APRIL 2016 VOL. 10 NO. 2 hdvideopro.com

28 LEICA SL The Leica SL-System is a sign of things to come from Leica AG—and perhaps the future of the DSLR form factor By Jimmy Matlosz

64 AT A GLANCE: A MAGIC WAND FOR VIDEO Giving Steadicam a run for their money, the DJI Osmo is a new handheld camera capable of full 4K with built-in 3-axis stabilization By David Alexander Willis Postproduction

60 BORIS CONTINUUM COMPLETE Offering powerful VFX plug-ins, from artistic flters to restoration tools to 3D objects, plus thousands of presets, BCC 10 from Boris FX lets you reach your creative goals faster By Justin Sucara Courtesy of Sundance Institute

Welcome to Indeed, Sundance 2016 will go down camera that’s a newcomer to 4K capture. Harry Lange for Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: backdrop drenched in moody hues and fueled feature shot by Ed Wild (Welcome INSIDE STORYthe second as the year of streaming, as the likes of It’s a beautiful entry from the Red Dot, A Space Odyssey. The volume reveals, for eerie shadows. Crescenzo explains why to the Punch). The DP shares with us the issue of HDVideoPro for 2016, a year that Netfix and Amazon acquired worldwide designed with the connoisseur in mind. the frst time, the evolution of the flm’s he likes using old glass on the show, many challenges the shoot presented, kicked off with the annual Sundance Film rights to many quality flms screening at The Canon EOS C300 Mark II is a user- immersive look, considered to be the creating a softer look that recalls glamor- including high-speed car chases and motor Festival drawing major crowds to Park the festival. inspired update, offering better image greatest science-fction flm of all time. ous Hollywood pictures of old. Shades of mayhem on the Autobahn in Germany, all City, Utah. We were in attendance, and It was Fox Searchlight who scored the capture and a stronger housing than its Pages of intricate sketches detail every- Blue gets the cinematic treatment from captured in 5K on RED EPIC equipment. the frst thought on the minds of many biggest buy, however, paying a record- predecessor. New features include the abil- thing from early design concepts through Stefan Czapsky, ASC (Edward Scissorhands, Finally, our focus on lighting will pique after so many sales bombed at the box breaking $17.5 million for Nate Parker’s ity to garner 12-bit, 4:4:4 quality imagery to the visuals that fnally appeared in Batman Returns, Blades of Glory), who your interest, as we break down the choices offce last year was, what flms will sell? The Birth of a Nation, which earned both at 2K, ripe visuals allowing for incredible the flm. discusses why old zooms such as the clas- available when putting together a project Early buzz on features in competition the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and color manipulation in post. Our features in this issue demonstrate sic Angénieux Optimo 24-290mm T2.8 on any budget. You’ll fnd information included Swiss Army Man, quickly pegged the Audience Award. A full review of We’re excited to bring you an inside how cinema is truly alive and well—on our allow him to capture unique visuals on and advice on the latest tools and devel- as the flm with, yes, the “farting corpse” Sundance is in the pages ahead, with re- look at The 2001 File: Harry Lange and home TV screens. DP Crescenzo Notarile, the NBC show. Shooting mainly on the opments in HMI, tungsten, LED and (played by Daniel Radcliffe), which won views of indies that pushed the bound- the Design of the Landmark Science Fiction ASC, AIC (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, ARRI ALEXA Plus, Czapsky also uses a fuorescent technologies to best illuminate the Directing Award in the U.S. Dramatic aries of flmmaking. Film from Reel Art Press, a wonderful Ghost Whisperer), reveals his approach to variety of additional equipment solutions, your storytelling. category. The indie was picked up by A24, Among the new equipment we review book flled with stunning photographs capturing Fox’s Gotham using old cinema including Blackmagic and Panasonic gear. —Simon Wakelin, Editor one of the few studios to score deals. is the Leica SL, a full-frame mirrorless and illustrations courtesy of art director lenses to frame characters’ faces against a Collide rides into view, an adrenaline- [email protected]

