Digital Video magazine — October 2014
Superhuman Power and Sony F65 Processing: Creating the Spectacular Visuals for ‘Lucy’

From La Femme Nikita and The Professional to The Fifth Element, French filmmaker Luc Besson has created some of the most memorable female action heroes in cinematic history.

The director’s VFX-heavy sci-fi action thriller Lucy presents Scarlett Johansson as a Taipei-based grad student forced into running a dangerous errand that quickly sees her turned into an unwilling drug mule. The drug Lucy carries is a volatile new chemical that unlocks the potential of the human mind, and once she accidentally ingests it she taps into a reservoir of superhuman brain power, morphing into a supreme being to which only Morgan Freeman’s Professor Norman can relate. And, boy, does she kick plenty of ass along the way.

Multiple award-winning cinematographer Thierry Arbogast has served as director of photography working alongside Besson for more than two decades, most recently on The Family, the prolific writer/producer/director’s final foray, in 2013, into film.

For Lucy, Arbogast conducted extensive tests between the ARRI Alexa, RED Epic and Sony CineAlta F65 cameras, ultimately selecting the F65. “At the moment, these are the three best digital cameras in the world,” he says of the testing process, which included capturing footage both outdoors and inside the Cité du Cinéma stages in Paris — where roughly 90 percent of the movie was filmed — followed by color grading at Cité du Cinéma post facility Digital Factory and a 4K screening.

“Luc’s feeling, and my feeling too, is that the F65 is probably the best camera for the color space,” Arbogast says, careful to point out that the decision is not a critique. “I love Alexa, I am shooting at the moment with Alexa!” he enthuses. (Read full story…)