April 1999

ARRI prof i les4 Richard Greatrex BSC – Shakespeare in Love8 Christopher Doyle – Romantic poet like the wind

10 Douglas Koch CSC – Last Night12 Lighting the Rear Window 14 Eduardo Serra – storytelling tools

ARRI around the g lobe17 TechnoVision founder celebrates 80 years17 Farewell to cinema legends 18 Magellan global voyage21 Taj Mahal – secrets revealed22 New studios for Tele MonteCarlo23 ARRI Austria – camera development23 Norway – a new distributor24 Condé Nast – CSC to the rescue24 Beijing – lighting the Forbidden City25 Late Show – a review

Commerc ia l s26 Marlboro adventure team27 Blink on the future of commercials

Technology update29 ARRILASER30 Ballasts 33 Timecode update – error-free negative cutting

Awards34 Oscars – recognising ARRI technology36 Camerimage ‘98

Out and about wi th ARRI37 The ARRI team – skiing38 ARRI in production

39 Calendar of events

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C O N T E N T S

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a p r o f i

What attracted you to the film industry inthe first place?“I started by being involved in some workcalled community video – I worked with abunch of Americans in South Wales,recording the daily lives of people in amining community. We shot everything on1⁄2” reel to reel video. Then, after doingthe same in Tennessee in the US for awhile, using terrible machinery that I hadto try and repair all the time, one of usdecided we needed to learn about films,and so I was the volunteer.

I went to the National Film School from‘76 to ‘79 and this opened up a wholenew world for me. Attending the NFS wasan absolutely fabulous time for me. Back inthe 70’s it was very free range, withbudgets to shoot stuff and budgets toemploy people, so I had cameramencome in and help me shoot. You could gostraight into the business then, there weregreat opportunities.”

Give me a brief outline of your career?“My career started with promos, thenChannel 4 was started and the directorsAndy Johnson and myself made aprogramme that was broadcast on the firstnight. I worked on the Comic Strip seriesand started to do stuff for Channel 4Wales, probably because I am Welsh. Ithen moved into commercials.

I soon realised that I wasn’t going tospend many years doing this, because ofthe lack of the story telling in commercialsalthough it is a great area for gainingexperience. So I concentrated more andmore on the drama side of the business,and have done a lot of TV and featuressince. I’ve really enjoyed my work sincethat break from commercials. For me thescript must fit within the margins of beingmoral and in line with my world views andwithout too much violence.

I have found it more and more important tohave satisfaction in my work and thisresults from being with the directors thatyou really like and admire. You have acertain kind of security with them becauseyou know where they are coming from.That is why I try to hang on to people likeJohn Madden, I think Shakespeare in Lovewas probably our fourth film together.

My work is a terrifically rewarding thing todo and I’m lucky because it also combinessome of my interests.

If Shakespeare in Love is a success itmeans that other things will start to beoffered. I feel as though I am moving ontoanother step of this escalator that I wasnever aware that I was stepping onto.”

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After the success of Shakespeare in Love, Richard Greatrex BSC talks toARRI MEDIA about his career, Shakespeare and getting fit for Bosnia.

l e o n R i c h a r d G r e a t r e x B S C

will never work or just end up asprototypes, but it is the collaborative effortof the rental house staff that has made allthe difference.”

Is there anything that ARRI Media can dobetter to make your life easier? “Yes – don’t grow too big! When I first goand see a company with a possible film inmind, the first thing I do is tell them whatthe film is about so at least they can get afeel for the kind of film we are making andwhat the demands will be. I always tryand give a brief outline of the film andthen tell them what the director is asking ofme. This gives you a feel for thevisualisation and vision the director has.And then of course you tell them whatmoney you haven’t got. If there are thingsthat ARRI Media could be doing better,those problems will naturally come out inthe course of our relationship.”

How did you get involved withShakespeare in Love?“I got involved purely because of JohnMadden. It feels like years ago now, itmust have been two years ago when wefirst knew the inklings of it. John and Iworked on Mrs. Brown together, whicheventually got picked up by Miramax anddid very well for them. So he was theobvious choice for them again and I likeworking with him.

Casting for Shakespeare in Love took time,but in the end it was a nice compromise,in that it was an American girl and aBritish guy. Although it was jointlyfinanced by Miramax and Universaland one hundred percent Americanmoney, it remains a wholly Britishmade film, with a nearly allBritish cast and crew.”

Were there any specific challenges in it for you?“I think more than most I felt the weight ofthe money on my shoulders, as I had neverworked on a film so big. In contrast JohnMadden seemed totally unfazed by it.With all that money I felt you just could notmake mistakes. You just have to get it right.

It was shot in 2:35 and I had never doneanything like that before so that was awhole new learning process for me, tryingto find out about the different technologyand requirements. I talked to a lot ofdifferent cameramen about what you mustand must not do and they wereexceedingly helpful, especially Dick Popeand Oliver Stapleton.

I tried to keep in mind one thing about thelighting that John had constantly said tome. He said that he wanted this to begentler than anything we had done in thepast, because some scenes we have donehave been rather dark at times. Both darkin their content and dark in their look. Hesaid that he wanted Shakespeare in Loveto look like real life because we weretaking great liberties with the script.Liberties with who Shakespeare was andwho he was in love with. And we tookliberties with rebuilding a whole RoseTheatre and part of Elizabethan London.

For instance the big Rose Theatre interiorset on K stage at Shepperton, I wentthrough a few possible ways to rig that,how to light it to make it feel like it reallywas open to the daylight and notartificially lit. Also I had to work hard onmaking sure that stars like GwynethPaltrow looked as beautiful as I couldmake them. It was the first time I had tohave so much rapport with the make-upartists.

The stage sets were wonderful. Martin thedesigner was working in line with John’swishes so the set was built out of real oak,all the uprights could not be justscaffolding clad. John worries about detailand so these uprights were made of 6” x6” and 9” x 9” green oak, exactly as theywould have been in the Elizabethan days,and they really looked the part. I think thishelped everybody because we all felt wewere taking part in a really important

From a camera point of view is there aparticular piece of equipment that youprefer or insist on using? “Despite a technical background, I am notactually interested in technology in thatway. I want camera equipment that willget on and do its work in the ways that Iwant it to. If I know that this piece ofequipment will continually do what I ask ofit then I am happy. When you areshooting for television, because so muchcan be done in post-production the choiceof lenses is nowhere near as critical as forfeature films. The ARRI SR3 has a goodview finder system and so I will always tryto use an SR3 camera if I can. Camerasand other pieces of equipment are thetools to do things with. What is moreimportant to me is who supplies thosecameras, what your relationship is withthem and ensuring they will look after you.”

What contribution can a camera rentalcompany make?“A camera rental facility has to besomewhere to feel at home. A placewhere you can ask silly questions, or gointo a corner and try things out, where theengineers will then try and build thesethings for you. They might be ideas that

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It’s an old cliché really but you have to seethe actors if you are filming a comedy andso I kept that in my mind all the time andmade sure no one disappeared. I wantedto be able to see their faces especiallywhen you know there is a glint in their eye.”

And so what next for Richard Greatrex? “My next project is called ‘Peacekeeper’,a film about British soldiers in Bosnia.Fortunately l was able to choose to dosomething totally different to Shakespearein Love. I now get the chance to dosomething more documentary-like, a kindof mayhem of running around, with a verybrutal, hard and tearful script. If I have anyreal career aspirations, it is the ability tocontrol what you can do in some ways.

If somebody asked me to photograph aHollywood type film and I felt that thescript was bearable and within my ownparameters, then of course I would love todo it. I would love to give it a go,especially with John Madden, because Iknow that he will only do a script that hasthe same kind of feeling for the world as Ihave. He is not going to agree tosomething just for the sake of violence oranother action movie.

If you can move people, if you can makethem laugh or cry, that is great.Shakespeare in Love makes people bothlaugh and cry which I find amazing,based on something that you know issupposed to be an arcane playwright from

400 years ago. Even my daughter cannotget enough of Shakespeare at the moment.I never concentrated on Shakespeare somuch in all my life.”

You obviously still have a passion for theindustry and are not bored with what youdo. Why?“I enjoy my work more and more. I’ve nowgot this personal trainer as I need to get fitfor all this running around in the CzechRepublic. It’s another side to film makingyou don’t think about. All thesedocumentary film makers have suchamazing stamina levels and strengthswithout thinking about it. Peacekeeper is99% hand-held work following a lot ofguys running around dodging bullets andso the director wants me to run aroundand dodge bullets with them! I’ll let youknow if I survive!”

ARRI congratulates Shakespeare in Love forseven Oscar wins.

event, because we had actually recreatedthe Rose Theatre.

We used six different locations includingan original Elizabethan manor housecalled Broughton Castle near Banbury inOxfordshire. We used the Thames atBarnes and clad Barnes Railway Bridge tolook like London Bridge. And we also had‘K Stage’ for the major Rose Theatreinterior, ‘A stage’ for smaller interiors andthe back-lot for most of the exterior scenes.

One particular challenge for me was theboat scene on the Thames at night. Weended up shooting the scene on a greenscreen. We worked with the MagicCamera Company in Shepperton whowere very helpful in teaching me some ofthings that you could and could not do. Iwas exceedingly pleased with that scenedown the Thames. I think it worksterrifically because I absolutely believethere’s a boat there on the river.

It was Philip Sindall, the camera operator,who persuaded us to go the green screenroute, but John fought us, fortunately for allof us he conceded in the end. This is agreat example of how this business reallyis both a collaborative art and often acollaborative struggle.“

How long did the whole project take?“We filmed for fifteen weeks. Even infifteen weeks you just don’t know wherethe time goes, you have a different take onthe time and level of perfection that youare after. With Shakespeare in Love therewere an awful lot of shots with a lot ofpeople in, who take an awful lot ofrounding up and dressing up.”

Is this the film you are most proud of? “Definitely, a low flinch factor. It is howmany times you say “Oh no” during thefilm. But Shakespeare in Love only endedup with a couple of flinches.”

Congratulations on your Golden Globe,ASC, Oscar and BAFTA nominations. Did you ever think it would be that good?“No, actually I am quite amazed.However it is consistent, I worked out alook with John that I had in my head andtried to stick to it. I did what I always dowith a few extra things thrown in.

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music and theatre and dance and weformed theatre groups together. One thingled to another and we said why don’t wemake a film about what we are doing?”

Christopher now lives in Hong Kong in anapartment on a street aptly calledHollywood Road, where he has shot twofilms and fifteen music videos. “I think myapartment has become a Japanese touristattraction,” he said with a tone ofamusement.

So how does an ‘Aussie’ end upenchanted with the Chinese culture andwork at producing more than 12 films inChinese? “Well there had to be aromantic interlude with the language. Thename Du Ke Feng means ‘romantic poetlike the wind’. In the time of the TingDynasty, a gentleman was described as

being like the wind, notably malleable,sometimes strong, sometimes weak,sometimes assertive, sometimes just inabeyance.” Christopher feels 90% of thereason that he has been accepted into theChinese film world is because they think hehas some aristocratic Ting Dynastyheritage, he jokes, ”By the time theyrealised who I really was it was too late.”

In China today, the movie industry is astate industry and is static. “I think theChinese film industry is where a lot of non-Asians imagine that it has something to dowith the political hand-over, but I think it ismuch more an economic and a culturaltransitional period. Supported by a solidfoundation laid in history, China, likeRussia has based its film industry onliterature and has grown out of forty yearsof ineptitude. The noticeable decline overthe past two years is largely due first of allto Karaoke, the Internet, pirated videosand DVD. All have a very strong incursionon the leisure activities of most people.”

These things have compounded the factthat the audience has gradually beendisappearing but at a quicker pace for thelast couple of years, in all areas of China.“I think, first of all, it serves us right,” saysChristopher sadly. “Of course, it serves usright because the Chinese governmentdoes not protect the international propertyrights, but also we were being a little bithaphazard.”

Born in Sydney, Christopher started his filmcareer, “by accident, I grew up in Australiaand left when I was 18,” he explainshaving left his native country to discoverlife during several years as a merchantmarine. “My travels made me realise howimportant language is to communication.You imagine everyone speaks English butafter travelling around the world for 10years not knowing any other language, Idecided to learn one, the languagespoken by most people in the world,Chinese.” Film making is a visual form ofcommunication so learning Chinese wasthe start of his film career.

