British Cinematographer - Issue 39

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British Cinematographer Covering International Cinematography www.britishcinematographer.co.uk May 2010 ––– £7

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Covering International Cinematography

Hitting the bullseye.

John Mathieson BSC. ––– on Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood

Inside.

Brits head for the Côte D’Azur.

––– Cannes preview Sam Mccurdy BSC. Rob Hardy. Philipp Blaubach.

––– Up close & personal Haris Zambarloukos BSC speaks about his work on the Kenneth Branagh-directed Thor.

––– On the Job Richard P. Crudo ASC. ––– Letter from America NAB 2010 review. Cine Gear preview.

––– F-Stop Hollywood

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British Cinematographer Covering International Cinematography www.britishcinematographer.co.uk Issue 039

Introduction –––Ron Prince Editor

Contributers.

“Let’s stand together to make the Plus Camerimage story a continued success” Marek Zydowicz, festival director.

Contents.

05 President’s Perspective.

Sue Gibson BSC

07 Production /

Post & Techno News.

The latest news for DPs

12 Who’s Shooting Who?

The unique resource about which DPs are currently shooting what...

14 To Live & Let DI.

Discover who’s delivering the DI grades right now

16 Close-Ups.

Sam McCurdy BSC Rob Hardy Philipp Blaubach

22 Camera Creative.

24 On The Job.

26 Cannes preview.

The call of the Croissette and beyond..!

30 Letter From America.

Richard P. Crudo ASC on new methodologies for testing British Cinematographer Covering International Cinematography britishcinematographer.co.uk Issue 039

31 F-Stop Hollywood.

Wrap-up of NAB and a look at what’s coming up at Cine Gear

British Cinematographer Covering International Cinematography.

Pinewood Studios Iver Heath Buckinghamshire SL0 0NH United Kingdom t/ +44 (0) 1753 650101 f/ +44 (0) 1753 650111

34 IMAGO News.

39 GBCT News.

The chairman’s statement & all the latest new from the Guild

How John Mathieson BSC set about shooting Ridley’s Scott’s Robin Hood

Cover Image: John Mathieson BSC lensed Robin Hood, Ridley Scott’s latest Hollywood adventure. Images courtesy of Universal Pictures.

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Carolyn Giardina ––– is a freelance journalist based in the US. She previously served as the technology reporter at Hollywood Reporter, the editor of Film & Video, and as senior editor of post-production at SHOOT. Her work has also appeared in IBC Daily News, Digital Cinema, Post and Below The Line.

Special insight into Haris Zambarloukos’s work on the new Thor movie

Nigel Walters BSC, President of IMAGO

Ron Prince ––– has many years experience working in the film, TV, CGI and visual effects industries.

He is the editor of British Cinematographer magazine and runs the international marketing and communications company Prince PR (www.princepr.com).

Joe Versus The Volcano.

The airlines might have been losing tens of millions of dollars every day, but production on this magazine continued pretty much unabated during the ash crisis caused by the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull. Despite a three-day incarceration, courtesy of BA at the Westin LAX (where the Internet didn’t want to work, and pastimes included guessing how long it might take to suck the life from a Foxes Glacier Mint), the fact of being 6,000 miles from home, and eight hours behind GMT, mattered not a jot when your editor eventually landed with friends in Redondo Beach for a 10-day stop-over. Thank you to Sir Colin and Lady Mel for your hospitality.

Amongst the highlights in this smouldering edition is a mini ring of firepower from the BSC. Interviewed whilst travelling between Prague, London and Paris, John Mathieson BSC explains some of his working practices on Ridley Scott’s latest epic Robin Hood, set to be the opener at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Haris Zambarloukos BSC took time out from his lunch break in New Mexico, to speak about his work on the future epic that will be Thor, directed by Kenneth Branagh.

And Sam McCurdy BSC, one of the recent intake to the society’s ranks, spoke to us from a shoot in Malta about StreetDance 3D. Vesuvius… a trio of British talents, working on diverse yet prominent productions!

Our Letter From America, penned by Richard P. Crudo ASC, former president of the American Society of Cinematographers, might cause a few eruptions, as he calls for clarity in future film and digital evaluations.

Consistency, predictability and reliability perhaps might be the new goals in subsequent tests, bearing in mind that due to the speed of technological development, things will be out of date before you know it.

Along with annual Cannes Preview, and our wrap-up report from NAB 2010 where, you guessed it, 3D stereo was still molten lava, we take a sneak peek at Cine Gear Expo, which returns to the studios at Paramount Pictures.

If the last few years have been anything to go by, you’d best pack a hat, sandals and sunblock to cope with the heat. And if recent seismic events are anything to go by, pack some extra shirts, dollars, a driving license and your boiled sweets of choice too. You just might need them!

Ron Prince, Editor BC

Publishers.

––– Alan Lowne t/ +44 (0) 1753 650101 e/ alafilmuk@aol.com ––– Stuart Walters t/ +44 (0) 121 608 2300 e/ stuartwalters@ britishcinematographer.co.uk Editor.

––– Ron Prince e/ ronny@dircon.co.uk Sales.

––– Alan Lowne t/ +44 (0) 1753 650101 e/ alafilmuk@aol.com ––– Stuart Walters t/ +44 (0) 121 608 2300 e/ stuartwalters@ britishcinematographer.co.uk

David A Ellis ––– started out as a projectionist and then moved on to work for BBC Television in London as a film assistant. He has written numerous articles about the industry including many features about cinematographers.

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.

John Keedwell ––– 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 formats and their methods of production.

Design & Creative Direction.

Open Box Media & Communications ––– Lee Murphy Design Studio Manager t/ +44 (0) 121 608 2300 e/ studio@ob-mc.co.uk The Publication Advisory Committee comprises of Board members from the BSC and GBCT as well as the Publishers.

British Cinematographer Covering International Cinematography is part of Laws Publishing Ltd. Laws Publishing Ltd Pinewood Studios Iver Heath Buckinghamshire SL0 0NH United Kingdom.

The publishers wish to emphasise that the opinions expressed in British Cinematographer Covering International Cinematography are not representative of Laws Publishing Ltd but the responsibility of the individual contributors.

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British Cinematographer Covering International Cinematography www.britishcinematographer.co.uk Issue 039

Presidents Perspective –––Sue Gibson BSC President BSC

Thanking you.

It is with great sadness that I have to report the passing of our dear friend and colleague Tony Imi who passed away suddenly on 10th March 2010. He was a great supporter of the BSC, having been president from 1982 to 1984, and his loss is a great blow to us all. He leaves his wife Marilyn, daughter Gemma and son Matthew.

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Tony began his career by lighting TV films for Ken Loach and Tony Garnett, and his early films such as Up The Junction and Cathy Come Home shot in the 1960s really changed both the public’s and government’s awareness of the plight of the homeless. Tony’s B&W 16mm images remain engrained in our consciousness for ever. In 2000 it was voted the top film in the one hundred greatest television programmes of all time. During a career that spanned almost 50 years he shot innumerable feature films including The Slipper And The Rose, Taliesin Jones, and received an ASC nomination for his work on the miniseries Scarlett. He continued to serve on the BSC board as governor, and was always fair with a deep sense of justice, not to mention his sense of humour. It was always a joy to be in his company and he worked tirelessly for all us cinematographers as he did for the charity Shelter, and will be sorely missed.

Yet another blow came this week with the dreadful plane crash in Poland, with the death of so many prominent members of the Polish establishment. Both the BSC and IMAGO sent letters of condolence, along with letters of support for Camerimage, whose future hangs in the balance after their plans for building a new convention centre in Lodz were turned down. The festival organisers, Marek and Kazik, have worked tirelessly to make Camerimage a world renowned event for cinematographers, and we certainly owe them a huge debt of gratitude. The more support we can give them the better, so if you have any talent for putting pen to paper please do your utmost to show your support for the best cinematography festival in the world.

On a more cheerful note, the Awards season is almost over and although I know that Barry Ackroyd and Joe Dunton’s achievements at the BAFTAs were mentioned in the last issue I can’t help but congratulate them both again, as the 60th anniversary of the BSC did seem to take precedence over all else. Not only do they deserve another mention but also Barry’s Oscar nomination and Chris Menges’ International Cinematographers Award at the ASC Awards.

I did manage to go to the BAFTA Awards so didn’t see the BBC’s coverage of the event, but I understand the television presentation relegated the Best Cinematography Award and Joe Dunton’s Contribution to the British Film Industry Award as an also-ran, which was a pity, as many there including me thought Joe’s speech was the best of the night. Let’s hope next year cinematography gets full coverage.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Alan Lowne and Ron Prince for their fantastic support and the wonderful 60th anniversary supplement to British Cinematographer Magazine, which they published

alongside the last issue. I know copies went like hot cakes at the BSC Show, and is a fitting tribute to the society and its members past and present.

This year’s BSC Show was held at Elstree again this year, and those of you who didn’t make it missed a fantastic show. I was there on both days and still didn’t manage to see everything and talk to everybody, there was so much to see. On the Saturday we held a reception at the White House for BSC members to honour our 60th anniversary and over 40 turned up to show their support. It was really great to see Roger Pratt, Peter Biziou and Chris Menges, who are always so busy we don’t get to see them very often, and there was a real buzz around the show all weekend. I think it can be rated as one of the most successful shows to date with so many prominent DPs visiting. I know we don’t call it the “New Equipment Show” anymore, but there were so many exciting new developments, and it was a great triumph to the exhibitors and the organisers. There are greater plans afoot for next year, so watch this space!

As promised last year, we held the follow up to the Film & Digital Image Evaluations at BAFTA in March, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the manufacturers, suppliers, BSC members, Patrons and Friends who worked so hard over the last year to make the whole series of events such a success. The day at BAFTA was very well attended and showed the different formats to their best advantage. All in all it was a fitting way to make what may well be the final big presentation of all the material. The Blu-ray disc is still available, although we have now sold our first 100 copies, but there is still interest from those who haven’t had the chance to see it, and hope we will be able to make smaller presentations to them.

I have a feeling this may be my last column as president, as my two-year term is drawing to a close. If so, I hope you have enjoyed reading my literary offerings as much as I have writing them. Thank you to all the board and the membership for your support in our ventures, and I look forward to seeing you all at the AGM and Summer Lunch at Pinewood.

Sue Gibson BSC President

British Society of Cinematographers, Board Members.

President, Sue Gibson. Immediate Past President, Gavin Finney. Vice Presidents, Joe Dunton MBE, Chris Seager, Nigel Walters. Governors, Sean Bobitt, John de Borman, John Daly, Harvey Harrison, Tony Imi, Phil Meheux, David Odd, Nic Morris, Ashley Rowe, Derek Suter, Robin Vidgeon, Haris Zambarloukos. Co-opted Associate Member Representatives, Andrei Austin, Rodrigo Gutierrez. Secretary/Treasurer, Frances Russell.

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The Cinematographer Covering International Cinematography www.thecinematographer.info Issue 038

News –––Production / Post & Technology round-up Fuji short winners.

The winners of the 2010 Fujifilm Shorts competition were announced recently at a ceremony in Soho.

The Business Trip (Voyage D’Affaires) collected the best film award, while DP Yoliswa Gärtig’s work on Native Son won the best cinematography prize.

The Business Trip, directed by Sean Ellis, with cinematography by DP Angus Hudson, tells the story of Jean Paul, who learns he has been dumped by his girlfriend while away on business. He finds an unexpected proposition waiting for him in his hotel room. The film was nominated for a BAFTA in 2009 and is soon to be screened on French TV. Native Son is the tale of John, a young man struggling with life in the beautiful Scottish Highlands.

At times brutal, Native Son deals with humanity and loneliness, and was praised for the handling of light by cinematographer Gärtig.

The judging panel included director Tim Pope, DPs Danny Cohen BSC, Trevor Forrest, Robin Vidgeon BSC, Nigel Walters BSC and Flemming Jetmar (Born Shorts), plus Matt Adams from Technicolor, Jesse Vile of Future Shorts, Joe Bateman from Rushes Soho Shorts, and Jerry Deeney, marketing manager at Fujifilm Motion Picture.

The Business Trip was originated on 35mm Fujicolor Eterna 500T 8573, and Native Son was shot on 35mm Fujicolor Eterna 400T 8583. Prizes include: £2,000 worth of Fujifilm Motion Picture stock, plus an expenses-paid trip to the Camerimage International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography, in Poland; a rushes processing package from Technicolor, and a 35mm print of the winning films from Technicolor Creative Services; a five-day lighting hire package courtesy of Panalux; a 35mm or 16mm camera and dolly hire package from Panavision; and subscriptions to British Cinematographer Magazine.

The 2011 Shorts competition will launch this autumn, and further details will be posted on www.fujifilmshorts.com.

07 Camerimage pulls out of Lodz.

The organisers of Plus Camerimage, the annual international festival of the art of cinematography, have made the decision to move the festival out of the city of Lodz, Poland. Political activities by the city authorities resulted in suspension of a proposed new festival and congress centre project, designed by architect Frank Gehry and unveiled at last year’s festival, effectively blocking future development of the festival.

“Given the existing situation I made the decision to leave Lodz.

Staying there, without any chance of building a festival centre designed by Frank Gehry, means no chance for the development of Plus Camerimage,” said festival director, Marek Zydowicz.

A new venue of this year’s festival, as well as the “call for entries”, are expected to be announced within a few weeks.

“We hope people will continue to attend the festival this year, no matter what city it will be held in,” added Zydowicz. “After all, it is not the location, but the people and the atmosphere of creativity that make the Plus Camerimage Festival a unique gathering place for the film community from all over the world.

Let’s stand together to make the Plus Camerimage story a continued success,” A unanimous resolution, supporting the festival and calling for its preservation, was passed at the recent IMAGO conference in Rome, and sent to the minister of culture in Warsaw and representatives of the City of Lodz.

Plus Camerimage festival director, Marek Zydowicz.

A still from best cinematography prize-winner, Native Son. Fujifilm Shorts competition winners Jerry Deeney, Sean Ellis & Angus Husdon.

Fujifilm Shorts winners Jerry Deeney & Yoliswa Gartig.

David Jason as Inspector Frost.

Frost ends with 8.3m.

Long-running ITV1 crime drama A Touch Of Frost bowed out with an audience of 8.3m in April.

David Jason’s swansong picked up more than a million extra viewers on the opening episode of Frost’s final two-part investigation on Sunday April 4th. Frost averaged 7.2m, but with the series coming to an end after 18 years, and with no UK dramas playing out on other channels, more viewers wanted to satisfy their curiosity. It was the drama’s best performance since 5 November 2006, when 9.4m tuned in to see a new case. The series was shot by two British cinematographers – Peter Jackson BSC, who shot 35 episodes between 1992 and 2006, and Robin Vidgeon BSC, who lit five episodes during 2008-10.

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Panavision’s Panascout iPhone app.

Panavision Inc. has launched Panascout, a new location scout application for the iPhone, which simulates the cinematographer’s viewpoint from a professional cinema camera. The workflow allows filmmakers to capture the cinematic qualities of any location and record the true metadata including GPS, compass heading, date/time, voice notes and a sunrise/sunset readout for the present location.

Photos can be framed in widescreen 2.40 (anamorphic), 1.85 (Super 35mm), 1.78 (16x9 HD) and 1.33 (4x3) aspect ratios with Panaframe.

The Panascout app allows users to upload directly to Final Cut with Final Cut Server, MobileMe, SmugMug or e-mail directly to colleagues. Users can also find Panavision suppliers anywhere in the world, purchase Panavision apparel through the Panastore, review the complete Panavision equipment reference library in the technical centre, or visit the online screening room in the media centre. Panascout is available for $9.99 USD and can be purchased through iTunes.

Examples of the what the Panascout iPhone app can do.

Kodak’s new Super 8mm stock.

UKFC new £15M fund champions British film.

The UK Film Council has published its three-year plan and launched a new £15m Film Fund to champion British filmmaking. In developing the final plan, the UK Film Council spent three months consulting on the proposals, engaging with hundreds of people from across the film sector, facilitating more than a dozen consultation sessions and attracting almost 1,000 responses.

The plan specifically opens up a £15m-a-year Film Fund (topped up further by film recoupment) for emerging, experimental and world class filmmakers. It will ring-fences money for development, and sees the establishment of a think-tank, chaired by Tim Bevan, to identify new policy initiatives to grow independent UK film companies of scale. It also proposes a national web-based talent showcase, to be launched in autumn 2010, confirms the allocation of £5m to the new Innovation Fund, which will launch in autumn 2010, and provides £500,000 for film exports for each year of the plan. Furthermore, it confirms that 100% of recoupment from the Prints & Advertising Fund, which widens and supports the distribution of selected specialised films and British films, will, like the Film Fund, top up that fund’s budget.

Alongside this plan, the DCMS has been leading merger discussions between the UK Film Council and the BFI. These discussions have been underway since August 2009 and continue.

Tim Bevan CBE, chairman of the UK Film Council, said, “We’ve set out a renewed mission, a new set of priorities, and a new way of working. With the right level of support, a successful British film industry can continue to help get the UK out of recession, drive innovation and create more highly-skilled jobs. Further tough choices probably lie ahead, but having reduced our overheads by 20% and positively responded to the needs of British filmmakers we’re now in the best place we can be to support and promote UK film in the years ahead.”

