American Cinematography April2010

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$5.95 Canada $6.95

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

Walt Lloyd, 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

was raised on U.S. Armybases and didn’t have muchexposure to films or television

as a child. In college, I took a jobat a movie theater, and films likeM*A*S*H, Catch-22, Walkabout,Easy Rider and The French

Connection changed my life. Myfuture was set when I stumbledacross John Boorman and VilmosZsigmond, ASC filmingDeliverance in the North Georgiamountains. I vowed that someday,somehow, I would work on films.

“I moved to California,started reading American

Cinematographer and got a jobat a commercial production housein San Francisco. AC has been awelcome arrival every month sincethen. In these days of rapidlychanging technology, it is bothreassuring and informative toobserve how my colleagues aremaking the creative and technicalchoices all projects require. ASCmembers are collaborative andsupportive, and AC is our outletfor sharing experience andknowledge.”

— Walt Lloyd, ASC

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The International Journal of Motion Imaging

32 Down the Rabbit HoleDariusz Wolski, ASC crafts whimsical images for Alice in Wonderland

48 Weapons of DeceptionBarry Ackroyd, BSC takes aim on Green Zone

60 The Final Frontier in 3 DimensionsJames Neihouse trains astronauts to shoot in Imax for Hubble 3-D

72 Sundance 2010: Expanded PalettesThis year’s artful indies employed a variety of formats

DEPARTMENTS

FEATURES

— VISIT WWW.THEASC.COM TO ENJOY THESE WEB EXCLUSIVES —DVD Playback: Boogie Nights • GoodFellas • Ran

Book Reviews: Federico Fellini: The Films • Akira Kurosawa: Master of Cinema

On Our Cover: Alice (Mia Wasikowska) returns to the magical world of her childhood adventure in Alice in Wonderland, shot by Dariusz Wolski, ASC. (Photo by Leah Gallo, courtesy of Disney Enterprises, Inc.)

8 Editor’s Note10 President’s Desk12 Letters14 Short Takes: The History of Aviation20 Production Slate: Lebanon • Brooklyn’s Finest88 Filmmakers’ Forum: Michael Goi, ASC and Jeff Okun, VES92 New Products & Services98 International Marketplace

100 Classified Ads100 Ad Index102 Clubhouse News104 ASC Close-Up: Rene Ohashi

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A p r i l 2 0 1 0 V o l . 9 1 , N o . 4 T h eI 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

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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, Bob Fisher, 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

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ART DEPARTMENTCREATIVE DIRECTOR Marion Gore

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

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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 90th 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.

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OFFICERS - 2009/2010

Michael GoiPresident

Richard CrudoVice President

Owen RoizmanVice President

Victor J. KemperVice President

Matthew LeonettiTreasurer

Rodney TaylorSecretary

John C. Flinn IIISergeant At Arms

MEMBERS OF THEBOARD

Curtis ClarkRichard Crudo

George Spiro DibieRichard EdlundJohn C. Flinn III

John HoraVictor J. Kemper

Matthew LeonettiStephen LighthillIsidore Mankofsky

Daryn OkadaOwen RoizmanNancy SchreiberHaskell Wexler

Vilmos Zsigmond

ALTERNATESFred Elmes

Steven FierbergRon Garcia

Michael D. O’SheaMichael Negrin

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

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© 2010 Sony Electronics Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Features and specifi cations are subject to change without notice. Sony, “make.believe” and their respective logos, and VideON are trademarks of Sony.

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Hollywood’s infatuation with 3-D continues to pickup steam with the release of Alice in Wonderland, TimBurton’s reimagining of Lewis Carroll’s classic tale. Teamingonce again with Dariusz Wolski, ASC, Burton has put anew twist on the story, making Alice a teenager (played byMia Wasikowska) who revisits the wondrous realm she firststumbled upon as a child.

Various factors led the filmmakers to shoot thepicture in 2-D and then convert the images to 3-D at SonyPictures Imageworks. Through testing, they determinedthat their schedule wouldn’t allow them to set up the infra-

structure needed to shoot high-end native stereo. “We studied examples of 2-D moviesthat had been turned into 3-D and agreed the results looked amazing,” Wolski tellswriter Michael Goldman (“Down the Rabbit Hole,” page 32). “So, at the last minute,we decided to achieve 3-D in post.”

Native 3-D was employed on the Imax/Warner Bros. outer-space documentaryHubble 3-D. Director of photography James Neihouse was tasked with training a groupof space-shuttle astronauts to capture spectacular images during NASA’s final repairmission to the Hubble Space Telescope. The production’s technical and logistical chal-lenges were immense. “NASA gives us about 25 hours of face-to-face time with theastronauts to train them in basic shot selection and exposure and advise them on whatto do if things go wrong,” Neihouse tells longtime contributor Jay Holben (“The FinalFrontier in 3 Dimensions,” page 60). “Fortunately, astronauts are incredibly smartpeople and really quick studies.”

Back in the 2-D world, Barry Ackroyd, BSC and director Paul Greengrass seek toset pulses racing with Green Zone, a thriller about a U.S. Army officer (Matt Damon)attempting to locate weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Ackroyd previously gaveaudiences white-knuckle rides with The Hurt Locker and Greengrass’ United 93; on thisproject, the filmmakers did quite a bit on the fly, using handheld cameras and dynamicmoves to immerse viewers in the tense situations depicted onscreen. In his chat withLondon correspondent Mark Hope-Jones (“Weapons of Deception,” page 48), Ackroydconcedes, “I’d love to be able to say that we sat down and planned a look for the film,but that’s not Paul’s approach, and it’s not necessarily mine, either. If I said we talkedabout it for more than two hours over the course of the whole shoot, then I might wellbe exaggerating!”

Our annual roundup of visually outstanding films from the Sundance Film Festi-val (“Sundance 2010: Expanded Palettes,” page 72) offers insights from cinematogra-phers Zak Mulligan (Obselidia), Laura Poitras and Kirsten Johnson (The Oath), MichaelLavelle and Kate McCullough (His & Hers), Paul de Lumen (Southern District) and thetrio of Toby Oliver, ACS; Kathryn Milliss; and Paul Nichola, who shot the first Sundancefeature screened in 3-D (Cane Toads: The Conquest 3-D). Given the diversity of formatscovered in this issue, it’s safe to say that cinematographers at all levels are activelyexploring every available imaging option.

Stephen PizzelloExecutive Editor

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The release of Avatar has sparked a lot of discussion regarding cinematography and its relation-ship to computer-generated images. With the advent of more sophisticated virtual-production capa-bilities, where does the knowledge of how to evoke mood and tell stories in a visual manner take ourprofession? I think the answer is in the elements that have comprised our job from the very beginning.A visual story requires artists who are versed in the subtleties that affect human emotion. These artistsare not mere button pushers — in fact, they may best leave the actual pushing of buttons to some-one else — but visionary minds who see the world differently. That they do so with impeccable tasteand an almost uncanny ability to do exactly the right thing at the right moment is what makes themgreat.

A CGI artist recently told me about a large-scale production he worked on that used a great dealof CG material and proportionally less “live” filmed footage. Eager to please his producers and makean impact, this artist undertook in his previs conceptual footage to incorporate the “look” he thoughtthe movie should have, based on his interpretation of the script. He built in dazzling camera moves

and eye-popping color effects. He created whip-pans to emphasize the rapid-fire line delivery of the voice actors. And he used his arsenal ofcomputer effects to create incredible lighting that was more perfect than what could ever have been achieved in real life. He created all thisas a blueprint for the rest of production to follow; the cinematographer, the art director and the editor were to make their work match his.

As the prep went forward and personnel in the various crafts were brought onboard, the CGI artist was continually confronted withopinions that differed considerably from his own. The cinematographer did not like the steely-blue patina of the overall look because heintended to light the live-action sequences with a chocolate filter so the brown tones could serve as an extension of the character’s past. Thedazzling camera moves were swept away in favor of a simple composition that kept the two lead characters in the same frame so the humanquality of their interaction would be retained. And the perfect lighting was altered to be less perfect; in that subtle alteration, it somehowbecame more human.

All through this process, the CGI artist made updates to his work to reflect the opinions of the other experienced craftspeople theproduction had brought aboard. And what he found was a revelation: that the collective input of artists who were the best at what they didtranslated, through him, into the new medium in a way that made all the work better. He found his own contributions were better becausehe was working with the best, and the other artists continually challenged his expectations with their own original artistic vision. The resul-tant movie was the best culmination of all these disciplines.

Visual storytelling is a collaborative art. It always has been. Only the tools are changing. As cinematographers move forward throughthis brave new world, it is our voice that a beleaguered and confused industry will need to hear. It is our knowledge of what these new tech-nologies are capable of which producers will rely on for budgeting and scheduling. And it is our unflappable, unerring knack for doing whatis instinctively right for the material that will be needed. It is what we have always done since the beginning of motion pictures.

So I don’t buy into all this panic about the death of traditional cinematography. The history of the art form is paved with technologi-cal innovations that revolutionized the way we create images. If you’ve ever looked at the inner workings of a three-strip Technicolor camera,you know what I mean — it’s a marvel of engineering that necessitated more marvels of engineering to effectively harness its potential. Lookat the evolution of 3-D from the late 1800s to today. Think about when you first used a power window in a color-correction suite to isolatea section of the picture.

My vision of what a scene looks and feels like exists in a form that is infinitely adaptable to any medium that might arise; it is the prod-uct of my imagination coupled with my knowledge of the various technologies that could be used to realize it, whether it be a tungstenlighting kit or a super-computer. I will continue to choose the right tools for the job because it is what I do.

Michael Goi, ASCPresident

President’s Desk

10 April 2010 American Cinematographer

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Christopher Probst’s recent article on the Red One (“Working With the Red,”Feb. ’10, page 56) generated a great deal of reader response, both pro and con.Because of space limitations, we are publishing a representative sample of thatcorrespondence.

Wise Words on the RedThank you so much for Christopher

Probst’s article “Working With the Red.” Thetechnical info was presented clearly andconcisely, and one doesn’t need to be anengineer to understand it. I hope some adagencies and indie-film producers will read itand begin to get the drift of what manycinematographers have known from thetime the Red was introduced: while thecamera is capable of making incrediblygood-looking images, it still has some“issues.” As long as you understand howthe camera “sees” and can increase the timeallotted for post, it can be a wonderful tool.Unfortunately, too many people, especiallyin some of the mid-level markets, think of itas a low-budget tool and don’t allowenough time or post money to use it to itsbest advantage.

Lou Chanatry, SOCNashville, Tenn.

Red-Letter DayChristopher Probst’s article “Working

with the Red” was fantastic. The article waswell written and had great depth, wonderfulinformation and an honest artistic and tech-nical point of view. I hope the editors willpublish more articles by Mr. Probst aboutother digital cameras.

Bruce BlockLos Angeles, Calif.

A Dissenting ViewI am a musician who has just started

directing live concert and music videos, andwhen I saw your February issue, I thought,“Great. The ASC is finally going to give usan article on how experienced cinematogra-phers get the best out of the Red One.”Instead, I got Christopher Probst trashingthe Red with the usual film-snob redherrings. If the camera is so bad, why has heused it on more than 50 music videos? Atour best local film school, Sheridan College,all of the final projects were shot with theRed by choice. I really wish the ASC wouldget their heads out of the sand and writeabout the aesthetic, artistic and workflowstrengths of using the Red. Commentarylike Mr. Probst’s just makes the magazineand the ASC look like dinosaurs trundlingbetween two glaciers.

Colin Mendez MorrisToronto, Canada

The Editor replies:We asked Chris, our longtime techni-

cal editor, to write the article because wewere fielding numerous requests from read-ers for a “how to” piece about the Red. Thegoal was to provide useful information tothose with little or no experience with thecamera. As Chris noted, his assessment wasbased on his own experiences with the Redin the field. His observations do not repre-sent the collective opinion of the ASC, norwere they presented as such.

Letters must include your name,mailing address and daytime telephonenumber. Address correspondence to:Editor, American Cinematographer, P.O.Box 2230, Los Angeles, CA, 90078. ACreserves the right to edit submissionsfor length and clarity.

Letters

12


An Anamorphic History of AviationBy Iain Stasukevich

At first, it seems as though The History of Aviation has nothingto do with aeronautics. Shot by Mátyás Erdély and directed by fellowHungarian Bálint Kenyeres, the short film opens with a scene of menin pressed knickers and women in fancy dresses spread out acrossthe grassy clifftops of Upper Normandy. They’re searching for some-thing. Beneath a gray sky, a frantic mother cries out for her lostdaughter over the sound of crashing waves. As other party guestsjoin in the search (or steal away to secluded coves for a littleromance), the girl becomes the sole witness to a tragic experiment.

The History of Aviation is the second collaboration betweenKenyeres and Erdély, following Before Dawn (AC April ’06). As withtheir first film, the goal on The History of Aviation was “to aim forthe unimaginable,” says Erdély. “We wanted to shoot 35mmanamorphic and get big cranes, costumes and locations.” He and

Kenyeres wanted floating, dreamlike camera moves to tell thestory, letting it unfold in long, sweeping takes.

The film runs about 17 minutes and comprises 13 shots, allfilled with zooms, pans and tilts, and sweeping moves. Setting thecamera aloft required a tight camera crew and a solid game plan.Erdély singles out Hungarian dolly grip János Tóth and 1st ACGergely Csepregi for their contributions: “János is very experiencedand can pull off super-complicated moves and long setups, andGergely’s focus is always dead on.” Because of the complicatedsetups, Kenyeres and Erdély took the time to sit down with keycrew members, including French key grip Bertrand Val, to go overstoryboards in advance. The filmmakers broke down each longtake into smaller sections and, with Tóth’s help, reassembled themwith the proper camera blocking. “We already knew what waspossible given the limitations of our equipment,” says Erdély.“Getting organized was an organic process and didn’t involve toomuch talking. I’d just position myself where the lens was supposed

Short Takes

Imag

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Above: A mothersearches frantically

for her missingdaughter at the

beginning of theshort film The

History of Aviation.Right: A picnicker

joins the search forthe missing girl.

I


to be, and we’d go from there.”The movie was designed around the

use of one lens, a 48-550mm (T4.5) 11:1Panavision Primo anamorphic zoom, butsecuring the glass proved to be a difficulttask. After attempting a rental throughSparks Lighting Ltd. in Hungary and Panav-ision offices in Budapest, London and Paris,Erdély turned to Phil Radin at Panavision inWoodland Hills, Calif. (The two becameacquainted when Erdély attended theAmerican Film Institute in Los Angeles.)Within hours of the request, a lens wassecured. “We were just blown away,”Erdély recalls. “If Phil hadn’t helped us, wecouldn’t have done the film.” Weeks later,his camera and his lens were sweepingabove the Upper Normandy coast. Erdélyspent the better part of the four days ofprincipal photography atop the platform ofa 23'-tall crane, operating a PanArri 435with a Pan Bar fluid head while Csepregipulled focus remotely from the ground.

To achieve a naturalistic period look,Erdély shot on Kodak Vision2 250D 5205and kept a ½ Tiffen Fog Filter on the lensthroughout the shoot. He and Kenyeresalso credit costume designer GyörgyiSzakács for her immeasurable contributionsto the film. “Without Györgyi’s vintageearly-20th-century collection of clothes andaccessories, we would never have achievedthese kinds of visuals,” says Kenyeres.

One shot in particular required just asmuch preparation and work to achieve asthe rest of the film put together. The girl,wandering as bored youngsters sometimesdo, finds herself alone atop a hiddenpromontory overlooking the ocean. Theshot starts with a wide shot framing thewater, the promontory and the girl, withrocky cliffs looming in the distance. Thecamera begins a slow push forward, overthe girl’s shoulder, zooming far into thebackground to find the tiny speck of a propplane perched above the drop. An eventinier speck, the pilot, scurries around theaircraft, making final preparations. Over thehowling of the wind, the girl hears theplane’s engine starting. The aircraft taxisout of sight, then reappears a momentlater, speeding toward the empty spacebeyond the cliff’s edge. The camera followsthe plane as it drops, alights on a gust ofwind, banks, dips and then plunges into

Top to bottom: As the search progresses toward the shoreline, two lovers steal away for a bit ofromance; an empty rowboat is found offshore; fearing her daughter fell out of the boat and drowned,

the mother collapses; the missing girl, alive and well, wanders a secluded cliff.

made harness and flown to the location.Another unique aspect of the shot is

the airplane, a CG element added byvisual-effects artists at Buf in France. Erdélyhad to follow the plane’s movements whilethere was nothing actually there. “I didn’tknow how I was going to work the timingof the plane’s flight,” he says, “so I took anold video mixer and ran the live feed fromthe camera’s video tap and the previsanimatics into a single monitor so thatChristophe Moreau, one of our effectssupervisors at Buf, could call out a verbaldescription of the scene for me.” To coun-teract the heavy winds and smooth out thecamera’s movement while shooting at thelong end of the lens, Erdély had thecamera mounted to a three-axis StabilizedScorpio head. “But there were seriousissues with the gyro — it wouldn’t adjustwith the horizon,” recalls Kenyeres. “Wewere losing time and light, so we decidedto split that one shot into two. We split itright before the crash, while we were still

on the blue sky.” Some additional stabiliza-tion work was done in post at Buf.

The negative was processed at Scan-lab in Paris, and the 4K digital intermediatewas carried out at Hungarian Film Lab.“We spent a lot of time in the DI, exploringthe negative,” explains Erdély. “There wereso many directions we could take it in thatI wasn’t sure where to start. The more weexplored, the more we felt we should goback to a very raw image, like when youscan the image and it’s washed out andmilky. We wanted to create a look that wasnatural and organic, and tried to stay awayfrom everything that’s polished and trendy,so we fine-tuned the raw image to make itas pristine as possible but didn’t addanything to it.”

He retained the full 2.40:1 frame inthe video master. He notes, “When I dophotography, I believe in the Henri Cartier-Bresson style: once you take a picture, that’sit. You don’t crop it. I took that to theextreme and used the entire negative.” ●


the sea. The shot lingers on that frame fora moment before slowly zooming out andswinging back around, ending with a close-up of the girl.

“We spent months planning thatshot, and it was so stressful and scary thatwe did it first to get it out of the way,”Erdély recalls. “We previsualized 20versions of it with our visual-effects super-visor, Máté Birkás, using our location-scoutphotos and Google Earth to build a 3-Dmodel of the location, along with the lensand crane. It’s the most expensive shot I’veever done!”

The location for the shot was onlyaccessible by a tiny, rocky path about 200steps from the beach, making it extremelydifficult to transport equipment, particu-larly the 650-pound Super Scorpio Tele-scoping Crane. At first, some crewmem-bers joked about needing a helicopter, butas time went on, it became clear that theywould, in fact, need one. The crane wasdisassembled, strapped into a custom-

Clockwise from above: The girl

studies a distant cliffwhere an aviator isabout to attempt a

doomed flight;cinematographer

Mátyás Erdély (oncrane) and 1st ACGergely Csepregi

prepare a crane shot;(left to right) directorBálint Kenyeres, dolly

grip János Tóth, Erdély and Csepregiready a dolly move

near the water.


Camerimage’s Golden LebanonBy Benjamin B

Sitting in a hotel room in Lodz, Poland, cinematographerGiora Bejach recalls how director Samuel Maoz prepared his actorsin Israel before starting production on Lebanon. “He put them insidea shipping container and closed the doors. Inside it was somethinglike 45°C [113°F]. They didn’t know how long they would be inthere. It was dark; they couldn’t see anything. They had no water,nothing, for one hour. Then, in the last five minutes, Samuel startedto throw sticks and stones at the container. You know, that makes ahell of a lot of noise!” Bejach laughs. “When he let them out, theywere ready for their close-ups! But it was amazing to see theirfaces.”

Lebanon, which takes place entirely inside a tank during theIsraeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, won the prestigious Golden Frogat the 2009 Plus Camerimage International Film Festival of the Art ofCinematography. The film’s main characters are the four young menwho make up the tank crew, none of whom has ever experiencedcombat. The film is limited to their point of view; the outside worldis seen only through the binocular viewfinder operated by thegunner, Shmulik (Yoav Donat). Over the course of their first 24 hoursin Lebanon, these callow recruits are transformed by the violencethey witness and partake in, and by their memorable encounterswith enemy combatants and innocent civilians.

Lebanon is a war film without any heroes. It depicts a conflict

full of confusion, punctuated by sudden acts of violence. To illustratethe impact of combat, the tone of the film shifts from brutal realismto a moment of surreal madness, and finally, when the young menhave lost all innocence, the film concludes with a simple act ofhumanity.

