AC aug 2012

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AUGUS T 2012

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

Christian Sebaldt, 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 website

rowing up in Munich, I

was influenced by French

Italian and Americanmovies. I was mesmerized by

their images; I wanted to

discover how to summon and be

in command of such visuals.

Cinematography was the only

profession I ever considered.

“Someone at a rental

house in Munich gave me a copy

of American Cinematographer

when I was an assistant, and I

have been hooked ever since.

Every issue presents a mind-

boggling number of artistic and

technical revelations, and

studying the corresponding

images onscreen validates every

printed word. Even today, AC is

my film school, my encyclopedia

and my bible.

“I find it inspiring when

brilliant filmmakers generously

share their thoughts and

techniques. As long as I keep

learning from my heroes, my

methods will evolve, and I will b

able to forge timely and poignan

images.”

— Christian Sebaldt, AS

“G

© p h o t o b y O w e n R o i z m a n , A S C

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The International Journal of Motion Imaging

30 Batman to the Max Wally Pfister, ASC and the team behind The Dark Knight Rises offer a detailed overview of the production

46 Web-Slinging in Stereo John Schwartzman, ASC spins a 3-D yarn withThe Amazing Spider-Man

58 Memory UpgradePaul Cameron, ASC experiences déjà vu on the sci-fi remakeTotal Recall

68 Vampire VetoCaleb Deschanel, ASC helps our 16th president axe theundead in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

DEPARTMENTS

FEATURES

— VISIT WWW.THEASC.COM TO ENJOY THESE WEB EXCLUSIVES —Podcasts: Shame • In the Family

DVD Playback: The Big Heat • 1900 • Something’s Gonna Live

On Our Cover: The brutal villain Bane (Tom Hardy) pushes Batman to the brink in The Dark Knight Rises, shot by Wally Pfister, ASC. (Photo by Ron Phillips, courtesy of Warner Bros. and D.C. Comics.)

8 Editor’s Note12 Short Takes: New York Story

18 Production Slate: 360 • Midnight in Paris/To Rome with Love

76 Post Focus: Man, Chicks Are Just Different

80 New Products & Services

86 International Marketplace87 Classified Ads88 Ad Index90 Clubhouse News92 ASC Close-Up: David Boyd

A U G U S T 2 0 1 2 V O L . 9 3 N O . 8

46

58

68

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A u g u s t 2 0 1 2 V o l . 9 3 , N o . 8

T h e I n t e r n a t i o n a l J o u r n a l o f M o t i o n I m a g i n g

Visit us online at

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EDITORIAL

EXECUTIVE EDITOR Stephen Pizzello

SENIOR EDITOR Rachael K. Bosley

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Jon D. Witmer

TECHNICAL EDITOR Christopher Probst

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

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

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ASC ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE Corey Clark

————————————————————————————————————American Cinematographer (ISSN 0002-7928), established 1920 and in its 92nd year of publication, is published

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

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

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

Copyright 2012 ASC Holding Corp. (All rights reserved.) Periodicals postage paid at Los Angeles, CAand at additional mailing offices. Printed in the USA.

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

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OFFICERS - 2012/2013

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Daryn OkadaVice President

Richard CrudoVice President

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After raising the visual bar for comic-book movies with

Batman Begins andThe Dark Knight , director ChristopherNolan and cinematographer Wally Pfister, ASC still feltthey had room to expand the Caped Crusader’s universe.For the final film of their Gotham City trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises, the dynamic duo decided to up the ante byshooting significantly more footage in 15-perf 65mmImax, a format they had used for select sequences on TheDark Knight . “This is storytelling on an epic scale,” Pfisterobserves. “Chris and I wanted to present the action in away that would have the most impact on the audience,and we strongly believe Imax is the most immersiveformat.” New York correspondent Iain Stasukevich inter-

viewed Pfister, Nolan and other members of the filmmaking team to create a comprehensiveoverview of the technical challenges they faced while shooting with large-format cameras(“Batman to the Max,” page 30).

The makers of The Amazing Spider-Man swung in a different direction whileupdating Peter Parker’s arachnid adventures. John Schwartzman, ASC and his aptly nameddirector, Marc Webb, opted to give Spidey an extra dimension by capturing in digital 3-D.After watching test footage from Spider-Man 2 that had been converted to 3-D, Webb andSchwartzman decided to go native. “Everyone realized this movie had great 3-D potential,”Schwartzman tells Michael Goldman (“Web-Slinging in Stereo,” page 46). “However, witha big visual-effects picture, there is never enough time to do a good conversion by the timeeverything else is finished. You need about 12 weeks to do a good conversion, and whatbig-budget visual-effects film is finished 12 weeks before release?”

Caleb Deschanel, ASC also sank his teeth into the world of digital 3-D on Abra-ham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter , a cheeky rewrite of Civil War history directed by TimurBekmambetov, but, for various reasons, the production opted for 3-D conversion in post.“ Abraham Lincoln is a ‘big’ film, but we did have limited time and a limited budget,”Deschanel tells David E. Williams (“Vampire Veto,” page 68). “Because we could shoot morequickly in 2-D, we decided to do that and convert in post. The rub with that is that you haveto leave time in post to do a good job; that has to be built into the schedule.”

Paul Cameron, ASC and director Len Wiseman initially intended to shoot Total Recall , an ambitious remake of Paul Verhoeven’s 1990 sci-fi classic, on anamorphic 35mm.However, a week before production began, they were required to switch to Red Epics, andthey ultimately used 35mm only for stunt sequences involving crash cams. “Production wasconvinced there would be a significant savings for us because of all the visual-effects workwe required, but it was a big trade-off,” Cameron tells Jay Holben (“Memory Upgrade,”

page 58). “I’ve shot a lot of projects digitally, but this was a brand new camera I’d neverused, and we had to start shooting in eight days.“ Thankfully, he notes, “Red was verysupportive. They sent a tech to us for the first two weeks to make sure we got rollingsmoothly, and they responded very quickly to any questions or problems we had.”

Stephen PizzelloExecutive Editor

Editor’s Note

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12 August 2012 American Cinematographer

Capturing a City of IconsBy Iain Stasukevich

Directed by Donna Lawrence and shot by Buddy Squires, New York Story is a special-format theatrical experience conceived for thenewly refurbished theater at the New York Historical Society andLibrary in Manhattan. The project incorporates computer animation,historical photos and documents, archival material, and new live-action footage.

Squires knows a few things about capturing New York oncamera. He shot the Oscar-nominated films Brooklyn Bridge andTheStatue of Liberty for documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, and he alsoworked with Ric Burns (Ken’s brother) on the PBS miniseries New York: A Documentary Film.

Lawrence’s previous work includes installation pieces for theNational Constitution Center, the Kentucky Derby Museum and theSmithsonian Arctic Studies Center. All of her films are tailored forunique venues, and the N.Y. Historical Society theater’s 73'-widescreen (a 4.71:1 aspect ratio) promised that New York Story wouldoffer another spectacular proscenium.

The filmmakers needed to originate on a medium thatoffered the greatest amount of picture resolution for the projectionsurface the images would occupy. Prior to Squires’ involvement,

Lawrence and technical consultant Todd Freese of Chicago’s Film-workers Club shot tests comparing the Red One Mysterium-X at 4Kand Super 35mm scanned to 4K files. After viewing the tests on a13'-wide screen in the Filmworkers DI suite, everyone agreed filmwas the best choice. At that scale, says Squires, “there was no doubtSuper 35 did a much better job of handling light and shadow.”

But the real test came after the images were enlarged to thewidth of the Historical Society’s 73' screen, upon which three1920x1080 digital projectors would each simultaneously displayone-third of the 5760x1080 panorama. “We looked at one of thethree slices, which was maybe 23 feet high by 25 feet wide, and, to

my shock and dismay, the Super 35 image kind of fell apart,” saysSquires.

The determining factor, says Freese, was where the viewerwas seated. “The first row of seats is very close to the screen, about15 feet,” he explains. “At that distance, the noise and the grain inthe film image were extremely exaggerated. If we sat in the back ofthe theater, about 38 feet from the screen, we couldn’t see anygrain, but most of the audience would be closer than that.”

Capturing in 4K with the Red MX emerged as the bestchoice at that point, but Squires continued to search for otheroptions. He recalls, “I was working on another project at AbelCinein New York, and I mentioned to [AbelCine applications specialist]Mitch Gross that I was a little frustrated with the Red. He suggestedthe Phantom 65 Gold.”

Squires supervised another set of camera tests comparingthe Red to the Phantom, using Hawk anamorphic lenses providedby Fletcher Camera & Lenses. Though the Red offered an estab-lished on-set workflow, the Phantom’s 4096x2440-pixel 65mmsensor provided all the horizontal resolution New York Story required. AbelCine subsequently supplied Squires with a Phantomand Arri/Zeiss Maxi-PL Prime lenses ranging from 30mm to 350mm.“I have to give Donna a lot of credit for continuing the testingprocess,” says Squires. “You can’t just assume that what looks good

on a 13-foot screen will look good on a 73-foot screen. There wasa lot at stake, and we had to do our homework.”

He notes that the Phantom 65’s large-format sensor calledfor carefully designed compositions. “You have to make sure every-thing in that frame is something you want to see. On a 73-footscreen, the Phantom 65’s startling clarity demands that the cine-matographer take responsibility for every square inch of the frame.There is simply nowhere to hide one’s mistakes.”

Assisted by 1st AC John Romeo and Phantom techniciansJamie Alac and Jesse Rosen, Squires placed the camera in mostlypublic locations such as sidewalks, rooftops and Central Park. The

Short Takes

For New York Story , director Donna Lawrence and cinematographer Buddy Squires embraced the 4.71:1 aspect ratio to take advantageof the 73'-wide screen in the New York Historical Society and Library’s recently refurbished theater.

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team traveled light, with only the camera,lenses, tripod, a case of 512 GB PhantomCineMags and some basic accessories.

Though he tended to favor widerlenses, Squires was still challenged bycomposing an ultra-wide frame for a city“that’s all about verticality.” He explains, “Ihad to find a way to work a tilt into the shotof the Queensboro Bridge. Otherwise, therewas no way to get far enough away and stillhave the river as our principal foregroundwhile taking in the entire bridge. It tooksome careful moves to make that work,because on a screen as large as themuseum’s, every move is magnified — youcan give people motion sickness with aquick pan or tilt. Even someone with hishand on the follow-focus gear is likely tocause unwanted movement!”

On the street, Squires used focallengths as long as 350mm to compress thebustle of New York pedestrians into amosaic of motion and intensity. Hephotographed such iconic interiors asGrand Central Station’s main concourse,and even managed to sneak a few shots inthe subway station beneath it. “We justwalked down there with our big camera

and set it up under one of the MTA’s secu-rity cameras,” he says. “We were there foran hour capturing arrivals and departures,and, amazingly, no one bothered us.”

No cinematic document of the BigApple would be complete without a bird’s-eye view of the city, so Squires took to theskies in a helicopter piloted by Al Cerullo,and mounted the Phantom 65 to a remote-operated Eclipse stabilization system. “Theshot where we fly in low over Central Park


Top: An Eclipsestabilization

system was affixedto a helicopter

piloted by AlCerullo for theproject’s aerialviews. Middle:Squires stands

next to thePhantom 65 Gold

camera on locationin Times Square.

Bottom: The crewcaptures thesunrise over

Manhattan from avantage in

Weehawken, N.J.

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might be one of the many places where the4.71:1 aspect ratio works the best,” thecinematographer observes. That shotencompasses four long avenues, FifthAvenue to Central Park West, and offers a

perspective of the park that is almostvertigo-inducing. “When you’re shootingfrom the air, you don’t always get a realsense of the park, which is an emerald inthe middle of the city. With that aspect ratio

and that much resolution, we could actuallybe low over the park, looking south, and seeits entire width.”

To minimize banding and color-temperature shifts, the Phantom 65 requireda black balance after almost every shot.Normally the operation called for Squires to

physically cap the lens, but in the air, thecamera was mounted beneath the heli-copter’s nose, so Eclipse engineers in LosAngeles devised a custom cabling systemthat connected to a capping shutter — anexternal aperture — enabling Squires toremotely block light from the lens.

The production ended up rentingone Red MX for a few nighttime shots,including aerials of Manhattan and theStatue of Liberty, which Squires capturedwith a Fujinon Alura 18-80mm zoom, and asimulated cab ride through Times Square,for which the camera was mounted on aLibra head. “The Phantom image had agreater sense of presence than the Red, butone of the disadvantages of the Phantomwas its ISO 200 sensor, and the fact that thefastest prime we could use with it wasT3.6,” says Squires. “The Red MX lookedgreat at ISO 800, and we were also able touse fast Zeiss Super Speeds and Arri MasterPrimes with it.”

The Filmworkers Club handled all thedailies and sent time-coded 4K ProRes filesto editor Jamie Pence at Videobred inLouisville, Ky., for real-time editing andcompositing in Adobe Premiere andAfterEffects. Pence output the locked 4Kedit as three independent 10-bit 1080p DPXstreams that were delivered by Videobred tothe New York Historical Society’s installationteam. That team, led by Tony Peugh of Elec-trosonic, Inc., converted the DPX streams to1920x1080 DCPs for the theater’s three HDprojectors.

Over the course of New York Story’s

18-minute running time, the screen widthtransforms from 25' to 73' while sectionedpanels lower and raise in an impressivedisplay of interactive theatrical lighting andsurround-sound cues.

“New York is a city of icons, andthey’re photographed thousands of timesevery day by tourists and New Yorkersalike,” says Squires. “If you’re going to filmthem, you’d better damn well do it in a waythat feels impressive.” ●

New York Story opens with a 25'-wide scene (top) and then transforms as panels lower and raise(middle) until the piece ends with a series of 73'-wide seamless panoramas (bottom).


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Traveling Full CircleBy Jean Oppenheimer

Adapted from Arthur Schnitzler’s play Der Reigen, FernandoMeirelles’ ensemble drama 360 is structured as a series of encountersbetween various pairs of individuals. Some hook up, others break up,and still others merely cross paths. They also cross internationalborders; the story’s settings include Paris, London and Vienna, andthe entire picture was shot on location.

According to cinematographer Adriano Goldman, ABC,Meirelles initially wanted to shoot digitally. “Fernando is veryconcerned about the pace on the set,” notes Goldman. “He is veryquick and doesn’t like to wait, and he reasoned that digital would befaster. However, I felt that because of the cast and the different land-scapes, film would be a better choice.” He had previously combinedSuper 16mm and Super 35mm and maintained a good pace on twofeatures Meirelles had produced, City of Men and The Year My

Parents Went on Vacation, and he convinced Meirelles to take thesame approach to 360.

Super 16mm proved especially useful for handheld camera-work in automobiles, where space was severely limited. “Little bylittle, though, I started shooting more 35mm,” recalls Goldman, whodid his own operating. “In the end, I think we shot more than halfof the picture on [3-perf] Super 35. Matching the two formats wasour primary task in the DI, which we did with [colorist] Adam Glass-man at Deluxe London. This was my first film with him, and he’sfantastic.”

The cinematographer recalls that the look of the film devel-

oped gradually as the team scouted locations and considered thevarious characters. “Fernando knew from the beginning that hewanted to steer clear of vibrant colors. He envisaged a soft, desatu-rated world, and we basically achieved that look by toning down thecolors and skin tones in post.

“There was a slight color orientation for characters, but noth-ing too strong,” continues Goldman. “For instance, Rose [RachelWeisz], who is married to Michael [Jude Law] and having an affairwith a younger man, is the ‘white’ character — everything in her lifeis monochromatic and clean, and we kept our lighting for thosescenes clean as well.”

By contrast, Bratislava, home to sisters Mirkha (Lucia Siposová)and Anna (Gabriela Marcinkova), feels somewhat chaotic. For thesescenes, Goldman and his gaffer, Andy Long, gelled their lights tomatch the mixed colors they found at the locations, with a slightemphasis on yellow, to suggest the instability in the young women’slives. “For the touch of yellow, we usually used household bulbs

dimmed down for a warmer tone,” says Goldman.Yellow is prominent in an early scene that shows Michael in a

hotel bar looking for Mirkha, who works as a prostitute. “The barfeatured a huge backlit yellow pane of glass, and we decided toembrace that,” relates Goldman. “We found a yellow gel to put onour Kino Flos that matched perfectly. We didn’t want a vivid yellow,however, so in post I desaturated it.”

Throughout the shoot, Meirelles was keen to avoid “postcardimages,” Goldman notes. “He wanted to show everyday urban land-scapes, not tourist spots, because the film isn’t about London orParis; it’s about the people who live there.”

Production Slate

3 6 0 f r a m e g r a b s a n d p h o t o s c o u r t e s y o f M

a g n o l i a P i c t u r e s

In a scene from 360, a gangster’s driver (Vladimir Vdovichenkov) is intrigued by a young Bratislavan woman (Gabriela Marcinkova).

I

➣

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The characters are often out of stepwith one another, and Meirelles wanted tosuggest this visually by framing characters insuch a way that they seemed to be slightlyout of sync. “He wanted to see charactersalmost stepping out of frame and thencorrect the camera,” says Goldman. “Hesaid, ‘Let’s be a little bit behind or ahead ofwhat the actor does. Let the camera movefirst and then the character, or vice-versa.’”