The new Film Fund will be managed by former Harry Potter producer Tanya Seghatchian, with a a new team of experienced senior production and development executives – Natascha Wharton, Lizzie Francke, and Chris Collins – who each have production successes under their belts.

Wharton, who will focus on development, has been at Working Title Films for most of her film career, and set up its low-budget film division responsible for Billy Elliot. She was also Executive Producer including Shaun of the Dead and Ali G Indahouse.

Francke will focus on experimental feature length films, national engagement and showcasing new talent. She began her career as a film critic in the early 1990s, was artistic director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival and as executive producer for EM Media worked on Control, And When Did You Last See Your Father?, A Complete History of My Sexual Failures and Better Things.

Collins, will focus is on ideas for future film practices for both emerging and established filmmakers, from micro / low budget features and shorts, through to 3D blockbusters. Starting in television documentaries, he joined BFI Productions in 1997 as a development and production executive, where he oversaw films such as John Maybury’s Love is the Devil and Jasmin Dizdar’s Beautiful People. As an independent producer he worked with filmmakers such as Pawel Pawlikowski, Francesca Joseph and Sarah Gavron on critical successes Last Resort, My Summer Of Love, Tomorrow La Scala! and Brick Lane.

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What’s Shooting on Kodak?

Motion pictures shot using Kodak stocks include…

Harry Potter VII/VIII, DP Eduardo Serra, dir. David Yates; Chikku Bukku, DP Gurudhev Rangaswamy Bee, dir. Manikandan Govindarasulu Kesavan; Peter, DP Michael Miles, dir. Sanjay Kumar; John Carter Of Mars, DP Daniel Mindel ASC, dir. Andrew Stanton; BEL AMI, DP Stefano Falivene, dirs. Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod; Flutter, DP Christopher Ross BSC, dir. Giles Borg; Burke & Hare, DP John Mathieson BSC, dir. John Landis; Transformers 3, DP Amir M Mokri, dir.

Michael Bay. TV programmes include… Any Human Heart (Carnival/C4) DP Wojciech Szepel; Merlin III (Shine West/BBC), DPs Dale McCready and Peter Greenhalgh BSC; New Tricks VII (Wall To Wall/BBC), DP Sean Van Hales. Commercials shot on Kodak include… Barclays (Blink), DP Tim Maurice Jones; VW (Partizan), DP Tim Maurice Jones; Jamie Does… (C4), DP Luke Scott; Facejacker U10FACE (C4), DP Bob Pender Hughes; Deutchbahn, (Flynn). DP Franz Lustig; Kingsmill (Moon Films), DP Zubin Mistry; Muller (Moxie), DP Richard Mott; National Express (Nice Shirt), DP Theo Garland; KFC (Outsider), DP Danny Cohen BSC; Morrison’s (Outsider), DP Federico Alfonso; Felix (Park Village), DP Keith Goddard BSC; Kwik Fit (Rattling Stick), DP Stuart Graham; BBC General Elections (Red Bee), DP Magni Augustsson; Actimel (Rogue Films), DP Alex Melman; Dyson (Rogue Films), DP Simon Richards; Audi (Rogue Films), DP Damien Morisot; Barclaycard Pick Ups (Sonny London), DP Simon Richards; Renault (Stink), DP Olivier Cariou; ITV (Stink), DP Steve Blackman; Toyota (Tantrum), DP Jason Lehel; and Activia (2AM), DP Tat Radcliffe.

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09 What’s shooting on Fuji?

Kodak’s new Super 8 motion picture stock.

Kodak has introduced a new Super 8mm colour reversal filmstock.

Kodak Ektachrome 100D Colour Reversal Film 7285 is a daylightbalanced, 100-speed film, incorporating bright, saturated colours and fine grain with excellent sharpness.

“Super 8 mm film is a versatile, affordable option for filmmakers who require the image quality and flexibility of film,” said Chris Johnson, product manager for Kodak’s Entertainment Imaging Division. “Quantum leaps in film emulsion technology have made Super 8, once considered a hobbyist’s format, a viable option for professional filmmakers and students.”

Many of today’s great cinematographers and directors began their careers at the counter of their local photo shop, buying a cartridge of Super 8 film, said Johnson. But the new stock offers filmmakers image quality far beyond that of the familiar home movie format of the 1960s.

“Kodak’s commitment to R&D continues to raise the bar for image quality. One benefit is that Super 8 is now a terrific option for students who want to hone their skills, as well as for professional filmmakers who want to craft a distinctive look for their project.”

The Super 8 film format is supported by a network of dedicated laboratories that process and digitise the output, including Wittner-Cinetec in Hamburg.

“The increased saturation of the 100D film makes colors just pop,” said company president Daniel Wittner.

“We are glad to see Kodak continuing to support this important format.”

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The latest of features and TV dramas shooting on Fujifilm include… Coriolanus, DP Barry Ackroyd BSC, dir. Ralph Fiennes; Untitled Joshua Marston Albanian Project, DP Rob Hardy, dir. Joshua Marston; Attack The Block, DP Tom Townend, dir. Joe Cornish; Africa United, DP Sean Bobbitt BSC, dir. Debs Gardner-Paterson; Age of Heroes , DP Mark Hamilton, dir. Adrian Vitoria; Jane Eyre, DP Adriano Goldman, dir.

Cary Fukunuga; and Waking the Dead - Series 9, DP Mike Spragg. Commercials and promos using Fuji, supplied via Island Studios and Panavision include… Money Supermarket.com (Outsider) DP Danny Cohen BSC; Halifax (Feel Films) DP John Lynch; Carlsberg (Sonny London) DP Simon Richards; Barry M Cosmetics (Gloss Media) Malcolm McLean; Dulux (Knucklehead) DP Robbie Ryan BSC; Aldi (Itch) DP Pete Ellmore; Samsung (Itch) DP Pete Ellmore; Specsavers (Mustard) DP David Kerr; Audi (Rogue Films) DP Damien Morisot; Chipmunk (Between The Eyes) DP Magni Agustsson; The XX (Partizan) DP Will Bex; and The Joy Formidable (Partizan) DP Robbie Ryan BSC

Method Studios hires VFX talents.

Visual effects company Method Studios is expanding its feature film VFX offerings with the appointment of three major talents: Dan Glass, Drew Jones and Stephane Ceretti.

As senior creative director, Glass will oversee both feature and commercial projects at Method. On the production side, Jones will lead film projects globally as Method’s vice president of feature films. Ceretti will serve as visual effects supervisor for feature projects in the UK, working out of parent company Ascent Media’s London facility Ascent 142.

Glass, has a long list of film credits that includes Batman Begins, Speed Racer and V For Vendetta. Jones joins Method from MPC, where as executive producer he worked on such features as Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Ceretti has also had a long and prestigious career in visual effects. Prior to joining Method, he served as visual effects supervisor at MPC in London, where he recently completed work on Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

“London is one of the world’s key creative cities for this type of work.” Jones observed. “It makes sense to leverage the infrastructure already in place via Ascent Media. Operating alongside sister facilities such as Company 3 and Ascent 142 provides a flexible and scalable global offering.”

Ascent’s Creative Services division includes Company 3, Method, Beast and Rushes UK.

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One of ACS’s 20-strong helicopter squadron fitted with a Cineflex.

Euro Media acquires Aerial Camera Systems .

Euro Media Group, the largest television facilities company in Europe, has acquired Aerial Camera Systems (ACS), a leading supplier of specialised camera equipment. The move will enable Euro Media to expand its operations and offer a new, specialist service to customers, not only across Europe, but also on an international scale.

Founded by the late cinematographer Peter Allwork, ACS has been designing and supplying specialist cameras to the film and broadcast industry for over thirty years. Since its beginnings the company has built up an awardwinning reputation for quality and expertise in providing innovative camera systems, featuring aerial stabilised technology. Production credits include Vancouver Olympics 2010, Beijing 2008, Premiership Football coverage for Sky Sports and the BBC, 33rd America’s Cup, Euro 2008, the BBC’s Life and MTV’s Summit on the Summit: Kilimanjaro.

The current ACS management team, led by Phillip Beckett, will continue to run the company as an autonomous member of the Euro Media Group. While continuing to operate independently, ACS will work closely the other members of the Euro Media Group. In particular it will have a close relationship with sister company CTV OBs, whch supplies outside broadcast facilities in the UK and Europe.

ACS’s rental inventory includes remote heads and compact cameras, railcams, wirecams, tracking vehicles, underwater systems and tethered airships, as well as over 20 helicopter camera systems. The company is headquartered in the UK with a satellite office in Melbourne and joint ventures in Los Angeles, Dubai, Cape Town and Hong Kong.

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Prime Focus launches View-D.

Prime Focus, one of the world’s largest visual entertainment services groups, has introduced View-D, a proprietary process for the conversion of 2D to 3D stereoscopic images in the UK. The View-D offering has been implemented into Prime Focus’ 3D stereoscopic pipeline at is Soho facilities, and will be available to film as well as broadcast and commercials clients.

Following its US launch earlier this year, Prime Focus Los Angeles has been working on View-D tests for all the major studios, and completed the conversion of Clash Of The Titans for Warner Bros in eight weeks.

“View-D has been a hit in Hollywood and we’ve had great feedback on the picture quality from the client. The time is right to introduce it to the UK,” said Anshul Doshi, global COO and group managing director UK, Prime Focus. “Following Channel 4’s week of 3D programming last year, major broadcasters are investing in 3D channels in 2010. And with all the major manufacturers recently introducing 3D screens 3DTV is finally on its way into people’s homes.”

The London View-D team will be led by Martin Hobbs, an experienced VFX producer whose credits include Batman Begins and X-Men: The Last Stand. Hobbs, formerly of MPC, is supported by former MPC chief operating officer and executive director, Michael Elson, who has joined Prime Focus as a global consultant.

Cinecittá extols its virtues.

Further to the report in the IMAGO News section in this edition, regarding IMAGO’s Rome Conference, which took place at Cinecittá Studios in March, delegates representing 28 cinematographic societies worldwide were given a tour of the studio facilities and a breakdown of the current tax incentives available from the Italian government.

Established in 1937, Cinecittá has grown in the last few years into an extensive studio complex. With three facilities in and around Rome, and a brand new studio in Morocco, Cinecittà has become of the world’s biggest production centres, providing a total of 30 stages, and 300 acres of various backlots.

Cinecittá’s main studio facility in Rome has 22 stages, extensive permanent sets, such as an Ancient Roman set, equipped with set dressing items, a 70,000 square foot outdoor tank and a 25-acre backlot, all located within 99 acres of parkland estates. Recent international productions include the HBO series Rome, Spike Lee’s Miracle At St. Anna and, appropriately, Rob Marshall’s Nine, the remake of Feillini’s legendary 8 And a Half, as well as dozens of Italian films, such as Il Postino, La Vita è Bella, La Sconosciuta and Baarìa.

In addition to its main studio, Cinecittá owns and operates Dino Studios, built in 1962 by internationally-acclaimed producer Dino De Laurentiis. The studio has a 175-acre backlot, and five stages. Cinecitta’s third location is the 22-acre facility Umbria Studios, renovated by Oscar-winning actor/director Roberto Benigni, with a water tank amongst a trio of stages. Cinecittá also runs CLA Studios in the city of Ouarzazate, Morocco, developed in partnership by De Laurentiis and the Moroccan entrepreneur Said Alj. CLA Studios has two 18,000 square foot, soundproofed, air-conditioned stages, 90 offices and four workshops.

In 2009, Cinecittá launched Cinecitta Digital Factory, a comprehensive post-production service, including film developing and printing, DI, VFX, DCP and HD mastering, plus sound mixing and dubbing services. Through an agreement with Italian dealer Panalight, Cinecitta customers can rent Panavision and ARRI camera and lighting equipment.

In July 2009, the Italian government launched a tax credit incentive, enabling international production to save 25% on the production costs spent in Italy, with a ceiling for each film of 5m Euros. Productions have to pass a cultural test covering content, creative talent, and production/post production. On January 1st 2010, the incentive was sweetened by VAT exemption.

The tax credit is be based on the production expenses, incurred in Italy, which do not exceed 60% of the overall film production budget. Expenses incurred in another EU member country can also be treated as expenses incurred in Italy up to a maximum of 30% of the overall film production budget.

First examples of productions to take advantage of the tax credit include Nine (budget 1.4m Euros, tax credit 359,000 Euros), The American, (budget 10.8m Euros, tax credit 2.7m Euros) and Letters To Juliet (9.2m Euros, tax credit 2.3m Euros).

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Who’s Shooting Who? –––Which cinematographers are working on what...

Keeping focus.

Cabin fever: Ed Wild on Phil Traill’s Chalet Girl in southern Germany and Austria. Images

by Etienne Braun.

Jeunesse: young DP James Friend on the set of Ghost.

Brrrrrr: Dick Pope and his 1st AC Steve Speers on The Convincer.

Image by Wilson Webb.

World traveller: Roger Bonnici shooting Bishaash out in Bangladesh with director Indra Bhose for BBC World Service Trust.

Oy-Oy: Erik Wilson on the set of Submarine.

Oh La La: Vincent Warin shooting for fashion brand Claudie Pierlot with top model Audrey Marney in Paris.

Zoom Zoom: The dude on the left is Ekkehart Pollack on a shoot in LA for Mazda.

Real ale: George Richmond on an exhilerating Tyskie Beer shoot on location in Russia.

Top o’ the mornin’: Darran Tiernan in Ireland on the set of Single Handed being directed

by Thaddeus O’Sullivan.

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British Cinematographer Covering International Cinematography www.britishcinematographer.co.uk Issue 039

Casarotto.

James Aspinall is due to start shooting This September for Gate Television with director Giles Foster. Having just returned from Africa shooting Africa United for Pathe, Sean Bobbitt BSC will be working with director Michael Winterbottom again on his Seven Days project. Natasha Braier has been busy working on commercials. Finishing up on Luther, Julian Court is grading the new BBC drama which airs soon. For Leftbank and with director James Hawes, Matt Gray is shooting Inspector Banks, about a newly divorced detective who solves crimes in a provincial market town. Rob Hardy is in Albania shooting director Joshua Marston’s as yet untitled feature. Florian Hoffmeister has completed The Garden pilot for director Otto Bathurst, about an addictive computer game and the alternative universe it’s created. David Katznelson is working on Edwardian Downton Abbey with Brian Percival for Carnival. Also with Carnival, Wojciech Szepel is shooting Any Human Heart with director Michael Samuels, one man’s autobiographical account of his journey throughout the 20th century.

Independent.

Ulf Brantas is shooting Sam Miller’s new drama Single Father for the BBC. Ryszard Lencewski is on Pawel Pawlikowski’s feature Femme du Cinquieme, and Mark Waters is lensing the second series of The Sarah Jane Adventures for the BBC. Ben Davis BSC is prepping Mikael Hafstrom’s new feature, The Rite, an adaptation of Matt Baglio’s novel. Shooting in Rome and Budapest, it stars Ben Kingsley. Benoit Delhomme is in New York shooting Dito Montiel’s Son Of No One, starring Channing Tatum, Al Pacino and Ray Liotta, a young cop is assigned to a precinct in the working class neighbourhood where he grew up, and an old secret threatens to destroy his life and family. Anthony Dod Mantle BSC DFF has finished shooting Danny Boyle’s new feature, 127 Hours. Edu Grau has just joined the agency. Jess Hall BSC has just returned from an extraordinary shoot for Shell with Vince Squibb at Gorgeous, which took place in Kuala Lumpur, Brazil, and Japan. He’s now collaborating with Johnny Green on his next spot for FIFA. Martin Kenzie is lighting and directing 2nd unit for Joe Wright on Hanna. Dan Landin, Mattias Montero, Mark Patten, George Richmond, Ben Smithard and John Mathieson BSC have been shooing commercials. Sam McCurdy BSC just wrapped on Lee Tamahori’s The Devil’s Double. Seamus McGarvey BSC is shooting Lynne Ramsay’s new feature, We Need to Talk About Kevin. Based on the Lionel Shriver novel it tells the story of Kevin and his mother Eva who, after Kevin goes on a killing spree just days before his 16th birthday, is forced to question whether she is to blame and to contact his estranged father. Dick Pope BSC has completed Jill Sprecher’s The Convincer, set in the snow in freezing cold northern Minnesota and is now back in London signing off the show prints/ digital masters for both Mike Leigh’s Another Year and Gurinder Chadha’s It’s A Wonderful Afterlife. He is then off to LA for a couple of weeks to supervise the digital remastering of TopsyTurvy at Universal for a forthcoming Criterion Blu-ray release of the film. Pascal Rabaud was recently reunited with director Wim Wenders on a Stella Artois shoot in Barcelona with 2am Chris Ross BSC is prepping season two of the hit E4 series, Misfits. Oliver Stapleton BSC is shooting Ellen Perry’s Will, in London, Paris and Istanbul, and Ed Wild has wrapped on Phil Traill’s Chalet Girl, in southern Germany and Austria.

Dinedor Management.