Maoz, who met with AC in Paris after Camerimage, revealsthat the film is based on his own experiences as a tank gunner,events that have haunted him for more than 20 years. He does notmince words: “I can say that the acts the war forced me to doruined my life.” He says he had a “need” to tell his story, but that“it was a matter of how to tell it. The story in my film is not the plot.The plot is something very basic. Let’s say the events are the symp-toms, not the issue. The issue is the bleeding soul, what happensinside a soldier during a war. I couldn’t tell this kind of story in a clas-sic cinematic structure. How the hell can you tell a story aboutwhat’s happening inside a soul? It’s an emotional understanding,something you can understand through the stomach, through theheart. To achieve such an understanding, you must create a verystrong experience.”

Maoz’s goal was to confine viewers in the tank with the char-acters, and make them partake in the confusion and cabin fever offour young men experiencing the horror of war for the first time.“You see only what they see,” he notes. “You know only what theyknow.”

Bejach credits his director for taking the actors and the audi-ence “on an incredible journey.” He recalls that Maoz gave him a

Production Slate

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A soldier peersinto a tank inLebanon, the

recipient of theGolden Frog at

the 2009 PlusCamerimageInternational

Film Festival ofthe Art of

Cinematography.Directed by

Samuel Maozand shot by

Giora Bejach, thefilm is set

entirely insidethe tank.

Sony PicturesClassics will

release the filmin the U.S. later

this year.

I


visual direction with a few words at one oftheir first meetings about the project: “Hesaid, ‘Please make it bleeding to black.’From there, everything was very easy.”

For Bejach, the first step was to workwith production designer Ariel Roshko tocreate a somber tank interior. “The inside ofreal tanks are white because you need lightin there, but we went with dark brown.There are two scenes in the tank when yousee red blood, and you can’t miss it.” Thetank was built by combining eight modularconstructions on a soundstage, and it couldbe split apart to arrange for different view-points.

Maoz also told Bejach that hewanted the tank interior to have a greentinge. “We could have achieved that inpost, but I preferred to do it with the light-ing, so we did it with yellow and greengels,” says the cinematographer. “Wechanged them from time to time, onlybecause I wanted to give each lightingsetup a slightly different look. I didn’t wantit all to look the same.”

Bejach created variety in the darktank interior with a few small practicals andgels, and by providing brief glimpses of theworld outside. Day and night inside the tankare evoked by the presence or absence ofglowing bright light spilling in through smallopenings. To light the interior, Bejachwanted sources that fell off quickly, withoutbeing too soft. “I didn’t want to use softlights because they don’t describe the situa-tion. They’re gentle, and the situation is notgentle. But I don’t like hard lights, so Idecided to use an old light, the Zip light.That was the main source inside the tank.”

The Zip light is an old-fashionedfixture with a 1K or 2K bulb aimed at a built-in, curved, reflective surface. Inside the tank,“it gave us the right feeling,” says Bejach.“If you move a bit too far from the lamp, itstarts to be hard, and if you come closer, itgets softer. It falls off quickly, so it won’t hitthe walls, which was very good, because wehad no way to cut the light in there.”

Sometimes Bejach also bounced650-watt Tweenies off reflectors with wrin-

kled silver foil to add “a metallic feeling” todiffused light on the actors. He sometimesused this bounce with a small source tocreate fill for day interiors, and at othertimes he used the silver foil by itself for fillon dark interiors.

To create the sensation of daylightoutside, Bejach hung Nine-light Maxi-Bruteswith narrow-beam bulbs (through ¼ Whitediffusion) and aimed them down at thetank set. For a scene in which a corpse isbrought into the tank, Bejach pointed a 6KHMI on the ground up at a mirror above thetank’s open hatch, creating a blindingdownward shaft of light, which he definedwith a smoke machine.

Smoke is also an important compo-nent of battle scenes seen through thetank’s periscope; these were shot as dayexteriors. Bejach added burning tires andsmoke machines to generate “a hell of alot” of thick, dark smoke that helped tolower the contrast of the strong Israelisunlight and create the feeling of a warzone.

Clockwise from top left: Bejach used green and yellow gelsto give the tank interior a green tinge; built on a soundstage,the tank interior comprised eight modular sections that couldbe separated to accommodate camera placement; a 6K HMI

was bounced into a mirror to create a shaft of blinding“daylight” through the tank’s hatch.

➣


“We changed the language [of film gram-mar] completely — a medium became along shot, a close-up became a mediumshot, and an extreme close-up became aclose-up,” he says.

Although there is little traditionalcamera movement in the film, the camerawas often on a Scorpio head. To simulatethe tank’s movement, the entire set wastilted and shaken by grips, and sometimesthe camera was also shaken for goodmeasure. Bejach laughs, “This was a low-tech movie!” He explains that the shakingmotion and close-up framing help to createan “uncomfortable” feeling. “When youshow things in very tight shots, you losereference for where you are, and theneverything gets scary. You add the lightingand the actors’ expressions, and it all comestogether — it works.”

Though many cinematographersmix digital and film to create different looks,Bejach used the Red to shoot missingportions of scenes shot on 16mm, oftenshooting digital close-ups designed to beinserted seamlessly into scenes shot in film.When going back to shoot a matchingscene with the Red, he says, he used the

same number of lights, but with lesscontrast. For example, if he used a 650-watt bounce fill in the film version of ascene, he would use a 1K bounce fill withthe Red. He thus created an image with lesslatitude when shooting with the Red, about11⁄2 stops above and 41⁄2 stops below.However, he would go as much 5 stopsabove when he wanted white light, as inthe scene in which the soldiers look up asthey hear jets overhead. “If you want toburn something with the Red, if you wanta nice white, you should use a lot of light,”he remarks.

Bejach credits Geyer Colognecolorist Andreas Fröhlich for doing an“unbelievable” job blending the film anddigital footage together in the digital inter-mediate, which was carried out at 2K. “Isent just a few samples of how I wanted itto look,” says Bejach. “Andreas degrainedthe Super 16 a bit and added some grain tothe Red material.” The color correction anddegraining were done with a Digital VisionNucoda Film Master.

Maoz is thoughtful as he considersthe self-imposed limitations of shooting afilm in a cramped space with just one open-ing to the outside world. “One of theimportant things I learned is that limits area kind of blessing,” he says. “If you don’thave room to move right or left, you canonly dig deeper.”

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In a surreal nighttime moment, thetank crew finds itself in a big, amorphousspace where they hear eerie accordionmusic. For this scene, Bejach used a Dino tocreate a soft moonlight, adding ¼ Blue, 1⁄8Green and 1⁄8 White diffusion. He comple-mented this with a handful of smaller lightsgelled in a similar fashion.

One of the main challenges forBejach was his mélange of film and digitalformats. The filmmakers shot two-thirds ofthe movie on Super 16mm, using an Arri16SR-3 Evolution. They then went on hiatusfor almost a year to raise more money, andproduction resumed with a Red One digitalcamera (Build 16). Bejach notes that the Redwas chosen mostly to avoid the delayinvolved in getting film footage to and fromthe lab, Geyer Cologne in Germany. “Itcould take two weeks!” he recalls. “Moneywas not the issue; it was time. In the end,digital costs about the same as film, butwhat you save is time.”

Bejach used the same lenses, ZeissUltra Primes, often close to the actors, withboth the film and digital cameras. He mostoften used the 24mm. The cramped tankinterior did not allow for true wide shots. ➣

Near right, topand bottom:

The worldoutside thetank is seen

only throughthe tank’s

periscope. Farright: Bejach

finds his frameas 1st AC Ido

Ben-Cna’ankeeps the

action in focus.


Police Under PressureBy Jean Oppenheimer

Late one evening, a week beforeproduction commenced on his first Ameri-can feature, Mexican cinematographerPatrick Murguia, AMC, and his gaffer, JayFortune, showed up at the Van Dyke hous-ing project in the Brownsville section ofBrooklyn, one of the city’s toughest neigh-borhoods. The site was to be a key locationin Brooklyn’s Finest, and Murguia wanted to“feel out” the place at night and measurehow much available light was created bythe practical streetlamps. As he stepped outof the van, an unmarked patrol car droveup, and two police officers got out. Theyapproached slowly, their hands hoveringabove their holsters, their eyes dartinguneasily between Murguia’s face and the

bulging leather case — which contained hisspot meter — at his side. “It was verytense,” recalls Murguia. “I couldn’t really[whip] out my light meter to show themthat it wasn’t a gun.” Fortunately, unlike thecops in Brooklyn’s Finest, who shoot firstand ask questions later, these officers werecautious but not impetuous. Murguia andFortune checked out the location and left.

“It’s amazing how [Kodak Vision3500T] 5219 can see into the darkness,”marvels Murguia, who notes that morethan half of Brooklyn’s Finest takes place atnight or in dark interiors. He estimates thatjust over half of the picture was shot withthe lens wide open.

Brooklyn’s Finest follows three policeofficers, each facing a personal crisis, whosepaths cross late in the story. Sal (EthanHawke) is a narcotics officer so desperate to

buy a house for his wife and kids that herobs the drug dealers he kills. Tango (DonCheadle) is an undercover cop who is start-ing to have divided loyalties. Eddie (RichardGere) is just marking time until he retires. Asthe line between right and wrong blurs,each struggles with his conscience.

One of the first things director AntoineFuqua and Murguia agreed on was thatthey didn’t want Brooklyn’s Finest to be ahandheld movie; they preferred a classicalapproach, with the camera serving as anobserver. Furthermore, they wanted the cityto be a suffocating presence. “When youlive in a city like New York, you don’t see thesky,” notes Murguia, who recently movedto Los Angeles from Mexico City. “There arewalls everywhere. Buildings block the sky.You almost feel that you can’t breathe.”

Fuqua was initially interested in shoot-ing anamorphic, but he and Murguia even-tually decided that spherical lenses wouldsuit the film’s themes better. “With spheri-cal lenses, the context surrounding thecharacters is a little more present,” saysMurguia. “Anamorphic tends to isolate thecharacters from the background, and thatdefinitely didn’t suit this storyline becausewe wanted to integrate the city as a char-acter. We chose Super 35 because we feltthe very horizontal format would accentu-ate the feeling of urban claustrophobia.” Inthe end, however, the filmmakers diddecide to use anamorphic for three specificimages: the final shots of each of the maincharacters, shots that had to stand apartvisually from the rest of the picture.

The main cameras, provided by ArriCSC, were Arricam Lites and an Arri 435,and Murguia chose Arri Master Primes andtwo Angenieux Optimo zoom lenses, a 24-290mm and a 17-80mm. For the threeanamorphic shots, he used a Panaflex Plat-inum and Panavision Primo anamorphicprime lenses, supplied by Panavision NewYork.

A graduate of Mexico’s prestigiousCentro de Capacitación Cinematográfica,Murguia frequently draws inspiration fromstill photography. His main reference forBrooklyn’s Finest was the early work of NanGoldin, but he also studied police crimephotos and selected some of the grittiestwork of Magnum photojournalists. “Theintimacy Nan Goldin achieves is amazing,”

Above: Troubledcops Eddie (Richard

Gere, left) and Sal(Ethan Hawke) studya wall of suspects in

Brooklyn’s Finest,shot by PatrickMurguia, AMC.

Right: Undercoverofficer Tango (Don

Cheadle, right)infiltrates a

drug-dealing ringheaded by his

longtime friend Caz(Wesley Snipes).

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he says. “A lot of her photos were madewithout a flash, so you see the real atmos-phere of the places. On this film, I alwaystried to lead with practical and availablelight.”

A good example of this approach isthe film’s opening scene. It’s just past dusk,and the camera (on a Technocrane) looks atthe Manhattan skyline in the distance. Thecamera slowly booms right, across a ceme-tery, and stops on a wide shot of a carparked on a desolate road next to thegraveyard. The back of the car faces thecamera. Dialogue is audible, but we can’tsee who’s in the car. The only light comesfrom a streetlamp located several hundredyards in front of the car.

In keeping with his available-lightphilosophy, Murguia wanted to create theillusion that all of the light in the scene wascoming from this one source. In this case,his crew removed the bulb in the practicaland hung a 2K open-faced Blonde behindit. “You tip it back just enough so that thespill glows the glass and makes it look as ifthe streetlamp is on,” explains Fortune.

“We put Lee 232 on the 2K to match thesodium-vapor look of the original bulb. Ifyou put 232 on a tungsten source, it willmatch sodium-vapor to a T — without thegreen.”

Strings of bare household bulbs, allwired to a dimmer, were placed behind thecar to create reflections on the vehicle andkeep it from disappearing in the dark. A10K was hidden behind a Dumpster locatedhalfway between the car and the streetlight,and Murguia’s crew moved a 12'x12' frameof Ultra Bounce around the vehicle tobounce light inside — Murguia didn’t wantlights in the car when the camera moved infor coverage. Behind the car, farther downthe road, was a 10K that raked light acrossthe fence separating the road from thecemetery. With the exception of the house-hold bulbs, every fixture was gelled with Lee232.

The camera moves in to reveal Sal inthe front seat with a small-time crook. Salshoots his companion, steals his money andjumps out of the car. As he runs down theroad, he casts an enormous shadow on the

fence and cemetery. To achieve this expres-sionistic effect, Fortune positioned a 10Ksome 50' behind the car and took the lensout so it would cast a hard shadow. It wasa very humid night, perfect for an atmos-pheric, backlit scene.

When the three policemen’s pathsfinally converge, in the last 45 minutes of the film, they do so at the housingproject in a complex web of sequences. Itbegins with Sal pulling up in his car late atnight. With a wide Steadicam shot, A-camera/Steadicam operator Mike O’Sheafollows Sal as he climbs out of the car andwalks under the elevated train tracks.(Astute viewers will notice Eddie’s car downthe street, following a van.) The Steadicam,maintaining the wide shot, moves to Sal’sside as he walks past Tango, who is exitinghis own car. (The two men don’t knoweach other.) As Sal heads towards onebuilding, the camera leaves him and startstracking backward in front of Tango, who isheading toward a different building.Murguia picks up the story: “The camerastarts to pan with Tango, and as it does, wesee a young man sitting in front of thebuilding. We stay with the kid as Tangowalks into the building. We cut to the kid’sPOV as he watches Sal enter the otherbuilding.”

To light this long Steadicam move,Murguia relied on the existing light cast bythe streetlamps and hid a 2K open-facedBlonde behind one pole. The spill from theBlonde covered a wide area and served asthe key light. According to Fortune, thisambient light was boosted by several otherfixtures: a 5K on a 40' Condor beside the eltracks provided sidelight and backlight; acouple of 10Ks were positioned on theground six blocks away, underneath the el;and a Dino and a 20K were positioned ona 125' Condor hidden behind a nearbyhigh-rise. All of these fixtures were gelledwith Lee 232 for a sodium-vapor feel.

After Tango enters the building, wecut back to Sal and follow him into anapartment, where he murders two crimi-nals. Upon entering the kitchen, he hearssomething, turns around and shoots a thirdman. Then the camera stops and observesas Sal tears the place apart, looking formoney. “He goes in and out of frame, butthe camera remains stationary,” says

Above: Sufferinga crisis of

conscience afterhis retirement,

Eddie attempts tosave a lost soul.

Right: To providefor his family, Sal

begins stealingmoney discoveredduring drug raids.

Murguia. “It’s a completely different feelingthan following him.”

When Sal finds the money and startsstuffing it into his pockets, he is shot in theback. The camera jumps to a frontal view,and Sal looks down at his chest, whereblood is spreading on his shirt. As he falls,we see the shooter in the doorway. At thispoint, Murguia switched to anamorphic.“We wanted a shallow depth-of-field as welook down at Sal on the floor, because we

wanted to focus only on his face,” says thecinematographer. “As he dies, we slowlyboom down, and a practical lamp on theother side of him creates this beautiful flarein the anamorphic lens. It’s as though hehas this moment of clarity as his life slipsaway. The anamorphic lens helps put youinside his head.”

After Sal dies, the action cuts back toTango in the other building. He kills oneman and follows a wounded man, Red, out

and into the street. (This is the same areawhere Tango and Sal crossed paths earlier.)Once both men are in the middle of thestreet, the film switches to two-cameracoverage, with both cameras on dollies; theA camera, with a 27mm lens, gets the shotof Tango standing over Red, while the Bcamera, with a 75mm lens, is just behindTango, looking through his legs at Red. Theheadlights of a car approach the scene frombehind Red.

Tango keeps pumping bullets intoRed, finally killing him. But then Tango isshot from behind and falls to the ground.The camera racks focus, and we see theshooter in the background. Again, Murguiaswitched to anamorphic for Tango’s dyingmoments. As he dies, the camera begins toslowly rotate. Key grip George Patsosexplains: “For the 360-degree camera roll,we used a Panatate, which rotates thecamera around the lens axis.”

Tango turns his head as the oncomingheadlights grow closer. This bathes Tango inlight and produces a lens flare, signifyingTango’s “moment of clarity.” Murguia

Tangoconfronts a

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notes, “I was very happy with that shot. Itwas important to do something dramatic toreflect what Tango is going through.”

The third anamorphic shot is also thefinal shot in the film. Eddie has rescuedsome kidnapped girls and is walking awayfrom the swarm of emergency vehicles thathave arrived at the site. This time thecamera and Libra head were on a 50' Tech-nocrane. The crane dollies back as Eddiewalks towards it, but slowly enough so thatEddie catches up to it. As he reaches thecamera, he looks into the lens, and the shotfreezes. “He survives, but in a subtle way, hehas a moment of clarity, too,” notesMurguia.

Murguia emphasizes how lucky hewas to have such outstanding collaboratorson his first U.S. production. “My first assis-tant, Robert Mancuso, is not only a greatfocus puller, but also an extraordinarily niceperson. No matter what happened, he wasalways in a good mood. Given all theSteadicam work, Mike O’Shea had a reallytough job, especially in the summer heat.And Jay Fortune and George Patsos came

up with some great ideas; each of them hada trailer full of things, and no matter whatwe needed, they had it. Our productiondesigner, Thérèse DePrez, always made surethere was something interesting in front ofthe camera. And, finally, colorists StefanSonnenfeld and Stephen Nakamura did agreat job with the color correction [atCompany 3].” ●

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Crewmembersposition theirgear tocapture a shotof Gere for thefilm’s climax.

31


Down theRabbit

HoleDariusz Wolski, ASC adds

dimension to Tim Burton’s Alice inWonderland, a blend of live-actioncinematography, visual effects and

3-D post techniques.

By Michael Goldman

•|•

www.theasc.com April 2010 33

As Tim Burton’s team plowed downthe home stretch while finishingthe 3-D fantasy Alice inWonderland, director of photogra-

phy Dariusz Wolski, ASC waxed philo-sophical about having a somewhatatypical role on a strange project thatsome might consider a distant cousin ofAvatar. “This is one of those modernmovies that makes it really hard todefine the role of the cinematographer,”he observes. “It’s a film that reallydefined itself during preproduction.When we started, we had no ideaexactly how we would make it.”

The project’s schedule, budget,ambitious visual effects, unique designand stereoscopic-exhibition require-ments, when combined, were notconducive to a traditional cinematogra-phy process — nor to adopting a nativestereo-capture method. Burton and hiscollaborators decided that the imagerythey had in mind could best beconstructed through a continuallyevolving, communal effort in whichboundaries between the camera andvisual-effects departments were oftenblurred. Wolski and his crew capturedactor performances on a series of green-screen stages at Culver Studios inCulver City, and then senior visual-effects supervisor Ken Ralston and ateam at Sony Pictures Imageworks setUni

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Opposite: Yearsafter her originaladventure, 19-year-old Alice(Mia Wasikowska)revisitsWonderland andits eccentric castof characters. Thispage, top: Thesequence inwhich Alice re-enters themagical realminvolvedextensive sizeand perspectiveshifts as thecharacter bothshrinks andgrows. Middle:CinematographerDariusz Wolski,ASC (far left),Wasikowska anddirector TimBurton check outthe set. Bottom:Although thissection of the filmalso requiredextensive digitalmanipulation, itwas also one ofthe few scenes inWonderland thatwas partly shoton traditional setpieces, allowingthe growthillusion to beachieved in-camera.


about blending that material with all-CG environments and characters, insome instances digitally altering theactors’ faces and bodies in the process.Key collaborators were the virtual artdepartment, led by production designerRobert Stromberg; Sony PicturesImageworks stereographer CoreyTurner and visual-effects supervisorsCarey Villegas and Sean Phillips; andthe digital-intermediate team atCompany 3, led by colorist StefanSonnenfeld.

