American Cinematographer - July 2022 - 11

AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER ASCMAG.COM
The LED-volume environment renders the mighty inner
workings of the warp core within the starship Enterprise.
virtual-production and visual-effects
supervisor Nathaniel
Larouche and executive producer
Paolo Tamburrino. " Virtual production
with LED volumes is a
new toolset for filmmakers to create
their stories differently, from
Day 1, " says Tamburrino. " The
actors are not just surrounded by
the wall, but they can engage and
interact directly with its contents. "
Adds Larouche, " There's
something tangibly better about
capturing these shots in front of
a real lens versus compositing
everything in post. The natural
depth of field and the way the
light falls on fine details like hair
and cheekbones - all of that
definition and accurate lighting
are what you're losing when removing
greenscreen spill to get
a good composite. Using the
LED volume gives you back all
of those highlights and creates
a beautiful and natural-looking
Large Format Directors Viewfinder
I learned that the most amazing
thing about it is that you are lighting
with the wall, so it's important
to keep that in mind while building
assets, and to design lighting
directly into the screen content as
a starting point. Building assets
was my favorite part of the job.
Lighting amazing designs created
by production designer Jonathan
Lee and Pixomondo - seeing
how it comes to life - was extraordinary.
We were encouraged
to go bold, and we had significant
creative freedom to shoot a very
colorful and slick show. Our imagination
was the limit. "
Górka used Arri Alexa LF cameras
with a custom set of Cooke
Anamorphic /i 1.8x Full Frame Plus
Special Flair lenses.
The Pixomondo VFX Crew
Production for Strange New
Worlds takes place in Toronto,
Canada, with the show's substantial
LED-wall work performed on
visual-effects house Pixomondo's
stage (which, as with all of
the company's Canada-based
LED-wall stages, was built in partnership
with Canadian production
rental company William F. White
International Inc.). The stage is a
70'x30' horseshoe-shaped volume
that uses Roe Visual's Black
Pearl BP2 2.8mm LED panels for
the walls and Roe Carbon Series
CB5 5.77mm panels for the ceiling.
The panels are fed by Brompton
Tessera SX40 12-bit, 4K LED
video processors, which output
real-time animation from Unreal
Engine. The volume - which is
also used for Discovery's LED-wall
work - includes OptiTrack motion-capture
cameras to handle
multi-camera tracking.
The Pixomondo virtalproduction
team includes
" We would discuss in detail what kind of lighting
I wanted to see in the virtual environment, and
where it needed to be placed. "
www.lindseyoptics.com * +1.661.522.7101
JULY 2022 / 11
Full Format
in all its Glory
"
While recently shooting
The Pursuit of Love on the Alexa
LF with Signature Primes, I was
able to view the full scope of this
beautiful format in all its glory.
Light and easy to handle, the
Lindsey Optics Large Format
Directors Finder was a great tool
on set when it came to
discussing framing options
with the director.
Zac Nicholson, BSC
"
http://www.ASCMAG.COM http://www.lindseyoptics.com
American Cinematographer - July 2022

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