Eric Steelberg ASC Posted December 18, 2006 Share Posted December 18, 2006 Just signed on to shoot JUNO for director Jason Reitman. I leave tomorrow for a week of scouting in Vancouver and go back up to start prepping next month. Principal photography begins mid February for about 6 weeks. This will be my first studio feature (Fox Searchlight) and first feature with Jason Reitman. I have worked with Jason since he started shooting short films and have photographed most of his commercials. I am very flattered he asked me to lens this film. I will do my best to keep an ongoing account my experiences here. What I can tell you so far is that it will be film and I'll be using old but matched set of Panavized Zeiss lenses, one of which is a working prototype. More to come... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member David Mullen ASC Posted December 18, 2006 Premium Member Share Posted December 18, 2006 I will do my best to keep an ongoing account my experiences here. What I can tell you so far is that it will be film and I'll be using old but matched set of Panavized Zeiss lenses, one of which is a working prototype. More to come... Not anamorphic like "Thank You for Smoking"? Good luck! Say hello to Jason -- I interviewed for his last movie and enjoyed talking to him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Brad Grimmett Posted December 18, 2006 Premium Member Share Posted December 18, 2006 Congrats Eric. My friend Sonia Bhalla was the 2nd AD on Thank You For Smoking...if she's on this show tell her I said hello. Maybe more people will chime in and you can say "hello" to the whole crew. :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Williamson Posted December 19, 2006 Share Posted December 19, 2006 Congratulations Eric, sounds like a great opportunity that's well-deserved. I saw "Thank You For Smoking" last year at AFI and really enjoyed it, Jason Reitman spoke to us after the screening and made a lot of fans, very funny and down to earth. Look forwards to hearing more about this, good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Steelberg ASC Posted December 24, 2006 Author Share Posted December 24, 2006 Anamorphic won't be an option. Jason was very put off of it on "Smoking" due to limitations in wide focal lengths. Furthermore, we're leaning in the direction of 1:85. I just returned froma week of location scouting and found some wonderful places to shoot. The weather was predictably bad with constant rain and overcast, but we're determined to weave it into the story as to be unnoticeable. I also spent a few hours at the end of every day interviewing crew and found some fantastic keyes. It will be my pleasure to work with them on this. Also on board are some alumni from "Smoking," the AD and PD, both of whom I've worked with on commercials. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chayse Irvin ASC, CSC Posted December 24, 2006 Share Posted December 24, 2006 Thats wicked. Is it a IA891 show? Really amazing techs in vancouver here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Steelberg ASC Posted December 25, 2006 Author Share Posted December 25, 2006 Yes, it's IA signatory. It looks like I'm getting the best Vancouver has to offer...really talented, even overqualified, guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 25, 2006 Share Posted December 25, 2006 Do you know how much crew you are allowed to bring in from the USA? Is there any limit? I never could figure out why it's so easy for Americans to work on films in Canada but next to impossible the other way around. A few Hollywood films get shot in Canada and LA film workers are out protesting with their "Nuke Canada" signs. As for the weather, it is notoriously bad in Vancouver. As for the film crew, the folks in Toronto are of course 10X better :) R, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chayse Irvin ASC, CSC Posted December 25, 2006 Share Posted December 25, 2006 (edited) As for the film crew, the folks in Toronto are of course 10X better :) R, Hehe. I guess thats why tons of Toronto's sister memebers come out here to work. Whos your gaffer? Who knows, i may do a few days on your show. Edited December 25, 2006 by Chayse Irvin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 25, 2006 Share Posted December 25, 2006 Hehe. I guess thats why tons of Toronto's sister memebers come out here to work. Whos your gaffer? Who knows, i may do a few days on your show. Gaffer? I just use the light mounted on top of the camera, you tun it on and shoot. Why? How do you do it? R, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Stephen Williams Posted December 25, 2006 Premium Member Share Posted December 25, 2006 Gaffer? I just use the light mounted on top of the camera, you tun it on and shoot. Why? How do you do it? R, Hi Richard, Everybody forgets your background in news! Stephen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 25, 2006 Share Posted December 25, 2006 Hi Richard, Everybody forgets your background in news! Stephen Yeah exactly, you DP types have really over complicated the movie making process. I hear some of you put your cameras on some sort of three legged stand??????? R, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chayse Irvin ASC, CSC Posted December 25, 2006 Share Posted December 25, 2006 Gaffer? I just use the light mounted on top of the camera, you tun it on and shoot. Why? How do you do it? R, Hehe. Sorry rich i mean that for eric. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Steelberg ASC Posted December 25, 2006 Author Share Posted December 25, 2006 Our gaffer is going to be Steve Jackson. I don't know anything about Vancouver vs Toronto, but my experience on this and previous jobs up there has been very favorable when comparing Vancouver to LA crews. One of the 'conditions' of me doing this film was working with local crews so I am not able to bring anyone up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Steelberg ASC Posted February 25, 2007 Author Share Posted February 25, 2007 I'm going to attempt an update. I confess I'm very bad about updates, blogging, etc... I've just completed the first to weeks of principal photography. I came up on January 17th to start prep prior to that. A few things have changed since then. I lost my gaffer but was able to replace him with an equally qualified and talented one named John Dekker. I also have an amazing key grip David Askey. Names you should remember if you ever shoot up here. We ended up sticking with 4 perf 1.85. A DI still isn't guaranteed and that's why we did not go super 35. That being the case, I'm shooting as if doing a photochemical finish. During prep I shot exhaustive tests with the lenses and Kodak emulsions and even filters...something like 20,000' worth. I mentioned I had a special set of lenses put together for this show from Panavision. I worked with Dan Sasaki on this starting back in December. I wanted a set of primes and zooms that were as sharp as possible without the usual accompanied high contrast. We put together a set of primes (Panavision SS, SZ, UZ) that were nicely matched. The primes provide a beautiful roundness to the plane of focus, and fall of nicely. To that we found a Cooke 5-1 that matched and we de-tuned an Primo 11-1 for longer lens shots and where I needed a little more stop than the Cooke provides. They have named our set of lenses the "Junos." I settled on 2 stocks, 5229 and 5217. The Expression is such a gorgeous stock for this project. It's pastel rendition and contrast really is pleasing to my eye and have never been so excited about a film stock. I shot it before on a music video and liked it but never got to print it. I've found I need to print it in the low 30s to get good blacks so I've been rating it at 400. The 17 I've been rating normally. I've been fortunate to have the budget to print about 1000' of dailies per day and this came from the producers! It's refreshing to see producers recognizing the importance of prints. So at the end of every day I select takes from certain scenes to be printed. I got the best compliment maybe ever on Friday night...one of the producers said she got a call from the studio (Fox Searchlight) head saying "dailies look really great" and the producer was waiting for the "but" and it never came. The head of the studio called just to say how great the dailies look. The producer said she has never gotten a call from a studio head calling just to say that. Good feeling, the positive reinforcement helps. The shoot is difficult. We're 30 days total but locked into 12 hour days. The script is 120 pages. We're going so fast I find that I'm not "thinking" on how to light the scenes, but rather just going on instinct and emotion built up during prep. I cannot emphasize how important prep is on a big feature. If I didn't know every scene inside out I'd be dead. I've lit a couple scenes so far and had the gaffer say "this is exactly how Chris Menges does it" which is funny cause I thought Notes On A Scandal is brilliantly shot and the director and I have thought this film has a kind of British film aesthetic. My favorite lighting I've done so far is where I stapled a string of lights with clear bulbs to the ceiling of an eating area in a tiny kitchen, dimmed down to about 40%...really warm...and hid an MR16 in the practical over the table to shine down and provide a little fill off the surface of the table. I've had a bunch of night exteriors too that I'm overjoyed with. I will try and post stills of the lighting. I've been shooting stills to email to the lab and colorist at night. It's really an invaluable tool. I'm not using any kind of preview system to do so...I looked at Kodak's and Gamma & Density's but realized I just don't have the time to use it. Like I said, we're flying along. From my film tests I have a pretty accurate idea of how the film stocks "see" so I'm able to process the shots in Photoshop and that's working well. What else...I shot filter tests but so far have not shot any scenes I want to use them in. I settled on Classic Softs and Black Diffusion FX. I liked the Glimmer Glass as well but thought there was just a little more halation than the BDFX. I LOVE the look of the BDFX, but you need to see it projected to appreciate it...as