Burton recalls that the approach

didn’t bubble to the surface until late inprep, and even then, he says, it “often feltlike we were making it up as we wentalong, which is not the best way to do it.But because we were mixing technolo-gies heavily and dealing with a shortshooting schedule [50 days of principalphotography], it was inevitable. It wasfun to experiment and try differentthings, but it was a very strange process— almost the opposite of making atraditional film, in the sense that wedidn’t see what we had until the end.”

Although Alice shares some

prominent similarities with Avatar,Burton’s film took a different track, notonly because his project’s time andfinances were comparatively modest,but also because he wanted to workorganically with a sizable cast, whichincludes Johnny Depp (as the MadHatter), Helena Bonham Carter (as theRed Queen) and Mia Wasikowska (asAlice). Burton rejected an all-motion-capture approach but fell in love withthe notion of exotic, all-CG environ-ments and extensive scale and perspec-tive manipulations within the frame.Thus, shooting the movie digitally on agreenscreen stage eventually ripenedinto the only feasible option.

However, Burton also wantedwhat he calls “a vast movie.” He wantedto honor some of Lewis Carroll’s iconicimagery and yet “do [it] in a way thathas never been seen before.” He elabo-rates, “We wanted to show thatWonderland has fallen on hard times abit, and we also wanted to use color toestablish each character — each has itsown kind of color scheme, in a way.That informed our approach and gaveus something to hang onto while deal-ing with greenscreen all day long.”

◗ Down the Rabbit Hole

Aliceapproaches

the rabbit holethat will sendher tumbling

back toWonderland.

This portion ofthe film wascaptured on35mm film.


Throughout prep, the filmmakerspresumed they would shoot Alice innative stereo. Thus, Wolski spent severalweeks testing the Fusion 3-D CameraSystem developed by Vince Pace andJames Cameron and used on Avatar(AC Jan. ’10). Wolski says those teststaught him and Burton a great dealabout composing imagery to achievethe correct depth, camera moves andperspective for a big-screen stereopresentation, but, at the end of the day,they concluded they wouldn’t have thetime to set up the infrastructure neces-sary to shoot high-end native stereo.Because their “live” characters would becomposited into a wide range of CGenvironments at Imageworks, the film-makers decided to ask Imageworks toalso apply its dimensionalizationprocess — to transform the 2-D imagesinto 3-D in post. “We studied examplesof 2-D movies that had been turnedinto 3-D and agreed the results lookedamazing,” recalls Wolski. “So, at the lastminute, we decided to achieve 3-D inpost. But the tests we shot with theFusion rig were helpful, because theyenabled us to understand the wholeconcept of convergence, how to designthe space and so on. They helped us

The Cheshire Cat(top) and theBlue Caterpillar(middle) are twoof the offbeatcreatures whogreet Alice. Sony PicturesImageworkscontributed avariety ofcomplex CGcreations.Bottom: AliceexploresWonderland’sforest, one of the settings filled withextremelydetailed CGscenery conjuredby Burton and productiondesigner RobertStromberg.Taking advantage ofprevisualizationtools, Strombergwas able to helpBurton visualizeWasikowska’smovementswithin the show’s virtualenvironments.


keep a 3-D image in the back of ourminds while we were shooting.”

After deciding on a 1.85:1 aspectratio, the filmmakers took a mixed-format approach to acquisition,mingling high-definition video with 4Kdigital capture and 35mm. Panavision’sGenesis was the primary tool, and theDalsa Evolution 4K camera was used toacquire plates for some visual-effectswork. The film’s opening and closing“bookends” were shot on 35mm tocreate a visual distinction betweenAlice’s world above ground and thescenes that occur after she falls down therabbit hole.

Wolski notes that at the time —late 2008 — Sony’s F35 was not yetavailable, so the only Sony HD systemhe considered was the F23. “I think theresolution of the F23 is better than thatof the Genesis, but it has a smaller chip,and I found that wide shots were not assharp as they were with the Genesis,” hesays. “In the tests, I struggled with wideshots, especially when characters worepale costumes and pale makeup in softlight. Shooting against greenscreen, youdon’t have all the sharpness and detailthat comes with shooting a real set.Under those circumstances, I thoughtthe wide shots were sharper with theGenesis.”

◗ Down the Rabbit HoleTop: The Red Queen

(Helena BonhamCarter) reigns

supreme in hercolorful realm.

Middle: The Queen’scastle, realized as aneye-popping digital

vista. Bottom:Tweedledee,

Tweedledum and theWhite Rabbit are

three all-CGcharacters who

routinely interactwith real actors in CG environments.

Tweedledee andTweedledum were

animated via motion-capture data recordedfrom sensors worn byactor Matt Lucas andhis double, while the

White Rabbit washand-animated.

➣


Using two Genesis bodies, thefilmmakers shot raw imagery at -½ Gainon the Tungsten setting, recordinguncompressed to Codex Recorders. “Atthe end of each day, the master record-ings on the ‘exposed’ diskpacks, so tospeak, would go to the video-controltruck, where there was an LTO [datatape] transfer station,” explains WayneTidwell, the production’s data-captureengineer. “Masters were laid off to LTOtape for archival and safety backup, andthe discpacks were recycled once the datawas verified. During production, I’dtransfer takes from a scene onto an exter-nal Firewire drive using DNX HD36files. We had about 15 to 20 FireWiredrives cycling constantly to editorial.”

Working with a large set ofPanavision Primo primes and twoencoded 4:1 Primo zoom lenses (alongwith converted Leica lenses for theDalsa), Wolski applied what he hadlearned from testing 3-D rigs. “With 3-D, it’s best to shoot on the wider end,”he says. “Our biggest close-ups were75mm. I don’t think we went longer thanthat.” For scenes depicting Alice’s adven-tures in the rabbit hole — whichcomprise most of the picture — the


Top: The MadHatter (Johnny

Depp) is alwaysready to pour

some tea.Middle: The

White Rabbitjoins the party.

Burton notesthat in his film,

Wonderland has“fallen on hard

times,” which isreflected in the

picture’s colorschemes. Certain

shots weredesaturated

during the DIprocess, but

individualpalettes were

also designed forspecific

characters, soenvironments

tend to brightenup considerably

when Alice isaround. Bottom:

After sipping hertea, Alice shrinks

once again andeventually windsup being stuffed

into a teapot.


camera was on a 30' Technocrane with aLibra head.

One of the filmmakers’ trickiesttasks was determining how to provideplates for shots that showed size and scaleshifts within particular frames; certaincharacters, and sometimes certain bodyparts, were designed to be different sizesfrom other elements in the frame. TheRed Queen, for instance, has a head fartoo big for her body. Likewise, Alice ismore than 8' tall in some scenes and tinyin others. Wrangling those scale changeswas a big challenge and part of a largerparadigm for the movie — virtually everyshot is, one way or another, a visual effect.In fact, Ralston, whose credits includesuch memorable technical achievementsas The Polar Express (AC Nov. ’04) andWho Framed Roger Rabbit? (AC July ’88),calls Alice “the biggest show I’ve everdone,” adding, “It’s the most creativelyinvolved I’ve ever been in this many areasof a major show.”

The team ruled out motion controlfor plates involving shifts in scale becausethat would have required shooting sepa-rate passes, and “Tim wanted to makesure the actors could play scenes together,”says Villegas. “We used a variety of meth-ods to get eyelines correct on set, includ-ing platforms and stilts. Dariusz had theproblem of not knowing how much head-room to leave on various shots becauseTim didn’t know, for example, exactly howbig the Red Queen’s head needed to beuntil we’d put it all together. So Dariuszdecided to just shoot it the way he saw itand let us use our post solution.”


The RedQueen’s

distorted headsize was one of

the movie’smost complexvisual effects.The first stepwas achieved

by shootingCarter on a

greenscreenstage. Dalsa’s4K Evolution

camera systemwas used to

create plates athigh resolution;

this allowed the filmmakers

to enlargeportions of the

frame in postand then

seamlesslystitch those

elementstogether with

images shot atlower

resolutions.

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That solution involved capturingthose plates in 4K with the DalsaEvolution, which was in the prototypestage at that time. (Ed. Note: Dalsa hassince departed the motion-picture busi-ness.) With the Evolution, the teamcould capture the Red Queen or Alicetogether with other live characters in asingle 4K frame and then scale portionsof the frame up or down while main-taining a high-quality image.

In order to blend Dalsa footagewith Genesis footage, the Imageworksteam had to create software to amelio-rate resolution differences between thetwo: the Evolution’s 4K images were4096x2048, whereas the Genesis’ HDimages are 1920x1080. Still, accordingto Villegas, the Dalsa was a helpfulchoice in the long run. “You can’t blowup footage from an HD camera by 50 to100 percent and maintain the quality weneeded,” says Villegas. “We needed ahigh-resolution camera like the Dalsa,but it had to co-exist with the Genesisin post — we knew we couldn’t havetwo different pipelines for them.

“We wanted to maintain theDalsa’s 2:1 aspect ratio in order to makesure we could use the full raster of theimages Dariusz shot on set,” continuesVillegas. “So we developed a process to


Almost everyscene staged in

Wonderlandwith real actors

was shot ongreenscreen

stages.Environments

were addedlater by

Imageworks,which also

handled theshow’s

stereoscopicconversion

process.

resize the Dalsa images down to2160x1080, approximating the pixelspace of the Genesis. The Dalsa resolu-tion had about 120extra pixels on eachside of the frame, andthat became the basisof those images. So ifwe kept Alice at thenative resolution ofthe 4K camera andcomped her back into a scene of thedownsized Dalsamaterial, we wereeffectively getting an89-percent blowupwithout doing anyresizing.” Imageworksachieved this withproprietary softwarecalled Recompose,which enabled the team to scale piecesof Wolski’s photography up or downand establish a seamless relationshipbetween enlarged portions of the frameand the rest of the frame.

In order for that work to be done,however, Wolski’s crew had to recordlive-action plates to exacting standardson the greenscreen stages. Centralamong their challenges was how to lightgreenscreen delicately and mitigate the

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pervasive green spill. The solution, saysWolski, lay in the shadows, and “wassomething we kind of invented as we

went along.“On a 360-degree

greenscreen stage, thespill goes every-where,” he continues.“If you want big shadows to fall onsome of your subjects,those shadows oftenbecome green becausethere is so much greenspill. So we useddifferent shades ofhigh-quality grayfabrics to create shadows. When wewanted to go realmoody, we used ashade that was almost

black. If it was a dusky day, we used adark gray, and if it was day, we used lightgray.”

Above each greenscreen stage,gaffer Rafael Sanchez and his crewinstalled huge lightboxes to provide softlight. Each source comprised three softboxes containing 32 6K space lightseach, and all three were rigged withchain motors to facilitate extensivemanipulation. This approach gave

“We studied examples of 2-Dmovies that hadbeen turned into 3-D and agreed

the results looked amazing.”

Tweedledee and Tweedledum give Alice conflicting directions to her next destination.

Wolski “great flexibility in shaping thelight,” says Sanchez. “We even hadcontrol of each circuit in every spacelight.” Outside the softboxes, the crewplaced 80 Kino Flos for direct green-screen light, and they also used 20KFresnels on scissorlifts and on theground to build various sun sources thatwould eventually shine in through CGwindows and doors.

“We put silks that had been dyedvarious shades of blue underneath thehuge lightboxes,” says Wolski. “I foundthat digital cameras don’t like red orwarm colors very much, and they tendto go a little pinkish or reddish, so Icooled the whole thing off a bit for acloudy-day look. The silks we usedmost of the time were ¼ Blue, and wehad one for night scenes that was FullBlue. With the scissorlifts, we couldbring in the 20Ks if we wanted a softsun, a soft glow or a hard sun.”

The nature of the productionmeant that there was no chance for thefilmmakers to view the characters fullyintegrated with their environments onset during the shoot, nor could they takeadvantage of dailies in any useful way.They did, however, utilize a couple ofon-set previsualization systems, accord-ing to Villegas. “We did real-time



Burton’s desireto lend the

movie “epicscope” is

exemplified byscenes in theRed Queen’sthrone room

and duringbattlefield

action that pitsthe Red

Queen’s forcesagainst those

of her rival, theWhite Queen

(AnneHathaway).

keying of the greenscreen into the envi-ronments on set so Tim could view acharacter walking inside the environ-ment she would eventually be in,” saysVillegas. “It was a crude representation,but it did show him how the characterwould move and interact inside a set. Ofcourse, to do a real-time composite of thegreenscreens into theCG environments webuilt on set, we had tocapture the cameramove and replicate it inthe computer.”

This was accom-plished in a couple ofways. First, the teamused General Lift’sEncodacam system toencode dollies andcranes so that on-setcamera moves could berecorded for virtual-camera data. They alsoused InterSense opticalmotion-tracking sensor technology,incorporated into Lightcraft Tech-nologies’ Previzion system, to trackmovement of wild cameras. That data,along with zoom and pan-and-tilt datafrom the Libra head, and other signalscriss-crossing the set, were interfacedthrough a Panavision Panahub.

To give everyone a consistent

visual reference as production movedalong, Wolski pulled frames from theCodex Recorder each day for key scenesand color corrected them withPhotoshop. “Dariusz also set a look-uptable in the Codex for each scene to help with the color timing,” says 1st

AC Trevor Loomis.Wolski notes, “Usingmy LUT [in theCodex], I created abook of prints thatshowed the looks wewanted for all thecrucial scenes, so whenthe effects team wentto do comps, they hadsomething to matchto. I went off for abouta week and justprinted simple photos,adding contrast orchanging color hereand there, to providesimple guidelines foreveryone.”

As elements were capturedonstage or created in Imageworks’computers and then stitched together,Imageworks’ stereo department setabout adding the third dimension.Turner credits the recent feature G-Force, also done at Imageworks, forsupplying a toolset and methodologyfor massaging 2-D footage of live-

45

Stayne (Crispin Glover) leads the Red Queen’s minions into battle.

“It was fun to experiment

and try differentthings, but it was a very strange

process.”

action characters and environmentscombined with CG characters into 3-Dimagery. “G-Force gave us the experienceof transforming 2-D [live-action] platesinto 3-D, so we had a nice backbone tostart the process on Alice,” says Turner.“But Alice posed a different challenge, in

that the primary task was to dimension-alize people. On G-Force, the team wasdimensionalizing mostly objects.”

Both rotomotion and match-move techniques were used during thedimensionalization process for Alice.The chief tools used were customized

animation and compositing software,particularly Imageworks’ customizedversion of Maya 2009, which includes acustom stereo viewer; Imageworks’proprietary compositing software,Katana3-D; Nuke compositing soft-ware (v. 5.1); and Imageworks’ in-house3-D viewing tool, Itview.

Ralston and Turner emphasizethat this effort involved a great deal offinely detailed manual work — so muchso that at press time, as the DI processwas beginning, they were still makingrevisions and tweaks. After the finalgrading session, Turner was slated to doa final convergence pass on the imageryto fine-tune screen depth one last time.“I’ll be looking for depth jumps or last-minute tweaks,” Turner explains. “Atthat late stage, you can’t add more depthto the shot, but you can adjust screenplacement and screen depth. It’s amanual process, and I view it the waythe cinematographer views his role: hehas to frame shots the way the director


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The White Queen promotes a kinder, gentler agenda from her part of the realm.

wants and fluidly hit those points. I dothe same thing, only with depth.”

As the process wound down,Burton conceded it had been a gruelingadventure. He notes there are “somethings I would do differently, but some-times you decide to try something and

get momentum going, and you justneed to go for it. It’s fun to experiment— that’s the joy of filmmaking. Dariuszwas willing to go for it, and so waseveryone else, and we made this moviein that spirit. Somehow, we got it done.”

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Printed on Kodak Vision Premier 2393Wolski , Burton and senior visual-effects supervisor Ken Ralston (right) stayed in very close

contact throughout production.


Loosely based on Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s nonfiction bookImperial Life in the Emerald City, the new thriller GreenZone centers on the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. U.S.Army Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Matt Damon)

is in Baghdad, trying to locate the weapons of mass destruc-tion that were a critical element of the United States’ justifica-tion for war. Frustrated by poor intelligence, Miller digsdeeper and deeper, and he soon finds himself embroiled in aconspiracy that threatens to make him an enemy of his owncountry.

Green Zone reunited director Paul Greengrass withBarry Ackroyd, BSC, with whom he collaborated on United93 (AC June ’06). Both men hail from a background in docu-mentary filmmaking, and their work together is marked by anatural convergence of outlook and approach. “It feels like I’veworked with Barry for many, many years, even though we’veonly done two films together,” says Greengrass. “In a sense,we’re rather an implausible couple to be making a big

Hollywood movie, but the interesting thing for us is that we’remaking a film on a subject about which we both have a power-ful point of view; we’re making it at scale, with all the bigmovie resources you’d expect; and yet we’re approaching itwith the same aesthetic we would have applied to a smallmovie 10 years ago.”

At the heart of the working relationship, notes Ackroyd,is an absolute trust born more of instinct than exhaustivepreproduction. “I’d love to be able to say that we sat down andplanned a look for the film, but that’s not Paul’s approach, andit’s not necessarily mine, either,” says the cinematographer. “IfI said we talked about it for more than two hours over thecourse of the whole shoot, then I might well be exaggerating!”

When AC visited the London set early in the produc-tion, the filmmakers were at work in Freemasons’ Hall, whichwas doubling for Baghdad’s Republican Palace in the earlydays of its requisition by American personnel. Inside, the crewstood about on a lit set of a makeshift CIA office, waiting,

WeaponsofDeception

Barry Ackroyd, BSCreteams with PaulGreengrass on the

political thriller Green Zone, which

follows a U.S. Armyofficer on assignment

in Iraq.

By Mark Hope-Jones

•|•


while Greengrass and Damon sattogether in a corner, deep in conversa-tion. The director and actor had beenwriting the scene set to be filmed thatday for almost two hours. Eventually,they emerged and circulated sheets ofpaper still warm from the printer. Itseemed a bit like chaos, but it wasn’t; thestrategy was the product of Greengrass’determination not to make assumptionsabout how a scene might work until allthe elements are in place. “Sometimeswe shoot pretty much what’s on thepage and we know where it’s going, butother times it may change and developas we shoot,” explains Ackroyd. “On adaily basis, Paul is making fine cuts withthe script, the look, the sound and the

edit. As an ex-journalist, he feels hisideas work best when he’s under pres-sure.”

For the cinematographer, Green-grass’ work methods required constanttechnical flexibility, and the day of AC ’svisit was no exception. “I’ll tend to light360 degrees if I can,” continuesAckroyd. “It’s kind of irrespective ofwhere the actors end up on the set, soyou don’t really have to block it, otherthan [make] little tweaks to make it lookgood. For the lighting on the set today,we discussed certain practicals inadvance with the art department tocreate a military-office look: fluorescenttubes and angle-poise lamps. Then wefigured out where light would come

through the windows and what direc-tion it should have. When Paul and theactors have decided what they’re doing,we can just enhance the look withsmaller lights hidden in the set. Oftenafter the first take, we might realize thata certain area is too dark or that there’stoo much light on something, and we’lladjust it. There’s a lot of communicationbetween takes — that’s where a lot ofthe hard work goes. Outside, even justbefore we turn over, there’ll be peoplerunning around dropping flags and nets,refining the look for each take.”

“The lights coming through thewindows in that scene were 6Ks on oneside and VistaBeams on the other,”explains gaffer Harry Wiggins. “TheU

nit

phot

ogra

phy

by J

asin

Bol

and

and

Jona

than

Olle

y,

cour

tesy

of

Uni

vers

al P

ictu

res.

Opposite: U.S.Army officerRoy Miller (MattDamon) defendshimself in GreenZone. This page,top: Miller isgrilled by CIAstation chiefMartin Brown(BrendanGleeson). Left:Barry Ackroyd,BSC (left) anddirector PaulGreengrasseyeball a setup.


fluorescents were 950s, or what I wouldcall a 9-series tube: anything with aCRI of 98. The art department bolted5-foot horizontal twin fluorescentfittings with plastic diffusers straight tothe temporary wall of the office to lightthe various maps and monitors thatwere mounted on it. That, combinedwith more plastic-diffused fluorescentfittings on T-bars above the center ofthe desks, gave us bright horizontallines in the frame, which on a long lensstarts to add a bit of magic. We needed6-foot tubes in the background, andyou can’t get those in a good 9-series, sothey were an 865; they might havemetered a little bit of green, but you’dnever see it in the rushes.”

