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Making of UFC 217 Teaser – GSP Returns

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Legendary champion Georges St-Pierre is making a surprise return to the octagon to challenge current UFC Middleweight title holder Michael Bisping in what promises to be an explosive event and we got the opportunity to shoot the official commercial. For this shoot, the two fighters were each given their own custom set uniquely suited to their famous personas. For the no-nonsense, tough guy Bisping, the setting was a rough, unglamorous training gym. This was created in an empty warehouse location in Los Angeles. The Art Department did a fantastic job dressing the space with training equipment, hanging heavy bags, etc. The lighting design for this space included stark shadows and dramatic shafts of light. This was achieved by placing several high powered HMI lights outside, shining though the windows.

For the almost mythical figure known as GSP, the setting was literally a superhero gym. We were able to utilize the same specialty space used for Batman’s batcave in ‘The Dark Knight’. Director of Photography Jonathan Belinski and Gaffer Chris Andrus used all RGB and DMX controlled lighting throughout the space and created a “mega key” with 5 Arri Skypanels, and some specialty diffusion. The result is a bright, clean, futuristic space that is in complete contrast with the Bisping space. Shot entirely in 6K with 2 Red Dragon cameras outfitted with Leica Summicron-C Prime lenses, the cinematic spot made it’s television debut just before Saturday night’s huge Mayweather – McGregor fight. The stage is set.

Director of Photography: Jonathan Belinski Director: Adam Condal Producer: Eric Mazer Gaffer: Chris Andrus Colorist: Bryan Smaller Prod Design: Laurent Turlure 1st AC: Joel Swanner Audio: Brian Lahiere

 

 

 

Special Post – MLB All-Star Game Teradek Blog

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Thanks to our friends at Teradek for this great blog post written about Jonathan’s work on the MLB All-Star game feature segments.

MLB All-Star Game gets an All-Star Video Production with Emmy-Award Winning DP Jonathan Belinski and Teradek

The MLB All-Star Game marks the halfway-point for another great season of baseball. It’s an annual exhibition game played between MLB’s two distinct leagues, the American League vs. National League. The players for the teams facing off are nominated by fans, managers and other players – it’s a tremendous honor for any player.

As one of the most highly-anticipated games of the year, the All-Star Game brings sold-out crowds of fans from all over the country to the host city (Miami, Florida this year), with millions more watching at home on TV. It’s such a big sporting event that Fox Sports always supplements the broadcast with a series of bumpers to and from commercial breaks featuring profiles of the players. For the past few years, Jonathan Belinski has been the Director of Photography for the filming of the speciality player portraits, working alongside Producer/Director Joel Santos.

MLB All Star Game teasers filmed by Jonathan Belinski and Teradek Bolt 3000s

“Fox Sports is a major network, so expectations are pretty high when it comes to production value,” explained Jonathan Belinski. “Joel Santos, the producer, wanted the theme this year to embrace the South Beach party vibe while simultaneously showcasing the top talent in the game. It gets viewers excited for what’s about to unfold while also setting the scene of the host city.”

Belinski is no stranger to high-profile shoots. A multiple Emmy award-winning Director of Photography and founder of Belinski Media, Jonathan Belinski’s work has been featured at the Super Bowl, Daytona 500, UFC, World Series, World Cup and many other major events. The mission is always the same: create high-end images that will capture the imagination of the viewers. But this time, they wanted to add a fun twist.

“I have worked with Joel for many years and can say he is one of the best in business at achieving this. He knows what we have to work with and then adapts his game plan to maximize what we can get out of any given situation. We are often put in difficult locations with extreme time constraints, but that never impacts the finished product. We always find a way to make it work and adjust to the situation we are faced with.”

Swinging for the Fences

The famous Clevelander bar right outside Marlins Park left field where MLB All-Star Game bumpers were shot with Teradek

The Clevelander pool bar at Marlins Park where teasers were filmed.

