Support Equipment

Filming Big Cats in Kenya

Mon, 06/05/2017 - 12:42 -- Nick Dager

Filming big cats in Kenya isn’t easy. Unlike actors, these magnificent animals don’t follow cues or take direction. Catching, focusing and framing your shots is paramount. You really need to see what’s going on. That’s why ACS 2017 Australian Cinematographer of the Year Abraham Joffe turned to the Atomos Shogun monitor recorders with their daylight-viewable high brightness screens for his latest project. Every Flame and Inferno series recorder has a seven-inch display with an incredible 1500 nits of brightness. “When we are out here in the African bush we are often in pretty strong light. Even without a hood I can see what’s going on on the screen,” Joffe said. “Atomos is the best screen on the market in my opinion and it’s a piece of kit that would stay in my bag wherever I go around the world.”

SmallHD Introduces OLED Monitor

Wed, 02/22/2017 - 11:46 -- Nick Dager

SmallHD has introduced its first OLED monitor, the 702-OLED. The 7.7-inch screen combines the renowned color accuracy and contrast ratio of an OLED display, with the feature set of the industry standard SmallHD 702-Bright so that it is ideal on camera or on a director’s rig. Able to produce wide color gamut color accuracy, it is an effective tool for DITs and directors on-set use.

Location Shooting in Rough Terrain

Wed, 12/14/2016 - 12:48 -- Nick Dager

The upcoming feature film Maine follows the journey of a married woman from Spain to reclaim her identity while solo thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail, a trip that is sidetracked when a lone American hiker pursues her. Cinematographer Donald R. Monroe said, “Simply getting to our locations proved a major hurdle. Frequently, each day began by transporting the entire production over a mile via ATVs; then the shooting crew would walk an additional ten minutes to the location. We were often far from battery charging and data transfer stations— the high-capacity P2 cards allowed us to be largely self-sufficient.

On Shooting Black Sails

Mon, 12/12/2016 - 12:14 -- Nick Dager

When Gavin Struthers ASC, one of Britain's leading cinematographers, learned he’d been selected to shoot the U.S. television drama series Black Sails, he knew there would be a lot of challenging location work including water scenes and day-for-night scenes. Black Sails is set roughly two decades before the events of Treasure Island and during the Golden Age of Piracy.

Creating a Handheld Look

Mon, 12/12/2016 - 12:08 -- Nick Dager

Jay Hunter is a celebrated director and cinematographer whose work runs the gamut from features and scripted series to documentaries and reality TV. He’s crafted unique aesthetics for television shows such as On the Lot and films including Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing. Hunter’s current project is the NBC comedy Superstore, about the employees of a big box retailer. For that series, he tries to make viewers feel like they’re part of the action through a visual style that looks handheld, but is not.

Ben Davis Returns to the Marvel Universe

Fri, 11/04/2016 - 13:48 -- Nick Dager

Ben Davis, BSC has become an old hand in the Marvel universe. Doctor Strange marks his third Marvel film as director of photography. He also shot the global hits Avengers: Age of Ultron and Guardians of the Galaxy. “Marvel very much is a universe with its own language, but the three films I've done have been vastly different.”

Shooting in Tight Spaces

Thu, 09/22/2016 - 13:49 -- Nick Dager

Cinematographer Gareth Paul Cox recently shot up-and-coming director Aundré Johnson’s tentatively titled project, The Driver, an ambitious 15-minute short that takes place mostly inside a car. It tells the story of a limo car service driver, who ventures off the beaten path to start his own car service using borrowed money from individuals with possible mob ties. For Cox, there were several big challenges for the low budget short, including driving and shooting on L.A. streets without a process trailer, or any serious rigging.

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