“Hot Rod Cameras’ Illya Friedman had mentioned the VariCam 35 to me,” explains Like producer Zubi Mohammed. “He gave me a demo of what the camera could do in lowlight, so it was always in my mind. When I saw the type of project that Brian was aiming for, I just immediately thought of the VariCam. There is an organic nature that Brian was trying to provoke from the project and just from the demo footage that I saw, I thought VariCam could definitely work.”

During pre-production, Luco Peña also tested a Sony A7S but preferred the VariCam 35 due to its more filmic “grain”. "Even though you can work with a high ISO, it can still be very accurate,” he explains. “I think the A7S had some problems with the skin tones. I really enjoyed the grain the VariCam had. It didn’t feel ‘noisy’ like other cameras and had more of an organic look that I like. Especially in one shot where we’re filming our actress in a car passing through Hollywood, which eventually became the shot for our poster.”

Luco Peña captured 12-bit 4:4:4 AVC-Intra files in UHD at 23.98fps and framed for widescreen (2:39:1). For lenses, he employed Schneider-Kreuznach Xenon FF primes, as well as Mamiya 645N PL-mount primes. Luco Peña also used ProMist and SoftFX filters, which helped him create a more vintage look.

Luco Peña approached the cinematography in a stripped-down way like Italian neo-realist directors Vittorio De Sica and Roberto Rossellini, who would light and shoot quickly using mainly available light. Due to the budget, the production did not carry a lighting package, mainly using practical bulbs set on dimmers. “For an interior hotel scene, we were scouting floors where we could see the bokeh in the background but at the same time, you could still see the reflection of the lamp in the window,” explains Luco Peña. “What is the color of the lamp and what kind of source could this be? Should we dim the practicals up or down? I was trying to manage the amount of light I was taking from my practical sources. Not using a lot of equipment made shooting the scene less complex.”

For many of his exteriors, Luco Peña meticulously scouted his locations and picked the right time of the day to shoot more efficiently. For day scenes, he used silks and diffusion material to control sunlight coming through windows.

Since completing the short, Like has been submitted to several film festivals and Luco Peña and Mohammed are looking to develop it into a feature film. According to Mohammed, it is not an easy road. “The indie filmmaking landscape has changed so drastically,” he says. “In the ‘90s, because of the lucrative home video market, filmmakers were selling their movies at film festivals for large amounts of money and they would get three picture deals. Now, we have Netflix and all these streaming services, but the middle class of filmmaking has really shrunk. There are just low budget movies and big tent pole films. For us, our goal is to manage the budget and make the feature for a low amount of money while still making it look great. Getting the support of organizations and friends who are technically savvy has been tremendously helpful in getting this short made. It’s been a long and difficult road but that’s not an unusual story.”

Her involvement with Alex Strangelove came when producer Jared Goldman, (whom she worked with Richard Levine’s Submission) introduced her to director Johnson at Sundance in 2016. “I had been a fan of Craig’s work and this was a truly unique and awesome script,” says Spera. “It was incredibly funny, had so much heart, and I loved how real the characters felt, in addition to the use of magical realism to show Alex’s rich and complex inner world, and his relationship to the outside world as he discovers himself. One of the challenges that Craig and I talked about was trying to maintain naturalism while showing the surreal moments when Alex is realizing who he is. How bizarre and wonderful high school first love can be. The excitement, the heartbreak, the mistakes – all of it. We set out to show that in a way that unique but not over the top and specific to him and his view of the world, while maintaining a story that felt tangible, relatable, and grounded."

With Netflix’s 4K mandate, Spera tested out the VariCam and was immediately impressed by its colorimetry. “It seemed very natural in the way it rendered natural light and skin tones, and felt familiar to the way I have worked in the past. I really wanted a look I could rely on and push comfortably, even though I had never shot with the camera before. I felt confident that it would be a great match.”

According to Spera, John Hughes 1986 film, Pretty in Pink, was a big influence on the tone of Alex Strangelove. “We called it Pretty in Pink meets Superbad. [Alexander Payne’s 1999 film] Election was also a reference with its use of primary colors and the way it was subjectively lensed,” she says. “And [Mike Nichol’s 1967 film] The Graduate is always a reference for me. The use of composition to show relationships between characters within the frame and how it often relates to the main character’s inner word, was very similar to our movie. He is in a place of transition, both in his life and his identity. Films of the 1970’s are always a reference for me, so that always sneaks in there as well.

