PETER

LEVY
ASC, ACS
“I came to realize that light is a very
malleable medium. With the right
tools and skills you can make it
do almost anything you want. The
manipulation of light is infinitely
satisfying. Our sense of taste and
style become the determining
factors in deciding the appropriate
way to photograph the subtext or
poetry of the scene. Because we
communicate in a visual medium,
we try to express ourselves
succinctly with choice of the right
visual grammar. Our photography
creates a visual conduit for the
story to flow through. People
love movies because of the
emotional responses they have to
the characters and the story. The
memory of those responses is
what lives in their hearts.”

Peter Levy ASC, ACS began his

career shooting documentaries
in Australia. He won an Emmy®
Award for the telefilm The Life and
Death of Peter Sellers. His credits
include Predator 2, Ricochet,
Cutthroat Island, Broken Arrow,
The War at Home, Lost in Space,
Under Suspicion, Lonely Hearts,
and the upcoming The Reaping,
as well as the pilots for 24 and
Without a Trace.

[All these films were shot on

Kodak motion picture film.]

For an extended interview

with Peter Levy, visit
www.kodak.com/go/onfilm

To order Kodak motion picture film,

call (800) 621 - film.
www.kodak.com/go/motion
© Eastman Kodak Company, 2006.
Photography: © 2006 Douglas Kirkland
 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 F I L M & D I G I T A L P R O D U C T I O N T E C H N I Q U E S • S I N C E 1 9 2 0

TLFeBOOK
$5.95
Canada $8.95
SEPTEMBER 2006
WHEN WORDS
AREN’T ENOUGH
SPEAK THE LANGUAGE
EVERYONE UNDERSTANDS.
Powered by KODAK Color Science,
KODAK Look Manager System and
KODAK Display Manager System are
designed to streamline the production
process—from preproduction to
digital dailies. Now you can create
looks, share them with a touch of a
button, and display the look of
broadcast and projected print film.
Communicate in color with the
language of look. For more information,
visit kodak.com/go/ac.

TLFeBOOK
 KODAK LOOK MANAGER SYSTEM
KODAK DISPLAY MANAGER SYSTEM

© Kodak, 2006. Kodak is a trademark.

TLFeBOOK
 Congratulations
to Robert Primes
“I’ve been a Schneider fan for 50 years – from for his Emmy®
my first 4x5 format lens to precision glass filters for Nomination for
Sleeper Cell
HD and 35mm work, to Century Achromatic
Diopters for DV.
There are effects that only filters can create.
For day exteriors, I rotate a Tru-Pol tm in my
hands and look through it to see how it affects the color
saturation of the sky, water, trees, and shiny objects like
cars or glossy paint.
On ‘Baadasssss!,’ the Classic Soft ® allowed me to
diminish distracting artifacts on an elderly Ossie Davis’ face,
without compromising the integrity or power of his character.
I love the sense of surrealism the Black Froststm can render.
On a ‘Night Stalker’ flashback, we blew out the
windows and added a Black Frost. It
created a sometimes subtle, sometimes
powerful image without compromising
the sharpness and deep blacks.
For the short film ‘Cry of Ecstasy,’ I wanted to
dynamically portray an artist’s canvas. By adding the Century
Achromatic Diopter to the Panasonic DVX100, I got really
dramatic edge-to-edge sharp
full-contrast images

Photo of Robert Primes by Joel Lipton

without fringing.

exclusively for Schneider Optics

From Achromatic Diopters to filters, Schneider is
an important addition to this cinematographer’s toolbox.”

Robert Primes, ASC is known for his television Award for HD), My Antonia (1995 Emmy) and
work on the groundbreaking series Harrison: Cry of the City (Emmy nomination).
thirtysomething, Felicity (2000 ASC nomination Feature films include Baadasssss!, Bird on a Wire,
and 1999 Emmy Award), MDs (2002 ASC and Money Talks.
See us at:
www.schneideroptics.com B+W • Century • Schneider IBC #11.124 • cinec #3-A10

7701 Haskell Ave. • Van Nuys, California 91406 • Phone: 818-766-3715 • 800-228-1254
It Starts with the Glass tm
TLFeBOOK
S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 6 V O L . 8 7 N O . 9

The International Journal of Film & Digital Production Techniques

Features 32 Darkest Noir

Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC investigates L.A.’s most
infamous unsolved murder in The Black Dahlia

50 Conjuring the Past

Dick Pope, BSC lends cinematic sleight of hand
to The Illusionist

60 Vikings on the Warpath

Daniel Pearl, ASC travels back in time to
874 A.D. for the saga Pathfinder
50
70 A Call for Digital Printer Lights
Richard Crudo, ASC discusses the need for more
precise image control in the digital age

Departments
8 Editor’s Note
On Our Cover:
12 DVD Playback
LAPD Detective 18 Production Slate 60
Dwight “Bucky”
Bleichert (Josh Hartnett)
78 Short Takes
pursues a vicious killer 84 Post Focus
in the atmospheric
drama The Black
92 New Products & Services
Dahlia, shot by 104 Filmmakers’ Forum
Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC.
(Photo by Merrick
108 Points East
Morton, SMPSP, courtesy 112 International Marketplace
of Universal Pictures.) 113 Classified Ads
114 Ad Index
116 ASC Membership Roster
118 Clubhouse News
120 ASC Close-Up

18

Visit us online at
www.theasc.com
TLFeBOOK
 S e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 6 V o l . 8 7 , N o . 9
The International Journal of Film & Digital Production Techniques • Since 1920

Visit us online at

www.theasc.com
————————————————————————————————————
PUBLISHER Martha Winterhalter
————————————————————————————————————
EDITORIAL
EXECUTIVE EDITOR Stephen Pizzello
SENIOR EDITOR Rachael K. Bosley
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Douglas Bankston
TECHNICAL EDITOR Christopher Probst

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Stephanie Argy, Benjamin B, Robert S. Birchard, John Calhoun, Bob Davis,
Bob Fisher, Simon Gray, Jim Hemphill, David Heuring, Jay Holben, Ron Magid,
Jean Oppenheimer, John Pavlus, Chris Pizzello, David Samuelson, Jon Silberg,
Kenneth Sweeney, Patricia Thomson, David E. Williams
————————————————————————————————————
ART DEPARTMENT
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Marion Gore
DESIGN ASSOCIATE Erik M. Gonzalez
————————————————————————————————————
ADVERTISING
ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR Angie Gollmann
323-936-3769 FAX 323-936-9188
e-mail: gollmann@pacbell.net
ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR Sanja Pearce
323-908-3114 FAX 323-876-4973
e-mail: sanja@ascmag.com
ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR Scott Burnell
323-936-0672 FAX 323-936-9188
e-mail: sburnell@earthlink.net
CLASSIFIEDS/ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Diella Nepomuceno
323-908-3124 FAX 323-876-4973
e-mail: diella@ascmag.com
————————————————————————————————————
CIRCULATION, BOOKS & PRODUCTS
CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Saul Molina
CIRCULATION MANAGER Alex Lopez
SHIPPING MANAGER Javier Ibanez
————————————————————————————————————
ASC GENERAL MANAGER Brett Grauman
ASC EVENTS COORDINATOR Patricia Armacost
ASC PRESIDENT’S ASSISTANT Delphine Figueras
ASC ACCOUNTING MANAGER Mila Basely
ASC ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE Corey Clark
————————————————————————————————————
American Cinematographer (ISSN 0002-7928), established 1920 and in its 87th year of publication, is published
monthly in Hollywood by ASC Holding Corp., 1782 N. Orange Dr., Hollywood, CA 90028, U.S.A.,
(800) 448-0145, (323) 969-4333, Fax (323) 876-4973, direct line for subscription inquiries (323) 969-4344.
Subscriptions: U.S. $50; Canada/Mexico $70; all other foreign countries $95 a year (remit international
Money Order or other exchange payable in U.S. $). Advertising: Rate card upon request from Hollywood
office. Article Reprints: Requests for high-quality article reprints should be made to Sheridan Reprints at
(800) 394-5157 ext. 28. Copyright 2006 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

TLFeBOOK
ZEISS
on
Michael Mann has a
very dynamic visual style.
His camera is never static. He
creates anticipation, a tension in
the frame that comes from a feeling
that your peripheral vision has been
taken away. You are in the driver’s seat.
Achieving this on ‘Miami Vice’ came
down to a combination of great operators
with almost entirely handheld cameras. A critical
part of this combination was the Zeiss 6-24mm
™
DigiZoom . It has a great range, is lightweight and high speed. It
responded well to a variety of extreme conditions, from brilliant daylight
to very low light night exteriors. It handled the humidity in Miami and, due
to its compact size, allowed us to fit into some pretty tight spaces, including
the front seat of a Ferrari and the cockpit of a powerboat – places one usually
cannot go with a zoom. This lens lived on the A-camera. Of course the zoom capa-
bility was key. Imperceptible zooms were constantly part of the visual storytelling,
always pushing in and pulling you closer to the action. In realizing Michael’s vision of
‘Miami Vice’, the DigiZoom was a perfect fit.
Dion Beebe ASC, ACS

Burbank 818-841-9655 • Munich + 49 89 94 54 84 90 VISIT BAND PRO

W W W. D I G I Z O O M . C O M • W W W. B A N D P R O . C O M IBC STAND #: 11.131

TLFeBOOK
 American Society of Cinematographers
The ASC is not a labor union or a guild, but
an educational, cultural and professional
organization. Membership is by invitation
to those who are actively engaged as
directors of photography and have
demonstrated outstanding ability. ASC
membership has become one of the highest
honors that can be bestowed upon a
professional cinematographer — a mark
of prestige and excellence.

OFFICERS - 2006/2007
Daryn Okada
President
Michael Goi
Vice President
William A. Fraker
Vice President
Caleb Deschanel
Vice President
Victor J. Kemper
Treasurer
Michael Negrin
Secretary
John Hora
Sergeant-at-Arms

MEMBERS OF THE BOARD

Curtis Clark
Caleb Deschanel
George Spiro Dibie
Richard Edlund
William A. Fraker
Michael Goi
Francis Kenny
Isidore Mankofsky
Daryn Okada
Woody Omens
Nancy Schreiber
John Toll
Kees Van Oostrum
Roy Wagner
Haskell Wexler

ALTERNATES
Robert Primes
Victor J. Kemper
Laszlo Kovacs
John Hora
Stephen Lighthill

MUSEUM CURATOR
Steve Gainer
6

TLFeBOOK
In The Western US
& All Of Canada

HOLLYWOOD 818-761-4440
TORONTO 416-467-1700
VANCOUVER 604-984-4563
w w w. c l a i r m o n t . c o m

TLFeBOOK
 Dale Brooks, ABC-TV / Walt Disney Co

Editor’s Note ight up front, I’ll confess: since reading Steve

R Hodel’s Black Dahlia Avenger on a flight to Europe

several years ago, I’ve harbored an unhealthy
obsession for all things Dahlia. After tearing through
that book in a matter of hours, I recommended it to
everyone I met, causing a mini-frenzy in my immediate

Cinesaddle circle of friends. AC’s art director, Micki Gore, was

forced to abandon her reading after developing a

The Perfect severe case of night sweats and sleeplessness; adver-

tising sales rep Sanja Pearce began haunting my office
to offer her own bizarre theories about the case; and my
Camera Mount brother, Chris, drove straight to the murder site at 39th
and Norton to soak up the bad vibes. I, of course, topped them all by weaseling my way
into the former Hodel home on Franklin Ave. in Hollywood (aided and abetted by ASC
1. The Cinesaddle is easy to use; to set it up
member Curtis Clark, who was shooting a commercial in the alleged “house of evil”).
just put it down. I’ve now read nearly every book about or inspired by the case, including John
Gilmore’s Severed, Donald H. Wolfe’s The Black Dahlia Files and James Ellroy’s novel
2. Available in five different sizes. Works with The Black Dahlia. The latter yarn provided the blueprint and title for director Brian
all video, film and still cameras. DePalma’s new film, which, strangely, is the first theatrical feature inspired directly by
L.A.’s most infamous unsolved crime. Seeking to lend the Forties-era picture an appro-
3. Small - Compact - Portable. Weighs less priately noir look, DePalma called upon old friend Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC, who knows
than two pounds. a thing or two about evocative cinematography. In preparing my piece about the show
(“Darkest Noir,” page 32), I grilled not only Vilmos, but also production designer Dante
4. Super versatile camera mount. Get shots Ferretti, gaffer Nimi Getter, colorist Mike Sowa and A-camera focus puller Alexander
Bscheidl. That should tide me over until I gather my fellow Dahlia groupies for the
not possible with any other camera support.
movie’s opening weekend.
Atmospheric images also grace The Illusionist, a turn-of-the-century tale about
5. Cinesaddle absorbs vibration. Use it on a a magician whose powers put him at odds with a prince. To evoke the story’s period,
car, bike, boat, helicopter, anything. Mounting Dick Pope, BSC stunningly simulates the look of an early color-photography technique
kit included with all professional models. called the autochrome. Pope graciously allowed New York correspondent Pat Thomson
to peek into his bag of tricks (“Conjuring the Past,” page 50).
Moving even further back in time, to 874 A.D., Pathfinder pits warmongering
Vikings against Native Americans in an epic tale of abandonment and revenge. Fred
Schruers, a well-traveled senior editor at Premiere, flew north to British Columbia to
seek out cinematographer Daniel Pearl, ASC and director Marcus Nispel as they
toughed it out in a boggy marsh. Fred’s visit to the set produced a piece that captures
the shoot’s rigorous logistics (“Vikings on the Warpath,” page 60).
This month’s issue also offers a compelling argument for more precise image
control in our digital age, courtesy of Richard Crudo, ASC. In a carefully considered
piece (“A Call for Digital Printer Lights,” page 70), Richard outlines some of the obsta-
cles that continue to plague cinematographers during film-to-digital transfers of their
Visit Cinekinetic’s website: work, and suggests a range of solutions. (Of course, we all know Richard misses the
ability to vent his spleen in his monthly President’s Desk column, so we were happy to
www.cinekinetic.com give him the space.)
Photo by Douglas Kirkland.

and view streamed video clips of the

Cinesaddle in action.

Cinekinetic USA
345 W. 85th Street
New York, NY 10024 Stephen Pizzello
Telephone: (212) 202-0675 Executive Editor
Email: info@cinekinetic.com
8

TLFeBOOK
TLFeBOOK
“XDCAM HD is The New Betacam”
“The image that the PDW-F350 puts out is absolutely stunning,” says director/cameraman Jody Eldred.
“XDCAM® HD is the new Betacam®.”
Eldred and Mark Falstad, both Emmy Award winners, took PDW-F350 camcorders to the ends of the
earth. Eldred went to Israel to shoot 1080/24P. Falstad went to Alaska to shoot the legendary Iditarod®
sled dog race in both news-style 60i and documentary-style 24P. Featured on Sony’s XDCAM HD Disc
Set, the results speak for themselves.
Falstad says, “We shot pictures that I never dreamed possible. For instance, in the middle of the night
with only a hazy moon and no chance of making a picture, I simply turned on the Slow Shutter at 64
frame accumulation and we got the classic shot of a glowy tent in the mountains. And absolutely no
noise because I wasn't boosting gain. It was stunning!”
“To do time lapse, I put the camera on my tripod, easily set up the frame count on the LCD display and hit
the trigger. It was that fast. Overcranking at 60 frames per second, you can see slow motion of the dogs’
paws kicking up snow and the ears and tongues flying. And you can play it back immediately in the camera.
The PDW-F350 gives me a toolset that I never imagined having, especially at a price of $25,800 [MSRP].”

“It’s way too good.”

–Jody Eldred

TLFeBOOK
 “XDCAM HD makes me
a better cameraman.”
–Mark Falstad

Jody Eldred came to a similar conclusion. “I’m very impressed with the skin tone, the way the reds work,
the good detail in the darks and the highlights. I have $160,000 invested in my F900 HDCAM™ package. But
the F350 really deserves to wear its CineAlta™ badge. In fact, it’s way too good for a camera at this price.”
Astonishing HD picture quality and an incredible toolset at an
affordable price... that’s the new Betacam.

See Jody and Mark’s dramatic footage. Register to get your

XDCAM HD Disc Set at www.sony.com/XDCAM

© 2006 Sony Electronics Inc. All rights reserved. Features and specifications are subject to change without notice. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited.
Sony, CineAlta, HDCAM, Betacam and XDCAM are trademarks of Sony. The New Way of Business is a service mark of Sony. Iditarod is a registered trademark of the Iditarod Trail Committee.

TLFeBOOK
 DVD Playback
showed postwar Paris as it really was. 18-minute interview with Moreau
He wanted to hint at what he felt the (taped in 2005), who gives substantial
city was becoming: more commercial- insight into the making of the picture.
ized, less sympathetic and more Also featured are a joint interview
American. Impressed by cinematogra- with Moreau and Malle from the
pher Henri Decaë’s crisp work in docu- 1993 Cannes Film Festival, and a brief
mentaries and his stark, noirish bit from French TV circa 1957 that
images in Bob le Flambeur, Malle spotlights actor Ronet.
hired him to photograph Gallows. Fans of Miles Davis will be
Using newer, faster monochrome thrilled with a supplement devoted to
Elevator to the Gallows negatives, Decaë was able to give the film’s score. It’s divided into three
(1957) Elevator crisp daytime sequences and sections: the first comprises six
1.66:1 (16x9 Enhanced) realistic urban nights. It was Decaë minutes of footage filmed on the
Digital Monaural who insisted Moreau wear very little legendary night of Davis’ improvisa-
The Criterion Collection, makeup; he believed the available tion; the second, “On Piano, Rene
$39.95 street light would bring out her strong Urtreger,” is a 15-minute interview
facial features in night sequences. with the only surviving musician
“I love you!” pant the first of Other filmmakers had frowned upon involved in the scoring session; and in
two very different couples who Moreau’s bone structure and deemed the third, Village Voice music critic
traverse the romantic, suspenseful her face “too complicated” for film, Gary Giddins and horn player Jon
terrain of Louis Malle’s Elevator to and she had previously worked in only Faddis offer a solid portrait of Davis
the Gallows. As Florence (Jeanne a handful of pictures. Malle and and the pivotal role Elevator played in
Moreau) and Julien (Maurice Ronet) Moreau have both credited Decaë his career. This informative, 25-
whisper into the telephone, it with being directly responsible for the minute piece underscores the unique
becomes clear that someone stands stardom Moreau found after Gallows. chemistry in the collaboration of the
in the way of their consuming Decaë later collaborated with Malle filmmaker and musician.
passion. Florence tearfully vows to on four more pictures. For many, Elevator to the
meet Julien once he has dispatched The Criterion Collection Gallows signaled the birth of the
her husband, who is also his recently released an extraordinarily French New Wave. Shortly after the
employer. After the murder, Julien good two-disc DVD of Elevator to the film’s release, many of the directors
realizes he has left behind some Gallows. The picture transfer, which associated with the movement,
incriminating evidence and returns to appears to be from the 2005 restora- including Claude Chabrol, Jean-Luc
the scene of the crime, foolishly leav- tion that led to a theatrical re-release, Godard and François Truffaut, made
ing his convertible idling on the street is stunning, offering ultra-crisp resolu- their first films. But regardless of how
during his search. Enter couple two, tion and sharp contrast. The audio Elevator is categorized, it remains a
Louis (Georges Poujouly), a rebel track, clean and fully pronounced in its high note in the history of French
looking for a cause, and his girlfriend, original monaural state, is also excel- cinema. Paired with the wistful sound
Veronique (Yori Berton). They slip into lent, giving life to Miles Davis’ land- of Davis’ horn, Decaë’s shots of
Julien’s car, and when Julien fails to mark score, one of the film’s most Moreau’s iconic face as she walks
promptly return — after getting stuck famous elements. along rainswept Paris streets are
in the building’s elevator — they take The package’s well-produced among the lushest and most evoca-
off. Florence, glimpsing Veronique in supplements begin on disc one with tive moments in modern cinema. This
Julien’s passing car, thinks her lover trailers for the film’s original theatrical truly excellent presentation of Eleva-
has deceived her. release and its recent re-release. Disc tor to the Gallows is not to be missed.
Elevator to the Gallows was two begins with a 17-minute excerpt — Kenneth Sweeney
Malle’s first feature film, and he was from a 1975 Canadian television inter-
determined to make a picture that view with Malle. Next is an excellent ➢

12 September 2006

TLFeBOOK
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TLFeBOOK
 who develops a pastry habit while pining precise compositions that allow the audi-
for a woman he meets outside a bakery. ence a direct connection to the characters’
The camerawork, by Bruno Barbey and most deeply felt emotions. Supplements
Jean-Michel Meurice, follows the New on My Night at Maud’s include Rohmer’s
Wave tradition of naturalistic location 1965 television program On Pascal and a
shooting, and many of the elements 1974 episode of the French TV show
Rohmer developed in subsequent films are Telecinema that was devoted to Maud’s.
evident in the picture. Rohmer and In Claire’s Knee (1970), Rohmer and
Schroeder converse in the 83-minute Alméndros further develop their technique
supplement “Moral Tales, Filmic Issues,” of expressing meaning via delicate
Eric Rohmer’s Six Moral Tales: and The Bakery Girl of Monceau is also gestures. One such gesture — the hero
The Bakery Girl of Monceau, accompanied by Rohmer’s 10-minute short touching the titular knee — serves as the
Suzanne’s Career, La Presentation, or Charlotte and Her Steak movie’s climactic moment. Shooting on a
Collectionneuse, My Night at (1951). beautiful lake between France and
Maud’s, Claire’s Knee The second film, Suzanne’s Career Switzerland, Alméndros used the lush
and Love in the Afternoon (1963), is a 55-minute meditation on friend- setting to give Claire’s Knee a greater
(1962-1972) ship, sex and money that also serves as a sense of romanticism than the previous
1.33:1 sort of documentary on contemporary films in the cycle. At the same time,
Dolby Digital Monaural Paris. Daniel Lacambre’s 16mm black-and- through careful exposures, he never
The Criterion Collection, $99.95 white cinematography lovingly captures allowed the location to overwhelm the
the details of the city in a manner that characters and drama. Included on the
Eric Rohmer once described his six gives the locations weight and texture, disc is a brief episode of the French TV
“Moral Tales” as a group of films with one which in turn add dimension to characters show Le journal du cinema that features
story: a man is interested in one woman, who are defined by their surroundings. interviews with the stars of Claire’s Knee,
then distracted by another. This statement (Interestingly, Lacambre went on to excel along with a charming 1999 video short,
is true in the most general sense, but it at a very different kind of low-budget inde- The Curve.
falsely implies that the films are repeti- pendent filmmaking when he emigrated to The final film, Love in the After-
tive. On the contrary, each tale allows the States and joined Roger Corman’s New noon, which concerns a married man
Rohmer to develop and build on his World Pictures.) Suzanne’s Career is tempted to stray, is the most complex in
motifs, which culminate in the 1972 accompanied by the 1964 short Nadja in the cycle and the most generous to its
masterpiece Love in the Afternoon. Paris, the first of Rohmer’s collaborations characters. The climactic scene, in which
Collectively, the films are one of cinema’s with Néstor Alméndros, ASC, who went the man and his wife realize the depth of
greatest explorations of the ways in on to shoot the remaining Moral Tales. their feelings for one another, affects our
which men and women choose to manip- Nadja is a modest work, but with their next perspective of not only the characters at
ulate the truth. collaboration, Rohmer and Alméndros hand, but also of the Moral Tales as a
Though a member of the French created the first in a string of classics. whole. After 10 years and six films, it
New Wave, Rohmer distances himself La Collectionneuse (1966) was appears as though Rohmer and his char-
from colleagues Jean-Luc Godard and conceived as the fourth tale, but it became acters have finally achieved a balance
François Truffaut by eschewing references the third when scheduling conflicts between reason and passion. This disc
to other movies. As the “Moral Tales” delayed My Night at Maud’s. The first includes another Rohmer short, Veronique
label implies, he is obsessed with moral Moral Tale shot in color and on 35mm, La and Her Dunce (1958), as well as an 11-
and philosophical issues, and the ways in Collectionneuse introduces Alméndros’ minute interview with Rohmer fan Neil
which language can be used to expose as gift for using natural light. In addition to a LaBute.
well as conceal. But Rohmer’s camera theatrical trailer, a supplement also The transfers of all these films live
hides nothing; with his cinematographers, included with all subsequent films in the up to Criterion’s usual high standards,
he has honed a detached style that set, La Collectionneuse features a 1977 though the source elements for The
exposes his characters’ emotions with interview with Rohmer and his 1966 short Bakery Girl of Monceau and some of the
honesty and clarity. film A Modern Coed, also photographed by other shorts appear a bit worn. Fans of
This recently released boxed set Alméndros. Rohmer’s work will be thrilled with the
from The Criterion Collection allows view- My Night at Maud’s (1969) is a comprehensive extras and director-
ers to chart the evolution of one of perfect union of sound, image and narra- approved transfers, and those unfamiliar
France’s greatest filmmakers. The first tive that is observationally astute and tech- with his work will find this set to be an
presentation is the 1962 short film The nically impeccable. The picture perfects enlightening crash course.
Bakery Girl of Monceau, a romance star- what would become the defining visual — Jim Hemphill
ring Barbet Schroeder as a young man approach for the subsequent films: formal, ➢

14 September 2006

TLFeBOOK
TLFeBOOK
 Syriana (2005)
2.35:1 (16x9 Enhanced)
Dolby Digital 5.1
Warner Home Video, $28.95

A detailed examination of the

energy industry’s role in American
foreign policy might not sound like the
stuff of gripping entertainment, but Syri-
ana is just that: an exciting thriller that’s
all the more suspenseful because it’s
entrenched in real-world issues. Direc-
tor/writer Stephen Gaghan (Traffic)
explores the subject of America’s depen-
dence on foreign oil through a compli-
cated, ensemble-based narrative that
jumps from the Persian Gulf to Washing-
ton to Europe while establishing connec-
“Constantly saying 'one day, I'll make a tions between corporations, govern-
ments and terrorists.
film' gets tedious. LFS lets you make The plotting is quite complicated,
ilms instead of just
fi
films t talking about it” and an astonishing amount of material is
Babak Jalali, Iran, LFS graduate 2006 packed into the two-hour film. Gaghan’s
Director “Heydar, an Afghan in Tehran” nominated for BAFTA dense screenplay is lent even more
best short film and won Best Student Film at the New York City depth by cinematographer Robert
Short Film Festival 2005. Elswit, ASC (Good Night, and Good
Luck; Magnolia; Boogie Nights), who
MA FILMMAKING uses the widescreen frame and fluid,
MA SCREENWRITING handheld camerawork to provide multi-
ple perspectives within each scene. The
CRAFT EXTENSION frame is in a state of perpetual flux, but
PROGRAMME the constant repositioning of the camera
allows the viewer to assimilate more
information throughout each sequence
without becoming disoriented.
Elswit’s visuals are incredibly
subtle and effective. His combination of
handheld camerawork and naturalistic
to find out more visit lighting gives Syriana the appearance of

MA validated by
lfs.org.uk a documentary, but at the same time, his
use of lenses and composition creates
highly subjective images that beautifully
express the emotional states of the
characters. Elswit is particularly adept at
THE LONDON FILM SCHOOL manipulating depth of field; within the
A T R A D I T I O N O F I N N O V A T I O N
16 24 SHELTON STREET, LONDON, WC2H 9UB U.K. TELEPHONE: +44 (0)20 7836 9642 FAX: +44 (0)20 7497 3718

TLFeBOOK
same scene, he often rapidly moves
between deep-focus compositions that
provide context and long-lens shots that
isolate specific characters or objects.
This allows the viewer to simultaneously
get both a wider perspective and an inti-
mate experience.
Warner Home Video has done
Syriana justice with this DVD, whose
transfer allows the home viewer to
appreciate the nuances of Elswit’s
palette and the intricacies of the film’s
elaborate sound design. In a movie with
this many characters and storylines, the
sound mix is crucial, and Syriana uses an
impeccably calibrated balance of
dialogue, effects and music to provide
clarity and texture. The disc’s Dolby Digi-
tal 5.1 soundtrack is as stunning as
Elswit’s imagery in this flawless transfer.
In addition to the film’s theatrical
trailer, the DVD features two enjoyable
10-minute featurettes, “A Conversation
with George Clooney” and “Make a
Change, Make a Difference,” which illu-
minate the filmmakers’ intentions but do
not offer much in the way of technical
information, and a fascinating collection
of three deleted scenes that focus on CIA
operative Bob Barnes, played by Clooney
in an Academy Award-winning perfor-
mance. These scenes expand on the
film’s moral complexity and make
Barnes’ fate even more chilling.
It’s too bad the articulate Gaghan
did not contribute an audio commentary
to this package, but Syriana still offers
plenty of illuminating insights on its own.
— Jim Hemphill
■

NEXT MONTH’S
REVIEWS

Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler (1922)

Cinematographer: Carl Hoffmann

Seven Samurai (1954)

Cinematographer: Asakazu Nakai

Mr. Arkadin (1955)

Cinematographer: Jean Bourgoin

17

TLFeBOOK
 Production Slate
Horrifying Surprises

Cave explorer Creepy Crawlers film, which featured British recruits lost that simplicity. We didn’t want any

The Descent photos by Alex Bailey, courtesy of Lionsgate Entertainment.

