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Page 1: American Cinematographer 201109

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 1

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M E M B E R P O R T R A I T

George Mooradian, ASC

W W W . T H E A S C . C O M

TO SUBSCRIBE BY PHONE:

Call (800) 448-0145 (U.S. only)

(323) 969-4333 or visit the ASC Web site

rowing up in the Deep South,summers were humid andweekend nights were spentwatching movies under the

cool stars at the drive-in. Talk aboutescapism! But my real nexus withcinematography came when myfamily went to the InternationalExhibition in Montreal, where I wasexposed to the National Film Boardof Canada and Czech films. Fromthere, it was the Ohio UniversitySchool of Film, and then theproverbial drive out to Hollywood.

“My first encounter withAmerican Cinematographer wasat the Atlanta Film Festival, whereAC editor Herb Lightman was theguest of honor. AC was likeforbidden fruit. Cinematographerswere virtuosos, and just to be intheir presence, to clap a slate, loada mag — I would gladly do that forthe rest of my life! My visionsharpened its focus, and AC was thecynosure.

“To paraphrase IngmarBergman, AC is my magic lantern,my window to the minds of geniuses,conjuring and illuminating mymétier. It encompasses the scope Isee in cinema, revealing the soul’slandscape and encompassing heroesand villains, the yin and the yang.AC has chronicled cinema’smetamorphosis through the decades.It’s all within AC’s digital andvellum pages.”

— George Mooradian, ASC

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Page 5: American Cinematographer 201109

The International Journal of Motion Imaging

28 A Mighty PenAnna J. Foerster shoots Anonymous with the Alexa

44 Immersive DanceHélène Louvart leads a talented cinematography team on the 3-D feature Pina

56 Airing Dirty LaundryStephen Goldblatt, ASC, BSC brings a best-selling novel to the big screen with The Help

68 Tips on Location ScoutingLocation professionals and cinematographers offer advice on selecting production sites

DEPARTMENTS

FEATURES

— VISIT WWW.THEASC.COM TO ENJOY THESE WEB EXCLUSIVES —Podcasts: Michael Slovis, ASC on Breaking Bad • Oliver Stapleton, BSC on Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark

DVD Playback: The Sacrifice • New York, New York • Kiss Me Deadly

On Our Cover: William Shakespeare (Rafe Spall) is an ego-driven actor serving as a front for the actual playwright in Anonymous, shot by Anna J. Foerster. (Photo by ReinerBajo, courtesy of Sony Pictures.)

8 Editor’s Note10 President’s Desk12 Short Takes: “Sleep Forever”16 Production Slate: Circumstance • Brighton Rock78 Post Focus: Cinelicious84 Filmmakers’ Forum: 24-Frame Video Playback88 New Products & Services96 International Marketplace97 Classified Ads98 Ad Index

100 ASC Membership Roster102 Clubhouse News104 ASC Close-Up: Dante Spinotti, ASC, AIC

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 1 V O L . 9 2 N O . 9

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S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 1 V o l . 9 2 , N o . 9T h e I n t e r n a t i o n a l J o u r n a l o f M o t i o n I m a g i n g

Visit us online atwww.theasc.com

————————————————————————————————————

PUBLISHER Martha Winterhalter————————————————————————————————————

EDITORIALEXECUTIVE EDITOR Stephen Pizzello

SENIOR EDITOR Rachael K. Bosley

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Jon D. Witmer

TECHNICAL EDITOR Christopher Probst

CONTRIBUTING WRITERSStephanie Argy, Benjamin B, Douglas Bankston, Robert S. Birchard,

John Calhoun, Michael Goldman, Simon Gray, Jim Hemphill, David Heuring, Jay Holben, Mark Hope-Jones, Noah Kadner, Jean Oppenheimer,

John Pavlus, Chris Pizzello, Jon Silberg, Iain Stasukevich, Kenneth Sweeney, Patricia Thomson

————————————————————————————————————

ART DEPARTMENTCREATIVE DIRECTOR Marion Gore

————————————————————————————————————

ADVERTISINGADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR Angie Gollmann

323-936-3769 FAX 323-936-9188

e-mail: [email protected]

ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR Sanja Pearce

323-952-2114 FAX 323-876-4973

e-mail: [email protected]

ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR Scott Burnell

323-936-0672 FAX 323-936-9188

e-mail: [email protected]

CLASSIFIEDS/ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Diella Nepomuceno

323-952-2124 FAX 323-876-4973

e-mail: [email protected]

————————————————————————————————————

CIRCULATION, BOOKS & PRODUCTSCIRCULATION DIRECTOR Saul MolinaCIRCULATION MANAGER Alex LopezSHIPPING MANAGER Miguel Madrigal

————————————————————————————————————ASC GENERAL MANAGER Brett Grauman

ASC EVENTS COORDINATOR Patricia ArmacostASC PRESIDENT’S ASSISTANT Kim WestonASC ACCOUNTING MANAGER Mila BaselyASC ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE Corey Clark

————————————————————————————————————American Cinematographer (ISSN 0002-7928), established 1920 and in its 91st year of publication, is published

monthly in Hollywood by ASC Holding Corp., 1782 N. Orange Dr., Hollywood, CA 90028, U.S.A., (800) 448-0145, (323) 969-4333, Fax (323) 876-4973, direct line for subscription inquiries (323) 969-4344.

Subscriptions: U.S. $50; Canada/Mexico $70; all other foreign countries $95 a year (remit international Money Order or other exchange payable in U.S. $). Advertising: Rate card upon request from Hollywood

office. Article Reprints: Requests for high-quality article reprints (or electronic reprints) should be made toSheridan Reprints at (800) 635-7181 ext. 8065 or by e-mail [email protected].

Copyright 2011 ASC Holding Corp. (All rights reserved.) Periodicals postage paid at Los Angeles, CA and at additional mailing offices. Printed in the USA.

POSTMASTER: Send address change to American Cinematographer, P.O. Box 2230, Hollywood, CA 90078.———————————————————————————————————— 4

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Page 8: American Cinematographer 201109

OFFICERS - 2011/2012

Michael GoiPresident

Richard CrudoVice President

Owen RoizmanVice President

John C. Flinn IIIVice President

Victor J. KemperTreasurer

Frederic GoodichSecretary

Stephen LighthillSergeant At Arms

MEMBERS OF THEBOARDJohn Bailey

Stephen H. BurumRichard Crudo

George Spiro DibieRichard Edlund

Fred ElmesMichael Goi

Victor J. KemperFrancis Kenny

Isidore MankofskyRobert Primes

Owen Roizman Kees Van Oostrum

Haskell WexlerVilmos Zsigmond

ALTERNATESMichael D. O’Shea

Rodney TaylorRon GarciaSol Negrin

Kenneth Zunder

MUSEUM CURATORSteve Gainer

American Society of Cine ma tog ra phersThe ASC is not a labor union or a guild, but

an educational, cultural and pro fes sion al or ga ni za tion. Membership is by invitation

to those who are actively en gaged as di rec tors of photography and have

dem on strated out stand ing ability. ASC membership has be come one of the highest

honors that can be bestowed upon a pro fes sional cin e ma tog ra pher — a mark

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The arrival of Arri’s Alexa has generated intense interestamong cinematographers, so we’ve already covered ademo film shot by ASC member Sam Nicholson (AC Sept. ’10) and Prom, the camera’s U.S.-feature debut(AC May ’11). The European production Anonymous, shotby Anna J. Foerster, was the very first feature to employthe Alexa, and Foerster notes that the drama’s periodsetting offered an ideal chance to evaluate the camera’scapabilities. “Given our budget and timeframe and theworkflow necessary for the visual effects, all of the signsclearly pointed toward digital capture,” she tells contribu-tor Iain Stasukevich (“A Mighty Pen,” page 28). “At thattime, digital cameras were finally starting to offer ASAs

above 800, so you could make a movie where firelight was your primary light source. Youcan push film to that ASA, of course, but that introduces grain in the image, and that wouldhave been wrong for this movie.”

Another upcoming release, the 3-D production Pina, celebrates the creativity of thelate choreographer Pina Bausch by presenting performances of her most evocative dancepieces (“Immersive Dance,” page 44). The project is the first 3-D feature from director WimWenders, who received support from a skilled team that included director of photographyHélène Louvart, 3-D supervisor François Garnier, stereographer Alain Derobe and Steadicamoperator Joerg Widmer. Though the filmmakers used the shoot to test a variety of new 3-Dtools, Louvart points out, “3-D is also created by lighting. Each dance piece had very preciselighting because Pina was very precise about [that]. Peter Pabst, who had always done theset and lighting design with her, was there to verify that we were really following the sameconcept. But we needed more light, and we also had to modify the lighting and accentuatecertain things.”

Although this issue has a special focus on international productions, including filmsshot in Lebanon ( Circumstance, page 16) and England ( Brighton Rock, page 20), we alsoexamine how authentic Mississippi locations, especially antebellum mansions, enhanced theU.S. feature The Help, shot by Stephen Goldblatt, ASC, BSC. Although the cinematographerand his crew endured sweltering summer temperatures, they acknowledge that the movie’sstrong sense of place could not have been achieved anywhere else. “Stephen nearlyswooned when he walked into Skeeter’s house for the first time,” says production designerMark Ricker (“Airing Dirty Laundry, page 56). “One look at the massive staircase and[30'x40'] dining room, and he fell in love.”

The importance of finding good locations is an aspect of cinematography that is oftenoverlooked and underappreciated. In an overview of this topic (“Tips on Location Scouting,”page 68) contributor Ira Tiffen gathers advice from prominent location professionals and apair of accomplished ASC members who clearly place a high value on picking the perfectsettings: Stephen H. Burum and Gordon Willis. As Willis notes, “I’ve always been kind ofpushy about how and where something should be shot.”

Stephen PizzelloExecutive Editor

Editor’s Note

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I’ve been thinking a lot about the revised versions of movies that have been popping up since thetechnology has facilitated seamless digital alterations, and I’m starting to wonder what we’re ulti-mately going to leave the next generation. I’m not talking about reconstructions, like themarvelous work done to restore Fritz Lang’s original cut of Metropolis, but rather the compulsionto create something different with the material to accommodate changing tastes, morals or tech-nology. Altering creative works is nothing new. For years, many of the classic Warner Bros. LooneyTunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons were re-edited to remove potentially offensive racial depic-tions. I object to those kinds of alterations because they mask the historical and social influenceson the creation of those works, but what I’m discussing here is something else: altering moviessimply because we can.

Star Wars is an obvious example because so much has already been written and debatedabout the changes George Lucas made to the original three movies. When I saw the movie forthe first time, in 1977, at the Esquire Theater in Chicago, you could hear a collective whoop fromthe audience when Han Solo shot Greedo in cold blood. It was a funny moment, and the matter-of-factness of how it was played gave Solo an edge. It made his departing line, “Sorry for themess,” iconic in a classic Western way. I’ve seen the versions where Greedo shoots first, or wherethey both shoot at the same time and Greedo misses, and it’s just not the same experience. And

because it completely changed Solo’s character, it irked me more than all of Lucas’ other tweaks to the film.The technology used to make such changes possible has also accomplished great things in the restoration of movies that

were long thought to be irreparable. And some great filmmakers have taken part in creating new versions of their films. David L eanplayed an active role in Sony Pictures’ reconstruction of Lawrence of Arabia, and in the process, he removed several minutes of footagethat he felt was extraneous. That “new” version has been widely hailed as the definitive one for two decades. Similarly, Walter Hillwas instrumental in re-creating The Warriors to include comic book-style transitions, and Peter Jackson’s extended editions of The Lordof The Rings trilogy fleshed out many themes and characters.

But what is our responsibility to preserve the version that made the film a classic in the first place? And should the work bealtered and adapted for a new audience just because we can? Is a motion picture as malleable as Cristo’s Running Fence, which reliedon changing weather conditions and different times of day to create unique emotional experiences each time it was viewed? Wouldwe be as willing to accept alterations to Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks or J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in The Rye? Would it be accept-able to create a version of The Graduate wherein Benjamin reaches Elaine in time to stop the wedding?

For more than 60 years, the mysterious announcer played by musician Deems Taylor in Disney’s Fantasia has led the audienceinto that film’s brilliant mix of music and images by being a compelling presence, someone you should listen to because he is o pen-ing the door to new wonders. Taylor’s distinctive voice gives the shadow figure humanity even though you can’t clearly see his face;in fact, it’s all the more effective because you can’t see him. For the latest home-video incarnation of the movie, two minutes of footagefeaturing Taylor were found and restored, but the sound was missing, so another actor was brought in to dub over his vocals. An dthe picture was brightened so Taylor’s face can be seen clearly. Gone is the mysterious presence, and with it went the enigmati c styleof the film’s presentation.

With classical music, we tend to prefer the first rendition we hear of a piece because it carries our memory of experiencingit emotionally for the first time. From that perspective, it can be argued that a new generation will find what they deem of va lue in anew version of a film because it is a new experience for them, and that previous, never-seen incarnations will not matter.

But for me, Han Solo will always shoot Greedo in cold blood.

Michael GoiPresident

President’s Desk

10 September 2011 American Cinematographer

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12 September 2011 American Cinematographer

Alaska Locations Enhance “Sleep Forever”By Iain Stasukevich

The music video for Portugal.The Man’s “Sleep Forever/Got itAll” begins with director/cinematographer Michael Ragen’s camerafloating above purple ice floes beneath a cloudy, purple sky split by thejagged outline of a snowcapped mountain range. The sun rises, andthe Arctic landscape comes alive as the camera swoops over glaciersand frozen rivers. A pack of sled dogs wakes up as a grizzled musher(lead singer John Gourley) approaches their kennel. He gets the dogsharnessed to the sled and rides them into the Arctic wilderness.

At 13 minutes long, “Sleep Forever” is more a short film thana traditional music video. The concept was inspired by Gourley’sexperiences growing up in Willow, Alaska, a mushing community.Ragen had collaborated with the band on other videos, and he waskicking around the idea to shoot a short film or teaser for the nextPortugal album in Gourley’s hometown, when Atlantic Recordsapproved funds for a video.

“I knew we’d have to keep things simple — straight cuts andholding shots on the screen, just letting them live for a moment,”says Ragen. “We figured some people wouldn’t have the patience tosit through a 13-minute music video, but we decided to take therisk.”

Ten days were scheduled for the shoot, and the crewcomprised Ragen, Gourley and two producers, Rich Hutchins andDoug McCafferty, who, in the spirit of keeping things simple, alsoacted as camera assistants. Ragen brought his own Red One(upgraded with Red’s Mysterium-X sensor), a tripod and an EasyRig2.5, as well as a small lens package comprising a Red 18-50mm

zoom, a 400mm Canon lens converted toPL-mount, and a PL-mount Lensbaby withwide-angle and telephoto adapters.

Hutchins and McCafferty helpedRagen with his first order of business: find-ing an aircraft from which to capture thesweeping aerials that bookend the video.In Anchorage, they found a pilot, and theywere airborne by the afternoon. Ragenwanted to shoot ice floes, rivers, glaciersand as many mountains as he could see inone hour. Time was of the essence: winterdays last less than five hours and offerabout an hour of usable sunlight. “Thesun would just ride along the bottom ofthe horizon,” recalls Ragen. “It was justbeautiful. Every hour of sunlight wasmagic hour.”

With the pilot and producerscrammed into the tiny Cessna 206, Ragen wedged himself betweenthe seats and rolled continuously on the landscape below, using theRed zoom behind a stack of Schneider ND filters. Hutchins andMcCafferty helped him swap Compact Flash cards. “I had themiddle row, so I could look around and shoot out either window,”he recalls. “I had to hold a really tight frame to avoid seeing theplane’s wing, and we couldn’t remove the windows, which werescratched. I had to be careful about moving around and getting toomuch glare off the glass. Because we were shooting through awindow, and because of our height and distance from the subjects,all the contrast was lost in the image. I knew I could pull the contrastback in as long as I didn’t clip anything.”

Ragen had hoped to shoot from a helicopter, which wouldhave provided a smoother ride and more versatility in terms ofgetting his shots. In the Cessna, he had to shoot at 48 fps at 3K(because some of the CF cards couldn’t handle 60 fps at that reso-lution) to help smooth out the ride. “I’m not a big fan of shooting2K on the Red, because it doesn’t hold up once you measure theresolution,” he remarks. “I think you can even tell looking at 2K Redfootage in standard definition that it’s kind of soft. The compressiondoesn’t hold up.”

Another reason to shoot 3K was to safeguard the image’sintegrity when Ragen stabilized it in post, which he did with FinalCut Pro’s SmoothCam plug-in. The final shots are rock solid. “I knewthe aerials were going to be a big part of the video, but I didn’t knowwhat I could get until we were up in the plane,” says Ragen. “Luck-ily, Alaska is beautiful in any direction you point the camera. I hadn’tseen those areas before, so I really had no idea how big the glacierswould be. When the sun started to go down, a beautiful, pink light

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Director/cinematographer Michael Ragen uses his Red One to shoot a snowcapped Alaskan mountain rangefor the 13-minute music video for Portugal.The Man’s “Sleep Forever/Got it All.”

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washed over everything. All of it was unex-pected, in a way.”

After three days in Anchorage,Ragen traveled to the Gourley family homein Willow for the next leg of production.Gourley’s parents are Iditarod veterans, andwhile he mushed on their trails, Ragen,Hutchins, and McCafferty used a snowmo-

bile to reach their locations, some of whichwould otherwise have required a 45-minutetrudge through the snow.

Once Ragen became acclimated tothe cold, he became adept at pressing theRed’s tiny buttons while wearing big gloves,and fast enough with lenses that the metaldidn’t freeze to his fingers. (This did happen

as he worked with the Lensbaby to shootsome of the psychedelic images in thevideo. He had to manipulate the selectivefocus barehanded for minutes at a time.)

Unlike Ragen’s fingers and toes, theRed One (capturing 4K at 24 fps for thismaterial) didn’t suffer any ill effects in thefrigid temps. “I was really impressed withthe camera’s ability to hold detail in thesnow,” he remarks. During the daytime, herated the camera’s daylight-balanced sensorat 800 ASA, stacking 1.2 and .9 NDs and aRosco Hot Mirror IR filter in front of the lensfor maximum exposure and minimum focusdepth. “When you’re shooting directly intothe sun, you have to make a judgment callon how much you want your sky to blowout, but I knew we had a lot of room tobring the shadows up if I didn’t let them falltoo deep.”

Night photography required highersensitivity. For a shot of Gourley takingrefuge next to a roaring fire, Ragen pushedthe camera up to 2,000 ASA, carefullyassessing the image via the Red’s 5" LCDmonitor. “I rely on the histogram a lot. My

Lead singer John Gourley plays a grizzled musher in the video, much of which was shot in and around his hometown of Willow, Alaska.

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exposure comes from trusting the meters inthe camera and checking the raw picture,”he notes.

Aside from the bonfire, Ragen’s onlyother light source was the sun. As reliableas natural light is, it creates its share of chal-lenges. “Rather than controlling the light,you have to deal with the light you’re givenand find ways to make it look its best,” heobserves. “Where we were, day and nightbled slowly into each other. It could beeither/or, depending on which way youpushed the exposure.”

As Gourley’s musher stumblesthrough the snow after his dogs, whichhave disappeared during the night, he tripsand falls on his rifle. The gun goes off,taking his head with it. But the videocontinues, with Gourley delivering aposthumous performance even as a dogreturns to chew on his carcass.

To get the shot of the face-downGourley singing directly to the camera, thesinger built a small wall out of snow, twigsand branches, and then stuck his facethrough it. Ragen alternated operating the

camera with applying fake blood to Gour-ley’s face. (In post, visual-effects artist StefanMoore applied additional gore and frostbiteusing Adobe AfterEffects.)

From the majestic aerials to thegruesome third-act twist, Ragen’s eye forcomposition and color harnesses thebeauty and danger of the Great WhiteNorth. It’s not surprising, then, to learn that

he began his career studying fine art andillustration at the Academy of Art University.“I wouldn’t trade a fine-art education forfilm school,” he reflects. “In my experience,the fastest way you can learn filmmaking isjust to be on set as much as possible. Throwyourself into the fire and learn.” ●

Ragen framesup Gourley,whosecharactermeets agruesome fate.

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16 September 2011 American Cinematographer

Forbidden Love in IranBy Patricia Thomson

Set in contemporary Tehran, the drama Circumstanceaddresses the potentially incendiary topics of sexuality and religion.The Farsi-language feature, which had its premiere at this year’sSundance Film Festival, centers on school chums Shireen (SarahKazemy) and Atafeh (Nikohl Boosheri), whose steadfast friendshipevolves into a closeted lesbian relationship. Born to liberal, secularMuslims, the young women attend a traditional Iranian school butalso frequent Tehran’s lively underground. Their relationship is foreveraltered when Atafeh’s brother, Mehran (Reza Sixo Safai), becomes afundamentalist Muslim and decides to marry Shireen.

“I think any family can deal with a repressive environment aslong as they have the sanctuary of the home, but when that safespace is threatened, things become unbearable,” says MaryamKeshavarz, who wrote and directed the film. “The family’s worldstarts to fall apart when Mehran becomes part of the repressive envi-ronment. It’s when the outside starts to seep through that you knowit’s going to be a tragedy.”

