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MillimeterTattersall’s Latest Digital Adventure
May 27, 2008 11:51 AM, By Michael Goldman
Cinematographer David Tattersall was a logical choice to shoot the live-action chunks seen in Speed Racer for the Wachowski brothers, using Sony’s F23 digital cinema camera system, given his background shooting the second Star Wars trilogy digitally for George Lucas in recent years. But the anime-inspired Speed Racer visuals and unique workflow were such different animals that Tattersall says his Star Wars experience, using earlier generations of Sony CineAlta camera systems, was only of peripheral help.
“We were using digital cameras with monitors on-set and recording digitally, somewhat like Star Wars, so there was that general familiarity there,” says Tattersall. “But each project is so different—they all require different approaches, especially this one. Star Wars and this project were completely different—far different directors with different interests. Realistically, their approaches could not have been more different for what I was doing for them. The only real similarity is that we used digital systems to make great images.”
Indeed, as delineated in the upcoming May/June issue of millimeter, Tattersall’s basic role as cinematographer was fundamentally different on Speed Racer from any project he’s worked on before—whether film or digitally acquired. For one thing, he did not control all principal photography on the project in the sense that most backgrounds that were not CG were stitched together via a complicated post production process, using high-resolution still photo images captured by a different unit at various locations across the globe.
“There are changes here for the cinematographer—technical, procedural, and collaborative,” says Tattersall. “On Speed Racer, we had fuzzy job descriptions. It was more of a team sport. And, yes, it was unusual for me to not be shooting all the principal photography. [Backgrounds] were shot by a still unit, some principal material was farmed out to second unit, and all race scenes involved comped material. But, going in, I was aware of this approach, so we all got into this thing of sharing, and that largely happened in post.”
Still, given this approach, the choice of the F23 system was crucial on the project. It came about largely because early F23 prototypes became available right around the time the project was getting launched. Tattersall, the Wachowski brothers, and their collaborators were greatly attracted to the camera’s 2/3in. sensor that permitted them to capture greater depth of field than their other available choices would have permitted. They felt elements captured by the F23 would mix well with their goal of largely stitching the movie together out of real and synthetic pieces during post-production.
Thus, after extensive testing, they decided to go with the F23 and record an uncompressed 4:4:4 signal from the camera to both Sony HDCAM-SR tape and a Codex Digital hard-drive recording system. The Codex system played a crucial role on the project because it allowed the production to manage data as it was recorded and immediately sent off to different departments, including an on-set compositing team and the editorial unit, among others.
“Working this way was different, but being able to record to the Codex and get to see what we were capturing through [the on-set compositing system dubbed] ‘Sparky’ was very helpful for me,” the DP adds. “For dealing with interactive light, and deciding where my lighting and contrast levels and light values within the frame should be—it was great to have this ability. Combined with what I learned shooting other movies digitally, this method let me clearly see that foregrounds fit more believably against backgrounds when interactive light is matched as closely as it can be. I knew that before, but it can be very tricky when doing greenscreen work, and on this project, it was even more incongruous. This workflow was a great way to work.”
For a look at Speed Racer’s image design, unique workflow, cinematography, and how that approach fits into new digital movie-making paradigms, see the May/June issue of millimeter.
