american cinematographer july 2013 us

7/22/2019 American Cinematographer July 2013 US

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JULY 2013

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www.red.com 2013 Red.com, Inc. All rights reserved.

The smallest camera makes the biggest images.

This still frame was pulled from 5k RED EPIC motion footage. The Great Gatsby 2013 Warner Bros Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.


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After shooting The Knowing on the RED ONE, I was looking

forward to shooting on the RED EPIC and it turned out to be the

perfect camera for our 3D feature The Great Gatsby. The look

and resolution of the images from the EPIC are nothing short of incredible.

On 300 Rise of an Empire, the EPIC was faultless and the end

result was simply stunning 96fps imagery. Simon Duggan, ACS


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The International Journal of Motion Imaging

32 Prime TargetAnna Foerster, ASC coordinates chaos on White House Down

44 Wild PlanetPeter Suschitzky, ASC employs a 4K workflow on

After Earth

56 An Indie Twist on ShakespeareJay Hunter shootsMuch Ado About Nothingon a12-day schedule

64Tournament of DeathGil Hubbs, ASC celebrates the 40th anniversary of

Enter the Dragon

DEPARTMENTS

FEATURES

VISIT WWW.THEASC.COM

On Our Cover: Policeman John Cale (Channing Tatum) picks his way through rubble afterterrorists launch an all-out assault on 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in White House Down, shot

by Anna Foerster, ASC. (Photo by Reiner Bajo, courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment.)

10 Editors Note12 Presidents Desk14 Short Takes: Dreamland20 Production Slate: Laurence Anyways Post Tenebras Lux76 New Products & Services82 International Marketplace83 Classified Ads84 Ad Index86 Clubhouse News88 ASC Close-Up: Don Burgess

J U L Y 2 0 1 3 V O L . 9 4 N O . 7

44

56

64


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The International Journal of Motion Imaging

In an exclusive online podcast, cinematographer Nancy Schreiber, ASC and director Dan Mirvishwill discuss their collabo-ration on Between Us, a darkly comedic drama about two couples, Grace and Carlo (played by Julia Stiles and Taye Diggs)and Sharyl and Joel (Melissa George and David Harbour), who reunite over the course of two heated evenings. The firstencounter takes place in the huge Midwestern home of the wealthy Sharyl and Joel; the second occurs a few years later inNew York, when the couples find that their fortunes have turned. Schreiber and Mirvish will discuss how they transcended

the limitations of low-budget filmmaking while adapting Joe Hortuas Off-Broadway play for the screen.

Left: Julia Stiles, Melissa George,David Harbour and Taye Diggs star inBetween Us. Right: CinematographerNancy Schreiber, ASC blocks out ascene with director Dan Mirvish(wearing hat) and crewmembers.(Photos courtesy of Bugeater FilmedEntertainment, LLC.)

J U L Y 2 0 1 3 V O L . 9 4 N O . 7

Adrian Sierkowski: The Lexington Hotelsequence from Road to Perdition [shot by Con-rad Hall, ASC]. Its an amazing shot on a tech-nical level, beautifully lit, and though very intri-cate its not overly flashy or distracting. It showswhat it needs to show and really builds tensionas we move closer and closer to a murder.

Blake Larson: The opening scene of TheGodfather, shot by Gordon Willis, ASC. It ush-ered in an entirely new era of dramatic cine-matography.

Richard Vialet: The beautifully composedshot of Anju stepping out into the lake in San-sho the Bailiff[shot by Kazuo Miyagawa].

J.J. Islas: The scene in Touch of Evil [shot byRussell Metty, ASC] when Hank Quinlan [Orson

Welles] murders Uncle Joe Grandi [AkimTamiroff]. Ive never seen any other sequencequite like it.

Matt Croyle: The school bus/hallwaysequence in Donnie Darko [shot by StevenPoster, ASC]. Its a marriage of soundtrack andcamera. The change of speed, the highlightingof each character its simply too fun not toget swept up in it.

Frank Salvatierra: The final scene of FallenAngels [shot by Christopher Doyle, HKSC] abeautiful, simple, abstract combination of cine-matography, music and performance.

David Golden: The most epic shootout evercommitted to film: Heat[shot by Dante Spinot-

ti, ASC, AIC]. I watched that and remembersaying to my girlfriend at the time, I wanna dothat! Twenty-odd years later, I am. Life-defin-ing moment!

Adrian Shahrizad: The Gods-eye viewfrom Taxi Driver [shot by Michael Chapman,ASC] right after the climax. This type of cameraangle puts you in a position to judge, and afterthat scene, thats exactly what you need.

Clark Mayer: I always thought the scene in

Jurassic Park [shot by Dean Cundey, ASC],when Grant [Sam Neill] pulls Lexs [ArianaRichards] leg up through the ceiling before theraptor bites it is one of the single most sus-penseful shots I have ever seen. Its the kind ofshot rewind and slow-motion frame skippingwere invented for.

Filipe Carvalho: All of The Tree of Life [shotby Emmanuel Lubezki, ASC, AMC].

Tony Murphy: The hula-hoop sequenceThe Hudsucker Proxy[shot by Roger DeakiASC, BSC]. Like every great sequence, itsmovie in itself.

Elias le Daaboul: Grace Kelly going in the kiss in Rear Window [shot by Rob

Burks, ASC].

Lance Mazmanian: The handheld, fmagazine follow/master with multiple expsure changes in Steven Spielbergs Duel[shby Jack Marta, ASC] the scene when Denis Weaver walks from daylight outside, inthe diner, through the diner, to the dimlybathroom, where he talks to the mirror athen goes back out to consider all the patrowhile standing in the middle of the diner. one shot, in a 1971 made-for-TV movie!

Denis Buckley: The house-fire sequenceTarkovskys The Mirror [shot by GeoRerberg]. The language of film is its owmusic.

Matt Manning: In Lawrence of Arabia [shby Freddie Young, BSC], as Lawrence ventuinto the desert, the sense of scale is amazinThe men and their camels are hardly visiamong the towering cliffs.

SEE AND HEAR MORE CINEMATOGRAPHY COVERAGE AT WWW.THEASC.COM

THIS MONTHS ONLINE QUESTION: Which shots or sequences have inspired you the most?

To read more replies, visit the magazines Facebook page: www.facebook.com/AmericanCinematographer


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J u l y 2 0 1 3 V o l . 9 4 , N o . 7

T 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 at

www.theasc.com

PUBLISHER Martha Winterhalter

EDITORIAL

EXECUTIVE EDITOR Stephen Pizzello

SENIOR EDITOR Rachael K. Bosley

ASSOCIATE EDITORJon D. Witmer

TECHNICAL EDITOR Christopher Probst

PHOTO EDITOR Julie Sickel

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Benjamin B, Douglas Bankston, Robert S. Birchard,John Calhoun, Michael Goldman, Simon Gray,

David Heuring, Jay Holben, Noah Kadner,

Jean Oppenheimer, Iain Stasukevich,Patricia Thomson

ART DEPARTMENT

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Marion Kramer

ADVERTISING

ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTORAngie Gollmann

323-936-3769 FAX 323-936-9188

e-mail: [email protected]

ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR Sanja Pearce

323-952-2114 FAX 323-876-4973


CLASSIFIEDS/ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Diella Peru

323-952-2124 FAX 323-876-4973


CIRCULATION, BOOKS & PRODUCTS

CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Saul Molina

CIRCULATION MANAGER Alex Lopez

SHIPPING MANAGER Miguel Madrigal

ASC GENERAL MANAGER Brett Grauman

ASC EVENTS COORDINATOR Patricia Armacost

ASC PRESIDENTS ASSISTANT Delphine Figueras

ASC ACCOUNTING MANAGER Mila Basely

ASC ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE Nelson Sandoval

American Cinematographer(ISSN 0002-7928), established 1920 and in its 93rd 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 internationalMoney 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 2013 ASC Holding Corp. (All rights reserved.) Periodicals postage paid at Los Angeles, CAand at additional mailing offices. Printed in the USA.

