Jon Fauer, ASC

IBC Edition

Sept 2007

Issue 12

The Newsletter of Art, Technique and Technology for Film, Video and Digital Production

September 1896. The brothers Lumiere patent the Kinora viewing machine in France. Herman Casler has previously patented the larger Mutoscope in America. Handheld, private, photographic flip books, Kinoras become wildly popular in England; about 2,000 are manufactured. Interchangeable one-minute reels consisting of about 850 black and white still photos can be rented or made to order. September 2007. The iPhone eclipses Kinora. Apple sells 270,000 iPhones in the first two days after its introduction on June 29th. Previous record sales when iPod was introduced are exceeded by 700%. continued page 2

iKinora

In This Issue
iPhone 1-3

Tiffen Dfx Software

4-5

Hedn Lens Motors

Oli in Asia, Infocomm and Cine Gear Expo

7-9 10

Still Life: Canon

ARRI Updates

15 12-13 15

Lighting with Paint

CStyle in Rome

Iconic, Ironic, iPhonethe personal private picture viewer, fashioning technology, accessorizing access, integrating style with lifestyle. History repeats itself once again. Students of style and substance surely place Southampton, Long Island in the crosshairs of research. Trendy teenagers, Masters of the Universe, socialites and normal citizens jockey for a place at the newly permitted and highly contested outdoor tables that line Main Street. Perhaps the village trustees have gone on a field trip to Porto Cervo. The locals hate it (too many people); the tourists love it. Gone is the Video store, and its smell of industrial-strength mildew, where a previous digital age was presaged overnight when an empty truck inhaled the entire inventory of instantly obsolete VHS tapes, and another truck, fully-packed, disgorged the newly minted DVD libraries of every major studio. IN ONE NIGHT! Gone also are the lines outside the Southampton Movie Theatre on Saturday night. Where is everyone and what are they watching? They are staring at their iPhones, learning whether index finger and thumb moistened with Grey Goose affects the touch screen. (Helps, but smears.) The Victorians borrowed mightily from Greek and Roman boarding school studies for their industrial revolutionary inventions like the unpronounceable Phenakistoscope and Zoopraxiscope in much the same way we now wind up with eCommerce and iMac. Holy Univisium! The iPhones front glassy surface held horizontally holds the promise of a 2:1 aspect ratio. It measures 4.2" x 2.1". But what were they thinking? The actual screen is smaller: 3" x 2" (75mm x 50mm, but its not yet sold in Europe). Thats a whole new aspect ratio of 1.5:1. Clearly Steve Jobs did not convene a committee at the Ameri Sept 2007

can Society of Cinematographers to help the designers. Of course, no one asked any known cinematographer about HDTV 16:9, so I suppose the oversight has precedent. The resolution of the actual iPhone screen is 480 by 320 pixels, with a razor sharp pixel density of 160 per inch (ppi). Thats better than your HD monitors and computer screens. If you have a 30" Apple Cinema Display, thats only 100 ppi, even though the real estate measures 2560-by-1600-pixels. Director/Cameraman Henry Sandbank once said the greatest invention for the film business was not Kodak film but the fax machine. The iPhone will be equally far-reaching. I think its most compelling feature is neither phone nor film but internet device. It can seamlessly hop from cellphone carrier to Wi-Fi network for instant high-speed internet access. By now almost every Starbucks, airport, location and studio has highspeed Wi-Fi access. Pretty soon,

well be reading our newpapers and latest issue of Film and Digital Times on devices like this. Where a laptop takes time to open and wake, this thing turns on immediately. Email is elegant, showing formatted messages, attachments and pictures. The irony in the partnership with AT&T and its grid of cellphone towers is the question of how long before a software button is programmed in to access Skype for much cheaper phone calls worldwide, via Wi-Fi.

Subscribe Today
Film & Digital Times, Inc. 500 East 83 Street / 14a New York, NY 10028 phone: 212-772-8526 fax: 1-212-772-6133 www.fdtimes.com
1 Year Subscription, 6 issues $49.95 1 Year Subscription, Canada. 6 issues $59.95 1 Year Subscr., Worldwide. Airmail. 6 issues $69.95 1 Year Online Digital (paperless). 6 issues $29.95 Payment Method (please check one): VISA Mastercard Discover American Express Check Enclosed (payable to Film and Digital Times) Credit Card # ____________________________________________ Exp. __________________________________________________ Signature ______________________________________________ Name _________________________________________________ Company ____________________________Title________________ Address _______________________________________________ City ________________________________State ______________

How to ingest or inhale your movies into iPhone

Apple iTunes is brilliant, easy to use, and almost foolproof. Almost everything the iPhone does is synced via iTunes, including your contacts, calendars, videos and tunes. Clearly, iTunes is the better bane of Blockbuster and Netflix existence. So, how do you convert your existing DVDs and digital content to get inside iPhone? On the Mac, purchase and download DVD to iPhone Converter and iPhone Video Converter (www.mp4converter.net).

