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Editor-in-Chief RON PRINCE ronny@cinematography.world

Special Consultant ALAN LOWNE alan@cinematography.world

Editorial Assistant KIRSTY HAZLEWOOD kirsty@cinematography.world

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Social Media & Comms KAZ PEARMAN kaz@cinematography.world

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EDITORIAL TEAM

Ron Prince has over three decades of experience in the film, TV, CGI and VFX industries, and has written about cinematography for 20 years. In 2014, he won the ARRI John Alcott Award from the BSC. He also runs the international content marketing and PR communications company Prince PR.

Darek Kuźma is a film and TV journalist, translator/interpreter, and a regular collaborator/programmer of the EnergaCamerimage Film Festival. He is an ardent cinephile who has a lifelong romance with the visual language of cinema.

David Wood is a freelance journalist covering film/TV technology and production. He was a former technology editor at Televisual, and is a regular contributor to Worldscreen, TVB Europe and Broadcast.

Kirsty Hazlewood has over two decades of editorial experience in print/ online publications, and is a regular contributor to folk/roots music website Spiral Earth.

Natasha Block Hicks is an artist/designer/maker, who spent a decade as a freelance film and TV camera assistant, and indulges her love for cinema and cinematography through research and writing.

SWEET SIXTEEN

2023 marks the 100th anniversary of 16mm film, an historic landmark in anyone’s book. Launched in 1923, the silent 16mm format was initially aimed at the home enthusiast and marketed as an ‘outfit’, consisting of a camera, projector, tripod, screen and splicer, for the princely sum of $335 (around $6,000 in today’s money).

Fast-forwarding through time, 16mm and Super 16mm became the bedrock for corporate, industrial, documentary and TV filmmakers for many decades, before the digital revolution usurped its place.

Nevertheless, 16mm remains a creative canvas for productions seeking its specific looks and dexterous, low-impact footprint on-set. We’ve popped a few recent examples of 16mm-originated movies on the back page, where some of your favourite directors and cinematographers are no doubt included. Indeed, having woven 16mm footage into the visual storytelling on The Fabelmans (2022), Janusz Kamiński told Cinematography World that he’d love to shoot a whole movie with the format.

As you will see on other pages, Kodak caused quite a stir at NAB this year when it held a hands-on display of 16mm cameras and informative masterclasses to celebrate this epic centennial. Creative choice is everything. Happy 100th birthday sweet 16mm!

Stay safe and best wishes.

PS: As the official media partner of Euro Cine Expo 2023, we look forward to seeing you for more of the cinematographic good stuff at Motorworld in Munich on 30th June/1st July.

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Cinematography World is part of Rascals Publishing & Media Ltd! The publishers emphasise that opinions expressed within Cinematography World Magazine are not representative of Rascals Publishing & Media Ltd!, but are the responsibility of individual contributors.

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Cover Image: Zoe Saldana as Gamora in Marvel Studios’ Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3. © 2023 MARVEL.

Ron Prince Editor in Chief

The 100-year-old 16mm format remains relevant today for all types of storytelling

Vanessa Bendetti, global managing director, Kodak Motion Picture & Entertainment

Ron Prince

photo by Joe Short www.joeshort.com

Official Media Partners

Artistic Character. Modern Sensibilities.

Meet us at Euro Cine Expo Meet us at Euro Cine Expo

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56 GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY – VOL.3

30 SHOWING UP

62 BEAU IS AFRAID

28 THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY

72 I AM… RUTH

PEEPING AT PIXELS

The whys, wherefores and when of 8K

One of the things this writer learned in a long career as an analyst is that, if a technology is going to be successful, it needs both drivers and enablers. If there are no ‘drivers’, there is no reason to make it happen, but without ‘enablers’, those wanting to drive developments may not be able to make it happen. So what are the drivers and enablers for 8K?

The Drivers

The key driver for 8K is the long-term target of trying to capture images that are as close as possible to reality. The core research was done by Dr. Masaoka, a very distinguished display scientist at NHK, the Japanese national broadcaster, who found that you need the equivalent of 8K on a big domestic screen to get enough resolution so that viewers, sitting close-enough to get a truly immersive experience, could not distinguish between real objects and images of those objects.

There are also new applications such as 360-degree video that really need way more pixels than traditional flat panel displays. In addition, even if you plan to distribute or display in a lowerresolution format, such as DCI4K or UltraHD, you get a much better image because of oversampling if you capture in 8K. At the DEG Entech Fest in California in April 2023, Loren Simons, who looks after Digital Cinema for Red cameras, pointed out that while 8K was spectacular for images with detailed textures, it’s also great for giving a real ‘smoothness’ to images.

The Enablers 8K cameras have been available for years and now there is a wide range of cameras available in different form factors and with different levels of cost and quality. Smartphones are capable of surprisingly good 8K capture.

The second driver for 8K capture is that you can use ‘pan and scan’ techniques to extract portions of the image to get effects and shots that would be really hard with a lower-resolution camera that is tracking a particular subject. As 65-megapixel camera-maker, IO Industries, recently highlighted, you can capture an ice hockey match and then use tracking to follow the puck with much better clarity. Oh, and if you need to crop an image to remove a dangling microphone, you can do so without losing quality.

Editing has also become much easier with the development of better GPUs and processors with optimised video processing. NHK recently reported that it edits its 8K content on MacBooks with Apple’s M1 processors. Cloud-based editing also helps to take away the technical barriers that made 8K more tricky a few years ago.

Delivery to the display has been improving with the development of next-generation codecs that can compress 8K down to a practical level, given the huge boost in broadband connectivity in recent years. The 8K Association does not expect broadcasters to jump quickly to 8K – even FullHD and 4K can be difficult for their business models – but streaming companies do not have the same challenges. Amazon, for example, has recently opened the first 8K HDR LED cinema in the world in Culver City.

A highly-respected display analyst used to say at industry events that, “for LCD makers, the pixels are free”. That’s not strictly true, but it is the case that the basic technology for making 75” 8K LCDs is the same as making 18.75” FullHD LCDs. That means LCD makers can develop 8K TVs relatively easily, although it is a lot harder for OLED makers. (If you want to dig into the weeds of this, pay a visit to www.displaysupplychain.com). Average TV sizes continue to grow globally and the companies in the LCD business need to increase the area of LCDs being sold to deal with a big over-supply in 2022, so there will be continued pressure for them to sell more and bigger TVs.

So, in terms of enablers, you have the technology now to capture and create 8K content, to deliver it and to display it – and those are the critical elements.

Of course, there are plenty who will say “8K, there’s just not enough content”, but this writer remembers when this was said about FullHD and UltraHD/4K. In a surprisingly short time that will change, and those who have worked to create content in 8K, even if it is delivered in FullHD or UltraHD/4K now, will be in a very strong position to go back to their content and create even better versions as the technology rolls out in the future.

Bob Raikes is a veteran of the electronic display business and is editor of the 8K Association Newsletter, as well as a contributor to Display Daily and the SID’s Information Display magazine. He can be contacted at bob@8kassociation.com

The key driver for 8K is trying to capture images that are as close as possible to reality

Those who have created content in 8K will be in a very strong position to create even better versions as technology rolls-out in the future

Bob Raikes 8K Association

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The URSA Mini Pro 12K sensor has a resolution of 12,288 x 6480, 14 stops of dynamic range and a native ISO of 800. Featuring equal amounts of red, green and blue pixels, the sensor is optimized for images at multiple resolutions. You can shoot 12K at 60 fps or use in-sensor scaling to allow 8K or 4K RAW at up to 120 fps without cropping or changing your field of view.

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MANDY WALKER AM ACS ASC WINS AUSTRALIAN CINEMATOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR AWARD

Mandy Walker AM ACS ASC won the prestigious Australian Cinematographer Of The Year Milli Award at this year’s Fujinon Fujifilm Australian Cinematographers Society (ACS) National Awards. Walker also won a Gold Tripod in the Feature Films – Budget $2m and over category for her work on Elvis.

Winning the Milli caps off an incredible 12 months for Walker who recently also won the gong for best cinematography at the Australian Academy Of Cinema & Television Arts Awards (AACTA) and the American Society Of Cinematographers (ASC) feature-film award for Elvis.

On winning the award Walker said, “It’s an honour and privilege to have won the Milli Award and to have worked on Elvis with so many Australian filmmakers who are undeniably at the

PINEWOOD GROUP ACQUIRES PINEWOOD TORONTO STUDIOS IN CANADA

top of their game. As a team we created an

incredibly special piece of cinema.

“Australian cinematographers continue to create some of the best work across the globe and thus, again, I am truly humbled to win this award. Thank you also to the ACS and all of their sponsors, as we wouldn’t be here without you.”

ARRI OPENS NEW OFFICES IN ROME

UK based Pinewood Group has announced that it has acquired full ownership of Pinewood Toronto Studios, a state-of-the-art, purposebuilt film and TV studio in Toronto.

Pinewood Toronto Studios is a global destination for film and television productions, located a few minutes’ drive from Downtown Toronto and home to the Mega Stage, one of the largest purpose-built soundstages in North America. Pinewood Group has provided sales and marketing services since 2009 when Pinewood was first incorporated into the name of the Toronto studios.

In addition to the acquisition, Pinewood Toronto Studios celebrates the completion of its most recent expansion adding a further 170,000 square feet of production space, including five purpose-built soundstages. With this expansion Pinewood Toronto Studios becomes the largest film and TV studio in Ontario with 490,000 square feet of production space and 16 purpose-built soundstages.

Paul Golding, chairman, Pinewood Group said: “We have worked with our partners for many years to create the city’s pre-eminent studio, and we’re now delighted to have bought it. We will continue to invest in the studio and the surrounding Port Lands to ensure Pinewood Toronto Studios remains the number one destination for both domestic and international productions. We intend to work closely with the city to support Toronto’s thriving film and TV industry and all those who work in it.”

ARRI has opened a new office in Rome to further promote and support the film and audiovisual industry in Italy. To celebrate this important milestone, an opening ceremony took place with more than 100 guests from the Italian film industry, including cinematographers, producers, directors, business partners, post-production and rental professionals gathering together to toast the new premises. The event was also attended by members of ARRI’s global management team.

“It is with great pleasure that we celebrate the opening of the new Rome office. The Italian film industry has an

incredible heritage that needs no introduction. ARRI’s new presence in the Italian capital shows the will to be an integral part of this community to bring support to our loyal customers and users who have been working with our tools for a long time,” said Christian Richter, general manager sales & solutions EMEAI at ARRI.

Italy has long been a favoured shooting location for major international productions due to its incredible variety of beautiful locations as well as available production services and skilled local crews. ARRI says its presence in Rome is even more important given the growing international demand.

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KODAK 16MM CENTENARY WORKSHOPS

WOW THE CROWDS AT NAB 2023

Amongst thousands of new products on show at NAB 2023, Kodak wowed the crowds with a technology that has been around for more than 100 years.

In celebration of the centennial of 16mm film, first launched by Eastman Kodak in 1923, the company joined forces with industry-leading partners, ARRI Rental and FotoKem, to put on a head-turning, hands-on display of 16mm analogue filmmaking equipment, as well as a brace of educational camera and analogue workflow workshops, which saw attendees forming queues to experience in-person.

The events were held as a slew of high-profile, shot-on-film features are set to release at film festivals, in cinemas and on TV channels worldwide in the near future – including Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City, HBO’s Succession S4 and The Idol, Martin Scorsese’s Killers Of The Flower Moon, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, Ken Loach’s The Old Oak, and Maestro, directed by and starring Bradley Cooper.

The Kodak, FotoKem and ARRI Rental analogue filmmaking programme was presented in NAB’s newlyintroduced CineCentral, an area on the showfloor in Central Hall, focussing on Hollywood’s cinematic trends and techniques aimed at production and postproduction professionals seeking to expand their creative and technical knowledge.

The educational 16mm workshops, entitled ‘Everything You Need to Know to Start Shooting Film NOW’ and ‘Everything You Need to Know About Analog Film Workflow’, were over-subscribed, with

CINESITE NAMES SHAWN WALSH AS GROUP CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER FOR VFX

Shawn Walsh, current general manager and executive producer of Vancouver-based visual effects studio, Image Engine, has been appointed as Cinesite’s new group chief operating officer for VFX.

As the Cinesite group continues to grow as a creative force, the company has announced that Walsh will lead its VFX divisions across Cinesite and partner studios Image Engine, FX3X and Trixter. Walsh will drive all aspects of group VFX production, client relations and business development across Cinesite and partner studios from Vancouver, where he will work closely with heads of studio and chief business development officer Drew Jones.

For the past 17 years, Walsh has been a driving force of the senior management team at Image Engine. Most recently, he executive produced the visual effects

attendees queuing-up an hour before start time, and passers-by exclaiming, “Is that film?!”.

Around 30 students participated in each camera loading workshop, together with filmschool instructors, professional film producers, directors, cinematographers, camera assistants and film hobbyists, all looking for greater knowledge of analogue film capture.

The workshops included hands-on learning using Arriflex 416 cameras, and were supported by Mike Sippel of ARRI Rental, Vanessa Bendetti of Kodak Motion Picture, plus cinematographers Thais Castrale and Craig Boydston.

The film workflow seminar was led by Andrew Oran and Mark Van Horne of FotoKem, film-lab experts who have supported hundreds of directors and cinematographers, each sharing stories and knowledge of how filmmakers achieve their signature looks using analogue film.

“For more than a century, film has sustained its place in storytelling and image-making,” commented Bendetti, global managing director at Kodak Motion Picture and Entertainment. “Kodak remains fully-committed to the film

medium and, in response to the unyielding demand for motion and still film products, is back to 24/7 film manufacturing.

“Originally introduced in 1923, Kodak is proud to celebrate 100 years of 16mm. Thanks to NAB’s CineCentral, and our partnership with ARRI Rental and FotoKem, we were able to offer practical 16mm film workshops at the show, with the goal of equipping a new generation of artists with the knowledge they need to shoot on this still thriving and unmatched medium.”

Bendetti added, “The response was amazing. People formed lines long before the official start times, to secure their opportunity to participate.

Amongst all the heavily-marketed technology across the Central Hall at NAB, the enthusiastic reception to our workshops made it clear that the film medium, and the 100-year-old 16mm format, remain relevant today for all types of storytelling.”

Along with music promos and commercials, recent long-form productions using Kodak 16mm film include HBO›s acclaimed, ten-part sports drama, Winning Time: The Rise Of The Lakers Dynasty, Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, Phyllis Nagy’s Call Jane and Mark Jenkin’s folk horror movie Enys Men

BFI AWARDS £9.6M TO SUPPORT UK SCREEN WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING

for Image Engine’s contribution to Game Of Thrones, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Carnival Row, Lost In Space, The Mandalorian and Mulan

Walsh joined Image Engine in 2005, he went on to become a partner and built-up an impressive roster of credits including The Incredible Hulk , District 9, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, White House Down and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles . Prior to that, he spent several years abroad where he honed his skills as a senior lighting technical director and compositor. He is a member of the steering committee for the animation and visual effects alliance of British Columbia and a member of the Visual Effects Society.

The BFI has announced £9.6m of National Lottery funding over three years to support skills development and training across the UK. As the sector faces acute skills shortages, National Lottery funding responds directly to recommendations in the BFI Skills Review and two leading priorities revealed through extensive public and industry consultation: to make the sector more accessible and representative; and build a skilled workforce across the UK.

The funding focusses on establishing localised support for skills development and training, with a clear aim to create new opportunities for people from underrepresented backgrounds to pursue careers in the sector. It will complement the work of the industry-led response to the BFI Skills Review, through the recently announced Skills Task Force, as well as industry interventions, including from organisations such as ScreenSkills, which are crucial to addressing the skills shortage.

Previously announced, the BFI awarded £14 million National Lottery funding to two UK-wide partners to deliver three targeted education work streams for 5-18 year-olds: BFI National Lottery Teaching with Film, BFI National Lottery Young Creatives and BFI National Lottery Careers and Progression. Into Film, receiving £12.4m over three years, will work across all three programmes, and National Saturday Club will receive £1.5m for the same period to collaborate with Into Film to deliver Young Creatives. A further £5.5m is allocated for BFI Film Academy, details of which are to be announced shortly.

BAFTA ANNOUNCES 2023 TELEVISION CRAFT AWARD WINNERS

BAFTA announced the winners of the BAFTA Television Craft Awards 2023 at a ceremony in London. Celebrating the very best behind-the-scenes television talent of 2022, the ceremony was hosted by Mel Giedroyc.

Chas Appeti won the Photography & Lighting: Fiction award for Jungle, beating other nominees, Anthony Dod Mantle DFF BSC ASC for Pistol, Ben Wheeler BSC for The Tourist and Rachel Clark for I Am Ruth. The Photography: Factual award was won by Marcel Mettelsiefen and Jordan Bryon for Children Of The Taliban.

At a separate event, the BAFTA Television Awards, which celebrates the very best of on

screen television talent in 2022, Kate Winslet won the BAFTA for Leading Actress for her role in I Am Ruth, which also won for Single Drama. AnneMarie Duff won Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Grace Williams in Bad Sisters, which won for Drama Series. Ben Whishaw won Leading Actor for his portrayal of Adam Kay in autobiographical drama This Is Going To Hurt. Adeel Akhtar won the BAFTA for Supporting Actor for his role in the crime drama Sherwood The Fellowship, the highest accolade bestowed by BAFTA, was presented by Adrian Lester to awardwinning and nationally beloved actor, screenwriter and novelist Meera Syal CBE in recognition of her exceptional contribution to television.

CVP HOSTS EUROPEAN LENS SUMMIT

CVP hosted the inaugural European Lens Summit on May 20th-21st at its newly-refurbished Brentford, London facility. Dedicated to the science and art of lenses, the event two-day summit featured thought-provoking discussion, highlytechnical workshops, masterclasses and clinics, and proved a must-attend for people who love optics.

The ‘Cine Optics, Yesterday, Today And Tomorrow’ session was led by Jay Holben Associate ASC ASC, who chairs the ASC Motion Imaging Technology Council’s Lens Committee and is a co-author of The Cine Lens Manual. The session covered the path that lenses have taken over the past 140 years of

motion pictures to today’s hot trends.

‘Methods And Principles Of Optical Diffusion’ with Ryan Avery in the hot-seat, enabled attendees to learn about the history and principles of optical diffusion methods for cinematography, with an in-depth discussion about modern techniques with a variety of brands and types of diffusion filters.

In the session entitled ‘Anamorphic Optics: History, Theory, Aberrations & Examples, And How It Relates To Today’s Cinematography Landscape’, Stephen Gelb covered a short history of Anamorphic lenses and Anamorphic squeeze ratios, and discussed differences in how focus design styles have evolved. The

session also covered how to QC Anamorphic lenses properly on-camera or projectors and identified different issues and problems which arise during rental and use. The talk/workshop surveyed different vintage and modern Anamorphic lenses, showcasing optical differences and visual cues to help users better understand marketplace options available.

BFI AND BRITISH COUNCIL REVEAL GREAT8 SHOWCASE FOR CANNES 2023

Great8 showcase which presents new UK feature films from some of the UK’s most exciting first and secondtime filmmakers to international distributors and festival programmers announced eight new projects – Black Dog, Bonus Track, Chuck Chuck Baby, Edge Of Summer, Starve Acre, In Camera, Kneecap and Layla – selected for this year’s edition which took place at this year’s Cannes Marché.

Now in its sixth year, the 2023 Great8 showcase is funded and run by the BFI and the British Council, in partnership with BBC Film and Film4. Great8 has built a reputation for highlighting films and filmmakers who have gone on to find international success

including Charlotte Wells’s Aftersun (BAFTA Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer, 2023), Rungano Nyoni’s I Am Not A Witch (Camera d’Or nominee, 2017), Michael Pearce’s Beast BAFTA Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer, 2019), Georgia Oakley’s Blue Jean (Venice Giornate Degli Autori’s People’s Choice Award, 2022) and Rose Glass’s Saint Maud (BIFA Douglas Hickox Award, 2021, BFI London Film Festival, Best Film-Honourable Mention) Agnieszka Moody, BFI head of international & industry policy, said, “The line-up of films and filmmakers featuring in this year’s Great8 continues to shine a light on the exciting diversity of filmmaker voices and stories continuing to come out of the UK.”

CLEAR CUT GROUP EXPANDS INTO THE HEART OF BIRMINGHAM

Clear Cut recently opened a new facility in Digbeth, Birmingham. This new venture for Clear Cut will offer fullyflexible post-production in the heart of the UK with 4K capabilities both remote and onsite. Clear Cut has a track record in Birmingham, having previously launched a pop-up facility in 2016, and this has now grown into a fullyfledged post-production operation.

Situated in a Grade 2 listed building with industrial heritage, the facility has an initial capacity for up to 40 remote offline/onsite suites, offering Media Composer and Premiere Pro editing and Da Vinci Resolve, plus grade suites with Da Vinci Resolve colour grading, giving clients the ability to handle complex postproduction tasks and final mastering.

CANON STORIES IN MOTION YOUNG FILMMAKERS COMPETITION ANNOUNCES WINNERS

KODAK CELEBRATES 29 FEATURES SHOT ON FILM AT CANNES 2023

Kodak Motion Picture and Entertainment celebrated 29 productions shot on film at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Four on-film titles, Asteroid City, Fallen Leaves, La Chimera and The Old Oak, competed for the Palme d’Or, with an additional three titles featured in Un Certain Regard and nine titles across Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week captured on film. 2023 also marks the centennial of 16mm film, and as proof of the format’s continued relevance and popularity, seventeen of the on-film titles at the festival chose 16mm as their capture medium.

Out-of-competition productions Maïwen’s Jean Du Barry, Sam Levinson’s The Idol, Martin Scorsese’s Killers Of The Flower Moon and Steve McQueen’s The Occupied City were each captured on Kodak 35mm film.

Canon UK & Ireland and CVP have announced the winning projects for the prestigious Canon Stories In Motion Young Filmmakers Awards. The awards were established to encourage and promote the creative talent of emerging filmmakers – aged from 18 to 25 years old – with the aim of recognising the best short films produced by the most exciting new young talent who have a passion for telling stories and making films.

The competition received a phenomenal number of entries from around the UK and Ireland, which were judged by a selection committee including: Canon ambassador, cinematographer and photographer, Elisa Iannacone; Canon ambassador, cinematographer and filmmaker, Tania Freimuth; CVP’s technical marketing manager, Jake Ratcliffe; and award-winning filmmaker, editor and colourist, Ollie Kenchington. The winners in the documentary, music video and scripted short categories, were:

Documentary: Daniel Simpkins, Farm Life –presented by Elisa Iannacone

Music Video: Luis Hindman, Just Come With Me Tonight – presented by Jake Ratcliffe

Scripted Short: Chas Harrington, Red Room, presented by Ollie Kenchington.

An additional overall grand prize was also given to Daniel Simpkins for Farm Life. The winners received a selection of prizes, including a Canon EOS C70 and RF 24-70 F2.8 L lens, a £500 voucher for CVP, and the experience of shadowing an award-winning filmmaker. All shortlisted projects were awarded a £200 voucher to use at CVP.

“We congratulate all of the motion picture artists whose work was been selected for Cannes 2023,” said Vanessa Bendetti, global managing director of Kodak Motion Picture and Entertainment. “To have so many shot-on-film productions screening and competing at the festival this year is undeniably testimony to the intrinsic value of the film medium. It is Kodak ’s distinct honour to have partnered with these filmmakers to help bring their artistic visions to the screen.”

Shot-on-film productions competing or screening as part of the Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival 2023 between 16 – 27 May included:

Official Competition

• Jeanne du Barry - Maïwen (35mm)

*Opening Film Out of Competition

• Fallen Leaves - Aki Kaurismaki (35mm)

• Asteroid City - Wes Anderson (35mm)

• La Chimera - Alice Rohrwacher (16mm/35mm)

• The Old Oak - Ken Loach (35mm)

Un Certain Regard

• Simple Comme SylvainMonica Chokri (35mm)

• Crowrã (The Buriti Flower) - João Salaviza & Ranée Nader Messora (16mm)

• Only The River Flows - Wei Shun (16mm)

Out of Competition

• The Idol - Same Levinson (35mm)

• Killers Of The Flower MoonMartin Scorsese (35m)

Special Screenings

• Occupied City - Steve McQueen (35mm)

Premieres

• L’amour et les forêts (Love A nd Forests)Valérie Donzelli (16mm)

• Cerrar Los Ojos (Close Your Eyes) -

PICTURE SHOP UNVEILS EXPANDED FACILITIES IN HOLLYWOOD

Picture Shop, Streamland Media’s picture division, has expanded and extensively renovated its Sunset and Seward picture post-production facilities, both located in the heart of Hollywood. The innovative transformations further underscore Picture Shop’s commitment to provide filmmakers globally with first-in-class technology and talent.

“We’ve invested millions of dollars to ensure that we have world-leading technology and optimum environments in place for colour grading, editorial and workflow management, with the goal of serving our clients at the

highest level,” said Picture Shop president Cara Sheppard. “We’ve spent our time focusing on their needs, putting the industry’s most advanced tools in their hands, all in a beautiful and stylish environment that fuels creativity. The team has done an incredible job and I look forward to seeing our clients’ work take flight.”

Picture Shop’s facility at 6040 Sunset Boulevard sits in 115,000 square feet located over six floors at the Sunset Gower Studio lot. With five colour bays and 11 edit rooms included in the expansion, the Sunset facility now offers filmmakers five DI theatres, 13 colour bays, 22

Victor Erice (16mm)

• Eureka - Lisandro Alonso (35mm)

Directors’ Fortnight - Long Features

Competition

• Conann (She Is Conann)Bertrand Mandico (35mm)

• LéguaFilipa Reis & João Miller Guerra (16mm)

• Riddle Of Fire (Conte de Feu)Weston Razooli (16mm)

• The Sweet East - Sean Prince Williams (16mm)

Directors’ Fortnight - Short Films

• Il Compleanno Di Enrico (The Birthday Party) - Francesco Sossai (16mm)

• J ’ai vu le Visage du Diable (I Saw The Face Of The Devil) - Julia Kowalski (16mm)

• Lemon Tree - Rachel Walden (16mm)

Critics’ Week - Long Features Competition

• Lost Country - Vladimir Perisic (16mm)

Critics’ Week - Short Films

• Contadores - Irati Gorostidi Agirretxe (16mm)

Acid Selection

• The Sea And Its WavesLiana & Renaud (16mm)

Official Selection Court Métrage/Short Films

• Tits - Eivind Landsvik (16mm)

• Aunque es de NocheGuillermo García López (16mm)

Cinef Selection

• Killing Boris JohnsonMusa Alderson-Clarke (35mm)

• Trenc d ’Alba - Anna Llargués (S8mm)

Catalogue Marche

• Under T he Open Sky - Pavel Buryak (16mm)

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SURE SHOTS

Our regular round-up of who is shooting what and where

WORLDWIDE PRODUCTION AGENCY:

PJ Dillon ISC ASC continues on House Of The Dragon S2 with director Alan Taylor for HBO. Ruairí O’Brien ISC BSC is shooting on We Were The Lucky Ones with directors Thomas Kail and Neasa Hardiman in Romania for Hulu. Tony Slater Ling BSC is lighting Cold Storage for StudioCanal with director Jonny Campbell in Italy. Baz Irvine ISC BSC continues Silo S2 with director Michael Dinner for Apple TV+. Ed Moore BSC is prepping on Silo S2 with director Amber Finlayson (Bert) for Apple TV+. Stephen Murphy ISC BSC is shooting on The Tourist S2 with director Lisa Mulcahy for HBO Max/ BBC One. Callan Green ACS NZCS continues on The Gentlemen with directors Eran Creevy and David Caffrey for Netflix. Jamie D. Ramsay SASC is shooting on Goodrich with director Hallie MeyersShyer for Pascal Pictures in LA. Paul Morris has started on Time S2 with director Andrea Harkin for BBC. Jamie Cairney is lighting on Doctor Who with director Ben Chessell. Vanessa Whyte is on Horseface with director George Kane for Apple TV+. Mattias Troelstrup DFF is prepping for Sleepover with director Eva Husson for Quay Street Productions/Disney+. Nathalie Pitters is shooting on Queenie, with director Makalla McPherson for C4/Lionsgate TV. Kanamé Onoyama AFC is lighting Say Nothing with director Mary Nighy for FX.  Pedro Cardillo ABC has started on Joan with director Richard Laxton for ITVx. Shane F. Kelly is getting ready for Grace S4 with director Billie Eltringham for ITVx. Catherine Derry has wrapped on A Thousand Blows with director Tinge Krishnan for Disney+/Hulu. Manoel Ferreira SASC shot on Alex Rider S3 with director Brian O’Malley for Amazon Prime. Joel Devlin has concluded

Hangar Studios.  Adam Barnett shot with Lowkey Films’ director James Ardern for Cian Ducrott’s latest promo, and with director Tom Besley and Toad for a C4 doco. Carl Burke lit a charity campaign for Shelter with Partizan director Jones, and was in multiple countries with Unit 9 for an Adidas spot, directed by James Kibbey. Jake Gabbay shot for Cartier Beauty with 360PM and director Jordan Hemingway. JP Garcia wrapped with Blink director John Ogunmuyiwa on a Nike ad, and continued with Blink to shoot a spot for Expedia with Bob Harlow. Edward Gibbs lit a Garnier ad with Prodigious director Harleymoon Kemp. Thomas Hole wrapped in Monterrey with director Chris Ranson and Irresistible Studios for Rexona. Joel Honeywell shot a campaign for Amazon and Collective Studios across France and Germany with director Scott Perry. Anna Patarakina FSF was in Albania for Hamleys with director Chirolles Khalil via Dog Eat Dog. Matthew Emvin Taylor shot a spot for BP with Merman and Barbara, and framed an ad for Gala Bingo with Agile Films’ director Noah Harris.

