In the third season of the hit series Grey’s Anatomy, a three-episode story arc involved a deadly explosion and fire on a ferryboat. Producers called upon Stargate Studios to deliver visual effects on a catastrophic scale. Shot largely in a Los Angeles parking lot with extensive greenscreens, Director of Photography and Visual Effects Supervisor Sam Nicholson relied on the ARRIFLEX D-20 to capture imagery for this digital disaster. Since then, the D-20 has graduated to D-21 status with an even better exposure index and other advantages. Here, the hi-def footage also needed to blend with the show’s first unit photography, shot on 3-perforation ARRICAMs (from Otto Nemenz International) by DP Herb Davis.

Photo courtesy of ABC Television

In the end, Stargate delivered over 330 shots for the three episodes. Nicholson, who founded the company back in 1989, talked to ARRI about how using the D-20 was key to making the ferry crash sequence on time and on budget.

Click here to see a video demo of Stargate’s work on Grey’s Anatomy.

Sam Nicholson: For principal photography, two, 100-foot by 30-foot greenscreens were set up in a parking lot. We then shot Seattle separately using the D-20, getting footage of the ferry and ferry terminal in the city. We blended all of the environmental work on the D-20 with film shot on set for the big exterior disaster sequence. We went inside the ferry, and at that point there was a lot of smoke and fire, along with greenscreen work. Because the D-20 holds smoke on green and bluescreen so well, we used the D-20 in all principal photography for these scenes. Also for continuity, we shot all the interior scenes on the ferry with the D-20. As predicted, it pulled the keys beautifully and the cinematography looks great as well. That was a very successful use of the D-20 on set, and it mixed not only within the same frame, but the whole scene cut very well with the D-20.

Why does the D-20 work so well with bluescreen?

SN: The blue channel is so solid it gives you superior keys to anything we’ve been able to test to date – any film stock or any digital camera. Blue is historically weak in film and all telecine transfers. It gets really grainy, but it’s extremely quiet in the D-20. Once you find something like that, you use it.

The serious advantage for using the D-20 is when we’re shooting blue and greenscreen. We found with the D-20 that we can shoot bluescreen and greenscreen much more naturally now with glass in windows and with shaded gradation on the top of a car window – things we used to have to take out.

It allowed us to put smoke on the set and do bluescreen at the same time, which is very unusual. The other thing we’ve found is due to the fact we use a lot of diffusion and filtration on actresses in these shows and everyone has their special filter, we can also use those on bluescreen. Previously, we could only shoot bluescreen with an absolutely clean lens, no filtration. Because of the quality of the D-20, we can use filtration on greenscreen.

We generally have about 20 shows running and they determine what cameras we use. We’ve dealt with all camera systems. The D-20 is undoubtedly the cleanest signal we’ve been able to achieve yet, which amounts to better results and cost savings because you can get good results faster with a cleaner signal.

At Stargate, you’ve innovated the ‘Virtual Backlot.’ Can you explain this
concept to our readers?

SN: The Virtual Backlot is essentially a comprehensive library of immersive locations around the world. Right now, they are either shot as stitched environments or 360-degree environments supported by digital still photography, D-20, film – basically all sorts of different media. It’s like ‘leasing’ environments. If you want to stage a scene in Trafalgar Square, we have Trafalgar Square covered so you can do your wide shots, masters, overs, close-ups, medium shots, your walk and talks – all in Trafalgar Square. We’ve covered Times Square, a lot of Morocco, Paris, a lot of driving footage, Moscow…

Click here to view the greenscreen demo on Eli Stone. The ABC series was shortlived, but the effects work remains among some of the best greenscreen work to date.

We’re not trying to replace reality. People get a little confused. They say, “I’d rather go out and shoot it myself or actually be in San Francisco on a cable car.” We’re not trying to replace that. This is an alternative that costs far less than going to a location. For a one-page walk-and-talk in Paris, you can actually do it now rather than rewrite the scene. It’s more of a creative and empowering tool than a replacement for reality. It looks very convincing.

It’s blending film and digital cinematography together, doing it efficiently with a photo-real end result. That’s the trick and the D-20 is getting us there.

The key to make it work for television is that we have to make it good, fast, and cheap all at the same time, which historically people have only been able to get two parts of that triangle. The D-20 allows us to work efficiently, fast and get incredibly high quality results and that is the paradigm of television that has to be met. We only have 10 days of post on a show for episodic television.

If you can save two days by shooting a clean, hi-def image up front that looks like film, that’s a big deal. It’s definitely a paradigm-shifting event. I think the D-20 will be very, very well accepted in television. I’m looking forward to seeing a lot more productions using the D-20 because it makes our lives a lot easier, and ultimately results in a better product. It’s a fascinating technology, and I think it will be fascinating to see where the people at ARRI take it.