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.”

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.

“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.”

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/.

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. 

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.

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.

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.