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FOR HIS OWN GOOD – Production report

ARD is airing the television film "For his own good" on 15 March. Director Florian Froschmayer and cameraman Patrick Kaethner (bvk) mainly shot with the Alexa, and for some motifs also the Nikon D4, which can output the material uncompressed via HDMI. Ruodlieb Neubauer talked with both about the production process.

Grandmother Franziska (Thekla Carola Wied) never got along with her daughter-in-law Silke (Muriel Baumeister). Then, son Martin (Andreas Lust) dies in a traffic accident. Things get really rough after Silke decides not to invest her husband's life insurance in the training of his grandson Tobias (Enzo Gaier), but instead in expansion of the small pension into a family hotel. Grandmother Franziska is not allowed to see her grandson Tobias. She wants visitation rights so she can keep looking after her grandchild. Her neighbor and confidant Werner (Christian Kohlund) warns her about the consequences of the complicated and protracted trial.

MR-Film in Vienna was the executive production company in co-production with Degeto and ORF. Maran Film in Baden Baden was co-production partner. Director Florian Froschmayer was told about the project by producer Sabine Tettenborn from Maran Film, with whom he had already shot a CRIME SCENE episode. As far as technical requirements go, "For his own good" is actually not a particularly complicated film, rather a small chamber play drama, 95% of which was shot with the AIexa. "Since the plot extends over a year and we have only a small number of different motifs, we wanted to tell the story with the seasons. This worked, especially when we were shooting in July, at 30 degrees in the shade," says Florian Froschmayer.

In camera

Two or three motifs were more challenging than you would expect from the screenplay. For scenes in and around the Riesenrad (Gigantic Ferris Wheel) in the Vienna Prater, director Florian Froschmayer and cameraman Patrick Kaethner decided to switch back and forth between the Alexa and a Nikon D4. This had already been done with the Sat.1 production "Back straight", which was broadcast last November. "We had gotten very close to a main character and wanted to try some visual play with a lighter camera. The HDMI output with uncompressed 4: 2: 2 in full HD with the Nikon 4D was perfect", says Florian Froschmayer. The director also likes to experiment with Bodymount applications: "With the Arriflex SR3 it is relatively good, but an Alexa with optics, accessories and Bodymount can be quite heavy, especially for a woman." With the Canon DSLRs, uncompressed via HDMI had not been possible. "The Canon EOS- 1D C makes via HDMI 1080p with 50 or 60 frames in 4: 2: 2 with 8 bit or even 4K in motion JPG on internal CF cards, but it is twice as expensive." Unfortunately, the Nikon was delivered the day after filming ended. But at least the combination could be tested for the next film project. "For his own good" features roller coaster rides or scenes from the Ferris wheel and one didn't want to risk the Alexa unnecessarily. This should work so well for the Nikon D4 to be used in a whole series of other special settings.

The preparations for the film lasted about four weeks, as is usual with productions of this kind. Cameraman Patrick Kaethner also made some camera tests with different situations inside and outside to find out how well the material from the two cameras could be mixed. "The color depth isn't the real problem. I had to be more careful about the Nikon D4 being sharper than the Alexa. It's all about the light with the D4. The light shouldn't be as strong as with the Alexa, and should shift more to the D4. So it makes sense to reduce the image contrast by turning it toward the sunlight. "The Nikon D4 has no Log C, unlike the Alexa, where you have Pro Res 4444 Log C (12 bits) on the SxS cards. In the Nikon D4, an Atomos Ninja served as becorder for ProRes 422, which can be saved there with 10 bits of color depth. However, the Nikon outputs the material only in 8 bits. Even if it is not explicitly stated in the data sheet. The manual says under "HDMI options" that it is possible to limit the dynamic range of the digitally transmitted RGB video signal to either 16 to 235 or to "complete" at 0 to 255, which then corresponds to 8 bits per color channel. Uncompressed video signal means 4: 2: 2 without additional software compression via the HDMI output, in contrast to the internal H264 MPEG-4 recorded on CF cards, also with 8 bits in the representation of the color depth.

This is also a point that is very often neglected: the number of bits does not actually say anything about the available dynamics capture - only how many units this is broken down in. "In contrast to the Alexa, the Nikon D4 is relatively fast in the lights and blacks. Then you quickly lose the picture, says cameraman Patrick Kaethner - really useful information.

However, it also happened e.g. in the cemetery scene that there wasn't enough time to build big butterflies. "Nevertheless, in this case it worked quite well to shoot with both cameras simultaneously". The Alexa had a long Alura Zoom 45-250 with doublers, which made the picture a little softer, and so the D4 could adjust the sharpness, says Kaethner. In addition, the Nikon had color issues: "We wanted to push the film in the direction of warmer tones, make it a bit sharper, that is, have fuller black tones. We were able to mix the material more easily, even with direct undercuts. "On the D4, he used Nikon focal lengths with a light intensity of 1: 1.4 to get the best possible quality. With the Alexa, he worked with a set of ultra-primes. "Apart from the fact that the master primes would not be paid for considering the project, the picture quality would vary considerably."

