Our filming industry is one of those to suffer from the current situation. All over the world productions are put on hold or canceled, and colleagues/friends are sitting at home. But what about the manufacturers? As we all know, camera sales are slowing down and competition is fierce. In that regard, the current event came at the worse possible timing anyone could have expected. So we took the initiative and approached some of the leading Japanese camera manufacturers in order to hear from them about how they are coping with the situation – especially if new products are involved. Toshi Iida-san at the FUJIFILM Omiya Office – Image credit:cinema5D It’s the beginning of April and I’m heading to FUJIFILM’s offices in Omiya where I’ll be meeting Toshi Iida-san. The last time we met was during the launch of the GFX 100 and, to be honest, with the current sequence of events it feels like this event took place in a completely different world. (See our 2 parts documentary on how the GFX 100 camera was born by clicking here and here). Back to the present time, in this 20 minutes interview, I had the opportunity to talk to Toshi-san about the current phase and challenges our industry is facing, the upcoming X-T4 and cover the subject of lenses. Here is a transcript of our interview: cinema5D: Toshi-san, I’m catching you at a very delicate time. The Coronavirus is all over the place, places are shut down, many people lost their jobs. So this is a very delicate situation, kind of unstable, also for our industry. But I want to start from a point of view of when everything is finished and we are back to kind of normality. How would you see the industry then? Do you think that things will go back to normality? Or this industry will change forever? Toshi Iida-san: Before I start telling you, I’d like to say I’m very sorry for the loss of the people who passed away by COVID-19 and I do hope for a quick recovery for the other patients who are suffering. And I also feel sorry for all the photographers and videographers, they may have lost some business because of the situation. So, I’m really sorry for all of them. And yes, many global events are now postponed or canceled, such as the Olympics Games recently. It must have a huge impact on all the imaging industry. At this moment I can’t predict, I cannot say it’s short term or long term, but I totally believe that at some point all the people will go back to normal. But I cannot think how quickly at this moment. cinema5D: And, as a manufacturer, as a Head of the Division, are you making any certain plans, like Plan A, Plan B, or are you actually monitoring the situation every day just to see how things are developing? Toshi Iida-san: Yes, of course, you know, that the COVID-19 is affecting my business in many ways. First we started to get impact at the China factory for manufacturing and procuring the components. That happened probably in February, early February. Then we started seeing the impact on the demand for cameras. So it’s too early to say, plan B or Plan C, but at the moment I’m just focusing the same way with it, to keep our product development. cinema5D: This situation is really the worst time for the industry in general because we know that sales went down and the competition is extremely stiff. Are you as a manufacturer, together with other Japanese manufacturers, discussing the situation? Are you trying to get united, do something together in order to improve the situation or come up with solutions, especially now? Toshi Iida-san: I’m not sure how the manufacturers can be united or work together, if there is any way we can do such a thing. At the moment, I don’t know. I do believe individual companies, including FUJIFILM, are working hard to go back on the situation by their own efforts.  cinema5D: You mentioned just before that obviously there is some impact on manufacturers in China. When you say impact, what type of impact are you describing? Is it a shortage of components, a lack of manpower? Toshi Iida-san: Yes, both. Lack of laborers, lack of components. So, I was actually told by the government first to extend the Chinese New Year holiday until the 10th of February. So, we had to extend the closure time. I was just really worried about it because at that point we were supposed to start some production for the XT-4, so, I was really worried about it in early February, but luckily enough our factories went back to normal as soon as the government allowed us to start things in February. So at the beginning, of course there were some restrictions, because of laborers and component shortage. But they quickly caught up. So at the moment I have no worries about the manufacturing side. cinema5D: Early samples of the camera were actually made in Japan and some were made in China. Only the samples were made in Japan? Why the decision to take the production out of Japan? Toshi Iida-san: For the XT-4, we haven’t changed our plan. From the beginning we set up the production capacity of the XT-4 just in China Factory because we see there is such a big demand. In order to meet such a big demand I think that China is the best place to manufacture. cinema5D: Again, some of the questions, of course, I have to tie up to the situation and let’s say that you are able to manufacture the amount you want, but then there are other obstacles in the way. Big vendors are actually either closed or they try to sell online but there are some other restrictions. Sometimes, you can’t even send the cameras to the customers or whatever. And on top, and this is maybe the hardest part, maybe people lost some enthusiasm to buy stuff. Not because they don’t want to, it’s literally because if you lose a job you have less money, and your priorities are completely different. How do you navigate as a manufacturer, since you just introduced a new camera to the market and a very capable one? It has the potential to be very popular. How do you navigate in these circumstances? Toshi Iida-san: We should be worried about the actual demand being also affected by this situation. However, we already started collecting pre-orders from customers. So I think the customers are still willing to buy, to have a good product, but of course we have some restrictions in terms of logistics. For example, the warehouse it’s not 100% operational and the shops are closed, but people still want to buy the XT-4. People buy online. cinema5D: So, you haven’t really noticed a drop in cancellations of orders, that’s not the message that you get from some vendors? Toshi Iida-san: As long as the XT-4 is concerned, we don’t see such a situation. cinema5D: Due to the situation, did your managing style change? Your people are still working from the office, am I right? FUJIFILM didn’t ask the people to work from home. Toshi Iida-san: Yeah, we’re not recommending the staff to work from home, but maybe now I need to adjust my management style. But the majority of my management style shouldn’t be changed. I really like to still focus on the speed and product innovations. Otherwise, as a manufacturer it has no point, so I still really focus on the same pace of the product development. FUJIFILM X-T4 Image credit: cinema5D cinema5D: Let’s talk a little bit about the XT-4. It seems like the product was developed in a very short time. I think the XT-3 was in the market for about over a year? Toshi Iida-san: Slightly longer, about 1 1/2 year, I think. cinema5D: This is a bit faster than normal, am I right? Why was that? Because the XT-3 next was a good camera, and obviously you felt that something was missing, and I guess you kind of asked your people to devote more time and come up with the XT-4. Toshi Iida-san: I tell you this: we introduced the XT-3 18 months ago. Immediately after our interview we launched the XT-3, we started getting such a positive feedback especially for the speed and the video quality. So we are very proud of that, but at the same time we immediately started getting the requests, especially for IBIS, for a bigger battery. So we thought maybe we should respond to the customers’ needs and requests as quickly as possible. And as for the sensor and the processor, we already established, so it’s a matter of time how quickly we can develop a new IBIS unit. This is a small IBIS unit. Previously we had an IBIS unit for the XH-1. The XH-1 was a little bit big, heavy camera. Our R&D team learned a lot on how to make a small IBIS unit, which is 20% smaller and lighter. So to make this IBIS unit we also developed a new mechanical shutter. And also, we developed a new longer life batteries. So we had those key components, we thought we satisfied the customer demands almost 100%. So our passion was to make the XT-3 even better. So now for stills and movies, … cinema5D: Will you continue to sell the XT-3, by the way? Toshi Iida-san: Yes, probably at some price gap. The XT-3 is a good camera. Some customers buy the XT-3, at a much more affordable price point than the XT-4. cinema5D: So, if we have to summarize, because you said you already have the sensor and the board to support the sensor. What was the most challenging part of the development of the XT-4? Toshi Iida-san: I think the IBIS unit. How to make a this small IBIS unit without compromising the performance or even improving the performance. So this IBIS can work for up to 6.5 stops compared to the 5.5 previously. So it is a stronger more stable IBIS unit than before, even for a small package. And this is more durable, much more powerful and at the same time it’s smaller. Toshi Iida-san with FUJIFILM GFX100- Image credit: cinema5D cinema5D: We also have on the table the GFX100, which is, of course, a medium format camera. And the video capabilities it’s very nice in terms of quality, but this is a rather expensive camera and this is first and foremost a photographers’ camera. And you declared in a very clear open way, that medium format is the full frame format for you. Toshi Iida-san: Yes. cinema5D: The only thing is that full frame cameras are kind of dropping in price. And they’re doing quite a good job. Do you think in the future you will be able to also bring the price down of a medium format and accommodate the needs of filmmakers, something that is a bit more cost-effective and that can compete also price-wise with full frame cameras? Toshi Iida-san: Of course we’re fully aware about our competition. And we already started doing GFX50 at a very attractive price point already, but the response is great. So it’s always our ambition to make the GFX a mainstream product. To make the GFX a mainstream product we need to continue our effort to make it more affordable and probably smaller and lighter. So this is one way we’re focusing on. cinema5D: You always cook something, you always cook another product which hopefully will be a bit more capable and a bit more affordable. Toshi Iida-san: This is just my ambition to make the GFX a mainstream product, ok? cinema5D: When it comes to video functionality, obviously it became a very very important feature to you and to feature film in general. The thing is that current cameras, in general, they’re quite good, and personally I think and I feel that maybe adding features or new features is simply not enough anymore to capture the attention of the user. Maybe sometimes a completely new concept can be thought about. What is your opinion, are you doing anything in this direction, is there anything you can share with the audience? Toshi Iida-san: As you know, we are a quite late comer to the cinema camera, I think our journey just started with the XT-3, I say. But we’re quickly learning and catching up and this XT-4 we get it to a higher level. So our journey will never end. So we are listening and we’re learning more, what the filmmakers, videographers, what features, what design, what usability, what accessories should be compatible, we are always looking for the next step. cinema5D: Toshi-san, you’re obviously pushing forward with the video capabilities of the cameras. How about the lenses? Because you have the nice MK lenses, which is good for Super-35. Obviously, you have medium format cameras, and other manufacturers are moving to full frame. Anything that you can share with us about future plans? Toshi Iida-san: As a late comer, we have thought, how do we differentiate ourselves from the competition in an already crowded market? We turned out to find what the customers were expecting from us. It is the lens and color reproduction. So, with the lens, actually we are in charge of a very broad variety of lenses, including the very big broadcasting lenses, Cine Zoom lenses. And based on that kind of very high spec professional lens, we can copy such technology to more mainstream lenses. MK you were mentioning, that is one example. And even for the GF lenses and the XF lenses, those are interchangeable lenses. We can introduce that technology to make good video capable lenses. So the lens and color reproduction, color rendering, the film look color rendering, those are two core advantages. I think that we really like to expand, invest for the lens and the colors for video as well. cinema5D: Out of curiosity, because again we talked about finding the unique points and to do things maybe a little different. Anamorphic lenses are becoming extremely popular because everybody looks for that identity when they’re filming. They don’t want everything they do to look like others. The thing is that is either very very expensive, and if it’s not expensive maybe there’s a lack of identity to the footage coming after filming with the lens. Do you sometimes dream at night about anamorphic lenses? Toshi Iida-san: We do have lots of requests about such a lens. However, we just introduced two cine zoom lenses called Premista, which is a large format cine zoom lens. The market reaction is very very positive. And we really like to focus on our current project before we’re looking at anamorphic lenses. Maybe in the future, but at the moment we are quite busy with the current project. cinema5D: Toshi-san, thank you very much for your time. So here we go, the first in a series of interviews we are about to conduct. If there is a specific manufacture you would like us to feature, please let us know in the comment section below.