Juno (Natalie
Mendoza) fends
by David E. Williams in the wilderness and attacked by fero- visual clutter, just a straight-ahead look
off a fearsome cious werewolves, The Descent tracks a that delivered the story. There was a
“crawler” in The British director of photography group of female spelunkers who must quality to the horror films of the late
Descent. Makeup
for the creatures
Sam McCurdy felt a chill run down his fight for their lives against a mutant 1970s largely based on suspense; they
was designed by spine when he first saw his name sten- strain of blind, cave-dwelling humanoids didn’t use gore, fancy lighting or overly
Paul Hyett and ciled on a parking space at Pinewood dubbed “crawlers.” clever camera moves, just strong
executed by Neil
Morrill.
Studios. “I’d started out 15 years ago McCurdy says the spare-yet- images.
Cinematographer working the floor at Pinewood, reloading atmospheric look of late-1970s fright “Neil and I have a good short-
Sam McCurdy magazines while learning as much as I films informed his approach to The hand,” he adds, “and on The Descent,
notes, “At first
their skin was
could,” he remembers, “so to return Descent. “Neil and I grew up on the we’d often describe our scenes in terms
pure white, but there as a director of photography to same kinds of movies,” says the camera- of what Cundey and John Carpenter had
Neil and I shoot a feature film was bizarre.” man, who cites The Goonies (shot by done in Halloween, The Fog, Escape
immediately
decided they had
It was January of 2005, and Nick McLean) and Halloween (shot by from New York and The Thing, which
to have a McCurdy had arrived at the venerable Dean Cundey, ASC) as the films that are all beautiful anamorphic pictures.
grubbier, complex to shoot The Descent, a sparked his interest in cinematography. Years from now, they will still be consid-
‘underground’
look. They
horror/action movie written and directed “The Goonies is amazing because of the ered some of the most beautifully shot
needed that by Neil Marshall, with whom McCurdy compositions and camera placement, horror movies ever made.”
filth.” had worked on the cult horror hit Dog and Halloween has this graphic simplic- True to their influences, McCurdy
Soldiers (2002). Similar in setup to that ity. Neil and I wanted that same feeling, and Marshall chose to shoot The

18 September 2006

TLFeBOOK
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TLFeBOOK
 Fuji stocks. So we did tests, and I found
that Fuji Eterna 500 [8573] looked
absolutely fantastic in our low-light
conditions. The contrast in the Fuji was
much better than in the Kodak stocks, in
that it dropped right off in the shadows
while the Kodak seemed to be search-
ing for things in the darkness. Kodak just
didn’t have the contrast we wanted —
too much latitude for our use. So we
ended up using Eterna 500 for the entire
picture. I probably could have used Fuji’s
midrange stocks for our exteriors, but I
absolutely needed the speed for our
studio work and also wanted to keep
things a bit simple.”
McCurdy saved the production
money by shooting in 3-perf, “so while
we shot the picture with Arri cameras
— Studios, Lites and a 435 — and
Above: Bloodied Descent in a widescreen format, opting look if we hadn’t brought it down. Zeiss Ultra Prime lenses from Take Two,
but still battling for Super 35mm 2.35:1. “Given the low- They’d look almost phosphorescent, and we screened dailies at Panavision
for her life, Sarah
(Shauna light conditions we’d be shooting in, we although that was the original idea, we because it’s one of the few places
Macdonald) had to shoot in Super 35, otherwise my could see in the tests that as soon as we where we could screen 3-perf.” He
seeks an escape. focus puller would have killed me,” says put the crawlers in a dark environment, relied almost entirely on Ultra Primes
Below: In an
earlier scene, McCurdy. they were far too bright, too reflective. throughout the studio portion of the
Sarah picks her Properly lighting the creepy For the story, we needed them to blend shoot, primarily “because of the
way through a albino crawlers — whose makeup was into the shadows at times.” distances involved. Often, we were 12
cavern, using a
torch to light the designed by Paul Hyett and executed by These camera tests also deter- inches or less from our subjects, so
way. “The Neil Morrill — was a concern. “We did mined McCurdy’s selection of film zooms were out of the question, with
trouble with low- two days of camera tests with different stocks. “Finances do influence how a the exception of stunts or other shots
light work comes
when you have prosthetics,” recalls McCurdy. “They cinematographer has to shoot a picture, where we might need a quick re-frame
very bright started off more wide-eyed and crea- and on the modest budgets we often of the action.
sources that drop ture-like, but we evolved away from work with in the U.K., it can mean the “My focus puller, Jonathan
off quickly, like
torches or that look to something more human. At difference between shooting 35mm or Garwes, has never asked me for much
firebrands,” says first their skin was pure white, but Neil Super 16mm, or even high-definition over the many years we’ve worked
McCurdy. “A and I immediately decided they had to video,” he says. “Fortunately, there was together, but between what he needed
person’s face
near [the source] have a grubbier, ‘underground’ look. no doubt we’d shoot The Descent on to do his job and our tests, we tried to
may be a T16, but They needed that filth. Plus, their skin 35mm, but there was a financial ques- avoid shooting wide open. Even in the
just a foot or so would have had an improbably stark tion of whether we’d shoot on Kodak or really dim scenes, we’d try to build
away, you’re
barely things up with a backlight or additional
registering contrast so we could have at least a
anything. So T2.8. There were occasional shots that
realistically
supplementing were lit just with torches or firebrands,
those sources to getting us down to T2.1 or T1.4, and we
get a bit of the knew we’d just have to crush all those
backgrounds
was the blacks in post. To that end, we tried to
challenge.” keep everything as clean and sharp as
possible so we’d have the best image
possible to take into the digital interme-
diate [DI].”
The lens filtration McCurdy did
use consisted of Tiffen 80C and 80D
correction employed in place of stan-
dard 85s for day-exterior scenes. “We

20 September 2006

TLFeBOOK
TLFeBOOK
 bit of additional backlight to add an
edge. We used that setup throughout
the picture and also often used pieces
of white reflector boards strategically
stapled onto the set walls or floor to
bounce back the headlamps that the
women wore. As we did rehearsals,
Neil and I noted where the women
would be looking and then stapled up
the reflectors to get the best effect.”
Given the subterranean setting,
the filmmakers knew their sources
would be limited to whatever the char-
acters brought with them: headlamps,
flashlights, glow sticks, flares and
improvised firebrands. “We wanted to
stay true to those sources,” McCurdy
says. “The trouble with low-light work
comes when you have very bright
sources that drop off quickly, like
torches or firebrands. A person’s face
Above: Juno wanted to cool everything off, and I find could be easily cut away to allow the near [the source] may be a T16, but just
leads the athletic that the 80s create a kind of silvery camera or lighting in wherever we a foot or so away, you’re barely regis-
Rebecca (Saskia
Mulder) through gloss I really like, especially in the kind needed it. That made a big difference.” tering anything. So realistically supple-
a tunnel. Below: of light you get in the U.K.” The underground action begins menting those sources to get a bit of the
Cinematographer Following two weeks of exterior as the six women rappel down into the backgrounds was the challenge.”
Sam McCurdy
(at camera) lines location shooting in the Scottish wilder- cave complex through a large opening To that end, McCurdy and gaffer
up a shot. ness and in London, the production in the earth, shafts of bright daylight Andrew Taylor devised filter packs to
Observing, from arrived at Pinewood to film the caving following them into the darkness, match his supplemental lamps to their
left, are director
Neil Marshall, sequences over the next five weeks. carried by a mist of water droplets. “We sources. “The glow sticks were proba-
stunt coordinator There, production designer Simon lit that scene with a big space-light bly the easiest, as we could just wrap
Jim Dowdall and Bowles (also a veteran of Dog Soldiers) setup, 20 or so units on the grid above Mini-Flos in a mint green and hide them
1st AD Jack
Ravenscroft. had built a warren of caverns and coming down as a single source,” says about the set as needed. But the red
tunnels. “Simon and I have done a few McCurdy. “We then had four snooted flares were horrible; that kind of red is
movies together now, and he was great 6Ks shooting down within that to give very difficult to photograph well and can
about letting me have input on his us those shafts. For lower-angle shots later become very noisy in the digital
designs,” says McCurdy. “He built much looking up into the women’s faces, we realm. Also, the flares burn quite
of the caves with a self-expanding foam used very heavily diffused Kino Flo ring quickly, so you have a problem of main-
that had a nice surface texture and lights on the camera for fill and then a taining the light. They’re beautiful when
they first go off but become quite
hideous, as they create so much smoke
and noise. Our solution was to start
with wide shots showing the girls strik-
ing a flare and then tossing it off
camera. As soon as the flare was out of
frame, we’d bring up our supplemental
lighting — gelled lamps on flickerboxes
— and douse the real flare. In post, we
graded that wide shot of the real flare to
perfectly match our following shots,
usually taking out a bit of the red.
Instead of fighting to match all those
shots to the real flare, we just changed
one shot, which was much easier.”
Because each of these sources

22 September 2006

TLFeBOOK
TLFeBOOK
 A massive offers its own distinctive hue — crim-
wicker effigy is son red, warm orange, sickly green and
set ablaze
during the bright white — The Descent benefits
finale of The from an array of lighting that helps keep
Wicker Man, a the visuals fresh. However, McCurdy
remake of the
1973 cult hit dismisses any notion that he planned
about a police the resultant color scheme. “I really
detective who wish I could take credit for it,” he
uncovers dark
deeds while laughs, “but it was more subconscious
investigating a than that, really. We start with white
crime on a light at the beginning and gradually strip
remote island.
that away to get more of the greens and
reds to help suggest our characters are
traveling into the various levels of hell.
Then, we come back into white daylight
at the end of the film. Our story told us
where we were going, but we didn’t
exactly plot out every step of how we
would get there.” With a chuckle,
McCurdy adds, “I also think we got quite
fed up with the red flares at some point
and stopped using them as much.”
McCurdy and Marshall graded
The Descent with colorist Kevin Phelan
at London’s Lip Sync Post, and the color-
corrected files were recorded out to
35mm on an Arrilaser. “We did a lot of
testing with different print options,”
notes the cinematographer. “They’d
output about five minutes of footage
and we’d have a print made at Deluxe,
running that back-to-back with the same
scene from our original printed rushes to
see what artifacts we were picking up in
the digital process. Well, the difference
was just huge, mostly in the blacks. And
because we were making a horror

The Wicker Man photos by Alan Markfield, courtesy of Warner Bros.

movie set in a giant cave, the blacks Revisiting a Cult Favorite seen. After tapping Roger Corman for
were most important. We needed the by Jay Holben editing and marketing advice, Deeley
darkest blacks to keep the audience recut the picture and released it. The
guessing what was in those corners, In 1972, when British Lion Films Wicker Man was a box-office success
away from the light.” was on the verge of closing its doors, and has since become a favorite
“There are a lot of good British millionaire John Bentley purchased the midnight movie.
directors working today who are trying studio and decided to put a film into A new take on The Wicker Man,
to keep productions based in the U.K. or production quickly to allay fears that he directed by Neil LaBute and shot by Paul
Europe,” notes McCurdy, who will soon would strip the company down and sell Sarossy, CSC, BSC, will appear in movie
re-team with Marshall on the $25 off the assets. The film was The Wicker theaters this month. “I had seen the
million project Doomsday. “It’s films like Man, an odd horror yarn about a fictional original Wicker Man and had always
The Descent that are helping a new island off the coast of Scotland and a regarded it as an odd but wonderful cult
generation of filmmakers learn the craft, policeman’s search for an allegedly film,” says Sarossy, whose credits
but with more money comes more missing child. The picture was still in include Where the Truth Lies (see AC
responsibility and oversight, so we’ll see production when British Lion Films was Sept. ’05), Affliction (AC Nov. ’98) and
how far we can go with the next one.” sold again, this time to Michael Deeley, The Sweet Hereafter (AC Dec. ’97). “It’s
who, upon seeing the finished film, one of those films that sticks with you
pronounced it one of the worst he’d ever for a long time. It’s a fascinating

24 September 2006

TLFeBOOK
TLFeBOOK
 Right: Sister happening created an interesting
Summersisle
(Ellen Burstyn) tension.”
is one of the Working without the benefit of
unusual classic high contrast and deep shadows,
characters the
detective Sarossy often created atmosphere
encounters through composition and camera move-
during his ment. “I tried to invest the frame and
investigation.
Below: The compositions with an increasing sense
officer, Edward of dread as the story goes on,” he says.
Maulis (Nicolas “We know something odd is afoot, and
Cage), discovers
a mysterious we worked to represent that composi-
earthen mound. tionally, making the frame tell the story
as much as we could. As the story
progresses, Maulis wanders about the
island conducting his investigation, and
the camera is like his companion as the
clues and details are revealed. As the
investigation goes on, we realize most
things are not as they initially appeared;
premise, and I was excited to work on a out to a small, secluded island to inves- then the camera represents Maulis’
remake.” tigate the alleged disappearance of a innocent eye and we start to obscure
Most of the picture was filmed in little girl. Everyone on the island denies parts of the frame. We get glimpses of
and around Vancouver, British Columbia, the child’s existence, and as his investi- things, and we peek around corners and
and about half was shot on Bowen gation progresses, Maulis uncovers shoot through doorways. I was very
Island, just off the coast. “We had evidence that the entire community is often creating a frame within a frame,
remarkably few sets,” says Sarossy. covering up a very dark matter. and we had little elements pass through
“About 90 percent of the film was day “For a scary film, we have very the frame almost casually — did we see
exterior; that’s normally challenging in few night scenes,” notes Sarossy. “We that?
that part of the world, but miraculously, were somewhat students of the Polan- “The whole story takes place
we were only disturbed by the rain for ski school of filmmaking: creating a over the course of three days,” he
10 minutes over 45 days of shooting! creepy atmosphere in plain sight. For continues, “so we do have some night
Completely by luck of the draw, we were day scenes, we definitely did not resist scenes, and in them the camera is very
hit with gorgeous weather.” the beauty of the island. We felt the mobile and subjective so as to enhance
The story follows Edward Maulis juxtaposition of the gorgeous environ- the feeling of dread. “The camera move-
(Nicolas Cage), a sheriff who is called ment with the sinister things that were ment around Maulis suggests he is
being watched. He’s not alone in these
dark places he’s investigating.”
Sarossy’s sinister camerawork
incorporated a great deal of Steadicam
work by operator David Crone. “David’s
one of those guys who practically lives
in his rig,” the cinematographer notes
with a laugh. “We did use Steadicam
quite a bit to give the actors as much
freedom as possible.”
Sarossy filmed The Wicker Man
in Super 35mm 2.35:1 with Panaflex
Millennium cameras and Primo prime
and zoom lenses. “We pretty much had
a B camera running full-time,” he notes.
“That was because of the daylight hours
we had to work with, and because we
were conscious of scheduling turn-
around time for the cast. If you aren’t
careful, the schedule can get later and

26 September 2006

TLFeBOOK
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TLFeBOOK
 digital finish was not part of the film-
makers’ original plan, and it was there-
fore not a factor in the decision to shoot
Super 35 instead of anamorphic. “We
knew we had a great variety of compli-
cated situations for the camera, among
them aerial, underwater, Steadicam,
and twilight shots that would need extra
speed,” explains Sarossy. “That was the
main reason I chose Super 35. Also, it
was much more practical to shoot with
multiple cameras, as there are many
more [spherical] lenses available. I love
anamorphic and leap at the chance to
shoot in that format, but this wasn’t the
film for it.”
The Wicker Man’s emphasis on
daylight hours also meant Sarossy had
to depart from his usual strategy of
avoiding HMIs. “I love tungsten light-
Above: Two of later each day and really eat into the closer shot. We tried very hard to work ing,” he says. “There’s an incredible
the local available daylight hours. in the additional camera in a responsible articulation possible because of the
residents, Dr.
Moss (Frances “I’m very conscious of the short- way that didn’t compromise things visu- huge variety of small tungsten fixtures
Conroy, comings and compromises of using ally. That usually translated into not that are available. HMIs are a necessary
foreground) and multiple cameras,” he continues. “It doing a wide shot and close-up at the evil; they’re large, clunky and cumber-
Sister Beech
(Diane Delano), affects not only my department but also same time, and trying to instead get a some. Still, for day-exterior shoots,
hold Maulis the sound department. They get upset if different perspective on the scene with HMIs are obviously the tool of choice.”
down as another we’re trying to do a wide and a close at the B camera.” However, the cinematographer
resident
prepares to the same time, because it really Although The Wicker Man went did get to employ some tungsten units,
break his legs. compromises the sound quality of the through a digital intermediate (DI), a as the island has very little electricity
Below: The
crew gets ready
to film one of the
production’s
many day
exteriors on
location in
British
Columbia.

28 September 2006

TLFeBOOK
TLFeBOOK
 Director of nearly directionless ambience. “I tend to
photography light high and then underexpose, rather
Paul Sarossy,
CSC, BSC than not use enough light,” he explains.
(center), “I try to shoot at a T4. I believe in giving
Steadicam the focus puller a fighting chance. I’ve
operator David
Crone and 1st never really preferred using such a tiny
AC Shawn depth of field that you’re conscious of it.”
Harding await One of the few sets the produc-
the next setup
as Cage (in tion built was a ruined church, which is
background) the centerpiece of the island community.
gets a quick The set was constructed in an open field,
touchup.
and Sarossy had a 40'x40' silk positioned
over the open ceiling to control daylight
over the course of the shooting day. For
sequences set in the church at night,
gaffer Burton Kuchera came up with the
and relies on kerosene lanterns and fire- on night exteriors,” he says. “I’ve found idea of rigging a series of Maxi-Brutes on
light for interior illumination. For day it’s very often difficult to successfully the truss holding the silk. A 12'x12'
interiors, Sarossy streamed HMI create artificial moonlight. You can light muslin bounce was mounted above the
daylight through the windows and a local area, but the falloff in the silk, and the Maxis were aimed straight
augmented it inside with warm tung- distance betrays where the light is up at the muslin so the light would
sten lighting through flicker boxes to really coming from.” bounce off the muslin and pass through
simulate kerosene lamps. “Because In an effort to avoid this, Sarossy the 40-by silk into the church. “We called
there is very little modern lighting on the used Maxi-Brutes overhead that were the rig our ‘pyramid of light,’” recalls
island, we ran into the classic conun- often double-diffused with 12'x12' or Sarossy. “At night, you could see that big
drum of lighting without a source of light 20'x20' muslin bounces, creating a soft, cone of light from a mile away. It created

30

TLFeBOOK
 an incredibly soft, beautiful toplight that Sarossy and his
dissipated gently around the set. It was crew prepare to
film the town’s
the most convincing moonlight I’d ever pagan
seen.” celebration.
The Wicker Man climaxes with
the burning of a huge human effigy
made of wicker wood. “We had one
shot to get that right, because the effigy
was so large only one was made,” says
Sarossy. “We had nine cameras rolling,
and we had to shoot it all in one take
and leave it to the gods. It ended up
going off perfectly, actually! One of the
camera angles was from the base of the
effigy looking up, and at one moment
the burning head falls down right on the
camera. It’s an amazing shot, because is that the cinematographer must be ready to do the DI. I had to fly down to
the camera keeps rolling as it’s engulfed physically in the facility when it’s being Los Angeles to grade Wicker Man on
in flames, and burning embers are basi- done,” he says. “With conventional my days off from another project I was
cally melting the camera!” timing, you can be off on another project shooting in Toronto.
The Wicker Man marked in another part of the world, and they’ll “However, our very first session
Sarossy’s first experience with a DI, and send prints for you to review so you can at Pacific Title put my mind at ease,”
he notes that although he is pleased send notes back to the timer. The DI is he adds. “Our colorist, Corrine
with the results, he found the process to certainly much more powerful, but it’s Bogdanovicz, is incredibly visual, and
be far less convenient than a photo- much less convenient, especially if she did a beautiful job with the film.”■
chemical finish. “The shortcoming of DI you’re on another project when they’re

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31

TLFeBOOK
 Darkest
Noir
ust after 10 a.m. on January 15, Bersinger quickly pushed the baby

J
Vilmos Zsigmond, 1947, a young housewife stroller to the nearest house,
ASC brings an air of named Betty Bersinger was pounded on the door, and told the
walking south on Norton Ave. woman who answered to phone the
dread and doom to in Los Angeles, pushing her 3- police. That call set off a rapidly
The Black Dahlia, year-old daughter in a baby carriage growing sensation at the crime scene,
as she made her way to a shoe-repair where the late Elizabeth Short would,
whose plot springs shop two blocks south of 39th St. in death, finally receive the attention
from Los Angeles’ Strolling down the sidewalk, which that had eluded her as a would-be
bordered an empty field, she Hollywood starlet. The ghastly
most famous suddenly noticed a pale-white figure tableau inspired months of lurid
unsolved murder. lying among the weeds. As she headlines in the nation’s newspapers,
slowed to take a closer look, she which referred to the raven-haired
mistook the form for a discarded victim by her nickname, “the Black
mannequin because its top and Dahlia” (a moniker inspired by the
by Stephen Pizzello
bottom halves were lying a foot 1946 noir movie The Blue Dahlia).
apart. On closer inspection, however, A gruesome landmark in the
Unit photography by Bersinger realized to her horror that annals of L.A. crime, the Black
Rolf Konow, SMPSP she was staring at the mutilated Dahlia murder remains the city’s
corpse of a neatly bisected female. most notorious unsolved crime.

32 September 2006

TLFeBOOK
 creating morbid thrills onscreen. worked with the director on Opposite: Police
detective Dwight
Rather than adapting one of the Obsession, Blow Out and The Bonfire “Bucky”
true-crime accounts of the case, of the Vanities. Zsigmond relished the Bleichert (Josh
DePalma opted to adapt James opportunity to apply his skills to a Hartnett) hunts
for a killer in the
Ellroy’s novel The Black Dahlia, in noir drama, although he admits he Hollywood Hills.
which Short’s murder threatens to was unfamiliar with source material. This page,
destroy the lives of two Los Angeles “I didn’t know much about the Black above: The
murder victim,
police detectives who team up to Dahlia before I signed onto the would-be
hunt the killer. Ellroy, of course, has project, so the whole story was basi- actress Elizabeth
staked a claim as the king of literary cally fresh to me,” he says. “I didn’t Short (Mia
Kirshner), sees
noir by exploring men’s darkest read Ellroy’s novel, so my approach her showbiz
impulses in such books as L.A. to the movie was based on Josh dream turn into a
Confidential, American Tabloid and Friedman’s script and my discussions horrifying
nightmare.
Numerous authors have written My Dark Places. with Brian. Of course, we all knew Below: Director
books detailing their pet theories on Intent on lending his picture this was a film-noir idea. I’d seen L.A. Brian DePalma
the case, but no one has definitively an appropriately stylized ambience, Confidential and knew it was based (left) confers
with
identified the killer. Surprisingly, DePalma recruited his old friend on a book by Ellroy. That movie is a cinematographer
given the classic noir trappings of the Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC, who had good example of what I call ‘color Vilmos
case and its era, few films have used Zsigmond, ASC
(center) and
the incident as a backdrop. Aside production
from the 1974 telefilm Who Is the designer Dante
Black Dahlia? (a production that Ferretti on
location in
employed retired lead detective Bulgaria.
Photos courtesy of Universal Pictures.

Harry Hansen as its “technical direc-

tor”), the 1981 feature True
Confessions (which incorporates
elements of the case into its plot),
and the recent indie-film exploita-
tion effort Black Dahlia, this seem-
ingly fertile material had remained
neglected.
Enter director Brian DePalma,
who knows a thing or two about

American Cinematographer 33

TLFeBOOK
Darkest Noir
noir,’ because it’s shot in color but
has the feel of a black-and-white
movie.”
Zsigmond was well prepared
to explore Ellroy’s shadowy milieu of
hardboiled cops and dangerous
women. A native of Hungary, he
grew up watching an era of black-
and-white classics such as Citizen
Kane and The Third Man, and
learned most of his lighting tech-
niques while shooting black-and-
white projects. “In film school, I got
my training in black-and-white only,
because it was 1951 and we didn’t
have color film at the school yet,” he
recalls. “During my final year, we
started to get some color film, but I
never got to use it. Black-and-white
always depended on light and shad-
Above: Police ows, so we had to learn to light well.
and reporters With black-and-white film, you
converge on the cannot just bounce a light into
grisly crime
scene at 39th and the ceiling and get good results,
Norton. The because it would look so boring you
murder site was wouldn’t be able to watch it. You
re-created at an
uncompleted have to create lit areas and shadow
residential areas, and essentially, the shadows
development in are more important than the lights.
Sofia. Right:
During a “When I started to shoot
nighttime sweep color, I still lit like I was working in
of the area, black-and-white because that’s the
Bleichert (right)
discusses the only way I saw movies. Later on,
case with his when soft-lighting techniques came
partner, Lee along, I tried to use them but never
Blanchard
(Aaron Eckhart). really enjoyed it. I find soft lighting
very boring. I grew up studying
painters like Caravaggio and
Georges de la Tour, whose lighting is
more realistic, with light coming
through windows and from sources
like candles or fires. For me, lighting
is always about trying to duplicate
the romanticism of sources. I think
the more abstract forms of lighting,
like soft-lighting techniques, don’t
create any tension in movies, espe-
cially crime movies. When you’re
doing a crime film, you have to
create shadows. The Black Dahlia
was certainly that kind of movie, so I
couldn’t think of a more appropriate
way to light it.”
Lighting was only part of

34 September 2006

TLFeBOOK
Zsigmond’s challenge on the show, anyway, because I don’t think we budget by 50 percent. It’s a real strug- Above: Ferretti’s
Art Deco-
however. He and a fellow Academy could find many interiors today that gle to shoot in L.A. for economic accented police
Award winner, production designer look like they did in 1947. By build- reasons, so you have all of these station,
Dante Ferretti, were also tasked with ing everything from scratch, we were shows going to Canada, Australia, constructed in an
abandoned paper
creating a believable facsimile of able to better re-create the period. New Zealand and Romania. It’s really factory, gave
1940s Los Angeles in Bulgaria, where “Still, it’s a shame that doing a a pity that we cannot somehow find Zsigmond the
tax incentives and inexpensive labor picture in Hollywood now costs so a way to make these movies in opportunity to
create a classic
helped reduce the project’s budget. much, because it would be so much Hollywood.” noir atmosphere
Zsigmond recalls, “There was talk easier to stay in town,” he continues. Ferretti was also nonplussed with hard shafts
about shooting in France, and then “It’s hard to believe that shipping when he learned he would have to of light generated
by HMI units
they talked about shooting in Italy, heavy furniture and props and hiring build wholly believable L.A. settings positioned
and then Germany, but we ended up local technicians would reduce the in Eastern Europe. “Brian basically outside the set’s
in Bulgaria. That was a shock to me, windows. The
overhead
because I thought we’d lose a lot of fluorescents were
familiar territory by not shooting in mostly cosmetic
Hollywood. Ultimately, we did about for day scenes,
but for nighttime
eight days of shooting in Hollywood, scenes in the
and I think we got enough flavor squad room,
from the real locations. At any rate, gaffer Nimi Getter
fitted the fixtures
the site of the murder doesn’t look with Osram tubes
like it did back in the Forties because (Lumilux 830
it’s become a more residential neigh- Warm Whites at
3,000°K) to boost
borhood. It was easier to re-create their illumination.
that street and others from scratch in Left: Zsigmond
Bulgaria, where the mountains actu- manipulates a
handy set of
ally looked pretty similar to the moveable
Hollywood Hills. Of course, if we Venetian blinds to
had shot in the States, all the interior paint Eckhart
with slashes of
sets would have been built on stages light.

