Page 19 - Fujifilm Exposure_13 Shiner_ok

’S NEW SUPER F-400
“Perhaps it was a bit crazy for me to start using it without more tests,” comments Alazraki, “but I was very happy with it, it was exactly what I wanted and it produced a very different image in those scenes.”
product news
W elcome to the new F-400 camera nega- tive film which now joins the family of Super-F series stocks which, as reported already in Exposure, underwent a significant upgrade last year.
The new F-400 type 8582/8682 Tungsten Balanced has been specifically developed to give a softer, gentler, more pastel look than Fuji’s other products. The grain is finer than the existing F-500 speed; there is more detail in highlight and shadow areas and softer skin tones. The latitude of F-400 is very good for contrasty lighting situations and as with all the other stocks in the New Super-F series offers outstanding colour reproduction and telecine transfer characteristics.
Never let it be said that French cinematograph- er Robert Alazraki is not a man to work on instinct. Just a week before principal photography was due to start on Born Romantic - the latest London tale from This Year’s Love director David Kane - he got his hands on some of the new stock.
Testing a roll of it, he decided there and then that it would be perfect for the scenes set within a Salsa dancing club in the film, the comparative oasis of calm in the turbulent lives of the characters whose stories Kane tells.
“Perhaps it was a bit crazy for me to start using it without more tests,” comments Alazraki, “but I was very happy with it, it was exactly what I wanted and it produced a very different image in those scenes.
“All the characters meet here at this Salsa club in London, it’s the centre point where they all gather and fall in and out of love. For that reason I wanted an image that was very different from what I was
doing outside, which had much harder images of the city - of London at night and the East End.
“Every time we were in this paradise of a club, I wanted it to look different. The F-400 was ideal for these very soft, low contrast scenes. I still have to grade the film, but I’m very happy with what I’ve seen so far.”
Alazraki’s previous credits include Chocolat, My Mother’s Castle and My Father’s Glory, as well as a previous collaboration with David Kane on This Year’s Love. Born Romantic is also written and directed by Kane, and is produced by Michele Camarda through Kismet Films.
It features a hot British cast that includes Craig Ferguson, Ian Hart, Adrian Lester, Jane Horrocks, Olivia Williams and Catherine McCormack. Set in the heightened atmosphere of this dance club, the film follows the adventures of three men as they seek something more significant than just a dance partner.
With a productive partnership of his own developing with David Kane, Alazraki clearly enjoys the international nature of his career, and the chal- lenges posed by exciting new developments in the technologies he relies on in his work.
“I do enjoy it,” he adds, “because it forces me to think, and it helps me come up with new ideas. I’ll surely use some of this F-400 stock somewhere on my next film - and I’m looking out for a script that is suitable for a whole feature to be shot on it. But either way, I will definitely use it again.” ■
Born Romantic was partly originated on Fujicolor Motion Picture Negative
FUJIFILM NEW SUPER F-400 TYPE 8682 AND 8582