Charm City Kings,  directed by Angel Manuel Soto, took home the U.S Dramatic Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast this past Saturday at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. From Executive Producers Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith, and James Lassiter, comes the story of a young man named Mouse, who hopes to take his place in the Midnight Clique, a notorious group of  dirt-bike riders in Baltimore, among whom who his late brother had ridden to glory and tragedy. To learn how the incredible performances of this award-winning cast went from set to screen, read our interview with the film’s cinematographer Katelin Arizmendi below.  Jahi appears in Charm City Kings by Angel Manuel Soto, Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute Name: Katelin Arizmendi Film: Charm City Kings (dir. Angel Manuel Soto) Competition Category: US Dramatic Competition Camera Body: Alexa XT and Alexa Mini Glass: Panavision Ultra Speed Mark II + Detuned Ultra Speeds cinema5D:  So you went the university route. How has that influenced the trajectory of your career? KA: I studied my undergrad at UC Santa Cruz which was essentially all film theory and a few experimental film classes. I shot on a 1 chip camera where I wrote, directed, acted in, and edit- ed a few weird experimental films. Needless to say, I had no idea what I was doing when I graduated and needed to continue my film studies in a more hands-on collaborative setting. The one thing I took away from my undergrad, however, was the mentality of my film teachers : “Screw Hollywood. You need to be different and experiment. Break the rules.” I think that’s carried with me through the years. I decided to study my MFA at Academy of Art University in San Francisco, mostly being lured by the chance to shoot 16mm and 35mm. Truthfully, I learned technicality of working with film cameras, but the lighting department lacked there and the way the school was structured, I ended up doing a lot of my own projects, hardly collaborating with other students. cinema5D: So grad school forced you to be really self-sufficient.  KA: Only one director asked me to shoot his thesis project, so I had to come up with ideas for the other 4 thesis films I was required to shoot. Because of this, I continued to make experimental fashion films and music videos after school to build a more interesting reel than the work that came to me from the tech-world in the bay area. Building that reel on my own led me to shoot more creative commercials and music videos at the beginning of my career. Katelin Arizmendi on the set of Charm City Kings. cinema5D: Can you pinpoint a particular movie or filmmaker that nudged you toward cinematography? KA: I was (and still am) hugely influenced by Buffalo 66. There’s something about that film quality, the stock they used, the way they held on shots, the things you don’t see, the way faces are cropped, the unintentional romance of the characters, use of slow-motion, bizarre but brilliant coverage of the scene at his parents kitchen table…I still feel all kinds of ways when I watch it today. Films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and Being John Malkovich influenced me because I felt they used experimental cinematography in a really effective way for the story, pushing the boundaries but not distracting from the narrative. You actually feel something deep and emotive from the subjective camerawork. cinema5D: Fast-forward to now, how do you like to run your camera department? KA: I like my camera and G&E departments to feel like a family. I hate egos and like to believe I don’t act above anyone on set. I’m only as good as my crew. Having like-minded people that are respectful of everyone on set, who are passionate about the project, and who bring a good attitude every day is super important to me. cinema5D: What’s your advice to directors on how to optimize their relationships with their DPs? KA: I would say I’ve worked with a various level and style of directors. Some are incredibly prepared and know exactly what they want, actually leaving little input for me. Then there’s the opposite where you feel all the weight is on your shoulders. Most I’ve worked with are some- where in between, where both of us bring ideas to the table and are willing to be challenged on why something should be shot a certain way. Having those discussions in prep, or even on set will make sure you’re always favoring the story, but still doing it in the most creative way you can. Katelin discusses a shot with director Angel Manuel Soto. cinema5D: How did you come to work on Charm City Kings? KA: Angel, who I didn’t know before, told me that when he went into his initial meetings with the studio, they asked who he wanted to shoot it and he said me. They offered up some other more experienced DPs for him to consider but his gut always came back to me. We only skyped for about 20 minutes about how we wanted to approach the movie but I think it was an instant click for us. We were on the same page from the beginning. We had the absolute best time to- gether in Baltimore. cinema5D: How did you feel about making a narrative retelling of an established documentary? KA: This was an authentic portrayal of Baltimore, ending with a positive message. I really loved the doc, but I was very cautious about making a film about such amazing subject matter…this special bike life community that could easily become a Hollywood flashy interpretation of it. I had no desire to do that. After speaking to Angel and seeing his first feature, which was incredibly raw and powerful, I knew authenticity was his number one priority. That even came down to using almost all real  Baltimore riders in the film. cinema5D: What influenced your choices in assembling the camera package? KA: I’ve always been a fan of Panavision glass and had fallen in love with the Ultra and Super Speeds from previous short films. There’s different characteristics in each lens – even the few overly warm coated focal lengths in the set have their place and use. I also knew Panavi- sion would be able to customize and work with us on some specialty lenses. We added a few detuned Ultra Speeds to increase the bloom and flares for some of the riding at night – adding to the magic of being on a bike. cinema5D:  Were there any special considerations regarding shooting the dirt-bikes?  KA: Well—first and foremost, we needed to experience being on a bike hitting twelve. That was the first thing we wanted to do when we got into prep: experience a real ride, how people interact with the bikes and riders, feel how low-key or high energy the crowd really is, whether it’s a family type event, and so on. The Sunday Ride scene in the movie needed to be as real as possible. We had Wheelie Wayne, basically the ringleader of all bike life in Baltimore, bring us to a few rides. The energy was insane. I was smiling the whole time—feeling the thrill that just comes from the sound of those bikes alone and watching these incredibly talented riders make it look effortless. I needed to feel it firsthand, so no one better to trust when hopping on the back of an ATV (doing a wheelie) than Wheelie Wayne. It was both the most invigorating and most terrifying thing I’ve ever felt. Behind the scenes of Charm City Kings. Cinematographer Katelin Arizmendi pictured kneeling back center. cinema5D: Did you and Angel watch any movies together beforehand? KA:  When it came down to Angel and I pulling references and coming up with shot ideas, he really wanted the camera to move as much as possible for a good portion of the movie, referencing impressive oners from movies like Soy Cuba. We also watched A Prophet for the very naturalistic subjective camerawork. Angel made a huge list of films for me to watch, but when I admitted to him a few weeks into shooting that I only watched A Prophet and the rest of the nights I watched Sex in the City, he was so disappointed. But I only admitted that to him after I knew he was happy with my work on our film! I need my guilty-pleasure time you know! Ha. But truthfully, I like to have fresh ideas and fresh eyes. I don’t like overdoing the film references, or you get caught up trying to replicate someone else’s work. cinema5D:  How about during principle photography?  What was your collaboration like? KA:  Angel and I vibed from the very beginning: from being able to bounce ideas off each other all day at the office, to hanging out outside work constantly, getting tattoos together…He has an incredible knowledge of every department on set. He made me a better DP. I didn’t have a ton of experience with long choreographed oners, so many of those ideas started with him and I would add to them, favoring angles I thought would be more cinematic. I tried things like panning off Mouse when he goes down the stairs in his house and then turning the camera into his POV. You only hear him off screen, and then it pans back around to the front of him and leads him outside. I love disconnecting the visuals and audio, so I often brought ideas like that into our shot list. Katelin Arizmendi and Angel Manuel Soto on the set of Charm City Kings cinema5D: Any new tech or tools on this shoot? KA: We used a giraffe crane where our steadicam operator, Stew Cantrell, had a long steadicam shot and in the end stepped onto the crane, rising up into a high angle. It would have worked amazingly, if we weren’t running out of light and only had 2 chances at it. The street lamps started to come on and at that point it wouldn’t cut with the rest of the day scene. I wasn’t available to do the reshoots, which included much more of the chase scene, so DP Shelly Johnson (ASC) shot them. In prep, we had discussed shooting some of that scene with a remote head attached to a motorcycle, but we didn’t end up doing it in principal photography. They did use that for the reshoots, and it looks incredible. The bike can get through the narrow overgrown alleys that a russian arm could never get through. cinema5D:  What was the lighting strategy? Any location more challenging than others? KA: If