July 20, 2009
Projects such as Miami Vice (AC Aug. ’06), Collateral (AC Aug. ’04) and television’s Robbery Homicide Division
have cemented Michael Mann’s reputation as an advocate for digital
capture, but when he began discussing his latest picture, Public
Enemies, with cinematographer Dante Spinotti, ASC, AIC, the director
was inclined to shoot 35mm. “In our early discussions, Michael
mentioned several times that he was thinking of going back to film,”
recalls Spinotti. “He was considering it, I think, because he initially
envisioned classical, more set-in-stone kind of imagery. We spent a lot
of time discussing the pros and cons.”
Spinotti had recently used high-definition video (via the Panavision Genesis) on the features Deception (AC May ’08) and Flash of Genius, but his previous feature collaborations with Mann — The Insider (AC June ’00), Heat (AC Jan. ’96), The Last of the Mohicans (AC Dec. ’92) and Manhunter — were all 35mm productions. Just prior to Public Enemies,
Spinotti and Mann shot a commercial on HD using Sony’s CineAlta F23, a
2/3" 3-CCD 1920x1080 camera that records 4:4:4 RGB or 4:2:2 Y/Cb/Cr to
HDCam-SR tape. (The camera has a 2/3" bayonet lens mount, and the SRW-1
deck can be mounted directly to the camera, like a film magazine.)
“Michael likes images to be sharp, and he likes shooting with smaller
chips because he likes the deep depth of field, so we became fans of
the F23 on that commercial,” says Spinotti. Click www.theasc.com for the whole story.
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