“I studied Chinese in Hong Kong but theschool was too expensive and at that timeChina was not too hospitable to non-Chinese. I went to study Chinese inTaiwan where I met people involved in

Du Ke Feng is recognised world wide for his talentsas a cinematographer but is probably better knowninternationally as Christopher Doyle.

a r o m a n t i c p o e t l i k e t h e w i n d

had” – and “what if”, and I think forsomeone like me and some of the people Iwork with we couldn’t ever re-make any ofmy films.”

The vivacious cinematographer has someexperience on the other side of the camerain films like ‘Tianmimi’ (Almost a Love Story)where he played an English teacher andsays, “It’s horrible, being an actor is allabout waiting and for some reason I don’thave the energy that I seek as acinematographer.”

With a plethora of choice for lighting andcameras how does he decide what touse? “The interesting thing about cameras,”he says “is that the machine is not thereally important factor in filming but ratherthe people behind the camera.”

Christopher has experience with manydifferent camera and lighting companiesbut says “China is definitely an ARRI worldand I probably work with ARRI 80% of mytime with a BL4 or the 535 for hand-held.”Christopher explained, “A 535 is veryheavy and a 435 is obviously much lighterbecause people wanted it slightly lighterbut I think the ergonomics of the cameraand superb balance are key. I can goround all day with a 535. With othercameras the balance is just wrong.Furthermore, the rental houses here havedone their training in Germany so the ARRIservice is great.” He noted that in Chinacrews throw kit around a lot and use itbeyond its recommended service date.“ARRI kit just keeps on working.”

ARRI lighting products are growing inpopularity in the Far East. “There seems tobe more and more ARRI lamps in ourworld than years ago. Take the Pocket Parit’s a big hit here. Usually, whatever wehave is being used 24 hours a day, so ithas to be reliable. I guess ARRI lights haveproven themselves. They may be moreexpensive but they never let you down.The name ARRI sounds good in most Asianlanguages. That’s part of ARRI’s success.”

Diana was the first film followed byAvalone then Tin Men. Doyle’s most recentfilm is Liberty Heights, likely to be releasedas Jews, Gentiles and Black People. Set inthe 50’s in Baltimore, he worked handheldfor much of the shoot. It is in homage tohis city and it is very much about cross-over of cultures and races and also hismovies feature early blues musicspecifically James Brown music in the whiteconsciousness that developed in the 50’s.He, John Waters, Frank Zappa and NinaSimone all came from Baltimore. It wasvery different from shooting Psycho. “Weused the 535 because of the adjustableshutter.”

Christopher has just started working on hisseventh collaboration with Director WonKarwai, who won best director at Cannesfor Happy Together in 1997.

Does he have a favourite film? “Yes, thenext one,” he replied. “All I want is to beable to look back on the honestcollaboration and where that took me interms of my own creative energies.”

“I feel the trend towards moving aroundand working with mixed nationalities is apositive force.” Christopher believes thatfor China to recover, the cinema must havea return for the money invested. “I think wehave lost an audience so therefore thepeople who continue making films here aregetting fewer but probably have moredetermination than the last generation. Ifeel very much part of this trend towards amore cosmopolitan situation. People likeJackie Chan and myself are now workingin the States.” Christopher expects theresult will be a better structure and areorganisation of the film industry.

“China has gone through 40 years ofcommunism which means that there is a lotineptitude and condolence, all forideological reasons. Places like Shanghaiwhich are very dynamic, definitely want tobe what they used to be in the 30’s.Shanghai is pushing very, very hardtowards it and I think they will succeed.

In the 70’s and 80’s both in Taiwan andHong Kong, the film-makers reacted sostrongly against what they regarded as akind of decaying tradition that they threwthe bath water out with the baby.” Itappears now that they are restructuringbecause of economic necessity.

The ‘Doyle’ signature can be classified asa naivety. “In my films I am intuitive. I’mnot afraid to show technical innocence.Even when I work without a script, I reactto what is passing before my eyes. Whenan actor/actress is in front of the lens thereis an energy that develops, it’s unique andlike a dance.”

Christopher thinks that the energy you haveto put into a film means, “it’s totally validfor your talents, your operation and yourability at that particular period of time, butit may be totally invalid the next day.” Headmitted, “The day after the wrap partyhang-over you obviously say, – “if only I

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For DoP Douglas Koch CSC, the challengewas to create a suggestion of inexorablefate while keeping the wry and whimsicalstory centre stage.

Koch, who shot Last Night in Toronto in 26days in 1997, said he was happy withthe ultimate look of the film “because,particularly in certain scenes, it looks quiteextreme, very stark and austere.

We wanted to create right away thisconcept of relying on the look of the film totry to put you in a special time, likesomething weird is going on. I was curioushow long it would take people to realisethat there’s this very obvious time clock,where it’s going 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. and 9 p.m., and it’s not getting darker, it’s justblazing daylight all the time.”

Koch did his own operating on a 35mmARRI BL4, “the real workhorse ofindependent features.” His film stock wasKodak Vision 250D (5246) 98 per cent ofthe time, with “a tiny bit of 50D 5245 ina couple of shots that were in the titlesequence to keep the grain from buildingup.”

He said McKellar wanted to evoke moviesfrom the late ‘60s and ‘70s, “movies likeThe Omega Man (1971) that have acertain kind of starkness to them.

A lot of the look in the film is a sort of ableach bypass, a sort of silver retentionprocess. We experimented withtechniques, and ended up settling ondoing it in the interpositive stage. This hadthe effect of lowering colour saturation andincreasing contrast simultaneously.

The way in which you print will controlhow extreme the effect is going to bethrough the stages, but it’s a tricky thingbecause you can’t actually see the endresult until you actually go interpositive,dupe neg, check print. You have to follow

Toronto is deserted, stores are empty andstreetcars have stopped, and packs ofpunks and party animals roam the streets.A wife tries vainly to spend the eveningwith her husband, with whom she hasmade a suicide pact. A womaniserdecides to put a few more notches on hisbelt, including his former French teacherand a middle-aged virgin. It’s summer, buta suburban family decides to watch oldhome movies and celebrate Christmas onelast time.

It’s the turn of the century, but the newmillennium will never dawn because theworld is coming to an end at midnight.With its tongue planted firmly in its cheek,the low budget Canadian feature LastNight, by first time director Don McKellar,sticks to the dryly humorous drama of howits characters prepare to meet theirimpending doom.

McKellar, who also wrote Last Night playsthe architect, Patrick. His movie is perhapsthe Canadian archetype of Armageddon –a resigned farewell with a beer and ashrug, rather than big-bang chaos.

“The biggest challenge for me, the spookiest thing, was the factthat the story all takes place in six hours, and you’re shooting thisthing spread out over days and weeks. On a film like that, it comesdown to, unless it’s raining, we’ve got to film.”

L a s t N i g h ta n i n t e r v i e w w i t h D o P D o u g l a s K o c h C S C

time to shoot when the direct sun was notgoing to be an issue. It’s almost theopposite of what I would normally do,when I would be trying to get the lightbehind the actor for texture and depth. Wemanaged to plan that we’d be at the westof a building in the morning and have until10 or 11 until the sun came around, andyou could keep yourself working in openshade.”

Koch said he shot mainly from dollies anda couple of cranes, with few handheldshots and no Steadicam. Interiors were allon location, there was no studio work.Some of the interior lighting he describedas part dramatic licence and partnecessity.

“One of our toughest locations was a littlepenthouse apartment, and there wasnowhere to put any light outside except forthis one balcony.” The idea came to theDoP and director that since the end-of-the-world light outside was not changing, theywould have a continuous bright lightstreaming in from the balcony. “This wasthe only way to light this place from theoutside, to get any hard lighting in there atall.” Koch used Xenon and HMI lights onthe film “because of the daylight thing,”adding there was little if any tungstenlighting.

Koch, who called Last Night “different fromanything I’ve ever done,” was nominatedfor a best cinematography Genie,Canada’s equivalent of the Oscar, by theAcademy of Canadian Cinema andTelevision. The film, which premiered at the 1998 Toronto International FilmFestival, received 12 Genie nominationsand won three, for best actress, supportingactor, and first-time director.

The DoP, whose made in Canada creditsinclude Patricia Rozema’s ‘I’ve Heard theMermaids Singing’ (1987), said “it wasreally very simple” why he chose the ARRIBL4 for Last Night.

“If somebody asked what I thought was themost reliable camera, I would say that theBL4 is like a BMW. It’s really solidly built,it’s really simple. I can load and put this

camera together myself. In a very low-budget film, this was the natural camera touse. Any low-budget independent film willprobably be shooting with a BL4.”

Koch uses ARRI 435 and 535 cameras formost of his work.

“The 435 is a big favourite forcommercials. With the electronic shutter,we can change the shutter angle withouthaving to pull the lens off the front. It’s agreat camera. We use the 435 and the535 all the time. One of my favouritethings about the 535 is that you canactually run it up to 60 frames per second,which is conveniently a flicker-free HMIrate, so if you’re in a situation where you’redoing sync-sound and you need a little bitof slow motion, you can just use the onecamera. You save the expense of a secondcamera, plus the time to mount it and loadit and put all the accessories on it.”

He said the 535 comes “very close to ado-everything camera. As long as you don’thave to go above 60 frames a second,you can do electronic shutter, anglechanges to compensate for exposure… allsorts of neat stuff.”

all the generations through to see theactual effect, which made it ratherchallenging.

In a lot of the serious scenes, where thelighting was softer, we found we could pushharder to get an effect that was heavierthan the other scenes that were interior andalready a bit moody.”

Koch noted that late in the movie, McKellar’scharacter, Patrick, says, “‘There are times likethis when I miss the night,’ and thingsappear really faded and people were sort ofoverly tired, almost bleached out.”

“We didn’t like how healthy everythinglooked. So when we were looking intoprocesses, we wanted to suck the life outof the greens and trees so it didn’t look likeeverything was really healthy, but ratherfaded or dried up and kind of goofy 70’scolours in the art direction.”

Last Night was obviously supposed to beToronto, “it was fun to stay away from themore stereotypical images of the city,” saidKoch, “you get the sensation that you’re inthis little town and it did have a lot of theold brick.”

He describes a long scene in whichactress Sandra Oh tries to board anabandoned streetcar, and then leaves onfoot, walking hastily up a virtually deserteddowntown street. “One of the biggestchallenges when you’re in these downtownlocations is reflections. What’s difficult tounderstand is that you see reflections offthe store fronts. It’s late summer and yousuddenly realise that through the reflectionsyou’re actually seeing around corners.”

“The biggest challenge for me, thespookiest thing,” said Koch,”was the factthat the story all takes place in six hours,and you’re shooting this thing spread outover days and weeks. On a film like that,it comes down to unless it’s raining, we’vegot to film.

Shooting with a process where the contrastis extremely high, is a lot less forgivingthan when you’re shooting normalnegatives, so we attempted a lot of the

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A R R I H M I s L i g h t t h e R e a r W i n d o wIn his first major role since his riding accident in 1995, Christopher Reeve recently starred in theremake of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic suspensethriller Rear Window.

Jimmy Stewart, who created the role ofL.B. Jefferies, played a photographerconfined to a wheelchair because of abroken leg. Reeve, who also acted asExecutive Producer, portrays his L.B.Jefferies as an architect. To overcome theboredom and to expand his new limitedboundaries, Jefferies becomes anunrepentant voyeur spying on hisneighbours, who are remarkable in theirunwillingness to mask any of their activitiesexcept with the most transparent of curtainsin their downtown lofts. Before long hecomes to believe that one of hisneighbours has committed a murder. Whilehe never actually witnesses the crime dueto his disability, he feels that thecircumstances undeniably affirm that amurder has taken place. His co-star, DarylHannah, soon becomes a willingaccomplice in his single-minded devotionto exposing the criminal. Robert Forster, thethird major player in the drama, is areluctant, initially sceptic, but infinitelypatient police detective drawn into thetangled web of intrigue surrounding theevents.

Directed by multiple Emmy Award winnerJeff Bleckner, this ABC flagship TV renditionof Hitchcock’s murder mystery wasphotographed by Director of PhotographyKen Kelsch, A.S.C.

Ken gave us some insights into working ona project of this nature.

“Chris was absolutely terrific to work with.Although he mentally refused to succumb toany of the apparent limitations of his injury,his physical condition did present certainliabilities. The 27 day production scheduleput a lot of stress on cast and crew. We

worked within his doctor-dictatedavailability, which immediately disallowedthe original 3 weeks of night shooting infavour of a split schedule. The daily day-to-night time switchover added hours to whatwere already long days. When Chris left(we shot all his material, including cleansingles first), we would use a photo doublefor “overs” and the other actors’ reactionshots. An average day was 15 hours long,not including the commute to Yonkers(about 45 minutes north of New York City.)Chris always had the best attitude ofanyone on the set and seemed tirelessdespite his infirmities.”

