fiona. Marcel Zyskind has been shooting a Migros spot for Bart Timmer in Cape Town and a Zurich TVC through Czar.

Casarotto Ramsay & Associates: Eben Bolter is still shooting the futuristic sci-fi drama The Feed, with directors Michael Clarkson and Paul Clarkson for Amazon Studios/Studio Lambert. Sam Care is in Singapore lensing Wet Season for director Anthony Chen. Greg Duffield recently wrapped on The Windsors >> OK, ready when you are... Nicolai Niermann is set to turn over

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WHO’S SHOOTING WHO? / CINEMATOGRAPHERS ROUND-UP

I’ve hidden the Kit Kats…

Andrew Johnson with director Steve Hughes

They said the ligh ting budget was tight…

Noel Schoolderm an contemplates the illumination

Let it slide… Gerry Vasbenter working on Waiting For Anya.

Photo by Paul Stephenson.

Wedding Special for Noho Film & Television, and is now working on the successful sitcom Bad Move 2 for Open Mike. Matt Gray BSC is lighting el cha Mi Strongman…

Gentleman Jack for g rin du os dim leo Pa Lookout Point with production on the ep She director Sally short film Black Wainwright. David Katznelson DFF BSC has started Rides Upon The Storm, a follow-up to Adam Price’s Borgen, with director Kasper Munk. Helene Louvart AFC is in Brazil on Invisible Life, with director Karim Ainouz. Zac Nicholson is in full prep on a modern adaptation of Charles Dickens’ The Personal History Of David Copperfield, with award-winning director Armando Iannucci. Gerry Vasbenter has finished the war drama Waiting For Anya, with director Ben Cookson. Mark Wolf is working in Budapest on Hanna, with director Jon Jones for Working Title Television. Pau Esteve Birba shot a campaign for Estrella Damm in Barcelona.

Vision@Wizzo: Jonas Mortensen’s Cowboy Dave, directed by Colin O’Toole won the BAFTA for Best British Short Film, starring Sam Spruell, Dylan Naden, produced

by Third Rail. He has also just wrapped on the reggae docu-drama Rude Boy, with director Nick Davies at

38 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

Pulse Films. Dan Atherton’s Love Pool, directed by Asim Chaudhry and produced by DMC Films, was released on Vero on Valentine’s Day. Dan’s NFTS graduation film, Sweet Maddie Stone, directed by Brady Hood, won Best Screenplay at Cartagena Film Festival. New signing Olan Collardy shot the Film London short Eli, directed by Thea Gajic and produced by Haus Pictures. He has also wrapped on Wilson, written and directed by John Ogunmuyiwa, which is being scheduled for its premiere on C4’s Random Acts. James Blann’s Film London short Landline, directed by Matt Houghton, will be screening at BFI’s Flare Film Festival. He’s since been prepping for the Film London short Jerk, written and directed by Raine Allen-Miller and produced by Somesuch, and has been collaborating with Pulse’s Oscar Hudson on a spot for Ikea. Jaime Feliu-Torres shot the dystopian short film and music promo Sanctify, directed by Fred Rowson and produced by Blink Productions for music group Years & Years, as well as shooting commercials with Outsider and Pulse. Jean-Noël Mustonen FSC has completed Finnish TV series Bullets, produced through Vertigo and directed

by Minna Virtanen and Antti Pesonen.

Nick Morris’ Wren Boys, directed by Harry Lighton and produced by Sorcha Bacon, continues its festival run playing at BFI’s Flare Film Festival. Ann Evelin Lawford is prepping on the short drama Gold Star, written and directed by Paul Frankl and produced by Maria Tanjala. Eoin McLoughlin lit the short action sports documentary Way Of The Wild Card, with director TJ O’Grady. Malte Rosenfeld’s action-thriller, Close, directed by Vicky Jewson and starring Noomi Rapace, was picked up for international distribution by Netflix.

Ben Wearing has wrapped on Abbie Stephens’

surreal short Observation Preservation, produced by Blink for C4’s Random Acts. Malte Rosenfeld has been shooting with Bare Films. Jim Jolliffe lensed an NSPCC spot for Gorgeous, directed by Chris Palmer. Martin Hill and Benedict Spence have been shooting promos for the BBC. Tim Green lit Rolls Royce and Land Rover spots with RSA and Park Village. Nick Morris has been prepping a World Cup Trailer for ITV. Luke Scott has been lighting for Mitsubishi.

Echo Artists: welcome Nadim Carlsen and Noel Schoolderman to the roster. Nadim shot Isabella Eklöf’s Holiday, nominated for The Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival this year. Noel is a regular collaborator with Madja Amin and Judith Veenendaal.

Director of photography Carlos Catalan is shooting Curfew, directed by Colm McCarthy and Christopher Smith for Tiger Aspect and Sky Television. Andy Commis ACS is shooting Kim Farrant’s Angel Of Mine, produced by Garlin Pictures. David Gallego ADFC is lensing Wildland, with Jeanette Bordahl, for Snowglobe Films/Columbia Pictures. Chloë Thomson is prepping on The Long Song with regular collaborator Mahalia Belo.

Felix Wiedemann BSC is now shooting Julian Jarrold’s Forgiveness. Sean Price Williams in lensing Her Smell for Alex Ross Perry. Niels Thastum, DFF is prepping the TV series Sanctuary, directed by Janus Metz. Lachlan Milne is soon to embark on the shoot for season three of Stranger Things for Netflix and the Duffer Brothers, and Maria Von Hausswolff is prepping on an Icelandic feature film. Meanwhile busy shooting commercials are: Alexandre Jamin, Michael Paleodimos, Charlie Herranz, Christopher Miles and Edgar Dubrovskiy. >>

Lest we forget…

Unforgotten series three crew

WHO’S SHOOTING WHO? / CINEMATOGRAPHERS ROUND-UP Diego Garcia

Level playing fields…. DP Thomas Shawcroft, director Tamara Rosenfeld and focus puller Andrea Clavijo, shooting documentary footage of the highest-ever football game at 18,400ft, followed by the challenge of shooting the lowest altitude game at -430m in The Dead Sea in Jordan!

Taking a proper squint… DP Oona Menges photographed

by Ashley Patton on-set in Amsterdam

Joyrider… Chris Hutchinson ACO is ready for action

40 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

Sara Putt Associates: Pete Edwards has returned as DP on the new series of Open All Hours. Simon Hawken shot a commercial on location in Palma. David Mackie is on a Universal shoot in Orlando.

Oona Menges is lighting a film on location in Amsterdam, called Amsterdam Secrets. Simon Reay has been working on a spot for Battersea Dogs Home, as well as a project for Darrall MacQueen. Giulio Biccari is lighting a block of Origin for Left Bank Pictures on location in South Africa. Andrei Austin continues on the new series of Outlander for Left Bank Pictures and Starz. Jon Beacham continues operating on Into The Badlands.

Danny Bishop is A-camera/Steadicam operator on Curfew, shooting on location in Manchester with DP Suzie Lavelle ISC. Ed Clark has started on the TV adaptation of Les Miserables, which shoots in Belgium.

Ilana Garrard did Steadicam dailies on The Bisexual, and has started on Schooled for Eleven Films.

Rodrigo Gutierrez continues on y Gar DP grit…

True Detective Pikachu as Shaw lenses a shot in -27ºC on Fortitude B-camera operator.

James Leigh has

been operating on the new series of Cuckoo and doing Steadicam dailies on Cold Feet. Vince McGahon has wrapped on Good Omens, and started on Blinded By The Light for Bend it Networks. Julian Morson completed MI:6 reshoots, and has been busy working on commercials. Al Rae continues on Radioactive in Budapest, with DP Anthony Dod Mantle DFF BSC ASC. Fabrizio Sciarra has wrapped on Krypton, and is busy doing Steadicam dailies on Into The Badlands. Rick Woollard has worked on spots for Partizan (KFC), Outsider (Kia), Blink (IKEA) and Biscuit (Jacobs).

Gravy Crew: of the agency’s camera/Steadicam operators… Chris Hutchinson ACO worked on commercials for Vodafone, BetHard, Mentos and LemonWater, and did dailies/second unit on The Bodyguard and A Discovery Of Witches. Rupert Power ACO has also been on A Discovery Of Witches, as well as The Keith & Paddy Picture Show, plus music videos for Skepta and A$AP Rocky. Not to be outdone, Rob Carter ACO worked on A Discovery Of Witches too, under the auspices of DP Petra Korner and director Sarah Walker, before moving on to the feature Ravers with DP Luke Bryant and director Bernhard Pucher. Rob’s next project is The Rook, lensed by PJ Dillon at 3 Mills Studios. James Davis lensed a Sky Cricket commercial on the Mōvi, lit

by DP Chris Clarke, an Asus ad with cinematographer Peter Suschitzky with first AC Karl Hui, plus a Pringles spot with DP Marcus Domleo.

Lux Artists: welcomes Nicolai Niermann and Antoine Sanier to its roster. Jakob Ihre FSF is shooting Johan Renck’s HBO series Chernobyl, and Diego Garcia is lighting the new series Too Old To Die Young, directed

by Nicolas Winding Refn. Sebastian Winterø is prepping Miranda July’s feature Kajillionaire. Thimios Bakatakis has wrapped on Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz feature

A raft of experience… John Lynch proves himself himself buoyant and intrepid

Between a rock and a hard place…

DP Peter Rowe GBCT on location

Shooting on film… a portrait of Rachel Morrison ASC

The Lodge. Sebastian Blenkov is shooting Secrets From The Russian Tea Rooms, directed by Lone Scherfig. Daniel Landin BSC lit a Lurpak ad, directed by Kim Gehrig.

Adam Scarth is on Rialto, a feature from director Peter Mackie Burns. Lol Crawley BSC is shooting The Secret Garden, directed by Marc Munden. Chayse Irvin CSC shot a spot for Volvo with director Miles Jay. Crystel Fournier AFC is lighting Catherine Linstrum’s feature Nuclear. Rachel Morrison ASC shot a Stoli Vodka commercial with We Are From LA. Jackson Hunt has wrapped on The Incident At Sparrow Creek Lumber, directed by Henry Dunham. Benjamin Kracun is prepping for Monsoon, directed by Hong Khaou. Nanu Segal shot a Mars commercial, directed by Jack Cole, for England’s World Cup campaign. André Chemetoff worked with director Manu Cossu on an Adidas TVC, and Natasha Braier captured a commercial for Sky directed by Nicolai Fuglsig.

PrinceStone: of the agency’s camera/Steadicam operators… Peter Robertson Assoc BSC ACO worked on Freddy Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, starring Rami Malek and directed by Dexter Fletcher, and did additional photography on Mary Poppins Returns, directed by Rob Marshall, starring Emily Blunt as Mary, Meryl Streep, Ben Wishaw and Colin Firth. Sean Savage Assoc BSC ACO SOC is still shooting on the eighth series of Game Of Thrones. Simon Baker Assoc BSC GBCT ACO was in Wales shooting on the drama series The Widow, starring Kate Beckinsale, with DPs Stuart Howell and John Lee, for directors Samuel Donovan and Olly Blackburn. He also worked on Pokemon second unit for DP Tim Wooster and director Stephen Woolfenden.

Cosmo Campbell ACO flew to Morocco to shoot Picnic, a harrowing contemporary war story is set in Mosul, written/directed by Matthew Carnahan, with DP Mauro

Winner… Emma Edwards collecting her 2018 DirectorsUK/ARRI Doc challenge award from Milan Krsljanin from Arri and the DirectorsUK team

Fiore. James Layton ACO worked with DPs Suzie Lavelle and Christophe Nuyens SBC on A Discovery Of Witches. Joe Russell ACO is shooting the final series of Sky Atlantic/Amazon’s award-winning, sci-fi thriller Fortitude, directed by Kieron Hawkes, with cinematographer Gary Shaw. The series is filming in Svalbard in the Arctic, with tough -27ºC wind chill to contend with, using Leica Summilux lenses and Alexa Minis. Rob Hart ACO worked on Wanderlust, a six-part drama for BBC One/Netflix, produced by Kate Crowther for Drama Republic, starring Toni Collette, Steven Mackintosh, Zawe Ashton, Royce Pierreson and Sophie Okonedo. Rob is working with directors Luke Snellin and Lucy Tcherniak and DP Ben Wheeler. Cinematographer Stil Williams is shooting the C4 series Ackley Bridge, starring Paul Nicholls and Jo Joyner. Steadicam operator/DP Thomas English was the DP on the AW2018 campaign for Paul Smith. He also shot Steadicam for The Dark Crystal: Age Of Resistance for director Louis Leterrier on the shadow unit. Louis, a Steadicam operator himself, implemented an incredibly stylistic operating style, and Thomas says he proved an inspirational director.

GBCT Crew: DP Emma Edwards GBCT has wrapped on the Rebel Park Production campaign Times Up, partnering with another guild member DP Suzanne Smith GBCT. Emma is now completing post on Altruistic, which won runner-up for the Best Short Film in the 2018 DirectorsUK/ARRI Doc challenge. Director Andy Wilson’s team on Unforgotten series three continues to deliver beautifully shot rushes on time. The DP is Soren Bay, with camera operator/second unit DP Martin Foley GBCT, first AC A-camera Alex Howe GBCT, first AC B-camera Richard Brierley GBCT and key grip Steve Weightman – all assisted by second AC Eliot Stone and

camera trainees Kate McMillan and Frederika Lathbridge. DP Steve Saunderson GBCT recently completed a successful Countryfile in Yorkshire, shooting at the Bronte Parsonage. DP Martin Hawkins GBCT shot The Honoured – five shorts that make up part of Ant And Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway ITV series. He also did prep and recces for the new Tracey Ullman series on BBC1, shooting in London and Halliford Studios, and will spend the summer with Ricky Gervais on the Netflix comedy/ drama After Life. DP Simon Edwards GBCT lit some interesting footage for TV Asahi in Japan, which is connected to the Japanese national badminton team, and is now lensing a new Farming series for C5. DP Chas Bain was in Hungary shooting The Last Kingdom with camera operator Ian Clarke GBCT. Working on a recent block of Holby City, led by DP David Schwartz, were key grip Barry Read GBCT, first AC Sam Patterson GBCT and camera operator Piers Lello GBCT. Perspiring in a port somewhere in Guadeloupe are the team working on the eighth series of Death In Paradise, including DP Mark Waters GBCT, and first ACs Mary Kyte GBCT and Lisa Cottington GBCT. DP Peter Rowe GBCT shot High & Dry in the Seychelles for Baby Cow, plus the opening sequence for the Punk Cinema feature Spanish Rock in Anamorphic on the Alexa Mini, and worked on series two of The Keith & Paddy Picture Show at Pinewood, shot on ARRI Amira. He’s now working on the new Alan Partridge series for Baby Cow/BBC. Meanwhile, fantastic things are happening on Kenneth Branagh’s Artemis Fowl. The vision of DP Haris Zambarloukos BSC is being supported by second unit DP Hamish Doyne Ditmas GBCT, first AC Dean Thompson GBCT A-camera, key grip Malcolm Huse GBCT, best boy grip Keith Mead GBCT, first AC Simon Heck GBCT and first AC Mike Green GBCT, among many others. n

British Cinematographer | May 2018 | 41

F-STOP / NAB & CINE GEAR EXPO 2018 / BY MICHAEL BURNS

FROM VEGAS TO HOLLYWOOD

We’re in the middle of a busy time for film and TV trade shows, sandwiched between the massive Las Vegas sprawl of NAB in early April and Cine Gear Expo LA, which takes place June 1-2 at the Studios at Paramount, Hollywood.

T

he latter features over 300 exhibitors targeted at film production, more than thirty complimentary seminars led by industry leaders, as well as masterclasses, a film competition, an awards ceremony, networking events within a studio environment and special screenings – including a Sony sponsored screening of Annihilation, followed by a Q&A with its cinematographer, Rob Hardy BSC.

CAMERAS

Full-frame and still higher resolutions were the imaging trends at NAB, with recent releases such as the Canon EOS C700 FF (pictured below) sporting a 5.9K Full Frame CMOS Sensor, 15 stops of latitude and PL/EF mounts, Panavision’s Millennium DXL2 8K, ARRI Alexa LF and Red Epic-W 5K S35 (equipped with the ultra-low-light Gemini 5K S35 sensor) all stirring up excitement – expect the same at Cine Gear Expo.

Sony, previewing upcoming features for the Sony Venice full-frame CineAlta camera across NAB and Cine Gear Expo, will be integrating variable frame rate and a newly developed dual base ISO 2500 mode. Also doing the rounds is Sony’s first 8K camera, the UHC-8300, offering 7680 x 4320 120p capture format, generating 8K, 4K and HD signal outputs simultaneously.

Panasonic’s new firmware, announced at NAB for the AU-EVA1 Compact S35 and the VariCam LT cinema cameras, brings support for the new ProRes RAW recording codecs.

42 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

Although the trend is for big and bigger, Blackmagic Design grabbed a lot of attention at NAB with its Pocket Cinema Camera 4K (pictured right), a handheld digital film camera with full 4/3 HDR sensor, dual native ISO with up to 25600 ISO, as well as 13 stops of dynamic range. The key sellingpoint for many was the USB-C expansion port allowing users to record using the internal SD/UHS-II and CFast recorders or directly to the same external disks they will use for editing and colour correction. Pegged at around $1,200, it’s bound to elicit excitement at Cine Gear Expo.

GLASS AND FILTERS

The CN-E20mm T1.5 L F is Canon’s new wide-angle lens for the EOS C700 FF, as well as the EOS-1D C and other full frame cameras.

It boasts a large diameter aspheric lens and low dispersion glass to cut down spherical aberration and other optical phenomena. Equipped with reduced focus breathing, the 20mm 4K cine prime lens has a T1.5 maximum aperture and 11-blade iris that produces natural blur effects and a three-dimensional bokeh effect.

Cooke announced new focal lengths for its S7/i Full Frame Plus lens range, in 16mm, 21mm,

27mm and 65mm models. The Panchro/i Classic prime lenses, which offer a vintage look with modern housing, will benefit from a 21mm, 27mm, 65mm Macro and 135mm.

Based on the IRO (Interchangeable Rear Optics) technology that enables different lens configurations, the Angénieux Optimo Ultra 12x Multi Format lens is compatible with the PL and LPL ARRI mount full-frame cameras. The long-range zoom for high-end productions is designed for extreme shooting conditions, says the company. Angénieux also announced another low distortion, long range anamorphic lens at NAB, the Optimo 42-420 A2S.

CW Sonderoptic is growing the family of Leica M 0.8 lenses with the addition of three new focal lengths: 50mm f/1.4, 75mm f/2.0, and 90mm f/2.0.

Like the others in the range, these can be used on all Red cameras with interchangeable OLPFs, including the Monstro 8K sensor, when using a custom CW Sonderoptic OLPF. The lenses can also be used on the ARRI Alexa Mini and ARRI Amira with the new M mount, which is available now, and for the Sony Venice later in the year.

Tiffen’s NATural neutral density (ND) filter range now includes 77mm and 82mm ring sizes, as well as other sizes that are available upon request. Also new is the Pro 100 System, a holder for Tiffen’s MPTV range that

ACCESSORIES

accepts 4x4 (100mm) filters. NAB saw the company highlighting the filters it has developed for the DJI Phantom 4 Pro Advanced and Obsidian drones.

