Michael Mann talks about digital collateral

The following is an article I found on the net, but the source link of the article appears broken. I can say it was originally from the Hollywood Reporter. It is below in entirety:


Revving up digital cinematography

By Carolyn Giardina

Pictured: Director Michael Mann with the Viper FilmStream digital camera on the set of "Collateral" 

Leave it to Michael Mann to shake up the system. The Oscar-nominated director famous for gritty yet visually dazzling depictions of urban life and an uncompromising attitude toward his craft is now ushering digital filmmaking from the extreme reaches of science fiction and low-budget indie into the realm of high-profile studio thriller. The director has elected to use Thomson Grass Valley's Viper FilmStream camera for his upcoming "Collateral," the Tom Cruise-starrer financed by DreamWorks and Paramount, scheduled for an Aug. 6 release. 


As the first director to road-test the Viper -- much anticipated as the first cinema camera capable of storing images as data, directly to a hard drive -- Mann's choices are worth noting in a creative community coming to grips with the practicalities and pitfalls of digital imaging.


The Viper isn't the only camera Mann is using to shoot the movie, which he describes as a "multimedia" effort. He's using the Sony CineAlta high-definition camera, as well as shooting film, but of the roughly 80% of the finished film Mann estimates he's captured digitally, about 80% originated from the Viper.


Mann says his choice was driven by the film's creative needs. The story -- of a veteran hit man (Cruise) who hijacks a cab and forces the driver (Jamie Foxx) to traverse the streets of Los Angeles, transporting him from job to job until the LAPD and the FBI begin to pursue the vehicle -- seems well-suited to electronic cameras.


"Everything is pretty much driven by story, and this whole picture takes place at night," the director says. "I wanted to see into the night. I wanted the night to be alive so that it becomes very three-dimensional. That's what I was trying to get," says Mann, kicking back at the Santa Monica offices that house his production company, Forward Pass.


"There was a quality to the Viper cam that I responded to," says Mann, who is no stranger to digital cameras, having employed high-definition video for the opening sequences of his 2001 biopic "Ali." In particular, he says, the Viper's color imaging worked well for this particular film. "It had to do with the sensitivity of reds and yellows and oranges. This was not only seeing deeply into the night, seeing what you see with the naked eye and something more than you can see with the naked eye, but also the color information. It had an aesthetic that I wanted."


The Viper operates in several modes. At the high end is FilmStream, which captures unprocessed imagery -- no color correction, no compression -- in the 4:4:4 RGB color space, the full color range of an electronic image signal. (While analog film still offers significantly greater color sensitivity than any electronic medium, 4:4:4 RGB is the highest level currently offered in the electronic realm. Film scanned into the digital domain for effects manipulation or what have you is scanned at 4:4:4 RGB. By way of comparison, broadcast HD operates in a 4:2:2 YUV environment, subsampling in blue and red. The Viper also offers 4:2:2 options.)


Though other high-end digital cameras, including the CineAlta, also shoot in 4:4:4 RGB, Thomson vp strategic marketing and business development Jeff Rosica says that what sets the Viper apart is the proprietary CCDs that capture the image as well as the way the data, once acquired, is distributed. The CCDs capture 12-bit linear image, which is then transmitted and stored at 10-bit log space. "Because it's logarithmic, it actually emulates the most important properties of a 12-bit linear signal," says Rosica. The signal is then transferred to a recording device via a dual-link serial HD connection.


Mann and his team began an extensive testing phase by recording material in FilmStream onto a DVS digital disk recorder. "The total capacity was 55 minutes, and it took 35 hours to download (to videotape for dailies)," Mann says. "So obviously that wasn't ready for feature film production." 


Next, they tested S.two digital mags to store the uncompressed raw data. "So our storage went down to something that was physically manageable in a much more compact hard drive," Mann says. "But what it posed upon us was a long-term storage capacity of 330 terabytes, which is economically unfeasible with the current limits of the drive technology." (A terabyte of storage costs about $50,000.)


