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14
GOING
POSTAL
Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal set for broadcast on Sky
Following the hugely successful adaptations of Hogfather and The Colour of Magic, Sky has
brought yet another novel from Terry Pratchett’s popular Discworld series to life. Produced by
The Mob Film Company, Going Postal tells the story of con-artist Moist Von Lipwig, whose crimes
finally catch up with him in the town of Ankh-Morpork. This latest feature-length television special
will air in two 120-minute parts on Sky1 HD and Sky1 next Easter. Camera equipment was
supplied by ARRI Media, while the lighting kit came from ARRI Rental Germany.
Going Postal was shot on location in Budapest, Hungary,
where the city’s architecture provided the backdrop for
Pratchett’s famed fantasy town of Ankh-Morpork. Behind
the camera once again was Gavin Finney BSC, making
this the third Discworld adaption for both the
cinematographer and The Mob, and also the third to be
shot with the ARRIFLEX digital camera system. Although
Finney had a history with the D-21, it was not a forgone
conclusion that it would be used again when the project
started. “This production had a new director, Jon Jones,
and Jon had a free say in how he wanted his show to
look,” explains Finney. “So we looked again at what was
available to shoot on, but in the end it really became an
aesthetic call. The D-21 does have a particular look that
we liked, and I think for me the camera does have a
slightly more organic, less electronic look than the others.
They’re all good cameras, across the whole field, but
some do look very, very clean and can be a bit too
revealing. The D-21 is slightly more forgiving and digs
less into the detail. It’s gentler on make-up, wigs and
prosthetics, all of which are used a lot in these shows.”
Having shot the previous productions in Linear mode,
Finney selected Log C 4:4:4 RGB (extended range) for
Going Postal, a decision largely driven by conversations
with the visual effects department. “I think there’s a clear
benefit in Log,” he says. ”It does seem to give more detail
in the shadows and extended range gives you slightly
more capture in the highlights, so the whole combination
just gave us a bit extra.” The signal, which has to be
processed through a look-up table (LUT) before it can be
displayed, was previewed on set using sophisticated
Cine-tal monitors, enabling Finney to monitor his image and
make corrections or alterations by applying different LUTs.
One of the key advantages for Finney was being able to
capture Log DPX frames from the camera via the Cine-tal
monitor, while filming. Using a grading programme called
SpeedGrade OnSet by Iridas, he was able to establish looks
by adding LUTs to the frames on his laptop. By using the
SpeedGrade LUTs in combination with ARRI’s own LUTs
and storing them on his computer, Finney created a visual
reference for the entire production. The LUTs were also given
o the editor to apply to the dailies. “The idea is that you get
rushes that are closer to how you want them to look,” says the
cinematographer, “and everyone else involved can see how
you want them to look.
“Those LUTs will be very useful when I come to do the online
grade,” he continues, “as I’ve got an entire library of reference
images and LUTs which I can share with the person doing the
grade. That information is also very useful for the visual effects
team, because they need to know how my material is going to
look as well. They will have the Log material and I can give
them a LUT that can be applied to the footage to show my
intent in the grade. They can then be more confident when
creating 3D animation or plates that their work is ultimately
going to fit in with how things are going to look.”
The Log signal from the D-21 was generally recorded onto
Sony SRW-1 HDCAM SR recorders, but for Steadicam and
handheld situations Finney chose to use ARRI Media’s newly
acquired Panasonic P2 HD recorders, which can be mounted
directly onto the D-21 with a simple bracket. “In the past we’ve
run a cable to the SRW-1, but it can be a bit inhibiting if
you’re on Steadicam, as you want to be free to move around,”
he recalls. “We knew that the sort of shooting we were going
“THE D-21 DOES HAVE A
PARTICULAR LOOK THAT
WE LIKED, AND I THINK
FOR ME THE CAMERA
DOES HAVE A SLIGHTLY
MORE ORGANIC, LESS
ELECTRONIC LOOK THAN
THE OTHERS.”
to be doing on this production was often going to involve 360s
in large areas and the Steadicam operator didn’t want to have
a cable on him because he felt it would pull the camera.
“The P2 system looked like a great solution because with two
32GB cards you can record up to an hour,” continues Finney.
“It has its own lightweight power supply and as there are no
cables, the camera becomes completely self-sufficient.” The
cinematographer’s only concern was the fact that it records at
25 fps in 4:2:2 and Going Postal was going to be shot in
4:4:4, but it soon became clear that this would not be an issue
for the handheld and Steadicam scenes. “The P2 was great for
the operator,” asserts Finney. “It meant he was completely free
and it worked flawlessly throughout the whole shoot.”
DoP GAVIN FINNEY BSC using the D-21 Hand Crank
Within the story, a series of flashbacks plague the main
character, ultimately forcing him to realise the consequences of
his past actions and change his ways for the better. After initial
conversations about how the flashback sequences should look,
it was decided that giving them the appearance of old film
footage would make the audience instantly realise that the
events had happened in the past. “We talked about how we
were going to achieve the desired effect, whether it should be
done in postproduction or whether it should be done incamera,”
recalls the cinematographer, “and we’re always very
keen to do as much as we can in-camera.”
Finney researched footage from the archives of the British Film
Institute, including some very old films produced by Mitchell &
Kenyon – pioneers of early British cinema. It was initially
thought that the flashbacks would be shot on a film camera,
but after carrying out tests at ARRI Media, which included
Super 8, Finney settled on the D-21 Hand Crank. “It worked
remarkably well when we tested it,” he says. “You can literally
set the camera up so when you turn the handle fast the camera
goes quicker and when you turn the handle slowly the camera
goes slower – just like an old film camera.” Once the decision
was made to go with the Hand Crank Finney then looked at
various lenses. “We tried it with modern lenses and then old
lenses and finally chose the Lensbaby,” he continues. “It’s a
neat, cheap little lens on a plastic bellows which you can use
for quite unusual effects. It added a very realistic effect of
poorly registered film along with an out of focus vignette.”
Finally, to complete the look, Finney developed a black-andwhite
LUT. “The whole combination – the Hand Crank with
the Lensbaby and then going to black-and-white – looked
amazingly like footage from the early 1900s,” he states,
“which was exactly the effect we wanted to achieve.
And it was all done on the D-21.” ■
Michelle Smith
VISIONARRI
15