Arri-news 2011

There were, on the other hand, aspects of shooting digitally that he greatly enjoyed: "You can see what you've got immediately," he says. "The assistant can see if it's in focus. If you're worried about focus, you can check it then and not have to wait for dailies. With film, I think there would have been times we'd have been less sure about moving on without doing an extra take for safety." Digital imaging technician Nate Borck had an important role to play on set and Deschanel found their working relationship to be a highly positive one. "He was very helpful," says the cinematographer. "I would go to him for the kind of things I'd normally talk to the lab about." Deschanel reports being very happy with the image quality from the ALEXA, as well as its performance in low light and high contrast situations. He shot the whole film at the native EI 800 setting and notes, "The speed is enormous, and the latitude is really very good; I like the way it handles highlights. No, it's not as forgiving about highlights as film, but the way it goes to white is very pleasing." While Deschanel did find a few issues to report during his relatively early experience with the camera, he acknowledges that they have now been addressed by ARRI. Killer Joe was shot before on-board, magazine-style ARRIRAW recorders were available, which left him cabled to a separate recording device. This, combined with the lack of a traditional optical viewfinder (soon to appear on the ALEXA Studio model), made him occasionally feel restricted. Overall though, he thoroughly enjoyed his time on Killer Joe , rising to the challenges involved in the very tight shooting schedule. Friedkin often looked for ways to cover scenes with long, single takes, and Deschanel recalls one particular setup where this proved possible. "We shot in this abandoned pool hall," he says. "Billy wanted Killer Joe [Matthew McConaughey] to walk through the place and look around to be sure nobody was hiding there. I'd gone in on Saturday to watch the rehearsal and had an idea how it was going to be staged. When we arrived Monday, we had the grips set up a dolly shot to take Matthew through the whole scene. The actors came in and we shot it very quickly, and I really like the results. We all had to go with our first instinct and when you're operating on that level all the time it makes the process really invigorating and exciting." Killer Joe has been selected for the official competition of the 68 th Venice International Film Festival. Since completing the film, Deschanel has again made use of ALEXA (this time using ARRIRAW) for a big- budget feature, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter , due out next year. Watch the Killer Joe trailer: www.arri.com/goto/1109/killerjoe Read the full length article online: www.arri.com/goto/1109/killerjoestory “I showed Billy the tests and he was blown away.” Caleb Deschanel, ASC, frames up with ALEXA and an Alura Zoom