“The real challenges lay in overcoming thetime constraints, due to the elaboratelayout of the two separate buildings whichincluded 8 to 10 sets at a time. With themajority of shooting being done in a multi-layer set environment, precise coordinationof all crew members became criticalbecause each department became

interdependent upon one another, i.e., artdepartment, electric, grip and sound.Whether we were shooting on the secondor third floor of the main building, therewas always action taking place in theother 8 rooms, which acted as secondarysets across the 44 foot gap between thebuildings. Only some of the sets wereworking during the day shooting schedule,but nearly all nights involved action in mostor all of the interiors. Communication wasdifficult at best, and always too slow. Theelevators in the old buildings rarelyworked, so heavy lighting and grip wereferried up to the floors through thewindows with a condor usually reservedfor lighting. Because of communicationproblems, tweaking sometimes seemed totake forever. Due to common TV budgetaryconstraints, crew man-days were limited.The small crew worked long and hard,and at great speed to finish the job withinthe allotted days. The grips usually had anearlier call to fly the three 40’x40’

reflection corresponded. Optical and anti-reflective glass was ruled out as tooexpensive. Luckily, after we shot tests, Irealised that the small screen would neverpick up the image deterioration. That justleft the reflections. We solved this byprecise light placement and copiousamounts of flagging. The big problem wasthat in order to make Chris and Daryl lookgood, we couldn’t light from our grid. Theywould have been much too “sockety”.There was a lot of camera movement fromthe jig arm, dolly and steadicam,combined with Chris’ steadily movingwheelchair. We were doing a “film noir”look, so we had to avoid blasting thetalent with front light. No setup was easy;the electricians and grips worked quickly inwhat turned out to be an empirical andreactive exercise in light placement. Notonly did we have to find the right spot forthe light to work on the subject, but wehad to avoid areas that the talent or thecamera support would cruise through andcircumvent the reflection problem. Lightingturned out to be a painstaking chore.”

Ken’s company, Stampede Film & Video,provided lighting and grip equipment forthis production. Founded in 1977,Stampede has been a long-time supporterand purchaser of ARRI lighting. Hisinventory includes HMI Fresnels (575W-12kW), HMI Pars (200W-6kW) andTungsten Fresnels (300W-24kW). Everylight from Stampede’s considerableinventory was used, along with most of hisextensive grip package.

All HMIs were operated with magneticballasts, which was not critical since nospeed ramps or off speed shooting wasinvolved. The working stop of the moviewas usually in the T4.0 range.

Ken told us he prefers to use ARRI lightingbecause, “...they are the best overalldesigned lights and they are outstanding inoptical performance from spot to flood. Onall the Fresnels, the flood is very smoothwhile the spot is incredibly concentrated.The condensers are all very hot which, ofcourse, provides more output per watt.”

Ken’s next project is just around the corner.He’ll be working on a feature titled “WithA Bullet,” that begins shooting in LosAngeles this spring.

gridcloths over the gap between the twobuildings to diffuse some of the contrast onsunny days. ARRI 1K and 2K Fresnels werehung for sun-sourced backlight, but open-faced 2Ks with soft boxes with variousgrids did most of the key lighting from thefloor. Small 12 volt ACLs rigged in serieson dimmer panels were used for wallslashes on objets d’art and other effectlighting. ARRISUN 12Ks on condors wereused for the most part to provide thesunlight that poured through Reeve’s loftwindows. ARRISUN 6K Pars with thenarrowest lenses punched into apartmentsacross the way. Day interiors in the secondset were lit by a full complement of ARRIPars from bounced 4Ks and 2.5Ks todirect diffused lighting from 12 Pluses,575 Pars, 200 Single Ended Pars and acouple of the new Pocket Pars. (The twolatter units were great to hide behindstructural opportunities.) The night timetungsten ran the full complement ofstandard units with a lot of china balls ondimmers for the ability to change levelsrelative to story-line time. Usually, the lensstop was around F4 to F5.6 due to thefocus requirements with the long lenses atthe late hours (“assistant busting” 400mmto 600mm zooms); these were used topeek into the action across the way.

The more emotionally rendering the shot,the tighter the framing became. We useda photo double to do 75mm to 100mmover-the-shoulder framings to set up cleanPOVs.

The two layers of glass presented otherproblems. First, there was the possibledeterioration of the image. Second, therewere the points-of-reflection problems.Every light would kick back into the lens ifthe angle of incidence and angle of

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“Lighting in a normal drama should not reallyinterfere with the action but rather simplyenable the audience to see it. Interestingdramas are when you can use the light to bea part of the action.”

S t o r y t e l l i n g t o o l s

Eduardo Serra was born in Lisbon,Portugal and was raised there until he wasnineteen when he left to go and live inFrance. Having started his studies as anengineer, his creative side led him to studyat the Ecole du Cinema along with otherwell known cinema characters such asPhillippe Rousseleau and Noel Boisson.

He continued his studies in Archaeology atLa Sorbonne. After thirty features workingas a focus-puller, he found some producersstarted to believe in him and gave him thebreak he desperately needed.

Unlike many cinematographers, Eduardohas never worked with video or poppromos, and has probably only madefifteen commercials during his film career.

“The message is what sells the commercialnot the imagery. I have more creativescope with a feature film than in justmaking the images work to transport acommercial message.”

Eduardo Serra has worked with all thetools of the film trade and has a clearvision as to what works best with whattype of production.

“Lenses are vitally important,” he says, “in fact, more important than the camerabody. If I’m going to shoot anamorphic

The Swindle) directed by Claude Chabrol,What Dreams May Come, directed byVincent Ward and starring Robin Williamsand most recently Berliner.

No guns no stunts no sequels – that’s thebasic criteria for whether Eduardo Serraagrees to photograph a film or not. Beinga calm gentle person Eduardo hatesexplosives.

So what makes a Serra “look”?

“I don’t know why sometimes I dosomething and it works like in The Wingsof The Dove,” he said intrigued at whatcauses critics to flower acclaim andpunters to fill cinema seats. “I guess I justtry to do just what is appropriate for thescene or the film rather than what mightseem the most logical.” He described withfascination his filming of artists. “I believethat there is an infinite number of ways onecan light and photograph a face.

I always make sure that the lights I usedon’t conflict with the natural scene andany effects or props also don’t conflict.This goes from lighting through windows tolighting with fire bars when actors carrytorches as well as to ban the use of rimlight for separation.”

Eduardo shares his anecdote on thedevelopment of new lighting. “ I havebeen a long time fan of fluorescent light.Back in 1982, there were no fluorescenttubes available from the rental houses andI wanted fluorescents to light severalscenes set in a locker room at a footballstadium. I found the only ones acceptablewere the Chroma 50 available only in theUS and I had them shipped. One yearlater I was able to buy fluorescents at thehardware store which I used without

correction including those for beauty close-ups. In 1989, I used 400 tubes instead ofspace lights for the main Hairdresser’sHusband (Le Mari de la Coiffeuse) set.”

But surely things are different now? “It’sfunny, the technology of fluorescents hasbeen developing in the consumerhardware stores at equally the same rate,if not better, than the production lightingmanufacturers. Recently, I found to myamazement that some lamps from the localstores had better colour temperature controlthan some of the professional HMI’s.”

Eduardo photographed the scenes of TheWings of The Dove to demonstrate thecontrast between London and Venice. Thestory was shifted a few years forward to1910 which allowed Eduardo to create amore modern look with electric lights thanit would have been had it been set in theearly 1900’s. “London at the time wasvery technological and I felt the best wayto portray this was to make it slightly coldand blue metallic looking. This wasachieved by carefully combining the colourblue into the set and costumes and usingan 81EF filter.”

The contrast he achieved at the carnivalscene in Venice was to light the scene withtorches, fire bars and Kino Flo’s and forinteriors he used a few tungsten 1.5mhelium balloons. “At that time, Venice wasa gateway to the Orient, there were many

then it’s Panavision but if I want to shoot adramatic police drama in low light or adark street lit with candles then it wouldhave to be Zeiss, particularly if the scenewas to look a little contrasty. The Zeisslenses are a little hard but extremelyprecise.”

When it comes to lights Eduardo has hisfavourites. He complimented ARRI on therange of lights offered. “I could goelsewhere, I expect there are some goodproducts but I find that with ARRI havingsuch a complete range I don’t need to.”

But what about the cameras? “The ARRIcameras are ‘formidable’,” says Eduardo,“they have an engineering complexity thatis incredible. The 535 is able to achieve agood balance of sophisticated engineeringand handiness. The 535B has greatperformance with reasonable weight and Iprefer it unless I really need those extras.”

Eduardo Serra worked with ARRI MEDIAfor The Wings of The Dove for which hereceived not only an American AcademyAward® nomination as DoP but also wonthe Best Cinematography BAFTA Award.Eduardo Serra is just one of a current trendof French Cinematographers who arefinding the UK an exciting place to workwith British directors and crews. Whatdoes he look for in a rental house? “Wellgood equipment kept in good conditionand with a staff who are friendly andopen-minded. I like them to haveequipment that is modern and not alwaysconventional. Often the way in which acompany maintains equipment is areflection of how easily it will break down.But if it does then I want reliable back-up.”

Since The Wings of The Dove, Eduardohas filmed Rien Ne Va Plus (also known as

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… n o g u n s , n o s t u n t s , n o s e q u e l s

gypsies and artists in the city. We wantedto convey that atmosphere so I chose touse coral filters which provided a goldenglow and then further enhanced it in thelab using a silver retention process in thenegative.” Eduardo worked closely withJohn Beard the production designer andincorporated most of the lights into the setdesign and added a few Kino Flo’s forclose-ups.

So where does a Director of Photographywith over twenty years of featureproductions like Jude, The Wings Of TheDove, Le Mari de la Coiffeuse (hisfavourite) get his ideas? “I look around meand I absorb a lot, from films, photos topaintings. These help me define the axeson which to work and give me direction.”

Any particular painter I asked? “No it’sinteresting,“ he answered, “I can look at apainter or a photographer for a specificproject or a specific scene and it will notalways be a famous artist. Painting is aworld of ideas from which we can chooseand adapt to our needs. But don’t forgetwe can get our inspiration from somethingelse as well.” And once he has an idea, “I want to use light, filters and processingto be my storytelling tools.”

The success of any production is reallydown to the planning that has to takeplace. “I carefully go through every sceneand although there might be changes Iknow in advance exactly what my basiclighting and filtering set-up will be for eachscene. It’s organising the types of lights, thecolour, the décor, the costumes and theparts of the scene that will look contrastyand the parts that will look cold. It’sdeciding how much light to shine on anartist and where that light should comefrom.” Does this apply to all films?

”It’s a sad thing to say but a normal dramadoesn’t give you a lot of opportunity tostretch yourself,” Eduardo replied. “Lightingin a normal drama should not reallyinterfere with the action but rather simplyenable the audience to see it. Interestingdramas are when you can use the light tobe a part of the action.”

What attracts this BAFTA winner to a newproject? “Firstly, the confidence I get towork with an ardent director, thephotographic possibilities and thechallenge for something new. Shooting acomedy that requires all the characters tobe lit equally does not provide the samesatisfaction that a one-off challenge canoffer. I would rather work with a director

with an enthusiastic personality and just theoutline of a script than on a sophisticateddrama with a director with no personality.”

Eduardo has gained the reputation offilming something cultural and something orsomeone beautiful. “It might be good to doa film one day where there is very littlelight,” he pondered, “where the budget isreally low and you have to overcome thechallenge to make it work. It is a way ofputting one’s knowledge at risk.”

Off the set, Eduardo relaxes by going forwalks alone, “I’ll walk miles,” he says, “ toget some periodicals to keep up with mycraft, review technology and keep ahandle on life.”

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After lending his early lenses to friends andcolleagues, Chroscicki moved intoequipment rental, and foundedTechnoVision, now one of today’s leadingEuropean rental companies that servicesfilms world wide.

TechnoVision has enjoyed a longestablished relationship with ARRI andoffers the complete range of Arriflexcameras.

Happy birthday Henryk and here’s wishingyou many more years of continuedsuccess.

ARRI wish a Happy 80th Birthday toHenryk Chroscicki, founder of one of theleading camera rental companies,TechnoVision.

Born in Poland and raised in Australia,Chroscicki moved to Italy after the warwhere he trained as a film director at theprestigious Centro Sperimentale in Rome.He had a particular interest in theanamorphic lens system from earlymeetings with the Frenchman Chretienne,culminating in the TechnoVision systemlaunched in the early ‘70’s.