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

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12/92

At some point in his career, Roland Emmerich must have

been denied a VIP tour of the White House. How else toexplain the directors apparent grudge against the presiden-tial residence? Having already blown 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.to smithereens in Independence Day, Emmerich retargetedthe site for White House Down, this time enlisting AnnaFoerster, ASC to help him demolish the seat of Americaspower. The two had previously collaborated on the perioddramaAnonymous (whose climax still allowed Emmerich totorch the Rose Theatre), but on White House Down, Foersterknew the action would be amped to the max. However, asshe tells Michael Goldman (Prime Target, page 32), sheembraced the idea of creating eye-catching images of

carnage: I became intrigued by the possibility of shooting an action movie without servingall the usual visual clichs.

M. Night Shyamalan and Peter Suschitzky, ASC shot devastation on an even granderscale while mounting the futuristic thrillerAfter Earth, in which humans have entirely aban-doned their toxic planet. The first feature to go into production with Sonys F65 camera Oblivion was released in theaters first the project was also the first to adopt a 4K work-flow for all aspects other than visual effects. Shyamalan initially intended to shoot the movieon film, but Suschitzkys camera tests convinced him to go digital. I was a staunch film guy,so the switch to digital wasnt taken lightly, Shyamalan tells Benjamin B (Wild Planet, page44). It was earned by this camera and, in my mind, only this camera could have convincedme to do it. It has a kind of richness that I associate with film, and it has a capacity to rendercolors that I think exceeds film.

Director Joss Whedon and cinematographer Jay Hunter provide an arty alternative topopcorn movies with Much Ado About Nothing, their ultra-indie take on Shakespearesfamed romantic farce. Shot in 12 days, this contemporary version serves up black-and-whiteimages, minimal lighting and backyard drama staged, quite literally, at Whedons house.Attempts to film Shakespeare frequently take a very traditional, proscenium-style approach,and Joss and I [both wanted] to avoid that, Hunter tells Jean Oppenheimer (An Indie Twiston Shakespeare, page 56). We wanted to get the camera inside the scenes to keep thecamera close to the actors and move around with them.

Naturally, we could not let the 40th anniversary of Enter the Dragon pass withoutapplause, so we recruited one of the movies most enthusiastic fans, formerACstaffer DavidE. Williams, to craft an impassioned homage (Tournament of Death, page 64). After soak-ing in a screening of an original 35mm Technicolor dye-transfer print at the Academy ofMotion Picture Arts and Sciences, Williams sat down with Gil Hubbs, ASC to discuss the cine-

matographers contributions to the martial-arts classic that made Bruce Lee a worldwidesensation. When he took the job, Hubbs had never been to Asia and had never shot ananamorphic movie. So, on the flight over, I got out myAmerican Cinematographer Manualand looked up anamorphic, he recalls. Fortunately, it seemed to be a pretty understand-able thing.

Stephen PizzelloExecutive Editor

Editors Note

0


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We are occasionally asked, What is the American Society of Cinematogra-phers? Many people think we are a guild or union; we are not. We are anhonorary group whose members invite other cinematographers to join basedon the excellence of their work. Written recommendations from three activeASC members are required before a cinematographer is invited to become partof the Society.

Although the ASC recognizes career work in feature films and televisionprojects, we occasionally accept into membership cinematographers who haveextraordinary accomplishments in other realms, including documentaries,commercials and music videos. A complete roster of our members can befound on our website, www.theasc.com, and is published in this magazine ona quarterly basis (most recently last month).

The ASCs mission is twofold: to celebrate excellence in cinematography,which we do with our annual ASC Awards ceremony; and to educate, whichwe do with our publications, chieflyAmerican Cinematographermagazine andtheAmerican Cinematographer Manual(now in its 10th edition), and with thecountless hours our members devote to mentoring, teaching and speaking invarious forums around the world. One of our vice presidents, Richard Crudo,ASC, has remarked that all ASC members are teachers through our individ-ual and collective efforts.

In Malcolm Gladwells book Outliers: The Story of Success, it issuggested that 10,000 hours of practice are necessary for success in almost any

serious profession. At a music conservatory, success in performance was plotted against hours spent in rehearsal, and a directcorrelation was found: The more you practice, the better you become. It seems to us that the same is true with cine-matography, but in a world of 24-hour filmmaking competitions and one-button videography, it is a radical notion that somuch time is needed for mastery. Ten thousand hours is probably about a third of the way through a typical career, and asour mastery of the art and craft increases, so do the wisdom and knowledge we need to be effective collaborators andstorytellers. Mastery of cinematography is experience dependent; the more we shoot, the longer our careers, the better weget.

There are organizations similar to the ASC in every profession because celebrating excellence in any field is good forthat field as a whole. Recognizing great achievements in cinematography is good not only for cinematographers, but alsofor the community of labs, equipment manufacturers and technical experts that serve us. No one is born a master. Only withhard work and collaboration do masterpieces result.

Stephen LighthillASC President

Presidents Desk

12 July 2013 American Cinematographer

PhotobyDouglasKirkland.


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16/92

Eyes on the BallBy Peter Tonguette

In the Iraq of the short film Dreamland, directed by AllaVolkova and shot by Ashley Barron, a soccer ball ends up being asfrustratingly elusive as peace. The story takes place over the courseof a single afternoon during which young Samir (Ameer Zhowandai)sees his prized possession snatched, misplaced and even deflated ashe struggles to make it to a game with friends. It is important thathe not lose the ball; as he explains to his widowed mother, it is theonly one his team has.

Barron recalls that when she first heard producer AlexanderBrodzkis story, she envisioned a textured image. I thought, Great,were going to be able to shoot this on film, she says. When thedecision was made to shoot digitally, she chose an older camera, aPanavision Genesis. A lot of people are afraid of the Genesisbecause of its slow speed, its weight and its somewhat archaicnature compared to other digital cameras, but of all the formats

available at the time, it offered the most texture I could obtain with-out detriment to the image, she says. Nowadays everyone wantsthe image as clean as possible, but thats not always appropriate forthe story.

Barron rated the Genesis at ISO 400 for interiors and ISO 320for the daylit exteriors. The film opens with Samir waking from adream in his dark bedroom. With the Genesis, the darker the envi-ronment, the more gain there is, and you get more noise, Barronsays. To help mitigate this, she and gaffer Ellie Ann Fenton placed aMole-Richardson 10K outside to create a ray of harsh daylight,suggesting the light just barely reaching into the darkness of

Samirs existence, she says.In keeping with her wish for textured visuals, Barron selected

Panavision Superspeed prime lenses, a 32mm, a 40mm and a50mm. Ive always loved the older lenses, she notes. They havea beautiful feel before you put any other filtration in front. Sheused light filtration consistently, choosing Tiffen Black Pro-Mists forinteriors and Schneider Classic Softs for exteriors.

The Superspeeds light weight was important because muchof the film was shot on a Steadicam. Our Steadicam operator,Grant Culwell, was great, Barron says. We had an AJA Ki Pro Miniattached to the back; it took the place of the SRW toaster thatsusually used with the Genesis. My first AC, Uxue Jimenez, had aplan for stripping it down so that we didnt need all the extra bitsand pieces when we could avoid it.

Stylistically, the filmmakers main reference was AndreaArnolds Fish Tank, photographed by Robbie Ryan, BSC (ACFeb.10). The camera stays very close to the main character, either rightbehind her ear or right in front of her, Barron explains. The result

is an incredible intimacy. In Dreamland, when Samir runs througha busy street, the camera runs with him, often focusing on thesoccer ball he carries and providing only transitory glimpses of thepeople around him. The one thing we wanted to avoid at all costswas to make this a film about war, Barron notes.

At one point, when a roadside bomb goes off, the camerastays with Samir instead of surveying the action. When a fullerpicture of the carnage is revealed, we see it from Samirs POV. Theincident temporarily separates Samir from his soccer ball. In themelee following the bombing, the ball gets kicked into a dark,empty building, and when Samir follows it inside, the camera again

Short Takes

Samir (AmeerZhowandai) cares

for his mostprized

possession, asoccer ball, inDreamland.

I



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stays with his POV. The presence of a soldieris revealed when Samir, crouched in acorner, catches the sight of boots approach-ing. Barron lit this scene by bouncing 5Ksand 10Ks into 12'x12' UnltraBounce.

The filmmakers chose to frame in1.85:1 to emphasize the intimate perspec-

tive. Alla and I considered widescreen, butwe never really wanted it to be about thesetting, says the cinematographer. I think2.40 works really well when the location isa character, when you have multiple char-acters, or when you want to play withimbalanced frames, but all we really wanted

to do was be with the kid. Alla has a realknack for childrens stories.

