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SHOOT STORY VERA
VERA GEAR It’s because of the location-heavy shooting that Ed chose an ARRI ALEXA Mini (All camera and lighting was supplied by ProVision). “I try and make the cameras as light as possible, to remove as many barriers as possible to getting the camera into interesting places. It’s a friendly battle I wage with the camera assistants not to put more and more equipment on the camera. Sometimes you end up with the tail wagging the dog and any attempt to move the camera package takes ages. An ALEXA Mini just stripped down with a lens can be held over my head but an ALEXA Mini with batteries, transmitters, monitors, matte box and baseplate attached might as well be a full size camera. “The fact that the cameras also have the built-in motorised ND is perhaps the main reason I prefer them to REDs. It’s this practical benefit of having three NDs. You can quickly press a button on the camera and it’s ready to go without matte boxes for sliding filters in and out.” Ed’s love of using fast T1.3 glass does stress the focus pullers and Darkwater has plenty of beautiful pulls or walking into focus. “Focus pulling has evolved hugely and has
television with schedules the way they are. They are just as good as the expensive stabilised heads you use on a movie. Even if I’m just using them as a remote head so I can put the camera somewhere difficult. It’s so nice to say to a director that if he wants to do stuff on the move he can and you’re not going through the scheduling prep that schedules in a steadicam day.” Another impressive thing about Darkwater is its limited but effective use of drone cinematography with Ed’s own DJI Inspire 2 craft. “I fly the drone myself,” he says. “A show like this, with the scale of the countryside, as with Shetland , lends itself so well to drone shooting. In the edit I think they got the balance just right; it doesn’t outstay its welcome. It gives a scene an extra breath.” Ed is keen to point out that you have to think about the shots that perhaps aren’t the dialogue-heavy ones. “You might end up with lots and lots of shots of people talking and not enough of the interstitial shots, not necessarily drone shots but even just shots of people walking from one place to another. But in the pace of the story you find that you want them.”
moved on from people being very sniffy about putting down marks and using the old film way of doing things. To do it now with lenses like the T1.3, you have to be on monitors with peaking and maybe use new systems that have focus distance gauging sensors on the camera and other things like little sensors that you can place on the actors and track them. You just need as many tools as possible to grab sharps.” Ed is a huge fan of the new types of gimbal like the MōVI M15 and the new Ronin 2. “I usually couple them with a set of wheels with wireless control that work with the gimbals. I find them so valuable especially in
TOP Ed is a big fan of frames within frames. ABOVE Brenda Blethyn as Vera, haring through the Northumbrian landscape.
Vera series 8 is currently available on the ITV Hub.
DEFINITION MAY 2018
DEFINITIONMAGAZINE.COM
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