Mann then decided "to see what would happen if we put a mild compression on (the images)" and switched to Viper's VideoStream mode, which offers a 10-bit 4:4:4 RGB video, as opposed to data, signal and provides light image processing allowing for truer color reproduction in the field. "With FilmStream you're getting raw data. VideoStream functions more like a normal high-def camera, which allowed him to control the ASA," says "Collateral" associate producer Bryan Carroll.


Both modes lens in 2.37:1 widescreen without any loss of vertical resolution.


"We took it all the way to the equivalent of a release print, so it's not like we were looking at something on a monitor and taking it on faith," Mann says.


While employing the latest in digital imaging technologies, Mann took care to note that his storytelling fundamentals are essentially unchanged. "In our system, we impose on everybody the grammar and syntax that we are shooting film. All the disciplines apply, and that's very important on the floor during production. We are mixing a digital culture with a film culture, and it has to be film grammar."


That approach drove the design of a massive workflow system that brought together the material from the film camera, Viper, and the other camera system Mann employed, Sony's CineAlta F900 HD. The HDCAM footage essentially had to be handled as camera negative. Everything that was shot -- film and digital -- was digitized into Avids for postproduction, during which a digital color grading session will take place.


Mann cites Carroll as well as Thomson's Mark Chiolis, Laser Pacific's Leon Silverman and Terry Brown and Panavision's Nolan Murdock as integral to working out the bugs in the system.


Prior to filming, a team including Mann and A-camera operator Gary Jay, (who has worked with Mann since 1992's "The Last of the Mohicans") guided modifications to the Viper.


"The camera body itself wasn't ergonomic for use on a production," Mann says. "We wanted weights added to the rear of the camera to increase the mass and balance back there. We needed rods for the matte box and focus-bracket system because we do a lot of hand-holding. The control buttons needed covers because you could unbalance the camera and not know you did it. This is small stuff, but it's major when you just got done having a take that's brilliant, or you think that the actors were brilliant and it looks perfect, and you find out you switched it to FilmStream."


With his arsenal of camera technology, production began and Mann focused his attention on directing. Dion Beebe ("Chicago") came on board as director of photography.


As 27 pages of the "Collateral" screenplay take place in a car, mobility was a priority. There were some limitations as the Viper was cabled to its recording deck. Mann says that when he wanted complete mobility for handheld work, the crew used the CineAlta F900 (which is configured more like a camcorder, recording to either standard Sony HDCAM or SW tapes).


"The benefit is that there is a 55-minute tape, so in that sense there are fewer interruptions," Mann says. "(With film) if you are hand holding and you have a 400-foot mag in there, every three minutes and 45 seconds you are having to stop." (There are third-party developers working on Viper recording options, including a portable drive to enable cinematographers to work untethered.)


Creatively, he says, "there's no silver bullet in all of this. ... You have to know what you want, more so than film. In film, you can rely on certain conventional looks, almost like a perceptual preset about what you're used to having. Not so in video, it's a much broader spectrum so you have to know what you want.


"What I like about the Viper is it sees colors, it sees things, in a different way," Mann says. "People are reaching for more expressive ways to visualize and have emotional impact. That's what it all comes down to, the emotional impact to tell a story."

Stuart Beattie talks about writing Collateral ScreenPlay

Writers are incredibly the last on the list in receiving public appreciation, especially screenplay writers. J.K. Rowling reversed that trend slightly, but think about it: The one indispensable person on a movie/TV set is the writer. Without the writer there is no story. Everything hangs on the story. Collateral is one of those movies lauded for its original screenplay. Here is an interview with Stuart Beattie who penned Collateral and talks about its creation:

Collateral Tom Cruise Training

One of the most impressive aspects of Collateral was Tom Cruise's utter realism in his use of a firearm. He didn't look good. He looked exceptional.

Dion Beebe on shooting Michael Mann's Collateral in HD

Here is an excellent article I came across detailing DP Dion Beebe's (Miami Vice, Collateral) approach to shooting Collateral. I made the mistake of thinking Miami Vice was a poor visual outing for Dion when I first saw it. But many viewings later, I don't know what I was thinking. Miami Vice is stunning and in some instances, genius. At some point I will post my top cinematographic moments... but there are many.

