{"id":5647,"date":"2015-10-13T19:07:12","date_gmt":"2015-10-13T19:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.icgmagazine.com\/web\/?p=5647"},"modified":"2021-06-01T16:45:19","modified_gmt":"2021-06-01T23:45:19","slug":"the-kids-are-alright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.icgmagazine.com\/web\/the-kids-are-alright\/","title":{"rendered":"The Kids Are Alright"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cinematographer Alice Brooks hits all the right notes in transporting the 1980s animated series\u00a0Jem and the Holograms\u00a0to the big screen<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Back in 2011, cinematographer Alice Brooks and director Jon M. Chu (Step Up <\/em>series, G.I. Joe: Retaliation<\/em>) were sitting on the back of a truck lift gate during a break in shooting The Legion Of Extraordinary Dancers<\/em>. They started talking about the \u201980s animated show Jem and the Holograms<\/em>, a conversation they\u2019d had many times since graduating from USC School of Cinematic Arts. Chu watched Jem<\/em> with his sisters growing up, and Brooks recorded the entire series onto VHS cassettes as a six year old.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI still have the tapes,\u201d she admits. They both had ideas about updating it, while staying faithful to the essence of this cartoon cult hit.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Jem<\/a><\/p>\n

Two years later Chu left Brooks a voicemail:<\/strong> \u201cI have Jem news, call me.\u201d Blumhouse Productions had come through. They were going to make the movie at last.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the years I\u2019d had meetings at Hasbro about doing a Jem movie [the series was a joint endeavor between Hasbro, Marvel and Sunbow Entertainment], but it didn\u2019t go anywhere,\u201d Chu explains. \u201cAt that time it was a very different concept. It was only after I\u2019d done the Justin Bieber movie, Never Say Never<\/em>, that I started to think about doing Jem differently, blending in a documentary style, using handheld, mixing in the spectacle but also cutting in crowd-sourced videos \u2013 all inspired by how today\u2019s teen girls are creating on- and offline.\u201d<\/p>\n

As to how Chu selected Brooks to shoot Jem, he says that \u201cAlice was in the year above me at film school and I looked up to her. She was so confident and quiet \u2013 directing, writing and producing her own stuff. We have very different sensibilities, but we get along so well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since graduating from USC, Brooks\u2019 work has spanned a broad swath of formats\u00a0 \u2013 music videos (Justin Bieber\u2019s \u201cSanta Claus is Comin\u2019 to Town\u201d), Web series (The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers<\/em>), commercials, documentaries (Sweethearts of the Gridiron: An American Story<\/em>) and film-fest premieres like Roots in Water<\/em>, directed by Domenica Cameron-Scorsese, at Tribeca, and The Bake Shop Ghost<\/em> at Cannes.<\/p>\n

Brooks\u2019 industry roots run deep, having acted in more than 40 national commercials as a child. She says she spent her teenage downtime in a darkroom and knew she wanted to become a cinematographer from the age of 15. Jem and the Holograms<\/em> is Brooks\u2019 first union feature, earning her entry into the ICG. \u201cGetting to do this movie as my first union job was pretty special, especially with people that I love working with,\u201d she relates. \u201cI took a shot of my first paystub where it says \u2018Local 600,\u2019 and I\u2019ll always have that image on my phone. On this film, I really wanted to push boundaries and create a look that was different from any other music movie [or cartoon adaptation].\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jem<\/a><\/p>\n

Jem and the Holograms\u00a0is a tried-and-true story of a small-town<\/strong> singer-songwriter who makes it big, while (almost) losing her creative soul in the process. In true millennial fashion, instead of being discovered by an A&R man in a dodgy club, Jerrica Benson (Aubrey Peebles) becomes an overnight sensation on the Internet. With her three sisters, she is swept up, made-over, coached into stardom and Photoshopped into the global music industry machine by an archly menacing producer (Juliette Lewis). Their real identities remain secret and the stresses and strains of stardom start to form fissures in their family bond (presided over by Jerrica\u2019s aunt, played by Molly Ringwald).<\/p>\n

Unlike most other animation-to-live-action studio efforts, Jem has a gritty indie feel, having been shot in just 24 days, mostly in L.A., and mostly at night. Ninety percent of the film was handheld, and its multi-format workflow was impressive: RED EPIC (5K 6:1) with PVintage lenses, Blackmagic Pocket Camera with Panasonic Lumix G 12-35-mm zoom, GoPro HERO3 (2.7K) and a Panasonic Omnimovie VHS.<\/p>\n

