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  Lisa Waltz's "Starry Night"    

page 18 venice magazine, october 2000

by luis solo

photography jennifer johnson

hair/makeup maria-elena arroy

 

"It is truly a wonderful life," actress Lisa Waltz exclaims. Starring in writer / director/ artist Paul Davids' whimsical fantasy, Starry Night, just released by Universal Pictures to home video, Lisa plays the love interest to Vincent van Gogh (Abbott Alexander) who finds himself in modern-day Los Angeles, a century after his death, to right some artistic wrongs. Produced by Hollace Davids, President of Women in Film and Senior Vice President of Special Projects at Universal Pictures, Starry Night was a film festival award winner.

Raised on a sod farm in Limerick, Pennsylvania, Waltz has a long list of episodic television credits ("Mad About You," "Touched by an Angel," "ER," to name a few). Venice Magazine sat down with Lisa on "Labrador day," otherwise known as Saturday, when she spends "quality time" with her three Labradors: Ocho, Yukon, and Piper. She speaks with enthusiasm about Starry Night. "To me this film is more about believing, and miracles, and faith and love. Every time I see the film I still cry at the end. This is a little movie without big action sequences and by the end it gets to you."

An admitted softy at heart, Waltz was grateful for the opportunity to re-team with Paul Davids with whom she worked on the film Roswell, even though the low budget on Starry Night often meant shooting around L.A. without permits. The actors even bum-rushed the Rose Parade for a few quick scenes!

Ever the farmer's daughter, Waltz admits, "I always wanted to be an actress. Everyone in my family had gone to Penn State for agriculture and my dad had already pre-enrolled me, but I wanted to study drama."

She toiled at a slew of family-related odd jobs but never gave up hope that she would become an actress. "I worked on the Waltz turf farm and I was in charge of mowing and planting the tomatoes for Campbell's. Then my dad built a miniature golf course called Waltz Golf Farm - I'm not making this up -and I worked at the golf course when I was 12 or 13. But I just knew I was going to go away and act. I didn't know how it was going to happen, but I knew it was going to be."

Eventually Waltz made it to New York where her first job was working for Neil Simon. Landing roles in Simon's "Biloxi Blues" and "Brighton Beach Memoirs," the girl from PA was living her dream.

Currently shopping around a scripted reality pilot called "On and On," Waltz cites Katherine Hepburn ("absolutely, without a doubt") and Myrna Loy as her favorite actors. Confessing that her first major crush was on Gene Wilder who starred in Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Waltz leaves us with a parting comment.

"If you can do what you're passionate about then you're a lucky person," she opines. "I get to wake up in the morning and do what I've always wanted to do. It's so much fun to pull up to a studio and they're expecting you."

 
 

 

 

ARTICLE ON STARRY NIGHT FROM ZERB (BRITISH CINEMATOGRAPHY MAGAZINE) SUMMER 1999

OXIDE AND EMULSION: DIGITAL CINEMATOGRAPHY ON STARRY NIGHT

by David W. Smith Lighting Cameraman

David W. Smith recently shot a feature film on videotape. How's it done? Close collaboration with camera hire and video-film transfer companies and a constant mind to creating the best possible image, throughout shooting and post-production, all work towards producing excellent results. Here, David explains just how it was achieved. When I was first approached to shoot STARRY NIGHT, a full length feature film about Vincent van Gogh returning to earth for 100 days, I suggested to the producer that, due to budgetary constraints, we might consider shooting digitally and transferring the final product to 35mm. We had both seen blowups from Beta SP and been quite impressed with the results and we felt that shooting on Digital Betacam would give even better quality. During some 25 years as a lighting cameraman, I had worked on both film and video - the first 10 years exclusively on film (35mm and 16mm) for documentary, corporate and feature productions, and in the last 15 mainly on video (Beta SP, SX, DigiBeta and DVC Pro). As lighting cameraman on BROOKSIDE, some years ago, I had experienced shooting engineered single camera drama. This marriage of film and video was to be a challenge though. THOUGH THE FILM WAS TO BE SHOT IN HOLLYWOOD...WE USED PAL TECHNOLOGY The use of DigiBeta for a production of this kind was not a well-trodden path and our enthusiasm to be among the pioneers of this process was tempered with an awareness of the need to exercise quality control at every stage.