It took about one hour to rip a 90 minute DVD on a Mac Pro, which then flew into the iPhone via iTunes in 10 minutes. The iPhone ushers in a new way of doing things, and much will follow. Its sensitive touchscreen should banish mice. Navigation with gestures (squeezing fingers together to reduce size, spreading to enlarge) will migrate to the desktop. And desktops will change shape and function, as John Beijars Remotable (interactive coffee table) project in Gothenburg, Sweden predicts. This is version 1. There are some quibbles. But its a softwarebased, upgradable device with only one mechanical button. Next version should output video to a large screen, high rez monitor; cut and paste; multiple email message delete; removable batteries so you can carry spares on long trips; 16:9 aspect ratio viewing screen; horizontal virtual keyboard and Skype. But dont wait. The iPhone is wonderful.

Country _____________________________Zip ________________ Phone ________________________________________________

Published 6 times a year by Film and Digital Times, Inc. 500 East 83 Street / 14a New York, NY10028 2007 Film and Digital Times, Inc Phone: 212-772-8526 Fax: 212-772-6133 www.fdtimes.com publisher and editor: Jon Fauer contributing writer: Oli Laperal Jr. laperal@info.com.ph contributing photographer: Dorian Weber dwc@gol.com For sponsorship information contact: Ellen Galvin 310-823-8534 ellen@ellengalvin.com John Johnston (JJ) 585-259-9283 jj@fdtimes.com To submit editorial or product information, please call 212-772-8526 or email using the form at www.fdtimes.com/contact Sept 2007 

Tiffens Virtual Filter Case

Every cinematographers filter case should include a copy of Tiffen Dfx software loaded on a little laptop like the Macbook or Sony VAIO TZ. Fast, intuitive, easy to use and wonderfully accurate, Dfx software will become as essential on set as a good gaffer, agressive agent, reliable wakeup call and ticket home. This rescinds my previous tirade against computers on set, where the software either slowed production down or was too obtuse to use easily. Tiffen Dfx software is astonishing in its realistic rendition not only of color and density but also of its mastery of the holy grail of software simulation known to computer wizards as 3D, because of their complexity, like promists, fogs and diffusions. Once upon a time, long before this kind of software, Nat Tiffen gave me an official Tiffen hat at one of the first industry trade shows I attended while still in college. Steve Poster, ASC got the other hat, I think. This was better than a secret ring or handshake. I will always be grateful to Nat for his encouragement and generosity with advice and new products to test. One day, a few years later, while working on a film together, Jeff Laszlo and Bill Coleman proposed that renting filters was a better investment than an index fund. We bought a couple of cases of filters, and began CFL Equipment Rentals. I think filters were our only product, and we had about 100 of them. The toughest part of the business was not keeping the filters clean; it was explaining to production managers why little slabs of glass were so important and cost so dearly.  Sept 2007

Jump cut to September 2007. The new Tiffen Dfx Digital Filter Suite conjures up a laptop library of up to1000 filters. If you do the math, you would spend around $300,000 and fill the back of a truck with glass filters. The price of admission to the complete Standalone software license is less than two 6.6 x 6.6 grads. You can get up an running in a few minutes after downloading a trial Mac or PC copy from www.tiffen.com. Tiffen Dfx went with me to Sweden recently, where the sun never really set and where it was magic hour most of the night. It is car commercial Valhalla. Instead of the usual 30 minute madness between the dark and the daylight, you have 4 hours of beautiful, glowing sky. Be careful not to let the producer talk you into a flat day rate: it seems that most of Swedens production goes into a frenzy during the few long days of Summer and lack of hotel rooms didnt seem to be a problem for the non-stop crews.

With up to 1000 software simulated filters that closely match the real thing, I found Dfx extremely helpful as a previsualization tool. It answers the questions that try cinematographers souls, like should I use a Promist or a Double Fog? Of course, the best time to use it is in advance of agonizing on set. Long plane rides to Sweden, missing connections in Copenhagen, provide plenty of pre-viz time and doctorates of filterology. Dfx is available in 3 configurations. Cinematographers will want the standaloneapplication. Its easy to import your pictures from digital still camera. Editors will want the plug-in version for Avid, Final Cut Pro, Adobe After Effects. Still Photographers will want the Adobe Photoshop plug-in. I imagine a Digital Intermediate module will be available soon. With the Dfx Standalone version, you can stack filters and move grads. In addition to simulations of most Tiffen glassfilters, the software will also let you pre-viz lens effects like soft focus, optical lab processes like bleach bypass, lighting gels with most of the Rosco and GamColor swatches, and image control like black and white and color temperature adjustment. Among my favorite filters and adjustments are: Black and White,Black Diffusion/FX, Black Pro-Mist, Bleach Bypass,Blur, Bronze Glimmerglass, Center Spot, Chromatic Aberration, ColorCompensating, Color Conversion, Color Correct, Color-Grad, Color Infrared,Color Spot, Color Temperature, Cool Pro-Mist, Cross Processing, Day for Night, Defogger (yes, it really works), Diffusion, Double Fog, Dual Grad, Edge Glow,Enhancing, Flashing, Fluorescent, Fog, GamColor Gels,Glimmerglass, Glow, Gold Diffusion/FX, Gold Reflector, Grain, Halo,Infrared, Kelvin, Lens Distortion, LowContrast, ND-Grad, Night Vision, Nude/FX, Old Photo,Polarizer, PrinterPoints, Pro-Mist, Radial Exposure, Rosco Gels,Selective Color Correct, Selective Saturation, Silver Reflector,Smoque, Soft/FX, Split Field, Strip Grad,Sunset/ Twilight, Telecine, Three Strip, Tint, UltraContrast, Warm Black Pro-Mist, Warm Pro-Mist, and WarmSoft/FX. Tiffen Dfx is like an interactive swatch book and filter catalog. It can help you pre-order the appropriate filter package for your production. It will help you make the right choices on set and on location, and lets you pre-visualize what you would previously have waited for until dawn and dailies, even in Sweden. As a post production tool, it will be another tool for the cinematographer to correct some of the worst things nature can throw at you, and even rectify some of your rare mistakes.