John Daly BSC has finished Kafka’s Metamorphosis for Attractive Features. Tom Townend has prepped and moved on to shoot Big Talk’s feature Attack the Block,

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bringing in Peter Field for some additional operating.

Having shot a corporate for RBS, Mike Fox BSC has shot drama footage for AETN’s documentary on music hall comedian Sid Field, before shooting The Show Must Go On for The Mob. Peter Butler continues on blocks of The Bill, with Steve Buckland who has a brief visit to Casualty. Ian Moss lensed all seven of this year’s Coming Up season for Touchpaper. Grant Cameron lit a block of River City for the BBC in Glasgow, and Jim O’Donnell has given Shine a little help on Merlin. Tony Brown has jopined Dinedor. Eric Maddison FSF has been busy on music videos including Kate Nash for Warp Films and the very popular Hot Chip promo for Colonel Blimp. Pete Ellmore shot some additional photography for Dragon DI’s Gallowwalker. Martin Ahlgren and Ben Filby have been busy on commercials and idents. A beautiful Maccabees music promo was lit by Steve Annis for Daveyinc, and John Hillcoat has him for his Nick Cave promo at Factory.

Matt Cooke has been busy with more docs for CNN and make-over show pilot Charlie’s Treatment for Konbini.

Garry Turnbull shot T-Mobile corporates for The Edge and a Malt-Up commercial for JPN Films.

MY Management.

Simon Archer BSC has been in Cardiff on the new modern-day version of Sherlock starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock, and Martin Freeman as Watson. Jo Willems SBC is in Philadelphia shooting the feature film Dark Fields, a thriller starring Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro and Anna Friel, based on the novel written by Alan Glynn, directed by Neil Burger. Jallo Faber FSF, Ekkehart Pollack, Manel Ruiz, Nicolaj Bruel, Vincent Warin, Ben Moulden and Ray Coates have been lensing commercials. Robbie Ryan BSC is in prep for Wuthering Heights which is due to start filming on 7th June directed

by Andrea Arnold. Richard Stewart has been working with Flat Nose George directors Marcus Lyle and Adam Smith at RSA Films on the new Chemical Brothers music video Strawberry, and the band’s tour visuals. He’s now shooting a short film / drama Conviction, about the radicalism of a young man, with Omni directors Hearn & Penfold who are based out of Bristol. John Perez is back out in LA shooting the latest music videos for Christina Aguilera and Sade.

Creative Media Management.

Colin Munn is shooting the latest series of Midsomer Murders for ITV1. Mike Southon BSC is filming The Little House, a tense two-part drama for ITV1. John Rhodes is lighting family fantasy series Waybuloo for BBC Two, and Gavin Struthers is on BBC1’s ever-popular series Holby City.

McKinney Macartney Management.

Ben Butler, Mick Coulter BSC, Denis Crossan BSC, John de Borman BSC, John Lynch, John Pardue and Michael Wood have been shooing commercials worldwide.

Shane Daly is filming Spooks for Paul Whittington through Kudos. Gavin Finney BSC has just completed filming Reunited for director, Simon Delaney. Graham Frake is filming Freaky Farleys with directors, Nic Phillips and Simon Hynd for Foundation TV/RDF Media for Nickelodeon. Phil Méheux BSC is in New York filming The Smurfs for Raja Gosnell through Columbia Pictures. Chris Seager BSC has just completed Joe Maddison’s War for Patrick Collerton through ITV, and is about to start prep The Nativity with Coky Giedroyc directing. Katie Swain has been shooting commercials and is currently filming a short with Trevor Appleson directing. David Tattersall BSC is filming a pilot for Frank Darabont. Darran Tiernan is filming three series of Single Handed for Thaddeus O’Sullivan in Ireland. Fabian Wagner is filming The Accused for David Blair for the BBC, and Felix Wiedemann is lensing The Egg Trick, a short film for Stephen Kroto starring Ian McKellen.

United Agents.

Barry Ackroyd BSC won the BAFTA for his work on The Hurt Locker and sadly, some would say, unfairly missed out on the Oscar. He is now shooting Coriolanus, directed

by Ralph Fiennes in Serbia. Alwin Kuchler BSC is shooting Hanna, directed by Joe Wright in Berlin. Brendan Galvin has begun shooting Immortals for Tarsem Singh. Eduardo Serra AFC, ASC continues on Harry Potter and Tony Slater-Ling has just finished shooting Worried About The Boy directed by Julian Jarrold. He has now begun prepping Mad Dogs, directed by Adrian Shergold. Haris Zambarloukos BSC continues shooting Kenneth Branagh’s Thor in LA and Santa Fe. Discover more in this issue. Alan Almond BSC has begun prep for Ecosse’s third series of Mistresses. Danny Cohen BSC is in Sheffield shooting the series This Is England 1986 for Shane Meadows. Dale McCready has wrapped on the first block of series 3 of Shine’s Merlin. David Higgs BSC continues shooting

Peter Kosminsky’s Homeland in Israel, and John Conroy has begun prep on Anthony Byrne’s block of Silent Witness 14. Charlotte Bruus Christensen will be lighting Bafta-winner Martina Amati’s next short Chalk Candy in Romania in May. Neus Olle is in Qatar for a documentary feature for Spanish TV. Carlos Catalan is prepping a feature film in Spain for acclaimed Indian director Zoya Akhtar. Niels Reedtz Johansen is still busy with drama and commercial work in Denmark. Zac Nicholson is operating for Danny Cohen on This Is England the television series.

Jonathan Harvey his film Legacy will be at Tribeca. Philipp Blaubach’s most recent film, The Disappearance Of Alice Creed has just opened in cinemas, and you can read all about it in this edition. Alex Barber, Stephen Blackman, Daniel Bronks, Simon Chaudoir, Simon Richards, Stephen Keith-Roach, Tim Maurice-Jones, Alex Melman, Tat Radcliffe and Marcel Zyskind have all been jetting around the planet on commercials. Steve Lawes is coming to the end of his TV Drama Sherlock in Cardiff. Rain Li has been working on short film Rain, with director David Mahmoudieh in the UK and working on various fashion collaborations. Alessandra Scherillo has most recently collaborated with Isabel Rocamora on art installation project, Body Of War, which was filmed on location in Normandy through Stealth Films.

Sara Putt Associates.

Dave Marsh is shooting Downton Abbey for Carnival Film & TV. Written by Julian Fellowes, it’s a drama set in pre-WW1 England that centres on the Crawley family and their servants. Nick Dance is in Durham shooting two feature length episodes of Inspector George Gently for Company Pictures. Dirk Nel is currently lensing Foster, written and directed by Jonathan Newman and produced by Deepak Nayar the story of a married couple who, after their son is killed, decide to adopt a child. Doug Hartington is in Madrid and Vienna filming a documentary for Blakeway The Renaissance Revisited for BBC. Jan Jonaeus is about to start on a block of Spooks for Kudos/BBC1. Paul Lang continues on Diamond Docs’ feature documentary F1 the definitive story of Formula One directed by Paul Crowder and written

by Mark Monroe, writer of the Oscar winning feature documentary The Cove. Pete Edwards has been doing dailies on the new series of Armstrong And Miller for BBC. Peter Greenhalgh is lensing a block of Shine’s Merlin III for BBC1. Will Pugh is in Johannesburg working with director Carl Hindmarch on the first episode of RAW’s new series Getting Out Alive. The drama shoot is the story of PanAm Flight 73, a 747 hijack in Karachi in 1986 by Palestinian extremists. Michael Miles is currently at Three Mills Studios lensing Peter directed by Sanjay Kumar.

Operators.

Julian Morson is just finishing up on Attack The Block for Big Talk and will go straight onto The Rite for Warner Bros. Directed by Mikael Hafstrom and staring Anthony Hopkins it tells the story of an American priest who travels to Italy to study at an exorcism school. Vince McGahon is A-Camera operator on Ruby Film’s Jane Eyre directed

by Cary Fukunaga. Gareth Hughes has just returned from Germany after completing another block of SOKO Leipzig for ZDF. Joe Russell is about to start on The Fades, a pilot for a BBC3 series directed by Farren Blackburn. Rick Woollard has been shooting commercials as well as music promos for Paloma Faith and Richard Ashcroft.

Digital Garage.

Pete Hayns has just returned from Lithuania, Finland Switzerland and India after shooting the first part of Superhumans for Off The Fence. He is going straight onto For The Love Of Mockingbirds. Shooting in the USA, the programme is an hour for BBC4 and will look at how the cultural, political and social landscape depicted in Harper Lee’s book has changed over the last 50 years.

Chris Openshaw has been working on My Story for Princess Productions and has gone straight out to Quatar to shoot a documentary for Serious Pictures.

Dattner Dispoto & Associates.

In the US, Xavier Perez Grobet ASC has three features opening over April and May – The Back-Up Plan, I Love You Phillip Morris and Mother And Child. Martin Ruhe will see the release of Michael Caine-starring vigilante thriller Harry Brown on and Anton Corbjin’s The American starring George Clooney on September 1. Bojan Bazelli ASC also has two features opening in 2010 – The Sorcerer’s Apprentice in July, and Burlesque in November. Jeff Cronenweth ASC has shot David Fincher’s The Social Network. Oscar-nominee Claudio Miranda will see the release of Tron Legacy in December.

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British Cinematographer Covering International Cinematography www.britishcinematographer.co.uk Issue 039

Live & Let DI –––Who’s dialling-in the DI grades

3D is the industry’s hottest topic.

Manufacturers are racing to get the first consumer products to market, and broadcasters are pushing to launch dedicated TV channels.

Avatar showed audiences that 3D VFX are now part of a complete cinema experience, rather than just another popcorn addition. This is not to say there isn’t some skepticism, but right now 3D appears a different value proposition for the whole industry.

Treble vision.

Post Republic.

Hollywood is not alone. The first 3D movie in Europe in this latest wave was recently posted at German facility Post Republic, and is scheduled for worldwide release in May. Vertigo Films’ StreetDance 3D (see Close-Ups in this edition) is set in London and tells the fictional story of a streetdance crew who, in a bid to win the UK Street Dance Championships, are forced to team up with a group of classical dancers. Starring dance crews Diversity and Flawless, the production was shot in the UK by cinematographer Sam McCurdy BSC using RED and SI-2K cameras, with 3D rigs supplied by LA-based specialist Paradise FX, which also supplied rigs for major features such as The Hole 3D and My Bloody Valentine.

On-set material was recorded on flashcards, with rushes delivered to Post Republic’s digital lab as RAW footage on hard disk. Post Republic then created proxies for the editorial process in HD. This was done by sync’ing the original RAW footage and converting into a format compatible with the facility’s Final Cut Pro (FCP) editing system. At the same time Post Republic backed-up and quality-checked the original 2K/4K RAW footage, and stored it to its server. The edit was done by Tim Murrell.

Post Republic began grading the 3D trailer and teaser using Digital Vision’s Film Master colour grading and finishing system in November 2009, and completed the full feature in March this year. Film Master’s stereoscopic toolset enables grading and synchronous workflow for left and right eye footage.

Michael Reuter, Post Republic’s MD, said, “For StreetDance we incorporated two stages in the digital lab process. The 2D editorial rushes were created using pre-built LUTs, whilst selected 3D rushes were customgraded by Joe Van Dalsem and put out to Blue Ray DVDs to be watched on our 3D monitors by selected crew. For the subsequent 3D post-production processes we used Film Master and a Barco DLP Projector with a Cinema RealD system.” Grading was done by Stefan Ciupek who also finished Lars von Triers AntiChrist.

The RealD Cinema system applies a polarising filter in front of the projector lens and passive polarising glasses for left eye/right eye separation.

“For a reliable calibration in the grading suite we decided to technically replicate the RealD cinema experience,” explained Reuter. “Our graders wear polarised glasses throughout the session, watching the grade on the silver screen, and finally mastering onto a stereoscopic DCP. Film Master 2009’s toolset has some interesting features, and its stereoscopic capability allows you to switch the monitoring between stereo, side-by-side or blended overlay at the touch of a button.”

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The RealD cinema system is currently the most widely deployed 3D projection system in the world. “Grading on the RealD system in 3D with polarised glasses works very well,” added Reuter, “but there are some challenges grading on a silver screen due to the shift in perspective. RealD is installed in around 70 per cent of cinemas worldwide, but there’s a lot of development to come with this technology, and the Dolby system is one to watch out for.”

Post Republic delivered StreetDance on 3D DCP (Digital Cinema Package), 2D DCP and 35mm (2D version).

Molinare.

Continues to pump out the DI grades. For the recentlyreleased urban gangland thriller Shank (Revolver Entertainment/Gunslinger/Gateway Films), lensed on RED

by DP Adam Frisch, Molinare grader Tim Waller created a bleach bypass effect for director Mo Ali that reflected the intensity of story. Some of the scenes were shot in extremely low-light conditions, but the vital facial details were retained by tracking and grading through windows on Baselight.

For the romcom Cosi (Britannia Film & TV), starring Richard E. Grant and Sarah Brightman, shot by Tim Palmer, Waller’s job in DI was to reflect the opulent environment in which the production was shot, but keeping good colour separation for the skin tones. Waller

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British Cinematographer Covering International Cinematography www.britishcinematographer.co.uk Issue 039

Molinare: did the DIs on a hatful of productions including Tracker, Sizzle, Shank, Money and 4.3.2.1.

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StreetDance 3D: graded at Post Republic in Germany.

also graded the Ian Sharp-directed Tracker (Eden Films), shot by Harvey Harrison BSC, starring Ray Winstone as an ex-Boer guerrilla in New Zealand who is sent out to bring back a Maori accused of killing a British soldier.

Molinare’s Andrew Daniel worked on the up-coming crime thriller 4.3.2.1. (Unstoppable Ents/Retro-juice Prods) about four women and their chance encounter with diamons thieves, shot by DP Franco Pezzino. “The clients wanted a bold, bright and slick look to the film,” said Daniel, “with the aim being to try and break away from the grittier looks that most British films adopt. As such, the end product looks a lot more stylised and much more like an American effort than typically British.”

Meanmwhile, Molinare grader Gareth Spensely worked on the BBC 2 comedy Money. Based on the cult novel of the same name by Martin Amis, it follows John Self, a British commercials director who is thrust into the world of New York movie deals, shark agents, impossibly petulant actors and an increasingly degenerate lifestyle.

It stars Nick Frost and Jerry Hall, was directed by Jeremy Lovering, produced by Ben Evans and lit by Ben Smithard.

“The opportunity to grade Money was a creative gift,” said Spensley. “From the outset Jeremy and Ben wanted two distinctly different looks that separated the transatlantic story, but to be underscored by an 1980’s period feel. To emphasise the glamourous attraction of New York for the protagonist we created a rich grade that had a nod towards the heightened contrast and saturation of a cross-processed look. Then to underline this distinction we gave the London-based sequences a much softer more muted treatment. The production also presented a very interesting technical challenge in matching the principle Sony F35 digital photography with location establishers shot solo by the DP on the Canon 5D and 7D in both New York and London. Whilst there are drawbacks to these fast emerging new DSLR technologies, the decision to use them on Money represented an intelligently cost-effective application and significantly lifted the overall production value.”

And if that weren’t enough, Spensely also provided the grades on The Prisoner (ITV Productions & AMC), directed by Nick Hurran, shot by DP Florian Hoffmeister.

“Nick and Florian wanted a movie-scale grade that highlighted the quirky locations and ravishing landscapes of Namibia and South Africa. We decided that, to meet this ambitious brief, we needed to give the project the

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full DI treatment; from a Northlight scan to a 2K grade, the process we put in place mimicked our feature film workflow. This technical backbone brought the full latitude of the 35mm photography into the grading suite, and allowed us to build up a complex array of secondary selections and shapes to delicately fine-tune the images.

This made it possible for us to quickly and efficiently enhance the various details of this multi-faceted production, from accentuating the epic landscapes to enhancing the peculiar architecture of the new village.”

Colorfront.

Following its work with DP Atilla Szalay on Pillars Of The Earth (as reported in Edition 38) Budapest-based posthouse Colorfront has finished work on Going Postal, the third in the Terry Pratchett series from Mob Film Co/Sky. Shot on location in Budapest by Gavin Finney BSC, using the ARRI D21, Colorfront did all the capture, conform, VFX integration, titles, optical effects, sound mixing, colour grading and video deliverables. Over 300 VFX shots were delivered by Digital Apes, which is also housed within the Colorfront premises. This allowed director Jon Jones to sign off on VFX shots in Colorfront’s calibrated theatre.

By doing three weeks of sound mixing and colour grading in parallel, the director, producer, DP and SKY executives were able to review the grades along with the latest 5.1 mix in either of the company’s identical theaters, on 5.5m-wide x 3m high screens, equipped with HD Christie projection. All the worldwide deliverables including Dolby E encoding and audio layback were done by Colorfront. Next up is Monte Carlo, shooting in May with DP Jonathan Brown, for which Colorfront will be providing the digital dailies.

Technicolor.