Yes, you read that correctly: VHS videotape.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuy McVicker at Panavision Hollywood went through the entire line of lenses with us in\u00a0a demo, and after tests we decided on the Red Epic with the PVintage lenses, which are re-housed glass from 1973,\u201d Brooks explains about the show\u2019s main capture system. \u201cThe lens flare on the PVintage is incredible. We set a rule for ourselves to embrace the flare and we didn\u2019t use hard mattes or lenses, which added to the overall texture of the film.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the VHS capture, whimsical tape footage takes the viewer on a nostalgic trip through the sisters\u2019 childhoods. There aren\u2019t many VHS cameras in Hollywood these days, but the production managed to source several on eBay. (They were all broken.) Wintech Video in Van Nuys ultimately came through, but the batteries lasted only five minutes because they were so old!<\/p>\n

\"Jem<\/a>
DP Alice Brooks lines up a shot with Operator Nick Franco for the first song in the movie, \u201cHit Me Up.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Brooks says the decision to shoot handheld, across the range of cameras, was to \u201cestablish an authenticity\u201d to the action. Remaining \u201cconnected\u201d to the girls as they get swept up inside the L.A. music industry scene was crucial, so part of the drama unfolds via the \u201cKimbercam\u201d POV (Blackmagic Pocket Camera) used by one of Jerrica\u2019s sisters.<\/p>\n

The multi-format and aspect ratio approach is compelling and delivers the modern mash-up feel that the filmmakers wanted. \u201cDeciding to shoot 2.40 really defined the way our story is told and makes the whole movie feel more grounded,\u201d Brooks adds. \u201cThe different formats are pillar-boxed within the 2.40 aspect ratio. The Black Magic is 16:9 and the VHS is 4:3. The YouTube videos play in all different aspect ratios within the 2.40 frame. It makes the whole movie feel like a collage of contemporary teen girl life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chu says the combination of media \u201callowed us to incorporate digital distortion with analog retro feel. Giving pops of real color, earthy pastels \u2013 nothing shiny or fake \u2013 was important.\u201d Ian Vertovec, DI colorist, Light Iron, agrees: \u201cI used a film print emulation LUT to map the Red footage into film-print color space and graded normally from there. This really creates a complementary sense of nostalgia versus technology.\u201d [In a nod to the YouTube generation, which this version of Jem<\/em> celebrates, Chu also put out a call on the Internet for creative fan material to edit into the final print.]<\/p>\n

Of course, the multi-formats did make dailies a bit of a challenge. Chase Abrams, DIT and dailies colorist, says it was, surprisingly enough, \u201cthe GoPros and VHS camera\u201d that were the most involved in terms of workflow. \u201cThe GoPros would transcode the slowest at about 10 to 13 frames per second,\u201d he explains. \u201cFor the VHS camera I used an Elgato Video Capture Cable, transferring to H264 via USB 2.0\/RCA. From there I would have to up-res the SD footage to 1920 by 1080, convert it to ProRes 4444 and add timecode so that they could conform to it during final color.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jem<\/a>
Director Jon Chu (L) and Brooks (C) show an example of the \u201cKimbercam,\u201d to actress Stefanie Scott, captured with a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema camera.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When it came to lighting, Brooks had a clear vision of<\/strong> what she wanted from gaffer Jay Muranaka and his team, as well as Brooks\u2019 own camera department (which included A-cam\u00a0operator Andy Waruszewski, 1st AC Doug Oh, 2nd AC AJ Baca, B-cam operator\/Steadicam Nick Franco, with B-camera 1st AC Danny Gardner and 2nd AC Ron Elliott). The last night of shooting featured a scene where the girls escape by jumping off the Santa Monica Pier. Although the subsequent underwater section (operated by Tom Boyd) was done in a tank in Long Beach, Brooks had something else in mind than the classic moonlight shot.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had moving light as if it were lit from the Ferris wheel above, constantly changing,\u201d she states. \u201cOur dimmer-board operator, Matt Ardine, was on walkie with us and we played with the lights until the colors were shifting enough. We also wanted more air bubbles \u2013 the more bubbles, the more magical it looked playing against the colorful lights. I think it\u2019s the most beautiful sequence in the movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

As one might expect, Jem\u2019s concert scenes really stand out. Chu\u2019s direction was to make each concert into a separate event, a real art form, something that hadn\u2019t been seen before onscreen \u2013 which is why Brooks called Marc Brickman in Malibu. With an eye to the cartoon\u2019s original decade, Brickman, lighting designer for Pink Floyd, was able to create stadium-worthy concert scenes for the teen-dream band on screen.<\/p>\n