Above. Marstrand, Sweden. Bottom frame: original image Top frame: Tiffen Warm Promist 1 Opposite. Lighthouse. Marstrand Sweden. Bottom frame: original Top frame: Tiffen Double Fog 1 + ND.6 Grad + Tangerine 2 Strip Grad + Brnze Glimmerglass 1 Belw. cker, Swedennext to island of Fot Bottom frame: original foto Top frame: Tiffen Black Promist 1 + Tangerine 3 Color Grad + Tangerine 3 Strip Grad over sky + Chocolate 3 Strip Grad over rocks at bottom + Bleach Bypass lab processing

Sept 2007

Hedn Sweden

Midnight on the nearby island of cker. Ferries in Sweden are free.

Sleepless in Sweden. 2am in Gothenburg. Magic Hour all night long Hedn Engineering is tucked away in the tidy suburb of Mlndal, just outside of Gothenburg, Sweden. Its just past the 75 year old amusement park Liseberg, with its antique wooden 70 degree drop roller coaster, twice voted best in the world. Never mind that only last year, 21 people were injured on the newer metal one during a collision. We have been assured of technical re-adjustments. But if you really want precision, go to Hedn. They make lens motors for cameras. Bjrn Hedn founded the company in 1964, after leaving Hasselblad, where he invented the mirror shutter of the famous Hasselblad 500C. When a Swedish cinematographer asked him to make controls for focus, iris and zoom, he specialized in making reliable, quiet and accurate lens motors. The trick was high precision, superb components and meticulous attention to detail. He became the early darling of Steadicam operators worldwide. The company recently restructured, and we expect interesting things with Anders and Magnus on board. One of the best restaurants in Sweden is not too far away. Sjmagasinet is presided over by legendary Leif Mannerstrm, the Michelin-star chef, who prepares piscatorial perfection in a building that juts into the harbor, dates back to 1775 and belonged to the Swedish East India Company. During the short summer, it seems that all of Gothenburg is dining on the outdoor deck. Try the lunch buffet, with briny shrimp and more varieties of salmon than you ever saw at Zabars. Clean, colorful blankets are piled up everywhere to wrap against the occasional Arctic blasts. (www.sjomagasinet.se)

The wizards of Hedn. As Tony Richmond, BSC said, Nepotism is OK as long as you keep it in the family. Center: Bjrn Hedn. Left: Bjrns grandson, Magnus Balte. Right: Magnuss father, Anders Balte.

Sept 2007

by Oli Laperal, Jr.

Oli in Asia, Infocomm and Cine Gear Expo

I initially told Director, Producer and FDTimes publisher Jon Fauer that I did not expect new toys and new technology to surface within a mere 8 weeks after NAB. How wrong I was.

Cine Gear Expo

Film-centric Cine Gear Expo is almost totally devoted to traditional motion picture making. Whereas NAB, only 8 weeks earlier (see FDTimes June 07 issue) and IBC (September in Amsterdam) encompass so much more, including transmitters, satellite, fibre optics, automation, communication, FCC issues, satellite phones, and 18 wheelers, CineGear and Cinec, although delightfully smaller, are a cinematographers Disneyland. Film buffs usually do not expect earth shaking announcements at CineGear, but there were quite a few introductions. Cine Gear is the best chance to come up close and personal, and test drive the latest Cinematographers toys. The atmosphere at Cine Gear is friendly and personal, somewhat like an alumni or fraternity homecoming.

Broadcast Asia
Broadcast Asia in Singapore was a mini-NAB. Well, maybe not so mini with over 68,000 attendees in halls 7-9. Many Asians, who are given the third degree when applying for US and European visas, choose to attend Broadcast Asia instead, where they feel welcome and where visas are usually not even required. China-made filming equipment such as lighting, HMIs, LEDs, cranes, dollies, grip equipment, and electronics were noticeably abundant. Asia is the worlds fastest growing consumer. Try this number for size: in a typical weeks episode of Indian Idol (American Idol genre), how many Indian voters sent their vote via mobile phone SMS in the span of a few hours? Would you believe over 400 million voters? Understandably, Asian telecoms are not too upset.

Cameras
Red Digital, Sony F-23, Arriflex D-20, Arriflex 416, and Dalsa 4K each had an hour at the Wadsworth theater to show footage, specs and completed films projected in 2K and 4K. Reds presentation was at the exact time Cine Gear just opened, to the horror of irate attendees trying to quickly register and attend the presentation. Dalsa 4K at Laser Pacific demonstrated the real process from actual acquisition to 4K D.I. post in their theater/edit control bay. Two visitors volunteered as stands to hold multiple test charts and two short 4K films were shown. At the ASC BBQ, I heard gripes about Reds engineering delay. However, no one I talked to opted to get their deposit back from Red. The ASC clubhouse construction was also on engineering delay. I guess its time to give lawyers a break, and complain about engineers .