American Cinematographer 35

TLFeBOOK
 Darkest Noir

The film’s opening gave me the script and said, ‘Good this size. ice-hockey arena). Back in L.A., the
sequence,
depicting the luck,’” he recalls with a wry laugh. “Initially, I was told I could production built a diner on a beach
notorious Zoot Suit “He felt that I knew L.A. very well find whatever I needed in Bulgaria, in San Pedro and newspaper-office
Riots of June 1943, and could pull it off. Nevertheless, I but after two weeks I realized I interiors, and also lent a Forties look
was staged on an
exterior “East L.A.” did a scout in L.A. just before we left, couldn’t get anything,” continues to a block of the real Hollywood
street set built by and we did a lot of research about the Ferretti. “So I spoke with my set Blvd. in front of the Pantages
Ferretti and his Black Dahlia. I looked at the real decorator, who then went back to Theatre.
crew in Bulgaria.
The complicated murder site, even though that street L.A. for several weeks to collect The Black Dahlia opens in
shot, which begins doesn’t look the same today, and I props. In all, we shipped over about spectacular fashion with a sequence
on a burning palm also looked at all of the pictures that seven containers full of props and set depicting the infamous Zoot Suit
tree and then
glides down to the were taken back in the Forties. When dressing; we even shipped over the Riots of June 1943, a vicious
fighting at ground you have good information at your period cars! We ultimately built outbreak of hand-to-hand violence
level, was disposal, it’s not that difficult to everything from scratch in Bulgaria, on the streets of East L.A. that pitted
executed with a
SuperTechnocrane design convincing sets. What makes including about 25 interiors that U.S. military soldiers and sailors
mounted on a it difficult is when you have to work were constructed in an abandoned against Mexican-American youths.
dolly. in an unfamiliar country with crew- paper factory. I started my work four Ferretti and his team built the “East
people you don’t know very well. I months before shooting began, and L.A. street” in an unfinished devel-
brought all of my key people from it was a very big job.” opment just outside Sofia, where
Italy, the States and London — The interior sets built within only the sidewalks had been
construction coordinators, painters the former factory included a police completed. (This set was later
and so on. Plus, I brought a graphic station, a portion of City Hall, converted into a stretch of
designer from L.A. to work on all of several nightclub interiors, the Hollywood Blvd., and the opposite
the neon signs and posters for our houses and apartments of various side of the same street was redressed
street sets. But I also used a lot of characters, a seedy motel, and many as the murder site.) The riot scene
Bulgarian laborers from Sofia, and offices. Exterior sets built at other begins with a shot of a burning palm
they were very good. We hired local locations in Bulgaria included the tree and glides down to street level to
carpenters, plasterers and other murder site, a stretch of Hollywood sweep viewers right into the fighting.
craftsmen, but most of them had Blvd. (which did double duty as a After dollying down the street
only worked on low-budget projects, street in East L.A.), six Beachwood through the action, the camera
so we had to teach them certain Canyon bungalows, and two boxing zooms into a side alley, where hard-
things about working on a movie of rings (one of which was built in an nosed cop and former boxer Dwight

36 September 2006

TLFeBOOK
 U.S. sailors
charge toward
their hand-to-
hand battle with
Mexican-
American
youths.

“Bucky” Bleichert (Josh Hartnett) entire movie he’ll only go to an have a lot of equipment lying around
rushes to the aid of Sgt. Lee extreme close-up maybe 10 times. the set, but often they won’t use it or
Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart). Their That way, they have more impact.” will use it for things you could
friendship — and partnership — To capture the riot scene, accomplish more easily with simpler
ensues. the filmmakers dollied a methods. On this show, we used
The riot and other scenes SuperTechnocrane along a track that equipment to do things that only
afforded DePalma prime opportuni- ran the length of the street. When the those pieces of equipment could do,
ties to cover action in one continu- shot reached the end of the track, which was nice.”
ous shot, a tactic he generally prefers they took advantage of the crane’s In lighting this street set,
to traditional coverage. Zsigmond telescoping arm to move the camera Getter says he and Zsigmond
enthuses, “What I like about Brian is into the alley with the two hero cops. “exhausted the entire equipment
that he has the courage to do a shot Gaffer Nimi Getter, who has worked supply of Bulgaria” and also
that’s two minutes long, and if it’s with Zsigmond on and off since employed additional lighting equip-
well-choreographed you end up with 1992’s The Long Shadow (the cine- ment that had been shipped from
a really classic sequence. As a camera- matographer’s only attempt at Mole-Richardson and other facili-
man, you enjoy doing those shots, directing), estimates that 40 percent ties. “We had lots of Dino lights, lots
because when you’re finished you’re of the film’s scenes were done as of cranes, miles of cables, you name
so proud that you managed to continuous shots. He expresses it. The set dressings that Dante and
photograph something that was so admiration for DePalma’s free-flow- his people created were incredible —
difficult to do. It also looks great on ing style: “We were only supposed to all the marquees and neon signs
the screen, because there aren’t so use the SuperTechnocrane for the looked completely real. We had to
many cuts; I hate watching movies riot scene and one other scene, but use one generator just for that stuff!
that have lots of cuts. If Brian can do Brian liked it so much that we kept it Then, of course, we had to bring in
something in one shot, he will. He until the end of the shoot, since we our own streetlights, which were
never does the usual, boring stuff. He only had a few days left in the sched- numerous. We used Dinos mostly
knows when he needs an extreme ule — and he took full advantage of for backlight or three-quarter back-
close-up, but over the course of an its unique capabilities. Some people light, but we also used many 10Ks,

American Cinematographer 37

TLFeBOOK
Darkest Noir
Right: Blanchard
and his
paramour, Kay
Lake (Scarlett
Johannson),
form a cozy
romantic
triangle with
Bleichert.
Below:
Bleichert also
finds himself
tempted into a
series of
passionate
encounters with
wealthy,
bisexual bad girl
Madeleine
Sprague (Hilary
Swank).

5Ks and smaller units to light the vertical crane move that culminates over, where we see a bicyclist go by.
sides of the buildings and shape the in a God’s-eye view of the murder Then we pan to the original street
architecture. There were a lot of fires site. The early-morning scene begins where the cops are, with the crane
burning during the riot scene, and with a shot of the two detectives in still high up. The camera eventually
we augmented those by creating a their squad car. The camera then drops and tilts down to show a truck
variety of flicker effects on the Dinos rises up the side of a nearby building driving by and a couple of principals
and on small 1K and 2K units that and over the roof to reveal the corpse walking in the street. Taken as a
we hid around the set.” in the distance. The ambitious shot whole, the shot establishes the entire
The SuperTechnocrane is also doesn’t end there, as Zsigmond geography of the scene, and it goes
showcased in a grand reveal of the details: “A woman starts screaming, on forever; it’s a beautiful, beautiful
Dahlia’s corpse, a shot staged as a and we follow her to the next street shot. Everything had to be just right
— the timing, the choreography, the
driving. The 1st and 2nd ADs had to
give cues while Brian was watching
the video monitor, and it took us
about six tries to get it just right.
Someone other than Brian might
have shot the scene in the standard
way, with a wide establishing shot
and then a person walking by the
body, but we don’t even go close to
the body in our shot.”
No less ambitious were the
scenes shot on Ferretti’s interior sets,
which presented a variety of logisti-
cal difficulties. The production
designer notes that the cavernous
space was often “freezing cold,” and
Getter reveals that the structure was
hardly an ideal place to create a

38 September 2006

TLFeBOOK
 Left: Hartnett
and Johannson
prepare for a
scene staged in
the house Kay
shares with Lee,
where Zsigmond
and DePalma
(observing at far
right) strove to
create a lighter,
more inviting
ambience. Note
the fluorescent
fixtures
supplementing
the hanging on-
camera sources.
Below:
Bleichert
reaches out to
Kay as a
potential source
of salvation.

soundstage: “When we saw it for the

first time, it was completely run-
down. The windows and skylights
were broken, and we had to use
miles of black plastic to cover them.
Also, there wasn’t really any way to
hang lights. Fortunately, we didn’t
really have to do that, because most
of the sets had hard ceilings that we
rarely removed; if we did hang
anything, it was inside the sets them-
selves. Sometimes we cut holes in the
ceilings to accommodate lights, but
most of the time we just let them be.”
One of the most important
sets was the spacious police depart- ing from inside the room, they says Zsigmond. “We mainly used
ment, which was dressed with deployed 6Ks or smaller units. Mole-Richardson lights with Fresnel
Venetian blinds that allowed Smoke was added to enhance the lenses in them. I used the barn doors
Zsigmond to create the hard slashes shafts of light. “For the night scenes, on the fixtures to create soft shad-
of light that have always been a clas- we based the lighting on the practi- ows, and flags to create hard shad-
sic motif of film noir. “The fixtures cals that were in the set,” Getter adds. ows. Many times we used dimmers
you see in that set were not really “There were fluorescents hanging when we had characters moving
lighting anybody in the day scenes,” overhead that we fitted with good from one room to another.
notes Zsigmond. “They were just Osram tubes, and lamps on all of the “When it came time to do
decorative, because we needed much desks. Those were our main sources close-ups, I tried to go with the
more light than they could provide.” of light.” mood of the scene, so I was often
Getter and his crew lit the set “On this picture, I used direc- keeping the characters in silhouette
through the windows with a row of tional light as much as I could, and or half-light,” he continues.“I usually
HMIs of varying intensities that that allowed me to create shadows try to avoid toplight because it’s not
included 18Ks and 12Ks; when light- because I could cut it more easily,” really pleasant on any actor’s face. I

American Cinematographer 39

TLFeBOOK
Darkest Noir
especially if it’s coming up from the
floor. If the effect of ambient light
isn’t good on the faces, then I would
rather use fill light that comes from
the direction of the camera. The nice
thing about fill light is that it also
gives you a little eyelight; even a very
small amount of fill will show up in
the actor’s eyes. To create fill on this
picture, I would usually use a big
source, like an HMI or a tungsten 5K
or 10K, coming through a 4'x4' piece
of diffusion material in a frame, like
Rosco 216 or 250.”
To create moonlight effects for
night scenes, Zsigmond usually used
gelled HMIs, but he did employ a
lighting balloon for one scene in
which Bleichert hunts for clues
around the Beachwood Canyon
bungalows beneath the vintage
Above: The always try to get a modeling quality great believer in it. Many people feel “Hollywoodland” sign. The balloon,
detectives from my key light. Many times I that with today’s film stocks, you which contained six 1.2K HMIs, was
observe the
interrogation of would use a 45-degree angle for my don’t have to use fill because your gelled with 1⁄2 CTO. “To tell you the
a prime suspect key light, or a 90-degree sidelight. I ambient light basically gives you fill. truth, it’s rather difficult to work
from behind a hardly ever use backlight, because it Sometimes ambient light can look with a balloon because it’s very hard
one-way mirror.
Right: Bleichert looks unnatural unless the sun is good, but sometimes that kind of to control the light,” Zsigmond
and Det. Russ directly behind the actors. I use fill light is not so great because it’s opines. “If you go too high with it, it
Millard (Mike light almost all the time, and I’m a coming from the wrong angle — doesn’t give you enough light, and if
Starr) ponder the
evidence in a
hotel room
illuminated by a
red neon glow.

40 September 2006

TLFeBOOK
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TLFeBOOK
Darkest Noir
The hardnosed
detectives make
a name for
themselves by
beating each
other to bloody
pulps in a
boxing match
that provides the
police
department with
some splashy
publicity. To
illuminate the
ring, the crew
installed 500-
watt bulbs in
“mushroom
lights” hanging
from an
overhead grid.
According to
Getter, “On the
ring itself, we
had a stop of
about T5.6.
Above the grid,
we hung some
additional units
to create
lighting that
gradually fell
off; the first two
rows around the
ring were at T4, lenses are too sharp today and
and the next people don’t want to see raw faces,”
few rows were he maintains. “My favorite diffusion
at T2.8. Vilmos
wanted to see filter is the Tiffen Soft/FX. I would
all the way to go with a strength of 1⁄2 or 1, up to a
the back of the maximum of 2, because that’s
arena.”
Zsigmond adds, already very heavy; I try to be care-
“All of the ful, because I don’t like the look of
boxing diffusion. If you watch any of my
sequences were
shot with long movies, you’ll never detect that I
lenses or with have the diffuser on. That would be
wide-angle bad, because we’re not in the Doris
lenses on the
Steadicam. We Day era! Many times, to make the
were mostly cut better, I even use a bit of diffu-
shooting inside sion on the male actor, because
the ring, almost
creating the otherwise the shots will not blend
POVs of the together.”
boxers. When you’re low, it can create too much Zsigmond did apply some According to A-camera
the Steadicam
was not in the light in some places.” In creating lens diffusion to scenes involving focus puller Alexander Bscheidl,
ring, we used moonlight with standard fixtures, “I lead actresses Scarlett Johansson and Zsigmond’s primary lenses on the
long lenses from like to go just halfway toward a blue Hilary Swank. Johansson plays Kay show were Angenieux’s 24-290mm
a Giraffe crane,
or dollies. We effect,” he says.“If I used an HMI, I’d Lake, a woman living with and 17-102mm zooms, although
also got some warm it up with 1⁄2 gel. If I used a Blanchard who becomes increas- he also employed an Arriflex
low angles from tungsten light, I would only put a 1⁄2 ingly interested in Bleichert, and Lightweight Zoom, as well as Zeiss
very close to the
ring, shooting up CTB on it. Using half correction on Swank plays a bisexual femme fatale Ultra Primes for situations involving
into the lights.” HMIs and half on tungstens makes who lures Bleichert into a series of multiple cameras, longer-lens
it easy for me to avoid using filters torrid trysts. “I couldn’t possibly compositions or Steadicam work by
on the lens. I don’t like to use filters shoot such beautiful actresses with- operator Jaromir Sedina. “I like
in front of the lens too much.” out a diffusion filter on, because zoom lenses — I have since my days

42 September 2006

TLFeBOOK
TLFeBOOK
Darkest Noir
can keep the dolly and zoom moving
and end up in a close-up. For me, all
the conveniences of using a zoom are
unbeatable. Some of the directors
I’ve worked with never liked the
zoom before we worked together,
but they started to like it when they
saw how convenient it was and how
much faster we could work. Plus, the
lenses are so good now that zoom
lenses are really almost as sharp as
standard lenses. Some of them are
even so sharp I have to use diffusion
on them!”
As an aside, Zsigmond points
out that The Black Dahlia includes a
number of split-diopter shots, one of
DePalma’s favorite special tech-
niques. “Brian doesn’t like to use
techniques that are very obvious, and
The seedy Red with Robert Altman,” says dolly track so precisely to suit a I don’t see that particular technique
Arrow Inn,
where Bleichert Zsigmond.“You have all of the lenses particular lens. Many times when as being manipulative because in real
has his trysts you need in a zoom; I don’t like you’re shooting with a standard lens, life, the human eye can see both fore-
with changing lenses all the time, so it’s you’ll make a little mistake and real- grounds and backgrounds,” he says.
Madeleine, was
another set very convenient. Also, there are ize the dolly should have ended up a Getter adds, “Split-diopter shots are
Ferretti’s crew many times when I like to change the bit closer to the actor. With a zoom always a bit tricky, especially when
built in the size of the lens during a shot, espe- lens, I can accomplish everything you’re shooting moving actors from
“freezing cold”
paper factory. cially on dolly shots. When you use a easily, because I can start at 24mm a moving dolly and you want to keep
The production zoom, you don’t have to build the and go to a 27mm or 30mm. Or I two different focal planes sharp at all
designer flew in
a graphic
designer from
Los Angeles to
create the
show’s neon
signage, and all
of the period
cars were
shipped from
the States.

44 September 2006

TLFeBOOK
times. Those particular shots took a
lot of time and calculation, but we
always managed to pull them off.”
Because the show’s main
production company, Nu-Image,
had its own supply of Arriflex
cameras, Zsigmond shot with
Arricam Studios and Lites and used
Arri 435s for high-speed work. He
encouraged DePalma to shoot in 3-
perf Super 35mm (2.35:1) for both
practical and economic reasons, and
used Kodak Vision2 500T 5218 as his
sole film stock. By opting for Super
35 over anamorphic, he could
employ spherical lenses, which gave
him a bigger stop for the film’s low-
light situations. Zsigmond also knew
3-perf would save money in terms of
film costs and developing, savings
that could later be applied to the
show’s 4K digital intermediate (DI)
at LaserPacific. “I realize now that if
we hadn’t done a DI, I could not have
done as good a job with the period
look,” says Zsigmond, who adds that
The Black Dahlia was his first experi-
ence in a DI suite. “With the DI, you
don’t lose anything [in the final www.panther.tv
transfer] like you did when it was an
optical step. Another advantage of
the DI is that all of the dissolves,
fade-ins, fade-outs and special effects
can be incorporated when you’re
actually doing the scanning, which
means you’re not losing a generation
when you go from regular footage
into the opticals.
“The 4K scan was the selling
point for me,” Zsigmond continues.
“I told Brian that the only way I
would do the movie in Super 35 was
if we could go 4K; I didn’t think 2K
would be good enough because
Super 35 has a smaller negative size
than anamorphic. Brian really loves
the anamorphic format, so I had to
convince him we wouldn’t lose
much image quality by shooting in
Super 35 with a 4K scan. That’s how
we ended up at LaserPacific — they
were willing to give us 4K at a good
price. The DI was absolutely a
budget consideration; I had to

45

TLFeBOOK
Darkest Noir
Right: Seeking
leads in the
case, Bleichert
questions an
actress in her
moodily lit
apartment.
Below: A
lighting balloon
illuminates a
Beachwood
Canyon
bungalow, built
in an area of
Bulgaria that
resembles the
Hollywood Hills.
Zsigmond notes
that the
illumination
from balloons
can be hard to
control, but adds
that “the digital
intermediate
rescued us by
allowing us to
tone down the
parts of the
scene that were
too hot and
make it look like
a dark, moonlit
night.”

promise I wouldn’t get too fancy, 14 days.” chance to streamline its DI work-
and that I wouldn’t spend five or six Colorist Mike Sowa confirms flow. “At that point, we had only
weeks doing the work. I knew that if that LaserPacific was eager to tackle done 2K projects,” says Sowa. “We
I lit the movie properly, I wouldn’t the 4K process on Dahlia, not only had some limitations in terms of 4K
have to spend as much time on the because of the project’s prestige, but — data storage, rendering time, and
DI. In the end, the grade took about also because it gave the facility the the amount of time it takes to record
to negative, which is a very slow
process when you’re dealing with 4K
files. On Black Dahlia, we were able
to smooth out some of those issues.”
Sowa adds, “Because Vilmos
had never done a DI before, his
primary concern was whether what
we were looking at would translate
to film. That’s a pretty typical fear if
a cinematographer hasn’t done a DI,
but we took great pains to ensure the
quality of the images before Vilmos
saw them. We did some little film-
out tests to show him, and they were
right on.”
The DI was carried out on a
Discreet Lustre, and the footage was
projected on a 33'x13' screen with a
2K Christie “Black-Chip” (or DLP)
Digital Cinema Projector. Sowa says
Zsigmond’s mandate for the look
was “desaturated sepia.” The cine-

46 September 2006

TLFeBOOK
matographer notes that during
production, he “tried to avoid select-
ing colors that were too garish, and
we stayed away from greens during
interior scenes because greens are not
great against skin tones. We let the
wardrobe department do what they
needed for the period clothes, but
they knew we didn’t want too many
colors. We wanted the whole movie
to have a desaturated look, with the
exception of certain scenes involving
Kay, Scarlett’s character. When we
showed her in the house she shares
with Lee, we tried to make those
sequences warmer, lighter and more
inviting, because that house is the
only place where Bucky truly feels
he’s at home. In the rest of the envi-
ronments, we wanted the atmos-
phere to be darker and desaturated,
with lots of cigarette smoke and other
stylistic touches from the Forties.”
Sowa reveals that he and
Zsigmond also dialed a bit more
color into Johansson’s skin: “Brian
felt that her beauty didn’t come
through with the desaturated sepia
look, so we scaled it back a bit on
her.” He adds that scenes involving
blood were “toned down” during the
DI to make the effect subtler.“We use
the Lustre as a data-conform tool and
a grading tool all in one. It gives me
great latitude to create a lot of the
visual effects through rotoscoping,
and it gives me all of the basic color-
correction tools as well. I really love
the box, and once Vilmos saw the
kinds of things I could do with it, he
became thrilled with the process. I
found this project to be a lot of fun,
because the movie has quite a few
interesting transitions, like window
wipes that start in the middle of the
shot and work their way to the outer
edges of the frame. Those were an
interesting challenge, because I had
to make the following scene match
into the previous scene and track the
windows with my color correction.”
Zsigmond, of course, is no
stranger to creative image manipula-
tion. In fact, he can be considered a

47

TLFeBOOK
Darkest Noir
Zsigmond’s crew
had high praise
for the veteran
cinematographer,
whom they
described as
“exceptionally
generous with
his knowledge.”
From left: 2nd AC
Alexandre
Szabo-Fresnais,
A-camera focus
puller Alexander
Bscheidl,
Zsigmond, and
gaffer Nimi
Getter.

pioneer in that regard. On McCabe & projects, he went back to flashing without one,” he says. “We can make
Mrs. Miller, he famously flashed his and also experimented with the the look more contrasty, less
negative with light to create a desatu- Technicolor’s ENR process. He contrasty, more colorful, less colorful
rated, Old West feel; on Deliverance, maintains that the DI allows a level and so on. We have a tool here that
for which he used the Technicolor of creative control that goes well really improves the final answer
dye-transfer process, he introduced a beyond these old-school tricks. “The print. Before the DI, we were very
black-and-white matrix to mute the DI gives us a lot of tools that allow us limited in what we could do with the
forest colors and create a more to do practically anything, and I timing of a print. In order to control
ominous, suspenseful tone. On later don’t think I could do another movie our images and get a good result, we

TLFeBOOK
 had to be very sharp and very good developed it. With color, you could not sit down to wait for everything to
on the set. Today, we sometimes can not do that to the same degree. But be ready. He would constantly walk
let certain things go on set if we don’t now, with the DI, we can achieve around, look around and find some-
have enough time to fine-tune the those results much faster.” thing to improve here or there. He’s
lighting or if we don’t have the right Zsigmond’s continued enthu- extremely willing to adopt whatever
weather. For example, we can rely on siasm for his profession is obvious, ideas you can give him.” ■
the DI to diminish the difference and his love of moviemaking was
between sunny footage and overcast readily apparent to his crewmem-
footage. That’s a great thing for us. bers. Speaking to this point, Getter
Today we have the problem of never has the last word:“Vilmos is not only
having enough time in the schedule, a great craftsman and artist, he’s also TECHNICAL SPECS
so a DI helps in that regard as well.” an amazing person, and you can feel
“Some people say, ‘Today we that straightaway. On the set he’s Super 35mm 2.35:1
(3-perf)
have faster films, so you don’t even quite amazing. He’s not young, as we
need to light.’ But I say regardless of know, but he has an incredible Arricam Studios,
whether you have slow film or fast amount of energy, and more than Lites; Arri 435
film, you still have to create a look! It that, he belongs to a generation of
did help me to have a 500-ASA film working people, which is becoming Angenieux Optimo 24-290mm and
17-102mm zooms;
on this movie, because I needed a rarer and rarer, especially when you Arriflex Lightweight Zoom;
negative that allowed me to control become a star in your profession. Zeiss Ultra Primes
contrast. With black-and-white film, He’s up on his feet from call time to
we always had that kind of control wrap time. Even when we were Kodak Vision2 500T 5218
— if you needed more contrast, you doing a very, very complicated shot,
Digital Intermediate
overdeveloped your negative, and if where it would take an hour or two
you needed less contrast, you under- to reset for the next take, he would

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TLFeBOOK
 Conjuring the
Past
Dick Pope, BSC creates a handsome, antique look for
The Illusionist, the tale of a turn-of-the-century magician
whose tricks put him at odds with a prince.
by Patricia Thomson
Unit photography by Glen Wilson

hough he is best known as Mike compatriot since 1990; in that film, (Interview With the Assassin), which

T
Leigh’s longtime cinematogra- the focus was 1880s England and required Pope to immerse himself
pher, Dick Pope, BSC has the light opera of Gilbert and in the Austro-Hungarian empire
acquired another particular Sullivan. A few years later, Pope circa 1900 and explore the world of
specialty in recent years: 19th- revisited 1850s England for Nicholas magic, early cinema, and an early
century costume dramas set in the Nickleby (2002), in which the titular color-photography technique called
world of the theater. Pope first ven- protagonist attaches himself to the the autochrome.
tured into this territory with Leigh’s traveling Crumbles theater troupe. Based on a short story by
Topsy-Turvy (see AC March ’00), Now there is The Illusionist, written Steven Millhauser, The Illusionist
one of seven films he has shot for his and directed by Neil Burger tells the tale of Eisenheim (Edward

50 September 2006

TLFeBOOK
 Opposite: During
a commanding
performance
onstage,
mindblowing
magician
Eisenheim
(Edward Norton)
proves that he
still has a
powerful effect
on his former
paramour,
Sophie (Jessica
Biel). This page:
Eisenheim
teaches Chief
Inspector Uhl
(Paul Giamatti) a
simple but
effective trick
under the
watchful eye of
his business
manager, Josef
(Eddie Marsan).

