DP Theo Van de Sande, ASC shoots "Bad Santa 2" with VariCam 35s

DP Theo Van de Sande, ASC shoots "Bad Santa 2" with VariCam 35s

Neil Matsumoto

The long-awaited sequel to the 2003 holiday cult classic, Bad Santa (directed by Terry Zwigoff), Bad Santa 2 is directed by Mark Waters (Vampire Academy, Mean Girls) and once again pairs Willie (Billy Bob Thornton) and his little helper Marcus (Tony Cox), who reunite to rob a Chicago charity on Christmas Eve. Academy Award winner Kathy Bates joins the cast as Willie’s foul-mouthed mother, Sunny Soke, and Brett Kelly reprises his role as Thurman Merman. The dark comedy was shot by Theo Van de Sande, ASC (Blade, Cruel Intentions, Wayne’s World) with Panasonic VariCam 35 4K cinema cameras.

Van de Sande and Waters have recently collaborated on a number of projects, first working together on an Amazon pilot, Salem Rogers. “When Amazon Studios asked me what camera I wanted to use, I said, ‘That’s simple, because we have very little prep time, I want to use the [ARRI] Alexa.’ I know this camera well, and also my assistants know it well,” explains Van de Sande. “But they told us that the camera needed to have 4K resolution or more.”

Initially upset at being told what format to use, he remembered that over a dozen years ago — when digital cinema was in its infancy — the ASC technical committee decided to fight for a digital format that would be as good as 35mm film. “We came to the conclusion that a 35mm negative had more or less 4K resolution and dynamic range of about 13–1/2 stops,” explains Van de Sande. “At that time, the dynamic range of HD was around 9 stops and the resolution not even 2K, so there was no comparison between the quality of digital and film.”

Not long after this, Van de Sande attended Panasonic’s launch of the VariCam 35 at the ASC Clubhouse. “At the event, [Panasonic Senior Technologist] Steve Mahrer told me about the native 5,000 ISO setting, which had practically no noise,” recalls Van de Sande. “I couldn’t believe it, because in order to achieve such a low light sensitivity of 5,000 ISO, you have to give something up — whether it’s dynamic range, resolution, or color. I looked at the camera image on a 4K monitor and thought wow, this is indeed unbelievable.”

For developing the look of Bad Santa 2, Van de Sande did not use any visual references, including the original Bad Santa (shot by Jamie Anderson). He and Waters were in agreement that they didn’t want the film to look like a typical comedy, especially regarding the lighting. “It is a comedy but it’s such a raunchy film that we wanted to give it a ‘darker’ and more human aspect,” explains Van de Sande. “If we had shot it as a straight comedy, it would have looked too vulgar. Billy Bob Thornton and Kathy Bates are both fantastic actors so they didn’t need too much. We decided to concentrate on the performances and work more with prime lenses. I also lit the scenes moodier, almost like an indie film. We really focused on the relationship between the mother and son.”

Bad Santa 2 was shot in Montreal in the winter of early 2016 with three VariCam 35 camera bodies rented from VER in Glendale, California. According to Van de Sande, his camera crew picked up the VariCam technology in no time and even had ideas on how to improve the system. “One night the temperature was -28 degrees Celsius and everything fell apart,” he says. “The dolly stopped working and the lenses froze so you couldn’t even focus. But the camera kept shooting without any protection. The VariCam comes from sports and ENG — and its technology is more rugged than traditional cinema cameras.” [VariCam draws upon the 30 plus years of ruggedized ENG/EFP camera design requirements.]

Van de Sande captured 4K AVC-Intra 444 files in V-LOG to P2 express cards. “Over the years I have developed a workflow with the VariCam 35 that is very efficient, fast, and high-quality,” reveals Van de Sande. “Using the dual recording function of the camera, I record both 4K and 2K files. The 4K data is immediately stored on LTO tape drives for later use and the 2K files captured on Micro P2 cards are used for editing, deliverables, and everything else in post until the moment we’re going to do the final color correction. The files with my LUTs, which I established in ACES on the set, are conformed to my final 4K version. Since Bad Santa 2, I’ve perfected this workflow even more.

“My 4K/2K workflow is different than what other people are doing,” continues Van de Sande. “By now I have shot 60 feature films from which around 53 were finished on film. I even shot around eight films without having video replay on the set at all. I had to create the image in my head and then transfer it to film. That’s basically what I still do. I light the scene and use the default VariCam Rec 709 setting in the camera as ‘my print’. I don’t even look at my V-LOG data unless I absolutely need to see if it’s on my ‘negative’. I work the same way as I did when I used film, only now I can see it on the monitor and shoot in a much shorter time frame and more precisely. In post-production, I have so much leeway that I can be stronger with my decision-making. That’s why I like working with the VariCam — I can make top quality decisions at the last moment.”

