Broadcasters and producers alike promptly noted the pleasing quality of the Digital Betacam cinematography on the historical primetime series L’Ombre de l’Epervier, when the 13-hour drama aired during the past season on Radio-Canada.

Produced by Lyse Lafontaine of Verseau International and directed by Robert Favreau, L’Ombre is surprising for its darkened, highly atmospheric and contrasted film look. It’s a world away from the standard notion of what a video image is, which for most viewers is based on news (e.n.g.) photography.

While all in-house (Quebec broadcaster-produced) teleromans and the new teleroman-plus style indie productions originate on videotape, the experience on L’Ombre de l’Epervier stands out for a variety of reasons.

Firstly, L’Ombre – which was taped in studio and on the Gaspe Coast and is set in the 1920s and ’30s – cost an estimated $850,000 an hour, almost double the budget of teleroman-plus series. And it was prepped and shot strictly as a film shoot with extensive pre-tests in both 16mm film and Sony Digital Betacam dvw-700 and dvw-700WS, the first 16:9/4:3 switchable camcorder.

Another innovation, the series was posted in Montreal at Supersuite, using the new Softimage Digital Suite.

Luc Dussault, president of Productions Luc Dussault, the city’s leading Sony Digital Betacam camcorder rental and technical service house, was technical director/dop on L’Ombre. Ann Maclean, Hughes Tremblay and Daniel Villeneuve, who initially headed the second unit, were the shoot’s cinematographers.

Dussault and other Montreal suppliers such as Covitec-Eclair, also equipped for Digital Betacam production, are actively promoting Digital Betacam as a substitute for 16mm film photography.

Design consequences

‘I did L’Ombre de l’Epervier on digital video and we came up with quite nice results,’ says production designer Louise Jobin. ‘We worked hard and we came out with visual results, which, in my opinion, were entirely better than Diva.’

(Diva, another primetime series originated on Digital Betacam, was prepped as a straightforward video production.)

‘We had to significantly adjust our methods of work especially as regards surfaces, textures,’ Jobin says.

Depth of focus is not the same and video requires changes to lighting, and the technical/design approach to costumes, make-up, hair and framing also have to be significantly modified, says Jobin.

On the shoot, Jobin says camera specialist Dussault played a key role in balancing lighting and color filters. The film-finish process touched on texture, color-correction and timing (fps) adjustments, all aimed at moderating some of the ‘harder aspects of video,’ she says.

‘We work together,’ says Jobin. ‘I do decor design for the story, for the dramatic action, and for the direction – but I also do it in relation to the cinematography, for the recording (originating) medium.’

Basic differences

Commenting on some of the basic differences/adjustments between the Sony DVW-700 camcorder and 16mm film, Dussault says, ‘When the background light is too bright, film stock can accept it because the stock is `burned,’ but with video it’s impossible because it is an electronic signal and we can’t `burn’ the image in video.’

Typically, the first order of business on a Digital Betacam shoot like L’Ombre, says Dussault, is to consult with the lighting technician on backdrop lighting adjustments, either to increase or reduce depth of field.

‘Daniel Villeneuve is a lighting magician,’ he says. ‘He created the images with the lighting. As technical director, I tried to establish all the parameters, suggesting the camera’s possibilities and limits.’

On lighting the talent, Dussault says Digital Betacam definition ‘is too real.’

The video image is more precise than 16mm so ‘the make-up crew had to check detail and touch up, so we shot like 35mm, in terms of the make-up kits,’ he explains.

Decor is another dicey issue.

In video, says Dussault, depth of field is greater than film and more background detail remains in focus.

On set, he says, once the basic (asa) adjustments are made, an experienced film cameraman typically works from a light meter, not the tv monitor. ‘The atmosphere is created with the light meter,’ he says.

Lighting positions aren’t necessarily different than for film, especially for the foreground elements, although more filters are used on the lens to reduce overall definition.

