Film and TV

I, Robot

Director Neill Blomkamp and DP Trent Opaloch create a conscious robot for Chappie

By Ian Blair
Artificial intelligence—and sentient machines that are both heroic and villainous—has long fascinated A-list filmmakers as varied as Stanley Kubrick (2001: A Space Odyssey), Ridley Scott (Blade Runner), James Cameron (Terminator series) and Steven Spielberg (A.I. Artificial Intelligence). Now South African writer/director Neill Blomkamp has breathed... Read more

Van de Sande And The VariCam 35

DP Theo Van de Sande, ASC shoots two television pilots with the Panasonic VariCam 35

By Neil Matsumoto
Cinematographer Theo Van de Sande, ASC recently completed the television pilot Evil Men for CBS with the Panasonic VariCam 35 4K camera/recorder. This is the second pilot he shot with the VariCam after Salem Rogers, which is currently streaming on Amazon Instant TV. Check out the pilot here. According to Van de Sande the VariCam 35 is “the first 4K... Read more

Stock Cars

Videographer Todd Ruel creates cool car stock with his Panasonic AJ-PX270 P2 HD camcorder

By Neil Matsumoto
Filmmaker Todd Ruel shoots video stock footage that he licenses through Getty images. Recently he took his new Panasonic AJ-PX270 P2 HD camcorder to both the Detroit and Chicago Auto Shows to shoot some of the latest cars. The PX270 is Panasonic’s first P2 HD handheld camcorder with AVC-ULTRA recording. The compact camcorder contains many of... Read more

The Overnight – Shooting The Sundance Hit

DP John Guleserian captures The Overnight with the Canon EOS C500

By Neil Matsumoto
A 30-something couple, Alex and Emily (Adam Scott and Taylor Schilling), are new to Los Angeles. After their young son makes a friend in the park, the boy’s father Kurt (Jason Schwartzman) invites Alex and Emily over for dinner with his French wife Charlotte (Judith Godrèche). While starting off as a casual dinner party, as the night wears on,... Read more

ARRI AMIRA Is Ready For Broadcast

Creating world-class television with the ARRI AMIRA

By Dan Brockett
The ARRI AMIRA has been on the production community’s collective radar for well over a year now. ARRI clearly aimed the AMIRA at documentary and nonfiction programming; the camera was intended to add a handheld, self-contained camera system to ARRI’s product line in addition to the larger, heavier ALEXA. Now that the AMIRA has been in the... Read more

The Painter Of Light

Director Mike Leigh and cinematographer Dick Pope, BSC, illuminate the life of legendary English painter J.M.W. Turner in Mr. Turner

By Ian Blair
For more than 40 years, since his aptly named 1971 feature debut Bleak Moments, British director Mike Leigh has amassed a body of work, including Happy-Go-Lucky, Vera Drake, All or Nothing, Secrets & Lies, Life Is Sweet and Naked, that’s distinctive, idiosyncratic and created "under rather curious conditions," as the director puts... Read more

Postapocalypse Now

Director George Miller and DP John Seale, ACS, ASC, bring the Road Warrior back to life in Mad Max: Fury Road

By Iain Blair
When Mad Max roared onto screens in the late ’70s, it wasn’t just a fresh blast of nonstop action reeking of hot engines and even hotter desert winds from Down Under. Writer/director George Miller’s assured debut, a bleak vision of the future, essentially rewrote the book on how to make a successful, low-budget, indie action film (for... Read more

Wholly Moses

Armed with RED EPICs, director Ridley Scott and DP Dariusz Wolski, ASC, create their own epic for Exodus: Gods and Kings

By Kevin H. Martin
Producer/director Cecil B. DeMille is probably best remembered for his 1956 extravaganza The Ten Commandments, a $13-million VistaVision effort that depicts the saga of Moses and how he came to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. But that was actually the mogul’s second try at putting this story on film. DeMille spent more than $1.5 million on a... Read more

Catch A Wave

Cinematographer Edd Lukas takes watch on Dawn Patrol

By Valentina I. Valentini
One of the most poignant moments in Daniel Petrie Jr.’s comeback flick Dawn Patrol isn’t the murder scene. It happens just afterward, when lead Scott Eastwood glides through the empty streets of Sunset Beach on his bike, numb, with the shots still ringing in his ears. "He’s in this weird mood here," says cinematographer Edd... Read more

Get Rhythm

Director Damien Chazelle and DP Sharone Meir create a unique musical relationship for Whiplash

By Valentina I. Valentini
I saw Whiplash at Sundance. There were no fancy camera moves or VFX shots—truthfully, it’s a visually simple film and very intimate—but I left the theater with sweaty palms and my heart beating twice as fast as when I had arrived. "This was music as warfare," Harvard-educated, newbie writer-director Damien Chazelle tells me about... Read more

Off-Road To Redemption

Cinematographer Yves Bélanger, CSC, roughs it through the Pacific Crest Trail for Wild

By Kevin H. Martin
Following the huge success of Dallas Buyers Club?, director Jean-Marc Vallée tackled an adaptation of author Cheryl Strayed’s popular and bestselling memoir Wild. The tale recounts Cheryl’s (producer Reese Witherspoon) 1,000-mile-plus hike along the Pacific Crest Trail, an odyssey that followed the death of her mother (Laura Dern)... Read more

Disappearing Act

DP Sandra Valde-Hansen takes on indie film maverick Gregg Araki’s latest film White Bird in a Blizzard

By Valentina I. Valentini
For each new project cinematographer Sandra Valde-Hansen is hired on, she’s asked what her choice of camera might be. Although she always suggests film, because for her it’s the most natural, the simplest and the most efficient, she knows it’s about the story at hand, in the end. "We, as cinematographers, have to fight for the... Read more