American Cinematographer - August 2018 - 68

aerial camera, and you don't need a focus
ring, or aperture ring, and we didn't need a
hardware switch on the lens to switch from
auto to manual. But what we did need,
because it's on a gimbal, was to have all the
lenses be exactly the same weight when
mounted. We didn't want to have to
change or adjust for counterweights. The
entire system had to be light, because you
design the size of a drone based on the
actual payload it is carrying. If you have a
heavier system, you need a bigger drone."
Nakamura notes that the scene that
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August 2018

fooled him was chock full of sunny day exteriors. "Typically, those kinds of shots are very
difficult without professional cameras," the
colorist says. "Using consumer or prosumer
cameras for typical drone material, the
footage can look pretty nice in interiors
where the cinematographer can really
control the amount of contrast and light -
but day exteriors around lunchtime, when
there is a lot of chrome, a lot of white buildings and things like that, a lot of times
prosumer cameras tend not to get the
dynamic range you need. So your whites
American Cinematographer

Sicario: Day of the Soldado frame grab courtesy of Rodeo FX; behind-the-scenes photo by Richard Foreman Jr., SMPSP, courtesy of CTMG.

Top: The production of Sicario: Day of the Soldado employed DJI's Zenmuse X5S camera for a wide range
of drone shots. Above: Cinematographer Dariusz Wolski, ASC (second from left) confers with director
Stefano Sollima on location for Day of the Soldado.

will get clipped, or if you are shooting at
night, you won't get any detail in the
blacks. So this camera was really surprising,
because there was so much dynamic range.
And then Dariusz told me he used it for this
shot and that shot, and I really was
surprised."
Nakamura emphasizes that a colorist
is not particularly concerned with which
system the footage comes from, nor will
the system itself ensure that the footage will
be workable. In the hands of someone like
Miranda or Wolski, though, improving or
upgrading the nature and quality of affordable drone-platformed footage paves the
way for numerous additional creative
options in post, as well as out in the field,
because a colorist can then attack creative
needs with the same vigor as they would
with higher-end cameras.
"Footage comes to me to color
correct, and I just try to make it look the
way we want it to look," Nakamura says.
"You can either get there or you can't. Basically, without getting too technical, if you
are color-correcting with lower-res cameras
for a digital intermediate or theatrical
release, a lot of times when you are pushing
grades, the footage will fall apart if not shot
right, or if it is a lower-resolution camera.
Either you won't have the dynamic range
you need, or you will get a lot of noise,
which is very typical with prosumer-type
cameras in the digital-intermediate world.
"You will really feel it with footage

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - August 2018