The TechnoVision system went on to beused on over 1000 feature films including‘Apocalypse Now’, ’The Last Emperor,’‘Out of Africa’ and ‘Little Buddha.’

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Te c h n o V i s i o n f o u n d e r c e l e b r a t e s 8 0 y e a r s

F a r e w e l l t o c i n e m a l e g e n d sStanley Kubrick 1928-1999

Having completed one of the longestshoots on record, Stanley Kubrick has leftthe film industry on the edge of its seatsawaiting his final film ‘Eyes Wide Shut.’Kubrick’s reputation and his extraordinaryfilms will grace our screens for many yearsto come.

Born in the Bronx, New York, Kubrickstarted his career as a stills photographer.After making his first film at twenty three,Kubrick went on to shoot screen greatsincluding ‘A Clockwork Orange’ which

Freddie Young OBE BSC GBCT1902-1998

“The world’s greatest cameraman” bygeneral consent, and the winner of threeAcademy Awards ®, Freddie Youngenjoyed a glorious career in the filmindustry.

Virtually every British DoP today will atsome time in their early careers haveworked with or have been inspired by

received three Oscar nominations forKubrick, ‘Spartacus,’ ‘Lolita,’ ‘The Shining’and ‘Full Metal Jacket.’

Kubrick was passionate about film making,and in 1990 joined forces with otherdirectors to form the Film Foundation, anorganisation whose goal is to promote therestoration and preservation of films.

Arriflex cameras have partnered Kubrick onseveral films, so sadly ARRI bids farewell toa cinematographer who was as great ashe was enigmatic.

Freddie. He was the undisputed master offilm technicians.

With over 120 credits to his name, hisbest remembered include: ‘Lawrence ofArabia,’ ‘Dr. Zhivago’ and ‘Ryan’sDaughter.’

ARRI says goodbye to a legend.

environments the electronics are always thefirst to go. Our ARRI SRII had no trouble, itwas on the job day in and day out withouthiccups.”

Next stop – Easter Island, the most isolatedisland on earth. Shooting in such a dry,dusty and barren place was challenging tothe crew.

“Acclimatising to very hot weather washarder on us humans than any piece ofequipment. We had to shoot carrying geararound in extremely dry and hot weather.After being in extremely cold conditions for8 months it wasn’t an easy transition.

Easter Island is still a mystery and thevarious theories all clash with each other,in the end you have to make up your owntheory depending on your beliefs.”

The crew were guided by native Victor Ika,to some of the most secret and taboolocations around the island.

“One morning Victor told us he was aboutto take us to the centre of the earth andinstructed us to bring compasses. On a

After leaving the South American coast ontheir way across the Pacific Ocean onAysso, their 55 foot sailing yacht, theSchurmanns sailed to Juan FernandezIsland – 500 miles from the coast. TheIsland is known as Robinson Crusoe Island.

David explains, “Even though the novel‘Robinson Crusoe’ is part fiction, most of itwas based on the life of Alexander Selkirk,a sailor who was banished from his shipand was forced to live there for 4 yearsalone.” David continues, “We decided tosearch for the remains of his caves andafter long walks and boat trips we arrivedat the place Alexander called his ‘summerhouse’, a small cave by the sea. Imaginefilming in Crusoe’s summer house!

I started to get worried about the humidityand dampness on this island, and a littleconcerned about the equipment. We tookthe normal precautions by adding silicagels in little removable pouches to ourPelican cases and storing all Kodak films inspecially adapted freezers we hadinstalled in Chile. I was extremely happy tohave chosen a camera with very littleelectronics because in these damp

M a g e l l a n g l o b a l a d v e n t u r e PA R T I I

On November 23rd 1998, David Schurmann and the family crewof the MAGELLAN GLOBAL ADVENTURE celebrated their first yearof the voyage that so far has taken them to the extreme south of theSouth American continent, through the Argentinean Patagonia andChile’s Tierra Del Fuego. We meet the crew on their next extremechallenge: the tropical South Pacific...

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small grass patch by the shore was a largerock with four smaller stones, all placedexactly on the North, South, East, andWest cardinal points. Victor demonstratedthe way his ancestors came to meditateand find wisdom from the rock. Afterplacing our compasses on the rock, to ouramazement the needles on the threecompasses went totally crazy.

Filming in Rapanui, the MOAIS (giantstatues) and volcano craters with itsreligious villages is a truly astonishingand humbling experience.”

After being amazed for 15 days, theMagellan Global Adventure headedon to Pitcairn Island, famous for themutineers of the Bounty.

“The island and its people wereextremely welcoming. With a new$10,000 film fee and terribleweather the crew was forced tomove on after only two days, thedisappointment was especially highsince it has taken two monthsbraving the seas to get to Pitcairn.”

After reaching the famous SouthPacific Island of French Polynesia,they passed through Mangarevain the Gambia Archipelago andfilmed numerous pearl farms andthe churches built in 1834 bythe officially insane missionary,Louis Laval.

“The main church was built for 1200people, more than twice the islandpopulation and was entirely built out ofthe lagoons and corals and decoratedin black pearls and shells. It still looksmild next to the Nuclear bomb sheltersthat are scattered around the Island.”The expedition moved on to Tahiti.“Filming in these islands is almost likecheating, no matter where you point thecamera you get something magicalhappening.

Filming sharks outside the protectedcoral lagoons turned out to be a littletense at first but exhilarating later as thesharks repeatedly tested our fear levels.Our custom built housing for the SRIIfrom AQUAVIDEO was a perfect tool, itssimplicity guaranteed easy access tomagazines and fast switch between inand out of the water mode.”

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Left to right:Nigel le Breton, Metro films NZDavid SchurmannAndy Roelants, Metro Films NZ

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One year into production, David decidedto take the camera for maintenance.

“We have rolled over 100,000 feet offilm through the camera and being close toNew Zealand, I decided to check thelenses and camera body, this was purelypreventive as we had absolutely noproblems with the equipment.” The ARRIsupport team at METRO FILMS in Aucklandwere Andy Roelants, managing directorand Nigel Le Breton service manager.“Nigel checked everything and did notfind one major thing wrong. Even METROFILMS were impressed that after 1 year ofhigh production the camera was in perfectshape! Good equipment and crew werethe key for this.”

The Schurmanns are now on their way toKiribati Island Micronesia then thePhilippines.

“Magellan didn’t visit all these places,”David explains “we took some creativefreedom to visit the islands he missed, butnow we’re back on his track, ...by theway he really did miss a lot.”

It was in Tahiti that the Schurmannsreceived their new ARRI lights.

“The Pocket Pars came in at the right time,with the bright sunny skies of the tropicswe could put them to use straight away asfill lights on many interviews and localdance demonstrations. At night with thefast Kodak stocks, the lights have thepower to kick in and light just about anyconfined situation.

I compared different light systems andlooked closely for a kit that would beflexible enough to work anywhere. Someof the other kits were close but after talkingto many technicians and looking at thedurability and light output, I decided thatthey were not right for this production.When Charlie Davidson from ARRI LightingUSA showed me the Pocket Par, I knew Ifound the tool we needed. From our testson the last three months, we can see thatthis light was tough and it’s flexible enoughwith its size and AC and DC ballasts to beused in just about any situation. CharlieDavidson was extremely helpful, getting thelights to us right away.” David alsoexplains that he has asked for anunderwater housing to be built for the ARRIPocket Pars, which he will be testing in thenext few months.

Email David Schurmann at:david@schurmann.com.br

Follow their voyage on the Internet at:www.schurmann.com.br

seven hours which was great. The lightsare also really versatile with differenteffects available from the heads.Considering we were a quarter of a milefrom any power source this was excellentfor us.”

Graham continues, “The best thing is, youcan turn up anywhere in the world andfind you are without power. But if you’relucky enough to spot a car, you couldextract a car battery and run the ARRIPocket Pars straight from it. In my opinion,if you need a light for several hours andthere’s no power, the Pocket Par is the onlysolution on the market.”

Graham finished the series with adocumentary on ‘Labyrinths and Mazes,’adding more incredibly interestinglocations to his now ‘privileged’ collection.

Months of negotiation between producersand the Indian Government finally paid offto give Graham this fantastic opportunity.

“I still feel extremely privileged to havebeen the only person allowed to film insidethe Taj Mahal,” recalls Graham. “Thereare not many places left which have neverbeen filmed in one way or another. Butbefore the trip I was quite nervous abouthow we could actually make theproduction with the many restrictions andlimitations we faced.”

No mains power or generators could beoperated within one mile of the Taj Mahal.No equipment, stands, or items were to beplaced on any floor surface, a challengingtask for sure. However, utmost respect mustbe paid to this sacred shrine which is oneof the most visited places on earth.Knowing he faced these restrictions beforehe left, Graham searched to find theperfect solution for the shoot before he leftfor India.

“I looked through many brochures, and Isaw the 12 volt to 30 volt converter in theARRI brochure, so found out I could run aPocket Par from a car battery. We couldnot find a supplier of 30 volt batteries inIndia, so this seemed the answer.” Onshooting inside the Taj Mahal, Grahamfound his solution worked successfullywithout any problems.

“Three of my assistants held ARRI PocketPars infront of me around the Taj Mahal.We doubled up the seven metre headleads to give each a fourteen metre leadlength. The extendable leads are reallylight and flexible. This allowed us to locatethe batteries in a safe area out of the wayand just walk around hand holding thevery light heads. As no stands wereallowed and the heads had to be held forsix to eight hours, size and weight wasvery important. One car battery lasted for

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Graham Veevers is a very privileged man. He is the firstperson ever to have been allowed to film inside the TajMahal. The documentary on the history of the Taj Mahal isone of twelve programmes made for the ‘Ancient Voices’series, produced by the BBC TV and the Learning Channelin association with TimeLife Inc.

S e c r e t s o f t h e Ta j M a h a l r e v e a l e d

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N e w s t u d i o s f o r Te l e M o n t e C a r l o i n R o m e

ARRI Italia designed and implemented theentire lighting system for the impessive newtelevision studios of Tele Montecarlo inRome. This included supplying projectors,the hoist and suspension system.

Alfredo Innocenti, Works Director for TeleMonteCarlo explains, “Television activity atVia Novaro has made a significant stepforward, demonstrating the desire tocentralise all resources which are currentlyoperating throughout Italy and abroad,and to make a serious investment in newtechnology. It demonstrates our strongdesire for growth and to keep pace withthe most advanced technology.”

“The studios were already there,” heexplained, noting the design of thesestudios involved removing the previousfixed lighting bridges and opting for theuse of motorised hoists fitted on tracks toobtain vertical as well as partial horizontalmovement. “There were two parallel pipeunits, one on top of another, 450 squaremetres below, 350 square metres above,all completely bare just waiting for theinstallations and acoustics and technicalstructures to make them into an operationalstudio.

The decision to remove the bridges andreplace them with motorised hoists hasclear pros and cons,” continues Innocenti,“the fixed lighting bridge system certainlyhad economic advantages, but the presenthoist system guarantees extreme flexibility.The large initial investment will guarantee anotable reduction in management costs.From an economic standpoint we havesucceeded in optimising the project, andobtaining favourable responses from allsuppliers, without going too much overbudget. Being able to move the motorisedhoist on a horizontal plane approximatelythree metres compared with the centralposition makes it uniquely flexible,especially in the management of setdesign. The time for our first transmissionwas so tight that we had to prepare thelights on the day before – our choicemade this possible.”

The studios have been set up with fulldigital cabling for video, benefiting qualityfrom every angle. From the standpoint ofaudio recording, the choice was for aconsole with a high number of channels,“because we plan to use these studios formusic television programmes or talkshows.”

ARRI Italia was entrusted with setting-upthese new studios despite very strongcompetition. “ARRI products enjoy world-wide confidence. They are reliable, well-built functional products. We wanted thebacking of an organisation capable ofresponding quickly to our requirements withutmost flexibility and quality.”

ARRI Austria was formed in Vienna in1986 to be a research and developmentcentre for Arnold & Richter Munich, initiallyfor the development of the Arriflex 765.Today, the team of fourteen highly qualifiedengineers is continually developing newcameras and camera accessories toexpand and complement the existingArriflex range. This dedicated team consistsof eight mechanical engineers and sixelectronic engineers. Occasionally they arejoined by up to ten technical freelancers.