Infocomm
Infocomm at the Anaheim (California) Convention Center had over 31,000 attendees. No longer limited to slide projectors and roll-up screens, Infocomm included a wide array of HD, 2K and 4K cameras as well as super HD & UHD projectors. Most notable for me was the introduction of the UDCC800MT, a 4K uncompressed Ultra High Def camera by JVC with 3 x CMOS chips at 3840 x 2048, 2 imager size, 32.64 mm diagonal, 4 x HD-SDI output, then recorded onto Astro Design video server hard disk arrays. JVC also introduced a new 4K projector. In the projector arena, multiple HD motion pictures were seamlessly and effortlessly blended together to create 12-22K resolution (or more) breathtaking panoramic pictures. Mersive, Canon, Barco, Digital Projection, Sony, Sanyo, TI/ DPL, plus many others displayed amazing blended multiple HD pictures, as ARRI and Frauenhofer did at NAB. Long known to high-end flight simulator displays, JPL and NASA expect faster development of this new technology into our industry. The big venue HD projector shoot-out (Sony, Digital Projection, Christie & Barco), with 10,000 to 30,000 ANSI lumens, proved once and for all that HD, 2K and 4K is the norm, and that SD is indeed gasping its last breaths. HD cameras built-in into your cell phones and laptops may not be far away.

Left to right: Simon Broad, Chief Operating Officer of Camera Service Center; John Johnston (JJ), Marketing Guy of Film and Digital Times, Oli Laperal, Jr., the author, and Franz Wieser, VP Marketing of ARRI Inc.

Sept 2007

Oli at Cine Gear Expo

Lenses

The Cooke S4i family of primes now include a 12mm T2.0 prime as well as a 300mm prime at T2.8. The 300m has a close focus distance of 6 feet, which is just 6 times the focal length. Cooke 150mm, 180mm and 300mm lenses have a new thermal compensation system, which means that you can trust the focus marks and the S4/i read-out regardless of temperature shift. ARRI showed the new ARRI/Zeiss 14mm and 150mm T1.3

P+S Technik showed their 35Digital set (28mm T2.8, 35mm T2.0, 50mm T1.4, 85mm T1.4) with Nikon mount, based on modified Zeiss ZF stills lenses, finely rebarreled for motion picture use (smooth follow-focus and industry-standard .8 gear ring for lens motors) in 25, 35, 50 and 85 mm for use on Mini35, Pro35, Weisscam, SKATER Scope, or any other camera with a Nikon mount (46.5mm flange focal depth). Will this inspire another round of PL to Nikon adapters (52mm), like the no-longer-made Cine Mechanics 35-3 mount, left?

Lighting

Master primes. The 14mm is a rectilinear lens like the Zeiss Ultra Prime 8R (straight lines stay straight). All Master Primes have aspheric optical elements, are color matched to each other, Ultra Primes, Ultra 16 lenses and the Lightweight Zoom. The ARRI and Cooke telephotos represent an intereresting departure from past industry practice of modifying fast telephotos from larger, full-frame 35 mm still photography lenses. ARRI/ Zeiss Master Primes and Cooke S4i lenses cover Super 35. Dalsa, makers of sensors for the Hubble space telescope, a 160 mega pixel 16 bit panoramic camera (ISO 500 to 10,000) and, of course, Dalsa Origin and Evolution 4K cameras, showed spherical and anamorphic lenses. Built and designed exclusively for Dalsa by Eric Peterson and Dan Sasaki of A&S Precision (were with Panavision), the lenses have glass that I think is from Leitz Canada (as with many Panavision lenses). The goal, said Dalsa president Rob Hummel, is to offer 2.40 Cinemascope widescreen in a 4K digital format. Expect to see interesting things from the company now that Hummel is helming.  Sept 2007

Mole Richardson is delivering their new 18/12K Par HMI. Mole intentionally breaks or splits PAR lenses in half (above), without any effect on the light output pattern, to compensate for uneven thermal expansion, thus greatly reducing PAR lens breakage. Consider the full flood position where a super-heated globe is only 1 or 2 inches away from the PAR lens center. There is considerable thermal shock or heat differential in the hot center of the front lens, as compared to the much cooler outside edge of the par lens. Thermal fatigue equates to lens cracking at $2000 per fresnel lens, plus $3000 for the globe or a $5000 bill on an 18K PAR! Expect others to follow Moles lead on the larger HMI PAR lenses. Cinemills showed smaller HMIs where the housing, igniter and flickerfree ballast are combined in one small simple unit without the need for heavy and cumbersome ballast-to-head multi-core cables.

K5600s P56 Lighting showed their Alpha18K DE HMI head with a unique ceramic mini reflector which allows for just half the usual housing thickness or depth. Lightning Strikes Softsun showed very powerful daylight fixtures with 100,000 watts per bulb. At Super Bowl XLI Dolphin Stadium, the base level of 55 footcandles from their 800 standard 1,000-watt metal halide light fixtures (800,000 watts) was boosted to 180 footcandles with 16 SoftSun 50K models. GE & Wolfram showed 18K SE HMI globes with the new larger G51 pins. Osram boasts of floating or slightly movable pins for larger HMI PARs to compensate for thermal expansion, fatigue and ceramic breakdown. Osram introduced a beefy secure locking base for the smaller HMI globes. I hope the same for larger HMI globes are not far behind. LED lighting is looming larger. With extremely long bulb life, cool operation, very low power consumption, flicker-free, dimmable, tungsten or daylight color balance, were seeing them in many shapes and housings. The new huge LAX lighting pillars and the new Reve show at Wynns Las Vegas were lit mostly with LED lights. Rated at 60,000 hours, that equates to some 33 year life, when used during typical office hours (60,000 hrs / 40 hrs/wk /45 weeks per year = 33.3 years). Over a dozen LED light makers showed various kits and cluster forms.

