Definition Sep/Oct 2025 - Web

Our latest issue dives Caught Stealing, Train Dreams, The Long Walk and Weapons, as well as bringing you the lowdown on upcoming industry expos including IBC Show, Manaki Festival, Cine Gear ATL and NAB NY. We also speak to key UK studios to get a picture of the current landscape in the sector, check out the cine tools bringing a filmic look to sports broadcasts and delve into the intriguing world of Gaussian splatting. Enjoy!

SEP/OCT 2025

£5.49/$11.99

CAUGHT STEALING DOP Matthew Libatique teams up with Darren Aronofsky to capture the grit & grunge of nineties New York

GAUSSIAN SPLATTING: THE FUTURE OF 3D CAPTURE?

BROADCAST VENDORS EMBRACE CINE-LIVE TOOLS FOR SPORTS

ADOLPHO VELOSO ON NATURALISM & NATURE IN TRAIN DREAMS

IBC SHOW 2025 UNMISSABLE SPEAKERS & STANDS AT THIS YEAR’S AMSTERDAM SUMMIT

Use this QR code to view the issue online, find our socials, visit the website and more!

WELCOME

EDITORIAL Editor in chief Nicola Foley nicolafoley@bright.uk.com Senior staff writer Katie Kasperson Features writer Oliver Webb Chief sub editor Matthew Winney Sub editors Zanna Buckland, Chris Young Contributors Adrian Pennington, Phil Rhodes ADVERTISING

Sales director Sam Scott-Smith samscott-smith@bright.uk.com 01223 499457 | +447875711967 Sales manager Emma Stevens emmastevens@bright.uk.com 01223 499462 | +447376665779 DESIGN Design director Andy Jennings Magazine design manager Lucy Woolcomb Ad production Holly May PUBLISHING Managing directors Andy Brogden & Matt Pluck

F or many in the industry, September means one thing: IBC. While traditionally aimed at the broadcast sector, there’s more and more to explore on the cine side of the show too, and I can’t wait to see what’s new this year. Check out our guide to the must-see speakers and stands on page 70. We’ve also got news on Manaki Brothers ICFF, Cine Gear ATL, NAB New York and a look ahead to the SMPTE conference, plus we catch up with the president of the Irish Society of Cinematographers to uncover the secrets behind the Emerald Isle’s quiet success as a shooting location. Elsewhere in this month’s Industry pages, I speak to three key UK studios for a temperature check on the sector. From the growing importance of identity and service to skills challenges and the rise of new content types bringing fresh demands, there’s plenty to unpack – see page 54. This month’s cover story is Caught Stealing , which sees DOP Matthew Libatique reunite with Darren Aronofsky to bring a nostalgic vision of nineties New York to life. Also on the slate, Jo Willems and Francis Lawrence join forces for The Long Walk , leaning into long takes, a seventies look and minimal gear for a stark, unsettling adaptation of Stephen King’s Vietnam War-inspired novel. We also speak to the creatives behind Train Dreams , the new Superman and summer horror hit Weapons , as well as breaking down a standout sequence from action-comedy sequel Nobody 2 . On the tech side, we look at the cine tools bringing a filmic look to live sports coverage,

examine the environmental cost (and possible benefits) of AI in VFX, and shine a spotlight on the nascent 3D rendering technique Gaussian splatting. Enjoy!

Bright Publishing LTD Bright House, 82 High Street, Sawston, Cambridgeshire, CB22 3HJ, UK prices, without tax, where available or converted using the exchange rate on the day the magazine went to press. Definition is published monthly by Bright Publishing Ltd, Bright House, 82 High Street, Sawston, Cambridge, CB22 3HJ. No part of this magazine can be used without prior written permission of Bright Publishing Ltd. Definition is a registered trademark of Bright Publishing Ltd. The advertisements published in Definition that have been written, designed or produced by employees of Bright Publishing Ltd remain the copyright of Bright Publishing Ltd and may not be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. Prices quoted in sterling, euros and US dollars are street

Editor in chief

@definitionmagazine

@definitionmags

PROUDLY PARTNERING WITH...

DEFINITIONMAGS

CONTENTS

PRODUCTIONS 8/ CAUGHT STEALING

DOP Matthew Libatique gives us the lowdown on his latest collaboration

with Darren Aronofsky 18/ THE LONG WALK

DOP Jo Willems and director Francis Lawrence reunite for a brutal Stephen King rework 28/ TRAIN DREAMS The natural world becomes a character in this poignant Clint Bentley feature. DOP Adolpho Veloso talks us through it 36/ WEAPONS We get the inside scoop on this summer’s hottest horror, courtesy of the special FX, sound and hair and makeup teams 44/ SUPERMAN Framestore breaks down its impressive VFX work in the latest adaptation of Superman to hit screens TECH 14/ GAUSSIAN SPLATTING Been wondering what the heck Gaussian splatting is? Find out with a little help from Clear Angle Studios and the NFTS 24/ CINEMATIC SPORTS It’s official: sports broadcasters are getting cinematic. We check out the tools and tech bringing a whole new dimension to your favourite game

Katie Kasperson, senior staff writer, thinks Inception (2010) is the stuff of dreams DEFINITION RECOMMENDS: INCEPTION

R arely are we graced with a film as ambitious as Christopher Nolan’s Inception . First written as a horror, the plot – after being adapted to a thriller – follows professional dream stealer Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) as he attempts a heist of a wealthy heir’s subconscious. The story is as complex as the human mind itself, but, much like any Nolan script, the protagonist’s emotional journey serves as its focal point, grounding the audience in reality despite the film’s gravity-defying visual effects.

