SVG Sit-Down: FUJIFILM’s GFX ETERNA 55 Camera and Why Shallow-Depth-of-Field Production is Important

Last month FUJIFILM North America took the wraps off the FUJIFILM GFX ETERNA 55 camera. With one of the tallest cinema sensors on the market as well as a great color application to meet a wide range of production needs it’s poised to make an impact within live sports production. SVG recently caught up with John Blackwood, director, Product Marketing, Electronic Imaging Division and Optical Devices Division, FUJIFILM North America Corporation, Victor Ha, Vice President of the Electronic Imaging and Optical Devices Divisions of Fujifilm North America, and Sotsh Durbacz, FUJINON Lenses, VP, Sales to discuss the camera’s role in the marketplace and why sports fans who grew up playing videogames desire more cinematic productions.What’s been the real-world reaction to the ETERNA 55 camera now that it has finally arrived?Blackwood: It's been really good. I think there's a lot of interest in the format, obviously, and then also just what this means for the future of our place in digital post imaging.[caption id="attachment_290135" align="alignright" width="719"] The FUJIFILM GFX ETERNA 55 is Fujifilm’s first digital camera dedicated to professional filmmaking.[/caption]Where do you see this fitting into live sports productions?Blackwood: The sideline stuff is really exciting with this camera and then we’re also seeing growth around telling the story that leads into the game differently. I was with Adobe prior to joining Fujinon and we were all filmmakers and built Adobe Premier for narrative filmmaking. But the people who actually came to us most often were sports people and sports creatives who work for teams. They know the players, the rivalries, and then with things like NIL [at the college level] everyone wants to be seen and is looking for content. And that's where this camera fits in really well because it's a natural filmmaking camera with a beautiful image. The colors in this camera with the film simulations gives you beautiful, intentional, creative looks essentially right out of camera.Durbacz: And in those scenarios you can quickly get the stories to post and on a second-screen faster without having to do color correction or other layers to make a beautiful cinematic image.Ha: And looking a live sporting event there are two pillars for using this camera: the fan experience and the broadcast. The Eternal GX E 55 has really good space and headroom to elevate the in-arena fan experience. And then we could see some creativity and innovation around second-screen experiences. That’s where this camera is going to really sync ip well because it will allow for a narrative cinema-driven production team to go in and work alongside a dialed-in integrated broadcast team without stepping on each other's toes.Blackwood: It also has a very flexible aspect ratio. It's 1:33 aspect ratio embraces the history of filmmaking and you can shoot something framing for wide screen while also framing for vertical as its nearly 33 millimeters tall, so it's almost as tall as it is wide. You already have the height so you don’t need to flip it [vertically].Why do you think this new form of cinematic shooting is resonating so well within live standard TV productions?Ha: I think the viewer is literally more literate about what a good image is. You have kids that are playing video games and they are being taught subconsciously what an epic visual could look like in the video game cut scenes. So, they already know the language of filmmaking without knowing it. And when they start to watch sports and they start to engage with traditional content like media, their expectation is that they're going to get a cinematic image. And that is their expectation because they've had an understanding of what cinema and depth-of-field look like because it’s been subconsciously drilled into them. And when they don't get that experience, they think it looks cheap.And now, from the broadcast point of view, we have the luxury of picking the format based upon the specific need. Maybe a two thirds inch camera is a good pick when you need depth the field and when you need it to be in a camera position where you just need that field to be in focus. And then maybe you go to a wider sensor format to get that cinematic look. And then you've got a director now who has available tools that can create a fully scoped out narrative production in live event that maybe they weren't able to do before.Blackwood: To the point of cinematic qualities, I feel like from a cultural sense everyone aspires to those qualities but they haven’t always been accessible. And this kind of steps in the direction of offering an accessible format that, depending on how you use it, gives a different aesthetic and a different perspective for the different distribution pipelines.Ha: I honestly can't wait until we start seeing this camera on the sideline cranking out anamorphic footage that's getting intercut along with the broadcast. Once we start delivering that it's going to be very similar to what people are seeing now in their Madden NFL video games. We want the fan experience in real life to feel like the fan experience when they're playing the game, and that's the goal.Some networks this year in football production are committed to using more shallow depth of field to shoot live action. So do you think that kids who have grown up ‘cinema style literate’ are going to keep looking for live broadcasts with cinematic feel?Ha: We’re absolutely seeing that as the generation start to switch over. Our target demographic as a society, the hardest one to reach, are men ages 18 to 34. And we can only reach them through sports. And, coincidentally, men 18 to 34 also have a predilection for video games and movies and media and cinema. So, if we're going to hold their attention in live sports then we need to be more cinematic. Otherwise we're going to lose them to other things. It's very clear to me, and I think that is an only indication that the end of the story is providing a full game experience for broadcast and an arena experience that feels cinematic, that's worth paying the money for to attend.Durbacz: And then there is color because your main show is going to be, in all likelihood, REC709. So when you pull through these elements, having that expanded color space is going to create a response. So how do you do that? How do you make use of that potential response and how can you make that more impactful?Ha: And look at what we saw during the Super Bowl from Funicular Goats. I think that is very indicative of what a cinematic workflow can provide for a live event. And I think it would be truly astounding if we can get to that place where we truly let a cinematographer and a director and people that know narrative filmmaking take a crack at doing live broadcast with cinematic tools. That's the dream.I think we've got a great camera here that addresses a gap in our product line. And it brings Fujinon into being a filmmaking brand. Yes, we stopped making film, but we never asked anyone to stop making films. So, getting back into that ecosystem where we're becoming the tool again is very exciting for us, especially as you see a sea of emerging creatives.