Digital Video magazine — September 2014
Castles, Candlelight & Digital Cinematography: The Realities of Producing Fantasy Series ‘Outlander’

Starz’ new original series Outlander, adapted from the hit time travel books by Diana Gabaldon and headed up by Battlestar Galactica showrunner Ronald D. Moore, had its debut in August, inevitably drawing comparisons to HBO’s long-running fantasy epic Game of Thrones.

Shot on location in the Scottish highlands, the lushly photographed Outlander follows Claire (Caitriona Balfe), a married British combat nurse from 1945 who mysteriously falls back in time to 1743 Scotland, where she is torn between her husband Frank Randall (Tobias Menzies) and Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan), a Scottish warrior who comes to her rescue. Featuring gorgeous scenery and an equally appealing cast, the show delivers beautiful interludes set alongside complicated military intrigue and visceral action sequences.

Cinematographer Neville Kidd shot eight installments of the first 16-episode season — split between two runs, the second half will air in early 2015 — using up to three ARRI Alexa Plus High Speed cameras outfitted with Cooke Prime and ARRI/FUJINON Alura Zoom lenses.

“We chose the Alexa because of its phenomenal filmmaking look for digital cinematography,” Kidd explains. “The Alexa has a fantastic latitude and sensitivity, which helps us when filming in low-light conditions. And, it’s a 35mm camera.”

The production team developed separate looks — daytime, nighttime, interior and exterior — for the two time periods using custom LUTs created with the input of DIT Grant McPhee and later applied to the footage during color correction. “We made 1945 slightly desaturated — the opposite of what you would think — and we made 1743 more saturated, kind of richer experience than 1945,” Kidd says. “I think we wanted to make 1743 a bit rawer than 1945. That you were really living and experiencing it, almost like all of your senses were slightly overstimulated.”

Capturing 2K footage shot at 4:4:4 resolution in ProRes format, Kidd and his team strove for an immersive level of authenticity whether inside a real Scottish castle, out in the countryside, or on a local sound stage.

“We wanted the overall look of the show to feel like you were living this Scottish experience,” the Scotland native says. “It was important, as a DoP, to make it feel like you were in the castle that the characters were in and make you feel you were in 1743 Scotland.” (Read full story…)