AC Noi 2011

N O V E MB E R 2 0 1 1
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M E M B E R P O R T R A I T
Frank E. Johnson, ASC
W W W . T H E A S C . C O M
TO SUBSCRIBE BY PHONE:
Call (800) 448-0145 (U.S. only)
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began reading
American
Cinematographer years
ago, while I was serving in
the U.S. Air Force as a
motion-picture cameraman. I
was assigned to shoot
government films, newsreels
and documentaries, but when
I was not on an assignment, I
was able to take advantage of
the availability of cameras,
film stock, laboratory and
AC to create and shoot my
own short films.
After this wonderful,
hands-on opportunity to learn
the art of cinematography, I
was able to go to Hollywood
and begin a career in the
motion-picture business. To
this day, I read AC every
month to keep up with the
latest technology and
techniques in the ever-
evolving world of cinema.
Frank E. Johnson, ASC
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www.schneideroptics.com Phooe: 818-766-3715 800-228-1254
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Lowell Peterson ASC received an Emmy
nomination for the series Six Feet
Under, and three ASC nominations for
his other television work. He is currently
shooting the eighth and final season of
Desperate Housewives.
B+W Century Schneider
We shot the first seven seasons of
Desperate Housewives on film
but this year I decided to take the
show HD, with Alexa. After a lot
of testing, we ended up using the
same lenses and same Schneider
Black Frost & True-Pol
filters that
gave us our look on film. The only
issue we had was IR pollution when
shooting outdoors on Wisteria Lane.
Schneider came through for us with
some of the first sets of their great new
Platinum IRNDs, and all our color
matching problems disappeared.
The International Journal of Motion Imaging
32 Time Bandit
Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC opts for digital capture on sci-fi
thriller In Time
46 All for One
Glen MacPherson, ASC, CSC applies modern methods to
3-D remake of The Three Musketeers
60 3-D on a Budget
Tips and tricks for shooting stereo affordably
68 Caught on Tape
Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC revisits his stylish work on the
1981 thriller Blow Out
78 Sharp Shooting
Spotlighting this years Emmy nominees for cinematography
DEPARTMENTS
FEATURES
VISIT WWW.THEASC.COM TO ENJOY THESE WEB EXCLUSIVES
DVD Playback: Scarface Blood Simple The Complete Jean Vigo
On Our Cover: Young lovers (Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried) revolt
against a dystopian society in the sci-fi thriller In Time, shot by Roger Deakins,
ASC, BSC. (Photo by Nino Muoz, courtesy of 20th Century Fox.)
8 Editors Note
10 Presidents Desk
12 Short Takes: The Candidate
18 Production Slate: Martha Marcy May Marlene America in Primetime
80 Filmmakers Forum: Juan-Ruiz Anchia, ASC
86 New Products & Services
90 International Marketplace
91 Classified Ads
92 Ad Index
94 Clubhouse News
96 ASC Close-Up: Dan Mindel
N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 1 V O L . 9 2 N O . 1 1
68
46
60
N o v e m b e r 2 0 1 1 V o l . 9 2 , N o . 1 1
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, Michael Goldman, Simon Gray, Jim Hemphill, David Heuring,
Jay Holben, Mark Hope-Jones, Noah Kadner, Jean Oppenheimer,
John Pavlus, Chris Pizzello, Jon Silberg, Iain Stasukevich,
Kenneth Sweeney, Patricia Thomson
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CREATIVE DIRECTOR Marion Gore
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CIRCULATION, BOOKS & PRODUCTS