While Brickman\u2019s Hollywood r\u00e9sum\u00e9 includes two Steven Spielberg projects (Minority Report<\/em> and AI: Artificial Intelligence<\/em>), he\u2019s best known for creating the Floyd Droids \u2013 custom-built robot lamps with MIDI capability to sync-up true son et lumi\u00e8re<\/em>, (sound and light) for Pink Floyd\u2019s late \u201980s comeback world tour. A more recent gig had Brickman lighting up the Empire State Building; he created an LED structure with 11,500 pixels mapped via DMX channels, powered by a bank of GrandMA VPU\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Alice called, I was a bit taken aback,\u201d Brickman remembers, \u201cas I hadn\u2019t done a Hollywood movie for some time. But we met to talk, and she\u2019s lovely, really great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brooks wanted Brickman for his laser expertise on the outdoor concert, but also to create something special inside the underground parking lot at L.A. Center Studios. This concert happens at the point in the movie where the band is starting to get noticed by the industry. But the space had its limitations.<\/p>\n

\u201cJon wanted to shoot in the garage because he loved the deep space and thought there was something new we could do with the space for our second concert scene. It was 400 feet in length. We had the idea to do chasing lights hitting the columns to really accentuate the deep space,\u201d Brooks recalls. \u201cThe challenge was that the ceilings were only ten feet tall and we would lose the magic of the deep space if we saw the lighting units themselves. But when I presented the idea to Marc, he went away and thought about it, and came back to me and said, \u201cI am literally turning your idea on its side. Instead of lighting the columns, we create \u2018columns\u2019 of light on the floor and the ceiling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brickman has worked on a massive scale for much of his career. \u201cWhen I did Pink Floyd, I used to drive around a tractor-trailer full of custom-built 50-gallon smoke machines,\u201d he laughs. \u201cWhen you have a lot of money, it\u2019s easy to pull it off, as you can just buy everything in. But when you need to be more creative, due to smaller budgets, you really have think about it, and that was the case with the underground garage concert.\u201d<\/p>\n

The designer used thirty-six Vari Lite VL3500 Spot and the same number of ColorBlaze TRX, adding six Martin Atomic 3000 DMX Strobe Lights and Profusion DF-50 Hazer. \u201cIt became a real art installation,\u201d he adds. \u201cWe created space with endless bands of light and chased the light across. It was such a cool scene to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jem<\/a>
Brooks and Chu wanted the final concert in the movie to celebrate the original “Jem and the Holograms” cartoon with lots of pink, glitter, and lasers.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0As my lunch interview with Brooks at a Hollywood caf\u00e9<\/strong> winds down and she prepares to head off to the DI, she scans the trailer on her laptop to select her most memorable shot. It turns out to be earlier in the film, during the first Jem concert.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s when Jem sings \u2018Youngblood,\u2019\u201d the new Guild member shares. \u201cWe shot at Lacy Street Production Studios, near downtown L.A. Jeff Ravitz was our lighting designer on that one; he\u2019s most known for his work on Bruce Springsteen\u2019s shows. It was a great design\u00a0 \u2013 all sky pans and bare-bulb carnival lights. But, halfway through the gig, the electricity goes out. Jem asks everyone to bring out their cellphones so they can light the stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such authentic moments of connection were key for Brooks and Chu. Where concerts used to be heralded with the flame of a thousand Zippo lighters, in today\u2019s smoke-free venues there\u2019s the unmistakable smartphone LED glow, and that\u2019s the image Brooks wanted to visualize. And despite the props department\u2019s scratching its head and gathering up hundreds of cables to keep everything fully charged, it all came out beautifully. \u201cWe lit the entire scene using 80 Samsung flashlights from camera phones,\u201d she concludes. \u201cIt looked like a sea of blue fireflies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brooks and Chu got to make their own version of Jem<\/em>, and it hits that note of authenticity of which they dreamed. \u201cIt was a thrill to work on a movie with such an important message for young girls,\u201d says Brooks. \u201cTo have the courage to always be yourself and to never fear the unknown.\u201d<\/p>\n

by Sophia Stuart \/ photos by Justina Mintz<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cinematographer Alice Brooks hits all the right notes in transporting the 1980s animated series\u00a0Jem and the Holograms\u00a0to the big screen Back in 2011, cinematographer Alice Brooks and director Jon M. Chu (Step Up series, G.I. Joe: Retaliation) were sitting on the back of a truck lift gate during a break in shooting The Legion Of Extraordinary Dancers. They started talking about the \u201980s animated show Jem and the Holograms, a conversation they\u2019d had many times since graduating from USC School […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5648,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[37,376],"class_list":["post-5647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-icg-magazine","tag-jem-and-the-holograms"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Kids Are Alright - ICG Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.icgmagazine.com\/web\/the-kids-are-alright\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Kids Are Alright - ICG Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cinematographer Alice Brooks hits all the right notes in transporting the 1980s animated series\u00a0Jem and the Holograms\u00a0to the big screen Back in 2011, cinematographer Alice Brooks and director Jon M. 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