Page 32 - Fujifilm Exposure_15 Melinda Messenger_ok

IN PRAISE OF THE NEW F-400 STOCK
“I’ve used the F-400 stock
on a number of productions,
such as the Sky active titles for
Sky News. The post-production
guys at Sky loved it because
it keyed so quickly and
so cleanly. I’ve used it on
commercials for McDonalds
in France, Sharps Bedrooms
and for Persil...”
DP GEOFF BOYLE
W ith the increasing demands placed
upon the cinematog- rapher to innovate but at the same time light and shoot quickly, any new
addition to the toolbox is of interest. But few to date have proved so effective as the new Fuji F-400 Tungsten Balanced stock.
The drawback of fast stocks in the past has been a graininess in the shadows, less convincing skin tones and a glaring contrast between light and dark areas.
But the F-400 has exceeded the expectations of those who have used it in a variety of different situations. For DP Geoff Boyle, shooting a Persil commercial in Egypt gave him an unexpected practical demonstration of the stock’s qualities.
“I did this crane shot to reveal a party in the foreground at sunset, back lit, complete with dancing horses, while at the same time trying to hold all the detail in the shadows,” he recalls.
“Quite by accident some 250D stock was loaded, so we saw the same scene shot with both. And we couldn’t pull out the highlights or the shadows from the 250, which proved a staggering demonstration of what the F-400 could do.
“I’ve used the F-400 stock on a number of productions, such as the Sky active titles for Sky News. The post production guys at Sky loved it because it keyed so quickly and so cleanly. I’ve used it on commercials for McDonalds in France, Sharps Bedrooms and for Persil – that was the Egyptian location.
“There was another opportunity to compare them on another occasion, in a sequence where we built a house set after finding the view we wanted out of the windows. We built it in the
middle of a field to get that view,
then tented it over so I could light it as a studio set.
“I was shooting that on 250D, and I wanted the windows to burn out slightly as if it was a real location, which it was. The scene that was also shot on 400, and we actually held all the detail in the highlight which I was actually trying to lose. But of course with the 400 I could have pulled it out later and lost it in post production. But that’s the point, it leaves you that choice to do it later.”
Cinematographer Martin Testar, whose experience like Geoff Boyle’s is primarily on commercials, is also an advocate of the stock. In particular he has found it useful in situations where the pressure was on to work fast.
“I did a BBC Music 24 Hours Live commercial,” he explains, “which I shot for Theo Delaney. That was a one minute commercial, and it involved quite a few set ups but we had just a day to shoot it. The flexibility to light from outside, using practicals and minimal additional light inside meant that the sets stayed quite cool, which is always helpful for the actors.
“And what you must also remem- ber is that every time you want to increase the light level by a stop you have to double your lighting, so using 400 ASA stock, which is so grain free, is a great advantage. Plus with the F-400 you tend not to get a build up in grain, something that would normally pinpoint the fact that you’ve shot with high speed stock.”
Testar, a one-time focus puller on features for the likes of Billy Williams, the late John Coquillon, Ernie Vincze and Mick Coulter, then operated for 10 years, mainly on commercials, including a fruitful collaboration with award-winning Jonathan Glazer.
A lighting cameraman for the past three years, Testar’s work includes ads
for The Observer – “They were for a series on Stephen King and involved night exteriors and moody interiors. Again I was incredibly impressed by the lack of grain.”
Matching daylight negative with a specialist stock like F-400 is therefore more seamless than ever before.
An additional benefit is the flexibility that F-400 has in post production, something that will be of interest to directors who have only a vague idea of what they’re after, as well as producers keen to keep costs to a minimum (is there any other kind?).
“Most of my work, in fact almost all of it, is digitally post produced,” adds Geoff Boyle. “The majority of stocks on the market are optimised for conventional post production. In other words they’re designed to be printed and then projected, the whole telecine process or digital scanning process is a side issue as far as those stocks are concerned.
“But a lower contrast stock like F-400 is able to give me more flexibility in post production than any of the other stocks available from any other manufacturer.
“People want you to shoot faster and faster and spend less time dealing with troublesome highlights or odd shadows. With a low contrast stock or an extended latitude stock, that information actually gets on to the neg. You can then manipulate it in post, in the grading process.
“You can pull the highlights back and pull the detail out of the shadows in post when it’s just you, the director and a colourist sitting in a suite, and not a crew costing thousands of pounds an hour standing around while you fiddle.
“Anything,” says Boyle, “that speeds up the shooting process when you’ve got a large crew is enormously helpful.” ■ ANWAR BRETT
Photos from top: Geoff Boyle’s MacDonalds France and Martin Testar’s UK Living commercials
EXPOSURE • 30
commercials