American Cinematographer 2009-01

J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 9

AM

ER

ICA

N C

INE

MA

TOG

RA

PH

ER

• JA

NU

AR

Y 2

00

9 •

RE

VO

LUT

ION

AR

Y R

OA

D; T

HE

CU

RIO

US

CA

SE

OF

BE

NJA

MIN

BU

TTO

N; D

EF

IAN

CE

; JAC

K G

RE

EN

, AS

C •

VO

L. 90

NO

. 1

$5.95 Canada $6.95

TH

E

IN

TE

RN

AT

IO

NA

L

JO

UR

NA

L

OF

F

IL

M

&

DI

GI

TA

L

PR

OD

UC

TI

ON

T

EC

HN

IQ

UE

S

•

SI

NC

E

19

20

AMC_0109_pCV1:09_05CVR.qxd 12/5/08 2:19 PM Page 1

© 2008 Sony Electronics Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Features and specifi cations are subject to change without notice.Sony, CineAlta, HDNA, the HDNA logo, XDCAM and XDCAM EX are trademarks of Sony.

4325_Sony_AmrCin_Jan.v1.indd 1 11/12/08 9:50:36 AM

AMC_0109_pCV2p001:Layout 1 12/2/08 10:45 AM Page 1

Designed with the best ideas in the industry. Yours. What made us offer interchangeable lenses and Genlock input on the PMW-EX3 XDCAM EX™ camcorder? Why does our MVS-8000G switch effortlessly among 720p, 1080i and 1080p? How did the F35 CineAlta™ camera come to fi t so beautifully into fi lm-style shoots? Why does our PDW-F355 XDCAM® HD camcorder include over- and undercranking? And how come the HDC-1500 large lens adapter attaches in just seconds? Because you told us what you wanted. And we listened.

click: sony.com/prohdna

4325_Sony_AmrCin_Jan.v1.indd 1 11/12/08 9:50:36 AM

AMC_0109_pCV2p001:Layout 1 12/2/08 10:46 AM Page 2

®

5600°K Daylight Balanced 4200°K 3200°K Tungsten Balanced

Litepanels® 1x1 Bi-Color Features:• Dial-up variable color• Dial-up brightness• Runs on battery or AC• 1’x1’ square & 1.75” thick• Cool to the touch• Ultra-lightweight, 3 lbs. (1.36 kg)• Integrated DMX• Infinite dimmer dial• Preset or variable color settings• Snap-on battery option for wireless lighting

Finally, ultimate color control right at your fingertips. A soft, high output light that lets you quickly dial up any color – from cool white daylight to warm white tungsten. The new Litepanels® 1x1 Bi-Color lets you adjust color temperature instantly so you can adapt to different shooting conditions and skin tones on the fly.

Litepanels 1x1 Bi-Color: Anywhere. Anytime. Any color.

Makers of the award-winning Micro, MiniPlus, 1x1 & LED Ringlites™.

8 1 8 7 5 2 7 0 0 9 • i n f o @ l i t e p a n e l s . c o m • W W W. L I T E PA N E L S . C O M

��

variablecolordial

NEW!

AMC_0109_p002:Layout 1 12/2/08 10:53 AM Page 1

28 Close FocusRoger Deakins, ASC, BSC captures a couple’s downward spiral in Revolutionary Road

42 An Old SoulClaudio Miranda exploits cutting-edge technologies onThe Curious Case of Benjamin Button

58 Brothers in ArmsEduardo Serra, ASC, AFC frames a true tale of World War II heroism in Defiance

70 A Cut AboveJack Green, ASC receives the Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award

Departments

Features

V i s i t u s o n l i n e a t w w w. t h e a s c . c o m

On Our Cover: Businessman Frank Wheeler (Leonardo DiCaprio) finds his marriage crumbling inRevolutionary Road, shot by Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC. (Photo by François Duhamel, SMPSP, courtesyof DreamWorks LLC.)

8 Editor’s Note10 Short Takes: Triangle of Need16 Production Slate: Frost/Nixon, The Wrestler80 Post Focus: HPA Awards, Still Me84 New Products & Services88 International Marketplace89 Classified Ads90 Ad Index92 In Memoriam: Robert C. Jessup, ASC94 Clubhouse News96 ASC Close-Up: Gabriel Beristain

58

J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 9 V O L . 9 0 N O . 1

The International Journal of Film & Digital Production Techniques

42

70

AMC_0109_p003:00 toc 12/5/08 6:03 PM Page 3

J a n u a r y 2 0 0 9 V o l . 9 0 , N o . 1The International Journal of Film & Digital Production Techniques • Since 1920

Visit us online at

www.theasc.com————————————————————————————————————

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

EDITORIALEXECUTIVE EDITOR Stephen Pizzello

SENIOR EDITOR Rachael K. Bosley

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Jon D. Witmer

TECHNICAL EDITOR Christopher Probst

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

Bob Davis, Bob Fisher, Simon Gray, Jim Hemphill, David Heuring, Jay Holben, Noah Kadner, Ron Magid, Jean Oppenheimer, John Pavlus, Chris Pizzello, Jon Silberg,

Iain Stasukevich, Kenneth Sweeney, Patricia Thomson, David E. Williams

————————————————————————————————————

ART DEPARTMENTCREATIVE DIRECTOR Marion Gore

DESIGN ASSOCIATE Erik M. Gonzalez

————————————————————————————————————

ADVERTISINGADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR Angie Gollmann

323-936-3769 FAX 323-936-9188

e-mail: [email protected]

ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR Sanja Pearce

323-908-3114 FAX 323-876-4973


ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR Scott Burnell

323-936-0672 FAX 323-936-9188


CLASSIFIEDS/ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Diella Nepomuceno

323-908-3124 FAX 323-876-4973


————————————————————————————————————

CIRCULATION, BOOKS & PRODUCTSCIRCULATION DIRECTOR Saul Molina

CIRCULATION MANAGER Alex LopezSHIPPING MANAGER Miguel Madrigal

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

ASC EVENTS COORDINATOR Patricia Armacost

ASC PRESIDENT’S ASSISTANT Kim Weston

ASC ACCOUNTING MANAGER Mila Basely

ASC ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE Corey Clark————————————————————————————————————American Cinematographer (ISSN 0002-7928), established 1920 and in its 88th year of publication, is published

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

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

office. Article Reprints: Requests for high-quality article reprints should be made to McNeil Group at (800)394-5157 ext. 26. Copyright 2007 ASC Holding Corp. (All rights reserved.) Periodicals postage paid at Los Angeles, CA and at additional mailing offices. Printed in the USA.

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

1. No matter how inhospitable the location,the Cinesaddle is easy to use; to set it upjust put it down.

2. Small – Compact – Portable. Weighs lessthan two pounds.

3. Get shots from angles not possible withany other camera support.

4. Available in five different sizes. Workswith all film, video and still cameras.

5. Absorbs vibration. Use it on a car, bike,boat, helicopter, anything. Mounting kit is included with all professional models.

Cinekinetic USA345 W. 85th StreetNew York, NY 10024Telephone: (212) 202-0675 Email: [email protected]

Tripod Killer

USE IT ONCE AND YOUCAN’T LIVE WITHOUT IT!

Everything you want to know about theCinesaddle including streamed video clips

can be seen on our website:

www.cinekinetic.com

4

$0&B� � � � BS� � � � � PDVWKHDG� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 30� � 3DJH� �

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHYHarris Savides, ASC

For up-to-the-minute screeninginformation, to read Dustin Lance Black’s originalscreenplay, and to hear Danny Elfman’s score andmore about this extraordinaryfilm from director Gus Van Sant, go to:www.FilmInFocus.com/awards08

ARTWORK ©2008 FOCUS FEATURES, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

“A TOTAL TRIUMPH, BRIMMING WITHHUMOR AND HEART. IF THERE’S A

BETTER MOVIE AROUND THIS YEAR,WITH MORE BRISTLING PURPOSE, I SURE HAVEN’T SEEN IT. ��.Camera genius Harris Savides, gives the film a tribal vibrancy. Shooting on the streets Harvey walked in

San Francisco, and blending in archival footage, he drops us into the cartwheeling culture of the 1970s with a dizzying sense of time and place. An American classic.”

—Peter Travers, ROLLING STONE

“A TOTAL TRIUMPH, BRIMMING WITHHUMOR AND HEART. IF THERE’S A

BETTER MOVIE AROUND THIS YEAR,WITH MORE BRISTLING PURPOSE, I SURE HAVEN’T SEEN IT. ��.Camera genius Harris Savides, gives the film a tribal vibrancy. Shooting on the streets Harvey walked in

San Francisco, and blending in archival footage, he drops us into the cartwheeling culture of the 1970s with a dizzying sense of time and place. An American classic.”

—Peter Travers, ROLLING STONE


OFFICERS - 2008/2009

Daryn OkadaPresident

Michael GoiVice President

Richard CrudoVice President

Owen RoizmanVice President

Victor J. KemperTreasurer

Isidore MankofskySecretary

John HoraSergeant At Arms

MEMBERS OF THE BOARDCurtis Clark

Richard CrudoCaleb DeschanelJohn C. Flinn IIIWilliam A. Fraker

Michael GoiJohn Hora

Victor J. KemperStephen Lighthill

Daryn OkadaRobert PrimesOwen RoizmanNancy SchreiberDante Spinotti

Kees Van Oostrum

ALTERNATESMatthew LeonettiSteven Fierberg

James ChressanthisMichael D. O’Shea

Sol Negrin

MUSEUM CURATORSteve Gainer

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

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

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

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

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

of prestige and excellence.

Cooke CloseThurmaston, Leicester, UKT: +44 (0)116 264 0700F: +44 (0)116 264 0707E: [email protected]

www.cookeoptics.com

We make the movies

“Intelligent” Products, Saving Time and Money Production through Post

6

$0&B� � � � BS� � � � � � � � � ERDUG� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 30� � 3DJH� �


Director Sam Mendes first explored the illusions and delu-sions of American suburbia in American Beauty (1999),which won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture

and Achievement in Cinematography (for Conrad L. Hall,ASC). On his latest project, Revolutionary Road, the Englishfilmmaker teamed with Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC to focus apitiless lens on the crumbling marriage of an outwardly envi-able couple (played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet)in suburban Connecticut in 1955.

Based on Richard Yates’ novel, the picture led Mendesand Deakins to spotlight the actors’ performances while avoiding stylistic flourishes intheir approach to the period. “I hate the idea that you have to make the photographycolorful because it’s the ’50s, or that you have to make it gauzy and sepia because it’s anearlier era — I’ve never seen the point of that, really,” Deakins tells senior editor RachaelK. Bosley (“Close Focus,” page 28). Mendes seconds the motion: “I didn’t want to haveany shots that said, ‘The 1950s: weren’t they extraordinary!’ I simply wanted it to bewhere these characters live.” In an insightful sidebar (“Furnishing a Plain Period Look,”page 36), set decorator Deborah Schutt confirms, “We all wanted to make a periodmovie that didn’t look like one.”

David Fincher and cinematographer Claudio Miranda had to convey the lookof eight different decades while turning back the clock on The Curious Case of BenjaminButton, which stars Brad Pitt as a man who is born in 1918 and ages in reverse. Whilethe film offers plenty of period ambience, Miranda notes, “The intention was to be asnaturalistic as possible. Our initial influence for textures and framing was [painter]Andrew Wyeth.” Of course, the filmmakers also had to come up with a way to make theirmain character age and regress believably, which involved some complex technologies.Miranda and post supervisor Peter Mavromates pull back the curtain in their commentsto contributing writer Douglas Bankston (“An Old Soul,” page 42).

World War II is the timeframe explored in Defiance, shot by Eduardo Serra,ASC, AFC for director Ed Zwick. In telling a true story of Jewish resistance fighters whotake refuge in a forest, Serra rebuts the notion that exterior cinematography offers feweropportunities to be creative. By pushing Kodak’s tungsten-balanced 5279 stock two stopsand eschewing an 85 filter, he added grain and contrast to exterior images and createdunpredictable changes in the negative’s red, green and blue curves. “The changes aresubtle, but they’re there,” Serra explains to Paris-based correspondent Benjamin B(“Brothers in Arms,” page 58). “With film, it’s important to have the three color curvesperfectly parallel, and in this picture, they really aren’t.”

Bold choices are often rewarding, as ASC member Jack Green quickly learnedafter he gave up barbering for a life behind the camera. What the world lost in tonsorialtechnique it has gained in memorable Hollywood moments. Green entered into a longand rewarding collaboration with Clint Eastwood, beginning as a camera operator andeventually advancing to cinematographer on a number of Eastwood’s films, includingBird, Unforgiven and The Bridges of Madison County. His record of excellence has earnedhim this year’s ASC Lifetime Achievement Award, and Green shares some of his recol-lections with contributing writer Jon Silberg (“A Cut Above,” page 70).

Stephen PizzelloExecutive Editor

Ph

oto

by D

ougl

as K

irkl

and.

Editor’s Note

8

$0&B� � � � BS� � � � � � � � HGLWRU V� QRWH� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 30� � 3DJH� �


In 2002, five years after CatherineSullivan transitioned from live theaterto producing and directing conceptual-

video works, she began developing herfirst commission, which became FiveEconomies (big hunt/little hunt). With alarger budget than she had previouslyenjoyed, she decided to expand her workinto a multi-screen project that wouldreplicate the experience of watching atheater piece. To capture the complex

imagery the project required, Sullivanturned to cinematographer RaoulGermain, whom she had met whenGermain was gaffing an independentfeature for a mutual friend. When theircollaboration began on Five Economies,Sullivan was a bit cryptic about thesubject matter, says Germain. “Most ofthe time, she would just say, ‘These arethe images we’re going to shoot.’”

Germain was finally able to see

Five Economies from Sullivan’s perspec-tive when the piece premiered at theHammer Museum in Los Angeles — onfive 20'-tall screens. “I was astounded,”he says. “I got the concept and the wayit moved around you as a viewer in thecenter of it all. Once I saw the fruits ofour labor, I was so excited and proud ofthe work that I really wanted to keep therelationship going.”

Four collaborations later, inAugust 2007, Sullivan and Germainintroduced their latest and largestinstallation, Triangle of Need, atMinneapolis’ Walker Art Center. LikeFive Economies, Triangle was conceivedas a multi-screen fine-art experienceinvolving the layering of many differentstorylines and locations playing simulta-neously on multiple projectors and tele-vision screens. According to the artist’sstatement, Triangle “delves into corpo-rate corruption and the idea of conform-ing old ideals to new ones in a modernage.”

Triangle’s genesis can be tracedto when Sullivan was invited to make apiece at the Villa Vizcaya Museum andGardens, a 16th-century Italian-styleestate built as a winter home for Amer-ican industrialist James Deering inBiscayne Bay, Fla. When Sullivan firstencountered Vizcaya’s main house,formal gardens, lagoon and derelictvillage, she was inspired by its potentialas a location for one of the pieces.

The project comprises severalshort films that form a cohesive whole.In one room, a six-minute looped projec-tion intercuts 16mm shots of a spinningfigure skater with blown-up Super 8mmfootage from a Quinceañera (a tradi-tional Latino coming-of-age celebrationfor young women) at Vizcaya. In anadjoining chamber, three flat-screen

Forging Triangle of Need for Catherine Sullivanby Iain Stasukevich

Short Takes

Pho

tos

and

fram

e gr

abs

cou

rtes

y of

the

film

mak

ers.

Above:Mistresses bid

farewell from abarge in Triangle

of Need, aninstallation

piece directedby CatherineSullivan and

photographed byRaoul Germain.

Below: One ofthe installation’s

three rooms atthe Walker Art

Center inMinneapolis.

10 January 2009

01_09 short takes:00 short takes 12/5/08 1:40 PM Page 10


high-definition TVs show the “Chicago”portion of the work, set in a tenementapartment inhabited by early 20thcentury workers from Deering’s agricul-tural-equipment factory; these threescenes (each running 20 minutes) werefilmed in black-and-white and focus on afamily of Gypsies, a trio of Neanderthals,and French emperor Napoleon and hiswife, Josephine. The third and largestroom features four hi-def digital projec-tors showing color and black-and-whitescenes shot in and around the Vizcayaestate. In these scenes, each of whichruns about 30 minutes, the “Chicago”characters appear opposite a new cast ofwhat the filmmakers describe as“anachronistic degenerates.”

For the 16mm footage of thefigure skater, shot inside the Chicago Icearena, Germain used Kodak Double-X7222 black-and-white film. He recallsthat these shots were relatively uncom-plicated, while the Quinceañera footagewas much more involved. On a concep-tual level, a lot of Triangle’s contentdeals with matters of extinction, andSullivan felt it would be interesting towork with an expired film stock. Via theInternet, she discovered a subculturededicated to obsolete Super 8 stocks,and she acquired several rolls of discon-tinued Porst 40D film.

Germain was game, but hewasn’t sure what kind of image hewould get — if any — from a film stockthat went bad in 1982. His plan was tooverexpose and overdevelop the film by2 stops, and he planned to do a snip testat Film Rescue in Indian Head,Saskatchewan. Even though it was heridea, Sullivan went into the test lessoptimistic than Germain, but her fearswere ultimately dispelled. “It looked verymuch like an impressionist painting,”she says. “The image broke down tothese blunt formations of shapes andlines.”

“When we got to the telecine [atColor Lab in Rockville, Md.], we didn’twant to correct it at all,” says Germain.“We just wanted to let it do what it wasdoing. The colorists were trying to getthe best image out of it, and they werecomplaining that the grain was gargan-

12 January 2009

Top to bottom: Aproduction still

showingNeanderthals

cleansed bymistresses in thesecret garden at

Florida’s VillaVizcaya Museumand Gardens; an

orphan passes onin a color

segment shot atVilla Vizcaya; a

frame grab of theNeanderthals’arrival at Villa

Vizcaya, shot onKodak Double-X

7222; a framegrab from theQuinceañera

sequence, whichwas shot with

Porst 40D Super 8 film.



14 January 2009

tuan and the color completely shiftedfrom one shot to the next. The emulsionwas extremely degraded, but we endedup getting a really beautiful texture.”(Ben Hadden, Ben Kolak and Sean Ticeprovided additional Super 8 photographyfor the project.)

The “Chicago” portion of thework is closer to the style of Sullivan andGermain’s earlier collaborations, whichoften featured extensive use of theSteadicam. When Sullivan was develop-ing Five Economies, her goal was tocapture long, meandering takes, and thesame was true for Triangle, where theaction in the Chicago tenement movedthrough hallways and followed charac-ters in and out of apartments. For someshots, Steadicam operator B.J. McDon-nel had to stand stock-still for three orfour minutes before beginning a three-minute move across a 30' span of apart-ment while sidestepping actors in thewings and on the ground.

Using Germain’s Aaton XTRprod,a Canon 11-165mm zoom and a set ofZeiss Super Speed primes, the filmmak-ers planned to photograph 360 degreesof the tenement location, meaning alllighting had to be off the floor or dressedas part of the set. Adding to thecomplexity, Sullivan worked out preciseblocking for as many as 13 actors at atime, and if the actors missed theirmarks, they would end up in total dark-ness.

Fortunately, the building theywere shooting in was being renovated,

leaving the crew free to knock out ceil-ings and walls. To speed the filmmak-ers’ progress from one room to the next,gaffer Andy Cook created a wood gridwith 2-by-4s above the ceiling line andstrung cables through holes in the ceil-ing and walls to other grids in adjacentrooms. Germain and Cook fitted thegrids with a mix of 650-watt, 350-watt,150-watt and 1K tungsten units onVariac dimmers, while a 1.2K HMI wasstationed on a lift outside the second-story window to push hard “daylight”into the rooms. All lights were left cleanto produce hard shadows, and thesescenes were also shot on Double-X7222.

As Triangle’s cycle concludes, theChicago workers, Gypsies and Frenchsovereigns find themselves transportedto Vizcaya, where they engage in recon-structions of scenes from old Pathés-cope films as a tribe of Neanderthals isforced by the villa’s lord to reproduce.(Deering ordered silent-film reels fromPathéscope for screening at Vizcaya.)Because Sullivan was working on acommission, she and her crew hadunlimited access to the entire estate.“The villa drove a lot of the content,”she notes.

For the exteriors, Germainplanned to shoot Kodak EXR 50D 7245with an Arri 16SR-3 and the samelenses he used in Chicago, but he andSullivan hadn’t accounted for Miami’sunpredictable weather. On a clear day,the color stock provided vibrant, satu-

rated shots of the blue skies and greengardens, but footage from hazy dayswas lackluster — unless it was shot inblack-and-white. (Night exteriors, litwith 4K HMIs and 10K tungsten fixtures,were shot on 7222.)

The main house at Vizcaya is partof the villa’s museum, which madeshooting interiors problematic. An all-seeing Steadicam was required formore than 90 percent of the camera-work, and everything in the house was avaluable antique, and no one wasallowed to move or touch anything. Tomake matters worse, heavy stormgrates outside every window acted as“huge scrims that just stopped downlight,” says Germain. Unable to bring inbig fixtures or rig anything to the wallsor ceilings, he had to carefully strategizehis lamp placement on the floor andshoot with a fast stock, in this caseKodak Vision2 500T 7218. “For somescenes, I had to simply shoot wide open[T1.3] and hope the film would saturateenough for our needs,” says the cine-matographer. “Sometimes I’d bounce asingle 1.2K HMI into the ceiling for fill.When we lost light, I had to place 2.5Ksoutside windows that were dressedwith 216 diffusion to simulate theblowout of bright daylight.”

