George Lucas’ new epic shoots on F35

George Lucas’ latest epic, Red Tails, is set during WWII and tells the remarkable story of the Tuskegee Airmen, America’s first all-black aerial fighter unit. It's been an ambition of Lucas's to film this story for over twenty years and it's no surprise to find the production has been all-digital. The original Star Wars trilogy set a new benchmark for special effects, while the prequels pioneered the use of High Definition digital equipment in place of film.

The Lucasfilm feature is executive produced by George Lucas, produced by Rick McCallum and Charles Johnson, with Anthony Hemingway directing and Director of Photography John Aronson. The technical supervisor is Fred Meyers, who worked with Lucas and McCallum on the Star Wars prequels. He also worked at Lucasfilm’s world-renowned visual effects house, Industrial Light and Magic, helping to oversee the company’s move to digital.

Pre-production on Red Tails began in 2008, full production starting in March 2009 with principal shooting in the Czech Republic and Croatia through to the end of June. An ensemble cast includes the actors Nate Parker, David Oyelowo, Elijah Kelly, Kevin Phillips, Ne-Yo, Andre Royo, Method Man, Cuba Gooding Jr., Terence Howard and Daniela Ruaj.

Sony F35 cameras

Sony’s F35 CineAlta cameras were chosen for the shoot, using Angénieux Optimo zooms and Masterprimes from Zeiss / ARRI. This was Aronson’s first digital feature shoot and the F35 camera package gave him the film-style tools that he was familiar with.

“The cameras gave us the depth of field that we needed and with a range of film lenses,” says Meyers, who has a track record of using the very latest Sony HD technology. “Sony is continuing to raise the bar,” he adds. “The good thing with digital is that nothing is standing still. With film there’s over 100 years of technology but little has changed, but with digital the capability continues to advance and the tools keep getting better.”

The F35 cameras were provided out of Munich by the film’s technology partners Band Pro and FGV Schmidle. Band Pro’s Jeff Cree and Ralph Herzog from FGV travelled to Prague to help the crew get used to the F35.

“They were great,” says McCallum. “They made the F35 technology and SRW/Codex capabilities easy to understand. They also introduced us to the Sony Fiber system which was paired with Telecast’s fiber power, a unit attached between camera and deck.

“This way, John didn’t have to worry about batteries in the camera, allowing for more freedom of movement and longer takes which were so important to tell this epic story. The service we got from FGV Schmidle was simply outstanding – the best we have ever had, and all the guys at Band Pro worked really hard to make sure the crew got all the help they needed – It was a truly great experience for all of us.”

Digital workflow

FGV Schmidle has been in the business of renting high quality film cameras for 35 years; it has only recently acquired the F35s. The company’s managing director, Markus Schmidle says: “We see the Sony F35 as an ideal extension and companion into the digital age of film. The entire range of top quality lenses is available for the F35 through its PL-mount, and also the tried and tested film accessories.”

For Red Tails, the F35s were just the beginning of the digital pipeline. Meyers designed the digital workflow to maximize efficiency, using a hybrid disc/tape process. The signal was recorded with dual link 4:4:4 on SRW-1/SRPC-1 machines, connected via fibre optic cable. Parallel to this it was also recorded – uncompressed – on a Codex disc recorder, which handles two 4:4:4 streams at the same time. Two additional SRW-5800 HDCAM SR recorders were used for back-up and additional play-outs.

Lucasfilm Avids were installed in a studio in Prague to begin editing, with a parallel set-up back at the Lucasfilm base in California. A mobile ‘technical center’ was also installed to enable the fast change between locations and the post production studio in Prague. This was equipped with two Sony BVM-L230 class 1 monitors with 4:4:4 inputs.

“Using the two formats was not about playing one against the other,” explains Meyers. “It’s all about how to use new digital tools to give more capability or to streamline the production process – to reduce the turn-around time or take out some steps… not necessarily to save time or money, but so that you are not limited by the process.

“Recording to both disc and tape meant eliminating the need to make dubs of the camera masters, because the disc could make true clones of the camera master. And we were able to use digital file transfers directly through the network, improving turn around time and reducing the number of steps required to get the information into the Avid.”

Digital 3D

Meyers has also been working on the new Warner Brothers 3D Yogi Bear feature. Having helped to set up the digital filming for the hit 3D production of Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Meyers is working again with Journey director Eric Brevig on Yogi Bear. This time there has been an extensive live action shoot on location, before integrating animated footage.

Yogi was shot in New Zealand at the end of last year, using 3D rigs with Sony F23s, as well as HDC 1500s in secondary rigs, plus Sony PMW-EX3s as stunt cameras. Meyers drew on his experience with Red Tails, once again using a hybrid disc/tape digital process, but adding functionality to support the 3D. “Both films have been a big challenge,” says Meyers. “One part of the challenge has been working with manufacturers and being able to integrate the technology to raise the capabilities and give the project an edge, doing something that we haven’t been able to do just six months earlier.”

F35 Product Information