with all filters. There were some interesting ones we tested. I literally pulled every kind of diffusion filter out of Panavision's drawers to shoot. I also discovered I will never ever use a white promist. Just not my style. I know a lot of guys like using a light grade of one and perhaps it's different when finishing to tape where you can adjust for the change in contrast, but projected I just can't stand it. That's about all I can think of for now unless unless anyone wants to know something more specific. Oh, coupe of interesting side notes...my Sundance film "Quinceañera" won the John Cassevetes Award for the best feature under $500k yesterday that the Independent Spirit Awards. Jason Reitman, the director on this, also won for Best Screenplay. I also ran into John Bailey, ASC and Ernest Dickerson, ASC lat night here in the hotel bar. Had a nice brief chat with them. Tomorrow begins 10 days of scenes with Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner. Should be exciting... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Max Jacoby Posted February 25, 2007 Premium Member Share Posted February 25, 2007 Hi Eric Thanks for all the info, sounds very interesting. Good to hear that you are getting printed rushes, it's such a rare pleasure nowadays. What do you exactly mean by 'detuning' the Primo zoom? As for the primes, what stop are you shooting them at mostly? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Williamson Posted February 25, 2007 Share Posted February 25, 2007 Thanks for posting, Eric, sounds like things are going really well. How would you describe the look of the film so far? Sounds like it's sort of soft and naturalistic? It would be great if you could post stills, but the studio probably wouldn't like that much... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Steelberg ASC Posted February 25, 2007 Author Share Posted February 25, 2007 To de-tune the zoom involved re-spacing some elements in the focusing group of the lens, lowering the contrast. It took a while to get the same results at the wide end as well as the long end of the lens. I'm shooting everything at 2.8~3 but I did a location with night interiors in Juno's house all at a 2 and kept my key at about 1.7-1.8. Using the lenses this wide open resulted in some nice 'natural' diffusion. I'll see if I can get permission to post stills of my lighting setups. The studio is fanatical about images being released that show too much of the story even if through the set. But I'll try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Steelberg ASC Posted March 10, 2007 Author Share Posted March 10, 2007 12 days left... I'm not going to be able to post stills, wish I could so everyone would have a better idea of what I've been talking about. There's nothing really new to talk about. I shot some of the most dramatic scenes in the script in the last 2 weeks...scenes I purposely chose 5229 for. These scenes are pretty warm and underexposed. Typically, as with 5218, I've found that skin will get a little too red/pink for my taste but the lower saturation of the 29 renders the same thing just right...warmth the way I imagine it in my head...without the reddish hue. On a non technical note...the actors are so good and so prepared. Our lead Ellen Page is such a pleasure to work with. This woman has one of the most beautiful faces I've ever lit...and I'm sure you'll all agree once the movie comes out. When an actor shows up and can do a 5-6 page scene in one take without missing lines, I find it boosts crew morale cause they know the actors are serious about their roles and likewise want to work hard. Jennifer Garner is the ultimate professional and also very lovely to light. We had a freak snowstorm up here 10 days ago...got about 4 inches in the neighborhood we were shooting in. The next day we cancelled our indoor schedule, set up a 2nd unit, and had both units shooting snow exteriors. This film goes through all the seasons and up until our snowstorm we had been planning on spending quite a bit on snow f/x for winter. Nature helped us out big time and we got wide shots we never planned or expected to get. Gotta catch up on some rest... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Steelberg ASC Posted April 9, 2007 Author Share Posted April 9, 2007 Alright, I stink at keeping a production diary. I'm back in LA. We wrapped a week ago. I feel really good about the film. Everyone has been talking about how pleased they are with the footage so that makes me happy. My afterthoughts... Printed dailies were invaluable. I never had them on a feature prior to this and now don't know how I could ever do another without them. I didn't even need to print that much...maybe the equivalent to 3000' a week...just to check contrast and density. Dailies are so important to have looking good. I used a DSLR to take shots of my setups and send the photos to the colorist nightly. Save for a few instances, the dailies came back very well matched. I never relied on the camera to make my decisions on set, but it was reassuring to have stills to send in. I think I'm going to have the opportunity for a DI. I've spent years doing commercials and I am used to the precision and consistency digital grading provides. If I had to print photo-chemically I know it would come out great, but if I have the option of more control over the final image, then I'll take it. Now comes the part where I look at all the footage saying "I wish I would have done this, oh I could have done that..