When Keshavarz workshopped Circumstance at the 2007Sundance Directors Lab, she was teamed with cinematographerBrian Rigney Hubbard. Both of them had earned graduate degreesin film at New York University, but they had never met. They hit it offimmediately, and for the next two years, as Keshavarz sought financ-

ing for the film, they met periodically in New York, where they areboth based, to compile a look book, discuss scenes and build a 65-page shot list.

During that process, Hubbard noticed that Keshavarz favoreda snapshot aesthetic that referenced photographers such as RyanMcGinley and Bill Henson. “The images Maryam liked had a certainsense of naturalism, but the color might be slightly shifted, or thelighting might not provide perfect keylight on the actors — I wouldrefer to it as the look of an ‘aestheticized’ snapshot,” he explains.“McGinley’s work has strong but intentionally casual compositionsand saturated color, and there’s a theatricality to Henson’s lighting,even though it’s never a perfect key.”

The pair always envisioned a 2.40:1 aspect ratio. “The storyis about people and their environment, and on a very literal level, Iwanted to make sure we had the environment in every close-up,”Hubbard says.

Keshavarz was keen to shoot at practical locations — “I don’tbelieve in studios,” she states — and when funding fell into place,in 2009, she scouted Turkey, Egypt and Morocco. “None of thoseplaces worked,” she says. Then Sundance mentor Atom Egoyansuggested Lebanon. “It’s an amazing location,” Keshavarz attests.“It’s so small you can go from city to mountains to seaside within anhour. And because it has experienced war, there’s a mix of old build-ings and new construction, which is also true in Tehran.”

In order to pass muster with the Lebanese censors, however,

Production Slate

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A tryst betweenAtafeh (NikohlBoosheri, left)

and Shireen(Sarah Kazemy)

unfolds in aglamorous

seaside locationin Circumstance,shot in Lebanonby Brian Rigney

Hubbard.

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www.theasc.com September 2011 17

Keshavarz had to winnow her 110-pagescript down to 60 pages. She recalls, “Thecensor said he liked the film, and I wasthinking, ‘What film?!’”

Once Lebanon was chosen, Hubbardlobbied to shoot film. “I’d heard howunstable the electricity is in Beirut,” henotes. “Plus, we had concerns about thedigital cameras that would be availablelocally and whether we’d have the neces-sary tech support. So I said to the produc-ers, ‘I know this really great hard drive: film.It has amazing resolution.’”

Hubbard tried to obtain a cameracapable of shooting 2-perf Super 35mm inAustria, but was stymied by border issues.Producer Karin Chien then suggestedshooting Super 16mm. She noted thatGamma, the production’s rental house inBeirut, had an Arri 416 and could alsosupply a set of Arri/Zeiss Ultra Primes and aCooke 18-100mm zoom. “I thought Super16 could look beautiful, but I wasconcerned about cropping [to 2.40:1],”says Hubbard. He called his NYU mentor,cinematographer Maryse Alberti, to ask foradvice. “Maryse was extremely generous inwalking through the issues she faced onThe Wrestler [AC Jan. ’09]. She said, ‘Crop

it, but make sure you do a test.’ We did, andwe liked the results.” Hubbard subsequentlychose three Kodak film stocks, Vision3 500T7219, Vision2 200T 7274 and EXR 50D7245.

Hubbard arrived in Beirut for twomonths’ prep in late 2009. Photos sent by asource in Tehran provided a visual template.“Tehran is mainly a warm, neutral environ-ment with splashes of color — green andblue are used over and over again asaccents,” he says. “Trying to re-create thatwas what drove our choice of locations andthe aesthetics of the movie.”

Although Keshavarz was determinedto use practical locations, securing themproved to be a Sisyphean task. “Everythingwas constantly falling through,” recallsHubbard. “You had to request 10 locationsto end up with one. And every neighbor-hood seemed to be controlled by a differentgroup, so negotiating permission was verytime consuming.” In one location, he adds,the use of a balcony outside one end of theroom was controlled by one party, whilepermission to use a balcony off the otherend of the room was handled by another.

In the end, every room shown in thefilm was a different location, mostly private

residences. (The more sensitive scenes wereshot in Hubbard’s and Keshavarz’s localapartments.) “Finding the right Ottoman-era architecture for Atafeh’s house, themain location, was quite a feat,” says thedirector. Cost was a significant factor.“Almost everything shot in Lebanon is acommercial for the Arab Emirates, and theyhave a lot of money!” Keshavarz notesruefully. “You end up sitting down andhaving lots of tea, trying to sell people onyour project.”

Time and again, the filmmakersconfronted different ways of doing things inBeirut. “When you rent lights, you renteverything that comes with the lights,including the gaffer and the other techni-cians,” says Keshavarz. Before Hubbardchose Gamma, he asked to meet with thecompany’s gaffer, Joseph Khamis, a.k.a.ZuZu, and his crew. “The initial responsewas, ‘You don’t do that here,’” he recalls.But he persisted, and when he finally metwith ZuZu, he discovered the gaffer spokeArabic, very little French and no English. Butthen ZuZu walked Hubbard around thecorner to show him a rig his team haddesigned at Hubbard’s request. “Workingon a multi-story building in a cramped

The young women share a duet at a family gathering.

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18 September 2011 American Cinematographer

neighborhood, they had rigged a lampthree stories up perfectly safely,” saysHubbard. “I knew they’d had to talk all theneighbors into it, and I thought, ‘This guy ispolitic — he’s a solver.’”

Throughout the shoot, Hubbard andKhamis managed to communicate throughdiagrams and gestures. The cinematogra-pher recalls, “My first AC, Fernando Gayet-sky, and I kept a little black notebook by thecamera. He had all the lenses in Arabic, andwe had all the lighting details in Arabic. ButZuZu and I just had a shorthand. With thefive Arabic words I learned, combined witha little French and a few English words, wefigured it out.”

The look of Circumstance evolves asthe story progresses and takes a dark turn.“For the first part of the story, we wantedto capture the idea of youth and energywithin an environment that doesn’t allowthat,” says Keshavarz. Color was onemeans of achieving this. “There’s definitelya color arc in the story, with warm light usedto create different moments of rebellion,”says Hubbard. “In the beginning, there area lot of neutrals, blue and green, especiallyin places like the school courtyard. The girls’homes are not a riot of color either, butthey’re very warm. I tried to keep the colorsnot easily identifiable hues.”

By contrast, the party scenes featurevivid colors. “The clubs are a relief from the

exterior world,” says Hubbard. The lightingfor these scenes progresses from simplemulticolored lights in an apartment to akaleidoscopic QuickTime light display onLED panels in an underground nightclub.

Meanwhile, Atafeh’s home trans-forms from a light, airy space to a claustro-phobic, cave-like one as Mehran assertscontrol over the family. “A lot of that archad to do with lens selection, blocking andlocations,” says Hubbard.

The spacious living room is initiallyseen in wide shots, and dolly shots through-out the space suggest a sense of freedom.As the mood becomes oppressive, “there’sa progression from wide shots and widerlenses to tighter shots and longer focallengths,” says Hubbard. A particularlydramatic scene, showing Atafeh returninghome from the police station and seeing herfamily brokering her brother’s marriage toShireen, “was shot in details rather thanwides.” Likewise, for scenes featuring theill-matched newlyweds, “we tried to crowdthe frames as much as possible,” saysKeshavarz. “They’re like tigers trapped in acage.”

Shireen and Atafeh’s lesbian fantasieshave their own unique look. Slick and highlysaturated, they were intended to emulateadvertising. “Iranians their age are so influ-enced by Western media,” Keshavarzobserves. One fantasy suggests a seaside

resort in Dubai, where the women shedtheir clothes in a sunlit room with floor-to-ceiling windows. “There’s so much glass it’salmost an exterior,” notes Hubbard, whoshot the scene on 7217. “Our shot sees thehorizon line. The idea is that they can beintimate in a completely open space. Wewanted the audience to feel a sense ofrelease.” He adds that he balanced the lightwith indirect HMIs and negative fill.

Needing a seaside location with ahigh-end look, the producers rented arestaurant in Byblos and cordoned off aprivate area. But at one point, someonephoned the authorities. “They thought wewere making a porn film,” says Keshavarz.“We purposefully scheduled that scene onthe last day of the shoot, figuring that if wehad to reshoot it in Miami, we could.”

Hubbard’s solution was to put theauthorities behind the camera. “Invitingthem to see what you’re shooting alwaysworks,” he says. “They’re always wowed —it’s very Hollywood. We convinced them thegirls were trying on dresses.”

The stakes were particularly high thatday: dozens of cans of unprocessed filmwere sitting on set. The filmmakers hadbeen shipping negative to FotoKem inBurbank, Calif., every few days, but a seriesof Islamic holidays had interfered with theshipping schedule. “We actually had 14days’ worth of film on set when the police

Left: Hubbard at work on the set. Right: The mood in Atafeh’s home darkens considerably after Shireen marries Atafeh’s brother, a Muslim fundamentalist.

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20 September 2011 American Cinematographer

arrived,” says Keshavarz. “It was nerve-wracking. I don’t think insurance coversthat!”

Hubbard, Chien and 1st AD Kit Blandsubsequently hand-carried those reels toJordan, where they were sent throughDubai to California. “In order to get it out ofBeirut, we said it was unexposed film,” saysHubbard. “Otherwise, they would haveopened the cans.”

The 2K scanning and color correctiontook place in the safe environment ofCompany 3 in Santa Monica. The filmout,done by EFilm in Hollywood, was funded bya Sundance grant, and the festival print wasmade on Fujifilm Eterna-CP 3514DI byDigimage in Paris.

By the time Hubbard sat down withcolorist Siggy Ferstl at Company 3, Ferstlhad a clear idea of what the filmmakerswanted, because Hubbard had e-mailed

him many color-corrected stills from Beirut.“I was a little nervous because that’s everycolorist’s nightmare: a cinematographer youdon’t know sending you stills,” saysHubbard. “But the ‘aestheticized snapshot’we had in mind could easily look like mud ifsomeone tried to make it all neutral andbalanced and hide the key. Siggy really tookthe time to listen and get on the same pagewith me, and when we started to worktogether in person, we just flew through it.”

TECHNICAL SPECS

2.40:1Super 16mmArri 416Arri/Zeiss Ultra Prime, CookeKodak Vision3 500T 7219, Vision2 200T 7217, EXR 50D 7245Digital Intermediate

Crime à la ModBy Nic Sadler

The British thriller Brighton Rockfollows in the fated footsteps of Pinkie (SamRiley), a handsome sociopath who cold-bloodedly romances a shy waitress, Rose(Andrea Riseborough), who is the solewitness to his brutal slaying of anothergangster. Pinkie’s cruelty inflames Rose’smasochistic obsession with him, but his arro-gant disrespect toward a flamboyant mobboss (Andy Serkis) imperils both their lives.

Based on the 1938 novel by GrahamGreene, the film places the action in the earlySixties. The project marks the feature-direct-ing debut of Rowan Joffé (screenwriter of 28Weeks Later and The American), who choseJohn Mathieson, BSC to man the camera.Mathieson, whose credits include RidleyScott’s Gladiator (AC May ’00), Hannibal (ACFeb. ’01) and Kingdom of Heaven (AC June’05), saw Brighton Rock as a chance to workon a smaller scale. The result is a stylish andatmospheric drama that immerses viewers inthe story’s very specific era.

Cinematographer Nic Sadler, whoserved as Mathieson’s camera assistant earlyin his career, conducted our interview. Thefollowing are excerpts from the conversation.

American Cinematographer: It’sapparent you were trying to give thisfilm a bold look.

John Mathieson, BSC: If you’reremaking a British noir classic, you’d betterdo something interesting with it, especially ifyou don’t have any damn money! The orig-inal Brighton Rock [1947, shot by HarryWaxman, BSC] is very well known in Britishfilm culture, and Graham Greene is sort ofhallowed ground. I suppose you could callthe look of our film ‘color noir,’ but thatsounds a bit pretentious. If you’re not shoot-ing black-and-white, it’s not really noir. Iwanted to give the film a period feel, so weused hard light and funky old lenses, CrystalExpress lenses, provided by Joe Dunton.They’re not a matched set; they’re convertedlenses, so there are some gaps in terms ofthe focal lengths. Some of them have big,square elements on the front, and somedon’t. [According to focus puller SimonHume, the production also made frequentuse of an anamorphicized Optica-Elite 120-520mm zoom provided by Panavision.] ➣

These frames show an original Super 16mm frame (top) and the cropped final image. “I wasconcerned about cropping,” says Hubbard, “but we tested it and liked the results.”

I

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22 September 2011 American Cinematographer

When you see enough anamor-phic films, you become conscious of theparticular flares and defocused high-lights that certain anamorphic lensesproduce. For example, Panavision lensflares have a very distinct shape. But theflares in this picture had a very differentfeel.

Mathieson: Yeah, they’re sort ofunusual and chaotic. These lenses produce alot of blooming because some of the frontelements look like old skating rinks! But thatwas all part of the feel. We wanted an old-looking film and didn’t have much of abudget, so I started to think about notshooting with beautiful lenses and maybemucking things up a bit. The Crystal Expresslenses are also really good at capturing thekind of soft light and delicate colors you seein the bedroom scenes — the peachy colorsand the gold weaves in the bedspread, forinstance. On the other hand, they couldn’treally handle the contrast in the scenesunder the pier; the backgrounds have thatblooming, milked-out look. The lenses areappallingly soft and they don’t bite, but theyhave very interesting qualities. I loved the200mm, but my focus puller, Simon Hume,kept trying to hide it from me — it createdhighlights that were like little Chinese fans,

but there was a big lump in them at aroundthe 15-foot mark, and he hated pullingfocus on them. But they gave us magicalthings. When the girl’s in the church gettingmarried, I just kept bashing light on her untilshe started looking like a piece of porcelain,very ‘Victorian romantic.’ You can use directlight with these lenses and [the image]won’t look hard and coarse. You definitelylose sharpness and crispness, but they workwell if you happen to be doing an impres-sionistic film noir with flashy lighting.

I suppose that harks back tonoir’s classic period — the lensesweren’t incredibly sharp in terms ofresolution, and they were very low-contrast, but if you lit quite hard youcould introduce a sense of resolution.

Mathieson: Yeah, you could givethem a power and sharpness that probablyweren’t really there by using big areas ofblack and cutting the light. But as soon asyou point lights at the [Crystal Express]lenses, they start to go crazy. Once you getused to them, you can say, ‘I’m a bit under-exposed here, but I know if I put themagainst this window, the light will bouncearound and bloom and sort of fill things innaturally.’ All anamorphic lenses do that toa certain extent, but it’s really pronounced in

these lenses, so you have to be pretty boldwith them — they’re not for the faint-hearted!

One wide-angle lens keptpopping up in various scenes — in thecafé, the church and other settings —and it clearly had a lot of distortion init. Those are the kinds of aberrationswe usually try to bury, but they reallyadd to the character of those shots.

Mathieson: That was probably the25mm, which didn’t have the opticalwedges needed to correct the weird bloom-ing and other anomalies around the edges.Pinkie grows more paranoid as the storyprogresses, and we wanted to make it feelas if his world is falling down around him.

How much work did you do inthe digital grade to enhance the colorsand the look, or to smooth out thedifferences between the lenses?

Mathieson: We were keen to printthe film traditionally, but the distributioncompany insisted on a DI, so we did it with[color timer] Paul Ensby at TechnicolorLondon. Those old lenses do bouncearound a bit; some of them had a slightlygreen hue or a tinge of other colors. Evenwith photochemical color timing, you canjust take that out, but we didn’t try to

Left: Pinkie (Sam Riley) leads a pack of scooter-riding mods on his way to a criminal rendezvous in Brighton Rock. To find riders, the production placed a newspaper ad that drew hordes of scooter enthusiasts. “They came out in droves,” marvels cinematographer John Mathieson, BSC. “ We put the old buggers

who were my age at the back, and their good-looking sons up front.” Right: Pinkie romances Rose (Andrea Riseborough), the only witness who can tie him to a gangland slaying. Mathieson notes, “In the way we lit her, we were trying to create the idea that she’s pure and will do anything for this man,

even though she’s basically selling herself to the devil.”

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24 September 2011 American Cinematographer

correct things too much. So even thoughwe did a DI, we tried to go with the organic,slightly haphazard look the lenses gave us. Ithink too many films tend to look the samenowadays because everyone just smootheseverything out with DI work or CG effects.They’re all made by very clever people, butthere’s too much fiddling around in post, sothey lack the qualities you get when theshots are created more organically, on theset, for better or worse. On Brighton Rock,we could have used the DI to make every-thing look ‘normal,’ but by letting the shotsbreathe, letting the lenses do their thing andletting the focus fall apart, I think we gavethe film a look that has some character. Ofcourse, the DI did help us match some of theday-for-night stuff we shot on the cliff-top.We always knew those scenes would befixed [in post] because we couldn’t afford to create the look entirely with lighting. Our schedule was just seven weeks, so we couldn’t do split days or wait for the perfecttime of day.

The opening scene is classic noir:a man ducks into a phone booth tomake a desperate call as the men pursu-ing him suddenly materialize out of thefog.

Mathieson: That was one of ourbiggest lighting setups. We had 200-300yards of cast-iron Victorian arches in theforeground, and our lights were mountedon 55-meter cherrypickers. The wind pickedup, though, so we had to keep them low; inthe end, we just left some of the lights in theshots! We hid them behind the arches aswell as we could, but I knew we couldobscure them a bit more with the smokeand some lens flares. The lights were plainlyvisible in the rushes, but the editor found allthe angles where our actors were darting infront of them. We got a nice flash of light onthe knife the guy pulls out, and that wasdone entirely in-camera. Noir style just natu-rally takes you from dark to light and backagain, and you can play with that a bit.

For the scene in the boardinghouse where Pinkie is testing theloyalty of his crew, you created classicnoir shadows by aiming a light throughan electric fan.

Mathieson: We originally shot thatscene with a TV set flickering, but wethought a fan would be more noir, so we

Top: Pinkie stops to pray while being chased by thugs near Brighton’s Palace Pier. Location filming forthis scene and others was actually done in Eastbourne, standing in for Brighton. “The pier is the key

structure in the film,” says Mathieson. “We wanted to emphasize the idea that it’s this bridge tonowhere, the dead-end path of Pinkie’s life.” Middle: Pinkie and Rose kiss atop the White Cliffs of

Dover. Mathieson notes, “We used a Giraffe crane and remote heads to get some vertiginousperspectives on the cliff’s edge. We had to attach the actors to safety lines to prevent the unthinkable.

In fact, the piece of cliff we were on has since fallen into the sea.” Bottom: Mathieson (left) and director Rowan Joffé line up a shot.

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built a fan that was the size of a bicyclewheel, positioned it just out of shot and justbashed it with a naked 5K to create thosesharp shadows. You can’t light like thatwithout a reason; you need a strong scenewith tension.

What were some of your work-horse lights?

Mathieson: We used lots of house-hold bulbs, actually, along with small Dedos

and little Inkies. We didn’t use any fluores-cents because they didn’t have the rightbounce quality — too clean. Instead, wewere using things like biscuit-tin Zaps [a.k.a.Zip lights], a lot of Photofloods and, fordirectional fill, egg boxes — big, old tung-sten bulbs in boxes of tins. We shot most ofthe picture on Kodak Vision3 [500T] 5219,and we were pushing it nearly all the time.We did use some big fixtures, 18Ks and the

like, through the windows.When you’re pressed for time, it’s

often best to have a couple of biglamps, a lot of really small fixtures, andnothing in between.

Mathieson: It’s true. I really like thatRosco silver stipple. We’d make up bits ofwhite, or just flip it over and use the silverside. That gives you a nice reflection in theactor’s eyes or face, especially on cloudydays, or if your actor wanders away fromthe bigger lights. You want to retain a goodlevel of contrast so you can feel them downin the shadows. The odd bulb or a silver cardbouncing light back into the right place cando that. Sometimes, if you actually add fillit’s a bit too much.

How did you coordinate the bigscooter rally?

Mathieson: Let me tell you, if youput a big ad in an English newspaper askingpeople if they want to ride down to theseafront and play ‘Mods and Rockers’ with-out their helmets on, they show up in thethousands! And those guys are really goodat riding really close together in tight packs.

Mathiesonused hard

sources andpractical lamps

to give tensescenes a classic

noir look.

26

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Sequences like that allowed us to use ourwider lenses to give the film some scope.Rowan had originally planned to shoot witha more frantic, handheld camera, but Italked him out of it. Instead, we createdthese big, wide frames that the actors couldmove around in, and we just let them walkup to the camera rather than chasing themaround. We used a 50-foot Technocrane todo our big shots at the pier, though. Thatrequest made the producers’ eyes water abit, but I said, ‘Look, it’s worth doing.’

How did you handle the day-for-night climax at the cliff-top lighthouse?