2 n HDVideoPro | hdvideopro.com hdvideopro.com | April 2016 n 3 While films continually flickered on screens around by the Sea, starring Casey Affeck and Michelle Williams, neatly Park City, the movie market set to work, but acquisitions seemed coming out on top over a trifecta of big guns in Fox Searchlight, to be a mixed bag this year. While huge bids were made on Focus Features and Universal Studios. Other flms in Amazon’s quality material—among them, Fox Searchlight’s record-breaking stable included Complete Unknown, Gleason and Wiener-Dog. deal of $17.5 million for director Nate Parker’s Grand Jury Prize- Streaming remains the radical antagonist to the studio mega- and Audience Award-winning The Birth of a Nation and Amazon plex mindset, but old-school dynamics still persevered. While Studios’ $10 million bid for Manchester by the Sea, directed by Netfix bid an astonishing $20 million for the rights to The Birth Kenneth Lonergan—there was mediocre fare often seeking too of a Nation, it was Fox Searchlight who walked away with the Sundance much money for rights. As a result, the festival wrapped with biggest flm of the event for almost $3 million less, due no doubt a number of flms still up for grabs, but they may fnd sales to the studio’s prestige and plausible Oscar® buzz machine once The Sundance Film soon with the endless avenues of distribution available these the flm is released nationwide. Festival welcomed the days. The ever-expanding VOD model tops the list, often push- While deals were afoot, features continued to screen, with a ing theatrical releases out while simultaneous launching across number of highly entertaining entries across many categories. Here world to Utah once home entertainment platforms. Case in point is Netfix, who are some flms that were signature Sundance entries, work of con- infamously released Beasts of No Nation in theaters last year while sequence beyond the glitz and glamour of high-profle acquisitions. again, continuing its streaming to couch potatoes on the very same day of its release. 2016BY SIMON WAKELIN Indeed, Sundance 2016 will go down as the year of stream- mission to introduce ing. In total, Netfix and Amazon outspent everybody else at the us to a diverse mix of festival. Netfix nabbed worldwide rights to many well-received highly entertaining and indies, including Tallulah (starring Ellen Page and Allison Janney) for $5 million and The Fundamentals of Caring (starring Selena culturally signifcant work Gomez and Paul Rudd) for $7 million, as well as the creepy Iranian indie horror flm Under the Shadow. from around the globe Amazon also outbid traditional studios for cutting-edge mate- rial. Its biggest buys included Love & Friendship, starring Chloë Sevigny and Kate Beckinsale, and the aforementioned Manchester Simon Wakelin

36 n HDVideoPro | hdvideopro.com hdvideopro.com | April 2016 n 37 his Special Jury Award-winning flm was recognized for its melody, the stunning aquatic creatures are helped ashore and quickly T unique vision and design, and deservedly so. A 1980s-set recruited to join the band at a neon-lit dance club in Warsaw. musical horror flm, The Lure was a bizarre, yet riveting feature. When one of the mermaids, Silver, falls in love with the bass- Sundance is renowned for screening flms that push the bound- ist, the more cunning sister, Golden, goes out to hunt for food, aries of flmmaking, and The Lure was no exception. A Polish unable to assimilate with mankind and escape her bloodthirsty entry in the World Drama section, it will warm the hearts of nature while worrying that her sister’s relationship will doom David Lynch fans—which, is to say, it will disturb, offend and their shared dream of swimming to a new life in America. probably mystify the average flmgoer. This Euro-pop fick wittily plays with lust and repulsion in In essence, The Lure is a trippy allegory for teenage sexuality. It compelling ways, as the bewitched sisters and their glittering begins on a dark night at the water’s edge when a family of musi- long tails lead us through an absurd, yet thoroughly intriguing cians spots two mermaids close to shore. After singing an enticing flm full of dark shadows and dripping blood. The Lure Photos courtesy of Sundance Institute Wild

powerful, emotional journey that rides a razor-sharp edge to Ania’s tranquilizing and leashing the wolf before bringing it Abetween offensive and evocative, Wild is the third flm back to her high-rise apartment. This is where the flm begins directed (and written) by German actress Nicolette Krebitz, to examine the boundaries of what’s considered acceptable the story of a rebellious woman who turns away from her and watchable on flm, with a series of intense scenes that will mundane existence to embrace the endangerment of the wild. offend some and fascinate others. It’s an incredibly powerful The story begins when Ania (Lilith Stangenberg) is startled by performance from Stangenberg, whose presence on screen is a lone wolf staring back at her from the edge of the woodlands undeniable, laying everything on the line, as cinematographer close to her home. The encounter awakens something deep Reinhold Vorschneider frames her beautifully throughout. inside, driving her to purchase raw steak, left in the woods, in Wild is a look at our instincts deep within, taken to the extreme an attempt to befriend the beast. on screen. Bravo for the powerful, provocative flmmaking that The encounter soon becomes an obsession, a catalyst that leads ultimately may have gone too far. Photos courtesy of Sundance Institute