you’ve ever seen Baltimore at night, it’s incredibly cinematic with a perfect mix of sodium and mercury vapor. The “Highway to Nowhere,” where Mouse escapes on his bike toward the end was already lit like that, with the perfect color separation. In other locations, where I didn’t want the sodium vapor to be the only tone, I brought in other colors like greens, blues, or white light. Many  of the interior scenes at Mouse’s house had to be lit cleverly, so the camera could roam through the space. My gaffer Russel Wicks would stick lite tile on the ceiling, tuck away litemats into the ceiling windows, and push our daylight from 18Ks through the front windows of the house. The more “general” lighting style was due to wanting to cover most scenes in one shot. The bike shop where Meek works was a bit more difficult. We had so many scenes in there. I didn’t want to be stuck with one day and one night look, so we heavily relied on Scott Dugan, our production designer, to help us with practicals. We mixed neons, fluorescents above work benches, and supplemented quasar tubes in places that would look like flourescents but would be controllable. In general, we never wanted to stray away from the colors that would be in Baltimore and didn’t bring in any unmotivated colors to any scenes. cinema5D:  Any new tech or tools on this shoot? KA: We used a giraffe crane where our steadicam operator, Stew Cantrell, had a long steadicam shot and in the end stepped onto the crane, rising up into a high angle. It would have worked amazingly if we weren’t running out of light and only had 2 chances at it. The street lamps started to come on and at that point it wouldn’t cut with the rest of the day scene. I wasn’t available to do the reshoots which included much more of the chase scene so DP Shelly John- son ASC shot them. In prep we had discussed shooting some of that scene with a remote head attached to a motorcycle but we didn’t end up doing it in principal photography. They did use that for the reshoots and it looks incredible. The bike can get through the narrow overgrown al- leys that a russian arm could never get through. cinema5D:  What about the script really made you want to work on it?  KA: Of course, I was drawn in by the bikes:  the excitement and freedom one feels of doing something so dangerous, yet so liberating…and how we could evoke that same feeling through the camerawork. The bottom line is I was drawn to the coming of age story of this well-rounded character, who was portrayed in a 3-dimensional way, which is not always seen in stories like this. Sony Classic Pictures is set to release Charm City Kings  on April 10th, 2020.  In the meantime, if you’d like to see the documentary the film is based on, you can stream 12 O’Clock Boys on Kanopy for free, if you have a valid library card or university ID.  It can also be rented on YouTube. You can read more interviews with Sundance filmmakers here. 

Zeina Durra returns to the Sundance Film Festival a decade after her first feature debuted in 2010.  She trusted the look of her film Luxor to long time friend and fellow NYU grad, Zelmira Gainza.  Read about their collaboration on this World Cinema contender below.   Still from Luxor.  Image Courtesy of Sundance Institute Name: Zelmira Gainza Film: Luxor (dir. Zeina Durra) Competition Category: World Dramatic Competition Camera Body: Alexa Mini Lenses: Zeiss Super Speeds cinema5D: Tell me a little about your background at NYU. Did you know you wanted to pursue cinematography from the beginning? ZG:  I went to NYU to the Graduate Film Program. I knew I wanted to be a DP, and as most people there wanted to be writer/directors it meant that I got to shoot a lot for my classmates. At the same time, I benefited enormously from having to take a wide range of classes and learn every aspect of filmmaking. I had to write and direct my own films, edit them, produce, do sound, even act. I think this all helped me as a DP being able to understand everyone’s role and what it takes to make a film, from initial idea all the way through to the end. cinema5D: Which directors or cinematographers originally inspired you to pursue a career in cinema? ZG: Kubrick, Kieslowski, Claire Denis, Antonioni and Visconti are some of the directors who initially inspired me to pursue a career in cinema. Cinematographers like Sven Nyqvist, Slawomir Idziak, Agnes Godard, Vittorio Storaro and Harris Savides continue to be my heroes. Behind the scenes on the set of Luxor. cinema5D: What’s your individual DP motto?  How do you like to run the camera department? ZG: I think it’s important to keep growing as a filmmaker. I like projects that are different, that allow me to do things I’ve never done before. I try to create an inclusive and friendly atmosphere in my camera department. They are working so hard, and I remember from when I used to assist how stressful and physically tiring it can be. I don’t like people who yell. I try and keep a good mood so everyone is inspired to do their best work. cinema5D: How did you become attached to Luxor? Did Zeina seek you out? ZG: Zeina and I are friends, I love her work and had wanted to shoot for her for ages. One day over a phone call,  she started coming up with this idea to shoot a film in Luxor, Egypt. I told her instantly that I wanted to shoot it. Luckily, she said yes! cinema5D: Other than the location, what made you most excited about this project? ZG: First and foremost, I was excited to work with Zeina. She is an incredibly visual director, very bold in her decisions, and I love her pared down aesthetic. When I read the script, it really resonated with me. I thought the story of this woman Hana, who is on a journey of self-discovery, was very modern. There are so many coming-of-age films, and I liked that the characters in this film are more mature, in their forties. The script is a wonderful blend of drama, humour, mysticism and romance. I had never seen a film like it. On top of that, I knew that we would have stunning locations, since we would be shooting in temples and ruins that were thousands of years old.   cinema5D:   It’s great that you went in with not only friendship but professional admiration.  What’s your advice to other directors on how to optimize their relationships with their DPs? ZG: I like to be as involved as possible in pre-visualising the film. I feel it’s my job to get inside the director’s head, to understand how they see their film, and then make that happen. The more they can share with me and involve me from early on, the better. I like getting the conversation going between the director, myself, the production designer, and costume designer so that we are all on the same page about the palette. All the elements in front of the camera have to come together. The more time there is for prep, the better. cinema5D: Talk a little about pre-production for Luxor. What went into planning the look? ZG:  Pre-production was very tight, as the film came together very fast, but luckily Zeina and I had already gone to Luxor to scout before prep started. As soon as I came on board we started discussing the look. Zeina and I would send film references back and forth, and we talked a lot about the script: the characters, the locations and what their significance was in each scene. This was the period where I felt like I was getting inside Zeina’s head and getting a grasp on her vision. We watched The Passenger many times. We loved the palette, the naturalistic lighting, and the discipline of the camera movements. Zeina exercises restraint at all times and designs her frames with great attention to detail—nothing in excess. She uses minimal coverage, and she doesn’t want things to be beautiful just for the sake of it. It has to serve the story. Once we started official prep in Luxor, we scouted every day and talked through blocking and took stills. That time in the locations was invaluable. We knew them so well by the time we showed up to shoot, that we were able to move fast. Zeina planned all the production design, and we thought very carefully about wardrobe for each scene:  not just what made sense for the character in that moment, but how colours would play out against the existing colours of the locations. We did not have time for any camera tests, and Zeina does not work with storyboards, but she does make her own shot-list. cinema5D: How did you choose the camera body? In a panel at the Sundance TV Headquarters, Zeina mentioned that originally Kodak was onboard to support with film? ZG: Initially, we planned to shoot on Super 16, the format Zeina used for her last film The Imperialists Are Still Alive. However, due to logistical issues we had to shoot digitally. Nevertheless, I wanted to deliver as filmic a look as possible that would be in keeping with Zeina’s aesthetic, so we chose to shoot with the Alexa Mini. I knew this camera could handle the extreme contrast that we would encounter in our day exteriors amongst the ruins and also give us the best skin tones. Its size was a consideration, since we had a lot of car shots and some hand-held. Also with an 18 day shooting schedule, we could not afford to lose any time due to technical problems. The Alexa Mini has never let me down. cinema5D: What about  optics? ZG: Our lens package was a set of Zeiss Super Speeds. We wanted to avoid any digital crispness, and since these are old lenses, they are slightly softer than the more modern ones we looked at (which Zeina liked). I also knew that you can shoot with them wide open, which we needed for many of our night exteriors. cinema5D: What was your collaboration with Zeina like during principle photography? ZG: Although we had never worked together before, once principle photography started, it became a very fluid process. Zeina would rehearse and block with the actors, I would watch her and be making mental notes to share with the gaffer and the camera department. When she was ready, we would discuss what lens, and she would look through it on the viewfinder and set the frame. Zeina is very intuitive.  