ARRI Austria houses the latest CAD(computer aided design) and simulationsoftware on state of the art computers toproduce initial concepts through to the finaldesign. A team of four is responsible forthe assembly of these products. Variousmechanical, electronic and optical testingequipment is used to achieve the highquality standards that are expected fromARRI products.

Klemens Kehrer, design engineer at ARRIAustria comments “Due to the small size of

ARRI Austria we can react quickly tochanges and we have a set of highlyspecialised sub-suppliers who can provideus with parts for prototypes for field testingvery quickly.

We have an excellent team spirit and weare very motivated, everybody can bringin their ideas which often leads tosurprising solutions,” continues Kehrer.

“For example, the Integrated CappingShutter for the Arriflex 435. The advantagefor the customer is that often the same teamwho developed the cameras also developa wide variety of accessories. This resultsin a highly compatible range ofaccessories which all work together, witheach other and the cameras. Socompatibility issues are minimal for thecustomer.”

New products are planned in closecollaboration with the sales department inARRI Munich, the ARRI subsidiaries andARRI rental companies and our customers.

24/25 images per second are capturedin an Arriflex camera with precision andaccuracy. However, research,development, design and technicalinnovations take a lot longer to make thispossible. ARRI’s research centre in Austriais the home of some exciting cameraproduct development…

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C a m e r a d e v e l o p m e n t a t A R R I A U S T R I A

A n e w A R R I d i s t r i b u t o r f o r N o r w a yyears. Jan Myhre, general manager at LFSis confident that Norway is set forsignificant growth in the film and televisionindustry in 1999, and looks forward tobecoming a part of the motivated ARRIworldwide distributor network.

LFS went on to exhibit the full range ofARRI lights and camera products atNorway’s annual leading industry eventLLB. Two ARRI 6K’s also lit up the areaoutside the halls to show the delegates thereal power of the lights.

ARRI is pleased to announce theappointment of its new distributor forNorway.

LFS (Lys & Film Support AS) will distributeboth camera and lighting products to theNorwegian market. To mark this event, LFSofficially opened its new offices in Oslo,inviting over thirty major customers to jointhe celebration.

LFS is no stranger to ARRI products, itsparent company SFL in Sweden has beena successful distributor for ARRI for many Left to right:

Stig Sward, Johan Sward (SFL), Jan Myhre (LFS)Nick Shapley (ARRI GB)Horst Bergmann (ARRI Munich)

Arriflex 435

C S C t o t h e r e s c u e

The ensuing demolition effort forced theDepartment of Emergency Management toclose Times Square for nearly two weeks,displacing more than 600 people, andthreatening the livelihood of hundreds ofbusinesses.

In the middle of all this doom and gloomappeared a light. From the night of thedisaster and all during the crisis, CameraService Center (CSC) was there to lend ahand. CSC provided huge movie lightswhile crews performed emergency repairs.

New York City’s film commissioner, PatriciaReed Scott, said, “Arriflex and CSC wentabove and beyond the call of duty to helpin the disaster. It was extraordinary.

Within five minutes of my call to get agenerator, CSC provided two 7k Xenon

On the evening of July 21st, a construction elevator scaffolding collapsed onCondé Nast’s Times Square building, shutting down several city blocks aroundManhattan’s Times Square for more than a week.

“an extraordinarily

dangerous undertaking”

Mayor Giuliani

New York

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orchestras and soloists for this $15 millionevent which took five years in the making.

With such excellent performances from thecast, even the ARRI lights used couldn’toutshine such talent. ARRI lights used onthese performances included the Studio 5Kand T12 loaned by lighting rental houseCINERENT Beijing.

ARRI Lights were supplied to theperformance by ARRI (GB)’s lightingdistributor Jebsen & Co Ltd Hong Kong,who have established nine liason offices inthe major cities of China, and strengthenedtheir ARRI sales and technical team to meetthe new challenges in the market.

The Forbidden City of Beijing provided anauthentic and spectacular venue for bothaudiences of the live performances andtelevision viewers world-wide. Theperformances took place on the square infront of the palace which is today calledthe ‘People’s Cultural Palace.’ This palatialcompound is surrounded by gardens andused to be a meeting place of noblemenand an imperial audience venue for theEmperor in past times.

One of China’s foremost film directorsZhang Yimou joined forces with therenowned conductor Zubin Mehta to leadover one thousand people includingproduction crews, technical staff,

L i g h t i n g t h e ‘ F o r b i d d e n C i t y ’ o f B e i j i n g

A dream came true last September when the lights went up inBeijing, China, for the first of nine performances of Puccini’s opera‘Turandot’, staged as never before in the exact setting imagined byPuccini and his librettists.

lights and a 1400 AMP generator whichpermitted emergency crews to workthroughout the night.” The Department ofEmergency Management described thelights as, “crucial to their efforts.”

CSC applauds its Lighting DepartmentManager, Glenn Vanderlinden, for gettingthe equipment to the emergency sitequickly and on such short notice.Moreover, CSC thanksCommissioner Scott for thisopportunity to assist the Cityof New York.

Says Vanderlinden of thecommissioner, “Pat reallycame through for the cityby knowing how to getthe proper equipmentthere.”

L a t e S h o wThe German cinema community always waits excitedly for the new Dietl production. After ‘Schtonk’ and ‘Rossini’, the man who isprobably the most successful German author and film-maker, hasagain chosen a subject from the media sector. This time it is aboutlate shows and all the intrigues and jealousies which surround it.

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than on the smartness of Hannes Engel.The film owes some of its most beautifulscenes to moments in which humanitydefeats cynicism. For example, when thefantastic Dieter Pfaff as Mick Meyer burstsout suddenly in despair, “…you giveyourself a real headache every day withgoats, poodles, whores and queers. I justdon’t know what people still expect to see.”

It is not individuals who worry in despairabout their careers who make ourtelevision so bad. Dietl does not make it soeasy for himself. Right at the end, ConnyScheffer (Harald Schmidt) discovers that heis intended to ruin the decrepit station TELE-C so that his all-powerful boss, Beer (Otto Schenk) can buy the missing sharesfor the symbolic Mark. So it’s all aboutmoney. The irritation does not last long, weare of course in show business. The playsoon goes on as if nothing had happened.

Jasmin Tabatabai plays Scheffer’s girlfriendand Veronica Ferres Frau Engels. The minorroles are excellently and prominently castwith Olli Dietrich, Jurgen Tarrach, KarlMarcovics and Andrea Sawatzki. SabineOrléans is also to be found in the touchingrole of the fan desperately in love withHannes Engel and Martin Armknecht, wellknown from his role in “A death forQuandt”, in a furioso appearance as aheckler on the Hannes Engel show.

Dietl has hired the two best knownGerman chat show hosts for the mainroles. Harald Schmidt is Conrad Scheffer,the ruthless programme director of thecommercial station TELE-C. On the look outfor better ratings he discovers HannesEngel, a well-loved radio presenter, for hisstruggling late show. Thomas Gottschalkplays Hannes Engel, a role that is partlytrue to life with a few autobiographicalelements, for example, the story of thenymphomaniac, Rose.

However, Late Show is not intended to besensationalism, as Helmut Dietl never tiresof protesting. He is aware of the ambiguityof his casting and plays with the irritationwhich arises from it. But Dietl, who alsowrote the screenplay with ChristophMueller, wants to do more than simplyreflect reality. He wants to discover whyour television functions in the way it doesnow and he uses the means of which hehas the greatest mastery, satire.

So the film handles ratings pressure, sex asa career, intrigue and ruthlessness. ConnyScheffer drives his secretary to suicide inthe film, Mick Meyer suffers a nervousbreakdown and has to be pushed throughthe scenery in a wheelchair for the rest ofthe film. And, of course, the question arisesas to whether it would not be better toconcentrate on the Schäuble effect rather

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convinced art director Rolf Greulich that heshould continue using the high qualityprocedure. It was clearly visible on thecinema screen that the fascination of thebroad landscape, typical of Marlboro,simply gets lost without the high 2k cinemastandard.

The results are now showing in practicallyevery German cinema. After all, 3,880copies were allocated to the Germanmarket alone. Amended versions of thespot will run world wide.

The ARRI Digital Film team in Munich havebeen reworking these spots for a numberof years. The extra filming undertaken inthe USA for the German market has beendigitised in high resolution with cinemaquality, colour corrected on Cineon, andput through the final production process.

This time the clients, Michael Conrad &Leo Burnett of Frankfurt, actually wanted totake a different route and FAZ it (retransferto film) direct from the American videomaster, a procedure which is quite usual inthe industry. However, a cinema test then

Most of us are familiar with the beautiful images of the countryside in the American West which are used for advertising the participation of the:

M a r l b o r o A d v e n t u r e Te a m

After “ROSSINI,” Gernot Rollphotographed a Helmut Dietl film. Herelied on the proven ARRI 535 B and onlyused the lighter Moviecam SL for a fewSteadiCam sequences. He was notconcerned with striking crane runs or othertechnical challenges. He based everythingon carefully built moods using lighting. Intheir entirely intentional artificiality theycontribute to the unreal, illusory atmosphereof the television world, which is almostalways seen at night.

The music for “Late Show” was composedby Stephan Zacharias. After sometelevision work, this is his second filmmusic score after “Frau Rettich, the Czerniand I.” Inez Regnier, who has beenworking with Helmut Dietl for 25 years,was responsible for the cutting work.

The film was produced by Diana-Film incollaboration with WDR. Helmut Dietl hasworked for television again for the first timefor a long time, since “Kir Royal.” In fact,Late Show is his first major TV film. But ofcourse it would not be possible to keep aDietl film out of the cinema and thereforethe Constantin film Late Show beganshowing in cinemas throughout Germanyin February 1999.

However, she was entering new territorythis time because she was cutting on theAVID for the first time.

“Late Show” was filmed during 50 daysbetween May and July 1998 in Cologneand the surrounding area. More than halfwas shot at night. The former CapitalCinema, well known from the HaraldSchmidt show, served as the backdrop forthe Mick Meyer and Hannes Engel showin the film. The entire final processing ofthe film was undertaken by the ARRI Lab inMunich. For the first time with a Germanfilm, the final copies were put on the newKodak Vision Premier stock. With itsincreased density and steeper contrastrange, the new material permits evendeeper blacks and has a generally sharperand brighter effect.

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Success at Blink has inevitably led toexpansion and the company now enjoyssuccess in other areas of production. Blinkformed an associated company which isresponsible for producing music videopromos and work from outside the UK.Aptly named ‘Stink,’ this company acts asan international vehicle for the directors atBlink. Stink developed as anamalgamation of Still King in Prague andBlink in the UK. It was originally basedwithin the Blink offices, but happily Stinkhas now outgrown its conception locationand has expanded to its own offices.

With all this success, expansion, and thecollection of awards to consider, Blink stillperfects all details of production planningfrom location booking, casting andequipment hire – which can make or breaka tightly planned shooting schedule. Onesuch commerial was for the launch of SkyDigital TV…

B l i n k P r o d u c t i o n s… k e e p i n g b o t h e y e s o p e n f o r t h e f u t u r e o f c o m m e r c i a l s

With a host of production companiesspringing up to bid for the tide ofcommercial productions available, oneestablished company is already leadingthe way with its artistic perfection andboundless creativity from its award winningdirectors. One of the top five productioncompanies in the UK, Blink Productions hasproduced countless commercials over theyears. Working with clients such as Volvo,Daewoo, Whiskas, Midland Bank,Guinness, Sky and Cellnet, Blink has wonmany prestigious awards includingCampaign’s Production Company of theYear in 1997.

Blink Productions was set up in 1986 byBob Lawrie who was then animationdirector, who was joined a year later bymanaging director James Studholme. In1993 Blink Productions changed frompurely an animation company to solely liveaction and now has a roster of eightdirectors.

The directors at Blink work with anassortment of agencies including BMPDDB, Abbott Mead Vickers, Lowe HowardSpink and M & C Saatchi.

“For commercials,” comments RebeccaBrierley, producer with Blink, “sometimesit’s very obvious as to what format is bestsuited to the script. For example, if you’represented with a script that follows thepath of someone’s life from a child throughto adult, it helps to tell the story by startingoff using super 8, then 16mm and then35mm.”

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“The launch commercial for Sky Digitalwas Blink’s largest project last year withinthe UK,” explains Rebecca. “With onlythree weeks to prepare, complex specialeffects in every shot, explosions,helicopters, cranes, 3D animation andworking on every kind of stockimaginable, it was a godsend that therewere no artists, just hundreds of TVs.