Dreamland was Barrons secondcollaboration with Volkova, who was aclassmate at the American Film Institute.They first worked together on the 16mmshort Clown, made during their first year at

AFI. We got along quite well, Barronrecalls. Also, were both Russian, so it wasnice to work with someone from the Moth-erland!

Volkova prefers to storyboard theentire film before shooting, which suitsBarron fine. She had it all drawn out, andshes very good at drawing. When you lookat one of her storyboards, you can immedi-ately get the idea.

One of Dreamlands most strikingimages comes at the end. Having retrievedhis ball from the building after findinghelp to mend a puncture Samir finallyreaches a field surrounded by hills where hisfriends are playing. The camera, which isfollowing the boy from behind, starts tohang back as he approaches the hill. Thereis a cut to a close-up as a smile comes acrossSamirs face, and then a wide shot as heruns down the hill to join the game. Up tothis point, Barron observes, the filmssettings comprise confined spaces orcrowds. It was always a journey towards thisdreamland, essentially. We wanted to finallyintroduce a primary color, green, when hegets there, and also for the first time breatheand step back with him. All around themwar is going on, but these kids are just beingkids. The film lingers on this sight beforefading to black.

The production lasted six days: twoin downtown Los Angeles, where the interi-ors were shot, and four at Blue Cloud Ranchin Santa Clarita, Calif., which stood in forIraq. There were a few standing sets thatwe redressed, Barron says. Before produc-

tion began, she studied the light at theranch. I made plenty of trips up to SantaClarita, and I just sat there watching howthe sun moves. We were lucky, in that wehad a couple of overcast days on our shoot.In fact, when we shot most of the dialogue,it was overcast, and when we were goingthrough all of the chaos, the sun sort ofpeered out. It was easy to balance it out inthe color correction.

On set, Barron relied on a waveform


Above: Samirssoccer ball is

importantbecause it is the

only one histeam has, but

hanging onto itproves difficult.

Right: Barronstands behind

Volkova as theydiscuss a shot

on set.


19/92

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monitor and light meter, though a GenesisDisplay Processor was available. I exposedthe way that I wanted it to be, so weknew how it would look in the final. Weprovided our colorist, Mike Wolf, withreference images ahead of time, and whenwe came in, we just went through it. Mostof the grading was just balancing theexteriors, because it was in and out of cloudcoverage.

Dreamlandscreened in the StudentEtudes competition at the 2012 Plus Camer-image International Film Festival of the Artof Cinematography. I think this movie willstay with me as a one-of-a-kind project,Barron reflects. You improve with everypicture, but I think this one will always havea place in my heart because of the things weachieved. In the end, she is not even sorryshe could not shoot on film. I guess film isour ideal, but whatever the format, I try tomake the image look good to my eye and fitthe story. The Genesis was great for Dream-land. It met all the technical requirementswe had for achieving what we wanted to

achieve.


Top: Samir flees the site of a roadside bombing. Middle: A soldier surveys the dark, emptybuilding where Samir has followed his soccer ball. Bottom: Volkova looks through her directors

viewfinder with Barron at her side.


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22/92


An Unconventional RomanceBy Jon D. Witmer

Upon turning 35, Laurence Emmanuel James Alia (MelvilPoupaud), a writer and high-school teacher in Montreal, confessesto his girlfriend, Frdrique Belair (Suzanne Clment), that he wantsto live as a woman. Over the next 10 years, Laurence and Fred grap-ple with the public and private repercussions of Laurences transfor-mation and struggle to anchor their individual identities, with theirlove for one another alternately strengthened and pushed beyondbreaking.

Laurence Anyways, which had its U.S. premiere at the 2012AFI Fest, was the first collaboration between 24-year-old directorXavier Dolan and cinematographer Yves Blanger, CSC, whose cred-

its include the CSC Award-winning short Wildflowers and theupcoming feature The Dallas Buyers Club. Blanger recentlydiscussed Dolans film withACvia Skype.

American Cinematographer: How much prep time didyou have with Xavier?

Yves Blanger, CSC: We started shooting in Montreal inFebruary [2011], but I was with him right after the holidays. He saidhe wanted a mix of handheld, very rough scenes and scenes thatwere very precise, almost Fellini-esque. The movie he showed meright away was Fish Tank, shot by Robbie Ryan [BSC;ACFeb. 10]. Iwrote to Robbie, and he wrote me back and told me what equip-

ment he used, so I said to Xavier, Lets use the same things. So, weused a Panaflex Millennium XL with Primo lenses and Fuji negative.We used Eterna 250D 8563 and F-64D 8522 for day exteriors, andEterna 500T 8573 for everything else. Half of the story takes placein winter and half in the summer. We started with the winter scenes,then Xavier edited for a few months, and when we came back inthe summer, he knew he didnt need [to shoot] certain scenes andhad added a few new ones. Im 28 years older than Xavier, and Idnever had a luxury like that.

Was the fact that Fish Tank was shot in 1.33:1 theprimary reason you chose that format?

Blanger: When Xavier was doing the color timing for hissecond movie, Heartbeats, the technician made a mistake andscreened 10 minutes in 4:3. Xavier said, Its so good! I feel more

inside these characters! So he asked me right away to frame[Laurence] full negative, 4:3. Also, he wanted to have only theactors face in the frame. With 2.40:1 we would have had all thisempty space, with everything out-of-focus in the background, andhe didnt want that.

Tell me about working with production designer AnnePritchard.

Blanger: Anne is a legend. She did Obsession with Brian DePalma, and all these movies all over the world. Xavier was veryinvolved [in the production design], and hes not afraid to express hisopinion. There were great conversations; I would just listen. I would

Production Slate

Laurence (MelvilPoupaud, left)

and Fred(SuzanneClment)

struggle to keeptheir

relationshipafloat after

Laurence revealshis need to liveas a woman in

LaurenceAnyways,

directed byXavier Dolanand shot by

Yves Blanger,CSC.

I


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www.theasc.com July 2013

almost say Anne was overqualified, becausea lot of times we were shooting for twohours in some weird location, and then wewere on to the next place. But she was veryprecise and always had great ideas. I wouldsay, If she put it there, were going to shootit!

Did Xavier come to you withspecific shots, or notes for the lighting?Blanger: He is very visual. Hes very

well prepared and knows what he wants,but he is also open to changing things. Forexample, in the scene where Laurence goesto see his mom, Julienne [Nathalie Baye],Xavier said, I want to suddenly cut outside,where well shoot them in slow motionfrom the house, so you see the street andthat its raining. But when we got to thelocation, [it was a clear day with] a big,strong winter sun. I said, We dont haveenough equipment or crew to cut the sunfor this angle; it will never look like a rainyday. I didnt want to shoot it like in L.A.,where its raining but its sunny at the sametime I find that very disturbing. So,instead of shooting them from the houseand seeing the street, I suggested we go tothe street and shoot them with the house inthe background, and then the rain wouldbe backlit. Thats what we did.

What camera did you use for thehigh-speed work?

Blanger: We talked about rentinga Phantom, but its very expensive, andXavier didnt want to use digital, so wecarried a [Panavised] Arri 435 for the high-speed and Steadicam work. We hadnormal slow motion, which could be 40,60 or 90 fps, and big slow motion, whichwas 150 fps. I operated everything exceptthe Steadicam. It was basically a one-camera shoot.

The scene showing Laurence andFred at a nightclub early in the film has

a bold look, with the actors backlit bylaser lights.

Blanger: That was an homage tothe music videos of the 1980s and 90s; weshot it at 4 fps. It was a nightclub, but [wetreated it] like a set. We hung black velvetand brought in some laser lights, the kindused in discos. My gaffer did the researchand showed me a couple, and I picked one.I didnt check the name of the fixture,though; I just looked at the result. I work so

much by instinct, if I have to reshoot some-thing a month later, I might not rememberwhat I did! For the scene [when Fredattends] a big ball, we had 250 extras, andit was also meant to be an homage to 80sand 90s rock videos. It was quite funny towork with a director born in 1989, the yearI became a director of photography, whowanted to make a movie about this period.

How did you determine theapproach to the scene in whichLaurence walks through a cemeteryand sits down at a tree? You followhim from a distance and slowly zoomin.

Blanger: It felt romantic, and itwas an homage to the movies of the 70sthat Xavier and I love. We had the Panavi-sion [LWZ-1] 27-68mm and the big 11:1Primo [24-275mm]. A good zoom has itsplace. Theres nothing like it!

