Hi-Def 24P Filmmaking

[mynameisnobody]

Shot on 24P HD (Sony HDWF900).......have fun.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/onceuponatimeinmexico/

[mynameisnobody]

Digital Desperado
By Brian McKernan

"Digital HD isn’t the future of filmmaking," explains director Robert Rodriguez, "it’s the now. It has quietly arrived and it’s here to stay. I don’t think everyone realizes this yet. But as soon as you bring an HD camera to your set, it’s over; you’ll never go back to film. HD offers up so many new possibilities; you can create a new movie language with it. Now we won’t just be living off the inheritance of tricks learned from decades of past filmmakers. Digital HD enables us to come up with something new."

Like the action heroes in his films, Rodriguez is a rebel. The Texas-born filmmaker burst onto the movie scene in 1992 at the age of 24 with El Mariachi, a $7,000 feature for which he was the entire crew. He financed the movie by working as what he calls a "human lab rat" for a drug company during his summer vacation from the University of Texas at Austin.

"The drug they were testing was a speed-healing drug," he writes in his 1995 book, Rebel Without a Crew (Plume/Penguin, ISBN 0-452-27187-8). "In order to test it they had to wound you. Now I’ve got two tiny football-shaped scars to remind me of how I used to finance my films."

Columbia Pictures bought El Mariachi, funded its blow-up to 35mm, and signed him to direct a sequel, Desperado, for $3.1 million. Rodriguez then went on to score continued triumphs with such fast-action films as From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), The Faculty (1998), and his family-friendly blockbuster Spy Kids (2000).

Rodriguez not only writes and directs his movies, he also prefers to serve as production designer, director of photography, and editor. "I try to do all the key jobs because it’s actually easier that way," he explains. "You don’t have to have a meeting with somebody every time you get an idea, which is all the time." Knowing of his hands-on interest in production technology, George Lucas showed him early digital HD footage of Star Wars Episode II during a January 2000 Spy Kids sound-mixing session at Skywalker Ranch. This prompted Rodriguez to do a side-by-side test of 35mm film and Sony’s HDW-F900 HDCAM CineAlta 24P camera system.

"When I screened the film-out I was shocked to see how bad film looked compared to HD-originated film," Rodriguez recalls. "The studio [Miramax] couldn’t understand why anyone would shoot film after seeing those tests. So they gave me their blessing to try it. I was so convinced after I did that test I went out and bought two F900s for myself."

Rodriguez then embarked on shooting his two most recent films, Once Upon A Time in Mexico (the third in his El Mariachi series, which will be released later this year) and Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams, which arrived in U.S. theatres on August 7th. Digital Cinema editor Brian McKernan and contributing editor Bob Zahn recently caught up with Rodriguez and provide this interview.

DC: Why shoot in digital HD?

Rodriguez: I was always disappointed by the limitations of film. I don’t find it to be creatively conducive. It’s really limiting in how fast you can move. With HD, when I’m lighting I’m looking at the monitor, I’m looking at the set, knowing how it’s going to translate. I check the monitor, and we just move, we don’t stay there forever wondering, so it’s very fast.

DC: Can you elaborate on limitations of film?

Rodriguez: There’s a lot of technical hang-ups to film. I DP my own pictures, pick the lenses, operate all the cameras and Steadicams, and pick all the angles. Usually I had someone just keeping track of the exposures because film was so unpredictable. I didn’t want to have to be messing around with all the f-stops and wondering, "Oh gosh, how’s this film gonna behave with this lighting? Is it going to cook something or underexpose something too much? It was always so unpredictable.

HD is very freeing and is more like going back to the basics of filmmaking, where it’s fun again. It’s just so much easier to shoot in HD. Since I’m my own DP I’m able to see exactly what I’m getting on the monitor, and I’m able to be much edgier with the lighting. When I was shooting Johnny Depp in Mexico I would sometimes just use the bounce card and a little piece of tinfoil bounced into his eye and I knew at what level to do it because I’m watching it on the monitor, and then we moved on and kept going.

There’s no guesswork or waiting for dailies. We moved a lot faster and it was a lot more satisfying. I also edit my movies, and it felt like HD is like the difference between cutting on film and cutting on an Avid; it was that big a change in the creative process.