38 n HDVideoPro | hdvideopro.com hdvideopro.com | April 2016 n 39 Simon Wakelin Courtesy of Sundance Institute White Girl Courtesy of Sundance Institute It’s A his is an unfinchingly real portrait of drug use based on making underlines the inherent dangers of living a lifestyle T the experiences of the flm’s director, Elizabeth Wood. An of excess, especially apparent when the flm’s lead snorts and entry in the U.S. Dramatic Competition, White Girl is the story screws her way out of trouble. The depravity of Leah’s situation Wrap of Leah, a college student who goes to extremes to get her drug becomes full-blown once Blue is arrested, and she goes on to dealer boyfriend out of jail. The flm unveils a drug world of make incredibly foolish choices with a kilo of coke in hand, n ever-expanding slate of flms encom- radical debauchery, as Morgan Saylor (Homeland) bravely plays snorting and selling her stash with no care for the repercus- Apassed Sundance 2016, indicative of Leah, who quickly falls down the rabbit hole into a dark world sions of her ways. the festival’s continued efforts to embrace of heavy drug use and deceit. White Girl plays as privileged youth run rampant in New an evolving cultural landscape of flmmak- The title of the flm doesn’t refer to its beautiful blonde-haired, York City, the story of a well-to-do girl who rapidly becomes ers from all over the world. Sundance also blue-eyed lead, but rather to the kilo of cocaine left behind by the victim of her own self-wreckage. It’s a powerful portrait expanded the art of storytelling in new and Leah’s boyfriend Blue (played with conviction by Brian “Sene” of someone too preoccupied with her own wild abandon to exciting ways, especially prevalent in its experi- Marc) after he’s arrested dealing drugs on the streets. calculate the consequences of her rebellious ways. If this is a mental New Frontier exhibition. Celebrating Although hedonistic and raunchy, the constant drug use vicarious expression of Wood’s own experiences, it’s a bitter, yet its 10th anniversary, New Frontier featured on screen quickly numbs the mind, while hyper-realistic flm- powerful pill to swallow. 30-plus reality-shattering virtual-reality instal- lations in various venues, compelling stories told in a powerful emerging medium.

Meanwhile, documentary premieres fea- Simon Wakelin tured a host of intriguing profles, including Frank Zappa, Robert Mapplethorpe, Maya Sundance 2016 included a variety of virtual-reality Angelou, Michael Jackson, Norman Lear and experiences, as well as O.J. Simpson. The U.S. Documentary Grand various panels such as the Jury Prize went to Weiner, a political pic Adobe-sponsored “Editing about disgraced former U.S. Representative Insights from Hail, Caesar! Anthony Weiner. and Deadpool,” which featured Deadpool director Various special events also offered one-

Photos courtesy of Sundance Institute Tim Miller and Hail, Caesar! of-a-kind insights into the creation of new editor Katie McQuerrey. lready purchased by Lionsgate before screening, biggest conspiracies in American history begins to independent works at Sundance, while AOperation Avalanche attracted a big audience. unfold on screen, as the CIA agents fake the moon Slamdance was abuzz with its own collection Writer-director Matthew Johnson also created The landing during the Cold War in order to beat the of visionary flmmakers. That event, in venues Dirties, a Slamdance Film Festival winner in 2013. Russians to the punch. nestled at the end of Main Street, was estab- Operation Avalanche plays with intrigue in fascinat- A large part of the flm’s realistic ’60s feel was lished by spirited flmmakers after their works ing ways, a found footage flm from 1967 featuring achieved by using old ’50s Angénieux lenses on were rejected by Sundance. In response, they four undercover CIA agents sent to NASA posing as Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Cameras, with much of formed their own festival, which turned 20 a documentary flm crew to investigate the possible the footage shot covertly at NASA and Shepperton this year, and has only grown to enhance existence of a Russian mole. They successfully tap Studios in London. Shooting in RAW, footage was the cinematic experience for Sundance fes- phones and break into offces while interviewing converted into a 2K scan from the Pocket Cinema tivalgoers in Park City. HDVP scientists, but when they end up uncovering a shock- Camera’s Super 16mm chip, then graded after the ing NASA secret, they decide to embark on a new fnal 16mm conversion. The result is a compelling Visit the Sundance Film Festival website at mission that puts their own lives at risk. One of the flm that grants us immediate access to an era gone by. sundance.org. Operation Avalanche Simon Wakelin

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