British Cinematographer issue 51 - Imago

British Cinematographer
Covering International Cinematography
www.britishcinematographer.co.uk
Issue 051 ––– May 2012 12
Elstree posts a record
read and profits
Elstree Studios has announced an exceptional year of
business with a mixture of top television shows, feature
films and commercials. Sales at the north London studios
were up by 17% and profits increased seven fold on the
previous year. Most recently Elstree Studios has been the
home of Dancing On Ice (ITV) and is now currently the
home of The Voice (BBC). Recent feature films include
King Of Soho with Steve Coogan, and Under The Skin with
Scarlett Johansson. Two other feature films are currently
in production at Elstree. It has also just been announced
that Big Brother, now on Channel 5, has renewed its
contract for another two years at Elstree Studios.
Roger Morris, managing director of Elstree Studios,
commented, “Elstree Studios is a very popular studio for
both film and television. It’s close to central London and
it’s in close proximity to some exceptional locations, from
stately homes to hospitals and prisons. Most recently
we became the home for Creative England’s location
service and we are expanding the list of great, unique
locations we have near the studios”.
A good example is High Cannons, which is around
15 minutes from Elstree Studios, recently used for Hyde
Park On Hudson with Bill Murray. Elstree Studios will be
attending the Cannes Film Festival this month to support
the British Film initiatives.
Countdown to the 2012
Animago awards
The countdown to the 16th Animago Awards is
underway. Creatives from all over the world have until
30 June 2012 to submit their work in the fields of 3D,
visual effects and interactive media to the international
competition online at HYPERLINK “http://www.animago.
com/”www.animago.com. Participation is free and
open to professionals and fresh young newcomers.
The internationally-renowned competition has been
organised for the past 16 years by Digital Production, a
leading industry magazine covering the entire spectrum
of media production and visualisation. The awards
presentation will take place on Thursday 25 October
2012 as part of the Animago Award & Conference at the
fx.Center in Potsdam-Babelsberg.
The categories of Animago Award 2012 include:
character animation, post-production, short film,
advertising production, interactive production, game
design, stereo-3D production, visualisation, young
production (with €3,000 Euros prize money from Digital
Production), a Jury Prize and a best still reader’s prize
from Digital Production. The best still will be judged on
the qualities of photorealistic presentation, design, artistic
standard and technical execution.
13
British Cinematographer
Covering International Cinematography
www.britishcinematographer.co.uk
Issue 051 ––– May 2012
Isolated... is the first production for
Alphagrip’s new Technodolly.
Zoom zoom... Fuji introduced a
range of new lenses at NAB.
Singing... shows like The Voice
have helped Elstree Studios turn
in healthy profits.
Illuminating... Larry Parker of Mole
Richardson pictured with new light
kit with Alan Lowne near the BSC
Clubhouse.
Up up and away... Pictorvision’s
Eclipse fitted with an Alexa M.
Triffids... Sir David Attenborough
tackles the plant world in 3D
using Onsight’s facilities.
Pictorvision flies Alexa M
for ARRI promo
Pictorvision, supplier of stabilised camera systems to
the broadcast, entertainment and commercial sectors,
which won an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences Scientific and Engineering Award this year for
its Eclipse system, was recently employed by ARRI to
help create a promotional film for the Alexa M camera,
shown at NAB 2012 in Las Vegas.
In the first aerial use of the Alexa M, the promo
demonstrates the compact size, light weight and
modularity of ARRI’s new camera. Stephan Ukas-Bradley,
Manager, Digital Production of ARRI Inc., called on
cinematographer Bill Bennett ASC, and the two worked
with Pictorvision’s Tom Hallman to create a variety of
aerial shooting opportunities. “It was exciting to be the
first company to take this camera up in the air,” says
Hallman. “We pulled out all the stops and were able to
integrate it into the Eclipse system quickly.”
Bennett explains, “We put the Alexa M camera
body inside the helicopter, allowing my camera assistant
to easily change data cartridges on the Codex recorder
and manipulate the various camera controls. The
camera body was connected to the camera sensor
block in the Eclipse mount with a very robust fibre optic
cable.”
Pilot Peter McKernan took the Eclipse on quite a
ride, at first helping the Alexa M to capture footage
of 18-year-old Sam Mason flying his parent’s restored
Stearman biplane, then shooting scenic views of the
Santa Monica Pier, the Hollywood sign and downtown
Los Angeles at sunset.
Fujifilm debuts new clutch of
new lenses at NAB 2012
Fujifilm Optical Devices Division announced several new
lenses during the recent NAB show in Las Vegas. These
include two compact HD lenses, new PL mount zooms,
plus cost-effective ENG-style and long HD field lenses.
The two new HDTV lenses are the HA19x7.4BERM/
BERD 2/3-inch Premier Series high-performance HD
ENG/EFP production lens, and the XA19x7.4BESM-D8
compact, HDTV studio and field box-style lens.
First introduced at IBC 2011, the two lenses both with
19x zoom ratios, are the first in such a compact size to
feature three floating zoom groups and Aspherics, which
combine to produce high-quality optical performance.
They also feature the latest EBC coating, resulting
in richer colours and improved blue response and
transmittance.
