Originally published in our Fall 2010 issue, we look at why digital intermediate has become an essential tool for DPs. From the story: Aside from discussing the look of the film with the DI house early on for both aesthetic reasons and very practical ones like deciding what kind of camera to use, these meetings can also help a producer or director determine what their actual budget is going to be. A process house can walk everyone through all the different camera and workflow options and show them actual finished footage of what these options will look like. Thinking of […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Nov 8, 2011Originally published in our Summer 2011 issue, Bellflower is nominated for Breakthrough Director. Here Michael Tully talks to director Evan Glodell about his debut feature and how the exposure at this year’s Sundance has changes his life. From the interview: Did the Sundance selection really help you in concrete ways, like finding representation? Or is that my wishful thinking for your sake since nothing magical has happened in my life? [laughs] It changed everything. We were at our lowest point. We had the movie to a place where we thought it was good, and we had had screenings with friends […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Nov 8, 2011Originally published in our Spring 2008 issue, top flight DPs Andrij Parekh, Tim Orr, Sean Kirby and Ellen Kuras give candid insights on the formats they shoot on. Here Parekh (pictured above) talks about how shooting on video at times doesn’t speed up a shooting day: How will your format choice affect the physical production in terms of making it easier or, depending on your choice, more challenging? Are there budgetary ramifications? I find that shooting video actually takes more time, not less, than shooting on film. One has to be extremely particular regarding lighting. The main problem is that what […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Nov 6, 2011This piece was originally printed in the Fall 2010 issue. 127 Hours is nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor (James Franco), Best Adapted Screenplay (Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy), Best Editing (Jon Harris), Best Original Score (A.R. Rahman) and Best Original Song. When director Danny Boyle first got in touch with d.p. Anthony Dod Mantle about 127 Hours, the film following their Academy Award-winning collaboration Slumdog Millionaire, Dod Mantle remembers him saying that “he was convinced that the only way to get through this [movie] would be to subject an actor to a pretty extraordinary physical experience in as intense […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 6, 2011I’ve been meaning to post notice of the other big camera announcement this past week — RED’S unveiling of the SCARLET-X. Over at his No Film School, Koo has been all over this camera, writing that instead of the Scarlet being what we once thought the Scarlet would be (“a 3K for $3K camera), “It is very, very close to being the same camera as the $28,000 EPIC-X — it’s the same size and weight, has the same large sensor, takes the same accessories, and maxes out at the same 5K resolution — except the SCARLET-X starts at under $10K.” […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 6, 2011The death of film, the evolution of technology, and the days of shrinking budgets have put into question the existence of the 2nd AC. Who needs someone to load and manage film when there is no film? Ironically, the position may be more critical than ever. Whether you’re a sole cameraman, or working on a large production, managing the data coming from the camera remains critical, and is becoming more difficult. Increasing resolution and higher data rates mean that more disk space and more time is being taken up wrangling the data. And if your capture media needs to be […]
by Michael Murie on Nov 4, 2011At a press event in Los Angeles tonight, Canon announced two new digital cinema cameras aimed at filmmakers, the EOS C300 and the C300 PL (the latter differing by way of a PL mount). Canon CEO Fujio Mitarai said that the company wanted to “leave no story untold” as he unveiled a camera with a small form factor, an 8.3MP 2160 x 3840 Super 35 CMOS sensor with 4K resolution, and new lenses that resolve to this higher resolution. Martin Scorsese was on hand at the event to hail digital cinema and extoll the promise of the cameras. This promise […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 3, 2011
David Leitner examines the latest crop of large-sensor HD cameras.
Here’s what’s in my Instapaper this week. At Hammer to Nail, Mike Ryan returns from Park City and declares, “Indie is back!?!” Specifically, he sees the festival embracing a wider spectrum of the independent community and jettisoning its reflexive propensity towards cinematic naturalism: First off, what is great about Sundance 2011 is not only the selection of unusual, formally inventive films, but the near total absence of corporate engineered, market driven, faux indie high-budget QUIRK CRAP (although there were some more offbeat versions of the old style quirk like My Idiot Brother and Terri, there was not an Answer Man […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 6, 2011With a hat tip to Photo Cine News, here are clips from two Sundance 2011 prizewinners shot on DSLR cameras. The first, the Grand Jury Prize-winning Like Crazy, was shot on the Canon 7D. (Felicity Jones, featured in this clip, also won a Special Jury Prize for her acting.) The second, Hell and Back Again, won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize as well as the World Cinema Cinematography Award. It was shot on the Canon 5D with custom-built rigs. Hell and Back Again clip from Danfung Dennis on Vimeo.
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 1, 2011