SCREEN TALENT:

Bart Sienkiewicz PSC has been invited into the Polish Society of Cinematographers.  Adam Sliwinski is shooting an A+E drama. George Burt has been shooting Strictly Confidential, starring Elizabeth Hurley, Georgia Lock, Genevieve Gaunt, Laurie McQueen and Freddie Thorp. Damian Hurley was the director and writer on the project.

LUX ARTISTS:

Jarin Blaschke continues to shoot Nosferatu directed by Robert Eggers. Eric Gautier AFC is lensing Un Enfant Pas Comme

Les Autres. Kasper

Tuxen DFF shot a Zeiss commercial with director Miles Jay and a Pinterest ad directed by Sam Pilling. Jackson Hunt is shooting Dance School with director Sara Dunlop. Magnus Joenck has wrapped on Psycho Killer with director Gavin Polone. Nicolas Bolduc CSC has completed on Ourika, directed Marcela Said. Matyas Erdely HSC lit a Hyundai spot directed by Nicolai Fuglsig. Lol Crawley BSC continues to shoot The Brutalist with director Brady Corbet. Nicolai Niermann lensed a British Heart Foundation ad directed by Vincent Haycock. Henry Braham BSC is lensing The Instigators with director Doug Liman. Crystel Fournier AFC has wrapped on Blood River, directed by Angela Terrail. Mauro Chiarello shot a Grey Goose spot with director Max Siedentopf and an NDA TVC directed by Ian Pons Jewel. Jessica Lee Gagne continues on Apple TV+ series Severance S2, directed by Ben Stiller. Rasmus Videbaek has wrapped on The Crown Series S6, directed by Erik Richter Strand. Nanu Segal BSC has shot Curveball, directed by Philip Martin. Julien Poupard, AFC is shooting Langue Etrangère with director Claire Burger, Adam Scarth is lensing Mary And George, directed by Florian Cossen, Oliver Hermanus, Alex Winckler. Luke Jacobs is shooting Roar with director Dermot Malone. Bobby Shore CSC is prepping The Way with director Michael Sheen. Adolpho Veloso ABC continues to shoot Queen At Sea’with director Lance Hammer. Jakob Ihre, FSF lit an Amazon commercial with director Nick Gordon. Benjamin Kracun BSC is prepping Echo Valley with director Michael Pearce, Michael McDonough BSC ASC continues to shoot The Decameron, directed by Michael Uppendahl. John Lynch ISC is shooting Rivals, directed by Elliot Hegarty. Alejandro Martinez continues on House Of The Dragon. Rina Yang BSC is prepping Odessa with director Jasper Geremy. Benjamin Loeb

photography on My Sister’s Bones with director Heidi Greensmith for BKStudios. Luka Bazeli lit on The Glasshouse with director Josh Rappaport at Black

shot a McDonald’s commercial directed by Frederik Bond. Arnaud Potier has wrapped on a Volkswagen ad, also directed by Frederik Bond.

This page: (from top down) DP David Procter (r) in Neom, Saudi Arabia with 1stACs Cengizhan Cebeci and Rhony Sutriesno, 2ndAC Umut Sarikaya, Trinity Op Fares Corbani, and grip team; DP George Burt on Strictly Confidential with Liz Hurley and director Damian Hurley; DP Anna Patarakina on a Hamley’s job; DP Manoel Ferriera on Alex Rider 3 with director Brian O’Malley; and Bart Sienkiewicz PSC. ^

WHO, WHAT, WHEN & WHERE

LOOP TALENT:

Ali Asad is lensing a feature with director Neil Marshall. Ali Little is shooting the HETV Truelove with Clerkenwell Films. Matt North has been shooting for the BBC. Jon Muschamp has wrapped on The Trap, directed by Lena Headey. Lorenzo Levrini is shooting a feature in Rome. Tom Turley has been working with Tremolo Productions. Emma Dalesman has been shooting a film in the US. Tania Freimuth is in post on an independent feature. Rik Burnell, Chris Fergussson Nicholas Bennet, Olly Wiggins, Jerry Amadi-Praddon, Martyna Knitter, Bertrand Rocourt, Tom Watts, Chris O’Driscoll, Paul MacKay, Kyle Macfadzean, Matt Gillan and Aman K Sahota have all been shooting commercials and music promos. Camera operators… Jack Smith and Alice Sephton have been operating on commercials. Jem Rayner GBCT ACO and Grant Sandy-Phillips operated dailies on Mary And George James Anderson

ACO did dailies on Boat Story, with Grant SandyPhillips doing Steadicam dailies. Laura Seears has been meeting new DPs. Michael Vega, Gary Kent, Michael Eshun-Mensah & Sebastien Joly ACO have been operating Steadicam on commercial projects.

BERLIN ASSOCIATES:

Al Beech is shooting Midsomer Murders S24 for Bentley Productions. Will Baldy is shooting on The Sandman S2 for Warner Bros/Netflix. Annemarie Lean-Vercoe on Breeders S4 for Avalon Television, with director Ollie Parsons. Nick Martin is working on The Outlaws S3 for Big Talk Productions, with directors John Butler and Curtis Vowell. Tom Pridham is preparing to shoot The Horne Section S2 for Avalon Television. Pete Rowe is shooting The Hoard with director Philip John, having wrapped on Hullraisers. Alistair Upcraft is lensing on Fool Me Once for Quay Street Productions in Manchester with director David Moore. Matt Wicks is shooting

Vigil S2 for World Productions and director Andy De Emmony. Phil Wood is on After The Flood for Quay Street Productions/ITV and director Azhur Saleem.

INDEPENDENT TALENT GROUP:

Dan Atherton is prepping the new TV series Trinity, directed by Brady Hood. Chas Bain is prepping a Dr Who S14 special with regular collaborator and director Jamie Donoughue. Ole Bratt Birkeland

BSC is in Vancouver shooting Andrew Stanton’s In The Blink Of An Eye Darran Bragg has wrapped on block three of The Lazarus Project, for director Sean Spencer, and lit a Suki Waterhouse promo with Sophie Edelstein at Black Dog. Bjorn Bratberg is in Scotland prepping Shetland S8 with director Andy Newbery. Jordan Buck shot with directors Tim Brown and Nolan Goff. Miguel Carmenes has been shooting with Dizzee Rascal with Alex White, and with Amy BeckerBurnett, Mak Mahmut Alay, Olly Jennings and Silence Aitken-Til. Chris Clarke was with Adam Wells on a Lego ad, and did further shoots with Christian Watt on a climate change doc. Ben Davis

BSC is shooting Ilya Naishuller’s Heads of State. Adam Etherington has wrapped on Men Up, directed by Ashley Way, and is prepping for Paris Has Fallen, directed by Oded Ruskin. Arni Filippusson is shooting Boat Story, directed by Jack and Harry Williams. Cinders Forshaw BSC has start prep for Vera S13. Sam Goldie has wrapped on Inheritance in Ireland, a C5 four-parter, directed by Aku Louhimies. Katie Goldschmidt is shooting on House Of The Dragon S2. Stuart Howell is on Interview With A Vampire S2. Rick Joaquim lit a short for Netflix with director Bradley James and shot with directors Carly Cussons, Jim Wilmot and Troy Roscoe. Suzie Lavelle BSC ISC is lighting on Severance S2 in New York. John Mathieson BSC is prepping Gladiator 2, directed by Sir Ridley Scott, shooting in Malta and Morocco. Seamus McGarvey BSC ASC is shooting Joe Wright’s Mussolini series. Bani Mendy is in Guadaloupe with director Steve Brett on Death In Paradise S13. Andreas Neo lit spots with Chris McGill, Ian Roderick Gray and Chris McKenna, and continues

his experience in virtual production. Aadel Nodeh Farahani wrapped a short in Scotland with director Nick Tree, starring Kate Dickie. Mark Patten BSC has started shooting on Andor S2 with Janez Metz. Stephan Pehrsson BSC is shooting Your Christmas Or Mine 2 with Jim O’Hanlon. Dick Pope BSC is prepping Mike Leigh’s next feature. James Rhodes shot for Amex with Ben Murray, plus live performances with Georgia Testi and Paolo Conte in La Scala, Milan, and The Killers in Mexico City. George Richmond BSC is prepping Deadpool 3 for Sean Levy. Chris Ross BSC – is on The Day Of The Jackal Ashley Rowe BSC shooting Belgravia with John Alexander. Martin Ruhe ASC is lighting The Amateur with James Hawes. Mark Waters shot the short Anfamol for C4 and is now on All Creatures Great And Small Erik Wilson BSC is prepping Paddington 3 with Dougal Wilson. Mark Wolf is in prep for Everything’s Going To Be Great with Jon S Baird. Maja Zamojda BSC has wrapped on block one of My Lady Jane

ECHO ARTISTS:

Stuart Bentley BSC is shooting the feature We Live In Time, directed by John Crowley. Nicolas Canniccioni has completed the grade on Molly Manning Walker’s feature debut How To Have Sex Carlos Catalan is lensing episodes 3 and 4 of The Devil’s Hour S2 with director Shaun James

Grant. Federico Cesca ASK is shooting on the HBO/BBC/Bad Wolf series Industry S3, directed by Isabella Eklöf. David Chizallet AFC is working on the Apple TV+ series La Maison. Rachel Clark is lensing Disney+ series Queenie, with director Joelle Mae David, after completing the grade on Lucy Cohen’s feature Knockers Nick Cooke is grading his episodes of upcoming Netflix series One Day Ruben Woodin Dechamps has graded Spring Films’ documentary Underland, which he shot with director Robert Petit. Bonnie Elliott ACS is shooting See-Saw Films’ feature Runaway, directed by Mirrah Foulkes, after completing on episodes of Daina Reid’s series The Veil for Hulu. Evelin van Rei NSC is shooting the second block of ITV/Sister Pictures’ series Passenger Will Pugh is lensing Jodhi May’s feature Mooring Bartosz Swiniarski is prepping the feature Things That You Kill, produced by Lava Films. Nadim Carlsen DFF, Andrew Commis ACS,

This page: (from top down) – DP John Lynch shooting Disney +’s Rivals; Matthew North on The One Note Man; Lorenzo Levrini shooting on Troppo Azzurro; Rik Burnell on the feature The Sharpie; DP Paul MacKay on a Mastercard job; and DP Pete Rowe operating on Hullraisers.

Edgar Dubrovskiy, David Gallego ADFC, Charlie Herranz, Jo Jo Lam, MacGregor, Anders Malmberg, Patrick Meller, Lachlan Milne NZCS ACS ASC, Korsshan Schlauer, Noël Schoolderman, Niels Thastum DFF, Maria von Hausswolff DFF, Felix Wiedemann BSC and Sean Price Williams have all been shooting ads.

WIZZO & CO:

Congratulations to Chas Apetti who received a BAFTA TV Craft nomination for his work on Amazon’s Jungle, directed by Junior Okoli, and to Darius Shu who shot the BAFTA TV Craft nominated short form programme Always, Asifa, directed by Shiva Raichandani. Congratulations also to Molly Manning Walker who won Best Cinematography at the British Arrows Craft Awards for her work on an Alzheimer’s Society commercial, directed by Billy Boyd Cape. Aaron Reid is grading Netflix’s Supacell Murren Tullett has graded the feature &Mrs Susanne Salavati has graded the opening block of The Lazarus Project S2. Adam Gillham continues to shoot A Gentleman In Moscow Nick Dance BSC has wrapped the Sky feature Joy To The World, directed by Ed Hall. Luke Bryant is shooting Extraordinary S2 with director Jennifer Sheridan. Steven Ferguson has wrapped on Breeders S4 alongside director Chris Addison. Ashley Barron ACS is prepping a drama. Dymtro Nedria has completed on For Your Eyes Only in India. Ryan

WHO, WHAT, WHEN & WHERE

This page: (from top down) –Dmytro Nedria; several shots of Arran Green on Count Abdulla; HenryGill lensing a Nothing But Thieve promo on 35mm; Sverre Sordal on Sister Midnight in India; Franklin Dow with 2nd AC Mark James on a commercial, photo by Juan Minotta; and DP Gary Shaw.

series Boiling Point. Kieran McGuigan BSC is prepping BBC’s Domino Day Laurie Rose BSC is on Apples Never Fall. Bet Rourich AEC has wrapped on Isabel Coixet’s latest film, Un Amor John Sorapure is prepping for the third instalment of the

Ledge/BBC3. Mark Nutkins is prepping for Rivals block 2 with Happy Prince/Disney+. John Lee has done the DI on World On Fire S2 for Mammoth Screen. Danny Cohen BSC is shooting Apple TV’s Spook Street Damian Paul Daniel has wrapped on Kirkmoore for Fudge Park. Martin Fuhrer BSC is meeting for various projects. David Higgs BSC is in

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WHO, WHAT, WHEN & WHERE

Paddington franchise. Simon Tindall has begun on Sherwood S2. Ollie Downey BSC is prepping two episodes of Apple TV+/AMC’s Wool Laurens De Geyter SBC is shooting Couple Next Door, directed by Dries Vos David Rom is shooting the opening block of Amazon’s The Devil’s Hour S2. Álvaro Gutiérrez has wrapped on the opening block of Extraordinary S2 Si Bell BSC has wrapped on The Woman In The Wall for Motive Pictures/BBC with director Harry Wootliff. Sam Chiplin is shooting commercials. Charlotte Bruus Christensen DFF ASC is grading Retreat, shot for FX with director Brit Marling. James Friend BSC ASC is one of two DPs on Star Wars franchise The Acolyte for Lucasfilm.

Anton Mertens SBC is prepping on Kidnapped, a BBC Three series with Al Mackay directing. Milos Moore is lighting the second block of Disney+’s A Thousand Blows with director Ashley Walters. Neus Ollé AEC, BSC is lighting Disney+ series Las Largas Sombras in Spain with director Clara Roquet. David Raedeker BSC is lighting Say Nothing, a new series for FX with lead director Michael Lennox Niels

Reedtz Johansen is prepping with director Hayley Easton Street on her next feature The Climb shooting this summer. Anna Valdez Hanks, Kate Reid BSC and Juan Sarmiento G. are reading and meeting. Ed Rutherford is shooting The Serpent Queen S2 in France with director Stacie Passon. Ben Wheeler BSC has wrapped on This Town for Kudos/BBC and is prepping the final block of The Tourist S2 with director Kate Dolan. Barry Ackroyd BSC recently shot a Clearscore commercial with directors Si & Ad. Alex Barber shot a Schweppes spot with director Irene Baque in Cape Town for Darling Films and a Eurovision spot with Chris Balmond via Outsider. John Barr worked with director Helen Downing on a Morrisons ad for Prodigious. Alfie Biddle is shooting block two of Trigger Point 2, with director Audrey Cooke in London. Simon Chaudoir shot a BT spot in Bulgaria with directors The Sacred Egg at Riff Raff. Sara Deane is shooting TV series All Creatures Great And Small for director Andy Hay in Yorkshire. Nick Gillespie has wrapped on block one of Trigger Point 2 for director Jon East. Florian Hoffmeister BSC has concluded on Night Country in Iceland for director Issa López. Alwin Kuchler BSC is shooting The Palace with director Stephen Frears. Tim Maurice Jones lit a KFC job in London with Traktor via Stink. Alex Melman shot a Marmite TVC with director James Rouse through Biscuit. Matias Penachino lensed a Toyota commercial with director Marcus Hansen in Madrid via Agosto. Jake Polonsky BSC shot a Papaya ad for director Rob Leggatt in Warsaw through Knucklehead, London, and is now lighting the TV series Surface 2 in London with director Ed Lilly. Simon Richards shot for M&S with director Gus Filgate via Bite, and a Now TV job with director Juliet May through Merman. Miles Ridgway has wrapped on the feature Daddy’s Head for director Ben Barfoot. Bet Rourich framed a Viator job with director Kinopravda at Imposter. Chris Sabogal lit an Amazon ad in Prague with director Mike Maguire via Outsider. Daniel Vilar is shooting the TV series Welcome To Derry in Toronto.

CASAROTTO RAMSAY & ASSOCIATES: Femi Awojide is shooting The Odds with director Kewa Oni in Nigeria. Greg Duffield is working on Apple TV+’s Trying S4. Matt Gray BSC has commenced on ITV’s Mr Bates vs The Post Office with director James Strong. David Katznelson DFF BSC has wrapped on The Tattooist Of

Auschwitz with director Tali Shelom-Ezer. David Pimm has concluded on Hulu’s We Were The Lucky Ones with director Amit Gupta.

SARA PUTT ASSOCIATES: Emily Almond Barr has graded for The Lovers, which shot last year and will TX on Sky. Giulio Biccari is prepping on Rebus in Scotland for Eleventh Hour films. Jan Jonaeus is shooting in The Balearic’s on The Mallorca Files S3. Aga Szeliga ACO has been operating dailies. Al Rae ACO is on location across the UK on Stephen Frears’ The Palace, starring Kate Winslet. Andrei Austin ACO SOC is A-cam/ Steadicam on Joan Andrew Bainbridge

ACO has started in Horseface for Big Talk/Apple TV. Chris Maxwell Assoc ACO is operating B-cam/ Steadicam and Trinity on six episodes of BBC One’s Nightsleeper Dan Evans Associate ACO is a new signing at the agency. Danny Bishop ACO continues on LucasFilms’ The Acolyte, and recently won the SOC Camera Operator Award for his work on All Quiet On The Western Front. Ed Clark ACO has wrapped on Curveball and is prepping on Your Christmas Of Mine 2 George Amos is in Turkey working on Guy Ritchie’s Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare Ilana Garrard ACO is in Italy on Netflix’s The Decameron, lit by DP Michael McDonough BSC ASC and directed by Mike Uppendahl James Frater ACO SOC is as A-cam/Steadicam on The Gorge for Skydance/Apple TV+. James Leigh ACO has wrapped on The Lazarus Project for Urban Myth Films. Julian Morson ACO operated dailies on Wicked and has started prep on Heads Of State Rick Woollard ACO was in Chamonix for Louis Vuitton, worked with DP Steve Annis on a Giff Gaff ad for with Blink and an Audi spot for Biscuit Filmworks. He also found some time to teach Steadicam at Optical support. Tanya Marar ACO is also in Italy working on The Decameron Tom Walden ACO was in Slovakia on The Tattooist Of Auschwitz, the eight-part Sky drama is based on the book by the same name. Vince McGahon ACO continues on the new series of Apple TV/See Saw films’ Slow Horses Will Lyte ACO is operating on Mary And George, starring Julianne Moore. Zoe GoodwinStuart ACO continues as B-camera on The Acolyte for LucasFilms.

VISION ARTISTS:

Benedict Spence is in Hungary shooting new Netflix series Eric with Benedict Cumberbatch, produced by Sister Pictures, directed by Ben’s long term collaborator Lucy Forbes. Jaime Feliu-Torres is prepping tests for BFI feature film Free, directed by David Alexander. Anna MacDonald shot dramatic reconstructions for the feature-doc Stranded In Space about the Apollo 13 mission, directed by Pete Middleton, produced through Insight TWI Films, and then travelled to Budapest for a BFI Documentary Society project with Noémi Varga, exploring the disappearance of Varga’s grandfather during WWII. Jonas Mortensen has graded the TV special of Merman’s There She Goes, starring David Tennant and directed by Toby Trackman, and has been shooting second unit for Elliot Hegarty on the TV series Rivals for Disney+. Luciana Riso continues on an NDA Netflix feature in Colombia. Nick Morris is with long term collaborator Harry Lighton on second unit of Sky/AMC drama Mary And George, starring Julianne Moore. Kia Fern Little has grades The Long F’ Off, an instalment of

C4’s anthology series On The Edge, directed by James Doherty. Kia continues to shoot an NDA’d Apple TV music documentary on a high profile British star. James Blann has been grading Guardian documentary Digital Divide with new directors Right To Roam, which explores the process of digital exclusion. Will Hanke has wrapped on Starstruck S3, produced by Avalon/ BBC, directed by its star, Rose Matafeo. Stephen Dunn is in post production on the BFI, part Warner Bros-funded short Run Outs, directed by Dhillon Shukla. Moritz Moessinger has been working on short film By Any Other Name with Slick Films, directed by Daniel Deville, which follows two sisters and the tragedies of sex trafficking. Courtney Bennett worked with Somesuch on an album film for an NDA’d artist, directed by Renee Osubu. Ryan Eddleston has graded the BBC3 short Birdsong, written/directed by Uncle Shortbread for Hat Trick. Arthur Loveday shot fashion pieces with ITV and Volvo spots for Sky. Eoin McLoughlin was abroad shooting Gucci and Fendi in Italy with Mai Productions and Dobedo, directed by Johnny Dufort. Ian Murray has been lighting tech pieces for Framestore and shooting charity pieces with Greatcoat Films. James Watson worked with VCCP on spots for Tango, with regular collaborator Ben Tonge. Jim Jolliffe lit for Rogue Films and Max Fisher on a piece for The Royal Marines. Lorena Pagès has been lensing fashion pieces for Triumph and Calvin Klein with photographers Larisa Hofmann and Mel Bles. Luke C. Harper continues with director Tom Dream, shooting fashion and travel spots across Europe for Mango. Luke Scott reteamed with advertising partners Hogarth to shoot content for Soap And Glory. Martin Hill continues to shoot food and supermarket ads for Hunky Dory. Rhys Warren has been lighting promos with JM Films and director Will Beach. Spike Morris lenses Nike spots with Jon E Price in celebration of the anniversary of Air Max. Tim Fok has been lighting food ads with VCCP and Foodhall. Tim Green has been shooting car commercials with The Mill.

PRINCESTONE:

Of the agency’s directors of photography… Diego Rodriguez is working on a feature for Astronaut Films about Jamaican women’s soccer team The Reggae Girlz, with director Sharmeen Obaid Shinoy. He is also filming Poised, a feature-length doco about Steven France, ex-MMA champion, directed by Toby Robson for Two Yanks And A Brit UK, and involved in Project Compass, a three-part doc for Empress Films, directed by Marcus Plowright. Of the agency’s camera/Steadicam operators…. Simon Baker ACO is still filming on The Crown S6, with directors Christian Schwochow, Alex Gabassi and Stephen Daldry, and DPs Adriano Goldman ABC BSC ASC and Sophia Olsson for Left Bank Pictures/Netflix, in Majorca, Barcelona, Paris, England and Scotland. Cosmo Campbell ACO is operating on Extraordinary S2, for Sid Gentle Films and Disney+, with DP Alvaro Gutierrez and Toby MacDonald directing, at Three Mills Studios and locations in East London. Michael Carstensen ACO is shooting on House Of The Dragon S2, starring Matt Smith, Graham McTavish and Eve Best. Rob Hart ACO was second unit DP on This Town and filmed additional dailies on Alex Rider S3. Tony Jackson ACO was in Bucharest on 20 th

Television’s mini-series for Hulu, We Were The Lucky Ones, with director Thomas Kail and DPs Tim Ives and David Pimm, starring Joey King, Logan Lerman and Robin Weigert. Tony Kay ACO is filming on a 10-part political drama for Disney+. Nic Milner ACO operated on The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare, for Jerry Bruckheimer Films, with director Guy Ritchie and DP Ed Wild BSC, starring Henry Cavill, Alan Ritchson and Eiza Gonzalez. Dan Nightingale ACO has finished on Sexy Beast, a Paramount+ prequel TV series, with director Michael Caleo. Peter Robertson Associate BSC ACO has finished on the Mussolini biopic, M. Son Of The Century, at Cinecitta studios in Rome with director Joe Wright and DP Seamus McGarvey BSC ASC. Joe Russell ACO is in Spain filming on Andor S2 with DPs Christophe Nuyens SBC, Mark Patten BSC and Damián Garcia, and directors Ariel Kleiman, Janus Metz and Alonso Ruizpalacios. Sean Savage Associate BSC ACO SOC is filming with the Fire Unit on House Of The Dragon S2 for

This page: (clockwise) – Danny and Aimee Bishop with SOC Award; Fabrizio Sciarra with Tim Burton on Wednesday; DP Robbie Ryan (r) and producer Lee Groombridge; and Adric Watson shooting for Teskey Brothers, directed by W.A.M Bleakley.

HBO, working with directors Alan Taylor and Andrej Pakereh and DP Alejandro Martinez. Fabrizio Sciarra SOC Associate BSC GBCT ACO operated B-camera/ Steadicam dailies with the main unit on Mission: Impossible VII with director Chris McQuarrie and DP Frasier Taggart. Peter Wignall ACO is filming in Turkey on The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare, Guy Ritchie’s World War II feature.

MY MANAGEMENT:

Robbie Ryan ISC BSC filmed the short Woodlice with RSA director/writer Leonn Ward, who, at the age of 16 lost her mother suddenly to cancer. Robbie also lensed for Somesuch director Kim Gehrig on an NDA ad campaign in LA, and has colour graded Poor Things with director Yorgos Lanthimos.

Ben Chads was in Spain shooting second unit for Whisper TV with director Stuart Douglas. Adric Watson shot music videos for Tom Gregory with Ozzie Pullin, lensed the short Sven, directed by Chris Parton, and flew to Sofia for a Visa TVC with Prettybird director Yousef. Nikita Khatsarevich lit ads for Puma with director Natasha Ivanova, IKEA with director Lukasz Zablocki, and Samsung with director Simon Pawlik. Allison Anderson lensed

WHO, WHAT, WHEN & WHERE

with director Stefan Hunt at Media Monk for Liquid TV, and is shooting an on-going short, As We Speak , with director Jason Harper in Atlanta, New Orleans, London, LA, Chicago ands NYC. Arnaud Carney shot for YSL with Fabian Constant and Franklin Burger, and Tourtel Twist with Francois Lallier. David Lanzenberg is filming in New York on Ben Stiller’s Apple TV workplace thriller Severance S2, starring Patricia Arquette, Adam Scott and Christopher Walken. Tomas Tomasson is shooting second unit on True Detective S4 for HBO/True North in Iceland. Carlos Veron was in Bulgaria with Blink director Joseph Mann for Candy Crush. Chris Dodds lensed for Verisign with director Chas Callingham-Woods. Craig Dean Devine has grading the feature Layla Daisy Zhou shot for Walgreens in Vancouver with Somesuch director Mollie Mills, Reveal with Supply & Demand director Vicky Lawton, and Lulu Lemon with Bam director Hannah Sider. Darran Tiernan ISC continues in NY on HBO MAX’s The Penguin with director Craig Zobel, starring Colin Farrell. Ekkehart Pollack lit Hyundai and BMW ads with directors Tibor Glage and Alex Feil. Filip Marek has wrapped on the TV series Mozaika with director Jasmina Blazevic in Prague. Jallo Faber FSF FNF shot with director Filip Nilsson in Barcelona, then lensed on Betano in Milwaukee with director Ian Schwartz. Lee Thomas lensed on the London Bridge documentary with director Fred Scott, and a music videos for artist L Devine with Nice Shirt director Emilio Boutros. Max Witting shot Bicester fashion collection in Paris with director/photographer Josh Shinner. Minka Farthing-Kohl continues on TV drama Under The Bridge in Vancouver for Hulu/ABC

Signature.

Nicolaj Bruel

DFF filmed Mulino Bianco

Wave 7 with BRW Filmland director Gabrielle Mainetti, and is prepping for the Netflix series The Leopard

with director Tom Shankland in Italy. Paul O’Callaghan lensed on the feature documentary Fighting With Pride with director Luke Korzun Martin, plus a Honda ad in Spain with Sassy director Al Clark. Pete Konczal ASC lensed a TVC for Cincinnati Children’s Hospital with director Warren Fischer. Steve Chivers shot for Ford with Rattling Stick director Daniel Kleinman in Croatia and Slovenia. Pieter Vermeer was in Mumbai lensing for L’Oreal. Ravenna Tran lit the short Rada with director Josh

Archer. Shaka Agina filmed the short Lovers Laced with director Chantal Gold. Sveta Aparina lensed a Barnado’s charity ad with director Keith McCarthy at Object & Animal. Todd Martin shot Get Your Guide in Thailand and Barcelona with Digital Sinn director Anderson Wright, and a New Balance ad in Miami with Pulse director Paul Ward.