Thanks to the success of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight , Nolan was awarded ample budget – enough to bring a story like this to life. With longtime collaborator Wally Pfister stepping in as cinematographer, they shot on location in Tokyo, Paris, Tangier and Alberta, with additional footage filmed on set builds in LA and London. While it may take two or three viewings to grasp what’s going on, Inception stands tall as a feat of big-budget filmmaking. Everyone involved understood the assignment.

DEFINITIONMAGAZINE.COM

CONTENTS

REGULARS 6/ BEHIND THE SHOT

Callan Green talks us through a hall of mirrors sequence in action-comedy sequel Nobody 2 34/ AI & THE CRAFT AI is terrible for the environment, right? In the context of VFX, maybe not... 43/ TAKE TWO Dissecting the cinematic icon that is Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho , 65 years After a post-pandemic boomtime, the UK’s studio sector is struggling to find a new normal. We investigate 62/ APUTURE x CREW STUDIO The production hub and cinematic lighting wizards have teamed up to help inspire and educate the next generation of filmmakers 64/ THE VIEW FROM… IRELAND Continuing our world tour, the president of the Irish Society of Cinematographers gives us the view from his vantage point 66/ INDUSTRY BRIEFINGS News on industry events such as Manaki Brothers Film Festival and the upcoming SMPTE summit, plus new gear and more 70/ IBC SPOTLIGHT Grab your stroopwafels and your comfiest trainers – it’s nearly time to head to Amsterdam for this annual media-tech extravaganza! after its release INDUSTRY 54/ STUDIO SPECIAL

DEFINITIONMAGS

Callan Green, ACS, NZCS takes us through a disorientating hall of mirrors sequence in action-comedy Nobody 2

A sequel to 2021’s Nobody , action-comedy Nobody 2 Odenkirk) dragged back into his old life after thwarting a home invasion. Directed by Timo Tjahjanto, it reunites Connie Nielsen, RZA, Colin Salmon, Gage Munroe, Paisley Cadorath and Christopher Lloyd, while introducing John Ortiz, Colin Hanks and Sharon Stone into the mix. For cinematographer Callan Green, ACS, NZCS, one set piece stands out from the shoot: “It has to be the hall of mirrors sequence – a claustrophobic, finds suburban dad and retired assassin Hutch Mansell (Bob WORDS NICOLA FOLEY IMAGES UNIVERSAL PICTURES

disorientating funhouse, booby-trapped by Hutch with his dad and brother while waiting for Lendina and her henchmen to arrive,” he shares. “Hutch evades the group of bad guys at every turn, before blowing them up in a fireball that blasts them through a giant clown’s mouth. It was one of the most challenging – and most satisfying – elements to pull off.” Working with Tjahjanto and production designer Michael Diner, Green wanted a set that felt epic, could hide Hutch in plain sight and looked much bigger than the budget allowed. A hall of mirrors offered that potential – but also

brought a new set of headaches, such as crew reflections, maintaining screen direction and keeping the geography readable when every surface looks the same. Diner’s team built scale models to test angles, eventually landing on a slightly tapered 40-foot hallway with hidden bends at each end that gave actors natural entry and exit points. The floor was a glossy black tile – the idea being that it was reflective enough to add depth but a safer choice than glass. Even so, visibility control was still an issue. “Matt Schween, our A camera operator, donned a full black ninja suit

DEFINITIONMAGAZINE.COM

BEHIND THE SHOT

ON REFLECTION Angles had been tested with scale models of the set to ensure filming success

to disappear into the reflections,” Green laughs. “We also used a high-quality two-way mirror along one side, which let us do profile tracking shots without being seen ourselves – and the quality really matters; I’ve been burned with cheaper glass that loses up to six stops of light.” Filming over the summer in Winnipeg, although great for long shooting days, also proved challenging in terms of heat and image quality. Green captured the action on an ALEXA ARRI 35 paired with Panavision T Series anamorphics and a “gorgeous, light-hungry LUT from Dave Hussey at Company 3,” he says. “That

gave us the bold, colourful, cinematic feel, while holding onto an underlying darkness that reflects Hutch’s descent into danger.” To extend the perceived depth of the set, Green and his team ran roof- mounted chase lights in opposite directions depending on who was on camera. “The goons walked against the light flow, while Hutch walked with it,” he explains. “This solved screen direction issues and let us work mostly from one end of the set.” The lighting itself was full-spectrum LED rope, DMX-controlled and mounted in front of ceiling mirrors to

add layers of depth without clutter – but midway through, disaster struck. “Our DMX lighting system completely shut down – instantly killing 30% of our shoot time,” recalls Green. “My gaffer looked like he’d aged five years in five minutes, but he worked a miracle and got us back online! It definitely introduced some BTS suspense to match the sequence…” “The film is playful, colourful and a little dangerous,” sums up Green. “And the hall of mirrors reflects that. It’s stylised and outrageous, but still belongs in Hutch’s world; standing out without feeling out of place.”

DEFINITIONMAGS

PRODUCTION CAUGHT STEALING

“I wanted the film to feel how I remember walking the streets of New York in the 90s” DOP Matthew Libatique sits down with Definition to discuss Caught Stealing – his latest collaboration with Darren Aronofsky

WORDS OLIVER WEBB IMAGES CTMG & SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT

S et in New York City in 1998, and living in a seedy apartment block, Hank is tasked with looking after his neighbour’s cat and soon finds himself caught up in the criminal underbelly of New York. The film was captured by DOP Matthew Libatique. 1998 also marked Libatique’s first feature collaboration with director Darren Aronofsky, with mathematician thriller Pi . Having shot all of Aronofsky’s feature films to date, with the exception of 2008 film The Wrestler , Libatique Caught Stealing follows former baseball player Hank Thompson (Austin Butler). Now a bartender

was the natural choice for Caught Stealing . When it came to their initial conversations about the look of the film, discussions revolved around camera movement. Libatique opted for the Sony VENICE 2 due to the ergonomics of the camera and the ability to access and capture small spaces. He also relied on the DJI Ronin 4D 8K, as well as two sets of Bausch & Lomb Super Baltar lenses rented from DOP Ed Lachman. “Darren felt the need for smaller cameras,” begins Libatique. “I was working at 3200 ASA, because the Sony VENICE 2 is a really sensitive camera. One might think that doesn’t require

