‘East of Broadway’ 5D to 35mm Film-out Test – Part One: The Shoot

As Endless Picnic reaches its first year anniversary, more and more feature films shot with HDSLRs are making their way to theatrical release. But aside from the occasional big budget Hollywood project that incorporates 5D or 7D footage (Black Swan, 127 Hours, Captain America, etc.) most are shown digitally, and rarely get transferred to film and projected.

Given that, I’m extremely happy to report that we’re in the middle of a truly exciting project: transferring test footage I shot on the Canon 5DMKII with a small crew in NYC, to a 35mm print stock, to be followed by a comprehensive evaluation of the results as projected on the BIG screen at Goldcrest Post in NYC.

Why the test? It’s for the exciting indie feature film East of Broadway Endless Picnic is producing with Hostage International, starring Haaz Sleiman, scheduled to begin production in February 2012.

Now on to the details…
  

PHASE ONE: TEST PREP

Given the limited production time and budget alloted for the tests–as well as a significant cap on the amount of footage that would be transferred to film, only 6 minutes–I knew I had to choose what to evaluate very carefully, and be as rigorous in my methods as possible.

At first, this seemed remarkably daunting. Where would I start? With something tried and true, like sharpness/resolution tests of DSLR lenses? If so, Canon zooms versus primes? Zeiss primes versus Canon primes? Or how about full frame sensor depth of field tests? A comparison of ISOs and noise? 5D Picture Styles? Or maybe latitude tests? Should certain tests be combined with others, or repeated with other variables remaining constant? And once the tests were done, should the footage go out to film graded or ungraded? And should we protect and frame for 1.85:1? Yikes!

Frankly, even with clear input from the director of the project, Bandar Albuliwi, who primarily wanted to see how well 5D footage holds up on a big screen, transferred to film, and to test the range of standard cinema focal lengths on a full frame camera, the possibilities seemed limitless. I kept thinking of the mathematical formula that uses an exclamation point–the factorial, or n!–”the product of the integers from 1 to n”. ! indeed.

With the test shoot date barely two weeks off, I started marshalling my forces. The first calls went out to trusty regular ACs Andrew Baxter and Travis Fowler, both of whom have bailed me out of any number of jams with the 5D or 7D in hand, and would undoubtedly prove invaluable on set for the tests.

I then consulted The Picnic’s house colorist/editor Alex Ricciardi and rental tech Adam Goodman. Alex weighed in heavily for an evaluation of how well the 5D performs at high ISOs, as well as a head-to-head matchup of Technicolor’s new CineStyle picture style and the time honored Stu Maschwitz ProLost picture style. We also decided to eschew the go-to Canon 24-70mm and 70-200mm L Series zooms in favor of the more disciplined and exacting work that can be done with primes. (To faciliate a thorough evaluation, Adam graciously secured a set of Canon L series primes to square off against the Endless Picnic Zeiss ZE primes.)

At that point, I decided the simplest way to proceed would be to schedule a series of day and night interiors and exteriors for the tests–a standard approach for any comprehensive testing, and for narrative filmmaking in general–and work from there. The director and I then scouted a number of locations throughout midtown Manhattan that we thought we might eventually shoot during principal photography.

I also decided we would shoot both light (female) skin tone and dark (male) skin tone, a Kodak chip chart, an X-Rite color chart, and a gray card. We also decided to frame for 1.85:1 (using our brand new Zacuto EVF‘s frame guides). And because the film is to be shot handheld, we opted to do the tests the same way. Finally, clear notes on the following factors would be slated and shot alongside the reference charts:

LENS
ISO
APERTURE
FILTERS
PICTURE STYLE

Slate, gray card, color checker and chip chart at the ready (Note new Endless Picnic AC unit beneath, also at the ready!

  

PHASE TWO: THE TESTS

On the day of the tests, Adam spent a good part of the morning prepping the complete Endless Picnic 5D Cinesystem, adding the recently acquired Zacuto EVF Flip to our hot-rodded Redrock shoulder system, our trusty Marshall 7″ LCD monitor (with the fancy HDMI passthrough upgrade) and Redrock Matte Box.

  

Camera tech Adam Goodman works his magic in the EP gear room.

  

Baxter and Fowler arrived and put the finishing touches on the prep–they’d been out in the field and in the studio with The Picnic’s camera package so many times, they knew just the right tweaks to make: a lens gear here, an articulating arm there. (With the tiny 5D, there’s always another mounting option!) Office intern–and editor and sometime camera assistant–Dominika Michalowska arrived next, and would serve as both third AC–keeping careful track of each parameter–and our female test model. Way to go, Dom!

