Spring/Summer 2008 RANSITIONS T : Display Until April 2009 April Until Display PERATOR O AMERA C US $ 7.00 WWW.SOC.ORG FALL–WINTER 2008 FALL–WINTER 1 CAMERA OPERATOR SONS OF ANARCHY I SOC TO DGA I FILMING OLYMPIC BOAT RACES I TIPS ON MAKING A REEL FALL–WINTER 2008 CAMERA OPERATOR VOLUME 17, NUMBER 3 FALL/WINTER 2008 LAURIE K GILBERT SOC K GILBERT LAURIE Features SOC Takes on SOA by Jack Messitt SOC 20 Dave Frederick SOC and Steve Fracol SOC take on the new FX series with DP Paul Maibaum. Cover SOC to DGA by Jack Messitt SOC 32 Camera operator Bill Gierhart SOC offers advice on a different way to re-rate and move up in the business. Big Seas, Big Winds, Big Challenges 38 by Laurie K Gilbert SOC The riders in Shooting Olympic boat races while weather, politics Sons of Anarchy and logistics take their toll. by Timothy White, courtesy My Reel of FX Networks. by Joshua Harrison 50 Noted DPs offer their views and suggestions on creating BEST an Operator’s reel. CINEMATOGRAPHY Departments 3 Letter from the President 14 News & Notes Harris Savides, ASC by Dan Kneece SOC What’s happening… 6 Letter from the Editor 54 Hi-Def with Jeff by Jack Messitt SOC by Jeff Cree SOC 9 EDITORIAL—Save the 62 Last Take Cinematographer: 62 Advertisers’ Index For up-to-the-minute screening information Hire an Operator and more on this extraordinary film go to: www.FilmInFocus.com/awards08 by Roy H Wagner ASC 64 Roster of the SOC as of 11/8/08 ARTWORK ©2008 FOCUS FEATURES, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Letter fr om the President and the picture height was much less than the width, headroom was kept to an artistic minimum. Th e pictures were gorgeous of course, but with the amount of precision What Happens in Post involved, the smallest repositioning in the DI meant a huge diff erence on the screen and chopped headroom in n a fi ve-hour fl ight to Honolulu, the print we saw. Very disheartening. OI talked with friends and watched Th ank goodness we discovered this slip up at a time horribly projected movies from the onboard when measures could be taken to correct video system with bad colors and awkward the issue. But it is conceivable that times framing caused by the projection itself and could come in other pictures where pan and scan transfers. Th e these discoveries could come too late worst off ender was chopped for modifi cation and the picture could headroom on the cinematic releases suff er as a result. Th is leads me to my during that fl ight. I cannot describe the point and why I’m mentioning this in way the projection and transfer butchered Camera Operator instead of letting it disperse the photography. Awful comes to mind, into the vapors of cinema mysticism. but somehow that description falls short of adequate. Technology should work for us, not against us Th e Case of the Disappearing We are in a digital age. What does this Headroom JOEL LIPTON mean for us? As Camera Operators, it Th is experience reignited the spark from a few Dan Kneece soc means that once we fi nish a take and weeks ago when I attended a screening of the declare it good, it may not stay that timing print for a picture I’d recently operated. way. All the care and skill we use as When the DP called and invited me to the lab screening, I Camera Operators to make the frame the best it can be was very excited. It was the culmination of many, many hours can be undone by the bump of a knob. We owe it to our of work on everyone’s part. And since I tend to become craft and ourselves to make people aware of the possible imbedded in the production during principal photogra- pitfalls of digital manipulation of the frame and how it phy, this was quite a gift for me—or so I thought. aff ects the good work we’ve done. Just before the screening, we found that our fi lm would Th e problem is not ours alone. It began with digital be starting with reel two fi rst as reel one had a problem audio workstations and the new age of audio. Recording and had to be re-struck, so we would see it at the end of engineers were told they were not needed aft er their the picture and out of sequence. Bit of a bummer of initial mixes as their numbers had been recorded and the course, but not the end of the world. mix could be played back without them. I fear the same What I did notice during the projection, as did my DP, may happen to our DPs. Th eir position as author of the was a consistent shorting of headroom on certain