Since the All-Star Game was held in Miami this year, the goal was to incorporate party and clubbing elements into the teasers. Producer Santos envisioned a vibrant nightlife scene complete with Samba dancers, a DJ, and sexy lighting. Luckily, Marlins Park has a scaled-down model of the famous Clevelander Night Club in the outfield, which provided the perfect setting to film all the players.

The biggest feature of The Clevelander is the famous indoor pool, which Santos decided to utilize for the shoot. Santos had a platform constructed above the pool and a red carpet strewn for players to walk across. One of the cameras would be shooting in the water, which meant the addition of an underwater camera operated by veteran editor/cameraman Brian Alexander.

Party Shots

To shoot the party-style MLB teasers for the game, Belinski and his team used 2 RED Epic Dragon 6K cinema cameras with Leica Summicron Prime lenses and Canon Zoom lenses. One RED Epic Dragon camera was mounted to a gimbal system to capture moving shots of players walking across the red carpet, while the other was mounted to a tripod for tighter detail shots.

      Red Epic Dragon 6K on gimbal with Teradek for MLB All-Star Game

       Teradek Bolt 3000 connected to RED Epic Dragon 6K on gimbal.

On both systems, a Teradek Bolt 3000 transmitter was connected to the camera via SDI, sending instant HD feeds wirelessly to a Bolt receiver in their video village on the other side of the room. With one receiver going to the director’s monitor and the other to the 1st AC’s monitor, both Director Santos and the focus puller could see a live shot from a distance without needing to stand anywhere near the action.

“The first camera – equipped with a gimbal – was used for the wider shots. It moved along with the players as they walked towards the front of the club and in front of the pool,” Belinski explained. “Our second camera was on a longer lens and took closer shots of the players. We rarely rolled both at once in an effort to get the perfect shot each time for each camera. We also had a third camera shooting from inside the Clevelander pool, but without any wireless systems for obvious reasons.”

All Bases Covered

MLB All-Star Game underwater camera shot
Underwater camera captured lower angles of the All-Star players.

After several hours of filming at The Clevelander, Belinski and his team acquired all the footage they needed for the next day’s broadcast, largely thanks to having reliable wireless downlinks at their disposal. Being wireless allowed the Camera Ops to move freely without needing the Director or 1st AC to be married to the camera and monitor the shot without having to worry about maneuvering the set with cables.

But most importantly, the Bolts allowed them to save the most valuable asset for this production: time. Because both teams were at the stadium to practice and prepare for the game, as well as other media obligations, the production crew had very limited time to get the footage they wanted with these star players.

Real-time wireless monitoring allowed Belinski and his crew to make adjustments to their shots on-the-go and get what they needed with minimal reshoots. This meant that the extremely busy players could return to what they do best: play ball.

“In an environment where these guys are there to practice, prepare for the game, and take in the honor of this prestigious moment in their lives, time is very valuable. You do everything possible to avoid 2nd or 3rd takes,” said Belinski. “The Teradek Bolts helped us to be mobile on set and made it easy for everyone to monitor the shot which meant happier players who could get out quick and keep the experience fun for themselves, while also getting the footage we needed for our purposes. It’s a win-win. As always, Joel Santos and Brian Alexander crafted beautiful edits, and it was another successful year for all of us.”

Home Run Extra:

Belinski and his crew received some generous gifts from players at batting practice when well-hit home run balls came crashing through their blackout materials on set, barely missing crew and equipment! But don’t worry – no cameras were hurt. Check out the hole made by a home run ball:

Making of USMNT Gold Cup Portraits

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Sometimes you have to bring the studio to the talent. Dealing with the US Men’s National Team in the midst of their Gold Cup preparations, is definitely one of those scenarios. The team doesn’t have time to spend an entire day on a sound stage, they are on a tight schedule, and so creating a top level television portrait shoot becomes a logistical challenge. Catching up with the team in Nashville, we were able to secure a large concert rehearsal space in the downtown Bridgestone Arena close to where they were staying. This big open space proved to be a more than serviceable studio for our needs. Several custom designed sets were designed and built, each on a different wall of the huge room. This allowed for the players to enter the space and move efficiently from set to set. The main set was a large wall with custom built-in lighting units that were all designed and DMX controlled to create unique lighting effects. Another set featured an enormous American flag unfurling in slow motion behind the player. The Art department and the Grip team had to devise a repeatable quick release system that could hoist the flag up then release it on cue. The entire project was shot in 6K on 2 Red Dragon cameras outfitted with Leica Summicron-C lenses. It was definitely a memorable, challenging and fun shoot. Producer: Jen Pransky  Director of Photography: Jonathan Belinski  Art: Diana Rice