Schneider Optics debuted a range of filters offering the ‘vintage look’ of stretching old stockings over the lens at NAB. The seven True-Net diffusion filters incorporate real hosiery, made on the same knitting machines since the 1950s and set between water-white glass. Schneider is also showcasing its new Radiant Soft diffusion filters, offering minimal effect on contrast, and production models of Rhodium Full Spectrum Neutral Density (FSND) filters.

The company is showing its Xenon FF-Prime Cine-Tilt Full-Frame primes too, which offer ±4° tilt.

The company claims the lenses can enable ‘previously unimaginable images’ with live tilting of the focus plane.

Set to zero they become standard primes.

Aaton-Digital will introduce several new products at CineGear, including the full integration of the Wisycom and Lectrosonics wireless receivers in its CantarX3 and Cantar-Mini recorders. This gives direct access to the user interface of the receiver from the Cantar, allowing set-up of options or channel frequencies and several advanced tools to optimise the wireless performance.

There’s also the final integration of Sennheiser’s immersive Ambeo technology in the Cantar family with A-B conversion. The CantarX3 is able to use 2 Ambeo microphones at the same time. There’s also a new modular bag for the CantarX3 with magnetic fixations, as well as a new modular support system to carry up to six wireless receivers on the CantarMini.

Transvideo is showing the StarliteHD2 monitor-recorder with its new firmware upgrade giving increased resolution and reduced latency. Transvideo also has the StarliteRF-a on show, with enhanced firmware and ability to remote control the ARRI Alexa Mini, while the StarliteRF-WVS monitor-recorder will

be shown on the Alexa LF, offering increased resolution and reduced latency, enhancing it as a choice for focus pulling.

Transvideo’s StarliteHD-e monitorrecorder will also be on show with its intelligent interface for Zeiss eXtended technology lenses and Cooke/i technology lenses, enabling the recording of static and dynamic lens metadata from these optics.

The latest evolution of the CineMonitorHD8-XSBL is also being demonstrated, with 2500 Nits brightness and high contrast ratio.

Teradek is launching new products in its Bolt wireless video system range.

The Bolt 10K offers a visually lossless, zero delay wireless video feed for any Bolt 3000 system, over a range of nearly two miles. Also new is the Bolt Manager, which can quickly configure a wireless video system without a computer. It can rapidly pair multiple receivers, change wireless channels, update firmware, and configure regional settings during prep or on set. >>

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British Cinematographer | May 2018 | 43

F-STOP / NAB & CINE GEAR EXPO 2018 / BY MICHAEL BURNS

Shotoku’s SmartPed fully robotic XY pedestal is the basis for the new SmartPedVR

SUPPORTS Vinten’s robotic camera dolly and ceiling track system debuted at NAB, a collaboration between the Vitec Group’s automation company and dolly manufacturer Tecnopoint. The dolly, motorised column, and robotic head natively interface with the Vinten control protocol and can be fully managed from the Vinten robotic control system (VRC) to support features like shot sequencing, while an absolute encoder outputs tracking data to the VRC, for use in an AR or VR environment.

Stablemate Vitec Imaging Distribution will exhibit a comprehensive line of equipment at Cine Gear Expo, including Avenger cine-support solutions and Manfrotto professional video tripod systems.

Shotoku’s SmartPed fully robotic XY pedestal is the basis for the new SmartPedVR. The addition of builtin VR tracking provides fully 3D position information including orientation. It is provided in remote or local operations with seamless switching between modes and with no need to re-reference.

Steadicam Air, a highly-compact monopod that uses a gas lift for adjustable height, spring activated by a foot pedal, was on show from Tiffen at NAB. Made of lightweight carbon fibre, the Air is currently available to carry 25 lb (11Kg) configuration,

Tiffen...

Steadicam Air

while a 15 lb (7Kg) configuration is to follow in the second quarter of this year.

DuttiDock is a new camera docking sled in aluminium by Matthews Studio Equipment that, when paired with a Ronford Baker Quick Release Plate, or similar locking plate, can convert a medium weight light stand into a convenient camera support. Matthews also debuted the KStackers II lighting support at NAB, a tool that turns Kino Flo LED Panels and fluorescent fixtures into larger light sources in a tight array. The design allows for vertical mounting on a light stand, or downward mounting from a studio grid.

The company also released MQ Mount (pictured left), a versatile way to mount T-12 light tube fixtures with minimal light loss – and without crushing the lamp.

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LIGHTING

K5600 will be presenting its new Joker2 line at Cine Gear Expo, featuring the ability to easily convert to a tungsten Par, a three-way axis yoke for more angular flexibility, a screw on ring and improved braking system for better control. The Joker2 line comes in three wattages including 400, 800 and 1600W and features wireless DMX operation, allowing the new ballasts to be controlled from a tablet or smartphone.

Chimera has a host of products set for Hollywood, including the new LED Panel Lantern, powered by LiteGear. Chimera claims the multipurpose light fixture can be used in studio for simple fill lighting, but is easily transportable for on location and run-and-gun applications. The company is also releasing a frameless Lightbank purpose-designed for the Aputure LS1. The Lightbank increases the aperture of the LS1 whilst reducing individual emitter imaging and blends and softens the output. Chimera has developed new frameless Lightbanks and Lanterns >>

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F-STOP / NAB & CINE GEAR EXPO 2018 / BY MICHAEL BURNS

New from ARRI... versions of its high-speed, electronic ballast range

for the Cineo Lighting Standard 410 too, the Litepanels Gemini and the Fluotec Cinelight 60.

The Pinewood MBS and MBSE Lighting team will be showcasing energy-efficient lighting, focussing on a number of bespoke LED solutions created by in-house product development team MBSi. Featured products include the newly-introduced, five colour HDR LED flex, alongside the company’s LED Driver units, ranging from the compact, wireless LV-4 and LV-5, to the LV-6 Driver Node and LV-R Data Distribution rack.

ARRI’s new SkyPanel Firmware 4 expands the capabilities of the SkyPanel and offers refined levels of control. Included among ten new features, Extended Colour Control allows users to pick a starting colour such as a digital gel, HSI value, or colour temperature, and to use eight new colour adjustments, such as warmer/cooler or saturate/desaturate, to push the colour in the desired direction.

The new Stage Mode 4 allows SkyPanel to smoothly and seamlessly dim down to zero percent intensity without colour jumps or noticeable intensity drop-off.

Firmware 4 also allows the user to control individual light engines via new DMX modes and enables a new total of 17 pre-programmed lighting effects.

Also new from ARRI are three new versions of its high-speed, electronic ballast range. The EB MAX 2.5/4, the EB MAX 6/9, and the EB MAX 12/18 offer DMX remote control of operation mode and frequency, lamp operation at 50 or 60 Hz to minimize noise, or at 75 Hz for standard frame rates. Lamp frequencies at 300Hz and 1,000Hz can be set fully manually or automatically.

46 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

On show from BB&S Lighting, the new Force 7 LED Leko delivers 750 Wattequivalent output, whilst drawing 185W at maximum – with a colour-friendly 97 CRI. The company claims it provides smooth, even, edge-to-edge lighting with no hotspots, and no double shadows when using a gobo.

Expect also to see new 3- and 4-foot (914mm, 1219mm) Pipeline Free remote phosphor LED lighting fixtures from BB&S, increasing the versatility of this cylindrical pipe-style lighting.

Also introduced is the Pipeline 1-Bank Wedge (pictured right), which comes in either a black or white coloured fixture, with 98 TLCI. For Cine Gear, MoleRichardson will be featuring its new variable-colour, solid-state, LED Fresnels with variable white light colour temperature control and green/magenta correction. The line sports multiple user interface options such as touchscreen operation, DMX, built-in LumenRadio, and Bluetooth capability (and there’s a Mole App coming soon). Throughout 2018, the family will be expanded to include the Vari-Baby, VariJunior, Vari-Studio Junior, VariSenior and Vari-Tener LEDs.

The Vitec Group is showcasing new products from Litepanels. The Gemini 2x1 Soft Panel allows for a variety of cinematic effects such as emergency lights, fire, TV, and hue bursts that are fully customisable and that can be easily saved to presets. The Astra Bi-Focus Daylight is the newest addition to the Astra family, giving users the ability to adjust from a 48° flood to a

15° concentration of light with the turn of a dial.

The versatile Lowel Go Lite lighting solution is also on show from The Tiffen Company. Using the included accessories, the Go Lite builds up from a bright 5500k host LED light that can be used on the camera or handheld, to daylight diffused light, a tungsten diffused light and a daylight soft box. Also on show, the Lowel Pro Power LED Bi-Color is a lightweight locationbased system with a powerful output and a focusable Fresnel light.

DoPchoice unveiled a new version of its quickuse Rabbit-Ears mounting system at NAB, designed to gang a pair of Litepanels Astras. Users can deploy DoPchoice’s SRELPA and Gobo Head adapters along with the Rabbit Ears Rectangular mount, so they can be easily equipped with a DoPchoice Snapbag and other light softening and shaping tools.

Last, but certainly not least, Rosco will be showing the new Mix LED fixture at Cine Gear Expo, the result of its recent acquisition of DMG Lumière. Aimed at improving on-set workflow, Mix can be controlled onboard or wirelessly through LAN, wired or wireless DMX, WiFi, and Bluetooth. Available in the SL1 and Mini fixture formats, Mix features a mode for tuneable white light from daylight to tungsten, along with precise green/magenta correction. There’s a colour mode that offers control over intensity, colour hue and saturation, while another mode allows users to select from a gel library and modify its hue, saturation, and green/magenta shift as required. Also making its debut, the myMix App allows users to grab colours within a mobile phone photo, save a colour and push it wirelessly to the MIX fixture. The App controls contain all of the onboard control features, along with the ability to name and save colours within project folders and share colours instantly with colleagues. n

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CAMERA CREATIVE / BRADFORD YOUNG ASC / SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY / BY RON PRINCE

SPACE TRUCKIN’ Set ten years before the original Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977), Solo: A Star Wars Story centres on the young scoundrel, Han Solo, and his inter-galactic adventures aboard the Millennium Falcon.

D

uring a series of daring escapades, deep within a dark and dangerous criminal underworld, Solo meets his mighty future co-pilot and Wookiee partner Chewbacca, and encounters the notorious rebel and gambler Lando Calrissian, in a space western that sets the course of one of the Star Wars saga’s most unlikely heroes. The movie stars Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo, Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian, alongside Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Joonas Suotamo and Paul Bettany. The film’s budget has not yet been disclosed.

Directed by Ron Howard, and produced by Lucasfilm from a screenplay by Jonathan and Lawrence Kasdan, the Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures’ production was shot by cinematographer Bradford Young ASC, whose credits include Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (2013), Selma (2014), A Most Violent Year (2014) and Arrival (2016). Young has a penchant for raw light, and is known as a maestro when it comes to achieving a naturalistic look.

In January 2017, Young became the first AfricanAmerican cinematographer to be nominated for an Academy Award, for his work on Arrival. On this occasion he also became first person of colour to be nominated in the Academy Award cinematography category since 1998, when Remi Adefarasin BSC was nominated for Elizabeth.

Principal photography using ARRI Alexa 65 on the production, codenamed Red Cup, began in January 2017 at Pinewood Studios, where sets were built on the backlot, across multiple stages, including the 007 Stage, and in Black Park.

Production kicked-off under the direction of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. However, the pair left the project in June 2017 over "creative differences" with Lucasfilm, and Howard took over directing duties. Production also included stints at locations in Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands, and Cortina d’Ampezzo in the Italian Dolomites, before concluding in October. The film is scheduled to premiere on May 15, 2018 at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, followed by a worldwide release, including RealD 3D and IMAX 3D.

>>

British Cinematographer | May 2018 | 49

CAMERA CREATIVE / BRADFORD YOUNG ASC / SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY / BY RON PRINCE

“I CHOSE THE ALEXA 65, AS IT GAVE ME MORE OPTIONS WITH LESS-FAMILIAR GLASS.” BRADFORD YOUNG ASC

>>

Ron Prince caught up with Young as he was completing the DCP grade of the movie at Skywalker Ranch, the workplace of film director, writer and producer George Lucas, in Marin County, San Francisco.

How did you get involved with the production?

BY: In 2015, I heard through the grapevine that Lucasfilm were crewing for a production, but didn’t know what the project was. Then, I got a call from my agent about a Star Wars spin-off. I was flattered, but felt it was quite a reach – that there was no bridge between the naturalistic work I do and Star Wars.

So, initially, I kind of ignored the overture. But Lucasfilm persisted, and in December I met with two of the producers – Simon Emanuel and the late, great Allison Shearmur – in LA, and this propelled me to explore a bit further.

What were the initial references that intrigued you?

BY: Chris and Phil’s main visual reference was McCabe & Mrs Miller (1971, dir. Robert Altman), shot by Vilmos Zsigmond ASC. The tonality in the narrative and Vilmos’ cinematography really brought me in. I feel my cinematography is about being naturalistic, with a subdued imprint in the way the camera technology and lighting are used. Vilmos’ flashing of the film 35mm negative and lighting on that film exemplify that approach.

We also referenced a number of Woody Allen movies that were shot by Gordon Willis ASC, such as Interiors (1978) and Stardust Memories (1980). I have always been interested in the bridge between dark

comedy and dark photography, and always really loved the interesting harmony between the counter-intuitive nature of Gordon’s cinematography and the comedy genre. I thought maybe there was some room for that in Solo: A Star Wars Story. And that really spoke to me.

Plus, Solo: A Star Wars Story was a period film – part western, part road movie – with sophisticated humour that teases out character studies of young soul rebels on-therun – all of which I really liked the thought of too.

Overall, I felt that if we could make this movie with a dark and more organic temperament, with what I call “spirited blacks”, it could be a real move forward in how Star Wars movies feel.

Before committing to shooting the movie, you took counsel from your circle of close-knit friends and mentors. Tell us about that.

BY: Yes, I took a short break to think about it. I don’t live in LA or New York. I live in Baltimore. I went to film school in Washington DC, and come from a very small community of independent filmmakers.

Shooting a Star Wars movie was never on my radar.

So I went to people who expect something out of my work – my elders, allies and filmmakers who have been instrumental in my development as an image-maker – and asked them whether I should get involved. People like Ava DuVernay, Haile Gerima, Malik Sayeed, Arthur Jafa, Ryan Coogler, Johnny Simmons ASC and Boots Riley. I’m not on this journey by myself. I represent a particular set of people, and felt it was really important to ask them.

Of course, they unanimously said, “Do it!”

Were there other creative references you considered?

BY: I usually use paintings and photographs as references, but, as I was testing so much, I did not have time to dive into that well as deeply as I usually do. The three films we referenced most were: McCabe & Mrs Miller, Belly (1998, dir. Hype Williams) for the wonderful colour palette in Malik Sayeed’s cinematography, and Lenny (1974, dir. Bob Fosse, DP Bruce Surtees ASC), as it marries noir and comedy in a really interesting and intimidating way. I might also mention Birth (2004, dir. Jonathan Glazer, DP Harris Savides ASC) as an influence, for its extraordinary visual style and texture, that I keep trying to attain.

How did you arrive at your combination of camera and lenses?

BY: I looked at lots of possibilities, and it took a while for me to come around to the Alexa 65. At first I thought this movie would be shot on film. But the beautiful thing about working with Lucasfilm, is that you have the bandwidth to explore. Nothing is off limits – except Super 8mm perhaps. I tested 35mm and 65mm film, Alexa XT and Alexa 65, and

50 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

found that this movie was not necessarily about the capture format, but more about the glass. I wanted to play around and find a way do things very differently. I looked at lenses everyday for several months. I felt that most of the camera formats would connect me to legacy glass, and I wanted to discover that one special lens that I had never seen before – something unearthed from a mouldy dustbin in a backroom at ARRI London.

I chose the Alexa 65, as it gave me more options with less-familiar glass, and started testing with the Hasselblad PrimeDNAs. ARRI can personalise these per project and even per scene. We shifted elements in the lenses in different phases, and found some interesting results.

Then, my incredible first AC Jake Marcuson, who worked with my friend Greig Fraser ACS ASC on Rogue One and Mary Magdalene, saw these tests and suggested ARRI might be able to take things much further. ARRI’s brilliant lens guru, Neil Fanthom, approached me with a B-type 50mm T1.9 lens incorporating donor glass. It was one of the most fascinating lenses I have ever seen, with a strange hybrid Anamorphic/spherical look, super funky flares and kick-backs. Suddenly Pandora’s Box opened up, and I realised we could do all sort of interesting things.

This lens became the benchmark for all of the other glass to measure up to.

ARRI created three different versions of that lens, colour coded blue, red and yellow. Each had its own personality, although we shot mainly with the red and the blue.

My second favourite lens was a funky and expressive 45mm PrimeDNA. We also created a number of Speeders – with opened-up focal lengths, so a 50mm

became a 35mm – giving us a faster stop, and they had a really special look. Kevon Elhami from Camtec in LA, created a set of spectacular and raw full-frame Falcon lenses that we used different ways from 6K in open gate to 4K crops. We also used Alexa Mini for the shoot, which I combined with Zeiss Super Speeds.

How much prep did you have?

BY: It was a good long period – close to 20 weeks of non-consecutive prep – starting in April 2016. Along with the testing, plenty of time was spent travelling to figure out the locations.

I moved my family to London in September 2016.

My wife and two children loved it and it was hard to leave. We’d like to find an excuse to go back!

Who were your crew?

BY: They were a company of amazing visual storytellers. Whilst I like to operate, there was no way I could light and operate at the same time. So it was all about building an eco-system to which people could offer different skills and talents. My good friend Sylvaine Dufaux was my main camera operator. She is a warrior.

When things got crazy, and we needed more help, my best friend Jeffrey Kim came over and eventually Bradford Young ASC headed a fully-fledged unit that brought a lot to the table.

Oliver Loncraine on B-camera was massive, and a great discovery. Philip Smith, first AC on B-camera, helped to prep 90% of the film and is a very special human being. >> British Cinematographer | May 2018 | 51

CAMERA CREATIVE / BRADFORD YOUNG ASC / SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY / BY RON PRINCE

“I TRIED TO STAY TRUE TO WHAT I DO – SLOW REVEALING SHOTS THAT TRY TO TELL AS MUCH OF THE STORY AS POSSIBLE IN ONE.” BRADFORD YOUNG ASC

My main DIT Dan Carling was wonderfully on-point with exposure advice. When he had to leave for another production, Peter Marsden came in and I inherited all of the masterful things he does with Dick Pope BSC.

My second unit DP, Tim Wooster BSC was a great asset, who, with second unit director Bradley Allan, understood the vision and stuck to it and was guardian of the image. Perry Evans, my main unit gaffer, and Rocky Evans, my second unit gaffer, helped me and our camera crews immensely, as did key grip Gary Hymns, and his team. The crew were all as invested in the look of the film as me. They were never shy in coming forwards if they felt anything was not our look.

You treated the footage with a LUT on-set.

Tell us more.

