SVG Sit-Down: FUJIFILM Execs on GFX ETERNA 55 Camera, Importance of Shallow–Depth-of-Field Production

Cinematic video targets a generation that grew up with videogames

Last month, FUJIFILM North America took the wraps off the GFX ETERNA 55 camera. With one of the tallest cinema sensors on the market as well as a color application that meets a wide range of production needs, it’s poised to have an impact on live sports production. SVG recently caught up with FUJIFILM North AMERICA Director, Product Marketing, Electronic Imaging Division and Optical Devices Division, John Blackwood and VP, Electronic Imaging and Optical Devices Divisions, Victor Ha; and FUJINON Lenses, VP, Sales, Sotsh Durbacz to discuss the camera’s role in the marketplace and why sports fans who grew up playing videogames desire more cinematic productions.

What has been the real-world reaction to the GFX ETERNA 55 camera now that it has finally arrived?
Blackwood: It has been really good. I think there’s a lot of interest in the format, obviously, and in what this means for the future of our place in digital post imaging.

The FUJIFILM GFX ETERNA 55 is the company’s first digital camera dedicated to professional filmmaking.

Where do you see this fitting into live sports productions?
Blackwood: The sideline stuff is really exciting with this camera, and 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 came to us most often were sports people and sports creatives who work for teams. They know the players and the rivalries. And, with things like NIL [at the college level], everyone wants to be seen and is looking for content. 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 give 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: [With] a live sporting event, there are two pillars for using this camera: the fan experience and the broadcast. The GFX Eterna 55 has good space and headroom to elevate the in-arena fan experience. And we could see some creativity and innovation around second-screen experiences. That’s where this camera is going to sync up well, because it will allow 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. Its 1:33 aspect ratio embraces the history of filmmaking, and you can shoot framing for wide screen while also framing for vertical. It’s nearly 33 mm 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 with live standard TV productions?
Ha: I think the viewer is more literate about what a good image is. You have kids that are playing videogames and are being taught subconsciously what an epic visual could look like in the videogame cut scenes. They know the language of filmmaking without knowing it, and, when they start to watch sports and start to engage with traditional content like media, their expectation is that they’re going to get a cinematic image. That is their expectation because they have an understanding of what cinema and depth of field look like, because it has been subconsciously drilled into them. When they don’t get that experience, they think it looks cheap.

Now, from the broadcast point of view, we have the luxury of picking the format based on the specific need. Maybe a 2/3-in. camera is a good pick when you need depth of field in a camera position where you just need that field to be in focus. Maybe you go to a wider sensor format to get that cinematic look. You have a director who now has available tools that can create a fully scoped out narrative live production that maybe they weren’t able to do before.

Blackwood: I feel like, from a cultural sense, everyone aspires to [cinematic] qualities but they haven’t always been accessible. This 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 gets intercut 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 videogames. We want the fan experience in real life to feel like the fan experience when they’re playing the game; that’s the goal.

Some broadcasters’ football production is committed to using more shallow depth of field to shoot live action. 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 starts to switch over. Our target demographic as a society, the hardest one to reach, are men ages 18-34: we can reach them only through sports. Coincidentally, men 18-34 also have a predilection for videogames and movies and media and cinema. If we’re going to hold their attention in live sports, 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 it is only an 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.

Durbacz: And then there is color, because your main show is going to be, in all likelihood, Rec. 709 [color standard]. When you pull through these elements, having that expanded color space is going to create a response. How do you do that? How do you make use of that potential response, and how can you make that more impactful?

Ha: What we saw during the recent Super Bowl from Funicular Goats, I think, is indicative of what a cinematic workflow can provide for a live event. I think it would be truly astounding if we can get to that place where we 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. Getting back into that ecosystem where we’re the tool again is very exciting for us, especially in a sea of emerging creatives.