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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Steven Soderbergh's " The Knick " Shot on Dragon

I've been waiting for this one and wondering if Soderbergh was going to be shooting it on Epic. Awesome to hear... and congrats Mark, I had no idea OffHollywood was involved! Always good to see.

Cheers,
Omar
 
Kristin Stewart said:
It looks nice, I guess Europeans will have to count on Torrents for this one, unfortunately, as usual...
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I know that HBO nordic is airing it tomorrow (saturday), so if France has HBO like we do up here then you should be able to see it tomorrow.

Mark L. Pederson said:
some tech FYI's -

Shot on Zeiss Superspeeds and the old RED ZOOM 50-150mm.

6K HD - 5:1 compression

Shot almost entirely at ISO 1280 for texture as a creative choice

Shot almost entirely wide open at T1.3 for cinematic depth (they often ND'd on interiors).

No DIT. No monitors on set with the exception on the 7" RED on-board for operator/ACs and only TWO 17" SONY OLED's (one for each AC to pull focus via wireless video via Teradek Bolt Pro's)
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Interesting choice of 1280, but I guess that the texture disappears a bit during compression to broadcast/streaming and if you shot it at that then I guess you will be able to see the noise better. Although I would prefer a cinegrain or film convert grain over the native noise.

But, no DIT? How did they manage the data and image checkup? Or did they just shoot onto cards and then offload in the evening? But I guess that's almost as shooting on film :D
 
Christoffer Glans said:
But, no DIT? How did they manage the data and image checkup? Or did they just shoot onto cards and then offload in the evening? But I guess that's almost as shooting on film :D
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SSDs went directly to editorial for copy to SAN & processing for AVID at lunch and end of day. So, yeah, just like shooting on film - but faster.
 
Mark L. Pederson said:
SSDs went directly to editorial for copy to SAN & processing for AVID at lunch and end of day. So, yeah, just like shooting on film - but faster.
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WOW. Very interesting. Love this workflow. Thanks for sharing!

Mark L. Pederson said:
some tech FYI's -

Shot on Zeiss Superspeeds and the old RED ZOOM 50-150mm.

6K HD - 5:1 compression

Shot almost entirely at ISO 1280 for texture as a creative choice

Shot almost entirely wide open at T1.3 for cinematic depth (they often ND'd on interiors).

No DIT. No monitors on set with the exception on the 7" RED on-board for operator/ACs and only TWO 17" SONY OLED's (one for each AC to pull focus via wireless video via Teradek Bolt Pro's)
Click to expand...

You are such a wealth of information! LOVE THIS too. Love that they shot the Super Speed wide open. So cool. Any filtration? Though shooting 1280 w/ Super Speeds WO is already "a look", so wouldn't surprise me if they were conservative w/ filters (besides ND).

best
 
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HBO-Sodenbergh-Dragon... wonderful ingredients. Really looking forward to it.
 
Mark L. Pederson said:
SSDs went directly to editorial for copy to SAN & processing for AVID at lunch and end of day. So, yeah, just like shooting on film - but faster.
Click to expand...


Were these the mini-mags or the regular ones? How many and how large were the mags? It seems that this might be something that is becoming more and more common. In this sense, digital isn't any worse than film when it comes to reliability of the footage, so it becomes faster to work like this I think. I mean, the mini mags are 512 GB, which is a lot of footage even at 5:1. And while editors and assistant editors get more and more custom to the workflow of digital cinema, maybe DIT's are a dying breed. For me as a director it's wonderful to be able to just shoot and not give a damn about loading off the footage before moving on.
 
Christoffer Glans said:
Were these the mini-mags or the regular ones? How many and how large were the mags? It seems that this might be something that is becoming more and more common. In this sense, digital isn't any worse than film when it comes to reliability of the footage, so it becomes faster to work like this I think. I mean, the mini mags are 512 GB, which is a lot of footage even at 5:1. And while editors and assistant editors get more and more custom to the workflow of digital cinema, maybe DIT's are a dying breed. For me as a director it's wonderful to be able to just shoot and not give a damn about loading off the footage before moving on.
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Mini-Mags did not exist when this was shot. This started shooting last September. Bleeding edge alpha/beta pre-release firmware.