In post, all the Super 16 footagewas mastered at 2K resolution by NoloDigital Film in Chicago and down-rezzedto 1080p for digital projection. Nolo alsohandled the integration of Color Lab’s1080p Super 8 transfer with the 2Kfootage of the figure skater for output to16mm.

Asked what the best way is toview the work, Sullivan pauses, thensays, “A lot of it is about your judgmentas a viewer — what you connect to. Itreally is an experience that’s ultimatelydriven by your own connection to thework.” For Germain, Triangle of Needwas “a dream job. It isn’t often a cine-matographer can create images simplyfor the sake of creating them, withoutany selling of products or movie stars.There were no producers telling us weneeded more skin or action. It’s justpretty pictures.” �

Steadicamoperator B.J.

McDonnellmaneuversthrough the

main house atVilla Vizcaya.


FILM, VIDEO,AND BROADCASTING

Join a community of fresh artistic voices who share your passion for making stories come to life.Success in filmmaking is as much about teamwork as it is about creativity. The programs in Film, Video, and Broadcasting at NYU’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies (SCPS) offer a unique opportunity to collaborate with a variety of like-minded and aspiring producers, directors, cinematographers, and editors, under the guidance and expertise of a faculty of industry professionals. Visit our website to view a gallery of student work.

CERTIFICATE PROGRAMS INCLUDE: CONTINUING EDUCATION: GRADUATE DEGREE:

New York University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity institution. ©2008 New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies

scps.nyu.edu/x557


16 January 2009

Historic Conversationsby Jean Oppenheimer

A full year after wrappingFrost/Nixon, cinematographer SalvatoreTotino, ASC is still jazzed about shooting

it. His enthusiasm is palpable, even onthe phone. “Do you know how much funthat was?” he exclaims after describinga particularly tricky shot.

Adapted from Peter Morgan’sstage play, Frost/Nixon recreates the

1977 television interviews that Britishtalk-show host David Frost (MichaelSheen) conducted with Richard M.Nixon (Frank Langella) three years afterNixon resigned from the U.S. presi-dency in the wake of the Watergatescandal. The film also covers the lead-up to the interviews, including the initialcontacts and the subsequent prepara-tions made by each camp.

Frost/Nixon is Totino’s fourthcollaboration with director Ron Howard,following The Missing, Cinderella Man(AC June ’05) and The Da Vinci Code(AC June ’06). Since wrapping thepicture, the two have made a fifthfeature together, Angels and Demons,the sequel to The Da Vinci Code. “Ron is10 years older than I am, but he has theenergy of somebody 20 years younger,”the cinematographer says with a laugh.“Keeping up with him is a challengeunto itself.”

Confronting an Ex-President and Grappling with RealityProduction Slate

Fros

t/N

ixon

pho

tos

by R

alph

Nel

son

, cou

rtes

y of

Un

iver

sal P

ictu

res.

Right: Britishtalk-show host

David Frost(Michael Sheen,

left) listens asformer U.S.

PresidentRichard M.

Nixon (FrankLangella)

analyzes histenure in the

White House.Below: Assisted

by Mark Santoni,A-camera

operator AndrewRowlands, SOC

captures thereverse angle on

Sheen as asecond camera

stands at the ready.

CinematographerSalvatore Totino,

ASC oftenemploys two

cameras indialogue scenes,

noting, “Iespecially like

to do ‘overs’ withtwo cameras;

I feel you get great

performancesout of the actors… it gives them

a ‘live’ feeling,almost as though

they’re onstageand this is

their oneperformance.”

�

01_09 prod slate:00 production slate 12/5/08 1:22 PM Page 16


18 January 2009

“Energy” also describes Frost/Nixon’s guiding principle, and for Totino,that meant “moving the camera, hand-holding the camera whenever possible,making the viewer feel he’s in the roomwith the actors, and rolling on the firstrehearsal and letting everything developfrom there. We didn’t want a documen-tary feel; we just wanted to make every-thing feel a bit more visceral, a bit morespontaneous.”

By way of example, he points tothe scene in which Jack Zelnik (OliverPlatt) and James Reston Jr. (Sam Rock-well), two consultants hired to educateFrost about Nixon, meet Frost for the

first time. The scene takes place in asuite at the Plaza Hotel, a set that wasbuilt onstage at Century Studios inCulver City. “We decided to not block thescene,” recalls Totino. “I had watchedRon rehearse the actors, and he said,‘Let’s just start shooting and see howthings fall in, and we’ll build on that.’” A-camera operator Andrew Rowlands,SOC was handholding an Arricam Lite inthe room as Platt and Rockwell enteredfrom the hallway, followed by Totino onanother Lite. “I yelled out, ‘I’m comingthrough the door! Make sure you don’tsee me!’” recounts Totino. “Andrew andI moved around the room, falling into

different shots, building the scene [aswe went along]. Somehow, we nevergot in each other’s way. It was likeexcellent couple’s tennis!”

Totino was working withRowlands for the first time, and he says,“Andrew is an incredible operator. I didAngels and Demons with him after that,and I hope to do the rest of my filmswith him! We work well together, justinstinctually.”

Using two cameras is a hallmarkof Totino’s style. “I especially like to do‘overs’ with two cameras; I feel you getgreat performances out of the actorsthat way. It gives them a ‘live’ feeling,almost as though they’re onstage andthis is their one performance.” Onesequence — a long, late-night phoneconversation between Nixon and Frost— was actually shot live, with Langellaon one set and Sheen on an adjoiningone. Nixon is in his San Clemente homewhen, fortified with a few drinks, hepicks up the phone and calls Frost at thehotel. “Ron suggested we shoot bothends of the conversation at the sametime, and it was a great idea,” saysTotino. “The sets were right next to eachother, and I put two cameras on Langellaand two on Sheen.” (All four cameraswere on dollies.)

The cinematographer kept thelighting simple. Nixon was lit by moon-light coming through a window (5K Fres-nels gelled with light CTB) and a smallpractical (a lamp holding a 40-watt bulbbolstered by a small Kino Flo behind it),and Frost, sitting in his hotel suite, waslit with practicals and a small Kino Flo.

According to Totino, the lightinggoal throughout the shoot was “to makeit feel real.” Because most of the filmtakes place in Southern California, thatmeant a lot of sunshine. Nearly all dayinteriors, whether on location oronstage, were lit through windows with12-light Maxi-Brutes and a 20K Fresnel.Inside, Totino occasionally added a 2KFresnel bouncing off bleached muslin.“When I was looking toward thewindows, that gave a little wrap aroundthe actors.” Night interiors were lit withpractical lamps inside and a bit of moon-light outside.

Above: Frost (farleft) sits down fora strategy session

with his team,which includes

(left to right)author James

Reston Jr. (SamRockwell),

producer John Birt (Matthew

Macfadyen) andconsultant Jack

Zelnik (OliverPlatt). Below (from

left): Santoni,Rowlands, Totino

and 1st ACDominic Aluisi

at work.

�



Totino occasionally softenedsunny day exteriors by placing a 20'x20'frame of Soft Frost over the actors, “butwe didn’t have a lot of time, and weneeded to look almost 360 degrees, sowe couldn’t bring in big constructioncranes to control the sun with silks. Onthis film, my work was more about find-ing camera angles that would suit thelighting that was there.”

To the surprise of just abouteverybody, the current owners of LaCasa Pacifica, Nixon’s Western WhiteHouse in San Clemente, agreed to letthe production shoot there. “It’s sounique, particularly in the courtyard areaand the entrance,” notes Howard. “Wecouldn’t find anything that would repli-cate it.” The production spent two daysat the compound and filmed severalsequences in the exact spot where thereal events had taken place. Other prac-tical locations included the Nixon Libraryand the Beverly Hills Hotel.

Totino shot Frost/Nixon in Super35mm. He initially tried to convince thestudio to allow him to shoot 3-perf, “butthey were reluctant. They felt it wouldn’tgive them any wiggle room in post.” Thefootage was processed normally atDeluxe Laboratories, and the digitalintermediate was carried out at EFilm.“Doing a DI allows me to be a littlequicker on the set — I don’t have tospend a half-hour flagging a little

shadow on a wall, because I know I canfix it later.” He timed the picture withcolorist Steve Bowen, a regular collabo-rator since The Missing.

Clairmont Camera provided thecameras and lenses, which includedCooke S4 primes, Nikkor 200mm and300mm lenses, an Angenieux 12:1Optimo (24-290mm) zoom and a Cooke(18mm-100mm) zoom. With the excep-tion of the late-night phone call, whichwas shot on 100mm and 150mm lenses,Totino generally stayed with mediumfocal lengths. The production had a 40-day shooting schedule but managed tofinish two days early.

In one of Totino’s favorite shots,Frost arrives at the house where theinterviews will take place. The actorwas driving the car, and Totino was nextto him, handholding the camera. Thepassenger door was tied open and thecamera battery was taped to the roof.“Focus puller Dominic Aluisi was in thepassenger seat behind me with aremote follow focus,” recalls the cine-matographer. “You see a jogger runningby, and I tilt down and show Frost’shands as he starts turning the steeringwheel. I tilt up and show the reporterson the lawn through the windshield. Thecar comes to a stop, and I pan back toFrost’s face. He acknowledges hisproducer, who is theoretically sittingwhere I am. At that point, I lean back

and pass the camera out to Andrew,who is waiting for us on the sidewalk.He takes the camera, and Dominicpasses the follow focus out to anothercamera assistant on the sidewalk. Froststrides across the street. Zelnick,Reston and John Birt (MatthewMacfadyen), Frost’s producer, comearound from the back of the car and alsocross the street. Then Nixon’s motor-cade drives up.

“Originally, we went into awhole over-the-shoulder into Nixon, butthat part got cut — the shot was justtoo long,” adds Totino. “But that wholesequence was so much fun to do.”

Another of Totino’s favorite shotsfinds Nixon lying on a gurney as he’srushed into a hospital. The grips built aspeed-rail rig over the gurney, and asthe EMTs push the gurney forward, thecamera, on a remote head, is lookingback toward the emergency entrancethey just used. The camera tilts down toNixon’s face. At that point, the scenecuts to a tight shot of one of the wheelson the gurney as it races down the hall.To get this shot, Totino lay on a doorwaydolly and held the camera, following thewheel until it turned the corner andexited frame. He praises Aluisi, his long-time focus puller, noting, “I always liketo move quickly, which makes it doublyhard on Dominic. Plus, all of our nightscenes were shot wide open at T2!”

Totino says he and Howard havedeveloped a way of working togetherthat serves them well: they drive to theset together every morning, along withthe 1st AD, and talk about the dayahead of them. “We get to the set early,jump out of the car and get right to it,”he says. “As we drive home at the endof the day, we recap what we’ve doneand talk about the next day. Ron isalways really well prepared, and work-ing with him is fantastic.”

TECHNICAL SPECS2.40:1

Super 35mmArricam System

Cooke, Nikkor, Angenieux lensesKodak Vision2 500T 5218, 100T 5212

Digital Intermediate

Nixon hangs upon Frost after

drunk-dialing hisinterrogator

before their finalinterview. To

lend thissequence a live

feel, thefilmmakers shot

Langella andSheen

simultaneouslyon adjoining

sets.

20 January 2009

�


www.clairmont.com

Hollywood818-761-4440

Vancouver604-984-4563

Toronto416-467-1700

Albuquerque505-227-2525

Montreal514-525-6556

Why do I like to get my cameraequipment from Clairmont?

Because I know and like the people who work

there, and have a long relationship with them.

They go out of their way to make sure I get

the gear I need.

Because I know the equipment will be new, well-

serviced, and backed up by a large inventory.

Because they buy the newest film and HD

equipment, and often modify it to work better than

when it comes straight from the manufacturer.

Because Clairmont has been very helpful in

educating my colleagues and me on the newest

digital equipment - demonstrating both the benefits

and limitations, and giving us an honest

assessment of what they like and don't like.

Whether a project calls for film or digital, 16 or 35

mm, high budget or low, Clairmont has always been

very supportive. And support is something we all

appreciate, whether from production, crew, or rental

house.

I would like to thank Denny and everyone at Clairmont Camera

for all the help and support they’ve given me over the years.

Michael Bonvillain, ASC

AMC_0109_p021:Layout 1 12/6/08 12:07 PM Page 1

On the Ropesby Claire Walla

There’s very little in professionalwrestling that screams ‘realism.’ Partic-ipants use fake, hyperbolic names (i.e.,Sgt. Slaughter); dress in flashy, skin-tight costumes; and perform an array ofchoreographed moves that range fromBodyslams to Tombstone Piledrivers.But for Randy “The Ram” Robinson(Mickey Rourke), the main character inDarren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, theworld outside the ring is painfully real.

We meet The Ram nearly twodecades after the peak of his fame. He’sstill wrestling, but his real livelihood is aminimum-wage job at a local supermar-ket. He’s trying to foster a connectionwith a sympathetic stripper, Cassidy(Marisa Tomei), and when his troublestake a turn for the worse, he makes aneffort to repair his relationship with hisonly child, Stephanie (Evan RachelWood).

In developing a look for TheWrestler, cinematographer MaryseAlberti says she and Aronofsky “wanted

to keep the mood of each space,”whether it was a wrestling ring or theAcme Market where The Ram works.Shooting Super 16mm, she avoidedfiltration and relied primarily on existinglight at the locations, bolstering it whennecessary. For a scene in which TheRam joins a number of his agingcolleagues for an autograph session ata local VFW hall, Alberti “tried topreserve the drabness of the room” byadding only a few Mac 2000s “to getthe light up to speed.” She adds, “Forthe most part, I was not afraid to comein and say, ‘He looks great; I don’t needto do anything,’ or add just one littlebulb and say, ‘It looks fine.’”

The filmmakers’ decision toshoot Super 16 was influenced by theproduction’s modest budget, but thegraininess of the image also served tocreate the semi-documentary feelAronofsky had in mind. The mix of docu-mentary and feature credits on Alberti’srésumé made her “a perfect match forthe material,” says the director. “I wasexcited about the prospect of workingwith Maryse because she had donefeatures I was a big, big fan of, Happi-ness [1998] and Velvet Goldmine [1998],

Right: Broken-down wrestler

Randy “TheRam” Robinson

(Mickey Rourke)leans heavily on

the top ropewhile trying to

recapture someof his old magic

in the ring.Below: The Ram

attempts areconciliation

with hisestranged

daughter (EvanRachel Wood).

The

Wre

stle

r ph

otos

by

Nik

o Ta

vern

ise,

cou

rtes

y of

Fox

Sea

rchl

ight

Pic

ture

s.

22 January 2009



24 January 2009

and she had spent many years workingin documentaries.” (Her credits in thatdiscipline include Enron: The SmartestGuys in the Room and Taxi to the DarkSide.)

He and Alberti spent about fiveweeks scouting locations and planningsome shots, but roughly 40 percent ofThe Wrestler was entirely unscripted.“There were many ways I could havechosen to tell this story, but Mickey[Rourke] is very much in the moment —he’s very unpredictable between ‘Action’and ‘Cut,’” notes Aronofsky. “I wanted tocreate a visual language that would beas free as possible to capture that.”

The director’s quest for realism

led the filmmakers to shoot The Ram’sperformances in the midst of realwrestling matches, or “promotions.”Alberti explains, “We would go in withMickey in the middle of a match, shoot alittle bit, get out, and then come back into shoot a little bit more.” They shotsporadically because The Ram’smatches were so physically demanding,and because the time lapse allowed thereal wrestlers to get back into the ringwhile the crew reloaded. The wrestlerswere thus able to rile up the crowd forwhen the camera got rolling again. “It’shard to shoot in the middle of a scream-ing crowd when you have to keep apace, because the people had come to

see a show, and they only had so muchpatience for the film crew,” recallsAlberti. “But we were on top of every-thing, and nothing went wrong.”

Aronofsky’s desire for an impro-visational feel extended to the lightingof a number of scenes. A-camera oper-ator Peter Nolan recalls, “To get a shotof Mickey at a phone booth at night, weliterally rolled up in a couple of vans, theprop guys pulled out the phone booth,and Maryse lit it with two 1-by-1Litepanels LEDs. It was a very quicksetup, but it was right for the shot —we weren’t skimping in any way.”

Alberti often does her own oper-ating, and when she signed onto TheWrestler, she planned to do that, “but Ivery quickly realized Darren does a lot oftakes, and that physically it was goingto be too demanding — I wouldn’t havehad enough time to really look at thelighting,” she says. “I was very lucky tohave Peter.”

A longtime operator on the FXseries Rescue Me, which emphasizeshandheld camerawork, Nolan reportsthat he was “basically shooting with myhandheld bag of tricks to make sure Icould deliver the shot.” With the help ofkey grip Chris Skutch, he was able tobring some techniques he uses onRescue Me to The Wrestler. Forinstance, he often maneuvered aroundscenes with half an apple box tetheredto his waist so that whenever he satdown, he would always have a flatsurface on his lap where he could resthis arms. “It looks very funny on set,obviously, but it’s a great technique, andit works,” says Nolan.

“When you’re in a very lowseated position with the camera on yourshoulder, your center of gravity is oftentoo high for you to stand smoothly andtravel with the actor,” he continues. “Idevised a system where my D-ring beltcould stick up out of my back brace,creating a handle the dolly grip coulduse to physically boom me up anddown. For quick height changes, I foundthat by unlocking the medium eyepieceon the Arri 416 so it could swivel freely,I was able to use it as a left-hand gripwhile cradling the camera with my right

Above: The Ramis slammed into

a corner supportby a younger

rival. Below: Thefilmmakers

captured mostmatch footage

during realwrestling events

with payingcrowds.


AMC_0807_p015 6/29/07 11:51 AM Page 1

26 January 2009

hand; that allowed me to go from higher-than-shoulder to almost floor height oranywhere in between while followingthe action. Every single shot in this moviewas handheld, and it was the first timeI’d used the 416. I love that camera!”

Alberti’s camera package,supplied by Arri’s Camera Service Centerin New York, included Zeiss Ultra 16prime lenses and two Angenieux Optimozooms, a 15-40mm Lightweight and a 28-76mm. Inspired by the camerawork in theDardenne brothers’ L’Enfant, the filmmak-ers wanted the camera to be fixed onRourke most of the time, often followinghim from a very close angle. “We wanteda strong sense of intimacy and intensity,”says Alberti. This created some chal-lenges for Nolan during the wrestlingmatches; he was following the actionfrom within the ring on a wide-angle lens— most of the movie was shot on a12mm prime — which meant he had tobe very close to the actors in order to getgood close-ups. “It was very tricky,” herecalls. “Even when glass and debriswere flying everywhere and the wrestlerswere throwing each other down, I had totry to finesse the shot so I wasn’t throw-ing shadows, getting hit or allowing [theactors] to bump into me. There was oftensome kind of contact between us, but youcan’t see it in the film because ithappened below the lens.”

For the lighting of the wrestlingmatches, Alberti relinquished much ofher control to the wrestling promoters,who have their own set of lighting stan-dards. “Different venues do differentthings, but it’s always a slight variationon the same theme of having lightsdirectly on the four corners of the ring,”she says. “Sometimes I changed theratio of light in each corner in order to

add a bit more contrast or a little moredefinition, but I basically used what wasthere.”

The final match in the film, whenThe Ram confronts The Ayatollah(Ernest Miller), was a different story.This was the only match that wasn’tfilmed at an actual promotion; it wasshot at a New Jersey theater theproduction rented. Production designerTim Grimes fully constructed the ring,and Alberti and her crew spent threedays lighting it. She strove to maintainthe lighting configuration used at thepromotions, but because this was thefilm’s climax, “we had to add a littlemore panache,” she says. She achievedthis by creating a horseshoe-shaped rigof colored lights that the wrestlerswould walk under on their way to thering. The Ram, who represents Americain this final match, is awash in red,white and blue, whereas The Ayatollahis doused in red and green.

One of the more challengingscenes to shoot takes place in the stripclub where Cassidy works. In the scene,the camera follows her in a long take asshe performs a striptease. None of thecrew saw the choreography until theday of the shoot, so in a very shortamount of time, Alberti and Nolan hadto figure out how Nolan could circleTomei without throwing any shadowson her body — tough to do in a room fullof moving colored lights. “She’s stand-ing up, she’s on a pole, she’s crawling onher belly, she’s in a squatting positionand then she’s standing up again,”Nolan recounts. “We decided to mounta monitor on the camera but quicklyfound that as I went off-axis while view-ing, the screen would go black. So wemounted another on the other side,

angling one to serve from full high reachto just below chest height, and I wouldlook to the other for all the lower-anglecoverage of Tomei’s performance.”

As for the shadows, “we had agrip flagging and then unflagging lightsas I moved around,” he continues.“After 26 takes, we were eventuallyable to pull it off without giving awaythe fact that there’s a camera followingher around.”