Norton), a brilliant magician who Pope because he was convinced the From the time he wrote the
becomes entangled in a love trian- cinematographer’s work would script, Burger wanted to conjure an
gle. Set in Vienna and shot largely on enhance the story’s emotional early-cinema look for The
practical locations in Prague, the dimension considerably. “Dick’s Illusionist, and he made autochrome
film begins in 1885, when the ado- films with Mike Leigh are incredibly photography the cornerstone of the
lescent Eisenheim and young cinematic because they’re so well- visual design. “In films like
Duchess Sophie are smitten with observed,” says Burger. “He’d done Nosferatu, there’s something very
each other, but prohibited from con- these period films for Leigh — creepy in the image itself — in the
tact because of class differences. Topsy-Turvy and Vera Drake [AC grain and density, the way it flickers,
After they’re separated, the story Jan. ’05] — and made them look so the vignetting,” says the director.
jumps to 1900, when Eisenheim is beautiful and inhabit their particu- “Those create a disquieting feeling,
attracting ever-growing crowds with lar time so perfectly. Plus, there’s a and I wanted a disquieting, unnerv-
his stage performances. As his fame real emotional quality to the light- ing undertone for this picture. I
rises, so does the status of his audi- ing. Dick has a very beautiful way of didn’t necessarily want to make it
ences. Soon he is performing for the lighting faces that makes them more look old; I wanted it to be real but
Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus luminous. I knew The Illusionist was otherworldly, to inhabit this realm
Sewell) and his fiancée (Jessica Biel), going to be a dark film, yet I wanted of dream and mystery.” Burger did
who turns out to be the duchess to be able to connect with these not want to go with black-and-
Eisenheim once loved. Suspicious of characters, and I knew he would be white, and he eventually discovered
Photos courtesy of Yari Film Group Releasing.

the illusionist, Leopold orders Chief able to do it.” Pope acknowledges the autochrome, a color-photogra-
Inspector Uhl (Paul Giamatti) to spy that lighting faces “is a big thing for phy technique that was almost con-
on him. Meanwhile, Eisenheim ruf- me. I’m totally in love with it and temporaneous with his story.
fles the prince’s feathers with public have been since I was a young boy, During that period, cinema and
taunts about his ambitions to the took up a camera and immediately magic were closely interwoven, and
crown. When tragedy strikes, concentrated on portraiture.” He magicians tapped early moving-
Eisenheim summons his powers to adds that this is one reason he gets image and projection devices to
bring down the monarchy before it on so well with Leigh. “The land- help create their illusions.
destroys him. scape of the human face is, in a way, Burger arrived at his first
Though Burger was planning what cinema is all about. That’s meeting with Pope carrying a copy
to work with a mostly Czech crew where the emotion is. The rest of it of The Art of the Autochrome.
on the production, he sought out leads up to that.” “When I met Neil, I knew very little

American Cinematographer 51

TLFeBOOK
Conjuring thePast
The purposeful
Eisenheim
ignores Uhl’s
advice to forget
his feelings for
Sophie, who is
engaged to
marry Crown
Prince Leopold.

about the history and detail of these golden tinge, even though it’s not Munich that included Cooke S4
autochromes,” recalls Pope. “It came sepia and may have all the colors of prime lenses, and he shot the pic-
as something of a revelation to me the rainbow.”In The Illusionist, gold, ture on Kodak Vision2 500T 5218
when he opened the book.” Invented ochre, rose and green dominate and Vision2 200T 5217. “It took us
by the Lumière brothers in 1903, the palette, particularly before quite a while to find the best way to
autochromes involved unique trans- Eisenheim’s emotional decline capture this look,” says the cine-
parencies created by coating a sheet motivates a shift to a more mono- matographer. “It was quite tricky
of glass with microscopic starch chromatic look oriented around and involved quite a lot of experi-
grains dyed red, green and blue, sickly green hues. “They were not menting. For instance, I did a major
which formed a screen of color par- quite like anything I’ve seen,” says test of various scenarios inside and
ticles. Carbon black was applied over Pope of the autochromes. “Many outside Eisenheim’s theaters with
the plate, filling in the spaces around were really crude but very beautiful, stands-ins in costume and makeup.
the starch grains. Then a silver gela- like looking at color for the first It was a full day, from morning until
tin emulsion was applied over the time, which back then, of course, very late at night.”
color screen. When the plate was was the case. The focus too could be After putting various lighting
exposed, the base side was turned really selective, as you would achieve techniques, film stocks and filtra-
toward the subject, and the color with Swing & Tilt lenses. The glass tion through their paces, Pope
screen acted as a filter over the emul- wasn’t perfect; it could be quite bub- began experimenting in collabora-
sion. The developed plate rendered a bly in places, and you’d lose focus in tion with visual-effects supervisor
positive color image with delicate those spots. So color wasn’t the only Viktor Müller at UPP in Prague.
color qualities that resemble hand- unusual characteristic; it was the “We worked together on different
tinted photographs. focus as well.” manipulations of the film, includ-
“There’s almost a sepia tone Pope’s challenge was mimick- ing various strengths of bleach
without any sepia,” notes Burger. ing the look of the period technique bypass applied to the print, the
“Because of the primitive emulsions, with modern cameras, lenses and interpositive, and the original digi-
certain colors that are the predomi- emulsions. He chose to film The tal output neg,” recalls Pope. Müller
nant dyes seem to leak into all the Illusionist with an Arricam adds, “We also combined bleach
other colors. You can get a green or Studio/Lite package from Arri bypass on the positive with bleach

52 September 2006

TLFeBOOK
 Uhl’s admiration
for the magician
tests his loyalty
to the prince.

bypass on the negative, as well as lookup table, this simple twist of the We animated and auto-tracked a
combining digital bleach simulation dial, to immediately bring the whole very soft shape onto her cheek,
with positive bleach bypass.” thing into this fabulous autochrome which allowed us to slowly bring up
The principle was there, but world,” he says wryly. “If only life a flushed color as she recovered
the effect was always “too much,” were like that!” from the blow. It’s subtle, but it sup-
says Pope. “It’s a difficult thing to Down the line, the ports the narrative. A final pass was
describe, but autochromes are very autochrome illusion was completed taken to make sure all of the blacks
subtle. When you first look at them, at EFilm by colorist Steve Scott. and highlights were rich and consis-
they appear quite desaturated and Highly regarded by Pope, Scott was tent, and to make final color tweaks
pastel, but when you look closer, introduced to Burger by Pope early to assure the entire picture had a
certain strong colors shine through. in the project. “After a good deal of cohesive ambience.”
So we abandoned the physical exploration with various software During production, the book
bleach bypass but took the basic tools and filters, a final look was The Art of the Autochrome steered
idea into the digital-intermediate achieved by first desaturating the Pope toward certain lighting deci-
[DI] suite and manipulated the image, then reintroducing satura- sions. For example, most
image with a lookup table we tion to the skin tones and various autochrome landscapes “were taken
devised, one that would bring out spot colors,” explains Scott. “A filter with the sun over the shoulder and
these greens, reds and yellows. After was then applied to slightly blur the were never really backlit — it’s the
that, we were there very quickly.” luminance of the shot while keeping forerunner of the early Kodak Box
Because the production did not the color component sharp. This Brownie,” says Pope. He and his col-
plan to print any dailies, this lookup represents a pretty broad generaliza- laborators scheduled exteriors with
table became a critical tool in main- tion of the process and techniques, this in mind. “Luckily, we were
taining a consistent look for the as each shot was dealt with individ- shooting in spring, so we had quite a
DVD dailies, he adds. ually to optimize the effect and to low sun. I love some of these exteri-
Knowing that time for the DI keep the look understated. Of ors because they are absolutely like
would be limited, Pope tried to course, there were shots throughout that autochrome book.” One
accomplish as much as he could in the film that required unique solu- favorite is a wide shot of Eisenheim
camera. “I thought perhaps all I’d tions. For example, in one scene, running down a riverbank and
need, come the DI, was this magic Leopold slaps Sophie across the face. plunging into an icy river to reach

American Cinematographer 53

TLFeBOOK
Conjuring thePast
Initially
impressed with
Eisenheim and
his abilities,
Leopold (Rufus
Sewell) turns
confrontational
as he senses a
rival for
Sophie’s
affections.

Sophie; another shows young is set in 1885. These include the advantage of the particular compo-
Eisenheim chasing after her carriage flicker effect of hand-cranked cam- sition of a shot. The final touch was
along a main street beneath the cas- eras, vignetting, distressed film, and adding a subtle hand-animated
tle walls. iris transitions. During preproduc- flicker effect to suggest early cine-
In keeping with the look of tion, Pope tested different ways to matography.”
early cinema, Pope avoided create such effects in camera, but the During principal photogra-
Steadicam shots and wide-angle filmmakers ultimately decided to phy, Pope’s biggest challenge was
lenses. He mainly used the S4 construct them all in post. “I really filming Eisenheim’s performances
primes in the 32mm-150mm think that was a wise decision, on practical locations before a live
range. In the theater, he used an because without an assembly, how audience. The production used two
Angenieux 17-80mm Optimo zoom do you know exactly where these historic theaters: an opulent theater
on the camera crane for maximum effects are needed?” says Pope. “We in Prague and a more dilapidated
flexibility. might have chosen wrong areas to one in the rural town of Tabor.
In order to maximize the pic- apply it to, the wrong strength of the Both are still active stages, so film-
ture area and record the most infor- effect, and so on. Most importantly, ing had to be squeezed in between
mation, Pope shot The Illusionist in it would have taken our eyes off the shows. The production’s very first
Super 1.85:1. He notes, “We talked ball of the main event.” location was the Prague theater. “It
about doing Super 35mm, but the Instead, these effects were had to be, because it was their only
film is set in a theatrical environ- achieved in the DI. Scott explains, dark week in our entire schedule,
ment, so the proscenium arch was “Where required — and especially and we had exactly five days inside
important to capture, as was the in the first section of the film, which to finish,” recalls Pope. “It was a
audience stacked up vertically in was a semi-flashback and the most baptism of fire.
balconies and circles. We would have complicated look — a very soft and “We went straight into illu-
missed a lot of that or been forced subtle oval vignette that matched sions on the stage,” he continues.
out very wide to get it.” the proportions of the aspect ratio “The very first thing we did was the
In addition to the autochrome was added to bring down the out- illusion with the growing orange
look, other techniques of early cine- side of the frame. Sometimes this tree, which was a logistical night-
ma occasionally come into play, par- oval shape was discarded and irreg- mare.” Based on magic tricks of the
ticularly during the prologue, which ular vignettes were used to take period, the illusions were to be

54 September 2006

TLFeBOOK
TLFeBOOK
 Conjuring thePast
Eisenheim
demonstrates his
showstopping
“orange tree
illusion.” This
complex
sequence was
shot with a
SuperTechnocrane
on the very first
day of the shoot at
a rented theater.
“Because a play
was just finishing
its run, all we had
was the one day
to get in the
theater and prep
the entire
interior,” Pope
recalls. “The grips
and the producers
had sweat pouring
off their brows
with the thought
we wouldn’t
make it.”

achieved in camera as much as pos- sweat pouring off their brows with the tree growing. It’s the type of
sible. “I always wanted the audience the thought we wouldn’t make it. move that could be a serious con-
to be thinking, ‘How does The camera was to be placed at the tender for a heavily rotoscoped CGI
Eisenheim do it?’ rather than, ‘How back of stage looking out at the effect, but it was mainly achieved in
do the filmmakers do it?’” says packed theater, while in center-stage camera, which makes it so much
Burger. In the case of the orange foreground, Eisenheim was to step more believable. The credibility of
tree, an intricate set of gears pushed up to the table and begin the illu- The Illusionist hangs on the very
out leaves folded within stems, sion. As the orange seed in the pot authenticity and believability of its
which then bloom. This mechanical began to sprout and grow, we were illusions.”
process constituted the major part to track in towards it, then circle it Pope decided a Technocrane
of the illusion, but it was just one 180 degrees, then track back out would enable him to achieve many
part of the puzzle facing Pope. over the front of stage and then out angles fairly quickly. “I know from
Sweeping camera moves on a Super over the audience, skimming their experience that theaters are really
Technocrane meant the tricks would heads as we pulled right back awkward to work in, and setting all
share the shot with both Eisenheim towards the rear of the theater stalls, but the simplest of shots can be real-
and his audience, which was a kind while all the time the shrub was to ly time-consuming,” he says. Key
of collective character shouting at continue to grow into a fully mature grip Robert Kodera deliberated for
the stage. The bigger camera moves orange tree bearing fruit, but now some time about what was physical-
encompassed all three elements: with the camera angle diametrically ly possible in such a tight space,
audience (including principal opposed to where we had started. and he ultimately decided a 25'
actors), magician and magic trick. “The fact that I had never SuperTechnocrane was the only
“On the very first day of the before worked with any of my crew option. “Full credit to him, as this
shoot, we had our principals on made what was a very ambitious decision proved to be spot-on,” says
stage and amongst a full theater and complicated camera move even Pope. “The crane hadn’t as long a
audience of hundreds,” says Pope. trickier,” continues the cinematog- reach as I wanted but was very short
“Very first up was the most challeng- rapher. “We had to deal with how to at the back. Our only option was to
ing shot of the entire film! This was physically move around Edward build its track along nearly the entire
compounded by the fact that a play Norton without destroying his per- length of a side aisle, largely to max-
was just finishing its run, so all we formance, communicate with a imize the number of positions we
had was the one day to get in the largely non-English–speaking audi- could achieve, but also to keep it out
theater and prep the entire interior. ence, and deal with the really com- of the shot from onstage. But of
The grips and the producers had plicated mechanics and timing of course, it was a theater with a steep

56 September 2006

TLFeBOOK
rake, and the track had to be leveled
to stage height. Although we could
quickly remove sections of track on
stage when necessary, the downside
was the real possibility of the bucket
knocking against the theater boxes
that lined the aisle. But because
everything had been measured per-
fectly, that didn’t happen, and the
shot worked.”
During the orange-tree illu-
sion, he continues, “we had to fully
extend this shortish arm to get the
camera across to the center of the
stage and auditorium so the symme-
try would be maintained. We
tracked into and then tightly around
the table with the growing plant,
sucking the arm first in and then
out, while Edward deftly moved out
of and then back into the sweeping
shot while the camera maintained
perfect alignment with the center of
the theater.” The shot also incorpo-
rated a hidden zoom and a major
lighting change. “It was the toughest
of calls, but it worked great straight
off, and my crew were superb,”
enthuses Pope.“I think the success of
this first major challenge set the tone
for the rest of the shoot, which
became a hugely enjoyable and
rewarding experience.”
Pope’s lighting package was
based on the rig he’d developed for
Topsy-Turvy’s historic theaters,
“units that were fast, flexible and
omni-directional, because with
Mike Leigh I had to be prepared for
whatever he was going to hit me
with.” Helium balloons, China balls,
and practicals were the main
sources. “With skirts and systems of
chopping the light, I can control
[helium lights] like a directional soft
light. I’m very specific about how
they’re played. It’s something I’ve
evolved over the past few years. I use
them as specific lighting tools, not as
big, general sources of illumination
My gaffer in Prague, Vaclav ‘Enzo’
Cermak, was brilliant at taking all
this onboard and had everything
patched through dimmers and fed

57

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 Conjuring thePast
Pope ponders “We did the footlights in flame, the
his camera units again custom-designed and
placement. “My
challenge was
built by Ondrej, and they rule the
to make the whole feel of the theater. We installed
magic look gas lighting in the auditorium, and I
believable,” he
says.
supplemented that with both real
and simulated flames.”
This theater is where
Eisenheim performs his more sedi-
tious tricks: conjuring souls from
beyond the grave to make accusa-
tions against the prince. For Pope,
just as for magicians of the period,
smoke and mirrors were instrumen-
tal in producing the ghostly appari-
tions, which were actually a form of
back to a lighting desk.” reference pictures, and Ondrej had hologram. How smoke was used is
These units were combined them made by Czech craftsmen, crudely demonstrated in the film by
with practical footlights, which beautifully,” says Pope. No flames the chief inspector, who uses a rudi-
housed Edison-style bulbs with low were used in the location. In fact, mentary movie projector to throw a
color temperatures appropriate to says Pope, “We weren’t even allowed person’s image onto white smoke.
the era. The footlights were to strike a match.” But once the pro- For Eisenheim’s more subtly crafted
designed, built and installed by pro- duction moved to the theater in apparitions, Pope “tested many
duction designer Ondrej Nekvasil Tabor, Pope eliminated electrical things, and it was tricky. If you fill an
and his art department. “They had sources and based his look on flame. enclosed area with smoke, you can

58

TLFeBOOK
project a moving picture onto it and hers. A puff of vapor rises and exits Actual mist was pushed out through
create a hologram-like effect with a the mirror, like the breath of life a hole in the mirror; it was enhanced
wavering, otherworldly feel. One of escaping, and the reflection collaps- digitally only as it began to dissipate.
theater’s favorite tricks consists of es to the floor. “We discussed this “I had been dreading this scene, but
projecting ghostly images onto care- scene endlessly,” says Pope. “At the it came together,” says Pope. “My
fully lit shark’s-tooth theatrical gauze beginning, we considered using challenge was to make the magic
and making them appear and disap- bluescreen and covering the mirror look believable. Doing so much of it
pear to great effect. This goes right in chroma-key blue, rather than in camera definitely makes it more
back to Victorian theater. Those going through the possible night- believable, and I’m really pleased
magicians extensively used these mare of revealing the entire rig of with it.” ■
early holograms in such a sophisti- film lights and film crew in the
cated way that I’m sure they could reflection and also revealing the fact
trick a turn-of-the-century audience. that there was no audience in the TECHNICAL SPECS
They wouldn’t have so much luck upper circles! So I had a swivel
Super 1.85:1
these days, but studying these tricks mechanism put on the mirror. 35mm
formed the basis of how we went Then, when we were looking into it,
about creating the apparitions.” I lit up the audience quite a lot to Arricam Studio, Lite
Pope’s proudest moment was compensate for the fact that the Cooke, Angenieux and Canon
a mirror illusion done almost entire- glass was quite old and I was losing lenses
ly in camera. For this trick, Sophie is a lot in the reflection. So I was able
brought to the stage and shrouded in to control the reflection problems Kodak Vision2 5218, Vision2 5217
a hooded cloak. An 8'-tall mirror is and light levels, and to me it looked
Digital Intermediate
brought before her. Initially, her perfect.” In the end, bluescreen was
reflection is as it should be, but soon limited to just a few of the reflected Printed on Kodak Vision 2383
its movements no longer mirror elements in the middle of the scene.

59

TLFeBOOK
 Vikings on the
Warpath n the call sheet for today’s over the previous couple of months:
Pathfinder, shot by

O
work on Pathfinder — offi- the sun will set at about 4:20 p.m.,
Daniel Pearl, ASC, cially Day 51 of 51 shooting and in the forest where director
days — the note under Marcus Nispel has staged most of
pits Norse invaders “Location” says “Widgeon the film’s scenes, it grows dark even
against Native Marsh/far far away and out of call earlier. At least it’s not raining for a
service.” In truth, the densely wood- change — this afternoon the fore-
Americans in ed valley leading to this provincial casters have correctly predicted
874 A.D. park in British Columbia is only snow.
about an hour from downtown For Pearl, whose first cine-
Vancouver, but guarded by forbid- matographer credit was Tobe
by Fred Schruers ding rock walls and what geologists Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw
call a “slough” of deep mud. Massacre, and who also shot the
Frame grabs by Encore Hollywood Cinematographer Daniel Pearl, ASC 2003 remake with Nispel, the task
Unit photography by Doug Curran arrives on this early December day was to make a virtue of the job’s lim-
with the same challenge he has faced itations. After all, he and Nispel were

60 September 2006

TLFeBOOK
 Opposite page:
Abandoned by
his Viking clan
and raised by
Native
Americans,
Ghost (Karl
Urban) becomes
a skilled
warrior and
confronts the
bloodthirsty
Vikings in
Pathfinder,
which boasts a
striking
desaturated
look. This page,
top: Viking
leader Gunnar
(Clancy Brown)
checks his
compass.
telling a story that was set in 874 on a restricted color palette of tion and painting, and I’ve always “[Director]
A.D., a time when, according to browns and grays. “It’s not a very loved the look of Degas Marcus Nispel
some recent archeological finds, happy tale,” says Pearl, “so we didn’t and Rembrandt. [On Pathfinder,] I wanted the
Vikings to be
Vikings may well have preceded want happy, bright, bubble-gummy didn’t want to do an epic; I wanted down and dark
Columbus to North America’s colors. We didn’t want the look to be to make an anti-epic. I wanted to and sketchy,”
shores. The saga’s main character is colorful and poppy. This film is achieve a very small movie with big says Daniel
Pearl, ASC. “It’s
Ghost, a savagely mistreated Viking going to look quite desaturated.” ideas. In a way, the story appeals to a bit more
child who is abandoned by his clan “I come out of music videos, my immigrant mindset, because ominous if you
and raised by North American and we get hired to do a lot of glossy we’re making a movie about the first can’t make out
who’s beneath
Indians. Ghost eventually grows to commercials,” notes Nispel, who American hero.” the helmet.”
become a fierce warrior (played by estimates he has done some 300 During preproduction, the Bottom: Ghost’s
Karl Urban) whose destiny sends shoots with Pearl.“The main reason duo sought to impress executives at adoptive family
counsels the
him into a grim and bloody battle to do a movie is to go against the 20th Century Fox by shooting eye- young warrior
with the seagoing warriors who left grain of what I normally do, which catching test footage in a swamp in in a steam hut.
him behind. is why [on film projects] I usually go Thousand Oaks, California, which
To convey the movie’s era and for kick-ass topics and a painterly showed an actor rising out of the
sober tone, the filmmakers settled style. My background is in illustra- water to fell a full-dress Viking amid
Photos courtesy of 20th Century Fox.

American Cinematographer 61

TLFeBOOK
Vikings on the Warpath
In a flashback
set 15 years
before the
story’s main
action, young
Ghost arrives in
North America
with his Viking
clan. The
almost
monochrome
visuals the
filmmakers had
in mind were
facilitated
by the
circumstances
of the shoot: a
densely
wooded area
of British
Columbia and a
September start
date. “The local shafts of cathedral light. Ultimately, rainfall, the filmmakers were “pun- The grain structure is so ideal for
crew guys kept their visual strategy for Pathfinder ished with good weather.” However, what Marcus and I wanted that I
saying, ‘Come married a restricted color palette Nispel’s own reverse optimism did- decided to shoot the whole picture
November,
there is no light with the expansive, cross-lit style n’t pan out: “We came here hoping on it, even our few full-sun exteriors.
in the forest — they had employed on the Chainsaw for good weather because we wanted This is my second picture in a row
zip,” recalls remake. “We’re trying to make the shafts of light in the forests. Didn’t using only 5218, and production
Pearl.
film feel old, because the story sup- happen, so we got all this fog and absolutely loves it. I couldn’t be hap-
posedly takes place more than a rain.” pier with the tonal range it captured
thousand years ago,” says Pearl. Though Pearl had to create and its response to the look we
Nispel notes that the resultant some innovative solutions to gave it in the DI suite at Encore
scheme is “full of atmosphere and accommodate the weather, he notes, Hollywood.
desaturated stone colors, like da “For lighting, I had a fairly standard “I rate it at 400 ASA, and for a
Vinci painting Mona Lisa — and HMI feature package, except that I few scenes I’ve pushed it one stop
you don’t get to do that if you’re sell- tend to carry more than 50 percent with no noticeable increase in grain.
ing beer.” of my heads as Fresnels.” To simulate I find the stock to be very filmic, but
Pearl adds that nature and cir- the primitive illumination of the Kodak has made it so good that we
cumstance enhanced the produc- period, “I also had a small tungsten need the DI process to get back to
tion’s nearly monochrome aesthetic. package with a good selection of the kind of old-style contrast I want.
Thanks to delays in the greenlight- Mole Baby Softs, from 4Ks on down, I keep that in mind when I expose
ing process and Fox’s dictum that a which I like to use for fire effects. the film, capturing everything and
film this philosophically bleak had Because we were not that into creat- then later just crushing away what
to be made for a price — i.e., north ing color on this film, I used 1⁄4 or 1⁄2 we don’t need.”
of the border — the filmmakers CTO for nighttime fire effects and Standing ankle-deep in the
found themselves scheduled for a no gels at all for the daytime fires. To boot-sucking mud of the Widgeon
September start in a northern lati- get the varying intensity and subtle slough, he and Nispel share a wry
tude. After a preliminary scout and shadow shifts that indicate firelight, smile as wranglers bring a splendid
conversations with seasoned local I had the electricians wave their white mare onto the set. Striving to
crewmembers, the filmmakers real- arms at an irregular rhythm in fairly complete the last of the production’s
ized they were in for a prolonged close proximity to the source. I did “clean-up days,” they are shooting
struggle. “At first, Daniel was really have a few Kino Flos on hand, but I page 4 of Laeta Kalogridis’ script
sad,” says the mischievous Nispel, used them sparingly.” using a 6' slider that has often stood
“because he learned that in these Thanks in part to his trust in in for dolly track in the location’s
forests, even on a bright day, it’s what a digital intermediate (DI) confining canyons, streambeds and
almost pitch black.” Nispel had could do, Pearl stuck with an emul- stands of old-growth trees. “We’ve
heard that when The 13th Warrior sion he had come to rely on during made extensive use of the compact
came to Vancouver to take advan- previous shoots: Kodak Vision2 slider and a Fisher 10 dolly,” says
tage of the area’s normally abundant 500T 5218. “5218 was outstanding. Pearl.“We’ve also occasionally used a

62 September 2006

TLFeBOOK
 Ghost and
Indian Father
(Wayne Baker)
are silhouetted
in the forest as
the older man
dispenses some
wisdom.