Did you ever use filtration infront of the lens?

Blanger: Only some very subtle[Schneider] Classic Soft for Nathalie Baye.We also had a scene that is very short now

[in the final edit], a big supper with thesesnobby people. Xavier and I were watchingan old costume movie, and I told him cine-matographers used to put a womansstocking on the lens. He said, Lets try thatfor this scene. We didnt burn any holeswith a cigarette so the eyes would be clear,like they used to do. We just put a black silkstocking straight on the front of the lens very basic.

Was there a particular T-stop you

liked to maintain?Blanger: I always light by eye, and

it usually winds up being T2.8 rightbetween 2.8 and 4. A lot of directors like toshoot wide open, so I sometimes have touse some ND filters, but Xavier wanted alittle depth-of-field. Except for some nightscenes and certain close-ups of Laurence,we were never under T2.8. Sometimeswe would have a two-shot close-up at a bitof an angle, and I hate it when both actorsare not in focus, so I might go to T5.6 inthat case.

There are a lot of close-ups in thefilm, and so much of the movie is aboutreading the emotions on the actorsfaces.

Blanger: Thats also why we chosethe Primo lenses: theyre so nice for the skin.We wanted the close-ups to be pretty, so Itried to have only one reflection in theactors eyes. A lot of the lighting on set wascoming from windows so we could movearound easily. I like to do general lightingfrom a window with HMIs on location, ortungsten if its in the studio. Then, I hide

small Litepanels LEDs behind furniture toput some detail in the shadows. Its a tech-nique I discovered with my gaffer, BrunoFerland, who has worked with me for 15years. I also love to use Kino Flo Image 80s.Theyre simple to control, and you dontneed 10 flags. Xavier wanted crisp colors, sosometimes we decided to enhance thecolor of a wall with the lighting. For exam-ple, if we had a blue wall, I would light itwith a blue-gelled light. They used to doL

aurenceAnywaysphotosbyShayneLaverdire.

PhotosandframegrabscourtesyofBreakingGlassPictures.

Fred attends alarge ball in adynamic

sequence thatBlanger sayswas meant tobe an homageto 80s and 90rock videos.


24/92


that in the crazy years of Technicolor.How did you light the scene

showing Laurence getting into a fightin the red-and-blue bar?

Blanger: I only used a few lights.We left everything else dark. I had one 575-watt HMI coming through a little round

window [in the background], and I lit theactors with 1,000-watt Par cans that weregelled red. I also used a small Litepanel LEDwith a red gel to flare the lens. It was likedoing a kind of fogging or flashing in-camera, where even the shadows are red.

Was the apartment that Laurenceand Fred share a real location?

Blanger: It was a set built at MichelTrudels [La Cit du Cinma] studio, but wedecided right away that we wanted a hardceiling, and we wanted to light it like a loca-tion. When youre in a studio and you donthave ceilings, you tend to put light where itsimpossible. We were trying to make thingslook real.

Tell us about your post process.Blanger: Technicolor [Montreal] did

our processing, dailies and DI. Each morn-ing, I would have some images of each shotin my e-mail, and during lunch I couldreview the DVD. Xavier wanted to be tradi-tional with [the timing], but we had to do aDI so we could make a print that had blackbars on the side [of the 1.33:1 frame].Robbie [Ryan] warned me about that,because all the theater projectors have a1.85:1 or 1.66:1 gate. We had a greatcolorist, Charlotte Mazzinghi, who learnedwith the famous French color timer YvanLucas. She is young, but she thinks and talksin terms of points, the way we used to talkwith a traditional color timer. My philosophywith the DI is to only do something I knowwould be possible photochemically. You canget crazy with digital timing. It can feel likeyou have to use something just because its

there, but no, you dont.

TECHNICAL SPECS

1.33:1

35mm

Panaflex Millennium XL, Arri 435

Panavision Primo, LWZ-1, Macro SM

Fujifilm Eterna 250D 8563, 500T 8573;F-64D 8522

Digital Intermediate

Top: Histransformation

complete,Laurence steps

outside in one ofthe films many

slow-motion

shots. Middle: AsFred is caught in

a swirl ofconflicting

emotions, thewall behind herbegins to cry.

Bottom: Blangerconsiders a setup

inside Laurenceand Freds

apartment, a setbuilt onstage in

Montreal.


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26/92


A Singular VisionBy John Calhoun

A little girl wanders alone on a fieldat dusk, surrounded by dogs, cows andhorses. The camera observes her closely ateye level, and we soon notice that outside asharply focused circle of view in the center ofthe square frame, the image is blurred,sometimes doubled. The scene shifts towhat looks like early morning, inside a dark-ened house, where a red-silhouetted demonwanders, carrying a toolbox. The homebelongs to Juan (Adolfo Jimnez Castro), anurban exile to the countryside, whosestream of consciousness seems to be struc-turing the narrative. Acts of senseless brutal-ity burst from nowhere and recede, and theprotagonists small children abruptly grow

several years older before returning topreschool age in the next scene. Withoutcontext, scenes of a bathhouse orgy and anEnglish-schoolboy rugby match pop up atrandom.

This is the strange world of Mexicanfilmmaker Carlos Reygadas Post TenebrasLux, which won the Best Director prize at the2012 Cannes Film Festival. To call the storynon-linear does not quite to do it justice,and the visual strategy Reygadas devised

with director of photography Alexis Zabewas equally unorthodox. To describe thestyle as first-person POV is not precise,Zabe explains. We wanted the camerainside the mind of the character, not lookingat the world through his eyes, but looking atthe world through his mind. A friend ofmine recently wrote that he appreciated thefilms mental point of view, which I think isa nice way of describing it.

All of the key photographic choicesthe filmmakers made were designed toachieve this subjective state. We are in Juansmind, and what we see is framed in the clas-sical 1.33:1 Academy ratio. That decisionwas made early on, even while the filmmak-ers grappled with matters of format andlens choice. It took us a while to figure itout, says Zabe, who briefly considered

shooting digitally until practical considera-tions arose. The picture was primarily shotaround Tepotzln, in the mountains outsideMexico City, during the rainy summerseason in 2011. We had a reduced crew,and to set up a DIT tent on top of a moun-tain seemed a bit difficult, the cinematog-rapher says. The production companyowned a 20-plus-year-old MoviecamCompact that Reygadas and Zabe had usedon their last feature, Silent Light. I knew

the camera well, and it just made sense touse 35mm again, says Zabe.

More experimentation went intofinding a lens that would represent thehazy-around-the-edges focus of Juansmind. We tested Baltar and Kowa lensesearly in prep, but they were not strong

enough for the mental point-of-view wesought, Zabe recalls. We even triedputting Vaseline on filters, but that was waytoo messy. He eventually settled on usingVantage Films Squeeze Diopters to achievethe desired look. The diopters, whichfeature a polished 25mm-75mm neutralzone in the center, are ordinarily used for asubtle out-of-focus effect, but the result inmany sequences in Post Tenebras Lux ismuch more pronounced. It took so long toship them from Germany to Mexico that weended up getting them one day before theshoot, says Zabe. We put them on andfigured them out on the first morning. Wetried to see through the viewfinder whatthey were doing, but couldnt get a veryclear idea. We got some dailies a couple ofdays later, and the effect was a bit moreintense than anybody anticipated. ButCarlos is pretty brave as directors go, and hesaid, I think it looks beautiful.

The effect is extreme because ofhow the diopters were used, he explains.Theyre designed to be used with longlenses, but Carlos and I like to shoot withwide lenses, and wide-angle lenses accentu-ate the effect more. He used the SqueezeDiopters with Arri Master Primes, usually an18mm or 25mm, open to f2 or f2.8. Onceyou put the diopters on 1.33, it kind ofcreates a perfect sphere, with a very clearvision inside the circle. It seemed like shoot-ing a little planet or little world, which iskind of what the mind is: its own littleplanet. The diopters were used on morethan 80 percent of the movie, and their

effect is most pronounced in exteriorscenes.

The decision to use 1.33:1 alsorelated to the locations, which includedReygadas house. Because of the tallmountains, it seemed a logical decision, andCarlos house is also very vertical, says thecinematographer. It wasnt even Super 351.33; it was standard 35 1.33. TheMoviecam Compact is a beautifully built,solid little tank. Itll just take anything and

Juan (Adolfo Jimnez Castro) takes a seat in a bathhouse in Post Tenebras Lux.

