highly defined - a HD breakfast

Moving On....

2011-10-27T11:07:00.000+11:00

This blog has been moved and renamed along with a bit of a re-focus... please go to http://redrooftops.wordpress.com/
to check out my new blog 'Red Rooftops'.
Cheers!

Underground adventures....

2011-08-06T00:40:00.000+10:00

Shooting the rescue drama 'Beaconsfield' 600m underground in a goldmine - on the Arri Alexa.

Vale John Bowring ACS

2011-04-26T11:44:00.000+10:00

John Bowring - He was so generous with his assistance and knowledge over the many years i have known him. It was John who gave me (and many others) a start in this business. it's a sad day, i will miss him greatly.

John passed away about a week ago on his way back from NAB. His is a great loss to the industry. Tributes to John can be found on the Lemac website. www.lemac.com.au

'Miracles' wins AFI Award for Cinematography

2010-12-22T15:26:00.001+11:00

Miracle In The Storm won the AFI Award for 'Best Cinematography in a Documentary' on Friday 10th December in Melbourne. It is my first AFI Award after four nominations. Beneath Hill 60 won the 'Best Young Actor' Award for 16 year old Harrison Gilbertson for his acclaimed performance as Tiffen.

GOLD AWARDS received at the NSW ACS Awards

2010-11-22T09:49:00.000+11:00

I was happy to pick up two GOLD AWARDS at the NSW ACS Awards evening held last Saturday. Beneath Hill 60 picked up Gold in the Features Cinema category, and Miracle in the Storm also received Gold in the Dramatised Documentary category. As Gold winners, both these entries will go forward to the ACS National Awards held in May.

AFI Nominations for Beneath Hill 60 & Miracles

2010-11-22T09:40:00.001+11:00

The Australian Film Institute Awards for 2010 will be held in Melbourne on 10-11th December. Beneath Hill 60 has been nominated for 12 AFI Awards, including 'Best Film', 'Best Director' for Jeremy Hartley Sims, and 'Best Cinematography' for Toby Oliver ACS.

I also received an additional AFI Nomination for 'Best Cinematography in a Documentary' for Miracle in the Storm (shoot pictured right).

'Mei Mei' in post production

2010-10-13T10:34:00.002+11:00

The China - Australia co-production feature Mei Mei, directed by Pauline Chan (Traps) is currently in post in Sydney after wrapping the 5 week shoot in Sydney and China recently. The movie was shot by me on the upgraded RED One MX camera which proved to have quite significant and very welcome improvements in image quality over the original M chip RED One that I had used shooting 'The Combination' in 2008. The colour science has been overhauled and basically produces a more faithful rendition of colours, especially the all important skintones. The new MX chip is also cleaner with much less noise at higher ISO's, effectively increasing the usable sensitivity in the real world, and the camera can be comfortably rated at a standard 800 ISO. This was particularly helpful shooting the climatic night scenes at some Parramatta Road car yards where I was able to utilise existing practical floodlighting on background yards and the street to give effective depth. I rated the camera at 320, 500 or 800 ISO depending on the lighting conditions and I am looking to be at the DI grade at Frame Set and Match by December. Some shots including a interior car traveling sequence and some timelapse were shot on the Canon 7D.

'Miracles' on ABC TV...

2010-06-02T16:36:00.001+10:00

I was the DOP on the first episode, 'Miracle in the Storm'

Beneath Hill 60 - successful Premiere Night and reviews

2010-04-09T17:07:00.002+10:00

The film premiered last night at Sydney's Event Cinemas in George St to a huge and enthusiastic crowd, along with many of the films cast and crew putting an appearance on the red carpet. Also out is the 4 star review from the Sydney Morning Herald's Paul Byrnes, and the Urban Cinefile review.

Beneath Hill 60 opens in cinemas across Australia on April 15.

'Quantum' film potential to replace CMOS image sensors

2010-03-23T11:27:00.000+11:00

Click here for article: http://www.eetimes.com/news/design/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=224000253
Very interesting.
The original link was on the CML forum.

Beneath Hill 60 In Cinemas from April 15

2010-03-16T22:07:00.000+11:00

Beneath Hill 60 will be released in multiplexes all around the country the week before Anzac Day. Tune into Channel Nine's 60 Minutes program on Sunday night 28th March for a story with Ray Martin on the making of the film.

Next month's issue of iF Magazine (April) will feature an article about the movie.

Where Do We Go Now? Avatar and Beyond...

2010-02-25T13:42:00.000+11:00

Good article by John Bailey, ASC on the AC site

where-do-we-go-now-“avatar”-and-beyond

The Grade is done...

2010-02-24T12:04:00.000+11:00

Just finished the DI and video HD grade for Beneath Hill 60 with the nice people at Cutting Edge in Sydney, especially the talented colourist Adrian Hauser. The DI was completed on their Baselight Four system at 'Super 2K' resolution - scan super 35mm neg at 4K on the Spirit Datacine, then conform and grade at 2K for filmout. Adrian pulled a few tricks out of his sleeve to make some of the darker scenes look better but overall he says it was not a difficult grade compared to some - basically because we originated on film as opposed to digital, making his job a little easier.