reels. image is in jeopardy. Digital image manipulation has the When the fi lm ended, he asked if I framed it that way and ability to undo their original photographic intent and I assured him that I did not. Of course, he already knew change it into something totally and completely diff erent. the answer before he asked the question. We’d all seen the A magical ability to be sure, but in the wrong hands a playback on set and the video dailies. We knew how the travesty. headroom was set on every frame from the moment each take was executed. So what happened? Technology is only as good as the people using it Not the usual suspect Don’t get me wrong. Th e digital intermediate is a Th e culprit was a tool that most DPs dream of, a tool wonderful tool and allows us to do things that could never that has changed the way we do pictures and something be done before. Still, the proper oversight and taste of the that is supposed to be the DP’s best friend: the digital Director of Photography is necessary to ensure the desired intermediate (DI). results. Included in those results is the frame the Camera In the digital age things are infi nitely repeatable and, as Operator worked so diligently to achieve and maintain. It is the nature of digital, infi nitely adjustable. What we is up to us to make others aware that our good work needs must realize though is that this does not mean they are to be protected against accidental modifi cation in the DI infallible. Since there are so many variables, things can get process. bumped and go unnoticed until much later in the game In all likelihood, our wonderful DPs will keep our best where they can cause problems at inopportune times. interest in the forefront, since it is in their own as well. But Such was the case here. Since this was a 2:40 picture in these days of non-linear editing and video dailies, many Fall/Winter 2008 CAMERA OPERATOR: LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT 3 SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS things unintentionally make their way into fi lms. Soft shots are not seen on non-linear systems and fi nd their OFFICERS way onto many a screen. President . Dan Kneece Could the DI become the culprit for butchering our 1st Vice President . Jack Messitt 2nd Vice President . Ernie Reed framing? I think not. At least not with time because 3rd Vice President . .Dan Gold once people become aware of the possibility of the Treasurer . Chris Tufty framing being accidentally altered in the DI suite, Secretary . .Dan Gold surely they will look out for us, won’t they? Maybe, Sergeant-at-Arms . Greg P Collier maybe not. BOG COMMITTEE CHAIRS I know I’m beating a dead horse here. Still, if it isn’t President Emeritus/Corporate Liaison/ said over and over again, someone will pay the price Awards Event Coordinator . David J Frederick and it may very well be one of us. New technology is Events . .David Mahlmann, Warren Yaeger Membership . .Michael Chambliss just that, new. And with it comes a diff erent set of Magazine Editor . Jack Messitt parameters. Just so happens that, this time, these Publicity . Bud Fries, Simon Jayes parameters directly aff ect Camera Operators and we Charity . .Georgia Packard have to cover our backsides or suff er the consequences. Publications . Jack Messitt Merchandise & Promotions . Greg P Collier At the same time we have to believe in our Directors Tech Standards .Ron Vidor, Aldo Antonelli, Erwin Landau of Photography and the fact they will do everything in their power to make the best picture possible. If that BOARD OF GOVERNORS includes improving our framing in the DI then so be it. Gary Baum Douglas Knapp Bonnie Blake Allan Lum Li We serve at their pleasure. Th ey are the reason we exist Jeffrey R Clark Tom McDonnel and we want to please them. Even the best of us could Dan Coplan Jens Piotrowski sometimes use help in the quest for perfection. With David Diano Philip Schwartz the digital intermediate they now have that capability. Ian Dodd George B Stephenson Al Gonzalez David Tolsky Th ey can make us look better than we already do. David Allan Grove Aiken Weiss Tell others about the problem Christopher Ivins Ben Wolf Even so, now you are aware of what I witnessed fi rst STAFF AND CONSULTANTS Offi ce Administrator . Diana Penilla hand—the alteration of the frame through accidental Webmaster . Mark R Leins digital manipulation. With tact and compassion, we Event Cooordinator .