I


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28/92

everything. We shot anamorphic with it onSilent Lightin very extreme conditions, andwe dealt with very extreme conditions onthis film as well.

The entire crew numbered 13, withfour devoted to camera: Zabe, 1st ACJonathan Leys, grip assistant Eduardo

Urbina and 2nd AC/grip assistant JoakimChardonnens. I interviewed a lot ofsecond ACs, but it was hard to find some-one in the proper physical condition, notesZabe. Its hard on the system at that alti-tude, which is about 2,500 meters [morethan 8,000']. Joakim, who flew in fromSwitzerland, is a snowboarder and climber,and Eduardo is a climber and also an inven-tor, so he assisted with roping and tyingdown the bounces. If we needed a bounce,we would build it together and tie it down,and if we needed to build a dolly, wedbuild it together.

Shooting was accomplished almostentirely with available light, controlled withbounces. The Kodak negatives Vision250D 5201 for exteriors, Vision3 250D 5207for daylight interiors, and Vision3 500T5219 for night interiors were sensitiveenough to make this possible. It was trickyfor the 5207 to get enough level inside thehouse, says Zabe. The windows weresmall, and the bedroom scenes were chal-lenging because that room featured very,very dark wood. We had some 12-by-12UltraBounces kind of far away, trying to getsomething going into those windows. AChinese lantern was occasionally used todiffuse the light indoors.

For the two scenes involving the reddemon, Zabe used or CTB on thewindows to cool the light and create anearly-dawn feel, he says. We had our firstAD, Alex Ezpeleta, who is tall and lanky,dress in a greenscreen suit and walk aroundwith a toolbox. The effect was completed

at [visual-effects facility] Twin Pines in Spain.The only other digital effect created was ashot of an auto-decapitation.

For the bathhouse scene, Zabefiltered some of the locations fluorescentlights. We found red plastic tube covers ina store in Mexico City, and used these tofilter about half the fluorescent lights, withthe other half left unfiltered, to createcontrast between the red and blue, hesays. As the scene progresses and the


Top: Against thefading light of

dusk, the camerafollows Juans

daughter arounda field in the

films openingsequence.

Middle: A demonenters Juanshome in one of

the films fewshots with a

visual-effectscomponent.

Bottom:Cinematographer

Alexis Zabeframes a shot on

location.


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characters go deeper into the bathhouse,we filtered more of the tubes, and in thefinal shot, most tubes were filtered red. Wealso did tests on the steam, trying to figureout if we were going to use real steam or asmoke machine. We ended up using acombination.

Post Tenebras Luxfeatures a numberof extended camera moves over roughterrain, and these were mostly accom-

plished with an EasyRig, with a fewSteadicam moves thrown in for a variedfeel. The opening sequence of the younggirl on the field with the dogs and livestock,shot around magic hour over three days,was largely a Steadicam sequence. Weactually thought we could shoot it in twodays, but it was a very short window oftime, says Zabe, who operated the camerawhen Reygadas did not. We didnt have aSteadicam for the last day. There was some-

thing in the relationship between the girland the animals that wasnt quite therewith the Steadicam, so we did a third daywinging it on the EasyRig. Steadicam wasalso used for two walking shots from thePOV of El Siete, a character who brings theclass conflicts at the movies heart intosemi-focus.

It was EasyRig all the way on aprecarious donkey ride up the mountain.

Reygadas operated a reverse shot with therider perched almost on the tail of thedonkey, Zabe recalls. That was done on awing and a prayer, basically minimum focus.When we were on top of the mountain, wehad an EasyRig, some apple boxes, somestraps and sandbags, and a donkey, and wewere scratching our heads trying to figureout how we would do it. Thats when ropesand knots and that sort of stuff come invery handy!

Because Reygadas and Zabe were sofamiliar with the location, they knew whatto expect from the weather. They shotduring the rainy season partly because theywanted fog in certain scenes. Still, weathercan be as difficult to direct as children andanimals, and it did not always cooperate.

We climbed to the top of the mountain acouple of times thinking wed get the fog,and then we didnt get it, so we just had togo back down and try again another day,says the cinematographer. That was apretty extreme hike, a couple of hours upthe mountain lugging the equipment.

But in all, its the way Zabe prefers towork. He started out doing special-effectsphotography primarily for Mexican com-mercials and music videos, and moved onto features with Duck Season (ACApril 06).He met Reygadas because that film sharedproduction offices with Battle of Heaven,the directors second feature. We realizedthere were coincidences in the way wewanted to work, says Zabe. We wereboth looking for a minimal crew and just adifferent approach to filmmaking. In 2006,they made Silent Light, a tale of adultery ina Mennonite community that was a beau-tiful experience for everybody. It was a longshoot, a small crew almost a perfectproject.

Zabe speaks with great satisfactionabout the DIY nature of Post TenebrasLux, citing a scene in which the falling raingathers in what looks like pools of bloodon the ground. To achieve it, explains thecinematographer, we rented a couple of30,000-liter trucks and some hoses, putsome red food coloring into the trucks,and then had that rain on everybody. Wetweaked it a tiny bit in the color correc-tion, but not too much. It was pretty oldschool. It was a romantic way of shooting.We just went out with some friends to a

mountain.

TECHNICAL SPECS

1.33:1

35mm

Moviecam Compact

Arri Master Prime

Kodak Vision2 50D 5201;Vision3 250D 5207, 500T 5219

Digital Intermediate

Above: A VantageFilm Squeeze

Diopter creates ablurred, doublingeffect around the

edges of theframe during a

family outing tothe beach. Right:

The productionused director

Carlos Reygadashouse for scenes

set in and aroundJuans home.


31/92

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When director Roland Emmerich began prepping hisaction thriller White House Down, one of his first calls

was to Anna Foerster, ASC, the director of photogra-phy on his last feature, Anonymous (ACSept. 11).

Emmerich calls Foersters work on that period thriller stun-ning, and says he was determined to bring her aboard WhiteHouse Down. I told her she could make an action movie likethis reallygood looking, beautiful even, he says. The more

PrimeTargetRoland Emmerich andAnna Foerster, ASC lay siege tothe presidential residence forWhite House Down.By Michael Goldman

|



35/92


my favorite lens ever since, says thedirector. We shot almost all of WhiteHouse Downwith it, and it enabled us toshow the ceilings and the architecture ofthe White House sets, which were veryelaborate. It can be tricky to light aroom so you can shoot that way, but

Anna used mirrors and other tricks tomake it happen.

realistic exterior light on massive setsbuilt onstage (at Mels La Cit duCinma in Montreal), a uniqueapproach to solving problems, and analmost obsessive devotion to shootingmost of the picture on an ultra-widelens. Anna introduced me to the short

Arri [LWZ.2 15.5mm-45mm T2.6]zoom on Anonymous, and it has been

Opposite: Policeofficer John Cale(ChanningTatum) findshimself fighting

to protect thelife of thepresident (JamieFoxx) aftermilitants attackthe White Housein White HouseDown, directedby RolandEmmerich andshot by AnnaFoerster, ASC.This page, top:The invaderssearch a tunnelfor President

Sawyer. Bottom:Foerster withEmmerich onset.

we talked about it, the more interestedshe became, and eventually, shecommitted. And once Anna commits,all you can say is, Wow!

BeforeAnonymous, I had almostturned my back on camera work [infavor of directing] because I wasnt sure

where I fell as a cinematographer Ihad all this second-unit and visual-effects work, but I wanted to do liveaction, and there was the usual appre-hension from producers about taking aleap with someone who was not [anestablished cinematographer], saysFoerster. But then Roland asked me toshootAnonymous, and it was an incred-ible experience. When we begandiscussing White House Down, I became

intrigued by the possibility of shootingan action movie without serving all theusual visual clichs.

White House Down details a para-military assault on the White Houseand the efforts of a lone policeman(Channing Tatum) to protect the presi-dent ( Jamie Foxx) and end the crisis.

According to Emmerich, what Foersterbrought to the project, among otherthings, were a methodology for creatingPh

otosbyReinerBajo,courtesyofSonyP

icturesEntertainment.DrawingsbyChristine

ChuandMarcoVenditto,courtesyofgafferJeanCourteauandrigginggafferGillesFortier.Photosby

ZadeRosenthal,

SMPSP,courtesyofParamountPictures.