Alberti says she is thrilled towork in a field where stories like TheWrestler come her way. “In the last twoyears, I did a film on soccer and endedup at the World Cup, I did a film on reli-gious leaders and met the Pope and theDalai Lama, I did The Wrestler and amovie about truckers, and now I’mdoing a documentary on Eliot Spitzer. Ilike that film takes me in so many differ-ent directions, because to me, these areall interesting stories. Whatever genreit is, I want a good script with a goodstory.”

TECHNICAL SPECS2.40:1

Super 16mmArri 416

Zeiss and Angenieux lensesKodak Vision3 500T 7219,

Vision2 200T 7217Digital Intermediate

�

Erratum

In our coverage of Australia inthe November issue, we inaccuratelycredited all of the photos to DouglasKirkland. James Fisher took some ofthe shots.

Near right:Cinematographer

Maryse Alberti.Far right: The

Ram seeksemotional

solace from astripper (Marisa

Tomei) who has also

experienced her share of hard times.


AMC_1208_p071:00 asc closeup 11/5/08 2:34 PM Page 1

28 January 2009

For Sam Mendes and Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC, finding avisual style for the domestic drama Revolutionary Road was a

matter of simplicity.

by Rachael K. Bosley

Unit photography by François Duhamel, SMPSP

CloseFocus

AMC_0109_p029p041:a_feature 12/5/08 1:28 PM Page 28

American Cinematographer 29

Great novels pose singular chal-lenges to those who seek toadapt them for the screen, andsome would say Richard Yates’Revolutionary Road, published

in 1961, poses more than most. Spareand unsparing in equal measure, theportrait of an unhappy marriage insuburban Connecticut in 1955 is amainly interior drama whose charac-ters and conflicts are rendered withpiercing clarity and little sentiment.The novel’s observational stance was,in fact, an early concern for cine-matographer Roger Deakins, ASC,BSC, who reunited with directorSam Mendes to help bring the storyto the screen. “When I read the book,I was concerned the audience mightnot be drawn into the charactersbecause there’s a sort of distancefrom them,” says Deakins. “It’s aninteresting problem, really, and Samand I talked about it a lot.”

The key, says Mendes, lay instaying close to the main characters,Frank and April Wheeler (LeonardoDiCaprio and Kate Winslet), andtelling their story as simply as possi-

ble. “The novel is about a marriage, aperiod and a community, and Iwanted to make it primarily a storyabout a marriage,” says Mendes.Referring to his previous films,American Beauty (AC March andJune ’00), Road to Perdition (AC Aug.’02) and Jarhead (AC Nov. ’05), he

continues, “I’d directed an originalscreenplay and [adaptations of] agraphic novel and a memoir, but I’dnever done a film adaptation of agreat novel, and I was wary of that.After all, a novel can be great for theopposite reasons a movie is great. ButI was drawn in the end to the simple

Opposite: Frankand AprilWheeler(LeonardoDiCaprio andKate Winslet)enjoy a rareharmoniousmoment in thekitchen. Thispage, top: Thementallyunstable JohnGivings(MichaelShannon,gesturing at left)pays adisruptive visitto the Wheelerhome with hisparents (RichardEaston andKathy Bates).Below: DirectorSam Mendes(left) talks overa scene withBates andWinslet. At thedoor to Mendes’left, RogerDeakins, ASC,BSC checks the“daylight”flooding theroom.

Pho

tos

cou

rtes

y of

Dre

amW

orks

LLC

. Lig

htin

g di

agra

ms

cou

rtes

y of

Rog

er D

eaki

ns.


Top: ArriCompact 12Ks

bouncing offUltrabounce send

light through thewindows for day-

interior work atthe Wheeler

house. “The ragswould also cut

the sun at thesame time,”

notes gaffer BillO’Leary. Middle:

Frank tries toreassure his wife

in one of thefilm’s many

kitchen scenes.Bottom: Withbounce light

from smallinstruments

insideaugmenting the

window light,Deakins lines up

the shot.

30 January 2009

center of the story — a man and awoman in a room. I knew the heart ofthe movie was going to be in theclose-ups, and I’d never done a moviein which that was the case.”

In form and content,Revolutionary Road could not bemore different from Mendes andDeakins’ previous collaboration, theGulf War drama Jarhead, but Mendesnotes Deakins “is a master at cuttinga suit according to its cloth. Justtaking his oeuvre with the Coenbrothers as an example, you can’tbelieve the same person lit BartonFink [1991] and Fargo [1996]; one ishighly stylized and the other is totallyobservational, and yet they’re bothperfect. Roger’s ability to morphhimself, to shape his style accordingto the requirements of the script, isextraordinary. I suppose there areparallels amongst directors; somehave a single style and impose it onwhatever material they’re dealingwith, and others adjust their style tothe requirements of the story. I’m inthe latter category, and Roger is, too.”

On Revolutionary Road, therequirements of the story, andMendes’ desire to tell it in an“unadorned” style, led to a visualapproach Deakins calls “verystraightforward.” The cinematogra-pher notes, “It’s a film about amarriage falling apart in this suppos-edly idyllic suburbia, and whenyou’ve got two great actors in a storylike that, you don’t want to do muchwith the camera. You just want tophotograph it as best you can to letthe audience see the characters andthe performances that give you thecharacters.” The close focus on Frankand April also led Mendes andDeakins to make decisions aboutshots only after the director had thor-oughly rehearsed DiCaprio andWinslet in the space at hand. “Itwasn’t like working with the Coenbrothers, who decide in advanceexactly how something will be stagedand shot,” says Deakins. “This wasn’tthe kind of film where you were

Close Focus


Top: In theelevator thatleads to hisoffice, Frank ischecked out bya youngsecretary (ZoeKazan). Middle:Frank makes hismove. Bottom:Amid an array of800-watt HMIJokers bouncingoff muslin,Mendes checksthe shot asKazan andDiCaprio runthrough thescene.

going to impose anything, really, onwhat the actors were going to do.”

The filmmakers were united intheir desire to extend the mandate forvisual simplicity to their depiction ofthe period. (See sidebar on page 36.)“One of the great dangers of perioddesign in movies is that for many ofus, our notion of how somethinglooked in the ’30s or ’50s is a receivednotion based on what we’ve seen inmovies,” observes Mendes. “I thoughtit was very important to try andunlock some [reference] materialthat wasn’t other movies’ versions ofthe ’50s.” Researchers for Mendes andproduction designer Kristi Zeaassembled a variety of stillphotographs from the era, and Zeabrought in a copy of Saul Leiter’sEarly Color, which proved to be a keyreference for the film’s overall feel.

In addition to his generalconcerns about period design,Mendes believed presenting the ’50swith any kind of flourish inRevolutionary Road would take theemphasis away from “the heart” ofthe story. “There’s a way of readingthe novel which is to say it’s actuallyabout the ’50s, but I don’t agreeentirely with that,” he says. “Theperiod obviously serves as a back-drop, but I felt the period detailsshould be almost thrown in,observed as though from a distance.When there are big shots that show alot of period detail, like Frankmaking his way through GrandCentral Station or through thecrowded streets of New York, I wasruthless with them in the edit.They’re not lingered on or fetishized;they’re simply our character on hisway to work. I didn’t want to haveany shots that said, ‘The 1950s:weren’t they extraordinary!’ I simplywanted it to be where these charac-ters live.”

That was fine with Deakins. “Ihate the idea that you have to makethe photography colorful because it’sthe ’50s, or you have to make it gauzyand sepia because it’s an earlier era —



32 January 2009

I’ve never seen the point of that,really,” says the cinematographer,whose recent period credits includethe current release Doubt, set in 1964,and last year’s The Assassination ofJesse James by the Coward Robert Ford(AC Oct. ’07). Deakins shotRevolutionary Road clean and hadthe negative (Kodak Vision2 200T5217 and 500T 5218) processednormally at DuArt Film and Video in

New York, a favorite lab when he isworking in the area.

Keen to create as much realityon the screen as possible, Mendesdecided to shoot the picture on loca-tion and, with few exceptions, incontinuity. “It was good for themovie that we committed to shooton location, but it’s a merciless deci-sion to make on a period film, espe-cially one set mainly in a small

suburban house,” the directoracknowledges. “I wanted the atmos-phere and claustrophobia of a realhouse, and I was willing, for the firsttime, to occasionally sacrifice the‘look’ of a scene for psychologicalaccuracy and mood. We were oftentwisting ourselves into pretzels andcramming ourselves into corners,but I feel the reality of the situation isthere onscreen.” As for shooting incontinuity, he continues, “My jobwas to help Leonardo and Katecreate a convincing marriage andthen, as the story progressed, watchthem gradually, bit by bit, destroyeach other. That seemed, for obviousreasons, to be anathema to the ideaof shooting the end of the story atthe beginning.”

Frank and April’s argumentsgrow more intense as the storyprogresses, and Deakins notes thatshooting in continuity facilitated “a subtle evolution” in the camera-work, most of which he accom-plished with the Power Pod remotehead/Aerocrane Jib Arm combina-tion he has favored for several years.

Right: Aprilheads for aninterview in

Manhattan thatshe hopes will

lead her andFrank in a new

direction.Below: Deakinsprepares to filmthe scene with

one of hisfavorite tools, a

Power Podremote head.

Close Focus


introducing two new legendary fi lmmakers.

when it counts

© 2008 Panasonic Broadcast

Whether it’s a romantic comedy or high-speed action scene, Panasonic’s

new VariCam 3700 and VariCam 2700 P2 HD camcorders provide the

fi lm-like operation, fast-/slow-motion in-camera effects and subtle tone

control of the legendary VariCam – but now with the speed, fl exibility

and reliability of P2’s solid-state fi le-based workfl ow. Each of these

premium cinematography cameras allows a creative professional to

capture pristine-quality images using three of the fi nest, full native

resolution 2/3" CCDs and master-quality 10-bit, 4:2:2 AVC-Intra 100

compression. And, for ultimate quality without color sub-sampling,

VariCam 3700 offers dual-link RGB 4:4:4 output with log response

capability. With sophisticated in-camera controls, such as Film Rec

and Dynamic Range Stretch, true 24.00p frame rate recording,

and lens performance optimization using Chromatic Aberration Compensation,

you get the extraordinary control and versatility you expect only from a

VariCam. And, the reliability of these solid-state master-quality cameras is

backed by an industry-leading fi ve-year limited warranty.

The new VariCam 3700 and VariCam 2700. The legend continues.

Learn more about the new P2 HD VariCams at

www. panasonic.com/p2hd.

Unmatched recording capacity with our new 64GB P2 card

AMC_1108_p049:00 asc closeup 9/24/08 11:49 AM Page 1

“Sam and I originally thought ofshooting the whole movie static togive it the same observational feel asthe book, but once we started shoot-ing, we agreed that felt a bit dead,”says Deakins. “So [the style] starts offstatic and gradually becomes morefragmented. Films like this have theirown organic way of progressing; you

can fight it, but that’s the wrong thingto do.

“We tried to stage quite a bitin single takes, with the cameragoing from one character to theother as they moved within thespace, and I shot quite a bit with theremote arm,” he continues. “By theend of the film, when things get

really intense between April andFrank, [the camera is] mostly hand-held.” Mendes adds, “I wanted a realrawness in Leo and Kate’s perfor-mances in the last half-hour of themovie, and when we reached thatpoint, I told Roger I didn’t want tomake any decisions [about shots]; Iwanted it to be handheld, and Iwanted to let the actors be explosiveand unpredictable. Roger is a bril-liant operator, and I think he wasexcited by that, and that’s very muchthere in the film; the transition tohandheld has quite an intenseemotional impact.”

Though shooting in continu-ity had its benefits, in the Wheelers’house “it was kind of a nightmarelogistically,” says Deakins. “We’d do ascene in the downstairs front room,then we’d go upstairs to do a scene,then we’d come back down again foranother. If it’s a lovely day and [therest of the crew] can go outsidewhile you’re shooting, it’s fine, butwhen it’s raining and everyone hasto squeeze inside, it can be reallydifficult to move around.” (Theshoot, which took place in

34 January 2009

Right: April andFrank argue over

their plans tomove to Paris.

Below: Deakinsworks with

O’Leary (center)and electrician

Scott Gregoir tofine-tune a

ringlightcomprising 60-watt bulbs that

acted as anoverhead source

in the house.

Close Focus



During prep, Deakinssketched plans for anoverhead source thatwould stay out of frameat Vito’s, a roadside barwhere the Wheelersand their friends go fordrinks and dancing. “Iuse these drawings as areference for my gafferand key [grip] to say,‘This is what we’rethinking,’” saysDeakins. “We had toshoot a lot of work atthis location in two orthree days, and this rigallowed us to changethe feel and color of thelight quite quickly.” Inthe photo, April andShep (David Harbour)share a dance under therig as the cameracircles the action.


36 January 2009

A subdued colorpalette and

streamlineddesign

characterize thelook of the

Wheelers’ home.“We ruled out

anything that hityou over the

head with theperiod,” notesset decoratorDebra Schutt.

Design and décor are often amongthe most-talked-about aspects ofa period film, but on

Revolutionary Road, the talents inthose departments strove to make1955 look as plain as possible. “Thatwas a concept [director] SamMendes and [production designer]Kristi Zea had from the beginning,and I thought it was great,” says setdecorator Debra Schutt. “We allwanted to make a period movie thatdidn’t look like one.”

The interior of Frank andApril Wheeler’s home, where muchof the story takes place, was particu-larly important and, says Schutt, themost difficult to sort out. “Thereweren’t many details in the novel orthe screenplay about what it shouldlook like,” she notes. “We had toreally figure out who those charac-ters were.” In concert with Zea, shedetermined that the Wheelers, ayoung couple who had reluctantlyabandoned the city to settle insuburbia, would maintain a homethat looked “streamlined andsimple.” Referencing mid-1950s style

magazines, design books, and SearsRoebuck and Montgomery Wardcatalogs, Schutt chose furnishingsthat were “stylish for the time but didnot scream ‘the ’50s.’ We ruled outanything with bright colors andanything that hit you over the headwith the period. The look is reallyquite plain.”

Working in a real suburbanhouse and shooting in continuityaffected Schutt’s work “in a numberof ways,” she says. “The furniture hadto keep going in and out because thehouse was so small, and logistically, itwas rather a mess because it rainedquite often, so we had to find ways toprotect everything outside. But I findit easier to work on location; it’seasier to envision what a space isgoing to be when I can see the actualthing.” Given that Mendes madedecisions about shots on a scene-by-scene basis, Schutt and her team hadto be ready for anything, but she saysthat is her habit, anyway. “Sam wouldcall me a Method decorator,” she sayswith a laugh. “You could open anydoor or cabinet in the house, and it

was there. Also, we had a great propperson, Tom Allen, and on-setdresser, Ruth Ann DeLeon, whomade sure we were prepared nomatter what [the actors] did.”

Revolutionary Road wasSchutt’s first collaboration withRoger Deakins, ASC, BSC, whosepreference for using practical sourceswhenever possible is well known. “Ifind half the job now is working withthe set decorator to get the right kindof practicals,” says the cinematogra-pher. Schutt recalls Deakins inquiredabout the light fixtures as soon as shecame aboard the show. “Like everyother cinematographer in the world,he was interested in the lampshadesand the quality of light they wouldcreate, but he also wanted to look atevery single light fixture, and I hadn’tcome across that in a cinematogra-pher before,” she says.

“I could tell he considered thepracticals the most important part ofhis lighting,” she continues. “Hespends time thinking about them,and he’s quite specific about what hewants. For instance, for the nightscene by the side of the road, hewanted streetlights that would give arectangular, tapered light, and for anargument in the Wheelers’ frontroom, he wanted a ceiling fixturethat would send light down and outin a fan shape with a hard edge.” (Inthe end, the ceiling fixture wasn’tvisible in the latter scene, so Deakinsused an 18" ring of 60-watt bulbssurrounded by silver foil instead.)

“It took me a while to figureout that for Roger, it’s about theshape of the light as much as thequality of it,” says Schutt. “It’s morelike architecture for him. He’s thearchitect of light.”

— Rachael K. Bosley

Furnishing a Plain Period Look


Connecticut and New York City inthe summer of 2007, experienced afair share of rain.)

“I didn’t really feel shooting inthe house was confining in terms ofwhat we could do with the camera,but it was sometimes frustrating interms of how I could light it,” contin-ues Deakins. “Locations like that onlylook good for about a half-hour or anhour at a certain time of day on a goodday, but you can’t allow for that. Ittakes an enormous amount of light tomaintain a naturalistic, consistentdaytime feel inside, and the house wasbacked up against a hill, so gettinglight into the upper rooms and intothe kitchen around back was tricky.”To accomplish this, his electrical crew,led by gaffer Bill O’Leary, bounced12K Arri Compact HMIs off 20'x20',12'x20' and 12'x12' sheets of muslin orUltrabounce set outside the windows.“For the ground-floor scenes, weworked off the grade, and on thesecond floor, we worked off a scaf-fold,” says O’Leary. “The rigs dancedabout a bit to accommodate the shots,and the beauty of a single-camerashow is that this is possible; the closerone can work to the edge of the frame,

the better.”Because every shot in the

house depended on the scene andthe blocking, pre-lighting was out ofthe question. “We had the housestripped apart and rewired so wecould use the sockets in the walls,and we also put power points in theceilings so we didn’t have to runcables in the room,” says Deakins.

“We used no big lights inside, mainly200-watt or 400-watt Jokers. A hugeamount of the film was lit by practi-cals in the shot.” These practical tablelamps and floor lamps held standardhousehold bulbs ranging from 60 to200 watts, according to O’Leary. “Weused no tricks or special gags — itwas all standard fare but properlyapplied, so it worked,” notes the

Left: Frank andApril’s firstencounter ispresented inflashback. Thescene’s softoverhead sourcewas a 6'-long-by-4'-wide ovalringlight of 60-watt bulbs, someof which weredimmed to createa warm feel. “Weteased it withmuslin to cutspill and sendsome fill back tothe center, wherethe actors playedthe scene,” notesO’Leary. Below:Mendes checksan angle on ascene depictingone of thecouple’s liaisonsin Frank’sapartment.



38 January 2009

gaffer. “For fill, we usually bouncedTweenies off 4-by-4 muslins, and thelamps and bounce material wereoften hung from the ceiling to leavethe floor clear for the actors and thecamera.”

Deakins and O’Leary used asimilar strategy at another locationthat called for a consistent daylight

feel, Frank’s office, a large, open spacesubdivided by a sea of cubicles. Thelocation was the fifth floor of amunicipal building in LowerManhattan. “I initially thought wecould position cranes to send lightthrough the windows, but the cityrefused to shut any portion of thestreet below,” recalls Deakins. “The

sound department had to put ¾-inch Plexiglas on all the windows tocreate a sound baffle, and we had toadd on to a scaffold that was in placeon the first floor for a constructionproject. We ended up with a plat-form outside the windows that ranthe length of the building.” On theplatform, O’Leary’s crew riggedabout a dozen 12K Arri Compactsbounced off 12'x12' muslins to sendeven daylight into the office. “It wasthe only way we could work,” notesDeakins. “There wasn’t enoughnatural daylight in the morning, andthere was too much of it in the after-noon.”

A location that posed a differ-ent sort of lighting conundrum was astretch of highway in Connecticutthat served as the setting for one ofthe film’s earliest scenes, an argu-ment between Frank and April thatstarts in the car and continues on theside of the road after Frank pulls overand follows his wife out of the car.The scene takes place at night and,given that highways were not well litin 1955, potential sources werelimited. “The most important choice

Close FocusRight: Following

a particularlysavage

argument, Frankpensively

awaits hiswife’s return.Below: April

retreats to thewoods behind

the house toescape her

husband.


www.denz-deniz.com

swivel range ± 90°

gear unit with 3 reductions

manual handling via fl exible shaft or handwheel

touch & go

0°

+90°

– 90°

super BOGIE– manual –

39

was how you saw the scene,” saysDeakins. “I decided we could do itwith three practicals, a little tungstenbounce off a sheet of polystyrene,and car headlights passing by in thebackground.”

The three practicals wereperiod streetlights manufactured bythe art department that each heldfour 2K 3200°K bulbs (standing infor the 8'-long fluorescent tubes thatwould normally be used in thefixtures); the lights were positionedalong a gravel turnoff that had alsobeen created by the art department.“In some shots, you can see about amile and a half down the road, andthere’s no way we were going to lightthat, so we just let the passing cars’headlights be the background,” saysDeakins. “Of course, because they’reperiod cars, we had to replace theheadlights with stronger bulbs, tung-sten Par 36s, run off batteries andinverters.” O’Leary adds, “We outfit-ted about two dozen period cars[that way]. It’s probably the iffiestsituation a film electrician can getinto — batteries and inverters arenotoriously unreliable — but it allworked.”