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ASC EVENTS COORDINATOR Patricia Armacost
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American Cinematographer (ISSN 0002-7928), established 1920 and in its 91st year of publication, is published
monthly in Hollywood by ASC Holding Corp., 1782 N. Orange Dr., Hollywood, CA 90028, U.S.A.,
(800) 448-0145, (323) 969-4333, Fax (323) 876-4973, direct line for subscription inquiries (323) 969-4344.
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Sheridan Reprints at (800) 635-7181 ext. 8065 or by e-mail hrobinson@tsp.sheridan.com.
Copyright 2011 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 - 2011/2012
Michael Goi
President
Richard Crudo
Vice President
Owen Roizman
Vice President
John C. Flinn III
Vice President
Victor J. Kemper
Treasurer
Frederic Goodich
Secretary
Stephen Lighthill
Sergeant At Arms
MEMBERS OF THE
BOARD
John Bailey
Stephen H. Burum
Richard Crudo
George Spiro Dibie
Richard Edlund
Fred Elmes
Michael Goi
Victor J. Kemper
Francis Kenny
Isidore Mankofsky
Robert Primes
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Haskell Wexler
Vilmos Zsigmond
ALTERNATES
Michael D. OShea
Rodney Taylor
Ron Garcia
Sol Negrin
Kenneth Zunder
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
Few of the movies weve covered this year have generated
as many queries as In Time, which marks the first time
Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC has shot a feature with digital
cameras. With nine Academy Award nominations, an
ASC Lifetime Achievement Award and many other honors
decorating his rsum, Deakins has become the E.F.
Hutton of cinematography circles: when he talks, people
listen. He certainly doesnt mince words in Jay Holbens
coverage of the sci-fi thriller (Time Bandit, page 32),
weighing in on Arris Alexa and where he stands in the
deathless film vs. digital debate.
Declaring the Alexa a game-changer, he
observes, This moment has been coming for a long time,
really, but with the Alexa I believe digital has finally surpassed film in terms of quality. He
adds, Sometimes I really get annoyed with the garbage I hear about film vs. digital. Most of
it is simply nostalgia and silly thinking. In my opinion, there are now more advantages than
disadvantages to digital cinematography.
If digital formats have become a prevailing trend, so, too, has 3-D cinematography.
Continuing our ongoing coverage of this topic, we sought out Glen MacPherson, ASC, CSC,
who used 3-D to amp up the action in director Paul W.S. Andersons energetic remake of The
Three Musketeers. MacPherson expresses his enthusiasm for the format emphatically, telling
New York correspondent Iain Stasukevich (All for One, page 46) that he greatly prefers the
3-D version of Musketeers to the 2-D version that will also be released: I spent several weeks
grading the movie in 3-D, then I took a quick run up to the 2-D theater, and it was a huge
disappointment. Its amazing how you sort of lose the scope of all those great locations.
For those of you planning to shoot 3-D with more modest resources, Paris correspon-
dent Benjamin B serves up a piece packed with tips and techniques he absorbed during a
week-long workshop supervised by cinematographer Geoff Boyle, FBKS (3-D on a Budget,
page 60).
To learn how movies were shot when film was an unrivaled format, look no further
than Jon Silbergs piece on Blow Out (1981), a thriller that teamed Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC
with one of his favorite directors, Brian De Palma (Caught on Tape, page 68). Zsigmond
reveals how he compensated for films limitations with some radical strategies. Brian is a styl-
ist, and hes very experimental, the cinematographer observes. He sticks his neck out on
movies that sometimes get bad reviews because the [critics] say hes concentrating too much
on the visuals. But, he adds, Brian always wants to do the kinds of things cinematogra-
phers love to do!
This issue also offers a salute to this years Emmy-nominated cinematographers
(Sharp Shooting, page 78), whose ranks include 10 ASC members.
Stephen Pizzello
Executive Editor
Editors Note
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8
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Cinematography is driven by the desire to exercise ones artistry. This is certainly true of pretty
much every position on a production, but whereas one might enter into a craft in the business
driven by the desire to be famous or to get rich, you'd be hard pressed to find a cinematogra-
pher whose motivation for pursuing this craft was primarily influenced by those desires. A cine-
matographer whose work is enormously influential might be virtually unknown to most of the
world. A cinematographer becomes a cinematographer because he or she enjoys telling stories
with light, color and composition.
The ASC is composed of cinematographers who are masters of visual expression every
one of them. There are those whose names are immediately recognizable, but every member
achieved the honor of membership by being the best in the field. They have enhanced and
defined motion pictures for almost 100 years. Allow me to mention a few of them.
When you watch the amazing mirror-room fight sequence in Bruce Lees Enter the Dragon,
you are watching the work of Gil Hubbs, ASC. Stephen M. Katz, ASC was the cinematographer
behind the iconic comedy The Blues Brothers. Isidore Mankofsky, ASC gave life to Kermit the Frog
for The Muppet Movie. When Revenge of the Nerds took place, King Baggot, ASC was there to
film it. (King also shot one of my favorite fantasy films, The Last Starfighter.)
The beautiful, moody images from The Inland Sea were photographed by the same man
who gave The Rocketeer flight, Hiro Narita, ASC. And when you watch just about any large-scale
effects movie, you are probably seeing the work of Mat Beck, ASC, whose credits include shots for Titanic, Spider-Man 2 and Into
the Wild. When Stephen Kings Pet Sematary was unleashed on audiences, they were thrilled by the work of Peter Stein, ASC. Gerald
Feil, ASC was shooting exciting 3-D action years ago for Friday the 13th Part III. And when the Dixie Chicks were told to Shut Up
and Sing, Joan Churchill, ASC was there to document their message.
One of the reasons Frasier ran for 151 episodes was that Ken Lamkin, ASC was behind the camera. George Mooradian, ASC
made Emmy nominations a regular occurrence for his work on According to Jim. And Wayne Kennan, ASC gave the world some
of its funniest moments with Seinfeld.
Michael Negrin, ASC trained his camera on Billy Joel as he courted Christie Brinkley in the video for Uptown Girl. And what
do Michael Jacksons Billie Jean, Britney Spears Boys and Van Halens Hot for Teacher have in common? They were all shot by Daniel
Pearl, ASC.
Members of the ASC are generally pretty humble about their accomplishments. When we enter the Clubhouse, we all
become equals. Its not about egos or awards; its about hanging out and recognizing that we all got into this craft because te lling
visual stories is what we love to do.
One of my prized possessions is an ASC mug that bears the name Carl Berger, ASC. If you believe the databases, Carl is still
alive, even though his first credit as a cinematographer was in 1932. His last documented film was 1967s Cmon, Lets Live A Little,
a romp that I enjoyed as a youngster. According to the ASCs records, Carl is well over 105 years old. Some think he might have
died years ago and we just didnt receive word, but I like to believe that Carl is still out there, and that he might yet walk through
the Clubhouse doors again. I think his name will continue to be on the ASC roster for many years to come, because ASC cine-
matographers truly do live forever.
Michael Goi, ASC
President
Presidents Desk
10 November 2011 American Cinematographer
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Career Opportunities
By Iain Stasukevich
Based on a short story by Twilight Zone writer Henry Slesar,
the short film The Candidate unfolds like a tale from Rod Serlings
classic series: As Burton Grunzer (Tom Gulager) tensely narrates an
interoffice rivalry with his seemingly hapless coworker, Whitman
Hayes (Thomas F. Duffy), the conflict evolves into an increasingly
twisted game of cat-and-mouse.
The script fell into cinematographer Brandon Coxs lap in
2009, while he was shooting the feature The Collector in Louisiana.
That films visual-effects supervisor was David Karlak, who had been
inspired by Slesars story and asked Cox if hed be interested in shoot-
ing the short.
Karlak had directed a few shorts before undertaking The
Candidate, but this was his first project to originate on film. Not a
lot of shorts are being done on film anymore, says Cox, who grad-
uated from AFIs cinematography program in 2004, and whose cred-
its include more than 150 music videos. But David and I are both
lovers of film, and we really wanted to shoot and finish on film.
The costs of shooting and finishing on film were alleviated by
a FotoKem Student Filmmaker Grant, which covered the cost of
negative processing, print dailies and answer printing (with a process-
ing limit of 20,000' for 35mm). We could have shot this project digi-
tally, but theres something exciting about shooting on film, and
everybody working on the project could feel that, says Cox.
Citing the stocks contrast and color rendition, Cox elected to
shoot The Candidate on Kodak Vision3 500T 5219, working in the
anamorphic 2.40:1 format with Panavision Primo lenses. Ive shot
a tremendous amount of anamorphic, and Im familiar with the
Panavision C-, E- and G-Series anamorphic lenses, says Cox. Those
series are more compact and lightweight than the Primos, making
them especially well-suited to Steadicam and handheld work, but
the cinematographer envisioned The Candidate as a studio mode
film, with the camera always on sticks or a dolly. We wanted to be
kind of old-school about our camera moves, he says. It was all
about using the dolly to reflect the way Burton reacts to the space.
The Candidate was photographed on location inside the
downtown Los Angeles offices of an architectural firm. Its a
gorgeously designed office with concrete, steel and glass, and all
these different colors on plasma screens, Cox describes.
Karlak had been especially inspired by David Finchers The
Game (shot by Harris Savides, ASC), so Cox prepared for The Candi-
date by watching that film. He also studied Robert Elswit, ASCs
work in Michael Clayton and Wally Pfister, ASCs work in The Dark
Knight. David Finchers films all have a really strong sense of move-
ment, and I really love the way Robert Elswit and Wally Pfister cover
scenes, he explains.
One of Coxs favorite moments in The Candidate comes after
the bumbling Hayes accepts all the credit for landing a big client. The
film then cuts to the restroom; a tiled wall fills the frame until
Burtons head rises in slow motion. He splashes water on his face
and then starts to scream, but no sound comes out. We made that
shot at 120 fps with a Panavised Arri 435, says Cox, whose camera
package which also included a Panavision G2 came from
Panavision Hollywood. Theres something about that scene that I
Short Takes
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Burton Grunzer (Tom Gulager) retreats to a restroom to vent his frustrations with his job in this frame grab from The Candidate,
directed by David Karlak and shot by Brandon Cox.
I
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Top row, left to right: Curtis Clark, ASC; Richard Crudo, ASC; Daryn Okada, ASC; Dennis Dillon, DP; Francis Kenny, ASC
Bottom row, left to right: Cassie Brooksbank, Senior, USC School of Cinematic Arts; Cameron Combe, Student Filmmaker, Cal State Long Beach;
Brian Smith, Award-winning Photographer; Brooke Mailhiot, Cinematographer
love. Its eerie and beautiful at the same
time.
The locations glassed-in design
allowed the filmmakers to shoot many
scenes with the assistance of available light.
I had to know where the sun was going to
be at any given time, Cox recalls. Luckily,
a lot of the windows in that building face
north, but we had to get to certain sets at a
specific time. The cinematographer used
the Sun Seeker app for the iPhone to track
the suns trajectory over the course of the
day.
Cox and gaffer Kyle Bryson used
daylight-balanced Kino Flo Image 80s to
augment many of the scenes taking place
next to windows, diffusing the fixtures with
Light or
1
4 Grid for added softness. The
strongest light the production brought on
set was an Arri 1.2K HMI; the rest of the
lighting package comprised daylight-
balanced 4x4 Kino Flos, tungsten Dedos
and a selection of practical lamps with tung-
sten bulbs.
The climax of the film involves a
suspenseful exchange between Burton and
the mysterious Carl Tucker (Robert Picardo).
Nearly five minutes in length a quarter of
the shorts running time and rife with
detailed exposition, Cox remembers this
scene as being a bit of a conundrum.
Roberts character has to tell a story. We
didnt have the time to shoot a flashback to
illustrate what hes talking about, so we
decided to go the other route, filming him
as he talked. How would we keep the audi-
ence interested?
To find a solution, Cox referred back
to Pfisters work, studying how the cine-
matographer would shoot two people
carrying on an extended conversation. He
does very simple coverage, but he moves
the camera ever so slightly, so you dont
notice it, Cox observes. You get gripped
into the conversation with the dolly moves,
booming up and down, pushing in, going
back to wide. Its so simple and effective.
Cox employed those same slow
pushes on Picardo and Gulager, and even
used a tracking shot behind Gulager to
cross the 180-degree line, emphasizing a
shift in tone between the two characters.
For The Candidates final gotcha
moment, Cox pushed in fast and close on
each of the actors, using a 100mm lens and
Grunzer meets with the mysterious Carl Tucker (Robert Picardo), who tells of a secret society that has
met with great success in wishing people dead. The conversation takes the characters through different
areas of the downtown Los Angeles office building where the production filmed.
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dutching the frame with a Tango swing
head.
It was a critical moment not only for
the characters, but for Cox, who operated
the camera while 1st AC Hiro Fukada pulled
focus. Anamorphic depth of field is so
shallow, says Cox. We were close-focus-
ing on a long lens at T2.8, and Hiro made
sure we got it.
The crew shot for two days,
watched film dailies at FotoKem in Burbank,
returned to the location for two more days
of shooting, and then screened those
dailies. Most of the features Ive worked
on cant afford projected dailies, and theres
never any time for it, says Cox. Normally
Ill see my digital dailies on a calibrated HD
flatscreen or an iPad. Seeing your work on
a 19-inch monitor is one thing, but seeing it
on a big screen, on film, is something else.
You truly see what youre getting.
After principal photography wrapped
in September 2009, the film was transferred
to standard-definition DVCam tapes at
FotoKem. Karlak pieced together a couple
of rough cuts. Although he and Cox were
confident in what they had in the can, both
agreed more could be done to flesh out
some of the scenes, so four months after
principal photography, the crew returned to
the location to shoot additional inserts for
the films opening scene, as well as a new
end-credits sequence that amps up the
effect of the twist ending. Its very rare that
you come away from a shoot with the feel-
ing youve gotten everything you wanted at
the time, Cox remarks.
The FotoKem grant afforded Cox the
opportunity to work closely with color timer
Dan Muscarella on the film print master,
which the cinematographer describes as a
great experience. A 4:4:4 HDCam-SR digi-
tal master was also assembled at Santa
Monica-based New Hat with colorist Beau
Leon, one of Coxs frequent collaborators,
at the dials.
Cox is part of the last generation of
filmmakers who learned the craft of cine-
matography by shooting film stock, just
before many schools started switching to
digital-dominated curricula and workflows.
In the late 1990s, as nonlinear editing and
high-definition video were gaining traction
with students, Cox cut his early projects on
reel-to-reel editing benches and was
instructed on how to communicate with a
film lab. He believes the blend of digital and
analog curriculums has given him a
balanced perspective on the digital vs.
film argument. I started out shooting
film, but I also have to keep up with tech-
nology, he muses. Every movie has its
format. Some movies should be shot on
film, and some should be shot digitally. I
think theres a place for both in this world.
Top, left and right: Cox lines up a shot with the productions Panavision G2 camera.
Below: Grunzer considers his halting rise up the corporate ladder.
Mind Control
By Patricia Thomson
It isnt often that brainwashing techniques influence the
visual design of a movie, but they proved to be a fitting inspiration
for Martha Marcy May Marlene . Written and directed by Sean
Durkin, the film tells the story of Martha (Elizabeth Olsen), a young
woman who flees a cult in upstate New York and attempts to
readjust to the outside world with the help of her sister, Lucy (Sarah
Paulson).
As Martha struggles to process her experiences, the film cuts
back and forth between two primary locations: the cults farmstead
and Lucys lakefront vacation home in Connecticut. On the farm, we
see Marthas gradual assimilation into the cults communal lifestyle,
and her discovery of the domination and violence that lurk beneath
its bucolic veneer. At Lucys house, Marthas mind frays, and she
becomes increasingly convinced that the cult is coming after her.
Durkin and cinematographer Jody Lee Lipes decided that
Marthas present should not be visually differentiated from her past.
In some cults theres this Buddhist-based philosophy to focus on the
moment theres no future, no past, only the present, explains
Durkin. Its a common brainwashing technique used by cults to
make people lose track of time. There are no calendars or clocks
around. It made sense that this would be a key component of
Marthas psychology: she has no sense of time.
Although the commune and Lucys home are very different in
terms of their architecture, lighting and palette, the filmmakers did
not strive to emphasize those differences through the cinematogra-
phy. It was important to keep the two locations as indistinguishable
as possible because there are times when Martha is confused about
where she is, says Lipes.
For example, Martha looks over at someone during a conver-
sation and suddenly, seamlessly, shes talking with someone else in
a different time and place. Or she walks down a dark hallway in
Lucys house and steps into a room that is revealed to be in the farm-
house. We didnt want these transitions to have any sort of visual
indicator, says Durkin. We wanted to make the viewer take a
second to orient himself.
Martha is Durkins feature-directing debut, but it is not his
first collaboration with Lipes, who was named one of Varietys 10
Cinematographers to Watch earlier this year. Durkin first called on
Lipes to shoot his senior film at New York University in 2006. Then,
when Durkin and classmates Josh Mond and Antonio Campos co-
founded Borderline Films, they hired Lipes, a fellow NYU alum, for
most of their music videos, commercials and two previous features,
including Campos Afterschool. Lipes other credits include Tiny
Furniture (AC Jan. 11); NY Export: Opus Jazz, which he also wrote
and directed (AC March 10), and episodes of HBOs Girls. (Lipes shot
seven out of 10 episodes and directed two of the other episodes.)
With a budget of less than $1 million, Martha had 2 weeks
for preproduction and 24 days for production. Ten days each were
devoted to the two main locations: a Catskills farm, which offered
three barns, a rambling farmhouse and unlimited rusticity; and a
lakeside house in Connecticut, whose Ikea-style furnishings,
recessed lighting and plate-glass windows provided a clear contrast.
It was the farm that set the photographic look, which Durkin
describes as worn. We wanted to shoot on film and have
texture, he elaborates. We felt [the image] should accent the dry,
overgrown dirtiness of the farm.
To translate that objective into visual terms, Lipes aimed for a
grainy, low-contrast, slightly desaturated look with milky blacks.
Shooting 3-perf Super 35mm with an Arricam Lite, he chose
Production Slate
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Martha
(Elizabeth Olsen)
falls prey to a
charismatic cult
leader in the
indie drama
Martha Marcy
May Marlene,
shot by
Jody Lee Lipes.
I
Arri/Zeiss Master Primes and an Angenieux
Optimo 24-290mm zoom lens. He initially
considered using anamorphic or older
lenses, but because we had so little testing
time, I decided to use lenses that I knew
were consistent and could open up a lot
without any problems, he says. So we
decided to achieve the worn look through
exposure and processing.
Lipes considered pushing the film to
achieve the desired look, but after doing
some tests and consulting with Harris
Savides, ASC, he decided against it. I knew
Harris had a lot of experience with under-
exposing, says Lipes, who screened
Margot at the Wedding during prep, along
with Rosemarys Baby, Klute, 3 Womenand
Images. Harris said I would do better just
to underexpose and not push, because you
get too much contrast by pushing. And he
was totally right. So I ended up underex-
posing the film a lot.
He underexposed Kodak Vision3
500T 5219 and 250D 5207 by 2 stops, and
Vision2 50D 5201 by 1
2
3 stops. Its about
the blacks, says Lipes. Its also about
making the high-quality, sharp images you
get from Master Primes a little softer and
more degraded through a lack of resolution
and color. When you get underexposure
just right, theres a bit of a veil over the
whole image; its like flashing, but without
flashing.
Lipes also used a considerable
amount of ND filtration. We were doing
day exteriors and rating 5207 at [ISO]
1,000, and sometimes Id shoot at T1.3, so
the only way we could do that was with a
huge amount of ND. Theres one shot early
in the film that epitomizes what that does. I
was using a 40mm lens to get a pretty wide
shot of one of the characters chopping
wood, and the background is totally out of
focus. Its not the depth-of-field you typically
see with that size shot on a day exterior.
The filmmakers discovered that one
more factor was needed to activate the
look, says Lipes. We always tried to put
something dark in the frame, even if was a
day exterior, because we found that really
triggered the worn look in the blacks. I use
the word activate because it really does
need a group of factors to materialize. You
have to understand that the ratio of black in
the frame is going to directly relate to how
much you should underexpose. If youre
doing a daylight scene thats in direct sun,
you can underexpose 2
1
2 stops and no one
will know the difference. But if its a shot
where you see just a sliver through a door-
way and everything else is black, you can
underexpose 1 or 1
1
2 stops and it will be
very apparent. So its understanding you
have further to go in one situation than in
another, or else youll have to compensate
for it digitally [in post], which never looks
the same.
The projects short prep period
meant that Lipes was refining the look on
the fly. It was hard I was guessing a
lot, he admits. But he benefited from
detailed feedback from colorist Sam Daley
at Technicolor New York, who was
involved from day one. I think its strange
that dailies colorists and finishing colorist
are usually different people, Lipes says.
Ive had the luxury of working with Sam as
a dailies colorist and a finishing colorists
on several films, and all of Season 1 on
Girls, and I think that continuity between
us goes a long way. Sam knows my work
so well, and is so involved from prepro-
duction on, that he can infer a great deal
without the need for a lot of communica-
tion during production. He knows how
the film will look in the end, so he can
make more educated decisions about
potential issues with dailies as we shoot.
Because Sam serves as both dailies and
finishing colorist, he is much more of a
creative partner in the various projects we
Right: Cult leader
Patrick (John
Hawkes) offers
comfort to his
new recruit.
Below: Martha
bonds with two
of the groups
other members,
Zoe (Louisa
Krause, left) and
Sarah (Julie
Garner, right), on
the farm.
work on together. Finishing often gets
rushed through on many of the productions
I work on, so its great to know that there is
someone behind the scenes who knows
where things are going to end up, and that
he has the knowledge and ability to rough
things in very well before I get to the lab.
On Martha, Sam was in close touch
the entire time, telling me if I went a little
too far here or not far enough there, Lipes
adds, noting that he wasnt always able to
glean such information from the ProRes
dailies. When youre rating 2 stops under,
film can get very temperamental and unpre-
dictable, so I was often surprised.
In the digital timing, the main
concern was maintaining consistency in the
blacks. That was tricky, says the cine-
matographer. When youre underexposing
that much, a slight difference in how much
you underexpose can really affect the qual-
ity of the image. If we were losing light and
I opened up by
1
3 when I shouldnt have, it
was really hard to match between takes
just
1
3 of a difference in stop!
With this degree of underexposure,
black actually looks more gray than black,
and it can look like a different film stock
[from shot to shot], so you have to make
those shots come together. Sam did that
really well, which took time.
Lipes and Daley also worked to avoid
clipping the highlights. I think having a
huge latitude accentuates the film look, so I
try to emphasize that even further in the
digital realm, says Lipes.
That latitude was particularly impor-
tant in the lake-house interiors, where the
object was to create an environment that
would underscore Marthas vulnerability
and paranoia. Balancing interiors and exte-
riors in the predominantly glass house was a
priority because the filmmakers wanted the
outside environment to be visible. Helping
Lipes in that regard was the need to have
something dark in the frame. So if were
doing day interiors and there were
windows, keeping the foreground subject
dark was a way to activate the smoky black
look, he says. The Godfather Part II was a
really important reference for those situa-
tions. Ive watched that movie over and over
for my entire life. Gordon Willis [ASC] is,
without question, my favorite cinematogra-
pher, and my approach to a lot of the lake-
house stuff with the big windows comes
directly from studying the feeling of his
work, particularly the Godfather films.
Lipes estimates that he shot more
than half of the film with no movie lighting
at all. For the other half, he took pains to
contrast the lighting of the farm and the
lake house. I wanted the light at the farm
to feel like [fixtures that] were rigged and
improvised by the cult members, he says,
whereas at the lake house, I wanted it to
feel like high-end lighting integrated into
the home. I think there are two kinds of
rich-people lighting: the kind thats classic
and nice, with a lot of small lamps around,
and the kind where the fixtures are recessed
and bounced, with no visible bulbs or hard
light. Lipes opted for the latter strategy.
We didnt know exactly what we
were shooting at the house, he continues.
We had almost no prep time on the loca-
tion, so almost none of it was planned
Top: Marthas sister, Lucy (Sarah Paulson), and brother-in-law, Ted (Hugh Dancy), provide refuge
after Martha escapes from the cult. Middle: Marthas fragile emotional state devolves into
paranoia as she adapts to her new surroundings. Bottom: Lipes (white shirt) and members of
the crew block out a scene with director Sean Durkin (far right).
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ahead of time whereas at the farm,
generally speaking, we had more blocking
or specific frames worked out. In the
kitchen of the house, my longtime gaffer,
Josh Allen, and longtime key grip, Alex
Engel, rigged the ceiling so it was entirely
covered with paper lanterns that were cut in
half; they were half spheres with 100-watt
bulbs in them. Then Full Grid diffusion was
stretched across them to produce a very
indirect, soft, warm, glowing toplight. The
great thing was that you could just turn on
any bulb you wanted out of dozens of
bulbs.
By contrast, Lipes often limited light-
ing at the farm to one standard bulb, a
single paper lantern, or, in the sexual-initia-
tion scenes, actual fire from kerosene lamps.
Every once in awhile, wed bounce an HMI
through a window to add a bit of ambience.
For the most part, it was pretty minimal, he
says. Its also important to note that we
could only use minimal lighting because we
were shooting as high as ISO 2,000 with
T1.3 lenses.
Lipes also served as camera operator,
but he tips his hat to his longtime first assis-
tant, Joe Anderson, who took over on a
number of shots. Joe is indispensable,
especially when were working at stops like
this, says the cinematographer. He takes
risks that some assistants wouldnt take.
Hes also an extremely talented cinematog-
rapher, so he helps me make a lot of deci-
sions and acts as a second set of eyes on a
scene.
As for his own contribution, Lipes is
content. I feel I had a bit more control of
the craft and more awareness this time
around, he says. Of the five features Ive
shot so far, this is definitely the one that
reflects my visual style the most.
TECHNICAL SPECS
2.40:1
3-perf Super 35mm
Arricam Lite
Arri/Zeiss Master Prime, Angenieux Optimo
Kodak Vision3 500T 5219, 250D 5207;
Vision2 50D 5201
Digital Intermediate
Documentary Television
By Jon D. Witmer
Cinematographer Logan Schneider
was a junior at Montana State University-
Bozeman when he was nominated for an
ASC Heritage Award in 2004. Following
graduation, he worked as a camera assis-
tant on a short project about presidential-
hopeful Barack Obama directed by Davis
Guggenheim and produced by Lesley
Chilcott. When Guggenheim and Chilcott
set to work on the documentary Waiting
for Superman, shot by Robert Richman
and Erich Roland, Schneider again signed
on as an AC, and along the way he was
afforded opportunities to operate and even
shoot.
Following Superman, Guggen-
heim gave Schneiders name to director
Lloyd Kramer, who was looking for a cine-
matographer for a four-part PBS documen-
tary series. I got a call from Lloyd, and we
had a wonderful conversation about all the
things we like in documentaries we just
clicked on the phone, Schneider recalls.
But he was planning to start shooting the
end of February [2010], when I was already
committed to a 10-day shoot in the Repub-
lic of Georgia for a skiing film. I told him, If
you push for any reason, please let me
know, because I would love to do it. Fortu-
nately, they did end up pushing a week and
it all worked out.
The series, America in Primetime ,
examines the history of television by focus-
ing on four distinct character archetypes,
which also serve as the four episodes titles:
Man of the House, The Crusader,
Independent Woman and The Misfit.
In bringing the documentary to the small
screen, Kramer and Schneider put more
than 100 television professionals includ-
ing actors, writers and series creators in
front of their camera, bouncing between
Los Angeles and New York to accommo-
date everyones schedules. With the last of
the interviews in the can, Schneider sat
down with AC to discuss the production.
American Cinematographer:
Were there any particular influences
you drew from for America in Prime-
time?
Logan Schneider: Some of my
main influences in the documentary world
are Davis Guggenheim and Lesley Chilcott,
who taught me about finding the story and
its emotional heart through the people
[being filmed], and all of Errol Morris films,
which bring narrative form to the docu-
mentary. Erich Roland, one of the cine-
matographers on Waiting for Superman, is
another big influence. He worked on studio
movies for a while and then went back to
documentaries, and he took all of that
experience from Hollywood with him. I like
Danny DeVito prepares to be interviewed for the PBS documentary America in
Primetime. Directed by Lloyd Kramer and photographed by Logan Schneider, the four-part
series traces the history of American television.
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trying to push the production value and
really make the documentary look cine-
matic. I had a great talk with Lloyd about
how to do that. We didnt want this to
become a clip show.
What camera system did you
shoot with?
Schneider: The producers wanted a
tape backup, so they actually suggested the
Arri D-21. I said, If I thought we could get a
D-21, Id have asked for it in a second! I feel
like digital in general produces plastic skin
tones, but this camera feels very organic. Its
gorgeous. Its big, but we didnt have to
move it, so it was perfect.
In L.A., we got the camera through
The Camera House. In New York, we went
through Arri CSC. Between CSC and The
Camera House, we were well supported.
What did your lens package
comprise?
Schneider: All of the interviews
were done with an Angenieux Optimo 24-
290mm zoom. On most of the doc work
Ive done, I dont have a focus puller, but Id
never shot a documentary on a big, 35mm-
sized chip, and we were 8 feet away, wide
open we were at a T2.8 the entire time. I
brought in a camera assistant, Mary
Funsten, for the setup day, to make sure
everything was dialed in, but I quickly real-
ized we were going to need a focus puller
for the entire shoot. I was so lucky to have
Mary and a couple of other assistants who
were able to work over the course of the
shoot.
My gaffer was Owen Hooker. I went
to film school with him, and hes been my
gaffer on everything. He really helped us
create and re-create the lighting when we
had to move the set.
It wasnt a hard grip job, so I didnt
have a designated key grip, but Brett
Carleton was an electrician, and he also
gripped and ended up gaffing when Owen
couldnt. He wore several hats. It was a
really good team.
The set for the interviews has a
very distinct look. How did its design
come about?
Schneider: The production designer
was Max Biscoe. He was the art director on
Shutter Island, Old School and a number of
other films. Hes great. Max and I wanted
the background to be a nice accent, but not
distracting. We really wanted to make the
people stand out. Max came in with all
these corrugated, clear plastic panels, and
we spent a day and a half arranging them,
moving the lights and looking at all these
reflections, trying to create the look.
We put the panels at different
distances to create layers with different
amounts of sharpness and some depth
between them. Max also had these clear
Plexiglas tubes, about four inches in diame-
ter, that we used as out-of-focus fore-
ground highlights along the edges of the
frame. We chain-gripped them to beaver
boards on both sides of the mattebox, and
every time we shifted the camera, it would
create a new frame. They created even
more depth and added a lot to the look.
Finally we got everything set up, and
then we found ourselves saying, Oh, crap,
how are we going to make this again? Re-
creating the set and lighting it again was
the single hardest thing about the shoot; it
took hours to line up every little thing. We
had detailed diagrams, but it was still a
nightmare every time.
Top left: Larry David takes the hot seat.
Bottom left: A frame grab from Davids
interview. Top right: Schneider worked with
an Arri D-21 for the production.
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How did you light for the
interviews?
Schneider: This wasnt a gritty
documentary. These were glamorous
people talking about television, so we
wanted them to look great. The key light
was a Kino Flo Image 80 with five or six
bulbs on through one layer of
1
2 Grid on a
4-by-4 frame, and a layer of
1
2 Soft Frost
on another 4-by-4 frame. We put that right
on the edge of the frame line, and it had a
really beautiful wrapping quality.
On the other side from the key, to
create contrast, we had a 4-by-4 floppy
providing negative fill, as close to the frame
as we could get it. We also had two 4-foot
four-bank Kinos as backlights and kicks,
vertically oriented, with two or three globes
on and different types of diffusion depend-
ing on the skin tones. Above and below the
camera, we also had a 2-foot four-bank
with Grid Cloth that we could turn on if
someone needed them. When we didnt
need them, we hid them so we wouldnt be
asked why they werent on.
There was a muslin backdrop in the
background, behind everything. We placed
Tweenies and Source Four Lekos to create
shapes, which produced nice glows
through the layers of corrugated plastic.
The Image 80 created the primary reflection
Left, top to bottom: Among the more than
100 interviewees featured in America in
Primetime are Norman Lear, Alec Baldwin,
Michael Williams and Eva Longoria. Above:
Schneider catches his breath between setups
while working on another project.
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B e c a u s e i t m a t t e r s .
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we manipulated behind people. We just
tweaked everything until it all looked right.
Did you have to ship the set
pieces back and forth between Los
Angeles and New York?
Schneider: There were two copies
of the set, one in L.A. and one in New York.
One thing that changed, though, was the
tone of the different rooms. In L.A., we
started in a tiny little room at The Lot that
used to be a screening room; it had gray
walls and a gray ceiling, which filled in
certain parts of the set. Then Larry Parker
was kind enough to let us use the Mole-
Richardson stage [in Los Angeles], which
was a much different space. In New York,
we shot in the conference room of the
production company, which was barely big
enough for the set. Trying to re-create the
tone was almost impossible with the
resources we had, so theres a certain
amount of color timing Ill have to do to
match everything. [Ed. Note: At press time,
Schneider had not yet begun color-correct-
ing the finished series.]
Was this strictly a single-camera
shoot?
Schneider: It was all done with one
camera. One of the things Lloyd and I talked
about was eyeline. We used an EyeLiner, a
mirror device that lets the interviewee look
directly down the lens and see the inter-
viewers face the interviewer sits right
next to the camera. You only lose about half
a stop, and it creates a really nice relation-
ship with the subject; it feels like theyre
Mike Judge takes a seat in front of the camera, which was fitted with an EyeLiner so the interviewees
would speak directly to the lens. Also visible are the Plexiglas tubes Schneider utilized as out-of-focus
foreground highlights.
30
talking directly to the viewer. Since doing
that, Ive looked at other documentaries
where the interviewees look off-camera,
and it kind of bugs me.
With only one camera, you have to
create the edits in your frame. Lloyd didnt
want any camera movement in the shots,
but unless you want a jumpy feeling, you
cant leave the camera in one place and cut.
So while I was operating, I was always
listening for any pauses or breaks any
chance to reframe. I was creating the cover-
age in one shot with little snap-zooms and
whip-pans, and just trying not to ruin
anything by stepping on a line.
You mentioned that the produc-
ers wanted a tape backup. What was
your recording workflow?
Schneider: We shot to [Sony]
SRW-1s that recorded HDCam-SR, and we
shot in 4:2:2 mode because there were so
many hours that editorial needed to handle.
Every day wed send a stack of tapes off to
be converted to DVD dailies, and then
theyd go to editorial.
Did you shoot any other material
in addition to the interviews?
Schneider: We also shot B-roll,
which we called visual poetry, a term that
comes from when I worked on Waiting for
Superman. Davis doesnt like the term B-
roll, because it doesnt reflect the impor-
tance of the shots.
For the visual poetry in America in
Primetime, we wanted to deconstruct the
different crafts of filmmaking. We showed
things like someone moving the focus
wheel on a remote focus, the number [on
the lens barrel] moving and an image snap-
ping into focus; and someone filling up a
vial with fake blood, pumping the syringe,
and then blood spurting onto a shirt. We
did that with a lot of different departments.
We spent a couple of days just exploring
and shooting all sorts of stuff.
We also put old TV sets on a big
turntable and turned it really slowly. We lit
that with a 20K aimed through a 12-by
muslin, as close as we could get it, to create
a soft, wrapping light with lots of contrast.
We also shot fingers on typewriters, so as
people talk about [specific moments from
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31
various series], we can show those moments
in script form. We raked the paper with a
Par can and shot with a 100mm Arri Master
Macro lens on the Revolution Lens System
so we could see the texture of the pulp.
Lloyd really cares about the image,
and he supported me through the entire
shoot, helping me get what I needed, letting
me explore different things and working
with me to get a very nice image. He knows
what he likes but hes also open. Hes
directed movies and he thinks in that world,
and thats why we got along so well, I think.
We both love the idea of cinematic docu-
mentaries, even though this one is for tele-
vision and about television.
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Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC
adopts digital capture on
the sci-fi thriller In Time.
By Jay Holben
|
Time Bandit
Time Bandit
w ww.theasc.com November 2011 33
I
n Time presents a dystopian near
future where everyone lives, quite
literally, on borrowed time. Science
has eliminated the aging gene, so no
human ages past 25 years old. After
25, individuals must stave off death by
earning time credits, rather than
money, for their labor. Since the rich
can afford all the credits they want,
they live on and never grow old, while
the middle class and poor must toil
every day to earn enough credits to
survive. Amid these desperate circum-
stances, working-class Will Salas
(Justin Timberlake) discovers the true
value of time after transforming
himself into a futuristic Robin Hood
who steals time from the rich and
gives it to the poor.
This scenario paired director
Andrew Niccol ( Gattaca, S1m0ne)
with cinematographer Roger Deakins,
ASC, BSC, who has earned nine
Academy Award nominations for his
work on a long list of admired
pictures, including The Shawshank
Redemption (AC June 95), The Man
Who Wasnt There (AC Oct. 01), Fargo
(AC March 96), No Country for Old
Men (AC Oct. 07) and True Grit.
Over the years, Andrew and I had
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s

