shooting in Alaska

[Panayiotis Salapatas]

Hi,

 

I intend to shoot in Alaska and I am trying to achieve a desaturated pastel look. Has anybody shot there (around September). How are the lighting conditions and what film stock do you guys recommend? I will do tests ofcourse but wanted to get an idea. A great deal of the film takes place in a tugboat.

 

What about the FUJI ETERNA 500T 8573 or the KODAK VISION2 Expression 5229 500T. I am also thinking about the discontinued stock the KODAK 800.

 

Thanks

 

Panayiotis

[Stephen Williams]

Hi,

 

I intend to shoot in Alaska and I am trying to achieve a desaturated pastel look. Has anybody shot there (around September). How are the lighting conditions and what film stock do you guys recommend? I will do tests ofcourse but wanted to get an idea. A great deal of the film takes place in a tugboat.

 

What about the FUJI ETERNA 500T 8573 or the KODAK VISION2 Expression 5229 500T. I am also thinking about the discontinued stock the KODAK 800.

 

Thanks

 

Panayiotis

 

Hi,

 

I may be missing something but why do you want to shoot with 500asa or faster (tungsten) stock ?

 

Stephen

[David Mullen ASC]

Is this a 35mm shoot? Is this for a digital finish or for photochemical finish for a film print?

 

The two most pastel stocks on the market are probably Kodak Expression 500T and Fuji F-400T, plus Kodak's telecine-only '99 stock.

 

But one can make the other stocks less saturated; they already aren't that far from the Expression / F-400T level of color anyway.

 

You could, for example, shoot Fuji Eterna 250D rated at 125 ASA and pull-processed by one stop.

 

Or you can use light-scattering diffusion filters to soften the colors.

 

But if this is for telecine/scanning, then you can pull the color down in any stock.

[Michael Collier]

Hey, good to hear there are some productions comming up to alaska. I live in Anchorage and we see probably less than one major production a year. (and by major I don't mean a major film, just anything bigger than a travel channel doc etc) Is this connected at all to sean penns film? I know hes working on a film up here.

 

Look me up when you get here. where are your locations? Its a big state, so advice would run the gamut, depending on where you are shooting.

 

In sept we get around average lighting conditions. Comperable to the longest summer days in the lower 48. Summer equonox is around the 20th of sept. Keep in mind that if you shoot long after that you will notice a sharp fall off in hours of light. After equinox we only loos maybe 1-2 minutes a day, but when you get closer to winter solstice, we might be loosing upwards of 20 minutes a day. Also how far north you go plays a major role. If your in Juneau the falloff wont be as noticable, but if you were shooting in kaparuk on the north slope, you would find the fall off the be quite sharp, and you would reach days of no more than a few hours well before solstice.

 

What dates are you planning on shooting, I could give you a better idea of what the light conditions will be like. If you are in juneau, it will be rainy (its on the north end of the tongas rain forrest) if your in anchorage you will see a little bit of rain, but we never get rain thats too big, so a low appeture will make it look like its just overcast.

 

Also bear in mind our clouds are typically much more defined than you would see in the lower 48. On an overcast day if you use polorizers or nutral-grads you will get a violently marbled effect much of the time (sometimes we have washed out overcast, but a lot of times you get very dramatic sky structures)

 

You are in luck that around sept, assuming we have a cold fall, things will generally be out of the fall type colors and you will see more subdued colors. We do however have a large population of evergreens, so on a sunny day looking at the woods you will see lots of green saturation.

 

Anyway if you have more specifics I would love to help. Its just such a big state (aprox 1/3-1/2 of the size of the rest of the lower 48) that its hard to give sound advice without knowing your exact shooting days and locations. also dont push the window too far past september. I have childhood memories of going trick or treating in snow that had been around for several weeks.)

[Millie Morrow]

Hi,

 

I intend to shoot in Alaska and I am trying to achieve a desaturated pastel look. Has anybody shot there (around September). How are the lighting conditions and what film stock do you guys recommend? I will do tests ofcourse but wanted to get an idea. A great deal of the film takes place in a tugboat.

 

What about the FUJI ETERNA 500T 8573 or the KODAK VISION2 Expression 5229 500T. I am also thinking about the discontinued stock the KODAK 800.

 

Thanks

 

Panayiotis

 

Hi there,

 

As David Mullen ASC suggested, our ETERNA 400T 8583 is a low-contrast stock and will give you a desaturated pastel look. For more details on the stock, go to http://www.motion.fuji.co.uk/motionproducts/et400.html or call the Fuji guys in the USA on (888)424-3854

 

Regards,

 

Millie Morrow

 

Fujifilm UK

[Panayiotis Salapatas]

Hi Stephen,

 

The reason for the 500 ASA stock would be the grain and a look that stays homogeneous. There are a lot of interior shots in the script so I thought I would use that stock sensitivity. I did shoot a movie in the Philippines a few years ago with Fuji 500 ASA with many exteriors and it came out fine. Ofcourse there will be extensive tests. I will also consider a 250 ASA for exteriors.

 

panayiotis

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Micheal

 

Thank you for your extensive answer. Right now there is nothing definite. There is a chance that we will go to the Diomedes islands. the location scouting will give us a better idea. No, the film has nothing to do with Sean Penn's production. I write to you from Greece and it will be partly a greek production (or european co-production). Thank you for offereing your help and I want to be in touch with you.

 

As soon as I have more specifics about locations and dates I will let you know.

 

Panayiotis

[John Pytlak RIP]

Here's the information for the Kodak VISION2 500T Expression Color Negative Film:

 

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/products....4.4.4.14&lc=en

 

KODAK VISION2 Expression 500T Color Negative Film 5229 / 7229 is a low-contrast, low-color film. With soft, smooth flesh tones and superb shadow detail, Expression film provides a subtle, accurate image rendition at a 500 speed. And with greatly reduced grain, more flexibility in post, and cleaner images from under-to over-exposure, Expression 500T Film is better than ever before.

 

The VISION2 Film family is the first line of products designed specifically for both film and digital post-production. What?s more, all VISION2 Films provide natural flesh tones, very fine grain, excellent shadow and highlight detail, and maintain neutrality through the full range of exposure. So you can convey exactly the look you intended all the way from capture to post.

 

As David Mullen mentions, you can also use any of the normal contrast Kodak VISION2 films and pull process to reduce contrast. That would give you the option of using the super-fine grained VISION2 50D 5201.