DITs can have tremendous value - depends on what you need - Soderbergh is one of those rare guys - best I can explain it - he's like Hitchcock - his vision is laser specific - he does his homework and comes seriously prepared. He's one of those guys that gets crazy respect from the crew - so the crew works harder to make it all happen.

Experienced crew members are smart folks - they have been around the block - they know when they are jerkin' off (most of time) and they know when they are making a solid, planned vision happen. It's a very different energy.
 
Mark L. Pederson said:
Mini-Mags did not exist when this was shot. This started shooting last September. Bleeding edge alpha/beta pre-release firmware.

DITs can have tremendous value - depends on what you need - Soderbergh is one of those rare guys - best I can explain it - he's like Hitchcock - his vision is laser specific - he does his homework and comes seriously prepared. He's one of those guys that gets crazy respect from the crew - so the crew works harder to make it all happen.

Experienced crew members are smart folks - they have been around the block - they know when they are jerkin' off (most of time) and they know when they are making a solid, planned vision happen. It's a very different energy.
Click to expand...

I was hearing about this shoot last winter, and always in glowing terms. Word of mouth even then was it looked SICK. That was first time I'd heard...from boots on ground...that Dragon was INSANE. So glad to finally see what everyone was talking about!!

best
 
Mark L. Pederson said:
Mini-Mags did not exist when this was shot. This started shooting last September. Bleeding edge alpha/beta pre-release firmware.

DITs can have tremendous value - depends on what you need - Soderbergh is one of those rare guys - best I can explain it - he's like Hitchcock - his vision is laser specific - he does his homework and comes seriously prepared. He's one of those guys that gets crazy respect from the crew - so the crew works harder to make it all happen.

Experienced crew members are smart folks - they have been around the block - they know when they are jerkin' off (most of time) and they know when they are making a solid, planned vision happen. It's a very different energy.
Click to expand...

Yeah, both Soderbergh and Fincher are people that I look up to and are very influenced by as an aspiring director. It's the "know everyone's job to be able to communicate with them better"-philosophy. As a former camera crew worker I've encountered too many directors who don't know how things work and who can't communicate what they want and that's bad for the whole production, everyone involved.
 
Sounds very interesting and it certainly has all the right ingredients. Soderbergh, enough said.

With the vastly improved picture quality - and getting better by the year - Episodic TV is reaching new heights in so many ways, with many many hours
in which to develop compelling characters and their complex worlds. Is feature length the new short. ( :

And It'll be interesting to see how other episodic concepts arise; even 5 minute innovations for the net… ultra unconventional and so on. The possibilities are endless.
 
Dragon aside, I get the impression that the show will turn a lot of people off, what with the gratuitous/realistic gib-fest. Normally HBO/Cinemax shows throw in nude scenes every 15 mins to visually attract the viewers attention... The Knick replaces nudity with simulated surgeries, full of stomachs being sliced open, and intestines flopping about... It's not nearly as visually pleasing, in my opinion...

...that said, HBO isn't in the habit of making gimmicky shows, so it'll be interesting to see how The Knick develops over the first season.
 
Mark L. Pederson said:
Experienced crew members are smart folks - they have been around the block - they know when they are jerkin' off (most of time) and they know when they are making a solid, planned vision happen. It's a very different energy.
Click to expand...

Interesting discussion and this paragraph is made of a pure and rare unobtainium truth.
 
Mikael Lubtchansky said:
Interesting discussion and this paragraph is made of a pure and rare unobtainium truth.
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Just saw The Knick. It reaffirms my belief that the Dragon can do an excellent job. I LOVED the skin-tones.

Also just to chime in on the above quote... cinema can be a strange thing... sometimes a great organised set can give birth to a mediocre film and sometimes a seemingly disorganised director and set can give birth to an excellent film. There is no absolute formula to how these things work, but I do agree that more often than not a disorganised director can be a hazardous thing.
 
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NOSA OBAYIUWANA said:
Also just to chime in on the above quote... cinema can be a strange thing... sometimes a great organised set can give birth to a mediocre film and sometimes a seemingly disorganised director and set can give birth to an excellent film.
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Yes also very true... a bad shoot can (sometime) be turned into a great film by a talented editor and even the greatest shoot can be made into a crappy film with a bad editor !

I'd say among the best films most are achieved when a continuous vision and energy is there from beginning to end...
And Soderbergh certainly found a good way to always work with the best DOP and the best editor he could find to help bring his vision to the screen intact :-)
 
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