Amonst the features getting a DI grade at Technicolor are Neds (Bluelight/Film 4/UK Film Council/Scottish Screen), directed by Peter Mullan, DP Roman Osin BSC; the Gurinder Chadha-directed It’s A Wonderful Afterlife (The Indian Film Co/Bend It Films) lensed by Dick Pope BSC; Warner Bros’ Clash Of The Titans, directed by Louis Leterrier, with Peter Menzies Jnr the DP; Sony Pictures’ Cemetery Junction, directed by and starring Ricky Gervais, shot by Remi Adefarasin BSC.; and Centurion (Cloud Nine/Pathé) directed by Neil Marshall, lensed by Sam McCurdy BSC.

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British Cinematographer Covering International Cinematography www.britishcinematographer.co.uk Issue 039

Close Up –––Philipp Blaubach The Disappearance Of Alice Creed

Two men fortify a nondescript apartment so it can serve as a prison, and then kidnap a woman and tie her to a bed. Before there’s even time to react, we’re plunged into a very nasty situation, and not a simple one either.

That’s the premise behind the Disappearance Of Alice Creed, written and directed by J Blakeson. The tense, twisting and claustrophobic drama is played out by just three actors – Gemma Arterton (St Trinian’s, The Boat That Rocked) as Alice, Eddie Marsan (Red Riding, Sherlock Holmes) as Vic, and Martin Compston (Red Road, The Damned United) as Danny. It was shot over a four-week period during February and March 2009, in the Isle of Man, with the backing of CinemaNX, and produced by Adrian Sturges (The Escapist).

Connections from days at the London International Film School in Covent Garden, and the Rupert Wyattdirected The Escapist, secured Philipp Blaubach’s services as the cinematographer. “I have worked with Adrian and Rupert on several shorts over the years, and we worked together on The Escapist. Adrian called me to so say that he had passed my reel to the J, the director, and wondered if I would like to take a look at the script for Alice…”, he says.

“I loved it – a thrilling kidnap that goes wrong, which very quickly becomes a more intelligent and developing piece about victims and kidnappers.

However, my first impression was that it was not the most cinematic – it was pretty much all contained within one space, and was heavy with dialogue, almost like a stage play. I thought this presented a good challenge for me as a cinematographer.”

Blaubach continues, “When we met, I realised quickly that J had strong ideas about composition and colour, which is obviously exciting for a cinematographer.

Although generally in low budget films the style is dictated by the budget, we both felt strongly that we wanted to achieve something that looked bigger and more designed than you would normally expect on a four-week schedule. With a lot of dialogue you often find yourself with two cameras ‘covering’ the scene quickly from all angles, and then move on. The extra challenge we set ourselves was that we wanted to shoot single camera with a more controlled and focussed approach. We quickly got talking about camera angles, framing, Hitchcockian suspense, and started breaking the script down into storyboards. It was a really inventive, collaborative and enjoyable process working with him.”

Creative references included the B-movie Black Snake Moan for its stylised and bold approach, and also David Lynch productions such as Lost Highway. “I tend to err on the side of subtlety. But on this film I didn’t want to worry about the logic of light sources too much. It allows you to be more experimental and it ultimately produces a slightly theatrical result, which suited this film well,” he says.

Blaubach opted to frame the production in 2.35:1 cinemascope. “It’s a claustrophobic piece, with sparse interiors and not much to look at except the actors. My challenge was to keep it interesting over the course of the film. Working with this aspect ratio lets you create more interesting compositions in terms of positioning the actors and blocking their movement, and compose with

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foreground and backgrounds. I also love to be more static in ‘scope and compose shots in which actors move through the frame, with the result that the viewers have to move their heads as they follow the action.”

In terms of the look and colour palette, Blaubach remarks, “We wanted to create a heightened reality, with a slick look, rather than go for the typical, gritty realist crime drama. This was also incorporated into the production design with bold colours for different spaces: red living room, green kitchen, dark bedroom and stark white bathroom.”

To embrace the theatricality of the script, Blaubach had the set designed with floating walls, allowing him to move the camera backwards by 20-30ft, sometimes covering wide shots on a 50mm or 65mm lens instead of a 21mm wide angle.

Another decision was whether to shoot film or digital.

“I’m a huge fan of Super 16mm, also because it’s a fast format to work with. But you have to embrace the grain, and we wanted this to look very clean,” he says. “Due to budget restrictions digital came on the agenda. I had good experiences using the D21 on commercials. ARRI Media provided us with two cameras, one extra body for insurance as we were on an island. This also became our B camera for Steadicam work in the last week. Having two cameras for the last week was really helpful on a tight schedule like this. Especially with many location moves crammed in, we could literally leap frog and get through enough set-ups per day to meet the schedule.”

To aid the fluency of production and postproduction, Blaubach developed LUTs for 200 and 400ASA exposures in cooporation with Ron Pizzey, the DI grader at Ascent Media.

Blaubach selected Cooke S4 lenses, “as they are sharp, yet have a softness on rendering skin tones. You can use glass that looks too sharp especially on digital.

However, during the last week we were shooting in a dark forest, and I swapped to Master primes because I needed extra fast lenses to cope with the conditions.”

Despite having many scenes storyboarded, there was a fair degree of on-set improvisation. Some scenes required a quick rehearsal and walkthrough, after which Blaubach would set about lighting the scene appropriately. Sometimes the camera was positioned at ceiling height. He also came up with a dizzying 270-degree camera move, using a tight circular floor track, to visually represent turning points in the relationship between the characters.

Whilst he was happy with the D21’s performance, Blaubach says the practicalities of shooting with digital are something producers need to carefully consider.

“You can achieve great results with cameras like the D21 and Genesis, and it may look cheaper on paper to work with digital than shooting on film. But, working at this higher end, you are dealing with bulky cameras, and you have so much more cabling and monitoring to set up than you do on a film shoot. I am convinced that we could have done three or four more set-ups per day if we had shot on film. Packing up the gear, loading it into the van, and then unloading and setting up again, all takes considerably longer.”

All-in-all, Blaubach has great memories of working on Alice…. “Although it was small film, everyone was there for the right reasons, including the cast – Gemma, Eddie and Martin. Yes there was time pressure, and we were all stuck in the same hotel on a small island. In these circumstances things could have gone the wrong way, but they didn’t. It brought us together. People worked hard and were happy to go the extra mile. We’d all enjoy a drink together at the pub at the weekend. We were a focussed and happy crew.”

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British Cinematographer Covering International Cinematography www.britishcinematographer.co.uk Issue 039

Close Up –––Sam McCurdy BSC StreetDance 3D

Filmmaking is filmmaking – the basic skills apply to any genre or story, although many directors and cinematographers often find a niche in an area they enjoy and tend to stick with it. Sam McCurdy BSC has built much of his reputation on horror and action films, in particular those of Neil Marshall, the leading British member of the so-called ‘Splat Pack’ who directed The Descent and Dog Soldiers.

With this background, shooting an unashamedly commercial, feel-good teen drama-dance movie about winning against the odds would appear to be a massive departure, but McCurdy does not see it as too removed.

“I have done a lot of horror and action, but the dance sequences in StreetDance 3D are like action,” he explains.

“They play in a similar way, with most of the scenes on big sets, or sound stages, with multiple cameras.”

McCurdy knew of the directors, Max Giwa and Dania Paquini, through other cameramen who had worked on the pair’s music promos, but his decision to shoot StreetDance 3D was based on past work with producers Allan Niblo and James Richardson, the founders of Vertigo Films. “They thought I would be a good fit for it, and when I read the script I didn’t have a second thought,” he says.

The title of the film declares its stereoscopic nature, an element that was always going to be part of the production, but which became a major driver in getting the shoot underway.

“We knew a couple of 3D dance movies were being made in the US, so we thought this would be a good time for our film,” says McCurdy. “James [Richardson], knowing the marketing of films as he does, was convinced StreetDance 3D could go up against the other films, even though it was made for a third of the money.”

McCurdy had no previous experience of 3D, but has been watching the surge of this modern incarnation of the technology. “I’ve done a lot of reading up,” he says, “and talking to friends and people who have worked with it. Everybody has an opinion on how to do it, so James, Jim Spencer [line producer] and I tried to get the best advice we could from both the US and Europe.”

This led to bringing in Paradise FX, which has worked on 3D films including My Bloody Valentine and Joe Dante’s The Hole. The company’s stereographer, Max Penner, has vast experience in 35mm 3D and worked on IMAX and Disneyland ride productions as well as features.

“Max understood that we wanted to make a drama, only in 3D,” McCurdy comments. “Other companies we spoke to just wanted to make something in 3D, with lots of ‘outies’. We do have people flying through the air, with arms coming out at the audience, but those moments were scripted, not just created for the sake of it.”

StreetDance 3D was shot using two Paradise FX 4K ParaCam rigs, each of which houses two Red digital cameras in a mirror configuration. A 2K ParaCam with two SI2K cameras was used for Steadicam, handheld and bike-mounted shots. The rigs were operated

by Rodrigo Gutierrez and Balazs Bolygo. The film was mastered in Real D for a silver mix screen, with audiences wearing polarised glasses.

Close Ups were researched and written by Ron Prince and Kevin Hilton.

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These are still early days for 3D shooting, but McCurdy has found that dogmatism has set in already.

“We were told early on by people, who we didn’t end up working with, that we should be wary of using long lenses,” he says. “But within a few days we realised this was rubbish and started using 100, 135 and 180mm lenses. The shift those gave in the foreground and background made a real difference to the 3D effect.

It worked for our picture because we were going for a highly-stylised, commercial look.”

The Red camera was selected partly to fit the film’s budget and although its unreliability did cause problems because of the multiple units, its wireless capability allowed lenses to be changed more easily and quickly between rigs. Even so, switching lenses was still a longer process than McCurdy and his crew were used to: “It could take about 35 minutes to change a 100mm lens to an 180, although by the end of the job we had got that down to 15-minurtes.”

StreetDance 3D was post-produced in DI, using the FilmLight Truelight colour management system, at Post Republic in Berlin. The facility is wholly owned by Vertigo Films, which has just taken a stake in Paradise FX and will establish a European branch of the company in Europe in the near future.

StreetDance 3D is not only McCurdy’s first stereoscopic film, it is the first of his that his children will be allowed to watch. “I do love my horror movies,” he admits. “We have such fun making them, mainly because they’re so fantastical and you know it could never happen in real life.”

The horror genre was often used to show off 3D back in the 1950s and McCurdy and Neil Marshall have discussed the possibilities the technology offers today. The cinematographer has also received two scripts from the US for old horror films remade in 3D, so either way he will be finding ways to get gore into audiences.

McCurdy has just finished shooting Centurion for Marshall, showing that the partnership between the two sustains: “Long may it continue,” he says. This new take on the sword and sandal epic is one of several films McCurdy has either just completed or is about to start. Others in the pipeline are a suitably dark, brooding version of Macbeth, directed by Rupert Goold and starring Patrick Stewart; The Devil’s Double, telling the story of an Iraqi army lieutenant forced to act as a stand-in for Saddam Hussein’s son; and Timeless, written and to be directed

by Michael Bartlett (The Zombie Diaries), going into production in 2011.

With a possible sequel to StreetDance 3D already being discussed even before the first film is released, there is a good chance that Sam McCurdy will be going stereoscopic again soon. But he feels producers should be careful in how they approach the format: “If we’re not careful as filmmakers and there are a lot of very average 3D movies, then the public will not go for it. If everything really works then it could be the future for cinema.”

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British Cinematographer Covering International Cinematography www.britishcinematographer.co.uk Issue 039

Close Up –––DP Rob Hardy The First Grader

October 26th:

Our main location is Oloserian School. It sits on a hilltop framed on one side by the Ngong hills and the other by the vast expanse of the Rift valley. It is like something out of a Sergio Leone movie. We are shooting here for four weeks. The “set” is effectively 360 degrees of the school and the village.

We supervise the construction of a new classroom, based on the original that Maruge was taught in. A simple, wooden structure with a corrugated iron roof. I ask the construction manager to put some opaque corrugated plastic panels or skylights into the roof. I discuss with my gaffer, a South African named Elliot, about making up frames for the skylights, consisting of various ND gels as well as degrees of diffusion. This way I can control the natural light from the sun as it rides across the sky.

October 29th:

The First Grader is the working title for a BBC Films / Origin Pictures film shot in Kenya between October and December 2009, directed by Justin Chadwick (The Other Boleyn Girl) and produced by David Thompson. It’s the true story of 87-year-old Maruge (Oliver Litondo) and how, through sheer determination, he inadvertently became the oldest person on the planet to go back to school.

His past is haunted by painful memories; having lost his family and experienced torture at the hands of the British during the fight for Kenyan independence in the ‘50s. Now he has a new fight, against the people whose freedom he helped create, a fight for his right to be educated.

The production was lensed by Rob Hardy, whose recent credits include Lionsgate’s Blitz, C4’s Red Riding 1974 and Boy A, the latter earning Hardy a BAFTA for best cinematography, and Is Anybody There for Hayday/BBC Films. Hardy kept a diary during the shoot, and made extracts available…

October 10th:

Standing outside the Toucan in Soho, I receive a call from Kenya. Justin Chadwick is on the phone. He’s beside himself with excitement. He describes a landscape that’s epic: of muted colours and crumbling textures; of goat herds and ancient Masai figures. “It’s like a Sergio Leone Western out here. We have to shoot widescreen.”

I am a little sceptical of the 2:35 ratio. Sometimes it can lack the emotional intimacy one gets from a squarer, more photographic frame. Producer David Thompson is keen to shoot on S16mm for budget reasons amongst other things. Added to that, smaller cameras are more mobile, suited to the terrain and allow proximity, something our story needs. I suggest 2-perf 35mm having never shot it before. Jennie Paddon, my 1st AC, has already spoken to me about the Aaton Penelope and it sounds like the perfect camera.

We have decided the best approach to elicit truth from what we are about to shoot is for the kids get used to my presence. For the past few days I have sat amongst them and slowly introduced the idea of the camera.

October 30th:

Sam Phillips (grip) and Jennie Paddon (1st AC) help me put together a quick working camera package, three and six-foot sliders and a lightweight dolly made of plywood. Our camera truck is a Matatuh (Nissan people carrier) decked out with broken mattresses.

Jennie has come up with two shooting modes for handheld work: one is “film mode” – the camera being equipped with all the usual accoutrements; the second is “Kamikaze mode” – the camera stripped back to its bare essentials. I focus myself using the barrel of the lens and hold it using nothing but the pistol grip. The whole thing weighs the same as a Bolex!

I will be using two new stocks from Fuji, the Vivid 160T and the Vivid 500T, rating the 160T at 100 for daylight. The tests Fuji showed me looked amazing. There is a fairytale quality to the story that I would like to bring out in the photography. By this I don’t mean fantasy but something much more subtle. I want to avoid the bright, colourful, high-contrast look that films made in Africa tend to go for. I want it to feel softer, more elegant, almost “liquid” in places. I’m looking at the work of Jack Cardiff and photographers of the fifties era for inspiration.

As with all the films I have shot, I intend to use only Tungsten light (I do not believe HMI for a minute). Dinos will suffice. I intend to keep the depth-of-field very shallow to make Maruge jump out of the landscape, and at the same time the mountain ranges and dramatic skies will become painterly.

November 8th:

A visit to Ice Films in Kings Cross confirms my suspicion – the Penelope is the perfect camera. It’s small, lightweight, even with master prime lenses. Ergonomically, it will enable me to work quickly yet also sit back and be more considered when the time comes. However, Penelope hasn’t left the country on a feature before now. It’s a risk I am prepared to take.

For some years now, I have been preoccupied by the notion of creating order from ‘chaos’ using the parameters of the frame. This may sound nonsensical, or even slightly aloof, but it is the only way I can describe the feeling I get when I look through the lens. Studies have shown that war photographers often find they are emotionally removed from what they photograph because the camera acts as an emotional buffer.

With this film I am trying to do the opposite, I want the audience to feel they are in the room with our protagonist. My intention is to react to the landscape, and those who inhabit it, in the hope that I can return to the screen an experience that is truthful and honest.

October 16th:

November 9th:

October 14th:

After much deliberation, Justin, David and myself agree that shooting 35mm 2-perf is the only possible route forward. It will give our small story an epic feel, something I felt it needed since reading the script. David and Trevor Ingman (line producer) feel they can make it work, providing Fuji and Ice can strike a seminal deal for us.

October 25th:

Kenya. A long journey over bumpy terrain took Justin, Deborah Saban (AD), and myself across the Ngong Hills to a small Masai village known only as Joseph’s Place.

A child named Peter, who wore only one shoe, took us to the hut that would become Maruge’s home for the purposes of the film. Inside, it was very dark, the walls were rich with decades of cooking fire smoke. A slither of daylight searched the room as it penetrated a hole carved into the earthen wall. There was little room for anything save a camera and a film crew. It is clear that our methods must be as undisruptive and inventive as possible. At every turn was an image or an action that excited us. We were going to have to operate like a documentary crew. Perfect Penelope terrain.

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First day shooting. On the hill, dust, heat, wind. Epic landscapes. We gathered some good material albeit at a very fast pace. The locals appeared with trinkets and Masai blankets in hand to stare with bemusement at the circus unfolding in front of them. The goats, on occasion, cost more as extras than the villagers. The camera performed well, quick loading, light and fast. Jennie, Sam et al were brilliant too. At 4pm the village turns into a dust bowl, at 5.30 the sky turns biblical. I am told this is what happens everyday. I am looking forward to the next 37 of them.

