A Masterclass in Cinematography

Christchurch-based cinematographer Kirk Pflaum is recently back from furthering his training at an ASC Masterclass. Here’s his report.

Each year the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) run a number of master classes tutored by current and retired members of the society open to cinematographers and directors of photography with an intermediate to experienced skill set.

As a camera operator wanting to pursue more work as a DOP I thought this would be a great opportunity to extend my knowledge. I was accepted into the June course and below is a short summary of the course and my overall thoughts about it.

Including myself, there were 24 students who all met at the ASC Clubhouse for our first day which started with a lecture from Stephen Burum, ASC. Stephen talked a lot about what you need to think about and who to discuss what with as a DOP when first coming on board with a project. In particular, it was very important to meet and talk with the production designer and costume designer about sets, locations, props and costumes to make sure their hard work will be seen on camera and look good.

During the second half of the day we had Don Burgess, ASC, talk with us about his work as primarily a 2nd Unit DOP.

A lot of his work involved shooting background plates for car scenes and other 1st Unit scenes shot on green screen, as well as action and a lot of the shots in scenes that didn’t involve the principal cast. It was interesting to hear about the challenges in matching the style to the 1st Unit DOP; often the studio would have a very detailed pre-vis animated prior to the shoot to ensure the continuity across the 1st and 2nd Units.

The next three days we travelled to the Mole-Richardson studio for some practical work. On the Tuesday we had Theo van de Sande, ASC, take our lessons for the day. During the first part of the day we sat and had a casual chat about cinematography and work he had done. He talked a little about the Academy Color Encoding System (ACES) that was being developed. Following this we had the chance to shoot tests with the new Panasonic Varicam and test it’s new dual-ISO feature.

After a long chat and a good back-and-forth Q&A we lit a scene with some actors to test the cameras as well as talk over points for lighting.

The next day Bill Bennet, ASC, showed us a number of vehicle commercials he had shot and proceeded to show us the many techniques he had developed over the years for lighting and shooting cars on location and in the studio. Though it was all specifically cars, I’m confident the techniques we learnt can be applied to any shoot involving highly-reflective objects.

The second half of that Wednesday we had Sam Nicolson, ASC. His team came in and set up a green screen and showed off the technology he and his company Stargate Studios has been using recently for shots involving green screen.

They were using a pre-vis package called Lightcraft. This has the capability of real-time, 3D mapping of a studio space, in which the camera position information is passed into the Lightcraft hardware and software to allow realtime chroma keying to viewfinder and monitors on set.

Thursday we had Caleb Deschanel, ASC, take us for the whole day. Caleb spent some time throughout the morning going through clips from films he had shot and discussed his approach to them and we all got to ask lot of questions.

That afternoon we had a couple of actors come in and we looked at lighting a short scene with them and started with just one light and slowly adding more and seeing how the number of lights and which direction they were from can influence the tone of a scene.

Friday morning we all travelled to EFILM Digital Labs to see the footage we’d shot during the week in one of their 14 DaVinci Resolve colour grading theatres. We also had a lively discussion about how rare it was for a DOP to be able to sit in on a grade of the film they have shot and the implications around that.

Before our ‘graduation’ dinner we had an open discussion with a panel of current and retired ASC members on the more political side to being a DOP, looking at topics such as hiring and firing people, dealing with budgets and safety aspects of being the DOP.

There is far more I could write, and I hope this gives you a small glimpse at what the course was like for me. I really enjoyed the course and would encourage anyone getting into cinematography to attend. The biggest thing I got out of it, which many of the DOP’s said was, it is all about the script.

I think lighting a film is inherently a very subjective thing – there’s not necessarily a right or wrong way to light. So a lot of what I got out of the course wasn’t so much about using particular techniques for specific situations – though there were a number of techniques I will take away – but more about re-enforcing what I have learnt in the past. And, of course, getting to meet and talk with these very experienced cinematographers working at that level, and hearing from them the how they approach and deal with the same things we all do as DOP’s.

I’d say, if you’re starting out looking to become a DOP, seriously consider going.

A big thanks to the New Zealand Film Commission for partly funding my attendance through their Professional Development Award fund. For more details about the award see: www.nzfilm.co.nz/funding/career-development/professional-development-awards