Medium to long lenses were used forclose-ups. “The shallow focus gives the shotmore depth and adds to the mood,” submitsGoldman. Another important visual element

was shooting into mirrors and through layersof glass, using reflective surfaces as a narra-tive tool. For example, when Michael’sarrangement to meet Mirkha hits a snag, hewanders through the city by himself, and wesee him in different settings from outside thewindows, heightening the sense of isolation.

The toughest lighting setup in thefilm was the small hotel room where Roseand her lover, Rui (Juliano Cazarré), meet fortheir trysts. An entire wall was a mirror, and

opposite it was a floor-to-ceiling window.There was nowhere to hide a light inside,and it was impossible to put a cherry pickeror crane outside without closing downseveral city blocks, which wasn’t an option.“We tried bouncing a 2.5K HMI Par, but thecamera could see the hot spot in the ceiling,so we had to turn it off,” recalls Long.“Finally, we positioned a 4-by-4 bank ofKino Flos in the bathroom. That pushedsome light into the bedroom, as if from anunseen window. Primarily, however, werelied on available light coming through thegiant window. We were lucky because that

light remained pretty consistent throughoutthe day.”

Because many of the production’slocations were small spaces, Goldman reliedon small sources, usually Lowel Rifa lights,and these were heavily diffused with a mixof Frost, 250, 251, 252 and 216. “Adrianoloves the Rifa lights,” notes Long. “They’resmall, soft and controllable, and they’re veryquick to rig. With egg crate to control thelight and a dimmer to set the level, they

became a favorite for our night-interiorwork. We used 1K, 650-watt and 300-wattunits.”

Goldman says that one of his favoriteshots in the film was also one of thesimplest. “Sergei [Vladimir Vdovichenkov] isdriving to Vienna to pick up his boss, and hestops at a gas station for some coffee. Anespresso machine sits on the counter, andthe camera is behind and slightly to the leftof him. We see his face in the shiny coffeemaker, and we simply dolly in to the image.”

Ever since Sin Nombre ( AC April ’09),Goldman has been working mainly outsidehis native Brazil. When he spoke to AC about 360, he was shooting a picture withBritish director John Crowley, working withthe same key crew he’d used on 360 and Jane Eyre ( AC April ’11). He repeatedlylauded their work, with special nods to Longand 1st AC Iain Struthers.

Goldman and Meirelles have knownone another for 20 years. They met whenGoldman began working on commercialsproduced by Meirelles’ O2 Filmes. “We havemade many commercials and televisionseries together, and Fernando has produceda number of films that I shot, but 360 wasthe first chance we had to collaborate on afeature as director and cinematographer. Iconsider him both a close friend and amentor.”

TECHNICAL SPECS

2.40:1

3-perf Super 35mm and Super 16mm

Arricam Lite; Arri 416 Plus

Zeiss Ultra Prime, Super Speed;Arri Ultra 16; Angenieux Optimo

Kodak Vision3 500T 5219,200T 5213/7213

Digital Intermediate ➣

Clockwise fromtop left: Married

couple Michael(Jude Law) and

Rose (RachelWeisz) no longerconnect; director

FernandoMeirelles (left)lines up a shot

with AdrianoGoldman, ABC; a

convict (BenFoster) is

conflicted abouthis imminent

parole.

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t h e r t o f f i lm op t i c s

[email protected] • www.angenieux.com

lenses transform light into the imagery of

your story. Employing the finest optics and mechanics

to capture images beyond every expectation.

Ava ilable in 17-80mm, 24-290 mm and now

19.5-94mm and 28-340mm.

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7/29/2019 AC aug 2012



Khondji on AllenBy Benjamin B

AC recently caught up with DariusKhondji, ASC, AFC at his home in Paris tospeak about the two films he has shot forWoody Allen, To Rome with Love andMidnight in Paris. It was also an occasion tospeak about lighting tools and techniques.

American Cinematographer :What do you enjoy most about work-ing with Woody Allen?

Darius Khondji, ASC, AFC: I lovehim and have a huge respect for him. As hewould not like the word ‘genius,’ I try notuse it when speaking about him, so let’s justsay he’s very talented, very inspiring and somuch fun to work with.

How did you approach the differ-ent time periods in Midnight in Paris,which mixes the present day with the1920s and 1900?

Khondji: I had to find a differentvisual treatment for each one. When Woodyand I first talked about this story, he waswondering whether to do the past in black-

and-white, but with a few notable excep-tions, I think movies that mix color andblack-and-white really distract the audience,so I suggested we try to find different colortreatments instead. I did some research andcame back to Woody with some ideas forcreating a vintage look to distinguish thepast from the present. First, shoot with veryold Cooke lenses, the S2s and S3s, and uselonger focal lengths, no wider than 32mm,to get a softer, more diffused look. Second,

pull-process the negative at LTC by half astop, sometimes a full stop, for a gentler,less contrasty image. Third, move thecamera less, with no tracking shots. Fourth,use warmer colors. I should note thatWoody prefers warm colors to begin with;he doesn’t like very cool light. All thesedifferent things added up to create an ambi-ence, to give the earlier eras a glow. Bycontrast, we used the new Cooke 5/i lensesfor the contemporary scenes.

How did you distinguishbetween the 1920s and 1900?

Khondji: We made the 1920s verywarm, with a golden color. Then, for theBelle Epoque, we added smoke and morebacklight and went even warmer to a truered, as if it were lit by fire. So the 1900swere very red and black, with blackcostumes. Woody loved it.

The Belle Epoque scene in whichGil [Owen Wilson] and Adriana [MarionCotillard] dance at Maxim’s is stunning.How did you light that?

Khondji: We filled the entire ceilingwith a grid of small bulbs on dimmers,

which gave us that golden, peachy, softlook, and then I added a diffused, slightlycooler backlight on Marion. Woody wantedher to look like an old-fashioned movie star,so I also added smoke and used a combina-tion of Schneider Classic Black Soft andTiffen Black Pro-Mist filters on the lens. Else-where, I also used Mitchell diffusion on her.

Can you tell us more about usingbunches of small bulbs?

Khondji: I think they were 30-watt

bulbs. I designed these panels covered withbulbs wired to dimmers. We called themWoody Lights. They were 3 to 4 feet wide by4 to 5 feet long; we made three differentsizes. The panels were made of aluminum,with hundreds of very closely packed bulbs.The panels were on stands, coming from

another room, or lighting faces from a three-quarter angle. They created a vintage glowthat we used for the 1920s mostly.

You created the warm colors withdimmers, but also with gels?

Khondji: I used CTO and CTS on thekeylights in a scene. I also like Bastard Amber,Magenta, Pink and Mauve. I often make theshadows a bit cooler, often by bouncing blueor green from above. Then, in the digitalgrade, I mute the highlights a bit, bringingthem down in intensity and adding a bit ofgold. In the toe of the curve, wherever theblacks catch a little bit of color, I add someblue. I use color contrast a lot. That’s how myeye functions.

Much of Midnight in Paris takesplace at night. How did you light thenight?

Khondji: I tried to have the exteriorslit mostly by indoor sources, like lightscoming through café windows. When Iwatch the film now, I think I should havedone even more of that. We ended up withmore street lamps than I initially wanted, butI realized the image shouldn’t be too dark.

One of the most amazing loca-tions in the movie is the OrangerieMuseum, in front of Monet’s water lilies.

Khondji: That was shot entirely innatural light. We had a bounce board for thetracking shot and added a big show card forthe actors’ eyes. When we got to the loca-tion, Woody and I looked at each other, andhe said, ‘2001, right?’ and we both smiled.We both thought of Kubrick’s film in thatbig, white space.

How would you describe yourapproach to To Rome with Love?

Khondji: It’s a comedy with fourdifferent stories set in Rome: two are in Ital-ian [with English subtitles], and two are inEnglish. I treated the Italian stories with muchwarmer colors, almost to excess. The sunnyweather was a challenge, because we didn’twant direct sunlight. Sometimes we shot inthe shade with bounces from the beautifulgold or terra cotta houses, or we shot back-

The Orangerie Museum serves as a striking location in Midnight in Paris.

I

7/29/2019 AC aug 2012


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lit, like the scenes in Tivoli gardens. If we hadto shoot during the day, we created a ceilingof diffusion with special cloud balloons fromALF Service in Milan. They made theseballoons themselves and found a way togrip them together to cover very large areasof the streets and piazzas; they were greatand very useful for this film, for which wewanted a very flexible way to diffusesunlight. We also did a 360-degree shot of

the huge Piazza del Popolo very late in theafternoon, when the sun was really low. Iused negative fill a lot outside to sculpt thelight, or to get rid of a bounce from belowthat I didn’t like.

How did you light the dayinteriors?

Khondji: We shot both moviesentirely on location, with no stage work, soit varied a lot. If it’s daytime, I mostly lightfrom outside the windows, and in general, Iwant soft light — it can be bounced,diffused or both. I want the lighting to beboth beautiful and fast to set up. I don’tcare how the electricians accomplish this,and I find it’s better to have them work withthe units they know. In Italy, we used ACLs[Aircraft Landing Lights] from Iride, power-ful lights in lightweight aluminum framesthat were originally designed for VittorioStoraro [ASC, AIC]. But ACLs aren’t used inParis, so for Midnight in Paris, I used mostlyHMIs, both Arrimax and K5600 fixtures. Ilove the Arrimax through Full Grid Cloth.When I use Fresnel lights, I use them

through heavy diffusion, and then I will cutthem and scrim them to bring them downin exposure to the level of light I like. Or, Imight use a book light, a bounce throughheavy diffusion. In general, I use so manylayers of diffusion that the source doesn’tmatter that much.

Which diffusion and bouncematerials do you prefer?

Khondji: I like Frost and Rollux diffu-sion, which is nice and thick. In Italy, I liked

to bounce either a big source or the sun on a6-by-6-foot unbleached muslin frame,because the buildings there have that kind oftexture.

I noticed an occasional beam ofhard light in your soft lighting.

Khondji: I love using Molebeams in

day interiors. I usually carry 6Ks or 4Ks. I’ll puta Molebeam outside and create a streak ofvery hot light alongside the soft source. Youimmediately get the feeling of very real sun. Itlooks beautiful.

Do you use fill lights inside?Khondji: I don’t add much fill

anymore. Today’s film stocks don’t seem toneed it as much. Sometimes I’ll add a showcard, but definitely no lights.

Please describe your approach tothe long tracking shot that takes place atnight on the Piazza Novona.

Khondji: We put blue HMIs under thewater in the fountain. We sidelit Jesse Eisen-berg, Greta Gerwig and Ellen Page with hardlight from two tungsten 10Ks, one for eachsection of track. I felt it would have lookedflat otherwise. We put some spotlights on thefaçade in the background, and I had a littlebit of fill with an Octoplus by Chimera.

What is your approach to close-ups?

Khondji: For the big guns, I like theelectricians to use the lights they’re comfort-able with, but when we go inside for close-ups, whether I’m in Rome, New York,London, Paris or Los Angeles, the light is my light. I can’t stand having bad lighting onactors’ faces. I may use China balls, Brieselights or Kino Flos, and on a smaller film I mayuse [Source Four] Lekos bounced off showcard. On both of these films, I used the Octo-plus a lot. It’s very simple to set up, it canaccommodate single or double diffusion, itcomes in different sizes, and it runs from 500watts to 2K. For the final shot in Midnight in

Paris, Gabrielle [Léa Seydoux] on the bridge, Iused a China ball. She’s the modern muse ofthe story.

How does Woody break down ascene?

Khondji: He likes to shoot plan séquences [one-shot scenes] most of thetime. He will also shoot some coverage, buthe keeps most of the master shot in the finaledit. If I felt adamant about doing anothertake, he would do it, but I knew he wasn’t


Top: Gil (Owen Wilson) slips into 1920s Paris to enjoya visit with Adriana (Marion Cotillard). Bottom:

Director Woody Allen confers with Darius Khondji,ASC, AFC, on location for To Rome with Love.

7/29/2019 AC aug 2012


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going to use it! He’ll use the best take for theactors, of course. Once, we had a shot thatwas a bit soft, and he kept it in. He jokedthat it ‘looks like European or Frenchcinema.’

How would you describe hisdirecting style?

Khondji: Woody makes films like amusician, like a composer. It’s very much aquestion of rhythm. Of course, I’ve doneonly comedies with him, but everything,from the actors to the camera moves, has tohave rhythm. If a scene starts to feel heavy,to fall flat, he will rethink it or, at the worst,reshoot it. He really knows what he wants.More important, he knows what he doesn’twant! He has a wonderful way of dealingwith problems on the set. He’s very flexible,and he always finds interesting solutionsbecause he’s used to making films withoutbig budgets. Sometimes he’ll simply turn anevening scene into a day scene. He’s veryinspiring, and I feel I’ve learned a lot fromhim.

I must also add that I’m very gratefulto my excellent crews on both films. InFrance, they included gaffer ThierryBeaucheron, key grip Cyril Kuhnholtz,camera assistants Fabienne Octobre andJulien Andreetti, and camera operator JanRubens. In Italy, they included gaffer StefanoMarino, key grip Paolo Frasson, camera assis-tants Alberto ‘Nino’ Torrecilla and Simona diLullo, and camera operator DanieleMassacesi. And I’m equally grateful to thegreat Joe Gawler, our colorist at Deluxe NewYork, who graded both movies.

TECHNICAL SPECS

Midnight in Paris

Super 1.85:1

3-perf Super 35mm

Arricam Studio, Lite

Cooke S2, S3, S4, 5/i; Angenieux Optimo

Kodak Vision3 200T 5213, 500T 5219

Digital Intermediate

To Rome with Love

Super 1.85:1

4-perf Super 35mm

Arricam Studio, Lite

Cooke 5/i, S4, S3

Kodak Vision3 200T 5213, 500T 5219

Digital Intermediate ●

Top: Jack (JesseEisenberg) and

Sally (GretaGerwig, right)

entertain Sally’sfriend (Ellen Page)

in To Rome withLove. Middle: An

American woman(Alison Pill) has achance encounter

with a Roman(Flavio Parenti)

that leads toromance. Bottom:

“Cloud cover”created for

Roman piazzasby Khondji’sItalian crew.

B o t t o m p h o t o c o u r t e s y o f D a r i u s K h o n d j i

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This still frame was pulled from 5k RED EPIC® motion footage and graded at Light Iron. “Flight” © 2012 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.


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“I’ve been shooting film all my life.

Now I shoot RED.”

– Don Burgess, ASC

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Picking up eight years after The Dark Knight ended, The Dark Knight Rises finds Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale)living a sequestered existence, having retired his alter egoof Batman as Gotham City enjoys a period of peace and

prosperity. However, when a new threat emerges in the formof Bane (Tom Hardy), Wayne is compelled to once again donhis cape and cowl.

For their final chapter of the Batman saga, directorChristopher Nolan and cinematographer Wally Pfister, ASC

decided to take the anamorphic 35mm/15-perf 65mm combi-nation they had used on The Dark Knight ( AC July ’08) evenfurther by significantly increasing the amount of Imax mater-ial in the new film. “This is storytelling on an epic scale,”Pfister observes. “Chris and I wanted to present the action ina way that would have the most impact on the audience, and

we strongly believe Imax is the most immersive format.”Nolan notes that large-format filmmaking also “makes

you think differently about how you stage things, which is one

Batmanto theMax

Batmanto theMax

Christopher Nolanand Wally Pfister, ASC

expand their use of 15-perf 65mm

cinematography forThe Dark Knight Rises.

By Iain Stasukevich

•|•

7/29/2019 AC aug 2012


www.theasc.com August 2012

of the things I enjoyed about our expe-rience with it on The Dark Knight.

There’s more of a tableau element tocomposition; we let things come in andout of frame and move the camera alittle more slowly. In some ways, it’smore of an old-fashioned approach tofinding the scale of the story.”

Using four MSM 9802 Imax

cameras designed and built by Marty Mueller, the filmmakers shot more than1 million feet of 15-perf 65mm film onThe Dark Knight Rises . “They’re hand-built cameras, so each one has a bit of apersonality,” observes Bob Hall, Pfister’slongtime first AC. “But they were basi-cally identical, and all the parts wereinterchangeable.”

Each Imax camera came with itsown set of primes: 40mm, 50mm,80mm, 110mm, 150mm and 250mm.Many of the lenses were T2.8 medium-format Hasselblad still lenses adaptedfor 65mm camera mounts, with thestill-lens focusing movement still intact.“The focusing movement is very stiff,”says Hall. “On some of the lenses, I f r

a m e g r a b s c o u r t e s y o f W a r n e r

B r o s . ™ & © D . C . C o m i c s .

Opposite: Batman (Christian Bale) revs up the Batpod. This page, top: The Caped Crusader faces one ohis toughest foes in Bane (Tom Hardy), a brutal ex-convict who breathes through a muzzle-like

apparatus strapped to his head. Bottom: Cinematographer Wally Pfister, ASC positions one of the

production’s Imax cameras.

7/29/2019 AC aug 2012



couldn’t even pull focus by hand. I hadto use the Preston FI+Z 3 [remote focuscontroller] with the torque motorturned all the way up.”

During prep, the filmmakersapproached Imax with a few requests

based on their prior experience with thetechnology. Pfister recalls, “I askedMike Hendriks [director of Imax’scamera department] if he would beopen to involving Panavision techni-cians, specifically [optical engineer] DanSasaki, in improving some lenses andcreating a new viewfinder.”