DEFINITIONMAGAZINE.COM

CAUGHT STEALING PRODUCTION

DEFINITIONMAGS

PRODUCTION CAUGHT STEALING

VISUAL TIME MACHINE Libatique enjoyed capturing the essence of nineties New York, even to the point of recreating old iconic store fronts

light, but that’s completely untrue. When you look at one of our sets, there‘s largely practical lighting, naturally streaming through windows in the day or through practicals at night. There’s also always augmentation to extend the effects of practical lights. We had small lights in front of Hank’s apartment, but bigger ones for our night exteriors. However, I don’t generally like the lighting to show itself, especially in this film. I wanted it to feel how I remember walking the streets of New York in the nineties.” Libatique and Aronofsky wanted a location-based shoot, and to place themselves in different neighbourhoods throughout New York City. One of the

THE THING ABOUT NEW YORK IS THAT so much of it is timeless ”

locations included the iconic Coney Island, which has previously featured in both Pi and Requiem for a Dream . “We shot both those films in the late nineties, and so there was that extra element of nostalgia going into this,” says Libatique. “It was a question of how we articulated our memory of it into cinematography.” The two looked at the films of Sidney Lumet as a reference point, including Dog Day Afternoon and The Verdict . “Lumet was a master of subtly capturing the environment he’s in,” he explains. “We also looked at Scorsese’s After Hours , as there were similarities in the vibe and tone. It was important for us to construct the look and the coverage based on the

characterisations that evolved. What I love about Caught Stealing is how many characters are in it and how each and every character shares the screen and frames with each other at some point. That’s something Darren hadn’t really done before. His films are usually extremely subjective, but this one isn’t.” Despite the film seemingly having few visual effects, the VFX team were tasked with helping to recreate the time period by removing modern elements. “For example, one of the very first shots is facing the Twin Towers. The thing about New York is that so much of the city is timeless,” says Libatique. “A lot of the VFX involved painting out Grubhub and

DEFINITIONMAGAZINE.COM

PRODUCTION CAUGHT STEALING

Postmates bikes passing by carrying giant bags of food. We also recreated the fronts of places. There’s a legendary restaurant called Benny’s Burritos that appears in the film, as it’s on the corner where Hank lives. Down the street is a place called Kim’s Video and Music that he goes past after a big shootout at the bar. They were iconic East Village locations that we recreated because anyone who lived in the city during that time would be transported back there by seeing those establishments. People would actually walk by when we were shooting and ask if they had reopened.” One of the locations that didn’t require much alteration was Chinatown, as it hasn’t really changed since the nineties – except for the neon lights, which were removed in post. In one of the Chinatown sequences, Hank is chased by two Hasidic hitmen played by Liev Schreiber and Vincent D’Onofrio. “That was great fun to shoot,” admits Libatique. “When the van goes up on the curb and Hank is running away, I couldn’t believe how close it was to him. The van was driven by Vincent, who’s an excellent driver. We used the DJI for a lot of that sequence, as we were trying to run through the small spaces. It was a combination of using the VENICE 2 on the Ronin and the DJI handheld on a sandbag cart chasing Hank to try and create as much fanaticism as possible.” The shoot involved capturing a number of car chases and crashes, which required extensive planning. The

IT WAS EXCITING TO take these toys into this iconic place AND PUT THEM ON DISPLAY”

Flushing Meadows car crash sequence was particularly exciting for Libatique. “Darren has never really done an action sequence like that before,” he says. “When Hank and Russ (Matt Smith) are chased down by Roman (Regina King) at Flushing Meadows near the Unisphere we employed the EDGE arm – similar to the Russian arm. We had what’s called a biscuit, which is basically a trailer being driven that can accommodate a vehicle, so the actors don’t have to drive.” Libatique relied on his previous work shooting stunts and applied his knowledge and skill set to creating the scene. “We had a stunt driver driving the car on a trailer; we were able to fix cameras inside for our coverage and

DEFINITIONMAGAZINE.COM

CAUGHT STEALING PRODUCTION

IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT While some driving scenes were shot in a volume, the stunt team also took to the streets of New York to film some of the action on location using car-mounted camera rigs

For the action sequences, a CG cat was also required. “You obviously can’t have a real cat inside a moving vehicle, so we’d put a CG cat in for parts where it was a dangerous situation,” adds Libatique. “It was a sneaky movie for VFX in that sense. I worked very closely with Dan Schrecker of Powerhouse VFX. We’ve worked together before. The nice thing about working with Darren is that he comes with his own ecosystem of people that have all worked together before, which makes it very comfortable.” Initially, Libatique was nervous about shooting with a cat, due to their unpredictability. “Dogs are much easier to work with, but this cat was incredible,” he admits. “The cat was a superstar, that understood the camera like no other animal I’ve ever worked with. He’s called Tonic, but in the film his name is Bud. His trainer was wonderful, and I couldn’t be more impressed by how Tonic performed. We had doubles for him too, and each one had a unique talent. For instance, we had a cat that could snarl on cue, which was his one skill. We had another that really liked being held, because Tonic didn’t love that. We also needed some very specific actions – for example, there’s a shot where he meets

