American Cinematographer - May 2008 - (Page 60)

Kink and the City These frame grabs are shots captured on location in New York, and the night exterior in Chinatown (third from top) is the only one shot on 35mm. “We found during testing that a lot of the neon signs [in Chinatown] looked much better on film than they did with the Genesis,” Spinotti recalls. Top to bottom: Jonathan spends another lonely evening doing the books; an alluring blonde (Williams) spices up his commute home; their relationship takes a positive turn in Chinatown; Jonathan takes in the view from one of the firm’s upper floors. we had allowed you to individuate lights and see how the color temperature played,” recalls Spinotti. “If you want to see a color in a lamp or get the perfect gel, you can experiment and see how it looks right away. It eliminates the guesswork.” Adds 60 May 2008 Fortune, “It took awhile to get used to working to the monitor, but I like it better, even though most of the jobs I do are film. You see the result in front of you right away, and you have the answers if the cinematographer wants to adjust something slightly. It helps you do a little extra on just about every shot — add a little slash of light or bring something else down. I’ve been lighting for 30 years, and with film, you still go to sleep at night worried about the dailies. With HD, you can look at that monitor and know what you’ve got.” For Langenegger, this work method, like most of the digital aspects of the production, was a mixed blessing. “I could watch Dante light and immediately see how a slash placed just so would work — he was like a painter. And spending so much time next to him in that tent helped us collaborate more closely. But sometimes, it just slowed us down; when you look at that beautiful image on the monitor, you want to get it perfect, so you soon find yourself almost grading the movie right there.” The work method generally used for Genesis in Panalog format is to record all picture and color information possible and then build in the contrast and other grading information in post, rather than “painting” the image in-camera, as is frequently done with linear HD systems. A direct output of the Panalog image looks flat on a hi-def monitor unless a look-up table (LUT) is applied first. DITs work with a great many LUTs, which are usually developed in concert with the post facility — in this case, Company 3. Nagle worked with two monitors on set, a 24" Cine-tal and a 24" Sony CRT, and the latter was calibrated to match a grading monitor at Company 3’s New York facility. “Once the two CRTs were calibrated, we didn’t touch their controls,” says Nagle. The Cine-tal monitor, which Nagle praises for its versatility, was central to the grading process, aiding in the creation of custom “looks” for each location. “On a typical day, Dante would first work on lighting the set while cameras and engineering were built and positioned,”

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

American Cinematographer - May 2008 Contents Editor’s Note Global Village: The Fall Short Takes: ASC Laszlo Kovacs Short Takes: Heritage Award Winners Production Slate: Anamorph Production Slate: Fugitive Pieces Heavy-Metal Hero A Need for Speed Kink and the City Beautiful Minds A Hollywood Homecoming Post Focus: Paramount Restores The Godfather Filmmakers’ Forum: Levie Isaacks, ASC Teaches Marines to Shoot Movies New Products & Services International Marketplace Classified Ads Ad Index Clubhouse News ASC Close-Up: Antonio Calvache

American Cinematographer - May 2008

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