The commercial was shot both in-studioand on location using the steep cliffs ofSeven Sisters near Beachy Head, in andaround London, and Burnham Beeches,Berkshire. The filming required a largecrew particularly on the explosion daywhen we used the most amount ofcameras I’ve ever used – eight! We usedArriflex 435s and Arriflex IIIs, cranes,hotheads etc, all supplied by ARRI Media.”

Challenges of the commercial“We were under an enormous pressurefrom a timing point of view. We hadscheduled it perfectly to shoot over threeweeks and were delayed over the first fewdays when it rained. The helicopter shotswere delayed and the shoot was re-scheduled using every spare day within thethree weeks including the weekends.Morale was so low by the end of thesecond day. Everyone had spent so muchtime and energy making sure it would runsmoothly – what an absolute relief to havepure sunshine on the third day.

We filmed on the beach using a Giraffecrane. To achieve a certain shot it wasnecessary to erect a platform in the sea forthe crane. Our director of photographySimon Richards was fantastic. At the endof the second day he travelled to thebeach location and in pitch darkness,assisted by the location manager and theart director, staked out the exactpositioning for the platform using hisknowledge of the tides. Simon is incrediblyenthusiastic and very hands-on, I couldn’thave asked for anyone better.

The beach day also proved difficult as thedirector wanted to see a TV fall off a200ft cliff directly towards the camera.We positioned the camera on the beachfacing up the cliff and built a protectivecasing for the camera. I was extremelyconcerned about everyone’s safety so Iemployed a professional climber. He was

tied to a Land Rover on the cliff top andhurled the TV off the cliff. Everyone belowwas standing a safe distance away whilstshooting. Only the necessary crew wereallowed near the camera, of coursewearing hard hats at all times. It was veryscary but at the same time really exciting!”

Rebecca adds “it’s not only vitallyimportant for us to have the back-up andsupport of ARRI Media, whether it’s anengineer, driver or someone in the camerarental department, but also to know thatwe are getting the most up to date andreliable equipment.”

Post production for the commercial tooktwo weeks including the 3D animation andthe commercial was aired for three weeksin October 1998.

S k y d i g i t a l c o m m e r c i a l …

The ARRILASER is the first product in thenew Digital Systems range from ARRI, andis evidently set to become an industrystandard for facilities worldwide.

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and the ARRILASER concurrently, and hada chance to make direct comparisons. Wefound no glitches in either the movement orthe exposure. Image sharpness and colourbalance was far superior in the ARRILASERimages. The output quality of the newARRILASER recorder is just what weexpected from an ARRI product.”

Working with the ARRI team from productconception, Digital Domain’s Scan RecordSupervisor Christopher Holsey says hisexperience with the ARRILASER has beengreat: “The ARRI people kept insisting thatthey would have the ARRILASER up andworking in about 90 minutes. Having beeninvolved in numerous installations ofcomplex equipment, we were sceptical.So, when it came time for the installationof the beta unit, we had someone time us.The ARRI team was extremely professional,and we were actually up and shootingimages in just 87 minutes. Nobodybuilding this kind of laser recording systemhas had this kind of plug and playsuccess. To deliver a real product of thislevel of technology to a facility and beable to shoot images in under 90 minutesis unprecedented in the industry.”

Comparing the ARRILASER with similarequipment used previously, Holsey isadamant: “The image quality is as goodas or better than anything we have seen inreal images from any other laser system,but when you look at the test targets andanalyse them, you can see the realdifference. This is why we decided to getinvolved with the ARRILASER beta ratherthan anything else out there. The densityoutput from film shot on the ARRILASERplots much more linear than samples fromcompeting systems particularly around thetop of the density range.”

ARRI’s new digital film recorder, theARRILASER, was launched in September1998 at IBC in Amsterdam. Large crowdsgathered at the ARRI booth to see the sleekdesign comprising the latest innovation indigital film recording technology that hasproved a major breakthrough for the digitalfilm industry.

In December ’98 ARRI installed the firstARRILASER as a beta unit at DigitalDomain Inc., in Venice, California. DigitalDomain was chosen for its reputation forquality work and the availability ofexcellent engineering resources to helpARRI technicians through any technicalissues for final phase modifications. DigitalDomain has successfully established aworld class reputation for innovation andartistry, and won an Academy Award ®for best visual effects on James Cameron’s‘Titanic’ and a British Academy Award ®for best visual effects on Luc Besson’s ‘TheFifth Element.’ Digital Domain has recentlyreceived its fourth Academy Award ®nomination for best visual effects on ‘WhatDreams May Come.’

Having tested the ARRILASER for the pastfew months, Digital Domain remainspositive about the benefits the ARRILASERwill provide.

Mark Stetson, Digital Domain’s VisualEffects Supervisor, comments, “ARRI’sreputation for rigid quality standards hasbeen proven once again, with the newARRILASER recorder. Working with a betaunit, the ARRILASER has been virtually a‘plug and play’ experience at DigitalDomain. We’ve given the new recorder arigorous trial. We output many long-running shots on an existing laser recorder

T h e A R R I L A S E Rp r o v e s i t s p r e d i c t i o n s – a c c u r a t e , p r e c i s e a n d f a s t

The ARRILASER will be at NAB 1999, Las Vegas Convention Centre, Stand no. L 23473.

For further details on the ARRILASER contact Kristian Willand.

Telephone: +49 8938 09 1038 Email: kwilland@arri.de or visit the ARRI website: www.arri.com

Jeff Kalmus, Colour Grading Supervisor at Digital Domain

Historical perspectivesThe Arc LampThe electric arc was one of the first meansof producing light. Lightning had alwaysbeen a symbol of the power of the gods,so the attempt to tame it was symbolic ofman’s power over nature. A populartheatrical lightning effect involvedconnecting a metal file and a carbon rodto an electrical supply, then running thecarbon rod down the file. This hazardousprocedure could produce a bright flashand an impressive shower of sparks.Producing light continuously was moredifficult, although in1808 the Britishscientist Humphrey Davy succeeded inbuilding the first arc lamp.

Air is normally an effective insulator but theearly electricians discovered they couldform an arc by first touching twoconductors together then moving themapart. The high temperature where theconductors (or electrodes) touched causedthe air to break down into positive andnegatively charged components. Once thisbreakdown started, more current flowed,heating the air even more. If the gap is notincreased, the arc acts like a short circuit,more and more current flows until the fusesblew! To prevent this, the operator mustincrease the gap to make it harder for theelectricity to cross.

In this century, the arc lamp was taken upby the film industry. For more than sixtyyears, lamp operators and projectionistsstruck arcs much as Davy did. Once lit,they had to adjust the gap between thecarbon electrodes as they burned away.Although mechanical systems were devisedto do this, manual intervention was oftenrequired. There were other difficulties. Thelight included dangerous ultra-violetradiation. Toxic gasses were produced socinema projection rooms required anextraction system. Despite these difficulties,the unique quality of the light was enoughto encourage the use of arc lights until abetter alternative could be found.

HMI – The Next GenerationIn the late 1960’s ARRI and Osramcollaborated to produce the first luminairesfor location use using a new arc lamp,which would become the “HMI” orMercury (Hg) Metal Iodide lamp. The twoelectrodes were sealed into a quartz glassglobe allowing exact control of the gasmixture. This eliminated poisonous fumesand reduced UV to the point where theglass lens absorbed it. Greater control ofthe colour and quality of light could bemaintained so a true daylight equivalentcould be produced and more importantly,accurately reproduced by every lightsource without relying on the constantattention of skilled operators. Xenon lampswere becoming established for cinemaprojection, but they operate at extremelyhigh pressures. The reduced risk ofexplosion made HMI more suitable forportable lampheads and it was first usedto spectacular success at the MunichOlympics of 1972.

Because the arc was sealed into a glassenvelope, it was no longer possible toadjust the gap. The new lamps required adifferent way of forming the arc and somemeans to control it once formed. The first isachieved by an “igniter” in the lamphead.This generates up to 65,000V forapproximately one second – enough toform an arc inside the lamp, allowingcurrent to flow. The problem then becomesone of limiting the flow – the function ofthe “ballast”.

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The Ideal SolutionTheoretically, by switching the flow ofcurrent instantly from one direction to theother, the camera would see a constantlight source. At any film speed, each framewould be exposed equally and therewould be no flicker. This was impossiblewith a choke ballast. A solution usingelectronics was needed.

The basic design involves three stages. Thefirst converts AC mains to DC, the secondstabilises the DC current and regulates theflow of energy to the lamp. The thirdrepeatedly switches the direction of thecurrent to supply the lamp. The directionchanges about eighty times each second,but each change takes only a few tens ofmillionths of a second – the light iseffectively constant even when filming to10,000fps.

Initially electronic ballasts were seen as aspecialist product, only for special effectsand scientific photography. But filmmakerswere keen to be able to change the speedof the camera without limitations. Havingflicker-free ballasts on the set at all timesprovided that freedom.

More AdvantagesElectronic ballasts needed to produceflicker-free light but offer many moreadvantages. Because a choke has nointelligence, it cannot compensate forchanges in lamp performance and supplyvoltage. To overcome this, ARRI chose anelectronic ballast with full power control.By monitoring lamp current and voltage,the ballast operates the lamp at its

optimum for as much of its life as possible,compensating for any variations so correctlight colour, quantity and quality aremaintained for longer. Also, by controllingthe current through the lamp duringignition, damage to the electrodes isminimised. Together these result in a 20%increase in useful lamp life.

Control of lamp power allows thepossibility to reduce it, so ARRI ballastsallow dimming of the lamp to 50% power.

Besides giving flicker-free operation,switching the lamp current quicklyincreases light output by 5% because thelight does not dim and brighten with eachreversal of the supply current.

The design of a choke has little scope forsize and weight reduction. Even earlyelectronic ballasts were smaller and lighterthan choke equivalents and the reductionscontinue. The latest 6/12kW is less than40% of the weight of a 12kW chokeballast.

The first ballast was simply a coil of wireon an iron core. When current begins toflow through the coil it sets up a magneticfield which opposes the flow. If the currentincreases, the magnetic field also increasesto oppose it. It is simple, effective,comparatively cheap and much smallerthan the rectifier sets Xenon lamps require.However, it is less than ideal for film use.

The Flicker EffectHMI and their successors, MSR lamps,require alternating current supplies. In anarc lamp supplied with direct current,always flowing in the same direction, oneelectrode tends to burn away. By switchingthe direction of the current, burning of theelectrodes is minimised. This is easy whenthe supply is from the mains, which is anAC source. But because the light source isa gas, which cools quickly, the light dimsand brightens as the supply reduces beforeincreasing in the opposite direction. Thishappens 100 times a second so isinvisible to the eye, but can affect themovie camera because each frame of filmis exposed only for a short time.

If the supply is exactly 50Hz, the light dimsone hundred times each second. A camerafilming at exactly 25fps exposes eachframe for 1/50th second. Two pulses oflight fall on each frame so each will beexposed equally. But any change of thegenerator or camera speed produces thenotorious “flicker” effect – light falls moreon some frames than others.

To combat this, the camera wassynchronised to the mains or generator.This required connecting cables – not idealon location. Later, electronic controlsystems ensured that camera andgenerator maintained correct speeds. Butthis only solves the problem some of thetime. When the lights are effectivelyflashing one hundred times per second, thecameraman can shoot at speeds such as25 or 50fps with each frame exposedequally with two or one pulses of light. Butat say, 35fps, frames are exposed atdifferent parts of the cycle. Again, somewill be over and some under exposed.

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free or a low-noise, but non flicker-freemode. Recent models offer two low noisemodes allowing safe, quiet operation at24/25 or 30fps which is ideal for UScameramen shooting for TV and working incountries with 50Hz mains.

Over-Voltage ProtectionExperience on location showed thatextreme high voltage spikes could becaused by disconnecting supply cablesunder load. Additionally, there is the risk ofconnecting the supply incorrectly. Becauseof this, ARRI ballasts were fitted withprotection against both spikes andcontinuous high voltages.

Soft StartingThe choke ballast’s surges of power duringignition, besides damaging the lampelectrodes, can cause problems to thesupply. With a small generator, or a longmains cable, the supply may not be ableto meet this sudden demand and the lampcannot strike. ARRI’s electronic ballastscontrol this surge and prevent it fromaffecting the supply.

Output ProtectionAnalysis of faults on the first generation ofelectronic ballasts showed that troubleoften originated not in the ballast but thelamphead. The design of an igniter isintended to keep high voltages safelyconfined in the lamphead without themaffecting the ballast. But in old lampheads,component failure or damaged insulationcan reduce the effectiveness of thedesigner’s precautions without the userbeing aware of it. To combat this, a newprotection system was developed and,after approval from the German standardsauthority, was fitted to all ballasts. Nosystem can protect against every possiblefault but this has made a substantialimprovement to reliability.

