Tim Tyler

What does this have to do with cinematography?

ARRI Tech Talk: Shooting 9:16 content with ARRI cameras Shooting content that requires a vertical deliverable? In this Tech Talk Sean explains how to make the most of our Open Gate recording formats as well as our specific Vertical Format Adapters to get high-quality, cinematic 9x16 footage.

B&H currently has the ARRI SkyPanel S60-C LED Softlight with Manual Yoke at 50% off. Probably won't last long. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1139001-REG/arri_l0_0007063_skypanel_s60_c_led_softlight.html/BI/1221/KBID/1557/DFF/d10-v21-t1-x625586/SID/DFF

Congratulations to James Friend! WINNER James Friend - ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT NOMINEES Darius Khondji - BARDO, FALSE CHRONICLE OF A HANDFUL OF TRUTHS Mandy Walker - ELVIS Roger Deakins - EMPIRE OF LIGHT Florian Hoffmeister - TÁR

BLONDE cinematographer Chayse Irvin ASC, CSC takes us behind the scenes of the BLONDE production. See the process that went into recreating some of Marilyn Monroe's most iconic shots for this film. Filmmaker Magazine has also published a in-depth interview with Chayse. Here's an excerpt: Filmmaker: You shot Blonde digitally and God’s Creatures on 35mm. How did you choose the format for each? Irvin: It was tricky on Blonde because I do this thing I call woodshedding. It’s a jazz term where you isolate yourself and come up with harmonic devices that take you out of the ordinary and keep them in your pockets so you can pull them out during a set. I was developing a bunch of ideas like that to use in Blonde. I would shoot black and white film, Double-X and then Vision 3, and I felt like that recreated certain images from her life more authentically. However, when we got into the real nitty gritty of getting the shoot done, one of the challenges was Marilyn’s dialect. We wanted to protect Ana [de Armas] and give her the chance to support the film and the dialect by shooting extended takes. I think the choice [to shoot digitally] came out of that. Also, Andrew had done some episodes of Mindhunter, and he felt more trusting shooting video after that than he had in the past. So, I think Andrew and I did conflict on [of film versus digital]. In the end, Andrew requested what’s called a “Pepsi Challenge,” where we shot Alexa, Sony VENICE and a little bit of film, and we viewed those tests in a theater. No one knew which footage came from which camera except me, and the VENICE is the camera we ended up selecting [for the color portions of the film]. Cinematographer Chayse Irvin and Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe. Cr. Matt Kennedy / Netflix © 2022 Here's an excerpt from the Cinematography World article: After extensive testing, supported by Panavision, Woodland Hills, and the company’s lens guru Dan Sasaki in particular, Irvin selected Panavison PVintage lenses, which are based on Panavision Ultra Speed lenses designed in the 1970s, paired with the Sony Venice camera, for the movie’s colour sequences, and ARRI Alexa XT B&W for the B&W portions. He also added H-series sphericals, built with vintage glass and coatings, that have soft roll-off in the image and emphasise skin quality, to his optical mix. “During testing, we did a Pepsi blind-challenge for Andrew between different lenses and large format cameras,” Irvin explains. “When we screen the tests Andrew developed a particular connection to the PVintage lenses as they had a certain fragility, where the image was sort of falling apart, and helped to evoked the period as well as the emotion. They are very forgiving on skin and skin pores when shooting large format, which meant I did not need to resort to softening the image using filters on the many close-ups in the film. “On a practical level, the front diameter on the PVintage glass is consistent across the focal length range, so you can use the same matte box, and the smooth mechanical performance is really helpful for the focus pullers. “The nature of those tests, in interior and exterior settings, natural and artificial light, was really informative as regards the camera choice. Things like the ISO settings and ability to ride the exposure via the internal NDs on the Sony Venice revealed that it was way faster at helping us to react to things as they were happening. Blonde, behind the scenes, Ana de Armas (Marilyn Monroe”), Chayse Irvin (Cinematographer), Cody Jacobs (Gaffer) Cr. Matt Kennedy / Netflix © 2022

In a report shot entirely on film, NBC News’ Gadi Schwartz tells us about the growing demand for vintage cameras as photography shoots up in popularity. The boom has been fueled by younger generations, social media and a desire to slow down in a hyperconnected world. When setting out to report this story, Gadi realized there was only one way to really do it justice. Take a behind-the-scenes look as Gadi shoots a few rolls with photographer Jason Kummerfeldt in Los Angeles, with their journey captured on a film camera.