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Steelberg ASC Posted August 21, 2007 Author Share Posted August 21, 2007 Well I got my DI. Doing it as we speak. In fact I'm typing this from a dark room at EFilm. Going really well...we're in week 2. We should be done by Friday with the recording to film over the weekend. We're lusing a lookup table for Vision, but I'm pushing to print on Fuji 13DI because to my eye it is so much better looking than the Kodak. It is less saturated but SO much finer grained and much more beautiful blacks. I think we will be able to 'fake' more saturation when we time the print at Deluxe. I used Fuji for the prints of QUINCEANERA and was very happy with those. The film will be premiering in Toronto in a couple of weeks and is slated for release on December 14th. Trailer should be out soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Phil Rhodes Posted August 22, 2007 Premium Member Share Posted August 22, 2007 Hi, I hope it doesn't still look like "a kind of British film aesthetic", because that would not be a compliment - unless you wanted it to look like you'd fired a 2K into the ceiling, metered, and rolled... Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Steelberg ASC Posted August 22, 2007 Author Share Posted August 22, 2007 Not quite that style... I was referring more to the lower contrast and large soft keys...some mixed temperatures...augmented and shaped natural light where possible... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Steelberg ASC Posted September 2, 2007 Author Share Posted September 2, 2007 DI and movie finished. In the end, while I still think it's a much better print stock for my tastes, I decided not to go with Fuji. We started the DI with a Kodak LUT in the room. I ordered a Fuji test using the Kodak LUT (not a good way to compare but they were having problems loading a Fuji LUT into the room) and due to a week of problems with Deluxe not being able to hit EFilm's AIMs, I didn't get to see the Fuji test print until a week after I ordered it. By then we were locked into using the Kodak LUT since we had already colored most of the film using it. Still, I held hope and ran a couple more tests and looked at the Fuji alongside the Kodak. It was clear that Kodak was going to be far more accurate to the DI (obviously) but the Fuji wasn't bad...but it would have taken about a week or more worth of timing at Deluxe to match the color...and time we didn't have. I also did the DI for the trailer the day after we finished the film's DI. That was fun. First time I've done that. But of course the room we did the trailer in was newer so it could do 2k in real time with corrections vs the room we used for the DI where we were stuck with 1k proxies and needing to render every time we wanted to see a real time playback of a correction. Huge waste of time. As it happens they upgraded that room to 2k real time the day after we finished last week. Ah, my luck. We finally finished the answer print at Deluxe late on Thursday night..actually Friday AM...due to more incredibly infuriating problems with Deluxe's quality control. The print(s) were shipped to Telluride for a 'secret preview' screening yesterday. Here are a couple of early reviews: Cinematical and Variety A couple things I've learned/taken from this experience...film prints more or less suck and I can't wait for digital distribution. The added grain and contrast, especially from IP/INs are depressing. The projector weave, dirt, scratches, density flicker, reduction in resolution, and soft frame edges are incredibly annoying. What's interesting is that most of that has ever bothered me before in other films...but seeing it now on mine...I can't stand it. Waiting (days) for the lab to get a print that hit AIMs and have the entire film reprinted because of a dirty assembly bench with adding reel changeovers does not instill confidence. They way it is now, the studio is not ordering a DCI for JUNO. Apparently Searchlight has never done one although THE DARJEELING LIMITED may be the first. There will be a DCI for our trailer which is to be shown before DARJEELING. I can only hope enough buzz for JUNO develops so the studio decides to braden the release and maybe order an DCI. JUNO officially premieres at Toronto next Saturday. I'll be there. Can't wait. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Max Jacoby Posted September 2, 2007 Premium Member Share Posted September 2, 2007 Thanks for the update Eric For the prints, are you going to strike them directly off the new neg or will you have to go through IP/In stage? Was the filmed scanned at 4K then downrezzed to 2K I presume? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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