Colorado (Bad Bunny); shots like these were done by a splinter unit, because you need time to get something real.” Having collaborated on eight feature films together, Libatique is very understanding of Aronofsky’s creative process. “Darren is a really purposeful filmmaker,” he says. “Even when he’s seemingly improvising, he’s already worked everything out in his mind. He’s very orderly in that sense. There are walls he places on all of us as collaborators, but within the confines of this structure, there’s still a lot of freedom. He’s always been very daring.” “I love creating the cocktail that eventually becomes the look of the film, and just building a world,” concludes Libatique. “Period films are extremely challenging, but gratifying to do when you accomplish them. Being able to use cinematography to convey a particular time and place is fun. As a craftsperson, you can’t ask for much more, because you’re putting your skills to the challenge and exercising every creative muscle. On any film with Darren, he can be a challenging collaborator because he’s so demanding, but he’s also brilliant. He expects and welcomes a creative energy that measures up with his.”

he drove at speed around the circle,” he recalls. “We also used a method that involved attaching a driving pod on top of Roman’s SUV when she was driving. There was a guy on top actually driving it so she didn’t have to and could focus on acting. It was super exciting to take these toys into this iconic place in Flushing Meadows and put them on display.” A lot of the driving was actually done in a volume, except for most of the stunt sequences. “Portions of those sequences were shot in a volume with LED screens for the backgrounds. Shooting the plates in modern-day New York, it’s impossible to avoid every Tesla and Rivian, so each shot had to be doctored to remove modern vehicles, signs and LEDs.”

DEFINITIONMAGS

TECH GAUSSIAN SPLATTING THINK OF GAUSSIAN SPLATTING AS A WAY TO SPLAT A SCENE INTO A VIEWABLE, INTERACTIVE FORMAT

Phil Rhodes explores the emergent 3D capture technology, with input from Clear Angle Studios and the NFTS

B ringing real-world objects into computer images isn’t a new idea, but the most popular approaches have struggled with elements as simple as reflective surfaces. Some fresh ideas, though, might offer solutions. Object scanning has typically relied on recreating the shape of an object as a mesh, then painting onto that mesh with image data. Techniques involving multi-directional lighting can record the more complex characteristics of a surface, but reflections of the environment in which the object was scanned, as well as transparency, are often poorly represented. An alternative – resplendent in the name Gaussian splatting – is based on ideas dating back to the nineties,

but recent advances in hardware and software have made it more practical. Alex Dewar is lead capture technician at Clear Angle Studios, and describes the technique simply: “Imagine a three- dimensional scene made up of millions of tiny, coloured points. Each point – or Gaussian – has a specific location in that 3D space as well as a colour, shape and opacity. Then, when you look at the scene, those points are rendered so that you see a realistic image, complete with lighting and reflections.” Dewar’s involvement began with more traditional techniques. “I fell in love with 3D work at The Animation School in Cape Town. After that, I landed a job working on projects like Troy : Fall of a City and The Scorpion King : Book of Souls .

EXPERT EXPLAINER Clear Angle lead capture technician Alex Dewar sheds light on Gaussian splatting 3D capture technology

DEFINITIONMAGAZINE.COM

GAUSSIAN SPLATTING TECH

"Expanding our horizons into the world of radiance fields has opened up exciting new opportunities for collaboration with other companies,” she continues. “On our journey into Gaussian splats, we’ve been working closely with Prism AI director Neirin Jones, seeing very positive results – including playing with how to capture light and movement in 3D space.” Photogrammetry and Gaussian splatting have crossover, to an extent, as Dewar explains. “Splat creation involves taking high-resolution photographs from carefully selected angles, in order to completely cover the subject.” But turning that image data into the viewable result can be hard work for the hardware. “The processing requirements vary a lot between subjects. The datasets are similar in size to a 3D scan, so the storage requirements don’t change too much, but the processing is a lot more resource-intensive than with 3D scans.” Ensuring an adequate supply of people to do that work – as and when the technique hits the mainstream – falls to the education system. Cristen Caine is R&D producer at the NFTS, a role that brings him into contact with a range of new ideas. “I’ve spent most of my career in the TV industry, but joined the NFTS early last year. The innovation, or R&D, department looks at new technologies; what our students will need to know to build a career that fulfils their ambitions.” Gaussian splatting, Caine says, remains a nascent technique, but one those students are likely to encounter. “It’s an emergent 3D capture technology – similar to photogrammetry – although instead of capturing meshes, it captures points of light in space; where they are and their dimensions. Within that you can measure colour and scale. Photogrammetry can’t really capture glass windows; an example we used at the school was to capture the pod from Aliens . Splatting understands it perfectly.” While the overall photographic processes have much in common, splatting can make capturing such a scene less complicated. “We’ve found that you don’t need to capture as many images as you do for photogrammetry,” Caine suggests, “and you don’t need to be as careful about where the edges of those images are, which makes it faster to capture. With a small object, we

That’s where I got hooked on LiDAR and photoscanning. I met the Clear Angle team on Bloodshot , where they were doing LiDAR scanning.” Dewar is keen to emphasise that Gaussian splatting is “completely different from polygon-based rendering; like a very sophisticated point cloud, but instead of just dots, you have these tiny, soft-edged ellipsoids that blend together to form a photorealistic 3D volume.” Even so, she continues, the technique is “not a direct replacement for traditional 3D modelling methods like mesh and UV map creation. There is research going on to bridge that gap, but think of Gaussian splatting as a way to splat a scene into a viewable, interactive format, rather than a starting point for traditional 3D assets.”

