Bringing a neo-noir look to indie feature Birdland

Birdland

Bringing a neo-noir look to indie feature Birdland

5 minutes

Birdland, directed and co-written by Peter Lynch, is a Canadian feature that has some of the most striking images you’ll see in an indie film this year. It tells the story of an ex-cop, Sheila Hood, who hides surveillance cameras in her home to spy on her husband’s affairs – essentially becoming a voyeur of her own life. The film was shot by cinematographer Adam Swica, CSC (The Art of the Steal, The Firm) with a single VariCam 35 camera.

Swica studied painting and drawing at the Ontario College of Art and then moved towards experimental film towards the end of his studies. His first move into the film industry was in the lighting department where he worked his way up to being a gaffer. After eight years working as a gaffer, he transitioned to DP, shooting several indie films.

Swica met director Lynch through art circles and began to work together on art performance films before collaborating on Birdland. For Swica, the biggest challenge was Birdland’s small budget. “Most of the film was set in urban locations at night and we didn't have the capability to light everything,” reveals Swica. “The choice of the camera came from a discussion with Sim ’s John DeBoer, who told me they had this new camera that shoots 5,000 ISO. Sim was very gracious to give us the camera package for free, which was a great gift to us.”

Swica took the VariCam 35 out by Toronto’s dockyards and throughout the city to test it in natural and low light environments. He then took the footage to The Rolling Picture Company in Toronto where they looked at the footage. “It looked spectacular,” says Swica. “Everybody was just shocked on what we were capturing. At that point, the VariCam also slashed our lighting package.”

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Creating A “Neo Noir” Style

Swica shot Birdland in 2K ProRes (23.98fps) because the production couldn’t afford the added workflow costs of 4K capture. “I'm actually happy with the decision,” says Swica. “Resolution is important for different reasons but I have no real problem with the lower resolution, and I know 2K can up res to 4K really well.” He captured in V-Log and monitored in Rec.709 on set. Swica shot the film with Zeiss Super Speed primes, which he uses for all his projects because they’re fast with low contrast.

Director Lynch described the look of Birdland as “neo-noir” but according to Swica, the overall look came from music videos, which Swica used to shoot 30 years ago. There was no high-key lighting or heavy blacks but more of a clean mannered look throughout the movie. “There's a sequence that you can see in the movie that's a bondage sequence where the character ties herself up on a rig,” explains Swica. “That was inspired from a J. Lo video, which probably had a half a million-dollar budget. We covered the scene in a different way, but used the same colors.”

Since the lighting budget was already slashed, Swica knew he would have to rely on the VariCam 35’s native 5,000 ISO, which he used for interior or exterior night sequences. “I would say 90% of the film was lit with five [Rosco] 1x1 LED pads and a couple of small Tungsten lights,” explains Swica. “A lot of times, we had our lighting department simply hold the lamps so if somebody was walking, we were walking with them with the lamps on battery power. We didn’t have a fixture that was larger than a 2K, and that 2K was used maybe once.

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“I’d rather have a fatter stop at night,” continues Swica, on shooting at native 5,000 ISO. “The fact that I could be shooting at night between a T-3.2 and 5.6, depending on the location, and still see everything was amazing. I've done a lot of lighting where you have a big lamp and then you have to create an entire environment because you have to touch everything from that point. Shooting at 5,000 ISO is almost the inverse of that. It looks like a real street that's happening all the way down the street. There are street lights so you have to bow down to what's happening naturally.”

Swica also mixed natural lighting and different color temperatures into his visuals. Driving shots at night were lit entirely with ambient street lamps streaming through windows. “It has a spectacular reality to them because nothing ever repeats and colors constantly change,” says Swica. “There's one section where we travel under a bridge at night that's lit brightly with mercury vapor lamps. We were going from warm sodium vapor lights to this greenish mercury vapor color and then back again.”

For a dinner party scene, the location was set in a condo on the 14th floor overlooking the city. Instead of lighting the interior, Swica let the ambient light coming from outside the windows light the scene. “It was a little weird for the actors because they thought they were shooting in the dark,” explains Swica. We constantly had to show them what we were seeing after takes.”

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A "Film-like" Digital Workflow

Because they could not afford a D.I.T., the production created a workflow that was more like a film shoot. Because they were shooting in Toronto, they would shoot the first half of the day, and then send the P2 cards to The Rolling Picture Company, who would turn them around for dailies. “I’ve done more films than electronic work and because of the nature of a negative, which is low contrast, I still shoot digital that way and build the contrast in post,” says Swica. “It’s one of the reasons I don’t really create my own LUTs. I just use standard Rec.709 and then build my lighting from there. Although it has that 'neo-noir' look, I didn't want it to look bombastic. It's a slow-moving story and very mannered.”

