American Cinematographer - August 2011 - 14

Top: The short’s private investigator (Victor Browne) arrives at his office in the Bradbury Building. Middle: A shot of the detective at his desk illustrates the dynamic range of the F65, which was able to capture street details on Broadway with no need for supplemental exterior lighting. Bottom: The mystery woman (Katherine Randolph) arrives at the theater. Rimlight on the actress was provided by the headlight of a motorcycle traveling behind the car.

majestic landscapes or beautiful vistas, which are often used in camera demos. “I knew a travelogue of picture-postcard vistas or glitzy commercial images wouldn’t grab filmmakers’ imaginations,” he observes.
14 August 2011

“Toshitaka agreed, and said, ‘Can you come up with a story?’” Clark began thinking of a story that could tap into classical film history. His imagination was sparked by the Bradbury BuildAmerican Cinematographer

ing, a Los Angeles landmark famous as a location in Blade Runner and many other movies. He conceived a modern film noir that would take place in the Bradbury Building and in other iconic downtown sites, including Union Station and the Los Angeles Theater, a French Baroque movie palace on Broadway that was built in 1931. “I wanted to engage the viewer in a visually driven narrative by using an evocative play of light in carefully selected and composed architectural spaces that atmospherically served the story,” says Clark. The Arrival follows a detective looking for a mystery woman. He receives a message from her suggesting a rendezvous at the Los Angeles Theater. As he makes his way to the theater from his office in the Bradbury Building, she travels there from Union Station. At the end of the movie, they meet in front of the theater. While Clark and Ikumo were planning the production, the F65 was being developed in Japan, and this added a little extra suspense to the undertaking. Would the camera be ready in time for its production debut? The shoot, scheduled for late March, was already perilously close to NAB. Clark didn’t even see the camera — except on an engineering bench at a Sony facility in Japan — until three days before principal photography. “The weekend before the shoot, I had the F65 for one afternoon and evening to do tests on three scenes,” Clark recalls. “We took the tests to Sony Colorworks, where we processed 4K images through a Baselight using a 4K projector. In addition to the camera’s high resolution, it was essential to validate critical camera specs, especially sensitivity and dynamic range, because our ability to fully realize the aesthetic intent of The Arrival depended on those capabilities.” Fortunately, the tests went smoothly, so Clark confidently embarked on the shoot, which comprised two days plus a few pickups on a third day. He used a set of Leica T1.4 prime lenses ranging from 18mm to 75mm. Because the F65 sensor is Super35 size, the camera is able to use standard PL-mount lenses without any vignetting, he notes. The camera was still in prototype form, which presented a few logistical chal-

American Cinematographer - August 2011

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