Oren Soffer on Shooting FUJIFILM GFX ETERNA 55 Launch Film “Okay”

At FUJIFILM’s digital camera launch occasion in Amsterdam’s lovely Eye Movie Museum, Cinematographer Oren Soffer sat down with CineD to unpack how he shot Okay, the emotional launch movie for FUJIFILM’s new GFX ETERNA 55. He explains why he blended codecs, how classic glass knowledgeable the look, why he didn’t miss inside RAW, and what he truly noticed concerning rolling shutter.As context, FUJIFILM’s GFX ETERNA 55 facilities on a large-format 44×33 mm sensor, with the “55” within the title pointing to the sensor’s 55 mm picture diagonal. Our launch protection video and article element the idea and positioning behind this digital camera and the way FUJIFILM’s movie heritage feeds into the digital coloration pipeline.How the undertaking got here togetherOren Soffer had beforehand collaborated with FUJIFILM by capturing stills on The Creator with a GFX-series physique, which led to the invitation to make a brief for the ETERNA 55 launch. He partnered with writer-director Andrew Kightlinger, who developed a script from a private expertise. The group aimed to place the digital camera by different conditions, day and night time, inside and exterior, whereas holding the story grounded in a single location. Manufacturing was tight: testing, LUT improvement, and prep have been condensed round a four-day shoot in Portland, Oregon.Codecs and lens choicesTesting pushed the group towards two complementary seize modes. For spherical work, Soffer shot full open-gate 4:3 to showcase the distinctive rendering of the massive sensor with quick classic glass. He likens the compositions to medium-format stills, solely now in movement. For widescreen sequences, the manufacturing used 2× anamorphic on the complete sensor top and saved the unsqueezed 2.66:1 body fairly than cropping to 2.39, embracing the sting aberrations and further breadth. Spherical lenses have been rehoused Fujinon optics from the Nineteen Seventies (TLS and Historic Optics). Anamorphic scenes used Xelmus Apollo primes, with the 75 mm and 100 mm masking the format to his shock.The anamorphic facet ratio was used for recollections … (Picture credit score: FUJIFILM / Oren Soffer)… whereas the 4:3 open gate was used for the current time in “Okay”. Picture credit score: FUJIFILM / Oren SofferEarly firmware, eND, and why ProRes 422 HQ was enoughShooting occurred on early firmware, so the brand new digital variable ND was not prepared on the time. After attempting it on a demo unit later, Oren Soffer known as it a very helpful management for dusk-to-blue-hour work the place you experience filtration as publicity drops. On recording codecs, he didn’t miss inside RAW. The manufacturing ran ProRes 422 HQ, which he describes as strong for coloration depth and dynamic vary. For the sorts of indie and documentary tasks this class of digital camera targets, he argues inside RAW is usually pointless, whereas the choice so as to add an exterior recorder stays for higher-end wants.Oren’s rolling-shutter takeConcerns about rolling shutter adopted the digital camera’s improvement lineage, but Oren says it by no means grew to become a sensible concern on Okay. Even with dynamic handheld work and assertive pans, he didn’t discover artifacts distracting in context. He stresses that tolerance is subjective and recommends customers take a look at the digital camera or evaluation footage to guage acceptability for their very own work.Who this digital camera fitsOren sees the GFX ETERNA 55 as significantly compelling for unbiased narrative and documentary filmmakers. It will probably construct up for bigger units, but it additionally packs a particular large-format look into a comparatively compact bundle. He says he would gladly use it once more and is keen to strive it with extra movement rigs, akin to steadicams, gimbals, and drones.For the digital camera’s positioning and technical background, watch our detailed GFX ETERNA 55 launch explainer.Curious what you suppose after watching the interview: does the blended 4:3 and a couple of.66:1 strategy go well with the story, or would you have got framed it in a different way?