AC Mar 2010

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$5.95 Canada $6.95
M E M B E R P O R T R A I T
Anthony B. Richmond, ASC, BSC
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
hen I was 12 years old, I
saw Citizen Kane. The
images created by Gregg
Toland, ASC were so powerful that
all Ive ever wanted to do since
then is photograph films.
My first copy of American
Cinematographer came from
director John Sturges when we
were working on The Eagle Has
Landed. I have read the magazine
ever since.
In this ever-changing world
of new technology and equipment,
AC keeps me in touch with whats
available. More importantly, it
enables me to see how my fellow
cinematographers are applying
their art, skill and vision to the
projects theyre shooting.
Anthony B. Richmond,
ASC, BSC
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The International Journal of Motion Imaging
30 Mind Games
Robert Richardson, ASC lends hallucinatory edge to
Martin Scorseses noir thriller
46 Home-Screen Hits
Cinematographers from The Pacific, Glee and CSI: NY
detail their work
62 A Passion for His Craft
John C. Flinn, ASC earns the Societys Career Achievement
in Television Award
72 Saluting an Industry Stalwart
Presidents Award recipient Sol Negrin, ASC reflects on
his long and fruitful career
DEPARTMENTS
FEATURES
VISIT WWW.THEASC.COM TO ENJOY THESE WEB EXCLUSIVES
Friends of the ASC: Society unveils new membership level
DVD Playback: The Prisoner Paris, Texas Streamers
On Our Cover: U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) searches for a missing
patient at a psychiatric penitentiary in Shutter Island, shot by Robert Richardson, ASC.
(Photo by Andrew Cooper, SMPSP, courtesy of Paramount Pictures.)
8 Editors Note
10 Presidents Desk
12 Short Takes: La Premire
18 Production Slate: A Prophet NY Export: Opus Jazz
78 Post Focus: EFilms Cinemascan System
82 New Products & Services
88 International Marketplace
89 Classified Ads
90 Ad Index
92 ASC Membership Roster
94 Clubhouse News
96 ASC Close-Up: Salvatore Totino
M A R C H 2 0 1 0 V O L . 9 1 N O . 3
72
62
M a r c h 2 0 1 0 V o l . 9 1 , N o . 3
T h e I n t e r n a t i o n a l J o u r n a l o f M o t i o n I m a g i n g
Visit us online at
www.theasc.com

PUBLISHER Martha Winterhalter
EDITORIAL
EXECUTIVE EDITOR Stephen Pizzello
SENIOR EDITOR Rachael K. Bosley
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Jon D. Witmer
TECHNICAL EDITOR Christopher Probst
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Stephanie Argy, Benjamin B, Douglas Bankston, Robert S. Birchard,
John Calhoun, Bob Fisher, Simon Gray, Jim Hemphill, David Heuring,
Jay Holben, Mark Hope-Jones, Noah Kadner, Jean Oppenheimer,
John Pavlus, Chris Pizzello, Jon Silberg, Iain Stasukevich,
Kenneth Sweeney, Patricia Thomson
ART DEPARTMENT
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Marion Gore
ADVERTISING
ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR Angie Gollmann
323-936-3769 FAX 323-936-9188
e-mail: gollmann@pacbell.net
ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR Sanja Pearce
323-908-3114 FAX 323-876-4973
e-mail: sanja@ascmag.com
ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR Scott Burnell
323-936-0672 FAX 323-936-9188
e-mail: sburnell@earthlink.net
CLASSIFIEDS/ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Diella Nepomuceno
323-908-3124 FAX 323-876-4973
e-mail: diella@ascmag.com
CIRCULATION, BOOKS & PRODUCTS

CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Saul Molina
CIRCULATION MANAGER Alex Lopez
SHIPPING MANAGER Miguel Madrigal
ASC GENERAL MANAGER Brett Grauman

ASC EVENTS COORDINATOR Patricia Armacost
ASC PRESIDENTS ASSISTANT Kim Weston
ASC ACCOUNTING MANAGER Mila Basely
ASC ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE Corey Clark
American Cinematographer (ISSN 0002-7928), established 1920 and in its 90th year of publication, is published
monthly in Hollywood by ASC Holding Corp., 1782 N. Orange Dr., Hollywood, CA 90028, U.S.A.,
(800) 448-0145, (323) 969-4333, Fax (323) 876-4973, direct line for subscription inquiries (323) 969-4344.
Subscriptions: U.S. $50; Canada/Mexico $70; all other foreign countries $95 a year (remit international
Money Order or other exchange payable in U.S. $). Advertising: Rate card upon request from Hollywood
office. Article Reprints: Requests for high-quality article reprints (or electronic reprints) should be made to
Sheridan Reprints at (800) 635-7181 ext. 8065 or by e-mail hrobinson@tsp.sheridan.com.
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.

4
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OFFICERS - 2009/2010
Michael Goi
President
Richard Crudo
Vice President
Owen Roizman
Vice President
Victor J. Kemper
Vice President
Matthew Leonetti
Treasurer
Rodney Taylor
Secretary
John C. Flinn III
Sergeant At Arms
MEMBERS OF THE
BOARD
Curtis Clark
Richard Crudo
George Spiro Dibie
Richard Edlund
John C. Flinn III
John Hora
Victor J. Kemper
Matthew Leonetti
Stephen Lighthill
Isidore Mankofsky
Daryn Okada
Owen Roizman
Nancy Schreiber
Haskell Wexler
Vilmos Zsigmond
ALTERNATES
Fred Elmes
Steven Fierberg
Ron Garcia
Michael D. OShea
Michael Negrin
MUSEUM CURATOR
Steve Gainer
American Society of Cine ma tog ra phers
The 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.
6
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The setting of Martin Scorseses Shutter Island is a fore-
boding psychiatric facility that makes The Shinings Overlook
Hotel look like fun for the whole family. Looming on a rocky,
heavily guarded island off Boston Harbor, Ashecliffe Hospital is
a penitentiary for the criminally insane. Its a place that reminds
U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) of the German
concentration camp Dachau, which he helped liberate as a
soldier during World War II.
With the help of Robert Richardson, ASC, Scorsese uses
this location to physically represent the movies nightmarish
psychological landscape. In crafting a look for the vivid halluci-
nations Daniels begins to experience at Ashecliffe, the filmmakers drew inspiration from
director/cinematographer George Stevens 16mm Kodachrome footage of the liberation of
Dachau, material that Richardson describes as hyper-real. This style, as well as the films
brooding real-world ambience, was achieved with custom look-up tables; the LUTs were
combined with digital grading to augment the eerie images captured by Richardson and his
crew, who also created the practical hurricane that pounds the asylum. The lighting, color
and texture all contribute to the blurring of reality and hallucination, raising the question of
what is subjective vs. objective, Richardson tells contributing writer Patricia Thomson (Mind
Games, page 30). Marty plays with this blurring of lines throughout the film, I think with
great prowess. The film is a journey within one mans mind, and what you see could be real
or imagined.
Teleproduction is this months special focus, and weve spotlighted several projects you
should add to your DVRs playlist: HBOs Band of Brothers sequel, The Pacific, which drafted
cinematographers Remi Adefarasin, BSC and Steve Windon, ACS for hand-to-hand combat
(page 46); Glee, an award-winning series that allows Christopher Baffa, ASC to help chore-
ograph energetic musical interludes (page 52); CSI: NY, the hit forensic procedural that
recently required cinematographers Marshall Adams and Feliks Parnell to transition from
35mm film to digital capture (page 58); and NY Export: Opus Jazz, a PBS ballet special shot
and co-directed by Jody Lee Lipes that features choreography by the late Jerome Robbins
(Production Slate, page 24).
This issue also profiles a pair of ASC standouts who were honored at last months
awards ceremony: John C. Flinn, who received the Societys Career Achievement in Television
Award (A Passion for His Craft, page 62), and Sol Negrin, whose long record of service was
recognized with the Presidents Award (Saluting an Industry Stalwart, page 72). I put
everything Ive got into every shot I do, says Flinn, who has lent his talents to such memo-
rable shows as Gunsmoke, Hawaii Five-O and Magnum, P.I. When Im on a series, I make
22 of the best movies I can per season. Negrin has also made the most of his career, earn-
ing five Emmy nominations and then sharing his knowledge with new generations of
students. I worked on commercials, documentaries, industrial films and, eventually, feature
films and television, notes Negrin. The best advice I was ever given came from [ASC cine-
matographer] Harry Stradling Sr., who said, Never be afraid to take a chance. It may be the
best thing you ever did.
Stephen Pizzello
Executive Editor
Editors Note
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Which is probably why people are coming back to film. Film
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loaded with color information to start with which saves time
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transfers to spots on the web look amazing. Considering all
the surprises a production throws at you, why add an unproven
workflow into the mix? Film, man. Its just beautiful.
Stefan Sonnenfeld refuses to compromise. His award-winning work on commercials
and features such as Star Trek and Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen is a
testament to that. Hear his stories and others at kodak.com/go/motion
Stefan Sonnenfeld
Colorist. Entrepreneur. Fanatic.

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Its hard to become a member of the ASC. Now, I know that might sound like a brilliant flash
of the obvious, but in reflecting on my own path to the hallowed gates of the ASC Clubhouse in Holly-
wood, I was reminded of just how tough it was.
First, you have to be recommended by three active members who write letters explaining why
they think youre qualified. They take into consideration your body of work as well as the integrity of
your character. Those three letters are not something that you can solicit; they just have to happen.
You and your cinematography have to have made enough of an impression that three of the worlds
best cinematographers took notice.
Second, you are invited to sit before the Membership Committee. This call comes in a decep-
tively casual way. Patty Armacost, the Societys events coordinator, called me on a Tuesday and asked
if I was free that Saturday morning. Then she asked if I could come by the Clubhouse to meet some
of the members, and bring 10-15 minutes of work to show them. I said sure, no problem. It wasnt
until I hung up the phone that I realized Oh, my god! This is the ASC Membership meeting!
Ben Toguchi, who had been the Clubhouse caretaker since 1959, greeted me at the door. He knew everyone and everything that
went on in that building. He invited me to sit in the library while the committee was preparing to meet me, and he offered me something
to drink. He said they would call for me in a few minutes, so I sat and waited.
When you walk into the membership meeting, you are warmly greeted by 15-20 of your cinematography heroes. At my meeting,
Allen Daviau was the chairman, and sitting at the table were people like Vilmos Zsigmond, Owen Roizman, Laszlo Kovacs, Victor Kemper,
George Spiro Dibie, Richard Crudo, Ron Garcia, and on and on. You shake everyones hand, and the world goes blank for the rest of the
meeting. Seriously. The shock of being in that room with those incredible artists completely numbs you.
I know I was asked questions about my work, about the craft of cinematography and about what the ASC stands for, but I cant
honestly say I remember my answers. I know I showed my work to them, but I couldnt tell whether they liked any of it or not. After a few
more questions, they thanked me for coming, and I walked out of the room.
Then the Membership Committee discusses your qualifications, and they vote. If you pass that vote, the ASC Board of Governors
considers your work and the Membership Committees recommendation, and then they vote. If you pass that vote, a letter proposing you
for membership is sent to every active member of the ASC, and they have 30 days to write a response if they feel you should not be accepted.
If there are no objections, you are then invited to join the Society.
Its tough. Even though we are on a constant search for qualified members, we have only 316 active members as of this writing
and thats covering the entire world, because the ASC is truly international in scope. We look for potential new members all the time. We
discuss work weve seen on small films where the cinematography stood out. We keep tabs on student cinematographers who have shown
great promise, hoping that one day they will be worthy of ASC membership. And we are excited when we find work that we feel is truly
extraordinary.
As I walked out of the room after my Membership Committee meeting, old Ben came up to me and asked how it went. I told him I
didnt know. With a smile, he patted me on the back and said, Dont worry. I think Im going to see you here soon. You have the right
heart.
Ben passed away two years ago. In the seven years Ive been in the ASC, Ive seen many people come up for consideration shoot-
ers on big and small projects, boisterous personalities and reclusive ones. But in the end, Bens observation, as indefinable as it was, rings the
truest: You gotta have the right heart.
Michael Goi, ASC
President
Presidents Desk
10 March 2010 American Cinematographer
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Dramatizing Cinema History
By Iain Stasukevich
The year is 1895. In the United States, Thomas Edison tinkers
with his Kinetoscope as a means of exhibiting short motion pictures.
The device is conceived for an audience of one. Meanwhile, across
the Atlantic, French brothers Auguste and Louis Lumire develop a
different idea about how moving pictures should be seen, believing
they should be experienced communally, and they begin patenting
their own film processes while working at their fathers photographic
firm in Lyon.
The short film La Premire, shot by Matt Wise for sibling direc-
tors Michael and Nick Regalbuto, tells the story of the Lumires
struggle to develop the cinematograph the worlds first motion-
picture projector and present the first public screening of moving
images. As with most history, there are a lot of perspectives, and not
a lot of them are definitive, notes Nick.
In their attempts to separate fact from legend, the Regalbutos
unearthed contemporaneous articles about the Lumires public
screenings, along with a program of the films that were shown.
Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat was one of their first films, and we
noticed it wasnt projected at any of the early public screenings, so
we tried to figure out why that might have been, says Michael. The
filmmakers turned their attention to the legend that tells of a
confused, terrified crowd fleeing a presentation of Arrival of a Train
out of fear that the filmed locomotive would come right through
the screen.
Nick continues, According to history, the first screening to
the paying public took place in Paris in December of 1895, but thats
not the screening in our film. We know from the lineup that they
didnt show Arrival of a Train, and our film suggests that the reason
Short Takes
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Above: Charting motion pictures origins, the short film La Premire
includes a brief stop at the 1895 Exposition Internationale. The
sequence involved a combination of 2-D elements and greenscreen
composites to bring Paris Grand Palais to life. Right: Brothers Auguste
(Henri Lubatti, left) and Louis Lumire (Matthew Wolf) with their
invention, the cinematograph.
I
they were afraid to show it was because of
what happened at the earlier screening
[seen in La Premire], which went horribly
awry.
Ironically, to tell the story of two of
cinemas pioneers, Wise found himself
working with some of the latest camera
technology, a Red One and a Canon EOS 5D
Mark II. But filmmaking is more than tech-
nology, he notes. The point of La
Premire is that in spite of the technology in
the room, those people in the audience
really believed there was a train coming at
them, and they ran out in a panic.
Wise shot most of La Premire with
the Red the 5D was used for a few bicy-
cle-mounted shots and he found that the
system presented a few hurdles of its own.
Most notably, the Red doesnt perform well
in low-light situations, and the sensors
signal-to-noise ratio is negatively impacted
by warm light. Therefore, when shooting
interiors, Wise shot wide open on Zeiss
Super Speed prime lenses, and he used a
CTB filter behind a hot mirror filter.
Framed in 16x9, La Premire begins
with a brief montage that traces cinemas
progression from the magic lantern to the
camera obscura, the Daguerreotype, the
zoetrope and, finally, Edisons Kinetoscope.
Inspired by the look Roger Deakins, ASC,
BSC, created with Kardan Swing and Tilt
lenses for some shots in The Assassination
of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
(AC Oct. 07), Wise chose to apply a selec-
tive-focus look for these early moments,
suggesting that the lens in use wasnt yet a
precise instrument. We used a Lensbaby
with a PL mount, the cinematographer
explains. The Kardan lens doesnt change
the focus on the subject or the depth-of-
field; it just bends the light coming through
it to throw a certain portion of the frame
out of focus.
The filmmakers considered applying
a few other vintage looks to the rest of the
picture, and they were particularly inspired
by the period industrial tone that Wally Pfis-
ter, ASC brought to The Prestige (AC Nov.
06). Our film is set in a time before elec-
tricity became widespread, notes Michael.
Its a story where a lot of the illumination
comes from candlelight. Wise initially
considered using windows and practicals as
his sole motivators, but the tight shooting
Top to bottom: Louis inspects a strip of film; the brothers brainstorm with their father,
Claude-Antoine (Ronald Guttman); Louis and Auguste prepare the cinematograph for a
projection; director of photography Matt Wise finds the frame with a Red One camera.
setup wouldnt detract from the look of the
film, says Wise. It was appropriate for the
tone, and I could still swing the camera
around and only have to tweak the lighting
just a little bit. If we went with any other
setup, we would have lost a lot of time and
shots, and we would have lost the look we
wanted.
The interiors have a chiaroscuro look
that is aided by a candle, gas lamp or
window source in almost every shot.
Adding a backlight for these scenes would
have been distracting, muses Wise. For
the dinner scene [in the Lumires home],
the only accent I wanted was the 10K in the
window. I didnt want to overstimulate the
audience with unnecessary sources.
Before the Lumire brothers unveil
their cinematograph, their father, Claude-
Antoine, promises the skeptical audience a
brand-new technology that seems a lot
like magic. The patriarchs speech inspired
Wise to try something different once the
screening started. What was being
projected was an alien experience for the
audience, and I felt we needed to put the
scene in a different context than the rest of
the film. I asked my gaffer to turn off all the
overhead lights and shoot a Source Four
Leko gelled with Half CTB up into the
muslin. It created a nice, soft, bluish tone on
the audience.
The real cinematograph, which
combined a camera, processor and projector
in one housing, was less magic than a fusion
of rudimentary chemical and clockwork
processes. Working from archival blueprints
and photographs, the directors cobbled
together a non-functional reproduction of
the original device. Much of its construction
was based on guesswork. The toughest
thing to figure out was the shutter, notes
Nick. Wed seen a lot of shutters in our
research, but they were all different shapes;
there would be a frame-shaped cutout in
one disc and a wedge-shaped cutout in
another. Figuring out how fast the shutter
spun and how the rods connected to the
crank was also difficult. The original camera
seemed so immaculately designed.
In La Premire, the first film the
Lumires show is Arrival of a Train, which
quickly causes the frightened audience to
flee. Staring at the upturned chairs littering
the caf floor, Claude-Antoine offers,
Maybe they werent ready for it yet, but
they will be soon. Sure enough, the shaken
but curious audience creeps back in, eager
to see more. The rest is film history.
Story is what drives us as filmmak-
ers, but the fact is that the Lumires werent
storytellers they were innovators, says
Nick. They were interested in pushing the
envelope of what was possible, technologi-
cally speaking. As much as were telling
stories, none of it would be possible without
the innovators. Wise agrees, adding, Its a
given that technology will change. If people
keep coming back, its because theyve been
moved by whats on the screen. Thats the
factor that remains the same.
schedule forced him to instead shoot interi-
ors under one big light.
Gaffer Eric Ulbrich and key grip Bran-
don Alperin designed the large source, a
pair of cross-keyed 2Ks and a single lamp
from the center of a Maxi-Brute softened
through a 12'x8' frame of unbleached
muslin. This rig was used for all of the inte-
riors, including the Lumire household, the
caf where the cinematograph makes its
debut, and a turn-of-the-century re-creation
of the Grand Palais in Paris. All interior
scenes were shot in an industrial space in
Northridge, Calif. A Duvatyn skirt was used
to keep light off the walls, and all of the
lamps on the grid were rigged to Magic
Gadgets dimmers on the floor. I knew that
Above: The lighting
plot for the caf set,
where the Lumires
first project their
moving images. Right:
The same overhead
source used in the
caf was also used
above the Lumires
kitchen. Production
designer Walter
Martinez crouches in
the background while
directors Michael (at
head of table) and
Nick Regalbuto
(holding book) and
1st AD Jason Allen
(far right) prepare the
next take.
See s at Booth=O12326
MAKING D FEEL FAMILIAR
TECHNICA D.COM
A division of Element Technica A division of Element T
D
3
TECHNICA
echnica T
.COM D
A Self-Made Man
By Benjamin B
Sitting at a table in Paris 19th district, director Jacques Audi-
ard and cinematographer Stphane Fontaine, AFC laugh as they
recall the pressure they experienced during the world premiere of A
Prophet (Un Prophte) at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. Because of
deadlines, the filmmakers had opted for a 2K digital projection of
their movie in the JPEG2000 format. Fontaine says he knew that digi-
tal would suit the film, which was shot on 35mm, but Audiard
confesses that he was a doubting Thomas. The lights went down,
and when the picture came up, Audiard was dumbfounded. I
discovered my film! he recalls. Thats when I discovered the finesse
of Stphanes work. It looked like some kind of Caravaggio the
skin tones, the shadows, the resolution. It was incredible. A Prophet
went on to win the festivals Grand Prize.
Reflecting on the quality of the Cannes screening, which was
done with a Christie CP2000 DLP projector in a system configured by
XDC, Audiard says, I know less about this than Stphane does, but
I think that the combination of 35mm, the digital intermediate and
JPEG2000 is simply miraculous. Its a miraculous hybrid that magni-
fies the beauty of 35mm. Fontaine explains that, after doing
numerous comparison tests, the filmmakers chose to shoot 35mm
rather than 16mm or digital because 35mm was less ostentatious
than the other formats. The 16mm was very beautiful, but it
brought a false documentary feel, a kind of pose, he notes.
A Prophet, Audiards second collaboration with Fontaine
(after The Beat My Heart Skipped; AC Sept. 05), follows the six-year
prison sentence of a young Arab-Frenchman, Malik (Tahar Rahim),
who transforms from a lowly convict into a respected leader. The
story begins with Malik arriving in prison, where he is singled out by
the head of the prisons powerful Corsican clan, Csar (Niels
Arestrup), who gives him an ultimatum: kill a fellow Arab or be
killed. In a succession of harrowing scenes, Malik becomes a killer
and eventually a member of the privileged Corsican gang, whose
members treat him as a servant. Over time, by dint of his intelligence
and daring, Malik makes a place for himself in the prisons milieu,
where, as one convict tells him, the idea is to come out a little less
stupid than you went in. When Malik finally leaves the prison, he
is truly a self-made man.
Audiard considered shooting on location in a European
prison but quickly decided that he needed the freedom of a set. A
Prophet was shot in an abandoned factory, with an entire cellblock
built on a floor some 30' above a courtyard, another important
setting. Production designer Michel Barthlmy began by building a
model cell as a set with thin removable walls and an open ceil-
Production Slate
A