MCKINNEY MACARTNEY MANAGEMENT:

Stuart Biddlecombe is filming The Veil for FX. Ben Butler and Alessandra Scherillo have been shooting spots. Denis Crossan BSC is prepping The Rig S2 for Amazon. Sergio Delgado is shooting A Gentleman In Moscow for Showtime/Paramount+. Michael Filocamo is prepping Amazon’s Ghosted Jean Philippe Gossart AFC is filming on Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power S2. Dale Elena McCready BSC NZCS is shooting Belgravia for ITV. John Pardue BSC is lighting ITV’s Breathtaking Richard Stoddard is prepping The Red King for ITV.

This page: (clockwise) –Allison Anderson; DP Carlos Veron on Candy Crush, directed by Joseph Mann; Ravenna Tran; Steve Chivers (r) with director Danny Kleinman (l); Daisy Zhou; Lee Thomas; and Chris Dodds on set of Restless with director Ned Champain.

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RED SKIES AT NIGHT

By Natasha Block Hicks

Astriking feature of camera operator

P. Scott Sakamoto SOC’s Instagram account is the frequency in which blazing skies appear. In the course of his nearly four-decade career, the SOC’s 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award-winner has recorded nature’s display in numerous sublime locations.

“I love sunsets, they are like beautiful paintings,” he reports from his cabin on the shores of Lake Arrowhead, in the San Bernardino Mountains, California, the muse of many of his posts. “No two are alike.”

The ‘P’ in P. Scott Sakamoto stands for Paul, Sakamoto’s father’s name, though Sakamoto was always known as Scott. He had an affinity for photography at an early age and Paul Snr. would allow the youngster to use his 35mm Minolta, to take pictures on family outings.

“I loved the anticipation of waiting for the roll of film to get developed at the local drug store,” Sakamoto recalls, “and the excitement of seeing what I’d got.”

Sakamoto took photography in high school, which evolved into filmmaking in college.

“That got me hooked in that world,” he relates, “once you start working on student films, it’s addictive.”

The Screen Actors Guild strike of 1980 proved an unexpected boon for Sakamoto. Haskell Wexler ASC, the Oscar-winning cinematographer well-known at that time for features such as One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975, dir. Milos Forman), was occupying the downtime with his own independent projects and, most importantly, was open to teaching students.

“I had an interview with Haskell, then he invited me up to watch him shoot a commercial, and we just hit it off,” recalls Sakamoto. “I was so fortunate; it was the beginning of a lifelong relationship.”

Assisting on short-form projects at Wexler-Hall, the television commercial production company Wexler ran with fellow Oscar-winning DP Conrad L. Hall ASC, became Sakamoto’s “education in filmmaking” as he puts it. He soon graduated to movies, accompanying Wexler to Nicaragua for six months on the latter’s passion project Latino (1985, dir. Haskell Wexler, DP Newton Thomas Sigel ASC) and pulling focus on Matewan (1987,

dir. John Sayles, DP Haskell Wexler ASC), which remains one of Sakamoto’s favourite experiences in his career.

The Babe (1992, dir. Arthur Hiller, DP Haskell Wexler ASC) was Sakamoto’s first official foray into movie operating.

Emmerich), which would earn the DP the fourth of his six Oscar nominations.

“The Patriot was challenging,” remembers Sakamoto, “there was a lot of exterior shooting, like sunrises and sunsets. But I’m proud of the work that we did.”

Soon after, Conrad Hall called on Sakamoto to take the operator/Steadicam role on Road To Perdition (2002, dir. Sam Mendes), which was to be the DP’s final film.

“Road To Perdition was technically one of my best films,” states Sakamoto, “there are shots on that movie that I am still very proud of, especially some of the Steadicam sequences.”

Two of Sakamoto’s long takes on Road To Perdition are featured on steadishot.org’s list of iconic Steadicam shots, including one referred to as The Assassination, a 55-second sequence which follows Tom Hanks’ mobster through a hotel enroute to murder his boss’s son.

“That scene was shot in a studio set on the last night,” recalls Sakamoto. “We only had a few takes because Tom had to leave on a plane.

“I started above him, with the Steadicam, twenty feet up on a crane. As we dollied backwards, the grips would be dropping arched ceiling pieces in behind us, so that we could boom down in front of Tom and see the hallway that he’d just walked through. Then I stepped off the crane to follow him.

“Once he makes into the room and shoots Daniel Craig in the bath, the door had to close at an exact mark to reflect the shooting,” continues Sakamoto.

“There were about fifteen people involved in coordination of that shot; it took amazing teamwork.”

“Haskell said, “it’s time for you to move on”,” relates Sakamoto. He had done some operating independently for Sigel and picked up a few Steadicam tutoring sessions “on the side” under operator Stephen St. John, but it was still a major step.

“I was very nervous, especially doing Steadicam work,” recalls Sakamoto, “but the fact that Haskell had faith in me gave me the confidence to go right in and do it.”

Sakamoto continued to collaborate with Wexler for another decade, but was soon in demand with other DPs.

He took Steadicam and 2nd Unit DP roles under Sigel again on The Usual Suspects (1995, dir. Bryan Singer) and teamed-up with Caleb Deschanel ASC on The Patriot (2000, dir. Roland

Sakamoto’s next project was The Italian Job (2003, dir. F. Gary Gray, DP Wally Pfister ASC). “We had a great time on that project,” Sakamoto divulges.

“I teamed-up with Wally again many years later on The Dark Knight Rises (2012) and with Christopher Nolan at the helm, that was pretty amazing. They introduced me to the IMAX camera on the Steadicam, which was something new for me. It’s a big camera.”

In 2005, Sakamoto worked alongside DP Sir Roger Deakins CBE BSC ASC on Jarhead (2005, dir. Sam Mendes) which was “such a pleasure”.

“We worked hand-in-hand,” Sakamoto relates, referring to Deakins preference on operating A-camera himself, “he’s such a talented, pleasant man.”

If The Revenant looks cold… it’s because it was cold

This page: Scott Sakamoto lensing

A Star Is Born and The Revenant.

SMOOTH OPERATOR•P. SCOTT SAKAMOTO SOC

Many illustrious projects followed, with Michael Clayton (2007, dir. Tony Gilroy, DP Robert Elswit ASC), The Descendants (2011, dir. Alexander Payne, DP Phedon Papamichael ASC) and Interstellar (2014, dir. Christopher Nolan, DP Hoyte van Hoytema NSC FSF ASC) being just a few examples.

The Revenant (2015, dir. Alejandro G. Iñárritu, DP Emmanuel Lubezki ASC AMC) proved to test the resolve of many of the experienced hands working on it, Sakamoto being no exception.

“If the movie looks cold it’s because it was cold,” he says soberly. “It was an endurance test, but also an enlightening experience, because Alejandro’s vision was so wide open. We’d often pan around to see hundreds of yards of the environment.”

According to Sakamoto, Lubezki (known on-set as ‘Chivo’) and Iñárritu wanted to find a special language for the movie.

“This meant using wide lenses, really close to the face, which was extraordinary at the time,” reveals Sakamoto. “The actors’ breath would fog the glass in the cold. At first, we would cut when this happened, but then we realised we should embrace it; it gave such a feeling of intimacy. When they CG’d the bear in post, they made it look like the bear was fogging the lens too!”

One shot that required exacting coordination involved Sakamoto circling Leonardo DiCaprio on a crane, starting with a study of his character’s anguish and ending on him watching an avalanche rumbling in the distance.

“That was a real avalanche, which was set off

by a helicopter dropping a stick of dynamite onto the mountainside,” reveals Sakamoto. “It was one of those filmic experiences where everything had to come together, but it was done very calmly.”

In 2016, Sakamoto was recognised with both The Operators Award and the SOC Camera Operator of the Year Award for his work on The Revenant

Sakamoto teamed-up with Cooper and Libatique once again on Maestro (2023), the story of Leonard Bernstein, which had some scenes shot on location in Ely Cathedral, Ely, near Cambridge.

“We had the London Symphony Orchestra replicating an epic concert that Bernstein held there,” describes Sakamoto, “It was an amazing to walk around while they played. I could hear every instrument, recognise every sound. It was an experience that I’ll never forget.”

Back at Lake Arrowhead, where he goes to unwind between projects, Sakamoto was enjoying an unexpected fall of spring snow at the time of this interview.

“If I walked outside I’d be standing in a sevenfoot berm right now,” he remarks, “it’s so beautiful and peaceful.”

In summer, Sakamoto enjoys morning waterskiing sessions on the lake, before the crowds descend.

“That was very special,” acknowledges Sakamoto, “but I need to share part of that moment with Chivo. We were in it together.”

Sakamoto received a second SOC Camera Operator of the Year award in 2019 for his work on A Star Is Born (2018, dir. Bradley Cooper, DP Matthew Libatique ASC).

“That was a very improv movie, even though it was scripted,” divulges Sakamoto. “We would roll secretly with Lady Gaga because her performances in rehearsal were remarkable. Bradley’s a smart director, he made that movie work, and Matthew was really skilled in lighting to cover multiple cameras when we had concert footage.”

“I like to get out there first thing in the cold water with my wife Lori and dog Cooper,” he muses, “just to enjoy the wind, water and the life outside.”

This page: Working on Black Panther; National Treasure; Road To Perdition; and pictured with Haskell Wexler ASC on Mulholland Falls.

I had an interview with Haskell, and we just hit it off – it was the beginning of a lifelong relationship

RED V-RAPTOR

STEPPING OUT

By Darek Kuźma

Irish DP Kate McCullough ISC assisted director Hettie Macdonald in making the quirky British road movie, TheUnlikelyPilgrimageOfHarold Fry, both food for thought and a feast for the eyes. Having worked with Macdonald on six episodes of the exceptional mini-series Normal People, McCullough was eager to collaborate with the director again, and the premise of The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry – about the eponymous character who goes on a spontaneous trek across the length of England – also caught her imagination.

“I liked the idea of an unassuming retired man going on a journey, into nature, to deliver a message and to sort of atone for his past failures,” says McCullough. “In my own life, if I had to deal with some kind of crisis or trauma, I’d definitely try to walk it out of my system. There is this inherent thing in walking, and the right kind of engagement with the body, that allows you to free-up your mind, to be vulnerable and to find new ways of engaging with the world.”

One sunny morning that promises to turn into yet another routinely plain day for Harold (Jim Broadbent) and his wife Maureen (Penelope Wilton), Harold receives a letter from an old colleague informing him that she is dying of cancer in a hospice in Berwick-upon-Tweed, the northernmost town in England, in Northumberland near the Scottish border. Harold is devastated at the news, but when he goes out to post a mindless letter of reply, something tells him to keep walking. And so he walks, from one post box to another, further and further away from his routine life. When a chance encounter at a petrol station makes him think of the journey ahead as an act of faith, he decides to walk the whole distance of almost 500 miles from Kingsbridge on the south coast of Devon to Berwick.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry is based on the 2012 novel of the same name by Rachel Joyce – winner of the UK National Book Award for a new writer, and long-

listed for the 2012 Man Booker prize – and was adapted for the screen by the author herself.

During prep, Macdonald and McCullough were adamant about shooting on-location as much as possible and went on the road for a week to gauge the full length of the protagonist’s journey, albeit in a car.

“We wanted the audience to feel Harold’s journey, experience different parts of England, the beauty of the nature there, and hear the accents that people spoke,” recalls McCullough. “I documented what we were seeing with a stills camera, creating a sort of tapestry of what England has to offer. The idea was to anchor the story in each place, and to lend authenticity to Harold’s encounters, and we spent most of the prep on the road recce’ing for the film.

“Although we produced an album of still photos and paintings for reference, the film was really informed through our recces and building the overall look around what we found. There was no point in trying to push against that. In a sense, it was about curating all those locations.”

The principal photography on the film lasted eight weeks, from September to November 2021, including three weeks of interior work in London. Out of this, shooting on the road took five weeks and saw the crew travelling through the counties of Devon, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Derbyshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Durham, Tyne and Wear and Northumberland.

Before hitting the road, however, they shot out-ofschedule for a day in the historic city of Bath, Somerset, to capture the energy of its grand Jane Austen Festival that halts Harold’s trek for a few hours.

“It was a massive task to piece together all the different parts of Harold’s journey, as once you find one location, it informs the one previous and the one that follows,” reveals McCullough. “We tried to find clusters of locations to limit the crew moving around. Even so, we still shot in 13 locations, travelling with a small crew, two Transit vans

of lighting and grip equipment, and a Luton van carrying the camera gear. It was the most physically and mentally demanding project I’ve been on yet. I guess it needed a bit of blind faith, just like Harold.”

McCullough admits that the logistical challenges of shooting on the road dictated most of the visual and technical choices, including the combo of camera and lenses.

“I chose Sony Venice because of the power of its sensor. I knew I wouldn’t have enough lighting sources for night scenes and would often need to produce clean images in available light, or with practicals or using a small amount of supplementary lighting. This was my third film on Sony Venice and I felt confident with it – it’s become my friend,” she laughs.

Being on the road certainly had an impact on her other tools. “I always like to operate on my films, I love to have a front row seat in a sense, and gain that emotional connection with the characters. But the thing was that Jim Broadbent is 6’2 and I’m 5’10, and I didn’t want to shoot with this sort of upwards angle. Also, budget-wise, the big decision was that we weren’t going to manage a Steadicam.”

As they would be travelling through different types of terrain, this slight visual incongruity could have influenced the viewers’ immersion in the story. “I ended-up using

It was a massive task to piece together all the different parts of Harold’s journey

Flowcine GLINK, a high-end gimbal body support system, together with an xSPINE vest, that let me produce smooth walking shots from the right height. This combination gave me enough freedom to travel alongside Jim and capture all those small moments that give the film an additional layer of meaning, and by the end I had a new set of muscles.”

The film was shot using two Sony Venices equipped with Tribe7’s Blackwing7 lenses (using 20.7, 27, 37, 47, 57, 77 and 107mm focal lengths), plus diopters and lowcontrast filters.

“I wanted a bit of character to the image, a sort of dreaminess around the edges, so that was not totally objective,” McCullough explains. “The Blackwings come in three tuned sets – Straight, Transient and Expressive – with the Expressives having the most amplified characteristics. As the budget didn’t allow for two different sets of lenses, I chose to stay on Blackwing Ts because of their unique character.”

The second unit, consisting of B-camera operator Seamus Murphy and remote head operator Calvin Day, also used Angénieux zooms (22-60mm T3, 45-135mm T3). The whole package was provided by One Stop Films.

Anathema to her usual approach, McCullough says she had to relinquish some control due to the constant state of flux associated with each of the phases of Harold’s arduous trek as well as a plethora of characters he meets on his way to Berwick-upon-Tweed.

“We had this basic LUT that made the skin tones more healthy and filmic-looking, and which also toned the greens down. But there were so many variables, different

weathers, colours, textures, that I had decided to embrace each location for what it was and left smoothing the continuity down for the grade,” she says. The DI was done at Goldcrest with colourist Sara Buxton whose experience was also invaluable during the addition of a number of subtle VFX shots throughout the film.

One of the film’s underlying messages is that we need to appreciate the simple joys of life and learn to trust in others. And because of the nature of the shoot and her documentary background, McCullough wanted to interfere as little as possible.

“Most exteriors were shot with available light. We sometimes used a lamp or two to add some character where we wanted it, or when the sun wouldn’t come through the clouds, but I didn’t want to stylise the organic look of the locations,” she says.

“My gaffer, Carolina Schmidtholstein, convinced me to use Lightbridge’s CRLS reflector system. It’s quite new, but we were lucky that Jono Smith and Jason Clare from Reflectric, the company that supplied the package, were keen to share their knowledge and decided to come onboard as sparks.”

“We shot one of the campfire sequences on a football pitch and enhanced the fire and existing lamps with CRLS, Geminis and Helios tubes. Knowing the power of Sony Venice’s sensor, I was confident I could keep the lighting on the road to a minimum.”

Lighting-wise, the most challenging scene was the chance encounter at a petrol station, which was actually shot at two different locations.

“We shot the exteriors on the road, so I needed a very strong sun coming through the windows, but we didn’t have the resources to rig huge lamps,” McCullough recalls. “We were shooting in London at the end of November, so I had to plan for night-for-day. We hired helium balloons that we put in the forecourt of the station to produce a kind of soft ambient daylight. I was nervous whether people would buy into it, but once we started, the balloons turned out to be a perfect solution.”

This pivotal encounter pushes Harold to believe his journey is an act of faith, and through walking the whole distance he will help his friend recover from her illness. Most importantly, the pilgrimage forces him to contemplate his past failures and confront his inner demons.

As Harold walks through roads and fields and towns, Macdonald used flashbacks to help the audience connect to him on a deeper level.

For interiors Schmidtholstein used Dedolight PB70 parallel beam lights, in combination with CRLS reflectors. “They were brilliant in small scenes, like a conversation at a train station or a café. We had a stackable 230V Instagrid batteries (from Greenkit) and 5Kva from Voltstack, but you could plug them into available local power and have great results.”

Pat McEnally at Greenkit supplied the rest of the lighting package, including Litepanels’ Gemini and Astera Helios Tubes. Skylight provided the helium balloons on dailies.

“I wanted a flexible mix of LED lights so to have options when shooting interiors, but they were also great on night exteriors,” McCullough adds.

During his trek, Harold becomes a media celebrity and finds himself surrounded by dozens of folks travelling with tents and sleeping bags.

“There is a kind of angularity to the deep grief Harold is dealing with. I didn’t want soft, cosy light in the flashbacks, but hard shapes, moments of visual discomfort, moments he’d much rather have forgotten,” McCullough says. “Hettie and I discussed the idea of the intensity of human memories and decided to use frontal ‘flash’ lighting. The images needed to burn into the audience. I lit the scenes like I normally would, then attached a small Dedo lamp to the camera. It wasn’t the most comfortable of rigs for both myself and the actors, but I’m glad we persisted as the flashbacks have this intensity and focus that set them apart from the present-day journey. It was important because those scenes sort of connect the film’s numerous layers.”

All-in-all, The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry is as much a quirky, feel-good road movie as it is an intimate drama about the fragility of human existence, as well as being a journey of self-discovery and redemption. McCullough is very pleased with the result and the experience as it is also her first British feature.

“I made a short in the UK years ago, just before I went to study in the Łódź Film School, but it was different back then obviously. Shooting The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry was interesting to see how things are done now, and it was great to work with excellent and diverse crews. I’ve never worked with a female gaffer before and Carolina Schmidtholstein was phenomenal,” she marvels. “I hope to shoot more films in the UK, especially since I pretty much recce’d all of the country for Harold!”

I’ve never worked with a female gaffer before, and Carolina Schmidtholstein was phenomenal

Images: Courtesy of Essential Cinema.

ART FOR ART’S SAKE

By Ron Prince

Described as both beautiful and riveting to behold, director Kelly Reichardt’s Showing Up is a wry, slow-burn comedy exploring the excitement, frustration, disappointments and successes of artistic creation, and marks her fifth collaboration with American cinematographer Christopher Blauvelt.

Co-written by Reichardt and Jon Raymond, the subtle drama follows Lizzy, an insular singleton and would-be sculptor, who is getting ready to show her ceramic figurines at a career-changing art exhibition, if only life didn’t keep getting in the way.

Her landlady Jo (Hong Chau) – also a multi-media artist and seemingly Lizzie’s only friend – likes to collect the rent, but is loath to fix the hot water. Lizzy’s divorced father (Judd Hirsch), a retired potter, takes little interest in her work and is more concerned with entertaining freeloading house guests. In her day job, Lizzie works

of cow shit. I also got to ride a bicycle to work most mornings, and it was very nice to start the day feeling energised.”

Speaking about his relationship with Reichardt, Blauvelt says, “We have become very good friends. We regularly visit art galleries together, and one of

camera and lens combination that would deliver Reichardt’s desired result.

“I think about Harris every day, and earlyon in my career I learnt from him how you, as the cinematographer, have to honour the script that’s in front you and the individual visual identity the director wants for that production. So, on every film I scrap whatever thing I’ve done before and start over from scratch,” he says.

“I am great friends with Michael Koerner, who let me set-up a small bay at his premises to undertake the testing process. He and his team really cared about what I was doing and got super-involved with suggestions. Taking into consideration all of the ideas and inspiration that Kelly gave me, I tested a variety of cameras, lenses and filters, whilst also focussing on look-development with my DIT Sean Goiller and Adrian Seery, our DI colourist, at Harbor in New York.

as an administrative assistant at a community arts centre, run by her mother Jean (Maryann Plunkett), who doesn’t take creative pursuits too seriously either. Her reclusive brother Sean (John Magaro) might just be an artistic genius, but has alarming traits, like digging huge holes in his back garden. And, to top it all, Lizzie finds herself nursing a wounded pigeon, which takes up a lot of time and thought-power, when she should be focussing on her artistic endeavours and the fast-approaching exhibition.

Showing Up premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d’Or, and was subsequently released by A24 in 2023. The film received glowing reviews for its charming appreciation of the artistic process, lead performances and Blauvelt’s gentle, observational, naturalistic cinematography.

“I really enjoyed the script, and had some honest laughs when I read it. But, like all of the other films I have worked on with her, it was based around her desire for naturalism and studied observation of character and process,” says Blauvelt, who made his debut feature as a DP on Reichardt’s multi-award-winning Meek’s Cutoff (2010), before becoming the director’s go-to cinematographer on all her subsequent films – Night Moves (2013), Certain Women (2016) and First Cow.

“I was excited about working with Kelly again, especially as we would get to shoot in the summertime in Portland, Oregon, which is very unusual for us. Most of the time we’ve had to suffer working miles from anywhere in the cold, wet and mud, and a fair share

those trips was to an exhibition by Michelle Segre, who made Jo’s multi-media art installations for the film. That was when I first learned about Showing Up We took a 16mm film camera to observe Michelle and her artwork, and to get a feel about how we might approach the movie. We later did the same with ceramic artist Cynthia Lahti, who made Lizzie’s sculptures. Observing art and artists at work, were really the key visual inspirations for us, rather than other references.”

As to Reichardt’s approach to filmmaking and visual style, Blauvelt remarks, “Kelly is a chronicler of the human experience. She makes films about people who are not typically represented on screen – those who are seeking a better life or place in the world. Her films often have inconclusive endings, with the idea of provoking conversation afterwards and allowing the audience to come to their own conclusions.

“Within that, Kelly does not like mainstream filmmaking techniques – such as coverage, jump scares, flashy camera moves, elaborate set builds, visual effects or expository dialogue. Her filmmaking is slow cinema. She likes real locations, locked-off frames or very slow, lingering camera moves on the actors, and minimal dialogue, all with the idea of challenging us to think about what the characters are experiencing.

“As a filmmaker, you find yourself constantly asking what you might falsely impose on the image and that leads to a stripped-down style, free of anything nonsensical or irrational. This steadfast, single-minded sensibility governs all of the technical and creative decisions, which we make together throughout the entire process.”

Principal photography on Showing Up took place at locations around Portland, including the Oregon College Of Art and Design, starting on June 7, 2021 and concluding 24 shooting days later on July 15. “It’s a very vibrant city, alive with art and culture, the kind of the place you can go and be yourself,” Blauvelt remarks.

Blauvelt, a protégé of the late, great Harris Savides ASC, harnessed the expertise and enthusiasm of Michael Koerner, and in-house lens technician Kari Fouts, at Koerner Camera in the city, to work out the

“As I tested, I did a series of blind screenings for Kelly, so that she could decide which combination felt right for her movie. Through a gradual process of elimination we found ourselves narrowing it all down to framing in 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio, shooting with ARRI Alexa Mini in open gate mode/3.4K ARRIRAW, with Kowa Cine Prominar Spherical prime lenses and Schneider-Kreuznach Radiant Soft filtration.

“Kelly is a cinephile, and a lot of her favourite films are 4:3. I suggested that we frame in 16:9, and it gave us a wider frame to explore Lizzie’s world and compose with multiple characters. The Kowas are Japanese cinema lenses from the 1960s, that are sharp on the centre, with medium/low contrast, cool colour rendition and a textural quality that helped soften the skin. We used mainly 35mm, 40mm and 50mm lenses to keep the image as close as possible to the human field-of-view. The Radiant Soft filters helped to soften the skin tones a little further, and added a subtle bloom on highlights.”

Blauvelt adds, “Kelly and I discussed things like colour, contrast and saturation a great deal, and working with Sean and Adrian was intrinsic to creating LUTs that gave the image an earthy, pastel colour palette and naturalistic feeling. I’ve shot movies in the past where we did not have the post house signed-on during production, and translating our colour profiles afterwards proved time-consuming, and sometimes problematic.

“I have to say that Adrian has great taste and appreciated all the nuances of what we were doing, and this early-stage collaboration made for a

Kelly is a chronicler of the human experience

Everything about the lighting was about being natural

seamless transition when it came to the final colourtiming sessions. I had the confidence of knowing that when we got to the DI the film was going to look the way it had on-set, and it eventually looked even better because of him.”

Showing Up was predominantly a single-camera shoot, save for a few scenes involving multiple characters, and Blauvelt assembled what he describes as a “solid” local crew, with Philip A. Anderson on A-camera, and Cameron Carey pulling focus. Bruce Lawson worked as key grip. Mike Vukas was in charge of lighting as the gaffer, with his wife Lisa Caryl Vukas working as best boy.

“Everything about the lighting was about being natural, and putting an authentic, realistic human

experience on the screen,” Blauvelt remarks. “We used a lot of LEDs – ARRI Sky Panels and Creamsource Vortex’s for our night shoots, or when the daylight was a little overcast. We also hid Astera tubes around the interiors if we needed subtle pools of light, but never for cinematic effect, always for naturalism.”

Looking back on his experience of working on Showing Up, he says, “Working with Kelly was another great experience, although she suffers for her art. She lives and breathes each project, and whilst production is an intense experience for her, we had many laughs along the way. I am proud of this film, and am grateful to have played a part in bringing this touching movie to the screen.”

Images: Courtesy of A24.

Christopher Blauvelt

THE CRUEL SEA

By Darek Kuźma

Acclaimed cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grøvlen DFF assisted director Gunnar Vikene in making his poignant War Sailor an unforgettable visual experience. Indeed, Grøvlen’s work on War Sailor brought him the 2023 ASC Spotlight Award and a nomination in the main competition at the 2022 EnergaCAMERIMAGE film festival.

Vikene and Grøvlen’s take on the story of thousands of Norwegian merchant sailors, who were forced to aid the Allied World War II effort and risk their lives in the Atlantic Theatre, is a cinematic feat unto itself.

They depict the emotional, ethical and physical trials and tribulations of civilians enduring incomprehensibly Kafkaesque war-time situations – the camaraderie of collectively facing the horrors of war; the anguish of seeing friends perish in vain; the bravery of facilitating the British in fighting the oppressor; the hope that one day they will return to their homes; the grim realisation that the resources they transport may be used to wipe out their families in Nazi-occupied Norway.

War Sailor is based on real stories of countless unsung heroes who sacrificed it all to make the war winnable, and it is not for the faint of heart. Yet there is a place for hope, too, which is often the only thing keeping the characters – cooks, engineers, teachers, etc. – from giving up. It was also one of the reasons why Grøvlen, though sceptical at first, embarked on the project.

“Over the last years, the history of Norway during World War II has been exploited a lot, so I wasn’t sure War Sailor was something I wanted to shoot,” he recalls. “But the producer Maria Ekerhovd, with whom I worked on The Innocents (2021), convinced me to read the script. Once I did that, I could tell this was something different, less obvious, and, after talking to Gunnar, I knew that it was a project worth investing my time in.”

Although War Sailor has been recently adapted

by Netflix into a three-part mini-series boasting more than thirty minutes of never-before-seen footage, the cinematographer asserts that he shot it for the big screen. For this purpose, he chose ARRI Alexa Mini and Bausch & Lomb Super Baltar lenses.

“I’ve shot most of my films on the Alexa Mini, and I know it by heart. It gives a very cinematic base that you can shape to suit any project, and I even have my own system of stripping it down to be more lightweight for handheld,” he laughs.

“I shot The Innocents using the Baltars as I loved the way they’re sort of unpredictable. There’s an element of chance with them that suited this story. I was lucky to find a set, rehoused by Van Diemen Films, that had a better close focus than the original

vintage lenses.”

He shot War Sailor mostly using the 25mm and 35mm focal lengths, but also used 20mm, 50mm, 75mm lenses, plus a Canon K35 25-120mm zoom, which became crucial in post-war scenes.

“Our approach was to trust the story was strongenough to carry the viewers where they needed to go,” he says. “Rather than distinguishing each period visually via filters or gels, we followed the characters’ emotional experiences. The war part is mostly handheld and has a sense of urgency, then the camera gets more static, the shots are wider, but we used the same lenses.”

The cinematic quality of War Sailor was additionally enhanced by a LUT Grøvlen and colourist William Kjarval Løkken developed in the project’s early stages.

“We had lots of historical photos for reference, and Gunnar managed to source some colour film material, shot on one of the Norwegian ships during that same period. So we considered it our duty to honour these people and their war struggles,” he reflects.