BY: Yes, during prep I worked with Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) to find an interesting LUT. I went for a Kodak 5230 beach-bypass emulation LUT – the same one that was initiated by Greig Fraser on Rogue One, which the colour scientists at ILM had mimicked from that exact film stock. My colourist, Joe Gawler (from Harbor Post, NY) worked with ILM to modify that LUT slightly to fit our organic, naturalistic look. By the way, Greig is a good friend and was also one of my advisors on the film. He was extremely generous in his advice and helped me keep my head level.

What was the thinking behind your camera movement?

BY: I tried to stay true to what I do – slow revealing shots that try to tell as much of the story as possible in one. If we needed coverage we’d go in and do that.

On the main unit we did a lot of formal, classic, camera movement, but we went handheld when the action got a bit rough and tumble. This approach allowed our second unit of Tim and Brad to do what they do well – which is to move the camera and put it in interesting places that you don’t expect. The combination of those two styles worked really well – creating

52 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

what I call a really jazzy look – gentle melodies and crescendos – that you can definitely see in the final cut.

How about your lighting strategy?

BY: My style is very much around natural and available light, but you have to accomplish that on a stage. This is nothing new to my amazing gaffer Perry Evans. He’s a master. He watched Arrival and immediately understood how I work. Perry is a sensitive soul, and was always thinking about where the light was coming from. The way he guided and directed me was wonderful. There’s a moment when Han Solo meets Chewbacca for the first time, and we had a pre-light day for that on a Saturday. We were trying all sorts of things, but none were working out, until Perry suggested we switch everything off and start from zero.

Do you have a favourite scene that we should watch out for?

BY: Yes, the scene on the swamp planet Mimbam, where we had a foggy, muddy, WWI trench-warfare, type of set-up on the 007 stage. It was all lit by explosions, plus a subtle level of ambient light that gave beautiful detail in the fog.

The collaboration between Perry, Dominic Tuohy our SFX supervisor, and our board operator Will, in coordinating the timing of lights and pyrotechnics was incredible. Our whole thing was about backlight, and what Perry did in operating the SkyPanels on dimmers in realtime, keeping the characters in backlight amid all of the action, was very special. He was working from a spiritual space.

What were your biggest challenges on this production?

BY: Time – you never ever have enough – and stamina. I worked-out in the gym every morning, and made sure to have a good diet to keep in good physical shape.

But it’s also about mental fitness too, and I

spent as much time as I could with my family. When these two elements came together, that’s when I was able to give the best of myself to the production. I can’t tell you how important that was.

What can you tell us about the DI grade: BY: We’re doing the DI of the theatrical DCP at Skywalker Ranch, with all of the VFX assets in place, and are monitoring in HDR. It’s a beautiful place to work, where you can really stay focussed. The DI is pretty straightforward. Joe, my colourist, and the team from ILM got together to make some slight modifications to our onset 5230 beach-bypass LUT. What I am seeing on-screen, is pretty true to what I saw on-set everyday, but with a little spice sprinkled here and there. I’ve worked with Joe for ten years, and our relationship is a friendship. I like to provide him with a negative that allows him to also put his signature on the final result. The various deliverables – Dolby, IMAX 3D, HDR and DVD – will be completed in LA in the next few weeks. It’s been interesting to monitor in HDR, you can see there are some elements that don’t quite work, but low-light elements look better in HDR, which is very encouraging.

What are your takeaways from having shot Solo: A Star Wars Story?

BY: It was demanding, but I loved it.

I loved living in London and working with an experienced crew. The shoot itself had the feeling of a low-budget independent movie, with a small group on-set making it happen, although in reality there were many hundreds of people working on it around the world. It was a great, grounded, intimate, connected experience, not weighed down by any sort of artificiality.

That’s the Star Wars family for you! n

Dailies By Pinewood Digital With special thanks to Cinematographer Bradford Young ASC and the teams at Lucasfilm & ILM Pinewood Digital provided VFX Pulls, Dailies and Screening Services for Solo: A Star Wars Story

TALK TO OUR TEAM ABOUT YOUR NEXT PROJECT: +44 (0)1753 785487 post@pinewoodgroup.com www.pinewoodgroup.com

Solo: A Star Wars Story © 2018 & TM LUCASFILM LTD.

THE FACTS OF LIFE

“Although there were some physical and logistical challenges, it was a really charming film to work on,” is Sean Bobbitt BSC’s immediate recollection about his time spent as cinematographer on On Chesil Beach, the first full-length feature to be helmed by renowned theatre director Dominic Cooke.

54 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

ON THE JOB / SEAN BOBBITT BSC / ON CHESIL BEACH / BY RON PRINCE

Sean Bobbitt BSC with Saoirse Ronan

“T

he combination of Dominic’s inspirational vision, the support of the producers, Liz Karlsen and Stephen Woolley, a fantastic cast of actors and a really great crew, made for an extremely enjoyable experience, where everyone just got on together.”

Shot on Kodak 35mm film in 2-perf, with spherical lenses, On Chesil Beach was adapted for the screen by author Ian McEwan from his 2007 Booker Prize-nominated novella of the same name. Set in England in 1962, the film follows newly-wedded couple, Florence Ponting (Saoirse Ronan) and Edward Mayhew (Billy Howle), whose idyllic romance suddenly founders amid the shifting zeitgeist of the time – from the world of the 1950s stiff-upper-lip to the dawn of the swinging ‘60s. The honeymooners, both recent graduates from Oxford, are virgins – apprehensive, awkward, lacking in sexual experience, and woefully ill-equipped to deal with their respective upbringings and social expectations.

She is a talented young violinist with big ambitions, and hails from a wealthy, buttoned-down, family. He’s a feisty country boy from a somewhat blemished family background that can only offer love. Both have trouble making the first move to consummate their marriage in their modest Dorset hotel room, and events rapidly lead to an awkward and fateful wedding night.

The film premiered at the 2017 Toronto Film Festival, where it garnered many positive reviews for the director, actors and Bobbitt’s “bare and beautiful cinematography”, which immerses the audience into the lives of the conflicted characters in surreal and desolate surroundings.

Principal photography started on October 17th, 2016 and concluded 36 shooting days later on November 29th. Along with sets built at Pinewood,

the production also encompassed locations in Oxford and the surrounding countryside, as well as Dorset and Chesil Beach itself – a UNESCO World Heritage Site, located along the Jurassic Coast.

“I had not worked with Dominic before, but had been interviewed by him previously for The Hollow Crown,” says Bobbitt. “I remember being immediately impressed and thought I would really enjoy collaborating with him.

However, another project came along and the timings were such I was unable to work on that production.”

But what goes around comes around, and the script for On Chesil Beach arrived at a separate juncture.

Initially, Bobbitt says he was not aware of Cooke’s involvement, and whilst he admits to being intrigued by the idea of the story, he found the idea of shooting a period drama much less appealing.

“The UK has a fascination for period dramas based upon a book, a person or an event, and I tend not to find that genre particularly interesting from a cinematographic point-of-view,” he says. “It was only when I discovered that Dominic was to direct, that my interest changed.

We met and I immediately saw his idea was far beyond the simplicity of a straightforward period piece.”

“WITH FILM YOU AUTOMATICALLY GET A PERIOD LOOK, AND THAT’S PARTLY HOW WE SOLD THE IDEA OF CELLULOID CAPTURE TO THE PRODUCERS.” SEAN BOBBITT BSC

He explains further: “The story is set in a specific moment in history, when a repressed, almost Victorian, culture of the late 1950s started to be dominated by the liberating revolution of sex and society that came with the 1960s. It was a fascinating and complex period of time, and Dominic wanted to use a fragmented narrative that jumped back-and-forth between the past, present and future of our characters’ lives, to reveal the tectonic shifts taking place. Also, with this being a British affair, there was a whole class element going on too, as a subtext to the story.”

Bobbitt makes a point of never reading a book associated with a project. “I don’t want to feel in conflict with what a book did and what the filmic adaptation aims to do. I’m employed to make a film and not reinterpret a novel, so I consciously stay away from that,” he says. “However, I was aware that Ian had adapted the script, and knew the relationship between him and Dominic was good. Ian is a fine writer and chronicler of human emotions, and Dominic is one of the UK’s pre-eminent theatre directors. It was a great recipe that could be nothing but positive.”

Abstaining from reading McEwan’s novel, Bobbitt got a handle on the visual treatment for On Chesil Beach from watching a trio of productions from that era – A Taste Of Honey (1962, dir. Tony Richardson, DP Walter Lassally BSC), Saturday Night And Sunday Morning (1961, dir. Karel Reisz, DP Freddie Francis BSC) and The Misfits (1961, dir. John Huston, DP Russell Metty).

“A Taste Of Honey and Saturday Night And Sunday Morning were British cinema waking-up, but not quite finding the style of the French new wave,” he says. “In some ways they are visually cumbersome, but they are very simple and very effective because of that. You look at the pace of those films, and they can feel almost excruciating in a modern context. There’s no great rush to tell the story; the narrative evolves and gnaws at you.

Every preceding scene has a context and a reason. You can feel the story building, but not exactly what is building.

They are both also very naturalistic, and you feel they aren’t lit. We wanted to create a complete world of that period, and went for natural look with our lighting too.

“Overall, The Misfits was probably the most inspiring visually for us. It’s a deeply flawed film, but in its visual simplicity, it is absolutely fascinating and it had a great influence on our discussions as to the look of our production.

I think it also sparked our desire to shoot on film.”

Bobbitt remarks that the decision to shoot on film was a crucial element in creating the look for On Chesil Beach. “With film you automatically get a period look, and that’s partly how we sold the idea of celluloid capture to the producers. If you also look at the maths of shooting on 2-perf stock, it stands-up financially, and is probably cheaper, than shooting on Alexa in ARRIRAW. >> British Cinematographer | May 2018 | 55

ON THE JOB / SEAN BOBBITT BSC / ON CHESIL BEACH / BY RON PRINCE

>>

What’s more, 2-perf gives you a widescreen 2.40:1 aspect ratio and this lent itself to the isolated, disconnected look we wanted to achieve. There was really no film versus digital battle at all, and production embraced our idea quickly.”

Processing of the exposed negatives was done at i-Dailies (now Kodak Film Lab London, based on the Pinewood lot), under the auspices of Clive Noakes.

“I was really chuffed to have Clive as our lab liaison,” Bobbitt declares. “He’s a legendary figure, one of the greats of the British film lab world.”

Bobbitt selected three Kodak Vision3 35mm filmstocks for the shoot ­– Kodak 50D (5203) for day exteriors, Kodak 250D (5207) for interiors and overcast days, and Kodak 500T (5219) for night time exteriors and interiors.

“Kodak 50D is a stunning stock, noted for its fine grain and strong clean colour palette,” enthuses the cinematographer. “It has a good exposure latitude too. A big element in this film was nature. Edward comes from the countryside, whereas Florence is from an urban middle-class intellectual background.

Exteriors recounting their conflict take place in the countryside – partly due to the script, and partly due to the trickiness of finding period locations – and the 50D gave a beautiful look to these scenes.

“Most importantly, however, the final third of the film – its dramatic heart and soul – takes place on Chesil Beach itself, where we spent three days. The 50D delivered a really rich and punchy negative, and it was fundamental to the imagery in the most powerful and emotionally striking part of the film.”

Whilst the 250D was used chiefly for interiors, Bobbitt says, “it’s also a great failsafe for the British

56 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

weather. If it gets cloudy and overcast on exteriors, it’s handy to have the 250D in your back pocket.”

As for the 500T, Bobbitt says he tended to push the 500T by one stop, effectively rating it a 1000ASA on exteriors. “The 500T is phenomenal, so clean, even when pushed by a stop. There’s only a merest increase in grain on the 2-perf image, where the grain is nicely inherent already.”

Bobbitt selected Cooke S4i and Optimo zoom lenses for the shoot, using Arricam ST on the dolly, plus Arricam LT for handheld and Steadicam shots – supplied by ARRI Rental in London. On Chesil Beach was executed mainly as a single camera shoot, with Bobbitt operating for the majority of the production, assisted by first AC Fran Weston and second AC Lawrence Beckwith. Additional B-camera and second unit photography was beautifully captured by Nic Lawson.

First ACs Meritt Gold, Graham Martyr and Derik Peters, plus second ACs Dan West, Harry Wingate and Sandra Pennington were also variously involved on the main unit and additional photography. The gaffer was Brian Beaumont.

“I’ve been working in the US so much, that it was fantastic to get back working with my UK crew, who I miss very much indeed. I can’t thank them enough for their skills and energy,” Bobbitt says.

Whist the story switches between time periods, Bobbitt felt little need to differentiate between them visually, preferring the effect to be rendered through the exquisite work of production designer Suzie Davis, a key cinematographic collaborator, together with commensurate changes in wardrobe, costume, makeup and locations. That said, he did employ different camera movement techniques to portray the different family lives of the protagonists.

“Taking our cues from the films we’d looked at – especially The Misfits where they held the frame for many of the compositions, and restricted most movement to a simple, but powerful pan – a lot of our camera movement was purposefully traditional, on tracks and dolly. However, we chose to create a visual contrast between the home lives of Edward and Florence, by introducing Steadicam – most beautifully operated by Simon Woods – in order to point-up the rural life and obstreperousness of Billy’s character versus the staid and repressed nature of Florence’s household.”

Whilst cinematographers often cite time and/ or the need to achieve consistency as being their biggest challenges in feature production, Bobbitt says the hero location of Chesil Beach itself proved the single greatest test. The shingle beach is 18 miles long, 660ft wide and 50ft high, and is a barrier beach enclosing a shallow tidal lagoon, called The Fleet. It is an area of Special Scientific Interest, governed by strict conservation laws. The location chosen for the film’s climactic scene was near the middle of this long stretch, and access regulations stipulated that the crew could only use a rowing boat to ferry the filming equipment across. Along with lights, cameras, lenses, dolly and tracks, this also included the considerable paraphernalia of a large crane, which was essential for a poignant, but complex shot of the protagonists.

Although there was a tractor on Chesil Beach itself to assist in moving the apparatus around, Bobbitt remembers it being quite brutally demanding to load the rowing boat and to then physically carry the equipment across the shingles. He praises key grip Jem Morton and his crew, “for sorting it wonderfully.

“KODAK 50D IS A STUNNING STOCK, NOTED FOR ITS FINE GRAIN AND STRONG CLEAN COLOUR PALETTE.” SEAN BOBBITT BSC

Our crane shot represents a great team effort, and is something we are all very proud of.”

Notwithstanding the physical logistics, the British weather also played its part. As Bobbitt explains: “The climactic scene on Chesil Beach takes up nearly 15 minutes of the film. As we were aiming to shoot there for several days, what we really wanted for the story and continuity was a spell of overcast and menacing weather.

During some of the recces it had been almost impossible to stand up on the beach due to the ferocity of the wind.

All sorts of contingencies were put into the schedule as we really didn’t know what sort of conditions we would encounter. But when it came to it, we got exactly what we wanted – a nice brooding light.”

Bobbitt is most admiring of a simple, subliminal visual treatment that his director insisted upon. “Coming from the world of theatre, Dominic has a wonderfully mature and specific visual sense. In the first two thirds of the film, he insisted that the characters move continuously from left-to-right, as if moving towards something positive. But when their world falls apart, their movement switches from right-to-left, towards something negative. It created some difficulties, but we were able to work with it, and I have nothing but the highest regard for Dominic in holding on to his idea.

The cinematographer is also full of praise for the mood instilled by the director, which suffused the entire production. “Dominic is a very eloquent man who could express his ideas so clearly and beautifully. His approach and persona made this production extremely enjoyable for everyone concerned.” n

British Cinematographer | May 2018 | 57

CLOSE-UP / ED LACHMAN ASC / WONDERSTRUCK / BY RON PRINCE

SPELLBINDING

“For character-driven stories, I still prefer to shoot on film.

Frame-by-frame there is more life and depth to the image, than in one that is pixel-fixed on the single plane of a digital sensor.

To my eyes there is something anthropomorphic to film – living and interacting between the frames – which supported our human-interest storytelling.”

S

o says cinematographer Ed Lachman ASC about his work on Todd Haynes’ touching mystery Wonderstruck, the DP’s fifth narrative collaboration with the critically-acclaimed director.

Shot on Kodak 35mm B&W and colour film stocks, Wonderstruck is based on the 2011 illustrated/written novel of the same name by US author and artist Brian Selznick, who adapted his book into the screenplay.

The Roadside Attractions and Amazon Studios’ feature stars Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, Amy Hargreaves, Oakes Fegley and Millicent Simmonds.

With dual storylines taking place in both 1927 and 1977, Wonderstruck respectively follows Rose and Ben, who both secretly wish their lives were different. Rose, a deaf girl, saves clippings from picture magazines of her estranged feature-film and stage-star mother. Ben, who suddenly loses his hearing, longs for the father he has never known. While Rose is captivated by the stories in her scrapbook, Ben discovers an enticing clue in his mother’s bedroom, and both children set out alone on their separate quests to discover what they have been yearning for.

Set fifty years apart, the two narratives parallel and interweave with each other, driving the mystery of the story forwards. Although the storylines are separated by time, the characters’ journeys are mirrored in several ways: by their deafness; in leaving their homes for New York City; and during the film’s culmination at The Museum Of Natural History in New York. There’s also the conundrum of what their connection is to one another?

“Brian’s original novel is a rich, complex and beautiful story about loneliness and abandonment, suffused with the strength and fortitude of our young characters’ search for love,” says Lachman, who previously shot Haynes’ Far From Heaven (2002), I’m Not There (2007), Mildred Pierce (2011) and Carol (2015) - all on film. Lachman earned Academy Award nominations for his work on Far From Heaven and Carol.

“The challenge for Todd and myself in realising the movie was a brilliant idea from Brian right at the outset. As Rose’s story takes place in the 1920s, during the silent period of the movies, Brian suggested that we portray her story through similar visual imagery. By logical extension, this also got us thinking about how we could couch Ben’s story in a visual grammar of the 1970s.”

Accordingly, Lachman and Haynes reached back into cinema history in search of appropriate stylistic references that would, by turns, point and counterpoint the visual style of the two different narratives.

From the silent period, Lachman and Haynes watched a series of B&W classics, including Fritz Lang’s Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler (1922), F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise (1927), Victor Sjostrom’s The Wind (1928), and King Vidor’s The Crown (1928).

“You can, if you choose, create a B&W look digitally, but the image is totally different to one that is shot on film,” says Lachman. “Digital just does not have the same depth or texture. Film has a different exposure latitude, and the grain is integral to the image, not a layer that you add on top in post production. Those silent movies, and our experience of having shot parts of I’m Not There on B&W 35mm film, encouraged us to revisit the same filmstock for Rose’s narrative in Wonderstruck.”

58 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

Ed Lachman ASC

“I LIT THE B&W SCENES WITH DIRECT LIGHT FROM FRESNEL LAMPS, AND VARIOUSLY USED YELLOW, ORANGE AND LLD FILTERS TO FURTHER ENHANCE THE SEPARATION OF BLACK, WHITE AND GRAY.” ED LACHMAN ASC

For Ben’s story, set in the 1970s, Lachman says he was inspired by the documentary-style cinematography of Owen Roizman ASC on The French Connection (1971, dir.

William Friedkin), which captured the street reality of New York’s run-down urban landscape.