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Malik (Tahar
Rahim) is a
petty criminal
who arrives at
a French prison
poor, illiterate
and without
family or
friends in
A Prophet,
which was
nominated for
an Academny
Award for
Best Foreign-
Language Film.
I
ing. Audiard recalls that it sounded
wrong, looked wrong and felt wrong,
and he subsequently decided to build the
cells with thick walls and real ceilings.
This confined interior defined the
lighting and framing possibilities for
Fontaine, who found that there were
spots in each cell where the camera fit.
Most of the light sources had to be built
into the set. The main interior light source
was true to the institutional setting: fluo-
rescent tubes on the ceilings and walls.
Fontaine notes that the tube choice also
yielded a more diffuse lighting quality
than bulbs would have.
Each row of cells has windows that
look out onto the courtyard below, a
vantage point that is a leitmotif of the film,
as Malik often looks out his window at the
courtyard society. Thus, a combination of
tubes and daylight defined Fontaines light-
ing scheme for the prison. To accommo-
date changing daylight through the cell
windows, the cinematographer had sets of
identical windows made with different
neutral-density values, so changing density
involved a quick change of the entire
window. Fontaine would sometimes
supplement weak daylight from the cell
windows with an 18K HMI on a Condor
outside the window, complemented by
two 6Ks through a bleached-muslin frame
to add softer light. But by the time we get
to the window, he notes, there isnt that
much light.
When shooting inside cells,
Fontaine would start with fluorescent tubes
on the ceiling and sometimes on the wall
as well. To provide variety to the look of day
and night interiors, he would change the
diffusion or sometimes add two-tube or
four-tube Kino Flo sources. He felt free to
vary the quality and color of light because
this was not a documentary. Audiard
notes that these variations helped prevent
the setting from becoming monotonous.
One of the challenges of a prison film, says
the director, is that time stands stills. Light-
ing creates a break in time and allows you
to impose a different kind of time, to no
longer be in a strict chronology.
The directional feel of the lighting in
the prison is rooted in the realism of the
tubes and daylight, but much of the interior
light comes from above, and Fontaine did
not shy away from darkened eye sockets
and shadowy, even obscured faces, as in the
scene in which Csar asks Malik to make a
hit for him. Some scenes, like a conversation
by a window, are played entirely in silhou-
ette. Fontaine concedes with a smile that he
used very little fill light. Audiard adds, Its a
matter of realism everything is not visible
all the time. Fontaine also did not hesitate
to overexpose, especially in the scenes
outside the prison.
A Prophet was the first feature
Fontaine shot on Fuji film stocks; he used
two, Eterna 500 8573 and F-64D 8522. He
sometimes used the fast stock outside,
when the winter light was dim. Fuji has
contrast but is less saturated than Kodak,
he notes. Its very subtle in the blues and
cyans. Going from one color to another is
very graduated without being very satu-
rated.
Fontaine confesses to being a stickler
about color temperature. The tube sources
were usually gel-corrected for daylight, with
special care taken to reduce the green
spikes of the fluorescent spectrum. A few
sources, such as the light above the mirror
in Maliks cell, were set to a warmer color,
giving a distinctive look to some of the char-
acters introspective moments. The
sequences outside the prison are often
warmer, like the sunlit car ride from
Marseille, and sometimes more saturated,
as in the scenes driving at night.
With tungsten stock in daylight,
Fontaine used an 85C instead of an 85,
which he finds saturates colors too much.
The 85C corrects less, and you therefore
have a bluer negative. That doesnt prevent
you getting warm hues afterwards, if you
want them. Its just that theres less satura-
tion everywhere.
Working almost entirely handheld,
Fontaine shot A Prophet with an Aaton
35-III (with Cooke S4 prime lenses and an
Angenieux Optimo 27-68mm zoom). An
Arri 435 was used for a few high-speed
shots. There is one dolly move during an
airport sequence, and one unusual high-
angle dolly right before the movies most
stylized scene, a slow-motion shootout
inside a van, which Audiard describes as the
moment when Malik becomes a film
hero.
Although Audiard wanted to cover
certain scenes with two cameras, the final
cut almost exclusively comprises Fontaines
A-camera material. Its just the way things
worked out, says the director.
Fontaine states that he does not
light actors or sets, but instead describes
what he does as creating a luminous
ambience that he feels the character
would like to evolve in. I am not trying to
look; I am trying to see from his point of
view, he remarks.
On some takes, Audiard asked
Fontaine to apply what he calls a mano
negro, to obscure part of the frame by
creating a soft-focus circle with his hand in
front of the lens. This simple technique
gives a distinctive first-person point-of-view
to the opening scenes, and to the speech
Csar gives to Malik to remind him whos in
charge.
The richness of A Prophet is made
up in part by a series of brief anecdotal
montages: short sequences that condense a
After
murdering a
fellow Arab
(Hichem
Yacoubi), who
poses a threat
to the
Corsicans that
rule prison
society, Malik
is haunted by
visions of his
victim.
stages of a rocket you have to separate
yourself from the first one for the second
one to work.
When you write a story, of course,
you have dramatic goals for the storys clar-
ity, intelligibility and its plot points, and at
some point you look it over and say, Ah,
yes, this is well made. I understand every-
thing. And that is when you have to pose
the question of creating holes in the story.
There are floorboards that you have to
break, that you have to remove; this can be
done in the writing, the shooting or the
editing. Then, all of a sudden, the specta-
tor can imagine more than he has seen or
heard.
The filmmakers originally planned to
do a photochemical finish, but with the
Cannes deadline and a growing number of
visual-effects shots looming, they finally
opted for a DI. This was carried out at 2K
at clair, where Fontaine worked with
colorist Isabelle Julien, a longtime collabo-
rator. The cinematographer stresses that
for him, the DI can only serve to continue
the intention already in the negative.
Speaking with Audiard and
Fontaine, one senses their strong mutual
trust. Audiard agrees, noting, With
Stphane, there is never a question of risk.
We never had a discussion where either
one of us said, We cant do that. Its too
risky. It just doesnt come up between us.
Fontaine adds, Also, we never sought to
make the film beautiful. We never talked
about that.
On set, the filmmakers work
quickly, but Fontaine notes that he still has
time for reflecting. He reminds Audiard,
You told me that weve improved. The
director responds, I think we have, and
you know me better now, so because of
that I rely on you a lot. We do have time to
reflect and to talk, but in the end, I want to
be surprised. Thats the magic of cinema.
TECHNICAL SPECS
Super 1.85:1
3-perf Super 35mm
Aaton 35-III; Arri 435
Cooke and Angenieux lenses
Fuji Eterna 500 8573, F-64D 8522
Digital Intermediate
side story. For example, Maliks friend Jordi
(Reda Kateb) tells him the story of unlucky
drug traffickers whose car stalled in front of
the authorities. The story is illustrated in a
series of shots unified by a continuous left-
to-right motion as we see the traffickers
push their car, meet the customs agents,
and then end up handcuffed on the
ground as their stash is unpacked. We
thought about A Prophet as an odyssey
with many stories, many characters, says
Audiard. He muses that sometimes holes
in the story contribute to its richness.
When you set off writing, you tell yourself
that every drawer that is opened must be
closed, and every character shown must be
understood, but that isnt true. There is a
certain kind of secondary character whose
story should not be concluded. Its like the
Clockwise from
above: Csar (Niels
Arestrup), the
leader of the
Corsicans, becomes
Maliks protector;
cinematographer
Stphane Fontaine,
AFC crouches next
to Rahim as the
crew prepares to
film in a typically
small set; director
Jacques Audiard
gives some last-
minute pointers to
his star as Fontaine
lines up the shot.
www.clairmont.com
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818-761-4440
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604-984-4563
Toronto
416-467-1700
Albuquerque
505-227-2525
Montreal
514-525-6556
Clairmont Raises The Bar!
Cinematographer Salvatore Totino, ASC, explains why he
feels Clairmont Camera raises the bar in every aspect.
The quality of Clairmonts equipment, their service, their
reliability and their willingness to go above and beyond the
call of duty is by far the best in the industry. Their standard
level of quality, their attention to details and the
improvements and enhancements they make to their gear is
incredible.
What I really like about Clairmont is that they get excited
about your projects, and will strive to find solutions to even
the most obscure problems. They never question any crazy
idea they just make it work!
Salvatore Totino, ASC
Director of Photography
The Return of Jerome Robbins
By John Calhoun
Finger-snapping dancers on New
York City streets. Spectacular skyline views
and visits to derelict locations populated by
athletically graceful, multi-racial young
people. A jazzy soundtrack punctuated by
bursts of romantic feeling. Sound familiar?
Maybe so, but West Side Story is not
the movie in question. Its NY Export: Opus
Jazz, a new dance film scheduled for a
March 24 broadcast on PBS. The common
feature to both is the late Jerome Robbins,
choreographer and director of both stage
and screen versions of West Side Story and
choreographer of the original ballet NY
Export: Opus Jazz, which premiered in
1958. Though the latter is a more formal,
abstract work, with music by Robert Prince
as opposed to the Broadway sounds of
Leonard Bernstein, the kinship is clear.
But apart from a prelude showing
the performers going about their daily lives,
transitions bridging the five movements,
and a vrit montage of youths on the
streets, NY Export: Opus Jazz is pretty much
all dance for its 46-minute length. Relieved
of the requirements of telling a linear story,
it also has the feel of pure cinema. Each of
the five movements is shot entirely in its
own style: the first with a locked-off
camera, followed by Steadicam, handheld,
crane and dolly. And the frame is anamor-
phic, giving the dancers and their backdrop
an expansive view.
According to co-director/cinematog-
rapher Jody Lee Lipes, the inspiration for
Opus Jazz came after New York City Ballet
revived the dance, in 2005. Two of the
dancers in the restaging, Ellen Bar and Sean
Suozzi, started talking about how cool this
would be as a movie, and they conceived
the story and the idea of shooting it in real
locations, says Lipes. They recognized that
with its kinetic rhythms and the popular
African-American and Latin-American influ-
ences on its dancing and music, Opus Jazz
seemed destined to burst the confines of
the stage. Bar and Suozzi became executive
producers on the film and enlisted Lipes,
whose credits include the documentary
Brock Enright: Good Times Will Never Be
the Same and the feature Afterschool,
along with his colleagues Henry Joost (co-
director and associate producer) and Ariel
Schulman (associate producer and art direc-
tor). Lipes and Joost wrote the adaptation
for the piece.
The first stage of filming took shape
in 2007, when the producers raised funds
to shoot Passage for Two, the ballets
fourth movement. Ellen and Sean wanted
to shoot one scene from the larger film in
order to raise more money, says Lipes. The
location was Manhattans High Line Park.
Referencing both West Side Story and a
performance of the ballet from The Ed Sulli-
van Showin the late 1950s, the filmmakers
decided to do the five-minute duet mostly
in a single take, using a 30' Jimmy Jib
mounted on a dolly to capture the dancers
from as many angles as possible.
We knew the piece was going to
determine how the rest of the film would
go, so we were very intent on doing it the
right way, says Lipes. We gave ourselves
two days because we wanted it to be at
magic hour. Shooting all day to give them-
selves backup footage, and as a means of
practicing the complex take, Lipes and his
crew completed more than 20 takes, but
got the best one at the last moment. It
was overcast, but at the very end of the day,
These frame grabs
show two movements
in the ballet NY Export:
Opus Jazz,
choreographed by
Jerome Robbins. The
top frame is from
Passage for Two,
which the filmmakers
shot in 2007 to help
raise money to film the
rest of the work. The
frame at right is from
Improvisations, shot
in a gym
in Brooklyn.
I
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Y

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o
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b
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A
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o
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a
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d