The Flicker MeterChecking that light is truly flicker-free canbe useful in situations where a variety oflight sources are used together, or whereflicker problems have been seen on rushes,since flicker on film can also be caused bycamera, stock or processing problems.ARRI supplies the Flicker Meter, whichgives a percentage readout of flicker – lessthan 3% variation is safe, flicker-free light.The same meter can also be used tomeasure light frequency for synchronisationto light sources or monitors.

Boost BallastsArri boost ballasts virtually double theoutput of a standard lamphead for up totwenty seconds. This is used for high-speedphotography such as car crash testing inlaboratories around the world. Usingdischarge lighting in this way providesextreme light levels without correspondinglyhigh heat affecting sensitive measuringequipment.

Extreme ClimatesAs well as the extreme cold of Lillehammer,ARRI ballasts are chosen for the 50°Cdesert conditions of South Africa andSpain where no other manufacturer’selectronic ballasts can operate.

The Olympics – a vital roleARRI ballasts have played a part in lightingthe Olympic Games for many years. Theyperformed well in both the heat ofBarcelona and Atlanta and in the cold ofLillehammer and Nagano.

The Future is BrightElectronic ballasts have come a long wayin fifteen years but there are more excitingand innovative changes to come for newfeatures, improved reliability andserviceability. Full details can be obtainedfrom your local ARRI distributor.

Power Factor Correction – The ALFPower factor is a measure of how muchgenerator capacity a ballast requires. Aballast with power factor 0.5 uses twicethe capacity of a ballast with power factor1 for the same work. Electronic ballastswith power factors less than 1 can alsocause overheating of cables so optimisingpower factor is important. Even the firstARRI ballasts from 4kW used asophisticated electronic circuit – the ActiveLine Filter. This allows power factorcorrection without a big increase in thesize of the ballast.

More recently, the ALF is the key tomeeting the demands of the European CEstandards by minimising the disturbancecaused to the mains supply.

Dual Voltage SwitchingARRI offered 110 and 230V operationselected automatically first on 575 and1.2kW models. The latest range offersdual voltage options from 125W to 6kW.

The Low Noise SwitchThe electronic ballast was first seen as onlyfor shooting at high and low speeds wheresync sound was not required, but quicklybecame the standard on every film shoot.One limitation was the noise produced bylamp and ignitor due to the fast switchingof the supply current but ARRI did not wishto restrict users to using soundproofedlampheads. The answer was a low-noiseswitch giving the choice between flicker-

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for a final grade. There is very littledifference in costs between the two routes,but the final grade from a negative is moresatisfactory.

The film negative is sent to the lab and therushes are transferred on Mike Fraser’stelecine, which incorporates an ARRI time-code reader, to Digital Betacam or BetaSP. Syncing in telecine is expensive andfraught with problems, so the informationof both the ARRI timecode and the picturetimecode is compiled automatically to disc.

The DAT timecode and the telecineinformation are then combined using theMike Fraser “Triple A” software. It syncs upthe sound with the picture, takes out everywild track, run ups , run ons etc, lists themseparately and adds them to the end ofthe Beta or on to a separate Beta tape.

All of this in the blink of an eye, leavingtime for Fraser to check and resync wherenecessary any problems that may haveoccurred in the field.

The editor is therefore able to get all theinformation on the Betacam SP tapesexactly where he/she wants it. A digitisingdisc for the online is created with the inand out times noted together with thename of every take. All the rushes aretherefore in sync.

Recent productions using the systeminclude “Harbour Lights” – the new Nick

Berry ten one hour series for ValentineProductions, “The Passion” – a three onehour drama series shot in Devon by FirstChoice Films and the currently being shotsix one hour drama “The Gatekeeper” forBBC Cardiff.

“The Computer takes the pressure off. Italso helps me work quicker and if I amtired there are no mistakes,” so saysKatrina Ford, negative cutter at Mike Fraserof their new CAN (Computer Aided Neg-cut) software.

In a normal week a negative cutter canmake up to 1000 splices, each timecarefully reading the KEY KODE against aprint out. But anyone can make a mistake,particularly at the end of the day whentired eyes can mistake a 6 for a 9.

So Rod Wheeler, operations director andtechnical whizz kid, sat down and wrote aprogramme combining the power of theOsc/r computer translations and theexperience of individual negative cutters.

Now, instead of the negative cutter havingto judge whether the number is a 6 or a 9(this can be very difficult when the filmedge is fogged or covered in encryptions)the software does it for them. As thechosen edit point is approached, a bar onthe monitor turns yellow as a warning andthen red when the actual frame is reachedaccompanied by an audible warning. Aquick human eye check and then cuttingtakes place, safely.

So what do these two new pieces ofsoftware offer producers?

Firstly, stress and error free negativecutting. Secondly, the reduction in stockand the lack of awkward waits for theactors when using the new sync system.Thirdly, the knowledge that the rushes willbe in sync.

For more information on the system contactMike Fraser at mike@mfraser.demon.co.uk

Mike Fraser Limited has perfected andpatented a software package for transferand syncing film pictures and sound at anastounding speed with guaranteedaccuracy. The process maintains acomprehensive listing and placement of alltrims and wildtracks automatically, andallows a10% film stock saving as run-upsare eliminated.

The use of film time code for syncingpurposes has been a mixed blessing inrecent years. The linking of the cameraand the sound recording accurately shouldmean that while sound is being recorded,

its time of day time-code is automaticallyprinted and encrypted onto the side of thefilm. Theoretically it should be very easyand automatic to sync the sound and thepicture rushes.

However this doesn’t always work inpractice and many productions havetended to avoid what in effect areexcellent syncing tools.

In the past camera manufacturers’ timecode systems have had problems. Also,the philosophy of syncing rushes haschanged from being sound-led to non-linear editing which is picture-led.

A lot of programmes today are shot on filmand either telecine transferred to DigitalBetacam to stay in the digital domain, orto Beta SP with a return to the cut negative

T i m e c o d e u p d a t eer ro r - f r ee negat i ve cu t t i ng

This year’s award moves ARRI into theexclusive club of technological companieswhich have received the most awards fromHollywood.

This year’s prize winners were shown forthe first time as prototypes at ShowBiz in1994 and were very soon a success inthe marketplace. Approximately 150ARRIFLEX 435s are manufactured and soldeach year. The 435 replaces the popularARRIFLEX 35 III.

The 435 runs at 1-150 frames per secondforwards and reverse with quartzstabilisation and offers extreme precisionwith the best possible centering, allrobustly and very compactly packed into6.5 kg (not including the cassette.) Thesefeatures are combined with an ergononicdesign and a viewfinder that can swivelon to the other side of the camera.

A mirror aperture which can be adjustedelectronically while the camera is runninghas opened up new creative possibilitieswhich have become very popular e.g. so-called ramping, which can add furtherdrama to action scenes, or invisiblecompensation for differences in exposurewhen changing from outdoor to indoorfilming in one take. Modular accessoriesround off the equipment. These includehigh quality video pictures which can beused later in the offline, together with a

convenient single frame switch fortime-lapse recording and the serialinterface which enables remotecontrol of the camera.

The 435 provides the cameraoperator with the widest feature andperformance capability of any MOScamera in use today.

A multiplicity of features andbenefits. The ‘classic’ applicationis in commercials and as the

second unit camera in action scenes whereversatility and maximum precision aredemanded. Moreover, the more filmmaterial is reworked digitally, the higherthe demands on the camera.

The fact that “second unit” means anythingbut second choice where a film is beingmade is demonstrated by one of the firstgreat applications of the ARRIFLEX 435 ina feature film at the Cinecitta Studios inRome. The action thriller DAYLIGHT wasfilmed there with Sylvester Stallone in1996. The 435 had particularly hard usebeing close to explosions and water, butalso the noise barrier. Cameraman DavidEggby often preferred using the 435instead of the ARRIFLEX 535 with itssoundproof housing which is designed tobe silent in the studio. “We often workedwithout a special underwater housing oreven spray protection. My team considerthe camera to be watertight anyway”, heexplained.

It is no surprise that the 435 is alsoextremely popular in quite differentsituations, e.g. when filming adocumentary which has previously usuallybeen done on 16mm material because thebudget is quite different, as are the filmingconditions. However, anyone who takespride in his work and thinks about theworldwide distribution has to work with35mm format. Several documentaryprojects are currently underway at thesame time using the ARRIFLEX 435:MYSTERY OF NATURE, the continuation ofthe very successful FASZINATION NATURby Gogol Lobmayr and the BBC seriesWALKING WITH DINOSAURS by JohnHowarth.

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On 27th February 1999,ARRI was awarded twotechnical Oscars at theRegent Beverly WiltshireHotel in Hollywood: for theARRIFLEX 435 and for theVariable Prime Lensesdeveloped with Carl Zeiss.

r e c o g n i s i n g A R R I t e c h n o l o g y

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The use of the Variable Primes is similarlywidespread – one set with three lenses,which cover a range from 16 to 105 mm(T2.2) focal length without leaving anygaps and therefore replace eightconventional fixed focal lengths and more.Variable Primes means variable fixed focallengths and represent a quantum leap inmodern lens design.

The philosophy behind the new conceptwas simple and logical but technicallyexpensive to implement. In the past, therewere high quality fixed focal lengths andalso zoom lenses, which often requiredsignificant compromises insofar as imagequality and lens speed were concerned.The requirement was to produce lenseswith a variable focal length which offeredthe optical quality of a fixed focal length.International productions using

the ARRIFLEX 435:

FIFTH ELEMENTSTARWARS sequelsAIR FORCE ONEVIRUSGLORIADEEP IMPACTICE STORM KUNDUNDAYLIGHTWING COMMANDER KULL THE CONQUERORSUBSTITUTETARZAN & JANEDER SCHÖNSTE BERUF DER WELT ASTEROIDBANDITS BIN ICH SCHÖNFEUERREITERFETTE WELTBEOWULFAN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN PARISMYSTERY OF NATURECASCADEUR

Awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts andSciences for ARRI development

1966 For the design and development of the ARRIFLEX 35

1974 For the design and development of the ARRIFLEX 35 BL

1982 For the concept and development of the first industrially manufacturedprofessional 35mm film single lens reflex camera

1989 For the concept and development of the ARRIFLEX 35 III

1991 For the constant further development of the ARRIFLEX BL camera systems

1993 For the design and development of the ARRIFLEX 765 camera systems

1996 For the development of the ARRIFLEX 535 camera series

1999 For the design and development of the ARRIFLEX 435

1999 For the concept and the optical design of the Carl Zeiss/ARRIFLEX

Variable Primes

The result means fewer lens changes onthe set and a saving in production time.An additional bonus is the ability to setintermediate focal lengths which wouldotherwise be ‘impossible’. The opticalquality exceeds that of the fixed focallengths to a significant degree in someareas.

The Variable Prime Lens System includesthe focal lengths:• 16-30 mm VP 1• 29-60 mm VP 2• 55-105 mm VP 3

Michael Ballhaus has used them for filmingAIR FORCE ONE together with StanleyKubrick, for his new work EYES WIDESHUT, and Vilmos Zsigmond in hisFANTASY FOR A NEW AGE commercial,or DoP Richard Greatrex who used theVariable Primes in SHAKESPEARE IN LOVEwhich has won seven Oscars. Otherproductions include THE PEACEMAKER,MYSTERY OF NATURE, VENUS BEAUTE,DER SCHÖNSTE BERUF DER WELT (Leplus bon metier du monde).

This series of variable prime lenses openmany creative possibilities, since any focallength can be continuously selectedthroughout the entire range. They offersharp, high-contrast, high-resolution imageswith minimized vignetting, superior tomany prime lenses.

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For the last five years, ARRI has been oneof the principal sponsors. GiuseppeTucconi, representing ARRI Munich, waspresented with a sponsors award for manyyears of support.

Several workshops were run by well-knowncameramen during the festival. ARRIshowed the ARRIFLEX 535B, the VariablePrime set of lenses and the latest daylightand tungsten lights.

A series of seminars were held, includingone with cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs(Easy Rider). Kovacs, whose works formed

a central feature of the festival, was giventhe Lifetime Achievement Award for hiswork. In addition, Robby Müller (Breakingthe Waves) and Arthur Reinhart (Nothing)gave the students an insight into theircreative inspiration in the workshop tent.