Mathieson: The wind wouldn’tallow us to put up the cherrypickers, so thelights had to come in really low. In the light-house, we installed a rotating Mac 2000rock ’n’ roll light with a very powerful 1.2Kspot in it. As the sun would get low andshine off the water, we used a 12K CineParor an ArriSun to act as the car headlightsoff-camera. It was a bloody great, hot lightwithout the lens in, and that gave meenough punch to work in a day situationand still make it look like car lights. Then we

would cut to the car at night, using agoosed-up car headlight or a Par canstrapped to the car. I had to play with theexposure, because we were crosscuttingfrom a daylight source in the daytime to atungsten source at night. We had to crushthe whole daylight scene down in the DIand add a bit of CGI to make the sky lookdarker. The look is theatrical and a bit raw,but it suits the scene.

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TECHNICAL SPECS

2.40:1Anamorphic 35mmArricam Studio, LiteCrystal Express, Optima-EliteKodak Vision3 500T 5219, Vision 2 250D 5205, Vision2 50D 5201Digital Intermediate ●

The churlish,headstrongPinkie overplayshis hand afterdemanding anaudience withflamboyantmob bossColleoni (AndySerkis).

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28 September 2011 American Cinematographer

Anonymous, shot by Anna J. Foerster,questions Shakespeare’s true identity.

By Iain Stasukevich

•|•

AMighty

PenThere were probably a few times during the filming of

Anonymous when cinematographer Anna J. Foerster wasa bit surprised to look through the viewfinder and see apolitical drama set in 16th-century England rather than

spectacular fireballs, catastrophic weather or alien invasions.After all, she had worked for Anonymous director RolandEmmerich in various capacities on Independence Day (AC July’96), The Day After Tomorrow (AC June ’04) 10,000 BC and2012.

This time around, only the historic Globe Theatre goesup in flames, but Anonymous also poses an incendiary question:“Was Shakespeare a fraud?” The film suggests that the Bard’swords are really those of Edward de Vere (Rhys Ifans), theEarl of Oxford, who puts his plays and poetry to politicalpurpose after he is exiled from the court of Queen Elizabeth I(played at different ages by Vanessa Redgrave and her daugh-ter, Joely Richardson). To remain in the shadows, Edwardenlists an eager pawn, buffoonish thespian Will Shakespeare(Rafe Spall), to take credit for his work.

Stylistically and thematically, Anonymous is a dark film.“It’s about betrayal and all the things that come out of thedarkness of the human heart,” says Foerster. She andEmmerich researched films set in and around the sameperiod, including Elizabeth (AC Dec. ’98), Sleepy Hollow (AC

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www.theasc.com September 2011 29

Dec. ’99), The Girl With the PearlEarring (AC Jan. ’04) and The Duchess(AC Sept. ’08). However, they foundmost of their inspiration in the hazy,sunlit rooms painted by 17th-centuryDutch artist Johannes Vermeer; thecandlelit canvasses of his Frenchcontemporary, Georges de La Tour; andthe Tudor portraits of the Elizabethanera.

“We studied Vermeer’s paintings,many of which have soft fill light thatcame through the north-facingwindows of his studio,” explainsFoerster. “What fascinated me aboutDe La Tour was the way he sometimeslit his subjects with just one or twocandles.”

Shot in Germany in 2009,Anonymous was the first feature to bephotographed with Arri’s Alexa, and itwas also Foerster’s first foray into an all-digital workflow. “Given our budget andtimeframe and the workflow necessaryPhot

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Top left: Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford (Rhys Ifans), is the true genius behindShakespeare’s plays and poems in Anonymous. This page, top to bottom: In a contemporary

prologue, a theatrical narrator (Derek Jacobi) sets the stage for the movie’s story; the younger Oxford (Jamie Campbell Bower) puts quill pen to parchment; cinematographer

Anna J. Foerster, the first to shoot a feature with the Arri Alexa, adjusts the camera alongside director Roland Emmerich.

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30 September 2011 American Cinematographer

for the visual effects, all of the signsclearly pointed toward digital capture,”she says. “At that time, digital cameraswere finally starting to offer ASAs above800, so you could make a movie wherefirelight was your primary light source.You can push film to that ASA, ofcourse, but that introduces grain in theimage, and that would have been wrongfor this movie.”

In prep, the filmmakers narrowedtheir choices down to the Arri Alexa andthe Red One (with the Mysterium-X

◗ A Mighty Pen

Top: As a boy,Oxford (Luke

Thomas Taylor,center, wearingwings) prepares

to perform forQueen Elizabeth.Middle: Foerster

and the crewcapture Oxford’s

first meeting withElizabeth (Joely

Richardson).Bottom: The final

composition,shown in a framecapture from the

movie.

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www.theasc.com September 2011 31

sensor). Foerster knew the Red wouldbe the easier option — it was readilyavailable, and she was impressed with itsresolution and sensitivity. However, shewas concerned about how the camerarendered differences between colors,and even more concerned about how ithandled flickering flames. “When weshot tests, the Red seemed to produce astrange, red flare or a halo aroundcandlelight,” she reports. “It didn’thappen all the time, but when it did itwas quite prevalent.”

The Alexa was still just a proto-type that recorded with an early versionof the ArriRaw codec. The camera hadno onboard recording support and wasalways tethered to a Codex digitalrecorder. Visual-effects artists atUncharted Territory used the Codex’snative JPG2000 files for their 300effects shots, and the Arri team usedDPX files output from the Codex forthe digital grade. The DPX files werealso backed up to LTO tape and qual-ity-checked by Arri.

Shooting with the Alexa was aleap of faith for the filmmakers, but Arripledged total support, promising towalk Foerster through every step of thecamera’s nascent workflow. “Arri reallystepped up to the plate to make surethings were going as smoothly as possi-ble,” says the cinematographer.“Everything ended up looking great.There’s a soft transition between colors,and the image holds up all the way from

Top and middle:Oxford’s buddingromance withElizabeth heatsup after a fancy-dress ball. Propmaster OliverKuhlmann setthe mood bypositioningapproximately300 double-wicked candles.“You would notbelieve theamount of smokeon that set,”Foerster recalls.Bottom: Aftertheir dance, thelovers arrange amore intimateliaison.

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32 September 2011 American Cinematographer

candles to daylight.” The story’s timeline covers

decades, and each period has a specificlook. Scenes set in an earlier era arerendered in vivid, glowing colors andcaptured in fluid camera moves withlong lenses that separate Elizabeth andOxford from their surroundings. Thelook of the story’s present is cold andgrim, with many scenes composed inwide, locked-off shots, particularly thosethat take place in the royal court.

Foerster recalls that scenes set inthe earlier period were typically shot inthe 35mm-60mm range, whereas scenesset in the present were captured at15.5mm-25mm. Even close-ups in thelatter era were shot on short lenses, a21mm or 18mm. “We had to be carefulabout distorting the actors’ faces, but ifthe shot involved a big room on an18mm, the actors could just walk up tothe camera for their close-ups,” saysFoerster.

The production used a set ofArri/Zeiss Master Primes, but the mostpopular lens was an Arri LWZ-1 (15.5-45mm) Lightweight Zoom. “Evencompared to the prime lenses, I thoughtthe zoom looked fantastic, and itallowed us to work quickly,” saysFoerster. “Roland is a fluid thinker. Thefaster you can keep up with him, thebetter.”

◗ A Mighty Pen

Top and middle:Royal audiencesare mesmerized

by Shakespeare’sbrilliance during

private courtperformances of

his plays. Bottom:Oxford’s ally and

ardent admirer,Ben Jonson(Sebastian

Armesto, left) isone of the fewwho know hissecret, though

fellow playwrightChristopher

Marlowe (TrystanGravelle) harbors

suspicions.

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www.theasc.com September 2011 33

After testing an experimentalcolor matrix, Foerster decided to recordthe raw image without making changesto the camera’s settings, using customviewing look-up tables she designedwith Arri color scientist Florian “Utsi”Martin. “It was like choosing a filmstock,” she says. “We developed sixLUTs, day and night for each of the twotime periods, and two more for looksthat were slightly more extreme. Ourdigital-imaging technician, TimoAndert, applied the appropriate LUT toeach scene, and looking at those on themonitor were the only ‘dailies’ we had.

“We didn’t have the time to doany color correction on set, and I don’tthink there’s any place for that on afeature production,” she continues.“Working with LUTs is more like deal-ing with printer lights — you havesomething to reference so you knowyou’re within the limits of your image.”

Foerster took advantage of theAlexa’s enhanced sensitivity to light byshooting candlelit scenes with practicalcandles as the source. She and produc-tion designer Sebastian Krawinkelcollaborated closely on the placement ofevery flame source, whether candles orfireplaces. By researching how stageswere lit at the time, Foerster learned agreat deal about the light of that era. “Iread descriptions of how disgusting

some of these places smelled because allthe candles were made of lard,” she says.“It must have been revolting! Thechurch was the only entity that couldafford wax, so even the royal courts usedlard.”

Though all the candles on setwere wax, they still caused some prob-lems. During a scene in which young

Elizabeth and Oxford attend a ball,prop master Oliver Kuhlmann deployedapproximately 300 candles with doublewicks. As hard as it was to breathe in theresultant smoke, Foerster was pleasedwith its light-diffusing qualities. “Youwould not believe the amount of smokeon that set,” she recalls.

To approximate the soft, hazy

Top: The queen’s top adviser, William Cecil (David Thewlis), attempts to counsel the impudent, mercurialOxford. Bottom: After agreeing to serve as Oxford’s public face, raffish actor Will Shakespeare (Rafe

Spall, left) attempts to wrangle more money out of the deal.

Page 36: American Cinematographer 201109

look that characterizes many paintingsfrom the Elizabethan era, the filmmak-ers used a smoke machine to lightlycloud the backgrounds. “We wanted totake some of the harshness out of thedigital image, but I didn’t want to usediffusion filters because of the sources inframe,” says Foerster. “You couldn’treally see the smoke after we added theLUT and crunched the contrast, butwhen you’re working with that muchsmoke, you end up mixing light. In dayinteriors, the candlelight seeps into thesmoke and the window light seeps intothe smoke, and they mix. We used [thatcombination] all the time.”

Foerster shot all night scenes atT2.8 and 1,280 ASA. Day interiorsmixed in a healthy amount of Vermeer’s“north-facing light,” and in those situa-tions, she set her stop between T4.5 andT5.6 at 800 ASA. “We used candlelightand fireplace light even during dayscenes because we were assuminggloomy English days,” she says. “Wecouldn’t dim the candles, of course, sowe had to bring up the daylight leveland compensate for the exposure.Otherwise, the fire would have over-powered the daylight or had the samevalue.

34 September 2011 American Cinematographer

◗ A Mighty Pen

Top and middle: Before-and-after shots illustrate how digital effects were used to replace greenscreenbackgrounds shot on a soundstage. Bottom: Foerster researched the stagings of plays from the

Elizabethan era with the help of the book Lighting the Shakespearean Stage. “There are descriptions ofthe performances at court, and how all of the candle smoke could make it seem as though you were

looking at the actors through a veil,” she says.

Page 37: American Cinematographer 201109

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36 September 2011 American Cinematographer

“A misconception about shootingdigitally is that you need less light,” shecontinues. “Actually, you just use lightdifferently. If I were shooting at 400ASA, I would have needed to doublethe amount of light or shoot at a differ-ent stop, but then I couldn’t have playeddifferent color temperatures off eachother at twilight or dawn, or shoot withcandles during the daytime.”

Foerster was excited about seeingher images on set as they would appearin the dailies and the final, but she stillkept her light meter close by, using it tosketch out contrast levels before dialingthem in on a monitor. “Maybe one dayI’ll give it up, but I had to have mymeter on this movie,” she says. “Iwanted to be precise with my work.”

Window light plays significantlyin all the interior day scenes — to thepoint where the characters seem drawnto them — so many of the sets weredesigned with huge windows in mind.There are times when the windows areused almost like spotlights on a theaterstage, with characters moving in and outof shafts of light for emotional empha-sis. Even at 800 ASA, rows of 18KHMIs were stationed on scaffoldingoutside the sets, high up and far awayand diffused through sheets of Rosco 1⁄2

◗ A Mighty Pen

The movie’s period theater interiors were built onstage at Studio Babelsberg. Foerster’s crew came up with a variety of ingenious solutions to challenges created by the circular floor plan and open

roof, and even simulated rain for a compelling staging of Hamlet.

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38 September 2011 American Cinematographer

Density Soft Frost.“The light is part of the story,”

Foerster observes. She points to a scenelate in the film, when Oxford confrontsElizabeth for what might be the lasttime. As he pleads for her mercy, shedescends from her dais and its darkhalf-light to stand with him in the fulllight of day. “She steps into that harsh,cold daylight to clarify the situation,”says Foerster.

Only occasionally does the sunshine down warm and bright. Foerstercites a scene in which the youthfulOxford moves into the home ofElizabeth’s cunning adviser, WilliamCecil (David Thewlis). “The house is

generally very dark and somber, but inthat scene we had sunbeams shiningthrough because Oxford was penetrat-ing the house with emotional light,” shesays. Her usual approach to this set wasto bounce 18Ks through the windowsoff 20'x20' muslin, so for this visualdeparture, gaffer Albrecht Silberbergsimply positioned the HMIs to pointstraight into the windows, aiming themthrough 1⁄2 Soft Frost and 1⁄4 CTO togive the light a warmer glow.

While conducting her research inLondon during prep, Foerster becamefascinated with the quality of the lightfiltering through old, baffled-glasswindows. “That glass has different

colored pieces and is distorted by airbubbles, and the effect on the light isjust incredible. When you look throughit, it almost looks like there’s a paintingon the other side.”

Using real vintage glass wouldhave been impractical and expensive, sothe production built its own windows.After testing a number of plastics, theart department arrived at a Lexan-basedpolymer. The translucent panes weredeliberately molded with irregularities,filled with air bubbles, and sandblastedto lend a diffuse quality to the light. Thedistortion also helped the filmmakerssell the painted backdrops outside thewindows.

The sets occupied a new wing ofStudio Babelsberg, an old train depotjust down the road from the main lot.The stages were soundproofed, wiredwith electricity and suitable for produc-tion, but they were still in the process ofbeing converted from their original use.Inside, the giant cranes that once liftedcargo onto train cars still loomed over-head.

Because of the stages’ unfinishedstate and the speed at which the artdepartment was completing its work,Silberberg was unable to rig a full-sizedtruss above the stage. He and best boyRoland Patzelt solved this problem bydevising a pulley system with steel-piperigs that could be lowered by ropes tospecific points over a given set. (Onmost European crews, set electricianshandle every aspect of lighting.)

“Because our lenses were so wide,lighting was really tricky,” saysSilberberg. Rigging gaffer Dietmar

◗ A Mighty Pen

Top: Oxford and his patron, Henry Wriothesley (Xavier Samuel), “tread the boards” as they make their way down a muddy street. Bottom: A-camera operator Sebastian Meuschel

uses a Steadicam to capture the action.

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40 September 2011 American Cinematographer

◗ A Mighty Pen

Haupt hung a lot of overhead fill light,subtly filling in the shadows with largebounce surfaces (bleached andunbleached muslin) and Lowel 1K RifaeX lights aimed through 1⁄2 Soft Frost.

To facilitate the lighting of green-screen stages for what would eventuallybe day exteriors, Foerster’s crew hungalmost 4,000 square feet of fireproofwhite fabric from the ceiling. On oneside, five 15'x60' greenscreen sectionscould be lowered or raised as needed,while eight 4K and eight 6K HMIswere positioned on each of the otherthree sides; the light from these unitswas bounced off the overhead surface,which could be flagged off with nettingto give the bounce some directionality.

On the ground, 1K and 650-watt

Rifa eX lamps were used as rovingeyelights, as were a few ingenious “woklights,” two-handled steel woks outfit-ted with an ordinary household bulband covered with 1⁄4 CTO. The wokswere connected to a dimmer board andcould be programmed to emulate aflickering flame. The “Medusa light”was a variation on the wok light, featur-ing as many as 12 bulbs attached to flex-ible wire necks.

“Often, fill light and sometimeseven keylight was accomplished withadjustable flame bars or with thedouble-wick candles either handheld ormounted on C-stands,” says Foerster.

Any movie about Shakespeare isbound to involve performances of hisplays, and the book Lighting the

Shakespearean Stage offered the film-makers a wealth of information abouthow plays were staged in the era.“Sometimes they started Act One in theafternoon and Act Two at dusk, and ActThree was staged in candlelight,”Foerster explains. “They even haddevices to dim the candles at the propertime. There are descriptions of theperformances at court, and how all ofthe candle smoke could make it seem asthough you were looking at the actorsthrough a veil.”

At the Rose and Globe theaters,she adds, “they usually staged theirperformances in daylight and didn’thave much money for candles, so wecheated [those scenes] a bit for aestheticreasons.”

Performances take place in anumber of venues throughout the film.When Elizabeth meets Oxford for thefirst time, the 10-year-old poet (playedby Luke Thomas Taylor) is staging aperformance of his work in one of thequeen’s private chambers. The influenceof De La Tour’s paintings emerges inthe play’s final act, set in a gnarled treelit by candles in metal intensifiers.Silberberg hid LED rope lights behindthe tree branches to extend the firelightinto the background. “There was a lot ofcandlelight and also a lot of tungstenlight — small sources,” he details. “Toprovide a bit of soft front fill, we

Intent ondestroying

Shakespeare’slegacy, armed

guards burndown the Globe

Theatre andarrest Jonson,

who attempts tosave Oxford’s

manuscripts byhiding thembeneath the

stage.

Page 43: American Cinematographer 201109

bounced two 5K Fresnels offunbleached white muslin teasers aboveand to the left and right of the camera,with sheets of 1⁄2 Soft Frost between thecamera and the muslin.”

A blue HMI twilight pouringthrough the windows in the backgroundlends a sense of fantasy not only toyoung Oxford’s performance, but also tothe key moment when the future loversfirst meet. “One could say [the look] is abit over-the-top,” Foerster concedes,“but you could also say those momentswere a bit romanticized in Elizabeth’smemory.”

Many plays are staged at theRose, a typical Elizabethan-era play-house with a circular floor plan and anopen roof. On the Babelsberg backlot,the art department constructed a stand-

alone replica of the Rose that could alsodouble as the Globe, complete with amuddy, winding street leading up to themain entrance.

Foerster describes the theater as achimney. “How do you light a chimneyand shoot a scene on a 15.5mm lens?”she asks, noting that A-camera operatorSebastian Meuschel was often joined byVladimir Subotic and Philip Peschlowon B and C cameras, respectively. “Thattheater was one of the most difficultthings to deal with, but we had an inter-esting approach.”

Outside the theater, the crewpositioned two 60' Condors thatallowed them to suspend 70'x45' and45'x45' UltraBounce flyswatters like lidsover the open roof, blocking the interiorfrom direct sunlight. The cranes would

41

Top: A completed visual-effects composite (top) shows a scenic view of the Globe Theatre, which was created digitally. Bottom: An effects element shows the live-action layer of

performers surrounding the structure.

Page 44: American Cinematographer 201109

boom up and down as the sun moved,allowing only the open sky to provideambient light.

If Foerster needed additionallight, 18K and 6K HMIs positionedalong the theater’s upper levels werebounced off the UltraBounce flyswat-ters or huge muslin and white Duvetyntarps hanging down from the lowerranks, just out of the camera’s view. Tofacilitate transitions from day to night in

the same scene, the crew layered addi-tional silks over the set until it was darkenough to bring up the candles and firelight.

When strong winds prohibitedthe team from deploying the blackouts,Haupt ran sheets of silk and muslinacross the opening on ropes and cablesinside the theater. The strategy worked,but it also required Foerster to avoidphotographing the upper levels of

the audience.Each play staged in the movie has

its own look: the climax of Romeo andJuliet takes place at twilight; hunchedwitches hover around a cracklingbonfire in Macbeth; and Hamlet isshown mainly in broad daylight andwide shots. This was consistent regard-less of where a play was being staged.For example, when the story crosscutsbetween a monologue from two differ-

◗ A Mighty Pen

An exterior view of period structures built on the lot at Studio Babelsberg.

42

Page 45: American Cinematographer 201109

ent performances of Hamlet — at theRose and at Elizabeth’s royal court —each performance contains a referenceto the other’s lighting and cameramoves.

The final digital grade was carriedout at Arri’s Munich headquarters,

where Martin served as the colorist. “Itwas important for the Arri team to keepan eye on the DI,” says Foerster. “And it was great to have Utsi handle it,because he was there [with us] from thebeginning.”

She observes that the final look is

very close to what she conceptualizedwith the viewing LUTs. “Of course, wetweaked a few things, like matchingscene-to-scene or matching light levelswhen we were shooting outside. Wealso played with the contrast a bit andtook advantage of the masks andwindows you can do in the DI. But ingeneral, what we timed for was what wesaw on the monitors on set.” ●

Henry bids farewell to his late, great friend.

TECHNICAL SPECS

2.40:1

Digital Capture

Arri Alexa

Arri/Zeiss Master Prime, Arri LWZ-1

Digital Intermediate

43

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44 September 2011 American Cinematographer

Pina blends cinema and dance in a powerful mélange thatillustrates the emotional and storytelling potential of 3-Dstereo filmmaking as applied to performance. The subjectof the film, which premiered at this year’s Berlinale, is the

work of the late choreographer Pina Bausch, whose theatricaldance pieces give the film its strong emotional resonance.

