Lost Highway Films makes ads with F35

The F35 is gaining immediate acceptance among producers and cinematographers of high-end commercials where agencies and DoPs versed in 35mm are being wowed by the quality of its imaging.

Leading New York City commercials production house Lost Highway Films is no exception. The New York based company used the F35 for the first time to shoot two commercials for toy brand Fisher Price.

“More and more productions are turning to HD, partly because of cost savings over film and partly because the image quality of high end digital cameras like the Sony F900, Red, Genesis or Arri D20 is increasingly impressive,” says Lost Highway Films founder and executive producer, Marc Rosenberg. “What a lot of operators and technicians have been hoping for was an HD camera more in tune with the format of 35mm cameras, which is what they are mostly familiar with. The closest to come to that benchmark is the F35. It has the best depth of field of any HD camera, more latitude in terms of dynamic image.”

Rosenberg realises that producers like himself still need to convince the hardcore negative film community to view HD as a genuinely viable alternative. He’s compiling a comparison reel which puts 35mm, Super 16mm and HD side by side.

“I wish I had more examples of the F35 to show them – everybody will be thrilled with the imagery they get on a shoot,” he declares.

“It is more than just a great image though. The F35 is also about making an easy transition for a lot of these guys who work regularly with 35mm cameras. The F35 has a PL Mount as opposed to having to work with an adaptor, making standard prime film lenses a straightforward option.”

Putting the F35 into action

The Fisher Price job came via agency DraftFCB and producer Ida Lew. Rosenberg knew that whilst perfectly happy to continue to shoot HD with the HDW-F900R, the agency were also keen to explore new technologies that could match the film look without time-consuming manipulation at the back end.

In conversations with Erik Schietinger at leading New York equipment supplier TCS Technological Cinevideo Services, Rosenberg and director/cameraman Doug Coleman concluded that it was time to put the F35 into action.

“TCS had just purchased the model [from Band Pro LA] and we got immediately excited about it,” says Rosenberg. “More than that, the agency and the client were excited by it. We consulted with the post facility [Mad House] and they were keen to go with it and expressly didn’t want anything that would compromise the colour space nor anything that would deliver rushes on hard drive.”

The shoot required close-ups of table-top models of various dolls, toys and accessories often handheld by child talent. That meant capturing a lot of detail with great depth of field.

“As soon as I saw the camera I knew Sony had really done its homework,” says Coleman. “Obviously they had talked to a lot of operators and DPs to make them as comfortable as possible when approaching an HD job for the first time. The ability to use the same film lenses, its very neat and buttoned-up design with fewer cables and its all round ergonomics actually make it feels like a continuation rather than a departure from film. It’s the best camera out there that gives the most latitude. It’s a beautiful piece of work.”

Wide angle lens

Coleman mounted the F35 for the Fisher Price shoot as he would a film camera, using a jib arm and cross beam and with an underslung camera head. He selected a 24 – 290 Angenieux Optimo zoom and Zeiss prime lenses, mainly 60 and 100 mm macro.

“It’s a beautiful image. When you choose a wide angle lens, for example, you know that you are going to capture everything to that Super 35mm sized sensor. I found it better for operating to attach a 9-inch HD flat panel to the back of the tape drive to operate. The eyepiece is crystal clear, but I found it preferable to shoot with the onboard monitor. I found myself comparing what was actually in front of me on the set with what I saw on the monitor, and found the image on the monitor to be an enhanced version of what was in front of me.”

Coleman noted that on video playback he could generate 16 x 9 and 4 x 3 safe action areas so that everyone on set could see and work with the same frame lines.

“Instead of taking a best guess of where a 16 x 9 frame would be, you know exactly what you’re going to get on the final image, and the amount of cabling and external hardware is minimised.

Set up for post

DIT Jeff Flohr helped set the camera up on set to maximise the latitude in post. “Any time I am approached to shoot in high definition, I am still ultimately concerned with what exists between the eyepiece and the lens,” says Coleman. “I want to be as far removed from the tech side as possible to concentrate on my job. The beauty of the F35 is that I can trust in it to produce great images and I have faith in the DIT to ensure that we’re going to get the best out of this camera. To me it seemed that Sony really nailed it with this camera. For something brand new, there’s not a whole lot more you can ask of it. It generates 4:4:4 colour to tape and sends downstream whatever spec you need after that. There’s no ‘foreign language’ that you have to learn with some cameras. The grammar of working with the F35 is intuitive to anyone from a 35mm background. I’d certainly recommend it to anybody who asked me and I’m keen to use it again.”

Rosenberg was equally satisfied. “It delivered a crisp image, the colours popped, the depth of field was there and the important thing is the client was thrilled,” he says. “We’ve got a lot of work lined up for the new year and we’re excited about putting the F35 to work again.”

6 January 2009