30-foot Technocrane, sometimes mountain lion that will be filmed He’s an old friend of mine from
mounted on the arm of a Chapman leaping across the frame in slow Texas. We got to know each other
Titan truck crane. That rig gave us a motion. He’s been told the big cat is back in ’73. He was director of pho-
reach of about 60 feet in the air and noise-sensitive, a fact that doesn’t tography on Benji during the sum-
limitless flexibility, due to the fact jibe well with a crewmember’s com- mer I was shooting the original
that the dual crane arms create an ment that a particular camera run- Chainsaw. It was so strange for us to
elbow at their junction. To get some ning at accelerated frame rates be 23 years old and shooting movies
idea of what this allows compared sounds like “a baloney chopper.” that would both become big films in
to fighting the arc of a single crane Thanks to his good rapport with 1st their respective genres. We struck up
that goes in the opposite direction AD Eric Hays, Pearl has survived a bit of a friendship based on the fact
of what is normally required, imag- worse. As Nispel remarks, “We’ve that we were such anomalies; at the
ine trying to feed yourself without been working in the worst weather time, we were about half the age of
an elbow.” you can imagine — ice, rain, snow, the youngest working cinematogra-
Pearl notes that he used “zero on water, in whitewater. It’s been phers.”
Steadicam” on the shoot but really, really crazy, and we’ve been If Pearl had begun to worry as
numerous handheld shots. (Don working mostly at night. We went to soon as he got a taste of the weather
Reddy was the A-camera operator.) one location, and after the second around Vancouver, his first recruit-
Although the production’s Panaflex day, thanks to the slippery rocks, ing meetings with the local savants
Millennium XL is one of the lighter moss and snow, we had 17 people were even more daunting. “When I
35mm sound cameras, by the time a down with injuries that forced them was interviewing crew guys up here,
video transmitter, filtration, a spray to leave the set.” Pearl describes that they kept saying,‘Look, you’ve got to
deflector and Panatape were added particular location as “treacherous,” understand that come November,
to the camera body, it grew much but adds that local gaffer Owen when you go into the forest, there is
heavier. Pearl notes with a smile, Taylor and his crew “were great at no light in there. Zip.’ That’s another
“The production did pay for Don to getting the big heads into incredible reason I decided to shoot the entire
have weekly massages as thanks for perches on massive rocks.” film on 5218; I knew I would need
the great job he was doing.” Tramping toward his the speed. I also knew I would be
As Nispel prepares to capture encounter with the mountain lion, shooting a lot of stuff at night that
a shot involving the horse and Pearl comments, “Wayne has been was supposed to be daytime, and
actress Michelle Thrush (portraying doing a great job for us, and he’s that I’d be shooting in dark places
the character Indian Mother), been good at understanding my where there was no light in the mid-
Pearl checks the setup, gives the f- lighting style, so I don’t have a prob- dle of the day.” Gesturing from the
stop to B-camera operator Wayne lem leaving him to protect my inter- hazy twilight on the path toward the
McConnell, and sets off to shoot a ests on inserts. For the dramatic darkening recesses of the forest, he
much more challenging sequence, scenes, Don is a fantastic operator. adds, “Look at this now. You go into
hiking down a muddy logging road This is my third show in a row with the forest, there’s nothing in there.
to meet up with a purportedly tame him, and his credits go on forever. “Simon Jori, my incredibly

American Cinematographer 63

TLFeBOOK
Vikings on the Warpath

The production quick and efficient assistant camera- I were using an 85.” to shooting Tobe Hooper’s film, I
prepares to film man, knows the routine up here. He The brief Pearl and Nispel set was told I could not be in the film
with a 30'
Technocrane. mentioned to me that Tiffen had a for themselves on Pathfinder was in business and that I would probably
filter called the LLD, which stands many ways a variation of their work wind up being a film professor. And
for Low Light Daylight. I had never on the Chainsaw remake, a project I believed it until I shot that film.
heard of it, because I hadn’t really Pearl had pondered hard before Then, suddenly, I was in the film
been in situations where you’d joining. “Marcus is a very smart business. Based on that history,
always be on the edge of even having man, and it was his idea. At the time Marcus knew I had to make
an exposure. Normally, with 5218 or when he got hired to do the picture, Chainsaw great again, or else I was
any of the tungsten-balanced stocks, I was shooting most everything he giving it all away. I had gotten a lot
you would use an 85 filter, which was doing. The producers were actu- from the original, but all of that
takes two-thirds of the stop of your ally not that keen to have me shoot could’ve been wiped out if the sec-
light. Well, the LLD filter cuts the it, but he had two ideas that I think ond one didn’t turn out to be a suc-
ultraviolet of daylight and colors the proved to be true and helped the cessful film.
film a bit, but not fully. It has no film: he knew I was the one guy that “For most situations, I’m a
exposure compensation and no wouldn’t go in there and just copy devout cross-lighter, particularly for
light loss; it almost looks like a piece the original film, which was a gritty, dramatic material like Pathfinder,”
of clear glass, and I found it to be the vérité kind of thing. For me, there Pearl continues. “The rich images
ideal tool for our daylight scenes. It’s was no percentage in that since I’d you get that way appeal to my eye.
also been helping with the desatura- already done it. He also knew that When I’m looking for camera posi-
tion of colors by clipping a lot of the nobody would care more about the tions with my operators, I often tell
warmth out of them. This picture is remake than me, because the origi- them to ‘shoot the light.’ This doesn’t
not nearly as warm as it would be if nal basically made my career. Prior mean actually photographing the

64 September 2006

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TLFeBOOK
Vikings on the Warpath
Pathfinder, however, Nispel gave as you provide light. So you have to
Pearl a mandate to keep the villain- create some sort of an end to the set.
ous Vikings largely obscured. “The Basically, we’ve done that by back-
Vikings are frequently not lit at all,” lighting the smoke. You can’t see
says Pearl. “Marcus wanted them to beyond that, so it creates a false sense
be down and dark and sketchy. He of infinity.”
feels if you get too good a look at the Another homemade aspect of
Vikings, they might be laughable in the film, so to speak, was the signa-
some way. We shot them from low ture desaturation. “We’ll get a look
angles with wide lenses, and you for this film that would be very hard
don’t get to see their faces very to achieve any other way,” says Pearl.
much. It’s a bit more ominous if you “There are other ways to desaturate
can’t really make out who’s beneath film, like the bleach bypass we did
the helmet.” However, as seasoned on the Chainsaw remake. But on this
actor Clancy Brown brought more film, we’ve been able to go beyond
and more dramatic pith to the role that. That’s one of the advantages of
of Gunnar, the Viking leader, Nispel using 3-perf Super 35mm [2.35:1].
began to remove the actor’s helmet a There’s an old joke that in filmmak-
bit. Regarding these threatening ing there’s a triangle of ‘good, fast
characters, Pearl says he eventually and cheap,’ and you can only ever
began to “round them out with have two of them. But with Super
light. We play with a lot with light 35’s larger negative area, you get the
and shadow on all of our characters, ‘good,’ shooting 3-perf answers to
but there’s a little less light and a lit- ‘cheap,’ and running at 67.5 feet per
tle more shadow on the Vikings.” minute, as opposed to 90, necessi-
Shadowy faces proved to be tates fewer reloads, which, over a 51-
another practical benefit, as Pearl, day schedule, helps out on ‘fast.’ It
The cunning and lighting instrument, but rather find- forced to light a series of complex allows you to shoot faster film, and it
stealthy Ghost ing the camera position, relative to daytime tableaux while darkness allows you to push in developing if
emerges from a
swamp to the light and the subject’s eyeline, descended, found himself creating a you need to. I basically use just a lit-
surprise a that captures my look. Over the day look inside an artificial bank of tle overexposure all the time because
Viking warrior. years I’ve had to explain my fog. In such cases, he says, “it’s quite I think that results in a better prod-
approach to numerous students in common to put big lights up on uct when we’re doing the final grad-
lighting seminars, and I’ve come up Condors to light big areas, [but] we ing; you can bring [your exposure]
with an analogy that best explains it. were in some places where we down, but if you bring it up, it can
Think of the lighting setup as a bil- couldn’t even use Condors. I think get grainy and noisy.
liard shot where the key light is the we’ve been pretty successful at creat- “We mainly shot with zooms,
ball, the subject is the bumper, and ing a daylight look in nighttime sit- using the Panavision Primo 17.5-
the camera is the pocket. I’m most uations. A lot of scenes set in the day, 75mm on the A camera and the
happy when my light strikes the maybe one-third, were actually shot Primo 25-275mm on the B camera.
subject at such an angle that if the at night. We had a very tight sched- We also carried a set of Primo
subject were a mirror, the light ule in terms of the number of setups primes ranging from 14mm to
would be sent right down the lens.” and the scope of the project. The 150mm. Marcus likes to use the
Nispel later comments,“What movie’s big, there’s a lot of action in optical dynamics of the wide end of
Daniel has down is the one-source it, and Marcus shoots at a very fast the 4:1 zoom to create dolly mas-
lighting approach, which means you pace.” ters.”
don’t want to go into a bright set. Creating a sizable backdrop Although the production was
Instead, you backlight it. You need that would play as daytime, says light on its feet, budget constraints
shiny floors, and you need to wet it Pearl, “was about placing big lights and the awkward locations led Pearl
down. You need to smoke it up and far back. We use a lot of smoke in the to use three cameras for the battle
get the backlight to illuminate the movie to diffuse the light. But the scenes. “Much of the film was shot
smoke. Then he shapes what’s in thing is, when you’re really in day- off-speed, sometimes 6 fps for 6 fps,
front of it.” light, there’s light as far as you can but more frequently we over-
In applying this strategy to see. At night, there’s only light as far cranked. Due to the frequently

66 September 2006

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TLFeBOOK
 Vikings on the Warpath
Longtime for illegal HMI speeds, which is a
collaborators
Nispel (left) practical technique up to 60 fps.
and Pearl While we were shooting a flashback
amidst some to the massacre that took place
of the
production’s when our hero was still a young boy,
2,900 one camera was mistakenly set at 80
storyboards. fps, which is neither a legal nor
shutter-fixable speed. I called the
telecine suite at Technicolor
Vancouver, where they were doing
the dailies, and asked them to send
me a DVD so I could view the prob-
lem. Sure enough, the footage flick-
ered.”
Pearl realized that that if he
separated the footage into odd and
even frame numbers, “what I had
was actually two sets of 40-fps takes
at a 90-degree shutter, one being the
odd-numbered frames and the
inclement weather, my gaffer urged come up with a solution that may other being the even-numbered
me to go with the more reliable prove useful to other filmmakers. frames. I put the DVD into my Mac
magnetic HMI ballasts.” The situation arose from a pretty Powerbook and viewed the flicker-
At one point, the threat of los- standard scenario: “We occasionally ing shot. Then, remembering that
ing a day’s work forced Pearl to used shutter angles to compensate the DVD software allowed for 2x

68

TLFeBOOK
viewing, I checked the shot at dou- face. With that shot, it’s finally time was rain, then no rain. It was like
ble speed and there was no flicker.” to pack up, but not before Brown four different movies, you know?
Pearl convinced the colorist to run shrugs off his helmet one last time Daniel’s work blows me away all the
his telecine machine at exactly dou- to say, in his actor’s baritone, that time, but what blew me away this
ble speed. “To everyone’s surprise, he’s thankful for how the crew has time was that he could balance it.
there was no flicker when the stepped up: “This has been a very When you watch that footage now,
footage was run at 48 fps. In the difficult challenge, and I’ve got 20 you have no idea what the differ-
end, we simply used every other years to tell me that’s it’s the tough- ences were.” ■
frame, resulting in a flawless 40-fps est I’ve seen. What you guys have
shot that’s featured in the film and done is unbelievable. You’re awe-
the trailer. I’ve since wondered how some. Give yourselves a hand.”
many millions of dollars of Nispel clutches the actor and
reshoots could have been saved by thanks him, and when Pearl takes a TECHNICAL SPECS
other productions over the years moment with Brown, Nispel cites
Super 35mm 2.35:1
with this method.” an example of Pearl’s exemplary (3-perf)
As the mountain-lion shot is work on the show. “The climactic
captured (it would later wind up on sequence plays against this big rock Panaflex Platinum,
the cutting-room floor), the camera wall, and for timing reasons we had Millennium XL;
crews reunite for one last, arduous to shoot in the daytime but still keep Arri 435
shot. A prone Urban mounts and this crushed [night] look. So Daniel Primo lenses
“rides” a bucking but stationary said, ‘Look, if the sun comes out, I’ll
sled while a wind machine, simulat- just put some blacks up and we’ll Kodak Vision2 500T 5218
ing the foul weather that had earlier deal with it.’ But then, while we were
sent real snow and freezing rain shooting the sequence over 10 days, Digital Intermediate
down, blows prop snow into his the sun came and went, and there

69

TLFeBOOK
 A Call for
Digital Printer
Lights
A cinematographer’s suggestions for better, more precise
image control in the digital age.
by Richard P. Crudo, ASC

ne of the most frustrating digitally, let alone protect our vision. grade of color and density should be

O
obstacles that continue to Fair or not, a lot of what we do applied to the printing of a distinct
plague cinematographers in is judged by an unforgiving “first length of negative.
this hybrid era is the absence impressions are lasting impressions” Hazeltine workflow begins
of a way to accurately and ethic. With print dailies now the with a basic calibration tailored to
consistently dictate the look of our exception rather than the rule, a large the demands of a particular emul-
work during film-to-digital transfer portion of our time is spent reassur- sion or desired effect as measured
of our dailies. For decades, those of ing nervous directors and producers against the laboratory’s standard
us shooting for theatrical release that the movie won’t ultimately look practices.
have used the Hazeltine printer light the way it does in the electronic Drawing from a lab roll of up
as a simple, consistent measure of dailies. Through the application of to 2,000', a color timer scrolls the
what we’ve put on the negative, both existing technology, however, it’s developed film across a scanning
technically and creatively. With now possible for us to quickly and head, stopping to address a single
nothing comparable to call upon in easily regain full control over our still frame from each shot that has
the telecine suite, we find that work. been executed by the cinematogra-
despite all best efforts, we’re not just What follows is a step-by-step pher. Simultaneously, a positive rep-
flying blind, we’re working without analysis of why and how we should resentation of that negative image is
a net. Every time out it’s a new do it. relayed to an onboard cathode-ray
adventure, and the results are never tube.
precise. Right now, short of sitting at On the Print Side: Also built into the console
the colorist’s elbow, there exists no The Genius of the Hazeltine and subject to the additive system
industry-wide method for us to The Hazeltine console is an are three separate dials, one govern-
properly judge what we’re doing analyzer used for determining what ing the amount of red (R) that will

70 September 2006

TLFeBOOK
make up the image, one governing measured in printer points has a g.simple, reliable, easy to use
the amount of green (G) and one direct relationship to exposure at h.6-stop range of correction
governing the amount of blue (B). the lens. For example, in most labs, i. printer lights tell all you
Each of these dials is incrementally 8 points of density on the Hazeltine need to know about color,
marked to render a measurement of represents the equivalent of 1 T-stop density and lab controls
1 point through 50 points. A fourth of density during actual exposure of
dial governs overall density, also des- the action on set. Fractional modifi- Hazeltine Limitations
ignated to a scale of 1 through 50 cations apply in kind. a.no immediate feedback
points. The complete catalog of b.lack of secondary correc-
Working by virtue of an expe- printer-light information (as tion
rienced eye or from the cinematog- assigned to each shot by the timer) c. no gamma, gain, lift, lumi-
rapher’s written or verbal instruc- is ultimately relayed by computer to nance or chroma control
tions, the timer refers to the CRT’s the contact printer in order to create d.corrections are general; no
positive still-picture representation the positive. During the screening of Power Windows or specific
of the negative frame and uses these dailies, a hard copy of this informa- treatments available
density and R-G-B controls to “dial tion is delivered to the cinematogra-
in” an acceptable image. Under clin- pher for reference and approval. Although it’s considered
ical conditions, for example, a mid- somewhat primitive in certain
range R-G-B Hazeltine setting (the quarters, the Hazeltine remains a
printer light) for a properly exposed standard part of the process by
and developed negative would be Through the which photochemically based proj-
25-25-25. What this means on a ects marked for theatrical release
practical level is that a sunny day application of are printed. Don’t be misled by
exterior will look “normal” when complaints about a mature technol-
given that specific amount of red, existing technology, ogy. The simple three-number
green, blue and density. In other coordinate it generates empowers
words, when projected onscreen, the
sky will appear blue, grass will
it’s now possible cinematographers to control the
final appearance of their images
appear green, the brightness level with boldness and exactitude.
will replicate that of a clear day, and
for us to quickly
so on. The One-Light Print
Keep in mind that the success and easily regain The use of a single, predeter-
of color timing (noted, as always, in mined set of Hazeltine numbers
the subjective quality of the result- full control over takes the guesswork out of the lab’s
ing print) is wholly subservient to dailies-printing protocol and places
the potential or limitation set by our work. total control of the film’s look where
the combination of exposure and it belongs: in the hands of the cine-
the lab’s processing controls. matographer.
Nonetheless, a certain amount of Hazeltine Advantages Each night, dailies timers
latitude is inherent to the system’s a.has predictable, quantifi- scroll an incredible amount of neg-
design. ably repeatable results ative through their Hazeltines.
Variations in color can be b.enables exact communica- These tens of thousands of feet are
realized by shifting the R-G-B print- tion among many different culled from a wide range of produc-
er light values up or down, either parties tions shot under a variety of cir-
individually or in combination c. provides the option of cumstances. Very often, the timer’s
within the established 50-point removing the timer’s opin- only guidance in determining what
range. On the other hand, density ion from the process information gets sent to the contact
corrections are generally made in an d.printer lights help deter- printer is a barely legible scrawl at
amount that is identical across the mine/personalize precise the bottom of a camera report:
board. Thus, equally increasing the film-speed rating print cool … print warm … day for
value of the overall printer light will e. makes anomalies easy to night … dawn effect, and so on.
result in a darker print; decreasing it isolate/correct Though lab technicians can be sur-
will render a lighter print. It is also f. time-tested, established prisingly good at extracting mean-
important to note that density as standard ing from the indefinable, using a

American Cinematographer 71

TLFeBOOK
A Call for Digital Printer Lights
single printer-light setting (arrived performed. Thus, it is possible — make independent creative deci-
at through the cinematographer’s indeed preferable — to shoot an sions.
own testing and choosing) elimi- entire feature film on the same This is no knock on colorists.
nates the problems caused by rely- printer light. That said, it is also They are a necessary part of our
ing on vague, highly personal and viable to establish printer lights process, and every one I’ve known
subjective written or verbal descrip- for defined situations or effects, has done his or her job amazingly
tions. In addition, working in this i.e., day/exterior, night/exterior, well. But the fact remains that we
manner allows the cinematograph- night/interior, etc. When that is best realize our digitally transferred
er to introduce any amount of vari- done, the positive looks exactly the images only when we’re able to pro-
ation in color and density to the way the cinematographer wants it to vide immediate guidance while
image in a quantifiable and repeat- physically present in the telecine
able way. Whether these changes are suite. Unfortunately, this can’t
effected through filtration used on
We best realize always be the case. I also know that
the lens, gels over the lamps, or a many cinematographers are satisfied
well-considered shift in the printer
our digitally by their long-term relationships
light is a matter of taste and experi- with specific timers and colorists.
ence.
transferred images During the finishing stages of a
Assuming the cinematogra- show, the input of a talented timer
pher’s working method and the lab’s
only when we’re or colorist provides an indispensable
chemistry are both up to code, the contribution that goes a long way
immediate payoff from using a sin-
able to provide toward making us all look like
gle printer light is a day-to-day heroes. However, to a great degree, a
image consistency on par with that
immediate sacrifice of control is inherent to
of the still photographer’s vaunted what goes on in the digital suite.
“previsualization.” For the long
guidance in the
term, answer- and release-printing An Example, Part 1
procedures are much simpler affairs
telecine suite. Rather than restate the famil-
because corrections to color and iar film-to-digital workflow, a sim-
density become a matter of fine- look, not the way the Hazeltine ple but disturbingly common sce-
tuning rather than a complete re- timer (or anyone else, for that mat- nario illustrates my point:
balancing of the entire film. ter) interprets it to look. You compose, light and
But remember that the one- A detailed explanation of the expose a shot of your lead actress for
light print designated by the cine- procedure used to determine a spe- a not-quite-silhouette effect in
matographer’s choice is markedly cific printer light for dailies can be which she is kept in the dark, but
different in concept from what found in the eighth edition of the only so dark that you’ll still be able
dailies personnel commonly refer to American Cinematographer Manual, to see her eyes onscreen. Technical
using the same words. Left to its in the chapter “Finding Your Own details are as follows:
own devices, any lab can deliver a Printer Light” (pp. 112-120).
one-light print every day. The dif- Key exposure at the lens: T2.8
ference is that because the dailies On the Digital Side Backlight: +1 stop
timer is making color and density An industry-wide equivalent Front fill: -2 stops
decisions using his or her judgment, of the Hazeltine printer light, an Printer light: 29-31-26
the lab’s version will inevitably ironclad indicator of both technical
change its R-G-B Hazeltine values standards and specific artistic The next day, you view the
from negative roll to negative roll, vision, does not currently exist in print of this shot in dailies, rendered
or even among different shots and any form in the electronic realm. at the very same printer light you
setups within the same roll. The The rationale for developing this chose during preproduction testing
printer light that ultimately results capability is as follows: (29-31-26). The lead actress is
from the cinematographer’s testing The Hazeltine process gives indeed dark, and her eyes are defi-
procedure is something peculiar to us the option of excluding the arbi- nitely readable. The result is exactly
that cinematographer, and is meant trary judgment of the timer in ren- what you intended.
for use in printing negative from sit- dering the look of our dailies. The Later, though, it’s an entirely
uations that match the lighting con- film-to-digital process creates a bar- different story in the digital dailies.
ditions under which the test was rier by requiring the colorist to Despite regular and vigorous com-

72 September 2006

TLFeBOOK
TLFeBOOK
A Call for Digital Printer Lights
munication, the colorist was ulti- sive to employ on set. They also tracking ball” just doesn’t have the
mately forced to make a decision require a substantial investment of same precision.
that he thought would suit your eye. time and effort after wrap if you
This choice is not necessarily a bad want to communicate your wishes Digital Telecine Advantages
one, it’s just not your own. And the for the treatment of what you’ve a. immediate feedback
colorist’s error is compounded by just shot. What could be less com- b. an essentially infinite num-
inefficient or incorrect calibration of plicated than providing a series of ber of choices for the look
the displays used to watch the digital numbers that lock in the look from c. primary and secondary
dailies. Thus, the electronic effect is the get-go? color correction
one of no silhouette at all. You see d.ability to effect gamma,
the actress’s eyes, but you see a lot of gain, lift, luminance and
other things, too. The overall image We must create saturation
quality is too bright, flat, washed- e. easy access to a variety of
out and devoid of the strong graph- a protocol that effects; Power Windows
ic texture apparent in the print. Now capability
explanations are in order for every- delivers the exact
one who was not able to see the pro- Digital Telecine Limitations
jected film in the screening room. same look during a. cinematographer must be
An overly simplified hypo- physically present to get
thetical? Sure. But this sort of thing each transfer exactly what is desired
goes on in one form or another all b. no option to measure color,
the time! Every cinematographer session. density, gamma, gain, lift,
has suffered a similar situation; luminance or saturation
some have even experienced cata- c. no precise means of com-
strophic consequences. Keep in An Example, Part 2 munication with colorist,
mind also that this example only After a few weeks of living especially with so many
addresses the issue of density, a with the print of the nearly silhou- choices at hand
much simpler conceit than that of etted actress, the director tells you
color. Now transpose the number of he’d now prefer to see her in total You can see that by using the
places at which the digital-dailies silhouette. Armed with the knowl- Hazeltine theory as a model, it’s
process can go wrong, and you’ll edge of what your negative and lab imperative that we develop and
begin to understand the urgency of can deliver, you dutifully call the implement the equivalent of a digi-
this argument. timer and order a reprint of the tal printer light (DPL) on the elec-
shot. You then designate a pass that tronic side.
The Failure of Current is 12 Hazeltine points (11⁄2 lens
“Solutions” stops) darker than the original. The Proposal
Written descriptions on cam- Witness the math: The effort to meet this
era reports … verbal descriptions demand needs to unfold in an
on minicassettes … Polaroids sent Original printer light: orderly fashion according to a prac-
in with the negative … special gray 29-31-26 tical and achievable design.
cards … telecine-analysis films … New printer light: 41-43-38 First, we must create a way to
referencing of still stores … com- calibrate the entire digital workflow
puter or Web-based previsualization Simple, reliable, quantifiably within a universally interoperable
systems …. Some cinematographers repeatable — and easy to commu- color space. This is an issue of over-
are pleased with what they get from nicate. No visit to the lab is riding importance not just for cine-
one or another of these techniques required. In fact, you didn’t even matographers, but for everyone in
for relaying information about their have to see the second version to the industry; nevertheless, its
work to the colorist. But each will know you’d get exactly what you absence at this moment is no obsta-
also admit that these methods fall wanted. cle to the development and imple-
far short of the consistency that Doing the same thing elec- mentation of a DPL capability.
would be enabled by a measured, tronically is impossible. Somehow, Second, working within this
printer light-like system. Then calling in from location and saying, arena, we must create a way to pre-
there’s ease of use. Existing previz “Give me 1⁄16 of an inch more of a cisely measure what R, G, B, C, M, Y,
systems are cumbersome and intru- spin to the northeast on the density gamma, gain, lift, luminance and

74 September 2006

TLFeBOOK
chroma are doing at any point dur-
ing the digital transfer process.
These numbers will represent the
DPL.
Third, we must create a pro-
tocol that delivers the exact same
look during each transfer session
within a given facility simply by set-
ting the telecine controls to the cho-
sen coordinates, just like the
Hazeltine. The point system by
which numeric value is assigned
(the DPL) can be entirely arbitrary
in nature and precisely tailored to
the working methods of the cine-

GF-16
matographer. There are an infinite
number of look choices available in
digital transfer, but the fact is, we’re
interested in only one look at a time.
If a certain project demands a vari-
ety of textures to be applied over dif- A
ferent scenes or sequences, then a
variety of DPLs can be designated
for use — once again, just like the
Hazeltine.
GF-10

Furthermore, the R, G, B, C,
M and Y coordinates must be set
up to track directly with the lab’s
Hazeltine printer light. In other
words, a 2-point increase in blue
on the Spirit or the da Vinci must
have the same effect as adding 2
points of blue to the print. In keep-
ing with this, software must be
designed to detect and compensate
GF-9

for any drift or deviation from the

“norm” anywhere in the digital
transfer system. Because this norm
is established by the cinematogra-
pher during preproduction testing,
what’s most important is what the
cinematographer actually sees on
the display. After choosing a specif-
ic look or looks, consistency must
be guaranteed.
GF-8

Fourth, we must create a

method by which to record all rele-
vant negative and transfer informa-
tion as metadata. This road map
must then follow a project from
inception to completion and should
include reference to any changes
made to the image during postpro-
duction as well. In doing so, it will

75

TLFeBOOK
 A Call for Digital Printer Lights
for all time provide a record of the B calls for an entirely different visual Utilizing the services of a talented
cinematographer’s original intent. texture, fresh tests and calibrations colorist, the cinematographer
Ideally, a universally interop- will be needed in order to find the works to find the appropriate digi-
erable color space within the digital DPL that delivers this new look. tal look or looks. When satisfied,
workflow should apply from image the cinematographer makes note of
creation through image delivery, the relevant R, G, B, C, M, Y,
but its development represents an Tell us what the gamma, gain, lift, luminance and
enormous challenge. Although a chroma settings on the transfer
solution is most certainly within machinery is doing console; these figures make up the
our reach, this proposal accepts a DPL.
system of calibration unique to the at any given At the end of each working
post facility in which the cine- day during production, the camera
matographer happens to be work- instant, and let us assistant enters these DPL numbers
ing. Don’t forget, the primary appli- on the camera report (along with
cation of the DPL is for electronic measure it so we the Hazeltine printer lights for the
dailies. With that, each production print side, if print is involved). The
is essentially a “one-time-only” can repeat its colorist receives the camera report
affair whose baseline measure- at the digital facility and sets the
ments, whatever they may be, are, in effect. console controls to these exact
effect, solely for that specific project coordinates. Then the negative is
in that specific facility. For example, The DPL in Practice scrolled through the scanner, and
a cinematographer wraps Movie A After arriving at a desired the electronic dailies are timed pre-
on Friday and returns to the same look or looks on film during prep, cisely to the cinematographer’s
facility on Monday morning to start the same test negative is brought to directions.
anew with Movie B. Because Movie the digital facility for the next step.

76

TLFeBOOK
 Further Advantages matographer is literally in the dark that we’ve already got the rocket that
1. A practical DPL will for in this respect.“Is my exposure good goes to the moon. What we need
the first time qualify electronic or bad?” There’s no way to know. technicians to do is merely install a
dailies to give meaningful informa- Often, mistakes don’t show up until speedometer. Tell us what the
tion to the cinematographer. The the release-printing stage, at which machinery is doing at any given
concurrent use of a single point it’s too late to remedy any instant, and let us measure it so that
Hazeltine printer light with a single problems. In helping cure this infu- we can repeat its effect.
DPL will automatically corroborate riating problem, it’s ironic that the Believe me, this can be done.
what’s seen onscreen in both the DPL may in some cases render the Be on the lookout for Part 2
digital and film domains. Granted, need to see a print superfluous. of this article, in which ASC
there is an innate difference 3. Ridiculously long hours President Daryn Okada will recount
between the two mediums that’s and tight schedules mitigate against his real-world experience with a
unlikely to be bridged. But cine- all but the most superficial partici- prototype DPL system. ■
matographers long ago mastered pation in the transfer process for the
the internal computations and television cinematographer. It’s easy
adjustments of the eye needed to to see how the DPL will help solve
make substantive judgments about that dilemma. Just having the ability
different forms of image creation to communicate in a language that
and delivery. means the same thing at all times to
2. As stated earlier, today’s all parties will represent a huge step
digital transfer can render remark- forward on that front.
able images from all but the most
grievously deformed negatives. But Looking Ahead
currently, on productions that do Take a quick look around any
not print their dailies, the cine- digital suite, and you’ll recognize

77

TLFeBOOK
 Short Takes
Hermès and TCM Celebrate Short Films
by Elina Shatkin

his experience as a documentary film-

maker to make a short about his
Alzheimer’s-afflicted mother and their
shared passion for classic movies; Van
Peebles took a page from his own life by
casting his children in Baadasssss Grand-
kids!, a playful, mock trailer for his feature
Baadasssss! (see AC May ’04); and
Dunne, in his as-yet-untitled mockumen-
tary, explores what might have happened
to the executive who turned down Steven
Spielberg’s request to use M&Ms in E.T.
Following are details about three
other productions, Merhige’s The Din of The Model 1A yields a negative
Celestial Birds, Sweeney’s In the Eye that’s about 4"x5", but film is no longer
Abides the Heart, and Sigismondi’s Post- made for it, so Merhige changed the
mortem Bliss. sprocket wheels to match the perfora-
tions on 120 medium-format film and
The Din of Celestial Birds shot with Kodak Portra 400NC/400VC
Merhige drew on his early feature and Portra 800. Another challenge with
Begotten, a wordless depiction of human- the camera was the extensive light leak-
ity’s creation, for The Din of Celestial age, “which was sometimes good and
Birds, which he photographed as well as sometimes not so good,” says Merhige.
directed. “When I originally conceived “We had to black out areas in the back of
Begotten, it had two other parts, and Din the camera with tape and black cloth.”
is part of a preamble that takes on the role To shoot the miniatures, Merhige
of the creation myth,” explains Merhige. used still photography in a stop-motion
Featuring no dialogue and shot entirely manner, mounting the Model 1A to an
with miniatures, the film was an attempt aluminum rack and rail system that
ilmmaking, like politics, often makes to create “a silent film from the future,” allowed him to hold the camera perfectly

F
Above: Three
frames from the strange bedfellows, and evidence of one that would allow Merhige to utilize still yet move it horizontally or vertically
experimental
short The Din of this is Behind the Camera: The Shorts the extreme polarities of technology, from down to the precise millimeter. “I could
Celestial Birds, Circuit, a slate of short films jointly spon- the earliest cinema cameras to modern- create the light changes I wanted by
directed and sored by luxury-goods manufacturer day software. moving the camera and changing the
shot by E. Elias
Merhige (right). Hermès and broadcaster Turner Classic “I used almost every kind of format light slowly and carefully with each
Movies. This mini-festival, which begins in the making of this piece,” says shot.” He also used chemical reactions
airing on TCM on Sept. 15, features clas- Merhige. His equipment included a No. to create some of the more celestial
sic short films by Martin Scorsese, Alfred 1A Folding Pocket Kodak camera from effects, including portions of cloud
Hitchcock, David Lynch, Roman Polanski, 1903, a Hasselblad 501 medium-format vortices and the “birthing of worlds”
Stanley Kubrick, François Truffaut and still camera, an old 35mm Mitchell rack- section of the film. Though he won’t
Yasujiro Ozu, as well as six new shorts over camera, 16mm Bolex and Arri-S reveal the details, Merhige says these
directed by Griffin Dunne, Peter Gilbert, E. cameras, a Leica M-series microscope chemical reactions are created in a small
Elias Merhige, Floria Sigismondi, Mary adapted for use with an Arri-S camera, glass dish and lit from behind or under-
Sweeney and Mario Van Peebles. and a Sony HDR-FX1 high-definition neath with the camera looking down into
For the new films, Gilbert drew on MiniDV camcorder. the reaction.

