It appears that The Voyage of the Dawn Treader will be shot on digital cameras. The first two films were shot on traditional 35mm film stock, but the wave of the future appears to be in digital film. Cinematographer Dante Spinotti was recently interviewed, and mentioned it’s use on Narnia.
Q: Why not go with a digital camera you’d already used? Why did you decide on the Sony F23 for Public Enemies?
Spinotti : Michael [Mann] likes depth of field, images with deep focus, and that camera has a chip that’s more like 16mm that gave us that depth of focus. It’s the same reason why I chose the same camera for the film I am going into now, The Chronicles of Narnia. The depth of field works in our favor. The camera also has an advantage in the sense that it is much more elastic. You can adjust gamma curves and gain for incredible control over the image. You can also shoot much bigger energy in the sense that you can have a zoom lens and the camera can move around in a quicker way.
When it comes to Digital vs. Traditional film… there are many many films being shot digitally these days. You can even get camcorders that shoot straight to a hard drive or an SD card. Videographers are torn, as film allows you to do a lot, and can currently capture more data. Digital film has been making great strides for about 10 years or so, now, and is changing the way that movies are made in many respects.
Recent films shot digitally include: Superman Returns, Speed Racer, and Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones as well as Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.
Just look at what James Cameron is doing to see where the future of filmmaking could be going in the next few years. If it is everything it is touted to be, Avatar could be the film that breaks boundaries.
In December 2006, Cameron explained that the delay in producing the film since the 1990s had been to wait until the technology necessary to create his project was advanced enough. The director planned to create photo-realistic computer-generated characters by using motion capture animation technology, on which he had been doing work for the past 14 months. Unlike previous performance capture systems, where the digital environment is added after the actors’ motions have been captured, Cameron’s new virtual camera allows him to directly observe on a monitor how the actors’ virtual counterparts interact with the movie’s digital world in real time and adjust and direct the scenes just as if shooting live action; “It’s like a big, powerful game engine. If I want to fly through space, or change my perspective, I can. I can turn the whole scene into a living miniature and go through it on a 50 to 1 scale.” Cameron planned to continue developing the special effects for Avatar, which he hoped would be released in summer 2009. He also gave fellow directors Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson a chance to test the new technology. Spielberg and George Lucas were also able to visit the set to watch Cameron direct with the equipment.
Other technological innovations include a performance-capture stage, called The Volume, which is six times larger than previously used and an improved method of capturing facial expressions. The tool is a small individually made skull cap with a tiny camera attached to it, located in front of the actors’ face which collects information about their facial expressions and eyes, which is then transmitted to the computers. This way, Cameron intendes to transfer about 95% of the actor’s performance to their digital counterparts. Besides a real time virtual world, the team is also experimenting with a way of letting computer generated characters interact with real actors on a real, live-action set while shooting live action. (via Wikipedia)
Now, this is NOT what they’re using on Dawn Treader… but it’s a good example of what is being done with digital filmmaking. It’s something that I’m torn on, but I think it looks really great sometimes, and like seeing a push to a technology that requires less waste.
Thanks to Glumpuddle for contacting me about it.