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.
Opposite page: In
a future where
nobody ages
beyond 25 unless
they earn extra
time credits, Will
Salas (Justin
Timberlake)
attempts to
disrupt the
system by
stealing credits
from wealthy
time hoarders.
This page, top: In
the control room
of the
Timekeepers
Station, large
displays monitor
activity all over
the world.
Middle:
Timekeeper
Raymond Leon
(Cillian Murphy)
becomes Wills
arch-nemesis.
Bottom:
Cinematographer
Roger Deakins,
ASC, BSC assesses
a setup.
talked a number of times about
collaborating on a picture, but our
schedules never worked out, Deakins
reveals. He first approached me
about In Time while I was shooting
True Grit, and I loved the idea.
Although the cinematographer
had never shot a feature with digital
cameras, he kept close tabs on the
evolving technology, and after vetting
the Arri Alexa, he decided he had
found a digital camera that suited his
creative and technical needs. When
Andrew and I first started talking
about In Time, he asked me, You still
shoot film, right? And I replied, Yes,
of course. But after doing a pretty
comprehensive series of tests with the
Alexa, I thought it was the right tool
to achieve the look we wanted. I
called Andrew and said, Im not pres-
suring you either way, but I think you
should see these tests. He came out,
saw what I had done with the Alexa,
and said, Yeah. Why dont we do it
that way?
Deakins confesses that he was
initially a little nervous about work-
ing with a digital camera, but found
the Alexa to be a very intuitive, film-
based system it really feels like a
film camera. The great thing about
digital is that you can see the results
on set while youre shooting, which
makes it easier to sleep at night. We
established the base look on set, and
that tracked through dailies, editing
and final color timing. Its great for
the director to really see what youre
shooting, because that makes your
collaboration and conversations easier
and more refined; you dont have to
try to explain how the image will look
later.
The Alexa is a game-changer,
Deakins maintains. This moment
has been coming for a long time,
really, but with the Alexa I believe
digital has finally surpassed film in
terms of quality. What is quality? Its
really in the eye of the viewer, but to
me, the Alexas tonal range, color
space and latitude exceed the capabil-
ities of film. This is not to say that I
Time Bandit
Will, a factory
worker, shuffles
through his daily
grind on street
sets futurized in
Los Angeles by
production
designer Alex
McDowell.
dont still love film I do. I love its
texture and grain, but in terms of
speed, resolution and clarity of
image, there is no question in my
mind that the Alexa produces a
better image. There is a beautiful
roll-off between highlights and shad-
ows [on the Alexa] that I havent seen
before. Theres a subtlety in color
rendition that is fantastic. I tested it
in candlelight, and it was beautiful
how the camera picked up variations
in skin tones and texture. If you shot
that same scene with film, youd get a
very monochromatic feel just a
color wash but the Alexa can read
subtleties that film cannot.
Sometimes I get annoyed
with the garbage I hear about film vs.
digital, the cinematographer contin-
ues. Most of it is simply nostalgia
and silly thinking. I love film, sure,
but this camera has brought us to a
point where digital is simply better.
In my opinion, there are now more
advantages than disadvantages to
digital cinematography.
The Alexa features a
3,392x2,200-pixel, Bayer-pattern
CMOS sensor with an active imag-
ing area of 2,880x1,620 pixels
(23.76mm x 13.37mm). In late 2009
and early 2010, when Deakins began
work on In Time, the camera was in
its nascent stages. It was on Version 2
of its software and not yet capable of
the ArriRaw mode (a 3K option for
4:4:4 raw image capture), so the cine-
matographer captured in 1920x1080
4:4:4 10-bit uncompressed mode to
Codex recorders.
The digital footage was further
cropped to 1920x800 to fit within the
desired 2.40:1 aspect ratio. We shot
widescreen, but not anamorphic,
Deakins explains. You shoot on the
width of the sensor and extract the
image, cropping off the top and
bottom, to get 2.40. Youre losing
some of the image, of course, but
frankly, [with digital capture] you can
sometimes have an image that is too
sharp.
Deakins says his switch from
Top: Wills encounter with depressed aristocrat Henry Hamilton (Matthew Bomer) has fateful
consequences for both men. Middle: Director Andrew Niccol (kneeling) sets up a scene in which Hamilton
transfers his wealth of credits to the time clock embedded in Wills arm. Bottom: After waking up and
realizing what Hamilton has done, Will attempts to honor the final request his benefactor has scrawled
on a windowpane: Dont waste my time.
film to digital technology did not
significantly alter his working style. I
referred to the waveform monitor quite
a bit in order to check my image, so
that was new for me, but I was
surprised at how quickly I took to it. I
still used a light meter, of course, but
mostly I would check the waveform to
see that my highlights werent clipping
too much. Its really hard to blow out
your highlights with the Alexa,
though. Theres a lot of range.
As I was operating, I didnt
spend much time at the monitor, so I
relied on Joshua Gollish, our DIT, to
make sure everything was falling in
okay, he continues. Id dive back to
the monitor and watch the playback of
a scene, or play with the color of the
first shot of a scene, but after that I
wouldnt obsess about it at all. I just let
the rest of the scene fall in where it
should.
With EFilm pre-selected for
post services, Deakins worked with the
companys proprietary Colorstream
system, which provided him with a
custom-calibrated LCD screen and
the ability to color-correct the uncom-
pressed HD signal on set.
Time Bandit
Top: A waitress
uses Wills arm
clock to charge
him for a meal.
Middle: Each
individuals clock
serves as a
constant
reminder that
time is running
out. Bottom:
Deakins used
bounce lighting
to illuminate the
interior of the
Los Angeles
location that
was transformed
into the glass-
walled
restaurant.
Gollish explains the projects
workflow: Each Codex magazine we
shot contained 21 minutes of footage
[in RAID 0]. Once a mag was filled,
we would take it to the camera truck,
where we had a Codex lab in place
a 12-rack unit with a few different
modules. Our loader, Jessica Ramos,
would copy the magazine to the
Codex lab drives, verify the data and
then pack the drive to send to EFilm
that night. Each days drives would be
accompanied by a USB Flash drive
containing the Colorstream metadata.
Once EFilm got the magazine, copied
the files and started their process, they
would inform us that it was safe to
delete that days footage from our
Codex lab, and we would get the
magazines back for recycling.
In Time had a very fast shooting
schedule of just 55 days, all on loca-
tion in and around Los Angeles, with
many days requiring a company move
to a second location. Most of Deakins
lighting approach sprang from the use
of practical lights with a bit of
augmentation.
Deakins typically shot at 800
ASA, but he also utilized 400 ASA for
day exteriors to avoid the need for
excessive ND filters. His lenses were
Arri/Zeiss Master Primes, and his
shooting stops were set to T1.4 or
T2.5 for the majority of production.
He lauds the Master Primes as
lightweight, compact and fast. When
youve got such a small camera, you
want primes and small lenses to take
maximum advantage of the compact
size.
As the movies plot unfolds,
Will is gifted with a century of extra
time thats added to the digital clock
An ornate
mansion
proved to be a
challenging
location
because its
owners feared
movie
equipment
could damage
the interior. To
work around
the safety
concerns,
Deakins and his
crew employed
one of their
favorite tactics:
ring-shaped
lighting rigs
mounted in the
ceiling, around
the existing
chandeliers.
embedded in his arm. Intent on using
his extended life for the greater good,
he pledges to disrupt the worlds piti-
less system so others can also live
longer. To that end, Will manages to
infiltrate a party thrown by Philippe
Weis (Vincent Kartheiser), a wealthy
power broker with more than 10,000
years on his arm timer and at least a
million more banked. At the party,
Will meets Weis daughter, Sylvia
(Amanda Seyfried), who has been
shielded from the publics struggle to
survive.
The party location was a hard
one, Deakins says. It was a very
expensive mansion on Sunset
Boulevard, and the owners didnt want
us to touch anything. I might have
used a balloon [to light the interior],
but the ceilings were very low and
there was simply no room. Besides,
balloons are great in certain circum-
stances, but theyre very broad sources
that dont create the kind of soft, selec-
tive wash I wanted.
Chief lighting technician Chris
Napolitano (who had previously
worked with Deakins on No Country
for Old Men and True Grit) helped the
cinematographer employ one of his
Time Bandit
Moody lighting
lends drama to
Wills dangerous
romance with
Sylvia (Amanda
Seyfried), the
daughter of a
wealthy power
broker. Many of
the films nighttime
exteriors were lit
with warm, stark,
sodium-vapor
fixtures, as shown
in the bottom
photo.
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favorite lighting solutions for the
sequence. Its a technique that Roger
likes to incorporate quite often,
Napolitano says. We put clear, 60-
watt globes into large ring lights fitted
with 40 to 60 standard, medium-base
sockets, and then install those units up
in the ceiling, around the existing
fixtures and rigging our ring lights
through the holes and into the ceiling
supports. That way, we never had to
drill into the ceiling or alter the struc-
ture at all.
Deakins offers, I knew I
wanted to be able to shoot 360 degrees
in that location. I wanted nothing on
the floor at all except when I had to
light the occasional close-up so the
ring lights were the best solution. We
used the same technique for a casino
set that we shot downtown in the
[historic] Los Angeles Theatre. We
put these ring lights of standard bulbs
up around the actual chandeliers to
bring up the overall exposure and give
us flexibility for the shooting.
Flexibility became Deakins
mantra on the show, which involved
many nighttime exterior locations
where the filmmakers lit primarily
with warm, stark, sodium-vapor
sources. We wanted the night exteri-
ors to have a very harsh, orange-
sodium look, but we were careful not
to make it feel like a concentration
camp, Deakins says. We didnt want
chandeliers. The ring lights create a
very soft pool of light around the
existing fixtures. We often build the
rings ourselves, but this time we had
the art department build them out of
metal. Our rigging key, Ray Garcia,
found a way to work them into the
ceilings by removing the existing
Time Bandit
Top: After
joining Will on
his mission,
Sylvia helps him
break into a
vault containing
a valuable
stockpile of
time. Bottom:
The relentless
Timekeeper
catches up with
the couple.
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Time Bandit
a lot of wire fences or searchlights in
the frame, but Andrew definitely
wanted the night streets to have a
harsh glare. We did a lot of shooting at
night with existing lighting, mainly
sodium vapors, which required us to
find locations that suited our needs.
We also augmented the existing light-
ing with our own sodium vapors. Or, if
I needed a little more directionality,
wed use a tungsten fixture gelled to
look like sodium.
The production carried a
complement of standard industrial
sodium-vapor fixtures in 250- and
400-watt varieties. Napolitano notes,
We also had a 1,000-watt fixture, but
it was so bright and covered so much
area that we never used it. When
tungsten fixtures were required, the
gaffer used a simple gel pack of Lee
013 Straw Tint and
1
4 or
1
2 CTO.
During his adventures, Will
meets the enigmatic Henry Hamilton
(Matthew Bomer), a time-wealthy
aristocrat who is deeply depressed by
the emotional burden of his unearned
privilege. Henry decides to make the
ultimate sacrifice by transferring his
additional time to Will. Their meeting
takes place in an old warehouse loca-
tion that was lit entirely through the
dirty windows with the sickly sodium-
vapor look.
The characters are lit only by
the light coming through the big glass
window on this large factory floor,
says Deakins. I was very surprised by
the subtleties of the skin tones that the
Alexa captured in that scene. Even in
this incredibly monochromatic and
ugly light, the actors faces have
incredible gradations of color and
texture that I simply couldnt have
gotten with film. The Alexa handled
that sequence superbly, producing an
incredibly wonderful color separation.
For other settings, the filmmak-
ers created different looks that provide
contrast to the sodium-vapor scenes.
Wills workplace, a factory in down-
town Los Angeles, is lit with fluores-
cents that produce a cooler, industrial
feel, and some of the road sequences,
including a major car chase that was
shot around the 6th Street Bridge,
feature a cool LED look.
During the chase sequence, Will
and Sylvia tear up the road in a 1970s
Jaguar E-Type convertible. Intent on
showing his stars amid the mayhem,
Niccol wanted to avoid using stunt
performers as much as possible. We
did a lot with the actors for real,
Deakins confirms, and we shot the
sequence without any lighting
mounted to the car at all, something I
couldnt have done with film unless I
really pushed a fast stock to its limit.
We picked the 6th Street Bridge as our
Top: A car crash puts Amanda at the mercy of Fortis (Alex Pettyfer, far right) and his gang of
time thieves, known as the Minutemen. Bottom: Deakins and crewmembers ride along while
shooting car-chase footage.
location because Andrew and I both
liked the look of the LED streetlights
in that area.
To my knowledge, the 6th
Street Bridge is one of the first loca-
tions downtown to be converted to
LED streetlamps, notes Napolitano.
We added Litepanels 1x1 fixtures to
the existing streetlights to boost their
intensity a bit, and they gave us a nice
line of extended light into the street.
We shot the whole action sequence
with just those 1x1s on the streetlamps
that was it.
I didnt want to light up too
much during that sequence, Deakins
explains. There was a good amount of
ambient light, and the situation only
required us to add a little bit more to
get what we needed. I shot the
sequence pretty close to wide open at a
T1.8 at 800 ISO, and the Alexa
handled it amazingly well.
The production utilized Allen
Padelfords Biscuit Jr. driveable process
trailer to put the actors and the picture
car in the middle of traffic. The Biscuit
Jr. features a low-profile process trailer
with a detachable driving pod that can
attach to the trailer in various posi-
tions. We used the Biscuit system
with the Jaguar to really zig-zag
through traffic and put the audience
and the actors right in the middle of
the action, says Deakins. With no
external lighting and the actors behind
the wheel, you really get a sense of the
action. Id never worked with that rig
before, and it was great.
Deakins is known for operating
his own camera, and he continued that
practice on In Time, which was almost
completely a one-camera show. The
cinematographer prefers to operate off
of a remote head on a jib arm, typically
a Power Pod Classic on an Aerocrane.
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I like the fluidity you get working
with that little jib arm, he remarks.
Its a really nice way to move the
camera, and I tend to use that approach
quite a lot. Ive shot that way for 10
years or more, often on a dolly. When
Im shooting fast action work and the
Aerocrane is mounted on a golf cart or
an ATV, we use a Libra stabilizing
head.
Although he generally prefers to
Whether Im shooting
on film or digital, my
job remains the same:
to use the camera to
tell the story the best
way I can.
operate remotely, for tight shots of
actors he moves closer and operates
from the cameras eyepiece. While
doing this, he discovered one flaw in
the Alexa: its electronic viewfinder.
For an electronic viewfinder, its a
very good one, Deakins allows, but
any electronic viewfinder isnt as good
as [an optical] one. Your eye gets very
tired looking at the screen inside the
eyepiece. I also cant really judge light-
ing or the image through an electronic
viewfinder like I can through an opti-
cal one. (Ed. Note: Since In Time,
Arri has announced the release of the
Alexa Studio, a larger version of the
camera that will feature a rotating
mirror shutter and an optical
viewfinder.)
For Deakins, tracking the image
through postproduction and final color
timing proved to be just as satisfying as
the Alexas performance in the field. It
took me about half the time to color-
time this movie as it would have taken
if we had shot film, he attests. The
Colorstream process is really, really
precise. Between the on-set calibrated
monitor and calibrated dailies, you
always know the image youre going to
get. So several months later, in the
color suite, you dont have to go back
to scratch. That saved us a lot of time.
Summing up his first digital
production, Deakins describes his
Time Bandit
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The crew uses a Libra head mounted on an Aerocrane to capture shots on the run.
44
experience as much more positive
than Id imagined it could be. Mostly,
I found shooting digital very freeing. If
I were shooting film, I would always
try to err on the side of safety when I
was doing something risky, to make
sure I didnt lose my blacks or reveal
something I didnt want to see. With
digital, because I could basically see
the final image while I was shooting, I
felt I could push myself a lot further
creatively.
Some cinematographers are
threatened by digital technology, but
that just doesnt make sense to me,
Deakins concludes. You do need to be
a technician at a certain level; you need
some knowledge of the hardware and
how it performs. But when it comes to
the really technical stuff, you can
always find people who know more
about it than you do. Joshua Gollish
can blind me with his knowledge I
could never understand all of what he
was talking about, but fortunately, I
dont have to! Thats not my strength,
and thats not why people hire me.
Cinematographers are hired for
their eyes, for their artistic ability as
visual storytellers, and for how they
can run a set. Whether Im shooting
on film or digital, my job remains the
same: to use the camera to tell the
story the best way I can.
Sylvias father,
wealthy power
broker Philippe
Weis (Vincent
Kartheiser,
center), is well-
stocked with
time and
well-protected
by armed
bodyguards.
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45
D
irector Paul W.S. Andersons The Three Musketeers is
modeled after the classic novel by Alexandre Dumas,
but in this amped-up version the tales swashbuckling
rogues are transposed to a parallel 17th century, where
they function as the French monarchys version of the A-
Team. This is not your fathers Three Musketeers, cautions
cinematographer Glen MacPherson, ASC, CSC.
Old and new plotlines converge as the heroic trio
Athos, Porthos and Aramis, played by Matthew Macfadyen,
Ray Stevenson, and Luke Evans teams with aspiring
Musketeer dArtagnan (Logan Lerman) to avert a war by
recovering the royal jewelry of Queen Anne (Juno Temple)
from Englands Lord Buckingham (Orlando Bloom). The
filmmakers gild the rollicking tale with steampunk-inspired
design flourishes and lend the action an extra dimension with
the latest digital stereoscopic tools.
To prepare for the adventure, MacPherson and
Anderson pored over 17th-century paintings and scrutinized
other films set in and around that time period, with Anderson
citing Ridley Scotts 1977 feature debut, The Duellists (shot by
Frank Tidy, BSC), as a particular inspiration. Their primary
photographic reference, however, was MTVs mock-reality
show The Hills. [That reference] caught me off guard at first,
but then I saw how The Hills makes Los Angeles look green
and lush when its actually brown and scorched, MacPherson
offers. Paul didnt want to do a gritty period movie, so in The
Three Musketeers everybodys gorgeous and the image is bright
and saturated.
Additional inspiration was found on locations that
Glen MacPherson, ASC, CSC
helps to retool The Three Musketeers
as a 3-D adventure with
steampunk styling.
By Iain Stasukevich
|
All forOne
included impressive Bavarian castles,
residences and towns, filling in for vari-
ous sites in England, France and Italy.
In addition to Munich, Chiemsee and
Bamburg, we must have visited about
eight different towns, all with different
feels and architecture, says the cine-
matographer, who marvels that many of
the castles and residences seem to exist
in a time capsule, appearing just as they
did 200 years ago.
The filmmakers felt 3-D would
allow them to fully exploit the locations
cavernous rooms and fine architectural
details. When MacPherson and
Anderson collaborated on the 2010
horror adventure Resident Evil: Afterlife,
they shot with Sony F35 digital cameras
and Pace/Cameron Fusion 3-D rigs; on
The Three Musketeers, they paired the
Fusion rigs with Arris digital Alexa,
using the 3-D format to extend already
deep hallways and baroque parlors to
warehouse-sized proportions. It was
the perfect format for our locations,
MacPherson attests. From the begin-
ning, we knew they would really shine in
3-D.
Despite the movies whimsical
tone, the filmmakers brought serious
intent to their 3-D strategies, attempt-
ing to avoid what MacPherson calls
stupid 3-D tricks, where elements in
the frame poke out at the audience.
Anderson remarks, I try to approach
3-D in a holistic way. You have to think
about 3-D when you choose all of your
locations and design the sets.
Working with the Alexa allowed
MacPherson to shoot in these settings
with a minimum of additional lighting.
The cameras base ASA of 800 afforded
him the extra stop of sensitivity he lost
shooting through the Fusion rigs
mirror. Depending on the scene,
MacPherson shot as low as 200 ASA for
some exteriors (using custom-cut
Schneider ND filters attached directly
to the lens in low-profile retainers) and
was comfortable taking the camera as
high as 1,600 ASA.
Officials in charge of some loca-
tions, such as Herrenchiemsee Palace in
Chiemsee, Bavaria (a replica of
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Opposite page:
Athos (Matthew
Macfadyen),
DArtagnan
(Logan Lerman),
Porthos (Ray
Stevenson) and
Aramis (Luke
Evans) join
forces in The
Three
Musketeers. This
page, top to
bottom: Milady
De Winter (Milla
Jovovich) bows
before Cardinal
Richelieu
(Christoph
Waltz); the Duke
of Buckingham
(Orlando Bloom)
plays a key role
in the plots
twists;
cinematographer
Glen
MacPherson,
ASC, CSC
prepares to
shoot a scene
with a 3-D rig
equipped with a
pair of Arri
Alexa cameras.
Versailles built by King Ludwig II,
standing in for the real thing), forbade
the production from entering buildings
or even stepping onto their properties
with large HMI and tungsten units, lest
they damage the delicate grounds and
tapestries. We had to modify all of our
equipment, MacPherson explains. We
put big rubber wheels on the dollies and
wrapped felt around the wheels. To
avoid laying track, we worked with a
Steadicam or used a Geo Alpha stabi-
lized head on the dolly. Even bringing
in a C-stand was dangerous. Everybody
on the crew had handlers watching
them. We all moved very slowly.
(David Cornelius served as the shows
Alpha Head operator, while Michael
Praun handled Steadicam duties.)
For some sequences, including
one staged in Herrenchiemsees Hall of
Mirrors, MacPherson had to rely on
available daylight and little else to illu-
minate the action. The Hall of Mirrors
is just insane with detail, he says,
counting 23 ornate windows and
mirrors standing 20' high and 12' wide.
It took a bit of planning. I decided we
would have to shoot after 2 p.m., and if
we got a cloudy day, which happens
frequently in Bavaria, wed just have to
push the scene. Nobody was comfort-
able with that idea, so I sat down with
the gaffer, Ronny Schwarz, and worked
up an alternate plan involving 80 18Ks
with generators and all the support.
Then I got a call from the producer,
who asked if I was insane!
MacPherson ultimately got his
wish of working with natural light, and
scheduled shooting in the Hall of
Mirrors around the path of the sun. He
did persuade the castles docents to let
him bring in small Jem Balls and Kino
Flo units to model the actors faces. We
didnt have a lot of light, but it still had
to come from the right place, he notes.
This is where the Alexa really shined.
The shadows and highlights looked
great, and we were seeing details in areas
All for One