The cinematographer took Sasaki an 80mm T2 Mamiya lens thatImax had adapted for The Dark Knight and a 50mm T2.5 medium-format stilllens. “In the case of the 80mm, wediscarded the Imax mechanics andreplaced them with a cine-stylePanavision transport,” explains Sasaki.“Also, we had to rebuild the entire lenshead so it could accommodate an irismechanism, because the original Imaxlens conversion did not have a variableiris mechanism. The 50mm T2.5conversion was a little different. Webasically had to rehouse a majority of the lens elements into an assembly that

we could adapt into a more stable lenstransport. This mechanical system was

very similar to the mechanical systemused on the 80mm lens.

“We also made a 50mm T2custom lens based on an inverted tele-photo-lens layout,” Sasaki continues.“The front objective was based on aSchneider design complimented by proprietary Panavision optics. Themechanical part of the lens was builtaround a helical lens transport similar tothose used in our Primo prime lenses.”

Panavision also supplied parts forthe image processing of the PAV IINTSC tap to facilitate a flicker-freeimage in the MSM’s optical viewfinder,and Sasaki rebuilt the viewfinder itself from the ground up. He explains, “Thisconsisted of new relay optics, orientat-ing prisms, eyepieces and mechanicalcomponents.” Hall calls the result “anextreme improvement over the originalMSM eyepiece.”

◗ Batman to the Max

In a spectacular opening salvo, Bane’s henchmen free him from CIA custody by staging a mid-airhijacking of the plane carrying the villain. The ambitious sequence was accomplished with a

combination of techniques, including a full-scale, gimbal-mounted fuselage mockup; miniaturesshot in VistaVision; and shots of the full-scale fuselage dangling on wires from a heavy-lift

helicopter over Scotland.

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During filming, the MSM’s sizepresented a few challenges for key gripRay Garcia and his crew, notably setgrip Mark Wojciechowski, best boy Rod Farley and best boy grip CharlieEhrlinger. “It was difficult just gettingthose monsters inside cars for drivingscenes,” Garcia recalls. “We were alwayscutting pieces out of or adding [mount-ing] brackets to the picture cars to getthe cameras where they needed to be.”

The team rigged 1'x1' and 2'x2'aluminum plates to speed-rail supportsto create level platforms for the cameramount. “Sometimes we mounted thecamera to a friction head, but ourtypical approach was to lock it down tothe platform with a dovetail plate, with5⁄8-inch rods and clamps for support,”

says Garcia.For one Imax setup, the camera

had to pan between two actors in thefront seat of a moving armored military

vehicle. To achieve this, the crew hung aremote head from cantilevered trussbolted to the vehicle’s roof rack. “Theonly remote system that was truly ableto support the MSM was the Lev Head,” Garcia notes. “Other headscould accommodate it, but they weren’t

accustomed to working with that much weight, which amounted to 95-100pounds with the mag and accessories, sothey never functioned at 100 percent.”

One of three Imax technicians — Wayne Baker, Doug Lavender or Stuart

MacFarlane — was always on set toassist Pfister’s camera crew with trou-bleshooting and occasional repairs.“The MSM is like any other camera interms of the threading and operation,”says Hall, “but a lot of things canhappen during a reload that will resultin a jam, and if the jam is severe enough,it will slip the timing belt. When thathappens, you have to strip the cameradown on a bench to reset the belt. The

MSM tolerances are so tight that asingle snowflake can cause the film toswell and jam the camera, and at theend of the shoot, we had to film onlocation on Wall Street with an enor-mous number of extras in the middle of

a snowstorm. People were holding bagsover the camera while I reloaded, butevery once in a while, a flake would geton the film. On that day, all three bodies

were in constant rotation! Wayne wouldbe replacing the timing belt on one, andanother would be waiting for repairs

while we were shooting with the third,hoping a backup would be ready before

we needed it. Fortunately, our crew wasso prepared we were able to shoot

Bane’s terrorcampaign continuesduring a GothamRogues footballgame, where he and

his cohorts haveburied bombsbeneath the field.The sequence wasstaged at Heinz Fielhome of the NationFootball League’sPittsburgh Steelers,and features actualNFL players. Practicapyrotechnics stagedby special-effectssupervisor ChrisCorbould and hiscrew were enhancewith digital visual

effects created byartists at DoubleNegative.

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65mm as fast as we shot 35mm.”For the first several weeks of

production, the filmmakers shot Imaxsetups on 35mm as well, for backup, butas the shoot progressed, they beganshooting Imax scenes only on Imax.“We had 16 carts of Imax andPanavision equipment,” Hall recalls.“We carried two Millennium XLs, aGold II, an Arri 235, Arri 35-3 crashcameras and a Beaucam VistaVisioncamera. Some of these were just forbackup — the Gold and the 35-3s werenever used — but we had to make sureany one of them could be ready to go ata moment’s notice.”

After a few weeks, the filmmakersfelt confident enough to make a go of their large-scale setups solely with theImax cameras, and they reserved 35mmfor more intimate character moments.Some sequences called for both formats,including one set at a costume ball

where Wayne and Selina Kyle (a.k.a.

Catwoman, played by Anne Hathaway)share a dangerous dance. Exteriors(filmed in Los Angeles) and the widerinterior shots (filmed in the SenateHouse at the University of London)

were shot on Imax, and closer work wasshot on 35mm. “The Senate House is agreat space, but lighting the wider shotsinside was a challenge because the tallerImax frame made it difficult to hidelights,” says gaffer Cory Geryak. “The


Selina Kyle (AnneHathaway), whopursues a life of

crime asCatwoman,

warns Batman’salter ego, Bruce

Wayne, “There’sa storm coming.”Bottom: Pfister

(at cameraeyepiece)

captures close-ups of the

characters’ danceas gaffer CoryGeryak uses a

boom-mountedChina ball to

create soft edgelighting.

7/29/2019 AC aug 2012


ceiling featured square-shaped, recessedbays, and we decided to use those. Wehid eight 750-watt Source Four ellip-soidals on the second-floor balcony thatoverlooked the dance floor, cut the light

with the lamp blades and shaped the

beam patterns to match the ceilingpanels, bouncing the light off the ceilingto create the effect of glowing practi-cals.”

For close-up and medium shotsof the couple, an Arri LoCaster LED

with a 1'x1' soft-box snoot and inter-changeable diffusion frames providedeyelight, and 5K tungsten Chimerasprovided a soft edge. “We always triedto approach the eyelight from a compli-mentary angle to the camera,” saysGeryak. “If the camera was over some-one’s right shoulder, I’d stand over hisleft shoulder and try to wrap the lightfrom the key side so it looked morenatural.” The script called for multiple360-degree turns around the pair, soGeryak created a consistent soft edge by booming a dimmable 500-watt Chinaball above and behind the actors fromthe camera dolly.

Nolan usually doesn’t createstoryboards for scenes unless visual-effects work is involved, and in thoseinstances, boards and animatics arecreated for every shot. When he andPfister met with visual-effects supervi-sor Paul Franklin during prep for The Dark Knight Rises , most conversationsbegan with, “Can we do this for real?”Nolan explains, “When it comes to

visual effects, the idea is to always do asmuch as possible practically. I think that

whenever you can shoot something forreal, the computer-generated enhance-ments, when you need them, will look

that much better.”Even the most complicated

visual-effects shot also contained asubstantial number of practical effectscreated by special-effects supervisorChris Corbould and his team. “The

whole point of our visual-effects work on the Batman films is that we don’t

want the work to grandstand,” saysFranklin. “There are no surreal digitalmoments. Every visual effect in The


Top to bottom:Alfred (MichaelCaine), Batman’sloyal butler andconfidante,approaches Waynin his secret lair;Batman steps outof his combataircraft, the Bat;the crew preparefor the next setuon Stage 30 atSony Pictures,where the Batcavset wasconstructed.

7/29/2019 AC aug 2012



Dark Knight Rises has some kind of photographic element, be it a fore-ground element or a background plate.”

The most complicated visual-effects shot in the film required morethan 10,000 extras, a team of stuntmenand live explosions. The scene takesplace at a football stadium where aGotham Rogues game is underway.Bane has rigged bombs to explode at

various locations in Gotham City, andhe has placed several beneath thestadium. When the charges detonate,the football field and most of the play-ers on it are sucked into a massive hole.

The filmmakers captured theaction on 15-perf 65mm at Pittsburgh’sHeinz Field. In post, visual-effectsartists at Double Negative, working

with a 5.6x4K image from an 8K scanof the negative, rotoscoped the fore-

ground elements from the CG collaps-ing field, while also enhancingCorbould’s practical pyrotechnics andincreasing the horrified spectators from10,000 to 80,000.

Corbould also supervised thefull-scale fabrication of Wayne’s fear-some combat aircraft, the Bat, which

was either mounted on a gimbaled vehicle for action on the ground orsuspended from a heavy-lift helicopter


Bane’ssubterranean

base, a 60'-tall,

four-levelcylindrical steel

set equippedwith running

water, was builtin one ofEngland’s

massiveCardington

airship sheds.The set served asthe backdrop for

an ominousshowdown

between Baneand Batman. An

array of 1K Parcans positioned

on the walkwaysallows the

characters tomove in and out

of hot pools oflight during their

hand-to-handbattle. “The idea

is that they’regladiators in theColiseum,” says

gaffer CoryGeryak.

7/29/2019 AC aug 2012


for high-flying stunt work. In order tocapture high-dynamic-range lightingreferences of the full-sized Bat on set,Franklin developed a panoramic camerasystem that comprised four DSLRs

with 8mm lenses that produced overlap-

ping fields of view. The panoramas werestitched together digitally, and lightingmaps were created to drive a customphysics-based lighting system.

As is typical of his collaborations with Nolan, Pfister operated the Acamera of the first and only unit. On thisproduction, however, he was joined by B-camera/Steadicam operator ScottSakamoto, SOC. “Chris and I used asecond camera more on this film than

we have on any other, mostly because of Scott’s extraordinary skills and abilities,”enthuses Pfister.

The Dark Knight Rises opens on asmall plane wherein some CIA opera-tives are interrogating their prisoner,Bane. Despite his shackles, Bane threat-ens to hijack the aircraft, much to hiscaptors’ amusement. Suddenly, a C-130flying fortress overtakes the small plane,and armed mercenaries rappel from theC-130 onto the passenger plane andhook wires to its tail. The larger planethen literally jerks the smaller plane off course so that it’s suspended nose-down,and then the attackers blow off its wingsand tail.

Corbould and production design-ers Nathan Crowley and KevinKavanaugh collaborated on a full-scalefuselage mockup for tight shots outsidethe small plane, a Bandeirante, anddramatic action inside. The fuselage wasmounted to a gimbal outside theproduction’s stages at Cardington inBedfordshire, England. The task of

destroying the plane’s wings and tail fellto a miniature unit ensconced at New Deal Studios in Playa Del Rey.(Cinematographer Tim Angulo shotthis work in VistaVision.) Wider shotsof the crippled plane were filmed withthe full-scale fuselage dangling on wiresfrom a heavy-lift helicopter overScotland; Nolan and aerial cinematogra-pher Hans Bjerno captured the stunt inboth Imax and VistaVision from a

7/29/2019 AC aug 2012



nearby chase helicopter. “An MSM anda Beaucam were mounted underneaththe helicopter,” says Hall. “The

Beaucam was there as backup, and only the MSM was rigged with remote focusand iris. Both cameras performed well,and the Imax footage was used in thefinal cut.” The scene ends with a spec-tacular Imax shot looking down into thefuselage as Bane’s men cut the planeloose over Inverness.

Despite such complicated action,Nolan says his decision to set much of the story during daylight hours created

his biggest directorial challenge. “Imade that decision because I thought it

was the last barrier to reality we hadn’t

yet jumped over,” he says. “It’s a loteasier to disguise the fanciful nature of the characters and the story when you’re

working in the dark.”Day exteriors were filmed on

Kodak Vision3 250D 5207, with loca-tions in New York City and Pittsburghserving as parts of Gotham. Pfister’sapproach to these scenes was mainly about controlling sunlight to keep the

working stop close to T4. The filmmak-

ers tried to stage action in the shadowsof tall buildings or beneath one of the six20'x20' UltraBounce flyswatters they kept on the periphery of the set. Close-up work was augmented with a 4'x4'beadboard or 12'x12' UltraBounce.

Garcia describes the approach as “elimi-nating reflections and unwanted light asopposed to taking the sun off everythingand bringing in 18Ks to relight thescene.”

Gotham City’s night exteriors were shot in New York and Los Angeles. While scouting the locations,Geryak took photos at Pfister’s intendedexposure levels — most of the nightmaterial was shot at T2-T2.8 on Kodak Vision3 500T 5219 — and then jottednotes on the photos before sending themto each city’s respective rigging gaffer,

Jeff Soderberg in Los Angeles and Clay Liversridge in New York. Using thelighting diagrams, the rigging gaffers

would return to the locations and securethe background points they needed tolight “so that by the time we got to set,the background was already roughed in,and we’d have more time to light theforeground based on what the actors

were doing,” says Geryak.Of all the night-exterior work, the

Batpod chase through the streets of Gotham was easily the most intensive,calling for nearly eight city blocks of downtown Los Angeles to be lit almostentirely from the ground up. “L.A. usesLED lamps in its streetlights now, sothere was very little usable practicallight,” says Geryak.

Soderberg’s rigging crew posi-tioned Nine-light and 12-light Maxi-Brutes to uplight background buildings,creating splashes of light to give them

texture and shape, and rigged more than80 streetlights with two 2K Blondeseach that were wired back to dimmers.

The lighting console was positioned in aroom in a nearby high-rise hotel thatoffered a bird’s-eye view of the streetsinvolved. The majority of the chase,

which involved a helicopter as well asdozens of stunt drivers in cars and onmotorcycles, was lit by these streetlights.

Additionally, at different points along


Top: Director Chris Nolan confers with Bale on set. “The demand of a sequel is that you be bigger andbetter,” Nolan notes, “but the demand of a good story is that you stay true to the characterizations,

the story, and the elements that define the characters and the world you created.” Bottom:B-camera/Steadicam operator Scott Sakamoto maneuvers an Imax camera on a Steadicam rig while

capturing a shot of Gary Oldman, reprising his role as Gotham Police Commissioner Jim Gordon.

7/29/2019 AC aug 2012


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the route, four manned 7K Xenons took turns mimicking a helicopter search-light sweeping after the Batpod.

Wayne Manor was burned to theground in Batman Begins , but in The Dark Knight Rises , Wayne has madegood on his vow to rebuild it. WollatonHall in Nottingham provided themanor exteriors, and interiors were shotin various National Trust houses in theEnglish countryside. Beneath WayneManor, of course, is the Batcave, a setbuilt on Sony Pictures’ Stage 30, thebiggest stage on that lot. Though the setdesign was based on that of the cave inBatman Begins , a precise match for thatlook and feel was not requested. “Wally

talked more about the mood of thecave,” says Geryak. “He wanted to lightit enough that we could see parts of it,but also keep things fairly stark.”

Greenbed scaffolding surroundedthe top of the set and spanned its width,

which allowed Geryak to place Nine-light Maxis with 4'x4' frames of LightGrid and 10K Molebeams with 4'x4'frames of Opal to scrape the walls, high-lighting their rocky texture. Pfister used


Left, top to bottom: Amassive lighting grid

hangs over Bane’sunderground prison,

another huge set built atthe Cardington facility;

Pfister meters Bale asHardy and gaffer Geryak

(far right) look on; a closerview of the prison set’s

interior. Upper right: AnImax camera captures a

stunt in a deep well on theprison set. To create the

illusion of a bright, blown-out sky, a 1 ⁄ 4 Wendy lightwas bounced into a 40'x

40' UltraBounce positionedabout 12' above the

well mouth.

7/29/2019 AC aug 2012


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the space behind the cave’s waterfall tocreate daylight or moonlight. For day scenes, three 20' soft boxes containingsix 12-light Maxi-Brutes behind LightGrid were rigged on an adjustable truss.

At night, says Geryak, “we went a bitmoodier, lighting the water a tiny bit so

you could still see something there. It was very subtle.”

In the U.K., two of the produc-tion’s largest sets, both designed specifi-cally for Imax filming, were housed inthe massive Cardington airship sheds.One was Bane’s subterranean lair, a 60'-tall cylindrical set made of steel andcomprising four levels; the ground andsecond floors were the hero levels, andthe upper floors were reserved for back-ground actors. Running water, ostensi-bly from Gotham’s sewers, pours intothe set.

Ambient toplight was provided by a crane-mounted 31.2K Wendy Light


Top left: Bane invokesthe memory of

Gotham’s deceaseddistrict attorney

Harvey Dent whilestanding atop a“camo tumbler”vehicle. Middle:Batman and the

Gotham policeconfront Bane and hisforces during an epic

street fight. Upperright: Nolan and

Pfister (standing) planout a chase sequence

in miniature withstunt coordinator Tom

Struthers. Bottom:The Bat bears downon a camo tumbler.

7/29/2019 AC aug 2012


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behind Light Grid diffusion. Bulkheadpracticals line the walls, and around theedges of the lair, 300-watt and 500-watttungsten-halogen work lights illuminateentrances to the surrounding tunnels,along with Par can fixtures mounted inthe ceiling of the lowest level.

A key scene in the lair involves abrutal hand-to-hand struggle between

Batman and Bane. “The idea is thatthey’re gladiators in the Coliseum,” saysGeryak. The art department devisedstadium-style fixtures to accommodatefour 1K Par cans, which were scatteredon the walkways crisscrossing the set,

with still more at the top of the set, allpointed down at the action. “They created hot pools of light that were

about 5 stops over, and Batman andBane move in and out of those as they fight,” says Geryak.

