Page 21 - Fujifilm Exposure_21 The Gathering Storm_ok

DPs Andy Martin and Jonathan Partridge report on the new Fuji film stock in action
FLYING HIGH
“I am currently in the pre- production of a feature film
titled Cloud Cuckoo Land.
Directed by Matt Dickinson,
author of several best-selling books and director of award- winning adventure films such
as Summit Fever and
Stratosfear, it tells the story of
how a wheelchair-bound boy suffering with cerebral palsy overcomes his disability to achieve his dream to fly.
In the course of the film the boy, now a young man (Steve Varden), dis- covers great meaning in his life, both in the relationship with his vintage aircraft restorer grandfather (Sir Derek Jacobi) and the girl he meets while on his quest.
We decided, after some encourage- ment from Joe Dunton at JDC, to shoot anamorphic. The story takes place mainly in the Lake District and fea- tures many flying sequences, both dream and reality. To capture the scale of land and sky, we felt the wide format fitted the subject well.
I was attracted to the Reala 500D as I have used the combination of F250 and F500 stocks extensively in the past and have been very happy with the results. With the demands of the subject matter I knew I needed to be able to shoot under low-light exteri- or conditions and still maintain a rea- sonable stop (with Zeiss Super Speed f1.4 Scope lenses around f4).
I felt the fast daylight balanced Reala would enable me to shoot very early mornings and late evenings with a mixture of practical sources. We planned two days testing, and Matt Dickinson, being the opportunist that he is, persuaded me to shoot four
scenes from the film so he could cut them together as a demo to help raise more investment.
As I was primarily testing the Reala, I shot solely on that stock for both day exterior and day and night interior, where I corrected it to Tungsten balance and rated it at 320ASA (with half blue correction for a warm look). I also added one-eighth Black Promist to take the edge off the lens. I am pleased with the results. The blacks are very rich and the colour tones are deep without being over-saturated.
The stock renders different colour temperatures within a frame in a way
faithful to my eye; this is reassuring, as I do like to mix various light sources. On pro- jection at Deluxe, the one- light rushes looked very promising, showing the stock to handle contrast well whilst maintaining a nice close grain structure (I find grainy pic- tures distracting).
Shooting a card playing scene around a table, I lit with primarily one 2K source pointing straight down to bounce into the
middle of the table top, the centre read f5.6 and the reflected light on the card players faces read f2. In the wider shots the table top and the actors faces resolved very well, with the kind of contrast you would see with a naked eye.
In conclusion, I have decided to use the Reala 500D for exteriors where I am shooting low light and, importantly on this film, when I am running at high speeds on many of the flying sequences that require slow motion or the use of very long lenses. I will combine the Reala with F250 for interiors and F250D for the bright day- light exteriors.”ANDY MARTIN
continued over
Photos top inset: Steve Varden and Microlite plane; above from left: Cast and crew of Cloud Cuckoo Land with DP Andy Martin (left of camera) and Director Matt Dickinson (right of camera); Rosalind Blessed and Steve Varden; Chris Bradley (Producer), Steve Varden (Actor/Co-Writer) and Matt Dickinson (Director/Co-Writer)
new reala reactions
REALA 500D AT WORK
REALA 500D AT WORK
EXPOSURE • 19