In terms of lenses, Van de Sande shot mainly with Cooke S4 primes, as well as Angenieux Optimo zooms. He originally wanted to shoot the film in scope with Hawk anamorphic lenses. “Mark laughed and said, ‘Theo, maybe next time but this time no because we have a big guy and a small guy and we’re going to get in trouble with the wide shots.’ We didn’t want awkward frames so we went 1.85.”

Since he was shooting in relatively controlled environments, Van de Sande captured most of Bad Santa 2 at native 800 ISO, although there were around a half a dozen shots he captured at native 5,000. “You sometimes get into situations where even 800 ISO is not enough,” explains Van de Sande. “Also, I discovered while shooting some of Mark’s earlier pilots in native 5,000 ISO, there was a little bit of noise in the darker areas while the well exposed part of the image was clean. This is called ‘shot’ noise and it was a new phenomenon for me. It has more to do with not having enough light rather than the noise from the camera. To solve the problem, I would expose the darker areas of the image a little more to give additional fill to the shadows.”

For post, Van de Sande worked closely with Light Iron in creating the deliverables from his 2K sub-recordings and finishing the final color correction in 4K.

Distributed by Broad Green Pictures, Bad Santa 2 will be released in theaters on November 23. For more information, please visit the film’s official website here.

For more information on the Panasonic VariCam 35, follow this link.

Here is the official teaser trailer for the film.

https://youtu.be/HGcZxBNNpKM

Capturing Crazy Rich Asians with the VariCam Pure

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Capturing Crazy Rich Asians with the VariCam Pure

5 minutes Neil Matsumoto

Crazy Rich Asians is a romantic comedy-drama film, which is based on the best-selling novel by Kevin Kwan, and tells the story of an Asian American woman who meets her boyfriend's family, only to find out they are one of the richest families in Singapore. The Warner Bros film was directed by Jon M. Chu (Now You See Me 2, G.I. Joe: Retaliation) and features an all Asian cast, including Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Ken Jeong, Michelle Yeoh, and many others. It is the first Hollywood studio film to feature Asians in leading roles since director Wayne Wang’s 1993 film, The Joy Luck Club.

The film was shot by cinematographer Vanja Černjul, ASC, HFC (The Perfection, The Deuce, Marco Polo) with VariCam Pure cinema cameras. Černjul discovered cinematography at film school at the University of Zagreb, Croatia. After graduation, he became a cameraman for international news outlets like the BBC, CNN, and NBC during the conflict in ex-Yugoslavia. “There was no internet available to us in 1991, so we had to distribute all the footage from the location to the networks via a satellite link, which was very expensive,” explains Černjul. “There was also a great time pressure because it didn’t matter how amazing your footage was if it wasn’t delivered before deadline. That taught me a lot about in-camera editing and shooting under various conditions, always utilizing available light.”

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It was Černjul’s experience working in South East Asia where he had shot two seasons of the Netflix series Marco Polo that played a role in getting Crazy Rich Asians. During the Marco Polo shoot, he met producer Tim Coddington who got involved with Crazy Rich Asians right after production wrapped. “I fell in love with that part of the world and was looking forward to going back,” says Černjul. “Tim connected me with director Jon Chu,” explains Černjul, “and I loved Jon’s approach to the story. Jon was very passionate about the project and told me he wanted Crazy Rich Asians to be the most beautiful film he ever made. He is a visual director and I was excited by the challenge. It turned out to be one of those rare experiences that were both pleasant and fun to shoot and turned to be a successful film of cultural importance that exceeded everything we hoped for. It was not easy to make, but the camaraderie and good vibes inside our very international crew made it enjoyable.”

According to Černjul, it was essential to capture and heighten the beauty of the locations. “I knew from my previous experience that the weather in that part of Asia dramatically changes throughout the day, especially during the monsoon season,” he explains. “We ended up with 38 locations in 42 shooting days and we had to move around quickly with a large cast, who had to look their best and were dressed in amazing costumes all the time. You can imagine that the heat, humidity, and daily storms weren’t going to be helpful. Luckily, our production designer extraordinaire, Nelson Coates, found ways to protect us from rain as much as possible.”

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Chu collaborated with Černjul, as well as production and costume design, to create a visual portfolio for all the departments with specific guidelines how each part of the story should look and feel. “The color palette for New York had to be contrasted with the tropical megacity of Singapore,” reveals Černjul. “Within Singapore, there were different cultural and socio-economic environments that also needed visual distinction. I am very happy how coordinated we all were despite a very short prep. We looked at a lot of classic Hollywood romantic comedies from the genre’s heyday, specifically because we didn’t want Crazy Rich Asians to look anything like that. We wanted a timeless cinematic look for the film.”