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L
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.
the clouds broke on the horizon, and there
was a beautiful sunset, he says. Shooting
Kodak Vision2 250D 5205 with a PanArri
435 and a Z5A 40-200mm T4.5 Super
Panazoom lens, I opened up all the way
and ended up pushing it 2 stops. It was the
absolute last take, and it was perfect,
thanks in part to my great focus puller, Joe
Anderson.
What helped the team achieve it
was Joosts decision to prepare detailed
photo storyboards. We took pictures of a
dance rehearsal with a digital SLR, and
Henry made a big board of all the key
frames with the crane moves, says Lipes.
We went through it with the crew and
then rehearsed it for half a day. For this
movement, and throughout the shoot,
constant collaboration with Bar, Suozzi and
a ballet master from the Robbins Trust
helped to preserve the choreography while
enhancing it for the camera. The choreo-
grapher is thinking about movement as its
seen straight from the front, and some-
times it works better to alter that a bit for
the camera, notes Lipes. One example of
that in Passage for Two is when the
camera rises up above them. The guy is
holding the girl, who makes a sort of X with
her body. Usually thats done toward the
audience, but in this case, we had her do it
toward the sky, where the camera was.
With Passage for Two in hand,
the filmmakers were able to raise the capi-
tal to film the rest of Opus Jazz by 2009.
The stylistic approach to the remaining
movements had mostly been worked out.
Of course, the decision to shoot in the
Top to bottom:
Two frame grabs from
Entrance/Group Dance,
shot at McCarren Park Pool
in Brooklyn; co-director
Henry Joost (left) and
co-director/cinematographer
Jody Lee Lipes confer;
a frame from Theme,
Variations and Fugue,
shot in an old theater
in Jersey City, N.J.
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anamorphic format, with Hawk C-Series
and V-Series lenses, was part of the equa-
tion from the beginning. Jerome Robbins
was a perfectionist, to say the least, and he
made his only film on 70mm, says Lipes.
In that spirit, we wanted to shoot on a
high-quality format. And when youre
working with big groups of dancers,
widescreen is a lot easier to use; people can
all stand in a line together, and you can get
tighter on them and see their whole bodies.
Also, it calls back to an older style of film-
making.
A similar gesture to the past was the
decision to use Ben Shahns abstract back-
drops from the ballets original production as
a starting point in determining which loca-
tions to use. We chose places that were
run down, places that were once something
else and are now old New York, explains
Lipes. A case in point is Brooklyns McCarren
Park Pool, a crumbling, Depression-era relic
used for the films opening number,
Entrance: Group Dance. After a prologue
that shows the dancers making their way to
this space from various locations, the
members of the ensemble enter the pool
and take their positions. Something we
took away from West Side Story was the
importance of trying to make the choreog-
raphy exist in the space, says the cine-
matographer. We didnt want to just take
choreography and plop it down in McCar-
ren Pool; we wanted to integrate the move-
ments into the space.
Entrance/Group Dance was shot
with a locked-off camera, a time-consuming
choice given that the shoot employed only
one camera, an Arricam Lite. The move-
ment required more than 100 takes. This
sequence became the films static-camera
movement almost by process of elimination.
It was pretty arbitrary, says Lipes. Im a
big fan of making rules for yourself to limit
what you can do. Deciding to make that
movement totally static, or this movement
on a dolly, makes us think about how to
capture the dance while emphasizing
distinct styles of photography.
It was clear that the third movement,
Improvisations, which was shot in a
gymnasium in Brooklyn, would benefit the
most from a freewheeling handheld
approach. The last movement, the eight-
minute Theme, Variations and Fugue,
was shot onstage in an 80-year-old theater
in Jersey City, N.J., and it was determined
that a dolly would be needed for optimal
coverage of the choreography. The open
loft space in Red Hook, Brooklyn, that was
used for the second movement, Statics,
became the Steadicam sequence largely
because of its structural properties, which
included columns.
Dave Ellis was the Steadicam opera-
tor for Statics, a nighttime sequence that
Lipes shot on Kodak Vision3 500T 5219,
opening up to T4 and pushing one stop.
This kept 1st AC David Jacobson on his
toes, as he had to pull focus with the
camera flying around the room at 360
degrees, says Lipes. The most frequently
used lens in this sequence was a 40mm,
which was about as wide as Lipes went on
the shoot. All of the Hawks open to a T2.2
or T3, and I shot the first couple of setups
at T4. My favorite colorist, Sam Daley at
Technicolor, called me at one point, frantic
about extreme distortion. He said T8 was
really where I should be. That dictated a lot
of the look of the film, because I wasnt able
to shoot at low light.
Lighting the Steadicam sequence,
set entirely in a sixth-floor walkup, was a
challenge for Lipes and his gaffer, Josh
Allen. I hoped to light from the street, but
there were construction scaffoldings with
black knitting over them, says the cine-
matographer. So I turned to the inside,
where there were construction lights hang-
ing in the ceiling. I started thinking we
might as well use practicals because we
were going to see 360 degrees. So we put
the highest-wattage bulbs possible in there
and put several Mighty Moles on the roof,
shooting them down through the skylights.
My key grip, Matt Walker, had teams of
people with nets and flags running around
behind the camera, trying to keep out the
shadows that resulted from these 60-odd
bulbs.
Lighting for the final movement at
the Jersey City theater was also a major
Above: A frame from Statics, a movement shot entirely with a Steadicam in a sixth-floor loft space.
Right: Filming the movement.
28
undertaking. The dancers perform on the
stage to an empty auditorium, a spectacle
viewed from a number of dolly positions in
the house and finally from the stage itself. I
went through a lot of options to try to make
it look nice, and then I realized its supposed
to look like a bunch of kids putting on a
show, and it should therefore feel kind of
homemade, says Lipes. So we put a 20K
up in the balcony and just pointed it at the
stage. 24 Source Four Lekos in the wings
and 24 above the stage added flares and
edging to the theater seats, while a 4K and
other units in the lobby and two Mighty
Moles on the theater floor brought out wall
details. We also had 15 or 20 shop lights
in the upper tier of balcony seats, so when
we looked up there, there was distance
instead of just black.
At press time, the filmmakers did not
know whether Opus Jazz had the potential
for exhibition beyond television. At this
point, were not doing a print, says Lipes.
But weve had offers for a theatrical run in
New York, which is pretty amazing, consid-
ering that the film is only 46 minutes long.
TECHNICAL SPECS
1.78:1
(2.40:1 mask)
Anamorphic 35mm
Arricam Lite; PanArri 435
Hawk, Cooke and Panavision lenses
Kodak Vision2 250D 5205, 50D 5201;
Vision3 250D 5207, 500T 5219
ERRATA
In our coverage of The Hurt
Locker (July 09), special-effects supervi-
sor Richard Stutsman was incorrectly
identified as Robert Stutsman.
In our coverage of Avatar (Jan.
10), some technical specs were incor-
rect. The two primary lenses the film-
makers used were both Fujinon zoom
lenses, a 6.1-101mm and a custom-
made 7-35mm. The original aspect ratio
and Imax presentation were 16x9. Stan-
dard theatrical presentations were
2.40:1.
From left: Loader Jeff Peixoto, 1st AC David Jacobson,
2nd AC Johnny Sousa, camera intern Destin Douglas and
camera operator Joe Anderson mix it up on the set.
29
I
n a novel, dreams and reality can be melded solely with
words, but on a film, that feat requires an army of talents
and state-of-the-art technology. On Shutter Island, his
adaptation of Dennis Lehanes best-selling novel, direc-
tor Martin Scorsese was well stocked on both counts, thanks
to a team of familiar collaborators that included director of
photography Robert Richardson, ASC and Rob Legato, the
shows visual-effects supervisor and second-unit director/
cinematographer.
Set in 1954, Shutter Island establishes a porous line
between dreams and reality, presenting a protagonist, Teddy
Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio), whose mental state is put to
the test as the story unfolds. A World War II veteran and
U.S. Marshal, Teddy travels to Shutter Island with his new
partner, Chuck (Mark Ruffalo), to investigate the mysteri-
ous disappearance of an inmate from Ashecliffe Hospital, a
Mind
Games
Robert Richardson, ASC delves
into darkness for Martin Scorseses
Shutter Island, which follows a
federal investigation at a sinister
psychiatric facility.
By Patricia Thomson
|
www.theasc.com March 2010 31
psychiatric penitentiary on the island.
Though Teddy and Chuck are given a
warm welcome by the physician in
charge, Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley),
Teddy becomes increasingly suspicious
of the doctor and his staff, and when
he begins experiencing fierce
migraines and vivid visions of
tragedies in his own past, he begins to
fear that he has become Cawleys latest
experiment.
Scorseses goal was to place
viewers directly in Teddys shoes, and
he wanted to convey the characters
fluctuating mental state with a variety
of visual cues, primarily utilizing color
and lighting. The lighting, color and
texture all contribute to the blurring of
reality and hallucination, raising the
question of what is subjective vs.
objective, says Richardson. Marty
plays with this blurring of lines
throughout the film, I think with great
prowess. The film is a journey within
one mans mind, and what you see
could be real or imagined.
The films color palette alternates
between a slightly desaturated look,
used for the present day, and
the saturated look of 1950s-era
Kodachrome, used mainly for Teddys
memories and hallucinations. Scorseses
initial inspiration for tapping the
Kodachrome look was director/cine-
matographer George Stevens 16mm
Kodachrome footage of the liberation
of the concentration camp at Dachau;
Teddys wartime experiences included
the liberation of the camp, and the
horrors he witnessed there are among
the visions that haunt him. Most of U
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Opposite: In
Shutter Island,
U.S. Marshals
Chuck Aule
(Mark Ruffalo,
left) and Teddy
Daniels
(Leonardo
DiCaprio)
attempt to
shed light on a
patients
baffling
disappearance
from a high-
security
penitentiary for
the criminally
insane. This
page, from top:
Dr. Cawley (Ben
Kingsley, next
to DiCaprio)
gives the pair a
tour of the
facility; the
lawmen inspect
the missing
womans room;
Robert
Richardson,
ASC and Martin
Scorsese confer
on the set.
the footage Ive seen of the liberation
of the camps is black-and-white and
the Stevens footage is shocking when
first seen because in contrast to the
black-and-white, it is, for lack of a
better word, hyper-real, says
Richardson. That footage served as
the template for Teddys World War II
experiences, and from that the concept
of Kodachrome grew. Rob Legato
methodically analyzed the inherent
characteristics of Kodachrome, using a
vast library from the 1950s, and
created a look-up table that enabled us
to achieve something similar in the
digital intermediate. The extraordi-
nary vibrancy of color became the key
to Teddys dream states.
The rest of the picture is
rendered in a palette that approximates
a light application of ENR; this look
was also achieved with a LUT. ENR
provides an apparent desaturation of
skin tones and heightened grain,
which enhanced the contrast with the
fine-grained, vibrant properties of the
Kodachrome look, says Richardson.
In prep, the filmmakers tested
various methods of further enhancing
the hyper-real look of Teddys visions;
65mm, anamorphic 35mm and high-
definition video were all considered as
mates for the projects main format,
Super 35mm. The goal was to capture
as much detail as possible for the DI
suite, says Richardson. There werent
as many differences among the
filmouts as you might expect the
DI was the great equalizer but
65mm had a definitive edge. We could
wrestle with it in the digital world
without the normal side effects
encountered with a smaller negative.
After he saw the tests, Marty agreed to
shoot Teddys dream states on 65mm.
Unfortunately, after filming one day
with a Panavision PFX System 65
Mind Games
Above: Daniels
hallucinates an
unnerving
encounter
with the
disfigured
handyman
(Elias Koteas)
who set a fire
that killed his
wife. Right:
Scorsese,
Koteas and
DiCaprio work
through the
scene amid
Richardons
mix of stage
and source
lighting.
Studio and an Arri 765, both cameras
broke down on a frigid night. Only a
few of those shots remain, says
Richardson. (Ed. Note: These can be
seen in a dream sequence that shows
Teddy in Dachau in civilian clothes.)
The filmmakers decided to
shoot the rest of the hallucinatory
sequences on Super 35mm and rely on
the digital grade, carried out at EFilm,
to differentiate that look from that of
the rest of the picture. (Ed. Note: HD
was used for the films final shot, a
hanging miniature, because Scorsese
needed to see and approve the shot via
the Internet. The only way to see the
depth-of-field properly was to shoot
on HD, which gave us a perfect expo-
sure on the monitor, says Legato. I
knew it would match the body of the
film quite well, and Marty got to see
the illusion as if it were real via a
QuickTime file as I was shooting.)
LUTs devised by Legato, who
determined how to digitally approxi-
mate Technicolors three-strip and
two-color processes for Scorsese and
The partners find
themselves
trapped at the
asylum when a
gale-force
hurricane pounds
Shutter Island. In
creating the storm,
the filmmakers
faced major
logistical hurdles
that required the
deployment of
rain bars, Spiders,
firehoses, Ritter
fans and wind
machines not to
mention huge
lighting units,
bounce muslins,
black overheads
and greenscreens.
We had an
enormous special-
effects crew that
would blast
gallons of water
at the camera,
says gaffer Ian
Kincaid. A large
plastic bag was
created to cover
the camera and
Bob.
Richardson on The Aviator (AC Jan.
05), were integral to achieving Shutter
Islands contrasting palettes. Using the
same method I applied on The Aviator,
I re-created the look of Kodachrome
in [Adobe] After Effects and then
generated a color chart based on that
manipulation, Legato explains. An
EFilm-friendly LUT was created, and
more LUTs designed to achieve vary-
ing degrees of the Kodachrome look
were derived from that.
We discovered that the differ-
ence between three-strip Technicolor
and Kodachrome lies mainly in the
yellows, adds Legato. Yellows are
very pronounced in Kodachrome, so I
added one more step to the LUT that
accentuated the yellows.
Determining exactly when to
apply the LUT was a matter of trial-
and-error. It took time to find the
proper path, says Richardson.
Should it be prior to timing or after?
At what level do you do the timing?
Do you place the desaturation process
first and then add on top? The team
Mind Games
Top: Daniels
questions the
missing patient,
Rachel Solando
(Emily Mortimer),
after she
mysteriously
reappears.
Middle: Daniels
embraces his wife,
Dolores (Michelle
Williams), during
a dreamlike vision
in which she turns
to ash and
disintegrates in
his arms. The
stylized look of
the sequence was
heightened by the
application of a
Kodachrome LUT
that resulted in
vivid colors and
increased
saturation.
Richardson adds,
To enhance the
Kodachrome look,
we took a highly
unnatural
approach to the
lighting, using
20Ks and Dinos
for backlight and
making all frontal
light the result of
passive bounce.
The extremely hot
backlights
which were more
than 8 stops over
created a visual
dynamic that
catapulted the
LUT onto another
level.
well as the final picture, diagnosed an
additional problem when they noticed
how the LUTs amplified any bias
inherent in the Kodak film stocks,
Vision3 500T 5219 and Vision2 200T
5217 and 100T 5212. If the uncor-
rected footage was overly warm or
cool, that trait would be exaggerated in
unpredictable ways, and to a degree
that could be difficult to remedy
downstream. Legato realized that
before any LUT could be applied, the
film had to be perfectly white-
balanced. That way, when we ampli-
fied each color, it wouldnt bias in one
direction or another, and the result
was predictable, he says. He also
determined that the LUT should not
be baked in until after HD dailies
were generated. Lucas therefore saw a
LUTs effect in view-only mode.
That added an extra step, says
Legato, but it also gave us full
control.
As soon as you bake in the
Kodachrome LUT, youve recorded a
digital file that looks like Koda-
chrome, he continues. You can then
Mind Games
initially baked in the LUT early in the
process, and although that worked
well for the overall feeling of dailies,
when it came to the final rendering,
we found there were aberrations both
in the highlights and in the skin
tones, says Richardson. The desatu-
rated/ENR LUT influenced the
Kodachrome LUT. On a 50-inch
screen, the effect wasnt noticeable, but
on a 30-foot screen, the issues were
magnified.
Legato and EFilm colorist Yvan
Lucas, who graded the HD dailies as
Clockwise from
upper left:
Richardson and
Scorsese eyeball an
angle; Aule and
Daniels seek refuge
from the rainstorm
in a crypt; the
partners debate
their disturbing
circumstances while
standing at the
edges of the hot
overhead light that
has become one of
Richardsons
signature
techniques.
turn off the LUT and color-correct on
top of it. But if you cant achieve the
color correction you want with normal
manipulation, like desaturation, then
you have to bake out the LUT and
start clean by creating another LUT.
In all, Richardson and Lucas worked
with about five variations of the
Kodachrome LUT in the DI.
As complicated as it was, devel-
oping the strategy for rendering
Teddys shifting mental state was not
the filmmakers most daunting task.
Each film has its own set of complex-
ities, and the biggest challenge on
Shutter Island was maintaining the look
of a severe storm over the period in
which the film was shot, says
Richardson. A hurricane gathers force
as Teddys investigation proceeds, and
portions of the agents search for the
missing patient takes place outside the
compound. Principal photography
commenced in Massachusetts in the
winter of 2008 and wrapped in July,
with the work spread over 85 days, and
although the story called for fog,
clouds and driving rains, the shoot was
plagued by sunlight, says Richardson.
Careful scheduling and extensive tent-
ing were required throughout the
shoot. The tenting became an enor-
mous task for the grips, says gaffer Ian
Kincaid. I cant imagine the yardage of
materials [key grip] Chris Centrella
and his capable band of grips put up in
the air. Eventually, entire setups
became compounded with green-
screens, so there were huge bounce
lights, huge bounce muslins, huge
black overheads and huge green-
screens. It was insanity. Richardson
notes, Ive never been involved with a
shoot that utilized so many overhead
blacks. Chris Centrella is a master, the
Mind Games
After exchanging their wet clothes for orderly uniforms, the investigators search for clues on a
precarious cliff. Environmental shots of the island were achieved by combining practical locations,
setpieces and CG elements added in post.
finest in this business. He was able to
provide vast areas of shade under
extremely complex conditions that
fluctuated from harsh sun to deep
clouds and fierce rains. Without him,
this film wouldnt have the look it
does.
Most penitentiary exteriors and
some interiors were shot at Medfield
State Hospital, a former mental insti-
tution that the production converted
to meet its needs. Centrella recalls,
Each building represented a different
set that worked as exteriors and even
some interiors, so it was like having
our own backlot. Other interior sets
were built in a nearby vacant ware-
house.
Describing the exterior of Ward
C, a former Civil War fort that has
been modified to house Ashecliffes
most dangerous patients, Centrella
says, We employed four 60-by-40-
foot rags in different configurations.
The special-effects team would actu-
ally put the rain the Ritter fans and
wind machines underneath the
rags. Centrella used The Rag Places
Charcoal Vintage Grid Cloth, which
let some light through and was rela-
tively silent in the wind. That would
take out the sun, and then the altitude
of the rag would determine how much
ambience came in around it, he says.
Creating the films atmospheric
island location was another challenge.
No existing island had all the requisite
features, which included a lighthouse,
caves and steep, rocky cliffs, so the
location was created with a mix of
practical work and CGI. (Legato
estimates that Shutter Island contains
650 visual-effects shots, the most of
any Scorsese picture.) For wide shots,
the visual-effects team reworked
Peddocks Island near Boston, adding
CG cliffs, digitally removing land-
mass, and creating vistas with
composite shots. For a scene in which
Teddy and Chuck stand on a cliff and
look toward the lighthouse, DiCaprio
and Ruffalo stood on a small dirt
bluff, with bits of greenscreen below
and tents overhead to keep out the
Mind Games
Daniels
investigates the
facilitys ominous
Ward C, where
he discovers the
most violent
patients wasting
away in
dungeon-like
cells. The crew
employed
butane cans
rigged with
flame bars to
augment the
light from the
matches Daniels
uses to
illuminate the
darkest areas.
There were
usually two
[special-effects
artists] moving
in sync with the
camera as it
tracked with
Leo, Richardson
notes. Flame
bars give me the
color of a match
flame, and I
prefer the effect
to electrical
fluctuations
through a
dimmer board
because the
flame is in
motion.
sun; the finished shot combines bits of
Acadia National Park (captured with a
SpyderCam rig with a stabilized head
that was flown from a 300' crane), Big
Sur, fake rocks, a lighthouse miniature,
and plate shots of rough seas and over-
cast skies.
Practical rain and wind were
augmented by plate shots of flying
debris. It was an uncomfortably wet
shoot. Special-effects coordinator R.
Bruce Steinheimer and special-effects
supervisor Rick Thompson brought
out the big guns, including four 100'
rain bars that could cover a 140'x60'
area and Spiders for 80'x80' areas. We
had an enormous special-effects crew
that would blast gallons of water at the
camera, says Kincaid. A large plastic
bag was created to cover the camera
and Bob. He prefers riding the crane,
so we employed a GF-16 that he could
ride to near 40 feet, and we wrapped
him in plastic. It usually ended up
directly in the line of fire of
Steinheimers waterguns [Ritter fans
with firehoses attached].
Richardson says economics are
one reason why he favors riding a
Richardson issues commands to his crew via
headset, a strategy they jokingly dub
Radio KBOB.
crane. I can use it any time because
the cost to rent it is so minimal
there isnt the cost of a remote head or
added hands, he explains. Also, as I
operate, Im looking through the lens,
not at a monitor. I react with a greater
degree of accuracy and have a finer
edge in how I analyze a sequence not
only in terms of lighting and composi-
tion, but also because Im able to see
the actors eyes. I feel when some-
things not working. Furthermore, I
attempt to calculate the position in
order to allow the camera to find
numerous positions from one setup,
such as a moving master plus a single,
or whatever the situation might allow.
[Crane work] is a craft, and it
takes a great deal of work to get to the
level of proficiency Im seeking, he
continues. With a riding crane, I can
respond very well to an actors move-
ment, even if its improvisational,
because I can sense the actor moving
and can attempt to control [the crew]
through my headset, asking them to
dolly left or right, boom up or down, et
cetera. (Some crewmembers jokingly
dub this one-way stream of communi-
cations Radio KBOB.)
Most of the moves in Shutter
Island were actually accomplished with
either a dolly or a Steadicam, depend-
ing on the move at hand, notes
Richardson. Marty asks for precision
with the camera, so whether we were
on a crane, a dolly or Steadicam, the
result was the same, he says. The
shoot was largely single-camera,
though three were always on hand,
with one dedicated to a Steadicam rig
operated by Larry McConkey, SOC.
Richardsons interior lighting
grows increasingly expressive as the
storm intensifies and Teddys situation
becomes direr. As the storm hits its
peak, lightning strikes violently
cascade through a number of
sequences, linking reality to Teddys
dreams, says Richardson. This is most
evident in a scene set in Cawleys
office, where Teddy suffers an acute
Mind Games
Richardson
rides a crane
while
shooting the
movies
disturbing
climax.
Explaining his
preference for
this moving
perch, he
offers, As I
operate, Im
looking
through the
lens, not at a
monitor. I
react with a
greater degree
of accuracy
and have a
finer edge in
how I analyze
a sequence
not only in
terms of
lighting and
composition,
but also
because Im
able to see the
actors eyes. I
feel when
somethings
not working.
Furthermore, I
attempt to
calculate the
position in
order to allow
the camera to
find numerous
positions from
one setup.
migraine and is tended to by the
doctor and Chuck. The light
becomes brilliant in its intensity the
windows glow and the statues are
pounded with blinding light, says
Richardson, who boosted the effect
even more in Teddys POV shots.
Marty wanted the audience to ponder
whether Teddy is imagining the light-
ning or whether its real.
To create this effect,
Richardsons crew positioned several
Nine-light Mini-Brutes in the room,
fairly close to the actors. Ben, Leo
and Mark were all being hit directly by
vast amounts of light that was put
through a dimmer board, says the
cinematographer. Ian Kincaid played
the controls like they were keys on a
piano, taking the lights to maximum
power and then bringing them down
again. Richardson further intensified
the look in the DI. I sometimes
enhanced three or four frames at the
high point to extend it longer in terms
of the white level. The image is so
overexposed that it virtually disap-
pears.
Richardsons psychologically
inflected lighting continues when
Teddy sneaks into the dark, mono-
chromatic environs of Ward C in
search of a specific inmate. He finds
the person, and when the storm kills
the facilitys electricity, Teddy lights
matches, one at a time, as they
converse. How do you light a
sequence set in near-total darkness
with just a match? muses Richardson.
He embraced the darkness but didnt
feel bound by verisimilitude. At times
we took faces to the point where only
the slimmest of outlines were visible,
meaning that if our base stop was
approximately T2.8 with 5219, we
might be near three [stops] down on
exposure and, with the lighted match,
raise that to half below key to special
moments where the highlights would
bloom over six stops. Richardson
allowed a base level of ambient light to
enter through the wards skylights and
brought additional light through low
windows, which provided edges or
backlight on the walls and gave the
cells more shape. I put enough light
on the walls to create a basic exposure
that could be enhanced or diminished
in the DI, if necessary, he says.
To boost the illumination
provided by Teddys match, the crew
used handheld butane cans that gener-
ated small flames. There were usually
two [special-effects artists] moving in
sync with the camera as it tracked with
Leo, explains Richardson. When the
match went out, the flames went out.
When the match was re-struck, the
flames came back up. The butane flames
were the key. When we shot Teddys
point of view, the flame bars were
enhanced with a larger bar placed near
the camera to light the cell bars in the
foreground and send light into the cells.
Flame bars give me the color of a match
flame, and I prefer the effect to electri-
cal fluctuations through a dimmer board
because the flame is in motion, and
beyond that, it varies there are incon-
sistencies that are often mysterious and
unexpected. In the DI, Yvan worked on
the walls, sometimes darkening them to
help reduce the excess light that came
from the butane lighters.
In general, he adds, I dont look
to motivation as a guide in how to light
43
In general, I dont
look to motivation
as a guide in how to
light a sequence. Id
say my philosophy is
more emotionally or
psychologically
driven.
a sequence. Its not that I dont utilize
motivation, but Id say my philosophy is
more emotionally or psychologically
driven.
Another striking lighting setup is
Teddys first vision of Dolores in their
apartment, and Richardson notes that
the scene also illustrates how he and his
collaborators, including production
designer Dante Ferretti and costume
designer Sandy Powell, tailored their
work to make the most of the
Kodachrome LUT. As Teddy moves
down the hallway of his Boston
apartment toward his wife, the walls
vibrate with a vivid green, the actors
faces glow with deep saturation, and
Michelles red lipstick is intensely vivid,
says Richardson. To enhance the
Kodachrome look, we took a highly
unnatural approach to the lighting,
using 20Ks and Dinos for backlight and
making all frontal light the result of
passive bounce. The extremely hot
backlights which were more than 8
stops over created a visual dynamic
that catapulted the LUT onto another
level.
In post, Richardson cut light
from the walls, creating a soft pinhole
effect that slowly widens as DiCaprio
approaches Williams. When the actors
embrace in the living room, the camera
Mind Games
44
Scorsese blocks out a suspenseful encounter between Max von Sydow (as Dr. Jeremiah
Naehring) and DiCaprio.
moves toward DiCaprios face, then
pivots 180 degrees toward Williams.
During this move, Richardson subtly
finessed the backlight. I had two keys
that were dimmed during the move, so
the first served as a backlight as I
approached Leo. Then, as I moved from
his face to hers, a backlight on the oppo-
site side was brought up to become a
backlight on her. Again, no light was
added to their faces beyond the passive
bounce reflecting off each of them.
Dream logic takes over as the
apartment catches fire. Water begins
oozing from Williams belly, and the
fluid soon turns to blood; she then turns
to ash and disintegrates, leaving
DiCaprio empty-armed. About half of
that shot was done practically, and the
rest was CGI, says Legato. Thats my
style. If theres any way to shoot some-
thing practically, even if its a separate
element, I do that before I resort to
CGI. The mix can fool your eye into
thinking what it sees is real. In this case,
the filmmakers first shot Williams in
DiCaprios arms, and then she slipped
out so they could film DiCaprio
completing his action. The two shots of
DiCaprio were then stitched together.
Meanwhile, Legacy Effects artists
created an ashen figure that was pre-
rigged to fall apart, says Legato.
When we pulled it, it disintegrated.
You add some CGI to that, stitch it all
together, do some paint fixes and, little
by little, you create the illusion.
Working with a cinematogra-
pher as gifted as Richardson makes
such work more demanding than it
sounds, Legato adds. Bob has an
innate sense of cinema, and his brain
just clicks in exactly where the camera
needs to go, how it moves and where
the light should be. Its a bit like
Mozart and music: it seems effortless,
but when you try to re-create it, only
then do you appreciate how much skill
and art were involved.
45
TECHNICAL SPECS
2.40:1
3-perf Super 35mm, 65mm and
High-Definition Video
Panavision Panaflex Millennium,
PFX System 65 Studio;
Arri 765, D-21
Panavision Primo and
System 65 lenses
Kodak Vision3 500T 5219;
Vision2 200T 5217, 100T 5212
Digital Intermediate
Printed on
Kodak Vision Premier 2393
and Vision 2383
F
or our roundup of current prime-time-television high-
lights, we interviewed the cinematographers on three
diverse productions: HBOs World War II miniseries The
Pacific, shot by Remi Adefarasin, BSC and Stephen
Windon, ACS; Foxs new musical dramedy Glee, shot by
Christopher Baffa, ASC; and CBSs long-running hit CSI:
NY, shot by Marshall Adams and Feliks Parnell.
The Pacific
Cinematographers: Remi Adefarasin, BSC and
Stephen Windon, ACS
As his crew dragged a crane through the jungle in Far
North Queensland during production of The Pacific, Remi
Adefarasin, BSC couldnt help but think of Werner Herzogs
mad adventure Fitzcarraldo. I seem to remember the cine-
matographer on that film was crying, too, wasnt he? he jokes
good-naturedly.
The Pacific, which Adefarasin co-shot with Stephen
Windon, ACS, is a World War II miniseries that will begin
airing on HBO on March 14. The 10-part drama is a sequel
of sorts to Band of Brothers (AC Sept. 01), which Adefarasin
co-shot with Joel Ransom, CSC. Whereas Band of Brothers
followed a company of soldiers, The Pacific focuses on three
enlisted men who serve in different battalions of the 1st
Marine Division in the Pacific Theater of Operations.
In keeping with the method established on Band of
Brothers, Adefarasin and Windon shot their episodes simulta-
neously, each working with his own crew. The filmmakers
used a mix of Arriflex cameras with Arri Ultra Primes and
Angenieux Optimo (17-80mm and 24-290mm) zoom lenses.
(Adefarasin also deployed an 18mm Zeiss Superspeed lens.)
During prep, the cinematographers decided to limit
themselves to two Kodak Vision2 emulsions, 200T 5217 and
500T 5218. We also decided to shoot all daytime scenes
without an 85 filter to help expose the greens in the lush
jungles and give a slight twist to the color curve, says
Adefarasin. Of course, that meant we needed a lot of NDs!
Home-
Screen
Hits
Cinematographers on
The Pacific, Glee and
CSI: NY detail the
challenges of their
respective projects.
By
Joshua Gollish, David Heuring
and Jean Oppenheimer
|
The cameramen also agreed to film all
combat scenes handheld, a style
modeled on the front-line footage shot
by war correspondents at the time. The
cameras back then had huge shutters,
and cameramen often shot with the
shutter at 90 or even 60 degrees, says
Windon. We altered the shutter speed
during some of the combat sequences,
[going as narrow as] 45 degrees. We felt
twisting time a little bit would heighten
the reality of those scenes.
One idea that quickly fell by the
wayside was using wide-angle lenses.
With a wide-angle lens on a handheld
camera, the viewer can really experience
walking through a jungle or moving
through a ship, says Adefarasin. You
share the experience with the characters,
because as they turn their heads, you can
see instantly what theyre looking at.
But in order to finish each episode
within its allotted five weeks, it was
essential to use multiple cameras. The
bulk of the shooting, therefore, was done
on longer lenses; Windon favored
32mm, 40mm and 50mm, while
Adefarasin favored 28mm and 32mm.
About one-third of The Pacific
was shot on location in Far North
Queensland. Windon knew the region
well, having shot a TV adaptation of
South Pacific there several years earlier.
One thing about shooting in a jungle is
that if you put a movie light in there
someplace low, the scene will always
look lit, no matter how good a cine-
matographer you are, he notes. He
therefore resisted lighting from the
forest floor, even though little natural
light penetrated the dense foliage. I
stuck with overhead lighting, and we
used a bounce card or a white or blue
sheet to bounce light up under the mens
helmets.
Australias environmental laws
precluded hanging lamps from any
trees, so Windon hired native tree
climbers to string hemp yacht-rigging
wire between the trees, and his crew
then suspended about 60 space lights,
spreading them across 2 acres. We
ran them all through a dimmer board,
which was inside a large shipping
container that we positioned adjacent to
the set, he recalls.
In an extended sequence shot at
this location, Pvt. Robert Leckie ( James
Badge Dale) and his unit are picking
their way through the jungles of Cape
Gloucester when Japanese soldiers
ambush them. Later that night, while
camped beside a river in a driving rain,
they are attacked again. The nighttime
battle lasts only a few minutes, and it is
pitch black. Windon embraced the
darkness, relying on flashes of gunfire
and bursts of lightning to illuminate the
scene. Every time there was a lightning
strike, youd see what was happening,
he recalls. It would freeze the rain for a
fraction of a second, which heightened
the reality. I was amazed at how much
we could see just by using gunfire.
Windon did a bit of testing to see
how much exposure hed get from the
weapons not that you can get a light
reading on a gunshot! he laughs and
ended up filming the scene at T1.9. It
was tough on the focus pullers, Matt
Toll and Matt Windon. We added off-
camera gunfire to create a little more
light and threw in a few small fixtures,
gelled blue-green, to backlight the rain.
A number of Windons scenes
called for rain, at times a torrential
downpour. Rain towers and hats were
set up 20' below the lamps, and because
the production didnt want real rain, a
transparent covering was positioned
above all the lamps. Wind proved to be
another problem, especially during
Australias winter. (The 10-month shoot
ran from August 2007 to May 2008.)
After filming in FNQ , where all of the
jungle sequences and beach landings
were shot, the production moved to the
You Yangs, 50 miles southwest of
Melbourne, where almost all of the
outdoor sets, including the battlefields,
were spread across a 200-acre quarry.
Adefarasin, whose episodes
include two amphibious landings,
grimaces slightly as he recalls the first
day of production, the landing on
Guadalcanal. Two-dozen nervous
Marines, on their first mission, are
crouched inside a Higgins boat as it
barrels toward shore. Being in a
Higgins boat is like being in a tin can
with tall walls, declares Adefarasin.
The boat was tossed around by the
waves, the sun was beating down, and
the odor of diesel permeated the air. We
lost 18 men to motion sickness that
day!
Whereas the landing on
Guadalcanal turned out to be unop-
posed, the landing on Peleliu was met
with fierce resistance from the Japanese,
who were hiding in bunkers and pill-
boxes in the hills above the beach. The
shots of the American boats reaching
shore were filmed in FNQ , but once
the Marines hit the beach and the battle
began, everything was shot in the giant T
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Opposite: U.S. soldiers
endure heavy combat
on Okinawa in a scene
from The Pacific. This
page, far left: Episode
director Tim Van Patten
(wearing white cap)
checks the shot as
cinematographer Steve
Windon, ACS films a
scene for episode 9.
Near left:
Cinematographer Remi
Adefarasin, BSC at work
on another episode.
quarry in the You Yangs. It was here that
production designer Anthony Pratt
the brilliant Anthony Pratt, as both
Windon and Adefarasin repeatedly
refer to him designed and built not
only Peleliu, but also Okinawa, Iwo
Jima, Pavuvu, the hospital on Banika,
Camp Pendleton and a dozen other
outdoor sets.
The landing on Peleliu marks the
introduction to combat for Pvt. Eugene
Sledge ( Joe Mazzello). Adefarasin and
episode director Carl Franklin designed