Adjacent to the lair was a set forBane’s underground prison, whichcomprised the prison itself, a 70'

inverted Escher pyramid, and a separate well mouth that was 100' deep and 20'across. To create the impression of daylight being channeled into the deep

well, a massive truss was hung 160' overthe set and rigged with three 6'x75' softboxes (as wide as the top of the set), eachfitted with 36 Par bars that were all

wired to dimmers. Each box wasmounted to a sliding track on the truss.

“It sounds like a lot, but we didn’thave all three on at once, and we wanteda decent stop, between a T4 and T5.6 atthe bottom, by the time the light made itdown to the floor,” explains Geryak.“From that distance, the linear nature of the light gave it a very soft quality, and,depending on which way we were look-ing, we could use it as an edge or sidesource.”

Because of its mix of formats, The Dark Knight Rises utilized a post work-flow similar to that of The Dark Knight .“Everything we do, production-wise andpost-wise, is focused on photochemicalcolor timing of a neg-cut film,” says postsupervisor David E. Hall. “That’s pretty rare in this day and age, but the resultantlook is amazing.”

Technicolor Los Angeles pro-cessed the production’s 65mm negativeand the 35mm negative shot in the U.S.

Technicolor London serviced the 35mmshoots in the U.K. and India. DavidKeighley at Imax subsidiary DKP70mm Inc. supervised the large-format

workflow, which included 65mm print-

downs to 35mm for dailies, 65mm visual-effects filmouts, scanning the35mm interpositive for blowups toImax, and 65mm filmouts. David Hallexplains, “For the Imax print-downs,David does an optical 35mm reduction

with a flat 1.43:1 aspect ratio. That way,in dailies, Chris and Wally can see whatthe full-frame Imax image will look like.

We also printed select takes in 70mm forperiodic Imax dailies screenings.”


August 2012 American Cinematographer

A diagram provided by Nolan and associate editor John Lee details the production’sworkflow, from image capture to final prints.

7/29/2019 AC aug 2012


To create the 35mm version, thepost team combined the original 35mmanamorphic material with 4K filmed-outnegative created from 8K scans of the65mm negative. (These anamorphicextractions were done by Custom Film

Effects, and all filmouts were performedby Warner Bros. Motion PictureImaging.) After the work print wasapproved, negative cutter Mo Henry used it as the template for cutting the35mm-negative version of the film.

Another cut list corresponded only to the 65mm material, from which a

work print containing the flat 1.43:1reductions was conformed along withslugs representing the anamorphic 35mmmaterial. Keighley used this work print toconform the 65mm original negative,replacing the slugs with the correspond-ing 65mm blowups, which were filmedout from 6K scans of the 35mm photo-chemically color-timed IP. This 65mmcut negative then became the basis forcreating the 70mm Imax prints.

Technicolor color timer DavidOrr color-corrected the 35mm answerprint first, then went to DKP 70mmInc. to assist with timing the Imax

version, which required a different set of printer lights. The original camera neg

and dupe negs were meticulously cleaned before being wet-gate printedfor the theatrical release.

“Out of the 100 or so Imax printsthat were made, a limited number wereshow prints struck from original Imaxcamera negative,” says David Hall.

Those prints are showing in Imax venues in select cities, including Los Angeles, New York and London. “Chris very much likes to see an originalcamera negative printed to film,” henotes. “There’s nothing quite like it.Digital technology has certainly come along way, but a print from a DI neverlooks quite the same.”

“Anybody who sees an original-negative print of a film shot in Imax islooking at the best image quality avail-

able to filmmakers today,” Nolanobserves. “As long as any new technol-ogy is required to measure up to that, Ithink film has to remain the future.”

Pfister concurs, adding, “An artisthas to be open to new technology, but

my argument is, ‘Don’t make this equip-ment obsolete for the wrong reasons,because this format really is superior toanything else out there.’” ●

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R ebooting a popular film franchise is risky enough, but

walking a technical highwire along the way adds a wholenew challenge to the mix. Cinematographer JohnSchwartzman, ASC, and director Marc Webb both

concede they took on such perils to capture The Amazing Spider-Man in 3-D, but they also agree that their choices paidoff. “Of any movie material, Spider-Man seems to beg for3-D treatment,” says Webb. “The only real issue was whetherto capture in stereo or shoot 2-D and convert in post.”

Early in prep, senior visual-effects supervisor Jerome

John Schwartzman, ASCbeta-tests the Red Epic to captureThe Amazing Spider-Man in 3-D.

By Michael Goldman

•|•

Web-Slinging in

Stereo

7/29/2019 AC aug 2012



Chen showed Webb and Schwartzman afew minutes of Spider-Man 2 footagethat had been converted to 3-D as a test.

They were impressed, but they believedthat time, money, logistics and previousindustry stumbles were all stackedagainst taking that approach. “Some bad3-D conversions were released rightaround the time we were trying to makeour decision,” Schwartzman recalls.“Everyone realized this movie had great3-D potential. However, with a big

visual-effects picture, there is neverenough time to do a good conversion by the time everything else is finished. Youneed about 12 weeks to do a goodconversion, and what big-budget visual-effects film is finished 12 weeks beforerelease? The studio [Sony] eventually realized it would make more sense toshoot 3-D.”

As the project developed, thefilmmakers tested various cameras and

rigs. While Schwartzman was shootingThe Green Hornet ( AC Feb. ’11), he andRob Engle, who co-supervised GreenHornet ’s stereo conversion and served as3-D supervisor on The Amazing Spider-

Man, began discussing Webb’s project. They were able to conduct tests duringsome Green Hornet reshoots, and basedon those results, they decided stereo-capture technology had advancedenough that they would be able to U

n i t p h o t o g r a p h y b y J a i m i e T r u e b l o o d , S M P S P . F r a m e g r a b s c o u r t e s y o f C T M G / I m a g e M a g i c k . A l l i m a g e s © 2 0 1 2 C o l u m b i a P i c t u r e s

I n d u s t r i e s , I n c .

Opposite: Spider-Man (AndrewGarfield) leaps intaction in The

Amazing Spider-Man. This page,top to bottom:Director Marc

Webb embracedpoint-of-view shoto take advantageof the film’s 3-Dpresentation;Spider-Man stealsmoment with lovinterest GwenStacy (EmmaStone);cinematographerJohn SchwartzmaASC (left) andgaffer DavidChristensen checktheir lighting.

7/29/2019 AC aug 2012



capture Spider-Man in the style Webband Schwartzman wanted — withsmaller cameras and rigs and a moreefficient data workflow.

Webb and Schwartzman thenconsulted with James Cameron, and the

Avatar director took them through hisprocess, lobbying strongly that they should capture in 3-D. Schwartzmanrecalls, “He pointed out that you recon-

verge the movie based on how you cutit, and you cut it differently than youthink you will if you don’t shoot and

view it in stereo. We then discussed theissue of the convergence point; he feltconvergence and focus should be at thesame point. But as it became clear that

we could use the Red Epic, which has a5K sensor, Rob Engle advocated shoot-ing with a large image pad to allow forconvergence adjustments in post, and so

we could shoot parallel and get lesskeystoning.

“Before the Epic, a change inconvergence required you to slightly enlarge a 1920-by-1080 image to allow room to move it right or left,” he contin-ues. “With the Epic, our image size was4608 by 1930 pixels, so when we madeour framing leader, we simply left 4percent on either side of the frame toallow for convergence. The I/O [inte-rocular distance] does have to be built in— it defines your spatial geometry and

your depth. Later, if you don’t like yourI/O choices for a specific shot, your only fix is to throw away one eye and convertthe other. Convergence, though, is

where your brain reconciles the twoimages; this is controlled by where theright and left images meet, and can bechanged later by moving one eye relativeto the other by several pixels with no

effect on your I/O.”It wasn’t clear from the outset,

however, that any Epics would be avail-able to the production. As Spider-Manswung into prep, Red was on the vergeof releasing the first Epics for Peter

Jackson’s The Hobbit . Schwartzmancontacted Red to examine the technol-ogy. The camera body, he says, “wasabout 5 pounds and the size of my Hasselblad 501 [still camera], and it

◗ Web-Slinging in Stereo

Top: Dr. CurtConnors (Rhys

Ifans) undergoes adramatic change

that pits himagainst thesuperhero.

Middle: Spider-Man’s alter ego,

Peter Parker,refines his web

formula. Bottom:Garfield sports aDoggicam body

mount rigged bykey grip Les

Tomita for one ofSpider-Man’s first

nights out.

7/29/2019 AC aug 2012


always annoyances, never catastrophes. The imaging part was never a problem; what improved over the course of theshow was the ease of use.”

The basic methodology formoving the image data was worked out,implemented and managed by Willard,

data-management supervisor SteveFreebairn and data technician Zachary Hilton, who used data carts provided by Light Iron. (In fact, the movie served asR&D for Light Iron’s Outpost mobile-processing lab technology.) Their work-flow ensured instant capture, backupand on-set color correction of raw filesto create looks and maintain thosecreative choices all the way throughdailies, editorial and visual effects. “I was

could record to a card [160 RedMag128GB SSD cards at 5:1 compression]that was about the size of a chocolatebar. I saw light at the end of the tunnel,but we didn’t know if Red could buildthem for us on time.”

When The Hobbit experienced adelay, Jackson’s cinematographer,

Andrew Lesnie, ASC, ACS, gaveSchwartzman his blessing to use thecameras first, “as long as we gave himour R&D,” says Schwartzman. Thus,The Amazing Spider-Man became thefirst major studio feature to shoot 3-D

with the Epic.Schwartzman then decided to

work another system that had not yetmade its feature debut: 3ality Digital’s

TS-5 stereo rig. (See sidebar on page48.) Rounding out his camera package,he chose Zeiss Ultra Prime lens pairs.“With lenses, our stereo rig weighed

just under 50 pounds, and that allowedus to shoot extensively on cranes and

cable rigs,” he notes.Panavision’s help in providing

eight complete sets of Ultra Primes wascrucial, adds Schwartzman. “We had sixsets of lenses to run three rigs on firstunit, and I sent all of them to[Panavision optical engineer] DanSasaki, who made sure they were rebuiltand matched. By the time we startedshooting, the cameras were as close [toidentical] as two cameras could be.”

Production got underway in late2010, and its seven Epics were essen-tially still in the beta stage. “We had asolid plan, but we were heading intouncharted territory,” says chief digital-imaging technician Brook Willard.

It took awhile for the workflow to

become intuitive for the crew. “Theimages we got the first two weeks were

just as good as the images we got later,but they were captured with a camerathat had no remote on/off switch andno frame lines and could only run at 24fps,” says Schwartzman. “When we gotback after the Christmas break, we hadthe Epic that’s in use today. Red engi-neers were always on set to address any problems, but those problems were

When his experiment goes awry, Connors transforms into the monstrous Lizard, and it’s up toSpider-Man to protect New York City — and Peter Parker’s high school.


7/29/2019 AC aug 2012



with the cameras at all times, and I alsodid on-set color correction for dailiesand editorial,” Willard explains. “Steveand Zachary handled data. Afterreloading, I would take the left- andright-eye RedMag SSDs to my color

cart, where I was able to read the files with my Apple Mac Pro tower[running two Red Rocket cards toenable real-time rendering and viewingof the footage on a 24" monitor] andcolor correct them.

“I used Redcine-X software tocolor-correct the dominant eyecreatively, as per John Schwartzman,”

Willard continues. “Then, I would syncthe left and right eyes to make a 3-Dclip, and color-correct the non-domi-nant eye until there was no discerniblecolor difference between the two. Then,I’d hand the mags to Steve and Zach,

who used Light Iron carts on set toingest all the footage onto Maxx Digital[Evo 6G SAS 48TB] RAIDs. Fromthere, we generated all dailies and edito-rial files and sent drives to Sony Colorworks so we’d have a backup inanother physical location. Additionally,Steve and Zach would copy all originalraw data to LTO-5 tape.”

Chen notes that the workflow did require “new players on set” whocollaborated closely with the camerateam. “The Red people, the 3ality people, data-wrangling people and the

wireless-communication people —suddenly, there were five teams aroundthe camera! That illustrates thecomplexity of shooting in stereoscopicdigital.”

The workflow also illustrates how the fine line between production andpost is growing ever finer. “The lab has

moved from post to the set,” says Willard. “Everyone is now backing upfootage on set, and most cinematogra-phers now do some form of colorcorrection on set. We used no posthouses to color correct or generatedailies on Spider-Man. We kept that all

within the camera department. It keepstotal control of the image in the cine-matographer’s hands.”

Schwartzman emphasizes that


The Amazing Spider-Man marks theHollywood debut of 3ality

Technica’s TS-5 stereo camera rigs,but the technology was familiar toSony, parent company of ColumbiaStudios, because the rigs had beenused for training at the Sony 3-D

Technology Center and were already on the radar of colleagues who had theear of John Schwartzman, ASC.

Among those colleagues was Andrew Lesnie, ASC, ACS, who was planningto use the rigs for The Hobbit . Lesnieadvised Schwartzman that if he

wanted to reduce rig size and weight,the TS-5 — engineered to accommo-date smaller digital cameras andfeaturing miniaturized and lighterbeam-splitter technology — might bea good fit.

In fact, 3ality did not have todo much of a selling job onSchwartzman, according to company

CEO Steve Schklair, an ASC associ-ate member. “Spider-Man was origi-nally scheduled as a 2-D shoot, and

when that changed, they were notabout to change their shooting sched-ule,” says Schklair. “That meant they needed a smaller, less bulky 3-Dcamera system. On-board recording

with the Epic made it tetherless, andthat opened up the ability to use the

rigs on Steadicam, cranes and cablerigs without customizing a lot of gear.”

Schwartzman adds that the TS-5 “is an evolutionary step becauseit’s computerized to monitor the rig100 times a second. Our experience

with 3-D rigs that had to be alignedby hand was that it took too muchtime and was not accurate.Remember, we had to give Sony Pictures Imageworks the best possi-ble 3-D as early as we could to fit intothe visual-effects pipeline.

“My concern was the on-setspeed,” he continues, “and 3ality blew everyone else away and delivered toImageworks a better 3-D image witha ton of metadata out of the stereoimaging processing computer. Thatallowed those shots to move quickerthrough the system.”

The TS-5 rig has since been

used on The Great Gatsby and Jack the Giant Killer .

— Michael Goldman

•|• Supporting Stereo Capture •|•

Schwartzman checks the frame while working with 3ality Technica’s TS-5 stereo rig.

7/29/2019 AC aug 2012



the workflow never took his attentionaway from realizing Webb’s creativeintent, which encompassed the picture’soverall palette and a strategy for usingdimensionality to tell the story. In termsof the overall aesthetic, the director

requested something akin to “FrenchConnection meets Spider-Man,” saysSchwartzman. “He wanted to see a dirty New York, gritty and real. Peter Parker[Andrew Garfield] is an angry youngman with these powers out in the realstreets of New York, which has all thetraffic, pollution and graffiti that youmight expect.”

Regarding his vision for thedimensionality, Webb developed whathe calls “the three Vs of 3-D”: volume,

velocity and vertigo. “I feel all of thoseelements are present or possible withthis character,” he says.

The mobility of their stereo rigsenabled the filmmakers to moreprecisely contextualize and accentuateSpider-Man’s movements throughparticular environments. “We created

visual elements and story points tospecifically take advantage of thedimensionality of the environment,”

Webb notes. They maintained thisaesthetic for all-CG shots as well. Forinstance, the movie ends with a CGI-intensive sequence that shows Spider-Man swinging through an alley. Viewerscan “sense the space, feel like they aremoving forward or being propelledthemselves,” says Webb.

“In that sequence, and in certainother key sequences, we were able toopen up the aspect ratio [for Imaxpresentation], going from 2.35:1 to a1.9:1 Imax digital ratio, and immersethe viewer in the action,” says Engle.

“Most of the taller-aspect-ratio footage was created as all-CG shots, but thereare many non-visual-effects and plate-based visual-effects shots in thesequences. In most cases, the extraheight of the Red Epic [sensor] wasused while keeping extra width forconvergence adjustments. In some cases,

we had to recompose just for Imax. Thecamera follows Spider-Man, and some-times we watch him, and sometimes we

Above: PoliceCapt. Stacy

(Denis Leary)attempts tobring themaskedvigilante to

justice. Left: ANightsun Xenoon a motorizedhead fitted toan overheadtruss simulatespolicehelicopter’ssearchlight forStacy’sconfrontation

withSpider-Man.

7/29/2019 AC aug 2012



swing with him. It’s a palette of really great 3-D moves, edited in such a way asto avoid quick cuts, so you can really seeand sense what the character is seeingand sensing.” Schwartzman adds, “It isquite something in Imax!

“Spider-Man can run, jump andclimb the ceiling,” continues the cine-matographer. “He moves in X-Y-Zspace, and 3-D gave us a heightenedsense of that [movement]. Marc and I

developed a photographic approachand a stereo plan to make the most of it.

When Peter is at home or at school, weuse some 3-D depth, but we don’t pushit. About halfway through the movie,

when he dons the suit and grows tobecome Spider-Man, we go to a widerlens and change the I/O — instead of 32mm, we’re on a 24mm, and insteadof a .3 I/O, we are at a .6.”