Among the smaller fixtureshidden around the set for last-minutefinessing of the lighting were “Tubos,”purpose-built units that Ackroyddevised for 360-degree and 180-degreelighting situations. “The Tubos wereour workhorse throughout the bulk ofGreen Zone,” says Wiggins. The instru-ment is a single Kino Flo tube in ablack plastic pipe painted white on theinside, with a slot cut out of it. “You canstand them on end, lay them flat on thefloor or hang them from a line at thetop,” says Wiggins. “We did anythingwe could do to make them work

◗ Weapons of Deception

Top andmiddle:

JournalistLawrie Dayne

(Amy Ryan)and

intelligenceagent ClarkPoundstone

(Greg Kinnear)become

players in thedrama

surroundingMiller. Below:

Greengrasspreps a scenewith Damonand Kinnear.

quickly. I had some made with built-indimmers, and they had an in-and-outpower connector so we could daisy-chain them really quickly. The beautifulthing is that you can literally kick themabout. We were working in dirtymarketplaces in Morocco [whichdoubled for Iraq], and we’d just burythem in the ground, dig them all up atthe end of the night, put them back onthe truck and bring them out again thenext morning. They were pretty muchinvulnerable. They were practicallyinvisible, and we could pull them out orrun them in at the drop of a hat becausethey didn’t need any grip equipment.”

Lighting for 360 degrees was vitalnot only for last-minute decisions aboutwhat the actors would do, but also formaintaining a free-flowing approach tocamerawork. The filmmakers usedArricam Lite and Arri 235 cameras, andat least two were running on everysetup. Klemens Becker, a regular onGreengrass’ crews, was the A-cameraoperator, while Ackroyd handled the Bcamera. For scenes that required morecoverage, 2nd-unit cinematographerFlorian Emmerich and operator JohnConroy would step in. “There was a



Top to bottom:Lt. Col. Briggs(Jason Isaacs)

disrupts Miller’smission; Briggs

and Miller inthe field;

Ackroyd and1st AC OliverDriscoll man

the B camera.


kind of telepathy in how we coveredscenes, once we had the look right,” saysAckroyd. “We did a lot of handheld, butwe were using lightweight zooms so wecould move around and change framesizes. Klemens has his own technique;he tends to do wider shots that arehandheld, so that would become a littleblock about 10 or 15 feet wide, withKlemens, the grip, the focus puller anda boom operator. Then I would sneakmy camera in alongside theirs and dothe opposite; I’d put on a long zoom andpick off tighter shots. We created almostevery scene using a few variations ofthat strategy.”

However the cameras wereconfigured, the priority was to sustain acontinuous sense of motion. “We alwayskept that handheld feel and the abilityto move,” says Ackroyd. “Sometimes Iused little sliders, variable lengths ofsteel rods that let me cushion thecamera on a base but still keep it quiteloose. Having a 4-foot or 6-foot slidermeans that if you get blocked, you canalways create a bit of movement, or ifyou want to create blocking, you can dothat, too.”

Ackroyd and Becker’s differentoperating styles naturally positioned

them at different ends of the focal-length range used to cover each scene.Ackroyd notes, “When I operate, I findmyself wrapped around the camera,very close to it, so it’s more connected to

my body motion. I was using a long[Angenieux] Optimo zoom [24-290mm], which needs support, so I’duse a Manfrotto monopod to keep thathandheld feel. Klemens would strip thecamera down to its lightest possible

configuration and use it more like avideo camera, with an onboard moni-tor. That allowed him to throw thecamera around a bit more and workedwith his use of a fairly wide lens.”

In addition to the 24-290mmOptimo, Ackroyd often used a 28-76mm Optimo, but the lenses that wereon the cameras most frequently were80-200mm Nikon stills-format zoomlenses that were rehoused by Arri.Ackroyd also carried a set of Zeiss UltraPrimes, but the team “only used themfor a few night shots where it was sodark that we needed the extra stop,” hesays. “If we did use a prime, it wasusually the 135mm so we could keepthat compressed, long-lens look.”

Becker had a habit of namingvarious lenses after films he liked, andAckroyd enjoyed winding him up byencouraging the crew to use completelydifferent movie titles for the samelenses. “That was just part of ourstrange English humor,” says the cine-matographer. “If Klemens called the28-76mm Ipcress, we’d call it O LuckyMan! or Kes or This Sporting Life —basically going back to English FreeCinema. We saw British social-realistfilms as more of an influence on us thananything else.”

Another reference for the visualapproach — especially for tense combatscenes — came from an entirely differ-ent source. “YouTube was a massiveinfluence,” reveals Ackroyd. “If youwant to know how soldiers move, thenyou get military advisers, but if youwant to see what it actually looks likewhen they burst into someone’s house,then you look at YouTube. We weretrying to get the rawness and energyand truth of what you see in thoseshots. The soldier with the videocamera is usually following the othersand actually participating in the action,and that’s what we tried to do with ourcamera. We want the viewer to feel likean observer who’s inevitably caught upin what’s happening. Our role was toallow the ‘reality’ to happen in front ofthe camera and give the actors and Paulthe freedom to do what they wanted. I


Greengrass and Damon work out the details of an upcoming scene. “Sometimes we shoot pretty muchwhat’s on the page, but other times [the scene] may develop as we shoot,” says Ackroyd. “Paul feels his

ideas work best when he’s under pressure.”

“Our role was to allow the ‘reality’ tohappen in front of

the camera and givethe actors and Paulthe freedom to dowhat they wanted.”


didn’t have to talk to Paul too muchbecause our method was just to avoiddoing anything that would interferewith the process. We’d never invadesomeone’s scenario or get into themiddle of a group. We always shotoutside the circle; that was a basictenet.”

Being a political thriller, GreenZone involves a lot of corridors and agood many walk-and-talks. That meantthat large and long areas had to be lit,and Greengrass’ penchant for long takesmade this even more important. “Ialways try to make whatever I’m shoot-ing as taut and compact as I can, butthen play it out in its longest possibleform,” says Greengrass. Ackroyd recalls,“We did a shot in the RepublicanPalace where we walked all the waythrough four scenes in about sevenlocations, so we had to light a staircase,a corridor, an entrance hall, a big recep-tion area, a press conference, anothercorridor and then a meeting room. Wespent most of a day lighting the wholething and then two-and-a-half hoursshooting it, using three cameras andhanding the scene over from one

camera to the next. Of course, it will becut to pieces in the final film, but that’sthe kind of freedom Paul wants.”

Faced with such protracted takes,Ackroyd’s crew tried to light fromoutside windows wherever possible,

usually with 12K Pars or banks of 4KPars. “The great thing about workingwith Barry is that he’s always happy towork with the best you can give him,”says Wiggins. “He fully understands the

limitations that come with trying tomake something very versatile. I’d try tomaintain a good level where we couldgive it to him, but I wasn’t struggling tobring everything up to the same levelbecause I knew we’d be cutting quicklyand the camera would never be static.The set-dressing department’s aestheticwas all about functionality, so we couldget away with murder. If a corridor wasdark, we were free to dot it with worklights, small tungsten floods on standsor little fluorescents that were standingon the floor or up on T-bars. We alsoused 1.2K HMI Gaffair balloons,which we put up on a wire overhead oron a stand that could pass for a piece ofmilitary equipment. They gave us 360degrees of soft illumination, and thatwas useful in places like the RepublicanPalace. We could inflate them veryquickly, and because they’re air balloons,we could change our minds about themwithout incurring huge helium costs.”

Well into the shoot, the final actof the film still hadn’t been worked out,though the crew knew it would involvea chase across Baghdad. Ackroydrecalls, “I clearly remember Paul

A-cameraoperator

Klemens Becker,a regular onGreengrass’

projects, staysclose to Damon.“Klemens tends

to do widershots that are

handheld … he’dstrip the camera

down to itslightest possible

configurationand use it more

like a videocamera,” notes

Ackroyd.


“We want the viewer to feellike an observerwho’s inevitably

caught up in what’shappening.”

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mentioning casually that we were goingto start this chase sequence in a week ortwo, and he said, ‘Wouldn’t it be good ifit took place at night?’ Then he walkedoff to get a cup of tea! So the scriptpages, which were being written at thetime, all suddenly changed, and thefinal movement was suddenly taking

place at night, outside the Green Zone,during a curfew, in a place with no elec-tricity!”

Wiggins describes the scale of thechallenge: “We had to find a lightingsetup that would create a very darkatmosphere, with no apparent sources,while somehow enabling us to see

what’s going on in a fast-moving chasesequence over an area of about 16 acres.Obviously, we had to go backlit, but wewere on streets, so we couldn’t do softmoonlight. Also, we needed to see 360degrees in all these shots. It was prettytricky! Most of the time, we were work-ing on the rooftops of houses and accesswas generally by staircases only, so wewere limited to 5Ks and 10Ks.” Ackroydadds, “It became very difficult to keeplights out of the frame, especiallybecause one of Paul’s favorite shots is thelow-angle tracking shot, usually behindthe action. The light had to come fromsomewhere, so inevitably, sources some-times appeared in shot, and the visual-effects team had to remove them inpost.”

In order to visually differentiatethe Green Zone, the safe haven estab-lished by U.S. forces, from the rest ofBaghdad, Ackroyd used Fuji EternaVivid 500 8547 for scenes in the GreenZone and other Eterna stocks for the


Cast and crewprepare for a

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involving anambush.

rest of the picture. With light spread sothin for the chase sequence, the 500-ASA Vivid was pushed to its limit. “Paulwanted those scenes to feel like death, sowe used a heavy green gel [219, with 251diffusion] that took 2½ stops out of thelight,” says Ackroyd. “We were underex-posing to get what I call ‘a night feel,’ butusing a T2.8 zoom lens in such darkconditions, when you’re already 2 or 3stops underexposed, can get scary. Wewere doing all the things you’re notmeant to do with film stock in order totell the audience that this is a place ofdeath. The grain became part of thestory.”

Throughout the shoot, theproduction’s footage was processed bySoho Film Lab and transferred atAscent 142 on an HD Spirit DataCine.Ascent 142 also handled the digital-intermediate scanning, color correctionand filmout. AC caught up withGreengrass and Ackroyd again partwaythrough the grade, which they were

carrying out with colorist Rob Pizzey.The filmmakers mulled over theirrather unusual approach to such a bigproduction. “The trick is not beingafraid of the scale,” says Ackroyd. “It’sjust film moving through a camera. Aslong as it’s good in front of you, you cancapture it.” Greengrass notes, “We triedto stay true to a look for the film thatunfolded as we made it, a look that wasextremely direct and straightforward.Barry never wants to photograph some-thing without it having a simple, directhumanity; that’s a great eye to have. IfI’m doing a scene with him and I sensesomething that doesn’t feel right that Ican’t put my finger on, I’ll know for surethat Barry has sensed it, too. In the end,that is, I think, the most defining bondthat has to exist between a director anda cinematographer.” ●

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59


Cinematography is an alchemic blend of art and sciencethat is often pushed to its limits in the pursuit of modernfilmmaking. Nothing, however, can complicate the jobmore than extreme conditions, and few situations are

more extreme than shooting in outer space. Add to that thecomplications of large-format 3-D cinematography, and youcan comprehend the technological complexity of Hubble 3-D.

Cinematographer James Neihouse is a veteran in theextreme rigors of extraterrestrial photography. Since heworked as a camera assistant on the Imax film Hail Columbia!(1982), he has become an integral player on the company’souter-space team. He was the cinematographer on The DreamIs Alive (1985), the first film to send an Imax camera intospace, and he became the go-to space cinematographer on the Ph

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Director of photography James Neihouse trains a

crew of astronauts for the Imax film Hubble 3-D.

By Jay Holben

•|•

The Final Frontier in3 Dimensions


Imax productions Blue Planet, Destiny inSpace, Mission to Mir and Space Station3-D (AC May ’02).

Hubble documents NASA’s finalrepair mission to the famous space tele-scope. In addition to his traditionalduties as cinematographer, it wasNeihouse’s responsibility to train theshuttle’s astronauts to be de facto cine-matographers for the 3-D Imax camerain space. “NASA gives us about 25hours of face-to-face time with theastronauts to train them in basic shotselection and exposure and advise themon what to do if things go wrong,” saysNeihouse. “Fortunately, astronauts areincredibly smart people and really quickstudies.”

Most of Hubble’s terrestrialsequences — the majority of the movie— were shot with Imax’s two-stripSolido 3-D camera, which exposes leftand right eyes on separate pieces of65mm film. To capture scenes in space,the filmmakers used the Imax CargoBay Camera 3-D, which MSMDesign’s Martin Mueller designed andbuilt for Imax for Space Station 3-D.“The ICBC was purpose-built to fly onthe space shuttle,” says Neihouse. The

camera reduces size and mass by using asingle strip of 65mm film to captureboth left- and right-eye stereo images,yielding 30-perf 3-D. Standard Imaxfilm passes horizontally through thecamera, with each successive framealongside the previous one. To photo-graph stereo images onto one strip, the

two lenses are mounted side-by-side,and the camera features two aperturegates, thus the 30 perfs. Each opening ofthe camera’s shutter exposes two frames,left and right, and then the filmadvances two frames before the nextexposure. The two side-by-side imagesare separated digitally in post and thenTo

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Opposite: A compositeimage of the HelixNebula taken with theHubble SpaceTelescope’s AdvancedCamera for Surveys andthe Mosaic II Camera onthe 4-meter telescope atCerro Tololo Inter-American Observatoryin Chile. This page, top:An image of a stellar jetin the Carina Nebulaobserved in light,captured by Hubble’snew Wide Field Camera3 installed by NASAastronauts during thefinal servicing mission.Bottom: Astronaut John Grunsfeld (on theshuttle arm) passes anew cover to AndrewFeustel (to the left) in ashot filmed with theImax Cargo Bay Cameraduring the fifth andfinal space walk of theSTS-125 mission.


combined onscreen to create the singlestereoscopic image.

“Classic 3-D Imax was done bytaking the left eye on one roll of filmand the right eye on another, and thenprojecting them to create the stereoimage,” says Neihouse. “With theICBC, we do it digitally; because left-eye and right-eye images are side-by-side on the same film roll, we scan allthe left-eye, then all the right-eye, at5.6K to separate them to individualleft/right rolls. Digital tools have madethat whole process a lot easier, but I’drather go back to direct photochemicalprinting because we lose resolutionthrough scanning. An Imax frame isprobably close to 12K resolution, andwe can only scan it at 5.6K. It’s just thenature of the beast.”

To expose left and right eye onone strip of film, the film is running

through the camera at 12' per second,twice the normal speed (effectively 48fps). In order to get a full eight-minuteload, Neihouse and his team had tomanually splice together two 2,700' rollsof unexposed 65mm film to get a totalof 5,400'. Only a single load could besent into space because the camera’sposition and enclosure — not tomention the astronaut’s main missionpriorities — prohibited reloads. “Wehad to be very choosey about what wedid with those eight minutes offootage,” notes Neihouse. (See sidebaron page 68.)

Neihouse and Toni Myers, thefilm’s director, spent 18 months workingwith the crew at the Johnson SpaceCenter to carefully plan out the footagethey would gather in space. “We learnedexactly what they would be doing ateach stage of the mission and picked

what we felt would be the most inter-esting moments, and then we created ashot list for the team, keeping in mindthat the camera would be locked off,”recalls the cinematographer.

The Imax team also worked inthe Virtual Reality lab at NASA, wherescientists would re-create the proposedspace walk from any vantage point,giving the filmmakers a previsualizationwith which to work. The astronautstrain tirelessly for life in zero gravity byutilizing NASA’s Neutral BuoyancyLaboratory, a 6.2-million-gallon pool,and the filmmakers joined the astro-nauts in the pool to both help plan theirshot list and document the training.Underwater cinematographer HowardHall shot the pool sequences with theSolido in an underwater housing. Outof the water, the camera and housingweighed 1,500 pounds, and a crane wasrequired to get it into the water, butonce in the pool, the camera and hous-ing became so light that Hall couldhandhold the rig to cover the action.

Although the filmmakers usedKodak Vision3 500T 5219 stock at thepool, they still needed a good deal oflight to maintain a small aperture for 3-D. “It took a lot of persuading, but wemanaged to talk NASA into letting uslight the pool,” says Neihouse. “We hadabout half a dozen Hydroflex HMIPars in the pool and an 18K and 6KHMI topside. Everybody was worriedabout the lights distracting or blindingthe astronauts, but after we shot, theybegged us to keep it. They said, ‘We canfinally see down there!’

“We had a lot of tools to help uspick those eight minutes of outer-spacefootage,” continues Neihouse. “But ourshot list was more than double what wewanted, because you never know whatwill happen up there. The first day ofshooting on the mission ended upcompletely behind schedule because ofa single bolt that didn’t want to comeout. Suddenly, we were in the dark.”

The telescope resides in a LowEarth Orbit of 347 miles above thesurface of the planet. At that distance,the Hubble must travel at 17,045 mph

◗ The Final Frontier in 3 Dimensions

Gas released by adying star racesacross space at

more than600,000 mph,

forming thedelicate shape of

a celestialbutterfly. This

image (popularlyreferred to as theButterfly Nebula)

was one of thefirst images

captured by theHubble’s newlyinstalled Wide

Field Camera 3.

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to maintain its orbit and not comecrashing to Earth; it takes the telescopeabout 97 minutes to circle the Earth.“That means we’re seeing a ‘sunrise’ or‘sunset’ just about every 45 minutes,”says Neihouse. This happens becausethe Hubble travels around the “dark”side of the planet, where the Earth isbetween the telescope and the sun. Asthe Hubble comes back around theEarth into view of the sun, it experi-ences the equivalent of a sunrise; it’s amere 45 minutes before it starts to traveltoward the backside again and experi-ences a sunset. The five space walksdone during the mission averaged 7hours and 12 minutes each, and duringthose periods, Hubble saw 4½ periodsof sunlight and 4½ periods of dark.

“We were fortunate in that due tothe nature of orbital mechanics, andbecause we were shooting in the middleof May, we had a bit more daylight oneach rotation than we did darkness,”observes Neihouse. “We were alsofortunate that the astronauts had toorient Hubble so that direct sunlightwouldn’t enter the telescope when theyhad it open — they call that the ‘sun-protect attitude.’ So while they were

working on it, they were in constantopen shade, lit solely by sunlight bounc-ing off the Earth, the biggest bouncecard you can ever imagine!”

The space footage was shot onKodak Vision2 50D 5201 at a typicalaperture of about f8. “We ended upbalancing between f5.6 and f8 most ofthe time,” says Neihouse. “Sometimeswe’d get as much as an 11, but thatdidn’t happen often. I wanted to shoot

as deep as possible to keep the depth-of-field, which is crucial to 3-D shoot-ing.”

Part of the astronauts’ cine-matography training was instructionabout how to use a spot meter andmake exposure calculations. Neihousenotes, “It can be crazy, even for aseasoned cinematographer, to evaluateexposure when the light is constantlychanging. Back at Mission Control, we


Top: In a momentcaptured by the 3-D Cargo BayCamera, Feusteltransfers theCorrective OpticsSpace TelescopeAxial Replacementunit from theHubble to itstemporarystowage positionin the spaceshuttle Atlantiscargo bay. Bottom:AstronautsMichael Good (onthe Shuttle’sremotemanipulator arm)and MichaelMassimino (insidethe Hubble)replace thetelescope’s RateSensor Unitsduring themission’s secondspace walk.


could hear the astronauts debatingwhat the exposure should be!

“Determining exposures in orbitis probably the most challenging aspectof these projects,” he continues. “Overthe years of shooting these space films,I’ve developed a good database of expo-sures in various situations, and I give theastronauts a spreadsheet that suggestswhich stop to use in which attitude. We

always push for the smallest stop possi-ble without getting too thin of a nega-tive. My biggest nightmare is that thecamera returns from space with a super-thin negative and nothing in focus!”

Although the astronauts had noability to interact directly with theICBC camera, they had an IBM laptopwith proprietary software that allowedthem to remotely control lens selection,

iris, focus and start/stop functions, andalso view video feed from the camera.Locked in the shuttle’s cargo bay, thecamera had no ability to pan or tilt, andits position had to be set long before thecraft was launched. “We had to fix thecamera in position a year before thescheduled launch,” recalls Neihouse.“NASA has to specially certify anythingand everything that goes into space, andthe parameters are extraordinary. Everylast screw and washer has to beapproved and thoroughly tested.”

The final position ended up 10'from the base of the telescope. Thecamera was fitted with a remote-oper-ated turret lens mount that gave theastronauts a selection of a pair of 30mm,40mm or 60mm Imax lenses, allmounted at a fixed interocular distanceof 68mm. “On the space cameras, wehave fixed interocular, with no conver-gence — the images are parallel,”explains Neihouse. “We figured thatwould minimize the screw-up factorand make the camera easier for the crewto operate.”