At The Rolling Picture Company, Swica worked with colorist Drake Conrad, whom he had collaborated with on several films. Both Swica and Conrad were really surprised at how the native 5,000 ISO performed. According to Swica, Conrad was expecting there was going to be a lot of cleanup, but they didn't need to. “Because this was set in an urban environment, most of the light is motivated. It was more about fine tuning skin tones. We didn’t do a lot of power windows, which I usually have to do.

“As much as he is a tech geek, Drake has a spectacular sensibility when it comes to grading,” continues Swica. “Also, when your eight pictures down the road, Drake already gets it and gets what I need. Birdland was an easy grade and it was a short two weeks.”

Authors
Neil Matsumoto - Marketing, Pro Video
Neil has written about the art of cinematography for nearly 20 years

Kramer Morgenthau, ASC shoots HBO's Fahrenheit 451 on VariCam

Farenheit 451

Kramer Morgenthau, ASC shoots HBO's Fahrenheit 451 on VariCam

5 minutes

Written during the McCarthy era and published in 1953, Ray Bradbury’s classic dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451, is set in a society where books are outlawed and firemen are charged with burning them. The novel has had many adaptations, most famously in François Truffaut’s 1966 film, which starred Oskar Werner and Julie Christie.

In 2018, Ramin Bahrani co-wrote and directed the film adaptation for HBO, starring Michael B. Jordan, who also served as executive producer. The stylized film was shot by cinematographer Kramer Morgenthau, ASC (Game of Thrones, Thor: The Dark World, Terminator Genisys). “I’m a huge fan of the book and a big fan of Truffaut in general,” says Morgenthau. “I’m also a big fan of films that have deep messages, or socio-political meaning to them. That’s what originally attracted me to making films and documentaries.”

Morgenthau grew up in Cambridge, MA and started out shooting documentaries in New York City. He attended the University of Rochester and majored in film studies. “I came out of school bright eyed and bushy tailed and wanted to make films that could change the world,” he says.

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For Morgenthau, Fahrenheit 451 brought him back to his early roots as a filmmaker and awakened his artistic sensibilities, as well as his passion for film. “Literature and art are a valuable part of our culture that we sometimes take for granted,” he explains. “There are things that should be cherished and protected. Also, Ramin is a passionate filmmaker and has made a lot of amazing independent films like Man Push Cart, Chop Shop, and 99 Homes – they’re all strong films that are purely about story and character, not spectacle. When reading the script, Fahrenheit 451 seemed to me like one of those films.”

The biggest challenge for Morgenthau was building a new world from scratch. (He joined the production 10 days before the start date.) With so little time, he relied on his filmmaking instincts instead of watching other movies or looking at art and photographs. “There are technology and the science fiction elements, but it’s not really a futuristic film since it happens in the present in sort of an alternate universe. Just to capture all of that and build a world from scratch and build it in a short period of time.”

Morgenthau shot the film with VariCam 35 cameras, capturing 12-bit 4:4:4 AVC Intra files in 23.98-fps. HBO does not have a 4K mandate but 2.40 widescreen is not allowed so he captured UHD (3840 x 2160) in the 16x9 aspect ratio. “I literally got off the plane and started scouting locations and talking with Ramin about what he wanted to do,” says Morgenthau. “He wanted to freely move the camera 360-degrees and shoot exteriors in urban areas at night. I had heard a lot about VariCam and my gut instinct told me that it was the way to go because of its low light sensitivity.”

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Since shooting digital, Morgenthau had primarily shot with one camera system so he thought the VariCam would be a challenge to himself to try something different. “I wanted to give Ramin the most freedom as possible,” he explains, “especially being able to shoot at super high ISO settings – from the 3200 – 5000 range. I tested it and was absolutely blown away by the VariCam’s low light capabilities. It also has a different look that helped with the technology aspect of the film.”

During production, Morgenthau captured in V-Log and he used a simple Rec709 LUT that was created by Technicolor-PostWorks NY. “On top of that I used CDLs,” he reveals. “We had no colorists at the Lab – it was just a straight transcoding and conversions from what we were doing on set. D.I.T. Jasper Vrakking did a great job with color.”

When Morgenthau was shooting on stage, he generally shot at 800 ISO. For the majority of low light night exteriors, Morgenthau did not utilize native ISO 5000, but instead chose base 5000 and dialed down to 3200 because he felt the 3200 matched the clean 800 best. “I didn’t need that extra 2/3rds of a stop,” explains Morgenthau. “There’s so much light at 3200 because I was shooting with very fast lenses that could open to a 1.4.” Morgenthau shot with a Panavised set of Super Speeds from the ‘70s and felt the vintage glass was a good way to combat the sharpness of digital when compared with film. He generally shot at a T-2.

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“Shooting fire scenes was trickier than I was expecting,” he says. “I wanted to pick up the most light I could at night but at the same time I had to hold the detail in the fire, so it was a constant dance between holding fire detail and keeping enough light on the faces. We had to ride the iris on the fly a lot. When I shot on set and when I shot outside, I did very little background lighting. I let all the existing lighting play and I would turn off all the existing lights in the foreground and I did localized lighting on the faces using Moon boxes with a lot of Sky Panels and LEDs at very low levels to balance to the ambiance.”