She knows what she wants, and it was my job to execute it. cinema5D: Any fun new tech on this shoot? Any new strategies that worked out well? ZG: I didn’t use any new technology, but I did try something I hadn’t done before. Since we were going for a filmic look, I brought along my 35mm stills camera and shot Cinestyle rolls of film. I had 2 different stocks, basically the 50D and the 500T. I then brought these stills to our colourist Elie Akoka, and they became a great reference for the colour grade. Behind the scenes on the set of Luxor. cinema5D: Any go-to glass filtration in your kit? ZG: The usual ND’s and Polarizer. I used Lo-Cons for most of our day exteriors. I sometimes use a light filtration like Black Pro Mist, I tend to use ¼ strength. cinema5D: How about lighting? ZG: Zeina’s aesthetic is naturalistic, and she loves soft light, as do I. We discussed being able to shoot with all available light, timing our schedule to the best light for a given location, but our schedule was too tight. Our gaffer, Chad Dougherty, came on all our scouts and worked with a local Egyptian gaffer Ahmed Goma and his G&E team. They all did an amazing job. Chad watched all our reference films and Zeina’s past work, so that he was really on the same page about what we were setting out to do. The main challenge was how fast we had to shoot, given that it was 18 days with multiple locations involving company moves every day. In terms of lighting, the hardest thing was balancing contrast. Outside we used bounce to fill in shadows when necessary. Our challenge indoors was windows, which we wanted to see out of but we didn’t have ND gels. We had to build up the light inside, but keep the natural shape and feeling of it. We were really happy with how it all came together.  It feels soft and film-like:  appropriate for the tone of the film. cinema5D: Do you negotiate involvement in post into your contract?  Were you involved in the color process on Luxor?  ZG: Zeina and I felt it was important to do the colour correct together, which we did in Paris at United Post Production with Elie Akoka. I had worked with Elie a few years earlier and remembered how brilliant he is. He did an amazing job, using the 35mm stills I had shot as a reference and then creating a look with smoky blacks, softly muted colours and a low-contrast, whilst still keeping the delicate feeling of the day scenes and the moodiness of the night scenes. I knew from the outset that we would not have an on-set DIT or camera tests to be able to build a LUT, I monitored in Rec 709. I felt comfortable with this because I knew we would have Elie at the end. cinema5D: Lastly, what’s your advice to ACs, Operators, and younger cinematographers who are trying to level up their careers? ZG: Watch movies, as many as you can. Build up your own reference library in your head, I think it’s a great way to learn, learning from the greats. Treat the people you work with as you would like to be treated. Experiment as much as you can, take risks, remain curious and open. Luxor’s international rights are being handled by Totem Films, while  CAA is the custodian of the North American rights. Distribution is to be determined.

Lance Oppenheim set out to tell the world there was more to the lives of folks living at The Villages than golf carts, bridge games, and all the world comes to expect from a “Disneyland for Retirees.”  Together with friend and DP David Bolen, Oppenheim creates a vivid and intimate documentary of life in later years, following characters with aspirations of adventure, romance, and self-discovery.   Read on to learn how Bolen decided to capture the film at 4:3 and how his collaboration with Oppenheim elevated the vibrant images of their firs feature together:  Some Kind of Heaven. Still from Some Kind of Heaven. Image Courtesy of the Sundance Institute. Name: David Bolen Film: Some Kind of Heaven (dir. Lance Oppenheim) Competition Category: NEXT Camera Body: Alexa Mini Glass: Angenieux Optimo Style Zooms (16-40mm, 30-76mm) Fujinon 19-90mm, Zeiss Superspeed 35mm cinema5D:  What was your path into cinematography?  Did you always pursue the camera department? DB:  I was very fortunate to come from a family that was super supportive of my filmmaking. My parents gave me a camera when I was 6 years old, and I’ve been making movies ever since. I decided to go to film school, because I wasn’t really aware that there was another way to get into the business. I started at the University of British Columbia, and then transferred to USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. I always thought I’d be a director, but film school was a time of discovering who I was as an artist. I’ve always been obsessed with light and texture, and I think I began to discover that I was more interested in the visual poetry of film. In film school, I shot for as many people as I could and tried to get my name out there. As time went on, I began spending way more time on set and way less time in class. I was super fortunate that by the time I graduated, I was able to at least scrape by shooting documentaries and branded content. Back then, the projects weren’t great, but I was happy to be doing what I loved. Behind the scenes of Some Kind of Heaven.  Image by Austin Weber. cinema5D: What other cinematographers have inspired you? Sean Bobbitt and Bradford Young are two cinematographers, who have had a big influence on my work. Sean Bobbitt shot films including Place Beyond the Pines, Hunger and Shame, and originally came from documentary filmmaking. I’ve always been inspired by his handheld work, and his naturalistic approach to coverage. Sometimes things feel sloppy, shaky, or out of focus, but it actually gives his images a sense of urgency and authenticity that brings me closer to the story. There are times when I think DPs are too precious with their images, and it actually distracts you from the storytelling. Bradford Young is another DP I love, and he’s shot many of my favorite films, including Arrival, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints and Pariah. His lighting and compositions create such a distinctive mood and feel. As a DP, I’ve always been attracted to darkness, and his work helped me to understand the power of underexposing an image. I think the texture found in the lower end of the shadows can be so beautiful when done right. cinema5D:  What’s your strategy in being the best DP you can be?  How do you like to run the camera department Nowadays, I primarily work on narrative television shows and films, which can be quite isolating at times. There are so many people on set and so many rules and regulations. It can often be frustrating. For this reason, I get very excited to return to more intimate documentary projects where it’s just a few friends giving it their all and trying to make a movie together. For documentary, it’s incredibly important to find an  intimate group of people, who trust each other completely and are willing to do anything for the project. On Some Kind of Heaven, it was typically just me, Lance, our sound guy Richard Carlos, and our producers Christian Vasquez and Mel Oppenheim. We all treated the film as a passion project and we all believed in Lance’s vision. With documentaries, you have to be reactive to your characters, so some days are extremely long, and sometimes you’re waking up to shoot in the middle of the night. I remember one evening where Lance woke us up at 3am to film one our characters in a hurricane. I’ve been on documentary sets where crews just treat it like a job that ends after 12 hours, and it always frustrated because you can miss important scenes that way. It’s also important for the crew to be close, because you want to create a comfortable space for your subjects when filming. Being on camera is scary for anyone, but when our subjects saw how close we were, I think it made them feel safe to share their vulnerabilities. It’s really important to capture real moments with people, and it’s not possible if the energy with the crew is off. cinema5D: How did you become attached to Some Kind of Heaven? Lance and I have been making movies together for over 7 years now. We actually first met when he was still in high school, and I was at USC for film school. I was blown away by him at the time because he was only 16 years old. His work had the maturity of a seasoned filmmaker. We started working on short documentaries together, and eventually we made a New York Times Op-Doc called Long Term Parking. When he approached me about shooting Some Kind of Heaven, deciding to shoot it was a no-brainer. cinema5D: Seven years! That’s a pretty long partnership.  