Zylight LED allowed infinite Kelvin temperature control. ARRI was first to show one at last years Cine Gear. Color Kinetics, which was just bought by Philips for $650MM, does LEDs in a huge industrial scale. Kinoflo (fluorescents) & Element Labs/Kelvin Tech (LEDs) just announced a partnership. Definitely expect more LED products and applications in various forms, shapes and clusters from more manufacturers.

Film
Fujifilm showed Eterna Vivid 160T, tungsten neg., for high color saturation, higher contrast, and enhanced sharpness.

Grip & Support

Matthews showed their Quik Corners, a new locking mechanism for butterfly frames. Matthews, Panther and Grip Factory Munich showed new low-cost 2 or 4 wheel steering dollies with 2 seats. OConnor showed the new 120 EX (120-240 lbs capacity) fluid head for heavy cameras with huge zoom lenses such as the Zeiss Masterzoom 16-120 and Angenieux Optimo 24-290 mm. Doggicams Mini Sparrowhead holding an Arriflex 235 camera, effortlessly glides through car windows. And Panther showed the Trixy remote head.

Litepanels showed modular clusters to create large, soft sources. The 1x1 4-Lite Complete Kit combines four of their Litepanel 1-foot x 1-foot LED lighting units. Its available in daylight flood or spot and tungsten flood versions. The new Complete Kit provides four separate Litepanels 1x1 fixtures with detachable mounting yoke, each with its own AC adapter/power supply, power cable, tripod stand, and set of color/diffusion gel filters, packed in a compact, lightweight carrying case. Users have the option of adding the LP-2x2 frame assembly for larger lighting configurations, LP-2x2 power supply/wiring harness, and Litepanels new Remote Dimmer Kit. The four heads can be used separately, or combined in multi-panel configurations, for any number of lighting situations. Each unit has a knob for instant dimming from 100%-0 with minimal shift in color. Absolutely silent and heat-free, Litepanels 1x1 can be positioned comfortably close to a subject. Cinemills LED-Z mini PAR comes with interchangeable lenses in spot, medium and wide, and comes in a mil-spec very solid housing.

Matthews parked their Lite Limo: a new, heavy-duty 4-wheel doorwaystyle dolly with an Arrisun 18K HMI atop a sturdy, adjustable column along with ballast onboard. The Lite Limo is one of those why didnt we think of this before products that makes lighting, and production, easier, faster and safer. Photos by Oli Laperal, Jr., Dorian Weber and Marc ShipmanMueller. Oli Laperal Jr. (laperal@info.com.ph) runs a film and UHD production support facility in the Philippines. Dorian Weber, right, (dwc@gol.com) is from Austria, and is a worldwide stock photographer and cinematographer based in Tokyo. Sept 2007 

Still Life

Remember what Red Ted said about the paradigm of Motion Picture Cameras design borrowing ever more heavily from Digital SLR Still Cameras? If you are working in Woodland Hills, Waterloo, Munich, Vienna, Grenoble, Tokyo, Lake Forest, and everywhere else fine cameras are made, you certainly would be scrutinizing two new cameras from Canon when they hit the streets in the coming weeks: EOS 1Ds Mk III and D40.

Meanwhile, Nikon just announced a D3, their first camera with an almost full-size 12.7 megapixel sensor (one side of the frame is 0.1 mm short). The cameras maximum ISO setting is 25,600, about 50 times what weve been rating Vision2 5218 500T.

Optical Viewfinder Futures

Nikon and Canon are not abandoning their brilliant optical finders. Theyre offering choices. And, if I were your hedgefund manager (scary thought), I would be pushing electronic display technology companies. Inside, anonymous sources, confirmed by our guru Howard Preston, tell us to watch the rapid development of companies like Transvideo and Kopin Corporation, a Massachusetts MIT evolution that is now is one of worlds largest suppliers of displays for consumer and military applications, including digital cameras, personal video eyewear and camcorders. Their Digital iVision technology compresses full-screen images into tiny microdisplays. The images are then enlarged using optical elements that let us perceive a much larger imagetypically bigger than the equivalent of a 30-inch monitor. These transmissive displays allow the thinnest, simplest optics for image magnification, which translates into lightweight, compact, and comfortable eyewear. Electronic viewfinders may be cheaper, smaller, lighter and easier to build than optical ones. However, Id like to cast my vote for continued availability of optical finders for critical focus and detail. Ideally, a camera would have both optical and electronic finders, the way Canon is doing with Live View on their 40D and 1Ds Mk III. Despite ergonomic challenges (try handholding), the ARRI D-20 has a stunning optical viewfinder. So does its large rival, Dalsa Origin, soon to reincarnate into a comfortable Evolution. We had a Canon 20D, 30D and now 40D. With ARRIs D20 at 2K, is a 4K D40 far off? I hope the higher cost and engineering complexity of an optical viewfinder is not too daunting, and camera companies follow the paradigm of Canons new 40D. Kind of makes you wonderwith the chips and technology they have, will Canon and Sony (rumored to be makers of many Nikon chips) get in the 35mm format single chip motion picture camera game?

