German trailer shoots on F35

Director of photography Erik Krambeck has shot the opening titles and trailer sequence for a new German drama series, Eine für Alle (One for All), using a F35 digital cinema camera supplied by camera specialist company Camelot. The F35 shot 30-second opening sequence will be used at the start of each programme section and for pre-launch promotion. It is directed by Christian Schumacher.

The drama series, which itself is shot on XDCAM HD, focuses on the daily lives of four female friends. It is produced by Rubikon Media and Bavaria Studios for the largest German public broadcaster, ARD. Eine für Alle was scheduled to go on-air in late April 2009 and have a primetime early evening slot, airing daily.

Krambeck – a member of the German Society for cameraman, BvK – has worked with Schumacher on a number of title sequences, including for German TV series, Anna und die Liebe, Verbotene Liebe and Wege zum Glück.

What was the overall look you were trying to achieve for the trailer for Eine für Alle?

The character of the trailer was not supposed to be glamorous like so many other trailers. In contrast, it aims for an authentic, documentary look. We also wanted the pictures to have an intimate feel. So when you see two girls eating ice cream, it should look like a home movie shot with a Super 8 camera. So we used a lot of hand-held camera work, which is quite common in commercials but not used very much when it comes to opening titles and trailers for a TV series. But, judging from the rough cut, it worked pretty well.

What was the technical concept?

For the home movie shots, I seriously considered shooting scenes on Super 8 film. I searched around to see where you could still get a camera and film stock and who would be able to develop and transfer the material, but it soon became clear that it would be too complicated and take too long to use film - we also couldn’t get insurance for it. So, we decided to do nearly everything on HD and create the Super 8 look in post production.

Why did you choose the F35?

What really convinced me was a test conducted by Studio Hamburg, one of the largest studio and production companies in Germany. Three months ago, they shot the same scene with four different cameras, one being the Sony F35 and the others being a Red One, an Arri D-21 and a 35mm film camera. They had prepared several scenes with different light situations, like an interior set with sunlight or an interior at night. Each of the recordings was properly graded and presented in an HD projection in Hamburg. My impression from the presentation was that the Sony F35 was on an equal level with 35mm film, while the other two digital cameras had less detail in the lights.

We could have shot the opening sequence for Eine für Alle on 35mm, but after the comparison tests at Studio Hamburg, it was obvious that we would shoot with the Sony camera and not on film. Not only for budget reasons, but also because the workflow is faster and you can have a look at the picture on the set and don’t have to wait a day or two for the results to arrive from the lab.

How was the F35 to operate?

It has a huge advantage over the early HD cameras where you had loads of menu positions and sub-menus. For the normal user, the F35 has about five menu positions. That makes setting the camera up simple and easy to control. It gives you a new confidence on the set, as you don’t have to worry about whether you remembered to reset all the changes from the last scene.

What is also great about the F35 is that it can run at 50 frames per second. So, in many cases, you use it to do the slow motion capturing and there is no need for an extra camera on the set. Some other digital cameras can do this too, but they use a technique where the recording area of the chip is reduced. As a result, the focal length of the lenses is altered and you get a different visual perception when doing slow motion with those other cameras. But there are no such effects with the F35.

Does the F35 have other benefits?

The camera has a great contrast range. We had scenes in a kitchen with daylight through the window – created on set by a Dino light. Judging from the set-up, you would expect that on the pictures of the scene would probably give no detail in the white curtains. For years, I have been photographing my own stills with a Nikon digital camera. On its pictures of that scene, the curtains were one white area. But on the pictures of the Sony F35, you could still see the pattern of the curtains. That was an astonishing discovery.

We used an Angenieux Optimo zoom 17-80mm and a set of Zeiss Ultra Primes. We recorded in HQ 4:4:4 mode with the S-Log gamma curve. I lit with my light meter adjusted to 500 ASA, but, of course, in a studio location you always take a look at the HD picture on a monitor.

How was the post production organised?

Camelot transferred the tapes to Apple Quick Time files, which I edited for the rough cut on my Mac Pro. The online edit is taking place at the production house, FX-Factory, in Berlin.

27 March 2009