Home-Screen Hits
Top and middle:
Amphibious
landings posed
a variety of
challenges for
the filmmakers,
who shot these
scenes in Far
North
Queensland,
Australia.
Bottom left:
Soldiers move
between their
Higgins boat
and a destroyer.
Bottom right:
Filming the
scene onstage.
H o l l y w o o d
8 1 8 - 7 6 1 - 4 4 4 0
V a n c o u v e r
6 0 4 - 9 8 4 - 4 5 6 3
T o r o n t o
4 1 6 - 4 6 7 - 1 7 0 0
A l b u q u e r q u e
5 0 5 - 2 2 7 - 2 5 2 5
M o n t r e a l
5 1 4 - 5 2 5 - 6 5 5 6
w w w . c l a i r m o n t . c o m
F e l i k s P a r n e l l
C i n e m a t o g r a p h e r
M a r s h a l l A d a m s
C i n e m a t o g r a p h e r
We a l l h a v e t h e m b u t n o t e v e r y o n e m e e t s t h e m .
C l a i r m o n t C a m e r a c o n t i n u a l l y s u r p a s s e s a l l o f
o u r e x p e c t a t i o n s .
F e l i k s a n d M a r s h a l l
E x p e c t a t i o n s !
five shots that followed Sledge as he
landed on shore, scrambled up the beach
amid constant mortar attacks, and
finally dove into the safety of a bunker.
They wanted the five shots to play as
one extended shot (with the smoke from
the explosions masking the cuts), and
they wanted to make the sequence as
experiential as possible for the audience.
In a case like that, you really have to
work out how to join those five shots
before you start shooting, notes
Adefarasin.
The plan called for a series of
camera hand-offs among the camera
operators, Simon Finney (A camera),
Ben Fox-Wilson (B camera) and
Adefarasin (C camera). The first opera-
tor starts the shot right behind Sledge as
he tumbles out of the Amtrac and starts
to run up the beach. At a certain point,
that operator hands off the camera to
the next operator, who continues
running behind Sledge and then hands
off the camera to a third operator, who is
sitting on a crane. The crane swoops
around a patch of impossible-to-navi-
gate terrain, at which point the camera is
handed off one more time to the opera-
tor who follows Sledge into the bunker.
Simon preferred looking through the
lens, but Ben and I used an LCD screen
[as a viewfinder], recalls Adefarasin.
Simon kept the camera on his shoulder
and turned into a goat, running like hell
and keeping his eye glued to the
eyepiece.
A strong believer in the acciden-
tal errors of filmmaking, the minor
mistakes that can add authenticity to a
scene, Adefarasin confesses that he
deliberately makes accidents happen.
In one instance, a Japanese soldier is
shot at close range, and Adefarasin
wanted the experiential feeling of his
blood hitting the lens. The special-
effects department devised a rig to
accomplish that. You feel the death
more, says Adefarasin.
Episode 8 is devoted almost
entirely to Sgt. John Basilone ( Jon
Seda), the third main character, who
becomes the hero of Guadalcanal and
eventually dies on Iwo Jima. The battle
of Iwo Jima starts with an establishing
shot of the Marines already on the
beach. We put three cameras on
Basilone, each with a different lens,
recounts Windon, whose team included
A-camera operator Marc Spicer, ACS,
and B-camera operator Leigh
McKenzie. (The cinematographer
manned the C camera himself.)
[Episode director] David Nutter
planned the sequence carefully, staging
certain little pieces of action as practical
explosions were going off. We literally
held the cameras at knee level and ran
with them, using these great little LCD
monitors made by Transvideo. Holding
the cameras low not only made them
steadier, but also afforded an interesting
perspective, because theyre catching the
action from just above the ground.
As Basilone is shot and falls to the
ground, the camera speed increases to
96 fps the only time slow motion was
employed on the shoot. The final shot of
Basilone, which shows him lying dead in
the dirt, starts just above him and pulls
up higher and higher until a large swath
of the battlefield is seen. A couple of
weeks before we shot that, I saw a small
construction crane driving around, and I
thought of that sequence, recalls
Windon. I told David Nutter my idea,
and he loved it, so Warren Grieff, my key
grip, made a cradle for our Scorpio
Head, and we sent it 100 feet into the air.
We had to rig support cables to it so the
camera wouldnt twist around.
Windon cites the battle on
Okinawa as his favorite episode.

Home-Screen Hits
Near right:
Torrential
downpours were
created
throughout the
10-month shoot.
Far right: Sgt.
John Basilone (Jon
Seda), one of the
miniseries main
characters, leads
his fellow soldiers
into battle.
Constant rains transformed the ground
into rivers of mud, and I went for a
really desaturated look, a cool, almost
monochromatic look. I hadnt done that
in any of my previous episodes. I under-
exposed everything by about a stop and
used a light blue filter, and we had huge
smoke machines that helped filter the
sunlight. He desaturated the image
further in the final color timing, which
was done at Santa Monica post house
Riot in collaboration with colorist Steve
Porter. (HD dailies were graded by Neil
Wood at Digital Pictures in
Melbourne.)
Even though the Okinawa
combatants only fought during the
daytime, both the Americans and the
Japanese shot flares into the night sky to
keep an eye on the enemy. There is a
long scene of the Marines sitting around
at night, talking about their lives back
home, and Windon wanted to shoot it
by the light of the flares as they moved
through the sky. To re-create that, we
used a mixture of real flares, courtesy of
the special-effects team, and a lighting
rig that we put on a construction crane,
he recalls. The rig consisted of 15 or 20
6K tungsten globes, and we put an
amber gel pack across the whole thing.
We swung the 200-foot crane arm to
suggest flares moving across the ridge-
line. You can imagine the wonderful
moving shadows it created!
That was our main light, and we
supplemented with shiny boards and
reflectors around the camera, he
continues. When we didnt have flares,
wed just rely on our moonlight, 20K
tungstens bounced off 20-by diffusion
frames of Light Grid or Ultra Bounce.
We also bounced 12K Pars off the
ground.
Reflecting on the 10-month
shoot, Adefarasin observes, Our biggest
problems were sand and grit in the
cameras, although they all held up beau-
tifully, and the short winter days in the
forest. It was always near dark, but by 3
p.m. it was black!
This was an enormous produc-
tion, with enormous rigs and setups, but
the story is about small details about
what happens to a mans mind during
wartime, he adds. You know, the
world can be pretty terrible. We made
Band of Brothers before 9/11, and the
world today is a meaner, more wicked
place. The Pacific seems to me to reflect
the world as it is now as much as it
shows what happened so many years
ago. Thats why its such a powerful
piece.
Jean Oppenheimer
TECHNICAL SPECS
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Arricam Studio, Lite; Arri 235
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Glee
Cinematographer:
Christopher Baffa, ASC
One of televisions newest series,
Glee, takes a sometimes-snarky, some-
times-sincere look at the politics and
peccadilloes of a high-school Glee Club.
Matthew Morrison plays Will
Schuester, an earnest Spanish teacher
who hopes to revive the club, which is
populated by an array of hormone-
addled students. Characters often break
into song, and more elaborate produc-
tion numbers are designed to communi-
cate the magical thrill of performance.
We have moments of heightened,
exaggerated comedy, as well as some
surprisingly dramatic material, says
Christopher Baffa, ASC, the shows
cinematographer. Were trying to do
that M*A*S*Hthing, where the audience
is laughing one moment and genuinely
touched the next.
Baffa and Glee co-creator Ryan
Murphy previously worked together on
the hit F/X series Nip/Tuck (AC Feb. 04)
and the feature Running With Scissors
(2006), but their first collaboration
occurred back in 1999, on two seasons of
another high-school dramedy, Popular.
Baffa says he found Murphys script for
the Glee pilot very fresh, clever and
insightful, and I was happy for the
opportunity to do something this
unusual. When 20th Century Fox TV
picked up the show, Baffa stayed aboard.
The challenge of doing the series
taking what wed learned on the pilot
and carrying it out on an episodic sched-
ule and budget was compelling, he
says. I know some cinematographers are
wary of the commitment involved in
shooting a TV series, but Ive come to
appreciate the stability.
In their discussions about the
shows look, Baffa, Murphy and co-
creators Ian Brennan and Brad Falchuk
focused on accessibility. Thats been a
staple of my work with Ryan, who is
interested in characters and situations
that can be a bit difficult to identify
with, notes Baffa. I think he has a real
gift for depicting the intricacies of the
human condition. That outlook, in
turn, leads to mainly naturalistic visuals.
We want Glee to be rooted in reality so
that when the drama or comedy is
heightened, or when there is a musical
number, it contrasts with the everyday
world but doesnt become camp or
farce, says Baffa. That realism serves as
a safety net, in a way. If the material were
combined with aggressive, highly styl-
ized visuals, I think it would be too
much.
The pilot was shot at several
schools in the Los Angeles area, but
John Burroughs High School in
Burbank was the main location. For the
series, production designer Mark
Hutman borrowed elements of the
actual schools to design hallway, class-
room and office sets, and Baffa incorpo-
rated some lighting schemes from the
practical locations.
For the pilot, Baffa often lit from
the ceiling, either changing out existing
fluorescent fixtures or bouncing light
into the ceiling and flagging it off walls.
Sometimes, usually on close-ups, that
bounced light was further diffused by
frames of Full Grid, he says. The over-
all approach gave us a nice, realistic
high-school feel and allowed a lot of
flexibility to do exploratory camera
moves. On the soundstage, Baffa repli-
cated that look with overhead fixtures,
sometimes blasting light through
bleached-muslin ceiling pieces to create
a single large, glowing source. Working
onstage with greenbeds also allowed
him to create more directional light
when necessary.
Glees permanent sets are built on
four stages at Paramount Studios in
Hollywood. They include school hall-
ways, one classroom that is redressed to
portray a variety of classrooms, and a
couple of offices, including those of the
school principal and Sue Sylvester ( Jane
Lynch), Schuesters archrival. Other key
sets are the choir room, where the Glee
Club meets, and the teachers lounge,
which is almost an exact replica of the
lounge at Burroughs. We loved the
teachers lounge at Burroughs because it
had two glass walls that gave us layers to
play with and let in some daylight,
explains Baffa. On location, ambient
daylight was generally just there, but on
the series we had to create that feel.
Positioned outside the lounges
glass walls are almost 20 six-light coops
The misfit kids in the Glee Club put on a show in a scene from Glee, shot by Christopher Baffa, ASC.

Home-Screen Hits
G
l
e
e

p
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b
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n

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a
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c
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o
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o
a
d
c
a
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C
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hanging above a 30'x30' Full Grid sky.
The crew, led by Baffas longtime chief
lighting technician, Andrew Glover, and
key grip Jerry Day, augments this
natural skylight with bashers, a tool
they developed on the Nip/Tuck pilot
that comprises eight six-light Maxi
coops through two angled frames (one
measuring 10'x30', the other 11'x40') of
Full Grid diffusion mounted just
outside the windows. This sends ambi-
ent daylight into the set and helps to
illuminate the trees outside the window.
Direct sun is mimicked by two 20Ks
through 4'x4' frames of Full Grid that
are placed on an adjustable I-beam for
easy repositioning. Everything, includ-
ing the cyclorama lighting, is on
dimmers to facilitate as much on-the-fly
control as possible. As the first season
progressed, Baffa occasionally used gels
to add warmth, primarily to the two
20K sun sources.
There are usually a lot of actors
involved in scenes in the teachers
lounge, and we move the camera around
in there quite a bit, says Baffa. We use
a great deal of negative fill to create
contrast when we can. Our overall light-
ing scheme allows us to get set up and
move quickly, which is always a good
thing in episodic television.
Baffa shoots the show in 3-perf
Super 35mm using Panaflex Millen-
nium XLs provided by Panavision
Hollywood. Two cameras are run all the
time, and as many as four are used on
production numbers. Panavision 11:1
Primo zooms allow for precise compo-
sitional control and quick focal-length
changes; prime lenses are used for the
abundant Steadicam and handheld
work. With the great quality of todays
lenses and film stocks, the question of
zooms vs. primes is no longer an issue,
in my opinion, says Baffa. Using two
cameras is pretty much a tenet of
episodic work today, and Ive gotten
better at finding places to put the
second camera. [A-camera/Steadicam
operator] Andrew Mitchell and [B-
camera operator] Duane Mieliwocki
are extremely creative at finding those
opportunities as well.
Glee is shot on a single film stock,
Kodak Vision3 500T 5219. When I
compare the real world to a correspond-
ing image that Ive shot on a Kodak
negative, Im always amazed at the
synchronicity between the two, he
remarks. My ability to depend on films
latitude gives us added efficiency. Ryan
very much prefers film to shooting digi-
tally, and we feel this look is appropriate
for the show. We didnt want Glee to feel
at all like a reality show. We have a
young cast with a wide variety of skin
tones, and we felt the softness of film
was critical. Also, it has an emotional
truth that people identify with, which
ties in with our intended naturalistic
approach.
Baffa makes judicious use of a
handheld camera, but Mitchell and
Mieliwocki are instructed to keep the
frame as steady as possible. Handheld
can give a comedic scene a little spark
and a dramatic scene added subcon-
scious tension, he says. Weve done
scenes where one characters coverage
was shot handheld and the others was
done from a dolly, mirroring their differ-
ent emotional levels. But handheld is a
big brush, and you have to know why
you are exercising that power. It can turn
an audience off just as quickly as it can
engage them.
The choir room is also lit with
two bashers, but in that set they are
sourced with a mix of 12 5K and 10K
Skypans softened by 4'x4' Full Grid
frames, then further softened by two
diffusion panels (10'x41' and 8'x41') on
either side of the room. As in the hall-
ways, the overhead-lighting approach
facilitates camera moves and quick
direction changes, sometimes within the
shot. Theres an unwritten rule now
that when we do the songs, we have to
be ready to go all over the room, and the
lighting has to facilitate that, says Baffa.
We often do 360-degree shots, and
Left: The students (from left: Lea Michele,
Amber Riley, Chris Colfer, Jenna Ushkowitz
and Kevin McHale) practice in the choir room.
Above: Baffa and A-camera 1st AC Penny
Sprague at work on the set.

