Digital Imaging Technician Michele de Lorimier is one of the most familiarized DITs on the D20.

An important part of the production team on the Bratz commercial series was Digital Imaging Technician (DIT) Michele de Lorimier. De Lorimier began working in the video format almost 20 years ago in documentaries and news. She trained on all sorts of equipment maintenance and repair during five years in at San Francisco-based rental house Adolph Gasser. This was followed by a couple of years working in sound with effects recording at George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch and freelancing as a location mixer.

Becoming a technician on the TimeTrack camera array system doing special effects jobs all over the world took her away from a career in sound. “These jobs were truly great training for becoming a DIT,” she explains. “The tech and computer challenges of the special effects jobs and the close conjunction with post were probably the most relevant background for becoming a DIT. As you know, the VFX folks were the early adopters of data capture and digital workflow.”

She also spent a few years as an AC, operator and engineer/tech for multi-cam concert shoots and commercials and some time under the tutelage of cinematographer Yuri Neyman (of Gamma & Density) learning color science and production color management.

De Lorimier has been working with one or more D-20s on several commercial shoots. Here, she talks to us about her experience from the first of a series of Bratz commercial spots that have used the D-20.

De Lorimier says the ARRIFLEX D-20 is “somewhere right between the style of an HD shoot and a film shoot.”

In getting to know the D-20, what did you do to prepare for the first shoot?
Before the first D-20 shoot, Bengt Jönsson the DP, and I shot some simple tests at Clairmont. The “contrast characteristics” which control how to rate and expose the camera are selectable and becoming comfortable with the response of those choices was very similar to testing a new film stock. This was a great thing to have done in a controlled environment and ahead of the shoot. There are a few other selectables in the camera and these were quite fast to learn.

Many of the other components we needed to round out our package for the shoot were familiar from other HD projects: the SRW-1 deck, the waveform monitor, afterburner, etc, so getting to know the camera’s parameters was all that was needed to fit into a known system.

Did working with the D-20 alter your role as a DIT at all?
Yeah! I don’t get any credit for the camera looking great. The D-20 looks beautiful immediately!

Not “painting” the look of the D-20 is the biggest difference between this camera and other HD systems for my job on set. Also, perhaps because of the baked-in look of most of the curve settings, setting exposure needs to be very precise with this camera so I am keeping a very careful eye on that. There is no “knee” to roll off nor any lifting or crushing of blacks, no manipulations of gamma or matrix.

Many of the parameters aside from the actual camera are precisely the same DIT responsibilities: keeping track of the deck, time code, color space, format and parameters for post, distributing the signal, etc. The pre-production planning follows the normal D-Cinema procedures.

How did the rest of the crew take to it?
Most of the production commercial crews are from film backgrounds and seem to be relieved by the way this camera behaves more like a film camera than the HD systems they have worked with. The set presence of the D-20 is somewhere right between the style of an HD shoot and a film shoot.

DP Bengt Jan Jönsson readies the camera for the next shot.

For the camera department, it is almost a transparent transition from film. Filters, accessories, lenses and electronic accessories are all the same ARRI ones they are familiar with. This means you can go on a crane, and the crane operator will for sure already have the cable that you need strung in his/her bundle, the Preston will plug in and work, the matte boxes and follow focuses all line up perfectly…Most importantly, the lenses that can be used are the vast array available and familiar to DPs that come from the film world.

The DP and operator are able to see so much more through the viewfinder than other HD cameras, as a result of ARRI utilizing a true optical viewfinder. This allows them to see with depth perception as well as actually see objects and reference points outside the recorded frame (like a film camera). So this is good for the whole crew, but especially for the camera department.

This outside-of-the-recorded-frame visibility is also piped out the CVBS (down-converted) output. Steadicam guys, crane and remote head operators and hand models love this output because it is bright and because it has so much more visible outside the frame with almost no delay. Usually with HD we have a delay for the downconvert and this is disruptive to the hand models using the monitors to do their work -- obviously this is very difficult for Steadicam and crane operators as well. This is a huge benefit to the crew with this camera.

Looking at a beautiful HD image really puts the client and director at ease. They don’t have to see a flat video image ever nor do they rely on just a video tap, so they are getting the best from the film world and the best from the HD world in this regard. 

There are still cables all over the place and sound, VTR, the electricians and myself are in a spaghetti-fest when we move sets or locations just like normal HD!

How would you describe the D-20's look as opposed to other HD cameras?
The D-20 completely looks like one is shooting film. In fact it looks very rich, like reversal film. It never looks video-y. Truly it is beautiful. A shot of a black man very starkly lit with colored blue and red gelled lights, would look noisy and the color reproduction wouldn’t hold up so well in other HD systems. With the D-20, this shot is gorgeous and filmic in quality. There is something very natural and cinematic about the way the sensor responds.

This camera has a great combination of elements: 4:4:4 recording capability, the low signal to noise of HD-SR format, narrow depth of field from the full frame sensor size, and the reliable ARRI engineering and quality.

What kind of productions would be ideal to use the D-20 on?
How is the workflow beneficial to a commercial shoot?
Use the D-20 on any job that you can have at least a 250 ASA quantity of light (ARRI says 320!). A job that was slated for film or for HD would benefit from this “best of both worlds” camera: a beautiful look like film, longer record periods and less stress about long or multiple takes, highly reliable HD-SR tapes, instantaneous record check to confirm you have what you need, 4:4:4 record capability, material that can leave set and be taken directly to editorial. Why wouldn’t you do that? The only thing I can think of right now is that the camera doesn’t yet do high speed, speed ramps or variable frame rates. Once we have that and data capture, log curves and LUT management, there won’t be many logical reasons to use anything else.

Are there other scenarios you are curious about how the D-20 will perform?
Ben Grossman of “The Syndicate” and Andrew Turman, the DP of a recent NASCAR greenscreen elements shoot and I shot some test frames of the Log curves, the Rec 709 curves and the linear. Ben is going to normalize all for display creating LUTs for doing so. So of course we are curious about how the bits map out and how much more latitude we have gained to push the image up, down and around in post.

Also tomorrow I am meeting with Josh Pines of Technicolor and Curtis Clark, ASC to capture some frames to put through his color correction system (Digital Printer Lights) with the D-20 before a test shoot next week. I will be curious particularly how the C log curve responds.

Anyone you'd like to mention or talk about?
I have to say I am privileged and honored to work with Bengt Jönsson. It was his boldness and sharp mind that led us down the path of several spots with the D-20 so far. I really admire the spirit to go after and test the D-20 before anyone on this coast was really using it. Also I’d like to mention how helpful and available Stephen Ukas-Bradley of ARRI Burbank has been. He has been available by phone and in person, has come to set, and to my preps. He has fielded calls from me at 7 a.m. to late p.m.

And of course, Clairmont [Camera] has been wonderful. There are SOME TRULY great brains at work there. Bill Sturke is there now -- what an amazing resource and help he has been with such a generosity of spirit and knowledge…And all the good guys there: Michael, Sergio, Zach, Sean, Daniel, David, Alan, Shane, and of course lovely Denny…There is a sense of pride in work well done at Clairmont. The equipment is so well-maintained and carefully prepared and the service is top notch.

An Tran

Visit the D-20 Product Page for more information.