“The capabilities of the F23 cameras give me more freedom.”
“Michael Mann always brings the cinematic language a little step forward – and others watch and follow. So, it wasn’t a surprise that he decided to shoot Public Enemies in high definition,” says cinematographer Dante Spinotti, ASC, of his fifth pairing with Mann.
Public Enemies is the latest Mann feature, starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Marion Cotillard (who won an Oscar in 2008 for her depiction of Édith Piaf in La Môme). The action-thriller is the story of legendary Depression-era outlaw, John Dillinger. It will be released in July 2009.
“His idea was to create a hyper-reality, to bring a very realistic and beautiful look – not in terms of cosmetic Hollywood, but in terms of a direct approach to the number of locations and realistic settings,” Spinotti explains. “We’d done a number of commercials together using the F23 cameras and decided to test the Sony against film. Once we got through the whole process – digital to film and film to film – the final film-out sold us. The shots with the F23 camera were sharper and gave us the hyper-realism we wanted.”
F23 depth-of-field
The depth-of-field of the F23 combined with the ability to go into the camera and do modifications as they were shooting rather than recording to raw signal and doing corrections later in the D.I. process were also a plus for the team. “To me, digital gives you creative freedom,” says Spinotti. “No matter what the situation, you can go in without any predetermined rules. In film, you walk into a location and say ‘this is what I have to do – I have to raise the exposure.’ The toe is slow in film, while in digital it is linear, so the capabilities of the F23 cameras give me more freedom.
“When combining the F23 with either the Zeiss 6-24mm, 17-112mm DigiZooms or the DigiPrime lenses, we could get anything we desired,” Spinotti adds. “The lenses are sharp. They gave us the hyper-sharpness Michael wanted for this picture. And their rendering of the chromatic was amazing.”
Mann also used the PMW-EX1 XDCAM EX camcorder for additional footage. “At times, when Michael wanted an extra shot, acrobatic moves, or to get into small spaces, we used the Sony EX1,” Spinotti says. “I recently saw all the footage cut together,” he adds, “and I was amazed.
The footage cuts together seamlessly. “Public Enemies featured a vast variety of challenges, including extreme darkness, extreme cold and hard to reach locations. No matter where we went or how hard we rode the cameras and lenses – the images were spectacular. Sony and Zeiss really came through for us on this picture.”
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