The filmmakers consideredshooting the driving portion of thescene practically, but Deakinssuggested using poor man’s processinstead. “What we needed to createin the car was the feeling of Frank’sheadlights bouncing back from theroad onto their faces, and I knew Icould do that in a barn,” says thecinematographer. “We found onethat gave us about 40 feet of space,and we did the shot very quickly in acouple of takes. We’d scheduled twodays for the same scene when weplanned to shoot it on the open road;at that time of year, darkness lastslittle more than five hours.” To createthe feel of headlights approachingand taillights retreating behind theWheelers’ car, the crew put fourTweenies (two for headlights andtwo gelled red for taillights) ondollies that were pushed back and


forth behind the car as the lightswere dimmed up and down. A littledust was added to the rear window toslightly blow out the lights. “For thefront,” says Deakins, “I did exactlywhat I’d have done if we’d shot onthe road: I put a fluorescent tube onthe [hood] and had it moved up anddown very slightly to give the light on

their faces a bit of life.”Another scene Deakins and

Mendes discussed at length ahead oftime depicts April’s liaison with aneighbor, Shep Campbell (DavidHarbour), in a car outside Vito’s LogCabin, a popular local bar. Deakinsrecalls, “We were struggling with howto cover it. Should we do a number

of cuts looking toward the car?Should we see it in a wide shot of thecar? Should we see the glass mistingup? When we got there, Sam startedworking out the blocking with Kateand David, and I was watching themfrom the back seat of the car. Therewas a slightly observational qualityabout that angle, a matter-of-fact-ness, that made the whole thing feelreally sad. I pointed it out to Sam,and we ended up shooting the wholething from the back seat in one shot.Sometimes, on the day, I find I seesomething that’s much simpler thanwhat I’d imagined and, I hope,much, much better.”

The filmmakers had access to35mm dailies throughout the shoot,but Deakins was unable to watchthem every night — he spent manyevenings digitally grading two otherpictures, Jesse James and In the Valleyof Elah, on a portable system EFilmhad set up for him nearby, in

Close Focus

40

Seated on anATV, Deakins

prepares to trackWinslet on her

flight into thewoods. “We

used a beachball as a camera

support — apoor man’s

Wescam, if youlike,” he says.


Stamford, Conn. “Doing that atnight and on weekends during theshoot was really tiring, but it wasactually better than working atEFilm itself because we had a dedi-cated system to ourselves and didn’thave to wait as long as we normallywould for stuff to render!” he sayswith a laugh. To make his intentionsclear to Revolutionary Road’s dailiestimer at DuArt, Steve Blakely,Deakins used his Leica M8 to takedigital stills of his lighting setupswith the stand-ins in place, “did a bitof work on them in Photoshop andthen e-mailed them to Steve,” hesays. “I’ve worked with him so manytimes he didn’t really need them, butit was quite a good reference.”

Deakins was able to superviseRevolutionary Road’s 4K digitalintermediate in person at EFilm, andthe facility’s remote system wastransported to New York so he andMendes could view the results

together. An enthusiastic proponentof the DI, Deakins notes the processwas especially useful on this picture.“All the work in the house was aconstant chase against the light, andthe DI was the final tool I could useto make all those shots match a bitbetter and give the light an even feel.It was about giving the film as muchreality as we could.”

Marveling at Deakins’ abilityto “elevate images without losing asense of the real” both in the DI suiteand on the set, Mendes emphasizesthat such subtlety is just one charac-teristic of the cinematographer’swork that makes it unique. BeyondDeakins’ considerable skill with thetools of his trade lies something thatis perhaps less obvious but, says thedirector, just as remarkable: selfless-ness. “It’s stating the obvious to sayRoger is a great cinematographer,but his work is never self-advertis-ing,” says Mendes. “He won’t ever

stand between the picture and theaudience and say, ‘Look at the waythis is lit. Look at the way this is shot.’The effect of the movie is thereforecumulative; you can’t pull any singleshot out because it doesn’t meananything taken out of context. It’s thewhole film that is the statement.” �

NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS. PRICES SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE.

Samy’s DV & EditSamy’s DV & EditBEFORE YOU BUY YOUR DIGITAL CINEMA EQUIPMENT, TALK TO US!

WE ACCEPT MASTERCARD, VISA,AMERICAN EXPRESS & DISCOVER. SCHOOL, UNIVERSITY & CORPORATE P.O.’S WELCOME www.samysdv.com

AJ-HDX900

• Adds on support for 1080i and 720p• Three 2/3" 1 million pixels Progressive CCD imagers• 24P/30P/60i recording capability • Captures film-like 24-frame images using CineGamma

Affordable Professional Hi-Definition Camera

AJ-SDX900 Also Available

SONY IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK

• Solid-state handheld camcorder enables highdefinition and standard definition recording

• Widest zoom lens in its class• HD-SDI interface• Lightweight 4.2-pound body

AG-HPX170

�

AG-HPX500Three 2/3”CCD P2 HD Camcorder

Please call for our PRODUCTION PACKAGE

PROMOTIONS!

The next generation of P2 cameras

XDCAMEX SEMI SHOULDER CAMCORDER• 1⁄2-inch interchangeable lens system•1/2” imagers with 1920x1080 pixels • Genlock in• Time Code in/out• 8-pin remote control for studio operation

Sony HVR-S270U

PMW-EX3

Interchangeable Lens ProShoulder Mount HDV Camera

• Native progressive recording• Increased sensitivity for low-light • Hybrid solid-state recording• 3 ClearVid CMOS Sensor system

Sony HVR-Z7U

InterchangeableLens Professional

HDV Camera• Switch between 1080p, 1080i in the HDV format,

DVCAM™, and DV recording• Down-convert material from HD to SD

PDW-F355 & PDW-F330 ALSO AVAILABLE

2/3” XDCAM HD Camcorder• Three 2/3-inch progressive CCD sensors,

each with full 1920 x 1080 resolution• HD recording at a data rate of up to

50 Mb/s using the MPEG-2 4:2:2P@HLcompression technology,“MPEG HD422”

Sony PDW-700

1/2” HD Camera• Record to ExpressCard high-speed flash media• Switchable between 1080/60i and 720/60P• Capable of recording 1080/50i/30P/25P/24P and 720/50P• MPEG-2 compression technology with three, 1/2” imagers

PMW-EX1Flash MemoryCapabilities

New!

New!

A Division of Samy’s CameraWE’VE MOVED - NEW ADDRESS!12636 Beatrice St. Los Angeles, CA 90066(310) 450-4365 FAX (310) 450-3079

• Utilizes interchangeable lenses• Can shoot everything from 1080i

to 720p variable frame rates•Features four XLR inputs, a chromatic-

aberration compensation function,and eight gamma modes

New!

XDCAM HD PDW-F335ALSO AVAILABLE

Sony XDCAM HD PDW-F355Digital CamcorderLonger record times are available bysupporting the new dual-layer 50GBProfessional Disc.

New!

• Cinema P2 Camera with CineSwitch™ • Technology, CineGamma™ Software

and IEEE 1394 Interface

AJ-SD93 Also Available

AG-HVX200A1/3" 3-CCD 16:9 HD/DVCPRO/DV

TECHNICAL SPECS

2.40:1

Super 35mm

Arri 535B; Arricam Lite

Arri Master Prime lenses

Kodak Vision2200T 5217, 500T 5218


Printed on Kodak Vision 2383

41


42 January 2009

The $150 million film TheCurious Case of BenjaminButton is only ClaudioMiranda’s second feature as adirector of photography, but its

director, David Fincher, had theutmost confidence in him — theyhad actually been working togetherfor years. Miranda worked his wayup in the electrical department andhad been a gaffer on Fincher’s Seven,The Game and Fight Club, and hehad also shot additional photogra-

phy on Zodiac and many ofFincher’s commercials. “It is a bigstep, and you can almost panic your-self about taking on such a bigmovie,” acknowledges Miranda.“But I had a reasonable amount ofprep to work out the logistics, and Iwas surrounded by a great supportsystem, a talented crew who haddone huge jobs. I knew I couldcount on them, whether it was onespace light or a hundred.” That crewincluded operator Kim Marks, gaffer

Christopher Strong, key gripMichael Coo and 1st AC JonasSteadman.

Benjamin Button, whichdraws its inspiration from a shortstory by F. Scott Fitzgerald, begins inNew Orleans in 1918 with the birthof the titular character, who emergesfrom the womb as an infant with thephysical appearance of an elderly,ailing man. Horrified by the sight,Button’s father dumps the baby at ahome for senior citizens, and myste-

Cinematographer Claudio Miranda and post supervisor PeterMavromates crack The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which

presents a main character who ages in reverse.

by Douglas Bankston

Unit photography by Merrick Morton, SMPSP

AnOld Soul

$0&B� � � � BS� � � S� � � � � EBIHDWXUH� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 30� � 3DJH� � �

the 10mm, 12mm and 14mm focallengths within the zoom range. Heturned to faster Zeiss DigiPrimeswhen the situation called for extraspeed.

For monitoring on set,Miranda had a look-up table, non-baked, that would add a light con-trast to the images and take awaysome of the Viper’s green cast on thescreen. “If I had left the image flat, itwould have been hard to judge,” hesays. “The LUT wasn’t great or per-fect, but with it, we knew what wecould get out of the imagery.

“Like all of David’s movies,this movie features very exact fram-ing, and camera moves go from adefinite Point A to a definite PointB,” continues Miranda. “The only

riously, Button’s condition graduallyimproves as he ages — physically, heages in reverse, getting younger withthe passage of time. At the heart ofthe story is a romance with a child-hood sweetheart, Daisy, who growsup with Button but cannot, becauseof his ailment, grow old with him.

Although Benjamin Buttonspans eight decades, the filmmakersdecided against using a variety oftechnologies to create different peri-od looks. “The intention was to be asnaturalistic as possible,” saysMiranda. “Our initial influence fortextures and framing was [painter]Andrew Wyeth. I took my still cam-era to the locations, documented thenatural light and figured out what Iwanted to add or subtract. I didn’twant it to feel like we were beamingin light anywhere. When you bringin 40-footers and lights and cables,the original [look] sometimes getsmuted.”

Most of the picture was captured with the ThomsonGrassValley Viper FilmStream,which Fincher and Harris Savides,ASC had used on Zodiac (AC April’07). Benjamin Button was shot in4:4:4 FilmStream mode with thecamera’s CinemaScope option,which yields a 2.37:1 aspect ratio at1920x1080 resolution. Miranda’slens of choice was a 6-24mm ZeissDigiZoom, and he frequently used


handheld work is Tarsem’s, the travel-around-the-world sequence.”The shots to which Miranda referswere made on film by directorTarsem Singh (The Cell, The Fall);when Fincher found out lead actorBrad Pitt was touring the Far Eastand Singh was in the same area, heasked Singh to shoot footage of theactor in exotic locations to enhancethe appearance of Button experi-encing the world. According toMiranda, film was chosen for thosesegments because using a Viper inthose locales wasn’t feasible.

Miranda also shot some35mm on the show, using KodakVision2 50D 5201 and Vision3500T 5219 in Arri 435s to achievesome slow-motion effects. “I don’t

Opposite: Whileaging in reverse,the youthful butelderly-lookingBenjamin Button(Brad Pitt)admires hisimprovingphysique. Thispage, top: Buttonhas a drink witha stranger whoturns out to behis long-lostfather. Below:Director DavidFincher (in grayski cap) andcinematographerClaudio Miranda(black ski cap)crank up avintage Victrolafor a periodfuneral scene.

Ph

otos

cou

rtes

y of

Par

amou

nt

Pic

ture

s an

d W

arn

er B

ros.

b-benjamin button_:b_feature 12/9/08 3:18 PM Page 43

44 January 2009

AnOld Soul

know what film stock Tarsemused,” adds Miranda. “He was onhis own mission.”

For scenes in which Buttonsails the high seas in an effort tobecome worldly wise, the boatactually never touched water — itwas mounted on a motion-con-trolled gimbal inside a SonyPictures soundstage. Nevertheless,Miranda singles these sequencesout as the most challenging toshoot. “They were tricky mainlybecause of all the different looks wehad to create to suggest he is travel-ing around the world — complete-ly overcast, night, night with snow,night with full moon, night withfog, high noon, sunset, and sun

coming from various angles.”For a confrontation with a

German U-boat, the movements ofButton’s tugboat were programmedinto a computer, and these move-ments would trigger certain lights.“Its motion would trigger LightningStrikes units and other lights thatwould simulate gunfire during theencounter, for example,” saysMiranda. “There were lights to sim-ulate explosions, and though therewas no pyro, it actually looks likethere was!”

Faking moonlight can betricky, particularly within the con-fines of a soundstage. “A lot of peo-ple do the soft moonlight with bal-loons, but David and I talked about

a harder moonlight,” says the cine-matographer. “The hardest lamp Icould think of was a Shadowmaker,which is basically a 7K Xenon in ablack box with no reflectors. I shottests with it, and David loved it. Itwas a little unnerving to light a 90-foot boat with it — I was on thebrink of underexposure — but itlooks pretty cool.

“For sunlight, we used a cou-ple of Arri T24s and T12s with somecolor on them,” he continues. “Theovercast look was just space lights,about 160 up in a grid, that weregelled with 1⁄2 CTB. At one point, Iused four Dinos for a look, and Ialso used a single 24K tungstengelled with ¼ CTB. I mixed it up.Everything was mounted on trackoverhead. We had blacks, blues andeven some whites that could bebrought around the boat.”

Atmosphere is a big part ofthe look during Button’s early yearsin New Orleans. Though there waselectricity at the time, oil-based andgas-based flame fixtures were stillcommon, creating a smoky hazeoutdoors and indoors. For one strik-ing scene, Miranda kept the atmos-pheric haze but ditched firelight forelectricity to great effect. Button, age7 but looking 70 and riding in awheelchair, ventures into a warmlylit church revival held in a large,

Above: Anexterior view of

a revival tentshows the

warm glowproduced by

strings ofvintage, clear60-watt bulbshung from the

ceiling. Below:Inside the tent,

a preacher(Lance E.Nichols)

exhorts thefrail, 7-year-old

Benjamin toarise from his

wheelchair.


Left: Diffusedlight illuminatesa close-up ofPitt. Below:Benjamin andhis firstparamour,Elizabeth Abbott(Tilda Swinton),grow closerduring a seriesof late-nighttête-à-têtes over tea.

white tent. Along the ceiling werecrisscrossed strings of vintage clear60-watt bulbs. “I barely got a T1.4 oreven a T1 out of the whole tentbeing lit up,” recalls Miranda. “Wehad to crank the voltage up to 140 toget some sort of exposure out ofthem. The bulbs got very, verywarm.” What makes this remarkableis that this was actually a visual-effects shot — sitting in the wheel-chair was an age-appropriate childactor wearing a blue hood withtracking marks. Pitt’s head would

come later. No additional movielights were used for the scene, but forthis and other blue-hood effectsshots, the number of Vipers wasincreased from two to four; the addi-tional two served as witness camerasrecording in the 4:2:2 HDStreammode.

Throughout the shoot,Miranda would light the set first,often with only small practicals, andthen let the actors play within thatlight. “We had all these AndrewWyeth references, but when it came

time to shoot, it was more a matterof figuring out the best way to lightthe room naturally,” he says. “That’swhat I liked about the Viper — Icould put a bulb in the shot andactually light someone with it, andthe image wouldn’t be horrible.”

Miranda did provide a slightkick for the actors on many occa-sions. “I’d put a clear bulb kind offar away so it didn’t add any expo-sure but put a little glint in the eye,”he says. But overall, he notes, “weliked toplight a lot. Sometimes I



used toplight because it looked goodon Brad, [but] sometimes sidelightlooked good on him. Sometimes itwas just a bulb or a candle we helpedout with the little-light-behind-the-candle trick.”

Part of the story takes placeduring Hurricane Katrina in 2005.At that time, Daisy (Cate Blanchett)is lying on her deathbed in a hospi-tal. These scenes, which have aslightly steel-blue cast, serve as aframing device for the telling ofButton’s story. To shoot them,Miranda switched to a quieter Sony4:4:4 CineAlta F23 (using the same

46 January 2009

AnOld SoulRight: Elizabethsignals for help

whileattempting to

swim theEnglish

Channel.Middle: The

crew captures ashot in theParamount

water tank.Bottom: Afterbeing pulled

from the water,Elizabeth

reflects uponher failed

attempt whilespeaking to a

reporter onCalais Beach in

France.


lenses) because the filmmakersfound that the Viper’s fairly loudfans couldn’t be turned off for longtakes without the camera overheat-ing. The workflow remainedunchanged.

About half the shots inBenjamin Button feature digitaleffects. In some instances, an actor’sperformance in one take was isolat-ed and merged with another actor’sperformance in a different take viasplitscreen. Many shots also featuredbluescreen components for futurebackground composites and setextensions. “What I tried to do waslight [foreground elements andactors] with a black pulled over thebluescreen and make sure theylooked right,” says Miranda. “Then,we opened that up and lit the blue-screen last.”

The WorkflowWhen Fincher decided to use

the Viper again on Benjamin Button,he and his collaborators transplant-ed the workflow from Zodiac to the new picture, according to postproduction supervisor PeterMavromates. He notes, “The maindifference was that on Zodiac, whenwe ingested dailies, we had to copythem off the hard drives and thenrender our edit media, which took

hours and hours. For BenjaminButton, S.two developed a real-timebatch-digitize process with audio tocreate our edit media.”

Images captured by the Viperwere recorded via dual HD-SDIlinks to an S.two digital fieldrecorder, which holds a 400GB harddrive known as the Digital FilmMagazine System, or D.Mag. Eachdrive can hold about 30 minutes offootage. Dailies were instantly acces-sible. The system also allowed theproduction to forego the use ofclappers, which helped keep the

shooting momentum going. “Thespeed at which David works is phe-nomenally fast,” says Mavromates.“Wayne Tidwell, the data-captureengineer, entered in basic informa-tion about the scene and the take.When David said, ‘Cut,’ the systemwent back and burned in that slateinformation on frames two throughsix. Frame one was always a framingchart. The system auto-incrementsthe take every time, so within sec-onds, David was rolling on the nexttake.”

When a D.Mag became full, it

Above: A finalcomposite fromthe film showsBenjaminwelcoming hisyoung friendDaisy (played atage 10 byMadisen Beaty)aboard thetugboatChelsea, wherehe’s foundemployment asa deck hand.Left: Scenes ofthe tugboat inmotion wereshot on a SonyPicturessoundstagewith a propship mountedon a motion-controlledgimbal. Generalambience wasprovided byoverhead spacelights, but themotion of theboat couldtrigger specificlighting cues,includinggunfire andexplosions.



48 January 2009

was delivered directly to whatMavromates called the “digital lab,”also known as the edit room. Thematerial was real-time batch-digi-tized into the DVCPro HD codecand into an Apple Final Cut Pro sys-tem. That media was then backed upat full resolution with no compres-sion onto two LTO tapes, whichwere then geographically separated.Once the media was confirmed to besafely in the Final Cut system andbacked up, the D.Mag was sent backto the set. Production typically used15-25 D.Mags, depending on howfar the set was from the digital lab. Ifthey were shooting on location inanother city, the D.Mag was clonedbefore being sent to the digital lab.The 35mm footage was telecined toD-5 tape and ingested from that.

Dailies were distributed viathe Web. “We had secure Web-based dailies distribution calledPix,” says Mavromates. “In FinalCut Pro, assistants created a mediafile that was uploaded to the Pixsystem, and access was given to spe-cific individuals.”

Benjamin Button was editedon Final Cut Pro and conformed onIridas Speedgrade. “S.two wrangleda custom piece of software, a ‘nega-tive pull’ application written bysomeone in New Zealand,” recallsMavromates. “All the digital dailieswere backed up on LTO tapes — it

AnOld Soul

Top: Thetugboat’s

commander,Capt. Mike

(Jared Harris), isastounded to

learn thatBenjamin has

never slept with a woman.

Middle: Thejaunty Mike

promptly takesButton to a

bordello, wherehe shows off his body art.

Bottom: Mortallywounded by a

German U-boat’sguns, Mike

offers his friend some final words of wisdom.



was about 500 terabytes of material,and it was not reasonable to keep allthat online.”

Injecting “Bradness”At first glance, Button might

appear to have little in common with popcorn tycoon OrvilleRedenbacher, but both belong to anextremely small club of people whohave had their heads digitallyreplaced. In the case of Redenbacher,it was for a commercial Fincher andMiranda shot two years ago — morethan 10 years after Redenbacherdied. ConAgra Foods wanted to res-urrect his image, so to speak. “Davidsaw the ad as an opportunity to testhow one could replace the head of alive performer on the set with some-one else’s head,” says Mavromates,who was not involved with the ad.“David likes to joke that he learnedhow not to do Benjamin Button afterthat commercial. The software usedworked well on short tests, but oncethey did the whole commercial, itwasn’t a very accurate representationof the original performance.”

Throughout Benjamin Button,it had to appear as though Pitt wasplaying the role at every age, and, ofcourse, the adult actor didn’t physi-cally match the younger Buttons.The solution was to have size-appro-priate actors play the character on setand then replace their heads in postwith a properly scaled Pitt head thatwas entirely computer-generated.Digital Domain created the CGheads, working with performancesby Pitt that were shot separately.(Digital Domain’s visual-effectssupervisor, Eric Barba, declined aninterview request.)

“There is a well-known studythat basically boils down humans’facial expressions to 156 differentones, and we brought Brad in andcaptured him making those expres-sions,” says Mavromates. “When theDigital Domain team applied them,however, they felt those 156 did notcover all the emotions the film need-

AnOld SoulRight: A giant

silk diffusesthe light for a

daytime streetscene. Below:

The crewcaptures a

nighttimewalk-and-talk

betweenBenjamin and

Daisy on acobblestone

street.