The filmmakers
faced stringent
restrictions while
shooting a variety
of ornate
locations,
including the Hall
of Mirrors in
Herrenchiemsee
Palace (top) and
the Wrzburg
Residenz
(bottom). We
had to modify all
of our
equipment,
MacPherson
explains.
Everybody on
the crew had
handlers watching
them. We all
moved very
slowly.
of the frame that we could hardly see
with our own eyes.
Other scenes also required some
artificial lighting, such as daytime inte-
riors in Queen Annes bedchamber, also
shot at Herrenchiemsee. MacPherson
keyed from the windows, using a large
Condor crane to boom three remote-
operated 18K HMIs horizontally across
125' of fragile, exterior marble tiling to
positions hovering outside the room,
three stories off the ground. Thick,
white muslin curtains on the windows
protected the interiors priceless decora-
tions and also served to diffuse the addi-
tional daylight.
Private access to the chamber was
specially built for the crew: elevator-
equipped exterior scaffolding that trans-
ported their equipment directly to the
third floor. After alleviating the palace
docents concerns with low-level lux
and temperature readings, MacPherson
was permitted to enter the chamber
with Kino Flos and small, low-output
units for the actors. 16K HMI and 7K
tungsten balloons were also allowed and
helped to boost ambient light levels.
There was never really a lack of light,
unless we were shooting at night or
Clockwise from
top: The
swordsmen are
surrounded;
MacPherson blocks
out a portion of
the sequence with
stunt double Don
Lee in the
cobblestoned
courtyard of the
Wrzburg
Residenz; the
cinematographer
and other
crewmembers
attach Red cameras
to a Cablecam rig
so they can fly the
cameras over the
courtyard.
dusk, and then we were just trying to get
the right quality of light coming from
the right direction, MacPherson notes.
Using T1.3 Arri Master Primes on all
four of his 3-D Alexa rigs, the cine-
matographer hovered around an aper-
ture of T2.8, though hed stop
down as far as T8 when necessary.
MacPherson didnt feel pushed to
conform to any generally accepted
notions of how one should photograph
3-D. He even broke some of the typical
rules, like shooting with long lenses and
a shallow depth of field. Some people
want to make shooting 3-D into a big
hassle, but it doesnt have to be, he
maintains. When your scene calls for a
100mm, you have to remember that this
isnt a movie about 3-D youre just
using it to tell the story. Accordingly,
the filmmakers sometimes chose to
reduce the 3-D effect to accommodate
their handheld, Steadicam, aerial,
Technocrane and Cablecam shots.
The cinematographer calls atten-
tion to the one aspect of The Three
Musketeers that was affected by shooting
3-D: the fight choreography. In 2-D
you shoot a lot of long lenses, shake the
camera, do quick cuts, he says. The
actors dont really hit or stab each other,
so you use a lot of tricks to compress the
action. Knowing that a wide, steady
frame and a slower pace in editing help
to alleviate eyestrain when viewing 3-D,
the filmmakers worked within these
boundaries to create more elaborately
choreographed fight scenes. All of our
actors trained hard for the swordfight-
ing scenes and got really good at it, so
A full-scale mockup of
Buckinghams airship,
which did double duty
as the war vessel of
Cardinal Richelieu, was
constructed on the
massive Marlene
Dietrich stage at Studio
Babelsberg. The set
piece measured 108'
long and the rest of the
vessels were completed
with CGI. The lighting
diagram on the facing
page, provided by
gaffer Ron Schwarz,
outlines MacPhersons
approach to the airship
set. The top diagram
shows the airship with
a sky backing around it;
the second shows the
airship with a
greenscreen backing.
We had to light the
heck out of the sky
backing to make it look
real, and we had all the
10Ks on a sequencer to
simulate travel through
the clouds, the
cinematographer says.
We dialed down the
cyc strips for the
greenscreen.
All for One

we held the shots a lot longer and a lot
wider than we would if we were shoot-
ing 2-D, MacPherson adds. Onscreen
you can actually see the actors hitting
each other.
MacPhersons German camera
crew, from A-camera operator Klemens
Becker down, needed some extra train-
ing as well. Before joining The Three
Musketeers, many of the operators and
assistants had minimal experience with
3-D rigs and none with the Fusion
so it fell to 3-D systems tech John
Harper (promoted from assisting and
convergence pulling on Resident Evil:
Afterlife) to bring them up to speed.
The basics involve familiarizing oneself
with the 3-D system, lining up the two
cameras, and making the lens changes
quickly, Harper remarks. After Paul
and Glen choose their lenses, we cant
be waiting around. Wed like to move as
quickly as we would in 2-D.
Theres some crossover between
the responsibilities of the camera assis-
tant and the 3-D interocular/conver-
gence puller. For example, on The Three
Musketeers,the entire IO/convergence-
pulling process was performed manu-
ally. The same muscle memory is there,
but you have to just reset your mind,
says Harper. As a focus puller youre
concentrating on sharpness, and as an
IO/convergence puller, youre concen-
trating on separation.
Anderson, MacPherson, 2nd-
unit director of photography Vern
Nobles and Harper all share the shows
stereographer credit. They used cali-
brated HD stereo monitors to rough in
their 3-D shots, calling for the
IO/convergence pullers to push or pull
the depth toward or away from the
screen plane. However, the IO/conver-
gence pullers judged the stereo image
without glasses, using an overlay that
shows the offset between the left- and
right-eye images. Its very difficult to
judge separation with glasses on. You
really cant tell where the actual conver-
gence is quickly, Harper explains,
adding that convergence may be judged
by looking for the one object in the
overlaid images that looks like a single
All for One

Another diagram provided by Schwarz details the filmmakers approach to the Queens Chamber,
also shot on location at Herrenchiemsee Palace.
image. Anything in the foreground or
background will be separated, and
your convergence can be either static
or dynamic depending on the action
within the frame.
More than half of The Three
Musketeers was shot on location, with
the rest of the production staged at
Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam. The
show occupied almost 270,000 square
feet at the facility, including the enor-
mous Marlene Dietrich Halle and the
satellite facilities Neue Film 1 and 2.
MacPherson and Schwarz
prepared much of their stage lighting
remotely from location, conferring
via Skype with production designer
Paul Austerberry in Babelsberg.
Austerberrys 3-dimensional CAD
designs included the dimensions of
MacPhersons 3-D rigs and camera
support, ensuring that the sets would
accommodate the cinematographers
blocking and lighting. The studio sets
largely comprised fictitious extensions
of the real-life locales, from the canals
of Venice to the rooftops of Notre
Dame.
The first of these fantasy/reality
mashups can be seen in the films
opening sequence. Accompanied by
the assassin Milady De Winter
(Milla Jovovich), the Musketeers raid
the Venice Antiquarium (in reality the
Antiquarium of the Munich
Residenz), an ornately decorated
Renaissance hallway lined with marble
busts of ancient European emperors.
MacPherson shot the scene at
night, deploying 16 12K HMIs
(reduced to 6K using ND.6 and
1
4 and
1
2 White diffusion) outside windows
lining one side of the long hallway.
Eight 4K HMIs bounced light off
four 12'x12' muslin bounces through
the windows on the other side. Inside,
the production was permitted to place
a dozen smokeless, odorless flame
bowls.
The Musketeers locate a secret
door in the floor (a visual effect
achieved by laying out a greenscreen
patch on the floor of the hallway), and
descend a set of stairs leading to a vault
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everything is orange, it doesnt look
right, he notes.
Austerberry designed the vault
set as a long corridor with repeating
arches, mirroring the architectural
rhythm of the Antiquarium. Within the
vault, the marble busts are more
grotesque and conceal deadly traps. In
the script, the vault is described as a
dungeon beneath the streets of Venice,
but the filmmakers opted to give it a less
traditional, stone-dungeon-like appear-
ance, adopting the striped, green-white
marble detailing of a cathedral
Austerberry found in the Tuscan city of
Siena. The stripes helped make our set
look longer than it is, says the produc-
tion designer. We were trying to be
very graphic with the colors and style.
By far, the biggest set was the full-
scale airship constructed on the massive
Marlene Dietrich stage. Bristling with
fearsome artillery, the ship doubled as
the respective war vessels of Lord
All for One

containing the secret works of Leonardo
da Vinci. As the Musketeers progress
into the pitch darkness of the vault,
torches recalling the smokeless flame
bowls in the Antiquarium spring to
life. MacPherson took advantage of the
Alexas increased sensitivity to light the
set mostly with torches, candles and
flame bars, even when overcranking to
200 fps. He also applied a small amount
of blue ambience from the top of the set,
deploying rows of 2K Chimeras with
1
2
Top: The crew
captures an
action close-up of
Jovovich.
MacPherson
notes that he
took extra care in
photographing
his lead actress:
We had a Milla
kit whenever we
shot her because
her makeup,
which was
designed to give
her a period look,
made her skin
pearl-white and
flawless. Milla
called them
glamour balls.
Theyre
extendable poles
with a 150-watt
or 400-watt Jem
Ball at the end on
each side of the
camera. Bottom:
Jovovich makes
her way through
the subterranean
chamber that
leads to DaVincis
Vault.
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NOVEMBER 310, 2011
Buckingham and the villainous
Cardinal Richelieu (Christoph Waltz).
Anderson conceived Richelieus ship as
a kind of 17th-century Death Star,
measuring 280' from the bowsprit with
a 35' beam width; the studio set piece
measured 108' and the rest was
completed with CGI. The tip of the
main set piece reached to within 12' of
the stages 46' wood roof. Paul wanted
to look up at the ship. If wed built the
set any lower it would have eliminated
his shots, so either the stage was too
small or I built the ship too big!
Austerberry quips.
MacPherson and Schwarz rigged
the stage for daylight and nighttime
effects. Mindful of protecting the stages
original wood ceiling from excessive
heat, they lit from overhead using more
than 100 banks of Image 80s skinned
with
1
2 White diffusion. It looked a
little bit like the ceiling of Home Depot
in there, says MacPherson. Cyc lights
illuminated the enormous greenscreen
curtains that surrounded the stage.
For daytime shots, a white fabric
curtain was pulled across the green-
screen to cheat the sky. I had to light
the bejesus out of that white cyc to make
it look like sky, MacPherson recalls.
Five 12'x20' frames of white muslin
hung at angles around the upper reaches
of the stage, concealing the 16 elec-
tronic, dimmer-controlled 10K Fresnels
that encircled the set. Everything was
on a chase sequence to make it look like
the ship was moving through the
clouds, the cinematographer adds.
Artificial smoke was pumped in and
blown through the set to create the
impression of additional depth.
The cameras themselves were
always moving. Between the first and
second units, the production had three
3-D rigs in studio mode and one built
for use with a Steadicam. No matter
All for One