DEFINITIONMAGS

GAUSSIAN SPLATTING TECH

STEADY IMPROVEMENTS One NFTS project is using Gaussian splatting to render a 3D version of a snail character in Unreal Engine (above, below left)

circle from the ground looking upward, from the middle and from a higher angle looking down. These are enough to work out where the surfaces and background are,” Caine says, but cautions that “consistent lighting is really important. Use good, clean lighting and capture all angles, and you can create really nice models in a small time frame. It’s quite GPU-heavy – programs like Postshot need to run on beefy computers.” A key factor is that shape, texture and lighting are represented in a single data set, which might raise eyebrows among people accustomed to the option to relight a mesh to suit new scenes. This, Caine says, is being worked on: “We have some colleagues at the University of Surrey doing relighting research, and also some work on compression – trying to bring file sizes down.” What differentiates all of film and TV from photography, though, is movement, and Caine accepts that this is a work in progress. “It’s a very central part of our research. Wallace, Gromit and Peppa Pig all came from NFTS alumni, and the animators are always developing new techniques.” Capturing a sequence of

scenes to represent motion presents issues: “We tried capturing frame by frame and putting those together to capture fluid motion. I don’t want to suggest we’re the leading researchers in this area, because we’re not, but we believe motion splats aren’t quite there.” Notwithstanding earlier work on what’s widely called volume rendering, the current incarnation of Gaussian splatting is new enough to be the talk of SIGGRAPH for a while. “I think the very first paper on splatting came out this month,” Caine says. “When we picked it up, it was only nine months old as a technology. As we’re testing and making short films, new papers are being released – and a plug-in was released for Adobe After Effects while we were working on it.” Dewar concurs. “New developments are emerging almost daily, particularly around optimisation and speed. We’re seeing a lot of advancements in editing splat data. Imagine being able to paint or sculpt a captured 3D scene, with the option to add or remove objects in a photorealistic way. That opens up a whole new realm of possibilities for VP and content creation.”

WE ARE SEEING a lot of advancements IN EDITING GAUSSIAN SPLAT DATA”

DEFINITIONMAGS

PRODUCTION THE LONG WALK

“From the moment the Long Walk begins, the camera never stops moving” Definition learns about the camaraderie between cast and crew on the set of The Long Walk in talks with DOP Jo Willems, ASC, SBC

WORDS OLIVER WEBB IMAGES LIONSGATE FILMS

B ased on the 1979 novel of the same name by Stephen King, (although originally published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman), The Long Walk is the latest King adaption to grace our screens. The narrative follows a group of teenage boys compete in an annual contest known as the Long Walk, where they must maintain a certain walking speed or be shot. This film marks Jo Willems, ASC, SBC and director Francis Lawrence’s seventh feature collaboration. “Francis and I have worked together since the early 2000s,” begins Willems. “We met in the music video world, and our early projects included Justin Timberlake’s Cry Me a River and POD’s Boom . We reunited much later, working

on TV pilots – then he asked me to do The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and we’ve continued to work together since.” The Long Walk was a smaller project in comparison, and Lawrence once again approached Willems about getting involved. “I read the book and said of course, as I was into it,” he says. “This was a real passion project for Francis, as it’s one of his favourite novels. It’s essentially a metaphor for the Vietnam War, about this brutal event that these young men are drafted into. For the look of the film, I looked at lots of Vietnam War photography to really grasp that period of history.” Willems shot the film using the ARRI ALEXA 35, in Super 35 format with regular anamorphic lenses. “I’ve shot

commercials with the ALEXA 35, as well as an episode of Black Mirror , and I really liked that camera. Since I was approaching this film with almost no equipment, no lighting and no control, I wanted a camera that had dynamic range and was also good with skin tones. I sometimes put it at a higher ISO, but I don’t think I ever went higher than 2500.” It was important for Willems to achieve a look grounded in reality. “We had more modern lenses, but Panavision made some adjustments to make them look grittier and less perfect,” he notes. “I didn’t want anything too vintage, instead going for a slightly softer feel to emulate the look of the late sixties and early seventies. It was warm and muted, and at times even quite

DEFINITIONMAGAZINE.COM

THE LONG WALK PRODUCTION

DEFINITIONMAGS

PRODUCTION THE LONG WALK

ALL OF OUR LOCATIONS were really spread out, ACROSS the whole of Manitoba ” beautiful. I wasn’t trying to make it too gritty and, although there was a beauty to it, it wasn’t glossy or slick either. I think that’s where Francis and I have a good connection. We both have a similar sense of what our films should ultimately look like visually. It’s about trying to adapt to what the story is in a way that’s authentic to the material.” Production was based out of Winnipeg and the shoot lasted for 35 days. “All of our locations were really spread out, across the whole of Manitoba,” explains Willems. “We would drive out to these very remote areas and camp there for a few days, then move onto the next location. We shot over the summer and it was very hot the first few weeks – there were a lot of forest fires to contend with. We had

GLASS GOALS Panavision made modern lenses grittier and less perfect for Willems’ desired look

hoped for beautiful blue skies with big, fluffy clouds, but it was just blank skies.” Willems and the team decided they would shoot regardless of the weather. “We would wet the street down when we didn’t know whether or not it would rain,” he adds. “Then we were prepared in case it ended up raining, or we could just add in the rain instead. For the most part, I couldn’t light anything, because we were

literally walking along with the characters. We would start shooting in the morning with the sun behind us, and as it came around, we would go into profiles. Then, as the day ended, we would shoot towards the west, and then repeat that daily. If it was an overcast day it was slightly easier, but there were occasions when we would have to wait for clouds.” Due to being constantly on the move, the light sources came from the military trucks depicted in the film. “We had these military trucks, one at the front and one at the back, and we decided to put some lights behind each one,” said Willems. “That way I’d have backlighting either way. Then we had three other vehicles surrounding the cast, and I ordered some halogen lights online to put on those. We tested those lights and then put them on the vehicles as extra light sources. We did have lighting to replicate streetlights, but everything had to be seen on camera. There were some night scenes where the characters were in pitch black, just walking in the dark, which helped this feel more real, rather than trying to create an artificial environment.”

