Director of photography Rodney Charters ASC has been one of the first to use the latest Atomos Sumo 19-inch production monitor and recorder. Charters, best known for his work on 24, used it on a shoot with YouTube star Kaiman Wong.
The DoP already had three other Atomos devices, but likes the added flexibility of the larger screen. “It is a tremendous help for reviewing on set,” he said. “I get a much bigger picture to evaluate the finer detail in
my frames.”
Its HDR capabilities and the ability of its bright 1200-nit screen to work in daylight are also proving useful. “We get a good sense of where the highlights lie, and where the shadows fall while we’re actually lighting,” added Charters. It allowed him to bring out the information that is in the Raw files to see exactly what has been captured in the highlights or blacks.
Look-up tables (LUTs) loaded onto the Sumo’s internal memory also allowed for rapid preview of various creative looks that could then be finalised in post.
Charters also liked the simplicity of control via Sumo’s touchscreen, and its compatibility with many different cameras. On the YouTube shoot he used the Arri Alexa, but often has to use other cameras, like the VariCam, or smaller cameras like the Panasonic GH5.
The Sumo can handle single-, dual-, and quad-link SDI connections, plus HDMI, and records to SSD or HDD drives that can be handed off to directors and producers.
11.D25/11.D15