For location work in New York,

Webb insisted on as much realism as hecould get, seeking what Schwartzmancalls “imperfections in the environmentand in human movement. Marc didn’t

want to use a CG Spider-Man at first— he wanted to swing Andrew every-

where on cranes! We were inManhattan up the block from theFlatiron Building on a 150-footconstruction crane, with Spider-Manswinging and landing on a taxicab forreal. We rigged a traveling truss on acrane in Harlem with a stunt driver,making Spider-Man swing down thestreet and chasing him in a camera car

with a Russian arm. We tried to do asmuch in-camera as possible, and if they couldn’t use what we captured, [visualeffects] replaced it with a CG character.In those cases, what we shot informed

animators on how Andrew wouldmove.”

Overall, Schwartzman wasthrilled with how quickly he was able to

work while evaluating the 3-D imagery on location. “The rig sent data to theengineering station to be captured, andfrom there, it went to [728 video-play-back engineer] Dave Deever, whorecorded both eyes and sent a 3-Dsignal to a 50-inch Sony monitor that

◗ Web-Slinging in StereoRight: Balloon

lights illuminatethe WilliamsburgBridge set, which

was constructed atFalls Lake on theUniversal backlot

in Los Angeles. Thecrew also

employed aSpidercam system

to capture some ofthe action in the

sequence, duringwhich the Lizard

flings cars thatSpider-Man has to

catch with hiswebs. Below: An8K (left) and 4K(right) tungsten

balloon, as well as4K nooks on the

truss, help light aManhattan rooftopset for a stunt

sequence.

7/29/2019 AC aug 2012


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we could watch using passive 3-Dglasses,” he recalls. “We watchedrehearsals in 3-D and made sure we

liked the I/O, and then [during thetakes], I was at the camera and Marc

was at video village, watching a 2-Dimage on a standard 19-inch flatscreenmonitor. So, we had the ability to [check the image] in 3-D and still run video

village like a 2-D show.” Webb was also comfortable with

the methodology. “There was a nimble-ness to the way it was organized and aflexibility that I really appreciated. We

were operating on [Technocranes]much of the time, which allowed us tomove pretty fast.”

On the lighting front, Schwartz-man approached things “from anemotional place, not a technical one,” ashe would do on any other picture.“When I tested the Epic’s sensitivity, Ifound it to be ISO 800 in full daylightand ISO 640 in tungsten light. But with3-D, the beamsplitter cuts out one stopof light, so that goes down to 400[daylight] and 320 [tungsten], which ispretty much what I’m used to when I

shoot anamorphic. So I didn’t have tomake any major concessions to thecamera.

“The only real trick was keepingstray light off the mirror [in the 3-Drig], because a flare or a veiling glare

would be in different places in the framebetween the two eyes, and that’s a prob-lem,” he continues. “The grips workedhard to keep backlight off the mirror,and because of the inherent depth in3-D, I used less backlight than I wouldin 2-D, where I tend to use rimlight tomodel the subject and create layers of depth.”

Webb and Schwartzman agreethat their ability to adhere to a standardshooting schedule helped them carveout a lengthy post period, which had toaccommodate visual effects, stereogra-phy, conform and DI processes. “Wefinished photography on time, and thatallowed us time to be very thorough inpost,” says the director. “Rob Engle’steam [including on-set stereographersEric Deren and Jason Goodman] was

good about finding the artful balancebetween discretion and excitement. Youdon’t want the 3-D to be so oppressiveor violent that it takes you out of themovie.”

Spider-Man features approxi-mately 1,600 visual-effects shots. Chencredits the Epic cameras for providinghigh-resolution plates, but notes thatthis impacted the rendering process forCG material to combine with those


Top: Spider-Man sends strands of webbing through Manhattan’s water works — a set thecrew dubbed “The Onion” — and waits to feel the vibrations made by the approachingLizard. Bottom: Schwartzman shapes the light as A-camera 1st AC Richard Mosier keeps

the action in focus.

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plates. “The imagery was incredibly clean, with almost no noise,” he says.“Normally, when CG elements arecombined with filmed images, we addgrain in the composite to dirty it up and

help integrate it, but the Epic imagespresented a different set of challenges.In many cases, our CG images hadmore noise than the footage!Imageworks’ renderer, Arnold, makes

beautiful, realistic images, but they canbe noisy. We increased the quality settings in the software to combat thenoise, but that can have an exponentialeffect on how long it takes to render animage.”

Throughout the show, visual-effects pulls were sampled down to2.5K from the 5K 16-bitRedLogFilm/RedColor2 DPX filesthat were acquired on set and housed onSony Production Backbone servers.However, Chen’s team could hunt forhigher-resolution material within shotsas needed, and then deliver those piecesback at 2.5K to preserve camera fram-ing and image formatting.

“We worked with Red’s colorscientists to define the best workflow,”says Chen. “2.5K resolution was themost efficient choice in terms of imagefidelity and file size. Remember, we hadto store two sets of images for eachframe of a stereo shot. With 2.5K, wecould center-extract the DCI 2K spec


6

The crew gets a shot of Garfield and Stone as they ride a web into the night.

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and still have plenty of extra pixels to usefor post moves and stereo convergence.Because the Epic captures at 5K, if I hadto push into the image, I could go back and request a 4K pull. We had cases

where we could scale up to 140 or 150

percent without seeing softness.”Still, every pair of stereo imagesrequired a degree of match processingbefore visual-effects work could bedone. “It’s a laborious, unavoidableprocess,” says Chen. “You’re acquiringtwo images, and each goes through adifferent lens and camera body at adifferent perspective. For each frame,the two images must be matched interms of color and geometry, meaningthat if there is a zoom mismatch, oneimage has to be scaled to match theother. Highlights off surfaces willappear at different places in each frame;some may require removal to avoiddistractions and eyestrain during stereo

viewing. In the end, it’s mostly bruteforce and skilled work that gives us the

[matching] quality we want.”Engle’s team put all native stereo

shots through some degree of imagealignment and color matching beforeadding them to the picture as either

visual-effects plates or as non-effects

shots. Their primary tools included thestereo tools within SGO Mistika,Nuke’s Ocula plug-in and, for particu-larly complicated shots, RelianceMediaWorks.

At Colorworks, the 3-D conver-gence pass was sent directly from theproduction’s Mistika system to theFilmLight Baselight 8 color-correctionsystem via a customized pipeline.Colorist Steve Bowen then applied finalcolor to the movie using the Baselight.

The final conform was done using Autodesk’s Smoke system, and finalconvergence tweaks were addressed atColorworks during that process. ●

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P

hilip K. Dick’s science-fiction stories have lent themselvesto a rich array of feature films, among them A Scanner

Darkly ( AC July ’06), The Adjustment Bureau ( AC March’11), Minority Report ( AC July ’02) and, of course, Blade

Runner ( AC July ’82), but his short story “We Can RememberIt for You Wholesale” has proven popular enough withHollywood to warrant two adaptations. Paul Verhoeven’s1990 release Total Recall ( AC July ’90) was the first, and lastmonth saw the release of a new Total Recall , directed by Len

Wiseman and shot by Paul Cameron, ASC.Set in the year 2084, Total Recall presents a world in

which war and political upheaval have created two superpow-ers, the United Federation of Britain (a combined force of

Paul Cameron, ASCembarks on a

futuristic adventure with Total Recall .

By Jay Holben

•|•

North America and the European Union) and New Asia(China and Southeast Asia). The main character, Doug

Quaid (Colin Farrell), is a factory worker whose boredom with everyday life leads him to visit Rekall, a company thatimplants memories in a customer’s mind so he can experiencea virtual adventure. After choosing the life of a secret agent,Quaid is plunged into the middle of a battle between the UFBand New Asia. It gradually becomes clear that his experiencesas double agent Doug Hauser might actually be his ownrepressed memories, not one of Rekall’s inventions.

Cameron, whose credits include Man on Fire , Gone in60 Seconds ( AC June ’00) and the ASC Award nomineeCollateral ( AC Aug. ’04), had just finished up work on Man on

MemoryUpgrade

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U n i t p h o t o g r a p h y b y M i c h a e l G i b s o n . P h

o t o s a n d f r a m e g r a b s c o u r t e s y o f C o l u m b i a P i c t u r e s I n d u s t r i e s , I n c .

a Ledge when he got the call from Wiseman to join him on Total Recall .“Three weeks later, we were in prep,”says the cinematographer.

The production was shot atPinewood Studios in Canada, and on

location in and around Toronto. “Thearchitecture in Toronto is very interest-ing visually,” says Cameron. “TheUniversity of Toronto has a formidablefuturistic structure that we used judi-ciously. Len was adamant that we use asmany real locations as possible to givethe story a grounded feeling. We alsobuilt several sets on six stages atPinewood and used the property forgreenscreen work and some actionsequences as well.”

When the filmmakers beganprep, they were planning to shoot35mm anamorphic, but eight daysbefore principal photography com-menced, production decided to capturedigitally with the Red Epic instead, anduse 35mm only for some crash camsinvolved in stunt work. “At that time,the Epic had only been used on a coupleof 3-D features,” Cameron recalls.“Production was convinced there wouldbe a significant savings for us because of all the visual-effects work we required,but it was a big trade-off. I’ve shot a lotof projects digitally, but this was abrand-new camera I’d never used, and

we had to start shooting in eight days. It was a challenging situation.”

He put the Epic through its paces very quickly. “I did as much testing as Icould, but there was a lot I had to takeon faith because we didn’t have the timefor thorough tests. I had to assume itsISO was really 800, and that it had 14stops of latitude. It looked a little closer

to 12 stops in my quick tests, but ourtests were 2K, not 4K.

“We developed a workflow withLight Iron, but there were a lot of unknowns,” he continues. “What willhappen when we strap the Epic to a carand put several g-forces and vibrationon it during a chase? If we hit the lens

with a Xenon, is the sensor going tooverload, or will it take the flare like afilm camera would? You try to listen to

what other users are saying, but in the

end, you’ve got to figure it out for your-self. It’s like buying a new car: you canread all about its performance andhandling, but you don’t really know until you take it around the block a few times — and chances are you won’treally know until you’ve put some seri-ous miles on it.”

One of the first real challengesCameron confronted with the Epic wasthe size of its sensor compared to the

anamorphic film gate. In “full frame”

5.1K 1.89:1 mode, the Epic’s sensor isactually slightly larger than a traditionalSuper 35mm gate, but in anamorphicmode, the camera crops the sides of thesensor off, using only 17.79mm of its

width. This creates a 23mm diagonal, which is decidedly smaller than 31.11 of the 35mm anamorphic diagonal. Thesensor creates a “crop factor,” or lensmagnification, of 1.35x, an increase of 18 percent on the apparent focal length

Opposite: Doug Qua(Colin Farrell) preparto take a mind trip inTotal Recall . This pagtop and middle: Whehis mind-alteringexperience leads himto believe he may infact be a double agenamed Hauser, Quaidgoes on the run withMelina (Jessica Biel) Lori (Kate Beckinsaleand federal policetake up pursuit.Bottom:Cinematographer PaCameron, ASC lines ua shot with the RedEpic camera.

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◗ Memory Upgrade

of anamorphic lenses.“That made it difficult to get

wide-angle shots, and Len tends to want to go wide,” notes Cameron. “Weeventually found a middle groundthat worked. For the really wide stuff he wanted, I supplemented our[Panavision] C-Series and E-Serieslenses with the G-Series, but they’re alot cleaner and don’t have the flare char-acteristics that the Cs and Es have, so

we tried to avoid them.“We decided to use the Cs and Es

when we thought we were going toshoot film, and I stayed with them after

the switch,” he continues. “[Panavisionoptical engineer] Dan Sasaki had themshipped to us, along with some special‘flare lenses,’ which were basically someof the C-Series anamorphics with little

ventricular mirrors added to increase theflare characteristics.

“Total Recall became a film aboutlens flares!” he laughs. “We were pushingit all the time, aiming little Xenon flash-lights right at the lens or putting pin-

sized sources into the frame. They add alot of visual punctuation. I like flares, butLen loves flares, so we really went for it.

We’d be setting up a shot and discussingthe details, and Len would walk acrossthe room shaking his hands, showingme where he wanted the flare. It was alot of fun to make that happen.”

The Epic was so new thatCameron’s crew had to spend a lot of time making basic camera-supportmaterials for it. “This wasn’t an estab-lished camera system with its own body of accessories,” he notes. “It felt like we

were going through the IndustrialRevolution again; we were making base

plates, rods, bracketry, follow-focusunits, lens lights and handles, and hand-held configurations. We had to manu-facture power-distribution boxes to sendout power to the tons of accessories around the camera. We alsobuilt some beautiful handheld rigs that

we could screw additional weights to when we wanted to make the cameraheftier. [A-camera operator] AngeloColavecchia, [B-camera operator] Mike

Top: This lighting plot illustrates Cameron’s overall approach to the Tripping Den inside Rekall.Bottom: McClane (John Cho, right) and his assistants prep Quaid for his mind trip.

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Cirella and I all felt more comfortable with a camera that felt more like aPanaflex Platinum. That was ourcomfort zone when it came to hand-held, and we did a lot of handheld onthis film.”

The camera team was alsoconcerned about Red’s establishedpattern of frequent firmware updatesand the complications those might posefor the production. 1st AC RussellBowie set a ground rule early on that noupdates would be made to the camerason set. If an update was to be consid-ered, Red would send the updated Epicto Panavision Toronto, and the camera

would be thoroughly tested beforebeing sent to set. “Red was very supportive,” says Cameron. “They senta tech to us for the first two weeks tomake sure we got rolling smoothly, and

they responded very quickly to any questions or problems we had. TheEpic workflow is very well thought out,and the camera is very user-friendly. Sofar, the post process has been very smooth.”

The switch to digital affected thefilmmakers’ creative approach as well.“When you want things to look acertain way on film, you attack lightinga certain way because you know how

aggressive you can be with film stocks,”says Cameron. “With digital, how closeto the edge you can go depends greatly

on which camera system you’re using.Some of them like overexposure morethan underexposure, and vice versa.Sensors are different beasts; they seecolor differently, and they see exposuredifferently. When you’re trying to pushthings, you can’t take anything forgranted. You have to monitor it very closely. Generally speaking, with film,I’m pretty fearless, but with digital, Ifind I’m a little more cautious and

reserved — I tend to back off on thehighlights a bit.”

Cameron did not embrace the

light-from-the-monitor approach. “I lit with my meter, the same way I do withfilm. Looking at an electronic image is

very different from looking rightthrough the glass in an optical finder. Ifeel I’m better off lighting by eye and

with my meter than judging an elec-tronic image on the set.”

In order to travel from the UFB, where he lives, to New Asia, where he works, Quaid takes a ship called the


For an actionpiece in whichQuaidsinglehandedlytakes down ateam of federalpolice inside theTripping Den,

director LenWisemanenvisioned what“looked like sevensuper-high-speeddolly movesracing around theroom,” saysCameron. “It wasall in one shotand moving atdifferent levels.”Cameron utilizedsuper sliders(pictured at left)synchronized on a

computerizedwinch to achievethe effect.

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China Fall through the center of theearth. As the ship passes the earth’s core,it goes through zero gravity, and thetravelers can see the brilliant light at theplanet’s molten center. The China Fall set was built onstage at Pinewood on arotating gimbal. The camera moved

with the set on a nodal rig (designedand fabricated by Mike Johnson) thatfit onto a Libra head and rotated thecamera on its optical axis.

For moments when the shippasses the planet’s core, Cameron

wanted a lighting effect that wouldsuggest molten lava. “It looked a bit likea Red Hot Chili Peppers concert,” helaughs. “We had a massive rig of 50lights outside the small windows of the

ship. I used a cluster of [Chromlech] Jarag fixtures, several rows of MR16sthat were designed for rock ’n’ roll light-ing. They react to dimmer cues very quickly and can go from zero to 100percent almost instantly; if you useNine-light Maxis, it can take them a

little more time because of the size of the filament. For the core rig, we putthose Jarag fixtures on a vertical toweralong with a 7K Xenon, and wesurrounded the Jarags with almost 100Par cans. Then we’d move that up anddown to get the feel of the ship passingthe core. It was a massive rig, especially considering the small size of the ship’s

window, but the effect was quiteimpressive. At 800 ISO, the effect gave

me close to an f16 through the window.”

For practical lighting inside theChina Fall , production designer Patrick

Tatopoulos incorporated a number of LED strips and small fixtures into theset, and Cameron made full use of theintegrated fixtures while supplementing

with some soft sources, mainly KinoFlos. Cameron and his gaffer, Patrick Reddish, built a number of soft boxesusing Kino Flo Barfly fixtures withblack foamcore snoots and white bedsheets for diffusion on the face. Six 4x4HMI lighting balloons provided low ambience.

“One of the advantages of theEpic is that you can immediately see theresults of pumping in just 5 more footcandles of light,” notes the cinematogra-pher. “That’s particularly helpful when

you’re going in for a close-up, because you can very easily fill the eyes.”

When the ship arrives at its desti-nation, emergency lights signal the endof the journey. A set of Atomic 3,000-

watt Xenon fixtures was rigged into theset for this effect.

Thanks to a number of collabora-tions with director Tony Scott,Cameron has developed a stylisticapproach that incorporates multiplecameras. “Tony and I would often havefour or five cameras in a kind of visualsymphony, and I now work a lot withthree and four cameras,” he says. “Youalways add cameras when you do action,

◗ Memory Upgrade

Right: A framegrab of Quaid

inside his

apartment in NewAsia. Below: Thecrew prepares a

setup on the“exterior” portion

of Quaid’sapartment set.