With the entire production framed in 2.40:1, principal photography on Wonderstruck took place between May and July 2016, at locations in Peekskill, Brooklyn and New York City. Following lengthy but successful negotiations, filming also took place within the famous dioramas at The American Museum Of Natural History, and also of the vast 3D Panorama of New York City at Queens Museum. These filmed sequences were used to visualise the children’s active imaginations, and were influenced by the works of artist/sculptor Joseph Cornell, whose signature ‘assemblage’ art-form involved collage and discarded artefacts contained in memory boxes – mini-theaters of poetic memory.

To capture Rose’s story, Lachman shot with Kodak B&W Double-X 5222, using his own personal set of Cooke Speed Pancho lenses, and keeping the camera moves restrained to simple dolly tracks and pans in the style of silent era movies. Prior to the shoot, Lachman worked closely with production designer Mark Friedburg, and Sandy Powell, the production’s costume designer, to determine that the production design and wardrobe would deliver the precise tonal qualities he wanted in the B&W footage.

“The Double-X 5222 negative is a unique stock,” Lachman remarks. “It has a particular look, in the way it reacts to light and processes through the lab, which is really hard to emulate digitally. I lit the B&W scenes with harder, direct light from Fresnel lamps, and variously used yellow, orange and LLD filters to further enhance the separation of black, white and gray, whilst also achieving some chiaroscuro – all of which the Double-X

5222 renders beautifully. The resulting images were very much in keeping with the look of the silent films from which we had taken our initial inspiration.”

To mimic the visual language of the 1970s for Ben’s story, Lachman paired Kodak Vision 3 500T 5219 and Kodak 250D with Cooke S4s zoom lenses, and adopted a naturalistic approach to the lighting.

As he explains: “Ben’s story was all about portraying the New York environment during that period in time. We shot with both of the colour stocks in available light, or lit scenes to resemble available source light, along with using practicals. The separation and rendition of warm and cool colours, and the crossover of colours, all in the same frame is different on film to the digital alternative, because of the way the light is etched on to film’s RGB layers. Furthermore, the grain structures within in the body of the film give a particular dimension and depth to the image, as opposed to the noise that is pixel-fixed on one plane when you shoot digitally. I push-processed the 500T 5219 at the lab (Fotokem in LA), to give this material more of a feeling of the grain structure and colour saturation of film stocks of the 1970s.”

But the quest for ’70s vérité didn’t end there.

Although modern, sophisticated equipment could have been utilised to motivate the camera, Haynes insisted on handheld camera work, incorporating zooms, from a traditional Western dolly featuring plump pneumatic tyres, with a layer of sand laid down to level-out on any cracks and bumps in the street. n

Booth #98

June 1 – 2, 2018 Paramount Studios Los Angeles, CA

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British Cinematographer | May 2018 | 59

CLOSE-UP / EBEN BOLTER / THE WOMAN IN WHITE / BY RON PRINCE Photos: Steffan Hill

PSYCHO THRILLER

“What got me the job was saying that I didn’t want to do the job,” admits cinematographer Eben Bolter about his initial conversations with director Carl Tibbetts for the Origin Pictures/BBC drama series The Woman In White.

“Y

ou make choices and decisions about your career and, although I liked the script, I told Carl that I was not interested, photographically-speaking, in shooting The Woman In White as a stuffy period drama. He agreed, and said he didn’t want to shoot it like that either.”

The suspenseful, five-part TV series is based on Wilkie Collins’ original 1859 tome, which is considered to be one of the first-ever mystery novels. Set in nineteenthcentury England, the story follows young drawing teacher Walter Hartright who gradually uncovers the haunting tale of a distressed and ghostly woman dressed in white whom he encounters on Hampstead Heath.

The 70-day production shot entirely on-location in several National Trust properties in Northern Ireland, from February to May 2017. It stars Ben Hardy, Charles Dance, Jessie Buckley, Dougray Scott and Olivia Vinall.

“Our problem was that period dramas are of a genre and tend to have a certain, stereotypical look,” continues Bolter. “Carl and I both felt that this should not dictate what we wanted to do. Really, The Woman In White is more of a psychological thriller that happened to take place in Victorian England. For us it was closer to a David Finchertype of Gone Girl story, than it was to Pride And Prejudice.

“We spoke about using the lens psychologically, with wides really up-close to the actors, and developing a style of quick and energetic camera moves – all counterintuitive to the typical period look.

60 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

Essentially, we got in a time machine and decided to go back to the nineteenth-century and make a thriller with modern techniques and technology.”

Key references included the more contained filmic works of director Roman Polanski, such as The Tenant (1976, DP Sven Nykvist), along with such David Fincher movies as The Social Network (2010), The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011) and Gone Girl (2014) all shot by DP Jeff Cronenweth ASC, which Bolter and Tibbetts admired for their aesthetic tonality and psychologically-motivated camera moves.

“Fincher moves the camera a lot, but it’s all story-led, and quite punchy,” notes Bolter. “When his camera goes through a doorway, you can guarantee that the dolly was travelling fast.”

Lens and camera testing resulted in Bolter selecting the ARRI Mini, for its compactness and manoeuvrability, especially on Steadicam and Mōvi rig, paired with Leica Summicron glass – all supplied by ARRI Rental in London, and serviced by Acorn during the shoot.

As he explains: “I made the conscious decision to shoot with modern Leica lenses, as they are very sharp and have a beautiful colour and contrast tonality in varying conditions – although I muted down their sharpness ever-so slightly with either an ⅛ or ¼ Glimmer Glass filtration, just to take the edge off, but without the image having any noticeable glows or halations. The 29mm was our workhorse, but we went wider to a 21mm, or longer to a 35mm or 40mm, depending on the moment. We also often used centre framing, with the characters looking down the barrel of the lens and lots of headroom. It was quite invasive for the actors at times, but it was a key part of our visual storytelling approach.”

He adds: “The Summicrons are each around the same size and weight, and are light enough to help you swing the camera around effectively – to whip-pan from one character or element to another. We tried to be provocative, At the camera...

Eben Bolter

and to never slip into how you might shoot a traditional period drama. The idea was to surprise viewers with the look, but without ever being gimmicky and we wanted every movement to be motivated by story.”

This thinking also permeated Bolter’s approach to the lighting, with the cinematographer again eschewing any convention of glowing period softness and tungsten sources.

“Lighting-wise I wanted to be loyal to the reality of the scene as presented in front of the camera – a sort of filmic, cinematic naturalism. We had scenes set in daylight, moonlight, candle, gas and firelight. It's not to say these scenes were not lit, they were, but my lighting was purely motivated from reality and we used predominantly LED fixtures to best emulate real-looking sources.”

Bolter’s gaffer on the production was Seamus Lynch, whom the DP describes as, “incredible – Seamus sorted-out the lighting logistics and kept me away from any issues. I never had to worry at all and our conversations were almost always creative.”

The vast majority of the lighting was LED-based, often using a host of ARRI SkyPanel S120s, S60s and S30s supplied by PKE Lighting. “If we were at a location for more than a day, Seamus and his crew covered the windows with a half-correction CTO gel. This meant that the natural daylight, in combination with the augmented daylight from the SkyPanels, became slightly more orange, and would suffuse a candle-lit room with a beautiful warmth – as opposed to having any jarring juxtaposition of blue and orange in the image,” says Bolter.

“On our shoot at Limmerage House for example, we had one SkyPanel 120c in the top of each window, plus some negative fill on-set. All of the lights were connected via WiFi to Seamus’ iPad and a monitor for me to view. Having 100% control over every light was very liberating. It was like live-grading on-set using lighting.”

Due to the close proximity of the camera to the actors, The Woman In White was predominantly a singlecamera shoot. Bolter operated for the majority of the production, with AJ Golesworthy pulling focus. The rest of the camera lighting and electrical crew were local to Northern Ireland.

“I had a sizeable team of around 30 people on this shoot – they were unbelievably good and wonderfully accommodating to any requests,” Bolter remarks. “The shoot was hard and fast, and we averaged 26 set-ups per day over the 70 day production. I have the utmost respect for everyone who helped make that happen.”

The final DI grade on The Woman In White was conducted by Gary Curan, working out of Yellow Moon Post Production in Belfast. n

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CLOSE-UP / ZAC NICHOLSON BSC / THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY / BY KEVIN HILTON

BOOK CLUB

Increasingly these days, the influence of the modern world means that many places do not look as they did in the past.

This problem faced the production team behind The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society.

62 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

S

et during the World War II German occupation of the Channel Islands, the film was mostly filmed in England, taking advantage of the heritage village of Clovelly, which has changed little over the years.

“A lot of the architecture on the island has been modernised,” explains director of photography Zac Nicholson BSC. “Because of this, the Guernsey locations were shot in North Devon. Clovelly is a private estate that is completely untouched. There are no roads, just cobbled paths, the original stone harbour, which doesn’t have any metal safety rails, and a few houses.”

Although Clovelly has the necessary old-fashioned feel and look, there were still some difficulties to overcome. “It looks fantastic from a period point-of-view, and it’s just a bit smaller than St Peter’s Port, the capital of Guernsey,” Nicholson explains. “That meant for the scene where Juliet Ashton [the visiting young author played

by Lily James] arrives there from the boat, and looks up the hill, we had to augment the scene with CGI to triple the number of houses. That also dealt with some bits of scaffolding that were in shot.”

Directed by Mike Newell, The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society, based on the book by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer, is set in two time periods; during the war after German forces invaded, when the Channel Islands became the only British territories to be occupied by enemy troops; and in the years immediately after the end of hostilities and the liberation of the islands. This is Nicholson’s first film with the director, who told

the DP he wanted it to look “beautiful, but not saccharine”.

Nicholson adds that Newell also had a very clear idea for the feel of the film: “He wanted it to be a fairy tale, but not overly contrived or sweet.”

The shoot was on ARRI Alexa using ARRIRAW with a 1:1.85 aspect ratio. “It was always going to be digital,” Nicholson comments. “It’s my preference, and I’m fairly sure it was of everyone on the production. It’s a versatile tool and I subscribe to the Roger Deakins school of thought that you’ve got the quality of image and you can sleep at night and not worry about the rushes.”

Lenses were Master Primes, which Nicholson describes as “dependable, beautiful and very crisp”. These were used in conjunction with diffusion filters to “pull back” some of the crispness. Other lenses included Allura 45-250mm and Angénieux 15-40mm zooms.

The ‘society’ of the film’s title was formed so local residents could avoid curfew and meet-up, initially to eat locally produced food, using the book club as a cover.

Consequently many sequences take place in the home of Amelia Maugery, played by Penelope Wilton. These sets – and those for other interiors – were built at Ealing Studios under the supervision of production designer James Merifield.

“James built a lovely set with a drawing room and hallway,” Nicholson says. “The only real challenge was the low ceiling, combined with a high page-count and a large ensemble cast during the society meetings. We got round that by having a central softbox lit by 2K Blondes, which warmed-up nicely and could be dimmed down to give a soft, enveloping look of oil lamps and candles, because there was no electricity at the time.”

To cover the large number of performers involved, three cameras were often used, operated by Nicholson himself, Iain MacKay, who ran both the A-camera and Steadicam, and James Markwick. The gaffer was Harry Wiggins. Nicholson says that although some LED lighting was used “where applicable”, efforts were made to stick with tungsten and HMI as much as possible. “The decision was made early-on that Amelia wouldn’t have electricity, because she lived in a remote area,” he comments. “So we didn’t want to make too much use of modern lighting fixtures. The rig in Amelia’s house allowed us to dim the tungstens and keep them

C with Zac Nicholson BS ay operator Iain MacK

“IT WAS ALWAYS DIGITAL, I SUBSCRIBE TO THE ROGER DEAKINS’ SCHOOL OF THOUGHT THAT YOU'VE GOT THE QUALITY OF IMAGE AND YOU CAN SLEEP AT NIGHT AND NOT WORRY ABOUT THE RUSHES.” ZAC NICHOLSON BSC as soft as possible without being completely flat. We occasionally used remote controlled LRX 18kW singles for day interiors, with LRX Scorpions for night exteriors.”

The countryside scenes brought a variety of hardware into play, under the supervision of key grip Malcolm Huse. This included Chapman/Leonard Super PeeWee IV and Grip Factory Munich GF-Primo dollies, plus the Alpha Grip Grip Trix Shadow Tracker powered dolly. “It’s a silent four-wheel drive vehicle that runs on batteries,” Nicholson explains. “We used that for offroad sequences, following characters in a horse and cart going over fields. This was also the first time I’d used

the Primo and it made quite a good combination with the PeeWee because they work in different ways, with their own advantages.”

The two time periods were partly differentiated through camera movement. Flashbacks to the war were handheld to give what Nicholson calls “more kinetic energy, action and drama”. The later periods were shot using a camera head mount in a more “classical style”. Among the big set pieces was landing a Douglas DC-3 Dakota aircraft on the beach at Saunton Sands, also in North Devon. “The RAF already uses the beach for practice landings, so there is a routine

in place,” Nicholson says. “The beach was closed and we had air marshals hiding in the dunes. It’s a fantastic scene and you can tell it’s a real plane.”

Much of the period look was achieved in postproduction by colourist Adam Glasman at Goldcrest Post. Although Nicholson’s next project also has a historical source, there will not be similar considerations.

The Personal History Of David Copperfield, co-written by Armando Iannucci, who will also direct and for whom Nicholson shot The Death Of Stalin, will have a modern setting. Although, the members of the Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society probably wouldn’t approve. n

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CLOSE-UP / CATHERINE GOLDSCHMIDT / THE HONOR LIST

BUCKET LIST

“T

he thing that drew me to The Honor List was the emotional range of the story. When I first read the script, I laughed, I cried, and I thought: this is why I love movies!”, enthuses cinematographer Catherine Goldschmidt. “After watching (director) Elissa Down’s film The Black Balloon, I really wanted to work with her, because I saw how well she balanced comedy with drama.”

The Honor List tells the story of four friends who were once inseparable, but by senior year of high school, they have now gone their separate ways. When tragedy strikes before graduation, they reluctantly put their differences aside and reunite to complete a forgotten bucket list.

“It’s a genre-bender,” Goldschmidt explains. “It’s a buddy comedy, mixed with a more dramatic comingof-age story. Primarily, it’s all about how important but complicated female friendship can be, especially when you’re growing up.”

The film, produced by Lionsgate’s Studio L and Cinestar Pictures, was shot entirely on location in Los Angeles in the summer of 2017, over a short schedule of only four weeks. The characters, and therefore the cast, are predominantly young women, and the crew was also made up of a large percentage of women, including many HoDs. The locations ranged from the girls’ high school and their homes, to the middle of a lake, to the top of Mount Wilson.

“The challenges were probably the same as on every other film I’ve shot,” laughs Goldschmidt. “A lot to do, and not very much time to do it in!”

To capture the drama, Goldschmidt chose to shoot on ARRI Amira, 3.2K ProRes, with a set of Leica Leitz primes from Panavision Woodland Hills. “Elissa told me that the most important thing to her was to have a good range of very wide to very tight lenses. When we landed on 3.2K, the Leitz glass seemed like a great fit, as they cover the entire sensor, even

64 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

on the wider side, and Panavision had so many focal together during a night-time basketball game. “When lengths available for us. We carried an 11 lens set, that I first read the scene, I remembered the cheerleading went from 15mm to 180mm, all having the ability for fantasy sequence from American Beauty (1999), shot macro-focus,” Goldschmidt explains. by the great Conrad Hall ASC – that moment when the

Framing-wise, the story plays out in a 2.39:1 lights cut out, and the cheerleaders become spot-lit. aspect ratio, because “a lot of the scenes involve this Our story is very different, and yet it called for that trio of characters, and that frame lends itself perfectly to same level of theatricality in the lighting.” our hero-threesome.”

“To light and shoot this gym scene on a

“When it comes to shooting indie features, single overnight was definitely one of the hardest I find the Amira to be indispensible,” Goldschmidt challenges this film presented. Featuring over 100 continues. “The image is Alexa-quality, but the form extras in addition to our entire cast, we had to come factor and the price tag made it so flexible and userup with an overall solution that would let us change friendly for what we had to do.” between different lighting

The film was shot primarily cues in camera. My hat is off single camera, but for the larger to gaffer Ted Rysz, who was scenes and days of work in general, instrumental in coming up with a second camera came into play. the most efficient lighting plan “We put the Amira everywhere that worked within our tight on this movie: on Steadicam, on a time frame and budget, but still crane, on a dolly, on our shoulders, achieved the look we wanted. on car rigs… The only place it didn’t

“We used two 14’, go was underwater.”

12K tungsten, tubular balloons

One of the scenes in the from OneLight Balloons, placed film, a flashback to their freshman together in an outward pointing year, sees the girls plant their bucket V-shape for our overall, base list under a rock at the bottom of level. On the floor, the more a lake. Unable to shoot at the real theatrical performance space was lake location for variety of logistical lit with 6’ Phillips Color Kinetics reasons, and not having time in the Color Blaze strips and Color Blast schedule for a dedicated tank-day, units. Outside the gym, for some CATHERINE GOLDSCHMIDT meant the filmmakers had to get streetlight window ambience creative. Together with production that would play when the lights designer Krystyna Łoboda, Goldschmidt tested how to went off were 2x 6K HMI Pars gelled with Pale Yellow dress and shoot a back-yard pool effectively to resemble and Urban Vapor on a 40’ articulating boom lift. And the lake bottom. In the end, that short sequence was finally, for our heroes’ entrance, we rigged a Source shot on a Sony A7sii, “primarily to save our precious 4 spotlight up in the balcony. Everything, apart from two-camera days for places I felt we needed it more!,” the HMIs, were wirelessly DMX controlled through explains Goldschmidt. “Not only that, but shooting Luminair on Ted’s iPad.” underwater already affects the image so much that it

In addition to gaffer Ted Rysz, Goldschmidt masks the change in compression and image credits her IATSE crew, including key grip Edward quality, in my opinion.”

Apodaca, first AC Anne Carson, DIT Peter Brunet

One larger set-piece in the film is a and A-camera operator Kenny Niernberg, for bringing Catherine Golds chmidt climactic scene in the high school gym so much in the way of hard work, passion and good where all the characters come ideas to the project.

The Honor List opened Geena Davis’ Bentonville Film Festival on May 1st 2018, with subsequent releases digitally on May 11th and on DVD May 15th. n

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CLOSE-UP / SAM McCURDY BSC / LOST IN SPACE / BY ADRIAN PENNINGTON

BLAST OFF

To reboot 1965 TV series Lost In Space, Netflix returned to the source material, in the form of the novel Swiss Family Robinson published in 1812, and combined it with a visual treatment straight out of the future.

T

he adventures of a family stranded light years from home on an unknown planet was made in an enjoyably camp Irwin Allen version for CBS and revisited in a 1998 New Line Cinema feature film. The Netflix version, produced by Legendary Television, is set in 2046, spanning ten one-hour episodes and starring Toby Stephens, Molly Parker and Parker Posey, whilst also featuring Taylor Russell, Ignacio Serricchio and Mina Sundwall.

Lost, not knowing where they are, they try to fix their spaceship as they encounter various kinds of mysteries, a robot, and also have to deal with a saboteur in their midst.

Showrunner (executive producer) Zack Estrin tapped director Neil Marshall and cinematographer Sam McCurdy BSC to set the project on its way. McCurdy lensed six instalments of the series, including the pilot, with Emmy-nominee Joel Ransom shooting five episodes to complete the first season. McCurdy had previously shot The Descent and Game of Thrones’ episode “Blackwater” for Marshall.

