The Book Theif (2013)

Feature Film

Our Role
Main Unit onset DIT and Equipment Services

Directed by
Brian Purcival

Cinematography by
Florian Ballhaus

Shooting Format
Arri Alexa XT & M - Arri Raw

Experience
Florian Ballhaus returned to Germany to shoot this film adaptation of the novel. Digital Imaging Technician Dan Carling joined up and headed to Berlin to embark on the 3 month shoot based out of Studio Babelsberg just outside Berlin.

The Arri Alexa had been updated on this shoot to allow internal Arri Raw recording and no longer required the codex onboard recorder but instead 512GB drives inserted inside the Alexa. A demo unit was tested but decided to stick to the trusted onboard for the shoot. A CDL server had also been added to the camera to enable CDL data to be written into the Arri Raw file headers. However this was no utilised for the shoot.

Onset colour correction was performed live to the video signal from the Arri Alexa XT cameras. All CDL look files were named as per the agreed naming convention and passed through to the digital near set lab to be applied to the digital dailies and editorial files for rendering. Dan Carling used a duel monitor, colour and exposure management workstation for this production. 

Arri Raw date integrity could be checked after each take by playing back the captured file from the recorder. In the cable loom running to camera was an ethernet cable that could be connected to the Codex recorder to allow playback and metadata entry.

Great to see Berlin in winter and spring.