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but I even add cameras to dialoguescenes. It allows me to get a lot morecoverage quickly, and it has a muchrealer feel because the coverage is fromthe same take — you’re getting the sameenergy from the actors. There are some

compromises, of course. You have tolight for a 20mm and a 600mm at thesame time, and you often have to be off the eyelines a little more than you mightlike. But I now see scenes and blockingin a different way; I see the pieces of ascene unfold, and I want to capturethem as quickly and genuinely as possi-ble. Seeing where you can squeeze inanother camera is a bit like threading aneedle, but you get amazing coverage,and the actors really love the freedom itgives them.

“Len really got into thisapproach, and I’ve found that mostdirectors do,” continues the cinematog-rapher. “Once they get a taste of whatthey can do with three or four cameras,and they see the dailies, they really startto love it. It does require tight coordina-tion between the camera operators.Blocking with multiple cameras meansa lot of reframing and resizing within ascene, and it becomes like conducting a

visual orchestra, but if you’re mindfulabout how you approach it, it’s really quite satisfying to see it all cometogether. In addition, it seems likeproduction schedules are getting tighterand tighter these days, and shootingmulti camera seems to be one of theonly ways to make them.”

When Quaid’s Rekall proceduregoes wrong and he is suddenly thrustinto the middle of a political whirlwind,police agents storm the Rekall facility and attempt to capture him. In a

moment of clarity, he realizes hepossesses extraordinary skills, and hesinglehandedly defeats the entire teamof armed officers. Wiseman’s previsual-ization of this moment presentedCameron with “a huge challenge,”recalls the cinematographer. “The previslooked like seven super-high-speeddolly moves racing around the room. It

was all in one shot and moving at differ-ent levels.

Top and middle: The crew shoots a hover-car chase sequence. Bottom: This image shows the sequencecomposited background.

➣

7/29/2019 AC aug 2012


“I said we’d need a couple supersliders, and if he wanted to match-frame, we’d put them on a computerized

winch so that as one camera traveled by at the end of its slider, it would crossover the starting position of a secondslider, and we’d get the seamless feelingof seven high-speed dolly moves mixedinto one. The moves are traveling at 20feet per second, and you do get the senseof Quaid’s superhuman abilities.

“It took three days to shoot it, andI convinced production to let us shoot itduring prep, because I knew it was thekind of complicated sequence thatmight get lost if we waited for themiddle of production to do it. Werigged the super sliders twice each day on the first two days, and then finishedup the sequence on the third day. The

whole shot forms a triangle around theaction, with the camera making nine

separate moves around that triangle. Itgoes around Quaid, then up to a guardthat he shoots on a balcony, and then itflies back down and around him againas he takes out more guards. It ends

with a close-up of him after he shootsthe last guy. We used three cameras andthree super sliders.

“We had just made the decisionto switch to the Epic before we shot thissequence, and I was concerned about

whether the cameras would hold upunder those g-forces,” he adds. “Butthey worked great. They stood up toeverything we threw at them!”

The design of the ceiling in theRekall set made it tricky to get the rightangles of light. Cameron and Reddish

created a base level with 26 6K coopspositioned throughout the set andaugmented with Kino Flo Image 80,Vista Beam and 4x4 fixtures, whichcould be easily tucked into slots abovethe set. For some color contrast,Cameron used 1⁄2 CTB on somefixtures and 1⁄2 CTS on others.

After Quaid takes down theguards, he realizes more guards areoutside the room, blocking his escape.


◗ Memory Upgrade

Right: Overheadcoops and built-in

practical fixtureslight the lowest

level of the NewAsia set, whichincluded a

3'-deep canal andwas built on the

“Jumbo” stage atPinewood

Toronto Studios.Below: The China

Fall helipad wasconstructed inside

PinewoodToronto Studios’

46,000-square-foot “Mega”stage; here,

Quaid and Melinaattempt to take

off in one ofthe aircraft.

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As he gathers the fallen guards’ weapons, the team outside tries to gaina tactical advantage by seeing into theroom before they breach it. They do thisby firing a rocket into the room thatdetonates and releases 60 cameras,

which mount themselves to the walls. The combined footage creates a 3-Dimage of Quaid in the room.

To achieve these images,Cameron’s crew mounted 60 GoProHD Hero2 cameras all around the setand painted them to blend into the

walls. Eight of the cameras failed, butthe footage from the other 52 providedenough information to create the 3-Dhologram.

A multi-camera setup was

employed at another key point in thestory. As Quaid discovers details aboutHauser, his alter ego, he finds a black piano key in a safety-deposit box. Later,

when he finds a piano with a missingkey, he slips his key into the spot andtriggers a holographic message fromHauser. The camera dollies aroundQuaid as he watches the hologram, and

◗ Memory Upgrade

6

A lens flare cutsacross this frame

grab of Quaid.Cameron jokes,

“Total Recall became a film

about lensflares!”

7/29/2019 AC aug 2012


we see a full 3-D effect of the miniatureprojection. To create the projectioneffect, Cameron built an 8' circular riglined with 32 Canon EOS 5D Mark IIsthat filmed Farrell from all angles. “Wehad to create customized on/off

switches for the 5Ds so we could startand stop them at the same time,” herecalls. “Mike Johnson, who also builtthe nodal rig for our Libra head, createdthose switches.”

When Cameron spoke to AC , he was in the midst of assisting with thefinal grade, which Wiseman was carry-ing out with colorist Steve Bowen atSony Colorworks in Culver City.“Unfortunately, I couldn’t be there forthe color work, but Steve and I wereable to time the trailer together, so heknows what I’m looking for,” saysCameron. “I’m seeing his work inbatches. This weekend, for example, I’llsee a DCP projection of what he’s doneso far in New York, and then I’ll sendhim my notes.

“Len has an incredible eye, too,and he wants the same look I want,” headds. “His attention to detail is truly extraordinary. He not only knows every shot in the movie, but he also knowsevery layer of every effects shot inside

and out, so even though we’ve startedtiming before the effects are done, heunderstands which layers are missingand how our color work will affect thoselayers when they’re added. Working

with him has been a great experience allaround, and I look forward to morecollaborations.” ●

TECHNICAL SPECS

2.40:1

Digital Capture and 35mm

Red Epic; Canon EOS 5D

Mark II; GoPro Hero2;PanArri 235

Panavision C-Series, E-Series,G-Series

Fujifilm F-64D 8522,Eterna 250D 8563


7/29/2019 AC aug 2012


Vampire Hunter. “It was the best title ever,” he says with alaugh. “Unless you’re a complete purist about history, you haveto love it.”

Based on the novel by Seth Grahame-Smith, the movieproposes that Honest Abe (played by Benjamin Walker) was

motivated to become a political leader not only by his sense of morality and patriotism, but also by his deep hatred for the

vampires threatening his divided country. “Lincoln alone is afascinating subject, and I found the idea of combining hisstory and that turbulent period with vampires to be really intriguing,” says Deschanel. “In my research, I found thatsome reviews of John Ford’sYoung Mr. Lincoln [1939] actually suggested Lincoln had a sort of Nosferatu quality. There wascertainly a tragic quality to his life that suggested some badkarma surrounded him: he lost his mother at a young age, helost three of his four children, and he had to face the horrors


Most filmmakers probably believe they’ve seen it all afterspending more than 30 years in the business, but CalebDeschanel, ASC confesses he was a bit nonplussed

when he received a script titled Abraham Lincoln:

VampireVetoVampireVetoCaleb Deschanel, ASC exploresdigital capture and 3-D post on

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

By David E. Williams

•|•

7/29/2019 AC aug 2012



of the Civil War. If you think of the vampires in this movie as metaphors orallegories for the real issues Lincolnfaced, the story gains an interestingdynamic.”

Deschanel was also attracted by the prospect of working with director

Timur Bekmambetov, and he made apoint of watching Night Watch ( Nochnoy dozor ), Bekmambetov’s first foray into

vampire lore, before he met with him.“It’s a wonderful movie,” the cinematog-rapher says. “It’s incredibly dark andmysterious, and it has a brooding quality that I loved.”

By the time Deschanel receivedthe script, Bekmambetov was already in the early stages of prepping theproject, and he and his collaborators hadalready decided to shoot digitally.

Coincidentally, Deschanel had just wrapped his first digital feature, WilliamFriedkin’s Killer Joe , which he had shoton the Arri Alexa. He thought the Alexa

would be well suited to AbrahamLincoln, though he had some concernsabout the plan to extract a 2.39:1 imagefrom the camera’s 16x9 Alev-III sensor.“We shot Killer Joe in 1.85:1, and theimage held up well on the big screenbecause we were using most of the chip,” P

h o t o s b y S t e p h e n V a u g h a n , c o u r t e s y o f 2 0 t h C e n t u r y F o x .

Opposite page:Abraham Lincoln(Benjamin Walker) haan axe to grind with

the undead in Abraham Lincoln:Vampire Hunter . Thispage, top to bottomVadoma (Erin Wassobares her fangs;commanding vampirAdam (Rufus Sewell)exerts his power;cinematographerCaleb Deschanel, ASC(left) and directorTimur Bekmambetovstake out a location.

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he explains. “By comparison, we had touse a smaller part of the chip to extractour widescreen image for AbrahamLincoln, and to me it looks slightly more‘digital’ on the big screen. Of course, thenewer Alexa model allows you to shoot

anamorphic with a 4x3 sensor, but thattechnology wasn’t available to us at thetime.”

There was also a mandate that Abraham Lincoln would be released in3-D, and when Deschanel came aboard,production had not yet decided whetherto capture in 3-D or convert in post. “Inprep, we went out and saw every 3-Dfilm we possibly could, those that hadbeen shot in 3-D and those that hadused a stereo post process,” he recalls.“We wanted to analyze them and deter-mine for ourselves what worked and

what didn’t work. I was initially convinced that shooting native 3-D

would be the best approach, but I wasshocked by how many problems werenot solved by doing that. It became clearthat the expertise and technique of thepeople using the camera system was asimportant as the camera itself, and that isreally no surprise.

“I’ve also noticed that in every movie I’ve seen that was shot in 3-D,including the latest Pirates of the Caribbean [ AC April ’11], there is often a

weird miniaturization effect in certainshots. I first noticed it years ago, while

watching the 3-D Imax movie Wings of Courage [ AC Aug. ’95]. The movie wasbeautiful, but I felt like everyone hadbeen reduced to the size of a toy. I know this has something to do with themanipulation of the interocular distancebetween the two cameras’ lenses, andperhaps it’s more apparent if you’re

shooting in Imax, but I was concernedabout it.

“The biggest problem with shoot-ing stereo, of course, is the time it adds tothe schedule, and although AbrahamLincoln is a ‘big’ film, we did have limitedtime and a limited budget. The movies

we watched that had been convertedfrom 2-D to 3-D generally looked really good, and the techniques used forconversion were getting better all the

◗ Vampire Veto

Top: Young Abe journals about

his secret life.Middle and

bottom: Lincolntrains to slay

vampires withhis mentor,

Henry Sturgess(DominicCooper).

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time. Because we could shoot morequickly in 2-D, we decided to do thatand convert in post. The rub with that isthat you have to leave time in post to doa good job; that has to be built into theschedule.”

Throughout the shoot,Bekmambetov and Deschanel had to be vigilant about choosing widescreencompositions that would work well in3-D. “If you’re only thinking about 2-D,

you compose shots differently,” saysDeschanel. “Your more painterly compositions can create problems andfall apart in 3-D. In general, wecomposed shots so the action was morecentral in the frame. We also did many more clean singles than we otherwise

would have because in 3-D, over-the-shoulder coverage gives you a big globfloating in the foreground of the frame.

Actually, anything in the foreground is aconcern.

“I had to keep reminding myself of things like that because when you’reunder the pressure of shooting, it’s very easy to resort to what you wouldnormally do,” he adds. (StereographerGraham D. Clark of Stereo D, the facil-ity that handled the stereo conversion,

was on set throughout the shoot toprovide guidance.)

Given its unusual blend of perioddrama, supernatural creatures and high-octane action, Abraham Lincoln alsopresented the filmmakers with the chal-lenge of finding the appropriate tone.“It’s not tongue-in-cheek, a spoof, or acomedy of any sort,” says Deschanel.“It’s a serious historical drama thattransforms into a vampire movie. It’stwo totally conflicting ideas duking itout, like those tattoos of ‘love’ and ‘hate’

on Robert Mitchum’s fists in Night of the Hunter. Finding the right visual tone

was definitely an issue; we wanted toestablish realism and then have thisover-the-top quality creep in.”

This tonal shift occurs in one of the film’s early scenes, which showsLincoln’s mother being brutally killedby a vampire. “The lighting up to thatpoint is fairly true to life, motivated by candles or moonlight, which gives us a

Top: SturgessapproachesLincoln aftersensing theanger withinhim. Middle:After beingtransformed inta vampire,Sturgessindulges hisblood lust.Bottom: WillJohnson(Anthony

Mackie, left),Lincoln’s adviseand childhoodfriend, fends ofan attack.

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realistic foundation,” says Deschanel.

“But as the vampires entered the story, we tried to maintain reality but moveaway from those motivated sources andinstead light based on the tone of thescene. The lighting becomes increasingly off-kilter — for instance, the moon getsbigger and brighter — and the camera-

work becomes more point-of-view. Itfelt as if we’d given into the vampires andleft history behind. It was like a Ouijaboard was guiding the shooting.”

Bekmambetov’s affinity for slow-

motion effects led Deschanel to add aVision Research Phantom Flex to hiscamera package, albeit with some reluc-tance. “Timur fell in love with thePhantom camera, and the slow-motionshots you get with it can be mesmeriz-ing, but the digital artifacting, especially the clipped highlights, was a problemfor me,” he says. “It gives you wonderfulresults when you can completely controlthe light, but you can’t always do that.

As soon as anything was 3 stops over, allthe detail disappeared.”

The Phantom Flex can captureup to 2,570 fps at 1920x1080 in stan-dard mode, and the filmmakers used itmainly for Civil War combat action.“When the guns would fire, the muzzleblasts would go completely white andfall apart, and, out of necessity, we justhad to embrace that,” says Deschanel.For some high-speed scenes, he alsoshot 4-perf Super 35mm, running Arri435s at 150 fps and using Kodak Vision3 200T 5213 or 500T 5219.“The high-speed work ended up beinga hodgepodge, at least in the fightsequences,” he recalls. “I just kept shoot-ing film until Timur wanted to gobeyond 150 frames. I would have

preferred not to use the Phantom at all,and I think Timur came around after hestarted to examine the images we weregetting. We do have some shots in themovie that would not have been possi-ble without the Phantom, but without

very controlled lighting, the imagesuffers.”

Using two cameras for mostsetups, Deschanel teamed the Alexa

with Zeiss Ultra Primes and, occasion-

◗ Vampire Veto

Top: Lincolnsurveys the

gruesome sceneafter dispatching

a group ofvampires.

Bottom:Crewmembers

capture theaction from two

angles.

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ally, a Fujinon Alura 18-80mm zoomlens. Footage was recorded in ArriRaw to Codex recorders and, as backup, toSxS cards. Deschanel notes that thebackup step paid off when the teamdiscovered a corrupt file in the Codexmaterial and was able to retrieve theintact data from the card.

One aspect of digital productionDeschanel has no love for is “the neces-sity of looking at the monitor to see

what you’re getting. It was really my own worry. With film I always know,pretty well, what I’m going to get andhow to expose to get that. In terms of latitude, the Alexa is close enough [tofilm] that I was comfortable shooting

with it the way I would shoot film, but Inever got comfortable enough to not

check the monitor and the scope. Theimage always looked good on the moni-tor, but I was concerned about certain

wide shots and how they would hold up[in 2.40:1] on a big screen. Those wideshots are where I feel that ‘digital look’ Ireally wanted to get past. With digital,every image is recorded by the samearray of dots on the sensor, whereas withfilm, there’s a whole new set of ‘dots’ forevery frame because the emulsion

moves. That makes film much moreforgiving, especially to the human faceand skin tones.”

Deschanel also believes that on

digital productions, too many importantdecisions are made on set too quickly.“Judging by the monitor is great if you’rea camera assistant trying to verify thatsomething is in focus, but it’s difficult tomake critical decisions about perfor-mance and composition under theimmense pressures of the productionday. When you watch dailies some-

where else, separated by time and with-out those direct influences, you might

have a very different interpretation of what you’re seeing, and you might see what you’ve done differently. I think thetime we used to have for that process is

something we shouldn’t give up whenshooting digitally.”

One of the aspects of his 3-Dlearning curve was discovering that “onething you cannot do when you’re shoot-ing 2-D for stereo conversion is ‘atmos-phere,’ whether that be smoke or fogeffects; and if you’re shooting somethingunderwater, you have to avoid all thosefascinating floating particles. Theconversion process just doesn’t identify

Top: In a unit

still from theset, Vadomapins Lincolnbeneath a chair.Bottom: In aframe pull fromthe movie thatshows the fulllook appliedduring the DI,Joshua Speed(JimmySimpson) ridesto Lincoln’srescue.


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and separate all those tiny elements well. That said, Timur had some goodideas on how to utilize that volumetric

space. He suggested creating atmos-pheric elements as an added layer of 3-D CGI. For example, for a picnicscene featuring Lincoln and his wife,Mary, they floated CG milkweed seedsin the air to give it a more complete3-D reality.”

Abraham Lincoln was filmed inLouisiana, where Deschanel also shotKiller Joe , and he brought on some of the same crew, including gaffer Paul

Olinde, key grip Richard Ball and dolly grip Richard Hoover. “My primary crew was some of my usual guys,including first AC Tommy Tieche and

A-camera/Steadicam operator B.J.McDonnell, who are great,” he adds.