The film was directed by Wim Wenders, who assem-bled a formidable team for his first 3-D feature. ProducerErwin Schmidt recalls that the filmmakers had to “learn howto shoot a movie in 3-D,” and Wenders called upon 3-Dsupervisor François Garnier, who in turn recommended stere-ographer Alain Derobe. Director of photography HélèneLouvart was asked to adapt Bausch’s theatrical-lighting

design to the cinematic medium, and she also operated thecamera for the stage footage. Joerg Widmer was the cameraoperator for the exteriors.

Bausch was known as a pioneer of Tanztheater, acombination of modern dance and theatrical performance,which she developed for 36 years with her troupe, living andperforming in Wuppertal, Germany. Wenders, whose creditsinclude The Buena Vista Social Club, Wings of Desire and Paris,Texas (AC Feb. ’85), was a great admirer of Bausch’s work, andspoke to her for many years about collaborating on a film.Unfortunately, she died suddenly in 2009, shortly before film-ing was to begin. At first the project was canceled, but thegrief-stricken dancers in her troupe persuaded Wenders toproceed with it.

In Pina, Wenders interweaves genres and styles tocreate an intricate homage to the woman and her work. Thefilm is structured around excerpts from four of Bausch’s majorworks, which are performed onstage by her troupe: The Rite of

An expert team helpsWim Wenders fuse dance and

cinema for the 3-D feature Pina.

By Benjamin B

•|•

ImmersiveDance

Page 47: American Cinematographer 201109

www.theasc.com September 2011 45

Spring (with Stravinsky’s music), CaféMüller, Meeting Hall and Full Moon.These longer public performances arelinked by different strands: short dancesolos and duets in striking locations inWuppertal, brief filmed portraits ofdancers reminiscing, and documentaryglimpses of Bausch.

The recurring thread of the danceworks is clearly the passionate, tender,painful relationship between men andwomen. Though Wenders’ film carefullyavoids any explanation of Bausch’s work— there are no voices other than thoseof Bausch and her dancers — herdancers’ words evoke a driven and ques-tioning dance innovator who encour-aged her troupe to contribute their ownexperiences to her choreography. As oneobserves, “All of her pieces were aboutlove and pain … and beauty and sorrowand loneliness. I was trying to under-stand her, figure out why she had to keepworking and working and working.”Another dancer recalls that Bauschwould simply tell her: “Keep searching.”

The dancers more closely resem-ble a theatrical cast than a homogeneousdance troupe, with dancers often enact-ing characters as they perform. Thetroupe can dance as one, but it is alsostriking in its diversity: in size, bodyshape, country of origin and age. “It wasgood being an older dancer with Pina!”recalls one dancer. “At 40, more andmore I thought, ‘All these opportunitiesto be old and a child at the same time.’”

Meeting Hall, one of the stagepieces, goes further, featuring guestappearances of a chorus line made ofmen and women over 65, and another ofteenagers.

Garnier says the production’sequipment choices were driven by twogoals: to be close to the dancers and torepresent the 3-D space faithfully. Thefilmmakers chose a 30' Technocranewith a Scorpio remote head to glide thetwo-camera 3-D system above the stage,because, says Garnier, “we needed to beclose to the dancers and to be mobilewith a big camera that weighed 60 kilos[132 pounds].” The aim, adds Derobe,was to have “the camera dance among

the dancers.”For logistical reasons, Pina ’s 4½-

week shoot was spread over three peri-ods. Three weeks were spent shootingperformances in a theater. Each of thefour dance pieces was shot five timesduring a nonstop public performance,with the Technocrane jutting out fromthe audience, its base on a platformabove the front rows of the theater.Additional “special shot” pickups werefilmed without an audience, often withthe Technocrane on the stage.

Another week of production was

devoted to shooting dancers doing shortsolos and duets in a variety ofpicturesque and quirky locations.Exteriors were shot in and aroundWuppertal’s monorail cars, in themiddle of a traffic island, on hills over-looking nearby landscapes, in a river andin a wood (with a dancer wielding a leaf-blower). There were also interior loca-tions in a mining tunnel, with a dancershouldering a spotlight, and someelegant architectural spaces, including acultural center. Widmer shot the non-stage footage mostly with a SteadicamU

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Opposite: Dancersfrolic in a riveronstage as theyperform PinaBausch’s FullMoon, the finaleof the 3-D featurePina. This page,above: Theensembleperforms MeetingHall. Left: ATechnocranemounted to aplatform placedabove thetheater’s frontrows was used toshoot all of theonstageperformances.

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46 September 2011 American Cinematographer

rig, but he also occasionally used a smallPanther Foxy crane with a jib arm.

Pina was shot in 2⁄3" high-defini-tion video and recorded on HDCam-SR tape. According to Garnier, thefilmmakers decided the 2⁄3" sensorformat offered more sensitivity andmore depth-of-field (for the same angleof view) “than the Red [One] or SI-2KMini.” For the first shoot, theTechnocrane in the theater was outfit-ted with two Sony HDC-1500cameras. For the second shoot, the film-makers turned to the newer, lighterSony HDC-P1, which was also used forSteadicam work. Three days of pickup

shots were achieved with a pair of SonyPMW-EX3s.

The shoot offered an occasion totest many new 3-D techniques andtools, including a prototype of theFreestyle Steadicam rig (developed byPhilippe Bordelais), which has sincebeen released by P+S Technik. First ACChristian Meyer also contributed acustom Steadicam rig. Derobe offeredhis custom 3-D mattebox with a half-silvered mirror that sent the same imageto each camera. Almost all of Pina wasshot with this split-beam approach,except for a few exteriors that were shotwith side-by-side cameras, like the

film’s opening wide shot of the theaterin the city.

Garnier notes that the choice offocal lengths was crucial to reproducingthe 3-D space faithfully. The main lenseswere 7mm, 10mm and 14mm ZeissDigiPrimes, which he estimates coveredhorizontal angles of view of 69, 51 and37 degrees in the 2⁄3"format. For thebest results, he explains, the focal lengthsused with the 3-D camera on set shouldhave the same angle of view as the spec-tator in the theater. Ideally, if the specta-tor in a middle seat of the theater seesthe screen width in a 50-degree angle, toavoid any depth distortion he should beshown a scene shot with a 10mm thatcovers a similar 50-degree horizontalangle (in 2⁄3"). For this spectator, anobject shot with a 20mm lens wouldappear to be compressed. “If we had usedlong lenses,” says Garnier, “the dancers’bodies would have appeared flattened.”Thus, the filmmakers decided to onlyuse wide-angle lenses “to preserve theproper scaling. We tended to use a14mm for faces and a 10mm for action.

“The worst case is when youintercut between short and long focallengths,” he adds. “If you do a montagebetween a wide shot very near theperformer and a very long lens far away,you will lose your spatial reference.”

Though Wenders was initiallyconcerned about “fisheye” distortion offaces and bodies with such short focallengths, “this distortion does not exist instereo,” says Garnier. “The brain auto-matically corrects any deformation of theface. If I look at a face very close, it doesn’t seem distorted. If I close one eye, it will look distorted, but with both eyes, no.”

Derobe, who acted as the directorof stereography, was assisted by hisdaughter Josephine and ThierryPouffary. He says he applied his “naturaldepth” method, which has more to dowith evoking than reproducing. “Depthis not something you capture,” hestresses, “but something you fabricate. 3-D is not made to be a copy of reality,but an interpretation that is good for theeyes of the spectator.”

◗ Immersive Dance

Above: AnnaWehsarg

performs in oneof the movie’smany unusual

locations. Right(from left): 3-D

supervisorFrançois Garnier,

stereographyassistant

Josephine Derobeand director of

stereographyAlain Derobe at

work on the set.

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www.theasc.com September 2011 47

One of the driving principles ofDerobe’s method is to simply avoidmaking the spectator uncomfortable byavoiding awkward eye positions andmovements. But, he notes, “a principle ismade to be violated, but only with anartistic intent. You are allowed to makethe audience a little uncomfortable inorder to express something.”

Derobe’s natural-depth methodcomprised shooting with cameras “nearparallel.” The first step was to angle oneof the cameras so that the two lines ofsight to the farthest object, be it the backof the stage or a mountain, were offsetby a distance equal to the distancebetween our eyes — a nominal distanceof 21⁄2". With this method, the specta-tors’ left and right eyelines to thefarthest objects should be parallel,meaning that everyone in the theatershould see them the same way. The goalof this initial setting of a fixed, smallconvergence angle (typically between0.5 and 1 degree) is to keep the back-ground in a similar distant position from

shot to shot. Derobe’s method then called for

varying the interaxial distance duringthe shot — for example, in order to setthe position of performers in relation tothe screen. In Pina, the IA was typicallyvaried to keep the main dancer near the

screen in the 3-D volume. JosephineDerobe, who often “pulled IA” with aremote controller, says she would gener-ally vary the IA between 2 and 7centimeters (.8" and 2.75"). Garnieradds that in extreme cases, the IA couldgo up to 12 centimeters (4.7").

Left: FabianPrioville andAzusa Seyamatake to thestreets foranotherperformance.Joerg Widmercaptured most ofthe day-exteriorscenes using aSteadicam rig.Below (fromleft): Garnier,director WimWenders andartisticconsultantRobert Sturmobserve theaction onstage.

Page 50: American Cinematographer 201109

Derobe stresses the importance of the Transvideo CineMonitorHD 3DView, which was designed by JacquesDelacoux and his team in close collabo-ration with Derobe. He explains that itscolor-fringing view and its programma-ble grid overlay are essential for a quickappreciation of the depth in an image. “Itallows us to know very precisely what thepixel offset is for distant and closesubjects,” says Derobe.

The Transvideo was key, addsJosephine, for the constant and occasion-ally improvised adjustment of IA duringthe shot. Pouffary adds, “Many shotswere done without rehearsal, especiallythe exteriors with the Steadicam.”

When the IA is too big, there is adanger of miniaturization, the sensationof seeing the world through a giant’seyes. Derobe recalls, “I warned Wimabout the dangers of miniaturization,and he said, ‘Great. I’ll use it.’” Wendersdevised an amusing sequence in whichtwo dancers are looking at a dollhousemodel of the stage, with tiny dancersmoving inside.

The lighting for Bausch’s dancepieces was designed for the stage by PeterPabst and Fernando Jacon. Louvart’s jobwas to adapt their design to the screen,and to make it work in 3-D. “3-D is alsocreated by lighting,” she notes.

“Each dance piece had very precise

48 September 2011 American Cinematographer

◗ Immersive Dance

Top: DamianoOttavio Bigi and

Silvia FariasHeredia perform.

Middle: Wenders and

cinematographerHélène Louvartkeep an eye onthe shot during

filming of TheRite of Spring.Bottom: Ruth

Amarante stepsto the fore during

a moment in the piece.

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50 September 2011 American Cinematographer

lighting because Pina was very preciseabout [that],” continues Louvart. “PeterPabst, who had always done the set andlighting design with her, was there toverify that we were really following thesame concept. But we needed morelight, and we also had to modify thelighting and accentuate certain things.”

Louvart calculated that the

cameras were working at an equivalentof 80 ASA, partially because of a stoploss from the half-silvered mirror and again setting of -3dB for lower noise.She estimates that she needed 2-3 morestops of light to bring the theater piecesto the screen. She strove to understandwhat Bausch had wanted to do withlighting, but she also wanted to incor-

porate Wenders’ requests. “For exam-ple,” she says, “in Rite of Spring , Wimtold me that we should feel the dancers’effort, their sweat, so I wanted to make[them] shine.”

Louvart conferred with Jacon tostrengthen the existing lighting designfor Rite. She added nine 5K Fresnelsthrough diffusion to key the dancersfrom the top, defining them against theblack background and making them“shine.” She also doubled the number ofPar 64s and added crosslights. In addi-tion, she asked Jacon to bring up theTranstechnik dimmer board from itsaverage level of 60 percent to a hefty 90percent.

Jacon estimates that the finalcinematic lighting for Rite of Springcomprised 5Ks, Enizoom follow spots,PCs (plan convex), flat and narrow Par 64 cans, and 250-watt 24-voltBeamlights. Frontlight was provided byabout 20 2K Enizoom Profiles, supple-mented by a dozen PCs near the stageand a dozen 1.2K Enizooms on theside. Sidelight was provided by a dozenBeamlights (for the heads of thedancers) and PCs (for the feet). The top

◗ Immersive Dance

Right: Adiaphanous

curtain adds a theatricaltouch to a

performancefeaturing Jorge

Puerta Armenta.Below: Widmer

and his teamcapture Helena

Pikon onlocation.

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52 September 2011 American Cinematographer

key provided by the 5Ks was supple-mented by three rows of Par 64s. A littlebacklight was added by a dozen Par 64s.

The final effect is striking anddramatic, as a group of muddiedwomen and men dancers commingleon a floor covered with orange peat.The dominant toplight adds depthagainst a dark background, accentuat-

ing the vibrant bodies. “I knew I had toreinforce the light above,” says Louvart.“It was a matter of translating Pina’sinitial idea with cinema tools.” Whenmoving in for close-up “specials,” sheadded bounce boards to whiten thereddish bounce cast on faces from thepeat.

Jacon notes that part of his job

was quickly dimming lights to avoidcasting a Technocrane shadow on thedancers. Multiple shadows are frequentin theatrical lighting, but Louvart iscategorical about avoiding them.“There’s only one sun and only onemoon, so I prefer a single shadow,” shesays.

Getting single shadows tooksome work on a set with dozens ofsources, especially in Café Müller, whendancers performed with their eyes shutright up against the set wall. Louvartswapped sources out for the filming,replacing Enizooms with two 5Ks andcutters to light the wall panels on the set.

In Meeting Hall, she replaced afrontal bank of PCs and Enizooms witha wall of diffusion lit by 5Ks to preventmultiple shadows on line-ups of dancersfacing the audience.

The film’s finale, Full Moon, is aspectacular water dance that is stagednext to a giant boulder. Jacon explainsthat water pipes above rained down8,000 liters [2,113 gallons] of heatedwater, creating a river onstage. The chal-lenge was to light falling water against ablack background. “We put everythingwe had to backlight and toplight thewater,” recalls Louvart. Three 10Ks, four5Ks and four banks of Par 64s above andbehind created a dramatic setting for therain-soaked dancers, with a minimum offrontlight and half a dozen Enizoomsidelights. The lighting ambiencerequired carefully flagging the lights toallow for individual variations on thefront and back of the stage, and on theriver and boulder. The resultingsequence is kinetic and riveting, asdancers run wild under brightly detailedwater in a dark setting.

A common problem in shooting3-D occurs when polarized light fromreflections on glass, metal or water yieldsdifferent values for the camera behindthe half-silvered mirror than the oneabove it. Louvart says her team variedcamera positions and lighting to mini-mize the polarized effect on the wet setfloor, but the problem was finallyresolved in the digital grade by coloristMoritz Peters, who patiently corrected

◗ Immersive Dance

Top: Andrey Berezin and Ruth Amarante perform at another location. Bottom: Cristiana Morganti joins Zeche Zollverein in a performance at an urban site.

Page 55: American Cinematographer 201109
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the unequal reflections in the left andright images.

Louvart recalls that another biglighting challenge was shooting a duetin a house with glass walls. She needed

a very strong, soft, frontal light tobalance the sunny exterior, and endedup using two 12Ks and three 6Ks withthe lenses off, bouncing them into theceiling.

The style of the mise-en-scène wasradically different inside the theater andout. Wenders and Garnier prepared arigorous shot list for the stage perfor-mances, detailing the camera angle ofview and Technocrane position using analphanumerical grid of the stage that wasaccompanied by timing cues. The twosat in a control booth during the perfor-mances, communicating with the crewby headsets.

By contrast, Widmer’s exteriorshoots were fairly improvised. “Wim didan incredible job of choosing the rightlocations, but once we were there he letthings happen,” recalls Widmer. “He candeal with the unexpected in an incrediblycreative way. If a plan turns out not to bepossible, he can quickly decide to dosomething [else] that somehow ends upeven better.”

Both Louvart and Widmer weregiven special framing instructions by the3-D specialists. With a laugh, Widmersays, “They all started with rules that

◗ Immersive Dance

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54

Rainer Behr performs on location. The filmmakers spent one week of the 4½-week shootcapturing the dancers performing at sites in and around Wuppertal.

Page 57: American Cinematographer 201109

limited you. ‘Don’t do this! Don’t dothat!’ But I enjoyed working with thema lot.”

One 3-D rule that was oftendiscussed was “edge violation,” whichoccurs when an object designed to be infront of the screen is masked by the edgeof the frame, creating contradictorysignals for the viewer’s eye. “The edge offrame in 2-D is completely differentfrom 3-D, where cutting someone’sshoulder or hair can become veryimportant because it doesn’t feel right,”says Louvart. She qualifies that “you canhave something on the edge if it’s dark.”Widmer recalls that when a transparentcurtain once approached the edge of theframe, the instruction was “to lose itquickly.”

“We broke rules all the time,”confesses Derobe.

Garnier notes that foregroundviolators can be moved in post: “We canget them out of the conflict zone, butthen you also end up reducing the

depth.” Derobe recalls that he spenttime in post trying to hide foregroundchairs on the bottom of the frame inCafé Müller, but Wenders objected.After seeing the finished film, Derobeagreed with the director’s choice.

All of Pina’s exteriors were shotusing available light, according toWidmer. “We tried to shoot in back-light as much as possible, and we wouldadd bounce boards and white sheets, butno lighting,” he says.

He had to adapt to the camerascontinually moving on his Steadicamrig. “There were five motors working atonce, two each for focus and iris and onefor IA. The IA was changed in everyshot as I moved closer to or farther fromthe dancers. That changed my center ofgravity, so I had to figure out how toplace the motors and so on so that whenthe IA changed, it didn’t interfere withmy balance.”

By all accounts Wenderssucceeded in uniting the two cultures of

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dance and cinema. Jacon recalls, “It wasa gift for me to work with Hélène andWim, and to see the two ensembleswork together.”

“Wim Wenders is a hard worker,but he is also very open and very gener-ous,” says Josephine Derobe. “Theshoot was in his image. We were afamily.”

To hear our Berlinale podcast,which includes an interview with Wenders about Pina, visit www.theasc.com/ac_magazine/podcasts. ●

55

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Page 58: American Cinematographer 201109

56 September 2011 American Cinematographer

D irector of photography Stephen Goldblatt, ASC, BSCwas a bit apprehensive when he learned that The Help, adrama set in Mississippi in 1962, would be filmed onlocation at the height of the state’s summer heat. But

nothing truly prepared him or his collaborators for the 110°Ftemperatures and 100-percent humidity that gripped

AiringDirty

Laundry

Southern maids go public withtheir grievances in The Help, shotby Stephen Goldblatt, ASC, BSC.

By Jean Oppenheimer

•|•

Page 59: American Cinematographer 201109

www.theasc.com September 2011 57

Mississippi during the 2010 shoot. Onestroke of good fortune was that most ofthe story takes place indoors, primarilyin the antebellum mansions where thewealthy, white characters reside and inthe small, neat shacks where two of theirservants, Aibileen (Viola Davis) andMinny (Octavia Spencer), eke by.

Best friends, Aibileen and Minnyhave been in service all their lives. WhenSkeeter (Emma Stone), one of theyoung, white women they have served,decides to write a book from the domes-tics’ point of view, the shockwaves rever-berate throughout the town.

Set in Jackson, The Help wasfilmed almost entirely in the nearby cityPhot

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Opposite: Likeother Southernmaids toiling inMississippi duringthe 1960s,Aibileen Clark(Viola Davis)endures rampantracism andcondescension.This page, top: Ina gesture ofpatronizingcivility,manipulativesocialite HillyHolbrook (BryceDallas Howard)solicits a round ofapplause formaids working acharity event.Middle: When herown maid revealsembarrassingdetails in a tell-allbook, Hilly hitsthe roof. Bottom:CinematographerStephenGoldblatt, ASC,BSC checks thelight on location.

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58 September 2011 American Cinematographer

◗ Airing Dirty Laundryof Greenwood. With the exception ofinterior scenes set in Aibileen andMinny’s respective homes, the film wasshot at practical locations, includingtwo mid-19th century estates. “Stephennearly swooned when he walked intoSkeeter’s house for the first time,”laughs production designer MarkRicker. “One look at the massive stair-case and [30'x40'] dining room, and hefell in love.”

To take advantage of the bestnatural light, the filmmakers initiallyplanned to shoot day interiors duringthe morning and exteriors in the lateafternoon, but as the July start dateapproached and the temperaturesclimbed, the weather patterns changed.Storm clouds gathered in the afternoon,

upping the humidity and turning thesky a steel gray. “The sunrises, on theother hand, were invariably beautiful,with gorgeous light for the first twohours of the day,” recalls Goldblatt. Hesuggested to director Tate Taylor andthe producers that they flip the schedulewhenever possible and start day exteri-ors just after dawn, leaving the interiorscenes for the afternoon.