Do you have any advice for other directors on how to cultivate a really successful relationship with their DPs? This is a really interesting question, and something I’m always thinking about. On an emotional level, a lot of artists are sensitive people. It can be scary to put your ideas on the table because you feel they may be rejected. Strong directors creates a safe place for their DP to experiment and push boundaries, where they feel free to try things even if they don’t work. Lance is particularly amazing at this. He never wants to play things safe and constantly encourages me to try weird, experimental approaches with the image. Sometimes we push it too far, or go off track, but when we get it right, it can be really magical. Shooting with him is something I always look forward to, because I know it will be a chance to do things I’ve never done before. cinema5D: So what about Some Kind of  Heaven made you excited to tell the story? First and foremost, I was excited to collaborate with Lance on a feature-length project. Leading up to this point, we had only done shorts together, so I was eager to tackle a long-form project, where we could develop a more mature and unique visual language. Beyond this, I was fascinated by the subject matter Lance wanted to explore. He told me he wanted to make a film about The Villages, Florida, which is one of the largest retirement communities in the world. It’s a place where retirees go to live our their final chapter of the American Dream, a utopian community designed to simulate the “good old days” when they were children. Lance wanted to dig deeper and tell the story of a few characters trying to find a new lease on life. We wanted to explore themes of death, aging, time, and purpose. I was fascinated by the place, because on the outside it seems like a dream world, but as you move deeper into the individual homes, there’s a darkness and loneliness to explore. Everyone who lives in the Villages is expected to act happy, but inside they are dealing existential crises. The contrast of these two ideas really intrigued me, and I was excited to pursue this contrast in the visual language of the film. Still from Some Kind of Heaven. Image Courtesy of the Sundance Institute cinema5D:  So why did you pair this array of glass with Alexa Mini to capture that visual language? In my ideal world, we would have this project on 16mm film, but because of the pure amount of footage we intended to capture, it would have been nearly impossible to pull off. To me, the next best thing is the Alexa Mini. It captures beautiful, organic images, and with the right color grade, I think it can look quite filmic. The small size also made it ideal for vérité filmmaking. It was important that we kept a low profile, so we could capture intimate, fly on the wall moments. We primarily used a set of Angenieux Optimo Style Zoom Lenses, a 16-40mm and 30-76mm. They are lightweight and small, but also gave us the flexibility to quickly change focal lengths. People often think zoom lenses aren’t as good as primes, but I love the look of the Angenieuxs and also use them on narrative projects. They have a really filmic look to them, and vignette slightly on the edges, which I love. We also used a long Fujinon Servo zoom for certain stylized slow zoom shots. Finally, we used a Zeiss Superspeed 35mm for night sequences when there wasn’t a lot of light available. It’s amazing the exposure you can get with the Alexa Mini at 1600 ISO and a Superspeed wide open. cinema5D: Did you watch any films with Lance or pull reference images during pre-pro?  In pre-production, Lance I talked a lot about the feel of the film. Primarily, we looked at photographs from Larry Sulton’s “Pictures from Home.” It’s a series documenting Larry’s parents as they settle down for retirement in a Palm Springs home. His unique, ultra-wide framing creates a really beautiful sense of loneliness and isolation. In terms of movies, we became obsessed with a film called “Safe” by Todd Haynes. Nicole Kidman plays a housewife, who believes she has an environmental sickness caused by air pollution. The cinematography is quiet and thoughtful, and it creates a disturbing portrait of someone locking themselves inside. The framing and color palette tells so much of the story; it was a great reference for how we’d film our characters when inside their homes. cinema5D: How about during principle photography?  Anything unique that came  from your collaboration with Lance on this film in particular? With documentary, Lance and I have a very organic approach. Both the look of the film and the characters we would follow were something that developed and evolved over time, until it become something really concrete. On our first few days of filming, we did things totally wrong. We started with a 16×9 aspect ratio, and shot mostly handheld. I remember getting back to the Airbnb and feeling sick to my stomach about the footage. It all just felt messy and unmotivated, and not at all what was right for the project. Then I started playing around in Davinci Resolve, adding 4:3 bars to the footage. All of a sudden, the frames began to make sense. The Villages community is all about recreating the good-old days, where retirees can live in a nostalgic fantasyland. 4:3 helped to mimic this feeling, creating a style that seemed similar to an old movie they would have watched as children. From there, we decided to cut handheld all together and shoot the entire film on tripod. Shooting vérité in this style was really difficult at first, but it forced us to create wider compositions that felt more striking and less random. We tried to make every frame feel like a composed photograph where our characters could move through the world. cinema5D:  How was the set culture?  At this point, Lance feels like a brother to me. He’s not only one of my closest collaborators, but he’s one of my closest friends. We are constantly pushing each other to capture weirder, more surreal footage. He’s extremely collaborative and invites everyone on set into the process. Between locations changes we’d all discuss different scenes, or characters and how we could make it better. Our sound guy Richard Carlos is an amazing director in his own right, and often came up with some of the best ideas for scenes. This kind of environment on set is really rare in my opinion. So many directors are fearful of looking indecisive, but Lance favors honestly and transparency. We all feel welcome to chime in, and that ultimately leads to a better film. cinema5D: Was it intimidating to have Aronofsky as a producer? Or was it empowering?  Having Aronofsky onboard as a producer was fantastic. Lance and I both love his movies, and his surrealist style of filmmaking. Darren provided amazing notes throughout the process and pushed us to make a better film. There was a point in the edit where we thought we were pretty close to finishing, and he gave us a wake up call that we needed to capture more footage and push the film into a better place. On our final trip, we got some of our best footage, and it honestly made the film so much stronger. cinema5D: Any new tech or mode of operation on this shoot? One interesting thing we got to do on this project, was shoot 4:3 Open Gate on the Alexa Mini Sensor. Typically, Open Gate with the Alexa is reserved for Anamorphic projects, but we instead used it with spherical lenses since our final aspect ratio was 4:3. This format allowed us to use the full range of the sensor, and gave us the ability to capture a super wide field of view. It was fantastic for capturing the sprawling landscapes of the Villages, and we used it to to frame our characters in really interesting ways. I love use wide angles to capture faces, as I think it leads to a much more interesting and intimate portrait. Telephoto lenses have always felt too distant to me. cinema5D: Any go-to filtration in your kit?  Any that you used on Some Kind of Heaven? I’m a bit of a filtration junky (sometimes to a fault), and on this project I used one of my favorite filters: a Tiffen Soft FX 2. I first got into this filtration after reading about Reed Morano’s obsession with it, and for some reason the level 2 intensity has always appealed to me. It softens the image in a dynamic way, without blooming the highlights too intensely. Generally, it helped add to the dream-like surreal feel of the film. cinema5D: Were you able to light the residences?  What was your strategy there? Lighting documentaries is a challenge because you want to leave a small footprint but still make the footage look great. For the most part, we used natural light and practicals available at the locations to pull off our look. We’d typically shoot exterior scenes at sunrise or sunset, and then go inside during the middle of the day when the light was too harsh. I’d keep a small kit of my own battery-powered Quasars and a few Astera RGB tubes for whenever it was too dark to get exposure. Lastly, we used an Arri Skypanel 60C for some experimental drug trip scenes, which were sadly cut from the final film, but the effect was really cool. I love documentaries because it forces you to find the beauty in natural light. Personally, I think putting someone next to a single window is one of the most wonderful ways to light a scene. cinema5D: Agreed!  What was your involvement in post? Did you have a say on the color? Lance is a great collaborator and always includes the entire team in post. We shot our film over the course of four trips, but in-between, Lance was constantly sending me cuts of different scenes to get my temperature on things. During our first trip, I experimented with the footage and made a LUT, which kind of had the feel of an old-faded photograph. It was applied to transcodes for the edit, and helped to get everyone on board to the general look we were trying to create. When the film finally pictured-locked, we were lucky enough to work with colorist Damien Van Der Cruyssen at the Mill NY, who’s recent credits include Uncut Gems, Waves and The Last Black Man in San Francisco. We saw his work on Waves, and knew he would be a good fit for the Florida color palette. Once again we referenced Larry Sulton’s “Pictures from Home.“ Damien really helped us create a consistent palette and pushed the Alexa footage into really cinematic territory. He’s truly a master of making digital look like film. cinema5D: What’s your take on where cinematography is heading? Have you been frustrated at all with the obsession over advancing resolutions?  Technology is fantastic, but I think today’s current emphasis on resolution has gone a bit overboard. I’m currently shooting a Netflix project and have been frustrated that the Alexa Mini isn’t approved because it doesn’t shoot true 4k. cinema5D: What is your advice to filmmakers looking to advance their careers? I think the best advice I can give is to choose projects that really speak to you on an emotional level. It’s easy to think the best project is the one with the biggest budget or the flashiest production company behind it. I’ve done those projects before, and money can only get you so far. Your best work will only come if you truly connect with the material. With Some Kind of Heaven, I connected so deeply with our characters and what they were going through. This connection informed everything. It guided me with where to put the camera and how to capture the images. The work is much stronger because of it. Some Kind of Heaven was produced by The New York Times, the LA Media Fund, and Darren Aronofsky. At this time, the documentary is still pursuing distribution.

