The host of Popular Science's Future Of - Baratunde Thurston is photographed on the set with the car bot during taping on the Stanford University campus.

by Andrew Scafetta

In five, ten or 25 years, our lives will be significantly different. Advances in the way we play sports, live in our homes, connect with others, fight wars or take vacations will feel as commonplace in the future as viewing highdefinition television or driving to work seem to us today.

But there are astonishing scientific and technological innovations being developed today by entrepreneurs, researchers and maverick scientists all over the world that are destined to shape every aspect of our lives tomorrow. Science Channel and Popular Science magazine have partnered to bring audiences an extraordinary glimpse at how important characteristics of human life will fundamentally change in the near future with the all-new series Popular Science’s Future Of.

Each episode finds host Baratunde Thurston uncovering breakthrough research and exploring the genius prototypes that show how our lives will evolve. From a “smart football” that can make Baratunde throw like an NFL quarterback to exoskeletons that will increase a soldier’s endurance, strength and communications abilities, Thurston acts as correspondent of the future bringing perspective and understanding to what we can expect in our lifetimes. Upcoming episodes include examinations of the future of pleasure, connecting, adventure, immortality and habitats.

To capture the incredible technologies and the details of researchers’ intricate designs, film crews primarily used the Panasonic HDX-900 and the Panasonic Varicam for each of the episodes. Popular Science’s Future Of airs Mondays at 9 PM (ET/ PT) on Science Channel HD.  

Cinematographer Wally Pfister/The Dark Knight.

by Bob Fisher

Wally Pfister, ASC, likens two commercials that he recently directed and shot to 30-second documentaries with cinematic values that make an emotional connection with the audience. He credits Ty Baker and Alonso Davila, creative directors for Momentum, the advertising agency that developed the concept for their client Anheuser-Busch.

“Every successful commercial campaign begins with an appreciation for the lifestyles and tastes of potential customers,” Pfister emphasizes. “The product was Rolling Rock beer. The theme was ‘Born in a small town.’”

They shot one spot at McSorley’s Old Ale House in New York’s Greenwich Village. The bar has been at that location since 1854. The second spot was filmed in a bar in a small town with a population of about 3,500.

Pfister shot both spots mainly with a handheld Panaflex 35 mm camera mounted with either a 15-40 mm or a 27-68 mm zoom lens. The zoom lenses enabled him to make intuitive decisions about composition. Images were framed in the 16:9 format and rendered on KODAK VISION2 5218, a 500T negative that provided the latitude needed to record nuanced colors, contrast and details in dark shadows and bright highlights.

“It’s voyeuristic, like peeking through a partially open door to get a glimpse of hip-looking people enjoying themselves,” Pfister says.

After Technicolor processed the film, editor Trish Fuller at Whitestone Post Production in New York did the final cuts for the two spots in HD format in collaboration with Pfister. He provided colorist Stefan Sonnenfeld at Company 3 in Los Angeles with selected still photos as visual references and asked him to match the look.

“When Stefan was ready, we went into a timing session and found the final look,” Pfister says. “There’s a little color saturation, but it is primarily a somewhat monochrome look with a slight green tone as a nod to the color of the Rolling Rock beer bottle.”

In addition to his portfolio of commercials, Pfister has earned three Academy Award® nominations for best cinematography in the past four years for Batman Begins (2006), The Prestige (2007), and the Dark Knight (2009).

The last televised interview with legendary oral historian, Studs Terkel.

by Mike Mian

When we started, nobody wanted to hear it,” says Andrea Kalin, producer and director of Soul of a People: Writing America’s History.“ Kalin’s film has an unsettling modern-day resonance. It tells the story of America during a time of unemployment epidemic, widespread home eviction, and economic turmoil. A time, too, when hopes centered on a new president and his ideas for change.

Soul of a People tells the little-known story of one of those ideas: the Federal Writer’s Project (FWP). This noodle in the alphabet soup of the Works Progress Administration tasked over 6,600 individuals with documenting America in the 1930’s. The results were incredible: an unprecedented series of 48 state guides written, nearly 4,000 life histories recorded, and some of America’s finest writers molded. Out of crisis emerged a powerful portrait of our nation.

The film, which received major support from the National Endowment of the Humanities, couples historical footage with present-day interviews of former FWP writers. Its focus on the first federal push to seriously document the American scene, along with its compelling narrative, fits well with Smithsonian Channel’s mission to tell America’s stories with a distinctive voice.

Wife and children of a sharecropper in Washington County, Arkansas.

While filming in HD was a “genuinely enjoyable experience”, the challenge came in reformatting historical footage to HD standards. “We found a lot of extraordinary footage, but the stock houses would only let us use standard-definition intermediaries,” says Kalin. How could historical footage be presented alongside stunning HD shots? Kalin continues, “Archival film has been shot in so many different ways that it’s a dicey venture to create a uniform look. The quality depended on the original resolution, which was limited by film grain and frame sizes. We soon learned that just because archival footage comes from the same source, it won’t necessarily ‘look’ the same once converted and imported. To solve this, we used color washes and filters to even out all the footage.”