One of the film’s most strikingshots shows Skeeter coming in her frontdoor, crossing the expansive foyer,running up two flights of stairs, andthen walking across the landing to hermother’s bedroom. Goldblatt envisagedit as a single shot, with the camerabringing Stone through the door,

Top: Aibileen hoverson the periphery as

Hilly and her friendsgossip about Celia

Foote, another localwife. Middle: After

accepting a job offerfrom Celia (Jessica

Chastain), who readilyadmits she’s hopelessin the kitchen, Minny

(Octavia Spencer)touts the many usesof Crisco. Bottom: In

gratitude for Minny’sservice, friendship andcooking lessons, Celia

prepares a feast forher maid.

“Stephen nearlyswooned when

he walked into Skeeter’shouse for the

first time.”

Page 61: American Cinematographer 201109

www.theasc.com September 2011 59

pulling back as she crosses to the bottomof the stairs, and then executing astraight vertical move, while also rotat-ing, as she runs up the steps. “I needed ahydraulic column, as it were, with aremote camera on top that could do 360degrees,” he says. “[That] would allow usto achieve the shot without cutting.”

A-camera/Steadicam operatorWill Arnot suggested a MATTowercam. “Its lens-height range is 5-15 feet, just a tad over the low height wewanted to begin with and just shy of ourfinishing height,” says Arnot. “Our keygrip, Charlie Saldaña, and dolly grip,Andy Crawford, figured out a way tomount the Towercam onto a ChapmanHybrid Dolly and thus achieve ourdesired finishing height.” (The rig wasplaced on a dance floor. Extra bracingkept the column from swaying when thedolly was moved, and a gyrostabilizedhead eliminated vibration at the topheight.)

“The Towercam is typically usedfor live events, such as rock concerts andawards ceremonies, so it’s a bit unusualto ask it to carry the weight of a 35mmmotion-picture camera complete with a4:1 zoom, remote focus and zoomcontrols,” notes Arnot.

The Towercam arrived with aremote head that was too small to work

Top: Despite heremployers’callous attitudes,Aibileen bondswith the family’sdaughter. Middle:As a girl, Eugenia“Skeeter” Phelan(Lila Rogers)enjoys a closerelationship withher family’s maid,Constantine(Cicely Tyson).Bottom: Yearslater, Skeeter(Emma Stone) isdistraught afterConstantineleaves her job forreasons thatremain unclear.

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60 September 2011 American Cinematographer

with the camera, a Panaflex MillenniumXL, and the Libra Head that wasshipped in overnight was unable toexecute a full 360-degree pan, soCrawford manually rotated the dolly inorder to complete the pan. Meanwhile,1st AC Larry Huston was pulling focuswhile running backwards up two flightsof stairs just behind Stone, using a 3"monitor attached to his Preston FI+Zradio focus control. Executing thiscomplicated shot required pinpointaccuracy and flawless teamwork, andGoldblatt is unstinting in his praise ofhis crew, many of whom have workedwith him for years.

This and all other day interiorswere lit from outside through thewindows. Large HMIs, usually 18Ks,were placed on Condors or, as was thecase at Skeeter’s house, on scaffolding.Fill inside was provided by a bit ofhidden bounce — “a 2.5K HMI on atall stand on the upper landing bounc-

◗ Airing Dirty Laundry

Top: Skeeter interviews Aibileen and Minny after convincing them they should share their stories.Bottom: Both maids fear their candor will have dire consequences.

Page 63: American Cinematographer 201109
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62 September 2011 American Cinematographer

ing off the white ceiling, with the doorspretty closed up,” says Goldblatt.

Asked about lighting thepredominantly female cast, he notes,“Most of them were so young you coulddo virtually anything, and the moremature ones weren’t the sort who wouldask for a vanity light.” He put diffusionon all the lights but never used a filter.

“The lights would be shining through asilk or Grid Cloth, and in front of thatwould be a control grid,” he explains.“Control grids have been around forabout 10 years, but I find I enjoy usingthem more and more. They prevent thelight from going everywhere, so you getdirectional, soft light. It’s the best ofboth worlds.” When an even softer look

was required, the light was bounced intowhite foamcore and then through GridCloth.

The only time actual sunlight wasused for a day interior was a scene show-ing Skeeter applying for a job at thelocal newspaper. Even then, 18Ks onCondors were required once the sunmoved around the building. It was sohot that day that each HMI ballast wasaccompanied by its own air-conditionerand fan. “Fortunately, we’d done a test afew days earlier and realized the ballastsweren’t able to self-cool,” recalls ColinCampbell, Goldblatt’s longtime gaffer.

“Overheated equipment was ahuge issue on this shoot,” he continues.“If you have to turn off a really hotHMI — to move it, for example — it’salmost impossible to restart. It takes along time for them to cool downenough to use again. I had six 18Ks buttried never to use more than four at atime, so we always had a couple ofspares to trade out.”

In terms of the picture,Goldblatt’s biggest concern was findingthe right balance between the actors’black and white faces. This was particu-larly true for scenes that show Aibileeninteracting with Baby Girl, the blond,

◗ Airing Dirty Laundry

Right: Skeeter’sfamily reacts to a

news report abouta slain civil-rights

leader. Below:Aibileen and Minny

convince othermaids to come

forward and talk.

Page 65: American Cinematographer 201109

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Page 66: American Cinematographer 201109

64 September 2011 American Cinematographer

fair-skinned tyke she babysits. “I wasconstantly concerned with gettingenough light on Viola but notoverlighting the child,” says the cine-matographer. Pairing Aibileen withpale, redheaded Hilly (Bryce DallasHoward) presented similar problems.Goldblatt notes, “The trick is to lightthe black actor and keep as much lightas possible off the white actor. There’susually enough ambient light that awhite face has sufficient exposure.Occasionally I’d have a small lampbouncing into some muslin on the floor.One reason I chose [Kodak] Vision3stocks [500T 5219 and 200T 5213] isthat they have so much latitude in theshadows.”

The production’s footage wasprocessed by Deluxe Laboratories, andEFilm generated HD dailies andhandled the digital intermediate.Goldblatt requested that dailies beprojected every day, “and that the editor,director, gaffer, script supervisor and I

watch them together so that we were allworking in unison,” he says. “That’s somuch better than everybody watchingdailies in their hotel rooms and thenhaving a mutter about them when wemeet the next morning.”

In the dailies, the team noticed aslow flicker in the image that appearedonly in scenes set in two of the film’sfour kitchens. “We tried everything —changing the stock [5213], changingthe camera, changing the generators —but nothing helped,” reports Goldblatt.“The problem arrived and disappearedwithout rhyme or reason, and neitherKodak nor Deluxe could explain it.Fortunately, it was such a slow pulse thatwhen the film was cut together, it wasn’tvisible.”

Dense with characters anddialogue, the screenplay (adapted byTaylor from Kathryn Stockett’s best-selling novel) was 150 pages long.“What really helped us get through thescript on time was that Tate did no

◗ Airing Dirty Laundry

Top: Large lightsmounted on

cranes providenighttimeambience.

Bottom: Keygrip Charlie

Saldaña (left)and loader

Blake Alcantarahelp to deploy aMAT Towercamfor a shot that

follows Skeeterup two flights

of stairs.

Botto

m p

hoto

by

Step

hen

Gol

dblat

t.

Page 67: American Cinematographer 201109

more than two or three takes,” saysGoldblatt. Another important factorwas that during prep, he and Taylordecided what coverage they absolutelyhad to get and what they could let slide.“I think the editor, Hughes Winborne,was a bit nervous at first about how littlecoverage we were doing,” says the cine-matographer, chuckling. “He relaxedwhen he realized there was a plan —that we weren’t just missing [material]because we’d run out of time!”

As usual, Goldblatt turned toPhil Radin at Panavision’s WoodlandHills headquarters when puttingtogether the camera package: a PanaflexPlatinum, two Millennium XLs, Primoprime lenses (ranging from 17.5 to

100mm), 1.4x and 2x extenders, andtwo Primo zooms, a 4:1 (17.5-75mm)and an 11:1 (24-275mm). Goldblattavoids using multiple cameras wheneverpossible, and only added a second onefor a ballroom sequence.

The ballroom scene presentedthe film’s most complicated lightingsetup, according to Campbell. “It was apractical interior, and the camera had tobe able to move 360 degrees at any time,so all the lighting had to be done fromoverhead. It was 108°F outside and [feltnearly as] hot inside. My rigging gaffer,Erik Bernstein, hung the standard pipetruss, and then I did something I’d neverdone before: I used Kino Flo Image 85sto light the entire room. I used 40 ofthem, all through Roscoe Light Frost;

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“I think the editor was a bitnervous at firstabout how littlecoverage we were doing.”

Page 68: American Cinematographer 201109

they were rigged to remote chainmotors and then connected to a dimmerboard. They kept the heat down andgave us enough light. It was a great

learning experience for me.”When the budget precluded

renting a Technocrane for more than acouple of days, Goldblatt opted for an

old Chapman Super Nova that theproduction could keep for the entireshoot at the same price. One of the shotsfor which it was used is the last shot ofthe film: Aibileen leaves her employer’shouse and walks down the road and intothe distance. “I wanted the light to bebeautiful because I figured the shotwould be used for end credits, and itwas,” says Goldblatt. “I use all these elec-tronic aids for predicting sunlight andlength of shadows, and I knew we hadto shoot at 4 p.m. — any earlier and theroad would have been too hot.”

The crane tracks back from thefront door, down the driveway and thendown the street. Arnot and Huston wereseated at the end of the arm, with theSteadicam hard-mounted to a Mitchellcamera mount via a Garfield plate. Evenwith the electric motor, there was a bit ofvibration from the road and a very slightmovement within the frame. “We didn’tsee it in dailies, but we did when we putin titles,” says Goldblatt. “So we digitally

◗ Airing Dirty Laundry

Director Tate Taylor and Stone share a light moment between takes.

Page 69: American Cinematographer 201109

stabilized [the shot] in post.”Goldblatt notes that an increas-

ingly important part of his process is“getting the colorslocked down beforewe even start shooting. During prep, Itook photographs of the sets, usedPhotoshop to color correct them and[shots from] the hair and makeup tests,and then sent the files to [EFilm dailiescolorist] Benny Estrada, who used themas a reference when timing the dailies. Ifwe start creating a look in prep, we canhit the ground running once shootingbegins.”

Joachim Zell, EFilm’s vice presi-dent of imaging science and remoteservices, notes that EFilm’s ColorstreamPhoto system for DSLR cameras wasdesigned expressly for Goldblatt.Another proprietary EFilm process,CinemaScan Dailies, allowed the trans-fer of color-correction metadata fromthe dailies through to the DI. “Thematerial was logged and tracked againstthe key frames of the film negative,”

explains Goldblatt, “so that when thenegative was cut and the film locked,the dailies color corrections were alreadyin place and were used as a starting valuefor the final grade. All the work we’ddone during the shoot was available for[DI colorist] Steve Scott, so he had adamn good idea of the look weintended.”

Goldblatt notes that Scott isanother longtime collaborator he wasable to tap on The Help. “We have aclose relationship, and he pretty muchknows what I want before I do, which isvery helpful.”

When it comes to filmmaking, heobserves, “I don’t like to gamble withpeople or luck. Making films is sofraught with problems, you might aswell control the things you can.” ●

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Page 70: American Cinematographer 201109

looking for locations, we’d have lunch in this little café, andthe placemats read Wet Mountain Valley Café. Now, [when]they picked this location, nobody wondered why it was calledthat. Well, I’ll tell you why: at 12 p.m. every day, these electri-cal storms would descend on you like some sort of nightmare— every single day. We also discovered that the valley wasfilled with rattlesnakes. We shot there for weeks and had todeal with the weather and rattlesnakes.”

Stephen Burum, ASC experienced scouting his ownlocations early in his career, including when he directed andshot second unit on Apocalypse Now (AC Feb. ’01). Needing acertain kind of terrain for shooting pass-bys of Willard’s boatgoing up the river, he used topographical maps to give him anidea of where to go, and then did two weeks of scouting byhelicopter. Another unusual scouting effort involved a musi-cal television show starring Ann-Margret that he shot inSweden for producer/director David Winters. Unfamiliar

68 September 2011 American Cinematographer

“Idid nothing but location movies for the first part of mycareer,” says Gordon Willis, ASC. Regarding Comes aHorseman, starring Jane Fonda, he says, “[It was] … abeautiful location at the foothills of the Rocky

Mountains. We built her house out there on a flat. While

TipsOnLocationScoutingTipsOnLocationScouting

Location professionals and cinematographers illuminate

the importance of choosing goodlocations.

By Ira Tiffen

•|•

Page 71: American Cinematographer 201109

www.theasc.com September 2011 69

with Sweden and lacking time to scoutlocations, Burum and Winters pickedpostcards with appealing settings at theairport shops upon their arrival. AnSAS airline rep helped them make thenecessary arrangements to reach thesites.

Whether you’re telling a story in afeature, commercial or TV show, it hasto take place in a suitable environment.At times the solution is to build a set ina studio, but most motion-pictureprojects involve at least some work onreal locations. It’s less common today forcinematographers themselves to seekout locations, but there is much theyneed to know about making suitableselections. And, as Willis points out,there are many considerations whenlooking for and evaluating the rightlocations for a production. As the indus-try has evolved, this has become the

professional specialty of the locationscout and the location manager, whowork under the art director/productiondesigner.

Lori Balton is a foundingmember and the current president of theLocation Managers Guild of America.She has worked as a scout on produc-tions helmed by numerous A-list direc-tors, among them Michael Mann,Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese.She explains, “We started the LMGAbecause … the way our job evolvedmade us the proverbial ‘red-headedstepchild.’ When the industry started,anybody could find the locations, andthe assignation of the job was a veryrandom thing. Over the years, we’vedeveloped a lot of skills, but I thinkmany people don’t really understandwhat it is that we do.”

Balton says that when she worked

on Rob Reiner’s Ghosts of Mississippi, shespotted a house that was suitable for thefilm’s main location as she was drivingdown a street in Los Angeles one day.The initial plan was to use the locationonly for exteriors and build the interiorsonstage, but when Reiner and the cine-matographer, John Seale, ASC, ACS,arrived at the location, Balton encour-aged them to reconsider. “I said, ‘I knowyou’re planning to build it onstage, butthis house is just so magical and evoca-tive, can you humor me and have a lookat the inside?’” They took one lookinside and agreed with her.

Location professionals fall intotwo key categories. Location scouts dothe initial searching and finding, andlocation managers handle the subse-quent logistics. Balton thinks of the twocategories as left-brain and right-brainfunctions. “There are very few peoplePh

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Opposite page: Location manager Albert Epps enjoys the more idyllic aspects of his job as he walks a beach while scouting for t he TV series Cougartown. This page: During a commercial shoot in Brentwood, Calif., Epps and the production team were temporarily stymied by

a massive tree that fell across a road. He recalls, “We had to run around the neighborhood and find some gardeners to chop off enough [branches] so we could get cars and people [through].”

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70 September 2011 American Cinematographer

who are very, very good at both,” shenotes. “Generally people are eitherbetter managers or better scouts, betterwith the logistics or better with thecreative side.”

After working as an actor for 20years, Tony Salome got into locationmanaging around 1989. He is currentlya location manager on NCIS: Los Angelesfor CBS, and he is also the first vicepresident of the LMGA. He describeswhat he considers important abilities fora good location manager or scout:“Obviously, you need to have photogra-phy skills [and] a good eye [so you can]look at a place and photograph it in amanner that is representative of what

you see. You also have to have computerskills and editing skills so you canpresent those photos to other people.You have to be a salesman. You have tohave knowledge of geography, architec-ture and design. You have to be a detec-tive, because many times you’re lookingfor something that no one else hasfound.”

Salome notes that although hedoesn’t choose locations, he has influ-ence over the decisions. “I know that if Idon’t show a certain location, [it] willnever get used. On the other hand, if Ishow a location, there’s a chance they’regoing to use it.”

He observes that location

managing for a TV series as opposed toa feature film “is the same process, butdone much faster. We do a new episodeevery eight days — action, adventure,car chases, explosions, gun battles, all onthe streets of L.A.” The show’s loca-tions, he adds, “are really postcards forSouthern California. We shoot a lot oficonic locations, such as the GriffithObservatory, the Santa Monica Pierand the Hollywood Bowl. The city isour backdrop.”

As a former actor, Salomecompares casting directors to locationscouts and managers. “Casting directors[work] to find just the right actor, andlocation managers work to find a loca-tion that can play an integral role in thestory.” Regarding cinematographers, headds, “locations are a lot like actors: agood director of photography can makethem all look better. There’s a nice rela-tionship between what our cinematog-rapher does [and] what we do.”

◗ Tips On Location Scouting

Top left: While scouting for a soft-drink commercialin Los Angeles, photographer and location scoutBarbara J. Miller (pictured at right) snapped this

view from the roof of the old May Companybuilding on Broadway south of 8th Street. Bottomleft: Miller took this shot while working on a carcommercial. She notes that the director asked herto crop to approximate the 16:9 aspect ratio, and

to include a silver car to suggest his preferredcolor to the ad agency.

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www.theasc.com September 2011 71

Victor Hammer, the cinematog-rapher on NCIS: Los Angeles , explains,“Tony sees the script before [I do], andhe talks over the locations with the showrunner and the director. I don’t get tothe locations until way after they’rescouted. My job is to make them work.

“Before we started shooting theshow [three years ago], I talked to thelocation team about my needs in termsof the visuals: windows, natural lightsources, a little bit of space to work inand reflective surfaces. So when Tonysees a mirror or a lot of windows at alocation, he’s going to say, ‘That’s thekind of location Victor would like.’”

Scouting has been called thecreative side of locations; managing isconsidered the practical side. But some-times you have to be creative at manag-ing, too. Albert Epps is a locationmanager for ABC’s Cougartown. Hisrésumé also includes feature andcommercial work. “Having done this forso long, I know that cinematographerslike to shoot into the sun,” he says. “Ifthere’s [no other] preference for onelocation over another, and one favors

shooting into the sun, that’s usually theone I choose.

“My advice [for the cinematogra-pher] is that if the project requiresspecial equipment, bring that to thelocation manager’s attention early on,”he adds.

Epps cites a commercial shoot inBrentwood as an example of managingthe unexpected. “[We] scouted the loca-tion, and the logistics were good. Weopened up the set at 5 a.m. and discov-ered the wind [had blown] down thismonster tree, and it completely blockedPh

otos

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For aninvestment-company ad thattraced the realjourney of aclient who hadfought in France,Germany andLuxembourgduring WorldWar II, thedirector askedMiller to find atown that lookedas if it had barelysurvived the war.While scouting inFrance, Millertook theseatmosphericphotos of theCitadel atMontmedy,which dates backto 1221. Duringthe 16th century,the originalstructure wasreplaced by afortress that wasused in bothWorld Wars.

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72 September 2011 American Cinematographer

the road. We had to run around theneighborhood and find some gardenersto chop off enough [branches] that wecould get cars and people [through].”

Sometimes, it’s not Nature’s faultwhen things don’t go as planned.Burum notes, “Maybe you’ve securedthe location, you think everything’sokay, and then you get there anddiscover that the wonderful fountains

that you planned to have working in thebackground are shut down becausethey’re being cleaned that day — it’s theone day a year they clean the fountains.So then you need somebody there witha fistful of hundred-dollar bills!”

For a feature film, scouting cantake months. For a TV series, it can takea few days each week throughout aseason. Scouting time for commercials

often ranges from a couple of days to aweek.

Barbara Miller is an L.A.-basedlocation scout who works extensively incommercials. She started with a back-ground in art and a love of traveling. Alocation scout who was a friend-of-a-friend offered Miller a job andmentored her during her early efforts.Miller tries planning her day so that shephotographs a location to its bestadvantage. One location might bebetter at magic hour, whereas anotherwill have her there really early in themorning.

Remarking on the differencesamong directors, she notes, “Somedirectors draw their own storyboardsand say, ‘If you could find this — thisideal landscape, the way the jaggedmountains are in the background, and[with] plenty of room in the foregroundto run the 700 head of longhorn cattle… with lightning and thunder ….’Another director I work for shoots a lotof digital video, and he likes me topresent my photos with somethingclose to an HD aspect ratio.”

Regardless of the type of produc-tion, typical scheduling requires thelocation scout to work with the directorand sometimes the producer often

◗ Tips On Location Scouting

For a Cars.comcommercial, Epps

helped find alocation where the

production couldstage an explosive

stunt.

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74 September 2011 American Cinematographer

before the cinematographer is evenhired. Willis notes, “Most cinematogra-phers are hired way too late. By the timeyou get there, the designer or art direc-tor has been running around for twomonths.” When he discovered prob-lems in such situations, he notes, hewould start eliminating things. “I’m an

eliminator by nature. I don’t add; I elim-inate. If you’re having problems, youshould take something out, not putsomething in.”

Willis provides an example: “Youhave to shoot at 5 a.m., and you getready to shoot only to find that the artdepartment is waiting for this special

truck to arrive that they want to put inthe background. Well, you need to startshooting in 20 minutes, so you mightrecommend simply eliminating thetruck.”