“We shot a lot of tests on 35mm stock and treated them in different ways to mimic an organic

There’s an element of chance with the Super Baltar lenses that suited this story

filmic look. We couldn’t afford to shoot on film, and the size and weight of a 35mm camera compared to my stripped-down version of Alexa Mini would have been too bulky and heavy for the kind of handheld shots I wanted to create. The LUT was as close as possible we could get to honouring the time period, without going too far from natural skin tones, whilst having a kind of modern feel to it, that would keep people within the visual experience.”

Ludwig Kameraverleih Hamburg supplied the camera and lenses for the spring/summer part of the shoot and Storyline Oslo provided the gear for the winter part.

The story of War Sailor takes us on an intense journey encompassing both sides of the Atlantic, from 1939 in Bergen through to Malta, England, the US and Canada, ending in 1970’s Norway, when those who survived experience heart-breaking closure. Logistics were a crucial part of prep that lasted from November 2020 to April 2021.

“We decided to shoot everything on-location, except the 1970’s apartment, which, because of its specific layout, we built in a warehouse in Bergen,” he reports. “Figuring-out where and when to shoot

on water, what ships to use, how to fuse the VFX organically and keep them low-key, as well as dividing the story into small chunks we’d be able to shoot in one place, all took time. Especially because we had many visual storytelling ideas going beyond the usual coverage of war.”

One such scene shows the survivors from a torpedoed ship drifting on a raft.

“After a traumatic event on the raft, the camera pans away from the characters in a 360-degree move, and returns to them, amplifying the emotional toll of what has happened, whilst also visualising that they are lost on an endless ocean,” he explains.

“We shot on the open sea in a bay in Malta. Most of the raft sequence was shot from a boat with the camera in a splash bag on a Hydro Head that was mounted on a GF14 crane. This set-up made it possible to remotely operate the camera when came into contact with the water. It was an expensive shot because in the grade we had to replace our crew and land with the open ocean, but the result was worth it.

“During the air raid on Bergen, we fixed the camera in an apartment to show the bombing. My gaffer Aslak Lytthans and myself had to create an extensive lighting set-up for this and then merge it painstakingly with the VFX in post, but it speaks volumes.”

Principal photography began in April 2021 in Malta, before the production moved to Hamburg and then Bergen over the summer months, returning to Norway during chilly November to do the winter part of the film over the course of three weeks.

“We had 60 shooting days in total. Along with the water scenes we shot in Malta, Hamburg stood for Liverpool, some of our Bergen interiors, New York harbour and many sequences on the Atlantic, as we had a museum ship at our disposal.

“I used a J.L Fisher 11 dolly for static and moving tracking shots, but the rest was handheld. No gimbals or Steadicam.”

Grøvlen core crew included 1st ACs Boye Klüver and Kjetil Mathisen (winter shoot) and 2nd ACs John ‘Babas’ Farrugi (Malta) and Robert Will (Germany).

Grøvlen’s lighting kit consisted mostly of Litepanels Geminis, Astera Helios Tubes, Litegear LED lights, Litemats and ARRI SkyPanels. He also had an HMI package for the hospital sequences and two 18Ks on cranes to illuminate the New York harbour. The latter was the most challenging set-up.

“We had one summer night to do it, around six hours, and had to light a substantial space. My approach is always to integrate light into locations as much as possible to make the viewers feel natural in

Images: Courtesy of Netflix. BTS photos by Roxana Reiss.

I couldn’t be prouder of the end result

there. We put redheads and blondes 10-15 metres apart down the whole harbour area and added Litemats around the camera. Plus, two 18Ks, one on each side of the set depending on which direction we shot in to give it a little push and redheads and Parcans on nearby ships.

“The 18Ks did not play at the same time, but we saved time not having to move one, and had freedom in choosing which direction to shoot in,” he says. “90% of the film was shot with one camera, but we had a second Alexa Mini for that sequence.”

Apart from the harbour, Grøvlen tried to limit his lighting to make War Sailor as authentic as possible.

“Shooting in a bomb shelter, we enhanced onand off-camera candlelight with Aputure MC LEDs for a soft flickering effect. On the raft, and during most ocean exteriors, we only had available light. The problem was that we were shooting autumn scenes on a northern sea in Malta in April, with the sun high and a good weather. It was comfortable, but we had to work on it in the grade,” he laughs.

“It was far more challenging to shoot in Norway in November as the weather was really bad, but the shots turned out to be brilliant, cold, jumpy.”

Smoothing-out weather and continuity issues were some of the most arduous aspects of the DI done with Kjarval Løkken at Post Republic Berlin.

Another impressive feat of visual storytelling was covering the chaos that ensues on a merchant ship moments before a torpedo hits in one long handheld take.

“Gunnar had a long oner in mind before I came on-board. Initially, it was planned to be the opening shot of the film. We shot it in one day, first rehearsing and then doing around ten takes until we had what we wanted. We stitched it together in post with VFX explosions and green screen shots of actors being pulled on harnesses in different directions,” he reminisces.

“It was a daunting physical task for my crew, as well as for the performers who were running and falling and bumping into each other. Not to mention the VFX team led by Jean-Michel Boubil who had to track all of the movement with the motion blur of such a handheld shot.”

These are only a few of many memorable scenes War Sailor has to offer, including the aftermath of the bombing of a Bergen school that was shot in a quarry, and heart-wrenching shots of sailors being pulled out to sea through an open hull of a torpedoed ship.

“The production design built this massive construction in a dry dock with an opening into the water, then lifted it with cranes up and down while we were there shooting handheld in a splash bag. I couldn’t be prouder of the end result.”

Now assuming its new form, of a slightly restructured mini-series, War Sailor will surely dazzle many more viewers with its harrowing tale of friendship, family and survival.

NAKED TRUTH

By Natasha Block Hicks

In the soot-blackened belly of a savvusann – the traditional smoke sauna of the Võro community in Southern Estonia – a crossgenerational group of women gather through the seasons to sweat, cleanse and confide in each other. Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, the feature documentary from Sundance Awardwinning director Anna Hints, invites us to enter and silently witness this intimate shedding of skin, both literal and figurative.

For the uninitiated, sitting motionless and striving to stay conscious would be all that could reasonably be expected of most people in a charred, chimneyless space, where the temperature peaks at 95°C, and whose dual purpose is also as a smokehouse for curing hanging parcels of ham. In the film, one of the women-subjects casually remarks that they must wet their hair to prevent it from snapping in the heat. For cinematographer Ants Tammik however, the extreme environment was a welcome one.

“I really like to push the limits,” Tammik reveals. “My record was shooting in 48°C in the Oman desert and –42°C in Siberia. I really enjoy it because it gives me adrenaline and excitement. I find shooting in a studio really tough; my brain needs fresh air and sunlight. And sauna.”

Tammik is, like many Estonians, a sauna aficionado, himself owning a Finnish-style example, which he likes to use at “every free moment”. In a country where 58%

of the population claim ‘no religion’, and only 14% cite organised faiths as a feature of daily life, the sauna occupies a substantial spiritual space within the national psyche. It is a place where souls can congregate, connect with the elemental forces of fire and water, confide both traumas and triumphs and be cleansed of impurities, all within the partial anonymity of darkness.

The smoke sauna culture in particular incorporates recognisable ritualistic elements: the devotional tending of the fire before the sauna; blessings given to water; repetitive chanting; and the scouring of the skin with salt or handfuls of birch whips. Finding a connection with the spirits of dead ancestors is an integral part of the ceremony.

The preparation involved in bringing the sauna’s firebox and surrounding rocks up to a sustainable temperature can take several hours. Which means that gatherings at the savvusann tend to be a lengthy affairs with sustained exposure to the sweltering heat achievable by periodic immersion in the chill of icy waters in a nearby lake.

All this makes for a very challenging shooting environment.

“Sauna sessions lasted four to eight hours,” relates Tammik. “Physically it was hard. I would wear a hat, T-shirt and pants. Before we began, I would jump fully-clothed into the cold lake because then my body temperature was lowered to start with.”

Special precautions were also needed for the filming kit, to give it the best chance of functioning in the savvusann’s extreme heat.

“I would put one set of lenses inside the sauna two or three hours beforehand – as it was heating up – first on the floor, then moving up, until they were at the highest level where the temperature was the same as we would be shooting,” reveals Tammik. “Another set was kept for outside. In winter it can easily reach -15°C, and there is no way a lens could survive that change in temperature.”

Tammik’s choice of lens was entirely practical.

“When you put together glass and metal housing, and expose it to 90°C and high humidity, there will be expansion and contraction,” he explains, “the glass can play, or even crack.”

The Sigma Art lenses, whilst still industry-standard, represented a sensible budget option.

“I choose the Sigmas because there was no point in using lenses which cost, say, €30,000 each,” states Tammik, “I lost two lenses during production, so it was the right choice.”

The selection of the camera was more aesthetically considered.

“I did test some other cameras, but ended-up using my own ARRI Amira,” says Tammik.

“The main object of Smoke Sauna Sisterhood was the naked body, and ARRI really is the best for skin tones,” he explains. “Also, I know that the ARRI Amira

The ARRI Amira’s ventilation system is top-notch. I was sure the camera could survive the extreme temperature

ventilation system is top-notch. I was quite sure the camera could survive in that extreme of temperature.”

Unlike the lenses, the Amira was expected to move between the hot and cold environments. Inside the sauna it was accompanied by a plastic box full of iced freezer blocks, which were renewed regularly during shooting.

“Doing this would give us a little bit more time before the camera’s ventilation got really noisy,” relates Tammik. “I had an assistant outside of the sauna who would pass in water for me and ice blocks for the camera.”

In winter, when Tammik moved outside to capture exterior scenes, such as the women skipping barefoot

through the snow before dunking themselves through a specially-cut opening in the ice on the lake, the Amira’s metal alloy housing would freeze.

“It was continually under threat of water of some sort,” reveals Tammik. “If we went inside again, you could see droplets falling from the camera, through the ventilation, and everywhere. I was prepared to lose that camera, but somehow it survived.”

Lighting was kept simple, limited to a SkyPanel S60 and ARRI HMI daylight fresnels, with the savvusann’s interior illuminated only from outside through its tiny windows. This single source technique backlights the billowing steam, bounces off glistening bodies and refracts through tumbling water, with the shadows

looking dense and impenetrable.

“The only direction the women received was where to sit in the sauna so that the lighting and composition worked,” details Tammik. “They generally started by sharing lighter stories, and as the smoke sauna started to work its magic, more intimate and often more traumatic stories started to come forth. My job and that of sound recordist, Tanel Kadalipp, was to capture this unfolding, and we were privileged to witness that.”

Most women around the globe, regardless of their age or background, would be familiar with the personal ‘herstories’ being shared within the sauna’s confessional: tales of sexual assault, parental callousness, childbirth trauma, loss of a loved one and

Images: Courtesy of Anna Hints and Ants Tammik. BTS photos by Eneli Rohtla.

Ants Tammik

SMOKE SAUNA SISTERHOOD•ANTS TAMMIK

the alienation caused by divergent sexual identity.

For a documentary filmmaker, the challenge is how to capture these very private moments without piercing the protective bubble created by the savvusann.

“These are intelligent women and they wanted to tell their stories,” remarks Tammik. “The trust really came through Anna. The women knew her artistic intentions beforehand. She spent time with them before the sauna and was also among the sisterhood inside the sauna.

“I think it also helped that I’m not such a masculine ‘alpha man’ in my appearance,” he adds, “they took me for a little safe guy.”

It was agreed that only women who were comfortable doing so would show their faces. Others are depicted as torsos or sometimes just fleshy forms of

light and shadow. Certain tales are related by a voice in the darkness, the camera observing only the listeners’ reactions and knowing nods of support.

“Anna is a really visual director,” relates Tammik, “she really understands composition, and likes to use symbols and layers. From the first day we realised that we have the same language. It’s so enjoyable to work with this kind of director who totally understands and supports you to do a good thing.”

The pair aimed for simplicity on the colour grade, handled by Sten-Johan Lill, himself a DP and four-times winner of Best Cinematography at the Estonian Film and TV Awards.

“We didn’t over-think it,” says Tammik. “We played around with skin colours and this reddish tone I really

like that can be found in the shadow part of skins. I also wanted to capture that blueish light you see when you look out into the harsh winter nature from the warm protective place of the sauna; it’s magical and a little bit dangerous. But in the other seasons, we just tried to catch the true colour.”

In the closing moments of Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, a woman floats on her back in the black water of the lake. Her demeanour is of someone liberated and uplifted. Out of sight, her sisters’ whoops and chirrups blend with the surrounding birdsong.

“We Estonians may not believe so much in God,” remarks Tammik, “but we really believe in nature and in the spirit around us.”

Anna Hints

SISTER POWER!

By Darek Kuźma

Cinematographer Ashley Connor and director Nida Manzoor infused Polite Society with their love for martial arts films, genre movies and sisterhood affection.

When your cherished sister is about to make the single greatest mistake of her life, you have to do everything you can to stop her. Even if it means carrying out an audacious plan to breakup her wedding with a man who seems to be Prince Charming. If you are lucky, she might even thank you later.

The thing is, Ria Khan is a middle-class British-Pakistani teenager fixated on becoming a stuntwoman, whereas Salim Shah, her sister Lena’s fiancé, comes from money and is a doctor who is apparently about to save the world. No pressure. As we get swept up in Ria’s impassioned scheming with two street-smart friends, there are signs that suggest Salim might be a master manipulator with nefarious plan. Or is Ria just envious?

Though it may seem to be a young adult comedy with a dash of social satire, Polite Society is in also a hybrid action film/comic book movie that wears its visual references on its sleeve. Or, as Ashley Connor puts it, “a love child of The Matrix , Kill Bill and Bollywood dance numbers.”

Even though the DP’s name has been

associated with small indies, such as True Things (2012, dir. Harry Wootliff), Connor instantly felt this production was right up her alley.

“It’s different than most of my previous work, but I like my cinematography to be playful. I’m a black belt in hapkido and I had always wanted to do a martial arts action movie. When Olivier Kaempfer, with whom I’d worked on The Miseducation Of Cameron Post (2018, dir.

previously done any slo-mo camera work with actors on wires, they had to be flexible.

“There’s a learning curve to how you photograph these kinds of fight sequences in high frame rate. You have to plan according to how they can be rigged. Luckily, we had a lot of rehearsal time. During prep, using my cell phone, I would film the fight choreographer and the stunt coordinator as they trained our actresses, who

looked stunning, but the issue was that we shot in December, from full sunrise to sunset, when the daylight is short at that time of year. This meant I had to put silks against the windows and blow them out to finish the days.

“Also, we had three days to do that scene, but the scare of the Omicron variant reduced our extras from 40 to 12. We managed to do all the wide shots, but on the last day we were trying to put anyone who could pass as a teenager in uniform,” she recalls.

The principal photography on Polite Society started in November 2021 and continued through the Omicron peak until February 2022. Going on this journey, Connor says she wanted to have a tried-and-true camera/lenses combo by her side, and called on ARRI London for support.

Desiree Akhavan) reached-out, I didn’t hesitate.”

It became even more alluring when she realised that the director was a movie aficionado just like herself.

“Nida and I shared a lot of similar reference points, such as growing-up loving movies like The Matrix (1999, DP Bill Pope ASC) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000, DP Peter Pau), the films of Edgar Wright and Quentin Tarantino,” she enthuses, adding that as neither of them had

performed a lot of the stunts themselves, and we then assessed and practiced the best angles and framing for those scenes.”

There were other challenges, too. For example, shooting the showdown between Ria and her high-school nemesis, which was shot in The Royal Masonic School For Girls in London’s Rickmansworth.

“The location has this great round library with tall ceilings and 360-degrees of windows. It

“I always shoot in the ARRI Alexa family when I do digital. I chose the Alexa Mini because I like the workflow and the image that comes out of the camera,” she exclaims. “We wanted to give Ria this big cinematic treatment and to shoot in widescreen. Knowing that there were going to be a lot of VFX and paint-outs, Cooke Anamorphics were a no-brainer. They’re beautiful for closeups, they’re beautiful for wides, and they’re not distractingly Anamorphic. Cinematography today tends to get loud, in the sense that it sometimes needs you to know that it’s there. However, because so much of this movie was going to be

We’re in a revolutionary place for women to tell their own stories in ways that they want to

loud, I wanted to pull back and make it feel a little more organic.”

The film’s eye-catching action often required quite elaborate camera movement.

“For the most part, I operated A-camera and had the incredible Will Lyte on B-camera/ Steadicam. He uses the Omega AR2 rig and was on the whole shoot, save a short bout of sickness. When Will was not available, Charlie Rizek stepped-in and did great work with the Trinity rig,” Connor reveals.

“I’m not a person who is big on wheels, and I prefer operating traditional heads and handheld. I wanted to be able to go high and low, but without

the camera movement being distracting, so it made sense to use rigs like the AR2 or Trinity to present the audience with more visceral fights.”

Connor’s core crew also included focus puller Felix Pickles, 2nd AC Cenay Said and central loader Jessica Saunders.

As Connor enjoys working very close to the actors, the Cooke Anamorphic 32, 40 and 65mm lenses became her workhorses.

“We wanted to really be with Ria and Lena, so I tended to go a bit wider and closer,” she explains. “As a DP, I love making new iconography, and we wanted to pay homage to certain treatments of characters or celebrate famous wire work moves. So, with Ria who wants to be a stuntwoman, we were like, ‘Let’s give her the cowboy shot. Let’s give her the low angle. Let’s give her a power move. Let’s watch her hit the ground.’ Ria learns by trial-and-error and loses a lot of these fights, but because she doesn’t give up, people root for her.”

Although the film has a larger-than-life flavour, with its comic book imagery and film homages, Connor emphasises that under the genre coating and slow-motion action Polite Society is essentially a tale of sisterhood.

“My work lends itself to intimacy and emotional resonance, because if there’s no audience connection to the characters, any film won’t work. Nida has a sister, I have two sisters myself. There was such a hyperbolic relationship present in the narrative on what it is to be a sister, how you fight and love each other, that we knew we had to ground the story a bit. Also, at the end of the day, it wasn’t a Marvel show, so we embraced imperfections and the handmade nature of Ria’s dreams.”

That is why the most important showdown in the film comes when Lena, disappointed with Ria’s intrusions, confronts her in her bedroom. Whereas the Khan House was shot on location in Ealing, the bedroom was a set build.

“No one can hurt you like your own sister, and we wanted this scene to feel even more grounded, extra violent and visceral. It’s the first time you see blood. Nida and I had planned all the fights quite specifically and all of the wire work, except the scene in the library, was rigged on stage,” Connor remembers. “It was tight, just me with a camera on my shoulder, running around the room and doing these moves and they fight, with just enough of moving little pieces of ceiling around to cover it all.”

The film was shot in and around London. Whilst they worked for about half of the 40day shooting schedule at Delta Studios in Walthamstow, the biggest set-pieces were actually built on location, including Trinity Buoy Wharf in East London, plus John F. Kennedy Catholic School and Gaddesden Place, both in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.

The greatest challenge, however, came with transforming Battersea Arts Centre into a wedding

venue with lush Pakistani ornamentation.

“We had to build one room on stage to rig one of the fights, the rest was a massive build by our production design team. We stayed there for a whole week, doing the rigging and shooting various scenes, including a Devdas -inspired Bollywood scene where Ria diverts everyone’s attention while her friends infiltrate the venue.”

“The venue had huge flower arrangements everywhere, so it was all about picking rigging points in the ceiling to really highlight them. And

with such a huge space we wouldn’t have the time to re-rig once we’ve moved in. Luckily, Noah Furrer, my lighting programmer, does concerts and live shows and was quick and flexible with moving and non-moving lights,” she recalls.

“And, I was glad that my chief lighting technician, Gordon Goodwin, approached the lighting the way I like: big units outside, minimal footprint on the ground and practicals with the production design, so as to have freedom of movement for the actors and the camera. It was really fast and furious, and getting everybody to move at a click was reassuring and impressive, especially as typically I’m very impassioned and running around a lot during takes,” she laughs.

The lighting package, provided by PKE (now a Sunbelt Rentals company), was necessarily varied.

“We used a 10K Molebeam a lot in studio, along with LEDs like ARRI Skypanels, Creamsource Vortexes, Astera Tubes and Litemats to supplement in tight spaces. For exterior and daytime scenes we used the Cinemills 18K Silver Bullet, and a combination of ARRI M90s and M40s, again supplementing the interiors with LEDs. Plus, in the wedding venue, movers like ETC Solaframe 3000 and a lot of Lekos built into the ceiling to pick people out. Sometimes we had to get a coverage on ten characters, quite spread out,” she explains. “I like letting actors move and scenes play out, and because I couldn’t have equipment on the floor all the time, flexibility in lighting the stage and location spaces was the key.”

All-in-all, shooting Polite Society was a very

Images: © 2023 Focus Features LLC.

BTS photos by Artist: Parisa Taghizadeh.

My work lends itself to intimacy and emotional resonance

POLITE SOCIETY•ASHLEY CONNOR

positive experience for Connor. The only upset for her was that she was not able to do the grade in person with colourist Duncan Russell at London’s Halo Post Production.

“The producers had to rush to meet various deadlines. I was shooting a TV show and going to upstate New York to do a small indie movie immediately after. So, even though they went out of their way and rented me a movie theatre in Ithaca to watch the material, we couldn’t do a live

grade online,” she explains. “It’s always difficult for a cinematographer not to be there to put the final touch, but they did a great job.”

Connor is also proud of the message the films sends.

“When I choose projects, I follow my instincts. I try to find female characters that lack representation, and like to create new iconography. This project seemed something that could be enjoyable to teenage girls, something I’d

have loved to watch at that age,” she concludes.

“For me, there’s no difference between this and indie films like True Things . They speak together as they’re about women breaking-out of narratives we’ve been traditionally shown by men. We’re in a revolutionary place for women to tell their own stories in ways that they want to, and that’s the space of renegotiating cinematic history that I like to work in.”

Cooke Anamorphics were a no-brainer… they’re beautiful for close-ups and beautiful for wides

PLUTOFRESNEL: 80 W equivalent to 300 W Tungsten BUILT-IN BATTERY: 3h on MAX Brightness

LEOFRESNEL: 250 W equivalent to 1000 W Tungsten

BUILT-IN BATTERY: 2h on MAX Brightness

FRESNELS MADE PORTABLE.

Astera’s new Fresnels offer a 15° to 60° beam angle and superior colors, thanks to its Titan LED Engine. Both models contain a battery and feature numours mounting options, making them the most portable Fresnel option for film, studio and event lighting.

Backside display with TouchSlider

Projection lens with Zoom coming end of 2023

ANTON/BAUER

The Anton/Bauer VCLX NM2 block battery delivers reliable power at 14.4V, 28V, and 48V for high-current cameras and lights. Its 2.4” colour LCD monitors the run-time, charge time, and active power draw, while VCLX smart technology maximises efficiency. The battery is made of anodized aluminium, has passive cooling and water-resistant casing, and includes fleet management software for real-time diagnostics. www.antonbauer.com

www.videndum.com

ARRI

After a successful NAB Show, ARRI is showcasing its multi-faceted expertise, diverse portfolio, and customtailored solutions at Cine Gear Expo 2023. At the show ARRI is highlighting Orbiter and its entire LED portfolio with a focus on Fresnel and Projection optics. Visitors can experience how ARRI’s sophisticated IP-based LED lights in combination with camera systems deliver cinematic images and efficient workflow synergies.

ARRI’s flagship large-format cinematography cameras, the Alexa 35 and the Alexa Mini LF, are also featured along with a workflow station focusing on Reveal Color Science. Signature Prime and Zoom lenses with the new Impression V Filters will be on display, along with the new Zoom Main Unit ZMU 4 that seamlessly transitions between wired and wireless configurations and enables versatile, clutterfree camera builds with faster on-set workflows. The new Tally System Gen.2 and Camera Control Panel CCP Live which make the ARRI Trinity and Artemis stabilisers even more suitable for live, multi-camera environments will also be at the show.

APUTURE

Curious about the lights that Aputure has to offer?

With its reputation as an up-and-coming LED lighting manufacturer, with fans around the world, the company is bound to spark the interest of industry professionals. Stop by their booth during Euro Cine Expo 2023, where the Aputure Europe team will be on hand to bring you up to speed about the latest developments – from their flagship models like the LS 600c Pro, LS 1200d Pro and MC Pro, to the recently released, Infinibars. They guarantee that they can convince you of the power of LED when it comes to filmmaking.

www.aputure.com

ARRI Solutions, the company’s fully-dedicated business unit, has been established to meet the growing global demand for high-quality integrated systems within cuttingedge production environments. The division expands and solidifies ARRI’s activities in studio and virtual production and will demonstrate workflow solutions for studio owners, operators, and content producers.

www.arri.com

ARRI RENTAL

ARRI Rental will showcase its latest exclusive products, including the new Heroes lens collection, comprising Look primes that feature a third lens ring for instant detuning, and T.ONE primes that retain sharpness and contrast at T1.0.

The new fleet of ARRI Rental Monochrome cameras will be represented. The Alexa 65 Monochrome, Mini LF Monochrome, and XT Monochrome cover the 65 mm, full frame, and S35 formats. These cameras offer intriguing possibilities for infrared cinematography; DP Chayse Irvin CSC ASC used one on Blonde to shoot actress Ana de Armas in complete darkness.

Other exclusive ARRI Rental lens offerings will be on

display: the Moviecam series, Alfa Anamorphics and DNA optics, used recently on All Quiet On The Western Front, The Rings Of Power, and House Of The Dragon Visitors can also try out the new Varicon 2, which uses RGB LEDs to facilitate targeted contrast control.

www.arrirental.com

AVENGER

Avenger’s Buccaneer is a heavy-duty cine lighting support which responds to industry demands for a low-loading height, TÜV-certified, wind-up stand that achieves a 3m/9.84ft maximum height.

There is a now a huge focus on safety during production and Avenger are fully onboard. Operator safety is Avenger’s biggest priority, which is why it offers one of the industry’s largest ranges of TÜV, CE and UKCAcertified grip and support equipment on the market. These certifications offer a guarantee to the user that the product has been thoroughly tested by an impartial external body, ensuring it meets the most stringent safety guidelines to help protect everyone on set.

When Avenger was asked by users for a low-loading, wind-up stand that would help improve safety-onset by reducing the chance of injury from heavy manual lifting, the challenge was set. Avenger’s team of engineers set to work. The company says the Buccaneer is in a class of its own with its treasure chest of features, helping it to revolutionise lighting supports and keep users safe.

www.videndum.com

It’s the season for tradeshows around the world, and here’s a round-up of some of the products on display at NAB in Las Vegas, Cine Gear Expo in Los Angeles and Euro Cine Expo in Munich. Reporting by Kirsty Hazlewood.

CINEO LIGHTING

To be showcased at Cine Gear Expo Los Angeles (booth S1534) and Euro Cine Expo (booth 2-007), the single-zone Quantum Ladder from Cineo Lighting is the ideal solution for space and backdrop lighting for film, broadcast studios, commercials and streaming productions. With the Quantum Ladder’s high-output of 100,000 lumens, impressive colour temperature range of 2500K to 10,000K, and 64,000 presets/ effects, this rugged and durable light fixture is customisable for all settings. The lightweight frame is easily-transportable, weighing in at just 40lbs (18kg). The Quantum Ladder features a built-in power supply that also provides the extraordinary white spectrum standard in all Cineo lights.

The Quantum Ladder is equipped with Cineo StageLynx, the powerful lighting control software designed with lighting professionals in mind. Its intuitive, easy-to-navigate touchscreen interface, gives users the capability to control and network multiple Cineo light fixtures together with ease, whether through the builtin Cineo StageLynx OS or with the Cineo StageLynx mobile app.

The Cineo team will be providing demonstrations of the Cineo StageLynx OS and app along with their full suite of Cineo Lighting fixtures including the Quantum Ladder, Quantum Studio, Quantum II, LB800, and Reflex R15, at both upcoming events. www.cineolighting.com

CMOTION

As the industry moves on to cameras with bigger sensors, brighter lights and more powerful camera movements, the demand for power increases accordingly. Whilst progress is constant in other departments, power management has fallen behind. Until now!

Cmotion has launched the Mainstation MST1, claiming the first ultra-compact, high-power device of its kind, designed to solve the power problems encountered on most film sets. The Mainstation MST1 is an input manager, a high-power multi-rail power converter and a three bay charger. It has five hot-swappable inputs and six regulated, always-on, outputs, providing up to 1000W of power, designed to safely power devices in the 5VDC – 48VDC range. Extensive design ensures intuitive, safe and reliable operation covering all usual use-cases regardless of department. Complete capability list, technical details and specs can be found online. www.cmotion.eu

channel on the DMX charts.

CRMX2 is now fully-supported, allowing users to work with LumenRadio’s Stardust and choose which of the 8 outputs to receive (A-H), or enter a linking key for manual linking. The Vortex now has the capability to act as a CRMX Transmitter, allowing for incoming sACN, wired DMX or Bluetooth data to be wirelessly forwarded via CRMX to other fixtures.