One of the most complex sequences to shoot took place in a “VR bar”, which contained a number of panels and video walls. Morgenthau lit the scene with LEDs that were being fed video media. Morgenthau also had a number of tube shaped fixtures that were shaped like fluorescent tubes but were pixel mapped. “They’re called Sceptrons made by Martin,” explains Morgenthau. “We just tried to rise to the level of the script and the actors so we came up with something that looked different. I was really happy with that sequence. It was challenging and exciting.”

Since it was a futuristic world, production design and gaffer Mike Hall built RGBAW LEDs into many of the sets. “I lit this differently, more of an ambient look, not because of the camera’s sensitivity,” continues Morgenthau, “but because of the style of the movie. I was embracing the technology. I lit the opening scene of the movie with just a match with our lead actor’s hands. He lights it and it lights up his whole face. There’s a couple of LEDs that are built into the room that are glowing but I literally lit Michael B. Jordan’s face with a single match at a 1.4 at 3200 ISO. It was blooming hot and beautiful.”

Michael Shannon

Fahrenheit 451 was posted at Technicolor-PostWorks NY and was graded by colorist Tim Stipan. The grade resembled the dailies for the most part, although Morgenthau reveals they did do some “massaging and shaping” of the image. Overall, he was extremely happy at how the project turned out. “It’s one of my favorite things I’ve shot,” he says. “The VariCam sees colors different from other camera systems and has a very different color space. I use a lot of very saturated colors again using RGBAW LEDs that were built into the sets – a lot of really deep saturated reds and blues and greens. I really thought it saw the colors in a more true and naturalistic way. Really gorgeous.”

For more information on Fahrenheit 451, visit https://www.hbo.com/movies/fahrenheit-451.

For more information on Kramer Morgenthau, visit http://kramermorgenthau.com/.

Authors
Neil Matsumoto - Marketing, Pro Video
Neil has written about the art of cinematography for nearly 20 years

Disruptive tech to engage growing theme park crowds

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Disruptive tech to engage growing theme park crowds

4 minutes

Science fiction great and 2001 A Space Odyssey author Arthur C. Clarke once observed that any technology is indistinguishable from magic if it is advanced enough. Today the magic lies in bringing together advanced technology to tell a singular story.

Enter the noise.

Brands that attempt to deliver a singular story must engage in serious competition with things like a viewer’s always-on mobile device or multiple panels of digital signage that permeate public environments. They also vie with the high-tech world of sensory marketing designed to appeal to all the human senses, to engage emotions and influence purchasing behavior. 

Using technology with precision

Separating the noise from story line falls to multimedia professionals, who will be sharing experiences and emerging technology at InfoComm in Las Vegas this year.

The ideas come at an important time, as the theme park industry records strong growth. Additions and expansions are happening this year at more than 75 world destinations, according to the International Assoc. of Amusement Parks and Attractions. At the same time, there is growing concern among industry pros that people are becoming over-saturated and confused by the growing amounts of media vying for attention. Many are wondering if these new noise levels are driving away commerce instead of generating engagement.

To address this, hospitality brands are seeking to connect technologies in an exacted way so they can provide a personalized engagement that leads customers through the competing noise. For instance, a hotel that can connect to your music subscription account and has your most listened-to song ready to play on the Bluetooth speaker when you enter your room, while providing box scores of your favorite sports teams on the television.

Maturity and balance

Trendsetters in hospitality & retail increasingly rely on disruptive technologies to accelerate their businesses, and to create unified experiences. They’re investing to improve things like personalization and communication, and see a time when artificial intelligence will play a critical role. Panasonic is deeply engaged in these technologies. We believe that connecting them into integrated solutions is essential to creating entirely new experiences. We commissioned a new research series, Moving Forward, on how disruptive technologies are impacting businesses, government agencies and entire industries.

Our research finds that mobile devices, apps & commerce and the cloud are the most commonly adopted disruptive technologies across the supply chain, particularly within food service, hospitality & retail industries. These customer-facing industries are especially bullish on artificial intelligence, which can help them better understand the needs and behavior of their customers.

Linking tech and psychology

There’s incredibly interesting work occurring as cinema and theme park efforts converge, informed by a growing understanding of customer behavior. In both film and parks, things used to be purely physical set pieces. That evolved into set pieces with limited projection and now it is largely sophisticated projection imaging with some set pieces.

It’s where the science of imaging meets the psychology of imaging. The human visual system is a physiological system that science and technology address. But how the image impacts a person is the psychology of imaging. We take the technology core and infuse it with a creative effort to make imaging different. When it’s done well in the physical environments of themed entertainment, you see technology become magic.

Authors
Ron Martin - Vice President and Director at Panasonic Hollywood Lab