Skellig

May 30, 2009

I am halfway through this made for TV kitchen sink-fantasy piece, based on the popular children's book. The film was directed by commercials/music videos pioneer Annabel Jankel (credited here as AJ Jankel), formerly of Cucumber Studios, and co-director of the original Max Headroom pilot (which needs a DVD/BluRay release very soon).

Skellig was apparently shot on Arri D21's and it's really good looking. Obviously, most of the look comes from the pretty production/costume design, long lens camerawork and low key lighting, but the images are very cinematic looking with lots of shadow detail and low fill. It's amazing how quick HD has come in the last ten years. I'd love to know if the high speed work was HD too.

There are numerous articles on the web interviewing cinematography.com regular Keith Mottram (who was vfx editor on the film) about Skellig being the first time footage from the D21 has been recorded directly to Macbooks.

What I have seen so far of Skellig is very pleasing to the eye, plus it's a sincere little family movie too. Stephen Warbeck's score is lovely too.

Keith Mottram · June 9, 2009

I'd love to know if the high speed work was HD too.

Hi Tim,

Off the top of my head the only film HS shot that made it into the cut was one of Tim Roth walking down the Hospital corridor at the end of the film, one that I had left on the cutting room floor only to be reinstated by the main (picture) editor- Peter Christelis, who was a joy to work with but wanted that darn shot in! The shot jars and is actually, I think, the only film shot in the whole film (others may crop up in deleted scenes in another dvd release), with all the talk of films latitude blah de blah you can spot it a mile off as it wouldn't grade to match the HD! Plus its grainy as hell. All other HS was 50 or 60 fps 422 upsampled to 444 for the grade. Any other questions I'll try to answer- though after the ear bashing I got from the somewhat 'tabloidesque words out of context' interview I did with High Definition mag I'll be super diplomatic!

Keith

June 10, 2009

Thankyou for the information, Keith.

I have to admit, as I had nothing to do with the film I didn't for a second question the slowmo shot you refer to! :) The "long jump" moment earlier in the film, on a low angle wide lens I am suprised was not a film shot. I thought that was very impressive.

I think the D21 got really pretty results for Skellig. I also thought the integration with all of the digital elements was pretty seamless. The starlings and spiders for example.

Keith Mottram · June 11, 2009

Thankyou for the information, Keith.

I have to admit, as I had nothing to do with the film I didn't for a second question the slowmo shot you refer to! :) The "long jump" moment earlier in the film, on a low angle wide lens I am suprised was not a film shot. I thought that was very impressive.

I think the D21 got really pretty results for Skellig. I also thought the integration with all of the digital elements was pretty seamless. The starlings and spiders for example.

yes the long jump was shot on a 435...

K Borowski · June 11, 2009

The shot jars and is actually, I think, the only film shot in the whole film (others may crop up in deleted scenes in another dvd release), with all the talk of films latitude blah de blah you can spot it a mile off as it wouldn't grade to match the HD! Plus its grainy as hell. All other HS was 50 or 60 fps 422 upsampled to 444 for the grade. Any other questions I'll try to answer- though after the ear bashing I got from the somewhat 'tabloidesque words out of context' interview I did with High Definition mag I'll be super diplomatic!

Keith

Funny, I thought they did a great job matching the slo-mo film shots in "Superbad". Granted the D21 is a different animal than the Genesis, but I thought the 35mm in that film was noticeably cleaner.

Maybe they didn't shoot at rated speed or were shooting on all '18 or '19?

It is quite amazing how people are willing to light for HD but aren't willing to light for '01. The guys in the crash test labs that still use film have managed to light for 100- and 125T stock for 40 years of slow mo.

Why can't filmmakers?