50 January 2009


AMC_��1008_p025:00 asc closeup 8/26/08 12:00 PM Page 1

52 January 2009

ed, so we had to bring Brad back andshoot more stills of him making veryspecific facial expressions. They thenplugged those into the CG rig of hishead, which could go from expres-sion number 99 to 123 to 72, orwhatever was required.”

The CG rig was created usinga combination of methods. A life-sized bust of Pitt was scanned in ageodesic dome at the University ofSouthern California that capturesthe interplay of light on the face andhead under every lighting condition.The actor was later brought in toImageMetrics to shoot his perform-ances, which mimicked the variousactors who wore blue hoods on set.“ImageMetrics has sophisticatedsoftware to analyze faces,” notesMavromates. “We shot Brad againstblack with four cameras in a semicir-cle in front of him. They analyzedthat and converted it into data thatcould be handed to Digital Domainand injected into the CG model. Thevalue of doing that was largely tomaintain audio sync. David got thatand he got Brad’s performance,which he referred to as ‘the Bradness’of a shot.”

During the shooting of theoriginal plate, Fincher directed theactor wearing the blue hood. Thosescenes were then edited in prepara-tion for shooting Pitt, who couldwatch that footage on a monitor ashe acted. Mavromates recalls, “David

AnOld SoulTop: Benjamin is

treated to aprivate

performance byDaisy (played asan adult by CateBlanchett), who

has become adancer with theMoscow Ballet.Middle: A China

ball helps toilluminate

Blanchett duringa rehearsal

scene. Bottom:Benjamin visits

a hospitalizedDaisy after her

career is cutshort by a

traffic accident.


At Otto Nemenz, we’ve been serving the world’s best filmmakers for

over 30 years. That’s because we couple cutting-edge production

equipment with outstanding support. We offer the world’s top cameras

including Arriflex and Moviecam, plus an incredible selection of

optics and support gear to outfit any shoot, any format. Our enthu-

siastic staff has the experience it takes to round up just the package

you want and keep it running flawlessly throughout the production.

We are not the biggest game in town. We’re simply the best.

HOLLYWOOD TEL 323-469-2774 www.ottonemenz.comHONOLULU TEL 808-484-5706 www.hawaiimedia.comUTAH TEL 801-978-9292 www.redmanmovies.com

Arricam ST Angēnieux Zoom Lenses Cooke S4 Primes Arri Master Primes by Carl Zeiss

BIG ENOUGHTODO THE JOB.SMALL ENOUGHTO DO IT RIGHT.

Arri 416

AMC_0308_p02�3:Layout 1 1/30/08 1:41 PM Page 1

would direct Brad by referring to the video and saying, ‘Here’s what Ineed you to match,’ or, ‘Here’s what Ididn’t get.’ Part of it was aboutmatching the dialogue, and part of itwas about David pushing the per-formance — within certain bound-aries — to where he wanted it. Hecouldn’t change Brad’s head move-ment drastically because it waslocked into what was shot with theother actor. Even if the actor wearingthe blue hood turned his head drasti-cally, Brad didn’t do that when weshot him against black because whatwe needed was his facial perform-ance.

“Eric and his team got to knowBrad’s face so well that they found hecarries his head at about a 5-degreetilt, and when they didn’t apply thatlittle tilt to the CG head, it felt a lotless like Brad,” he continues. “Theystrove to capture all the subtle detailsof his demeanor. The goal was to cre-ate a digital Brad from the neck up.”

Lifeless eyes are often a prob-lem with CG characters, andMavromates notes that the visual-effects team took pains to avoid thisdrawback. “They learned how tomake the eyeballs moist and how tomake CG moisture accumulate onthe lower eyelids,” he marvels. “Withthat, they suddenly looked photo-real and not synthetic.”

AnOld Soul

54 January 2009

Top: Havingfinally reached

compatibleages, Benjamin

and Daisyconsummate

their long-simmering love.

Middle: Thelovers bask in

the afterglow ofpassion. Bottom:

A shaft of lightguides the

invigoratedBenjamintoward a

motorcycle.


Daisy’s head treatment wasmore traditional. Over the course ofthe film, she becomes an accom-plished ballerina, and becauseBlanchett is not a ballerina, her facewas tracked and composited onto adance double’s. For the character’syounger years, Blanchett was made tolook more youthful through digitalmanipulation. For Daisy’s goldenyears, a combination of makeup anddigital retouching was used.

Finishing TouchesWarner Bros. Motion Picture

Imaging handled Benjamin Button’s2K digital intermediate, with coloristand ASC associate member JanYarborough manning the controls of aFilmLight Baselight 8. Because theViper records a raw image that has abit of a green cast, what you see is notexactly what you will get until the LUTis applied downstream. “Initially, wekind of struggled with the LUTs to getthe look we wanted,” recalls Miranda.“I took my concerns to Peter, and wemade up a new LUT that gave us a lotmore color range. It was like a wholeworld had opened up.”

“As raw images, they’re notshowing you a colorimetry that is conducive to having visual-effectswork or anything else done,” notesYarborough. “Therefore, we had toapply the LUT to the files through theFilmlight, and we also supplied all thevisual-effects vendors with that LUT.In some cases, we made color correc-tions specific to David’s direction,then rendered that and gave that ren-dered color file to the visual-effectsvendor.”

After applying the LUT to theimages, the types of color correctionsapplied were standard fare. “Claudiowas extremely good at painting a pic-ture with light, and he and Davidworked hard on set to get the lookthey wanted,” says Yarborough. “Quitea number of the images I receivedcould almost be called ‘pre-painted’ asfar as light and exposure goes.”

At the time of these interviews,

55


Fincher and the post team werefocused on approvals for back-ground-plate composites, and the fil-mout process, which was also to behandled by MPI, was not a concern.Mavromates notes, “These compa-nies have done a really good job withthe DI in the last 18 months, so thenervousness about the process hasmostly evaporated. I still worry

about it, though, because I’m the onewho has to manage the cost of the filmout, and if people don’t like thefilmout, it’s a five-figure expense!”

In post, about 80 percent ofBenjamin Button was put throughgrain-reduction and sharpeningprocesses at Lowry Digital, whoseartists had done similar work onZodiac (Post Focus, AC May ’01).

“Even if David had shot all ofBenjamin Button on film, he wouldhave wanted to do the Lowry pro-cessing because it unifies somethingthat is slightly distracting to him —it makes the visual palette more con-sistent,” notes Mavromates. “Thismovie covers eight decades andjumps to different places on theplanet, so the goal was not to unifyeverything; it was more about unify-ing certain sections of the story.”

“Regardless of whether youcapture on film or a digital format,there are variances in noise anddetail from frame to frame,” saysAlan Silvers, Lowry’s director ofbusiness development. “If you canfind the best detail of each frame andaverage it across all the frames, thenyou can bring out fine detail thatisn’t apparent to you in playback. It’sremarkable how much informationis in the capture; you just have toknow how to dig it out. We manage

56

An aged Daisycares for

Benjamin inhis waningdays of life.

AnOld Soul


picture detail independent of grainor noise and provide the filmmakerwith broad control over how muchgrain or noise remains on the finalimages.”

Lowry would get a FireWiredrive from MPI that held 10-bit log1920x1080 anamorphic DPX filesthat had been color-corrected, butnot with the final grade. “The firststep is to run the frames through ournoise-reduction process so they areflicker-free, noise-free and artifact-free,” says Patrick Cooper, Lowry’slead project director on BenjaminButton. “The next step is detailenhancement and the noise — orgrain — addition. I enhance theimages and put a nice, even amountof noise on the picture, and then thefiles are loaded back onto theFireWire drive and shipped back toMPI.” (The 2K scans of the 35mmmaterial went through Lowry’s pro-cessing. At press time, the Sony F23

footage and select scenes shot withthe Viper were not scheduled forprocessing.)

Visual-effects plates needed afew extra steps. “The only thing dif-ferent with the pre-composite effectsshots is that I didn’t add any noiseback into the image,” says Cooper.“That way, there was a sharpness tar-get the compositors could match,and the noise-free imagery made iteasier for them to do things like pullmattes. Once we go the shot backwith the effects completed, we’d putan amount of noise on it equal to thenoise in the surrounding shots.”

Sharpening shots of the titlecharacter was treated more delicate-ly. “If it’s a close-up or a shot ofsomebody with a lot of makeup, wewant to be careful about how muchwe sharpen it,” notes Cooper. “I varythe enhancement on a shot-by-shotbasis.” Sometimes, enhancementwasn’t applied at all. Mavromates

notes, “There’s a love scene with Daisyand Benjamin when they’re in awarmly lit bed covered by mosquitonetting, and we all agreed the lookhad a beautiful softness. That softnessaccented what’s going on in the scene,so we didn’t want to mess with it.” �

TECHNICAL SPECS

2.40:1

High-Definition Video and 35mm (3-perf and 4-perf)

Thomson GrassValley Viper; Sony CineAlta F23;

Arri 435

Zeiss lenses

Kodak Vision2 50D 5201, Vision3 500T 5219



57


58 January 2009

BrothersinArmsBrothersinArms

Defiance, shot by Eduardo Serra, ASC, AFC, tells a remarkable true story of Jewish resistance during World War II.

by Benjamin B

Unit photography by Karen Ballard

AMC_0109_p058p069:c_feature 12/5/08 2:53 PM Page 58

six or seven cameras in seconds,knowing exactly how each will beused. I once told him I was amazedby his technical capacity as a direc-tor, and he said, ‘Remember, beforemy first film, I shot 200 hours of television.’”

Defiance is the latest high-profile project for Serra, aPortuguese-born cinematographer

In February 2007, director EdZwick had dinner in Paris withtwo collaborators, productiondesigner Dan Weil and directorof photography Eduardo Serra,

ASC, AFC. Both Serra and Weil arebased in France, and both hadworked with Zwick on BloodDiamond (2006). Weil recalls thatover dinner, he and Serra askedZwick about a project the directorhad discussed with them, a strikingstory about Jewish partisans duringWorld War II. “Eduardo and I askedEd, ‘Why don’t you do it?’” says Weil.“Six weeks later, I received the scriptfor Defiance.”

In an interview at his home inParis, Serra shares his enthusiasmfor the project, and for his dinnermates. “Working with Dan is formi-dable,” he says. “We are always talk-ing. He never imposes anything;there is a real collaboration that Ihave rarely experienced.” The cine-matographer also marvels at Zwick’smastery of his métier. “Ed is a veryremarkable person and I’ve neverseen anyone like him — he can place


who is sought out by directors onboth sides of the Atlantic. He hasearned two Academy Award nomi-nations, for The Wings of the Dove(AC June ’98) and Girl With a PearlEarring (AC Jan. ’04), and a shelf inhis home is heavy with otherawards, including two CamerimageFrogs.

Based on the book by

Opposite:Brothers Tuviaand Zus Bielski(Daniel Craig,top, and LievSchreiber) taketo the forests ofBelarus aftertheir families aremassacred byNazis inDefiance. Thispage, left: Tuviaand his brothershelp a growingnumber of Jewsescape theNazis. Below:CinematographerEduardo Serra,ASC, AFC onlocation inLithuania.

Pho

tos

cou

rtes

y of

Par

amou

nt V

anta

ge.


60 January 2009

Brothers in Arms

Nechama Tec, Defiance recounts thetrue story of the Bielski brothers(played by Daniel Craig, Jamie Belland Liev Schreiber), Jewish farmerswho lived in what is now Belarus, anarea that was invaded by theGermans in 1941. After the Nazismassacre their families, the brothers

hide in the nearby forest. Initially,the Bielskis are intent on revengeand resistance, but soon, they offer agrowing number of Jews a chance toescape certain death by setting up ahaven for them in the forest. Thepartisan group must move everdeeper into the woods to escape

Nazi attacks. Over time, the forestcommunity grows into a “newJerusalem,” a vibrant village of woodcabins. Woven into the story is theevolution of the brothers’ relation-ships, the life of the community anda complex relationship with anotherRussian partisan group. At the endof the war, the Bielski partisan groupreportedly numbered about 1,200.

Serra notes that Zwick usuallylikes to shoot widescreen, as he didfor Blood Diamond and The LastSamurai (AC Jan. ’04), but the direc-tor chose the 1.85:1 aspect ratio forDefiance “because he wanted to becloser to the period,” and because hewanted to respect the vertical natureof the forests in which the film takesplace. Serra shot the picture in Super35mm, framing for a final 1.85:1extraction in the digital intermedi-ate. He used the Arricam Studio andLite, adding Arri 435s and 235s foraction scenes, and Arri MasterPrimes and Angenieux Optimozoom lenses.

During preproduction andproduction, Weil worked in close

Right: Tuvia andhis younger

brother, Asael(Jamie Bell),

meet withShamon (Allan

Corduner), arabbi, in the

camp built bythe Jewishresistance.

Below: Tuvia’sleadership is

tested when oneof the camp’s

foragers tries totake more than

his share ofsupplies.


ble — they’re dirty and hungry.Having clean, made-up faces wouldhave been almost obscene.”

The filmmakers sought tofind a look for the picture thatwould convey the historical era andthe travails of the partisans.“Something I share with Ed is thatwe both like to search for references,and it’s a pleasure discussing the


collaboration with Serra, sharing hispreparation research and digitalsketches. After considering locationsin Hungary and Romania, Weilfound suitable locations within 15miles of Vilnius, Lithuania. The idea,he says, “was to be as close as possi-ble to reality, and Lithuania’s forestsresemble those in neighboringBelarus.”

This penchant for realismmarked the entire filmmakingprocess, and Weil recalls that hiscrew imagined the partisans work-ing as they built the forest-village set.“We tried to put ourselves in theirshoes,” says the production designer.“How would you build a hut? Wedid it ourselves, like Boy Scouts.” Heexplains that the wooden huts,zemlyankas, were a form of lean-tothat could easily be dug in the sandysoil of the forest.

In keeping with the realisticapproach, the filmmakers made anunusual decision to forego makeupfor the actors. “That was Ed’s deci-sion, and I don’t remember if weeven discussed it,” says Serra. “It

seemed obvious. We tried makeupin one specific scene, but we latertook it out digitally because it wasinappropriate. There was some dirton the actors’ faces, but that’s all.” Henotes that although makeup servesto diminish “the differences in fleshtones, which can be very distracting,I think Defiance works withoutmakeup. The characters are in trou-

Left: Tuvia andZus air theirgrievancespublicly. Below:The crewprepares to filmthe brothers’fight. Serraworked withlarge silks toshape the lightin the forest.


62 January 2009

Brothers in Armslook with him,” notes Serra. Theystudied Russian films of the era andlooked at the early “Sovcolor”process. “They didn’t haveTechnicolor, but they had a versionof Agfacolor,” explains the cine-matographer. “It was often blue andpink. We discussed simulating it, butit wasn’t appropriate.” Serra alsowanted to obtain a more organiclook than what could be achievedwith the DI process. “Nowadays,with the DI, it’s easy to give an ‘old’look to a film. The process can betotally controlled, but it can be a lit-tle mechanical, and I didn’t wantthat. We didn’t want a very perfectmodern image; we wanted some-thing that evoked the period. OnBlood Diamond, I had tried to letthings get a little out of control, andDefiance was an opportunity to gofurther.”

For exteriors, Serra decided touse the same technique he hadadopted for one of the battle scenesin Blood Diamond. “I used Kodak[Vision 500T] 5279, pushed it 2stops and left out the 85 filter,” hesays. With a laugh, he notes, “5279 isa tough stock! Ten or 15 years ago,we’d use it because it was high-con-trast and high-speed, with heavyblacks, but whenever there was aclose-up of a woman, we’d changestocks. Pushing 2 stops is edgy, but itbecomes radical without the 85. Theimage is a bit grainy, it’s contrasty,and the interesting thing is that theslope of the film is not perfect —we’re a little off of what’s acceptable.Almost all the exteriors in Defiancewere shot that way.”

Serra notes that shootingtungsten-balanced 5279 without an85 filter, in addition to pushing thestock, creates unpredictable “colorchanges” by varying the red, greenand blue curves differently. “Thechanges are subtle, but they’re there.With film, it’s important to have thethree color curves perfectly parallel,and in this picture, they really aren’t.So sometimes you get shadows or

After partingways with hisbrothers, Zuscontinues hisfight against

the Nazis,taking up with

a band ofRussian

partisans.


Exhibition & Premiere Seminars: June 5 - 6, 2009The Film Series at Cine Gear Expo: June 4 - 6, 2009Master Class Seminars: June 7, 2009

Contact us @ 310/472-0809 • [email protected]

JOIN HOLLYWOOD’S PROFESSIONALS IN 2009For the Pre-Production•Production•Post Production Community

For more information and updates, visit us at: WWW.CINEGEAREXPO.COM


64 January 2009

Brothers in Arms

highlights that are a little blue or alittle pink, for example. You neverknow what the result will be; itdepends on the time of day or thesun or the shadows. You can seesomething, but it’s not obvious —you don’t say, ‘It’s pink.’ It’s just notthe usual image. It has a texture that

isn’t clean or modern.”Serra overexposed the pushed

5279 by rating it at 1,000 ASA orlower. With a smile, he notes, “It’sone thing to take the risk with color,but one thing I don’t play with isexposure! I don’t want to be on thatedge.” To get a thick negative, he

usually rates the stock at least 2⁄3 of astop lower than recommended.

Most of Defiance takes place inforests, and one of Serra’s chief chal-lenges was giving these scenes visualcontinuity. “For daytime scenes, thefirst thing I did was cut the sunbecause I wanted to avoid shadowsmoving every two minutes.” He addsthat an “incredible team of grips,”some of whom had worked on BloodDiamond in Africa, assisted him. Hisoutdoor lighting was bold and simple.“We used a huge silk to kill the sunand big silks to bounce light.” At first,his team tried cutting the sun with agigantic silk hung above the set, butthat proved unwieldy, as well as inef-fectual with wider crowd scenes. Serrathen had the silks positioned vertical-ly, acting as a curtain against the lownorthern sun.

The cinematographer bouncedtwo or three 18K HMIs on big silks tocreate diffuse light that acted as a fill.“That’s it — no crosslights, no back-lights … just light to clean up.” Henotes that for reasons of convenience,

Right: Tuviahelps Lilka

(Alexa Davalos)escape from aghetto. Below:

When Nazisdiscover thecamp, Lilka

helps shepherdthe children to

safety.


he sometimes obtained a similarlighting effect by punching theHMIs through a silk. He mainlyused Alpha HMIs from 5600Lighting “because they allow thewidest spread.”

Serra sometimes moved a filllight during the shot, as in a scenewhere Tuvia (Craig) hides from aGerman street patrol in a dark door-way and then emerges. The cine-matographer asked his gaffer,Michel Atanassian, to put a Kino Flointo position for the darkest part ofthe shot and then move it away. “Ioften do that — have a small mov-ing light operated by someone likeMichel, who understands very wellwhat we’re doing. It’s often fasterand easier to light that way. WhenCraig is deep in the doorway, Michelis on him to get a minimum expo-sure, and then he turns the lightaway as soon as Craig comes out.I’m scared of creating a small shad-ow, so the light is very diffused.”

When it comes to lightsources, Serra has a deep commit-ment to simplicity and naturalism.He strongly believes that a single softsource allows for more storytellingto happen. The soft-spoken cine-matographer hesitates, and thenelaborates, “I don’t like to use bigwords, but my job is to create mean-

ing. That’s what I’m there for. It’sgreat if the image can also be beau-tiful, but meaning comes first. And Idon’t think that you can createmeaning if the audience can seemultiple lights and shadows and allthat trickery. I believe sharp shad-ows, spots of light or rimlights aretotally distracting because they’renot part of our life. I don’t want tohave the audience distracted by allthat.” A simpler image “allows morepossibility to give meaning.”

This passion for a single softsource means that Serra will neverplace sources on both sides of cam-era. “For me, the other side of cam-era is the forbidden zone. I just can’tbear what two sources do to a face.”In his search for authenticity andsimplicity, he avoids hard back-lights, eyelights and other secondarylight sources. “I don’t do spots oflight, and I don’t usually add othersources … maybe a bounce board,but not a light. Or I might bring thebig silk a little closer for a close-up. Idon’t want to have the woman in theforeground who is 1 or 2 stopsbrighter than the background. Everynew light fixture creates a shadow,and every shadow can distract us.”

Although he will often place“a frame, a little luminosity, near orbehind camera,” he avoids “brilliant

THE ART OF LIGHT

Color CorrectionDiffusion

Color Effect

Tel: 818-238-1220 www.leefilters.com

Director Ed Zwick works out his camera placement.

65


66 January 2009

eyes” — eyelights that result in whathe jokingly calls “the werewolfeffect.” He has a similar aversion tobacklight “halos.” He notes, “Theywere appropriate in black-and-white films to separate people fromthe background, but nowadays, why

make everyone a saint?” Musing thata single soft source “is closer to life,”he hastens to add that soft lighting“does not mean flat lighting. Mylighting is usually very soft but verycontrasty.”

