In This Issue...
- JOHN SEALE ACS ASC Screening Q&A
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DAN MACARTHUR on a roll
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NICE PACKAGE Screening Q&A
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Postcard from JOHN STOKES ACS
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Sponsor Spotlight: PROCAM
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AWARDS JUDGING done and dusted
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MARK BROADBENT plays with Blackmagic
THE TOURIST Q&A SCREENING WITH JOHN SEALE ACS ASC
The ACS in association with QUT are extremely excited to present a special screening and Q&A evening with JOHN SEALE ACS ASC. The event is being held THIS FRIDAY 11TH OCTOBER @ 6:30PM This is a public event and seats are limited so make sure you don't miss out and RSVP now via the link below!
DAN MACARTHUR ON A ROLL
 Dan on the set of 'Nice Package' |
Dan Macarthur reporting on Absolute Deception, Suicide Theory and his upcoming debut written and directed feature film Nice Package. Absolute Deception starring Cuba Gooding Jnr and directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith, is a cops meet robbers type film, with a tenacious, foxy journalist with a vested interest in the plot. Set on the Gold Coast, two Americans (we need them to sell movies) travel down under to get amongst some non-speaking henchman employed by a rich, non-caring, shmarmy tycoon. Throw in some bad CGI and voila, your average straight to DVD release. Paint the picture? But of course as all self-respecting DPs know its not the budget that concerns us, its how much bang for the Producers buck we can get on the screen and get to the end of everyday saying: that all looked good. We had a shooting schedule of twenty days, eight of which were with star Cuba, and evidently he is in the whole movie! Yes you read right. Our call sheet looked like a shot list except it had scenes written next to each one. So one has to expect a few corner cutting tricks and thats when it becomes a juggling match between time management, quality control and getting it in the can. At the end of the day no one wants to be there till 3 am still shooting because you couldnt light fast enough or cover the scene succinctly to cut back the coverage in order to tell the story with less set ups. Even still I had two cameras and in one day we broke Brians (Director) daily set up record of 70 odd, managing to crack it to 93. I think I had an itchy crutch that day because I sure had no time to scratch it. Still we went to the premiere on the Gold Coast a few weeks back and I thought it looked good. Of course I would expect that but its more the fact that under that blinding pace there is a story, there are close ups on the actors every time you need them to accent the story and nothing was grossly missing. A fine achievement for the team I believe, when you consider wardrobe, props department, stunts and makeup to mention a few, thats a lot of work for a lot of people. I shot the film on two Red Scarlets, one of which came from PROCAM and they were very generous to throw all the Canon lenses and gear I wanted. I knew early in pre-production that we would not be shooting any slow frame rates so the 4k raw 25fps was all we needed to tell this story. Amongst the great Canon lenses I had a couple zooms and a set of primes which covered all my bases. You should always keep open the options for your director just in case he wants to go a little tighter or a little looser. Brian was great to work with because he loved ideas and suggestions especially if there was a better, easier, faster way. He knew when to punch in for a close up and what to cover due to his incredible experience directing a very large number of movies. All in all a very enjoyable experience complete with its highs and lows as all films struggle with in the fantastic experience we all enjoy called film making. The Suicide Theory was shot December last year on literally a shoe string, in fact the crew all had to donate their own shoe strings to make this happen. But again, dont let that get you down, it only makes you fight harder. This is Australia and we can all sing the same song, this is the low budget playground. This was a great script; great cast and a very dark story, certainly not your average fluff. Again I shot on the RED Scarlet mainly for convenience and access to the equipment. I think when Arri release something larger than 2K then I will be in heaven. Arri Alexa pictures look like film. Full stop. Red pictures are great too and I think the different cameras work for different films. TST was a great subject to work with. Set in an unknown city not unlike New York or Blade Runner, a bounty hunter is hired by a guy to kill him, except he cant die (he finds out) till the client finds happiness. A very dramatic twist unfolds and Im looking forward to seeing this one in its finished state. So dark, Blade Runner, thats all the right noises for me. And yes I had heaps of fun making this dark and moody. I love to under light and stretch the boundary of the camera even if there is a bit of noise creeping through. There is no way to create that soft dark look without under lighting in my books. I dont like to depend on post to get that look, being a bit traditional I like to get it all in-camera. With the RED's Ive gotten used to lighting and shooting in raw when Im viewing it on the monitors and viewfinder etc. Ive got this theory that if you can get the contrast in the picture while looking at the raw then you will get a very nice picture when its graded and thats usually the case. Of course you have to flick to rec 709 just to see how it will sweeten up. All in all a fun but yet, again challenging experience given the extreme budget restrictions but that doesnt stop me making the best out of what Ive got, after all its your name on that project and I certainly dont subscribe to the mentality that you get what you pay for. My priority whether its a super low TVC or music video or decent budget feature, the same rule applies: make it look good and there is every reason to practice your art under every condition because its all about camera angle, simple lighting and operating. The Suicide Theory will be coming out some time next year.