A total of more than 60 films were shownin the week from 28th November to 6thDecember. Germany was represented byCascadeur, Sin Querer, Die Giraffe, Binich schön?, and Lola rennt.

The Golden Frog was awarded to theBrazilian, Walter Carvalho for CentralStation. The Silver Frog was awarded tothe Japanese cameraman HideoYamamoto for Hana Bi and the BronzeFrog was awarded to the Swede JensFischer for Beneath the Surface. TheAdditional Award was given to VittorioStoraro for the film, Tango. An HonoraryAward for the best director/cameramanduo went to Ingmar Bergmann and SvenNykvist, which Sven Nykvist accepted inperson.

The positive trend of the last few years inthe Polish film industry is continuing. With35 films and more than 480 commercialsbeing shot in 1998. This trend has alsoincreased the demand for technicalequipment into the Polish market.

C a m e r i m a g e’98 The International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography –‘Camerimage’, took place for the sixth time in Torun (Poland).With over 40,000 visitors, its popularity is evidently increasing.Like previous years, it is an important international festival at whichthe cameraman and his work are the main focus of the event.

Set in the picturesque town of Lenggries surrounded by stunningscenery and slopes, and with more snow than usual, the scenewas set for an intense activity filled weekend.

The more strenuous activities included ski and snow board lessonsfor first timers, a ski race between the ARRI countries for the moreadvanced, Bavarian dancing and plenty of ‘Arrioke’ singing.

The highlight for most during the weekend, was a mountain climbto a traditional Bavarian chalet, where supper was followed byRobert Arnold sharing some heart warming schnapps and furioussledge rides back down the mountain to the hotel.

Feeling fit and refreshed from the mountain air, all who took partarrived home safely with memories of a thoroughly fun

packed and enjoyable weekend whichstrengthened the working and informal

relationships between the internationalARRI colleagues.

T h e A R R I Te a m – s k i i n g Adventurous staff from ARRI offices in Munich,Austria, Italy, England, Wales and Stephanskirchen,gathered for a long weekend in Bavaria in lateJanuary to enjoy the first international ARRI ski meet,supported by Dr.Walter Stahl and Robert Arnold.

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38

ARRI Med ia LONDON

A s e l e c t i o n o f r e c e n t l y s e r v i c e d P r o d u c t i o n s

Title Production Co Director DoP Type

THE WRONG BLONDE Pathé Productions Michel Blanc Barry Ackroyd BSC 35mm FeatureBEST Best Films Ltd Mary McGuckian Witold Stok BSC 35mm FeatureTHE BEACH Beach Productions Danny Boyle Darius Khondji 35mm FeatureRKO 281 Labrador Films Benjamin Ross Mike Southon BSC 35mm FeatureCOMPLICITY Talisman Films Ltd Gavin Millar David Odd 35mm FeatureARABIAN KNIGHTS Thistle Management Ltd Steve Barron Remi Adefarasin BSC 35mm TV SeriesTUBE TALES Horsepower Films Ltd Various Brian Tufano BSC/ 35mm TV Series

David JohnsonST SAVIOURS Granada TV Simon Meyers Shelley Hirst 16mm TV DramaSECOND SIGHT Twenty Twenty Television Charles Beeson Rex Maidment BSC 16mm TV DramaTRIAL BY FIRE Arrowhead Productions Ltd Patrick Lau Simon Kossoff BSC 16mm TV DramaIN THE NAME OF LOVE Meridian Broadcasting Ltd Ferdinand Fairfax Chris Seager BSC 16mm TV DramaHOPE & GLORY BBC Television Juliet May Alan Trow BSC Digi TV SeriesMAISIE RAINE II Fair Game Films Ltd Various Colin Munn Digi TV SeriesJAILBIRDS Shed Productions Mike Adams/ Chris Cheshire Digi TV Series

Lawrence Moody/Jim O’Hanlon

Title Production Co DOP/L.D Type Equipment

50 VIOLINS 50 Fiddles Jonathan Lumley Film Lighting/gripPIZZA HUT 40 Acres & A. Mule Antonio Tatum TV Lighting/gripPIZZA HUT Coppos Films John Deblau TV Lighting/gripBOILER ROOM Boiler Room Inc. Joe Quirk Film Lighting/gripBUD LIGHT 40 Acres & A Mule Andrew Day TV Lighting/gripBOBBY SHORT Cornerstone Pictures Inc. John Deblau TV Lighting/gripBRITISH AIRWAYS Ritts/Hayden Mo Flam TV Lighting/gripJERSEY GUYS Jersey Guys LLC Scott Levy Film Lighting/grip/535BARMOR ALL Shooting Stars Prod. John Cardoni TV Lighting/gripBOILER ROOM Boiler Room Inc Joe Quirk Film LightingSWEET & LOW MJZ Inc. J.P. Dolan TV LightingKIL KENNY MJZ Inc John Deblau TV LightingJESUS’S SON Jesus’s Son Prod. Adam Kimmel Film 2 535B’sTHE CITIZEN Citizen LLC Oliver Bokelberg Film 2 MoviecamsLEGACY Deseret Media T.C. Christianson Film 2 765’sBIG MONEY HUSTLAS Non-Homogenized Prod James Carman Film 535BBELLVUE Hostage Prod Ron Fortunato Film 2 16SR 3s Advance‘O’ O LLC Russel Fine Film 2 535B’s

CSC NEW YORK

39

ARRI L igh t ing Renta l UK

Title Production Co Director DoP Type

SECOND SIGHT Twenty Twenty Television Charles Beeson Rex Maidment BSC 16mm dramaTHE WRONG BLONDE Pathé Productions Michel Blanc Barry Ackroyd BSC 35mm feature filmBEST Best Films Ltd Mary Mc Guckian Witold Stok BSC 35mm feature filmJAILBIRDS Shed Productions Mike Adams Chris Cheshire TV dramaMAISIE RAINE II Fair Game Films Bob Mahoney/ Colin Munn TV drama

Claire Winyard/Rob EvansST SAVIOURS Granada Television Simon Meyers Shelley Hirst 16mm dramaARABIAN NIGHTS Hallmark Productions Steve Baron Remi Adefarasin BSC 35mm featureIN THE COMPANY OF HTV Drama Endaf Emlyn Peter Morgan TV drama

STRANGERSHOPE AND GLORY BBC Drama Juliet May/Peter Lyden Alan Trow BSC TV dramaTRIAL BY FIRE Arrowhead Productions Ltd Patrick Lau Simon Kossoff BSC 16mm dramaEUREKA STREET Euphoria Films Adrian Shergold Daf Hobson BSC 16mm dramaWIVES AND DAUGHTERS BBC Drama Nick Renton Fred Tammes 16mm dramaDOCKERS Parallax Pictures Bill Anderson Cinders Forshaw 16mm drama

ARRI Renta l and Fac i l i t i e s MUNICH

Title Production Co Type Equipment

MARLBORO TEAM M. Conrad & L. Burnett Commercial CineonPUNKTCHEN & ANTON Caroline Link Lunaris Film Munich Feature film Cineon/FlameWER LIEBT DEM WACHSEN FLUGEL Tele Munich 35mm film Cineon/FlameDER GOLDENE SCHUB d.i.e. Film Munich Film Avid23 Claussen & Woebke Filmproduktion Feature film Cineon/FlameLATE SHOW Diana Film, Munich TV Feature Cineon,Avid, ARRI Sound,

ARRI Lab, ARRI RentalEXPO 2000 SHOWSIMULATION Kuk Filmproduktion Munich Film Alias WavefrontPRO7 NACHRICHTEN Velvet Munich TV Softimage

UND WETTER-TRAILERFORTRESS 11 Codeca Luxemburg Feature film Lighting/Camera RentalSUNSHINE Kinowelt Filmproduktion Feature film Lighting/Camera Rental,

ARRI Post production, ARRI LabST PAULI NACHT Hager Moss Film KG Super 35mm AvidSCHLARAFFENLAND Hager Moss Film KG Super 35mm Lighting /Camera RentalSUDSEE EIGENE INSEL Indigo Filmproduktion GmbH 35mm film Lighting/Camera RentalBRUBE AUS DER GRUNEN WUSTE Trebitsch Produktion Super 35mm Lighting/Camera Rental/AvidFANDANGO Calypso Film Produktion Super 35mm ARRI LabDER GROSSE BAGAROZY Constantin Film Produktion Super 35mm Lighting/Camera Rental/Post ProductionJETS Frankfurter Film Produktion 16mm film Lighting/Camera RentalBLUMEN VOM EX Visuelle Koln 16mm film Lighting/Camera Rental HAUPTER MEINER LIEBEN Reischel & Ziegler Munich 35mm film Lighting/Camera RentalSIDOL E & P Munich 35mm film Lighting/Camera Rental/Studio MCDONALDS E & P Munich 35mm film Lighting/Camera Rental/StudioDRAGONHEART 11 – PILOTFILM Draco Films Ltd U.K. 35mm film Lighting/Camera RentalTRILLENIUM Tellux 35mm film Camera RentalJOURNEY OF MAN Ufa International 3-D IMAX Lighting RentalDR STEFAN FRANK Phoenix TV Drama Lighting RentalSPACE ZOO T4 Film Sponsored short Lighting Rental

co-productionDIE KRAUSES Constantin Film TV Comedy Lighting RentalURBAN TRILOGY Wildside TV Commercial Lighting Rental

Key Contacts

ARNOLD & RICHTER CINE TECHNIK,Turkenstr. 89D-80799 München, GermanyTel (+49) 89 3809 0Fax (+49) 89 3809 1244E-mail webmaster@arri.deSupport Camera Tel (+49) 89 3809 1209Camera Rental Tel (+49) 89 3809 1325Lighting Rental Tel (+49) 89 3809 1345ARRI TV Tel (+49) 89 3809 1512ARRI Digitalfilm Tel (+49) 89 3809 1574ARRI Sound Tel (+49) 89 3809 1628Laboratory Tel (+49) 89 3809 1339

ARRI Contrast GMBH BerlinLaboratoty, Sound, VideopostproductionTel (+49) 30 3000 9111

ARRI (GB) LIMITED1-3 Airlinks , Spitfire WayHeston, MiddlesexTW5 9NR, EnglandTel (+44) 181 213 5200Fax (+44) 181 561 1312E-mail sales@arri-gb.com

ARRI MediaTel (+44) 181 573 2255Fax (+44) 181 756 0592E-mail info@arrimedia.com

ARRI Lighting RentalTel (+44) 181 561 6700Fax (+44) 181 569 2539E-mail tross@arrirental.com

ARRI USA (East Coast)617, Route 303Blauvelt, New York 10913, USATel (+1) 914 353 1400Fax (+1) 914 425 1250E-mail arriflex@arri.com

(West Coast)600 N Victory BlvdCA91502-1639, USATel (+1) 818 841 7070Fax (+1) 818 848 4028E-mail arriflex@arri.com

CSC619 West 54th StreetNew YorkNY10019Tel (+1) 212 757 0906Fax (+1) 212 713 0075

ARRI ITALIA SRLViale Edison 31820099 Sesto San GiovanniMilan, ItalyTel (+39) 02 262 27175Fax (+39) 02 242 1692E-mail arri@endoxa.it

ARRI CANADA LTD415 Horner AvenueUnit 11EtobicokeOntarioM8W 4W3Tel (+1) 416 255 3335Fax (+1) 416 255 3399E-mail email@arrican.com

www.arri.com

Expo Calendar 1999

17th -22nd April NAB Las Vegas Cameras & lighting

21st-22nd April ABTT London

12th-23rd May Cannes Film Festival Cannes

25th-27th June Showbiz Los Angeles Cameras & Lighting

8th-10th July PALA-Pro Audio Singapore Lighting & Light ASIA

30th -1st August Audio, Video, India LightingBroadcast, Cinema, Imaging Chennai

5th-8th September PLASA London Lighting

9th-10th September High Speed Oxford UK Cameras & LightingPhotographers Conference

10th-14th September IBC Amsterdam Cameras & Lighting

14th-16th September Showbiz New York Cameras & Lighting

19th-22nd October SATIS Paris Lighting

19th-21st November LDI Orlando Lighting

Published by: ARRI (GB) LtdEditorial Office: Janet West (Executive Editor), Elizabeth BallantyneTexts by: Janet West, Elizabeth Ballantyne, Jochen Thieser, Amanda Collett, Franz Wieser, Massimo Lobefaro, Don Angus, Wolfgang Hörmann, Regina Mehler, Tim RossDesigned by: MCA Group plc, Kingston upon Thames, UK

04/99 09.3025