Additionally, the CRMX TimoTwo module firmware can be updated to the latest version (1.0.6.3) from within CreamOS, without needing to use the LumenRadio CRMX Toolbox Bluetooth app.

www.creamsource.com

DEDOLIGHT

On show will be the latest technology from Dedolight, including Dedolight NEO next-generation ballasts, one of which can activate 34 different focussing LED Dedollights. Key features including: smooth dimming from virtually zero to 100%; colour temperature of 2700 to 6600K; power with V-lock or AC power; DMX control; and perfect colour reproduction.

NEO Color is an 80w adjustable multi-colour focussing Dedolight with a 6:1 variable beam angle with unparalleled Dedolight optics, and powered by a cutting-edge red, green, blue, amber, cyan, and lime “Hyperlight Color Engine” courtesy of Prolycht.

CINETICA

This year for the first time German company Cinetica will be at the Euro Cine Expo with its Nu.Tron camera arm/ jib, a versatile, patented and purely mechanical system that is developed and produced in Munich. The Nu.Tron triumphed at the TV und Fernseh Kamera Awards 2022 in the best grip and accessories category, and caused a lot of buzz on social media channels due to its flexibility in creating stable hand-held camera movements.

The start-up from Munich has landed a real coup with the Nu.Tron – it has already been used on many feature film, music video and commercial sets, as well as and in documentaries, and also belongs to the fixed portfolio of ARRI Rental and other distributors. Cinetica will welcome you at Stand 1-028 in Hall 1 (Kohlebunker / Coal Bunker) across from the main entrance. www.cinetica.org

CREAMSOURCE

Creamsource has released new firmware for its flagship Vortex series. Multi-lingual support updates enable the user interface to be operated in several languages, including Chinese (Simplified), Japanese, Korean, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese and English.

The Reduced Zone DMX modes allow users to operate the light with 2 or 4 pixels in Split, Bars and Grid configurations, saving on DMX footprint when not all zones are needed. 30 new DMX modes have been introduced, providing even more flexibility for lighting professionals.

The new Control Channel feature allows users to change settings like High-Speed Mode, DMX Smoothing, Dimming Curve, and more over DMX without the need to physically access the fixture or use RDM. This is done using the previously ‘reserved’

Also on show will be the Dedolight PB70 2.5K parabolic light - this has over double the output of its predecessor the PB70. For those working with reflected light, and requiring high output, the Dedolight PB70 2.5K represents the pinnacle of what is available in the Dedolight Lightstream system.

GODOX

Watch out! The Knowled MG1200Bi is coming. With determined pursuit of production-ready standards and the vision of Knowled brand, the all-new MG1200Bi promises performance on set, with 1200W full output across colour temperature, stunning brightness and other features.

Built as the ultimate workhorse for ultra-brightness on set, the MG1200Bi adopts Godox’s COB technology to ensure a full 1200W power draw in any colour temperature between 2800k to 6500K. The powerful fixture delivers brightness up to 78800Lux at 5600K, 3 meters with the Fresnel lens, on par a 1.8kW PAR. Blending technology is designed to enable flawless blending results with the MG1200Bi. Designed without chip optics, the MG1200Bi delivers an even, natural and sharp beam of light to mimic sunlight. Even equipped with optics like reflectors, Fresnel lens, or projection attachment, the light beam is still even and natural.

The power source can be adjusted by the finest grade, allowing for smooth dimming from 0.1% to 100% with increments of less than 2 watts. And the precision starts from 0.1%, ensuring fine tuning in the full brightness range. www.godox.com

K5600 LIGHTING

K5600 has introduced One Stop, a new company whose goal is to sell to everybody and rent to European rental companies exclusively, lighting fixtures and accessories. Apart from the obvious K5600 lights, such as Jokers and Alphas, the One Stop operation, based close to Paris CDG airport, is renting exciting existing products such as the Litemover remote system for pan, tilt and focus of big lights.

Designing solutions for every need is also a mission of One Stop. With 30 years manufacturing experience, making unique lights and grip in small quantities, these tools will be for rental to start with. In that spirit, 16 x 300W Bi-colour Slice panels are being made, and a redesigned Big Eye to receive a Joker 300W LED, a Forza 500 or an Evoke 1200 is also underway.

At Euro Cine Expo, One Stop will introducing a new brand, Performing Rigs, which produces a range of compact rig systems for food commercials to make water blow, cereals fly and liquids pour. Five easy set-up rigs for astounding results include: Jump Kit, a large format concussion platform with hollow design; Launch Kit, a multi-angle concussion platform for projecting solids & liquids. Jet Kit, a sprayer with adjustable pressure and flow rate; Twirl Kit, a compact, heavy-duty turntable, and Pour Kit, a rotational motion, modular design. www.k5600.eu

www.performingrigs.com

GRIP FACTORY MUNICH

GFM is thrilled to be returning to the Euro Cine Expo, where it will be showcasing its latest range of Grip Equipment and accessories.

One of the standout products is the GF-Mod Jib, a highlyversatile and customisable jib that provides smooth and stable movement, making it ideal for capturing dynamic, sweeping shots. The company is also showcasing its GFTurtle Base, a highly-durable and customisable dolly or bazooka base that can be adapted to meet the specific needs of any production.

GFM understands that grip equipment is an essential part of any production, and is committed to providing the highest-quality equipment and accessories to its clients. The team will be on hand at the Euro Cine Expo to provide demonstrations, answer any questions you may have, and offer advice on how to get the most out of your equipment.

GFM believes that building strong relationships with clients is crucial, and they look forward to connecting with fellow industry professionals, over a drink, and showing how the range of products and accessories can help take your production to the next level. www.gripfactory.com

LEITZ

Ernst Leitz Wetzlar will be at Euro Cine Expo and Cine Gear Expo showing its latest and greatest lenses, including two new sets of full frame primes that are now delivering. Take a closer look at the Leitz Hugo and Leitz Elsie lenses, as well as the amazing optics of the Leitz Zooms.

The Leitz Elsie primes are specifically-designed for cinematography and well-matched with no breathing. They exhibit classic, slightly warm Leitz colour temperature for beautiful skin tones and true colours. Featuring a large image circle, they illuminate beyond full frame but focus and resolution starts to fall off towards the edges, drawing viewers’ attention inward.

The Leitz Hugo primes are compact, lightweight and fast at T1.5. They use the same iconic optics as Leica M and Leitz M 0.8 lenses, but with a cine-style housing, longer focus throws, closer minimum focus, and production-ready durability. They have strong field curvature over the full frame with notable loss of focus, resolution, and illumination in the corners.

The Leitz Zooms come in two focal ranges: 25-75mm and 55-125mm, both T2.8 with no ramping and full frame coverage. These parfocal lenses shoot like primes, are suitable for any production environment, and match beautifully with many lenses, especially Leitz. They work well with other lenses when seeking a more humane,

less clinical look. You can take a closer look at all these lenses at the Leitz stand.

www.leitz-cine.com

LICHT-TECHNIK

For 40 years, Licht-Technik Vertriebs GmbH has traded with self-developed and manufactured devices including motorised stirrups, mechanical dimmer shutters, colour changers, DMX desks and many other tools for lighting.

The company also offers lighting solutions like Bag-oLight and SkyLight. The Bag-o-Light is an inflatable light diffuser, the SkyLight, a rectangular overhead lighting rig which have become hits on car commercials. The BagO-Light light diffuser is based around a PAR headlight which shines into an inflatable tube, producing a soft shadow free source which be used as a fill light on commercials and film sets.

All products used worldwide in the movie industry, on TV productions, in theatres, opera houses, stages and at big show events. The rental side of the business supplies and supports hundreds of shoots every year, making the company a firm favourite amongst gaffers, directors of photography and lighting designers worldwide. www.licht-technik.com

LITEGEAR

The LiteMat Spectrum (2023) series and the LiteDimmer Spectrum AC/DC 200 & 400 made their debut at NAB Show and will also be shown at Cine Gear Expo and at the Euro Cine Expo

The LiteMat Spectrum (2023) series offers six convenient sizes – LiteMat 1, LiteMat 2, LiteMat 2L, LiteMat 3, LiteMat 4, and LiteMat 8. Joining the next generation LiteMat Spectrum (2023) are the new LiteDimmer Spectrum AC/DC 200 & LiteDimmer Spectrum AC/DC 400.

The re-engineered LiteMat, powered by Spectrum technology, offers improved dimming performance, powerful companion dimmers, up to 8 pixel-mappable large-format pixels, and buttery smooth low-end dimming. This full-colour light source combines high-quality colour rendition and

precision control in one sleek, easy-to-use package. For the first time, Spectrum colour technology is being brought to a LiteMat 8. With eight large-format pixels, the control and effects possibilities are endless. The large surface area, producing a broad soft quality of light, and full colour changing capabilities make it the most powerful and versatile LiteMat to date. LiteGear offers a full line of accessories for LiteMat including skirts, diffusions, grids, mounting options, and more.

The new LiteDimmer Spectrum AC/DC 200 & 400 are part of a new class of dimmers packed with exceptional new features, an ergonomic design, and ultra-compact form factor. The AC/DC 200 & 400 can control multiple large-format pixels, making pixel mapping of the LiteMat Spectrum easier than ever. Specially designed with AC and DC power options, integrated power supply, advanced processing power, Ethernet switch, expanded memory, and a faster processor, this new hardware allows for easy operation and cutting-edge software features. www.litegear.com

Driven by the Megapixel VR Helios LED processor, Mimik 120 delivers flexibility for control through either the Helios processor or by delegating certain functionality to the lighting desk. Embodied in a lightweight carbon fiber frame, Mimik 120 adapts to on-set configurations with easy mobility, revolutionising foreground lighting for virtual sets with future-proof technology that expands real-time and post-production options and enables latency-free synchronization to an LED volume.

Mimik 120 is a first of its kind that delivers extended spectral bandwidth and cinematic colour fidelity when lighting talent and set elements in virtual production environments.

www.kinoflo.com

MATTHEWS STUDIO EQUIPMENT

Matthews is highlighting tools dedicated to safe support and handling of camera and lighting equipment. Its newest tool essential is small in size yet offers a new way to level-up the camera rig. The latest addition to the patented Infinity Arm family, new interchangeable ARRI-style Anti-Rotation Tip is designed to save time and energy while safely rigging the camera in any popular cage with 3/8” threads.

Don’t miss the Air

Climber pneumatically controlled, modular grip and lighting stand that safely raises lights or camera rigs 25 feet/7.62 meters! It’s the perfect a companion for Litemover which adjusts lighting fixtures once in place to provide smooth remote pan, tilt and spot/ flood focus control remotely from ground level. Another amazingly versatile support tool is the Academy SciTech-winning Max Menace Arm, which supports up to 175 pounds/80kg allowing light placement anywhere over walls and in places where lifts are restricted and a small footprint is essential—without damaging the integrity of the location.

LITEPANELS

The Litepanels Gemini 2x1 Hard LED Panel produces up to 23,000 lux of cinematic lighting and offers full RGBWW output with special effects. It has a 20° beam and a soft 100° wash, with perfect skin tone rendering and no colour shift or flicker. The fixture is lightweight, weighing only 25.3lbs, and includes integrated DMX and CRMX for efficient control during rigging.

www.litepanels.com

www.videndum.com

MANFROTTO

The Manfrotto Panoramic Background is a collapsible 4m (13’ wide), 2.3m (7’5” high) background that folds down neatly into its own carry case and fits easily into a car. Weighing 9kg (19.8lb) it is designed for busy image-makers on the move. The background is completely self-supporting and can be set up in minutes. The structure comprises three individual aluminium framed sections, connected together with a hinge clip to allow the background to be set up flat to lean against a wall or with the side frames folded in to create a wraparound effect. The Chroma Key Green cover just simply clips to the aluminium frame and creates a taught, seamless surface.

In keeping with Manfrotto’s existing chroma key range, modular floor strips offer the professional content creator flexibility; one day they may need only one panoramic background with a single floor strip, the next they may need two panoramic backgrounds joined together and a large floor area to work with in a wraparound studio set up. The beauty of this solution is that it gives the user the ability to customise their set up each time they use it.

Being vinyl, they are also wipe clean, crease free and reusable and they also have a matte finish, which prevents any unwanted reflections and aids seamless keying in post-production.

KINO FLO

Enter a new era with Kino Flo Lighting Systems and their award-winning Mimik 120 image-based lighting tile. An NAB Show 2023 Product Of The Year, it creates utmost realism on-set with its innovative ability to mirror content, whilst instantly applying a higher tonal and colour rendering range. Mimik 120 incorporates Kino Flo’s innovative and patented Matchmaker technology, translating an incoming RGB video signal into five individual emitters that generate synchronised full-spectrum foreground lighting.

www.manfrotto.com

www.videndum.com

Known for its ubiquitous C-stand Matthews will show Monitor Stand II with Big F’ ing Wheels, Mini Mombo Combo, Slider Stand, and Mini-Max Boom, smaller version of its counterpart that fits about anywhere. For extreme camera positions there’s CAMTank and Dovetail CrossPlate to safely angle in how-do-I-do-that positions. As for support tripods, there’s the 3iSpreader for a better footing. Also highlighting the world’s most resourceful hardware solutions, Matthews will show the LB2 Location Baby Bracket mounting wonder, and the hold anything Goboplate plate Baby Pin. Check out versatile Gatorbuddy.

www.msegrip.com

NANLUX

Nanlux exhibited at NAB, and also plans to show at Cine Gear Expo and Euro Cine Expo.

The company will showcase the whole range of trustworthy and powerful LED fixtures for larger scale productions. Leading the family is the newly-released Evoke 900C LED RGBLAC Spot Light, incorporated with all state-ofthe-art technologies from Nanlux and equipped with a RGBLAC six-colour mixing system. The Evoke 1200 and LED Daylight and Bi-colour LED Spot Light, both lights feature 1200W power draw and can be comparable to a 1.8KW PAR or 2.5KW HMI Fresnel. Making the party more colourful will be Dyno 650C/1200C RGBWW soft panel lights boasting a variety of colour modes, such as HSI, RGBW, gels and XY coordinates.

Nanlite covers the demands for prosumer and contentcreators with its Forza and PavoTube lineups. Forza 720/720B can take care of power requirement all the way up to 800W, while PavoTube II X and PavoTube II C series just complement with their colour capabilities to make the set-up more complete and versatile. The Forza 60C is equipped with an RGBLAC six-colour system that provides a wider colour spectrum beyond RGBWW. The new updated of the Forza 300/300B/500/500B II added with G/M adjustment make it possible to match any light source. www.nglbg.com

QUASAR SCIENCE

The Quasar Science Double Rainbow (RR) Linear LED light has two rows of high-fidelity RGBX pixels for vibrant colour and bright white light. The RGBX Spectral Science Colour Engine provides over a billion colour choices with a natural colour control experience. The light includes wireless and wired data connections, AC/DC inputs, and an Ossium Mounting System for versatile rigging.

www.quasarscience.com

www.videndum.com

TELTEC

Teltec is a leading supplier of moving picture technology in the European market, offering exclusive cinema solutions with market-leading partners. Its selling point is its ability to provide manufacturerindependent service. At Euro Cine Expo, Teltec will showcase its expertise by presenting the latest industry technology at the Moving Picture Pavilion on booth 5-039. The company will feature a range of exclusive cinema solutions, including products from renowned camera brands such as ARRI, Canon, Red, Sony and from video production equipment brands such as Fujinon, Sachtler, Oconnor, Litepanels, Quasar Science and bebob.

As a partner of this year’s show, Teltec will also showcase the latest in virtual production technology in collaboration with Bright! Studios and Precision Stage. Bright! Studios is a visual design and media technology studio specializing in augmented reality and virtual production. Stage Precision develops software tools and unique solutions that simplify workflows in augmented reality, virtual production, interactive immersive environments and live events.

P+S TECHNIK

For Cine Gear Expo in LA as well as the Euro Cine Expo in Munich, visitors can look forward to getting their hands on the innovative cine lenses from P+S Technik. Evolution 2X Silver Edition supports S35 as a strong narrative format, and P+S Technik has decided to develop an updated mechanic and give the lenses a more modern physical layout with an epic touch. These lenses are based on Kowa’s original Anamorphic lens design. They have a distinctive look, flare beautifully and are relatively lightweight.

The P+S Technik Technovision 1.5X series of zooms/ primes and AproXima close-focus lenses are characterised by outstanding optical and mechanical properties, as well as a large image circle. As far as character is concerned, the Technovision lenses have the big striking lens flares, oval bokeh, barrel distortion, and unique focus breathing of classic front-Anamorphic lenses.

The company also has a Hasselblad rehousing programme: multiple formats can be covered by just these lenses. These lenses are multi talents by format, resolution, and contrast, combined with an aesthetically pleasing bokeh signature. All in a modern and substantial, yet compact cine-style housing. www.pstechnik.de

SONY

Sony’s flagship cinematography camera, Venice 2 combines a compact body with full-frame image sensors. It also has internal recording capabilities, allowing users to capture more colours and detail, making for exceptional image quality. The Venice 2 is reliable and easy-to-use, with a simple navigation menu, connectors and a durable, compact build. The camera is also fast to set-up, meaning your focus can remain on the shoot, not the technology.

Designed to liberate cinematographers without compromising on image quality, the Venice Extension System 2 separates the camera’s image sensor from its body, so you can shoot in smaller spaces and from difficult angles, such as ariel shots. The system has a 12-meter cable distance without need for a repeater box and is fully compatible with Venice 2 using an 8K or 6K sensor. It also comes with HD-SDI output and a 24V output for powering accessories such as lens servo motors and monitoring. Multiple screw holes on all surfaces also make it easy to accessorise and fit on to a wide variety of rigs.

The world ’s first full frame PTZ with interchangeable lenses, the FR7 is perfect for adding a cinematic feel to live coverage, and live streaming from previously unreachable angles. The camera fits into existing workflows and matches other Sony system cameras, it can also be controlled remotely with up to 100 cameras able to be controlled by one operator. This helps to create an efficient workflow.

Ron has pics

www.sonycine.com

Together, these companies will present the Virtual Production Area that combines the latest in virtual production with Precision Stage’s innovative software tools. Attendees can expect to see a live demonstration and learn more about how it can be used to enhance their productions.

www.teltec.com

TILTA

The Nucleus Nano II is a product that brings professional gear within reach for filmmakers. With its intuitive touch screen, high-torque motor, longlasting battery and multi-channel communication, it’s a must-have item for all.

The device features an interactive touchscreen that allows the user to make quick adjustments without fumbling with buttons or menus. The touch screen is highly responsive and offers an concise operating experience.

The motor of Nucleus Nano II provides 5 times more torque than the original Nucleus Nano. It features an auto-adjustable torque design and high-efficiency cooling system, making it more reliable and durable. The motor is highly responsive, allowing the user to make quick adjustments with no lag.

It is equipped with an internal rechargeable battery that provides 7 hours of high power output with smart electronic control. The device also features multi-channel communication for controlling up to 4 motors. This allows the user to adjust focus, iris, zoom, and more.

One of the most impressive features of the Nucleus Nano II is its compatibility with other Tilta wireless control systems such as the original Nano, Nucleus-M, Mirage VND motor etc. The Nucleus Nano II is also the perfect companion for DJI gimbals. It is compatible with RS2 & RS3 Pro gimbals and supports efficient control and communication.

The Nucleus Nano II is the perfect product for the filmmaker looking for a reliable and efficient wireless lens control system. www.tilta.com

VOCAS

Vocas’ goal is to make the life of the camera operator easier with solid accessories so they can concentrate on getting the shot. Its popular Vocas Sliding System is a great example.

Vocas builds on the success of the Sliding System with its Universal Sliding Top Handle. You have all experienced it, the camera isn’t completely balanced because the top handle is not in the right position for the set-up. This is solved with the Universal Sliding Top Handle.

The unique mechanism allows you to adjust the position of the top handle along the length of the camera, so it is always perfectly-balanced regardless of the weight distribution on the front- and rear of their setup. Plus, you can slide the handle onto the top plate in either a forward or backward direction, giving you even more flexibility.

The Universal Sliding Top Handle is compatible with a Top Plate for the ARRI Alexa 35, Red V-Raptor, Red V-Raptor XL and is available in kits with these Top Plates. It also mounts directly into the dovetail on top of a Sony Venice camera.

There are several accessories available that allow you to extend its length, attach other accessories, or mount an Easyrig onto the camera top plate with the centre bracket for all Vocas Universal Sliding Top Handle System plates.

www.vocas.com

ZEISS

At this year’s Cine Gear Expo in Los Angeles and Euro Cine Expo in Munich, Zeiss will be showcasing its entire offering of cinematography lenses, from the CP.3 and CP.3 XD to the Lightweight Zoom and Cinema Zooms to the Supreme Prime and Supreme Prime Radiance. Moreover, visitors can get a demo of Zeiss CinCraft Mapper, Zeiss’ service to easily provide frame-accurate lens distortion and shading data for compositing and matchmoving. Come by their booth, get your hands on some amazing lenses, and talk with their experts about all-things Zeiss and cinematography in general.

www.zeiss.com

GRAND TO U R

Cinematography World readers may recall me talking in an earlier edition about the ‘collegiate’ structure of the Australian Cinematographers Society (ACS). The founders of the ACS recognised the strength of having semi-autonomous branches around the country, giving every branch the independence to respond to the local needs of their members, as they see fit. This collegiate design is built into the ACS constitution and is greatly valued by members.

ACS VICTORIA

Australian director of photography, Mandy Walker AM ACS ASC, became the first female to win the AACTA Award for Cinematography in late 2022, for her work on Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis. Mandy joined via Zoom from Los Angeles to speak live with members of the Victorian branch of the society. The event was held in the theatre of the Victorian College Of The Arts, at the University Of Melbourne, to an enthusiastic crowd. It was also streamed ‘live’ online, and many more around the country also joined in.

The structure gives every branch a great sense of agency and connection, and also encourages members to engage with their immediate ACS community. In a country the size of Australia, this really matters. Some members are in very remote places indeed, and we all know how important and valuable it is to meet and mix with our peers. Sometimes members don’t realise that the ACS is actually a national society. That, of course, changes when they begin to enter the Awards, and come to understand that it is possible for them to compete against members around the country, not only in their own local branch.

ACS QUEENSLAND

In Brisbane, ACS Queensland together with sales/rental house Lemac, proudly presented our first Handheld Operating workshop. No fewer that 28 participants were led through a series of typical scenarios, from following a character walking, all the way through to filming a fight scene. Cinematographers Mark Wareham ACS (ACS Queensland president), Andrew Conder ACS SOC and camera operator Lucas Tomoana, led the workshop in the craft of handheld operating.

However, more about the Awards another time. I want to share some snapshots of events staged in some of the branches around the country over the recent months. They range from a Q&A in Melbourne with Mandy Walker AM ACS ASC, who zoomed-in a week before the Oscars, to a very popular hand-held shooting workshop in Brisbane, to a networking gathering of female and non-binary members and industry players, to a weekend lighting masterclass led by one of Australia’s top DPs, Peter James ACS ASC, and more.

ACS SOUTH AUSTRALIA

ACS SA W+ is a regular networking event for our female and non-binary guild members. It is held quarterly and provides a space for this group to find like-minded colleagues, share creative ideas and form new collaborations. Film school students are also invited and are introduced to our established working cinematographers and camera crew to get a better understanding of the industry. It’s fully supported by the ACS and led by experienced female and enby members of the film industry.

Having also, earlier this year, been nominated for BAFTA, Oscar and ASC Awards, we were very fortunate to have the opportunity to hear from Mandy about her career and her work on Elvis, one day prior to the ASC Awards, and a week out from the Oscars. Those in attendance were treated to some great stories and explanations about how Mandy and her team achieved some of the more difficult scenes in the film. There were plenty of questions asked and it was a great chance for many young, up-and-coming cinematographers to ask questions. 24hrs later, Mandy won another first – the American Society Of Cinematographers Award, for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Feature Film for Elvis!

Students operated cinema cameras in three handheld scenarios involving camera assistants, grips and actors. Instructors demonstrated building and rigging the cameras, using different techniques and various rigs to assist the operator. The venue for the workshop was the Queensland Maritime Museum, a fascinating part of Brisbane’s history, which is home to the WW2 frigate, HMAS Diamantina, sitting in a dry dock.

ACS VIC President Brent Crockett ACS talks with Mandy Walker AM ACS ASC

Participants attending ACS SA W+ get together

ACS NEW SOUTH WALES

ACS NSW is home to the ACS headquarters in North Sydney. After many years of previous gatherings, hosted at various member owned facilities around Sydney, ACS NSW is now able to hold regular events at these premises. Recently, Ben Allan ACS CSI ran a Q&A session with director Clara Chong about their debut feature, Dark Noise. Shot in the early days of Covid, under all the constraints that the pandemic caused, the film is a gripping ecological thriller set in the Australian bush. Dark Noise is in current distribution.

ACS VICTORIA – ShotClass events

ACS Victoria silver sponsor, ShotClass, is run by ACS member Warwick Field ACS, former Victoria branch president. Just like the audiences who watch the results, the film and TV industry comprises a wide diversity of people of different gender, ethnicity, ability, sexual orientation, religion, age, socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. ShotClass creates educational masterclasses and intensive sessions aimed solely at the subject of cinematography, and has a strong focus on providing events that are welcoming to everyone in and associated with the industry, including members of the ACS.

In mid-March, ShotClass ran a two-day masterclass with legendary cinematographer, Peter James ACS ASC. The masterclass was successful in its accessibility for a range of students representing a fair deal of diversity. This was most likely the case because the course was promoted as such, and participants felt that they would feel welcome and comfortable among the group. It goes without saying that the best courses we run are those with a good mix of students as it builds a strong relationship between the participants, regardless of their background.

This is a small selection of the range of events offered across the ACS membership and branches. The next newsletter may be about the ACS Awards, which include 22 categories of cinematography from student, art and experimental to feature dramas.

All the best from Down Under!

Cinematographer Erika Addis, president of the Australian Cinematographers Society (ACS), has been long regarded as a trailblazer for women. She has worked in the camera department for over 40 years, is a former ACS Queensland president, ACS national vice president, and was previously head of cinematography at Griffith Film School in Brisbane.

We all know how important and valuable it is to meet and mix with our peers

ACS NSW President Carolyn Constantine ASCS introduces Ben Allan ACS CSI and Clara Chong to ACS attendees.

Photos courtesy of Con Filippidis.

The ACS’s collegiate structure gives every branch and each member a great sense of agency and connection

DAYDREAM BELIEVER

Filmography (so far): In A Cane Field (2016, dir. Emily Avila); All These Creatures (2018, dir. Charles Williams); The Flame (2020, dir. Nick Waterman); A Mouthful Of Petrol (2022, dir. Jess Kohl) and White Ant (2023, dir. Shalini Adnani).

Winning Accolades: In A Cane Field – Flickerfest Best Cinematography Award;

All These Creatures – Cannes Short Film Palme d’Or, Manaki Brothers Small Golden Camera, AACTA Best Short Film, plus Melbourne, Sydney and Hong Kong International Film Festival awards; and A Mouthful Of Petrol – EnergaCamerimage Golden Frog (Short Documentary) 2022.

Official Selection/Nominee: Toronto International Film Festival 2018; BFI 2019 & 2021; Berlinale 2020; IDFA 2022; Doc NYC 2022; Grierson Awards 2021; and Sundance Film Festival 2023.

When did you discover you wanted to be a cinematographer?

I grew-up in the bush in rural Australia, where filmmaking wasn’t exactly considered a career choice, but luckily boredom was never in short supply. Inspired by the tactile filmmaking of early Peter Jackson movies, when I was 15, I saved up for a miniDV camcorder and began making short films with my mates.

We were immediately hooked by the escapist power it gave us and the creative and social explosion that came with the filmmaking process. We made a series of violent, inventive and crude shorts and a feature by the time we had graduated from high school. Each film we would cut to DVD, make the cover art, and then hawk them to townsfolk, making enough cash to fund the next one. Since then, I’ve not remotely considered another option. Cinematography wasn’t really a career choice. It was more like, ‘well this is my life now’.

Where did you train?

I moved to Brisbane to study a Bachelor of Film & TV at Queensland University Of Technology (QUT), followed by a Graduate Diploma in Cinematography at Australian Film Television & Radio School (AFTRS), the national film school in Sydney.

Outside of continuing to shoot and edit independent shorts with my friends, I spent nearly a decade after high school assisting in a variety of roles – lighting, grip, camera, art dept, and even some stand-by costume on Fury Road (2015, dir. George Miller, DP John Seale ACS ASC).

What lessons did you learn from your training?

The art dept are cooler.

How did you get your first break?

I’d never done a commercial in my life and I got picked-up somehow by director/DP Dimitri Karakatsanis for the Australian unit of a Jeep Super Bowl commercial. It was just me, the producer and my assistant, Steivan Hasler, working for a week, filming beautiful parts of the country. I was so proud of the achievement that I invited all of my friends to watch on the big screen for its premier during the grand final. They used about one second of some out-of-focus footage of a kangaroo. Quite possibly the perfect introduction to the world of commercials.