To light the
interior of a
vaulted chamber
within the Munich
Residenz (the
former royal
palace of Bavarias
monarchs), the
crew lined one
row of windows
with 12K fixtures,
supplementing
with bounce
lighting through
the windows on
the opposite side
of the exterior.
Interior ambience
was created with
1K Nuke lights
and 1.8Ks
positioned at both
ends of the
chamber, Kino Flo
4x4 units and a
Jem Ball beauty
light for
Jovovich.
what, there was always one mounted on
a Geo Alpha stabilized head at the end
of a 30' Technocrane. Well put the
camera on the Technocrane at the
beginning of production and leave it
there for the entire shoot, says
Anderson. Its an incredibly useful tool
for us because we can get the camera
wherever we want really fast. The way
Glen and I work, if we dont get 30-plus
setups in a day we feel like we havent
done our job.
Robert Hottarek served as the
shows Technocrane operator. The crane
was employed extensively on the airship
set, booming the 3-D rigs up to the 17'
deck with ease. When the cameras
needed to go higher, the crane was fork-
lifted up to a 22' platform on a rolling
base that could be pushed around the
stage with the help of about a dozen
grips. Occasionally MacPherson posi-
tioned a Chapman dolly with a studio
rig on the platform next to the crane.
No matter where the cameras
went, they were always tethered to one
of three HDCam-SR recording towers
operated by video engineer Michael
Taylor. Footage was laid to tape at 10-
bit 4:4:4 in 1080p/23.98fps. The stereo
image was checked for left/right eye
lineup, color offsets, or disparity in the
exposure, then delivered to Arri
All for One

58
Donning 3-D glasses to experience the extra dimension are (from left) 1st AD Jamie Christopher,
Jovovich, stunt coordinator and 2nd-unit director Nick Powell, director Paul W.S. Anderson
and script supervisor Doug Rotstein.
Munich, where MacPherson and
colorist Traudl Nicholson spent the
eight months following production
applying finishing touches to the 2K
master.
MacPherson and Nicholson
dialed in the movies bright, saturated
colors with Autodesks Lustre grading
software, using the built-in Flame suite
to make a number of small adjustments
to the stereo image, correcting align-
ment and keystoning. A lot of the work
we did involved making the depth of
the shots more uniform from cut to cut
so your eyes arent converging and
diverging too much within the scene,
says MacPherson.
The suite was built to accommo-
date 3-D postproduction. A Barco 2K
digital projector was calibrated through
RealD polarized glasses to reflect
approximately 4
1
2 foot-lamberts of
light off the screen, the level at which
most 3-D films are viewed in a theater.
(The suite is also equipped with the
Xpand active-shutter 3-D system.) By
comparison, most 2-D films are
projected at approximately 16 foot-
lamberts. MacPherson explains, Right
now, most commercial theaters cant
afford to spend the money on two digi-
tal projectors, so they use a single-lens
projector with a stereo polarizer in front
of the lens, which knocks down light.
Then youre wearing the glasses, which
knocks the light down even more. Its
not ideal, but in the last year facilities
have really started to figure out how to
get the best-looking 3-D up on the
screen.
There is a 2-D version of The
Three Musketeers, but for MacPherson
theres only one way to watch the film. I
spent several weeks grading the movie in
3-D, then I took a quick run up to the
2-D theater, and it was a huge disap-
pointment, he laments. Its amazing
how you sort of lose the scope of all
those great locations.
Neither MacPherson nor
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Anderson lends any credence to the
notion that 3-D is just a fad, at least as
far as international audiences are
concerned. The cinematographer
concludes, The technology is getting
better with every movie I shoot, and it
will continue to do so as long as the
audiences continue to show up [for
3-D presentations]. I hope they do.
59
TECHNICAL SPECS
2.40:1
3-D Digital Capture
Arri Alexa, Red One
Arri/Zeiss Master Primes
Digital Intermediate

I
n the Swedish town of Gothenburg, AC has joined a dozen
filmmakers in front of a 42" video monitor displaying polar-
ized 3-D images. Having donned polarized glasses, the
group watches dailies of the footage shot earlier that day
with the guidance of cinematographer Geoff Boyle, FBKS.
Post specialist Thomas Harbers is sitting at an Iridas
Speedgrade station, preparing the footage. Suddenly a still
image comes onscreen and everyones glasses come off with a
collective groan, the result of a sudden bout of eyestrain. The
left and right views have been swapped, and the monitor image
is physically painful to watch as it forces our eyes to try to
diverge the technical term for going wall-eyed when lines
of sight veer outwards rather than inwards. Like a good doctor,
a stereographer must remember the golden rule: first, do no
harm to the audiences eyes.
This ouch moment is one of the important lessons of
a four-day 3-D workshop supervised by Boyle, known as the
founder of CML, the Cinematography Mailing List. CML is
a lively online forum where professional cinematographers
discuss their craft and the latest camera technologies. Boyle is
also an accomplished director of photography whose credits
include many commercials and one of the first digital 3-D
movies: Dark Country (shot in 2007 and released in 2009). He
has led several 3-D courses for the Santa Fe Workshops,
including the one AC attended at Gothenburg Film Studios,
and his latest venture is a partnership in a new 3-D camera
rental company called Electric Picture Company-3D.
Gothenburg Film Studios is a growing group of
production-related companies clustered around soundstages.
Upon entering, visitors immediately notice a wall adorned with
a motto touting the shipyard citys evolution: First we built
ships, then we built cars, now we make films. The 3-D
workshop is the brainchild of Michael Petersen, who organized
professional courses about 3-D and lighting to accompany the
citys annual Gokinema Film Festival. Petersen explains that his
goal was to share knowledge about new technologies among
filmmakers. He developed the workshops with the support of
Region Vstra Gtaland and the North Sea Screen Partners
(NSSP).
Boyle enlisted Harbers to provide 3-D post for the
workshop. Harbers is based in Munich, where he offers DI and
depth grade services. He also designs and builds external 3-D
recording devices under the brand name DasRekorder. For the
Gothenburg workshop, he provided a prototype that recorded
3-D on a Budget
3-D on a Budget
ACs Paris
correspondent shares
affordable 3-D
strategies gleaned
from a hands-on
seminar in Sweden.
By Benjamin B
|
the dual streams from Silicon Imaging
SI-2K cameras onto removable Solid
State Drives. Harbers unveiled the first
line of DasRekorder products in
September during the IBC trade show
in Amsterdam.
The workshop is hands-on,
reflecting Boyles practical, no-nonsense
approach to production. He offers a
minimum of theory before encouraging
us to jump in and try techniques
designed for lower-budget television
and independent-film projects.
Boyle begins by explaining, Its
not really 3-D, its stereo. He frequently
uses the phrase lizard brain, referring
to the primitive part of the human mind
that reacts to movement and senses
danger. He notes, The brain knows 2-
D isnt real, so our lizard brain switches
off and doesnt look for threats. Boyle
then emphasizes that this is not the case
with 3-D: All kinds of automatic
reactions come in to play with 3-D,
things that will disturb you. If I throw
something at the cameras, you cant
avoid blinking or ducking.
At the same time, the brain is
smart enough to accommodate many
3-D anomalies. Your brain often
corrects what it sees as wrong, Boyle
notes. As examples, he cites
miniaturization (when the cameras are
too far apart) and gigantism (when they
are too close together). You can get
away with a few shots like that, he
notes, but not too many.
One of Boyles oft-repeated
workshop mantras is, You cannot
change the IA in post. IA is shorthand
for the interaxial distance between the
two cameras during shooting. The IA
defines the depth of the image: more IA
means more depth, whereas an IA of
zero means that the left eye and right
eye image are identical, and the image is
in 2-D. The normal IA is 6.5cm (2.5"),
which is the average distance between a
persons eyes. As stated above, when the
IA is too big, there is a risk of seeing the
world through the eyes of an elephant;
when it is too small, we see the world as
a mouse would. Boyle explains that 3-D
filmmakers vary the IA to suit the
requirements of the specific scenes they
are shooting.
Another key workshop concept is
convergence the angle between the
lines of sight of the two images. Our eyes
are parallel when looking at distant
objects, but angle in toward our nose as
we look at closer objects. Similarly, the
left and right cameras in a 3-D rig can be
positioned with parallel lines of sight, or
angled in to converge on an object.
When we are watching a movie,
our eyelines converge on the screen; this
is why the angle of convergence defines
which objects will appear to be in the
screen plane. The intersection of the left
and right images on the screen plane has
no offset, so the images of objects
positioned at screen distance are
identical. You can easily see this effect
onscreen by removing a pair of 3-D
glasses: though objects in the foreground
and background appear as double
images, objects at the screen plane are
sharp, single images.
Boyle stresses that one of the key P
h
o
t
o
s

b
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n

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o
l
s
t
.
Opposite page: Two of the participants in the 3-D seminar carefully carry an Element Technica Quasar rig
over icy ground. This page, top: A pair of Red One cameras mounted on a Stereotec rig. Bottom: As part
of the learning process, participants were encouraged to study the 3-D image without glasses.
3-D on a Budget
decisions in 3-D prep is the choice of
convergence: which angle to adopt
between the two cameras lines of sight.
During the workshop we will try four
different approaches to shooting 3-D:
Parallel, Normal Converged, Derobe
Converged and French Converged.
When the two cameras lines of
sight are parallel, the 3-D convergence is
arranged in post by introducing a
Horizontal Image Transformation. A
HIT is simply shifting one of the images
slightly to the left or right. HITs are
measured in pixels, and will typically not
exceed 40 pixels for a 2K image. On a set
with parallel cameras, filmmakers can
preview the HIT by using external
boxes, like the StereoBrain Processor we
used, to create a horizontal offset that
can be fed into a stereo-capable monitor.
(The StereoBrain is a 3-D HD video-
processing unit developed for use in
stereoscopic 3-D production, post and
broadcast.)
Boyle notes that if youre doing
visual-effects work, its better to shoot
parallel because of the possible keystone
effect in converged images, an artifact
that is especially evident with buildings
and other rectilinear shapes. Because
parallel shooting involves a HIT in post,
the composite 3-D image will have black
bands on the edges. Harbers explains,
With parallel shooting you have to do
the HIT in post, so you get black borders
on the sides, and you often have to zoom
into the image. This means recalculating
the whole image, and the image becomes
less sharp. Boyle adds, If you finish in
HD, you need to shoot at 2K or 4K,
because you will need slop on the edges.
When the two cameras are angled
for Normal Converged shooting, their
lines of sight will intersect at what will
become the screen plane. Boyle says
converged shooting requires more time
on the set, if only because of the
inevitable discussions about where to
converge. One advantage of converging
on the set is that the director and
cinematographer can preview the 3-D
with glasses, without the need for an
intermediary box.
Boyle adds, The reason I stress
IA in the workshop is that, along with
pitch or tilt, it is the only thing that
cannot be changed in post. Convergence
is less important, because it can be
changed later. Im teaching low-budget
3-D, which has to be fast. Should I
discuss convergence on set, [where costs
can run to] $25,000 per hour, or in post,
at $500 per hour? The answer is quite
clear to me!
Theoretically, you have less work
to do with converged footage in post,
Harbers says. When you shoot
converged I can take the image as it is,
without scaling or interpolation.
However, he cautions that if you shoot
footage converged, its difficult to make a
major change of the screen position in
post. It wont look right if you change
the screen plane a lot. The relative offsets
in the foregrounds and backgrounds
wont match anymore.
A third approach is the method
defined by French 3-D pioneer Alain
Derobe. In Derobe Converged shooting,
the cameras are angled so that the lines
of sight to the farthest object in the
frame are offset by the interocular
distance of 2.5". This fixed-convergence
angle is typically small, between 0.5 and
1 degrees. The IA is then varied during
the shot to follow the point of interest
(for example, an important character in
the film). The Derobe Converged
method was used on Wim Wenders
documentary Pina (AC Sept. 10). This
Left: Cinematographer Geoff Boyle, FBKS, who supervised the 3-D workshop, shows off a rig that combines two Arri Alexa cameras with a P+S Technik Freestyle
Rig. Right: Thomas Harbers, a Munich-based post specialist, provided 3-D post for the workshop.
method also allows for preview on set
without external boxes, using Transvideo
or other stereo-capable monitors.
Although initially skeptical of the
Derobe Converged method, Boyle has
gradually come to accept a variation that
he refers to as French Converged.
Rather than converging on a distant
object, Boyle simply sets the
convergence at 2 percent, the maximum
background divergence allowed by
Britains Sky Television, or 1 percent for
productions that will be shown in
theaters. He explains, You line up the
two cameras at 0 degrees. Then you
wind in 2 percent convergence if its
television, 1 percent if its film, and just
adjust the IA for the shot. And the IA
will never, ever go outside tolerance!
For a low-budget feature or a TV
series, I recommend the French
Converged method, because youre
getting very acceptable results that are
safe and very quick. You dont have to
ask yourself, Is this going to work? or
Am I going to be out of limits?
Boyle refers to Sky Televisions
limit of 3 percent total divergence of
3-D images as a practical rule for his
work. On a 3-D monitor, this means
that the total horizontal offset between
the left- and right-eye images cannot
exceed 3 percent of the image width.
Accordingly, this maximum distance
varies depending on the screen size: 3
centimeters for a 1-meter television
screen, for example, or 15 centimeters
for a 5-meter cinema screen.
Boyle notes that the 3-percent
total divergence budget is divided
between the spaces in front of and
behind the screen plane. For television
work, he will put up to 2 percent behind
and 1 percent in front. For a cinema
release, he will do the inverse: 1 percent
behind and 2 percent in front.
When shooting a production that
will be shown on both cinema and
television screens, Boyle moves the
screen position backwards or forwards
in post for the different releases.
(Harbers notes that this strategy is
sometimes difficult when shooting
Normal Converged.)
Top: Yke Erkens of Cam-a-lot, a video-rental company based in Amsterdam, shows off the Quasar rig
equipped with a stereo-capable Transvideo monitor. Middle: Derek Bateman and Luiz Perez-Bayas try
out the Freestyle rig in handheld configuration. Bottom: Another view of the Freestyle rig.

