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SHOOT STORY ALTERED CARBON
you wanted to speak to any of the departments they were all there, you just had to walk to their offices. It’s like you’d imagine a Hollywood lot would be back in the day. It was great, as if you were prepping an episode in between blocks you could speak with the art department for instance and just walk over there. The producers and writers were also there talking about things coming up.” The really big sound stage for the street set was a great asset, as unless you pointed the camera very high up all you could see was the built set. They could even push through the walls and build restaurants with fronts to continue a shot or knock out a wall on the second level and it could be a balcony to a hotel. The downside was that when they weren’t shooting they had to tear the lighting down as they couldn’t afford to have it in place permanently. The Netflix production model does have downsides. FIRST TIME We spoke to both shooters about how they shared the load and how they shot over the 11 months at Skydance. The two got very close (even carpooling to work) and bounced ideas off each other to the extent that
more than 60fps. Most of the pre- production talk however was about the huge data rate that a full-sensored ALEXA 65 outputs at 6.5K when the mandate is only for 4K. Both Neville and Martin really wanted to use the bigger part of the sensor; part of the look is the large-format 70mm photography that you can’t get with a S35mm sensor. Neville and Martin asked another Netflix show, Okja , also shooting in Vancouver about their ALEXA 65 data strategy. It turned out the difference in price for LTO tapes alone with 6.5 and 5K was around $100,000. They shot occasionally on the full sensor but only when post needed the extra resolution to play around with. Some of the lenses started to vignette but post still needed everything available.
they didn’t need a dedicated second unit as they shot each other’s episodes (they moved to three units near the end of production when it was busier). Martin talked about the choice of the ARRI ALEXA 65 as the main camera. “We were the first episodic to use the camera, now it’s relatively commonplace. We needed the camera for the main unit and the second unit and we were very grateful to ARRI for letting us use so many of the 65s so it was exclusive to the show. Eventually we had five ALEXA 65 bodies at a time where there weren’t that many in the world. There was also an ALEXA Mini camera on both units which initially we thought of for tight corners or maybe as a crash cam. Netflix is very firm on its 4K mandate and the Mini is around 3.4K so we got very specific guidelines on its use, it had to be used less than 10% of the show but also it couldn’t be used when you’re holding on the shot; so if you’re doing a dialogue scene where someone is doing a long monologue it definitely has to be the ALEXA 65. A quick action scene could be the Mini.” As it turned out nearly 99% of the show was shot using the 65 with the Mini being used if they wanted
LEFT Actor Joel Kinnaman and B-camera operator
Sasha Proctor, ready for more action.
BELOW Actors Lisa Chandler and Dichen Lachman with director (Episode 2 and 3) Executive Producer Nick Hurran.
NETFLIX IS VERY FIRM ON ITS 4K MANDATE AND THE MINI IS AROUND 3.4K
DEFINITION MARCH 2018
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