Color reproduction

"There is, of course, a difference to the AIexa when it comes to skin tone," says Patrick Kaethner, "but the actors rarely had any skin problems." Florian Froschmayer: "The skin tone is always different with DSLR cameras compared with the Alexa. It's quite difficult to describe it in words." Kaethner: "Again, we came to the conclusion that we wanted to have a certain look from the start, which is why we shifted the colors a little bit and moved towards the warm tones." When they were testing, a bit of green had already been pulled out of the D4 to get the colors as neutral as possible into the 8 bits and then have as much room as possible for the postproduction.

Patrick Kaethner exposed the Alexa using 800 ASA, the D4 - 1600 ASA. A POV in a ghost train, which ultimately didn't make it into the film, was shot with 10,000 ASA. "There was no problem with the picture quality, but the picture did not fit in," says Florian Froschmayer. "When there are no people in the scene, you can film in silence. The grain gets higher and higher, but the noise isn't disturbing," says Kaethner. In the Prater, the Nikon D4 was used to film the scooter, and there were also scenes in the roller coaster. Unfortunately, something went wrong with the latter, because the camera was not screwed on tightly enough. Kaethner had screwed the small monitor on the lap and the D4 with two Magic arms on the bars. On the second turn, however, the Magic arms fell. Kaethner caught the camera, but the accessories went. The SSD in the Atomos survived the crash. The clip was in place even when the cable was ripped out: there was no problem with the open file, which happens with some cameras, where the software crashes if not the device itself. The Alexa and the Nikon never crashed, which seemed unusual for the D4 because it was brand new, at least at that time. There was a ride from the outside to the inside on the Ferris wheel gondolas - at an 'airy' height, of course. "With a lighter camera, you need a much smaller design," says Florian Froschmayer. "We used a U-Banghi on a side chute as a slide and put an O-Connor head on it. With a heavier camera and extensive accessories, you would have needed a lot of counterweight - which would have taken up a lot of space in the car. In addition, we had just an hour and a half to shoot the big, emotional end. "We were filming while the ferris wheel was running - the film team had only one gondola." There were shots in two directions. From the time available, we would have needed two gondolas and two built dollies to save us the conversion to the opposite direction, "says cameraman Patrick Kaethner.

Patrick Kaethner took the Nikon 4D for the walk between the Prater and Buden and also adjusted the sharpness. "Focusing on these small cameras is a challenge, but it worked quite well with an external monitor." He also worked with aperture nine and tried to keep the same distance as hard as possible. Finally, with a full-size sensor, which Nikon calls the FX format (36 x 24 mm), you need to pay a lot more attention to the sharpness than with a Super35mm.

Kaethner held the camera applications of the Nikon D4 straight, without a rig. "We had everything there, but I simply attached the monitor with a small Noga arm. It was just rock and roll in the Prater ". In the cemetery, on the other hand, the D4 stood on the tripod, and the second camera assistant then adjusted the sharpness over a sharpening wheel. And for a top shot, the camera was simply attached to a column with a Magic arm to allow it to run over the entire morning. After that, a viable site was selected.

To avoid a wrong image of production: The Nikon was only used for the small, fast shots, which make up about five percent. "We were also shooting in the car with the D4, as we had only a very limited time frame with the child and the Alexa could not obey all the rules of art. We just built a small light, made two rounds, and that was the setting," says director Florian Froschmayer. Patrick Kaethner worked only with ND and infrared filters where necessary. In the future, Kaethner and Froschmayer want to try to reach a weaker contrast via a filter with the Nikon. The Dailies were made at MR film.

In the first days, small corrections were made. "I always warn the editors that Log-C looks a bit dull, but the demands are always there," says cameraman Patrick Kaethner. So he let a REC 709 take over. It is not so absurd to suspect that because of Log-C some people believe the picture from the Nikon D4 looks a lot better. Final Cut Pro 7 was used for the MR film and graded on Nucoda at Listo Film in Vienna.

Conclusion

"When you compare the H264 material recorded using the Nikon D4 and the images stored on the external recorder in ProRes 422, they are simply worlds apart," says Florian Froschmayer. "The images are much sharper and clearer; the color contrast is much better. Of course, an Alexa is more cinematic than a Nikon D4. We usually had no sharpening method, not to mention an optical viewfinder. You get the signal via HDMI wonderfully with an external recorder, but you would have to hang a larger sharpener in between to really control them. Unfortunately, this can only be done afterwards. It is possible to loop through the signal, but the advantage of a small and light camera is lost." Patrick Kaethner: "In the beginning, I was always totally against it. Making movies with cameras that were actually designed for still life. The handling has not changed much. For film, they can get quite cumbersome, because many of the usual useful tools are missing, which are then retrofitted in cumbersome constructions. In the case of body-mount applications or car trips, however, I would use them again and again - where you need to be light and small. "

original text by: Ruodlieb Neubauer

Outlet: Professional Production
Date: April, 2013
Circulation: 6300 (biggest specialized magazine for technical film aspects)

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