Douglas Dresser is a locationmanager and scout focusing primarilyon features. He says, “I worked on KillBill with Bob Richardson [ASC], andfor driving shots in the desert, he wasvery clear. He said, ‘We can’t have anyhighways that are on a north-southaxis, only east-west.’” Dresser soonfound that there were no highwayswith the desired orientation in the areawhere they planned to shoot. The film-

makers had to either drive 60 miles tofind a highway that worked, or spendmore time working with the naturallight to achieve the desired effect. “Ithink we did a combination of both,”recalls Dresser. “Something as simple asa driving shot becomes a huge deal ifyou’re traveling in the wrong direction.”

Dresser tells another Kill Billroad story: “We were doing back-ground plates for three or four nights[in Mexico]. We wanted to [drivethrough] the town, but they had speedbumps. We had guys out in front of thecamera cars chiseling speed bumpsfrom the streets of this small town sowe could go blasting through!” Henotes that the production obtained thetown’s permission for this in advance,and the team repaired the speed bumpswhen they were finished.

◗ Tips On Location Scouting

Top: Urban locations photographed by Lori Balton (top) and Tony Salome (bottom) demonstrate their eye for ambience.

“The most importantthing for the

cinematographer iswhere the sun is on

the location.”

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Burum has a few observationsabout roads. “[When] shooting on ahighway, you have to make sure thattraffic can be stopped, that you have a

place to park your equipment, and thatyou can turn around at either end. [If]you’re on a mountain road and therearen’t suitable turnouts, you have to tell

the director, ‘We’re going to have todrive 5 miles to turn around. Do youwant to do that?’

“Every choice on a shoot containssome kind of compromise,” Burumcontinues. “There are artistic, practicaland political considerations. Nothing isperfect. You have to be very quick onyour feet and very adaptable; you haveto remember what the scene is aboutand what you need to accomplish.

“If you’re going to build a setsomewhere, you have to make sure thelocal lumber yard or hardware store[has] the materials you need,” hecontinues. “Then there are city servicesor county services — police, security,and fire and traffic departments. Allthose details have to be taken care of.

“But the most important thingfor the cinematographer is where thesun is on the location — what the sunangle is at the time of year you’re goingto shoot — and what the weather is inthe area,” he emphasizes. “If you’re

◗ Tips On Location Scouting

To help create this “interesting situation,” Epps found an appropriate street corner in downtown L.A.

Phot

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77

shooting by the ocean, you have to gettide tables. [If] you scout three or fourmonths ahead, you have to rememberthat what you’re seeing is going to[change] with the seasons. People oftenforget about that.”

Willis notes that clear and effec-tive communication is key. “A lot ofpeople worry that they’ll get in troubleif they say something, but they get inmore trouble if they notice a problem orpotential problem and don’t say some-thing. I’ve always been kind of pushyabout how and where something shouldbe shot.”

On the ideal relationshipbetween the location professional andthe cinematographer, Dresser observes,“I’m currently working with Tom Stern[ASC, AFC], who is fantastic aboutfinding the reality in a location, aboutfinding the magic in it, and about givinginput on what works and what doesn’t.It’s always a pleasure to work withsomebody who doesn’t just say, ‘This

won’t work,’ but instead tells you exactlywhat he’s looking for and why. Thatbenefits the project in the long run.

“One thing that’s really helped usin our communication with the cine-matographer is the advent of digital

libraries,” adds Dresser. “Even if thecinematographer is not yet on the job,he can review some of our potentiallocations and provide input.”

Some have expressed concernthat such libraries might one day makelocation scouts redundant, but genericimages of a location cannot replace thestoryteller’s eye. Though there areprofessional similarities among thepeople who contributed to this article,each brings a uniquely personal visionto his job.

Ultimately, says Balton, locationprofessionals exist to help the directorand cinematographer define the storyand the characters, and the right loca-tions can mean the difference betweenmediocre and magnificent results. ●

Location professionals exist tohelp the director and

cinematographerdefine the story and

the characters.

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78 September 2011 American Cinematographer

Cinelicious Invests in Film’s FutureBy Jay Holben

Opening a boutique post house with a focus on film projectscould be perceived as risky in this day and age, but Paul Korver, theprincipal officer at Cinelicious in Hollywood, believes now is theperfect time to invest in film. “So many people believe all theprogress is happening in digital and that no one is innovating in film,but that couldn’t be further from the truth,” he says. “Today’s filmstocks are better, and today’s film-scanning technology allows us toreally get the absolute best out of the negative, which is especiallyimportant with the coming of 4K theatrical projection.”

Located in a hip, industrial environment on Melrose Avenue,a few blocks west of Paramount Studios, Cinelicious currently offersone color room — a Baselight system connected to a Spirit Datacineand a state-of-the-art Scanity 4K digital film scanner — but a 4K DLPprojection DI theater with a 25' screen was nearing completion atpress time.

Digital Film Technology’s Scanity is the star of the facility’s

workflow. Capable of scanning at 4K at 15 fps, and offering adynamic range of 3.1-3.3 density, the Scanity features an LED lampsource, a Time Delay Integration line sensor and dedicated Field-Programmable Gate-Array image processing.

The Scanity is a sprocketless, tension-driven system, utilizingcomputer-controlled positioning driven by a photographic sensorthat locks each frame in place within 6 microns (the size of one 4Kpixel), delivering pin-registration accuracy without ever penetrating aperf. This combination of gentleness and accuracy makes the Scan-ity ideal for not only visual-effects and feature-DI scanning, but alsoarchival and restoration work, which often involves delicate materi-als. (Cinelicious also offers a temperature-controlled vault for theproper storage of nitrate film materials.)

The Scanity has a 16mm gate that is prepared for 16mm,Super 16mm and Ultra 16; the latter uses a wide area of regular16mm (into the perfs) to create an organic 1.85:1 aspect ratio with-out requiring the lens recentering that is necessary when converting16mm cameras to Super 16mm. The scanner can also accommo-date 2-perf, 3-perf and 4-perf 35mm and 8-perf 35mm VistaVision.

Post Focus

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Cinelicious is a boutique post house that serves film and digital projects but is particularly focused on film. “Today’s film stocks are better, and today’s film-scanning technology allows us to really get the absolute best out of the negative,” enthuse s the

company’s principal officer, Paul Korver.

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“In choosing a scanner, I wanted thebest technology possible, and we tookabout a year to find the Scanity,” saysKorver. “We created a roll of test film thathad resolution charts up to 250 line-pairsper millimeter, which is way beyond therange of any scanners [in the 80-150 lp/mmrange], and created density wedges from 0to 4, in addition to shooting registrationcharts at Panavision Hollywood. I wanted tocreate a film loop that would push any scan-ner to the absolute limit of what it could do.Then we graded the results based on reso-lution, registration and dynamic range.

“Registration and resolution were onpar with other high-end, pin-registeredscanners, but what blew us away about theScanity was its dynamic range,” Korvercontinues. “Kodak Vision3 stocks have 3.1-3.3 density range; all other scanners werehovering around 2.3 density, but the Scan-ity came in at 3.3. This should be great newsfor cinematographers who want all thatinformation to play with in their DI.”

Korver got his start in the business bycreating Fifty Foot Films, a company thatfilmed special events on 35mm, 16mm andSuper 8mm. Shortly after opening thedoors, Korver had teams shooting privateevents all around the country, but he wasfrustrated by post facilities’ insistence on all-digital workflows. “I was looking for a posthouse that could simply telecine straight toProRes files, and back in 2008 I couldn’t findanyone,” he recalls. “Everyone wanted togo to tape first and then charge us for digi-tizing the tape to ProRes. Instead, webought an Ursa Diamond telecine, hired acolorist and offered our post workflow in ahigh-end studio we built in my garage,which is how Cinelicious was born.”

Cinelicious began taking on outsideclients, and was soon receiving film andhard drives from productions all around theworld. “We set up a pipeline that allowedus to offer ColorCast Live sessions, whichstreamed the color session over the Internetwith live Flash Encoding so that the clientcould watch the session from anywhere inthe world,” he says. “We started gettingrequests for agency-supervised finishing atthe studio, but I was reluctant given thelocation. I knew we had to evolve to a newspace to be truly client friendly.”

Korver soon moved the work out of

80 September 2011 American Cinematographer

Top: Cinelicious’1960s-inspiredlobby. Middle:

The facility’s colorroom boasts a

FilmLight Baselightsystem, which is

connected to aSpirit Datacine and

Scanity 4K digitalfilm scanner.Bottom: The

Scanity (left) is thestar of the

facility’s workflow.

Page 83: American Cinematographer 201109

his garage and into the full-service facilityon Melrose Avenue. Just as he wished,Cinelicious works off of a completely data-centric workflow, forgoing tape rooms for alarge SAN server and Quantum LTO-5 robotfor backup and storage.

Cinelicious feels like a high-endcommercial post house, and indeed,commercials are a part of the company’sclient base, but the facility caters to inde-pendent and studio productions as well.“Two years ago, fewer than 10 featureshad a 4K finish, and they were all $100million productions,” says Korver. “Now,with the Scanity and our streamlined postworkflow, we can bring the cost of a 4K DIdown into the range of $20 million produc-tions, maybe even $10 million productions.

“We don’t shy away from all-digitalfilmmakers,” he adds. “We just happen toreally, really love film. With artists who arepassionate about image making, you don’thear, ‘I want to make film look like digital!’You hear, ‘I want digital to look like film.’

“We are dedicated to supportingfilmmakers at the highest level, no matter ifthe tool of choice is film or digital, 2-D or 3-D. Other people might say we’re crazy forinvesting in film at all, but I say we’re blaz-ing a trail for cinematographers to get themost out of their images.”

Cinelicious, 5735 Melrose Ave., LosAngeles, CA, 90038, phone: (323) 464-3700, website: http://cinelicious.tv/.

Facility News

Studio 108 Opens New FacilityStudio 108 has opened the doors of

its new, integrated effects/animation/production/post facility in Richmond, Va. Ithas tripled its size with the move, whichcoincides with the company’s 10th anniver-sary.

“Studio 108 has built a reputationas the region’s go-to creative resource forinnovative and compelling commercials,corporate media, music videos and filmsthat exceed our clients’ expectations with-out going over budget,” says Jack Hart-mann, founder of Studio 108. “Our expan-sive new bi-level space in Manchester Flatsprovides our team of multi-disciplined direc-tors, writers, producers, editors, effectsartists, animators and mixers with an inspir-

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ing open-architecture creative environmentthat allows them to take our work to thenext level. It also offers our clients the kindof over-the-top amenities that leave themlooking forward to coming back and work-ing with us again.”

“Our goal was to create a truly full-service creative environment that wouldprovide a seamless workflow, whetherclients call upon us to work with them on aspecific phase of their project, or takeadvantage of the inherent cost effective-ness of our one-stop concept throughcompletion capabilities,” says Tyler Snidow,director of business development for Studio108. “Once a client gives us the reins ofthat first job, the benefits of working witha team that approaches each project as aunit and collaborates through every stageof production become clear.”

Among the new facility’s offeringsare three master suites, each featuring FinalCut Pro, After Effects and Cinema 4D andintegrating editorial, motion graphics andcolor-correction capabilities. Additionally,

the main level boasts a dedicated audiosuite outfitted with a sound booth, ProTools, Final Cut Pro and After Effects.

The facility also houses a 20'x40'live-action studio, which provides acomplete arsenal of equipment, includingHD and SD cameras, lighting packages, arolling greenscreen, grip equipment and aset-fabrication workshop. Studio 108 alsooffers two state-of-the-art remote vehicles,which are fully equipped to accommodatelocation shoots.

“Our new space puts the industry’smost cutting-edge technology at thefingertips of our team … in a creativehaven where they can collaborate seam-lessly, under one roof,” says Hartmann.“Innovative problem solving supported bystrong client service in comfortablesurroundings where creativity flourishes —that’s what the new Studio 108 is allabout.”

For additional information, visitwww.studio108.com.

Codex Enables Pivotal PostLos Angeles facility Pivotal Post,

which supplies state-of-the-art editorialsystems to film and television productionsworldwide, is using Codex’s Digital Labsystem as the hub of its Digital Mobile Labservice. The mobile workflow is designedfor backing up digital camera media,processing dailies and preparing deliver-ables for editorial and other post processes.The service allows film and televisionproductions to perform on-set or on-loca-tion much of the digital laboratory workthat formerly required a post facility.

“Digital workflows have madeeditorial a central part of production, oftenin a near-set environment,” says SarahPriestnall, Codex Digital’s vice president formarket development. “As a result, it isnatural that Pivotal Post should seek toextend the support it provides to its Avidrental customers by supplying them withCodex equipment and workflow expertise.We are excited to be a key part of this newbusiness initiative.”

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Pivotal Post CEO Kevin Hymanenthuses that the Digital Mobile Lab “is anideal solution for preparing dailies and deliv-ering them to editorial. It’s a perfect hand-off, and Codex makes the best technologyfor doing so. We couldn’t be happier withthis relationship.”

For additional information, visitwww.pivotalpost.com and www.codexdigital.com.

Company 3, Method Studios Share 3-D ServicesCompany 3 and sister facility

Method Studios now offer clients a seam-less workflow for stereoscopic 3-D feature-film digital intermediates. Filmmakers havethe option to have any portion of left/right“eye” alignment fixes addressed withinMethod’s dedicated stereography division.

“When you work in stereo, there arealways certain discrepancies between thetwo ‘eyes,’” explains Steven Shapiro, leadstereographer and director of software andpipeline at Method. Shapiro, who has been

intricately involved in stereoscopic postpro-duction for nearly a decade, notes that thecollaboration allows clients to maximize theclose relationship between both compa-nies, which share a building on SantaMonica’s Arizona Ave. “If any alignmentissues come up during grading, we canliterally walk down to Company 3’s DItheater, located within Method’s SantaMonica facility, ascertain the problem, fix itand drop it back into the timeline while thecolor-grading session continues,” he says.

For additional information, visitwww.company3.com and www.methodstudios.com.

Deluxe Acquires StereoDDeluxe Entertainment Services

Group Inc. has closed on a definitive asset-purchase agreement to acquire the busi-ness assets of StereoD, LLC, a leadingprovider of conversions of 2-D theatricalcontent into stereoscopic 3-D imagery.StereoD’s 2-D to 3-D conversion creditsinclude Captain America: The First Avenger,

Thor and The Green Hornet.“StereoD has grown rapidly in a year

and a half, not only because of its propri-etary VDX technology, but also because ofits proven ability to service its clients,” saysASC associate member Cyril Drabinsky,president and CEO of Deluxe. “They are aperfect fit for Deluxe, both for StereoD’straditional content business and in newareas such as 3-D Blu-ray, 3-D TV channels,3-D commercials and 3-D streamingcontent.”

William Sherak, president ofStereoD, will continue to run the business,reporting to Drabinsky. StereoD’s talentpool of stereographers and graphic artists isjoining Deluxe as part of the transaction.“With StereoD’s 2-D to 3-D workflow, andDeluxe offering the full scope of all otherdeliverables, this becomes a true one-stopshop for our clients,” says Sherak.

For additional information, visitwww.bydeluxe.com. ●

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Assessing the Merits of 24-Frame Video PlaybackBy Monte Swann

Since the beginning of time, or at least since Howard the Duck(1986), the first movie I ever worked on, TV monitors have been blue.While preparing to shoot a scene in the apartment occupied by themain character, Beverly (Lea Thompson), Richard H. Kline, ASC toldme to “warm it up a little bit!” The sets were built in a brutally coldSan Rafael warehouse, and most of us were gathered aroundportable gas heaters or bundled up in Arctic gear. Rubbing my handstogether, I replied, “Yeah, it’s really cold.” Richard gave me an oddlook, then pointed to the TV and said, “It’s too blue.” I looked downat the TV and realized he was not commenting on the temperatureonstage, but was instead referring to the color temperature of the TV.

This was my first solo mission, and I had only been workingfor Video Image, a pioneer in the burgeoning field of 24-frame video,for a few months. I gave Richard a thumbs up, as if to say, “I knewthat,” and casually walked back to my playback machines. In thosedays, 24-frame playback material was mastered on 3⁄4" U-Maticcassettes containing two passes of the same material. The first passwas corrected for tungsten (3,200°K), and the second pass wasnormal, or daylight (4,500°K). I cued up the corrected pass andhustled back out to the set.

The image on the TV was an unnerving shade of orange, butwhen I viewed it through my 80B filter, it looked normal. I made afew adjustments to the TV, set the exposure and, using a sync box onthe camera, rolled out the shutter. Richard checked it with his meterand gave me the nod. Of course, I wouldn’t really know if I’d screwedup until dailies were screened the next day, so I was nervous. As itturned out, the monitor looked fine, and although I was feeling reallyimpressed with myself, no one else seemed to even notice — theycommented on how good the actors and set looked, how moody thelighting was or how sharp the focus was.

That, of course, is the way it should be: unless the color orexposure is off, or if, God forbid, there’s a shutter bar flickering across

the bottom of the screen, no one should notice the TV in the scene. Today, although we have flat-screen LCD monitors, plasma

screens with fluorescent backlights, and DLP projectors with bright,shimmering mirrors, things haven’t really changed much. The newflat screens are really cool, but that’s the problem: they’re really, reallycool. The old tube-type CRT televisions burned around 4,500°K,whereas the new flat screens burn anywhere from 6,000-14,000°Kand are far greener than their predecessors.

The first time I worked with a plasma screen was on Enemy ofthe State (1998). Everyone was excited about the new technologyand claimed it would all but eliminate the need for 24-frame videosync. Keen to promote the world’s first flat-screen plasma TV in thishigh-profile film, Phillips sent over a few of its soon-to-be-released42" plasma screens. During prep, the director of photography, DanMindel (future ASC), suggested we include the plasma in the cameratests.

Using the standard correction tools of the time, a pre-recordedtape corrected for 3,200°K and an 80B filter, I adjusted the color onthe screen for tungsten light. No matter how much tweaking I did,however, the color just didn’t look right. I checked it with my Minoltacolor meter, and, sure enough, the temperature was decidedly green.This, of course, was the result of the fluorescent backlight. Using thetint controls on the Phillips monitor, I was able to add enoughmagenta so the image looked “normal” on the meter. But this newtechnology had one other artifact to reveal. Because plasma screensare not based on the scanning technology of CRT monitors, everyoneassumed it would not be necessary to feed it with a 24-frame videosource and sync it to the camera. This bit of misinformation revealeditself all too clearly when our film test was screened the following day:a rolling shutter bar could be seen floating down the plasma’s massivescreen.

If anything, plasma technology has made the video engineer’sjob more challenging. It’s still necessary to sync the screens to 24-frame and color correct them. The real problem, however, is that mostplasma screens won’t accept the oddball frequency generated by a

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Left: Though their newness was appealing, large plasma screens proved problematic during camera tests for Enemy of the State, so the filmmakers chose to stick with older, reliable CRT technology for the movie’s many onscreen monitors. Right: Just a few years e arlier,

LCD technology was used for a variety of small screens in Demolition Man.

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86 September 2011 American Cinematographer

24-frame video system, and finding onethat will is always frustrating. As a result, allthe screens featured in Enemy of the Statewere old, reliable CRT monitors, includingthe video wall in NSA headquarters.

LCD technology was available at thetime — we had used such screens exten-sively a few years earlier on Demolition Man(1993) — but plasma was the only technol-ogy available in a large-format screen.

LCD technology seemed almost fool-proof at first, requiring only a standard 30-frame video signal. The only downside atthe time was a very narrow sweet spot limit-ing your angle of view. In a Demolition Manscene that shows the prison warden (playedby Mark Colson) talking to Huxley (SandraBullock) on a handheld device, it was neces-sary to attach the screen to the actor andthe dolly with a C-stand arm to maintain itsangle to the camera. As the technologyadvanced, the screens got better and larger,but some of them revealed other problems.The newer backlight units are increasinglysusceptible to the flicker and flutter similarto that of an unregulated 50-cycle Europeanlight source.

If you saw the latest Star Trek movie(AC June ’09), which offered me anotherchance to collaborate with Dan Mindel, youmight remember the seamless video screenthat wrapped around the perimeter of thebridge of the Enterprise. This was built froma customized Orion display system using 1642" plasma screens placed side by side. Therest of the set was populated with dozensof large LCD screens displaying the variouscontrol surfaces of the ship. A few daysbefore filming was scheduled to begin, weprepared to shoot a camera test on thebridge. I balanced the color on all the moni-tors by displaying a gray-scale chart on eachscreen, then set the exposure and shot thetest. The LCD screens looked great, butthere was a major flicker rolling through theplasma screens, even though we were feed-ing them a 24-frame signal. This set wasdesigned around the plasmas, and theycouldn’t be easily replaced.

After Dan and I discussed all ouroptions, he decided to use a 144-degree cutshutter, one of the oldest tricks in the book;it was the method used in the early days oftelevision to archive live TV shows on film.

The cut shutter eliminated the plasmaflicker, but it also caused many of the LCDsto flicker. The only solution was to replace allthe LCDs with models using more tolerantbacklights.