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British Cinematographer Covering International Cinematography www.britishcinematographer.co.uk Issue 039

Camera Creative –––John Mathieson BSC Robin Hood

Slings and arrows.

Mathieson, also a double Oscar-nominee for his work on Gladiator and Phantom Of The Opera (2004, directed

by Joel Schumacher), revisited a tried and tested cinematographic formula to bring the $130m heroic tale to life on the big screen. Scott has developed a method for filming, especially intricate shots, as swiftly as possible, preferring to work with a minimum of three cameras, and up to eleven on a big stunt – with the result that it may only take two or three takes to capture what’s needed.

“Robin Hood is a Hollywood epic, with a big cast and big themes. Ridley is a visual genius, who’s made great films for a long, long time, and who knows what he wants,” says Mathieson. “From a cinematographic point of view this means you have to create and capture images differently to the way you might work on other types of films. With multiple cameras to set up, there’s a lot to get organised and to communicate to the crew. The production is like an ocean liner leaving port, and you have to be ready to get on board every day and go with the flow.”

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Robin Hood, which is set to open the 63rd Cannes Film Festival, is John Mathieson BSC’s fifth cinematographic collaboration with Ridley Scott, having previously lit Gladiator (2000), Hannibal (2001), Matchstick Men (2003) and Kingdom Of Heaven (2005) for the veteran director, writes Ron Prince.

Robin Hood stars Russell Crowe as the eponymous hero, Cate Blanchett as Maid Marian, Matthew Macfadyen as the Sheriff of Nottingham, Max von Sydow playing Walter Loxley, Mark Strong as Godfrey, Eileen Atkins taking the role of Eleanor of Aquitaine and William Hurt as William Marshal. A Universal Pictures/Imagine Entertainment production, in association with Relativity Media and Scott Free Productions, the film began development in 2007 when Universal Studios acquired a script entitled Nottingham, depicting a heroic Sheriff of Nottingham to be played by Crowe.

However, Scott’s dissatisfaction with the script led him to delay filming, and during 2008 it was rewritten into a story about Robin Hood becoming an outlaw, and switching identities with the Sheriff. Filming was scheduled to begin in August in Sherwood Forest for release in November 2009. However, additional script rewrites to further change the storyline, plus WGA and SAG strikes, delayed the start date. Filming, with a new twist on the Robin Hood story, eventually began on March 30, 2009, in forests around London, and at a 200-acre Nottingham set in Seale, near Farnham, originally built during 2008 and which had aged into the landscape. (Interestingly, the set and the extensive unit base can be seen on Google Maps/Earth in satellite view mode.)

The production moved in June and July to film at various countryside and beach locations in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Filming also took place at Bourne Wood, near Farnham, and in Dovedale near Ashbourne, Derbyshire “This is a much more real film than the typical Robin vs. the Sheriff of Nottingham story,” says Mathieson.

“We encounter a war-weary Robin, just returned from the crusades, who finds the country full of pestilence, starvation and rebellion in the air, with a civil war about to start. We’re immersed in power struggle that mixes the geopolitical and historical. It’s much more global than a romp around the woods.”

Mathieson says he did not watch other Robin Hood films, as most were shot too long ago to be of significance. However, he says that he and Scott did look lovingly at medieval painters such as Breugel The Elder, “whose old, lumpy, medieval men, stumping through wintery forests with their greyhounds, were a real inspiration. The trouble was it just didn’t look like that when we came to shoot,” he muses.

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British Cinematographer Covering International Cinematography www.britishcinematographer.co.uk Issue 039

“Photographically, I would have loved to have shot during the winter, when there’s no foliage, the air is clearer and you can see forever. But we ended up shooting in the woods during spring and high summer of 2009, when the coverage of the leaves was complete and dense that there was no meaningful light. Apart from green being a boring colour, the moss and algae on tree trunks can take on a lime green hue, and things look magenta when cast against it. There’s no texture either.

So my task was to introduce separation and contrast into that place, by lighting bits and pieces, and to give it a colder, more muted look.”

Consequently, more often than not, Mathieson found himself pushing the 500ASA stock, and sometimes dreaming up ways to light on the hoof. One memorable example, he recalls, for a shot of a horse and rider galloping a couple of hundred meters away from camera through the forest, involved strapping together two 100K SoftSuns delivering enough light to follow the action to the edge of the woods.

Mathieson framed Robin Hood on 35mm in Scott’s preferred 2.40:1 aspect ratio. “Photographically, the approach to Robin Hood was like Kingdom Of Heaven, although the stories are different. Shooting 2.40:1 gives you that epic framing, but it’s versatile and quick to set up. On a large scale films like these, where there’s a dynamic mixture of big set pieces, battles, charging horses, the intimacy of people walking and talking, and with multiple cameras running simultaneously, you have to be able to move quickly. So you need a camera system that’s light and versatile.”

Cameras included ARRI ST and LTs, often with nine of these running across a set-piece, or as many as 11 on a big day. Mathieson says he also used SI2K and various crash cams, to get close into the action during the final beach battle. Along with lightness and speed of deployment, Mathieson’s lens choices were dictated by the simple premise of capturing the best possible quality, super-clean image.

“On a film like Phantom Of The Opera, I used the lenses to create subtle, elegant blurs and flares, to give the pictures idiosyncratic warmth. But on Robin Hood, we just needed to create great colours and stable images, and to gather lots of shots.”

Mathieson selected a wide range of Panavision Primos, and an array of fast but lightweight zoom lenses, including the recently launched Panavision 19-90mm T2.8 compact zoom, plus the Optimo 15-40mm T2.6 and 28-76mm T2.6, which were both used a lot for filming on Steadicam.

Mid-range zooms included the Optimo 24-290mm T2.8, Panavision Primo 24–275mm T2.8, plus the longer 135–420mm T2.8. The Russian-made Elite 120–520mm T2.8 fitted with a doubler became an ultra long lens.

Shooting in the woods with lots of leafy coverage meant Mathieson having to concentrate on contrast and separation.

Director Ridley Scott has developed an efficient, multicamera technique which Mathieson knows how to deploy.

Cate Blanchett as Marion, Russell Crowe as Robin Longstride and director/producer Ridley Scott on set.

John Mathieson BSC pictured at the Plus Camerimage festival in Lodz in 2006.

Robin (Russell Crowe) and Marion (Cate Blanchett) survey Peper Harow.

John Mathieson BSC (l) at the unit base for Robin Hood with camera operator Roberto Contreras.

Images courtesy of Universal.

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“The choice of lenses for shooting Super 35 gives you sharpness, range and incredible apertures – you can cope with shooting in either low-light or in full sunlight on a beach, or pan from a bright exterior into a dark interior without introducing lens artefacts,” he says. “Also, when a horse comes galloping at you at 35mph, it can be up and passed you before you know it. With the longer lenses, you can get a good crack at it and follow the action as the horse banks left or right.” In terms of film stocks, Mathieson selected a small range of stocks, calculating their usage on the likely F-stop range he wanted to work in at the various location or studio, and for the very pragmatic reason of keeping to a minimum any filtration changes on the multiple camera set-ups.

Kodak Vision 3 5219 500 ASA was used for the woodland scenes, which were dark on even the brightest of days, with the stock being pushed by as many as 1.5 stops, and all of the night-time scenes. Mathieson selected Vision 2 5201 50 ASA for “the sunny stuff, open exteriors, and the final battle scene on the beach,” with Vision 2 5205 250 ASA for poorly-lit exteriors and brighter interior scenes, or a combination of the two such as the mouth of a barn or a doorway.

“Castles are not famous for having big windows,” he says. “My old Mini had more glass that some of the rooms in which we were shooing, so we had to pack a lot of hard light through the windows to get enough illumination on to the set.”

Having made five films with Scott, Mathieson says of his relationship with the director, “We don’t overly discuss things. There’s a comfortable familiarity between us, and a lot gets done on automatic. As there is always a huge amount to do every day – the main task on Ridley’s films is to translate what’s needed to the rest of the crew.

“On a production like Robin Hood, there just isn’t the time to fiddle around with bounce cards and be arty as you might do on a drama. You have to make sure to put the cameras and lights in the right place, and let things fall into frame. Your photography is limited in some ways, and might not be as finely-tuned as you want it to be. But there is a randomness that creates a new dynamic in the photography. So long as the set up is right, you go with what you get – an image that suits the picture.”

The DI on the film was done by Stephen Nakamura at Company 3 in Los Angeles. An ARRI Laser scanner was used to convert the negative to a 4K digital files, and the colour correction was done at 4K resolution. Due to other working commitments, Mathieson was only able to work with Nakamura for a week, to talk about the look and give the colourist his instructions.

“I’m not a great fan of DI, but felt I was in good hands,” Mathieson says. “I didn’t really achieve a look, or a style, per se on this film, as that can take you out of the story. But I did try to make the photography not look too lush and green, by taking out some of the warmer colours. The DI helped to enhance the dreary, coolness of the imagery, especially in the opening woodland scenes which are a visual metaphor, that better days are to come.”

For scenes shot during sunny days, Mathieson asked Nakamura to balance the contrast with those shot on more dreary overcast days. During post production Company 3 also took reflections of sunlight off leaves on the ground, helmets and armour, and did lot of custom sharpening – on weaved-metal body armour and on water droplets during the final battle scenes by the ocean, to make them appear like shards of flying glass – creating a sense of hyper-reality. In some scenes, blades of grass were also sharpened and given a brownish-green tone, helping to tell the audience on a subconscious level that it is a certain time of day and season.

Since completing Robin Hood, Mathieson has also lit Rowan Joffe’s directorial debut Brighton Rock and Ealing Studios’ Burke & Hare. Whether he’s shooting a multimillion dollar epic or a more modestly budgeted British independent production, the lure and the approach remain the same.

“To me it’s all about the story, the script and the director, and how I as the cinematographer can make images come to life,” he says. “Dealing with the logistics on a film like Robin Hood is different, but when you’re on the set, it’s the same thing, big or low budget. You’re at the sharp end, always on a tight schedule, working with the director and the crew, to light and frame the images that will best tell the story.”

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British Cinematographer Covering International Cinematography www.britishcinematographer.co.uk Issue 039

On the Job –––Haris Zambarloukos BSC Thor

We need a hero.

Photography on this epic live action/VFX-laden production, directed by Kenneth Branagh, and starring Chris Hemsworth as the eponymous hero, began on January 11th, 2010. The film has a scheduled global release date of May 6, 2011.

A Marvel Studios production, Thor is an epic adventure that spans the Marvel Universe – from present day Earth to the mythical Nordic realm of Asgard. In addition to Hemsworth, the cast includes Natalie Portman is Jane Foster, a young woman who befriends Thor on Earth; Tom Hiddleston as Thor’s evil brother, Loki, and Anthony Hopkins as Odin, Thor’s father and king of Asgard.

“We’re taking very much a Stan Lee (legendary American comic book writer and former president of Marvel Comics) approach to the story as our inspiration,” said Zambarloukos. “Both Ken and I love the Marvel Comics he created, like Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Avengers, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, Doctor Strange and Thor. So we’re referring to the original illustrations and using lots of Dutch angles, as well as extreme use of colour and strong light to bring psychological uneasiness and tension to the film.”

The production filmed at Raleigh Manhattan Beach Studios in Los Angels, with locations including rural Galisteo and Santa Fe in New Mexico, used for many classic and modern Westerns including Silverado, Big Country and Wyatt Earp.

“It’s a very distinctive piece of US landscape, and it’s interesting to put a superhero into this contex,” he commented. “The original True Grit was shot here, and Roger Deakins is shooting the Cohen Brothers’ remake of that film here. We sometimes bump into him and the crew in Santa Fe.” Speaking about his involvement with Thor, Zambarloukos said, “I had worked with Ken on Sleuth, and he called me to see if I was interested in shooting Thor for him. I’ve been a fan of comic books since childhood.

Although I was more familiar with the modern comics like Watchmen and Simonson’s Thor, I started to research the subject and was fascinated to see how close the Thor books are to Nordic philosophy, with characters firmly rooted in the original mythology. I loved what Ken, and the costume designer, Alexandra Byrne (Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Phanton Of The Opera), and production designer, Bo Welch (Men In Black, Edward Scissorhands), had already done in terms of early visuals. My early inspiration also came from trying to find images that could represent a perfect mythical world. I was drawn to underwater photography by David Doubilet, who is in my opinion the greatest underwater photographer. His work is both magical and realistic at the same time.”

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Haris Zambarloukos BSC took time out during a lunch break, whilst shooting on location in New Mexico, to speak to British Cinematograher about his work on Thor, the forthcoming fantasyfeature based on the successful Marvel comic-book series, first published in 1962.

Zambarloukos started prep as long ago as March 2009. At the time, Branagh was acting in Sweden on Wallander, Zambarloukos was in London. So the pair used Skype, in combination with Cinesync, a remote review and approval system, to speak about the production and look at video test footage shot by Zambarloukos, as well as early designs.

“It was a great way for us to stay in touch and keep up with prep, as we could view the same material simultaneously, and make notes on particular frames and images. This allowed the VFX and production design teams to move forwards with their work, and not have to wait until September when we eventually got together in person,” he said.

Of course, choosing the format was a key decision.

“We never considered digital, as the latitude would not hold up to the extremes of light and dark we were going to encounter on location in New Mexico – shooting into the sunlight at one moment before plunging into a dark interior the next,” Zambarloukos explains. “As we were creating a spectacular, engrossing film for the cinema, we considered 70mm as Ken has already done that on Hamlet, and also Super 35mm and 3D. But in the end we settled on 35mm Anamorphic 2.40:1. I gives a grand, epic look, and but gives a reduced depth-of-field. Having shot eight films in Anamorphic I was very comfortable with it.

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Also, knowing what the VFX team wanted to do – with starscapes and backgrounds that go on indefinitely – I knew it might be a challenge to accommodate their requests. We came up with lighting plan and lens choice that could accomplish this and everyone was happy.”

The cameras – Panavision Platinums and XLs, plus an ARRI 435 – plus the lens package, were provided by Panavision in Los Angeles. Zambarloukos selected G-series Anamorphics, including the 40-80mm and 70-200mm short zooms, plus some specials built by veteran lensmaker Dan Sasaki, in the form of 20 and 25mm super-wide lenses, with new optics to match the main G-series lenses.

“It’s nice to use a wide angle lens as you can get intimate with the actors,” commented Zambarloukos.

“Anamorphics are more flattering in portraiture, and you can shoot wide and close-up and it’s still flattering.”

As for film stocks, Zambarloukos said tests using the new Fuji stocks provided interesting results, but he eventually opted for Kodak Vision 5219 500 ASA for studio work, and a combination of Vision 2 5201 50 ASA and Vision 3 5207 250 ASA for exteriors and location work.

“The 5201 is a low-speed daylight film, which also has an expansive dynamic range, that’s great for bright sunlight and gives supersaturated colours. I chose the 5207 as it has broad latitude for shots that go from bright sunlight into interiors and back out again, keeping detail in the highlights and the shadow areas,” he explained.

Proving the adage that time spent in prep is time saved on set, Zambarloukos said he spent time in plotting out the specifics of the lighting before production began.

“I have a wonderful gaffer in the form of Cory Geryac, and I requested at an early stage that a dimmer op be brought board. We have DMX dimmers on every light routed through an I-Light console, and it’s worked out brilliantly. The plotting is extremely accurate, and lighting can be deployed and adjusted quickly and eloquently on set. This is especially helpful as we have up two Megawatts per stage. I can shoot at T11 and have enough light to get the depth-of-field I need to.”

The shoot for Thor spanned 17 weeks, 77 days, in total, with Zambarloukos ensconced in pre-production for three months prior to that. Zambarloukos reported the production was shooting five-day weeks. “Ken has a reputation for keeping good hours on a film, and although there’s always stuff to be done before and after each day, we’re keeping good time, and think we might actually be ahead.”

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Dailies are being done by Deluxe. Although the rest of the production team are watching dailies digitally through PIX, Zambarloukos is watching film rushes. “I’ve never shot a picture and not watched film rushes. I always make judgements based on film prints,” he said.

“ARRI sourced a LocPro 35, and I had it set up in the conference room of a local hotel. I head down there every evening to review the rushes as soon as they come back from the lab.”

Zambarlokos said that whilst he has never shot a film with so many VFX before, the territory is not new to him. “There were 860 VFX shots in Mamma Mia!, and they worked out well because of the collaboration between the camera, VFX and production design teams. Thor has around 1,200 greenscreen shots, and like Mamma Mia! we’re using greenscreen for the right reasons – for set extenstions and backdrops, we don’t want imagination to stop. We’re working very closely with Wes Sewell, the VFX supervisor , and that typifies what has been special on this production – how intimate we are with each others work and requirements. Cinematography is about team effort and I am extremely lucky to have Peter Cavatuiti and Denis Moran SOC as operators and Al La Verde as my key grip.”