Roger Deakins is a British cinematographer who worked as a DP on films like Shawshank Redemption, Skyfall, Sicario, Fargo, Blade Runner 2049 (which got him an Oscar for best cinematography in 2018), and recently on 1917. He has over 30 years of experience working with directors like the Coen brothers, Sam Mendes, and Denis Villeneuve. Youtube channel Rotten Tomatoes published a video about Deakins’ impressive career. Let’s take a short look at what he has to say. Rotten Tomatoes publishes lots of interesting information on their website and their Youtube channel. They measure the percentage of positive reviews from movie critics and publications and deliver movie ratings based on those. They also produce plenty of interviews with inspiring people from the movie industry like this one with Roger Deakins. Cinematographer Roger Deakins Roger Deakins is a British cinematographer and member of both the American and British Society of Cinematographers. He is best known for his work on the films of the Coen brothers, Sam Mendes, and Denis Villeneuve. Deakins talking about the Skyfall Helicopter Ambush Scene. Source: Rotten Tomatoes Over more than 30 years working in the film industry, Deakins shot films like Barton Fink (1991), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), No Country for Old Men (2007), True Grit (2010), Skyfall (2012), Sicario (2015), and Blade Runner 2049 (2017). In 2018 he won an Oscar for best cinematographer for his work in Blade Runner 2049. 1917 (2019) Behind the scenes of 1917. Source: Rotten Tomatoes His most recent cinematography work is the movie “1917”. In this video from Rotten Tomatoes, he talks about this movie and the challenges of its production. Since my colleague Jeff already published a whole article about this movie, I will not just repeat what he wrote. The link to his article is here – Inside the Look of 1917 by DP Roger Deakins. Blade Runner 2049 (2017) As I wrote above, Blade Runner 2049 is the movie that got Roger Deakins an Oscar for the best cinematography in 2018. In this video, he was mainly talking about the “Hologram Sync Scene” where a girl and a hologram blend into one. Deakins’ VFX team wanted to shoot one girl against the blue screen, but Deakins was against that, because it would affect the lighting. In the end they did it directly on set with both girls to match the lighting better. Blade Runner 2049 Holograph Sync Scene. Source: Rotten Tomatoes Deakins stressed out how important it is for him to always be part of the pre-production with every movie. He likes to do location scouting himself. He wants to know exactly how each set looks, to be able to plan it thoroughly and not be surprised later during the production. By the way, Roger Deakins has some useful tips about lighting on his website RogerDeakins.com. He breaks down lighting of various scenes from his movies including Blade Runner 2049. It requires a registration to see them, but I think these are really useful resources. Skyfall (2012) Skyfall Helicopter Ambush Scene. Source: Rotten Tomatoes Another movie he talked about in this video, is the James Bond 007 movie Skyfall. Deakins described the challenges of shooting the helicopter ambush scene. They shot the exteriors of the house on location outside of London and the interiors and the lake scene in the studio, so it was challenging to bring all those scenes together to create a consistent story. The helicopter crash was partly model and partly shot on location.   The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) Jesse James Silhouette Scene. Source: Rotten Tomatoes Deakins mentioned the night train scene from this movie. The director Andrew Dominik wanted to have a very dark night scene, so Deakins did a silhouette shot. He remembered one other time when a director wanted a silhouette shot, but then he complained that he cannot see actors’ faces. The harmony and good communication between a DP and a director is vital and sometimes it require a long working relationship for a DP to truly understand the director’s vision. Jesse James Train Scene. Source: Rotten Tomatoes The light on the train was a 5K tungsten, so it was a very strong source for that kind of dark environment. Thy ended up gradually dimming the light as the engine came closer towards the camera. They were also panning the light for the shots of the bandits waiting in the woods. This would never look the same in the real situation, but that is the point in filmmaking. Deakins says, that movie lighting does not have to reflect reality. It can be shaped in various ways to support the story. Other Movies and Working with Directors When it comes to working with directors, some of them are looking for something special, but they don’t neccessarily know how to describe it. They will only know when they see it, so for DPs this can sometimes be a real challenge to give that something special to the director. Roger Deakins on set with the Coen Brothers. Source: Rotten Tomatoes Roger Deakins also remembers the movie 1984 (1984) as one of his career highlights. It was Richard Burton’s last film and Deakins remembers special moments talking with Richard in the backstage “discussing life”. What do you think of Roger Deakins’ cinematography? Which of the movies he worked on, is your favourite? Let us know in the comments underneath the article. Source: Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb

Sure to be a crowd-pleaser amongst filmmakers, Black Bear is a story of a director who blurs the line between art and reality.  The protagonist, played by Aubrey Plaza, draws the audience into her search for creative revitalization, which she pursues through the real-life manipulation of a married couple hosting her at a remote lake house in the Adirondacks.  Black Bear is one of ten films in the Sundance Film Festival’s NEXT Category.  Below is our interview with the movie’s cinematographer, Rob Leitzell. Aubrey Plaza and Christopher Abbott appear in Black Bear. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Rob Leitzell. Name: Robert Leitzell Film: Black Bear (dir.Lawrence Michael Levine) Competition Category: NEXT Camera Body: Arri Alexa Mini Lenses: Cooke Speed Panchro cinema5D: Where did your connection to cameras start? RL: My dad was an avid amateur photographer and shot thousands of slides when he traveled for work. He let me use his camera when I was a kid, eventually bought me my own. I kept shooting until college, but I was almost entirely self-taught from Ansel Adams’s books. Learning darkroom printing from his system was a years-long obsession. cinema5D:  So you were artistically inclined from early on then? RL: As a kid who wanted to be an artist but didn’t show much talent in drawing or painting, I learned to work with my hands:  learning carpentry and construction for my school theater. By the time I was in college, I was drafting and designing stage sets.  That led me to a job helping a group of young filmmakers design and build sets for an opera they were writing. cinema5D:  What was your major in college? RL: I somehow majored in “Photography and Performance Art” at Wesleyan University. cinema5D:  And that was where you were building sets? RL: I built sets from 2003 to 2008 or so…both in college and for a little while after for a friend at Columbia Grad. BTS Photos of Black Bear by Erika Svensson & Katie Grant. cinema5D:  Back to the opera-writing filmmakers.  Were they your gateway to the filmmaking world? RL:  That experience and the photos I took of their show led me to shoot some of their student films.  I found that my experience as a photographer gave me a good start as a cinematographer. I shot short films and music videos for them for a number of years.  Then, I worked on the side as a grip to make money, until I enrolled at NYU Grad Film to study directing. cinema5D:  How was your experience in the directing program at NYU? RL:  I met some really talented people and great professors at NYU, but directing stressed me out.  I didn’t feel that I had the talent as a writer that NYU wanted out of its directors, so I dropped out and took the opportunity to go and work on Beasts of the Southern Wild with a lot of my friends, which was a pretty convincing life path. My experience in art and design led to a number of jobs as a Technical Director and VFX Cinematographer, which I alternated with more traditional narrative cinematography. For the past few years, I’ve been entirely focused on that more traditional vein of work. I love it, but it has not been a particularly straight path. BTS Photos of Black Bear by Erika Svensson & Katie Grant. cinema5D: What movies have really inspired you?  Any favorite DPs or directors? RL: Early on, (I was inspired) by a lot of black and white masters:  Fellini’s 8 1/2. Dreyer’s Passion of Joan of Arc, Murnau’s Sunrise, Fritz Lang’s M, Dziga Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera… Then I found color: Terrence Malick and Wong Kar-wai. Their respective Badlands/Days of Heaven/Thin Red Line/The New World and Chungking Express/Happy Together/In the Mood for Love/2046 are  I return to pretty frequently. The past five years or so have been Kaurismaki, Cassavettes, Assayas, Apichatong. Those are heavy-hitters for me, but there are more! I love how every film clues me in to new things. Black Bear got me really into Maurice Pialat and Hong Sang-soo. cinema5D: Were those the directors that Lawrence Michael Levine wanted you to watch for reference? RL:  Lawrence turned me on to the incredible work of Hong Sang-soo, and we watched Maurice Pialat’s work,  specifically Loulou and A Nos Amours.  