  

 

Behind the Scenes at the US Open

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It was another great year filming at the PGA US Open.  Director of Photography Jonathan Belinski traveled to beautiful Erin Hills golf course in Hartford, Wisconsin to get up close to the action. Fox assembled an elite team of DPs to cover the sprawling event in cinematic style. Jonathan was working with a pair of Red Dragon Cameras. One camera was primarily set up with a specialty Canon 50-1,000mm lens. This allowed for maximum versatility, a must when shooting live sports with cinema cameras. The other camera was set up on a 3-axis gimbal system and outfitted with Leica Summicron-C Prime lenses. Jonathan personally operated this system to create the most dynamic and commercial quality shots possible in an outdoor, live event situation. The camera was equipped with a Teradek wireless video system and a Bartech wireless follow focus system that allowed our 1st AC to monitor the image and pull focus remotely. One of the most unique elements of this project is the immediacy.  The footage that Jonathan shot made it’s way to air remarkably fast thanks to the fantastic on-site engineers who would download, transcode, edit, and air the footage sometimes only minutes later. We always look forward to the US Open as a fast paced, exciting, and rewarding project to work on and this year was no exception.

 

 

SUPER BOWL LI PRODUCTIONS

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Super Bowl LI proved to be a very busy time for us. We were involved in a number of high profile projects including Jonathan being DP on two feature pieces, “The Greatest” which opened the broadcast, and “Ragged Old Flag” which was the lead in to the actual game. There were also player portrait shoots in a custom built set with 3-D mapping featuring the biggest stars of the game including Tom Brady and Julio Jones. There was also an interview with Erin Andrews and Robert Kraft the owner of the Patriots, and an interview with Michael Strahan and Lady Gaga. It was a busy, at times hectic, few weeks of overlapping preparation and production of multiple shoots of varying size and complexity. Here is a look at some of the projects and behind the scenes.

 

MAKING OF “THE GREATEST” – Super Bowl LI Show Open

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The Greatest” opened Fox’s coverage to this year’s Super Bowl broadcast. It was produced by the highly acclaimed DLP Media Group {Exec Producers: Michael Hughes/Greg Lake; Producer: Matt Schlef; Director: Todd Kapostasy; Editor: Jason Sanchez; DP: Jonathan Belinski}.

The piece takes the viewer through the journey of Muhammad Ali on his quest to become the greatest fighter of all time and then interweaves that same analogy to the greatest NFL players of the past several years, culminating in Tom Brady’s quest to become “The Greatest”.  Director Todd Kapostasy’s tautly written script ties the story together, which was voiced by actor Anthony Mackie (Avengers, Captain America, The Hurt Locker).

Shot over a span of three days on a soundstage in Los Angeles, no attention to detail was spared by the production team. Producer Matt Schlef’s keen eye saw to it that actors were coordinated with various practical lighting elements such as period accurate flash photography, film cameras, and era accurate wardrobe, including casting actors with similar size and build to portray the various athletes. This was no small task. The sets were built practically by Art Director Johnny Chou with slight variations made between the scenes to match the backgrounds of the time.

A roughly 60 foot tunnel was created that was able to change width, height, and orientation to accommodate different looks. At the back end of the tunnel was a large-scale green screen where images appropriate to the era were comped in later with tracking marks as guides by Chicken Bone Post Production. Final color correction was done by Bryan Smaller from Company 3, a high-end color house noted for it’s work on big budget feature films.