DC: What other things did you like about digital HD?

Rodriguez: The F900s were so much lighter on the Steadicam, which is good on my back. And since you could take the tape, play it back, and see what you were getting you knew when you nailed it; then you could move on. The freedom that HD gives you saves so much time, money, and headaches. For that reason alone, you should just ditch film.

I also do a lot of my own production design, so while I’m designing the set I’m already thinking about how I’m going to light it. But when I get the film back I’m always disappointed because it never looks like it did when we were shooting on the set. HD turned that around. HD was the first time I saw that what I was getting was what I had seen on the set. With film it’s always downhill from the moment you walk on the set until you finally see your movie released.

Everything we do now ends up as work on the screen. Every color we paint isn’t all turning gray like it does with film, the color isn’t sucked out of it, we don’t have this extreme amount of contrast that film does now these days because of the way they process it.

DC: How did shooting digital HD influence your work with actors?

Rodriguez: Since I didn’t have to cut, my takes would go longer. That really helps when you’re in the flow with an actor, to just keep doing the take over and over till you get it right. You don’t want to cut.

I found that in shooting children for Spy Kids I had to let the camera run a lot so I could get the best takes. And the time spent running out of film right when they were getting warmed up was just brutal. I think any filmmaker who compares film and digital on-set will suddenly look at their film camera like it’s a lead brick or an old vinyl LP record, and realize, "There’s recordable CD now; what am I doing with this vinyl record that requires me to change sides?"

DC: Did digital HD save you time and/or money?

Rodriguez: It saved a lot of time, which always saves money. I shot Once Upon A Time In Mexico before Spy Kids 2 to learn what the strengths and limitations of digital HD were. I never could have made Mexico on film. It would have been too much work -- too much trouble -- to get that kind of movie onto film. The only reason I did it was because of the possibilities of digital HD; we shot it in the same amount of time that we shot Desperado, seven weeks. But Mexico is a much bigger movie. We saved so much time each day because we knew what we were getting. That alone, to see what you’re doing, just lets you move faster. That’s just how it goes.

But cheaper isn’t why I use HD. I’d use it even if it was more expensive. Do you think everyone who’s cutting on an Avid is doing that because it’s cheaper than cutting on film? No, it’s ten times more expensive. But the process is 100 times better. Of course you’re going to eat the cost because it’s a better process. With HD you’re actually saving money, and it’s a better process.

DC: Tell us more about that process.

Rodriguez: HD has changed the creative process. People will be surprised how enormously entertaining these movies are, and it’s because of that changed filmmaking process. You can actually make a much better movie by shooting on HD than you can on film just because of the process, and people don’t realize that yet.

Most actors don’t like to see themselves after a take, but I would drag them over to the HD monitors so they could see. It’s exciting, like being at a premiere while you’re there on the set. A lot of times with actors you’re pushing them in a certain direction; they always have doubts: "Are you sure that was good?" Now I can drag them over to the monitor and say, "Here, look for yourself." And they were always impressed. I think everyone found it helpful.

Everyone watching there on the set could see what they were doing and they would improve upon it. That never happens on film. And everyone was surprised by how good the image was on the HD monitors. You can make each moment count much more

[mynameisnobody]

with HD. It really helped with the kids to be able to show them exactly what they had done, and to tell them what to do next.

Film is like painting on a canvas in the dark; you don’t get to see what you did until the next day when the dailies arrive. It’s as if the lights turn on the next day. You go home each day after shooting film thinking "I wonder if I was even hitting the mark? I wonder if I was even on the canvas?" You have no clue, and it’s a ridiculous way to work. So for that reason alone there’s no point in shooting film. Unless you like to guess. With HD you finally can see what you’re doing, and you can do much better work. The HD process alone is the reward.

DC: Do you consider yourself an artist?

Rodriguez: I’m a filmmaker; I don’t really like just to direct in and of itself. That’s what I love about HD; it makes it possible to do all the jobs yourself if you want, because it’s that easy to be creative. It may sound kind of crazy but it really frees you to be a shoot-from-the-hip filmmaker telling the stories you want very easily and quickly. Again, it’s just like the Avid. You don’t need to have several people there to take your film and hang it in bins and then go find it. It’s all there automatically so you can just sit there and cut your whole movie if you want.