It does look fantastic, as do the impressive VFX shots also done by the Cutting Edge team. Here's hoping plenty of people get a chance to see the movie in cinemas.

Beneath Hill 60 - talking about choosing film

2010-02-03T13:02:00.002+11:00

Cane Toads review from Sundance

2010-01-29T11:01:00.000+11:00

Beneath Hill 60 Trailer is here...

2010-01-28T20:07:00.001+11:00

'Dazzling' Review on Dark Horizons for Cane Toads 3D

2010-01-28T13:23:00.000+11:00

Cane Toads The Conquest 3D (2010) - review excerpts

“Technically his film is a dazzling achievement, in some ways more so than "Avatar"...A visually masterful film... [The] cinematographers create a visual landscape to tell [the] story of the cane toads, and the vast Australian landscape with all its harsh contradictions is as much a character in this movie as the toads and laconic people we meet.” - Paul Fischer, Dark Horizons

Click here for full review

Beneath Hill 60 Trailer launches on Australia Day

2010-01-22T15:58:00.000+11:00

From the desk of Bill Leimbach, Producer:

PARAMOUNT are pleased to confirm that the BENEATH HILL 60 trailer will launch exclusively on the Nine Network’s Today Show and on ninemsn on Tuesday, January 26 – Australia Day.

Panasonic goes 3D....

2010-01-22T10:16:00.000+11:00

Thanks in part to the release of the technological marvel that is Avatar, the tech hype machine is firmly charging into 3D... see link to Engadget article about upcoming Panasonic gear and more...

ARRI's new digital cameras mid 2010

2010-01-15T22:31:00.003+11:00

The successor to the Arri D-21, the ALEXA, (apparently not it's real name) is a compact new camera with 800+ ASA sensitivity and is now up on Arri's website. Looks very interesting, and will cost from 50K Euros with on-board recording and choice or optical or electronic viewfinder depending on the model, which seemingly puts it within range of higher-end RED Epic territory.

RED Scarlet a just few months away...

2010-01-15T00:34:00.004+11:00

Highly anticipated new mini RED, the 3K Scarlet, now in the flesh with Ted from RED showing off a pre-prod mock up camera at Engadget - http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/09/red-scarlet-and-bomb-evf-surprise-hands-on along with the bomb-evf mini viewfinder. Looks very compact which is great... although this one has the 2/3" chip with the mini prime lens.

Cane Toads - Should they be Gassed?

2009-12-31T12:57:00.003+11:00

Interesting recent article in the news about outlawing the use of CO2 gas to kill cane toads - along with many comments from readers. People really get fired up about these toads. A scene featuring the 'humane' gassing of toads by the 'Kimberley Toads Busters' volunteer group is part of 'Cane Toads - The Conquest 3D' film due to be released in 2010.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/12/31/2783184.htm

Rigs used on 'Cane Toads - the Conquest 3D'

2009-12-19T12:00:00.003+11:00

Left is the main rig we used with two SI2K cameras in the P+S Technik mirror box with Canon zoom lenses and a separate (non 3D) monitor, shooting at Fogg Dam in the Northern Territory; right is the 300mm side-by-side rig for a long shot of approaching vehicle down a dusty road shot near Kununurra in the Kimberley.

'Cane Toads - The Conquest 3D' to Premiere at Sundance 2010

2009-12-11T14:54:00.007+11:00

The comic-doco 'Cane Toads - the Conquest', the first Australian feature film shot entirely in digital 3D has been selected to screen in the Premieres section of the Sundance Film Festival in January 2010, the most prestigious festival in the US. Click here for Sundance page.

The shoot was spread over a 4 to 5 month period from late 2008. I was cinematographer on the film for prep period and the Northern Territory block, alongside the other cinematographers Kathryn Millis (QLD block) and Paul Nichola (Studio and VFX shoots and Stereographer).

Written and directed by Mark Lewis, the film is the follow up to his hit 1988 documentary 'Cane Toads - An Unnatural History' and brings the story of the toad up to the present day with it's almost total conquest of Northern Australia, told with trademark quirky humour and presented in stunning 3D.

The film was shot on the Silicon Imaging SI2K digital camera system with a variety of custom made 3D rigs designed by Paul Nichola, to allow 3D shooting in all sorts of situations from macro tadpoles, to close up toads at ground level, to interviews and majestic landscapes.

http://www.canetoadstheconquest.com

'The Combination' Wins Silver

2009-11-29T20:49:00.006+11:00

Last night at the 2009 NSW Australian Cinematography Society Awards ceremony, 'The Combination' picked up a Silver ACS Award in the Features - Cinema category. With a large number of feature film entries in this, a bumper year for Australian cinema, it was especially pleasing to see peer recognition for my work on this powerful story about a Lebanese family set in Sydney's west.

