As the industry continues to shift toward a digital future, leading directors of photography from both the feature and commercial industries have been busy testing and pioneering the use of a range of new techniques available to cinematographers.
“We at a very interesting crossroads,” explains commercial and feature director of photography Curtis Clark, ASC, who chairs the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Technology Committee. “We are moving from a traditional way of shooting for film with telecine and tape-based finishing to a data, file-based system. There is a lot of growing interest in these digital workflows, and also concerns about the transformation that we have to deal with in the post process. Is the confidence level strong enough for [digital workflows] to be introduced?”
“[Data workflows] are not that common and there are still issues in working with file-based [images] instead of tape-based that need to be flushed out. And metadata and camera generated timecode has to be managed,” he adds.
Clark flagged a few areas of note. “In this brave new world of digital image capture,” he emphasized the importance of digital image tools that would enable the director and cinematographer to establish and manage a look–and communicate that look to the editor and additional collaborators throughout the production and post process.
Clark says he is a big believer in the ability to previs and establish the parameter of a look on set. “It’s basically setting the dailies look and making sure it’s applied to images and [sent to] to editorial.”
The cinematographer also believes that these tools can help establish a comfort level on set, enabling agency clients to get a clear picture of the director’s intent. “It’s about having tools to convey a look in a timely fashion to the agency in ways that inspire enthusiasm for what they are doing. This is a way to better illustrate your ideas visually. I see it opening tremendous creative possibilities and empowering the director and cinematographer to be bold to see what they have and maybe take more risks.”
When asked for his assessment of the general trends in commercial cinematography, Bill Bennett, ASC reports, “some commercials are being shot with electronic cameras. It’s not a huge trend. I think agencies are experimenting with it. We are going through a period similar to what happened in episodic television four or five years ago when the producers were trying the cameras out to see if they liked it as an origination source.”
Among the cinematographers already trying out new digital workflows is director/DP Newton Thomas Sigel, ASC, who directs commercials via bicoastal Sandwick Films and who was currently lensing his next feature, an untitled Alan Ball (American Beauty) project. This feature is being lensed with Panavision’s Genesis digital cinematography camera, following his use of the Genesis on Superman Returns. He has also used the Genesis–as well as Sony CineAlta camera–on commercial projects.
“As digital cameras become better and more user friendly, I think [digital cinematography] will replace film,” Sigel says. “Some will want film for the notion of what film gives; I think the image capture quality [of digital] will surpass film. I think we will see more and more in commercial production. I’m actually surprised we are not seeing more of it already.”
On the Alan Ball feature, Sigel is also using Technicolor’s recent introduced Digital Printer Lights system, a method of emulating in the digital realm exactly what a release print would look like at given printer lights settings when using a Hazeltine console in a film lab.
“It’s great because one of the things about the Genesis is the material has more dynamic range and latitude than you can display on a monitor; in order to see what ultimately it could look like, you need to do some manipulation,” he says, explaining that through the Digital Printer Lights system, he essentially created about 10 LUTs (look-up tables) that applied his selected look to the imagery. “It can be very useful because you can create dailies more accurately,” Sigel adds.
The film, lensed on the Warner Bros. Hollywood lot and on location in Los Angeles, is a coming-of-age story about a 13-year-old girl who lives in Houston with her father. The story includes settings in three neighborhood homes. “Each home represents a different part of the drama and has a different color tone,” Sigel explains.
As a commercial director and cinematographer, Sigel explains how one skill set benefits the other. “In commercials, so much has to be told in shorthand and every one of the images has to tell story, so [cinematography experience] is a huge benefit…Narrative in an image is what you do as a cinematographer.”
Sigel also emphasized the influence of color correction in the commercial process. “Such a large amount of reshaping is done in the telecine suite,” he says. “I try to go to the telecine for commercials. As a creative person, you want to have as much input as possible and see it through until the end. That’s not always possible; it depends on the commercial and the agency. I think some of most innovative and risky work in recent years has been done in commercials and I want to see people keep doing it.”
Feature and commercial cinematographer Wally Pfister, ASC (Batman Begins, The Italian Job) has his next feature, Prestige, directed by Christopher Nolan, opening today in theaters. The film is about two rival magicians in London and takes place in the early 1900’s. The film stars Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johannson and Michael Caine.
In commercials, Pfister recently lensed a Playstation 3 spot for director Rupert Sanders of bicoastal/international MJZ. The DP explains that this spot involved a lot of mechanical effects. “Rupert is very clever in the way he works, doing a lot of in-camera effects work and minimizing the use of CGI.”
When asked about digital cinematography, Pfister is cautious. ” I think some of the new digital cameras look good on smaller screens. I am less impressed with the results on a large theatrical screen,” he relates. “35mm film with anamorphic lenses yield a far superior image quality. I do like the portability and convenience of the smaller, three-chip 24p cameras that Panasonic and Sony make.
4K FLOW One of Clarks’ recent projects was a test of 4k [high resolution data] digital workflows involved shooting a 4k tabletop spec commercial for Michelob using a Dalsa Origin digital cinematography camera in 4k and recording it to a Codex digital recorder.
The innovative new Codex system captures moving images and sounds from digital motion picture cameras, and can also be configured as a production server. It may also be used as a starting point to delivering dailies in a variety of high and low resolution formats, and as a centralized storage point. It is designed to be portable and rugged, and ready for use anywhere from a location shoot to a postproduction facility. And, it accommodates uncompressed 4k.
“I was impressed; Codex performs very effectively. It was able to render visual real-time 1k proxies from the Dalsa…we were able to show it. And they’re moving toward real-time 2k playback. Even 1k, it’s impressive.”
The Michelob spot went through a Digital Intermediate (DI) style process at bicoastal Post Logic Studios with colorist Lou Levinson who used FilmLight’s BaseLight Eight color grading system (which Levinson has been putting through its paces for 4k applications).
“I assume 4k will make itself into the commercial vocabulary.” Clark says. “I’m very attracted to the potential of what you can do with it…You can do a DI and a 2k finish, and then down convert to whatever distribution platform you want,” he explains. “For commercials, once you are in data mode you can make the conversion to all deliverables including PAL and HD from that data master.”
Commercial DP Bennett, ASC, meanwhile has been involved in some inventive testing efforts. Most recently, and in collaboration with Arri, he experimented with shooting 65 mm for wide shots, scanning in 6k, and during the DI process converting to 4k, to be mixed with close-ups lensed in 35mm. The 4k demo was presented by Arri last month at the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam.
Bennett concludes from the test that when one starts with higher resolution scans and down converts the imagery, one may end up with better resolution.
“It’s an example of how to get the ultimate in image quality to the screen in present day cinemas,” Bennett says of the test, adding that these techniques would be appropriate for both features and cinema commercials.
Note: More on directions and developments occurring in cinematography is covered in this week’s HD Essentials, which features a report from last week’s ASC Technology Committee meeting, led by Curtis Clark. In addition, ASC president Daryn Okada offers his perspectives on the digital future in this week’s Chat Room.