Černjul discovered the VariCam a year before starting on Crazy Rich Asians while working on the HBO series The Deuce, which he shot with VariCam 35s. On The Deuce, Černjul was impressed with the VariCam’s performance on high ISO settings which were going to help him for the series’ low-light shooting style. “After that experience, I knew VariCam was the right tool for the challenges of Crazy Rich Asians because of its versatility and robustness, especially with the Codex VRAW2 recorder for VariCam Pure,” says Černjul. “The option of capturing the film in 4K VRAW on a sensor I trusted and knew well made this choice a no brainer.”

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Černjul captured uncompressed VRAW 4K files in anamorphic that was de-squeezed to 2:39:1 aspect ratio. He worked with his longtime collaborator D.I.T. Matt Selkirk and following advice from colleague Dado Valentic, they decided early in the preproduction to work in the ACES color space. Selkirk created a bulletproof ACES LUT that they used for the entire film. “Matt’s partner from Frame Logic Digital, Nick Kay, had some fresh experience with ACES and VariCam, and his input was very valuable since we had very little time to figure things out,” explains Černjul. “Once we had the LUT, we tested it under different ISO settings and decided that the range between 800 ISO (from 800 Base) and 2500 ISO (from 5000 base) was right for the look we were going for. I felt comfortable mixing different ISO settings from within that range even inside a single scene. It was liberating not being held hostage by light levels from practical sources.”

Working with the Pure’s VRAW flexibility, Černjul wanted to capture widescreen cinematic images and having an anamorphic feel was important. “We didn’t want to crop the image and lose the resolution, which we would have to do if we went with full 2:1 anamorphic lenses,” explains Černjul. “The only choice left was the Hawk 1.3x Anamorphic lenses. Fortunately, I had a lot of experience with those lenses and I was very comfortable working with them.”

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The film’s finale was shot in Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay, which according to Černjul, is an amazing landmark and was a privilege to work in. The entire cast was in the scene, as well as hundreds of extras in black tie and heels. Since it was a major tourist destination and pride of the city, the production was only allowed a limited amount of time to shoot at the location. For Černjul, it was important that Chu and the actors had maximum freedom to move around. They also wanted to see as much of the environment and the city behind it, so the light levels had to be low and fine-tuned – both in intensity and color.

“Our great gaffer Julian White and his best boy, Nico Kalimerakis, came up with a great solution,” says Černjul. “They mounted 12 moving lights on the catwalks between the Super Trees (iconic tree-like vertical gardens, measuring between 25 and 50 meters tall) all fully controllable via an interface on Julian’s iPad. The whole scene was shot with a combination of existing light coming from the environment and the pre-rigged moving lights. We would still be shooting that scene if they didn’t come up with this great idea. I never used moving light before, but now they are a standard part of my package.”

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The film was graded at Company 3 by colorist Stephen Nakamura. During principal photography Černjul lit the film with the ACES LUT and Selkirk applied CDL corrections to every shot. This made their color grading sessions more efficient and gave Nakamura more time to work on creative color decisions rather than fixing inconsistent looks.

Overall, Černjul was very pleased with the way Crazy Rich Asians turned out. “Besides being an important milestone on the road towards more equal representation in Hollywood, the film was received overwhelmingly positive by both audience and critics so far,” he says. “I am happy I had a chance to be a part of what is being described as not only a film, but a movement.”

Shooting By Moonlight With The VariCam 35

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Shooting By Moonlight With The VariCam 35

4 minutes Neil Matsumoto

Premiering at the 2017 Austin Film Festival where it won Best Narrative Short, Demon tells the story of a desperate man emerging from the night where he encounters a solitary shack in the middle of the desert. It is in this night setting where he discovers a dark secret that the property owner possesses on his property. The supernatural drama/thriller, directed by Caleb Slain, was shot by cinematographer Drew Dawson with the VariCam 35 camera just outside Joshua Tree National Park.

The Demon script had the setting as a desert landscape with a full moon. According to Dawson, the goal was to capture the entire film with moonlight, practicals, and minimal film lights. One of Slain and Dawson’s biggest influences for the look of Demon was the Dogme 95 filmmaking movement from the ‘90s. Created by Danish filmmakers Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, Dogme 95 was a collective where filmmakers would take a "vow of chastity" by rejecting visual effects, post modifications, or technical gimmicks. Dawson found a happy medium between Dogme 95 while still using professional production tools. “Every choice in the cinematography needs to adhere to the story and the characters,” explains Dawson. “It was a great experience for me because I learned so much about story and working with actors. I think it was just a working style that we knew was adhering well to the way we wanted to tell a story. It was just reverse engineering everything to approach a project.”

