Color Theory

In this month’s cover story on page 22, DP Jon Fordham finds a veritable kaleidoscope in the details. Tom Strodel, his producer on two recent music video shoots, chronicles Jon’s stylized in-camera work with the Sony CineAlta F23, a camera the DP says holds details in the highlights better than any other HD camera he’s ever used. Jon is that rare DP/DIT hybrid (he’s held both jobs separately) who knows how to coax an amazing range of colors and textures from his camera and, by extension, his kit. He’s not a fan of white balancing. If he wants a specific look or a color balanced in any particular way, he’ll use a paintbox to color his images in camera. He’s been working this way for some time and, as a result, he’s been able to deliver a kind of rough-hewn magic realism on set that would cost far more, in both time and money, if conjured in the DI suite. A fully loaded F23 can be rented for about $5,000 a day, a relative bargain when you consider what you could save in post. For Jon, the camera’s nuanced capture of highlights and shadows— and everything else in between— gives him the raw materials he needs to break the color barrier.

Other hot digital cameras continue to create their own kind of magic, like the Phantom HD, that sweet ultra-slo-mo machine so popular here in the New York production market. The latest Phantom can take a whopping 1,000,000 pictures per second. (By the way, did you spot the Phantom’s on-camera cameo in Iron Man? Pay close attention when Stark is developing his indestructible suit and you’ll notice the Phantom top-mounted to a motorized arm following and recording his progress.)

If your budget is severely limited and renting an F23, Phantom HD or even a RED ONE is out of the question, take heart: collections of beautiful and highly affordable footage shot on these cameras are now turning up at major stock footage libraries. More details on where to find them are in "Gear Up."