|
 |
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
Lachman also found he had to alter his habit of creating color with lighting because of the way HD renders hues. “I generally work with a lot with gels, and I like to manipulate color temperature. I use color contrast within the frame, and it’s very important to me how one color plays against another and how that comes back on film. I discovered that digital [sensors] were more responsive to some of my gels and less responsive to others than film. For example, purples and blues responded differently than they do on film, warm colors tend to bleed if they’re very saturated, and some portions of the green spectrum can be very hard to capture. As a result, I had to do a lot of experimenting with gels to get the results I was after.” Lachman did little digital “painting” on set with the Sony controller because he wanted to leave his postproduction options open. Sheridan did work with LUTs downstream from the recording in order to create an image on the monitor that would approximate the final look. Nevertheless, Lachman wanted to retain as much information as possible on tape so he could, for example, fine-tune the blacks in post. In the Fitzgerald Theater, where most of Prairie takes place, Lachman worked with DeBlau and production designer Dina Goldman to create an environment that would favor dark tones and limited contrast. Thus, the walls of the auditorium were painted dark green, and much of the lighting was accomplished with practical bulbs or relatively low-wattage instruments that were hidden behind furniture and set dressing. The picture’s few exterior scenes were set at night so the cameras would never have to contend with bright daylight. Most of the story takes place in real time during Keillor’s farewell radio broadcast, so a lot of the action occurs onstage and backstage. Lachman notes that the ability to cover scenes in long takes from multiple angles, with action happening in different planes of the frame, was the primary advantage of shooting in HD. “We decided to cover the performances like a concert film,” he says. “We controlled and limited the stage lighting that was there, and we usually had three cameras running at once. One was on a Super Technocrane and was operated by Robert Reed Altman, and two [operated by Pete Biagi and Michael St. Hilaire] were on dollies elsewhere in the theater.” Altman wanted the cameras to be constantly moving and zooming at the same time. “A lot of what we were doing was exactly what I did on The Company [with Andrew Dunn, BSC; AC Dec. ’03],” says the director. “We had the cameras floating all the time so there would be a sense of movement. We weren’t directly saying, ‘Okay, here’s what you look at now.’ I like the idea that the audience is thinking, ‘I just saw that.’ It’s that they catch things. I love this idea that you’re kind of looking over somebody’s head. You have to keep moving all the time or you don’t see what you want to see.” Lachman adds, “The moving camera creates a sense of discovery. I’d let the operators do subtle moves based on how they felt about the image at the time. That’s why it was great to work with operators like Bobby [Altman], who have a feeling about performance.” “Ed and I tried to keep the compositions somewhat conservative but also keep the flow going,” says operator Altman, the director’s son. “We try not to get so tight that when someone stood up we had to whip up. I always wear headphones so I can hear the dialogue and what the mixer’s doing. That way, I feel like I’m in the audience watching the film, and as soon as I want to get closer I’ll start going in. Usually my dad is right behind me, saying, ‘Start going in.’ Then [key grip/dolly grip] Jimmy Macmillan will move right and left, and I’ll pan to correct and zoom in and zoom back. That gives a scene that feeling of movement even when the actors aren’t moving. The younger Altman adds that he was very pleased with the Fujinon E Cinema 6-30mm and 10-100mm zoom lenses used on the show. “We used Panavision lenses on The Company, and when we went wider than 12mm, you could see the curve. That didn’t happen with the Fujinon lenses at all; we went wider than that a number of times.” Lachman adds, “The lenses really tracked well and handled very nicely for the assistants. They gave us a very nice look even wide open, which helped lend the picture a more cinematic feel.” Prairie was captured in widescreen 16x9, and in post a center extraction was cropped and blown up to 2.40:1 for theatrical release. “Widescreen is more similar to the way people see [than 1.85],” maintains the director. “And if we have to [reposition] something later, we’ve got the whole frame to work with.” In the post phase, Lachman began the tape-to-tape color correction at Technicolor in New York, and because of work commitments he had to finish it at Technicolor’s Los Angeles facility. “It took me twice as much time to grade this movie as it would have to grade a film project,” he notes. “I needed to do not only the digital grade, but also the traditional timing for the film print.” Even with top talent at the console, there are still a few mysteries about how to get digital images to look the same on film, he adds. “Certain colors, especially in highlights like an area created with a bare bulb, just didn’t come back on film the way they looked on HD. We put it up and all the references were right, but it just didn’t look the same on film, and it was hard to figure out where the problem was. I had my usual timer at Technicolor, Lee Wimer, go through and time the negative, and she did a wonderful job.” Both Lachman and Altman say they are pleased with the results, but neither is ready to abandon film. “Shooting all these performance numbers onstage, it was a very good thing that we could do long takes and didn’t have to worry so much about matching action,” says Altman. “It was good for the actors and enabled us to work quickly. We scheduled [the shoot] for 25 days, which was tighter than anybody thought we could pull off, but we finished three days early. Still, Ed had to really be able to control the lighting. I would definitely do another picture in HD if we had that kind of control, but if I were doing a Western or a road picture, I think I would still go with film.” Lachman concurs: “I would want to work with these cameras again in very controlled situations, but they don’t have the full range of a film negative, and you don’t have the same kind of flexibility that you have with film equipment. Also, I still prefer the look and feel of film.” He notes ruefully that film manufacturers are abandoning some of the products he loves. “Kodak makes a wonderful product, but they’ve taken some of their great stocks, like [Vision 250D] 5246 and [EXR 200T] 5293, off the market, and the newer stocks are missing qualities I loved in the older ones. The new stocks have less texture and less personality, and they feel more like digital imagery in their perfection — they’re more neutral and clean. Everything seems to be about coming out with film stocks that are designed to behave a certain way in a digital intermediate, but as manufacturers move in that direction, they eliminate some of the reasons we shoot film in the first place. Different film stocks used to have unique looks that we could use as part of our palette, but that’s becoming less true.” Lachman likes to experiment with all types of technology. In fact, he recently made a series of Motorola commercials entirely with cell-phone cameras (AC Feb. ’05). Nevertheless, he doesn’t want celluloid to lose the qualities that make it special. “I think it’s ironic that some manufacturers are working to create digital images that look like they were shot on film, while companies like Kodak are replacing beautiful film stocks with ones that render images that look more and more like digital imagery. If cinematographers are going to argue for shooting on film for aesthetic reasons, then manufacturers shouldn’t take away what we like about the look of film.”
|
|
| |
<< previous || next >>
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