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Along with Dogme 95, another big influence for the look came from Pablo Picasso’s Blue Period. In the color grade, colorist Chad Terpstra added some green to the moonlight which was captured at 4250K in camera. According to Dawson, by shifting the moonlight to be a little greener gave them the feel as if there was a kind of sickness out there in the desert.

Dawson and Slain tested many cameras, including the Sony A7S and A7SII, before selecting the VariCam 35, which they rented out of Panavision Hollywood. During prep, Dawson did a bracketed exposure test at different ISOs to see how far he could push the image. He also took the camera out to Joshua Tree to shoot a moonlight test. “I sent the footage to Chad and he took our 12-bit 444 V-Log files and graded them in Da Vinci Resolve and sent me ProRes HQ files back,” explains Dawson. “I screened the footage on my D.I.T.’s cart and was able to figure out what settings yielded the best image, including the signal-to-noise ratio, grain structure, where was the color landing, and how Chad could massage it,” reveals Dawson. “We decided not to go with native 5000 ISO, but instead setting the camera to 5000 base and dialing down to 3200. We found that was the sweet spot for our lighting environment. Chad de-noised a little bit, but only the chroma, not the luma noise. The result is a more textured image while removing some of the dancing color snow. We left a little of that texture because we wanted to embrace a rougher image – more gritty. It was very much like film grain structure in the end, which Caleb and I both like. The VariCam can really handle these extreme lighting situations, so Chad had a good digital negative to work from.”

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For the shoot, Dawson captured AVC Intra 4K DCI (4096x2160) in 23.98 and finished the film in the 2:1 aspect ratio. “I had been playing with the idea in creating a viewing LUT,” explains Dawson, “and I was using the low-contrast curve at first, but a lot of time, I was monitoring in V-LOG because of the extreme nature of the exposure. I wanted to make sure we weren’t clipping the flames and bright headlights, but also getting enough exposure in the tow for all the shadows of the scene. After a couple of set-ups, I viewed V-LOG for the rest of the shoot. That way I could monitor the waveform and know that we had a healthy digital negative to work from later.”

For lenses, Dawson used Panavision Ultra Speed Z T1.3 lenses. He typically set the T-stop one line closed to wide open to try and pull out chromatic aberrations and some of the softness rather than shooting fully wide open. “They’re an interesting set because the Ultra Speed Z’s were the only collaboration between Zeiss and Panavision,” explains Dawson. “They were made in the ‘80s and they have some characteristics of Zeiss lenses, but also characteristics of Panavision so they’re a really interesting hybrid.”

For lighting the interior of the cabin, Dawson wanted to motivate light from above so wherever the camera was, he would retain some detail on faces. He used a single LITEGEAR LiteMat1 with ¼ CTS wrapped in bleached muslin with a lighting control grid, as well as two LITEGEAR LiteStix in the ceiling. “LiteStix are these single pixel enclosures of Lite Ribbon. I had two six inch bi-color sticks, and a one foot bi-color stick,” says Dawson. “We dialed them down to almost the lowest input they could give us.”

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For an ambitious Steadicam shot where the character walks out of the cabin and into the desert night exterior towards a truck, Dawson lit the entire sequence with a six-inch LiteStick that he placed in the interior of the truck’s dome light, as well as practical light coming from a handheld lantern, fire pit, headlights and the moon. “We could have simply turned the dome light on,” reveals Dawson, “but I decided since we had an extra stick, why not use it? The beautiful thing about LiteStix is that they’re so small. It’s hard to notice, but that stick is in the shot. When the car drives away, it reveals the great desert expanse. We were able to shoot a deep night time desert scene with a great amount of detail. These are images that we’ve never seen before in a movie.”

Demon was finished in 2.8K so they could do post zooms and re-frames. For Slain, if he saw something special in a performance, but maybe the camera was too wide, they were able to push in 10 or 15% to get the exact framing he wanted.

 

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“The main attribute that I love about VariCam is the richness of the color and the ability to grade the image,” concludes Dawson. “The camera has a really unique sensor, and for me, that opens up creative avenues. For this project, it was the only camera that I could shoot and light with.”

Dawson is a 2018 ICG ECA Award Honoree and will be screening Demon at the ECA Awards on September 30, 2018, at the Directors Guild of America Theater, with additional screenings in New York (10/28), Atlanta and Chicago (11/4), as well as Cameraimage (date TBD).

For more information on VariCam 35, click through here.