As detailed in my earlier posts, 'The Combination' was shot on an early build of the RED camera, and was the first RED shot feature to hit cinema screens in Australia.

For a full list of ACS winners click here.

A Miracle in the Storm

2009-11-09T11:19:00.004+11:00

I recently finished up shooting the Dramatised doco 'Miracle in the Storm' for Essential Media's Nial Fulton - we had to simulate in the studio scenes of a paraglider who gets sucked up into a deadly storm and somehow survives drifting at an altitude of 30,000 feet... the sequences were shot on greenscreen with the Varicam HD camera on a remote head and our stunt actor in a special wire rig setup directed by Guy Norris - seen here with me working the wheels.

Beneath Hill 60 Wraps

2009-10-11T22:18:00.005+11:00

The WWI war movie wrapped a few weeks ago in Townsville - life is returning to normal back here in Sydney although of course the picture is now well into an exhaustive post production period. The shoot was an amazing experience full of exciting challenges and I am looking forward to getting into the DI suite to grade the picture, but probably not before Jan 2010 at the earliest.

Shooting on super 35mm (3-perf) on the Arricam LT was a pleasure (and a privilege, they tell me) and no doubt a necessity given the very demanding conditions of the shoot with dust, dirt, rain and mud constant companions....

My brother Dan Oliver was SFX Supervisor on the show, and his expert team included my other brother Taj - it was a bit of a family affair, kind of comforting when they are blowing things up nearby!

Photo by Wendy McDougall

Beneath Hill 60 to shoot on 35mm

2009-06-13T18:59:00.002+10:00

After much discussion we have decided to shoot the WW1 tunneling epic on film instead of the digital options, namely RED and Sony's F35. Naturally there was some impact on the budget but because of the nature of the picture with so much low-light material in tunnels and difficult conditions likely, 35mm could be relied upon to give us the best image in our circumstances.

It is actually a welcome change back to film as I haven't shot a feature on sprockets since 2004 in China on 'Waiting Alone', which feels like aeons ago. We will be using Arricams with my Cooke Lenses, and I will be doing some low-light force processing tests with 500ASA stock shortly.

Beneath Hill 60 in early pre-production

2009-05-03T21:46:00.003+10:00

'Beneath Hill 60', an ambitious new war drama about the Australian tunnelers fighting under the trenches of the Western Front in WW1 has been greenlit for production and will start shooting in July 2009 in Townsville, QLD. I will DOP the picture for director Jeremy Sims following our previous collaboration on 'Last Train to Freo'(2005).

For more information on the project from the official film site click here.

Article on shooting 'The Combination' on RED

2009-03-30T10:23:00.003+11:00

This full length article was published in the February issue of Digital Media World Magazine, click here to download the .pdf from www.tobyoliver.com.au

I AM CUBA interview on Radio National website

2009-03-16T22:13:00.003+11:00

I was on Radio National's Movietime show the other day with Jason Di Rosso, talking about the amazing 1964 Soviet-Cuban film 'I Am Cuba' on the 'Trash or Treasure' segment.

Please click here for internet download from the ABC website.

The Combination continues...

2009-03-11T21:52:00.006+11:00

from Inside Film....

"For the second week in a row, The Combination topped the limited release charts, beating new releases The Secret Life of Bees ($121,677) and Dean Spanley ($78,565) which opened on 44 and 34 screens respectively. Both films had held sneaks the week before.

Distributed by the Australian Film Syndicate, The Combination took an average $4,483 on 34 screens, for a total second week taking of $152,406.

If the film had been released in 2008, its $420,724 total would already place it among the top 10 highest grossing Australian feature films of the year."

Segment on ABC Radio National this Friday

2009-03-11T20:50:00.006+11:00

I will be featuring in Radio National's Movietime show with Jason Di Rosso, talking about the amazing 1964 Soviet-Cuban film 'I Am Cuba' on the 'Trash or Treasure' segment. It goes to air this Friday 13th from 8.30am.

RN is on 576AM in Sydney or click here for internet download.

'The Combination' releases to Good Reviews and Media Frenzy

2009-03-02T10:53:00.002+11:00

The Combination was released last Thursday into Australian cinemas nationwide with great press reviews particularly from the ABC's David Stratton with a rating of 4 and a half stars. But by Saturday night the film had been pulled from Greater Union's four Sydney screens due to two incidents at the company's Parramatta cinema complex. The Police say that the violence was not related to the film and no arrests or charges were made, but the filmmakers including myself are very disappointed at the GU decision to pull the film, preventing up to 60% of the likely Sydney audience having access to screenings.