Source: KODAK https://www.kodak.com/en/motion/blog-post/nope Hoyte van Hoytema FSF NSC ASC "One of the major challenges on Nope was how we were going to shoot the night-time sequences, which were mainly all big set pieces. When Jordan and I went on the night scouts around Agua Dulce, we saw that there was no available light whatsoever, and realized there was no way we were ever going to be able to light and photograph these large expanses convincingly. "But nature at night is very special and interesting. As we stood there, and our pupils dilated, we started to notice very fine details in the mountain ridges and the expansive presence of the space around us and thought it would be great to capture that essence in the film. "Of course, we could have shot traditional day-for-night, but that has its limitations because you must have the sun exactly in the right place, or we could have tried greenscreen and CGI, but even then, the results can look kind of fakey." Accordingly, Van Hoytema casted his mind back to some of his previous challenges and, with an inspired twist of creative thought, came up with a ground-breaking solution to shoot the night scenes and a pioneering new way of shooting day-for-night using a hybrid of film and digital. As he explains, "When I worked on Ad Astra, we encountered a similar problem when it came to shooting the lunar battle/chase/action sequence with Moon Rovers in Death Valley, and our inability to light up a big area with a single light source. We needed to cover enough distance to be able to shoot the chase, but soft light or double shadows from any sources would have been an awful giveaway. "So with the help of my friend, Kavon Elhami, who runs a camera house, we purchased two decommissioned 3D-stereo camera rigs on which we could mount two cameras. One was an ARRI Alexa, specially customized to capture infrared, the other a regular 35mm film camera. Instead of lining-up the cameras for 3D parallax, we found a new way to align them so that both cameras were shooting the exact same image – one infrared, the other on film – so that every frame would overlay perfectly later in postproduction. “The infrared camera is only sensitive to a very specific wavelengths of light and the images are monochromatic. When you shoot in natural sunlight, with a slight contrast boost, it results in images that are brightly lit, however, the skies are dark. The 35mm camera contains all of the vital color and texture information. In the perfect composite of the two images in post-production, the desert resembled the lunar surface. That meant we got close to the lighting character on the real moon. “So for Nope, I had the idea of scaling up that same kind of rig and using it to shoot our day-for-night scenes in broad daylight – but this time using an ARRI Alexa 65, pointing upwards vertically and shooting in infrared mode, in perfect alignment with a Panavision System 65mm film camera, which was on the horizontal axis. “However, it’s vitally important that the different gates and lenses are identical, that you have exactly the same depths-of-field, that your focus pulls translate in exactly the same way, and that the two images are completely in-sync.” As part of his quest in creating the new day-for-night rig, Van Hoytema necessarily visited Panavison in LA, as the company owns and maintains the small number of existing 65mm cameras. "During the development and test phase we worked with Dan Sasaki, the magician at Panavision, who can build whatever you want, based on his understanding of physics and what is needed artistically," says Van Hoytema. "He made sure the twin sets of Panavision Sphero lenses we used were tuned to be identical in their performance." Development of the specialist rig required a close cooperation between ARRI, Panavision, Van Hoytema and his own development company, Honeycomb Modular, in what he describes as "a beautiful collaboration between amazing people at amazing companies, to solve one person's obsession to do something a little weird and nerdy." "In the early stages, we took a rather shabby-looking prototype rig, held together with screws, cable ties and gaffer tape, out into the desert to shoot tests. My DIT, Elhanan Matos, is not your standard DIT, and when we do new technology like this, he's all over it. He helped in getting the two-camera synched up, and although the video taps on the 65mm camera remain poor, he gave us a good on-set approximation of what the final image would look like. "We then liaised with my DI colorist Greig Fisher at Company3 in LA, mixing those two sets of images together, and the result looked to me like an entirely plausible-looking night. In fact, using this technique you can peer much deeper into the dark expanse than we had done before on Ad Astra. And, after additional lighting effects were added in VFX, our night scenes really came alive. When you sit in the cinema, especially in an IMAX theatre, and you look around the image it’s a very, very special immersive experience." The production-ready day-for-night camera rig proved to be a sizeable, weighty and somewhat unbalanced lump, and it still needed to be motivated for visual storytelling purposes. "We didn't want to be limited in terms of how we would move the rig around," says Van Hoytema. "So I worked with Dean Bailey and his team at Performance Filmworks, to work out how it could be adapted to fit on their various gyro-stabilized Edge cranes vehicles. I’ve worked with them before on Tenet and Dunkirk, where their vehicles had to drive over extremely rough terrain, and I had the same ambition to put this rig through equally rough stuff. "They worked really hard to adapt their stabilized head for the rig, and all-of-a-sudden, we had the ability to drive everywhere – we could follow running horses and shoot other dramatic action scenes. It became a wonderful, crazy tool that was capable of giving us shot after shot that you might have thought were impossible and probably have never seen before." As for the ramifications for other filmmakers, Van Hoytema says, "I think it's something that can, and probably will, be used more and more. Right now, through Honeycombe Modular, I am developing a new device that will enable you to use just one lens for two cameras, meaning that the rig can be much smaller, and any lens artefacts translate into both formats making post easier."

