Download - Arri

Transforms
two streams of 1920x1080 (720 effective)
video, one stream containing the even lines
and the other the odd lines that can simultaneously
recorded on the one Sony SRW-1
deck. The two streams need to be recombined
by interleaving the stream A and
stream B fields to create what is effectively
a 1920x1440 anamorphic image that can
then be cropped and unsqueezed to a
3456x1440 digital file for digital cinema.
Mscope also allows you to monitor one of
the streams on set in HD resolution in the
correct aspect ratio on any HD monitor.”
The post production for the commercial was
facilitated by Engine, where only one stream
of the footage was used for offline editorial.
Once picture lock was established, both
streams of selected takes were ingested to
Flame, where they were combined and ultimately
resized to 1920x1080 with letterboxing.
“I think that the results are fantastic, but in
reality, for TVC production even using just
one of the streams would still deliver great
results,” says Luu.
DoP Tony Luu ACS, Director Husein
Alicajic, Sydney Dance Company
Artistic Director Rafael Bonachela (f.l.t.r)
True Anamorphic and beyond HD
Another feature of the D-21 used by the
cameraman was its ability to record Cineon
Log gamma and colour space in extended
range to tape. “Shooting in Log C means
that you can pull so much detail out of the
image during the grade, you can read far
in to the highlights and into the shadows,
and where there is clipping, the rolloff in
Log C is quite filmic,” states Luu. “That is
quite a relief when having to work with a
digital camera.” The camera allowed the
cinematographer to monitor both the Log C
and a de-logged 200EI equivalent LUT
monitoring output, which was fed to Alicajic
and Bonachela’s monitors.
In one scene of the commercial, three
dancers stand together in a tight line, so
that the viewer only sees the first. Slowly,
arms and legs appear behind the first body,
commencing the transformation that signifies
the spot’s theme. Black perspex forms a
runway through the bottom of frame that
reflects the dancers’ images, and the only
interior lighting comes from ten bare kino flo
tubes laid on the ground around the borders
of the room. The shot was photographed in
a meeting room of the 18th floor of the
building, looking straight out to a moody
grey sky. Luu used only NDs for this scene,
choosing to photograph without colour
correction filtration to the tungsten camera,
lending the image a cool hue. “I love shooting
without an 85, it gives an amazingly
clean skin tone and washes the picture with
a modern, clinical tone that Husein was
after,” says Luu. “There is so much contrast
in the scene, we thought when we photo-
graphed this that we’d silhouette the dancers
against the blown sky, but in post, there was
actually so much detail that it was better to
leave the shadows and highlights in the
picture.”
The cameraman also favoured lighting the
dancers with practical lighting balloons
supplied by Panalux. The 1.6m diameter
balls are air-filled by an onboard fan, and
contain 6 x 400w halogen striplights than
can be run through a dimmer. An atrium
that runs through the high rise building gave
the cinematographer a line of sight to see
dancers who were set across two floors from
across the building. “The ambience from
the sky gave a wonderful blue glow inside
the structure, which was offset by the warm
soft light emanating from the balloons. The
balloons were part of the organic, human
world where round edges repel the intrusive
square lines of the surrounds,” says Luu. The
shot was captured from inside a glasswalled
elevator, as it rapidly descends.
“It was a fantastic opportunity to shoot
incredible dancers in an incredible location
with an incredible camera – the experience
was… incredible,” adds Luu.
To watch the spot go to
www.photoplayfilms.com.au
C a m e r a
Tony received a Gold Award at the
Queensland and Northern Territory
Awards for Cinematography for his work
on the Sydney Dance Company commercial.
Catherine Hjelm
2 9
photos by Daniel Boud