The end product: a high definition view into landmark American history, with a contemporary resonance. 

Universal Pictures’ recent action-thriller Public Enemies was shot with Sony F23 professional high-definition cameras. Co-writer/director/producer Michael Mann and co-producer/2nd unit director Bryan Carroll had specific HD production needs to realistically capture the look of 1930s America and overcome the challenges of shooting a period piece. “To do a historical period movie right, you need to push the limits on picture quality, detail, depth of field and exposure,” Carroll said. “The F23 was an ace up our sleeve.”

Mann and Carroll recreated the story of Depression-era outlaw John Dillinger (played by Johnny Depp) – the charismatic bank robber whose lightning raids made him a folk hero to much of the public, and the numberone target of J. Edgar Hoover’s fledgling FBI and its top agent, Melvin Purvis. Public Enemies also stars Christian Bale (Purvis) and Academy Award® winner Marion Cotillard as Dillinger’s girlfriend, Billie Frechette.

The production team for Public Enemies also featured an A-list team behind-thescenes, including two-time Academy Award®- nominated director of photography Dante Spinotti and digital imaging technician Dave Canning. The team used the F23 to bring a vivid period in history to life in stunning detail. About 95 percent of the movie was shot with the F23, while the Sony PMW-EX1 camcorder handled shots that required a more mobile tool. For example, the compact EX1 camcorder was used to lens the interior of planes and cars during high-speed chases.

“There’s a combination of a handheld, very close approach to the faces of the actors, all shot with long lenses,” Spinotti said.

Complementing the F23’s use to achieve a realistic look was Sony’s HDCAM SR™ digital videocassettes. These cassettes are designed to fully maximize the benefits of 4:4:4 RGB recording technology. The PMWEX1 camcorder recorded to Sony SxS PRO™ memory cards.  

One of the most common makeup needs on set is for a look of exposure to the elements, one of which is the look that someone has from being out for a long time in severe heat. Many a Western has used this look, such as The Good The Bad And The Ugly, Deadwood, or while not a cowboy drama, The Flight of the Phoenix. To give the skin a severe sun exposure look, here is what I do.

Like a first-degree burn, I stipple the face and neck with a pale pink tone. For this demonstration, I applied Skin Illustrator DT Blush using a torn latex sponge. while having my model, Clayton Stang, wrinkle his face. After this I stippled two light coats of Duo Adhesive to a few spots on Clayton’s face. While that was drying, I glued three pre-made blisters made from 3rd Degree Silicone.

Next, as illustrated in the second photo, darker reds were stippled over some areas of the face. I also mixed the hand painted work with some airbrush spatter while Clayton wrinkled his face.

Burnt sienna and additional red tones were added around the eyes. Grayed purple was also worked around the eyes. The Duo Adhesive was pulled in the center and broken to a desired size. The center of each broken blister was then made up with a pale color, followed by a bit of red around the edge. A little K-Y Jelly was painted inside the blister to enhance the sore appearance.

With these simple steps, an artist can create a look that holds up even in High Definition.  

In 2002, when the topic first came up to switch from shooting on traditional 35mm film to HD for our upcoming film Screen Door Jesus, all I heard was negativity from the old school professional grapevine. I remember similar skepticism in post when the Montage was introduced to replace the Moviola back in 1985.

“The decision to shoot HD was primarily economic,” said Director of Photography Dan Stoloff. “We knew that we could shoot more days, afford a second camera, and have a Steadicam, ultimately putting more production value up on the screen.”

“The look of the Sony 900 was a bit sharp for the look we were going for,” stated Stoloff, “so after significant testing we found that by placing a Fogal silk stocking on the back of the lens, it softened the hard edges and gave us a more romantic and timeless look, softening the color saturation giving the highlights a kind of glowing halation.” Screen Door Jesus won for Best Cinematography at the Hampton’s International Film Festival in 2004.

The dilemma on our next film, Welcome to Academia, was which HD camera to choose. David Dunlap, our DP, who also shot Shaun of the Dead, selected the Arri D-20 camera primarily for its lenses, which allowed him to shoot some scenes wide open, throwing foreground and background images out of focus, creating depth of field more common to film, a visual style our Director, Kirk Davis, had discussed with co-screenwriter and Executive Producer Elzbieta Szoka.

Kirk Davis, the Director on both films, summed up shooting on HD by saying, “the most pleasant aspect that we discovered in using Highdef was the ability to move quickly from take to take, shot to shot and set-up to set-up. This allowed for a continuity of rhythm for the actors, the crew, and my own creative process, which greatly benefited the final film as a whole.”  