What are you favourite films, and why? Mirror (1975, dir. Andrei Tarkovsky, DP Georgy Rerberg) – really anything by Tarkovsky could be in this list. He sculpted the cinematographic image into a new film language. It’s pure cinema, pure expression.

Once Upon A Time In Anatolia (2011, dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylon, DP Gokhan Tiryaki) – Ceylon paints landscapes of the human soul, spectral widescreen emptiness and the petty desires of fearful men. It is meditative and transportive cinema.

Happy As Lazzaro (2018, dir. Alice Rohrwacher, DP Hélène Louvart AFC) – Rohrwacher deftly balances the fantastical with soulful humanity. I love her ability to elevate small moments into something sublime and mysterious.

La Haine (1995, dir. Matthew Kassovitz, DP Pierre Aïm AFC) – every moment of La Haine is at once arrestingly beautiful and devastatingly tragic. The cinematography is in a constant dance with light and dark, spiralling

always down to its inevitable conclusion. Kassovitz’s use of perpetual movement in his blocking is incredible.

Where do you get your visual inspirations?

Daydreaming.

What was the worst knock-back/rejection you ever had?

During the pandemic I was confirmed on my first feature – my big narrative break, a £4million budget and gorgeous, period locations. The evening before flying to the Outer Hebrides of Scotland to begin preproduction I got a call from the line producer. My fit-to-fly test was Covid-positive. The end!

What is your most treasured cinematographic possession?

My Aaton XTR Prod Super16mm camera. I bought it back when celluloid film was in serious trouble and I couldn’t even be sure if I’d ever get to use it. Since then it’s shot almost all of my narratives. I like to think about all the film that has run through it and the moments in time it has witnessed. I think it holds those memories somewhere in its machine soul.

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

A close tie between the Alps on Christmas Day, on the rubble of an avalanche in an abandoned Italian ghost-village, versus inside the tent of a man who has stood on one foot for 12 years at the Hindu pilgrimage Maha Kumbh Mela, the largest gathering of humans in recorded history.

Away from work, what are your greatest passions?

Returning to nature.

How do you like to “waste” your time?

I watch YouTube videos of lonely, middle-aged men building survival shelters.

It can be tough being a DP, how do you keep yourself match-fit?

Yoga. Cycling. Walking.

On set for a ‘Teskey Brothers’ music video (Dir. W.A.M Bleakley)

Who would you invite to your dream industry dinner party?

It would be at Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem’s Spanish villa, with Herzog as MC, Buñuel on guestlist and security, Almodovar doing the cooking, Jodorowsky on the decor, Malick as the videographer, and Lynch and Varda back-to-back on the decks ‘til sunrise.

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

I just watched Godland (2022, dir. Hlynur Palmason, DP Maria Von Hausswolff DFF) – 4-perf 35mm, severe natural landscapes, contemplative visual restraint and niche period authenticity. The perfect storm.

Tell us your greatest extravagance? Gore-Tex boots.

What’s the best thing about being a DP?

Being a cinematographer gives you access to such a wide spectrum of experiences and people that it’s kind of hard to believe. One week you’re sitting in a coal miner’s living room somewhere in the Balkans, the next you’re in the control room of a Royal Naval Destroyer, the next you’re standing on the edge of an active volcano. It’s utterly absurd and I love it.

What’s the worst thing about being a DP?

The flip side of the coin – perpetual and unpredictable absence. Comes with all the expected downsides.

What do you consider your greatest achievement, so far?

Pretty stoked with the Palme D’Or and the Camerimage Golden Frog to be honest.

What is the most important lesson your working life has taught you?

Just keep choosing what you love. You’ll survive! What advice do you have for other people who want to become cinematographers?

Don’t be too precious to begin with. I’ve always believed in saying yes to what comes your way and putting your whole self into it. No matter what it is, you will always come away with something, even the bad experiences. If you’re lucky its a beautiful film, you learn a new technique or you meet someone who opens a new path for you. At the very least you learn what not to do.

For you, what are the burning issues in the world of cinematography, filmmaking and cinema, that need to be addressed?

Bring your own water bottles people!

Who is your agent?

My Management, United Kingdom & Europe and Gersh, United States.

Give us three adjectives that best describe you and your approach to cinematography?

Dynamic. Intuitive. Thoughtful

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

Children’s book illustrator

What are your aspirations for the future?

To work predominantly in long-form narrative and documentary. To make a meaningful contribution to the culture of cinema with people that I love and that continue inspire me.

What is your URL/website address? www.adricwatson.com

Keep choosing what you love. You’ll survive!

Cinematography wasn’t really a career choice. It was more like, ‘this is my life now’

‘Paris Funeral, 1972’ (Dir. Adam Briggs)

‘Chucky Boy Blue’ (Dir. Tim Nathan)

‘In a Cane Field’ (Dir. Emily Avila)

‘In a Cane Field’ (Dir. Emily Avila) ‘All These Creatures’ (Dir. Charles Williams)

‘Chucky Boy Blue’ (Dir. Tim Nathan)

‘In a Cane Field’ (Dir. Emily Avila)

SPACE TRUCKIN’

By Ron Prince

God knows, we need people to come back to watch movies at the cinema,” says cinematographer Henry Braham BSC. “As filmmakers, we have a major part to play in that. We have a responsibility to create reasons for people to share common visual, auditory and emotional experiences that are different to sitting at home.”

If early box-office receipts are anything to go by, then Braham’s latest project, the action-packed, spaced-out Guardians Of The Galaxy – Vol.3, is doing exactly that. Within a week of opening, the $250m, Disney/Marvel adventure had rocketed to nearly $350m at the box office worldwide, with forecast predictions of a healthy $800m overall, making it one of the biggest crowd-pullers of 2023.

Guardians Of The Galaxy – Vol.3 represents Braham’s fourth collaboration with director/writer James Gunn, following their work together on Guardians Of The Galaxy – Vol. 2 (2017), The Suicide Squad (2021) and The Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special (2022), for Disney+ streaming service, the latter of which was shot concurrently with Guardians Of The Galaxy – Vol.3.

The movie features an ensemble cast of The Guardians themselves: Chris Pratt as Star-Lord/Peter Quill, Zoe Saldaña as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Pom Klementieff as Mantis, plus the voice talents of Vin Diesel as Groot

and Bradley Cooper as Rocket. Their nemesis is The High Evolutionary, played by Chukwudi Iwuji, a powerful scientist specialising in creating hybrid creatures, who is trying to create the perfect society, assisted by his hybrid henchman Adam Warlock, played by Will Poulter.

The threequel sees the band of misfits settling down on planet Knowhere, only to have their lives suddenly upended when Rocket is mortallywounded in a dramatic attack ordered by The High Evolutionary. The Guardians rally together on a dangerous mission across the crazy cosmos to save Rocket’s life – an inter-galactic operation that, if not completed successfully, could lead to the end of The Guardians as we know them.

Along with robust returns at the box-office, critics

praised the movie as a visually-stunning and highlyemotional experience – it juxtaposes themes of cruelty, eugenics and vivisection against kindness, loyalty and friendship, as a macabre backstory about Rocket is gradually revealed. Braham’s work has been wellreceived for the dynamic, inventive way it captured the action and the emotion.

The film was released in a multitude of formats including 3D, IMAX, Dolby Cinema, augmented 4DX experience and ScreenX 270-degree panoramic format. Disney released over 600 unique versions of the film to cinemas, including one with variable aspect ratios, shifting between 1.85:1 and 2.39:1 letterbox aspect ratio.

“Every movie is different, but the one constant for the cinematographer is that you are the conduit to putting the director’s vision for their film onto the screen,” says Braham. “As with our first collaboration on Guardians Of The Galaxy – Vol. 2, we were making a spectacular, surreal, space opera again. But, rather than having a story about the universe being crushed by an omnipotent force, this time it was focussed on a touching and deeply-affecting drama around Rocket and a single life being in deadly jeopardy.

“I was highly-conscious of the need for the visuals to be colourful and kinetic as we travel around the universe, whilst also having the camera alive and present to capture the tender moments in story and emotion in the performances. We were taking the

audience on a specific journey, and having truth to the camera movement and the lighting was really important in keeping them connected to the narrative.”

Braham says he and Gunn explored a multitude of filmic references, and highlights martial arts movies from Hong Kong and South Korean cinema as helping to inform the fight scenes in the film.

“James wanted the fights to be staged with pace and purpose, for the audience to be up-close with every swing and every blow in long continuous scenes, which meant having a fluid camera that could run amid the thick of the action and could tumble around with our heroes.

“To design and develop how to shoot those sequences, Wayne Dalglish, our very creative co-stunt coordinator, and I did a lot of stunt-viz during prep –shooting live footage of rehearsals that was then cut together. Nothing computer generated. Wayne was quick to understand the potential of the way I wanted to shoot and took every advantage of the how the camera can interact with the action – in other words – making the camera a part of the fighting rather than an observer. It also helped inform the camera package I was going to need to bring all of that physicality to the screen.”

Pre-production work creating the designs and visuals for the film began in April 2021. Principal photography commenced in early November 2021, on multiple stages at Trilith Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, under the working title of Hot Christmas, before wrapping 120 shooting

days later on May 6th 2022. The Counter Earth scenes were filmed on-location at a housing development, about an hour’s drive from the studio base.

“During production we typically had a 10-hour daily working regime, which I think protected us from the law of diminishing returns when you have to work longer days,” Braham notes.

Braham reports that many of the set builds, such as the Guardians’ ‘Bowie’ space craft, were four storeys in height. The production team considered using Industrial Light & Magic’s StageCraft virtual production technology, originally developed for the Disney+ Star Wars series The Mandalorian. However, the sheer size and scale of those sets, combined with the need for an active camera and on-set lighting requirements, made the use of LED wall technology for background plates impractical, and traditional bluescreen was used instead.

With image-quality and camera agility of paramount importance, Braham revisited a large format camera set-up he had pioneered and used to great effect on Guardians Of The Galaxy – Vol. 2, but with some fresh twists. For that earlier film, he paired the diminutive RED Weapon Dragon 8K VV camera with Panavision 70 series lenses, resulting in a highly-compact and lightweight camera package. During production, this was deployed on a miniature, remote-operated, gyro-stabilised head, made by UK company Stabileye, which was variously

manoeuvered by the grips, slung on an easy-rig, telescopic crane or fast, point-to-point wirecam systems. A high-speed Phantom Flex 4K camera was used separately to shoot slo-mo sequences for the many action scenes.

For Vol.3, the DP came up with an even smaller and more versatile system that could be operated handheld. Collaborating with RED, Braham took advantage of the newly-developed and more compact form-factor RED V-Raptor 8K VV – an IMAX-approved camera, which offered up to 120fps capture at full 8K for the action scenes, plus improved low-light capabilities – fitted with Leitz M 0.8 lenses. Attaching this combination to a proprietary stabilising gimbal, specially-developed by Stabileye, resulted in a handheld camera package weighing just 4.5kg.

You are the conduit to putting the director’s vision on to the screen

Images: BTS photos by Jessica Miglio. All images © 2023 Marvel.

Similarly, this new rig could also be attached to camera moving systems such as cranes or wire systems.

“All of the 8K large format cameras available today deliver exceptional images, but it is only RED who have managed to squeeze the technology into a small camera body that is not much larger than a traditional Hasselblad, and you can shoot full 8K at high frame rate too,” Braham declares.

“I had a great experience using RED Weapon Dragon 8K VV camera on Vol.2, and went back to Jarred Land and the team at RED Digital Cinema to see what they could offer. Once again, RED proved very helpful and responsive in making a few physical changes to the camera body to enable what I wanted to do, along with various updates to the software, colour science and workflow functions.

“However, whilst camera technology moves on apace, it’s not the same with optics. There are a number of large format lenses you can choose from, but not many, and it’s an area of the business in which I would like to see much more development and many more options.

“Aesthetically, I decided to go with the Leitz M 0.8s as they shape highlights and interpret skin tones well,

whilst also bringing a dimensional feeling to the image with clarity, colour and a certain pizzaz that is unlike any currently available alternative. Crucially, however, compared to other large format lenses, the Leitz M 0.8 are really small and lightweight. Fitted to the RED V-Raptor 8K VV, the camera and lens package was considerably smaller than my previous iteration.

“Working with the team at Stabileye, I developed a proprietary handheld gimbal that brought a new mobility and physicality to the camera. I can’t underestimate how revolutionary this is to the filmmaking process. Whilst the system I used on Vol.2 opened-up new possibilities for an active camera, this new arrangement meant that handheld became a much more viable option in bringing that sense of spontaneity, truth and emotion to the visual storytelling, and an even more versatile way of in participating in middle of the action scenes.”

During prep, Braham also worked closely with Stefan Sonnenfeld, president and senior colourist at Company 3 in Los Angeles, to define and refine the overall colour palette for the film, before developing individual LUTs that could be applied in different scenarios during the shoot. Braham also implemented an ACES workflow to ensure

colour fidelity from camera to post.

As he explains, “Stefan has a good photographic eye. During the look-development process with him, I necessarily had to consider the whole array of different skin types, set lighting, times of day/night, etc, that we would encounter, and how light, shade, colour and contrast could be used to bring depth and emotion to the image.

“Ultimately the goal was to shoot with the looks baked-in to the dailies, and the ACES workflow meant that everyone downstream - the editors, VFX vendors producers and studio executives – were all working or viewing in a consistent colour space, and were always clear about the visual identity of the film. Ultimately, as everyone was working on the same page, the final DI grade with Stefan was fast and efficient.”

Whilst Braham’s camera gimbal was attached to a plethora of camera-moving equipment, Braham shot the vast majority of the film operating handheld. This sometimes included the DP wearing a harness himself and flying around the sets on a wire whilst operating.

The focus puller was Dermot Hickey, who the DP describes as being “an utter genius in being able to work in total sync with me in some mind-blowingly complex and extreme situations,” ably supported by

The Leitz M 0.8s interpret skin tones well and bring a dimensional feeling to the image

key grip Kurt Kornemann. Stabileye technician Joe Marsden was also permanently on-hand to make sure the gimbal’s stabilisation system was fine-tuned and in perfect working order for every shot. Camera operators Chris McGuire ACO SOC and Tom Lapin also worked on the production in B- and C-camera roles, also using additional camera gimbals.

When it came to lighting, Braham enlisted the talents of gaffer Dan Cornwall, who had previously

of rigging such enormous sets, and such a huge amount of lighting kit being required, preparation is everything,” Braham says. “As the production was so stage and VFX-heavy, it was helpful to start early on this. Lighting rigs are expensive, and when you are going to be using a large number of lights, you must use this resource intelligently.

“The idea was to produce a rich and colourful contemporary movie, and I wanted the audience to really believe in the source of the light. Dan and I liaised with production designer Beth Mickle with regards to where we could site and hide the ambient and practical lighting – which incorporated the whole array of fixtures such as ARRI Sky Panels, Creamsource Vortex’s, Kino Flos, LED tubes and many miles of LED ribbon.

clean sheet, collaborating with the director to understand their vision, and then working with different departments and different manufacturers to develop the aesthetic and bring the imagery to life.

“James is a visionary, meticulous in his planning, but always open to ideas. With all of the new technology around, especially in lighting, it’s a very exciting time to be making films, and we enjoyed a sort of creativity on steroids on this film. I am so glad that the result has attracted people to the cinema, and long may this continue.”

Braham needn’t worry. As this story went to print, The Flash was set to release worldwide, and looks as it will be another sure-fire winner.

worked on Vol.2. The lighting equipment was provided by MBS Equipment Co, based conveniently on the lot at Trilith Studios, although the requirement was so great that 600 additional fixtures were shipped over specially from London from the set of The Flash, which Braham had shot immediately prior to working on Vol.3

“On a film of this scale, with the complexity

“It was a blessing to have Dan on-board again to deal with the logistical challenge. Also, during production, I was immersed in the shooting process all day long, it was a massive credit Dan and his crew that I was kept pretty-much free from any trials and tribulations that might have gone on.”

Braham concludes: “This was a complicated shoot, where lots of decisions had to be made well in advance. Much of the fun in making any movie is starting with a

Only RED have managed to squeeze 8K technology into a small camera body

On a film of this scale… preparation is everything

IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM

IN THE MIND’S EYE

By Darek Kuźma

DP Paweł Pogorzelski PSC was delighted to turn Ari Aster’s lusciously-black, existential dramedy horror, Beau Is Afraid, into a visually evocative nightmare that you simply can’t take your eyes off.

It is not that Beau Wassermann (Joaquin Phoenix) is afraid of talking to people, leaving his flat or breaking his daily routine. He is afraid of everything. Additionally, Beau’s lovehate relationship with his controlling mother, Mona, makes him live in perpetual shame. So it certainly helps that his troubled mind colours the outside world as a dystopia of kaleidoscopic lunacy.

When Mona dies in a freak chandelier accident, Beau is forced to embark on a surreal Homeric odyssey of eerie encounters with grieving parents, traumatised soldiers, naked knifemen, placid forest dwellers and dozens of larger-than-life characters to make it to her funeral. And, because we have no idea what exactly is real and what is enhanced by Beau’s angst-ridden imagination, this cinematic adventure becomes depressing, entertaining and frightening all at the same time.

Pogorzelski met Aster during the late 2000’s at the AFI Conservatory in Los Angeles, and has stood by his side for over a decade, first shooting shorts and then lensing Hereditary (2018) and Midsommar (2019), which gave the director a reputation as one of the most peculiar film auteurs of the 21st century. Thus, the DP has earned a unique insight into Aster’s crowded mind, and Beau Is Afraid is their most visually-suggestive work to date – a three-hour, off-the-wall fable of dark humour, horror, Greek tragedy, plus cringeworthy and deeply-affecting paranoia about the layers of human psyche.

It required a lot of planning, as Pogorzelski remembers. “We had 12 weeks of prep, but because Ari always wants to shoot as much onset as possible, VFX-less, and the fact that the script was so dense, with dozens of locations and characters to cover, we had to be very specific about how we intended to shoot it.

“Ari brings a full shot-list to the table, a vision to which all of the departments try to adhere, but he is open about the details of how to bring his

DP Robert Burks ASC) for its colours, and Powell and Pressburger’s A Matter Of Life And Death (1946, Jack Cardiff BSC) for its creativity, but Ari’s vision was the only true reference.”

Pogorzelski was adamant about painting Beau’s journey on a large format canvas and chose the Sony Venice camera combined with Panavision H-series lenses.

“I love shooting with Panavision gear and the H-series have a softened look with a very saturated rendition that clicked with my other decisions. We considered the ARRI Alexa LF but decided on the Sony Venice because of its Rialto mode, which enabled us not to have to move walls and windows and thus save time,” he reveals.

“Ari always wants to stay close to the actors with wider lenses, so our workhorses were the 27, 35, 40, 50mm focal lengths. We also had a Sony 70-400mm zoom. I was really impressed how my 1st AC Dany Racine was able to keep the zooming image pin-sharp all the way through to Joaquin’s eyes, even at 400mm.”

Panavision in Montreal provided the whole package and detuned the lenses according to Pogorzelski’s needs.

ideas to life. In Beau Is Afraid, we strived to create a series of idiosyncratic worlds the character goes through, and the prep was a period of creative fervour, and a colossal team-effort to get ready for this epic journey.”

We meet Beau in a psychiatrist’s office, examine his shabby flat in an ultra-violent neighbourhood, follow him into weird manors and forests, and even watch him explore his future in a stunning animated sequence, hoping that the feeble guy will emerge victorious when the credits roll.

“We love taking cues from other films,” says Pogorzelski about creative inspirations for the production. “We watched Tati’s Playtime (1967, DPs Jean Badal/Andréas Winding) for its expressiveness, Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954,

Apart from scouting the locations, Pogorzelski says the most time-consuming part of the prep was designing the LUT with colourist Roman Hankewycz at Harbor Picture Company in New York.

“I’ve recently started doing portrait photography with a Hasselblad, shooting at 160 ISO, and have found that it gives a nice control over light. For Beau Is Afraid, I decided to test ISOs going down – from 1200, 800, 500, 320, 200 to 160. I sent them to Roman and he came back amazed with how the 250 ISO was so rich with blacks, dense but clean, and creamy,” he recalls.

“I knew that 250 ISO would be too low for me as we had planned a lot of night stuff, so I decided to shoot at 320 ISO. Then, because we wanted one LUT to encompass all the different

On Ari’s films the A-camera is very technical, with the B-camera improvising a bit more

worlds, it was a matter of finding the right amount of saturation in each colour so that the forest greens would look vivid, and the yellowish walls of Beau’s flat would not look too red, etc.”

“It took us a month of intense tests and over 20 versions of the LUT, some of which really pushed too far into this kitschy Bollywood movie area, to find the sweet spot where all the colours felt into the right spaces. I couldn’t have shot this film with a broken or unfinished LUT. Kudos to Roman and the guys at Harbor for being with us the whole way. We had colour scientists on-call and everybody was always there to make it right.”

Pogorzelski marvels and emphasises that the collaboration was just as rewarding in post production.

“Ari wanted to do as much with the light and costume and production design as possible during the shoot. I didn’t use many gels, mostly balancing everything with CTO or CTB. Still, even with such a great LUT, the sheer scope of the story made the DI quite extensive, even if it was mostly massaging the work to get into a nice place where it wasn’t too contrasty or too dark.”

It certainly helped that Beau Is Afraid was blessed with the biggest budget in the history of

be extremely challenging for Pogorzelski and his gaffer Marco Venditto, namely the street in front of Beau’s flat (built on stage) at night, and the forest.

“We pre-planned it all, the track placement and the lighting, but shooting at 320 ISO made it difficult to get the right exposure on night

temperature was great. We also had DMG SL1s and DMG Maxi Mixes and a few others. I had mostly the same gear for interiors, using Fresnel lights together with the T24s and China balls as well as lightweight LEDs to have a nice fill.”

One other elaborate set-up that proved quite tricky was the aforementioned animated sequence during which traumatised Beau, growing older and increasingly restless before our eyes, travels through a world that seems both real and surreal.

“I’m proud to say that we used a greenscreen for only about 20-30% of the time, the rest was a pre-built magical world that was animated on top of the physical things by the Chilean animators who did the marvellous The Wolf House, (2018, dirs/ DPs Joaquín Cociña/Cristóbal León),” he recounts.

sequences. Thankfully, we shot the street first and learned from that. When we went into the forest I knew I would need more light, as we shot in the middle of the summer and the canopy was so full that I couldn’t use any condors,” he confesses. “So I had to bring-in all the lights low and far away. We had a camping site around with 5Ks and

“We also had a stage divided into six sections with trees painted on three different sides. We could shoot from one side and then just change the set-up and the angles and have yet another look to work with. We even had this giant circle built with the T24 going through that had different diffusions. It would spin to simulate direct sun or

A24, but Pogorzelski mentions they were constantly fighting against time.

“As much as I’m grateful for having 60 shooting days, more than most projects have these days, we needed at least ten more to shoot as we would have wanted. It may seem Beau Is Afraid is just one guy wandering from one place to another, but all of these beautiful and weird and terrifying places were created from scratch, mostly on-location. Even the camera movement was complicated. We had dollies, cable cams, motorcycle rigs, Technocrane and Steadicam, plus scenes that required grips carry the camera on a remote head.”

The principal photography lasted from June to September 2021 in and around Montreal, as well as on the stages of Grandé Studios, which also provided the full lighting package.

Lighting-wise, two of Beau’s ‘worlds’ proved to

12Ks and turned-on only the ones that weren’t in a shot. One of the scenes had around 45 Parcans rigged-up high in the trees, bouncing into 2x2 bounce boards to give this little ambience from below the canopy of leaves.”

Pogorzelski is not necessarily a fan of LED light, which made Beau Is Afraid even more visually-distinct.

“I used a lot of Fresnels, 5Ks, 12Ks, 18Ks, even T12s and T24s, because I think they look pretty when you use them as harsh light. Rather than having ARRIMAXs, M90s or other modern sources, I went with older lights. We had seven weeks of night location shooting and they were my lifesaviours,” he explains.

“Although I was against using LED lights as I wanted to have this charismatic, harsh Fresnel feel, they actually came in very handy. As in a quick fill from behind the camera, a Chimera at the right

heavier clouds coming in.”

For most of the time Beau Is Afraid was shot using two Sony Venice cameras, with Geoffroy St. Hillaire operating the A-camera and Pogorzelski on B-camera.

“On Ari’s films the A-camera is very technical and focussed on going through the shot-list, with the B-camera improvising a bit more, trying different things and finding extra angles that could help in the edit.”

This approach was helpful as, even though the film had been meticulously pre-planned, Aster’s work with Phoenix had a certain improvisational aspect to it.

“Joaquin is a very honest actor, he has to understand the reasons for everything the character does,” Pogorzelski explains. “When he had a hard time playing a beat or knowing why he was doing something, Ari would take a short break and talk the shot over with him. Sometimes they changed blocking, sometimes added these little nuances, but they always

Prep was a period of creative fervour and a colossal team-effort

Images: Courtesy of A24.

made what we were doing so much better.”

Needless to say, Pogorzelski had a great time shooting Beau Is Afraid and says he is eager to get on-board for every new Ari Aster project.

“Ari is a genius, both as a screenwriter and as a director. There aren’t many similar to him, nowadays. He creates these beautiful and unique worlds for the viewers to immerse themselves in. Even if it’s sometimes difficult to wrap your head around what Ari tries to say, I believe the underlying messages of Beau Is Afraid are worth the mental digging.”

He concludes “I admit, I had a hard time understanding what the film is exactly about, even though I read the script a number of times, but when it all clicked, when I understood the way different scenes work together, I was just amazed. I know it may be asking a lot in this day and age, but I hope people will have the patience to listen to what Ari has to say. For me, this is art.”

CELEBRATING 10 YEARS OF SUPPORTING FILMMAKERS

ON THE MONEY

By Ron Prince

DP Charlotte Bruus Christensen ASC used Kodak 35mm to create alluring looks for Apple TV+’s confidence-trick thriller Sharper.

Directed by Benjamin Caron for Apple TV+, the neo-noir thriller, Sharper, is presented in a series of interwoven chapters, each focusing on different characters, in a non-linear story about ruthless deception to swindle billions of dollars where noone is quite who they seem.

Produced via A24, the film marks Caron’s directorial debut in features. Set variously in cosy interiors, plush Park Avenue penthouses, derelict warehouses and on the mean streets of New York, the chapters of the movie follow Tom (Justice Smith), the owner of a used bookstore in New York City; Sandra (Briana Middleton), a university student who enters into a romance with Tom; Max, (Sebastian Stan), a manipulative grifter who lives life in the shadows; and Madeline (Julianne Moore), soon to become the wife of mega-rich businessman, Richard Hobbes (John Lithgow).

Little more can be said about the plot without spoiling it, suffice to say that critics enjoyed the clever long-con narrative, lead performances and stylish, sumptuous cinematography on Kodak 35mm film by Charlotte Bruus Christensen DFF ASC, who conjured-up different looks for the separate tableaux as part of a coherent whole.

“The script was a real page-turner. I was really hooked by the fast-moving twists and turns in the story of confidence tricksters conning one another, as well as the idea of money being a supporting character,” Bruus Christensen recalls. “I liked the way the narrative was spread across different but connected chapters, and was intrigued about Ben’s vision to depict those with distinct moods –

romantic, edgy, sinister, opulent – but all within a cohesive high-end Hollywood movie feel.”

Filming on Sharper began in September 2021 and concluded some 45 shooting days later in November. Physical locations included a bookstore on Thompson Street in lower Manhattan and a suite on the a 48th floor of the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square. Sandra’s apartment and Richard Hobbes’s penthouse were set-builds, constructed on the stages at Silvercup Studios in Queens.

“Separately, we also considered The Usual Suspects (1995, dir. Bryan Singer, DP Newton Thomas Sigel ASC) to see how it visually conveys suspicion and uncertainty, who’s being dishonest and who isn’t.”

As for the developing looks for the individual chapters, Bruus Christensen says, “We worked really hard to visually separate the chapters from one another, and to differentiate between our locations, whilst still keeping things in one world.

“For the first chapter, when the romance between Tom and Sandra unfolds, we were inspired by the primary colours and warm, golden atmosphere of In the Mood For Love (2000, dir. Wong Kar-wai, DPs Christopher Doyle & Mark Lee Ping-Bing), especially for our bookstore and restaurant scenes.

“Sandra’s chapter takes place in rough neighbourhoods around Queens and the East River, and the raw, cold, steely-green lighting that you can see in films such as Blade Runner (1982, dir. Ridley Scott, DP Jordan Cronenweth ASC) were an influence.

Bruus Christensen says an over-arching reference was the neo-noir crime thriller Klute (1971, dir. Alan J Pakula, DP Gordon Willis ASC).

