After the hiatus the Fox Network told DP Gordon Lonsdale ASC that Bones would have to be shot on HD and that he would need to cut $20 000 out of his lighting budget. “For the first three seasons we’d been using Arri cameras Zeiss prime lenses and Kodak 35mm film ” says Lonsdale. “I did my research and figured that the Sony F35s we could get from Otto Nemenz International would be the best full-frame digital camera available.” To confirm his choice Lonsdale turned to Band Pro’s Jeff Cree who is the leading knowledge source about the camera for advice. “We talked about how the F35 processed information and how it could see beyond the visible spectrum of light that would on occasion let us see into the ultraviolet areas ” he explains. “We talked about gain control the dynamic range we could use without the need of ND filters as well as gamma curves. “The F35 gives a beautifully digital negative ” Lonsdale says. “I needed a raw image that I could work with and fine tune in telecine. The F35 does that. There is a great deal of latitude and I’m not worried about shooting in direct sunlight or going on location at night with this camera.” One of Lonsdale’s main goals in going digital was to make the set feel the same as if they were shooting film. With the F35 Lonsdale is able to use his light meter just as he does with film: set the stop and shoot. There are no wires going to the cameras. He broadcasts HD to the DIT. From there an HD signal is sent via wire to the director’s HD monitors and then broadcasts an SD signal to the rest of the crew. He has a lockit box on the camera for time code to keep sound in sync. “My A-camera operator Greg Collier says the F35 feels a lot like a film camera on his shoulder ” Lonsdale says. “We use the same lenses and matte boxes we used last year Optimo zooms and Arri Ultra Primes. “I love the F35 for Bones ” he says. “It’s the only camera that is light sensitive enough to work on our sets and it is fast to use. For Steadicam to go to low mode we simply turn the camera upside down and electronically flip the image right side up. The change from handheld to studio mode goes just as fast as it did with film. The crew is now used to the system and we do as many setups as we ever did. With the F35 I was able to save more than twenty thousand a week on my lighting budget and retain the look of the show.” The new season of Bones based on the Kathy Reich’s Temperance Brennan novels began airing on the Fox Network in mid-September.