When Pearl Jam decided to release their new album through Target, they needed a spot that captured the energy and intensity of live performance. The band and director Cameron Crowe turned to cinematographer Phedon Papamichael, ASC, whose recent feature credits include Walk the Line, 3:10 to Yuma, W., and The Pursuit of Happyness.

“Our goal was to capture the essence of the song, ‘The Fixer,’ in less than 30 seconds,” says Papamichael. “We wanted to create the atmosphere of a small club, and make the audience feel like they are onstage interacting with the band, seeing those quick but meaningful glances and gestures between band members.”

About 300 club-goers were brought into the Showbox, an intimate rock venue in Seattle. Papamichael employed three camera operators and used a range of Kodak film formats: Super 8, Super 16 and 35 mm. All the cameras were handheld, with zoom lenses for flexibility. The first take was done from behind the band, looking past the musicians to capture the excitement of the crowd. On subsequent takes, the operators moved freely on the stage, at times within inches of the band members, moving in harmony with the performance and the music.

The small formats were chosen for their light weight, portability and because format changes create visual interest designed to have a spontaneous, documentary feel. Cameras were loaded with KODAK VISION3 500T film stock, 5219 in the case of the ARRI 235 35 mm camera, and 7219 in the ARRI 416 Super 16 cameras. Pro8mm in Burbank provided the same VISION3 emulsion in Super 8 format, and also handled its processing and scanning to HD.

The Super 16 and 35 mm footage was transferred to HD format at FotoKem. Crowe then edited a 30-second spot from the footage. Images will also end up in a documentary he is making about the band. A full edit of the song may also play at Target stores on high definition screens.  

They are the first line of defense on the last frontier, the roughly 400 state troopers who patrol the rugged and unforgiving terrain of America’s largest state — Alaska. National Geographic Channel (NGC) gained rare access to this elite law enforcement agency for the new series Alaska State Troopers. Filmed over eight months, the series takes a visual journey through the Alaskan wilderness and into its remote villages — some of which are accessible only by air — to capture a mixture of raw nature and criminal activity in spectacular highdef.

NGC filmmakers traveled to 15 different locations to paint an accurate “day-in-thelife” picture of these troopers. From arresting a drunken snowmobiler in bone-chilling negative 35 degree temperatures to scouring a frozen river on a search-and-rescue mission, crew members were there for the action. Producer Brian Jones explained, “Common sense was the name of the game, dress extremely warm, don’t get in the way of the trooper, and have an exit plan in case a brown bear comes running out of the woods at you!”

Using a Panasonic Varicam camera with a wide angle Canon 5.7~92mm lens, they assembled what is believed to be the largest collection of HD footage of law enforcement in remote locations. A variety of camera techniques were used to document Alaska’s pristine beauty — from its snow-covered mountains to its diverse wildlife. Jones recalls one particular day of filming when they followed an Alaska Wildlife Trooper as a he patrolled the wilderness for illegal hunting in a helicopter. “We had a chase helicopter with a Tyler Nose mount to film his action in the air, and a camera with him to capture the interactions with hunters.”

From interrogating potential bootleggers in villages where alcohol is prohibited, to cruising down icy highways at 100 mph with the fear of a moose crossing onto the road, the series follows the brave men and women who serve and protect America’s new Wild West.  

Debacle, Nike SB’s second full-length skateboard video premiered online last June. The video was directed by Jon Humphries and Jason Hernandez and filmed by Hernandez, Joey Ruiz, and Chris Middlebrook. The exciting program was filmed in ten countries entirely in HD (the first skate video of its kind), using the Panasonic HVX200. The video is set to a soundtrack that matches the intensity and vigor of the young crew’s skating (featuring Bad Brains, Skid Row, and The Replacements).

To deliver the video online, Nike SB teamed up with Adobe to offer a free stream and download of Debacle for one month (June 24th-July 24th). The collaboration was a success with over 70,000 streams and 65,000 downloads in one month.

“From the beginning of Debacle it was our goal to push the boundaries of a skateboard video. We shot the entire video in 1080 HD, because we wanted to make sure our audience saw the video at the best quality possible,” said director Jon Humphries.

Sticking with that philosophy, rather than compromising the footage and releasing a standard DVD, Debacle is now exclusively on Blu-ray disc, another first for skate videos. Bryce Kanights, editor of Skatedaily.net said, “Shot entirely in HD and well worth your time and attention, this is truly some “next level” skateboarding.”  

Tom is experienced with all film and video formats, hand held cinema verité shooting, directing multiple camera scenes, and dramatic lighting. Curran studied at the American Film Institute and periodically teaches cinematography at USC.

Tom is the owner of Night Train Pictures – a company that outfits documentary and reality series with a variety of HD and standard definition cameras and portable lighting packages for television production. Night Train currently provides the HD camera packages for TLC’s hit series, Little People, Big World.