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No Secrets,
Summer
Andrews Steadicam work really helps
bring those scenes to life. There might
be a group of kids watching a perfor-
mance on one side of the room, and the
teacher will be on the other side, and the
singing and dancing is happening all
around the room. The challenge is
keeping the light off the walls! Jerry Day
has giant black teasers that come down
from the walls and take out large chunks
of soft light.
As the season progressed, I was
able to build more and more contrast
into the look, continues the cinematog-
rapher. Im drawn to contrast, but the
texture and mood have to suit our high-
school environment. We try to balance
somewhat contrasty lighting with a
fluid camera; my job is to make that
work for our directors, and I think weve
found a good balance.
Fill is often created with 4'x8'
bead boards taped to a wall. I like fill to
be as big as possible, so Ill bounce into
a 12-by bleached muslin if I can, says
Baffa. To me, fill should be light whose
absence you notice; you shouldnt neces-
sarily notice its presence. I always want
my fill to be shadowless, and thats why
it often ends up right over camera, so
that any shadows that are created are
hidden by the actors.
Performances in the choir room
are usually shot in a more naturalistic
style than performances given onstage;
the latter tend to be elaborately lit,
costumed and choreographed. The
stage performances are filmed on loca-
tion in an auditorium at Cabrillo High
School in Long Beach, Calif., where the
crew augments the existing stage light-
ing. The stage moments are very
theatrical and romanticized because the
idea is that these kids are in Glee Club
because theyre attracted to the romance
of the stage, says Baffa. The stage
needs to pose a visual contrast with the
students daily lives, so we use tools like
multi-colored Par cans, lens flares and
programmable rock n roll light changes
in those sequences.
Par cans provide a lot of punch,
which is important, given the number of
saturated gels used on them. The
programmable lights project moving
patterns. The audience is sometimes lit
with lighting balloons floated overhead,
and in other cases, empty seats are raked
with a more direct, hard source. Because
of the shadows they create, spotlights on
the performers are usually avoided in
favor of covered-wagon fixtures over-
head. Hard light is more often used as
edgelight, backlight or for accents, often
in two complementary colors.
The production numbers are
often quite grand, with as many as 20
singers and dancers. Mitchell is
frequently onstage with the Steadicam
rig, and a crane is often brought in for
swooping shots from the audiences
perspective. Full 360-degree shots are
also common. Additionally, lighting
becomes more expressionistic, especially
in terms of color. Baffa and Glover
adjust colors on the stage lighting
depending on the script and the
emotional story point that each perfor-
mance is intended to reinforce. Andrew
is great at incorporating the existing
theater lighting with ours, says the
cinematographer. Often the lighting
is moving and running through a
dimmer board and responding to music
cues. Its tough to orchestrate all that on
an eight-day schedule, but were getting
it down to a science, and my grip and
electric crews work tremendously hard
to wrangle the various technical and
logistical challenges inherent in these
sequences. The performances depend
on all departments working as a cohe-
sive whole, in support of each other, so
when I see the final scene, its quite
rewarding.
The shows postproduction is
currently handled by Encore Holly-
wood, where colorist Kevin Kirwan
does the color correction on a DaVinci
2K. I first worked with Kevin a decade
ago, on Popular, and he has been a huge
force in my TV career, says Baffa. Hes
a good friend and an amazing colorist
who understands what were trying to
do, and he shares many of my artistic
sensibilities. Kevin is an invaluable
member of the team and a huge asset to
the show.
When he spoke to AC, Baffa was
prepping the second half of Glees first
season, which will begin airing in April.
The show has already been picked up
for a second season, which is set to begin
shooting in July. Im really proud of
what weve accomplished so far, says
Baffa, and were all looking forward to
getting back to work.
David Heuring
TECHNICAL SPECS
Super 1.78:1
3-perf Super 35mm
Panaflex Millennium XL
Panavision Primo lenses
Kodak Vision3 500T 5219

Home-Screen Hits
Glee Club
director Will
Schuester
(Matthew
Morrison, left)
has a run-in with
cheerleading
coach Sue
Sylvester (Jane
Lynch) in the
teachers lounge.
Also pictured is
Stephen
Tobolowsky.

CSI: NY
Cinematographers:
Marshall Adams and
Feliks Parnell
Mirroring a transition that a
number of TV series have made recently,
Jerry Bruckheimers CSI: NY, about
police detectives Mac Taylor (Gary
Sinise) and Stella Bonasera (Melina
Kanakaredes) and their team of forensic
investigators, switched from shooting
film to doing mostly digital capture this
season, relying on 35mm only for insert
work. As the productions digital-imaging
technician, my role was to help make the
transition seamless for series cinematog-
raphers Marshall Adams and Feliks
Parnell.
During prep for this season, the
cinematographers discussed their digital-
camera options with Alan Albert and
Mike Condon at Clairmont Camera,
which had been providing the shows
35mm camera package. Feliks and I
have both been with the show since its
second season, so we knew what we were
looking for, says Adams. Last season we
used Arricam Studios and Lites and an
Arri 435, and in combination with Kodak
[Vision 500T] 5279, that was a robust,
reliable system. The question was how we
could match that both aesthetically and
technically with the available high-defi-
nition technology.
The team concluded that the
Sony F35, set up in Cine-Mode with S-
Gamut color space and S-Log gamma
curve, would yield the best results. After
14-bit A/D sampling of the Super
35mm-sized CCD, the S-Gamut and
S-Log functions in the F35 allow for the
maximum amount of color and dynamic
range to be captured onto HDCam-SR
tape at 10-bit 4:4:4 RGB. Camera tests
and color correction a week prior to
commencement of season-six principal
photography confirmed that the switch
would be viable.
The F35 handles contrast very
well, yielding rich shadows and clean
highlights, but the dynamic range is
much more limited than films, notes
Parnell. The curves of exposure are not
the same, but if you shift your exposure
band down, you can penetrate the layers
of luminance and again see what you
want in terms of the shadows and high-
lights. A combination of S-Log in the
recording, what we monitor at the HD
video village [the cameras native Linear
Rec 709 output], and our familiarity
with [Encore Hollywood colorist]
Johnny Kirkwoods work allow us to
accurately gauge what the final product
will be.
One of the nice things about digi-
tal is being able to see instantly how skin
tones will react to some of the colors we
might use we use far more color on
this show than a cinematographer
normally would, says Adams. And in
general, being able to judge exposure
[using 24" Cine-tal and Leader 5750
Waveform monitors] and really control
the edge of underexposure is a plus.
[Gaffer] Andrew Smith and I push the
edges of exposure by always trying to put
something hot in the frame, giving
Johnny Kirkwood a reference for the
exposure top-line. The rest of the frame
can stay down, compressed and edgy.
Given that CSI: NY features a very
mobile camera, maintaining agility with
the new HD package was critical. Adams
notes that emerging support technologies
were key. Looking at HD sets that have
a myriad of wires and monitors can make
you afraid to make the change, he says,
but weve been able to use a new wireless
system [IDXs WeVi CamWave CW-
5HD uncompressed wireless HD-SDI
transmitter] confidently and without
sacrificing quality.
The cinematographers agree that
the chief disadvantage of shooting digi-
tally is the F35s electronic viewfinder, a
high-resolution LCD system. Without
an optical viewfinder, our camera opera-

Home-Screen Hits
Above: Det. Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise, left) illuminates some evidence for his colleagues Stella
Bonasera (Malina Kanakaredes) and Danny Messer (Carmine Giovinazzo) in a scene from CSI: NY.
Right: Cinematographer Feliks Parnell sets up a shot for a 2007 episode.
C
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A FEW COLUMBI A ALUMS:
tors are no longer able to see critical
focus, so judging focus has become part
of what the DIT does and what we do
at the video village, says Adams. Small
reflections, boom poles, minor flares and
other small focus issues simply cannot
be seen well with the electronic
viewfinders. The assistants can see focus
fairly well at the camera, but we must
also watch for little issues to help the
operators. With digital, job descriptions
are evolving.
In adapting to HD, the cine-
matographers are modulating the
comparative harshness of the digital
image with Tiffens Hollywood Black
Magic filters in strengths of
1
8,
1
4,
1
2,
and 1, says Parnell. Another concession
to digital, he continues, is that the
camera team has become more judi-
cious about lateral movement in the
frame, because that feels different with
the F35 as opposed to a film camera. But
otherwise, we change the lenses the
same way; we dont do any special cali-
bration or collimation; and we change
tapes just as we would change a film
mag.
Its a different medium, and our
goal isnt to make it look like film, but to
make it look as good as the digital
format can, he adds. We have
embraced the change, and were as effi-
cient with day-to-day production and as
capable as we were last season.
CSI: NY is shot at CBS Radford
Studios in Studio City, Calif., and on
location in downtown Los Angeles.
Making day exteriors resemble the look
of New York City is no small feat, and
Adams and Parnell use a variety of tech-
niques to do so. We try very hard on day
exteriors to stay within building tops to
maintain the feel of New York, where
buildings are much taller, says Adams.
That canyoning look gives you ambi-
ent, bluish skylight, so we often go with-
out an 85 filter.
I tend to prefer very soft sources,
and I like to use directional, strong, soft
light to create a layered look, says
Parnell. For day work, I use powerful,
directional tungsten sources corrected for
daylight; for night work, tungsten light is
still the yardstick for the color spectrum.
I may tend to go in a cooler direction
with some lights and warmer with
others, but for me, ambient night light
always begins with a tungsten source.
Gaffer Andrew Smith adds, One of

Home-Screen Hits
optimo cine lenses from 15mm to 290mm
primechoice
15mm 40mm
Theres no doubt that Angenieux Optimo 35mm film lenses deliver
exceptional optical performance and value. They feature extremely
fast apertures with outstanding contrast and color reproduction
and the most advanced zoom mechanics available. In fact, an
expansive 15 to 290mm range is provided by just four Optimo
Cinematographer Marshall Adams at work on the
recent episode Cuckoos Nest.
Feliks favorite tools is an Iride Jumbo
[ACL] with 16 lamps at 600 watts
each.
The shows key sets CSI head-
quarters, The War Room (a conference
center), Interrogation, Autopsy and
Taylors office among them are all full
of detail. We try to keep the frame as
busy and interesting as possible, says
Adams. The lab sets feature a lot of
glass, and that gives us incredible depth
because we can see from one lab into
another. That, in turn, allows us to color
elements in the foreground and back-
ground, which we do with Super Green
and Super Blue Kino Flo tubes, Color
Blast [LED] light fixtures, and a variety
of gels that stay within our color palette.
For example, we use Super Green
[tubes] in our Reconstruction set, and
you can see that in the deep background
frequently. We also use various monitors
[56" plasma screens, LCDs and LED
meters] out of focus in the foreground or
background to add color and movement
to the frame; we have a large selection of
old graphics from finished episodes to
pull images from.
The production carries a full set of
Cooke S4 prime lenses and Angenieux
Optimo zoom lenses. The 12:1 [24-
290mm] Optimo has become our work-
horse its an incredibly versatile and
remarkable piece of glass, says Adams.
Weve had a 4:1 [17-80mm] Optimo
for a while, and as the smaller Optimo
series [15-40mm and 28-76mm]
became available, we expanded our
package to include them. Parnell adds,
We try to guide the viewers eye to
certain areas of the frame, and long
lenses, shallow depth-of-field and wide-
open apertures, whenever possible, all
contribute to that. We dont use prime
lenses nearly as much as we used to.
One of the effects of going digi-
tal this year is that tools we might not
have considered in post have become
more attractive, notes Adams. For
example, when we shot film, we shot
flashback scenes at 12 fps and used
Swing-and-Tilt lenses. This season we
shoot them at speed (23.98PsF) and add
the swing-and-tilt effect in post.
The other day, [A-camera 1st
AC] Matt Credle and I were chatting
about our transition to digital, and he
remembered that Mike Condon
[Clairmonts key digital technician] was
initially going to stay with us for a full
week to ensure a seamless transition,
adds Adams. As it turned out, we didnt
even need Mike for half of the first day!
Thats how well its gone.
Joshua Gollish
TECHNICAL SPECS
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angenieux@tccus.com angenieux.com
J
ohn C. Flinn III, ASC, who received the Societys Career
Achievement in Television Award a few weeks ago, lives
and breathes his work. Ive been doing what I do for going
on 46 years, and I can hardly wait until tomorrow, he says.
I love it and thrive on it. And thats either behind the
camera or in front of it. Thats right: Flinns first foray into the
film biz was as an actor. I really wanted to give that a shot, but
in those days, getting on the lot was tough, he says. It was the
mid-1960s, when studios were still filled with contract players.
However, Flinn had an in at Columbia Pictures, where his
father was director of advertising and publicity. (Flinns grand-
father had been a producer and vice president at Cecil B.
DeMille Studios.)
Between acting lessons, Flinn would get on the
John C. Flinn, ASC receives the
Societys Career Achievement in
Television Award for years of
sterling work.
By
Douglas Bankston
|
APassion for
His Craft
Columbia lot and observe rehearsals,
and what he witnessed behind the
scenes steered him onto a different
career path. I saw how this whole team
directors, cinematographers, et cetera
came together to create this thing
right before my eyes, recalls the Los
Angeles native. I thought, Wow, thats
for me. He went to Bill Widemeyer,
the head of Columbias camera depart-
ment, and offered his services
mentioning, of course, that he knew
nothing about cameras. A few weeks
later, Bill called me up and asked if I
could be at Columbia Ranch in an hour.
I said, To do what? And he said, To be
a second assistant cameraman. I go over
there, and Freddy Jackman [ Jr., ASC] is
up on a crane; he was the cameraman I
was supposed to see. The assistant
director called out, Fred, theres a kid
here to see ya. Fred looks down and
says, Yeah? I said, My names John
Flinn. I dont know a thing. The crane
arm comes down, and he says, Youre
the first son of a bitch thats told me the
truth. Leroy, show this kid what to do.
And that started it.
It was 1965, and the gig was on
the comedy series The Wackiest Ship in
the Army. I had never been in a camera
truck before, and there was so much
stuff! I thought Id never learn any of it.
But there were great guys who sat down
with me and took the time to explain
what each thing did.
So, Flinn learned on the job from
expert ASC cinematographers such as
Bill Fraker, Ted Voigtlander, Richard
Rawlings, Monroe Monk Askins,
Burnett Guffey and Charles Wheeler.
After Id been in the union with about
eight or nine days of camera, the camera
department called me up again on a
Friday and told me to be at the
airport at 7 on Monday morning to go
to Hawaii. They were doing the pilot for
From Here to Eternity, and Guffey was
going to be the cameraman. I made sure
my roommates locked me in the house
so I wouldnt go anywhere or do
anything that would make me miss that
flight! We shot for eight days, but the
pilot never went anywhere.
Opposite: John C. Flinn
III, ASC checks his light
during the filming of
Magnum, P.I. in Hawaii.
This page, from top:
Flinn (center, gesturing)
with his crew in Ireland
shooting the telefilm
The Flame is Love
(1979); Flinn doing
some aerial work on
Cry of the Innocent
(1980); the camera crew
of the telefilm Sole
Survivor (1970) included
(from left) operator
Michael Margulies
(future ASC);
cinematographer James
Crabe, ASC; 1st AC
Bobby Green (blocked
by camera) and then-
assistant Flinn.

I got to work with so many cool
guys, he continues. I worked with
Connie Hall [ASC] on Divorce
American Style for a week, and I worked
with Bob Surtees [ASC], who was so
great to me on Alvarez Kelly.
Flinn was basically day-playing
and doing something that was unusual
in those days: freely moving among the
different studios. The Mitchell NCs
and BNCs might have all been the
same, but each studios camera depart-
ment had its own techniques, and Flinn
learned all of them. As word got
around, he became a popular fill-in and
go-to assistant on multiple-camera
days. Having the opportunity to
bounce from one studio to the next was
very cool, he says. To get in there and
be accepted by the elders was really
something. I had the opportunity to
learn a lot.
He hadnt yet turned his back on
acting, however. When he wasnt work-
ing camera, hed get a part or do stunt
work, sometimes moving from in front
of the camera to behind it on the same
production. Such was the case on the
comedy series Get Smart, where Flinn
did stair falls and fight stunts and even-
tually became a Kaos agent. When he
wasnt trying to take over the world, he
was a camera assistant on the show.
Flinn says, Id get on shows, and the
director would come up to me and say,
Read this part. I was the operator on
Gunsmoke, and sometimes [director]
Vincent McEveety would ask me to
read a part. I also did some stunts and
saddle falls. I doubled John Russell, an
old Western actor. I worked at Disney
and got some parts on shows there, too.
I still have my SAG card, which Ive
had since 1967.
Flinn got the card immediately
after an incident that almost killed his
budding career on the spot. He explains,
I wanted to get on the set of In Cold
Blood at Columbia to watch Connie
Hall light. The crew knew why I was
really there, and they got me in as an
extra, a policeman. Ive got the uniform
on, and Im on the set of the police
station. This guy comes up with a pipe
A Passion for His Craft

From top: Flinn
and his crew on
Nashville Beat
(1989); Flinn
takes five in
director Lou
Antonios chair
while operating
Steadicam for
cinematographer
Gayne Rescher,
ASC on
Something For
Joey (1977);
assisting (at far
right) on the
1973 feature
Battle for the
Planet of the
Apes for
cinematographer
Richard H. Kline,
ASC (far left).
in his mouth and yells, What is that in
your pocket?! I open up the pocket and
say, Cigarettes, asshole. You want one?
I look over at Connie, who is just shak-
ing his head. This guy just turns and
walks away, and I ask the assistant direc-
tor, Tommy Shaw, Who was that jack-
ass? And he says, Thats Richard
Brooks, the producer, director and
writer. Oh, my god, what have I done?
Brooks comes back up the ramp, takes
the pistol out of my holster, looks at it,
then puts it back and walks away.
Moments later, Tommy walks over and
asks, You got a SAG card? I told him
no, I was just studying camera and
acting. Kid, go get your SAG card now,
as you are. I went down to Sunset
Boulevard in the police uniform, paid
my $110, went back to the studio and
got a two-week contract at $850 per
week.
While working with cinematog-
rapher Robert Morrison on the four-
part series Backstairs at the White House
(which was filmed in 1978 but aired in
79), Flinn got to know producer Ed
Friendly (Rowan & Martins Laugh-In,
Little House on the Prairie) and director
Michael OHerlihy. I got along with
those guys so well that they knew how
much I loved my work, says Flinn.
Soon after, they asked Flinn to shoot a
telefilm in Ireland because Morrison
was tied up with another project. The
Flame Is Love (1979) was Flinns break
as a director of photography. He recalls,
I had plenty of time to prep, which
gave me time to check the look and time
of day. When the wind blows on those
grass hills in Ireland, there is every
different shade of green you can imag-
ine. You just cant believe it. And the
clouds are going a hundred miles an
hour. I had to literally time those clouds,
because I could be in the middle of a
scene and everything would go dark
when a cloud passed by. That experience
helped me when I went to Hawaii to
shoot Hawaii Five-0 and Magnum, P.I.
The call about Hawaii Five-O
came while Flinn was in Ireland: Jack
Lord asked him to shoot the shows
final season. After that, Flinn returned
to L.A. and shot a few TV movies
before signing onto a new series, Steven
Bochcos Hill Street Blues (1981). The
drama about an inner-city police
precinct became one of the top shows
of the decade. In 1984, Flinn moved on
to tackle the dramatic fireworks at a
modeling agency on the short-lived
series Paper Dolls. It got canceled at
lunchtime during the 13th episode, he
recalls. When I called my agent and
told her the news, she said she was busy
looking for a cameraman to go to
Hawaii to shoot a show called
Magnum, P.I. I said, Would you do me
a favor and call them and tell them Im
available? Id appreciate that! A half-
hour later, she calls and says, Youre
leaving tomorrow. I knew Tom Selleck
he and I went to school and played
ball together. I ended up staying in
Atop the tower
(on right, with
bullhorn), Flinn
directs an
episode of
Magnum, P.I.
Lloyd Ahern II,
ASC took over
camera duties on
the shoot. Also
on the tower is
camera operator
Pat McGinnis.
Can you imagine
being stuck in
Hawaii for 7
years? Every day I
felt lucky to be
there.
Hawaii for the next four years.
Magnum, P.I., which starred
Selleck as the laid-back private investi-
gator Thomas Magnum, was another
hit series that came to define the 1980s.
On the show, Flinn practiced his
mantra of never shooting the same shot
twice. It wasnt a strict rule, but an over-
arching philosophy. I did do some of
the same shots but would change up the
composition a little, he elaborates. If
take one was really cool and the director
liked it, Id ask to move the camera a bit
just to get a little different background
so he could have a choice. I could take
the camera and move it five feet and get
another beautiful picture.
Flinn looks back on his Magnum
days with fondness. Working with
Selleck and understanding his character
and having so much fun with all of it
was beyond comparison, he says. We
came back from lunch one time, and I
was on the set, lighting the interior, and
the door opened and all this loud music
was playing. Here came Selleck, his
buddies, his wardrobe guy and his
driver. I said, Come on, guys, we gotta
go to work! Then I realized they all had
their hands behind their backs. All of a
sudden, they unload with huge squirt
guns, nailing everybody on the set. That
started a water fight that was so big and
lasted so long that we had time to go to
the drugstore 10 minutes away to get
balloons, fill them with water and send
stunt guys up on the rafters to throw
water balloons. Finally, Selleck called
out, Thats a wrap! Those are the kinds
of things he would pull. Just magic.
Flinns directing break happened
on Magnum. The directors really
depended on me, he says. I kept things
moving for them because they were our
guests and they didnt know the crew.
We had a schedule to keep, and I knew
how long it took to get from A to B. I
had great relationships with those direc-
tors, and it was awfully kind of them to
go to the producers and say, This guy
Flinn really helped me out. In the end,
they let me direct a show, and they gave
me another one the next season. That
was such a compliment. Magnum also
brought Flinn his first Emmy nomina-
tion (for the episode Unfinished
Business).
When the series ended its run, in
1988, Flinn returned to the mainland
and hit the golf course with his dad.
Between the ninth and 10th holes, he
ran into Mike Motor, the senior vice
president of Viacom. Motor asked him
how he liked Hawaii. When Flinn
responded very favorably, Motor hired
him on the spot to shoot the crime-
solving series Jake and the Fatman,
which was about to move to Hawaii.
Flinns belongings were still en route to
California in a container ship, and he
had to get the ship and his family turned
around and headed back to the islands
immediately. Can you imagine being
stuck in Hawaii for 7 years? he asks
jokingly. Id wake up at about 6, take a
run on the beach, shower, go to work,
then go home and play with my kids in