The film stock used in the ICBCwas made specifically for the production

Right: Hubblerepair maneuvers

were rehearsedby the astronautsin NASA’s NeutralBuoyancy Lab at

Johnson SpaceCenter in

Houston. Below:Cinematographer

Howard Hallmoves the Imax

Solido 3-Dcamera in its

waterproofhousing to film

astronautsMassimino (left)

and Good in the NBL.



on Kodak Estar polyester print-stockbase, which is thinner and stronger thanstandard acetate in order to withstandthe 12'-per-second speed through thecamera. “The Estar stock also doesn’thave a memory the way acetate does,which is a big issue for us,” assertsNeihouse. “When you load acetate filminto a camera, it tends to set and take a

memory around the sprocket wheelsand rollers. That can cause a jam if it’sset in too firmly when you start up thecamera. This wouldn’t be an issue if thecamera is loaded right before shooting,but in this case, we had to load thecamera a month before the launch, andthen it just sat there. Acetate film sittingin that position for that long would

likely jam and break, and that would bea major disaster.”

Because the shuttle is docked in aclimate-controlled hangar, there is littleconcern about unexposed film sitting inthe camera for a month. “They have thehumidity set to around 50 percent, andthey maintain a temperature of about68°F,” says Neihouse. “The conditionsare pretty optimal.”

Getting the film to the lab,Technicolor in Los Angeles, proved tobe another challenge. “Before the 2001terrorist attacks, I’d show up at theairport in Orlando with four cans offilm under my arm and a letter fromNASA, and it was all good. It’s a lotharder to get the film through securitytoday.” Of course, the footage wasn’texactly under Neihouse’s arm — theundeveloped negative is held incustom-made cans and weighs morethan 50 pounds per roll. “It took nearlyfour months of discussions with variousauthorities to get everyone to approvemy hand-carrying the film onto acommercial flight without them X-raying it,” continues Neihouse.


Top: The spaceshuttle Atlantis

moves awayfrom the

Hubble justafter release atthe conclusion

of the finalservicingmission.Bottom:

AstronautMegan

McArthurworks the

controls of theremote

manipulatorsystem on theaft flight deck

of the Atlantis.

For international distribution

see www.chrosziel.com

Chrosziel GmbH | Klausnerring 6 | 85551 Heimstetten/Munich | GermanyTel. +49 (0)89 9010 910 | Fax +49 (0)89 4470 861 E-mail: [email protected] | Internet: www.chrosziel.com

“Basically, NASA had to deem thefootage a ‘national treasure’ that wasirreplaceable. In the end, it was the easi-est passage I’ve ever had through TSAsecurity because everyone knew I wascoming way in advance.”

Because of bad weather, the spaceshuttle didn’t land in Florida asexpected; it was diverted to EdwardsAir Force base in California. AlthoughCalifornia was the negative’s ultimatedestination, Edwards didn’t have theappropriate equipment to offload theshuttle’s cargo bay, so the Imax teamcouldn’t retrieve the film until the shut-tle was transported back to Florida.

Even though the ICBC camera issignificantly smaller than the Solido, the camera and container loaded intothe shuttle’s cargo bay weighed over 700 pounds. “The container had to besemi-sealed and have its own slightatmosphere so that we could draw avacuum and keep the film flat,” explainsNeihouse. Because of the Imax negative’s extremely large size(2.772"x2.072"), even with registrationpins, the film naturally wants to curl.Attempts to tighten the pressure plateagainst the aperture in early Imaxcameras resulted in scratches to the film,so the original engineers of the Imaxsystem drilled channels in the pressureplate and incorporated a light vacuuminto the housing to gently suck the filmagainst the pressure plate during expo-sure. “That keeps the film from curlingor wobbling and keeps the focus incred-ibly sharp, but there has to be someatmosphere inside the camera in orderfor the vacuum system to work,” saysNeihouse. “We have to maintain a slightpressure, 4 or 4½ pounds per squareinch, to allow the vacuum to do itsthing. We also had to incorporatespecial valves so the container wouldpressurize itself, release pressure inspace, and increase pressure on re-entryto equalize the atmosphere in thecontainer.”

As spectacular as a 3-D Imaxview of outer space might be, in thiscase it was defined by the camera’sphysical position in the cargo bay.“Because the camera was positioned

below the telescope, we got a lot of feetand buns and backpacks,” saysNeihouse. “It’s impossible to see thedetails the astronauts are working on,especially when they’re inside the tele-scope, so we incorporated footage fromtheir helmet cams.” The spacesuitseach astronaut wore contained a single-chip Sony XC-999 “cigar” camera,which sends standard-definition videoto the shuttle and Mission Control.

The filmmakers were able to capturethis signal to see what the astronautssaw, including details of what theywere doing inside the telescope. “Weincorporated that footage and up-rezzed it, and it looks pretty good,” saysNeihouse. “In 3-D, your brain getstricked into thinking it’s seeing twiceas much information, so it’s not as badas you might imagine. It is, however,video captured from space and trans-


T he only filmmakers aboard thespace shuttle Atlantis capturing

footage for Hubble 3-D were the astro-nauts themselves. Capt. Gregory CarlJohnson was the pilot of Atlantis, andthe man primarily responsible for thecontrol of the CB3D Imax camerawhile in orbit. “It was a lot more pres-sure than I thought it would be!” saysJohnson, a NASA test pilot andformer Naval Aviation officer. “Wereceive photography instruction aspart of the basic astronaut training,and we all [carry] digital cameras, butworking with the Imax camera reallychanged things. The problem was thatyou couldn’t predict when a scenewould start and stop; if a task on theshot list got delayed by 10 minutes, itcould suddenly slip into night.Although there’s a mile of film in thecamera, it’s only eight minutes’ worth,and it was up to us to get what thefilmmakers needed in 20-30 secondbursts.

“[Director] Toni Myers sug-gested specific lens choices for specificmoments, but it was really up to us todecide what to do at any moment,” he

continues. “If the ground was in view,then Toni wanted us to use the 30mmlens and set the focus at infinity, butwe had to make sure that whateverwas closest to the camera was also infocus. Judging focus using the laptopcomputer that controlled the camerawas very difficult, so we relied ondiagrams in the cockpit to estimatedistances and set our focus that way.We’d say, ‘If the space walker is overthere, he’s 10.2 feet away,’ and that’swhere we set the focus.”

There was room for only oneImax camera, so the crew also workedwith Canon XH G1 HDV cameras.One of the main in-shuttle videogra-phers was astronaut Mike Massimino.“I did a lot of crew interviews — I wasinterested in bringing out the person-alities of the crew and telling the storyof the mission,” he says. “Toni hadspecial instructions for us to followwhen we shot video. They were differ-ent settings than what we shot forNASA, and some of it was prettycomplicated, so I had to have a cheatsheet: install wide conversion lens, useheadphones to monitor sound, filter

•|• Filmmakers in Orbit •|•

off, focus manual, AGC off, auto whitebalance on. We had to use a separatemicrophone and attach that to theXLR. We had to switch to 24p insteadof 60i and set the shutter to 1/48. Tonialways wanted us to do manual focusand manual exposure. Exposures werethe most complicated part, especiallyon the Imax camera. Rocket equationsI can handle, but exposures arecomplicated!”

“There was an incredibleamount of pressure to get it right,”recalls Johnson. “I think I’d rather be inhead-to-head air combat going 100knots in an F18 than have to beresponsible for those eight minutes offootage again!”

But the results were worth it.“Being out there on a space walk istruly incredible, and when I saw someof the 3-D footage of that on the Imaxscreen, it came as close to real as itgets,” says Massimino. “I got the samechills watching the footage as I didwhen I was up there. It really got myheart going again.”

— Jay Holben

Above: STS-125 astronauts and Hubble 3-D filmmakers gather around the Imax Cargo BayCamera at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ “Astronaut as Filmmaker” event

on July 14, 2009. From left: Commander Scott D. Altman, producer/director Toni Myers, missionspecialist Michael T. Good, mission specialist Michael J. Massimino, mission specialist Andrew J.

Feustel, pilot Gregory C. Johnson, mission specialist John M. Grunsfeld and director ofphotography/astronaut trainer James Neihouse. (Megan McArthur was unable to attend.) Right:

The Cargo Bay camera, which holds 5,400' of film, is prepared for installation on the OrbitalReplacement Unit Carrier at the Goddard Spaceflight Center in Maryland.

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mitted down to Earth, so there wasalways interference.”

The shuttle crew also carried aCanon XH G1 HDV camera to docu-ment their activities inside the shuttle.“That camera was certified for theInternational Space Station, so NASA

allowed it to fly on this mission,” saysNeihouse. “Although we had more thana year of prep, we didn’t really have thetime — or the budget — to certify adifferent camera. The NASA space-certification program is grueling andincredibly intense; it would have taken

about six months of rigorous testing andabout $250,000 to get another cameracertified. On this project, we reallypushed the camera beyond its intendeduse, and we got some great, intimatefootage of the crew that just wouldn’thave been possible otherwise. AstronautMike Massimino did most of the oper-ating, and he’d go off the cuff and inter-view the crewmembers almost everyday. It’s amazing material, and we wouldnever have gotten it if not for that littleG1.”

The filmmakers used a mix of 3-D and 2-D Imax cameras (andKodak Vision2 250D 5205) to shootthe shuttle launch, including a 30-perf3-D camera that is similar to the ICBCbut designed for earthbound productionscenarios. The lineup looked like this: ASolido in a blast housing was positionedless than 100 yards from the mainrocket engines; a 30-perf 3-D Camera(also in a blast housing) was on thelaunch tower, looking down with a


70

Atop the launchtower at the

Kennedy SpaceCenter, looking

down at thespace shuttle

Atlantis,Neihouse (far

right) andcrewmembers

place the Imax 3-D camera in

its fireproofhousing to film

the launch ofSTS-125.

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an.

30mm Elcan fisheye lens; another 30-perf 3-D Camera was on a Technocranenear the press area; an Imax MKII 2-Dcamera was placed on another launchpad to the south; and a Solido was puton a Chapman Olympian crane on theVIP side of the launch area. “Ascontrolled as those launches are, younever really know what’s going tohappen,” notes Neihouse. “You neverknow if the cameras close to the launchwill still be there after the launch.NASA has had cameras as far away as200 yards be completely obliterated. Youalso never know where the smoke isgoing to go; your camera position can bewasted by a cloud of smoke. We werelucky that all of our gear made itthrough the launch unharmed. Also,since the Columbia accident, NASA hasput a lot more cameras on the outside ofthe craft to monitor what’s going onduring the launch, and we were able to incorporate some of that footage intothe film. It’s not anywhere near the

quality of the Imax cameras, but theshots are so dynamic that it really doesn’t matter.”

DKP 70mm Inc., Imax’s postsubsidiary, handled the production’sscanning, digital grading, filmout andphotochemical timing. “All of the 30-perf material, 2-D/3-D conversions,and material captured in space wentthrough the digital realm, but most ofthe Solido material was finished photo-chemically,” notes Neihouse. “We onlygo digital on the images that require it.

“Working with the Imax spaceprogram is a lot of fun and a very uniquejob, and it has definitely made me abetter cinematographer,” he concludes.“When you’re shooting in space, youdon’t get two takes.” ●

TECHNICAL SPECS

1.43:1

15-perf/30-perf 65mm andDigital Capture

Imax Cargo Bay Camera 3-D,Solido, 30-perf 3-D, MKII;Canon XH G1; Sony XC-999

Hasselblad and Elcan lenses

Kodak Vision2 50D 5201, 250D 5205; Vision3 500T 5219

Specialized Digital Intermediate

Printed on Kodak Vision 2383

71


Our Sundance reportage this year covers three cinematog-raphy prizewinners, a visually distinctive feature fromBolivia, and the festival’s first 3-D feature.

Director of photography Zak Mulligan used the RedOne to capture Obselidia, for which he won the cinematogra-phy prize in the U.S. Dramatic Competition. That contestwas judged by a jury comprising ASC member RobertYeoman, actress Parker Posey, author Russell Banks and film-makers Karyn Kusama and Jason Kliot.

Laura Poitras and Kirsten Johnson used a mix of digital formats to capture The Oath, for which they shared the cinematography prize in the U.S. DocumentaryCompetition, judged by filmmakers Greg Barker, DaynaGoldfine, Morgan Spurlock and Ondi Timoner and journal-ist Nancy Miller.

Michael Lavelle and Kate McCullough chose to shootSuper 16mm for His & Hers, for which they shared the cine-matography prize in the World Cinema DocumentaryCompetition. That jury comprised filmmaker JenniferBaichwal, PBS News Hour correspondent Jeffrey Brown andfilm-festival director Asako Fujioka.

ObselidiaCinematographer: Zak MulliganDirector: Diane Bell

“Rebel” was the official theme at Sundance this year,and the Dramatic Competition entry Obselidia fit the billperfectly. Shot in 18 days by a novice director for less than$500,000, the film came away with the festival’s Alfred P.Sloan Prize for its scientific topicality and an Excellence inCinematography Award for its director of photography, ZakMulligan. “We felt that not only was the film extraordinarilybeautiful, but its images perfectly captured and conveyed theessence of the story,” says Dramatic Competition juror RobertYeoman, ASC.

Obselidia is about obsolescence not just of objects andtechnologies, but also of whole species. George (MichaelPiccirilli), a loner librarian, is writing an encyclopedia of obso-lete things. He interviews Sophie (Gaynor Howe), a silent-movie projectionist, and the vibrant young woman offers todrive him to Death Valley to interview a reclusive scientist(Frank Hoyt Taylor) about his dire forecast for the planet andits inhabitants.

Visually, “I wanted a feel that was rather nostalgic,” says

Sundance 2010:Expanded PalettesSundance 2010:Expanded Palettes

Some of the mostmemorable images at

this year’s festival werecaptured with a wide

range of formats.

By Simon Gray, Patricia Thomson

and Jon D. Witmer

•|•


director/writer Diane Bell. A voraciouscineaste with particular affection for theFrench New Wave, Bell eschewed acontemporary approach to coverage,relying instead on wide shots and longtakes — a style that paired well with theshort shooting schedule. Mulliganoffers, “I had [ Jean-Pierre] Melville inmy head because of his long takes andlimited coverage.”

Bell and Mulligan consideredvarious formats, including Super 16mmand 2-perf 35mm, before settling ondigital capture and choosing the RedOne. “Shooting Super 16 would havebeen doable, but it would have meantless coverage,” notes the cinematogra-pher. “Diane was a first-time director,and we thought shooting film wouldgive us less room for error.”

Mulligan brought his own Redcamera (Build 17) to California, alongwith a small set of Zeiss ZF primelenses. Framing for a final aspect ratio of1.85:1, the 28mm and 50mm were hisworkhorses, while the 21mm was usedfor high-speed work. He had a 1/8

Tiffen Black Pro-Mist on the lensthroughout the shoot. Noting that heuses that filtration with every digitalcamera, he observes, “That touch [ofdiffusion] rounds out the highlights justenough and rolls off that sharp [video]focus, making it look more filmic.”

Despite being a small, character-driven film, Obselidia put the Redthrough its paces, offering an obstaclecourse of extreme heat, low light andvibrations on set. The factor thatconcerned Mulligan the most was heat:almost half of the movie was shot inDeath Valley, where temperaturessoared to 115°F even in April.Furthermore, the tight schedule necessi-tated shooting throughout the day.Mulligan considered various ways tokeep the camera cool, including icepacks and putting the camera in acooler. “My first assistant, Jeff Nolde,was concerned that ice-packing wouldcreate condensation, so we nixed thatidea,” he recalls. They decided to simplyforge ahead. “We just did very basic,common-sense stuff,” says Mulligan.

“We always made sure we had a flagcovering the camera, and sometimeswe’d put a whole tent over it.” Duringtwo days of testing and eight days ofphotography in Death Valley, “it nevergave me problems,” he says.

The Red didn’t fare quite as wellwith another Death Valley challenge:bumpy roads. With budget in mind,Mulligan decided to record to the RedDrive rather than the costlier, solid-stateRedRAM drive. He brought three320GB Red Drives, some CompactFlash cards, and 4x LaCie external harddrives that were rotated with the editor.(2x LaCie drives were always on set forredundant backup.) “It’s critical to havegood, professional hard drives likeLaCies or G-Techs,” notes the cine-matographer. “I’ve used some brand-new drives that were $100 lessexpensive, and they crapped out after an

hour of use.”Obselidia’s driving scenes were

mostly on paved roads, but one DeathValley dirt road proved to be the Red’sundoing. “I wanted all the dust kickingup behind the car,” says Mulligan. Thecrew put the camera on a shock-absorb-ing hood mount and crossed theirfingers. “It barely recorded, it dropped somany frames,” says Mulligan. Theysubsequently switched to CF cards,which required them to return to homebase every four minutes to switch outcards.

Desert exteriors created fewerblown-out whites than Mulligan antici-pated. Without a budget for big units tocontrol the fierce sunlight, the produc-tion relied on 12'x12' and 20'x20' framesof silver lamé. But the desert providedadditional assistance. “Because therearen’t a lot of plants to soak up the light,O

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Opposite andthis page: Alibrarian’sencounter witha comely filmprojectionistleads to DeathValley inObselidia.Below: Directorof photographyZak Mulliganlines up a shot with theRed One.


the desert gives you this big, earthy-brown bounce light that fills in every-thing,” says Mulligan. “It’s actually notas contrasty as you might think.”

Obselidia’s nostalgic tone comesthrough most beautifully in the slow-motion bicycling scenes, which wereinspired by Truffaut’s Jules & Jim. Thesewere shot at 60 fps in 2K. Mulligancycled through the Zeiss 21mm, 28mmand 50mm lenses, but his secret weaponfor the dreamy visuals was a SearsRoebuck 80-200mm zoom from the1970s that he found in his father’s dustycamera bag. “It was built like a tank, butit wasn’t precision at all, and there wasno lens coating,” he says. Its patinamatched the film’s mood. “The minutethe lens had any light to it, it would flareout. It would get soft and milky andlook super warm, with lots of orangesand golden tones,” says Mulligan.“Diane fell in love with it.”

In low-light and nighttime situa-tions, Mulligan exposed and lit just ashe would a film camera, but refrainedfrom pushing the Red’s ASA, whichcan create noise. In tungsten-lit scenes,he opted for an 80D Blue filter tocorrect the camera’s native 5000ºKbalance. “It’s only a 1/3-stop loss of

light,” he says, “and cleans it up enoughthat you can bring it the rest of the wayin color correction without gettingnoise.”

Throughout filming, Mulligantoggled between Raw and Look viewsto assess exposure, always checking theFalse Color Meter, which provides acolor-coded reading of IRE values. “Youpush a button, and the whole imagecomes up with crazy colors, and eachone means something. A face may be allpink, and pink is your 70 IRE range,” hesays. “It’s like having a spot meter onevery pixel.”

Mulligan notes that the mostcomplicated aspect of using the Redcomes in postproduction, when itsproprietary Redcode files are transposedto another format. “The minute youchange color space, whatever your lookwas on set is totally negated, and youend up starting over,” says the cine-matographer, who did the final colorcorrection at Numb Robot in Burbank,Calif. “Currently, the Red look andmetadata live in this world of Red-onlystandards. They need more partnerswith color-correction suites and morestandardization. You need to be able totake that metadata and apply it all the

way through the color-correction.” Thekey, he concludes, is “knowing the toolyou’re working with and planningahead.”

Obselidia was screened onHDCam at the festival.

— Patricia Thomson

The OathCinematographers: Laura Poitras and Kirsten JohnsonDirector: Laura Poitras

This year’s cinematographyaward in the U.S. DocumentaryCompetition went to The Oath, a filmwith two stories, two styles and twocinematographers. Co-shot by directorLaura Poitras and Kirsten Johnson, thefilm interweaves the sagas of Abu Jandaland Salim Hamdam, brothers-in-lawwho were associated with Al Qaeda inthe late 1990s. The bodyguard anddriver for Osama bin Laden, respec-tively, the men subsequently took diver-gent paths. Abu Jandal (the name is analias), once an Al Qaeda recruiter,became a cab driver in Yemen afterrenouncing terrorism, while Hamdamwound up in isolation at Guantánamo

◗ Sundance 2010: Expanded Palettes

Director/co-cinematographer

Laura Poitras staysclose to Yemeni cabdriver Abu Jandal in

The Oath, whichbrought Poitras andco-cinematographerKirsten Johnson one

of the festival’s cinematography

awards.

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Bay, and then at the center of Hamdamv. Rumsfeld, the Supreme Court casethat struck down President George W.Bush’s plan for military commissions.