“I thought it would be fun to begin this project by watching the real thing, a print of Klute, as a reminder of how fundamental darkness is to visual storytelling. It’s a film I know really well, and there’s no-one better at film noir than Gordon Willis.” she says. “So I contacted my ASC brothers in LA and it turned out they had an original print from the 1970s, although there were few scenes were missing. It was a surprise to Ben, as he loves this movie, and we watched it together with some of the cast and crew at a theatre in New York.

“In the third chapter, the story switches to Park Avenue, where the theme of money really becomes prevalent. We looked at films such as The Thomas Crown Affair (1969, dir. Norman Jewison, DP Haskell Wexler ASC). Also, I already had a wonderful relationship with the production designer, Kevin Thompson, with whom I had worked previously on The Girl On The Train, and we found ways of getting the feeling of wealth into the set design, such as the wallpaper, which took on a golden lustre when it was lit from a specific angle.”

Bruus Christensen is an unabashed champion of shooting on film, having previously captured Far From The Madding Crowd (2015), The Girl On The

The script was a real page-turner… I was hooked by the fast-moving twists and turns

Train

“I always fight for film and, having done a lot of work on celluloid, was prepared to argue in favour of using the texture and patina of film as the canvas for this story,” she declares. “There is nothing like film to create the variety of engaging, atmospheric looks we wanted to achieve. I also know from experience how the focussed mentality, discipline and attention amongst the cast and crew that comes with originating on film, would help with shooting ratios and have a positive impact on controlling costs. You don’t just point and keep shooting when you are shooting film.

“Although I had not worked with Ben before, I quickly discovered he was keen to shoot on film too. Together with support from Anne Hubbell, VP of motion picture at Kodak, who provided reassurances about film processing and dailies, we put forward a highly-persuasive aesthetic, practical and financial case, to which the producers acceded.”

Working with Panavision New York, Bruus Christensen selected Panavision Millennium XL 35mm cameras and C-series Anamorphic lenses. “Ben was eager to see what different lenses would bring to the looks, and I conducted several tests for him. I really love those old C-series lenses having used them many times before, and he was in favour of using them when he saw those tests.

“The C-series Anamorphics are imperfect in a perfect way, in that they each have small differences and individual characteristics across the set – one might be slightly warmer, another

might have softer edges. As you get to know them, you can make creative choices and use them for different ideas and what you want to portray.

“I like the bokeh, the vignetting and lens flares, and the way they breathe on focus pulls, all of which I wanted at different stages in the imagemaking of this production. And, when you combine the C-series Anamorphics with celluloid film, plus atmospheric lighting, the result looks really confident and gorgeously cinematic.”

As for the filmstocks, Bruus Christensen went with KODAK VISION3 500T 5219 for the day interiors, night sequences and stage-work, plus KODAK VISION3 250D 7202 for overcast day exteriors and day interiors. She shot with KODAK VISION 3 50D 5203 for day exteriors, especially those towards the film’s denouement, where its noted colour rendition and image detail helped to differentiate the storytelling. Film processing was done at Kodak Film Lab New York.

“There are so many aesthetic advantages to shooting on film – the authentic skin tones, the natural warmth of the colours, the dynamic range to photograph both blacks and highlights in the same image. But, one of the things that’s important to recognise is that film remains a perfectly viable choice for directors and cinematographers. We are way beyond the crisis when people thought

film was dead. It’s here, it’s alive, and I would encourage people to fight for film and grasp the opportunity to use it.”

Along with her duties as cinematographer, Bruus Christensen also operated the camera for the vast majority of the production, with Aurelia Windborn keeping focus as 1st AC, and Elizabeth Hedges supporting as 2nd AC. The key grip was Mitch Lillian, who was also dedicated to pre-rigging the set-build sequences, with Sean Sheridan leading the lighting crew as gaffer.

“For me, lighting for modern film noir is about resisting temptation. It’s about keeping things simple and true to the emotion and the place,” says Bruus

Images: All images courtesy of Apple. BTS photos by Alison Cohen Rosa.

(2016), Fences (2016), A Quiet Place (2018) and The Banker (2020) all on Kodak 35mm film.

Christensen. “However, you face a really difficult challenge when your lighting truck is full of the latest LEDs, which you can easily use to punch a particular colour or add effects into a scene. To my mind that can lead to a falsehood in your work. You have to resist thoughts about introducing colour simply because you can, and think about the truth of the space and the idea of darkness instead.

“This was my first collaboration with Sean and it proved a very pleasant experience. The majority of the lights I used were trusty, old-fashioned, directional Tungsten lamps – like 1K, 2K, 5K and 10Ks and Parcans. I really enjoy using them to shape the light and pick-out details, and I know how wonderful Tungsten light looks on celluloid film, especially the romantic scenes between Tom and Sandra, which we shot on 500T.

“Of course, we had some modern LED lights, like ARRI Sky Panels and Astera tubes, but I used them judiciously, mainly as soft sources to create overall ambience. For example, when we shot at night around the train station in Queens, the station itself was lit well-enough for shooting on 500T, but we concealed a lift with a 10K Tungsten to give a warm spot beneath the bridge, and hid several smaller Tungsten lights to create pools of warm sodium spill. To create a cooler, cyan ambience in the streets, we did a wet down and used two ARRI Sky Panel 360s on another concealed lift.”

Of course, shooting interiors in tall buildings where there’s no hope of controlling, or introducing light from the outside, is the amongst every DPs biggest head-scratchers. Such was the case when filming on the 48th floor of the Marriott Hotel.

“The room was essentially a white box, with low ceilings and tall windows that allowed reflected sunlight to blast-in from buildings opposite,” Bruus Christensen recalls. “Also, we were shooting in the winter months, when it started to get dark from about three o’clock. Prior to the shoot, I asked my team to study the light there by taking photographs every 15 minutes, so that I had an advance idea

of how the room would change from morning until afternoon, and what kind of supplementary lighting were we going to need.”

The solution turned out to be LED soft boxes from windows, constructed by Mitch Lillian, which could be quickly and easily repositioned as required, plus neatly-concealed Astera tubes that lifted the ambience to create a T4 exposure for the filmstock and Anamorphic out-of-focus purposes.

“This is exactly when LED becomes a gift to the cinematographer,” she quips. “Those Astera tubes

are superb when it comes to hiding them around a set, and they have a decent punch too.”

Bruus Christensen concludes, “I’ve loved all of my previous experiences of shooting on film, all with different genres, stories and looks, and was able to bring a lot of that learning and knowledge into this production. Ben is a wonderful director, and my collaboration with him was supported by a really amazing team, who made the production and the final result something that I am very proud of.”

There are so many aesthetic advantages to shooting on film… I would encourage people to grasp the opportunity to use it

SHOOTING FROM THE HEART

By Natasha Block Hicks

One of cinematographer Ravi

K. Chandran ISC’s formative experiences, arguably the origin of his odyssey to becoming a master in Indian cinema, was as a 12-year-old old child, secretly visiting his village cinema’s projection room to help splice together celluloid reels that had melted in the heat.

The boy, who would grow-up to become a founding member of the Indian Society Of Cinematographers (ISC), would sometimes take home damaged frames, mount them inside a cardboard holder and use a makeshift projector, created from a shaving mirror and lightbulb casing filled with water, to cast images onto the white cloth of a Dohti (a traditional sarong) as a sort of screen.

“I also memorised all the dialogue to narrate over the images,” Chandran relates, “and this is how the cinema grew into my life.”

A further influence was Chandran’s eldest brother, cinematographer Ramachandra Babu ISC, who had studied at the Film & Television Institute Of India (FTII), and was already making

inroads into the industry. Babu would sometimes use his kid brother Chandran – 21 years his junior – as the subject in trick photography.

“He would make it look like I was standing in a glass, or on top of a temple,” Chandran remembers.

Chandran’s first indication that he too had an eye for photography came when he was asked to take some monochrome pictures of a family friend, using their AGFA Click III, a rudimentary, medium-format camera, with a fixed focal length and basic viewfinder.

“The printer called me in to ask me what settings I had used,” recalls Chandran. “He said they looked like professional photographs. I said I hadn’t done anything, but I realised then that the sense of composition, light and shadow came naturally to me.”

Chandran’s ambition of following his brother to the FTII was halted by the death of their father, so Babu

invited his younger brother to join his team as an ‘assistant cinematographer’.

“In India, every cameraman will have eight to ten camera assistants, who also act as gaffers and grips,” explains Chandran, “it is a different system to the USA or Europe.”

After a few years of working with Babu, Chandran joined Rajiv Menon ISC shooting TV commercials, and by the age of 24, he had landed Kilukkampetti (1991, dir. Shaji Kailas), his first film as a DP.

“I was fearless and we were having fun,” relates Chandran. “We finished the film in 24 days.

An actor said, “why don’t you make a card saying: Ravi K. Chandran – Fast Cameraman!.”

“That year I did a lot of films,” he continues, “I bought a house and a car. Then I started to become choosy about the projects I worked on.”

The Hindi-language family drama Virasat (1997, dir. Priyadarshan) raised Chandran’s profile when he was awarded the 1998 Filmfare Award for Best Cinematography. (As a matter of interest, Ravi Varman ISC, who last year lensed the mega-budget epic Ponniyin Selvan I (2022, dir. Mani Ratnam), joined Chandran as a fresh assistant cinematographer during production.)

“As my career as a

cinematographer started to take off, my plan was to try to learn something new in every film,” relates Chandran. “Even now, I always like to work with different directors so that my cinematic language will improve. When I want to do an artistic film, I will do a smaller-budget film where I can experiment.

“However, in the ‘larger-than-life’ films in India, you are restricted because the actors have to look good. It’s like the Hollywood olden days,” he says. “Also, I have to satisfy the director’s vision first. Editors, sound designers, cinematographers… all of us are helping the director to tell the story.”

Punaradhivasam (2000, dir. V.K. Prakash) which picked-up two Kerala State Film Awards for Best Debut Director and Best Story, was one such artistic film Chandran lit. Another was Kannathil Muthamittal/A Peck On The Cheek (2002, dir. Mani Ratnam), a tale of an adopted Sri Lankan girl’s mission to reconnect with her Tamil Tiger mother.

“We were able to do a lot of interesting work in Kannathil Muthamittal,” says Chandran, “it’s not glamorous, it’s pure storytelling. It had songs and textures, but was done pointedly, which gave me immense experience.”

Chandran took on the narrative-led Firaaq (2008), the directorial debut of actress Nandita Das, in between shooting two mainstream productions: Ghajini (2008, dir. A.R. Murugadoss), featuring Aamir Khan, and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008, dir. Aditya Chopra), starring Shah Rukh Khan, both megastars of Hindi cinema. The low-budget Firaaq –a fictional day-in-the-life study of vulnerable Muslims after the 2002 Gujarat riots – had such limited funds that the small crew all had to bunk-up together in a few flats to sleep and cook.

“Firaaq gave me the opportunity to express myself,” proclaims Chandran, “we were only thinking about the script’s essence, and what Nandita was trying to tell the audience.”

“We chose filmmaking because we want to tell stories,” he continues, “but by-and-large cinema in

India is not artistic, it’s for the mainstream audience. It’s very hard to find a producer willing to make an artistic film; they may go to festivals, but they don’t make money. So, there’s real joy when you succeed in shooting a project which you really like.”

Chandran emphasises that it is often the smaller films that have the greatest longevity. One such movie frequently cited as highly-influential was Dil Chahta Hai (2001, dir. Farhan Akhtar). Chandran had turned down an all-but-guaranteed blockbuster, headedup by the multi-award-winning director, writer and

composer Sanjay Leela Bhansali, in favour of the first-time writer/director Akhtar.

“Everyone thought I was mad,” reports Chandran, “but I liked the script.”

Dil Chahta Hai is distinctive for the filmmakers’ striking use of block colours and bold compositions, some of which, like the image of three friends perched on the wall of an old fort, have been duplicated many times by fans in taggable photo pastiches.

“Dil Chahta Hai created a wave in indie cinema,” says Chandran. “It was very youthful, very cult. People have grown-up watching that film. Even today I will get a TV commercial and be shown Dil Chahta Hai and told, ‘we want that look’. But of course, when we were making the film, we didn’t think anything like that. We were shooting from the heart.”

Bhansali, unperturbed by Chandran’s previous pass, eventually wooed the cinematographer with Black (2005), the tale of a blind-deaf child’s emancipation via the ministrations of an alcoholic tutor, who himself succumbs to dementia as she blossoms into womanhood.

But even today, it remains one of the most iconic films of India.”

Chandran worked with Bhansali again on the romantic fairytale Saawariya (2007), based on a short story by Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky. The entire project was shot inside a studio.

“That was a great experience,” Chandran recalls. ‘We had to create everything from scratch. We used a peacock feather for the colour scheme of the film, with blue for the night and green to represent the Islamic tradition of the heroine.”

Chandran had been impressed by the techniques used by Emmanuel Lubezki ASC AMC on Sleepy Hollow (1999, dir. Tim Burton) and a local engineer was tasked with making some comparable space lighting units for Saawariya

“We tested them on an empty studio floor,” relates Chandran. “Some early versions caught fire!” However, their research and development eventually resulted in some workable units.

“Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s films usually have flashing colours,” states Chandran, informally comparing the director to Australian auteur Baz Luhrmann. “But this film didn’t have anything like that. There are no songs, there are dark background blacks and it’s very poetically done. It made a lot of impact on the cinematic visuals in India in that period of time.”

Black won a record 11 trophies at the 2005 Filmfare Awards, including Chandran’s second Best Cinematography Award. This record remained unbeaten for 14 years.

“Black is a little operatic in terms of lighting, setting, composition… what you might call ‘loud cinematography’,” admits Chandran. “We used stylised filmmaking, such as Citizen Kane -style shafts of light, because the film needed that theatrical look.

“That gave us a lot of control over the soft lighting,” details Chandran. “I shot wide open, almost F2.5, and underexposed by one stop. The film has a soft look, with muted blacks and the shadows fallingoff nicely. Everything has a painterly quality to suit the dreamy love story.”

In recent years, Chandran has taken-up the director’s mantle, but he admits that he feels “naked without the camera”. So, in the upcoming FrancoIndian collaboration project Tamara, he is both director and DP, his third outing in this HOD role combination. He also has a personal project of his own authorship in development, which he hopes to helm next year.

“I have a lot of stories to tell,” proclaims Chandran. “However, when you are directing, a project can take a whole year. I am careful to spend it well. As you get older, every year counts. But as long as your brain is active, and your body is active, you can do all these things.”

I always like to work with different directors so that my cinematic language will improve

The sense of composition, light and shadow came naturally to me

SENSOR SENSIBILITY

By Ron Prince

“

This award shows that small British TV dramas can still be mighty,” said Oscar and BAFTA-winning actress Kate Winslet CBE, as she accepted the statuette for Leading Actress at the 2023 BAFTA Television Awards for her performance in I Am… Ruth. It was the second award of the night after the production also picked-up the gong for Best Single TV Drama.

I Am… Ruth is the latest episode in the criticallyacclaimed, female-led, drama anthology series, created originally in 2019 by award-winning writer/director Dominic Savage for the UK’s Channel 4 Television. Designed to offer authentic and thought-provoking stories for our times, with intimate and cinematic looks, the series explores contemporary female experiences, examining themes such as trust, relationships and mental health.

Each episode in the three-part series was developed and directed by Savage in collaboration with a leading actress for whom the story has personal resonance, but with only the most rudimentary stage direction and all dialogue being improvised. In order to bring a documentarian feel to the drama, every episode was shot hand-held, giving audiences the impression of eavesdropping on the characters.

I Am…Ruth follows a mother, Ruth, who observes

her teenage daughter Freya being consumed by the pressures of social media, retreating into herself to the point of becoming almost unreachable by her increasingly-concerned parent. Playing opposite Winslet was her real-life daughter, Mia Threapleton, performing as Freya, with Joe Anders as Ruth’s son/Freya’s brother, Billy, and real-life Dr Suzy Charlton the GP.

The cinematographic challenge on the 90-minute episode fell to DP Rachel Clark, whose steady rise through the ranks from trainee to cinematographer has included focus-pulling on American Honey (2016, dir. Andrea Arnold, DP Robbie Ryan ISC BSC), working as second unit DP on Rocks (2019, dir. Sarah Gavron, DP Hélène Louvart AFC) and operating B-camera on Men

(dir. 2022, dir. Alex Garland, DP Rob Hardy BSC ASC), amongst many other experiences.

As a DP in her own right, Clark previously shot I Am… Maria (2021, dir. Dominic Savage), starring Lesley Manville, Pirates (2021, dir. Reggie Yates), plus the forthcoming Edge Of Summer (2023, dir. Lucy Cohen). Clark was nominated for a BAFTA Television Craft Award for her work on I Am… Ruth, and is a member of Illuminatrix and Women Behind The Camera.

Production on I Am.. Ruth took place over 15-shooing days during May 2022 at locations around Godalming, Surrey, where adjacent houses on a quiet middle-class street were sequestered for the duration of the shoot –one in which the main action would take place, the other for the crew and production team. Filming also involved Clark taking a dip in the sea with Winslet on the south coast, as Ruth takes stress-relieving swims.

Savage prefers his shooting locations to be as authentic and as natural as possible, with the minimum number of crew present on-set, minimal camera gear and no ostensible lighting equipment anywhere. It is also his custom to allow the actors complete freedom of movement, capturing the drama in long improvised takes as scenes evolve. It is a filmmaking process that would call on Clark’s cinematographic wits and emotional sensibilities.

“I was delighted to be asked back to shoot another

Dominic put his complete faith in me to follow the drama without hesitation or fear

episode in the I Am… series, as they are powerful, painful stories about women that need to be told, and I could not resist the opportunity to work with Dominic again,” says Clark.

“Even though I was aware of the way in which he likes to work, it was still a step into the unknown. The story was unscripted and the actors were free to react and move in any way they chose. It would be my job to respond to them in the moment, with the camera running for an unlimited amount of time.

“I had conversations prior to the shoot, about the story, the characters and their emotional journeys, but these were more about responsive camerawork than anything technical. Dominic put his complete faith in me to follow the drama without hesitation or fear.

“For him, it’s important that the world we create on-set feels real, and is not like a film set. So everything was stripped-back. Most of the usual support and tools we’re used to calling-on as the cinematographer were hidden away or just not there. I operated the camera handheld, and shot without a grip, full lighting team or any form of monitoring. Although it was the smallest team and smallest kit-list I’ve ever had, it was also the most liberated I’ve ever been.”

Clark says she would have loved to have captured the action using large format cameras, but had to keep to pre-ordained guidelines, which meant framing in 2.39:1 widescreen aspect ratio, shooting in ProRes 2K using an ARRI Alexa Mini fitted with Zeiss Super Speed lenses, as part of a package supplied by camera rental house VMI in London.

“Because of the tight spaces –such as small bedrooms and even

smaller bathrooms – I shot most of the production, probably 90-percent, using just a 35mm lens, with a target stop around of T2.8,” says Clark. “The 35mm worked really well to contain two characters in the small spaces, but we switched to a 50mm whenever we wanted something more intimate. Previous shows in the series were shot predominantly on a 50mm, as it is a beautiful lens for portraiture, but we always knew

the luxury of having blackout frames on windows when shooting night scenes at 10am in the morning.

“The position of the camera in relation to the actors and a source of light or darkness became my way to paint and weave into the narrative, emotionally and visually,” she says, “It was a gift to work with Kate in this scenario, because she knew how important it was for me to have light to work with. She always knew how to find that light for me by placing herself beside a window or a slither of light coming through a curtain.”

Along with being physically-demanding, Clark says shooting I Am… Ruth proved a highly-emotional experience too.

it would be too tight for this project given that we were focusing on two characters.

“I netted the lens from behind using black stockings to add a slight diffusion to the image, and controlled the exposure myself, using the iris and a variable ND filter, whilst operating. As Dominic likes the crew to be very small and unobtrusive, my 1st AC, Vlassis Skoulis, did an admirable job of pulling-focus remotely whilst hiding in various cupboards and bathrooms downstairs.”

Knowing she would have to shoot handheld for 15 days, following the actors anywhere in takes lasting anywhere between 30 to 60-minutes, Clark stripped the camera package down as much as possible to

“There are a few times when we see Freya distressed. In those scenes I could see Mia was digging deep into herself, deep into frightening feelings. Because of the connection you have with the performance when you operate, you can easily become entwined with the emotion. Responding through my lens to what was happening in the room, I found it very intense and often sobbed into the eyepiece while shooting. There were a lot of emotions, and I made sure to decompress each night in preparation for the next day.

As taxing as I Am… Ruth proved to be, Clark believes the experience has helped to make her a more seasoned cinematographer.

“Whilst there is very little control for the cinematographer in a process like this, at the same time you have ultimate control. I decided when, where and how the camera would move, what it saw and what it

reduce the weight, removing the matte box, top handle, anything that was surplus to requirements. In the end the camera weighed around 9-10kgs.

“As I needed to move the camera with freedom around the confines of the house, there was no way I could have used an Easy-rig, nor would I have wanted to. I always operate handheld on the shoulder, and really enjoy the physical connection to the camera,” she explains.

“I truly went on a journey with Kate and Mia. While they responded to each other, I responded to them, their emotions, their movements and physical interactions. The camera became a third character and it was truly an immersive experience like no other, despite the takes being long and physically-demanding.”

With strict instructions to keep the look as natural as possible, Clark says that curtains, fabrics, wall colours, practical lamps and windows all became the lighting sources and the colour palette. However, realising she would need to shape the light and have adequate illumination for exposure and depth-of-field, especially in Mia’s darkened bedroom and for night scenes, she enlisted the help of her gaffer, Helio Ribero, to carefully secrete a variety of small LEDs. This included fitting Astera NYX bulbs into practical lampstands and ceiling pendants, concealing Aladdin Eye-Lites and Falcon Eyes’ PockeLite F7s into uplighters and sconces, and hiding Astera Helio tubes behind book cases, all without the director’s knowledge. Clark was, however, allowed

revealed. You have to be brave and really trust your gut instinct, there’s so much liberation and freedom in that process, and it gives you a lot of confidence and courage.

“The cinematography in I Am… Ruth is woven into the work. It is raw and emotional much like the film itself. I feel like I gained an extra set of tools when things become difficult. I know that some DPs can be fearful about the unknown, but I kind of thrive on that.”

Images courtesy of Channel 4. Photos by Joss Barratt. BTS photos by Vlassis Skoulis

I found it a very intense experience and cried frequently into the eyepiece

HOME FOR STORYTELLERS

By Ron Prince

Every picture tells a story, and the team at Molinare would love to help paint yours.

Now I could be mistaken and am happy to be corrected if my next statement is incorrect. Out of all the post houses in London’s Soho, Molinare is one of two companies that can lay claim to more than 50 straight years of trading in the film and TV industry. (The other is a whopping commercials and movie VFX facility on Wardour Street, but we’re not going there today).

That longevity represents five long decades of withstanding and adapting to the vicissitudes of the screen industry, the ebbs and flows of tidal forces, plus different financial backers and figureheads, to remain not just intact, but very much match-fit, with a road map to boot, as we will discover. And it’s party time soon too.

Despite many long years, treading the streets of Soho myself – variously as a runner, freelance marketing/PR and now chronicler of cinematographic artistry – I have only ever stepped inside the facility on a handful of occasions.

During the mid-1980s I remember delivering 1-inch VTR tapes and packages to its drive-in studio. In the late ‘80s I recall the rooftops bedecked with large satellite dishes. On the occasion of its 25th anniversary, I was given a long-sleeved T-shirt, emblazoned with a capital ‘M’, which I thought was really cool and still possess.

At the turn of the century, Hugh Waters, the then MD, a former colleague and whip-smart engineer, gave me a quick tour of its newly-enable HD facilities,

before we hit The White Horse for catch-up pint. A decade later, chairman Steve Milne was keen to show me what is now the flagship 4K Jack Cardiff DI Grading Theatre and cosy in-house café, where once stood the drive-in studio, as part of his determined effort to reposition the business as a welcoming home for visual storytellers.

offer cinematographers on the occasion of its golden jubilee, who could say no? But first, a potted, pertinent history (containing helpful information from Martin Kempton’s wonderful TV Studio History website).

In 1972, entrepreneurial Australian sound engineer and film cameraman Stefan Sargent, his wife Tricia and a friend called Robert Parker, were looking for a sound studio to record a radio programme to be sold worldwide, called The Bee Gees Story. They were introduced to Michel Molinari, a fashion photographer who owned the lease on a large basement in Stratford Place, near Selfridges department store. Sargent paid the rent plus a small premium to use a twist on Molinari’s name. Thus the first Molinare studio was created in 1973. It was immediately booked for a year by Capital Radio, who made ads and weekend radio shows there.

DP Gary Shaw, another long-held friend, did the DI on Moon (2009) in that sizeable, state-of-the art room (now offering 4K Christie projection, plus Dolby Atmos audio mixing), and the company’s reputation for delivering great colour and post took off. Its credit list blossomed to encompass all manner of on-screen delights: The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) and The French Dispatch (2021) (both DP’d by Robert Yeoman ASC), Baby Driver (2017, DP Bill Pope ASC), Patrick Melrose (2018), Mrs Harris Goes To Paris (2022, Felix Wiedemann BSC), plus multiple episodes/ seasons of Killing Eve, to name just a few.

So given the opportunity to discover what it has to

Other bookings followed and the business had to relocate to larger premises. In February 1978, Molinare moved to its present HQ in Foubert’s Place, Soho – a warehouse/office building dating back to 1875 – where it has remained ever since. Under Sargent’s auspices the company built that filming studio I mentioned earlier (Blondie’s ‘Hanging On The Telephone’ was shot there) and moved into video editing for TV commercials and music videos. It is from these solid roots in that Molinare created and retained its reputation for excellence in editing and sound over the years.

During the early 1980’s the premises became the transmission home to Satellite Television UK, which broadcasted to cable networks across Europe – hence the dishes on the roof. The unsuccessful

We want people to come together here, to collaborate creatively and create great content

Nigel Bennett

Tom Woodall

business was bought by Rupert Murdoch for £1, who relocated it elsewhere and called it ‘Sky’. Sargent left the company in 1983, to direct commercials and TV shows, and the company went through a succession of different owners and investors, until Steve Milne, in a second stint at the company, made a dramatic return in 2012, overseeing a £7m refit as part of a process of redefining the business and become recognised globally for TV dramas such as Netflix’s The Crown and features including Wes Andersons’ Isle Of Dogs (2018).

When Milne departed in 2018, to focus on his passion-project of producing features, he left the company in a strong, stable and profitable position. Nigel Bennett was promoted to managing director, with the task of growing revenue across the company’s feature film, TV drama, documentary/factual business, with the financial backing of shareholders Saphir Capital and Next Wave Partners. Bennett had previously worked at Pinewood Studios for 20 years, where he had risen to group director of creative services and oversaw the opening of Pinewood Digital in Atlanta amongst many achievements.

Still leading Molinare today, Bennett says, “We have a deserved reputation as one of the leading film and television post production facilities in central London, and it’s imperative to keep pace with the everchanging demands of the industry we serve.

“We have a tremendous opportunity to grow further and continue to diversify the business into new sectors, and with the solid foundations we have here we’re actively take the business to new heights.”

By which he means Molinare Creative Services Group has its focus on being an end-to-end – dailies, picture/audio post, finishing and localisation – facility across features, high-end episodic, factual and games.

The company currently employs 175 people, around 40 of whom are dedicated to picture post. Along with Foubert’s Place, its various audio and game divisions occupy additional premises in Poland Street and Frith Street, as well as Woburn in Bedfordshire.

When it comes to supporting visual storytellers, Molinare’s grading services encompass five HDR/ SDR suites, all equipped with Baselight grading technology. These are capable of servicing featurelength, episodic and factual productions of every

scale, thanks to adopting the very latest advances in colour science, including ACES, clever workflows and no less than 10 petabytes of storage.

All these suites are can be cleverly re-arranged so that grading can be conducted via digital projectors or on backlit Sony BVM-HX310 professional master monitors with large colour-calibrated OLED TV screens for client viewing.

Molinare’s technology is kept up-to-date by Darren Woolfson, chief technology officer. He worked at the company for 16 years before moving to Pinewood Creative Service, where he met Bennett and was subsequently lured back to Molinare in 2020. Other key figures are Tom Woodall, director of post production, and Thomas Emptage, head of picture finishing, who both see oversee that projects run smoothly and accurately.As for the colourists themselves, they are variously engaged with finessing the wide array of feature, high-end episodic drama factual documentary productions. Their recent

has been honing his skills assisting on BBC’s The Trials Of Oscar Pistorius (2020) and The Capture (2022) and Mrs Harris Goes To Paris (2022).

Perhaps the most important aspect of supporting visual storytellers is collaboration. At Molinare this starts with getting-in early on projects, helping cinematographers with look development on test footage and then designing LUTs – which could be custom LUTs from the ground-up, or pre-existing filmemulation curves that perhaps need a tweak to the contrast and colour.

Additionally, when principal photography gets underway, the company’s Moli Dailies service provides in-house, near-set and on-location dailies for UK and international productions, as well as 4K screening services and transcode for editorial and dailies review. There is a new initiative in the offing as regards dailies services, but that was being kept under wraps during my visit.