Ive been doing
what I do for
almost 46 years,
and I can hardly
wait until
tomorrow.
The Magnum, P.I. crew left Hawaii for Washington, D.C., for the series finale,
Resolutions. Here, Flinn and operator Pat McGinnis prep a crane shot at
the Lincoln Memorial.
the ocean. It was the best. Every day I
felt lucky to be there.
Flinns work on Jake and the
Fatman brought him an ASC Award
(in 1993, for the episode
Nightmares), two additional ASC
nominations (in 1991 and 1992) and
two Emmy nominations (in 1989 and
1990). In 1990, he notched a second
Emmy nomination for the telefilm The
Operation.
Flinn racked up two more Emmy
nominations in the mid-1990s for his
cinematography on Babylon 5, a sci-fi
series on which he also did some direct-
ing and acting. (One character of his
was even named Mr. Flinn.) After years
of working on Westerns, crime shows
and dramas, Babylon 5 was his first taste
of science fiction, and his efforts
endeared him to a rabid fan base. Space
whats out there? he asks rhetori-
cally. I get the old palette out and say,
Give me every gel weve got and test
this and that. It was fun. What planet
are we on today, and what colors are on
it? Production designer John Iacovelli
and I had a great communication. He
did a great job on such a small budget.
The series also was his first that
featured extensive visual effects, and it
occurred during the rapid sea change
from optical to digital. In the old days,
it would take a whole day to do green-
screen or bluescreen, he says. But with
computers, I could have the whole
thing lit and ready to go in half an hour.
Every day that whole process was
changing so fast and for the better. Id
Top left: Flinn
with 1st AC Wally
Sweeterman on
the series
Babylon 5. Top
right: Checking
his light on
actress Terry
Farrell while
shooting Paper
Dolls. Right:
Setting up a shot
with operator
Phil Caplan for
the series Hill
Street Blues.
Below: In the
ring with a head-
mounted 16mm
camera while
operating on The
Contender (1980).

shoot a day or two of just greenscreen
with light effects.
Flinn notched another Emmy
nomination for the 2003 telefilm
Hunter: Back in Force, which was based
on the 1980s Hunter series and starred
the original leads, Fred Dryer and
Stepfanie Kramer. The telefilm jump-
started a Hunter series reboot, which
Flinn also shot. In 2005, he signed onto
Gilmore Girls, which became a breakout
hit, and in 2009, he began shooting the
critically acclaimed series Saving Grace,
starring Holly Hunter. Holly is one of
the most incredible actors Ive ever
worked with, says Flinn. We spent
nine hours on this fight scene with her
being thrown against the wall and doing
this and that with intricate slo-mo. We
had another scene to do after it. They
gave Holly 45 minutes to clean up and
get ready for the next scene. She came
back looking rested and like a million
bucks. We finished our day in 12 hours.
When I went to my car, I noticed her
car was still by the trailer, and I
wondered if she was okay after being
slammed against the walls so much. The
next morning, I asked the director about
it, and he said, Oh, yeah, she was in the
editing room for another two hours
after we left. Thats how she is. That
show stood out. The way the directors,
producers and writers all worked
together was really something, and Im
glad I was part of it.
Flinn became a member of the
ASC in 1987 he was proposed for
membership by James Crabe, Gene
Polito and Charles Wheeler and the
achievement still amazes him. It meant

70
Flinn works as a
Steadicam
operator on the
1977 telefilm
Something for
Joey. With him is
1st AC Rick
Anderson. The
director of
photography
was Gayne
Rescher, ASC.
so much. I remember when I first
started as a second assistant, I was filling
out the slates, and the first assistant said,
Make sure you put ASC there. From
the very beginning, I understood the
American Society of Cinematographers
to be the elite group. Every time I walk
into the Clubhouse, I think about the
history of everyone who has been inside.
Talk about an honor! As for his latest
award from the Society, he says, I just
dont have the words! Its a tremendous
honor.
I put everything Ive got into
every shot I do, he muses. I dont care
how simple the shot might seem to
somebody; each shot means a lot to me.
I do everything I can to prepare and to
make it all happen on that set in the
right amount of time. When Im on a
series, I make 22 of the best movies I
can per season. The worst part about it
is not being able to do it all the time. I
hate downtime!
71
Far left: Flinn
with his crew on
Babylon 5,
including his son,
John C. Flinn IV
(holding slate).
Near left: Flinn
meets one of his
idols, Freddie
Young, BSC, at
the 1993 ASC
Awards
ceremony. Young
was the
International
Award honoree
and Flinn won
his prize for Jake
and the Fatman.
W
hen Sol Negrin, ASC accepted the Societys Presidents
Award last month, it capped a career of storytelling
with images. Negrin began his professional career
working as a camera assistant for ASC legends whose
roots were in silent film; today, he is busy cultivating the cine-
matographers of tomorrow through his tireless education and
training efforts. Sols constant efforts to organize industry
events and teach the next generation of image-makers their
craft are selfless and without compare, observes ASC
President Michael Goi.
Negrin earned five Emmy nominations, three for
episodes of the series Kojak (in 1974, 1975 and 1976), one for
the telefilm The Last Tenant (1978), and one for an episode of
the series Bakers Dozen (1982). His cinematography in televi-
sion commercials earned four Clio Awards, including one for
American Touristers Bouncing Suitcase campaign in the early
1970s.
Negrins other credits as a director of photography
include episodes of the series McCloud, The Lucie Arnaz Show,
The White Shadow, St. Elsewhere and Rhoda; the telefilms Best
of Friends, Dempsey, And Your Name is Jonah and Women at West
Point; the music documentary The Concert for Bangladesh; and
the feature films Amazing Grace (1974), Proof of the Man and
Parades. He also contributed additional cinematography to
many feature films, including Superman (1978), Coming to
America, King Kong (1976), Jaws 2 and Robocop.
Negrin was born in New York City in 1929. His father
worked in the garment industry, which the younger Negrin
says he detested. He instead had plans to become a naval
architect. He designed and built model boats at home, and had
a goal of attending the U.S. Naval Academy or Webb
Institute, the top two schools with naval-engineering
programs. But it eventually became clear that his math skills
were holding him back.
I had an adviser who asked whether I had an avoca-
tion, Negrin recalls. I told him I liked photography, and he
suggested I pursue that. It was good advice. I passed the exam
for the High School of Industrial Arts [now the High School
Saluting an
Industry
Stalwart
Saluting an
Industry
Stalwart
Five-time Emmy nominee Sol
Negrin, ASC is honored with the
Presidents Award for his long
record of leadership and generosity.
By David Heuring
|
of Art and Design], showed some of my
artwork and got in. It was the only
school at that time that taught both still
photography and filmmaking, and I
gravitated to the film work. I shot short
films for the school, which had a lot of
Army surplus equipment, including
16mm Cine Special cameras.
Negrin literally pounded on
doors in New York looking for work to
sustain him through high school. He
held a darkroom job for two months,
but he didnt like it. He found his way to
Hartley Productions, a company that
produced industrials and commercials
for clients such as Pan Am and the U.S.
government. He started off by sweeping
the floor for $5 a week, watching for any
opportunity to learn. He was gradually
given more responsibility, and after 18
months he became a camera assistant.
When he graduated from high school
and began working full time at Hartley,
he got a ground-floor, hands-on educa-
tion about everything related to 16mm
and 35mm filmmaking. I worked on
commercials, documentaries, industrial
films and, eventually, feature films and
television, he says.
In 1948, Negrin joined
ADTFC/NABET, a union whose
membership worked in documentaries
and television. By 1952, he was able to
join the International Photographers
Union-Local 644, which represented
commercial and feature-film camera
crews. He furthered his training at City
College Film Institute and took courses
at the RCA Institute through the
International Photographers Guild.
Negrin worked as a camera assis-
tant from 1948 to 1960 alongside noted
ASC cinematographers such as Torben
Johnke, Joe Brun, Jack Priestley, Lee
Garmes, Joe Biroc, Leo Tover, Harry
Stradling Sr., Hans Koenekamp,
Charles Lang, Charles Buddy
Lawton, Mario Tosi and Boris
Kaufman. The best part about being an
assistant is that you get to observe, he
says. From Lee Garmes, I learned
simplicity. He had an eye for composi-
tion and good taste. He knew his diffu-
sion. He was a master in every respect. I
worked with Hans Koenekamp on
some visual-effects shots for Damn
Yankees. He really knew his effects and
was a master lighting cameraman as
well. With Charles Lang, we were
doing a shoot where Joan Crawford
spoke to stockholders of Pepsi-Cola,
which she had taken over from her late
husband. Charlie photographed her as if
it were a feature, using all the diffusion
nets and glass as needed. That was an
education in itself. Boris Kaufman was
from a different generation; he was a
master of hard light. Like Harry
Stradling, he knew how to use one large
source and make it do the work of many
lamps.
Negrin had a special relationship
with Johnke, who had emigrated from
Denmark. I worked with Torben as an
assistant when he first arrived in this
country, and later I worked for him as a
director of photography when he
became a producer and director, says
Negrin. He was one of my mentors. He
had his own techniques, and he taught
me a lot. Were still friends. I worked
with him on one of the last Technicolor
monopack films, which we shot at the
old Fox Studios on 53rd Street. We had
the Bell Telephone Orchestra with
about 70 musicians. The film was actu-
ally Kodachrome reversal stock. When
it was processed, they made three matrix P
h
o
t
o
s

c
o
u
r
t
e
s
y

o
f

S
o
l

N
e
g
r
i
n
.
Opposite: Sol
Negrin, ASC poses
at New Yorks Hy
Brown Studios in
1963. This page,
far left: In 1949,
Negrin assisted on
a series of films
entitled Marriage
for Moderns at
Stevens College in
Columbia, Mo.
Near left: Negrin
works on a docu-
mentary with
President Harry S.
Truman.
Sols efforts to
teach the next
generation of
image-makers their
craft are without
compare.
ASC President Michael Goi
strips out of it. It was the forerunner to
Eastmancolor monopack film. The
exposure index was 10 or 12. There were
so many Arc lamps that they had to
bring in projectionists to operate them
because there werent enough electri-
cians who knew Arcs. We needed 1,200
footcandles just to get a T2.8 exposure!
We were photographing the violinist
Zino Franciscotti. It was a dolly shot
into a close-up of the bow and strings of
his violin, and because of the heat of the
lights, we thought the violin might be
damaged. It was a very difficult shot. We
had to wait for the dailies because the
film had to be sent to California to be
processed. We were biting our finger-
nails, hoping it was in focus. We had
been promised a new BNC camera, but
the delivery was late, so wed had to use
an older Mitchell Standard, which had
to be put in a blimp that made it very
cumbersome. But we did the picture
with it, and I was proud that it went
smoothly, with no problems. It was
quite an experience.
For a few years, Negrin was on
staff at MPO, which he remembers as
the MGM of commercials. The work
was steady and paid well, but it involved
some exasperation and a great deal of
travel. We called it More Paying
Saluting an Industry Stalwart

Left (top to bottom): Negrin at work on
Elodia (1962), directed and co-shot by
Joseph Brun, ASC; Negrin (far right) confers
with director Bruce Kessler on the set of
McCloud; Negrin checks the light on Kojak
star Telly Savalas. Above: Negrin is visited
on the set in 1963 by son and future
ASC member Michael.
Overtime, Negrin laughs. They had
fully-equipped studios in Queens and
Manhattan, and it was the definitive
operation. Their staff cinematographers
included Zoli Vidor, ASC; Akos Farkas;
and Gerry Hirschfeld, ASC. A lot of
great cinematographers were trained
there early in their careers, including
[future ASC members] Owen Roizman
and Gordon Willis. Gordon was my
assistant on one project. There was a lot
to learn. Later, I worked at Filmex,
another commercial house, as a director
of photography with ASC members like
Adam Holender, Drummond Drury
and Jack Priestley.
When Negrin was a camera oper-
ator, he worked on TV series and feature
films such as Frankenstein Meets the
Spacemonster, Wheres Poppa?, Across
110th Street and I, the Jury. He operated
the camera on 21 episodes of The Patty
Duke Show, which gained him valuable
experience. He also operated the camera
on Naked City, a landmark TV drama
that helped establish the New York
school of cinematography, founded on a
gritty, location-based look. Other TV
operating credits Negrin earned in this
period include The Defenders, East Side-
West Side and Car 54, Where Are You?
Anyone who has seen Negrin take the
wheels in hand, whether on a set or at a
seminar, knows he is a master with a
deep well of experience.
Negrins first opportunity as a
cinematographer arose on a pair of TV
documentaries about two West African
nations emerging from colonial rule. He
was recommended for the job by Jack
Etra, a cinematographer he had
assisted. Negrin quickly earned kudos
for his work, and by 1974 he was invited
to join the ASC. (He was proposed
for membership by Gerald Perry
Finnerman and Harry Stradling Sr.)
Negrin earned his first Emmy
nomination for the Wall Street
Gunslinger episode of Kojak, the TV
series that starred Telly Savalas as a
hard-nosed New York detective. That
same year, Negrin was elected president
of 644, the New York local; it was the
first of several terms he would serve. He
Top to bottom:
Crewmembers on
King Kong (1976)
pose at the
World Trade
Center. In the
back row at left
are camera
assistant Michael
Negrin and 2nd-
unit
cinematographer
Sol Negrin.
(Cinematographer
Richard Kline,
ASC is standing
third from right);
Negrin (right)
poses with his
Kojak crew in
1974; Negrin (far
left, wearing cap)
at work on the
1985 series Lime
Street in
Washington,
D.C.; the
cinematographer
gets a low angle
for the 1979
telefilm Women
at West Point.
eventually shot 24 episodes of Kojak,
earning two more Emmy nominations
along the way. While shooting Kojak in
New York, I worked with many different
directors and often received their praise
for a job well done, he recalls. Part of
our task was to capture the flavor of New
York City. While working with these
directors, I absorbed many of their tech-
niques in order to produce the best visual
images. I enjoyed collaborating closely to
achieve a mutual understanding about
the lighting and composition in order to
make each story as interesting and excit-
ing as possible. The Emmy nominations
were very gratifying, but my greatest
satisfaction came from knowing I had
done my best.
In the early 1970s, Negrin earned
Clios for excellence in advertising for his
work on four different national
campaigns. He continued working on
TV projects, feature films and commer-
cials through the 1980s and into the
1990s. In 1987, he received the Billy
Bitzer Commendation Award from
Local 644 for his contributions to the
union, and in 2000, he received an
honorary doctorate of fine arts degree
from Long Islands Five Towns
College, where he has taught cine-
matography for the last decade. In
2005, the college handed him another
honor, a lifetime achievement award.
Negrin often shares his wealth of
experience and expertise with students
and aspiring filmmakers through
mentorships, seminars, demonstrations
and speaking engagements. He is co-
chair of the ICG Educational and
Training Committees and a Life
Member of the Society of Motion
Picture and Television Engineers,
where he has been on the roster for an
astonishing 65 years. He is also a
member of the Directors Guild of
America.
Membership in the ASC has
been a particular honor for Negrin, and
he takes special pride in the fact that his
son Michael is also a member. In 1942,
I read my first issue of American
Cinematographer, which featured many
fine, well-known cinematographers of
the time, says Negrin. I knew at that
moment that I wanted to be an ASC
member. I very much admired the work
of ASC members Gregg Toland, Harry
Stradling Sr., Lee Garmes, Ernest
Haller, Stanley Cortez and Hal Rosson.
The day I was accepted as a member
was one of the most memorable in my
life. The camaraderie of being in the
company of such talented individuals is
something I never expected. To receive
the Presidents Award this year means so
much to me. Im honored and very
happy.
The best advice I was ever given
came from Harry Stradling, who said,
Never be afraid to take a chance. It may
be the best thing you ever did.
Saluting an Industry Stalwart

Clockwise from above:
Shooting a 1981 High
Point Coffee commer-
cial, Negrin checks his
light on Lauren Bacall;
Negrin (foreground
left) and his crew on
The Lucy Arnaz Show
pilot pose with their
star (holding slate);
checking the frame
for Lime Street;
Negrin (wearing cadet
hat) at work on
Women at West Point.
Cinemascan Streamlines Shutter Island
By Patricia Thomson
The problem is a familiar one: How do you edit without
becoming too attached to the look of your dailies? If a film has a
customized color palette, like Shutter Island, and your director has a
year-long editorial process, like Martin Scorsese, the ideal would be
to introduce color-accurate footage at the very beginning of the
process, so the director and the editor can cut, live with and fine-tune
that material.
Scorseses post team has been chasing this goal for years.
With Shutter Island they finally attained it, thanks to EFilms new
Cinemascan system. With Cinemascan, we digitally capture dailies
in 3K, down-rez them to 2K and then keep them in the same film
color space we use for the final digital grade, so everything stays true,
and all the color changes and iterations that you use from dailies to
final delivery apply to that finished film delivery, says Michael
Cooper, EFilms vice president of business development.
Shutter Island was the first feature film to utilize Cinemascan,
and for Scorseses team, it was the culmination of an evolution that
began with The Aviator, when they switched from print dailies to
high-definition-video dailies. That changed the ballgame, says Rob
Legato, Scorseses visual-effects supervisor on The Aviator, The
Departed and Shutter Island. With HD dailies, youre no longer
doing test screenings on film; youre previewing on HD.
With Cinemascan, an Arri-scanned 2K file is stored in EFilms
tape robot, a near-line storage system, and it remains pristine. Every-
thing the colorist subsequently does is stored as a separate file of
metadata; this metadata rides along with each shot and eventually
accompanies the EDL. Metadata is very robust, says Cooper. Its
not one bit of data, but any number of changes that can happen in
the DI suite, including contrast and color, the tracking of information,
all the intra-frame changes and all the matting.
When the colorist makes changes, the Cinemascan system
does not overwrite the earlier data it saves both iterations. The
cinematographer might call and say, Can you print that up a quar-
ter point? says Cooper. Well make that change and send it back,
but we maintain the original metadata, too. That way, if that cine-
matographer comes in to do the DI and says, Yeah, I did have you
print that up, but we like the darker one better, we can access the
earlier version instead.
The raw file and the metadata are connected by a marry-
grade, a flag that allows one to find the other (i.e., marries the two).
When we make changes to the images, or the editor makes
changes editorially, it instantaneously flows through no one has
to move that metadata around, says Cooper.
Shutter Islands post path began at DuArt Film and Video,
which processed the negative. The neg then went to EFilm, where
rushes were scanned at 3K and then down-sampled to 2K. An
HDCam-SR master (for the color-correction) and a standard-defini-
tion version (for editor Thelma Schoonmaker, who cuts on a Light-
works system) were output. Scorsese, cinematographer Robert
Richardson, ASC and EFilm colorist Yvan Lucas did the color-correc-
tion in New York, and the conform and master filmout were done
in Los Angeles.
Communication between New York and Los Angeles
jumped to a new level with Cinemascan technology. Legato notes,
The metadata is a text file, not an image file, so if Marty changed
his mind about something, I could remaster a reel in 30 minutes.
When changes needed to be relayed via a secure server, wed send
a text file containing the new metadata instead of a high-res image
file, says Legato. Its such a small file you can literally send it over
a dial-up connection. It re-grades the whole thing, and the other
party can see the results immediately.
With Cinemascan, clients in our New York DI suite and
clients in our Hollywood DI suite can look at the same images
projected and see the exact same changes being made to the 2K
files in real time, says Cooper. Thats pretty convenient.
Lightiron Commits to File-Based Post
Lightiron Digital has opened its doors in Los Angeles, offer-
ing a complete range of file-based postproduction services for film,
television, Web and advertising media. The new facility currently
houses a digital-intermediate grading theater with Quantel 4K
Stereoscopic Pablo and Assimilate Scratch color-grading systems, as
well as 2K and 4K cinema projectors for both 2-D and 3-D postpro-
duction. The company has already begun expanding the facility to
include film scanning and digital cinema packaging services.
Founded by brothers Michael and Peter Cioni, the company
comprises two divisions: Ironwork provides such services as dailies
Post Focus
I
The Lightiron Digital team (from left): Michael Cioni,
Peter Cioni, Chris Peariso, Katie Fellion, Paul Geffre, Matthew
Blackshear and Oscar Velasquez.
processing for tape and tapeless media,
offline and online editorial, data conform
and color grading; and Lightwork provides
technology consultation, systems integra-
tion and workflow design. The custom solu-
tions offered by Lightwork include provid-
ing clients with the technology and exper-
tise to capture digitally acquired dailies,
back them up, and prepare deliverables for
screening and editorial purposes without
leaving the set.
With todays technology, its possi-
ble to view dailies within 10 minutes of
capturing them, says CEO Michael Cioni,
who previously co-founded PlasterCity Digi-
tal Post, where he served as DI supervisor.
Productions can prepare their own verifi-
able back-ups, sync audio, perform basic
color-correction, produce media for Avid
and Final Cut, and even prepare files for
visual effects. Its a very powerful model,
and we think some of the future of prof-
itable postproduction will likely be found on
set.
In opting to focus exclusively on file-
based post solutions, Lightiron Digital is
acting on its founders belief that digital
acquisition and file-based workflows will
have a transformative effect on the delivery
of post services and the companies that
offer them. Contrary to what many people
think, the true impact of the digital revolu-
tion on film and television production is only
starting to become clear, says Michael.
Most agree its going to change our world;
the unanswered question is exactly how
and where. That makes this an exciting time
to launch a company, because we have the
unique opportunity to prepare our strate-
gies and infrastructures to be in line with
what will likely be a sweeping revolution.
Lightiron Digital is located at 5805
W. Jefferson Blvd., Los Angeles. For more
information, call (310) 559-5400 or visit
www.lightirondigital.com.
VCL Builds Home in Hollywood
Animation and visual-effects
company Visual Computing Labs, a division
of Tata Elxsi Ltd., has announced that visual-
effects veterans Joel Hynek, Tricia Ashford
and Treva Blue will develop VCLs new
visual-effects studio in Santa Monica, Calif.
Hynek will serve as senior visual-effects
supervisor, Ashford will serve as head of
production and Blue will serve as head of
trailer production.
We are delighted to have three of
the fields most accomplished professionals
to team with in building a world-class
studio, says VCL COO S. Nagarajan. VCL
now offers a truly unique package of high-
end and cost-effective VFX service options
by combining their exceptional attributes
and these robust new facilities to our large
and talented team in India.
VCLs Santa Monica studio will
feature a Stereoscopic DI suite supported by
Autodesks Lustre color-correction system.
Multiple Autodesk Flames, CG worksta-
tions and compositing stations will run
Autodesk Maya and The Foundry Nuke
software. The studios artists will also use
FilmLights Truelight system to manage
overall color calibration for their produc-
tions.
For more information, visit
www.tataelxsi.com.
Electric Picture Solutions Opens
Santa Monica Facility
Headquartered in Studio City, Calif.,
and with a sister branch in Burbank, Electric
Picture Solutions has been serving the
motion picture and television industries for
15 years. Building on its success, the
company has opened an editorial base in
Santa Monica.
The newly remodeled, two-story,
5,200-square-foot structure houses 20 edit-
ing rooms, a full kitchen, multiple lounges
and a complete machine room, plus ample
parking for clients. Each room features
multiple fiber-optic runs and business-class
DSL lines for fast upload and download
speeds; the new facility also boasts its own
FTP site for file exchange. Additionally, the
second floor features nine rooms and its
own entrance, making it ideal for larger
productions. EPS offers its clients Apple Final
Cut Pro systems, Lightworks Alacrity and
Touch systems, and a range of Avid systems,
from Adrenaline to Symphony Nitris DX.
David Goodman, EPS general
manager, notes, We will do whatever is
necessary to fulfill a clients needs. We are a
full-service, nonlinear editorial company
meaning well rent you something as little
as a cable, or well take care of everything
turnkey and all things in between.
In addition to the companys physical
expansion, EPS is also expanding its services
into new media outlets such as Internet
channels and mobile-phone platforms.
EPS devoted customer base is the cream
of the crop in Hollywood, and the company
has done a phenomenal job of providing for
them, notes Charlie Mitchell, vice presi-
dent of Sales for EPS. I take a look at the
technical expertise and facilities we have
here, and I say we can offer these ancillary
and complementary services for our clients.
We are somebody they already trust [and]
now we will be a one-stop shop.
EPS new facility is located at 1831 S.
Centinela Ave., Santa Monica. For more
information, visit www.picturesolu
tions.com.
80
From content creation to production to post-production to
delivery, the NAB Show
focuses on the tools and techniques

