American Cinematographer - January 2017 - 20

the slide. To his surprise, he sees a larger
view of the sample object as it exists in the
real world. Enthralled by what he is seeing,
he inspects his other specimens and is captivated by the beauty of all the slides. Colin F.
Shepherd says the genesis of Into the Microscope was filming outdoors. "I began thinking of how many perspectives there are in
filmmaking," he says. "I decided to reverse
what the viewer would normally expect; I
only needed to find the right starting point.
I used the scientist as the main character,
who takes us through his views of the real
world inside the microscope. It makes us
feel that God is watching us from above,
under, sideways."
Shepherd employed camera equip20

January 2017

ment available at the Rochester Institute of
Technology's School of Film and Animation
- specifically, Sony's NEX-FS100 and NEXFS700, and a Light & Motion underwater
camera housing with a Sony HDR-XR550V
HD Handycam Camcorder. Shepherd added
to the package with his own Canon Powershot SX40 HS and GoPro Hero4 Silver. For
the FS700, he relied on a Zeiss Compact
Prime CP.2 lens package, and for the FS100
he employed a Sony E 18-200mm f3.5-6.3
OSS lens. The remainder of the cameras
used their native glass. "I chose the [lenses]
I would need [in order] to capture beautiful
depth-of-field shots with the correct
amount of lighting," he says. "For example,
I was able to shoot an extreme close-up
American Cinematographer

Into the Microscope behind-the-scenes photo by Zach Moselle, courtesy of the filmmakers.

Top: A scientist gets an unexpected visual of a specimen in the documentary short Into the Microscope.
Bottom: Director-cinematographer Colin F. Shepherd preps a scene with actor James Toepper.

looking through a microscope at a slide
using the 30mm Zeiss lens."
Regarding the final grade, Shepherd
notes, "I worked both on [Adobe] After
Effects and SpeedGrade for color correction. The final output is a 2.76GB MPEG-4
movie file with 1920-by-1080 pixel resolution."
Shooting Into the Microscope was
not a quick production. Indeed, Shepherd
shot at RIT's SOFA studio for 15 days, and
then spent "countless days" over an entire
year capturing exteriors in several states and
parks. Locations included Avon, Letchworth
State Park, Niagara Falls and Rochester in
New York; Hocking Hills State Park in Ohio;
Pymatuning
Reservoir,
Champion,
Connellsville, Latrobe and Pittsburgh in
Pennsylvania; and Girdwood in Alaska.
For all exterior scenes, Shepherd
relied on available light. For interiors, he
used RIT's SOFA-provided lighting gear,
including an Arri Compact Fresnel ThreeLight Kit, which comprised 150-watt, 300watt and 650-watt units.
The film's aerial shots were the most
ambitious. In Pittsburgh, Shepherd hitched
a ride on a single-propeller, four-seat plane
to capture a bird's-eye view of the city landscape. "Before liftoff, the plane took 30
minutes to start because it was so cold,"
recalls Shepherd. "The pilot said not to
worry - that the plane wouldn't stall out
while flying!"
Particularly challenging, Shepherd
reports, was operating his own drone
- the first DJI Phantom model - in 20°
Fahrenheit at Letchworth State Park. "I
drove many miles to this location and only
had three drone batteries," he says.
"Normally each battery lasts a good 15
minutes of flight time." But he found out
that freezing temperatures had a negative
impact on operating time. "Each battery
only lasted five minutes or less," he recalls.
"I was able to capture a few beautiful shots
with a maximum of only two retakes of
flight paths."
The finishing touch was music.
Shepherd notes that he worked with two
student composers from University of
Rochester, who estimated that five hours
were spent composing music for every one
●
minute of the film.

American Cinematographer - January 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - January 2017