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ETERNA - THE SHADOW RETURNS
Everything you wanted to know about Fuji’s new film stock
M arcus Dillistone’s Royal Premiered
film The Troop (photographed on Fujifilm by Alex Thomson BSC), led to Fuji
commissioning Glory Film Company to make its first demon- stration film in 1998. Glory has since made various demos for worldwide presentation, includ- ing Lights2 in January 2005 for ETERNA 500, and now its sequel Lights2: Return of The Shadow for ETERNA 400, 250 and 250D.
“Film is not a static technology, and making these demos helps Glory maintain its position at the technological cutting-edge.” says director, Marcus Dillistone.
Lights2: Return of The Shadow
is the most complex demo yet attempted, it had to incorporate three new stocks, and - in part -
new techniques such as ‘DI’. Dillistone’s primary concern was,
as ever, to carry out a pragmatic test:
“I try to make tests which work on many levels, considering not just the technical requirements, but fol- lowing a narrative and working to fea- ture film schedules.”
The film converges two previous demo storylines: Lights2 where the ‘mysterious nocturnal phenomenon’ ‘TheShadow’isextinguishinglight sources, and ‘The Glow’ (Reala 500D), where eccentric bulb-collecting mil- lionaire Mr. Swann seeks the rarest lamp – an Edison laboratory original.
“I decided to pit the light-hating Shadow against the light-loving Mr. Swann, who’s determined to open an exhibition – ‘Homage to Light’. It’s
all gently ridiculous, a kind of Women’s Institute version of Alien Versus Predator!”.
The story belies Dillistone’s care in incorporating the things DPs want to see. It doesn’t negate a DP’s own tests, but does offer a thorough introduction to the stocks.
“Fast cutting and dynamic cam- era moves don’t really suit a demo, oneneedsto adoptamorefluid shooting style.”
Dillistone has employed many lead- ing cinematographers, this film was no exception with Tony Pierce-Roberts BSC (Doom), and Ian Wilson BSC (Below) contributing excellent results.
Fujifilm’s Bob Quinn provided invaluable technical input, liaising
with other territories to ensure a con- sensus of content.
“Credit is due to Bob, and to Fuji for providing film stocks which deliv- ered precisely ‘what it says on the can’! It had to be so because we start- ed shooting as soon as the stock became available.”
The story incorporates a diverse range of skin tones, whilst depicting underandoverexposure,neutral,soft and saturated colour palettes, high and low contrast, slow motion, green screen composites and rotoscoping. 16mm to 35mm digital blow-ups are included, rationalised as a camera- man’s viewfinder POV complete with ground-glass effect, all completed by LipSync Post.
Returning cast members include, Oreke Mosheshe (The Shadow), John Quentin (Mr Swann), and Olivia Dillistone, 7, who charms as the ‘Street Urchin’. Michael Instone joins as the ‘Handsome Journalist’ with Paul Lavers as the ‘Cheesy Newsreader’, although he accept- ed the role as a ‘handsome news- reader’! The demo is in two parts: The first (ETERNA 400) incorpo- rates a Digital Intermediate (DI) segment, including a newsreader against a composited image which reverts to green screen in-vision, and a ‘manic dentist’ (Frank Bonacorso), back performing com- plex dental work by candlelight!
The ETERNA range incorpo- rates ‘nanotechnology’ delivering granularity 2/3rds the size of cur- rent film technology! ETERNA 400 is particularly suited to digital work, delivering lower contrast, lower saturation images.
The second half of the demo (ETERNA 250 and 250D) also has digi- tal elements, plus Interiors shot on daylight and tungsten variants show- ing intercuttability.
The film was shot at Shepperton on Panavision’s Millennium XL camera with an Arri 435 for slow-motion and pickups. Grips came from Chapman (courtesy of Dennis Fraser). A MK-V AlienRevolutionsystemwas employed to enable an otherwise impossible Steadicam shot - from inside to outside a vehicle.
With The Shadow extinguishing light sources, there are dramatic light- ing changes (in-vision), and lightning effects testing dynamic range. Lee Lighting’s Pat McEnally ensured that
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Photo: Oreke Mosheshe as The Shadow (photo Millie Morrow)
Fujifilm Motion Picture • The Magazine • Exposure • 15