When he spoke to AC ,Deschanel was in the midst of color-timing the 3-D version of AbrahamLincoln at Technicolor Hollywood withsenior/supervising colorist David Cole.

With a laugh, Deschanel says, “At first, Timur and I had the idea that the movieshould be in black-and-white becauseof the great, iconic Civil War photogra-phy by Matthew Brady and others —that’s such a part of our collectivepsyche. After we wrapped, I went on toanother feature, and Timur and DaveCole experimented with some things.Eventually, Dave and I came up with adesaturated look that suggests the

appropriate feel and puts us in the rightperiod. Of course, a lot of that look

went by the wayside at the last minuteas they rushed to convert to 3-D.”

The cinematographer notes thatthere are significant differences ingrading for 3-D vs. 2-D. “There aremultiple 3-D exhibition systems, anddepending on the process being used,the picture might be projected at 31⁄2

foot-lamberts or 6 foot-lamberts. At

that level, the eye perceives color andcontrast differently than it does whenthe image is presented at the standard15 or 16 foot-lamberts. So the timing of the 3-D version is completely different.

“We have a lot more control overthe image today, so there are many morechoices as well, and those two thingsdon’t always line up exactly right,” heconcludes. “But I’m always looking totry something new, and AbrahamLincoln, with its mash-up of high-brow and low-brow ideas, was exactly that. Itallowed me to fully immerse myself insomething completely different.” ●

◗ Vampire Veto

Top: Lincolnmakes a journalentry on a train

transporting ashipment of

silver to Unionsoldiers battling

Confederatevampires.

Bottom: An older,wiser Lincoln

attempts toabolish slavery

and unify theUnited States.

TECHNICAL SPECS

2.40:1

Digital Capture and4-perf Super 35mm

Arri Alexa, 435; Vision Research Phantom Flex

Zeiss Ultra Prime, Arri/Fujinon Alura

Kodak Vision3 200T 5213,500T 5219


Stereoscopic Conversion

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7/29/2019 AC aug 2012



Creating Reality for a Greenscreen ShootBy Noah Kadner

The Polish feature film Man, Chicks Are Just Different , shot byJerzy Zielinski, ASC, PSC, is a simple story about two men (AdamWoronowicz and Robert Wieckiewicz) conversing as they drivethrough city streets at night. “The concept was very anti-cinematic,”says Zielinski, who shot the picture for director Marek Koterski. “Thequestion was, how can we make this premise interesting and bringthe audience along for the ride?”

The filmmakers explored the possibility of shooting entirelyonstage, with the actors in a stationary car in front of greenscreen,

and compositing the backgrounds during post. Zielinski researchedthe look of nighttime car interiors by driving around at night andshooting short videos, and he paid close attention to the opticalquality of the resultant imagery and the interactive lighting in thefootage. He then shot a series of tests with actors and crew using acar on a stage to show the producers that the greenscreen approachcould look credible.

“This movie depended on two things: the dialogue and theperformances,” Zielinski explains. “Marek wrote a very precise script,and the actors weren’t allowed to improvise at all. I’ve shot a lot ofdriving sequences, and in real moving cars, you’re always limited to

very few camera angles and lighting positions, and the sound isoften compromised. It was a very exciting challenge to shoot every-thing onstage and then try to make it look real.”

Chicks was shot at Film Production Studios in Lödz, Poland.Zielinski used a primarily local crew that included camera operatorErnest Wilczynski, gaffer Hubert Stawicki and key grip WojtekPiasecki. He shot in 1.85:1 using a Panaflex Millennium XL, Primolenses and Kodak Vision3 500T 5219.

“Shooting the actors and the backgrounds separately gaveus visual options that simply wouldn’t have been possible on loca-tion,” says Zielinski. “For example, I could shoot the actors with a50mm lens and then capture the background plate later with a

10mm in order to see more of the surrounding environment. Thisenabled us to create a complex, hyper-real look.”

In order to maximize the shooting time with the actors, Zielin-ski devised a fixed lighting setup for the greenscreen. “We createda ‘chandelier’ fixture out of 20 4-foot Kino Flo 3,200°K tubes. Webounced them up like a shining tube just above the roof of the car,and they evenly lit the entire greenscreen backing. It was very simple,and it ensured that the background was lit and ready to go first thingeach morning.”

For the two actors, Zielinski used a variety of Rosco LitePadLED panels to emulate the look of the car’s dashboard lighting.

Post Focus

h

b l

h

d f

b

f l

d

d h

h

I

During a long drive, Pucio (Robert Wieckiewicz, pictured) and his friend Adam (Adam Woronowicz) complain non-stop about their difficultrelationships with women in the Polish feature Man, Chicks Are Just Different , shot by Jerzy Zielinski, ASC, PSC.

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Completing the general look of the carscenes, he created a system of moving lightsto approximate the effects of various exter-nal sources, such as other cars and streetlamps. “For the streetlight effects, we used2,000-watt and 1,000-watt Arri Fresnellamps either direct or bounced off a rotating

mirror,” he says. “We sometimes added1

⁄ 4or 1 ⁄ 2 CTO to create a sodium-vapor look.Finally, we placed an 800-watt Redhead ona dolly to simulate the headlights of passingcars.”

The production used two versions ofthe car, and each was stripped down tofacilitate rigging and accommodate a vari-ety of shooting angles. “The rigging teamremoved everything from the cars that wedidn’t need, including the engines and thewindows,” says Zielinski. “To help the actorsconcentrate on something, we placed alarge TV monitor that played POV drivingfootage in front of the car.”

After completing the three-weekstudio shoot, Zielinski went out with asmaller crew and a Panavision Genesis toshoot exteriors for the background platesand the reflections that would be added tothe car’s windows in post. “I wanted thetexture, grain and deep blacks of 35mm filmfor the actors’ faces, but for the nightplates, I switched to the Genesis because Iknew we’d have to shoot a lot of material,and that we’d have minimal lighting. Thishybrid approach gave me the option tobuild up the depth in post.” Referencingstoryboards that depicted each scene’ssetting and background requirements,Zielinski shot the plates slightly out of focusto achieve a more natural optical look.

Going into post, Zielinski collabo-rated closely with Warsaw visual-effectshouse The Chimney Pot. The work entailedselecting the desired takes from the green-screen shoot, matching them with the

appropriate background footage, and thenadding digital windows complete withreflections, dirt and interactive lighting.Visual-effects supervisor Jacek Skrobisz andThe Chimney Pot’s managing director,Jedrzej Sablinski, worked on the project fora year, beginning with preproduction test-ing.

The initial challenge in post was tomatch the 35mm footage with the HDGenesis footage. “We received the Genesis

material in 1080p on HDCam-SR tapes,”explains Sablinski. “The 35mm negativewas scanned at 4K and then downsized to2K, and we then moved footage throughpost as 2K DPX frames.”

“I spent about four months workingdirectly with The Chimney Pot,” says Zielin-ski. “We sometimes had very soft edges to

key with, because a strong backlight would-n’t have looked right for the interior of thecar at night. I was also missing some kind oflight that would come from outside andpenetrate the interior, so we added edgeflares motivated by the street lamps to helpmake it more believable.”

“Jerzy’s involvement in the effects

To capture the characters’ dialogue inside the car from various angles, the filmmakers

worked on two greenscreen mini-stages, positioning prop cars on a fixed platform (top)and a rotating platform (bottom).

7/29/2019 AC aug 2012


work was extensive, much more than thedirector of photography usually has,” saysSablinski. “He worked closely with editorAndrzej Kowalski to select the right fore-ground takes and then match each with thecorresponding background material.” Ofthe movie’s 443 shots, 341 contain visual

effects.The Chimney Pot’s team of 10 visual-effects artists and compositors used TheFoundry’s Nuke software, supplemented byAutodesk Flame, for most of the composit-ing work. They also used Autodesk Mayafor 3-D animation and RealFlow for physicalfluid simulation. In one notable scene, heavyrain begins to fall as the men are waiting ata railway crossing for a train to pass. Sablin-ski explains, “The rain was very special,involving a lot of work with raindrops on thecar window and reflections on the actors.The wiper blades and windshield werecreated entirely in 3-D with Maya. Interac-tive rain drops and splashes were simulatedwith RealFlow.” For a scene showing themen driving across a bridge, “the resizing ofthe background plates was very demand-ing.”

Zielinski continued working with TheChimney Pot as Chicks was edited, compos-ited and color corrected (by Victor Sasin).“We used Digital Vision’s Nucoda FilmMaster system with a SAN and Fuse assiststation for the grading and conform,” saysSablinski. “Everything was screened with aBarco D-Cine Premiere DP90 projector on a4-meter DI screen. Each shot was gradedthree or four times for all of the separateelements and then the final comps. Thefinal shots averaged up to five layers ofmaterial. It was a big puzzle, and it was a lotof fun to put together!” The Chimney Potalso created the final film prints and DCPversion.

“Having all the post work completed

under one roof really made a difference,”says Zielinski. “Typically, you deal with manydifferent post houses on a project with thismany visual effects. What was really fasci-nating for me was seeing how we could useall of this digital technology to create hyper-realism rather than fantasy.” ●


Top:Wieckiewicz

andWoronowicz

rehearse a

scene betweentakes. Bottom:To light the

greenscreenbacking evenly,

Zielinskiemployed a

“chandelier”fixture

consisting of 204' Kino Flo

3,200° tubes.

7/29/2019 AC aug 2012


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Visual Effects Go “There”Visual-effects and production veterans Elliott and Taylor Jobe

have launched There, a bicoastal company that specializes in thecapture and compositing of digital sets with greenscreen produc-tion. The company provides an alternative to traditional location-based production, making it possible to capture locations thatwould otherwise be impossible to shoot in an expedient and cost-competitive way.

“We combine on-set technology with digital sets usingassets we capture or create, as well as existing assets we repur-pose,” explains Elliott Jobe, There’s creative director. “With digitalsets, we can give our clients access and control of lighting so it canbe magic hour all day.”

“Our studio is a hybrid of practical and digital technology,which many live-action productions tend to approach separately,”adds Taylor Jobe, the company’s development director. “You can beinside the Louvre, Red Square or Grand Central Terminal in oneafternoon.”

There enables both director and cinematographer to interactwith talent on the greenscreen stage as if they were shooting in anactual location. For example, the director can work with actors onperformance while referencing the digital environment as opposedto having only limited contextual reference within the greenscreenstage, and the cinematographer can choose which lens to use andhow to light a scene based on actual distances and images withinthe digital set.

Among There’s recent projects are commercials for VirginAmerica and Crystal Geyser, featuring digital sets of a plane interiorand a modern kitchen, respectively; and a “Rock Center” promowith Brian Williams, featuring digital sets for seven floors of Rocke-feller Center-based productions (such as Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock ) that facilitated shootingwith multiple celebrities.

There evolved from the company LiveLocation. R&D led theJobes to launch the brand more precisely as There. Additional clientsinclude Bravo, Lucasfilm, Geico, Warner Bros. and O Positive Films.

For additional information, visit www.hellothere.tv.

New Products & Services• SUBMISSION INFORMATION •

Please e-mail New Products/Services releases to:[email protected] and include full contactinformation and product images. Photos must be

TIFF or JPEG files of at least 300dpi.

Pixomondo Expands to Baton Rouge, DetroitInternational visual-effects company Pixomondo has

announced the opening of its 12th and 13th facilities in BatonRouge, La., and Detroit, Mich., respectively. The announcementfollows the Academy Award win by Pixomondo’s visual-effectssupervisor Ben Grossmann and digital-effects supervisor AlexHenning for their work on Hugo, which featured more than 800stereo 3-D visual-effects shots created by Pixomondo artists aroundthe world.

“Opening an office in Baton Rouge fits perfectly with ouroverall company vision,” says Thilo Kuther, founder of Pixomondo.“Louisiana offers a very generous production tax rebate that we canpass on to our clients to bolster our project load as well as our grow-ing teams in Los Angeles, London, Germany, China and Canada.

“Baton Rouge is a beautiful city with a wealth of resources,”Kuther continues. “We’ve already connected with the Louisiana

State University science department to help set up remote renderfarms and virtualization with our other studios.”

Pixomondo DTW, the new studio in Detroit, was formedthrough the acquisition of boutique visual-effects company With ATwist. It will focus on feature, television and commercial work,handling both local and international projects.

With A Twist has a long-standing relationship with

Pixomondo as a sub-vendor on several features, including The Amazing Spider-Man, Fast Five, Sucker Punch and Hugo. DavidBurton, co-founder of With A Twist, notes that the company “hadreached the point where we needed to grow to remain competitive.Pixomondo has already accomplished much of what we aspired todo, and done it well, so it was a natural progression to join into theirteam. Our cultures mesh well and the timing was right.”

“The visual-effects industry is such a worldwide market-place,” adds With A Twist co-founder Pam Hammarlund. “It is atremendous asset to have access to [Pixomondo’s] global resources.”

With extensive experience creating visual effects for such


7/29/2019 AC aug 2012


companies as Audi, VW and Mini,Pixomondo is aptly suited for work in theMotor City. The Detroit location will enablethe company to service clients locally whilesimultaneously working on other diverseprojects for its other 12 studios around the

globe. For additional information, visitwww.pixomondo.com.

Spy: LA Opens Doors inSanta MonicaSpy, a FotoKem company that offers

creative finishing services for commercialsand feature films, has opened a new studioin Santa Monica, Calif., within the soundstudio Margarita Mix.

Extending the capabilities of Spy’smain facility in San Francisco, Spy: LA willspecialize in visual-effects-based commercialproductions. The company recently workedon spots for UPS, Asics, THQ/UFC, HillshireFarm and Canon.

Visual-effects artist Scott Rader joinsSpy: LA as creative director and lead Flameartist. He previously worked at Radium,Hydraulx and Digital Domain. Rader’s workon numerous television series, feature films,commercials and music videos as an Infernoartist/visual-effects supervisor has earnedhim a number of awards, including nine

Emmys.“Spy: LA provides the same level of

quality services that is offered in our SanFrancisco facility,” says co-founder EricHanson. “The two studios are securelyconnected by a high-speed network [thatoffers] real-time interface capabilitiesbetween San Francisco and Santa Monica,and this new location greatly enhances ourability to interface effectively with ourclients. ➣

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applications that support QuickTime Time-Code Tracks.

Additional capabilities of Cali-brated{Q} AVC-Intra Encode include YUVconversion from either SMPTE RGB or full-range RGB, support for 8/10-bit YUV 4:2:2color space, support for 8/16-bit RGB color

space, 100Mb or 50Mb I-frame AVC-Intracompression at industry-standard resolu-tions and frame rates, and a variety ofgamma-correction settings.

“Many PC professionals want towork with 10-bit compressed media, butthey may not be able to easily hand off 10-bit compressed media to Mac profession-als,” says Greg Booth, president of Cali-brated Software. “This new codec solvesthis workflow hurdle for customers who areusing Adobe After Effects or AdobePremiere Pro CS5/CS6 applications on thePC so that they can now export AVC-Intra.MOV files, which can easily be importedinto Apple Final Cut Pro 7 or Apple FinalCut Pro X. It also opens up additionalencoding options for customers using

Adobe After Effects or Adobe Premiere ProCS5/CS6, Compressor 3.5/4, or Apple FinalCut Pro 7/X on the Mac.”

For additional information, visitwww.calibratedsoftware.com.

GoPro Partners with TechnicolorGoPro and Technicolor have collabo-

rated to embed Technicolor’s CineStyle colorprofile in GoPro’s free Protune firmwareupgrade for the HD Hero2 camera. Certifiedby Technicolor and developed by GoPro, theProtune firmware upgrade offers users aflexible and improved workflow for seam-less integration with other source material

“The connection and design of thefacilities will empower collaboration,”Hanson continues. “When there are tightturnarounds, creative changes and advanc-ing deliveries, this will be a great value-addfor the creative process.”

For additional information, visit

www.spypost.com.

CinePostproduction Gets intoOn-Set DailiesCinePostproduction has introduced

Copra, an app that allows users to play backcolor-graded, sound-synced 1080p H.264dailies on their iPads. Copra integratesseamlessly with Colorfront’s On-Set Dailies,offering features such as built-in notes,graphical annotations and access tocomments from the QC report.

The Copra app on the iPad connectswirelessly to a local Copra Server that runson OSD to provide high-quality HD stream-ing dailies within minutes of wrapping.

For additional information, visitwww.copra.de.

Calibrated Software EncodesAVC-IntraCalibrated Software has released

Calibrated{Q} AVC-Intra Encode, a Quick-Time Encode codec that enables exportingof up to 10-bit compressed AVC-Intra .MOVfiles from PC- and Mac-based applicationsthat support QuickTime.

The codec also introduces a Post-Encode feature that lets users embed FinalCut Pro X metadata such as ReelName,Scene and Location information, and a ClipMemo into an AVC-Intra .MOV file afterencoding. Once embedded, this informa-tion can be readily seen when imported intoFinal Cut Pro X. Additionally, the Post-Encode feature allows users to insert newtime code via a TimeCode Track in the AVC-Intra .MOV file; the track can be seen by


Colorfront LaunchesExpress DailiesColorfront has introduced Express

Dailies, a high-performance and easy-to-usedailies tool for commercials, motion pictureand television production workflows.

