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Shooting Enemies

Jul 8, 2009 12:01 PM, By Michael Goldman

Michael Mann on making a period piece digitally.

Workflow decisions

That decision meant that Carroll and Canning had to design a workflow for recording, monitoring, and manipulating the imagery on set, as well as moving it into the postproduction chain. Some of their workflow issues included what video format to record in; what monitors to use; how to move camera signals around; how to record—to tape or hard drive; and what additional cameras to bring in for shots that the F23 could not capture (inside tight spaces or ultraslow-motion).

The biggest decision was also the most straightforward: Mann and his team wanted to shoot in Rec. 709 HD video color space from the get-go, as they had using Viper cameras on his last two movies, even though the prevailing wisdom in many quarters is that this commitment makes it particularly difficult to translate the aesthetic seamlessly onto a film print. Mann saved that headache for the end of the process, and his team says he overcame it with painstaking post manipulations that continued unabated until the 11th hour. It was worth that headache for Mann and his colleagues, Carroll says, because it allowed Mann to commit the movie to his exact vision long before HDCAM SR tapes ever left the set.

“Michael has the whole movie in his head and knows exactly what he wants it to look like,” Carroll says. “He feels Rec. 709 is a creative decision—what he sees [on set] is what he’ll get. We set the whole thing up so that what he sees on his [24in. Cine-tal] monitor on the movie set is the same he’ll see on his dailies screen with a 2K projector, which is the same he’ll see at Company 3 as he color-times the picture, which is the same he’ll see at preview screenings on a digital projector or through a [look-up table] on film. It allows him to create passes on set that are bulletproof, painting on the fly, and hot-rodding the cameras and the image. If he wants to add some red or desaturate it, he does it right there while they are shooting the picture [by manipulating settings on the F23 and using color-correction software, with help from Canning and digital imaging technician Ted Viola]. It’s like a painter seeing what is going up on his canvas, rather than shooting in [raw mode] and waiting to see it weeks or months later. He feels he has complete control of the camera and can use the settings to reach into depths of contrast, tint, color, and so on.”

Mann’s team also rejected the option of recording to hard drives because at the time the project went into development, the state of that technology was not as robust as it is today for feature work, even though Fincher’s approach made it work. The way Mann prefers to operate, however, simply precluded the option at the time.

“We used the F23 as it was designed, with the [Sony SRW-1 portable digital recorder] onboard, capturing to [HDCAM SR] tape,” Carroll says. “It made us more mobile, which is important for the way Michael works, and let us do multiple speeds and ramping more easily than if [the camera were] tethered. Hard drives, at the time we started, didn’t have a mobile system to stay on the camera that we were comfortable with, and we would have had to be strapped down with umbilical cords. Now, with a year or two of advancements, it would be a more viable option.”

“We had times when even the Steadicam operator flew the F23 as a one-piece on his rig,” Canning says. “[On another project recently], we used the Codex field recorder, and I’m sure that is in [Mann’s] future. But at the time we started this project, that field recorder wasn’t ready, plus we had so little time to test the cameras before we had to start shooting the movie.”

Accurate image monitoring, of course, is central to working Mann’s preferred way. Canning arranged two monitoring systems to allow maximum collaboration on set. First, Mann was set up with a personal 24in. Cine-tal LCD monitor, and then a Sony BVM-D24E1WE CRT monitor was positioned in a tent for the full team to view.

“The Cine-tal is difficult to share—only one person can consume it at a time,” Canning says. “Your head has to be right in the middle of it because it’s LCD and can’t be off-axis. But in a tent, the grip, gaffer, DP, [digital imaging technician], and others also needed to see the images, and for those situations, there is no better monitor than a [high-end] CRT. ... Having [the two monitors] together was the best way to do it. We had a monitor that was real stable for light output and color temperature, including through temperature swings, and then, next to it, a monitor that everyone in the tent could see at the same time.”

Mann says he had more on-set control this time around than he has ever had over digitally acquired imagery for a feature film. “With that high-def monitor, if I think something is too red, I’ll ask Dave Canning to pull back on it, or I might make a determination that I like a certain flatness, but we are picking up a bit of noise, so I might tell him to push it,” he says. “Or it might be low-contrast and I’ll want to add some noise or add some reds in, particularly between the blacks and the low mid-range. During shooting, if I decide such things, we can rough it in and take real advantage of it.”

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