It was The Oath’s intimacy andaccess that won the jury over. “Wethought it was an incredibly beautifulportrait of people in places we rarely getto see,” says juror Morgan Spurlock. “Itwas very intimate. We were alsoimpressed by the situations these twofemale cinematographers put them-selves in. They were in a place that isn’tnormally friendly to Western men, letalone Western women filming a movie.That was brave and impressive.”

Poitras says she started out with adifferent story in mind. She originallywent to Yemen, in 2007, hoping to finda recently released Guantánamodetainee to track. A lawyer introducedher to potential subjects, and throughHamdam’s family she met the charis-matic, articulate Abu Jandal. “In 30seconds, everything was doing somer-saults in my head,” Poitras says. “Here’sthis guy who was Osama’s bodyguard,and he was driving a taxi. The storytellerin me knew that was compelling.”

Poitras asked Abu Jandal forpermission to put a camera inside histaxi, and for the next two years, shebounced between New York andYemen, slowly building a rapport with

Poitras (left) and Johnson accept their award.


her subject that enabled her to captureintimate moments, including him withhis young son, and him reflecting on theevolution of his beliefs since 9/11.

But Poitras also managed to hangonto the Guantánamo storyline, weav-ing in the trial of Hamdam, eventhough he never appears onscreen.“There was always this idea of therebeing ghosts in the film — peopledetained who are missing,” she says.“Once I had Abu Jandal as the mainthread, I felt Hamdam’s character wouldbe a ghost.”

Poitras had shot her last docu-mentary, My Country, My Country(2006), herself, but she knew she wouldneed a second cinematographer forGuantánamo. In 2008, she brought inJohnson, a director and cinematogra-pher who has shot for Michael Moore,Barbara Kopple, Kirby Dick and othernonfiction stalwarts.

Poitras envisioned two distinctvisual styles for Yemen andGuantánamo. She explains, “I alwayswanted to film Yemen in a very inti-mate, kinetic way, entering a world wehaven’t had access to.” By contrast,Guantánamo was austere and still.“[Kirsten] was on sticks, doing locked-off shots,” says Poitras. “There was asense of trying to be outside this world,of stepping back and saying, ‘What isthis bizarre universe?’ Kirsten’s eye wasin charge of evoking the sense that it’salmost like a crime scene. You don’treally know what happened inGuantánamo, but it has some strongsubtext.”

Both cinematographers shot witha standard-definition Panasonic AG-DVX100A, using its 4.5-45mm LeicaDicomar zoom. They recorded at 24pAdvanced in 16x9. “I began this projectthinking I’d change over to high-defini-tion video midway through,” saysPoitras. “I’ve always been one toembrace new technology.” But theywound up sticking with MiniDV. “It’slike a really trusted paintbrush — there’sa beautiful palette to it,” says Poitras.Johnson adds, “I own one and stillhaven’t found an HD camera that

matches what that camera can do.”Inside the taxicab, they used a

smaller Canon Vixia HV20, shooting totape at 24p. Mounted on the dashboardor in the rear of the cab, the camerarolled untended for an hour at a time,capturing Jandal with his passengers.(For screenings at Sundance and theBerlinale, the movie was screened onHDCam 1080i.)

Poitras shot on and off in Yemenfor two years, while Johnson made twotrips to Guantánamo, first for five days,and then for four weeks. The filmmak-ers were there on an assignment for

Chicago Public Radio’s This AmericanLife, for which they were producing astory. Johnson subsequently went toYemen for two weeks after Hamdamwas released, capturing vistas, streetscenes and views from the taxi.

Altogether, they shot 125 hoursof footage, “a very small amount,” saysJohnson. “We were both limited in allkinds of ways in both places.” InGuantánamo, journalists were prohib-ited from filming the trial and couldrecord only the daily press briefings.Johnson could shoot landscapes on thebase, but only under military escort, andshe was not allowed to film militaryinstallations or even the completeshoreline. “They were very concernedabout security, even though there areGoogle maps of the entire area,”Johnson notes.

“The military’s constraints mademe frame differently,” she continues. “It

would get my shot off-kilter. I’d say,‘Well, that’s kind of interesting. Let memake it a little more off-kilter.’ I wasconstantly going toward more asym-metrical framing.”

Poitras encouraged that. Johnsonrecalls, “When I start shooting, there arealways a few shots I take just for mealone, and I know they’ll never make thefilm because they’re so unconventional.Laura saw a couple of those and said,‘That’s what I’m looking for.’ I said,‘Really? I can do that?’ She encouragedme to follow the impulse to film thingsin the most disconcerting way.” Poitrasalso told Johnson to attend the trialdespite the prohibition against cameras.“Few directors would have said, ‘Spendeight hours of your shooting day in thecourtroom, listening, and then take thatexperience out into the landscape andinterpret it,’” Johnson says. “I’ve rarelyworked with a director that trusting.”This also meant that Johnson spent thehottest, brightest daylight hours inside,“absorbing the mood,” she says. “ThenI’d go out in the world at the perfecthours — pre-dawn or magic hour.”

Meanwhile, in Yemen, Poitraspracticed patience. On every trip, shebrought a wish list of shots. “I mighthave 20 things, and I’d come back withtwo crossed off,” she recalls. “I knew itwas going to take time, and it was prob-ably six months before I felt I was start-ing to get what I needed.” She graduallymanaged to capture such personalscenes as Abu Jandal’s pre-dawn prayerswith his son. “What I find amazingabout Laura’s vérité footage is that shereally goes with her eye where you wantto go as a viewer,” Johnson observes.“When Abu Jandal is praying and pullshis son’s foot closer, you don’t quite getit. Laura has the same thought and getsthe shot. Then you can see it and under-stand. She questions with the camera.”

For both cinematographers, thehardest part of filming was “the psycho-logical pressure,” says Poitras. “We wereso close to so many nerves: 9/11, AlQaeda and Guantánamo.” NeitherGuantánamo nor Yemen were easylocations. “It was kind of shocking when


“She encouragedme to follow theimpulse to film

things in the mostdisconcerting way.”

Kirsten came back,” says Poitras. “She’sshot in Darfur and lots of hot spots, butshe said Guantánamo was the toughestpsychologically.” Johnson explains, “Itwas the constant sense of beingwatched. We had to travel in groups,and there was no physical freedom at all.I’d never experienced that before.”


His & HersCinematographers: Michael Lavelle and Kate McCulloughDirector: Ken Wardrop

“When you think of a love story,you usually think it’s between a boy and a girl, and it’s as simple as that,”muses Michael Lavelle, who shared the World Cinema DocumentaryCinematography Award with KateMcCullough for the Irish film His &Hers, directed by Ken Wardrop. “Thisfilm,” he continues, “uses a series ofsmall love stories to create a sense of thelove story of life, in a way.”

Composed of interviews with 70females — ranging in age from a fewyears old to the 90s (and edited toprogress from young to old) — His &Hers presents a unified narrative of loveas it is experienced at each stage of life.However, McCullough admits, “Wewere a bit concerned about having somany stories and making them fit sideby side. It was crucial to lay down a feel-ing of familiarity [throughout the inter-views] so it feels like it’s all one story.That led us to frame simply and notcomplicate the visuals.

“Rather than have a cinéma véritéfeel, where you’re right on top of thecharacter using a raw style of filmmak-ing, we wanted to settle the camera andlet [the women] do the moving,”McCullough continues. The staticcamera and wide framing apply to theactual interviews as well as the cutaways,which show the women performingsuch mundane tasks as making the bedor peeling potatoes. The effect, Lavellenotes, “gives you time to absorb thespace they live in. You see how they


literally move through their world.”Thematically, His & Hers feels

like a continuation of Wardrop’s shortfilm Undressing My Mother (2004), onwhich Lavelle served as director ofphotography and McCullough oper-ated the camera. Both films were shotwith a four-person crew rounded out byproducer Andrew Freedman, whopulled double duty as the soundrecordist. Lavelle also shot the shortsScoring and Farewell Packets of Ten forWardrop, and in 2008, he wrote anddirected the short film Out of the Blue,for which McCullough won a BestCinematography award from theRhode Island International FilmFestival.

One of the first decisions thefilmmakers made was to shoot His &Hers on Super 16mm. “To shoot a

documentary on film was an incredibleprivilege,” says Lavelle. “It was verytricky for Ken, because we usually hadonly about a can of film for each inter-view and its cutaways. It was reallytight.”

His & Hers was shot over threemonths, during which the fourcrewmembers stayed in a house in theIrish Midlands, central to the intervie-wees, whom Wardrop found with theassistance of researchers HannahSmolenska and Sheena O’Byrne. Theaverage shooting day began at 7 a.m.,with one of the filmmakers preparingbreakfast while another made the day’slunch and the other two packed the gearinto the van. By 8 a.m., the crew was onthe road to the first of the day’s twointerviews; each interview, plus its corre-sponding cutaway shots, had to be

completed within four hours. Although Wardrop met with all

of the interviewees in advance, the cine-matographers didn’t meet them untilthe day of shooting. McCulloughrecalls, “We sometimes had photos ofthe person’s house, so we could get ideasabout which spots might be good forshooting. The main concern was wherewe placed the person; that dictatedeverything else.”

“We wanted the light to have anatural feel,” adds Lavelle. “Anythingthat looked lit was something we justhad to rethink.” To take advantage ofnatural light, the cinematographers shoton Kodak Vision3 500T 7219 with a setof Zeiss Super Speed lenses, favoringthe 12mm, 16mm and 25mm focallengths and frequently maintaining a T-stop of 1.4. (They framed for 1.85:1.)Filtration was kept to a minimum, withonly an occasional ND or polarizerplaced in front of the lens. When condi-tions required additional lighting, theyturned to a 1.2K HMI or a 4' four-bankKino Flo; they also frequently bouncedlight into a silver cake tray. “Thecompany had a very small van, and thatwas our physical limitation: What lightscould we put in there that our budgetcould afford?” says Lavelle.

The key to the interviews,Lavelle stresses, was “to be as low-keyand friendly as possible so we wouldn’tdisturb whatever was naturally going onin the house. It was really important to


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have the feel that we were just poppingin for a cup of tea with an old friend.Actually, the producer sent around aletter to all the ladies that said,‘Whatever you do, please don’t offer ustea,’ because it could have been 10 hoursbefore we’d get out! Getting out past thecups of tea was the hardest thing, butthat shows the warmth of the womenwe interviewed — they took us intotheir hearts. I think that’s evidenced inthe footage as well.”

His & Hers marked the first timeLavelle and McCullough shared cine-matography duties, and to help delin-eate their roles, the two traded cameraand lighting responsibilities each week.However, McCullough says, “there wasultimately more work to do in thecamera department, so it wasn’t reallythat clear-cut. Mike might be operating,but then I might need to pull focus oncertain shots. It was an odd mix of jobs.”Lavelle agrees, noting, “The boundariesbetween the two jobs were quite blurredbecause we knew we were tight for staff.We watched each other’s backs anddouble-checked each other. The mainthing was that we all felt like we werepushing in the same direction andworking as a team.”

During interviews, Wardrop satwith a remote start-and-stop control forthe camera — an Arri 16SR-3Advanced — tucked under his arm.When he sensed a usable moment, hestarted the camera rolling, but, Lavellerecalls, “because the space was often soquiet and intimate, you’d hear thecamera. We had pillows and my leatherjacket tied around the camera just tokeep the volume down. It was fine,though, because the pillow and leatherjacket also made us look pretty low-key.Instead of some big, fancy technicalthing in their house, it was just a groupof friends with a little camera that madea bit of noise.”

Returning to their rented abodeat the end of the shooting day, the film-makers set about making dinner andunloading the van. While the cine-matographers unloaded the film,cleaned the gear and filled out the day’s


notes, Wardrop would edit ultra-low-resolution copies of the day’s footage,shot off of a clamshell monitor on set bya Sony HVR-Z1U camcorder, whichFreedman used to record the audio. Thecrew would watch the edited footageeach night after dinner and discuss theirplans for the next day.

As the filmmakers watched theedited footage, Lavelle recalls, “Wefound our choices of shots were becom-ing more limited, because we weretrying to build a flow and create a senseof unity over the film.” Serendipitously,the homes the filmmakers shot inoffered a naturally unifying color palette.McCullough explains, “The women hadtheir walls painted in such a way thatyou would think someone had doneproduction design. Pastels were a motif,and what the women wore was oftenmatched to their environment.”

Throughout His & Hers, thecamera remains indoors; if an intervie-wee steps outside, the camera watchesthrough a window. “These ladies werewelcoming us into their homes, and itfelt like we should stay in their homesfor the whole film,” says Lavelle. “Thatvisual motif became very strong in thefilm.

“At the very end, we take thecamera outside and see a woman inside,”

he continues. As the nonagenarian sitsalone in a nursing home, Lavelle says,the audience is “left with a sense ofinevitability, which says enough, I think.We thought about putting in momentslike marriage, birth and death, but inthe end, those are just hinted at. Wedon’t show a wedding, but we do showa girl who’s just getting her weddingdress washed. After a screening of thefilm, a woman commented that wethink our lives are made up of reallymomentous events, but it’s actuallythese small moments that define ourlives. It was Ken’s vision to come upwith that type of stuff.”

The production’s negative wasprocessed at Film Lab North in Leeds.Later, the digital grade was done withcolorist Angela McLellan at ScreenScene in Dublin, and a 35mm festivalprint was made on Kodak VisionPremier 2393 at LipSync Post inLondon.

Thrilled with the success of theircollaborations to date, Lavelle andMcCullough are currently preparing totackle a narrative feature as director andcinematographer, respectively. “It’s goodfun to work together,” says Lavelle.“Long may it continue!”

— Jon D. Witmer

Southern District (Zona Sur)Cinematographer: Paul de LumenDirector: Juan Carlos Valdivia

One of the riskiest entries in theWorld Cinema Dramatic Competitionwas Southern District (Zona Sur), aBolivian film about a wealthy family insuburban La Paz and their indigenousAymaran servants. Politically loaded andstylistically unique, the film went out ona limb, and the risk paid off: direc-tor/writer Juan Carlos Valdivia won thefestival’s directing and screenwritingawards in the World Cinema category.Additionally, Bolivia submitted the filmfor Academy Awards consideration.

Bolivia is undergoing culturalrealignments as wealth slips from theupper class and indigenous people gainpower. This became clear with the elec-tion of President Evo Morales, the firstAymaran to hold the office. Valdivia puthis finger squarely in the wound duringa heated election year, addressing raceand class in a polarized culture, butchoosing a style that withholds judg-ment.

In the film, a matriarch lords overher three children in a beautifullyappointed home, where a loyal indige-nous butler and gardener take care of thechildren’s needs and whims. However,money is running out because of theparents’ divorce. When the butler learnsof his son’s death, he leaves to attend thefuneral against the matriarch’s wishes.This is followed by other turns offortune that disrupt established powerdynamics.

Valdivia describes the plot as“minimal,” noting that the storyline “issubverted for other elements, likeatmosphere. In fact, during the firsttwo-thirds of the movie, you could putthe scenes in different order and itwouldn’t matter.”

What’s most striking is the designValdivia worked out with the film’s cine-matographer, Paul de Lumen: Eachscene is a single shot lasting two to fiveminutes, and each shot utilizes a slowlyrotating camera that makes up to four


The camera remains indoors throughout His & Hers, often catching glimpses of interviewees through windows.

360-degree turns per scene. The movesare independent of the actors, who walkin and out of frame. Because the charac-ters are onscreen only 60 percent of thetime, viewers wind up observing thehouse, which becomes a character as thecamera reveals its luxurious décor andlayers of family history.

This radical approach was moti-vated by several ideas. One was Germanphilosopher Peter Sloterdijk’s theory ofhuman individualism, which utilizes themetaphor of spheres. “We createspheres, or bubbles of existence,” saysValdivia. “These bubbles can be likefoam, a conglomeration of individualspheres, but they are also individualbubbles.” The family embodies thissocial dynamic, while the circularcamerawork suggests the spheres theyeach construct and are trapped within.

The moves also express anAndean view of cyclical time. “JuanCarlos wanted the feel of a clock, and hewanted it to be unforgiving, like time,”says de Lumen. “Using a remote headfacilitated that feel.”

De Lumen shot Southern Districtwith a Red One (Build 16), “the first inSouth America,” according to Valdivia,who acquired it in June 2008. He and deLumen, who is based in Los Angeles,spent a year shooting commercials withthe camera before Southern Districtcame together. Valdivia wanted to shoothis feature with the Red mainly becausehe “wanted to prove you could make avery well-made movie with digitalcapture. It was a personal mission.”

For Southern District, theycaptured at 4K Redcode Raw, the maxi-mum resolution possible. Because somescenes ran nearly five minutes, theCompact Flash cards didn’t offer suffi-cient storage space, so de Lumenrecorded to the 320GB Red Drive.(The production carried two.) “We wereable to shoot all the coverage of onescene on that,” says de Lumen. “It wasabout a half-day’s worth of shooting.”

Camera movement was per-formed in two basic ways: rotating on itsaxis, or circling around a scene. Valdiviaused the architectural program


SketchUp, which even enabled lenschoices, to plan shots. He had anarchitect render a 3-D model of thepractical location, then moved acamera eye through it. These decisionsbecame a springboard for what deLumen calls a “jam session” on set.Choreographing actors and cameraand finding the right speed for bothwere time-consuming challenges.They averaged 15 takes, sometimesgoing up to 30. In effect, says deLumen, “that was our coverage: thespeed of the camera, size of the lensand the blocking of actors. Those were

the ways we provided options for theeditor.”

De Lumen shot most of themovie on a 24mm Arri Ultra Prime,which was “wide enough to capture theroom without distorting the actorswhen they got close to it. It was theperfect lens for multiple coverage withinone shot.”

Key grip Rosendo Ticona createda couple of rigs to achieve the clock-likecamera motion Valdivia wanted.“Rosendo’s custom rigs enabled us totake an ABC Products Pelé Remote-Head XL35 off the 10-meter jib and

apply it to other supports,” says deLumen. “One rig was a special hi-hat, sowe could mount the remote head onto adolly or baby legs. This allowed us to notonly rotate 360 degrees on its axis, butalso slide on dolly track to accommo-date blocking and framing in tight situ-ations.” Dolly grip Walter Achu wasoften lying on the floor, inches out ofrange of the camera’s view.

“Another custom rig was a jib armattached to the ceiling,” continues thecinematographer. “We were able tomount the remote head onto it to get acircular floating feel that I could controlremotely. The dolly grip would gentlycoast the camera around, and I wouldcontrol the pan and tilt. It created areally unique feel that’s unlikeSteadicam, dolly or crane.” This wasutilized for the film’s sex scenes and thepenultimate “godmother” scene, inwhich the mother is offered cash for thehouse.

Gaffer Raul Hernandez workedclosely with Ticona to create specialrigging for the lights. “There’s not anabundance of normal rigging material[in Bolivia] like C-clamps, gobo-heads,C-stands or spreaders,” notes deLumen. “This was important becausewe were shooting in a practical locationwhere there was very little room to hidelights.”

De Lumen and Valdivia super-vised the 2K digital intermediate atFilmosonido in Santiago, Chile. (Thegoal was a 35mm print at 1.85:1.) In the


Clockwise from above:A frame from

Southern District;cinematographer Paul

de Lumen (secondfrom left) checks the

rig, a Pelé RemoteHead underslung on a

custom hi-hat, whichwas then mounted on

skateboard wheels;director Juan Carlos

Valdivia (second fromleft) and the cast

prepare for a shot atthe dinner table. The

dinner-table rigincludes a Kino Kamio

Ring-Light, whichhelped with faces as

the rig revolved.

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color-correction, de Lumen smoothedout uneven lamp temperatures, finessedvarying skin tones, and fine-tuned whitewalls, which predominate in the house.The festival print was struck on FujiEterna-CP 3513DI.

As significant as SouthernDistrict’s technical challenges were, theproject’s biggest challenge was devisinga whole new visual language and trust-ing that the audience would “get it,” saysde Lumen. “I’d been shooting commer-cials, where you need to get somethingacross in 30 seconds. You tell viewerswhat they want to feel. Southern Districtdoes the opposite.” He acknowledgesthat there were moments when hefeared the movie’s style might seempretentious, boring or even dizzying. Itwasn’t until several scenes were cuttogether that he and Valdivia werecompletely convinced of the rightness oftheir approach. “The more I watch thefilm, the more I respect Juan Carlos forhaving the guts to stick with it,” says deLumen.


