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SHOOT STORY ISLE OF DOGS
“Ever since we stopped using 35mm we ’ ve picked cameras that aren ’ t very good because... no still camera manufacturer is making a camera especially to shoot stop frame on. We ask of it more than it ’ s ever designed to do. We force it into providing a live image off the chip pretty much all the time. That takes it toll on chips – they get very hot, you get density fluctuations, you get fluttering in the shadows.” been popular for stop-motion production but just such a tendency to overheat when used continuously in live-view mode, often to the point where magenta flickering became visible in the shadows. During the production of ParaNorman , production company Laika had been forced to retain what Oliver calls “a gang of people in VFX whose job it is to sort out the overnight fluctuations and flicker. This time we didn ’ t have to do that. We spent more money on the cameras but saved that money on the fixes. That was the same camera, the 1Dx, that Aardman used to shoot Early Man on – we both did a full Canon ’ s 5D family had previously
Oliver refers frequently to animators using terminology more often associated with actors. “The animator is very much stepping out on the stage to give a performance. The nuances of performance might vary between them. There ’ s a high concentration level required and having anyone else in that space can actually be distracting. If you have a crowd scene, you might have an assistant animator tweaking the background. If it ’ s acting, it ’ s one guy in a room for as long as it takes.” The time required, he says, is hugely variable. “You could be doing a single close-up on a character frowning and it might take forever because it has to look absolutely right to whatever emotion is going through the character ’ s head.” CANON 1DX Isle of Dogs was shot on digital stills cameras, in common with many other recent stop-motion productions, although Oliver emphasises that the recently-developed Canon 1Dx DSLR is much better for stop-motion work than pre-existing options.
CAMERA AND LIGHTING EQUIPMENT FOR ISLE OF DOGS WAS PURCHASED OUTRIGHT
testing programme of cameras out there and both came to the same conclusion without knowing what the other had chosen.” Camera and lighting equipment for Isle of Dogs was purchased outright, given that it would be required continuously for two years. “I bought 600 C-stands,” Oliver recalls. “They all get sold at the end – someone gets a fab deal... and it ’ s all immaculate because it ’ s never been on a truck in its life!” He describes the lighting package as conventional: “The whole bucket of fresnels, 10Ks, 5Ks, 2Ks, 300s, mainly ARRI. Some Strand in there, cyc lights, dedolights.” The Altman Micro Ellipse, a miniature profile, was widely used: “We ’ ll buy a couple of hundred of those for a job.” Miniature practical lighting, Oliver notes, is something that ’ s changed in the last few years. “Whereas we used to use mini incandescents, we use a lot more LEDs because they ’ re
ABOVE The Canon 1Dx DSLR is by far the best camera for stop motion.
BELOW 600 C-stands were part of the gear purchase order.
DEFINITION APRIL 2018
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