Le directeur de la photographie Blake McClure tourne son prochain projet avec la URSA Cine 17K 65 de Blackmagic.

La URSA Cine 17K 65 de Conception Blackmagic est la caméra principale utilisée dans la nouvelle œuvre du directeur de la photographie Blake McClure, responsable de la finition visuelle de séries telles que « The Dropout », « Miracle Workers » et « Loot ».

Ma première rencontre avec le caméra et son capteur grand format Je suis venu quand j'ai vu le travail du directeur de la photographie Dylan Rucker. "J'ai vu cette démo tournée par Dylan", a déclaré McClure. "Une image m'a marqué : un homme sirotant un café dans une cuisine, regardant un ranch. Cette seule image m'a accroché. Elle m'a immédiatement rappelé la photographie de portrait moyen format. Je pouvais sentir la proximité de l'appareil photo avec l'acteur, la façon dont l'arrière-plan tombait si gracieusement et le rendu naturel des tons chair. Les tons étaient parfaits. Un cadre simple, mais incroyablement efficace", se souvient McClure.

Le directeur de la photographie, habitué à tourner des épisodes de séries au style visuel très statique, souhaitait quelque chose de différent pour ce projet : "Dans les émissions d'une demi-heure, il y a rarement de la place pour des mouvements de caméra dynamiques. J'ai toujours dû compter sur l'éclairage et la couleur pour apporter un intérêt visuel. La couverture se limite généralement à des plans par-dessus l'épaule, des singles nets et occasionnellement du grand large. Je cherchais quelque chose de nouveau." Pour changer d'approche, il décide d'utiliser le Capteur 65 mm sur la URSA Cine 17K 65 depuis Magie noire, which allows you to get closer to the subject without the usual distortion. McClure explains: “We were shooting medium shots on a 55mm from about seven feet away. To get the same field of view on Super 35, we’d need a 30mm lens or be double the distance from the subject. I wanted the show to feel like a portrait, intimate and relationship driven. I’ve always loved medium format photography, and this was the closest I’ve been to that in motion.”

The advantages of the URSA Cine 17K 65’s RVBB sensor, as well as the wide variety of compression options it offers, also allowed McClure to manage his data more actively: “We shot at open gate 8K, and the ability to shoot multiple high resolution formats without any image crop is an amazing advantage on this camera,” added McClure. “On the camera, you can also record at a constant compression setting, which is standard practice, or use the Constant Quality mode. We shot in Q3, which allocates more data to areas of high detail and less to static parts of the frame, reducing the overall data rate. You don’t notice it visually, but it means smaller file sizes. This made it an easier sell to the studio, since we weren’t asking them to approve a massive data storage footprint for the DIT or post production.”

Logan Hall, first assistant camera, highlights the versatility of the camera in adapting to different situations. Its cage system was very useful for this: “We could build the camera in almost any configuration that we could hope for, whether it be for studio work, on a Steadicam, or even on compact gimbals like the Ronin 2.” Another advantage was the second screen on the right side of the camera: “Having the two built in monitors was incredibly helpful,” added Hall. “There were many times where Blake was on set making adjustments, and no matter what side of the camera he was on, he was able to just glance at the monitor without having to go all the way back to DIT. I found the directors, assistant directors and even production assistants looking at the AC side monitor, which allowed them to see all the adjustments they were making on the fly, all while being able to stay close to the action.”

“Every time a new actor came to set, they’d comment on how close the cameras were to them during a scene. They assumed we were using super wide lenses for close ups, but once we showed them the frame, they couldn’t believe the look we were getting. The images blew everyone away,” concludes McClure.