Actually, for me the most fun is editing. But to edit something really cool you’ve got to be the guy writing it, getting the right shots, making sure it looks nice, and getting the performances. You’ve got to kind of do everything to get to that point where you can then be the editor who gets to put it all together and see the end results.

DC: Visual effects were an important part of Spy Kids; did digital HD help in that regard when you shot the sequel?

Rodriguez: Any time you do an optical in film you lose another generation. It’s much easier to pull a matte digitally than with film. With HD it pulls as quick as it would from regular video. It’s instant. When we filmed the first Spy Kids we wanted to get the cleanest images for pulling mattes, so we shot slower film stock, which meant a lot more lights on the green screen, which is a lot more money. And I still wasn’t satisfied with how it looked. I’d visit the effects guys and they were having so much trouble pulling mattes, taking the grain away, pulling the matte, putting the grain back in. I mean it was just ridiculous. Film is so archaic, it’s just not worth it anymore. We did a lot of green screen on Spy Kids 2 and it was so much easier this time.

DC: Explosions, stunts, and slow-motion effects are key to your movies; how did you overcrank 24p?

Rodriguez: I actually got the slow-motion idea from E-Film. They had done a test for me and it worked really well, to use the 60i. Now my effects company, Troublemaker Digital Studios, does the slow-motion conversion. They make it 30 frames per second or 60 frames per second, which looks really rich and good. Now when I want it slow motion, I shoot at 60i.

Originally I wasn’t sure if the slow-motion tests would work, so for the first two days we had a 35mm camera on set; it looked like a dinosaur. That was our crash camera. And then right after the second day the tests came back, and the slow-motion was satisfactory, we got rid of the film camera.

But I did get to record a few explosions with both the film camera and HD, and HD held up much better than film. The explosion wasn’t as rich on film as it was on the HD. I was really surprised about that because it was in a dark room and I thought the stop difference would just blow out completely and the HD wouldn’t retain the detail of the film. But it was completely the opposite. It looked horrible on film. It’s so contrasty that it doesn’t even look like an explosion.

If you set up your HD cameras up right you can really get some incredible things.

DC: What lenses did you use?

Rodriguez: To shoot Mexico I bought several different lenses. I bought an Angeniuex that I like a lot, and a couple of the Fujinon zooms. I always do my own camerawork, and I like the freedom of zooms. On film the image always sufferes when you would use the zoom, but with HD I could get all my different lens sizes within one take, because I’m also the editor of the film. So if I’m sitting there shooting I’m not going to shoot a whole take wide and then a whole take tight. I do my wides and my tight coverage and medium coverage within the same take because I already know how I’m going to cut it together.

Johnny Depp kept saying, "What I love the most is I don’t know if you’re full-body on me or right on my eyeball, and I love that because I know I can’t fake it in any way. I never know where you are with that take, because it’s not like the old days where it’s ‘Oh, you’ve got a 50mm on me? I’ll act a certain way.’ Or, ‘It’s a 250mm? Okay, I’ll be more subtle.’" You can’t do that now.

DC: Did you do any special processing to the 24p HDCAM signal; was it captured on other media, other than the recorder inside the camera?

Rodriguez: The only time we did that is when we used the 950. We used the 950 a few times to have a more mobile camera, but even then I think we just recorded to a regular deck. We didn’t do anything like George [Lucas] might have done -- recording to hard drive. We didn’t get that fancy yet. But hopefully the next step, when we get to that, would be going 10-bit with the recording medium.

DC: Were there any special challenges in shooting in digital HD?

Rodriguez: You should always check your back focus in temperature changes. That’s just something that you have to be aware of. You have check the monitors to see if something’s going soft.

DC: Was audio recorded on the HDCAM or on a separate system?

Rodriguez: We did it both ways. We had it going to the HDCAM, but the second system was what we resynched everything to later using a hard-drive recorder.

DC: Are you happy with the quality of your HD images?

