American Cinematographer - March 2008 - (Page 24)

Director of photography Jean-Philippe Bourdon covered the event with 12 Thomson LDK8000 HD cameras provided by the Belgian company Alfacam. “I feel real joy that we were able to pull off such an ambitious show,” he said. arm was used to capture sweeping views of the scenic setting, and a robotic tracking camera deployed near the stage proved useful for capturing closer views of the dancers. “Gérard likes to use a variety of lenses, but that can be tricky,” he noted. “Four of the cameras had Canon DigiSuper 100:1 [9.3-930mm] zooms, and when you get to the long end of the lens, the stop goes down considerably. The other cameras had very wide-angle lenses [Canon 4.752mm zooms], and when you’re cutting from a very long to a very wide shot, you have to make sure the value of the background doesn’t shift dramatically. “A lot of changes were made between the final rehearsal and the show,” he continued. “We had to find a good balance between the artists onstage and the pyramids behind them, but during the final rehearsal, we discovered our plan was not working. One of the big problems was that we were doing a show with no backlight whatsoever; we were lighting the stage and the pyramids separately, with nothing between those two points. Because we had no backlight, we had to have a background that was visually rich and fairly bright. Obviously, it was very difficult to change the stop on the pyramids themselves, so we had to calibrate all of our lighting to the pyramids. We decided to open up the irises on the cameras by a stop and a half. During the show, our stop ranged from a T2.85 to a T5.6.” In designing the lighting for the stage and pyramids and supervising the placement of the stage and scaffolds, 24 March 2008 Larivée used a variety of software programs to plan his strategies. After using Google Earth to get the lay of the land, he worked with Google’s SketchUp (an intelligent drawing system that simplifies 3-D design) to position models of the monuments using realworld coordinates. These rough sketches were then shared globally via Google’s 3-D Warehouse. Larivée mapped his lighting plots with a software package called WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). “We took the SketchUp renderings, put them in WYSIWYG and then started doing test renderings to determine the best distances from which to light everything,” Larivée explained. “Our major concern was getting the background sharp — the last pyramid was a kilometer from the stage, so we needed a lot of power. Luckily, it’s easier to get good depth of field in HD.” Lighting instruments aimed at the stage from the floor and the surrounding scaffolds included Vari-Lite 3000 Washes, VL3000 Spots, VL500s (with stippled lenses), Martin Mac 2000 Washes and Thomas 2 Lite Par 36s. Par 64s, Robert Julia Ivanhoe and Cyrano follow spots and Strand Lighting Nocturne 1000Ws were used as key lights. Color Kinetics Color Blasts (with clear lenses) and a pair of Pixel Line 1044s were used to illuminate scenery. The pyramids (known as Mykerenos, Kephren and Keops) were lit with a combination of BigLites (4.5K Xenon fixtures manufactured by Zap Technologies) and Griven Kolorado MK2s and MK3s, while the Sphinx was surrounded by a combination of BigLites and VL3500 Spots. As a final touch, an Airstar balloon containing a pair of 2K halogen fixtures was painted to resemble the moon and floated behind the stage. All of the stage lights were wired to dimmer boards. To control the background lighting, Larivée used three Grand MA lighting consoles; an Ethernet network allowed wireless control to the pyramids, and 16 universes of DMX were employed. Powering this arsenal required 18 on-site generators, but positioning them involved a flurry of negotiations with Egyptian authorities. “We were not allowed to put the generator trucks in all the spots we’d initially planned,” said Larivée. “The permissions took a week, and refilling the trucks also became an issue because they didn’t want any fuel on-site. Incorporating the Sphinx into our plans further complicated things. Even the army was involved! We weren’t even allowed to use walkie-talkies because of security considerations.” Atmospheric conditions also had to be addressed. “As the night goes on, there’s a lot of humidity in the desert, which helps to create a nice fog,” Larivée explained, adding that MDG machines were employed to add fog to the ambience. “If you want to see the lighting beams, you need to use some fog. But it’s difficult to manage the fog so that you have enough onstage without diffusing or obscuring the background. If the wind picks up, the fog can turn into a wall.” Happily for all concerned, the show came off without a hitch. To prepare for the DVD release, Bourdon later supervised a “huge timing job” at Mikros Image in Paris. “I think the finished product turned out really well, but of course, I always see room for improvement!” he concluded with a laugh. “Looking back, it was a wonderful experience in a unique setting. Chantal was very nice and very human; she listened to all of our concerns and was very open with all of us. I feel real joy that we were able to pull off such an ambitious show.” I

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - March 2008

American Cinematographer - March 2008 Contents Editor’s Note Short Takes: Bill Viola’s Ocean Without a Shore Production Slate: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days Production Slate: Chantal: A Night at the Pyramids Magical Mystery Tour Some Kind of Monster Tantalizing Television Making Sitcoms “Sexy” Post Focus: Mega Playground Helps Set Look for Sibling Post Focus: Visual Effects Society Launches White Paper New Products & Services International Marketplace Classified Ads Ad Index In Memoriam: John McPherson, ASC ASC Membership Roster Clubhouse News ASC Close-Up: Wayne Kennan

American Cinematographer - March 2008

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