ARRI News September 2009 - ARRI Media

14 Camera
NoUS TRoIS
NOUS TROIS, the first feature film shot using the ARRIFLEX D-21 Mscope widescreen format, is due to be
released next year. Produced by Babe Films and PTD Studio, the touching French drama stars Emmanuelle
Béart and was directed by Renaud Bertrand. The production used Hawk Anamorphic lenses with the D-21
camera, which captured two HD streams that combine to form the high resolution Mscope image.
ARRI News spoke with cinematographer Yves Cape about his experiences shooting in Mscope.
?: What kind of film is NOUS TROIS and
what was your visual approach?
yves Cape: NOUS TROIS is the story of a little
boy who dreams about a better life for his
mother. He has the feeling that she is not
very happy, so he decides to try and make
her fall in love with the neighbour. It’s all seen
through the eyes of a little boy, but turns out
to be very dramatic. The film takes place in
1970s Paris and lots of films set in that period
create a look where the images themselves
appear dated. Renaud wanted to do something
different; he wanted the set decoration
and the costumes to place the film in the
1970s, but the image to be contemporary.
?: The film was shot in Mscope on the D-21.
Were other formats considered?
yC: When I got involved it had already been
decided that the film would be shot on video
and the idea was to shoot with the Sony F900.
I had previously made some tests of the ARRI-
FLEX D-21 for a different film; I compared
shooting anamorphic and outputting RAW
data with 4:4:4 in Super 35mm [using spherical
lenses and cropping to 2.35:1]. Although
in the end we didn’t use the D-21 for that
project, I did discover that the visual quality
was perfect and established a postproduction
workflow with Frederic Savoir at Amazing
Digital Studios in Paris. It’s a small facility
and Frederic can easily handle the signal in
both 4:4:4 and RAW. When I joined NOUS
TROIS I went to the producer and suggested
the D-21.
?: Was your producer sympathetic to the
idea of digital anamorphic?
yC: Our producer Fabio [Conversi] really
cares about the look of the films he produces;
he used to be a DoP and he’s a real fan of anamorphic.
Initially we thought about shooting
RAW, but the production company couldn’t
work with Frederic at Amazing because of
the long-lasting relationship they had with
LTC Laboratories, and LTC told us it would be
difficult to work in RAW. One day I got a call
from Fabio; he had read an article on the
ARRI website about Mscope and thought we
should make some tests. I was a bit worried
initially about how [dual] 4:2:2 would compare
with RAW, but the tests looked great
and I realised there was no problem.
?: What kind of tests did you do?
yC: We shot tests with one of the actors on
our set, which was already built. We shot
about ten different setups – inside, outside,
wide shots and long shots, dark shots and
bright shots – in the three formats: 4:4:4
[spherical], 4:2:2 Mscope and anamorphic
RAW. I was very surprised by how close the
quality of Mscope was to the 4:4:4 and the
RAW. For sure there is a difference between
Mscope and RAW anamorphic in terms of
definition, but not that much; I can see it, but
a lot of people would never see it.
?: Did the tests go through a full postproduction
pipeline?
yC: Everything was graded in Lustre and shot
out to 35mm on an ARRILASER; then we
would project the same shot in the three formats
one after the other on a big screen. Our
main concern was the resolution, but it was