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prepping new feature on Genesis


Joseph White

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hey all, haven't posted in a while and this might be the wrong section for this, but i'm entering my 4th week of prep as dp on the lionsgate/twisted pictures sci-fi rock opera "repo! the genetic opera". we're shooting on the panavision genesis system (2 of them for the run of the show from panavision toronto) and i'm getting really excited as we go to camera on september 10th for 7 weeks.

 

we landed on the genesis after going back and forth between panavision and clairmont with the arriflex d20, but in the end the camera's fast iso rating and panavision's competitive pricing led us to the genesis and i couldn't be happier.

 

it's a dark, horror/sci-fi comic book-esque rock opera with some amazing music and equally amazing sets (whole film is being shot under one roof here in toronto - production designer david hackl is doing some amazing work with the post-apocalyptic world he's been tasked to create).

 

anyhow, i haven't seen a lot of action on the genesis board so i figured i'd post something and i'll drop some diary entries while shooting. excited to be on the genesis seeing as how this is a pretty dark and noir-esque show - thankfully no day exteriors for HD to have its way with!

 

best wishes to all and wish me luck!

-joe white

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Great...another Canadian DP loses out to an American import, maybe one day Canadians will be able to work in the American film industry with such ease?

 

Just kidding.....sorta.

 

Welcome to Ontario, have a good shoot.

 

R,

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hey all,

shot our first proper round of tests the other night on the genesis (with principal cast on some of our nicer sets) and started to map-out our on-set workflow. i really like the system of using LUTs, having so many options on set, yet still treating the camera like a film camera. i still rate it at 640 iso yet can imagine different film types in my imaginary magazine (we have a LUT that is sort of our 5218 setup, and a clean one, and a lower contrast one as well).

 

we've landed on a very nice one that i think we'll use for the majority of the film - has a somewhat bleach-bypass look but with a little more saturation than normally associated with that process. we're using a lot of atmosphere (smoke, fog, haze, flames) which i normally stay far away from with HD but in our tests the stuff had SO much texture and was just lovely. plus our skip bleach look incorporates a bit of gain, but even when cranked up the Genesis renders it almost imperceptible and when we eventually do our filmout and DI, we'll have even more fun.

 

bottom line is, for a young DP like me doing my first real studio movie, having amazing looking dailies is the only way i'll be able to sleep at night - and with our customized LUTs and awesome post workflow offered by Deluxe in toronto, i think i might even be able to keep my job!

 

we go to camera on monday and after seeing our tests and showing it to some of the producers, i'm a lot more confident. every time my gaffer and i walk around these huge sets we're pretty thankful to have the genesis even over the arri d20 - i cant imagine lighting this movie rating a camera at 160/200 iso as we're maxing out our package everywhere just to chase down 640.

 

more soon as we get going,

joe

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Wow, four weeks of prep. What's that like??

 

What's been the most impressive about the camera so far?

 

What's been the most challenging about the camera?

 

640 iso? Sheesh, not bad.

 

Are you playing with vertical detail or coring to minimize gain?

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Great...another Canadian DP loses out to an American import, maybe one day Canadians will be able to work in the American film industry with such ease?

 

Just kidding.....sorta.

 

I know you're just kidding (sorta), but.....

 

John Bartley (OK, originally from New Zealand, but still)

Rodney Charters (OK, same thing...)

Rob McLachlan.

Tom Burstyn.

Barry Stone.

 

Should I continue?

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Great...another Canadian DP loses out to an American import, maybe one day Canadians will be able to work in the American film industry with such ease?

 

Just kidding.....sorta.

 

 

Great...another American film loses out to a Canadian export. Maybe one day Americans will be able to keep their films here with such ease?

 

Not really kidding.

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Great...another American film loses out to a Canadian export. Maybe one day Americans will be able to keep their films here with such ease?

 

Not really kidding.

 

Well I could write pages on this, but I don't really think I should hi-jack the gentleman's thread about his shoot. "Runaway" production would of course be a very good thread in the "off-topic" section.

 

Some union in the USA this past week asked the US gov't for trade sanctions against Canada for what they call "illegal subsidies" in the film industry. Since the Hollywood studios only have their films on 96% of Canadian screens, I can see why they'd be so upset, I mean really they should have that last 4%!!!

 

R,

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