“Zack very clearly wanted the crux of the story to be about the family, but for the driving force to have a darker, more grown-up undertone,” says McCurdy. “The fundamental story is about a family lost in a difficult, life-threatening situation and how it challenges them and brings them closer together. In every tone reading and visual reference meeting we 66 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

would mention (James Cameron’s) The Abyss and the Spielbergian world of E.T.”

Indeed, there is scene in one episode in which a young member of the family has a close encounter with a creature, deliberately echoing an iconic shot of Elliot befriending E.T.

“We are all big fans of sci-fi – Neil, Zack and I – but we were keen to do something that wasn’t a brash, glossy superhero show. We wanted to build a world that was completely ours, but there are some definite references in there.”

The biggest thematic reference though was Jurassic Park/ Jurassic World. “We know we are making a family show but it’s one grounded in a reality,” says McCurdy.

“Because of the freedom Netflix gives you we knew we had the support to make this more a theatrical than a TV visual experience.”

They were wary too of comparisons with Netflix’s Stranger Things, wanting to differentiate their story by delivering a modern rather than ‘80s nostalgic look.

The template here were Christopher Nolan’s films from The Prestige to Interstellar, which infuse high-concept with realism.

These sensibilities led to McCurdy’s choice of the Red Weapon with Helium 8K S35 sensor. “I’ve been a believer in Red for some years and applaud the way they try to develop new technologies to suit new ways of filming,” he explains. “We tested

the Helium extensively and it was quickly apparent that there was nothing else out there like this in terms of its modern look.”

McCurdy paired the Red Weapon with a set of Leica Summilux-C Primes. “These offer a very sharp, European sort of feel if you draw it down a few stops, and a softer, American movie feel if you shoot a little more wide open,” he describes. “I wanted the softness to depict the family, but the extra sharpness and extra depth-of-field for visual effects to play around with.”

With a third to half the total budget being spent on visual effects, McCurdy wanted his shots to be big. “We don’t need to be spending money on a greenscreen comp outside of a window. If a shot needs VFX then let’s make it a big shot. Let’s make sure they are getting money from the set. So, we framed for family/group shots rather than close-ups.

For me, this takes on a much more cinematic feel because you are not just cutting heads together but cutting from group shots against amazing locations and sets.”

The theatrical aesthetic also determined the use of two cameras (A-B) - and primary use of dollies and tracks with very little Steadicam.

“Although we deployed two Weapons, we shot the show as a single-camera drama. We used very little handheld or Steadicam and instead went back to basics. We didn’t want the new gimmicks like fancy 360-degree shoots. I felt we needed to be intimate with the family and their drama, and we were there to photograph that.”

Shot at The Bridge studio in Vancouver, a good third of the series used locations in British Columbia.

“We travelled beyond Whistler and Blackcomb to mountain ranges covered in pristine snow. Just physically taking all the equipment up there was a big deal. The locations are remarkable and a big part of the show’s aesthetic.

“Even though we knew the plates would be augmented by VFX – and they could have chosen to design everything in a laptop – we all wanted to keep as much reality flowing through the piece as we could,” McCurdy notes.

S

AV

FO E T R HE 20 D 1 9 AT E

The planet on which the family Robinson crash land houses several ‘eco-structures’ ranging from barren, snowy mountains to glacial landscapes and a rainforest with 30-foot diameter giant redwoods.

“You are kind of blown away by the sheer scale of this wilderness and that’s entirely what we wanted to capture,” he says. “The Helium was phenomenal in natural light. It has a softness and a curve that coped with the extremes of big skies and snow as well as contrasts of massive tree lines and being deep in forested areas. We pushed it as far as we could, and it upheld for creative reasons and for VFX. The depth of exposure and latitude gained by the sensor meant it was the obvious choice.”

With a 4K deliverable requirement, McCurdy shot 7K compressed 7:1. McCurdy, along with production designer Ross Dempster and gaffer Todd Lapp, devised a lighting system for the spacecraft, crew quarters, mobile vehicles and ‘garage’ to operate in a range of different scenarios. The fixtures were routed back to a console for McCurdy’s control, for example, switching the lights to ‘emergency’ mode or having individual lights illuminate BSCine-half-page copy.pdfwalks 1 through 09/04/2018 parts of the ship as a crew member them.

Sam McCurdy BSC

The inspiration for part of the design was the smart lighting effects found in modern office buildings, which switch off after a certain time, or switch on automatically when they detect movement. “Each of the fixtures had a daylight tungsten LED and an RGB LED system in it so we could mix any combination of colours and run sequences at a flick of a switch. This gave us incredible 360-degree freedom to move the camera where we wanted.”

He adds, “It was an incredible experience technically and creatively because we weren’t tied to the key lights. I don’t think we ever had need in any episode to bring a key light onto the set.”

Preferring to mix the camera “for the moment” 15:31 rather than use a LUT, McCurdy set daily parameters

with the on-set colourist. “The colour was then kept through the offline but inevitably when it came to DI, with so many VFX shots needing to go in, some things changed. A scene that was maybe scripted as dawn or dusk ended up as day or night.”

In what is now becoming commonplace for highend drama, the entire show was given a HDR pass, as well as an SDR master. “Having done a few HDR shows, I was keen to split the two. You can’t just let one copy across to another. You need to start from scratch and Legendary were very understanding with this, giving us a week for the HDR and 4-5 days for the SDR colour correction [in the pilot] with time reducing a little per episode.

“I was very proud when I saw the first cut of the pilot. It felt like a movie.” n

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British Cinematographer | May 2018 | 67

CLOSE-UP / AARON REID / 10X10 / BY VALENTINA VALENTINI

CRAMPED

The psychological thriller 10x10 seesaws from quiet to bombastic, light-and-airy to dark, all cramped into the space of 90 minutes. Suzi Ewing’s first feature, the film stars Luke Evans and Kelly Reilly in a battle between right, wrong and all the grey in between.

B

ecause 10x10 is a fairly straight thriller, story-wise, and there's quite a lot of energy with only two characters in a physical and emotional battle, it would seem like a fairly straightforward shoot. But it is also secluded. Nearly the whole story takes place in a big, light, modern, onestory house in a clearing in the middle of the woods.

The discussions Reid had with Ewing were focussed on how to make the visuals feel both secluded in this rural location, but also claustrophobic, since the film is indeed called 10x10, and it is in that 10ft by 10ft room that the bulk of the dialogue is confined.

“Because it was such intense dialogue there,” Reid explains, “originally we spoke about doing more wides.

But as we got into it we found out we wanted more close-ups. We tried to get as much out of the dialogue as possible, and as much out of Kelly and Luke as possible by giving them as much space as possible.”

When it came to shooting in the 10x10 room and the corridor – which was built and filmed at West London Studios, while the house was in West Sussex and all exteriors of the town were shot in Atlanta – Ewing and Reid approached it pretty head on, rehearsing in the morning with the actors, and then constructing a shot list. Reid thinks that approach worked well for the room, because it gave the actors more freedom. All the scenes outside the room were planned and shot listed.

68 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

However, shooting in a big house with 240 degrees’ worth of windows to contend with was a big challenge.

Reid, who received his Masters in Cinematography at London Film School, explains that from the get-go they knew they were going to use Anamorphic lenses, but ones that didn't curve. “The ARRI Master Prime Anamorphics suited that situation well,” he says, “because on the 35mm you can get wide and make a room feel quite big and empty.”

This was Reid’s fourth feature film, but it was his first with Ewing. He’d known writer/producer Noel Clarke and producer Jason Maza from Brotherhood, and the two of them thought Reid would collaborate well with Ewing. To make sure they were on the same page, Ewing and Reid spent two days in the house, mapping everything out and creating shot lists (for everything except the small room). But when it came time to shoot, Ewing let the actors, Reilly and Evans, really collaborate on the action.

“These are two A-list actors,” says Reid, “and they're going to have their own take on how it's going to feel for them in that space. Suzi was very keen to understand their motivations for how the action would work in the space. Because it is essentially only two actors for the majority of the film, making them comfortable with the things they were going to do was a necessity, rather than just saying, ‘stand here and say your lines here.’ It felt like it was more of an organic process.”

Aaron Reid

As filming and action scenes developed quite fluidly for the team, the weather had ideas all of its own. They were shooting in West Sussex in January and they got to experience all four seasons in the space of one month.

“We turned up on shoot-day one and it snowed for two days,” says Reid. “We were basically in a glass box and we could see snow from every angle. I think production had to hire 15 people to clear the snow over two whole days.”

Thankfully, it helped give the interiors a soft, warm glow and Reid decided to shoot close-ups in that time. “Not being able to shoot out windows and having to shoot down the line – that was a challenge,” he adds.

On top of that, they were working with a 7:30am call, but the sun wasn't fully-up until around 8:45am. In terms of lighting a 100ft-long house with 240-degrees of glass and on a tight budget, it was another obstacle for Reid to overcome. So he put 18K HMIs on the roof and bounced them into ultra bounce to bring the illumination back inside to recreate daylight. “I was losing an hour and 15 minutes of daylight in the morning and then it was getting dark by about half three, so I was losing roughly around two and a half hours of daylight a day,” he says.

Along with the 18Ks on the roof, Reid deployed a line of 2.5K HMIs and some 575s, some hanging off the roof and dropping in to give him back key light fillers, plus two 5K Mole beams to bring a sunlight feel into the room towards the end scenes as the sun was supposed to be setting.

“Because I had all those different weather conditions to contend with,” he says, “I shot everything quite soft, which was actually determined when I had to start shooting those close ups when there was snow.

Once the snow cleared, the fog came and that was extremely dense, so again we couldn’t shoot at windows.

When that finally cleared some two days later, the sun came out and I had hard light coming through; so we defused one entire side of the house to remedy that.”

Colourist Jateen Patel at Molinare has graded all of Reid’s features. They have known each other for over a decade and he worked wonders balancing the unexpected four seasons for the cinematographer.

“In theory,” says Reid, “this film probably would have wanted to be a little bit more de-saturated because there’s a dark, malevolent story going on. But in reality, because of the time of year that we were shooting, we felt like we needed to bring out the details and the colour tones.” n

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British Cinematographer | May 2018 | 69

MEET THE NEW WAVE / JAMES OLDHAM

MUSICALLY-MINDED Filmography (so far): The Flying Lesson (short) (2013) and CTRL Z (short) (2017)

What’s your proudest moment?

When I convinced my wife to marry me.

When did you discover you wanted to be a DP? At primary school. Me, my brother and my friends would steal my dad’s DVCam and spend all day filming stop-motion Lego videos and ‘comedy’ sketches, all edited in-camera. We would screen our efforts later that evening for very patient parents. I knew from right then that I wanted to be involved with making films.

What’s the worst knock-back you ever had?

The rejection never gets easier. I lost a big opportunity to shoot a big budget Amazon Prime job last year, which I was gutted about. But life goes on and other opportunities will always present themselves. Waiting for the big break.

Where did you train?

The film set was my film school. I learned set etiquette and discipline through being on-location or in the studio with talented cinematographers and great camera/lighting teams. Most of all I made a lot of mistakes. I also did a hell of a lot of reading (still do!).

Books, articles and the Internet are fantastic resources.

I’m continually learning, and I have an incredibly talented group of cinematographers who I admire and can turn to for advice.

What are your favourite films, and why?

Visually, I like the classic Hollywood epics like Lawrence Of Arabia (1962, dir. David Lean, DP Freddie Young BSC) and Ben-Hur (1959, dir. William Wyler, DP Robert Surtees ASC). Their sheer scale and visual tapestry shown never fail to blow me away. I also love the different styles and storytelling devices in films like 12 Angry Men (1967, dir. Sidney Lumet, DP Boris Kaufman) and Taxi Driver (1976, dir. Martin Scorsese, DP Michael Chapman ASC).

What’s the best advice you were ever given?

Nic Knowland BSC once said to me, “Never betray your conscience”, over an IPA at a Weatherspoons in Manchester.

Who are your DP/industry heroes?

Roger Deakins CBE BSC ASC is a special cinematographer. There’s a certain magic to his work that I don’t think I’ll ever fully understand. I also love the work of Janusz Kaminski ASC and Barry Ackroyd BSC. Janusz uses such bold lighting, which is simply stunning, especially in his work on Lincoln (2012) and Schindler’s List (1993). Barry’s style of photography is unmissable and impacted me in a big way. The way he has translated his documentary roots into cinema is incredible, and the way he shoots stories is very fluid and authentic.

Have you won any awards??

I won an award for Best Emerging Cinematographer in 2015 from the BSC for my first short film The Flying Lesson.

It was nice to get a nod to say that I was on the right tracks. My latest short film CTRL Z has also been winning awards on the festival circuit.

70 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

What have been your best/worst moments on-set?

Best: These always happen when I’m in a good collaboration with other HoDs and a talented director.

When the shot comes together, as you originally envisioned it would, is always a good moment.

Worst: Not sure, but an example of a bad/embarrassing moment on-set was when I accidentally walked in on a half-naked Phil Jones in the Manchester United locker-rooms on a commercial. Our eyes met awkwardly, I froze and then slowly backed out of the room. I went on pretending it never happened.

What was the biggest challenge on your latest job?

Keeping energy levels up with the team on-set in a bedraggled café all through the night.

Tell us your most hilarious faux pas?

A few hilarious and embarrassing moments happened at Camerimage 2017, but we can’t possibly talk about them. What happens in Bydgoszcz, stays in Bydgoszcz!

Away from work, what are your greatest passions?

Writing and recording songs. They’re on Spotify, so let me know what you think. I also like mountain biking. There’s always lots of opportunity to do that up in the Pennines where I live.

What one piece of kit could you not live without?

My coat!

What’s the weirdest place you’ve ever shot in?

I once shot in a peculiar house with a life-sized, taxidermied giraffe floating from three large helium balloons. In a separate room were a unicorn on a grand piano and a six-foot alligator on its hind legs, holding a silver tray, wearing a crown. I have pictures.

What’s the hardest shot you’ve had to light/frame?

When I was starting out, in commercials, I had to shoot and light a few corner shower cabins that had curved reflective doors. Due to the tracking movement in the scene, it was difficult to minimise reflections. We used a combination of poly, coloramas and muslin to make the crew and camera disappear.

It was a good learning curve (pun intended, of course).

Tell us your hidden talent/party trick?

Invisibility.

In the entire history of filmmaking, which film would you love to have shot?

Either Roundhay Garden Scene (1888, dir/DP Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince), or The Shawshank Redemption (1994, dir. Frank Darabont, DP Roger Deakins CBE BSC ASC).

What are your current top albums?

Pink Floyd ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’, Vulfpeck ‘The Beautiful Game’ and John Mayer ‘The Search For Everything’.

Tell us your greatest extravagances?

My wife, my house and my guitar... in that order.

Which three adjectives best describe you and your approach to cinematography?

Simple. Thoughtful. Creative.

If you weren’t a DP, what job would you be doing?

Musician.

What are your aspirations for the future?

To create meaningful work and to be happy with the moment at any given time. I’d quite like to shoot my first feature-length picture soon too. n

LETTER FROM AMERICA / STEVEN POSTER ASC

Steven Poster ASC says levels of diversity and inclusivity are not even close to where they should be, although he does see some progress happening and wants to encourage even more.

I

have always made it a goal to include women and people of colour on my crews, but that’s hardly been an easy ask. One time (in another country that shall go nameless), I was interviewing potential crewmembers for a project. I mentioned to a man who was applying to be a key grip that it was essential we have some diversity within the ranks. His answer was swift and simple: “I always have diversity on my crews – I have tall ones and short ones!”

Whether that’s a light-hearted anecdote or a mocking of an issue that could not be more serious, we’ve recently been through another awards season in Hollywood, with an industry under siege – for all the right reasons. Since last Fall, issues of workplace abuse, and more recently, wage inequity, have been brought front and centre. For the female members of the Local 600, the latest hashtag – #TimesUp – holds particular resonance, as an established Guild publicist told me: “Our members don’t just sit in offices… we work on sets where the male-to-female ratio can be as high as 10:1. That’s fertile ground for bad behaviour – so time’s up indeed!”

At the core of this movement is safety, which is the backbone of any union’s mission statement. It’s no secret that the historical trajectory of the camera department has been male-dominated, and the perception has been that women can’t handle the longer hours, travelling, taking time away from their families, or even keeping-up from a physical perspective.

Such antiquated and false notions are what this union has been working so hard to reverse through unconscious bias trainings and other “culture altering” education. And make no mistake: Local 600’s culture has been changing. A new infusion of female NEB members, as well as a surge in women (including women of colour) in the camera ranks – assistants, loaders, utilities, and operators – has established a new sense of pride that I am ecstatic to see taking place. Even the ranks of female cinematographers, which have been abysmally low for too long, are rising, and those who have already made inroads are reaching new levels in their craft.

Obviously, Reed Morano ASC, who received an Emmy in directing last year for The Handmaid’s Tale, and Rachel Morrison ASC, who became the

first woman ever nominated for an Oscar in the Best Cinematography category and earned an ASC Award for her Sundance hit, Mudbound, are shining examples.

Rachel’s public comments on KPCC’s The Frame (Southern California Public Radio), beautifully encapsulate why gender bias is not only illogical, but bad business (particularly when 2017’s top three grossing

up of female cinematographers and I was moderating a panel, at the same time, on ACES. I’m proud to say (as a man and a father) that she outdrew me on the order of 10-to-1, filling her room with festival attendees, eager to hear from accomplished DPs who happen to also be women.

Are we where we need to be? Not even close.

But we have reached a moment where people are speaking up and listening.

When a four-time Oscar nominated actress earns one per cent of her male co-star’s earnings for reshoots, and that information becomes public, and that male star then donates his earnings to charity, that’s progress of a type. When producers such as Ryan Murphy, who has employed countless Local 600 camera team members over the years on his many Emmywinning TV shows, announce they are actively seeking diversity in their productions, in front of and behind the camera, that’s progress of a type.

Hashtags continue to abound, but the most important thing for our membership to understand is that it has the Guild’s unwavering support to promote a safe and dignified work environment for everyone.

We all need to envision a world where the need to classify a filmmaker by race or gender does not exist. And when race, gender, and pay equality are no longer points of contention, then we have entered that new and better era. Let us all work diligently every day in our respective workplaces and beyond to make that come about. n

“WE ALL NEED TO ENVISION A WORLD WHERE THE NEED TO CLASSIFY A FILMMAKER BY RACE OR GENDER DOES NOT EXIST.” STEVEN POSTER ASC

72 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

movies – The Last Jedi, Wonder Woman, and Beauty And The Beast – were all female-centric, and one of them, Wonder Woman, was directed by Patty Jenkins, a Local 600 member and former camera assistant)!

“I’ve never understood why there aren’t more female cinematographers,” Rachel told The Frame’s host, John Horn. “This industry is all about empathising and channelling emotion into visuals. Like it’s everything women do well. So I’ve never understood what was ever seen as a deficiency and why it’s become this complete inequity, statistically-speaking.”

