OKLAHOMA
BOMBING REVISITED - SHOOTING SUPER 16 MOW IN CALGARY
by RICHARD STRINGER, CSC |
In October,
I got to DOP a MOW for U.S. cable oulet, Lifetime
Television in Calgary. The city was chosen to mimic
Oklahoma City and set the stage for the true life
story about a woman who survived the bombing in
199?. The location seemed right but the time frame
was a hassle - how to shoot an April story with
fall leaves and snowflurries blowing about! Lots
of low angles and interiors!
The show's director John Korty (Miss Joan Pittman?)
wanted a DOP / operator with hand held documentary
and drama experience - Hey, for once my "Master
of all trades, Jack of none" experience came
in handy. He also favored the Aaton camera and required
Super 16 so my equipment package also fitted the
picture.
It was great to get back on a decent drama shoot
again - all those crew members, semi trailers of
gear, and my own director's chair! We shot the whole
show on Kodak's 7279 500 ASA tungsten stock. I helped
Kodak shoot tests on the new Vision line in early
1996 and discovered a great improvement in grain
and sharpness. But to see the dailies come in was
really revealing - so much latitude and flexibility.
I'm don't see how anyone can say video has a visual
edge on film. As far a grain content, I guess if
you cut 7279 together with 7245's 50 ASA, you might
notice a difference, but when I looked at the 79
dailies, grain was not an issue.
This is the set constructed for the Oklahoma City
shoot - a small portion of the bombed rubble made
up of foam concrete and miscellaneous construction
materials. The actress, Kathy Baker (Picket Fences)
was lifted up beneath the set on a scissors lift
to give the impression she was pinned under a concrete
pillar.
We were shooting Super 16 to future proof for HDTV,
so I had to be versatile with my framing. We kept
all significant action in safe 3:4 TV but kept the
full Super 16 frame clear of mikes, flags, etc.
When shooting Super 16, there are a lot of framing
considerations which effect your choice of ground
glass. If you're shooting for 35mm blow up, you're
never going to get the full 1.66 Super 16 frame
shown at most theatres. All theatrical releases
in North America operate in standard 1.85, so you
should frame accordingly - also optical blow-up
operators tend to build in some cutoff to avoid
edges showing, so be sure to test and monitor frame
size to keep cutoff to a minimum. And if you're
shooting Super 16 for HDTV, the format used will
be 16:9 or 1.78, which cuts top and bottom from
Super 16's 1.66. And there will be additional TV
cutoff, similar to the TV safe frame we have now
with 3:4. I was lucky with a Yukon tourism shoot
- the production is dedicated to one theater location,
so I will supply a frame chart to set up the video
projector and be guaranteed the maximum Super 16
frame size. |
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