Cane Toads: The Conquest 3-DCinematographers: Toby Oliver, ACS; Kathryn Milliss; and Paul NicholaDirector: Mark Lewis

1935 marks Year Zero for one ofAustralia’s biggest environmental disas-ters: 102 cane toads were introducedinto the country as the solution to theGreyback Cane Beetle, which was deci-mating the Queensland sugar-caneindustry. Despite their reputation asvoracious devourers of living and deadmatter, the toads had other ideas.Instead of eliminating the beetle, theyutilized their other voracious appetite— breeding — and today, an estimated1.5 billion toads have migrated acrossNorthern Australia, with no end in sightto their continental conquest.

Mark Lewis’ Cane Toads: TheConquest was the first 3-D feature toscreen at Sundance, and the firstAustralian feature to shoot in 3-D.

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Lewis initially began shooting in 2-Dwhen the production company,Participant Media, nixed his 3-D pitch,but 3-D eventually ended up back onthe table, and Lewis and his cinematog-raphers — Toby Oliver, ACS; KathrynMilliss; and Paul Nichola (who was alsothe stereo and visual-effects supervisor)— had only a short time to put thelogistics into place.

Framing for an aspect ratio of1.85:1, the filmmakers used SiliconImaging SI-2K Mini cameras mountedon 3-D mirror rigs. A proprietary P+STechnik 3-D rig was used for inter-views, while Nichola used “a fair amountof unconventional methodology toconstruct rigs for shooting underwater,from vehicles, off a crane, with deepfocus and in macro shots, and, mostimportantly, to capture the toads’ POV,”he says.

“Each rig was designed to estab-lish the required interocular,” continuesNichola. “We could also convergeslightly, but there was never an intentionto fully converge because we knew wewould finish with a 1920x1080 imagesize. The additional pixels provided bythe SI-2K allowed a modest amount ofroom for shifting without enlarging. Itwasn’t feasible or necessary to have

precision alignment. The left eye wasused as the master simply because wehad to pick one, and we were going toput the right eye through a transformpass.

“The key aesthetic for the docu-mentary was that the lenses were almostalways at the toads’ eyeline or lower —we often crane from a toad to reveal anew background vista,” he continues. Toachieve these shots, Nichola constructedthe “Mini-Rig,” which DigitalSolutions’ Ben McNiell describes as“the best example of how we custom-built rigs to be smaller than what wascommercially available. We used SI-2Kswith a set of 1-inch machine-visionlenses from a U.S. company calledKowa; they cover a bigger image areathan the CMOS chips, which allowedPaul the option of optically convergingthe lenses. That meant he could shootparallel, which was another plus. Thetoad was typically about 300mm fromthe lens.” The Kowas were also used formacro shots, which Nichola achieved byinstalling an extension barrel to pull thelenses away from the body.

Another key rig was a rigid side-by-side rig where the cameras could beset up and the pitch corrected. “That rigspent a lot of time on the crane for


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Australia’s cane-toad population takes center stage in the 3-D feature Cane Toads: The Conquest.

84

grand vistas,” recalls Nichola. “The SI-2Ks were rigged with a

PL mount in the first block [of filming],but there were questions raised aboutthe back-focus, so we changed to B4mounts for the second block,” hecontinues. “There was also a lot of test-ing of zoom lenses. In the second blockof the shoot, we changed to primes,which were more manageable. Theprimes did shift laterally as focus waspulled, but to my mind, that didn’tmatter, because with Mark’s predilectionfor proscenium compositions withlocked-off shots, focus pulls were rare.”

Cane Toads: The Conquest uses ahighly structured visual approach.“Mark was looking for a sophisticatedvisual style based on his trademarkoffbeat humor — toad POVs, intervie-wees looking straight at the viewer, andcentered compositions that put theviewer face-to-face with the humancharacters and the toads,” says Oliver.Nichola adds, “We set up the 3-D depthrange the same as one would establishthe area of focus, and the toads workedwithin those parameters. We carried ourown toads everywhere. The onlymystery in the equation was what thetoads would do in front of the camera;

Toby Oliver, ACS checks the 300mm side-by-siderig used to capture some shots.

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they aren’t readily trainable animals, andmostly they just sit in one spot.”

Principal photography lasted 22weeks and was divided into threeblocks. Oliver covered the first shoot, inthe Northern Territory; Milliss handledthe second, in Queensland; and Nichola

took the reins for the third, in NewSouth Wales.

Block 1 was a two-month shootin Australia’s “Top End,” extending fromtropical Northern Territory to the farnorth of Western Australia. Mid-November in the Territory is near the

end of the dry season and is the hottesttime of the year, with temperaturesapproaching 113°F in near 100-percenthumidity. The toads congregated in vastnumbers around remote waterholes,waiting for the onset of “the wet.” Olivershot a memorable sequence at dusk at aremote location named Croc TankLagoon. “We set up the P+S Technik 3-D rig alongside a 30-meter-wide stretchof mud at one end of the waterhole atdusk, firing up a couple of small butpunchy lights. Only a few of the noctur-nal toads appeared at first, creeping out oflow bushes and holes in the mud, butafter an hour, thousands of them wereswarming towards the muddy water, theireyes glowing like stars in the night sky.”

Block 2 of the shoot covered thetoads’ early history in Australia andfeatures interviews with contemporarytoad experts and a great collection ofAustralian characters. “We shot in toadseason, which happened that year to takeus into some of the worst flooding in


Stereographer/co-cinematographer Paul Nichola at work on the set.

86

Queensland’s history,” recalls Milliss.For interviews, she used the P+STechnik rig with two SI-2Ks andFujinon E-series lenses. “Mark’s inter-view aesthetics are wide-frame frontalcompositions of the subject in theirenvironment,” she notes. “We talkedabout Peter Greenaway’s early work,particularly Act of God for the boldnessand humor of its interviews. An inter-view is not traditional 3-D fare, but thethird dimension helps to create the mostwonderfully intimate portrait. Theaudience feels they’re right in thesubject’s home — that they could leanover and peer into the next room. It’simportant to consider the effect of theinteraxial on the subject; for instance, anIA that is pleasingly slimming for oneperson might be unkind to someoneelse’s nose.”

A Block 3 sequence titled“Creatures of Love” details the toad’sbreeding cycle. Nichola combined exte-rior location footage with intricate

macro tabletop work. Filmed on loca-tion in Mullumbimby, New SouthWales, the scene was established with acrane shot revealing a male toadsunning itself on a lily pad, then swim-ming through the water, all the whilebathed in strong sunlight provided bygold reflectors and mirrors. A femaletoad, meanwhile, lies in wait on a bed ofwater-flowers. Glittering reflectionsfrom the water provided highlightsappropriate to the romance of the scene.

The tadpoles, which are only10mm long, were shot on a 4'-squaretabletop “stage” in the studio, with ablue backlight cyc replicating the loca-tion’s clear blue sky. Sunlight was recre-ated with a Par 575, while LEDsprovided the fill. “In the studio, Iincreased the lighting levels to keep thedepth-of-field looking consistent,”notes Nichola. “On a wider shot, thedepth would take care of itself, andwhen I went in on longer lenses, I’dbuild the stop up.”

Using Silicon’s DVR software,the footage from the SI-2Ks was fedinto two Dell laptops — one for theright eye and one for the left — andrecorded onto 1-terabyte USB drives.HDMI splitters provided monitoringback to the cameras. “We constructedour own 1280x720 OLED screens toaccurately determine focus,” explainsNichola. “I also built a 3-D monitor,which we called the ‘shoebox monitor.’It was a very simple system using twohigh-resolution LCD screens reflectinginto mirrors placed at 45 degrees. Theimages became overlaid, providing a 3-D effect without glasses.”

The picture was graded byAdrian Hauser at Cutting Edge Post inSydney. “Adrian did an extraordinaryjob, especially considering that we nevertested the post path all the waythrough,” says Lewis.

— Simon Gray●

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Strengthening Crucial Ties With CollaboratorsInterview by Stephanie Argy

The Visual Effects Society recently presented its first ProductionSummit, an event designed to give people from all areas of themotion-picture industry the opportunity to interact and discuss theproblems that challenge all the crafts. As a follow-up to that event,AC asked ASC President Michael Goi to sit down with VES ChairmanJeffrey Okun (The Day the Earth Stood Still, Blood Diamond, The LastSamurai) to discuss some of their organizations’ shared concerns.What follows are excerpts from their conversation.

Jeffrey Okun: The point of the Production Summit was tostart conversations, to get all the verticals within the entertainmentbusiness in the same room and say, ‘Where are we going? What’s itgoing to look like? And how are we going to get there as a cohesivewhole?’ We’re collaborating to tell a story. We can make it so muchmore fun and so much more artistically satisfying by learning how towork with each other.

Michael Goi, ASC: Over the last fewyears, cinematographers have certainly becomemore involved in the postproduction end thanwe were previously, back in the days when wejust did color timing straight to print and thentweaked the video transfer. I find myself beinginvolved much more heavily on the preproduc-tion end as well. So it is necessary to have abetter understanding of what each of the craftsdoes. It’s a popular concept among cinematogra-phers to think of the cinematographer as the‘author of the image,’ but when you look backthrough the history of the industry, you see thatthe greatest images have always come through a spirit of collabora-tion. If you look at a great shot and say the cinematographer was theauthor of the image, where was the costume designer? Where wasthe makeup person? Where was the production designer? All thoseelements helped to create that great shot. That’s what we need torecognize: that personal stamp is the personal stamp of everybodyworking toward the same goal.

Okun: It should be that way, but instead it’s fractionating, andI lay the blame squarely on how visual effects are perceived. I traceall our problems back to 1978, when Star Wars came out on VHS,and it had the very first this-is-how-we-did-it [featurette] that anyonepaid attention to. Let’s say you were 10 years old in 1978. You’re 42today, and you’ve been raised on a diet of these added-value thingsthat are not quite true. And we visual-effects people are the oneswho propagated the mistruths because we were so excited to beinvited to share a table with the above-the-line group. We said,‘These computers are awesome, and my guy hasn’t been home in

three days but he’s happy as a clam— we just get him pizzas andDiet Cokes.’ It’s not the computer; it’s the artist. If I sit there with theelements, you’re going to get a piece of crap, but if [compositor]Ken Stranahan sits there with the same elements, you’re going toget a piece of artwork. We’ve sold the technology, not the art, andnow we’re all shocked that people say, ‘Well, my son has a Mac. Hecan do that.’

Goi: The drive of a lot of the prosumer market is to convincepeople that anybody can make movies, and you can do it all your-self. You can shoot it, direct it, write it, edit it, do the visual effectsand do all the sound work. That is damaging to the concept thatcollaboration produces great results. There has to be a change, andit has to start with the young people, because they’re the ones whoadopt all these tools the fastest and figure out new ways to usethem. They have to learn how to recognize that artistic collaborationis the key to getting what they want. I’ve always prided myself onhiring crew people who know how to do their jobs better than I

know how to do their jobs. I never want to do asecond-rate job; I’d rather hire the person whodoes a first-rate job and then capitalize on his orher experience and knowledge.

Okun: I’ve found that by sacrificing myown ego, I get more accolades. I present theelements and a temp version of a shot to myteam and tell them the intention of the shot, andI give them the bottom line that they have tomove up to for it to be acceptable. Then I say, ‘Ifyou have a better idea, I’d love to hear it or seeit.’ And nine times out of 10, I go back to thedirector and say, ‘Here’s what you asked for, andhere’s what the team came up with. It’s a change

of a concept, but what do you think?’ The director doesn’t say,‘You’re fired.’ He says, ‘Great. Get this guy more work down theroad. We need more of those people.’ So it only helps.

Goi: I recently did a series of Webisodes for Breyers for whichwe inserted an actress into footage from Gone With the Wind andKing Kong, so we had to duplicate exactly those shots’ lighting style,in addition to the dress and makeup. Working with the visual-effectsteam was a tremendous amount of fun, because I filled in the holesin their education as far as what it took to get those images, andthey filled in holes in my knowledge about what they could do withit. So it was a really great collaboration.

Okun: It’s great when that happens. There’s nothing moreexhilarating and satisfying.

Goi: I was speaking at a conference in Florida recently, and ayoung guy stood up and said, ‘Don’t you think your job is obsolete?’I said, ‘What do you mean by that?’ He said, ‘Well, anybody whopicks up a digital camera today is a cinematographer.’ I responded,

Filmmakers’ ForumI

“We’ve sold the technology, not

the art.”

‘Well, if I gave you an electric guitar, wouldyou instantly become Eric Clapton?’ Hedidn’t know who Eric Clapton was, so thepoint was lost.

Okun: It’s the auteur theory goneberserk. There weren’t auteurs before the1960s; they were egomaniacs, which isdifferent from an auteur. Then auteurs hitbig in the ’60s and ’70s, and we had anexplosion of creative people and product.But for an auteur to work, people whoknow what they’re doing have to supportthe auteur — quietly. None of these auteursacted, wrote, directed, lit, shot, edited,created visual effects, answer-printed anddid the marketing. They’re auteurs in thatthey have final say, not because they’redoing it all. And one of the reasons wecalled the Production Summit was to try toaddress this ‘auteurism,’ which is isolation-ism. What we’re breeding by working thisway is insecurity. There’s no time for learn-ing or growth; you’ve got to hit a home runright out of the gate. What’s the path fordirectors these days? They do theircommercials and music videos, then they

get their feature film, and then they disap-pear. Nobody hears from them again.

Goi: I’ve seen some very sophisti-cated work by a lot of young filmmakers,and what gives me hope is that many of

them recognize the value of what camebefore them. They recognize the value ofgreat cinematography of the past whilealso recognizing that they have access to awonderful technical toolbox today.

Okun: There are a number of visual-effects schools that teach all the tools, andthe successful schools are teaching twoother things. One is how to see, which isreally vital, because nobody seems to under-stand how to see anything any more. Onone film, I had to take the entire visual-effects crew out to lunch in a park once aweek and point out things like how theshadows fell; they’d never paid attention tothat stuff. The other thing the successfulschools are teaching is the study of art. Thisis where my industry is really suffering. Somany people don’t understand that you cantell a story with a stationary image. Look atany great painting, and there’s a story. Youreye goes somewhere, and something istransmitted.

Goi: One of my favorite short films isChris Marker’s La Jetée, which almostentirely comprises still images. I bought abook with every still image from the film init, and I found it was very unsatisfying. Whatmakes the movie satisfying is that theprogression of those images is edited to acertain pace and combined with music and

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“The greatest imageshave always comethrough a spirit of

collaboration.”

narration to create the feel of the film, andthe book just cannot capture that becauseit isolates one element. It was an interestinglesson that I haven’t forgotten. Thoseimages are very compelling, but they aremore compelling within the context of thefilm.

Okun: If you isolate what everybodydoes, it doesn’t have the same power andimpact it has when it’s all brought together.There’s a real power to the synergy of deliv-ering something far and above whatanybody can do individually. And it seemsthat today, we are being encouraged toisolate ourselves rather than come together.That’s why we called our event the Produc-tion Summit instead of the VES Summit.We’re not an island, and we’re trying totake a very open and broad stab at saying,‘We love what we do, and we’d really loveto do it with you.’

Goi: The Hard Day’s Night DVD hasan interview with the man who was thehead of the studio that greenlit the moviewhen nobody understood exactly what aBeatles movie was going to be. He was

asked what role he played in the film’ssuccess, and he said, ‘I hired fiscally respon-sible, incredibly creative people, and I didn’tdo a damn thing. I let them do their job anddidn’t interfere.’

Okun: Where are those guystoday?! Experience isn’t valued very muchanymore. When I do lectures at filmschools, I always bring a roll of film with meand pass it around. It used to be funny, butnow people really say, ‘Wow, what are thelittle holes on the side for?’ I have to explainhow we got to where we are today. It’s sad.We’re losing the heritage; we’re losing theexperience pool.

Goi: All of this is a process. Certainlythe industry is shaking itself down, andwhile that’s going on, there’s a certainstrength that can be found amongst thebelow-the-line people — all of us who havebeen laboring in the business all of our livesto make our end of it better. Despite thechaos happening on the upper end, we canmake sure that our end of it, our crafts,don’t succumb to this kind of chippingaway.

Okun: My work at the VES has beena yearlong examination of why the Societyexists and whether it should continue.We’ve decided that we’re in business toform a trusted community to ensure thatthe artists and the business thrive. Nowwe’re in a position to start reaching out toall the crafts and try to create joint events.It’s all about communication. In June, we’llpublish The VES Handbook of VisualEffects, our equivalent of the AmericanCinematographer Manual, and we’re alsogoing to do another Production Summitthis year. It won’t be a repeat of last year’s,either. Every year it will be radically differ-ent, but it will always involve all of the verti-cals. And the goal will always be to lookforward and get conversations going. ●


Arri Unveils Alexa Prototype By Benjamin B

Arri recently unveiled aworking prototype of its Alexadigital camera at the Micro Salon

show of the AFC (French Association of Cinematographers) in Parisand the Hollywood Post Alliance Tech Retreat in Rancho Mirage,Calif.

“We are delighted with the response we have had around theworld so far regarding the concept of Alexa and, now, the workingprototype,” says Stephan Schenk, general manager of Arri’s Camera& DIS Business Unit, who presented the camera with cinematogra-pher Frank van Vught in Paris. “At Arri we endeavor to give creativeprofessionals the tools to tell their stories, and we are confident thatAlexa’s cutting-edge technology will do this perfectly.”

The Alexa is Arri’s first model in its new generation of digitalcameras. Compact, lightweight and robust, the Alexa is also the firstcamera from Arri that will feature an electronic viewfinder; based onauto-calibrating LED technology, it is designed for accurate colorrendition and minimal image delay.

Schenk says the Alexa offers a base sensitivity of 800 ASA, lownoise and latitude “that exceeds 13 stops.” The 16:9 imaging area issimilar to that of Super 35 and can be used with 35mm lenses, offer-ing the same field of view and depth of field as 35mm film. A provi-sion for 10-percent overscan allows the operator to see outside theframe lines in the electronic viewfinder.

The Alexa offers a generous number of output signals andmethods including onboard recording options and multiple live HDand ArriRaw outputs. It has dedicated buttons for record, playback,ramping and image grabs. Van Vught notes that the menu is“designed for simplicity, like an iPod.” The home screen featurescontrols for frame rate, shutter angle, EI, LUTs and color temperature.

The Alexa sensor is a single CMOS with a Bayer mask and a3.5K pixel count. The camera electronics apply dual gain pathways,with separate amplification for the highlights and lowlights, a strat-egy designed to stretch the latitude and minimize noise. “In a givenimage area, fewer, bigger pixels will yield more sensitivity and latitudethan more numerous, smaller pixels,” says ASC associate memberStephan Ukas-Bradley from Arri’s product-management team, whopresented the Alexa with Arri CTO Glenn Kennel at Rancho Mirage.“Alexa’s 3.5K pixel count is determined to give the best sensitivityand latitude, while still insuring image quality at 2K projection for thefinished project.”

Some major announcements are still to come. “Probably themost frequently asked question refers to our storage solution,” says

Kennel. “We are really excited to unveil the workflow solutions andrecording options at NAB in Las Vegas, and we invite the wholefeature film and TV industry to come to our booth.”

For more information, visit www.arridigital.com.

Hot Rod Cameras Customizes Canon DSLRsAt the urging of profes-

sional cinematographers, HotRod Cameras, LLC has introduceda custom modification service forthe Canon 7D, 5D and 1D Mk 4DSLR cameras. The streamlinedprocess modifies the cameras’standard lens mount, allowingthe use of 35mm PL-mountcinema lenses.

“Working with lenses designed for still photography isperhaps the biggest impediment to using HDSLR cameras on aprofessional set,” says cinematographer Daniel Kanes. “With theHot Rod 7D-PL, I am able to seamlessly integrate lightweight HDSLRtechnology on a professional motion-picture set with several othercamera systems. It’s an amazing breakthrough using pro cinemalenses on a camera of this size and capability.”

For full details, including a list of compatible lenses andwarranty service information, visit www.hotrodcameras.com.

Panasonic Offers Full HD 3-D CamcorderPanasonic Broadcast has begun taking orders for the AG-

3DA1, a professional-quality, fully integrated Full HD 3-D camcorderwith SD media-card recording.

“The AG-3DA1 will democra-tize 3-D production by giving profes-sional videographers a more afford-able and simple solution for capturingimmersive content, as well as providea training tool for educators,” saysJohn Baisley, president, Panasonic Broadcast. “Asthe product is positioned in a more mainstream budgetcategory, Panasonic camcorder owners will help toaccelerate the amount of 3-D content being created fordistribution on new Blu-ray discs and recently announced 3-D chan-nels like those of DirecTV.”

