British Cinematographer issue 51 - Imago

British Cinematographer
Covering International Cinematography
www.britishcinematographer.co.uk
Issue 051 ––– May 2012 08
Creative Skillset appoints new
head of film and announces
training initiatives
Dan Simmons has been appointed as Creative Skillset’s
head of film after a period of acting in the role. His
immediate priority is to oversee delivery of the third
and final year of the UK’s film skills strategy, A Bigger
Future 2, after the BFI’s recent confirmation of transition
funding for the strategy. A Bigger Future 2 is currently
funded annually by £3.65 million from the National
Lottery via the BFI, plus £700,000 from industry via the Skills
Investment Fund (SIF), a voluntary levy on productions
filmed in the UK.
Chair of Creative Skillset’s Film Skills Council, producer
Iain Smith, said: “Dan has done a great job over this past
year. As the Film Policy Review highlighted, A Bigger
Future 2 is the ‘gold standard’ of skills strategies, and a
sustained investment in skills is a critical component in
building a bright future for our industry, now more than
ever as we experience such rapid change.”
Since its 2004 launch, A Bigger Future has
supported more than 19,000 professionals working
in the industry, and over 500 new entrants in priority
grades such as VFX, assistant accountants, and craft
and tech grades. Creative Skillset has made the Lottery
investment go even further by leveraging over £70m in
match funding.
A Bigger Future 2, which will run until April 2013,
has identified five priority areas for investment: new
technologies, creative talent, business skills, new
trainees and health and safety. Creative Skillset
will support a number of schemes over the coming
months that look at the technical challenges facing
cinematographers today – the switch to digital, 3D and
the now-ubiquitous visual effects.
“The UK film industry is one of the world leaders in 3D
and visual effects. But we can’t be complacent if we’re
going to hold on to this competitive advantage,” said
Simmons. “That’s why one of the key priorities of A Bigger
Future 2 is to support schemes like this that will continue
to train our film professional in these new technologies.”
Top cinematographers will discuss how digital
has affected their craft and why some have chosen
recently to shoot on film instead of digital at Digital
Dilemma For Cinematographers, which takes place at
the UK Film Centre in Cannes on 18 May. The session
will allow cinematographers to debate creativity issues
around shooting digitally, and as formats shift and
change, whether or not their work will be archived to
last the test of time.
3D For Camera Professionals is a three-day course,
presented by Fourcorners, that will look at the theory
of 3D and issues faced by DITs, as well as providing the
opportunity for participants to get practical, handson
experience with industry-standard equipment. The
course will run on 11-13 June, and again on 1-3 October,
and is aimed at camera department professionals.
A second scheme, The VFX Advantage, will be held
at Ravensbourne University on 4-5 July, with leading
experts revealing valuable creative and budgetary
opportunities of using VFX. The conference will include
case studies, discussions, demonstrations, talks and
networking opportunities.
Elstree hosts ‘Empire Day’
on Stage 7
Star Wars returned to Elstree Studios recently for ‘Elstree
Empire Day’. Gary Kurtz, producer of the first two Star Wars
films, reunited members of the original cast and crew for
a celebration of the saga’s history at the UK studio.
Highlights of the day included a talk by Kurtz on
‘A Day In The Life Of A Star Wars Producer’, displays of
original film props, some never before seen in public,
art department items such as artwork, models and
blueprints, plus rare photographs showing the work that
took place at the studios.
The event was run to aid the continuing preservation
and restoration of artefacts in The Kurtz/Joiner Archive.
The Archive was set up by Gary Kurtz and Star Wars
historian Jason Joiner to preserve the many items relating
to Kurtz’s career that he had collected over the years,
including a vast personal photographic library detailing
all aspects of the Star Wars productions alongside props,
documentation and other items.
Guests attending the event included Norman
Reynolds, art director on Star Wars and production
designer on The Empire Strikes Back and Return of
the Jedi, Ronnie Taylor BSC, camera operator on Star
Wars, specialist painter Ron Punter, whose first job in the
industry was painting Darth Vader’s helmet and armour,
Dave Prowse, who played Darth Vader in the Star Wars
Trilogy. Kenny Baker, who played R2D2 in all six Star Wars
films, and Colin Skeaping, Mark Hamill’s stunt double
who played multiple roles throughout the films, were
also present.
LEE’s new LED filter range
Have you ever tried using a coloured lighting filter in
front of a cool white LED fitting? It can end up looking so
completely different that, if you did not know better, you
would think it was a totally different colour. The problem
is made even worse when mixing cool white LED and
Tungsten sources together, as trying to get a colour match
from the two different sources is virtually impossible.
