NEW YORK—As a cinematographer, visual storytelling, leading a team, staying on schedule, executing, and elevating my Director’s vision are some of the many things I do everyday. My problem solving skills are always working in the background. I love finding ways to maximize my resources, which was especially relevant in the production of “Scary Good,” which I shot on the new Canon EOS C400 camera, in collaboration with Canon. Problem solving is present in all my work.
“Scary Good” is a mystery/thriller “whodunit” short film that can be seen on YouTube. I had a unique perspective on the overall workflow, since I work in both narrative and documentary background and this time around I got to shoot, direct and help conceive the concept from the beginning.
As the camera stalks and chases a box office attendant, veteran actress, maintenance worker and backstage tech, through the historic United Palace Theatre in New York City, this two-minute film fills audiences with a level of anxiety. Culminating in ultimate relief as the group bursts out of a top floor balcony into the sunlight, it illustrates just how much storytelling relies on sound and visual cues.
The 'Scary Good' Puzzle
The first part of the “Scary Good” puzzle was understanding how far we could push the camera. There are many features included in the EOS C400 camera that I didn’t know could exist at its price point; and it’s also very light and small for the power that it holds.
The crew is always a huge part of the success of every project. My gimbal operator, Nadine Martinez; my ACs, Thom Cameron, Cheryn Park, Lisa Chin; my DIT, George Robert Morse; my lighting designer Alexa Mignon; my key grip, Vinny Davino; and my costume designer, Pamela Shepherd, are all people I’ve worked with before. I’ve developed so much trust and a shorthand with this team. Pam and I met while working on Ziwe (Showtime) and I was always impressed with how she elevated the characters.
My camera and lighting team helped me execute every frame and every camera move. The lighting Alexa helped me create on screen really pushed the element of suspense. Lighting cues motivated sound design and gave the actors something to respond to. Like every production, we had limited time and limited resources. The triple base ISO really allowed us to maximize the dynamic range in the camera given the existing lighting parameters at the theater.
I wanted the theater to look as elegant as it appears in person by being strategic with my exposure and adding lighting to accentuate what was already there. I was really fortunate to have access to the EOS C400 camera and Canon senior technical specialist and sales engineer Paul Hawxhurt’s expertise. He helped me shoot some tests during our tech scout to see which ISO would give us the best latitude in that space.
6K RAW Files
Ultimately, we decided setting the base ISO to 3200 and rating the ISO at 1600 was the best way to create more details in the shadows without causing additional noise. The ways we utilized lighting and camera movements to introduce our characters made the audience feel a bit unsettled. This played into building the dramatic tension throughout, creating almost an extraterrestrial presence, which was amplified by the frenetic energy of the edit, led by our editor, Emily Spiegelman-Noel.
The EOS C400 camera’s ability to record proxies in real-time while recording in-camera 6K RAW files was really helpful for the tight turn-around in post. Our editor, Emily, was able to walk away with a hard drive of proxies to get started on the edit right away. The LUT we chose was the Canon CMT 709. We used this for our on-set monitors and this was the starting point for my DIT, George Robert, and I to create a few CDL’s for our colorist. While we were in the color grade, we made minor adjustments to help accentuate the look and feel of our film. l
Christine Ng is a Hong Kong-born, New York City based cinematographer. She can be reached at ms.christineng@gmail.com and at www.christineng.com.
More information is available at www.usa.canon.com.
