"There are a lot of firsts on this film," says producer Karl Richards of the suspenseful and unconventional love story set in contemporary New England and starring Alicia Silverstone, Sienna Guillory and Joe Anderson. "It’s the first film directed by theater director Stephanie Sinclaire [founder of Dragonfly Films and associate artistic director at The King’s Head Theatre in London, where she’s co-produced more than 60 plays as well as writing and directing] and it’s also the first film I’ve ever produced," he reports. "And now we’re also guinea pigs for this whole uncompressed Viper cam shoot."

"Basically we’re doing what not even Michael Mann was able to do in Collateral," claims visual effects supervisor and digital film consultant Steve Shaw of UK -based Digital Praxis. "We’re shooting everything in uncompressed FilmStream mode, while Mann mixed and matched between some Viper cam, some Sony F950 and some 35mm footage. So this is groundbreaking in terms of technology."

So what made the novice team decide to go this high-tech route? Actually, it was the project’s low budget, notes the producer. "We’re doing the entire production for under $7.5 million, and shooting this way offered us incredible value for money," he says. Initially, the filmmakers had planned to shoot 35mm film, but were "blown away" when given a demonstration of the system’s capabilities by MotionFX, one of Britain’s top digital cinematography and digital intermediate post-production outfits. This pioneering company, which invested in a Viper camera and iQ DI system back in 2003, had gone into partnership last year with Digital Praxis, a leading digital film consultancy whose worldwide clients include Cintel, Fotokem, Moving Picture Company and Quantel.

"When we began talking to Stephanie about her film, it quickly looked like the ideal project for us to try out this whole process and showcase our technology," reports Shaw, "so we came on board as co-producers. Because MotionFX owns its own Viper cameras, the cost is spread over all the films we are involved in, and using this completely digital workflow saves at each stage of the project- no dailies processing, shipping, lab, insurance for shipping, or telecine costs." He also points out that the lab nearest to the Vilnius location is in Poland, so shipping costs alone would have been very expensive. "The cameras also require less lighting than film, so you have more savings there, and the offline can be assembled during the production, so you’re also saving on later re-shoots and pickups, as the basic cut can be reviewed daily, as we did," he notes.

The workflow also translates to substantial savings in post-production. "The post is easier as no film has to be scanned into data, and it’s a lot easier to work with, especially for any effects shots, as there’s no grain to deal with," he explains.

Ultimately, the budget for Silence Becomes You was reduced by about 30 percent by shooting this way rather than using a conventional 35mm approach, notes producer Richards. "And discussion of 16mm is irrelevant, as the quality of Viper is better than 35mm, so 16mm just doesn’t figure," adds Shaw, who ran all the on-set digital imaging staff. Florian Rettich acted as the film’s DFT (Digital Film Technician, the equivalent of an American DIT) alongside "data monkey" John O’Quigley and assistants Mike Morrison and Steve Roach.

Outlining the workflow, Shaw reports that MotionFX built a digital film operation that will cover every aspect of production, from capture through post to delivery- "in effect, a scene-to-screen operation," he says. "We now have three Viper cams, and their big advantage over HD cameras, which have a linear output with about 4.5 stops dynamic range maximum and which present the image in a what-you-see-is-what-you-get form, is that they capture in a log form with a very wide dynamic range of about nine to 10 stops. So you get a lot more latitude, which is more like traditional film, and when we’ve shot something, we can then modify the image far more in post than you could with a video camera." Shaw stresses that the captured image is of "a much higher quality, as it’s uncompressed RGB, so the information you get in the final file is, again, very similar to a traditional scan of 35mm neg."

MotionFX also bought two S.two D.mag digital film recorders and an Adic Scalar 24 LTO2 multiple-tape jukebox, a data tape recorder that archives the image data from the S.Two DFRs. It generates two tapes, a master for later post work and a clone backup for safety.

The filmmakers ultimately used two Viper cameras. "We originally planned to do a one-camera shoot, with a spare on set," says Shaw. "Now both cameras are effectively rolling continuously, and we have the spare back in London if needed. That means we’ve also shot a lot more footage than planned," but, he notes, the process is still "very cost-effective. An S.two disk magazine can save 30 minutes of 4:4:4 10-bit log image data from the Viper. The D.Mags can be changed and swapped for an empty one within the S.two in a matter of seconds, so capacity isn’t a problem. The LTO2 data archive tapes are what went back to MotionFX (the post house), the D.Mags were then re-used for the next day’s shooting."

In terms of filming a scene, Shaw points out that, "the process of lighting and shooting isn’t that different from 35mm. In fact, the lighting is a lot easier, although we are deliberately shooting a lot flatter and thus lighting flatter than you would for film. The big difference is the way the technology is used in the capture."

Berlin -based DP Arturo Smith reports that working with the camera "was a very interesting experience, given that not only were we recording entirely with the uncompressed system for the very first time, but that the information was fully untouched and virgin until it got to the S.two machine.

"As for shooting with the greenish output of the FilmStream mode, I never had a problem with that," he says, "mainly because as a cinematographer you’re primarily looking for the latitude and contrast, and the green, which gives you the best uncorrupted information, is ideal for the DP. Yes, you have to contend with the color itself, but if you know what you’re looking at, it shouldn’t be a problem. Of course, for the director and the actors and everyone else, it’s best to put a filter on it, but for me it was fine. And I’d shoot like this again, as I had the most unadulterated way of looking at the image."

Compared with conventional 35mm, "lighting is about the same, although this gives you much deeper insight into the darkness and when it comes to the blacks," he adds. "The digital signal is superior to the analog, I think. It sees more into the shadows.

"I had to work very closely with Steve and all the tech guys, as there’s a lot of information I had to learn before taking this on," notes Smith. It helped that the DP had already spent several years shooting with HD cameras, including Sony’s HDCAms. "Once you have the information you can then play around with it, but if you don’t have it and understand it, there’s no way you can experiment with the technique. It’s necessary to learn a lot of stuff."

Overall, Smith was so happy with the experience that he says he’s trying to persuade the producers of his next project, a big-budget studio shoot in the States that he can’t talk about yet, to shoot with the Viper system. "I’ve already pretty much persuaded the director, so now it’s a question of the producers. But there are clear advantages to shooting with the Viper, even for a very high level project such as this one."

Summing up, Smith notes that, "the only problems we ran into were because of the harsh conditions- after all, we were shooting in -20 degree Celsius, and I think any other electronic system would have had the same problems, and I really think that with the Viper we’re now getting into the future of cinematography. And it’s coming along very rapidly now."

Even in the extreme cold temperatures "and far from ideal" conditions, Shaw notes, "the Viper cams and all our equipment have worked really well, so we’re all thrilled with this experiment." And like the producer, he’s already looking ahead to working on "more independent film productions that can really benefit from the cost savings of shooting digital cinematography. Regardless of budget, this is definitely the way to go. We have seen the future, and it’s digital."