I’ve also seen changes up-close and personal at last year’s Camerimage, where my daughter, a freelance film journalist, was moderating a panel made

INNOVATOR / TIFFEN AT 80 / BY KEVIN HILTON

FAMILY JEWELS

Ira Tiffen, Nat Tiffen, Steven Tiffen & Andrew Tiffen with Emmy Awards

Not all companies start out in the business that they later become best known for.

Tiffen began as a metal machining firm in New York, producing components that were used for fitting lenses into tubular housings for the photographic market.

T

his was an area that interested company founder Sol Tiffen, who, as this business increased, decided to improve the quality of bought-in lenses by producing a series of filters, with which the family name is now indelibly linked.

In its 80th year, Tiffen is seeing a continuing, growing demand for filters as cinematographers look for ways to compensate for the often overly-sharp, unforgiving nature of today's high-resolution digital cameras and accompanying lenses, while at the same time striving to produce images that look different and original.

The company was established in 1938, working initially from a factory in Lower Manhattan, New York. Sol Tiffen brought in two of his eight siblings to work with him; Nat, at the time an engineering student, arrived to work on machining parts, while Leo handled the administration.

"They started inserting other people's glass into the metal rings they were making, which got them into the future business of making filters," explains Steven Tiffen, son of Nat and current chief executive and president of the company.

In the words of Steven Tiffen, the firm was based on his father's machining capability and his uncle Sol's love of photography. "Sol looked after sales and had the

74 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

business relationships," he says. "He brought in my dad, who used the metal working shop at his high school to machine parts. In the late ‘40s, early ‘50s they set about creating a proper process for manufacturing what became our own range of filters, because the glass they had been buying from other suppliers was not good enough to produce the necessary quality."

That method of producing the filters is patented and still used today. With that foundation, the company went through a number of changes and reorganisations over the years. In the 1940s the factory moved to Brooklyn, where it remained until 1979 when manufacture of filters was moved to the current premises in Hauppauge on Long Island. These offer 40,000 square feet of space for optical production and employ nearly 100 people.

Tiffen operates a support facility in Burbank, with manufacturing of Steadicam and Lowel lighting products, two of several brands the filter company has bought, also based in the California city. It also has international offices based at Pinewood Studios in the UK. As Steven explains, the structure of the firm and focus of the three founders has also changed over time: "The business has evolved into almost three separate businesses. While my Dad handled manufacturing for almost everything and looked after the motion picture market, Sol began to concentrate on custom photographic products and Leo managed the AV business."

While not going into specifics about the Tiffen filter making process, which he says is "a closely guarded secret", Steven does comment that the key to it is being able to consistently replicate colours. As recognition

Nat Tiffen accepting the Scientific and Engineering Oscar

of this, he adds, Tiffen licenses and is able to use the Kodak Wratten labelling system. "This means we can utilise Kodak names for our filters, including Red 25 and Sky 1A. That means we can replicate Kodak's CC [colour correction] filters, which we now manufacture and distribute."

Tiffen filters started out in the photographic market but later became available for filmmaking. "Product development is our business," comments Steven. "I very much have a hand in developing new products and finding out what clients want. My father taught me that it was relatively easy to find out what people wanted and give it to them. But we have found that, and this is one of the beauties of the business, cinematographers will use our filters for things we never intended."

Asked what makes a good filter, Steven Tiffen replies, "One that solves a problem or creates an effect desired by the end-user. In practical terms it needs to be consistently high-quality and properly ground and polished. It's our job to create filters that give the control that allows the cinematographer to tell the story in the best way possible. Everything should be about the story."

Through its life, Tiffen has produced a wide range of filters, including circular polarizing, graduation and diffusion models. These, says Steven, have done well for the company, which he adds also has the capability to make custom filters with "greater degrees of specificity" to meet particular requirements. "If a cinematographer wants to shoot something at an 85-degree angle, we can make a custom filter to help with that," he explains.

As filmmaking techniques and technologies progressed and changed towards the end of the 20th century and into the 21st, there was the expectation – or fear – among some sections of the movie business that old staples such as on-camera filters would die off. Steven Tiffen observes that rather than making filters obsolete, digital technology Tiffen Filters has made them even more necessary: "2017 was the highest-selling year in the history of the company. We introduced our IRND filters in 2006, when digital cinematography was being used more and more. But that came with infrared pollution, which was caused by the sensors of that time."

Nat Tiffen at Booth

Steven & Andrew Tiffen

Steven Tiffen, Lucy Liu & Ron Fortunato at the Hauppauge NY Factory

Although digital sensors have improved considerably over the last 12 years, infrared neutral density (IRND) filters continue to be in high demand. "Digital technologies have brought opportunities for filtration," says Steven Tiffen.

"We're trying to help improve image quality, especially with the move from 4K to 8K. Cinematographers in general are using filters to control the images and specific things, such as how much of an actor's pores are showing."

Tiffen sees the IRND range as significant for the company, particularly after it received a Scientific and Technical Achievement Academy Award of Commendation for the range in 2014.

The ongoing development of new filter products has been overseen by a new generation of the Tiffen family. Steven's brother Ira joined the business in 1973 and took over their father's role in charge of manufacturing. "That gave Dad the ability to get out and work more with customers," explains Steven. "He travelled the world and opened up a lot of international distribution for us." Nat Tiffen died in November 2006; during his lifetime he received a Technical Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the company's filter lamination process and an Academy Award for its ColorCore technology.

Ira Tiffen later moved into designing and developing new products in addition to overseeing the manufacture of filters. He continued in this role until 2004, when he left the family firm to concentrate on glass art. This interest continues, balanced with his role as vice president of motion picture filters at another leading optical developer, Schneider Kreuznach.

Steven joined the Tiffen company in 1982 to take over responsibility for manufacturing from Ira, who switched full-time to product development. Today, new products are supervised by Steven's brother-in-law, Jeff Cohen. The family connection is also continuing through Steven's son Andrew, who joined about five and a half years ago and now runs all manufacturing processes, in addition to dealing with corporate marketing.

"As a family business we're very blessed that Andrew wanted to join the company after working outside of the optical/film industry. It's exciting to see the third generation take hold. I'd like to keep it as a family business for as long as possible."

Tiffen as a company now encompasses more aspects of filmmaking and production than the filters for which it is best known. It has acquired manufacturers of equally specialist equipment over the years; in addition to

CINE GEAR EXPO 2018 BritishCinematographer_CineGear.indd 1

Mike Fecik, Steven Tiffen & Jeff Cohen Accept SciTech Oscar for IRND Technology

Nat Tiffen holds the Technical Achievement Award of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented by actress Janet Leigh

Steadicam camera stabilising systems and Lowel location lighting equipment, it owns Domke camera bags, Zing camera covers, Dfx digital effects software, Listec teleprompters, Davis & Sanford tripods and support systems and Stroboframe flash brackets. "We bought those companies to offer a portfolio of products and technologies for cinematographers and anyone else capturing images," Steven says.

As film and TV drama production moves more towards 4K, with the promise of 8K to come, Steven Tiffen is confident his core filter offering – and any future optics – will continue to play a major creative and technical role.

"Clearly definition has become a big topic," he concludes, "Sensors are getting higher resolution and lenses are getting sharper. This is an opportunity to give cinematographers back control as they are shooting. We have spent an immense amount of time working with cinematographers in the field to understand what they want. And I think there will always be a role for filters, because they allow cinematographers to adapt for different styles and colour palettes. There'll always be a problem they need to solve or the need for them to create a new effect." n

LOS ANGELES

MAY 31 - JUNE 3, 2018 EXHIBITS: JUNE 1-2 THE STUDIOS AT PARAMOUNT HOLLYWOOD, CA

EXHIBITS SEMINARS DEMONSTRATIONS FILM SERIES COMPETITION NEW PRODUCT INTRODUCTIONS TECHNICAL AWARDS NETWORKING SPECIAL EVENTS FOR FULL DETAILS GO TO: WWW.CINEGEAREXPO.COM

2/23/18 British Cinematographer | May10:39 2018AM | 75

GAFFERS ‘R’ US / PAT SWEENEY / BY DAVID WOOD

SHINING A LIGHT ON

PAT SWEENEY

Age: 51 | Born: Glasgow | Lives: West London Training: Lee Lighting | Early career: Motor Mechanic Hobbies/passions: Family, football, skiing

Selected filmography (as gaffer, unless otherwise stated): The Voyage Of Doctor Doolittle (2019) Holmes And Watson (2018) Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018) Avengers: Infinity War (gaffer, UK) (2018) Patient Zero (2018) The Mummy (2017) The BFG (gaffer, UK) (2016) Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation - (gaffer, additional photography) (2015) Woman In Gold (2015) The Theory Of Everything (2015) Good People (rigging gaffer) (2014) The Christmas Candle (2013) Kick-Ass 2 (2013) Game Of Thrones (TV Series) (2012) The Woman In Black (2012) Swinging With The Finkels (2011) The Decoy Bride (2011) London Boulevard (rigging gaffer) (2010) Pirate Radio (gaffer, second unit) (2009) Easy Virtue (2008) Angus, Thongs And Perfect Snogging (2008) Made Of Honor (gaffer, second unit - uncredited) 2008 St. Trinians (2007) Penelope (2006) Revolver (2005) Bride & Prejudice (2004) Bend It Like Beckham (best boy) (2002) Gregory’s Two Girls (generator operator) (1999)

76 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

Mechanical start: I was a late starter. My first career was as a motor mechanic, which proved a useful background in how the mechanics of a film set works and problem solving.

It also instilled a good work ethic in me. I started in lighting when I got a job with Lee Lighting in Glasgow in 1997, maintaining the company’s fleet of lighting trucks and generators.

Moving through the ranks: I started as a generator operator and progressed to electrician on the floor to best boy to gaffer. The move into film lighting was purely by accident.

Steve Kitchen, who is now my rigging gaffer, offered me my first role as best boy after we worked together on Gregory’s Two Girls, a film made in Glasgow with John de Borman BSC as DP. I was the generator op on that film and we hit it off straight away. After the film was finished Steve asked me to come to London and be the best boy on his next project. We have now worked on over 20 feature films together.

Unusual lighting jobs: War Machine, with DP Dariusz Wolski ASC, has to be up there. We shot on location in Abu Dhabi for six weeks on a real “boys’ toys” shoot. We had the full co-operation of the UAE military, their airbases and they ferried us around in Black Hawk helicopters like they were taxis! It was a once-in-

a-lifetime experience. The Woman In Black, shot by Time Maurice-Jones, is up there too – my first horror film and Daniel Radcliffe’s first film after Harry Potter.

There was a lot of period lighting with gas and candle light. It was all about mood lighting and creating a sense of tension and suspense.

Digital vs. film: Digital cameras are simply another tool in the filmmaking arsenal. They can be pretty handy because they take away a lot of the “What could I have done differently?”.

With film you have to wait for next day’s lab results to check if the highlights were too strong, or if the image looks good or is properly in focus, but with digital images you can check and tweak things in realtime.

Results are immediately clear and easily rectifiable.

A lighting challenge: Every set and location has its own challenges. One that stands out was on The Theory Of Everything (DP Benoît Delhomme AFC ASC) when we were shooting at Lancaster House, which stood in for Buckingham Palace. There’s a scene where Stephen Hawking travels in his wheelchair in profile past the windows to meet the Queen to receive his medal. We needed to control the sunlight, which would have streamed in through the windows, and re-create natural daylight.

Due to a weight restriction we couldn’t use genie booms to light through the windows, and a huge scaffold rig was out of the question as it was cost prohibitive. So, we built a black-out tent 120ft long

and 17ft high around the whole balcony and rigged rows of Kino Flo Image 80 DMX lighting at the back of the tent and a full grid textile pulled taught across the front of the tent. You’d never think looking at that shot that there was a black out tent behind and it wasn’t natural daylight coming in. We managed to control the sun and get the shot.

Rise of the desk op: Over the last ten years one trend is that the productions filming in the UK have grown steadily bigger. As a result the lighting packages have grown too. This has led to the need for more control of the numerous lighting rigs now being installed, the use of LED lighting, and the need to route everything back through a lighting control desk. The result is that the role of the desk op is pivotal to the smooth operation of the shoot. Andy Mountain is my desk op – he’s fantastic and completely upto-date with all the lighting technology that’s around.

) The Mummy (2017

Managing crews: It’s a bit like a football team – you need to get the right people in the right positions. There are guys who work well being on the floor, others are great at rigging, and, you mustn’t forget, the guys who keep the power flowing, the genny ops. I like to think I support those who want to progress – like Jonny Franklin, who was one of my floor crew and who I gave the opportunity to gaffer the splinter unit on The Mummy (DP Ben Seresin BSC ASC). Now he’s a gaffer in his own right.

“WEEKENDS CAN INVOLVE A LOT OF PRE-LIGHTING FOR THE FOLLOWING WEEK. IT CAN TAKE OVER YOUR LIFE SO YOU HAVE TO LOVE WHAT YOU DO.” PAT SWEENEY

Demands of the job: When you have lit a set you are always thinking about the next challenge, talking to your best boy and rigging gaffer about what’s coming up. Weekends can involve a lot of pre-lighting for the following week. It can take over your life so you have to love what you do.

You’re governed by the demands of the script and schedule - it’s not a 9-to-5 job; there are occasions when you have to shoot nights or split days and sometimes I’m away from home and family for long periods. There have been times when I’ve missed family holiday’s due to the timing of technical recces, but this is the most important time for me, when I get all the key information I need from the director, DP and designer to formulate a plan.

Advice: My basic advice to young would-be gaffers is to speak to people the way you would like to be spoken to. Remember that manners cost nothing, that a please and thank you go a long way, and that today’s runners are tomorrow’s DPs, producers and directors. They will all remember those who helped them along the way in their careers.

DP Robert D Yeoman ASC (Mamma Mia 2) says: It was an honour and pleasure collaborating with Pat and his crew. When we work together I find that Pat and I are creatively totally in sync. He anticipates all of our lighting needs and is generally a step ahead of me. If I asked for something he would point to one of his guys and I knew it was already in the works. Equally important, I appreciate his keen sense of humour and his total commitment to the film. He would do anything to achieve the best lighting for the shot. I will never forget when he climbed a tree in Croatia to hold a 4x4 diffusion frame over our actress as she walked along a wooded path, to soften the harsh beams of sunlight. I appreciate not only his creative talents, but the fact that we had a great time during the filming of Mamma Mia 2.

Cinematographer Tim Maurice-Jones (The Woman In Black, Kick Ass 2) says: Pat does the film lighting side of his job with really good nature and positivity – that’s a given. But he’s also a lot of fun on-set, and I have never heard him say anything negative. For me it’s the extras he brings to the party. Whereas most gaffers go and have a cup of tea when the set has been lit, Pat is like having another set of eyes. He stands by the monitor with me commenting on art direction, performance, composition, costume, hair and make-up – the whole package. He could be a DP in his own right if he wanted. He could step into my shoes, but he wants to be a gaffer – one who is as interested in the film overall being good, as he is in setting the lights. I find having another set of eyes fantastically useful. n

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Whatever your production type, wherever you are, when it comes to lighting - we’ve got the lot. +44 (0) 1753 65 62 62 pinewoodmbs.com PMBS quarter - Gaffers.indd 2

19/04/2018 16:08

British Cinematographer | May 2018 | 77

LIVE & LET DI / DIALLING-IN THE DI GRADES

DREAM IN COLOUR

Company3, London: colourist Greg Fisher

recommends people to watch the actionpacked adventure Tomb Raider in the Dolby Cinema version. The series reboot, starring Alicia Vikander as the intrepid warrior Lara Croft, takes a somewhat more realistic and personal approach than the previous Angelina Jolie outings. It was directed by Norwegian filmmaker Roar Uthaug and shot by cinematographer George Richmond BSC of the wildly kinetic Kingsman movies (The Secret Service and The Golden Circle).

“Much of the film is set on an island in the hot and sweaty tropics,” noted Fisher, who grades with DaVinci Resolve. “There is a lot of handheld camerawork, which brings a lot of energy and, along with the strong contrast in the hard sun, creates the realistic feel the filmmakers desired.”

Fisher, who also did the Dolby Cinema HDR pass, explained, “With the greater dynamic range, we could naturally expand that feeling even further.

This is a film which strongly benefited from HDR.”

Not everything takes place under the brutal sun, of course, and Fisher worked with Richmond designing several viewing LUTs in Resolve for various types of scenes prior to principal photography. “The LUTs,” Fisher said, “were designed with George. He is very engaged with the details of the colour pipeline and understands very well how to utilise LUTs on-set. Getting closer to the final look during the shoot and in the dailies helps everyone to understand where we are going.”

Spy-thriller Red Sparrow stars Jennifer Lawrence as a principal dancer in the Russian ballet who is pressed into spying for her government following a career-ending injury. The contemporary story set in Russia, Eastern Europe and the UK, was directed by Francis Lawrence and shot by cinematographer Jo Willems SBC ASC – collaborators on roughly 70 music videos, most of which were coloured by Company 3’s Dave Hussey, who was delighted to work with the pair again on this thriller.

“Colouring feature films and shorter-form work can be quite different,” noted Hussey. “For features you’re working to maintain a visual world for two hours and you usually have some time to go back to an earlier reel and fine-tune everything. In commercials, we’re more likely to do more work on the images, but the job is often in and out in a day or less.”

Hussey did bring some of his more elaborate work to a major scene in Red Sparrow showing Lawrence’s character doing the thing she loves – dancing in the ballet. “We wanted a different look to show how she feels,” the colourist said. “I do a lot of high-end spots, and I know how to get to certain complex looks very quickly.

Here we did a lot of windowing and tracking to bring a warm glow into the highlights and to give her a subtly different look to make the scene feel a bit more glossy and magical than the surrounding scenes. It’s a different way of thinking about the work, and I love going back and forth.”

78 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

Company3, London...

Tomb Raider coloured

by Greg Fisher

Molinare, London:

Asa Shoul completed the DI on Wes Anderson’s stunning stop-motionanimated feature, Isle Of Dogs, shot by cinematographer ... ndon Tristan Oliver. The Company3, Lo arrow d Sp Spy-thriller Re Hussey Molinare team ve coloured by Da worked closely with production from almost a year on colour pipeline workflows to ensure that, when shooting was complete, the DI process was kept as simple as possible, whilst giving the director the ability to further explore creatively.

“The grade was hugely enjoyable with unique challenges, as every single shot in the film is a VFX,” commented Shoul. “We initially thought we might do the simplest grade, perhaps just adding a little saturation.

However, in the end it was more complex, for example, adding multiple layers and often using three alpha channels to completely alter the shot. In one instance Wes asked for a key canine character’s nose to be pink, so I hand matted it for the entire film frame-byframe. This was complicated somewhat by the fact the character was in a cage for the first half, with bars crossing his face! Wes also asked me to make an owl monochrome, rather than brown, except for the eyes and beak.

“Working with someone as creative as Wes is always exciting because his vision for the film was so strong. In Isle of Dogs, this is reflected in the incredible production design. There are dozens of colourful titles in Japanese and English, which would require colour changes and there were whole scenes where we made areas monochrome whilst maintaining characters in colour.”

Molinare, London...

Asa Shoul completed the DI on Isle Of Dogs

The Mill, New York: Sofia Coppola took the best

director prize at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival for The Beguiled, shot on Kodak 35mm film in 1.66:1 aspect ratio. Set in Virginia, in the steamy summer of 1864, it sees a wounded, deserting, Union soldier take refuge at a girl’s boarding school.