Canon EOS 40D

Canons EOS 40D Digital SLR Camera can double as a useful directors finder because its APS-C size sensor measures 22.2 x 14.8 mm, almost the same size as a frame of 35mm motion picture film or a Genesis, Red, D-20, etc sensor. The single 10.1 Megapixel CMOS chip captures up to 6.5 fps for bursts of up to 75 Large/Fine JPEGs or 17 RAW images. We are fast approaching 24 fps. And its sensitive: you can dial up to ISO 3200. The EOS 40D has a larger, brighter (good in sunlight) 3 inch, 230,000-pixel LCD screen. Interesting...iPhones superb screen is also 3" x 2"...but it weighs in with a mere 153,600 pixels. Very interesting is Enhanced Live View. It gives you a choice of looking through the optical viewfinder or framing off the LCD monitor, something most of us have been lusting after in all cameras. You can autofocus during Live View by pressing the cameras AF-ON button. At that point, the reflex mirror goes down and autofocus turns on. Letting go of the AF-ON button resumes Live View functions. This may be the camera Ken Robings of Century Optics has been waiting for to modify with PL mount so we can shoot lens test here at FDTimes. The 40D also has a Self-Cleaning function that uses ultrasonic vibrations to shake dust particles off of the low-pass filter in front of the sensor each time the camera is powered up or shut down.

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III

Canons EOS-1Ds Mark III has a full frame, 21.1 megapixel, 36 x 24 mm CMOS image sensor. Thats 21.1 million effective pixels (5632 x 3750) set at a pitch of 6.4 microns. With that resolution, Canons 1Ds Mk III camera seems targeted at the Medium Format market. It can shoot at 5 fps for bursts of up to 56 Large/Fine (21-megapixel) JPEGS or 12 RAW images. 10 Sept 2007

ARRI Updates

Arriflex 416
The 416 is about 25% lighter than the 16SR3, quieter (20db), with a much brighter 235 style viewfinder, runs from 1 to 75 fps, and has a mechanically adjustable shutter with increments of 45, 90, 135, 144, 150, 172.8, and 180 degrees. In issue 9, we talked about loading 416 magazines. The pictures showed prototypes, which have now been mercifully replaced with something much easier and faster to load. Production 416 magazines have a button to adjust the loop size. If your rental house gives you early mags without the friendly button, tell them that ARRI is retrofitting them at no charge. This is good news if you have tried to form the loop the way you formed the loop on a 16SR mag. With the new mags, you can use the loop index line as a rough guideline, but it doesnt matter what size the loop winds up. Once youve fed the film into the throat, adjust the loop this way: 1. Aim the throat of the mag so youre staring at it, take-up side up. For those of you who have been on location to the remotest regions on earth for the past year without delivery of FDTimes, take-up is on the camera right side of the 416, like Aaton, unlike 16SR. 2. With your index finger, slide the loop to the left. 3. The left side of the loop should be close to the white index line inside the throat. 4. If the loop doesnt line up with the line, adjust it by pressing the loop adjustment button, and turning the lower sprocket roller or the take-up core. 5. Be sure the button pops up and the sprocket roller engages.

Arriflex 235
Arriflex 235 (compact, lightweight, MOS) gets a speed upgrade, to a maximum of 75 fps. It now runs 1 to 75 fpsforward, in .001 increments (previously 1-60fps). Shutter is manually adjustable to: 45, 60, 75, 90, 105, 120, 135, 144, 150, 172.8, 180.

ARRICAM Lite
ARRICAM Lite (Lighter sibling of Studio sound camera) gets a software upgrade enabling it to run to 48 fps instead of 40 fps. Those 8 frames per second can make a difference on your ever-popular pour shots and romantic running on the beach at sunset with gown flowing fashion and beauty masterpieces. While youre getting your cameras EProms zapped at a favorite Arri service station, have your wireless remote control units checked. There are software upgrades for them as well. Sept 2007 11