However, GU say the suspension could be temporary and screenings may resume if they feel staff and patrons will be 'safe'. I hope as many people as possible will be able to see this exciting Australian film in cinemas over the next few weeks. Stay tuned.

www.thecombination.com.au

The 'Cooke Look' arrives at Open Aperture

2009-02-23T12:33:00.005+11:00

Open Aperture, founded by myself and focus puller/cinematographer André Deubel, is proud to announce the arrival of our brand new set of Cooke S4i PL mount Lenses. A set of six of state of the art highest quality prime lens optics built in the UK, the set includes the 18mm, 25mm, 32mm, 50mm, 75mm and 100mm, all a true T2.

The lenses will be available on projects working with Toby or Andre, and also for 'dry hire' rental to other productions. Open Aperture is based in Sydney, Australia. The website will be online shortly - www.openaperture.com.au

'Bargain Coast' pilot now shooting

2009-02-14T12:46:00.003+11:00

Currently i am shooting the pilot episode for a new Channel 7 comedy series 'Bargain Coast'. Based on the hit UK series 'Benidorm', the show features a motley bunch of characters who are regular visitors to an 'el cheapo all-inclusive' coastal resort somewhere in Australia. For the first time I am shooting on the Sony PDW-700 XDCAM HD 2/3" optical disk camera which is providing some pretty nice pictures. Not to mention the non-linear instant playback of clips on set which is a boon compared to tape-based shooting.

'The Combination' poster

2009-01-20T22:03:00.003+11:00

The new poster image for 'The Combination' is out. See www.thecombination.com.au

THE COMBINATION in cinemas February 2009

2008-12-15T22:41:00.005+11:00

Australian Film Syndicate, distributor of powerful new Australian film 'The Combination', has released a corker new website and 1 min trailer online. I shot the film for director David Field on the RED camera system earlier this year in western Sydney. It is due for Australian cinema release 26 February 2009. See my earlier posts for plenty of info on the shoot.

Go to www.thecombination.com.au

GOLD Award at the ACS

2008-11-13T00:18:00.001+11:00

Last saturday evening at the NSW Branch ACS Awards night i was the recipient of a Gold award for 'Minutes of a Separation' in the Corporate Educational category. The piece was shot on the Panasonic HDX 900 HD camera as the filmed component of a live gala production by the Sydney Theatre Company for watchmakers IWC staged in Geneva, and starring Cate Blanchett. See my site for a clip at www.tobyoliver.com.au

'The Combination' trailer #1

2008-11-12T23:51:00.006+11:00

To see a early trailer clip for new Australian feature film 'The Combination' go to www.thecombination.com.au. I shot the film on location in western Sydney entirely on the RED digital cinema camera system earlier this year and it is looking to a cinema release early in 2009.

On the Road with the Toads

2008-10-25T23:29:00.003+11:00

Currently i am two weeks into the documentary shoot 'Cane Toads 2' for director Mark Lewis, maker of the original Cane Toads film in 1988. We are shooting with a small crew in the Top End, from Darwin across to Kununarra until early December.

The Final Grade

2008-07-28T21:36:00.004+10:00

Just finished the grading process for 'The Combination' with a final check today of all the reels in the DI suite before sending to film out. The DI was done by the talented colorists at Efilm here in Sydney, on the Lustre system with monitoring on the Barco 2K projector.

Very happy with the final results, the RED has come through with pleasing results, not withstanding some scenes that were quite difficult to grade. Even though i rated the camera at 500 ASA, effectively underexposing, we had no noise issues in the image at all - at least not when viewing the fully calibrated DI room projector, or on the 35mm print. Going through a full DI process for filmout does put the image under the greatest real world scrutiny and the camera held up pretty well - except for some particular situations.

The most difficult scenes to grade properly were without doubt those shot under tungsten light, especially if low level or a bit underexposed. As the sensor is native daylight balance, the warm tones of a tungsten lit interior seem to push the colour imaging capabilities of the camera close to the limit in the red part of the spectrum. Of course it is possible to correct the balance in the DI suite but an apparent colour depth limitation rears it's ugly head making many shots look 'funny' and not quite right. Again, it is fixable, but does often require a lot more work on the part of the colorist to make images acceptable.

On the other hand, many of the scenes shot in daylight or with HMI lighting almost grade themselves and look terrific with just a simple contrast curve applied. In retrospect i would do a some have suggested and use a quarter blue filter on the lens when shooting tungsten, just to take a bit of red out of the image. Apparently the new Red Build 16 does have 'improved tungsten tolerance' which would be very welcomed. I look forward to testing it when next i have the opportunity to shoot with RED.

'Recommended ASA'

2008-06-06T14:17:00.003+10:00

Interesting now with the imminent release of RED'S Build 16 update that Jannard is now suggesting a 'recommended' ASA rating in the 320-500 ASA range for the RED ONE camera; i guess we were a beat ahead of time rating it at 500 for 'The Combination' shoot. Image (right) of Russian church from our test shoot, shot on RED build 14.