Framing realities

On framing, Dussault says focal readjustment is a constant in part because the image precision and detail of the video camera viewfinder is totally different, significantly less, than with a film camera.

‘With a film (viewfinder) it’s kind of a reflex image from the gate. In video it’s just a one-inch, black-and-white tv image. It’s tough for a dop because they can not imagine the image (that’s being recorded) by looking through the viewfinder, which is why we have to use a monitor on the set.’

L’Ombre de l’Epervier was posted on Softimage’s Digital Studio.

Starting with the originating Digital Betacam cassette, the tape is transferred to an avid hard drive where an editing-list is created. The original tape is then placed on-line and then edit is executed (based on the edit-list) at the same time as the color-timing.

Dussault says color-timing is done to ensure consistency from set-up to set-up, scene to scene.

Softimage Digital Studio

At the very end of the process, the edited scenes are entered into the Digital Studio system where the ‘film look’ finishing is adjusted.

Dussault says Softimage and post house Supersuite worked together on early adjustments on the ds system, and, upon closer inspection, one can see that the first four episodes are not finished in exactly the same manner.

The big difference between the ‘film look’ which some producers acquire at exclusive post shops in l.a. and the Digital Studio, relates to the issue of ‘noise,’ says Dussault.

‘The biggest disadvantage with video is the noise,’ he says.

Until recently, Dussault says the only way to get a film look from videotape had been to add noise, or grain.

With the Digital Studio process, grain is added in only on the high-level or light (white) part of the image, not on the black components.

Under normal circumstances, video noise first appears on the black element. ‘Now we can have a beautiful picture with real black with a sort of grainy element only on the white portion,’ he says.

For example, on a treated ds daylight image, the noise is restricted to the sky element, but not on the actor’s face or clothing, he says. In the case of a night shot, no noise is added.

Pull-down process

The other technical issue in approximating film’s more ‘slo-mo’ feel is a ‘pull down’ process where the video recording standard of 30 frames per second is brought closer to the film standard of 24 fps. This is done by ‘stretching’ some video frames and completely eliminating others, and is done during the Digital Studio edit. ‘Electronically it’s close to cutting out six frames,’ says Dussault.

(Dussault says the Digital Studio post process is also a non-linear editing system and will compete on the commercial market with avid, which Dussault says is one of the main reasons Avid Technology purchased Softimage from Microsoft last month.)

Because of the ‘excess’ of focus, Dussault says the Sony DVW-700 camcorder had to be positioned further from the set, as much as 15 or 20 feet back. This was done to reduce depth of field, or the ratio between the frame (4:3 or 16:9), the f-stop adjustment and the focal length.

‘So the further we were away from the set, the less depth of field we had,’ he says.

However, in being further away from the set, Dussault says it becomes more difficult for the dop to obtain a precise focus.

Linear Matrix color

Dussault says the color range obtainable with Digital Betacam is another fundamental difference because complete color adjustments (not the black or white) can be tweaked with the DVW-700’s Matrix device, right on set.

On L’Ombre, Dussault and the dop conducted many custom tests ‘to find the right recipe’ for color resolution prior to actual production.

Dussault says Verseau was more than pleased with the Sony DVW-700’s performance and estimates the video option resulted in a savings of about $500,000, on a budget of $11 million.

It is Dussault’s hope that the next 10 episodes of L’Ombre de l’Epervier, currently being scripted by Guy Fournier, will be done in high definition (hd).

The War of 1812

Last season, Dussault also serviced the four-hour Galafilm doc series The War of 1812, veteran director/writer Brian McKenna’s first shoot with Digital Betacam.

In an earlier interview with Playback, McKennna said he was surprised then thrilled with the results, although he found the db set-up to be heavier than 16mm.

Other primetime Quebec indie (drama and sitcom) series are being shot on Digital Betacam this fall, among them, Caserne 24 and Diva, both from Productions Sovimage, and Radio from Avanti Cine Video.