By Tony Wannamaker csc
I received a call from an old friend to shoot a heartwarming documentary about a one-of-a-kind grandmother who hosted the endearing TV series The Bubbie Break. The show ran for five seasons, from 1991 to 1996, and dealt with topics about equality, inclusion and practical grandparenting. I said yes immediately to work on the feel-good show about this venerable Canadian, Marion Schwarz.
The documentary is titled The Grandmother Who Tried To Save The World (2024) and is a product of the Bell Fibe TV funding. It’s wonderful they fund these small docs, but the budgets are tight. Therefore, I would need to stretch a dollar to meet standards. The Netflix codec is the gold standard for professional recording of media. By shooting in the Netflix-acceptable codec, it would ultimately give the project more shelf life.Shelf life is everything for a successful movie. I shot Project Grizzly (1996) on Super 16 mm, knowing that if and when the opportunity presented itself, I could blow the negative up to a 35 mm print for theatrical distribution. It had shelf life. It worked – the film opened Perspective Canada at the 1996 Toronto International Film Festival and became one of the NFB’s top-grossing films of all time.
We’d be a small crew, ostensibly husband and wife, and brother and sister. Alan and Susan Schwarz, the siblings producing this documentary, would need to help schlep gear alongside our production manager and my wife, Rhonda Wannamaker. It truly would be a family affair working on this shoot. Furthermore, I’d need to double up my duties and record sound.
I researched and designed a specific package that would meet professional requirements. I chose to shoot this doc with the Canon R5C- full frame, 8K sensor, mirrorless camera, accompanied by three RF series lenses: 15 to 35 mm (f2.8); 24-70 mm (2.8); and 100-500 mm (4.5). To ensure I met specific audio requirements, I discovered the Tascam Canon Adaptor (CA-XLR-2d), making it possible to record 24-bit sound with a sample rate of 48Hz. The unit wasn’t available in Canada, so I had it shipped to my nephew and then over the border to test. It worked beautifully, almost ergonomically perfect, with the Canon hot shoe. The hot shoe permits high-performance AD conversion to transmit digital audio without deterioration to the camera. I was confident the sync sound was as perfect as the waveform on my R5C display. It was easy to adjust audio from the unit’s side panel. I loved the ease of attenuation and monitoring, assisted by a simple programmed camera function on the assignable button menu. I could have used the low-cut filter when I interviewed the Stones back in the day to remove that annoying air conditioning hum, rather than Band-Aid with the hope of room tone.
The design of the Tascam adapter allowed me to fit its cold shoe with a Sennheiser wireless receiver and fly it on my Ronin-S. I forfeited the 24-105 mm in favour of the 24 to 70 mm, because I could easily dismount from the tripod and quickly balance the unit on the Ronin. I’m sure the gimbal was at the fulcrum point regarding weight, but it worked, although no fancy moves. It was perfect for beautiful walk and talks.
Realizing that the majority of interviews would be individuals with storied careers and the years to prove it, aka, hair loss, double chins and thick glasses, I needed to proceed with pleasing lighting that could reach in behind glasses and lens choices that would be kind to well-earned wrinkles. I employed the Aputure Light Dome II for the key with a 200x or 300x Bi-Colour LED lights. I filled backgrounds with available tungsten, fluorescent or daylight, and augmented as needed with a 300x, using a Lantern softbox. I love the flexibility of Bi-Colour lighting with LEDs; it’s easy on residential power and I can play with colour separation on the day.
I time my own log footage and prefer Canon’s Log C; it reminds me of Kodak’s 5248 stock – my go-to for flesh tones. I loved that I could easily evoke colour separation into my interview equation and that I could feel that effect once the footage was timed. I’m a boomer who shot video for Much Music and New Music during the day and filmed music videos in 16 mm on the weekends. I was very familiar with the look of film stocks. Today I grade cameras like I graded film stock. Most camera manufacturers race to stay on par with current trending features. I expect all the features to be awesome because my clients expect nothing less. I like how Canon writes its menus, smooth ergonomics and the button layout; it makes sense to me in its ease of use. As someone who shoots documentaries, these features are essential as I’m driving this thing like a Formula One, it’s got to be intuitive and in the moment.