 

Images were captured in 6k resolution widescreen format on Red Dragon cameras with high end Leica PL mount cine primes for the ultimate cinematic experience. Almost every shot was moving with a Ronin Gimbal system or a MYT Works Large Glide operated by DP Jonathan Belinski to create the sense of always moving forward toward the end of the tunnel. Of particular challenge was the extreme height of the players (some of them over 6’5″), and for most shots, the camera department discovered just muscling the gimbal system overhead provided better results than using traditional support systems. 

 

Lighting the set was a particularly unique challenge, as the wall dimensions were constantly changing to give different looks. A plan was devised largely using 6k spacelights in a row on a crank system that could raise and lower their height. Additional baffling and diffusion frames were added to change the quality and intensity of light between scenes, while still having the ability to control spill light on the walls to the overall quality that was envisioned. Many additional units were employed by gaffer Chris Andrus to highlight background extras and heighten the drama of the scenes while still maintaining a natural, believable look.

 

A particularly pivotal moment in the piece was Muhammad Ali’s refusal to enter the Vietnam draft. This represented a departure in scenery from the tunnel set, but EP Michael Hughes discovered a hallway location nearby that served our purposes well. The lighting and art team had to improvise quickly and utilize the now practical location for maximum effect. Doors were removed from hinges, lights were bounced off floors, and set pieces were moved in to make the background more organic and authentic. This entire scene was captured in camera with no post FX.

 

Post Production was overseen by the watchful eye of Editor Jason Sanchez who deftly interwove historical footage with modern elements. Sound Designer Jim Mitchell created Sound FX that heightened the atmosphere completing Director Todd Kapostasy’s vision.

This set was filled with a tremendous amount of Emmy winners and accomplished talent who collectively had a singular goal to make the piece as good as it could be. The results speak for themselves. Easily one of the best projects Belinski Media has ever been involved in.

Making of “Ragged Old Flag” – Super Bowl LI Game Open

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The Feature production for Super Bowl LI ,”Ragged Old Flag” was set to the famous song by Johnny Cash, written in 1974 against the backdrop of the Watergate scandal. It tells the  story through the “eyes” of an American flag and all of the trials, tribulations, and triumphs it endured throughout American history. The exciting challenge was to convey the powerful historical events portrayed in the song and juxtapose with them a modern narrative that would resonate with today’s audience. 

The most ambitious and technically formidable portion of the shoot became known as “The Battle Scene”. The goal was to cover the War of 1812, the Battle of the Alamo, and the Civil War in a single, seamless take with no editing whatsoever. There were no soundstages available that were big enough to  house the 200 plus feet of backdrops, props, scenery and a  large scale interior re-creation of the Alamo itself, so a massive warehouse had to be converted into a studio. Over 300,000 watts of lighting, over 40 extras, period costumes, pyro, explosions, weapon specialists, hundreds of pounds of dry ice, hazers, rain bars, and lightning units were employed to accomplish this task. The camera essentially acted as a voyeur, traveling on a high tech gimbal system through the various battle vignettes. It was shot on a Red Dragon camera with 6,000 lines of resolution in widescreen mode and with a Leica 35mm prime lens for the maximum cinematic effect. Gun shots, cannon fire, and mortar explosions all had to be synchronized with elaborate camera and actor movement to maximize their impact on screen, while still maintaining the highest of safety standards. Perhaps the most complex task for this scene was lighting the  set to match a particular F-stop as it’s a single take going through changing lighting environments from dusk to day, culminating in a dark night filled with fog, rain, and lightning.

Additionally, the camera team had to devise unique ways to protect the camera from the elements without sacrificing mobility or quality. Rubber mats were placed under the low lying fog to map the course for the camera and actor, and rain deflection was created on the camera system to minimize water and pyro from impacting the shot. The Alamo set was elevated four feet in the air to accentuate the downward firing angle that was present during that battle, so ramps with foot grip systems were created for the Director of Photography to move up and down the sets. Shot at 48 frames-per-second to add a touch of drama in slight slow motion, the entire take had to be accomplished in under 20 seconds, while maintaining perfect focus at a very shallow depth of field. After two full days of building and rehearsing, several great takes were accomplished.