Though the film was to be shot principally in Hollywood and Beverly Hills, I was adamant that we should use PAL technology throughout to give us more resolution and a superior color process. The camera we used was a standard Sony DVW700 WSP, set to anamorphic / 16:9, with a standard Canon 15 x 9 zoom. The camera was supplied by Hammerhead Television, London, who have wide experience of supplying digital cameras for TV drama productions. I worked closely with their technical consultant, Paul Turtle, in setting up the camera for optimum results. Essentially, this involved loading S Curve software, taking down the detailing and edge correction, and adjusting the knee and slope to give improved shadow detail and highlight handling. This is not an exact science and a certain amount of experimentation, tempered with a good working knowledge of the parameters involved, is necessary at this stage. Ideally, one should work closely with the video-film transfer facility from the outset regarding camera set-up, but our schedule on this project made this difficult. Another factor is that any set-up can only be a good approximation; different shooting conditions call for different parameters, in some instances during the course of a shot. Without the involvement of a vision engineer and signal monitoring equipment throughout a shoot, such precise control is not feasible. During the shooting, I was conscious that video cameras shooting on tape do not have the ability to handle as wide a contrast range as film, so I was careful to control contrast range accordingly. Having the camera optimized was the first step but in addition I used a range of filters including black promists, ND grads and polarisers. As video does not have anywhere near the same latitude in handling over-exposure as film, I inclined towards under-exposure in the range of a half to one stop. Outdoors, I used fill lighting or reflectors to bring up shadow detail which otherwise would have been lost in the harsh California sunshine. Generally, in daylight, I used -3db gain to improve color saturation, reduce picture noise and allow a wider F-stop reducing the depth of field. Some background scenes were shot in the soft light of France by a second unit crew (self plus director!) with the actors being shot in Hollywood against chromakey blue for superimposition at post-production. Indoors, I lit pretty much as I would for film, at lighting levels that allowed me to work at around F2.8-F4. This often meant getting windows and downsizing practical lights. Video seems to have the ability to find light in areas which film would record as black, so I made judicious use of flags or scrims where appropriate to give good modeling and control shadows. I am a great fan of directional soft light, so I would often light through diffusion frames or bounce off poly or umbrellas. Where possible, I lit through windows, complementing what is already pleasing natural light.

Framing presented its own problems. 16:9 translates as an aspect ratio of 1.77:1 which on a widescreen television will fill full frame. For theatrical release, 1.85:1 is the most common projection format, so I needed to allow for slight top and bottom cut-off. To allow for the film to be shown in countries where only a 4:3 picture is acceptable and where pan/scan is not available, it was also necessary to ensure that the 4:3 central portion of the frame contained all the principal action. This obviously put some constraints on using the full dynamic of the 16:9 frame. On set, both indoors and outdoors, I had a well adjusted hooded Sony 9044P monitor, the underscan position giving a 16:9 letterbox in the correct ratio. Being able to see high quality instant rushes, in contrast to the somewhat impressionistic images of a video tap from a film camera, I was able to judge accurately the picture quality and be more adventurous than I would if shooting film. Focus is a particularly critical area During shooting, I tried always to be conscious of how the image would translate to a large cinema screen, so pan and zoom movements were slightly restrained. As a compromise between weight and stability I used the Vinten Vision 100 head which I found satisfactory in most situations. Focus is particularly critical when the picture is to be so dramatically enlarged and most of the time I had the viewfinder wound up to give maximum detail. I also did regular checks on back focus using a star chart. When possible, I used a mid-point F-stop and for most shots employed a focus puller using the long end of the zoom to prepare focus points. Sets and costumes require some thought to get the most out of this medium by avoiding aberrations and helping contain contrast ratios. Apart from the usual consideration of avoiding bright whites and very dark colors, particularly in juxtaposition, it was also necessary to avoid fine stripes, herringbone patterns in costumes and moirŽ patterns from venetian blinds. Fortunately, these can be picked up on the monitor and if the problem shows there, it is likely to be exaggerated when transferred to film. Post-Production The DigiBeta rushes were transferred onto Beta SP and VHS tapes were provided with burnt-in time code. This allowed the master tapes to be safely archived until the online stage, enabled a lower cost play-in environment for the AVID offline and provided the director with rushes that could be viewed and logged on domestic equipment. By monitoring the transfer process it was possible to do a technical evaluation of all shot material. The offline took place in Hollywood and a PAL AVID system with 16:9 widescreen monitor was supplied from Digital Facilities in Edinburgh. The production team then completed an AVR77 online at Digital Facilities premises where initial picture adjustments were made to provide a high-quality video viewing copy. After test screenings had been held and some changes made to the picture edit, the program was then conformed in a multi-machine DigiBeta suite at 4MC in Burbank. Initial color correction took place and signal levels were tweaked. The program then entered a digital grading stage using a machine called DaVinci and fine adjustments were made to color and picture levels, sometimes involving discreet corrections within an individual scene. Titles were added and complex scene transitions rebuilt with particular care taken in the chromakey scenes which involved slight defocusing of background scenes. Following picture lock-off, there began an extended period of sound work at Woodholly Studios in Hollywood where music and foley effects were added and some dialogue replaced due to difficulties in recording clean sound on some uncontrolled locations. During this period, we evaluated several transfer facilities around the world to find the best place to do the video to film transfer. Eventually, we settled on Hokus Bogus in Copenhagen, a company with considerable experience in this field. Their test results were noticeably better than other companies we tried and, at 300 pounds per minute for negative and one light print, one of the most reasonable. The process was supervised by Soren Kloch and involved transferring the DigiBeta master edit in four-minute sections onto a computer for image manipulation and then transferring frame by frame onto 35mm negative. A one light print was made and the film assembled into reels of approximately 18 minutes duration. During the process, I visited the facility twice; once to do an ongoing evaluation and then for final acceptance. The film was then returned to 4MC in Hollywood where I supervised the several stages of answer print, using the graded DigiBeta master as a reference, until we arrived at a satisfactory final print.