You can get the full article by clicking here, and read a snippet below:

On an HD shoot, Beebe quickly learned, the devil’s in the details — like the sudden appearance of filter dials on your camera. "With a film camera, you load the film and you go, and you know that if you’re running six cameras, you’ve got a standardized system in place so you’re getting the same results," he explains. "But if you’re running four HD cameras, you’d better step through each, making sure that the gain setting is the same, that the matrix settings are all the same— that there aren’t color shifts within them. You need to switch between them on the HD monitors and make sure they’re all matching up. There’s none of this just-pick-it-up-and-roll unless you’ve pre-set everything beforehand. It’s all very doable, but there’s a whole new set of things you’ve got to factor in."

Beebe acknowledges that Collateral has spurred "a lot of discussion" about the continued viability and relevance of the film medium, concerns that he dismisses as largely irrelevant to the job at hand, which is storytelling. In the end, he says, both film and HD formats are just tools used in service of a narrative. The trick is to get out of the way of technology, rather than stay in thrall to it. "There can be information overload when you step into the digital domain and the HD world, in terms of compression and bits and storage— these elements that, in the end, have nothing to do with what you’re trying to do in telling the story," he says. "My feeling is that technology will take care of itself. You will have the expertise around you to solve the technical challenges you’re going to meet. I’ve always felt happy to just step over the technology and find a way of creating the image."

Coyotes really do cross roads in LA

We all know and love the iconic moment in Collateral when a coyote crosses the road in the empty night streets of LA. Like many, I was taken aback that this actually happens. I am not sure why I am surprised when we have so many foxes in the UK taking residence in our cities and towns. Nevertheless, here is one post from an LA resident and Mann fan who had the same experience:

On my way to Ralph's with my Great Depression II budget in hand, I spot a house on my block (of rather nice California cottage houses) that has been abandoned. I get out and see a sign on the door -- the people just walked. All of their belongings have been hastily shoved into a dumpster. A jet fighter screeches overhead from Edwards Air Force Base in the dark night and I think, "wow, something totally horrible has happened to this America." In my mind, today feels like the day the American Dream landed with a kaput thud and came to a screeching halt. I remember my grandmother (the original bluestocking), savvy, smart, loved by everyone, telling me the story of the first Great Depression when she was a footloose and fancy free independent woman in the '30's with a good job (a school teacher) and how she'd never forget the day she ran to the bank to deposit her paycheck and the bank was closing... and they literally opened the heavy doors for her and let her go inside and took her check... and she thought they were being sooo nice, but the thing is -- she never saw that check again. It was straight outta a Capra movie. The bank closed and took everyone's money. This is how I learned to never trust bankers.

With an eerie heart, I drove on to Ralph's only to discover the entire street was black -- lights knocked out, no electricity. Ralph's sat there unwelcoming, unfriendly, and completely dark. A cop car with headlights blaring and siren spinning stood in for a traffic light and on the way home... I slammed on the brakes as my headlights picked up two pair of eyes -- and straight out of a Michael Mann movie -- a coyote crossed my path.

Is it a full moon or what?

times they are a changin' my friend they are a changing'

Read the post at his blog here


Here is a video clip with Mann and Cruise sharing their perspective on the inclusion of this scene in the movie. It is taken from Collateral's bonus features, so you probably already saw it.

Sight and Sound on Mann and Collateral

Sight & Sound Article

Mark Olsen talks to Mann about his love of LA, shooting on DV and getting what he wants.

Mark Olsen: In Collateral you seem to be exploring the aesthetics of DV. Was that one of the things that attracted you?

Michael Mann: It's useful here to make an analogy with architecture. When steel was first introduced as a building material architects disguised the structure of their buildings to look like masonry. It wasn't until Louis Sullivan's pioneering work in Chicago in the 1890s that the aesthetics of the steel structure were allowed to be expressed.
So my reason for choosing DV wasn't economy but was to do with the fact that the entire movie takes place in one city, on one night, and you can't see the city at night on motion-picture film the way you can on digital video. And I like the truth-telling feeling I receive when there's very little light on the actors' faces - I think this is the first serious major motion picture done in digital video that is photoreal, rather than using it for effects. DV is also a more painterly medium: you can see what you've done as you shoot because you have the end product sitting in front of you on a Sony high-def monitor, so I could change the contrast to affect the mood, add colour, do all kinds of things you can't do with film. Digital isn't a medium for directors who aren't interested in visualisation, who rely on a set of conventions or aesthetic pre-sets, if you like. But it's perfect for someone like David Fincher or Ridley Scott - directors who previsualise and know just what they want to achieve.