Coppola wanted to heighten the drama by constraining the atmosphere, emphasising the heat and humidity, and by creating a painterly sensibility. For the shoot, she recruited French cinematographer Philippe le Sourd AFC, who in turn brought in colourist Damien van der Cruyssen, who uses Baselight for grading. The film was shot in New Orleans, processed by Fotokem in Los Angeles, with the digital rushes crossing the continent for finishing in New York. The whole project used the Truelight colour management system to ensure consistency of imagery between viewings and different deliverables.

“On 35mm the lights melt together,” The Mill, New le Sourd explained.

York...

The Beguiled wa “We were able to graded by Dami s en get a look that was van der Cruysse n close to sfumato in Renaissance paintings, and pictorialist photographers such as Edward Steichen.

The 1.66 format helped to capture the loneliness and imprisonment of the women’s monastic life.”

“The exteriors were shot at specific times of the day. We shot at dusk and sunset to amplify the sense of immediate danger. At the same time, I had to duplicate the oppressive tone for the interior daylight, and for the night interiors with candlelight. I tried to use as few lights as possible to really capture the most natural aspect of a scene. The challenge was to keep a consistent look without an obvious digital colour correction, to keep the sense of the 35mm film grain.”

Cruyssen commented, “The benefits of shooting on film were great because of the overall texture and natural contrast negative stock has. There is a richness in skin tones that is very difficult to replicate with digital formats. Sofia had complete trust in Philippe regarding the final colour, and most of the DI was just with him attending. She came in a few times, was very discrete, yet very attentive.

“The look was done in-camera, so we used very few windows or keys. Philippe and Sofia wanted a natural light, and we tried to avoid as much as possible any digital manipulation. Most of my layers were film grade, video grade, curves and six vectors.”

Jean-Clément Soret becomes supervising DI colourist at Technicolor London

Technicolor, London...

Kevin Horsewood graded Troy: Fall Of A City

For Cruyssen, the biggest challenge “was to make the exterior and interior scenes all belong to the same sweaty southern confined atmosphere. The exteriors often felt bright and sunny, and too distant from the softer and darker moodiness of the interiors.

We had to make the two meet elegantly. We chose to have neutral nights rather than cool, to help transition with the very warm candle-lit scenes.”

“Towards the end of the movie is a morning scene in the kitchen that we spent a lot of time on,” Cruyssen recalled. “We tried different things but we were not satisfied. It was Sofia with her fresh eyes that helped us to go back in the right direction. We hit the sweet spot, by warming the scene up to fit better with the surrounding sequences.”

Technicolor, London:

has enhanced its colourgrading offer with the addition of two new colourists. MPC’s global creative director of colour grading, Jean-Clément Soret has expanded his Technicolor portfolio and becomes supervising DI colourist at Technicolor London, which is in addition to his current advertising contributions at MPC. The second new colourist is Brian Krijgsman, who joins from Amsterdam post house Ambassadors.

Soret – established as a DI colourist of renown in the industry, having worked on features such as 28 Days Later, Hard Candy, Twilight Eclipse, Trainspotting 2, In The Heart Of The Sea and Steve Jobs, plus TV series such as Babylon, Midnight Sun and Black Mirror ­– will focus much more on high-profile projects. His up-andcoming theatrical projects include the noir thriller Serenity, directed by Steven Knight and shot by Jess Hall BSC, and the submarine disaster flick Kursk, directed by Thomas Vinterberg, lit by Anthony Dod Mantle DFF BSC ASC.

Krijgsman started in the industry as an editor before transitioning to colour grading.

Previously at Framestore in London, where he transitioned into DI colouring, he has spent the last nine years grading commercials for a plethora of global brands, including Adidas and Nike.

In other news, the facility graded the Kudos show Troy: Fall Of A City, which aired on the BBC in February and is now available on Netflix. Senior colourist Kevin Horsewood worked on the entire eight-part series. Describing the process of developing the look of the show, Horsewood said: “The grade

Technicolor, London...

An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn was coloured by Fergus McCall

on Troy started about six months prior to filming with chats about “looks” with the first DP Gustav Danielsson. Gustav also wanted me to generate a LUT, which he could use in South Africa and I could then use in the final grade.

“The LUT I generated kept the warm tones, protected the highlights and also provided a nice curve to keep the detail in the shadows.

During the camera tests we spent a day trying different looks, as the grade needed to evoke natural light, sunlight and candlelight. All the exteriors and interiors had a slight cyan push in the shadow areas.

Goldcrest, London: 2018 is proving sweet at the

Soho facility, as the entire team of five colourists have been busy. Recent signing, Jet Omeshebi, hit the ground running, undertaking the grade for FX Network’s high-end TV drama Trust, working with DP Chris Ross BSC. The first three episodes were directed

by Bond 25 helmer Danny Boyle. Maria Chamberlain completed the DI on the feature Carmilla, an Goldcrest... rlain atmospheric, Maria Chambe DI gothic, comingcompleted the on Carmilla of-age love story, steeped in eerie mystery, said to have inspired Bram Stoker’s Goldcrest...

‘Dracula’, ded Adam Glasman gra l directed by nda A Very English Sca Emily Harris and lit by DP Michael ...

Wood. Sara Goldcrest ey Rob Pizz Buxton graded the conducted action-packed Hunter the DI on lly Killer for Millennium Stan And O Studios, starring Gerard Butler and Oscar-winner Goldcrest..

Gary Oldman.

Sarah Buxton.

It follows an graded the action pack untested American ed Hunter Kille submarine captain r who teams-up with US Navy Seals to rescue the Russian president, who has been kidnapped by a rogue general! Buxton worked with the director Donovan Marsh as well as DP Tom Marias throughout the grade.

This was to break-up

Rob Pizzey conducted the DI on the Laurel & the warm tones and Hardy biopic Stan And Olly with cinematographer Laurie give a wider spectrum of Rose BSC. The film, directed by Jon S. Baird, follows colours, which was also the world’s most famous comedy duo as they attempt helped by the costumes to reignite their careers by embarking on a gruelling and by set design. By the theatre tour of post-war Britain. Pizzey then worked time we had finished with on The Favourite for director Yorgos Lanthimos and his the camera tests we were cinematographic collaborator Robbie Ryan ISC BSC. Adam fairly confident of how the Glasman collaborated with Roger Michell again on Nothing grade would look.”

Like A Dame, shot by cinematographer Eben Bolter, who

On the theatrical side, Technicolor London graded was in charge of lighting Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Eileen new US indie-comedy feature, An Evening With Beverly Atkins and Joan Plowright. Glasman also graded BBC1’s Luff Linn, directed by Jim Hosking and shot by Nanu major three-part drama A Very English Scandal – the true Segal. It was coloured by Fergus McCall, who is based story of the first British politician, Jeremy Thorpe, to stand at The Mill in New York, across three sites: The Mill in trial for conspiracy and incitement to murder – with DP London and New York, as well as Technicolor London.

Danny Cohen BSC and director Stephen Frears. n

British Cinematographer | May 2018 | 79

CLAPPERBOARD / FRANCES RUSSELL BSC / BY RON PRINCE Frances Russell BSC...

In the middle background is the late Benny (Brinsley) Lee (co owner of Lee Electrics) and on the left with the raised glass is ex Lee gaffer Len Wilson

FIRST LADY

For 37 years, Frances Russell worked as company secretary for the British Society Of Cinematographers, before deciding on semi-retirement from the role in 2017. During that time she worked for no fewer than 17 presidents, with her gregarious nature and indefatigable enthusiasm proving priceless in the coordination of innumerable events – at home and abroad – in support of the veritable society, whilst often altruistically acting as confidant to members in times of personal difficulty.

Time for tee…

Frances pictured with Steve Jaggs and Eric Drew at the AGFA 1976, at Stoke Poges Golf Club

80 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

L

ittle wonder then that she has earned the simple sobriquet of “Mother.” Ron Prince caught up with the BSC’s first lady to discover more about her life and times.

Frances Russell was born in Harrow, London, on 23 November 1950, and can vaguely recall sitting on her father’s shoulders to watch the Queen’s Coronation in 1953. She attended Halidon House School near Fulmer, now a set of luxury apartments, and later helped out on the accounting side of her grandfather’s successful department store in Wembley. As was common in the 1950s, she enjoyed Saturday morning children’s film performances at the local cinema, attending with her brother, and the 4pm double-bill on Sundays with her grandfather. She says she was fascinated by the big screen experience, but admits that her entry into the film industry was by pure chance.

“On departure from St. James Secretarial College, in 1969, I was originally destined for the BBC,” she says. “But, much to the horror of the principal at St James’, who had at great pains organised the opportunity, I turned down the position midway during the interview, as I thought the BBC surroundings too corporate for my liking.”

During a stint working in Tottenham Court Road on the Northwick Park Hospital project, a colleague showed her an advertisement for the position of PA (to Les Ostinelli) at Rank Labs, in Denham – at double her current salary.

“I got the job, probably because of my English qualifications, although it might also have been because of the smart coat and gloves I was sporting outshining the other applicants. Les with his Italian roots had impeccable dress sense,” she recalls. “They asked me at the interview whether I knew anyone in the industry, and were delighted when I responded ‘Alan Hume’. I had known the Humes for several years, as a boyfriend had been a great friend of Alan’s son Lindsey, who sadly died in a car crash in 1967. So there I found myself in 1970 assisting the lovely Leslie Umberto Ostinelli, who had recently arrived from Humphries Labs, on front-end feature production.”

She says it was great fun working at Denham in those days, with enormous camaraderie and a marvellous atmosphere. “Les was an invaluable boss. In the early days at Denham we shared an office and, after every phone call, he would explain the technical part of each conversation in great detail.”

Cheers… enjoying a tribute to Joe Dunton BSC after a successful show in Los Angeles

Always dedicated….

Frances at her desk at Technicolor

Ostinelli sent Russell on numerous training classes, including a production management course at the NFTS, and she regularly toured the studios and went on set visits with him. “I became very fond of the many cinematographers I met. They were such a lovely bunch – likewise the editors and directors, notably Stanley Kubrick, John Boorman and Dick Lester.”

Such perhaps was Frances’ potential that, whilst the lab was processing Clockwork Orange (1972, DP John Alcott BSC), director Stanley Kubrick tried to persuade her to work for him. But she turned-down the offer, explaining that, “I didn’t think I’d be very good at having someone looking over my shoulder the whole time. He laughed at that.”

Among the less pleasant tasks she had to undertake was to ring those whose negative had gone down in the bath. “One of these was Sam Peckinpah, who was filming Straw Dogs (1971, DP John Coquillon).

He turned the phone blue, not surprisingly, and I just kept apologising till he ran out of steam.”

In 1974, Ostinelli was headhunted by Technicolor and Frances went with him to West Drayton as his PA. A good many directors and cinematographers were entertained over long lunches, as was the norm in those days, and she recalls spending time in the company of Freddie Young, Jack Cardiff, Douglas Slocombe, Robin Vidgeon, Guy Green, Oswald Morris, Paul Beeson, Alan Hume, Adrian Biddle, Christopher Challis, Freddie Francis, John Coquillon, Jack Hildyard, Billy Williams, Tony Richmond, John Alcott, Vittorio Storaro, Geoffrey Unsworth, David Watkin, Norman Warwick, Dick Bush and Gil Taylor, among many others.

“Bearing in mind the extent of my contact with the camera department, it was not so surprising that I ended-up working for the BSC,” she says. When Joan Calvert retired from the BSC in 1979, agent Maureen Moore took over for a year, but found the workload too taxing. Frances took over in 1980, whilst also still at Technicolor, and took up the role of company secretary fulltime after leaving the lab to have her first child Fiona, in November 1983. Her second daughter Pippa was born in 1985.

“In those days, the workload was considerably less than it is now,” she says. “Most events were at weekends or in the evenings, and with the support of my husband Frank, I could manage it all from home.”

Looking back to the different presidents she supported, Frances says, “Each brought something new to the table and did an extraordinary amount of work behind-the-scenes, as do all our supporting governors.”

Alex Thomson was an early president, “and what a wonderful man he was,” she exclaims. “He adored the camera department and had the most marvellous literary bent, never short on irreverence where deserved. His newsletters were always hugely-entertaining and he orchestrated the magnificent volumes of Outstanding Stills and Take One, tales from the behind the camera, published sadly after his death as pledged at his hospital

bedside. It was a great achievement and an enormous amount of effort on his part. He also, among so many other things, instigated the tribute to William Friese Greene – regarded as the father of cinematography – in commemoration of the BSC’s 50th Anniversary, with a bronze homage beautifully-sculpted by his wife Diana Thomson FRBS, produced in April 1998 for presentation in January 1999 for 50th celebrations.”

She also recalls Harvey Harrison, who became president in 1992 and was integral in the setting-up of IMAGO, the European Federation of Cinematographers, an initiative of Luciano Tovoli AFC, along with the Italian, French and German societies.

“One of the first major projects of IMAGO was the production of Making Pictures: A Century Of European Cinematography and Harvey was heavily involved with this in addition to overseeing BSC ventures, so it was a very busy two years for him.

I have also been privileged to a preview of his memoirs, which are hugely entertaining and will hopefully be in print soon.”

Other presidents included Bob Huke, Tony Imi, Frank Watts, Peter Newbrook (“who instigated the BSC Portraits”), Tony Spratling, Ronnie Taylor, Robin Vidgeon (“another tireless worker for the BSC”), Mike Southon, Freddie Francis (“who was heavily involved

Winner… Frances accepting one of her annual awards for putting

event. I have to mention John Daly who was such a wonderful support with the BSC Expo in recent years.”

Inspired by Dunton, the BSC encouraged the British Film Commission and Department Of Trade & Industry to host a British Pavilion at Showbiz Los Angeles between 1997 and 2002, to show Hollywood what the British Film Industry had to offer, with Russell flying over to support the BSC’s presence.

“We had tremendous fun in Los Angeles during these shows, meeting up with our ASC friends – such as Richard Crudo, Wally Pfister and Bill Fraker – and enjoying their hospitality at their clubhouse, North Orange Drive,” she recalls. “Much fun was also had at the ASC BBQ on the Saturday over the years.”

With unswerving spirit, Russell was, down the years, central to the successful organisation of all manner of BSC events: the annual BSC Ladies Night (which ran from 1970 to 1998), Operator’s Night, BSC Summer Luncheons, Q&A Screenings, Star Café meets in Soho, patron-sponsored cinematographer lunches at Orsinos, as well as annual trips to the Camerimage Festival of Cinematography in Poland. Whilst sometimes the workload proved exhausting, she attests to having enjoyed these experiences greatly.

So what does she think of diversity, especially the rise of women, within the industry. “Concern has been raised in various quarters over the years regarding the lack of female cinematographers within the BSC. When I started in the labs, there were no female cinematographers at all. Thankfully that has started to change. The first female member was Sue Gibson in 1992, who went on to be president, followed by Nina Kellgren in 1999, Cinders Forshaw in 2000, Ula Pontikos in 2015, Polly Morgan in 2016 and most recently Suzie Lavelle in 2018. The number of female cinematographers applying to and graduating film schools as cinematographers has risen enormously. The BSC is understandably eager to include more female cinematographers, and I am confident their numbers will be ever-increasing.”

Upon her semi-retirement from the frontline, Frances was given a Leica camera from the board, which she admits she still has to master, and a scarf from the ACO, which she wears constantly. BSC patrons collected funds for a set of Calloway golf clubs and trolley, and she plays once a week in fair weather or foul. She also embarked on a two-month trip with her “long-suffering” husband Frank encompassing South East Asia and the Antipodes, South America and Cuba.

Although she is still active for the BSC, continuing to look after its finances, elements of the BSC Expo and attends board meetings, her day-to-day activities have been taken over by Audra Marshall and Helen Maclean whom she describes as “a fantastic team”.

Obviously 37 years spent working in any one job, and for one organisation, is quite an achievement. So how did she manage it all? “I loved working for the BSC, and still do. It has been such fun, because they are such a lovely gang, and there’s rarely been a dull moment.” n

“I GOT THE JOB, PROBABLY BECAUSE OF MY ENGLISH QUALIFICATIONS, ALTHOUGH IT MIGHT ALSO HAVE BEEN BECAUSE OF THE SMART COAT AND GLOVES I WAS SPORTING OUTSHINING THE OTHER APPLICANTS.” with encouraging future cinematographers”), Clive Tickner (“who with the assistance of his son instigated the first BSC website”), Phil Méheux (“who took on the BSC newsletter, produced the 60th Anniversary Vimeo and has recently taken on BSC Portraits”), Gavin Finney (“whose advice is always flawless”), Sue Gibson (“the first woman president, who spearheaded the evaluation of different film and digital cameras, with the results screened at the BFI Southbank and showcased in Bristol and Glasgow”), John de Borman (“who revived the Q&A screenings and instigated the BSC Club”) and latterly Barry Ackroyd (“who among other things wrote stirring columns for the British Cinematographer Magazine”).

Over the years, Frances also worked very closely with Joe Dunton on the BSC Equipment Shows, starting in 1993 at Shepperton, plus other activities at home and in the US to promote the society.

“The equipment shows were always challenging, but fun. Joe has always been a terrific showman,” Frances declares. “He worked tirelessly on them with huge support from his son Lester and his wife Pat. In 2005, Rob Saunders came on-board to relieve Joe and I of this ever-growing organisational feat, and it is wonderful to see how the show has flourished into an extremely popular professional

British Cinematographer | May 2018 | 81

IMAGO NEWS / BY PAUL RENÉ ROESTAD FNF / IMAGO PRESIDENT

COLLABORATION

IMAGO now counts 53 national cinematographic societies, and more than 4,500 professional cinematographers, from the four corners of the world among its members.

P

rofessional cinematographers often have, more or less, the same challenges over the world. Working together will greatly enhance the opportunity to solve our most important challenges, faster. That has always been one of IMAGO’s main aims: by standing together our voices will be stronger, and we will be heard!

Working conditions

Almost 14 years after Haskell Wexler and Roderick E. Stevens formed the non-profit organisation “12-On/12Off”, and Haskell released his documentary Who Needs Sleep?, far too little has happened. Far too frequently, reports come to us about cinematographers and film teams who work under tough, often unacceptable working conditions, often with such long days that could be characterised as dangerous. Serious accidents, and even deaths, are reported every year, and the number does not decline. IMAGO is planning a closer focus on this problem, beginning with a meeting with EU representatives in September this year, and followed by an international conference on working conditions in 2019, planned in cooperation with EU, FERA (the European Federation of Film Directors) and others.

Cinematographers still “below-the-line” in many countries In too many countries, cinematographers are still “below-the-line” when it comes to being regarded as visual artists with authorship or co-authorship rights. If a stills photographer takes a photo they have full authorship rights.

But, if a cinematographer makes exactly the same image, they don't have any rights at all.

Watch the birdie... (l-r) Rainer Hercher, Daniela Kesselem and Gerhard Baier from CW Sonderoptics, representing Leica lenses.

82 | Paul BritishRené Cinematographer | May 2018 Photo: Roestad FNF

More and more around the world are finding this unacceptable. Many are questioning the fact that cinematographers such as Sven Nykvist, Vittorio Storaro, Roger Deakins (and the list of course goes on and on and on in many countries) have never formally have been recognised as creators of art.