RED - the setup - ISO, resolution, compression

2008-05-24T12:17:00.004+10:00

Unlike a regular high-end HD cameras such as the Sony F900 or Varicam, the RED has little in the way of menu adjustments to manipulate the image. As i have mentioned before, the adjustments available change settings of the HD monitoring output only and leave the actual RAW recorded image data at a 'factory' setting.

Given this, the biggest impact you can have on the image with the menus (as opposed to lens settings like iris and focus) is your choice of ISO or ASA setting. After our tests and some advice from John Bowring at Lemac, for 'The Combination' i set the ISO at 500, up from the nominal setting of 320 ISO. If you are using the waveform and monitor output to set exposure, then this essentially underexposes the sensor by two thirds of a stop, helping to protect the highlights in the scene from clipping and in effect increasing the useful dynamic range. Of course in a controlled studio environment the contrast of a scene can usually be manipulated with lighting so there is less need to underexpose. But shooting a low budget feature on location presents many situations where the contrast in a scene cannot be easily controlled so i know that if my highlights are starting to clip on the waveform, at 500 ISO there is a little more headroom on the RAW image. In fact the more contrast in a scene, such as full sun onto white shirts with a shaded wall in the BG, the higher the ISO can be set to hold details in the highlights on the shirts.

Even though low light and nighttime shooting typically has less contrast - except for any light sources in frame - i find 500 ISO a more intuitive speed to use thanks to years using 500 ISO film for night shoots, knowing what lamps are needed to cover given areas to a particular T-stop and so on. So i left the ISO setting constant throughout the shoot. However, this does present a problem when shooting in bright sunny exterior day conditions with a camera rated at 500 ISO . The amount of ND filtration required to get down to a T stop of around 2.8 or 4 is about 5 stops - which unfortunately creates an magenta tint to the image caused by excess infra red hitting the sensor compared to the visible light. While it can be graded out in post there are IR cut ND filters becoming available to deal with this issue.

Jim Jannard (RED's founder) touches on this relationship between ISO setting and dynamic range in a recent post on the RedUser forum. It sounds like the forthcoming Build 16 will have much improved ways to judge exposure at the sensor rather than just the HD monitor output which will be very helpful if it works. The most difficult part i find of working with HD video and the RED as compared to film is setting exposure and containing highlights.

Other settings we had were frame size and frame rate - we shot at 4K 2:1, using the full width of the super 35mm sized sensor, then setting the monitor frame line markers to 1: 2.40 aspect ratio. Base frame rate was true 24fps (not 23.98). For slow motion footage up to 50 and 60 fps, we changed resolution to 3K 2:1 then set variable speed mode allowing recording on the same media, in our case usually the Red drive. We shot at Redcode 28 compression rather than the higher quality Redcode 36 to save on disk space with the 2.2 terabytes of original footage duplicated twice for safety backups. Redcode 28 gave us a higher top frame rate also, up to 60 fps at 3K.

RED feedback 1

2008-05-21T17:11:00.002+10:00

Finally i get to provide some feedback on our experiences shooting with the RED camera on the local film 'The Combination' which wrapped at the end of April.

We shot for just over 4 weeks with one RED ONE camera shooting 4K 2:1 24fps with a set of Arri Ultra Primes and an Angenieux 25-250mm HR zoom. The camera was using Build 15 (firstly the beta version, then upgraded to the release version on set) and in terms of reliability it hardly skipped a beat. I was expecting a few more issues to crop up considering some of the operational history with earlier builds but i was pleasantly surprised. There were some minor issues with the Red LCD and we lost one clip when the camera went into timelapse mode by itself, but all in all it worked as advertised.

More notes to follow soon including - my setup; the camera's best points; it's bad points, and things to improve.

The RED Combination

2008-03-03T21:43:00.003+11:00

We shot the second test day with the RED camera in preparation for the feature film 'The Combination' to be shot here in Sydney in April. The camera, supplied by Lemac Films, behaved itself very well, apart from a niggling problem with setting the correct white balance setting. To get a natural looking daylight balance on the monitor we had to set manual WB to 10,000 degrees K which is clearly incorrect. Switching to the regular 'daylight' setting produced a rather blue image. So a bug i guess. I probably need to check the Reduser forum about it. Looking forward to seeing the pictures filmed out for us on 35mm.

RED rides again

2008-02-21T13:23:00.003+11:00

Last week we got hold of a RED camera kit and lenses for testing for an upcoming indie feature film shoot i will DP. The gear was courtesy of Lemac Films in Sydney, who currently have two RED kits and are expecting a few more soon.

I was interested in having a look at the latest update, known as 'Build 14', and Lemac boys updated their camera to 14 when we arrived, which only took a couple of minutes. A few things have changed since i shot with the camera last year and have really helped the camera along as a viable option for a feature film shoot.

We tested the new 3K mode at 50 fps; recording to the CF card and switching to the REDDRIVE - when you change the shooting mode from 4K to 3K you must reformat the record media, ie 4K and 3K material cannot exist on the same media. So a good method may be to record the bulk of the film at 4K on the drives and put slo-mo 3K footage on the CF cards. Audio can be recorded and played back in the headphones; and the startup time seems to be halved, about 45 secs. All in all some good improvements. Simultaneous video outputs are still not enabled but apparently this will be fixed in Build 15, due in March.