DEFINITIONMAGAZINE.COM

PRODUCTION THE LONG WALK

The film was shot in chronological order, bar the odd exception. “That was interesting, because I haven’t worked in that way before. From the moment the Long Walk begins, until the end of the movie, the camera never stops moving. There was maybe one shot where the camera doesn’t move. We would shoot scenes top to bottom; from start to finish. Francis likes to run whole takes, and he doesn’t want to break them up into pieces, so if an actor fluffed their lines we had to go all the way back to the start. Having worked together for a number of years, on various projects, Willems understands Lawrence’s way of working. “Francis and I work in tandem, and I understand his taste. He doesn’t like equipment to get in the way. I’ve learnt how to make an image that has dramatic and emotional impact without getting in his way. I also felt that this film benefitted from some bits mismatching, in the sense that not everything was perfect, which worked for this.” The team also had a Filmotechnic Telescopic F27 camera crane with a remote head fitted to a small electric vehicle. “We were nervous for the first few days, as we weren’t sure if it would work, and the roads weren’t all that great

were. “There was a real camaraderie between these guys,” he says. “So it was quite sad when a character was killed off, because the actor would have to leave and go back home. In a sense, the film reflected what was going on because of this unique set-up we had on set – without anyone actually dying obviously!” A number of VFX shots were required for the kill scenes, and the VFX team were always present on set. “It’s funny,” recalls Willems. “When I saw the film for the first time as a rough cut, it was a completely different experience from being on set, because the VFX makes a huge impact. It looks so real and shocking. It was quite brutal and violent, but of course being on set you can see the kills aren’t real.” “This is probably one of Francis’ most authentic and grounded-in-reality films, despite being set in this dystopian world,” says Willems. “It’s very different from his fantasy work. It’s always great to work with him, and I came away feeling like this was a real communal experience, where I connected with both the actors and the material. Francis and I, sat next to each other in this little golf cart covered in black tarp in the heat, were just constantly bouncing off each other. It was super fun.”

ALL TOGETHER NOW The cast and crew really connected with the close-knit filming set-up

either, but we got into a groove and just went for it. I really enjoyed it actually, it was good fun to work on. Francis and I would sit on a golf cart with a monitor, and just start moving. We had cameras on tracking vehicles, and we’d just shoot. Then, as we landed at point B of the scene, we would all have to walk back. At one point, the second AC came up to me and said, ‘I’ve just reached 500 kilometres.’ So we really did the long walk ourselves. It was very much a joint effort.” Willems was impressed by how prepared the actors were, especially with how physically demanding the long takes

DEFINITIONMAGAZINE.COM

TECH CINEMATIC SPORTS

Broadcast vendors are delivering cine-live tools for sports, says Adrian Pennington, opening up a wealth of creative possibilities & opportunities to get fans closer to the action “Increasingly, the filmic look is part of the match day arsenal”

T his season, Steadicams League football matches, but join players on the pitch for goal celebrations. The move is part of an evolving strategy to provide broadcasters with coverage that gets fans closer to the action, following a growing trend that makes a filmic look part of the matchday arsenal. Cine cams are everywhere. They were featured at the FIFA Club World Cup this summer, included in coverage of the British & Irish Lions’ successful tour carrying cameras with cine-style capabilities will be allowed not just to patrol the touchline of Premier

Down Under and used at Wimbledon. The trend kicked off in the US in 2020, when Fox Sports used an RF system – the Megalodon – to bring viewers cinematic imagery of NFL touchdown celebrations. It also coincided with the rise in popularity of behind-the-scenes sports documentaries like Sunderland ’Til I Die and Formula 1 : Drive to Survive , which elevated the production values of sports content. The primary desirable aesthetic of cine-style imagers is being able to enhance aspects of the story with a visually appealing shallow depth- of-field, although a handy secondary

attribute is the ability to capture dramatic footage at high speed and play it back in slomo during breaks. Not only are they a regular feature of major sports events, but the number of such cameras per event – handheld and transmitted via RF or cabled on tripods – is increasing. A shallow depth-of-field is typically achieved using larger sensors and wider apertures. Where early innovations used mirrorless full-frame prosumer models like the Sony A7 series – retrofitted for live broadcast – recently, manufacturers have developed Super 35 systems that more functionally fit the

DEFINITIONMAGAZINE.COM

CINEMATIC SPORTS TECH

THE MARKET DEFINITELY REQUIRES a filmic look, BUT RESULTS are mixed ”

DIFFERENT BALL GAME The demands of live broadcast differ from filmmaking, requiring simpler controls and streaming capabilities

processing, colour science and control requirements of a live outside broadcast using 20 to 30 cameras. Sony’s flagship VENICE camera can also be configured for live broadcast by adding a MultiDyne SilverBack V fibre optic adapter. The system puts all the signals needed for UHDTV production onto a single tactical or SMPTE hybrid fibre cable, ‘ensuring robust, trouble- free connectivity’ on any studio or remote production. RCP paint control is supported too, using the serial data connection, while genlock, intercom and tally are also provided.

In 2022, Sony went further and released the HDC-F5500, designed with live sports in mind. It has a Super 35 4K CMOS global shutter image sensor for shallow depth-of-field and high-frame- rate capability. It was used for the first time in Europe during the live broadcast of a Tyson Fury vs Dillian Whyte fight at Wembley by EMG UK and TNT Sports. The chief difference being its use of a single chip, Super 35 and PL mount rather than a three chip, 2/3in B4 mount. This year, RED debuted a Cine- Broadcast Module for its V-RAPTOR cameras that supports live broadcast

of 4K/60p signals, which CBS Sports has integrated into some of its productions. A broadcast colour pipeline enables live painting of RED cameras using traditional broadcast controls. The module is also compatible with EVS’s XT-VIA live production server, allowing broadcasters to enhance their workflows with 4x super slow-motion at 4K or 8x in HD. According to EVS product manager Ignacio Revuelto: “This paves the way for cinematic-quality cameras to elevate sports productions.” Separately, EVS has updated its XtraMotion platform to create a cinematic effect by simulating