Express Dailies is based on the image-science technology and color-grading andmanagement tools featured in Colorfront’sOn-Set Dailies system. It delivers integrated,production-proven tools for dailies work —including playback and sync, QC, color grad-ing, audio and metadata management —with state-of-the-art color and imagescience, and simultaneous deliverables in allcommon file formats.

To optimize performance, the 64-bitsoftware runs on the Mac OSX platform and

supports Nvidia Cuda GPU processing.Express dailies delivers real-time raw supportfor all major raw formats and the latest digi-tal cameras, including Red Epic, Sony F65,ArriRaw, Canon C300 and C500, Phantom,GoPro and DSLRs. HD previews can beenabled through the addition of Red Rocketcards. Users can quality-check imagery usingwaveform monitor and histogram analysistools. Additional highlights include a simplegraphical user interface, and data and

archival management.Output-format options include

DNxHD 444 for Avid editorial; ProRes forFinal Cut; and uncompressed DPX, TIFF,OpenEXR, QuickTime and H.264 for web-based dailies services and Apple devices. 4Kraw images can be saved as still images anddailies can be streamed in full HD, via abundled server to Copra, a free-of-chargeiPad application available in the App Store.

The image-processing capabilities ofExpress Dailies include support for theIIF/ACES workflow, as well as high-qualityraw image deBayering, color grading, imageresizing and a range of burn-in/watermark-ing options.

For data management and security ofmaterial, Express Dailies delivers logged

checksum copies to LTO and multiple drives,and integrated PDF WC reporting, tyingtogether copy, archive and physical inventorycontrol.

Colorfront has also announced thefirst multi-license purchase of Express Dailiesby Hollywood-based post facility Light Iron,who will integrate Express Dailies across itsentire range of Outpost mobile systems.

For additional information, visitwww.colorfront.com.

7/29/2019 AC aug 2012


and postproduction platforms.Key features of the Protune firmware

include 2-fps frame rate, enabling Hero2content to be easily intercut with othersources without a frame-rate conversion;35Mbps data rate for a high-qualitycompressed image with virtually zero arti-

facts; neutral color profile, allowing greaterflexibility in a color-correction workflow;Log curve encoding, offering more detail inshadows and highlights; and reducedsharpening and noise reduction forimproved flexibility in professional post andcolor workflows.

Protune makes integration withGoPro CineForm Studio simple, allowingautomatic detection of Protune settings andapplication of default adjustments. Theworkflow is further enhanced by a variety ofcolor-tuning presets.

Using Protune with CineForm StudioPremium and CineForm Studio Professionalprovides additional benefits, includingextensive color-correction controls,customizable presets and non-destructive3-D LUTs.

“Developing this with Technicolorhas provided us with a level of technologi-cal expertise that optimizes Protune for theprofessional market,” says David Newman,senior director of software engineering forGoPro. Alejandro Guerrero, senior vice pres-ident of Technicolor Digital Productions,

adds, “Technicolor is thrilled to make itscolor science available to GoPro throughoutits Protune upgraded firmware. With morethan 130,000 (and counting) cinematogra-phers already using our CineStyle colorprofile, we are committed to expanding theCineStyle toolkit and thrilled to supportGoPro as it expands its market base.”

For additional information, visitwww.gopro.com and www.technicolor.com. ●

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See us at CINEC 2012 at MOC in Munich, Germany September 22-24, 2012

7/29/2019 AC aug 2012



This still frame was pulled from actual RED motion footage and graded at Light Iron. “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” © 2011 Columbia Tristar Pictures. All rights reserved.


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“ The vision’s always clear in my mind but the trick on every project

is to get it up on the screen, fully realized. No excuses…I absolutely hate

compromise. After shooting The Social Network, The Girl With the Dragon

Tattoo, and Hitchcock —all on RED—I came to the conclusion that

compromise has been removed from the equation. With RED, my vision

becomes my reality. For what it’s worth, I feel much better now.”

– Jeff Cronenweth, ASC

7/29/2019 AC aug 2012



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Advertiser’s Index 16x9, Inc. 86

AC 1, 37, 75Adorama 7, 39AJA Video Systems, Inc. 43

Arri 5AZGrip 86

Backstage Equipment, Inc.6

Barger-Lite 87Birns & Sawyer 86Blackmagic Design, Inc. 13

Cavision Enterprises 55Chapman/Leonard Studio

Equipment Inc. 53Chemical Wedding 79Chrosziel Filmtechnik 2Cinematography

Electronics 83Cinekinetic 86Codex Digital Ltd. 19Congo Films S.A. 45Convergent Design 65Cooke Optics 9

Deluxe C2Denecke 87Dolby Laboratories, Inc. 15

Eastman Kodak C4

EFD USA, Inc. 17Film Gear 81Filmtools 83

Glidecam Industries C3

Hertz Corporation 23

K5600 41Kino Flo 57

Lights! Action! Co. 86

Maccam 87Manios Optical 87Matthews Studio Equipment

87M. M. Mukhi & Sons 86Movie Tech AG 86, 87

NBC/Universal 25New York Film Academy 27Nila Inc. 67

Oppenheimer Camera Prod.86

P+S TechnikFeinmechanik Gmbh 8

PED Denz 83Pille Film Gmbh 86Polecam Ltd. 37

Pro8mm 86

Red Digital Cinema 10-1128-29, 84-85

Super16 Inc. 86

Thales Angenieux 21

VF Gadgets, Inc. 87Visionary Forces 6Visual Products 6

Willy’s Widgets 86Welch Integrated 89www.theasc.com 4, 56,

66, 81, 88

88

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Society Elects Officers, BoardStephen Lighthill, ASC has beenelected president of the Society for2012-’13. The vote was made by the newlyelected Board of Governors, who alsoelected Vice Presidents Richard Crudo,Daryn Okada and Kees Van Oostrum;Treasurer Victor J. Kemper; Secretary FredGoodich; and Sergeant-at-Arms StevenFierberg.

Lighthill takes over from MichaelGoi, ASC, who served a maximum threeconsecutive terms. This is Lighthill’s first termas president; he previously served assergeant-at-arms.

“I am honored and humbled to betrusted by my peers to lead the ASC,” saysLighthill. “There has never been a moreexciting time to tell stories visually. Thecreative options are abundant today. Thatalso means it’s never been more importantfor us as an organization to collaborate inthe diverse challenges affecting the role ofthe cinematographer.”

Also elected to the Board of Gover-nors were ASC members John Bailey,Stephen H. Burum, Curtis Clark, DeanCundey, Fred Elmes, Goi, Francis Kenny,Matthew Leonetti, Michael O’Shea,Robert Primes andOwen Roizman. Alter-nate members are Ron Garcia, Karl WalterLindenlaub, Julio Macat and KennethZunder.

Bleibtreu, Miller BecomeActive MembersNew active member Josh Bleibtreu,

ASC grew up in Big Sur, Calif. His parentswere artists, and they encouraged hiscreative pursuits, which included makingSuper 8mm films. Bleibtreu moved to LosAngeles in the early ’70s, and, after workingon no- and low-budget features, he wasable to make a living as a first assistantcameraman, working on features, televisionprojects and National Geographic documen-taries. He began working with Don Burgess,ASC, doing second-unit work for such films

as Back to the Future Part II and Part III ,Batman Returns, Death Becomes Her andBackdraft .

Bleibtreu made the move to cameraoperator, and soon thereafter began notch-ing second-unit credits as a director ofphotography. Those credits include Cast Away , The Ring, The Italian Job, Wanted , Angels & Demons, Knight and Day , X-Men:First Class, Snow White and the Huntsmanand Total Recall (2012).

Born in Manchester, Conn., DavidMiller, ASC attended the University ofConnecticut and the University of Bridge-port, earning a bachelor’s degree in film atthe latter. He attended a Maine Photo-graphic Workshop taught by Owen Roiz-man, ASC, as well as a training seminar atNew York’s storied General Camera. Aftershooting the Student Academy Award-winning film Jenny , Miller began his profes-sional career as a camera assistant, workingfor such cinematographers as Peter Bizou,BSC and Brian West, BSC, before earninghis first credits as a cinematographer oncommercials.

Since moving to Los Angeles, Millerhas shot the series That’s Life, Jag,Commander in Chief and Shark . Mostrecently, he has shared cinematographyduties on Desperate Housewives withLowell Peterson, ASC.

Jayhawks Visit ClubhouseStudents from the University of

Kansas recently visited the Clubhouse andparticipated in a discussion with ASC

members Stephen H. Burum, GeorgeSpiro Dibie, Robert Elswit, Karl WalterLindenlaub, Julio Macat, IsidoreMankofsky, Rexford Metz, HaskellWexler and Robert Yeoman.

“The ASC is dedicated to supportingemerging filmmakers, sharing our knowl-edge and collaborating with all depart-ments in the creation of moving images,”says Dibie, chair of the ASC EducationCommittee. “We open our doors to anyone

Clubhouse News


Top to bottom:ASC President Stephen Lighthill;

Josh Bleibtreu, ASC; David Miller, ASC.

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studying screenwriting, directing, produc-ing, design, acting, etc., because it takes acollective effort to succeed in the process oftelling a story for the screen.”

Papamichael, Lindenlaub Sharewith Breakfast ClubThe ASC recently hosted Breakfast

Clubs with Phedon Papamichael, ASCand Karl Walter Lindenlaub, ASC, BVK.Papamichael discussed his approach to thefilms The Million Dollar Hotel , Walk theLine, 3:10 to Yuma and The Ides of March;and Lindenlaub broke down select scenesfrom Dolphin Tale, The Chronicles of Narnia:Prince Caspian, Black Book and City by theSea. Both conversations were moderated by AC associate editor Jon D. Witmer.

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

J.L. Fisher Hosts Annual MixerJ.L. Fisher recently hosted its annual

open house and barbecue with the ASC,the International Cinematographers Guildand the Society of Camera Operators. Theevent offered attendees a chance to mingle,network and get an up-close look at thelatest products from a number of equip-ment vendors. The event featured an ASCpanel discussion moderated by GeorgeSpiro Dibie that included Stephen H.Burum, Donald M. Morgan, M. DavidMullen, Wally Pfister, Dante Spinottiand Amy Vincent.

Members Participate inCine Gear ExpoCine Gear recently wrapped a two-

day exhibition at Paramount Studios inHollywood. Over the course of the event,ASC members participated in a number ofpanel discussions and other activities.

Kodak sponsored a discussionbetween cinematographers and longtimefriends Phedon Papamichael, ASC andJanusz Kaminski that was moderated by AC contributor David Heuring. Arri hosted adiscussion between Vince Pace, ASC andvisual-effects supervisor Rob Legato about

their 3-D production experience with theAlexa camera.

At a VIP reception on the first day ofthe expo, Cine Gear presented VilmosZsigmond, ASC with its Cinematography

Lifetime Achievement Award. Additionally,ASC associate Bob Nettmann, president ofNettmann Systems International, receivedthe Technical Lifetime Achievement Award.

Day two kicked off with NancySchreiber, ASC screening footage fromand discussing Sony’s PMW-F3 camera.Later, Kodak sponsored “Brilliance inFocus,” a discussion with Rodrigo Prieto,ASC, AMC, about the upcoming feature Argo, directed by Ben Affleck.

The ASC presented a panel discus-sion with Society members Dion Beebe,Stephen H. Burum, Patrick Cady, JamesL. Carter, George Spiro Dibie, MichaelGoi, Karl Walter Lindenlaub, Donald A.Morgan, Daniel Pearl, Dave Perkal,Roberto Schaefer and Haskell Wexler.

Canon presented an event hosted byJon Fauer, ASC that featured three shortfilms captured with Canon Cinema EOScameras: XXIT , shot by Sam Nicholson,ASC; The Ticket , shot by Shane Hurlbut,ASC; and Man & Beast , shot by JeffCronenweth, ASC. Closing out the day,Zsigmond and Yuri Neyman, ASCpresented “Cinematography in VideoGames and Virtual Cinematography.”

After the exhibition closed, the ASChosted a barbecue at the Clubhouse, offer-ing a casual environment in which memberscould mingle with exhibitors while enjoyinggreat food and cold drinks.

Cine Gear weekend also included aseries of master classes, including a lightingworkshop with ASC members JacekLaskus, Ueli Steiger and Zsigmond that

was hosted on Mole Richardson’s stage inHollywood. ●


From top: Phedon Papamichael, ASC; Karl WalterLindenlaub, ASC in conversation with Jon D. Witme

Society members (left to right) Dante Spinotti,Stephen H. Burum, Donald M. Morgan, Wally Pfiste

George Spiro Dibie, Amy Vincent and M. DavidMullen at the J.L. Fisher mixer; ASC members

(clockwise from top left) James L. Carter, Daniel PeaMichael Goi, Patrick Cady, Dion Beebe, RobertoSchaefer, Dave Perkal, Burum, Dibie, Donald A.

Morgan and Lindenlaub at Cine Gear.

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When you were a child, what film made the strongest impres-sion on you?

Dr. Strangelove (1964). What a delicious roundhouse punch! Thatfilm set me free.

Which cinematographers, pastor present, do you mostadmire?Owen Roizman, ASC; GordonWillis, ASC; Conrad Hall, ASC;Slawomir Idziak, PSC; GreggToland, ASC; Caleb Deschanel,ASC; Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC;Michael Chapman, ASC; RobertSurtees, ASC; and Peter James, ASC, ACS. They’ve given us TheFrench Connection, Klute, In Cold Blood, Three Colors: Blue, The Best Years of Our Lives, Being There, Driving Miss Daisy, McCabe & Mrs.Miller, The Last Picture Show, Network, The Paper Chase, Road toPerdition, Blackhawk Down, Black Robe, The Last Detail, CitizenKane, The Right Stuff, The Deer Hunter, Raging Bull, The Graduate,Three Days of the Condor, The Godfather, Butch Cassidy and theSundance Kid, Gattaca, The Grapes of Wrath, Deliverance, Absenceof Malice and Taxi Driver .

What sparked your interest in photography?As an Army brat in Paris, I happened across the set of Is Paris Burn-ing? The French crew let me hang around. I skipped elementaryschool and took a bus to get there. I got to see Marcel Grignon inaction; I saw big lights and equipment move around and began tolearn why; I could ponder the choice to shoot black-and-white.Standing in the rain and feeling the struggle … the images havenever left me.

Who were your early teachers or mentors?Tout Va Bien co-director (with Godard) Jean-Pierre Gorin, who wasteaching at UC-San Diego, opened up the French New Wave for mefrom the inside. Manny Farber was publishing essays on Fassbinder.I was hooked. I called my folks to tell them I wanted to study film.

Where did you train and/or study?At UCLA, Ed Brokaw told me not to listen to the word ‘no.’ He andBill Adams were about as seditious as professors could get, and I’llalways love and admire them for it. Crewing on student films got meonto paid crews after graduation, and that’s where I learned themost.

What are some of your key artistic influences?I’m fascinated by architecture, mainly the thinking that goes intodesign. Why did the Minoans build what they did? Cinematographyseems to be physical and emotional architecture on the move.

How did you get your first break in the business?I was totally happy as an operator when director Charles Haid told

me it was time for me to shoot. I told him he was making a bigmistake. He hired me to shoot the TV series Buddy Faro anyway.

What has been your mostsatisfying moment on aproject?Locking eyes with Robert Duvallafter he’d given the pivotalperformance in Get Low . Weboth knew he’d done it. Hewanted to know if we had doneit. We had.

Have you made any memorable blunders?As a focus puller, I once put a 1,000-foot load through base-side out.The actors, who’d had to wear chunky peanut butter in their hair,had to do it all over again the next day. They hated me.

What is the best professional advice you’ve ever received?Michael Chapman told me that if I didn’t want to shoot a project, Ishould just double my rate — that way I could be happy doing it.I’ve never tried it, but he made me laugh.

What recent books, films or artworks have inspired you?The book Man With a Camera by Nestor Almendros, ASC, theheavyweight anamorphic films of the 1970s and the film Animal Kingdom.

Do you have any favorite genres, or genres you would like totry?I most admire the work that doesn’t fit well into any category.

If you weren’t a cinematographer, what might you be doinginstead?I’d be a crop duster living in some beautiful place, or writing novelsin Portugal and drinking thick red wine.

Which ASC cinematographers recommended you formembership?Owen Roizman, Aaron Schneider, Bing Sokolsky and James Glen-non.

How has ASC membership impacted your life and career?It’s humbling to realize half the membership has forgotten morethan I know. It feels great to share a good laugh with the only peoplearound who get it. Mostly it commits me to clearing a path for thecinematographers coming up and being a good ambassador alongthe way. ●

David Boyd, ASCClose-up

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7/29/2019 AC aug 2012


E R I C S C H M I D T

ONFILM

“I’m always discussing with directors

how audiences derive meaning from

a succession of images. When image

are connecting emotionally, it’s almo

always unconscious. Film resonates

with people. It has a random, moving

texture that gives faces and skin tone

a naturalistic vibe. And film’s endurin

visual power and organic feel can’t be

replicated. We are image makers. Weget to take chances, push technology

the limit, and find something magica

Eric Schmidt’s credits include the

feature films The Mechanic, I Melt wit

You, Henry Poole is Here, and My Sassy

Girl, as well as the pilots for Close to

Home and Red Window . His work on t

television series Cold Case earned him

an ASC Award nomination. He has a

photographed many music videos an

commercials, including the Dos Equis“Most Interesting Man in the World”

campaign.

For an extended Q&A with Eric Schmidt

visit www.kodak.com/go/onfilm.

ONE R I C S

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Documents

AC aug 2012