The equipment for the
Gothenburg workshop is on loan from
various manufacturers and rental houses.
The gear includes Arri Alexa, Red One
(upgraded with Mysterium-X sensors),
and SI-2K cameras (with
2
3" sensors); a
Cinedeck and DasRekorder external
SSD recorders; and the following 3-D
rigs: Quasar and DC from Element
Technica, P+S Techniks Freestyle rig
(designed with Philippe Bordelais), and
a Stereotek side-by-side rig. Ancillary
equipment includes a Transvideo 3-D
monitor and an Inition Stereo Brain.
The Red One MX material is
recorded onto Compact Flash memory
cards at 4K resolution using Reds
Redcode wavelet-compressed raw
format. The SI-2K is recorded externally
in 2K in the proprietary SIV
uncompressed format. The Alexa
footage is recorded in 2K with ProRes
444 compression onto SxS cards. The
workshop footage is ingested by Harbers
into an Iridas Speedgrade station, which
is used to perform depth grading and to
play back dailies.
The workshop includes a series of
exercises to test different approaches,
with participants sharing operating and
assisting roles. One exercise involves
shooting handheld with a P+S Technik
Freestyle rig outfitted with SI-2K
cameras, a rig so light it is easily handled
by everyone in the workshop.
Boyle feels that cameras with the
smaller
2
3" sensor are better-suited for
lower-budget 3-D productions. He
explains that they are cheaper, lighter,
and will yield more depth of field than
equivalent large-sensor cameras. I shot
Dark Country with an 8mm lens on a
2
3-inch sensor, he notes.
The initial setup of the 3-D rig is
a laborious process that involves aligning
the images from the two lenses. A
similar, briefer setup is needed when
changing lenses. Boyle recommends
shooting low-budget projects with a
single pair of wide-angle lenses. The
3-D will be better, he asserts, and you
will save time.
Boyle confesses that he sometimes
lets certain kinds of registration errors go
3-D on a Budget
Top: Chiel van
Dongen tries
out a Stereotec
rig supporting a
pair of Silicon
Imaging SI-2K
cameras set up
in parallel.
Bottom: Luca
Cluti tries some
handheld
operating with
a DC rig
supporting two
SI-2Ks and a
Transvideo
monitor.
unremarked-upon during shooting for
practical reasons, while others require an
immediate fix. I know we can fix
vertical or horizontal misalignment
easily in post, so I wont say anything. If
I see a rotation error, I will ask to fix it,
because fixing it in post takes time and
means a loss in resolution.
Another workshop exercise
involves shooting exteriors by the icy
waters near the Gothenburg ferry. Boyle
has us shoot parallel using a big IA with
a Stereotec rig. The shot frames the
nearby water and a bridge along a stretch
of coastline, from a distance of a mile or
so away. We try several big IAs,
including 90cm, 50 percent longer than
the 65cm norm. In dailies, the resulting
footage of the harbor does not look as if
it was shot through the eyes of a giant,
but the distant objects resemble flattened
cutouts. The most convincing 3-D
results are obtained with the continuous
shoreline receding in the frame. The
bridge and the buildings in the distance
look flattened, Boyle comments, but
thats how our eyes see. Our 3-D vision
falls off with distance.
When watching the monitors on-
set, Boyle recommends taking off the
3-D glasses and getting into the habit of
evaluating depth by looking at the
horizontal fringes in the image. One
option is to use a special 3-D-capable
monitor like the Transvideo, which
offers different ways of visualizing 3-D,
including a variety of helpful displays to
quickly match the images on a rig and
check that they are properly registered.
The monitor also features helpful grids
to measure the offsets in percentages or
pixels.
Anaglyph (the process involving
bi-colored glasses) is the cheapest way to
monitor 3-D on the set because the blue
and red signals can be displayed on any
ordinary video monitor. Watching
anaglyph is tiring for the eyes, however;
polarized glasses afford a far more
comfortable view but require special
monitors.
According to Boyle, if a crew
includes experienced stereographers, the
filmmakers can sometimes work
without any 3-D monitoring on-set to
save time and eyestrain. He feels there is
a danger of filmmakers growing so
accustomed to 3-D that they may
become desensitized to the eyestrain
involved with extreme 3-D shooting.
Another simple technique
employed during the workshop involves
using a piece of tape as a maximum
divergence reference. Our JVC monitor
is about 1 meter across, says Boyle.
Stick a 2cm red tape on the screen.
Thats your 2 percent! If youre shooting
for cinema, use a piece of 1cm tape. Its
crude, but it works!
Time and again, Boyle
emphasizes the need for speed on a low-
budget film. You have to move fast, so
directors and producers start to worry if
they always see you with a calculator in
your hands. I dont want people to be
aware of me doing my job. I want it all
to work seemingly by magic.
As we prepare to set up shots,
Boyle reminds us that we must decide
where the screen position will be, and
which IA to use. He notes that screen
position can vary in post, but IA cannot:
Its safest and quickest to position most
objects behind the screen, and then
adjust that if needed in post.
Boyle raises the issue of what he
calls Medical IA, stating that it is
sometimes important to reduce the IA
in order to avoid eyestrain when
shooting objects close to camera. As
objects move closer to camera, the
convergence angle on the foreground
increases, but so does the divergence in
the background. In those cases, its
important to reduce the IA. This will
reduce the overall depth and therefore
reduce both the foreground convergence
and background divergence, and you
wont hurt anyone.
Boyle proposes a rule of thumb to
calculate the Medical IA of a shot: the
50 Rule, which he uses for projects
The president of
the Swedish
Society of
Cinematographers,
Hkan Holmberg,
FSF, shows off his
amateur 3-D
setup, comprising
two small cameras
held together.
that may end up both in theaters and on
television. This rule assumes that you
have decided to put the screen plane at
the nearest object to camera. An
approximate IA is really useful, because it
means you can judge very quickly and
shoot very quickly. The rule is simple:
measure the distance of the nearest object
in frame and divide by 50. If you are
shooting convergence, set the
convergence for that object; if youre
shooting parallel, youll do it with a HIT
in post. Then, as you move backwards
and forwards, change focus. He points
out that 50 is simply a compromise
number; for projects destined only for
television, you can divide by 30, and for
those headed exclusive to cinemas, you
can divide by 100.
The 50 Rule is used throughout
the workshop, starting with a scene of a
Ping-Pong game, in which the distance
to the nearest table corner is divided by
50 to get the IA. We then adjust the
convergence to position the corner at the
screen plane, with the table behind it.
As the workshop evolves, we
jokingly refer to the nearest object in
frame as the G-spot, in Boyles honor.
While the 50 Rule assumes that the G-
spot is at the screen plane, we sometimes
opt for a convergence on a slightly
farther object, placing the closest object
in front of the screen for dramatic effect.
This tends to work best with moving
objects, like the Ping-Pong ball or the
front paddle.
In another exercise, we try match-
cutting two people at a table with
different shots from different angles and
distances. Although setting screen at the
G-spot works well, we can see that it also
works well when we decide to
3-D on a Budget
ACs Paris
correspondent,
Benjamin B,
admires the
Quasar/Alexa
rig.
66
consistently position the same character
in the same position in depth relative to
the screen plane: the C-spot.
Boyle comments that setting
convergence and focus for the C-spot, or
putting the important character at the
screen plane, is by far the most
comfortable way to do 3-D. Its the
approach recommended by James
Cameron and Vince Pace. The problem
is that as someone walks towards you,
theyre getting bigger but they dont
move toward you, and thats just wrong.
If they walk toward you and stay in the
same place, its a zoom.
Boyle stresses that the IA should
be varied in a project, and he urges us to
be conservative with fast movement. To
amplify this point, he compliments the
work in a recent big-budget film. If
youre doing an action sequence, go for a
smaller IA. I loved Transformers: Dark of
the Moon the use of 3-D was
wonderful. During the setup stages they
gave you not deep 3-D, but reasonable
3-D. When the action got fast, the
movie went almost 2-D, and as soon as
it slowed down again, whoomph the
depth came back. This stopped people
from hurting their eyes.
Boyle concludes with typically
practical advice: You shouldnt establish
the definitive amount of depth on set;
you have to give the director flexibility. A
large IA fixes objects outside the screen
in relation to the background, giving the
director little leeway for adjustment in
post and, as we know, directors never
ever change their minds! If your IA gives
100 percent of the depth you want, you
will be able to move the depth forward
in post, but you wont be able to move it
backwards. If you use a larger IA, you
cant move it at all; if you use smaller IA,
you can move it both ways.
So be conservative. For example,
if Im working with actors and I want to
set the screen for 4 feet, Ill probably set
it at 3 feet to give the actor some room
to move. Get a feel for it. An entire film
shouldnt be at the same depth. You
change cinematography [techniques] on
a normal, 2-D film, and in 3-D the IA
also needs to change with the story.
Harbers adds his own postscript
for posting low-budget 3-D: Planning
the workflow is essential. Whether
you shoot parallel or converged depends
on the stereographer, but you can
manipulate more things in parallel.
Let the stereographer make a
storyboard with IA values for each
scene, so he can work quickly on set. If
you really want to save money, get
experienced postproduction people
involved during preproduction to
guarantee a smooth workflow!
To see 3-D video examples from
the workshop, visit www.theasc.com/
asc_blog/thefilmbook.
67
W
hen Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC first collaborated with
director Brian De Palma in 1978 on the New
Orleans-based thriller Obsession, he immediately
recognized De Palmas strong sense of filmmaking
style and his appreciation for visual storytelling. Zsigmond
had already shot many important films of the American New
Wave, including McCabe & Mrs. Miller , Deliverance (AC,
Aug. 71)and The Deer Hunter (AC, Oct. 78), all of which
advanced cinema aesthetics in new and sometimes radical
ways. In De Palma, however, he found a director who was
unapologetically excited about making the kinds of straight-
forward genre pictures favored in earlier eras. De Palma wasnt
as gung-ho as many of his contemporaries about trying to
stand convention on its head, but he still made bold choices
while paying loving homage to earlier films crafted by studio
filmmakers, especially Alfred Hitchcock.
Zsigmond and De Palma reteamed in 1981 for Blow
Out, one of the directors most successful films and a picture
that showcased his fascination with the processof filmmaking
itself. (The two would continue their collaboration on Bonfire
of the Vanities, in 1989, and TheBlack Dahlia , in 2006.)
Blow Outs story concerns Jack Terry (John Travolta), a
sound recordist capturing nighttime ambience for the sound-
track of a low-budget horror quickie titled Coed Crazy. Jack is
suddenly thrust into a dark world of conspiracy when his mic
Caught
onTape
Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC looks
back at his collaboration with
Brian De Palma on the stylish
1981 thriller Blow Out.
By Jon Silberg
|
picks up the sound of a gunshot an
instant before the car of a promising
senator drives off a bridge, sending the
politician and a call girl, Sally (Nancy
Allen), plunging into the river below.
Jack manages to save Sally, but when he
tries to inform the police and media
about the crucial gunshot sound, he
draws the attention of a murderous
conspirator, Burke (John Lithgow),
who targets him and the girl.
Brian is really a stylist, and hes
very experimental, Zsigmond says. He
sticks his neck out on movies that some-
times get bad reviews because the
people who write the reviews say hes
concentrating too much on the visuals.
But thats what I like so much about
him: he knows about images. There are
so many films that just consist of talking
heads, and they feel more like what you
think of as TV coverage. Brian always
wants to do something that has style.
Blow Outs opening scene sets the
tone for the rest of the film with an
extended Steadicam POV shot, placing
the audience in the shoes of a murderer
stalking a group of sorority girls.
Operated by Steadicam inventor
Garrett Brown, the long take is eventu-
ally revealed to be a scene from Coed
Crazy, the film-within-the-film. In this
sequence and others, De Palma reminds
viewers that they are watching a movie
and are subject to the mediums manip-
ulative techniques. Jacks job as a sound
recordist also reveals another facet of
filmmakings artifice, illustrating how
most of a movies soundtrack is pieced
together from disparate sounds long
after the actual shooting is over. We first
meet Jack on a dubbing stage, where
hes looping the footage from Coed
Crazy and working with the films
manic director to replace the scream of
the onscreen actress with the voice of a
better screamer.
Later that evening, tasked with
finding night ambience for the track,
Jack takes his Nagra tape recorder and
shotgun mic to a spot near
Philadelphias Wissahickon River,
located by the park and bridge of the
same name. Zsigmonds camera P
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Opposite page:
Sound recordist
Jack Terry (John
Travolta) listens
intently to an
audiotape that
may contain
evidence of a
politicians
murder. This
page, top: A
dangerous
conspirator,
Burke (John
Lithgow), seeks
to bury the
evidence by
eliminating Sally
(Nancy Allen), a
call girl who
survived the
assassination.
Bottom,
clockwise from
left: Lithgow, 1st
AD Joe
Napolitano,
director Brian
De Palma and
cinematographer
Vilmos
Zsigmond, ASC
block out a
shot in
Philadelphias
30th Street
Station.
captures Jack as he isolates individual
sounds the croak of a frog, the hoot
of an owl that will be used in the
slasher films sound mix. In striking
shots that keep foreground and back-
ground in perfect focus, we see details of
Jacks face, his mic and the environment.
That night scene was difficult,
Zsigmond recalls. The area we shot in
was immense, and we had to use a lot of
lights and still work with the lens wide
open. Compared to shooting methods
the cinematographer would employ
today, the challenge was significantly
greater because Zsigmond was working
with Kodak stock that had a fast ISO
of just 100. Today, we can shoot at 500,
800 or more, Zsigmond notes, but
back then we had a lot more limita-
tions.
He continues, We brought in
the biggest lights we could get 5Ks,
10Ks. We had a crane with lights
mounted on it. We had planned ahead
so we wouldnt have to light while
people were standing around; you work
out most of those logistics in preproduc-
tion. Many times wed go and [fine-
tune] the lights the night before
shooting, because you cant really light
for night during the daytime. If I were
shooting that same scene today, I would
still light it with big units, but nowadays
we have better, more efficient lights.
These days I could get the scene up to a
stop of T2.8, T4 or even [deeper stops]
because Id be working at a faster ISO.
A great deal of Blow Out is set at
night, but it was shot in widescreen
anamorphic with Panavision lenses.
Zsigmonds camera truck on Blow Out
was generally equipped with two
Panavision zooms, but their maximum
apertures T4.5 and T5.6 meant
they werent much use on a night shoot
at ISO 100. Instead, Zsigmond says,
we shot a lot of our night footage with
prime lenses, and he often found
himself at a stop of T2 for night exteri-
ors, despite the tight depth-of-field. It
took quite a bit of lighting just to get to
that stop, he adds.
In order to accomplish a number
of shots that called for foreground and
Caught on Tape
Top: In a signature split-diopter shot from the movie, Jack records nighttime sounds, including an owls
hoots. Middle: The politicians car plunges off a nearby bridge and into the icy river. Bottom: Travolta
(left), Zsigmond (raising arms) and crewmembers prepare to capture underwater shots of Jack rescuing
Sally.
background elements to be kept in
sharp focus, Zsigmond utilized split
diopters accessory lens elements
placed in front of the taking lens that
allow the cinematographer to divide the
frame and keep separate objects in focus
even if they are at different distances.
The use of split diopters requires preci-
sion during setup, as well as some care-
ful camouflage to hide the inevitable
seam in the frame. You have to plan
these shots ahead of time and find a way
to hide the vertical line, the cinematog-
rapher says. Thats the most important
thing. The actors cannot cross that line,
because it would look terrible.
Today, he muses, we might be
able to stop down to a T8 and get a
similar look. Or we could use a tilt/shift
lens to keep the foreground and back-
ground in focus. You could also simply
add a foreground element into the scene
as a visual effect. But those options
werent available to us.
To overcome the constraints of
the eras slower film stocks, Zsigmond
also exploited a technique hed used on a
number of prior projects: flashing the
film. The lab would use a printer to add
a tiny bit of exposure to the original
camera negative, which would primarily
affect the least-dense portions of the
image (the shadow areas on the nega-
tive). This had the effect of slightly
reducing the contrast in those portions
of the frame, yielding more shadow
detail and less overall contrast in
essence, allowing Zsigmond to treat his
negative as though it had a somewhat
higher ISO.
The effects of flashing depend
upon the degree to which the negative is
subjected to the process. Applied in
small amounts, the technique can open
up the shadows a bit and subtly enhance
the exposure index; in greater amounts,
it can lend scenes an almost foggy feel,
An overhead
angle and
several 360-
degree camera
moves capture
Jacks dismay as
he discovers
that someone
has broken into
his studio and
erased his entire
library of
audiotapes. The
camera makes
five full
revolutions
during the
carefully
choreographed
sequence.
I flashed certain
things to get more
speed out of the
film, more shadow
detail.
an effect Zsigmond sought for some of
his films with Robert Altman. I flashed
certain things to get more speed out of
the film, more shadow detail, he says.
If we had a big scene like the fire-
works at the end of Blow Out, where we
had to show a whole city block at the
port I would flash the film at least 10
percent to get a good exposure and detail
in the shadows.
Today, a colorist in a DI suite can
exert a great deal of control over specific
portions of the negative, but in 1981, the
only way to alter these specific properties
was to manipulate the films response to
light. To provide some context for those
not familiar with shooting and finishing
in the photochemical realm, ASC asso-
ciate member Rob Hummel addresses
the risks associated with the process:
Under normal circumstances, before it
was processed, exposed film would be
inspected in a totally dark room. Gloved
technicians would look for physical
tears, breaks or abrasions that could
cause a problem when the roll was
subsequently put through the develop-
ing solutions and then loaded onto a
printer to strike dailies.
If the film was going to be
flashed, you would thread the exposed,
unprocessed neg onto a printer,
Hummel continues. The printer would
then run the unexposed film through at
300 feet per minute, before it had even
been inspected! If there was any prob-
lem with that negative, or any mistake in
Caught on Tape
Top: De Palma
and Zsigmond
pose in front of
a Liberty Bell
prop while
setting up the
films ambitious
climax, set
during
Philadelphias
Liberty Day
celebration.
Bottom: To cover
the action, the
crew exploited
the Little Big
Crane, a clever
piece of
equipment
engineered by
key grip Richard
Dicky Deats,
whose invention
earned him a
1982 Academy
Technical
Achievement
Award.
Brian always
wants to do the
kinds of things
cinematographers
love to do!
the flashing, you could lose an enormous
amount of work. But somehow, it never
happened! God always smiled on people
flashing their negative.
Cinematographer Jan Kiesser,
ASC, CSC, who served as Zsigmonds
operator on Blow Out, recalls that he
used a combination of the Panaflex
camera and a Panaflex X a smaller,
lighter body on the film. Though the
eyepiece on the X was fixed, Kiesser felt
it had better optics. I was better able to
judge the focus with the X, he says. It
was nice to have the Panaflex as a fall-
back for handheld work or if we required
some eyepiece adjustment, but other-
wise, I preferred working with the X.
Zsigmond and De Palma both
liked Panavisions 30mm anamorphic
prime lens a significantly wide-angle
focal length for anamorphic work. I
shot a lot of Blow Out with that lens,
Zsigmond recalls. I love that lens for
shooting locations and real interiors, or
even a set sometimes, because you can
get everything into the shot. I love the
distortion. I never want to just shoot a
talking head, and Brian was always the
same way. He liked the wide-angle
lenses and the way they place you in the
middle of the action. He always wants to
do the kinds of things cinematographers
love to do!
Along with their preference for
packing more information into the
frame (instead of relying more heavily
upon editing to determine what gets
seen and when), De Palma and
Zsigmond enjoy shooting action in a
single take, often with virtuoso camera
movement. We would sometimes do
shots that lasted four or five minutes,
the cinematographer recalls. Brian is
very good at that he knows exactly
what he wants. Its very easy for me to
light those kinds of shots on his movies,
because I know exactly where he wants
the camera to go. And I know hes going
to use it all because he loves using those
shots and theres no way to cut away.
Sometimes hed go five, six, eight or even
10 takes, knowing that the scene would
play out as one shot on the screen.
Zsigmond finds this approach
rewarding: The fewer cuts you have in
a film, the more interesting it is to watch
the scene. Its like watching real life
you get up close to people and to the
action and let the scene play out. Lately
Ive enjoyed working with Woody
Allen, because he really is aiming for
one shot with no coverage. No close-
ups, no over-the-shoulders. He wants to
move the camera, and he does it in one
continuous shot.
For Kiesser, shots like this meant
a significant amount of responsibility.
When we were making Blow Out, he
says, we didnt have video playback. It
was really on your shoulders as an oper-
ator to critically judge composition
throughout the shot. You had the best
seat in the house for all the critical deci-
sions, like eyelines and framing, but
nobody else was going to see the shot
until dailies! We were also shooting
wide open, so we needed to be very crit-
ical about focus.
Michael Gershman was the first
AC on Blow Out and worked frequently
with Kiesser. Michael and I started our
careers together in animation, says
Kiesser, and we were on many crews
together. Like all great focus pullers,
Michael had an uncanny knack for
focus it was like a sixth sense. On
Blow Out, he really had to multi-task,
because some of those shots required
zooming, focus-pulling and stop
changes all at once.
Many of De Palmas films
contain at least one setup that spins the
Jack uses sophisticated audio equipment to monitor Sallys meeting with Burke. After his frenzied
pursuit of the pair leads him to crash his jeep through a department-store window, Jack awakens to
discover Sally is in great danger, and he frantically tries to reach her.
camera 360 degrees. In Blow Out, an
example of this signature piece of
camerawork occurs when Jack realizes
someone has broken into his studio and
erased all of his tapes in an attempt to
delete the incriminating piece of audio.
As the shot spins around the room, the
camera shows Travolta opening cans,
then whooshes past him at an increasing
speed, picks up a few details of the
studio here and there, catches up to him
playing a tape machine, and moves past
him again. The bravura move continues
around the room this way for five
complete revolutions before settling on
a receptionist who enters the studio.
The space wasnt big enough to lay
down tracks, Keisser recalls. We had
the camera in the middle of the room,
and we kept panning around and
zooming to keep up with the action. In
those days, the camera didnt have a
battery; it was powered from an external
source, so we had to twist the power
cable around the tripod and then
untwist it during the shot.
Jack and Sallys troubles come to
a head when they arrange to give their
audio evidence to a TV reporter. A drop
is planned in a public place, with Sally
wired for sound and Jack stationed
nearby so he can monitor the exchange.
Neither of them realizes, however, that
the reporter is actually Burke, who lures
Sally beyond audio range as Jack
desperately tries to catch up to the pair.
Jacks pursuit leads him into the
heart of Philadelphias enormous
Liberty Day celebration, which
includes a parade. The chase begins in
the daytime with Jack driving through
the parade marchers. To cover the
action, the crew made use of a Little Big
Crane, designed by key grip Richard
Dicky Deats, who later earned an
Academy Technical Achievement
Award for his invention. The Little
Big Crane let us get into places we
might not have been able to access with
a larger crane, says Kiesser. We had
also used it a lot with Vilmos on
Heavens Gate. This was before remote
heads, so I would ride the crane and
time the camera movement to the
Caught on Tape
A massive fireworks
display adds visual
excitement to the
movies climax, but
for logistical
reasons, portions of
the sequence had to
be shot on a
soundstage. To
capture the
dramatic close-up of
Travolta and Allen
framed against the
sky, Zsigmond
placed the actors on
a turntable in front
of a bluescreen. The
camera was placed
in a static position
on one side of the
turntable, facing the
bluescreen, as the
actors were spun
360 degrees.
Because the
lighting was moving
with the actors, it
looked as if the
camera was circling
them, Zsigmond
explains. The
fireworks were
added in post.
76
cranes position. My strongest memory
of [shooting Blow Out] is sitting up
there in the cold and wind.
For close-ups of Travolta running
through the crowd, Zsigmond
suggested the fireworks effect with
interactive lighting. For wider shots, the
production made use of real fireworks.
I brought in as many big lights as I
could to bring up the darker areas,
Zsigmond says, noting that he still had
to shoot wide open, which left the fire-
works more blown out than he would
have preferred. I never liked the look of
some of those shots as much as I did in
the Blu-ray that came out recently. I
wasnt involved in timing it, but Brian
must have been, or somebody who
understood what we were going for,
because the colors are more intense
than we could get them [photochemi-
cally]. Today, we would finish with a
DI, and we would have more control.
At the end of the chase, Jack
cradles Sally in his arms as the camera
spins 360 degrees and reveals the fire-
works above them. The shot was one of
the films few optical effects. The
production couldnt possibly create real
fireworks in the sky as we spun the
camera, Zsigmond explains. We put
the actors and their lighting on a
turntable in front of a bluescreen, and
we positioned the camera on one side
of the turntable facing the bluescreen,
where it remained static as we turned
the actors around 360 degrees. Because
the lighting was moving with the
actors, it looked as if the camera was
circling them. The fireworks were
added in post.
Caught on Tape
Another split-diopter shot shows Burke plotting his next murder in the train station.