DEFINITIONMAGS

TECH CINEMATIC SPORTS

a shallow depth-of-field in images captured on a traditional live production system camera. XtraMotion takes less than three seconds to apply super slow- motion, even when combined with other effects such as deblurring. “There’s a definite requirement from the market for a filmic look, but we also know the results to date are mixed,” reports Klaus Weber, director of product marketing at Grass Valley. “In general, when the pictures look good, the workflow has been really cumbersome. It’s often difficult to incorporate digital cinematography cameras into existing production workflows.” The Megalodon moniker hints at the clunky workflow required to produce silky images from cameras designed for drama when they’ve been jury-rigged into the live environment. “Something our customers really don’t like is the lack of servo controls,” shares Weber. “They don’t want to fiddle around with additional attachments. And when paired with third-party universal control panels, existing systems often fall short of providing the necessary control, and in a live set-up, you simply don’t have time.” That’s why Grass Valley went back to the drawing board, coming up with the LDX 180 – which should begin shipping around IBC Show time. Equipped with a Super 35 global shutter and CMOS imager, the unit is designed specifically for live workflows, working over SDI to SMPTE ST 2110 and integrating with Grass Valley’s existing LDX Series cameras. “Achieving a filmic look in live production is a complex task that requires a careful balance of technical elements,” Weber explains. “The optimal camera for this purpose should feature a larger image sensor – preferably Super 35 – PL mount lenses, a global shutter and advanced real-time processing capabilities. Consistent colour science across different camera models within

NEW SHOOTS Displayed at NAB, Grass Valley’s LDX 180 is designed specifically for live workflows

the same production is also crucial to maintain a uniform visual appearance.” While most sports might benefit from a cine-style camera, the extent depends on the sport itself. In baseball, for example, the pitcher and batter will stand on the exact same position each time, so camera operators and producers know exactly how to frame and focus. Fox Sports even deployed Cooke Optics anamorphic lenses on Major League Baseball’s World Series to capture images that will be played out ahead of commercial breaks. In soccer, it’s trickier. “Take a Champions League match, covered by 25 to 35 camera positions,” says Weber. “At least half of those are on the sidelines and in the stands, using 100x or more zoom lenses. Operators actually want more depth-of-field from these positions, not less, so those cameras wouldn’t be replaced by cine cams.” The main A camera position is typically a 20-25x zoom, for which PL

mount Super 35 glass is available (from Canon or Fujifilm). Weber thinks there’s a case for this position to be replaced or augmented with a cine cam. Other than that, the main use of shallow depth-of-field is isolating fans in the background of stands or a coach cam, perhaps for pre-game team walk- ons (trialled by DAZN and FIFA during the Club World Cup). “It might be that a third of the cameras in a Tier 1 soccer plan would benefit from a shallow depth-of-field, whereas live coverage of music concerts could be covered by a higher 50:50 ratio. There might also be a few cases where a complete production, end to end, will use just Super 35 cameras. But when you need a long zoom range with a 100x box lens, 2/3in is the only way.” The integration of advanced signal processing features in live production cameras isn’t just a convenience, but a necessity. It ensures that all elements of the live broadcast – whether the main production feed, VAR system or camera shading – can operate efficiently, with minimal risk of error and without the burden of additional external equipment. Weber explains that “this capability is essential in high-stakes environments like live sports or large-scale events, where maintaining a flawless broadcast across multiple platforms and standards is paramount.”

WHEN YOU NEED a long zoom range , 2/3 in IS THE ONLY WAY”

DEFINITIONMAGAZINE.COM

PRODUCTION TRAIN DREAMS

“If you’re not looking, you’ll miss so many magical things” DOP Adolpho Veloso, ABC, AIP talks embracing the natural world in Train Dreams

WORDS KATIE KASPERSON IMAGES NETFLIX

DEFINITIONMAGAZINE.COM

TRAIN DREAMS PRODUCTION

everyday existence of men like Grainier, focusing on the emotional demands of manual labour as much as the physical ones. In his youth, Grainier witnesses the casual murder of a Chinese immigrant; and this guilt envelops him as he waits for karmic retribution. It eventually comes when his wife and young daughter die in a forest fire, destroying the home they built and all that Grainier has to live for. “Sometimes it can be hard to connect with characters that lived in a different age or environment from you,” Veloso admits. “How can we be immersed in this character’s feelings? How can we be close to him and make the audience feel what he’s feeling throughout his life?” IMMERSING THE AUDIENCE To make the film feel more relatable, Veloso – who previously worked with Bentley and screenwriter Greg Kwedar on Jockey (2021) – took a naturalistic approach, staying faithful to the land and the lighting as much as possible. “99% of the movie was shot on location,” he explains, with most of that taking place in Western Washington. “The cabin set was built by our amazing production designer, Alex Schaller, and we only filmed one scene on a volume.” “Besides that,” Veloso continues, “we embraced everything we could in terms of lighting and weather. If it was raining, we would embrace the rain; if it was sunny, we would embrace the sun.” While he and the crew planned what they could in advance, they also made spontaneous decisions when the moment called for it. “It’s always great to take advantage of weather, nature,

WILD TRAILS Humanity’s relationship with nature is a key subject of the film, which was shot on location using natural lighting

S et around the turn of the 20th century, Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams follows Robert Grainier, an American logger and railroad labourer who lives an ordinary life. In fact, it’s much like the life of a cinematographer. “Grainier goes to a place to work and spends a few months there, completely disconnected,” begins DOP Adolpho Veloso, ABC, AIP. “You live very intensely and then you come back. You almost feel like your life is more the life you live away from home.” Adapted from Denis Johnson’s 2011 novella, Train Dreams documents the

