SHOOT STOR I ES | ARCHIVE
So far in 2018 we have covered many productions, here we cherry-pick some of the more interesting ones SHOOT STORIES
WORDS JULI AN M ITCHELL / PICTURES DEFI N ITION MAGAZI NE
Mindhunter was director David Fincher’s second appearance on Netflix, after House of Cards , but his first where he unleashed his usual movie philosophy. From the very start of the series we maybe didn’t know it but we were being manipulated by his framing puppeteer genius. Fincher is known to love the anamorphic lens look but refuses to shoot anamorphic. For Mindhunter he used the supreme Summilux lenses but then decided to abuse them by post-producing anamorphic lens effects like chromatic aberration and barrel distortion, then feeding them back in. His famous flares also made an appearance. But there’s method in this madness as the series is set in the 70s and he wanted to recreate the attributes of a poorly-tuned anamorphic lens of the time. There are also huge amounts of split-screening so he could slice and dice performances. Also huge amounts of recomposing and re-stabilising, right up to the point of retiming pans to match the movement. This puts huge pressure on the operators to shoot in that way from the start. The effect, though, is unique. Thought Police THE STORY OF MINDHUNTER JANUARY 2018
Netflix Nest
Altered Carbon
DIFFERENT VARICAM STYLES FEBRUARY 2018
NETFLIX DOES CYBERPUNK MARCH 2018
DOP Patrick Stewart did something very different for the fifth season of Arrested Development : or the reboot of the reboot, as he called it. The difference was mostly to do with the dual ISO of the VariCam LT. “I did a lot of testing in the springtime and I wasn’t sure whether we’d shoot with the Sony FS7, which is like the F55 but with a smaller body,” he says. “Also I wasn’t convinced of this whole ISO thing and did some really tough tests with those cameras – I was astounded by the VariCam LT. “We ended up shooting all the exteriors at 800 but all the stage work was shot at 5000 knocked down to 2500 ISO.” DOP on Ozark Season 1 Pepe Avila del Pino decided to shoot the VariCam at 800 ASA, although they did test the 5000 rating. “Luckily I really like how the camera reacted to the greens against how other cameras looked very digital with so much green.” DOP on Anne With An E , Bobby Shore commented on the VariCam, “We shot everything at 800 ASA. There was a lot of candlelight but I like the VariCam at 800 in the candlelight as it gives the look some more texture.”
Altered Carbon carried on the now traditional march of sci-fi on Netflix. C0-DOP Martin Ahlgren 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 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. 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.” Neville Kidd, the other DOP, said: “We tested so many lenses. We looked at vintage, old VistaVision lenses which are fantastic but a bit slow. Working on a TV schedule in episodic mode, you kind of need something faster.”
Verdict
Verdict
Verdict
If you have a chance watch Season 1 of Mindhunter and try and spot the magical workings of a master at work. The actual programme is great as well.
These DOPs shared a stage at Camerimage describing how they used the Panasonic VariCam and just how pliable digital cinematography is.
The use of such a data heavy camera forced the production’s hand to down res the sensor but the power of the production is in the huge new location.
DEF I N I T ION | SEPTEMBER 20 1 8 45
Powered by FlippingBook