78 September 2006

TLFeBOOK
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TLFeBOOK
 For the 16mm and 35mm cine- microcosmic archaelogy of perception as ing screenings and her afternoons at Aqua
matography, Merhige used a standard a kind of hologram, taking us beyond the Films, where she prepared for production.
complement of Schneider and Zeiss limits of the possibilities of what we can Immediately after the festival, she shot for
lenses, as well as two lenses he designed see.” two days, working with Argentinian cine-
himself. Both of the latter were uncoated matographer Marcelo Lavintman, ADF,
and custom-made by a glass blower in In the Eye Abides the Heart who has shot numerous music videos,
Santa Cruz, California. “One [of these Sweeney’s name has appeared in documentaries and features since he grad-
lenses] creates a feeling of looking through the credits of many films directed by uated from Universidad del Cine in 1994.
an endless tunnel,” says Merhige. “It David Lynch, her one-time romantic and In the Eye Abides the Heart, which
leaves everything in the center very crisp, creative collaborator. During their part- takes place entirely outdoors and was shot
while everything on the outer edges nership, Sweeney produced and edited in black-and-white, is divided into two
becomes softer and softer in gradations. several of Lynch’s features, including sections, each of which presents a young
The other lens has more of an anamorphic Lost Highway, The Straight Story and couple in love. One is set in the early
feel; you can rotate it, and as you do, the Mulholland Dr. 1900s, and the other unfolds in modern
world takes on this pliant quality, like taffy, For her directoring debut, In the times. “I set the movie in two different
and looks as though it’s being pulled Eye Abides the Heart, Sweeney chose to periods because the lyrics of the song to
apart.” explore the timeless essence of romantic me express an idea that is timeless,” says
To achieve the film’s high-contrast love. The idea came to her when she Sweeney. “And I wanted the whole movie
black-and-white look, Merhige shot the heard the piece of music that gives the to be silent because I wanted to rely on
16mm and 35mm footage on Kodak Vision film its title. The original tune was trans- images to tell the story.”
200T (5274/7274) and Vision 500T lated from German into English by “Mary wanted the sequence set in
(5279/7279), then made a series of prints Stephen Foster in 1851. Sweeney the past to look like a movie from that
and desaturated them so they would be recruited Steve Marker of the band period, with exaggerated contrast and
generations away from the original nega- Garbage to update the music, and without camera movement,” says Lavint-
tive. Marker convinced lead singer Shirley man. “For the present-day story, we agreed
Merhige shot with a final aspect Manson to provide vocals for the new on less contrast, a more modern kind of
ratio of 2.35:1 in mind, composing images arrangement. diffusion, and putting the camera on a
that could be blown up or scaled down to The chance to make the film Steadicam.”
conform to the format. The results were dropped into Sweeney’s lap just as she To further differentiate the two
mostly composited on an Oxberry optical was preparing to serve as a judge for the sections, the section set in the past was
printer, with additional digital compositing Buenos Aires International Independent shot at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, whereas
done on a software application developed Film Festival. Friends in the city the present-day section was shot at 1.78:1.
specifically for the film by Miguel P. connected her with a local production “I knew the first half of the film would have
Eckstein, who studies vision and image company, and Sweeney decided she a 1.33:1 ratio, so we framed everything to
perception at the University of California- would shoot the film there. During the make sure I had room at the edges to cut it
Santa Barbara. Eckstein wrote several festival, she spent her mornings attend- off and put in a mask that would replicate
algorithms that allowed Merhige and his
team to take a series of stills and stitch
them together into a single file, which
could then be treated as one layer in the
overall composite. “Some layers of
compositing were modified in the digital
realm, which helped a great deal in
smoothing out the flow of the visual narra-
tive,” says Merhige. “Scenes were later
stitched together digitally to help create
one seamless, flowing world/film.”
Despite the extensive manipulation
Director Mary of formats and technologies, Merhige
Sweeney wanted Din of Celestial Birds to be a truly
(standing) poses
with the stars of handcrafted film. “It was really about
In the Eye Abides getting into the physical nature of cinema
the Heart, as it has transformed and evolved. I
Alejandra Lopez
Yasky and Juan believe film can create a philosophical
Minujin. dialogue about the macrocosmic and

80 September 2006

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TLFeBOOK
 less. Aside from a polarizer for a few Postmortem Bliss
shots containing skies, Lavintman used For music-video director Floria
no filtration for the first portion of the Sigismondi, Postmortem Bliss was an
film. For the second portion, he used opportunity to explore adolescent angst.
Tiffen Soft/FX filters in varying grada- Based on a script by her husband, Lillian
tions. Berlin, the film explores the interior land-
The black-and-white look was scape of a 15-year-old boy who questions
achieved during production by modifying the nature of his existence, which is predi-
the camera’s RGB settings. Lavintman cated on prescribed medications. “I
details, “[HD operator] Rino Pravato and wanted the film to have a very printed look,
I set the luminance by dropping down the quite pushed and little gritty,” says the
blue, as if I had used a yellow filter, and director. “And [I felt] the kid should look
dropping the green a little to control the greasy and sweaty, like he’s been up all
leaves lit by the hard sun. Then we set night.” To achieve this feel, she worked
the chrominance at -99, the minimum, so with cinematographer Nicola Pecorini,
we could obtain a black-and-white that with whom she had collaborated on the
kept the luminance setting.” Fiona Apple video “O’ Sailor.”
In Postmortem an old-time vignette,” says Sweeney, Much of the rest of the look can “Floria was very clear from the
Bliss, a 15-year-
old boy (Nick
who also edited the film. be credited to luck, according to beginning that she wanted the piece to
Fowler) asks Because of budget constraints, Sweeney. “Everything we did to the look very real, very normal,” says Pecorini.
himself some Sweeney and Lavintman shot on high- image — a little bit of blossoming in the “My main concern was to find a way to
existential
questions.
definition (HD) video, using a Sony whites, flickering the image, a tiny bit of allow her as much time as possible to deal
HDW-F900 and a Cine Style F 5/50 lens. scratching — was done in post,” says with the performance.” Having such a
Lavintman manipulated the f-stop so the Sweeney. “The fact that the wind was young actor and such a difficult script
modern segment had more depth of blowing and the leaves were golden was required Pecorini and his crew to maximize
field and the historical segment had just a gift from God.” their time; the cinematographer swears

82

TLFeBOOK
the crew never spent more than 10 regularly with director Terry Gilliam. Director Floria
Sigismondi
minutes turning around or changing shots Shooting in Super 16mm, checks an
during the one-day production. Pecorini used Kodak Vision2 7218, image with
Shooting in a friend’s apartment in which he rated “by the book” at 500 cinematographer
Nicola Pecorini.
the Silverlake area of Los Angeles, ASA. He knew that every minute would
Pecorini made the most of the location. “It make a difference, so he dropped his
was a small house with very low ceilings resistance to using zoom lenses and
and very little room both inside and shot mostly with a Canon 7mm-63mm
outside,” he says. “We lit everything from T.2.8 zoom mounted on an Arri 16SR-3.
the outside using 12-lights with very (He also used a Canon telephoto lens
narrow spots corrected with 1⁄2 CTB and and a Century prime lens.)
going through full or half diffusion.” On of the film’s most striking
Sigismondi and Pecorini agreed moments is an underwater segment
that the camera should always be moving that shows the protagonist floating in a
to allow for quick repositioning and to pool. The tight budget and schedule did box from Clairmont Cameras, the camera
transmit the “floating” feeling that the not allow for underwater housings, so was placed at the bottom of the pool and
drug Ritalin can induce. They wanted Sigismondi used a small, pre-fab tilted up to catch reflections from the
Postmortem Bliss to have a handheld feel, paddling pool that was set up on the surface, creating an unexpected, mirror-like
but worried that such a style would be too curb outside the house. Old linoleum effect.
distracting. Instead, they chose to shoot was laid on the bottom of the pool, a “As we were waiting while the
with an Aerocrane fitted with a Weaver backdrop that matched the color of the camera was being loaded, we caught a
Steadman three-axis head and mounted apartment was placed in the water at shot of the actor’s feet and legs on the top,
on a Chapman PeeWee dolly. “It’s the the back of the pool, and props from the and it was such an interesting shot I
same configuration I used on Fear and apartment were placed in the pool to decided to use it,” says Sigismondi. “I love
Loathing in Las Vegas [AC May ‘98] and make it look as though the bedroom was to have things as scripted as possible, and
Tideland,” says Pecorini, who collaborates filling with water. Protected by a splash then I look for magic to happen.” ■

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 Post Focus

Top: Oblivious to Paris Circa 2054 this month, tries to push the technology shards of sharp white, with almost no
a spectacular by John Pavlus in new directions. gray in between. The filmmakers inten-
view of Paris,
tough-as-nails Renaissance pits a hardboiled cop tionally sidestepped the issue of photo-
police detective Although widely employed in named Karas (voiced by Daniel Craig) realism; Renaissance instead looks like
Barthélémy video games, the animation technique against a vast corporate conspiracy he a cyberpunk crime comic come to life,
Karas ponders
the case at hand known as motion-capture (mo-cap for can only vaguely fathom. When a bril- offering stylized animation, dizzyingly
in Renaissance. short) has had relatively little exposure in liant young scientist named Ilone is detailed Parisian backgrounds, and
Bottom: Bislane feature filmmaking. The technology blurs kidnapped, her employer, the Avalon fluidly realistic performances by digital
(left) discusses
her sister’s the line between production and post, as Corp., sends Karas on the hunt. But what characters.
disappearance well as that between live-action film- begins as a routine missing-person case The visuals the filmmakers had
with a mutual making and traditional animation, by soon deepens into a morass of conflict- in mind took nearly a decade to realize.
acquaintance,
Dmitri. “capturing” real-time information about ing loyalties and doublecrosses over Director Christian Volckman started
an actor’s movements in three dimen- nothing less than the possibility of attain- developing the project in 1998 with
sions and then mapping that data onto a ing eternal life. Matching the dark plot is Marc Miance, a 23-year-old who
computer-animated character. The a starkly graphic look that uses animated showed him a short test of the distinc-
thriller Renaissance, which is set in Paris chiaroscuro “lighting” to split everything tive chiaroscuro look at an animation
in 2054 and will open in U.S. theaters onscreen into pools of inky black and festival both men had entered. Over the Renaissance frame grabs courtesy of Miramax Films.
next six years of fundraising, testing
and script-writing, Miance launched his
own animation company, Attitude
Studio, to meet the production’s esca-
lating technical demands, which
included 90 virtual Parisian sets, more
than 100 characters, and 200 dynamic
props and accessories ranging “from
the small ashtray that sits on the Avalon
boss’s desk to all the moving vehicles,”
according to Volckman.
Production began in 2004 and
took more than a year, although the mo-

84 September 2006

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TLFeBOOK
 Top: Karas cap workflow dissolves many of the of the framing you want, but when mouse instead of a dolly or geared
pursues a
suspect on the
traditional distinctions between produc- you’re with the actor you mainly work head. “We could play each scene from
city’s multilevel tion and post. “It’s very complex together to anticipate the [shots], this camera’s point of view and follow
streets. Bottom: because you have all the problems because only later, in editing, do you the action in real time with our mouse,”
Bislane
remembers her
normally expected on a 2-D animated choose exactly what your coverage is. If explains Zaitoun. “It was really fun to
sister, Ilona, a feature, all the problems of a 3-D you look at the cut of the scene and do, just like following actors on a set
promising animated film, and all the problems of a think you’re missing a necessary close- with a real camera. The camera object
scientist of
considerable
live-action cast, such as post syncing,” up, you just go back into the mo-cap in the volume also has a focal-view
ambition. says Volckman. “It’s a huge amount of machine that has the action recorded in setting that we could use to zoom in or
work, and sometimes you go nuts.” a 3-D volume and say to your collabora- out, and we even created our own plug-
For one thing, the work of fram- tor, ‘Can you make a close-up of her at ins to approximate handheld-style
ing shots and editing them together this moment?’ The process is actually movement. We usually programmed
proceeded virtually in tandem on very organic.” our camera moves according to an
Renaissance, “which is bizarre because Volckman’s collaborator in this animatic, but we could use the mouse
it’s usually the other way around,” says process was Henri Zaitoun, whose title to modify the initial movement in real
the director. “Normally in live action, was digital camera supervisor. Zaitoun’s time and record it as a different take.”
once it’s shot, it’s all over. You go to the post duties often paralleled those of a Zaitoun’s team used a program called
editing room, and if you’re missing traditional camera operator, except his Motion Builder to execute these real-
anything, you’re screwed. But with mo- “camera” was a weightless cube in time manipulations.
cap, it’s reversed. You still have to think virtual space that was moved with a Volckman worked closely with

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Zaitoun and editor Pascal Tosi during
this stage, creating shots scene by
scene in chronological order to match a
detailed animatic, and also modifying
scenes or adding new shots when
necessary to improve the flow of the
edit. “The only constraint you have is
time,” says the director. “You can edit
and frame your film for 10 years
because you can always go back and try
infinite options. Someone like John
Woo would probably freak out, because
he would always be able to create more
and more coverage of a single scene.”
Zaitoun agrees, adding that most of the
time, the Renaissance team exercised
the kind of discipline most filmmakers
do in choosing shots. “For some simple
scenes, we just created two or three
shots that were edited together imme-
diately, but for others that were more
complex, we often made 100-150 differ-
ent shots. When the editor saw
everything, he was really … well,
impressed!”
Although the filmmakers could
theoretically generate an endless
amount of coverage, they did only have
one 3-D mo-cap take — that is, one set
of raw data captured from the actors’
movements — to draw upon for fram-
ing each scene. “In that sense, it’s simi-
lar to live-action because you can’t go
back and reshoot the actors’ literal
movements,” explains Volckman. “But
for a sense of rhythm and finding the
right shots for the right moment, it’s
great.”
Preceding the six-month process
of framing and editing Renaissance
were three months of mo-cap work that
supplied the raw material for the
animated performances. Every human
action in the film, ranging from a simple
conversation on a couch to an elaborate
gun battle in Avalon’s headquarters,
was performed by the film’s cast on a
6x10-meter square surrounded by a
circular array of 24 digital-video
cameras. The actors all wore close-
fitting jumpsuits studded with dozens of
mo-cap sensors, each of which corre-
sponded to a respective point mirrored
in the 3-D virtual space. “The cameras
were all shooting in infrared, so they

87

TLFeBOOK
 lenslite
TM
only registered those markers on the to control everything and not go crazy!
actors’ bodies,” says Volckman. “They At some points, you’re asking yourself
didn’t see anything else, so in the mo- why you’re doing mo-cap at all when
cap footage, you only see these dots in you know that talented animators can
space flying around corresponding to do a really good job animating people.
the actors’ body movements. That But in the end, you see it does make a
makes it hard, in a way, to choose your huge difference when you’re looking for
best takes. Luckily, we also had three something lifelike and human to get
normal video cameras shooting refer- humans to generate it in the first place.”
ence footage at the same time, espe- Ironically, the final stages of
cially for close-ups.” Renaissance’s post phase hewed
Because so much of an actor’s closely to a more traditional animation
performance is in his or her eyes, the workflow. While the mo-cap rigging
Renaissance team decided to create supplied the broad strokes of character
special eyeglasses that held tiny mo-cap movement and Zaitoun’s digital camera
cameras that captured the wearer’s eye allowed great flexibility in choosing
movements. “The glasses were barely shots, each edited sequence went back
evolution heavier than normal glasses, so the
actor could feel at ease,” says Olivier
to a team of keyframe animators that
added all the fine details to tie these

through Renourd, Attitude Studio’s technical

supervisor. “With the big mo-cap
elements together, including facial
expressions and hand movements

innovation
process, you’re trying to establish a (which weren’t recorded by mo-cap
position in 3-D space, so you always sensors), clothes and props, and the all-
need at least two cameras to see a important final rendering, which
given point. But for the eye, you can wrapped the hard black-and-white noir
LIGHTWEIGHT capture in 2-D space with one camera lighting effects around the animated
because the pupil just moves around an models.
VERSATILE DESIGN essentially flat plane.” “The scenes we worked from
This process is what sets mo-cap were kind of naked, all gray with no
animation apart from keyframe anima- lights and no textures,” recalls Zaitoun.
• Optimized for Z1 tion, in which artists build the characters “In order to edit it well, we tried to give
and their body language from scratch. our rushes an approximation of the final
and P2 cameras
Because real actors are recorded, the shading in order to avoid some problems
• Fixed and rotating characters’ movements become imbued
with an extra level of naturalism; it also
that might arise in rendering the movie’s
particular graphical style. We tried to
filter trays allows actors some freedom to impro- anticipate some lighting problems and
vise. “It’s all acted out like a stage play,” cheat when necessary. For instance, in
• 12V-40V input range says Volckman. “It’s not as though you one sequence we put a crowd in the
have to start and stop and break it all dark so some final rendering time could
• Wireless dimming into pieces to get all your separate shots be saved.”
just right. It’s more natural and lets the Keyframe animation director
IBC STAND No 11.261 actors get into character better, and Pierre Avon supervised these finishing
once it’s in the box and everyone’s touches, working with a team of 12
happy, we go to the next scene or Maya artists who received each edited
sales sequence. sequence one week after Zaitoun and
“Then again, the actors don’t Tosi had finished it. “We’d start as soon
www.cirrolite.com
have anything physical to help them in as the editing was approved by Christ-
www.ambient.de the process — no sets, no wardrobe, ian so we wouldn’t waste time animat-
www.bbplight.nl very few props — so they have to really ing things that would be offscreen,”
visualize how the film is going to look,” says Avon. “Except for the eye move-
www.cartonifrance.com
he continues. “But once you put the ments, we created all the facial expres-
www.mediateknik.se right elements in for them to play with, sions, lip-sync and hand movements
www.vfgadgets.com they can do whatever they want or need from scratch, using the video reference
to do and can improvise a lot. Of course, footage as a guide. But no rotoscoping
since this was my first film, I was trying was done.”
www.gekkotechnology.com
88

TLFeBOOK
 Renaissance was transferred to are unused). It can accommodate a
35mm by London’s Moving Picture Co., range of film-frame sizes and resolu-
and Technicolor London generated the tions up to VistaVision. The sampling of
IN, IP anwer print and overseas release 1024 values is scaled so that each of the
prints. code values from 0-1023 represents a
The team agrees that the mo-cap density difference of 0.002, which totals
process, though technically arduous, a density range of 2.046 — the equiva-
pays off in terms of creative choices. lent to an exposure range of around
“Because of all this technology, you find 2,570:1, or about 11.3 stops of latitude
that you can’t separate the artistic prob- range.
lems from the technical problems — SMPTE developed a “generic”
they’re always blended together,” notes form of the Cineon file format with Digi-
Volckman. “You have to be very present tal Picture Exchange, or DPX (extension
through the whole process, closely .dpx). It is nearly identical to Cineon but
concentrating all the time. But once you has more user-friendly header informa-
know how to manage the tools, all that tion (metadata). DPX files can often be
limits you is your own imagination.” linear as well as log. The DPX file head-
ers are flexible, allowing variable image
AJA’s DPXtoQT Translator headers to accommodate the needs of
Streamlines different media, whereas the Cineon file
2K DPX, Cineon Workflows format is targeted to digital film. These
by Jay Holben two file formats are the de facto stan-
dard for visual-effects work with digi-
Developed by Kodak in 1992, tized film files.
Cineon was designed as an early film- To present the amount of infor-
digitizing system complete with a scan- mation necessary, the Cineon or DPX file
ner, drives, workstations, proprietary is very large. Each file represents one
compositing software and a film frame of scanned negative, and each 2K
recorder. It was intended to be an end- (2048x1556 pixels Academy frame size)
to-end solution for 2K and 4K digital film Cineon or DPX file can easily be over
production; the system was first put to 12.5MB per frame. Visual-effects artists
the test on the 1993 restoration and re- typically work with these files on a
release of Walt Disney’s Snow White frame-by-frame basis, or at most on a
and the Seven Dwarves. shot-by-shot basis, and are not neces-
Although the system in its sarily overwhelmed by the volume of
entirety has long since been rendered files in a sequence.
obsolete, the Cineon file format has Editors, on the other hand, work
become an industry standard. An RGB with whole sequences of shots on soft-
bitmap file (extension .cin), Cineon was ware platforms that cannot deal with a
created to represent the full density Cineon file sequence with ease. Final
range of scanned film images. It is not Cut Pro cannot import Cineon files at all
intended to be a presentation or end unless first translated via a third-party
format (like JPEG or TIFF), but rather an program to an FCP recognized format.
intermediate format to maintain image (However, Avid’s 64-bit-supported DS
information from the film negative Nitris can conform and finish using 2K
through the digital process and back out Cineon/DPX files either natively at full
to the new film negative. The Cineon file resolution or by high-definition proxy,
assumes a gamma of 1.0 so that any with the ability to switch instantly
negative can be reproduced on the between the two.) Playing back a
recorder, retaining the original nega- sequence in real time with potentially
tive’s gamma. Most of the time, Cineon thousands of sequential Cineon or DPX
data is stored in log format, which files is incredibly taxing on hard drives,
directly corresponds to the density of even for the fastest and most robust
the original negative. Each channel (R, systems, because 2K DPX or Cineon
G, B) is 10 bits in a 32-bit package (2 bits files can require data-transfer rates of

89

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 Cineon/DPX files into QuickTime format AJA’s Kona TV and played out to HD or
without altering the files, compressing SD monitors simultaneously as an HD
them or writing any new information. crop of the 2K Cineon/DPX material and
A reference movie is merely a an SD down-conversion.
file of pointers that refer back to the Without the AJA system, if a
original source material, wherever it is Mac editor wants to work with a Cineon
stored. When a reference movie is (.cin) or DPX (.dpx) file sequence, he has
created, it does not alter the original to rely on the effectiveness of the inter-
media files at all; it just “points” the nal graphics card. Most of the time, even
software to where those original files with the fastest hard drive, this tech-
reside and gives the software clues for nique rarely works because the graphics
how to deal with that material. This cards simply can’t play back the massive
format was created to make very small data in real time. Also, many Mac appli-
up to 300MB per second (12.5MB per QuickTime movies that act like full cations use QuickTime exclusively with-
frame x 24 frames per second). QuickTime renders, but in a fraction of out any way to directly import Cineon or
AJA, the maker of Kona video the file size. The main difference is that DPX files. (Apple Shake and Adobe After
cards, has developed a solution for this the reference movie cannot be sepa- Effects can import native .cin/.dpx files.)
problem that is especially aimed at Final rated from the original material (i.e., The alternative is to work with down-
Cut Pro editors who need to work with moved to another system), or the point- converted proxies rather than the real
Cineon or DPX files: DPXtoQT Translator. ers will point to nothing. files, and it adds a considerable amount
DPXtoQT Translator is a software solu- AJA has capitalized on this of time to the workflow to render those
tion that incorporates a QuickTime (the concept to create QuickTime reference proxies. With the QuickTime wrappers,
native working format for Final Cut Pro) “wrappers” for bulk Cineon and DPX an editor can play 2K Cineon/DPX files
“wrapper” around a sequence of files in the Macintosh environment. The directly on the Final Cut Pro timeline. In
Cineon/DPX files to create a QuickTime reference movie can then be imported addition, with the AJA Kona 3 card, the
“reference movie.” This puts the into an application like Final Cut Pro or 2K QuickTime reference movie can be

90

TLFeBOOK
exported directly to a 2K projector for sequence from a 2K QuickTime movie audio — allowing for full support of all
review in full resolution without requir- (QTtoDPX), or it can create a fully audio channels on HD tape formats, such
ing additional rendering. rendered QuickTime 2K movie that can as HDCam SR — and 96kHz AES audio.
Utilizing the AJA system with be moved away from the original DPX or Kona 3 is priced at $2,990, and
sufficiently fast hard drives and the Cineon files to another system. In all, it’s owners of Kona 3 can download the V2
Kona 3 card, an editor can watch Cineon a more manageable and efficient system software from AJA’s Web site at no cost.
or DPX files on any available HD or SD of data wrangling. For more information, visit
monitor — or even both simultaneously The AJA Kona 3 V2 upgrade www.aja.com.
— at the full real-time frame rate. In brings about the 2K resolution video
addition, he can create real-time HD support. Additionally, Kona 3 V2 will New Allies in Post
crop and SD down-conversion dailies via address users’ needs with support for Since our recent report on
HD-SDI or SD-SDI outputs and compo- hardware-based 1080-to-720 or 720-to- Creative Bridge’s Mobile Digital Lab &
nent (or composite) connections from 1080 cross-conversion, further stream- Theater (Post Focus, June ’06), the firm
the AJA Kona 3 hardware. For facilities lining dailies and deliverables creation at has partnered with Gamma & Density.
tasked with making SD or HD screener broadcast picture quality in real time. The two companies recently completed
copies of 2K material, this method is 2K telecine to the Kona 3 simul- “pre-post” on the independent film Pie &
sure to be a timesaver. taneously creates 2K DPX files and 2K Burger with director of photography Jim
(For PC users, there is less need QuickTime reference movies. Material O’Keefe and director Clare Sera. Creative
for QuickTime reference movies because can then be played out at 2K via HSDL Bridge’s Jeff Olm and Brian Gaffney
Cineon and DPX files can be imported (High-Speed Data Link). Furthermore, oversaw the 4:4:4 pre-post workflow and
directly via the Kona’s PC counterpart, Kona 3 V2 allows 2K files to be viewed delivery of color-corrected dailies using
the Xena2Ke card, and are seen by PC on HD 1080 24p-supported video moni- Gamma & Density’s 3cP system. ■
applications as a single file, as though tors, and this 1080 HD playout can also
they are in a sequential series.) be down-converted to SD in real time.
The software can also work in Other new features of Kona 3 V2
reverse, creating a DPX or Cineon file include 16-channel embedded digital

