SHOOT STORY | DOCTOR WHO SER I ES 1 1
The rain brought some softening, which helped; it took the edge off things
NATURAL ATMOSPHERE Shooting in Cardiff and Sheffield this time last year brought some luck to Denis’ look design as drizzle brought its own atmosphere. “The rain brought some softening, which helped; it took the edge off things which I liked very much. Generally it worked well especially for the night stuff and other bits and pieces. “It also helped with the flashing lights and VFX which I managed that was embellished in post, but those guys were great as there wasn’t constant green
mush your picture up or make it look flat or too soft. It’s just another layer that enhances the whole look of it. It makes it look a little bit more painterly especially at night with the haze in the air.” DOCTOR UP TO DATE The new look for a new doctor joins the ever-maturing digital looks that we see every day in streaming or live broadcasts; that alone promises much for the new series. “There’s no reason this new series can’t look as good as films we are watching on television,” says Denis. He was sure not to look back at what had come before, such was the impetus to brush up the gloss of the new adventures. Lighting details include the ubiquitous ARRI SkyPanels but Denis’ experience pushes him towards reflected light more. “My staple for lighting is always bouncing stuff. If you’ve got a Fresnel and a hard light you can basically do anything. You can use it hard, you can diffuse it or bounce it or wrap it round. I think bouncing light is still the softest way of using any light. For this because sometimes the story called for it, I would put up tube lights that stayed in shot and just had them there as elements that made it interesting.” THE FIRST EPISODE OF DOCTOR WHO WILL BE ON BBC 1 ON SUNDAY 7 OCTOBER
screen everywhere, we worked out what they could do with backgrounds and what we achieved on-set.” Once the agreement was to choose an anamorphic look for the new Doctor, Denis chose the Cooke anamorphic primes against other similar lenses. “Cooke
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Dr Who is broadcast in 94 countries across six continents
anamorphic don’t flare the same as for instance C-Series Panavision lenses. They have a certain type of flare that doesn’t give you the streaky lines. Usually when I work with anamorphics you kind of end up working with only three lenses, a 35mm, a 75mm or use a 100mm for close-ups. You can pretty much shoot the whole show on those focal lengths.” DESIGN FOR THE DOCTOR With a new doctor, especially the first time woman doctor, was Denis conscious of a singular shooting design just for her? “Sometimes I would go quite wide on her although we did a variation of stuff for her. Initially we enhanced her because she was still in the middle of regenerating. But for this series there are a few new cast members around her. So that was the great thing about shooting in this wider format; you could encompass all of them and follow them in a mid-shot as a group. There wasn’t any specific lens I kept going back to for her, she always moved around, it was a bit frenetic. You have to build that into the sequence and still keep the camera moving. It was very kinetic and hopefully that will come across when its shown.” Denis shot two cameras all the time but there was no cross shooting with one a wider version and slightly different angle than the other. Denis also used a favourite filter of his called Black Satin which took the edge off the digital. “When you’re getting oval out of focus if there are any real hotspots, using black satin diffuses that a bit by halating the edges on it. It doesn’t
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