strip lights. No doubt the reports of glow-
ing, radically moving, low-flying UFOs are
about to blow up.
In the world of lenses all the major play-
ers—Panavision, ARRI, Zeiss, Fujinon,
and Leica—were touting their large for-
mat glass to go along with updated ver-
sions of the super-size sensors. So while
I ogled the insanely beautiful images, the
equally large purchase price puts them in
the rental category for all but a few rarefied
cinematographers.PANAVISION LCND FILTER
The coolest new thing I saw and got
to demo was Panavision’s LCND filter.
As with all of Panavision’s proprietary gear
they own it, you rent it, but now that this
concept is out of the bag and working in
the field, I believe it will drive other manu-
factures like Tiffen or Schneider.
So what is it and why does it matter?
Due to the fast native ISOs of modern digi-
tal cameras, everyone needs to carry a full
range of neutral density filters (the ND is
LCND). That means buying them or renting
and swapping them in or out of the matte
box as required—a time-consuming fact
of on-set life. The backroom magicians at TOP: COURTESY OF BLACKMAGIC / BOTTOM LEFT: COURTESY OF PANAVISIONTHE INNOVATORS
GETTING YOUR
LOW BUDGET
INTO HIGH
GEAR
Small-scale production priorities
guided our quest for the best of show
at Cine Gear Expo 2019
BY JON C. SCHEIDE
Panavision have built one that sandwiches
a liquid crystal material (the LC) between
two layers of glass and uses electricity to
change its density. There’s six stops worth
of variable ND control, adjustable directly
on the filter or through a traditional
Preston FIZ wireless control. Plus, because
the technology is not using polarization
(as with traditional variable NDs),
Panavision says there is no color shift.
Currently the LCND is a 4x6.5" format fil-
ter and only fits the Panavision side mount
matte box because of the control panel.HO NEEDS trendy
new tech when what
already exists just keeps
getting better? That was
the question hovering
over this year’s Cine Gear Expo, which
highlighted tested and true tools with
recent upgrades more than it hyped shiny
objects we haven’t yet seen.
The backlot at Paramount Studios
was awash with bigger and better,
next-gen, version 2.0 products (or v3, or v9,
or even v16 in the case of DaVinci Resolve).
Panavision had one piece of new kit, their
LCND (liquid crystal neutral density) fil-
ter that could be a game-changer, but oth-
erwise, it was more about checking in with
old production friends.
That said, while waiting in the
queue that stretched from the gate near
Melrose Avenue north along Van Ness nearly
to the Hollywood Forever cemetery, there
was plenty of time to formulate a plan. I’ve
just produced a sizzle reel shoot for a buddy
trying to raise funds and am in prep on a
short film targeted for the festival circuit in
the hopes of becoming a feature. So I wrote
my mandate for this year in my notebook:
“Low budget. Small crew. Out of pocket.”
What would I buy versus rent? What gear
should I own so that I can shoot when
I need to shoot, without the hassles of rent-
ing and insurance?
Even though my focus was on gear to
purchase rather than rent, I still appreci-
ated all the cool toys such as new drones
that can now fly with not only a full size
camera and lenses but also an array of LED
W
PANAVISION LCND FILTER18 SUMMER 2019 MOVIEMAKER.COM