To read full article, click here

“Enjoy LA”: The Cinematic Representation of Los Angeles in Michael Mann’s Collateral

An undergraduate wrote the following, and if you click to the original webpage you can download his thesis.

abstract:

Michael Mann’s films have taken their place alongside the most dynamic and singular representations of modern urban environments within the cinema.

This thesis analyses Michael Mann’s representation of Los Angeles (LA) within his 2004 film, Collateral.

As a contemporary of post-classical American filmmakers including John Carpenter, Francis Ford Coppola, William Friedkin, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, his films, although the source of considered review and discussion have yet to be the subject of sustained academic investigation.

Centred on Collateral, this thesis argues that although the film is directly related thematically, stylistically, intertextuality and self-referentially to Mann’s previous film set in LA, Heat, he has more than simply reiterated old preoccupations and imagery, rather he has effectively extended his representation and vision of the city.

Collateral represents an important work from one of America’s most highly regarded auteurs, highlighting the city’s exceptionalism and ‘global city’ status in new and interesting ways.

This thesis arrives at the conclusion that Collateral establishes not only an accurate and relevant reflection of contemporary urban LA but that it represents the city in a revelatory way seldom explored within mainstream Hollywood cinema.

author/s:

Ashley Perry

Click here to download his thesis

Technical workflow for post production on Collateral

As someone very interested in photography (I own a large format camera), I am very interested in the digital technology Mann employs for his movies. Collateral was of course renowned for its digital over film choice. Here is an excerpt from a tidy interview with Michael Mann on post production of Collateral. As ever, click here to see the full article.

F&V: Break down the workflow in terms of shooting.

We shot about half the movie on film, and then 20 percent with the Sony CineAlta HD camera, and the rest with the Viper FilmStream. The CineAlta has two more stops of range at the high end, so before whites clip and burn out, I’ll see details. So if I’m shooting in front of a car, I’ll see the outline of the car’s headlight with the Sony camera, but I won’t with the Viper camera. That’s the strength of the CineAlta camera.

F&V: What’s the strength of the Viper camera and how did that mesh with the workflow?

It’s got this glorious, lustrous mid-range, particularly in the records it makes of reds, yellows, oranges and blues. I love that look. Basically it’s a different chip. The Sony uses a Japanese chip while the Viper’s is made in Northern Europe, and I don’t know why but it has this totally different palette of rich Rembrandt-style colors. Maybe it’s the Dutch chip [a 9.2 million pixel frame-transfer CCD]. Go figure, but that’s the way it is. That was a big issue to us— how it looks on video— but now I’ve got to film the thing out, get a [Kodak] Vision release print and put it up on a 60-foot-wide screen. Now what’s it look like? And the heightened resolution, meaning more information, is there in the Viper, so that was really our camera of choice. Then we recorded to HDCAM-SR tape using Sony SRW-5000 machines. That was the best format available to us, and that way we could get compressed images made and then work on them and tweak them later in post. The drawback with the Viper was that you’re hooked to a bunch of recorders by these umbilical cords, so when I had to be freewheeling with the camera I’d go with the Sony camera, which uses cassettes instead.

Collateral

It's old news, but as part of my collection of all things Michael Mann, here is a brief media interview on Collateral.

Director Michael Mann Interview | Movies & TV | SPIKE.com

Interviews with Michael Mann

The Insider is a film which is full of special moments and incredibly complex in script and direction. Here is a fascinating interview - it is frustrating that the sound quality is so poor however.




This interview clip with Michael Mann, seemingly from French TV (but in English) goes back to 2004, discussing his film Collateral. Worth watching, as he explains briefly the character of Vincent.



Here is an insightful series of interviews with the cast from Heat, regarding the relationship between DeNiro and Pacino.