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December 2003Volume 23, No. 4

A PUBLICATION OF THE CANADIAN SOCIETY OF CINEMATOGRAPHERS

MERRYCHRISTMAS

MERRYCHRISTMAS

Serge Desrosiers cscCamping Sauvage: The Sky’s the Limit

Serge Desrosiers cscCamping Sauvage: The Sky’s the LimitALSO

IN THIS

ISSUE

AWARDS: Prix Gémeaux WinnersEDITOR'S DESK: Christmas NostalgiaPOST: Calibration and CommunicationNEWS CLIPS: Le Marais at CamerimagePRESIDENT’S REPORT: Centre for the Arts

The Canadian Society of Cinematographers wasfounded in 1957 by a group of Toronto, Montrealand Ottawa cameramen. Since then over 800 cinematographers and persons in associated occupations have joined the organization.

Our members now represent the film and video community in all ten provinces. Our aim continues to be to promote and foster the cause of cinematography and the interests of the Canadianfilm and video community.

We facilitate the dissemination and exchange of technical information, and endeavor to advancethe knowledge and status of our members within theindustry. As an organization dedicated to furtheringtechnical assistance, we maintain contact with non-partisan groups in our industry, but have no politicalor union affiliation.

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volume 23, No. 4December 2003

Contents

14

COVER PHOTO: IT’S ‘CAMERAMAN’!DOP Serge Desrosiers csc is flyinghigh to film a scene for the Quebecfeature Camping Sauvage.

2 - President’s Report- Centre for the Arts

4 - Letter to the President- What Price Art?

4 - Awards- Prix Gémeaux Winners

1 6 - Cover Story- Camping With Serge

12 - From the Editor’s Desk- Christmas Nostalgia

14 - Post-Production- Calibration & Communication

16 - News Clips- Le Marais at Camermage

20 - Action Production Notes- CSC Calendar

Visit: www.csc.ca

6 • CSC News / December 2003

DOP SERGE DESROSIERS csc poses on the set ofthe Quebec feature Camping Sauvage with his

Panavision camera from Location Michel Trudel.

Serge Desrosiers cscCamping Sauvage

— ‘Never Lose the Beat’

cover story

What’s that, up in the sky? It’s a bird, it’sa plane, it’s . . . Cameraman!

It’s really Serge Desrosiers csc,Panavision camera on his shoulder, suspendedfrom a wire at the end of a crane over a Montrealintersection. All in a day’s work for the Quebecdirector of photography, who does his own oper-ating, no matter how precarious a situation theshot may require.

For Camping Sauvage, a French-language the-atrical feature shot in Montreal and Granby, Que.,last summer, Desrosiers not only flew like aCirque du Soleil acrobat, he also got up close andpersonal with a raging fire, filmed bare-chestedfrom atop a gay parade float, rigged his camera tothe front of a “pedalo” (pedal boat), and had funmanipulating a Hot Gears remote system.

The comedy, probably destined to be screenedonly in “la belle province,” was shot in Super35mm with three-perf pull-down on Kodak film,mainly the 50 ASA 5245 stock. Desrosiers said thePanavision camera gear, from Location Michel

Trudel in Montreal, was thefirst used on a Quebec featuresince the award-winning Léolo

of 1992, shot by Guy Dufaux csc and produced byLyse Lafontaine, who also produced CampingSauvage. On set, Lafontaine was given the nick-name “Miss Pana.” Tony Roman also produced.

Camping Sauvage director Guy Lepage, in col-laboration with Sylvain Roy, is also the movie’slead actor.

• see page 8

CSC News / December 2003 • 7

By Don Angus

HOT SHOT: Wearing firefighting gear, Serge Desrosiers csc takes his Panavision camerain close to shoot a controlled blaze that is key to the plot of Camping Sauvage.

• from page 7Desrosiers told CSC News that the

story revolves around a broker whowitnesses a hit-and-run on his way towork one morning and tells the policethe licence number of the truck thatran down the malepedestrian. At theend of the day hiscar explodes, andthe police reveal that the truck driveris a big motorcycle gangster. Ourstraight-arrow hero agrees to testify in court when the police promise tohide him for a couple of months in amobile home at a remote campingsite.

The DOP called the production’sPanavision Platinum “the Cadillac” ofcamera equipment, “and we hadeverything, like the 135-to-420 mmzoom, the 4:1, which is absolutely

beautiful; it’s like four feet long.“One day,” he added, “we had both

the Platinum and the Millenniumcameras. I shot the whole day with theMillennium, which is something rarefor us Canadians, here in Quebec any-

way. Normally you only get to shootwith the Millennium on American fea-tures, but for a Canadian feature it’srare to get hold of a Millennium thatcosts US$2,000 per day. Another day,we had three Arri 435 cameras toshoot high-speed car chases, explo-sions and stuff like that.”