We were fortunate to have available a new type of Kodak print stock which gave rich blacks, good grain structure and vibrant colors and was not at that time available in Europe. Having completed the final dub, and encoded the ADAT with Dolby SR, the sound was transferred onto 35mm mag stock from which an optical sound negative was struck. In order to compensate for the 24 fps projection speed needed from a film and soundtrack transferred at 25fps, a difference of 4%, the sound was given a pitch change to return it to its original frequencies. Although the picture movement is also slowed down 4% when projected at 24 fps, the difference is undetectable. For the final release print, the picture negative, cued with the timing adjustments, is printed in combination with the optical soundtrack. Should an extended print run be required, an interpositive and internegative will be struck. The finished film has now been seen on screens in Hollywood, Cannes, Montreal, Boston, London and Edinburgh (note: this is an update of screenings as of mid-October 1999). The picture quality has attracted favorable comment with most viewers being unaware that it was originated on digital tape. STARRY NIGHT would not have been made without the availability of this technology, and, quoting one reviewer who summarized it as a triumph of idealism over cynicism, I believe the world is a richer place for its having been made. Though we took a certain risk in shooting a feature using a fairly pioneering route, both myself and the director have been exceptionally pleased with the results and the film is now viewed and judged on its content, not on the technical process of its making. Given an opportunity to make another film in this way I would make the following changes by way of addressing my concerns: 1. Use the next generation camera with full drama rig 2. Use the highest quality lenses available, including primes where possible 3. Spend more time in pre-production with the transfer house to match the camera to their parameters 4. Use a camera operator to free me to spend more time concentrating on lighting, picture quality and relating to the director 5. Have a Grade 1 engineering monitor with SDI input plus waveform and vectorscope 6. Employ a vision engineer with creative flair and a CCU 7. Have as wide a range of lighting units as the budget would allow 8. Use as heavy duty a fluid head as my assistant could carry! The new Sony DVW 790WSP moves the technology further forward again with improved signal processing and better shadow and highlight handling. The soon-to-be-launched Sony 24P HDCAM provides a big leap forward both in resolution, colorimetry and picture quality and overcomes the transfer difficulties inherent in dealing with an interlaced picture. At this stage, I do not see video as a direct replacement for film. On an expensive picture, the cost savings are not significant. For the low budget pictures, however, the story is quite different. Being able to save a quarter of a million pounds up front can be the difference between a picture getting made or not and allows the money to be spent on the screen rather than behind it. If a feature made this way does not get picked up theatrically, it can still recoup its costs through television or video distribution. In short, I find this an exciting and refreshing way to make pictures that otherwise would probably not get made and to a quality, getting better all the time, that is seamless to a general audience. My experience in shooting and supervising the picture post-production on STARRY NIGHT has been rewarding and a valuable learning curve which has resulted in a salable product for theatrical release.

