The Camera Behind "Just Mercy" (HBO)

[Neil Abeynayake]

Have you guys seen this series before? If this was posted earlier, I apologize. However, it was an interesting revelation how the DP came about using the Millennium DXL2 camera. And I thought, he thinks that somehow Light Iron was involved in development of the DXL2 sensor or the camera (Jarred, Please do correct me if I'm wrong). I thought RED developed the Monstro camera and Panavision rehoused with mostly RED's accesssories and IPP2 color science that was further enhanced by a Light Iron LUT for their production needs.

The Camera Behind "Just Mercy"

Cinematographer Brett Pawlak and #LightIron Supervising Colorist Ian Vertovec discuss the use of Panavision’s DXL2 camera to capture the powerful film Just Mercy. PrimoArtiste & #HSeries lenses were paired with Light Iron’s post services, making for a complete visual storytelling workflow.

https://vimeo.com/383649447



Relationships Within Just Mercy

JustMercy cinematographer Brett Pawlak and LightIron Supervising Colorist Ian Vertovec explore their working relationship and the relationship between camera and color that went into bringing the film and its characters to life through the Panavision and LightIron ecosystem.

https://vimeo.com/383344837


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[Dominik Muench]

DXL2 and Primo Artiste are my favorite combo.
Got to shoot with both a while ago and I was blown away by the performance of that camera and the look of these lenses.

thanks for sharing this.

 

[Mike P.]

I think he's referring to LightIron and Panavision as the same company... which they kinda are (subsidiary, anyway... Like how Hydrogen was basically a RED company, or PS is a Sony company). Panavision bought LightIron as their colour/post arm, and leveraged their expertise to maximize the DXL's colour science/post/back-end. And pretty sure Ian Vertovec developed the stock normalization LUTs for the DXL/DXL2, too. That's probably why he's saying Light Iron/Ian helped develop it (cause, they did... the colour part, anyway)

But yeah, DXL is Dragon VV sensor and DXL2 is Monstro sensor (but in a Panavision developed/specced housing with all the Panny bells & whistles, including a custom olpf as an option).

 

[Neil Abeynayake]

DXL2 and Primo Artiste are my favorite combo.
Got to shoot with both a while ago and I was blown away by the performance of that camera and the look of these lenses.

thanks for sharing this.

You are welcome. Primo Artiste looks good on any camera. The beauty of the DXL2 is the ergonomics that they implemented to assist non-technical artist type DPs, crews as well as giving them the classic Panavision feel and workflow.

However, this same functionality could be achieved by adding appropriate modules to an off-the-shelf Monstro or better yet by purchasing the Monstro Ranger body.

In the hands of an experienced DP and colorist, latter mentioned product can even rival the DXL2. Just look at the Netflix Original "Chef's Table" for an example. That series look more cinematic than any other cooking show in the market. They used RED Dragon, Weapon and if I'm not mistaken even with Helium cameras. The lens package made all the difference. I believe they used Leica (Leitz) Thalia and Summicron-C lenses. Personally,I don't care how they got that look, I dug deep into accepting the mesmerizing look.