36/92


Shooting for a final aspect ratio of2.40:1, the filmmakers chose to capturedigitally with the Arri Alexa Plusbecause of its modest size, weight anddurability on remote heads on a varietyof platforms. They used three Plusesduring the course of the shoot, recordingin ArriRaw to Codex recorders and, asbackup, in Log C color space to SxScards in ProRes 4:4:4. The filmmakers

viewed imagery on Sony PVM OLEDmonitors, relying on a single founda-tional look-up table created in prep withdailies colorist Trevor White of

Technicolor Montreal. The LUT wasalso applied to all monitors on setthrough Blackmagic HDLink systems.In addition to that LUT, we had twobackup LUTs that I used occasionally tocompensate for bluescreen, Foersterexplains. So we basically had the samelook throughout, and occasionally went

just half a stop to 1 stop darker. Therewas essentially no color tweaking onset.

The production utilized Tech-nicolors Digital Printer Lights on set

whenever there were questions aboutthe integrity of the Log C signal,according to digital-imaging technician

Julie Garceau. DPL also helped every-one on set who was in the visual-effectschain, adds Garceau. The compsystem was based on Rec 709 colorspace, so they could record the compand the live image together with a grade

Prime Target

Top: Secret Service Agent Walker (James Woods) pursues his target down a WhiteHouse hallway with fellow gunmen Stenz and Motts (Jason Clark and Falk Hentschel).Middle: Cale takes aim at the enemy in a moment of confrontation. Bottom: Dolly grip

Richard Boucher inside the specially constructed Plexiglas shark cage dolly, designed tosafely film faux gunfire head-on.


37/92


that was compatible to both signals.Once those looks were established,quality control on set was easy.

Because the production washeadquartered on stages, its digital

workflow also included a fiber link with

Technicolor to reduce transfer time andmaintain extra security by sendingimage data to separate locations duringproduction. Reports were generated atevery step of the way, and they were allconsolidated to cloud storage to give[instant] access to all concerned depart-ments, explains data wrangler YannMorgrain. Images were monitored andQCd on set, and they were also verifiedthrough the data-management process,and again as they arrived in post. Wehad lots of checks and balances.

Central to the visual aesthetic wasmaintaining a short focal length, whichallowed Foerster to be more courageous

with the lighting and the look, she says.She supplemented the Arri/ZeissLWZ.2 zoom with three FujinonPremier zooms: an 18-85mm T2.0, a24-180mm T2.6 and a 75-400mm

T2.8-T3.8. Her team also carried a setof Arri/Zeiss Master Primes, an Arri8R, a 100mm Zeiss macro and an 8mmfisheye, which was used to simulatesecurity-camera imagery.

We were around a T4 a lot forinteriors, and more like a T5.6-8 when

we simulated day exteriors onstage,says the cinematographer. But it was alllit more like a T11 and filtered down. Ihad to do that to give the muzzle flashesand interactive firelight a chance to lookrealistic for exterior settings.

We used two cameras much ofthe time, and with the wide lens it wasnot always easy to find a good position

for the second camera, she continues.And, of course, placement of lights wasalso impacted. When possible, we hadlights built into the set, but I had to relya lot on light coming only from outside[through windows]. There were times

when I had to fight for enough space infront of the windows to give our [HMI]sunlight enough distance to carrythrough a big hallway. That was a bigchallenge, and it got me thinking that

Top: Killick (Kevin Rankin) cautiously searches for Cale. Middle: Cale ducks behind asofa as bullets spray the room around him. Bottom: The camera crew on set with

Foerster at center.


38/92


we should lose the long, carpeted areasin the hallways and foyers, which weretrue to the real White House. When Idiscussed my concerns with our produc-tion designer, Kirk Petruccelli, he under-stood immediately and offered up great

reflective textures and sheen on thewalls that proved crucial for our look.We used HMIs primarily to bring indaylight from the outside, and it mixed

with tungsten light inside and thenbasically bounced off the floor [and

walls]. That gave us practical lights andkicks from the windows to the floors,and that made it much more visuallyinteresting.

Anna asked for shiny marblefloors, so we always had people polish-ing and waxing them, Emmerich notes

with a chuckle.Foerster pursued various other

tricks to bounce naturalistic light aroundthe White House sets. For example, shehad the art department create what A-camera operator Franois Daignaultcalls imperfect glass to enhance unique

light in certain rooms. Dealing withclear windows onstage is always a bit ofa pain, he explains, but Anna asked theart department to use plastic instead ofglass and then warp the plastic a bit witha heat gun to make it resemble old glass.It added character to the set, and it alsohelped us see less outside and get nicereflections a real win-win situation.

Gaffer Jean Courteau suggestsWhite House Down features a different

Top: This rigging diagram was used for a scene in which a limo bursts into the Oval Office.Bottom: Sawyer with Walker inside the Oval Office.

Prime Target


39/92


lighting aesthetic than is typical foraction fare, with Foerster andEmmerich eager to avoid pristine butunnatural-looking lighting configura-tions that would reveal action in inti-mate detail. You expect this kindof movie to be a little less dark, withless chromatic difference, Courteauobserves. But Anna made the wholething darker. I was surprised by thecontrast, colors and levels of darkness[we achieved]. She also used lots ofreflections and mirror action on most ofthe sets. Its the kind of lighting you seemore often in dramas, and it worksbeautifully here.

In many action movies, they putlight next to the actors, but that is notnatural, Emmerich notes. Sunlightmay not be coming directly into a room,but maybe a tiny bit is, and then itreflects. Anna worked a lot with mirrors

to create sun reflections everywhere [inour sets]. Shes very smart about howshe does those things.

The lighting is meant to evolvewith the story, Foerster explains.When the film starts, its quite opti-mistic: A father and daughter are visit-ing the White House, and everything isnormal. But when the White House istaken over, the light becomes hard, evenbrutal to a certain extent. There is defi-

Top left: This photo shows the mechanical rig used to make a helicopter tail crash through theceiling of the Oval Office. Top right: Emily Cale (Joey King) runs from a downed helicopter in

front of the White House. Middle: A wider look at the White House exterior set with thecrashed helicopter. Bottom: HMIs were shone in through the White House set windows to

create exterior light.


40/92


nitely heavy contrast.Complicating this agenda was

the fact that most of the picture wasshot onstage, and the filmmakers had tofrequently simulate bright day exteriorsand also shoot believable exterior lightbeaming into the White House.Courteaus team typically built light forexterior setups by bouncing 18K

ArriMaxes onto white ceilings, and then

adding four or five 24Ks gelled with CTS to mimic sunbeams, with muchsmaller lights on the actors as needed.

Almost every setup was big, andcreating big exteriors [onstage] is alwaysdifficult to do in a naturalistic way, saysCourteau. There is a lot of ambience;shadows are filled in most of the time.So you need a lot of big lights and bigambience. We needed a lot of depth; weshot a lot of bright exterior scenes at

Prime Target

Top: This diagram of the pool set was used to ensure continuity for back-to-back scenes inthe film that were shot on different days. Bottom: Crewmembers film Woods as he runs

from an explosion on the set.


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T11 and 800 ASA. Everything outsidethe White House was built up to a levelof ambience, and then we brought in sunshafts to add to it.

However, the sets tended to betight because of their scope, so findingroom to set up outside lights was oftena challenge. For many scenes, Courteaurelied on LRX lights (from DwightCrane of Toronto) rigged on a truss andcontrolled by a dimmer-board operator.

system on many of our stages forsunlight on both exteriors and interi-ors.

Another visual challenge in-volved the extensive and varied types ofgunfire that come into play inside the

White House. This required extendedmuzzle flashes that had to be realistic,safe to use on a cramped set, and able tomix with the light in the rooms success-fully. Courteau addressed part of this

The LRX system was very useful, hesays. We could put sun shafts from18Ks all on trolleys up on a truss, anddid not need to send a spark up on thegantry. All the light could move side-

ways and down on the truss, and wecould also control the spot and floodposition through the [GrandMa2]lighting board. That gave us a lot offreedom and the ability to operatequickly on tight sets. We used the

Prime Target

Top: This continuity diagram shows the setup around Cales SUV for a traveling shot with bluescreen. Bottom left: Foxx leans out the windowof the SUV with a rocket launcher. Bottom right: Crewmembers prepare to shoot the vehicle onstage.