Rodriguez: I’ve seen the film-out, and it’s incredible, it’s very rich. I took advantage of what HD offers when I did the set design. I lit them very rich, and the colors are like watching a Technicolor movie. It’s so rich and beautiful to watch that I think it’s going to wake a lot of people up. People aren’t going to believe how good these images are. They’ll be pinching themselves.

DC: George Lucas at last year’s NAB said he’d never shoot another film on film again. Do you feel the same way?

Rodriguez: Absolutely. I don’t even shoot still pictures on film anymore. I buried my Nikon. I have kids, and film is just ridiculous for shooting them. You know when you’ve got the shot so you can walk away knowing that you’ve captured the moment.

DC: What advice would you offer to other directors considering using digital 24p HD instead of film?

Rodriguez: Digital requires a learning curve. You have to get in there and use it. It’s hard to find anyone to teach you because everyone has a different way of doing it and not all of them work. You’re not going to find that out until you’re a few weeks into filming. You’ve got to be aware that that always happens with a new medium.

But the rewards of digital HD are just so great. And since you’ve got a monitor there there’s not a whole lot you can’t fix. It’s really worth the challenge. There’s a lot of things you can do to the camera. If the image doesn’t look right, it probably isn’t right. So I would just tell them to get into it because digital is the future. It’s really where things will be going.

DC: What would you say to filmmakers who are intimidated by digital HD?

Rodriguez: They shouldn’t. Editors were afraid when Avids were being introduced. They said, "We have to change our whole way of working and learn all this computer stuff." But now everyone edits on them. With digital HD they’ve just got to get over it and learn and embrace the new technology so they’re not dinosaurs. HD is their friend. They don’t have to be guessing anymore. They can really do much better, much edgier, much more exciting lighting because they are able to see the result instead of waiting for that dreaded daily report to come in. They can find out right then and there if it worked.

HD is in its infancy. This is the worst it will look. I can’t wait for the next generation.

[mynameisnobody]

Another great article for those who are interested in the medium...

http://www.theonionavclub.com/avclub3829/avfeature_3829.html

[Brian Mix]

WOW :eek:

great artical. Has anybody here shot HD? 24P or Vari-cam? How much does it really cost to rent the gear? Do you have to have a tech with you?

[Phil Hall]

I acted in a film made with a 24p camera and I was pleasantly surprised at the high quality of the cinematography which was achieved. If I saw the footage without knowing the format in which it was shot, I would've assumed it was a professional 35mm production rather than a no-budget effort shot in someone's basement (which is actually where my scene was shot).

[squeaka]

it's all in the file created, 24p can be wonderful but you have to be bang on with exposure or your fucked....... first lets understand that with video all video 24p hd, ntsc prgressive whatever youare dealling with an 8bit linear image that is 0 being black and 255 being max white, that is multiplied by rgb and thats your max amount of info. film on the other hand really has no limit, but when it is scanned and made digital it is as a 10bit logartithmic file that is 0 to 1023 multiplied over rgb. if were to take the 8 bit and map it into the 10 bit 0 of the 8 bit becomes 95 of the 10 bit and 255 is mapped to 685 of ten bit (they are the cineon magic numbers and are the key to digital film making) it is all about the film curve of gamma. anyway all the detail in the whites lets say between 685 and 1023 just dosen't exist in video....that lack of detail in black and white makes the image very hard on the eyes not to mention the lack of colour space or the way it colour samples 4:2:2 or should i say subsamples........... and don't forget compression artifacting, i think the cine-alta is like 16x compression, a ddr (digital disk recorder) is 1:1 but that can only be used in a studio and is extemely expensive.......and every generation away from the original exagerates those compression artifacts. and don't forget that any post place charges a mint for hd on-line services and robert rodregess has the money to avoid compesssion and he shot everthing on green screen so spactically every shot is a composite. digital images may look great on your mac but you take your compressed conform and put them on the big screen..........its rude. it about the roll off between colours and the head room in the black and the whites..........video ain't there and it won't be until you can capture uncompresssed 10 bit log..........what my advise, shoot super 16mm or 3perf 35mm if your doing anything with a buget of any sort....post all digital then go back out to 35mm, it's a thing of beauty.