GEAR | LARGE FORMAT
more pixels, so you’ll need larger hard drives, more of them, and a healthy budget for data transfer. Post-production tools need to be more robust to handle the increased workload and data storage needs are significant. A lot of these costs drop over time, as data storage technologies improve and post bandwidth increases. Editors should work with high-resolution displays to ensure they choose a take without significant focus or other optical issues.” Pfeifer picks up on the subject of data storage, particularly if recordings are being made in Raw. To help deal with this greater volume of data during recording, Sony launched the X-OCN (eXtended tonal range Original Camera Negative) 16-bit codec. Pfeifer explains the X-OCN is a response to the dilemma that productions have, due to the need to record at higher data rates in Raw, increasing the cost of post- production thanks to larger file sizes. “There is the need to decrease the size of files with an intelligent recording format,” he says. “It is also perfect for colour graders.” As for the future, Pfeifer sees the use of full-frame sensors only increasing, particularly as the format is applied to smaller cameras and not just confined to bigger, more expensive models.
“Large format will become a common dialect in the language of filmmaking”
IMAGES DOP Tobias Schliessler using Fujifilm Premistas on Rhinestone Blue (top); the Arri Alexa LF paired with Zeiss Supreme Primes to create a filmic look on The End of the F***ing World (below)
These include Sony’s FX9, FX6 and compact FX3, which are members of the Cinema Line range with the Venice, plus the Alpha mirrorless SLR. “This doesn’t mean that Super 35 is dead,” he says. “But I don’t think the demand for full-frame will decrease in the future, because everything seems to be going bigger, as with IMAX and 70mm.” Cattrall agrees that – despite the fairly immediate success of full-frame/LF – Super 35 is not going to disappear, in the short term at least. “I see LF and Super 35 sitting side by side as the ‘usual’ options for most feature films and creative productions,” he says. “Super 35 can still offer something LF can’t, but with most new cameras giving users the option of shooting LF or Super 35 on the same camera, I think the market will continue to use both. Although it’s very much limited by budget constraints, the Alexa 65 will continue to be very popular, and newer camera systems – like the Fujifilm GFX, which produces 4K images from a sensor that’s more than 50mm diagonal – might emerge to offer those top-end tools for a more reasonable budget.” Adams also sees continuing growth for LF/full-frame, but as
part of an overall creative choice. “Large format will become a common dialect in the language of filmmaking,” he says. “Some filmmakers will embrace it as part of their process, while others won’t. It will be an artistic decision. What’s important is that it is available to everyone, not just a select few. This means we’ll see it being used in more innovative ways – and that’s really exciting.” Reddy also does not see the format going away: “I believe LF is here to stay and has already made quite an impact in the past few years. It allows users to do a lot more now.” Red’s Land comes to a similar conclusion, with the prediction that uptake will only increase: “As the quantity, and therefore the cost, of large format sensors decreases and LF lenses become the majority of new detachable lenses produced, more and more filmmakers and photographers will seek the advantages of shooting bigger.” With the benefits of full- frame – or ‘large format’, as it is now generally interpreted – being appreciated through what is being seen on screen, perhaps the strict dictionary definitions are not quite so important any more.
32 DEF I N I T ION | JULY 202 1
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