With the advances in digitalcompositing, some filmmakers are opting toshoot greenscreen instead of a live image ona monitor. Shooting a greenscreen elimi-nates the need to make an immediate deci-sion on the content of the image, but it alsolimits the actors’ ability to interact with theimage. It also affects the scene’s lighting:instead of featuring the corrected light emit-ted by the video screen, the scene is awashwith a pale-green glow that appears onevery reflective surface on the set. Of course,this green spill has to be removed in post.

On Unstoppable (2010), thecommand center for the company responsi-ble for the runaway train featured hundredsof flat-screen monitors. Director Tony Scottand cinematographer Ben Seresin, BSC real-ized early on that greenscreen playback wasout of the question because of the glasspartitions jutting into the set from all angles.Tony prefers to use real locations and realtechnology when he can. (Let’s face it: noth-ing looks more real than the real thing.) Toachieve the look he wanted, Ben used a mixof sources, including Kino Flos and tungstenlamps, and because the monitors werefeatured in every shot, they were used assources as well. Color correction was critical,and I spent many hours tweaking eachmonitor until everything had the properbalance. It worked well; nothing about themonitors looked unusual.

The 24-frame video process has beenutilized with great effect in many films, andit will likely continue to be a part of thecreative process on many more. If your nextproject takes place in ancient Rome, youwouldn’t think twice about the need forrealistic wardrobe and set dressing. By thesame token, if your story takes place in CIAheadquarters or a broadcast-TV studio, whywould you second-guess the value of real-time imagery? ●

Right: To balance thecolor on all the plasma

and LCD monitorsfeatured on the bridgeof the Enterprise in thelatest Star Trek movie,the author displayed a

gray-scale chart on eachscreen, then set the

exposure and shot a test.In this photo, the gray

scale appears on the rowof LCD monitors, which

are just below theplasmas. Below: A frame

from the finished filmshows the final effect.

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t h e p o w e r o f 1o n l i n e

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Page 90: American Cinematographer 201109

88 September 2011 American Cinematographer

P+S Unveils X35 P+S Technik has intro-

duced the PS-Cam X35, arobust digital camera thatcombines sync-sound andhigh-speed capabilities.

The PS-Cam X35’sdesign allows continuouslyadjustable speed ratesfrom 1-450 fps, and thecamera boasts a dynamicrange of 11 T-stops. The

18 GB internal memory allows for more than four minutes of 24 fpsrecording; a 36 GB memory upgrade is planned. The camera alsofeatures two switchable HD-SDI interfaces in 1.5G and 3G for exter-nal recording and monitoring.

The camera features a CMOS 35Digital sensor with a21.1x11.9mm capture size for 1920x1080 full HD. It currentlyfeatures HD 4:2:2 10-bit uncompressed recording, but options arein the works for 4:4:4 10-bit and raw 12-bit uncompressed. Thecamera is also 3-D compatible and features time code in/out andgenlock in/out, as well as RS232, USB, GigE and planned WLANcontrol.

Numerous IMS-mount adapters are available for the X35’sPS-IMS lens mount. Other accessories include a hand unit for remotecontrol, HD-SDI recorders, standard batteries and an electronicviewfinder.

For additional information, visit www.pstechnik.de.

Flying-Cam III Takes FlightFlying-Cam has introduced the Flying-Cam III, a.k.a. Special

Aerial Response Automatic Helicopter, an all-electric vertical-take-off-and-landing miniature unmanned aerial system boasting 30minutes of flight time. The system is the result of seven years ofR&D.

Incorporating efficient aerodynamics, innovative automaticflight modes and modular interchangeable payloads in a portable,

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quickly deployable system, SARAH boasts a new gyrostabilizedcamera head that is integrated using motion-control technology forrepeatable moves. The head features automatic horizon leveling andcan hold cameras such as the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Red Epic, SonyPMW-F3 and Panasonic AG-AF100. The system offers a headingaccuracy of 0.5 degrees and a DGPS boasting 2.5cm precision.

For additional information, visit www.flying-cam.com.

Oppenheimer Powers AlexaOppenheimer Camera Products has introduced the Alexa On-

Board Mains Power Supply, offering acomplete AC power solution for Arri’sAlexa digital camera.

The device provides universalworld power capability from 90-264-volt AC at 50/60Hz. It mountsmechanically (not electrically) to theGold Mount or V-Mount battery plate;electrically, it provides 28-volt DCpower from its outlet to the camera’stwo-pin Fischer inlet with a customcable. If necessary, users can inter-change the Power Supply mounting between Gold Mount and VMount. The system weighs less than 3 pounds and is cooled by aquiet fan.

The Power Supply includes four accessory ports, supplyingone 14-volt outlet in the Arri-standard two-pin Lemo and three 28-volt outlets in the Arri-standard three-pin Fischer. The total capacityof the Power Supply is 250 watts, giving users more than 100 wattsof headroom over what the camera (and its own accessory ports)might draw.

The system is housed in a custom enclosure that is powdercoated for durability. The main components are rated at more than3 million hours. The Power Supply comes with a one-year warrantyagainst manufacturing defects.

For additional information, visit www.oppenheimercameraproducts.com.

Meduza Offers Modular Stereo ShootingMeduza Systems recently unveiled the Meduza Camera

System, a digital stereoscopic 3-D camera.Designed and built specifically to shoot 3-D, the Meduza

allows filmmakers to shoot in native 4:3 format at 4096x3072 reso-lution. “The camera format and resolution level mean the image isbeing acquired at a 1:1 pixel ratio for 15-perf/70mm format and stillallows for smaller extraction for traditional cinema and TV screens,”says Jonathan Kitzen, president of Meduza Systems.

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The Meduza features interchange-able lenses and precise, remote-controlledvariable interaxial and convergence. Weigh-ing less than 15 pounds, the Meduza is asingle camera with a single set of electronicsand a single set of controls that powers twoimaging sensors at the same time, eliminat-ing synchronization issues.

“The Meduza is completely modu-lar,” says Chris Cary, CEO of 3D Visual Enter-prises, the parent company of MeduzaSystems. “This is a completely new approachto the very specific needs of stereoscopic 3-D content creation …. The camera is notsensor dependent. As sensor capabilityadvances, new modules will be available inweeks, not years. Filmmakers can choosethe sensor and custom configuration thatfits their needs and still have the ability tocompletely change over the camera inseconds.”

For additional information, visitwww.meduzasystems.com.

Rule, Fastec Go High Speed with TS3CineRule Boston Camera and Fastec

Imaging have introduced the TS3Cine high-speed camera. This portable digital camerafeatures a unique 7" built-in LCD screen andrecords 1280x1024 images at up to 500 fps;the camera can also record up to 20,000 fpsat reduced resolutions.

Built by Fastec, the TS3Cine is offeredexclusively through Rule Boston Camera.

The TS3Cine boasts an accessible,easy-to-navigate menu system that can alsobe operated over Gigabit Ethernet usingeither a PC or Mac with standard Webbrowser for long-distance control. Addition-ally, multiple storage options allow users toeasily download images to thumb drives,

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Page 92: American Cinematographer 201109

90 September 2011 American Cinematographer

from 11⁄3 to 11 stops with no blue color shiftat maximum density. The kit comprises ascrew-on True-Match filter in 67mm to95mm sizes that mounts on the cameralens, a Schneider 4"x4" rotating two-slotfilter holder and a True-Match 4"x4" filter.The filters can be purchased separately,without the filter holder, for those whoalready have a 4"x4" rotating matteboxwith 4mm slots.

For additional information, visitwww.schneideroptics.com.

Polecam Goes Wide for DSLRsPolecam has unveiled the Polecam

Wide motorized camera head, a single-operator broadcast-quality head designedto accommodate DSLR cameras or smallcamcorders. The Polecam Wide is fullycompatible with Polecam rigs of up to 6-meters span.

“The new head operates underhigh-precision electronic controls, whichallow slow or fast action to be tracked withgreat finesse,” says Steffan Hewitt, Pole-cam’s founder and managing director. “Panand tilt angle can be smoothly adjusted orcontinuously varied at a wide range ofspeeds, from ultra-slow 4 seconds perdegree up to a fast 7 seconds per complete360-degree rotation. Integral slip-rings canbe used to convey power to the camera andto export composite video for monitoring.That provides the capability of shooting

unlimited horizontal pans without gettingcables in a tangle.

“Pan and tilt speeds are joystickcontrolled via an electronic drive systemprogrammed with a U-shaped accelerationand deceleration profile,” Hewitt continues.“This delivers fine control when the stick isin its central range, becoming faster as thestick is deflected towards its maximumangle.”

Technical features of the PolecamWide include high-resolution pulse-width-modulated electronic drive, replacing thebipolar direct-current feed used on Pole-cam’s previous joystick control system. Opti-cal pulse encoders fitted to the pan and tiltmotors provide feedback to the motorcontroller, ensuring smooth and stableoperation. Motor braking is activated when-ever the joystick is stationary. An integral12-pin connector delivers up to 12 volts at1 ampere to power a camera.

For additional information, visitwww.polecam.com.

Transvideo Expands Monitor LineTransvideo has introduced its

TitanHD monitor and CineMonitorHD3DView family of monitors to the U.S.market.

The wireless TitanHD system incor-porates MiMo OFDM technology, whichprovides up to 300' of clear, interference-free HD/SD/composite signal. The wirelesscapability allows users to remain near thecamera rather than tied to a power sourceaway from the action.

The CineMonitorHD 3DView Evolu-tion is an all-in-one monitor for stereogra-

SD cards or portable storage drives. TheTS3Cine’s built-in solid-state drive providesup to 256 GB of internal storage.

For additional information, visitwww.rule.com, www.fastecimaging.comand www.ts3cine.com.

Schneider Offers True-Match ND KitSchneider Optics has introduced the

True-Match 10-stop variable ND filter kit,designed to work in conjunction withSchneider’s DSLR 4" Filter Support system.

The filters in the True-Match kit workin combination to produce a density range

ABC Products Makes Moves with Jib 100ABC Products has introduced the Jib 100, which was designed to accommodate a

wide range of professional camcorders. The Jib 100 boasts high stability and weighs only 41.8 pounds, and it packs down to

59"x14"x9", making it easy to transport. The jib features a boom length of 64", a totalcrane length of 94" and a lift of 84" with a maximum payload of 44 pounds.

Additional features includean integrated horizontal and verticalbrake and a trimmer to precisely levelthe jib. The Jib 100 also provides aeuro-mount adapter at the jib headthat permits the mounting of suchaccessories as low rigs or remoteheads. The crane support can bemounted on any solid tripod with a100-150mm-diameter ball adapter.

For additional information,visit www.abc-products.de.

Page 93: American Cinematographer 201109

phers that includes all the necessary func-tions to make 3-D pictures easily from HD-SDI cameras. The 3DView Evolutionincludes a patented gen-lock analyzer, twoHDMI inputs and two HD-SDI inputs.

The CineMonitorHD 3DView “S”includes all the functionality of the evolu-tion model, plus it synchronizes the HD-SDIor HDMI inputs to make 3-D movies withDSLRs or high-speed cameras such as thePhantom HD or Weisscam. The synchro-nized signals are available on HD-SDIoutputs.

For additional information, visithttps://transvideo.eu.

Flanders Scientific Takes Monitor into FieldFlanders Scientific, Inc., has intro-

duced the LM-1760WF Field Unit. Based onthe LM-1760W, this lightweight 17" moni-tor has been specifically modified for fielduse and supports 12-volt DC directly, with-out the need for an external 12-volt to 24-volt DC adapter. The unit is also equippedwith a standard AC power connection.

The LM-1760WF comes with acarrying bag with integrated hood, whichcan be used in both a desktop and light-stand configuration. The combined weightof the monitor and carrying bag is 17.5pounds. Made of durable cordura andballistic nylon, the interior of the bag helpsprotect the monitor with foam padding anda single-piece honeycomb frame. The built-in four-sided hood provides shade for view-ing, and the back leg can be adjusted foroptimal tilt.

The Field Unit also comes with twoclear protective covers, which can beattached to the front of the monitor viasimple hook-and-loop fastener strips. Thesecovers help protect the LCD panel from

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92 September 2011 American Cinematographer

damage. The covers are made of high-qual-ity, scratch-resistant, optical-grade acrylic.

The Field Unit also ships with a light-weight, durable VESA to 5⁄8" spigot light-stand adapter, which allows for quick andeasy mounting on a light stand. The adapterfeatures two pivot points for maximum

adjustability, and it can be left attachedeven when not in use.

The LM-1760WF with carrying bagand hood, protective covers, and VESAadapter is available for $2,795. For addi-tional information, visit www.flandersscientific.com.

DaVinci Shares Resolve LiteBlackmagic Design has announced

the availability of DaVinci Resolve Lite, areduced-feature version of DaVinci Resolvethat includes many powerful color-correc-tion features in a downloadable softwarepackage free of charge.

Based on DaVinci Resolve 8, DaVinciResolve Lite runs on the latest iMac, 17"MacBook Pro and Mac Pro computers.Resolve Lite limits projects to SD and HDresolutions, two color-correction nodes, asingle processing GPU and a single RedRocket card. Resolve Lite can still accepthigh-resolution source footage in 2K and4K from the latest digital cameras, such asthose from Red and Arri, and it does includehigh-quality optical resizing, curve grading,XML import and export, 32-bit floatprocessing, YRGB image processing, multi-layer timelines, stabilization, window track-ing, primary and secondary color correction,real-time processing, capture and playbackwith deck control, compatibility with third-party control panels, and more.

Stereoscopic 3-D features, noisereduction, power mastering, remote grad-ing and sharing projects with an externalserver are only offered in the full DaVinciResolve. Users who want to eliminate theserestrictions can purchase the full DaVinciResolve software for $995.

For additional information, visitwww.blackmagic-design.com.

Third Floor, Framestore Join for London OfficePrevisualization company The Third

Floor, Inc., has joined visual-effectscompany Framestore to provide Europeanfilmmakers with top-tier previs expertise.Based in the U.K., the new venture isknown as The Third Floor – London, and itwill see the two companies sharing staff,tools, skills, philosophies and an initial head-quarters at Framestore’s Wells Street office.

“This partnership enables us to help

directors and their entire crews maintainand realize their vision from early develop-ment through to the final visual effectsthrough a collaborative and efficientprocess,” enthuses Chris Edwards, TheThird Floor’s CEO and creative director.

William Sargent, CEO of Framestore,adds, “This is a genuinely exciting venturethat will be a serious boost to the burgeon-ing European market. I have long been anadmirer of The Third Floor team. We have ashared passion for filmmaking, visual excel-lence and storytelling, and we can furtherharness these mutual passions by combin-ing skills, contacts and resources.”

For additional information, visitwww.thethirdfloor.com and www.framestore.com.

Keyframe Details Cam ReportNorwegian developer Keyframe

Software has released Cam Report 2.5 forthe iPhone and iPod Touch. This update ofthe camera-reporting system covers bothEuropean “slate” and American andGerman “shot” conventions, as well assupporting Arri, Red and Canon file names.

Cam Report’s digital reportingsystem gives users a unique toolset formetadata handling, report generation andcommunication of data across all aspects ofthe workflow. The app provides user-speci-fied and pre-defined tags that follow thereport through to the final edit and colorgrade. Additionally, reports can bereviewed, printed and shared securely overthe Web, and they can also be exported asPDFs. Cam Report 2.5 also allows users toadd reference pictures to a take, either from

Innovision Gets Close With Probe II-PlusInnovision Optics has released the

Probe II-Plus, which features a mountingsystem for DSLR camera systems. Theunique periscope attachment allows users tocapture extreme close-ups and differentangles of view, putting the lens less than ¾"from the ground and allowing it to fit insmall spaces. The Probe II-Plus is also water-proof.

The attachment features high-resolu-tion glass elements and relay optics forimages with remarkable edge-to-edgesharpness, flat field and extreme depth offield. State-of-the-art multiple coatingsprovide sharp, low-dispersion images.

The Probe II-Plus is available with avariety of standard-resolution focal lengths(9mm, 12mm, 16mm, 20mm and 32mm)and with high-resolution focal lengths(12mm, 20mm, 28mm, 40mm and 55mm).Additionally, the Probe II-Plus is available ininterchangeable Straight 45-degree and 90-degree Periscope attachments.

For additional information, visitwww.innovision-optics.com.

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the user’s library or directly from theiPhone’s built-in camera.

Cam Report is available in the AppleApp store for $29. For more information,visit www.kfapps.com.

Soluble Apps Puts ShotList in PocketSoluble Apps, in collaboration with

Northern Film & Media, has introduced theShotList app for the iPhone, iPod Touch andiPad. The app brings the production strip-boards system to mobile devices, allowingusers to plan and track every scene of ashoot as it happens.

Users can enter as much or as littleinformation into the app as they want.ShotList can be used to provide a series ofshot numbers and storyboard frames, or itcan contain all of the detail which wouldusually be pulled from a script and enteredinto a production strip board as part of thescheduling process. This powerful pocket-sized tool lets filmmakers react and respondquickly to on-the-day challenges, such asweather conditions or issues with locationsor cast.

Within ShotList, users can add, edit,delete or re-order scenes freely across multi-ple shooting days, with instant updating ofthe total number of script pages to be shoteach day. Each scene can be clearly markedas “To Do,” “Delay,” “Cut” or “Done” asthe production progresses. Up to six story-board frames can be viewed for each scene,and storyboards can be marked off as theyare shot. Hot-linked notes can also bestored for each scene, and users can keepeveryone on the production informed ofchanges by emailing the latest one-lineschedule or exchanging updated projectfiles with other ShotList users via Dropbox.

ShotList is available via the AppleApp Store for $29.99. For more informa-tion, visit www.solubleapps.com. ➣

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Tamajii Draws StoryboardsToronto-based company Tamajii has

introduced Storyboards, an iPad appdesigned to help filmmakers create, edit andshare storyboards with ease.

Developed for filmmakers of all levels,Storyboards offers thousands of drawings ofcharacters and props to allow shots to becomposed quickly and easily. Tamajii alsooffers a custom drawing service to provideusers with specific characters and props fortheir storylines. All elements can be dragged,dropped, rotated and edited using standardiPad gesture controls. Shots can also be fine-tuned without the need to redraw or recon-struct entire frames.

Storyboards can be printed andexported in both PDF and proprietary Story-boards format, allowing them to be sharedwith other iPad users via iTunes or email.Individual frames can also be viewed in theiPad Photo Album. The application alsoallows storyboards to be outputted to anexternal monitor or projector using a digitalAV or VGA adapter.

The app is available for free in a BasicEdition via the iTunes and Apple App Store,and it can then be upgraded to a PremiumEdition for $14.99 via an in-app purchase.

For additional information, visitwww.tamajii.com.

StoryBoard Artist Gets UpdatePowerProduction Software has

released StoryBoard Artist Version 5, whichenables fast creation of digital storyboards.Extended file import options, new built-inartwork, automatic storyboard generationand sketch-style presentations headline anarray of new features in Version 5.

“StoryBoard Artist has served as ahigh-end storyboarding solution for [more

than] a decade,” says Paul Clatworthy, CTOof PowerProduction Software. “Since theinitial StoryBoard Artist release, we haveadded indispensible features such as theTimeline, which sets storyboard frames intime with tracks of audio … and Non-LinearLinks, which accounts for user interactivity ingame and mobile app development. Version5 builds upon this rich history of innovationby introducing automatic storyboard gener-ation and sketch-style presentations.”

New features include extended fileimport options such as 3-D GoogleSketchUp files; built-in artwork includingCharacter, Prop and Location options; objecteffects, which allow users to easilycustomize built-in artwork; Sketch Mode forprinting, working and presenting; andQuickShots Technology for fast, automatedstoryboard creation.