Tell Your Story

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7
Adding a bizarre twist to the
production of Blow Out and
expanding the list of challenges the
film posed its makers the parade-
sequence footage went missing.
Hummel recalls, All the negative for
the parade shoot the B negative,
circled takes, everything was in a
van on its way to JFK to be flown to an
edit suite in L.A, where it would be cut.
The driver stopped at a Dunkin
Donuts on his way to the airport and
left the van unattended, and while he
was in there somebody stole the van. It
was unbelievable!
The van was eventually located,
but one crucial reel of film was missing,
so Blow Outs climactic sequence had
to be painstakingly reshot by
Zsigmonds friend and colleague,
Laszlo Kovacs, ASC. Laszlo had to
copy every shot exactly the way it had
been done, says Zsigmond admiringly,
noting that this can sometimes be even
more difficult and frustrating than
doing the work originally.
Zsigmond expresses a particular
fondness for the unabashedly stylish
films he shot with De Palma. Ive
worked on so many films where we
aimed to be real, and we would never
have done some of the shots I did with
Brian, he says. But in a movie by Brian
De Palma or Hitchcock it isnt
important that what were watching is
real. Were telling a story, and the most
important thing is that the audience has
fun watching it.
Zsigmond and
1st AC Michael
Gershman line
up a shot with
Allen, who later
scribbled an
affectionate
note on this
photo that
captures the
moment: To
Vilmos a
great artist and
a truly gentle
man. With love
and respect,
Nancy.
7
SharpShooters
Kodak salutes this
years Emmy-nominated
cinematographers with
a reception at the ASC
Clubhouse.
|
Front row (left to right): Kramer Morgenthau,
ASC; Kodak president and general manager
Kim Snyder; David Moxness, CSC; Ed Lachman,
ASC; Fred Murphy, ASC; Paul Sarossy, CSC, BSC;
Kodak marketing director Judith Doherty.
Second row: Christian La Fountaine; Kodak
executive Michael Zakula; Kodak account
manager Aaron Saffa; Attila Szalay, CSC, HSC;
Kodak account manager Bruce Burke;
Kodak account manager Michael Houser; and
Donald A. Morgan, ASC.
P
h
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t
o
s

b
y

M
a
t
t

T
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r
v
e
.
Here is a list of all the nominees (*denotes winner):
Outstanding Cinematography, Miniseries or Movie

