GLASS GURU
and my view was split on this, thinking, ‘Isn’t it good to show kids that cruelty really existed in circuses? Or do we protect them from those images?’ “The VFX coordinator on Dumbo was Richard Stammers and the CGI Dumbo is a baby elephant growing up over a six-month time period. He is like your leading man, but he’s not there, so you have to remember to do his coverage. It’s not like having an actor demanding, ‘Where’s my close-up? But I’ve done that before on Avengers: Age of Ultron and Guardians of the Galaxy . Rocket [the talking raccoon] was a virtual character, as was Groot [a giant, walking tree]. There are certain techniques you use if the CGI characters have physical contact with the actors, if there is movement, if they touch things. It’s important where they are placed in the frame.” CAPTAIN MARVEL Captain Marvel , based off the comics created by Stan Lee, is the other high-profile film Davis has been working on – very different from Dumbo. Captain Marvel came out in early March and premiered in Los Angeles. Davis says: “It is an important film in the Marvel universe, because the female superhero is the lead role. They’ve had important female characters in their films before, but this is new and different. She doesn’t fit into the stereotype of a gorgeous girl dressed in stretchy tights and a busty top. She’s a kick-ass, strong woman who doesn’t have a romantic interest.” Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck were chosen by Marvel’s boss, Kevin Feige, to write and direct Captain Marvel . They are American independent filmmakers who write and direct together and have already made films like Mississippi Grind , Half Nelson , It’s Kind of a Funny Story and Sugar . Davis explains the problems involved in making a superhero movie, saying: “Marvel films have lots of action and stunts, but it’s a little bit dull and laborious to shoot because the actors can’t punch each other in the face; you have to put the stunt double in.
this case, Ben chose the Sphero 65 line of optics. The Sphero 65 lenses were, for most part, off-the-shelf versions of that series. However, there were a couple of focal lengths Ben requested to go closer focus. He wanted the ability to go inside of 18 inches on some key focal lengths. To accomplish this, we removed the optical components of the selected stock Sphero 65 lenses and adapted them to more aggressive mechanical transports. The Sphero 65 lenses came in the following focal lengths: 24, 29, 35, 40, 50, 65, 75, 100, 135, 180 and 300mm. There was an occasion where Ben requested a long telephoto lens and the focal length of the lens turned out to be 3200mm. “In addition to the prime lenses, a host of zoom lenses and speciality lenses were built to meet Ben’s needs for Captain Marvel . The zooms were custom modified for Ben. We wanted to preserve as much of the nominal look and feel of the stock SLZ3 and SLZ11 zooms, which are nominally designed for the 35mm format. To accomplish this, we had to find a balance between maximising the active area of the sensor the zoom needed to cover while maintaining a quality Ben felt was appropriate for the show. In addition, a speciality lens was developed for Ben, which allowed him to change the plane of focus during shooting. It was a dynamic lens that gave Ben complete live control of the image plane as he was shooting.”
For Captain Marvel , Davis asked Panavision to produce a set of optics to create a distinct look for the film – a set of optics that would completely differentiate itself from the Sphero 65 lenses. Davis requested a look that was akin to the vintage optics he used in the 35mm format world, and he was especially interested in the characteristics of the Canon vintage K35 optics. Davis favours the softer look of the K35 lenses and was interested in mimicking their flaring characteristics. The faster aperture speed of T/1.4 was also a feature he mentioned would be useful. As a response to Davis’ request, Panavision developed the 65 Vintage lens line for the show. A key feature Davis mentioned was the close focus ability of the optics and, as a result, the 65 Vintage optics have close focus capabilities inside of 18 inches. Panavision’s Dan Sasaki explains the process: “In the case of one of the focal lengths, we used some of the actual elements from a K35 to produce the qualities Ben spoke about and liked during his lens bracketing test during the prep. We were able to create the other focal lengths utilising proprietary optics. The focal length range of the 65 Vintage line was 24, 30, 35, 40, 50, 65, 85, 100 and 150mm. The 35, 50, 65 and 85mm had an aperture of T/1.4. “Ben wanted a set of lenses with more contrast and better glare control for another sequence of the movie. In
IMAGES Dumbo and Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel), both aerial experts
26 DEF I N I T ION | APR I L 20 1 9
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