DEFINITIONMAGS

PRODUCTION TRAIN DREAMS

SINGLE-CAMERA SET-UP With scenes frequently taking place at night – and a few around a campfire – Veloso again opted for authenticity, using ‘real fire, candles’ and other practical light sources. Using the ARRI ALEXA 35 with ZEISS Super Speeds, he was able to ‘shoot with almost no light’. For daytime scenes, Veloso switched to Kowa Cine spherical lenses; “they’re slow but have beautiful bokeh, flares and worked really well.” Keeping to a single camera, Veloso often switched between handheld and static. While this was meant to mirror Grainier’s life – from the excitement of starting a family to the isolation he feels in the fire’s aftermath – he would make a change if the scene felt off. “Some

VELOSO stayed faithful to THE LAND AND THE LIGHTING”

an animal – whatever the forest would give us. If you’re not looking, you’ll miss so many magical things.” In Train Dreams , nature is more than a setting; “it’s also a character,” says Veloso, “and it’s so influential. We’re exploring how humans impact nature, but also how nature affects humans in

return. It’s a central theme of the movie.” He added the occasional few frames of trees falling and posed inserts of the labourers with their timber. “Those shots are saying, ‘This is also a main character. This also has a voice – an important voice – and we should listen to it’.”

DEFINITIONMAGAZINE.COM

TRAIN DREAMS PRODUCTION

STOPPING AND STARTING Veloso switched between handheld and static depending on the emotional notes of the scene

choices are related to what the scene is supposed to make us feel,” he explains. In general, for Grainier’s childhood, “we wanted the camera not to move at all and feel like a still image. As he becomes a bit older, the camera follows what he’s living,” Veloso describes. “Those moments with his wife are organic; we’re following his lightness. Then, when he’s around death and grief, that changes.” Scheduling proved a challenge. “A lot of the locations were amazing, but very far away, so we would lose a chunk of the day just getting there,” he admits. With Train Dreams also being tied to its time period, the crew had to take extra care when setting up scenes, so as to avoid any contextual inconsistencies.

“That meant not being able to have a 360° camera,” says Veloso, who wanted ‘the ability to turn the camera around’ as much as possible – but prioritised working in an uncontrolled environment. PLANE DREAMS Train Dreams borrows its visual language from an amalgamation of influences – not just the source material. “We did talk a lot about Dorothea Lange’s pictures, especially during the Great Depression,” recalls Veloso. “She did an amazing job of capturing the beauty within chaos and sadness and grief – the way she isolates characters, framing them in corners and on edges. We wanted to try and do the same.” Veloso also credits Tarkovsky’s

filmography as an inspiration, drawing from his greatest hits like Stalker , Mirror and The Sacrifice , all of which also deal with humanity’s relationship to nature. “We watched a lot of real footage from the time too – whatever we could find,” he shares. To represent the forest fire as faithfully as possible, he turned to news clips and contemporary videos. Train Dreams follows Grainier through the late sixties, demarcating the passage of time through environmental changes and technological breakthroughs – such as the aeroplane. And in his old age, he takes to the sky, finally getting to witness his world from above. Train Dreams is streaming on Netflix from 21 November

DEFINITIONMAGS

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE

Faster than the pack In the heat and high-octane atmosphere of Le Mans Classic, the Samsung Portable SSD T9 proved that it’s the ultimate drive for filmmakers working under pressure W hen Anglo-French cinematographer Christophe Carcelle set out to film the Le Mans Classic

he threw himself into the high-octane atmosphere of the Classic. The event is as chaotic as it is thrilling, with more than 80 cars across eight classes battling for track time. Carcelle describes sprinting between vantage points in the heat, capturing every detail of the car’s performance while juggling the pressures of being a one-man crew. Over the course of the day, he shot an astonishing 800GB of 6K footage. For most filmmakers, the challenge of backing up that much material on location would induce anxiety. With unpredictable weather, limited downtime and only a laptop at hand, there was no room for error. For Carcelle, the solution was simple: the Samsung T9 Portable SSD. Roughly the size of a credit card, and weighing just 122g, the Samsung Portable SSD T9 slips easily into a jacket pocket or camera bag. Yet, inside its compact, rubberised shell lies the kind of performance that makes it indispensable on shoots like Le Mans. Using USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 connectivity, the portable drive

STORAGE YOU CAN RELY ON The Samsung Portable SSD T9 (above) is a worthy partner on location and in the studio

earlier this year, he wasn’t just chasing cars – he was chasing family history. His late grandfather Henry Mitchell was part of the Birmingham Mitchells & Butlers brewing family, but away from business, Mitchell had a passion for speed, and achieved a career highlight by finishing 13th in the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 1953, driving a Frazer-Nash Le Mans Coupe. During research for a pilot TV series based on his grandfather’s story, Carcelle made the remarkable discovery that the same car is still in use today. Even more astonishing, it belongs to Pierre Macchi, a neighbour in Paris. The car still competes in historic events, including the crown jewel – the Le Mans Classic. Carcelle decided that the only way to truly honour his grandfather’s legacy was to film the car in action. Armed with the Samsung Portable SSD T9, his cine camera and a set of anamorphic lenses,

delivers blistering read and write speeds of up to 2000MB/s. Backing up all 800GB of his material took Carcelle around just 30 minutes on his laptop – the kind of turnaround that would be unthinkable with a traditional hard drive. “It just kept up with me,” he says. “I had to rush off to catch a train back to London, so it was all a bit of a panic, but I never had to worry about whether the footage was safe.” That reassurance carried through into post. His editor Robbie Broster was tasked with turning Carcelle’s raw footage into a short three-and-a-half-minute trailer to pitch the series. He used the same Samsung Portable SSD T9 to cut the material in Adobe Premiere Pro, putting the portable drive through everything

DEFINITIONMAGAZINE.COM

Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84

definitionmagazine.com