American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 14

Short Takes

7x6x2 Taps Sony F65 and PMW-F55 Prototype
By Jon D. Witmer

Deep inside a No-Zone on an unnamed planet, the galaxyweary war veteran Bryce (Joseph Aviel) has been contracted to repair
a terraforming Mek that’s on the fritz. While working through the
cold desert night, he’s joined by Swanson (Shawn Thomas), a
surveyor for Planetaria Geologica. When seven feral Rock People
move on their camp, only an antique carbine with six bullets stands
between the two men and certain death.
Such is the predicament set forth in the short film 7x6x2, a scifi Western that cinematographer Jesse Green captured with Sony’s
F65 CineAlta digital camera and a prototype of the company’s PMWF55 CineAlta. The project was co-directed by Sundance Institute alum
Sridhar Reddy and award-winning comic-book author Paul Pope.
7x6x2 marks Pope’s directorial debut and is adapted from a short
story in his comic-book series THB.
“When I was a kid,” Pope recounts, “I used to shoot little
stop-motion films with my Super 8 camera. I read all the creatureeffects magazines, behind-the-scenes stuff, and scripts and storyboards, but I never considered directing to be a career.” So it
remained until producers Gary Krieg and Matt Spangler approached
Pope to direct a short for Tribeca Enterprises. “I wanted to do it, but
I wanted to bring in Sridhar, who has directed commercials, music
videos and two features [19 Revolutions and Lilith], as my co-director.
I knew we could make a good team.”
The two met in 2009, when Reddy approached Pope about
adapting Pope’s The One Trick Rip-Off for the screen, and they kept
14

April 2013

in touch as Reddy went into production on Lilith. “I bounced a lot of
ideas off Paul during Lilith,” says Reddy. “He has a tremendous film
knowledge. We talked about [Alejandro] Jodorowsky, [Andrei]
Tarkovsky, you name it; we have so many favorite films in common.
And, of course, his talents as an artist made him a great resource.”
As Reddy and Pope began discussing 7x6x2, Tribeca reached
out to Sony, which was looking for unique projects that could utilize
a few F55 prototypes. In October 2012, with Sony’s commitment in
place, Reddy and Pope received a greenlight. Working with production company Native Pictures, the filmmakers pulled together a crew
and secured locations during one week of prep; the timeframe was
so compressed because the project had to be previewed at a Sony
event that was scheduled for late November.
It was through Native Pictures that Green, a self-described
“sci-fi, comic-book fan who grew up in the age of Star Wars, Blade
Runner and Heavy Metal,” came to the project. In his first meeting
with the directors, the cinematographer arrived with a copy of Bill
Henson’s book Lux et Nox. “Sridhar said, ‘That’s one of my favorite
books!’” Green recalls. “We knew right away we were all on the
same page.”
Green and the directors tested the prototype F55 at Sony’s
Digital Motion Picture Center in Culver City. They were excited by
what they saw, particularly the camera’s response to low light levels
and its handling of open flame. However, with a shooting schedule
that comprised only one afternoon and two nights, they knew they
would need to roll two cameras simultaneously to get all of their
coverage. Accordingly, Sony made an F65 available as the B camera.
As the production schedule was organized, Pope worked

American Cinematographer

Photos and frame grabs courtesy of Tribeca Enterprises and Sony. Additional images courtesy of the filmmakers.

Bryce (Joseph Aviel) sets up camp in a frame grab from the sci-fi Western 7x6x2, a short film shot by Jesse Green and co-directed
by Sridhar Reddy and Paul Pope.

American Cinematographer - April 2013

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