We talked a lot about Olivier Assayas, who has a remarkable feel for camera work in all his films (and has had a number of great DP’s). We watched and rewatched a bunch of Assayas films, because he moves the camera like nobody else. cinema5D:  Were the two of you in agreement on what you did and didn’t want? RL: Honestly, we came into the process with a lot of mutual trust and admiration, and were pretty much on the same page from the beginning. cinema5D: What’s your advice to directors on how to optimize their relationships with their DPs? RL: Frequently I will try and watch movies that a director finds inspiring or fascinating or that follow a similar vibe, but visual art of any kind can be useful. What I’m trying to find is a shorthand vocabulary for the film that we can use to get complicated concepts and emotions across quickly and specifically when we are tired or stressed or short on time. Saying “do it like such-and-such would” can save easily ten minutes of conversation if you’ve done your homework in advance together. Shotlisting and storyboarding can be useful, but you always need to be ready to cast off that framework if better opportunities arise. Having a director who is interested in keeping channels open and unifying the visual approach across the board is a necessary element of making beautiful work. I find that seeing the set dressed is always really inspiring, and always comes, necessarily, pretty late in the game. (I’m lucky enough to be married to a really talented Production Designer and Costume Designer, who has taught me a lot about the process of creativity.) BTS Photos of Black Bear by Erika Svensson & Katie Grant. I have figured out over the years that a lot of the work I’m proudest of, visually, is striking because of a really herculean effort by the other departments on set. Filmmakers are often less fluent and comfortable with the art/costume/hmu side of the process, which I think limits what they are capable of. Being able to collaborate closely with those department heads is an amazing experience for me. I’m not particularly interested in coming on to a film and pursuing a unilateral approach to what I think the cinematography “should be.” I really prefer trying to find a way to get what I see for a film in line with a director’s vision, a PD’s vision, and so on. cinema5D: Were the people on this particular production team a draw for you to work on Black Bear?  RL:  It’s tricky, because at the end of the day its the production team who are the people that put together what I need to do my job on set, and in this case, I had never met or worked with anyone on production.  (Lawrence and I) had never worked together as Director/DP, but I so liked the way he talked about this movie that I probably would have done it for any budget and any timeline. I just believed in it from the get-go. In this case, I was lucky enough to also have the support and talent of a great cast and crew, which is always special. cinema5D: What about the script made you believe in it from the ”get-go?” RL: Normally, I find I need to read a script two or three times to really get a handle on what my approach should be, but in this case, the movie was brilliantly clear on the first read. The script was so emotionally intense and structurally distinct that it grabbed my attention immediately. There were other things, of course. A single location can be a blessing. Having that location on a beautiful lake in upstate New York for the hot months of summer had an appeal to myself and many members of our talented crew. cinema5D:  Let’s talk about preproduction. How did you and Lawrence prepare? RL: Preproduction was a race.  The abbreviated schedule didn’t allow for much of a tech scout, and the location was locked by the time I came on-board. Without having done a director’s scout or having good floorplans, it was pretty difficult to do any particularly elaborate shot-listing. We did go through that process for scenes that demanded a clear approach, just so we had some structure down and could talk through a dry-run of different ways to approach scenes. Largely, though, we spent a lot of time talking about the feeling of certain scenes, the general language of the film, what kind of shots we liked, what we wanted to avoid. We were ready to work quickly from that sort of general shooting bible on the day. The limited prep schedule also caused headaches for my wonderful G&E team, working in a difficult location, on a tight schedule: no time to put anything into the walls, window reflections, and a small team to deal with that. They killed it. cinema5D: Any personal philosophy for running the camera department? RL: I’m not particularly dogmatic in my approach, and try to stay as flexible as possible. It’s obvious that every film requires different things visually, but I think that’s also true emotionally, and it requires a lot of patience and subtlety to get yourself in the right place. I try to be as friendly and positive on set as possible. I look for crew who are friendly and kind, and who have an artistic and creative mindset. I rely heavily on my crew as active collaborators in a shared vision. At a certain point on any shoot, there will be moments where you will feel your energy lag, or your vision wander, and it’s enormously helpful to have everyone around you understand the beauty and specificity of this film, and this time. BTS Photos of Black Bear by Erika Svensson & Katie Grant. I also know every single mistake in a film will irritate and haunt me for years: through edit, through the color correct, through the premiere, and so on. It’s always worth it to get it right, but it’s never worth it to do so in a way that doesn’t respect the degree of physical work. Filmmaking is emotionally and physically draining. I work hard not to waste the efforts of others, and I try to make time on set comfortable and fun. cinema5D:  Any dealbreakers that will get someone kicked off your team? RL: I don’t rehire crew who have a bad attitude or who aren’t up to the challenges of the job. When you have somebody with either of those issues, I think it’s important to work to replace them as quickly as possible. Keeping people around who are a liability is unfair to the professionalism and work of everyone else on set. cinema5D:  Fair enough! Why did you decide to go with the Alex Mini? RL: It’s hard to find a reason not to use the Alexa Mini at the moment. Put aside the technical advantages, which are formidable. It’s also a camera that I know so intimately that it becomes a simple tool, in no way a distraction or piece of tech, and can become almost invisible on set in the hands of a good AC. A good gaffer knows just how far they can push it, a good colorist already has worked that image a hundred different ways. It leaves more mental space to make creative decisions, and in the end is still the loveliest image around. cinema5D: So it was just a given. RL: I did test a Venice, and although the dual-ISO would have been useful for us, it’s heavy for handheld, and I wasn’t convinced it was ready for production on a shoot like ours. We were six hours out of the city and without the budget for a second camera body, so any sort of equipment mishap would have been disastrous. I haven’t had an Alexa of any kind fail on me since I began shooting on them, almost a decade ago. cinema5D:  What about the optics? RL:  Choosing Speed Panchros for lenses came after a lot of discussion and testing. I have enough experience to be able to limit my choices down to 3 or 4 families of lenses. Before (making a selection), I go to a rental bay and put a normal length on the camera from each set, maybe a 40mm, and it’s almost always obvious which one has the right feel.  I have a set of technical needs that will limit my choices somewhat, but my process for selecting lenses ends up being pretty emotional. In this case, Speed Panchros were the correct choice.  They are flattering to faces; they have lovely fall off and a touch of vignetting. They have a glamour and timelessness that felt right for Black Bear.  There are some lengths that I tried to keep out of the film. The wide and long ends of the group are not the best, which ends up locking you into a 32mm to 75mm range, but that’s a pretty happy place for me anyway, and I could never shake how nice the 32 and 40 are. cinema5D: Did you and Levine stay on the same page through principle photography? RL: We trusted each other. He was pretty hands-off throughout. Generally speaking, we’d see if the blocking we’d planned could work, watch a rehearsal, have a brief discussion of the shooting strategy, and then from that point on, I gave him the freedom to be 100% consumed by his work with the actors. Maybe once or twice each day he’d come to me for a tweak or suggestion or concern, but otherwise, we kept pretty locked in on our departments. cinema5D: Did you use any new tech or tools for this shoot? RL: Our incredible gaffer Derek Horani brought a set of Astera tubes, which are so common on music video and commercial work, but I’d never used them on a narrative project. They were unbelievably helpful, but as with all bits of tech their true utility showed itself in Derek’s exceptional proficiency with them. Being able to run dimmers mid-take, on a small shoot with limited crew and power, is a remarkable ability. I have been a big proponent of the Ratpak AKS system, and always carry one in my kit as well, but on this shoot, the Asteras were king. His team also worked hard every single night to get a really finicky location power system working through endless blackouts and annoyances. BTS Photos of Black Bear by Erika Svensson & Katie Grant. cinema5D: Any go-to accessory or extra luxury you always put in your kit? RL: I love my on board TVlogic OLED, it’s a real gift to have a relatively color-accurate OLED in a form factor that can be on camera, as when I’m also operating I don’t get to a 17″ that often. Everything else is really up to the package my 1AC thinks is best, based on conversations we have in prep. I never worked as an AC, so I try to be pretty deferential to how they like to build camera and work. I like the camera to be as simple and invisible a tool as possible, and I rely on my AC to tell me how they like to acheive that end. cinema5D: Talk a little about your approach to the lighting specific to this film. Any particular challenges? RL:  I had two concerns in this film from a lighting standpoint. My first concern was wanting to keep an illusion of moonlight for as much of the film as possible, both interiors and exteriors. We had a beautiful location, but if we couldn’t get exposure on the trees and grounds surrounding the house, we’d never have any life out the windows, and I thought a good deal of the visual interest would be lost. I wanted to be able to motivate light in the exteriors that wasn’t just tungsten wash from the house. Moonlight gave me some freedom to get characters away from buildings and out into the lake:  have moments feel private and secluded. cinema5D: How did you produce the moonlight? RL: Unfortunately, the driveway to the house was undrivable for a condor, so my G&E team had to work almost exclusively from different sections of the roof on the house, a logistical nightmare that they managed brilliantly every single night. cinema5D:  Roof crew!  