Lighting with Paint

A Tale of Two Caravaggios
The debate has been raging for centuriesis Caravaggios first Fortune Teller (above, left) a fake? Recent X-rays prove the provenance, despite years of neglect and sloppy restorations. But, you say, it looks flat. The light comes almost dead-on. The background is boring. If not a fake, what was he thinking? Its a great lesson in lighting, angles, time, money, budget, low budget, crew and equipment. After an apprenticeship in Milan comparable to film school today, Caravaggio came to Rome in 1592, naked and extremely needy...without provision...short of money. I think his biographer, Giovanni Pietro Bellori, was hyperbolic about the state of undress. A few years later Caravaggio was one of the most famous talents in town. A 1600 account describes Caravaggio: after a fortnights work he will swagger about for a month or two with a sword at his side and a servant following him, from one ball-court to the next, ever ready to engage in a fight or an argument, so that it is most awkward to get along with him. Sounds like some colleagues we know. But, back to 1595. Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet is first performed. French King Henri IV declares war on Spain. The mathematician Fausto Veranzino improves on Leonardo da Vincis parachute of 1514, calls it a falls breaker, and jumps several times from a tower in Venice. Caravaggio paints the first Fortune Teller. Giulio Mancini, Caravaggios early biographer, reports with dismay that the artist was paid only 8 scudi. In contrast, according to Richard Spear in Scrambling for Scudi (The Art Bulletin, June 2003), the Popes income was 2,500,000 scudi that year, Cardinal Antonio Barberini the Elder had an annual allowance of more than 30,000 scudi, annual rent in a nice Roman neighborhood averaged 60 scudi, and it cost around 70 scudi per person per year to eat well. Caravaggio and his agent were good; he earned 1,000 scudi for his Nativity and Resurrection of Lazarus in Messina a few years later. Caravaggio was a revolutionary talent early on. The Fortune Teller replaced Renaissance theory of art as classical fiction with art that was a representation of real life. Bellori tells how, for the Fortune Teller, Caravaggio picked a gypsy girl on the street to demonstrate that he had no need to copy the works of the masters from antiquity, as many artists did at the time. When he was shown famous statues...in order that he might use them as models, his only answer was to point towards a crowd of people saying that nature had given him an abundance of masters. Of course, Bellori wrote this more than fifty years after Caravaggios death in 1610, so similar historic and poetic license will hopefully be granted for the rest of this story, as we follow Michelango Merisi da Caravaggio in the making of Fortune Teller I and its sequel, Fortune Teller II.

The Fortune Teller I Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio c. 1595 Oil on canvas, 115 x 150 cm Capitoline Picture Gallery, Pinacoteca Capitolina, Rome

The first Fortune Teller was bought by a wealthy banker, the Marchese Vincente Giustiniani, whose friend, Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte gave Caravaggio a big break, an apartment in his palace, introductions to the elite of Roman society, and the opportunity to work on high profile projects.

The Fortune Teller II Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio c. 1596 Oil on canvas, 99 x 131 cm Muse du Louvre, Paris

Caravaggio painted this second version of The Fortune Teller for Cardinal Del Monte around 1596, using his good friend, 16 year old Sicilian artist Mario Minniti as a model. Sort of a sequel: Fortune Teller II. Some historians insist the girl is stealing the boys ring, but I think the props assistant did it. 12 Sept 2007

Fortune Teller I

Caravaggio is working on his reel, doing spec spots. He sees the gypsy girl. What he really says is, Look at the abundance of naturally beautiful women here in Rome. He asks her to come up to his studio, promising no pay but using the ubiquitously useful line, This is going to be big, and youre going to be in all my pictures. The studio is hideous. There are no windows. Remember, Caravaggios still figuratively, we hope, naked and extremely needy. His faithful assistant Mario sets the camera on tripod and switches on the Lowel on-camera light. No, no, no, yells the soon-to-be maestro. We need action. Mario, get in the picture

and give her your hand. Mario does. But, the on-camera light, which is fine on Mario, is not flattering for the girl. Caravaggio grabs a Lowel Omini light with some Hampshire Frost clipped on with clothes pins. Time is running out. The girl has a date. Quickly, he moves the DP light a couple of feet to the left, and rolls camera. The back wall is bright and overlit. Well fix it in POST, he says. A little painting, darken the walls, some Digital Intermediate Power Windows perhaps. Ill see if my friend Antonio DArienzo will do us a favor...

Fortune Teller II

The flat, dull background of Fortune Teller I is vastly improved in Fortune Teller II. Warm sunlight streams through a window, tempered by the shadows of the window frame, a curtain on the left, pulled back, and a thick curtain rod overhead. The lighting is more natural, single source, coming from the same window. The composition is more three dimensional, more edgy. They boy leans towards us; his sword and feathered hat break the frame. Bigger budget. Bigger crew. But not enough Scudi to afford an ARRIMax on a Matthews Lite Limo like his rival Annibale Carracci gets. An ARRIMax outside the window would be perfect, Caravaggio laments. Single source, large, far-away.

But this is a 20 Scudi production, including talent, equipment and crew. So hell have to light from inside the room. Two lights. An ARRISUN 1200 watt HMI PAR with full CTO clipped onto the barndoors will light the background. Clear lens, so the light is sharp, and can be cut with a sword (always carry one, says the Maestro) to create the Charlie Bar shadow on the wall. A 4x8 floppy to shadow the left side. For the faces, he uses a Lowel DP 1K light with Lee 250 Half White Diffusion on a 2' x 2' frame, cut with flags all around. He places the light almost 90 degrees to the side, having learned the lesson of lights too close to camera. The rest is history. Sept 2007 13

