DEFINITION November 2019

GEMI N I MAN | DRAMA

Cinemas need double laser projection to have a chance to show 120fps HFR. Dolby cinemas have that, but there aren’t that many of them around. It seems, then, that we’re in the same situation as three years ago; the filmmakers pleading with the public to seek out a 120fps version, then the almost inevitable disappointment at a fruitless search for a suitable cinema is followed by not going to see any version of the film, because of the let-down. Portelli explains: “Ang said we had to careful with this film not to be so ‘tech head’ about seeing the 120fps version. You don’t have to and our message this time is: we have shot the thickest negative and the best possible amount of data that we can. That process allows us to deliver these other versions. If you want the 120fps, we give Dolby a very nice 2K version, and then we make a great 60fps version for the rest of the world. The 60fps really works and Paramount are branding it ‘3D Plus’. IMAX is 60fps as well, but its laser projection is at least bright, which tends to be good for 3D.” PRODUCTION FOR GEMINI MAN For Billy Lynn , the production used Sony’s now old F65 cameras, which were unwieldy at the best of times. This time, they went back to using the Arri Alexa M – a favourite camera of director James Cameron for his 3D exploits. “The M was gutted and modified as we needed to do 4K 120fps,” Portelli recalls. “The Alexa Mini doesn’t do that – we’d only get 60fps out of it, which is a shame because of its light carbon-fibre body. However, the M cameras allowed us to do quite a bit of Steadicam, as we had to be mobile. Gemini Man was quite a travel job. This was an action film, so you have to move the camera to achieve the visual aesthetic. “The feeling has been that you can’t do handheld 3D as that will induce motion sickness, but we moved the hell out of this camera. We built wire pulley systems so we could leave them hanging in the centre of

understood that, as a public performance, not many people would watch it this way. Three years ago we described the experience in the following way: “So we saw it. Twelve minutes of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk in glorious 4K, 120fps 3D. The feeling was amazingly intense, especially for the battle scenes. Seeing everything doesn’t explain what 120 frames gives you, but one scene brought it home to me. An American soldier is firing his heavy machine gun at the enemy. While he is shooting, the vibration going through his body gives him an aura of dust surrounding his body shape. That is a new reality for me. You definitely felt like you could reach out and enter the scene, just walk right in there.” The movie had a limited release as a 24fps movie, but soon disappeared from view after getting a mauling from the critics. Apparently wartime PTSD in vivid hyperreality wasn’t flavour of the month at the time. Now, you can buy a 60fps 3D Blu-ray, however and the comments on

the Amazon webpage are full of praise for the look of the movie. There was plenty of blame for the demise of the movie put at the door of the distributors for their lack of marketing, but eventually the technical crew had to admit defeat and put HFR on the shelf marked ‘revisit this sometime’ and got back to ‘normal’ 24fps moviemaking. DOUBLE TROUBLE Of course, technology marches on and if it’s not working for you now, then just wait a while and it’ll come around. Presumably this is what Lee, technical supervisor whiz kid Ben Gervais and stereographer Demetri Portelli have done with Gemini Man , because 120fps, 4K 3D is back! As is the public’s and critics’ mistrust of it, but let’s not worry about that and just applaud the effort. Portelli explains the technical difference between now and three years ago: “Last time when we were doing Billy Lynn , we were finishing it without a lab as we had built our own facility. Then it was ‘hopefully this will work’. When we were heading towards deadlines and distribution it was very nerve-racking. Billy Lynn was the proof of concept and it needed to happen, it was also a little bit sad what happened, as there was very little courage to actually release it in 3D.” He continues: “With this project, Gemini Man , Paramount Pictures has been amazing by supporting the technology and the filmmaker and rolling out the film internationally as a high frame rate movie. They haven’t released the film as a 24fps movie for the audience, which is a wonderful success for us and a statement of confidence for HFR.” At the same time, HFR has still been seen as a work in progress – mainly because seeing the full 120fps film is very difficult. “I live in Canada and there is nowhere here to see the 120fps version,” admits Portelli. “All we can do is carry on advocating for more people to see the movie as Ang [Lee] meant it to be seen.”

IMAGES Behind-the- scenes shots and stills from Gemini Man. © 2019 Paramount Pictures. All rights reserved. Photo credit: Ben Rothstein

NOVEMBER 20 1 9 | DEF I N I T ION 35

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