David Katznelson, BSC, DFF*
Downton Abbey, Part 1
(BBC/PBS)
Ed Lachman, ASC
Mildred Pierce, Part Five
(HBO)
Kramer Morgenthau, ASC
Too Big to Fail
(HBO)
David Moxness, CSC
The Kennedys, Life Sentences
(ReelzChannel)
Attila Szalay, CSC, HSC
The Pillars of the Earth, Legacy
(Starz)
T
o honor this years group of Emmy-nominated
cinematographers, the Eastman Kodak Co. hosted
an evening reception at the ASC Clubhouse in
Hollywood on Sept. 9.
Guests were feted with cocktails and a catered buffet in
an atmosphere of congenial fraternity that encouraged them
to compare notes and talk shop. Kim Snyder, president and
general manager of Kodaks Entertainment Imaging business,
summed up the festivities by noting, For 30 years, Kodak has
hosted a celebration honoring cinematographers whose work
and amazing images were recognized by the TV Academy
with Emmy nominations. For the first time, this years dinner
was hosted at the ASC Clubhouse, making it an even more
[meaningful] evening for all the honorees and guests.
This years Emmy winners included David Katznelson,
BSC, DFF for the BBC miniseries Downton Abbey; Steven V.
Silver, ASC for the CBS multi-camera series Two and a Half
Men; Jonathan Freeman, ASC for the HBO single-camera
series Boardwalk Empire; Zach Zamboni and Todd Liebler for
the Travel Channel nonfiction series Anthony Bourdain: No
Reservations; and the cinematography team for the Discovery
Channel reality series Deadliest Catch.
ASC members earned a total of 11 nominations, and of
those, Kramer Morgenthau notched two: for Boardwalk
Empire and Too Big to Fail, also an HBO production.
Outstanding Cinematography,
Multi-Camera Series
Rick F. Gunter, ASC
Wizards of Waverly Place,
Dancing with Angels
(Disney Channel)
Wayne Kennan, ASC
Rules of Engagement, Uh Oh Its
Magic
(CBS)
Christian La Fountaine
How I Met Your Mother,
Hopeless
(CBS)
Donald A. Morgan, ASC
Retired at 35, Rocket Man
(TV Land)
Steven V. Silver, ASC*
Two and a Half Men, Hookers,
Hookers, Hookers
(CBS)
John Simmons, ASC
Pair of Kings, Return of the Kings
(Disney XD)
Single-Camera Series
Stuart Dryburgh, ASC
Boardwalk Empire, Boardwalk
Empire (Pilot)
(HBO)
Jonathan Freeman, ASC*
Boardwalk Empire, Home
(HBO)
Kramer Morgenthau, ASC
Boardwalk Empire, A Return To
Normalcy
(HBO)
Fred Murphy, ASC
The Good Wife, Double
Jeopardy
(CBS)
Paul Sarossy, CSC, BSC
The Borgias, The
Poisoned Chalice/The
Assassin
(Showtime)
Nonfiction Programming
Cinematography Team
Whale Wars, To the
Ends of the Earth
(Animal Planet)
Cliff Charles
If God Is Willing and da Creek
Dont Rise
(HBO)
Josh Fox (camera)
GasLand
(HBO)
Nicola Marsh, Arlene Nelson
American Masters, Troubadors:
Carol King, James Taylor & the
Rise of the Singer-Songwriter
(PBS)
Michael Snyman
Gettysburg
(History)
Zach Zamboni, Todd Liebler*
Anthony Bourdain: No
Reservations, Haiti
(Travel Channel)
Reality Programming
Cinematography Team
The Amazing Race, You Dont
Get Paid Unless You Win
(CBS)
Cinematography Team*
Deadliest Catch, Redemption
Day
(Discovery Channel)
Cinematography Team
Survivor, Rice Wars
(CBS)
Joia Speciale
Intervention, Rachel
(A&E)
Tim Spellman
Top Chef, Give Me Your
Huddled Masses
(Bravo)
Top: George La
Fountaine, ASC
enjoys the evening
with his daughter-in-
law, Shelley La
Fountaine; his son,
nominee Christian La
Fountaine; and
Donald A. Morgan,
ASC. Bottom: Kramer
Morgenthau, ASC
celebrates his double
nomination with his
fiance, Tracy
Fleischman (left),
and Snyder.
The Bunraku Experience
By Juan Ruiz-Anchia, ASC
When director Guy Moshe contacted me a few years ago and
invited me to serve as cinematographer on the feature Bunraku, I was
surprised and pleased to discover he had great knowledge of the
movies Id previously photographed. He was also glad that Id already
worked with one of his lead actors, Josh Hartnett, but most impor-
tantly, he was complimentary about my lighting skills, since lighting
would be a major element of Bunraku. I was intrigued and eager to
work on the project, a very ambitious and experimental movie that
aimed to combine real-world photography, sets and actors with an
ornately stylized virtual world and a color palette that was about as
far from routine as you can get.
Bunraku is an action-fantasy based on an ancient form of
Japanese puppet theater known as Bunraku, in which puppets,
manipulated by onstage puppeteers who sometimes narrate or
comment on the action, act out a morality tale. Guy spent years
building a story around the concept a stylized plot about a myste-
rious stranger engaged in a blood feud with a crime lord. The result-
ing tale blends themes, characters, colors and designs from Japan-
ese Samurai legends, the Old West, classic movies, cartoons, theater,
classical art and the circus, among other references. Its an indepen-
dently made film that, logistically and creatively, could only be made
as a hybrid of live action and CGI.
Building this world entirely on stages would have been far
too expensive, so visual effects played an important part in creating
the illusion. Guy therefore assembled a creative team that also
included visual-effects supervisor Oliver Hotz; co-producer Alex
McDowell, an acclaimed production designer who designed the
movies settings with fellow production designer Chris Farmer; and
other talented people with visual-effects experience. Alex introduced
us to innovative previsualization techniques that Guy used exten-
sively to design Bunrakus surreal world a radical, mystical
universe that can fold and unfold itself, much like the structure of
paper, and go on endlessly. The martial-arts sequences would be
filmed like dance performances on stages, and the omniscient
camera would roam freely through 360 degrees most of the time,
with transitions created in-frame rather than through a more stan-
dard series of cuts. We added a unique palette of colors to this
world, as well as different skies that constantly change and evolve.
It was a tall order on a modest budget, and I found myself at
the center of the whole enterprise, since camera movement and
color were so crucial to the direction of the story. We ended up
shooting with two units, seemingly around the clock, on more than
30 sets at MediaPro Studios in Buftea, Romania. During the post-
production phase, we collaborated with Oliver Hotz and his team at
Origami Digital, in Los Angeles, to create the environments and
make sure they matched up with the imagery wed captured on
stage.
Despite the movies virtual nature, we decided to shoot the
live-action components on film, in Super 35mm, using Kodak
Vision2 500T 5218, utilizing Cooke S4 lenses and Angenieux
Optimo zooms with our Arriflex cameras. After tests, we selected
the Vision2 stock because, for our purposes, we felt it demonstrated
a superior ability to reproduce shadows compared to Vision3.
Filmmakers Forum
P
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I
Top: An assassin (Kevin McKidd, center) and a gang of thugs defend a crime
lord in a scene from Bunraku, shot by Juan-Ruiz Anchia, ASC. Directed by
Guy Moshe, the movie is inspired by an ancient Japanese form of puppet
theater. Bottom: A panoramic photo shows one of the productions 30-plus
sets, built on stages at MediaPro Studios in Buftea, Romania.
The voyage of discovery is not seeking new
landscapes but in having new eyes.
marcel proust, author
When you change the way you look at things,
the things you look at change.
Register for tickets at sundance.org/festival
JANUARY 1929, 2012 PARK CI TY, UTAH
However, during some post filming we did
in California, we incorporated Vision3 500T
5219 because of its superior grain structure
for visual-effects work.Bear in mind that
we launched into production three years
ago, and we did not want to risk latitude
problems with the lower ASA capabilities of
the digital cameras available at the time. If
we were making this movie today, we
might well have considered using a digital
camera system, but at that time, the best
available solution was to shoot film.
Lighting was a massive job, given
the amount of greenscreen and visual-
effects work we had to do. But the tools
that most helped me achieve the look we
sought were a wide range of gels, repre-
senting the many colors we chose during
our extensive research phase colors that
change and evolve from the beginning of
the movie to the end. The films unusual
look was based on Alexs designs, which
were influenced by the paintings of Lyonel
Feininger. Guy, Chris and I shared this
palette with Oliver and his team, and they
used the color scheme I developed on set to
build the storys virtual world. This strategy
allowed us to achieve, in-camera, much of
the color you see on the big screen.
As we experimented with different
colors, we had to keep in mind the post-
production work that would be performed
on all the greenscreen footage we shot. In
particular, we had to make sure the post
team could match or complement the
colors I had used on set as they built the CG
elements and color-corrected the frames. In
other words, if I used a specific mix of pink
and blue in the foreground, then the back-
ground would have to match. It was
complicated work, but Olivers group at
Origami did a great job with it.
Guy and I decided to abandon the
logic of light directionality that you find in
the real world, since our story was not set in
reality and we were making no pretenses
that it was. We both felt this strategy would
be the best way to achieve a theatrical look
befitting Guys design for the movie.
Overall, the lighting in this film was a
unique attempt to create graphical aesthet-
ics with lighting. I find our film to be lean-
ing more on classical artworks, varying from
Lyonel Feininger paintings to Robert
Wilsons avant-garde theater, Guy added
when he sent me his thoughts. But in
mixing all these influences with lighting
schemes and in-camera light changes that
echo the theater and the circus, we actually
ended up with the cinematic equivalent of
graphics, rather than a cinematic interpreta-
tion of graphics. I find that the combination
of near-film-noir shadow and painting
images with two or three colors in every
scene created the kind of beautiful experi-
ence that one does not find so often in the
new days of the DI, where cinematogra-
phers often leave the risk-taking to post.
The most experimental aspect of the
whole venture was probably our camera
moves. As I mentioned above, the perspec-
tive was omniscient the camera roams
through space and travels from one scene
to another, switching perspectives and
Top right: Ruiz-Anchia searches for a frame. Left: The circus was one of the many
influences for Bunraku, evidenced in these before-and-after frame grabs that highlight
the importance of visual effects.
reorienting geography. When the camera
breaks the horizon, speeding along at a
certain distance from the ground, it essen-
tially transforms the storys universe. We
were able to figure out such movement
and the lighting schemes necessary to
accommodate it during the 3-D previsu-
alization process.
At times, we needed particularly
elaborate lighting schemes, combined with
unique lighting instruments and camera
rigging, so that the camera could travel 360
degrees. For example, for a crucial fight
scene that takes place outside a bar in the
rain, we had to create the effect of a train
passing by. To accomplish this, we rigged a
powerful tungsten 12K Fresnel to move
quickly across the set, producing strobo-
scopic shadows over the action of the fight.
For another sequence set at a beach training
camp for fighters, we cabled the camera so
it could fly across the large set toward the
main actors, who were watching the action
over a hill. That kind of work was routine on
this production, and the execution of these
techniques by gaffer Florin Nicolae, key
grip Ian Bird, A-camera/Steadicam operator
Bogdan Stanciu and 1st AC Jos Ramn
Delgado was crucial to our success.
Making Bunraku was a particularly
fun and interesting challenge for all of us.
The dichotomy involved in our work was
extreme: we were shooting film on an old-
fashioned stage in Romania, with a limited
budget, while also attempting to pull off
some truly state-of-the-art techniques.
Indeed, there were no catwalks on the
stages; lights were hung the old-fashioned
way by Romanian crewmembers climbing
walls and ladders. The greenscreens were
often as large as 60' by 60', and everything
had tracking markers on it. The same guys
who climbed the screens to hang lights also
adjusted the markers for us.
We constantly had our two units
rotating around on the various stages we set
up at MediaPro, working long hours to
maintain our schedule, but all the effort
paid off. It was a true team effort. 2nd-unit
director of photography Guy Livneh did an
excellent job, along with crewmembers
from the U.S., Romania, England, Spain and
other countries. Arri Munich kept us well
supplied, and Kodak Bucharest developed
our negative and dailies.
In Los Angeles, Modern VideoFilms
fine colorist, Joe Finley, helped us finish the
look; producer Keith Calder was also a great
help during the post process. Our prints
were struck at Deluxe, where ASC associate
member Beverly Wood, the companys
executive vice president of technical
services, took very good care of us.
Top: Gelled space lights support Ruiz-Anchias colorful approach to the films lighting. Bottom: Moshe
(holding finder) finds an angle on Woody Harrelson.
OConnor Offers Ultimate Control
OConnor, a Vitec Group brand, has introduced the Ultimate
1030 D and 1030 Ds fluid heads, which are designed especially for
use with lightweight, large-format-sensor cameras such as the Red
Epic and Sony F3.
Updating and replacing OConnors popular Ultimate
1030HD and HDs heads, the new line offers a sporty industrial
design and a range of features
borrowed from larger OConnor
fluid heads. Features include the
step-less, ultra-smooth pan-and-
tilt fluid drag specifically enhanced
to provide ultimate control and
stability for digital cinematogra-
phy shooting; the patented
OConnor Sinusoidal Counterbal-
ance system, which provides
accurate balance at any point in
the tilt range; and the ability to
counterbalance down to zero.
The 1030 D series also features a new ergonomic crank-style
counterbalance control that pulls out of the rear of the head, action
brakes for pan-and-tilt unlock via a single-handed squeeze, and the
OConnor drag system for constant control.
The 1030 D supports a payload of up to 30 pounds at a 6"
center of gravity with a +/-90-degree tilt range. The 1030 Ds
supports up to 41 pounds at a 6" center of gravity with a +/-60-
degree tilt range.
Like the rest of the OConnor Ultimate heads, the 1030 D and
Ds have interchangeable bases, accept the same front-box mount as
larger heads and offer full compatibility with other OConnor 1030
accessories.
For additional information, visit www.ocon.com.
Sachtler Steadies
Lightweight Tripod
Sachtler, a Vitec Group brand, has
introduced the TT 75/2 CF, a lightweight,
two-stage carbon-fiber tripod ideally suited
to lightweight digital cameras, including
video-enabled DSLRs. The tripod features a
75mm bowl and three-section single
carbon-fiber tubes.
The TT 75/2 CF offers Sachtlers hall-
mark stability and easy setup. Varying leg
angles can be quickly deployed and
adjusted. The tripod comes with Sachtlers
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.
distinctive red footpads with retractable spikes.
The lightweight tripod weighs only 5.1 pounds and offers a
height range from 10.6" to 67.3". The tripod is also available in a
system with a Sachtler FSB 4, Cine DSLR, FSB 6 or FSB 8 fluid head
plus the convenient DV 75 L padded carrier.
For additional information, visit www.sachtler.com.
3ality Digital Acquires Element Technica
3ality Digital has acquired Element Technica. The combined
company, which has been rebranded 3ality Technica, provides all of
the control, accuracy, breadth, automation, modularity, accessories
and design of both existing product lines.
In acquiring Element Technica, 3ality Digital gains an in-house
manufacturing and design capability, as well as the opportunity to
further expand its already sizable R&D infrastructure. The companies
will combine in an expansion to the 3ality Digital headquarters in
Burbank, Calif.
We have always had great respect for Element Technica and
their achievements, says ASC associate member Steve Schklair,
CEO of 3ality Technica. The complete compatibility and lack of
redundancy between the companies has made this an ideal acquisi-
tion, strengthening the companys position to provide the most
advanced and dependable [3-D] solutions to the market. Perhaps the
greatest benefit of this acquisition will be to the motion picture and
broadcast producers who will now have an unprecedented amount
of tools and technology tailored to meet their specific needs.
The combined expertise of 3ality Technica includes work for
Hollywood feature films and television, live-broadcast sports events
and concert performances, and NASA. We have already integrated
some of the best aspects of both companies product offerings, so
the market will see an immediate improvement in tool sets, compo-
nent integration and customer service, says Schklair.
Element Technica is also well known for its line of both 2-D
and 3-D accessories, and 3ality Technica plans to continue this prod-
uct line under the existing Element Technica banner.
For additional information, visit
http://3alitytechnica.com.
Alan Gordon Cages DSLRs
Alan Gordon Enterprises, Inc. has
introduced the Hollywood HDSLR Cage.
Designed for Canon EOS 5D
Mark II and 7D DSLR cameras, the Holly-
wood HDSLR Cage features an HDMI
cable protector and multiple "-20 and
3
8"-16 threaded holes for mounting
accessories. The hard-anodized cage is
precision-machined and boasts lightweight
construction. Alan Gordon offers a number
of accessories for the cage, including a
battery mount and a mini rod adapter.
The Hollywood HDSLR Cage is avail-
able through Alan Gordon for a recom-
mended price of $489. For more informa-
tion, visit www.alangordon.com.
Zacuto Upgrades
Z-Finder Firmware
Zacuto has released the free
firmware upgrade number 1.01.00 for the
companys popular Z-Finder EVF electronic
viewfinder.
With these frequent firmware
upgrades, we can constantly make improve-
ments to our Z-Finder EVF, says Patrick Fee,
product designer for Zacuto. Anytime we
find something that people want or a prob-
lem that we can fix, we can just upgrade the
firmware and our clients can download it
from the website.
This firmware upgrade boasts new
audio meters and a battery meter that can
be positioned in any of the four corners of
the EVF screen, an audio loop-through
feature, implemented underscan, and Red
One and Sony FS100 scaling presets. As
suggested by customers, the firmware
upgrade also allows users to save and recall
chroma, contrast and brightness settings as
presets; changes to color, brightness and
contrast will now save when the EVF is
powered down, and return when it is next
powered up.
For additional information, and to
download the free upgrade, visit
www.zacuto.com.
Chrosziels Aladin Offers
Lens Control
Chrosziel has introduced the versatile
Aladin MK II remote lens control, which
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comprises a modular handset and a small
receiver that can control up to eight motors.
The easy-to-use Aladin MK II cali-
brates motors automatically, allowing users
to simply plug in and start shooting. For
more advanced setups, the receiver features
a built-in display with a straightforward
operating menu, so settings can be adjusted
quickly and easily. Furthermore, the Aladin
MK II allows users to control and power the
internal zoom, focus and iris motors of digi-
tal Canon and Fujinon lenses. Communica-
tion and power run through the serial auxil-
iary port of the Aladins control box.
The Aladin MK IIs eight channels of
control make the system 3-D compatible,
allowing simultaneous control over focus,
zoom and aperture on two lenses while also
controlling the angles and distance between
the cameras.
The Aladins handheld modules are
equipped with military-grade connectors for
maximum reliability. An RF spectrum
analyzer can help identify sources of wireless
interference and pick the best transmission
channel at any particular location. The
Aladin also allows users to cable to the
camera via the BNC connector.
At press time, Chrosziel was also in
the process of integrating an option to
record time code and metadata.
www.chrosziel.com.
Vocas Expands Accessory Line
Vocas Systems has introduced the
Flexible Gear Ring, the Pro Rail Support, the
E-to-PL-Mount Adapter and the Shoulder
Support.
The Flexible Gear Ring can be
attached directly to a lens, making the lens
compatible with a follow-focus system. The
Pro Rail Support allows 15mm rods to be
mounted beneath an array of cameras from
a host of manufacturers. Attaching the Pro
88
Rail Support further enables users to
employ such accessories as the E-to-PL-
Mount Adapter; the Adapter allows PL-
mount lenses to be mounted on cameras
with an E-mount. Finally, the Shoulder
Support distributes the cameras weight
and enables comfortable operating. The
Support works with commonly used 15mm
rails, and it can be quickly attached to or
removed from the rails without the need to
disassemble the entire system.
www.vocas.com.
LevelJib Completes LevelCam Kit
The LevelCam camera stabilizer is
now available in a LevelCam Complete kit,
which connects to a tripod and turns the
system into a jib. Each component is
detachable via a quick-release lock, making
the system extremely versatile and portable.
LevelCam works with most palm-sized
cameras and DSLRs weighing up to 9
pounds.
LevelCam started as a personal
solution for moving from a tripod directly to
handheld shooting without interruption,
says Tim Nixon, owner of Baughan Produc-
tions, Inc. and the inventor of the LevelCam.
LevelCam evolved into LevelCam
Complete, with a counter-weighted mono-
pod called LevelPod. Connecting LevelPod
to most any medium-sized tripod now turns
it into LevelJib.
Producing video content is my day
job, and LevelCam evolved out of my need
to minimize handheld twitch in small video
cameras, Nixon continues. The DSLR
revolution has made my job even more chal-
lenging, as the camera is harder to hand-
hold than most camcorders. These cameras
also need extra equipment, like and audio
recorder and microphone, to be truly useful
for a one-person crew. LevelCams design
allows for plenty of space for these acces-
sories.
LevelCam is sold on its own for
$79.95, or in the LevelCam Complete kit,
which includes the LevelPod and LevelJib
adapter, for $399.95. For more informa-
tion, visit www.levelcam.com and
www.baughan.com.
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T H E A W A R D W I N N I N G
OVER 1400 GRIP & LIGHTING CONTROL PRODUCTS
Advertisers Index
16x9, Inc. 90
Abel Cine Tech 9
AC 1, 88
AFI 55
Aja Video Systems, Inc. 29
Alan Gordon Enterprises 91
Arri 39
Assimilate 44
AZGrip 91
Backstage Equipment, Inc.
87
Barger-Lite 6, 90
Blackmagic Design 11
Burrell Enterprises 90
Cameraimage 85
Cavision Enterprises 21
Chapman/Leonard Studio
Equipment Inc. 17
Chemical Wedding 83
Cinematography
Electronics 88
Cinekinetic 90
Clairmont Film & Digital 41
Codex Digital Ltd., 25
Convergent Design 27
Cooke Optics 31
Deluxe C2
Digital Vision 58
Eastman Kodak C4
EFD USA, Inc 19
Film Gear 53
Filmotechnic 90
Filmtools 6
Friends of the ASC 57
Glidecam Industries 23
Government Technology Expo
93
Grip Factory Munich 6
Hive Lighting 87
Innovision 91
J.L. Fisher 45
Kino Flo 67
Lights! Action! Co. 90
Lowel 7
Matthews Studio Equipment
91
Movie Tech AG 91
NBC Universal 43
Nevada Film Commission 76
New York Film Academy 66
Oppenheimer Camera Prod.
53, 90
P+S Technik 91
Panasonic Broadcast 5
PED Denz 90, 91
Pille Film Gmbh 90
Pro8mm 90
Production Resource Group
59
Regent University 77
Rosco 30
Schneider Optics 2
Sony Electronics 13
Super16 Inc. 91
Sundance Film Festival
81
SXSW Film Festival 89
Tessive 87
Thales Angenieux 15
Tiffen 7, C3
VF Gadgets, Inc. 90
Willys Widgets 90
www.theasc.com 4, 75, 95
Zacuto Films 91
92
Perkal, Weaver JoinSociety
New active member Dave Perkal,
ASC was born in Los Angeles. His father
helped spark his passion for visual story-
telling by takinghim to see Akira Kuro-
sawas Seven Samurai, and he honed his
understanding of moving images by study-
ing at San Diego State University and the
American Film Institute. Perkal began his
professional career as a camera assistant
and climbed the ladder to operator while
notching cinematography creditsalong the
way. He was promoted to full-time director
of photography on the series Entourage.
Since then he has shotepisodes of Saman-
tha Who?, Chuck, Scrubs and The Vampire
Diaries, as well as a variety of features and
telefilms, including Happy Campers,
Preachers Kid and Teen Spirit. Perkal has
also shot numerous music videos and
commercials.
Michael Weaver, ASC was born in
Kansas City, Mo., and studied filmmaking
and photography at San Jose State Univer-
sity. After graduating, he began a three-
year apprenticeship shooting documen-
taries, industrials and commercials for Lock-
heed Missiles and Space Co.s film division.
Weaver moved to Los Angeles in 1989 and
found work shooting local commercials and
low-budget features. To further hone his
craft, he transitioned to chief lighting tech-
nician, and by the end of the 1990s he was
working as both a gaffer and second-unit
cinematographer. He was promoted to
director of photography on the series
Malcolm in the Middle , and he has since
photographed a number of series, including
Notes from the Underbelly, Pushing Daisies
(for which he earned an ASC nomination),
Californication (for which he won an Emmy)
and Parenthood. A member of the Directors
Guild of America, Weaver has also directed
episodes of Californication and Parenthood.
New Associate Members
Join Ranks
The Society has welcomed David
Cole, Gilles Galerne, Joshua Haynie, Karen
McHugh and Ahmad Ouri to its ranks of
associate members.
David Cole began his career in
Melbourne, Australia, in the telecine
department of AAV Digital Pictures. In his
five years with the company, his role
expanded to technical director of digital
film. In 2001, Cole joined The Post House
Ltd. in Wellington, New Zealand,where he
worked as lead digital colorist on The Lord
of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring .
From there, he joined Weta Digital as super-
vising and lead digital colorist, setting up
and leading the companys DI division for
King Kong. In 2006, he moved to Los Ange-
les to join LaserPacific, where he continues
to serve as senior digital colorist.
Gilles Galerne was born in
Vincennes, France, and attended the
University of Sciences in Paris. He served for
one year as a lighting technician in the
Cinematography Services of the Armed
Forces, and then joined the research-and-
development department of lighting manu-
facturer LTM. He moved into sales manage-
ment at LTM and was then transferred to a
U.S. subsidiary, where he assumed the title
of president in 1980. In 1992, he founded
K 5600, where he continues to serve as
president.
Joshua Haynie currently serves as
the vice president of operations at EFilm,
where he oversees more than 100 team
members and has supervised more than
300 digital intermediates for theatrical
release. Haynies career began as a produc-
tion assistant and editor, and he spent most
of the 90s as a director of operations for
three Los Angeles-area post houses:
Composite Image Systems, The Post Group
and Sunset Post. In 1999, he joined
Octane/Lightning Dubs as an executive
producer, and in 2001 he moved on to
Sunset Digital as a producer and project
manager. He has been with EFilm since
2003.
Karen McHugh was born in Palo
Alto, Calif., and studied photography and
dance at San Francisco State University.
Following graduation, she brought her
passion for photography to Los Angeles,
where she accepted a position with Samys
Camera. She continues to work at Samys
as the head of Pro Digital and Cinema Sales,
and she also serves as the stores personal
shopper for professional photographers
and cinematographers.
Ahmad Ouri currently serves as
Technicolors chief marketing officer. He
was born in Lebanon and earned masters
degrees in engineering and business from
the University of Utah. He joined Techni-
color in 2002 and has held a number of
roles within the company, including presi-
dent of Technicolor Digital Cinema, chief
technology officer and president of Content
Services. Before joining Technicolor, he was
CEO of Philips Electronics digital video
server division.
Clubhouse News
P
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.

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,

A
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C
.
Top to bottom: Dave Perkal, ASC and
Michael Weaver, ASC.
When you were a child, what film made the strongest impres-
sion on you?
Bullitt (1968). I was 10 years old, and it opened my eyes to Ameri-
can action/thriller movies. We did not have television in South Africa
when I was a child, so all the movies we saw were in the cinema.
Which cinematographers, past or present, do you most
admire?
There are too many to list
here, but those who matter to
me most are the ones that are
changing and bringing new
style to the art form: ASC
members Emmanuel Lubezki,
Bob Richardson and Roger
Deakins, to name a few.
What sparked your interest
in photography?
My father had an 8mm Bell &
Howell with which he docu-
mented our lives.
Where did you train and/or
study?
I got a job at BFCS, a commercial-production company in London,
after I finished college. I began as a trainee in the camera depart-
ment.
Who were your early teachers or mentors?
Michael Seresin, BSC; Hugh Johnson, and Tony and Ridley Scott.
What are some of your key artistic influences?
The classic film-noir movies I watched as a teenager in London, and
the work of Vermeer, Picasso, Helmut Newton, John Boorman, and
Tony and Ridley Scott.
How did you get your first break in the business?
Hugh Johnson invited me to assist on the reshoots of Tony Scotts
The Hunger.
What has been your most satisfying moment on a project?
Finishing the DI for Star Trek (2009) at Company 3.
Have you made any memorable blunders?
Sorry, none to speak of.
What is the best professional advice youve ever received?
When I was a focus puller on
a movie with Adrian Biddle,
BSC, I told him I did not have
focus marks, and he said,
Feel the Force. I use that
advice all the time.
What recent books, films
or artworks have inspired
you?
I just saw Frida whilst doing
research, and the color
palette is a great inspiration
for me at the moment.
Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC did
a lovely job.
Do you have any favorite
genres, or genres you would like to try?
As long as I am using film as a medium, I am inspired. Any genre
would be good.
If you werent a cinematographer, what might you be doing
instead?
I might be a pizza chef.
Which ASC cinematographers recommended you for
membership?
Stephen Goldblatt, Allen Daviau and David B. Nowell.
How has ASC membership impacted your life and career?
Ive wanted the ASC credential ever since I started in the movie
industry as a student. Becoming a member is a huge accomplish-
ment that I will always be proud of.
Dan Mindel, ASC Close-up
P
h
o
t
o

b
y

J
o
h
n

C
a
r
t
e
r
.
Film. No Compromise.
IMAGE IS
EVERYTHING...
SHOOT FILM.
KODAK.COM/GO/MOTION

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