Oblivion Sony F65 Report (PDF)
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Jon Fauer www.fdtimes.com Special NAB Reprint April 7, 2013 Art, Technique and Technology in Motion Picture Production Worldwide Photo © David James, Universal Pictures Oblivion Shot with SONY F65 Interviews with Oblivion Cinematographer Claudio Miranda, ASC and DIT Alex Carr Photo © Universal Pictures 2 Apr 2013 • Sony F65 Claudio Miranda, ASC on Oblivion Claudio Miranda, ASC with Sony F65, Fujinon Premier 24-180 Zoom, Chapman G3 Head Photo © David James, Universal Pictures JON FAUER, ASC: Oblivion will be the first release of a major We sent a second unit to the top of a volcano in Hawaii for two or motion picture shot with a Sony F65 camera. So far, few of us three weeks and they shot cloud formations from this high vantage have seen its capabilities on a big screen. Tell us about the cam- point. We took all that footage and stitched the 3 cameras together era and lenses. and created this 15K image that would play live. CLAUDIO MIRANDA, ASC: On Oblivion, we used the Sony F65. Behind the actors was a real environment. The actors loved be- For lenses, on exteriors we used Fujinon Premier zooms. They ing in it. Because it was such an expensive thing and every stop are ridiculously sharp. They’re sharper than our primes. A zoom counted, we used the Sony F65, at 800 ASA and I was shooting at sharper than a prime? That’s incredible. Those Premier zooms are T1.3-2.0 split. If I needed more stop, that would have doubled the expensive but worth it. projectors and all of a sudden that would have been 42 projectors, For interiors, when we needed a lot of stop, we used the ARRI/ and that would not have made the producers happy. ZEISS Master Primes at T1.3. The idea of going for 21 projectors to make this work was scary Why did you need fast lenses? enough. But it was something special. We did something kind of unique in Oblivion. We were tired of You’re in that set and you could change the lighting anytime. You blue screens. We knew what blue screens would mean to the pro- just call up a certain scene. You have a sunrise and you could put duction design of the set. There’s a scene in the movie with a build- the sunrise on the left side, right side, anywhere you wanted. You ing that’s up in the clouds. It’s an all-glass structure, very modern could rotate the whole image around. You could move clouds if you and very open, with very shiny surfaces. Usually, if you get a situ- wanted more on one side, or put them on the other side for a reflec- ation like that and you’re doing blue screens, VFX will say, “Okay, tion somewhere else. And I could light with it, too. I could make a let’s take all the glass out.” little hotspot on the top and have light pour in. It was very amazing to be in this glass world without a reflection problem. In fact, that’s what they told us to do, “Take all the glass out and con- sider using more matte surfaces and get away from shiny things.” The basic thing I had to get rid of was the camera’s reflection in the Because, with so much glass things get too shiny. When using blue windows. But that was easy. The scene is really beautiful. There’s a screen the set just disappears and then they end up having to digi- shot where Tom Cruise is coming from inside and he goes straight tally reconstruct the set in post, which gets expensive. outside and you totally believe he’s there. We wanted to try something kind of different. Joe Kosinski (Direc- Hang on a second. You were lighting the scene with the front- tor) and I were playing around with this idea on Tron. “For Oblivi- projected images? Lighting by projection. That’s unique. on, we had a 500 foot wide by 42 foot tall screen with 21 projectors. I think the projection was doing 95 percent of the work. This gave us real-time 15K motion picture front projection.” Sony F65 • Apr 2013 3 Photo © Universal Pictures How did you stitch projection together so it looked seamless? What influenced your choice of F65 camera for Oblivion? PRG handled it. They have servers and seaming software. I think at Originally Joe was wishing for a 4K release of Oblivion but that one point they had 10 projectionists and it was a three week install. didn’t happen. A lot has to do with finances and time crunch. VFX It was a big deal. We planned this for months in advance and I was said that if you need to release in 4K, it’s another month and a half drawing and sketching it out. But it was so worth it in the end. of time they would need for rendering and pipeline and checking It was also great in editorial. You’re not looking at blue screen and all that kind of stuff. It was also a huge additional cost as well shots. You’re looking at in-camera shots. I remember Tom Cruise and the studio didn’t want to go for that, even though Joe was really saying that he loved being in this environment. pushing for that. What was the front projection surface? Their Oblivion website says shot in 4K. We had a seamless, painted white muslin, a single piece that was Shot in 4K. The DI was done in 2K and it is released in 2K. Yes, we 500 feet by 42, wrapped around 270 degrees. shot in 4K. It’s all captured in Sony’s 4K RAW format. We have the full RAW so I guess with their new de-mosaicing you can now go Where did you shoot this? 8K if you want. It’s all a matter of how you de-mosaic the image, This was done in New Orleans. And then we also did some shoot- but our original intent was 4K. ing in Iceland as well. The front projection was done in Baton A lot of the VFX work was in 4K for some of the shots, for stabi- Rouge at Celtic Studios. Everything had to be rigged from the floor lization, for mattes or plates and sometimes they did work in 4K, because the ceiling wouldn’t hold the weight. but the final render was for speed, I must say the 2K image is very The projectors and all the equipment came from PRG? sharp. It’s nothing to be sneezed at. PRG. Brian Edwards. They were good. PRG did the whole projec- The choice of the camera was originally for 4K. Were there any tion thing. They provided all the projectors and were in charge of other factors in terms of the way it worked or looked? all the media servers. The background was real-time. What’s unique Joe and I liked the way it looked. I think it suited this movie. Some about this job is that it’s totally in camera, which is very unusual. of it is kind of clinical and Joe liked the Sony look on Tron. So he How did you sync these projectors to the camera? said, “Keep it going, let’s be on the cutting edge.” I shot camera tests. For Oblivion, the look of this movie was F65. We didn’t need to. We just picked a frame rate that worked for the projectors and it was amazing. It seemed that cameras with physi- Describing a look from cameras and lenses can be almost like cal shutters, and I’m not sure why, seemed to work completely, like describing a wine. What is the particular look of a Sony F65? the F65. Cameras with an electronic shutter didn’t work and I re- It’s a little cleaner. It’s very resolute and it has a huge color gamut. ally don’t know why. All these new cameras need to be properly treated. There are cer- We had the Sony F65 mechanical shutter set to 180 degrees. We tain advantages of Alexa on some shows and of F65 on others. I feel never saw any issues. That kind of leaned me toward loving the fact like I really have no allegiance toward any one camera. I just feel that the F65 has a mechanical shutter. like a camera is used for the job. 4 Apr 2013 • Sony F65 pretty great engineering. I guess maybe it’s so sharp because these guys are so used to hitting a 2/3-inch sensor, that when they have to hit a 35mm size sensor, that must be easy for them. I’d be very interested in seeing more lenses from them. I don’t know if they’ll make primes but their zooms are outstanding. With the ZEISS Master Primes, I love the 150 mm. That’s a freak- ing awesome lens. I’ve used them for a bunch of movies and I re- ally love them. They’re not quite as sharp but sometimes I’m doing faces and stuff like that and it doesn’t need to be so crazy sharp. If I find any little sharpness problems, I’ll put the Fujinons on. The Fujinon Premiers are probably comparable to the Leica Summilux- C primes I would say. Photo © Universal Pictures Anyway, we had the four Fujinon Premier zoom lenses (14.5-45 T2, 18-85 T2, 24-180 T2.6, 75-400 mm T2.8-3.8) and we had all But not many people feel that way.