On the set of Thor near Sante Fe, New Mexico, Haris Zambarloukos BSC (r) with director Kenneth Branagh, and pictured with the crew opposite.

Photo by Zade Rosenthal..

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Events –––Cannes Preview

A whole lotta rosé.

Director Tim Burton leads the jury in Cannes this year, where contenders include Mike Leigh’s Another Year.

26 US filmmaker Tim Burton who leads the nine-member jury at this year’s Festival, said he was looking forward to the role, calling it a “great honour”.

“When you think of Cannes, you think of world cinema.

And, as films have always been like dreams to me, this is a dream come true,” he said. The panel will decide the winner of the prestigious Palme d’Or for best film, which was last year won by The White Ribbon from Austrian director Michael Haneke, lensed by Christian Berger.

British director Ridley Scott’s new film Robin Hood, starring Russell Crowe, has been selected to open the Festival. The film, about the birth of the Robin Hood legend, also stars Cate Blanchett as Maid Marian, and William Hurt.

The Universal Pictures film shot on location at Shepperton Studios and in Surrey, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, London and Wales, with British production team including director of photography John Mathieson BSC, art director David Allday and costume designer Janty Yates. It will be screened out of competition on the opening night.

Nationwide release in France will begin on the same day, with screenings across the world from 14 May. Amongst an international lineup of all-male auteurs battling France’s filmmaking superstars on their home turf, will be British director Mike Leigh competing for the event’s top prize with his latest offering, Another Year, shot

by Dick Pope BSC. Leigh won the prize for Secrets And Lies in 1996, three years after picking up the festival’s best director award for Naked, both also lensed by Pope.

Another Year’s inclusion makes it a golden dozen films with British involvement in the official Cannes lineup, reflecting the continued success of UK films and filmmaking talent internationally, with Stephen Frears’s Tamara Drewe (DP Ben Davis) Out of Competition, Hideo Nakata’s Chatroom (DP Benoit Delhomme) in Un Certain Regard, and Alicia Duffy’s All Good Children (DP Nanu Segal) in the Directors’ Fortnight.

Sophie Fiennes’s Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow will have a Special Screening. Also In Competition are Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, co-produced by the UK’s Illuminations Films, and Doug Liman’s Fair Game, cowritten by British writers Jez Butterworth and John Henry Butterworth. Woody Allen’s You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger (DP Vilmos Zsigmond) which filmed in London, is screening Out of Competition.

British short filmmaking is also well represented by Scott Graham’s Native Son and Alois de Leo’s The Boy Who Wanted To Be A Lion (DP Benoit Soler) in the Critics’ Week, and Jens Blank’s Cooked (DP David Liddell) in the Cinéfondation. British films and talent took home almost one in five of the world’s major awards led by Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire (DP Anthony Dod Mantle DFF BSC) James Marsh’s Man On Wire (DP Igor Martinovic) at the Oscars, and Andrea Arnold with Fish Tank (DP Robbie Ryan BSC) at Cannes last year. The intervening months have seen Duncan Jones’s Moon (DP Gary Shaw) Armando Iannucci’s In The Loop (DP Jamie Cairney) Sam

It’s time to pack your best bib and tucker, and slip into your strappy sandals, and step out along the Croisette, as the 63rd Edition of the Cannes Film Festival gets under way for 11 days of filmloving fun from May 12th.

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Taylor-Wood’s Nowhere Boy (DP Seamus McGarvey BSC) and Lone Scherfig’s An Education (John de Borman BSC) entertain critics and audiences alike.

John Woodward, CEO of the UK Film Council, said, “This year’s Cannes Film Festival is opening with a British film and the competition has selected three British Lotteryfunded films and another five films that were made in the UK or with British involvement. This is a sign that right now British films, filmmakers and talent are delivering great work that the rest of the world wants to see.”

The UK Film Centre.

The UK Film Centre is a central source of information for anything you want to know about the UK film industry while you are in Cannes, and once again will be putting together one of the most exciting events and seminar programmes in the international village.

Kodak & Image Forum.

The Kodak L’Appartement is back again. Located in the heart of the International Village, next to the American pavilion, it will be open daily between the 13-23rd of May. It’s a great networking venue and a relaxing place for fellow filmmakers to catch up with one another, as well as the Kodak team. Kodak also has the use of the Sunny Dream right by the Palais, where events include cocktails for UK post production and producers and the Image Forum, which will officially unveil its new website. From the UK team David Webb, Dan Clark, Christian Richter, Sam Clark, Rebecca Rau & Julie Taylor-Butt will be attending.

For the 23rd year in a row Kodak will be the main sponsor of the Camera d’Or, the international award for first time film directors. Last year, director and DP Warwick Thornton was awarded the prestigious prize in the form of €50,000 worth of 16mm or 35mm negative film stock for Samson And Delilah. Kodak is also running it’s traditional co-production breakfasts in association with ACE (European Independent Producers Associations), and aiming to help more young filmmakers, make it to the big screen with sponsorships of the Cannes Short Film Corner, The Cinefondation and International Critics Week.

The 18th May sees the Kodak Imagecare Cocktail, when 5O Kodak Imagecare labs and Kodak will host a special reception for customers who want to know more about this Kodak programme.

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Fuji.

Fuji’s Rachel Baker, Simon Baxter, David Honey, Millie Morrow and Jerry Deeney, will be at the FujiFilm Lounge at The Martinez, one of the must-visit places during the festival.

British filmmakers are delivering great work that the the world wants to see.

Pinewood Studios Group.

On the studios front, executives from the Pinewood Studios Group will be at Cannes this year from 14-18th May, on the good yacht Avella, in association with Morgans Hotel Group and Air New Zealand. Pinewood will be promoting its new international ventures, which include Pinewood Toronto Studios and Pinewood Studio Berlin Film Services.

3 Mills Studios.

Stepping out on behalf of 3 Mills Studios, from 13-19th May, will be studios executive Derek Watts, bookings manager Melanie Faulkner, and Kate Watt 3 Mill’s marketing manager. 3 Mills has recently hosted The Arbor, Blitz, Made In Dagenham and Never Let Me Go, with The Age Of Heroes and Attach The Block currently in production.

Elstree Film Studios.

Respesenting Elstree Film Studios, which recently hosted the well-attended BSC Show, will be managing director Roger Morris. Most recently Elstree hosted Matthew Vaughn with his productions Kick Ass, staring Nicholas Cage and Harry Brown staring Michael Caine, not to mention one of ITV’s top TV shows, Dancing On Ice.

Ascent Media.

Ascent Media is hosting a cocktail party aboard the Five Angels yacht, by the Palais, on 16th May. Ascent staff on the Cote dAzur include Rob Dunne, Neil Mockler, Martin Poultney, Paul Collard, Steve Boag, Rob Turpin, Jonathan Privett and Louise Hussey.

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Reliance & Technicolor Creative Services.

Indian cinema group Reliance, which recently bought up Soho’s iLab, and acquired US restoration specialists Lowry Digital, will also be treading along the Croisette.

Technicolor Creative Services (Film & Post Production UK) will be attending the annual Canned event in 2010.

Attendees include, MD Simon Wilkinson, Matt Adams director of sales, sales manager Kishor Ladwa, Keith Faulkner, the company’s features sales manager, and Tom Cotton its VP of European operations, digital cinema department.

Molinare.

Following on neatly from last year’s screening of the restored Powell and Pressburger 1948 classic The Red Shoes, there will be a screening of Cameraman: The Life And Work Of Jack Cardiff, an homage to one of the world’s greatest cinematographers, a film by Craig McCall of Modus Operandi Films which got a DI treatment in London at Molinare. The film is expected to be introduced by Jack Cardiff-fan Martin Scorsese.

Amongst the many films on sale during Cannes will be Ghost, a tale of survival inside a British prison, the feature film debut from writer/director Craig Viveiros, lensed by up-and-coming DP James Friend. Read all about it in our next edition. A Motion Picture House and London Film & Media production, Ghost has an all-star cast led by John Lynch (Sliding Doors), Martin Compston (Red Road) David Schofield (Pirates of the Caribbean), Craig Parkinson (Control) and Art Malik (The Wolfman) who also takes an executive producer role.

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Letter From America –––Richard P. Crudo ASC Former ASC President

One size doesn’t fit all!

Richard P. Crudo ASC says the testing procedures for the newest imaging technologies should strive for clarity in three basic areas – consistency, predictability and reliability.

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When you go shopping for a new car, what’s the first thing the dealer wants you to do? Take one out for a test drive!

It’s not a bad idea, since you get simple, concise and direct feedback that can play an important role in helping decide whether or not a particular vehicle suits your needs.

Unfortunately, the words simple, concise and direct generally don’t apply in the same fashion when trying to choose a serviceable digital camera.

More and more cinematographers are experiencing a certain “test fatigue” thanks to the neverending waves of manufacturer’s performance characteristics that are revised or expanded by the week. Certainly, nothing worthwhile comes from the demo reels hawked by the camera-makers themselves; they’re shot like music videos and are cut with a speed that negates close inspection. Compounding this matter are the reams of data presented by other individuals and groups - many of them without resumé - after carrying out their own dry-runs with new equipment. Giving due respect to last spring’s massive effort by the BSC and the equally ambitious Camera Assessment Series mounted by the ASC, an opinion is beginning to spread that these gangup approaches have lost their compass (though I’m sure their organisers would take great issue with that).

The major complaint is that there is no standard context through which to interpret the results.

Of course, the testing of any technology is meant to be a starting point from which to make further study. But the depth and volume of what we’re being bombarded with can become intimidating and confusing, even to our brightest and most informed people. There’s collateral damage that’s inflicted as well. Once the test results leave our considerate hands, they’re sometimes taken by others as the final word on the subject - and that’s a dangerous sentiment to be putting on the streets. Not everyone knows how to properly deconstruct what they’ve been shown, least of all the growing number of directors and producers who have been drawn into the process. Their response is often similar to that of the students you run into at the big industry trade events: they’re looking for a one-size-fits-all solution. And as we learned early in our careers, that just doesn’t exist.

Several other factors contribute to the expanding morass. Many of these exploratories into what digital cameras can, or cannot, do are played out with inconsistent methodology. Results are sometimes swayed by the remarkably unmentioned influence of market politics and the occasional conflict of interest (note: while both the BSC and ASC efforts were done with the utmost honesty and an amazing attention to detail, that’s hardly the case across the board). And on the odd occasion when tests are brought to some meaningful conclusion, we often get caught up in an absurd hair-splitting over minutiae that on a practical level means nothing to the working cinematographer. The only comparison one can imagine sounds something like this: when was it ever important for any of us to know exactly how Mitchell got that nice crinkle-finish paint onto the sides of their cameras? Once again, we are confusing the means for the end. Then, in our attempt to answer every question at once, we end up answering none at all.

Instead of concerning ourselves with the common distractions, our testing procedures should strive for clarity in three basic areas. Each one leaves plenty of room for tailoring to a specific need. But by sticking to this baseline the results will at least carry some useful freight for cinematographers at every level.

Consistency - does the camera do the same thing every time I use it?

Predictability - can I use my certainty of consistency to predict how the camera will react under a variety of conditions?

Reliability - is the camera physically robust, so that it won’t waver in its delivery of consistency and reliability?

For more than a century we tested film negatives with similar ideals in mind. We discovered what they were capable of at their highest and lowest ends under a variety of conditions, then calibrated our eyes and our meters to use that information in an artistically satisfying manner.

Can someone please relate why that approach shouldn’t hold true as applied to our newest technologies? It still works because I used it to run my own set of tests on a popular model of digital camera just a few days ago.

Now the issue is to hurry up and shoot with it because of the most troubling and impenetrable challenge we face. Everything that was learned will be out of date in a couple of weeks.

Richard P. Crudo ASC Former President of the ASC

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F-Stop Hollywood –––The latest news from the West Coast

NAB review/ CineGear preview.

NAB 2010 may be remembered by many as the year of 3D, and it will likely also be recalled for the massive air travel disruption connected to the volcanic activity in Iceland, writes Carolyn Giardina.

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As stranded attendees and exhibitors scrambled to alter their plans, the NAB reported attendance of 82,650, including 23,600 international attendees from 156 countries – seeming to indicate some optimism about the economy and state of the business as participation grew since the 2009 show.

For many in Hollywood, NAB got off to an early start when ARRI gathered the cinematography community at the DGA Theater for a preview of its Alexa digital camera line with a “direct-to-edit” workflow.

“Over the decades I’ve witnessed many changes and important developments. Many were evolutionary in nature. Tonight we are presenting something of a more revolutionary nature,” said retiring ARRI president/CEO Volker Bahnemann, who received a heartfelt standing ovation as he thanked his colleagues and friends. As part of his farewell, he introduced newly named president/ CEO Glenn Kennel.

The presentation of the new camera, which accepts 35mm PL mount lenses, included various clips, including test shots from upcoming feature Anonymous for director Roland Emmerich. This is the first movie to go into production with Alexa. Production is underway at Studio Babelsberg and on location in Berlin.

ARRI reported that Alexa’s Super 35 format sensor offers base sensitivity of EI 800, low noise and a dynamic range of 13.5 stops. The design of the CMOS sensor aims to offer the same exposure latitude from EI 200 to EI 1600.

The camera records QuickTime/ProRes files, outputs uncompressed HD video and uncompressed ARRIRAW data. Alexa’s internal recorder encodes ProRes 422, and soon ProRes 444, along with audio, metadata and Final Cut Pro (FCP) XML files. Pro Res images are recording onto on-board SxS memory cards. Two HD-SDI connectors supporting 1.5G dual link or two 3G signals can be used to output 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 uncompressed HD signals in addition to ARRIRAW. These signals can be recorded to S.two, Codex and Keisoku Giken systems. ARRI’s ARRIRAW Image Converter reconstructs the images for Windows, Linux and Mac OS. The first model of the camera range, the Alexa EV (electronic viewfinder), will be available in June starting at 45,000 Euros. The UK’s On Sight is one of the first to place orders for the new Alexa camera.

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In stereo.

Stereo cinematography was a big topic at the show, and developments included a preview of a concept prototype of a 3D camera from Sony that was unveiled during the NAB Digital Cinema Summit, which was coproduced by SMPTE, EBU, Entertainment Technology Centre @USC and NAB. John Honeycutt, executive VP and head of international business operations for Discovery International, presented the prototype, co-developed with Discovery, during his address.

Meanwhile, Panasonic once again showed its twolens 3D HD camcorder, which was first seen in January at the Consumer Electronics Show. This camera ships in the Autumn for $21,000 (roughly £13,800 GBP).

In the U.S., Panasonic is sponsoring the soon-to-be launched DirecTV 3D channels. Discovery is partnering with Sony and Imax to launch another 3D channel in the U.S. by the end of 2010.

Meanwhile, football fans are anticipating 3D coverage of the upcoming FIFA World Cup, which will use Element Technica’s Quasar stereo rigs with Sony HDC-1500 broadcast cameras and Canon lenses. Plans call for the lensing of 25 matches, which will be available on various pioneer 3D TV channels and at select public venues around the world.

At NAB, Element Technica announced that it delivered its 50th Quasar 3D rig. The rigs are now available at locations including OFFHollywood of New York, which supplied the rigs for filming the feature The Mortician. Panavision UK supplied six Quasar 3D Rigs for live coverage of the recent Six Nation Rugby Tournament in London and Rome. Action 3D Productions used Quasar rigs to shoot Larger Than Life In 3D, a concert film featuring the Dave Matthews Band, Ben Harper and Relentless7, and Gogol Bordello.

At NAB, Element Technica introduced its Neutron rig for smaller cameras, (including those with 2/3-inch or 1/3-inch imagers such as the SI-2K Mini and the Iconix) for use with smaller jibs, Steadicams, portable camera and point-of-view positions.

The rig can be changed quickly between side-byside and beam splitter configurations. Like the Quasar, the Neutron can be configured into over/thru and under/thru beam splitter modes. Element Technica reported that the Quasar and Neutron are designed so that a user could assemble and align each rig in less than 30 minutes, and convert from side-by-side to beam-splitter mode, or viceversa, in less than 10 minutes.

Lenses.

Fujinon’s enlarged PL mount family of zoom lenses. (P31) ARRI’s new Alexa camera.

Thales Angenieux agreeed to support Cooke’s /i Technology.

Leica prime lenses.

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Various new lenses were displayed at NAB. Following its announcement of a “Mystery Prime” in December, Band Pro unveiled the Leica Summilux-C lenses, a new line of PL mount primes for film and digital capture. The T1.4 close focus primes share uniform length, offer a 95mm threaded lens front, and weigh between 1.6-1.8 kg. Available exclusively from Band Pro, the lenses will include focus lengths of 18mm, 21mm, 25mm, 35mm, 40mm, 50mm, 75mm, and 100mm. These will be available toward the end of the year, while additional focal lengths will become available at a later date.

Fujinon completed its family of four PL zoom lenses with the 24-180 mm T2.6 and 14.5-45 mm T2.0. The 18-85 mm T2.0 and 75-400 mm 2.8-T3.8 were previously announced. Fujinon’s news lenses are designed for current and emerging 35mm format film and digital cinema motion picture cameras.

