Hurl Rigs

Hurl Rigs

A friend of mine, NYC based cinematographer Jon Miller, attended the ICG party at Sundance this year and was kind enough to bring back some images and info. Most of note, Shane Hurlbut, ASC was there showing some of his HDSLR solutions and sharing information with colleagues. I hope Mr. Hurlbut doesn't mind if I relay some of it here. If not, I'll be happy to remove this post immediately.

Here's the Hurl Hardware:

Funky Blue Handles, Z-Finder, Baseplate with 15mm Rods, Remote Focus

Custom Machined Aluminum Cage that looks you can mount just about anything to.

Cage with Handheld Rig, On-board Monitor, FIZ, and V-Mount Battery in the back

Other Hurl advice and tricks:

Use Twixtor for 30p to 24p conversions. I haven't tried this but I've heard from several users this is an excellent, though time intensive solution.  

Use Cineform Neoscene to open up the Canon codec and turn it into a quality video file. There's some very interesting information about this posted here on the Cineform Insider blog.

Another trick he uses to emulate the quality of a film stock is to shoot some 35mm film of an evenly lit gray card that fills the frame. This picks up the grain characteristics and the gray is easily removed in After Effects. This is then composited on the SLR footage which helps to take the curse off the digital. This is actually a fairly old trick and I remember doing this in college though I shot 16 against a white wall and it didn't work nearly as well. The things we do for that film look! I wonder if once digital has really nailed it if people won't suddenly be nostalgic for that crappy old video look.. Makes you wonder. 

In the spirit of sharing information I think this is really fantastic stuff. Mr. Hurlbut seems like a very generous guy and has already contributed a lot to the HDSLR filmmaking community. Looking forward to seeing more of his solutions and inventions. 

UPDATE:

Stuart Allman of Illuma Blog sent me this great post that has more information on the rigs and Shane Hurlbut's advice on using them. Thanks Stuart! 

Fish Tank

Fish Tank

I saw the exquisitely crafted film, Fish Tank, at IFC yesterday and thought I'd share a few thoughts. This British feature was written and directed by Andrea Arnold and lensed by Robbie Ryan, BSC. The female lead is Katy Jarvis, a non-actor who the director spotted shouting at her boyfriend on a subway platform east of London. Unhappy with who the casting agency was offering for the lead, she followed the teenage girl home and asked her if she wanted to be in a movie. After some persistence she agreed to take the role and the performance Arnold was able to get out of her is nothing short of stunning. This film is very much in the style of Ken Loach and Lynne Ramsay in the naturalism of the images, performances, and the unfolding of the narrative. This is independent filmmaking done right and for every incredible film like this there are 1000 that are made and never find their audience. After working camera department in the indie film trenches for several years here in New York, that's just the sad reality of it. This film is the exception and is a fascinating look at the English underclass from the perspective of a 15 year old girl lashing out against her troubled Council Estate existence and dead beat mother. The direction and storytelling are expert but this isn't a blog about the all the wonderful artistic merits of cinema so much as it is about images and the technology used to produce them. 

From my perspective, what's most interesting and unusual about this film was the decision to frame and release in the old school 1.33:1 aspect ratio. Very few feature films have done this in recent history and seeing it in the cinema like this is a very different experience; a bit like watching a giant old TV screen. For Fish Tank, that's 100% from the perspective of the young girl and her inescapable, claustrophobic existence; this aspect ratio was a masterful aesthetic decision. It has such an intimate quality as if all that exists in the world is the tiny bit of frame around her Close Up. 2 shots also have a heightened intensity because of the tighter frame and the scenes with her and her mother's boyfriend are elevated because of it. I love this approach. A director I worked with a few years ago who is a vehement Tarkovsky enthusiast suggested working in 4:3 but we were shooting HD and at the time it seemed like a bad idea to me. These days I don't think I would be as opposed. Fish Tank however was shot on film and with the resolution celluloid affords, I don't think the quality is as compromised for 4:3. I'm assuming this film was shot on 16mm because of the gain structure, depth of field quality, and how nimble the camera operation was. However, it could have been shot on 4 perf Super 35 and the grainy look derived in the DI. I saw in the credits the cameras were Panavision and the stock was Fuji. It looked incredible so if anyone reading this knows more about the process, I'd love to learn more. Hopefully American Cinematographer will take notice and do an article. 

UPDATE:

I've just heard that it originated on 35. Fuji stocks used: Eterna Vivid 160, Eterna 400, Reala 500D. Apparently a lot of work was done in the DI to make the look as "photochemical" as possible.   

If think if I were to shoot something 4:3 digitally,  I would go with the Arri D-21 because the sensor is a 2k x 2k square. It's designed to be matted down to 1920x1080 or to be used with Anamorphic lenses but I'd just keep the picture right off the sensor. The D-21 is also very beautiful in low light and available light. Cinematographer Rain Li made some gorgeous images with this camera in another indie feature, Uncertainty. This film was shot in NYC and she did a fantastic job of capturing its energy and vibrancy especially the Chinatown sequences. Shooting in Chinatown is an art form unto itself! There is some absolutely stunning low light photography in this film and I highly recommend anyone who is afraid of underexposure to watch it. 

Excellent Cinematography Reference

Excellent Cinematography Reference

http://www.amazon.com/Cinematography-Making-Cinematographers-Directors-Videographers/dp/0240805003/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247633475&sr=8-1

Can't recommend this book enough. If you have questions and are seeking answers, they are to be found in this dense stack of pages, every single one contains useful information. Clear, concise, no bullshit or self congratulation. Enjoy.

http://www.blainbrown.com/