 

The Endless Picnic 5D Cinesystem at the ready.

  

We started in the middle of the day at the swanky new Endless Picnic office–a large, bright comfortable space with 8′ windows. Our tech room would be seconds away, and, more importantly, we’d be able to shoot under the best possible conditions: plentiful, soft natural daylight, an ISO of 160, lenses roughly 2 stops up from open (generally acknowleged as the sweet spot for sharpness and resolution of detail for most lenses) and fairly minimal contrast ratios. (The white walls indeed provided plenty of fill–no need for a bounce!)

 

Female skin tone for the lens and resolution tests at the EP offices.

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David Cavallo and 1st AC Andrew Baxter set up the first shot of the 5D to 35mm filmout tests.

  
Given these somewhat optimal conditions, I decided this would be the best place to compare Canon L series and the Zeiss ZE primes. (Lord knows that as we made our way into the night shoots, we’d see what these lenses had to offer under circumstances FAR less than optimal!)

Although we didn’t have the exact focal lengths along the spectrum, the following lenses were used:

Canon 24mm L 1.4
Zeiss ZE 21mm 2.8

Canon L 35mm 1.4
Zeiss ZE 35mm 2.0

Canon L 50mm 1.2
Zeiss ZE 50mm 1.4

Canon 85mm L 1.2
Zeiss ZE 85mm 1.4

Zeiss ZE 100mm MAKRO 2.0

For the second part of the testing, we moved to a much moodier location, and greatly increased the contrast ratios. Natural light would still be used, but the amount of fill would be controlled and minimal. I would shoot ISOs primarily of 320 and 640–reminiscent of the settings I’d used for many day interior shoots I’ve done with the 5D and 7D–and keep focal lengths on the longer side.

  

Contrast ratio testing.

  

The third series of tests was comprised of several magic hour shots in the theater district of Manhattan, where we would evaluate the general feel of the full-frame 5D focal length range in a relatively straightforward narrative context.
  

Cavallo and Baxter in Midtown.

Our male actor would walk towards the camera, and then we’d pan with him as he crossed the street.
 

 

Dom preps the color chart for the night exterior tests in Times Square.

 
We followed that with several dusk tracking shots on a crowded theater district street, using the 21mm, 35mm and 50mm lenses. Where possible, I’d stick to the hotly contested (but still seductive!) thought that ISOs at increments of 160 would yield the cleanest results with the 5D.
 

 

Then things started to get interesting. As night fell, we went over to Times Square to do depth of field testing–something I was particularly interested in seeing on a big screen, given the incredibly large sensor size of the 5D and its correspondingly super shallow focus. For this test, we selected a range of normal lenses (35/50/85mm) and, due to the darkness, used higher ISOs. We would shoot a medium close-up, from F2.0 to F5.6, in full stop increments, to determine at which point the DoF would become impressionistic. (Or, perhaps, to use another term “distracting.”)
 

 

Baxter strikes a pose as the sun goes down...

With the heavy lifting out of the way, I wanted to start ramping things up and have a little fun. Noise tests–really pushing the ISOs!–anyone? To do this, we set up camp on the darkest block we could find in Hell’s Kitchen–eat yer heart out Owen Roizman–and shot with virtually no ambient street light, at ISOs of 640/800/1600/3200 and a whopping 6400!
  

  

The last night exterior test was the one that Alex had pushed for during our prep–comparing the Technicolor CineStyle Picture Style and the much loved Stu Maschwitz ProLost Picture Style. (I was particularly excited about this, given the lively discussion that had sprung up on the subject on the web and on the RC podcast.) We did this at a phone booth on 8th Avenue that had nearly no light hitting it–a cigarette lighter was used as a key!
 

  

Oh, in case you’re wondering if I’d forgot ‘em: night interiors were done on a different day with a much smaller crew, and were conducted primarily to evaluate the light levels and fluorescent casts on the NYC subways, where several scenes in the feature film are to take place. Dig the frame grab.
  

  
And…that’s it! In subsequent posts, Alex will weigh in on how all this footage looked in our post suite, show you the edited six minute video piece being sent out to film, and detail that process. When all that’s done we’ll give you our observations on how the footage looks at Goldcrest, transferred to film, up on the big screen. Stay tuned!
 
NEXT UP: EVALUATING THE TESTS ON THE SMALL (42″!) SCREEN