 Andrew Condor ACS shooting 'Nice Package' |
My writer/director debut, 'Nice Package', is an action/comedy. A professional thief takes a female hostage on one of his jobs and takes him back to his gay friends house. The bad guys close in and comedy ensues. Since I was directing I didnt want to expend too much of my energy on the camera so I spoke to Andrew Conder ACS and he was keen to shoot the film. We got the Alexa from Procam and away we went. We shot in four weeks and mainly in a lot of interiors, which was very fortunate that it was written this way because the month of February rained nonstop! In the finale weve had to add in some CGI rain effects to match some of the shots when it was raining but there was no way we were going to stop shooting
FIX IT IN POST! Andrew mainly used a few little LED panels, we may have occasionally had something bigger but it wouldve only been for a day or so. The LED's are great little lights because they dont suck much power, they are a flat source and there is no heat. And for us the heat, the size and all of that was perfect. Im so glad we got to shoot Alexa. The edit will be finished soon and then we will be grading so its going to be very exciting to see those lovely pictures sing their song. Im very happy with the result of this film; audiences are going to really love it. Its bringing the fun back to filmmaking and thats whats been missing for me.
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NICE PACKAGE SCREENING WITH DAN MACARTHUR & ANDREW CONDOR ACS SOC
ACS QLD and 18 Degrees Entertainment present a screening and Q&A on 'Nice Package'. ACS QLD members are invited to the first private screening of new comedy feature Nice Package, directed by ACS member Dan Macarthur and shot by Andrew Conder ACS SOC. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Dan and Andrew and then drinks and finger food on Queensland Terrace. WHEN: 6pm Saturday 30th NOVEMBER
WHERE: State Library Queensland, Stanley Place, SOUTH BRISBANE PARKING: Stanley Place car park. Enter via the Cultural Precinct tunnel or Stanley Place. There is a flat fee of $15. Otherwise, street parking may be found on Montague Road. A limited number of tickets are available free to ACS members. Please RSVP before October 30 via the link below.
POSTCARD FROM JOHN STOKES ACS
 Stokesy on the set of 'A Place To Call Home' |
We have begun shooting our second series of 'A Place to Call Home'. I am fortunate enough to be working with the same camera team from the first series, with David Williamson and Luke Nixon operating, and Jason Binnie and Troy Reichmann focus pulling. I also have my gaffer back, Russel Fewtrell. We are shooting again in HD on the Sony F65 camera system with Angeniuex and Canon lenses, supplied by Lemac. So far we have been shooting in the studios, and around the Sydney area, and have just returned to Camden for filming in the beautiful countryside. Best wishes, John Stokes ACS
SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT: PROCAM
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PROCAM celebrated 25 years of trading this year. We have supported the ACS since 1990. Customer service to our loyal clients has been the key to our success along with our technical innovation of always having the latest products at great prices.
We are offering ACS members 25% off our extensive cinema camera range. This now includes the Sony F65, a camera with amazing colour space and 16 Bit raw recording at 6k. The Sony F55 has also proved to be very popular with our clients for aerials or situations where space is limited. This is my personal pick of the new cameras and is the one I am taking to Antarctica this summer for a Doco on Adelie Penguins.
The F5 and F3 offer good value on Corporate and TVC work. The Canon 1dc is the first DSLR to shoot 4k. The Canon C100 is great for web work. The Panasonic AF100 with PL mount offers good value and a huge step up from DSLRs.