 

Another difficult sequence comes towards the end of the feature when our lead male, Nate Boyer, changes from civilian clothes to his Army uniform in one shot. The camera moves past Nate in his street clothes, then makes an almost 90 degree turn to reveal him now in his uniform, and then carries him backward as Nate moves forward. Again shooting at 48 frames-per-second on a Red Dragon with a 25mm Leica prime lens on a Ronin Gimbal system, the camera had to move very fast, only allowing a few seconds for the wardrobe change. In the end-shot, the transition is seamless.The production featured an array of some of the best filmmaking tools in the industry including DJI Ronin Gimbal systems, MYT Works Sliders, Sachtler Tripods, Bartech Wireless Focus Systems and Teradek Wireless Video systems just to name a few.

Other than a few pieces of historical news footage, Fox shot every frame for this feature. Most scenes were shot at dusk to match the time at which the piece was airing (4:52pm CT).

This feature was relatively easy to edit because most of the work went into planning and executing the camera work.

We were so honored to be a part of this very special project and to get the chance to work with such a great team. Producer – Jen Pransky  Director of Photography – Jonathan Belinski  Set Designer – Laurent Turlure  Gaffer – Chris Andrus  Line Producer – Pepper Carlson  Editor – Mikey Carr

Dan on the Moon – Dan Patrick Super Bowl LI Promo

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Super Bowl LI is in Houston; and in honor of the city’s tradition of space-travel, the commercial for The Dan Patrick Show’s Super Bowl special features Dan flying to the moon with the help of his Danette flight crew. It is always a fun time on set with Dan and the guys. For this shoot we utilized a green screen studio to create the effect of Dan walking on the moon. Director of Photography Jonathan Belinski shot with 2 Red Dragon cameras outfitted with Leica prime lenses. One of the cameras was dedicated to a gimbal system which helped Jonathan get the most out of some cleverly set dressed locations. The end result is a very cinematic look for what promises to be a really memorable spot. Producer: Kelly Beck Director: Ben Epstein DP: Jonathan Belinski

 

Rousey’s Return – Making of UFC 207 Official Promo

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UFC legend Ronda Rousey is returning to the octagon for the first time in over a year. After the shocking results of UFC 193, Ronda took some time to reflect on her goals and refocus her efforts. Now, one of the UFC’s most dominate champions is ready to return to competition and make a definitive statement in UFC 207. We were so excited to get the opportunity to film the official promo. It was an ambitious project and there was a lot of planning and preparation that went into the smooth execution of the major shoot day. We used an entire pre-light day to set up the house and run through the exterior shots. We used multiple Red Dragon Cameras in several set-ups including a 3-axis handheld gimbal. We were also working wth an ace drone team and were able to execute some challenging shots. With the help of a great production designer, we heightened the look and atmosphere of the training gym to reflect the intensity of Rousey’s highly anticipated return.  Director of Photography Jonathan Belinski  Director Adam Condal  Producer Eric Mazer  Production Designer Laurent Turlure  Color By Local Hero
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The Manning of the Hour

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We had a great time filming this feature segment for Fox Sports NFL Kickoff featuring Peyton and his hilarious brother Cooper. The Manning brothers are meeting at the famous Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City because Cooper is concerned that Peyton is now out of work. We had the use of a beautiful suite in the tower and we loaded all of our gear in early so we were set and ready to roll when Peyton and Cooper showed up. Director of Photography Jonathan Belinski utilized the dramatic setting and created a classic look with minimal lighting. We were even able to use our 3-axis gimbal with a Red Dragon in the relatively tight space. The crew was great and the Manning brothers had us cracking up. Producer: Jeremy Mennell  DP: Jonathan BelinskiA001_C002_1207G2 manning_003A001_C008_12077B A001_C003_12073Lmanning_000C001_C001_12067X A001_C006_1207T1 A001_C005_1207LY