American Cinematographer - June 2008 - (Page 14)

Lytwyn (crouching behind camera), director Adam Buncher and director’s assistant Noah Trepanier (in hat) work out an angle on the set. Working in the background is gaffer Yoshi Sonoda. ones that do exist are barely functional at best,” says Lytwyn. They found one camera for rent in California, but it wasn’t available for shipment to New York. “That’s when we decided to do it with vidicon cameras instead,” says the cinematographer. Although the vidicon is more reliable and readily available, there are distinct differences in the way it and image orthicon-based cameras respond to light, particularly bright highlights. Image orthicon cameras tend to exhibit a remarkable black halo effect around the areas of an image containing high specular values, whereas vidicon cameras are susceptible to “burn-in,” or streaking of the image when overexposed. This made for an unpredictable effect Lytwyn would later use to his advantage. “There’s something great about tube video’s unpredictability — you never know what it will yield,” muses the cinematographer. “Depending on your weather conditions or subject matter, tube cameras have the ability to yield something completely different and unexpected that might actually be better than what you intended to photograph.” Lytwyn’s first stop was Ebay, and the first camera he purchased was a Cohu 4400, an industrial surveillance camera. It cost $4 and came with an auto-iris 25mm prime lens that the filmmakers discarded in favor of a C-mount to Nikon adapter paired with a 17-35mm Nikkor zoom lens. For another $50, Lytwyn purchased a Pana14 June 2008 sonic WV-360P, a small, toaster-shaped studio camera sporting a built-in 1470mm Fujinon zoom. To hear Lytwyn describe it, the shoot for “100 Days,” which was accomplished in a single day at Globus Studios in Manhattan, was a straightforward undertaking. The principal crew included gaffer Yoshi Sonoda and camera assistant Robyn Noble. The band would perform in front of a white cyc decorated with 100-watt store-bought vanity lights strung up between the large letters that spelled out Sharon Jones’ name. Lytwyn and Buncher intended to get all their wide shots using the Cohu and shoot coverage with the Panasonic, which would also double as an on-camera prop. Lytwyn rated his images by running the composite signal into a clamshell MiniDV recorder and checking the LCD screen to make sure the two cameras matched. “Because it was built for industrial applications, the light sensitivity on the Cohu was extremely high,” he says. “We ended up having to stack a couple of ND.9s in front of the lens just to shoot at a decent f-stop.” The Panasonic camera required no filtration. Lytwyn notes that Globus still uses many of the studio fixtures that were around in the 1960s. “We wanted to use lights that would’ve been in use during that era,” he notes. “The folks at Daptone take a lot of pride in using authentic vintage equipment to create their music, and Adam and I felt that principle should carry over to how we shot the video.” Lytwyn used an existing array of Cone lights and Scoops — all tungsten — to provide general illumination for the band. To key Jones, he used a 2K studio Junior, and for soft cross-fill, he used a large 1960s-era Mole-Richardson 2K. Lytwyn and Buncher were actually contracted to produce two videos in this style; “100 Days” was to go before the cameras after “Tell Me.” Right as they were about to begin “100 Days,” the tube burned out on the Cohu, reducing the production to a one-camera shoot. They decided to make the video by doing several passes of the performance — one pass in a wide master, and then subsequent takes with Jones and each band member. Lytwyn recalls, “Every so often, I felt it was necessary to punctuate the camerawork with a zoom in or out, or a swishing camera move to find one of the band members to get the comet trails off the lights, to kind of accentuate the ‘tube drag’ you get with motion.” After five takes, they were finished, and Buncher cut the raw footage together from Lytwyn’s MiniDV masters. Using Final Cut Pro, Buncher devised a method to approximate the cross-fades and inelegant transitions inherent to analog video. “Adam’s techniques really sealed the deal on purveying period authenticity,” says Lytwyn. The label uploaded “100 Days” to YouTube, where it quickly garnered almost a million viewers. “It’s probably gotten more exposure than any other music video we’ve done,” says Lytwyn. “I came out of an era defined by directors like Hype Williams, Mark Romanek and Paul Hunter,” continues the cinematographer. “At school, we used to brag about having anamorphic lenses; it was all about who had the best camera package and getting your video on MTV. This video represents the complete opposite of that! It really injected a breath of fresh air into what I was doing. Every so often, you do a project that makes you remember why you got into filmmaking in the first place.” I

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

American Cinematographer - June 2008 Contents Editor's Note Short Takes: "100 Days, " Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings Production Slate: Mongol Production Slate: Greensburg Vintage Indy A Prince in Peril Women's World 90 Years of Precision Post Focus: A 3-D Imax Work Flow for Wild Ocean Post Focus: 3cP Incorporates ASC CDL on State of Play Filmmakers' Forum: John Baily, ASC New Products & Services International Marketplace Classified Ads Ad Index ASC Membership Roster In Memoriam: Gayne Rescher, ASC Clubhouse News ASC Close-Up: Rob McLachlan

American Cinematographer - June 2008

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