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problem by using small LEDs to mimicmuzzle flashes in certain places, know-ing they could be enhanced as neededby the visual-effects team. He explains,We used an LED rig that wentthrough our lighting board so we could

control the speed of the flashes. Weused warm LEDs, so the flashescontrasted with the cooler light that theHMIs were bringing into the sets.

But much of the time, for largeaction set pieces, the actors had to fireblanks on set to create practical flashes.

To safely film the faux guns being firedhead-on, the crew created what Foerstercalls the two-headed monster: a dolly

with two remote Libra heads on it one placed high, the other low and aspecially constructed Plexiglas sharkcage to protect the dolly grip as the twocameras captured the action. Thecameras were protected, the operator

was protected, and the lens wasprotected, says Foerster. The lenseshad either a clear filter or another typeof filter, and we often added a digitaldiffusion filter.

Libra heads were used extensivelythroughout the shoot, and Daignaultsays he, 1st AC Martin Lebel and dollygrip Richard Boucher became so adeptat working on the remote head that a

very special symbiosis developedbetween the three of us. They were ableto communicate on the fly with eachother and with Foerster with a Clear-Com/HME DX210 wireless intercomsystem, he adds.

Roland loves to be free when hedoes moves, and I think thats why weshot a large part of the movie on theremote head, Lebel observes. We hadit on many different supports, including

a Technocrane and a golf cart. Franoiswas behind the Libra wheel, near Annaand Roland, describing the shot toRichard Boucher and me using theintercom system.

Foerster and her collaboratorsdevised some other techniques for repli-cating real-world light efficiently on set.For instance, Foerster recalls visiting theU.S. Capitol Building during prep andnoticing tiny windows high up in the


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cupola that sent skylight to the stonefloor early in the morning in such a waythat the patterned reflections appearedto follow her as she walked around therotunda. I took pictures of that with myiPhone and became obsessed with re-

creating it on set, she says. Emmerichadds, We talked about different waysto achieve it, but all of them were tooexpensive or time consuming. Then,

Anna and Jean came up with a simplebut effective solution.

The solution was to position 88bare EBW (500-watt daylight) bulbs ina circle on the rim of the rotunda-ceil-ing set, about 1' apart, and use thedimmer board to switch them on or offdepending on the camera angle, creat-

ing perfect, diffused, daylight-bluereflections on the floor, according toFoerster. Courteau adds, They wouldlight up every second or two they

werent synchronized and I had themrun through the dimmer for controlbecause we had so many. We could cutsome of them off if the effect got to betoo much. It gave us the specular effecton the floor that Anna wanted, and it

was pretty low tech.Some exterior shots and pickups

were filmed on location in Washington,D.C., but the only offstage site whereextensive filming took place was a largeindoor golfing range near Montrealcalled The UFO. In the sequence shotthere, a tank drives through a fence nearthe White Houses South Portico and

Prime Target

2

The White Houses South Portico was re-created inside The UFO, an indoor golfing range near Montreal.


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rams the building.We needed at least 20 feet on

both sides of the practice range to movearound Condors, and to put trusses upto provide some ambience, Courteauexplains. It was a big bubble and, luck-

ily, all white, so that gave us tremendoushelp in creating the ambience necessaryto cover such a huge set. We had eight18K ArriMaxes bouncing light to getthe ambience, and five 24Ks gelled with CTS on Condors for sunbeams. Onthe side of the bubble, Alain Masse, ourkey grip, put up black velour and blue-screen material black to help controland model the light, and bluescreen ifneeded for visual effects.

Because of actor availability,much of the movie had to be shot out ofsequence. Periodically, Foerster says, herteam had to come back weeks later andpick it up on a particular set. You alwaystry to be very careful, but it can make

you wonder if you picked the rightspots! We used reference stills and

footage and lighting plans, but it washard on everybody to make it look[seamless].

For this reason, lighting diagramscreated by Courteau, lighting techni-cian Marco Venditto and rigging gaffer

Gilles Fortier were extremely detailed.The drawings included every lightposition, every color, every gel, scrims,distances all that was taken intoaccount, explains Courteau. Thosedrawings were crucial to our ability tokeep little ends tied together [for] conti-nuity.

All of these efforts helpedFoerster fulfill Emmerichs agenda,

which he describes as making it as realas possible. Foerster, he notes, is bril-liant at doing that. She is what you lookfor in a cinematographer: she can lookat reality and know how the hell to re-create it. That is why he hopes to work

with her again in the future. But thatsif she would do it, he sighs. She can be

very hard to convince!

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M.

Night ShyamalansAfter Earthwas the first feature togo into production with Sonys F65 camera, and the

first to use a 4K workflow for everything exceptvisual-effects work. But the project certainly didnt

start out that way. When Shyamalan contacted PeterSuschitzky, ASC, and asked him to shoot the picture, he saidhe would like to shoot on film and use anamorphic lenses.Suschitzky recalls telling the director, I respect your request,and I will do it that way if you really want to, but Id like toshow you what a digital camera can do. Why dont we dosome comparative tests? Suschitzky explains that he had beenconverted to shooting digitally on his previous feature, DavidCronenbergsCosmopolis, which he shot with an Arri Alexa. I

loved digital from the very first day, he says.Shyamalan agreed to the test, and the filmmakers

compared three different types of camera, each outfitted withanamorphic and spherical lenses: a 35mm film camera, an

Arri Alexa Studio recording in ArriRaw, and the Sony F65recording in Sonys 16-bit linear raw format. Screening theresultant images in 4K reaffirmed Suschitzkys enthusiasm fordigital capture. He recalls, Compared to the digital image, thefilm looked like a second-generation dupe. Seeing film on itsown, I would have accepted it, but it wasnt as detailed as thedigital images, which also had a greater tonal range. I couldalso see a little more detail with the Sony than the Arri.

Theyre both fine cameras, but I feel the F65 has the clear

Peter Suschitzky, ASCemploys a 4K workflow on

M. Night Shyamalans sci-fi adventureAfter Earth.

By Benjamin B

|

WildPlanet


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edge for the moment. I let the directormake the choice, and Night led the wayby choosing the F65. As I felt it was theright decision, I was delighted.

I was a staunch film guy, so theswitch to digital wasnt taken lightly,says Shyamalan. It was earned by thiscamera and, in my mind, only thiscamera could have convinced me to doit. It has a kind of richness that I associ-ate with film, and it has a capacity torender colors that I think exceeds film.He adds that the cameras performancein low light was another importantconsideration, given that many scenes in

After Earth had to be staged under rain-forest canopies. Those practical bene-fits were so important, he says. WhenI put it all together, it was really a no-brainer.

After Earth takes place a thou-sand years after humanity has beenforced to abandon Earths toxic envi-ronment for another planet. The storyfocuses on the relationship between

Kitai (Jaden Smith), a teenager, and hisfather, Gen. Cypher Raige (WillSmith). The two survive a spaceshipcrash on Earth, where many animalshave evolved into ferocious creatures.Cypher is wounded and must send hisson alone into this uncharted wildernessto signal for help. Though separated,father and son can communicate, andthey learn to work together as Kitaiconfronts unexpected dangers, includ-U

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Opposite: Kitai(Jaden Smith)takes in the wildsurroundings aftercrash landing onEarth in a scenefromAfter Earth.This page, top to

bottom: Kitaisfather, Gen.Cypher Raige (WillSmith), questionsthe boys readinessfor a mission; thegeneral and hiswife, Faia (SophieOkonedo); Kitaiclashes with thesecurity chief(Kristofer Hivju) ofhis familys colony.


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ing, finally, a lethal alien.About half the film was shot on

stages built in a former factory inPhiladelphia, Pa., and the rest involvedlocation work in the jungles of CostaRica, the redwood forests of NorthernCalifornia, and the desert salt flats inUtah. A film of this scale wouldnormally have 85-plus days to shoot,

but we had 63, so we had to workquickly, notes Suschitzky.

Shyamalan emphasizes theimportance of the natural locations:Whatever camera we used, it was crit-ical that we be able to capture the rich-ness and the subtleties of theenvironments we were in for exam-ple, the very complex details you see

when youre looking at trees againstother trees, or a canopy of bushes. Theprimary objective was to pull the depthand colors from each leaf and reallyconvey the splendor of what these loca-tions had to offer. The F65 couldcapture all of it.

