Parvet (2024)
Cinematographer
FEATURE FICTION | Finland
Behind-the-scenes
This is one of those unique projects - we had 3 cinematographers on this - Hannu Käki, Laura Seppälä, and me. Each of us was responsible for a storyline in the film. Throughout the film, we used the Alexa Mini, mostly with the Zeiss Super Speeds lens set, and the camera work was mostly handheld, either on a shoulder rig or with an Easyrig. Every now and then, we’d have some special equipment - on one of the days we had a Panther Vario Jib and a Laowa 24mm T/14 probe lens for a shot where we truck from high up all the way down to the lens basically touching the ground. There was also a day that we shot in a run-n-gun manner, and for that we had to find a way to strip the camera down to the minimal, and ended up running the power from a backpack using an extension power cable, swapped the PL mount out for the EF mount on the Mini, and used the Sigma 18-35mm f/2.8 with a neckstrap - basically turning the Mini into a mirrorless almost!
We also used the ZCam E2 with the Canon 24-105mm f/4 on one of the days, although we didn’t really use it to get editing footage. The camera was set up on the side of the action, and it was connected to a projector via HDMI to create a live reflection on the backdrop.
One of the newer techs we used on this project was the Frame.io C2C technology - I think we are the 1st feature film production to utilize this on set in Finland. Basically we had a clean feed running to the Teradek Cube 655, which would record an H.264 proxy simultaneously every time we hit record and upload it to the Frame.io cloud via wifi, with which the editor could see and use to edit. The files would contain all the metadata, so they could easily be relinked to the original files after the principal photography was over and moved onto the post-production phase. One of the drawbacks was that since the Cube was basically recording the monitor feed when we shot VFR, it still recorded everything at 24fps - the editor would either have to slow it down manually and edit with choppy footage, or we would just have to manually create a transcoded file with the effect already in place. However, this technology is still currently in a very early stage, and I will not be surprised if this will become the norm a few years from now.
Lighting-wise, the fixtures we used the most were probably the Vortex 8’s and the Astera Titan/Heliios tubes. Every now and then, we’d have some other lights like the Prolycht Orion 675.
producer Emilia Haukka (Aamu Film Company) directed by Hannaleena Hauru production coordinator Henna Heinonen, Miia Laine 1st assistant director Jenni Kaunisto co-cinematographers Hannu Käki, Laura Seppälä 1st camera assistant Ella Kiviniemi gaffer Henri Jaaksola light technician Pinja Ylioja sound recordist Petri Kärkkäinen boom operator Mathieu Villien production designer Una Auri assistant editor Jussi Sandhu colorist Hannu Käki