Page 23 - Fujifilm Exposure_23 Wildlife_ok

THIS SPORTING LIFE
THIS SPORTING LIFE
DP Mark Carey reports on how he managed to frame a series of famous back page stars
extremely bad with low visibility and driving rain, but fortunately things had cleared a little by the time we turned over on the first shot.
A tungsten 20K on a moviestar crane was used to backlight the por- trait and even provide a little fill for the buildings at the bottom of the hill on the reverse, with an Aurasoft pro- viding a soft fill for Dwain.
For triple jumper Jonathan Edwards, we moved to the impressive gothic church of St Cuthbert’s in Earls Court. Here we discovered stain glass windows that could swallow about five stops of light. Moving the lights inside the build- ing helped on this front but left the problem of where to hide them when shooting Super 35 on a 10mm lens.
A move to a 14mm, gobos, flags and lots of position tweaking eventual- ly brought a solution. F500D was used although my preference was for the F250D, having a DP’s reticence about higher speed stocks. I consoled myself with the knowledge that we had achieved a strong look for the sce- nario with bright beams highlighted by a tiny bit of cracked oil mist back- lighting the rows of pews.
The lighting truck was virtually emptied on this one as our location seemed to absorb light. 4k Xenons were used to create beams across the interior, 2.5k MSRs providing most of the remaining light.
From large location to tiny. Long distance runner Paula Radcliffe was
fill provided by a diffused HMI sungun. filmed in a flotation tank. Unfortunately ”
Our task was an enviable one; to shoot a series of individual- ly styled portraits of the UK’s leading sporting personalities. I’ve worked with the director
Julian Dyson many times before, but this was to be a first for us as we had decided to shoot all six portraits on
“Fuji stock. The intention was that each portrait would have a different look and it was felt that the extensive range of Fuji stocks would help achieve this.
ing out the walls and ceiling. The floor area was covered in a deep layer of rock salt, which looked good (though not so nice on clothes and kit).
Our first problem was the inability of our underwater weighted Kinoflos to stay at the bottom of the tank (very buoyant this saltwater stuff, hence the name I guess). Using the weights off two lamps on one solved this.
Otherwise the lighting rig was quite small; one 200w pocket par from ceiling to pick out the pod, another 200w pocket par bounced into lid inte- rior of pod to provide overall fill and a Kinoflo ring light for an eye light. This time F250T stock was used.
Our penultimate scenario was with triple jumper Ashia Hansen meditating in a minimalist white warehouse apart- ment interior. Shot on F250D, lighting came from a mixture of daylight and practicals with soft fill from a kinoflo flathead and a diva-lite.
The final scenario was a country pub fireside scene with jockey Tony McCoy.
By the time you read this we will have completed the shoot and have used most, if not all, the Fuji colour negative stocks in a wide variety of environments. The first one-
light rushes are back. The
results are looking great. We’re
very pleased, and looking for-
ward to an enjoyable telecine. ■
The BBC Sports Personality Of The Year promo was originated on Fujicolor Motion Picture Negative
As Julian said, it “seemed the ideal opportunity to test a wide range of Fuji stocks in very diverse conditions.” For myself coming from a stills back- ground it seemed like familiar ground, but having only shot on the new Fuji motion picture stocks once before, I was still a little wary.
The shoot was for BBC TV’s Sports Personality of the Year promo. The brief dictated that each of the portraits would show a contender for the award relaxing in some way not linked to their sport with the working tag line being “It’s been a great year of sport and they deserve a break - but there’s one last event for them to get through!”
We met with telecine colourist Mark Baugh from Blue and discussed the look and feel for each scenario. Our one main restriction was the avail- ability of the featured personalities.
Golfer Colin Montgomery walking in
the countryside with his dog made for
an easy start on the F64D stock. This
was mainly available light with a soft
Next was sprinter Dwain Chambers looking over London by night from the observatory in Greenwich Park. Conditions were
the futuristic pod-like tank was located in a very small white room.
Production designer Rachel Beaumont did an excellent job of black-
Photos clockwise from top left: Sprinter Dwain Chambers looking over London from the observatory in Greenwich Park;
DP Mark Carey and crew at work; Long distance runner Paula Radcliffe filmed in a floatation tank; Focus puller Ross McLennan,
Director Julian Dyson and DP Mark Carey discussing the next shot; Triple jumper Jonathan Edwards inside St Cuthbert’s church in Earls Court; The final checks for the meditating Ashia Hansen sequence; The triple jumper Ashia Hansen; Setting-up inside St Cuthbert’s church