NBC / Universal publishes a fairly detailed page of discounted pricing and policies for media bags on various airlines. https://travel.nbcuni.com/accordion/airline-media-bags-pricing

Gunther Machu and Florian Milz at CineD have tested the Alexa 35 and found that it has more dynamic range than any previously tested camera. https://www.cined.com/arri-alexa-35-lab-test-rolling-shutter-dynamic-range-and-latitude-plus-video/

The air-to-air team behind Top Gun: Maverick shares a detailed behind-the-scenes look at exactly how they pulled off making the groundbreaking film, including gear choices, challenges, victories, and more. Featuring commentary from: @Claudio Miranda ASC - Director of Photography David B. Nowell, ASC- Aerial Cinematographer/Team5 Michael FitzMaurice- Aerial Cinematographer Kevin LaRosa- Aerial Coordinator/ Lead Camera Pilot

NOPE BTS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dsvj6BvhJk

This summer, hundreds of professional filmmakers in New York City will join forces to create six short films as part of the Women’s Weekend Film Challenge (WWFC). https://www.womensweekendfilmchallenge.com/ A grassroots initiative founded in 2017 by filmmakers Katrina Medoff and Tracy Sayre, WWFC aims to address the lack of women and nonbinary people behind the camera and on screen through a variety of programs, including its signature film challenge. This will be the organization’s fifth film challenge, and the first since the pandemic forced productions across the country to shut down. To date, WWFC has held four film challenges — three in NYC and one in LA — and worked with more than 700 female filmmakers to produce 30 short films that have been screened at more than 90 film festivals. “We are so excited to once again be hosting the Women’s Weekend Film Challenge to provide a diverse group of talented filmmakers with the opportunity to tell their stories on screen,” Sayre said. “Many creative relationships have been fostered through our four previous challenges, and the results — 30 expertly crafted short films — prove there is no shortage of skilled women in every role of production.” This summer, women and nonbinary filmmakers will be placed on teams to write, shoot and edit a short film in just one weekend. It’s free to apply to and participate in the challenge, and the organization provides top-of-the-line equipment, workshops and more. Organizers are expecting more than 1,000 applications and will select about 200 participants. The challenge weekend will take place Aug. 11-14. Filmmakers in every role of production — from gaffers and sound mixers to writers and actors — can apply between June 1 and 27 to participate in the challenge. WWFC enlists the help of guest judges to thoroughly review each application. This year’s judges include cinematographers Nancy Schreiber, ASC, and Carmen Cabana; casting director Adrienne Stern; and filmmakers Anna Sang Park, Annie Sundberg, Danielle Eliska and Mahak Jiwani. WWFC then places accepted individuals onto crews in order to ensure that each team has the talent necessary to make a stellar short film. Top-of-the-line equipment, software, production insurance, production stipends and film festival submission stipends are provided courtesy of WWFC and its sponsors, including Zeiss, Sony, ARRI, Cinelease, Gotham Sound, Casting Networks and Final Draft. Participants will meet their fellow crew members for the first time during a pre-production meeting at CarStage in Long Island City in early August. The film challenge kicks off on Thursday, Aug. 11, when organizers will pick a genre out of a hat for each team and announce a prop that all films must incorporate. Teams will begin writing their scripts that evening and will have until Sunday, Aug. 14, at 11:59 p.m. to submit the completed film. “While progress has been made to combat gender imbalance in the film industry, more work must be done to achieve equity,” Medoff said. “Participants will finish the weekend not only with a highly professional short film but also with a broad network of motivated, talented women.” WWFC will host a premiere screening of the films in late August at Village East in Manhattan. Participants will network with each other and other industry members at an afterparty. Experienced, NY-based filmmakers in every role of production and post-production can apply to the upcoming challenge for free by visiting womensweekendfilmchallenge.com. The deadline to apply is June 27. About Women’s Weekend Film Challenge: Women’s Weekend Film Challenge (WWFC) works for gender equity by creating opportunities for women to bring their leadership, talents and stories to the forefront of the film industry. WWFC places professional filmmakers on teams to write, shoot and edit a short film in just one weekend, creating intensive networking opportunities while helping filmmakers to bring women’s stories to the screen. Since its first challenge in January 2018, WWFC has worked with more than 700 women to produce 30 short films, which have been accepted to more than 90 film festivals. When COVID-19 upended productions, WWFC established a popular virtual workshop series featuring Hollywood powerhouses, such as Elle Johnson (co-showrunner, "Self Made"), Kasi Lemmons (writer/director, "Harriet"), Catherine Hardwicke (director, "Twilight"), and Alma Har'el (director, "Honey Boy"). In 2021, WWFC launched a pilot accelerator designed both to help emerging writers advance their careers and to increase the representation of women and nonbinary people in television. The fellows received three weeks of industry training before pitching their scripts to HBO, Netflix, Comedy Central, Warner Bros., and more. -- Katrina Medoff and Tracy Sayre, Founders of Women's Weekend Film Challenge