14

Sept 2007

Cinematographer Style in Rome

Over fifty 35mm prints of Cinematographer Style are in circulation worldwide (contact your regional Kodak office to arrange a screening). On July 10th, Vittorio Storaro, AIC, ASC presented the film in Rome with a newly mixed, separate Italian track that he supervised. Here is a reprint of his most eloquent introduction. The companies ARRI, KODAK and TECHNICOLOR, together with the American Society of Cinematographers, felt the need to realize this Film to make everyone more familiar with the role of the Cinematographer (Autore della Fotografia Cinematografica in Italian) In actual fact, it was Volker Banhemann, President of ARRI America, who got this project started, since he felt the need for a deeper understanding of those Cinematographers who have always been part of his professional life. I think that the desire to expand the initial project, composed of various interviews, into a Film was born after the meeting organized in Los Angeles by Richard Crudo, then President of the ASC, who brought various members of the Society and the Presidents of the major technical players in the film industry together around the same table. The aim was to understand how our professional role was being modified by the new technologies under the DIGITAL umbrella, which were, and are, completely transforming the Technical/Creative way of shooting a FILM. I was passing through Los Angeles at the time, and found myself sitting with everyone else around that table. I pointed out the need to develop the Cinematographers cultural side, namely an understanding of the profound meanings on which our figurative language rests, rather than the technological side that the Americans favour so much, since undoubtedly the DIGITAL age will increasingly automatize the technical aspect of RECORDING AN IMAGE. The mystery of the revelation of the Image already belongs to the past, to which there is no going back, and the fact that electronic systems give us the possibility to see immediately while we are still thinking the images we would like to create to tell a story, makes it increasingly necessary for us to possess a culture regarding the reasons for things, a knowledge of the various Arts that, together, make up CINEMA. I recall that it was precisely at the end of the meeting that Volker and I felt the need to clarify as possible this concept to reinforce the cultural side of every Cinematographer and probably it pushed Volker to put this concept into Cinematographer Style. This Film, Directed and Cinematographed by Jon Fauer, was made with all the traditional professional Standards we know so well: a 35mm ARRI camera, 35mm KODAK film, Digital Intermediate processing and printing on 35mm film at TECHNICOLOR. The project is a FILM, a DVD, and a BOOK (coming soon). As this is the first real Film to present a portrait of the Cinematographer composed, like a mosaic, of 110 tesserae, 110 protagonists of International Cinema it took some time to complete, due to the fact that all 110 personalities had to be introduced, to their different origins, to their various psychological and technical characteristics. The Producers and Filmmakers are well aware that they havent recorded the views of all the Cinematographers in the World. This first analysis, shot in America, features mostly American Cinematographers, specially those who are members of the ASC. I had the chance to be filmed by Jon Fauer because I was in Boston receiving the Coolidge Foundation Award in 2005. At a recent meeting in New York, which I attended with the Producer Volker Banhemann and the Director Jon Fauer, we talked about making a second part of Cinematographer Style thanks to the international success of this first edition. The second part would have a more International vision, possibly fewer protagonists, but would certainly focus more on the CINEMATOGRAPHIC STYLE of each personality and on his or her specific culture. Particular emphasis would be given to the connections between CINEMA and the various ARTS from which Cinema draws its life blood. I myself put forward the idea of a future Italian Cinematographer Style, which I hope will be taken up by the French, German, Spanish, and others to create a series of Films depicting a truly international portrait of the Cinematographer. This Film has already been shown in the original English version in many countries, particularly in collaboration with the various societies of Cinematographers. It is the first version translated into the language of the country where it is being shown, thanks to the efforts of Technicolor Sound System, Kodak and ARRI Italia, who organized this evening in collaboration with the AIC(Italian Society of Cinematographer). As I am one of the 110 cinematographers featured, and live in Rome, I personally followed this version with an Italian VOICE OVER, where special attention was given to the translation of the term CINEMATOGRAPHER. The supervisor of the translation suggested using DIRETTORE DELLA FOTOGRAFIA for Cinematographer. But since our professional title is enshrined in the Italian Cinema Law as AUTORE DELLA FOTOGRAFIA CINEMATOGRAFICA (literally, author of the cinematography), and this was too long to replace Cinematographer, I chose to leave the original term with which each personality identifies himself. Also because we Italians are still trying to come up with a succinct term to replace an erroneous translation made in 1949. For some time now, I have been telling the following story in order to clarify who we are. The title Director of Photography was actually coined by our American colleagues in 1949, when the DIRECTORS GUILD OF AMERICA, to which all the American Directors belonged, was formed. The American Cinematographers who belonged to the ASC at that time, also wanted to call themselves Directors DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY to be precise to compete with the American Directors. In Italian this would have translated as REGISTI DELLA FOTOGRAFIA, a term that is totally unacceptable in our culture since we believe that a Film, like an Orchestra, has various Soloists, various Coauthors, but only one Conductor, only one Director. In fact, our rejection of the title stems from our respect for the Director. We see ourselves as Visual collaborators of the main Author, the Director; as Co-authors of a Cinematic Work, but as Authors of our own intellectual work, in our capacity as Cinematographers. Thank you very much for your attention and please enjoy the Film. Vittorio Storaro

Sept 2007

15

Sponsors and Partners

Moguls 

abelcine.com arri.com bandpro.com bogenimaging.com cookeoptics.com kodak.com/go/motion prestoncinema.com sony.com/professional transvideointl.com usa.canon.com zeiss.com zgc.com

Executive Producers
aaton.com formatt.co.uk jvc.com kata-bags.com lowel.com manfrotto.com reflecmedia.com 16x9inc.com tiffen.com

Producers
birnsandsawyer.com camarasyluces.com clairmont.com doggicam.com fujinon.com fvesco.com jlfisher.com lentequip.com litepanels.com ottonemenz.com panther.us peraonline.org pstechnik.de technicolor.com vantagefilm.com visionresearch.com

Friends
nycdes.com cinegearexpo.com mopictive.org