We will be staging a location test shoot soon.

Varicam Hula Hoops

2008-01-30T21:53:00.000+11:00

I recently completed a shoot with Panasonic's venerable but still impressive Varicam HD camera, a Summer Promo for cable channel TV1. We utilised the variable frame rates of 60 and 40 fps for much of the spot shot on Sydney's Cronulla Beach with two Varicams blazing away

Stupid Stupid Man - series 2 on air

2008-01-06T09:27:00.000+11:00

This 8-part comedy series was shot in August-September 2007 and is now on air in Australia on cable channel TV1 on Tuesday nights - click here for official site and download of various Episodes.

We shot the show on the Canon XL-H1 HDV cameras and down-converted to SD with excellent results, for the full article see the Jan 2008 issue of Digital Media World Magazine . I'm on the cover, caught in a rather serious moment on what was really a very funny show.

Shooting with RED - 2

2007-12-28T22:07:00.000+11:00

A bit more on my experience with the RED camera #22 on our TVC shoot in Sydney. Currently of course the camera only records to CF (Compact Flash) cards, and we had a maximum 8 GB size cards - about 6 of them. At 4K resolution, 25fps with Redcode compression we get about 4 and a half minutes record time per card. Actually it's about the same as a 400 foot roll of 35mm film. Pulling the CF card out and inserting another one and formatting it takes about the same time as changing a film magazine. The RED behaves more like a film camera than i would have imagined, at least for the time being while we are waiting for the hard drive.

One of the most interesting things about this camera from a cinematographers point of view is that it is much like a film negative in the way that the imaging characteristics are 'fixed' in camera for later manipulation only in post. Unlike a HD video camera there are no in camera 'paint' or setup menus for adjusting the look of the pictures, no gamma controls, black level, knee adjustment etc. Just physical adjustments like the lens, iris or filters actually affect the RAW images. Even the white balance and ASA settings only affect the HD video 'preview' output and don't actually change the RAW image - but they are added as metadata for viewing in post. Really very much like a film negative where the characteristics are designed by the manufacturer and tend to be manipulated later at the lab or in telecine.

Shooting with RED

2007-12-11T14:47:00.000+11:00

Finally a new post to this blog, it's been awhile between drinks. But the good news is i have actually had a chance to shoot hands on with the RED ONE 4K digital camera last week here in Sydney for a low budget TVC for 'Lava Life'.
Last time i saw the RED was at the night held during SMPTE in July, and that camera was just a non-working dummy. This time i had use of Mike Seymour's (FX Guide.com) camera, serial number #22, plus the RED zoom lens and accessories. TVC Producer Jason Sinclair was keen to try out the RED, being on the waiting list himself, so he bit the bullet and hired the kit plus technician Jimmy for the ad shoot.

We had a very simple scenario of two girls sitting at a table in a leafy backyard, discussing the virtues of the Lava Life service. Direct sun was diffused with an overhead grid cloth and augumented with HMI and Kino lighting.

The RED camera proved to be pretty straightforward to use, and we had Jimmy to take care of our data management - and there was a lot of data. But the RED is still definately 'a work in progress' unit; we had a scary few minutes where the camera refused to accept any inputs until we turned it off and let it 'cool down' for five minutes or so. Heat does seem to be an issue and we were using a damp cloth draped over the body to try and help keep the camera cool, although it was hardly a hot day.

But the pictures looked great on my 17" HD monitor - the output via the HD-SDI is 720P and impressed everybody. But the biggest problem with the camera at the moment is the fact that there can be only one video output operational at a time, ie you can have the on-board monitor, OR the viewfinder, OR the external HD-SDI working. So we ended up shooting using the 17" monitor 'wheeled over' close to the camera so i could see it along with the director and client crowded around. Certainly not a real world solution but no doubt the RED team is working to fix this.

More details to follow soon.

Revelation continued

2007-07-21T22:42:00.000+10:00

I had the opportunity to speak on two presentations at the Revelation Screen Conference, 'HD Heaven I and II', see the audience comment by Kate in an earlier post. The Artistic Director of Rev 2007, Megan Spencer kindly invited me to participate this year and it proved to be a great experience over the four days i was in Perth. Other talks such as the 'Inside Track' session with Jeremy Sims, director of 'Last Train to Freo', and the producer of low budget gem 'Boxing Day', Kristian Moliere were a highlight for me along with the chance to meet and chat with other filmmakers at the Rev Club and other venues. The special event sessions of the 'Wholphin' Shorts collections, presented by Wholphin's founder and editor Brent Hoff were a great example of what can be done with the short film medium, and in fact inspired me to think about short films again.
The opening night film 'Monkey Warfare' was terrific Canadian indie filmmaking, along with others such as 'Jesus Camp' and the world premiere of 'Streetsweeper' getting a great audience response. http://thestreetsweeper.blogspot.com/