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New Products & Services

In the Contour Contour Reality Capture request at best. requires actors and a sense of space
Reality System,
the actor is
by David E. Williams A keen eye for visual aesthetics and timing, the collection of mo-cap
captured by two and storytelling can make the most of data alone is not considered cine-
arrays of Computer-animated feature films the real and virtual filmmaking worlds, matography; instead, it is used as a
synchronized
digital cameras
involve the cinematography disciplines but the divide between them is crossed starting point. But the keyframe-anima-
and lit by of composition, lighting and angles, and by only the flimsiest of technological tion process required to flesh that stick
customized now even depth of field is being used to and methodological bridges. One is figure out into a realistic character is
fluorescent
lamps that strobe
great effect. However, with rare excep- marker-based motion capture, which expensive and time consuming. And in
90 to 120 times tions, virtual cinematography is a records the movement of a human the case of creating CG humans, it is a
per second, specialty performed by those already subject as a series of dots. Originally technique that many believe has not
beyond the
threshold of
working in that sphere, and not one developed for applications such as realized its full potential. (Film critics
human where traditional directors of photogra- sports medicine, mo-cap precisely often deride the resultant avatars as
perception. phy have had much opportunity to bring tracks human skeletal motion by form- “lifeless” and “zombie-like.”)
their talents into play. Unfortunately, ing a 3-D stick figure of lines connected However, the Contour Reality
asking a cinematographer to stay on as between the dots. But any onscreen Capture System, which was introduced
a paid post collaborator on visual- character must be far more than a at this year’s Siggraph convention, may
effects-heavy films is an infrequent moving stick figure, so although mo-cap not only help bridge the traditional and

92 September 2006

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 Preparing a
performer for a
Contour capture
session requires
just a few
minutes of
phosphorescent
makeup
application. The
FDA-approved
phosphorescent
makeup can be
mixed with base
makeup to
provide natural
skin color.

virtual filmmaking worlds, but also

breathe genuine life into “synthespian”
performers. The system, a proprietary
apparatus developed and now offered
by the San Francisco mo-cap studio
Mova, employs two synchronized
camera systems to simultaneously
capture 3-D geometric and full-color
visual information of the subject. These
two sets of data are later combined to
result in a high-definition, volumetric,
digital representation of the action that
can be later imported, modified, manip-
ulated or retargeted to a CG character
using off-the-shelf animation software.
“Production tools exist today that
give a director complete photorealistic
control of every object within the 3-D
volume of a scene, including camera
position, composition, lighting, charac-
ters and props,” says Steve Perlman,
founder and CEO of the Palo Alto-based
Rearden Companies, which owns and

American Cinematographer 93

TLFeBOOK
Preparing to film
with Contour.
The custom
fluorescent
lamps serve to
both recharge
the
phosphorescent
makeup and
provide
dramatic subject
lighting.

operates Mova. “But while we have He first attracted notice as a key during post.”
powerful 3-D ‘editing’ tools, what we researcher at Apple Computer, where Traditionally, human skeletal
lack is a practical 3-D ‘camera’ that can he led multimedia initiatives, including dynamics have been recorded and repre-
shoot a live scene volumetrically with the development of QuickTime, in the sented in the form of mo-cap data,
production-level quality. That’s where late 1980s. He is perhaps best known which is later combined with digital
Contour Reality Capture fits in. It’s a for founding WebTV Networks, which skin, hair and clothing. Although this
volumetric cinematography system that was acquired by Microsoft in 1997 and process is well suited for capturing
captures all of the visible surfaces of a has since evolved into Microsoft’s IPTV skeletal motion for CG characters, it
scene in 3-D.” technology. captures only the barest clues of the
Mova was founded in 2004 by What exactly is “volumetric cine- motion of deformable surfaces, such as
Rearden to provide 3-D mo-cap services matography?” Perlman explains, “We a human face, where we typically see
using its Vicon MX-40 marker-based all got a sneak preview of it in The the finer points of an actor’s perfor-
system, and the company’s credits Matrix, when Trinity [played by Carrie- mance. Using conventional mo-cap to
include the video games The Godfather, Ann Moss] froze in mid-jump and the record the subtleties of a smile or
From Russia With Love and Eragon. camera view spun around her. Despite furrowed brow is akin to the actor
Mova’s sister company, Ice Blink having a large ring of cameras surround- performing while wrapped in a head-to-
Studios, which Perlman co-founded ing Moss, the camera motion was toe latex suit, with their expressive
with Doug Chiang (production designer limited to a single path while the entire eyes, fine facial characteristics and
on The Polar Express), also is closely scene was frozen. Contour allows for nuanced surface textures largely erased.
tied to mo-cap production, having the same level of realism achieved in Conversely, Contour instanta-
provided visual effects and art direction that shot, but with the entire scene in neously records an entire human perfor-
for Sony Pictures’ Monster House and motion, with complete flexibility of mance — simultaneously capturing
Warner Bros.’ upcoming Beowulf. camera position, and with full control skeletal movement as well as high-defi-
The chief architect behind over lighting and compositing. And if nition surface physical characteristics in
Contour, Perlman is the holder of more the actress doesn’t quite achieve the terms of 3-D surface geometry, color and
than 60 patents pertaining to multime- desired pose in her jump, you can use lighting — and literally “imports” this
dia and communications technologies. Contour to reposition her limbs in 3-D performance into the digital realm, all in

94 September 2006

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 ingenious transportability

TLFeBOOK
 An array of digital cameras captures the actor’s image at 24-120 fps. The cameras are
positioned to capture the actor from a variety of angles, enabling determination of the
surface geometry with extreme precision.

a single real-time pass. information is recorded by an array of

Contour records the image with grayscale digital cameras — no less
high-resolution digital cameras, and the than two and as many as hundreds —
subject may be lit for any desired effect with each photographing the perform-
— for instance, to match a previously ers from a slightly different angle. The
determined background or setting. The visual information is recorded by a
cameras can be run from a standard 24 smaller array of color digital cameras
fps up to 120 fps, allowing for the — no less than one and as many as
capture of fast action or the creation of dozens — also photographing the
slow-motion effects. The geometric performers from a variety of angles.

96

TLFeBOOK
 David Ward/WRITER/DIRECTOR
Sleepless in Seattle, The Sting

Contour is used on a light-tight

soundstage lit by custom stroboscopic John Badham/DIRECTOR
Saturday Night Fever, WarGames
fluorescent lamps that illuminate the Dezso Magyar/
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
subject with white visible lights and No Secrets, Summer
black lights that are synced with both
MA IN FILM STUDIES
camera systems. Typically strobing at MFA IN FILM AND TELEVISION PRODUCING
90 times per second, the flashing effect MFA IN SCREENWRITING
is invisible to the human eye, which MFA IN PRODUCTION DESIGN
MFA IN FILM PRODUCTION: Cinematography • Directing • Editing • Sound Design
perceives the scene as normally lit. The
visual-camera shutters open each
1/180th of a second and capture infor-
mation while the fluorescent lights
flash on (these are the “lit frames”). The
geometry-camera shutters open each Film has the power to make us laugh or cry, to challenge
Alexandra Rose/PRODUCER dearly held beliefs or to put forth new concepts. If you
1/180th of a second while the fluores- Norma Rae, Frankie and Johnny dream of telling your story, expressing your passions or
cent lights flash off and the soundstage bringing life to your ideas through film, the Graduate
Conservatory of Motion Pictures at Chapman University has
is in pitch darkness (the “dark frames”). the highly accomplished faculty mentors, intensely hands-on
And what these geometry cameras see curriculum and resources to help you reach your goals.
in pitch darkness is the most interesting Learn more. Call us. Visit us online.
part of the Contour system. Larry Paull/PRODUCTION DESIGNER
A special, FDA-approved, Back to the Future, Blade Runner CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY
THE DODGE COLLEGE OF FILM & MEDIA ARTS
hypoallergenic phosphorescent makeup One University Drive, Orange, CA 92866
Paul Seydor/EDITOR
(similar to the glow-in-the-dark makeup White Men Can’t Jump, Just a heartbeat from Hollywood.
Barbershop II
sold in Halloween stores) is applied in 800-746-0379 • 714-997-6765
random patterns onto everything in the FTV.CHAPMAN.EDU
ROBERT BASSETT, DEAN
scene that is to be captured, including Bill Dill/CINEMATOGRAPHER
Dancing in September, The Five Heartbeats
Chapman University is accredited by and is a member of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.
an actor’s lips and nostrils and right up
to the edge of the eyes. Charged during
each “lit” frame, the phosphor emits a
random-pattern afterglow during the
“dark” frames. These patterns are
captured by each geometry camera
from a different angle and then fed into
a small array of computers. The
computers correlate the random
patterns seen by the cameras from
different angles and triangulate
between the cameras, producing a 3-D
model of every surface visible in the
scene during that frame. Anything that
is not covered by the phosphorescent
coating is not captured.
Using 1.3-megapixel cameras,
Contour can reconstruct the 3-D surface
of a human face with better than
submillimeter precision, resulting in a
high-resolution 3-D mesh in excess of
100,000 polygons. This is more than
enough resolution to pick up the shape
and motion of wrinkles and nostril
flares. In comparison, the faces in the
mo-cap feature Beowulf were captured
with fewer than 200 polygons using a
marker-based system, and it was then
up to a post team to synthetically create

97

TLFeBOOK
 The five stages
of the Contour
process: 1) video
of a live
performance is
captured during
each “lit”
interval; 2) a
phosphorescent
image is
captured during
each
subsequent
“dark” interval;
3) data from the
phosphorescent
images is used
to construct
high-resolution
3-D surface
geometry of the
actor; 4) to
provide an onset
preview,
textured
geometry is
created by
applying the live
performance
image onto the
3-D surface; 5)
finally, a vertex
tracking mesh is
generated to
allow animators
and effects
artists to
retrospectively
define the
vertices they all the details in the faces. skin tones. The performer’s eyes and relatively smooth surface and give us a
need to track.
Contour’s resolution is so far in teeth — not covered by the makeup — texture that we could grab hold of and
excess of what is needed to achieve can be tracked optically. track,” says Perlman. “The hard thing is
photo-realistic results that in many After a Contour mo-cap shoot, that we’re often dealing with actresses
applications, lower-resolution meshes the surface geometry and the visual who invest a lot of time and energy into
(e.g., 1,000-2,000 polygons) are prefer- image are “reconstructed” overnight making their skin perfectly smooth. If it’s
able. To this end, Contour offers a (each frame currently takes less than 60 perfectly smooth, then there’s no way to
feature that allows users to retrospec- seconds to compute), resulting in a high- determine the shape of the face. So we
tively select only the points on the face res, full-motion, naturalistic 3-D repre- tried several different things.
where polygon vertices are required for sentation of the subject, which can then “We first tried putting black
their specific application, whether it be be easily manipulated with such anima- paint on the face and capturing the
for high-resolution feature-film use or a tion programs as Autodesk’s Maya, 3ds reflection of light on the surface. But we
video-game character. The system will Max and MotionBuilder, or Avid Softim- learned that when you’re dealing with
then produce a lower-resolution mesh age’s XSI and Face Robot. “We’ve reflected light, each camera is going to
that precisely tracks these vertices designed Contour to work with as many see the reflection differently, depending
through the performance from frame to tools as possible,” notes Perlman. “In on its point of view of the surface. That’s
frame. This also allows a single captured fact, there’s a $250 piece of software why marker-based capture uses
performance to be stored as a perma- called Poser that is used to pose 3-D retroflective markers — they reflect
nent asset that can be repurposed any characters, and we’ve been dropping back to the point of the light source. So
number of times, saving both talent and data right out of Contour and into Poser as the character moves, you see a nice
production expenses. without a hitch.” bright spot on the camera because the
The phosphorescent makeup is During the four-year develop- lights are around the camera lenses. If
mostly invisible under normal lighting ment of Contour, the use of phosphores- you use reflection as opposed to
conditions, so by combining the phos- cent makeup arose as a novel solution retroflection, you get all screwed up,
phor with appropriate base makeup, to a distinct dilemma. “We knew we because as the character moves, any
filmmakers can achieve almost natural had to have something that could take a highlights at the point of reflection

98 September 2006

TLFeBOOK
 TOPLIGHT
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all around to eliminate highlights. You
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so forth.”
Perlman and his team then
considered using retroreflective paint,
“which is used for things like highway-
safety signs. But it’s not safe to apply
that stuff to human skin, and also, it
doesn’t deform. Retroreflective paint
has tiny glass beads in it that reflect
light back to the source. First of all, this
would be dangerous to ingest or get in
your eye, and second, the paints are
really rigid once they dry because of the
glass beads. We needed something
that would stretch and move with the
skin. We also tried ultraviolet paints to
see if we could get a good capture. It
would work in controlled situations, but
it wouldn’t work easily and efficiently in
a typical production situation.
“By that point, we were running
Mova, and we were extremely sensitive
to the costs and challenges associated
with production. So we started looking
at phosphorescent pigments and the
notion of flashing the lights on and off.
This was based on knowledge I’d
gained when I designed large-screen
monitors for Apple and researched the
human visual system’s threshold for
flicker perception. You’re much more
sensitive to flicker perception in your
peripheral vision than in your foveal
[center-view] vision. Large monitors
have more of their area in your periph-
eral vision, so running large monitors at
60Hz, which is where Apple was
running their small monitors, would
create an annoying flicker in the corner
of your eye. So we started testing moni-
tors, running them at up to 80 or 90Hz,
and I was able to determine at what
point humans stop seeing flicker.
“Twenty years later, we were

99

TLFeBOOK
able to apply that knowledge to the the subject from the standpoint of applied directly on the skin, Contour
strobing lights we use for Contour, beauty lighting. For example, if you captures the geometry of the surface
making them flash on and off at a rate want the subject to be in a half-light itself. By combining this detailed infor-
that is imperceptible to the human eye. shadow, you would have the combined mation with skeletal motion, Contour can
Lo and behold, we can sync the camera- white and black lights on the illumi- also be used in conjunction with a
array system so that the shutters are nated side, and only black lights on the marker-based system, allowing filmmak-
only open when the lights are dark and “dark” side. So the white light defines ers to use the best of both technologies.
only see the phosphor of the makeup. the normal, visible lighting, while the The only special requirement
Because phosphor is emissive rather blacklights are there strictly to evenly placed on the performer is that he or she
than reflective or retroflective, we can charge up the phosphor. All the lights must wear the phosphorescent makeup,
get a clean read without highlights or strobe during the capture process, with which is mixed with a standard base and
shadows.” the phosphor glowing during the dark applied with a sponge like regular
Of the lighting setup used with phases. This is all done in a darkened makeup. The subject must not touch or
Contour, Perlman says, “The black lights studio. Also, there is a key difference otherwise disturb the makeup once it is
do a good job of charging the phosphor between fluorescence, the glowing illu- applied. Although a “smudge” will not
in the makeup and are largely invisible mination that occurs when phosphor is alter the surface geometry as perceived
to the RGB-color cameras used to exposed to light, and phosphorescence, by Contour, it will result in a discontinuity
capture the visual image of the subject. which is the afterglow. We’re relying of any retrospectively tracked vertex that
The lighting units are modified Kino Flo on phosphorescence.” falls within the smudge. The system
motion-picture fixtures fitted with both Perlman notes that because the would continue to capture the perfor-
black-light and white-light tubes. Each raised reference markers placed on the mance with full 3-D resolution, but some
holds four tubes, and we tend to mix performer’s face for traditional mo-cap post cleanup of the data would be neces-
them up to even out the illumination. work are slightly offset from the sary to link the pre-smudge vertex loca-
Black lights are also placed all around surface of the skin, the resulting data is tion with the post-smudge vertex loca-
the stage to evenly illuminate and not always a precise representation of tion. Some post tweaking might also be
charge the phosphor. The white lights how that surface moves. By having the needed for tracking vertices in areas of
are placed however you want to light random phosphorescent patterns very high surface deformation, such as

TLFeBOOK
around the lips and eyes. (Mova director to check the performance. be costumed for their characters, and
expects that future versions of Contour Reducing the amount of time required to Contour will capture the fabric’s motion
will automate more of this process.) create full-resolution imagery is simply a and the actor’s motion simultaneously.
Contour allows for multiple matter of applying more computing Perlman also foresees using
actors to be captured simultaneously, power to the processing. Full-resolution Contour in conjunction with traditional
allowing for complex group scenes. The images in real time on set are possible stop-motion animation. “You just mix
performers’ hand movements and with Contour today at a cost that could the phosphor in with the material being
gestures can also be captured. Contour be justified by a large-scale production, used, such as clay or silicone,” he
relies on the ability of its cameras to but within a few years, given the steady explains. “The Corpse Bride was done
have an unobstructed view of a given advance of computing power, it will be with puppets made of silicone over
surface; if a hand is holding an object within the reach of more modest metal armatures, while Wallace &
and only the outer surface of the hand production budgets. Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
is visible to the cameras, then Contour Contour can also be adapted for was done with modeling clay. You
will only be able to reconstruct the use on any moving camera platform, would mix the phosphor in at a low-
outer surface. even a Steadicam or Helmetcam, giving enough density that you wouldn’t
Contour was designed to offer the user great creative latitude. notice it under normal stage lighting —
users on-set creative control that is The system can even be used to you’d just see the normal colors of the
close to what they expect with tradi- capture the geometry and textures of silicone or the clay. But when you turn
tional cinematography. Although it typi- textiles in motion. Clothing is time- off the lights, it will glow, and because
cally takes an overnight render to consuming and difficult to faithfully the phosphor is just a powder that is
reconstruct a full-resolution capture simulate with CG animation techniques, mixed in, there will be a random pattern
session, the system provides a low-res but Contour can capture a garment’s to it.
preview version of the finished 3-D exact geometry, motion and texture “A complex shot like Wallace
reconstruction image that can be once it has been treated with a phos- and Gromit driving through people’s
quickly generated on-set, allowing the phor-based dye. Rather than donning gardens in a car is very expensive,
cinematographer to properly light the the form-fitting Lycra suits necessary for because it contains so many different
subject for a desired effect and the marker-based mo-cap work, actors can objects that must all be animated,” he

TLFeBOOK
 continues. “You also have a motion- “Also, if you wanted to reduce photo-real face. Then you can focus your
controlled camera that’s following the the audience’s perception of the strob- energy on what you should be worrying
action. All this is very difficult to coordi- ing effect of stop-motion animation — about: making a great movie or video
nate and execute. An alternative might or not, if that’s part of your artistic game.”
be shooting the scene with Contour and expression — you could just turn on For more information and to view
breaking it into components on separate motion blur in your 3-D package and demos, visit www.movapodcast.com.
sets, lighting and animating them as instantly turn stop-motion into go-
you would normally, and then combining motion. So we think Contour could also Kelly HiDef Depth-of-
the images and rendering them in 3-D dramatically lower the cost of stop- Field Calculator
on a hi-def monitor for viewing. motion animation and afford a lot more The Guild of British Camera
Because it’s now a digital version of the creative control. Technicians‘ HiDef Depth-of-Field
physical puppets, you would be able to “In the parlance of computer Calculator (produced in association with
composite characters and elements graphics, Contour is the first technology Panavision Europe) is specifically
together using a tool like Maya for eval- to successfully cross the ‘Uncanny designed for the new dedicated camera
uation. In this case, Contour could be Valley,’ a perceptual zone where a CG lenses used for shooting high-definition
used to replace a motion-controlled face looks almost photo-real, but not video for big-screen cinema. With
camera, because once the digital infor- quite photo-real. Such images are scales for 16x9, 1.85:1 and 2.40:1
mation was captured, you would have disturbing to the human visual system anamorphic and spherical digital-
full freedom of motion in 3-D; you could because our brain thinks it’s seeing a cinema projection, the Kelly HiDef
zoom in, pull back or fly through the air. face with some defect. Humans don’t Calculator has the same formatting as
And if you have a character that flies, have that reaction to caricatures, such earlier Kellys but with a much finer opti-
rather than being forced to suspend the as cartoon faces, because we know cal circles-of-confusion standard —
character with some sort of harness, they aren’t real. But as faces approach 4/10,000in. — employed for use with
you could just put it on a separate set photo-real, either you are spot-on, or HD CCDs.
and position it on the ground in the posi- you have something worse than a cari- The HiDef Depth-of-Field Calcu-
tion you want it to be in when it’s flying. cature. Contour will give you a spot-on lator is produced by motion-picture tech-

102

TLFeBOOK
 ERRATUM
The Panasonic AG-HVX200
article that appeared in the June
issue needs two clarifications:

The AG-DVX100 was

mentioned as a “revolutionary high-
definition (HD) camera, bringing true
24p acquisition ….” Though the
nicians for camera technicians in film reference to a monitor, does not give an DVX100 does record in 24p, it is a
and television and is designed to fit into accurate picture of what will be seen on standard-definition camera. The
a back pocket. a large screen, where that same image HVX200 is the HD camera.
With Imperial scales on one side will be blown up to several thousand According to Panasonic tech-
and Metric on the other, the calculator times its original size. nical literature, the HVX200’s 4.2-
will yield at-a-glance depth-of-field and The HiDef Depth-of-Field Calcu- 55mm Leica Dicomar Wide-Angle
hyperfocal-distance properties for any lator has scales for 5mm, 7mm, 10mm, Lens is the 35mm equivalent to 32-
lens size set at any aperture — invalu- 14mm, 20mm, 35mm, 40mm, 50mm, 423mm. However, when we tested
able for factoring in distances and avail- 75mm and 100mm HD lenses. it side by side against 35mm cine
able aperture settings when working The HiDef Depth-of-Field Calcu- lenses at Otto Nemenz rental house,
out accurate split- or deep-focus shots. lator retails for £29.99/C = 43 plus the Leica’s cine focal-length equiva-
The Kelly HiDef Calculator is a =
£2.50/C3.55 p&p. Price includes U.K. lent was more in the range of 20-
beneficial tool because in things to do VAT. To order, call the GBCT, 011-41 240mm.
with focus, any perceived depth of field (0)20 8813 1999 or E-mail
is a factor of image magnification. Eye- admin@gbct.org. ■
focusing through the camera, or by

cts ture stry

ic u
u p d
for

ro d ion oi n
the

t
P mo vide
and

See you at CINEC Munich (Booth 3C10) www.denz-deniz.com 103

TLFeBOOK
 Filmmakers’ Forum
Postcards from an International
Celebration of Cinematography
by Benjamin B
At Cinematographer’s Day, Doyle
said he believes the current renaissance
in Asian cinema is due in part to sheer
youthfulness. “There are more uncon-
ventional approaches in Asian films than
in Western films simply because there is
less experience of conventional
approaches. Don’t forget that it is also a
younger film community. On my films,
I’m the oldest guy on the set — even the
producers are younger than I am! At the
same time, many people in Thailand
know the French New Wave [films] back
to back.”
Each year, Cinematographer’s
Day honors an individual cinematogra-
pher. This year, there was a tribute to
Dod Mantle, and director Thomas Vinter-
berg came along to participate. The cine-
The inventor of the mong the hundreds of film festivals Over three intensive days in matographer and director are friends
Steadicam, ASC
associate member
Garrett Brown,
trips the light
A around the globe, Cinematographer’s
Day at the Bangkok International
Film Festival is one of the few events to
Bangkok last February, Cinematogra-
pher’s Day events comprised screenings
and colloquia on the themes of camera
and neighbors who have worked on four
features together, including the ground-
breaking digital-video (DV) feature
fantastic at
Cinematographer’s
offer an in-depth tribute to the art of motion, Asian cinematography, and digi- Festen (a.k.a. The Celebration), It’s All
Day in Bangkok. cinematography. The event was tal film restoration. Anthony Dod About Love (see AC April ’03) and Dear
conceived in 1999 by Luciano Tovoli, Mantle, DFF, BSC; Christopher Doyle, Wendy (AC Oct. ’05). The low-res DV
ASC, AIC and was part of the Palm HKSC; Jeong-hun Jeong; Pierre cameras used in Festen worked well for
Springs Film Festival. Over time, Cine- Lhomme, AFC; Donald McAlpine, ASC, its “home movie” feel, Super 35mm
matographer’s Day stretched to several ACS; and Masaharu “Shoji” Ueda, JSC brought out the lush romanticism in It’s
days of screenings and seminars, and in were among the participants. The occa- All About Love, and high-definition (HD)
Photos courtesy of Frederic Goodich and Benjamin B.
2003, the event became part of the sion prompted conversations in English, video created some real challenges on
Bangkok festival. French, Thai, Japanese and Korean that Dear Wendy. When asked about shoot-
Cinematographer’s Day is coordi- sometimes went late into the evening. ing HD, the digital pioneers had a
nated by David Kaminsky, M.D., a doctor As Goodich notes, Cinematographer’s surprising response. “Actually,” says
with a passion for cinema, and cine- Day facilitates a warm camaraderie Vinterberg, “we both really hate shoot-
matographer Frederic Goodich, an between filmmakers from different ing HD, but we can’t afford anything
instructor at the American Film Institute. cultures. For example, Doyle and Dod else. Denmark is a small country.” Dod
After holding the event in Bangkok for Mantle discovered a shared experience Mantle added: “I consider HD to be a
three years, the duo is weighing as expatriates; Doyle is an Australian brutal medium, in particular when
whether to move Cinemaotgrapher’s who made a name for himself in Hong depicting human skin. It’s very hard to
Day back to California. They hope to Kong cinema, while Dod Mantle is an work with as opposed to film, which is
contribute profits from the proceedings Englishman who relocated to Denmark like velvet. So I used traditional methods
to the ASC’s educational and building and became a key figure in the Dogme95 to create a diffusion and softness that
funds. movement. HD seriously lacks. I also kept the flares,

104 September 2006

TLFeBOOK
aberrations and other faults of the old Left: Enjoying
Zeiss Standard Speed lenses we used.” the festivities
are AFI graduate
Camera movement was a leitmo- Ed Button;
tif throughout Cinematographer’s Day. Jeong-hun Jeong;
Gene Kelly’s widow, Patricia Ward Kelly, Shoji Ueda, JSC;
and Donald
regaled the audience with film excerpts McAlpine, ASC,
of her husband’s choreography and danc- ACS. Below:
ing, topped by a screening of An Ameri- Cinematographer’s
Day honoree
can in Paris. McAlpine showed a very Anthony Dod
different approach to dance with an Mantle, DFF, BSC
excerpt from the more recent musical (left) pals around
with good friend
Moulin Rouge, which he shot for director Christopher Doyle,
Baz Luhrmann (AC June ’01). HKSC.
Kelly stressed that her husband’s
directorial approach involved a frame
that respected the dancer’s entire body, that they’ll know what the next five revenge unfolds.
with very few cuts. “Gene would say that shots will be.” Dod Mantle shared his experi-
if you’re shooting dance, there’s a very Another approach to multiple ences with the rapid, handheld move-
specific place where the camera needs cameras, and to camera motion, was ment on his latest films with Lars von
to be. Some cinematographers would try presented by Ueda, who shot four films Trier. The director was outfitted with a
something imaginative — put the for director Akira Kurosawa, including jerry-rigged backpack equipped with a
camera on the floor, for example — and Ran, an adaptation of King Lear. Ueda high hook, upon which was suspended
Gene would say, ‘No, put it straight up, noted that Kurosawa shunned camera an HD camera that von Trier would
shoot straight on, full figure. If you shoot motion because he believed moving swing around quickly, sometimes quite
from below, the body is distorted.’ Gene should be the attribute of the actor. erratically. “On Dogville [AC May ’04]
called the camera ‘the one-eyed “Kurosawa-san didn’t want the camera and Manderlay, Lars was at a period in
monster’ because it has no peripheral to do the acting, so he always put the his creative life where he wanted to
vision. Sometimes on public-television camera in one place and waited for the point the camera rather than frame it. I
dance presentations, the camera pulls right moment to capture the picture.” ended up shooting 40 percent of the
back to encompass the entire stage, and Kurosawa often used multiple films trying to think like him, which is
Gene would say that if you’ve lost the cameras, not to provide editing options, almost schizophrenic. But if you make a
body and the kinetic force, you get a but to avoid having to shoot the same journey like that, you can’t do it halfway,
dancer that looks like a nail file. Gene performance many times. The director because you’ll end up with something
wouldn’t allow zoom lenses on cameras would position as many as six cameras mediocre. You have to go there even if
because it would enable the cameraman to catch the action from different you get the vegetables thrown at you
to alter the frame. He would conceive vantages. “Kurosawa and I were old- afterwards, and I’ve had a lot of vegeta-
every cut, every turn.” She added that her fashioned,” said Ueda. “We didn’t like bles thrown at me!”
husband would not permit multiple to look at monitors and shoot short Who better to continue the
cameras because he suspected it would shots of different angles, so we would discussion on camera movement than
facilitate other edits. “Gene didn’t want spend a lot of time rehearsing, and once ASC associate member Garrett Brown?
producers and others determining how everyone knew what they were doing, Brown has the unique distinction of
the scene would be put together. He Kurosawa-san put his trust in the
edited in the can.” cameramen and we would shoot in one
McAlpine explained that the day what would normally take several
Moulin Rouge process was the opposite days or a week.” The Japanese cine-
of Kelly’s approach, involving multiple matographer added that with enough
cameras and angles and extensive edit- preparation, “the first take is usually the
ing of more than 200 hours of footage. best take, because the crew and actors
“When we shot Moulin Rouge, the musi- are enthusiastic and filled with power.”
cal was a dead genre. We had to shoot Jeong presented an excerpt from
for younger audiences who were not the violent and provocative Korean film
steeped in the cinema that we came Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. He
from. Editors tell me that if you shoot explained that the film begins with a
conventionally and put together two fairly static camera that becomes beau-
shots, kids today are so visually literate tifully agitated as the tale of twisted