Serra emphasizes that in addi-

tion to contrast, the placement ofthe source creates the mood of theshot. “The height of the light isimportant also, but it’s especially theangle that changes everything. A softlight in front of the character doesn’tmean the same thing as a soft lightfrom behind. The general mood willbring meaning. If you have a front-light, a sidelight and a backlight,there is no room left for meaning.It’s mostly a question of the trianglebetween the lens, the light and theeyes of the actor. A soft light behindcamera doesn’t seem like much, butmove it away from the camera, andalready you’ve changed the mood. Ifyou move a 4-by frame by 2 or 3meters, it’s not the same mood at all.That’s the sort of thing I’m interest-ed in modulating.” In the forest exte-riors of Defiance, he usually placedthe big bounced source close tocamera or slightly to the side to pro-vide a fill that brought out theactors’ eyes.

For Defiance’s climactic day-time battle, which took a full week to

Brothers in ArmsRight: Forced to

abandon thecamp, thepartisans

emerge fromthe forest only

to stumble intoa Nazi ambush.

For the film’sclimactic

battle, Serradiscarded hislarge silks in

favor of sunnysidelight and

backlight.Below: The

crew angles in on a

German tank.


shoot, Serra discarded the giant sun-blocking silk and opted for sunnysidelight or backlight. Light from theside or behind, he explains, “modelsand gives more depth to the action.Otherwise, it’s too flat. The battle isnot like the other forest scenes, inwhich we were working with thenuances of a face. This is the epicmoment.”

When shooting dusk exteri-ors at the encampment, Serra com-plemented onscreen campfires with“fire lighting” offscreen: gas pipeswith holes for flames. “It’s a verysimple setup that I used a lot on TheWings of the Dove and Map of theHuman Heart.” He adds that he iscautious with flicker machines. “Ifyou mix them with real fire, they canhelp with background areas, but Idon’t use them close to camera.”

Some interiors in Defiancehave a gentler quality than the forestfootage; to contrast with the gritty,imperfect look of the exteriors, Serrashot inside with Kodak Vision2500T 5218 and developed it normal-ly, yielding a smoother image withfiner grain. In one key indoor scene,Tuvia tries to persuade the ghettoleaders to let the Jewish communityescape with him to the forest. Serralit the large room entirely with four18Ks through the heavily frostedwindows, creating a dramatic sidelitimage. He used no lights inside, onlysome bounce boards. The scene wasshot with two cameras to pick upreaction shots, but the cinematogra-pher confesses to “cheating” for theclose-up of Lilka (Alexa Davalos) asshe looks intently at Tuvia, herfuture lover. “It could have been shotwith the second camera simultane-ously, like we did with other charac-ters, but I discussed it with Ed, andwe quickly decided to give her a spe-cial treatment. So we moved her astep ahead and slightly changed theposition of the fill light.” Though theclose-up is not radically differentfrom the other shots, the delicatelighting on Davalos’ face is softer

67


and a little more frontal than thelighting of the wide shot.

The forest-hut interiors werelit through the doors and windowsfor day scenes and with oil lampsand candles supplemented by softsources for night scenes. Serra setone romantic love scene awash ingolden tones motivated by an oillamp. “You have to cheat a little. I

used the lamp, but I augmented it alittle. Otherwise, the image wouldhave been too extreme. I used aChinese lantern clothed in black tocontrol spill on the walls.”

Night exteriors in settingswithout practical lights are always ahuge challenge for cinematogra-phers. “In the city, you can takeadvantage of night lighting, but in

the country, there is no good solu-tion!” Serra laughs. Wistfully notinghis admiration for the dim noctur-nal toplight Emmanuel Lubezki,ASC, AMC created in Children ofMen (AC Dec. ’06), he adds, “Wecouldn’t do that in a forest.” Serraused any element of the nighttimescenes to help his lighting, be it fire-light, car headlights or even a burn-ing vehicle. “I try to use everythingavailable in the scene before bring-ing out new sources.” For somescenes, he floated three 20K helium-balloon lights above the action, andhe recalls that the first night shootwith the balloons started badly: “Itwas a stormy night, and we arrivedjust in time to see two balloons flyoff into the distance! One of themwent to a nearby village, where it cutthe electricity for a few days. Theother ended up in Estonia!” Oncethe balloons were back on set, Serraavoided placing them in the fore-

68

Craig reclinesin a hut under

the soft glow ofa Chinese

lantern.

Brothers in Arms


ground, preferring a toplight fromthe side or back.

Defiance marks Serra’s thirddigital intermediate, and he did thework at EFilm with colorist NatashaLeonnet. “I’ve always enjoyed tim-ing, and the DI is a gift,” he remarks.“I don’t use it to try to find a look; Iuse it to ‘clean up’ things that would

be time-consuming to fix on the set.For example, on some hazy nights,light from the balloon was visible atthe top of the frame, and we cleanedthat up. Sometimes the exposure is abit edgy at night, and you can getbetter blacks [with digital tools]. Orsometimes we needed to matchfootage shot by several cameras.

Some say the DI gives you theoption to shoot ‘flat’ and create yourlook in post, but I believe in doingthe opposite. How can I light if Idon’t know what I want at the end?”

�

TECHNICAL SPECS

Super 1.85:1(Super 35mm for 1.85:1 extraction)

Arricam System; Arri 435, 235

Arri Master Prime and Angenieux lenses

Kodak Vision 500T 5279, Vision2 500T 5218



Craig, Bell andMark Feuersteinreceive theirmarching ordersfrom Zwick andSerra.

69


In 1982, Jack Green, ASC, thisyear’s recipient of the Society’sLifetime Achievement Award, didsomething few aspiring cine-matographers would ever think

of doing: he turned down an offerfrom Clint Eastwood to move upfrom camera operator to cine-matographer because he felt heneeded a little more experience. “Ihonestly didn’t feel ready,” saysGreen. “I didn’t know if Clint wouldgive me another shot, but I lovedbeing his operator, anyway; operat-ing is a great job and doesn’t havethe responsibilities of being the

director of photography. You’re partof the creative team, but you’re onlyresponsible for getting the shot, andyou know right away whetheryou’ve got it — you can sleep atnight! I asked Clint to let me do a lit-tle more maturing in my mind first,and to his credit, he did, and hemade the offer again when he decid-ed to make Heartbreak Ridge [1986;AC Jan. ’87].”

Those who have worked withGreen find him confident but unas-suming, despite having shot somevery memorable films, includingEastwood’s Bird (1988), Unforgiven

(1992; AC June ’93) and Bridges ofMadison County (AC Aug. ’95).Green doesn’t think of the morethan 20 years he spent learning thecraft as an assistant and operator asdrudge work or paying his dues; hetalks about the time as an essentialpart of his development, noting thatit taught him not only to light andshoot but also to manage the cre-ative and political challenges ofheading the camera department. Heeventually shot 14 films forEastwood as well as an eclectic mixof other features, including theblockbuster Twister (AC May ’96),

Jack Green, ASC, once destined to be a barber, advances to cinematography’s pinnacle as the recipient of the

ASC Lifetime Achievement Award.

by Jon Silberg

A CutAbove

70 January 2009

AMC_0109_p070p078:e_feature 12/5/08 3:07 PM Page 70

Green had settled into the notionthat the tools of his trade would beclippers and scissors. Shortly after hestarted working as a full-time bar-ber, a former combat cameramannamed Joe Dieves helped change thecourse of Green’s life when he camein for a trim. Dieves had set up shop

the intimate drama Girl, Interrupted(AC March ’00) and the raucouscomedy The 40-Year-Old Virgin(2005).

Cinematography was notsomething Green thought aboutduring his childhood in Daley City,Calif. It was understood that hewould attend barber college andwork in one of the barbershops hisfather and uncle owned until itcame time for him to take over thefamily business. His only connec-tion to photography was sharing hisfather’s photography hobby; as ayouth, he shot black-and-white pic-tures with his box Brownie andmade prints in his father’s dark-room. “For my dad, the darkroomwas about the two of us doing some-thing together,” he recalls. “I don’tthink he knew that was how I felt,too. I still get misty-eyed when Ismell vinegar!”

His interest in photographycontinued in high school, spurredby a better camera and the school’smore sophisticated darkroom, but

in the San Francisco Bay area shoot-ing documentaries, industrials andeducational films for local clients. Ittook Green months to talk to Dievesabout camerawork, but the man wasa repeat customer, and eventually,Green talked himself into a part-time job as his camera assistant.

Opposite:Director ofphotographyJack Green,ASC. This page:Two scenesfrom Bird, whichtells the story ofjazz musicianCharlie Parker(played byForestWhitaker). “If Icould beremembered formy work on onefilm, it would bethat one,” saysGreen.


Bir

d ph

otos

cou

rtes

y of

th

e A

cade

my

of M

otio

n P

ictu

re A

rts

& S

cien

ces.


“We’d go out on a job, and he’dmake sure I was never ignorantabout what was necessary,” recallsGreen. “He was a gentle teacher.Soon, I asked my father and myuncle if I could move to one of theback chairs and work part-time.”They agreed. “Over a few years, Ibecame a very part-time barber andan almost full-time camera assis-

tant, and in 1965, I got into theunion in Northern California, and itbecame a full-time job.”

Green was soon assisting for avariety of companies, includingsome that specialized in aerial pho-tography. Assisting on some heli-copter exteriors for the film Bob &Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) led to theopportunity to work for John Lowry

Productions, an aerial-photographycompany based in Los Angeles. Themove, says Green, “was an opportu-nity that I think filmmakers of everykind outside Hollywood thinkabout. My wife and I packed up andmoved to Southern California. Mymom, dad and uncle were all veryhappy I had an opportunity to dosomething I loved.”

The early 1970s saw Greenassisting a lot, predominantly onaerial units, and working fulltime forTyler Mounts. “Then, in 1972, therewere huge layoffs,” he recalls. “Theindustry was in really bad shape, asbad as it is now. Maybe worse.” Hemanaged to keep busy freelancing asan assistant, and in 1975, cinematog-rapher and future ASC memberMichael Watkins moved him up tooperator on Roger Corman’sFighting Mad (1976). It was a bap-tism by fire in the craft of operatingincredibly quickly under chaotic cir-cumstances. Cinematographer RexSmith then hired Green to operateon Eastwood’s The Gauntlet (1977).Green subsequently operated onevery Eastwood film until he moved

A Cut Above

Above:Director/actor

Clint Eastwoodand Green at

work on PaleRider. Below: A

scarredprostitute (AnnaThomson) tends

to Will Munny(Eastwood) in

Unforgiven.

72 January 2009

Pale

Rid

er p

hot

o co

urt

esy

of W

arn

er B

ros.

Unf

orgi

ven

phot

o co

urt

esy

of t

he

Aca

dem

y of

Mot

ion

Pic

ture

Art

s &

Sci

ence

s.


up on Heartbreak Ridge. Green was immediately

impressed with Eastwood’s attitudesabout and approach to filmmaking.There was very little talking abouthow “artistic” something should be;the focus was on craft and efficiencyand always using imagery to supportthe story. Eastwood hired the samecrew as often as possible so that dis-cussions could be conducted inshorthand. “Clint could describeeight shots in eight words,” notesGreen.

It was through operating onthese films that Green learned aboutlighting. He recalls cinematographerBruce Surtees (Pale Rider, Tightrope)“standing on a set and givinginstructions to the gaffer using hishand as if it were a paintbrush. Youwould swear there was paint comingout of his fingers! Bruce was a light-ing minimalist. If he walked onto aset and saw four lights burning, he’dtell the gaffer to turn one off. I real-ized the fewer lights you had, thefewer complications there were. Itwas fascinating to see how Bruceexpressed himself to his gaffer andelectricians. To this day, I try toduplicate that as best I can.”

Green listened to how Surteesand Eastwood would describe light-ing in emotional terms. “In PaleRider, Clint was talking about thescene where the bad guys are stand-ing in the mayor’s house at a fire-place, planning what they’re goingto do. He described them as ‘thedevil’s advocates,’ and he wantedthem surrounded by this boilingfirelight. I learned from him andBruce how to think about lighting inan emotional way.”

Green also made it a point towatch movies with real audiences asoften as possible to see how lightingaffected people. “There’s a shot inTightrope that I did with a Steadicamin which Clint’s character, the detec-tive, is walking down a dark hallwayfull of deep shadows. The killer isn’thiding in the shadows, but the fact

that there is so much darkness inthat scene really makes the hair onyour arm stand up. I could see in theviewers’ faces how riveted theywere.”

When Surtees recommendedGreen to shoot Heartbreak Ridge,Green sensed it was now or never,and he accepted the job even thoughhe still felt he had a lot to learn. Hecredits his wife, Susan, with helpinghim overcome his trepidation. “Sheis my best friend, and she’s verysmart and wise. She knew I was justnervous as a cat, and while I washome, thinking about this leap I was

going to make, I heard a little thumpon the door, and there was Susanwith her arms full of art books —and there were more in the car. Shehad gone out and gotten every artbook she could find at the libraryand bookstore. She said, ‘Now is thetime to put yourself through artschool! If you want to do photogra-phy that will last in people’s minds,you’re going to have to study theclassic painters.’ That was as influen-tial on any style I might have devel-oped as anything else.”

From the books, Green devel-oped a fascination with “using shad-

Above: Greenzeroes in on theaction in thedriver’s seat onthe set of TheRookie. Below:Green at workon Midnight inthe Garden ofGood and Evil.


Ph

otos

cou

rtes

y of

War

ner

Bro

s.

d-Jack Green, ASC:e_feature 12/9/08 3:28 PM Page 73

74 January 2009

ow to shape light.” This dovetailednicely with Eastwood’s affinity forvery black blacks and deep, darkshadows. Bird, about jazz greatCharlie Parker, was Green’s thirdfilm as a cinematographer, and herelished the challenge to work onthe film in part because it was adeparture from what audiences hadcome to expect from Eastwood. “I

knew exactly what kind of visualstyle Clint wanted before we evengot together to discuss it,” says thecinematographer. “I had grown upin the Bay Area, as he had, and we’dgone to the same jazz bars. I’d readBebop and Downbeat and knewwhat jazz photographs of the periodlooked like — they were almost sil-houettes with very sharp edges of

light. I knew that would be whatClint wanted, and when he starteddescribing that look to me, I said,‘Let me shoot a test, and we’ll use itas a guide to make adjustments.’

“So we borrowed a camerafrom Panavision, and [lead actor]Forest Whitaker, [gaffer] Tom Sternand I went to a recording studio atWarner Bros. and used the darkmaroon curtains they use as sounddampener as a background,” hecontinues. “We put Forest in frontof it with a chair and a saxophoneand gave him just a bit of an edge-light, a tiny bounce off the saxo-phone to give the instrument somereflections. My gosh, it was so pret-ty. Clint saw it and said, ‘That’s it!’Throughout the picture, I workedon building strong compositionsand strong lighting.

“Everything in Bird wasabout hard lighting against darkobjects — lots of contrast,” contin-ues Green. “There’s a scene whereCharlie Parker is at a desk, trying tocall his wife on the phone while he’son heroin, and his mistress comes tothe door and stands there; it’s just avery strong silhouette of her in the

A Cut AboveRight:

PhotojournalistRobert Kincaid

(Eastwood)charms an Iowa

housewife(Meryl Streep)in The Bridges

of MadisonCounty. Below:Eastwood and

Green talk overa scene.

The

Bri

dges

of M

adis

on C

ount

y ph

oto

by K

en R

egan

, cou

rtes

y of

th

e A

cade

my

of M

otio

n P

ictu

re A

rts

& S

cien

ces.


doorway and him lit by a little lampon the desk. Images like that carry somuch emotion. We did a closer shotof her and put a tiny little light onher eyes, but Clint wanted to turnthat off and just put her in silhouettein her close-up, and that’s whatended up in the movie. There’s noteven a hint of light in her eyes, andit’s so powerful because the audiencecan feel her emotion without seeingmore of her face. That’s the kind ofwork I love to do. If I could beremembered for my work on onefilm, it would be Bird.”

Bridges of Madison County,which stars Eastwood as a renownedphotojournalist and Meryl Streep asthe Iowa housewife with whom hehas a passionate affair, allowedGreen to photograph anotherchange of pace for Eastwood: a lovestory. Unlike most such stories, how-ever, the drama was presented fromthe man’s point of view. For Green,that meant avoiding the warm,glowing beauty light that often illu-minates the romance genre. “Thereis a lushness to a lot of the picture,

but really, the only scene I warmedup in that romantic kind of way wasthe one that shows the two of themdancing in her kitchen,” he notes.“They’re under tungsten light andthe room is mostly yellow.”

Eastwood’s overall approachto what is arguably his finest film,

Unforgiven, was essentially the sameas his approach to all his films, saysGreen. It was shot quickly and effi-ciently because Eastwood and thecast and crew were all very experi-enced and very prepared. “We shotthat movie in 42 days, and we hadno long days,” recalls Green. “On a

A P

erfe

ct W

orld

ph

otos

by

Jan

e B

ovin

gdon

. Top

ph

oto

cou

rtes

y of

War

ner

Bro

s. B

otto

m p

hot

o co

urt

esy

of t

he

Aca

dem

y of

Mot

ion

Pic

ture

Art

s &

Sci

ence

s.

Above: Green and Eastwoodon location forA PerfectWorld. Below:In a scene from the film,escapedconvict ButchHaynes (KevinCostner) bondswith his younghostage (T.J.Lowther).



76 January 2009

Clint Eastwood movie, a long day isnine hours.

“We used very old-fashionedWestern techniques on that movie,”he continues. “If you go back tosome of the John Ford Westerns, yousee some huge landscapes with smallfigures in them or a small town setagainst huge mountains, and we dida lot of that. We maintained that epicWestern look all the way through butalso made a serious attempt to tellthe story like we were telling aWestern for the first time. I alwaystried to strike a balance betweenmaking it feel familiar and letting itmake its own artistic statement.”

In one scene in Unforgiven,notorious killer William Munny(Eastwood) explains to a young, hot-headed acolyte (Jaimz Woolvett)that murder isn’t a glamorous game.“Munny says that when you killsomeone, you don’t take only thatperson’s life, you also lose somethingof your own,” says Green. “When wewere shooting the scene, there was aChinook, a snow eater, far off in thedistance — a huge change in theweather where it can go from 25°F to75°F in less than an hour. We saw itcoming — a huge line of clouds asclear as night and day — and it wascoming fast. It was such a terrificmoment for the scene, so we allmoved as fast as we could to keepthat Chinook over Clint’s shoulderall the way through the scene. That’ssomething that couldn’t happen onmost sets. Some directors would bewatching playback and making deci-sions with a committee, and thatChinook would have been over theYukon before we got the take! ButClint could see we were marching ina direction, and he stood in the per-fect spot and made the speech. Hecould do that because he trusted allof us to make something like thatwork.”

Although movies laden withvisual effects cannot take advantageof such natural accidents, Greenbelieves those types of projects offer

A Cut Above

Above: Green(left) and

director Jan DeBont, ASC (at

camera) onlocation for

Twister. Right:In a scene from

the film, Bill andJo Harding (Bill

Paxton andHelen Hunt)

struggle toescape the

terrifying funnelcloud.

Twis

ter

phot

os b

y R

on B

atzd

orff

, SM

PSP

. Top

ph

oto

cou

rtes

y of

War

ner

Bro

s. B

otto

m p

hot

o co

urt

esy

of t

he

Aca

dem

y of

Mot

ion

Pic

ture

Art

s &

Sci

ence

s.


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

JOHN SIMMONS, ASC

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

TO SUBSCRIBE BY PHONE:

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

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

hile I was in college,at Fisk University,writer/director

Carlton Moss would come fromHollywood and teach a filmcourse on a monthly basis. Hisenthusiasm for the contribution ofcinematography to the storytellingprocess was contagious, and thefirst time I saw the flicker of theshutter through the eyepiece, Iknew cinematography was what Iwanted to do.

“Carlton gave me my firstsubscription to AmericanCinematographer. Through thepages of the magazine, I got mytechnical introduction to the artand craft of cinematography. Itwas an inspiration at that time,and I still look forward to readingit each month. AC continues toeducate me.”

— John Simmons, ASC

“W

©p

ho

to b

y O

we

n R

oiz

ma

n, A

SC

$0&B� � � � BS� � � � � /D\RXW� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 30� � 3DJH� � �

great creative opportunities — it’sjust that more of it must happen inprep. “I came onto Twister after a lotof the preparation had been done,but on Space Cowboys [2000], wehad binders full of information sothat the artists at Industrial Light &Magic and I could make sure every-thing worked together,” he says. “Theastronauts were going outside thecapsule day and night, so sometimesthey stepped out in sunlight, and

sometimes it was moonlight. Every90 minutes, they’re making a circleof the earth, so that affected thedirection and quality of the light.For someone who likes to go withhis gut, it was a totally new way ofworking, but I enjoyed the challenge.I was determined to make it work.”

Green also welcomed thechallenge of shooting Joss Whedon’sSerenity (AC Oct. ’05), which hedescribes as “a Western in space. Josshas so many ideas, but he listens toother people, too. We gave it a kindof comic-book feel. Not a lot of peo-ple saw it, but I think it’s a terrificpicture, and I had a great time work-ing with Joss and making it all come

together with the visual-effects peo-ple at ILM.”