Some extra notes from the Screen Conference audience:

Inside Track: Last Train To Freo & Boxing Day
Speakers
Kristian Moliere (Producer – Boxing Day), Jeremy Sims (Director – Last Train to Freo)
and Reg Cribb (Writer – Last Train to Freo)
Chair
Richard Sowada
Kicking off the Revelation Screen Conference we were treated to delicious insights from filmmakers Kristian Moliere, JeremySims and Reg Cribb. Similarly these two Aussie features were both shot in real time with a superb focus on performance and creative vision. The term ‘low budget’ is obviously one that varies greatly but it is certainly closely aligned with both Boxing Day and Last Train to Freo in differing degrees.
Directed by Kriv Stenders (Illustrated Family Doctor, Blacktown), Boxing Day was made for just $150,000 and funded entirely through the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund. This experimental approach to narrative was shot on HD with one location and six characters, rehearsed over two weeks and impressively shot in just one week. Kristian said they approached the production not unlike that of a short film where Kriv (who shot and directed at the same time) captured the whole film on mini DV during rehearsals to work out the choreography. With a 360 degree set, up to five actors conversing at once and 10 minute shots, the sound recording was a major challenge for the team who were fortunate enough to secure the talents of Bad Boy Bubby sound recordist James Currie. But the biggest feat of all was that the final 81 minute film was cut together from less than 100 minutes of rushes.
Last Train to Freo was supported via ScreenWest’s West Coast Visions initiative ($750,000) plus private investment. West Coast Visions sped up the process for this old school Perth team who were keen not only to bridge the gap between performance and storytelling and film but also cement the relationship of the creative team, or as Jeremy refers to it, the ‘tribe’ “Tribes can develop their own projects and their own storytelling”. The questions soon arose of what came first the film or the market? It’s that old commerce versus art debate – both as relevant as the other. The Last Train team decided not to secure market attachment prior to production and wanted to see what would happen if they owned the whole film themselves. After much international travel of physically taking the film to buyers overseas and an extensive learning curve the film has now successfully been sold to about 15 territories. But according to Jeremy the bottom line is that filmmakers have to have a great product and they’ve got to be smart “there is an arthouse audience out there – you just have to make a
shit hot film.” Being your own distributors is another possible solution becoming increasingly and certainly in the next five years distribution deals will be all electronic. The theatrical release, if nothing else, becomes an excellent promotional tool.
Kristian’s take on the commerce discussion is to concentrate on performance where, in the low budget world, the only way to compete with high budget flicks is to maintain the audience’s interest in the story.

SMPTE 2007 Trade Show

2007-07-21T15:01:00.000+10:00

Well, SMPTE at Sydney's Darling Harbour Exhibition Centre has passed by again, a massive plethora of new gear this year particulary with cameras and associated bits. Highlights for me was Apple's new Colour grading application, included with Final Cut Studio 2; the Panasonic HPX-3000 high-end HD P2 camera with native 1920x1080 capture to the new AVC-Intra codec (but NO variable frame rates for some reason); Lemac showing the SI-2K data camera (at least a small part of it!) and also i attended the launch of the ACS 50th Year, held at the Powerhouse Museum, where many drinks and a chat were to be had.

But by far the most interesting event of the week was the highly anticipated presentation of the amazing RED ONE camera system at the AFTRS theatrette last night - more on that in an upcoming post.

Perth Revelation International Film Festival

2007-07-20T00:14:00.000+10:00

Last weekend i was over in Perth with the opportunity to contribute to Revelation with a couple of talks in the Screen Conference program - 'HD Heaven I and II'. Here is a summary by audience member Kate Beverley:

HD Heaven: With Cinematographer Toby Oliver, ACS
Sat 14 July 1pm – 5pm
With a 95% male audience I proudly contributed to the 5% of females but quickly realised I was somewhat out of my depth of field in my understanding of HD compared to the rest of the budding young men dressed in their blue t-shirts sitting around me.
Toby Oliver has shot a range of Australian productions in High Definition including features Last Train to Freo and Em 4 Jay, doco Forbidden Lie$, and TV series Lockie Leonard. His interest in cinematography began at a young age when he experimented with making films in high school – long before digital. Toby states upfront that “to learn how to shoot film you have to do it a lot.” HD is perhaps more democratic and user friendly however, this is not to say that HD is a heaven or a haven. One of the keys to successful execution of HD is lighting “lighting is about learning,
unlearning and re-learning.”
So what’s the HD revolution all about? This latest cinematographical reform has been triggered by technology where HD is now, in most situations, cheaper than film – the cameras are cheap the tapes are cheap - $10k for a camera and you’re well on your way to making that feature you’ve been talking about for years. Still though, the majority of features shot in HD are finished on film but with the onset of digital cinema projection (95% of Australian cinemas still use 35mm projection) this is set to change very soon. At the moment we’re in a transitional stage where the chemical and the digital are mixing to become a fusion of past and present – but within the next few years films will be shot on digital and finished and distributed digitally. Will they still be called films?
Torstein Dyrting, who recently shot WA doco Spirit Stones praises the flexibility of HD and created over 30 design looks within the camera (rather than in post). Torstein used HD to manipulate colour and the speed of the camera to contribute to the documentary storytelling depending on the location and the feel. He also embraced the opportunity of working with DOP and Director Alan Collins on this project “We could have a discussion without actually speaking” – I guess that’s cinematographer talk?
But to me HD sounds complicated - there are hard drives and lots of uploading and downloading and something about 23.98 vs 24 vs 25 frames per second and interlaced and progressive 1080 – I think we need a standard because the girl up the back is getting confused, boys can you help?