American Cinematographer 105

TLFeBOOK
 wonderful illustrated presentation, arm was the difficult part. The question
starting with archival footage of his first is, ‘How do you interact with the camera
tests of the prototype Steadicam, which if it’s in your hand?’”
he captured while running through Lhomme recalled that “the
fields after his wife. He also offered an Steadicam came to us like a dream. We
incisive analysis of a beautifully choreo- could shoot in a way that we could not
graphed Steadicam sequence, operated imagine using handheld. With fast
by Larry McConkey, from Carlito’s Way. action, handheld introduces a brutality
Brown railed against arbitrary that is an accidental result of shooting
Steadicam moves, citing an example handheld.” McAlpine added that “if
from a famous TV show set in a hospi- there’s some kind of fight and you want
tal. He distinguished a handheld camera to be right in there, in close, then hand-
placed on the shoulder from the held’s really the correct way to do it. If
Steadicam: “There’s a great difference someone punches into a lens, it looks
between the camera in the hand and on good. If he’s punching into a Steadicam,
the shoulder. The shoulder gives you a it looks too good!”
very predictable eye level, which is a Many cinematographers outside
convention of its own. There’s a miscon- of the United States are accustomed to
The event’s adding a word to the vocabulary of ception about the Steadicam; it’s not doing their own camera operating. To
organizers, cinema: Steadicam. The multi-talented just a stabilizer, it’s also a way of hold- them, the introduction of a Steadicam
Frederic
Goodich (left) Brown invented the camera support ing the camera that provides a certain shot means another operator on the set.
and David system in the Seventies, operated it on amount of freedom in relation to your Dod Mantle said, “One of the hardest
Kaminsky, M.D. breakthrough films like The Shining, and body. I cherish the second part more things for me is having a Steadicam
went on to train a generation of than the first. The stability was the easy operator and not getting something. It’s
Steadicam operators. part, and learning what to do with the hardest when you can see and feel what
In Bangkok, Brown gave a camera in your hand at the end of your you want to shoot, but you can’t put your

106

TLFeBOOK
 Gathering
together for a
group shot are
finger on it. It’s like a painter working (from left):
McAlpine;
very hard, and at the end of the day the Ronald Boullet
brush slides and he gets something. I’m of Eclair Labs;
not saying the operator can’t get that, Pierre Lhomme,
AFC; Kaminsky;
but very often in shooting a film, there Dod Mantle; a
are moments when you see things Thai interpreter;
others don’t. Of course, if I were work- Doyle; Thomas
Vinterberg;
ing with Garrett, he would probably read Jeong; Ueda;
my mind and know me better than I and Goodich.
know myself.” Doyle added, “Until you
trust the integrity of the person who
operates the camera, it’s difficult to let
go.”
“Many movies ago,” noted
McAlpine, “I had to give up the wheels
to someone else, the camera operator.
But I fooled myself into believing that After the laughter died down, tor’s mind and needs. Some directors
this loss is a reward, because it gives Kaminsky shared a quote from Richard don’t need you, they need a machine.
me time to contemplate the battle. To a Crudo, ASC, who noted that cinematog- They just want to see the action and the
degree, I’ve always regarded raphy is about “image creation” rather camera has to follow it. If they ask noth-
moviemaking as a battle. The operator than “image capture.” In response to ing, you can do very little. If they ask a
is at the front line. Now the films I’m that, Lhomme recalled that his mentor, lot, you give a lot. So if you love what
involved in are so complex that it’s Ghislain Cloquet, ASC, AFC, told him, you do, if you love cinema, you try to
another game altogether, and I do have “You can play with the cards the direc- work with directors who ask a lot. The
to stand on the hill and just watch tor deals you. What you can bring to the more they ask, the better you feel.” ■
people die.” film is totally dependent on the direc-

TLFeBOOK
 Points East
Shaping a New Life Against the Odds
by Patricia Thomson

and from the DI, which permitted some

timesaving shortcuts on set. In the film,
Maggie Gyllenhaal plays Sherry, a
single mother and recovering heroin
addict who is released from prison and
tries to start life anew with her young
daughter. Although Sherry is initially
optimistic, reality soon intervenes in the
form of claustrophobic halfway houses,
bleak job prospects, and relatives who
are reluctant to trust her with her own
child.

Sherrybaby photos by Macall Polay, courtesy of IFC Films. Photo on page 110 by Paul Schiraldi, courtesy of Russell Lee Fine.
While developing the script,
director/writer Laurie Collyer exten-
sively researched the lives of ex-con
mothers and how they adapt to family
and society upon their release from
prison. In addition to getting the
emotional details right, Collyer aimed
for realism on the technical side.
Sherrybaby was shot entirely on practi-
Above: Sherry t the end of the analog era, it’s world. “Film technology is so good now cal locations in New Jersey. “I wanted
(Maggie
Gyllenhaal) hits
the pavement in
search of a job
“A great to have 16mm film,” says
director of photography Russell
Lee Fine, whose latest feature, Sherry-
that you can shoot the smaller negative,
do your scan, and it looks better than a
lot of 35mm films did 10 years ago.”
the film to be dominated by the perfor-
mances,” says Collyer. “I didn’t want it
to be over-the-top in terms of style, or
in Sherrybaby,
which was shot
baby, followed the Super 16mm-digital As a character-driven, naturalistic one of those shaky handheld movies.”
on location in intermediate (DI)-35mm path that has drama, Sherrybaby benefited both from “We didn’t want Sherrybaby to
New Jersey. become increasingly popular in the indie the compact size of the Super 16 camera be beautiful,” says Fine, whose credits
Below: Sherry
attempts to
include the features O, The Grey Zone
reconnect with (see AC Oct. ’02) and the television
her young series The Wire. “We didn’t go for
daughter after
serving time for
beauty lighting or trying to make Maggie
a drug-related look great. We wanted to have a gritty
offense. look that would feel plausible and real-
istic. We didn’t want to make it look like
a documentary, but rather an enhanced
version of documentary reality. There
are some handheld, follow-the-charac-
ter moments, and others when the
camera pulls back and you see someone
framed through a doorway very nicely.
Some things are a bit more artful, espe-
cially when Sherry’s on the street.”
Fine shot the picture with an
Arri 16SR-3 mounted with a Zeiss

108 September 2006

TLFeBOOK
 Filmmaking
develop package
Starts Here
finance license distribute
TM

acquire

The 27TH American Film Market ® / November 1- 8, 2006 / Santa Monica, California
www.americanfilmmarket.com

TLFeBOOK
 Sherrybaby
director of the video world.” Except for a few night
photography scenes that were filmed on Kodak
Russell Lee Fine Vision2 500T 7218, he used Vision 200T
takes a break on
the set of 7274. “74 is not a low-color stock, but
another project, after testing it, we knew we could selec-
the television tively reduce the color palette.”
series The Wire.
During the final color correction,
which was carried out at Goldcrest in
New York, Fine sought a contrasty,
desaturated look. “We didn’t want too
much green in the foliage or the reds to
pop out in the skin tones; we took it all
down. Then we isolated the shadow
areas and allowed them fall to black very
sharply. We wanted the image to have
an almost black-and-white quality.”
When shooting low-budget
11-110mm zoom or Zeiss Superspeed fall or winter, but principal photography projects such as Sherrybaby, Fine tries to
primes. “There are no dolly moves,” was scheduled for summer 2004 when clear his calendar before preproduction
notes the cinematographer. “We financing came through. Toning down officially begins. “I usually have three
wanted it feel like either the camera the brilliance of summer’s colors was weeks of prep on a movie like this, but I
was on sticks, or the character was one of Fine’s tasks. “One characteristic try to give myself a couple of extra
driving it handheld. That’s a fairly unique of new film stocks is that most of them weeks because directors get very busy.
strategy.” are very colorful,” he observes. “Even They’re casting and having to answer
Because of the story’s somber the ones Kodak bills as ‘less saturated’ questions all day long, so my time with
tone, the filmmakers hoped to shoot in are still very intense when you get into them is limited. I scheduled meetings

110

TLFeBOOK
with Laurie about five weeks out, and arrives in the first scene. “I’d shot digi- bleached muslin. That would create a
we went through every scene. I wanted tal stills of those angles inside and general amount of key light, and I would
to know what she thought was the outside, and Laurie and I would refer to let fill fall where it wanted to. This
important part of the scene: Is it the those when we discussed ideas for wasn’t a movie where we were relight-
little girl? Sherry’s mood? Is it the fact shots. Once you have that image in your ing for the close-ups; we weren’t trying
that she’s in a strange, new world? mind, you remember it later on.” to glamorize the characters. Often I
Once Laurie identified the important A more flexible approach was wouldn’t add eyelights or do things I
part of the scene, we’d discuss visual needed for scenes with 7-year-old would normally do in a typical dramatic
ideas.” actress Ryan Simpkins, who plays situation. I let those things go, lighting
The rough shot list developed Sherry’s daughter. “A second handheld rules be damned.”
during these meetings was refined as camera was key, because she wasn’t In the end, says Fine, he’s
locations were secured. Fine was going to match from take to take,” says pleased with the film’s rough edges,
involved in the scouts and posted all of Fine. “Fortunately, it played into the which are in sync with the story. “If I
his stills on a Web site so his collabora- story — we wanted to feel the had to do it over again,” he says, “I’d
tors could see them. In addition, he strangeness between her and her make it even funkier.” ■
posted images pertaining to framing, mother.” For Collyer, the handheld work
shot angles, and even details of in these scenes adds a subtle
contemporary dress. “The costume emotional dimension: “It really creates
designer was in Brooklyn, the produc- an unsettled feeling. You get the sense
tion designer was in Manhattan, and that with Sherry and her daughter,
we were in New Jersey,” he explains. you’re on shaky ground.”
“This way, we could all look at the same Naturalism extended to the
thing.” He adds that he found the Web lighting as well. “I tend to be a mini-
site useful for “vague storyboarding.” malist when it’s called for,” says Fine,
For example, he mapped out shots at “so for day interiors, I’d just use a big
the Newark bus terminal, where Sherry source outside, usually a 12K through

111

TLFeBOOK
 International Marketplace

112

TLFeBOOK
 113

TLFeBOOK
 Classifieds Advertiser’s Index
AC 16a-b, 97 Film Emporium, Inc. 112 Otto Nemenz 79
RATES
Alan Gordon Enterprises 113 Filmtools 75
P+S Technik C3
All classifications are $4.50 per word. Words set in bold face or all American Film Market 109 Finnlight 99
Panasonic Broadcast
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27
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Fuji Motion Picture 9
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payment and copy must be in the office by 15th of second month Basson 16 George Paddock 85 Pro8mm 113
preceding publication. Subject matter is limited to items and services Birns & Sawyer 69 Gekko Technology 88
pertaining to filmmaking and video production. Words used are subject Sachtler 41
Bron-Kobold 87 Gillard Industries, Inc. 112
to magazine style abbreviation. Minimum amount per ad: $45 Samy’s DV & Edit 49
Burrell Enterprises 112 Glidecam Industries 23
Schneider Optics/Century 2
CLASSIFIEDS ON-LINE Go-Easy Lighting Inc. 106
Cavision Enterprises 6 Service Vision 76
Ads may now also be placed in the on-line Classifieds at Chapman/Leonard Studio Hand Held Films 112 Sharp Shooter 96
the ASC web site. Equipment Inc. 47 Highway 350 Corporation 112 Sim Video 73
Internet ads are seen around the world at the same Chapman University 97 Hybrid Cases 112 SMS Productions, Inc. 113
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114 for great price. (440) 647-4999.

TLFeBOOK
TLFeBOOK
 American Society of Cinematographers Roster
OFFICERS – 2006-’07 ACTIVE MEMBERS Victor Duncan Lajos Koltai Daniel Pearl
Daryn Okada, Thomas Ackerman Bert Dunk Laszlo Kovacs Edward J. Pei
President Lance Acord John Dykstra Neil Krepela James Pergola
Lloyd Ahern II Richard Edlund Willy Kurant Don Peterman
Michael Goi, Herbert Alpert Frederick Elmes Ellen M. Kuras Lowell Peterson
Vice President Russ Alsobrook Robert Elswit George La Fountaine Wally Pfister
William A. Fraker, Howard A. Anderson III Geoffrey Erb Edward Lachman Alex Phillips
Vice President Howard A. Anderson Jr. Jon Fauer Ken Lamkin Clifford Poland
James Anderson Don E. FauntLeRoy Jacek Laskus Gene Polito
Caleb Deschanel, Peter Anderson Gerald Feil Andrew Laszlo Bill Pope
Vice President Tony Askins Steven Fierberg Denis Lenoir Steven Poster
Victor J. Kemper, Charles Austin Gerald Perry Finnerman John R. Leonetti Tom Priestley Jr.
Treasurer James Bagdonas Mauro Fiore Matthew Leonetti Rodrigo Prieto
King Baggot John C. Flinn III Andrew Lesnie Robert Primes
Michael Negrin, Ron Fortunato Peter Levy Frank Prinzi
John Bailey
Secretary Michael Ballhaus William A. Fraker Matthew Libatique Richard Quinlan
John Hora, Andrzej Bartkowiak Tak Fujimoto Stephen Lighthill Declan Quinn
Sergeant-at-Arms John Bartley Alex Funke Karl Walter Lindenlaub Earl Rath
Frank Beascoechea Steve Gainer John Lindley Richard Rawlings Jr.
MEMBERS Affonso Beato Ron Garcia Robert F. Liu Frank Raymond
OF THE BOARD Mat Beck James M. Glennon Walt Lloyd Tami Reiker
Dion Beebe Michael Goi Bruce Logan Gayne Rescher
Curtis Clark Stephen Goldblatt Marc Reshovsky
Bill Bennett Emmanuel Lubezki
Caleb Deschanel Andres Berenguer Paul Goldsmith Julio G. Macat Robert Richardson
George Spiro Dibie Carl Berger Victor Goss Glen MacPherson Anthony B. Richmond
Richard Edlund Gabriel Beristain Jack Green Constantine Makris Bill Roe
William A. Fraker Steven Bernstein Adam Greenberg Karl Malkames Owen Roizman
Michael Goi Ross Berryman Robbie Greenberg Isidore Mankofsky Charles Rosher Jr.
Francis Kenny Michael Bonvillain Alexander Gruszynski Michael D. Margulies Giuseppe Rotunno
Richard Bowen Changwei Gu Barry Markowitz Philippe Rousselot
Isidore Mankofsky Rick Gunter
David Boyd Vincent Martinelli Juan Ruiz-Anchia
Daryn Okada Russell Boyd Rob Hahn Steve Mason Marvin Rush
Woody Omens Don Burgess Gerald Hirschfeld Don McAlpine Paul Ryan
Nancy Schreiber Stephen H. Burum Henner Hofmann Don McCuaig Eric Saarinen
John Toll Wilmer C. Butler Adam Holender Robert McLachlan Alik Sakharov
Kees Van Oostrum Frank B. Byers Ernie Holzman Greg McMurry Mikael Salomon
Roy Wagner Bobby Byrne John C. Hora John McPherson Harris Savides
Russell P. Carpenter Gil Hubbs Terry K. Meade Roberto Schaefer
Haskell Wexler
James L. Carter Michel Hugo Chris Menges Aaron Schneider
ALTERNATES Alan Caso Judy Irola Rexford Metz Nancy Schreiber
Robert Primes Michael Chapman Mark Irwin Anastas Michos Fred Schuler
Rodney Charters Levie Isaacks Douglas Milsome John Schwartzman
Victor J. Kemper James A. Chressanthis Andrew Jackson Charles Minsky John Seale
Laszlo Kovacs Joan Churchill Peter James Richard Moore Christian Sebaldt
John Hora Curtis Clark Johnny E. Jensen Donald A. Morgan Dean Semler
Stephen Lighthill Peter L. Collister Robert C. Jessup Donald M. Morgan Eduardo Serra
Jack Cooperman Torben Johnke M. David Mullen Steven Shaw
Jack Couffer Frank Johnson Dennis Muren Richard Shore
Vincent G. Cox Shelly Johnson Fred Murphy Newton Thomas Sigel
Jeff Cronenweth Jeffrey Jur Hiro Narita John Simmons
Richard Crudo William K. Jurgensen Guillermo Navarro Sandi Sissel
Dean R. Cundey Stephen M. Katz Michael B. Negrin Bradley B. Six
Stefan Czapsky Ken Kelsch Sol Negrin Dennis L. Smith
Allen Daviau Victor J. Kemper Bill Neil Roland “Ozzie” Smith
Roger Deakins Wayne Kennan Alex Nepomniaschy Reed Smoot
Jan DeBont Francis Kenny John Newby Bing Sokolsky
Thomas Del Ruth Glenn Kershaw David B. Nowell Peter Sova
Peter Deming Darius Khondji Sven Nykvist William Spencer
Caleb Deschanel Gary Kibbe Rene Ohashi Dante Spinotti
Ron Dexter Jan Keisser Daryn Okada Robert Steadman
George Spiro Dibie Jeffrey L. Kimball Woody Omens Ueli Steiger
Craig Di Bona Alar Kivilo Miroslav Ondricek Peter Stein
Ernest Dickerson Richard Kline Michael D. O’Shea Robert M. Stevens
Billy Dickson George Koblasa Anthony Palmieri Vittorio Storaro
Bill Dill Fred J. Koenekamp Phedon Papamichael Harry Stradling Jr.
116 September 2006

TLFeBOOK
S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 6 A new
David Stump Kevin Dillon Mickel Niehenke
generation
Tim Suhrstedt David Dodson Marty Oppenheimer
Peter Suschitzky Judith Doherty Larry Parker
Alfred Taylor Don Donigi Michael Parker
Jonathan Taylor Cyril Drabinsky Warren Parker
William Taylor Jesse Dylan Doug Pentek
Don Thorin Raymond Emeritz Ed Phillips
John Toll Jonathan Erland Nick Phillips
Mario Tosi John Farrand Jerry Pierce
Luciano Tovoli Ray Feeney Joshua Pines
Jost Vacano Phil Feiner Carl Porcello
Theo Van de Sande Jimmy Fisher Howard Preston
Eric Van Haren Noman Scott Fleischer David Pringle that
Kees Van Oostrum Steve Garfinkel Phil Radin
Ron Vargas Salvatore Giarratano Christopher Reyna really rocks
Mark Vargo Richard B. Glickman Frank J. Ricotta Sr. HydroFlex & rolls.
Amelia Vincent John A. Gresch Colin Ritchie
William Wages Jim Hannafin Eric G. Rodli
HydroHead.
Roy H. Wagner William Hansard Andy Romanoff
Now available with a third axis for
Ric Waite Bill Hansard, Jr. Daniel Rosen even more range of motion.
Michael Watkins Richard Hart Dana Ross
Jonathan West Roman I. Harte Bill Russell
Haskell Wexler Robert Harvey Kish Sadhvani
Jack Whitman Don Henderson David Samuelson
Gordon Willis Charles Herzfeld Peter K. Schnitzler 5335 McConnell Avenue
Dariusz Wolski Larry Hezzelwood Walter Schonfeld Los Angeles, CA 90066
Ralph Woolsey Bob Hoffman Juergen Schwinzer Tel: 31 0/301-8187 Fax: 310/821-9886
Peter Wunstorf Frieder Hochheim Ronald Scott www.hydroflex.com
Robert Yeoman Robert C. Hummel Steven Scott
Richard Yuricich Roy Isaia Don Shapiro
Jerzy Zielinski George Joblove Milton R. Shefter
Vilmos Zsigmond John Johnston Leon Silverman
Kenneth Zunder Curtis Jones Garrett Smith
Frank Kay John L. Sprung
ASSOCIATE MEMBERS Milton Keslow Joseph N. Tawil
Alan Albert Robert Keslow Ira Tiffen
Richard Aschman Larry Kingen Nat Tiffen
Volker Bahnemann Douglas Kirkland Arthur Tostado
Joseph J. Ball Timothy J. Knapp Ann Turner
Carly M. Barber Ron Koch Mark Van Horne
Craig Barron Karl Kresser Richard Vetter
Thomas M. Barron Lou Levinson Joe Violante
Larry Barton Suzanne Lezotte Dedo Weigert
Bob Beitcher Grant Loucks Franz Weiser
Bruce Berke Andy Maltz Evans Wetmore
John Bickford Steven E. Manios Beverly Wood
Steven A. Blakely Joe Matza Jan Yarbrough
Mitchell Bogdanowicz Albert L. Mayer, Sr. Hoyt Yeatman
Jack Bonura Albert Mayer, Jr. Irwin M. Young
William Brodersen Andy McIntyre Bob Zahn
Garrett Brown Stan Miller Nazir Zaidi
Ronald D. Burdett Walter H. Mills Michael Zakula
Reid Burns George Milton Les Zellan
Vincent Carabello Mike Mimaki
Jim Carter Rami Mina HONORARY MEMBERS
Leonard Chapman Tak Miyagishima Col. Edwin E. Aldrin Jr.
Denny Clairmont Michael Morelli Neil A. Armstrong
Emory M. Cohen Dash Morrison Col. Michael Collins
Sean Coughlin Nolan Murdock Bob Fisher
Robert B. Creamer Mark W. Murphy Cpt. Bruce McCandless II
Grover Crisp Dan Muscarella David MacDonald
Daniel Curry F. Jack Napor Barbara Prevedel
Carlos D. DeMattos Iain A. Neil Dr. Roderick T. Ryan
Gary Demos Otto Nemenz Bud Stone
Richard DiBona Ernst Nettmann Richard F. Walsh
117

TLFeBOOK
 Clubhouse News
July Strictly Social
The oppressive triple-digit heat

Strictly Social photos by Mark Bender.

dampened the shirts but not the spirits of
ASC members, associate members and
guests at the July Strictly Social event.
While the barbecue and drinks flowed,
attendees talked shop and traded produc-
tion stories in the relaxed setting of the ASC
Clubhouse lawn. Held monthly and open to
members and guests, Strictly Socials are a
great way to reconnect and catch up with
1
comrades, both old and new. I

Nasir J. Zaidi Zaidi and AC in India

(right) hangs out
in the AC booth
ASC associate member Nasir J.
at the Cinema Zaidi of Spectra Cine traveled to
India 2006 Expo. Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India, in
May for the Cinema India 2006 Expo. He 2 3
spent three days in the American Cine-
matographer booth meeting numerous
Bollywood filmmakers and even the
president of the Nigerian Society of
Cinematographers. Zaidi noted that
some of the concerns raised by our coun-
terparts in the East were long working
hours and no control over the final qual-
ity of the work. Sound familiar? 4 5 6

7 8 9 10

1. Isidore Mankofsky, ASC; AC Circulation Director Saul Molina; and Bogen’s Wayne Schulman; 2. Mrs. Larry Parker and Mankofsky;
3. William A. Fraker, ASC; Richard Crudo, ASC; Laszlo Kovacs, ASC; and Technicolor’s Bob Hoffman; 4. Eric Rodli from Eastman Kodak talks
with ASC Events Coordinator Patty Armacost; 5. Mike Morelli from Eastman Kodak with Armacost; 6. David Mullen, ASC with Denis Lenoir, ASC;
7. Gil Hubbs, ASC with George Spiro Dibie, ASC; 8. Daniel Pearl, ASC, Don Henderson from Eastman Kodak; a guest; and Mankofsky; 9. Molina
and Schulman; 10. Cory Eisner serves dinner to Mullen; Donald M. Morgan, ASC; and Kovacs.

118 September 2006

TLFeBOOK
New York production works…Come see how

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Where Industry professionals can see the
future of New York production now

The latest in film, video and HD cameras, lighting,

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October 10-11, 2006

Opening night cocktail reception, 6 - 8 PM
The Metropolitan Pavilion
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TLFeBOOK
 ASC CLOSE-UP
Philippe Rousselot, ASC, AFC

When you were a child, what film made the strongest impres-
sion on you?
When I was 4 or 5 years old, I saw a black-and-white Disney short that
terrorized me. Later, I saw La belle et la bête [Beauty and the Beast] by
Jean Cocteau, which enchanted me at the time and still does today.

Which cinematographers, past or present, do you most admire?

Past: Edward Tissé; Eugène Shuftan; Gregg Toland, ASC; Henri Alekan,
AFC; Katsuo Miyagawa, and Gianni di Venanzo. Present: Néstor Almén-
dros, ASC (I cannot put his name in the “past”); Bob Richardson, ASC;
Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC; Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC; Cesar Charlone,
ABC; Bruno Nuytten; Jean François Robin; Huai-en Chen, and all the
others, because I’m always amazed by other cinematographers’ work What’s the best professional advice you’ve ever received?
and don’t understand how they do it. One piece of advice I gave myself was not to follow any rules. Another,
from Jean-Jacques Annaud, is, ‘Always wear the appropriate shoes
What sparked your interest in photography? on set.’
La belle et la bête, photographed by Henri Alekan.
What recent books, films or artworks have inspired you?
Where did you train and/or study? The book Europe Central, by William T. Vollmann. (If it did not influence
The Vaugirard film school in Paris. my work, it did influence my musical taste). Also, the film version of
The Constant Gardener, directed by Fernando Meirelles.
Who were your early teachers or mentors?
Néstor Alméndros, for whom I worked as a loader and a 1st AC. Even Do you have any favorite genres, or genres that you would like
during the most apparently banal conversation with Néstor, you’d learn to try?
more about cinematography than you could through years in a film I always wanted to shoot a film noir, and I’m doing one right now. So
school. maybe a Western?

What are some of your key artistic influences? If you weren’t a cinematographer, what might you be doing
The paintings of Pierro della Francesca; the photographic works of instead?
Sarah Moon; German Expressionism; the paintings of the French 18th- If I had any talent, I might have been a piano player in a bar, a painter,
century school (actually, everything in the Louvre, which I visited every an engraver, a cabinetmaker, a gardener, or a grip — almost anything
Sunday for years, religiously); Marivaux’s La Dispute on stage, directed except a career in the meat industry or the military.
by Patrice Chereau; and films by Sergeï Eisenstein, Fritz Lang, Kenji
Mizoguchi, Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman and so many others …. Which ASC cinematographers recommended you for member-
ship?
How did you get your first break in the business? John Bailey, Willy Kurant, Steven Poster and Vilmos Zsigmond.
A young director called Guy Gilles. I helped Guy shoot a short directed
by a friend of his, and Guy subsequently asked me to shoot his follow- How has ASC membership impacted your life and career?
Photo by François Duhamel, SMPSP.

ing features. Meeting colleagues through the ASC is the same as breathing life into
an inert body; it rekindles the passion one has for one’s work. And
What has been your most satisfying moment on a project? that’s on top of the fantastic amount of information the ASC shares
A very simple shot of an actor wearing a brown shirt against a wall that with the film community. ■
was the same color. In that moment, I realized I could get away with
not using any backlight.

Have you made any memorable blunders?

Many. The thing about blunders is that they are all very memorable. The
biggest, though, was signing on to shoot X-Men 3.

120 September 2006

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