To help fix the problem LEE Filters has launched a
new range of LED filters. These new filters, when used on
cool white LED fittings (>6000K), have been specifically
designed to give a visual colour match to existing LEE
colours on Tungsten (3200K). Ten popular LEE colours
are available as LEE LED Filters including deep amber,
orange, deep orange, primary red, peacock blue,
medium blue green, steel blue, mauve, primary green
and apricot.
09
What’s shooting on Fujifilm?
Features and TV dramas opting to shoot on the
panoply of stocks from Fujifilm include… Captain
Phillips, DP Barry Ackroyd BSC, dir. Paul Greengrass;
Die Hard 5, DP Jonathan Sela, dir. John Moore;
The Invisible Woman, DP Rob Hardy BSC, dir. Ralph
Fiennes; Candle To Water, DP Rod Marley, dir. Nihat
Seven; Happy End, DP Ulf Brantas, dir. Bjorn Runge;
Tenderness, DP Jan Vancaillie, dir. Marion Hänsel; The
Black Sea, DP Daniel Bouquet, dir. Jorien van Nes;
The Strange Colour Of Your Tears, DP Manu Dacosse,
dirs. Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani; and Death Of A
Pilgrim, DP Steffan Kullanger, dir. Kristoffer Nyholm.
Commercials and Promos supplied with Fujifilm
stocks via Island Studios and Panavision include…
Stella Artois Cidre (Black Label Productions), DP Tim
Maurice-Jones; Aldi (Itch Films), DP Peter Ellmore;
Britain’s Got Talent, (ITV) DP Haris Zamberloukos BSC;
Sky Movies (Rattling Stick), DP Ivan Bird; Polycell
(Rogue Films), DP Tom Townend; Yorkie (Sonny
London), DP Nanu Segal; Michael Kiwanuka (RSA/
Black Dog), DP Dan Trapp; and Esser (Rokkit), DP
Magni Agustsson. The YMC16 Competition Winner,
Flight of the Pompadour, DP Bjorn Bratberg, dir. Karan
Kandhari, was also shot on Fuji.
Lee’s new LED filters... images
shows existing LEE 126 filter on
Tungsten (l) and Cool white LED
(r). The colour is totally different,
and existing LEE 126 on Tungsten (l)
and new LEE LED 126 Filter on Cool
White LED (r). There is now a good
visual colour match.
Behind the scenes... a shot of
Gary Kurtz on Star Wars.
Vadim Yusov to receive lifetime
award at Camerimage 2012
The 2012 Plus Camerimage Festival will honour Russian
director of photography Vadim Ivanovich Yusov with
the annual lifetime achievement award. Yusov, who is
known for such films as Andriei Rublev, Solaris and Ivan’s
Childhood among many other titles, will attend the 20th
edition of the festival, during which some of his films will
screened.
Yusov was born in the Leningrad province of the
Soviet Union. He studied at the prestigious VGIK (All-
Russian State University of Cinematography), and got
a job as an assistant cinematographer at Mosfilm, the
biggest Russian film studio, where he quickly became
a director of photography. During his career he has
worked with directors Andrey Tarkovskiy, Georgi
Daneliya, Sergey Bondarchuk or Ivan Dykhovichnyy.
Yusov’s work is distinguished by precision in image
composition, the carefully planned choice of lighting
and lenses and camera work, and his mastery of black
and white photography. Among dozens of awards
he has received include the All-Russian Film Festival
Award for cinematography on Walking The Streets Of
Moscow (1963), the Golden Osella at the Venice Film
Festival in 1988 for cinematography on The Black Monk,
and two Nika Awards from the Russian Film Academy
for Passport (1991) and Moscow Parade (1992). Plus
Camerimage will be held in Bydgoszcz from the 24th
November to 1st December.
4K London provides digital
expertise for Rush
Specialist digital cinematography agency, 4K London,
has provided the DITs and on-set color management
equipment to Ron Howard’s latest feature film, Rush, set
in the glamorous world of 1970s Formula 1 racing, and
based on the true story of the sporting rivalry between
James Hunt and Niki Lauda.
Academy Award-winning cinematographer
Anthony Dod Mantle DFF BSC ASC (Slumdog Millionaire,
127 Hours) is shooting Rush using ARRI Alexa ARRIRAW.
Senior DIT Dan Carling is handling the ARRIRAW
data running Codex and Truelight On Set colour
management, assisted by Marc Jason Maier and Mat
Brooks. Carling previously worked with Dod Mantle on
Trance, directed by Danny Boyle, and Dredd, directed
by Pete Travis. 4K London represents trained DITs and
other data camera specialists, as well as providing
workflow supervision and on-set equipment for feature
films, commercials, dramas and documentaries.
British Cinematographer
Covering International Cinematography
www.britishcinematographer.co.uk
Issue 051 ––– May 2012