Green credits his success as adirector of photography to the timehe spent working his way upthrough the camera department.“People who come out of a graduateprogram and start at the top as adirector of photography can haveproblems when they get to a realmovie set,” he observes. “It canwork, but crews don’t particularlylike it because that cinematographermight not know how to speak to acrew, and the crew knows he or shehasn’t done any of their jobs. Therecan be misunderstandings on bothsides. In this business, there’s a realadvantage coming up through theschool of hard knocks. You’ve beenpart of a crew, so you know how thegrip or the electrician feels aboutsomething, and you know how tospeak to them in ways that makethem feel good about the jobsthey’re doing.”

Although he is tickled to behonored with the ASC LifetimeAchievement Award, Green empha-sizes that he intends to keep shoot-ing for a long time to come. “I’llretire when they pry the light meterout of my cold, dead hands!” helaughs. �

78 January 2009

A Cut Above

Top left: Ayoung woman

(Winona Ryder)struggles withdepression in

Girl, Interrupted.Top right: Green(center) and his

collaboratorsprepare to film.

Below: Greenand director

James Mangoldon the set.

Gir

l, In

terr

upte

d ph

otos

by

Suza

nn

e Te

nn

er, S

MP

SP, c

ourt

esy

of C

olu

mbi

a P

ictu

res.


IT’S TIME AGAIN FOR SUNDANCE.

We thank our 2009 Presenting Sponsors.

JANUARY 15-25, 2009 PARK CITY, UTAH


HPA Honors Excellence in Postby Jon D. Witmer

At the third annual HollywoodPost Alliance Awards, held in earlyNovember in Los Angeles, ASC associ-ate member and HPA President LeonSilverman noted, “We’re here to debunkthe myth of the magic of Hollywood.”Over the next couple of hours, in front ofan audience comprising professionalsfrom all corners of the industry, the cere-mony did just that.

Actor, writer and director WilShriner set a comedic tone as theevening’s host, and the jovial atmos-phere was maintained by the ceremony’smany presenters, including JoshuaPines, an ASC associate member andvice president of imaging research anddevelopment at Technicolor Digital Inter-mediates. Presenting the EngineeringExcellence awards to Quantel (for thePablo Stereoscopic 3-D system), Fast-Soft (for the E Series Internet Accelera-tor) and Panasonic (for the AVC-Intra 100Video Codec), Pines looked at the two

teleprompters in front him and joked,“It’s like a bad 3-D movie — luckily, it’s afad!” The joke prompted a responsefrom Rob Engle, Sony Pictures Image-works’ digital-effects supervisor, whoaccepted a Judges’ Award for Creativityand Innovation in Postproduction for thestereoscopic post pipeline developed forBeowulf 3D. “Some might call it a fad,”Engle said. “I call it a revolution!”

Judges’ Awards were alsopresented to DigitalFilm Tree andCBS/Paramount for the developmentand implementation of a modern data-centric post network and workflow, andto LaserPacific Media Corporation forAccurateImage, a color-calibrated end-to-end process that delivers digitalcinema-quality dailies that look like film.Glenn Kennel, LaserPacific’s vice presi-dent and general manager of featurefilm, offered special thanks to ASC Pres-ident Daryn Okada for serving as AIM’s“very first customer — and first guineapig.”

Okada later stood at the podiumalongside Richard Crudo, ASC to presentthe awards for Outstanding Color Grad-

ing. Alex Bickel of Outside Editorial wonfor the Jaguar “XF Hush” commercial;Joe Hathaway of LaserPacific won forthe Pushing Daisies episode “The Fun inFunerals”; and ASC associate memberSteven J. Scott of EFilm won for IronMan. Saluting the efforts of his fellowfeature-film nominees — ASC associ-ate member Stefan Sonnenfeld(Sweeney Todd) of Company 3 and MikeSowa (The Kite Runner) of LaserPacific— Scott saved his greatest thanks forIron Man’s cinematographer, MatthewLibatique, ASC. “There could be nobetter inspiration,” said Scott. “This ishis vision, after all, and I was happy tobe his conduit.”

Other nominees for OutstandingColor Grading were Siggy Ferstl of Riot(“ESPN: The Masters”); Sowa (TheAndromeda Strain, Part 1); Sean Cole-man of Company 3 (Travelers Insurance,“Delivery”); and Sonnenfeld (FarmersHelp Point, “Drowned Circus”).

Outstanding Editing awardswere presented to Lee Smith, ACE (TheDark Knight); Stuart Bass, ACE (PushingDaisies, “Pie-Lette”); and Neil Gust ofOutside Editorial (Jaguar, “XF Hush”).Patrick Poulatian and Robert Sethi ofBrickyard VFX took home the Outstand-ing Compositing in a Commercial awardfor the Pontiac “Shwayze” spot.

Outstanding Audio Post awardswere handed out to Ben Burtt of PixarAnimation Studios and Tom Myers,Michael Semanick and Matthew Woodof Skywalker Sound (Wall-E ); MaceMatiosian, Ruth Adelman, DavidVanslyke, Bill Smith, Yuri Reese andJivan Tahmizian of Todd-AO (CSI: CrimeScene Investigation, “Cockroaches”);and Tony Rapaccioli and Warren Hamil-ton of Wave Recording Studios andTonic (Audi RS6, “Gymnast”).

The HPA inaugurated a newaward this year in memory of Charles S.Swartz. The prize honors a person,group, company or technology that has

Post Focus

HPA

pho

to b

y R

yan

Mill

er, c

ourt

esy

of C

aptu

re I

mag

ing;

Sti

ll M

eph

otos

an

d fr

ame

grab

s co

urt

esy

of t

he f

ilmm

aker

s.

Flanked by ASCpresident DarynOkada (left) and

Richard Crudo,ASC, EFilm’s

Steven J. Scottposes with hisHPA Award for

OutstandingColor Grading,

earned for his work on

Iron Man.

80 January 2009

AMC_0109_p080p083:00 post focus 12/5/08 1:13 PM Page 80

made a significant artistic, technologi-cal, business or educational impact onpost and was presented by screenwriterHoward Rodman to Elizabeth Daley,dean of the University of Southern Cali-fornia’s School of Cinematic Arts.

Capping the ceremony, ASCassociate member Ron Burdett receivedthe Lifetime Achievement Award, whichwas presented by Silverman and FredRheinstein, last year’s recipient. In hisremarks, Burdett looked ahead to thefuture of the post industry and, para-phrasing Robert Frost, encouraged theattendants in all their endeavors. “Wehave promises to keep and many milesto go before the end of the journey,” hesaid.

FotoKem Transfers Still Meby Jim Hemphill

When cinematographer ChunMing Huang began work on Still Me, a20-minute character study about astroke victim’s difficult rehabilitation, heenvisioned the story on film, but theproduction’s limited resources dictatedthat the project be shot and edited on24p standard-definition video. After the

short attracted attention by winningawards at three festivals, director BethMcElhenny began to think aboutsubmitting it for Academy Awardconsideration, and the Academyrequires a 35mm print. “We had no ideathe movie would get this much buzz,and until we found out we might actu-ally have a chance with the Academy,we had no plans to transfer to film,”says Huang, who shot the picture at24p with a Panasonic AG-DVX100.“Originally, we planned on goingstraight to DVD, so I lit with the inten-tion of outputting to video only.”

The filmmakers took the projectto FotoKem, where Huang workedclosely with in-house producer RicoHernandez, who supervised the transferfrom MiniDV to a 35mm compositeprint. “In this case, the source materialwe received was a standard-def Quick-Time file,” says John Nicolard, head ofdigital production for FotoKem. “Weloaded that into Final Cut Pro andoutput a standard-def DigiBeta to startthe process.” The DigiBeta was upcon-verted (via a Teranex box) to HDCam-SRtape.

During the tape-to-tape colorcorrection on the da Vinci 2K, Huangwas primarily concerned with preserv-ing the look of the original footage andprepping it for a different medium. “Wedidn’t do anything too dramatic,” hesays. After the color correction, thefilmmakers gave Hernandez all the textthat needed to be laid into the movie,and FotoKem created HD end titles inAfter Effects that were added to thecolor-corrected master. An audiomaster was created as a 35mm SR opti-cal track, and everything was broughtinto a DI suite to create a filmout file.

To record out to film, says Nico-lard, “we have a FotoKem-specificlinear-to-logarithmic conversion.” Theconversion was done on a QuantelPablo, where the digital files wereprepped with a film look for 35mmrecording. “We could have used thissession for further color timing, but weavoided it because everything wasdone nicely during the da Vinci session— and because the cost would have

Cinematographer Chun Ming Huang (sitting)and director Beth McElhenny confer with

soundman Bill Soares during production ofthe short film Still Me.

81


82 January 2009

rocketed up!” says Huang.The logarithmic DPX files

created in the Pablo were exported to aserver, and an Arrilaser was used torecord the file onto Kodak 2242internegative stock. Finally, the SR opti-cal soundtrack was married to the35mm negative, and the final print wasmade on Kodak Vision 2383. “The mostexpensive part of the entire processwas the filmout,” notes Huang.

The cinematographer adds thatending up on 35mm subtly changed theimage quality for both better and worse.“I had to give up some information inthe highlights and shadows, which isunfortunate, because the image gets alittle washed-out. Using availabledaylight as much as we did, some thingsjust had to give.” On the plus side, hewas happy with the grain structure theimage gained. “You can’t get that nice,true grain shooting video, and it helps alittle in softening out the edges andgetting rid of that video look. But it wasa big challenge to make sure I retainedas much of the detail as possible duringthe transfer process.”

Huang recommends that film-makers shooting on MiniDV who intendto transfer to 35mm keep a sharp eye onthe shadows and highlights. “You haveto make sure you give the coloristsplenty of information to work with. It’shard for me because my style can bequite contrasty; I light by eye, so I’llusually take the exposure that looksgood to me and go with it.” He alsorecommends shooting on 24p HD in16x9 whenever possible because thateliminates some stages (and expenses)in the transfer process.

Nicolard echoes these senti-ments, though he also advises thatindependent filmmakers shouldn’t gettoo hung up on technology whenembarking on their projects. “Anyonewho’s shooting MiniDV is generallydoing it for budgetary reasons, becauseif they had more money, they wouldshoot HD or film. The most importantthing is just to get your project made. Ifit’s good, people will respond to it.” �

Frame grabsfrom the finished

short, whichfocuses on Jack

and Rosanne(Scott Kling and

Tina Gloss) asthey struggle tocope after Jack

suffers from astroke. The

footage,captured on

MiniDV, wastransferred to35mm film at

FotoKem.


01_09 post focus.qxd:00 post focus 12/9/08 12:19 PM Page 83

Codex Unveils Digital LabCodex Digital, a specialist in

high-resolution media-recordingand workflow systems, hasextended its product family withthe Codex Lab, a digital film lab in abox that forms the hub of fast, effi-cient tapeless workflows. The Labis modular, offers enormous record-ing capacity and provides all deliv-erables needed for production, postand archiving.The Lab can ingest digital produc-

tion material from Codex recorders, tape,telecine or other digital systems. It can beexpanded to store more than 500 hours ofdigital cinema footage or 1,000 hours ofhigh-end broadcast material, plus audio.When used in standard-definition applica-tions, the Lab can hold 3,600 hours ofrecordings.

All material stored in the Lab isimmediately available for on-demand dailydeliverables and reprints. When an offlineedit is complete, the Lab automaticallygenerates the required finishing files fromthe EDL in a matter of minutes or hours. Itwill also play out to multiple channels ofvideo (HD or SD), with automatic process-ing of shot lists or EDLs.

The Lab converts formats rangingfrom standard-def to 4K into editing filesfor Avid, Apple or Adobe, or into finishingor archive tapes or viewing files. Outputfile formats include DPX, MXF, DNxHD,QuickTime, AVI, JPEG, BMP and BWF, withfull metadata, resizing, color-space conver-sion and LUTs for look management. Addi-tionally, the Lab offloads HD footage up to10 times faster than real time, with SDover 20 times faster, and it can producemultiple deliverables in parallel.

Codex has designed the Lab so itcan be configured and upgraded accordingto the changing needs of users. It can beordered with one or two dual bays forCodex Portable diskpacks and a dual bayfor Codex Recorder diskpacks. The Lab will

also hold up to four internal LTO4 tapedrives and control external LTO4 robots.Additionally, high-speed RAID6 storage isexpandable to over 100TB in removableblocks of 12 or 24TB.

The Lab can manage a range ofbroadcast productions or digital motionpictures; multiple productions can also behandled on one unit. It is designed for easyintegration into the MCR of an editing orvisual-effects facility, and it can also bedirectly connected on set or on location.

For more information, visitwww.codexdigital.com.

One-Touch BackupNexto DI now offers the Nexto ND-

2725 Video Storage, a portable battery-powered device that backs up footage atthe touch of a single button. Compatiblewith such camcorders as Sony’s PMW-EX1 and EX3 and Panasonic’s HVX200, theVideo Storage can connectdirectly to the camcordervia USB cable. It checks theintegrity of the footage as itrecords, and it can alsodetect faults and potentialfuture hard-drive errors. Abrowse function enablesusers to verify whenbackup is complete, andthe ND-2725 features anESata interface thatincreases the data-transfer speed to andfrom a computer by three times comparedto a USB 2.0.

The Nexto Video Storage is avail-able in 160GB, 250GB, 320GB and 500GB,and it is forward-compatible up to 2TB.Compatible with PC, Mac and Unix plat-forms, the device can store video, photos,data, music and games.

Available through InternationalSupplies, the 320 GB ND-2725 Video Stor-age has a suggested retail price of $799. Itcomes with a one-year warranty, a carry-ing case, long and short USB cords, a USBextension cord and an AC adapter. Auxil-

iary batteries and car chargers are alsoavailable.

For more information, visitwww.nextodiusa.com.

Alacrity Media Intros Van, NinjasAlacrity Media has introduced its

customized Road Grader van, a mobileimplementation of the company’s data-based production and post pipeline. As acomplete digital-intermediate suite onwheels, the Road Grader is designed tomeet the 4K camera and real-time postneeds of filmmakers using data acquisi-tion to create their projects on location.

The key components of this newdata methodology are the Red Onecamera and Assimilate Scratch, whichsupports RedCode native files, enabling areal-time Scratch/Red data workflow.“Traditional methods of creating motion

media have been undergoingfundamental changes, with 4Kdata acquisition quickly movinginto the limelight as the means tomake cost-effective, quality prod-uct,” says Blair Paulsen, founderand owner of Alacrity Media.“While these changes are occur-ring in large and small studiosaround the globe, we’re takingthis new 4K data technology astep further by going on the road

and on location to give clients immediatefeedback and results.”

Key features of Road Graderinclude primary color grading of 4Kfootage in real time with full-quality de-bayering at 2K or 1080p, using a propercontrol surface for lift, gamma and gain; acomplete Final Cut Studio editorialsystem for creating EDLs for conformingin Scratch; an ECinema color-evaluationmonitor in a proper viewing environmentwith color correction applied in real time;an HP DreamColor monitor for viewingimages in full 10-bit space; and real timelayoff to tape via uncompressed HD-SDI

New Products & Services

84 January 2009

01_09 new prods:00 new products 12/5/08 3:11 PM Page 84

in 4:4:4 or 4:2:2 color space.The Road Grader hits the road

supported by a team of “4K Ninjas,” a co-op team of 4K camera and DI experts.Paulsen explains, “Any of the Ninja proscan interface with the [cinematographer],camera team, sound mixer, playback oper-ator, effects supervisor [and] colorist andsupport on-set editorial right in the RoadGrader. We recommend an on-sitecamera Ninja and a Ninja data managerto handle the downloading, organizingand verifying of footage.”

For more information, visitwww.alacritymedia.com or www.4kninjas.net.

MovieCockpit Ready for LiftoffVideoAssisTech has unveiled the

latest product under its Cockpit banner,MovieCockpit, a software application thatturns the user’s computer into an all-in-one, resolution-independent, live produc-tion switcher with multi-channel recordand playback capabilities.

Based on CockpitCube,MovieCockpit is the company’s first appli-cation aimed at the consumer level. Thesoftware finds and visually lists any avail-able audio/video I/O device connected tothe computer, including DV cameras, DVconversion boxes, Web cameras andcomputer sound cards. Each device canthen be fully configured in terms of input,resolution and frame rate, from standarddefinition through 2K.

Users can create separate liveviews for any of the inputs simply by drag-ging and dropping a chosen device intothe work area. Each view can be sepa-rately configured for recording codec, filetype and storage device, and each viewcan be recorded independently. Addition-ally, multiple live views can be easilygrouped together — with no limit to thenumber of groups — to make synchro-nized recordings.

Offering straight cuts, manual or

85


automatic wipes, and manual or auto-matic cross-fades, MovieCockpit enableschroma key work as well as graphics andtext overlay. Recorded clips and the syncplaylist are stored in the application’sdatabase, which supports multiplethumbnails, an unlimited number of user-customizable metadata fields, and nestedsorting and text search. Users caninstantly reload recorded clips for play-back, and clips can be output to externalmonitors; output formats are completelyindependent of input formats. The appli-cation can currently play back most avail-able video codecs.

For more information, visitwww.moviecockpit.com.

New Studio in Long Beach Long Beach Studios is expecting to

roll cameras during the first quarter of2009 in its new, state-of-the-art facility.Housing more than 1 million square feetof production, postproduction and supportspace, the studio will include 40 sound-stages and the largest water-filming facil-ity in California.

“Long Beach is the perfect locationfor a major production studio,” says JackO’Halloran, chairman of the studio.“Being close to three major airports,major freeways and Metro Rail makes usthe most convenient production facility,and we are thrilled to become a part ofthis amazing and vital city.”

For more information, visitwww.longbeachstudiosllc.com.

S3D StudiosSunset Gower and Sunset Bronson

Studios have teamed with Iconix Video toopen S3D Studios. With a full array ofstereo-ready rigs, Iconix cameras, andstereo recording and playback devices,

S3D’s stages offer a turnkey solution forshooting and testing stereoscopicproduction in a controlled environment.

“We are committed to providingstate-of-the-art facilities that allow forgreater ease in capturing digitally,” saysHoward Stern, president of SunsetGower Studios. “We want to make iteasier to produce stereo and enable thecreative community to work in acontrolled environment that makesshooting easier and more dependable.”

“S3D stages allow us to integrateour new generation of stereo solutions inone easy-to-use package,” adds BruceLong, CEO of Iconix Video. “S3D Studioswill allow producers to move into stereowith their same crews and teams. Ourgoal is to support, not supplant.”

S3D’s stages at Sunset Gowerand Sunset Bronson are equipped withon-set pre-post services for stereodailies. Full stereo post is provided byStereoscope Studios in Burbank, whichalso offers an S3D insert stage to facili-tate simultaneous compositing ofeffects. Additionally, the S3D stages willutilize Iconix Video’s handheld stereorigs, developed in association withDoggicam Systems. Other available rigoptions include tripod-mounted rigs andDoggicam’s new High Def Dolly system,which has been configured to mountIconix’s 3-D HD system.

For more information, visitwww.iconixvideo.com.

Gemini Creates 3-D CameraGemini LLC has teamed with

MSM Design Inc. to create a film-based3-D camera system. The compactsystem weighs 44 pounds in Steadicammode and 54 pounds when fitted with aviewfinder and 1,000' film load.Designed for easy setup and reloading,the Gemini 3-D camera is compatiblewith conventional 35mm remote heads,nose mounts, dollies, cranes and Libraheads.

The Gemini has been designedwith a digital post pipeline in mind. Thecamera photographs 24mm-by-36mmimages onto two strips of 35mm film;each frame has 8 perfs.

The film movements incorporate

86 January 2009

a vacuum back and an ultra-steadydesign, and the camera also features a180-degree mirror shutter. Internal elec-tronics control iris, focus and conver-gence functions, ensuring proper align-ment of the left- and right-eye images.Users can access the electronic inter-face through controls on the camerabody or with a smart remote, whichoffers complete feedback while thecamera is running.

Coaxial mags reduce weight andsize while enabling quick reloads. TheGemini also boasts a unique, ultra-light-weight clip-on mattebox that can holdone 6" round filter and two 6.6"x6.6"square filters. (The camera also acceptsthe Arriflex MB-14 mattebox.) Lenses,batteries and an underwater housinground out the Gemini’s accessory pack-age, and everything is available for rentthrough Gemini LLC.

For more information, visitwww.gemini3dcamera.com.

Sony Enables 3-D Theater ProjectionSony Electronics has unveiled a

single-projector 3-D adapter designedto work specifically with its 4K projec-tors in movie theaters. The new adapteruses the full height of Sony’s 4K imagingdevice, with the ability to display full 2Kimages for the left and right eyes simul-taneously and in parallel, from top tobottom.

Comprised of two new lens units— models LKRL-A002 (X1.1-1.9) andLKRL-A003 (X1.9-3.3) — the 3-Dadapter consists of an optical andmechanical assembly for each left- andright-eye image. It is designed to meetDCI specifications for 3-D digital projec-tion while overcoming the bandwidthand resolution limitations of 3-Dsystems currently on the market.


Compatible with all Sony 4Kprojectors now in the field, the 3-Dadapter was developed to giveexhibitors the flexibility to easily switchbetween showing 4K and 3-D content.The adapter attaches onto the projec-tor’s lens mount, and it can be removedor re-attached within minutes.