What was the second challenge? RL: The second challenge was finding two different looks for the film that were distinct enough to visually match the different emotional arcs, while still having enough of a blend to feel as if they were part of the same film. cinema5D:  What were the two different looks? RL: Part 1 of the film needed to feel glamorous while also feeling practical-lit.  It also includes some very long, complex scenes. In one case, a fifteen-page scene amongst three characters  needed to be blocked and shot out in a single 8 or 9 hour night. Relighting in those situations had to be almost immediate. The blocking was loose enough that we couldn’t rely on hitting the same marks each time. It required a lot of subtlety and creativity, and my team were incredible for pulling it off Part 2 was a verité shoot, again incorporating some really long choreographed sequences. Numerous spots in the film required lighting 3 floors of the house simultaneously, with a mix of units that needed to feel practical in some places, and then like film lights in others…in some moments like moonlight, and at times work for 360-degree shooting. Throughout the shoot, I was impressed with my gaffer Derek’s ability to modulate lighting within these long scenes, running dimmers and using mobile units to keep the shape on faces, all while maintaining the moody, dim feel throughout. cinema5D: After all of that, you probably want to protect the image as much as possible.  Do you negotiate involvement in post into your contract? What was your involvement in the color process? RL: I’m getting better about this. Colorists are such an essential part of the creative process, and it is a real make or break decision for a film. More and more I think that keeping budget for a great colorist is an essential choice for a DP, even if it means being short somewhere else on set.  In this case, I fought from the day I was hired to have the best colorist around, the lovely Kath Raisch. We got her, and I was happy.I am contractually obligated to be involved in post, yes, and my experiences with Kath make me want to do what I can to keep her involved in films going forward. What’s your take on where cinematography is heading? Has the bar been raised or are we getting bogged down by the overturn of new tech? RL:  I honestly get pretty bored talking about tech at this point. Manufacturers have a good reason to try to position every new piece of technology as a “game-changer,” but I think that the work of a cinematographer has remained unchanged for a very long time. There is, of course, a requirement of technical proficiency that is demanded of cinematographers, but we also have a lot of support around who can help us get a handle on that stuff. DIT’s, Gaffers, AC’s, Post-Houses. We are pretty seldom alone in these decisions. The one place where we are frequently alone is in trying to find an appropriate and beautiful visual world for a well-written script. I try, in my life and work, to get ever more aware of the emotional, psychological, and narrative elements of our work.  I think that developing those capacities is the key to making beautiful and successful films. I only want the tech to disappear more and more, and I think that with the right mindset that’s entirely doable. cinema5D:  What’s your advice to ACs, operators, and younger cinematographers who are trying to level up their careers? Finding the balance of humility and confidence is really hard when you’re trying to make lovely things. The movies that I find visually stunning are generally made by people with decades of experience, working with brilliant crews at the top of their game, in marvelous locations, with quite a bit of time. I think it’s important to be a little scared, and use that fear to motivate the endless amount of attention and effort needed to make a work of art in which you can take pride. At the same time, being young and confident (and perhaps a little naive) can also give you the ability to pursue really novel and wild things that somebody a little older and more experienced might never attempt. Find your vision, stay sensitive to it, and pursue it bravely.

The RØDE Lavalier GO is a new tiny lavalier microphone with a 3.5mm TRS jack connector. It contains a high-quality 4.5mm omnidirectional condenser capsule and a durable, kevlar reinforced cable. Though it is optimised for use with the RØDE Wireless GO, it will work with any device with a 3.5mm TRS mic input. Available now for US $79. Lavalier GO microphone. Source: RØDE The Australian audio equipment company RØDE does not need an introduction. Their microphones are very widely used and I think most filmmakers are familiar with some of their products. This year during NAB, RØDE announced the Wireless GO – a very compact wireless audio transmitter & receiver set. For more information about the RØDE Wireless GO, please check our announcement article and our NAB video interview with RØDE. Today, RØDE launches the new Lavalier GO – a lavalier microphone to accompany their tiny wireless set. What are its features? RØDE Lavalier GO The Lavalier GO is a broadcast-grade lavalier microphone with a 3.5mm TRS jack connector. TRS (tip-ring-sleeve) means that the connector has three conductors. It contains a high-quality 4.5mm omnidirectional condenser capsule and a durable, hard-wearing kevlar reinforced cable. Lavalier GO microphone. Source: RØDE It is optimised for use with the RØDE Wireless GO, but will work with any device with a 3.5mm TRS mic input, which supplies plug-in power. It is even compatible with smartphones and other devices with TRRS inputs, using the RØDE SC4 adapter. Lavalier GO microphone. Source: RØDE RØDE Lavalier GO – Key Specs Acoustic principle: permanently polarised condenser Polar pattern: omni-directional Frequency range: 20Hz – 20kHz Output impedance 3k Ω typical Signal to noise ratio: 67 dB Equivalent noise: 27 dB typical Maximum SPL: 110 dB Sensitivity: -35dB (17.8mV @94dB SPL) Dynamic range: 83dB typical Power requirements: powered from plug-in power TRS socket (2.7V) Output connection: gold-plated TRS plug Lavalier GO microphone – included accessories. Source: RØDE The RØDE Lavalier GO is now shipping and will be available in stores soon. The costs are set at US $79. The Lavalier GO comes with a durable mounting clip for quick and easy rigging, a foam pop filter for reducing harsh plosives and wind noise, and a carry pouch. For those looking for a lavalier with a locking connecter, the RØDELink Lavalier microphone that ships with the RØDELink Filmmaker Kit is now available to buy, separately. What do you think of the new Lavalier GO? If you use RØDE’s wireless GO, how do you like it so far? Are you going to pair it with this new mic? Let us know in the comments underneath the article.

Once again, my colleague Johnnie met Mr. Kazuto Yamaki from SIGMA corporation, to talk about future trends and products for the Japanese lens – and also camera – manufacturer. During this interview, taking place on the CP+ 2019 exhibition floor, Kazuto Yamaki speaks about new L-Mount lenses, their new L-Mount adapter and briefly about the upcoming SIGMA L-Mount mirrorless camera. Many New Lenses for L-Mount As you might know from our previous article, SIGMA will release 11 new Art prime lenses for the L-Mount system – 14mm F1.8, 20mm F1.4, 24mm F1.4, 28mm F1.4, 35mm F1.4, 40mm F1.4, 50mm F1.4, 70mm F2.8 macro, 85mm F1.4, 105mm F1.4, and 135mm F1.8. Those lenses are not entirely new, but SIGMA engineers take the whole – already existing – SIGMA Art full-frame primes line-up and redesign them for L-Mount specifications. The lenses are already available for Canon EF mount, SIGMA SA mount and Sony E-Mount. Precisely, the mentioned E-Mount versions are now being redesigned for L-Mount, which is most likely the case due to the similar flange focal distance – 18mm for E-Mount and 20mm for L-Mount. As Kazuto Yamaki told us, SIGMA engineers are working hard to make sure these lenses will be available during the second half of this year. We also found out that SIGMA already works on additional lenses for L-Mount and some of them should become available this year, too. Unfortunately, we do not know anything more about those lenses yet. Possibly some zoom lenses, like the 24-70mm F2.8? In any case, this really shows SIGMA’s 100% commitment to provide a high-quality lens portfolio for the L-Mount ecosystem. It looks like there will be a handful of native lens choices for the new Panasonic S1 and Panasonic S1R cameras very soon. SIGMA L-Mount Camera and MC-21 Converter SIGMA does not only work on native L-mount lenses, they have also announced the MC-21 mount converter, which will allow mounting existing SIGMA lenses with Canon EF mount or SA mount onto L-Mount cameras. SIGMA has a similar product out there already, for EF/SA mount to E-Mount conversion – the popular SIGMA MC-11. The MC-21 adapter will support quick autofocus (but not continuous autofocus for filming), as well as correction functions of a camera, such as peripheral illumination, chromatic aberration of magnification, and distortion. Last but not least: Already at Photokina 2018, Kazuto Yamaki told us that SIGMA is working on their own L-Mount mirrorless camera. The camera will be based on SIGMA’s own Foveon full-frame sensor. Now at CP+ 2019, we were told that due to slight delays in development, the camera will not be released this year. The new release year for the camera is 2020. What do you think about the L-Mount system and the upcoming SIGMA L-Mount lens lineup? Are you planning to invest in the new system? Let us know in the comments underneath the article.