“There’s a prom scene towards the end of the film that is quintessentially ‘80s,” continues Spera, “We wanted to reference classic high school movies. There is a lot of intentional nostalgia in the look of this film, which I think allows the story to feel both modern and relatively timeless.”

Alex Strangelove was shot with two VariCam Pure cameras. Spera captured 4K (4096 x 2160) VRAW files in 23.98-fps. During testing, Spera worked with her colorist, Alex Bickel, with both VRAW and AVC-Intra files and they decided that VRAW gave them more color information to work with, which was important to the look of the film. They also felt the VRAW files gave them extra dynamic range. “We also had some visual effects, so it was a good choice,” explains Spera. “I would do the same set-up when I shoot with the VariCam again.”

Spera revealed that she stayed at 800 ISO the entire shoot since she was never truly shooting in low light situations. “I will say we stole some stuff on the street in Brooklyn that we didn’t have time to light and the 800 was still great,” she says. “I knew the option to go to 5000 was there but I wanted to keep it at the lower ISO and it was beautiful.”

Because she was trying to reference older films, Spera used vintage Cooke Speed Panchro lenses (rehoused by TLS) because she loves how digital highlights roll off with older glass. “It was a nice choice for this film, it took the digital edge off without the use of much diffusion,’ she explains. “In general, the vintage glass helps the image have a more textured and softer quality. It doesn’t have that ultra-crisp sharpness of modern glass. They also have a great flare and I am able to play with the quality of the glass. We wanted it to look a little more natural, relatable, and human. It’s all about the glass.”

Since she was shooting at 800 ISO, Spera primarily used HMIs to replicate natural daylight, as well as LEDs for their speed. “Our gaffer, Gavin Curran, introduced me to Quasars a few years ago,” says Spera. “Almost every party scene in the movie has Quasars with colors on them. We were able to use them as a pop of color in a very manageable way.”

Unlike a lot of indie films, Spera did not implement handheld movement and shot primarily on two dollies for A and B cameras and then Steadicam when moving around with the main character. She reveals one of the hardest scenes to shoot was the prom, which she had only one day to shoot a lot of pages, mostly on Steadicam, operated by Steadicam operator Yousheng Tang. Since the camera had to move 360-degrees, Spera took all her movie lights off the floor and incorporated practical sources that would be typically used at a dance – from strobe lights to disco lights to lighting effects to haze.

Technicolor-PostWorks NY handled post for Alex Strangelove and was graded by Bickel. According to Spera, the grade was fairly simple and the look didn’t change drastically from their dailies. “I’m a big proponent of baking in certain looks in camera,” she explains. “If possible, I’m always trying to make the negative as close the ultimate direction we are going. The scenes that Alex and I worked the hardest on were those that involved the use of a lot of color and matching between the cameras, especially with the vintage glass. Alex was able to really heighten the look of the film and we embraced making it feel more colorful and open. The format really allowed us to have flexibility in the color space.

“There’s something that’s very finely tuned and cinematic about the VariCam,” says Spera. “It has a distinctive look that’s not necessarily that of an Alexa or RED, but more of its own thing and I think it worked well for the look of this movie.”

To watch Alex Strangelove, visit https://www.netflix.com/title/80168189 (You will need a Netflix subscription to view.)

For more info on cinematographer Hillary Spera, visit http://hillaryspera.com/.

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 and 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 and 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 were 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/.

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.

Read more about how cinema and theme park efforts are converging and Panasonic’s collaboration with Walt Disney Parks & Resorts in The Psychology of Imaging. 

For developing the look of 6 Balloons, Morgan was inspired by the work of still photographers like Nan Goldin, Todd Hido and Ryan McGinley, whose styles she describes as naturalistic and textured. “We didn't want the audience to be aware of the cinematography,” she explains. “We wanted the viewer to feel like they were on the journey with the two protagonists – a bystander forced to witness the events that unfold. We didn't want the film to look perfect, but to make it feel immediate so people could emotionally respond to the story and feel the sense of drama and panic unfolding.”