Thanks Kate!
I think we can can help, it's not so bad.
I will post a rundown of Revelation very soon, which was curated this year by the very capable Megan Spencer, followed by my take on the 2007 SMPTE show in Sydney.

ACS 'Key Day'

2007-07-10T20:44:00.000+10:00

Yesterday i had the opportunity to attend an ACS workshop on keying and greenscreen techniques, presented by Ross Emery ACS and Mike Seymour of FXGuide.com, out at the Film Australia studio in Sydney's north. Certainly a very useful and informative day, and an excellent example of can be acheived when organisations like the ACS (Australian Cinematographers Society for the uninitiated) and FXguide get together. (http://www.fxguide.com/)

Ross Emery whose credits include 2nd unit on the 'Matrix' trilogy and 'Superman Returns' took us through the first half of the day, shooting a test subject (with wispy blonde hair of course) against green with various cameras and lighting setups to match the intended backgrounds that were selected from stills. Ross tips on lighting and levels on the screen, and his techniques for creating believable lighting on the FG subject were invaluable. With Ross was Angus and his team from post VFX house Animal Logic, who provided very interesting insights on what the compositor prefers to receive, and what they can 'make do' with if they have to - quite different! Ross says he often has to push it a bit in terms of an ideal greenscreen shot but stresses the importance of clear communication with the VFX team before the shoot to establish the boundaries of what's possible and what isn't.

Cameras tested shooting the green were the new Sony F23 HDCAM SR, the Sony F900R, the Panasonic HVX202 P2, the Sony 970 DigiBeta for SD, and the Sony V1 HDV. In the afternoon we could see a rough composite by the Animal guys on the Flame and Shake tools, and clearly the F23 provided the best key, with the HDV camera not suprisingly the worst - basically unusable, at least in this situation.

FXguide were filming the workshop and will be putting together a training video presentation of the day for their website audience.

Video Post - Lockie Leonard

2007-07-02T21:40:00.000+10:00

This is my first attempt at posting a video on the blog - something i'll want to do now and then... this is the trailer for the kids tv series 'Lockie Leonard' that i shot on HD last year in Albany, WA. (Western Australia) It is now airing on the Nine Network across Australia at 4pm Tuesday to Thursday.

SD or HD?

2007-06-30T21:26:00.000+10:00

That is the question, sometimes. Should we shoot HD video even if the end product will be broadcast or distributed ONLY in SD? I do have a television project coming up for a cable TV channel that requires only a SD finish, as cable TV in Australia is only broadcast (for the time being) in standard definition. I feel that if HD is an available choice, particulary if it's a drama series or similar with a lengthy shelf life then it's mad to shoot on SD and limit future opportunities. Nor would you want to present a producer with too many added complexities or costs related to HD when they don't need it to complete the show and deliverables.

So long as the downconversion is done properly and depending on the camera the HD source will usually provide a nicer image in SD, with better dynamic range and detail rendition. On the other hand if the downconversion is average, such as the downconverter function typically built-in to prosumer HDV cameras then you can end up with an image worse than shooting with a decent SD camera.

Still, there are plenty saying that SD is truly dead for aquisition, with at least one Australian rental house getting rid of most of their SD video cameras recently.

first cab off the rank

2007-06-29T22:16:00.000+10:00

One wonders why we need yet another blog out there among the millions.. but i need a little outlet for many of the thoughts and ruminations that come up regarding the 'digital revolution' in filmmaking as it were, because of course not all revolutions are necessarily better.

Generally it seems there is much more emphasis on the technology we use to make movies, or tv shows, or videos, or take pictures, than there ever was in the analogue days when things were simpler. Does it mean we are spending way too much time talking about, learning about, anticipating and troubleshooting all this new technology that keeps coming over us like an endless tsunami? Is this blog to be yet another tiny nail supporting this techno-marketing juggernaut? To some degree it probably is, but i want to include a balanced view that reminds us that filmmaking should be a creative excercise as well as a technical one. So i'll be keen to cut through the marketing hype with real-world experiences and my own take on the brave new world of HD.