Thanks to the never ending and extraordinary stamina of people like Vittorio Storaro AIC ASC and Jost Vacano BVK ASC, the world luckily is moving forward, slowly but surely. IMAGO will intensify the work to look into this important matter in the months and years to come, starting, amongst other plans, with initiating a closer collaboration with existing national collecting societies, with the objective to better secure the cinematographer’s remuneration when their work is being utilised or transmitted abroad.

IMAGO in 2018

Sharing experiences and knowledge over the borders!

This year will be another active year for IMAGO. Several masterclasses will be held. Already one masterclass with Bruno Delbonnel AFC ASC has been arranged in Oslo, an extensive hands-on session has been arranged in Munich, and many more activities are being planned. Another masterclass will soon be arranged with Chris Menges BSC ASC, and an extensive series of masterclasses is being planned in Vienna this coming winter by the IMAGO Masterclass Committee.

IMAGO will be strongly represented both at CineGear and at the International Cinematography Summit ICS arranged by the American Society Of Cinematographers in Los Angeles from 4th to 7th of June.

In September, IMAGO will attend Cinec in Munich, and we will be cooperating to arrange several new masterclasses and sessions during the Manaki Brothers Film Festival in Bitola, Macedonia.

In November we will, of course, be strongly present at this year’s Camerimage Festival in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Cooperation is planned with both Camerimage and ASC on new seminars and masterclasses for cinematographers. Also a new and extensive exhibition of stills photographs from IMAGO society members is being planned.

Second IMAGO International Cinematographer’s Awards

The second IMAGO International Cinematographer’s Awards will take place in Belgrade, Serbia, in March 2019. Again, it will be time for cinematographers to honour the best work from our fellow international colleagues. Many awards will be handed out, among them awards for Best Cinematography in Feature films, TV-Drama and Documentary films.

IMAGO’s first Awards Ceremony, arranged in Helsinki, Finland, in November 2017 can be characterised as no less than a success, with more than 250 colleagues attending from all over the world. The call for submitting films to be considered by the IMAGO juries will go out to all our member societies in October, and again we look forward to a grand international celebration of the great art of cinematography. More information will follow, so stay tuned.

There’s no place like Rome… the Micro Salon exhibition hall.

Photo: Paul René Roestad FNF

Blue velvet… IMAGO Technical Committee co-chair Philippe Ros AFC and ASC Technical Committee representative Dave Stump ASC discussing an interesting point.

Photo: Tony Costa AIP

Micro Salon moments… Joe Dunton MBE BSC, central member in the IMAGO Technical Committee, in conversation with Louis Philippe Capelle, SBC co-President and IMAGO General Secretary.

Photo: Paul René Roestad FNF

On-stage… all of the lecturers at the Hands-On xK International Photo: Tony Costa AIP

The HFF/IMAGO Hands-On xK International Workshops in Munich

Report from Tony Costa, chair IMAGO Education Committee To host a full week of seminars and workshops is already a tradition in the HFF Film & Television School in Munich. Every year in March, during the semester vacation, studios, auditoriums and the facilities are open to receive dozens of lecturers and professionals for a full week of experimenting with the latest equipment and to exchange knowledge, with IMAGO strongly involved. The concept is directed towards professionals and teachers to improve knowledge, to get acquainted with new equipment and new trends, and, most of all, to learn from each other’s experiences.

This year was especially different. With more workshops and more companies being involved, there was a lot more state-of-the-art equipment supplied by the manufacturers and rental houses. It was indeed a very hectic week.

In the building, every single studio, seminar room and theatre was occupied by a lecture, with a total of 36 masterclasses running at the same time. Almost all fields were covered. Post-production, VR, advanced post, VFX, 360-degrees, camera, lenses, lighting, documentary film, sound, sound for 360-degrees, production, color grading, green production, green shooting, thesis shots for PhD researches, and extensive testing of cameras and lenses done by many of the lecturers present.

The industry, let’s say, the manufacturers and rental houses, support the initiative by supplying large amounts of equipment for experimentation and testing. This year was a record-breaker in terms of the considerable number of lenses – rehoused glass from P+S Technik; Vantage with several Anamorphics and sphericals from Zeiss, ARRI, SW Sonderoptic/Leica and Fujinon.

Almost 60 manufacturers attended, among them ARRI, Canon, Sony, Zeiss, Vitec, Vantage, Rosco, Panasonic, RED, and many many more, to tell about the latest developments and plans, and for testing of equipment during the week, which culminated with the screening of all tests and workshops in the blue cinema

room, where attendees and lecturers shared their experiments and conclusions.

To put all this together is only possible with the support of the SFT (Das Studienzentrum für Filmtechnologie), The Study Centre for Film Technology, which is an independent institute associated with HFF Munich. The aim of the German institution is to mediate between the users and manufacturers of film equipment, supporting a wide range of exchange activities of industry projects, for example, CINEC, the well-known film technology exhibition, in Munich. This trade fair takes place every two years and, by the way, the next one is this coming September. The Institution supports various industry forums, in collaboration with film trade associations and other organisations like Hands On International, lead by Katrin Richthofer and Peter Slansky, head of the technological department of the film school.

This is a unique event, with educational purposes and epic proportions, for advanced professionals and teachers in the field of image capture – all condensed into one week.

Rome Micro Salon 2018

Report by Louis Philippe Capelle SBC The idea of the “Micro Salon” is spreading. Started in Paris by the AFC, there are now Micro Salons in both Spain and Italy – all very useful for getting updated on the last developments and equipment. And more are planned.

In Rome, it is organised at Cinecitta Studios, where the legend of Italian cinema started more than 80 years ago. The studio compound of 600,000sq/m is now back in public hands and currently hosting two major shoots: a TV series based on Umberto Ecco’s novel In The Name Of The Rose, shot by John Conroy, and The Pope, a Netflix production, directed by Fernando Mereilles, shot by DP Cesar Charlone, starring Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce.

For the sixth edition, the AIC invited “autori italiani cinematografia” and film technicians to their Micro Salon Italia, on March 17th and 18th. Daniele Nannuzzi AIC, president of the AIC, and AIC’s general

secretary Simone Marra, are the key organisers who brought this year’s edition to a major success. More than 5,000 visitors gathered to discover the exhibition, checking new equipment and meeting manufacturers and equipment dealers. A lot of IMAGO’s friends were there, across the 56 booths and more than 80 brands.

All of the main manufacturers were present. Italian presentations included the new ARRI LF (large format camera and lenses), and the new Sony Venice system.

Cooke Optics and Carey Duffy, together with their Cooke TV team, shared space with RED’s Italian dealer.

At the back of the studio, a space was dedicated to the workshops, mostly packed with an enthusiastic crowd. Luciano Tovoli AIC ASC presented the Italian edition of his book about the restoration of Dario Argento’s masterpiece film Suspiria. On the last night, Vittorio Storaro AIC ASC held his masterclass entitled “Who’s Afraid Of Red, Green & Blue”, which included his collaboration on Woody Allen’s movie Wonder Wheel.

Brilliant, concise and enlightening, Vittorio brought his views of the creative role of the cinematographer to a packed audience in the emblematic Fellini Theatre. He shared generously the stage with his colorist and DIT.

The IMAGO Technical Committee held a fruitful meeting on the Sunday morning, and the IMAGO Authorship Committee had an informal meeting in the AIC’s impressive camera museum, discussing the direction forward, headed by Luciano Tovoli AIC ASC and Arko Okk ESC.

Daniele Nannuzzi, AIC’s President hosted his exhibition of stills, “Un Cinematographer All’ Opera”, which proved a beautiful showcase of his impressive work as a light designer in many prestigious Opera houses around Europe. Not to mention, the ARRI dinner on the Friday night, which, as always, had a great atmosphere and, of course, great food.

So we say “Arriverderci” to this great event in Roma, and we already look forward to seeing you next year. n If you would like to receive information about, and invitations to IMAGO’s many activities, please sign-up for our regular newsletter at www.imago.org.

British Cinematographer | May 2018 | 83

GBCT / NEWS FROM THE GUILD / BY TIM POTTER - CHAIR - GBCT

LIFELINES

When things are going great it is hard to believe that suddenly things might all fall apart. We love the work that we do. When I am on a job, my family think that I have disappeared down a rabbit hole. Often, away from home in the absorbing company of a great crew and with little reference to the travails of domestic life, it is difficult to think that I should be prepared for the time when things are not so great. The key is to know where to seek help when the worst occurs.

O

Tim Potter

84 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

ver the years, many in our industry have fallen on hard times. Although this can occur due to the normal swings and roundabouts of the freelance life, it can easily be the result of a sudden change in fortunes.

Illness and injury can strike without warning. The downturn does not have to be physical: disasters can come in many shapes. As a community, we are quite a friendly lot and have tried to help our fellow technicians when they find themselves in trouble.

From its start, the GBCT has had a Welfare Fund. This was established to look after other guild members who were finding things tough through no fault of their own. It was funded by the joining fees and from donations from members. It has provided confidential help to members to get them back to work after illness, or just a very bad downturn, by doing things like paying a phone bill so that the member could stay in contact with work opportunities, or just by giving a small voucher at Christmas so that token presents could be bought to keep family life together.

It has even provided bunches of flowers for members’ funerals as a final gesture of the friendship that the guild represents.

Other industry bodies have done similar things.

Some branches of BECTU have their own welfare funds (e.g. Grips Branch) that do similar work to that of the guild fund. The GTC has even got a dedicated lay welfare officer, and has recently embarked on a campaign to raise the awareness of mental illness within our industry.

However, over all of our industry, for nearly one hundred years, the Film & Television Charity (formerly the Cinema & Television Benevolent Fund) has been active on a much larger scale to care for the interests of those who are in difficulty. It has sought donations from the industry, its core businesses and the Royal Film Performance, and has distributed aid to those in need in times of illness, accident or downturn. It has also sponsored various forms of help for career development and initiation of worthy projects, through the likes of the John Brabourne Awards and the Richard Attenborough Scholarship. The re-launched charity has increased its remit and activities and now includes a helpline (0800-054-0000) to direct callers to the most appropriate help available.

We are also now blessed with a charity that seeks its funds directly from individual industry workers, BackUp. It’s a grassroots organisation whose “grants have brought help and hope to industry members and their families during some of their darkest hours”.

These grants are “tailored to an individual’s needs and can include essential living costs, medical related expenses, advice, re-training and travel”. It has various entertaining fundraisers, like the recent Comfest comedy event and things like Golffest. They can be found at www.backuptech.uk and all are asked to look out for their excellent fundraisers.

Whoever you turn to in that hour of need, there are several sources of help available from the small personal scale to the industry-wide. So, when the need arises, do not hesitate to seek their help. n

GBCT / NEWS FROM THE GUILD / BY JOHN KEEDWELL GBCT UAV PILOT

DRONE SAFETY

T

he rise in domestic drone use in the UK and around the globe has risen sharply since the end of 2017, and as such there has been a rise in the level of reports from aircraft pilots of near misses, with some being very close indeed.

When we look closer at the reports from the pilots, there seem to be claims of drones flying at several thousand feet up in the air. This is way above the height a drone is legally allowed to fly. There is a lot of confusion around this area, so I thought it was a good time to explain some of the rules about what a drone can do and what it can't do. This is not a definitive guide to flying a drone, yet there is a link at the end of the article if you want to know more about the rules regarding flying any form of drone.

Before I do this I want to mention there was a concerted effort from all drone manufacturers to educate new drone users about the rules of flying and a leaflet was placed in every single drone bought since then in the UK. This has also been rolled out in many other countries around the world. Whether a small leaflet inside a drone present at Christmas would ever be seen or read is another matter, so perhaps a broader scale of education needs to be part of drone ownership.

That covers the domestic part of drone usage, and anybody who is intending to use drones for commercial purposes needs to take training and gain permission from the relevant authority in the country to fly competently. In the UK this is the Civil Aviation Authority or CAA. This is taken extremely seriously by all the relevant authorities around the world and most of the rules are broadly the same as a global standard.

Broadly speaking the maximum height a drone can legally fly is 400 feet (or 120 m). There is a limit built-in to the software that prevents a drone flying any higher.

Put into context this is around the height of the top of London Eye viewing wheel opposite the Houses of Parliament. It's reasonably high for such an unmanned aircraft and there really shouldn't be any reason why anybody needs to fly a drone above this limit. If you need to go higher then you need to get a helicopter.

There is a safety buffer zone where there should be nothing flying. Helicopters and light aircraft are not permitted to fly below 500 feet (unless they are taking off or landing, of course!) This is to make sure there is a 100 feet buffer between the top limits of the drone and the lower limit of light aircraft and helicopters. There have been reports of drones flying at 3,000ft and 6,000ft and (if found to be accurate) these operators are hazardous and disrespectful, to put it mildly. The day before I wrote this article, there was a near miss in New Zealand when a drone apparently came within 60m of a military flight helicopter. There are near misses in every country probably every day, so it's clear these people are potentially destroying the reputation of legitimate law-abiding drone operators.

This really does need to be stamped on heavily by the relevant authorities because there are shots a drone can do for film and TV that literally no other camera system could do. If tighter regulations mean the ability to fly in fewer places it will mean a valuable tool for filmmaking could be lost.

Trying a chopper instead‌

were months worth of paper shuffling, and permissions needing to be granted from several different departments within London, and then there was only a short window of opportunity to get the shot on a Sunday morning with no traffic. But in the hands of a trained and experienced drone operator, they got the shot.

Before any of this happens however there is a lot of paperwork and searches to be done of the location.

The area needs to be recce'd on special aviation maps with all the military and civil airports, along with private airfields, glider sites, windfarms, powerlines, railway lines, power stations, and wildfowl areas, amongst many other potential hazards to flight. Then a local area map is looked at in great detail and potential hazards identified. If flying over the Thames near the Houses of Parliament for example, that is normally a blanket no-fly zone due to the proximity to Heathrow airport and city airport. Clearly it is also an area of high helicopter activity flying into heliport places along the Thames, along with the air ambulance of course. Let's just say it's a very busy piece of airspace to be flying a drone. >>

A helicopter can do brilliant shots flying over cities for film and TV programmes, such as the opening sequence of the London city skyscrapers in The Apprentice. Firstly, a helicopter can legally fly much higher than a drone can, and it can fly over buildings and roads. It will have a sophisticated gyro-stabilised camera mount with a larger, higher-quality camera capable of zooming in on a longer lens without any camera wobble. A drone is not legally able to fly above the city at the heights the helicopter can, which is often somewhat limiting and frustrating to a drone operator. On the other hand, a drone could easily fly near a smaller building and is able to land in a much smaller area, and go into places lower than 400ft that a helicopter couldn't fly. It is ultimately picking the correct tool for the job.

I am reminded of a shot I was told about which is impossible to do with any other camera system I know of. This shot started on the Embankment walkway on the other side of the river to the Houses of Parliament. The camera shot then flew between the lampposts, flying then over the river onto Westminster Bridge then following some action with actors and cars, leading to a vertical climb up The maximum height to the clockface a drone can legally ally fly of what is A helicopter can legdrone fly is 400 feet a much higher than commonly known as Big Ben. This was before the scaffolding was put up, of course! Without a drone this would be impossible for a helicopter, and CGI would be very difficult, timeconsuming, and expensive.

Yes, there

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GBCT / NEWS FROM THE GUILD / BY JOHN KEEDWELL GBCT UAV PILOT

So, if a shot requires flying over the Thames up to the Houses of Parliament there will be many permissions from the CAA and local council, police and more. Hence why it took months of paperwork to get this one shot cleared for the shot I mentioned. There is a preflight on the ground recce required on the day, as well to look at areas that were not visible from maps.

If it happens to rain on that day and your drone is not able to fly in the rain then it doesn't happen. The pilot has the ultimate say whether the drone takes off or not as they are in ultimate control and responsibility for the drone.

Get a skilled pilot This neatly brings us back to training and the skills needed to fly with confidence. Some of the larger drones for film and TV can carry Red cameras or the ARRI Alexa Mini, for example. The cost of a drone capable of flying with such a camera with a nice prime lens will be a rather expensive piece of hardware flying around. There is a degree of adrenaline when flying with such a expensive piece of kit (and even at lower levels of expense it still concentrates the mind). Yet the more you know you're in control of on the day, the less you have to think about in terms of the logistics on the ground. The pilot needs to be in control, and as calm as possible, to be focused on putting the drone exactly where the camera needs to be in the air.

86 | British Cinematographer | May 2018

This is where the pilot flying the drone needs to be in a complete control of the surroundings, and have the shots planned with the director and director of photography well before the 'bird' is in the air. To have a drone hovering whilst discussing where the shot is going, is not ideal, as it should have been thoroughly discussed before the batteries went on to the drone. Although there can be some minor tweaks and final discussions as various people need to see the shot, the shot must be discussed in intimate detail well before that. The concentration simply keeping a drone in the air and looking out for hazards and then having a intense discussion is not conducive to safety or getting the best shot.

Drone operations will need have a 'spotter' looking out and listening for potential hazards, such as helicopters and light aircraft or birds flying nearby for example. It's a well-known fact that we take in millions of pieces of information every second, yet can only process seven at any one time. So an operator can literally be so involved in the camera shot they do not hear helicopters flying nearby. That is a limitation of the human brain not of the operator. As well as the pilot in control of flying the craft there will often be a separate camera operator who will control the camera alone and will not fly the aircraft. So that could potentially mean three or more people involved in controlling the drone.

We can often forget the drone is merely the vehicle to get the camera into the air and see the picture it creates. The drone in itself is largely irrelevant as long as it is reliable and can carry the camera safely and deliver the quality of pictures that is required. If the client wants 8K recordings on certain cameras then there are only a few drones that will do that. Yet if a television production or commercial is required in 4K then there are many drones that are currently capable of achieving that.

Other considerations‌ It doesn't end as soon as the drone lands of course, it needs to be made safe and batteries taken off and the charge logged as part of civil aviation authority rules.

The flashcard needs to be downloaded, checked and backed-up ideally, and much paperwork needs to be done in terms of flight times, location and much more without boring you!

On a lower level than a movie or television production this all needs to be taken into consideration, as does the time involved in pre-site recce and the onsite recce on the day. It isn't a case of simply turning up on the day saying you want the drone to fly, slap a battery on it, then flying off into the sunset. On some occasions I wish that was the case because it would free-up many areas to film and get fantastic pictures.

To me the authorities such as the CAA now need to look at transponders in every drone sold with a checkable reference to the person who owns it. They also need to find a way of prosecuting more of the idiots who seem to want to fly near aircraft as they are landing. As a word of warning to such idiots - if you are found guilty of endangering an aircraft, you can go away to prison for five years, so it's something that is taken very seriously of course, and rightly so.

Yet, it needs regulations and prosecutions that back-up the legitimacy of professional drone operators who have a permission to fly sensibly within the rules and take safety incredibly seriously. If a drone operator is caught and prosecuted when flying at 3,000ft and they go to prison, then it will hopefully deter a few more people from doing stupid things like this. It also means professional drone operators will have a much higher reputation, meaning we can go about our jobs in a more professional environment.

The drone information can be found at: http://dronesafe.uk. n

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