Digital Video magazine — June 2015
‘Grace and Frankie’: Capturing the Netflix Series: Friends, Family and 4K

What’s it like to work with a screen legend? While potentially a life-changing experience, some cinematographers might also describe it as a touch nerve-wracking. Now try four legendary talents, in a single-camera television comedy series, but with a “cinematic” feel. Oh, and do it all in 4K.

Grace and Frankie is the newest addition to streaming giant Netflix’s lineup of original series. Executive produced by Marta Kauffman, one of the creators of network stalwart Friends, the series stars Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin alongside erstwhile soon-to-be-ex-husbands Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston. The show debuted May 8.

With the Netflix mandate to shoot in 4K, an attempt at future-proofing its original content, director of photography Gale Tattersall had limited camera options: the Sony F55 and F65 CineAlta 4K digital cinema cameras, the RED EPIC and the RED Dragon. Opting to go with the RED Dragon because of its gentler touch with skin tones, Tattersall and his crew photographed the series in 5K for a 4K 16:9 extraction, with material recorded to 512 GB REDMAG SSD cards prior to being transferred to hard drives for delivery to editorial. (‘Grace and Frankie’: Capturing the Netflix Series: Friends, Family and 4K)