I look forward to applying the knowledge I have acquired on this to subsequent productions or advising others who may be starting out along this path. In summary, the principal advantages I see in using this technology for shooting over film are: 1. COST: The principal savings are clearly stock and processing. Since most films are edited digitally, rushes need to be transferred to tape, adding another layer of cost. We shot 50 hours of rushes on STARRY NIGHT for a final product of 100 minutes. If originated on 35mm film, stock, processing, printing and telecine costs would have added another 250,000 pounds to the budget. 2. FLEXIBILITY: The relatively small size of the camera allows use of small mountings and enables angles from positions too cramped for a blimped film camera. The weight and ergonomics allow for hand-held shooting from shoulder or waist for extended periods and the camera, on a shoulder strap, can be comfortably carried around all day. 3. SENSITIVITY: I found the camera able to cope with most lighting situations with zero gain. For occasions where light levels were limited, eg, exterior night scenes, +3 or +6dB coped with most situations without introducing noticeable picture noise. 4. COLORIMETRY: I was impressed by the camera's ability to work in a wide variety of mixed lighting conditions, e.g. tungsten with fluorescent, sodium with halogen. By setting the white balance at an appropriate position to give good skin tones, satisfactory results could often be obtained in conditions which film would find quite challenging and unpredictable. 5. ANONYMITY: The nature of the story sometimes required shooting in public places where a film camera and supporting crew and equipment would have drawn the attention of the authorities or caused the public to be more aware of the camera. Speed of set-up, longer running times (42 minutes) and the ability to work when necessary without slates or cables also facilitated a low-key approach to what is sometimes referred to as guerrilla film making. 6. PERFORMANCE: The ability for the director, actors or other key personnel, eg, makeup, to see exactly what is being recorded either live or through instant replay has obvious advantages. The relative cheapness of tape stock and longer running times also liberates actors and directors from the financial pressures of another retake. 7. SYNCHRONIZATION: Although we recorded sound simultaneously through a mixer both on DAT and on the camera, I understand the sound quality on DigiBeta is superior to DAT and for the most part we used the camera sound and avoided any sync issues. Contact David Smith via e-mail: cameraman@btinternet.com

GETTING THE MOST OUT OF THE CAMERA by Paul Turtle of Hammerhead London, who explains how your hire company can help you get that 'look'

It's been talked about for some time. The positive view - shooting movies on electronic cameras; the negative view - the death of film. David W. Smith came to us in October 98 with the prospect of shooting a 90 minute drama, STARRY NIGHT, potentially for theatrical release. We have digital cameras, we don't have film cameras. How could we help? David had decided that the only way this film was going to get shot was on Digital Betacam. Like us, David knew that not all video cameras are the same and that the full potential of DVW700 camcorders had not yet been realized. For a start, what had been put in front of these cameras invariably had lower production values than that in front of Super 16. They had not been able to show their stuff. We knew that the object of the exercise was to end up with a cinema release print, so it seemed a good idea to talk to the people who controlled the transfer from video to film. I know from experience that much of the uncompressed digital FX and grading now uses the same equipment and techniques whether the material is shot on film or tape and that part of 'the look' can be produced in post-production. The controls of picture parameters have to provide a picture that will allow the post-production process to maximize the potential of the image produced on location. The kind of set-up that we programmed for David was for a look not too dense and not too saturated, whilst retaining blacks as black not gray. Highlight control using the camera knee rather than auto knee was set to avoid bright areas losing their information. There's nothing worse that highlights turning into a white blob and it's one tell-tale sign that it's video that no amount of post-production can gainsay. The hi(ish) resolution of CCDs do not require an awful lot of edge enhancement, but if you take too much detail out, you will get soft pictures especially in wide shots. Some detail is required but there is a page of items to choose how you go about it. Our formula in this respect seemed to work quite well for the transfer process at Hokus Bogus and I was pleasantly surprised that apparent definition was not a big issue when I saw the material. Whatever you do to preset the camera performance or whatever is done in post, the quality of the pictures is reliant on the cameraman making the best of the scene in front of the camera. There are a few observations on best practice to be made, especially as any large projection will put the image under scrutiny.

Exposure control is critical as overexposed areas cannot be recovered, something like Ektachrome. Wide angle shots with a lot of small detail may appear soft. Best wide shots are broad strokes and graphic images, preferably not at the widest angle of the lens since that is where performance could drop off. We took the trouble to check our lenses in advance and on the camera concerned. Remember that video lenses have adjustment to back focus built in so that any operator can check this on site given a viewing monitor, a focus chart and lighting conditions that are not too bright. We have had DVW700 camcorders for nearly five years now and their potential is still not fully realized. There have been several software upgrades and we have gained experience in maintaining and programming the cameras, but the basic design and the record format remain the same. We have also recently taken delivery of our first two DVW790 WSP camcorders boasting better performance which should translate into improved picture quality. At long last there is a serial digital output option so you can see quality on location rather than waiting until you get to the online edit suite. FACT FILE: Paul Turtle is Technical Director with Hammerhead London. Hammerhead has been going for more than 10 years supplying CCD video cameras and location equipment to cameramen and production companies. They have become specialists in DigiBeta which they supply from their branches in South West London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Tel: 0171 924 3977 (London), 0161 872 6200 (Manchester), 0131 229 5000 (Scotland).

 

 
     
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