Weighing 3.3kg, the lightweight HA19x7.4BERM/
BERD 2/3-inch lens is suited to the rigours of high-end
ENG/EFP HDTC production including entertainment,
news, sports, and documentaries. The XA19x7.4BESM-D8
is designed for live studio production, such as live
news, sports, and entertainment. It offers automatic
compensation of focus breathing, which synchronises
the zoom movement to the focus movement, enabling
the image size to remain constant when focusing. With
features like RS-232 control and tally lights, it can also be
used in conjunction with virtual reality studio sets and
robotic camera systems. Both the XA19x7.4BESM-D8 and
HA19x7.4BERM/BERD lenses have advanced diagnostics
to keep them working reliably, as well as a short “MOD”
or minimum object distance of 0.55mm, which allows
shooting at closer distances. With a 2.2X extender as
standard, both lenses give users zoom capabilities and
reach comparable to that of FUJINON HA23X7.6 and the
HA22x7.3 lenses.
The newest member of the new Premier PL mount
zoom family includes the PL 19-90 Cabrio (ZK4.7x19).
It features an exclusive detachable servo drive unit,
making it suitable for use as a standard PL lens or as an
ENG-Style lens. The ZK4.7x19 also features flange focal
distance adjustment, macro function, and is LDS (Lens
Data System) and /i metadata compatible. With a 19-
90mm focal range and weight of 2.7kg including servo
motors, this lens has the longest focal range available in
a light weight zoom. The PL 19-90 covers 31.5mm sensor
size on a digital cinema style camera. This new zoom
ensures the image captured will cover large sensors for
optimal, full-frame resolution.
The company also announced the XA20xs8.5BERM,
a cost-effective 2/3-inch, ENG-Style lens with a 2x range
extender, and showed two breakthrough compact
lenses both with 19x zoom ratios. The lenses are the first
in such a compact size to feature three floating zoom
groups and Aspherics, resulting in high quality optical
performance. Additionally, Fujifilm introduced the
XA77x9.5 HDTV field lens, designed for use anywhere a
long lens would be beneficial in capturing detail and
close-up images from far distances such as in stadiums,
at sporting events, arenas and larger houses of worship.
The XA77x9.5 features the company’s patented OS
TECH image-stabilisation sensors that detect the slightest
movement caused by vibration.
What’s shooting on Kodak?
Feature films electing to shoot on the multitude of
Kodak filmstocks include… Les Miserables, DP Danny
Cohen BSC, dir. Tom Hooper; Closed, DP Adriano
Goldman, dir. John Crowley; The Invisible Woman, DP
Rob Hardy BSC, dir. Ralph Fiennes; Half Of A Yellow
Sun, DP John de Borman BSC, dir. Biyi Bandele. On the
TV front, Merlin continues to shoot on 35mm with DPs
Dale McCready and Ashley Rowe BSC.
Commercials and music video using 16mm
and 35mm Kodak stock include… Visit England
(Elysian Films), DP Remi Adefarasin OBE BSC; Virgin
(Traktor), DP Tim Maurice Jones; Stella (Black Label
Productions), DP Tim Maurice Jones; SNY (Smith &
Jones), DP Stephen Keith Roach; The Swimmer (Warp
Films) and BP Benito Montorio (Blink), DP Natasha
Braier; Maccabees (2am Films), DP Oliver Downey;
DFS (Ink Films), DP Graham Dunn; L’Oreal (RSA), DP
Oliver Cocaul; Adidas (Somesuch & Co), DP Nicolas
Loir; Dreams (Loki Productions), DP Ian Murray;
McDonalds (Thomas Thomas), DP Keith Goddard
BSC; Heineken (MJZ), DP Joost van Gelder; and VW
(Pulse Films), DP Martin Ruhe.
Mole Richardson and Take 2
illuminate BSC Clubhouse
Mole Richardson and Take 2 Films set up a host of new
lighting equipment at the Clubhouse to show to BSC
members and other crews shooting at Pinewood. Several
BSC members including Tony Pierce-Roberts and Dick
Pope attended the event, hosted by Larry Parker from
Mole Richardson who flew in from the US.
Alphagrip...
Man Made Pictures of Pinewood Studios has been be
using Alphagrip’s new Technodolly to shoot a trailer for
its upcoming production Isolated, to be shot in London
and at Shepperton Studios. It will be directed by Murray
Gough and produced by Andy Birmingham, with Peter
Field BSC the cinematographer. In this edge-of-theseat
thriller, the hero becomes becomes a pawn in a
stranger’s deadly game, and the wrong move will bring
about fatal consequences.
Onsight shoots and
delivers ground-breaking
Kingdom Of Plants 3D
Produced by Atlantic Productions, DP Tim Cragg recently
finished shooting the upcoming Kingdom of Plants
3D series, presented by David Attenborough, directed
by Martin Williams, with Anthony Geffen the executive
producer. The ambitious project reveals the secret
world of plants at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew,
over the course of a year. The programme showcases
the amazing ability of plants to adapt and survive
throughout the changing seasons, in different and
sometimes harsh environments.
Onsight’s camera rental facilities supplied a wide
range of equipment, including 3Ality Technica rigs and
both ARRI Alexa and RED Epic cameras. CTO, Richard
Mills, oversaw the extensive camera formats – over 8
were used on the project. Photography techniques
such as macro, micro, infra-red and time-lapse were
also heavily used to bring the world of plants to life in 3D.
Onsight provided a dailies service, allowing the DP and
director to view realtime results during the shoot, and a
full post production service for this major three-part series.
Kingdom of Plants 3D airs towards the end of May 2012
on Sky 3D and will be simulcast in 2D on Sky Atlantic HD.