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Canon Updates Vixia Line for 2010
Canon U.S.A., Inc. has unveiled its 2010 Vixia lineup, compris-
ing nine high-definition flash-memory camcorders. The camcorders
are spread across Canons flagship Vixia HF S-series, the compact
Vixia HF M-series and the entry-level Vixia HF R-series.
New features in the 2010 lineup include a touch-panel LCD
with an advanced tracking feature, helping to keep any subject in
focus and properly exposed; an
enhanced image-stabilization
system; and an HD-to-SD down-
conversion feature, allowing
video to be easily uploaded to
the Web or burned onto DVDs.
Select Vixia camcorders are also
compatible with Eye-fi SD
Memory Cards, allowing wireless
uploading of video content to a computer or favorite video-sharing
site via the Eye-fi cards wireless capabilities.
All of the 2010 Vixia camcorders retain Canons proprietary
imaging technologies: a Genuine Canon HD Video Lens, HD CMOS
Image Sensor and DIGIC DV III Image Processor. The Canon Full HD
CMOS Image Sensor and DIGIC DV III Image Processor have been
further improved to reduce noise under low-light conditions and
deliver more faithful reproduction of purple and blue tones for both
video and photos.
Other features new to the Vixia line include Smart Auto
mode, which utilizes the DIGIC Image Processor to intelligently detect
and analyze brightness, color, distance and movement, and auto-
matically select the best setting for the scene being recorded; Touch
& Track, which lets users select a subject on the touch-panel LCD that
the camcorder will then recognize and track; and Relay Recording,
which allows users to capture uninterrupted video when the primary
recording media is full.
For additional information, visit www.usa.canon.com.
Mark Roberts Enhances 3-D Stop-Frame Animation
The Academy Award-winning team at Mark Roberts Motion
Control has introduced the S3 Stereoscopic 3D Stepping Module, a
vital tool for any stop-frame animators looking to produce 3-D
content.
In 3-D stop-frame animation, it is generally simpler and more
cost-effective to use a single camera and slide it side to side to
capture the images for each eye. However, this technique requires
accurate control of the side-to-side motion of the camera. The intel-
ligent, low-cost, portable S3 accurately controls that motion as well
as the triggering of the camera.
Designed to carry a variety of DSLR and film cameras, the S3
boasts a strong, rigid
construction with high-
quality bearings; simple
user interface with backlit
LCD screen; on-board Flash
memory; and user-
programmable interocular
distance. The S3 can be set
to either trigger the camera
or be triggered by the
camera, and the unit can be used with or without a motion-control
system. The S3 offers extremely precise and repeatable motion, with
up to 3" of travel on the standard unit.
The S3 easily attaches between the camera and the tripod or
motion-control system. Using the onboard display, the user then
sets the required interocular distance and attaches the camera-trig-
ger cable. Every time the unit receives the trigger order (from any of
a range of sources, including intervalometers, motion-control soft-
ware, remote switches and motion sensors), it triggers the shutter
for the left-eye view, moves the camera for the right-eye view, trig-
gers the shutter again, and then moves back to the left-eye view,
ready for the next frame.
For additional information, visit www.mrmoco.com.
Vocas Launches DSLR Support Line
Vocas Systems has launched a line of support products
designed for the DSLR cinematography market. Central to the prod-
uct range is a 15mm rail support system that can be mounted
beneath the camera. Vocas also offers a padded leather handgrip
system that mounts
to the 15mm rails; a
shoulder support
with thick rubber pad
that fits to the back
of the 15mm rails;
and a 15mm offset
bracket specifically
made for the shoul-
der support. The
offset bracket, which
moves the shoulder
support to the side of the camera, is especially useful for viewing a
DSLRs centrally placed viewfinder. The line of 15mm accessories can
be combined in a variety of ways to support a range of shooting
situations.
For additional information, visit www.vocas.com.
New Products & Services
SUBMISSION INFORMATION
Please e-mail New Products/Services releases to:
newproducts@ascmag.com and include full contact
information and product images. Photos must be
TIFF or JPEG files of at least 300dpi.
Qio Expands Recording
Possibilities
Sonnet Technologies Inc., a provider
of local storage systems for professional
Mac, Windows and UNIX users in the film,
video and broadcast industries, has intro-
duced the Qio universal professional media
reader/writer. Designed for in-studio and
on-location applications, the Qio offers a
convenient and cost-effective alternative to
standalone card readers, controllers and
adapters.
The Qio features dual P2, SxS and
Compact Flash
slots, and it can
transfer data from
two cards concur-
rently, enabling
users to offload
files more quickly
and efficiently. For almost any other
memory-card type, including Memory
Stick, MMC, SD and xD-Picture, the Sonnet
21-in-1 multimedia memory card reader
and writer is included. For quick migration
of data, the Qio integrates a complete
SATA controller based on Sonnets Tempo
SATA E4P SATA card, which through four
eSATA ports enables users to connect two
Sonnet Fusion F2 portable storage systems
or four drive enclosures with port multipli-
ers or embedded RAID controllers for
access of up to 20 SATA drives.
The Qio connects to a computer
through an included cable and either an
ExpressCard/34 (for notebooks) or a PCIe
(for desktops) interface adapter. The
included adapter extends the computers
PCIe bus outside the box, providing faster
performance than USB and FireWire inter-
faces. Since ExpressCard connectors also
carry USB signals, Sonnet designed the Qio
to extend the USB bus through the SxS
slots as well. The Qio reader/writers SxS
slots also double as ExpressCard/34 slots,
while the P2 slots are compatible with
CardBus cards. For notebook users, this
effectively quadruples the number of
expansion card slots available, and it allows
desktop users to swap adapter cards
including Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi, USB,
FireWire and more, without the need to
open their computers cases.
For additional information, visit
www.sonnettech.com.
83
Z-Finder Offers Clear View
with DSLRs
Embracing the growing popularity of
capturing moving images with DSLR
cameras, Zacuto has introduced the Z-Finder
V2, an optical viewfinder that offers DSLR
cameras a video form factor.
The 6-ounce Z-Finder V2 features a
40mm-diameter lens by Schneider Optics
that provides 3x focusable magnification.
An adjustable (left or right) eyecup prevents
extraneous light leakage, and the field of
view perfectly matches the LCD screens of
many popular DSLRs
from Canon, Pana-
sonic, Nikon and
Pentex.
Zacutos prod-
uct designers and engi-
neers created an
extremely fine focus
wheel, which is critical
for the shallow depth of field of many
DSLRs. With its diopter, the Z-Finder can
adjust to varying levels of vision correction
necessary for both nearsightedness and
farsightedness.
The Z-Finder attaches to the cameras
LCD screen via a snap-fit mounting frame,
which itself sticks to the LCD screen with a
double-sided adhesive. Once the frame sets
for a couple of hours, the Z-Finder can be
snapped on and off for quick viewing of the
LCD screen or to take a look through the
cameras viewfinder.
Zacuto also offers two add-on
features for protection and safety. First, a
lanyard gives users the option to attach a
strap to the Z-Finder,
allowing them to carry
the viewfinder around
their neck when its
not attached to the
camera. Second, Z-
Bands hold the Z-
Finder tight against
the LCD screen,
preventing it from being knocked off.
http://zacuto.com.
Ikan Intros Elements
Ikan has introduced its modular
Elements line of camera-support equip-
ment. The cost-effective, simple-to-use,
ergonomically designed system consists of
multiple pieces that give users endless possi-
bilities for customization. Featuring -20
and
2
8 threads on all pieces, the Elements
system can be configured to work with any
camera setup. Compatible with 15mm rail
systems, the small, lightweight system is
constructed out of anodized aluminum and
includes all necessary hardware.
Ikans first Elements Bundle, the Flyer,
boasts the convenience of a flash bracket
with the ergonomics of a handheld system.
Created specifically for use with DSLRs, the
Flyer can also be used with smaller
camcorders. The Flyer Bundle comprises two
durable foam-grips handles, two attaching
arms and a cheese-plate-style base plate.
As the Elements line continues to grow, so
will users ability to customize the Flyer to
suit their individual needs.
www.ikancorp.com.
Scorpion Stabilizes
Handheld Shots
Cam Caddie has introduced the
Scorpion handheld stabilizing device. The
Scorpions design
separates the
camera from the
operators hand,
placing control in
the operators
arm and thereby
naturally damp-
ening handheld
jostle. Designed
to work with a
wide range of consumer and prosumer
cameras, camcorders and DSLRs, the Scor-
pion offers a simple and affordable solution
for capturing smooth handheld shots.
www.camcaddie.com.
Abel Cine Tech Opens
Midwest Office
Abel Cine Tech has opened a new
sales location in the Chicago area. The
office is focused exclusively on equipment
sales and offers the same educational
showroom experience found in the
companys New York and Los Angeles loca-
tions.
Abel Cine Tech began expanding
their presence in the Midwest when the
company acquired the sales division of
Fletcher Chicago in the spring of 2008. At
that time, Fletcher Sales Manager Kari Hess
joined Abel to direct their regional sales
efforts. Joining her in the launch of the
Midwest sales office is Gregger Jones,
formerly based out of Abel New York, and
sales administrator Colleen Nutter. Hess
notes, We are really excited by this oppor-
tunity to have a greater physical presence in
the Chicago production community, and
we look forward to serving our clients with
the same level of technical expertise and
customer support they expect from Abel.
The opening of the Chicago office
is another integral step in our mission to
provide unparalleled sales support to our
clients nationwide, adds Pete Abel, presi-
dent of Abel Cine Tech. Were committed
to creating a sales environment in Chicago
that reflects the experience our customers
have in our New York City and Burbank
locations.
Abel Chicago offers sales of high-
end HD camera lines such as Phantom,
Panasonic and Sony, as well as Zeiss, Ange-
nieux, Canon and Fujinon optics, compact
HD cameras, DSLR systems, accessories,
recording media and expendables.
www.abelcine.com.
Techno-Jib Rentals Services
Southern California
Techno-Jib Rentals has opened its
doors in North Hollywood, Calif. Outfitted
to supply the full line of Techno-Jib tele-
scoping jib arms and related equipment, it
is the first rental house to offer the compact
T15 model.
Traveling at up to 5' per second, the
fully automated Techno-Jibs extend or
retract to move the camera smoothly and
silently in and out of hard-to-reach places.
With the Techno-Jib, the operator can
perform diverse camera moves while main-
taining control over zoom, focus and the
telescoping arm. These versatile units can
be used either by a single operator as a
standard jib or, when equipped with a
remote head with hand wheels, they can be
operated as a traditional telescopic crane.
The Techno-Jib is available in two
models: the T15, with a minimum reach of
7' and a maximum of 16', and the T24,
which expands from 9' to 24'.
www.technojibrentals.com.
Raleigh Studios Sets Up Shop
in Budapest
In April, Raleigh Studios plans to
open the doors of a new state-of-the-art
facility in Budapest, Hungary. Raleighs Euro-
pean partner in this venture, Origo Film
Group, has championed the development
of this project since its inception.
The new facility is less than 20
minutes from downtown Budapest, making
it the closest studio facility to the heart of
Hungary. The studio boasts nine sound
stages, including a 45,000-square-foot
super stage with a 65'-high grid. Other
features include full transportation, set and
location lighting and grip with Hollywood
Rentals, line producing with Raleigh Film,
and a state-of-the-art post facility and digi-
tal film lab. All stages, offices and support
structures are built from the ground up and
engineered to Hollywood standards. Incor-
porated into the studios design is a 15-acre
backlot perfect for outdoor set builds. A full
production training school will also be
located on the lot to help maintain
Hungarys existing talent pool while creating
a new generation of film crews.
We are very excited to be opening
in Budapest, says Michael Moore, presi-
dent of Raleigh Studios. There has already
been considerable interest from our clients,
and were confident this will be one of the
finest studio operations in Europe.
Stateside, Raleigh Studios has
announced that 1st Call Studio Equipment
will be the exclusive heavy-equipment
provider for Raleigh Studios Baton Rouge at
the Celtic Media Centre. This continues a
strong relationship Raleigh has with 1st Call,
which is also the exclusive heavy-equipment
provider at Raleighs California locations in
Hollywood, Manhattan Beach and Playa
Vista. 1st Call is a first-class operation,
says Moore. We are proud to expand upon
our existing relationship and to be associ-
ated with such a quality organization.
1st Call will be located on the Baton
Rouge studio lot, eliminating pickup and
drop-off charges for most of the equipment
needed for on-lot productions. The equip-
ment will be held to Hollywood industry
standards, meaning all equipment
including scissor lifts, forklifts and boom lifts
will be strictly for production and not
used for construction-site work. A 1st Call
equipment representative will be on the lot
in Baton Rouge to facilitate orders and
provide 24-hour service throughout the
state and surrounding region.
For additional information,
visit www.raleighstudios.com and
www.1stcallequip.com.
Cine-tal Continues Growing
CineSpace
Cine-tal Systems, a developer of
image-monitoring and color-management
solutions, has announced the expansion of
its CineSpace film-profiling services. Cine-
Space customers can now receive overnight
film-profiling services in North America as
well as in the companys operations in
Australia.