We decided to shoot this project as follows: profile in XAVC 4K -intra/ frame size 3840 x 2160/ frame rate 23. 97p/ Aspect ratio 16×9/ 4:2:2 chroma sub sampling. Back in 2012, Canon was the first to feature Log with the EOS-300. I loved the full frame and something in video like film emulsion, however I hated the geometry of that camera. Canon’s log C on the R5C was the right look for this project and easy to time using DSC labs Camera Align chart for reference on the day. Maximizing dynamic range is essential for producing a cinematic look. Additionally, the choice of lens will contribute to that notion. I needed neutral, soft backgrounds, achieved by f-stop and compression. I liked using the 24 to 70 mm, but I found myself drifting to the 100 to 500 mm to add more separation from the subject to background and provide more physical distance, crafting a more intimate environment. I would max out around 250 mm, beyond that it’s too much compression and not useful for testimonials.
To stay thrifty, we would need to shoot appealing B-roll of the subject in the quickest manner. To solve this, I flew the Ronin and dedicated one of the Canon R5C buttons to S&F (Slow and Fast Motion). I prefer using 60 fps for tracking shots; for C.U.s, I set it to 96 fps. The AF (auto focus) was tricky here, but the workaround is to put the AF detection target on whole area for tracking in slow motion. At regular speed filming, the AF function does a great job of targeting the eyes and staying sharp. I started using AF religiously once I switched to using the Ronin, specifically on ice, to film the Emmy-nominated series, All-Round Champion. I’ve been spoiled using great AF and variable ND. I’d like to see Canon incorporate a variable ND into the next R5C release.
I recorded the camera’s high-resolution data to the new cards, the CF express Type B. These cards resemble XQD cards in size, however, they take transfer speeds to another level, offering read speeds of up to 1800MB/s, and write speeds of up to 950MB/s.
I started using DSLRs in production back in 2013, when I was DP for the reality series Million Dollar Neighbourhood. I bought into the Canon 5D Mark III and IV; it became the go-to DSLR, in as much as the Sony Betacam became the gold standard production camera in the 1990s, or the FS7 in 2010s. I shot three successful documentaries with the 5D, one of which garnered me a CSC nomination for Best Cinematography in 2015 for the short Pristine Antarctica.When I sailed to the mysterious seventh continent with Rhonda, I was confident heading there with the 5D and a backup body. We had to make small footprints. I was granted only a handful of Zodiac excursions, and it was only the two of us slugging it with a big agenda ahead. It was also the first time a Cinevate slider was used on the frozen terrain at the bottom of the Earth.
On Say Yes to the Dress, a popular reality show, I used the 5D, but didn’t like the “Franken-cam” assembly. To save money, we had designed a DSLR package that would cut down on crew and expenses. We only needed to film a few bullet point sequences to highlight the wedding day finale to wrap up the show. The problem with this package was the audio setup. To resolve the issue, we’d need to do it as a two-stage recording, which meant hiring an independent sound operator synched to camera via time-code. It wasn’t in the budget, so I had to use a third-party Audio Juice Box, a bulky camera cage, the Atomos Ninja and too many cables and batteries. It was awful, waiting for the bride and groom to crash through the doors, expecting that I’d successfully turned on all the switches and all the batteries were working on their special day. I won’t ever sign on to something like that again; it was far too risky. When I discovered this new pairing of Tascam with Canon and the specs it offered, it was a no-brainer, but I needed to test it first. The Tascam adapter and the Canon R5C’s internal codec specs ultimately allow for professional production at a fraction of the conventional cost. The above camera packaging for The Grandmother Who Tried To Save The World makes even the smallest budgets look cinematic. For me it’s simple. After screening some rushes, the producers said to me, “It looks so cinematic.”
(Photos courtesy of Rhonda Wannamaker)