StoryBoard Artist Version 5 is avail-able through the PowerProduction Softwareworldwide reseller channel and direct fromthe PowerProduction Software website for$799.99. For more information, visitwww.powerproduction.com. ●

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Page 99: American Cinematographer 201109

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Page 100: American Cinematographer 201109

Advertiser’s Index16x9, Inc. 96

AC 1,Aja Video Systems, Inc. 9Alan Gordon Enterprises 96American Film Market 75Arri 35ASC 95Assimilate 67AZGrip 97

Backstage Equipment, Inc. 89Bardwell & McAlister, Inc 11Barger-Lite 81, 96Bron Imaging Group - US 55Burrell Enterprises 96

Cavision Enterprises 39Chapman/Leonard Studio Equipment Inc. 51Chemical Wedding 85Chimera 63Cine Gear Expo 79Cinematography Electronics 6Cinekinetic 96Clairmont Film & Digital 23Codex Digital Ltd., 53Convergent Design 73Cooke Optics 25CTT Exp & Rentals 81

Deluxe C2DV Expo 99

Eastern Entertainment 6Eastman Kodak C4EFD USA, Inc 19

Film Gear 65Filmtools 91Fujifilm 16a-d

Gekko Technology 94Gemini 3D Camera 93Glidecam Industries 13Grip Factory Munich/GFM 89

Hive Lighting 91Hollywood Rentals 82

Innovision 97

J.L. Fisher 43

K5600 21Kino Flo 15Kobold 55

LDI 87Lee Filters 27LitePanels 2

MAT - Berlin 41Matthews Studio Equipment 96Mississippi Film Office 65M.M. Muhki & Sons 97Movcam Tech. Co. Ltd. 37Movie Tech AG 97Musicians Institute 66

New York Film Academy 42

Oppenheimer Camera Prod. 6, 96

Panther Gmbh 54PC&E 14PED Denz 96, 97Pille Film Gmbh 97Power Gems Limited 26Pro8mm 96

Rosco Laboratories, Inc 77

ServiceVision USA 76Shelton Communications 96S.Two 83Super16 Inc. 97Surreal Road Limited 89Sylvania 7

Tessive LLC 61Thailand Film Office 91Thales Angenieux 5Tiffen C3Transvideo/France 49

VF Gadgets, Inc. 96

Willy’s Widgets 96www.theasc.com 4, 93, 98

Zacuto Films 97

98

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For more than ten years, the Digital Video Expo has been the destination for content creation professionals to explore the latest technologies, learn from world-class professionals and connect with peers who share the same passion. This year’s Expo

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Page 102: American Cinematographer 201109

100 September 2011 American Cinematographer

American Society of Cinematographers RosterOFFICERS – 2010-’11Michael Goi,

President

Richard Crudo,Vice President

Owen Roizman,Vice President

John C. Flinn III,Vice President

Victor J. Kemper,Treasurer

Frederic Goodich,Secretary

Stephen Lighthill,Sergeant-at-Arms

MEMBERS OF THE BOARDJohn BaileyStephen H. BurumRichard CrudoGeorge Spiro DibieRichard EdlundFred ElmesMichael GoiVictor J. KemperFrancis KennyIsidore MankofskyRobert PrimesOwen RoizmanKees Van OostrumHaskell WexlerVilmos Zsigmond

ALTERNATESMichael D. O’SheaRodney TaylorRon GarciaSol NegrinKenneth Zunder

Roger DeakinsJan DeBontThomas Del RuthBruno DelbonnelPeter DemingJim DenaultCaleb DeschanelRon DexterCraig Di BonaGeorge Spiro DibieErnest DickersonBilly DicksonBill DillAnthony Dod MantleStuart DryburghBert DunkLex DuPontJohn DykstraRichard EdlundEagle EgilssonFrederick ElmesRobert ElswitGeoffrey ErbScott FarrarJon FauerDon E. FauntLeRoyGerald FeilSteven FierbergMauro FioreJohn C. Flinn IIIRon FortunatoJonathan FreemanTak FujimotoAlex FunkeSteve GainerRon GarciaDavid GeddesDejan GeorgevichMichael GoiStephen GoldblattPaul GoldsmithFrederic GoodichVictor GossJack GreenAdam GreenbergRobbie GreenbergXavier GrobetAlexander GruszynskiChangwei GuRick GunterRob HahnGerald HirschfeldHenner HofmannAdam HolenderErnie HolzmanJohn C. HoraTom HoughtonGil HubbsShane HurlbutTom HurwitzJudy Irola

Don McCuaigSeamus McGarveyRobert McLachlanGeary McLeodGreg McMurrySteve McNuttTerry K. MeadeSuki MedencevicChris MengesRexford MetzAnastas MichosDouglas MilsomeDan MindelCharles MinskyClaudio MirandaGeorge MooradianDonald A. MorganDonald M. MorganKramer MorgenthauPeter MossM. David MullenDennis MurenFred MurphyHiro NaritaGuillermo NavarroMichael B. NegrinSol NegrinBill NeilAlex NepomniaschyJohn NewbyYuri NeymanSam NicholsonCrescenzo NotarileDavid B. NowellRene OhashiDaryn OkadaThomas OlgeirssonWoody OmensMiroslav OndricekMichael D. O’SheaAnthony PalmieriPhedon PapamichaelDaniel PearlEdward J. PeiJames PergolaLowell PetersonWally PfisterBill PopeSteven PosterTom Priestley Jr.Rodrigo PrietoRobert PrimesFrank PrinziRichard QuinlanDeclan QuinnEarl RathRichard Rawlings Jr.Frank RaymondTami ReikerRobert RichardsonAnthony B. Richmond

Mark IrwinLevie IsaacksPeter JamesJohnny E. JensenTorben JohnkeFrank JohnsonShelly JohnsonJeffrey JurAdam KaneStephen M. KatzKen KelschVictor J. KemperWayne KennanFrancis KennyGlenn KershawDarius KhondjiGary KibbeJan KiesserJeffrey L. KimballAdam KimmelAlar KiviloDavid KleinRichard KlineGeorge KoblasaFred J. KoenekampLajos KoltaiPete KozachikNeil KrepelaWilly KurantEllen M. KurasGeorge La FountaineEdward LachmanKen LamkinJacek LaskusAndrew LaszloDenis LenoirJohn R. LeonettiMatthew LeonettiAndrew LesniePeter LevyMatthew LibatiqueCharlie LiebermanStephen LighthillKarl Walter LindenlaubJohn LindleyRobert F. LiuWalt LloydBruce LoganGordon LonsdaleEmmanuel LubezkiJulio G. MacatGlen MacPhersonConstantine MakrisDenis MaloneyIsidore MankofskyChristopher ManleyMichael D. MarguliesBarry MarkowitzSteve MasonClark MathisDon McAlpine

ACTIVE MEMBERSThomas AckermanLance AcordLloyd Ahern IIHerbert AlpertRuss AlsobrookHoward A. Anderson IIIHoward A. Anderson Jr.James AndersonPeter AndersonTony AskinsCharles AustinChristopher BaffaJames BagdonasKing BaggotJohn BaileyMichael BallhausAndrzej BartkowiakJohn BartleyBojan BazelliFrank BeascoecheaAffonso BeatoMat BeckDion BeebeBill BennettAndres BerenguerCarl BergerGabriel BeristainSteven BernsteinRoss BerrymanMichael BonvillainRichard BowenDavid BoydRussell BoydJonathan BrownDon BurgessStephen H. BurumBill ButlerFrank B. ByersBobby ByrneAntonio CalvachePaul CameronRussell P. CarpenterJames L. CarterAlan CasoMichael ChapmanRodney ChartersJames A. ChressanthisT.C. ChristensenJoan ChurchillCurtis ClarkPeter L. CollisterJack CoopermanJack CoufferVincent G. CoxJeff CronenwethRichard CrudoDean R. CundeyStefan CzapskyDavid DarbyAllen Daviau

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Bill RoeOwen RoizmanPete RomanoCharles Rosher Jr.Giuseppe RotunnoPhilippe RousselotJuan Ruiz-AnchiaMarvin RushPaul RyanEric SaarinenAlik SakharovMikael SalomonHarris SavidesRoberto SchaeferTobias SchliesslerAaron SchneiderNancy SchreiberFred SchulerJohn SchwartzmanJohn SealeChristian SebaldtDean SemlerEduardo SerraSteven ShawRichard ShoreNewton Thomas SigelSteven SilverJohn SimmonsSandi SisselBradley B. SixMichael SlovisDennis L. SmithRoland “Ozzie” SmithReed SmootBing SokolskyPeter SovaDante SpinottiTerry StaceyUeli SteigerPeter SteinTom SternRobert M. StevensDavid StocktonRogier StoffersVittorio StoraroHarry Stradling Jr.David StumpTim SuhrstedtPeter SuschitzkyAlfred TaylorJonathan TaylorRodney TaylorWilliam TaylorDon ThorinJohn TollMario TosiSalvatore TotinoLuciano TovoliJost VacanoTheo Van de SandeEric Van Haren Noman

Kees Van OostrumChecco VareseRon VargasMark VargoAmelia VincentWilliam WagesRoy H. WagnerRic WaiteMichael WatkinsMichael WeaverJonathan WestHaskell WexlerJack WhitmanGordon WillisDariusz WolskiRalph WoolseyPeter WunstorfRobert YeomanRichard YuricichJerzy ZielinskiVilmos ZsigmondKenneth Zunder

ASSOCIATE MEMBERSAlan AlbertRichard AschmanKay BakerJoseph J. BallAmnon BandCarly M. BarberCraig BarronThomas M. BarronLarry BartonWolfgang BaumlerBob BeitcherMark BenderBruce BerkeBob BiancoSteven A. BlakelyMitchell BogdanowiczMichael BravinWilliam BrodersenGarrett BrownRonald D. BurdettReid BurnsVincent CarabelloJim CarterLeonard ChapmanMark ChiolisDenny ClairmontAdam ClarkCary ClaytonMichael CondonSean CoughlinRobert B. CreamerGrover CrispDaniel CurryRoss DanielsonCarlos D. DeMattosGary DemosMato Der Avannesian

Kevin DillonDavid DodsonJudith DohertyCyril DrabinskyJesse DylanJonathan ErlandRay FeeneyWilliam FeightnerPhil FeinerJimmy FisherScott FleischerThomas FletcherGilles GalerneSalvatore GiarratanoRichard B. GlickmanJohn A. GreschJim HannafinWilliam HansardBill Hansard, Jr.Richard HartRobert HarveyJosh HaynieCharles HerzfeldLarry HezzelwoodFrieder HochheimBob HoffmanVinny HoganCliff HsuiRobert C. HummelRoy IsaiaGeorge JobloveJoel JohnsonJohn JohnstonMarker KarahadianFrank KayDebbie KennardMilton KeslowRobert KeslowLarry KingenDouglas KirklandTimothy J. KnappKarl KresserChet KucinskiChuck LeeDoug LeightonLou LevinsonSuzanne LezotteGrant LoucksHoward LukkAndy MaltzSteven E. ManiosPeter MartinRobert MastronardiJoe MatzaAlbert Mayer, Jr.Bill McDonaldKaren McHughAndy McIntyreStan MillerWalter H. MillsGeorge Milton

Mike MimakiMichael MorelliDash MorrisonNolan MurdockDan MuscarellaIain A. NeilOtto NemenzErnst NettmannTony NgaiMickel NiehenkeJeff OkunMarty OppenheimerWalt OrdwayAhmad OuriMichael ParkerWarren ParkerKristin PetrovichEd PhillipsNick PhillipsJoshua PinesCarl PorcelloHoward PrestonDavid PringlePhil RadinChristopher ReynaColin RitchieEric G. RodliDomenic RomAndy RomanoffFrederic RoseDaniel RosenDana RossBill RussellKish SadhvaniDavid SamuelsonSteve SchklairPeter K. SchnitzlerWalter SchonfeldJuergen SchwinzerSteven ScottDon ShapiroMilton R. ShefterLeon SilvermanGarrett SmithTimothy E. SmithKimberly SnyderStefan SonnenfeldJohn L. SprungJoseph N. TawilIra TiffenSteve TiffenArthur TostadoJeffrey TreanorBill TurnerStephan Ukas-BradleyMark Van HorneRichard VetterDedo WeigertFranz WeiserEvans WetmoreBeverly Wood

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 1

Jan YarbroughHoyt YeatmanIrwin M. YoungMichael ZachariaBob ZahnNazir ZaidiMichael ZakulaLes Zellan

HONORARY MEMBERSCol. Edwin E. Al drin Jr.Neil A. ArmstrongCol. Michael CollinsBob FisherDavid MacDonaldCpt. Bruce McCandless IILarry ParkerD. Brian Spruill

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Society Welcomes New AssociatesJeffrey A. Okun, Steve Schklair and

Jeff Treanorwere recently named associatemembers of the ASC.

Visual-effects supervisor Jeffrey A.Okun began his career with a still camera,which he used to chronicle the rock sceneof the 1970s. As his interests turned towardmoving images, he found work as an editorfor title designer Saul Bass, and later as acinematographer on commercials and shortfilms. He transitioned into visual effects as a“fix-it guy” on features, series and commer-cials, and he has since earned credits asvisual-effects supervisor on such features asThe Last Samurai, Blood Diamond, The Daythe Earth Stood Still and Red Riding Hood.Okun currently chairs the Visual EffectsSociety, and he is a member of the VisualEffects Branch of the Academy of MotionPicture Arts & Sciences, the Academy ofTelevision Arts & Sciences and BAFTA.

Steve Schklair, the CEO of 3alityDigital Systems, holds a master’s degreefrom the University of Southern California’sSchool of Cinema. He was a vice presidentat visual-effects studio Digital Domain, acreative director for R/Greenberg Associ-ates, and an executive producer for interac-tive-media pioneer Robert Abel. In 1989, heserved as director of photography for theaward-winning film To Dream of Roses ,which was produced in partnership withDouglas Trumbull for release at the 1990Osaka World Expo.

Jeff Treanor, the U.S. film and tele-vision representative for Rosco Laboratories,was born and raised in Los Angeles. Afterearning a bachelor’s degree in behavioralstudies from The Master’s College, hebecame a deputy sheriff for Los AngelesCounty. In 1997, he leftlaw enforcementand entered the film industry as the assis-tant manager of the expendables store onthe Warner Hollywood lot. When Warnersold the property, Treanor helped startQuixote Studio Store. He joined Rosco

Laboratories in 2006 as the theatrical salesrepresentative for the West Coast.

ASC Stills on View in MaineMaine Media Gallery, a part of

Maine Media Workshops + College,recently hosted an exhibit of still photogra-phy shot by ASC members. ThomasAckerman, Bill Bennett, RichardBowen, Russell Carpenter, RodneyCharters, Richard Crudo, Steven Fier-berg, Michael Goi, Robbie Greenberg,Conrad L. Hall , Peter James, FrancisKenny, Jacek Laskus, Denis Lenoir,Stephen Lighthill, Isidore Mankofsky,Michael B. Negrin, Rene Ohashi, DanielPearl, Robert Primes, Marc Reshovsky,Owen Roizman, Paul Ryan, DeanSemler, Sandi Sissel, Dante Spinotti,Vittorio Storaro, John Toll, HaskellWexler and Vilmos Zsigmond had workin the show.

“Our art form is different than stillphotography in many ways, but both disci-plines share a vital purpose,” notes Crudo.“As cinematographers, our creative processallows us to produce an indelible record ofwho we are and how we see the world.Though the tools we use — light, composi-tion and movement — have remainedconsistent, we always strive to apply themin ways that are both unique and reveal-ing.”

For more information about Maine Media programs, visit www.mainmedia.edu.

Zsigmond, Winterhalter Travel to IndiaVilmos Zsigmond, ASC and AC

publisher Martha Winterhalter recently trav-eled to Mumbai to attend the Cinema IndiaExpo, an annual gathering of filmmakersand service providers in the heart of theBollywood industry. During their time at theExpo, Zsigmond taught two master classes,which were presented by Createasphere incollaboration with Kodak and the ASC. In

Clubhouse News

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Top to bottom: ASC associate members Jeffrey A.Okun, Steve Schklair and Jeff Treanor.

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the first class, he detailed his approach tospecific scenes in the films The Rose, Deliverance and Close Encounters of theThird Kind. The following day, Zsigmonddiscussed lighting and camerawork withthe standing-room only audience, whichcomprised more than 250 attendees.

During their visit, Zsigmond andWinterhalter toured Reliance MediaWorks’lab and soundstages in Film City, as well asKodak’s offices and lab in Mumbai.

Bailey Joins Academy’s East Africa OutreachJohn Bailey, ASCwas among eight

members of the Academy of MotionPicture Arts & Sciences who recently trav-eled to Kenya and Rwanda for an educa-tional and cultural exchange with filmmak-ers, students and local creative communi-ties. Along with Bailey, the delegationcomprised producer Stephanie Allain,sound mixer Willie Burton, editor CarolLittleton, writer/director Phil Robinson,production designer Wynn Thomas andactress Alfre Woodard. The trip was under-taken as part of the Academy’s Interna-tional Outreach Initiative, which brings filmartists to countries with developing filmindustries and creates opportunities forconversations between emerging andestablished filmmakers.

The itinerary included numerousworkshops and seminars at One Fine Day – Films in Nairobi and a visit to theKakuma refugee camp near the Sudaneseborder, where FilmAid Internationalprovides filmmaking training and open-airscreenings. In Rwanda, the delegates inau-gurated the KWETU Film Institute andtaught master classes. The group alsoparticipated in the opening night of theRwanda Film Festival in Kigali.

Cundey Joins Breakfast ClubDean Cundey, ASC recently partici-

pated in the Society’s ongoing series ofBreakfast Club interviews. Moderated byAC associate editor Jon D. Witmer, the inter-view covered Cundey’s first steps into thefilm industry as well as his groundbreakingwork with such directors as RobertZemeckis, Steven Spielberg and RonHoward. Cundey illustrated his work withclips from Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Backto the Future Part II and Jurassic Park. Healso took questions from the enthusiasticaudience, which comprised students andprofessionals alike. The program beganwith breakfast, during which attendeescould mingle and network.

ASC Breakfast Club seminars areopen to the public. Tickets are $20 forFriends of the ASC, $35 general admissionin advance and $40 at the door. For infor-mation on future events, visitwww.theasc.com.

Barron Revisits Forbidden PlanetASC associate and visual-effects

supervisor Craig Barron recently joinedsound designer Ben Burtt at the Academy’sLinwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood for ascreening of the 1956 sci-fi classic Forbid-den Planet, shot by George Folsey, ASC.Barron discussed the film’s breakthrougheffects sequences, including how theanimated “id monster” was combined withlive-action photography, and Burttexplained the creation of the film’s elec-tronic score. ●

Clockwise from top left: Indian Society ofCinematographers members (from left) AdeepTandon, Anoop Chatterjee and Apurba Bir presentVilmos Zsigmond, ASC with birthday cake while ACpublisher Martha Winterhalter (in mirror) snaps aphoto; Zsigmond with (from left) Ankur Acharya,Ankit Sharma, Ajit Jadhav, Mehernoz Maloo, RachnaPawar, Ashutosh Naidu, Rajesh Jiandani, Suresh Iyerand Amit Sherigar; Zsigmond with (from left) RajanKothari, Krishnamurthy, Raffey Mehmood, KenMetzker, Sudhir Phulsane, Andre Menezes, MaheshAney and Bobby Singh; John Bailey, ASC leads alighting class in Nairobi, Kenya; Dean Cundey, ASCand AC associate editor Jon D. Witmer; Ben Burtt(left) and ASC associate Craig Barron flank Robby the Robot.

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When you were a child, what film made the strongest impres-sion on you?In those days, without television, every film made a strong impres-sion, but I should mention the original The War of the Worlds (1953)and The Bridges of Toko-Ri (1954).

Which cinematographers, past orpresent, do you most admire?ASC members William Daniels, JimmyWong Howe and, more recently, BillFraker, Giuseppe Rotunno and VittorioStoraro. Great cinematographers seemto have the ability to bring beautifulprints all the way to the movie theater.

What sparked your interest inphotography?I don’t remember exactly what tookme to still photography as a kid, but Iloved the magic of the darkroom— the negative and the print and theimage appearing in the developerbath.

Where did you train and/or study?I was mostly self-taught. A cinematog-rapher uncle of mine was my firstteacher, in Nairobi, Kenya. When Ireturned to Italy, I worked for Italian TVin Milano, far from the movie industryin Rome. I was shooting mostly 16mm.I would experiment and watch the movies of the masters.

What are some of your key artistic influences?Visual art from Giotto to modern artists, design, architecture andphotography.

How did you get your first break in the business?When I was on staff at the Italian state TV station, I got a call fromMarco Ferreri, a well-known director in Rome. Then I got another,from Sergio Citti. I decided to leave the safety of TV and become afreelancer.

What has been your most satisfying moment on a project?Any time my original choice of visual language proves to be the rightone when the film is completed.

Have you made any memorable blunders?Some 30 years ago, I was shooting 16mm reversal and pushing to

2,000 ASA. I did not consider the limited latitude of a night exteriorin Venice, where I was working with gondolas and actors in a 17th-century drama. Later, all I could see in the shot were the torches theactors were holding.

What is the best professionaladvice you’ve ever received?It was actually given to my son whenhe was getting ready to direct his thesisfilm at the American Film Institute. JayFortune, a New York gaffer I’d justcompleted a film with, suggested tohim, ‘Don’t lose your sense of humor,even when everything seems to begoing in the opposite direction.’

What recent books, films orartworks have inspired you?Photography by Robert Frank and NanGoldin. I’m inspired any time I visit amodern-art museum. I still refer toStanley Kubrick, and what aboutFellini’s 81⁄2?

Do you have any favorite genres,or genres you would like to try?Movies where I can use a lot of shad-ows. I did a Western with Sam Raimisome time ago, and a musical in Italywith Gabriele Salvatores 25 years ago. Iwould like to do those genres again.

If you weren’t a cinematographer, what might you be doinginstead?Climbing mountains or farming.

Which ASC cinematographers recommended you formembership?Allen Daviau, Vilmos Zsigmond, Steven Poster and Vittorio Storaro.

How has ASC membership impacted your life and career?I still remember how proud I was when I moved to the United States,in 1997, and was accepted into the ASC. I got to know Tonino DelliColli, AIC when he came to L.A. to accept the ASC InternationalAward. The ASC offers inspiring guidance and is a continuous refer-ence for me. ●

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