Recognising that remote colour grading is now a fact-of-life, the company launched Moli Stream in 2021, an in-house developed service where a video/ audio stream can be securely-viewed remotely by multiple clients on computers and calibrated mobile devices, such as iPads, anywhere around the world using just regular broadband. This has led to remote colour-grading sessions with clients as far afield as Singapore and Los Angeles.

highlights include: Ross Baker, head of colour, BBC’s SAS Rogue Heroes (2022), Netflix’s The Tinder Swindler (2022) and Apple TV+’s The Reluctant Traveler (2023); Lee Clappison, senior colourist, BBC’s Two Doors Down, (2021-21), Henpocalypse (2023) and Not Going Out (2023); Carl Thompson, colourist, Apple TV+ 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything (2021), BBC’s Inside No.9 (2022) and Ken Loach’s The Old Oak (2023); Vicki Matich, senior colourist, Sky’s Bloods (2021), BBC’s Silent Witness (2023) and the forthcoming Ozi – Voice Of The Forest (2024); and Jake Davies, junior colourist, who

Bennett emphasises that with lockdown now over, there is no substitute for bricks and mortar facilities. “We want people to come together here, to collaborate creatively and create great content. Our dailies and picture post teams are here to guide productions from their earliest test and prep phases, so directors and their cinematographers can shoot with the confidence that their aesthetic intentions will remain true during production through to the final DI and beyond.”

Thanks to Stefan Sargent all those years ago, what a terrific spot they have to do it all. In celebration of its 50 years, Molinare is set to throw a summer garden party in Central London, where guests are expected; a good many who have played significant roles in shaping its history and its destiny. As well as its creative, collaborative crew, of course. Cin-cin everyone!

It’s imperative to keep pace with the everchanging demands of the industry we serve

Darren Woolfson

PICTURE PERFECT PIXELS

By Ron Prince

Today we’re off to Pinewood Studios, where Sony is celebrating ten years since first establishing its Digital Motion Picture Centre (DMPC) on the world-famous lot with the launch of something that’s a little bit special and ever-so au courant – a spanking new Sony Crystal LED wall studio with complimentary and complementary virtual cinematography learning experiences.

Located two floors above Sunbelt Rentals (formerly Movietech) on Goldfinger Avenue, and with direct sight of the famous 007 Stage, the DMPC has offered a mecca for filmmakers to experience a one-stop resource for everything related to Sony’s state-of-the-art technologies and end-to-end production workflow solutions – offering training, seminars, masterclasses, special events and other services for students and industry professionals alike, as well as system integrators and Sony partners.

For cinematographers and their crews, this has meant being able to get hands-on with cameras like the FX series and Sony Venice family of CineAlta cameras. Now it means they can also get up-close and personal with a new toolset, which emerged on extravagant blockbusters with large budgets, like Gravity (2013) and The Mandalorian (2019), and now has the potential to become part of mainstream film and TV production – replacing traditional blue/green screen with in-camera effects and back-projection with realtime virtual or live-action environments.

As such, the LED wall at the DMPC symbolises Sony’s continuous efforts to contribute to the content creation industry by bringing the culture of technology and imaging to current and nextgeneration imagemakers.

I’m welcomed by Will Newman, the company’s affable new business development and DMPC manager, who has taken over from where the selfretired and highly-thought-of Richard Lewis has left off. He ushers me into the newly-installed studio space, that has been put together and colourcalibrated with the help of Lux Machina, a specialist in virtual production, in-camera effects, display technologies and creative screen control systems.

Before scrutiny of the set-up, Newman delivers

a salient reminder that filmmaking techniques like in-camera effects and back projection are actually as old as the hills, using a neat PowerPoint and video presentation. This includes a clip of Charlie Chaplin performing a perilous roller-skating routine beside a precipitous drop in Modern Times (1936, dir. Charlie Chaplin, DPs Ira H. Morgan & Roland Totheroh), only to reveal clever matte painting was the basis for the visual trickery back then.

“In-camera effects are nothing new, but the way they can be achieved now using modern digital technology, like the Sony Crystal LED wall here,

Sony currently makes cabinets/panels with 1.2mm or 1.5mm pixel-pitches (which indicates the space between each of the micro LED diodes). The lower the pixel pitch number, the closer together the LEDs are on the panel, and the higher resolution the background image is on-screen.

Newman says a rule of thumb to remember is that the optimal camera/viewing distance is typically two to three times the pixel pitch number in meters. For example, a narrow pixel pitch of 1.5, as is the case here at the DMPC, allows viewing from just three meters away, whereas a pixel pitch of ten would require a distance of at least 20 meters to experience optimal detail. Indeed, standing-up close you can see those tiny LEDs and the joins between the panels, but move further back and they instantly become invisible to the naked eye and the camera.

Newman enthuses that Sony’s microLEDs have a million-to-one contrast ratio for better rendition of light and shade, and that the panels themselves are made using a patented anti-reflective coating. This means that separate, on-set light sources won’t contaminate the look of the LED wall, often the bane of cinematographers and gaffers alike.

certainly is, and there’s no doubt that more and more filmmakers are eyeing the exciting opportunities it can provide,” says Newman. “However, it does require a good understanding of the process. You cannot, and should not, turn-up on a set with an LED wall without doing your homework first, expecting to achieve a perfect result. That’s what we’re here to help with.”

The wall itself measures 4.89m x 2.70m and is comprised of 64 Sony CLED Crystal B-series displays, called ‘cabinets’, arranged in 16:9 aspect ratio. Sony has chosen a flat wall, but could have just as easily laid them out in a shallow curve, as the cabinets can be off-set by a margin of 5-degrees. Each cabinet is made up from eight replaceable panels, which can be individually removed by suction cup, so that any light emitting diodes that go rogue or panels that decide to malfunction can be quickly swapped-out and replaced.

As you would expect, the latest flagship 8K Sony Venice 2 is being used in this facility. It is fitted with a Canon 45-135mm zoom that has in-built metadata support and feeds lens data into Unreal Engine where the image-processing happens. The camera is mounted on a smooth-gliding JanJib arm from Egripment, enabling the camera to be quickly repositioned around the studio for framing purposes. Additionally, the camera and studio ceiling are fitted with Ncam’s Reality infrared camera tracking system to deliver accurate XYZ positional data to Unreal Engine, so that it can work out the position the real camera in the virtual space and correlate any real-world camera moves and lens shifts with the background plate, which might be a still frame or moving footage.

“We’re using a high-quality zoom for demonstration and learning purposes in this setup, as it’s versatile for shooting subjects against LED walls,” says Newman, “but we’re actually lens

You should not turnup on a set with an LED wall without doing your homework first

agnostic. Along with Canon, we have partnerships with various lens manufacturers – such as Cooke and Zeiss – and rental houses, like Sunbelt downstairs, and are perfectly happy to order-in whatever spherical or Anamorphic optics cinematographers want to specifically test themselves.”

Moving over to the workstation where the magic happens, Newman explains that, to help improve pre-production planning and on-set workflows, Sony recently launched the Virtual Production Toolset. Essentially these are plug-ins that work with Sony Venice, Crystal LED and other HDR-enabled LED walls to enhance in-camera visual effects, and help to solve common virtual production challenges before they begin, such as irksome moiré patterning and colour matching issues.

Diving in a little deeper into these Newman says that the Camera & Display Plugin for Unreal Engine allows filmmakers to virtually-reproduce the settings of the Sony Venice, Venice 2 and the Crystal LED displays by streamlining colour characteristics and simulating the camera’s exposure index and neutral density filters to recreate shallow depth-of-field on the computer, thereby helping cinematographers identify lens choices during preproduction. This plug-in also displays moiré pattern detection/alerts, depending on the pixel pitch

and other specifications of the LED wall. This helps cinematographers make changes to the camera position and movement during the pre-production process, that will result in time-savings and avoiding problems on-set.

“The Camera & Display Plugin means that you can practice, assess and check camera movements in pre-production, before you ever set foot in front of the LED wall,” says Newman. “This also has benefits for filmschools that are teaching virtual production, as they don’t have to run to the expense of running a wall for students as they learn some of the do’s and don’ts.”

To ensure real-world colour accuracy between the LED wall, the camera and on-set displays, Sony’s Colour Calibration plug-in enables Unreal Engine to reduce the colour calibration process from several hours to just a matter of minutes.

Back to the real world, Sony has installed a bevvy of lighting instruments from ETC, such as Fos/4 panel lights, and SumoLight’s Sumosky, in the new studio to help cinematographers and gaffers assess how they can best light people or objects in front of the LED wall. Fixtures like these enable image-based lighting techniques, where the background images are played through the lighting fixtures themselves, to cast appropriate ambient light wherever that is deemed appropriate – from beside the wall or

above the set, for example.

“We have assembled all of the tools – LEDs displays, camera, lenses, tracking, lighting and virtual technology – you are likely going to encounter when you shoot using and LED wall. And we’re open to anyone – scriptwriters, directors, actors, cinematographers, ACs, gaffers, students – who wants to learn more about this incredible new technology,” Newman concludes. “We’ll be announcing a range of learning courses in the near future, but we’re also open to individual approaches now, and we can fire up the wall in a matter of minutes.”

All-in-all it’s an impressive set-up, led by experienced people who care. If you want to know how to achieve picture perfect pixels in the emerging world of LED wall technology, you know who to call.

PS: Last year, Sony joined forces with Plateau Virtuel to create a virtual studio in Seine Saint Denis, Paris, that offers a curved screen measuring 18m x 5m, using no fewer than 450 Sony Crystal LED 1.5 pixel-pitch B-series cabinets. This wall is suspended so that alternative flooring, such as LEDs, can be introduced into the mix, and is available for training as well as commercial projects.

Will Newman

We’re open to anyone who wants to learn more about this incredible new technology

Images: photos by Raneem Quronfuleh and Ron Prince.

DEV, STOP, FIX… ENJOY!

By Ron Prince

On the face of it, Slough isn’t exactly a filmmaker’s paradise. The butt of many a joke, and made famous for its mundanity by the BBC comedy series, The Office, the town has the highest concentration of UK HQs of global companies outside London. Blackberry, McAfee, Burger King, DHL, Telefonica and Lego all have offices here. On the outskirts, Slough Trading Estate is the largest industrial zone in single private ownership in Europe, with over 400 businesses providing 17,000 jobs. Mars Bars have been made nearby in their countless millions for over 70 years.

Tucked away along Banbury Avenue, Cinelab Film & Digital has what you might consider an unprepossessing exterior, but you should never judge a book by its cover. For inside, behind secure doors, lies a treasure trove of talent and technology, a veritable hive of industry, dedicated to filmmaking, with a reputation for excellence and innovation stretching far and wide.

The business started out ten years ago, as a photochemical lab, but has since added an array of DI colour, on-set DIT and digital dailies services to its portfolio. Today you will find a tantalising mix of analogue paraphernalia – dark rooms, film winders, photochemical baths and film print machines – set cheekby-jowl with the most sophisticated 21st century widgets –like film scanners that go up to 12K and perfectly colourcalibrated offline-editing/grading suites.

Photochemically, the company has earned its stripes variously processing 8mm, 16mm, 35mm and 65mm film for many leading cinematographers – blockbusters such as Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi (2017, DP Steve Yedlin ASC), Mission Impossible: Fall Out (2018, DP Rob Hardy BSC ASC), Wonder Woman 1984 (2020, DP Matthew Jenkins ASC) and No Time To Die (2021, DP Linus Sandgren FSF ASC), alongside smaller-budget features including The Lost City Of Z (2016, DP Darius Khondji AFC ASC), Phantom Thread (2017, DP Paul Thomas Anderson), The Mercy (2018, DP Éric Gaultier AFC), Censor (2021, DP Annika Summerson BSC), The Worst Person In The World (2012, DP Kasper Tuxen DFF), LOLA (2023, DP Oona Menges) and Sick Of Myself (2023, DP Benjamin Loeb).

TV series shot-on-film have also passed through the dev, fix, stop baths, including Small Axe (2020, DP Shabier Kirchner) and Succession S1-4 (various DPs), plus commercials and music videos too numerous to mention.

Segueing more recently into the on-set world of digital dailies and dailies colour, the team has serviced productions such as The Banshees Of Inisherin (2022, DP Ben Davis BSC), The Son (2022 DP Ben Smithard BSC) and Slow Horses (2022, DP Danny Cohen BSC). Last year, it also launched a DFD (digital-film-digital) service, whereby digital movie files are shot to celluloid film, which is then processed and scanned back to digital, to deliver an authentic film look on the source material – The Wonder (DP Ari Wegner ACS ASC) being a prime example.

real uphill struggle persuading agencies and production companies to consider shooting on film. They almost laughed at the thought!

“Other photochemical film labs, like Technicolor and Deluxe, were shutting their doors right, left and centre, and old-fashioned celluloid film appeared a distinctly old-fashioned way of doing things. But, I have always believed in film as an artistic medium and despite the odds of an almost certain extinction, I believed analogue filmmaking would rebound.”

Indeed it did. Powerful, big box-office directors led the charge. Christopher Nolan, who used film on Interstellar (2014, DP Hoyte Van Hoytema NSC FSF ASC), J.J. Abrams, who then shot Star Wars: Episode VII (2015, Dan Mindel BSC ASC) on celluloid, plus Quentin Tarantino and Judd Apatow, were among a group passionate film supporters that stepped-up to urge Hollywood to keep film alive.

It’s a generally pretty rosy picture for the business, but it wasn’t always that way. Rewind to 2013 when Cinelab first set-up shop after acquiring Bucks Film Labs, and you will find the world of celluloid production and print distribution was in a very sorry state. On the one hand digital cinematography had taken a Svengali-like hold over producers, and the increasing adoption of digital projection by cinema chains, after the success of movies like Avatar 3D (2009), meant the traditional cash cow of bulk film prints for distribution was under serious threat.

Faced with a shrunken market and dwindling sales, Fujifilm stopped production of its motion picture film products, and Kodak voluntarily filed for bankruptcy in the US. The very real fear was that film – an artistic medium for over 100 years – would simply curl up and die.

“Everyday, over the first two or three years, I questioned my sanity about opening this company,” admits CEO Adrian Bull, when asked to reflect on what motivated him launch a film lab. “In the beginning, it was

In 2015, 18 months after it emerged from bankruptcy protection, Kodak reached pacts with Disney, Fox, Paramount, Sony, NBC Universal and Warner Bros. for them to purchase undisclosed amounts of film that would be enough to extend Kodak’s film manufacturing business. It meant Kodak could continue to make camera negative, intermediate stock for postproduction, as well as archival and print films. It also meant Cinelab had a chance too.

By 2019, Cinelab had processed six million feet of film and, after bouncing back from the Covid-19 lockdown, handled over 4.5million feet in 2022.

“Although I still think I was crazy to have taken such

I have always believed in film as an artistic medium

Joshua Callis Smith

a gamble at film’s lowest ebb, I am really proud of what we have achieved as a close-knit team who champion celluloid for an ever-growing list of people who want to shoot and project on film,” he says. “One thing is for sure, the appeal of film is not going away anytime soon.”

At this point, Bull has to head off to meet representatives from a large streaming company, who are investigating the DFD process and making film prints for the theatrical release of high-profile productions, both past and up-and-coming. So film laboratory manager, Andy Hudson, does the honours and shows me round the facility.

Hudson has been at Cinelab for ten years, having previously learnt about negative development from the ground-up over many a long year in the labs at Technicolor and iDailies. He oversees all photochemical and film laboratory services.

Film processing conforms to the rigorous specifications of Kodak ECN-2 Kit Chemistry, to provide optimum results, either straight, push and pull-processed, on Daylight/Tungsten filmstocks, and with the least environmental impact possible. Silver is reclaimed from the process and upcycled into luxury jewellery by designers Claire Richardson and Natalie Daniels From The Silver Screen, as seen at the 2023 BSC Expo.

The two Photomec film processing machines, like the 8mm, 16mm, 35mm and 65mm filmstocks they variously

handle, are breath-taking examples of human invention and mechanical ingenuity. So too is the Bell + Howell Model C film print-making machine, with its prisms and RGB printer-light capabilities.

For anyone, including me, who has ever developed film themselves, and for those who have not yet, there’s something truly-captivating about handling film and wondrously-magical in how the image appears from the exposed negative. In this day and age, where digital number-crunching takes place on faceless computers, the physical connection of real people to the nuts and bolts that built the movie industry for over a century, is spine-tingling. Andy Hudson and his team are wizards.

We meander round corridors and rooms stacked with film canisters, and into the film-scanning

DI/dailies grading theatre, where he’s reviewing final colour using DaVinci Resolve on the 35mmoriginated Håndtering Av Udøde (Handling

The Undead ) (DP Pål Ulvik Rokseth), set for release later in the year. He joined in 2021, having started out in the film lab at Todd-AO, before honing his in skills in colour over 25 years at Company 3, Pinewood Studios and Harbor.

With the idea of offering end-to-end services, from preproduction to dailies deliverables to remote grading, all under one roof, Cinelab expanded its services in March 2021 by joining forces with digital imaging/dailies firm On Set Tech, bringing Joshua Callis-Smith and Simon Chubbock into the fold as CTO and COO respectively. The two companies had already collaborated closely for several years, on features such as Rocketman (2019, DP George Richmond BSC), and since this merger they have worked The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain (2021, DP Erik Wilson BSC), The King’s Man (2021, DP Ben Davis BSC) and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2021, George Richmond BSC), as well as those mentioned above.

All-of-a-sudden, Bull is back in the room – one of the expertly-colour-calibrated grading rooms – fresh from what would appear to have been a successful meeting about DFD and striking 35mm film prints, and is keen to pick-up from where he left off earlier.

“Along with its unique aesthetic look, one of the things that has helped film to survive and prosper as a creative medium, is that technical infrastructures, colourmanaged pipelines and workflows have evolved considerably over the last few years. Film isn’t oldfashioned at all,” he says.

“Turnaround times can be just as fast, if not faster, than commensurate digital workflows from capture to dailies to post production. And, a huge bonus is that 16mm/35mm projects can take advantage of highquality 2K or 4K scan-once workflows, followed by secure, electronic delivery of dailies and edit-ready files to anywhere worldwide.

“As I hope you have seen on your tour, we have collective strength-in-depth, to add value to productions making great content, whether they are originating on film or digital formats, on high-end motion pictures, episodic productions, commercials or music videos. Slough’s not all that bad, is it?”

I have to say, I enjoyed every minute of my visit to Cinelab Film & Digital, and didn’t want it to end. If you get the opportunity for a visit too, take it. It really is a filmmaker’s paradise.

department, where Paul Dean, head of scanning and dailies colour, has all manner of HD, 4K and 12K devices under his command for 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 15perf originated productions, along with back-to-film recorders. Dean also joined the company a decade ago, bringing with him vast experience from Todd-AO, Metrocolour and Soho Images. He has the implicit trust of DPs and directors to oversee and grade their dailies whilst they concentrate on-set.

The company’s head of colour, Darren Rae kindly lets us spend a few moments in the company’s 20-seat

We have collective strength-in-depth to add value to film and digital productions

Andy Hudson

Darren Rae

Paul Dean

Adrian Bull

SHINING A LIGHT ON...

Selected Filmography

(as gaffer/chief lighting technician unless otherwise stated)

The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes (2023)

John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)

Gunpowder Milkshake (2021)

Without Remorse (2021)

The Girl In The Spider’s Web (2018)

Dunkirk (2017) (Chief Lighting Technician – Europe)

A Hologram For The King (2016)

Homeland (2015) (TV series)

Mocking Jay (2014/2015) (Gaffer – Germany)

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) (Gaffer, lighting key grip)

Cloud Atlas (2012)

Inglourious Basterds (2009) (Gaffer – Germany)

How did you get started?

Photography became a hobby in my teens. Getting started as a photographer’s assistant was a huge learning curve for me, operating various camera systems and studio lighting. Step-by-step I got involved in creative tasks. That’s when I realised how much I enjoy participating in creating images.

First break?

After working as an assistant for five years I met some guys who started building up a lighting rental house in Cologne. They asked if I would be interested in a job. I began as a junior electrician, rising to dolly grip and camera assistant.

Learning the trade

Through the recommendation of my girlfriend, Sabine (my wife nowadays), I was introduced to the cinematographer Thomas Mauch, known for Werner Herzog’s Aguirre, The Wrath Of God (1972) and Fitzcarraldo (1982). Thomas became a mentor, encouraging me to stay with lighting, following him filming arthouse movies in Germany, Europe and the USA.

Some years later I got recommended as the gaffer for a Ken Loach movie. Barry Ackroyd BSC was his cinematographer by then. On Carla’s Song (1996) we travelled to Nicaragua and Scotland, working with an international crew. My electrician buddies Georg Nonnemacher and Celio Castro were the only known fellows. This experience was outstanding, especially socially. It led to My Name Is Joe (1998), the second collaboration with Ken and Barry, who together were another great example of the director-cinematographer duo. Learning by doing is one of my skills. On every project you will encounter new challenges and being solution-orientated is necessary to survive. As well as an address book filled with peoples who are willing to support you.

DP collaborations

In terms of the collaboration which had the biggest impact on me – it’s probably Frank Griebe. Early in 2000 Frank was prepping Heaven (2002) with Tom Tykwer directing, mainly filmed in Italy. This started a longtime collaboration with Frank, so

Age// Born// School// Early career// Lives in// Hobbies/Passions//

far15 projects.

Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer (2006) filmed on location in France, Spain and Munich. It was a very challenging experience. There was a lot of night work, in places like in the old part of Barcelona, which has very narrow lanes and it was hard to get lifts in there. We developed a strategy of lighting up the backgrounds to keep the actors as silhouettes and often we travelled a light, such as a China ball, to fill-in. The sets were fantastic and the cast were great. The reward was many awards

a ‘60’s model Bad Godesberg, Germany

Academic High School in Cologne

Photographer’s assistant Hamburg and the countryside Photography, art exhibitions and our dog!

ASC for his energetic inspiration and ability to adapt to Astera Titan tubes after using China balls for 30 years.

Which film really pushed your talents?

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) directed by Wes Anderson, shot by Robert Yeoman ASC, was a creative experience. There were wonderful sets, which we usually lit for 360°, and designing the hotel lobby daylight illumination was challenging. Collaborating with Bob Yeoman was very special, where we much fun and great creativity. Watch it again, it’s an all-timer!

Advice on collaborating with DPs

I try to absorb as much information as I can in pre-production. What’s the script about? How are the DP/director approaching the story?

Also, various departments are involved in the look and feel image-wise, so I try to understand how all these elements will come together – colour and locations, textures and logistics. The more you learn in prep the easier it will be on the day.

Communication is a crucial factor. It is better to talk beforehand than finding yourself in a hassle on the shooting day. The most satisfying approach is lighting the room for 360°, as having less gear on the floor means more freedom for the actors and the camera.

around the world, including two 2007 European Film Awards for Frank’s cinematography and production design by Uli Hanisch.

Which have been your favourite movies to work on?

I have been lucky meeting many great cinematographers and I’ve been inspired by each and every one. Inglourious Basterds (2009) with Robert Richardson ASC, inspired me when it came to creating diffuse lighting and harsh contrasts. On Dunkirk (2017) with Hoyte van Hoytema NSC FSF ASC it was the raw and powerful images which were created, all feeling so real. On John Wick: Chapter 4 with Dan Laustsen DFF ASC, we brought back the directional lighting style after years of super-soft light and lots of colour. And, I should mention the great Philippe Rousselot AFC

Regular crew

I find myself working with my guys on a longterm basis. I go back 30 years with my best boy Oliver Haas. There’s Juan José Alcaide (senior lighting technician), Daniel Jopp (set power), Anton Meister (board op) and Christian Brubach (key rigging grip). Over the years some guys have started to gaff. The great thing is we still stay friends and share knowledge.

Biggest challenge?

The International (2009), directed by Tom Twyker, with Frank Griebe the DP, starring Clive Owen and Naomi Watts. It included a gunfight inside the Guggenheim Museum in New York. There was no way to film in there, so production design recreated the Guggenheim in an abandoned locomotive warehouse. The challenge was to erect

On every project you will encounter new challenges and being solution-orientated is necessary to survive

HELMUT PREIN ICLS By David Wood

a ceiling rig inside an existing construction.

Our key rigging grip Christian Brubach managed to come up with a solution for a 120ft span rig. Working overnight shifts the rigger managed it! This became the base for a skylight with three cylindric helium tubes diffused through a 40x40ft silk and skirting, appearing like a gigantic spacelight.

Favourite bits of kit?

Tungsten lights in combination with LED, because you need full spectrum white light to understand colours. Astera Titan tubes for great colour-rendering and dimming. Creamsource’s Vortex 8 for not fearing the elements anymore.

Keeping up with the latest innovations

I like to visit trade shows. Talking to manufacturers is educational and vice versa. Companies benefit from communicating with the users of their gear. Building a trusted relationship with representatives is very useful, allowing you to get information about what is in the development pipeline. Becoming a member of the International Cinema Lighting Society (ICLS) has opened new ways to share knowledge.

Lighting and virtual production

We’ve used LED screens and walls for years, and as the pixel pitch (the distance between the diodes) gets narrower the moiré effect is less problematic than it used to be. For sure virtual sets have benefits – for example, you won’t have to spend long nights on a trailer filming actors inside a car, or when you are filming a five-page dialogue scene at sunset. With Virtual Production (VP) it’s less stressful to make your day. Also, you might enjoy greater options to create lighting effects and moods than in reality.

However, VP still has challenges technically. The colour hues of the LED panels are different to the film lights we are using. You’ll find yourself fighting colour rendering of skin tones and costumes. In my

experience you need to light the performance area of the actors separately to achieve better results.

The rise of the desk op Anton Meister is probably one of my closest collaborators over the last ten years, with each movie bringing new challenges and growing with them.

On my last two movies we used the Bolero Intercom system with a separate channel for us, which boosted our creativity. I like to control each fixture on-set regardless of whether it’s a film light, practical or design element. Camera sensors are so sensitive to light-levels now that it’s crucial to be able to adjust whatever hits the actor and decoration. Being able to make adjustments using a dimmer board is crucial. On a smaller project you

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might get away with an iPad and dimming software such, as the Blackout app or a Gaffer’s Control. But, I like to have a dedicated board op with me for creative support.

What are you most proud of?

That my wife is still with me … despite travelling and working around the globe.

Cinematographer Frank Griebe says:

“ The style of a DP is always a collaboration, especially with the gaffer. With each new film project, I try to find the appropriate visual language. I start collecting ideas and then I have pretty concrete ideas about lighting design. Helmut listens to that with great attention and then asks questions. Because for him it’s not just about the technical implementation, but more… Helmut wants to know! He takes my ideas and changes them, or, in other words, improves them. It’s like getting into a cab. You know the destination, but the driver knows the way.”

Cinematographer RobertYeomansays:

“The choice of gaffer is always delicate. I research their films, contact DPs that they have worked with, and generally know their credits before our meeting. I try my best to evaluate if this is someone that I can connect with, not only about lighting but also on a human level.

When I met Helmut I realised that he would be perfect. Not only did he have great credits, but I immediately felt that we would work well together. I tend to not be specific about lighting units, I discuss the overall tone of the shots and give the gaffer great freedom.

Shooting with Wes Anderson can at times be challenging, as we shoot 35mm film with an ASA rating of 200. Wes likes to hold focus from an actor in the foreground to the deep background, so at times we require a large amount of light to accomplish this. It takes an experienced gaffer to pull this off and Helmut and his crew were superb.”

The more you learn in prep the easier it will be on the day

SHOOTING GALLERY•16MM X 100 YEARS

Kodak is celebrating 100 years of 16mm film, first launched by Eastman Kodak in 1923 as a format for amateurs. Whilst it may have been originally aimed at hobbyists, there’s something about its texture, colour and grain, the exquisite cameras and their small on-set technological footprint, that has attracted film directors and their cinematographers to tell all manner of stories on the big screen. 16mm is still going strong. Here are a few modern examples…

The Souvenir (2019, dir. Joanna Hogg, DP David Raedecker BSC)

Carol (2015, dir. Todd Haynes, DP Edward Lachman ASC)

Jackie (2016, dir. Pablo Larraín, DP Stéphane Fontaine AFC)

Zola (2020, dir. Janicza Bravo, DP Ari Wegner ACS ASC)

Bait (2019, dir. & DP Mark Jenkin)

Suffragette (2015, dir. Sarah Gavron, DP Edu Grau ASC)

Master Of None: Moments In Love (2021, dir. Aziz Ansari, DP Thimios Bakatakis GSC)

Mid90s (2018, dir. Jonah Hill, DP Christopher Blauvelt)

Lazzaro Felice (2018, dir. Alice Rohrwacher, DP Hélène Louvart AFC)

Spencer (2021, dir. Pablo Larraín, DP Claire Mathon AFC)

SummerOf85/Éte85 (2020, dir. François Ozon, DP Hichame Alaouié SBC)

Tove (2020, dir. Zaida Bergroth, DP Linda Wassberg DFF)