Like most indie films, Morgan’s biggest challenge was time, shooting the movie in 4 weeks with a 3-year-old lead and a schedule full of night work, in and around a car in rough LA neighborhoods. The hardest part of the shoot was the final scene of the movie, in which Katie’s car fills up with water. “The end sequence shows our two main characters in a car as it fills up with water, a symbolic representation of Katie’s mental state,” explains Morgan. “We had to figure out how we were going to put these two actors in a car and fill in to the top with water in a safe and shootable way. We ended up with 3 versions of the same car. One to shoot in around LA, one to submerge in a tank and the other to seal and fill up with water at the actual location.”

With Netflix’s 4K mandate, Morgan selected the VariCam 35 and was excited about the camera’s ability to shoot at high ISOs. During prep, she shot day, night, interior and exterior tests at the actual locations they would be shooting at and created a show LUT with her post house, Local Hero, in Santa Monica. “It was mostly about creating a natural palette with a low contrast gamma curve, so the film had a softness to it,” reveals Morgan.

With a small budget and a limited lighting package, shooting at a higher ISO really helped while driving around at night when Morgan wanted the lighting to be interactive. “We wanted to feel the real-world sources from the street – the passing cars, the ambience coming through the windows,” explains Morgan. “When we went down to Skid Row, it was all minimal lighting. We couldn't light expansively down the street. We didn’t want to disturb everyday life for those people living down there. We did it run-and-gun and we had to be very sly about it. Since the VariCam can basically see in the dark, it opens up a whole new world for what can be captured with minimal or no lighting."

For lighting in the car, Morgan employed a process trailer and mounted ARRI Skypanels to create the look of stop lights, which were a story point. There were no lights inside the car with actors, because Morgan wanted the lighting to be soft and subtle and to feel the changing colors on the actors faces from the outside. “The 5000 ISO really helped us capture great details in completely naturalistic situations,” continues Morgan. “I really think it helped to make the film feel more authentic. Skid Row is a very intimidating place to go at night and to experience how the people lived there was a really harrowing experience for the entire crew. It’s very sad to see so many people suffering as much as they do.”

Although Morgan shot at high ISOs for night scenes, she found the noise pattern when dialing down from 5000 base to 2500 closely matched the native 800 ISO. “You couldn’t really tell the difference between that and 800 and I was really impressed at how 2500 saw more than what the eye sees at low light levels,” explains Morgan. “Our aim was to infuse the image with as much texture as possible. There are plenty of flares and a lot of foreground, we were always shooting through or over things. As the movie gets more intense, there’s really no frame that you would call clean and I think shooting at a higher ISO fit the textural mandate perfectly.”

Morgan shot the film in 4K (4096x2160), capturing 12-bit 4:4:4 AVC Intra files to P2 cards. She also shot in anamorphic using Cooke Xtal Express prime lenses. “They're such beautiful lenses and they have so much character to them,” says Morgan. “It fit in with our textured painterly feel. We also used a unique vintage 55mm macro lens which was employed to create the feeling intimacy and claustrophobia.”

They framed in the 2:1 aspect ratio because Morgan felt true anamorphic 2.39:1 would be restrictive in the small space of a car and so did a digital crop on the widescreen capture.

6 Balloons was graded at Local Hero by colorist Leandro Marini. According to Morgan, the grade was very similar to what the dailies looked like. “It was really about managing consistency,” reveals Morgan.

“The look was created in camera. All the varying color temperatures were maintained. The artificial and uncomfortable environments of downtown, or the pharmacy, compared with the safety and warmth of the incandescent light back at her house. We had done extensive tests and had good communication with Leo [Marini] throughout the shoot, so everything was in a pretty good place by the time we went in for the grade.

“Overall, I'm pleased with how the film came out,” concludes Morgan. “I think that the manifesto for the cinematography, to keep it raw and naturalistic, to help the viewer connect and empathize with the characters, was the right approach and something all departments worked hard to achieve.”

To watch 6 Balloons, visit

https://www.netflix.com/title/80130625 (You must have a Netflix subscription to view)