Cine-tals CineSpace film-profiling
services provide color profiles of a filmout
for use in the CineSpace product suite. The
filmout color profile emulates the film color
space while working on video monitors in
visual effects, DI and animation. The use of
the profiles helps users ensure the color
quality of the image data when it is run
through the filmout process, and it main-
tains consistency across multiple filmout
service providers. CineSpace customers can
use CineSpaces Inverse Transform feature
and CineSpace film profiling services to take
their video (Rec 709) or DCI (P3) graded
image data to a filmout with confidence.
CineSpace is the most pervasive
color-management system in use today for
VFX, DI and animation, says Rob Carroll,
CEO of Cine-tal. CineSpace users have
used our Australian offices for film-profiling
services for the past four years; now they
can get the same services overnight in our
Indianapolis facility.
www.cine-tal.com.
Digital Cinema Lessons
Goes Online
Bling Digital has launched Digital
Cinema Lessons, a Web site offering video
tutorials on all aspects of the Red One
camera and its associated workflows. The
site features up-to-date video lessons aimed
at the growing digital-cinema community;
each video tutorial is provided by a high-
profile instructor and runs approximately 6
to 10 minutes in length.
Digital-cinema workflow is still new
to all of us, says Chris Parker, who heads
the Digital Cinema Lessons project for Bling
Digital. It is a constant learning process,
and the best way to learn these new tech-
nologies and workflows is to see how
others are doing it.
Digital Cinema Lessons offers a
searchable database of video tutorials, each
designed to illustrate a specific technique or
answer a particular question. The library of
videos is constantly updated, and each is
available for viewing for $3. The videos
target both production and postproduction
personnel, with specific lessons for camera
assistants, cinematographers, editors,
colorists and anyone else interested in learn-
ing more about digital-cinema workflow.
The sites initial launch is in English,
with additional languages to follow. Kaku
Ito of Rock R/C is currently working on a
Japanese-language version in addition to
serving as the sites first international instruc-
tor. I and the whole Rock R/C team are
excited to be working with Bling Digital on
bringing the Digital Cinema Lessons to
Japan, says Ito. We are at the forefront of
this technology in Japan, and it is an honor
to be working with the other instructors,
who are all global leaders in file-based
workflow, to help expand the worldwide
knowledge base.
www.blingdigital.com, www.rockrc.net and
www.digitalcinemalessons.com.
HD Camera Guide
Encourages Talkback
Since its launch, HDCamera
Guide.com has become a fast-growing
online guide for professional and consumer-
level HD camera users. The video-rich site
includes tutorials and product demonstra-
tions from such companies as Sony, Canon,
Panasonic, Ikegami, Grass Valley and more.
Now, the site has added a feature whereby
visitors can ask additional questions to the
speakers featured in particular videos.
For example, viewers can use the
feature to ask television technology consul-
tant Mark Schubin to elaborate on a point
he made during his video tutorial on HD
camera imager sizes. They can submit their
question to Larry Thorpe, Canons Broadcast
Divisions HD optics authority, while watch-
ing his video on the importance of quality
camera optics. They can also reach out to
director of photography James Mathers to
ask which HD cameras are gaining popular-
ity for Hollywood feature production.
Interacting with our exclusive
Learning Center videos is one more advan-
tage we offer at HDCameraGuide.com,
says Bob Richards, director of video services.
Its not a real-time podcast, which means
you dont have to sit at your computer and
wait for an answer. You can watch the
Learning Center videos anytime, e-mail your
question for the experts and read the e-mail
reply at your convenience. Visitors can also
register for Learning Center video updates
for free.
www.hdcameraguide.com.
Mo-Sys Lambda Enters
3rd Dimension
The Mo-Sys Lambda has long been
regarded as one of the strongest and most
versatile remote heads on the market, and it
is also proving an ideal system for carrying
the largest 3-D camera rigs. Responding to
the increased demand for 3-D systems, Mo-
Sys has gone into production on a new
gyro-stabilized third axis for the Lambda
thats specially designed for 3-D applica-
tions.
We knew the Mo-Sys Lambda was
the strongest head for 3-D cameras, but to
get that confirmed by 3-D film industry
leaders is testimony to our vision and quality
More Power from Victory Battery
Victory Cinevideo Battery Corpora-
tion has introduced NiMH battery packs for
use with both film and HD camera systems.
The battery packs feature an external
charger as well as a built-in charger, and
they are available in 12-, 13.2-, 14.4-, 24-,
26.4-, 28.8- and 30-volt configurations.
The external smart charger features
120-240-volt AC input for worldwide use, a
built-in temperature sensor and automatic
power cutoff to prevent the battery pack
from overcharging, and an integrated circuit
(IC) to protect the battery from over-current,
short-circuit and reverse polarity. There is no
voltage output from the charger when a
battery is not connected.
www.victorycinevideobattery.com.
product, says Michael
Geissler, CEO of Mo-Sys.
Were confident that after
successful demos of the
new third axis, even more
sales will follow.
The Mo-Sys Lambda
remote head can support
camera packages weighing up to 110
pounds, and the head requires no balancing
on the two- and three-axis modules. The
head can be upgraded within minutes to be
gyro-stabilized, and it also boasts the ability
to export data to postproduction.
www.mo-sys.com.
Camlinx Provides Control
The Camlinx System from Nether-
lands-based elQuip AVM Advies is a
complete camera remote-control system
based on optical fibre, designed for use
with single or multi-camera units. Industry
standard HD and SD video formats are fully
supported, offering full broadcast-quality
signals.
The lightweight Camlinx camera unit
features HD/SD-SDI video feed and return
video, tally, talkback, syncs, audio feed, and
program sound. The base station is rack
mountable and offers extensive diagnostics
for the video engineer.
www.elquip.tv.
WE WANT YOUR OPINION!
The International Journal of Motion Imaging
The 10 Best-Shot
Films of 1998-2008
Our 80th anniversary readers poll
covered the years 1894-1997,
and its time to bring it up to date.
Films from every nation are eligible,
provided they were theatrically
released between 1998 and 2008.
Submit your picks online*
by March 31st at www.theasc.com.
The nomination form
will include room for comments,
which might be included in our coverage
of the results.
*Subscriber login required
International Marketplace
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Advertisers Index
16x9, Inc. 88
AC 1, 4, 87
Aja Video Systems, Inc. 11
Alan Gordon Enterprises
89
Arri 53
AZGrip 88
Backstage Equipment, Inc.
6
Band Pro Film & Digital 5
Burrell Enterprises 88
Cavision Enterprises 57
Chapman/Leonard Studio
Equipment Inc. 19
Chapman University 55
Cine Gear Expo 91
Cinematography
Electronics 6
Cinekinetic 88
Cinerover 88
Clairmont Film & Digital
23, 49
Columbia College Chicago
59
Convergent Design 44
Cooke Optics 27
Deluxe C2
Eastman Kodak 9, C4
EFD USA, Inc. 13
Element Technica 17
Film Gear 79
Filmtools 87
Five Towns College 79
FTC West 88
Fuji Motion Picture 35
Glidecam Industries 15
Ikan Corporation 21
Innoventive Software 85
JEM Studio Lighting 83
K 5600, Inc. 28
Kino Flo 70
Laffoux Solutions, Inc. 88
Lite Panels 2
Maine Media Workshops 6
Mole-Richardson 88, 89
Movie Tech AG 89
MP&E Mayo Productions 89
NAB 81
New York Film Academy 39
Oppenheimer Camera Prod.
88
Otto Nemenz 67
Panasonic Broadcast 7
PC&E 29
PED Denz 41, 88
Photon Beard 89
Photo-sonics, Rental 45
Pille Film Gmbh 88
Pro8mm 88
Rag Place, The 41
Reliance Mediaworks 25
Rosco Laboratories, Inc. 71
School of Visual Arts 69
Shelton Communications 89
Sim Video 37
Stanton Video Services 85
Super16 Inc. 88
Telescopic 89
Thales Angenieux 60-61
Tiffen 51, C3
VF Gadgets, Inc. 89
Viking 88
Willys Widgets 88
www.theasc.com 77,
80, 83, 90, 95
Zacuto Films 89
ZGC, Inc. 27
Zipcam Systems 43
90
JOIN HOLLYWOODS
PROFESSIONALS IN
2010
June 4-5, Expo and Premier Seminars
June 3-5, The Film Series & Competition
June 6, Master Class Seminars
The Studios at Paramount, Hollywood, CA
phone: 310.472.0809
fax: 310.471.8973
email: info@cinegearexpo.com
www.cinegearexpo.com
American Society of Cinematographers Roster
OFFICERS 2009-10
Michael Goi,
President
Richard Crudo,
Vice President
Owen Roizman,
Vice President
Victor J. Kemper,
Vice President
Matthew Leonetti,
Treasurer
Rodney Taylor,
Secretary
John C. Flinn III,
Sergeant-at-Arms
MEMBERS
OF THE BOARD
Curtis Clark
Richard Crudo
George Spiro Dibie
Richard Edlund
John C. Flinn III
John Hora
Victor J. Kemper
Matthew Leonetti
Stephen Lighthill
Isidore Mankofsky
Daryn Okada
Owen Roizman
Nancy Schreiber
Haskell Wexler
Vilmos Zsigmond
ALTERNATES
Fred Elmes
Steven Fierberg
Ron Garcia
Michael D. OShea
Michael Negrin
Jan DeBont
Thomas Del Ruth
Bruno Delbonnel
Peter Deming
Jim Denault
Caleb Deschanel
Ron Dexter
Craig Di Bona
George Spiro Dibie
Ernest Dickerson
Billy Dickson
Bill Dill
Stuart Dryburgh
Bert Dunk
Lex DuPont
John Dykstra
Richard Edlund
Frederick Elmes
Robert Elswit
Geoffrey Erb
Scott Farrar
Jon Fauer
Don E. FauntLeRoy
Gerald Feil
Steven Fierberg
Gerald Perry Finnerman
Mauro Fiore
John C. Flinn III
Ron Fortunato
William A. Fraker
Tak Fujimoto
Alex Funke
Steve Gainer
Ron Garcia
Dejan Georgevich
Michael Goi
Stephen Goldblatt
Paul Goldsmith
Frederic Goodich
Victor Goss
Jack Green
Adam Greenberg
Robbie Greenberg
Xavier Perez Grobet
Alexander Gruszynski
Changwei Gu
Rick Gunter
Rob Hahn
Gerald Hirschfeld
Henner Hofmann
Adam Holender
Ernie Holzman
John C. Hora
Tom Houghton
Gil Hubbs
Michel Hugo
Shane Hurlbut
Tom Hurwitz
Judy Irola
Mark Irwin
Levie Isaacks
Clark Mathis
Don McAlpine
Don McCuaig
Seamus McGarvey
Robert McLachlan
Geary McLeod
Greg McMurry
Steve McNutt
Terry K. Meade
Chris Menges
Rexford Metz
Anastas Michos
Douglas Milsome
Dan Mindel
Charles Minsky
Claudio Miranda
Donald A. Morgan
Donald M. Morgan
Kramer Morgenthau
M. David Mullen
Dennis Muren
Fred Murphy
Hiro Narita
Guillermo Navarro
Michael B. Negrin
Sol Negrin
Bill Neil
Alex Nepomniaschy
John Newby
Yuri Neyman
Sam Nicholson
Crescenzo Notarile
David B. Nowell
Rene Ohashi
Daryn Okada
Thomas Olgeirsson
Woody Omens
Miroslav Ondricek
Michael D. OShea
Anthony Palmieri
Phedon Papamichael
Daniel Pearl
Edward J. Pei
James Pergola
Don Peterman
Lowell Peterson
Wally Pfister
Gene Polito
Bill Pope
Steven Poster
Tom Priestley Jr.
Rodrigo Prieto
Robert Primes
Frank Prinzi
Richard Quinlan
Declan Quinn
Earl Rath
Richard Rawlings Jr.
Frank Raymond
Tami Reiker
Robert Richardson
Andrew Jackson
Peter James
Johnny E. Jensen
Torben Johnke
Frank Johnson
Shelly Johnson
Jeffrey Jur
William K. Jurgensen
Adam Kane
Stephen M. Katz
Ken Kelsch
Victor J. Kemper
Wayne Kennan
Francis Kenny
Glenn Kershaw
Darius Khondji
Gary Kibbe
Jan Kiesser
Jeffrey L. Kimball
Adam Kimmel
Alar Kivilo
David Klein
Richard Kline
George Koblasa
Fred J. Koenekamp
Lajos Koltai
Pete Kozachik
Neil Krepela
Willy Kurant
Ellen M. Kuras
George La Fountaine
Edward Lachman
Ken Lamkin
Jacek Laskus
Andrew Laszlo
Denis Lenoir
John R. Leonetti
Matthew Leonetti
Andrew Lesnie
Peter Levy
Matthew Libatique
Charlie Lieberman
Stephen Lighthill
Karl Walter Lindenlaub
John Lindley
Robert F. Liu
Walt Lloyd
Bruce Logan
Gordon Lonsdale
Emmanuel Lubezki
Julio G. Macat
Glen MacPherson
Constantine Makris
Karl Malkames
Denis Maloney
Isidore Mankofsky
Christopher Manley
Michael D. Margulies
Barry Markowitz
Vincent Martinelli
Steve Mason
ACTIVE MEMBERS
Thomas Ackerman
Lance Acord
Lloyd Ahern II
Herbert Alpert
Russ Alsobrook
Howard A. Anderson III
Howard A. Anderson Jr.
James Anderson
Peter Anderson
Tony Askins
Charles Austin
Christopher Baffa
James Bagdonas
King Baggot
John Bailey
Michael Ballhaus
Andrzej Bartkowiak
John Bartley
Bojan Bazelli
Frank Beascoechea
Affonso Beato
Mat Beck
Dion Beebe
Bill Bennett
Andres Berenguer
Carl Berger
Gabriel Beristain
Steven Bernstein
Ross Berryman
Michael Bonvillain
Richard Bowen
David Boyd
Russell Boyd
Jonathan Brown
Don Burgess
Stephen H. Burum
Bill Butler
Frank B. Byers
Bobby Byrne
Antonio Calvache
Paul Cameron
Russell P. Carpenter
James L. Carter
Alan Caso
Michael Chapman
Rodney Charters
James A. Chressanthis
Joan Churchill
Curtis Clark
Peter L. Collister
Jack Cooperman
Jack Couffer
Vincent G. Cox
Jeff Cronenweth
Richard Crudo
Dean R. Cundey
Stefan Czapsky
David Darby
Allen Daviau
Roger Deakins
Anthony B. Richmond
Bill Roe
Owen Roizman
Pete Romano
Charles Rosher Jr.
Giuseppe Rotunno
Philippe Rousselot
Juan Ruiz-Anchia
Marvin Rush
Paul Ryan
Eric Saarinen
Alik Sakharov
Mikael Salomon
Harris Savides
Roberto Schaefer
Tobias Schliessler
Aaron Schneider
Nancy Schreiber
Fred Schuler
John Schwartzman
John Seale
Christian Sebaldt
Dean Semler
Eduardo Serra
Steven Shaw
Richard Shore
Newton Thomas Sigel
John Simmons
Sandi Sissel
Bradley B. Six
Dennis L. Smith
Roland Ozzie Smith
Reed Smoot
Bing Sokolsky
Peter Sova
Dante Spinotti
Terry Stacey
Robert Steadman
Ueli Steiger
Peter Stein
Robert M. Stevens
Tom Stern
Rogier Stoffers
Vittorio Storaro
Harry Stradling Jr.
David Stump
Tim Suhrstedt
Peter Suschitzky
Alfred Taylor
Jonathan Taylor
Rodney Taylor
William Taylor
Don Thorin
John Toll
Mario Tosi
Salvatore Totino
Luciano Tovoli
Jost Vacano
Theo Van de Sande
Eric Van Haren Noman
Kees Van Oostrum
Ron Vargas
Mark Vargo
Amelia Vincent
William Wages
Roy H. Wagner
Ric Waite
Michael Watkins
Jonathan West
Haskell Wexler
Jack Whitman
Gordon Willis
Dariusz Wolski
Ralph Woolsey
Peter Wunstorf
Robert Yeoman
Richard Yuricich
Jerzy Zielinski
Vilmos Zsigmond
Kenneth Zunder
ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
Alan Albert
Richard Aschman
Volker Bahnemann
Kay Baker
Joseph J. Ball
Amnon Band
Carly M. Barber
Craig Barron
Thomas M. Barron
Larry Barton
Bob Beitcher
Mark Bender
Bruce Berke
Bob Bianco
John Bickford
Steven A. Blakely
Mitchell Bogdanowicz
Jack Bonura
Michael Bravin
William Brodersen
Garrett Brown
Ronald D. Burdett
Reid Burns
Vincent Carabello
Jim Carter
Leonard Chapman
Mark Chiolis
Denny Clairmont
Adam Clark
Cary Clayton
Emory M. Cohen
Sean Coughlin
Robert B. Creamer
Grover Crisp
Daniel Curry
Ross Danielson
Carlos D. DeMattos
Gary Demos
Richard Di Bona
Kevin Dillon
David Dodson
Judith Doherty
Cyril Drabinsky
Jesse Dylan
Jonathan Erland
John Farrand
Ray Feeney
William Feightner
Phil Feiner
Jimmy Fisher
Scott Fleischer
Thomas Fletcher
Salvatore Giarratano
Richard B. Glickman
John A. Gresch
Jim Hannafin
William Hansard
Bill Hansard, Jr.
Richard Hart
Robert Harvey
Charles Herzfeld
Larry Hezzelwood
Frieder Hochheim
Bob Hoffman
Vinny Hogan
Cliff Hsui
Robert C. Hummel
Roy Isaia
George Joblove
Joel Johnson
John Johnston
Marker Karahadian
Frank Kay
Debbie Kennard
Milton Keslow
Robert Keslow
Larry Kingen
Douglas Kirkland
Timothy J. Knapp
Ron Koch
Karl Kresser
Doug Leighton
Lou Levinson
Suzanne Lezotte
Grant Loucks
Howard Lukk
Andy Maltz
Steven E. Manios
Robert Mastronardi
Joe Matza
Albert Mayer, Jr.
Bill McDonald
Andy McIntyre
Stan Miller
Walter H. Mills
George Milton
Mike Mimaki
Rami Mina
Michael Morelli
Dash Morrison
Nolan Murdock
Dan Muscarella
Iain A. Neil
Otto Nemenz
Ernst Nettmann
Tony Ngai
Mickel Niehenke
Marty Oppenheimer
Walt Ordway
Larry Parker
Michael Parker
Warren Parker
Doug Pentek
Kristin Petrovich
Ed Phillips
Nick Phillips
Jerry Pierce
Joshua Pines
Carl Porcello
Howard Preston
David Pringle
Phil Radin
Christopher Reyna
Colin Ritchie
Eric G. Rodli
Andy Romanoff
Daniel Rosen
Dana Ross
Bill Russell
Kish Sadhvani
David Samuelson
Peter K. Schnitzler
Walter Schonfeld
Juergen Schwinzer
Ronald Scott
Steven Scott
Don Shapiro
Milton R. Shefter
Leon Silverman
Garrett Smith
Stefan Sonnenfeld
John L. Sprung
Joseph N. Tawil
Ira Tiffen
Arthur Tostado
Bill Turner
Stephan Ukas-Bradley
Mark Van Horne
Richard Vetter
Joe Violante
Dedo Weigert
Franz Weiser
Evans Wetmore
Beverly Wood
Jan Yarbrough
Hoyt Yeatman
Irwin M. Young
Michael Zacharia
Bob Zahn
Nazir Zaidi
Michael Zakula
Les Zellan
M A R C H 2 0 1 0
HONORARY MEMBERS
Col. Edwin E. Al drin Jr.
Neil A. Armstrong
Col. Michael Collins
Bob Fisher
David MacDonald
Cpt. Bruce McCandless II
D. Brian Spruill
McDonald, Karahadian, Bianco
Named Associates
New associate member William
McDonald received his Master of Fine Arts
degree in cinematography in 1986 from the
University of California-Los Angeles, where
he is currently head of cinematography and
the department vice chair of undergraduate
studies. He previously served on the faculties
of various film schools, including American
University, Loyola Marymount University and
the University of Southern California, while
working as a freelance cinematographer.
McDonalds recent cinematography credits
include the documentaries Funny Ladies: A
Portrait of Female Cartoonists, Women of
Mystery: Three Writers Who Forever
Changed Detective Fiction and Mysterious
California: Four Authors.
New ASC associate Marker Karaha-
dian is the vice president of Band Pro Film &
Digital, a position he has held since January.
He was previously the executive vice presi-
dent of Plus 8 Digital, a company he formed
in the mid-1990s after working in the film
and television industry as an engineer,
camera assistant and operator. Karahadians
responsibilities at Band Pro include guiding
the companys technical direction and prod-
uct development, marketing, and oversee-
ing Band Pro Tek, the companys in-house
Sony-authorized service department.
New ASC associate Robert Bianco is
the vice president of front-end operations for
Deluxe Laboratories, a company for which
he has worked since 1983 (aside from a brief
stint with Technicolor in 1984). Bianco previ-
ously served Deluxe as a raw-stock splicer, C-
machine and wet-gate printer, new genera-
tion printer, sensitometry operator, sensitom-
etry supervisor, manager of lab processes,
director of lab processes and director of
front-end operations. His current duties
include overseeing all processes involved in
dailies, answer prints and intermediate
creation.
Yeoman Serves Sundance
Robert Yeoman, ASC was a juror
for the U.S. Dramatic Competition at this
years Sundance Film Festival. He was the
Clubhouse News
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Top to bottom: ASC associate members
William McDonald, Marker Karahadian,
Robert Bianco and Volker Bahnemann.
only cinematographer on the panel, joining
actress Parker Posey, author Russell Banks,
producer Jason Kliot and director Karyn
Kusama.
Bahnemann Passes Torch at Arri
ASC associate member Volker
Bahnemann, president and CEO of Arri Inc.
and Camera Service Center, recently
announced that he will retire on April 1. He
has been with Arri for 48 years, 32 as the
CEO.
Bahnemann was responsible for the
initiation, development and refinement of
many significant technologies, including the
Arriflex 35-III, Arriflex 765, Arriflex 435 and
Arriflex 235 cameras and Arri/Zeiss High
Speed and Variable Prime lenses. In 1996,
the Academy of Motion-Picture Arts &
Sciences honored Bahnemann with the John
A. Bonner Award. In 2002, the Society of
Motion Picture & Television Engineers
presented him with its Fuji Gold Medal
Award.
The new president of Arri will be
Glenn Kennel, who has been the companys
chief technology officer since 2009. I am
confident and gratified to have found in
Glenn a person qualified and ideally suited to
lead the company into the future, says
Bahnemann. Kennel adds, I am honored
and humbled to have this opportunity. These
are challenging times. In the digital world,
we face strong competitors and fast-moving
technology. I am excited because we have
the best people and the best technology,
plus an unmatched reputation for quality
and service.
With Bahnemanns departure, Simon
Broad will become president of Arri CSC. He
has overseen that companys day-to-day
operations as COO for the past four years.
Kirkland Named Samys
Photographer of the Month
Samys Camera named ASC associate
member Douglas Kirkland its Photogra-
pher of the Month in January. Kirkland
discussed his career with author/photogra-
pher Mark Edward Harris at the Pier 59
Studio West in Santa Monica, Calif.
When you were a child, what film made the strongest
impression on you?
Where I grew up, there was a movie theater that would play Ital-
ian films on Sunday, and sometimes my parents, being Italian,
would take my sister and me. So at a very early age I was
exposed to all the Italian Neorealist classics, which had a
profound effect on my psyche. Some of my favorites are Fellinis
Amarcord (1974) and La Dolce Vita (1960) and Rossellinis Rome,
Open City (1945).
Which cinematographers, past or present, do you most
admire, and why?
Conrad L. Hall, ASC, because he had
balls! He was a risk-taker and not afraid
to take a chance on an idea.
What sparked your interest in
photography?
The work of still photographers Saul
Leiter and Robert Frank.
Where did you train and/or study?
I trained on the job under camera assis-
tant Paul Gaffney and commercial cine-
matographer Jack Donnelly.
Who were your early teachers or
mentors?
Harris Savides, ASC. I met Harris in New
York City in 1990. He was very influential
in the sense that he, too, is a risk-taker,
and he taught me how to let go and be
free with my inner ideas.
What are some of your key artistic influences?
Music is a big artistic influence in my life. Artists like Tom Waits
and Nick Cave drive my imagination. Also, life experiences bring
a lot of ideas to my work.
How did you get your first break in the business?
Sal Oppedisano got me a job as a production assistant at a
commercial house in New York in the summer of 1985.
What has been your most satisfying moment on a project?
Cinderella Man and Frost/Nixon.
Have you made any memorable blunders?
Once on a commercial, I lit a scene very dark. I was pushing the
limits, and the director asked me about the exposure. I said, Its
on the edge. The next day at dailies, the director said, You
found the edge and fell off. We had to reshoot that scene. That
was a learning experience, and I am still happy to walk that
edge.
What is the best professional advice youve ever
received?
The advice I got the first day I worked in the film business:
Always be five minutes early to work,
never five minutes late. But more impor-
tantly, live on the edge when it comes to
your photography take risks. Put your
ideas on film and fall down a few times;
it will make you a great filmmaker.
What recent books, films or artworks
have inspired you?
Films: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
Books: Excellent Cadavers by Alexander
Stille.
Do you have any favorite genres, or
genres you would like to try?
I like true stories about people who live
on the edge of life.
If you werent a cinematographer,
what might you be doing instead?
Id be a chef.
Which ASC cinematographers recom-
mended you for membership?
Harris Savides, Darius Khondji, Declan Quinn and Shelly John-
son.
How has ASC membership impacted your life and career?
What happens at the Clubhouse stays at the Clubhouse!
Salvatore Totino, ASC Close-up
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CHRI S TI AN B E RGE R, ACC
ONFILM
Great painters are able, with a few brushstrokes,
to provoke our brains into replacing missing
information. Its like an ignition to the imagination.
That is the power to be artistic, to create emotion.
The technical is a way to get where we want
to go, but whats most interesting is how each
individual uses it. Technology is always changing,
but the artistic is a more archaic perspective. I
am convinced that a director of photography
today only finds the best result if he or she
nds the most modest and efcient tool for the
situation. What endures is a strong need for
humans to communicate, to tell their stories.
Film captures images with a quality that is higher
than ever, and much higher than the digital
formats. We should never work under the dictate
of technique. Its easy to say but difcult to do.
Christian Bergers fth collaboration with director
Michael Haneke, Das Weisse Band (The White
Ribbon), was awarded the Palme dOr at the 2009
Cannes Film Festival and the 2009 European
Film Award. The film also earned Berger best
cinematography honors from the Los Angeles
Film Critics Association, New York Film Critics
Circle and at the Movieline/Hamilton Behind the
Camera Awards. Their previous credits include
Bennys Video, 71 Fragmente einer Chronologie des
Zufalls (71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance),
La Pianiste (The Piano Teacher), and Cach
(Hidden). Bergers other credits include Amos
Gitais Disengagement, Luc Bondys Ne fais pas
a, and Markus Heltschls Der glserne Blick
(Dead Mans Memories). Berger also directed
the features Raf and Hanna Monster, Liebling.

For an extended interview with Christian Berger,
visit www.kodak.com/go/onlm.
To order Kodak motion picture lm,
call (800) 621-lm.
www.motion.kodak.com
Eastman Kodak Company, 2010.
Photography: 2009 Douglas Kirkland

AC Mar 2010

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86 March 2010 American Cinematographer

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