For Suschitzky, the detail of theF65 image felt a bit too analytical, so Iadded a 1/8 [Tiffen] Black Pro-Mist tothe lens, and then it looked very filmic.

The problem with Pro-Mists is that youget a flare when you have a white sky,and there are a few occasions in the film

when we got that, but I never took thefilter off because the difference with and

without it was quite marked.After Earth was shot in 2.39:1

with Cooke S4 prime lenses andAngenieux Optimo zooms. We usedzooms because we had very little shoot-ing time, and we were on the

Technocrane a lot, Suschitzky explains.Ive always been suspicious of usingzooms to capture nearly everything, butits pretty difficult to tell the Optimosapart from primes; theyre very similarin definition.

Wild Planet

Right: Kitaitrains for a

mission. Below:The crew

prepares a craneshot of young

Smith onlocation in Utah.


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Suschitzky usually does his ownoperating, but forAfter Earth he turnedthe A camera over to Mitch Dubin,SOC. I knew we would be in a hurry,and the scale of the project was very big,and I never want to be accused of hold-ing things back because of trying to dotoo much, he says. Dubin, he adds, isone of the best camera operators in the

world.Suschitzky rated the F65 at its

recommended ISO of 800, and tookadvantage of the chips sensitivity to geta healthy T4.5 stop in most interiors. Heused the internal ND filters to obtain a

T5.6 in many exteriors. Throughout theshoot, he used his incident meter, as

with film. I learned on Cosmopolisthatits better to measure, so I didnt changemy technique. Most of the time, I had aremote T-stop device, and I never hesi-tated to use it to change aperture duringa shot, if it needed that change.

Most of the picture was capturedwith shorter focal lengths, typically21mm, and with a single camera. In myexperience, you tie yourself in knots

when you use two cameras, Suschitzkyobserves. He and Shyamalan sharedother preferences as well. Night toldme ahead of time that he likes to dolongish shots and doesnt like to cut fast,

which is my taste, too.Shyamalan is known for his

Top: Cypher absorbs some worrisome information aboard his spaceship. Middle: Thegeneral tries to calm his son as the two prepare for a crash landing. Bottom: Director M. Night

Shyamalan (second from left) keeps an eye on the monitor as Steadicam operator BuzzMoyer captures a shot in the cargo hold.


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methodical preparation, and he oftenfollowed his storyboards as the shootprogressed. To each his own, but I am

very much in my comfort zone when Ihave my office door closed and Im star-ing out the window and thinking ofhow I would shoot a scene, says thedirector. That clarity drives everythingelse: how were going to light it, what

the costumes will look like, what the setdecoration will be. All of it is driven by

what I imagine when I look out thewindow. The structure I create gives megreat freedom, but I find there is stillplenty of room to allow the actors andeach department head to bring his orher own particular view of the movie tothe table.

Suschitzky explains that hedefined the look forAfter Earth, during

Wild Planet

Top: Kitaiexplores his

surroundings.Bottom: Directorof photography

Peter Suschitzky,ASC (far left) andShyamalan (next

to Suschitzky)look on asA-camera

operator MitchDubin, SOC and

camera assistantSteve Cueva film

Jaden Smith onlocation.


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cockpit and cargo area. Suschitzky sayshis goal in lighting the ship interior wasto use mostly practicals and add only afew lights to light the actors.

The cargo area was a giant tubefastened to a mechanical shaker unitthat simulated the rough-and-tumble of

production, in harmony with the realityof the sets and locations. Sometimes Ido approach a movie with a preset ideaabout style, but I felt that this was not amovie that cried out for stylization.

Therefore, I needed to see the locationsand the actors, to react to what I saw andfeel my way into it. I knew I wanted afilmic look. I didnt want the image tolook digital, and I didnt want it to lookartificial, as if Id suddenly turned up the

yellow dial or something like that. Ineeded to find an organic look, and thatcame from the combination of the scriptand the locations.

Mo Flam, the gaffer on the

project, notes that one of the challengesof a project with extensive visual effectsis to create the interactive lighting thatsimulates the CG light that will beadded to a given shot in post. As anexample, he cites the scene in Cyphersapartment in which he is surrounded bya large hologram. The hologram ismoving around him, so we built an archof light on a dolly using three grids ofKino Flo tubes, one on top and one on

each side, that enveloped him and couldbe moved around him.

Flam and Suschitzky workedwith Tom Sanders, the productiondesigner, to incorporate practical light-ing on the soundstage, and notably inthe intricate sets for the spaceships

Top: Theproduction tapa crane to getanother shot inNorthernCaliforniaredwood forestBottom: Dubinand Suschitzkyduring a breakon location.


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the vessels crash to Earth, where it splitsopen. Suschitzky and Flam used Mac

Tech modular strips of LEDs that couldbe assembled into tubular sources with

varying numbers of rows. This was myfirst film with a lot of LEDs, notes thecinematographer, and we picked thembecause they are so flexible, their spreadis very even, and their color alwaysseemed to me to be correct.

In the spaceship, the crew createda grid of LED panels similar to fluores-cents. We used several hundred Mac

Tech LED strips as building blocks,says Flam. Tom wanted everything inthe set to look organic, as if the materi-als were farmed rather than the result of

an industrial process. We created a moldand put Mac Tech single units that wereabout 1 inch in diameter and 2 or 4 feetlong inside. They stayed very cool. TheLED units were dimmed via Variacsaway from the set, which enabled about412 stops of dimming and could beturned on or off via DMX.

Outside the cargo areas windows,Arri 24K Fresnels on Giraffe craneswere moved slowly to simulate shifting

sunlight as the spaceship changed itsorientation. When the spaceship breaksapart, daylight streams in, an effectsourced by two Dino lights throughdiffusion frames that were brought upto create a big burst of light, says Flam.We went with Par 64 bulbs becausethey come up more quickly than 10Ks.

The cockpit was on a gimbal, andinside the crew fitted custom RGBLED practicals and optical fiberspaghetti to create a kind of retroorganic look, continues Flam. All ofthe lights were controlled via DMX ona GrandMa dimming board. Twomedia servers fed low-resolution videoto the strands of fiber to create shifting,

glowing colors. We also added interac-tive LED units to stand in for the holo-grams that were added in post, addsFlam.

When the camera moved in forcloser shots of Kitai and his father in theship, the crew would sometimes turn offa section of the LED grid above to keepthe camera side of the faces dark.Suschitzky often added some softsources to provide edge light or fill,

Wild Planet

Kitai confronts one of the many fierce creatures thathave evolved in Earths toxic environment.


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by narrow riverboats, which limitedlighting gear. In those situations, Flamran two Mac Tech panels made of 24

LED strips off a 3,000-watt generator.A sequence that shows Kitai on a raftwas lit with the two panels fed by batter-ies with inverters to provide a softsource. Flam notes that the units werecool enough to cover with plastic toprotect them from humidity.

The location lighting tools were amix of bounce frames, Mac Tech LEDpanels, small Joker HMIs, and 18K

ArriMax HMIs through Grid Cloth.

usually a 2K bounced into unbleachedmuslin, or, if it was a tight space, a KinoFlo or an LED strip, says Flam.

Ive always thought that you canmake almost any lamp look the way you

want it to look, Suschitzky observes. Ican make a 20K look like a soft light ora hard light. Obviously, certain tools arebetter for certain circumstances and forlighting requirements and wishes.Sometimes I bounced off large surfaces,and sometimes I had less room and hadto adapt. In a small area like the cockpit,I might go for an LED.

He employed many variations ofsoft sources on After Earth, includingbook lights bounced off bead board ormuslin and then through Grid Cloth. Ithink that with soft light, the trick is tomake it look interesting and not have itlook even all the time, he notes. He

occasionally used a gray bounce board,notably in the cockpit. Light grayseems to give a gentler light than white it isnt as harsh on faces, he says.You pick the surface you bounce off toavoid unwanted colors or tones. In thesame way, many cinematographers willuse an unbleached muslin rather than ableached one; its slightly warmer andgentler. Flam offers the observationthat dark bounces seem to work best

when the set is dark.In many ways, the biggest chal-

lenge for the filmmakers was the shoot

in Costa Ricas rainforest. First, therewas the profusion of snakes. Snakewranglers had to comb each location forthe deadly reptiles before the crewarrived,

american cinematographer july 2013 us

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