Desrosiers said he chose the Kodak5245 “because I really wanted somesharpness, since we were shooting inthree-perf and we had a lot of exterior

scenes especially at the camping area.It’s not an easy film stock because I’dsay by 7:30 at night, that’s it; you can’tshoot anymore even in the summer. It really needs a lot of light, but for methat was the challenge of trying to get

the most sharp-ness available withthe three-perf. Itended up with a

nice look that I called the ‘Floridalook.’ I tried to make the camping sitelook really contrasty, with a lot of sun-shine and a lot of colors, and a lot ofsaturation.”

When shooting in Montreal, heshot day exteriors with 5274 200 ASA,“to change the look from the campingscenes,” and he went with the Vision25218 500 ASA stock for “all my nightexteriors and night interiors. It’s an

• see page 10

8 • CSC News / December 2003

CAMERA PRIDE: Serge Desrosiers csc gets into the spirit of things from atop a gay pride float.

‘Your meter has to be set perfectly all the time’

• from page 8incredible film stock. I would say it’sprobably a 600 ASA and not a 500,with no grain, which was really greatfor us, especially for digital transfer.”

Camping Sauvage was transferred toan HD digital intermediate then backto 35mm film. “I wouldn’t go with the5218 on a film-to-film transfer becauseit’s a low-con negative, the blacks arereally high, but if you bring it throughthe digital process it really looksgood.”

Desrosiers said the weather in theGranby area was bright for the firstcouple of weeks, but it poured rainthe last week, making it difficult tomatch the sunny look of the earlyfootage. The crew had to wait for therain to stop, then light everything.Because of the moisture on theground, extras with garden hoses pre-

tended to be watering their lawns tofake what the DOP called the “wet-down look.”

“The 5245 did a great job but it’s areally hard film stock. I mean, yourmeter really has to be set perfectly allthe time. There is no point of return.We had one shot in which my meterwas set with the wrong ASA, so wewere two stops under and we had toshoot again. Two stops under with5245 is absolutely useless. There is noway we can even think about takingthat image.”

He explained that shooting three-perf Super 35mm was not only aboutsaving 25 per cent of film-stock cost,but “going hand held, I could operatewith a 1,000-foot mag, giving me a lotof time before we had to reload, andjust never lose that beat. For us it wasreally important on this shoot: never

lose the beat and just go with it.”Desrosiers said Camping Sauvage

was his first comedy feature, and hefound that “what’s surprising incomedy is that you always have tothink about whether what you aredoing is funny. We would take a lotof time to figure out angles and to determine really bizarre shots that would be funny, like shootingactors with a 10mm lens at two feet.Their faces go fisheye, and themotorcycle gang members look espe-cially bizarre.

“We also had a lot of POVs wherethe actors would talk to the lens. Theywould talk to each other on a two shotor on a wide shot, but in the close-upswe would shoot them like they weretalking to themselves. That’s whyshooting with the 14-minute, 1,000-foot mag was really important.”

10 • CSC News / December 2003

HOT GEARS: In a shaded break from his hand-held photography, DOP Serge Desrosiers csc runs the controls of the Hot Gears remote system from David J. Woods Productions.

When Desrosiers wasn't operat-ing hand-held, or supervising DanielSauvé's and Yvan Bourdages' "incred-ible" steadicam work, he shot withthe Hot Gears rig provided by DavidJ. Woods Productions of Toronto."With two directors on the produc-tion," he reasoned, "I was afraid ofbeing with the camera 100 feet ormore away from them while they satin front of a monitor with the script.I thought they might invent anoth-er movie than the one I was think-ing of at the moment I was at thecamera. With the Hot Gears, I wouldalways be sitting with the directorsand the script and I would always bethere to get the information theywere discussing and to help themevaluate the scene." He never "put afoot on the dolly for 35 days,"except to use it sometimes as a tri-

pod. "My first assistant was on thedolly alone."

Hand-held, he explained, the direc-tors were almost always beside him,except when he was dangling from a wire.

Editor’s note: Desrosiers was DOPfor Lance et compte - La nouvellegénération, the revival of the 1986hit Québec series Lance et compte(He Shoots! He Scores!). See CSCNews, September/2001 or searchArchived Articles on www.csc.ca. ●

CSC News / December 2003 • 11

FLOATING CAMERA: This remote-controlled Panavision camera takes a cruise on the bow of a pedal boat (“pedalo”) in a scene for Camping Sauvage.