We were pleased to again work with Dan McArthur on his Alexa shoot for Nice Package. Congratulations to Dan and his team.
The latest lens options like the Canon Cinema EOS 30-300 offer superb quality to complement the new cameras. The new Canon lightweight pair of zooms offer 4k Resolution. Our collection of RED PL Lens both primes and zooms offer great value.
Our large studio is a great Procam asset. It was recently used to shoot the latest RACQ TVC. The studio includes makeup and green room with a 46KW Air Con. Broadcast tapes and edit facilities and our extensive hire range are a true one stop shop.
PROCAM is located at 22 Gore St Albion.
Call 3262 2400 or contact Ian Bates 0413 132 748
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A RECORD NUMBER OF AWARDS ENTRIES FOR 2013
Awards Judging for this year's awards are all done & dusted, with it looking like the 2013 awards could be the biggest in Qld yet with a record number of entries. Save the date 16th November for the QLD & NT Awards at The Tivoli. TICKETS ON SALE MID OCTOBER - Tables of 8, get your groups prepared now!
MARK BROADBENT WITH THE BMC IN ACTION
As a cinematographer shooting corporate productions, low budget drama and TVC's I'm always on the lookout for new cameras that offer good "bang for your buck". Since the dslr rush it's been a struggle to get higher end cameras on smaller jobs so when Blackmagic announced the original Cinema Camera I was very interested in what it offered based on it's promising specs. The biggest aspect for me was the promised 13 stops of latitude and the options of uncompressed raw (CinemaDNG) and prores codecs. Since getting one of the first cameras in Queensland early in the year I have used it on a number of jobs. These include a feature, a couple of short dramas and a large number or corporates. The first major shoot was the very low budget feature "Tailgate" which is currently In post. It is a film where 90% is set in a moving car. We bounced around several camera options however kept coming back to the BMCC. We needed a camera that was small enough to be rigged in a car, could handle unpredictable lighting conditions while also fitting within the very tight budget.
On this job the decision was made to shoot Prores due to budget and time restrictions that didn't make shooting raw a viable option. With scenes involving a car interior with shots of a driver with a very bright background of light colored fields in full sun it was one of the first times I've been able to hold exposure detail both in and out of the car on such a budget. With this camera I'm not afraid of extreme backlight, sidelight or playing action in the shadows. I'm confident that there will be detail there. Many shots I would not have even attempted using a DSLR. Being the manufacturer's first camera I was a little concerned about reliability however it performed without any issues throughout the 3 week shoot. In this time I've developed my shooting package to aid the strengths and assist the weaker aspects if the camera. Some people use the Cinema Camera in a very stripped down form however for the way I like to shoot I found it necessary to add a external EVF and battery solution. EVF primarily due to the difficulty operating from the back LCD due mainly to reflections. The external battery is useful as the internal is not removable so I found it most useful as either a backup or when stripping the camera down for rig shots. Other aspects to be away are due to the high IR sensitivity good quality IRND's are needed to keep IR pollution down. On the glass front I'm using a kit of Zeiss ZF primes and a range of Nikon zooms. Due to the odd sensor size slotting between 16mm and 35mm I also have a Tokina 11-16 to cover the times I need to go very wide.
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I have found it important to make sure producers and the post production chain are aware of the best way to manage the data. Shooting raw delivers a data rate of 7.5 GB/min which can be a big shock to those used to working with DSLRs and other more heavily compressed formats. Most raw jobs have been importing into Resolve, exporting proxies for the edit, then reconforming to the original CinemaDNG files for the final grade. Recently I also picked up the little Pocket Cinema Camera. A small, compact sized body with a super 16mm sized sensor for the same family as the larger body. I have already managed to get on a few jobs in a number of roles. It's filled the role of a B camera in an interview, has been used to shoot plate shots and has been rigged to the front spoiler of a V8 Supercar. For me it fits the bill as an insert camera very well. Often it's a struggle to get a second camera on jobs at all, let alone one that matches nicely with the A cam. Looking at the images from the camera, particularly in raw I am always amazed at what is being produced for such a relatively low cost camera. For me it's strengths are it's latitude and very pleasing colour pallet once graded. It filled a gap of a well performing, low cost camera that I am happy to use when budgets don't stretch to the usual higher cost players.
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