When used with Sony’s inte-grated media block (LMT-200), the SRX-R220 4K projector is able to achieve4:4:4 RGB signal path while avoiding the“triple-flash” artifacting of other 3-Dsolutions. The projector can also delivera 60p 3-D display that is especiallyeffective for stereoscopic displays ofsports or other fast-moving content.

The 3-D adapter is designed towork with a maximum screen size of 55';it is expected to ship in March 2009.

Sony Electronics’ Digital CinemaSolutions and Services group has alsoentered into separate and non-exclusivedigital-deployment agreements with20th Century Fox, Paramount Picturesand Sony Pictures Entertainment. Theagreements will provide certain opera-tional and financial resources to encour-age exhibitors to implement digitalcinema systems featuring Sony’s DCI-compliant 4K SXRD projection technol-ogy.

For more information, visithttp://pro.sony.com. �

Contact Germany’s Market Leader!Filming in Central Europe?

For Shoots That Work,

BROADCAST SERVICES

WE’VE GOT YOUR BACK.

THE VERY LATEST IN DIGITAL MOVIE-MAKING MULTI-LINGUAL STAFF 24/7 TECHNICAL SUPPORT

CALL +49.30.230 989 0

VISIT www.camelot-berlin.de

87

SUBMISSION INFORMATION

Please e-mail New Products/Servicesreleases to: [email protected] andinclude full contact information and productimages. Photos must be TIFF or JPEG files of atleast 300dpi.


International Marketplace

88 January 2009

AMC_0109_p088p090:00 marketplace&ad index 12/5/08 2:48 PM Page 88

EQUIPMENT FOR SALE

BUY-SELL-CONSIGN-TRADE. 47 YEARS EXPERIENCE.CALL BILL REITER. PRO VIDEO & FILM EQUIPMENTCOMPANY. (972) 869-9990.

WORLD’S SUPERMARKET OF USED MOTIONPICTURE EQUIPMENT VISUAL PRODUCTS, INC. CALL(440) 647-4999 www.visualproducts.com

PRO VIDEO & FILM EQUIPMENT COMPANY. USEDEQUIPMENT. (888) 869-9998.

NEED USED EQUIPMENT? PRO VIDEO & FILM EQUIP-MENT. (888) 869-9998.www.UsedEquipmentNewsletter.com

Lighting: Mole 20K, Mole Baby 10K’s, Mole Baby 5K’S, 4KSoftlights. Call Visual Products, Inc for complete list. (440)647-4999

11,000 USED ITEMS. PRO VIDEO & FILM EQUIPMENT.(972 )869-9990.

Blue RingGaffer’s Glass™

Made inthe U.S.A.!

“Find the Hot Spot”

www.gaffersglass.comfor dealers contact:

NEW!

.8

86

5

1

77.6

.14

2al

e

C ll Tol F

r

e

te

in Nor h Am rica

1

.

8

.

4

2

+1.4

6

6

6

1

5

a

for internation l

u t mc s o ers

LCD Monitor

Mount 35Mount your

professional video

17"— 23" LCD monitor on

a light stand and take it into

the studio or on location.

Holds up to 35lbs.

For more info on this and other great

camera & grip products,

check out

EQUIPMENT FOR SALE

USED EQUIPMENT. PRO VIDEO & FILM EQUIPMENTCOMPANY. (888) 869-9998, [email protected].

Perfect Arri Package – Never Rented, All Mint Condition535B – 2-1000’/2-400’ Magazines, ColorVI, Eyepiece Extender, more – 90,000435 Manual – 2-400’ Magazines, ColorV, more - $45,00017-102 – Complete Microforce V+F, 2x Extender, more -$16,000Zeiss 14mmMKII - $6,000 [email protected] for complete manifest

PRO VIDEO & FILM USED EQUIPMENT LIST:www.UsedEquipmentNewsletter.com.

USED EQUIPMENT. PRO VIDEO & FILM EQUIPMENTCOMPANY. (972) 869-9990.

Arriflex 435ES, 535B, 35 BL1, BL2, BL3, BL4 and BL4S,Moviecam Super America MK II’s Camera Packages forsale. Call Visual Products, Inc. (440) 647-4999.

WANTED

CASH FOR YOUR EQUIPMENT NOW! MOTIONPICTURE EQUIPMENT 16MM OR 35MM WANTED:CAMERAS, LENSES, TRIPODS, DOLLIES, CRANES,LIGHTING, EDITING. VISUAL PRODUCTS, INC. PH (440)647-4999 OR FAX LIST TO (440) 647-4998.

SERVICES AVAILABLE

STEADICAM ARM QUALITY SERVICE OVERHAUL ANDUPDATES. QUICK TURNAROUND. ROBERT LUNA (323)938-5659.


Classifieds

AMC_0109_p088p090:00 marketplace&ad index 12/5/08 2:48 PM Page 89

Advertiser’s IndexAC 77, 92 Alamar Productions, Inc. 88Alan Gordon Enterprises

88, 89Arri 49ASC 83

Backstage Equipment, Inc. 85

Barger-Lite 67Burrell Enterprises 88

Camelot Broadcasting Service 87

Cavision Enterprises 27Center for Digital Arts

at Boston University 6Chapman University 25Cine Gear Expo 63Cinekinetic 4CinemaGadgets.com 88Cinematographer Style 93Cinema Vision 89Cinematography

Electronics 67Clairmont Film & Digital 21Cooke 6CPT Rental Inc. 89

Deluxe 23

Eastman Kodak 13, C4Entertainment Lighting

Services 88

Filmtools 85Flying-Cam 6Focus Features 5FTC/West 89Fuji Motion Picture 51

Glidecam Industries 17Goldenanimations 88

Hybrid Cases 88

JEM Studio Lighting, Inc. 81

K 5600, Inc. 40Kino Flo 57Konrad Wolf Hochschule 67

LA Shorts Fest 69Laffoux Solutions, Inc. 88Lee Filters 65Litepanels 2

MP&E Mayo Productions 89

NAB 91New York University 15North Carolina Film

Commission 19

Oppenheimer Camera Prod. 88

Otto Nemenz, Intl. 53

Panasonic Broadcast 33Paramount Studios 11Paramount Vantage 9PED Denz 39Pille Film Gmbh 88Pro8mm 88

Samy’s DV & Edit 41Sony C2-1 Stanton Video Services 39Stwo 55, 85Sundance Film Festival 79Super16 Inc. 89Superflycam 55SXSW 95

Tiffen C3

VF Gadgets, Inc. 89Videocraft Equipment Pty

88

Walter Klassen FX 56Weinstein Company, The 7Willy’s Widgets 88www.theasc.com 55, 68,

81, 87, 90

Zacuto Films 89ZGC, Inc. 6

90

01_09 marketplace&ad index.qxd:00 marketplace&ad index 12/9/08 3:30 PM Page 90

www.nabshow.com

Conferences: April 18–23, 2009 / Exhibits: April 20–23 Las Vegas Convention Center / Las Vegas, Nevada USA

FREE

Exhibits

Passport

Use code A501 when

registering online

Capture:

Knowledge

Passion

Content

Ideas

Creativity

Insight

Experience

Innovation

ContentContent

Regardless of the important role you play in the creation of content, from conceptualization through production and post-production, the NAB Show delivers the tools and techniques to give life to your next award-winning vision. Experience a wealth of hands-on educational opportunities designed to expand your know-how and abilities. See, touch and test the advancements infl uencing today’s edgiest content, from HD to 3D, editing, and the latest in animation, gaming, widgets, social networking and more.

From big screen to small screen to no screen and beyond, the NAB Show is the ultimate venue for exchanging solutions and strategies for creating award-winning content to be viewed by local, national and global audiences. Join the world-wide community of professionals who share your passion for entertainment excellence. For more information, visit www.nabshow.com.


Robert C. Jessup, ASC, who lent histalents to features, commercials,telefilms and series over the

course of four decades, died on Aug.14 at the age of 78.

Born on May 23, 1930, Jessupgrew up in New Jersey before movingto Des Moines, Iowa, to attend DrakeUniversity. In 1951, he enlisted in theU.S. Air Force and was assigned to the1st Combat Camera Unit as a soundmixer. Later that year, he was assignedto the 2nd Photo Squadron in Japan,where he worked as a sound recordistand a camera assistant in the Docu-mentary Film Unit. Jessup was thenreassigned to the 1354th VideoProduction Squadron, where heworked as an audio engineer beforetransitioning to television cameraman.

After an honorable discharge in1955, Jessup worked as a cameramanand lighting director at TV stations inFlorida and Indiana. In 1958, he settledin Dallas, Texas, taking a job as acamera assistant with Jamieson FilmCo. Climbing the ranks in Jamieson’scamera department, he advanced fromoperator to cinematographer in 1960,and he headed the department formost of the next decade, notchingcredits on such projects as Night Fright(1967) and the telefilms In the Year2889, Creature of Destruction andMars Needs Women (all 1967).

In 1969, Jessup’s work on TheBanyan Tree earned him a cinematog-raphy award at the Atlanta Film Festi-val, and he set out to work as afreelancer. By the mid-1970s, he waspresident of Film Production ServicesInc., a company that provided crewsand equipment to productions shoot-ing in the Midwest and South. Thatdidn’t slow his accomplishmentsbehind the camera, however; earningfirst-unit credits on such features as

Sugar Hill (1974), Race With the Devil(1975) and Drive-In (1976), he also shotsecond unit for such cinematographersas Robert Surtees, ASC (The GreatWaldo Pepper, 1975) and Ernest Laszlo,ASC (Logan’s Run, 1976).

After their collaboration onLogan’s Run, Laszlo recommendedJessup for ASC membership, andJessup was officially made a memberon March 1, 1976. In a letter to LesterShorr, ASC, the Society’s president atthe time, Jessup wrote, “This is anhonor I do not take lightly, and I canassure you that I will do everything inmy power to live up to the ideals, stan-dards and goals represented by theASC.”

Over the next two decades,Jessup returned to his TV roots, shoot-ing episodes of the series The Dukes ofHazzard (1979) and Dallas (1978-79)and a number of telefilms, includingtwo directed by Ron Howard, CottonCandy (1978) and Skyward (1980).Other credits include the theatricalfeatures The Big Brawl (1980), DeadlyBlessing (1981), Silent Rage (1982) andPorky’s Revenge (1985).

Jessup is survived by two broth-ers and one sister.

— Jon D. Witmer�

In MemoriamRobert C. Jessup, ASC, 1930-2008

92

AMC_0109_p092p093:00 memoriam 12/6/08 10:38 AM Page 92

AMC_0109_p092p093:00 memoriam 12/9/08 3:45 PM Page 93

94 January 2009

and photographic engineering at theMoscow State Film Institute. After grad-uating with honors, he began notchingdirector-of-photography credits onfeatures, including the criticallyacclaimed Mayakovsky Laughs (1975).Neyman’s work was considered by thestate to be “ideologically dangerous,”and he was forced to emigrate from theU.S.S.R. as a political refugee.

Landing in New York City,Neyman began his stateside career atthe bottom rung of the camera depart-ment. He quickly climbed the ranks,however, and began shooting documen-taries and commercials before enjoyinghis feature breakout with the cult hit

Liquid Sky (1982). Other credits includethe features D.O.A. (1988), Brittle Glory(1997) and Civil Brand (2002), and thetelefilms Fatal Deception: Mrs. LeeHarvey Oswald (1993) and ScatteredDreams (1993).

For more than a decade, Neymanhas applied his scientific knowledge tohelp cinematographers maintain controlof their images through all stages ofproduction. Through his company,Gamma & Density Co., he has devel-oped the Thorough Control System andthe Cinematographers’ Color CorrectionProcess, or 3cP. He is also an instructorat the American Film Institute.

Lieberman, Neyman Join SocietyThe Society has welcomed Char-

lie Lieberman and Yuri Neyman as activemembers.

After earning a B.A. in anthropol-ogy from Northern Illinois University,Charles Lieberman, ASC settled in

Chicago to pursue a career in still photog-raphy. He landed a series of jobs incamera shops and advertising studiosbefore setting out as a freelance photog-rapher. One of his first assignments wasto photograph indigenous cultures insmall villages across 14 countries for aseries of anthropology books.

Returning to Chicago, Liebermandisplayed his work in a gallery and wassubsequently hired as a still photogra-pher on a documentary about Olympicathletes. This first taste of motion-pictureproduction prompted Lieberman tochange tacks, and he began working as acinematographer in documentary, indus-trial and educational films. His first breakin features came with Henry: Portrait of aSerial Killer (1986). He remained inChicago, primarily shooting commercials,until 1989, when he relocated to LosAngeles. Since then, he has earned cred-its on such features as South Central(1992) and Love is a Gun (1994) and onsuch series as My So-Called Life, Party ofFive, Joan of Arcadia and Heroes.

Born in Kharkov, Ukraine, YuriNeyman, ASC studied cinematography

Ngai Becomes AssociateTony Ngai, marketing manager

for Hong Kong-based Salon Films, hasjoined the ASC as an associate member.Active in Hong Kong’s motion-pictureindustry since 1969, he has served assection chair of SMPTE’s Hong Kongchapter for most of the last decade, andhe is an active member of the advisoryboard of Hong Kong’s Institute of Voca-tional Education. Ngai’s other affiliationsinclude the British Kinematograph Soundand Television Society, the Digital CinemaSociety and the Chinese Society ofMotion Picture and Television Engineers.

ASC Onstage at Expos Glen MacPherson, ASC and

Peter Anderson, ASC recently sharedtheir insights about 3-D cinematographyat the HD Expo in Burbank. MacPhersonsat down with director Eric Brevig andvisual-effects coordinator Eric Torres for“Myth Busting 3-D,” a discussion moder-ated by Vince Pace, founder of PaceHD.Later that day, AC contributor DouglasBankston interviewed Anderson aboutthe cinematographer’s wide-ranging 3-Dcredits.

ASC members also participated inthe recent DV Expo, where theyconducted a series of master classes.George Spiro Dibie, ASC moderatedthe sessions, each of which featured clipsfrom cinematographers’ work followedby a discussion. ASC members RichardCrudo, Allen Daviau, Michael Goi,Richard Kline, Daniel Pearl, RobertPrimes, Owen Roizman, David Stumpand Rodney Taylor participated in theclasses.

Stump also participated in the“Full Resolution HD Workflow Work-shop” with cinematographer Joe diGennaro and post supervisor PeterMavromates; the discussion was moder-ated by Thomson Grass Valley’s MarkChiolis. �

Clubhouse News

01_09 clubhouse:00 clubhouse 12/5/08 1:09 PM Page 94

AMC_0109_p095:Layout 1 12/6/08 12:02 PM Page 1

96 January 2009

When you were a child, what film made the strongest impres-sion on you?My first pet, a tomcat, was called Lucifer, so I guess Cinderella (1950)made a big impression on me. As for live action, I loved The Red Balloon(1956) and, later, Battleship Potemkin (1925) and Cabaret (1972).

Which cinematographers, past or present, do you most admire?Luis Cuadrado; Gregg Toland, ASC; Freddie Young, BSC; Chivo Lubezki,ASC, AMC; and Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC, to mention just a few.

What sparked your interest in photography?Politics. Although I was familiar with filmmaking through my mum’sacting career, I wasn’t interested in it as a child; I was more impressedby my parents’ love for the stage. But when the time came to expressmyself, the only satisfaction I could find was in documenting the events,the passion and energy that came during the late ’60s, which werecrucial in my life. My weapon: an Ikarex with Zeiss lenses.

Where did you train and/or study?Centro de Capacitación Cinematogràfica in Mexico and The NationalFilm and Television School in the United Kingdom.

Who were your early teachers or mentors?For cinematography, Alexis Grivas in Mexico and Brian Probyn and BillyWilliams, BSC, in the U.K. For directing, Antxon Ezeiza in Mexico andKarel Reisz and Sandy Mackendrick in the U.K.

What are some of your key artistic influences?Caravaggio, Turner, Constable, Eisenstein, Visconti, Modotti, Cunning-ham, Irving Penn, Mahler, Atahualpa Yupanqui, Whitman, GarciaMárquez, Plácido Domingo, and Mexico — the whole country is one ofthe most spectacular canvases I have ever experienced.

How did you get your first break in the business?I interviewed for a film called Christmas Present (1985) at the newlycreated Channel 4 in the U.K., and at the time, my only credits were myfilm-school background and an unseen Colombian feature.Writer/director Tony Bicat and producer Barry Hanson interviewed me,saw my material and offered me the job — no recommendations, nocontacts, no friends in the right places, no special favors. Good ol’ Britainwas very good to me!

What has been your most satisfying moment on a project?During the filming of Derek Jarman’s Caravaggio (1986), we were at acold warehouse in the Isle of Dogs, East London, and we were lit for thepainter’s beautiful Maria Magdalene. Tilda Swinton came in, sat down,and assumed the position of the model in the painting. We startedrolling, and Tilda was still for an impossible time — the effect wasperfect. Suddenly, she turned her head gently and said, ‘Can I have acig?’ Derek and I cried, and costume designer Sandy Powell and camera

assistant John Mathieson (future BSC) embraced, for we were in front ofa film miracle. We had given life to a Caravaggio painting.

Have you made any memorable blunders?In Sligo, Ireland, my gaffer and great friend Louis Conroy and I were light-ing a gigantic set in a manor house. Our director, Christopher Morahan,strode in in military fashion and very curtly said, ‘We are shooting in theother direction. You know that, don’t you?’ I was speechless, but Lou said,‘What do you expect, Chris, when you have an Irish gaffer and a Mexicancameraman?’ I think Morahan laughed.

What’s the best professional advice you’ve ever received?Kate Nelligan, a superb actor, once told me that if I could light womenbeautifully, I would not only help many careers, but I would also definitelyhelp mine.

What recent books, films or artworks have inspired you?Brian Friel’s plays, in particular The Faith Healer; The Shadow of the Windby Carlos Ruiz Zafón; the exquisite literary trilogy by Jasper Fforde aboutthe character Thursday Next; the recent Graciela Iturbide exhibition at theGetty Museum and Wilfredo Lam exhibition at the Museum of Latin Amer-ican Art; Henner Hofmann ASC, AMC’s passion for teaching; La Vie EnRose (2007); Mongol (2008); and the last season of the Los Angeles Opera.

Do you have any favorite genres, or genres you would like to try?My favorite genre is the musical. My dream is to do an epic period filmbased on history or on a great novel.

If you weren’t a cinematographer, what might you be doinginstead?A practitioner of alternative medicine, a hotelier, a teacher or a politician.

Which ASC cinematographers recommended you for member-ship?Guillermo Navarro, Steve Bernstein and Robert Stevens. My acceptanceprocess went really smoothly and the committee was kind, complimentaryand welcoming. It was a sharp contrast to the battle Walter Lassally, BSCfought on my behalf 10 years earlier at the BSC.

How has ASC membership impacted your life and career?My life and career have had many chapters. When I was invited to becomea member of the ASC, I turned the first page of a new life, my life in Amer-ica, surely the most interesting and promising one. Here, I have startedeverything again; my children, Max and Victoria, are very young, my careeris relatively new, and being an ASC member is like walking on the shoul-ders of giants. �

ASC CLOSE-UPGabriel Beristain, ASC, BSC

Ph

oto

by H

enn

er H

ofm

ann

, ASC

, AM

C.

AMC_0109_p096:00 asc closeup 12/5/08 1:07 PM Page 96

Now say goodbye to IR pollution with Tiffen’s innovativenew line of Hot Mirror Infrared Neutral Density filters. TheTiffen HMIRND combination filters are the complete solution to the IR pollution problem, blocking both the near IR and IRregions of the spectrum. Designed for high definition cameras,especially those that don’t incorporate an internal IR blocker,exclusive Tiffen HMIRND filters block unwanted IR light andhave matched IR and ND components to assure accurate colorreproduction in the near infrared region.

The new Hot Mirror IRND filters incorporate Tiffen’s uniqueColorCore™ technology that — unlike surface coated filters —sandwiches the coating within the filter for safe, easy cleaningwithout fear of damaging the filter. This also allows Tiffen

HMIRND’s to be ground and polished to assure perfect parallelism. Used in almost every major movie and TV production around the world, Tiffen filters have earnedtwo Technical Achievement Awards and a Scientific and Engineering Award from the ©Academy of Motion PictureArts and Sciences® for their ColorCore Filter LaminationProcess (1985, 2000) and Ultra Contrast Filters (1993) repectively, as well as a Prime Time Emmy® Award (1998)for filter engineering excellence.

The Tiffen HMIRND filters are available in popular motion picture sizes, in densities 0.3 to 2.1, and are backed by Tiffen’s 10-year warranty. For more infor-mation about the hottest new filters in the businessvisit www.tiffen.com today.

®

New Tiffen Hot Mirror IRND Filters

Make All The Difference.

Looking for a solution to IR pollution?

1-800-645-2522 • tiffen.com

The Difference is Tiffen

AMC_0109_pCV3:Layout 1 12/2/08 10:44 AM Page 1

AMC_0109_pCV4:Layout 1 12/2/08 10:44 AM Page 1

Documents

American Cinematographer 2009-01