Cooke and Thales Angenieux have entered into a new agreement. Per the deal, Cooke’s /i Technology is initially built into an external box that connects to the Thales Angenieux’ lens. The next phase involves building i/ Technology into new lens designs.

Other companies supporting /i Technology include The Pixel Farm, which played a pivotal role with Cooke to introduce the /i Technology, plus Aaton, Avid, Arri, Avid, Cinematography Electronics, CMotion, Dalsa, Mark Roberts Motion Control, Preston Cinema Systems, Red and Service Vision.

Several manufacturers in the post space also showed some notable kit. Blackmagic Design launched a software-only version of the Resolve colour grading system for $995. Filmlight is offering an entry level, turnkey Baselight colour grading system priced at $95,000. The Pixel Farm showed a cool iPhone app, dubbed AirGrade, for directors of photography to use on set, which outputs grading metadata consistent with the ASC CDL. The company also showed PFSilo, a new restoration workflow, project and user management system.

Cine Gear preview.

On 3-6 June, Cine Gear Expo returns to The Studios at Paramount Pictures. There, ARRI’s Volker Bahnemann will receive the Cine Gear Expo Lifetime Achievement Award. Bahnemann recently retired as president and CEO of ARRI and Camera Service Center (CSC) after 48 years with ARRI, 32 of which he served as CEO of ARRI. During his tenure Bahnemann was responsible for the initiation, development and refinement of technologies such as the ARRIFLEX 35III, ARRIFLEX 765, ARRIFLEX 435 and ARRIFLEX 235 cameras, and ARRI/Zeiss high speed and variable prime lenses.

In 1996, AMPAS recognised him with the John A. Bonner Award, “in appreciation for outstanding service and dedication in upholding the high standards of the Academy.” In 2002, SMPTE honored him with the Fuji Gold Medal Award. Bahnemann continues to support ARRI in an advisory capacity through the end of the year.

Several exhibitors will be celebrating anniversaries this year, including Matthews Studio Rentals, celebrating 40 years; and Vinten, which has reached a milestone of 100 years in business.

Vinten recently participated in equipping the first 3D-specific OB truck to be built in Europe, for UK-based Telegenic, with tripods and heads. Telegenic commissioned the truck in response to a request from BSkyB. Matthews is planning to exhibit at Cine Gear with some of its newest products, including a line of heat-resistant flags for use with high temperature lighting fixtures, Extendellini grip gear, MICROgrip mounting and grip products, MICROmount maneuverable on-camera light/monitor mounts, BALLHead Camera Mounts, and CT Overheads.

Cine Gear will again feature these companies and other exhibitions, including the UK Pavilion, as well as an expanded programme highlighted by a 3D Symposium and related technology salon.

“3D is at the forefront right now, with Avatar and Alice In Wonderland, so there are a lot of questions. What is the next step? Where are we going? A lot of stereo technology is moving toward indie filmmakers, who want to learn about 3D and see if they can integrate it into their projects,” said Cine Gear president Karl Kresser.

Also expected at Cine Gear: Pictorvision’s wireless Cineflex kit, which was used at the Vancouver Olympics and is now available for rent exclusively with Pictorvision’s Cineflex HD camera systems. Schneider Optics has a new a new range of absorptive IRND filters, and offers a Century 5-Filter Kit with 4-inch filter holder. Litepanels, a Vitec Group company, now offers a Sola Fresnels series.

OConnor, also a Vitec Group brand, has a new line of professional camera accessories. The first in the line: The Cine Follow Focus CFF-1. K-Tek’s product line includes the Norbert Camera Accessory Mounting System, an accessory management system designed for videocapable DSLRs and compact HD video cameras.

Returning UK-based exhibitors include Codex Digital, MK-V, Mark Roberts Motion Control, Powergems and Ronford Baker. Others from Europe include Licht Technik in Germany and Belgium’s Key Head Systems and KGS Development.

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IMAGO –––Nigel Walters BSC President of IMAGO

Roads for IMAGO beyond Rome.

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The Rome Conference in March 2010 will be regarded as a landmark event in the progress of IMAGO. Formed eighteen years ago in Europe to improve standards of cinematography and forge understanding through sharing and communication, the IAGA returned to the home of IMAGO’s founder, Luciano Tovoli AIC ASC. Thanks to the hard work of the AIC members, young and old, and the generosity of its many sponsors, Cinecitta Studios hosted this highly-successful conference with delegates present from twenty-eight of IMAGO’s thirty-eight international societies.

Japan was represented for the first time, as was New Zealand. There was a comprehensive agenda to work through, but amongst the delegates there was a spirit of fellowship and determination to solve common problems.

Those who have worked so hard to make a success of the dream of Luciano must have had great pride in the realisation that those early aspirations of international understanding through friendship and contact have matured into reality.

Delegates were welcomed on behalf of Cinecitta Studios by its managing director Maurizio Sperandini, and the President of the Italian Society, Alessio Gelsini Torresi AIC. In his opening address of thanks to the studio executives for their generosity, the president of IMAGO, Nigel Walters BSC, also thanked Dr Cristina Busch, IMAGO’s legal adviser, who has presented a strategy for the future progress through “The Guiding Principles of IMAGO’s Campaign for Cinematographers Authors Rights.” In the afternoon session Mercedes Escherer, founder of the EUXXL joined Cristina by outlining the importance to cinematographers of the Vienna Forum.

This three-day forum in May is intended to provide a consensus for future progress on working conditions for the cinematographer and crew. It is also an important step forward to achieve author’s rights for cinematographers.

The conference is also designed to find solutions to the difficulties in securing EU funding to finance the many issues IMAGO faces, not least in education meeting the challenges posed by advances in new technology.

The financial report was presented by general secretary, Louis-Philippe Capelle SBC. At the end of 2009 IMAGO has a balance of 7,890 Euros. The bank account has now been moved to Brussels and the federation will have a permanent Bank account and be legally registered in Brussels.

A resolution was presented and adopted to raise the membership fee from 15 Euros to 20 Euros from each member of each society. It was agreed that this proposal should be referred back to receive the approval of all IMAGO societies. (The BSC board has already discussed this proposal and given its blessing on principle).

Dr Cristina Bush in her “Guiding Principles of IMAGO’s Campaign...” warns clearly that without proper funding the IMAGO campaign is doomed to failure.”

The warm welcome to the Japanese representatives, their president Kitaro Kanematsu and Koichiro Ishida, marked a dramatic step forward in the aspirations shared by all delegates. It was assisted by the translation of Mami Usui Capelle. The JSC is over 55 years old and has almost 300 members. A major activity is education where the JSC has started its own school of cinematography.

The IAGA thanked Kitaro Kanematsu and Leon Narbey representing the New Zealand society after they has addressed delegates. All roads lead to Rome, but Leon Narbey’s was the longest journey.

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This warm welcome was also extended to delegates from the Israeli Association of Cinematographers, the ACT who were represented by their president, Idane Or and Giora Bajech, who won the Golden Frog at Plus Camerimage in 2009 for his work on the film Lebanon. It was pointed out that the Israeli society was organised on similar lines to the German Society, many members, but with only a chosen “elite” of cinematographers. In the case of the ACT this represents some fifty cinematographers.

The Israeli society, the ACT, was voted the 38th to join the federation. Next year in Tallinn, Estonia, IMAGO hopes for an extension to its international fellowship by societies joining from South Africa, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, China and Singapore. The Japanese delegates made a commitment to assist this quest. The Irish are in the process of founding a society as are the Albanians.

The technical committee’s main report for 2009 highlighted the 60 frame rate proposal, which has been adopted universally. In the coming year the committee will work on several topics including the important challenge of SuperDPX, the standardisation of the digital negative, Rolf Haan FNF reported.

For the Hungarian society, Elemer Ragalyi HSC and Peter Dubovitz HSC, presented ambitious plans to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the foundation of the HSC They announced the intention to host a World Conference Of Cinematographers later this year, probably in the last weekend of November, with a main theme of “How to remain Competitive in a New World.” Budapest is the European City of Culture in 2010 and the HSC plans to host a major film screening from each IMAGO society.

The Norwegian society, through Paul-Rene Roestad FNF, presented it proposals for the year. These include a DSLR masterclass with Philip Bloom on May 19th and May 20th. There will also be a repeat of the popular inspirational masterclass of 2008. This will be held in Oslo on September 3rd, 4th and 5th and a third successful Digital Cinema Forum in Oslo is scheduled for May 8th, 9th and 10th 2011.

The Netherlands are publishing a book of interviews with world renowned cinematographers such as Christian Berger AAC, Roger Deakins BSC ASC and (a great friend of IMAGO), Bruno Delbonnel AFC ASC. Finance for the project is already in place and it is intended to distribute copies to each member of each IMAGO society. This proposal was presented by Hermann Verschuur and Bart van Broekhoeven of the NSC and unanimously accepted by the delegates.

The vice president of IMAGO, Ivan Tonev BAC delivered a report on how the IMAGO model contract had been translated into Bulgarian and implemented successfully in his country. This a direct riposte to those who doubted the value of the contract originally. Marek Jicha ACK from the Czech Republic introduced a new International Festival of Cinematography in Ostrava to be held between the 27th September and October 3rd.

IMAGO intends to seek further clarification and possibly send an observer this year if invited.

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View of the micro salon at the AIC headquarters in cinecitta studios.

Ron Johanson introduced a discussion on virtual cinematography. Delegates agreed how important it was that IMAGO has a definite standpoint on this contentious issue, especially following the Oscar award to Avatar. Rolf Haan FNF proposed that the IMAGO technical committee examine the issue in collaboration with the Australians.

The distressing plight of Plus Camerimage was debated, after an introduction by the president of the PSC Andrzej Jaroszewicz. A resolution was drafted and later passed unanimously. See below. Also Guillermo Navarro’s proposal for film heritage, which was suggested as a project worth supporting to IMAGO by Thierry Perronnet of Kodak, was unanimously supported.

IMAGO would like to express its appreciation to the AIC, their sponsors outlined below, and Mr Roberto Jarratt and Diana Apostol of Panalight, for all their support and dedication in making this IAGA such a success. IMAGO also appreciated the appearance of Vittorio Storaro at the Technicolor Laboratory in Rome.

He never fails to entertain and inform. Deluxe and Technicolor pulled out all the stops by providing two memorable evening gatherings.

Thank you to ARRI Italia, Cartocci F.111, Cartoni, Ciak Italia, Cinecitta, Cinetech Italiana SRL, Deluxe, Eurolab, Fuji Film, Ianiro, Iride SRL K5600, Kodak, Lite Panels, Panalight, Piumaworld Srl, Rosco Laboratories and Technicolor. IMAGO is also grateful the support of the Provincia di Roma.

A warm welcome return to the IMAGO board was accorded Luciano Tovoli ASC AIC. Richard Andry AFC replaces Robert Alazraki AFC who has resigned due to work pressures after many years of faithful service to IMAGO. Apart from these two new members the board was re-elected and subsequently new Committees have been appointed as listed separately. At invitation from Meelis Veeremets ESC to hold the IAGA in Tallinn, Estonia was extended for the second time to IMAGO. The conference pledged financial and logistical support for one of its smallest Societies to ensure the success of the proposal. Australia and France are in the line to host in subsequent years.

Conferences can often be marked by small gestures in private from one delegate to another. The Danish delegation returned to their homeland to seek ways at assist the Ukrainians improve their facilities and standards.

By such criteria success can also be judged.

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The IMAGO Board (two years): Nigel Walters BSC President, Ivan Tonev BAC Vice President, and Louis-Philippe Capelle SBC General Secretary. Board members Luciano Tovoli AIC ASC, Richard Andry AFC, and Paul-Rene Roestad FNF. IMAGO Technical Committee (three years):

Kommer Kleijn SBC, John Christian Rosenlund FNF, Joe Dunton BSC, Hakan Holmberg FNF, Philippe Ros AFC, Rolf Coulanges BVK, Bastiaan Houtkooper NSC (to be agreed

by NSC).

Masterclass Committee (Three Years):

Astrid Heubrandtner AAC, Ines Carvalho AIP, Jan Weincke DFF, Hermann Verschuur NSC, Birgit Gudjonsdottir BVK, Rolf Coulanges BVK, Elemer Ragalyi HSC, Ron Johanson ACS.

Authorship Committee (Three Years):

Luciano Tovoli AIC, Tony Forsberg FSF, Marek Jicha ACK, Porfirio Enriques AEC, Kurt Brazda AAC.

Working Conditions Committee (Three Years): Andreas Fischer-Hansen DFF, Tony Costa AIP, Rolv Haan FNF, Timo Heinanen FSC, Moritz Gielsemann AAC, Meelis Veeremets ESC, Or Idan ACT. Election Committee (Three Years): Kurt Brazda AAC, Jan Weincke DFF.

The Board’s decision to close down the Public Relations Committee and that the board takes over this work was accepted.

Call for Global Forum.

The call for a global forum dedicated to inspiring UNESCO to declare the medium of film a World Heritage was given unanimous support at the IMAGO General Assembly in Rome. Oscar winner Guillermo Navarro ASC, AMC (El Laberinto Del Fauno, Pan’s Labyrinth) has invited supporters of his message to UNESCO to share his inspirational message at Cine Gear due to be held in Los Angeles from June 3rd to 6th.

Guillermo’s appeal to the World fraternity of cinematographers states: “I believe that it is both important and appropriate for cinematographers and other filmmakers from around the world to unite by asking UNESCO to recognise the important role that film has played in our culture by declaring it a world heritage.

“I am talking about the celluloid itself. Since film was invented a little more than 100 years ago, it has become a universal medium for telling stories that have entertained and enlightened people in every corner of the world. Film is also the Rosetta Stone of our times. The films that were created in the past, and those that are being produced today, are the windows which will allow future generations to see who we were. What we did and how we felt about our world.

“That is why I am asking cinematographers, and all other filmmakers, to band together in a global forum dedicated to inspiring UNESCO to declare the medium of film a world heritage.”

IMAGO supports Guillermo’s initiative, and would welcome a debate on this issue at the proposed World Conference of Cinematographers planned to be held in Budapest later in the year.

IMAGO Resolution for Plus Camerimage’s future.

New IMAGO board (l-r) Nigel Walters BSC President, Luciano Tovoli ASC AIC, LouisPhilippe Capelle SBC General Secretary, Ivan Tonev BAC Vice President, Richard Andry AFC, Paul-Rene Roestad FNF The historic photo of the first IMAGO gathering in 1992 where the BSC were represeted by Harvey Harisson BSC and Paul Beeson BSC. Spencer Newbury explains LITEPANEL products to some visiting AIC DOP MEMBERS. Some of the many cameras and memorrabelia on display at the AIC clubhouse.

Mr Roberto Jarratt(Panalight) and Mr Maurizio Sperandini (cinecitta studios) who hosted the IMAGO lunch during the Rome conference.

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With uncertainty surrounding whether the 2010 Plus Camerimage Festival of Cinematography will take place in Lodz, or not, IMAGO’s general assembly unanimously passed a resolution to the minister of culture in Warsaw and representatives of the City of Lodz. In the form of an open letter of support to secure the future of Camerimage it states: “This annual general assembly of IMAGO, the European Federation of Cinematographers, represented in Rome by 28 of our 38 societies worldwide appeals, to the Polish Minister of Culture, and representatives of the City of Lodz, to secure the future of Plus Camerimage.

This film festival, dedicated to the art of cinematography, has developed over many years into a highly-respected international event, a testimony to the cultural values of the Polish people. It is unique to the world.

The vision of its founder, Marek Zydowicz, is admired by the countless cinematographers and students who have learnt to regard Poland and Lodz as the spiritual home of the art of cinematography.

This meeting, which includes delegates from Japan, New Zealand and Australia, respectfully suggests that not to continue to support such an internationally important festival will be regarded as a decision amounting to cultural vandalism.

All the societies of IMAGO have enthusiastically supported Plus Camerimage. It is a gem in the calendar of international cultural exchange and understanding between cinematographers and students. It is a treasure for which Poland and the city of Lodz should have just pride. Please do your utmost to ensure Plus Camerimage continues to survive and prosper.”

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Collecting society.

Progress is being made on the proposal to establish a new UK collecting society to represent creative workers in camera, editing, costume design and production design.

Senior practitioners in these areas may be regarded as “authors� in other countries, entitled to receive secondary payments when their works are shown.

However, until now there has been no recognised UK society to receive and distribute such payments.

Now a coalition made up of BECTU, the British Society of Cinematographers, British Film Designers Guild, Guild of British Camera Technicians, Guild of Film and Television Editors, and Guild of Television Cameramen, is investigating the viability of a new society.

They have received a pledge of practical assistance from Directors-UK, the collecting society for directors, and have already met with Bild Kunst, the powerful German society and a key potential partner. Work is now under way on a draft business plan.

Nigel Walters BSC IMAGO President

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Please visit www.imago.org Working for cinematographers everywhere.

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GBCT –––Jamie Harcourt & Tim Potter Chairmen of the GBCT Tim Potter – Incoming GBCT Chairman.

The chairmen speak.

Jamie Harcourt – Outgoing GBCT Chairman.