At less than 6.6 pounds, the AG-3DA1 is equipped with duallenses and two full 1920x1080 2.07 megapixel 3-MOS imagers torecord 1080/60i, 50i, 30p, 25p and 24p (native) and 720/60p and50p in AVCHD. It can record for up to 180 minutes on dual 32GBSD cards in Panasonic’s professional AVCHD PH mode, and offers

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professional interfaces including dual HD-SDIout, HDMI (version 1.4), two XLR connec-tors, built-in stereo microphone and twin-lens camera remotes.

Unlike current 3-D systems, the AG-3DA1 integrates the lenses, camera headand dual Memory Card recorder into asingle, lightweight body. The camcorder alsoincorporates stereoscopic adjustmentcontrols making it easier to use and operate:The twin-lens system allows adjustment ofthe convergence point, and functions forautomatically correcting horizontal and verti-cal displacement are also provided.

Right and Left Full HD video streamsof the twin-lens camcorder can be recordedand distributed as files on SDHC/SD MemoryCards, ensuring higher reliability than tape,optical disc, HDD or other mechanical-basedrecording systems. This solid-state, no-moving-parts design will help significantlyreduce maintenance costs, and the light-weight build provides the flexibility of hand-held shooting. Setup and transportation arealso simplified, making the camcorder idealfor sports, documentary and filmmakingprojects.

In addition to the camcorder, Pana-sonic announced the BT-3DL2550, a 25"professional-quality 3-D LCD monitor forfield use, and the AG-HMX100, a profes-sional HD digital AV mixer for live 3-D eventproduction. Panasonic is committed to offer-ing professional production equipment forefficiently creating 3-D content soconsumers can enjoy 3-D video using Pana-sonic 3-D home-theater systems.

The AG-3DA1 has a suggested retailprice of $21,000. For more information, visithttp://pro-av.panasonic.net/en/3d.

Band Pro Announces Mystery PrimesDuring its annual One World on HD

event, Band Pro Film and Digital introduceda new brand of ultra-high performance PL-mount prime lenses designed to deliver opti-cal performance for true 4K imaging andbeyond.

Called Mystery Primes, the T1.4 lenseswill eventually total 15 different focallengths; the core set of lenses, scheduled tobegin delivery in June, will comprise 16, 18,21, 25, 35, 40, 50, 65, 75 and 100mm focallengths. The entire set features unified

distance focus scales, common size andlocation of focus and iris rings, and a 95mmthreaded lens front, all of which allow forquick interchange of lenses in a busyproduction environment. Additionally, therear of the PL mount features an integratedthreaded net ring.

“A unique use of aspheric technol-ogy and cutting-edge mechanical cine-lensdesign provides the Mystery Primes withunmatched evenness of illumination acrossthe entire 35mm frame and into the corners

with no discerniblebreathing,” says ASCassociate memberMichael Bravin, BandPro’s chief technolo-gist. “Suppression ofcolor fringing intothe farthest cornersof the frame is superior to any lenses I haveever seen.”

Designed to be lightweight yetrugged on the set, the mount and lens

8th International Trade Fair for Cine Equipment and Technology

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Camera TechnologyCamera SupportGrip Film stock LightingSound Set Decoration Accessories Postproduction

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barrel are manufactured using lightweighthigh-strength titanium materials; a typicalMystery Prime weighs just 3 pounds.

The first 25 sets of lenses will be deliv-ered to Otto Nemenz International, whoseexperienced team provided invaluable userinput from the beginning of the designprocess.

For additional information, visitwww.bandpro.com.

Manfrotto Intros 504HD Fluid HeadManfrotto has unveiled the 504HD

fluid head, which boasts an increased loadcapacity resulting from the company’spatented Bridging Technology.

Thanks to the 504HD’s bridge design,the pan friction control is intuitive, easy to setand protected against knocks. Movementaround the pan and tilt axes is smoothed byball-bearing units, which remove allunwanted vibration regardless of operatingtemperature. Furthermore, friction controlcombines with a step counterbalance systemthat covers the full weight range to allow the504HD to be fine-tuned with extreme preci-sion for the exact in-shot movement needed.The head’s Fluid Drag System (FDS) is variableand directly controls action and resistance onboth axes; the ergonomic controls have beennoticeably improved to make using the FDSeven easier.

The 504HD supports kits weighing upto 16.5 pounds, and two 3⁄8" threads on thetop plate allow accessories — such as moni-tors and arms — to be fitted directly to thehead, eliminating the need for extra clamps,saving setup time and freeing the videocamera’s hot shoe.

For additional information, visitwww.manfrotto.com.

OConnor Debuts Accessory LineFluid head innovator OConnor, a Vitec

Group brand, has announced a line ofprofessional camera accessories engineeredto fulfill the needs of today’s high-end cine-matography.

“For 60 years, OConnor fluid headsand tripods have been valued tools for theart of movie making,” says Bob Carr, presi-dent of the Vitec Group business unitCamera Dynamics Inc. “The new accessoryline continues the OConnor tradition of

New

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supporting the cinematographer’s art withindustry-leading engineering and crafts-manship, tailored to the rapidly changinglandscape of new cameras.”

To ensure these new tools meetOConnor’s high standards, the companyhas chosen Jim Elias to head the designteam; Elias brings extensive experience as acamera assistant to the engineering process.Another film-industry veteran, Eric J. John-ston, has been appointed product specialist;Eric is already interfacing with workingcamera people to get on-the-set feedbackand integrate their needs into the productdesigns.

The first OConnor camera accessoryis a completely modular cine-style follow-focus system. The compact and low-profileunit enables quick, tool-free mounting onstandard rod systems. The follow focus iscompatible with all standard follow-focusaccessories and driver gears, and it inte-grates elegantly with all camera and lenssystems in use. Further products in therange will be announced as they arereleased.

As with the entire OConnor family,the camera accessories are backed by thecompany’s expert customer support andservice departments. According to Carr,“Because the new follow focus is designedfor modular versatility and compatibilitywith other systems, the smartly pricedsystem should be extremely popular withrental houses and users who own a numberof different camera and lens combinations.”

The OConnor cine-style follow focusis scheduled to begin delivery this month.For more information, visit www.ocon.com.

Gekko Highlights Kezia LEDsGekko Technology has introduced

two major additions to its range of LED light-ing systems. The Kezia 50 and Kezia 200 arehard-sourced LED luminaires based onGekko’s kleer-color light engine, with vari-ants for film, television and entertainment.

“The Kezia 50 and 200 offer film andtelevision lighting directors and cameramenprecise, tuneable whites and dimming underlocal or DMX control,” explains DavidAmphlett, managing director of Gekko Tech-nology. “As well as tuneable whites in the2900° to 6500°K range, the entertainmentversion can also produce millions of other

colors. The capacity of the lamp to generatehigh quality whites reduces the need formultiple sources with different capabilities.”

The Kezia 50 is comparable in outputbrightness to a 250-watt tungsten Fresnellamp head, yet it consumes only 50 watts ofelectrical power. The Kezia 200 boasts abrightness similar to a 1K tungsten sourcewhile consuming only 190 watts of power.The fixtures also generate far less heat thantraditional fixtures, and both use uniquecolor-feedback technology to ensure consis-tent color-temperature quality as ambientconditions change or the unit ages. Colortemperature accuracy also remains constantas the fixtures are dimmed.

For additional information, visitwww.gekkotechnology.com.

Tangohead Enables3-D ProductionTangohead, a supplier of camera

support equipment for the film and videoindustry, has introduced the 3D StereoTango universal beam-splitter rig for 3-Dproductions.

Made of custom-molded carbonfiber, the 3D Stereo Tango provides precisecontrol over the alignment of left- and right-eye cameras being used to record stereo-scopic images. Each camera is adjustable onits optical axis and at the intersection pointof the optical axes on the beam splitter. Inte-rocular adjustments (from 0 to 90mm) aremotorized and interface with standard wire-less lens-control systems such as Arri,Cmotion, Scorpio and Preston. Conver-gence adjustments can be motorized ormade manually.

The 50/50 beam splitter is fixed at 45degrees, and the left- and right-eye camerasare independently adjustable over six axes:tilt, roll, convergence, side-to-side, up-and-down and front-to-back. Assisted by a digi-tal protractor and custom PL-mounted twin-laser boresights, camera alignments are fast,smooth, precise and repeatable. Each align-ment is individually locked, preventing drift-ing during production, and each is refer-enced with graduations and indexes. A largeand fully adjustable carbon fiber light shieldis also provided to control stray light on set.

96

Offset Mitchell Levelers from GFMGrip Factory Munich has introduced a

standard Mitchell 3-Way Leveler as well as arange of Offset Euro-to-Mitchell Arms,which are available with 3- or 4-Way Level-ers. The strong, long-lasting, surface-hard-ened camera mounts are machined fromhigh-grade aluminum, and they can be usedwith most standard dollies or as standaloneunits. Additionally, GFM’s Offset Euro-to-Euro Brackets and Extension Tubes allow

users to add height and angle adjustability,further increasing the possibilities.

For additional information, visit www.g-f-m.net.

The camera-agnostic 3D StereoTango can accept any film or video camera

weighing up to 66 pounds(for a maximum total loadweight of 132 pounds).The rig is also compatiblewith standard Arri acces-sories, including filterframes, filter retainers,rubber bellows, slidingbridge plates and iris rods,and the rig’s design grantsready access to bothcameras at all times. Addi-tionally, multiple mount-

ing points make it easy to attach on-boardmonitors, transmitters and other acces-sories.

The 3D Stereo Tango can bemounted on a fluid head, geared head orremote head. The rig is delivered in acustom, sturdy, welded-aluminum travelcase with wheels.

For additional information, visitwww.tangohead.com.

Kaczek Visuals Launches Reflect Lighting SystemFollowing a long period of develop-

ment, evaluation and use on such featuresas The White Ribbon (shot by ChristianBerger, AAC), La Bohème (Walter Kindler,BVK, AAC) and Revanche (MartinGschlacht, AAC), Kaczek Visuals’ ReflectLighting System is now on the market.

The RLS is an innovative lightingsystem for film, television, still photography,stage productions and event presentations.The system is based on reflection; speciallydesigned RLS spotlights are directed ontoRLS reflectors, which shape the light andtransmit it with minimal loss. The wide selec-tion of reflective surfaces — each availablein four different sizes — allow targeted lightdistribution and offer plenty of leeway whendesigning the form and structure of thelight. A great variety of lighting ambiencesor effects can be achieved using the differ-ent structures and coatings of the RLS reflec-tors. The extremely efficient reflective quality(between 85 and 98 percent) enablescombined and multiple light redirections.

97

The best results areachieved with spotlights,such as Kaczek Visuals’Fred-Beam 70/1200(1.2K HMI) and theFred-Beam 40/800(800-watt HMI), whichcan be positionedfurther away from the set, mitigating bothnoise and temperature. In comparison withconventional lighting equipment, the RLS’power consumption is considerably lowerand leaves the set almost free of equipmentand cables; this also minimizes storagespace and transportation requirements.

Cinematographer Frédéric-GérardKaczek, AAC has also developed carryingbags and a set of lightweight magneticholders (the MagNeck and the MagBall),which allow fast changing and accuratepositioning of the reflectors while providingthe required rigidity.

For additional information, visitwww.kaczekvisuals.com. ●

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Parker Named Honorary MemberDuring the 24th annual ASC

Awards, ASC President Michael Goi tookto the stage alongside Ralph Woolsey,ASC to deliver a surprise announcement:Larry Parker, executive vice president ofMole-Richardson Co., has been names anhonorary member of the Society.

The grandson of Mole-Richardsonco-founder Peter Mole, Parker followed inthe family business and tradition of manu-facturing lighting equipment designed tosatisfy the creative needs of filmmakers.Parker’s collaborative spirit and appreciationfor cinematographers’ art and craft earnedhim associate membership in the ASC in1977. He has also taught countless lightingworkshops out of Mole-Richardson’s Holly-wood facility, offering emerging filmmakersan opportunity to learn fundamentals in aninteractive, hands-on environment.

“Larry Parker may very well be oneof the most influential individuals in theindustry,” says Goi. “He has personallyhelped educate a large number of youngfilmmakers as to the nuts and bolts of theircraft through the resources of Mole-Richardson, and he holds the torch ofrespect high for the men and women whochoose cinematography as their life work.Larry’s influence and generosity will be feltin this business for decades to come, everytime one of his students steps onto a set orfollows his example and teaches anotheryoung filmmaker respect for the tools andthe craft. His selfless devotion to the peoplewho create moving images makes him a

Clubhouse News

Phot

o by

Log

an S

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.

ASC honorary member Larry Parker (left).

true friend and ally. This honorary member-ship is the most definitive way we have ofexpressing the profound respect we havefor him.”

“I’ve always wanted to be a directorof photography, and I have the utmostrespect for their immeasurable talent, soreceiving this honor means the world tome,” says Parker. “The ASC has alwayssupported me in helping with the educa-tion of young filmmakers, and that’s what Iintend to keep doing.

“I love the ASC; I love what it standsfor; I love the people in it, and to be recog-nized by them is unbelievable,” Parkercontinues. “I am so grateful and willremember this evening for the rest of mylife. I’m still floating!”

Leighton Becomes AssociateAfter earning a Bachelor of Arts

degree in radio, television and film fromSan Francisco State University, new associ-ate member Doug Leighton built asubstantial foundation of practical experi-ence over 12 years as a freelancer. He thenfounded RTS Systems, where he served for16 years as vice president of marketing.After RTS’ successful sale, he worked for360 Systems, ASC Audio Video Corp.,Preferred Video Products and Scitex DigitalVideo.

In 2000, Leighton joined PanasonicBroadcast and Television Systems Co. as aproduct marketing manager. In 2001, hewas made district sales account manager,his current title. Leighton has also distin-guished himself as a regular contributor tothe Society’s Technology Committee andCamera Subcommittee.

Filmtools Hosts ASC SeminarsThe last week of February marked

Filmtools’ Manfrotto Distribution Sale andFilter Trade-In Event, which the equipmentand expendables retailer enlivened with aday of seminars presented by ASCmembers. Rexford Metz, ASC kicked offthe series with a focus on optical filtrationfor HD shooting; Henner Hoffman, ASC,AMC then discussed new ways of expres-

sion for emerging filmmakers; and a semi-nar by Dean Semler, ASC, ACS cappedthe day’s events.

“Art of Light” Celebrates Deschanel, MengesIn the week leading up to the ASC

Awards, the UCLA Film & TelevisionArchive’s screening series “The Art of Light”honored the work of International Awardand Lifetime Achievement Award recipientsChris Menges, ASC, BSC and CalebDeschanel, ASC, respectively. Mengesattended a screening of The Three Burialsof Melquiades Estrada, which hephotographed for director Tommy LeeJones; following the screening, the cine-matographer participated in a conversationwith ASC publicist Bob Fisher. Deschanel’swork was celebrated with a screening ofThe Natural, which he shot for directorBarry Levinson.

Bailey on SilveradoJohn Bailey, ASC recently joined

director Lawrence Kasdan and editor CarolLittleton for a 70mm screening of their1985 film Silverado at the American Cine-matheque’s Aero Theatre. Following thescreening, the filmmakers took to the stagefor an audience Q&A.

Pros Judge DSLR ContestsShane Hurlbut, ASC is joining

photographer Alexx Henry and FrankRohmer of Rohmer Video Productions on apanel of judges for a DSLR-shot short-filmcontest sponsored by Samy’s Camera. Hurl-but is also joining Russell Carpenter, ASCand Rodney Charters, ASC on a panel ofjudges for the Canon U.S.A.-sponsored“Story Beyond the Still” contest, supportedby Grey New York and hosted by Vimeo.Joining the ASC members on the judges’bench are filmmakers Stu Maschwitz, RickMcCallum and Philip Bloom, photographerVincent Laforet, Vimeo’s Blake Whitmanand Grey New York’s Nick Childs. ●

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When you were a child, what film made the strongest impressionon you? In the late 1960s, I saw Stanley Kubrick’s brilliant film Dr. Strangelove(1964), which impressed me more than any film I’d ever seen. It wassatirical, fantastic, comedic, serious, suspenseful and realistic.

Which cinematographers, past or present, do you most admire,and why?Gordon Willis, ASC created an outstanding array ofinnovative work in films such as The Godfather, whoseuse of color, light and shadow became the model forhow future period films would be shot; Manhattan,with its perfection of formal tableau; and Zelig, whichtook the archival-film look to a new level. VittorioStoraro, ASC, AIC taught me about style with TheConformist and theatricality with Apocalypse Now.With Seven, Darius Khondji, ASC, AFC taught meabout darkness and mood. Other cinematographers Iadmire include ASC members Jordan Cronenweth,Conrad Hall, Roger Deakins and Emmanuel Lubezki,who have all made memorable contributions to the art.

What sparked your interest in photography?I’ve always had an inherent disposition toward visual imagery. Drawingand painting were my early passions. Stills photography became anothermeans of expression and exploration. I discovered the power of theimage through great masters of photography like Ansel Adams, PaulStrand, Edward Weston, Eugene Smith and André Kertész.

Where did you train and/or study? I completed a four-year film-studies program at York University inToronto while working part-time as a camera assistant on documentaryfilms.

Who were your early teachers or mentors?I studied with teachers at film school and worked with documentaryfilmmakers too numerous to name. I am grateful for the knowledge theyall passed on to me. My work is an accumulation and evolution of ideas,inspiration, concepts from movies I studied and technical books I read,and I’ve gleaned techniques from the cinematographers whose aestheticI most admired. American Cinematographer has played a key role inproviding me with insight about cinematographers and their artistry.

What are some of your key artistic influences?I have always been inspired by the clarity of vision of Ansel Adams’ land-scapes and have incorporated his Zone System to achieve technical preci-sion in my own images. I admire the sensitive treatment of light and darkand the meticulous composition in paintings by Vermeer. In addition,there are many cinematographers whose mastery and innovation haveinfluenced me.

How did you get your first break in the business?I had a neighbor who worked as a documentary cameraman. I askedhim to teach me everything he knew about filmmaking. I was 16, andI became his assistant.

What has been your most satisfying moment on a project?When I sit down and watch the completed film for the first time; it’s mycreative vision expressed as a unified entity.

Have you made any memorable blunders?Because I had worked independently in stills and docu-mentaries, when I first started shooting dramas, Iforgot to delegate, trust and interface with all thedepartments. I had to learn to work with everyone onthe crew. You cannot make a movie by yourself.

What is the best professional advice you’ve everreceived?Have a clear vision, design and objective for everyscene. Then, by lighting with your instincts along withyour intention and setting your own level of excellence,you will find satisfaction.

What recent books, films or artworks have inspired you?I recently saw a memorable exhibition of Edward Steichen photographsand Alexander Calder sculptures in the Frank Gehry-designed ArtGallery of Ontario. They all inspire diverse ways of seeing.

Do you have any favorite genres, or genres you would like to try?I am open to all genres. My interest is in what opportunities any scriptwill present for visual exploration and creativity.

If you weren’t a cinematographer, what might you be doinginstead?I would be an architect.

Which ASC cinematographers recommended you for membership?Steven Poster.

How has ASC membership impacted your life and career?To me, ASC membership represents excellence and high standards inthe field of cinematography. I have aspired to have those same stan-dards. There are so many ASC members whose professional achieve-ments I highly respect, and they have been my mentors throughout mycareer. To be invited to become a member is the greatest honor that’sbeen bestowed on me. ●

Rene Ohashi, ASC, CSCClose-up

M A T T H E W W E I N E RONFILM

“Writers were idolized in my home. My parents

had a big poster picture of Ernest Hemingway

on a wall in a hallway in our house. I thought

I was going to be a poet and that I would find

some other profession, teaching or something,

to support me. After I graduated from film

school at the University of Southern California,

it was about 10 years before I got a paying

job in the industry, but I never gave myself a

time limit. I wrote the pilot episode for Mad

Men in 1999 at night while I already had a

job, and finally got it produced in 2006. After

that wait, it seemed silly to compromise, and

luckily AMC made it clear they wanted it on

35 mm film because it would be programmed

between classic movies. To me, Mad Men is

a series of films. When I write a script, I am

telling a story that comes from my heart.”

Matthew Weiner is a writer-producer-director

whose television credits range from comedies

to dramas. He has earned multiple Emmy®

Awards and nominations for The Sopranos and

Mad Men, and Television Producer of the Year

Awards from the Producers Guild of America.

[All these shows were shot on Kodak motion picture film.]

For an extended interview with Matthew Weiner,visit www.kodak.com/go/onfilm.

To order Kodak motion picture film, call (800) 621-film. www.motion.kodak.com© Eastman Kodak Company, 2010. Photography: © 2009 Douglas Kirkland

Documents

American Cinematography April2010