I thought I had written my final piece as Chairman of the GBCT Guild, but the Board asked me to do a final, final flourish along with Tim Potter, who has generously agreed to be our next Chairman. On behalf of the membership, Tim thanks for that and good luck.

Having been to a number of meetings recently, including those of the Cine Guilds of Great Britain, I have come to the opinion that we need to make a concerted effort to market ourselves to the world and perhaps “rebrand” our business as having the potential to do what I think our nation needs more than ever right now, and that is to encourage world wide investment in our enormous pool of currently under-employed talent and go out and earn the nation some much needed cash. And whereas the Government’s recent car scrappage scheme has helped successfully to sell a lot of foreign built cars to those who can afford a new car, a real tax incentive for genuinely professional film and Television drama programme makers could earn a hundred times more for our nation; not only in world wide sales of our films and programmes, but in inward investment from around the globe for the development and production of the same.

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I strongly feel that the GBCT’s part in all of this is to go out there using every means available. We hope our new website will be a big tool to assist in this, and thereby sell ourselves to the world.

Our training schemes, the new diplomas and qualifications for 1st and 2nd AC’s, Script Supervisors, Grips, and in due course, Camera Operators, should enhance the UK industry’s reputation greatly. I urge everyone to engage very positively in all these initiatives.

The British have never been very good at self-promotion.

And this is certainly true when you look at how all the talented people in every single specialist department of our industry are not being used to their full potential. But we’ve got to start doing this now because collectively, with our excellent craft skills, we are probably the best group of film-makers in the world.

Also we should take every opportunity to uphold our high standards of professionalism. Quality will always win out in the end. We only want the very best people in our Guild so that new people have something to aspire to and are eager to be a part of. As a GBCT Member, it is to be associated with the very best so that producers worldwide will know and trust that they can employ a fantastic crew who will give them the very finest results possible.

We have the locations; we have the studios; we have the actors; we have the equipment; we have the technologies; we have the technicians; we have the desire; we have the energy; we have the tenacity; we have the talent; and we have the passion. We also have the hope! “TURNOVER” Best wishes Jamie Harcourt

We are experiencing one of the most rapid periods of change that our industry has ever seen. Technology is evolving by the month. The financial shock waves that have cascaded through all areas of society and business have swept away the entire medium budget area of feature film production. These times will eventually become less ‘interesting’ and the industry we will be moving into will look very different to the one we have left behind. However, I can assure everyone that there are some things that will not change. Whatever ends up on the screen, a human being will still be behind the decision making process over what it will be and what it will look like. Our most pressing responsibility will be to make sure that the necessary talents and abilities survive into the next generation of camera technicians.

HiDef will continue getting higher definition.

Data storage and processing rates will continue to obey Moore’s Law. For a while this will lead to further complication but eventually work flows will become simplified as formats are rationalized. The need for computing experts to help get the image to the editor in a workable state will gradually disappear as manufacturers realize that the equipment should not get in the way of the creative process and bring all the necessary electronic manipulation into the body of the camera. This will mean a return to tried and tested image making practices as the clutter of innovation gives way to a more user friendly technology.

The tectonic shifts in the financial markets will also begin to settle and new models for financing films will emerge. Last year the UK saw the highest sum spent on feature film production in history, yet this resulted in one of the fewest number of completed pictures. The small number of technicians who did get to work on them represented the lucky few who either reaped the rewards of work on a big budget picture or struggled through on the rates paid by the sub £1m micro-budget films, which were the only other pictures shooting. The money men will find ways to work with the lower returns from DVD sales and the reluctance of the market to venture money on pictures that don’t involve the guaranteed returns of, say, superhero franchises etc. When they do get their act together they will once again need us to make their films for them.

Every new innovation has been heralded with the promise that the vagaries of the human element of the process is about to be consigned to the dust-bin of history. Right back to George Eastman’s promise “You press the button, we do the rest” we have struggled to prove that the artistic, technological and managerial skills of a living human are necessary for the creation of an entertaining motion picture, whether it be on the big or small screen, fact or fiction. When the little loudspeaker on the side of my electronic box of tricks starts to tell the electricians where to put the lights to create the required look, or tells the focusing apparatus which actor is paid the most and what they are about to do, I will go and tend my orchards! Until that time I will carry on adding the necessary human element to the films I work on and passing on that knowledge and expertise to those who will come after me.

When Disraeli exhorted the nation to “educate our masters” he meant that the next generation would be inadequate to the task of running the country if they were not properly trained. We have that same obligation to the film and television industry. To this end the GBCT Board is working on many initiatives including training courses geared towards the needs of the qualifications that we have been working on with Skillset and the University of the Arts London (at the Ealing Institute of Media) to introduce full academically accredited Diplomas for Camera Assistants. More Diplomas will follow for Script Supervisors and Camera Operators. These will add to existing qualifications for Grips to make a formally qualified, experienced work force at all levels of the image gathering process. A force that will show the industry that it cannot work without the talents that members of the crew, from top to bottom, bring to the final on screen result and ultimately to the viability of our industry.

Tim Potter GBCT Chairman

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The Aaton camera.

BSC show floor /exhibition shot.

BSC/BC stand at show Martin Hammond and Terry (Lou)Lewis mind the shop?

Hugh Whittaker between John de Borman BSC and Peter Biziou BSC at Panavision stand.

Ken Fisher with Derek Suter BSC at Litepanels stand.

The 2010 BSC show review.

Once again the annual BSC exhibition has been staged at the George Lucas stage in Elstree, and there were a few gems that were seen for the first time.

To encapsulate the whole show in a few words is a challenge, so the very nature of the task will mean a brief rundown of the companies that caught my eye, and web links for you to find out more.

There was a wide mixture of gear and many different moods of some people demonstrated at the show, and the concept of different new shooting methods were both exciting and filled others with trepidation and nervousness.

Perhaps the largest changes in approach to film making in the past year have been 3D shooting, and using digital stills cameras to record high rez video. These two areas were well represented, and showed a new thinking that can both free and also hinder the work of making pictures in the future. 3D shooting requires the finest technicians to achieve the best results, and shooting on a stills camera requires a change in thinking and working practices.

Nevertheless a camera is still a camera in a well trained technicians hands, and should not be a hindrance to making more visually interesting movies.

There was undoubtedly an air of optimism after the great success of “The hurt locker” being shot on 16mm film on Aaton cameras by British DoP Barry Ackroyd BSC. On the other side the recession and global financial issues were high in many people’s minds being the cause of the quiet times we are currently experiencing in the UK. More often than not the reason for lack of gainful employment is out of our hands, as the recent Icelandic volcano showed, we are all subjected to forces greater than us all. One aspect of quiet times means some people leave the business for other more stable ventures elsewhere. The down side is that it can take a few good people with it, and we are all affected in one way or another.

The BSC show.

The BSC show has its share of eye catching equipment stars each year that stand out, and perhaps the most obvious was the ACS camera tracking vehicle from France. Painted entirely in matt black with black headlight covers to minimize reflections, it was certainly an eye- catching bit of kit.

The Ultimate Arm was rigged on the Mercedes ML 55 vehicle at the 2010 BSC show, and the unit is designed to operate safely at speeds over 100mph in this configuration. This vehicle offers high stability for high speed or for slow precision shots. The arm can also be rigged on other vehicles (such as speed boats) if required.

The arm is equipped with LEV Head or the New Gyron STAB C Compact head.

The full statistics are extremely interesting, the Ultimate Arm is a gyro-assisted & robotic arm able to complete a full 360° in 4.5 seconds, and the crane arm has pan rates up to 90 degrees/sec, and has multiple 360 degree travel on all axis-all fully controllable within the car with a joystick or wheels. It has a maximum height of 15 ft (approx 4.5 metres), Min. height = 3 ft (1metre) below ground level.

Crane + head weight 500 pounds (approx 226 kilos)

Guild of British Camera Technicians, Board Members.

Jamie Harcourt, Tim Potter (Chairman), Jem Morton, John Keedwell, Steve Brooke Smith, Keith Mead, Louise BenNathan, Shirley Schumacher, Trevor Coop, David Worley, Darren Miller, Sarah Hayward, Mary Kyte (Honorary Treasurer)

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Cameras.

In camera terms it was quite interesting to see there are still new innovations to be made, and the fact that different manufacturers have different philosophies .

French manufacturer Aaton showed their Penelope 35mm camera that can be supplied with either a native 2-Perf or converted to a 3-Perf gate, and can also be used with an instant ‘Digital-Mag’ silicon sensor. The attraction of the Aaton cameras is their instant filmmagazines that are attached to the camera in seconds, and are then ready to be used almost instantly. At 24fps in 35mm 2-Perf they have nine minute autonomy.

Aaton and Axis films were still buzzing with their huge successes with the movie ‘The Hurt Locker’ directed

by Kathryn Bigelow. The picture was shot with 4 Aaton XTRprod and 1 A-Minima and recorded on the Aaton Cantar-X. The film won six BAFTAs including Best Film and 6 Oscars including Best Film. This was a triumph for the cameras, filmstock and DoP, as the images were captured by Barry with 16mm Fujicolor ETERNA 500T 8673, and ETERNA 250D 8663 stock. www.aaton.com

ARRI.

ARRI too, had a working prototype of the ALEXA, which has widely been reported as ARRI’s answer to the Red ONE camera, and there can be seen passing similarities in the modular design and reported likely price at around $60k. Of course some people are again reporting this is now the end of film…

ARRI will introduce these three cameras with a 3.5k pixel count, 800+ El equivalent sensitivity, 1 to 60fps frame rate, electronic viewfinder and on-board HD recording.

The A-EV Plus model adds uncompressed on-board recording and wireless remote control to the 16:9 aspect ratio shooting A-EV. The A-OV Plus switches things up to a 4:3 aspect ratio for use with anamorphic lenses, and also has an optical viewfinder.

When you’re shooting incredibly hi-res video you end up with extremely large files that take a degree of drain on resources with your editing software. The ALEXA allows you to record compressed 1080p footage in Apple’s native ProRes 444 and ProRes 422 (HQ) QuickTime format to readily available SxS cards, which can be instantly edited in Final Cut with no transcoding necessary. The cameras also have the ability to dual-record to a compressed format and to its higher-res, 2k ARRIRAW uncompressed format at the same time, allowing you to edit in the field and bring the big, high quality footage online later.

The ALEXA introduces a Super 35 CMOS Bayer sensor that promises 13.5 stops of dynamic range and 35mm style depth of field characteristics. ARRI also promises a host of expansion accessories for the camera, from storage modules and advanced recorders, to HD viewfinders and an exchangeable lens mount so you can use your DSLR lenses in addition to the big-time PL-mount movie lenses. Interesting choices available ahead... www.arridigital.com

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Cooke.

Of course without any good lenses a camera is only as good as a door stop, so Cooke were again happy to show their new range of Cooke 5/i primes as well as the new Panchro /i set.

The new Cooke 5/i Prime lenses were designed and developed in close technical collaboration with industry professionals. They are all colour-matched and are compatible with Cooke S4/i, Panchro by Cooke, CXX 1540 mm T2 S4/i Zoom, 18-100mm T3.0 and 25-250mm T3.7 and the SK4 16mm lenses.

All lenses in the new 5/i Prime Lens Set are T1.4.

Focal lengths: 18, 25, 32, 40, 50, 65, 75, 100 and 135mm— designed for all PL mounted film and digital cameras.

They use /i Technology, which is Cooke’s openarchitecture lens data system. /i Technology provides cinematographers and camera operators with vital information on lens setting, focusing distance, aperture and depth-of-field, hyperfocal distance, serial number, owner data, lens type and focal length in both metric and footage measurements. For zoom lenses, the zoom position is displayed. You can digitally record vital lens and camera settings accurately, frame-by-frame, all synced to Timecode, instead of having to manually write down lens settings for every shot, eliminating human error.

There is an illuminated focus ring lit by tiny LEDs to illuminate the focus scales on both sides of the lens, and are dimmable with a control box or wirelessly with a Preston Cinema System FIZ, cmotion control or with a Transvideo Evolution Monitor.

While many DoPs specify Cooke lenses to take advantage of the Cooke look as well as the on-set usability and reliable operation, the cost has sometimes been a barrier. Cooke’s goal was to produce a smaller, lighter lens which offers the same resolution, optical quality and reliability as the S4/i, but with a significantly lower price tag. The lenses are one stop slower than the S4/I range, and as a result they can be smaller, lighter and cost less to manufacture.

Cooke were proud to be associated with Movietech and Fineline Media Finance in the latest acquisition of £1million of Cooke 5i and Panchro lenses. John Buckley from Movietech said “ We have been delighted with the Cooke S4’s over the years, and have bought many sets for our DoP’s as a chosen lens. The 5i are the first lenses from Cooke in the last 12 years and we are delighted to take delivery of them. We have some major feature films that are set to be announced in the next 2 weeks that will be using the lenses sets. We are especially glad that Cooke is British company that we are able to support.” www.cookeoptics.com

Geoff Chappell (Cooke) with John Buckley (Movietech)-& John Bartlett (Fineline).

New York Film Gear.

New York Film Gear is run by Howard Davidson, a New Yorker now living in London, and working in the film industry as a lighting technician. He supplies film gear from the United States as well as items manufactured here in London, and he has just opened a storefront in Pinewood studios. Howard again had a variety of very interesting gizmos for grip and lighting work. A few examples include the Lanternlock, that is a Paper Lantern holder and Light Socket all in One. Use it with “C” stands, or clamp it to any device which accepts a 5/8” stud. The frame is constructed of 3/16” steel rod. All joints are welded, and the socket is heat-resistant ceramic.

In LED lighting, a small flexible light ribbon also caught my eye. This could be used as a length of LED lights, or coiled up and used as a more direct source of light.

Interesting possibilities. www.newyorkfilmgear.com

Licht-Technik.

Licht-Technik were showcasing the LT skylight, and this dominated the show in the far side. It is a large soft overhead light source that is 12.5m x 5.1m, and is mainly for shooting cars. Each unit is DMX dimmable, from 10% up to 100% . There were also a great many Bag-o-Light units that are put in front of a PAR light and is an air filled bag that creates a long soft shadow free light. www.licht-technik.com

The LFXHub from Movie Intercom.

It has never been that easy to generate HD lighting effects of fire, welding, lightning, TV, projector flicker, neon signs, short-circuit, “broken” fluoros, flashers & more. The LFXHub is a unit that combines numerous functions in a single box, enabling the connection of tungsten fixtures, standard bulbs, LED fixtures, KinoFlo, dimmer-shutters combined with HMIs. It has virtually unlimited output power via DMX and 0-10VDC. The unit can control lights by random generating of signals, and with the optical lighting sensor it can automatically synchronize film lighting with a switched practical or a blown off candle flame. With a little practice and a vision of what you want, the lighting designer/operator operator can make the light move with three channels available. www.movie-inter.com

Gekko Technology.

Gekko again astounded with yet another development in their ever growing innovative range of LED lighting.

The latest lamp to be premiered at the BSC show a single source LED spot lamp. The kezia uses Gekko’s kleer colour LED array optimised for image capture, with colour temperature presets calibrated at 2900K, 3200K, 5600K and 6500K. Gekko’s proprietary arrays create broad spectrum white light specifically developed for film and video applications. Unlike traditional lighting products, colour temperature remains consistent throughout the full range of intensity variation, ambient temperature and life of the unit * The fixture can be ordered with a white optimised array or a wider saturated colour range suited to theatre and entertainment. The units operate with a fraction of the power required by traditional professional lighting, also produces significantly less heat and has no requirement for ongoing consumables.

The kezia has a local control for easy, standalone operation or Full DMX implementation including RDM. There are also many powering solutions, such as remote battery using a 24 - 50V DC power source. There is also a range of Honeycombs, barn door accessories and diffusion lenses If you know anything about LED lights, a coloured spotlight is one of the most challenging lamps to produce, and again Gekko have managed to confound their major competitors by producing such a lamp. This complements the already extremely versatile range of lamps from 2 x 1 ft sized soft source panel light, The Kelvin tile, and also includes many LED ring lights and now several spot lights that have just been installed in several major Television studios. www.gekkotechnology.com In more general terms, the business is undoubtedly going through a turbulent and quiet time, with new ways of shooting and tools that can produce exciting and creative images, The mood of many of the people I spoke to was rather mixed. Some saw the downturn in business as a sign of the times, and were weathering the storm, keeping their heads down and waiting for better times ahead, and living off savings made in better times. Some other extremely talented people I knew were somewhat more downbeat, and many felt the craft of the camera technician and DoP was being rapidly eroded, and that many production staff were inexperienced and were potentially bringing down the film business in the UK through lack of training and experience.

This is where the various Guilds have great potential for the future of the business. The show is as much about camera gear as well as the people that use it. The Sound Guild AMPS, and the Guild of Television Cameramen were in attendance. The Guild of British Camera Technicians (GBCT) were also at the show, to steer newcomers towards effective training and help them get good practical experience and to maintain standards.

The GBCT run training course run by experienced guild members , the Trainee list and much more www.gbct.org

ACS stock car & horse race images.

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British Cinematographer Covering International Cinematography www.britishcinematographer.co.uk Issue 038

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